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bloop-bl00p · 4 months ago

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So there’s Voodoo but no Lwas?

Before everyone decides to jump me just know that I’m black, I grew up in a very Catholic environment and my grandparents implemented African traditions to worship God. Throughout the years of my dear old childhood, I also witnessed cults and beliefs outside of Christianity and know briefly of a few African Deities, spirits, syren, and many more.

So I can talk about voodoo, I still tried to do as much research as possible, and if someone sees any mistakes in what I say I apologize, be polite when pointing it out to me and I’ll modify it.

So here’s the first thing I want to address…

White people can do voodoo… what? You don’t believe me, here…

It’s been done since the 19th in New Orleans and whoever can worship is a much more nuanced issue.

You see in voodoo, there are these things called Houses (Humfo). It’s a temple where a community of people worship diverse Lwa and are led by a priest or priestess.

It’s a closed religion which means that you have to ask before entering one House. Some may refuse you because you have European ancestry, and I won’t lie Voodoo is mainly dominated by people with African origins due to its roots. You still could eventually find a house that’ll accept you but you can’t randomly start on your own without going through the process of initiation. Don’t mess with African spirits or spirits in general, voodoo is a group activity for a reason.

Now that all of this is cleared I want us all to come to one conclusion. Voodoo is only and ONLY for the people who will respect it. This applies to all religions.

And to writers.

Write about what you know and if you don’t know something research it! Don’t stop at Wikipedia, go on other sites, see documentaries or videos, and get books from the nearest library. Maybe you know someone who is more experienced in the subject you’re trying to write about?! I know it can be a long boring and annoying process, but sweetheart who told you writing respectfully about a preexistent thing was easy? If you’re unable to sit and open Google for research then don’t write about it!

Now that we all agree on something, do these scream respectful representation to you?

[“I care about representation!” Sure Viv, we believe you.]

Okay, voodoo dolls aren’t used for harm. That’s a myth from Pop Culture and Hollywood and it’s one of those examples of African religion being deemed as malevolent by popular media. Thank you Vivziepop for contributing to the stereotype, a big thanks. 🙂

Seriously, the usual voodoo dolls we see in media are usually tourist traps sold in New Orleans but aren't used by actual practitioners. But, there’s a thing called fetish or bocio, usually, those are figurines made of wood and hung on the tree in front of cemeteries to maintain a spiritual communication between the deceased and the living.

From a personal experience, when I was like 10 or 11 my parents saw safou (African fruit) growing near a restaurant, and the owner said to not get too close as fetishes were hung to avoid people from stealing the fruits. So it also has a protection function.

But I’m not here to talk about my childhood, see I mentioned something called Lwa, let’s see what those are.

Voodoo is a monotheistic religion, it teaches that Bondye [Bon Dieu in French literally Good God] is the supreme creator of this universe mirroring him to the Christian God. But he has no evil counterparts so no Satan or Lucifer.

Bondye is disinterested in humanity and innacesbile to us, but he still keeps tabs through the Lwas giving a polytheistic aspect of the religion. People pray to them and give specific offerings depending on which Lwas they want to please.

They also can communicate with us through dreams and possessions. All Lwas have multiple domains of expertise and if you want something specific you’ll have to call a specific Lwa.

Each Lwa has a symbol related to them they are called Veve. It helps them manifest in the physical world, offerings, sacrifices, foods, and drinks are placed upon them.

“Where are you going with all of these informations?”

Here are the symbols that appear every time Alastor gets spooky or threatens someone.

These symbols alone don't mean anything but they are drawings that can appear in multiple veve. Veves are usually much more detailed and they used complete ones with little simplification in the Pilot, since it’s still canon I’m counting it…

My little theory is that if they decided to simply it is because the animators were already suffering so they lifted up the pain by sparing a lot of details. I mean they used the complete symbols for trading cards.

With all of these it is natural for me to come to the conclusion that to get his powers Alastor calls on the Lwas that grant these extremely powerful ✨tentacles✨, weird red gremlins voodoo dolls thingies, deals-making abilities, and probably other things we haven’t seen yet.

Which means that Bondye exists—

“Th3r'$ n0 God in HH. 🤓☝️”

Sure I can work with that, the Lwas exist and are independent, I guess Viv still has creative liberties.

Since Alastor depends on them that means that he chooses specific spirits to gain the specific power that he has, so I decided to search for a few symbols that have a resemblance to the one of Alastor and we’re gonna test Viv's ability to make something consistent.

A rant about Alastor’s power:

Obliviously they are not all of the symbols in correlation with the one in Hazbin Hotel. I just took these to showcase something fascinating with Viv’s writing style.

1. Marassa-Dossou-Dossa:

They are androgynous twins. They represent the power and purity of children, families, and procreation alongside benediction, love, justice, and innocence. They are children, usually, you can offer them candies, drinks, or banana leaves. They are summoned at the beginning of each ceremony after Legba to signify their importance in the religion.

The Marassa are extremely powerful despite being represented as kids. They usually help people who have issues with getting a child or other important aspects like the death of a newborn. While they are mostly nice and all, they are responsible for bad luck and bring sickness when not correctly served or forgotten.

2. Damballa:

He is one of the Loa who helped Bondnye when making the cosmos and, you can imagine, a very important figure.

Damballa is represented by a giant snake and is often associated with St Patrick's. He is the keeper of knowledge, wisdom, and healing magic representing the symbol of life, peace, purity, and goodness. His partner is Ayida-Weddo who forms rainbows, together they use the same Veve.

They are extremely strict with rules regarding their ceremonies. Everyone needs to be dressed in freshly cleaned clothing, women need to wear a white headscarf made of silk. Alcohol, nicotine, and else are forbidden when calling upon him.

Damballa doesn't have legs, so during the possession, the possessed will fall and wiggle on the ground like a snake and sometimes hiss.

3. Le Baron Samedi:

He’s the spirit of the dead, resurrection, and the giver of life, it’s him you need to call if you wanna get in touch with your ancestors. He avenges the souls of the dead (witches, those who were wronged, etc, …)

Le Baron Samedi will heal your wounds if you’re willing to pay back, while it’s not his only ability the rest may be considered sinister since he’s a master of black magic and curses. If someone sends you a hex that brings death so long as Le Baron doesn't let you, you won’t die. Oh and you see the Christian Cross, it’s also his symbol.

Le Baron can manifest himself in our physical realm through specific rituals I won’t bother to describe how he presents himself just search his name on Google and look at the image. Despite being married to Maman Brigitte, he is still known for cheating. He’s also openly lewd quick to swear and likes to mess with people with a big ego.

Usually, his followers can be seen wearing black and purple as he favors these colors but it’s not obligatory.

4. Ayizan:

She’s a sweet grandma and protector of commerce. You can see her with a white dress and deep pockets buying groceries in local markets, and she gives candies to children and people who are respectful.

She’s associated with the rites of initiation in the religion, which is a ritual or ceremony to signify when someone passes from one group to another it implies a change of status in the society. (ex: passage of child to adult)

She’s a typical priestess and knows of the many wisdom and mysteries regarding initiation and the natural world. She’s one of the greatest healers of the pantheon and while she doesn't heal physical wounds, she heals psychically offering health.

5. Papa Legba:

He’s the spirit of crossroads, both metaphorical and literally. It’s symbolizes choices and opportunities. He’s also the intermediate between men and the spirit world people said he’s always in front of Houses. Papa Legba is invoked at the beginning of ceremonies to open the way for communication with other sprites and deities. While he’s mostly benevolent, he can be stern and enforce spiritual rules.

Some may also depict him as a fertility God, a tricker, or a protector of children. In Haiti, he facilitates communication, speech, and understanding. Children like him and he’s often asked to babysit.

He’s associated with Saint Peter since this figure also has keys that grant access to an afterlife.

Debrief:

With all of this informations, we can all agree that none of these spirits works with Alastor as there’s mainly associated with what we could consider a positive aspect of spirituality. Alastor isn't really an example of purity, goodness, and else. Plus his powers have no links to any of the–

“But there’s Le Baron Samedi, he does Black Magic.”

That’s true and he’s actually the only Lwa from my list who could potentially work with Al but there are a few issues. Le Baron Samedi messes with people with a big ego, even if Al decided to work with him it would be quite complicated. Add to that Alastor's respect for women, I don’t think he’ll like to work with someone who cheats on his wife.

But let’s actually think of the potential here, making him a tangible entity Alastor could speak to, would have led to interesting character dynamics with Le Baron mocking Alastor and making him rethink his decision every time he tries and acts selfishly. Le Baron Samedi could have been the one slapping Mister Deer Boy to reality.

Personally, I think it would have been cool to add hints of the partnership by making Alastor’s suit black or giving him purple accessories but Viv's palette of colors is unfortunately very limited to the same shade of red.

“You only listen to 5 deities that appear to be popular, maybe somewhere there’s actually a Lwa that is working with Alastor and you simply didn't choose to show it to us.”

There’s actually one spirit I can think of. Bakoulou Baka, I did not find pictures of his veve unfortunately.

What I can say about him is that he grants powers and wealth. But since he’s associated with dark energy, those things are finite and you’re royally fucked if you don’t repay him in time. He is so evil that people are scared of calling upon him.

Baka in general is a term used to refer to spirits willing to deal with very powerful sorcerers. They pretty much will do anything only if the price is right, they are malevolent spirits who’ll turn on you if you don't do your part of the deal.

Alastor was mentioned to be stuck in a deal, it would be a great twist if the one who got him in this situation was an Evil Lwa he underestimated and failed to repay when he was alive. But we know Vivziepop that won’t be the case.

“You’re too harsh on her those will be obliviously mentioned in season 2.”

Think back to all of the things I said in this post, the different terms like House, initiation, Lwa even the word Voodoo itself, are they even mentioned ONCE in the show? Did Vivziepop make an effort in the FOUR YEARS of production to include them? Did she make the slightest bit of effort to make sure that the new audience knows that Alastor practices voodoo?!! Even by watching the pilot you can’t tell it’s mentioned once fastly by Charlie AS A JOKE.

“IT’$ h@rD t0 Do that.”

Yeah, writing is hard you have to deal with it. And be for real, there’s a scene where Vaggie enters Alastor’s room and sees him eating a deer, rather than see him in the middle of breakfast that could have gone like that:

“What the hell are you going?

– Just a few offerings to keep the Lwas happy.”

Smart people would have been like “What What the hell is a Lwa?” They would have searched it on Google, and Bam people know Al does voodoo.

“But th3 szeN3 w@s to sh0w h3 was a canibal.”

We’re talking of the same guy whose bestie is the cannibal queen, when Rosie proposed fingers to Charlie he could have accepted it. Good now the audience knows he’s a cannibal too, yay!

Religion is an important aspect of characters as it explains most of their behavior. That’s the type of thing you introduce in the first seasons then expand on the second.

And we’re talking of the same show where Husk looked at the screen and told us each of the main character archetypes. I’m surprised Alastor hasn't been called Voodoo Man or something.

I thought of those rewritten scenes in the span of two minutes and you’re telling me Viv couldn't in four years?!

“But HH is b@seD 0n B|blic@l t3xt. Voodoo |s DifeREnt. 🤓☝️”

Are you aware Voodoo is essentially a very big salad of multiple beliefs mixed together rights? You know that one of them is Christianity right?! Some Lwas are associated with Saint, so nothing prevented Viv from making a new class in Heaven called Lwa whose job is to assist the Saints in their task.

When Charlie and Vaggie presented themselves in front of the gates, Saint Peter could have been the one holding the keys and Papa Legba would have been the one reading the book to know who was entering or not.

With the bare minimum in terms of research (1 week), I managed to think of quick easy but effective ways to implement voodoo in the Hellaverse in the span of 2 poor minutes. So why can’t Vivziepop do this when she had FOUR YEARS?!!

Or maybe it’s just that… she doesn't care.

She doesn't care

You need to have a very VERY blatant lack of care for the source material to present voodoo the way Vivziepop did it. Every time the veve appears around Alastor it’s to communicate one thing danger and threat, it’s a harmful stereotype that needs to end people pointed it out she refused to listen.

And it’s because of this lack of respect that bullshit like these happen in her fandom.

Alongside this, you can count the many comics of Alastor using voodoo dolls to hurt/control someone. I’m not blaming any of these fans, I’m blaming Vivienne Medrano for feeding such harmful ideas about the community and not making it clear enough that those symbols are part of a rich culture that people hold dear to their hearts and NOT A FUCKING AESTHETIC

You want an actual example of respect for foreign beliefs?

In the movie Exhuma, the main characters are a shaman and a geomancer, obliviously those who worked on the movie took creative liberties regarding shamanism in Koran culture BUT they actually called a Shaman. There’s a scene where one of the main characters is supposed to do rituals, the actors learn an actual choreography and do it as accurately as possible the shaman was there to supervise everything from beginning to ends.

All I’m asking is for Vivziepop to open Google and do a deep dive. It’s like a school presentation, you sacrifice at least 2 or 3 hours of your days to research your subject, and she had 4 years to do that a little bit of everyday.

Noo it’s too complicated apparently and come on look at these beautiful veve! It’s edgy if I draw them with red on a dark background they look EeViiiIil.

I said it I said it again, if you’re not willing to research as much information about a preexisting subject.

Don’t write about it.

If you don’t have a little bit amount of respect for a religion and care about representing them properly.

Don’t write about it.

Don’t be like Vivziepop.

#anti vivziepop #hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel criticism #vivziepop critical #vivziepop criticism #vivziepop critique #hazbin hotel critique

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soobnny · 1 year ago

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swipe — lee felix.

trope. lee felix. strangers to lovers. chronicles of a dating app. felix is extremely flirty. just fluff.

synopsis. i’m not looking to date right now, but my parents just sent me some computer parts and i saw on your tinder bio that you like assembling computers

word count. 3.2k words

warnings. none except for a few curse words

note. hi hello i got sent this rly funny photo of a conversation so i took inspiration from that and wrote this fic like a whiiile ago. i’ve had this in my drafts for a while so why not let it see the light of day!

Left. Left. Left. Left. Pause. Left. Left. Left. Left.

“(Name)!”

Yunjin offers no warning when her hands move to claw at your shoulders, intent on startling you without sparing a thought on your poor phone that had jumped out of your hands.

When you scare, she laughs, open-mouthed and loud as she plops herself on the spot next to you on your dorm’s mini couch. “You should’ve seen the look on your face.”

“Honestly, how do you even do that? I barely heard you walk into the living room!” You grumble.

You spare her a glance and notice she’s too dressed up to be staying the night in–white crop top that sits just above her hips with some low rise jeans to accentuate her features. Her hair is curled on the ends, recently dyed black and styled to look a little messy.

She must be going out.

Though you try not to think about it, the amount of times Yunjin goes out with her friends in a week is a constant reminder of how pathetic your social life is. While it didn’t quite bother you enough to accept her invite, it’d be nice to leave your dorm once in a while. It’s just that you haven’t found anyone you really clicked with like Yunjin.

“What are you doing?” She cranes her neck to try and see what you were so busy with that you didn’t see her from your peripheral vision.

You show her the app with no shame. It only makes her laugh tenfold, hands clutching her stomach with her head thrown back as if she wasn’t the one who had suggested you download it in the first place.

“Yunjin, this is stupid. I’ve only had this downloaded for a day and I already feel sick.” You groan, throwing your phone down in the space between you. Though, maybe you should’ve thought twice about that when Yunjin decides to grab so she can have a go herself – swiping left and left and left and… oh?

“What about him?” You curl into her side, peering over your phone.

Oh, he’s pretty cute. Lee Felix?

“He added dog lover. You love dogs and… music?” She goes over his interests quickly, eyes scanning his profile like a pro. You suppose it’s because she’s used to it, quick to read a guy’s intentions just by their Tinder profile.

“I like assembling computers. Oh, this guy’s a dork, you’d love him.”

Right.

It’s a match!

“Yunjin!” You shift in your seat, immediately grabbing your phone from her grip before she can do any further damage. Sure, you had humored yourself into downloading the app for Yunjin but you never thought of actually swiping right for anyone.

“What? He’s cute, and you matched!” She giggles, trying to grab your phone back so she can craft you the perfect first message.

She knows you won’t do it yourself.

You lock your phone before she has a chance to do anything stupid, shaking your head in reprimand. “I know what you’re trying to do and it’s not happening.”

She simply smiles at you, shrugging her shoulders and calling it a day for her trial in meddling with your love life. “Well, I tried. Alright, I have to go. I’ll be back late, you sure you don’t wanna come with?”

You return the smile, shaking your head as you drop yourself to lay down on the entirety of the couch once your roommate gets up. “I think my computer parts are coming in today so I have to be here to sign off the delivery.”

“Nerd.” She snorts, waving you goodbye and locking the door behind her. It’s your cue to grab your laptop and continue binging that new drama that had just been released.

This is your ordinary Friday night, curled up on the sofa with your most comfortable blanket and your laptop on your lap. Despite the desire to socialize sometimes, you think nothing else really goes above wearing your favorite PJs and eating snacks without guilt as the opening song of your new drama plays.

Though, you only get to finish one episode when your doorbell rings, and you waltz yourself to your front door to happily accept the package sent by your parents. They had won it as one of the raffle prizes in a foreign business trip, and since your parents had no use for a computer, they decided to ship it off to you. “Could help with college,” is what your dad says.

It’s only when multiple boxes come rolling in when you realize one small problem. You don’t know how to fucking assemble a computer, and you doubt Yunjin would know how either.

“That’s it. If you could please sign here, here, and here.” The mailman still sounds enthusiastic despite having done hours of his shift already, and you comply immediately as to not add on to the downpour of stress that’s handed to them every single day.

When you shut your door, you quickly turn around to stare at the multitude of boxes on the ground. Maybe Beomgyu would know how? He looks like he’d know a thing or two about computers. So, you shoot him a text.

Turns out, he doesn’t know how. And he’s currently scamming Yeonjun out of a free dinner, and so even though he tells you he’ll try to be there, you know he probably won’t arrive (unless to laugh at your situation).

You think, maybe you can just go to the Computer Engineering department and ask someone to help you, but could you risk socializing with numerous college students face to face? Absolutely the fuck not.

You’ve just about given up when your head strikes an idea and your back immediately straightens in posture at the stupid thought. “Should I?”

You rush towards where you had left your phone, letting out a sigh as you stare at the one person on your Match list. Lee Felix who likes assembling computers.

Lovely fucking timing.

Fumbling with the device, you finally decide to shoot him a message. What are the odds of him responding, anyway?

You’re tempted to throw your phone while waiting for his response, though your plan goes down the drain in a second when he responds almost immediately.

yn (6:03pm): hello!

felix (6:04pm): hey! i didn’t think you would message first :))

yn (6:06pm): oh, i’m sorry i hope you don’t get my intentions wrong. it’s just that … my parents sent over some computer parts and i rly don’t know how to assemble a computer

yn (6:06pm): i know it’s kind of random, but could u possibly help me by any chance?

yn (6:07pm): i don’t rly know anyone who knows how to and you’re the only person that came to mind

You cringe at yourself for triple messaging, face visibly scrunching as you let out a pained noise. And then he replies, and your hand shoots to grab your phone and stare at his message.

“Yeah, why not?” is what he replies, followed by where he should meet you. Is it a good idea to invite a stranger to your dorm? Probably not, but you can’t possibly assemble your computer somewhere else and bring it back to your dorms. So, you tell him to meet you at a cafe nearby – to test out the waters and see if he isn’t some variant of a serial killer.

“Be there in 15,” is his next reply.

15 minutes?!

You look down at yourself in sudden panic, still clad in a big shirt and some shorts. How were you supposed to pick something decent to wear in 15 minutes without Yunjin? You suppose could facetime her but you know it takes her hours to even decide on what to wear for herself.

Bringing your feet towards your closet, you say a silent prayer and start picking out what to wear for yourself. While this wasn’t technically a date, Lee Felix from Tinder is still fucking cute and you would hate for him to think he got scammed into swiping right on you.

You double check yourself in the mirror, chewing at your lips thoughtfully before sighing out in approval. At least you looked as if you put some sort of effort into what you’re wearing. That should be good enough in itself.

The nerve of meeting an entirely new person begins to set in when you repeatedly dart your eyes from the coffee shop back to your phone to try and see if anyone who looked like Felix was in the coffee shop. It’s like watching a game of ping pong the way you repeatedly look back and forth. And when it seems that no one with long black hair is here yet, you take it upon yourself to take a seat by the window where he can find you easily.

The scraping of the chair catches your attention, and holy fuck. Lee Felix is not a catfish. He is way far from it, and you think you might’ve lucked out when he takes the seat in front of you.

“Sorry, I hope I didn’t startle you.” Deep, thick accent. It feels like shots of espresso when he speaks and it physically manifests goosebumps from you. You shake your head, telling him you’re fine. “(Name), right?”

He smiles, and it feels like your whole world stops.

“Uh, yeah. You must be Felix?” The man in question nods his head, reaching out to shake your hand and the gesture has your cheeks flushing. It’s an act of basic human decency, but can you really be blamed for acting like a shy little school girl when someone as beautiful as Felix is sitting and talking to you.

The coffee shop is still bustling, and everyone around you converses as if the most beautiful man hadn’t just stepped foot into the coffee shop. The freckles sitting just below his eyes look like constellations, and his black hair is styled just messy enough to achieve the hot boy who doesn’t know he’s hot look.

“Do you want some coffee before I set your computer up?” You shake your head, suddenly feeling shy.

Instead, you tell him to get whatever he wants so you don’t feel guilty enough for taking time out of his evening just to assemble your computer. He accepts your promise in pretense, but he comes back with his order and a few pastries and it’s clear he’s already paid for it from the way he ignores any mention of how much it cost.

“I didn’t know what you preferred, so I got a bit of everything.” There’s a crinkle just at the corner of his eyes when he smiles, sitting back down adjacent of you as he pushes the plate closer to you.

You look at the array of pastries, a little hesitant. “Please don’t feel shy. Here, let’s take one together.”

He grabs a cookie from the platter, and you shyly follow by grabbing a strawberry muffin.

“Mmm, strawberry muffin. Very good choice.” Felix comments, watching you closely as you take a bite out of the muffin. “Is it good?”

Your eyes widen in delight, nodding your head as you chew slowly. “So good.”

Your words come out as a mumble, and it triggers a sweet laugh out of Felix. You feel familiar, the way you smile with your eyes and close them shut to savor the taste.

“You’re cute.” He says unabashedly, as if his words won’t cause drastic consequences.

A chunk gets stuck on your throat.

Felix is quick to hand you a glass of water when you start choking, rushing to stand by your side. You would’ve hoped the first skinship for the evening would be handholding, and not repeated pats on your back to remedy your choking.

“Are you okay?” His hand is still on your back, gently running small circles as he leans down to check on you. You think you might start choking again if he keeps looking at you like that, 1080p view of his eyelashes and the specs splashing his irises.

“Mhm, sorry.” You put the glass down, refusing to meet his eyes as he remains hovering over you. You want to leave out of embarrassment. He notices your silence, notices the way you cross your arms in mock defense.

“Don’t worry, I still think you’re cute.” There’s a smirk on his face. You can tell without even looking up at him. “I’ll take these out.”

He says it so casually, as if he’s simply asking about your day. His outward flirty-ness is new, but it isn’t unwelcome.

“Ready to go?”

With the plastic bag in his hand and his order in a takeout cup, you sigh gratefully. “Yeah.”

The walk to your dorm is short, but it’s spent in conversation. Lee Felix is talkative, has lots of stories to offer. Whatever it takes to make you laugh.

You like that about him. You like that you don’t have to talk so much. He doesn’t even force a comment out of you. Just needs to know you’re listening.

So you do. You listen intently as he shares pieces of his life with you—his friends, his course, games he plays. He’s chatty, and the way he smiles with every word reminds you of a cat. Deep whiskers and crescent eyes.

“So, really, this is a great way to end the day, assembling a pretty girl’s computer.”

His mouth drops a little when he realizes he’d vocalized the latter part of his sentence, yet he doesn’t make a move to take it back. You are pretty, one of the prettiest he’s ever seen. And the blush on your face is well worth the slip of his tongue.

“As long as you’re sure this isn’t a hassle.” You mumble, looking down at your feet as you reach your building.

That you aren’t getting anything out of this.

Though, before you can step forward, you’re tugged back to where Felix is standing. He’s holding your hand now, grabbing your full attention. “I promise this isn’t a bother.”

The way he looks at you answers your silent question—he doesn’t mind that you’re simply asking for his help without any intention.

“I enjoy building computers, especially with good company. You don’t even have to do anything. Just sit there and be yourself.”

“Okay. Thank you.” He squeezes your hand for extra measure, allowing you to drag him to your dorm room.

True to his word, Felix doesn’t so much as let you lift a finger. You stay seated on the couch, watching as he sets to work on the floor. From time to time, he’d tell you what he’s doing. Something about screwing some parts in and a mother board? You don’t understand much, but you listen as much as you can.

“Tell me about yourself.” Felix looks up from his work, and your eyes widen a little at the boy’s sudden request.

You’re sure you’re simply imagining the gentle interest in his eyes. “Hm?” You ask him to repeat himself, even though you heard him loud and clear.

“I’ve been yapping about myself all night. I wanna know more about you.” He teases.

“What do you want to know?”

“Anything. Everything.”

“Soooo… do I start with the year I was born?” You laugh when he throws you a look, quick to throw your hands in the air in mock surrender. “Joking, joking.”

“You’re an interesting girl, (Name).” Felix grins, locking eyes with you for a second and a half before turning back to his work.

“There’s nothing much to me, really. I go to school and go home and that’s about it. I just try and survive college the best I can.”

He shoots you a disapproving look. “Well, I beg to differ.”

“What do you mean?” You bring your legs up on the couch, sitting cross-legged as you wait for what he had to say.

“For one, your eyes lit up when I talked about Chan’s Pokemon collection, or how Seungmin is obsessed with Kdramas.” He points out, reaching for his takeout drink and taking a few large gulps. “And you smiled when I mentioned the little chicken plush I own.”

You don’t expect Felix to notice any of this, and the thought that he did has a blush fighting to creep up your face.

You grab a throw pillow to hide behind.

“Oh, and you like strawberry muffins. So, I’d say there’s a lot to you. And I’m hoping to learn everything more.”

You have to force your eyes to look away from him in fear that your flustered cheeks would appear too obvious to the boy. Though, if he’d noticed the mere brightening of your eyes, you’re sure he’s already caught on to the silly schoolgirl smile on your lips.

“Stop looking at me.” You mumble, burying your face in your pillow. All you can hear is his sweet laughter.

“Come here, I’m just about done.”

You clap your hands in small when he turns on your computer, fully functioning and fully assembled. It surprises you how a task that would’ve taken you 6 hours is done in under 2 by Felix. Even more that it didn’t even feel like two hours.

You suppose that’s just the thing with Felix. He makes it so that time disappears with the whole night sky in his eyes—the moon for eyes and stars littering his face.

“Thank you, Felix. Like really.” He dismisses you, telling you it was nothing. The satisfaction on your face is enough compensation for his work.

There’s a few do’s and don’t’s that he mentions, and you try to list them down the best you can.

“Or, I can just text it to you?”

You pause mid-writing, looking up at him. “Sure, that’s… that’s fine with me.”

You’re unsure of how to say goodbye to him after giving him your number, unsure even of how you can make it up to him for the 3 hours you’d taken away from him. If it were anyone else, you would’ve said it in ease, so you don’t know why you can’t do the same for Felix.

It’s different with him because you don’t want to say goodbye. You could go hours longer listening to him and watching him assemble your computer. Though, before you can contemplate to do anything, Felix interrupts your inner monologue.

“Actually, I have an idea on how you can make it up to me.”

You look up at him expectantly, and you see the hint of a smirk tracing on his features.

“Let me take you out on a date. A real one.”

“A date?” You stutter.

“I know you said you texted me just because I could fix up computers, but I really enjoyed talking to you today.” He’s holding back a smile. “So, what do you say?”

“Okay.” His eyes light up, glazed with happiness as he processes your response.

“Okay? As in, I can take you out on a real date?”

“Yes.”

Felix can feel something sweet in his heart, can feel it flutter like it’s being squeezed. To his surprise, you’d actually agreed, and the genuine excitement in his smile is too wholesome to not stare at.

“So… goodnight then?”

“Goodnight.”

“I’ll text you?”

“Okay. I’ll be waiting.”

Felix fixes you with a look one last time, almost romantic with the soft glaze in his eyes. And then he’s stumbling out into your hallway.

With a second glance, he turns his back away from you and walks away. You can’t help but still feel the warmth of his smile.

You feel a compelling force telling you you’ll see much more of Lee Felix in the near future.

731 notes · View notes

gothicchildofthenight · 2 months ago

Text

Dead-Bird

FEM DNI‼️ (She/her, She/they, etc.) - you’ll be blocked.

request: “hihi ! can you write rodrick x ftm reader thats just like , treated as one of the guys in rodricks friend group and has a sense of belonging , then heather outs the reader or something n rodrick stands up for them (???) im not sure where im going with this request u can interpret it however u want”

summary: moving to plainview for a fresh start while you’re transitioning. you meet rodrick heffley, resident emo, and become inseparable. what happens when heather hills gets jealous thats he’s turned all his attention on you?

descriptions: ftm!reader, intended for a black reader but can be read by any race, rodrick might be ooc (??), i made heather really mean (and homophobic 😭) but in reality i have no hate to her HER ACTRESS IS GORGINA, slur drop (f word), maybe the reader a girly kid sorry if that upsets anyone, cursing, throwing up (only happens once and i don’t think it’s detailed), let me know if i missed anything!!

a/n: yall, i know i said friday, but circumstances change (especially when baby siblings are sick asf) so i’m sorry. you’re allowed to yell at me in the comments!! BUT ITS FINALLY HERE‼️ pls let me know if you like it, and if you think i should change anything. i can always improve!!

word count: 8.29k (i got carried away 😭)

———————————————————————————-

For as long as you can remember, you knew you didn’t feel right with who you were. You wore the dresses, the skirts, joined the girls line when you were split off and you were ok with it, but it never felt right. You wanted to get your hands dirty, skin your knee, and you could do all of that with the girls, but you wanted to do it with the boys.

Your parents seemed to acknowledge this and your family just labeled you a tomboy. It wasn’t until your last year of middle school that you realized who you were, what you were. You were a boy, you were trans.

After going back and forth with yourself, you go to your parents with tears streaming down your face. With the way you and your parents were raised, it didn’t seem like they were going to be accepting.

“Are you done blubbering?” Your mom had asked you, which made you cry even more because you didn’t know if that could be good or bad. “We knew this could be a possibility with you just wanting to be with little boys.”

“Just because your grandparents have a skewed perspective on gender doesn’t mean we do.” Your dad joined in with a hand on your shoulder.

And with that started your transition journey. First with therapy, then doctor visits, and finally testosterone. When you started taking testosterone (end of sophomore year), you and your parents moved to give you a fresh start. With their careers, they could work anywhere as long as they could travel.

Plainview was just that, plain, but it got the job done so you can lay low. You couldn’t even point it out on a map, but it seemed like a great place to get a fresh start. Family homes, mom and pop shops, and maybe 6 schools around. No one knows you, seeing as you moved almost cross-country, so perfect.

Your first day wasn’t anything like you imagined. You thought you would be clocked immediately, especially since in the rush to move and get enrolled in school you had forgotten to get your haircut. You lucked out though, because the only reason someone (besides a teacher) came to talk to you was because of your Pearl Jam shirt.

That was the day you met Rodrick Heffley, resident “bad boy” with a band that wasn’t shit (you could say that seeing as you were in it) and a taste for rock and metal. That’s who came to talk about your shirt.

“You listen to Pearl Jam?” He asked, and you were immediately on the defense.

You knew you didn’t exactly look the part of emo metalhead, you had heard it your whole life growing up. “Listen to your normal music,” was a common one, and you won’t lie, it hurt. Especially from the popular white kids because it was just another tally mark against you.

“Yes? What about it?” You snapped.

“Woah, didn’t know I touched a nerve,” his face had reddened a little, but besides that it didn't change. “I was just gonna ask your favorite song.”

“Whatever,” you rolled your eyes. “I like Why Go from the Ten album.”

“Cool, cool, that’s a good one.” And then you both just stood there staring at each other. “Do you want to come over to my house after school?”

“I don’t even know you, kid,” you chuckled, “what are you, a kindergartener?”

“Well excuse me for trying to be nice.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m Rodrick.”

He held out his hand, which you hesitantly shook. “I’m (Y/N).”

“So are you coming over or what?”

And just like that he became one of the most important people in your life– along with his best friends; Drew, Ward, Chris, and Ben. Present day, you are never without Rodrick, and he, you. It doesn’t take a lot to convince the other to do something you probably shouldn’t, which leads to you guys getting in trouble a lot.

Like how one time towards the end of junior year in the middle of the night, Rodrick and you snuck out for a carnival almost 2 hours away. You had been relaxing at home, reading, when you heard little tinks coming from your window. You knew it was Rodrick throwing rocks at your window. He always did that when he’d sneak out of his house to come to yours.

“What the hell do you want?” You jokingly whisper-yelled as you opened your window.

“Come to a fair with me!” He whispered back.

“Last time I checked, the summer fair didn’t come until after school ended?”

“Because it’s not the one in Plainview, it’s the one in Huntington! Just come on!” He groans.

“First of all, I’m in pajamas!” You motioned up and down yourself. “Second of all, that’s almost two hours away!”

“So what, you’ve snuck out with me before! What makes this time any different? Come on, (Y/N), live a little!”

“Fuck it, fine!” and you closed your window to change. Your parents were long gone asleep, so you doubt they’d check on you, meaning you were in the clear.

You settled on baggy pants and a short sleeve, which is what you almost always wear, before you jumped out your window (you were on the second floor, yea, but your house wasn’t that big so it wasn’t a huge jump). Rodrick was waiting in his van, so you climbed into the passenger seat and set off.

You took a mini nap on the way, but after you woke up, you guys didn't shut up. From school to new albums, you talked about it all. You guys always were like this, (still were) even though at this point you’d only known each other a couple months. It scared you a little, how close you two had gotten in such a little period of time, mainly because you don’t want him to drop you because of who you were before.

“We’re here!” He pulled into a parking spot. You both climbed out of the van and met in front of it. “You brought your wallet, right?”

“Hanging with you? Of course not.” You deadpanned, before pulling out your wallet with a smile. “Why would I go to a fair without my wallet?”

He just rolled his eyes, slung his arm around your neck and walked to the ticket booth. Once in the fair, you guys set a plan to leave around 2:00 so you can get back in time for school.

You run around together, ride to ride, concession stand every chance you can get, and then barfing into a trash can. “I will never sneak out with you again.”

“Sure, ok,” Rodrick scoffed. “Come on, I want to ride the ferris wheel before going home!”

“Sure,” you rolled your eyes as you wiped your mouth, “just let me finish tossing my organs into this dumpster.”

“Let's go, smart ass.”

Surprisingly, there wasn’t a long line for the wheel. You’re on it in 5 minutes, and at the top in another 5.

“Told you it was worth it.” Rodrick teased as you looked out to the neon fair lights.

“Yea, yea, whatever,” you mumbled, too busy looking out at the eye widening view.

There’s a moment of silence. “Y’know, I’m glad we met each other.”

“Ew, don’t get all sentimental on me. Especially on a ferris wheel, that's just cringey.” You joke.

“I’m being serious!” He sighs. “Like I love the band, but I think me and you got closer in the span of a few months than me and them since middle school. It’s crazy.”

“Yea, sure, ok, dude,” you look back out to the lights. You couldn’t look him in the eyes because you had this warm feeling in your gut that you couldn’t place.

Rodrick doesn’t allow you to, though, as he grabs your face in one hand to make you look at him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I want you to say it,” he stares into your eyes, seeming to search for something.

“Say what, jackass?” You feel your face catch on fire in the dark of the night.

“That I’m your best friend.” He looks so serious, and his eyes never leave yours.

“You’re my best friend,” you roll your eyes with a grin, “can you let me go now?”

“We’ll work on it.” He pats the side of your face and then faces the lights outside the wheel.

When you're both off the ferris wheel, you’re headed back home. The car ride home was silent, you in your own head and Rodrick seemed tired. You offered for him to stay over and sleep until school starts, but he declines, knowing his parents will wake him up in the morning.

You pull up to your house but just sit there for a second. “It was a bunch of fun, as always. Til we sneak out again.”

“See ya,” he smiles and lightly punches your shoulder.

“See ya, dude,” and you head to your house.

When you see him pull off, you lightly close your front door. As you turn around, your soul leaves your body.

“I don’t even want to know,” your mom holds her hand up to silence you. “Phone, now.”

You sigh, but do it.

It seemed that’s what happened with Rodrick, too, so for the rest of the school year you and Rodrick could only contact each other at school. He still snuck over, that wasn't going to stop.

You don’t regret leaving with him that night, because you had never had someone willingly be that close to you.

—

Currently, you’re all huddled up in the hot attic that is his room, but it was the only place without younger kids so you don’t complain much.

“Dude, I thought this year was gonna be it!” Rodrick complains as he lays upside down on his bed.

“Oh, it’s gonna be it, alright,” Ben rolls his eyes and throws a paper ball in Rodricks direction. “It’s going to be the year I finally strangle you if you mention Heather Hills one more time.” We all chuckle at how true it was.

Right now, he wouldn’t shut the fuck up about Heather Hills. Even though you had come in the middle of junior year, it was quick knowledge that he had a crush on her since middle school. At first it was cute, but after some unforeseen circumstances, you actually hated hearing her name. It wasn’t like you had a crush on him (It was), but the fact that she didn’t give him the time of day, and even when she did it was just to make fun of him or to have him do something.

“I second that, it’s fucking annoying,” you push him off the bed, seeing as you were on it right next to him.

“Ow, you dick!” he sits up and rubs his head.

“We’re, like, four months from graduating, if she wanted you, she would’ve said it.”

“Yea but-” Ward cuts him off.

“But nothing, bro, she don’t want your ass.”

It’s what you’ve been telling him this whole time, but you didn’t want to be too pressed about it because you didn’t want him to think you like her. You didn’t like her, you liked the one who liked her. You hadn’t realized it until you saw Heather sweetening him up one time and it hurt to watch– and not in a disgusted way.

You had no idea about your sexuality, you knew you liked boys even before you transitioned, but as you became more comfortable with yourself girls weren’t so bad either. You had been on a few dates with mostly girls (there weren’t many out guys in a small town, who knew?), but no one was Rodrick.

“I mean, I know, subconsciously,” he points to his head, “but she has this way of being in your head, no matter how mean she is.”

“Blah blah blah, bruh we don’t caaaarreee!” You roll your eyes and fall back on his bed. “She’s probably going to, like, Harvard or some shit and gonna marry rich. She doesn’t have time for loser guys like ourselves unless we can do something for her. It’s been that way since middle school, and it’ll be that way til the end of time”

“Major harsh, dude,” Drew pipes up.

“Whatever,” You get up and grab your backpack. “I’m going home, see you bozos tomorrow.”

You know why it bothers you so much, but you didn’t think you went that far. Hell, even Ward said something, but you were the one who was being “major harsh”? You roll your eyes as you stomp off to your house.

“Major harsh, my ass,” you murmur to yourself.

—

Tomorrow comes faster than you’d like. It wasn’t like you blew up on the guys, but you were pissed that you had been shut down. You kind of wanted to avoid them and go straight to class, but when you exit your house you see Rodricks van. The ride to school was pretty quiet except for the “good morning,” you all exchanged amongst yourselves.

“You were right,” Rodrick nudges you. When you give him a confused look, he goes on, “Heather is never gonna want me, and I’m taking myself off the market for other babes.”

“Oh, all those poor girls, saved,” you chuckle. Now you kind of feel bad, “but seriously, my bad if I went too far with what I was saying. I don’t have an excuse for what I said, but I am sorry.”

“Nah, I needed that good kick in the ass so I could wake up. Thanks, bro.” He playfully punches your shoulder.

“No problem, bro.”

As we pull up to school, you see Heather and her friends around their red convertible bug. You didn’t know whose it was, it was passed around more than a blunt in your group. Every morning they were there, and every morning Rodrick went to talk to them, talk to her, like clockwork.

“So are we skipping today, boys?” Rodrick suggests.

In a unison of ‘Hell Yea’s, you were the voice of reason. “Fuck no.”

They all groan, as they usually do when you’re right. We’re walking away from the van as you explain, “Y’all don’t have enough brain cells or credits to afford to skip. If yall want to blow this place, ya gotta graduate. You don’t even have to have honors.”

“Whatever, nerd,” Rodrick shoves you with a chuckle. “You can be a suck up and stay all day, but we’re outta here.”

“You can suck up on my balls, jackass,” you laugh and shove him back.

“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” he shoves back.

“You’d love that!” but you don’t push him, you look in front of you.

You expected to see the red car, but you saw the stairs. You had passed the car?

You look behind you, and you still see the group talking about someone cheating on someone’s boyfriend, but you notice Heather Hills looking at you.

This wasn’t the first time Rodrick had ignored Heather for you, but that was at lunch. He always talked to her in the morning. You don’t know why, but you knew that this was her last straw.

When you had first moved here, you weren’t on her radar until you had talked to him. She was just standing off to the side and you didn’t realize it then, but he was just talking to her and stopped to talk to you. You could feel her glare, but when you looked at her she gave you a sugary sweet smile. That wasn’t the last time you would see that fake smile, but after this morning you knew it would be.

—

“I don’t know what you told him, but you need to untell him.”

The voice wasn’t unfamiliar to you, but you weren’t used to it being directed at you.

“Hi, Heather, how are you on this beautiful day?” You smile at her, though it was probably closer to a grimace.

“Cut the shit, you heard me.” She growls as you put your stuff in your locker.

“Why does it have to be me saying anything to him? Maybe he actually grew some balls and a brain.”

“You’re like a lost puppy around him, of course you said something.”

“Well, Heather,” you huff as you drop your bag and face her, “he used to follow you around like a lost puppy and I got sick of it because you were using him. I don’t know why it bothered me so much, but it did, so I told him that.”

“I know why,” she leans closer to your face with a whisper. “It’s because you’re a gay little bitch who hopes he looks in your direction but he wouldn’t even spit near you. I see how you look at him, but just remember he looks at me like that.”

“Ok,” you roll your eyes. “Why do you care so much? You admitted several times that you don’t like him.”

“He needs to like me, not the other way around. It gives other guys the idea that they can be with me and I can get gifts out of it. So if you don’t fix this, I can get so much dirt on you it’d make your head spin.”

“I think the bleach fumes are finally getting to your brain,” you scoff, trying not to seem nervous. You didn’t think that she could get to your secret, but that bitch has power in high places. But you had come so far without being outed, so you didn’t think it’d happen this close to your escape. “I don’t know what to tell you. I’m not gonna do that because you’re a bitch who doesn’t deserve any attention.”

She slams your locker in your face, “You’ll regret that.” And as she walks away you roll your eyes and mumble a “bitch”.

She doesn’t even want him, but I can’t have him? Whatever, bitch.

—

You decided to keep your little interaction from Rodrick and the gang because you knew it’d open up a) what she could find on you and b) did Heather actually like Rodrick and she’s lying? You just let them lead the conversation as you try to rationalize with yourself.

How would she find out your trans? You’ve been stealth for a year and your school medical records are locked up tight. She can’t out anything but you being gay and even that was a little chest tightening. At least you’ll still be a man, even if it was a gay one. Being outed as trans could shatter people’s perception of you and you’ll be that weird “girl” again.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” Rodrick asks you and you realize you’re the only two in the van now.

“Nothing, just exhausted. I need to be asleep right now,” you pretend to rub your eyes.

“Whatever you say, dude,” he sighs, but puts his hand on your shoulder and looks you in the eyes. “I’m here whenever you wanna talk, you seem to have a lot on your mind.”

It makes you freeze. It’s not like he isn’t always like this, he’s your best friend, but it doesn’t help after your conversation with Heather. He does this with every guy in the group, he may put on a front of being a dick to his brother, Greg, but he really cares for his friends. You have to convince yourself that this was just that, nothing more.

“Eyes on the road, weirdo,” you shrug his arm off with a nervous laugh. “I told you I was fine, I’m just tired.”

“Ok, dude,” he rolls his eyes.

Before you know it, he drops the rest of the guys off at their houses. You’re usually the last one to get dropped off since more often than not you’re the first one to be picked up. But when Rodrick passes your house, you have more than a few questions.

“Where the hell are you taking me?” You sigh.

“Obviously you won’t tell me what’s actually wrong, so we’re going to hang out til that frown turns upside down!” He smiles as he passes his house, too.

“How did I become friends with such a cornball? Aren’t you supposed to be the resident bad boy, go back to that.”

“You know you love me,” he smirks.

More than you know, that’s the reason I’m in this mess! You almost say, but stick with, “Sure, whatever you say.”

You know exactly what he’s going to do, you guys do it every time one of y’all are going through it. Head to the gas station to get slushies and snacks, then go out to your favorite clearing in the woods. He even does it with Greg sometimes, even though he likes to act like he hates his younger brothers.

“Isn’t the point of a slushy to mix all of the flavors together?” Rodrick rolls his eyes.

“We have this conversation every time we come here, I get two flavors that compliment each other! All of those flavors confuse your mouth and you lose taste buds.”

“You lie just like my mother, which means you lie like shit.” And for that you slap his shoulder. “OW!”

“Don’t talk about Susan like that!” You say, jokingly offended. You go to hit him again, but he grabs your hand.

“You’re a fucking nut case.”

“OMG!” You hear an all too familiar voice excitedly yelp. “I thought I heard your voice!”

“Oh, hey Heather.” Rodick turns to talk to her, forgetting to let go of your hand. “What are you doing in here?”

“My friends wanted to stop in here to get some junk.” She waves her hand behind her and rolls her eyes. “I obviously don’t eat stuff like that, I mean, look at me.” Rodrick doesn’t even glance down when she motions at herself.

“Good for you, me and (Y/N) are actually in here for some snacks, too.”

She finally looks at you, and then at you and Rodricks combined hands. You squirm under her stare and take your hand out of Rodricks. He looks at you in seeming confusion, but doesn’t say anything.

“I didn’t see you there, hey (Y/N)!” She has a smile on her face, but you can see in her eyes the amount of hatred she has for you.

“Hey, Heather…” You almost whisper, and then turn to seem busy with your slushy.

“Well, we should get out of here, bye Heather.”

“Oh, yeah, I think my friends went back to the car, so I should head out, too.” She turns to leave, but looks back over her shoulder and waves seductively. “Bye, Rodrick!”

When you hear the front door bell ring, you finally release the breath you had been holding in. “Holy shit,” you whisper to yourself.

“What was that?” Rodrick turns to you with a smile and points behind him. “She’s never willingly came up to me unless she needs something. And she just wanted…conversation?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” You paint on a smirk even though your heart is racing. She had seen you with Rodrick, holding hands (completely his fault!), and he couldn’t be any less interested in her! You just know your fate is sealed.

“Well, let’s get this shit paid for and go.” He grabs up your food and you grab the slushies.

With everything paid for, you guys hop back into the van and head into the trail a few blocks down. It wasn’t anything official, but you hadn’t gotten in trouble for being out here, so yall just kept going.

You park the van and head into the back, opening the doors for some fresh air.

“So are you ready to tell me what’s up?” Rodrick asks after a few sips of his slushy abomination.

“I told you that I’m just exhausted.” You keep up your front.

“And I told you that you lie like my mom,” he sighs. “So you might as well just spill it.”

“It’s just something that me and my family have to deal with, you don’t have to worry about it!” You know if you bring your family into it, he’ll stop pushing it because he knows your parents don’t play.

“Ok, ok, I’ll let it go.” He raises his hand in defense.

You don’t respond, and you guys are submerged into silence once again. You exchange looks when you don’t think the other is looking, but besides that you take in the forest around you.

Heather could never experience these moments with Rodrick and understand how precious it is. Rodrick has always been the weird “bad boy” (people literally only say this because of his clothes and that makes you roll your eyes) who some of the girls wanted but if it got out they did like him, they’d be made fun of. You see how some of the girls look at him when he isn’t looking, and it hurts your heart. You know they have more of a chance than you ever would.

But with you, he was never like this. He was the goofy, caring friend who’d drop everything if you said the word. Heather only sees him as an object that gives her affection, but you see him as he truly is; a guy who loves and just wants it back. He just wants to be seen.

“Y’know you’re my best friend, right?” You blurt before you can think about it.

“Only took you a year to be genuine about it,” he nudges your shoulder.

“What?”

“The ferris wheel.” He states like you’re just supposed to know. And you do.

“You still remember that?” You gape.

“Anyway, yes I am your best friend, just like how you’re mine.” He grins at you, and then he drops it, “you’re not planning anything are you?”

“Oh my god, a guy can’t express his appreciation for his best friend?” You throw your hands up.

“I’m watching you,” he squints his eyes and points at you.

You get a text from your mom wondering where you are, and that’s the end of your little outing with Rodrick.

When he drops you home, Heather is the furthest thing from your mind, even though you know holding Rodricks hand (even though it wasn’t even purposely!) would be a slight against you.

—

Over the next two weeks, Heather's empty threat went to the back burner of your mind. If she wanted to out you, it would’ve happened by now. I’m safe, you sighed in relief.

Rodrick continued not to go up to her in the morning, but if she talked to him he definitely talked back. It seemed to calm her attitude toward you now, but it still was a hot seat around her. Like now, she’s passing around flyers for her party this weekend and intentionally passed by you.

“Rodrick, you’re definitely coming to my party this weekend, right?” She bats her eyelashes. “I need your band Soiled Diper to play!”

“It’s Löded Diper,” you correct and she glares at you, “and when have you ever wanted us to play anywhere near you?”

“Us?” She scoffs at you. “I just want the main band, not some wannabe.”

“Woah,” Rodrick stops her. “(Y/N) is an actual part of the band, so no him, no band.”

“Him? If that’s what you wanna say, sure.” And to the untrained ear it could just be her upset that he isn’t going along to exclude you, but you know what she means. As you perk up and look in her eyes, she’s already looking at you with a knowing smirk.

She knows. FUCK how does she know?

“I’m fine with not going, Rod,” you try to sway him. This cannot be fucking happening.

“No, it’s either all of us or none of us.”

Of course now he wants to be a fucking hero right now. He doesn’t get that this is social suicide FOR ME! Social homicide? Not important right now.

“Ok,” she has that sugary sweet fake smile. “Don’t come, then. Remember what I said.”

That last part was for you, you know it, and your blood runs cold. Fuck.

The rest of the day you’re on the edge of your seat, thinking what she might do. How the fuck did she even find out? You weren’t on social media much pre-transition, so barely any photos of you before exist. And like you said, your medical records were locked up tight.

Whatever, you try to convince yourself. She won’t do anything! She would’ve already.

You make it home with no one running around talking about your biggest secret, so your anxiety has allowed you to breathe again.

You decide to finally talk to your mom about this because who else will understand?

“You’re right to be afraid, but you’re also right about her doing it when she finally found something on you.” Your mom rubs your hair as you lay in her lap.

“It’s like I can’t get into her mind and I seriously want to. Like what is she planning?” Your thoughts literally won’t shut up. You haven’t had to worry about stuff like this for close to 2 years, and now its like your whole world is about to collapse

“For her sake, I hope nothing because I’m not above beating a little girl's ass!” And you know she’s being for real. Your mom doesn’t play around.

“Mom,” you roll your eyes.

“So, she thinks you like Rodrick…What’s up with that?”

“You know the answer if you’re asking,” you sigh.

“Do you want any advice on that? I say you should go for it.” Your mom shrugs.

“Absolutely not, because if this does come out I don’t want him weirded out by me being trans and gay.” You don’t even know if you are gay gay, but you know it’d make you that if you ask him out.

“I think you’re safe, but if something does blow, I’m in your corner.” She holds up her fist playfully to show it.

“Thank you, Mom.” You finally felt at peace with the whole thing. You trust your mom and feel like it will all blow over.

If only you knew.

The next morning, you walk with a pep in your step. You decide to walk to school, texting Rodrick you didn’t need a ride. It took a little longer to walk than drive, so you knew they’d beat you there.

When you finally showed up, people were staring at you, but it didn’t bother you much. People looked at you and the gang weirdly all the time, it just happened. It was when you finally made your way inside that all hell broke loose.

Random whispers were rampant through the hall, but when you walked by it would stop. Whatever, they were probably just talking about what you were wearing like always. You shrugged and went to find the guys.

You were right in front of them in the cafeteria and about to speak when that sugary voice stopped you, “Hey, [Redacted]!” It exclaimed.

You could’ve thrown up right then and there. You whip around to face Heather, “What the hell did you just call me?”

“Should I tell her or are you guys going to be good friends?”

“Guys, what is she talking about?” You turn to them and the look on their faces say it all.

They Know. Everyone knows.

Ben turns his phone around and you have to will yourself to not spill your breakfast out onto the concrete. It’s a screenshot from one of your parents' private Facebooks from two or three years ago with a title that stated your deadname.

The “girl” in the picture was going to homecoming, and it was obvious that it was you. Your face was softer, caked with makeup, and your hair was longer. The caption had your name and said that you were indeed going to homecoming.

“This picture was private, how the fuck?” You were whispering to yourself. You’re frozen in place, you can’t look anywhere but Ben’s phone.

“How could you hide this from your friends?” Heather fake gasps. “Pretending to be a boy? Going into the boys bathroom and locker room? What a freak!” and her whole group laughs. When you didn’t respond, she kept going, “Like, can you guys believe it? She’s pretending to be a boy to get close to you, and I even heard she had a little crush on one of you!”

That made you bark out a sob. Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy-

“It’s crazy! Right, Rodrick?” and that snaps you out of it.

You glance at him, and he looks angry. Probably at you for lying to him. You darted away, looking for an exit because all you can think about is going home. You hear your name called after you, but you don’t care.

—

“What the hell are you doing home? Classes literally just started.” Your mom asks as she’s cuddled up with your dad. You don’t answer her, and just run up to your room, sobbing.

“Woah, woah woah, hey!” They get up to go after you.

When you get to your room, you don’t close your door knowing they’re after you. You shut your phone down and just throw yourself onto your bed, trying to stop your tears.

“Son, what’s wrong? What happened at school?” My dad knocks on the open door.

“Heather Hills,” you say through your pillow. Even if your dad didn’t get it, your mom did.

“She didn’t…”

“She did though, Mom!” You cry out, turning to face them. “She outed me to the whole school! She somehow found one of your Facebooks, got into it and found an old picture of me going to homecoming, and she shared it with the whole school!”

“Are you serious?” Your dad balls up his fist.

“Not only that, but she said that I was pretending to be a guy! Said I was doing it to get close to Rodrick, basically told him I liked him, and made me seem like this big ass weirdo!”

“We need to do something about this,” your mom says, and she sounds pissed. “This has to be some sort of harassment!”

“Your mother is right, we need to contact the school-”

“NO, please,” you start. “What’s done is done, I don’t want this bigger than it is!”

“(Y/N)!-”

“Mom, please listen to me!” You’re exasperated at this point. “Heather has the whole school behind her. Her parents are RICH, so if we try to do anything, it’ll just make everything worse!”

“I don’t give a fuck about her parents! She hurt my baby and she needs to be held accountable!”

“I don’t want to be in the middle of any more drama!” You groan. “I just want to figure this out quietly and on my own. I don’t want to talk to anyone about it and I just want to be left alone!”

“Ok, ok,” your dad sighs and puts a hand on your head. “If that’s what you want, we won’t push it,” he turns to your mom, “won’t we?”

“Yea, I guess,” she rolls her eyes, but gives a weak smile. “But at any point you need any help or she does anything else, we’re in your corner.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“Get some rest, son,” your dad pats your shoulder. “You look like you need it.”

“I’ll try.”

But you knew you weren’t going to be able to sleep. You avoid your phone because you didn’t want to be contacted by anyone, but especially Rodrick. You didn’t want to know his disgust with you, didn’t want to know how much he thought that Heather was right.

Without the distraction of your phone, your room and the house was too quiet. You could hear your parents downstairs, trying not to be angry about your situation and watching television. Your mind keeps replaying you looking at Ben’s phone, ears ringing in anger and worry. You’re so horrified, afraid you’ve lost all of your friends. You were supposed to graduate without anyone finding out. What was the point of a fresh start if you were just gonna have to deal with all that you wanted to avoid at your old home?

You hear someone knock on your front door, and even being that far away from it you heard Rodricks voice. This time you can’t stop your stomach from lurching and you run to the bathroom.

As you flush the toilet, you hear the door close and footsteps up the stairs. That makes you pray on the bathroom floor to anything that could hear you to not make you talk to him yet.

“Hey, baby, you alright?” Your mom’s voice fills you with relief and seems to calm your stomach.

“No,” you say truthfully. You didn’t feel like lying right now, “I feel like everything is over for me.”

“You heard him, didn’t you?”

“Not what he said, but I heard his voice,” you admit.

“Then I think you should answer your phone.” And with that, she leads you back to your room, kisses your forehead, and goes back downstairs.

—

You don’t turn your phone back on until the next day. You still felt sick, and no matter how much you tried to eat you just couldn’t. You stayed home from school and your parents didn’t argue, but they still had to go out for work. Not a full trip, but they had to go to the next town over.

You had less messages than you thought you would, but it’s still crazy. Drew, Ward, Chris, Ben, and even Bill messaged you, but you didn’t care about all of them because one name caught your eye. Rodrick.

It was four messages; are you home??, answer me!, i’m coming over. were the first three, but the last message was a video.

It starts staring at the floor, and then it’s pointed to a group of people. You can make out you, the gang, and Heather behind you. You take off running, but the recording doesn’t stop there.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Rodrick stands up and gets in Heather's face.

“What?” she laughs in disbelief.

“You heard what I said!”

“Are you seriously defending her over me? I thought you liked me?!” You can hear the fakeness in her voice.

“That was before you decided to spread lies about my friend! He has done nothing to you!” the emphasis on the “he” makes your eyes widen. “You’re gonna stop talking shit about my best friend to my face! You’re such a fake bitch! I don’t know how I ever liked you…”

“Don’t tell me you’re seriously picking her over me? You must be more homo than her to like that wannabe boy.”

“Are you fucking serious?” The rest of the guys pipe up and start to surround Heather.

“He is a guy, and if you think anything other than it, you must be stupider than I thought,” Ben steps up.

“And so what if I like him? Just know I don’t like you, not anymore.” Rodrick is the angriest you’ve ever seen him, it’s kind of hot scary.

“Whatever, you’re all just losers. Lets go,” she turns and walks off with her crew.

That’s where the video ends.

You couldn’t stop rewatching it in amazement. He had stood up to Heather Hills for you without hesitation. Had said he liked you to Heather Hills. To basically the entire school, if this video has already gone around.

You debate whether or not you wanted to talk to him, but your need for your best friend wins over your need to hide. You slip on your shoes and head out.

You live a little over 5 minutes away from Rodrick even though he drives you guys everywhere. You know you could’ve told him to come over to your house, but it’s nice to finally get some fresh air. Plus, his mom was always nice to see when you went over his house.

When you get there, you see his van parked in the driveway near the garage. You have to hype yourself up to knock on the front door, but once you do it’s like a wave of nausea comes crashing over you.

I can’t do this, oh my god. What have I-

Before you can finish your thoughts, the door opens. You half expect it to be Rodrick, but it’s just Greg.

“Hey, kid.” You do a little wave as if you haven’t met him before. Whenever you come over, you tend to see Greg and Rowley, too. Most of the time they’re just in the living room, but they sometimes come up to the attic just to get chewed out by Rodrick, especially when it’s just you two up there.

“Hey, (Y/N),” he smiles, “where’ve you been?”

“Yknow.” You wring your hands. “Around.”

You can barely get words out. Does Greg know? Did Rodrick tell his family about what his best friend is?

“Rodrick should be upstairs in his room.” Greg moves out of the way so you can step into the house. “He’s been moping up there since yesterday, I don’t even think he’s left it today.”

“He didn’t go to school?” It’s not surprising, he’s always skipping, but you know it’s because of what went down yesterday.

“Nope,” Greg shakes his head. “Look, I don’t know what happened between you guys, because he only acts like this when he can’t see you, but I think you guys will work it out. It’s like me and Rowley, just less romantical.”

“W-what-” you sputter out. “I don’t-”

“Sure, whatever you want to tell yourself.” Greg cuts you off with an eye roll. “Like I said, he’s upstairs.”

“Thanks, kid.” Your face is on fire.

And with that, you mount the stairs to the attic. Is your crush on Rodrick really that obvious that even his family can see it? And with the way Greg was talking it seems to be reciprocated. You heard it come out of Rodrick’s own mouth, but what if he just said that so Heather could leave you alone?

You’re in front of his door before you can finish your thoughts. You knock, ready to get this over with.

“Mom, I told you I’ll be ok, just leave me alone!” You hear him call out.

“Not your mom, last time I checked.” You say, a soft smile grows on your face from hearing his voice.

You hear him leap up off of his bed and trip over something, but it doesn’t seem to phase him as he runs to open the door.

“(Y/N),” he breathes out.

“Hey,” you can barely look him in the face. “Can I come in?”

“Yea, yea, come in!” He pulls you through the door.

Once in his room, it’s like you’ve never set foot in it. You don’t know what to do, where to sit. It all feels new to you for some reason.

“Dude, just sit down somewhere.” Rodrick laughs at your newfound confusion.

You decide to sit on his bed, which you do every time you come over. You and Rodrick always sit on opposite ends of the bed so you can look at each other, which this time is no different.

You just sit there, staring at each other. You decide to break the ice. “It’s true, all of it. I don’t know how Heather got that picture, but I was a girl for most of my life up until now. Please, don’t hate me.”

“I’m not going to lie, it made me mad that I had to find out through Heather Hills,” he sighs, “but then again it’s none of my business. You were doing it to protect yourself, so I get it and I don’t have a right to be mad. I could never hate you over something like that though.”

You just sit there with your mouth open. You knew subconsciously that he couldn’t have hated you, but you had grown up hearing all the hatred people had for people like you. You had no choice to be on the defense when coming over here, no matter what you heard.

“I just-” You start. “I just, I know you’re my best friend, and I should’ve trusted you with this, but I couldn’t. I’ve never had anyone but my parents know. Their families don’t even know, that’s the whole reason we moved here.”

“Would you have ever told me?” He asks, kind of quiet.

“Maybe.” You shrug honestly. “I was too worried about trying to survive high school without a slip up to think that far ahead.”

“Oh,” is all he answers.

It’s another drowning silence. You’ve never had an awkward silence in your entire friendship, this is freaking you out.

“Did you watch the video I sent you?” Rodrick speaks up.

“Yea, it was the first thing I saw when I turned my phone back on.” Another beat of silence. “It was the only reason I came over here to talk to you.”

“Did you watch the whole thing?”

“Only a hundred times,” you smile evilly. “I love watching that barbie wannabe get put in her place.”

“Yea, that was great to do,” his voice lowers, “but that’s not what I was talking about.”

“I know.” You whisper and look him in the eyes.

You just sit there staring at each other, and then Rodrick looks down at your lips. It was so quick you could’ve missed it if you blinked, but you saw it. Just go for it.

“Are you going to kiss me, or just think about it?” You try to sound confident, but it ends up a quiet squeak.

His eyes widen, but he begins to inch over to you until you’re pressed up against each other. “Is this okay?” His whisper tickles your lips.

You just nod, eyes never leaving his. You don’t know who leans in first, but your lips are together in a flash. Your grip on his shirt is tight, as if when you let go it’ll all disappear. Your mouths almost move in unison, like you’re trying to devour the other. You can barely breath, feeling like this isn’t real. You dreamed about this moment for so long and now that it’s here it’s like you’re ascending.

You are the one who pulls away first, needing to breathe. Rodrick doesn’t seem like he wants to stop, kissing down your jaw to your neck. While you're breathing softly, you hear a knock at his door. That doesn’t stop Rodrick though.

“Rodrick,” you breath out as a warning.

“Hm,” he hums indifferently. Before you both know it, his door opens.

“Rodrick, you need to leave this- OH MY GOD!” His mother screams out.

“MOM!” Rodrick jumps away from you in fear and shock.

You’re all just stuck looking at both of them staring at each other before you break the silence.

“Hey, Ms. Susan…”

After that you are put through a lecture with his mom and dad. You guys can’t be upstairs alone without Greg being a buffer, door open at all times even with the other guys there. They, of course, texted your parents about what they found so that's gonna be fun to go home to. But you felt like none of that mattered because you got what you wanted. You didn’t lose your friends, and you even gained a boyfriend.

He offers to drive you home, which you take because you want to be close to him for a little longer. So you wave goodbye to his parents and get into the van.

You hold hands on the way to your house.

—

“We’re glad you decided to come back to school,” Rodrick squeezes your hand. “It’s been so boring.”

“First of all, I was gone one day,” you roll your eyes in fake annoyance. “And second of all, you literally didn’t even go yesterday!”

“But it’s always boring whenever I don’t get to see you, baby.” He wiggles his shoulders against yours.

All the guys groan in fake disgust. “Yall are so corny, break up already.” Ben gags.

“I didn’t even say anything!” You throw your hands up, taking one of Rodricks hands with you.

“Cringe by association.” And you roll your eyes in true annoyance.

“Are you sure you’re ready to go back?” Rodrick interrupts. “We could just go back to your house and hang out for the day.”

“I’m sure you’d love that,” you shove his arm, “but if I keep skipping, it’ll be like she won. Plus I’m not losing my straight A streak because of that bimbo.”

“Fine,” he huffs. “I can’t wait for the last day, school is so boring.”

“I thought without me it was boring?” You raise an eyebrow.

“You know what I mean.” He kisses your cheek.

“Yuck,” one of the guys laughs out behind your back.

“Shut the fuck up so we can get this day over with.” You flip them off.

You’re, of course, joking because you know you couldn’t have gone through this without them. After your talk with Rodrick, you all had a group hangout and talked through all of this. They let you know the whole time that they were 100% on your side. They were your boys and you were theirs.

Maybe the rest of the year won't be hell. You got the guy, smited the girl, and even if you were outed, you had all the friends you needed with you already. You were going to be fine.

#rodrick heffley #transmasc #rodrick heffley x reader #x ftm reader #transgender #x black ftm reader

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athynathens · 5 months ago

Text

chapter two : fancy ass bird

“So you’re a fancy ass bird? That’s your quirk?”

PAIRING. Bakugo Katsuki x Amphyr Domino (m-free)

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. This short story is a crossover between the Boku no Hero Academia world and Winx Club world. It will take place after the battle with All for One and Shigaraki. Let’s just all assume that the villains are defeated and everything is back to normal.

SYNOPSIS. Bakugo’s sudden request took Amphyr off guard, now she is contemplating whether or not if she should accept it or not. However, Bakugo’s remarks about her identity made her rethink her decisions. Now she’s debating if she should accept his damn sudden request — a fight.

WARNINGS. None :)

AUTHOR’S NOTES. So incase yalls won’t get it as you read, Amphyr’s on her Harmonix stage already!! Now, i am contemplating what color scheme she should have, do yalls have any ideas? if you do hit me up in the comments or pms!!

TAGS. @lovra974 @selmasemlan @andysdrafts @citrustsuki . If you want to be tagged, comment down below!!

amphyr domino’s profile | the world in betweens masterlist

“FIGHT ME” Bakugo calmly spoke, his hands were on his pockets. The cold night breezed around his black sleeveless shirt, as the leaves flew up in the skies of twilight.

Moonlight shone down on Amphyr, emphasizing her brown locks dancing with the wind. Her eyes went wide, blinking thrice before saying, “Heh?”

When he didn’t react, Amphyr knew that he was fucking serious. That’s when she finally screamed, “HEHHHH?!?”

Her screamed caused birds flying off the trees, causing leaves to fall down. She moved back a bit, shivering from that request. “We haven’t talk in months, and this is the first thing you ask of me?!?”

“Don’t be such a fucking pussy. We exchanged greetings in the hallways, didn’t we?” Bakugo clicked his tongue, looking away briefly.

“THAT WAS BARELY A GREETING!” She retorted, remembering the times when she would greet this explosive student, and he would just walk past by her and hum in response.

The blond rolled his eyes, “At least I fucking responded!”

She sighed, bringing her hand to the temple of her nose and asked, “Why are you even asking me to suddenly fight you? The latter rubbed it, her forehead aching from this sudden request.

“Because you ain’t from here, aren’t ya, fucking Croissant?” He spoke out, catching her off guard.

She gulped, trying to stay composed. “Of course, I’m not. I am a foreigner after all.”

Small blasts exploded from his palm. “Foreigner…” He chuckled lightly. “As in you’re a fucking white person or…” He asked, staring at his palm emerging explosions.

His red orbs snapped to his front, staring at her soul deeply “….you’re someone from another world?”

“A-Another world? Don’t joke with me, Bakugo-kun. T-There’s no such thing as—” She was interrupted by a loud blast. The next thing she knew is that she’s being held by the collar of her shirt.

Bakugo held her up so high, her feet are not touching the ground anymore. “Don’t fucking give me that bullshit!!” He exploded, causing her to fall back to a tree harshly.

This heavy impact made her back hurt, choking a bit of blood from her mouth. With shaking legs, she used her wrist to wipe out the blood from the corner of her mouth. She panted, “I don’t know what you’re talking about Bakugo-kun.”

The blond clenched his jaw in annoyance, hate being stalled when he asked a question. “That’s fucking bullshit. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the past months. Your fucking so-called quirk? I analyzed that shit. The fucking blast on my face, the shitty barrier you made, the damn power wave you caused? Those quirks already belonged to someone.”

“Those blasts? That’s my fucking quirk, and you sure as hell are not related to me or my parents. Never seen you in any of our family meetings nor have I heard of you. The damn barrier? That fucking belongs to that villain that Shitty hair fought when saving that white-haired brat,” He continued, making her pale up in fear.

“And that power wave? That goddamn quirk is similar to Nejire-Senpai’s quirk, but there’s no way in hell you’ll be related to her. She’s a fucking talks for shits, she wouldn’t miss the chance to talk with anyone, especially to a relative,” He added, causing Amphyr to be agitated by the fact he is closed in knowing the truth.

When she thought it was over, there were still more to her surprise…

“From where I’m from, you’re called a dwarf,” Bakugo repeated the words she said to Mineta in the past.

“Does that sound familiar to you, Croissant?” The blond’s side mouth lifted. Amphyr can only stay silent, knowing that her defending right now will make everything else so much obvious.

“From where I’m from,” He repeated slowly, staring at his fingers as he stretched them.

“That means something else, right? The where is definitely not a damn place in the US, Europe or any part of this world, ain’t that right?” He asked, doing one small blast in his palm.

Suddenly, he grinned and released a blast towards to Amphyr, “The where is in a place that’s not in this fucking world, right?!?”

Her eyes went wide, immediately reacting to the blasts so she flipped to her right, doing a back tuck tumbling to save herself. When she landed on the grass, one knee up and the other on the ground, Bakugo chuckled as he releases more blasts from his palms.

“So let me ask, fucking extra…” He rasped, blasting some of his quirk in the air. “…who the fuck are you?”

Amphyr breath in and out a couple of times, contemplating if she needs to come up with a lie or not. It’s not like her family is asking her to keep her identity a secret since a small town called Gardenia knows about fairies already. However, she likes it better if no one knows who she truly she is. It’s like she’s reliving her life once more; doing a reset, a break, a rest from her usual life as the Crown Princess of Domino and one of Alfea’s prodigy.

“Before I answer,” She panted, standing up from the ground. “Why did you ask to fight me?”

Bakugo’s jaw clenched in annoyance, he hates being stalled when he asked a question after all. But if she means to cooperate, then he can let this go.

The latter clicked his tongue, placing both of his hands on his pockets. “I already fucking knew that you’re some kind of being from another world so I decided to fight you. Fighting someone who’s from another fucking world sounds fun to me after all.”

Amphyr’s eyes soften, the light on her eyes vanished. “So you’ll really give it your all to fight me or you’ll just hesitate and make it easy for me because I’m a fai—something…?”

She recalled the amount of times she was understimated as a fairy. In Magix, there is a division of work between men and women, fairy and specialist, and princess and princes.

If you’re a woman, a fairy and a damn princess, you will be an object of protection, hence, people mistakenly saw Amphyr as weak and timid.

Amphyr’s hands clenched in annoyance, remembering the amount of times she asked for a fair battle from her fairy friends; they took it too easy to her as they were afraid to harm the princess. She recalled the time when she opened up to her friends that she wants to practice fighting. But, they degraded her by gaslighting that her powers are enough. They even emphasized that fist fights are supposed to be for the males only.

Honestly, the only person who understood her was her mother, Daphne of Domino. As the Supreme Nymph, she was hard on Amphyr. She taught her everything that a Nymph should do and follow. She trained her till she sweats to dawn. She fought with her as if she was an enemy. She coached her like a warrior fairy.

However as a mother too, she also had to hold back in certain aspects, especially when they duel together.

Since then, no one has given her the fight she fucking desires the most — a fair fight.

“HAH?!?” Bakugo’s loud voice echoed. “Are you fucking with me? Ya looking down on me, aren’t you?!? You think I’ll go easy on you? In your goddamn dreams, fucking extra!”

Amphyr’s eyes twinkled, light of hope counterclockwise her pupils. “W-Will you really give it your all?” She stuttered, wanting confirmation.

The blond clicked his tongue, “You’re underestimating me, aren’t ya, damn Croissant!?!” He roared, squatting a bit while releasing small blasts from his palms. “I don’t give a shit on who or what you are! Just fucking fight me!”

She felt the sincerity of his words. Will I really get the fight I want from him? The side of her mouth twitches, she can’t contain her excitement any longer.

“You better not hold back, Bakugo,” She sternly told, closing her eyes.

“Don’t fucking tell me what to do. It is you that should not hold back! Don’t even think of using my rehab as a damn excuse,” He smirked, licking his lips from the adrenaline rush flowing through his body.

Swirls of winds surrounded her, the strands of her hair flowed gracefully with the wind. Amphyr opened her eyes to reveal her glowing pupils of gold, “You asked for it, Bakugo.”

The blond flinched, witnessing her newly formed aura. He saw her jumped to the sky, screaming a word he didn’t know. That’s when a ball of glowing magic surrounded her. Soon, the magic ball exploded, revealing Amphyr in wings.

Bakugo was left at awed. His so-called Croissant does not look like an extra at all in the sky — she looks like more of a celestial ethereal being.

He watched as her long skirt flew side by side, being one with the night breeze. The latter noticed long ribbons attached on both of her legs, those ribbons were connected to some-kind of high heeled sandles. His eyes moved up to her upper body, it was a top with one strap to her right side and it was decorated with ruffles like a ball gown.

His red orbs shone a bit when he finally saw her face. Amphyr’s eyes blazed up with determination while her hair moved in the same direction as the wind carries. The sea shell tiara on her forehead emphasized her royalty aura to him.

Amphyr channelled her magic energy to both of her hands, releasing fire then circled her arms to the top. She looked down to Bakugo and roared, “Don’t you dare hold back on me now, Bakugo!! You need to keep your damn promise!!” She threw the ball of fire towards him.

Smokes from the fireball scattered all over the ground. Amphyr’s wings flapped foward, in hope to find him easier, yet suddenly a loud blast from behind. Her eyes quivered, feeling an ominous sensation rushing towards her from behind. With the support of her wings, she flipped in the air and that’s when she noticed Bakugo grinning in excitement.

When he landed back in the ground, he yelled, “I ain’t holding back for nothing, Croissant!! This shit’s getting better!! Fight me!” He blasted up in the sky.

She used her wings to accelerate her movements. The brunette brought her arm back, chanting a small spell on her fist. After the enchantment is finished, she toughen her fist.

The blond’s smirk widen, almost smiling at her attack towards him. He placed more power on his palm then yelled, “DIE!”

The two collided, causing a strong drift of wind to hover through the forest.

Bakugo and Amphyr fought in the air, blasting each other with their quirks. The blond kept using his quirk to avoid her attacks, but he had a hard time dodging them. Since he had no idea what her quirk is, Amphyr became unpredictable.

He can only click his tongue in annoyance, realizing that he has no clue who he is fighting.

Meanwhile with Amphyr, her reputation as a support student has its uses. She knows what fighting style what Bakugo is into. She took advantage of her knowledge to battle this student hero.

The sounds of small explosions appeared from his palm, he aimed it to her midair and blasted it out.

Bakugo smirked, thinking he had won but to his suprised, he saw Amphyr flying above his explosion. His body shivered in excitement and screamed, “Not bad, Croissant!!” He used his explosion to rotate his body, accelerating his movements towards Amphyr.

The two fought like there’s no tomorrow. Explosions, blasts, waves, omitted around the forest. The smell of burnt wood surrounded the area, the trunk of most trees broke in half with a hint of fire and water around it.

Suddenly, a robot drone flew over them. “Hey! Who’s there?!?” It screamed, accelerating it’s movements to capture the people in the act.

Amphyr and Bakugo were quick to react, hiding among the trees. They used the trees with the most leaves which can help camouflage their presence. As their heard their robot drone flying away, the two sighed in relief.

The two had the time to catch their breath, wiping their sweat and panting their lungs out. The blond looked to his side to see her outfit a bit ripped from the blasts, her face covered with ash and some burns. Her soft arms covered with scars while her fair legs were covered with debris of soil and dirt.

“You look like shit,” He panted.

Amphyr looked at him. He was covered with ashes and burns from each other’s quirks. His black shirt was ripped, revealing his abs and scars from his previous battles. His arms bulged as he moved, showcasing his veins.

“Your arm, how is it? Nothing’s wrong with it, right?” She asked, wiping some ash off her face.

He chuckled, “Don’t worry about me. ‘M fucking fine.”

Her eyes traveled down to his injured arm, it was shaking a bit from overusing it. She sighed, “Sit your ass down, Bakugo-kun. I’ll heal you.”

His eyebrow arched, “Don’t tell me what to fucking d—” He was silenced by a spell chanted by Amphyr.

He muffled through his mouth, trying to speak but he couldn’t in the end. The vein on his forehead became more prominent as his eyes turned white in irritation. The next thing he knew he was floating a bit, then he settled on the ground.

The brunette sat down in front of him, placing both her legs on one side. She stared at him for a brief moment while grabbing his arm. Amphyr snapped her fingers then swiped them left and right while moving her hand down.

Bakugo watched as golden flakes traveled down his injured arm. He felt his arm feeling less painful. She swiped her two fingers up, releasing the silence spell from his mouth. The brunette carefully turned his arm around, double checking for more injuries or anything.

“I didn’t completely heal your arm cause that’s not how magic really works. The injury is still there. I just enhanced the healing process by—Bakugo Katsuki,” She was interrupted when he spoke his full name.

“I-I’m sorry…?” She asked with confusion.

He stared at her again, not breaking eye contact. “That’s my fucking name. Bakugo Katsuki.”

Amphyr stared at him with bafflement again, unsure why he is introducing himself again. As she thinks, she finally realized what he was doing.

He’s acknowledging me…The brunette smiled, realizing that his introduction is a new beginning to their relationship chapter. The fact he is introducing himself to her shows a declaration of her strength.

“Amphyr Domino,” She smiled, not breaking eye contact with him.

He grinned, satisfied that she understood what he was implying.

“So, you’re gonna fucking explain who you are? You weren’t entirely trying to hide your fucking quirks from me anyway. Those blasts? The fire? The water? And this damn healing? Just who the fuck are you? And why the hell do you have so many quirks?” He asked, removing his arm from her grip.

“Remember when you asked if I was a princess?” She asked.

His eyes went wide, “No fucking way. You’re a princess?” He caught on very quickly. “So what? Am I supposed to bow down or some shit?”

She shook her head and pleaded, “Please don’t.”

“Okay good, cause wasn’t fucking planning to.”

Amphyr rolled her eyes, slightly hitting him on the chest. Bakugo stared at her with wide eyes, his eyes gave the ‘what’ look which annoyed her a bit further.

“You really have the ability to annoy people, huh?” Her eyebrow twitched violently, a vein on her neck became slowly prominent.

“It’s a fucking gift, Croissant,” He placed his tongue out while revealing his middle finger to her.

The brunette sighed in aggravation. The latter crawled to sit beside him against the tree trunk. She placed her head back, positioning her legs on one side. “But yep, you’re right though. I am a princess.”

He leaned his head back, gazing at his side to look at her. “Princess of what exactly?”

“Domino — Princess of Domino.”

“Hah? Isn’t that your last name?”

“Y-Yeah…I forgot this world requires a last name so when U.A. asked what my last name is…well…I kinda panicked and just said Domino…” She answered, remembering how she just screamed her kingdom’s title as her last name.

He scoffed playfully, “You fucking serious? You panicked because you forgot? Goddamn, Croissant. You better fucking tell me what you are or else I’ll think you're a damn alien or something.”

A vein in her forehead appeared, “I’m not an alien, you damn moron!” She faced him completely, pointing at him aggressively.

“Then what are you?” He questioned, bringing one knee up and placing his elbow on that knee.

“I’m many things, but I’m mostly known as a fairy,” She responded.

A sudden wind breezed upon both of them, causing their clothes and hair to dance with the wind as one.

“So you’re a fancy ass bird? That’s your quirk?”

“What the fu—fine yes, if that’s how you interpreted it.”

Bakugo looked at her briefly before gazing up in the night sky. “Fairy, huh? So you do magic or some type of shit?”

She sighed at his poor choice of language. “Yes, Bakugo-kun. I do magic, but it’s a bit different from quirks. Magic is quite flexible compared to quirks, but like all wonderful things, it does have limitations. I guess an example is when I silenced you. That’s a common spell for fairies. Let’s say you say the chantment, you can’t silence someone since you’re not a fairy. This means that as long as you’re a fairy, you can chant the common spells. This also applies in witchery.”

He listened attentively as Amphyr continued. “What differentiates each fairy is their chosen ability from birth. An example is my Aunt Bloom; she’s the Fairy of the Dragon Flame or my Aunt Flora; She’s the Fairy of Nature. These attributes help people differentiate us from other fairies.”

“What ‘bout you? What you’re the fairy of, Croissant?” He asked.

The brunette stared at him for a moment, trying to think of a satisfying answer. “It’s a bit complicated…”

Bakugo clicked his tongue, “Fucking try me, Extra.”

Calling a princess extra really shows what character he is. She sighed, “Okay, if you insist. I’m only classified as a fairy for now since I have not yet reached a certain level, but I’m really a Nymph.” She responded, but he just gave her a perplexed expression.

“A Nymph is one of the oldest magical creatures of my realm. They hold greater powers than any other fairy because the possess more than one power. In my case, I can manipulate any elements like fire, water, ice and others,” She added.

“WHAT THE FUCK? You’re old?!?” Bakugo blasted, creating tiny blasts from his palms in shocked.

Amphyr twitched in anger, slapping his left arm. “I’m not old, dumbass!! I’m literally 17 like you!! I was born from a Nymph, fool!”

“You didn’t fucking specify that shit!!”

She rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t even done explaining, moron!”

Bakugo clicked his tongue again, leaning back a bit more while placing his hands on his pockets. “You seemed like a strong motherfucker. Heck, you’re even a damn princess. So what’s a princess like you doing here in Japan anyway?”

Amphyr’s eyes soften with his question. “That’s a story for another time.”

His eyes turned white and exploded, “There is no other time!!”

She was caught off guard with his sudden explosion. But she was quick enough to understand what’s happening. Amphyr definitely does not want Bakugo to leave just like that after giving her that fight. This blond has given her the fight she wanted, and she sure as hell want to experience it again.

“How about this,” She spoke. “If you fight with me again, then I can tell you all about me and where I’m from.”

Bakugo scoffed, “What makes you think that I want to fight with you again, Croissant?”

Amphyr grinned, swiping her one arm to the side which released a strong wind that sliced up trees in half. “Because I didn’t show you everything yet, Bakugo-kun,” She kept her cocky smirk as the trees fell harshly to the ground.

“I’m sure you don’t want to miss a fight with someone like me after all,” She added.

“Are you playing with me, damn Croissant?” He chuckled, somehow getting fired up again.

“No, of course not. After all, you should consider yourself lucky because….” She stopped her words. “….you’re fighting with Domino’s precious princess, you big moron.”

His eyes flared up, feeling his adrenaline boosting through his veins. As much as he hates to admit it, a fight with Amphyr again is an exhilarating offer.

Over the course of their fight, he had witnessed her combat style — he could conclude she was definitely strong, hence why he didn’t back down and kept his guard up.

She’s strong in all places he can think of, but Amphyr’s main strength lies in strategy. He noticed that she’s quite observant with his tactics so she would carefully strategized on the spot.

Additionally, he also noticed that she would aim her powers at his left area, she was so careful not to aim too much on his right injured arm. Bakugo looked down at his injured arm, reminiscing the moments of his battle with Shigaraki.

Ba-tump…

His heartbeat made a sound he never anticipated.

Ba-tump…

There it goes again. Another beat on his heart.

“—ugo? Bakugo? BAKUGO!” His train of thoughts were interrupted.

His eyes quivered, looking around his area then looking up to see a small blasts on her palm.

“Oi. Were you ‘bout to slap me with that?” He pointed at her palm which was creating small blasts already.

“Uhh…n-no…?” She replied, immediately distinguishing her blasts from her palm.

Bakugo’s eye twitched. “Fucking Croissant! Don’t lie to me! I saw that shit!”

“….”

His entire body twitched violently, not liking that she isn’t responding. “At least fucking answer!!” His vision turned white and explosions occurred in the forest.

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kelseytheballerina · 1 year ago

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Heyy so Starting by being straight up and admitting that envy is an ugly habit I have. I see people who grew up with money living their best life and I get hurt and mad because I'm working my ass off just trying to get by, or I see an attractive woman and feel like crap. Its something I'm recognizing as a problem and I want to stop. I saw a post where you said something about being inspired and motivated by women who are better off/more successful/prettier/etc instead of comparing and getting jealous. How do you actually put that into practice and acheive that mindset?

totally, so basically I would just look at it as inspiration and proof of an outcome. a lot of our desires can be based on theory. the possibility of having this or going there or excelling in this way. but we don’t technically know if we could pull it off or if it’s ever been done before with a specific set of conditions, so our goals and desires are just a theory. for example, maybe you desire to be a mom-model-actress-ceo under 25 and you see a woman literally become just that. I wouldn’t be like “grrrr how dare she have what I want” I would be happy that I now have proof that what I want is in the realm of possibility and there is a path that has been laid out should I choose to use hers as a blueprint. people will likely be more accepting of me doing the same thing since there’s already been someone who has come before me and been successful. plus, now you could have a potential peer who becomes a potential friend when you are in the same circle. when it comes to beauty, there’s so many girls out there being unapologetically into beauty care so now people won’t be weirded out when I start showing up with nails and hair and cute clothes because they have helped break down the taboo. so it’s more of an appreciation for them trailblazing a path or showing time and time again that something is possible and here’s what it looks like for a 35 year old and a 60 year old and a 19 year old and a white American and a black American and a Nigerian Brit and so on and so forth. it’s inspirational data.

it’s like, I now know I’m not crazy and my aspirations are attainable at least to a degree (factoring in variables like where you’re born and parents you’re born to, etc) so all I have to do is stay on track and I’ll be there too some day. when I’m studying over and over and wondering if this is even real and then I see a classmate got an A, I feel better knowing that I’m not screaming into the void and that the outcome I seek is actually a reality. I no longer feel like I’m rowing in open water of uncharted territory. this land has been conquered before and that’s great! so maybe I won’t get skin exactly like hers but I’ll get close. maybe I won’t get her salary at the same age she did but even if I have to work an extra 5 years I’ll be glad I was inspired by her to keep going. maybe you didn’t consider the possibility of having certain things until you saw that woman with it and now your mindset has been expanded to have more out of life.

I feel like when you’re envious, there’s a part of you deep down that will secretly wish for someone’s downfall, even if you’re friends with them because it’s a “me vs you and there can only be one” mentality. which means you’ll be likely to think everyone else is secretly out to get you too or the world is conspiring against you when it’s nothing of the sort. but when you have an “I’m happy for you and patiently waiting my turn” mentality, you’re more likely to see the blessings happening to you in action, you’re more likely to be a positive person around such women and they’d more likely want to be around you and help you come up with them rather than feeling some sort of repressed hater energy.

I always just remember that none of us are on the same timeline and not everyone peaks at the same age. some are late bloomers, some have more barriers in the way, but that just means you will end up being someone else’s inspiration one day when they find interest in your variables and outcome. let your journey be what it will be and keep your mind open to the wisdom you’re collecting along the way. if it took you 3 years to clear your skin up, you’ll have waaaay more insight on the topic than someone who’s only ever experienced the occasional breakout and let’s say you wanted to turn that into a skincare YouTube channel or something, you’d have more success than someone with nothing to say. what I mean by that is, sometimes the ones with the long journeys that feel unfavorable in the moment end up blooming into an unforeseen opportunity in the future.

envy is never worth it. it just makes the journey more miserable than it needs to be and pushes people away.

#ask

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sl-newsie · 1 year ago

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Spelled (Carlos de Vil x Sanderson Daughter) Ch. 1: Control

“Ouch! No no no- definitely too much moon powder!” I hastily wipe my hands on my dusty skirt as I attempt to put out the purple flames coming out of my cauldron. I’m attempting a healing potion for my cat Twilight, but accidentally misread the spellbook. Mom’s spellbook.

But I’m too late to cover my tracks- I can already hear footsteps approaching outside!

“Magica! What have I told you about practicing magic?” My father yells from the doorway.

Twilight hisses and scrambles out of the kitchen, leaving me to fend for myself.

I cringe and turn around slowly. “Not to?”

My father, a tall buff man wearing a hunter’s cap, stomps into the room. “Yes! What if the Royal Guard was passing by? I don’t want you getting locked away!”

“But I don’t live on the Isle of the Lost, so magic is allowed here!”

“They don’t know-!” He sighs and rubs his head. “Since they don’t know about your mother, it’s best to just keep your magic hidden.”

“But dad, I’m finally getting the hang of this! I think I might write to Fairy Godmother and tell her about my magic-!”

“No!” My father stomps forward and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Magica, you’re my only daughter. If they found out you’re the descendant of a villain they could lock you up. I- I only want what’s best for you, understand? I know you’re proud of this gift and are a very talented witch, but sometimes it’s best to be normal.”

“But- but-!” I can feel my aunt’s temper boiling inside me. “Why should I be different?”

I wrap my cloak around me and storm out into the woods. There’s a secret spot I have near the stream that runs into the Enchanted Lake. It’s a small clearing big enough to practice my magic safely. After I sit down on a boulder I start tearing up, torn between being mad at my father for silencing my magic and being ashamed of being the descendant of an evil witch.

Yup, that’s me. Magica Sanderson, secret daughter of the infamous Sarah Sanderson. From what I’ve gathered, my mother seduced the Evil Queen’s Huntsman so Winifred Sanderson could steal one of her potions. The Huntsman became my father, and when he found out about me he immediately brought me to Snow White’s kingdom to keep me from becoming a VK. But the one thing he couldn’t avoid was the fact that I inherited my Aunt Winnie’s magical talent and my mother’s bewitching looks. I have my mother’s pale fair skin, white-blonde hair, and slim figure. I also inherited my Aunt Winnie’s bright green eyes and Aunt Mary’s love for Cheetos. I can’t help it- I’m a halfblood witch!

Father has tried to suppress my family ties by homeschooling me in our woodland cottage and dressing me in flowy pink dresses just like the goody-two-shoes kids wear at Auradon Prep. When I was old enough to control my powers, father brought me to the Auradon kingdom to meet Prince Ben, son of Beauty and the Beast. Immediately we became inseparable best friends, always causing mischief despite our parents’ disapproval. One time we slipped a hiccup potion into Chad Charming’s drink during a gala social, and spent the next half hour trying not to burst out laughing when he tried hiccuping at Audrey to ask her out! I told Ben about my powers, and he promised to keep it secret. He knows I’m nothing like my mother or aunts, and that I’d never try to hurt anyone.

But even so Ben’s acceptance can’t help fill the gap that separates me from the other kids in the village. I’m still different no matter how hard I try because I don’t have the arrogant, uppity attitude that the other kids have.

Mother, why do I have to be so different? Could I have at least one true friend who won’t disappear?

“Meow?” A voice calls.

I look over and see that Twilight has returned with another black cat- one with recognizable yellow eyes.

I sniff. “Hey, Binx. How’s it been?”

The two felines slink between my legs and rub their noses on my boots.

“Been fine, but from what Twilight’s told me you’re in a bit of a pickle. I know your dad means well, but even I agree that suppressed magic is never a good idea.”

I stop twirling pink sparks on my fingers and give Binx an odd look. “Why?”

Binx glances around nervously. “Well… I’ve heard stories of past maidens that try to bottle up their magic until any sudden breakdown can cause an outburst. Do you remember Elsa of Arendelle?”

The memory of seeing former Queen Elsa’s meltdown on tv runs through my head, and I have to agree that holding back my magic could lead to something worse.

“You’re right, Binx. But I can’t just do some tricks and expect the whole kingdom to be ok with it. I could be sent to Auradon Prep, or worse- the Isle of the Lost! And magic’s forbidden there so I’d be powerless! That and I’d have to live with-” I shutter. “My mom.”

Binx hisses and Twilight swipes a paw against my cheek. “No you won’t. We wouldn’t let that happen, and your father would protect you. I suggest you cool down a bit and then go back to the house.”

I sigh. “I guess so. But how long will I have to hide like this? All my life I’ve followed the rules and been nice, so I’m not wicked… am I?”

“No, no,” Binx assures with a soft voice. “It’s not that, it’s just that normal folks are unsettled by the strange and unusual. It’s like you said, you’ll be sent to Auradon Prep. You don’t want that, do you?”

I gag. “Ugh, no! Ben says all the people there are stuck up and half-witted fools! I would rather eat a toadstool dipped in boysenberry sauce than associate with those idiots!” I stand up and start walking back to the cottage. “Sorry Binx, but right now I better head back to father before supper. I’ll save you some fish!”

#descendants carlos #disney descendants #jay descendants #mal descendants #evie descendants #carlos de vil #carlos de vil x reader #ben descendants #audrey descendants #disney #descendants #descendants x reader #hocus pocus #sarah sanderson #winifred sanderson #mary sanderson #binx hocus pocus

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carinalastimosa · 4 months ago

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Man, oh man, oh Manny!

Star Wars’ The Acolyte may have been review bombed but it opened y’alls eyes up to the man, Manny Jacinto. The Filipino-Canadian actor made waves as The Stranger/Qimir. Now, if you haven’t seen the show, I won’t spoil it for you but I am sure by this point, you’ve seen some sort of meme/TikTok/post/text from your nanay, featuring the sexually charged (okay, Disney!!!) scenes between Amanda Stenberg’s Osha and Jacinto. In honor of The Acolyte’s finale, which aired last night on Disney+, here is a list of some of the other Asian men I’ve loved over the years on the big and small screen.

Paolo Montalban - The Definitive Prince Charming

One of my favorite movies, to this day, is the 1997 Whitney Houston produced television movie Cinderella. Even my top 4 on letterboxd proves this. It’s one of my first memories consuming pop culture because of the diversity in casting. Houston saw that this story didn’t have to follow traditional casting norms. You can have a Filipino prince and his parents be a white man and a black woman with no one questioning it! Since I saw this at the young age of 7, I thought this was the norm, when in fact, it was the opposite. It’d be one of those rare moments where my parents would ask, “Filipino?” because they weren’t and still aren’t used to seeing Filipinos on screen. Paolo Montalban as Prince Charming is honestly, charming! He brings an earnestness to the role and has genuine chemistry with the luminous Brandy as the titular Cinderella. Their chemistry was so strong, that they’ve even reprised their roles in the recently released Disney+ movie Descendants: The Rise of Red.

Tuxedo Mask - My First (Animated) Crush

That’s right! We all have one. And my animated crush was Tuxedo Mask from the Sailor Moon series. I mean, who could resist! The mask, so mysterious! The black, so tuxedo!

Dante Basco - Rufioooooooo!

The beauty of film is that it is forever. Which means, that for generations of kids to come, they have the exuberance of Dante Basco captured on screen as Rufio in Steven Spielberg’s Hook. I was one of those kids when I was first introduced to the film in the last 90’s. At first, it didn’t even register to me that Basco is also Filipino-American and I think that’s the beauty of Basco’s performance. He’s just one of the boys, the lost boys. While Basco’s career moved more towards voice over, he made his indelible mark as Zuko in Nickelodeon’s animated Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Charles Melton - This Man is a Movie Star

My first introduction to Charles Milton didn’t come through the hit CW series Riverdale. It was after my time. I’m of the Gossip Girl generation, xoxo. I started to hear about the Korean-American actor as the scene stealer in the hotly anticipated Natalie Portman-Julianne Moore headliner May December. And he didn’t disappoint. Melton completely transforms into a man forced into very adult circumstances, still trying to navigate his adolescence. It’s a deeply felt performance filled with longing. He should have been nominated for an Oscar. During the campaign trail, he exuded glamour with his style, affable charm during his interviews, and pride in his heritage in acceptance speeches. Proving why he should be Hollywood’s new leading man.

Lee Jung-jae - Quit Playing (Squid) Games with my Heart

Netflix probably didn’t realize they had a mega international hit on their hands when they dropped their all Korean language tv series Squid Game on their streaming platform. Studio execs will say a foreign language show will alienate audiences, that there aren’t enough bankable Asian stars even when shows like this and FX’s Shogun have proven otherwise. Squid Game made several stars out of the series, including model turned actor Jung Ho-yeon but Korea was already hot on Lee, already a well established star there, we were just playing catch up. It didn’t take long. Lee won numerous awards for his performance and he easily won my style heart. What an elegant, sexy ass man! Needless to say, I’m very grateful to his Gucci campaign.

Dev Patel - The Man

The Indian-British actor/producer/director has had an already varied and expansive career spanning nearly 2 decades, doing so with just 26 acting credits to his IMDb. Which tells me the industry is simply not using this man enough!

Henry Golding - Crazy Handsome Asian

To me, one of the most magical things a film can pull off is perfect casting. It’s a magic trick if they cast a virtual unknown, dazzling the audience, wondering how they did it. That’s how I felt with the casting of Malaysian-British tv correspondent Henry Golding in the film Crazy Rich Asians. A lot was already riding on this movie adaptation: a big budget, romantic comedy, starring an all Asian cast. It had to do well. Or else studio execs had the “proof�� they needed to no longer back Asian-led films. Casting Golding as their leading man could have been a risk but with their heroine Constance Wu and Oscar-worthy supporting performance from Michelle Yeoh, the movie was in good hands. Golding holds his own in his first feature film outing. Effortless and magnetic. Buzzy roles quickly followed in Paul Feig’s A Simple Favor and G.I. Joe franchise Snake Eyes. He’s also taken on more dramatic roles in smaller films, further pushing his acting ability. He continues to develop his craft, further cementing why we fell in love with him in the first place.

Manny Jacinto - The Inspo of this Blog

Everybody say, "Salamat, Manny"! He deserves all the roles. No more getting cut from films! In The Good Place, he played the classic himbo, which could have easily pigeonholded into similar roles but he's shown his versatility in shows like Nine Perfect Strangers where he held his own with, my favorite actress, Nicole Kidman. The Acolyte is another facet he's getting to show us and I hope this momentum carries him to the big screen. I'm rooting for this manny, talaga.

#the acolyte #manny jacinto #asian men #ranking list #entertainment #pop culture

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lieutenant-amuel · 1 year ago

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Alright, another post of the “my characters now have faces” series. I’ve made this and this post in the past and as always, I use only two picrews: this one for the majority of them, and this one for Señor Bravo (I’d honestly prefer to have all characters created in one picrew so the style was consistent but alas).

This post includes the characters who are quite minor, but all of them have appeared at least twice, so I think they deserve to be visualized, too. Plus, Karel and Laurens are going to be in the next chapter so you can have a clearer picture of them when they appear again.

And there’s also two bonuses :D (because I love all my characters too much, don’t judge me)

Karel Aakster

Karel has black hair, brown eyes, and light skin. All Aaksters are here having sharp facial features because I said so, and he’s not an exception as he has high cheekbones, square jaw, and a humped nose. He also has freckles because I love freckles.

He has not really long hair and a goatee or whatever this kind of beard is called. He also wears glasses.

He’s not tall, ~165 cm, and like his brother he’s a wardrobe, he’s big boned.

Ignore what he wears at all costs. He wears what he wears only because I couldn’t leave him naked. Although, maybe now it’s clear why Frida’s dad didn’t want to develop his fashion house with his brother. And green is definitely his color because Hendrik’s is red, and those colors are opposites so

Laurens de Wit

Laurens is a typical white boy.

His hair is blonde, his eyes are blue, his skin is light. Peak character design.

His face is narrow (I hope it doesn’t sound offensive or off akahdnfk; or heart-shaped, aka the lower part of the face is narrower than the upper one why do I always explain my characters’ appearances with shapes or comparisons what’s freaking wrong with me), he has a grecian nose like Frida, and overall his features are quite elegant.

I have no idea what type of body he has??? Alright, he’s relatively short for a guy (~170 cm or shorter) and he’s just a rectangle, he’s not muscular and I don’t want him to be super skinny either.

In clothes he’s fancy~

Federico Murillo

I honestly have no idea what to say about him XD

Umm hmmm. Okay, first, I’ll make a note that he’s at least 55 years older than Gabe, so in the fic he’s an elderly man (so he obviously has wrinkles and white hair, I won’t emphasize it; anyway, he has a granddaughter that’s been mentioned twice, so I hope it doesn’t come as a surprise that he’s old). He has hazel eyes, olive skin, and wears glasses.

His hair is wavy, when he was younger it was brown color. His beard is bushy. As for the face, he has soft and round features.

He’s plump, his height is ~175 cm. As for clothes, I don’t know.

Sebastián Bravo

Yes, his hair, eyebrows, and beard are three different colors ✌🏻 (okay, I can accept him having black eyebrows (because he had black hair when he was young), but his beard is grey, like his hair)

Okay, I don’t have much to say about him, this picrew is pretty good (especially when it comes to the hair), so I’ll just emphasize that he’s quite short (~170 cm) and skinny and overall always looks like he’s judging you.

Inés Rivera

Raise your hand if you remember her.

Honestly, Inés was such a big deal in the first drafts of this story, but then something went wrong XD

Anyway, looks like I’m a sucker for the thin tall (she’s ~172 cm and on heels she’s taller than Emilio >:D) women with sharp features, because she’s not the only one in my fic.

I’ll also add she prefers having her hair in a high bun and she loves floral accessories.

Bonus 1: Valerio’s parents

they both were bitches

Neither of them has appeared yet, but Valerio’s mother is painted on two portraits (so, if WBTL was a TV show, basically, we all would know how she looked already) and Valerio’s father is still a mystery, but we know quite a lot about him, so why not (and his parents are important, maybe not that much for the plot, but for my heart).

Valerio’s mother was a gorgeous woman had dark brown eyes, dark brown super straight hair, and dark skin. Her facial features were sharp, she had high cheekbones and aquiline nose (Valerio takes after her a lot).

She was tall (~173 cm) and big boned, her shoulders were relatively broad (she was a reverted triangle), so people wouldn’t call her elegant or feminine.

But! She was elegant in clothes. She dressed to the nines and had an absolutely refined taste. And since she was a jeweller, she loved jewelry items (and since she was quite prideful as well, she obviously preferred wearing the ones she made herself).

Valerio’s father (I have much less to say about him, ugh) had dark brown hair, brown eyes, and dark skin. He also had sharp facial features and generally he looked quite rough and mean akhsndjd.

He was tall (~188 cm), big, and muscular which made him look very scary too ahgsbdh and had a scar on his face (maybe somewhere else as well, he was a guard, and a very serious one after all).

As for clothes, he definitely knew his worth and his clothes were supposed to reflect it, so he was quite elegant, too.

The thing you should know about them is that they basically are the same person personality wise but they had absolutely different goals and views, just diametrically opposite, so they hated each other, but Valerio’s mother deserves more sympathy because she loved her son at least. And a lot.

Bonus 2: Animals :D

Because why not.

But to be serious, I think it’s still quite helpful for understanding how they look because I don’t describe animals’ appearances either.

I thought of making picrews for the dogs, too, but since I chose specific breeds for them, it was quite difficult and I just found the pictures from the Internet instead.

Nube

Nube is inspired by the breed dogo argentino. He’s a large white dog who might look a bit scary (he’s a hunting dog) but he loves his owners and can kill for them. Literally.

I also want to make a note that I’m aware “nube” is a feminine word in Spanish (it means “a cloud”). But I got aware of it super late, when Nube’s name and gender were mentioned way too often, and I simply didn’t want to change anything.

So, let’s pretend Ángel thought Nube was a girl when he got him, and when it turned out he was wrong, he just didn’t have the heart to change his dog’s name because he got used to it (and Nube, too) and decided to leave it as it was.

Sombra and Ceniza

Alright, I’ll put them together because I don’t have much to say about them.

Sombra is dead, but she (was mentioned in the latest chapter) was a dog in the Royal Guard school where Valerio studied, and they were really close. Sombra is inspired by the breed calupoh who are also known as Mexican wolf-dogs.

Ceniza isn’t inspired by any breed, I just googled the pic of a black dog so she looked similar to Sombra yet still was different (Sombra had pointy ears, and Ceniza has floppy ears).

That’s it!

#Was Born To Lead #My OCs #I’m not gonna tag them because they’re minor #Sorry #Valerio’s mom actually has two picrews #but it’s a bit spoilery if I can say so so I won’t share it #And I also have picrews of young Valerio Matías and Bernal :D #Yes I love my characters don’t look at me like that

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banannabethchase · 1 year ago

Note

Hello!! It’s me again. Would you write (even) more for the Fragile Invincibility au? I’d accept anything but specifically love to read the first time hangman takes the baller club boys to watch a match!! Thank you so much for every fic ✨

Backyard Wrasslin' - also on AO3

A "The Fragile Invincibility of Youth" story

Adam invites Matt, Kenny, and Nick to one of his wrestling shows. Mox is baffled.

Note: Teenagers are referenced having sex. They are both 18, committed relationship, nothing onscreen, all fade to black YA type vibes.

I...maybe have gone overboard on this prompt fill. I hope you enjoy!.

"You invited the Baller Club to a match?!" Mox asks. He's got his shirt off and belt undone. "And you decided to mention this right before we have sex?"

Adam, who's brain is decidedly not working right, nods. "Uh. Yeah?"

"They're gonna freak out," Mox says. "They're gonna think I'm actually trying to kill you."

"They won't - come back!" Adam grabs at Mox's belt loops. "I don't know why I brought it up. Take your pants off, I don't - come back."

Mox rolls his eyes. "Okay, yes, because I can't say no to you, but you'll explain yourself later."

"Explain myself la- what am I, your student?"

Mox grins at him. "I mean. We could play that."

"I'm going to kiss you so you shut up," Adam deadpans.

They're making their way into the kitchen when Mox grabs Adam's arm and pushes him against the wall. "Wait a second."

"Again?!" Adam giggles. "My parents are going to be home in, like, five minutes."

"Your hair's all messed up," Mox says, fiddling with Adam's hair.

Adam slaps his fingers away. "I - let me fix it. Get off."

"Already did that!"

Adam laughs as he steps into the bathroom. He ties his hair back in a quick bun, adjusts his shirt, and steps back out. "So - "

"So you invited your ex and your annoying friends to our match tonight," Mox says. He doesn't look angry, at least, so Adam thinks that's a small win.

"I can tell them no if you don't want them there," Adam says. He drops onto the couch, pulling his backpack toward him with his foot. He briefly worries Mox won't join him, but then he's there, snuggled up next to Adam like a puppy. “Seriously.”

“No, I just want to make sure they know I’m not actually hurting you.” He looks up at Adam, frowning. “As much as I’m glad you’re all friends again, I’m still a little worried they’re looking for an excuse to kill me.”

“They won’t kill you,” Adam says, running his fingers through Mox’s hair. He’d grown it out over the winter, bringing back the soft locks Adam had originally fallen in love with. The blue was new, though. He and Willow match now. “And if they do, I’ll kill them back so I can use their blood to resurrect you.”

“I need you to stop watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Mox laughs, but he curls into Adam’s lap and falls asleep while Adam completes his Chemistry homework.

“Okay, I know I haven’t called you in, like, years, but I have no idea where to go, and I think I’m being followed by a white van, and I’m pretty sure I’m about to kill Nick and Kenny, so where the hell am I supposed to go?!”

Adam pulls the phone away from his face as Matt rants. “Um,” he says. “Are you – where are you?!”

“I don’t know!” Matt wails. “There’s a blue house with, like, pride flags everywhere?”

“Okay, you’re close!” Adam jogs past the ring and parking lot, then dashes out to the road. “Do you see me?” He waves his free hand. “I’m waving. Do you see me?”

Making what is probably a highly illegal u-turn in the middle of the road, a car that is highly familiar zooms toward him and slows only to turn into the dirt road. Matt, looking haggard and confused, is behind the wheel.

“When I tell you these two can’t even read an effing GPS, I’m not kidding.” Matt exhales, blowing his hair out of his eyes. “Where do I go next?”

“Follow me.”

Adam jogs as Matt follows him, and guides Matt into a parking space he’s pretty sure Matt won’t be able to back out of on his own. He waits a little awkwardly as Matt picks his way around the puddles of mud.

“This place is a mess,” he says, grabbing Adam’s arm as he leaps over a puddle.

Adam shrugs as Kenny and Nick, a little less delicately, make their way around the puddles and follow Adam toward the ring and chairs. “It’s a backyard wrestling group. Nothing’s particularly well made here.” He gestures to the seats he saved for the three of them. “Except for the matches. Those are pretty cool.”

Matt primly sits into a chair. “When do you go on?”

“Well, me and Mox have a match first,” Adam says, “but you’ll get to see some cool stuff, too. Eddie is in the main event, so he’ll be on last. He’s going up against the Bryan guy Mox wrestled a while back.”

“Are there any other matches?” Nick asks. He’s looking around eagerly, like he’s more comfortable here than he expected.

Adam nods. “I think three others? Willow’s going up against Ruby – they’re doing a feud because Ruby hit her with a chair a while back – and I think this kid Wheeler Yuta is going up against somebody. He’s a sophomore.”

Matt’s eyes widen. “He’s here? Really?”

Adam states at Matt. “Oh, god.”

“I –”

“I can’t believe you have a crush on him,” Nick chuckles.

“I don’t!” Matt says. Adam, Nick, and Kenny stare at him. Adam thinks it’ll be seconds to wait him out. “…I do. Don’t tell him.”

Adam grins. “I won’t.” He bumps Matt’s shoulder with his. “I gotta go get ready for my match, though, so I’ll see you later.” Adam looks at Kenny. At Nick. At Matt. “Um. Thanks for coming, guys. It means a lot.”

“Of course, Adam,” Kenny says. His smile is genuine when he looks at Adam, and it doesn’t ache like it used to. It’s nice. But nothing more. “Go out there and kill it.”

Adam smiles back. “I will.” He makes his way to the tent where the other wrestlers are getting ready. Ruby is doing Willow’s hair as Willow plays some song game on her phone. Eddie and Mox are trading headlocks in the corner. Wheeler Yuta is stretching on his own, though, so Adam walks over to him.

“Hey, dude,” he says, settling in the chair by Yuta’s bag. “How are you holding up?

“Good,” Yuta says, smile a little weak. “Nervous. Claudio’s huge. I’m pretty sure he’s going to kill me.”

“He won’t kill you,” Adam says, waving it off. “He’s good. And he’s safe.” Adam doesn’t mention the time he almost broke his arm last week after taking an elbow drop wrong, since that was more his fault. “You’ll do great.”

“That’s not how Eddie sees it,” Yuta says, chancing a glance over at Eddie, who is now sitting on Mox’s butt and poking him in the ribs to make him laugh. “He really hates Claudio.”

Adam knows Eddie’s disdain for Claudio, knows of the hatred, but doesn’t know why. He doesn’t feel like he’s ready to ask about it, though. “Eddie hates a lot of things,” he decides on. “Doesn’t make them bad.”

Yuta nods slowly. “Yeah.” They’re quiet for a moment, and Adam’s about to leave when Yuta says, “Um, actually, I have a question.” When he looks up, his cheeks are just this side of pink. “Mox told me you were, um, inviting the Jacksons?”

Adam hesitates. “Yeah?”

“Is, um,” Yuta folds himself into a weird shape. Adam assumes it’s a stretch, but he’s upside down and standing on his head, so he’s not sure. “Is Matt going to be here?”

“Oh, god.”

“No!” Yuta says, scrambling to his feet. “It’s – okay, don’t say anything.”

“I promise,” Adam deadpans, “if you go out there and wrestle like you’ve been, Matt will fall in love with you before you know it.”

Yuta lights up. “Really?”

Adam sighs. “Yes.”

He shoves Eddie off of Mox, getting a smack on the ass for his troubles and grinning about it. “Come on,” he says, dragging Mox to the back. “Let’s go over the match, one more time.”

They run the match, throwing each other around, and it ends with Mox pinning Adam. It doesn’t quite feel like Adam’s the one losing, though, with the way Mox’s legs straddle Adam’s hips and his arms loop around Adam’s legs. Mox called it a rollup. Adam asked him if it was secretly a new position Mox wanted to try.

“Oh, god, go be pervs somewhere else,” Ruby says, nudging Mox’s leg with her boot. “Tony wanted me to get you two idiots up so you can get to the stage.”

Mox swings his leg over, spins to his feet, and sticks out his arm. “C’mon, baby, let’s get out there so I can kick your ass.”

“You don’t have to be so annoying about it,” Adam giggles as he leaps to his feet. “I’ve won in other –”

“Nope!” Ruby yells. “Still in earshot! Shut up!”

They get behind the curtain ready for the ring, and Mox starts bouncing. Since Adam’s the newbie, he goes out first to his edit of Bronco, throwing the curtain open at the first, ‘Bronco, runnin’ wild,’ to cheers. He glances over to see Matt, Nick, and Kenny cheering like they’ve been here a million times, like they know exactly what to do. He’s excited to be the face in this match – it’s the first time he’s gotten a real character for himself. The jeans and old cowboy boots work almost too well.

“And coming in next,” comes the announcer’s voice, “Jon Moxley!”

Mox comes out to Wild Thing, a sneer on his face that almost makes Adam giggle. The boos are loud, almost deafening. Matt and Nick look bewildered, but Kenny leans over and says something to them and they boo as well.

The match goes by in a whirlwind, and Adam almost forgets at the end that he’s not supposed to kick out.

When the referee, one of Eddie’s friends from work, Aubrey, counts to three, Adam’s pretty sure he can hear Nick booing the loudest.

“Good job,” Mox says, beaming at Adam. “You killed it.”

“You too.” Adam has to remember to look disappointed as he rolls out of the ring. When he gets backstage, Eddie practically mauls him.

“You did fuckin’ great, baby!” he yells, clapping Adam on the shoulder.

Adam grins at him. “Thanks. It felt really good.”

Mox comes in after him and pretty much does maul Adam, sending him careening to the floor in a way reminiscent of the pin from earlier.

“Hi,” Adam says.

“Hi,” Mox says. “You did so good.” He leans down and kisses Adam hard and fast.

“Gross!” yells Ruby from somewhere in the back of the tent.

Mox helps the other wrestlers prepare while Adam sneaks out to watch the rest of the matches next to Matt.

“You did awesome!” Nick says. “That was so cool.”

Matt’s face is a little pinched. “Mox was kind of mean to you.”

“He’s supposed to be mean, Matt,” Kenny eyes, rolling his eyes. “He’s the heel. That’s the bad guy.” He glances over to Adam for confirmation. He nods. It’s kind of nice to be the one they check in with. “It’s all pretend, right?”

“It’s all pretend,” Adam confirms. “Well, except for the getting an arm across the chest. That kind of hurt.” He rubs at it, the ache blooming as he mentions it.

Matt turns into a googly eyed disaster when Yuta gets in the ring. He enters to American Idiot and Matt claps like a maniac.

“Nick,” Adam says, leaning behind Adam. “Do we need to sedate Matt or something?”

Nick laughs. “Nah, just let him be in love. He’s being super weird about Yuta.”

“Am not!” Matt snaps. “He’s so smart. He’s in tenth grade and he’s in my senior level Calculus class. It’s…” He trails off. “Oh. Oh and he’s got abs.” He pauses. “Maybe I do need to be sedated.”

Adam laughs as the music changed to Do Ya Think I’m Sexy? That entrance music is one among many reasons Eddie hates Claudio, but Adam thinks it’s hilarious.

The match is quick, as expected, as it’s Yuta’s first, but Yuta does great and sells like a champ.

Matt audibly gasps as Claudio hauls Yuta up in his signature swing, spinning Yuta until he taps out and collapses to the floor.

“Should I go check on him?” Matt asks, looking over at Adam. “He looks hurt.”

“He’s fine,” Adam says. “But I’m sure Yuta would be very pleased if you ran ringside and got all concerned about him.”

Matt nods and leaps out of his chair, running over to the ring. “Wheeler!” he calls. “Are you alright?”

Adam, Nick, and Kenny laughs at Yuta’s bewildered face. “Uh, yeah,” he says. He glances at Adam, who shrugs and grins.

“Go for it,” Adam mouths.

“I, uh, could use some help getting to the back,” Yuta says, doing his best to look miserable and hurt. It doesn’t quite work on the rest of the crowd, Adam thinks, but it sure as hell works on Matt.

“Of course!” Matt helps Yuta out of the ring and bats his eyelashes as they go back to the tent.

“I can’t believe Matt got a boyfriend at your wrestling thing,” Nick grumbles, folding his arms over his chest. “I have got to get out there.”

“You will, champ,” Adam says, clapping Nick on the shoulder. “You will.”

Matt and Yuta come back holding hands and chatting with stars in their eyes, and the rest of the show goes off without a hitch. Bryan and Eddie may literally be trying to kill each other during their match, but Eddie wins and it’s an overall success.

“We usually head to Willow’s house after matches,” Adam says as Mox comes up behind him and curls around him. “If you three wanted to come?”

“Yeah, sure!” Matt says. “Wheeler, do you need a ride?”

Wheeler looks shocked, as he’d ridden with Mox and Adam to the show. Adam stares at him, hoping Yuta gets the hint. “Uh. Sure! Sure, I could need a ride.”

“And Kenny and Nick, if you want to hop in my truck,” Adam says insistently.

Nick nods. “Yeah, I don’t want to be anywhere near whatever the two of them are doing.”

As Adam watches Matt smoothly pull out of the parking spot like it’s nothing, clearly chattering nonstop to Yuta, he takes the lead and drives the short distance to Willow’s house.

“Hey, Mox,” Nick says. “So, if you and I were in the ring, which of us would win?”

“Oh, I’d fuckin’ flatten you in seconds.”

“Would not!”

Adam laughs, and thinks that, maybe, he’s got it figured out. At least for now.

Mini Playlist: Bronco - Orville Peck Wild Thing - The Troggs American Idiot - Green Day Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? - Rod Stewart

#HangMox High School AU #FIOY #in which Sara writes #LOOK I DID IT #Why was this prompt so hard to fill? I have no clue #But it was #But it's done!#wtf i like wrestling now???#HangMox #MattYuta #anxious millennial dreamboat #madly in love with leather daddy jon moxley

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nerdygaymormon · 2 years ago

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someone told me that there aren't gay people in heaven, it's a thing some people suffer with in this life and they'll be cured in heaven. what do you think?

This idea that I won’t be gay in heaven is pernicious.

I know some people think "What's the big idea? You'll just be attracted to women instead of men. You'll still be you."

Being gay is part of how I experience the world, it influences who I bond with, and what I find attractive. Being gay is a part of my core, it is part of who I am. It is literally how I am made.

Being gay affects me in many ways. Studies show that on average gay people are more creative, have higher IQ’s and higher emotional intelligence, have more compassion and are more cooperative and have less hostility.

To make me straight would make me not be me. To say I’m going to be resurrected as a straight person is akin to deleting me and creating a new person who is straight.

————————————————————

The real problem is our heteronormative society decides anything not heterosexual is wrong and must be deleted or changed.

There are many queer people who didn’t want to be queer and instead want to be "normal." They fought to be not queer, and eventually have to accept this is part of who they are. A person’s sexual orientation or gender identity doesn’t change because someone wants it to, it’s not a choice.

Conversion therapy, also called reparative therapy, is an effort to change a person from being gay to being straight. Studies show the 3 most common outcomes of conversion therapy is feeling suicidal, attempting suicide, and completing suicide. Yet parents still sign up their children for these "therapies" because of their bias against anything queer.

If there was a treatment for heterosexual people with thoughts of suicide, attempted suicide, and suicide as the #1 outcomes, it would be banned.

Given the disastrous consequences, I can’t imagine heaven would include forced conversion of queer people.

————————————————————

Gender is eternal and sexuality is a sacred gift, that’s what our church teaches. Why would someone's gender not be eternal just because it doesn’t fit a certain binary? Why is my sexuality not a sacred gift just because it's different from theirs?

Simply observing God's creations in this world, we can surmise God loves diversity. The idea that God will eliminate the many ways that humans are diverse and assimilate us all into being the same just doesn't fit.

————————————————————

To say I will no longer be gay fundamentally alters our understanding of the resurrection.

“That same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.” Alma 34:34.

It doesn’t say that the spirit will be radically altered before being reunited with the body.

————————————————————

The reason gay people "suffer" in this life is because we're denied the same rights and privileges afforded to straight people, we're not accepted the same way but instead are talked about as a sin and that we're dangerous to children.

By saying queer people will no longer be queer after death is a way of avoid the need to make things better in this life because they'll be taken care of in the next life.

The same is true about other things we've taught, such as Black people and other peoples of color will be made white in the afterlife, that allowed people to justify and perpetuate racism in this life.

Similarly, teaching that disabled people will no longer have those disabilities when they're resurrected doesn't remove our obligation to dismantle ableism in this world. We need to create access so all people can fully participate in community life.

Who knows for sure what heaven will be like? Maybe LGBTQ people will become like non-queer people, maybe they won’t. Meanwhile they deserve to have meaningful lives with the same dignity and opportunities for happiness. “Man is that he might have joy.”

#queerstake

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amor-immortalem · 1 year ago

Text

A Change in Routine

Word Count: 5.4k +

Repost from yesterday cuz my dumbass queued it for the wrong day!

A/N: Allergies were kicking my ass last year, so I didn’t have much energy to finish this up before Mammon’s (and Mahlon’s) birthday hit. I’ve had a whole year to work on this instead, so we’ll see if it’s still any good.

“What do you mean he won’t be home for our birthday?!”

“Honey, your father has a lot of souls to judge.” Arella frowns at the look on her youngest’s face. She always hated it when any of the kids were let down. “He’s trying his best to be done with his work by the weekend but unfortunately, sometimes these things happen. I know it’s disappointing because you two always celebrate your birthdays together, but there’s always next year, right?”

The boy only looks away from his mother frowning. “Yeah, I guess…” and then he runs off to sulk.

“He’ll be fine.” the human tells herself, “Learning how to accept changes will be good for him.”

・・・〆・・・

As the week goes on, Mahlon seems to get more upset over Mammon not being home on their birthday. He doesn’t do any schoolwork- not that grade one offers that much schoolwork to begin with. Even if it did, the little one was too distracted wracking his brain over why his father was really missing their birthday. It had to be something he did.

“Maaaahloonnn, are you even listening to me?” Oliver complains as he waves his hand in front of his cousin’s face. “Helloooo, are you in there?”

The pair were waiting for their mothers after school let out that Friday as both Azalea and Cyrus had been stuck in detention, Henry had cut school to stay home and play video games all day, Melissa and Solaris were at cram school and Aurelius had a photoshoot at Majolish right after R.A.D had gotten out for the day.

“No… I wasn’t. Sorry…” the apology was half-hearted at best. “What were you saying?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” the older half-demon sighs as he takes a seat next to the freckled boy. “You’ve been like this all week- I thought you would be super excited considering your birthday is the day after tomorrow…”

“Daddy won't be home for it this year so what’s the point in being excited?”

“You’re sad about it? I thought you’d like having a party all to yourself this year…”

“I like sharing my birthday with Daddy. That’s the only good thing that makes me special from my brothers and sister… you wouldn’t get it. You’re Aunt Paisley and Uncle Belphie’s only kid so things are different for you, but I have to compete for my parents’ attention with the others…”

Oliver only shrugs as Paisley and Arella arrive.

“Hey, boys.” Paisley smiles as Oliver runs up and all but leaps into their arms. “Did you have a good day?”

“My day was good! I didn’t fall asleep at all during class!” the blue and white-haired boy smiles, “I missed you lots and lots though!”

“Awww, I missed you to, baby.”

“And what about your day, Mahlon?” Arella asks, “Did you have a fun time?”

Mahlon only shrugs, he won’t tell her about all the teasing and bullying that went on throughout the day.. “It was okay, I guess… not a whole lot happened so I guess it was kinda boring…”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Arella kneels down, “I know you’ve been kind of down in the dumps this past week so how about we go get some ice cream to make up for the day, hm?”

Oliver’s eyes lit up at the mention of sweet treat. “Can we go too, Mommy? Please, please, pleeeeease?”

“I don’t really want ice cream,” the black-haired boy says softly. “Sunday, I’m gonna have cake. That’s way too much sweets for one weekend. I just wanna go home…”

Arella and Paisley share a worried look. Mahlon loves ice cream- it’s his most preferred treat when his mood is off and to hear the boy turn down such an offer is surprising.

“He’s really taking the whole news about Mammon being away for his birthday pretty rough, isn’t he?”

“Unfortunately…” Arella sighs before turning her attention back to Mahlon. “Alright well, if you change your mind later, we can always go then.” She offers her hand to him which he takes. “We’ll see you all on Sunday. Have a good night, Paisley. Please remind Belphegor we have that meeting on Monday at 8 am and unless he is actively judging souls in Hell, he needs to be there, awake and alert.

“Alright.” They smile, “Also when is your next trip to the human world going to be? I’d like to go visit my sister and see the sun.”

“Next week, I think… I’ll let you know once I check my calendar.”

After that, the two humans part ways, their children in tow.

・・・〆・・・

Once Arella and Mahlon get home, the boy goes straight to his room. He doesn’t even greet Azalea as she sits in the middle of the living room floor attempting to beat the final boss of a new RPG Levi had lent her. Something not unnoticed by the 20-year-old.

“What’s his deal?” she asks as Arella takes a seat on the couch behind her.

“He’s upset that your father won’t be home for his birthday.” The human frowns. “You know how he likes these types of things to be the same every year and the fact that it’s different this year has been affecting him all week.”

“Oh, he’s so dramatic- it's one birthday.” Azalea rolls her eye, “The kid’s gonna have a billion more to celebrate with Dad, one year won’t hurt nothin’. ‘N besides, Cyrus isn’t doing so hot in his training which is causing all sorts of back-ups for Dad- and I’m out here putting in all this hard work behind the scenes so Cyrus can know what he’s doin’, and yet, it’s being wasted.” She feigns a disappointed sigh, “You can tell he ain’t got the spine for the job... so annoying but what can I do?”

“Well, I appreciate what you’re doing to help your brother- and I’m sure your father does as well even if he doesn’t quite realize it yet.” Arella smiles. “Changing subjects, you had an eye-doctor appointment today- how did that go?”

“Shitty.” the freckled girl replies, “Turns out I can’t see for shit out of my remaining eye. I’m gonna need glasses or a monocle or some shit like that. Hey, do ya think if I got a glass eye to replace the one I’m missin’ that that would be weird?”

“No,” Is all Arella responds with at first, “I think it would make for some interesting pranks with demons who don’t know you very well though.”

“It would, wouldn’t it?” A mischievous grin paints itself on her features, “Thanks for the idea, Mum.”

“Any time, my dear.”

・・・〆・・・

“So, there’s absolutely no way you’ll be able to make it home in time for Sunday?” the human chews on her bottom lip as she washes the dishes from dinner.

“No.” Is Mammon’s response, “I ain’t even gotten through a small fraction of the souls I had to go chase down after Cyrus summoned ‘em but couldn’t judge ‘em fast enough. There has to be a good 5000 left. Probably another 1000 still out runnin’ around the fourth layer too. Some even escaped back up to the human world- Thirteen told me she’d round them all up and haul ‘em back here for me but the whole situation is just a mess.”

He runs a hand through his hair as he sighs.

“This ain’t what I wanna be doing on mine and Mahlon’s birthday of all days. I’d like to be home with y’all, but it just isn’t meant to be this year, I guess.”

“Yeah, Mahlon’s taking it especially hard. I don’t know what it is about your guys’ birthday, but he just refuses to compromise on it. He didn’t even seem too keen on a party because it’s not something we usually do for you two.”

“It’s cuz ya spoil him too much, Babe.” The demon teases, “Every time he even looks like he’s gonna have one of his meltdowns, you cave.”

“And you don’t?” She asks worriedly, “You’ve seen what he does to himself when he gets that upset- the biting, the hitting, the head-banging, the scratching-”

“Yeah, I’ve seen it all. But I don’t let it happen either. I lock the kid down ‘n hold on until he’s done and had a chance to calm down some. It ain’t all that difficult to keep him safe and not let him have his way at the same time.”

“Easy for you to say,” Arella sighs, “I don’t have the physical strength necessary to hold him down like that and with how hard he bangs his head, he might actually break my ribs if he decides to bang his head against my chest, so my only option is to give in to his demands.”

“And that’s why ya have the hardest time setting limits with him, ‘Rella. Get one of his siblings to hold him down- ‘Relius and Cyrus both know how, and Azalea’s seen me do it enough times that she’s got the gist of it too. Anyway, I have to go before I lose these souls that I just managed to bring back. I love you, and I’ll see you... hopefully sometime next week?”

“I love you too. Come back soon.”

She doesn’t know it yet, but the demon’s been lying to her this entire time. He’d managed to catch up on this disaster his son had made earlier in the week and now didn’t have nearly as much work left as he’d told her- maybe just a single night’s worth of work left. All this lying was meant to just be a big surprise for his youngest.

As the pair hang up, Arella can hear some kind of commotion going on upstairs. She runs to go check it out. To her surprise, she sees Mahlon being held down by his sister as he just wails and struggles and screams.

“Hey, hey, it ain’t the end of the world, kid. It’s just one day. It’s not worth hurtin’ yourself over.” Her words end up breaking with each backswing of the six-year-old's head against her chest before she shifted her hands to grasp both of his wrists in one and the other’s placed against Mahlon’s forehead so he couldn’t headbang anymore. Azalea even has her legs placed over his to keep Mahlon’s legs from kicking violently. “It’s okay for things to be a little bit different.”

“NO, IT’S NOT!” The black-haired boy shrieks at the top of his lungs as he coughs in between sobs. He starts squirming to get out of his sister’s grasp, but she’s got him locked down. “I WANT DADDY!”

“Well, Daddy ain’t here and carryin’ on this way ain’t gonna make him magically appear either.” Azalea’s tone is stern as she looks over at their mother. “Look, Mum’s here. You’re scaring her by acting like this. I can let you go but we need to have a calm body first.”

“NO!” Again, the six-year-old wriggles and squirms. “I WANT DADDY! I WANT DADDY HOME WITH US FOR OUR BIRTHDAY!”

“Mahlon, honey, this is quite enough.” Arella is kneeling down in front of her youngest. “I know this is a big change for you, but we can’t help that your father won’t be here. Nothing can stay the same forever. Everything always changes even if it’s just a little bit.”

“B-but I don’t wa-nt it to!” The little half-demon's voice hiccups as he starts to calm down. He’s still heaving breaths as he sniffles.

“I know, Baby.” the human smiles sadly as she wipes the remaining tears away, “But as time goes on, that’s just what happens. There’s no reasoning to it.”

As the child finally de-escalates, Azalea let’s him go. Arella can’t help but try to cover up the wince her face takes at the sight of his little arms all scratched and bitten up. All the wounds were superficial, thankfully, but they still look painful.

“My head hurts...” is all Mahlon mumbles as he leans against his mother.

“Well, yeah, I bet.” Azalea grumbles as she rubs the spot on her chest that he’d been all but bashing his head against. “You’ll feel better in a bit once you calm down a bit more.”

“I can give you something for the pain,” Arella says as she wraps the six-year-old up in her arms. “Azalea, do you want anything for your chest? You look like you’re in pain.”

“Nah, I’ll be fine.” She’s scrolling through her fabsnap when she comes across a shipping video between her, the poster, and her twin. “Grooooossss, why’re people even inta real-person-fiction? It’s kinda depressing to be honest.”

Arella merely shrugs. “Comes with the price of coming from a family as well-known as ours. Just block them and move on.”

“Those are the types of people who didn’t get bullied enough as kids and it shows.” The 20-year-old chuckles. “Like we’d even be into sharing partners with each other anyway.”

“Azalea. Just ignore it if you’re uncomfortable with it. The longer you watch and engage with it, the more frequently that type of content will appear on your feed.”

“Fine, fine, I’m done. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a project I still need to finish before the party on Sunday.” She’s off before either Mahlon or Arella can ask what she was working on.

・・・〆・・・

It’s rather early in the morning- just before the crack of dawn- when Mammon sneaks into the house. This was supposed to be a surprise, not only for his youngest, but for his wife as well who was none the wiser about what was really going on. He finds her in the kitchen, brewing her usual morning cup of tea.

Quietly, he inches closer and closer until...

“Gotcha!” Mammon wraps his arms around her waist.

Arella reacts immediately, head flying back and hitting the demon square in the mouth. The white-haired male recoils letting out a pained groan as he stumbles back.

“Mammon!?” Arella’s surprised as she gets a better look at him in the dim kitchen light. “Oh, Love, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

“Totally,” He’s still covering his mouth as he leans against the counter. “I’m fine.”

Unconvinced, the human only grabs an ice pack from the freezer. “How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me like that? Let me see your mouth.”

“Hundreds,” Mammon does as he’s asked, revealing the freshly busted lip he received from this exchange. “I thought it would go better than this...”

“Well, unfortunately that’s not the case.” She sighs as she wraps the ice pack in a towel and hands it to her husband. “You could have told me you were coming home early, you know?”

“And have you ruin the surprise for Mahlon? Nah. Speaking of, is he still in bed? I thought he woulda been up by now even with it being a rough night for y’all.”

“So, you heard about that? You can thank your daughter for stepping in to help.”

“She did? I’m surprised.”

“Yes, she did. Anyway, to answer your question, yes, he’s still sleeping- well more like he just fell asleep not too long ago. There was a lot of self-injurious behavior, so Azalea’s been sitting with him the past couple of hours. You can be the one to wake him up later.”

“Yeah sure, but for right now…” Mammon wraps his arms around her waist as he leans in for a kiss, “since we’re the only ones up ‘n all, I figured we could-”

“No.” The human chuckles softly as she dabs at his lip with a paper towel. “After I have my tea, I promised Azalea I would finish wrapping the present she made for Mahlon and after that I’m starting on the culinary prep work for today’s party and then breakfast. Buuuut if you’re a good boy today, then I promise we’ll have time for that later once the kids all go to bed.”

“Fiiiiine,” The demon purses his lips in a pout at the rejection. “Can I at least get one kiss? It is my birthday after all.”

Arella leans over and presses a kiss to his cheek. “You can’t trick me that easily, Mammon. We’ve been together long enough that I know one kiss isn’t just one kiss with you. Now, run along and go get some rest. You’ll need it if I’m going to have my fun with you tonight.” She gives her husband a pat to the cheek as she turns back to the kettle that was now whistling.

“Nah, I think I’ll stay and help.”

・・・〆・・・

At about 11:30, after a whole seven and a half hours of assisting his wife, Mammon decides it’s time to wake Mahlon for the day.

As he ascends the steps up to the second level, who should he run into but his daughter. She was just coming out of her youngest brother’s room when Mammon calls out to her.

“Thanks for helping your ma out last night, Zay.”

“Hmm? Yeah, don’t worry about it.” The half-demon yawns. “Cyrus and Aurelius seemed pretty fit to be tied with the kid last night, so I just dealt with it. Don’t expect it to be a regular occurrence though.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it- anyway, it’s just nice to know I can count on ya to step up when we need it.”

With nothing more said between the two, Azalea stalks off back to her room and Mammon continues of his mission to wake up Mahlon.

As he enters the child’s room, he knelt down beside his son’s bed.

“Mahlon, time to wake up, Buddy.”

The little half-demon grumbles as he rolls away.

“Mahlon,” the demon tries once more, “Mommy made breakfast for you. Its gonna get cold.”

“Noooo,” this time there’s an audible response as Mahlon pulls his pillow over his head. “Want Daddy.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m the one wakin’ ya up then.” Mammon’s voice is a little louder, a little clearer than the gentle tone he’d just been using.

It takes the boy a little longer to process what he’s just heard than usual, but when it clicks, Mahlon sits up frantically with wide multicolored eyes.

“Surprise!”

“Daddy!”

The seven-year-old leaps forward, nearly knocking his father to the ground as he wraps his arms around the demon’s neck in a tight hug. Mammon’s able to catch himself before he manages to topple over though.

“You said you weren’t gonna be home in time.” Mahlon’s voice comes out muffled.

“Thought I wasn’t for a minute there,” Mammon sighs as he stands up and heads downstairs, “but I worked extra hard so I could be home in time to celebrate with you.” He sets the boy down as they reach the kitchen.

“There’s the birthday boy!” Arella smiles as she sets Mahlon’s plate at the table. “Did you sleep okay?”

“Mhm. I slept really good. I’m still kinda sleep.”

“Didn’t know being an obnoxious little brat could be so exhausting,” another voice grumbles under their breath from the table.

“Aurelius, enough.” The human replies sternly. “Finish up your breakfast so you’re not late for your photoshoot.”

“Don’t got one anymore after a certain someone decided to bite me so hard his fangs broke skin,” his green eyes send an annoyed glare towards his younger brother who misses the malice behind it completely.

“Don’t have your arm near my mouth then.” Mahlon shoots back as he sticks his tongue out.

“Don’t be so out of hand that I have to restrain you!” He stands suddenly and Arella puts a barrier up between the two of them to keep anyone from getting hurt.

“No thanks, boys. We’re not doing this right now. Both of you need to finish your breakfast and then you can go your separate ways until the party.”

“And when you’re done, Aurelius,” Mammon pops his head in through the kitchen serving hatch, “come see me in Mom’s office. I wanna talk to ya about something.”

Mahlon just gives his older brother a smug look when neither of their parents are looking, thinking he’d won their little exchange, to which Aurelius just rolls his eyes and shovels what remained of his breakfast into his mouth.

・・・〆・・・

“So, you wanted to see me?” Aurelius asks as he closes the door to the office. He’s surprised to see his older siblings sitting in the chairs in front of the desk. “Well at least I know I’m not in trouble if the two of you are here as well.”

“Ya weren’t in trouble to begin with, kid.” The demon has to suppress a soft chuckle, “Pop a squat, it’ll only be a couple minutes for you. Your brother and sister however- well I got more than just a couple of minutes worth of lecture for them.”

Once Aurelius has taken a seat next to his sister, all three of them wait patiently.

“I want y’all to stop helping with your brother.” Mammon starts after a long pause. None of them can believe what they just heard.

“Come again?” Azalea is the first to speak. “Did you say ‘stop’ helping?”

“I did.” The demon nods as he looks over some files on the computer. “Mahlon’s seven now so he won’t need as much constant supervision like he did when he was really little. Not to mention, I’m leaving modeling altogether after my next photoshoot so I’ll be able to home all the time now.”

Aurelius’s eyes widen at hearing the news.

“So no more babysitting after that?” The youngest of the three asks. “And what about your throne in Hell? Are you abdicating that as well?” This was great news.

“Nah, I’m still gonna hold onto that for a while. With that whole mess that your brother and sister made for me to clean up down there, it proves to me to Cyrus definitely isn’t ready to take over just yet.”

Cyrus only looks away out of embarrassment and mumbles a small ‘sorry’.

“That’s all I really wanted to talk with you about, Aurelius. You’re free to go. Majolish will probly be calling ya by the end of this week to see if you’re interested in filling my spot so be on the look out for that.”

“Right,” the half-demon gets up and heads out, a new spring in his step as he can hear his father lay into his siblings about summoning all the souls that had escaped the throne room in hell. “Well sucks to be them I guess.”

・・・〆・・・

With the party in full swing, Mammon and Mahlon both find it difficult not to let themselves have a good time. While the adults and the older kids were all occupied by hearing embarrassing stories about Mammon’s past, much to the demon’s chagrin, Mahlon and the cousins he was closest in age to just ended up snooping around his gifts- well more like just Mahlon and Oliver. Hakan was trying to help himself to a tenth helping of chips and a taco dip that Isabella had brought.

“What’re you even trying to do, Mahlon? The ginger-haired half-demon asks as he enjoys the newly acquired dip on his plate. “Usually, when people snoop around their gifts, there’s a lot of shaking of the boxes. They don’t just stare at them.”

“I was trying to see if my powers had come in yet or if I had any magic like Mommy yet…” he sighs, “but I guess the doctor wasn’t lying when they said I’d never get either…”

“You don’t need any of that though,” Oliver smiles. “I like you just the way you are.”

Mahlon doesn’t say anything in response. As the adults announce its time to cut the cake, the black-haired half-demon takes off.

・・・〆・・・

Mahlon hides out in the backyard behind a tree as he tries to stifle his tears. How could his cousin say that? ‘I like you just the way you are,’ what a joke. They’re family. He has to like him even if it’s only just a little bit. What Mahlon really wants is for his peers to like him.

As the boy wipes at his eyes, he feels someone take a seat next to him.

“Was the party too much for ya, buddy?” Mammon’s voice is soft, worrying that any louder might push the child into an overstimulation meltdown. When the seven-year-old only shakes his head, the demon lets out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. Do ya know what’s got ya so upset?” A nod this time. “Did it have something to do with whatever Oliver said to you?”

“Kinda… he’s not in trouble, is he?”

“No,” Mammon smiles as he ruffles Mahlon’s already messy curly hair. “We were all just really confused when you took off like that. Ya wanna tell me what the deals is?”

“It’s dumb…” the freckled half-demon admits. “You’ll laugh at me.”

“I really won’t. You could tell me the dumbest thing in the world ‘n I still wouldn’t laugh at ya.”

“… it’s ‘cause I don’t have any powers or magic yet. The other kids at school tease me, call me a freak and it hurts my feelings.”

“Oh, Mahlon… I’m sorry, buddy. I know that’s gotta be really tough to go through, especially when you look at your siblings and cousins and see them with theirs…” Mammon wraps an arm around the little one and pulls him into tight side hug.

“They say th-there’s s-something wrong with me. That I-I’m-m broken and-and-”

“Hey, shhh, it’s okay. Just take a couple deep breaths, alright?” He brushes away Mahlon’s tears and holds him tight even as the green-to-blue-to-gold-eyed boy starts to thump the side of his head against Mammon’s chest. “No, we’re not doin’ any of that right now, lil’ man.”

They sit in silence for a few moments until the worst of it passes before the demon speaks again.

“It doesn’t matter what those kids say to you Mahlon, ‘cause they don’t know nothin’. I know what they said to you hurts but you ain’t broken. You’re just built different and that’s what makes you so special. When you grow up, there’re gonna be opportunities that only you will have because you don’t have any demonic powers or magic.”

“Like what?” His multicolored eyes peer up at his father.

“Well, for starter:” Mammon smiles, “you are the only one out of you and your siblings that will be able to have the choice to live in the human world if that’s what you want. No magic or powers means you won’t be so easily clocked as anything other than just a normal human.”

“Really?”

“Really, really.” He smiles. “‘N besides, why would ya ever wanna be just like everyone else when you can be one-of-a-kind? The teasing and bullyin’ll be short-lived but one day, you’re gonna meet people that will like you for you, not what you can do. Trust me on it.”

Slowly, Mahlon nods. “Okay.”

“Good,” Mammon stands, with a slight bounce, making Mahlon laugh as he grabs on tighter to his father, “now, let’s back to the party. There’s a big ol’ piece of cake with your name on it, literally.”

・・・〆・・・

The rest of the party goes off without a hitch. After it seemed all the presents were opened, their family began to take their leave. That’s when Azalea pulls her youngest brother aside for a moment.

“Here,” she produces one last gift from behind her back and handed it to Mahlon.

The box is pretty as the black-haired boy inspects it. He begins to open it slowly, pulling the lid off and peaking inside.

He looks up at her with surprise before reaching in to pull the gift from its container.

“A Blue Jay!” He smiles wide as he hugs the stuffed toy tightly and is delighted to find the toy lets off the calls of the bird it's made after. “Thank you!” He wraps his arms around her in hug. “I love him.”

“Yeah, yeah, no worries, squirt. Just make sure you take care of it. I’m not makin’ ya another one if ya lose it or it gets broken somehow.” Azalea manages to extricate herself from the hug before walking past her brother. “If y’re up for one more surprise, follow me out to the Aviary, yeah?”

And that piques Mahlon’s curiosity as he follows his sister’s lead. When the pair arrive, they’re greeted by Mammon’s crows all huddled around their master as he fiddles around with the doors of the incubator he has for eggs some of his younger crows won't care for.

“I got him, Dad.”

“Thanks, Mahlon, c’mere. I wanna show you something.” Mammon picks up something out of the incubator and kneels down to his son’s height.

The young boy can only watch in awe as a fledgling jay pokes her head out of his hands to look around at her surroundings. When the bird sees Mahlon, she chirps happily.

“Wanna hold her? She’s yours.” The demon asks as Mahlon nods furiously.

“Where did she come from?” He asks, “We don’t have blue jays down here.”

“A cat brought her down here to make a meal out of her- if you look really closely, you’ll see her wings still kinda messed up so she can’t fly all that well yet.” He explains, “in a few weeks she’ll be good as new but you’re gonna help me take care of her til that happens.”

“Okay,”

“So, what’s ‘er name?” Azalea asks, one of her own familiars swooping down and landing on her shoulder and dropping a pretty rock into her left palm.

“Doesn’t she have one already?” Mahlon asks.

“You’re her master,” Mammon explains with a chuckle, “wouldn’t be right if anyone else named her.”

“What about… what about Azul… that’s a good name, right, Daddy? Azalea don’t laugh at me!”

“It is if you say it is.” Mammon swats at Azalea to get her to stop snickering at the name her little brother had chosen for his first familiar. “Now, let’s put ‘er back to bed so she can rest her wing. We’ll see her in the morning.”

Mahlon nods as he gives the bird in his hands a gentle kiss on the head as he sets her back in the incubator.

As the three of them all head in for the night, Mahlon can’t help but think this was the best birthday he’d ever had.

・・・〆・・・

Once all the kids are out for the night, Arella takes the time to seek out her husband in the living room where he’s just finished cleaning up the mess left from the party.

He hasn’t realized she was coming up behind him, so Arella takes the chance to get a little payback for this morning.

“Maaaammmon!” The sound of her voice and the ways she wraps her arms around his neck as she jumps up onto his back makes the demon jump.

“Wha- Arella!” He’s not amused by his wife’s antics. “I coulda really hurt ya just now.”

“And it would be worth every bit of pain. Think of it as payback for this morning.” She kisses his cheek and drops back down to the floor. “Did you have a good birthday, Love?”

“Yeah, it was great actually.” He nods as he turns to face her, pulling her close. “Third best birthday ever.”

“Third? What were the first two?”

“The last one we had with Cyrus before he went missing and the year we had Mahlon.” Mammon smiles as he takes a seat in the couch, pulling his wife down with him.

“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed your special day. I actually have one more gift for you. Would you like it?”

“Do ya even gotta ask?” Mammon leans in for a kiss, but Arella stops him by holding up a small box to his lips. “Oh, you meant an actual gift…”

“Don’t worry, Dear.” she laughs softly at his slight disappointment, “We’ll still do what I promised this morning, but I wanted you to open this last- when it was just us.”

“What is it?” He studies the box before opening it. “A new ring? Thanks, Babe.”

“Look on the inside. It’s engraved with a message.”

“For my soulmate, I would conquer time, space, and even death itself…” he takes a moment to take in the words etched into the band. “Oh, you are so corny… but I don’t think I’d change it for the world.”

He leans in and presses a kiss to her lips, leaning his forehead against hers once he pulls away.

“Love you, ‘Rella…”

“I love you too, Mammon. Happy Birthday.”

・・・〆・・・

End

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me swd #obey me! shall we date?#obey me mammon #om! mammon #obey me oc #arella #azalea #mahlon #aurelius

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