#and then had to check to make sure i was remembering right

[terrestrialnoob]

Gut Feeling

DPXDC

Commissioner Jim Gordon meets an odd kid in the precinct.

--

“Come on, you really don’t have a way to directly contact Batman?”

Jim smiled. Kids came to the station and asked that all the time. Usually, it was just curiosity and showing them the signal was enough to get them to sign up for the Junior Police program. This one looked a little older than most, teenagers were often “too old” to believe in Batman, but again, give them a little faith now and they’ll never loose it.

“Lookin’ for the Bat, kid?” Jim asked, knowing he was about to make this kid’s –

Jim froze. The kid turned to face him and it was Bruce Wayne. Not playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne, but freshly a teenager Bruce Wayne. The Bruce Wayne who Jim had checked in on time and again from age eight until he ran off on a globetrotting trip to find himself. The little Bruce Wayne with too pale skin and dark bags under his eyes, and not enough love to make up for all the grief weighing him down. And he didn’t look like Damian either, where Bruce was obviously his father but there were distinct traits from his mother. This was a carbon copy of a boy Jim remembered vividly.

“I am.” He even sounded like teenage Bruce. All business, like he was on a mission.

“I might be able to help you, but it’ll take a while.” Jim said and the officer the kid had been talking too gave him an odd look. He waved her off and told the kid to follow him to the commissioner’s office. Normally, he’d be more dramatic, put on more of a show for the kid, but his gut told him this was different, this was important. He offered the kid a styrofoam cup of water then closed the door behind him. “So, what do you need to talk to Batman for?”

“It’s personal. I need to talk to him in person.”

Jim took a sip of coffee from his cup. “He doesn’t appreciate me calling for no reason in the middle of the day.”

“So you do have a direct line?” The kid nearly jumped out of his seat. “If he’s upset, it’ll be my fault, just call him, please.”

“Who should I say wants to talk to him?”

The kid hesitated. “He doesn’t know me, but I have to talk to him.”

Jim frowned. “What’s your name, kid?”

He swallowed and looked like he wasn’t going to answer for a moment. “Danny.”

“Danny…?” Jim wanted a last name but Danny kept quiet. Jim sighed, “He’s likely not going to show up until sundown.”

“I can wait, as long as you guarantee he’ll show.”

“And you’re not going to tell me why you need Batman?” Jim just got a glare in response. “What about one of the other heroes?”

“Only Batman, no one else can help.”

“You sure about that? Not even Superman?”

“Not unless Superman can get me in the same room as Batman.”

“Why’s it so important that you meet him in person?”

“It’s personal.”

Jim liked this less and less by the minute. “Do your parents know you’re here?”

Danny looked away but right when it looked like he wouldn’t say anything he mumbled. “They wouldn’t care anyway.”

After another moment to give the kid time to reconsider, Jim pulled out the Bat-phone. It was a normal Wayne-Tech cell phone, but Jim had been given very specific instructions on how and when to use it. The phone listed all the Gotham Vigilantes without visible numbers so they couldn’t be copied and handed out. He pressed the one for Batman.

“Stand outside, would you?” The kid gave him a look, but followed the request. Jim could see his shadow in the door’s window, not so subtle eavesdropping.

It rang a few times, and Jim sat there awkwardly with a teenager listening to his every move. Finally, a familiar voice picked up the other end of the line. “Commissioner Gordon.”

“Sorry to call you out of the blue Batman, but I’ve got a kid here who needs your help.”

“Who?”

“Says his name is Danny, that you’ve never met him but you’re the only one who can help him.”

“Why?”

“Refuses to tell me.”

“What’s your best guess, Commissioner?”

Jim looked at Danny’s shadow, it looked like he was straining his ears to try and hear what he was saying. Danny had given him almost nothing to work with. Just his name, that he’s never met Batman but needs to talk with him in person. But Jim was here because he listened to his gut. A feeling like when you see a random rock on your neighbor’s doorstep but you’d never go in without an invitation. A feeling like you know what’s in the present and are preparing your surprised face. A feeling like when you cheated on your wife and you know she knows.

“He looks like Bruce Wayne.”

A beat of silence. “What?”

“Danny looks exactly like Bruce when he was a teenager. Exactly the same.” Jim hoped Batman would get it, feel in his gut what Jim felt.

“And he wont say why he’s there?”

“No, and he demands to see you in person.”

“I’ll be there in an hour.”

“10-4.” The line cut off before Jim had finished saying it. He called Danny in again. “He’s on his way.”

Danny glared at him. “If he’s not, if you called some social worker or something, you’ll regret it.”

“I’m sure.” Jim sighed and downed the rest of his now cold coffee.

The sun hadn’t set, but only just barely. Jim ended up taking Danny up to the roof in the end after all, if only to save his window from being broken into. The kid had a red hoodie on, but he was still shivering in the autumn chill and it was just going to get colder by the minute as the sun made its way behind the horizon.

Jim checked his watch and, at exactly an hour from when he called, he acted surprised when Batman and Robin appeared out of nowhere. “Bats.”

“Commissioner.” Batman greeted but his eyes went straight for Danny. “Danny, I assume.”

“Yeah, I…” Danny hesitated, looking at Jim and Robin.

All it took was four words from Batman. “What do you need?”

The kid held out his hand with a flash drive in it. “I’m your clone. My par- The people who made me wanted to make a stronger version of you, but they got ahead of themselves. My DNA is degrading and I’ll die if I don’t get your DNA to stabilize me.”

Holy cow.

“You don’t expect us to believe that, do you?” Robin sneered at him.

“The flash drive has all the info on it. All the data about the cloning process and the, uh, relevant experiments after that.” Batman gave the kid a look. “I didn’t want to waste time on unnecessary data.”

“If what you’re saying is true, why are you here, alone? Are they working on a different solution?”

Danny’s shoulders hiked up. “I’ve been a failure for a while now, I’m not worth the resources and they’d learn more from an autopsy.”

Oof, kid. Jim looked at Batman who seemed to feel the same… if Jim was reading him right.

“So, you wont object to a DNA test?” Robin asked with a cocky head tilt, at least he was relatively easy to read.

“You can try.” Danny said, and then realized what that sounded like. “I mean I wont stop you, but my DNA degrades faster outside my body. You’ll have to take me to whatever lab you plan on using.”

“Then we will.” Batman said and jerked his head towards where they’d probably parked that ridiculous car of his. But then he looked at Jim with a nod. “Commissioner.”

“Batman.” Jim returned the nod. “You’ll tell me how things turn out, yeah?”

“I’ll give you a report.” Batman joked – Jim could tell, it was gut feeling.

[planetsnakes]

I get this y'all right. I've never used AI to write an essay and never will

why the hell am i only given three months to write four different essays tho? Like sure some of the problem is my poor time management because I literally just became an adult.

For my dissertation I had to submit 3000 words (all jam pa ked full of fucking research) I had a couple of months to write this essay so what they did was wait until we had two months to show us how to write the essay, on a retreat which I couldn't go to thanks to getting sick. I asked if i could see the example essays another time and this just never happened due to copyright bullshit.

Now I didn't just get sick. I got really sick. 3 days in A&E just to be kicked out because they didn't find the problem. Literally everyone in my life is worried about me im so brave. The uni assured me this would be taken into consideration as long as I could get a doctors note.

I could not get a doctors note. They wont even pick up the phone it's been a month since I submitted this request.

So I spent ages setting up meetings to discuss with people in the uni my problems so they could write me a note. They didn't.

Now it's too far into the year to defer. I will lose so much fucking money if I give up now so here I go!

I completed the essay in like two weeks and I think i got something wrong on the timescale but ive been sick since november on and off getting better and worse.

I cant even remember writing a single essay for my university im fairly certain I'll never use these skills again because the only people who write academic papers are academics and I don't want to be an academic.

I can hear you saying "this isn't the norm"! Everyone goes through this at least once.

I know a lot abt uni life, I know a degree can be taken away if they found out someone cheated to get it no matter how long it's been since they got the degree. I know I didn't work this hard to never know if I could make it on my own merit

Yet there are places where the university could have supported me better. Students are expected to do so much and im gonna be so real the you're only cheating yourself narrative is just annoying. I could do this much better if every time I wasn't rushed because they gave me the resources last minute or constantly told me to check back later.

I'm fortunate enough to always get an extension when I ask thanks to my DID diagnosis & I actually considered myself lucky when I caught covid (yeah I also caught fucking covid I was sick for so long I missed so many lectures that I can't catch up on at all) but like seriously?

I haven't even mentioned the poverty, living conditions, the fact most of us have to work through uni, ow the internet changed the way unis talk to students, covid messing students up or international students and how unfair the system is to them.

I feel this could be a chance at a brilliant conversation about how much stress students are put under because even when we have the skills we don't get the opportunity to use them

[mysunshinetemptress]

Smarter

Leah Williamson x reader

Warnings: Long, mentions of smut but not really, crappy writing

Leah thinks she’s smart, or at least that she has outsmarted you. You don’t know, no you can’t know there is no way on earth you know she’s careful so so careful.

She leaves the car in the park across the street, she only goes during certain times, when she’s going for a run, 6pm on weekdays and 9 am on the weekends.

Leah doesn’t venture out that way any other time unless it’s with you, when you beg and plead to go for a stroll around the park, hands intertwined together as you talk and talk. Do you ever stop talking ? She thinks to herself one day as you walk around the park.

Leah’s not paying attention not that she does anymore because she only agrees to go to the park mid afternoon on the weekends when she knows SHE’S out running, running around the park that you’re walking in. The park you picture your kids running around in at the same time Leah tracks HER with her eyes watching HER run closer to you both.

You don’t suspect a thing Leah thinks, no she knows you don’t suspect anything, she’s careful. She doesn’t wear perfume, she makes sure SHE isn’t wearing perfume, no lipstick nothing that could leave a mark nothing that could leave a scent that you could pick up on.

She ensures her stuff is folded neatly her wedding band placed on top, so that she isn’t missing anything, so that she doesn’t accidentally take anything, she fleeces her pockets making sure nothing has been left in them.

It happened once, SHE thought she was being cute, sexy even leaving HER red thong tucked into Leah’s coat pocket, Leah had only found it as she got into the car and it fell out onto the seat.

They had their first argument then. “I’m married, you can’t be giving me your knickers thinking it’s sexy, if my wife finds out that I…” SHE laughs “if she finds out what that you’re cheating on her.” It ends there, the argument. Leah swears to herself that she double checks everything before leaving the park.

Lying is easy for Leah now, it happens without a single thought, she can still remember the first time it happened. “God love your stats from your run are crazy did you sprint the entire time.” You know how long it takes her to run 5k, 10k even, of course you do you’ve played together forever but her stupid watch is going to get her caught she thinks. “I just wanted to push myself, you know I just..I wanted to prove to myself I could do it.” Leah hates the way your face softens, the way you automatically go into supportive mode, you remind her for the rest of the day how amazing she is, that she’s doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone not even herself. You hold her and tell her how amazing she is and she hates it.

But now it’s a second hand response she doesn’t think of it, doesn’t think twice of you caring for her that bit more, she doesn’t blink as it leads to more, she leads it to more every time and you go along with it, she needs this, your wife needs this and so you do it, and for a split second the world is alright.

She thinks she’s smart, that she never forgets to slip her ring back on, she tried to leave it on once but it felt so heavy and she panicked taking it off, it was her granny’s ring the one her grandpa gave to her on their wedding, she couldn’t do that to them, to the ring that had seen so much love.

Leah’s smart, she knows she’s smart but all it takes is one trip for the entire thing to come tumbling down.

She’s late home from running not by much but by enough that your suspicions arise, Leah doesn’t do late, early is late for Leah and so you wonder what takes her so long, she rush’s in moments later apologies thrown left and right and she pulls you into a heated kiss.

You want to tell her, you can’t wait to tell her but she’s all frazzled and not paying attention and if you say it now it won’t be as special and she’s not wearing her ring.

Wait she’s not wearing her ring, “Le darling where is your ring.” Leah freezes slightly before you watch her hand reach into her pocket pulling it out “sorry I took it off i think my fingers swelling from that handball in practice and I didn’t want it to get stuck.” You soften holding out your hand “oh Le I’ll get you some ice.” Leah hands over her ring and watch’s you slip it on top of your own so that you don’t lose it.

Leah sits down watching you walk around the kitchen, pulling you in to stand between her legs before pulling you into a kiss, “will you stop I have to pee” you hit her playfully before heading out the kitchen.

This isn’t Leah’s ring, it’s to light, sure it’s similar but it’s not it, you know this for a fact and as you slip it off and check for the engraving your heart drops, her grandparents initials aren’t on it, both your initials aren’t on it, it’s not her wedding ring.

Maybe she just misplaced it and is to scared to tell you. But it’s her granny’s ring, Leah loves that ring more than anything and she’s probably devastated that it’s gone.

Leah’s panicking she knows it’s not her ring and if she knows you definitely know. But she doesn’t expect you to come back so soft and understanding, “it’s ok we’ll find it where was the last place you had it.” HER house Leah thinks “eh-eh training I-I think I’m sorry darling I just I don’t know what to do.” That night ends like every night ends these days, and you think now is the perfect time to tell her in the darkness of your room but Leah just drops to the side and turns over whispering a goodnight as you stare at her.

You feel dirty every time this happens, you feel like a gross one night stand the way she turns away from you instead of pulling you closer like she used to but you put down to her being upset about her ring the same way you put it down to something else bothering her every time you end up in this situation.

Leah thinks she’s outsmarted you but as you lay there in bed reeling from the fact your wife hasn’t held you after sex in months, hasn’t told you how much she loves you as she brings you to climax and you can’t help but feel your heart grow heavy.

But as you lie there you can’t help but reply every possible reason why she’s like this, why she has been like this for a while now.

She does her daily runs, you guys go for your walks hand in hand as you talk the ear off her, but she’s never complained, Leah watches others pass you both by, this one girl runs past you both every weekend like clock work, you have noticed this a while ago and although you used to think it was a coincidence you’re starting to think otherwise.

She runs past you both every weekend always smiles at you, or at Leah more like, Leah’s hand gets lighter in your own every time, her grip isn’t as firm you think as you recall every walk in the park.

Leah doesn’t talk, she listens and watches, she watches her run around the park while you walk beside her.

Leah always gets a little weird after her runs, she’s more touchy, more soft, quieter, you thought it was just from the long runs. But now you second guess it.

Her ring is the first thing she’s misplaced tho you think to yourself, maybe that was at the training ground.

But you both tore it up the day after and found nothing and the Arsenal girls were none the wiser on it’s whereabouts. Leah goes for her run again that night and you feel this dread seep into your bones.

You feel sick to your stomach when the pieces all click in together, when you’re walking in the park Leah’s hand laced with yours, you try to stay normal talking about anything and everything but you stutter as SHE runs past and smiles at you, this time right at you not Leah, YOU.

Your eyes don’t stay on her face very long instead they are drawn to the gold circle resting on the chain around her neck, your eyes widen and you stop momentarily if Leah wasn’t holding your hand she wouldn’t have noticed it but she is and she did and she freezes too.

It’s on HER necklace, Leah’s wedding band is on that girls necklace and you feel nauseous as you try to continue your walk. Your wifes wedding ring is around that random girls neck, you know why but you don't want to-she's cheating, no she can't be she loves you, you're the love of her life, the one she wants everything with she's said so herself.

Leah’s cheating on you and it’s so plainly obvious now as you think back to it all, the first time you checked for her phone’s location and it said it was at a house across from the park, “oh it just give you a general location it’s not precise love.”

“I love you.” She whispers as she holds you from behind, “I know you do Le, and I’m so proud of you for beating your personal best but you don’t have to push yourself so hard, you’re perfect.”

“Yeah we could do dinner what time suits you guys.” You say happily excited to join Beth and Viv on a double date “6pm work.” Beth asks but before you can respond Leah shakes her head “sorry mate no can do, it’s my running time can we do after like 7:30 ?.” Beth looks at you then back at Leah “can’t you just skip it mate.” “No I have a schedule and I’m not changing it for you.”

You tap the table nervously “yeah we could do 8:45 am on Saturday, let me just say it to Leah.” “Leah.” You shout smiling as the older girl pokes her head around the door “they can fit us in at 8:45 on Saturday morning that works right.” Leah thinks for a moment torn, “I can’t baby it’s my running time remember.” You feel your heart drop “but it’s our check up to see if it’s taken Le surly you can just go after.” Leah shakes her head “do they have any other time.” You sigh “hi sorry ehm do you have anything else, 2pm Monday.” You look to Leah for confirmation she nods happily before disappearing back into the sitting room.

All the times she’s been consistent with her runs in that stupid park, her watch alerting you to the fact she has finished a workout shortly before 6:60 but she won’t be home till 7:10, her inability to hold you during sex anymore cause that’s all it is it’s just sex not making love like she used to say and it’s that silly circle hanging around that random girls neck that sets it all together. All the stupid pieces.

You don’t know what to do, don’t know how to bring it up this isn’t supposed to go like this, your life, your marriage but it is and you’re terrified of the aftermath so so terrified that you don’t realise how numb you’ve gone till you speak up.

Leah’s sat on the couch you’re tucked into her side “she’s gorgeous.” You say suddenly Leah hums in confusion “who’s gorgeous darlin.” You let out a shaky breath “the girl you’re sleeping with.” Leah goes tense immediately “I-i-wha-i Leah splutters trying to find the words “what girl.” You continue on your voice calm but still unsteady “the girl who wears your wedding ring around her neck”

Leah knows she’s lost now but it doesn’t help that her phone starts to ping with an in coming message “I-Y/n-I.” You shake your head getting up “I’m going out, I-i don’t know why, I don’t want to know why anymore I’m just, I can’t believe that you did after everything.”

Leah doesn’t move as you walkout still her mouth opens and closes trying to fathom I lie to rope you back in but her mind blank and you’re no longer in the garden.

Leah doesn’t hear from you for a week after that no idea if you’re ok. She doesn’t hear from anyone and instead off running away to the park SHE comes over Leah swears it’s to comfort her through this hard time but there is very little talking involved.

Leah doesn’t hear from you or anyone to caught up in her new bubble and it finally bursts as her mum crashes through the door “ you absolutely idiot, you fucking idiot how did I raise you to be such an asshole that you would go and cheat on your wife.” Amanda’s attention is now turned to HER as she lies on your side of the bed “You are a fucking asshole Leah Williamson, I have never been so disappointed in you in my entire life.”

Leah’s lost still how did her mother know she hadn’t told her yet, sure she was going to but she was scared Amanda adores you, you’re perfect.

“I’ll be lucky if she lets me see the baby you asshole”

Baby ? Leah thinks, what baby. Suddenly it all comes back and SHES shoved away “She’s pregnant, Y/ns pregnant it-it worked”

Amanda huffs “you didn’t even know-you didn’t fucking know.” Leah shook her head “no.”

SHE lets out a huff running her hands over Leah’s arms “it’s ok baby we can have our own now, just like you promised.” And now it’s Leah’s turn to feel nausea. She never wanted kids with anyone else but you, this isn’t right, what she’s done to you to your future isn’t right but you’re gone and there’s nothing she can do about.

Leah’s smart but right now she’s the biggest idiot going. She’s lost you, lost you forever ?

[missterious-figure]

Little oneshot about Underboss Sun and florist y/n! This takes place after florist y/n has met Sun, but doesn't know he is in the mafia yet.

Sun was walking his usual route to head over downtown where he needed to attend to some "business". Though, he was slightly more upbeat then usual. It wasn't very noticeable in his stoic appearance, but anyone who knew him could tell. There was a certain soft fondness in his eyes. The look he only had when thinking of something he loved or cared about. And of course, it was you. He remembered the first time he had met you, as he was curious when your flowershop had opened a couple weeks ago. He had wandered in to check things out and make sure nothing fishy was going on in there.

He reminisced on how terrified you had been (rightfully so) when he squeezed through the doors and looked around your little shop. You tried you best to smile and talked kindly to him. You had even offered him a potted plant for free. (Which he now took extra good care of). Ever since then, he had decided to stop at your little shop every time he walked downtown. Gradually, you started becoming genuinely friendly with him, and he began to warm up to you. So small and sweet, just trying to brighten up this bad part of town with your little plants. You really had no idea how dangerous this place was. How dangerous he could be...

He shook away his thoughts as he neared your little shop. He could smell the sweet fragrance of the well kept flowers you were selling. He reached the door and gently opened it, before turning sideways, bending down, and going through shoulder first. Soon he got his big bulk inside and let the door closed behind him. He was greeted with the sound of soft sobs. He saw you leaning against the wall behind the register with your face buried in your hands. Not noticing Sun yet, you trembled quietly, another soft sob escaping you.

He quickly approached you and joined you behind the counter. Hearing his foot steps, you looked up from your hands. He gently put his hands on your shoulders and used his massive thumb to clear away the tears from your right eye.

"Doll, what happened?"

As you looked up at him, your little eyes full of tears, Sun noticed that the skin around your left eye was purple and swollen. Definitely from being whacked or punched. It was purposeful and definitely no accident. Thankfully, it didn't look to bad.

"Oh... you poor thing. Got a little banged up... who did this to you?"

You could only sniffle and sob for a moment, but he didn't rush you or hassle to speak. He patiently waited for you to respond.

"A customer... he punched me when I told him I was out of the kind of flower he wanted."

You paused and sniffled again.

"I think he was really drunk... I could smell it on his breath... I-I was so scared..."

You broke into another fit of sobs, fresh tears dampening your eyes again. Sun could feel a boiling rage building up in his chest. His internal fans roared with fury. But he forced himself to keep a calm composure. He gently pulled you into his body, wrapping his arms around you. You stuffed you face in his suit and sobbed even more, leaning into him. He tried his best to comfort you.

"There, there. It'll be okay..."

"Do you know the man's name, doll?"

"I think it was John Flink? Or maybe Fint... I hadn't heard him very well..."

Your voice was very muffled as you hadn't taken your face out of Sun's suit, but he instantly knew who it was. John Flint, that scumbag. He was a shady bastard that often gambled at the bar that Don Eclipse went to. Sun had no clue why he of all people had come to your little flowershop. But that didn't matter. This was going to be the last mistake that slimy weasel ever made. How dare he hurt you. How dare that rat touch his precious little doll.

John was going to pay, but all in good time. For now, Sun was had to help you calm down. He stayed there for quite a while, holding you can trying to make you feel safe...

***

(I'm not sure what the actual plot of the mafia au will be yet, but I honestly might have a few different versions, changing different perspectives and ideas depending each y/n. Some people suggested having y/n have all of the jobs at the same time, and I really like that idea! But I also like the idea of how each y/n might react or fair with the boys on their own. I do think i want to do both...)

Full picture!

[wqlfstqr]

◟𖥻 ♡⃕ the moment i knew : percy jackson

▰▰▰ pairing: percy jackson x fem!reader

y/n keeps pouring her heart into her relationship with percy, only to end up feeling like he doesn’t give back the same effort

author: this is just a mix of every depressing song i've been hearing for the past days, so i'll just apologize in advance.

Dating Percy Jackson was hard, she always knew it would be. But it couldn't be impossible, not if they loved each other enough to fight for each other everytime. That's what she thought.

And oh- she should've known better, she should've noticed the change. the signs were there. And maybe, she had realized, but she just loved him that she just chose to ignore it. time and time again. ignore the way he was always late, ignore how she was always the one planning dates and him just going along with anything, ignore how he never seemed to pay attention when she was talking.

Ignore how he made her feel like she was just another thing to check off his list of responsabilities.

At first, she just dismissed it because she thought it was him being too overwhelmed with every resposability he was bearing with at camp. She was sure that he just had too much on his plate, but once he was able, he would make time for her and go back to what he used to be.

She still remembered how loving and caring he used to be, because a small part of her still had some hope of him going back to that. It wouldn't be hard, because he loved her, right?

He loved her. He used to bring her flowers, and surprise her with picnics. He used to remember everything about her, her favorite books and her favorite songs by heart. He loved cuddling with her on cold days, and walking down the beach on sunny days.

Now, it felt like that part of him was slowly slipping away and she couldn't do anything but just stand there, waiting for the crash that was bound to happen.

And it was getting harder to ignore everytime she made an effort, only to be met with disappointment.

Sitting at a table at night, tugging on her dress and slightly shivering from being cold. But she didn’t care about it, she was too distracted looking at the candles she’d painstakingly arranged, their warm glow casting long shadows across the lonely table. The food was cold now, untouched.

She'd planned this for weeks, choosing the perfect spot and decoration, being overly excited to have a moment to just be percy and y/n, just two people who loved each other. And he had promised that he'd be there.

"y/n?" a familiar voice broke her from her thoughts.

She looked up, a small flicker of hope blooming in her chest, but it quickly faded when she saw Grover instead of Percy.

And he looked uncomfortable, clearly dreading that he had to be the bearer of bad news. y/n knew what was coming before he even spoke. "he's with Chiron, there's some issues with the new campers." he said hesitantly. "but he said he'd come here as soon as he can!"

She forced a smile, waving him off. “It’s okay, Grover. Thanks for letting me know.”

As Grover left, her smile dropped. She stared down at the now-cold plate in front of her, her appetite gone. She leaned and blew the candles, knowing that there was no reason to wait for Percy.

She understood it, really. Percy was busy. Percy was important. Percy was needed. But for one more time, she just wished that he could see that she also needed him.

When he saw her the next day, he didn’t bring it up, so she acted like everything was okay. She just couldn't bring herself to waste the time she had with him for a meaningless fight, so she just enjoyed his company, thinking that he was enjoying hers as well.

She was laying on his bed, he was sitting with his back against the headboard, his hand going through her hair in a soothing manner while she spoke excited. "it's so fascinating, Percy! the way the author describes the characters. And there's this one quote 'even the strongest love can wilt without care' and it made me think that relationships-"

She trailed off when she realized Percy wasn't looking at her. His eyes were fixed on Riptide, he was holding the pen between the fingers of his free hand, and he didn’t even look like he he was paying attention.

Her heart sank, and she fell silent, the excitement draining out of her. She waited a moment, hoping he’d realize that she had stopped talking, but he didn’t. Instead, he just nodded absently and muttered "That’s nice."

y/n forced a smile, once again trying to ignore the sting. She couldn't bring herself to blame him, maybe he was tired or maybe he had too much to think about. Either way, she didn’t keep on talking as she silently went back to her book.

Later that day, the book came again into the conversation, but not because she brought it up. He was helping her carry some things to her cabin when his gaze fell on the book of his hands. "Hey, you didn’t tell me you were reading a new book."

Suddenly, the book felt too heavy, pressing uncomfortably against her arms. "I did tell you." she replied quietly, trying hard to hide her disappointment.

Percy furrowed his brow. "You did? Huh. I must’ve... I don’t know, I guess I forgot." He gave a sheepish laugh, as if that would lighten the moment.

She lowered her gaze to the ground, her chest tightening. How could she mean so little to him that he couldn't even remember something she had told him hours ago?

And she still didn’t say anything about it, because she felt like it was stupid to even bring it up. Maybe she was overreacting and she didn’t want to make Percy feel guilty about it.

Sometimes, she saw glimpses of the old Percy back. When he sneaked on her bed after a long day just to rest with her because he missed her, when he kissed her goodbye once he was called over to help with something, when he hugged and lifted her up when he was happy or when he asked her questions about something she was excited.

They were okay. She had been sure they were okay.

Now she was spending the night of her birthday sitting by herself on the strawberry fields, the faint scent of fresh berries filling the air. She picked at the grass absentmindedly, the weight in her chest growing as she, once again, let her thoughts wander back to him.

She was suddenly brought back to his birthday, months ago she had spent weeks planning Percy's birthday. She had made sure she had the perfect gift, she baked his favorite cupcakes and organized a surprise party with his friends.

And when Percy walked into the pavillion, his smile made it worth it. The whole night, he stayed by her side, holding her close, stealing kisses, sharing stories with her and making sure to thank her every moment he could.

She had been so excited for her birthday. She loved birthdays. And now, here she was. Alone. Forgotten. Realizing just how wrong she had been by thinking that everything was okay.

Percy had only stopped by her cabin in the morning to hand her a gift and apologize. "Sorry, I couldn’t do much. Chiron needs me to lead a meeting about patrol schedules." Then, after a quick kiss on her forehead, he was gone.

He didn’t even wait for her to open the small box, but it was good he didn’t, because he would've seen the disappointment on her face when she opened the small box and found a bracelet. It was pretty, sure, but not her style at all. There wasn't even a birthday card inside.

Now the bracelet pressed uncomfortably against her skin as she stared at it with tears gathering on her eyes, waiting for him to show up. He would show up, right?

But he didn’t. He didn’t surprise her. He didn’t show up. And she stayed there, sitting by the fields with her heart feeling heavy in her chest because that was the moment she knew.

She had fought for him, everyday she had fought for even a tiny bit of his attention. For so long, she had convinced herself that the glimpses of the old Percy were enough to keep her happy. But she couldn't keep doing that. She couldn't keep on being the only one fighting for a relationship that wasn't working. She was tired. And he didn’t even see it.

Her mind replayed the happy moments of their relationship, each memory tinged with a growing sadness. She thought about the way he used to look at her like she was his entire world and how now, his gaze rarely lingered. The way he used to laugh with her, hold her hand, and remember the little things: her favorite flower, her favorite song, her favorite way to spend a lazy afternoon.

All of that gone.

What had she done wrong? why had he stopped loving her? wasn't she deserving of the same love she gave to him?

Tears streamed silently down her face as the truth settled in her chest like a weight she couldn’t lift. He had lost her, and the worst part was that she wasn't even sure that he would care about it.

The next day, she was just grateful enough that it was time for campers to go back to their houses for the school year. She had already packed her stuff, and the only thing left to do was the one she was dreading the most.

When she slipped into Percy's cabin, he wasn't there. Of course he wasn't, he was probably busy somewhere around camp. It was better this way, she tried to convince herself once she placed the letter on his pillow before she left.

Percy's morning had been filled with things he needed to finish before he had to leave. When he finally had a moment for himself, he went directly to his cabin because he had to pack his things and then go help y/n with her bags.

But what he found when he was packing his things was a letter placed neatly on his pillow, at first he thought maybe it was some cheesy way for y/n to say goodbye. But once he opened it and finally read it, his whole world stopped for just a moment before he was bolting out of the door.

He was able to find her just as she was leaving her cabin, her bags on her hand. She stopped right on her tracks once her eyes fell on him, and that dreadful feeling settled once again in her stomach. She had hoped that she would avoid this, but one small part of her already knew this was coming.

Percy stopped in front of her, the letter crumbled in his hand. "You were just break up with me through a letter and leave?” he asked, his voice breaking. "you weren’t even going to say anything to me?"

y/n dropped her bags only to cross her arms protectively against her chest. "to be fair, I didn’t think you'd notice if I left." she replied softly, her words laced with quiet pain.

He opened his mouth to defend himself, but he wasn't able to find the words. "That's not fair."

"you know what isn't fair, Percy?" she replied, her voice weak. "I have spent months giving you my every moment, hoping for at least some kind of love back, and every single time, you've shown me that i'm not a priority in your life. That's what's not fair."

Percy opened his mouth to respond, but she cut him off. "I've made you my world, Percy, Do you even realize how much I’ve waited and hoped that you’d start putting even a fraction of the effort I have into this relationship? just for you to show again and again that you don't care."

"Of course I care!" Percy replied, desperation laced on his voice. "I love you, how could I not care? i've always loved you"

She shook her head, tears pooling in her eyes. "Loving someone isn't always enough Percy, maybe you do love me." she had to pause to take a deep breath. "but that doesn’t mean I feel loved by you. I need someone who’s going to show up for me, who’s going to fight for me the way I’ve been fighting for you. And you've already shown me that you can't be that person"

"I can!" He insisted, taking a step closer. "We'll work on it, I know I can, just don't go before we can fix this, please."

y/n wanted to believe he could change, she wanted to go back to being that girl who ignored his indifference and lived happy everytime she got a tiny bit of attention. She was so close to just falling into his arms once again, but then she thought back on having to spend her birthday alone, crying, wondering why he couldn't love her the right way. And she couldn't just go back to that.

She stared at him, feeling how her heart broke all over again. "It's too late, Percy. I can't fight for you anymore, i'm exhausted"

"Please" he pleaded, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Goodbye, Percy." she mumbled taking her bags again to finally walk away from him, her heart feeling heavy in her chest.

It hurt. But she knew she couldn't keep on begging just to end up being a footnote in the story of his life.

[pushingdaisies1]

hihi!! i love ur writing it literally makes me kick my legs and twirl my hair its so good!! can you write one for thanos where reader is curious about the drugs hes taking and they ask for one but instead of just handing it over he puts it on his tongue and is all like “come and get it” and they make out 🙂↕️ kind of freaky my bad BUT IVE BEEN THINKING OF THIS

 ➞ ౨ৎ Princesa . . .

― ꒰ PAIRING: Choi Su-Bong (Thanos) x Reader! ꒱ ― ꒰ SUMMARY: Playing with your life to pay off your debts... you didn't expect to make connections so fast. Su-Bong, better known as Thanos, was a pain in your ass. A ear-grating, manipulative, piece of work. But a part of you found his poor attempts of flirting charming. Sure he sucked, but so did you and everyone else here. That's why you were playing these games. Quickly you both had formed a sort of connection after the first game, hell he even remembered your name. Men like Thanos just never knew when to shut up. So, before the second game, you decided to shut - him up. With your lips of course. ꒱ ― ꒰ WARNINGS: Drug usage cause you two r bonding with popping pills!! Gave reader like debt.. reasons? You got crypto scammed, sigh. Also a tad bit suggestive near the end. Other than that.. nothing else <3 ꒱ ― ꒰ AUTHORS NOTE: Tysm!! Yes ofc ohmygod I literally love this request... you are so smarty pants 4 this AGHHH ok ok ok!!! I decided to go in a more headcanon style for this one if that is all alright. If you want to submit for more characters, check out my pinned post right here, ᶻz ꒱

♡ ⦂ You were awoken with bright lights, an uncomfortable mattress, and blaring classical music. Was this what you were signing up for? Your eyes shot open as your head jerked around. Trying to take a look at your current surroundings. The last thing you remember is being knocked out with certain fumes after being picked up in an unmarked van. Did they undress you? You weren't wearing this when you were waiting to be picked up? You cringed at the thought of some random stranger stripping you down, only to change you into this. ♡ ⦂ Crawling down from your bunk, you were met with a sea of people. Bodies, the jackets they adorned wearing a number on their front and back. Counting heads, there had to be at least around four hundred people in here. Specifically four hundred and fifty-six when looking at the flat screen right above the metal dome. It was like a cramped chicken coop. Filled with people either already paranoid or oddly curious about what this all entailed. Some stayed cowering in their beds, while others moved to the middle of the room. ♡ ⦂ People weren't so happy about these accommodations. Players were already complaining, you included. It wasn't shocking that these participants already had questions. But they were all put on pause once the guards started flashing footage of people's faces and debts. Yours was on the lower scale, but it felt humiliating seeing you getting backhanded by the recruiter shown to four hundred strangers. Your face still burned from that. A familiar purple head of hair popped up on the screen. ♡ ⦂ Who couldn't remember a face like that? You remembered watching the show he was featured on. He was cheesy at least. But his vibe was funny and he ran with the whole "Thanos" gimmick. For a competition show, he was painted as a comic relief. You may have not been a diehard fan, but you enjoyed the music he made while competing on the show. You couldn't help but think about the odds of you being stuck here, with him. It is really a small world with people drowning in debt. ♡ ⦂ Amid players questioning what looked to be guards, you started to stare. Reading numbers off of the backs of players in front of you. Standing as a bystander to all of this. Funny thing, so was he. You locked eyes with him entirely on accident. As a mother and son argued, this so-called celebrity was reveling in your eye contact. You tried to look away but he pulled something that made both bile in you rise and your chest get all warm. ♡ ⦂ He flashed you a quick wink. Before shaping his pointer finger and thumb into the heart, puckering up his lips. You brushed the gesture and him off. It was a poor attempt at best. But in such dire and unknown surroundings, you couldn't help but crack a glimpse of a grin. Quickly the guards ushered out player consent forms, which meant people started to line up in single file lines. After that speech the square guard made about second chances nobody seemed to be planning to leave, and neither would you. ♡ ⦂ You easily signed your name down on the paper. Potentially your life away too. This was too sketchy even for you. But maybe you'll have some luck with this game. With the words the guard selectively used, this didn't seem to be so bad. ♡ ⦂ You especially wanted to win, you should be able to pay debts off like nothing once you got out of here. Shoving your hands deep in your pockets you slung yourself back to your bunk. Your best options were to just stay by the sidelines and hope. Hope for what? , well .. anything. Something to quell your already forming boredom. It was like you were watching paint dry, waiting for every player to sign their names down already. You decided to mind your business. ♡ ⦂ You were sat on a lower bed, tugging at the ends of your jacket sleeves. You watched as people in the lines formed talked. Whispers and murmurs with people questioning if the money is all real in between. You passed the time by continuing to count heads. Trying to find maybe other people you recognized.

Trying to find maybe other people you recognized. Hoping deep down none of your closest friends or family got roped into this mess. You felt sympathy for the mother and son arguing in the middle of the crowd, it was a sad display. You focused in and you continued to observe everyone as your mind spun.

♡ ⦂ You were yoinked out of your thoughts when you heard a loud impact against the metal bars atop you. Your eyes widened as you were met with the wide grin of... this guy again? The ends of his hair spiked up almost looking like horns. The purple in his hair was a lot more vibrant up close. It was like staring into the face of a shark. But the fear for you was replaced with interesting intrigue. ♡ ⦂ “Yo senorita, I believe you have not been introduced to me yet..” He remarked with a hand outstretched. “Thanos, but you can just call me your number-one admirer.” Visibly you grimaced, your hands still buried deep within your jacket pockets. His face still held that swagger he carried with him when he walked. But you noticed his eyes wavering just a tad. “No need to be scared of me beautiful. I can't resist not being acquainted with such a pretty face.” ♡ ⦂ “You didn’t seem like the type to use such… nice words.” You replied bluntly with a small smirk. Taking your hand out of your pocket, you shook his hand. It was only a quick couple of seconds of physical contact. His face looked like he took a large and lengthy mental pause. His words sounded hurried as he tried to make a comeback. “Well, I have to be on my best behavior. Seeing such a nice face out and about.” ♡ ⦂ Maybe you’ll humor his advances. Before you could get at least one reply in, he immediately cut you off. “You know you shouldn’t let yourself sulk all by your lonesome. I could keep you company, a cutie like you shouldn’t be sitting away from Thanos.” He boasted, looking proud of his response. You were about to roll your eyes into the back of your head. “Sure, why not? I’m positive your infinity stones will be good enough protection.”

♡ ⦂ He right away took the initiative to show off his rings and painted nails. Each finger resembles the color of said infinity stones. You couldn’t believe he was let alone real. “By the way, that guy.” He pointed to another player. His hair looked somewhat slicked back, standing by one of the bed posts of the bunk beds. Like Thanos on purpose told him to stand there. “Nam-su. A trusted friend of mine. You down for leaving reality and coming into the Thanos experience, princesa?” You cocked your head to the side as if you were examining an in-depth one of a kind art piece. “Uh-huh.” ♡ ⦂ In life, you have to take your chances whenever given them. He was an intimidating sleaze to be associated with. But even the scummiest of people had their little quirks. Especially after he finally asked about your reasons for being a participant in this. “No way, we were scammed by the same guy! We were practically destined to meet.” It seemed like he took every eye roll as initiative. Even trying to include you and another girl, player ‘096’ in the photo every player had to take. This guy just wouldn’t quit it huh? ♡ ⦂ The first game spun your sense of reality. Thank god you weren’t the first to die, that would’ve been embarrassing. What were you even thinking?! Most were able to make it across the finish line. In the hurriedness of the crowd, you noticed a sliver glint. As your eyes trembled, looking over to your far right you saw it. Thanos’s cross, its chain hanging low. In the silence with only shuffling feet and heavy breathing filling it, you could see the top of the cross unlatching open. 

♡ ⦂ You’ve never popped a pill any day of your life. If it wasn’t prescribed pain medication. But god damn did those look good to have right about now. His mood was utterly carefree as soon as he popped one. Hopping and skipping like an energetic bumblebee. Looked like it was at most ecstasy. Your nerves were killing you right now. It was shocking you hadn’t stumbled back in fear yet. But somehow you completed the game, still alive, and needing to calm the fuck down. ♡ ⦂ Once voting came around, you still felt your anxieties swirling. Your debt was too massive for you to back out now. The falling bodies of players loom in the depths of your brain. Guilt ate at the most empathetic parts of you. You could feel everyone who wanted to go home, burning stares into the back of your head. But you’ve seen too much to go back without all that money to your name. It was pointless to back out now. Your vote was met by Thanos immediately and firmly wrapping his arms around you like you were his doll. “You made the right choice beautiful! I was almost worried you were about to betray me.” It felt like both a threat and a sweetly coded warning. ♡ ⦂ You were completely withdrawn from your surroundings. Practically tuning Thanos, Nam-gyu, and Gyeong-su out. The guy seemed like a mega Thanos fan. It made your ears burn. You had a disjointed stare watching as Thanos and the little devil on his shoulder kicked the biggest reason you ended up here, Myun-gi. It was idiotic of you to even buy into that stupid crypto coin, the same coin your ex-boyfriend had insisted on you invested your good money into. ♡ ⦂ Soon he came back to where you and Gyeong-su were sitting. Gyeong-su immediately harped on the older man who had put practically his idol in his place. Practically close enough to snapping Thanos’s neck. Thanos turned to you, tapping a finger to his cheek. “You thinking of kissing it better?” He joked with a wiggle of his brow. Once again, like clockwork, you rolled your eyes. “In your dreams.” You murmured with a sneer. He couldn’t stop himself from laughing. Causing Nam-gyu to only awkwardly chuckle, the guy just didn’t get it.

♡ ⦂ As the glow of the grotesquely large piggy bank illuminated your surroundings, you planned a way to shake down that spikey-haired rapper. You needed to be calm and controlled for the next game. Who knows? , one wrong move and you could be getting gunned down. He seemed easy to persuade enough. You just needed to play into the palm of his hand a little bit more. Then you’d be out of anxiety city. ♡ ⦂ You were able to sleep peacefully at the thought. Quickly morning came around, and the same elegant tune playing rapidly over the speakers. People were already awake or just rising from their beds. You spotted Thanos’s bunk, a lower one in one of the corners of the room, bingo. You had your eye on the prize. You couldn’t slip up on this next game. It wasn’t an option for you or your livelihood. ♡ ⦂ You slinked over stealthily to his bunk. Catch him when he's only now getting out of bed. You saw Nam-gyu looking down into where Thanos was lying. The two were clearly in conversation. But as soon as you walked over he buzzed off. Thanos was only now closing up the locket as you appeared infront of him. You were staring him down, your palms placed right on your hips. ♡ ⦂ “I saw you pop one of those little candies yesterday.” You confronted him about it. He looked at you like you were crazy but decided to play along. “Yeah .. so? They are a Thano guaranteed little boost.” He chuckled as he began to zip his jacket up. The locket still hung low on his chest. He hadn’t slipped it under his jacket or shirt yet. Perfect point to now make your move. ♡ ⦂ “Come on what is it? I’m a big girl.” You persisted as you cornered him deeper into his space. He only seemed purely amused at your ploy. “You know what? , I’ll be nice. Come and get it.” He bragged as a defining clink could be heard from in between your bodies. “It's hard stuff princesa, you may not like it.” He purred as suddenly he plopped a pill on his tongue, mouth wide open ♡ ⦂ Your eyes expanded in shock that he was letting this happen. Were you going to stoop low and make out with a prideful buffoon just so your hands wouldn’t twitch as hard in the next death game? Well yeah, of course you were. It was either your life or a full-body buzz. So you decided to take the ladder. With ease, you cupped his cheeks as your lips landed on his. ♡ ⦂ You were rough with him as soon as he reciprocated. He didn’t hesitate at all as soon as you got closer. The exchange between the both of you was hot… almost purifying. His hands roamed over your body, his fingernails digging into your clothed hips. He was trying to pull you more into him and you didn’t stop it. Teeth clashed against teeth but no one complained. You were practically just reveling in his lips at this point. By all means, he wasn’t a bad kisser at all. ♡ ⦂ After what felt like forever you two parted lips. Hurriedly you were trying to regain your breathing and composure. He looked back at you with the biggest shit-eating look on his face. You had already ingested said pill. Your brain fogging up and your fingertips are all warm and fuzzy. As you slowly composed yourself you felt your shoulder tension ease. He just seemed proud of himself that he finally got to be kissed, by you.

♡ ⦂ You giggled at him as he had his hands against the metal framing of his bed. You plucked the cross and plopped it inside his jacket. The chain rang his neck a little. “You are… a freak.” You purred out while curling a little spike of hair with your finger. Making sure to put emphasis on your words with the role of the tongue. He reveled in how forward you were being right now. He should’ve offered you one of these sooner. “Yeah.. don’t mention it.” He replied after finally regaining his breath. ♡ ⦂ You fixed your attire up, smoothing the sensation in your hands down as you carried your hands down your chest. He tried to fix his pants in time. Before he knew it your hand was locked in his as you dragged him to where all the players stood. Every step you took was with ignorant blissfulness. Maybe this wasn’t so bad. Maybe a prick like Thanos wasn’t so bad to be around. 

― ꒰ AUTHORS NOTE: I hope this was okay!! I was really trying to get him to sound as in character-as possible. The ending was a little rushed because Tumblr wasn't saving correctly and it was PISSING me off. Don't be afraid to send a request to my inbox anytime soon! I'm currently working on requests featuring Dae-ho, Myun-gi, Se-mi, and more. Also, tempted to write something individually for the Hwang brothers? That is for future me to decide lmao. But anyway bye for now!!! ^ _ ^ ꒱

[formulampreg]

✨Welcome to the Formula mpreg fest✨

Welcome everyone! and welcome all kinds of mpreg!

We know and understand mpreg is not everyone's thing, so please don't hang around if you're sure you don't like and don't be rude to those that enjoy it ✨

That being said...

Welcome everyone ♥️ 

These are some tentative dates that will be put up for voting:-

Prompting: January 6 to 26

Claiming: January 27

Check in: February 21-22

Posting: March 8-9

Reveals: March 10

Links for you ♥️ 

The Collection

The prompt form

The claiming form

Further info is on the collection's dashboard but let me add it down here as well

What's mpreg? Whay counts as mpreg for the fest? Mpreg is a term used to describe situations where a man becomes pregnant, resulting in a Male Pregnancy. The fest welcomes all kinds of mpreg: cismpreg, transmpreg, intersex mpreg, a/b/o dynamics, magical pregnancies, fics that go into the carried gene variant, you could also not offer an explanation and just have the world be like that.

Prompting & Claiming FAQ

Is it necessary to submit a prompt to claim one? Do I have to claim a prompt to submit one? No! You don’t need to submit prompts in order to claim them, and you are not required to claim prompts to “be allowed” submit them.

How are claims done? Once we set up the schedule, you will be able to start claiming by pressing on the “Claim” button next to the prompt you want and then filling out the Claim Form. Please remember that If you don’t fill it, your claim will be deleted.

Can more than one person claim a prompt? No! Only one claim per prompt will be allowed. It will be on the “First come First serve” basis, and any secondary claims will be deleted. Anyone that wants to use any other media that isn't writing doesn'tneed to claim it on AO3, just please fill out the form so I can know <3

How do self-prompts work? Right before the ending of the Prompting Period we will post a bunch of “Self-Prompt” prompts. These are for people that have their own, original ideas they want to write or make art for but that they still want to share inside the Fest.

How are self-prompts claimed? The exact same way! Except more people can claim each one. You’ll be able to claim one and that will count for the three claims per person limit.

Remember friends: you can always drop out if life gets messy or if the inspiration runs away!

And now some RULES

1. All Works must include some form of mpreg - this mean that if your story has past or future "off-screen" mpreg, then it still counts! 2. Gen fic is welcomed! Not everything has to revolve around romantic and/or sexual relationships. 3. Minimum word count is 1k! Chaptered fics are, of course, allowed, you'd just have to make sure that the first chapter (or chapters) you post hits 1k words. 4. All works - especially those included sensitive topics and/or smut HAVE to be properly tagged. We will read over the fics before allowing them into the collections and we will ask you to tag properly if we detect a missing tag. 5. Ships must include at least two (2) paddock individuals. OCs or Non-paddock characters are not allowed for final ships. Y/N fics are not allowed. 6. No plagiarism allowed, no unauthorized reproduction allowed. If someone sees a prompt or a work that you suspect was copied from someone or somewhere else, please let the mods know.

RESTRICTED THEMES The only restricted themes the fest will have will be: Pedophilia, incest and underage.If you want to include an aged up character that had a kid when they were teenagers, you can. But you cannot have underage characters engaging in sexual activities in your fic.

[hazzashouse]

The Space Between Us (Harry Styles series)

Hi! Welcome to my new series The Space Between Us! This is a Harry Styles x OC fanfiction, where Harry plays himself—a global superstar—and the story explores his reunion with Sophie Pearson, his childhood best friend (and maybe more…). Expect moments filled with angst, tension, and heartwarming memories as they navigate the challenges of reconnection.

CHAPTER TWO: HERE

Triggers: None - this chapter is light :)

Pairing: Harry Styles x Sophie Pearson

Word Count: 3,112 Words

Enjoy the first chapter, and let me know what you think!

Chapter one: A Familiar Face

“Sophie! Where’s the seating chart?”

Her brother’s voice boomed from the dining room, sending a ripple of urgency through the already chaotic house. Sophie Pearson was halfway up the stairs, one hand clutching a clipboard and the other holding a pen precariously between her teeth.

“It’s on the table, next to the candles!” she yelled back, spinning around to double-check her mental checklist.

The house was a hive of activity. Family members, caterers, and a few overenthusiastic friends buzzed around, each consumed by their own tasks. The faint hum of a vacuum cleaner fought against the soundtrack of wedding prep chaos: doors slamming, hurried footsteps, and someone playing music too loudly in the kitchen.

Sophie reached the landing and poked her head into the guest room, where the bride’s dress hung like a masterpiece in a gallery. Everything seemed fine here. She exhaled a small breath of relief and moved on.

Downstairs, her brother Anthony appeared in the foyer, adjusting his tie.

“You’re too calm for someone getting married in three hours,” Sophie teased, her tone sharp but fond.

“Someone in this family has to be,” Anthony shot back, grinning. “Besides, I have you to keep everything on track.”

“That’s right,” she muttered, flipping through her clipboard.

————————

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

As Sophie rushed from room to room, the house seemed to breathe with memories. Every corner held whispers of the past—of childhood laughter, whispered secrets, and endless summers spent with the boy who used to be her best friend.

Harry Styles.

Her chest tightened at the thought of him. Their lives had once been so intertwined it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. Their mothers had been inseparable, which meant Sophie and Harry had been inseparable too. Sleepovers turned into late-night talks, and holidays together became their little tradition.

But that was a lifetime ago. Before The X Factor. Before the world knew his name.

Sophie tried to shove the thought aside, but it lingered like a shadow. She could still remember the last time she had seen him.

It had been an unusually cold night. They stood at the edge of their favorite park, the one where they’d shared so many childhood adventures.

“You don’t have time for me anymore,” she had said, her voice breaking as she hugged herself against the chill.

“That’s not true,” Harry had insisted, his eyes wide with something like guilt.

“Then prove it,” she’d snapped, hating herself for how desperate she sounded. “Because I’m not just some fan waiting for your attention, Harry. I’m supposed to be your friend.”

“I’ll always come back for you,” he’d said, his voice soft but resolute. But even then, they both knew the promise was an impossible one.

————————

“Sophie!”

Her cousin Lizzie’s voice snapped her back to the present. “The florist needs to know where to put the centerpieces!”

Sophie blinked and nodded, forcing a smile. “Tell them to arrange them on the dining table for now. I’ll figure it out.”

The clock was ticking. The bride would be arriving in less than an hour, and Sophie was determined to make sure everything was perfect for her brother’s big day. She adjusted her clipboard, smoothing down her blouse as she made her way back downstairs.

Outside, the January air was crisp and cold. Guests began arriving, filling the house with a mix of excitement and chatter. Sophie was so focused on coordinating the details that she didn’t notice the sleek black car pulling into the driveway.

She was checking on the catering setup when the front door creaked open. Out of the corner of her eye, Sophie caught a glimpse of movement.

“Finally, the photographer,” she muttered, brushing a stray lock of hair out of her face.

She turned to greet them, her lips already forming a polite smile. But the words died on her tongue.

It wasn’t the photographer.

It was Harry.

He stood in the doorway, framed by the soft winter sunlight. He looked older but still impossibly familiar—like a piece of her past brought to life. His suit was impeccably tailored, and his green eyes sparkled with a mix of nervousness and amusement.

“Hi, Sophie,” he said, his voice warm and tinged with something she couldn’t quite place.

Her clipboard slipped from her hands, clattering to the floor.

For a moment, the chaos of the wedding melted away. All she could see was him—the boy she had grown up with, the man who had become a stranger.

Her vision swam.

“Sophie?”

Harry’s voice was the last thing she heard before the world went black.

As Sophie sank into unconsciousness, her mind conjured an old memory—their last conversation before he left for good.

“You’re leaving again?” she had asked, her voice trembling with frustration.

“I have to,” Harry had said, running a hand through his curls. “This is my dream, Soph. You of all people should understand that.”

“I do,” she’d whispered. “But it feels like you’re choosing your dream over me.”

He’d reached for her then, his hand brushing against hers, but she’d stepped back.

“Good luck, Harry,” she had said, forcing a smile through her tears. “I hope it’s everything you want.”

And then she had turned and walked away.

————————

CHAPTER TWO: HERE

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[hugemilkshake]

Yan Shadow milk x Gender neutral reader? (Oneshot)

Enjoy the milkshake! I brainstormed this for a while but I came up with an idea, I would wait for the smilk update but I’m not that patient

Idk if this reads off as yandere sooooo-

Just a little TLC

-Romantic or Platonic-

!TW! Under the cut will be themes like obsessivness, harming another and trying to change someone’s identity ig?

Boring. That’s the best way Shadow Milk could describe Pure Vanillas life. He’s been watching the fool for years now and while it’s fun to see his guilt and stuff but something interesting needed to happen!

That’s when Pure Vanilla met you.

At first you weren’t anything special, just some cookie who was dragged to Pure Vanillas Kingdom by the brave kid. Honestly you were quite boring.

But that aided in your appeal! You were so basic that Shadow Milk started to feel an… itch. An itch to make you interesting, an itch to turn you into something entertaining!

The thought of you being something more consumed his thoughts, you looked nice, but not unique enough. You’re personality was fun, but not fun enough!

You needed a little TLC, and that was fine! He was going to help you stand out and be the most interesting and amazing cookie to exist!

He’d make sure of it.

—————————————

You put your hand on Pure Vanillas shoulder in a panic, he wasn’t moving, he was just blankly staring at the tree. The seal had been broken and there was a chill in the air. But then… it felt like the chill was in your dough. The coldness of your dough and others checking on Pure Vanilla broke him from chance.

Everyone was tense, this Shadow Milk fella was ominous. You felt his gaze on you. It was locked onto you. You shifted around uncomfortably, the cookies around you noticed this. Elder Faerie stepped infront of you, he seemed determined yet a little part of him was anxious… I wonder why…

“Ah this is quite the audience! I will need a volunteer for my show stopping performance though! Now who to choose..” Shadow Milk looked at everyone like he was going to pluck someone away for his “performance”

There was a strong pause before you felt your limbs being pulled up slightly, before you felt yourself get jerked up harshly.

“Y/N COOKIE!” As strings dig into your skin, Elder Faerie jumped up to try and grab your hand, but you slipped away from him like sand

“Now you look like you’d be a good puppet! Although… you need some extra flair, but don’t worry about that! I’ll fix your right up so you’ll be perfect!”

You felt a chil go up your spine as a darkness crept into your mind. Your vision also blanked out.

….

…

..

.

You woke up with concerned eyes on you, and a burning sensation in your arms. Pure Vanilla was looking over your arms. “What… happened…?” You questioned, there was a silence, no one was expecting you to not remember what’s happened, but Strawberry Cookie spoke up

“You became one of Shadow Milks Puppets… I don’t think things went well for you..” she gestured to your arms. You looked down and saw that your arms were cut up, presumably from those strings from earlier

You saw that you were a mess, your hair felt messy and not to mention that some of your clothes had been switched to more of a jester like outfit.

“What about Elder Faerie…?” Everyone was quiet. You could feel your heart sink. He was gone. But no one wanted to break the news… you felt tears starting to prick at your eyes.

You were sacred. You were confused. You wanted to go home, but with the crashed airship…

Home wasn’t an option.

—————————————

Finally. You were in Shadow Milks grasp, you can finally become the star of the show that you were meant to be! Oh all the ideas that he had for you!

You were going to be perfect!

But… there was an unexpected issue…

You were too unique.

Everything about you was boring yet not, no cookie looked like you, it was hard to decide what to change about you because you were so perfect yet imperfect!

It irritated him.

Shadow Milk had been planning on this for months! And now that your here he can’t bring himself to do ANYTHING

He tried changing your outfit and hair style, HELL he even tried making you act out a scene of you laughing at the fools trying to seal him away and save you but it felt wrong. It frustrated him.

When those pesky cookies got closer to him it enraged him more. Everything was going wrong. He even threw you around a couple of times, your arms had jam on them and Shadow Milk swore he felt some form of remorse after it but it couldn’t compare to is anger.

When you left his grasp it felt like a relief yet it felt painful. Seeing Pure Vanilla heal you made his jam boil.

But WHY?

WHATS SO SPECIAL ABOUT YOU?

One way or another… Shadow Milk was going to find out….

[shygirl4991]

Six Splits For Four Chap 3 Discourse

All art is done by @b-r-i-n-g-x be sure to check out her other stuff! Please do not repost art!

Next Chapter Last Chapter

Tags: Action/Adventure, Romance, fluff, angst with a happy ending!, blood, character death, injury, SMG34 is canon, split au

The princely SMG4 smiles brightly at Three as he checks over the man “I’m glad to see my fair maiden is okay!” SMG3 felt his face go into a darker shade of red the longer he was held, unable to handle it. Three starts waving his arms “OKAY YES PUT ME DOWN YOU BAKA!” The personality gently puts Three down, once his feet touch the floor he slides away from the princely personality. Still red in the face he slowly checks the papers before handing them over to Producer, Four stands in shock seeing the fourth member “How…Three?!” 

Three frowns looking at the personality “And you are?” the personality giggles lightly tapping his head “Where are my manners, I’m Prince 4! The heroic side of the original, I'm the one that makes the risky moves to protect our loved ones.” Four walks over to Three feeling sick “Didn't you say you only had three?”  SMG3 looks at the personalities and frowns “Yeah…i don't know how you got four, if there are more than three then we need to know how many of you guys are there.” Four nervously look at his personalities as they exchange looks, Ringmaster nods taking center stage “There are six of us taking the stage! It was certainly a mess, before you ask I have no idea where the others are.” Three’s eyes go wide as he looks at Four, it was official that Four was going to vomit. Four walked away from the group, worried, Three walked over to his boyfriend “Hey blue? It won't be that bad, together we can figure out what's going on.” Four faces Three with grey eyes “Am i broken? You only had three…does that mean there is something wrong with me?”  Three frowns as he grabs Four “Shut the fuck up right now, you’re SMG4 popular youtuber with all the friends a person could ask for. There is nothing about you broken you hear me, you might have just been feeling a lot of emotions at the time of the split.” Slowly Four’s blue eyes return as he hugs Three, the man sighs as he hugs him back. The personalities smile softly at the sight, remembering the others Three pulls away letting out a small cough “Right, now Prince can you help us find the final two?” Prince smiles softly as he takes Three’s hand giving it a kiss. Three's face goes bright red as he does his best to keep his composer,  SMG4 smirks at Three seeing the man's face so red “Not a word scrub.” 

Prince smiles lovingly at Three “Of course my love, i was actually sent here by Parent to find help. That's when I noticed our maiden in danger and I had to act. I almost forgot about the message he gave me!” Three sighs as he inches away from Prince, taking a deep breath he plays with the heart pin. Prince takes out a note and smiles “Prince remember to tell the others that i need help, while i was busy helping Karen the treasure we both were watching over has run away.” Three and Four look at Prince confused as the other personalities gasp. The reaction made the pair nervous as they exchanged a look before Four grabs the paper, Prince frowns from the rude interaction. Slowly anger could be seen in Four’s eyes, his blue eyes having a tint of pink. He storms off taking the group by surprise, Three gently takes Producer’s hand and smiles at him before looking at the others “Knowing how he is when angry i think it's best we follow now!”

As the group went after Four there was one thing bothering Three, the hint of pink in Four eyes gave him a strange feeling.  They finally caught up to Four only to see him walking up to a green version of himself, Parent turns and notices the crew. Before Four can grab his green version, the man ran past him right toward SMG3. He shakes his head as he opens his fanny pack “My word Honey, you need to watch over that beautiful face of yours!” He takes out an alcohol wipe and starts cleaning a cut on Three’s face. His eyes go wide as pink dust his cheeks again, Parent hums cleaning the wound then covering it with a spinning fish bandage. 

Parent gave Three a soft smile before being dragged away by Four “Parent?” he spits out, seeing the anger in his original eyes makes him nervous. “Ah Prince read the letter to you…PRINCE WAS SUPPOSED TO WATCH THE KIDS!”  Three’s eyes go wide at Parent’s words as he turns to Prince “Hey Romeo, what the hell did he mean by that?” Prince stares at Parent , showing him an expression of betrayal. Prince takes a  step back seeing Three getting angry “My gem please listen! Parent took Beeg and Eggdog out to play, he then said Karen needed help with her kids. He told me to watch the little ones, the only thing is when he told me that the children were already gone!”  Three’s face turns from anger to panic as he grabs Four pulling him away from his green personality, seeing the panic on his boyfriend's face snaps Four out of his anger. 

Parent frowns as he looks around at the group “There are a good amount of us, how about we split up the gang!” Prince nods in excitement while Artist and Ringmaster glare at each other, hearing this plan Four looks at the group as his eyes turn green. Four takes Artist hand and pairs him up with Prince, Ringmaster gets to partner up with Parent leaving Producer with Three. He smiles at the pair up before Three speaks up “Alright and who will you be with?” Four looks at the pairs then waves his hand “Don't worry i can handle this alone, who knows i might even bump into our last friend!” The personalities share a nervous look before nodding and separating, once everyone was out of sight Four’s eyes go back to blue. He lets out a sigh as he walks on his own, he needs space from everyone and wraps his head around everything. He had six versions of himself running wild into the world, not to mention a missing meme child.  He wondered how on earth Three handled everything, he couldn't even believe Three was handling so many versions of himself. His eyes start flickering different colors as his mixed emotions screams at him, without thinking he walks back to the showgrounds.  “This is just like everything else Four, just deep breath and smile. Just like everything else, just wash it down your back and move forward!” 

As he cheers for himself in front of Three’s cafe he hears a chuckle, he turns to see the front door of the cafe broken down “Who's there!?” He glares at the cafe till he hears an excited bark, Four relaxes for a moment confused “Eggdog?” The pup hearing his name running out excited to see him. Four giggles picking up Eggdog, remembering the voice he slowly walks in. His eyes go grey as his anxiety starts to take over, he gasps seeing who was at the cafe. It was him in orange wearing a cloak, he looked bored as he sipped a cup of tea. Nervously Four decides to ask the question. Three always asked “Who are you, what part of me?” The orange Four sighs into his cup “Is that important? Aren't you busy sucking face with that backstabber?” 

Four takes a step back surprised, he then notices Beeg on the counter eating ice cream. Four sighs reaching for the ice cream only to get threatened by the child,  Four gives a nervous smile as the orange Four watches him. “If you need a name to call me by the others call me Delinquent or D for short, personally i don't care what you call me.”  He sips his tea before speaking up again. “What I am doesn't matter, I can feel your rejection.” He gets up and leaves the cafe, seeing this Four puts down Eggdog next to Beeg. Once outside the cafe Four reaches out to Delinquent “Wait!” Both men pause hearing Three “Alright i hear you boys, is Four in that bad of shape?” Four smiles seeing Three on the path to the showgrounds with the others, his smile drops seeing his personality’s look at him with wide eyes “Original!” They all tackle him down for a group hug. Delinquent takes a side step to avoid the affection, Three looks around and sees Beeg and Eggdog watching the hug. He smiles feeling relief that his son was safe, that's when his eyes locked into orange ones. Three nods “So you're the missing one, nice to me-” Delinquent scoffs not letting Three finish talking “I don't need to hear words from a backstabber.” 

The group hug ended the moment the crew heard Delinquents words, Parent gets up frowning at him “Now D thats no way to treat our boyfriend, he's not that man anymore.” Ringmaster nods as he walks over to Three putting his arm around the man “Yeah that's the fans favorite arc, it makes the shippers go wild!” Delinquent crosses his arms looking Three up and down, then he looks at Four. He rolls his eyes, he turns from the group “Not going to listen to a failure of a leader and a man with so much ego he can't keep it in check.” SMG4, getting sick of the attitude of his personality, stands up glaring at him “What is your problem? You have been nothing but an asshole pushing us all away!” Delinquent shrugs “Who knows, maybe you're just not happy looking in the mirror.” Three reaches out to Delinquent only for the man to walk away, his hair touching Three’s gloves. Three frowns looking at his hand “huh? Ink?” looking at his glove a strange black stain was on it. He sniffs the stain and stares confused by the chemical scent, Four sighs watching Delinquent walk away. He turns and gives a small smile at the others “How did you all know?” 

Producer smiles “We felt you, there was a moment we all were connected. T-that's when we knew you needed help.” Four smiles at Producer before it clicked that he never got to learn who Parent or Delinquent were, he turns and gives a sheepish smile “Sorry that we started off pretty rough, want to give us your introduction?”  Parent giggles as he walks over to the kids patting their heads “That's okay our kids are more important. Ahem as you know im Parent, I'm your parental side and I'm also the leader of the group!”  Three walks next to Four looking at the group, things have turned completely different from what happened to him.  He peeks a quick look at Four, he knew the idiot for a long time to know that Four is about ready to scream into the void. “Hey everyone, could you all stay at the castle and wait till we return. I have something important to talk about with Four.” The group give him a thumbs up as they walk toward the castle, Ringmaster twirls his cane as they walk to their home “At least we are all together again, no thanks to your leadership Parent.”  Parent stops walking as his face drops. “Haha you're funny, if it wasn't for my leadership we wouldn't have found the kids!” Parent forces out a smile as Producer frowns and shyly looks at him “Didn't D and our Original find the kids,” Producer  plays with his sleeves “we failed them so badly…oh memes do you think he hates us now?!”  Artist gently pats his back “Are you squidding me? He doesn't hate us, if anything he seemed really happy to see us back there!” As the group chatted happily, Parent stayed a few steps back staring at them “Nothing but a failure huh?” 

Three turns to Four blushing as he shyly pulls the man close to him “No one is around but me, you don't have to keep the act up Baka.” Four’s eyes go wide as his vision blurs from his tears, he hugs Three as he cries into the man's chest.  Three rubs Fours back “Nothing is wrong with you, together we will figure out what caused this. We will fix this after all someone like me managed to do it, there is no way the great SMG4 cant.” Four lets out a giggle as he pulls away wiping his tears “Wow never thought i hear those words from you.” Three’s face turns a darker shade of red “Shut it or I'm leaving you here with your snot!’ Four laughs harder as he leans forward giving a kiss on Three's cheek, feeling the kiss Three let himself smile and laugh alongside Four. While they don't know how they will manage six personalities, they were confident they would figure it out as long as they had each other. 

[actuallysaiyan]

The First Time(Aka How Nanami Kento Lost His Virginity)Chapter Seven: Reunion

warnings: breast play, smoking cigarettes, mentions of male masturbation, slight awkwardness from both parties pairings: Emo!Nanami Kento x Fem!Reader summary: summer is done and you return to school for the next semester. though you are a little nervous about being around Kento, he shows you that he's made some changes. and those changes are all to your benefit. a/n: SO SORRY for the literally month long delay! I so hope everyone enjoys this chapter! More to come soon, that I can promise. This series gets finished this year, I promise! also check out the soundtrack for this fic here!

taglist: @cherryblossombankai @kenpachisbrat @benkeibear

@harlekin6 @brokennerdalert @marikuchanxo @gennaray

@sugurusprettygirl @hazzelle-kento @pixelcafe-network

Masterlist

Summer passes by in a flash. And though everyone is sad to see it come to an end, you’re more than happy to make your way back to university. After the phone call, you and Kento tried your best to stay in contact all summer long, but it wasn’t always easy.

So when the first day of school comes around, you find yourself fussing over your looks more than usual. You had spent the last few days in your dorm, fixing up things and placing posters in the right spots. Despite your parents wanting to spend even more time with you, they had done their job helping you settle into your dorm room once more.

Then once the reality of everything dawned on you, that’s when you began to realize that you were actually going to see him again. Kento Nanami, the man who stole your heart. You wondered if maybe things would go smoothly. But on second thought, you were sure that there would be lots of awkwardness at first.

Even just thinking about the phone call made your stomach turn. It had been so sensual and sexy; truly something to remember forever. Just the sound of his voice had you going. You remember just how sticky your fingers had been as you played with yourself to the sound of his gorgeous voice.

And when he came, he had moaned so beautifully. You missed the sound of his voice. You missed his timid but cute smile. The smell of the cigarettes he smoked. You wanted to wear his hoodie and show the world that you were deeply in love with Kento.

So the first day back to class, you resolved to talk to him. You were going to make sure that you at least said one word to him.

The issue? You found yourself even more shy than before.

Both of you had clearly put a lot of thought into your looks today. You don’t think you've ever seen Kento so dressed up like this before. His blazer was properly ironed, his hair was actually out of his eyes for once and his skinny jeans didn’t have any holes in them.

You had also bought some new clothes for class. You were hoping that he would notice. It wasn’t like you to wear a dress, but this one had been just so beautiful. The long sleeves hugged your arms, which you always hated to show off. It came down to your shins. The color was such a dark black, and it only proved to make you look much more mature than you thought yourself to be.

And yet, despite the new clothes and the renewed sense of wanting to talk to one another, it just never happened. Too much talk of the syllabus and class planning and other people catching up with one another. You longingly looked at Kento from your spot across the room. You swore you caught him looking at you a few times as well, but you didn’t want to believe it.

The first few classes went by in a blur, and you held out hope that you’d talk to him. Every single second, you thought about what you’d say first. But nothing ever came up and you just couldn’t find the right time.

So as the first day of the second semester ended, you were mentally cursing yourself for being so ridiculous. How could you not just go over to him and say hi? He was just a man, not some alien from outer space trying to harvest your organs.

“Girl, you need to just go talk to him.” One of your friends said as you left the last class of the day.

You two are walking towards the dorm building. The way she could just read you so well was what made you nervous. If she could see it written all over your face, could everyone else see the same?You shrug; you’re without answers.

“He’s over there. Now go!” She shoves you in his direction.

You make your way over to him, your whole body shaking as if you were a child afraid to go down the slide. He looks up from his notebook, and there’s a soft smile on his face when he spots you. You approach him and clear your throat.

“Can I sit with you?” You inquire, pointing at the empty spot next to him on the bench.

Nanami blushes. “Y-yeah! Sure, sit down.”

You sit on the bench, watching as your friend gives you a thumbs up. Then you turn to look at Kento. He’s still writing in his notebook, but when he feels your eyes on him, he closes it.

“Hey, uhm…” you start but he interrupts you.

“You look good. I like that dress on you.”

His words turn around in your mind for a bit. Your cheeks are burning. Even though he just complimented you, you feel like all eyes are on you. You bury your face in your hands. 

“Wait, what did I say? Did I say something wrong?”

You shake your head, finally uncovering your face. You reach over and kiss his cheek, which in turn makes him blush now. You two look like a couple of kids in love.

“Thanks, Ken. You’re a gentleman.”

He shrugs his shoulders, “I’m just me.”

A comfortable silence falls on the two of you. You reach over and grab his hand, making his blush further onto the tops of his ears as well. He looks at you with such a soft and tender look in his eyes, it makes your heart skip a beat.

“I really missed you this summer,” you confess.

“I missed you too.”

Your eyes lock with his and then he’s leaning in. He cups your cheek, his thumb brushing your cheekbone. Then Kento leans in to capture your lips in a tender and loving kiss. Your breath hitches in your throat, but you melt into the kiss.

It’s almost like all the feelings you had for him were spilling out into this one kiss. When he pulls away, you’re the one chasing his lips this time. He smirks as a sudden wave of confidence washes over him over that little move.

“So,” he says as he fishes his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He places one on his lips, then one on yours. “We should go out on a date.”

You smirk as he lights up both smokes at once. “Deal. Time and place?”

“Friday night, your dorm.”

That’s all it took for you two to plan a quiet night together.

Friday night comes around and you’re more than nervous. It feels like it’s been forever since you’ve hung out with Kento. Just knowing how things will go, your heart keeps fluttering in your chest. You’ve done all you can to keep calm, but it’s proving to be almost impossible.

The knock on your door has you getting up off the sofa and rushing to the door. You smooth out your shirt and swallow hard before opening the door. Kento stands there, looking more confident than ever. He hands you the beautiful bouquet of wildflowers.

“Wildflowers for my beautiful wildflower.”

Your heart clenches in your chest. Here you were thinking you’d have to start from scratch with him, but it seems like the time you two spent apart seems to only have pushed you two even closer together. You take the flowers and invite him inside.

“I ordered take-out,” you tell him as you smell the flowers.

He comes over to you, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you close. You feel the definition of muscles against your back. Kento nuzzles his face in the crook of your neck, nipping so softly.

“I’m glad we decided to do this,” he whispers. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you all summer.”

You blush and smile. “I feel the same.”

He lets you go, allowing you the chance to put the flowers in a vase. You place them near the window where they can get lots of light. Then you return to your lover, guiding him to the couch. On the coffee table is a spread of your favorite foods.

“You really planned out everything perfectly,” Kento says.

He wraps his arm around you, pulling you close. You giggle as you rest on his chest. The food is quickly forgotten in favor of sweet, but chaste kisses. The kisses that turn into something hungrier and sloppier.

“It’s finally time for me to make you feel good.” He whispers as his hands snake up your shirt.

You moan against his lips as he plays with your breasts. He tugs on your nipples perfectly, making need pool deep inside of you. He kisses you tenderly, continuing his ministrations on your chest.

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmurs against your lips. Kento pulls away only to be able to pull the garment off your body.

With your breasts bared to him, Kento shifts on the sofa and adjusts his hardening cock in his tight jeans. He looks at you like you’re the most beautiful person he’s ever laid eyes on.

“My beautiful angel,” he moans as he cups your breasts. 

His lips trail all over the swell of your tits before he captures one of your nipples between his teeth. The look of love in his eyes has your stomach erupting with a million butterflies. You’ve never felt this way before.

“You’re so beautiful,” he groans. “Jerked off to thoughts of you all summer, baby.”

The thought of him stroking his cock to the thought of you has your panties drenched. You part your thighs a little, allowing one of his hands to slip down the front of your sweatpants. He smirks when he realizes you’re also not wearing panties.

“So wet, just for me.” He murmurs against the softness of your chest.

His fingers work you up quickly to your release. Your breath hitches in your throat as the coil in your stomach is tightening so fast. There’s so much warmth inside of you and it spreads all over as Kento rubs your clit in perfect little circles.

He stays attached to your nipple, suckling and flicking the pert bud with his tongue. The look in his eyes is intoxicating, especially since he looks at you like you’re the perfect sex goddess made just for him.

“K-Ken,” you moan. “I’m cumming.”

He doesn’t even have to say anything. He watches you as you come undone. Your cheeks warm, your lips parted as you moan his name. Your thighs are shaking from the intensity of the pleasure. And he loves the way your nipples are so hard right now.

Slowly, he helps you come down from the intense high. Kento smirks when he pulls his fingers from your pants and they are covered in your juices. Something changed within your lover, and it’s for the better.

“Told you I’d make you feel good next time we saw each other.” He says as he licks his fingers clean.

“And it was good to count down the days.”

reblogs and comments always appreciated!

©actuallysaiyan 2025– do not repost on other platforms, copy, translate or edit my works!

[impossiblesuitcase]

tu me cherchais?

““Hello, Michelle.” His voice was a wearier version of the one she had adored all those years ago, but it still filled her with memories and loneliness and warmth.” 

Tell him hello

When Logan first brought Selene to Michelle, he stayed in the house. No one visited her anyway and he couldn’t go into town—not with the risk of being discovered. While Selene was still in such critical condition, he would need to watch over her. Once she was stable, he would leave.   

Logan slept on the couch in the living room next to Selene’s chamber. In her current state, she was at risk of a heart attack or capture from enemies. Michelle had offered them the spare bedroom, but the suspension tank couldn’t be brought up the stairs. Once, when she passed by the staircase, she remembered the portraits on her wall. Four-year-old Scarlet playing in a sandbox. Herself and her son, a rare occasion where they were both smiling. Michelle made no effort to conceal them. Logan was far too distracted to pay attention, but she wondered—if for a moment he did—would he look at the photo of her and a three-month-old Luc and notice that she looked around the same age as when they had first met?  

She hoped he wouldn’t. A bizarre fear persisted, that he would be disappointed in her if he learnt of her failings as a mother to his son. 

During the daytime, while Logan was down in the bunker preparing it to house the body, Michelle was tasked with monitoring the child. The form was so grotesque, so mangled and inhuman that she couldn’t bear more than a cursory glance. In the evenings she would prepare them a meal. Again, Logan would eat by the child, and though Michelle initially joined him, sitting on the lounge chair by the lamp, it became too awkward. The silence. The utensils scraping on ceramic plates. The hum of the alien pod.  

The meals became simpler as she began to run out of ingredients. She had put off her usual grocery run since his arrival, worried that if she left the property and one of her neighbours flew by and noticed a man leaving her podship hanger, it would arouse suspicion. Then she realised that if the locals didn’t see her at her typical weekly outing, they might come to the house to check up on her. That would be worse.  

She never bought fresh produce from the grocer, usually just the essentials—flour and sugar and meat. On this occasion, as she attempted to escape a conversation with chatty Madame Manon Bouchard, she spied a stand of fresh dragon fruit right by the milk aisle.   

“You don’t even have zucchini?” she had once asked Logan, as they stood together in his kitchen, his hands around her waist.  

He had laughed into her hair. “Now you’re just making up words.”  

Her attempt to make a good ragout with the limited ingredients in Artemisia had left her stumped. Seeing the luxuriant meals in the cafés and restaurants, she had assumed the sparkly city was teeming with cultivation. Logan informed her that that was only the case for the rich; the less fortunate—even a well-paid doctor as himself—had fewer options.  

She peeled the carrots, chopped them and tossed them into the pot. Then came the wine. Or what was left of it; the rest in their bellies.  

She looked over her shoulder, flicking his nose. “Don’t worry. If you come to Earth, I will make you all kinds of things. With zucchini and lychee and rhubarb and dragon fruit.”  

“Sure,” he agreed with a fond shake of his head. “I’ll try your imaginary dragon fruit.”  

Michelle was struck by such an unexpected pang of emotion that she didn’t notice Manon’s offended scoff as she wandered over to the stand mid-conversation.  

That evening, she made dragon fruit tartlets for dessert. She thought, briefly, to pair it with a ragout. But she thought that might be making it a little too easy for him.  

After dinner, Logan brought the plates into the kitchen and washed them in the sink. She never asked him to do this. He always did.  

“Here,” she said, placing a plate by the dishrack. Atop it sat a perfect tartlet, drizzled with cream from her cow and strawberries from her field. “This is for you.”  

He glanced at it. “Thank you.”  

Once he was done at the sink, he sat at the kitchen table and ate. His brow was furrowed, his mind always a thousand light-years away.  

“It’s dragon fruit,” she ventured, tracing her eyes over that brow, waiting for recognition.   

Logan nodded, took his final bite and brought this plate over to the sink. “Thank you, Michelle.”  

A jolt of pain rippled through her. She turned away from him, heading to the living room. “I’ll, uh, check on the princess.”  

His grunt was all to indicate that he’d heard her. But the fruit, the memories, she knew he hadn’t remembered at all.  

———

“She couldn’t imagine how this child could sleep for her entire life and then be expected to become a queen upon her return to society. But that would be Logan’s job, whenever he returned. There were years still before anyone would know who this child was going to become.” 

———

Eight years later, Logan stayed in the bunker while they were waking Selene up, as did Linh Garan. Scarlet could never learn of their presence, yet Michelle was beginning to suspect that even if her granddaughter was removed from the equation, Logan wouldn’t risk leaving the princess’s side. He was cautious, yes, but most of all, he was manically paranoid.  

She hadn’t believed he was losing his mind, but after weeks of observing him, in surgery and in conversation and at meals, she began to believe him.  

The risk of Scarlet discovering them put her on edge, too. Thankfully school had started up again that week, so they had at least a few hours in the daytime where they didn’t need to be as surreptitious. Even then, Michelle would tense; Scarlet—the little hothead she was—tended to get into arguments at school and stomp home without any warning to her grandmother. Today was a Sunday, and Michelle had sent her off to the neighbour’s house. Old Madame Boudreaux had needed someone to help her set up a new netscreen, and fortunately for Michelle, she had a propensity for forcing all house guests to learn the history of every knick-knack and porcelain doll in her museum of a home. Scarlet wouldn’t be able to leave for several hours yet.  

This was the only time Logan was willing to be parted from Selene, no, Cinder, five days before she was to be taken away to the Eastern Commonwealth. She was caked in gel, an insect freshly emerged from its egg, slimy and tinged green. She needed to be bathed.  

Michelle had been more than hesitant to bring the child into her home, but there was no running water in the bunker. It was too difficult to carry the girl up the ladder with old bones, so the task had fallen to Garan. Although the man was set to be her adoptive father, he was rather unnatural in holding her. She hoped it was simply a product of unfamiliarity and not a sign of what kind of father he would be to the princess.  

They took her inside the house while she was still asleep. It wasn’t much different from her waking state, except for the groaning and squirming. Then Logan and Garan left Michelle with her in the bathroom. She woke as Michelle began running a warm soapy cloth over her arms, dissolving the crusted gel. A proper bath would be too aggressive for her fragile skin, the joints between flesh and prostheses still red and inflamed.  

Michelle wished the girl had stayed asleep. Odd as it may seem, Michelle wasn’t quite adept at interacting with children. Her rather disastrous upbringing of her son proved that. She only bonded with Scarlet so easily because the little hothead was just as stubborn as herself. But with this blank slate of a child, Michelle felt almost awkward.  

She grasped the shower head and gently cupped Cinder’s scalp under her palm. “All right, Cinder. Let’s wash your hair.”   

Though the water was a safe tepid she flinched, eyes tearing open and hands scrambling to grasp the corners of the bathtub. Michelle murmured soothing shhs and it’s okay’s. For the first time since waking, she looked at Michelle, awareness filling her gaze, but with it, harshness.  

Logan had assured her that the child would not wake with the mental faculties of a toddler, that the brain stimulations had successfully advanced her to the comprehension level befitting her age. Michelle was secretly unconvinced. The girl moved in a haze, more like a newborn than even a three-year-old, as though she had regressed during stasis.  

But then she would cast a look at Michelle, long and loaded, and she would feel that she had been complicit in some crime.  

Nevertheless, the hair had to be washed, so Michelle used her free hand to still the girl as she soaked the hair from roots to ends. Cinder eventually gave up in squirming, limbs still too weak to offer any form of escape.  

She made quick work of the shampoo and conditioner. With her body carefully untouched by the stream, Cinder began to shiver.   

“All done, Cinder,” Michelle assured. She sat her up and wrapped a towel around her. “Do you want to try your walking?”  

Cinder remained motionless but allowed Michelle to lift her. She groaned as she heaved the child out of the bath and set her on the ground. “Ready?”  

Cinder took the smallest step forward on the tile and immediately lurched forward. Hands at the ready, Michelle was quick to stop her from falling. Righting her, she guided gently, “That’s okay. Let’s try again.”  

Garan had been teaching her to walk and had partial success thus far. A look of concentration encased the girl’s face now as she lifted her stiff foot and forced it in front of her.   

Cinder wobbled but stayed upright. She gripped Michelle’s hand tighter.  

Through several arduous steps and a few stumbles, they reached the bedroom. Michelle considered but decided not to repeat Garan’s encouragements. “You’re doing well,” “almost there,” “good job.” They were perfunctory. No number of pleasantries could coax a ship to fly or teach a horse to run. Cinder alone would decide if she walked.  

Michelle lowered her to the bed, reaching for the outfit she had laid out. “These are your new clothes, Cinder. I have another set for you to take as well.” 

Well, they weren’t new. They came from a box of Scarlet’s old clothes from last year. Michelle had planned to donate them to the local boutique de charité and that’s where Scarlet believed they currently were. Michelle had since found an equally charitable cause for them. She would wash the ones Cinder had lived in for the past week before sending them off in a duffel bag with the girl in tow.  

The goosebumps on her skin calmed as the fleecy cotton covered her arms. Cinder weakly tugged at the sleeves, trying to pull them down with little success until Michelle intervened.  

“You’ll have a new mother soon. She’ll help you get dressed if you’re still not ready yet.”  

Michelle shimmied the pants up her legs. Her fingernail accidentally grazed the link between flesh and metal on her thigh and Cinder whimpered. Michelle flinched.  

“Désolé, chérie.” She patted her leg soothingly, moving onto the socks. Then she stepped back to evaluate.  

She would be warm, at least. Not much could be done yet about the unnatural pallor of her skin. The hair, clean but still tangled, with split ends running up to the roots, now she could do something about that.  

Michelle found her salon scissors and brush, heaving onto her knees on the bed behind Cinder. Her muscles groaned as they rested on the unsteady surface and she swayed, but the scissors stayed firmly gripped in her fist. Cinder couldn’t be trusted around them yet.  

Her fingers picked up some chunks of hair and raked through them. The girl whined even at the slightest tug. “I know it doesn’t feel nice, Cinder” she said as she worked the brush through the ends. “But we have to push through the pain to make it better.”  

Her words had run ahead of her. As the bristles danced through the brown strands, she continued, “I’ve had to do that many times in my lifetime. As will you.”  

Cinder’s shoulders drooped. With the worst knots untangled, she was a statue. 

Satisfied, Michelle lay a towel on the quilt to catch the hair and began cutting. It was long—eight years’ worth of growth—and yet it was still uneven. Michelle had a vision of this girl as a 3-year-old with oozing pus in patches over her burnt scalp. They had since healed, but the hair was brittle in some parts more than others. A good ten centimetres off should even it out.  

Michelle feathered the ends, brushing the loose hair from her shirt. “All done. Would you like to see?”  

To Michelle’s astonishment, Cinder seemed to nod. It wasn’t exactly obvious—perhaps just a meaningless reflex—but perhaps it had been intentional.   

Michelle set the scissors on the towel. It took another test of patience to help Cinder stagger back into the bathroom and Michelle’s arms were aching with exertion from carrying her by the shoulders.  

Cinder took the last few steps on her own and gripped the bench, staring at herself in the mirror. Michelle watched her.  

No expression. No recognition. There was no mirror in the bunker. Did Cinder realise this was the first time she’d seen herself since she was a toddler? Did she even comprehend that it was her? Despite how much Logan swore that she had been educated, caught up to speed on normal childhood development, had it failed?  

Was this girl not a girl, but a dead soul’s consciousness forced into a machine, functioning only through robotics and wires and machinery?  

Michelle had to grip the towel rail to steady herself.  

How could this child become queen? How could she save them all?

“Selene,” she said suddenly, then immediately shook her head, “no, Cinder. You must listen to me.” She released the rail and took the girl’s shoulders into her hands. Cinder turned to face her.  

“Cinder. I don’t know what will happen. I don’t know if they will come for you. But whatever happens, you can’t let them take everything from you.” Michelle pressed her forehead against Cinder’s, awkwardness dispelled by the divine need to impart this instruction. She conjured every ounce of motherly wisdom that she had lacked with her son, and thought about what she would tell Scarlet, had Scarlet been the girl before her.  

“They have already taken so much from you. They will want to make you a leader. They will forget that you are just a girl.” She pulled away, her eyes imploring. “When they ask you to fight, you must learn to say yes. But when they ask everything of you, you must learn to say no.” Exhaling every breath she’d taken in over the past eight years, she asked, “Okay?”  

Cinder blinked slowly through full lashes. A minuscule light darted back and forth in her left eye. A bionic eye. Fake. Her heart. Brain. Lungs. All of it.  

Maybe synthetic eyes couldn’t light up with joy or with recognition. Maybe they couldn’t convey sadness or understanding. So maybe Cinder had been understanding Michelle this entire time. Michelle was the one who had been blind. 

Cinder’s mouth opened. She began to nod. Again, it could be a meaningless tick, but then, in the quietest voice Michelle had ever heard, she spoke.  

“...O–kay.”  

———

“Grand-mère, who is Logan Tanner?”  Her grandma brushed a light kiss against Scarlet’s forehead.  “He’s a good man, Scarlet. He would have loved you.”

———

 

Cinder began speaking sparsely, mostly nos and yeses and whys. She voiced her first full sentence on the day she left. 

“Where are we going?” she asked Garan as he buckled her into her seat in the hover. 

“We’re going home, Cinder,” he explained with a light tone. Once she was strapped in, he stepped away and the door slid shut. 

Garan turned to Michelle and Logan. “Well…” he trailed off. 

“Thank you again, Garan.” Logan said sincerely, taking his hand and shaking it. “This could not have been accomplished without your skills and discretion.” His tone became grave. “And for the danger you have inflicted upon yourself, I am truly sorry.” 

Garan shook his head. “Don’t be, Logan. I am honoured to play this role in shaping history.”  

Thus far, he had seemed to Michelle a curious savant, enticed more by the prospect of having a Lunar subject for his inventions than by the theophanic-like encounter with a resurrected myth. Yet he demonstrated now a trace of comprehension in his tight brow. He understood the risk of accepting this burden.  

He offered Michelle a nod and rounded to the other side of the hover. “Good-bye then.” Garan opened the door and slid inside. 

Michelle’s attention was entrapped by Cinder. She was staring right at her, blinking slowly, and Michelle suddenly felt cruel to not have parted with a hug, a kiss, a promise that everything would eventually work out. But Michelle could not feed such lies to this child. Cinder was somehow entirely different to the girl that had haunted the ground beneath Michelle’s feet for the past eight years. That had been Selene. Cinder was the one who had woken up. 

Mostly, Michelle was sad to send her off, sure in the deepest fissures of her heart that her new life in the Eastern Commonwealth would not be as ‘fine’ as Garan promised it to be. 

The hover lifted from the ground and picked up speed, yet Cinder’s searching brown eyes lingered down the full length of the driveway. 

Once the rattle of whirring motors faded and the disturbed dust had drifted back to the ground, only Michelle and Logan were left. 

They looked out to the road, three arm lengths apart. 

Michelle exhaled shakily. “Well, there she goes.” 

A grim nod. “She has to.” 

Michelle shifted slightly, halfway facing him. “You don’t trust him?” 

“I do…” he sighed. “I trust he won’t betray her to the authorities or treat her badly, I just don’t…” He pursed his lips. 

“Don’t what?” 

Logan clasped his hands together, not meeting her eyes. “Michelle, there is no one on Earth or Luna I trust more than you. If it hadn’t been so threatening to both her and your safety, I would want her under your protection for as long as possible. I don’t know that Garan will manage this burden in the way you have.” 

The honesty rocked her. So confessionally sweet, and yet so obvious in its failings. Because he shouldn’t trust her so, not when they had such a brief connection to begin with. Not when he probably had a life on Luna after her, maybe a wife and children; children that perhaps looked vaguely alike their own son. There was no room for such unbosoming, not for co-conspirators in treasonous affairs that would surely catch up to them both. 

But perhaps, wouldn’t have been nice if there was no Selene at all? If he had simply escaped Luna to find her, and if he could sleep in the house rather than the bunker? Sit across from her at the dining table and tell stories to Scarlet, whom he would surely adore?    “We are older than Garan,” she said soberly. “But he will learn—as we did.” 

He nodded distractedly, perhaps disappointed. Was he disheartened that she did not acknowledge his praise towards her?     If he was, he didn’t dwell on it. “I leave tomorrow. It would be too suspicious for me to follow the hover. Granted I’m still sane by the time I reach the Commonwealth, I’ll check on her, just for safety.” 

Right. He was losing his mind, or so he said. He seemed always to be present with her, but she did notice him losing his train of thought when conversing with Garan and becoming fidgety when Cinder would refuse their gentle prompts to practise walking. “...And if you’re not sane?” 

His eyes bored into hers, distant as though foreseeing the forthcoming years. “I’ve already done my work.” 

Her port chimed, an alarm reminding her that Scarlet would be due home soon. Michelle had essentially forced Scarlet to go spend the afternoon at a friend’s house, but she wouldn’t be deterred for too long. Logan needed to hide. “You’ll have to retire to the bunker for the night.” 

He stepped away. “Of course. Then this is goodbye.” 

She startled. “I won’t see you off tomorrow?” 

“Tomorrow is Saturday. On Luna, school children have the weekend off. I’m assuming it’s the same on Earth.” 

She’d forgotten, so terrified of Scarlet uncovering the confidential mission happening right under her nose that the days had blurred into insignificance. Logan never spoke of Scarlet, but they had all been aware of the oblivious bystander preventing them from acting in the open. “Right. I hadn’t realised.” 

Logan appeared to contemplate what he said next. “I am truly grateful to have known you, Michelle.” 

She pressed her lips, feeling twenty-nine again in everything but body. “Take care of yourself, Logan.” 

And then he was walking away. No embrace, no handshake or nod as Garan had exchanged.  

The wind whipped through her hair and the sunset before him cast a silhouette—an old man tramping through the crops. 

She hadn’t said it. That she trusted him impossibly more than anyone else, too. That this trust had long blurred the lines of devotion. Their fling was remembered as having lasted an entire lifetime. She wondered if she would soon regret her silence. 

Michelle turned and strolled back to the house. Two—diametrically opposed in direction, no longer having Selene to tether them together. But, with a hand on her chest, Michelle resolved that if Cinder reclaimed her throne, freed Luna and opened the way for Lunars and Earthens to have peace, she knew who she would fly to. 

———

“On Luna, I knew the man who brought you to Earth and performed your surgery. I tracked him down in an attempt to find you, but by then he’d already started to lose his mind. All I could get out of him was that you were somewhere here, in the Commonwealth.”  

Tell him good-bye

“Where is she?” 

Logan was shoved backwards, head lolling as the whiplash caught him. He dumbly flailed his hands but was too blindsided to direct a blow.  

Sage Darnel was much shorter than Logan, but he towered over him as Logan’s knees gave out. He crumpled to the ground. 

“Is she alive?” Sage demanded again, lugging him up by the collar. His sky-blue eyes were stormy and fierce and Logan couldn’t hold them. 

His breaths were shallow and irregular, mind vague and unfocused. He couldn’t remember where he was, why he was here… 

“Logan!” Sage barked. 

“Alive,” he gasped, wincing as nails dug into his flesh. “Alive. Barely.”  

When Sage had ambushed him outside the android dealer, Logan had taken off with the tenacity of a sprinter. But his internal compass failed him and Sage chased him down, cornering him in this alleyway.  

Sage snarled, his canines gleaming in the moonlight. “What do you mean?” 

“Broken,” bubbled from his lips. “Too broken. Bone and skin and ashes.” 

“What are you saying, Logan?” he spat. 

Princess Selene’s burnt corpse flashed past his vision. Blood and pus oozing from welts. Bones and skin mangled. Her charred eyes in his hands. Pieces of her brain sitting on his operating table. “I had to fix her.” 

“Fix what? Her body? From the fire?” 

Chopping and stitching and sawing and praying. “Metal and grafts.” 

His anger wilted with realisation. “She’s a cyborg, isn't she?” 

Stupidly, Logan thought that this shift might give him an advantage. He wrestled against the iron grip, sneering, “Levana sent you to take her!”  

Sage shoved him further up the wall, invading his space so closely that Logan could feel his breath on his chin. “I want to rip Levana apart with my own two hands and return Selene to her throne.” 

“Why?” he choked. 

“Because she killed my daughter. What’s your reason?” 

He had none, no personal stake, except for the sake of his country. “To fight her,” he settled on, not really knowing what it meant. 

“Good. So where is she?” 

Stars, how did they ever take this man’s daughter away from him? Logan was certain he was only a millisecond away from smashing his skull against the brick wall. 

“Logan!” 

“Commonwealth! The Eastern Commonwealth!” he cried, awaiting the blow.  

“Where? Where in the Eastern Commonwealth?” 

He couldn’t feel the blow, but it must have come. Why else was his brain screaming? His body burning hotter than a playhouse in a toddler’s nursery? Incoherent spluttering vomited from his mouth, breaths coming out but none able to come in. He was asphyxiating. He was bleeding. He was brainless. 

Sage’s frantic blue eyes were not enough to keep Logan’s attention. It was fixed at the end of the alleyway—a figure drenched in moon light approached. 

“Where?!” 

“Yes Logan, where? Where did you put her?” mocked Dr Eliot, her silhouette growing clearer. 

“I saved her, I swear!” Logan protested. 

Dr Eliot shook her head, expression vacant. Blood began to trickle down her scalp in rivulets, dripping down her eyelids and lips. Then the trickle turned into a stream, swimming down her white doctor’s coat and staining it, the blood black in the moonlight. 

“I did, I-I promise,” he stammered, “I did, I did, I did.” 

Thud. He was dropped to the floor. He barely noticed.  

“You’ve lost your mind,” Sage snarled and stomped down the alleyway, walking straight through the bloodied ghost.  

It began to rain. 

Logan lay on the damp, cold cement, heart palpitating and eyes unseeing. 

Yes, lost my mind, his mind thought, as Dr Eliot’s blood drifted from the sky and blanketed him. 

Yes, yes, yes, yes yes yes yes. 

———

Before he had lost his mind, it had been kind to him. He needed enough mental clarity to perform Selene’s surgeries. With that accomplished, his sanity promptly handed him a letter of resignation. 

Three months. Logan had elected to wait three months after leaving Michelle before following Garan into New Beijing. Three months before he surreptitiously checked on the child. Time was needed to put distance between Logan and Garan, to stamp out any suspicions of a connection. 

As the reins of timekeeping flung out of his hands—another consequence of the Lunar sickness—three months turned into two and half years. It was then that Sage Darnel found Logan and pinned him to the wall of the alleyway. How long Sage had been on Earth, Logan didn’t know. He no longer remembered how long he himself had been on Earth. 

His encounter with Sage only worsened his fear. It became even more imperative that he avoid the princess. He could only hope that Sage either never found her or that he was true to his word; that he too wished to see her enthroned. 

But any others lurking around, searching for the princess, may not share those motives. 

Logan lived as a nomad, moving from place to place, province to province and never staying long enough to become a local. When he had escaped Luna for Earth, he had left the pilot helping him all his assets, his home and his investments. In exchange, the pilot converted all of Logan’s savings into Earthen currency registered under his new false identity. He had enough to sustain him over the years, knowing there was no possibility of him working again. Not as a doctor, with a mind so demented. Not with the chance of another Lunar finding him. 

He was pitied by some, ignored by most. More than once was he asked if he had wandered away from his nursing home. Once he was robbed, his portscreen stolen from him. It had all his connections to Linh Garan, but Logan had programmed it to delete all incriminating evidence if ever it was opened by someone other than himself. Now he really had to trust in Garan, because he wouldn’t soon be able to reach him. 

Between harrowing visions that reduced him to a trembling ball on the floor and sleeping and eating and shuffling about, he had memories. His younger brother tossing him a ball. His elderly patient sobbing as he delivered a terminal diagnosis. In the library, reading about the atmosphere of Earth. The pictures did no justice to the true colour of the sky, someone had once told him….who? 

One day as he wandered aimlessly around a grocery store, bumping into androids and accidentally knocking over shelf displays, a kindly-looking young woman stopped him and asked if he had a wife she could call to come collect him. 

I don’t think so, he had said, and she smiled pityingly. 

Logan had almost married twenty years ago. Bright and cheery Evelyn Eliot, with the mousy blonde hair and always concerned grey eyes. She was the aunt of one of Logan’s students and an engineer in Artemisia’s maglev system. Logan grew to care for her. He never revealed to her how truly malcontent he was against the regime—he didn’t think she shared such sympathies. But she was kind, and he would not be unhappy with her. 

One afternoon, two months before their wedding date, she burst into the medical centre, face flushed with sweat beading her forehead. In a low whisper, she hastily told him that two guards had visited her at her work and reassigned her to outer sectors to strengthen the security of the maglev system. The people were becoming defiant, the risk they might try to cross borders growing greater. Evelyn didn’t want to leave. She promised him that she wouldn’t go. 

Perhaps Logan should have confessed his hatred of the monarchy to her, because perhaps then she would have been resigned to the knowledge that refusal was not an option. 

That night, Evelyn disappeared. Bioelectrically manipulated onto a maglev shuttle and shipped over to her new assignment in the outer sectors. With the laws prohibiting travel between sectors, she was never to return. With the two of them unmarried, Logan could not follow her. 

He resolutely gave up on all inklings of companionship and love after that. 

A week later, he’d stumbled upon his former student, now Dr Eliot, tearing up her office in a fury. She threw vitals scanners to the floor, smashed vials under her feet.  

“They took her!” she screamed, wrestling with a lab cart. It crashed to the ground with a furious smash! “They stole her just because they can! We’ll never see her again! I hate them, I hate all of them!” 

She raised a stethoscope, ready to hurl it but startled when she realised she was aiming it at him. 

A hand whipped over her mouth. “I don’t, I didn’t…I don’t despise the monarchy—I swear—” 

Logan hushed her with a held finger. “Be careful who you say those things around, Doctor.” And then in an impossibly low murmur, “Not everyone around here shares the same sentiments as we do.” 

Her eyes widened. 

They never spoke again of their shared resistance. But their bond was always stronger after that, even stronger than that of a mentor and a student. More than that of once-to-be uncle and niece. 

That must have been the reason why, when the nursery went up in flames, she sent for him rather than one of the younger, fitter doctors who could have raced over much sooner. Why when she was taken in to be questioned by Levana and her obsequious snake Sybil Mira, she entrusted Selene into his care. 

All he could remember now about Dr Eliot was the blood stretching the lengths of that alleyway. 

———

“I’ll try to keep an eye on her for as long as I can, but I’m not sure I will still be lucid enough to tell her the truth once she’s ready. It’s possible that responsibility will fall to Garan.” 

———

Linh Garan. ID #0082700743. Deceased 121 T.E. Cause of Death: Letumosis. 

It took a week for the understanding to pass through his haze of incomprehension. 121 T.E. That was four years ago. The girl must be now…oh…fifteen? 

It had all been prompted by a ring of blue bruises covering a dead man’s arms. Logan’s roommate—a young man kicked out of home by his ex-wife, almost as vague and aimless as Logan—had stumbled into the share house one day panting and dead-eyed. Logan’s medical training resurged, winning over his incognizance. He triaged the man, asking his symptoms, observing his breathing. When Logan took his wrist to check his pulse, he saw the bruises. 

The blue fever. He commed for an emergency hover from the man’s port and hid when the med droids came to collect him. 

Surely he had contracted it himself. It could take days for the symptoms of the plague to manifest, and they slept on opposite sides of the same room in twin beds. But if the med droids found him and took him, they would discover that he was Lunar. 

No, if he was going to die, he would do it here, hidden away. 

After three days of mania, fasting and acceptance, no symptoms arose. 

He couldn’t fathom a reason why he hadn’t caught it. No Earthen had ever recovered from the disease. Immunity. It had to be connected to his Lunar genealogy. Logan began to posit that Lunar defectors like himself had brought it to Earth in the first place. 

The second realisation came as he was absentmindedly watching a newsfeed about the cyborg draft in the Eastern Commonwealth. If Selene was called in for the draft, exposed to the disease and found to be immune, she would become a subject of curiosity. Garan must be warned. 

He had never once contacted Garan since he took the princess, dreading that someone could hack his portscreen and connect the dots. But as he now searched his profile on the portscreen he claimed from his deceased roommate, he discovered the truth. 

Garan was dead. Gone only weeks after he’d taken the princess away. Now who could tell her of her own identity? Garan and himself were the only ones who knew. Sage still evidently had not found her. 

And… 

And Michelle. 

He hadn’t consciously thought of her in a while. He was occasionally reminded of her; a French voice in a newsfeed, a smell of earth and dirt reminiscent of her farm, some dish filling his belly with the warmth of one of her stews. 

Even now, just at thought of her, a taste of something fruity and tangy coated his tongue.  

He expelled the aching from his chest. Michelle was so much wiser than him. She could help the girl become queen. If he could find Selene and bring her back to Michelle…no, that would endanger Michelle. He couldn’t. 

Logan would find Linh Cinder and tell her the truth himself. 

———

It took three months to reach New Beijing from where he had been decaying in Uzbekistan. Travel was near impossible with no mental legs to stand on, and Logan kept going in circles, catching the wrong maglevs, seeing visions along the way that caused him to flee in the opposite direction. This he could try to push past, but gradually he became more and more certain that he was being followed. Something was chasing him, observing him, but every time he turned around, the pursuer disappeared. 

Finally, a backpacker took pity on him and took him under his wing, guiding him through maglevs and hostels until they reached a suburb just outside the grimy, charming capital of the Eastern Commonwealth. They parted ways amicably at the doorstep of the Linh residence, a squat home among rows of identically small abodes, all with worn awnings, chipped paint and litter strewn across the footpath.  

The house immediately to the left had a broken window, glass shards spilled on a patch of weeds. Logan was well accustomed to less than pleasant lodging, but even this street curdled his stomach. 

“I hope you can find your grandson, my brother,” said the kind traveller. He flashed a two fingered salute. “Peace and love, man.” 

“Thank you,” said Logan, sort of wishing he remembered the free spirit’s name. Once the rickety shuttle hover trundled away, Logan pressed the bell. 

Silence. He pressed the button again two more times. This was the address listed under Garan’s name; Logan had confirmed it at least fifty times a day. Finally after the fourth ring an anxious looking woman appeared, cracking the door open by a sliver and peeking out. 

“H-hello,” he stammered. “Are–are you...Linh Adri?” 

She shook her head quickly. 

Breathing heavily, he frowned. “You’re not?” 

“No.” 

Logan blinked rapidly. As the woman began to close the door, he shouted, “Wait!” 

Her hand halted. 

“Do you know where Linh Adri is? Or…Linh…Linh Cinder?” 

Her guarded eyes softened, the most infinitesimal change, but noticeable in her tone when she spoke, “The mechanic?” 

“...Pardon?” 

“That girl. Linh Cinder. I don’t know where she lives now. But the neighbours here remember her. She used to fix their water heaters and portscreens. They say she’s a mechanic now.” 

“Where? Do you know?” he blurted loudly, stepping closer. 

She backed away, hands braced defensively. “New Beijing Market. That’s all I know!” 

Then she slammed the door. 

Linh Cinder. He never dared to netsearch her name. He struggled even to say it aloud. Every corner he turned, some vision was there to taunt him, singing the name again and again in a dissonant melody, mocking him. They would find her. They would take her.  

A flash caught his eye. Something, someone appeared—just for a moment. He scanned the street, trying to identify the figure, but there was nothing. Goosebumps erupted on his arms, but he shook off the panic. Still, some premonition deep in his gut insisted the apparition was real. Was familiar. 

Logan stumbled away from the porch, took out his portscreen, and punched in New Beijing Market. 

———

“Scarlet couldn’t bring herself to tell her grandmother that Logan Tanner was dead. Had gone crazy. Had killed himself.” 

———

The hover spat him out at New Beijing Market. It was exactly the sort of place Logan hated to be now; crowded, loud, confusing and hot. His internal compass misfired amongst the cramped booths and overwhelming din. In places like this, he would only escape once the sun was setting and shopkeepers were pulling down the rollers. 

He stumbled forward, moved by a greater purpose. 

His eyes scanned every booth around him, searching for anything resembling a mechanic’s haven. He remembered Garan’s tools and contraptions, the gleam in his eye when Cinder’s metal toes twitched for the first time as he tweaked wires and screwed joints shut. Perhaps he had trained her as a mechanic... 

No. It had only been weeks after he collected the princess that the plague had claimed him. Had Garan blamed her for catching the disease? Did he blame Logan? 

He turned a corner, and there Garan stood. 

His stomach climbed up to his throat. It was him. He was the one who had been stalking him across the Commonwealth. Garan stared at him, eyes unblinking and bloodshot. His arms were ringed with bruises, fingers blue and shrivelled. Green foam spluttered from his lips. 

“Logan,” he growled, clear all the way across the lane. “Come here.” 

Logan turned and bolted. 

Startled pedestrians jumped out of his way as he charged past, clutching their bags to their chests. Mothers tore their children off the path. 

Soon, visions were everywhere. Sage Darnel slithering out of a booth and grabbing him by the throat. His roommate’s corpse writhing on the ground, crying out, cursing him. He was already expecting Dr Eliot’s bloody appearance. Though she taunted him, he was familiar with this vision.  

Visions. That’s all they were. Unreal. Psychotic. 

The ground swallowed him up. The traffic of the passersby threaded around him—all at once, he knew every single one of them. Thaumaturges. Doctors. Aristocrats. The entire city of Artemisia was here on Earth, at this market, trampling him. His eyes squeezed shut. A hand lifted his chin towards the sky. 

He squinted painfully up into the sunlight. 

Queen Levana crouched over him, blood trickling down the tines of her crown and dripping off her lashes. 

Pebbles dug into his palms as he scampered away, but she made haste to follow.  

“Sir!” came from her mouth, unnaturally earnest from those smirking lips and ravenous eyes. “Sir, are you okay?” 

“Go–go away!” he shrieked. 

“Sir, what’s wrong? Do you need a doctor?” Do you have someone I can comm to get you? Children? A wife?” 

Logan scrambled to his feet and barrelled away from the queen. 

A wife. Yes, he had once almost had a wife. Steady hands calloused from digging into dirt. Teasing brown eyes. 

No…the woman he had almost married—what was her name?—she’d had blonde hair and grey eyes. Who was he thinking of? Who was he looking for?  

He was looking for…looking for… 

“Logan.” 

She stood amidst the crowd, ten paces away. Every shouting vendor and sizzling frypan silenced in the void. 

“Michelle,” he uttered. 

She was as young as she’d been when they met. Melting brown eyes. Lips beckoning him. 

Her smile was warm. “Come on, Logan. Let’s go home.” 

People swarmed around him. A woman blocked his view momentarily and once she passed on, Michelle had disappeared. 

His head whipped around frantically, searching for her in every direction. Her voice was ringing in his ears. “Michelle!” he shouted, blindly crashing into a fruit stand and hobbling away, completely unaware of the surprised gasps and curses chasing him. 

The visions transformed. Michelle’s redheaded granddaughter peering at him from a booth table. A boy tossing a ball at him, he recognised as the boy in the pictures on Michelle’s wall. The boy who looked so much like his own brother. 

Twisting and turning through lanes, only spotting glimpses of her hair and smile before they’d disappear again, his calves finally seized up. He folded over his knees, intaking needy breaths as his eyes scanned around desperately. 

They landed on a girl. 

Despite her decent height, she was obviously young. She stood behind a table in a shaded booth, tools splayed out before her. Grease was spotted over her exposed arms and gloves. She was staring in concentration at the body of a woman who lay on her table, limp and dull-eyed. Logan cringed as she reached a hand into the woman’s open stomach.  

Had he wandered into some illicit part of the market where someone would dissect a person so openly?  

It wasn’t until the girl tilted the body slightly that Logan saw her innards of cogs and wires. The body was an android. One of those escort droids, perhaps. 

The girl huffed, blowing miscreant hair from her brow, and looked up. 

At first, she darted her gaze away upon noticing being observed, tugging her left glove higher up her wrist. But then a flash of curiosity caught her face, and she returned to him. 

Confusion. Something else. Recognition? 

Logan wondered if she would be able to help him with his search. She looked kind. Trustworthy. He needed help to find… 

“Logan.” 

Michelle smiled down at him. She appeared this time, not as her younger self, but as he’d last seen her. Greying hair, smile lines and jowling more beautiful than ever. The same spirit and open hands, a magnetism drawing him to her. 

“It’s time to come home, Logan,” she said, eyes twinkling. 

“Not yet,” he spluttered, “I have to find someone. I have to tell…” 

She shook her head in amusement, turning and gesturing to him to follow. “You already found me.” 

“I—” 

She was gone. He couldn’t pinpoint the moment she was there and the moment she wasn’t, but he knew she had been there. That was she out there somewhere, waiting for him. 

Sweet, Michelle-flavoured adrenaline pumped through his veins. He always wanted to find her. After nearly forty years, she was still the only one to have truly owned his heart. He needed to find her and tell her… 

He staggered to his feet. He wasn’t supposed to be here. There was nothing for him here. His gaze again caught on the young girl in the booth. Shoulders set in a hesitant confidence. Brown eyes—cautiously curious.  

His feet willed him away on their own towards the bright sunlight. 

“Logan,” the voice called again, sweet as a dragon fruit tartlet. One he could almost taste as his dry lips formed around her name.  

No, he wasn’t looking for that girl. He was looking for Michelle. 

———

“I hope you’ll meet him someday. Tell him hello for me. Tell him good-bye.” 

———

Notes

Tu me cherchais? = Were you looking for me?

I am aware that I am delusional and no one else is as invested in them as I am.

Fun bit of impossiblesuitcase trivia--the hair cutting scene is actually a deleted scene from my Cut, Comb, Detangle, Repeat series! I think probably only one person remembers that series 😂

Eagle-eyed readers may be able to notice which escort droid Cinder is working on 👀

@cindersassasin @hayleblackburn @spherical-empirical @salt-warrior @just2bubbly @gingerale2017 @slmkaider @luna-maximoff-22 @kaixiety @snozkat @mirrorballsss @skinwitch18 @bakergirl13 @cyborgcourt @linh-cindy @therealkaidertrash21

[biblical-chronicles]

Cheer up

__________________________________________

where Liam makes sure the reader doesn't spend NYE alone and sick

__________________________________________

The knock at the door wasn’t just unexpected—it was downright odd. You frowned, tugging your blanket tighter around yourself as you shuffled to answer it. You weren’t expecting anyone, and definitely not on New Year’s Eve. Everyone else had plans that didn’t involve sitting at home nursing a rubbish cold.

When you cracked the door open, there he was, Liam standing on your doorstep with a plastic shopping bag dangling from one hand. His grin was as cheeky as ever, and he looked quite lively, even in the bitter cold.

“Alright, love?” he said casually, like this was a completely normal thing to do.

“Liam?” you blinked, utterly baffled. “What the hell are you doing here? I told you I wasn’t coming tonight—I’m sick, remember? And shouldn’t you be at the party? Pretty sure that’s more your thing than… this.”

He didn’t wait for an invite, just strolled in like he owned the place, plonking the bag onto your counter. “Yeah, yeah, heard all that,” he said, rooting around in the bag. “But I figured you might cheer up when you see this.”

With a flourish, he pulled out a bottle of wine, holding it up like a trophy.

You stared at him, unimpressed. “You brought wine? Liam, I’ve been sneezing me head off all day, and you want me to drink wine?”

“Exactly,” he said, completely serious. “Kills the germs, don’t it? Wine’s medicinal.”

You snorted, despite yourself. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.”

“Course it is,” he shot back, leaning on the counter with that insufferable smirk that always made it hard to stay annoyed at him. “Besides, I didn’t come here to drag you out. Just wanted to check on you, make sure you weren’t sat here wallowin’ or summat.”

You folded your arms, though the warmth in your chest was harder to ignore now. “So, what? You decided to ditch a perfectly good party to babysit me?”

“Babysit?” he echoed, mock offended. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m just makin’ sure you’re alright, that’s all. You know I can’t leave you hangin’ love.”

You rolled your eyes but couldn’t fight the small smile creeping onto your face. “You’re ridiculous. Fine, stay in here. But if you catch this cough and start whingin’ tomorrow, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Deal,” he said, already kicking off his boots and making himself at home on your couch.

A little while later, you were both settled in. The wine was open, glasses poured, and somehow, the mood had shifted into something easy and light. Liam had a way of doing that—making you forget yourself, forget the rubbish day you’d had, just by being his usual self. He was full of stories tonight, half of them ridiculous, the other half even more ridiculous. You found yourself laughing, your cheeks hurting from it, and for the first time all day, you felt properly warm.

“Thanks for this, by the way,” you said, swirling the wine in your glass. “For coming over, I mean. Sorry if I’ve ruined your night, though.”

“Ruin it?” he said, eyebrows raised. “Are you daft? This is bang on, this. Couldn’t think of a better way to spend it, to be honest.”

You looked at him, taken aback by how genuine he sounded. For all his attitude, there were moments like this when Liam’s softer side slipped through, catching you completely off guard.

“Oi,” he said suddenly, breaking the silence and jolting you out of your thoughts. “You know there’s only twenty minutes left till midnight, right? If we’re watchin’ them fireworks, you’d better get your arse in gear. Can’t have you standin’ out there in a blanket, can we?”

You blinked, momentarily thrown by the change in topic. “Wait, you actually want to go outside? In the cold?”

He grinned, already grabbing his coat. “Damn right I do. Fireworks aren’t gonna watch themselves, are they? Now, get a move on, woman, or we’ll miss the lot.”

His grin was infectious, and despite everything you couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright, alright, I’m going,” you said, tossing the blanket aside and grabbing your jacket.

Once you were bundled up, Liam gave you a quick once-over, frowning. “Oi, where’s your scarf?”

You waved him off. “It’s fine, Liam. We’re just stepping out for a bit. I’ll survive.”

“Nah, nah,” he said, already unwrapping his own from around his neck. “No way you’re goin’ out there without one. You’re already ill—you’ll end up worse, and I’ll be stuck listenin’ to you complain for a week.”

“I wouldn’t—”

“Shut it,” he interrupted, stepping closer and looping the scarf around your neck. His hands lingered a little too long while adjusting the fabric, his knuckles brushing against your skin.

“There,” he murmured, stepping back slightly but still close enough to look into your eyes. His expression softened, his gaze searching yours as if he’d only just realized how close you were.

You couldn’t help it—your cheeks flushed, the moment growing heavier. The air between you shifted, and before you knew it, his eyes flicked down to your lips. His touch still lingered on the scarf, and your breath hitched, wondering if he was about to close the distance.

Then, suddenly, a loud bang cut through the silence, a firework going off prematurely somewhere in the neighborhood. You both jolted apart, startled, the tension dissolving as you laughed nervously.

“Bloody knobheads, settin’ ‘em off early,” Liam muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yeah,” you agreed, not trusting yourself to say more. Without addressing what had almost happened, you opened the door and led the way outside.

You both found a bench in the garden with a clear view of the skyline. Liam pulled out a pack of cigarettes, tapping one out and holding it up in offering.

“Fancy one?” he asked.

You hesitated a second before taking it. “Why not? New Year’s Eve, after all.”

He lit his with a practiced flick of his lighter, inhaling deeply before leaning toward you. You brought your cigarette to meet his, the glowing tips touching as he helped you light it. For a brief moment, your eyes locked again, his face illuminated by the ember’s soft glow.

This time, it was harder to look away, but you forced yourself to lean back and take a drag, exhaling slowly into the cold night air. The silence between you felt companionable, as you both smoked and stared out at the lively city.

After a moment, you turned toward him, wrapping your arms around him in a tight hug.

“Sorry,” you murmured against his shoulder, “for being such a broken record about this. But thank you, Liam. Really. You have no idea how much this means to me. You mean so much to me.”

When you pulled back, his face was flushed, his expression uncharacteristically shy. “It’s no problem,” he said, his voice quieter than usual. “Like I said, I'd always choose you over some daft party I can throw any week.”

The words made your heart stutter, but before you could reply, he shifted slightly, meeting your eyes.

“You know I will, right?” he said, his voice steadier now. “Always choose you, no matter what. I’ve always cared about you, more than I probably should’ve as a friend.” He paused, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t want this to sound too clichè or whatever, but… you’re the one person I’d drop everything for. Always have been.”

You stared at him, a wide, disbelieving smile spreading across your face as his words sank in.

“God, you idiot,” you said softly, shaking your head in wonder.

He opened his mouth to reply, but the sound of fireworks starting to explode in the distance made you both glance toward the skyline.

The colors lit up the sky, and without thinking, you turned back to him, grabbing his jacket and pulling him close. Before he could say anything else, you pressed your lips to his in a kiss so full of passion and relief it made your head spin.

The fireworks grew louder, the explosions echoing across the city, but all you could focus on was him—his warmth, his hands on your waist, the way he kissed you back like it was the only thing he wanted in the world.

__________________________________________

I hope it's good enough for all of you loves

cutesy request curtesy of @avxoxo1 I hope you enjoy it x

and, sorry if it’s a bit shite this time, but swear down that New Year’s bender proper did me in. Promise I’ll be back to rights and writin’ better stuff tomorrow, me loves xx

sorry again x

[stubz]

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" whispered the Beerix.

"Your communicator doesn't have service on Earth and my phone is dead. I need to charge it somewhere and this is the closest place that won't ID us." the human looked through the window into the crowded pub searching for an outlet.

"Just...hood up, hat pulled down, and stay close to me." she whispered as they reached the front of line.

"How do you know they won't ID us-?"

"Two people? Alright, come on in!" smiles the doorman.

The human and beerix walk in and are hit with body heat, loud music, dozens of loud voices, and a wave of bodies.

"Told you, now come on, there's an outlet over there."

Pushing and shoving their way through the crow the duo makes it to the back of the pub where a table and some stools are. Quickly the human takes out a charger and plugs in her phone.

"Great, now we just need to wait."

"For how long?"

"At least 10 minutes so we'll make it to the nearest base."

"I hate it here. It's loud and...smelly." wrinkles the beerix's snout.

"I know...here I'll buy you something to eat. Want a drink too?"

"...fine. Just be quick."

"Alright, remember, hoo-"

"Hood up, hat pulled down, yeah yeah I know Kim, you only told me a hundred times tonight."

"...sorry, I'll get you that food and drink!"

He watched as his friend disappeared into the crowd and huddled into chair. Every couple of seconds he checked the phone hoping that'd it'd miraculously be fully charged so they could go.

"Come to Earth they said, it'll be fun they said...why couldn't we just have stayed on the ship and go to the new year's party like usual?"

"Excuse me mate? Can we sit here?" he whipped his head up to see three humans standing before him.

"Uh..."

"It's just that there's no where ta sit and it looks like it's just you and friend so could we?"

"...sure." he forced out knowing it'd draw more attention to say no and that more people would just ask this very same question later.

"Thanks mate! I'm Arty, this is Celia, and this is Sean. What's your name?"

"...Quip."

"I love that name! And your hat! It's so gorgeous, where'd you buy it?"

"Oh my god Celia look at his eyes! They're shiny like...like flashlights."

"Don't mind them, they're a bit drunk right now." Laughed Arty.

"No worries..."

"Real nice hat though, never seen a design like before."

"Thanks...it's foreign."

"From where???" lean in the two Irish.

"Knock it off you two or I'll knock some sense into you."

"I...it's from..."

"Sweden! Hi nice to meet you, I'm Kim. Got you fries and a Guinness." she slides over to her friend.

"Oh lovely choice! They got great Guinness here!"

"I know, got one for myself."

The three Irish began to talk amongst themselves while Quip grabbed the attention of his friend and crewmate.

"We gotta go, now." he hissed.

"We can't until finishing our food and drinks, leaving without doing so would raise suspicion." she whispers back smiling at the three other humans.

"Two of them are drunk and the sober one wouldn't care."

"Maybe or maybe he would since as the only sober one he's on high alert right now. Besides I only have 8%. We need to wait now drink your Guinness and eat your fries."

"...you didn't even get one of those tiny drinks I like."

"Those are shots and this will last longer and tastes better."

"Better..."

[Four Guinness later]

"HE WAS A SKATER BOY SHE SAID SEE YOU LATER BOY, HE WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR HER!

SHE HAD A PRETTY FACE BUT HER HEAD WAS UP IN SPACE, SHE NEEDED TO COME BACK TO EAARRTH!!" screamed Quip, Celia and Sean, the three drunkenly dancing and singing to the song playing in the pub. Somehow Quip's hat ended up on Celia along with his hood on Sean, his pointed ears, snout and grey skin out for everyone to see.

"I can't believe how good your friend's cosplay is."

"I know...he loves Dragon Ball." smiles Kim thankful that Celia thought Quip said he was Beerus instead of Beerix.

"Yeah killer Beerus cosplay, too bad he couldn't get purple paint though."

"MATE HOW DO YOU NOT KNUR DIS ONE?!"

"I KNOW IT NOW!"

"OI SHUDDUP IT'S THE BESHT PART!"

"CAUSE I'M JUST A TEENAGE DIRTBAG BABY! YEAH I'M JUST A TEENAGE DIRTBAG BABY! LISTEN TO IRON MAIDEN BABY!!"

Kim laughed as she watched her friend continue to poorly sing to the songs her and most of everyone else here grew up with.

"Quip! Quip! it's time to go!"

"Don't wanna! It's fun here!"

"Quip, Kal and Glip are probably worried about you! My phone is charged up, let's go!"

"Nooo!"

"Aw listen, listen to your friend mate, gotta get home to your family..."

"Yeah, don't wanna worry 'em. My girlfriend would call tha police if I didn't check in with her..."

After some more coaxing from Sean and Celia, Quip finally gave in and followed Kim out of the pub.

A phone call and bus ride later the two were soon reunited with the rest of their crew and soon went back to their ship.

Tomorrow Quip will be banned from drinking for 3 months by his partners and the Captain as he was trending on social media due to Celia and Sean posting the selfies and videos they took with him...which he drunkenly agreed to while his hat and hood were down.

For the rest of the month #IrishBeerus was a popular post.

[blueishspace]

Hero, Villain God 43

(Prev) (Next) (First)

*Grian's (Mother Spore) pov*

You think you gained some kind of understanding of what they are talking about trough just context clues. They talk about it like It's common knowledge so you have to guess on what they are discussing.

In short these guys want to fight this weird egg themed cult., the villains all seem to dislike the egg cult people for some reason....It's just...a whole lot of missing information they aren't sharing.

You do try to think about who this egg could be... The blood god would never stoop so low as to take the shape of an egg, neither would Exor or Shad... You come up empty, either this egg tging isn't actually a god or it must be one you never really cared about knowing in the past, either way you don't see why everyone hates these people.

Now, you thought it was time for the plan to be explained but no, of course not. Despite everyone having shared how much they hate this egg they still need to discuss payments and favours and other stuff that doesn't matter. You get it, humans are greedy or whatever but come on! You thought this was going to be fun! And you can't even lament about it vocally because Mother Spore is supposed to be silent and mysterious. Xonorth though...he's the worst offender, while the others take little time to convince he just keeps wanting more.

At least the whole stealth operation with Poultryman is just about to start, at least.

*Grian's (Poultryman) pov*

Flame motions towards you and the other two, he points to the ground and you land, you aren't at Las Nevadas yet but you are close.

"Does everyone remember the plan?"

...

You raise your hand. "I wasn't told anything."

"Right, I knew I was forgetting something. We aren't going to just walk in the casino. That's stupid."

You expected that, from what you have seen as Mother Spore the main entrance is under close surveilance.

"I came up with the plan!" Worm man shouts before Seraphin places his hands on his mouth.

"Yes you did. We are going to go through the vents, they aren't big so we'll have to crawl..."

"Hmpfffg"

"... Seraphin, let him go."

You feel a bit like a fourth wheel.

...

Wait they want you to crawl in what now?

"Why the vents"

"Easier, plus we get to listenificate in to the meeting."

"That's... alright."

"Well then, let's go!"

*Grian's pov*

After the last movie's credits Scar suddenly got a message and excused himself for a few minutes.

As soon as came back he started saying you had to go and make excuses for the two of you two leave early, Pearl sent you a look but didn't say anything...You decided to not fight it, you were sure he had his reasons, so with Pearl and the others waving you away the two of you quickly gathered your belongings and left in a hurry.

As soon as you leave the apartment he quite literally deflates and his smile wavers.

"Scar, what was that abou-"

"Not here! Just...let's get somewhere else first!"

He's desperate and flustered and something is definitely up.

"... o ... k?"

And so you let him lead you to an empty street and wait for him to check around for anyone that might be near.

"So?"

"The association wants Hotguy and Cuteguy...now"

Huh that's unexpected, what could it possibly be for? You hope It's not near Las Nevadas.

" . . . Why?"

"Someone saw Poultryman, Flame, Seraphin and Worm man near Las Nevadas. They sent us both to catch them"

Oh this is ... Of course It's Las Nevadas, you shouldn't have hoped. You are going to fight yourself fighting yourself, that's going to be something... You do wonder how you were seen at all though, you were sure Flame and the others had been extremely careful about not being seen.

Wait one moment, what does he mean they want Cuteguy??? You aren't even allowed to go out as Cuteguy!

"I thought I wasn't allowed to go out as Cute guy yet"

"I thought so too... They didn't really explain what changed, that just said that things have changed"

"Well then we have no time to waste do we?"

"No...no we don't."

...Wait.

"Weren't they supposed to give me like...a hero outfit or something?"

"Cub is working on one but it's not ready since you weren't...supposed to go out this soon."

"And I'm guessing It's not going to be done in a short amount of time"

"Probably not..."

"Great... We'll have to put something together in- ... how long until we have to leave?"

"Half an hour, at most."

That's literally nothing, were you a mortal and this would have become a disaster. The hero association should have circus music as their theme song.

"I'll figure it out just... go back to the tower and get your stuff together and we meet up back in half an hour"

[sloaneloise]

"Suppose that makes it a lot easier when you go from one kind of cold to just another place of cold." At least she figured the transition was easier, where as she had to admit, she had forgotten how cold it could get in Merrock locally. Still, she would say, she appreciated the weather a lot more than just pure heat that sometimes Arizona could bring where it felt like you were roasting even in the winter time. "They do love to put on a good appearance for the holidays but I think that's why I love it so much. Think once the fall weather started I had been counting down to all of this." Gesturing around, it had been years since she was able to enjoy any of this. Sure, other places decorated for the holidays but it wasn't the same when it was borderline tropical trees compared to actual pine trees and that familiar feeling of holiday. "Oh good, I'm really glad about that, because I would be kind of worried." That was the inner medical professional in her, "Don't want you guys sending anyone my way with frostbitten fingers and toes." That was definitely something she could put on the list of did not want. "Plus I'm sure there's a peace to knowing who is out there wandering around then wondering if someone is just out there waiting to be rescued." While she worked in a high pressured job, in a way, so did Jason. "Has anyone ever snuck by not checking in? Think that would be my nightmare right there this time of year." When he said that he had left the moment he turned eighteen, "Admirable, you know, your service. I can't speak to any of that but I've had friends who joined the military when I moved down south." A lot of men and women often went that way to have education paid for. "So what, almost two years back then?" She knew that he had been in the same class as Kellan, at least she vaguely remembered that.

"It's just one cold to another cold," he said with a smile. But it did make life easier; Jason had arrived with his entire life in his camper, and thankfully that life was made up of warm coats and sweaters, so that he hadn't had to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe when the winter rolled in that first year. Now, he just felt like an old pro, although he had slipped back into that feeling pretty easily from what he remembered of living in town before. Funny how that works. "No, they're pretty upfront about it," he agreed with a light laugh, glancing around the park. Sure, Maine had warm summers and beautiful beaches, but most people thought of Christmas and winter and snow and ice. Beautiful, but definitely the epitome of winter when the season rolled around. "They do, actually. Now, anyway. Once we get the first major snow fall and temperatures dip below a certain point, we require all hikers to check in with the front desk and show us that they have the proper equipment." Thankfully, it cut back on how many unnecessary rescues they had to do, kept them aware of who did and did not return at the end of the day. Just in case he did have to step in to be the hero -- not that he wanted to in mid-December on trails covered in ice and snow. "I know what you mean," he agreed, letting his breath out through his nostrils. "Since I was eighteen, yeah," he stepped carefully down the path, keeping his eyes on the light displays as he talked. "Hit the ground running and just never looked back. Did the Army route for a while, then lived and worked in the parks, came back before my fortieth."