#but I figured there would be another place it would do well

[pedroscurls]

stranded (one-shot)

summary: your car breaks down on the side of the road and a stranger decides to help you out... and you have no choice but to accept his help.

pairing: no outbreak/dark!joel miller x fem!reader content warnings: EXPLICIT CONTENT (18+ ONLY MDNI), DUBCON - please read at own risk / heed warnings!, stockholm syndrome, unprotected p in v, rough sex, manhandling, oral sex (m receiving), orgasm denial, begging, creampie, joel ties you up, spanking, light choking, fingering, age gap (reader is in 30s, joel is in 50s), no use of y/n. word count: 5.1k a/n: and here's yet another story where i'm stepping out of my comfort zone. i've always wanted to write dark!joel, but felt like i couldn't do it justice... but then ali's (@pedgito) hosting a writing challenge (spring fever) and i figured... why not? i chose backwoods horror #1 STRANDED/SIDE OF THE ROAD. please heed the warnings, y'all. this is gonna be very dark and filthy, so if you're not into that sort of thing, that's ok!

You had no idea what you were thinking—taking a solo cross country road trip after quitting your job. Maybe you thought that you’d find yourself, find some kind of purpose that was lacking in your life, but instead, you’re stranded on the side of the road. Gas empty, no cell service, and phone already on its last battery. 

This is where you’re going to die—you’re sure of it. It’s how all horror movies start and despite the sun still high in the sky, you’re increasingly getting worried about what could happen when night falls. You scream at the top of your lungs, the sound echoing through the vast empty void. 

God, no one would hear you scream for help if you were in real danger and that thought simply frightens you. Your friends had all but praised you for this trip—this journey to self-discovery and reflection. Your parents, on the other hand, had already been concerned when you said you would be alone on this trip. A woman, traveling the world by herself? Well, that’s just asking for trouble, they said. 

And now you understand their concern. You understand their fear about you traveling all alone because of where you are now—in the middle of fucking nowhere. You should have refilled your gas when you had the chance, should have charged your phone while you were driving. Should have, should have, should have. 

10%—your phone reads. You try to send a text to your parents, to send them your location, but every attempted text just comes back with the message in red text and an exclamation point next to it: NOT DELIVERED! You raise your phone in the sky, hoping that maybe you’ll get one bar of service, but no luck. 

The trip had been successful, up until this point. You were in Texas, that you were sure of. But where in Texas? You had no fucking clue. 

You lean against the side of your car—the sun glaring down at you and you can feel a thin sheet of sweat on the side of your neck. Why did you think this was even a good idea? Traveling cross country without a plan—how fucking naive. 

Your battery drains fast and your phone finally shuts off. You let out a quiet sigh of frustration and open the passenger door of your car to toss your useless phone inside. Just as you’re about to climb in, you hear a faint noise of a car engine. Suddenly, you feel hopeful—maybe you won’t die here after all.

The sudden excitement that you feel overpowers the possibility that what you’re doing is absolutely dangerous. You’re waving your arms in the air, trying to track down the person in the car who’s making their way in your direction. It’s possible that this person whose truck is slowing down as it nears you could very well be a serial killer, but what choice did you have? 

The truck pulls up behind your car and quickly, you run over to your savior. Your hero. 

“Hi. My car’s dead, my phone’s dead, and I just need a lift to the next gas station... Or any place where I can use a phone to give someone a call,” you blurt out, breathing heavily. 

He turns his head slightly in your direction—eyes gazing at your face, then down to your shoulders and the rest of your body that he can see from the driver’s side. You’re leaning against the opened window of the passenger side of the truck. You don’t belong here, he knows that for sure. 

“Next gas station is in the next town over,” he finally answers. 

“Could you give me a lift there? I can pay you. Let me just grab my things and—”

“No need,” he interrupts, voice low. “I’m headin’ in that direction anyway. Get in.”

You grin and Joel’s jaw ticks briefly. God, you’re beautiful and it’s truly been a long time since he’s been with—

“Promise you won’t kill me?” you laugh, climbing into his truck and interrupting his thoughts. 

Joel finally takes in the rest of your frame and can immediately feel his length stirring beneath his dark jeans. His hands grip the steering wheel to ease some pressure, but you’re still talking and you’re laughing and it shoots straight to the center of his pants. It must be his lucky day. 

“If I were to kill you, I don’t think I’d be confessing that, darlin’,” he answers—the corners of his lips lift slightly. Oh, you had no idea what you just got into by climbing into his truck. 

“Right,” you reply. “That’s a good point.” You look at him—taking note of his damp hair that’s slicked away from his face, his broad frame, salt and pepper patchy beard. You realize that he must be in his fifties, but you can’t help but notice how handsome he is. That’s a good sign, you think. He won’t hurt you. He’s going to drop you off in the next town and hopefully, you’ll be able to head back home in the morning. 

“I’m guessing you live around here?” you ask, feeling the truck move back onto the main street. You glance out the window, watching your car become smaller and smaller as Joel drives further away from it. 

“Yeah,” he answers. “Guessin’ you ain’t from around here.”

“That obvious?” 

He just nods. Joel needs to focus on the road ahead of him. He has to make it seem like he’s not a threat, like he’s not just about to take you directly to his home. His secluded home. 

You introduce yourself formally, telling him your name and turning your body to face him. “What’s your name?”

“Joel.”

“You’re a man of few words, aren’t you?” you smile in his direction and Joel glances at you from the corner of his eyes. 

“Not much to say.”

“Well, how long is the drive to the next town? If you don’t have music, I’m gonna end up talking. I don’t usually like it when it’s too quiet on a drive and—”

“It’s about fifteen minutes,” he interrupts. “Radio is busted.” 

“So talking it is then.”

“No use in talkin’ if we ain’t gonna be seein’ each other after this.” 

“I guess you’re right,” you answer with a sigh. You try to remain quiet, fidgeting with your hands as you stare out the window. Every few seconds or so, you glance over at him and you can’t fully read his expression. He’s so stoic that there’s a part of you that feels like an inconvenience to him. Maybe he should have just kept on driving. 

“How long were you stranded for?” Joel asks. 

“About a couple of hours. Couldn’t get reception to call someone.”

“Yeah, phones don’t work out here.” Joel shrugs. “You eat anythin’ yet?” 

You shake your head. “Skipped breakfast this morning to get on the road.”

“My place is just a couple of minutes away,” Joel says. “I need to grab a few things. Got some food and water for you,” he offers. 

You smile and reach out to rest a hand on his forearm. It’s an innocent gesture, but it makes Joel shift in the driver’s seat. Your touch is so soft, so gentle and he flexes his arm underneath your fingertips. “You’re sweet, Joel. That sounds great. I am starving.” 

Joel bites back a smirk. He’s got you right where he wants you. 

Your hand drops from his arm and there’s a subtle frown that settles on his lips before he pulls off the main road. Within minutes, Joel pulls up to his secluded home. When he shuts off the car, he looks over at you and you’re still smiling. 

“This is a cute place, Joel,” you tell him, climbing out of the truck. 

He follows you and rounds the truck until he’s standing behind you. His fingers itch to reach out to touch you—especially when you raise your arms over your head to stretch, the ends of your shirt lifting just above the waistband of your denim shorts. He wants to touch every inch of you and he lets out a quiet grunt when you accidentally fall back against him. 

“Sorry,” you say, looking over at him from over your shoulder. 

“S’fine,” Joel mumbles and then walks past you to walk towards his front door. He unlocks it and opens it for you, watching you step across the threshold as you look around with curiosity. 

“It’s very dark in here,” you point out, walking further into his home. You see a light switch on the wall and flip it on, illuminating his entire home. Surprisingly, Joel’s large hand encompasses your wrist in a tight grip. You let out a quiet gasp and turn around to look up at him—eyes wide, lips slightly parted. 

“You always like to make yourself comfortable in a stranger’s home?” he asks with a threatening tone. 

“S–sorry,” you whisper, trying to pull your wrist away from his grip but he doesn’t budge. His grip just tightens. “Joel, you’re hurting me.”

“Pretty little thing,” he mumbles, stepping closer to you. “It’s like you were waitin’ f’me out there,” Joel says quietly. 

“Joel—”

“Shh.” Joel brings a finger up to your lips and his eyes drift down, moving his thumb to brush against you. “Shh, baby.” 

“I think I want to leave now,” you answer. “I think I just want to head into town and—”

“Oh darlin’,” he grins. “Ain’t no town for at least another fifty or some miles.” 

“B–But you said—”

“Guilty,” Joel interrupts, turning you so that your back presses against the wall. He cages you in, hand still gripping your wrist as the other comes up to rest gently over your throat. “M’sorry I lied to ya.” 

Your eyes widen in horror, the realization finally hitting you like a freight train. You had spent most of the drive admiring him—his broad frame, his quiet and mysterious nature, his large hands that gripped the steering wheel, his husky southern accent—that you ignored the feeling in the pit of your stomach. 

This was a bad idea. 

Getting into his truck was a bad fucking idea. 

“I just want to go home,” you whisper. “Please just let me go home and—”

“Shh,” he repeats. Joel steps closer to you, his nose brushing against your own. “Gonna keep you here all to myself. Been a while since I had a little plaything like yourself.” 

You shake your head. “Please, I’ll give you all the money I have back in my car.”

“Don’t want your money. Want you.” 

“Joel—”

“Love the way my name comes out of your mouth, darlin’. Say it again.”

You shake your head, closing your mouth shut. You know you’re in danger, but you’re not sure why you feel a familiar wetness pool between your legs. Your body is responding to him—to this stranger… this handsome fucking stranger who can easily strangle you if he wanted to. 

“Say. It. Again,” he repeats.

“Joel,” you whisper. 

“Good girl,” Joel grins proudly. He drops his hand from your throat and releases his grip around your wrist. He stares into your eyes, searching for any hesitation or any inclination that you’re going to run and leave. He sees your eyes flicker to the front door and he narrows his eyes—his large hand once more coming up to splay against your throat. Joel applies just a bit of pressure and he watches your eyes go wide again. “Wouldn’t think about it, if I were you.” 

You beg with your eyes—apologetic and pleading for him to just let you go. “I’ll be good,” you mumble against his grip. “I promise. I–I’ll be good.”

“We’re gonna have a lot of fun,” Joel nods, releasing his grip around your throat. “And I bet if I were to reach between your legs, I’d feel just how fuckin’ wet you are f’me, won’t I?”

You shake your head in defiance. “N–No…” 

Joel lets out a chuckle. “Mmm, that so?” He tugs on the waistband of your denim shorts and pulls you to him. He’s so rough and there’s an excitement that courses through your veins. He tugs down your shorts and panties down your legs, looking down at your white lacy thong with a grin. He can see a blotch of wetness and brings it to his nose, inhaling deeply as he lets out a contented sigh. “I bet you taste fuckin’ good too,” he whispers. 

You suddenly feel self-conscious and your hands immediately move to try and tug down the end of your shirt to cover your lower half. Joel just shakes his head and grabs your wrists to pin them above your head against the wall. You squirm against his grip and he kicks your legs apart, stepping in front of you to keep them spread open. His free hand comes down and immediately runs the pads of his fingers across the length of your sex—your body betrays you because you let out a quiet whimper as you arch your back against his touch. 

“Wet,” he points out. “You like this, don’t you?” 

You shake your head. 

“Liar,” he chuckles. Joel wastes no time in sliding two of his thick fingers past your folds—your warm, tight, and so fucking wet that a large grin spreads across his lips. 

You squirm against him at the sudden and rough intrusion, eyes gazing up at him. His eyes are dark, filled with lust and more than likely sinister thoughts, but you can’t help but notice his grin and the cute fucking dimple that appears on his cheek. You shouldn’t like this, but your body is yearning for more. Yearning for him. 

Joel’s thick fingers plunge into you repeatedly—his other hand gripping your wrists so tight above your head that you’re sure there’s going to be bruises. You shut your eyes tightly, keeping your lips in a thin line and forcing yourself to stay quiet because you know that if you make a sound, it’s only going to fuel him further. 

His eyes stare deeply at you and you’re so wet that Joel’s fingers pump into you with ease. He can see you struggling against his grip and he leans closer, lips near your ear as he whispers huskily. “Lemme hear you, baby.” 

You shake your head in defiance, pulling your lower lip between your teeth. You suck in a breath when his thumb brushes against your clit and a quiet—almost inaudible—moan escapes your lips. 

“Ah, darlin’,” Joel grins, gently nipping at your earlobe. His grip around your wrists loosen just slightly and he’s distracted, yearning to pull more sounds out of you and it gives you just the right moment to push him away. You miss his fingers immediately, a loud squelch echoing the walls when his fingers slip out of you. 

With as much strength as you can muster, you shove him so hard that he stumbles backwards with a grunt. You look around haphazardly, eyes wide, heart beating out of your chest. You’re very well aware that your lower half is bare, but you think maybe you can make a run for it—you just need to grab his keys, run out the door into his truck and drive away. 

You glance over your shoulder and Joel chuckles. He fucking laughs at your poor attempt at running away because he takes three strides in your direction and takes a fistful of your hair. You let out a loud yelp and he’s already quick to bend you over the back of his couch—the edge of it digging into your lower abdomen.

You’re already trying to squirm away, but his grip in your hair tightens and pain rushes through you. You’re about to beg him to stop, to beg him to let you go, but you feel his free hand connect with your backside. The slap reverberates through your entire being and the sound of his hand coming in contact with your ass echoes through his quiet home. 

“You just got here, baby,” he growls—he doesn’t let up, your skin already reddening with each spank. “You can’t leave me yet.”

“I–I–” you mumble and your body reacts automatically, pushing back into him. “Please!” 

“M’gonna have to tie you up, I think,” Joel grins. “Just to make sure you don’t pull that shit again.”

Your ass is beginning to sting and you try to scramble away, but Joel pulls you upright against him. His large hands move to your hips, fingertips digging into you as he uses your body to rub his bulge against you. 

“I think you’re gonna feel real good around me,” he whispers into your hair, hand sliding over your abdomen and down between your legs. “You’re actin’ like you ain’t enjoyin’ this, but you’re so fuckin’ wet f’me.” 

He begins to circle your clit with the pads of his fingers and it causes your back to arch against him, hands darting out to rest on the edge of the couch. A loud moan finally escapes your lips and Joel lets out a low growl at the sound—he wants to hear more of it, craves more of it. 

“From the way you’re squirmin’,” he continues, “Makes me wonder if you’ve been neglected.” 

You shake your head—lying.  

“Oh? Got a boyfriend back home, hm?” 

You shake your head again.

“Poor little thing,” Joel mumbles, head dipping down to the side of your neck as he presses his soft lips against you. It causes a shiver to run through you—his soft lips and his rough beard. “Don’t worry, baby. I’m here now. I’ll take care of ya.”

You’re an absolute mess by the time Joel’s done with you. You’re lying on his mattress, hands bound by rope and attached to the headboard. You’re completely bare for him and he’s brought you to the edge of orgasm too many times to count that you’re practically begging for some release. 

His hands are surprisingly gentle when he settles himself back between your legs and it causes you to flinch. His fingertips brush against your hardened nipples, dark bruises already forming around it from his love bites—he liked to call it. 

“You’re soakin’ my sheets, honey,” he grins. 

“Then let me fucking come!” you retaliate with a huff. Your eyes go wide the minute it leaves your mouth and you’re already trying to scramble away from him, despite being all tied up. 

Joel laughs again. “You’re cute when you’re angry, baby… but let’s not forget who’s in charge here.” 

He finally pulls the ends of his shirt over his head and you lift your own head off the pillow to get a good look at him. There’s no way this fucking man is in his fifties—you shake your head of the thoughts that begin to fill your mind. He has you here held captive and you’re sure that he’s going to kill you once he’s gotten what he needed. 

But you can’t help it. 

Joel’s fucking gorgeous. 

Is this what Stockholm syndrome is? Attracted to your captor? Whatever the fuck it is, you’re squirming impatiently. There’s a dull throb between your legs, an ache, a need for him to give you what you need. 

And he smiles. The same fucking dimple that appeared earlier that day is now in full display because Joel knows he’s got you right where he wants you. 

“Gonna be a good girl f’me? No more fightin’ back?” Joel begins, reaching down to tug his boxers down his strong legs. Once the fabric is gone from his body, your eyes widen once more at the sheer size of him. Girthy. Leaking at the tip. You’re not sure if it’d fit inside of you and Joel notices a flicker of uncertainty flash across your features. “We’ll make it fit, baby. Don’t you worry.”

You whimper quietly in response, feeling him brush his rounded tip against your opening. You try to wiggle your hips down, yearning for more, but he just pulls back and shakes his head. 

“Please,” you plead. You bat your eyes at him, gazing at him under the rim of your eyelashes. It’s a poor attempt at begging, at looking innocent because you look anything but that. 

Joel just lets a small smile line his lips before he pulls away and mounts your upper half. You clear your throat—the size of him this close almost threatening. 

“Don’t be gettin’ shy on me now,” he growls lowly. “Been pleasuring you for a while now, so it’s only fair that you return the favor.” 

“I–I haven’t come yet. Please just let me come and I’ll do anything—”

Joel clicks his tongue and runs the tip of his manhood across your mouth, smirking at the sight of his precome now on your lips. “You ain’t the one in charge here.” He pushes his tip past your lips and lets out a low groan. One hand moves to grip the headboard ahead of him as his other hand keeps a steady grip around the base of his length. “Open wider f’me,” he whispers. 

You have no choice but to obey—parting your lips wider and feeling more of his manhood slide into your mouth. You can feel the corners of your mouth stretch due to his girth. It isn’t long before he pushes further into your mouth, feeling him hit the back of your throat and you gag almost instantly. Tears sting your eyes and he only gives you a few seconds to breathe before he pushes back into you. 

You squeeze your legs together, trying to alleviate some pressure that has been building and building between your legs and the pit of your stomach. You glance up in his direction only to see Joel with his head tilted back, chest and neck exposed, and his eyes completely shut. A quiet groan escapes his lips as he begins to move his hips forward and backward—you swirl your tongue around him, hollow your cheeks and it causes him to moan loudly. 

And fuck, it’s a beautiful sound to come out of him. 

He’s moaning. He’s deep in his own pleasure. 

And it’s all because of you. 

By the time he pulls out of your mouth, Joel’s eyes snap open to look down at you. Lips swollen, tears streaking down the corner of your eyes. You’re so distracted by your desire to come that you don’t realize what could possibly happen once he’s done with you. 

You’re going to die. 

Joel is going to fucking kill you. 

And this cross country road trip you had originally planned was a stupid fucking idea. 

Joel sees a look of fear flash across your features and it only makes him smile, makes his cock jerk at the sight of you. He moves down your body and settles himself between your legs again. 

“Gonna fill you up now,” Joel nods. “And you’re gonna lie there and take it like a good girl.” 

You nod. 

His hand comes up to grip your chin roughly, staring into your eyes. “Say it.” 

“I–I’ll be good. I’ll take it like a good girl and—”

Without warning, Joel pushes fully into you in one stroke. You feel your body jerk upwards at the sudden intrusion and you’re lucky that you’re so wet because while he slides in so easily, you can’t help but feel the painful stretch to give way to his size. Your hands try to wiggle out of the bondage, but the rope just digs further into your skin—it’s like he expertly tied you in a way that the more you struggle, the tighter it gets. 

Joel’s hand moves from your chin to cup your breast, thumb brushing against your nipple as he remains still for a moment. “Feel so good,” he whispers, head dipping lower to brush his nose against yours. He can hear you panting heavily, lips parted slightly. “Like you were made f’me.” 

Then, Joel pulls out to his tip only to slam himself back into you. He repeats this movement multiple times and your moans—the ones that you’ve tried so desperately to hold back—finally escape your lips and mix in with the sounds of his skin slapping against yours. 

The bed rocks against the wall—his thrusts are so rough and you’re sure that your entire body is going to ache for the next few days. 

That is if you’re still alive by then.  

One hand moves to your hip as the other moves to wrap around your neck. He applies a bit of pressure to cut off your oxygen and you gasp, eyes wide as you stare up at him. 

Begging. 

Pleading. 

Not for him to stop… 

…but for more. 

Joel grins at that and continues his thrusts, the sensation of your walls sliding along his length only urging him closer and closer to release. He can feel the tightness in the pit of his stomach begin to unravel and he pulls out, not yet wanting to be done with you. 

When Joel does pull out of you, he releases his grip around your throat and hears you take one deep breath. You’re breathing heavily and he looks between your legs—so fucking wet, so swollen and he taps your clit gently with the tip of his manhood only to see you squirm. 

You’re sensitive, he thinks to himself with a grin. 

“Joel,” you whisper. At this rate, you don’t care if you die. Having him bring you on the edge of an orgasm only to stop is worse, you’re sure of it. 

“Gonna keep you here forever,” Joel says with a dark gaze. “You’re mine now. You understand?” 

You clear your throat and nod slowly—anything to get him to make you come. “Y–Yes, yours.” 

“Doesn’t sound too convincing.” 

“Fuck, Joel! Please,” you beg. “I don’t care what you do to me, please just let me come…” 

Joel chuckles—dark, sinister. He leans down and lightly pecks your lips before he climbs off the bed to look at you from top to bottom. “Like I said, you ain’t the one in charge here.” 

Your eyes stare at him and you notice the way his manhood stands fully erect, glistening with your arousal. He follows your gaze and smirks, reaching down to tug on it. “This what you want?” 

You nod. “Please.” 

“So if I untie you, you gonna be a good girl and obey?” Joel contemplates, still stroking the base of his length. His hand doesn’t feel as good as being inside of you and he almost loses his resolve. 

But he doesn’t. 

Joel’s patient. 

“Y–Yes, please,” you plead once more. 

“Love hearin’ you beg, darlin’,” he grins. Joel slowly reaches over and begins to untie the rope around your wrists but he makes sure that his attention is focused on you. He needs to make sure that you’re not going to run again. 

Once the rope is finally undone, you roll your wrists and touch the bruises around it. You flinch and then look up at him—eyes still pleading. 

“One wrong move and I’m tyin’ you up again. You hear me?” Joel growls, seeing you move to sit up. You nod in agreement and he tugs on your ankle, pulling you to the edge of the bed with such force that you let you a quiet yelp. 

Joel flips you onto your abdomen and grabs your hips, lifting you up so that you’re now on all fours on his mattress. He comes up behind you and slides into you with warning—again. 

A loud moan escapes your lips and you fall forwards—cheek resting against his mattress, eyes fully shut tight, and your hands gripping the sheets so tightly that your knuckles turn white. 

“Feel even tighter this way,” Joel points out with a grunt. 

Your toes curl at his rough assault against you. It’s like he’s possessed, so territorial and so animalistic that his thrusts drive you further into the mattress. You wanted this, but you can’t help the pain that shoots through you at his size. Joel’s by far the biggest you’ve ever had and it wasn’t like you had a healthy sex life before this. 

“Fuck!” You scream, now trying to scramble away from him because it’s too much. He’s edged you for too long that you’re sure you can’t even get there—your body is humming and you can feel the familiar sensation in the pit of your stomach. You’re close and Joel knows. 

He laughs and grips your hips, pulling back onto him with such force that you arch your back. Joel grabs your arms and pins them at your lower back as he pulls your body forward and backward against him. He glances down and sees just how wet you are—the hair at his base completely damp from your arousal. 

“You wanted to come… then fuckin’ come,” Joel groans, pulling you up against his chest. He grunts into your ear as he keeps your arms pinned at your lower back. His other hand reaches around and dips lower to begin circling your clit against the pads of his fingertips. 

You moan so loud that it echoes throughout his home. Your head tilts back against his shoulder and he drags his teeth across the side of your neck—both your bodies now covered in a thin sheet of sweat. 

“J–Joel, I–,” a loud sob escapes your lips when you finally reach your orgasm. Your body shakes against his own and his thrusts don’t let up—still hammering into you from behind and using your slickness and tightened walls to bring himself closer to his own release. 

“Fuck,” he groans against you, releasing your arms and pinning you back onto the mattress. His hips sling against your own—Joel is literally fucking you into the mattress and you’re already so fucking sensitive that you try to move away. 

Fuck him. If he wanted to deny you of your orgasm, you can do the same to him. 

But it’s no use. Joel’s so much stronger and his large hands grip your hips so tightly that you feel pain from it. 

“S’cute,” he says in between thrusts. “Thinkin’ you can run away.” Joel grunts lowly, chasing his own orgasm. “Can promise you one thing, baby…” He slams into you once more and releases his warm seed into you—paints your tight and wet walls with his come. He leans forward, pushing further into you as his tip kisses your cervix. “You ain’t ever leavin’ me.” 

He presses soft kisses along your shoulder before he pulls out, watching with a smirk to see his come trickle out of you and down your legs. 

“You’re stranded, darlin’. Ain’t no one comin’ to save you,” Joel grins. “And I ain’t even done with you yet.”

[dearestzaychik]

Our Forsakened Destiny.

[ Forsaken x Isekai'd Reader! ]

[ Gender Neutral Reader! ]

TW : Some Cursing then and there..

WORD COUNT : 6,092K words!

NOT PROOFREAD. Please do tell me if there was any mistakes whatsoever!!.. Because I'm not proofreading a 6,092k worded chapter..

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Chapter 2

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READER'S POV.

Knocking can be heard at the door, as you opened your eyes to the sounds. You didn't have to reply, As the figure that was knocking at the door started talking either way.

"..Hey, Elliot here. I just wanted to let you know that soon, the rounds start again. You slept for a hefty while, but we decided to wake you up early so that you'll be able to talk to the others. As well as to talk about your Abilities and Role. We'll be waiting downstairs!- No rush for you of course, but Builderman said he hoped you get ready as soon as possible."

Elliot mentioned, before footsteps were moving away until it was no longer there. It was still dark outside, as the realm never seemed to have the concept of day. It would be hard to know what to tell what time it was, but this was probably considered morning for them. You had no time to loose, so you got up and started to get ready. Even if you felt a bit anxious at your own situation, running away from it was not the wisest answer.

Before you headed out, you looked at your Stats and Abilities once more.. and they finally have something written down on them that's for sure.

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ROLE : Support.

DIFFICULTY : ★★★★☆

HEALTH : 90

STAMINA : 90

ABILITIES :

Short-term Relief

- Bottoms Up and Cheers!

• This active ability allows the user to give out Pain Pills, making way for a new mechanic, TEMPORARY HEALTH.

If you need a quicker way to provide health, this is the quickest way you'll be able to get it for! This Survivor can share Pain Pills through out the round, and can even save a life in need if used right! It gives 65 health points that diminishes over time. Although.. One wouldn't recommend using it more than 1 time for each survivor.

If a Survivor manages to get their hands on another batch of Pain Pills after the first one.. They'll be inflicted with Nausea 2, and if they were to drink 3, Not only do they get inflicted with Nausea 4, The Health Points diminish faster as well as chipping off 5% of their actual health. This is not able to kill the Survivor, leaving them in 1% health if they were to drink a third time. At last, if the Survivor were to drink 4 or more, they will be lead to an Instant Death depending how lucky they are to live after each drink. The Cooldown is 35 seconds.

The Thrill of our Misfortune

- I don't like this chase, I'm out!

• This active ability allows the Survivor to gain access to three Adrenaline Shots, and is able to give them out or use it on themselves.

More on said, This Survivor not only carries Pain Pills, as well as 3 sets of Adrenaline Shots in which they can drop to share with other survivors or use it for themselves. The survivors are locked into an Adrenaline Rush, no longer fearing the Killer as they get a boost to get away. It can give Speed 2 for 5 seconds, as well as 45 health points that diminishes over time. Once all shots have been used, theres no other way to get these back so make sure you use it wisely. The Cooldown is 40 seconds when used, 35 seconds if dropped for another survivor.

Desperation.

- I don't belong here.

• This passive ability grants the Survivor Nausea 1 every 30 seconds and lasts 15 seconds when they aren't near at least 3 meters to a survivor, but gives Speed 1 for as long as they haven't encountered a Survivor nor a Killer, as well as 30 health points that diminishes over time when their alone and already injured.

This Survivor feels very uncomfortable even when not in a round, its best to provide them with Company to them to make sure they don't feel so.. out of place.

During Last Man Standing, due to the pressure this survivor is experiencing, Nausea 1 will stay for the remainder of the round, and Speed 1 will be given for only 15 seconds before the effect fades away, then 50 health points that diminishes over time will be administered to the said survivor after the effects are no longer present. Because of this, it leaves the Survivor very vulnerable when it comes to Last Man Standing.

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Seems like Nausea will be your friend in the long run with the amount of Nausea status effects you can get in your kit. Your kit looked really complicated, hell you couldn't even seem to comprehend it right now to say the least. Whoever planned these abilities definitely wanted you to suffer.

None the less, there was now a Difficulty and your HP stats and stamina changed. It seemed balanced enough, but you still didn't get why you would be Difficulty 4 out of 5. Back then you were just a normal human being working a minimum wage job, nothing can be deemed special to your old life to have an entirely complicated kit like this..

Getting ready, you opted for a quick shower before changing into clothes that was exactly the same as your last pair before slipping on shoes and opening up your door, only to see a figure with a Pumpkin head opening their door at the same time as well.. Dussekar stared at you as you stared at him, having a minute of silence as both of you didn't move, before of course he took the intiative to break the silence.

"You must be the new survivor of this morning. You're presence will hopefully, be lovely."

Dusekkar stated, his legs never seem to touch the floor as he levitated off the ground. Honestly, you almost forgot he spoke in rhymes and riddles. Mentioning your presence, you remember how some survivors have different opinions of one another, as back then your friends mentioned about tensions and relationships between characters during the time you played..

"..Hello, Goodmorning."

You replied, even if it wasn't day at all outside the window, it seemed to be considered Morning for them. Dusekkar nodded in acknowledgment, holding their staff as he went ahead to the Lobby. You followed close by, fiddling with your hands. Soon enough both of you made it through the hallways, reaching the Lobby where the rest of the survivors are. Shedletsky and Builderman spotted you first, seemingly looking at something as Shedletsky raised their hand.

"Yo, Dusekkar and New comer! Over here!"

Shedletsky yelled out, signaling for both of you to come near. As you did, they seemed to have been looking at your stat and abilities. Seemingly investigating and looking at what you can do.

"It seems like they're a support."

Builderman blankly stated, looking at the stats as he seemed to have already figured out your kit faster than you did. Looking up at the message, there was something stated there.

NEXT SURVIVORS FOR THE NEXT ROUND...

Builderman

Two Time

Chance

Pharmacist

Noob

007n7

Shedletsky

Pharmacist.. That might be the title your called as. It seems like there were only 7 survivors playing this round, the others that weren't mentioned seem to get a break for one round at least. Its weird how you were called Pharmacist than your actual name, but its a decent title none the less. A Pharmacist, huh. Right, that was what you wanted to be when you grew up. But you never managed to suceed in actually following that career path, with that said.. There was indeed a reason why you wanted to be a Pharmacist back then, but you can't seem to remember why. Snapping you from your thoughts, Dusekkar, Shedletsky, and Builderman were looking at you, seemingly waiting for a Reply.

"Well?"

Shedletsky said, tapping the table as he waited for your response. Builderman shook his head, seemingly making up a decision for you.

"..They didn't seem to hear what you asked, but its fine. They can stick with me so that we can avoid that passive of theirs."

Builderman stated, glancing at you before he looked at your abilties and stats once more. He will most likely and definitely help you during this, considering he was a support as well.

"Also, This might be for you as well. It was in front of the front door earlier."

Builderman quickly added, seemingly remembering something as he picked up a Belt that had 3 adrenaline shots, as well as a container for Big Batches of Pain Pills.

"If that's one's case, then I shall take my leave. To prepare for the next round, is my current top priority."

Dusekkar said, patting you on the head as they seemed to have acknowledged your abilities.

"This shall be your first round, So one will wish you Great Fortune during this expedition."

Dusekkar wished you Good Luck, but in a somewhat fancy way.. None the less, he meant well that's for sure. Without waiting for your reply, they levitated away seemingly off to do their own thing as they weren't up for this round.

"Dusekkar is always so conservative, but I tell you he means well!"

Shedletsky said as he glanced at the Pumpkin figure gradually faded away from View. After Dusekkar left, he looked at you with a positive smile.

"There's still time until the round starts! Why don't you get along with the other members of the team? Off you go now!"

Shedletsky said, seemingly wanting you to interact more with the others as he gave you a little nudge that you needed to walk away. Giving you a thumbs up before talking to Builderman about the upcoming round.

In the actual Lobby, most of the Survivors were there. Even some of the survivors that you didn't manage to meet yesterday were there as well, all of them minding their own business or preparing for the next round. Elliot seemed to spot you as he waved, coming up to you with a bright smile.

"Hey, Have you met Builderman and Shedletsky yet? I heard they wanted to discuss your abilities. None the less, I won't be there to support you next round sadly.. But Im sure Builderman will find a way to teach you how to be a great support for the team!"

Elliot mentioned, patting you on your shoulder as they seemed to have hoped to teach you how things worked around here. A figure behind Elliot seemed to appear, looking behind him as they had a blue shirt and green pants.

"I-is this the new survivor..?"

They said, stumbling on their own words as they looked to be a bit afraid by your presence. Elliot looked behind him before smiling again, moving aside and showing the said figure. Noob jumped at the sudden movement Elliot did, but they still managed to stand still without freaking out at least.

"Meet Noob! Don't worry, They're nice."

Elliot stated, but the second sentence seemingly more so to Noob than for you. Noob looked at Elliot and then back at you as they didn't seem to know what to reply, after all they were described as Quiet and Withdrawn even after gaining more friends from this Realm..

"..Hello, It's nice to meet you Noob."

Deciding that you should take the first move this time, They seem to flinch as you offered your hand for a hand shake. After a moment or two, they took your hand and shook it lightly. Avoiding your gaze as they looked down.

"..It's nice to meet you too."

They replied, still a bit frightened but they managed to give a small smile. You took your hand away as you can feel someone staring at you, looking behind, you can see a pale-skinned robloxian with black scene-like hair. Just blankly staring at you as you stared back at them. It was a silent showdown as none of you seemed to speak up about the awkward staring contest between you both. Before of course, Elliot stepped in once again.

"..Ahh, that person over there is just Two Time. They might come off at the wrong glance at first but their decent."

Elliot stated, mentioning how Two Time is known for being a little bit insane in the membrane.. None the less, Two Time diverted their gaze in another direction as soon as Elliot is finished, seemingly off to their own little world once more. In another corner of the room, There seemed to be a person with a blue shirt, having a burger ontop of his head. But before you can even get any interactions with him, Noob patted your shoulder as they signalled you to look up, seeing that the timer's countdown was almost over.

"T-The round is almost starting.."

Noob said, stammering between their words once more as they seemed to be preparing themselves for this round even if they looked like they didn't want to participate any longer.

"..Good luck, You two."

Elliot stated, looking at you and Noob with a look of worry. You weren't even given time to say anything as your vision faded to black.

[ THE ROUND HAS STARTED. ]

Opening your eyes, You seemed to be in the Glass Houses map. Nobody seemed to spawn near you, so for the time being you were alone for now. What did spawn near you was a Generator, you might as well complete it to for the team and to not be completely useless.. While doing the Generator, there was seemingly a Menu you can open during the round, floating beside you as you can see the remaining time of the round as well as both your stats and your other teammates stats. This was definitely gonna be useful later on deciding who can get prioritized for temporary healing and actual healing later on.. A sudden feeling of panic eased within you, as your heart was beating louder and louder. Was this the passive ability you had? But it hasn't been 30 seconds yet, and you were just halfway done with the machine when Sudden Spikes appeared from the ground and blocked most of your exits besides the exit that you had to walk up through stairs to get out. Looking up, You could finally see the Killer as realization sets upon you.. John Doe was the killer. Probably from last round's events, the other killers were probably notified of your coming. And looking at his face, he seemed to look like he found the right survivor to toy with.. along with that, A sense of Nausea slipped within you, what a great timing of events.

"..So, This... is the New Comer."

John Doe managed to say, even though he was mostly mute in the actual game, in this reality you find yourself in he actually is able to talk but seemingly not much, showing how the Corruption affects him. Enough about needing to talk to the killer, You can do that any time. Right now, you didn't want to die. Especially the fact that you have not ever experienced death in this realm once, getting Impaled by a spike and ripped apart into two was NOT a pleasant way to die. Immediately shotting up to your feet, you quickly made your way up the stairs to the somewhat second floor of the building even with the Nausea you had during this. Looking down, you were steered away for a bit due to the height. In game, you were just playing a silly little pixel game. So the drop didn't seem much at first, but now that you're actually here.. it was steeper than expected. But John Doe was following close behind you, so you had no other choice but to Jump. Jumping off, you survived the jump successfully, but you lost balance as you landed and fell to the floor while at it. You swore you could hear John Doe's laughter up there, seemingly seeing your pathetic attempt to get away from him.

"You need to work on that landing of yours."

John Doe stated, easily following behind you as he jumped off so effortlessly and landed successfully as well. He was about to hit you with his clawed arm before..

BANG!

The sound of a explosion ran out through the air, pausing John Doe's movements as both of you looked at the side, seeing Chance who had a awkward grin, holding his now destroyed gun that exploded on him instead of stunning the killer.. Well, it did seem to stun John Doe at least from the sheer stupidity of the situation, so Mission Failed Successfully?..

Seeing the Opportunity at hand, You stumbled onto your feet, before running at Chance as you handed him Pain Pills before running off in another direction. John Doe seems to have scoffed at this action, before immediately changing targets as he chased Chance, who looked to be very grateful for your ability to say the least. After you deemed you've ran far enough, you stopped to catch your breath, noticing how your body trembled just based off of how much your hands shook. Right, all that you did was something you acted upon instinct. You didn't actually expect to be able to pull that off, especially knowing how Lazy and Carefree you were back then.. Clapping can be heard, as you looked up to the source to find Shedletsky, impressed by what just happened.

"Not bad at all for someone who just got here Yesterday!"

Shedletsky stated, before he suddenly got hit by a wrench as he winced from the pain. Stumbling back to the side, he revealed Builderman who was seemingly behind him this whole time.

"Talk later, Chance needs someone to distract that thing."

Builderman stated, behind him a Dispenser that he has built for the round. Shedletsky realized this as he checked the status, with Chance only having 67 HP left, and 30 of it was his actual health. Seems like he got hit once already, and with that Shedletsky quickly left, waving a quick goodbye as you were now left alone with Builderman.

"..I didn't manage to find you before your Passive activated, so I do apologize for that."

Builderman suddenly stated, checking the status of his machines as he noticed that his Sentry was down. Before you can even say anything in reply.

"You think ya' can handle being Alone for a bit? I just need to place down a sentry for these sentinels."

Builderman stated, looking at you as he adjusted his tool belt. You could only nod in reply, he gave a small smile and started walking away.

"Your work is much appreciated."

And with that, Builderman faded out of your view. Your left alone with the dispenser.. Oh wait, someone was near the dispenser and you didn't even notice until now. Not even Builderman seemed to notice him before he left, As 007n7 was near the Dispenser getting healed. It seemed that he just got here, having serious wounds as he was probably hit pretty badly by John Doe probably when he started chasing Chance, probably Body Blockeing so that Chance wouldn't die right off the bat. You didn't need to say anything else, remembering how Meos used to yap to you about 007n7's backstory to say the least.. if you were right, this man was the Adoptive Father of c00lkidd. 007n7 seemed to notice you staring at him, before he averted his own gaze.

"I understand if you do not want to interact with me in any way, but I do hope my presence and background doesn't dissuade you from helping someone like me.. But I don't blame you if you do of course..-"

007n7 stated, still looking away as an awkward tension fell before you two. You almost forgot, Almost every survivor disliked 007n7, especially knowing his misdeeds in the past. But you yourself didn't know much about him, only knowing about him being an Exploiter back then. None the less, he seemed to be trying his best to help the team with body blocking despite the situation. You didn't really know how to reply back to 007n7, especially with this heavy tension in the air. You could only look at the man before you with sympathy, before you dropped one of your Adrenaline Shots. While at that, 007n7 looked surprised that you even gave something. He hasn't done anything good for you, has he?..

"..Thank you for your work."

You muttered out, slightly repeating what Builderman said to you. 007n7 looked surprised as he looked at you with such shock. You stood back up and left him with the Dispenser, not bothering to look back as he himself didn't reply to you. Only grabbing the Adrenaline Shot you gave him as he stayed a little longer near the dispenser to heal up.

As you roamed around, with the machines being completed and picking up a Bloxy Cola along the way.. You happened to spot Chance once more, He doesn't seemed to be getting chased anymore, meaning John Doe went after a different target as he was sitting down leaning onto the wall while flipping his coin. He seemed to have spotted you as well as you went up to him.

"..Thanks for the Pills back there, It definitely made me see another day that's for sure. You think you can spare me an Adrenaline Shot at the moment?"

Chance asked, fixing his hat as he had a new gun that was fixed as well. With that, he stood up despite his Injuries as started flipping his coin once more.

"Oh.. Sorry, I can't give one at the moment. I just gave one to 007n7, and I can't give another one for a few seconds. But I do have this.."

You replied, taking out the Bloxy Cola that was hanging off your belt as you gave it to Chance. He only nodded and took the Bloxy Cola you gave him, not bothered by the fact that your Adrenaline Shot was currently unavailable.

"Oh, That Awkward Fella? Its all good, he deserves it for sparing me a hit or two. But Two Time on the other hand... wasn't so lucky to get away."

Chance mentioned, frowning at the thought. You didn't even realize Two Time was dead, looking at the Survivor's list and Two Time was indeed in fact dead. Every other survivor took a hit besides you and Noob, who was probably hiding and doing the last machines for this round.

"..None the less, I appreciate the gesture. Don't worry that fella got transported back to the Lobby and didn't actually die but... It might take you a while to get used to it so that's just a heads up for you."

Chance said, looking at you as he grinned once more. You could only wonder something that happened earlier, and your curiosity got the better of you.

"..Why did your gun explode on you?"

You asked, before a short silence filled the air. Chance's expression went blank, probably remembering the pathetic attempt at trying to stun the killer earlier. until it was replaced with a toothy grin, as he tried forgetting that ever happened.

"That's because I load extra gunpowder in it, nothing more, nothing less.. Its all good though, so you don't have to worry."

Chance stated, trying to save himself some dignity as he continued to flip his coin infront of you, but it always seemed to land on tails. Which seemingly made him more frustrated to say the least. Who wouldn't be?

"Now why would you do that..-"

Chance paused once more from your question, thinking about it before he shrugged, flipping his coin once more as it finally started landing on heads.

"..'cause where's the fun in that?"

He said with a proud grin, before he stopped flipping his coin as he finally got 3 charges. While at that, he started walking away once more.

"I would ask for more Pain Pills, But Shed needs it more right now. I'll go ahead and find either a Medkit or Builderman's dispenser somewhere here, but its best you go to Shed's aid."

Chance said as he left, leaving you more dumbfounded than ever by his own answer. So this little shit just loads in extra gunpowder for shits and giggles.. you could only sigh at his answer, before taking the initiative and got moving once more. After all, Shedletsky and the others still need your help. but you can't help but feel a bit guilty about Two Time's case. Even if you were a support that had healing abilities, your abilities were only there to give relief momentarily. You weren't paying attention to the Survivor Status as well, so you wouldn't even know that Two Time was dead if Chance didn't point it out. You remember how the whole entire fandom hated Two Time specifically, the intense backlash they gets due to their "useless" kit made everybody dislike them. You can't help but reminiscence on the times where Peanut tried to defend Two Time's horrible kit with their own life.

As you walked further and further from the direction you were once from, you could slowly start hearing yells and chattering amongst the silent night. As you got closer and closer, you could spot spikes from the ground. Your definitely getting close. As you ran, you could see John Doe still chasing Shedletsky due to the fact he had half of his health left. With your CD finally over, you used your ability as Shedletsky gained extra health temporarily as the Pain Pills quickly kicked in. John Doe seemed to pause from this, before he slowly turned to you, seemingly fuming with rage.

"..You annoying, little BRAT."

John Doe stated, before he suddenly started chasing you. This was most definitely your queue to run as John Doe followed close by, his anger seemingly reaching its peak from you healing the survivor he was chasing after. Who wouldn't be? After all, you yourself raged when an Elliot healed a survivor you were about to kill back when you were the killer.. Okay, that really shouldn't be the focus right now. Especially considering how close John Doe really was to you and the fact your stamina was running out.

It wasn't long before you felt a sharp pain at your back, being slashed by John Doe. His slashes were absolutely painful, but you weren't dead just yet at least. You got back at your feet as you looped around John Doe, going back to where you left Shedletsky. As you went back, you can see Shedletsky and Builderman with a sentry deployed right in front of them. Before you can even seem to get to them though, Spikes appeared from the ground as not only did it hit you, but blocked the pathway to them as well. Landing onto the ground, you couldn't help but wince in pain. Before you can even try getting up, you were kicked so that you wouldn't be able to. The very person that stood before you was John Doe, who definitely had intentions of murdering you with how bad his glare burned onto you. He scoffed, his spiked arm going under your chin as he forced you to look up to his Malicious Smile.

"..You're out of Luck, you bothersome fool. I'll make sure your first death will be a painful one."

John Doe said, as he was about to strike you with his other clawed hand once more.. Hah, You really fucked up this time, didn't you? Nobody and Nothing can save you now as you closed your eyes and waited for the inevitable until...

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[ The Round has Ended. ]

[ Survivors Won. ]

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JOHN DOE'S POV.

Seeing this New Survivor flailing around on the ground like a pathetic worm felt great. Especially after all the shit they pulled off as well. It was fun at first, but its starting to get irritating knowing this Survivor was another annoying support to say the least. But he couldn't help but Smile, seeing how frightened they really are. A taste of their own medicine, they said. This was just another victim for his own games, as he was about to strike them before..

Everything went black, he was back in the Lobby again. As he processed everything that was happening, he felt his anger rising once more. Grabbing something and throwing it across the room, that very item that was thrown being a Sword. And the person right across him was 1x1x1x1, almost getting hit by the said Sword but none the less remained Unphased as she stayed quiet. What a weirdo.

"..Seems like the new Survivor got under someone's nerves pretty quickly..."

A voice rung out from the room, with c00lkidd stating the obvious. Scoffing from his statement, glaring at the child as c00lkidd immediately put their hands up and shutted up, not wanting to make him angry even more. Jason didn't seem to be present in the main room, probably off to do their own thing. John Doe didn't have any more business done here as he went back to his room, his spiked arm dragging across the floorboards. He only managed to kill 1 survivor from the 7 survivors last round.. He'll make sure he'll wipe them all next time.

"..H0w B0th3rs0m3 1nd3ed."

1x1x1x1 stated, agreeing at John Doe's last statement as he looked up at a screen that was broadcasting the round as the screen only shown a Pain Pill left on the ground before the screen itself finally went away.

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READER'S POV.

You waited for the inevitable to happen, expecting something painful yet.. nothing seemed to happen. Opening your eyes, your back to the Survivor's Lobby as you were sitting on a Table with the other remaining survivors. You actually survived that, and your injuries seemed to be gone. But where it was felt sore and a bit painful if touched to say the least, but what matters was that you survived. Your hands were shaking once more, but this time you couldn't tell if it was from fright because of the experience or if it was from the sheer happiness that you managed to actually survive. Some of the other survivors like 007n7 and Noob seemingly got up from their seats and went away, probably to have either some alone time or back to their room.. or both. Chance got up as well, walking up to Elliot and asking for a Pizza. Two Time was no where to be seen, and Shedletsky and Builderman stood up as well, but seemingly looking at you as they seemed to be relieved.

"..You did well, I'm honestly surprised how ya' managed to survive that

Builderman stated, his accent seemingly slipping in as he looked at you with a furrowed expression. Although his words were definitely sincere, his furrowed expression was practically screaming the fact that he seems to want to scold you for your reckless actions, but didn't as you were new after all, its common for this to happen..

"I wonder how Lucky this New Addition can get.. I swear, you might be even more lucky than Mr. Exploding Gun over here."

Shedletsky stated, mentioning the failed attempt of a stun from Chance as he probably was looking at each survivor status during it to find out what was happening.. Chance came back, with pizza in his hands as he scoffed, frowning as he didn't want to remember that once more.

"..That was only one time during the round...-"

The other survivors started chatting amongst themselves, With Shedletsky and Chance seemingly teasing and making fun of eachother's misses as Builderman just seemed to watch like a disappointed parent while Elliot watched as if he has seen this multiple times already. Everybody seemed to be so well connected already.. well, most of them at least. But something felt off, and you couldn't help but wonder yourself.. Will this Peace last forever? Who knew. But right now, enjoying this moment felt like the right thing to do.

Your enjoyment was definitely short-lived though, as you felt someone pull you away, unable to see who it is as they pulled you away from everybody and out the Cabin without anybody noticing. Looking behind you, you could see Two Time who stared blankly at you. You couldn't help but feel uneasy again as their stare was off-putting to say the least.

"..Oh, Hello... Do you need anything?--"

You asked, looking at them as you noticed they had a few bandages around certain parts of their body where John Doe probably slashed them at. before you can even finish your sentence though, Two Time cutted you off as they were quick with their words.

"007n7 never told you their name during the round, and I'm sure you didn't interact with him earlier.. How did you manage to know and mention his name when you spoke with Chance earlier?"

Two Time stated, mentioning the fact that you slipped up and said 007n7's name when talking to Chance earlier. They were really observant, and you felt like if you lied they wouldn't buy it. You were forced in a tough spot to say the least, this turned out far more worst than expected. Someone is already managing to figure you out and it hasn't been even a week yet. You couldn't help but feel frightened once more, a cold shiver went down your spine as your face to face with Two Time who wants answers. You know that whatever you will plan to answer, there will definitely be consequences for each one.

WARNING :

Major Decision Making up ahead.

Surprise! Interactive Choices appear! It seems like someone already got suspicious of you, and it was Two Time none the less. Whatever you choose WILL affect on how the story would go, so choose wisely!

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TAGLIST

@takingnap55 @vyn-nn @g4tyjust4tw0 @ilikedrinkingsoda @subspacekisser1 @m-just-call-me-that @yukinaabutlazy @ms-sh0rtcak3 @no-hearts-included @agenteighter @bombcake @jawzwix

[ If your tag is white, for some odd reason I can't seem to tag you! (⁠｡⁠•́⁠︿⁠•̀⁠｡⁠) ]

[ If you want to be apart of the Taglist, don't be afraid to ask! ]

NOTES

AAAAA... VERY SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT!! I've been busy since I'm currently undergoing my last few weeks of the School Year and is heavily bombarded with school work.. Next chapter might take a while to upload considering I still have to finish up every single one of my works, but none the less I'm kind of glad I got this out of the way.

The reason why Reader doesn't maintain their Injuries because of the little headcanon I have where Survivors that DO survive the round will have the luxury to not experience any wounds, while Survivors that do perish in the round are forced to deal with the wounds until all the rounds that are prepared for the day are completed. Then they can actually rest then pray to spawn that it heals up quickly before the next round of 'games.' I thought of this headcanon because I wanted a Punishment for 'failing' to survive the rounds and also because I see Spectre doing this to the Survivors to make them suffer more.. this is further more shown when Reader is faced with Two Time which they had bandages around them, as well as in Chapter 1 with Guest 1337 themselves having bandages around their body when the Reader met them after the round was over.

For this series, theres a lot soon to come! But right now, things are definitely getting more serious. There will still be some silly moments then and there, but there will be more decision making sitiations in the future! I think thats all I have to say for now. Thank you for your patience!

EDIT :

NGL GANG.. I ALMOST LOST THIS FIC!.. ITS OKAY PROBLEM IS SOLVED BUT OH MY DAYS THIS WOULD'VE BEEN A LONG CHAPTER DOWN THE DRAIN..

[hauntedhokage]

𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥

Phainon/F!Reader/Mydei

rating: explicit

word count: 2k

warnings: double penetration (vaginal and anal penetration)

note: it's been in the wips for a couple weeks, figured it was time to get it posted

ao3 | masterlist | ko-fi

“Settle a bet for us, my lady.” 

“And we know that your individual relationships with us shouldn’t become a competition, but this time we need you.”

You hum at Mydei’s statement, leaning back against the wall of the bath as you drink from your wine glass. This day was bound to come one way or another, having a much more than platonic relationship with both Phainon and Mydei was destined to result in you being caught in a competition or four every week. They’d done well to keep it to silly things like foot races or eating competitions, but you knew that eventually there would be a demand for something more personal to be used as a basis for determining superiority. For them to appear while you were trying to enjoy a bath, however, was outside of your usual experience with these two. Alone, maybe, but never together as they were aware of your intimate relations with the other but never made themselves involved.  

“So we’re requesting that you let us be intimate with you together.”

“For what purpose?”

“We’d like to see who is better at pleasuring you.”

It wasn’t the heat of your bath or the effect of the alcohol that had your face hot, but if asked you would blame anything but the weight of the meaning behind Phainon’s words. It was quite the request, to have them both there while you had sex with the other — definitely a precursor to something more involved for all parties and not something you were interested in denying. This explained their interrupting your bath, but you were still going to make them work for it. 

“One condition.”

“Name your price.” Phainon is already undressing as he speaks, and you look to Mydei since he’s the one who will remember what you’re about to say. 

“I paid for this private bath time. You’re paying me back for interrupting it.”

“I’ll send a message to the front desk to extend this session and book another for you on my credit.” And he’s pulling out his stone tablet to do as he promised while a fully nude Phainon joins your bath and comes to stand in front of you. 

“Who said you get to start, Deliverer?”

“I’m simply being efficient, Mydei,” Phainon states, a grin on his face as Mydei huffs behind you. “I truly hate to keep such a beautiful woman waiting.”

You don’t have to look to see that the prince has crossed his arms over that broad chest, eyes narrowed at your white haired lover as he says, “You’re only warming her up for the main event, nothing more.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“If you two bicker through this I will call you both losers and take the bath time for myself.”

The stern warning is met with two mumbled agreements to behave, and you push yourself up to the edge of the bath as Phainon drapes your thighs over his shoulders. Kisses are placed to your thighs before he looks up at you, smile wide before he buries his face in your cunt. He’s eager to lap at the essence that has already collected, one of his fingers rubbing at your clit as his tongue works in your cunt to bring you to your first orgasm of many while you’re under his spell. Your hand pushes into his hair, the thick white strands providing you a grounding zone to help manage your volume. 

Mydei’s armor and clothes fall to the tile behind you, his body heat warming your chilled back as he settles behind you with you seated between his legs. Large hands grip your thighs, kneading at the tensed muscles to help you relax as his rival ate you out. He murmurs words of encouragement into your ear, spoken so softly they’re barely heard over your own stifled sounds of pleasure. 

“Let him hear you,” the prince whispers, teeth grazing your earlobe before he kisses along your neck. “He needs to hear how you sound before I make you lose your voice.” 

“S-So arrogant,” you huff, only to arch your back away from his chest when a finger presses to your clit. 

“I speak from experience, do I not?”

That was unfortunately correct, and recent history. He fed on the sounds he could pull out of you, loved when you cried for him because he was making you feel just that good, and was confident that he was the only person who could make you feel like that. Earlier in the month Mydei had fucked you hard enough that it had broken the lounge chair you’d been on, and rendered your voice weak enough that you had to feign illness (and avoid Aglaea completely so you wouldn’t be caught lying to her about the state of your health). It was probably his suggestion that led to your private bath being interrupted, but that was to be investigated later - after they’d gotten what they wanted and were easy to pull answers from.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to take us both together?” Mydei asks, resting his chin on your shoulder so he could see Phainon too. Bright blue eyes stare up at you and Mydei while you feel a gentle probing at your ass, and you can’t help the gasp that escapes you at the slightest push into the tighter hole. 

The additional stimulation is your downfall, your legs trying to tighten around Phainon’s head only to be stopped by Mydei’s strength ensuring that they stay separated to allow Phainon to continue through your orgasm. By the time he’s satisfied, you’ve cum a second time and he looks to be very pleased, his face red and plastered with a dopey smile as he looks up at you.

“Look at you, Deliverer,” Mydei murmurs, resting his chin on your shoulder so he can meet the proud gaze of his rival. “You look like you were born to be her chair, perhaps it’s the coreflame of the Furniture Titan you should seek.”

“I think the will of that Titan is in both of your souls,” you murmur, smiling as you lean back against Mydei while Phanon rises to his feet in front of you. Phainon only chuckles, dry but still carrying that fondness that he harbored for Mydei whenever they got into their usual back-and-forths.

“Let’s get you somewhere more comfortable, my dove.” He doesn’t give Mydei a chance to argue, lifting you with ease over his shoulder and carrying you out of the bathwater and to the lounge chair in the corner. “Taking us both will be no easy task, you should at least be on a comfortable seat.”

“You are her seat, Furniture Demigod,” Mydei teases, earning a laugh from you as Phainon huffs at his new title. 

As soon as he’s seated with you in his lap, his length is in your hand while your other holds his shoulder for balance. He knows what comes next, his grip on your hips tightening in anticipation as you rise onto your knees to position yourself over his cock. You choose to tease him a bit, guiding his tip along your dripping slit as your lips claim his in a needy kiss. It’s Mydei’s strong hands that push you down onto Phainon, murmuring soft praises into your ear as you take in his rival. His impatience is matched by Phainon’s, the much more slender hands spreading your ass apart to invite Mydei to take the hole that had been prepared for him. 

“Not yet.” Those hands continue to guide you along Phainon’s length, his lips trailing kisses down your spine. 

“Did I not do enough?”

“You did enough for your size, I’m sure.” 

“Don’t–” your attempt at intervention is cut off by one of the Kemnonian curses you’d learned from Mydei when you feel two of his slicked fingers push into your hole as Phainon starts to fuck up into you. This was where the challenge had truly begun, Mydei’s strokes are slow, fingers carefully stretching you while Phainon’s pace is much faster, and you felt clumsy as you tried to keep your pace between them. 

As if sensing your struggle, Phainon requests that you let him take care of you — his large hands gripping your hips tighter as he thrusts into you. Mydei’s fingers rub at your clit as Phainon fucks you, and you feel yourself getting tighter around them as you feel the waves of another orgasm crest over you and beg them not to stop. Both of their voices are soft as they talk you through it, touch gentle as they try to soothe you through such a strong orgasm. 

“Are you ready?” 

The question sounds so gentle leaving Mydei, as if he’s asking you if you’re ready to go out on a walk through the market rather than have both of your holes penetrated by the two Chrysos Heirs at the same time. And you respond just as sweetly, looking over your shoulder and whispering a “yes, please” to Mydei that has Phainon holding your hips just a bit tighter. 

“You ready, Phainon?” you ask, smiling down at your white haired lover and taking the chance to push his hair out of his face. 

“I’ve been waiting all day for this.”

That you were certain of, as with every moment that passed you grew more certain that this “competition” between the duo was their ruse to get to share you. They’d interrupted your bath, giving you the impression that your body would be their battlefield in this contest; instead your body was the enemy they were working together to overcome. Their bickering matched the competitive spirit, but without the tug of hands you would expect from two warriors trying to see who would be able to pleasure you better. 

“I’m sure you wait for my attention all day, every day.”

“You’re not wrong,” Mydei states, smirking at Phainon over your shoulder as his tip prods at your prepped hole. “He’s smitten.”

“As if you aren’t also.”

“HKS, both of you.”

“Oh really? I had no clue that I was- oh, fuck.” 

Mydei was making his entrance; so Phainon laid back, basking in the feeling that was your pussy getting tighter with Mydei working his way into your ass. You’re biting your lip until he’s carefully coaxing it from between your teeth but pushing his thumb into your mouth as Mydei is whispering praises into your ear. 

“You’re ready to cum again already, aren’t you?” Phainon asks, grinning when you gently bite down on his thumb in response to him rolling his hips into yours. “He’s not even fully inside you yet.”

You can feel your core clench impossibly tighter around them, feel Mydei pressing his face into your shoulder to compose himself due to how tense you were getting with your impending orgasm. Knowing Mydei, you suspected he would try to edge you, but you don't think it’d be possible with how stuffed full you were at the moment. You also don't think Phainon would allow Mydei to deny either of you what you wanted at this point. Where Mydei challenged you, teasing and pushing you that much further to work for your pleasure, Phainon spoiled you rotten with your pleasure becoming his purpose the moment you were ensnared in his arms. 

With a snap of his hips Mydei sends you over the edge, chuckling at the wail you let out as you cum around both men. Phainon is kissing at the skin he can reach while the prince continues to fuck you - both men riding that high in their own way and trying to keep you on that edge and clenching around them for as long as they could.

“And there’s four,” Phainon murmurs, biting into your neck as his own patience wears thin and he's holding you in place so he could fuck up into you at his own brutal pace that matched the prince’s. “Can we get you to five, dove?”

“We definitely can.” Mydei assures, winking at Phainon over your shoulder. “Can’t we?”

[scarletcomalies]

the outside world has failed you

Wanda Maximoff x Fem Reader

Word count: 6,253

Warnings: 18+ content, mention of cockroaches and bedbugs, mention of contract-killing, Natasha x Reader, I criticize the church a lot, blasphemy, caning as a punishment, manipulation, masochism, oral sex, edging, dacryphilia, strap-on usage, hair-pulling, slamming, degrading, angst, fluff.

A/N: Hi! I'm sorry for disappearing, but in so few months, so much has happened. It has taken a toll on me, and I was in no mood for anything, in many ways. I am recovering, though! I love it here and I'm glad I was able to write a little something hehe. Watching AHS Asylum for the fourth time does things to you. 😮‍💨

A/N ll: I didn't find any pictures of Wanda or Lizzie as a nun, however, if someone with photoshop skills wants to do me the favor, I'll be grateful :)

Sister Wanda Maximoff didn't make your plan to take advantage of the church as easy as you thought it would be.

You were not going to endure another god-awful day in that abyss you called life. You simply could not. Nothing particularly happened, you simply collapsed.

Your job in this economy did not allow you to support rent, food, services, all that went with being independent. So many exhausting hours for so little pay. Just so when you finally returned home, the first thing you saw were multiple eviction notices on your door, reminding you that you were on the verge of being homeless.

So, when you opened your door with push, the inside was not very welcoming either, as the holes in your furniture and under your broken sink were the perfect place for cockroaches to breed in droves, causing you to find a few over here and there. At least they lived rent free, you thought.

You ate microwavable or precooked food, the cheapest you could find, and proceeded to go to sleep, hoping the bedbugs wouldn't cause you any more health problems than you already had from the quality of sleep and food you provided your body with.

And then, you slept four hours, you got up to work, you came back home, you repeated.

Well, the sole exception was your upstairs neighbor, Natasha Romanoff. A Russian immigrant on the run from the authorities for her involvement as an accomplice to Clint Barton, a notorious contract killer. Barton, lacking the courage to face imprisonment with dignity, betrayed his loyal partner, declaring, "If I go down, you go down with me".

Now a fugitive, Natasha cut and dyed her hair blonde and resorted to phone scams to survive. “Fucking cyber education”, you could hear her yell from downstairs, usually followed by the sound of her cell phone hitting the ground (your ceiling). You deduced it was because fewer and fewer people were falling for the bullshit of a $500,000 prize.

The sex with her was good, too good to be true. You weren't happy about her misfortune, but you were grateful to whoever was smart enough not to fall for that classic scam, because you knew that after that, she would get to take out her frustration on you as soon as you got home from work. That was the only means by which you could secrete a little dopamine, a little... happiness.

“I hate this life,” you once commented, clinging to her as she rode out the ground-breaking orgasm she gave you.

“Hmmm, bullshit,” she growled. ”I can't go out and buy fucking cigarretes without the fear of some asshole recognizing me from the wanted signs and ratting me out,” you could feel her back muscles tensing again. “I can't engage in anything too scandalous, legal or illegal, because any false move will take me back to Russia. And don't make me detail what prison is like in Russia,” she added, quickening her movements and panting slightly. Your eyes rolled, and against your will, the need began to simmer inside you once again. “Don't come and tell me your life is difficult. Figure it out! God... damn it!”

“What do you propose I do?” You asked her, once the overstimulation of two orgasms in a row had subsided enough to allow you to formulate something more than whimpers and moans.

“Go to the nuns congregation,” she shrugged, as she buttoned her pants. They were somewhat tight, which made visible the bulge formed by the strap-on she used on you.

“Fuck you!” You exclaimed.

“I'm serious. They love to feel like they're saving souls,” she justified. “Tell them you want to let God into your life, and just like that you get three meals a day and a warm bed. You deserve a chance in life."

Okay, maybe you could have gone on to apply for other jobs and in one of them you might've been lucky to get hired, but your day-to-day life had mentally drained you so much that you didn't think you were capable of making one more effort to survive.

It wasn't fair. The people working in the church enjoyed every comfort simply by feeding people's beliefs in something greater. They stood before crowds reading teachings they often didn't apply to their own lives, but that didn't matter. All they needed to do was make people feel good about themselves for sacrificing one hour of their Sunday to listen. People gave money to the church for this. They granted the church privileges for this, like tax exemption. Meanwhile, you did pay your taxes.

Natasha was right. If a simple practice of a religion was going to give you all that, more than your skills or abilities would, you might as well take it. After all, it was divine justice to privilege yourself from the church that privileged itself from the people.

Everything went smoothly, for you were a master in words and conviction. If only you had the opportunity to go to college, you would be using those skills to build a career of your liking, maybe laws or literature. But there you were, reorienting the reason for the misfortunes in your life to a motive to strengthen your faith. You even talked about a dream where you received a message where God commanded you to serve Him, and you dropped a couple of tears to make it believable. They loved it!

From then on, your days were consumed by correspondence lessons, spiritual readings that stirred nothing within you, and the hollow act of pretending to pray mentally. It was excruciatingly monotonous, devoting yourself to something that doesn’t align with the core of who you were. However, the only solace came from the feeling of a full stomach, the embrace of a bed where you could finally surrender to real rest, and the relief of having left behind the life that once tormented you.

If that weren’t enough, Natasha remained present in your life. There was no love, perhaps not even affection, but there was familiarity. You were each other's person to look forward to after an exhausting, unsuccesful day.

Therefore, every night, she would appear at your window, her wide smile showing beneath the shadow of her hood.

She would fuck you hard, keeping in mind the exciting fact that, despite covering your mouth with her firm hand, a moan could probably be heard if she dared to let go or if you didn't control yourself.

The danger of someone discovering an Aspirant being thrusted deep by another woman whose reward for finding her exceeded a million dollars gave you the most delicious orgasms you had ever had in your life.

All your needs were taken care of, and all you had to do was pretend that this was your calling.

Until Sister Wanda Maximoff noticed your lack of interest. The other Aspirants glowed with marvel, their eyes burning with the will to learn during every lesson. They bombarded her with so many questions that each class stretched at least an extra half hour. But overall, they worshiped her as the living embodiment of what they could only dream to become.

But you remained sitting quietly, your gaze steady but lacking the usual awe radiating from your classmates. It wasn't shyness, for Sister Wanda had taught many shy Aspirants before, it was as if you existed on a separate plane of existence, observing from a distance instead of immersing yourself.

So she deliberately picked on you, persistently directing her questions at you regardless of your ‘fellow’ Aspirants' raised, insisting hands.

What exasperated her the most was your response to her gentle reprimands when you answered incorrectly; your attitude matched, perhaps even surpassed, the apathy you showed toward her lessons. The sole thing you were eager about was to demonstrate how little she mattered to you.

How wrong she was to believe private lessons would change anything. She assumed whatever shit show you were trying to pull would crumble when it was just the two of you, face to face. She thought you showed defiance only because you were among other Aspirants, who would devastate at the sight of their sweet, dear Sister being —justifiably— hard on someone. But no, you were insolent and that was all there was to it.

Unfortunately for you, Sister Wanda didn't have her group of adoring students around to see her now, leaving her free to do whatever she pleased with you.

"Damn you!" She slammed her Bible shut, after she made one last attempt to kindly ask you to make an effort to pay attention. You barely had time to register her words before she was standing—no, looming in front of you. "Listen," she hissed, her breath sharp against your face. The smell of cigarretes was evident. "I don't care why you're here. I only care that you are here. And as long as you are here, you're going to listen to my lesson. You're going to care. And one way or another, you're going to love me for it.”

That was the heart of it, wasn't it? You hadn't knelt, hadn't lapped at her heels like the others, and that was enough to wound her. Enough to make her angry. You could see it in her eyes, controlled fury, a slow-burning arrogance that refused to be challenged.

"Bend over," she ordered, signalling towards her desk with her emerald-green eyes.

You met her eyes, and in that moment, you knew she saw your rage, your disgust, your perplexity barely restrained beneath your clenched jaw.

"Excuse me?" Your voice was trembling of pure impotence, as the room itself seemed to contract around you.

"Bend over," she repeated. “Or… don't. You can always go back to that job—”

And before she could even complete her sentence, you were bent over her desk.

"Normally, I’d let you choose," she mused, her voice thick with condescension. "But you’ve been so bad, you don’t even deserve that.”

The closet doors creaked open behind you. Wooden. Heavy. Old.

The sound pierced the silence, a whistle of something cutting through the air, followed by a firm whip exploding across your flesh.

You sucked in a sharp breath.

It stuck in your throat, strangled by disbelief, both from the action and the inimaginable pain.

Your body jerked forward against the desk, as a high-pitched cry escaped your lips before you could stop it.

The wooden cane struck again, and again, and again.

Sister Wanda was known for being methodical, and her punishments weren't the exception, for she let each strike sink in before delivering the next.

Your fingers clawed at the barnished wood of her desk, intending to stay still, to deny her the satisfaction of seeing you squirm and suffer.

But it was impossible. The burning sensation radiating from your ass across your whole body, had you sobbing openly, with your pride as bruised as your skin.

"Please," you whimpered, choked with pathetic attempts to inhale some air. "I‐I'm sorry, please...”

She hummed with indifference. The same indifference you once gave her during her lessons. Divine justice.

Her cane tapped thoughtfully against your tender flesh, making you flinch. You couldn't take another single one.

"What did Christ say to Peter after the resurrection?” Just another cynical test. You should've seen it coming.

The answer was somewhere within the depths of your distressed mind. But the sting of open skin, made your thoughts slow.

"Well?" she pressed, and the cane lifted from your ass.

"Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Through your sobs, you heard the creak of the cabinet opening again, the soft sound of the cane being returned to its place. Your flesh throbbed in time with your heartbeat, and you knew you wouldn't be able to sit comfortably for days.

With gentle hands that moments ago had wielded the cane, she carefully smoothed down your tunic, her touch now impossibly tender.

"There now, sweet girl," she murmured, her voice honey-like and soothing. Her fingers traced the tear tracks on your cheeks, wiping away the remnants of the evidence of your sorrow. "You took your punishment so well.”

Every alert in your rational mind that would dcream at you to stay away was turned off. You knew it when you found yourself melting into her touch, craving the comfort she offered. And she looked down at you with adoration when she found nothing but submission in your eyes, as she cradled your face between her palms.

"Such a good girl for me now, isn't that right?" he whispered, and the praise… the praise had your earlier fear dissolving under her careful ministrations. "This is all I wanted from you, darling, just to see you truly present, truly here with me."

She drew you closer, letting you rest your forehead against her shoulder as her fingers threaded through your hair. The scent of chapel incense and that hint of cigarettes enveloped you, and you found yourself breathing it in deeply, letting it ground you.

“This is what happens when you let yourself be guided, when you submit to proper instruction," her lips brushed your earshell as she spoke. "Will you be good for me from now on?"

You nodded against her shoulder, unable and unwilling to resist the tempting implication she made. If you behaved, you would have more of these precious moments.

And this alone gave you more purpose than anything else since you arrived to the monastery.

You became aware of it in the same way a candle becomes aware of fire, at first, just a taste of heat, then a flame that tangles in the wax until it consumes it all.

You became an active participant in her lessons, a constant presence who made sure to be seen, to be noticed. You knew Sister Wanda liked your enthusiasm, but it wasn't just her approval you sought. You wanted her recognition.

And so, when you weren't taking her lessons, you were reading, studying, making sure your application made you stand out among the other Aspirants. All so that you would be her favorite girl.

She usually saw you reading under one of the garden's trees. You had chosen the one that was the closest to the hall, she noticed. She couldn't miss it if she was walking out of her office. It was adorable.

If she had time, she would stop by your side, looking at the book in your hands. She would take the tome gently, making sure that her slender fingers brushed yours, even if for a second, and her arm subsequently found its around you in an almost unconscious, protective manner.

"Do you have any questions?" She would inquire. And even though you didn't —unsurprisingly so—, you pretended to need clarification, any excuse to let her closeness linger a few seconds longer, not ready to be apart from her yet.

It had taken hold of you. The need of her touch.

Before, reading and prayer were mere obligations, mechanical routines that you did just because you had to. Now, they had become rituals charged with intention, directed towards something greater; her.

If you prayed fervently, if you participated enthusiastically, if you were everything she expected of you, rest assured she would seek you out every time, just to remind you that you did not go unnoticed by her.

"It was so good," she purred, her hand sliding over your lower back.

And, of course, she noticed your every gesture. Every held breath, every tiny tilt of your body in her direction.

She had conditioned other students to obey her in the same way, but they did not respond to her touch as you did that day after she bent you over the desk. Not only did you not flinch, you melted.

They obeyed for fear of being punished again. But, it seemed you had even forgotten all about it.

You didn't look at her with terror. You looked at her with longing.

Sure, it was normal to look for approval. That's all it was. A conditioned reflex, a survival instinct. To make sure you didn't get any more punishment.

But you... you weren't just looking for her approval.

You were looking for her.

And she didn't know which was worse, the reverse effect it had inadvertently caused in you, or the one it was causing in her.

She should have stopped when she had the chance, when she noticed that her threatening attempts to impose fear, meaning by grabbing your face, squeezing your shoulder or resting her hand on your back, for you were, in reality, caresses. Caresses that you evidently lacked throughout your life.

"One way or another, you're going to love me for it," she had established, but the another way was not the one she usually applied, the one she used to know so well.

The admiration of others fed her ego, and gave her that sense of power and control to which she had long ago become addicted. But you had made that seem insignificant compared to what you provided her.

She was fully aware that you didn't want to be like her. Hell, she knew exactly why you joined the congregation.

It was something far more significant than the admiration she had initially tried to kindle within you.

It was submission.

And therefore every slightest caress became a bottomless pit for her, for both of you. And both, without fear, fell.

It was everything you were looking for.

So much so that, when Natasha touched your window, you felt nothing. And you had reached the point of believing that there was no point in continuing to do something that no longer had any meaning for you.

So, as she was about to climb in, you stopped her.

"I'm reading," you said without looking up from the book in your hands, signaling to her that you weren't going to move from there.

Natasha paused for a second, just long enough for doubt to seep into her expression before pulling herself together.

"I can see that. Good for you.”

And still, she walked in. She did so as confidently as she always did, expecting no more permission than she believed belonged to her.

"I can't do this anymore," you stated, firm this time.

Natasha raised an eyebrow, somewhere between mockery and skepticism. She swept her gaze over you, that quick, almost bored assessment. Then, she chuckled.

"What?" She asked in mock disbelief. "Are you going to tell me that you received a calling from the Lord to give yourself to him? Is this what it is? Are you going to practice chastity?”

You denied quickly.

"No, don't be ridiculous.”

It wasn't faith, not in the way she implied. It was devotion, but to someone who was there, who did respond. There was something greater than mindless pleasure, something more real than the filling of your needy hole. You had found someone to exist for, someone who saw beyond the fleeting instant and looked at you, not just what she could take from you.

She tilted her head, with the same expression of one who already knows the answer but wants to hear you say it anyway.

"You met someone else," she asserted.

"No..." it was an instinctive reflex that, upon reaching your tongue, lost its form, dissolving into something uncertain. "Maybe. I don't know."

Had you, really? Wanda hadn't touched you in that way, the way Natasha did, urgently, hungrily. And yet what she did to you had been more than anything you'd ever felt. Her fingers glided over your skin with a lightness that didn't demand, that didn't take. There was something in the way she looked at you, not with possession, but with recognition. As if you were someone, not something.

You didn't know if it was equal, but it was better. Much better.

There was a second of silence. Then Natasha let out a dry laugh.

"Well, I'd be damned," she muttered with a half-smile, not taking her eyes off you. "Just... think about her if you want. I had a long day.”

And you agreed. It was the only way to know if this bordered on a level of attraction that was new to you.

When Natasha fucked you, you closed your eyes, and you imagined those pink lips, those big emerald green eyes, that unseen body hiding under that habit.

No. Not like this.

If you were doing this with Wanda, she'd be stroking your hair. She'd kiss your cheeks. She'd make sure you felt how much she appreciated having your presence beneath her, pleasing her. Overall, she'd make sure you were enjoying yourself too.

Because you were somebody.

You opened your eyes, and you pulled Natasha's hand away from your mouth, with a movement that was not abrupt, but definite.

"Caress me," you commanded.

Natasha frowned.

"You're insane," she panted between thrusts. You didn't blame her for saying it. Maybe you were.

"Do it," you insisted, with the certainty of one who has made a decision with no turning back. "Or this will be the last time.”

She rolled her eyes impatiently. But she agreed. Without love, without affection, with a mechanical manner that barely mimicked what you had asked.

"No, this isn't working," you growled, nudging her gently. You didn't want to make her feel like this was her fault, it really wasn't. You simply began to crave for something she was no longer capable of giving you.

"I agree, let me do my thing," she replied, slamming deeper inside you to reassert her dominance. You knew she knew what you were referring to, the fact that her flings during the night were no longer working for you. But she wasn't going to admit it, because she wanted to keep using you, seeing you.

And no, you had a say in this.

"Natasha, I don't want you anymore!" You exclaimed, perhaps louder than you should have in the middle of the night when everyone was supposed to be asleep.

She pulled back, just enough to glance in your direction, as if to silently confirm the truth of your words. Within the depths of your eyes, she found the answer. Therefore she stepped back with deliberate nonchalance and adjusted her pants, maintaining her composure in the shifting tide of the moment.

You thought she was going to refute, as it seemed very important to her to leave her house, to risk being found just to 'take out her frustrations on you'. She could have looked for anyone, but she wanted you. And perhaps the reason would remain a mystery.

"Call me when that cheesiness wears off," she stated matter-of-factly, and retreated from your room through the window.

And with that, you thought you were off the hook.

You thought.

You were under your tree, your now shelter, when you saw Wanda come out of her office. Her footsteps echoed on the floor, quick and heavy, so different from her usual gait. She was furious, you knew.

You didn't alert yourself, you thought it wasn't about you, that if you were doing what she expected from you, without fail, why would she be angry?

But then, instead of taking the path to the hallway, as she always did, she walkes you. Her eyes showed no gentleness. There was no tenderness in her face. But what had happened? Everything seemed to be in order. Why... this?

In one sudden movement, she bent down and, with a violence that made you lose your breath, she lifted you up suddenly, pulling your hair towards her, forcing you to stumble, to stagger, all the way to her office. She didn't care about your whines, and, your desperate pleas to explain what was happening.

And once inside, the door closed with a clang that chilled your blood, and proceeded to bend you over the desk by slamming the side of your face against it. There were no orders. There were no requests. There was no room for choice.

No explanation, not a single word spoken, like you didn't deserve any of that. It couldn't be real. Not again. Not like this. She was treating you... badly. And you didn't know why, or what you had done wrong.

"I took you for so many things," she began, and the sound of the closet doors where she kept her canes chilled your skin just like the last time. "Insolent, disdainful, opportunist... and I thought I'd fixed you."

You choked, your throat closed up with unshed tears. You didn't understand. You couldn't understand.

The prospect of getting caned didn't even occupy your mind at that moment. It was the torture of knowing that you let her down, that everything you had done, all your effort, had been in vain, that consumed you to the core.

"Y-you did!" you cried, trying to cling to some hope, some justification, looking for some way to explain what you didn’t even know you did. "I've done everything you asked, and more! I don't understand!"

The way she dismissed your words with a curt hum, and proceeded to lift your tunic, was a silent communication that everything you did for her wasn't enough to forgive nor forget what she was about to punish you for.

"Yes," she said, caressing your bare cheeks, which still held the memories of your first punishment. "Except for the fact that you're a filthy slut, fucking a criminal every night in your room."

Your skin bristled at her accusation. She felt it under her fingertips, and that made her more relentless.There was no point in applying those impecable lying techniques that had brought you to this point, if ultimately, your body was at her mercy, and it did not lie.

"Who told you?" you could barely articulate. How could anyone ever dare to touch something so sacred to you?

"No one!" She exclaimed.

It had been one of your fellow Aspirants. She was heading to the bathroom that night, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, when she heard the hushed moans and accelerated breaths through your door.

And when she heard your apparent fling was about to slip out of your window, she followed.

She didn’t go far, just enough to reach Natasha out, grip her shoulder, and turn her around to reveal her identity. That cost her a broken nose. However, it was worth it. So worth it.

Because she hated you, everyone hated you. Why were you Wanda's favorite? You hated her lessons, you were rude to her, and when you started doing what everyone did, you got praised for it?

She was supposed to belong to all of them! Equally. So if she had to sabotage your relationship to take back what was theirs, then so be it.

First thing in the morning, she told Wanda everything.

"I don't understand you, (Y/N)!" She continued, whipping you three times in a row, the contact coursing through your entire body. You could have sworn you felt an electric current run from your head to your feet. And worse than the first time. Much worse. Oh, compared to what you felt now, those moments seemed like paradise. "Here, you have it all!"

Wanda's jealousy, the shadows of her anger, made her apply way more force than she intended to. And from your end, the realization that you had failed the one person who had ever made you feel you were worth anything, who had made you believe you weren't invisible, made you the perfect recipient for her fury.

You were vulnerable, not resistant, for you defeatedly accepted this as just a little bit of the hell you deserved for having disappointed Wanda. Your Wanda.

"You got everything you wanted," she continued. "Everything you wanted in exchange for being my good girl. And isn't that enough? You had to look outside for what you could have here, with me?"

Before you could apologize, or beg for mercy, you felt the touch of her face against the fabric of your panties, where she inhaled deeply.

"I should have known my baby girl wanted to be fucked, hm?" She commented, more softly than before. The scent of your involuntary arousal soothed her unlike any other. "My bad.”

“I… I'm so… I'm so stupid,” you whimpered, your words laced with embarrasment. Your tears had already formed a small, glistening puddle on the surface of her desk, reflecting the dim candlelight.

"Shhh, nothing to be ashamed of," she whispered in your ear. Her body pressed against your back with almost reverent care, as though she wanted to hold you rather than crush you. After all, you were someone fragile, someone precious that deserved protection from the claws of the outside world. "Oh, my darling," she cooed, with a gentleness so sincere that it made you forget, if only for an instant, the trust that had been broken. "No more tears," she commanded softly.

She stuck out her tongue and slid it tenderly over your cheek, gathering the salty trace of your regret.

She extended her tongue, moving it with deliberate tenderness across your tear-stained cheek, collecting each salty droplet that marked your sorrow.

The warm, wet sensation of her tongue against your skin, the taste of your regret, provoked her to elicit a deep, satisfied moan that resonated through her whole body and into yours.

It shouldn't have felt like salvation, but it did. And naturally, you yearned for more, as you did with form of contact that she could offer you.

And, with the same quiet desperation of a sinner seeking absolution, you turned your head, parted your lips, and let the tip of your tongue meet hers. She stilled for a moment, just a moment, before answering you kindly. A gentle meeting of tongues, tentative at first, but then so natural and carefree. Like you had done this a thousand times before. In a previous lifetime, perhaps.

The kiss deepened, her tongue exploring yours with the same careful attention she gave to every aspect of your being. Her mouth moved against yours with a rhythm that spoke of ownership, of belonging, each sweep of her tongue claiming territory that had always been rightfully hers. Not anyone else’s.

The taste of her, sharp and sweet like consecrated wine, filled your senses until there was nothing else. No past mistakes, no future uncertainties, just the perfect present of her mouth commanding yours.

Your heart thundered against her desk, no longer from fear but from the raw intensity of being truly seen, truly possessed. Each sigh you drew was heavy with the innate air of submission you emanated, sweeter than any prayer you'd ever offered. And she inhaled it blissfully.

"Out there, they only know how to take from you," she whispered against your lips. "But here, my precious girl, I'll make sure you get everything you need. No need to look outside ever again."

“Yes,” was the only thing you needed to say, and it was the only thing she needed to hear.

She left a kiss on your cheek, both as a thankful gesture and as a silent assurance before she knelt to the level of her desk where you were still bent over, now in front of her.

You felt her warm breath clash against the sensitive skin between your legs as she pushed your underwear to the side.

She trailed her tongue against your folds, making you gasp at the sudden foreign intrusion. No one has ever tasted you before. Natasha thought it was too intimate.

But screw Natasha. There you had everything you’d ever needed.

Her eyes widened in awe. She had just discovered a flavor so intoxicating, so essential, that she couldn’t imagine life before tasting it. And the last ounce of self-control vanished as she lunged forward, devouring your pussy with the desperation of a starved creature finally set free.

She wanted you to interiorize with every fiber of your being that this was where you belonged, under her ministrations, receiving the divine attention only she could provide.

It was overwhelming, not just physically, but emotionally. Your breath caught in your throat as your eyes shut tight and your head struggled to process the intensity of it all.

"Oh, Wanda!" You whimpered, your voice thick with need for more. Always needed more of her, didn't you? The words barely made it past your lips before dissolving into desperate gasps.

It was all too much. The cool surface of the desk against your heated skin, the warmth of her mouth claiming you so intimately, the sting from your punishment mixing with rising pleasure until you couldn't distinguish between the two.

"Tell me where do you belong," she demanded, pulling back just so she could speak. The sudden absence of her tongue made you whine pathetically. You felt hollow inside.

"With you, only with you!" You vowed, proudly. "I've always been yours."

Your admission seemed to ignite something animalistic in her. She growled against your flesh, the vibrations making your thighs tremble.

Your hands fisted helplessly against the polished wood, seeking grounding as your body threatened to collapse under the assault of her mouth.

The world outside ceased to exist. There was only her mouth working you with devastating precision, only the building pressure deep in your core that threatened to tear you apart. Your consciousness narrowed to a singular point of pure feeling.

"Give it to me, my sweet girl," she murmured, her words muffled against your flesh.

Your body responded to her command before your mind could process it. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed over you, manifesting itself through your release, and she swallowed every drop of it. She wasn't going to stop until she made sure to dry you out.

Your vision blurred, spots of light dancing behind your closed eyelids as you succumbed completely to her dominance, that didn't seem to cease despite your surrender.

"Oh, p-please..." you gasped, though you weren't sure what you were begging for, to stop or to continue.

Regardless, she didn't stop, didn't even slow down. If anything, your pleas spurred her on, her tongue moving with renewed vigor as she worked you through your release. Your legs shook violently, and if not for her firm grip on your hips, you would have fell down like a ragdoll.

"Mine," she established, finally pulling back to admire her work. Your swollen, pink pussy throbbing with the aftershocks of your orgasm.

A rustle of fabric caught your attention, followed by the cool touch of silicone against your worn out hole. She leaned over you, pressing soft kisses along your spine as she aligned herself.

"My precious girl," she whispered, intertwining her fingers with yours on the desk. You turned your head to meet her gaze, overwhelmed by the tenderness in her eyes.

She pressed forward slowly, letting you adjust to the feeling of being filled. Her other hand caressed your cheek lovingly, wiping away the remnants of your tears. You leaned into her touch, turning to kiss her palm.

"Please, I want you," you breathed, squeezing her hand. "Only you, always you."

She began to move with gentle, measured thrusts, each one accompanied by sweet words of praise and affection.

She leaned down to press her lips against yours in a deep, passionate kiss. The new angle made you gasp into her mouth as she hit a particularly sensitive, spongy spot inside you.

"There, my love," she encouraged, maintaining the steady rhythm that was slowly building you towards another peak. "You're doing so good. Always making me so proud."

Her thrusts became more purposeful, but never lost their tenderness. One hand remained firmly clasped with yours while the other wrapped around your waist, holding you close as she fucked you thoroughly.

Your breath hitched as she increased her pace, each thrust now hitting deeper inside you. Her lips found yours again, swallowing your moans as she drove you closer to the edge. The feeling of fullness, of being completely possessed by her, was overwhelming.

Wanda's embrace tightened around your waist, pulling you flush against her body as she continued her relentless rhythm. She delivered sloppy pecks on your lips, gentle brushes against your cheeks, tender touches along your jawline. Despite her agitated breathing, not for a second did she halt her worshipping.

"Let go for me," she whispered against your ear, her accent slipping out.

Her order, combined with the perfect angle of her thrusts, sent you spiraling into another intense orgasm. Your walls clenched around her as waves of pleasure coursed through your body. She held you through it all, her arms secure around your waist, her lips pressing sweet kisses to your temple.

"Good job," she cooed, slowly bringing you down from your high. "You're perfect, absolutely perfect."

As your breathing steadied, she carefully withdrew, turning you in her arms to face her. Her eyes were full of adoration as she cupped your face, thumbs gently stroking your cheeks. She pressed her forehead against yours, sharing the same breath, the same space, the same devotion.

"No, never again," you assured her. "I know now, I shouldn't look outside what only you can provide for me.”

"No more fucking that girl, understood?" she asked. It was clear you were never going to let Natasha lay a hand on you again, not after this. Nevertheless, she wanted to hear you say it.

"Hmm, that's how a good girl talks," she commented, pulling away from you, intending to see your reaction when she told you the following. "Well. It's not like she's going to show up again anyway. While I was fucking you, she was probably heading on a plane back to Russia.”

[askqueenmoon]

A summary of the rest of the story:

This is late, but better late than never I suppose. I've been asked a couple of times over the years to post the rest of the story, but I never knew how to go about writing it up, so here we go Chapter 3

This was the last one I had a proper script for. I guess partially 4? There was a snippet with Twilight and Spike figuring out how to find element bearers but I dunno if it made much sense. The script here is a bit rough and probably needed some refinement, but it gets the point across. The following are the last pages I worked on, two of which were never posted.

[START SCRIPT] He gives a short laugh. “Sorry about that! Nice to meet’cha. Name’s Nox. I hope those restraints aren’t too tight. You might be a prisoner, but there’s no need for you to be uncomfortable here.”

“…” Fluttershy glares at him.

Wow that’s actually a really great impression of my boss… You’re not related to Brass are you?

I guess you’re not the talkative type huh? That's alright, I can do it for you. How’s about we start with a name?

"Says here you’re Fluttershy. Only child of Cloud Cover and Posey who were prominent figures of the Velvet Carnation Movement until their untimely deaths ten years ago during the Ponyville fire, leading to you dropping out of Cloudsdale flight school. Currently you live in a cottage on the outskirts of New Ponyville and run an animal caretaking service.” Fluttershy is shocked, and he’s grinning “Pretty spooky, huh? The crown’s got eyes and ears everywhere… But it looks like few places are escaping us… saaay… the hiding places of your Red Sun friends?”

Fluttershy raises an eyebrow.

“Look, I get it. You don’t trust me or anypony in the castle for that matter, but you’re here on charges of attempted regicide and that means you’re on a fast track to a short rope. But I know you’re just another pony that’s been twisted by the Red Sun. If you work with us-

“I’ll never work for Nightmare Moon!” She blurts out angrily.

“But you’ll follow the Red Sun? Do you even know what kind of things they do? Because they certainly aren’t the heroes some ponies make them out to be.

“All they want is an Equestria where ponies can live in peace-” “Peace?”He places several photos on the table. ”Blood rituals, bombings of public gathering places, foalnapping and ransoming ponies to fund their activities.” Fluttershy's face is concerned. “Remember the wild weather that destroyed the harvest in Tall Tale last fall? Well the Red Sun’s goons stole the relief supplies our Queen sent. They were alright with leaving thousands to starve.

“Even if that were the case, I didn’t want to do what I did, but someone had to stand up to her. She’s nothing more than a big bully and I couldn’t sit around anymore and watch her hurt more innocent ponies. I had to try, and If that means this is my last day on Gaia, then so be it. New Fluttershy isn’t a coward!” “That’s quite noble of you. Ponies that selfless are hard to come by… which is why I don’t want to see you go down for this. Tell me who helped plan the attack and the Crown won’t press charges. I’ll make it so you never stepped hoof in Canterlot. You could go on with your life… Go back to your cottage… back to your pet.” Slides forward picture of angel. [PAGE BREAK] Fluttershy is thinking of Angel and other animals from back home. "I can’t do that. They helped put my life back together. I won’t let you hurt them. “Would they do the same for you though? I mean… they didn’t come for you when you got captured. They don’t care about YOU, they cared about what you could do FOR them.” “What and you care?” “Fluttershy, I just want to give you your life back. The way I see it, a cult took advantage of a young troubled mare and made you do things you'd never think to do otherwise. If the Red Sun was willing to sacrifice someone as kind as you, who else would they be willing to throw away for their selfish goals?” “They’re not like that…” She looks a bit more unsure this time. [PAGE BREAK] All I ask in return for your freedom is a name. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for the ones that care for you and would like to see you again. Take some time to think about it. He gets up and leaves. Fluttershy looks down pensively. [PAGE BREAK]

Nox exits. “That went well! Wanna grab a bite, Sabre? I’m thinking sandwiches-- Something with peanut butter. Crunchy, obviously. Crystal Sabre is there, looking at Nox, exasperated. She points at him accusingly. “I told you that wasn’t going to go anywhere. You should have let me interrogate her. “Look, until Brass gets back, I have to fill in for her, and that means I’m stuck with a mountain of paperwork. I even had to get up for that emergency meeting this morning! Let me have a little fun! Besides, I have a feeling it wasn’t all for nothing. “The Red Sun’s never been this bold before…What do you think changed?” Fluttershy says through the intercom window thingy “I want to talk to Rainbow Dash!” “…Who?”

[END SCRIPT]

In the end, I got too scared of the idea of backlash from one of my OCs being mean to Fluttershy ^^;; I recognize that it may not have been the case, but after how much hate I got for killing off a random guard, younger me got too scared to stick to this script and I flip flopped between redoing it or leaving it. I came to love the characters I had originally made for the sole purpose of filling cabinet roles. I struggled bring myself to make one of them the antagonist in an interaction with someone as beloved as Fluttershy. I ended up putting off the decision long enough that I lost interest in continuing the story though. This script was not the main reason I lost interest in the story, but it was a factor. My original points stand, and I don't regret deciding to let this comic go so I could branch out.

A chunk I wrote with Twilight: Sunset shimmer was a failed magician that was previously in Night's employ Twilight actually would have talked about here in this chunk: [START SCRIPT] “We know the elements are all part of a system. If they’re inactive, the bond is still there, it’s just faint, like how on a map you might not see a road between a town and Canterlot, but there has to be one because duh, all roads lead to Canterlot. We have pieces of the system and if we can isolate that link between the pieces, we could follow the link from one element back to the others. All we need to do is fine tune Rarity’s gem finding spell so instead of the beacon being any old gem, it’s whatever is on the other side of the link. Spike: “Wouldn’t the mages before you already have tried something like that? Twi: “Well the last one, Sunset or something, (Frowny scrunchy face), destroyed all of the notes from previous experiments so we’re pretty much starting from scratch, but even if they did, we have something they didn’t! A working element!” [END SCRIPT]

Night burned through so many young and eager mages trying to get what she wanted. Once they weren't useful, they got dumped.

Rest of it:

The big bad evil was going to be the guard Fenix who is actually a body hopping spirit of an alicorn from the ancient alicorn empire before it got decimated in the Alicorn-Draconequus wars. The alicorns had purged themselves of their "darkness" and went on a crusade to bring greatness and order to the rest of Gaia. The last of the Draconequus sacrificed themselves to break the alicorns into the three/four pony tribes--essentially exterminating both races. One of the newly minted unicorns had been in the Empress's inner council and refused to die quietly like the others. Since then, he's been taking over other unicorns' bodies as a way of living forever because he's scared of death (Unicorns because he wasn't sure if non-unicorns could do the necessary magic to prolong his life). That's why Fenix's personality changed when his buddy died in the flashback told by his cousin (The hopping usually kills original person. The original Fenix is gone, there's just the rogue soul now. The previous body was going to die, so he jumped ship before it did). The changeling comment by his cousin was meant to be a diversion.

The entity in Fenix's body had been around for thousands of years, just living a regular life. Ever since the rise of the two sisters, he attached himself to their leadership, usually hanging around as a soldier/guard of some kind, because he still believes in the Alicorns' right to rule and wants to help with bringing glory to Equestria and serve the greater good--the Alicorns and the ideals they choose to rule by.

Fenix had been fine living as just a guard, even under Nightmare Moon. Witnessing her uncertainty and paranoia--how the country was being divided by Night's poor leadership in recent years (especially after the whole assassin and Quake dying)--he became disillusioned by Night's rule and would go on to lead a rebellion against her by plotting to take the Elements of Harmony for himself, hopping into the body of the Red Sun Rebellion's Leader- Sunset Shimmer, then eventually hopping into Celestia to become Solar Flare/Daybreaker or Evil Celestia or whatever. The Elements of Harmony were actually ancient alicorn weapons of mass destruction. The enchantment that made them had mutated over the millennia, becoming something completely new, but contact with the soul of an alicorn of old would have ignited something. Not exactly a reset, but they would have recognized one of their original users and their original purpose.

Night is actually the darkness (a shade) that had been purged from the Alicorn Empress in the old days. It gained a will of it's own over years and forged a pact with Luna to help her take over the kingdom. She didn't remember who she was, only fragments because she was all the parts of the Empress that were deemed impure/bad. They were fine being partner rulers for a while, but then an offhanded comment led to Ponyville being burned to the ground by zealots in the Queen's name 15 or so years ago --this had been to destroy the Velvet Carnation Movement which had been a peaceful group advocating for democracy instead of monarchies--and they'd been feuding ever since and only recently made up in the comic.

Night would have freed Celestia from the Sun of her own volition to try to appease the population and show that she is a good ruler and stop all the talk of rebellion. She wanted to use her as a political puppet. Celestia would have been on a short leash.

Night would have died at the end of the comic, sacrificing herself to put an end to the old empire once and for all by holding down evil Celestia as they both get blasted by the Friendship Elements beam. The old ways were wrong, it was time to stop clinging onto the past--Celestia and Luna are left to make up and rebuild Equestria.

There was definitely a lot of middle stuff that I never figured out, but I did like the story. It just grew increasingly clear that it wasn't something I could ever finish.

Here are some of the alicorn designs I never got around to showing:

I feels quite nice to finally have it all out there.

[jscrawls]

Widows rest

My take on a Black widow! Reader x Batman and Batfam but with a slight twist, reader doesn't know the Bats but they seem to know them...

Warning: contains avengers infinity war spoilers, black widow spoilers, graphic violence, injuries, blood, Guns, ❗reader does some very violent things in this one so read with caution❗ possible ooc,

Part 21: fireflies electric boogaloo

🔹🔹🔹

”Who the hell is Barnes?”

Well…. Shit. What do you even say to the caped freak? Ten years ago a mistake like that would've had you shot in the head by your handlers right in the field.

“…. Don't worry about it, just…just someone I used to know…long time ago.” it's not a lie, or at least it doesn't feel like one on your tongue. After all, Barnes and Bucky are two very different people, one of them you'd almost call trustworthy. The other one understands you and all your weak failures and filthy successes. no, Barnes is long in the past you've buried.

You hope Batman takes your word for it, there's too much going on at the moment, fire and chaos all over the street while you're both bleeding in an alleyway. But no, Batman scowls at you and tightens his grip on you like a cat pinning a bird, you can nearly feel the claws.

“Bullshit, who's Barnes and why's he hitting you.” you can feel the gripping texture on the palms of his gloves pressing into your skin through the overcoat Alfred gave you, it's like he's subconsciously squeezing the answer from you.

You blink at him and with a quick move you shove his hands off and take a few steps back. Fuck you need to think. “Back off, I'm married.”

The insinuation doesn't throw him off and he steps after you with a clear frown carved on what's visible of his face. “Answer me.”

He reaches towards you again, so without thinking you roughly smack his hand away. “and I said back. off.”

His head tilts down for a second, his lips thinning in a grimace. you swear you can feel the eye contact when he looks back up and widens his stance again.

“Do you intend to use that?”

You look down and freeze when you realize your squeezing the gun in your hand tightly, when did you pull it back out-

You shove it into the inner coat pocket with a tremor in your hands.

“no i-no!…. I'm not a murderer. Batman.”

the lie tastes like ash on your tongue.

“then why are you here?”

You can't say a damn word when he says that, why are you? Were you really trying to help Tim and Alfred by leaving them alone? Or were you looking for an excuse to hurt something…. Would you have shot Batman if the gun was in your hand when he jumped you?

“…the same reason you're here i suppose, someone's gotta do something in this fucking place.”

“you wanna tell me who Barnes is then? Or is he someone who's ‘doing something’ in the past you apparently don't remember.”

“mind your own business, my struggles are mine to deal wi-”

A shot just barely misses either of you, a bullet lodges in the brick wall beside you and showers you in crumbled bits of stone as you duck away and take cover behind a dumpster.

Batman's right beside you a second later, your shoulders rubbing together uncomfortably as he presses in close to you.

“God…. Where did these people even come from? I thought you would've monitored startup groups like them since you're apparently keeping tabs on everything in this shithole.”

He just grunts at you while peering around the edge of the dumpster, his hand slowly and quietly pulling one of his utility belt pouches open to pull out some kind of small metal objects, are those taser discs?

You don't get a chance to question him further before he dives and rolls over to another dumpster while a shots fired off at him, they were close to their target that time. You watch from your position as Batman presses up against the grimy wall of metal and carefully arranges the discs between his fingers, you peek around the corner of your own dumpster and watch as three figures start to cautiously comb down the alley, they're definitely all armed judging by the poses.

You jerk your arm up and hold it there until Batman glances in your direction again, you hold up three fingers and then make a gun shape with your hand while gesturing your head in their direction, he'd be stupid to not get it.

When he nods and shifts his position where he's crouching you decide to make things easier here, you slowly pick up a dented up and rusty trashcan lid and turn yourself around, ignoring the warning look Batman gives you to stand up and throw it like a frisbee as hard as you can, those lessons with Rogers really paid off.

The movement makes the three people jump and when they see something thrown at them they instinctively throw their hands up. Batman throws one of the discs at the lead man, it must be magnetic because the disc sticks to the man's gun and fires off an electrical charge, just as you suspected it's similar to Natalia's. Once the man stiffens up and tries to drops to the ground, Batman charges them all like a bull in an arena, it's kinda amusing to watch how quickly he knocks one out- your jaw aching at the same punch he delivers to the tall one of the trio- you know how badly that hurt.

You straighten up and lean against the wall as you watch, the third one swings his arm around to point his gun at Batman but he just gets kicked in the knuckles, with the steel toe boots too. You wince and rub your thumb up and down your own hand at the sight, not that you can really pity the fools after they shot at you.

the first one manages to stumble back to his feet so, without thinking you bend over to grab a brick, bouncing it in your hand a few times as you judge the weight of it like a kid playing with a baseball, the brick thuds loudly when it hits the back of the mans head.

batman whips around to stare at you once they’re all dropped, his lips curling into a frown once again as he briskly approaches you. “don't get involved in this anymore than you already have.”

you scowl at him and sidestep him to walk out of the alley, shoulder-checking him as you pass him. “what, you get to bench me after busting my face open? until this is over i’m doing what i need to to survive, just like you and your little followers.”

“you’re a civilian.” he murmurs lowly as he stalks after you, it’s like he’s looking for a reason to antagonize you.

you peek around the corner of the building quickly before strolling out onto the street. “are you military? last i knew you’re a vigilante, not a government entity.”

He doesn't reply, good. You're not looking to fight him. Down the street you can see the charred smoldering remains of the car, looking around there's no sign of the two you'd come with so you're taking that as a sign that they did the smart thing and got the hell out of this area.

The guilt of leaving them doesn't lessen.

“…what's your plan?” you call out just loud enough for the vigilante to hear, the crunching of boots behind you telling you he's still around.

“I was looking for stragglers when I….. Found you. I'm getting reports the attacks are focusing a few blocks down so that's where I'm going.”

You hum, damn you wish you had some gear…

“Sounds awful, are we going on foot?”

The rhythmic crunching behind you stops so you do too, batman's already staring at you when you glance over your shoulder at him. His weight shifts foot to foot, is he favoring a knee?

“…you're going to a secure area, preferably home or to a hospital…” he turns his head away quickly, clearly avoiding your reaction, the coward.

You can barely restrain the eye roll. “…that's not happening.”

You turn away from him again and start jogging down the sidewalk, stepping over broken glass and rammed-over street signs. This streets essentially deserted now, empty streets and smashed windows all around you. The patches of grass growing between the cracks in the concrete are blackened and burnt, the air smells even worse than usual, like smoke and gas on top of the faint smell of smog. It pisses you off all over again.

“(name), (name)!” Batman catches up to you and angrily grabs at your wrist to pull you to a stop, his body language angry as he steps in front of you. “Can you just listen to me? This isn't your fight.”

You're angry, what's his fucking issue with you? “it's mine as much as it's yours, hero. I don't need a cape to do something about terrorists.”

He let's out such a deep, disappointed sigh that it reminds you of Bruce scolding one of the many, many children.

“goddamn-(name), can you be reasonable for once today? You're running around with nothing but hopes and dreams to protect you! You don't so much as have a proper mask while you're breathing in all this ash and smoke, don't. Be. Stupid.”

He releases your wrist to pinch his mask as if rubbing the bridge of his nose in exasperation, he steps back from you to calm himself down, though your next reply does the opposite to him.

“stupid? You're the one wasting both our time arguing with me when I've got four people I'm hoping to find.” you cross your arms over your chest and try to step around him, you could be doing better things right now than fighting with caped weirdos.

He let's you move around him, but he quickly turns and stomps over to you to match your pace. “is Barnes one of them?”

You can feel your eye twitching.

“Oh my God, shut. Up. About Barnes. I'm talking about my husband's butler, three teenagers! Duke and Damian are probably scared at their school while you're wasting my time bitching me out!”

You're trying not to raise your voice, -key word is trying- but for some reason batman's determined to make your walk exhausting as possible and get in your way. Even as you move around abandoned cars and burning shopping carts full of flammable materials his vitriol towards you doesn't let up.

“Because you're going to get yourself almost killed again! You're throwing yourself into danger like you've got spare lives! How do you think those kids you mentioned feel every time you throw yourself in the fire for them?”

You don't know how to reply to that, you hate that he's got one over on you. It's your life to live now it's not, you stole someone's body after you threw yourself off vormir, it's not yours it's not yours it's not he doesn't get to guilt you when you do that enough yourself.

Your silence encourages Batman to continue, his tone taking a calmer edge, almost soft. “I'm not saying it's bad you want to be here, I know that driving anger better than anyone, trust me on that. Do you think your family, your husband enjoys seeing you suffer?”

You open your mouth to reply, and then a bottle of burning fuel is thrown at your feet.

“Shit!”

You jump backwards, stumbling over yourself but it's too late. For a second the gas is cold as it splashes up your calves, then the heat bites into you like a snare. you clear yourself of the burning area on twitching, burning feet then drop to the hard ground, the cotton of your pants turns to ash and rubs against bare raw skin as you roll, even as you put the flames out the gaseous chemicals spread over the reddened skin and seeps into your nerve endings, not even eight seconds of fire and it’s agonizing.

something grabs you and you nearly go for your gun in a blind panic, but then you realize it’s batman. he drags your body backwards by your underarms and pulls you behind a car beside a rusted chainlink fence. he kneels over you and looks at your legs closely, his gloved hands gently pull the burnt and frayed edge of your pant legs up to look at the damage. you hear multiple voices whooping joyously down the street so batman grunts and pulls something out of one of his belt pouches, dropping it in your lap before he stands up and jumps over the hood of the car, your head drops down to see a medkit in your lap.

you can take the hint, you need a second to….process, anyway.

you hear more glass breaking and grunting on the other side of the car but you ignore it, with shaking hands you crack the kit open and grab the bottle of pain meds and a bandage to cover the irritated skin, you’ll properly take care of it later.

you close the box back up and slowly pull yourself up by grabbing the car handle and rearview mirror, you’re so fucking tired at this point…

“grab the bystander!”

Your head snaps over when you hear that, there's a group not thirty feet from you, Batman and two others are in the middle of it swinging wildly at everything that moves, you recognize the girl in purple from the news clip you'd seen a while ago. The other one you don't know, they're petite statured, clad in all black with a yellow bar symbol on their chest marking them as one of batman's underlings. They seem to be having a conversation with the other girl judging by the looks they're throwing at one another. Split off from the main group, a man in a gas mask points at you to three, more nervous looking people in dark coats.

You can only just sigh as they hesitantly start to approach you, ducking down behind the car again and making yourself wait, your starting to really feel all your wounds by now but you don't have any choice but to continue with what you're doing. You're not becoming a hostage to these freaks.

The three jump around the car with weapons up and snarls in their faces to find….. You're not there.

they twist and turn in place looking around, fire-resistant boots scuff the hot pavement as they awkwardly share a look between each other, when one of them kneels at the edge of the car and peeks under it, you kick him square in the face hard before sliding back out on your stomach and hands.

As you come up on your feet one of them throws his arm up - gun in hand - so you grab his wrist and shove it up to point the barrel in the air while kicking your leg out at the other one, hitting him in the general kidney area. It's not good enough though.

You release the gunman's wrist and drive your fist into the bottom of his ribs once, twice, four times. Your knuckles ache in protest of the abuse but you grit your aching teeth through it and continue. you see something out of the corner of your eye swinging at you so you drop to the ground and donkey kick at the legs of the first man that you’d kicked, he stumbles and accidentally hits his companion before falling on his ass. it’d make you laugh if you weren’t so focused.

hopping back to your feet, you back away from the trio and pull the gun out of your inner coat pocket. how it hasn’t fallen out yet or gone off you don’t know. you need to do - something shifts behind you, oh goddamn it!

gas splashes at your feet and soaks into the thin bandages you’d hastily thrown on your calves, making you stumble at the searing pain shooting up your lower body and locking your joints up. god you wish the painkillers kicked in quicker….the man that’d pointed you out earlier stands behind you with an empty glass bottle, his green eyes look bored as he watches you fall on your ass, he adjusts the gas mask on his face and then slowly pulls out a zippo and starts flicking it. the threat is clear.

as soon as he steps closer to you, lifting his hand while making direct eye contact as the small flame dances in his hand…you throw your arm up and pull the trigger.

It's as if Gotham itself falls silent in the echo of the shot bouncing between the buildings, the vigilantes fighting in the background quiet down, the thugs behind you don't utter a word, even the fires around you feel little they're silencing themselves enough that you can hear the faint drip, drip, drip of blood hitting the warm pavement.

You hadn't even realized you were holding your breath until the masked one stumbles backwards and presses a hand over his side in an attempt to staunch the wound, your breath coming out slowly just as everything gets loud again.

The group of three shake themselves out of whatever stupor they were in and come at you all at once so you have no choice but to get back up and fight. You're gonna need something better than ibuprofen after all this is through.

You immediately kick one between the legs and shove him backwards into the rusted fence, of barbed wire catching on his coat while he squeaks rather loudly and high pitched. It's kinda annoying how they don't seem to learn anything about jumping you hand to hand like this…you grab the other ones wrist and twist it behind his back, forcefully maneuvering him around to smack his head down on the hood of the car with a loud thud.

Where are the other two? Glancing around you spot them limping away, the gas mask clad one being dragged by the other. You intended to just leave them be, let them go and get that wound treated, but when you watch them start to open the gas tank of a car, start pouring fuel all over it and stuff rags inside the fuel tank…. Are they making a car bomb? Right next to the vigilantes that are now starting to zip tie the downed criminals, unaware of what's about to happen to this area?

You know what's coming next, you've seen this play out too many times on agents and civilians alike, you can't just sit here like this. Waiting to watch them blow themselves up while Gotham burns around you.

You pull the makeshift fabric mask back up over your busted lip and tighten it behind your head, the barbed wire strips are long enough…

It's clear the gas mask-clad one didn't expect you to come after him, nor did he expect you to get a running go at him and wrap your thighs around his neck, using your momentum to swing behind him and wrap the steel wire around his throat, metal digs into your hands and rips through the thin skin of your palms when you lean back as if to drape off his frame by your legs and let your weight do the rest.

He struggles obviously, clawing at your legs hard enough to bleed you out and thrashing like a bull on steroids. But you just lock your entire body up and hold on, even as he slams back into a crate, even as he rips the mask off in a desperate attempt to breathe, even as he drops to the ground and tries and fails to slam his elbows into you, his body running off animal instinct as the barbed wire slowly but surely cuts into his tenderest of flesh.

He gags and tries to rasp something out around his swollen tongue, you can tell by the way his jaw moves and his lips click, but you don't care to listen. Whether he pleads for mercy or curses you or bargains, makes no difference to you after the lives he's needlessly taken. The people he was about to burn to death. It's only fitting the murderer puts down a murderer.

However before he can take his final gasp, kick his final twitch, your hands are grabbed and forcibly pried open hard enough to break something and then you're pulled out from under and away from him.

Your first instinct was to bite the hand holding you.

“Ow-Jesus Christ on a cracker! I'm not one of them you frigging piranha!” A young feminine voice yelps out, dropping you roughly on the ground and waving their hand around dramatically.

“Don't give me rabies while I'm just trying to move you away from the fumes! Where did you learn to bite that hard, are you part pitbull? T-Rex?”

You turn yourself around to look up at the purple-clad one, a few strands of blonde hair escaped from under her hood as she bounces around and studies her hand like you just gave her a zombie virus.

“…. Sorry.” Is all you manage to mumble out, voice strained as the adrenaline starts to leave your system. Everything's starting to hit you at once, every bruise and bleeding scratch, the bone-deep ache in your skeleton, the burns and chemical burns, you're all too aware of yourself going into shock after all this time.

The girl says something but you don't quite pick up on it, your head feels heavy and just….. Odd. You hardly even react when batman's kneeling in front of you and snapping his fingers in front of your face…you don't even bother reading his lips before you slump forward and everything goes white.

🔹🔹🔹

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A/n: I hope this wasn't too much, I get it if this chapters not to someone's taste. I hope y'all are having a wonderful day/night whatever you are and as always remember to take care of yourself! 💜💜💜

Taglist: @cxcilla @mercuryathens @dind1n @redsakura101 @ninihrtss @let-me-dance @ladykamos @one-piecelover @cuntiesweet @omnivirgo @shirp-collector-of-fixations @spidermanluvr444 @br33zy-blizzardz @lunarapple @findingjaxx @4rachn3 @buckturd @tsxukikami @paastaboi @duskeras @ibelyss @1abi @that-creepy-girl-000 @kaylaphantomhive @viilan

[aspenscore]

Author: Aspenscore

Title: A Mania Of Joels

Creative Commons License: A Mania Of Joels © 2025 by Aspenscore is licensed under CC BY 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Size: 384x512

(Really hoping the March 15 deadline includes March 15. I'm posting this before midnight on March 14 in my timezone, but it is already March 15 for Joel.)

Process TL;DR:

I've decided a group of Joels is called a mania.

My favourite part of Joel's season has been his many characters, as well as the Hermit Baths On Hermitcraft podcast, so I decided to combine those two things in this drawing.

This piece started as a bunch of sketches at work and took me about 20 hours to draw, plus an additional 8 hours fighting tech issues (including a crash that lost me the completed drawing (luckily I took this screenshot just before)).

Despite my struggles with that + screen rec software, there'll be a timelapse video of my drawing process coming soon on my channel!

Re: the title, I've decided a group of Joels is called a "mania" (like how a group of horses, for example, is a "herd").

One of my favourite things about Joel's season are all the fun intros and characters he's created, which inspired me to create something that showcases some of the main Joels we've met so far. I also really like the Hermit Baths On Hermitcraft (Another Podcast Hosted By A Straight White Male), so I figured the bathhouse would be the perfect place for a mania of Joels! I would've loved to include all the Joels, but by my count, there are at least 26 distinct Joels in this season so far, which is far too many Joels for me to fit in one image (and several of them are hard to distinguish based on appearance alone).

Since I could only include so many, I tried to choose Joels who are either recurring characters, or relevant to other things Joel has done in his videos. With that in mind, on this episode of Hermit Baths On Hermitcraft we've got Joel Who Asks You To Subscribe, News Reporter Joel, Bad Boy Joel (the statue counts as being in the season imo), Bartender (Horse Killer? :0) Joel, Officer Joel (RIP Detective Joel, would've loved to include him but it wouldn't be lore-accurate for him to be alive), Joel Who Totally Isn't Obsessed With Etho, Frogger Joel, Podcast Host Joel, and Singer Joel.

A few details I wanted to highlight:

News Reporter Joel always has a headline scroll bar with him. He doesn't know how or why. It's just there.

Joel Who Totally Isn't Obsessed With Etho not only has the Etho shirt on, but he's also in etho cosplay (headband) and has Etho face floaties (no idea where that came from but once I'd thought it I couldn't un-think it).

I'm most proud of Frogger Joel's outfit. He's got a froggy hat, frog crop top, lilypad shorts, and frog shoes with lilypad tops.

Singer Joel's kimono was originally going to have a pattern of symbols relating to Joel's season, but then I realized those wouldn't show up very well with the lowered resolution. The planned symbols included music discs, xp bottles, axolotls, slime balls, honeycomb, frogs, horses, glow squid, and glow berries.

Podcast Host Joel's abs are drawn on. Gem said it so it's canon.

Bartender Joel's vest is the same colour and pattern as that horse head...

And now for the process! I know a lot of you probably aren't that interested in it, but I spent a lot of time on this so I'd at least like to record my efforts.

This piece actually started on paper, because I work a lot and I knew I wouldn't have time to do the whole piece if I didn't at least do some advance planning during down time at my job. However, all I had at work was some scrap paper and a pencil (I couldn't even find an eraser the day I started this!), so I needed to find some way to get the aspect ratio correct without a ruler. While there were no rulers at work, I was able to find some mini origami paper, and since that's a perfect square, I was able to use it to replicate the sizing I'd chosen. I sketched out the general background layout, used two of those lines + the edge of another piece of paper to determine the vanishing point, then re-drew the rest of the background according to the point I'd determined. These techniques worked shockingly well, and when I scanned the drawing and checked my measurements in my drawing program, they were surprisingly accurate!

With the scan uploaded, along with a page of outfit design sketches I had also done at work, I ran into my next hurdle: screen recording software. To keep a long and agonizing story short, I draw on an old tablet that has very little storage, RAM, or processing power, so OBS + my drawing program were not an option. The drawing program itself doesn't have a timelapse feature either, so I had to go find another piece of software that would meet my needs. I even tried using my tablet as a third screen for my PC, which could absolutely handle the processing and storage needs of this project, but the latency was far too high for that to be a feasible option. Trying all of these options took at least 8 hours and at one point had the side effect of permanently messing up something on my main PC monitor that causes it to reset all its settings periodically (if anyone has any idea what's going on with that, I'd love to not have to re-do my settings every couple minutes or so).

My tablet's limited storage also resulted in me almost losing a portion of my footage, but you can rest assured that I've managed to save all of it, and if it's useable I will be editing it down into a timelapse + process video to upload to my channel! The video will probably include a lot of the information here, but hopefully it'll be a bit more interesting and engaging! (I was originally going to link the video here instead of writing all these paragraphs, but the drawing took so long I haven't had time to make the video).

Finally, after spending basically all of my free time at home during the past two weeks working on this drawing, I finished it just a couple hours ago.

I hit save.

And got an error message.

Storage issue.

Since the image resolution is intended to be reduced anyway (for minecraft painting, but also just how tumblr treats images), I grabbed a screenshot of the finished piece before my tablet crashed and rebooted. It saved some of my work, but not all of it, so this is now the only complete version of the piece in existence.

At the end of the day, I'm just glad I finished it on time and am happy with the final product. If you've read this far, thank you so much for your patience with my rambling, I hope you enjoy the final piece as much as I do. And thank you to Joel for creating such fun videos and awesome builds! I look forward to the rest of your first Hermitcraft season.

[winterbiite]

pathetic boy

"do you trust me?" you looked down at armin who lay in between your legs, his back to your chest, hard cock out and aching to be touched. your chin was just above his shoulder, breath hot against his ear.

"y-yes, so much.." his voice sounded shaky, almost as if he were nervous or even afraid at that. you'd hardly even touched him, only some light grinding, but the poor boy was so sensitive and gave into you so easily, it was almost pathetic.

at first, he was unsure. you pulled yourself onto his lap, kissed him messily, and he just let you. how could you resist when his big, sea blue eyes sparkled up at you helplessly, his lips slightly parted. though when you started grinding down on his cock, clothed by his pants, that's when you really got a taste for who armin arlert was: a desperate boy needing to be put in his place. one who'd let you do anything to him as long as you gave him attention.

now here you were, your thumb grazing the pink head of his cock. he was at your mercy, completely vulnerable in his position. especially due to the fact that you were more clothed than him. your free hand grazed up and down his abs, which didn't match that cute innocent face of his in any way. his body in general didn't match the way he whimpered and buried his face in the crook of your neck when you slowly pumped his cock, not fully giving him what he wanted.

"faa..ster, please.. please go faster.." he mumbled, kiss-swollen lips grazing your skin.

"tell me what you are, armin" you wanted to hear him degrade himself and acknowledge his place. he was yours, which meant he was yours to do whatever you wanted.

"i'm your pathetic boy, your sweet boy, please, please, i'm yours.." he'd repeated the dirty things you'd told him before.

"so you listened? then of course i'll give you what you want, baby" you began stroking his cock at a faster pace than before, speeding up every few seconds.

"oh my.. oh.. thank you, thank you.. oh my- thank you.." he spoke under his breath, incoherently repeating the same few things over and over again. armin tried to resist his squirming to little avail, especially with the way you scratched at his skin with your nails, providing more sensory to his body.

as his breaths became more rapid and whimpers more frequent, you slowed down, sending a disappointment of disappointment through his body and arousal through yours.

"w-why'd you.. why'd you slow down? i'm sorry, i-i'm sorry" armin didn't know what he was apologizing for, he just felt like he had to. he tilted his head up, meeting your eyes.

"aw, my sweet boy.." you planted a loving kiss on his forehead as you sped up, figuring it was best to give him what he wanted.

by this point, armin had been babbling things from 'i love you' to 'i'm so pathetic' and everything in between. degrading himself, praising you, begging, it was so hot every time he opened that mouth of his.

"can i cum? please, mommy?.." he watched you pump his cock and couldn't help but buck his hips up. your free hand pushed his core back down, not letting his body move.

"no, armin, not yet." you wanted to see just how much the boy could take until he broke and until his whimpers became moans and his mind blank, thoughts of you and only you.

he looked up at you once again, tears welling in his eyes, showing you that he could barely take it anymore. you sped up the pace even more and watched as a tear spilled from his innocent eyes, then another, and another, staining his rosy cheeks. the sight alone had awoken something in you, and you knew that you would break this boy over and over again in the future, not allowing anyone else to touch him. if he wasn't yours then he wasn't armin arlert.

"think you can hold it anymore, armin?" you asked him, making your voice delicate and gentle for him. another tear spilled from his eyes.

armin shook his head rapidly "no, no i can't, it hurts, please! i need to!" he cried out "i'm a pathetic boy! please, mommy, please.."

"bite me, right now, if you bite me you can cum." you craved the feeling of his lips against your skin, and also a sort of pain which sent ecstasy through your entire body, right down to your soaking core.

armin hesitantly obliged, not wanting to hurt you, but if you asked for it then that's what you wanted. he opened his mouth against your neck, teeth digging into your flesh. he couldn't wait any longer, with a loud cry and more tears falling from his eyes, hot ropes of cum shot from his cock with force, as if it had broken out of a cage it'd been in for a cruel amount of time. you tilted his cock just slightly so that it would land all over his abdomen, continuing to pump until he'd been fully drained. his teeth had almost broken skin from how hard he'd bitten into you, now sobbing as you didn't stop jerking him off.

finally you slid your hand away from his cock, fingers spreading his warm load all over his abs.

"thank you, mommy, thank you, i love you.." he whispered once more, feeding into your ego as he always did.

"you're so hot, armin, do you even know that?" you always gave the boy his well deserved praise after ruining him.

"am i?" a small, lazy smile tugged at his lips.

he slightly lifted himself up to look at you, though didn't have strength to entirely sit up. you cupped his cheeks, angling his face to yours. you kissed his cheek, the salty sting of tears reminding you of his pain and pleasure. he pressed his lips against yours, pulling away shortly after to collapse in your arms.

"are you tired?" you asked, though already knew the answer. you knew he wouldn't want to get up for the next little bit.

"mhm.." he hummed in response

no matter how many times you said it to him, he was pathetic and sweet and needy and cute and you loved him.

i wont lie this is just most of the things im into so its mostly just written for my likings BUT thats ok we ball!!!!!! this could be for anyone really i just chose armin bcuz hes my current obsession. why are sweet and innocent guys so hot what is the psychology behind that. maybe i should actually do research on that i will

[gracefireheart]

Time for yet another Sea Grunkles adventure, 'cause this one I've had in mind for a lil' while. It's a long though, so I'll put it under the keep reading line.

It revolves around the whole "I'm still on your mind" poem, to which- a few months into Stan and Ford's sea venture- Bill finally finds out how to get back into Stan's mind again from the Theraprism.

The only problem? Well... Bill's essentially powerless there too. Can't really make Stan's dreams chaotic and distressing like he wants to (besides just being there himself, which seems to at least annoy Stan a lil' bit), can't really make a deal with Stan even if he wanted to, can't even float around this damn Mindscape! It was frustrating to be there, especially with Stan laughing at Bill's uselessness. However, it did make him feel immense joy to know that Stan haven't slept well because of him- coupled with the fact that Stan doesn't want to tell Ford about this- so he continued visiting as often as he could.

Of course, Ford eventually notices that something's wrong with Stan. Despite getting more sleep than Ford (old habits die hard and all), Stan still looked more and more tired the more days pass. He wanted Stan to tell him what was going on without any prompting from himself, but after about a week had passed with nothing from his younger twin, Ford tries to confront him himself. Of course, Stan brushed him off.

Being two stubborn old men, they do end up arguing out on the deck of the ship. A lot of "I just want to make sure you're okay!" and "I don't need someone to take care of me, I'm completely fine!" and so on, until Stan spots something out the corner of his eye. Looking over- and upwards, upwards, upwards- Stan looked up to see a massive pink axolotl, staring down at them with a smile.

"Ah, there you are." Echoed through the air, yet the axolotl didn't move it's lips as it spoke. And of course, Stan screamed at it as he had no clue what it actually is nor why it's here.

Ford, however, looks at Stan in confusion- wondering why his brother was suddenly screaming out of nowhere. They very quickly find out that Ford can't see this giant axolotl- which was very unfair, in Ford's opinion- because, apparently, it had come here to kinda see Stanley, not Ford. Something about how Bill is breaking some rules by half leaving the Theraprism- several times- without an authorized figure with them or even knowing about it, and this axolotl's here to try and fix that. Also, Bill wasn't allowed to visit the Pines Family (or any of the Gravity Falls residents) at all to not make them relive old trauma- or give them any new trauma.

As this big axolotl spoke, Ford wanted to hear from Stan what it was saying, but of course, Stan doesn't want to say shit considering the subject matter. The Axolotl, having paused it's speech for a moment, looks sadly at the two twins- telling Stan how despite how happy this boat adventure seemed to make them, they still want to do everything in their power to "be better" for their twin. Whether by not being an inconvenience, or trying to pay back for past mistakes.

No matter, this wasn't why the Axolotl was here- the twins would have to figure that part out themselves once the Axolotl was done here. They shake their head before informing Stan that they need to be in his Mindscape for a bit to figure out how to get Bill out of there. Stan had no clue what to say to that, but even before he could try to say anything, the Axolotl surges forward and goes into his head- making Stan fall into Ford's arms, his eyes glowing bubblegum pink as he went unconscious.

This was pretty alarming for Ford to see- yelling out a distressed "STANLEY!" as he held his younger twin- but he quickly realized what was happening by the glowing eyes and remembered one of his own journal entries that could help in this situation. Carrying Stan's body to their shared bedroom, Ford places his twin's unconscious body onto the lower bed before he sets everything up with the lit candles. As Ford held his hand to Stan's forehead, it took a couple of tries to recite the exact latin words he needed to say. The moment he got it right, Ford was transported into Stan's mindscape- ready to face whatever was going on with this Axolotl he had heard high praises about in his travels through dimens--

"Hey Fordsy." "Hey. ... YOU--"

[erenjaegerwifee]

The Selection

Chapter 2

Paring: Neteyam x Fem!Tawakmi!Reader

Warning: explicit language, mentions of injury and lots of blood. (Please be aware of you are trigger by those types of things)

Word Count: 3.1k

Disclaimer: All my characters are aged up! If that bothers you, feel free to scroll and do no interact with my account or any of my post. Index: mawey - calm

~ Hi everyone! I know it’s been a minute but I’m back with my second chapter! I’m in uni and it’s kind of difficult to manage both my degree and this but I am very passionate about writing and if I disappear I promise I will always comeback! No worries but I do appreciate your patience on this so so so much n I love you all!

Series M.List | Main M.List

It has been a week, an entire week at the Omatikaya clan. Your hair was not having it, everyday you would wake up extra early jus to make yourself look presentable and not a frizzy mess. You would call your mother everyday while you did this and talk about the day before and all your activities.

For the pass week they had you all settle in properly and get a layout of the clan, which for lack of better words, was incredibly beautiful. You had met some hardheaded chicks who were clearly sour about the fact they no longer had the chance to wow Neteyam, not that it worked out for them before otherwise why would they have held this competition in the first place? But everyone was mostly kind, it truly would be an amazing clan to be apart of if Neteyam choose you.

Today was different though, today you all got the chance to leave the clan and go on a hunting trip, it was only a few hours and close to the clan considering none of you knew the terrain. But other experienced omatikayan hunters which included Neteyam and Lo’ak would be accompanying you. The clan was not in dire need of meat otherwise why would they choose now to take you. Considering not all the girls were hunters they figured they wouldn’t come back as much. You’d finally get to explore the forest up close, to say you were excited was an understatement.

To keep the hair out of your face you braided it in the omatikayan style, thanks to Kiri, and it fell beautifully down your back, because of how full naturally curly hair was, the braids looked full as well. You dressed in a simple halter style baby blue top that held your chest properly for all the activities you’d be doing today and a loincloth to match, not that you cared to much, but it definitely enhanced your curves a bit.

You walked down the stairs following Ni’alu who wore a cute green top and loincloth, it was causal Ike your choice of wear. The other two girls, along with Neteyam, Lo’ak and their parents were waiting for you both. "Finally, we have been waiting forever!" Ma’via said in a sharp tone, “we are going hunting there is no need to get all dressed up” Lei’wa added.

“We look less dressed up than you, and maybe you should worry a little less about us and a little more on your hunting skills” you smile sarcastically at them both. Lo’ak turned his head and covered his mouth to stop from laughing, but Neteyam like his mother did a much better job at keeping composure. Neytiri who decided it was enough banter ushered us all out out the hut to go on the hunting trip. It was sunny out but still a bit cold since it was so early in the morning, so you wrapped your arms around yourself.

“Maybe I should have dressed warmer” you laugh softly and Ni’alu joined in knowing exactly what you meant. “Do not worry ladies, when you start tracking, you’ll feel much warmer.” Lo’ak who overheard us butted in.

We started our journey into the dense forest that seemed to have no path but the omatikayan knew the terrain so well, navigating was not a difficult task. Neteyam and lo’ak introduced us to another man who hunted with them for the clan, just to have an extra set of hands and protection. His name was Ralu, he was tall like Neteyam but built more slim, his hair sported short braids.

The three men decided amongst themselves to split us up into groups in hopes of handling the terrain better. Neteyam took Ni’alu, Lo’ak settled for Lei’wa and Ralu was left with you and Ma’via. It was not a secret that the other girls including you, were sour about the fact that Ni’alu got to go with Neteyam, but we all split up into our assigned groups

As the hours passed, it became easier to make it through the forest. It was just as dense if not more, but it was equally as beautiful. It had just as much green as your own forest back at home, but you could clearly see the difference in diversity. The sun was close to setting through out our entire day of tracking we never actually came across an animal. You wondered if the other groups were having such bad luck. You weren’t mad about it though, you did enjoy getting to explore the forest.

“You know it’s impressive how well you’re keeping up, considering how you’ve never done this before” Ma’via said over her shoulder to you. “Never done what before?” you respond not knowing what she was implying. “Oh, you know, hunting, tracking like this in the forest, I’m sure being a performer and all you’d never want to do this type of stuff.”

“I’ve tracked before. I’ll manage” you say as you move a big leaf to walk on the path. Ralu who walked in front of us did not speak much just quietly lead us through the terrain. “Well see how long that last, tracking is not as easy as you think.” She says in an undermining tone. “You know you’re right; tracking isn’t easy. I guess that’s why only one of us will be able to keep up” you reply dearly challenging her in a calm way.

Your response seemed to have shut her up for a while, whether it’s because your words got to her, or she just couldn’t think of anything to say, you weren’t sure. But it didn’t take long for her to start testing your patience again, “woah did you see that?!’ she exclaimed, I raised my head to see what caught her interest.

“What? See what?” you start looking around in the direction she was facing. “I don’t see anything" you say as your eyes dart around the area. "Something just moved over there,” she pointed in the direction we were already looking but you saw no movement. “We should check it out” Ma’via suggested.

“I don’t see anything, we shouldn't stray from the path anyways, Ralu mentioned earlier we might be getting close to so actual prey” you told her, but she was already in her own head and didn’t hear a word you said, either that or she just ignored you. Your eyes dart from her form that was slowly straying and the leaf that Ralu just moved to continue on the path, disappearing behind it. You wanted to call out to him, but you had doubts, what if she did see something and your raised voice agitated it? Or what you scared away any close prey?

You groaned softly before following Ma’via on her side quest. “Ma’via, we should go back to the-” she suddenly cut off your sentence with a firm shush and you rolled your eyes. Your ears twitched softly against your braids trying to hear anything other than the rustling of leaves in the wind. Then you heard it, a low growl coming from some where in your vicinity. You weren’t exactly sure where and you briefly turned to Ma’via who had the same idea and you both made eye contact. You both silently agreed you heard it and your eyes dart back to the path hoping to see some sliver of Ralu.

Ma’via reached for her knife that was tucked away on her hip and you did the same simultaneously. Your eyes dart around nervously and your ears strained and twitched to hear any sound at all from the creature. You knew that neither of you were a match for one of the Omatikayan's forest creatures, especially since neither of you had any idea what it could possibly be. “I told you, I knew it was worth it,” she says, glancing over her shoulder.

You force a tight smile, your hand instinctively tightening around the hilt of your knife. “I didn’t know we were hunting for danger.” Before she can respond, the growl comes again, louder this time. Low, menacing, and close. Her expression falters. “I think it’s getting closer”

“I’m starting to think it’s not something we want to find out.” Your voice is steady, though the hairs on your neck stand on end. She brushes it off, clearly playing tough. “It’s probably just an animal. We’re fine.” But you feel the weight of the silence that follows the growl, something in the air shifting. Then, another growl—closer this time. Your voice firm as you take a step back. “That’s no animal I want to meet.”

Before she could say anything, a massive black creature pounces out of hiding, a palulukan. You’ve heard they inhabit this part of the forest, but you had never seen one in real life before they were incredibly terrifying up close, with their shape teeth and the way it menacingly blended into the surroundings. You take another step back, the creature looked as if it were readying itself to strike. Before you could get a word out to Ma’via the palulukan charged towards you and you instinctively jumped to the side landing on your stomach.

Ma’via however, was not so quick. The creature knocked her to the ground with terrifying force as she used both her hands to keep it from biting her face off. She let out a loud scream which only seemed to infuriate the creature even more. Before your mind could catch up with your body, in a blur of motion, you launched yourself at the creature showing it of her with your body weight.

You hit the ground so hard it sends you rolling tangled with the palulukan. Your fingers that still gripping the knife jammed it into the tough skin of the creature's side. Quickly you repeated the action as fast as you could until the creature was lifeless. Now that you could catch your breath, you noticed all the blood that oozed from the creature that was at least 3 times bigger than you.

The creature's body lies still, the only sound your labored breaths You sit up scanning for any more threats. Ma’via is still on the ground, her wide eyes fixed on you, too stunned to speak. For a moment, there’s only silence, the forest holding its breath. “Are you okay?’ you ask her.

Then, she blinks rapidly, as if trying to shake herself free from the shock. Slowly, she pushed herself up, her hands trembling slightly as she brushes the dirt off her legs. Her gaze flickers to the beast’s lifeless form, then back to you.

She looks away quickly, brushing dirt off her arm as if it’s nothing “you can handle yourself, I’ll give you that. But don’t think this changes anything. You’re still not getting Neteyam." Her voice was firmer again, her pride dearly intact, but something about her stance, the way she avoids meeting your eyes, suggests the guard she’s trying put up isn’t as strong as it used to be. You just rolled your eyes, “your welcome”

The sun had already set at this point and you both had no idea where you were, or how to get back to the clan. Everything looked different, every plant and flower, even some insects glowed beautifully in the night sky, like the stars somehow reflected down onto the forest. You couldn’t even find the path and back track as nothing looked even a little bit familiar, maybe it was because you felt distracted, adventure of being lost still pumped through your veins, you had no idea how you planned on making it through the night.

Ma’via sighed, “great, just great were lost. This is pointless" you roll your eyes scanning the area, “we just need to retrace our steps” you said quiet enough to not attract attention but loud enough she could hear you. Ma’via scoffs, “right because that’s so easy in the glowing forest when everything looks the same and different at the same time.”

You sigh, bringing your hands up to rub your face but quickly dropping them after you remember the blood they are still stained with, “look, arguing isn’t gonna help. We need to move before something else tries to eat us, at least find shelter and somewhere to clean up and keep warm.” Ma’via huffs but doesn’t argue, “fine, but don’t slow me down.”

You give her a dry look, “right cause I was the one getting attacked by a predator." She glares at you but doesn’t have comeback. Instead, she gestures ahead, "whatever, let’s just go.”

After what feels like hours of walking, the round of trickling water reaches your ears. You push past the glowing foliage, stepping into a small clearing where a narrow stream winds through the fore its surface shimmering under the bioluminescent light. Ma’via sighs in relief, "finally. Something useful” she kneels at the water’s edge, cupping a handful to drink.

You scan the area before crouching beside her, dipping your fingers into the cool stream. “We should stop here for a bit. Rest, start a fire.”

She hesitates before nodding, “yeah…. I gross that’s smart.” There was no biting remark, no smugness. Just agreement. You gather some dry wood while she arranges the stones, and soon, the flickering orange glow of the fire dances against your skin, a contrast to the cool blue hues of the forest. For a moment, it almost feels peaceful.

But then, a rustle in the underbrush. Ma’via stiffens, eyes darting in the dance direction as yours, towards the trees, “…did you hear that?”

Another rustle. Then, a low growl.

Not this again.

“Please tell me that was your stomach” you say without looking away from where the growl and rustling was coming from.

Ma’via shoots you a sharp look. “Do I look like I just swallowed a hexapede whole?” the underbrush shifts again, the sound closer this time. You pick up a long branch from the floor gripping it tightly in your hands as you slowly rise to your feet, “I was hoping for a yes”

Your relentless rival follows suit, her posture tense. “It’s probably just-” A deep snarl cuts her off then from the shadows, something moves. The growl deepened, it multiplied, there was more than one creature, they blended in so well you couldn’t see them.

The sounds vibrated through the air, the glowing foliage trembles as something stalks just beyond the fire’s light. You grip the branch tighter, shifting your stance. “More than one, and whatever they are, it’s getting closer”

You take a deep breath as your so-called competition says, “we can handle it, we did it before” you could hear the uncertainty is her voice, “you mean I, have done this before”

"Whatever, you really wanna show off now?!” she exclaims, and you roll your eyes. You know she doesn’t feel very confident right now and you don’t blame her.

The creature lunges and swiftly you swat the small, 6-legged creature away with the branch, it made a small whimper as it hit a nearby tree. Although before you could catch your breath, another creature attacked, jumping directly on you, you fell to the ground before you could retaliate.

The creature scratched and bit at your leg making you scream out in pain, at that point you didn’t care what you attracted, you wanted this thing off you. Ma’via swift kicked it off you and kneeled down by your body, now, you finally saw some hunter instinct in her. As the creature lunged back at her she donged, sending it flying behind her protecting your crying form beneath her.

She stabbed it as it came back killing it, “are you okay?!” her voice was panicked. “Do I fucking look okay Ma’via?!” you cry out holding the top of your thigh. She was about to an over, but the growls turned to snarls, nasty, scary snarls. Our eyes darted around us to see an entire pack of the creature circling, ready to pounce at any moment.

Just as a creature tense to pounce-

THWIP!

An arrow whips through the air piercing the creature mid leap. You barely register the blur of movement before Neteyam steps from the trees, bow drawn, another arrow already nocked. His golden eyes flick between the two of you, sharp with relief before it darts back up hitting another creature who lunged in our direction.

Ma’via and I stayed shocked on the ground and eternally grateful Eywa lead Neteyam to us when she did. Before he could pull another arrow, one of the creatures lunged at him, neteyam swung his bow swatting the creature away. He fired another arrow forcing the creatures back. Neteyam hisses, low and sharp at the creatures, it was loud and powerful, a clear warning to the pack to back off. Hesitating, the creatures slinked back into the darkness.

Neteyam kneels down on the other side of you instantly, cars flattening as he sees your tears, his brow forgotten as his hands hovered over you, “hey, hey, I’ve got you. Just breath” his voice was steady, but the worry was evident. His fingers gently grazed your high before hesitating afraid to hurt you more. “I’ll take care of you, I promise."

Your gasps become unsteady, and he cups your cheeks in an effort to calm you down, “Mawey, you are safe now.” He reassures me.

Ma’via steps closer, her usual arrogance gone. “She’s bleeding a lot.” He voice tight with worry, “it all happened so fast, I-I, is she going to be okay?” neteyam glanced up at her, his expression unreadable for a moment before he nods, “she’ll be fine, but we have to get her back. Now.” He assures her but his tone was serious.

He doesn’t waste another second. Carefully, he slides one arm beneath your knees and the other under your back. “This is going to hurt,” he warns gently. Then with effortless strength, he lifts you into his arms. You grip his shoulder, wincing with a cry of pain but he holds you securely, his warmth steady against you.

Ma’via quickly falls into step with him making sure to stay close. Your head rocked back as you started to feel lightheaded. Neteyam pulls you up slightly so your head rest on his shoulder. “We’re almost there, stay with me” he says. You try to respond, but your body feels heavy, the pain in your leg throbs, a dull, dragging weight, and your eyelids flutter.

The forest lights start to blur together and fade. In your weekend state, his scent and warmth wrapped around you like a blanket and the last thing you hear is Neteyam's voice, lower now, urgent but still impossibly gentle. “I’ve got you.” before everything, went black.

🪸I again want to thank you for your patience in this wait for this new chapter and I promise more to come! I love you all and I promise to try harder to push out more work cause I have so many ideas for stories that I must get out of my mind! Please any feedback are welcomed and appreciated along with any idea you guys think I should put into the storyline! Reblogs, likes and comments are always appreciated and welcome!

Taglist: 

@rivatar @delusionalwh6re @strongheartneteyam @xylianasblog @nilahsstuff @inlovewithpandora @neteyamsoare @m1tsu-ki @xrollingmyeyesx @goofygremlin123 @quicktosimp @r11k4 @its-jennarose @anonymuslydumb @winterhi09 @teymars @kylimarz @jakesullyfatjuicypeen @unholycheesesnack @pandoraslxna @pandorxxx @majestickitty @plantgirliewholovespandora @thisaintredwine @kodzuminx @avatarobsessedgirly @kdacase @dayyzlol @beautifulglitterwombat @finnickswifeeee @shikiinkm @spideyweirdo @bakugoswaif @angelita-uchiha @wawauwe @himikoquack @inutheangel

[ametistacollinsworld]

*Very nervous gulp*

Hello again! I’m here because I loved your Shelly x reader story and I’m low key staving for more of it. Also I need more inspiration of Shelly for my story I’m writing T~T.

So it’s basically Twisted Shelly x Reader, where Reader is heartbroken about how their crush got hit with the “thats a wrap!”, while Teagen comforts them. So as Reader and the rest of the group are going down more floors, they Run into Twisted Shelly, And then it’s up to you if it would be fluff or angst.

…👉👈 uhhh…anyways, I hope you have a fantastic day, and thank you if you do the request! You’re one of my favorite writers! :D

Thanks for the request! I'm glad you like my writing! You are sweet! I hope you enjoy it!!!! <3

You, for as long as you can remember, have always been very close to Shelly, always spending time together, talking and even playing with her, while almost everyone seemed to ignore her for some reason, with the exception of Tisha and a few other toons.

But one thing was for sure, you and she always had feelings for each other, until you two became a couple a few years before Gardenview was finally closed.

After Gardenview was closed, your lives suddenly changed, with you now spending your days going on "runs" that consisted of taking one of the elevators that still worked and testing your luck trying to collect items or research the monsters that were once your friends while trying to survive another day in this hell.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

It started as just another "normal" day like all the others you've had, where everyone ate breakfast prepared by Sprout and Cosmo and then went out with their groups on their respective runs.

Your group consisted of you, Shelly, Teagan, Flutter, Boxten and Glisten. Unfortunately, Tisha wasn't feeling very well and unfortunately ended up not being able to go with you.

You guys then began your adventure, getting into the elevator and soon starting to go down more and more old and uninviting floors of Gardenview.

"Hey… you are overthinking again. Everything will be okay." Shelly spoke softly beside you, giving your hand a little squeeze and giving you a small kiss on the cheek, which quickly caught your attention.

You only managed a small smile, squeezing her hand back and also giving her a small kiss on the cheek, which her gave you a smile before looking back forward.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

You were sitting on the floor of the elevator, crying on the shoulder of a very worried Teagan, who was trying desperately to comfort you, but didn't seem to workin in your suffering and tearful hopeless figure.

You never thought about what could go so wrong in one of these runs, but the worst scenario certainly ended up happening to open your foolish eyes.

Shelly was dead.

You were collecting some pops from the floor when suddenly you heard the sound of the elevator door opening, starting the countdown sound telling you to run, which you did, heading in the direction you remembered the elevator being.

You had managed, without much trouble, to reach the elevator to your relief, taking a small breath trying to calm your pounding heart. But your calm was soon broken, seeing how each of your other running companions had already arrived and no sign of your girlfriend.

"Where is Shelly?? None of you guys saw her coming to the elevator?!" You asked with a clear tone of panic, which Teagan placed a comforting hand on your shoulder.

"There's still some time left, dear. I'm sure she'll do it in time, now try to calm down a little." Teagan spoke in a soft tone, trying to comfort you, which you felt calm down at least a little.

"O-Okay. I'll try to stay calm. I'm sorry." You spoke in a low tone, giving an apologetic look to everyone.

"It's not your fault. We're all worried too." Glisten spoke trying to give you a comforting smile.

So, you waited…

20 seconds left…

17 seconds left…

13 seconds left…

10 seconds left…

You felt your vision get blurry and blurry, feeling tears starting to fill your eyes, but you held back the sob in your throat seeing a familiar figure approach the elevator… it was Shelly!!

"SHELLY!" You screamed in a desperate tone, seeing how her seemed to be limping, running away from a monstrous figure of Pebble that was following her.

9 seconds left…

8 seconds left…

You saw the distorted figure of Pebble get closer to Shelly, extending its mouth and giving a strong bite to her leg, making her stumble and fall to the ground with a cry of pain, but despite that she got up with all the strength she had left, seeming to be looking at you as she tried to run once more towards the elevator.

"Come on, Shelly, you can do it!" You exclaimed in a hopeful tone, feeling your stomach twist.

7 seconds left…

6 seconds left…

5 seconds left…

Everyone could only watch with fear in their eyes, seeing Shelly's figure approaching the elevator, but with a Pebble not far behind, not wanting to let her escape so easily.

4 seconds left…

3 seconds left…

2 seconds left…

1 second left…

Shelly was a few feet away from the elevator, but Pebble once again took a bite, this time on her other leg, throwing her to the ground to her horror and the horror of the others.

0 seconds left.

The elevator door closed, and everybody could hear a noise of something echoing on the other side.

Shelly was dead.

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You continued to go down more and more floors, but everyone could tell that the mood was heavy due to the events with Shelly, with everyone trying to avoid the subject.

"I can't say that I was close to her, (Y/n). But I can say that she was a very sweet and determined girl." Teagan spoke in a soft tone, sitting next to you, while the others remained silent, not knowing how to help her comfort you.

"She was, yeah." You spoke softly with a hoarse tone, wiping away some tears that were running down your cheeks.

"I'm sure she would want you to continue for her. Don't forget that you have us too, we are by your side." Teagan spoke in a sweet and comforting tone, patting you on the head.

"Okay… thank you." You thanked her softly, giving a small smile, even though you still felt terrible.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

And so you guys continued for a few more floors until, on one floor, you guys heard some growls and footsteps. Everyone looked at each other with concern.

"Is that Pebble, again?" Boxten asked quietly, with a worried tone, looking around for any kind of movement.

"No… the growls… sound different? I think it must be another one of them…" Glisten spoke slowly, seeming to pay attention to the sound.

"Okay, come on, my dears, we can't stay here forever." Teagan said, receiving a nod from everyone.

You saw Boxten, Glisten and Flutter go in different directions, which you would also do the same before feeling a hand on your shoulder, making you stop and look in that direction.

"Can I go with you, (Y/n)? I'm worried about you." Teagan spoke softly.

"Oh… S-sure, you can, I don't mind." You spoke with a tone of uncertainty, but received a smile from Teagan, who took your hand, holding it in hers.

And so you two went, you walked for a while, collecting some sweets along the way and making some machines that appeared in your path.

You and Teagan had entered a large hall when, suddenly, you both heard a loud growl, which you turned in the direction of the sound to widen your eyes, noticing a tall, skeletal and familiar figure…

"S-Shelly?" You and Teagan stuttered at the same time, catching the attention of the figure, who quickly turned her head in your direction, starting to run towards you two.

"(Y/n)! Run!" Teagan spoke in a desperate tone, starting to run and pulling you by the hand, which you started to run too, but with difficulty, looking over your shoulder, noticing Shelly's figure looking at you.

You guys stayed like that for a while, with Shelly not seeming to give up, until you felt something hold you, making you stop abruptly and let go of Teagan's hand.

Shelly had caught you.

You were now staring into her red eyes with black pupils that seemed to stare deep into your eyes.

"No! (Y/n)! Run away!" Teagan called your name in a desperate tone, watching as Shelly's distorted figure slowly lowered itself towards you. You were frozen in place, feeling small tears form in the corners of your eyes.

Was this how you were going to die?

But the next action of your girlfriend's distorted figure surprised you and Teagan.

Shelly had finally bent down enough to rest her forehead against yours, closing her eyes and seeming to have a calmer expression, almost as if she was relieved that you were okay.

"S-Shelly? Is that you, my love?" You called her name softly, watching as she opened only one eye to look at you, giving a small smile now full of sharp teeth and a small sound of what seemed to be a small happy purring sound.

"W-well… that's unexpected." Teagan spoke with a surprised tone, looking at Shelly's figure, who didn't even seem to care about her presence.

"A little, yes." You spoke, looking at Shelly, who was now looking at you with big eyes and gently shaking her skeletal tail.

"Uh…" You started to speak quickly, looking in Teagan's direction.

"Do you think she can fit inside the elevator?" You asked with a nervous smile.

"Girl—" Teagan looked at you with a blank expression.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

A tall and now dinosaur-like figure and with a big smile full of pointy teeth of your girlfriend was now standing inside the elevator, with everyone staring blankly at her, unsure of how to react to the situation.

"Girl—" Glisten began to speak, giving you a questioning look—

[lyonnerileyauthor]

So I Married an Alien

this is coming out in July, but I'm an asshole so here is a teaser from the first chapter.

They didn’t mention that the husband they were sending me would have four arms. I feel like the number of arms is an important thing to bring up when pairing you with a potential life partner. Would the extra arms have made a difference if I had known? I’m not sure.

But I should have known before we were supposed to get married.

Said extra arms are folded across his chest as we stand there on opposite sides of the meeting room, the lower pair hanging at his sides. The arms aren’t the most arresting thing about him, though. His skin is a bright blue-purple, like the night sky right after sunset. A pair of short stalks on his head twitch and bob as he regards me. Does he really have freaking antennae?

In the next room, we’ll get married, or so the matchmaker told me. But it’s really just a ceremony, and we won’t sign the papers until the thirty-day trial period is up—er, actually, I think it’s one of those fancy tablets all the aliens have. 

Then we’ll officially be husband and wife. If we make it that long.

My groom is dressed in a smudged-up uniform that covers his shoulders and thighs, strapped around the middle with a belt. It’s the same sort of thing the matchmaker is wearing where he stands between us, and the same thing that most aliens who visit Earth seem to wear.

The galaxy has very mid fashion sense.

Gazargo, who is also a weird alien but not quite as weird as my new husband, hops off the stool that keeps him at eye level with us. Now I have to peer down to look into his squat face.

“Roth’kar, this is Amara,” Gazargo says, gesturing at each of us as he names us. “Amara, this is Roth’kar.”

I hold out a hand to shake, which seems like the polite thing to do. Roth’kar stares down at my hand with his strange, ethereal-blue eyes, then back up at me.

Gazargo clears his throat. “They do not have handshakes in Karthinian culture,” he tells me. “She is trying to greet you, Roth’kar. How do you do it where you come from?”

The four-armed alien—hmm, I should probably try to call him by his name—brings both pairs of hands to his chest and lifts his chin, closing his eyes briefly.

“That is how we greet one another formally,” Roth’kar says in a deep, booming voice.

Wow, is that voice even stranger than his eyes. It’s almost hollow, reverberating through my bones. I’ve never heard anything like it, as if he’s playing an instrument.

I imitate his gesture, placing my hands on my chest and lifting my chin, and say, “It’s good to meet you, Roth’kar.”

The corner of his mouth tweaks upward. That’s good. I think that’s a smile, though I can’t take anything for granted with an alien. Wish I’d gotten some kind of primer on his species before this so I didn’t look like an idiot, but here we are.

“Now that you’ve met, let’s get on to the ceremony,” Gazargo says. He waddles away to the adjoining room, and Roth’kar nods at me to walk through the door first when we reach it at the same time. Up close, I realize how tall he is, almost whole head higher than I am, and I’m a fairly tall girl.

On the other side of the door is yet another dimly-lit room, this time with a small window that looks out onto the docking bay. This is where spaceships come and go, a port that was built not long after first contact was made. 

The first aliens we met were all like Gazargo—small, gray, and kind of wrinkled with a face like a turtle. They’d gotten a permit from the Intergalactic Association of Civilizations to make contact with us so they could try to sell us… well, stuff.

That was how it started, anyway. Those aliens, the Frahma, opened the door for other alien species to take note of us. We had a unique plight here on Earth after the RVS plague, one that called for out-of-towners to be imported to fill the need. And so eventually, Gazargo established his matchmaking service.

That’s what the Frahma are good at. I think they could figure out a way to sell you your own clothes.

Gazargo leads us to a pedestal, gesturing for each of us to stand to one side of it, about two feet apart. Then he climbs up steps on the back until he’s about eye level with us, and pulls out a tablet to read.

“On this day, the twenty-seventh of May, on this year of twenty twenty-nine, I hereby match Amara Knox, with Roth’kar the Fifth of His Name. These two will join in matrimony, to build a home together, and—”

As the words go on, outside thoughts start to pour in. Roth’kar isn’t looking at me. He’s glaring intently at Gazargo, as if willing him to get to the end of his schpiel faster. At least we have that in common. I want this to be over just as much.

I was so excited about this, so ready to finally have a companion in life and a chance to fall in love. But now that I’m seeing Roth’kar with my own eyes—all four arms of him—I’m second-guessing myself. He looks unhappy to be here, and I hope he wasn’t compelled or coerced into coming. I know nothing about Karthinians, so I’m going to have to start from scratch on that front.

I got a futon for my office, since we don’t know each other yet and inviting a strange alien into my bed seemed like we’d be moving a little too fast. But imagining it in my head, I’m sure the futon won’t nearly be big enough for Roth’kar. I’ll have to trade with him and sleep on it myself while he has my bed.

“Amara?” Gazargo asks, startling me out of my thoughts. “It’s time?”

Time for what? I search my mind for what’s entailed in a wedding ceremony.

“Oh! Right.” I had rings made for us. The one thing the matchmaker did give me was Roth’kar’s ring size. I pull out the box and remove both rings, which earns a curious look from Roth’kar’s freaky blue eyes.

“What are these?” he asks, peering closer at them.

“It’s an Earth tradition, one of them,” Gazargo says, plucking the rings from my fingers. He exchanges them, so now I’m holding Roth’kar’s ring, and my new alien husband is holding mine. “Now put the ring on her hand, Roth’kar.”

The alien grunts, never looking up at me as he reaches for my hand. At least he only has five fingers—I don’t know how I’d handle six or seven on top of the double arms.

Carefully he slides the ring onto one of my fingers, the index one.

“Wrong finger,” I say gently, then wiggle my ring finger. “It goes on that one.”

With a huff of impatience, Roth’kar does as I tell him, removing the ring and then plunking it onto my ring finger, instead. He pulls away, and the simple, silver band shines in the low light.

“Your turn.” Gazargo offers me the other ring. Roth’kar holds out his hand for me as I slip the ring onto his ring finger, pushing it down until it’s seated at the base.

When I stand up straight again, Roth’kar is pointedly looking away from me, his cheeks stained a dark bluish color. He retracts his hand, flexing his fingers before it returns to his side along with, well, his other hand.

Gosh, so many hands.

Then an unbidden thought hops into my brain. If he has two sets of arms… does he also have two…?

I can’t think like that. We’re strangers. It will take some time for us to get to know each other, which we’ll have to do before any funny business can happen.

“And now, you say your commitments,” Gazargo instructs.

“Commitments?” Roth’kar’s brow pinches. “I am committed now.”

“Yes, yes, they are just nice things to say before you agree to the marriage.” Gazargo waves a hand dismissively. “Come up with something.”

“I’ll go first,” I interject, because I actually wrote something down and rehearsed it at home. “Roth’kar.” I address him directly. “I promise I will be honest with you, sometimes even when you don’t want to hear it. I promise to be loyal to you, unless it’s at a game of Bullshit. I promise to cherish you, and have no others, until death do us part.”

Roth’kar’s mouth drops open.

“Until death do us part?” he repeats, horrified.

“It’s a common phrase in human matrimony,” Gazargo says. “Now, yours, Roth’kar.”

The alien flexes his throat like he wants to speak, but all the words he had are gone.

“Uh,” he says, then curses something in his own tongue that the translator can’t pick up. “I will also, erm, cherish you, and be loyal to you.” He doesn’t mention anything about honesty. “I will do all my due diligences as your husband, as they are called for.”

What? As they are called for? What is he talking about?

“Oh, all right.” I try to smile. “That’s nice.”

“Do you take Roth’kar to be your lawful husband?” Gazargo asks me.

I nod. This is what I signed up for, after all. “I do.”

“And do you, Roth’kar, take Amara to be your lawful wife?”

Those glowing eyes settle on my face, and I wonder who he is under that indifferent expression, and if he’ll show me.

Eventually, he nods and says, “I do.”

[radioactive-earthshine]

Hii!1!1! You mentioned that you had ur own hcs relating to Bart’s time in the facility and could youu maybee share some of them pretty pretty please? :33

(my tumblr tweaked out so I might have sent this ask 2 times sorry 😓)

Ohhh I'd love to.

1.) That facility's purpose was 100% not just "observing" Bart's growth and condition, it was studying him. I just do not see how a research facility or President Thawne wouldn't also study Bart while he is there regardless of how his stay ended.

2.) Impulse (1995) implied that President Thawne's "master plan" involving Bart was to have him sped-aged to a certain age and then indoctrinate him to be loyal to him, this is canon, my headcanon is that one of the reasons for the studying of him was to figure out a cure for him which the scientists did fairly quickly. They had the cure almost from the start - they were just waiting for the order to implement it.

3.) President Thawne was waiting for him to be past puberty because he didn't want to deal with children and thought it would be easier to integrate him into society as an older teen. He also, foolishly, thought it would be easier to disguise him if his daughter came back from her new life if he was older.

4.) Bart spent a relative 19 years in VR, while only 2 years passed chronologically, and he was 12 physically, to him it was 19 years.

5.) The scientists were absolutely studying Bart's biology while he was there so he was poked, prodded, swabbed, scanned, measured and had various experiments performed on him both to his knowledge and not. They were very interested in his metabolism and healing acceleration. As a result he was poisoned, infected, and even had controlled fractures which caused him immense but brief pain. They always passed this off as 'accidents' to him and Bart didn't know any better so he forgave them (it also helped that he got over injuries almost immediately). They were also highly interested in his brain and his ability to recall information - this was studied by making Bart solve very complicated puzzles. This was sometimes masked in his "games" but sometimes they were, to Bart, literal dungeons. At first he didn't find them too boring but the longer he spent there the more uneasy he started feeling about being there in the first place. By the end, he knew he was in danger, he didn't know how, but he just knew. Sometimes the scientists would withhold food from him until he solved certain sets for him and when they started doing this in response to his occasional flippancy.

6.) As a result of his hypermetabolism and being in VR most of the time to Bart he actually didn't need to stop and eat much because he was living in relative time! To him he only needed to eat maybe once a week (and go to the bathroom/bathe), but to everyone else he was getting his regular meals etc.

7.) It actually took Iris several visits to get Bart to open up to her.

8.) Bart actually had escaped the facility before when he was physically 10 and because of that incident they locked the facility down ten-fold. It was because of him escaping and the vague news reports of a "teleporting child" in a city that triggered Iris into looking more into the story that Bart was dead.

Another note on Iris - she knew that when Bart was born he would eventually make it to the 20th century and live as Impulse, then Kid Flash, then the Flash. This is canon. However, when the reports came in that Bart had died as a baby she believed that somehow history had been changed and her knowledge of the past was now just incorrect and irrelevant. This is why she did not immediately disbelieve the story that came out, and why she didn't immediately look for him or try to console Meloni (who pretended to die anyway). Well, then reports of a teleporting child came out and she got suspicious and started digging.

Why the FUCK the facility let her in and visit Bart, multiple times, is something I don't know how to explain other than maybe Thawne saw some benefit to doing this. This was some sort of angle he could exploit somehow, but how I don't know.

9.) Dox was actually an anomaly even the scientists could not explain or track. There was nothing in their programs that stated Dox should exist and yet he clearly did.

That's all for now and thanks for the ask!

[thatartsyej]

I’m bored at work rn so imma just drop some hc for Toby LMAOOOO

(This is more based in my au btw lol)

Ticci Toby Headcanons

- Very big guy, like big big. As an adult stands at 6ft 4inches (193.04 cm ) and 185 lbs (83.92 kg)

- Used to be pretty scrawny as a teenager but gained some weight as he got older thanks to Brian and Tim borderline forcing this guy to eat

- Still a skinnier guy but definitely got some weight to him.

- Pretty much one of those guys who doesn’t LOOK like he’d be that strong only for him to be able to actually throw another person if he wanted to LMAOOO

- Dudes arm strength is insane. But when you you’ve been throwing around hatchets and axes since 17 that’s to be expected.

- But no seriously dude could throw you and has definitely thrown people before

- When he first became a proxy though Toby actually struggled a bit with the whole killing thing. Not cause of the morality issue but more so because dude was an anxious mess.

- Toby was ,,,,, a bit awkward to say the least. Was very wary of everyone and everything. Didn’t trust Tim and Brian. Honestly was slightly scared of them

- Would freeze up sometimes during his first missions because he would get so overwhelmed with everything going on.

- Finally put actual effort in to getting better at fighting after Tim told him straight up if he couldn’t take care of missions successfully, the operator would kill him.

- Brian gave him the advice that it’s easier to do it if he just took all his pent up anger out while doing missions.

- Yeaaaa he definitely took that shit to heart bc when the next mission came around? Oh boy

- Safe to say he realized that he isn’t a little kid who couldn’t defend himself anymore. That he is the one people were afraid of now.

- And boooyyy did that feel great

- When it came to actually completing his first mission on his own he was a nervous wreck. Took Brian an hour to calm him down. For the first year or so he had Tim and Brian to fall back on when things got tough, now it was gonna be just him though.

- “What happens I- if I fuck it up?”

“You won’t “

“ but what if I do?”

“Toby just go do the damn job. You’ll be fine”

- He did do good, a little too good actually. Soon Toby would have more successful missions than he did failed ones. And was a lot more confident in himself than before.

- Which made Slender’s interest in him peak. Whether that’s good or bad depends on who you ask.

-Nowadays he usually will stick around whatever area Masky and Hoodie is in but will still go off on his own.

- Hates being away from them for long. They’re kind of the only “positive” father figures he’s had his entire life, but would rather jump into oncoming traffic than admit that.

- Still an anxious person, has just learned how to conceal it very well.

- Personality wise, it can really vary what version of Toby you get depending on what the situation is.

-If you’re a fellow proxy, Toby can be fairly laid back, hyper even. Likes to hang out with Kate and Rouge when they’re around. Will do whatever with the others, he’s just happy to tag along.

- If you’re someone he doesn’t like, he is quite insufferable lol. Will purposely go out of his way to antagonize you and pick on you.

-Will also call you the wrong name on purpose. Sometimes it’s not even close to what your name is, he just thinks it’s the funniest thing ever.

- If you’re a target? R.I.P

- Will not say a word. Nothing at all just stares you down silently.

- He’ll just watch you for a long time before he actually makes his move. Will just ever so slightly move things in your place when you’re not there. Maybe the photo on the wall is slightly crooked, or a favorite item of yours is missing.

- just little things that you might not notice right away, but when you do you think “huh that’s weird”

- then it escalates to windows/doors being slightly ajar, unlocked or even just straight up opened all the way.

- He wants you to be nervous. The more scared you are, the less able you are to think clearly.

- You hear him before you actually see him. The small sound of bones popping and quiet grunts and swear words

-Then you see him

- Whether it’s at the end of your hallway, the corner of your room, or in the woods.

- He stands there for a moment, not moving an inch besides the occasional tic

- At this point there’s nothing you can do. You can’t outrun him and you sure as fuck can’t out power him. You’ll still try and like all the others, fail.

- There is a small blessing tho, and that is that your death will usually be quick.

- Toby is not one for torture. Not very good at keeping people alive long enough for that but better believe he can sure as hell make it hurt

- Definitely enjoys it a lot more than he is willing to admit. Not that he would need to admit it everybody knows

- When he’s not working or hanging out with others, he tries to find anything else to distract himself. He’s actually quite good at drawing, but gets frustrated with it when his tics mess him up

- Will also just go on walks. And not just short lil ones either this man will go missing for HOURS

- Made Tim and Brian panic at first when he started doing that but eventually just accepted he’ll come back at some point.

- Absolutely will smoke weed to chill out as well too. It helps with his nerves and tics. Also helps when he is having manic/ depressive episodes.

- Just does anything to preoccupy himself. He hates doing nothing because then all he has is his thoughts which never leads anywhere good

[the-silver-peahen-residence]

"Uh...." Kisho had that look. He took a look of pause with a smile on his face. Taz blinks. "Uh....Kisho, you're okay."

"Err...well..." Kisho laughs, "Give me a moment, would you?" He excuses himself and walks over to Megumi. He placed his hands on his shoulders. "Hey, Megumi. I need help in setting down rules! Can you help me out here?"

"Yeah, I can help you Kisho....It's not that hard to think of some rules just simple ones." he said.

The others blink to see this but Raito said nothing confused to what was going on. However, Miko sighed. "Question ummm Raito? Can I set a rule too?" she asked .

"Since your the closest to the summon of course. What is your rule?" he asked.

"......Well I wanted to set ally rule. You can't harm anyone of the curses spirits lingering around." she said speaking of Wilson, Anaconda, Dennis, etc. "Or demons that come here if they are our friends. That includes, Mr Sukuna and Miss Kinie and others we know. I can tell or feel your curious.." she asked yet Raito thinks to sigh.

"I understand but don't worry. I couldn't do that even if I was forced to. I already knew the dangers of many lingering here. I won't attack unless they are a threat. Second, it goes for other demons in different areas. I remember one Azure phoenix that is within or out of NYC that is a friend. So I won't harm anyone that is your ally or friend." he said understanding the second rule.

"Wait...your friend?" she asked.

"Yes. She is another demon phoenix that that is the watcher over the demon one named Willow Phoenix. As I stated, I am the god of all the phoenixes....including her and others out of japan to America or all over the world. I figure you know that.."

"So wait..you mean you know about the demons in NYC?" Yuji asked.

"I do.....In and out of NYC or all over the world. I figure Vanity said something about that..or the other demons but seems not." he said.

"..O..Oh.."

"Though, since your making a rule, I'll add a third one.." he said lowering his head that Raito looks or faces Miko. "I'll be sure to protect you if he is not present. Even if I am a summoning god under his oath, I'm also to watch over you. So..think of it as having a third ally. And for him a second one. I can teach you magic and other things that will help you later in the future like to him as well." he said.

"You...You can?" Miko asked with a sweatdrop.

"Of course. If he summons me I can help him if or when he needs me or if he wishes, I can stay with you in some way to help aid you if possible.. Maybe leaving an little ally with you that is just as dangerous as me." he said. "Though I am bonded to him, I'm also bonded to you too." he explains.

'It's true.' Kinie Ger speaks, coming out of Taz's head. "The cursed energy from the bird is flowing within them." She said, confirming. Taz hoped Rin and Yukio wouldn't freak out about this. If Kisho got the book from one of them, she hoped they wouldn't get in trouble or worse, give Kisho such a hard time.

"Hm, I'm sure they won't do anything when finding out. Maybe shocked but that's mostly it. I mean who wouldn't freak out knowing someone used a ancient book like that?" Gojo asked.

"Not helping sensei." Megumi and Nobara said.

"Alright, now we know about your abilities. Let's go over some ground rules." Kisho begins, "The Friend Rules!" He smiles. "First rule: everyone here on campus of Jujutsu Tech is your ally. Now, I'm not saying to extend your bond to everyone or share your cursed energy with everyone, but I want you to keep them safe and treat this place as your second home, okay?"

"That's a good first rule," Taz said.

Raito looks or has his four eyes facing him ti sign. "That seems like a fair rule for me to follow. Understandable human Kisho. Was their another one you wish to set?" Raito asked.

[bluepandaears]

I am not a dedicated author and haven't written anything approximating a fic in longer than I care to think about, but this just sort of happened. I figure if I was going to put it out into the world there's not much better place than this.

Smile

When Charles was 9 his dad gave him a black eye, it wasn't the first and certainly wouldn't be the last. It was summer holidays and he'd lost track of time playing outside and missed curfew. He only ever got visible bruises when school was out and the first of the season never failed to surprise.

As soon as he was allowed out of his basement room he walked down to the park and sat on a bench enjoying the fresh air and openness of the grass field. After being locked up he would always seek out the most open, outdoor space he could find. Imagine he could dissolve into the wind and float away with the clouds.

Today he's across from a playground. From where he's sat he can see some kids playing. Looks to be a group of siblings, each with an ice lolly. As Charles watches the middle child stands at the top of the slide waiting to go down. In an act of dominance the oldest one runs up the slide blocking it and in doing so drops his lolly. Anger flashes across his face before he grabs the ice lolly from his younger sibling. Hurt the middle child lashes out, but not at her older brother. She doesn't go to their parents either, not paying attention a little ways away. No, she runs over to the youngest and snatches his ice lolly from his little hands. Charles watches as tears well up in his little eyes, unable to retaliate or deal with the loss of a treat. Charles wonders if maybe now the youngster will turn to the adults. Instead he watches as the young boy, no more than 5, wedges himself into a crawl space under the climbing frame and cries alone over his loss.

It is at this point that Charles resolves to never treat others the way his father treats him.

******

When Charles is 12 he has his first crush. A girl named Hazel. She has blue eyes and light brown hair and barely knows he exists. She's a few years older and speaks in that self assured way people do when they know exactly what they are talking about and don't care what others think.

Charles hasn't learned to talked like that.

He never gets up the courage to talk to her.

******

When Charles is 14 he meets a boy that he is absolutely sure he will be best friends with forever. Elijah laughs at his jokes and doesn't mind when Charles watches him study. Charles is older now, and wiser, so he's positive he knows what he's talking about. Even if he still can't always talk like Hazel used to. They hang out nearly every day and it's brills. Until his dad finds out and decides Charles should stop putting so much effort into another boy. He gets a good lashing and a sprained shoulder and wears one of the many dark red polos his mum bought incase his back bleeds through. The next time he hangs out with Elijah he flinches away from touches and doesn't smile when Elijah tries for a joke. Charles won't explain because home life isn't something he knows how to talk about, and the whole afternoon is just a bit uncomfortable. They don't hang out as much after that and eventually Elijah stops trying.

It is at this point that Charles resolves to alway keep smiling. Even if he's hurting. People have left before when he flinches away but it's never hurt to loose someone like it hurts to loose Elijah.

******

When Charles is 15 he gets sent to boarding school. He thinks it might just be the best thing ever.

Then he learns how poorly he actually fits in. That's ok though, Charles has had a lifetime of learning how to fit in. He has his smiles, and his red polos, and his easy way of brushing off bad things and not passing them on.

It'll be fine.

Until it's not.

******

When Charles is 16 he dies.

In death he meets Edwin. Edwin has brown hair and eyes that Charles is sure change colour with his mood. He talks like Hazel and laughs like Elijah. He studies and doesn't mind that Charles watches. He doesn't leave when Charles forgets and flinches because Edwin flinches too.

Charles still smiles when it hurts because he can't risk loosing Edwin, but then Charles finds things don't hurt as much as they used to.

He still wears his red polo because it's habit by now innit? And he can never be sure that when things get bad his back wont still bleed from memory.

He finds it's easy to be nice to Edwin and protect him from bad things. Edwin had been through Hell after all so Charles figures he deserves someone to protect him from bad things now.

******

Over three decades later when Charles is still 16 he learns that he doesn't always have to smile. That the people who matter to him now will not leave just because he's hurting or having a bad day. That if he's hurting and doesn't smile they will actually stay closer.

He learns that he no longer wears the red polo in case his back bleeds through. He wears it because at some point in their friendship Edwin once said he looked good in red. And Edwin's opinion matters more than anything.

He learns that he likes being good because he is good and not because he is trying not to be his father.

Charles no longer worries about when it will be summer holidays and the first visible bruise. Instead he and Edwin go on walks through parks and along the river and enjoy being free.

And freedom with Edwin is better than brills.

~ fin