#but I can recommend more of Marvel. huh.

[yellowocaballero]

hello! i really liked your fics, especially the dc-xmen ones, and they made me interested in reading the comics. do you have any recs for starters? thank you :D

So a long-running gag between my sibling and I is that they aren't allowed to send me any panels or information about the X-Men, because I don't like the X-Men comics. Have I legitimately read a bunch? Sure. Would I recommend any of them? No.

I'd say X-Force (starring private eye Jamie) wasn't bad, except the 10yo girl got aged up into an 18yo and started making out with the lead. Cable & Deadpool probably barely counts as X-Men but it's definitely the best Cable and the best Deadpool comic simultaneously. My X-Men fics are based almost entirely off the children's cartoon X-Men Evolution, which is the only X-Men media I can say with my whole chest that I really enjoy. I heard that X-Men Blue was good.

As for where to start with DC comics...I'm struggling with a personal opinion on that too. I can't give a single comic that's the best Batman comic to start with, because the popularity of the Batman arc has an inverse relationship to its quality. The best Batman comic is some random one-off by Denny O'Neil in the 70s that was never mentioned again. I'm not sure how often this rec is given but Batman: Black and White is one of the few one-off Batman things that is sincerely gorgeous and moving (unlike The Dark Knight Returns or Arkham Asylum A Serious House on Serious Earth or The Killing Joke or Batman: Year One or The Long Halloween or Under The Red Hood or). If you've rolled up here for the Batfam exclusively then Cassandra's 90s Batgirl run is unironically pretty good.

If you enjoy reading teenagers being awful the late 90s-early 00s Young Justice comic by Peter David is delightful - if you enjoyed Impulse in it, then check out my favorite comic run of all time Impulse (not best, just favorite). The 90s Mark Waid Flash run was lovely. Outside of the heroes I've actually written, if you're pretentious as fuck the the 80s Denny O'Neil Question is fantastic. If you're not pretentious and want something much lighter then the early 00s Blue Bettle and 70s Shazam comics are unbelievably fun.

That probably doesn't help much! I love Batman so much but I couldn't believe that I couldn't actually list of any famous Batman arcs or stories that I genuinely love. Life of a Batman fan. I'm so sorry I can't actually recommend an X-Men comic. I'm sure there are good ones I just haven't read any.

[authorhjk1]

Well you probably already have a list so maybe next time

Beautiful, easy access, elegant. Perfectly accurate descriptions to both the dresses and the idols who are wearing them

Just long enough that it wouldn't catch suspicion but short enough for you to...🤭

The dazzling jewellery no longer deserves your attention when they spread their legs. Proving they are always ready Did they also sponsore those toys?. A packet of lube is even meticulously hidden inside the inner layer should you really need the assistance.

Those high heels angling their butts just the right amount. Allowing deeper penetration even when standing.

The clacking noise of the heels hitting the the floor, losing balance when their legs couldn't support them (until you yank her upright against you body) triggers a positive feedback loop that taps into your most carnal desire, urging you to thrust deeper and harder.

Well probably don't reply to this ask since this ask is way too long 😂 If you ever want to do something with this I recommend creating a new post instead

Cream

(An Yujin X Jang Wonyoung X Male Reader)

You hear someone walk towards you, the clicking of their heels echoing through the hallway.

You didn't expect her to come. But then again, she doesn't really have a choice. An Yujin rounds the corner, her angry glare is directed at you.

"Swear to me that this is a one time thing."

You shrug your shoulders.

"Depends on how well you do."

"I..."

Yujin seems to slowly accept her fate.

"Fine."

"Let me see it."

You can't really hide your curiosity. You told her to wear it, but she didn't send you a picture as proof, like she was supposed to.

With an annoyed sigh, Yujin turns her back to you. You marvel at how beautiful she looks in that dress.

A heavy breath and Yujin pulls her dress to the side. You're greeted with the sight of her butt. Her round cheeks hide something between them. When Yujin pulls them apart, you can see the metal buttplug you told her to buy and wear.

"I-I don't want to do this."

Yujin turns back around to face you, letting her dress fall in place again.

"You don't have a choice Yujin."

You remind her of the pictures.

"Is there really no other way? I-I could give you something. Anything you want. Money, or..."

There is not enough money in the world to match the chance of experiencing the tightness of Yujin's ass. But there is something else...

"Or maybe house, or a car, or..."

"Your members."

"Huh? W-What?"

Yujin looks at you with wide open eyes.

"Convince Wonyoung to suck me off. Or I fuck your ass."

You watch her inner conflict. This is an impossible choice for her. Yujin doesn't want throw her member, her friend, under the bus. But she also doesn't want to lose her anal virgnity to some stranger.

A couple of minutes later, you hear someone walking towards you again.

"Yujin unnie, you sounded worried, are you okay? Who is that?"

Yujin takes a deep breath and you can tell she is almost about to cry.

"Wonyoung, can you do something for me? He... He has pictures of me. Bad pictures. If you... If you just..."

Yujin takes a shakey breath.

"What pictures?"

"Doesn't matter."

Yujjn's cheeks turn red with shame.

"He said he is going to publish them, if you don't..."

She looks at your crotch. Wonyoung, very slowly, follows her stare.

"N-No, I couldn't! I don't even know him!"

"P-Please, Wonyoung. D-Do it for me?"

Yujin sounds as desperate as she looks.

"It's... It's a blowjob."

She swallows hard, before looking at your face.

"Right? Nothing more."

You nod and Wonyoung looks at both of you.

"Is this a prank? I don't..."

You are aware that Yujin left out the fact that there is an alternative. But you don't mind which of the two you get to use.

"Fine. I will do it, then."

Once Wonyoung agrees, you motion her towards you. You can't believe you're actually going to be inside this pretty little mouth of hers.

You push her to her knees and rid yourself off your pants. Wonyoung's eyes grow wide in fear as she sees your cock. It's bigger than she expected. She never actually...

She takes a deep breath and parts her lips. As they touch your cock, Yujin turns away.

"Oh my god."

You hear her sob, as the younger girl wraps her fingers around your base.

"Good girl."

You praise Wonyoung, putting your hand on the tie in her hair. She looks up at you, the disgust on her face is barely visible with your cock in her mouth.

"If you don't act like you like it..."

You let the thread hang in the air as you take out your phone.

Thinking that you're about to release her leader's pictures, Wonyoung starts to get into it. Or at least she pretends to.

Her lips quickly glide along your length. She moves her head back and forth. Wonyoung can only reach the halfway mark, before she chokes. You push her a little further everytime.

You can't believe that this beautiful woman is giving you head. That beautiful face. Those beautiful lips.

The shutter of your phone camera makes both of them look at you.

"What..."

Wonyoung lets your cock fall out of her mouth as she looks up at you with wide eyes.

"What are you doing?"

Yujjn's angry and surprised tone makes you chuckle.

"What? This is how we ended up here in the first place, didn't we?"

With your hand still on the back of her head, you pull Wonyoung back onto your cock. You hear her choke as you talk again.

"If you don't want me to release the picture of your bandmate, sucking my cock, I suggest you get that pretty ass over here."

Yujin's eyes widen in realization.

"Y-You planned this!"

It took a while, but now you've pulled the buttplug out of Yujin's asshole. Wonyoung is still in the room, unable to look away as you press Yujin against the wall.

"Time to make you mine."

Yujin shudders at your words.

You slowly push into her. The lube, you told her to bring, helps, but it's not exactly easy. But eventually, you part Yujin's walls enough, so you can fuck her properly. Not very fast and hard, but still...

A feeling of a lifetime.

Yujin sighs and groans in pain, whenever you push into her. And an embarrassed moan escapes her lips, whenever you pull out. You feel like you're in heaven. Her ring of muscles clings onto you while you slide in and out of her. Her sparkling heels put her ass in the right height and angle for you, to drive yourself as deep as possible into her hole.

Eventually though, Yujin's asshole is too tight for you to fight off your incoming orgasm.

"Come here, Wonyoung."

You make both girls kneel in front of you as you stroke yourself. Both of their faces are enough to make you climax within seconds. Your cum hits their faces, staining their skin and ruining their makeup. A string of your cum hit Yujin's eye, gluing it shut, while half of Wonyoung's share lands on her cute nose.

The sound of your phone's camera makes both of them shiver in fear.

"What's the password for Ive's official Instagram account?"

[eldritchravens]

Welcome Home - The Homewarming Update : A compilation of the secrets I could find

⚠️SPOILERS AHEAD!⚠️

This post is simply a compilation of all the things I could find during my exploration of the website. I'm not going to delve too much into theories. Enjoy the read!

1- Statics

Every background is now filled with statics. I tried zooming out but I couldn't find anything. Not really a secret, but still interesting to note.

2- It's a dog! Oh, and a pea!

Found in the "Official Welcome Home Cook Book" in the merchandise page. I am... A little worried about Barnaby. For those who are aware, the pea is foreshadowing for a much bigger secret.

3- Audio distortion

Surprisingly, I was only able to find one instance where the audio distorts. In the "Homewarming Storybook Record", when Wally speaks here (timestamp is 18:16), the audio gets distorted. Please let me know if you found more audio glitches on the main website!

4- The page is breathing

I was able to capture something that made my skin crawl. Look very closely at this illustration. It's... breathing. I'm unsure if any other image in the website does that too. Very troubling.

5- Lost track of time

Uh-oh! Looks like our beloved writer is losing their perception of time itself. An effect of the black substance maybe? You can find this on the News page.

6- Pixels? Smudges? Oh, and a new friend!

In The Neighboorhood page, Home now has little white pixels around him? I'm unsure if this was intentional or not. Interestingly, the secret link under Home dissapeared along with every other traces of Wally.

The logo on certain pages looks... dirty? Look closely, there are brownish stains on some letters. This doesn't appear everywhere.

And! New friend! Hello new friend!

7- Symbols!

Okay, now onto the main course. Something I think we've all noticed straight away! There's a ton of tiny little doodles splattered around the website. The doodles are all named after a letter. Here is every letter translated from their respective symbol you can find on the website :

Home : M I O A Merchandise : P Y E R Media : Y G About us : A R Stickers : E News : T Neighboorhood : S F N E Wally : W Exhibition : N Ghestbook : W W W Transcript : Y

"www" huh? Interesting, like a web link. At first, all of this doesn't really mean anything, until we stumble upon this!

Fascinating, it's a code! Eddie here is giving us the translation to every single doodle. Next, if we solve the question here "What does Home wear at parties?", it gives us the next clue we need. The answer is "ADDRESS". Address? Now, remember the "www" thing? That's right! We need to assemble the letters we found to make a link!

8- Away from Prying Eyes

After assembling a link, you will be able to visit a secret page. In it is by far the biggest secret in this update : https://www.awayfrompryingeyes.net/

When I tell you I lost my marbles when I discovered this. There is a lot to say here! Firstly, one thing to note is that unlike any other secrets we had found in previous updates, Wally didn't put this here. Instead, it was this mysterious "W". Go read the whole thing! It's PACKED with information!

"W" purposely put this here for US to find. W is in distress, confused and scared; this looks like a call for help.

Might or might not be important, but the word "Paranoid" here starts with a capital. It did catch my eye, so maybe it is noteworthy.

This entire phone call is absolutely fascinating and gives us answers about the lore. I highly recommend people to give it a listen : https://www.awayfrompryingeyes.net/phone

AND THIS??? OH MY GOODNESS!!! Clown is spoiling us with gifts for this Homewarming! Truly, thank you Clown and the whole WH team, you're doing such a marvelous job. Watch the whole thing here : https://www.awayfrompryingeyes.net/commercials

And what's this hidden among the commercials? Eddie! Remember how I said the pea was foreshadowing? Eddie can hear Home's heartbeat. Well, our dearest mailman doesn't look too well :( Thankfully Frank seems to be looking out for him!

_________________________

Important things to note: This update is almost completely void of any trace of Wally infesting the website. The symbols were placed by the website manager here. Wally is not there anymore. Also, Eddie is purposely left out of the main update, only to be the center of attention in the commercial compilation.

Well! That's all I managed to find for now! Please let me know in the replies if I've missed anything. Thank you for reading, and Happy Homewarming! <3

Edit : Added some new things I just noticed!

[slut4evanpeters]

High By The Beach

Kit Walker X Fem!Reader (Modern Au)

song i recommend listening to: high by the beach by lana del rey

warnings: drug use (marijuana), sexual content (p i v, fingering, semi public sex), love, ben harmon mention (I WILL ALWAYS BE A BEN HARMON HATER.)

word count: 3.1k

note: guys oh my god. ive literally NEVER had this much motivation to write before and i am literally so thankful for all the kind comments ive been receiving on this fics!!😭 like i genuinely have been writing more fics for yall nonstop since i posted the tate one but please SEND REQUESTS IN!! I REALLY WOULD LOVE TO HEAR WHAT YOU GUYS WANNA READ!! i love you all omg

MDNI 18+

Kit loves alot of things, music, weed, studying, books, adventures, but theres nothing more he loves than you and the beach. That together? Well thats Kits ideal day together.

“You ready, sweet girl?” asks Kit as he zips up the backpack filled with all of the need beach necessities. Kit admires the way you look while adding the last details of youre make up. He thinks youre the most beautiful girl to walk this earth and often finds himself wondering what he did to have such a angelic girl as his girl.

You sit up from your vanity and pick up your body mist “Uh-huh, Kit.” you say as you spray yourself on your wrists, neck and knees. You walk up to kit and press a sweet kiss on his pale soft skin, leaving a imprint of your lips from your cherry red stained lips. You grab your purse making sure you have your little make up bag for touch ups, pre rolled joints, lighter and your phone. Kit stares at you in awe watches how you can do the simplest things but look so fucking beautiful.

You open the door of you and Kits 5 story studio apartment holding it open as Kit walks out and quickly interlocks his arm with yours. You guys walk to the elevator down the hall and Kit reaches out to the large “L” button stating you want to go to lobby. “M’ so excited!” you say impatiently as you wait for the elevator to come to your floor.

Kit looks down at you and cups your face with his free hand and pushes the little strands of hair out off your face. “Me too baby, i cant wait to lay on the beach in the sun with you.” he says softly as he pulls his hand away from you as the elevator has came to your floor. The doors slide open revealing your neighbour, Mr Harmon. Mr. Harmon has been there since before you and Kit moved in. from what you have encountered, hes a okay man. He could definitely be nicer at times as you guys often received noise complaints from your late night activities.

“Hi Mr. Harmon! Good afternoon!” you wave nicely at him as he exits while you both enter.

“Hello Mr and Mrs Walker.” Mr. Harmon replies bluntly. 

Kit grips you waist from the side as you both stand in the elevator waiting for the door to slide closed. “I wonder what he does all the time, he needs to get laid. No one with that attitude is getting pussy” you whisper to Kit, He laughs “i agree, i know that man just sits and stares at the wall all day. No wonder his wife left him.” Kit says with a smile plastered on his face as you guys both laugh.

The elevator comes to a halt and the doors slowly slide open. Kit and you link arms again as you guys walk too the exit of the apartment. Kit opens the door for you “ladies first, my girl” he says with a quick grin plastered on his face. 

You walk out of the apartment with armin trailing behind you. From afar Kit unlocks his red convertible allowing you to get in first. You practically jog to the vehicle out of excitement and Kit just looks and laughs sweetly.  He looks at you with a marveling gaze as you hop in and start taking the roof down. If he could look at you all day he would and would never get bored of it.

Kit walks over to the drivers side and sits in the car. You look over at him with a smile on your face as he puts the keys in the car and starts the car. The way his brown curls lay neatly on his forehead. Making his big chestnut eyes stand out. He just looks so so so handsome to you. He notices your gaze and grabs your chin and brings your lips to meet his. You cup his face caressing his soft cheek with your thumb. You melt into the kiss so sweetly. Kit pulls away “sorry darling, we have to get going now” he says with a teasing tone in his voice. “Yay! I cant wait please lets gow now!” you say excitedly dragging on the “e” in please. He giggles at your excitement and thinks how beautiful you look when your happy. He just hates when ever your sad, he always does the most for you to be happy so he can feel a sense of peace knowing he doesnt have to worry about his girl being sad.

As he starts driving you reach over and grab his phone out from his pocket. “I call AUX” you say loudly as the wind blowing causes all sound to be dampened. He looks at you and smiles “we practically have the same music taste love, what difference does it make” he says with a small giggle. You unlock his phone and go to your guys shared spotify and press the playlist labeld “Y/N” with a bow emoji. You scroll through all the songs deciding which one to choose. One song catches your eye. “Kit, baby, this is gonna be us in half an hour” you say with a shit eatting grin on your face. He looks at you in confusion but immediately understands as he hears the opening of ‘High by the beach’ by Lana Del Ray. “clever one, Y/N” he says with sarcasm coating his voice. 

You enjoy the breeze blowing through your hair as you and Kit ride down the highway. You decide to start the high earlier and reach in your black hand bag and grab one of the pre rolls as well as your neon pink lighter decorated in stickers. You stick the joint between your lips and cup your hand around the lighter to block out the wind. You drop the lighter on your lap and take the first drag and immediately feel the burning sensation in the back of your throat. You look at Kit admiring him while taking hits from the joint as he looks so handsome when hes driving. “Your so handsome, Kit” you blurt out feeling the overwhelming euphoric sensation already hitting you. “Thank you, suga', your such a sweetheart” he says calmly as he places a hand on your thigh and stars caressing with his thumb “thats what i love ‘bout you, such a sweet soul” he says, eyes staying focused on the road. 

Soon later you guys arrive at the beach.

Kit and you exit the car, you with your purse in hand and him with the back pack. Kit grabs your hand and interlocks his fingers with yours as you walk down the path leading to the beach from the parking lot.

As your walking you notice armin taking you a whole different way to where you thought were going. “Where are we going, babe” you question, your voice speaking slowly as the effects of the joint are coming through. “m’ going to take you too a very beautiful spot, just trust me, hun'.” Kit speaks softly while guiding you through crowds of people.

After about 10 minutes of walking you soon reach a spot secluded from all the people and surrounded by the beauty of nature. Just a cross the broad body of water in front of you was rows and rows of mountains and the sun glistening in the water reflecting on to them making the sight ten times more magnificent. “Oh my goodness, Kit, this is so beautiful” you say in awe of the sight just in front of you. Kit comes up behind you and wraps his arms around your waist. “Well, a beautiful sight for a beautiful girl.” he says with a big smile on his face lucky to have you. 

Kit lets go of you and takes off the back pack kneeling down to reach in and grab, a speaker, a couple blankets, two towels, and sunscreen. He stands up laying the towels down onto the sand giving a place for seating. He looks over at you and sees that you are already taking off your (his) baggy tee to reveal your bikini top. Kit adores the way you look, he worships you. The way your hair lays softly on your shoulders, the way your short jean shorts reveal the curve of your hips that he loved just so much, the way you moved, they way you spoke, everything. Kit was obsessed with you. 

Kit watched as you un buttoned your jean shorts and pulled them down revealing the bikini bottoms that practically covered nothing. His eyes followed every movement that you made. 

“Hey darlin’, can you hand me the speaker, love?” you said which suddenly pulled him out of his trance “Hm? Oh, yeah sorry” he muttered being pulled out of his trance, 

slightly embarrassed that he had been caught staring. “Thank you Kit.” you say with a smile as he hands you the speaker. You grab your phone from your purse connecting the speaker. You look through your playlist deciding which song to play. Ultimately you decide on “Stumblin' in" by Chris Norman and Suzi Quatro. You turn off your phone and set it back in your purse. You look back at Kit and see hes already in his swim trunks laying on the blankets he had just set down. “kit, baby, wanna smoke?” you question looking at him ‘damn hes so sexy’ you think to yourself. “Mmh, sure” he says sitting up. You reach into your purse bringing out the lighter and pre rolls. You both pick out your joint and light them. You lay your head in armins lap and he looks down at you. He slowly caresses you soft skin thats already slightly warm from the sun. He has a smile on his face, that delicate, beautiful smile. As you two finnish your joint, an idea comes to mind “hey kit....” you say with a mischievous smile on your face. He looks at you. “Want to go skinny dipping?”

Now here you both are, naked, in the beach water, having the funnest fucking time together. Kit never thought he would do something like this before. He usually would leave this kind of stuff in his fantasies, but today something was different. Definitely the weed

Kit and you leave the water hand in hand and go to your spot and wrap in towels. You both sit and look at the beautiful sight in front of you, as dusk approaches the sun is starting to set causing a beautiful pink haze on the water. You turn your head over to look at Kit, his cheeks all ready developing a red tint due too his fair skin. “Hey” you cup his rosy soft cheek, “just you Kit’, just you, youre the only person im going to do this with. The only person i want to do this with.” you give him words of assurance. He puts his forehead against yours and rests his hand on your waist. “Youre the only person i want to do this with too, Y/N” he says with a smile. Next think you feel is Kits soft plump lips against yours, with the sounds of birds chirping and waves crashing, everything was so perfect. The kiss was rough but sweet, fast but slow, it was just right. 

As the kiss got more heated you climbed on his lap feeling his hard on grind against your pussy. 

Now, usually in this position you would be in control, but thats not what Kit had in mind today. You felt your heart beating faster and faster as he kissed along your neck and began to press wet kisses to your collar bone. Your breath hitched in your throat, moving to rest your hands on his chest.

“Awh my poor needy needy girl, just another slut, hm'” as soon as the words left his mouth you felt your cunt grow wetter and wetter. "is that all you are, suga'?"

Kit continued leaving hickeys and love bites along your neck moving from side to side. Due to all the joints youve smoked, your senses have doubled and you feel every single trail of kisses Kit gives like hes putting out matches out on your skin. As he continues worshipping your body you feel his fingers graze against your waist moving down slowly to your ass gripping it leaving half moon shapes in your skin. His trail of kisses reach down to your chest. He starts to suck on your nipples while making sure to pay equal attention to the other one by pinching and twisting it.

“mm', please” you whined rolling your hips looking for some thing to help the pulsing feeling in your heat.

He has barely touched you yet and you already feel the arousal between your legs more than ever before. “Please what, pretty girl?” he says releasing your chest with a pop and looking up at you with a sly grin. 

You let out a whimper griinfing down on too his tip “please kit’, please touch me” as you take and place his hand on your clit. The way you held eye contach with Kit as had his tip practically throbbing to near point of exploding. 

“Awh, sweet girl, you want my fingers?”  Kit coo’d into your ear as he started rubbing soft circles on your clit, chin rested on your shoulder. He couldnt bring himself to some petty comment about how greedy you were because him himself was equally as greedy for you.

"Yes." You spoke breathily, your voice quivering slightly as his fingers teased your tight hole. "Yes, please oh fuck." Your thought was interrupted as he plunged two fingers into you, impatient and just wanting to feel your tight cunt take his fingers.

Kit's fingers worked quickly. He just wanted to watch you come undone on top of him, watch the way your body would shake as you rode out your high on his fingers. He felt so good inside you, his fingers pumping in and out of you and curling slightly to find that spot inside of you that has your toes curling. Kit knows he hits it when you cry out and bury your face into his neck, whimpering and biting his shoulder with every pump.

Your legs begin to shake around him and your hips start to meet his fingers as you chase your high. Kit attaches his lips back to your neck, leaving a mark at the base of your neck and running his tongue over the appearing bruise. He moves to your breast, rolling your nipple gently between his teeth and flicking his tongue over the tip as his fingers continued to pump in and out of your dripping hole.

"Y'gonna cum for me?" he spoke. His thick Boston accent turning you on even more. He licks up your neck before bringing his lips to yours. He wanted to feel you moan against him as you came and he swallowed each whimper and breath he gave to you.

You nodded, your head rolled back and your eyebrows knitted together. He brought his free hand to your clit, rubbing circles in unison with the curling of his fingers as he began to use his entire arm to pump in and out of you. Your thighs began to quiver beside him and you let out a lengthy moan.

"Gonna cum. Kit, m'gonna cum." Your voice came out strained and the bottom of your feet felt hot as you climbed violently towards your release. Kit drank your words, mumbling back to you as he continued his pace on your pussy.

"Yeah? Cum for me baby. Please, cum all over my fingers." It was one more circle of his fingers around your clit before you were coming undone on top of him, a string of cus words leaving your mouth.

"Fuck, there it is." Kit spoke, his voice gentle and encouraging. "Give me one more, suga'"

He kept his lips close to yours, as he sped his hands up and continued pumping into you well past your high.

The overstimulation had you digging your nails into his shoulders, and your entire body convulsed as your sensitive body was quickly brought back into another breath taking orgasm. You cried out his name, your body collapsing against his shoulder as you panted against him.

"Holy shit." You spoke, exhaling another shaky breath as you came down from your high. Kit gave a low chuckle, pulling his fingers from you and slipping them past his lips, tasting your arousal on his tongue. He took your chin gently between his pointer finger and thumb, lifting it to place a gentle kiss on your lips.

You both fell back onto the towel, appreciating the nature of the mountains and the trees surrounding the both of you. You look over at Kit and see hes already staring back at you.

"Y/N, darlin'?" he says with a grin plastered on his face, his dimples peeking on his cheeks.

"yes, baby?"

"I love you" he says as he grabs your cheeks and pulls you into a passionate kiss filled with love, igniting a fire between the both of you.

You pull back and press your forehead against his, looking into his beautiful eyes, a sparkle shining in them. "I love you too kit."

You both collapsed onto the towel, the cool breeze brushing your skin as the towering mountains and the whispering trees cocooned you in their peaceful embrace. The sky above was painted in soft hues of pink and gold as the sun dipped behind the peaks, casting long shadows across the landscape. The scent of pine mixed with the earthy aroma of the ground beneath you, amplifying the moment’s serenity.

You glanced over at Kit, only to find him already gazing at you, his eyes soft yet intense. His smile was warm, a mischievous glint in his eyes as his dimples deepened on his cheeks.

“Y/N, darlin’?” he drawled, his voice a mix of tenderness and playfulness.

“Yes, baby?” you replied, your heart swelling in your chest.

“I love you,” he whispered, his voice a gentle caress. His hands cupped your cheeks, his touch soft but sure as he pulled you in for a kiss. Slow and tender at first, then deepening with passion. His lips ignited a warmth within you, a fire that seemed to spread between the two of you, filling the space with an electric charge.

When you finally broke apart, breathless, you pressed your forehead against his, the world around you fading as you got lost in his gaze. His eyes sparkled with a light that mirrored the flickering stars that had begun to dot the twilight sky.

“I love you too, Kit,” you whispered, your voice thick with emotion, sealing the moment between the two of you.

btw!! this is not proofread i am so sorry for any mistakes!!

[chickenparm]

By Choice or By Accident (Wanderer/Reader)

Spoilers for Interlude Chapter: Act III Inversion of Genesis

i made the executive decision that the traveler fucks around a bit and takes a good while longer to decipher what scara changed with irminsul and wow, that's a convenient amount of time for him to get real soft on someone huh-

(also i believe scara says he doesn't like sweets only because ei DOES like sweets and he secretly loves them you cannot change my mind, back off)

AO3 LINK

Wanderer/Reader

5,258 Words - SFW

Nothing heinous. Fluff, 2 seconds of Angst, meandering narrative, skipping time a little bit, Reader is a candy maker. Very indulgent, don't take this seriously.

---

Despite its status as a hub of commerce, it’s rather obvious when a new face arrives in the Grand Bazaar. Even more so when they’re dressed like that - soft blues against striking azure, a wide hat and carefully placed body armor to show martial skill. 

When the grocer across the way brings home a straggler, your initial thought is to be wary. There’s an unsettled quiet around him as he keeps his head ducked low and his face carefully hidden. The protection on his arms and shins suggests some martial skill, yet there’s no vision to be seen on his person. 

In the beginning, you’re wary - and rightfully so. Then his head lifts and his eyes move around the bazaar before he realizes you’re staring, and something fundamental changes in that split second. The air around him shifts, the guarded expression in his eyes bleeds away, and you’re left staring at excited eyes and a smile that shines with both anticipation and trepidation. 

The grocer’s new stray becomes a fixture. One that you quietly watch from your stall of handmade sweets, your gaze occasionally broken by the excited child or curious adult, all of whom are the sources of your livelihood here. But even your regulars find it hard to keep your attention when something so interesting is just across the way. 

Initially, the first word you’d use to describe him is untouchable. Like something priceless to be placed on a shelf. Only to look at, never to hold in your hands and sully it with your touch. Even as he works diligently at the grocer and displays less than fragile tendencies, you still can’t keep yourself from marveling at the otherworldly sort of perfection. 

Then, just like that, it’s swept away in the span of a short interaction. 

While you’ve overheard his quiet arguments with the grocer about not accepting pay, you know for certain he’s been tipped on deliveries to their customers. It’s what gives him the means to tentatively cross the walkway to your stall, stand a respectful distance away, and let pretty violet eyes wander over what you have on display for the day. 

And they are pretty. A color you’ve never seen before, even in a city like Sumeru where fabrics in all manner of hues are commonplace. You’re not entirely sure that someone could accurately recreate such a shade of purple. 

Quietly, as if to keep from imposing on you, he steps a little closer and squeezes the pouch of mora in front of him with a grip so tight his knuckles turn just a little lighter than the rest of his pale skin. It’s painfully obvious that he’s nervous, but his chin lifts and his chest expands with an inhale, and you’re impressed with the bravery he’s showing to simply peruse a candy stall. 

“Please recommend something to me!”

He says it like he’s about to run into battle - and your heart that was wary at first melts. Any caution is thrown to the wind as your shoulders relax, and a smile spreads across your face, and you ask, “What do you like?”

To your surprise, he clams up for a moment, twisting at the ties of the mora pouch until you’re certain the ropes are going to unravel. The last thing you expect is a quiet, “...I’m not sure.”

Okay. You can handle that, as strange as it is. Going into your usual sales pitch with gusto, you try your hardest not to be distracted by the way he cocks his head and leans in, listening with rapt attention as you point out each little piece, which were handmade and which you had brought him, which were your favorites and which ones most people seemed to gravitate toward. 

“These ones aren’t popular, but I like them. They’re sour, but once you get to the middle, there’s a sweetness that chases it away. Just don’t eat too many, they’ll make your mouth sore!”

“It’s sour, but you say they’re good?” His fingers pinch his chin in thought as he looks at each flavor you have of the small selection. It’s no use keeping a large stock when its audience is few and far between. “Sour on the outside, sweet on the inside, huh?”

“It makes the sweetness that much nicer if you can make it through the tough bit. It’s kind of like life, isn’t it? Once you make it through the difficult parts, the moments that are softer are that much better when you’re in them.”

Violet eyes watch you in wonder, lips gently parted as he mulls over your impromptu advice. With warm cheeks, you busy yourself with straightening the rows, the smallest bit of embarrassment making your fingers shake. They don’t look any neater when you’ve finished.

He picks one of everything you indicate as your preference, carefully counting out the coins and giving a little extra that you try to place back in his hand. But he grasps your wrist until your palm is up, pushing the extra coins there and using his free hand to curl your fingers around them securely. The smile on his face is wider than any you’ve seen, cutting into his cheeks and making the corners of his eyes squint in its wake. 

“Just for being kind, that’s all.” And his touch lingers for a moment long enough to make your heart skip, your fingers itching to grasp at his own so he could stay just a little longer. “Can I come back tomorrow?”

“I don’t think you’ll get through all that candy in a night.” Or he could, you’re in no place to judge him for it. Certainly, children much smaller than him have performed that feat before. 

In return, he smiles sheepishly and focuses on his hands holding yours, his thumb pressing against the pulse point of your wrist. There’s no doubt he can feel your heart racing from his touch and his presence, his soft grin and the slight flush on the apples of his cheeks. “Maybe not. But… just to talk to you? I’d like to know you if you’d let me.”

If he notices your persistent giddiness for the remainder of the bazaar’s open hours, he mercifully doesn’t make any comment on it. He simply returns the next day with praises over what you’d sold him the day before, exclaiming that the sour candies were his favorite, and an earnest question. 

“Could you teach me how to make this?”

And how could you say no? When his hands were fisted at his sides to hide how they shake at the prospect of such a simple question, there’s no way you could deny something so… sweet.

That evening, after he closes up with the grocer, he crosses the pathway that separates you and offers to help you carry your goods home for the day. It’s with great pleasure you gesture to a house just two doors down - your home and workshop all in one. He doesn’t let you carry your goods, anyway.

“It must be nice, living so close. I’m glad to see it.”

“Glad?” You ask, watching carefully at how he carries a box with one arm that you often have to drag across the ground on a nightly basis. He must be deceptively strong. The hat he wears is tucked beneath his other arm, leaving his smooth hair a little mussed after a day of wearing it. 

His head bobs as he watches you unlock the door with a key from your pocket, the hinges groaning as you step inside and urge him to follow as you work to light the lamps. The answer you asked for comes as the room illuminates. “I’d hate for you to have to walk so far at night. It’s not very safe.”

“True, but the bazaar is one of the safest places in the city. And I’ve lived here all my life.”

“Spending your life somewhere doesn’t always make it safe,” he pauses, just long enough to set the box of goods down on the table that dominates the center of your home, “but it’s not really my place to be overbearing about your safety. I’m sorry if that was too much.”

“No! It was… nice. Thank you for caring.” The words strike him into stillness, his hand resting on the lid of the box, thumb curling around the edge to press into the wood. His other hand rubs over his chest, just beneath the dangling ornament and pinion that jingle slightly in the comfortable silence. 

The swallow he makes is audible, a show of that nervousness that comes when he seems to be faced with sincerity he doesn’t know what to do with. To his credit, his voice doesn’t waver, even a little. “You’ve been nothing but nice to me. Of course I’d care, even a little.” And that endearing pink comes back again, barely visible in the lights that are just beginning to grow stronger as the flame catches the wicks.

“You’ve been nice, too. Give yourself a little credit.” 

Outside, other merchants are making their way home. The sound of carts and laughter trickles into the room, breaking the tension that’s somehow formed despite such an innocuous topic. Clearing your throat, you ask, “You know, I don’t actually know your name. You’ve never told me.”

While the tension is gone for you, it doubles down on him as his shoulders clench, and he pointedly looks away. The far corner of the room suddenly becomes impossibly interesting to him, at least compared to how you begin to move closer to unpack the box. 

“That’s because… I don’t have one. I’m just a wanderer. Any name I might’ve had, I don’t remember it anymore.”

“Do you not remember by choice, or by accident?”

You don’t miss the way his eyes follow your movements as you bring the sour candies out. Pointedly, you pull a few from their bag and push them across the table to him. As if he were afraid they’d disappear, his fingers wrap around them and drag them closer. One pops in his mouth, and he waits until the sweetness makes itself known before he finally answers.

“A little of both, I think.” The candy clacks against his teeth, running along his molars from one side to the other, as if he’s preventing a single spot from being scoured by the sourness. Perhaps it’s also a tactic to delay what comes next, something you only realize when he says it. “You should know… I’m not exactly human. I’m-... I’m a puppet.”

“Okay.”

“...Okay?”

Giving him time to ruminate over that, you finish unloading the box before stowing it away beneath the table. It gives you enough time to formulate a tactful response. Palms on the table, you lean to get the weight off your feet from standing all day, and explain yourself. “That doesn’t change anything. I still like you, I’ll still teach you. You must’ve lived a long time then, huh?”

He doesn’t give you a number, and you don’t exactly ask, but the way he exhales until his lungs are empty tells you that in his mind, it might have been a few too many years to walk through. Has he wandered all that time? Alone? It doesn’t feel right to ask - so you don’t. 

Instead, as you begin to lay out supplies for tomorrow’s stock, you quietly make a promise to yourself that if you can help it, perhaps he won’t need to use the term lonely to describe himself ever again. 

—

When you first opened your stall, it was commonplace for you to grow sick after contacting so many people on a daily basis. It was just expected, it came with the territory, and you only needed a handful of months for your body to grow used to it. Nowadays, you hardly find yourself feeling ill at all.

Then there were days like today, where the world is too bright, and your skin feels too hot and too cold, uncomfortable no matter your position. The softness of your bed curls around you, cradling your aching joints as you struggle to maintain a comfortable body temperature. The windows facing the street show that the sun is already risen, though at this time of day, not as much of it makes it down to the bazaar, even at the outskirts as you are.

Wrapped in your blankets in the throes of a cold chill is how the wanderer finds you. His steps into your home are tentative - you’d given him a key, and you thank yourself for the foresight. Looking into your bedroom, his expression goes from curiosity to something that couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than fear.

“What’s wrong? Look at me-”

“I’m okay.” Talking makes your head feel thick and muddled, stuffed too full of the meager thoughts it requires to get words out. But he’s kneeling next to your head now, hands hovering over you but not quite touching, like he’s unsure of what to do next. It lightens your mood a little, seeing him fret like this. “Just a little sick - it goes around this time of year.”

“What do you need me to do? Do you need food? Have you had anything to drink today? Hang on, let me get a washcloth.”

And he’s on his feet, moving to your kitchen and out of your ability to call him back. A quiet laugh leaves you as you roll onto your back, snuggling beneath blankets and listening as he sifts through your cabinets to find a bowl, then fill it with cool water to bring back to you. His eyes are more focused on the bowl as he enters, determined not to spill it until he’s able to set it down on your bedside table. 

Before you can say a word, the back of his fingers press to your forehead, and he hisses through his teeth. There’s no need to say that you’re burning up, not with how he hurriedly wrings out the cloth and folds it delicately on your forehead. Even chilled as you are, it feels like heaven, and you all but melt into the blankets as the fingers of his hand linger along your brow. 

“Better?”

“Mm… yes, thank you.”

“Okay. It’s okay.” He sounds more like he’s reassuring himself, rather than you. There’s something haunted in his eyes, something that’s clawing at the back of his mind. Far be it from your place to ask, but the fever has lowered your inhibitions, and you can’t help but lick the chapped dryness of your lips before asking what you wish to know. 

“Why are you afraid? Look at you, you’re terrified.”

The answer is immediate, maybe even instinctual. “I don’t know.” His eyes linger over your face, trailing over the dark circles beneath your eyes and the weariness that lingers. “My mind is telling me terrible things, almost like I’ve… lost someone like this. But I’ve never-... I haven’t been around anyone long enough to care. Not like this.”

He cares. About you. Sure, that was obvious enough at this point, but the fact that he puts it into words so candidly makes your heart flutter nervously. It’s been a long time since anyone would go to these lengths for you in your time of need, and for it to be him… It makes you feel leagues better already.

“I’m… I’ll make you something to eat. And get you something to drink. I’ll be back.”

The words tumble out of him, one after another, with little control. He’s nearly out the door by the time you comprehend that he’d been pink in the cheeks, fingers nervously twirling the golden feather on his chest. He cares. What a novel thought.

It doesn’t take him terribly long to return. Just long enough for your eyes to droop closed and your mind to wander off into dreams of pretty violet eyes and the faint scent of flowers that you’ve never come across before. Soft smiles, a hand running down your arm, a thumb across your cheek as a familiar voice urges you to reawaken. 

“Just a few bites, then you can sleep.”

Easy enough, when the spoon finds its way to your mouth of its own accord. Yet it’s not sentient - it’s held by lithe fingers that guide it steadily. At your back is his arm, helping you sit up so you don’t spill over your sheets. Quietly, you shift a little closer and bask in that faint floral smell that’s like nothing in Sumeru. The only way you can explain it is if you were describing the wanderer himself.

Drinking is an easy affair, thanks to the straw he’d somehow found you, and once he’s satisfied you’ve completed the tasks he’s laid out, so too does he lay you back on your bed. With distance comes a stark loneliness, and you reach for his hand as he stands from where he’d been kneeling. “Stay? Please?”

“Let me grab a chair at least. Your floor hurts.”

You want to tell him to just climb in your bed. To let you curl around him for all the comfort he can offer, greedily taking and taking because he’s always so willing to give. But the last bit of your self-control pulls you back in, releasing your grip to allow him to drag a chair across the floor to sit at your bedside with an exasperated smile. 

“Sleep now. I’ll be here when you wake.”

“Hm… Promise?”

“I swear it on my life. I’m not going anywhere.”

The last thought before you drift off is a quiet murmur of your heart repeating that he cares. About you, about your wellbeing. He’ll be here when your eyes open, hopefully with less of that fear he’s still holding onto. The washcloth on your forehead is changed, slim fingers wipe away stray water droplets, and all the while he hums a tune under his breath that sounds like the sweetest song.

—

The wanderer has only one devastating, debilitating flaw - he’s a worrier. 

Whether it’s after a long day and you’re bone tired, or you were too busy to eat lunch, or even if you’re just feeling a little ill, he has an incessant need to coddle. On anyone else, it wouldn’t be a good look. You’re a grown adult, you can take care of yourself, keep yourself safe and cared for. 

But something about the way he does it soothes any outrage you could possibly feel. Insistent, quiet, offered with a smile that seems almost pleading. And you know that while he’s making you dinner and taking on the duty of meticulously creating fruit-shaped candies for tomorrow’s weekend sale, it’s for his own sake as much as it is yours. 

And so, if it keeps him smiling as he carefully pours soup into a bowl for you, you’re more than willing to let him get away with it. 

Chin propped on your hand, elbow on the table, you let your eyes drift closed as the weariness of the day catches up to you. The festival over the weekend was one of the biggest in a long time, and your preparations were wearing you impossibly thin. It meant longer evenings to finish creating stock, longer days to account for new tourists, and all the stress that comes with it. 

Not to mention the last straggling bits of your illness that had kept you homebound for days, still lingering after two long weeks. Your muscles still felt weak, your head still fuzzy.

But the wanderer had been a huge help, especially as the grocer had all but kicked him out of his stall to send over to yours. The grocer had been trying to foist him off on you for weeks now, and he hadn’t really needed to try that hard at all. 

The sound of ceramic sliding across the table in front of you is the indication he’s dropped your food off, and you crack your eyes open just in time to see the golden pinion of his ornament dangling in front of your face as he presses a kiss to the crown of your head. 

Both of you freeze. 

But he doesn’t pull away, and neither do you. Instead, you reach with a shaking hand to the golden feather, grasping it lightly with your fingertips and rubbing your thumb along the subtle ridges. Your curiosity serves an alternate purpose; it keeps him close, prevents him from backing away from you. 

A sigh breezes along your scalp, humid from his breath, and a shiver from you breaks you both out of the odd trance. 

“I’m so sorry-”

“It’s okay.” You cut him off, already anticipating the unwarranted apology for something you desperately wanted him to do again. Even standing above you, he looks incredibly small as his hands clutch at the opening of his kimono, worrying at the edges without a care for the wrinkles he’s creating. 

Letting the feather drop back to his chest, you reach for one of his fretting hands and hold it tight enough in your own that you can’t tell if the tremors come from you or him. It could even be both. Suddenly you’re filled with anticipation so strong it makes your stomach turn painfully. 

But it’s not bad. It’s welcomed, wanted. The only relief you know of is sought after with a simple question. “Could you do it again?”

“...Again?”

“If you’d like to. If it wasn’t a regretful accident.”

His lower lip disappears between his teeth for a moment, then pops out with a pink hue from the abuse. You’re only allowed a second to admire the shade before the only thing you can see is alabaster and violet, your view of the world cut off as he presses his lips to yours with a clumsiness that is borne from inexperience. 

A thud rocks the table from his palm hitting it, an attempt to brace himself as he leans further into you until he’s nearly climbed into your lap. A whine brushes across your cheek through his nose - a high-pitched, cracking sort of sound that’s sweeter to your ears than any song could be, any candy could taste. 

That evening, the wanderer becomes your wanderer. 

And the world seems more vibrant, the music of the festival is more joyous than anything you’ve ever heard. Your wanderer closes your stall and guides you to the theatre to watch Nilou spin and sway. Her movements are nothing short of hypnotic, but hardly enough to catch your attention as you lean against him and let your eyes follow the cut of his jawline, the brush of his hair against his ear, the subtle pink of his blush as he catches you staring from the corner of his eye. 

For an evening, the entirety of Teyvat feels like it’s in harmony. He smiles down at you, and the stars above shine just a little bit brighter. An arm winds around your waist to hold you closer, and the lyrics to the music lose their meaning, the tune grows meandering and unimportant compared to how he smiles so, so gently. 

If asked, you’re not sure that you’d be able to think of a single thing you wouldn’t give up to recklessly chase after this feeling with him. Safe, warm, loved. It’d been there from the beginning, quietly growing subtle roots until it ingrained itself too deep to remove - as if you’d want to. 

That night, you nearly tell him you love him. Something stays your tongue, but you’re not quite sure what it might have been. Tomorrow, you promise yourself as he brings you to your door and kisses you so sweetly that you can do nothing but melt in his hold. Tomorrow, you resolve as you watch him backpedal down the street, giving you that smile you favor so much. 

Tomorrow, you promise the following day as the market quiets following such a busy event, unwilling to break the peace for a confession you’re not entirely confident he’s ready for. Instead, you prop your elbow on your stall’s counter and watch as he smiles at the grocer. As he squats to the level of a child that’s examining fruits, and offers one of the familiar candies from your stall to him. 

Over the child’s head, he catches your eye, and the placating smile turns to one that’s teeth and pink cheeks, embarrassment at having been caught with such softness but not ashamed enough to stop. In the heat of the afternoon, the quiet murmur of the bazaar, the daylight stretching the shadows long as the sun crosses its apex and begins to descend, everything feels the closest to perfection you could ever achieve.

Tomorrow doesn’t come. 

Or rather, it does, but he’s missing. The grocer mentions he’d stepped out of the city to make a run for sunsettias, then left on an errand with a golden-haired newcomer and their floating companion. The Traveler, you recognize vaguely from gossip through the grapevine. They’d keep him safe, surely, but you can’t help but feel a looming sense of dread when he doesn’t return that evening. 

For the first time in months, you eat your dinner alone. 

—

The tables are turned, for once. It’s you that worries over his well-being, so much so that you close your stand for the day and pace around your home like a caged animal. Certainly he must be fine, but he would’ve mentioned it to you if he were leaving, wouldn’t he? It feels wrong to not be aware of his presence, to not simply turn your head and have him at the corner of your vision as a steady presence. 

The grocer stops by to drop a few pieces of produce off, an attempt to check on you and reassure you of the wanderer’s safety with the Traveler. It does little to assuage your fears - nothing does, until the door opens and it’s filled with a familiar silhouette.

Except it’s… not. 

There’s a different set to his shoulders. A tension that lingers for a moment too long before it bleeds away at the sight of you. But his eyes are still the same, taking you in with immeasurable reverence that doesn’t fade even as he steps into your home that’s dimmer than the midday market outside. One, two, three long strides bring him to you, close enough to yank you to his chest and hold you impossibly tight with both arms. 

“I’m sorry.”

Even the tone is different. It’s lower, more tentative, almost as if he expects you to refuse him. Adamant, you wrap your arms tight around his waist and link your hands together, squeezing with everything you can muster as you mumble into the fabric over his chest. “You should be. You had me so worried.”

“That’s… I’m sorry for that, too.”

“You’re sorry for something else?” Pulling your head back, you look up at him. Nothing could have prepared you for the way his face falls, his lip drawing between his teeth as he takes in the sight of your confusion and weariness. 

There is no stalling further. His hand comes to the back of your head, bringing you back close again as he speaks over your shoulder. “I need to ask you something. Don’t be afraid to tell me the truth. Even if you think it will hurt me.”

“And if it will hurt me?”

“It’ll hurt more if I don’t ask it at all.” His chest beneath your cheek shudders with his exhalation, its wavering shaking you to your core as you realize it’s tinged with tears once he continues. “If someone walked in here that looked and sounded just like me, but they were inarguably an evil person… would you still want to stay with them?”

“Looks and sounds like you…?”

“If you couldn’t tell the difference, beyond the knowledge that for the entirety of their existence, so many of the actions they’d taken were for horrible, inexcusable reasons.”

It shouldn’t be a simple answer. The question he’s posed to you has so many layers despite its surface-level simplicity. But with the way he looks at you - wild, desperate, clinging to the hope for an answer that lets him stay close to you - it only takes you a moment to come to a conclusion that settles into place like a key turning a lock. Smooth, easy, with a satisfying click.

“Whoever that person might’ve been… they’re not who you are now.” His breath hitches, stilling under where you rest your head. Whether that’s the right answer or the wrong, you’re unsure, but you’re too far to backtrack now. “I know who you are. People are allowed to change, that’s just what humans do.”

“I’m not human.”

He’s not. He’s told you so himself that he was created, not born. But it’s easy enough to forget that fact when he’s here in front of you, trembling in your arms and clinging desperately to the normalcy you’ve unknowingly provided. The front he puts up is so convincing that you’re not sure it’s even false anymore - he’s experienced all there is to being a human.

“But you’re close enough, aren’t you? You laugh, and you hurt. You’re hurting right now. And the most important part of being a human is love.” Pulling back enough to look at him, to note the shine of tears and the harshness of his bite on his bottom lip to hide its quivering, you ask, “Do you feel love?”

“Yes. So much, it’s killing me.”

“Ah, you just need to let it out then. Of course, I’d stay with you. If it’s like you say, then there’s a long road ahead, and I’m happy to walk it with you, if you’ll let me.”

Choked laughter leaves him, high-pitched and disbelieving. It signals the floodgates of his tears falling, and he releases one arm from you to rub at his eyes to catch them before they fall. It’s a futile effort, one you’re happy to see, even as he surges forward to kiss you, wetting your cheeks with his own. 

Against your lips he murmurs, muffled and sloppy, “Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou-”

As if you would have left him after coming to know him like this. It only hurts for a second that the thought had even crossed his mind to doubt - and perhaps that doubt will creep back in over the coming days. When things are difficult or when stirrings of a life past-lived come back to rear its head, threatening the tenuous peace he’s found. 

There are times that he looks at you with eyes that aren’t as familiar. They’re darker, edged sharply, but it’s still him. A different facet shining in the light, but if you tilt your head, you can see the core of him that lies beneath. Still the same, no matter how he refracts it. As he comes and goes, it feels as if a new page turns each time - some new, some old. A wildness exists that seeps through, visible only when he holds you a little too tight, kisses you a little too hard. 

Unsteadiness is something he’s worn since the first day you’ve met him, and with the return of memories he’d lost, it doesn’t settle over him as often as it once had. Only when you notice the shift does he avoid your gaze, the sheepish little smile lifting the weight on your heart, and his in turn.

He’s trying. That’s enough, you think.

[dartagnantt]

Breaking and Exiting | Magical untensils to break into and out of any situation

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here! I release everything for free, so your support makes this possible. I'm working on a new class for 5e! Follow the Kickstarter here!

Welcome to the new month, a combo theme of fortress and escape. While the intent for these items were to escape, they, admittedly, also work to infiltrate a fortress. Ha! Perfect segue between topics :)

Adamantine Battering Ram

So, the trait of adamantine weapons, besides bypassing damage immunities is that it autocrits structures and objects, like doors. Well, it makes sense then that you'd want an adamantine version of an object all about breaking down doors.

Counterfeit Skeleton Key

Doing things in alphabetical order is amusing sometimes. This is, as the name implies, a replica of the artifact in this list. Because of course you want a magic key that automatically unlocks any door. Did steal the idea of several conceptual versions of this item from media consumed long ago that I no longer know where it's from where it moulds itself to the lock it fits into and stays like that. Or I hallucinated that memory, I honestly couldn't tell you.

Inconspicuous Crate

A Metal Gear reference, haha! Also coincidentally not the first mind altering box I've made, huh.

Instant Hole

So, the robe of useful items potentially includes a window or a pit that you can just slap onto the ground or a wall, but that's the only way to get such a marvelous item. I thought it might do to make an actual item out of it. Yes, this is based on the portable hole from Who Framed Rodger Rabbit. I just couldn't name it such, because apparently that item already exists but isn't really a hole. Now is it?

Mithral Lockpick

I miss masterwork thieves tools. I also find the general lack of improvements for the most used tool a little odd, actually. It's not much, but it's nice.

Skeleton Key

Behold! The most common fantasy magic item in existence. Including the item of the same name from the elder scrolls that I borrowed some of its abilities of (AKA the unlocking of potential), and pathfinder's "Perfection's Key" which I borrowed the destruction method of. Strangely, the closest item 5e has is the chime of opening, which is a temporary item and loud. Neither of which I would recommend for sneaking.

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

Dungeon Delver's Survival Guide

Oath of Integrity

Path of Iron

Stranger than Fiction

I also have three classes, and a splatbook over on DriveThrueRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

[lostmyremembrall]

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝑩𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒅

𝑇𝑜𝑚 𝑅𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒, 𝐴𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑥𝑎𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑙𝑓𝑜𝑦 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑟𝑒: 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑟. 𝑇𝑜𝑚 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑘.

Summary: Every villain has his regrets. So what is Tom Riddle's? Well, not getting to say 'fuck you' to his own father before he accidentally fell down the stairs to his death, of course. But, Abraxas says he needs closure, so you could say the trip to Little Hangleton wasn't a complete waste.

Recommended Music: I'm Sorry by Brenda Lee

This is the first time I’ve felt the need to confess.

It all started with Abraxas’ suggestion to visit my father.

I’ve asked him: why. His answer: closure.

He believed my mental health to be somewhat, “unstable” and “unhinged.” Apparently, childhood trauma does that to you.

So, closure was the answer.

I’ve pondered about it. Why not. Why not go up to the man in the mansion and stick it into his face? Why not tell the rich man in a big mansion, “fuck you,” “I hope you’ll die in a ditch,” and “You will not be invited to my inevitable coronation.”

If this will help me become a better leader, then gladly I would accept the opportunity to cuss in my father’s face.

Apparently, that was not what Abraxas meant by closure.

But, being the open-minded leader that I am, I said why not.

The plan was to visit Little Hangleton on New Year’s Eve anyway, to assess exactly what I will be inheriting. So, why not make the trip more interesting? Why not start off the marvellous year of 1944 with a clean slate?

Needless to say, the closure has gone slightly out of hand.

I stood on the second-floor foyer, overlooking the entrance hall. Perhaps unwisely, I thought I would give my father a surprise, apparating behind him.

Now, a man lay unmoving below me. His body mangled. His eyes, wide open in the shock that ultimately led to his untimely death. The blood, pooling beneath him.

So much for a clean slate.

Abraxas appeared on the first floor, returning from the kitchen, carrying a slice of cake that he had nicked from the New Year’s celebration. His feet, along with the long shadow cast on the marble tiles, came to a halt.

“Huh,” his brows furrowed, tilting his head, still sucking on his fork. “Is a human head supposed to look like that?”

He pointed his fork at the large dent on the inion of the head.

Tom Riddle Sr. lay still, face down on the floor. Even a corpse did not have the energy to answer such a dull question.

“Shit,” I gritted my teeth. “Fuck, Abraxas. Damn!”

Abraxas’ eyes widened, the realisation finally dawning on him. The slice of cake slowly slid down the plate and fell, the splatter marking its timestamp in the silence.

“Tom…!” Abraxas’ mouth gaped and closed like a helpless fish, “When I said closure, I did not mean this!” He waved the fork over the corpse, as if to say ‘Whatever this is.’

“It. Was. An accident!” I hissed in return at his unhelpful contribution, my fingernails digging into the mahogany handrail.

“Merlin’s beard,” Abraxas ran a hand through his hair, devolving rapidly into a panic. “We’re fine. We’re fine. We merely need to get rid of evidence.”

“Just clean up after ourselves. We weren’t here long. Nobody saw us,” Abraxas began pacing about the room. “Nobody can trace this back to us.”

“Ah, shit,” Abraxas paused as his feet stepped into the crumbled mush on the floor. “The cake! They can trace my DNA, oh god, oh god oh god.”

“The what?”

“It’s a new thing, Tom,” Abraxas wiped away the sweat with his shaky hand. “Heard all about it on that crime radio I listen to.”

I paused to close my eyes, willing myself to ignore Abraxas’ pathetic wailing, taking a deep breath. If my brilliance had served me thus far, it was going to serve me now.

“Calm down, Abraxas,” I opened my eyes again, and let out a shaky breath as I began to descend the stairs.

Abraxas turned his teary, desperate eyes to me, hoping that his leader had some incredible plan.

“Look at this,” stopping next to Abraxas, I languidly gestured to the crime scene. “It merely looks like he fell, does it not?”

For the first time in this dreadfully long night, a glimmer of hope and conviction appeared in Abraxas’ eyes.

“You’re right. He did fall,” he nodded fervently, as if attempting to convince himself. “An unfortunate accident.”

“That befell on an unbalanced man,” I reassuringly patted the back of Abraxas with a smirk, ending his sentence, “Now, let us calm down, and enjoy the serenity before we begin rifling through their possessions.”

I sauntered to the stairs, and sitting down on it, took out a flask for a swing. Still shaking, but now considerably less so, Abraxas followed.

Abraxas nodded his thanks as he took the flask that I offered, taking a swing as well. The alcohol seemed to do wonders, as it was always the case for Abraxas, as his breathing evened out and the confidence returned to his blue eyes.

“You know,” Abraxas began, returning the flask to me. “It is impeccable timing, if you think about it.”

I raised my brows at him, urging the blond to continue.

“It is your birthday. And the old man died, giving you everything in this room,” his gaze wandered around the room, to the antique armours guarding the front doors, the expensive Chinese vases, to the crystal chandelier above them. “Shit, you might be as rich as me, now.”

“Hm, true,” I pondered, my eyes also trailing the many valuables in the room. The word ‘closure’ came to my mind. Yes, I suppose, counting these as an apology gift and my birthday gift, I could find it in myself to forgive my father. Maybe.

My eyes landed on the man’s face, still slumped down on the floor a few feet from us. Tom Riddle Sr. was extremely handsome. Deadly handsome, even.

Too soon, perhaps.

I raised a flask towards the body that eerily resembled me. “Thank you, father, for the gifts!”

“And the cake!” Abraxas joined in with a smile.

I smiled against the flask as I took another swing, revelling in the immediate warmth that spread through my core. “You know,” I murmured, suddenly feeling uncharacteristically sentimental all of a sudden. “I’m glad you’re here, with me. On this memorable night.”

Abraxas turned to me with a genuine smile that came more easily to his lips than mine. “Always happy to help, Tom.”

Abraxas fell silent, however, when there was a groan from the corpse. My eyes widened, as my father groaned, and he raised his head, his eyes fluttering open. We froze as our eyes met. Nothing has terrified me more than that moment, when my father’s irises captured us, his son and a stranger, on his stairs, eating his cake, celebrating his death.

“Avada Kedavra!”

My wand had reacted sooner than I’d had the time to think.

The head dropped again with a heavy thud.

“TOM!”

Abraxas’ shriek pierced my right ear, and I winced.

“Why?! WHY did you do that?!” Abraxas was wailing again, “You have to stop casting a killing curse on your reflex!”

“Shit,” I grimaced. “I panicked.”

“Yes, I’ve gathered, Tom,” Abraxas ruffled his hair, leaping to his feet to begin pacing again, his hair now beyond recognition from the neat style he usually kept. “Merlin, now they’re really going to think it’s a crime scene.”

“He saw our faces,” I murmured darkly. A weak excuse, I knew, but Abraxas’ finger-pointing was unbearable.

“Fuck, Tom!” the blond was hyperventilating now. “I cannot go to Azkaban! They will eat me alive!”

I glared up at the rattled man, still pacing back and forth in front of me, his nerves getting to me. A terrible idea crossed my mind, for a moment, whether keeping Abraxas alive was a liability. He did not do well under pressure. He’d crumble under interrogation in mere seconds.

I growled, “Well, there’s nothing we can do at the moment, but to–”

Abraxas yelped when there was a low grumble from the corpse. He turned on his heels, the fork gripped tight in his hand. I widened my eyes at the savagery of the blond, watching him straddle my father and plunge the fork into him again and again. The muggle way.

He screamed at him. Then cursed. Then stabbed some more.

Watching Abraxas go absolutely feral on the poor corpse that resembled me, I had to consider the possibility that Abraxas perhaps harboured some pent-up vehemence towards me.

“Jesus,” I watched him stand up, the sweat-matted strands of hair falling into his eyes. “Could you not? That is my father.”

“Fuck,” he let out a shaky breath, the fork slipping from his hand and rattling on the floor. His pale skin, splattered with red. “I thought he was dead! How’s he still alive?!”

“It happens,” I sighed, scratching my brows at the situation that was rapidly growing out of hand. “Corpses release gas and liquid.”

“Oh god,” Abraxas fell to his knees, as if begging for forgiveness from my father. He began sobbing, the tears streaming down his cheeks. “Oh god, my life is ruined.”

To be frank, I found the situation somewhat amusing. How the tables have turned. I bit my tongue, wanting desperately to say ‘Who panicked this time?’ Instead, I stood up with a heavy sigh, and laid a supportive hand on his shoulder.

“Yes, it does look like ‘fuck you in particular’ now, doesn’t it?”

Despite my solace, Abraxas began to sob harder. Perhaps it was the way I said it.

“Come,” I helped him up to his feet. My father’s blood painted his blond hair and pale skin. His tears and spit have now mingled with it as they trailed down his chin. I sighed, producing a handkerchief from my pocket.

“You’ve always enjoyed crime radios,” I wiped his face clean, until reconsidering the futile attempt as more tears poured. “Now you get to be a part of it.”

Abraxas howled as more tears began to pour.

“There there,” I wrapped my arms around him in a comforting embrace.

“You won’t let me go to Azkaban, will you?” his frail voice came muffled against my wool uniform.

“Of course not,” I patted his shoulder. “I’ll always be here to fix your mistakes.”

-----

A few hours later, in the wee hours of the morning, we stood in front of a roaring fire. The sky was just beginning to brighten as Abraxas rubbed his hands over the fire, trying to warm his pale hands that had gone frigid.

“I’m glad we built this fire,” he said with a relieved smile. “Fire has a soothing effect, I think.”

I hummed in agreement, blankly staring at the flames that reached for the sky before me. There was a hint of nervousness in the voice that Abraxas was desperately trying to quell. I chose to ignore it.

“Say, do you know if they wanted cremation?” another nervous whimper from Abraxas.

I took one last drawl of the cigarette before tossing it into the fire. “Now, how the fuck would I know that, Abraxas.”

Abraxas merely hummed and nodded, numbly staring at the three bodies that had grown unrecognisable. The grandmother and the grandfather had to go as well. Loose ends and all that. They’ve lived a good long life anyway.

“You know, I don’t think I’ll ever be the same,” Abraxas’ voice was dead and despondent as he accepted a cigarette from me. “That image of you, underneath me, as I plunged the fork into it… It’s changed something within me.”

I knitted my brows at his wording. “You mean… my father,” I raised a suspicious brow at my oldest friend as I corrected him. “You felt the urge to kill my father.”

“Hm, what?” Abraxas had borrowed the light from the roaring fire in front of him, his gaunt features light ablaze with orange contemplation. “Yes, of course.”

I fell into an anxious silence, the image of Abraxas straddling someone that resembled me, too similar for my comfort. The animalistic sheer will that burned in his eyes – no thinking, no reasoning, all his focus on simply doing – as he poked holes into my father. The image shall haunt me for the rest of my days.

I cleared my throat, and took a step away from the blond. Suffice it to say that the night had changed something inside me as well.

“Well, father,” I tightened my tie as a respectful gesture that seemed appropriate for the sobering moment. “Grandmother, grandfather.”

Abraxas tossed the cigarette, crushing it underneath his black leather shoes, taking his hat off.

“Wish I got to talk with you a bit more,” I cleared my throat again, not having had much experience with eulogy, despite deaths that seemed to follow me wherever I went. “Maybe discuss my inheritance. Alas, it is what it is.”

I looked down at the bouquet of flowers, gripped tightly in my hands. “Abraxas and I gathered a little something for you. Don’t know what kind you liked, but – there are some dandelions in here.” 

I furrowed my brows, angling the plants in an attempt to name them. “Some… grass. Well, I hope you’ll like them.”

I tossed the bouquet on top of the fire, watching the flowers shrivel as the flames licked them hungrily.

“Closure,” Abraxas leaned over to me and whispered, giving me an encouraging wink.

I nodded and took a deep breath. My eyes surveyed the first hint of light behind the roaring hills at the approaching dawn. I bit my lips in deep contemplation, trying to put a label on what I was feeling.

“You were a shit father… father,” I continued, blinking away the tears that were beginning to pool in my eyes. “I wish I got to tell you that in person. I admit things could have gone better.”

“But,” I sniffed, looking up at the chalk-white sky to dry my eyes. “Rest assured, your assets will be put to good use. I’ll promise you that.”

My eyes landed on Abraxas, who had given me a thumbs-up. I nodded in appreciation of his support.

I sighed, growing restless at the idea that Abraxas and I still had to bleach the entire place. “Goodbye, father. And fuck you.”

I knew I did well by the congratulatory pat on my shoulder. I turned my eyes as the first ray of sunshine hit my cheekbones. The clouds. The birds chirping by. It was strangely serene, even idyllic, betraying the violent night that we just shared.

But, I found myself smiling as the strands of my hair in the breeze tickled my cheeks. I felt it. Abraxas was right. My mind was finally at peace. 

Reflecting the serenity of our environment. Save for the burning corpses.

I knew it in my heart. That was to be the last time I killed a man.

A single tear rolled down my cheek, as I clasped the blond’s hand on my shoulder. A fresh new start, I felt it in my core.

A/N: Written for Quidditch writing competition a few months ago! I am sorry that I haven't been writing/uploading new stories recently. But the new ones are coming!

[transparencyboo]

Alright kids, today I am once more gonna tell you about a real game for true gamers, so buckle in and get ready for a swimmingly wonderful time. This is Aquanaut's Holiday, a 1995 Playstation game developed by Artdink and directed by Kazutoshi Iida (who would go on to direct Tail of the Sun and Doshin the Giant). It is essentially an underwater exploration simulator, where you control a submarine and venture into the wild marine yonder. This game is so good I bought it twice!

Savvy game players might look at this premise and assume elaborate systems and mechanics tied to it. What is the mission? What is the goal? What am I supposed to do? How do I score points and earn extra lives? Well, you don't, the game isn't about any of that. In defiance of medium conventions, particularly for the time, Aquanaut's Holiday presents a scaled back game experience with little more features than what's needed to fulfil its noble goal: To be relaxing.

With no further elaboration, we are let loose into the ocean and encouraged to find our own way, discover our own adventure, create our own fun. And this place is massive, you can swim around in the murky haze and just observe the barren sea bottom pass by for minutes on end without seeing much of anything, your long journey only registering as a feeble spagetti string on the blank map. Impatient players, or those simply testing it out for a quick spurt, will likely be discouraged and disregard the game as primitive nonsense of a bygone era. At surface level, there simply does not seem to be much of anything to this one. I've heard people describe Aquanaut's Holiday as "a game where you only swim around and look at fish", not necessarily derogatory, but not in praise either, just a neutral "huh, I guess that's a thing" – the game equivalent to those tacky aquarium VHS tapes.

I've had a half-distant relationship to this game. I've long understood its philosophical richness purely in relationship to its brethren Tail of the Sun and Doshin the Giant, two of my all-time favorite games, which also appear unassuming and scaled down at face value. Yet, somehow I've never fully sat down with this one to unravel all it has to offer. "Some other time", I told myself. Well, some other time came and went, so now I will tell you what you need to know about Aquanaut's Holiday!

Starting out on my journey of properly playing the game, I actually read the manual for once. Can you believe there's actually little tips and tricks together with crucial information in there? Huh! Turns out reading manuals is a good way of parsing any game made in the last century, highly recommended activity. Always check the manual! Reading this, I learned the peculiarities of the submarine's controls, I learned what all the little cryptic HUD symbols meant, I learned about setting up buoys and building reefs, I learned that the weird effects that appear when pressing the shoulder buttons is for singing to the fish, I even learned that the submarine is called Holiday. In particular, I learned that the game itself acknowledges the individual user experience with the succinct words: "Each player will experience AQUANAUT'S HOLIDAY differently."

So is that all there is to Aquanaut's Holiday? You float around in bliss and marvel at the ocean life? Well, yes, kinda. You certainly need to vibe with that angle if you're gonna get anything out of the experience, in practice Aquanaut's Holiday will indeed just be about drifting for long periods looking at nothing, helplessly fumbling in its massive barren world. Watching sea mile after sea mile pass by as the vast nothingness makes your mind wanders. But every now and again you wake up from your soft daydreams with a start, staring at some unknown structure that has appeared before you.

This is where Aquanaut's Holiday shows its true brilliance. Through sheer simplicity it has made you fascinated by the smallest things. Be it the ghastly inexplicable monuments or the sighting of a rare animal, you will feel rewarded for the very discovery itself. There is no logbook, no special cutscenes, no acknowledgment of what you've seen. That is for you to create yourself. I always dispatched a buoy for my own reference and marked it yellow, which in my book meant "notable discovery". These were by far the highlights of the game for me, and motivated me to slowly but surely criss-cross around the ocean, charting more of the map as I narrowed the world down and made the unknown known. Yet so much of the map remained blank, my path never made any great dents into the untraveled waters, there was so much yet to see.

With this established as my main takeaway from the game, you might feel increasingly compelled to give it a go yourself. Heck, you might even want to reach the elusive and mysterious goal. Because despite its simplistic structure, Aquanaut's Holiday indeed has an ending like so many other games. It is nothing special, mostly a pat on the head and the end credits, but it felt special to reach such a surreal point after years of assuming the game had nothing of the sorts. That's why I will now give my quick guide for how to master Aquanaut's Holiday like a real pro gamer, since there is very little information online and no definitive guide. I can't exactly say this is one either, but I think it will provide you with more help than I ever had.

Starting off, the metric for reaching the goal is the biodiversity of your artificial coral reef. This is a spot of ocean immediately west of your dock where you can place blue, yellow and red blocks to create a habitat for fish and other marine life. The reef builder is accessed by pressing Select twice, which toggles the RETURN prompt, to which you press Start and enter the port menu, where you can pick BUILD REEF. Here you see a simplified grid of your reef garden, a material meter and a fish meter, press X to select a slot and then X, Square or Triangle to pick a color block to place. To fill your fish meter, you need to place more blocks and then literally hang out in the area and watch the fish appear. I've found conflicting takes on how to build reefs for efficient growth, with people stating certain formations like circles and tunnels as better. My takeaway is that it's not about shape, but the sheer amount of blocks. The manual states that different fish are attracted to different colors, so make good use of blue, yellow and red equally. Apart from that, go off and build anything you want!

However, you will need sufficient building material. Starting out you do not have what you need to build a bustling habitat. That's where exploration comes in. Navigating the ocean fills out grids on the map, this in turn earns you more reef blocks. I don't know what the conversion rate is between uncovered map grids and reef blocks, but you'll need quite a bit, so expect this to be majority of what you do. To make your exploration easier, you will want to set out lots of buoys. This is done by pressing Select once to toggle the BUOY prompt, to which you press Start and dispatch a buoy. This puts a marker on the map which you can conveniently fast travel back to. Since the pause menu always returns you to the port, buoys are crucial for finding your way back to where you were. You can have 256 buoys, so don't be afraid to use them for quick access around the ocean.

In other words: Set out, try to see as much as possible and return to the base to build. That's the essential strategy for reaching the goal. Be ready to do this for hours on end, get acquainted with this world, have fun with it. I listened to several episodes of our friend @hotcyder's excellent podcast Bullet Time while just floating around the ocean uncovering remarkable and unremarkable sights. I had some splendidly relaxing evenings over a week or so. All in all it took me 16 hours, if you're being efficient it'll probably be faster, but maybe if you're even more chill than me you'll take even longer. In my opinion, the longer it takes you to beat Aquanaut's Holiday, the cooler you are!

Eventually I hit a point of my exploration where the game showed me a funky little cinematic of the entire world map being filled out, presumably as a reward for having uncovered a certain high percentage of it. At this point I knew I was ready for the ending, so I went to the reef builder and started throwing blocks absolutely everywhere until I had run all out. After that I just sat and gazed at my monstrous creation for a few minutes, hopped back into the reef builder and watched the end credits.

The final reward was a funky experimental fish mode where I can travel around the ocean super fast and rotate models of the sea life in front of the screen. A most excellent prize and a dignified conclusion to this masterpiece.

/Kiki

[bratshaws]

through the hourglass 345. brb x oc

a/n: still meh but, i miss these two so much. (comments and reblogs are super welcome and encouraged!)

pairing: plus size!oc x rooster

warnings: none uwu

goodness gracious (pls read this one to know more what this fic is about!!)

chapter

1/

/316/317/318/319/320/321/322/323/324/325/326/327/328/329/330/331/332/333/334/335/336/337/338/339/340/341/342/343/344

(pls let me know if you want to be added to the taglist! )

taglist: @mirandastuckinthe80s @roosterschanelslut @wiipes @lcahwriter @novastories @gretagerwigsmuse @frenchtoastix @lizzie-rdj @fanboyluvr @atarmychick007 @comebacktoearthpls

@peachiicherries @mak-32 @lizziespidiepridie @roosterswifey @ollyoxenfrees @piceous21 @sqrlgrl22 @hofficoffi @lexhalstead3 @lorilane33 @legendarydreamersharkparty @luckyladycreator2

@emilybradshaw @louisahale @leobabbyyy @booklover2sblog @winter-run @ktjmac @graciereads @bigpoppajes @taytaylala12

@caitsymichelle13 @becks-things @caatheeriinee07 @fanboyswhore9 @jesfreedark @katiemcrae @lilmonstrjedi @hobiismyhopeu @teacupsandtopgun @insominac23 @gh0stsgoodgirl @mygyn @chavivaelisheva @kmc1989 @enchantingharmonyalpaca @callsign-magnolia @mrsbradshaw01

-

“You sure you are okay?”

She pulls the sock up to her ankle as she looks up at him,Rooster is leaning against the doorframe, “Huh?” she asks as she looks up, hair already pulled up into a bun and she was wearing her uniform. 

Rooster's eyes soften as he takes in the sight of Beatrice getting ready for her day. The morning sunlight filters through the window, casting a warm glow on the room that makes her skin shine…but his concern lingers as he waits for her response.

Beatrice glances up, a soft smile playing on her lips. "I'm good, Roos. The ankle's holding up well, and I'm ready for the game."

He crosses his arms, leaning more into the doorway. "You sure?"

"Positive. I've been doing those exercises you recommended, and the ankle feels almost as good as new. Plus, I've got Evelyn and Shells as my backup if anything goes awry on the court."

Rooster's expression relaxes a bit, but his concern stays in his gaze. "Just promise me you'll take it easy. Alright?"

Beatrice nods, reaching over to wrap her arms around his neck. "I promise, Roos. I'll be cautious, and if anything feels off, I won't hesitate to sit out.” she smiles, “You’ll be there,with the kids, cheering me on too,won’t you?”

Rooster smiles, his arms circling around her waist. "You bet I will. The whole cheering squad will be there, ready to celebrate every spike and victory.” he kisses her forehead and leans back to meet her eyes But, seriously, don't push yourself too hard. Your health comes first."

Beatrice leans in, pressing a soft kiss on his lips. "I appreciate your concern, Roos. It means the world to me and I’ll be okay. Now, I should finish getting ready. The game's in a few hours, and I want to be there early to warm up."

“Hm.”

“Roos.”

He tsks, “If something happens,” he begins, “I got bandages in the car, I got a lot of stuff that I can shove in the backseat and away from the kids.” he says softly, tucking a few loose strands that left her bun behind her ear, “And I’ll enter that court, just you wait. I’ll carry you out myself.”

"Because ou're my knight in shining armor."

Rooster grins, his eyes dancing with affection. "Always, gorgeous. Ready to charge in whenever you need saving."

She gives him a teasing smile. "Well, I hope it doesn't come to that dramatic rescue, but I appreciate the sentiment." and she cups his face with her hands, pecking his lips, “But thank you,really.”

She steps back to finish getting ready, Rooster stays by the doorway, watching her with a soft gaze. He can't help but marvel at the woman before him—strong, determined, and the love of his life. The way she handles challenges, whether it's a volleyball game or the hurdles of everyday life, never fails to inspire him.

Beatrice catches his gaze and tilts her head inquisitively as she’s partially bent over to check her sneakers. "What's going on in that mind of yours, Roos?"

He grins, tilting his head to follow the curve of her ass with his eyes. "Just thinking about how lucky I am. Lucky to have you in my life, lucky to see you in action on and off the court." he smirks, “Lucky that you love short shorts.”

Beatrice laughs, giving him a look before straightening herself to prop a hand on her waist “Are you trying to distract me with compliments?"

He chuckles, “Me? Am I a distraction?"

"Maybe you are, LC. But I've got a game to prepare for, so your distracting tactics will have to wait."

Rooster smirks, adopting a mock salute. "Understood, ma’am. I'll save the compliments for the victory celebration."

She chuckles, reaching for her gym bag. "Now that's a plan I can get behind.”

"Oh yeah." he replies, watching as the black fabric of her shorts hug her ass tight and he has to get close to her. Close enough that he can gently brush the bottom part of her uniform, “For good luck.” and he slaps the left cheek hard enough for it to jiggle.

She yelps, covering her ass and leaping away from him with her face red “Rooster!!” and she’s a mix of amused and worried because holy hell,she was wearing shorts.

Rooster bursts into laughter, and he raises an eyebrow teasingly. "What? Just adding some flair for the victory. You know, a good luck slap." he smiles more, “They won’t see it.”

Beatrice shoots him a mock glare, but there's a playful glint in her eyes as she rubs her bottom. "Oh my God,you're incorrigible, Roos.”

“Sure am.”He smirks, leaning against the doorframe once more. "Consider it part of the strategy. A winning strategy, I might add."

“Oh yeah? How so?”

Rooster grins, "Well, you see, it's all about the element of surprise. The opposing team will be so baffled by the unexpected good luck slap that they won't be able to focus on the game. Victory through distraction, baby."

“Really.”

“Oh yes, really.”

Beatrice shakes her head, then chuckles softly  "Well…if it brings us good luck, I'm all for it."

He winks, "Sure will,gorgeous.” he says, “You got everything?” he asks as she places the duffel bag on her shoulder, “Nothing missing?” 

Beatrice checks her bag, ensuring she has everything she needs for the game. "Jersey, knee pads, water bottle, and lucky charm," she lists off, glancing at Rooster with a soft smile. "I think I'm good to go. Anything else you want to add to the winning strategy?"

Rooster taps his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I could offer a motivational dance routine, but I think that might be pushing it."

“Oh?”

“But less clothed, y’know.” he smirks, “For movement.”

She laughs, shaking her head and blushing even harder, "As tempting as that sounds, I'll stick with the good luck slap for now. Save the dance routine for the after-party, maybe." she smiles, “If you want-”

"Deal," he says without missing a beat. "I’m gonna get the kids and I’ll meet you downstairs?”

Beatrice leans in, stealing a quick kiss. “Sounds good, are they watching tv?"

“Yep.”

"Great. I'll meet you downstairs, and then we can head to Northride  together."

Rooster returns the smile, his eyes filled with warmth. "You’re going to do great,gorgeous. Go out there and show them what you've go."

With a final peck on her lips, Rooster heads out of the bedroom to gather the kids. Beatrice takes a moment to compose herself, her heart fluttering with a mix of excitement and nerves. 

A little fear doesn’t hurt anyone,right?

After checking her ankle one last time she descends the stairs, the sound of the twins' laughter grows louder. The living room is filled with the playful banter between Rooster and the kids. Nicole, in her mini jersey, seems particularly enthusiastic about the day's events. She stops, widening her eyes, “...what…is Nikki wearing?” and her husband just picks the twins up, “What are all of them wearing??”

Rooster turns towards Beatrice, a wide grin on his face. "Well, it's the official game day uniform. I thought we'd go all out for the victory celebration. Matching jerseys for everyone!"

Beatrice surveys the scene with pure  surprise. The twins, dressed in tiny Northride jerseys that Rooster must have specially ordered, look adorable. Nicole, in her mini version of the team uniform, is bouncing with excitement with a jersey that reaches her knees.

She bursts into laughter, covering her mouth. "Roos, you've really outdone yourself this time. I didn't know we were hosting a Northride fashion show today! Should I call Marcus and let him know?”"

Rooster chuckles, holding Gavin and Aurora in his arms. "Marcus actually helped.”

“Huh?”

“Oh,I didn’t show you,right? I’ll show you later. But Marcus did this to you. Evelyn let him know and he got…inspired.

Nicole, oblivious to the conversation, claps her hands and cheers, "Go, Mama!"

Beatrice has her hands in front of her mouth, “I…I don’t even know what to say.”

Beatrice takes in the adorable sight of her kids, dressed in matching jerseys, and she can't help but feel a surge of warmth in her heart. She steps closer, crouching down to be at eye level with Nicole, who is practically bursting with excitement.

"Nikki, you look amazing! “

"Go, Mama! “

“Aw,” and her eyes sting, she sniffles, “Sweetie, aw,” she picks Nicole up and hugs the one year old tight, quickly wiping her eyes as she looks over at Rooster, “You are impossible.”

And he has a proud grin on his face. "What do you think, gorgeous? Your own little cheering squad."

She looks up at him, genuine appreciation in her eyes. "Roos, this is... It's beyond amazing. I love it. Thank you for making the day even more special." she wipes her eyes again, “Oh,God…I’m in shambles.”

Rooster leans down, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. “Thought you’d like it,baby,” he gently wipes her cheeks with his thumb while still holding Gavin, “Don’t cry, gorgeous, gonna make me cry.”

Beatrice chuckles through her teary-eyed state, shaking her head. "I can't help it, Roos. This is just... It's too sweet, and I'm feeling all these emotions." she pouts a bit, her voice cracking, “You did this for me. I don’t fucking deserve you, Roos.”

Rooster grins,kissing her forehead. "Bea, you deserve the world, and if I can add a little happiness to your day, then I've done my job."

“Stoooop!! Beatrice hugs Nicole a bit tighter, a mix of emotions overwhelming her. "You always know how to make everything so special, Roos. God I’m all messed up, damn it. I love you so much.”

Rooster gently strokes her cheek. "It's a team effort, gorgeous. And I love you too.” he nods at the door, “Ready?”

“Yeah,ready.”

-

She remembers the last game she played at Northride and remembers how many people were there and by god it was like it doubled. She looked from inside the Bronco as lines and lines of people walked in and out, “Jesus, Roos that’s…so many people.”

Rooster chuckled, his arm draped casually around Beatrice's shoulder as they watched the bustling crowd from inside the Bronco. "Yeah, it's quite a turnout. Northride sure knows how to throw an event."

Beatrice's eyes scanned the sea of faces, the buzz of excitement evident in the air. "I never thought so many people would turn up. I’m happy to see that they are still getting students after so long…”

"Well, it's not every day that they get to witness a legendary game."

She chuckled, giving him a look . "Legendary game?"

"Hey, you remember how people still talk about it," Rooster said, a twinkle in his eye. "It's not every day you win a game with such style, especially after the little ankle incident." he flicks his gaze down, “Keep an eye on it.”

Beatrice rolled her eyes playfully. "Roos, I'm fine.I’m just…” anxious? Nervous.

Scared?

“...you know, trying to figure our how we’ll go inside. Do you know where you and the kids will stay?”

"Don't worry, Bea. I've got it all sorted out. There's a designated family area, and Ev helped arrange it, everyone will be there, Mav too. We'll have a good view of the game without being in the middle of the crowd."

Beatrice sighed in relief. "Okay,good.”

“You’ll do fine.” he coos, with one of his arms on the steering wheel, Caravans over his eyes, eyebrows up and head tilted, “Gorgeous, hey,look at me.” and he rubs her jawline with his thumb to call her attention, not forcing her to turn.

Beatrice turned her gaze toward Rooster, his touch on her jawline grounding her. His eyes held a warmth that transcended the busy surroundings outside the Bronco. "Hey, I believe in you. You've got this. Just go out there, play your heart out, and enjoy the game. We're all here to cheer for you, no matter what."

She managed a small smile, but she wrung her hands. "Thanks, Roos. I needed that."

He leaned in, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Anytime, gorgeous. You're not alone in this, remember that." he kisses her again, “Anything else before we leave?”

Beatrice took a deep breath, letting the reassuring words from Rooster sink in. "No, I think I'm good. Let's do this." before she chickened out.

Rooster grinned, his eyes filled with pride. "That's my girl. Off we go.”

The Bronco door swung open, and they stepped out with Rooster holding the twins’ carriers and with Nicole holding Bea’s hand until they got separated. Rooster stood close to her at all times until they saw Maverick in the distance and Evelyn on the opposite side.

“...I guess this is where we separate.”

“Yeah.” he whispers, “I’ll stay with the kids next to Mav.”

“Okay.”

“Gorgeous.” he says softly, “You’ll be great.”

Beatrice nodded, "Thanks, Roos. I'll see you after the game, okay?"

"Absolutely," he said, giving her a reassuring smile. Rooster walked with her toward the entrance of the gymnasium, making sure she felt supported every step of the way.

As they approached the lively crowd, Beatrice's heartbeat quickened.Rooster sensed her tension and squeezed her hand. "You've got this, Bea. Just play like you always do."

She gave him a grateful look, her eyes reflecting a mix of emotions as she rubs her wedding ring. "I'll do my best. See you in a bit."

Rooster pressed a quick kiss to her temple before letting her go. He watched as Beatrice navigated through the crowd, the sea of people almost parting to make way for her. She turns just in time to wave at him and he waves back with a smile on his face.

Now he had to find Mav.

[lavalamp-juice]

SPOILER REVIEW FOR THE MARVELS

Just got back from the theater, watched it with @that-coolllama and my mom :D 

This is all over the place but I'll try to keep it concise.

Let me start off things by saying I didn't have the biggest expectations from this movie. After watching it definitely exceeded my expectations and I highly recommend it! 

[ But TL;DR Plot Characters, and Comedy were awesome.  Couple of Scenes could have added stuff and  been a bit better. 8.5/10 ] 

Okay actual Review and Spoilers after the cut 👇

Things I liked!:

-I really liked the scene where Carol and Monica were attracted to the light like moths. That was really cool ,they just couldn't stop themselves from getting closer and touching it, human nature.

-Goose was so cute in the beginning!  SHE HAD BABIES which was fun. 27 I think. That scene that the kittens were eating all the ppl, hilarious.

-Kamala's family was a nice touch and were supportive, but didn't get in the way. Which was great :D Their duologue was natural.

-The beginning with Kamala's drawings was so fun!

-THE SINGING PLANET AND THE FACT THAT SHES MARRIED AND HER DRESSS AHHHHHHHH CAPTAIN MARVEL IS A PRINCESS?? is this based off something in the Comics? I need to see that. That world is cool and super creative. The universe is vast! Costume And Dance coordinators  worked real hard you can tell! 

-FIGHT SCENES UGH THE FIGHT SCENES. They were really good and well coordinated. I thought it would  be confusing but it wasn't :O. Especially after the training montage 💪

-The 3 Marvel Gals had awesome chemistry! All the dialogue felt so natural between them.

-Monica's Mom dying during the Blip is heartbreaking. Also seeing the background of the hospital in CHAOS was super interesting. I'm glad it is shown that  the Blip had an effect on  people's lives and not just. "a thing that happened oh well". Kinda reminds me of in Multiverese of Madness that guy tells Dr.Stange that his cat and brother died while he was blipped.

-The Skrull history is so heartbreaking. The Skrull REALLY can't catch a break huh :/ but it does create good world building & is interesting.

-THE END CREDIT SCENE THAT KAMALA IS ASSEMBING A YOUNG ANVENGERS TEAM?! AHHHH !!!!!

Who this could include off the top of my head- 

The ones with stars are the ones who are already in the MCU

⭐ Iron Heart

⭐Shuri Black Panther 

✨Miles Morales (context- yt vid explaining prowler in MCU yt vid of Miles in the MCU

⭐ Hulk's Son

Squirrel Girl (okay she's in a commercial with Nick Fury, BUT THAT DONT COUNT 🐿️🐿️🐿️)

⭐ Peter Parker is still pretty young so he's included

⭐ America

⭐ Casey Lang

⭐ That lame girl from Secret Invasion 

Moon Girl! And she has history with the Kree so yee

The Girl and Boy Vision (tho I don't think that would work in the MCU but who knows. Wanda is obviously alive and idk Visons could have backups or smth like that)

⭐ AND BRUNO CAN BE THE GUY IN THE CHAIR INVENTING STUFF

-The way the Kree Leader Villain just... disintegrated was crazy. Speaking of her, she was a pretty alright antagonist. I wouldn't go as far as to say that she was a villain since she was doing all this for a pretty good reason. Not that what she was doing was right, but from her perspective I understood where she was coming from.

Things I didn't like/could have used touch up: 

-The Special Effects were actual great and I didn't see any problem with it! except the scene where Monica and Kamala are falling in the sky. Other than that they were good throughout!

-Carol - "I caused a Civil War, the decay of a planet,  and the Skrull their Home"

Monica- " It's okay, we're family" 

LIKE GIRL NO IT IS NOT. okay actually I forgot why the AI was bad so maybe it was worth it but still ;-; 

-Out of all the sacrifices that one was a bitttt anti climactic. I think maybe the scene just suffered from being too short. Kamala and Carol should have been shown to react more. Still, was a pretty good sacrifice </3

-Definitely could have been longer. my brother mentioned how the ending kinda feels like a much of cut scenes just Frankenstein-ed together. And yeah and does kinda feel that way.

-Some things I would have loved to see- 

Like WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT SINGING PLANTET?!!?!??

Another scene of Goose and her kittens would have been nice.

On the singing planet Carol was like " we need new clothes" and the Prince is like "k" and they just show up with new clothes? Like we didn't see them react to it or anything -_-. C'mon Kamala loving her boots would be such an easy comic book callback.

Kamala calling Bruno and Nakia. Like they were not mentioned once! T_T KAMALA YOU CAN'T FORGET WHERE U CAME FROM.

This may be that I haven't seen ALL the MCU stuff but where did the Skull go? If they have a home now are there Skull on Earth. WHY WASN'T ANYTHING FROM SECRET INVASION MENTIONED.

-Anyways-

-That X-Men End Scene. .... uh ... very interesting to say the least. I have not consumed ANY X-Men content but like to have them in a different timeline than the main MCU is a lil lame, but go off. Idk I'd like to hear the thoughts of anyone who has seen X-Men content.

Overall, I think the comedy, characters, & world building all fit perfectly. 

A 8.5/10 movie for me. Can't wait to rewatch it!!!!!

:D Thanks for reading! <3

[vousmereve]

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ 𑣪 Things That Spark My Curiosity!

The seeds of a profound connection often sprout from shared interests, serving as a gateway to deeper conversations. It is truly remarkable how the intertwining of our respective preferences can pave the way for enduring friendships. Below, I offer a glimpse into my world, allowing you to discern the facets of my better personality.

MUSICAL REPERTOIRE: IU, AILEE, HUH YUNJIN, LE SSERAFIM, SEVENTEEN, ENHYPEN, ITZY, Elaine, Lyn, Kehlani, Taylor Swift (big fan), beabadoobee, NIKI, wave to earth, Novo Amor, The Weeknd, Chase Atlantic, Roosevelt, Reality Club, Laufey, Lonely in the Rain, Sleeping At Last, Westlife, My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Ben Howard, Bon Iver, MALIQ & D’Essentials, Fourtwnty, and the songs I listen to, according to how I’m feeling.

SERIES & FILMS: Sherlock Holmes, Enola Holmes, Harry Potter, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Alice In Borderland, Jigsaw, Wednesday, Elizabeth, Anne With An E, Disney Princess, Barbie(s), Casper (1995), Sherlock, Tomorrowland, The Meg, The Black Demon, Shark Bait, Fall, The Rain, Me Before You, The Crown, Hocus Pocus, 1899, The Sinking of Van Der Wijck, The Maze Runner, and many are not on the list.

KOREAN DRAMA & MOVIE: Hope, 20th Century Girl, Memories of the Alhambra, W (Two Worlds), While You Were Sleeping, Descendants of the Sun, The Legend of the Blue Sea, Vincenzo, Mouse, Taxi Driver, Our Beloved Summer, Law School, Dr. Romantic, Miracle in Cell No. 7, Reply 1988, The Beauty Inside, Crash Landing On You, Are You Human?, Itaewon Class, Who Are You: School 2015, School 2017, He Is Psychometric, All Of Us Are Dead, Squid Game, Train to Busan, Fight for My Way, Romance Is A Bonus Book, Big Mouth, The Lonely and Great God (Goblin), Pinocchio, Psychopath Diary, Hell Is Other People, The Heirs, Strong Girl Bong-soon, When the Camellia Blooms, My Love from the Star, The Moon Embracing the Sun, and many are not on the list.

ANIMOVIE: Your Lie in April, Kakegurui, Singeki No Kyojin (big fan), Jujutsu Kaisen, Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Tokyo Ghoul, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Blue Lock, Tokyo Revengers, Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku, My Little Monster, Takt Op. Destiny, Assassination Classroom, and many more are not on the list.

CHINESE DRAMA: The Untamed, Love O2O, Put Your Head on My Shoulder, A Little Thing Called First Love. (I don’t watch many Chinese dramas, if you have any recommendations please tell me)

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

[ace-the-fox]

Was out basically all day today and yesterday was revising but also generally being lazy, but finally caught up! Posting this and then Day 5 immediately after! :D (Haven't started the next two days but we're working on it–)

Anyways, if we can have bro Andrew and Akko, we can have bro Frank and Lotte. It's the law.

Day 4: Mutual Pining <3

"And it's just like... I know he's flirting with us as a joke or by accident or whatever. But last week he told me I had really pretty eyes, and I literally– just, like, butterflies, you know... Do you think it's true?"

Lotte sucked a bit of cream from her bun off of her thumb and looked down at the blonde laid down on the grass next to her. He blinked up at her with big brown doe eyes, cheeks flushed from the excitement of his rambling. "Objectively, you know," he amended slightly.

Lotte laughed softly under her breath. It was funny how every one of these biweekly picnics they had ended up leading to one of Frank's rants about how pretty and amazing his crush was. Still, she didn't mind. It helped him get it out of his system.

"I'd say so," she nodded, kindly. Frank brightened briefly, and then went straight back to where he was.

"Also, you should have seen what he wore when we went to see that new Marvel film on Saturday," Frank said, growing excited again. "Like, it was just a t-shirt and some ripped jeans, not something that meant he was actively looking for the attention– Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course."

"Of course."

"But," Frank put up a finger. "The jeans were... shapely. It's not weird to say he has a great butt, is it?"

Lotte took another bite from her dessert, nodding along. "No weirder than anything else you've told me."

Frank laughed a little at that. "Yeah, that's probably true," he said, a little more humbly. He flipped from where he'd been laying on his back on the grass to his side, propping himself up a bit on his elbow. He rested his cheek in his palm. "If I may make a Nightfall reference here–"

"Of course, you may." It had taken perhaps a week of their budding friendship for Lotte to recommend the book to Frank. She'd worried that he'd shoot the idea down immediately, finding the request weird at best, irritating at worst. But Frank was much too adventurous for that, and ended up getting sucked into it as much as she had. To say they had become insufferable around each other towards others was an understatement.

"You know how I once said that the main reason anyone ships Arthur and Edgar together is because everyone loves the whole sweetheart and brooding partner dynamic?"

"That's you two, huh?" Lotte giggled.

Frank laughed in unison with her. "Exactly!" Then his expression turned a little sadder. "Or, at least, it would be. If he'd only notice me that way..."

To Frank's surprise, Lotte was still laughing. "Hey!" he exclaimed, in mock annoyance. "What's so funny? I am in a crisis!"

Lotte shook her head, trying to excuse herself. "I'm sure he'll notice any day now, and you can have your happily ever after."

In truth, Lotte couldn't help but think back to some previous conversations with Akko, after her own coffee meetings with Andrew. How Frank's brooding brunette was going on similar, if a little more refined, rambles about the blonde himself. In that same desperate, lovesick way. Akko had wanted to compose a way to get the two of them together at last, but Lotte had thought against it. She wanted to see how either of them fared without interference.

They'd get it... eventually. Hopefully.

[dilfdoctordoom]

OH YEAH THE NOVA CORPS THING

I was,,, So fucking confused with that. Cause I'm pretty sure J'son says the ENTIRE Corps was massacred but HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT HAPPEN AND WE DON'T SEE ANY CONSEQUENCE??????? And even if that's not what he meant and the only ones to die are those we see dying, that's already A LOT. How are you telling me that Richard Rider didn't go berserk over this?????? The Corps being massacred is. Huh. A HUGE THING FOR HIM??????? THAT'S AN INSTANT TRAUMA BUTTON?????????? (now I'm wondering how many times this happens cause I think I've seen it thrice in my limited cosmic Marvel experience)

And I'm with you on the Starnova thing. I actually like them! I think it has some potential! But not in the "it's always been you" way cause NOPE IT HASN'T AND NOTHING THE TWO OF YOU DID UNTIL NOW MAKES SENSE IF WE GO WITH THAT MENTALITY. It would have been far more interesting to actually show those feelings beginning to develop. You can acknowledge their entire history together since Annihilation without pretending they've liked each other the whole time cause that's just Yikes

(I didn't remember our god and savior Al Ewing had addressed the Drax thing, I guess that's what ya get for reading everything out of order. I can feel every molecule in my body begging me to reread it......)

Alsoooo I just read your Gamora fic. I think I would die happy and fulfilled if you were the only person ever allowed to write her and I've never felt so much catharsis SORRY FOR HOW LONG THESE ASKS ALWAYS ARE

J'son does say that the Corps are massacred and then it's never brought up again. Cause that makes sense. Like Rich definitely wouldn't go insane in this specific instance.

Saying there's always been feelings between Starmora makes the ship dead in the water, IMO. There's no sign of any real feelings beyond basic friendship & then to retcon it to them always having been in love... it doesn't work. At all.

I'd definitely recommend rereading Ewing's run! I did after I finished up with cosmic marvel and it gave me more appreciation for things I'd originally disliked (I wasn't a fan of how he wrote Gamora initially; now I think he's one of the few modern writers to get her).

(And thank you, there's an Angelamora fic coming up I've written around 5k words & Angela hasn't showed up yet so 🤷 guess it's gonna be a long one).

[evereinefaust]

*.·:·.✧ 𝐀 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐢𝐤𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞 ✧.·:·.*

It was the next day — [Y/n] was excited to go to the company building. After the marvelous first meeting with her co-actress and friend, Lyn, the young [h/c]ette looked forward to meeting more people she would be working with. She was nervous, for sure, but she was also filled with anticipation about the activity she and her partner would be doing the whole day.

Upon arriving at the building, once again, the actors were gathered together in the conference room for a briefing. The head of HR gave them a few pointers and comments about how successful yesterday went, congratulating everyone and wishing that today would be as fine as it was before. After he said what needed to be said, he left the bunch to their own devices.

"[Y/n]~!" a familiar voice rang out as a body plopped itself on the unsuspecting girl.

"Oof!" the [h/c]-haired teen grunted after being caught off guard by the sudden impact, closing her eyes in the process. As she opened them back after a second, she recognized the pink hair covering the entirety of her vision. Soon, a smile emerged on her lips. "Hey, Lyn."

"Who's your partner for today?" the other girl asked after breaking the embrace, but she still kept her hands on [Y/n]'s shoulders. Her turquoise eyes were blinking with an inquisitive light, while her lips were sporting a cheeky smirk.

"Hold on," opening the 2 O'clock hour on her paper, she then read the name of her partner. "Mikhail Blake... He's your older cousin, right?"

The pinkette's orbs widened a bit, gasping in surprise. But after a moment, she squealed. "Oh, my gosh! This must be planned! Oh, right! I'll tell you everything there is to know about my older cousin so that your time with him will go smoothly."

[Y/n] chuckled at the other girl's enthusiasm. She, too, sported a smile. "Alright."

"Mikhail is really nice. He looks intimidating with his big build and deep voice but he's quite the softie. Usually, he speaks less around people and prefers to listen. So if you're talking to him and he doesn't reply often, don't be too worried; that's just how he is."

"Mhm. I see."

Lyn crossed her arms, puckering her lips in thought. "Hm... What else... Oh, yeah! That guy likes silence quite a bit so don't be nervous if there's silence between you two after some time. Also, he likes quiet places a lot — I can recommend some locations if you want."

"Huh... I guess we'll just be hanging around in silence most of the time... Will that be alright, though?"

Nodding slowly, the [h/c]-haired girl hummed. "Okay."

"Als—"

"Miss [Y/n] [L/n]?"

A deep masculine voice interrupted Lyn. Both girls turned their attention to the newcomer — a fair-skinned tall man with silver hair and piercing light blue eyes. Furthermore, [Y/n] noticed the mole above and below his right eye. Just seeing this man made the [h/c]ette feel her heart skip a beat, a pleasant shiver running down her spine and her face get hot. She hadn't had the chance to fully examine her co-actors, although she had already assumed that all of them were rather good-looking. Even Lyn she found quite charming...

A low groan snapped [Y/n] out of her stupor, glancing in Lyn's direction to see her looking very annoyed. The pinkette's narrowed eyes were directed at the silver-haired man who only ignored the other girl, his attention fixated on [Y/n]. She sweat-dropped, not knowing why her friend was reacting like this. Nevertheless, she still found it amusing.

Focusing back on the man, she then cleared her throat, hoping to calm her nerves down. "Yes, that's me."

After she said that, Lyn then huffed, planting both fists on her hips. Her aquamarine hues glared at the silver-haired man in front of her. Noticing her glare, he cocked his head in her direction, a slight shift in his facial expression. Despite not fully understanding what was happening at the moment, [Y/n] still knew that there were sparks flying between the two. She sweat-dropped.

"So it's safe to assume that this man is Mikhail, right? Seeing how Lyn is treating him, well..."

"I would punch you since you decided to butt in instead of waiting for me to finish talking with [Y/n] like any normal person would, but since you're her partner for today, I'll let it slide. However! I'm warning you — don't you ever make her uncomfortable or else I won't hesitate to do something drastic to you!" she pointed her index finger at the taller man as a threatening aura emitted from her. Her glare was still present and a frown appeared on her lips.

The man who was now known as Mikhail simply crossed his arms, his eyebrows furrowing as he huffed. "I could say the same to you. Don't you think she's more uncomfortable with you right now instead? Being clingy isn't good, Lyn."

"Wha?" the girl's eyes widened, taken aback at her older cousin's words. Although she tried not to show it, his words did affect her.

And immediately, she whipped her head back to the [h/c]ette, her light blue eyes containing concern. Her thin brows creased a bit, the corner of her lips curving downwards. Noticing her expression, [Y/n] instantly knew what it meant.

"That's alright. Don't worry, Lyn. I'm fine," [Y/n] reassured, clasping the said girl's hands and giving it a rub.

Sighing in relief, the pinkette then graced a minuscule smile, although the worry didn't completely leave her visage. "If I make you uncomfortable in any way, don't hesitate to tell me."

"Alright, I'll keep that in mind," she nodded, returning the smile. "Don't worry."

"Though I doubt myself if I'll actually speak up..."

For what seemed like hours, Mikhail decided to speak up. "Lyn, you really shouldn't keep your partner waiting."

"Ugh, fine," rolling her eyes, she then complied with her cousin's words. Though, before leaving, she grinned at [Y/n]. "Goodluck! And just enjoy yourself!"

"You too, Lyn," [Y/n] chuckled, giving her a small wave.

Striding past the tall silverette, Lyn, of course, didn't forget to give her cousin one last warning. Her narrowed eyes were once again directed at him. "If I find out that [Y/n] is uncomfortable with you, I'm going to make things difficult for you."

"Whatever, Lyn," he sighed. Then, he lifted his hand and made a shooing motion. "Just go."

Once Lyn finally returned to her designated partner and they exited the room, Mikhail and [Y/n] were the ones left. The tall man turned to face his shorter partner, making the [h/c]ette tilt her head up to make eye contact. Seeing that stoic face made her heart race, although hopefully, it wasn't out of nervousness.

"I'm sorry for my younger cousin's behavior," Mikhail apologized, dipping his head. "She's quite overbearing sometimes, but don't take it personally."

"It's okay, really. Don't worry about it, Mikhail," smiling slightly, [Y/n] waved it off.

 "Shall we go, then?" Mikhail said, gesturing at the door.

 "Sure."

"I guess they really are cousins."

A small giggle escaped [Y/n]'s lips, following the tall silverette as they went inside the same cafe she went to with his cousin. The bell chimed above them as they entered, the fresh smell of freshly brewed coffee hitting [Y/n]'s nose. Like yesterday, there were a few customers inside. They all seem busy with their respective conversations while enjoying their coffees. Not even sparing a glance at them, Mikhail headed towards the counter where the barista was.

Upon noticing their arrival, the woman gave an amiable smile with a slight bow. "Welcome. What will you order this morning?"

"What do you like to eat?" the man asked, glancing at the shorter girl beside him. "I'll order so you can find a table and take a seat first."

"Oh," At that, the girl was quick to rummage through the small bag she had with her.

However, before she could get her wallet, a large hand gently rested against her forearm, halting her movements. Confused, she looked back up to meet the male's gaze. There was a hint of tenderness in his light blue eyes amidst his calm demeanor. [Y/n] felt her heart rate increase and her cheeks began to blush, unsure about the occurrence.

Looking into the [h/c]ette's [e/c] eyes, Mikhail smiled lightly. "Let me treat you. Consider this as my apology for my cousin's attitude."

"Oh, there's no need for that..." the [h/c]ette mumbled. "I'm fine."

"Still, I want to make sure you're enjoying your time with me. Though if you insist, I won't force you," he said.

"Oh my gosh... this is so unexpected that it's embarrassing!"

Blinking a little at that unexpected move, the [h/c]ette pursed her lips, unsure if she should accept the offer or not. But upon seeing that look in his eyes, her hesitation disappeared. His kindness made her feel warm inside. She was never good with gratitude or thanks, so when someone gives her a gesture like that, it makes her feel extremely flustered inside. It also reminded her of the feeling of a parent's love and affection. 

"I... Alright," she finally caved in, finding herself smiling. "I'm really grateful, Mikhail."

"Mhm. It's no problem. I wanted to do this, after all."

Giving her companion a grateful nod, she placed her wallet inside her purse and told the silverette her order. After that, Mikhail returned his attention to the employees and placed their orders while she found them a table to sit at. Upon seeing a small booth for two people right next to the windows, she quietly glided into the chair. As for their companion, Renee, she sat in a booth beside theirs. Now that she was waiting for the man to finish, [Y/n] couldn't help but blush at the man's earlier actions. It felt so intimate. The fact that her heart started beating erratically because of that simple gesture caused her cheeks to become red. She didn't expect herself to have a reaction like that.

"Geez... Is getting treated by a co-worker that shocking? You're blushing and everything!"

She shook her head at that, her lips curving downward and a slight crease embedded between her brows. She glared at the table before shifting her attention outside the window, trying her best to calm her nerves and her racing heart.

"Keep your act together, [Y/n]! Or else later will be awkward between you two! Don't get flustered easily by simple things, okay? Okay."

As soon as she finished her pep talk with herself, Mikhail came to their table and took a seat in front of her. Yet, despite what she just told herself, the young [h/c]ette still felt her heart thumping hard upon the silver-haired's arrival. The girl really needs to work on her social skills and get used to meeting and remaining calm around strangers...

"Our meal will be done in a few minutes," Mikhail informed.

"Mhm."

"Lyn said that the two of you had breakfast here yesterday?" Mikhail asked, his gaze turning to his partner.'"Lyn said that the two of you had breakfast here yesterday?" Mikhail asked, his gaze turning to his partner.

"Oh, yeah. She took me to this place and we ate and chatted here," [Y/n] replied, recalling the event that transpired yesterday. Her eyes softened and a pink tint enveloped her cheeks. "I'm glad she introduced me to this place since I'm not very familiar with the locations around here. Speaking of which, she said that you discovered this."

"Mhm," he nodded. "When I got the email of acceptance regarding my application, I went to the company. Then, after my briefing, I explored around the area and discovered many nearby restaurants."

"Oh, I see."

"By the way, how was yesterday with Lyn? She didn't cause you any trouble, did she? You can tell me if she's too much for you to handle," Mikhail expressed, crossing his arms and eyebrows scrunched a bit.

The girl waved her hands dismissively, chuckling a bit. "Oh, no! She didn't. Don't worry."

"Are you sure?"

"Uh-huh, Lyn is fun to be around. Yesterday was enjoyable because of her," she admitted, smiling. "After having breakfast with her, we did a lot of things and chatted almost all day. Lyn seems to be pulling the reins of everything from start to finish and I just go along with the ride."

At that, a faint smile appeared on his face as well. "I see. I'm glad you enjoyed your time with Lyn."

[Y/n] found herself with a smile of her own, witnessing how Mikhail's expression softened when they talked about his younger cousin. Despite the earlier scene between the cousins, the young woman knew how the two treasure each other. It reminded the girl so much of how her family also works — a healthy dash of sarcasm and teasing. The sight warmed her heart.

"You guys seem pretty close," she stated out loud.

She watched as Mikhail's posture straightened, a bit surprised that she suddenly spoke her thoughts out. The man was a bit difficult to observe at first with his impassive facade and little expressions, but as time went on, [Y/n] was able to pick out the subtle changes in them. It seemed as if the stoic man was actually shy at times, especially when talking with her. He was quiet, but he was open to expressing himself when speaking with others.

The older man tilted his head ever so slightly. When he saw that she was staring intently at him, he responded calmly. "I guess you can say that. She's my only cousin, after all. Though, she's really obnoxious and stubborn. I would rather have someone else who isn't as troublesome as her."

She chuckled. "Is that the reason why you two often squabble?"

"Mhm. That girl will find ways just to argue with me," he let out an exhale, a fond yet bitter smile etched upon his features. "Every little thing that I do always irks her and we often end up clashing. Of course, since I'm older, I don't retaliate against Lyn...often."

"That's kinda cute. It reminds me of how I am with my older siblings as well," the [h/c]-haired teen mused, happy that Mikhail was sharing such a story with her. "Though, in my case, they often gang up on me since they're twins."

"Dietrich and Zelda, right?"

She nodded, surprised. "Oh, you already know them?"

"Kind of," the silverette hummed. "They're famous voice actors. I've recognized their voice in many media I've watched. That's why I'm really surprised that you're their younger sister."

"Hehe~" a blush crept on her cheeks at his words, rubbing her cheeks bashfully.

After a few minutes, their orders finally arrived. The same barista brought a tray containing their breakfast. One by one, she transferred each item carefully onto the table. There were [f/f] and [f/d] for the young actress, and a couple of pastries and a macchiato for the man. Once more, [Y/n] was amazed by the amount of food on her companion's side of the table, her [e/c] hues widening a bit at the selection of various cakes and bread. As she shifted to see the man's expression, what she saw totally left her in awe —  a pink hue spread across his cheeks as his light blue eyes sparkled in delight, fixated on the food in front of him.

The girl felt her heart swell up, hiding a chuckle behind her fist at the sight.

"Cute~"

Mikhail Blake. Task: Give your partner a short letter of your thoughts about them.

"...Wow... How did my task jump from giving a keepsake to giving a personal letter? And what do I think of him? But I just met him today! And will he willingly accept a random letter coming from me?"

[Y/n] glared at the piece of paper that she held in her hand. Her frown grew deeper the more she stared at it, her mind completely occupied with her own dilemma regarding the task she just received. Writing letters is fine by her as long as the party she would be sending it to was someone she was fairly acquainted with, not just someone she met on the first day. After all, what can she say about Mikhail when she knows little to none about him? And if he did accept her letter and read it, she would surely die out of embarrassment — both today and in the future.

"You alright? You look troubled."

Her thoughts snapped back to reality when the familiar voice of the silver-haired adult called out for her. She immediately folded back the paper and hid it from his view, at the same time, sending him a reassuring nod.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just checking on something."

"Mhm. Alright."

The pair were walking side by side in the busy streets of the city. After the two finished their peaceful breakfast, Mikhail offered to show her around the area so that she could familiarize herself with the streets and different establishments nearby. Or, if she wants, they could return to the building right away and instead show her around the garden. [Y/n] thought hard about his offer, both equally appealing to her. In the end, she asked to be toured around the area before returning to the building. After all, if she were to write a decent first impression letter for Mikhail, then the young [h/c]-haired teen needed proper supplies for it.

"Just around this corner is a stationery shop," Mikhail informed as the duo turned another corner. "It's a pretty neat place. And right beside it is a small bookstore."

The young woman nodded as she followed him, observing the place as they neared their destination. Her [e/c] hues were fixated on the shops lined up on the left side, Mikhail walking by her right to keep her away from the busy traffic. He had his gaze on the young girl, seeing her reflection through the glass windows of the shops they passed by. Subtly, the corner of his lips turned up.

Soon, the three of them arrived at their destination. The shop's signage hung above them, the words 'Vintage Quill' inscribed in large bold characters atop its wooden boards. They made their way inside the establishment, the bell chimes and airy interior welcoming them warmly. A few people were loitering around inside the shop, some standing at the counter and some browsing among the shelves.

"Whoah... Look at all of these items! Damn... I wanna buy them all."

[Y/n]'s [e/c] pools sparkled once her gaze landed on the shelves housing various stationery items. Mikhail's lips tugged upward once again as he saw how attentive the girl looked around the shop. She even took notice of several items on display, a gentle smile adorning her features while she admired them.

The silver-haired man cleared his throat softly, catching her attention and making her focus back on him. "I'll be looking around as well. Let's meet up by the entrance later."

"Oh, sure!" waving slightly at the man, he then disappeared deeper into the store, leaving both girls by themselves.

"Well, I guess I need to find out the items I came here for..." the girl muttered to herself, placing back the item she was holding and proceeding to find the stationery.

[Y/n] searched through the shelves as she walked, finding quite some things she wanted to buy for herself. There were a couple of notebooks, journals, art supplies, scrapbook supplies, and stickers in every aisle that she passed through. And every time her gaze landed on those items, the girl would halt in her tracks and admire the items. She would stay there, eyes focused with her brows drawn together and lips pursed tight. Although her [e/c] hues were basically sparkling in delight, the conflicted look on her face was evident.

While this was happening, Mikhail was somewhere nearby, often noticing her out of the corner of his eye. And every time he peeked in her direction, he couldn't help but notice how adorable she looked. She had her hands stuffed inside her pockets as she perused each shelf. She kept glancing back occasionally, almost seeming to be lost in thought, as if remembering something. At first, he wondered if she had been overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of stuff she was seeing at once. However, he could tell by looking at her face how much she truly loved each and every piece of merchandise on sale in the shop.

The girl browsed for quite some time, taking care of finding the most suitable stationery to send this letter to Mikhail. It wasn't easy finding any stationery she liked because it seemed like there were too many choices for her liking, but she managed to narrow down the list of possible materials she wanted. Every now and then, he'd see the corners of her lips turn upwards ever so slightly. Her [e/c] hues glistened lightly in happiness, a smile gracing her features.

"Heh," he couldn't help but grin, light blue eyes softening as he observed her admiring the items on display in the shop.

"Have you thought about what to write?" Renee asked, glancing at the younger girl sitting in front of her.

[Y/n] only frowned at the other's question, puckering her lower lips while she spun the pen in her hand. "That's the problem... I don't know what to say..."

"Good luck then," the woman chuckled, making the [h/c]-haired actress slump deeper into her seat.

After the short excursion Mikhail and [Y/n] had at the stationery store earlier, the silver-haired man decided to let the girls rest, considering how many items the [h/c]ette bought. In the end, the girl succumbed to her urge. There was a nearby park where they went to take a break, additionally, there were available picnic tables which the girl was grateful for. After Renee and [Y/n] were seated, Mikhail told them that he would be going to a nearby store to buy something that Lyn told him to get. Fortunately for the young actress, this situation gave her the perfect opportunity to write her letter...only if she already knew what to write.

"Argh! Just think of something, dammit!"

Renee watched in amusement as [Y/n] hastily scribbled sentences on her newly bought journal, presumably the outline of what she was about to write in the letter. Ever so often, she would erase words or just start writing new sentences altogether in a blank space. With her camera at hand, the woman recorded the behind-the-scenes while watching the young [h/c]-haired female through the screen.

It didn't take long for the said girl to finally find her rhythm and flow, quickly jotting down what was on her mind. She stopped once she wrote it down fully, staring at the page blankly. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and slight frustration before her cheeks flushed crimson red in embarrassment.

"Have you written down what you're going to say in the letter?" Renee peeked around the camera, her eyes blinking.

"Shyly facing the woman, [Y/n]'s flustered expression was clearly caught on camera. "Kinda... I just need to transfer it to the stationery paper and proofread it at the same time. Hopefully, Mikhail doesn't return early."

Renee chuckled. "Better hurry up then."

As she said that, [Y/n] went to work. Getting the beautiful stationery paper and its matching envelope that she bought earlier, she swiftly copied the sentence on her journal onto the letter. She wrote it down neatly in between each line, leaving no room for mistakes. Once she finished writing, she folded the paper, put it inside the envelope, and sealed it, resting it against her thighs as she exhaled heavily.

"Finally... It's done..." the girl breathed out in relief, feeling her heart calming down from anxiety.

She quickly cleaned the table, not wanting the silverette to witness what she was doing earlier, lest he would catch on to her intentions. And as if fate was playing with her heart, Mikhail returned just right after she put back the last of her belongings. [Y/n]'s heart almost jumped out of her chest after she saw his silver hair approaching them out of the corner of her eyes. But, of course, she remained cool... well, at least tried to.

"You're back," the young girl mentioned, sending him a cheeky smile. "Did you buy what you need?"

"Mhm," he nodded, lifting a paper bag. His sky-blue orbs were piercing through it. "I don't know what Lyn wants to do with these but she wants me to buy them anyway. She frequently treats me as her errand boy which is annoying."

A small giggle escaped the girl's lips as he drew out a sigh.

"So you practiced archery since young? That's amazing," a certain girl said in awe, making slow strides to take in the scenery of the garden.

"Mhm. Since then, my parents enrolled me in classes. My uncle was very supportive of the idea of me practicing with a bow," Mikhail admitted with an appreciative nod. "He always helped me adjust my stance. He would say that I'm good enough to shoot arrows in the open field when the weather wasn't too hot."

The [h/c]-haired girl nodded gently before she reached forward, picking one of the pink roses from a bush in front of them. She examined the rose carefully before bringing it closer to her nose. The sweet scent wafting off the flower made [Y/n] close her eyes as she savored the floral scent in a deep breath, inhaling it all. Her gaze softened a bit, relaxing in the serene atmosphere between her and her partner.

"So you pursued the sport and joined in competitions?"

"Mhm. I joined my first competition when I turned fourteen. It was the most memorable event that happened to me," a wistful glint appeared on the silverette's sky-blue orbs, the corner of his lips tugging upwards while he continued to observe the foliage. "Of course, since I was an amateur, I didn't win any awards. It was expected, but at that time, I was hoping to get at least in the top three."

The girl paused and glanced back at the taller man, seeing him smiling happily as he gazed up at the sky. Her heart felt warm for this guy, and the way his visage became animated whenever he shared stories about his fond past made butterflies flutter in her stomach. She slowly smiled, reaching a finger to stroke the soft petals of another rose beside the one she picked. She could imagine what sort of events and memories would fill his head.

"How did Lyn react during that time?"

"Oh, she bawled," he snorted, smirking at the memory.

[Y/n] raises a brow, intrigued. "She did?"

"After the tournament when the winners were announced, I was told that Lyn was eager to see me walk up the podium. But when I didn't, and the event ended, she started crying out loud. Both my parents and hers tried to calm her down, but she kept yelling that she wanted to see the judges put a medal on me while I was up there."

"I can imagine how cute she must've been wailing in the crowd," [Y/n] giggled.

The man glanced down at her, the tiny smile on his lips never leaving. "It was a sight to behold. When she ran up to me, I almost fell back, surprised by her sudden appearance. She immediately took hold of both of my hands, holding onto them tightly whilst still bawling like a baby."

"She must be really rooting for you, then," [Y/n] grinned, placing the rose back onto the bush where she gathered it. "I'm sure she's proud and happy to know how hard you worked to get where you are now."

"I wouldn't have continued on without the support of others. All I wanted to do was win for Lyn, who loved to watch me compete. Whenever I would join tournaments, especially those I participated in when I was younger, she always cheered so loudly for me," the silver-haired male explained softly. "Despite her obnoxious personality, she is my number one fan."

"Those two really love each other... It's kinda envying."

A comfortable silence settled within the two young adults as they continued gazing at one another, admiring the view of nature before them. The only thing filling it is their footsteps against the grass and the occasional rustle of the leaves above them from the breeze. After some minutes of walking around the garden, the [h/c]ette eventually broke the peace between them.

"Mikhail..." the [h/c]-tressed girl began, causing the silver-haired adult to turn to face her in interest. "...I...have something to give you."

"Hm?"

Both of them stopped in their tracks. Mikhail had his full attention on the girl whilst she fidgeted in her spot. She stared at the ground nervously, biting her lower lip while she tried hard to gather her courage. Eventually, after taking a deep breath, she lifted her head towards Mikhail to meet his gaze and she revealed the letter in her left hand. A bright red hue immediately spread across [Y/n]'s cheeks, her whole face heating up in embarrassment. Her heart was aggressively thumping against her ribcage and she was sure that he could hear it in this silence.

Since it was nearing the end of the day, with the sun descending from the horizon and painting the skies a brilliant shade of orange, [Y/n] decided that it was time to give Mikhail the letter before they returned inside to finish the activity. Though, she wasn't sure if it was the right moment to do so.

The silver-haired male tilted his head curiously, looking slightly confused by the action the female did. But he didn't question anything, knowing better than to make any assumptions. 

"Is this for me?" he asked, surprised.

"Y-yeah..." the girl said, biting her lower lip slightly as she averted her gaze away from him. 

Mikhail hummed in understanding, gently taking the envelope. "Okay. Thanks."

[Y/n] couldn't help but feel a little flustered under the silverette's gaze as she felt her cheeks flush red. Once more, his expression softened. The way the girl was trying her best to keep calm and her courage to give him the letter made him smile.

"Thank you, really. I was worried that you're not enjoying yourself during our time together since it wasn't really eventful," he expressed. "But I enjoyed your presence and the time we spent together."

"Mhm, me too," she reassured, gracing him with a tender smile. "I also enjoyed being with you today and got a chance to relax and be in a comfortable silence."

"Oh~ What's that?" Lyn peered over her cousin's shoulders, curiosity reflected in her round, aquamarine orbs.

Annoyance flashed across Mikhail's expression, grunting as she tried to read the letter given to him. "Stop being nosy."

"Oh, come on!" she huffed, glaring at him. "Are you hiding something from me? What kind of secret is that? I just can't help but feel bothered by that cheeky smile on your lips."

The silver-haired man returned the glare with equal fervor. "It's a letter from [Y/n]. She gave it to me earlier. No—"

"From [Y/n]?!" almost immediately, Lyn perked up. "Gimme!"

Though, right before she could snatch the paper away, Mikhail's fast reflex allowed him to raise his arm, which was holding the paper, in the air before his younger cousin could touch it. Lyn went on her tiptoes and even tried to jump just to reach the paper. But no matter what, she still can't due to the silverette's tall stature and long arms.

"Ugh! Lemme see what she says!" Lyn groaned, wiggling her outstretched fingers in an attempt to get the paper but to no avail. "You're so stingy!"

Mikhail tried his hardest to keep the pink-haired teen under wraps, his free hand pushing her away with all his might and the other still raised above his head. "No. This letter is meant for me and not for you. You don't want [Y/n] to think of you as intrusive, do you?"

"Tch..." Finally, Lyn gave up. She had a huge pout on her lips, a deep crease between her brows while she directed all her frustrations at her older cousin. "Hmph. I really want to slap that grin off your face."

With that, Lyn stomped out of the room, leaving Mikhail to finally read the letter in peace. Letting out a relieved sigh, he dropped his arm and fixed the crinkled paper. His eyes softened as he read her message.

To Mikhail,

I know that this seems sudden, me writing a letter to you despite just meeting today... But anyway, here's it.

First off, thank you for accepting my letter out of nowhere. And if you're reading it, thank you for that as well. It's really embarrassing for me to write a letter to you first thing after just meeting you today, but I guess it can also be counted as a blessing in disguise. Anyway, enough of that, here's my actual message:

Ever since starting this activity yesterday and having a wonderful time with your cousin, I have been looking forward to who my partner is today and what we will be doing. And when I discovered that it was you, I was surprised. I didn't expect to spend a day with both Blake cousins consecutively. I even thought earlier that maybe HR was the mastermind behind this and planned this thing to happen. Nonetheless, I'm still happy to have met and spent the day with you today.

Honestly speaking, I was mesmerized by you earlier when you came to me. You're quite handsome, and I like how your silver hair and light blue eyes match. You also exude a cool aura, which if I didn't know better, would have assumed that you don't like to be bothered. If Lyn hadn't told me something about you, maybe I would still be feeling awkward during our time together, not knowing how to interact with you. But I guess that's your charm — your silent demeanor and love for serenity. And oh, while chatting with you, I can notice subtle changes in your facial expressions which I'm really happy that I was able to see.

You seem to really love and cherish your family, especially Lyn, and I find that admirable. I had a lingering thought earlier that you might've treated me as another family member, like a little sister. But I don't mean that in a bad way! I'm actually flattered that you may think of me like that. Though, of course, I think of you as a friend now. Since I already saw how you and Lyn normally interact, maybe someday, you will also see how I interact with my older siblings. Hehe~ I'm sure we won't be that much different from the two of you, maybe a little bit extreme.

Anyway, I guess that's all I have to say for now. Since we'll be colleagues from now on, I hope that we will be given more opportunities to hang out and get to know each other more. Thank you for today, Mikhail! And I look forward to next time~

From, [Y/n]

[amoveablejake]

Album of the Week: ‘Brasilian Skies’ by Masayoshi Takanaka

Stand out song: ‘NIGHTS’.

This past weekend has seen the world’s attention turn towards a farm in Somerset as Glastonbury Festival took place. Glastonbury is often referred to as the music festival however, for many on this little island it feels very run of the mill verging on pedestrian. It is not out of the ordinary to see some of the world’s best and most iconic artists make their way to Shepton Mallet even as a certain Foo Fighters member did a few days ago, by train which in that neck of the woods is saying something (see train timetables in the remote Somerset area for further reading). It does feel strange at times, to think of how many people from around the world do make the pilgrimage to Glastonbury as it is such a regular occurrence that many maybe do take it for granted. With its extensive television and radio coverage access to it, for those even far away from the farm itself is readily available. But ofcourse, it should not be treated like that. Whether you would like to attend or not, it is still quite something and a marvel that it goes ahead with all of the names attached. Glastonbury doesn’t always excite me as it probably should as I maybe am someone who treats it like a regular occurrence and for me, festivals aren’t really my thing. They don’t fill me with the same sense of wonder that they do for other. Actually, they might not be true because sometimes I do get rather excited and that comes down to who is performing. Would I have gone to Glastonbury this year to see the acts, I don’t think so based on its lineup. But if I was going to go to a festival this summer, well, oh I don’t know, I think I would have to say that I would make my way to Summer Sonic 2023 in Tokyo. Why? Well, other than being in Japan ofcourse, is down to one man, a figure who is ever present in my headphones. Masayoshi Takanaka. That was a long walk for a short drink of water huh. 

Regular readers will probably know of my eternal, verging on spiritual love for Takanaka’s guitar music. This is by no means the first time that I have discussed him on the blog, hell, it isn’t even the first time ‘Brasilian Skies’ has come into the cross-hairs as I had briefly discussed it to talk a little about ‘Star Wars Samba’ which as I listen to it now I am once again have to take a break from writing to admire the pure genius that is Takanaka. ‘Brasilian Skies’ is perhaps a one of the maestro’s more playful albums. It is an album that is bursting with life and energy. Whilst some of Takanaka’s other work can be more reflective and inspires a more calming environment, here he is making sure that you feel the inherent momentum of Brasil, by way of Japan, flow through you. It is the sort of album that was designed for summer and as you gaze upon its cover with Takanaka in a folding chair on a beach, glowing in the sun, it is hard to think of listening to it at any other time of the year. Ofcourse, you can and I would recommend doing so on those winter days when you want to remember that feeling of the warmth on your skin and the sound of the sea somewhere out there calling you ever closer. 

Even with ‘Star Wars Samba’ featuring on it, ‘Brasilian Skies’ for me really is only about one song and that is ‘Nights’. This is the track that is perhaps the closest to Takanaka’s regular discography as it features the sort of flowing guitar work that can inspire great swells of emotions and misty eyes with its perfection. Here though, rather than being played in a cosy Japanese bar on a cold evening, ‘Nights’ is reminding you to look out at the summer. In a way, it feels like the sort of song that could play at the end of a coming of age film or any motion picture that has revolved around a character not doing anything, preferably in the sun, and yet finding out everything about themselves. It is the sort of song that makes you think about summer memories all the while making you look ahead at the ones that are to come. And this, this speaks to Takanaka’s true brilliance with his guitar work as his masterstroke is to create rhythms that are both nostalgic and forward thinking. It is in a sense, the musical equivalent of the 50s American vision of the future. The flying cards and the buildings all looked very 2001 (okay, maybe they were a little off) but the colours and the actual core elements of the designs were grounded in the decade they were from. Yes, they were visions of the future but were also very clear reflections of the time that they were born. ‘Brasilian Skies’ is from 1978 sure, but really, it is timeless and is at home being played in ‘78 as it is in ‘23  as it will be in 2071 with the ‘Cowboy Bebop’ gang. ‘Brasilian Skies’ is one of the albums of the summer, then, now and forevermore. 

-Jake, a man still thinking about the Cardinals, 26/06/2023

[ravenshour]

"he's very loud---just like i am when i get excited about cryptids." he blushes when they say this, laughing quietly to himself. "but that might just be because we're both irish, i'dunno. might not have anythin' to do with us lookin' so similar." he pauses in speech when she mentions her own doppelganger and taps at his chin in a thoughtful manner, nose scrunched up. "hmmm, well, you know what they say about doppelgangers... they do have a tendency to find each other, even when they're not lookin'." he's heard that before, somewhere... not sure where, but it's probably in his research. "i do have an episode of my podcast in which i talk about doppelgangers, actually. maybe i should revisit it and talk about it some more. i could even invite you on as a guest since you yourself are a doppelganger! verified, i should say since there's a possibility that i am one too. but maybe we'll never know." he shrugs, delighted by the conversation nonetheless. he really does have a tendency to go off when he's excited about something, that's something she's gonna learn real quick.

"i played this horror game about a cat recently," he knows his venturing off into a different subject without continuing on with what he was talking about with poppy playtime, but still. it's probably the ADHD or something. "it has like forty different endings and it's really good. i just found it on itchio. i'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for something short and sweet. it's got a lot of death, though, so if you're not up for dying constantly and getting eaten by cats, this probably isn't the game for you. it's definitely not flerken cat eating, either." yeah, he's a marvel nerd, too. go figure.

"electricity, huh? that's pretty cool. i mean, not that you almost set the forest on fire, that's not good, but electricity manipulation is really cool. how did you manage to get it under control?" he asks, curious. maybe there's something about how she was able to get it under control that Jamie can use when his magic gets out of control. there's no harm in asking---maybe she's done something he hasn't thought to do yet; he doubts it, but there's always a possibility.

" Yeah that's him! Jack! I've always been more of a Markiplier girl, but Jack has a certain, sparkle about him. I had to get used to his loud voice of saying Top of the Mornin', but I do enjoy his coffee. Which reminds me, I have to order more later on when I'm home. " Rosalie stated, more of less thinking out loud. However, her attention was brought back when Jamie mentioned doppelganger. " Well I can believe it, I'm actually a doppleganger myself, or the woman I know is a doppelganger of me? I'm not sure, we never really talked about it, but she is super cool, most beautiful daughter too. "

If Rosalie was given the opportunity to talk about her doppelganger, she would always do so. Of course, as of right now, she wasn't sure Hayley was up or if Hope was okay but she tended to not ask questions when it came to the Alpha. There was a coldness about her that Rosalie respected but was intimidated by. It was amazing how a woman who was an exact copy of her could be so different from herself. Pushing that thought aside for a moment, but having the lingering thought of messaging Hayley later, Rosalie smiles a bit as Jamie continued to talk about Poppy Playtime.

" I did see GTLive play the third chapter, typically I like to watch people play games before I purchase them myself and then compare and contrasts play styles before I do my own, so it's on my list of games to play. " Rosalie reassured that she was going to play the game, she just had to make for it. " I found it very heartwarming that the last chapter gave a shout to Mat Pat about his retirement. Which I'm still a little heartbroken over, I love game theory and I know things won't be the same without him. " Rosalie then took out her phone an proceed to order two coffees, while listening Rosalie made a chuckle as Jamie spoke about destroying a building. " Never destroyed a building but I almost stared a forest fire after letting my electricity get out of control. But there's perks to having a witch as a sister who deals with the elements, a brother that deals with fire. "