#but also i’ve live a lot of life outside of you …. so while the post was like 50% about you it was not 100% about you

[stonesandswords]

.

[pbaz7]

ONE SHOT: ART INSTALLATION

paige x azzi

word count: 4.5k

A/N: This one is short because I was about to crash out earlier and I didn’t want you guys to feel the effects of my own personal crash out so I wrote somethin short to keep it cute. I hope you enjoy 🥹🫶🏼

—————————————————————————

Paige was the perfect girlfriend to Azzi. At least, she tried to be. Anything Azzi wanted—or even thought about wanting—Paige made sure she had it. Whether it was a rare pair of sneakers she mentioned in passing, a book collection, a favorite meal after a tough practice, or a night in when the weight of the world felt too heavy, Paige anticipated it all. It wasn’t just about being thoughtful; it was about proving, in every way she could, that Azzi was her priority.

Anytime Azzi needed help, needed support, needed anything, Paige was there. A bad game? Paige had a motivational playlist waiting and all the right words to get Azzi out of her head.. A bad day? Paige would drop everything to sit by her side, holding her hand until Azzi's world felt steady again. Paige prided herself on it. She knew how lucky she was to have someone like Azzi—brilliant, beautiful, and steady in a way that anchored her.

But more than that, Paige loved Azzi. She loved her so deeply it used to scare her sometimes. Paige would give her the world if she asked for it. And, truthfully, even if Azzi didn’t ask, Paige would find a way to give it to her. Azzi deserved everything good life had to offer, and Paige felt like it was her job to make sure she had it.

But Paige was also human. And everyone messes up sometimes.

Right now, Paige was with Ice and KK, headed to Crumbl to grab cookies; it had become their post-practice tradition during the summer session. The car was filled with laughter, teasing, and the playlist Paige had made for when she had the two of them in the car together.

When they pulled into the Crumbl parking lot, Paige left her phone behind as it was tucked in the center console. The device was still connected to the aux, as they hopped out of the car locking the door. She didn’t think twice about it—she was in the moment, caught up in Ice’s ongoing debate about which cookie flavor was best and KK’s roasting Ice about her questionable taste.

Inside the store, they spent too much time deliberating, as always. Ice insisted they try every new flavor, while Paige argued for sticking to the classics. KK suggested they just buy the entire menu and let the team fight over the leftovers. Paige rolled her eyes but laughed, knowing she was going to pay for whatever they decided on.

When they finally left, their arms full of the signature pink boxes, the energy carried back into the car. Paige slid into the driver’s seat, pushing the button to start the car, and let the music pick up right where they’d left off. Because of this she didn’t even glance at her phone. She didn’t know there was anything waiting for her.

What she didn’t see were the seven texts Azzi had sent her. Or the three missed calls.

Azzi’s messages had started casually enough:

Azzi 💗: Hey, where are you?

Azzi 💗: I miss you

Azzi 💗: We’re still going on our date tonight right?

But when Paige didn’t respond, the tone had shifted.

Azzi 💗: Everything okay baby?

Azzi 💗: Well I guess that’s a no to the date

Azzi 💗: I’ve been calling you.

The final text was the simplest but carried the weight of Azzi’s unease.

Azzi 💗: Paige?

Paige had no idea about any of this as she was sitting in the car with Ice and KK, parked outside Crumbl, sampling the cookies they’d just bought. KK had decided to go live on TikTok, propping her phone up in the center of the console so all three of them were visible. Paige and Ice were in the front, while KK sat in the back, leaning forward between their seats to give commentary on each flavor.

“Okay, y’all, this one’s chocolate peanut butter—Paige said she doesn’t like peanut butter, but she’s gonna try it anyway, so let’s see,” KK said into the camera, her energy always infectious.

“I’m not gonna like it, KK,” Paige replied, rolling her eyes but taking a bite. Ice snorted beside her, already digging into another cookie.

The live chat was buzzing with comments from fans, with people dropping in to talk about the team, tease KK, or ask random questions about their day. They scrolled by so quickly that it was impossible to catch all of them, but KK seemed to catch enough to keep her audience engaged as she responded to some of them.

Then, suddenly, something popped up on the screen that made KK’s eyes go wide.

“Oh my god,” KK gasped dramatically, smacking Paige’s shoulder. “It’s Azzi Fudd! We got a celebrity here y’all!”

Paige froze for a split second before a small, involuntary smile spread across her lips. Her girlfriend’s name sat at the bottom of the screen, her tiny profile picture next to it. Paige tried to play it cool, brushing off KK’s excitement with a casual shrug, but the faint blush on her cheeks betrayed her.

“Oh my god, it’s really Azzi Fudd I feel so cool,” KK repeated, leaning closer to the camera. “Hey, Azzi! What’s up, girly pop?”

Ice chimed in, laughing. “Azzi, you better send us some cowboy hats or something. Donate to the cause!”

Paige chuckled softly, her gaze lingering on the screen. Seeing Azzi’s name made her heart flutter, but she kept her reaction subtle. She didn’t want to make it obvious—not on a live stream with fans watching.

“Hey, Az,” Paige said quietly, her tone soft but unmistakably fond. She didn’t say more, instead breaking off another piece of cookie to distract herself.

But just as quickly as Azzi’s name appeared, it was gone. She had left the live.

“Damn, she left already?” KK frowned, leaning closer to her phone. “Azzi, where’d you go?”

Before anyone could speculate further, the car’s music abruptly stopped, and Siri’s voice echoed through the speakers:

“Incoming call from Azzi.”

The words seemed to hang in the air for a moment, and all three of them froze. Paige’s eyes went wide, and Ice’s head whipped toward her, her mouth dropping open.

KK, of course, was the first to react to not make it obvious. “Oh my god, Paige!” she yelled, grabbing Ice’s arm. “It’s Azzi Fudd calling!”

The live chat exploded. Comments started flooding in:

“AZZI IS CALLING HER OMG!!!”

“Paige’s girl is calling during the live? 👀”

“Not Siri exposing Paige rn 😭😭😭.”

Paige’s face turned bright red as she scrambled to unplug her phone from the aux cord. Trying to make Siri and the ringtone stop blaring through the car’s speakers.

“I’ll be right back,” Paige mumbled, grabbing her phone and quickly stepping out of the car.

As soon as the door shut behind her, KK leaned into the live, absolutely giddy. “Y’all, Paige just got a very important phone call. Like, the most important phone call ever.” She wiggled her eyebrows dramatically.

Ice burst out laughing, shaking her head. “Man, Siri really just put her on blast like that.”

The two of them were always bad at being subtle when it came to Paige and Azzi.

The moment Paige stepped out of the car, she pressed her phone to her ear, a soft smile tugging at her lips. “Hey baby, what’s up?” she greeted, trying to sound casual, though her heart raced slightly.

“Don’t ‘hey baby’ me,” Azzi said, her tone a little sharper than it usually is with Paige.

Paige’s smile faltered as her brows furrowed in confusion. “What’d I do?”

Azzi didn’t answer right away. Instead, she took a deep breath and said, “What day is it?”

Paige froze, her stomach sinking as she tried to think about it. She pulled her phone away from her ear and glanced at the screen, her eyes locking on the date. Her heart dropped.

“Shit,” Paige muttered under her breath. Bringing the phone back to her ear, she spoke quickly, panic lacing her voice. “Baby, I’m so sorry—”

“What the hell, Paige?” Azzi cut her off, her voice reflecting her clear frustration. “We’ve had this planned for like two weeks!”

“I know, I know,” Paige stammered, running a hand through her hair. “I’m so sorry, Az. This week’s just been so hectic, I lost track of everything.”

“Yeah, clearly,” Azzi replied dryly. There was a pause before she added, her voice quieter but the hurt was still clear, “We talked about this, Paige. We’re supposed to be making time for stuff like this at least once a month.”

Paige closed her eyes, guilt washing over her. “Look, I know I messed up, but we can still do it. I can come back now, and we’ll make it work—”

“No,” Azzi interrupted. “Whatever. It’s fine.”

“Az, come on,” Paige pleaded, her voice softening. “You don’t wanna at least try?”

“No,” Azzi repeated, her tone a little colder. “I don’t really want to hang out with you anymore.”

Paige’s chest tightened at the words, her voice breaking slightly as she said, “Az, I’ll come back now, okay? We can at least grab some food, just—”

“I said no,” Azzi cut in again, her voice now tinged with exhaustion. “It’s fine. I think I’m just gonna go to bed. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Paige blinked, disbelief and hurt mingling in her expression. “Are you for real, Az?”

“Yes,” Azzi replied simply.

Paige exhaled shakily, leaning against the car as she struggled to find the right words. Finally, she whispered, “I’m sorry, baby. I love you.”

There was a long pause on the other end before Azzi said quietly, “It’s whatever. I love you too.” And then the call ended.

Paige stared at her phone for a moment, the weight of Azzi’s tone settling in her chest. She let out a heavy sigh, running a hand down her face before slowly making her way back to the car.

When Paige climbed back into the car, the energy inside was completely different from the heavy weight she felt in her chest. KK and Ice were still on live, chatting animatedly with the viewers, their excitement from the earlier interaction with Azzi carrying on.

“Y’all, these cookies are fire!” KK exclaimed, holding up a bitten piece of cookie to the phone camera. She leaned over the middle console so everyone could see her better. “This one tastes like a cinnamon roll! Oh, wait, let me show you the chocolate one!”

Ice laughed from the passenger seat, leaning her head back against the headrest. “You’re gonna eat all of them before we get back, KK.”

“Nah, I’m saving at least one for later,” KK replied, grinning. She glanced at Paige. “Right, P Boogers?”

But Paige didn’t answer. She quietly buckled her seatbelt, her eyes flicking to the live chat on KK’s phone. Comments were flying in.

“Paige doesn’t look as happy anymore.”

“What happened to P? She was smiling before she left.”

“Azzi called, right? She’s so quiet now.”

Paige quickly looked away, gripping the steering wheel tightly. She didn’t say a word as she started the car, her jaw clenched.

The mood in the car shifted slightly as KK and Ice exchanged a glance. They noticed Paige’s sudden change in demeanor, but with the live still running, they chose not to address it, not wanting to draw attention to her.

Instead, KK kept the conversation light, talking about the cookies and teasing Ice about stealing bites from the box. Paige barely registered any of it, her mind replaying Azzi’s voice over and over again. She had never done anything like this.

It wasn’t until Paige made an unexpected turn that KK finally spoke up. “Uh, where we going, P Boogers?” she asked, glancing at the unfamiliar road.

Paige shook her head and mumbled, “I just gotta pick something up real quick.”

KK furrowed her brows but didn’t push further, keeping the live running for a few more minutes as they joked about Ice trying to eat another cookie. But when they pulled up to a flower shop, the sign out front indicating it was about to close, KK finally ended the live.

“Yo, why are we here?” Ice asked, leaning forward to look out the window.

Paige didn’t respond, unbuckling her seatbelt and stepping out of the car. The florist inside looked up as Paige walked through the door, her face lighting up in recognition.

“Paige!” the woman greeted warmly. “You’re just in time. What can I get for you today?”

Paige managed a faint smile, her voice soft. “Hey Julia. Do you have any of those fresh lilies I like? And maybe some lavender?”

“Of course,” the florist replied, quickly gathering the requested flowers into a beautiful bouquet. Paige waited in silence, her hands stuffed into her pockets as she stared down at the counter.

Once she had the flowers, Paige thanked the florist and headed back to the car. The door shut behind her with a soft thud, and for a moment, the car was silent.

Now that the live was over, KK and Ice no longer held back. KK leaned forward between the seats, concern etched across her face. “Alright, P Boogers. What’s wrong?”

Paige shook her head, setting the bouquet gently on the console between her and Ice. “Nothing. I just... I forgot me and Azzi had plans to go see this art installation tonight,” she said quietly, her voice tinged with guilt.

“Oh,” KK said softly, sitting back. She exchanged a look with Ice, who frowned.

Paige sighed, gripping the steering wheel but not starting the car yet. “She’s mad. Like... really mad. I didn’t even realize what day it was.”

Ice placed a hand on Paige’s arm, her voice gentle. “P, it’s not the end of the world. She’ll understand.”

Paige shook her head, her lips pressed into a thin line not really wanting to talk about it.

KK and Ice didn’t say anything else, choosing instead to give Paige a moment. The three of them sat in silence for a few beats before Paige finally started the car

When Paige got back to Azzi's dorm room, the weight of her guilt settled in her chest. The door creaked softly as she stepped inside, her eyes immediately finding Azzi lying on her bed, curled on her side, her face partially buried in her pillow. Paige’s heart sank when she noticed the faint redness around Azzi’s eyes, a clear sign she’d been crying. The sight was almost unbearable.

Paige hesitated for a moment before walking over to the bed. She crouched down in front of Azzi, holding the bouquet of flowers in one hand while reaching out with the other to brush a gentle thumb across Azzi’s cheek. But Azzi turned her head away from the touch, her silence speaking volumes. Paige’s throat tightened.

“Come on, baby,” Paige said softly, her voice almost pleading. “I’m sorry.”

When Azzi didn’t respond, Paige sighed deeply and stood up. She placed the flowers on Azzi’s desk, their vibrant colors a deep contrast to the heavy tension in the room. Paige lingered for a moment before deciding to climb onto the bed, trying to wrap an arm around Azzi, but the moment her hand brushed against her side, Azzi finally spoke, her tone low but firm.

“I wanna sleep alone tonight.”

Paige froze, her hand stilling mid-motion. She groaned softly, running a hand down her face. “Azzi, come on. I don’t know what else I can do. I promise I’ll make it up to you—”

“I don’t want it to be made up,” Azzi cut her off, her voice cracking just slightly at the end.

Paige swallowed hard, guilt stabbing at her again. She knew Azzi was hurt, but she also knew her girlfriend, the way her stubbornness could amplify her emotions. Azzi wasn’t usually like this, and Paige had never messed up like this, and that only made the situation worse. Paige sat back, unsure of what to say or do, feeling like she was failing in real-time.

Azzi rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling. Her voice softened but still carried an edge. “Paige, you do so much for me. You really do, and I love you for it. But tonight wasn’t about flowers or gifts. It was supposed to be about us. Just us.” She paused, exhaling shakily. “And it feels like... like everything else in your life is more important than me.”

“That’s not true,” Paige said quickly, her voice tightening as she shook her head. “You know that’s not true.”

“Do I?” Azzi’s gaze finally met Paige’s, her eyes glistening. “Because it doesn’t feel like it.”

Paige’s jaw dropped slightly, incredulity flashing across her face. “Azzi, come on. That’s bullshit, and you know it.”

Azzi sat up abruptly, her eyebrows raising. “Don’t curse at me, Paige.”

Paige pinched the bridge of her nose, forcing herself to take a deep breath. “I’m sorry, baby, I didn’t mean it like that. But you’re not being reasonable right now.”

Azzi’s expression darkened as she folded her arms across her chest. “Excuse me?”

“I know I messed up, Az,” Paige said quickly, her voice softening again, trying to keep the situation from spiraling. “And I’m so, so sorry for that. I know I’m not usually like this. I know you count on me. But for you to say I don’t prioritize you?” Paige shook her head, her voice rising slightly. “That’s crazy.”

Azzi’s voice rose to match hers. “No, what’s crazy is you being on live with KK and Ice, laughing and eating cookies, when we were supposed to have our night. The one night we get every month, Paige.”

Paige stared at her, her frustration mounting. “Az, you act like I don’t care about us. I’m always thinking about you, no matter where I am. Do you know how many nights I’ve spent in hotel rooms, sending you flowers, texting you, calling you, because I’m trying to show you that I’m still here? That I love you?”

“And I appreciate that, Paige. I really do. But I don’t want flowers from across the country. I don’t want texts and calls while you’re in L.A. or New York or wherever the hell else you are. I want you. I want you here.”

Paige’s frustration boiled over, her voice breaking slightly. "I’m here right now, Az, and now you’re telling me you don’t want me here?"

Azzi, lying on the bed, didn’t even look at her as she replied, “Because I’m not really in the mood to be an afterthought right now.”

Paige stood, running her hands through her hair. “Are you serious, bro? You’re not an afterthought, you know that.”

Azzi let out a sharp laugh, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Well, what else do you call it when the only reason you’re here is because I pointed out that you forgot about tonight?”

“I forgot, Azzi! I forgot! Once in four years!” Paige’s voice cracked, exasperation bleeding through. “And you’re acting like it’s the end of the world, like I don’t love you. I promised I’d make it up to you—what more do you want from me?”

Azzi sat up slightly, her expression still cool but her words quieter. “I don’t want to argue, Paige. We don’t argue, we never have and we’re not about to start now. So just… come back tomorrow, okay?”

“Not okay, Paige!” Paige mimicked with frustration, pacing a few steps before stopping herself, taking a deep breath. “You clearly disagree, so just say that. Talk to me and tell me how you feel.”

Azzi shook her head, looking away. “I don’t want to argue with you. Just go for now. I need some space.”

Paige sighed deeply, rubbing at her temples before walking back to the bed. She leaned down, pressing a kiss to Azzi’s temple. Her voice softened, though still laced with frustration. “I love you. I’m sorry, Az. I really am.”

Azzi looked up at her briefly, her voice subdued. “I love you too… I’m just mad right now.”

Paige chuckled dryly, standing up. “Yeah, I got that.” As she walked to the door, she gestured lazily toward the flowers on the desk. “You should put those in water before they wilt.”

Azzi didn’t respond, her gaze fixed on the wall as Paige stepped out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her. Paige leaned against the door for a moment, exhaling deeply, before heading back to her own room.

…

When Azzi got back to her room after hanging out with Caroline the next day, she stopped in her tracks, her eyes going wide. The room was completely covered in flowers. Vases, bouquets—there were everywhere, sitting on her desk, lined up on the floor, spilling over onto her nightstand. The sight was so absurd that Azzi couldn’t help but laugh, her frustration from the night before melting away with each step she took into the floral jungle.

Shaking her head, she walked to her bed, where a single notecard sat propped up against one of the bouquets. She picked it up and immediately recognized the messy scrawl of her girlfriend’s handwriting:

Az, I’m so sorry. I really don’t know how else to show it besides this. Please just get ready and I’ll pick you up at 6. Wear the outfit I got you for yesterday.

Azzi stared at the note for a long moment, a small smile tugging at her lips despite herself. She ran her fingers over the paper, then glanced around the room again, still laughing softly at the overwhelming display of Paige’s apology.

“God, she’s so extra,” Azzi muttered to herself, but the fondness in her voice for the annoying girl she loved was there.

With a sigh, she set the card down and headed to her closet to find the outfit Paige had mentioned.

Later that night, Paige showed up at Azzi’s door with yet another bouquet of flowers in her hand—a massive arrangement of deep red roses. Azzi snorted as she opened the door, shaking her head.

“I really don’t have any more room,” she teased, stepping aside to let Paige in. “I’ve been giving them out all day.”

Paige chuckled, setting the flowers down before pulling Azzi into a hug, burying her face against her neck. “I’m sorry, Az,” she murmured, her voice full of regret. She squeezed her tightly, trying to convey just how much she meant it.

Azzi’s arms wrapped around Paige’s waist, and she whispered back, “It’s okay, baby.”

They pulled back just enough to share a gentle kiss before heading out together.

In the car, a comfortable silence settled over them, the kind that only comes from knowing someone so completely. Soft music played in the background as Azzi absentmindedly toyed with Paige’s hand, which rested over her lap. Paige glanced at her every so often, her heart swelling at how content Azzi looked now, her earlier frustration with her nowhere in sight.

When they finally pulled up to the building where the art installation had been displayed, Azzi furrowed her brows in confusion. “What are we doing here,” she said, glancing at Paige with a questioning look.

Paige gave her that familiar toothless smile, the one that always made Azzi’s heart flutter. “Come on,” she said, hopping out of the car and quickly walking around to open Azzi’s door.

Hand in hand, they approached the entrance. A man in a suit opened the door for them without a word, simply smiling as they stepped inside.

Azzi froze the moment she entered, her jaw dropping as her eyes scanned the space. The installation was still there—all of it. Every piece of art she’d been so excited to see, now illuminated in the quiet, empty space.

Her gaze snapped to Paige, her expression filled with disbelief. “Paige what… how is this still here? They’re supposed to have everything at the next location already for tomorrow.”

Paige shrugged, her casual demeanor a stark contrast to the magnitude of what she’d done. That small, toothless grin reappeared as she said simply, “I rented it for you.”

Azzi blinked, utterly dumbfounded. “You rented the art installation?”

Paige nodded like it was nothing, like this wasn’t an extravagant, over-the-top, completely expensive gesture. “Yeah,” she said. “Figured we could have it all to ourselves.”

Azzi stared at her for a long moment, her heart full as she tried to find the words to respond. She didn’t need to, though, because the way Paige was looking at her—completely and utterly smitten��said everything that needed to be said.

“Paige,” Azzi finally managed, her voice soft, almost overwhelmed, “you’re insane, you know that?”

Paige laughed, tugging her further into the space. “I know. But I’m your kind of insane, right?”

Azzi chuckled, shaking her head. “Unfortunately.”

Paige grinned, throwing an arm around Azzi’s shoulders as they began strolling through the exhibit. The space was quiet, just the hum of soft background music accompanying their footsteps.

As they stopped in front of a vivid painting, Azzi started explaining its history, rattling off random background knowledge with ease. Paige didn’t know how Azzi kept so much information tucked away in her head, but she didn’t care. She just watched her, smiling softly, soaking in the way Azzi lit up when she talked about something she was passionate about.

When Azzi finally noticed Paige’s gaze lingering on her, she smiled, nudging her gently. “What?”

“Nothing,” Paige said as she shrugged playfully. “You’re just kinda cute when you’re being all smart and stuff.”

Azzi rolled her eyes, but her cheeks tinted pink. They kept moving through the space, stopping to admire sculptures and installations. Eventually, Azzi broke the silence, her tone soft and a little vulnerable.

“This is much better than yesterday would’ve been,” she admitted. “We wouldn’t have been able to be this close in a room filled with all of those people.” She glanced at Paige, her eyes warm but tinged with a little guilt. “I don’t deserve you. I’m sorry.”

Paige stopped walking, turning to face her fully. Her hand cupped Azzi’s cheek, her thumb brushing gently along her skin. “You deserve everything and I’m the sorry one,” she said, her voice steady and filled with conviction.

Before Azzi could respond, Paige leaned in, pulling her into a slow, tender kiss. It was the kind of kiss that spoke louder than any words ever could, filled with love, forgiveness, and a promise to always be there for one another.

When they finally pulled apart, Azzi let out a soft laugh, resting her forehead against Paige’s. “You’re too much sometimes, you know that?”

“Yet, here you are still my girlfriend after all these years.” Paige teased, smirking.

“Here I am,” Azzi echoed, smiling.

The two of them continued their private tour, hand in hand, stealing kisses between pieces of art and basking in the quiet intimacy of the night Paige had created just for them.

[blossoms-phan]

What The Hell. like genuinely do we realize. just their cadence of speech and the way they carry themselves now is so different to the way it was years ago, and that shows itself in everything from videos to what they post on social media to what they’ve been doing on stage for the last few months but like. god. i hold ii as a stage show and the whole era like very close to my heart it really hurts to know how much dan struggled in that time and that it was supposed to be the end of Dan and Phil (it wasn’t!!) but I’ve been thinking about just how completely different ii and tit are as stage shows and the way dnp perform them and it’s like i saw someone wondering about the acting in ii and though it was heavily dependent on audience participation a lot of the show was also acting and it’s not that they didn’t do it well! they’re great performers and maybe I don’t remember bc I wasn’t super into the phandom ar that time but it just felt like they were a lot stiffer performing it and that they didn’t really let themselves mess up or be silly a lot (outside of what was scripted I mean). someone lmk if you have different thoughts on this bc I haven’t rewatched it in a while this is just a ramble but i am so so happy about everything that tit is and that I got to experience this version of them as a longtime fan because it is so, so evident that they are really in the dgaf era, being unapologetically themselves, no one can tell us what to do and just having the most fun ever- that all comes out through the way they carry themselves on stage, improv silly little things for fun, genuinely laugh and smile through it all and dan calling phil babe. that’s the whole reason I started writing this like. cheers dear. it’s okay honey. we let ourselves phannie out over those moments as well but this feels so different?? and we haven’t even gotten audio yet but idk how to explain this I just feel like if phil had messed up a line years ago it would’ve been like a more performance level reaction y’know, like an eye roll and a this guy which dan still very much does, but just genuinely letting an “it doesn’t matter babe” slip out like????????????? they’re literally just boyfriends partners in life actual soulmates who live and work and do everything together doing this stupid silly fucking stage show together every night and dan can just call him babe and they move on and do the show talking about them sharing a bed and the ways they’ve supported each other through this whole thing and how they’ve gotten to this point of beautiful shared authentic fun with their audience and fucking press their hands together and go back to back after that song like this has no fucking clear point to it and yet im losing my mind. does anyone hear me

[iovmegumi]

sims 4 crystal legacy challenge

hello! here is a legacy challenge i created while playing the Garden Legacy challenge. i didn’t want to finish on my tenth gen and decided to create my own challenge, based on crystals. this challenge can be continued from a previous save or started in a new one! i also tried to implement base game options for those who don’t own all the packs! some gens do need packs but if you don’t have them, they may be skipped. 

if you play this please tag me! or post your sims with #iovmegumi crystal legacy challenge

general rules ❥ you do not have to live on the same lot for all 10 generations if you wish. ❥ mods and cc are allowed! ❥ no money cheats ! ❥ i’ve assigned a colour to each gen so you may play with berry sims if you wish!  ❥ i’ve decided that in each generation you may roll for offspring (rolling a dice or using a random number generator to decide how many children) unless stated otherwise in the rules.

gen one - rose quartz (pink)

a stone of unconditional love.

growing up, all you ever wanted was a family. leaving home young to start your life, you work on your career while trying to find the one, dedicated to cultivating the perfect life. you work hard to support your family and love your children so much, opening your heart and home to those in need of families as well. you cherish your partner and frequently find yourself going on date nights.

traits: family-oriented, romantic, perfectionist aspiration: super parent (PH) or big happy family rules:

❥ level 10 cooking ❥ level 5 gourmet cooking ❥ level 10 parenting (PH) ❥ master arts critic career or reach level 10 of painting while freelancing ❥ have four kids, one adopted ❥ marry your soulmate and stay together until death do you part

gen two - orange calcite (orange)

a stone for energy and creativity.

you had everything as a child, lots of siblings and loving parents. you took an interest in your house, specifically the furniture and decided that you’d love to create your own items. when you are old enough you begin learning how to make furniture and take an interest in repairing objects. though you grew such a passion for this, you found that you hadn’t really had time to make friends.

traits: loner, self-assured, maker (EL) or creative aspiration: master maker (EL) or curator rules:

❥ level 10 fabrication (EL) or complete crystal collection or both! ❥level 10 handiness ❥ level 5 gardening ❥ level 10 civil designer career - green technician branch (EL) or live off making creations ❥ have only one friend ❥ marry that friend ❥ complete aspiration ❥ roll for offspring ❥ fill house with furniture or items you’ve made

gen three - moonstone (white)

a symbol of light and hope and also encourages us to embrace new beginnings.

your parents were so focused on the world around you that you began wondering what else was out there. you grew a fascination for space and found the urge to explore outside your planet. you meet some different people, and even find yourself falling in love with one of them. how do you tell your parents that you’re marrying an alien?

traits: genius, family-oriented, clumsy aspiration: nerd brain rules:

❥ level 10 logic ❥ level 10 fitness ❥ level 10 rocket science ❥ level 5 parenting ❥ level 10 astronaut career ❥ complete aspiration ❥ have 4-5 kids ❥ marry an alien (if you have GTW) ❥ build & fully upgrade a rocket ship ❥ travel to sixam

gen four - sodalite (blue)

enhances communication and builds confidence.

having an alien background, you have never felt like you fit in. you dream of having lots of friends and living a normal life. you focus on trying to blend into society and try to be as social as possible, throwing parties and meeting new sims, even seeming to gain some attention on the internet too.

traits: outgoing, unflirty, party animal or bro and loyal aspiration: friend of the world rules:

❥ level 10 charisma ❥ level 7 comedy or mischief ❥ level 7 video gaming ❥ level 10 social media career - internet personality branch (CL) or entertainer - comedy branch ❥ complete aspiration ❥ roll for offspring ❥ throw 5 parties over the course of your life

gen five - pyrite (grey)

used for abundance, confidence & protection.

note: this gen requires Get Famous and may be skipped if you do not own the pack!

having a well-known parent thrust you into the spotlight from a young age and as you grew older, you found yourself loving it, wanting more. you dream of being on the big screen, your face plastered on billboards, your name nominated for awards. you’ll do anything to gain fame, even if it means use others.

traits: ambitious, snob, self-absorbed (GF) aspiration: world famous celebrity rules:

❥ level 10 acting ❥ level 10 piano ❥ level 5 violin ❥ level 5 guitar ❥ level 10 acting career ❥ complete aspiration ❥ become a 5 star celebrity ❥ have two failed marriages ❥ have only one child ❥ have a butler (VG)

gen six - amethyst (purple)

a powerful protective stone.

your parent was obsessed with fame, wanting you to follow in their footsteps. after seeing how little they cared about you, you decided to go in a different direction. your butler was your best friend and basically raised you, talking to you of how they used to love their family garden. you decide a quiet life is suited to you and put all your focus into working on a lovely garden dedicated to your butler.

traits: loves the outdoors, neat, vegetarian aspiration: freelance botanist rules:

❥ level 10 gardening ❥ level 10 cooking ❥ level 6 logic ❥ level 10 gardening career (seasons) or complete basegame plants collection or both ❥ have at least 3 kids ❥ lose one child to death ❥ be best friends with your childhood butler

gen seven - tourmaline (black)

promotes happiness and offers protection, inspires creativity.

losing a sibling was the hardest time of your life, and you found that your family never recovered from this loss. you hear a myth of a book that can bring people back to life and vow to return your sibling back to you and your family. 

traits: gloomy, creative, paranoid or erratic aspiration: bestselling author rules:

❥ level 10 writing skill  ❥ level 5 photography skill (GTW) ❥ level 10 writing career ❥ complete aspiration ❥ write book of life & bring back deceased sibling ❥ marry a bookworm ❥ roll for offspring ❥ adopt a cat (C&D)

gen eight - bloodstone (red)

for courage & justice, strengthens immune system & family bonds.

your parents had been stressed a lot of their life, working hard to bring your family member back. you were frustrated that they had to go through so much and decided to take it out on others. you grew to despise most people, working on creating enemies rather than friends, feeling a sense of justice for your parent. yet you still made sure to love your children, even if you may have not loved your spouse as much.

traits: mean, noncommittal, bro aspiration: bodybuilder rules: 

❥ level 10 programming ❥ level 10 mischief ❥ level 10 criminal career (oracle branch) ❥ roll for offspring ❥ cheat on your spouse once all children are born ❥ get divorced as an adult ❥ get engaged again & leave new spouse at the altar

gen nine - amazonite (green)

a stone of peace, harmony, truth & communication.

the trauma of your parents rough marriage led you to pursue finding harmony and inner peace. you find this through yoga and painting, refusing to get a job so you can keep an eye on your spouse and make sure all your children feel loved. 

traits: jealous, erratic, art lover aspiration: painter extraordinaire rules:

❥ level 10 painting ❥ level 10 wellness (SD) or level 10 violin ❥ level 5 knitting (NK) ❥ complete aspiration ❥ never get a job ❥ fill your household with children ❥ always celebrate the holidays (seasons) ❥ go to the spa once a week (SD)

gen ten - citrine (yellow)

attracts wealth, prosperity & success.

note: this gen requires discover university! but i have included a basegame option too!

your whole life has revolved around your siblings. you had nothing that was your own and desperately wanted to remove yourself from them, wanting your own success and your own name. you study and get a degree, priding yourself on your intelligence and work ethic.

traits: hot-headed, materialistic, overachiever or ambitious aspiration: fabulously wealthy rules:

❥ level 10 robotics or level 10 logic & charisma ❥ level 7 programming ❥ level 7 handiness ❥ level 10 engineer career or level 10 business career ❥ complete aspiration ❥ get a university degree (DU) ❥ own a dog & a cat (C&D)

[merrybloomwrites]

Cheese is a Good Thing (Larry x Reader)

Summary: Attending your first Louis Tomlinson concert doesn't exactly go as planned. A trash can full of cheese and a chance encounter on a tour bus lead to a night you'll never forget.

Content Warning: smut, threesome (m, m, f) p-in-v-sex, protected sex, light dom/sub dynamic, one night stand

Word Count: 5.2K

Authors Note: This was supposed to be a very silly oneshot inspired by me actually almost falling in a trashcan full of cheese in order to move out of Oli's way at a concert. And then the devil took over and now it's possibly the smuttiest thing I've written?

I also know that I said I was taking a hiatus from posting, but I already had this started and people expressed interest in Louis x Harry x Reader so I wanted to get one story out there. Hope you enjoy!

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“Y/N, you know I don’t like when you go to things like this by yourself.” 

You roll your eyes at your mothers voice, glad that this is just a phone call so she can’t see the gesture. 

“Mom, I’m almost 30 years old. I’m smart. I know how to take care of myself.”

“I know. Still makes me nervous. Call me when you get home okay?”

“You know you’ll be asleep before Louis even gets on stage,” you reply. If there’s one thing about your mother that’s never changed, it’s her habit of going to bed early. 

“I wish we’d set up that app on my phone so I can see where you are,” she says. 

“We did set it up,” you state. “You just don’t know how to use it.”

“Oh, that’s right. How do I find you again?”

You resist the urge to roll your eyes again at the question, since you’ve taught her how to use Find My Friends about one hundred times.

“I’ve really got to get going, parking is going to be tough so I don’t want to be late.”

“Of course, okay. Have fun and be safe!”

“Thanks mom, I will. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“You’d better, I want to hear all about it!”

You almost laugh at that, since your mother literally has zero idea who Louis Tomlinson is, but you appreciate the effort. After a final goodbye you hang up the call. 

Before leaving, you glance in the mirror one last time to make sure everything is in order. Your hair is pulled up in a ponytail, your make up looks perfect, and your simple shorts and tank top sit just right. It’s a hot day, the middle of summer, and the last thing you want is to overheat.

The drive to the venue doesn’t take long, as it’s only a couple of towns over. It’s a smaller place, basically a big parking lot that got turned into a space for concerts. After waiting in line, you finally make your way inside to find a spot. It’s all general admission so you can choose to be anywhere.

The front right by the stage is already completely filled. You could get into the middle of the crowd, but you’d rather hang towards the back. While you do love Louis, it’s still broiling hot out and being surrounded by people doesn’t sound like a fun time.

Towards the back of the space is a large tent which seems to be the control center. Sound and lighting techs are working from there, as well as security personnel. There are metal gates around the tent, with an opening on the side for the staff to come and go.

This is where you station yourself. You’re outside the fence, just behind the opening. There’s a trash can behind you which essentially means no one will be able to press closely to you. Plus, if you lean over towards the fence you get a less obstructed view of the stage.

All in all, you think you’ve secured yourself a pretty good spot. You have a great time listening to the openers, and then Giant Rooks leaves the stage. It’s almost time for you to watch Louis perform live for the first time in your life.

There’s activity in the tent, and you see a man who looks kind of familiar walking out of it rolling some equipment. You try to move back a bit more to be out of his way, but the cart he’s moving still bumps into you.

It doesn’t hurt you, but it does cause you to lose your balance. And honestly, you have the worst coordination, and even worse luck. So it’s no surprise to you when you fall backwards and land not on the ground, but in the garbage can. 

There’s something warm and sticky, and you vaguely remember seeing lots of people eating nachos. Cheese. You’ve landed in basically a vat of cooling liquid cheese. Well, that’s unfortunate. 

“Holy shit, Are you okay? I'm so sorry.” A strongly accented and very worried sounding voice asks you from above. You look up and see the same man, now realizing that you recognize him from Louis’ documentary. It’s Oli, his best friend and manager. And he’s just sent you flying into a trash can. 

“I’m okay,” you reply, more shocked than anything. 

“Here,” he says as he thrusts his hand towards you. “Let me get you out of there.”

You place your hand in his and he helps pull you out until you’re standing in front of him. 

“Seriously, Are you okay?” He asks. You take a moment to assess if you have any injuries before reassuring him that you are not hurt. 

“I am literally covered in cheese sauce though,” you add with a laugh. 

“Shit, again I am so sorry. Here, come with me and we’ll get you cleaned up and in some new clothes.”

You decide to trust this man, though you really don’t have a reason to. Maybe your mom was right to be worried about you going to a concert alone, seeing as you’ve landed yourself in quite a predicament. 

“You can rinse off in the shower on the bus and there should probably be some clothes you can have. I can grab you a merch shirt to wear if you’d like.”

“Uhm, yea anything not coated in cheese would be perfect,” you reply. 

He leads you behind the stage and over to the buses. “I share this one with Louis and a couple guys from the band. They’re due to be getting ready with the sound techs so the bus should be empty,” Oli explains, pointing to the bus at the end. When you reach it he opens the door gesturing for you to enter first. 

As it turns out, Oli was wrong. Because the bus certainly is not empty. 

“Oh shit!” You exclaim as you process the sight in front of you before you quickly turn to face the other way. Oli walks into the bus and first notices the wide eyes on your face before looking behind you. And what he sees behind you is an image you’ll never erase from your brain. 

Because what you’d just walked in on is Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles shirtlessly making out on the couch. 

“Oli you better not have brought this girl in here to-”

“To do exactly what you and Harry were doing? Obviously not,” Oli replies. 

“Then explain why she’s here.”

“I accidentally pushed her into a garbage bin full of cheese sauce.”

You’re still facing away from them meaning they can easily see the mess on your clothes and skin. There’s a rustling sound and then Louis says, “You can turn around love, I promise we’re decent now.”

You do as instructed and see that the pair are now wearing shirts and are seated next to each other, rather than with Harry straddling Louis' lap like he was when you’d entered. 

“Did he really knock you into a trash bin?” Harry asks. 

“Yea, he was moving a cart with equipment and it bumped into me,” you explain. 

“Mate, you are an idiot,” Louis says with a laugh. 

“In his defense, it is pretty difficult to move through the crowd out there,” you clarify. 

“Well, it doesn't change the fact that you obviously came here to clean up and find new clothes, right?” Louis asks. 

“Exactly,” you answer. 

“What’s your name,” Harry asks. 

“I’m Y/N. It’s nice to meet you guys,” you reply. 

“I’m going to grab her one of the merch t-shirts, do you think there’s any shorts in here that’ll fit her?” Oli says. 

“I think I have something that will work,” Louis replies. 

“And bring back an NDA with you,” Harry adds. Oli just nods in understanding and walks out, closing the door behind him. 

Harry turns to you and says, “I hope you understand about the NDA. It’s not that we don’t trust you but we’ve been keeping this secret for a while. We’d really like to know that you won’t go around telling people about what you saw.”

“Oh, I totally get that,” you reply. A blush paints your cheeks as you think about what you witnessed. 

The two boys watch your reaction and share a look with each other. They seem to communicate silently for a moment before Harry takes a step towards you. 

“Did you like what you saw?” He asks. His tone isn’t judgemental, nor is it angry. In fact, it seems to be teasing, or almost hopeful. 

“I mean, I promise I looked away the second I realized. I really didn’t see anything,” you answer. 

“Would you like to?” Louis asks. 

This has your mind basically going offline. Did Louis Tomlinson really just ask if you want to see him and Harry Styles make out? Or maybe even do more than that? 

“Aw, babe, she’s blushing. I think he wants to join us,” Harry says to Louis, in a voice certainly meant to make you squirm. 

“Oh you’re right, love, she definitely wants to,” Louis replies. 

He walks forward, until he’s standing right in front of you. His hands move to cup your face and he asks, “Would it be alright if I kissed you? Wouldn’t want to leave you out of the fun.”

You nod, but he gives you a look, silently telling you to use your words. “Yes, it’s alright,” you confirm. And then his lips are on you. They’re plush, yet demanding, and in no time his tongue is breaching your lips, caressing the inside of your mouth. 

As quickly as it began, the kiss ends. It leaves you breathless and dizzy. Louis steps back and you feel like you’ll fall to the floor, except now Harry is there, his hands on your hips. After once again asking your consent, he leans in for a kiss of his own. He’s softer, gentler and yet you’re still melting in his arms after just a moment of his lips pressing against yours. 

He pulls away and moves back, giving you space. And not a moment too soon because a second later Oli is reentering the bus holding a bag. 

“Lou, everything’s ready, time to go,” he says as he hands you the bag. 

“Got it, I’ll meet you out there in a second,” Louis replies.

“You’d better,” Oli lightheartedly threatens before leaving once again. 

“Listen,” Louis begins. “You know about the two of us now. And you enjoyed what you saw earlier. And those kisses, well that’s just the start of what we can do. We're staying at a hotel here in town tonight. If you’d like to join us, the invitation is open. Think about it and tell us after the show, okay?”

You look at both of them and see their serious expressions before saying a quiet, “Okay.”

“I have to run before Oli kills me,” Louis says, tuning to kiss Harry goodbye. 

“Break a leg babe, I’ll make sure Y/N has what she needs and get her out to watch you,” Harry says. Louis exits the bus and Harry turns to you, adding, “I have a spot we can watch from, the view is perfect. But you need to not be covered in cheese. The bathrooms over here if you want to rinse off and change.”

Harry leads you to the small bathroom, shows you how to use the shower, and hands you a towel before giving you some privacy. You undress and hop in the shower, quickly rinsing off all grime from the trash can. You wrap yourself in the towel and look in the bag of clothes, realizing it’s only shirts. No bottoms. Crap. You’d gotten distracted and forgot to get a pair from Louis before he left. 

One glance at your shorts proves there’s no way to salvage them for the evening. After making sure the towel covers you enough, you open the door and poke your head out. 

“Hey Harry?” You call, hoping he’s still nearby. 

“Yea?” He answers and walks around the corner to see you. When he sees your undressed state there’s an irrefutable look of lust on his face. He quickly schools his expression and says, “Need something?”

“Uhm, Louis was supposed to grab me some shorts?” You say uncertainly. 

“Oh right! Let me get something, hold on.”

He’s back a second later handing you a pair of shorts, and you change speedily. Once you finish you start hearing Louis’ intro. You shove your dirty clothes into the bag and Harry leads you out of the bus. 

There’s a building just next to the pit that he walks into. The two of you go upstairs to a room with windows. They’re obviously tinted so no one can see in, but you guys can see literally everything from here. There’s speakers as well so the sound is perfect. 

Other people are in the room, people who must be close to Louis in some way because none of them are shocked by Harry being there. The show is amazing, Louis does a fantastic job, and you’re so enthralled you almost forget about their offer from earlier. 

Almost. 

When the show ends, the room clears out, but Harry stays there and asks you to wait with him. A few minutes later Louis enters, literally glistening in sweat. He rushes to Harry, and they meet in a dirty kiss. You audibly gulp at the sight, your body temperature rising. 

They turn to you then, and Louis asks, “Did you make a decision?”

“We don’t want to pressure you,” Harry says, and Louis nods seriously beside him. “But we’d love for you to join us if you want.”

You hesitate for a moment. This would be new territory for you. Never before had you slept with two men, let alone two famous men. 

And then you stop debating. Because really, you’d be crazy to turn down this offer. “I want to,” you reply, happy to hear how sure and confident you sound. 

“Well then, our ride is just downstairs,” Louis says and he leads you both out to a waiting car. 

The driver asks no questions as the three of you slide into the backseat. You’re squished in the middle, and highly aware of each point of contact you have with the boys on either side of you. It’s scary, but mostly, it’s exhilarating. You find yourself anxious for the ride to end, eager to get somewhere private. 

You enter the hotel through the back door and take a service elevator to the top floor. Louis’ suite is immaculate, and you’d normally be exploring every inch. But you’re not the only one antsy to get things going. 

As soon as the door latches shut, Louis is pressed against your back, his arms wrapping around your waist and his half hard cock obvious where it pushes on your bum. Harry stands in front of you,  his hand going to your face, but he doesn’t lean in. Not until Louis tells him to, and then his mouth immediately finds yours. 

You can tell there’s definitely a slight power dynamic here, and Louis seems to be in charge. Which is more than fine by you. Truthfully you’re a bit out of your depth and would love for someone to lead you here. 

It’s easy to see that Harry was holding back during the kiss earlier. There’s no more hesitance, and while he may be submissive when it comes to Louis, he definitely has a dominant side if the way he takes control of the kiss is anything to go by. 

Harry curls his tongue around yours at the same moment as Louis, now fully hard, grinds against you. The two sensations together pull a needy moan from your mouth as your body goes lax. Louis tightens his grip and Harry moves closer in order to keep you upright. 

“My turn,” Louis says and Harry immediately removes his lips and moves his hands away from your face. One of Louis’ finds your chin and he grips it lightly in order to turn your head to the side. He crashes his lips against yours and Harry’s hands start to explore your body. 

“Please,” you whimper out, unsure what you need but knowing that it’s just more. 

“Sound so pretty when you beg,” Louis says. 

“And while you do look fantastic in my husband's merch,” Harry says, “how about we get you out of it for now?”

You nod, loving the sound of getting rid of the clothes that now feel unpleasant on your sensitive and overheated skin. Harry slips your shirt over your head as Louis shimmies your shorts off, leaving you in your simple bra and panties. Both boys then remove their own shirts, and you pause a moment to take in their bare torsos. Their skin feels so smooth as you run your fingertips over their newly exposed tattoos. 

Your hands continue moving south, until they glide over both of the boys' hard cocks, causing the sweetest sounds to ring out. Emboldened by their noises of desire, you slowly sink to your knees. 

“Please,” you say again, this time clearly knowing what you want. Harry and Louis know as well, and waste no time removing the rest of their clothing. Your mouth waters at the two beautiful cocks as they’re revealed to you. While Louis is a tad longer, Harry is definitely wider. But truthfully, you have no doubt that they both would satisfy you immensely. 

You start by wrapping a hand around each of them, gripping just firm enough to give a hint of pleasure. You lean to Louis first, licking his tip before moving to do the same for Harry.  You feel them shiver in pleasure and decide to take it further. Turning back to Louis, you wrap your lips around him, moving down a couple inches until he brushes the back of your throat. You pull back slightly and begin to move up and down, using your hand for the base that doesn’t fit. 

When his moans grow louder you pull off, turning to Harry and repeating the process. Your lips stretch around him, and you feel more arousal drip into your already wet underwear. After a minute, you’re being pulled to your feet and both boys kiss you messily before maneuvering so you’re lying on your back in bed. 

“Harry, why don’t you show her how much we appreciate what she just did for us,” Louis says. Once again, Harry doesn’t think, just acts. You jolt at the feeling of his lips pressing a kiss to your clit over your panties.

“Jesus, love, you’re fucking drenched. Lou, you have to see this.”

Next you feel Louis’ fingers moving along the gusset of your underwear before he says, “You’re just gushing baby. Why don’t we get this off, they’re ruined anyway, won’t do you much good.” 

You nod vigorously, wanting him to remove them and hoping he’ll do the same with your bra so you can be completely free, completely bare in front of them. You’re in luck, because as he slowly slips the material down your legs, Harry takes care of your bra for you, leaning down to wrap his lips around each breast in turn. 

“She’s ready for you,” Louis says. “Switch with me.” 

Harry does so, and he immediately begins eating you out. It starts gentle, but just for a moment. A couple kisses to your thighs quickly turns into him running his tongue along your folds and then drawing circles on your clit. 

He teases your hole more than once, but never enters which drives you wild. He continues working you up while Louis takes over playing with your breasts, kissing and placing light bites to your nipples. That’d never brought you pleasure before but mixing with what Harry’s doing, it has you seeing stars in no time at all. 

Together the two of them bring you to your first orgasm of the night. It crashes over you in waves, and leaves you moaning and thrashing on the bed. 

You try to catch your breath, but they barely give you a break before switching spots and starting the process over again. But this time Louis does more than tease your hole. His tongue breaches your entrance first before he replaces it with two fingers. 

They curl just right and he instantly finds that perfect spot inside of you. His mouth moves to your clit, sucking it in while his fingers continue their ministrations inside you. 

Meanwhile, Harry’s hands are roaming your body, leaving tingly hot sensations over every bit of skin they find. He’s also murmuring in your ear, his warm breath blowing on your neck as he says things like, “Love those pretty noises you’re making for us,” and,  “Just listen to how wet you are,” and, “Gonna be a good girl for us? Come again, all over Lou’s hand?”

The combination of those words being said in Harry’s low, gruff voice, and Louis fingers and tongue working you up just right has you hurtling into your next orgasm. You cry out again and it rolls through you, even more intense than the last one. 

“Fuck,” Harry says. “You just squirted, why didn’t you tell us you could do that? I might’ve worked harder, which you’d gushed on my face like that.”

“I didn’t- I what? I’ve never done that before. I didn’t know.” Your mind is fuzzy but you try to reply. You can’t believe that just happened. And they liked it? They weren’t grossed out?

You must’ve said that last question out loud because Louis is up by your face a moment later saying, “Not at all. That was one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen. Think you have one more in you? Can you take Harry in that perfect cunt?”

“I think so,” you reply, laying bonelessly on the bed. 

“You think? Do you want to stop here? We don’t want to push you too far,” Louis says, his voice gentler now. 

“No! I don’t want to stop. I can take it, I promise,” you reply. You don’t know what’s gotten into you, but the idea of stopping before they’ve both come has you feeling almost guilty. You want them to feel the same kind of pleasure they already gave you. 

“Okay, just let us know if it’s too much and we’ll stop,” he says before stepping away for a moment. 

He comes back with two foil packets and a small bottle. He and Harry both open a packet and you watch as they each slide a condom down their lengths. 

“Lou’s gonna fuck me while I fuck this pretty pussy, does that sound good to you?” Harry says. 

“Sounds perfect,” you answer. 

You’re still laying on your back, definitely earning a pillow princess title but everyone seems to be fine with that. Harry’s hands gently grip your thighs and he pushes your legs open wide, kneeling in between to get into position. But instead of lining up with your entrance, he gets on his hands and knees. 

You realize that they’d opened you up already, but Harry needs prep too before he can take Louis. You expect Louis to finger him open, but gasp along with Harry when Louis pulls a plug out of Harry instead. You realize that’s been there all night, was probably put in shortly before you walked in on them earlier. 

The thought sends another wave of desire through you, and while a second ago you weren’t sure how much more you could take, now you're desperate to be filled. 

“You ready baby girl?” Louis asks, coming over to press another kiss to your lips. The gentle peas of his lips to yours settles you, and when he pulls away there’s a calm smile on your face and you reply, “I’m ready.”

“Okay. Harry, show our girl what you can do.”

A moment later you feel Harry’s tip at your entrance. You thought they’d opened you up before, but you must’ve underestimated Harry’s size, because you feel each second of him gently pushing inside. It’s a pleasant pain that quickly shifts to only pleasure. 

“One more thing,” Louis says before lifting your hips to slide a pillow under you. Harry moves as well, and you moan as he hits even deeper inside you. This also puts him in a better position to take Louis from behind. 

You feel, more than see, when Louis slides into Harry. He thrusts gently inside you, and leans down to bite your neck while letting out the neediest whine you’ve ever heard come from a man. It’s also possibly the hottest sound you’ve ever heard from a man. 

They fall into a rhythm, controlled by Louis, and the three of you fall speechless. The room is filled with a cacophony of moans and whimpers, as well as the noises being made by your bodies connecting over and over. 

You come first, your walls squeezing around Harry’s cock, pulling him in impossibly deeper. Your body feels almost numb, somewhat tingly, and your brain grows even fuzzier. It’s like there’s a disconnect between the two. It’s a weird feeling, but not unpleasant. 

Harry’s thrusts start to grow sloppy and he tucks his head into your neck as he comes. You feel the pulsing of his cock inside you, and his moans vibrate against your neck. Even after he’s finished, he remains inside and you can feel the way Louis is moving in him as it jostles you as well. 

Louis whines grow higher until he stills, holding himself flush to Harry before finally pulling out. Harry slides out of you as well, slowly and gently, knowing you’re probably sore after three rounds with them. 

They lay on either side of you, each wrapping and arm over your waist. After you all catch your breath Louis asks, “You okay love?”

A smile spreads on your face as you reply, “I’m so, so okay. That was amazing.”

“Glad you liked it,” Harry says. 

You continue to bask in the afterglow until Harry finally states, “We should probably get cleaned up.”

You suddenly become aware of how sticky your legs are and reply, “That’s probably a good idea. Any chance you have spare sheets?” Your mind and body are fully reconnected now and you can feel how soaked the bed is under you. 

“Better yet, there’s a second bedroom. Completely unused bed in there,” Louis informs you. 

He gets up, reaching a hand out, helping you stand as well. The three of you end up taking a shower and they gently clean you up, pressing only the gentlest kisses to any marks they left on your skin. 

After drying off you end the night in a soft, comfortable bed, Harry on one side and Louis on the other. They whisper praises, telling you how good you were, how much they enjoyed their time with you. You fall asleep feeling more satisfied than you can remember ever being before. 

Soft light filters through curtains the next morning when you wake up. Harry is still in bed, awake and scrolling on his phone. 

“Good morning,” you say. 

“Good morning. How did you sleep?” He asks.

“Wonderfully. How about you?”

“Best rest I;v;e had in weeks,” he answers with a soft smile. “Lou’s just getting everything ready. We need to leave in an hour to get to the next venue,” he informs you. 

“Oh, yea, I should probably be going.” No sense dragging it out anymore, now that the night is over. 

“Of course not. You can’t go until you’ve had breakfast with us. I mean, we didn’t buy you dinner before getting you into bed, the least we can do is get you some breakfast after,” he says with a laugh, his dimples showing and making you blush. “It should be here soon. We didn’t know what you’d like so we got a few options.” 

“Thanks, that’s really kind of you.” 

Harry pulls you in and you relax in his embrace until Louis pops into the room saying “Food’s here.”

You move to get out of bed and then realize that you’re not wearing anything. Louis notices your predicament and disappears again before returning with the other t-shirt Oli had gotten you the previous evening, as well as a clean pair of boxers and shorts and your own bra. He leaves again giving you privacy to get dressed, which you do quickly. 

You join them for breakfast, happy to see they've gotten pancakes, your favorite. Louis also pours you a cup of tea, making it a perfect start to the day. 

“Oh, by the way, where is your car parked?” Louis asks. 

Truthfully you’d forgotten you had a car. Had forgotten life outside this hotel exists. So you pull up your phone and look at the dropped pin you’d placed last night to remember when you’d parked. 

“It’s just a few blocks from here,” you say, showing him the screen. 

“Ok perfect, a member of my team will be here in a minute to grab your key and pick it up to bring it to the hotel.”

“Oh that’s alright, I don’t mind walking.” Though as you say it, you realize it’d be a walk of shame, which you’re not thrilled about.

“I insist. Don’t want you walking that far, especially not after last night,” he adds with a cheeky smile. You blush for the thousandth time, knowing exactly what he’s thinking about. 

Someone does come to grab your key, effectively ending the walk down memory lane. The three of you chat for a bit, the boys asking you questions about yourself before Louis shifts awkwardly and says, “I noticed the NDA in the bag when I was grabbing your shirt. I truly hate to ask but-”

“You don’t have to ask. Of course I’ll sign.”

“Thank you love, it just gives us peace of mind.”

“I’m more than happy to.” You promptly get up to grab the papers and a pen, handing it to Louis once completed. “I really enjoyed spending the night with you guys. And not just the sex, but everything else too. You really take aftercare seriously,” you say with an awkward laugh. 

“Well, we do pride ourselves on being gentlemen,” Harry replies, flashing you another dazzling smile. 

Louis receives a text a minute later and says, “They’ve got your car downstairs, and we really should be getting going.”

You all stand up and they each pull you in for a hug. 

“I think I speak for both of us when I say we really enjoyed last night,” Harry says. 

Louis adds, “Absolutely. We’re so glad you agreed to be with us.”

“Well I’m just happy falling into a trash can full of cheese actually had a good outcome.” 

They both laugh at that before each giving you one more kiss and saying goodbye. 

You drive home in a daze and spend the day just thinking about the events of the previous night. You call your mother as promised, telling her a mostly fabricated story of your night which to her knowledge, ended with you arriving home before midnight.  

And when you watch a livestream of Louis’ show that evening and hear him mention how much he loves nacho cheese, you know it’s his way of saying he’s thinking of you. 

You know you’ll remember that night for a long time, and hope they will as well.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN: Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear what you thought about this first Larry x reader story! Requests are open if there's anything you'd want to see in the future

[ctheathy]

Zails the Zone Cop NSFW Headcanons

Zails x Reader

NSFW Headcanons

Short Concept

Potential ⚠️TWs⚠️ :

Both reader+character are of legal age or aged-up for obvious reasons in this post!

These are smut headcanons, read at own risk. !Female!dom!Reader+sub!Zails • Eating his darling out • Drooling/salivating • He gets a bit rabid with it

Ah, wowie. Zails getting himself a girlfriend? I thought it would never happen... but let me tell you that Zails is truly one of the most hopeless and desperate variant of Tails that exists. He would be so needy for constant affection and reassurance, but he'd also be quicker to grow a lot more ...horny than the rest of the bunch. Even if he constantly has his grabby fingers all over you, a singular touch from you can easily trigger his sensitive nerves, leaving him an aroused mess.

And if you gave him permission to taste your cervical fluids? That is 111% the worst idea I’ve ever heard in my life and you absolutely should do it because it would absolutely shatter Zails the best way possible. He would instantly fall and completely melt into a drooling mess and beg you for a chance. He’s not used to those sweet, sweet fluids and he is absolutely not stopping until he has to be pried off of your body with a crowbar. He would be in pure ecstasy and nobody would be able to separate him from you anymore.

It would be the worst thing Zails has ever felt, and he wouldn’t be able to think straight anymore due to how much he would enjoy it. He’d be making pathetic groaning noises and his leg would shake uncontrollably. You would be his whole world at that moment, he wouldn’t even hear it if there was a volcano exploding outside his house. There would be no way for him to recover from that at all.

Tell him to not dare disappoint you while does the deed.

Cause that, my friends, would be the end of everything for Zails because that would literally be the final blow. His legs would go numb from the ecstasy as he softly moans into your entrance, tongue working overtime just to enjoy the sweet and divine taste. His mind would become completely flooded with hormones that would leave him absolutely dizzy. His whole world has been flipped upside down and he would NEVER recover from this.

He’d be so weak-minded that he wouldn’t be able to think of anything else but making you feel satisfied as his eyes would roll back and moan louder into you, not wanting it to stop. He would be completely addicted to the taste, and the sound, and the sight of the whole thing. His tongue deep inside of you getting every drop of nectar he can. I can see his tongue would become more desperate with its movements to try and taste even more of you. Becoming more vocal as it reaches deeper into your body, his tongue being in this hot, moist and tight claustrophobic space, with juices soaking his already wet tongue.

And by the time he reaches that level of desperation, he’d be nothing short of rabid. His tongue would move at rapid pace as he just tries to get more of every single drop, his brain just melting to the point he feels like a drooling animal. And the more he gets the more desperate he becomes, he would feel your hands on his back and he would get more desperate. He’d start licking anywhere you touched him, just praying for more. His body is nothing more than a shell anymore.

Which is the perfect comparison honestly, he’d be acting like he was on death row and this was his last meal before dying. He would be lapping up everything like a dog that wasn’t fed for weeks. And if you decided to actually allow yourself to climax, oh lord, that would be the biggest shot of pure ecstasy he could ever experience. It would absolutely break him to the bone. He would feel like he didn’t deserve to live for being able to experience that kind of blissful experience.

You'd have a grip over his tongue since the start of the interaction, and it would get progressively tighter until it would become unbearable. His breathing would get heavier and he’d start to moan so loudly, but you could definitely make him feel the lowest he could possibly be. He’d be trying to reach a deeper level while you can enjoy every moment of him being helpless in your grasp, sitting on his face once he’s ready to burst.

Zails would absolutely need a full body suit just to keep all the drool in his mouth because he’s actually just a mess of an entity at this point. He’s nothing short of a starving animal in heat who would have no care about being overstimulated. And if you were to let out a sound that even remotely resembles a moan, he’d be a goner. He’d go insane on you and you may as well just be giggling the whole time over him melting and making a mess. He is completely broken at this point. All it takes is a single sound.

And that, I think, would cause his mind to completely snap. He would be completely overrun by his own emotions and be in complete euphoria, yet so filled with desire too. He would reach a point where even days after the experience, he will literally be begging for you to let him drink from your fountain of life again. You would not only see the desperation in his eyes, but you could feel it in his entire being. And his body would be shaking all over, as if in a fever, unable to contain all of that need inside ever again.

A need he didn't even know he had.

[cosmics-beings]

I *need* to read that ES!StarOp, there is potential in that lovely premise. I love and can see how protective Starscream would be. I'm curious how everyone would react to them being together~

You’ve opened a can of worms now because I must tell you about my AU. But first, yes…I am all for protective Starscream. Especially with post war OP. In my Prime and IDW Aus, Optimus is just not happy with his life and kind of wants to go off and live on his own but people won’t let him. For Optimus, he is a character that everyone, and I mean everyone who knows/has a relationship with him feels entitled too. Starscream is one of the few people who is an outside perspective, so he is able to understand Optimus’ pain and the need to keep up a façade.

In my earthspark Aus, things are different. Optimus actually frees Starscream after talking to him for a few years while he’s imprisoned, and he gets a different side of Starscream. Starscream is still, well, Starscream so he is still evil. But Starscream falls in love with the bot he can speak to across the bars, and he learns things about Optimus that he has told no one. Optimus understands that with Starscream, he doesn’t have to keep up his walls or attempt to be this leader everyone wants him to be, he can rest. He can be vulnerable around Starscream. And in general, no one cares about Optimus. He is always protecting and watching over others, so coming to the lower levels of Ghost and talking to Starscream…he starts to open up.

Eventually, the two fall deeply in love and Optimus does free Starscream – and Starscream convinces Optimus to free his sisters as well (Nova and Skywarp). Surprisingly, the three aren’t terrible and for the most part just live by themselves in an abandoned Decepticon base, attempting to build a bridge back to Cybertron. In secret, Optimus visits Starscream and the two grow a stronger relationship. I toggle with this part of the AU, but they do have two sparklings together, that are raised by Starscream, Skywarp, Nova and Optimus. Per Starscream’s request, Optimus doesn’t tell anyone about their children. However, Optimus loves them both. They are a boy and a girl.

Things end terribly when GHOST finds out, and not only recaptures the Seekers but erases everyone’s mind. So Starscream forgets, so does Optimus. They forget about their children, their happiness, etc. As do Nova and Skywarp. 

In my AU, it isn’t until S2 of ES, do things start coming back to them. Their children are kinda just off. Their daughter was captured and almost used as a weapon by GHOST but she escaped and finds her younger brother.

Now I’ve gone off on a tangent XD. But how does everyone react? Well for the first years of the relationship, absolutely no one knows. And they don’t even know they were in a relationship until much later. TBH, especially with Starscream being evil, I don’t think a lot of people would be happy. And some might think he manipulated/seduced Optimus in the past so that he could get free, which he did not. But when they get their memories back, the love resumes. TBH, it was always there so when G.H.O.S.Ts mind tricks wore off and they remembered it was easy to come back to each other. Starscream is still evil, and he is still kinda possessive of his big strong, but also sad mech and he can fight soo….I think Hashtag knows. And hashtag is also friends with their children? Dot also knows, I hc that despite everything , Dot and Starscream are friends. 

[seeker-of-stories19]

One I thing I have personally really appreciated about Bridgerton is seeing Violet interacting with her children in different ways and being portrayed differently in each season. I don’t mean for this to be a super negative post about her just that I think people tend to ignore the real disparities in how parents treat different children and usually when it is brought up it’s minimized to ‘having a favorite.’

But there’s so much depth in Bridgertons portrayal of Violets relationships with her individual children and how much they are affected deeply by society, trauma, her personal feelings etc. Parents are genuinely influenced by these things and it is unfortunately projected differently onto different kids, whether that is because of outside forces or clashing personalities or something else entirely it’s often glossed over or handled poorly in media.

Coming from a loving family doesn’t necessarily say much about what someone went through growing up and often love is only a small part of the equation. Despite Violet loving all her children they have had very different lives and experiences related to her parenting and you can clearly see that with each one of them.

First you have Daphne who is generally taken with the whole idea of being a debutante and the idea of romance which is very relatable to Violets character and their relationship (from what I remember) paints a generally idyllic picture of the family.

Then you have Anthony who is at the other end of the spectrum entirely, he has gone through extreme trauma and been neglected, abandoned, and parentified to an intense degree. We see him struggle with poor self esteem, anxiety, and imposter syndrome as he tries to step up during the worst time of his life. He has to bear the weight of Violets grief as well as his own and raise his siblings and handle the estate meaning that he has had an incredibly different parental relationship with her.

Benedict and Colin both seem to receive some light chastisement and a bit of meddling from Violet about their choices and finding a match but are generally not bothered by it and both seem to be relatively content in their relationships with her which again is very different to what some of the siblings experience.

Eloise also struggles with her relationship with Violet, albeit in a very different way to Anthony and for very different reasons, but it’s coming from a place of not wanting to disappoint Violet while also not wanting to be someone she’s not. I think Violet generally handles this as well as she’s able within the confines of the time period and despite hurting Eloise she seems to be coming from a place of trying to help her find her place within a framework that already exists but still in a way that’s authentic.

Francesca also seems to have a primarily positive relationship with Violet but there is some pain surrounding their differences and how Violet and her siblings fail to understand her or meet her where she is at, leaving her as the outlier of her family and struggling with loneliness because of it.

I don’t think I’ve seen enough with Gregory and Hyacinth to see get a very good idea of those relationships but they seem happy and content, they also haven’t really gone through the trauma of losing a parent the way their siblings have which was a very pivotal moment for the rest of the family. Whereas Violet and Anthony are the only parents they ever really know.

The point of all of this is just that I think this is so important to the storylines and really lends the Bridgerton family a lot of depth that makes them much more realistic together and individually compared to how families usually work. The siblings are different people who all have very different relationships with their mother and are treated in observably different ways, for better or for worse, and from my personal experience this is much more realistic than the average dynamics portrayed on TV.

[gilverrwrites]

Hellooo, I hope ur doing well ;) Can I request Bruce Wayne/Batman for the headcanon meme ? I know this is a lot and I apologise in advance lol, but I’m genuinely so interested about your takes on Bruce 🫶🏼 Hi anon, I hope you don't mind but I'm posting this as a text post so I can add a read more to it. Thank you so much for the ask, I'm honored that you're curious my HCs. Again thank you, and have a super rest of your day! 💖💖💖

• what religion are they? how do they practice? Canonically, I believe he was raised catholic, and identifies as an atheist because if there was an all knowing God, why would he let Gotham exist as it is?

But I’ve always had trouble rationalising religion in comics. I’m also an atheist but if I’d met/knew Gods literally walked the Earth (Zeus for example) I would be having a crisis of faith. Pretty sure Superman once met the Christian God? Bruce clearly has a stronger sense of belief than I.  

So, practice wise; Growing up would be church on Sundays, grace before dinner. Nightly prayers. Once his parents had passed, while Bruce would be questioning his faith, I don’t think Alfred would have enforced such things if Bruce didn’t want to continue practicing.

• what holidays do they decorate for? For the longest time he didn’t decorate for any. Alfred decorated at least for Christmas every year, but Bruce stopped noticing once he became Batman.

It wasn’t until a young Dick mentioned he’d never been trick or treating that Bruce started to put the effort in. That year Dick had the best Robin Hood costume, Bruce dressed as Little John, and Alfred as Friar Tuck. Not only did Dick get to go trick or treating, but Bruce and Alfred decked out the front yard for any local kids too.

When thanksgiving rolled around, Alfred was delighted that Bruce seemed to care about it again, having gone out to buy new centre pieces. And that year was the first year since he was child that Bruce helped put up the Christmas decorations.

Every year he tried to one up the last, however, his presence on the day dwindles until Dick goes off to college and Bruce’s motivation to care about such frivolous things while Gotham needs him is gone. But this exact process repeats with every adopted child until there’s always somebody home, be they young and living with him or old and visiting.

• what clubs / sports were they involved in as a child / teenager When he dropped out of school, that also meant quitting any clubs and sports. The lack of team sports is probably a contributing factor to his inability to communicate well with others outside of strategy. However, prior to that he was a Cub Scout, as well as tennis and fencing (fuckin’ Rich kids).

Post homeschool (much like in the Gotham TV show) Alfred ensured Bruce was still doing outdoorsy activities; camping, hiking, learning survival skills. As well as Bruce insisting on multiple forms of combat training. He continued fencing.

• do they take any medications? No. That’s not to say he shouldn’t be on medication, he just doesn’t. Hard to speak to a professional when you can only tell them half of your life.

He does however take daily vitamins along with his protein, creatine etc. If he’s not taking supplements, Alfred is sneaking them into his food. He eats nothing but protein, gotta make sure he’s getting his nutrients somewhere.

• do they watch the olympics? do they prefer summer or winter Rarely has the time. But if and when he does sit down to watch I’d say his preferred watches are; tennis, fencing, boxing, and judo. Sports that mean something to him. For that reason he also prefers the summer games over winter.

• what are they like when they're sick? Nightmare. Alfred is a saint for putting up with it, honestly. That WFA comic where he’s trying desperately to get back to work whilest injured is 100% accurate to my imaginings. Even when he’s too sick to move, he’s still thinking up ways he can sneak out of bed, wondering if he should build a batlaptop for these sorts of occasions.

Crime is never sick; therefore Batman can’t be sick!

• what do they usually buy in a gift shop? It varies from place to place but typically:

Fridge magnet and/or some other small kitchen accessories for Alfred.

Stationary for Damian.

Preferably a cola drink, but if not a snack for Tim. He’s specifically looking for decorative packaging that can be saved. [See this Tim HC]

Pin badges for Babs.

Postcards for Dick.

An oversized hoodie for Cass. Black only.

An oversized hoodie for Steph. Tacky only.

Keying for Jason.

Puzzles or decorative decks of playing cards. (Duke is into tabletop card games, Bruce thinks they’re the same thing)

A coffee mug for himself.

• what color was their childhood bedroom? Blue, and it’s still blue but a lot of the furniture has changed. Can’t sleep in a kids bed forever.

Most of the new furniture is sleek, modern looking and black. He likes the gothic style, but this is where he often brings his dates/hook up, and the minimalist style suits his image better.

The old bed, desk, toy box etc haven’t been thrown out or anything, they’ve been used by most of his family as they’ve grown up and are currently in Damian’s room. Everyone who has used the desk (B included) has carved their their initials on the underside of it.

• what does a typical day off work look like for them? A day off? What’s that? Seriously, even if he’s not being Batman, he’s being Brucie, Mr Wayne, Matches, or Dad or even just working out.

On the rare, rare, rare occasions he’s not doing any of those things, the first thing he does is sleep in. He probably needs to sleep for 5 days straight, but he’ll only sleep until 10/11ish.

By now he’s missed breakfast (which is served from 8-9), so he’s latching onto the first person to pick up the phone and taking them out for brunch. By now he’s already itching to get back in the cave, and to thwart this he forces himself to stay in the city; go to a museum, walk in that park, visit a friend, go shopping for (another) new watch, anything but return home.

Will surprise Damian by picking him up from school. Damian, as he gets older externally complains and cringes more and more, but he loves it.

When they get home, he becomes a nuisance until dinner, offering help to everyone with anything to distract himself. It’s appreciated but nobody needs help with homework or housework.

After dinner is the home stretch, and the easiest part. He gathers as many people as he can in the family room for films or games, and by the time they’re done it’s bedtime.

He’s in the batcave at midnight.

• how many pillows do they sleep with? One. He has at least ten in the bed, every night she shifts all but his favourite to the floor, and every morning Alfred makes the bed and puts them all back and arranges them perfectly.

• what's their least favorite chore? He rarely does chores, but Alfred must have time off. The first time he took a week off since Bruce became Batman was the first time he realised the impracticality of having a CAVE! So much sweeping and dusting and everything smells damp, he has no idea how Alfred keeps it liveable because after 2 days Bruce was overwhelmed and ready to risk it all by moving everything upstairs.

• how often do they do their laundry? He doesn’t. If Alfred isn’t available, he’s been specifically instructed to take anything that needs cleaning to the dry cleaners. Not because he’s incapable of doing laundry, he’s not completely inept at doing normal things. He just thinks he can do it better. Which often results in the washer-dryer being ‘upgraded’ in ways that nobody ever needs, and Alfred hates it.

• what is their favorite wine / liquor? Prefers wine to spirits, specifically red. Or better yet, champagne.

When he does drink spirits he leans towards brandy, the same kind that his mother would drink.

• what is their favorite scent of candle? Citrusy, fresh scents. Something strong that pierced the musty smell of the Batcave or the damp of the city. Sage & citrus, lemon lime, maybe even mint cucumber.

• what's their guilty pleasure tv show? Again, he rarely watches TV. But I think at least once while on ordered bed rest he ‘accidentally’ watched every season of the Kardashian’s. He 'hated' every second.

He’s assigned all of his children a Kardashian and keeps up to date with every episode, just as a person who hates the show would do. He will never tell anyone else.

Tim knows. Bruce knows that Tim knows but they’ve never discussed it. Tim has never seen a single episode, but he’s seen memes, and will quote them in front of people to make Bruce sweat.

• have they ever done volunteer work? Bruce is a known philanthropist. The Wayne Foundation is a non-profit which primary cause is funding charities, hospitals, medical research, urban renewal, etc.

He puts a lot of money into The Wayne Hospital (or whatever its called dependant on the media). He also funds a lot of youth centres, and rehabilitation centres.

But as for actual hands-on charity work, no. It anything it would cause more harm than good.

Could you imagine being homeless, starving, at your lowest, and when you arrive there’s fucking media vans and photographers everywhere, cataloguing your worst? And then inside, the herald prince of the city that has screwed you over, billionaire Brucie Wayne is serving you ladles of dirt-cheap slop? You'd be mortified, pissed.

• do they listen to music or watch tv more often? Definitely music. TV is time consuming; music is easier to multi-task. I don't think he listens to much of anything other than classical and meditative music. Maybe some kind of classic rock workout playlist on Spotify that Babs occasionally hacks into and keeps adding back-to-back plays of Black Betty. Bruce gets so into his workouts that he doesn't notice until one day he realises he's done a 2-hour cardio session and Black Betty has been playing the entire time.

• do they watch the superbowl even if they aren't into football? Not into football and barely has the time. However, when it's football season, the men (and some women) in his social circles go crazy for it, so he keeps up with the matches through news reports and tries to watch the final, Batman missions permitting.

(Psst. I'm from the UK and know nothing about American football. I presume the Superbowl is preceded by a series of tournament matches like euro football (soccer) is?)

• do they collect anything? Children

Watches, and cars. Later in life, he's fixed on these things a lot more, because he's been collecting them for so long. But they started purely as a way to fit in with his high society peers. To make him appear more normal.

Imagine that scene in American Psycho where they're comparing busisness cards, but it's Gotham’s richest competing over who has the latest watch, the nicest vintage car etc. Now that he knows what he likes he's more focused in on those; he like vintage European watches and American cars.

I also love the idea that Dick once bought him an ugly novelty tie (completely earnestly) on like his second Christmas at the Manor, and that quickly became a tradition. Every year he gets a new tie, the most hideous the kids can find, and the following year, Bruce wears it during Christmas dinner.

• what hill are they willing to die on? Mint is the superior dessert flavour, milkshakes, ice cream, Oreos, coffee syrups. Dark chocolate and mint = peak.

[cardboardheartss]

Tarot Card Major Arcana Observations (Queer Edition!)

I’ve recently found such an interesting book about Queerness and Tarot, and how they correlate with one another and I’ve only read the Major Arcana section so far. The author has had some interesting views on different arcanas, and I’ll also be sharing my personal views.

🃏The Fool - Well, for this card, I share a similar view as the author. This card does indicate openly coming out the closet, as the person is openly accepting of their queerness. The card can also indicate the transition of Transgender people.

🃏The Magician -Similar to the author, our viewpoints are similar again! The magician card in relation to queerness could indicate have the resources and support. The support of those around you in real life, social media and also for transgenders, the resources are provided for surgeries.

🃏The High Priestess - Alright! In relation to this card, it indicates someone who is number one accepting of their queerness but can’t fully be open to it due to religion and marriage. This person could be really good at keeping their same-sex partners a secret whilst they’re in a heterosexual relationship.

🃏The Empress - As mentioned in my previous post, this card indicates hyperfemininity in homosexuality, whether it’s a lesbian or a gay man.

🃏The Emperor - The author has a completely different view in terms of this card, but im still going to stick to my view. This card also indicates hypermasculinity, a butch, stud, hypermasculine gay man.

🃏The Hierophant - Hmm… reading this book also gave me a completely different view of this card. Just like the author, I also believe that this card represents a lot of religious beliefs, which are known to suppress the queer community. So basically… this card could relate to Conversion Camp/Therapy.

🃏The Lovers - Quick and straight forward explanation, openness to dating your preferred homosexual partner (s).

🃏The Chariot - Could represent delayed homosexual acceptance?? This is card can indicate that a person could have taken their time to come into their queerness, they could have probably been hinted on that they were gay but still wanted to take their time into growing into that acceptance?

🃏Strength - People having support around when coming out the closet, or while being queer their entire lives.

🃏The Hermit - Comphet, one choosing to be in the closet due to society or family relations! Being afraid of judgment from the outside, fearing change overall when it comes to moving forward to being apart of the queer community.

🃏Wheel Of Fortune - Welp! Aren’t they are such lucky pants?? These people could have been able to have support from those around them, and they are confident in their queerness and are still able to live in society without being hindered from it due to their sexuality.

🃏Justice - Just like, the 2oP interpretation. I also believe that this card represents bisexuality. The person could be open to dating and eloping with any gender.

🃏Hanged Man - Another card indicating the openness of being queer, and not being affected by comments and heteronormative expectations from the outside.

🃏Death - A good/bad experience in terms of being queer, wether it being coming out. Some will be treated a bit different for their change, and some would be forced back into the closet… just like the Hermit card.

🃏Temperance - A person could’ve been born queer, but due to outside influences, such as homophobic, they’ll face an imbalance in their lives and once they come out the closet their lives could change for the better.

🃏The Devil - Internalized Homophobia, and the outside publicly and unapologetically shaming a same sex couple.

🃏The Tower - Being forcefully outed, or a person coming out and losing everything they have. From family, friends, career, social status and etc. This generally isn’t a very good card, and I don’t know why the author adds acceptance to this description, one will only be accepted if the Tower card is in reverse.

🃏The Star - One getting acceptance for their sexuality after being crucified by those around them. Also ancestral guidance and support, once the card is in reverse too, not upright.

🃏The Moon - A person denying and not accepting their queerness, and keeping it hidden for most of their lives or the person can be in a Lavender Marriage, Open Marriage or can be DL.

(Down-Low : Secretly sleeping with the same gender or any type of homosexual.)

🃏The Sun - Somebody play Born This Way by Lady Gaga! These people are born gay, and have been gay presenting from their younger years. They truly raise the pride flag up high!!!

🃏Judgement - People dealing with homophobia from those around them. Major judgement, either in secrecy or in front of them.

🃏The World - A queer person finally finding their community that will support them!

Love you all my queer followers, blog lurkers and those who come across this on their For You section on tumblr!!🏳️‍🌈

[arpstail]

Day 1827 of, these sharks live SUCH a tragic life

hi guys!!! I was just rereading castle swimm- OH MY GOD?

do they not usually get fed everyday…?????? (No, the answer is no..)

This is actually a point I’ve BEEN making, the sharks were starved, no question about it. I mean even hunting their food has a high risk of either lots of injuries, or actually DYING..

Walk with me for a second

INFACT??? THEY FEEL LUCKY WHEN NOBODY DIES WHILE HUNTING..??

Which this also implies that when they DO eat, it’s not a lot. That creature they killed was considered to be a big meal for everyone, which…hmm..REALLY..?

and I mean… And if we wanna go and be Marine biologist!!!! Sharks can go up to like six weeks without eating, and that’s just blue sharks! And ANOTHER FACT, sharks are omnivores so they can infact eat plants and stuff, however….have you seen the castle and the environment they live in…

the whole castle is actively…CRUMBLING.. and even the curse takes part in this. Going outside to hunt is basically life threatening, and I doubt they hunt often because of this. Especially considering the fact that their numbers are diminishing, there’s only a few hundred of them.

now obviously this may be a small..reach considering the portions they all get were pretty decent in size. though this doesn’t mean they get that daily, or often at all. And again future maybe marine biologist here! They’re sharks… they’re probably not eating to the recommended standard anyways.

There was actually some REALLY nice head canons that inspired me to share these from my notes a few months ago by @hopeful-puffin that shares most of my thoughts. (Please check it out they’re SO GOOD. I love you hopemwamwanmwah)

anyway

I actually thought I’d share a few of my own head canons as well! Not sure what more I could say I haven’t already.(I hope it’s ok to use this screen shot..)

I’ll make a more head canon centered post some other time hopefully maybe

I feel like siren not caring about food at all is really essential to his character considering the fact a large part of his character is centered around the guilt he carries. The worst part is? He can’t do anything to help, he isn’t allowed to. He can’t complain. And also taking into account that this guy has literally never gone outside for the first 18 years of his life???? This is literally the only thing he’s known. Hunting, to him, is life threatening no matter how skilled you are. He doesn’t know any other creatures other than 1 the ones brought to him and 2 the ones already in their environment. For siren, I’d imagine he doesn’t care what creature it is as long as it’ll feed the people.

now! Hold my hand for a moment.. picture this.

Seasons! Are there seasons in the castle swimmer universe? I mean..probably..I dunno, I’d have to go check after I post this.. BUT! Creatures are skittering around getting ready for..uhhh they’re equivalent to winter! So they aren’t obtainable at all this time of year.(assuming the sharks can’t hunt very far away, I mean they would surely die so) so..what do the sharks do? They can’t hunt, their resources are already as scarce enough as it is, and there really isn’t anything else around the castle..errrr..cave(?)

so what do they do? They have kids and elderly to feed! Sure they can could a bit without eating, but then what?

this is when it gets all edgy, and boo me all you want yeah IM CRINGE SURE WHATEVERRRRR

Sharks are known to eat each othe- NO DONT CLICK AWAY JUST HERE ME OUT… sharks can be!! Cannibalistic.! I’m sure you can tell where I’m going with this but I’m going to lay it flat just in case

The sharks resort to eating….,well I’m not sure if they’d be already dead, or dying, sharks. Either way! They’re suffering! They’re sharks! And they’re starved for food.

Now another way this headcanon can go is a little bit more morally gray, as we’ve seen sirens parents be(um maybe?) not sure if I’ve already talked about my shoal theories here BUT ANYWAY! Picture this, sirens dad, canonically, is a nurse. And siren is just lets say like 7 or 8, before he leaves(or maybe this is what drives him to leave) regardless, it’s winter, and shoals family is starving . So..what does he do!! as lightly as I can put this, he just secretly feed them the remains of others. He has the ability to do it I mean he’s a nurse. He can like do that…I guess. Point is, sometimes (actually ALL the time) nurses are forced to do things others won’t agree with based of their morals. And in a situation where they were all desperate, this doesn’t seem that far out of the question. We ALL SAW THE END OF EPISODE 169.. castle swimmer has not shied away from being dark

If you made it this far I’m i love you.. MWAH! And hope if you too read this I LOVOVEEEVEVE what you do

Bonus cause I love him to death @linaisfunny @dumblond-ie

[wooahaeruby]

Chapter 17: When the Sun Shines

Chapter Word Count: 4,158

TW

None

Hi sorry, I've been busy with work! I apologize for note posting!

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Things were good, maybe a little too good, but good nonetheless. 

Since the night of the gala, the bruise on your arm had flourished and it was annoying to cover with longer sleeved blouses in the blistering summer heat, but you were able to manage. Seokmin or Jeonghan took turns driving you home from work each evening as usual. Jeonghan was more of the mentality of little dinner dates while Seokmin knew how much you enjoyed just getting home and relaxing. It was nice, having your best friend and crush always with you. They held together stressful days and tired nights. Jeonghan and you still weren’t exactly exclusive, which was fine, you kinda liked the slow, steady pace you were going at. He had even opened up some about his past which surprised you. 

“All I’m saying, Jeonghan, if you have a dark, evil, villain backstory, I won’t judge.” You had joked, enjoying the sweet treat of ice cream that you suggested and happily paid for. “I’ve told you a bit of mine.” 

“Your life was fucked up due to trauma and a failed support system, mine is fucked up because I was poor as hell.” He pointed at you with his spoon, rolling his eyes. “My story, which in turn is kinda Shua’s and Cheol’s story, is a lot more simple than what it seems. The three of us lived just outside the city, a low income area and all. My sister was adopted by a nice couple when she was young after our parents died but I was taken in by Kihyun’s mom and dad, his brother is….kinda…so the yakuza? Yeah, that’s real. Anyway, Cheol and I went to school together, he was also living on a tight paycheck to paycheck with his parents.. Joshua was last to move into the area with his mom.” 

You nodded along, sitting close to his side as he continued to explain between spoonfuls of ice cream. 

“Kihyun’s parents worked over sixty hours each and Joshua’s parents were almost never home between work so the four of us were thick as thieves. Cheol, Shua, and I were in our last years of highschool at the time when Kihyun’s mom got sick and his family and I couldn’t afford the medical care to cover all the bills. She passed away and his dad ended up drinking so any money was sparse. We kinda…” He sighed as he thought back, leaning against your side and resting his head against your head. “All three of us, Cheol, Kihyun and I, ended up being runners for this little group of druggies. Then when Shua’s dad lost his job, he ended up joining us to help his family out. We got paid well but Kihyun’s dad continued to drink until it killed him. Then suddenly we didn’t have a home, no family, we moved into the city. Cheol, Kihyun, Shua and I were crammed into a shitty one bedroom apartment for a while.

Shownu, or Shepard, made MX while slowly taking our old bosses' clients, Cheol was starting plans to make SVT. Kihyun he…How do I explain this…He started to influence Shownu into some really fucked up and crazy shit, killing people, stealing, all that. Cheol had this big, blow out fight with Kihyun and Shownu that ended with him in the hospital from them beating him badly…We stepped out rather quickly and were kind of on our own, Shua’s basement became the closest thing to a home since we had to leave the apartment. We were just three friends that were trying to find a place in the world.” 

With your dessert finished, you wrapped your arm around his waist, holding him close protectively. You couldn’t imagine how this could have been weighing on him for so many years, let alone not telling much to the group. 

“Somewhere along the lines we found the rest of SVT. It all gets blurred together over time. We stuck together through thick and thin though. Then Cheol was contacted by a lawyer regarding his estranged grandfather’s estate since he was the only family left and got a lot – and I mean a lot – of money. He invested it into the shipping company that took off as a big manufacturer and we started building our clientele for the ‘mafia’. The others were just little ducks that followed us and it just…happened. We only harm to protect what’s ours and yeah it’s all illegal and demanding but it’s…” 

Jeonghan lifted his head from yours and glanced at you. You faced him easily, seeing the serious glint in his eyes. 

“I’m fucked up for saying this but all of it; SVT, the stealing, the smuggling, all the expensive and stolen stuff we have…I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s fun. It’s exhilarating. It makes me feel alive.” 

Thinking back, you understood everything he said to a point. Their lives were already hell from the start, they drew every short end of the stick. They had to do what was needed to survive. Did you condone everything they did? No, you probably never would, but with the adversity you had seen and faced, you could see how the thirteen of them got into this life and stayed in it. You didn’t know about the rest of them but if it was anything like the oldest three, your heart hurt a little.

“I need advice!” Jeonghan pushed the door open to Seungcheol’s office at the penthouse. 

Seungcheol slowly raised his head from the file in his hand. Seungkwan and Jihoon stood before Cheol’s desk while Mingyu was sitting on the couch, his first day back on the job thanks to the boring month and half rest he got. 

“We are in the middle of a meeting, Jeonghan.” He sounded annoyed, dropping the papers on the desk. 

“And I’m having a crisis!” Dramatically, Jeonghan dropped himself on the couch beside Mingyu who snorted and patted the older man’s head. “And Shua will be here in five minutes to listen with you.” 

Seungcheol ignored him and looked back to the younger three in the room. “Since Mingyu is still on light duty, he can handle the paperwork of the clubs. Seungkwan, I want you on promotions for them and handling the outgoing shipments for Pledis . Jihoon, we have a cargo coming in soon with supplies for Pledis as well, make sure everything is accounted for.” 

Each of them nodded at their tasks and none of them moved yet. Seungcheol skimmed the file down on his desk, resting his chin on his palm.

“Scheduled shipments out to our clients start next week. No new cargo is coming in until two weeks from now. That’s all for the time being, dismissed.” 

With another nod, Mingyu, Jihoon, and Seungkwan left the room, the door shutting firmly behind them. Jeonghan sighed loudly – dramatically – and Seungcheol balled up a blank sheet of paper, tossing it at the younger man and it hit him on the head.

“What advice do you need, idiot?”

“I wanna wait for Shua.” Jeonghan pouted and Seungcheol was tempted to throw more than just a piece of paper at him once more. 

“First you barge into my office when I’m holding a meeting. Now you are wanting to wait for Joshua for some mid-life crisis? Why am I friends with you?” 

Jeonghan lifted his head, looking at Seungcheol then rolled his eyes. “Because no one else can tolerate your bullshit.” 

“I’m going to punch you.” 

“I need to stop letting Mouse hang around you. She is starting to sound like you.” 

“Maybe I'm a better influence than you are.” 

Jeonghan was ready to spring up in his own defense but Joshua’s entrance cut him off. “Why was I texted, ‘ 911, I’m dying’ ?” 

“Because I am!” Jeonghan shot up to his feet, stomping his feet childishly. “How do I ask Mouse to be my girlfriend properly?!” 

Joshua and Seungcheol shared a look, both unamused and apathetic. They had an unspoken conversation that Jeonghan couldn’t discern which only made him stomp his feet again. 

“Words! Use words!” 

“Do you wanna smack him or am I?” Joshua asked, disregarding the whining that came from Jeonghan. 

“Last time I think I did so he’s all yours.” Seungcheol waved a hand, motioning for Joshua to do the job. 

The youngest of three moved quickly and jabbed Jeonghan playfully in the side and got him into a loose headlock that Jeonghan didn’t even bother to fight. Jeonghan continued to whine and went limp, dead weight against Joshua’s body. Much to his dismay, Joshua gave Jeonghan a noogie and the older elbowed him in the stomach to be released, holding his head. 

“Assholes!”

Seungcheol laughed, loud and carefree, throwing his head back. Joshua stepped back, hands up in defeat, nose and eyes scrunched up in a wide smile laugh. 

“I’m being serious here! I need help! Stop laughing!” With a groan of aggravation, Jeonghan punched Joshua in the arm (he didn’t even flinch) and tossed the ball of paper at Seungcheol. “You guys suck!” 

“Just-” Cheol tried to catch his breath, shoulders shaking still. “Just ask her out, moron-” 

“It is literally one of the easiest things you can do.” Joshua chimed in, sitting back on the couch. “Just take her out to a nice place and bring her home, at her doorstep just…” Joshua cleared his throat and did the best impersonation of Jeonghan he could. “Mouse, will you be my girlfriend?” 

That had Cheol roaring in laughter once more, hitting his fist on the desk. 

“God- Who knew the great Jeonghan would be freaking out over asking Mouse of all people out-” 

He was nervous.

Sitting across from Mouse at a more upscale restaurant than they’d typically go to, Jeonghan was trying to keep his leg from bouncing. She was talking animatedly about a game where she was going against Wonu and absolutely wiped the floor with him. Something about a ‘one v one’ and characters named Sett (who Mouse ‘mained’) and Sylas (who Wonu picked). There was something thrown in there about a pool party skin and something about Wonwoo being a furry. He was paying attention, he swore he was focused on her words, but he couldn’t remember the game those characters were from at the moment because she was so damn distracting.

She looked really pretty. Like really pretty. When Jeonghan picked her up from her apartment, he knew he was done for. It was just a black dress, it was the simplest of things, but it hugged her body well, stopping mid-thigh. The neckline was straight but the almost bishop type sleeves made with black sheer fabric was stunning on her. The rose gold details in the jewelry had him quaking in his shoes.

He wanted to wine and dine her tonight before walking her all the way back to her apartment door and asking her to be his girlfriend officially. After his bullying session from Seungcheol and Joshua, Jeonghan reached out to Seokmin…and Seungkwan to see if they had any other advice which all boiled down to the same thing; take Mouse out to a nice dinner, share a dessert, and when he brought her home, ask her out. It was a simple thing to do, but his heart was fluttering and there were butterflies in his stomach, sending shivers down his spine. 

“Do you want to share something for dessert?” The question piqued Mouse’s interest and she nodded, leaning her elbows on the table and holding her head in her palms. 

“I’d love to, what do you want?” 

“What do you want?” He countered, mimicking her position. 

She snickered and hummed quietly. “I will not lie. The menu said there were chocolate lava cakes and I’ve been thinking about it all dinner.”

“Then lava cake it is.” He was quick to flag down the waitress and ordered it, settling back into the held up head position she was still sitting in. 

“You look tired, Han.” Her voice was soft, reaching out to brush a few strands of his hair out of his face. “Have you been sleeping?” 

“Ah~ Don’t worry about it. Things have been busy the past couple days. Once things settle I’ll be sure to rest.” 

She didn’t look that pleased with his answer but withdrew her hand. “You better or I’m telling Shua.” 

“Traitor.” 

“You love it.” She snarked back and he snickered. 

“A match made in hell.”

She covered her mouth to laugh, her shoulders shaking and she curled up on herself. 

The waitress was quick to bring the dessert, placing the plate down. Jeonghan was quick to lean back in his seat and Mouse followed, folding her hands on the table. He watched as her eyes lit up, her gaze never leaving the heavenly dessert until it was placed down and the waitress walked away. When she lifted her eyes to his, he melted a bit inside. Mouse looked so happy and downright adorable. 

Sharing the dessert was more a grumble of hums and Mouse wiggling happily in her seat. Jeonghan was savoring every spoonful of ice cream and chocolate cake, but more importantly, watching Mouse enjoy herself. The nerves in his stomach were still present but the more he mentally hyped himself up, the more confident he felt in everything or well…unless Mouse said no to being his girlfriend, then he would rather be home, eating really shitting junk food, and curling up with someone because he would need emotional support. 

“Are you okay?” Mouse spoke up, holding one of his hands between both of hers as he drove her home. 

He peered at her from the corner of his eye and he snickered. “I’m fine, Mouse.” 

She pouted, drawing small patterns on his palm. “You seem distracted.” 

Am I being that obvious? He mentally scolded himself. 

“Have I? I doubt that~” He laced his fingers with hers, pulling into the parking garage for her building. “I’m just a busy man, Mouse.” 

Before she got a chance to respond, Jeonghan exited the car and rounded over to her side, pulling the door open. Mouse took his hand when he reached out and Jeonghan smiled, pulling her up gently. Walking up to her apartment, he stayed close, swinging their joined hands which made her laugh under her breath and smile. 

“Mouse- Y/N…” Jeonghan stopped her once she unlocked her door, taking a deep breath in. She looked uneasy at the mention of her name. 

He paused, taking both of her hands into his, biting his lip nervously. “Look I-” He met her eyes, running his thumbs over her knuckles. “I’ve been taking all of this slow and I’ve really enjoyed every single date, the movie nights at the house with everyone, and just spending time with you. It’s been amazing and it warms my heart a lot…I was wondering if you’d like to officially…be my girlfriend.” 

The fast beating of his heart was making him lightheaded. 

Mouse’s face shifted from a look of concern to bright red cheeked and flustered. Her eyes were open wide and her mouth hung open the slightest bit but she didn’t say anything. Anxiety bubbled in his chest, thinking the absolute worst- 

“I-” She pushed out the breath she held in then smiled, nodding her head quickly. “Yeah. Yes, Jeonghan. I’d love to be your girlfriend.” 

Jeonghan looked…too happy coming home from his date with Mouse. 

Seungcheol had been sitting on an armchair, legs kicked up on the coffee table with Wonwoo and Mingyu sitting on the other couch. He was watching the two of them play something on the taller man’s Switch when Jeonghan floated in from the garage, it was weird. He was humming to himself as he went to the fridge, getting himself a bottle of water and leaning against the counter, ignoring his friends. 

Cheol looked to Wonwoo who turned back from peering at Jeonghan and he raised a brow, almost asking if he knew anything. Wonwoo’s flat expression shifted into a smirk, pulling out his phone and quickly tapping away. For a moment he paused and his nose scrunched up in a muted laugh.

“Finally!” Seokmin’s voice was heard down the hall and a fast footfall followed. “It took you long enough!” 

Snorting in amusement, Seungcheol watched as Seokmin barreled into the room and stood opposite of Jeonghan at the kitchen island. 

“Don’t finally me, I didn’t want to fuck it up.” Jeonghan shot back, downing some of the water. “I thought I was going to shit myself with how nervous I was the entire night.” 

“It couldn’t have been that bad.” Seokmin countered, leaning himself on his elbows. “Mouse is chill when it comes down to it. She was very happy when I talked to her on the phone earlier.”

Jeonghan waved his hand around subtly to find the words but sighed, a smile on his face. “She looks so pretty. Like…dude, she looked gorgeous and I kept staring because she was dazzling.”

Seungcheol and Mingyu both fake gagged. Wonwoo’s shoulders shook in another silent laugh. He watched as Jeonghan and Seokmin glared at them. 

“Shut up, my best friend is hot.” 

“Yeah, my girlfriend is hot!” Jeonghan stuck his tongue out childishly. 

That only made him and Mingyu gag again. 

“I feel like I'm in a frat house.” Jeonghan rolled his eyes. 

Wonwoo’s deep laugh rumbled. “Sometimes it smells like a frat house.” 

Seungcheol grabbed a pillow and flung it at the younger man across the living room. “Yah! Everyone at least showers regularly!” 

“And everyone forgets to do laundry until the last minute!” 

“You are always home in Pandora! You have the time to! Maybe I should make you do everyone's laundry!” Seungcheol threw his head back in laughter at the disgust that spread on Wonwoo’s face. 

“I would rather die.” 

“That’s what I thought.” Seungcheol shot Wonwoo a cocky smirk. 

“Why did you bring me here?” You tossed the stress ball you found in the air, laying on the couch in the small office. 

“Because I’m bored, I have to look at paperwork, and I might as well bring a friend.” Mingyu sat behind the dark mahogany wood desk, a claw clip that he took from your bag earlier holding his hair back from his face. “Plus everyone is busy this weekend but you are free and I’m in the city.” 

Catching the ball and dropping your arm to hang off the couch, you leaned your head back to see his upside down form against the dark red accent wall, surrounded by the pitch black of the other walls. Mingyu was focused on the files he was reading, he had shrugged off his jacket when he led you through the back entrance to Ruby earlier, straight into the officer from the locked back staircase. 

Standing up, you lazed over to the large window that rested in the corner of the wall opposite of the desk Mingyu sat at. With no interference from the walkway to the left beyond the door beside the window, you overlooked the lower VIP area and a majority of the dance floor. The club was still closed, it was mid-afternoon on a Saturday, and the employees were spending plenty of time cleaning every inch of the building on Mingyu’s orders. As of right now, over an hour since arriving, looking down at the floor, no one was present unlike earlier when Mingyu first told them to get started. 

While glad you got out of the house, you wanted entertainment, something to do. Last weekend, Jeonghan and you had made everything official but he did say he’d be heading out of town this weekend with a group of the guys for business with Ateez. The only ones left in the city were Junhui, Minghao, Mingyu, Cheol, Wonwoo, and Jihoon, and you knew spending time with Mingyu or Minghao would be the best way to spend your time than with any of the others. You didn’t want to clean your apartment and if you were at the house you’d be cooking just to pass the time. 

Speaking of Ateez, Fennec , who you learned was named Wooyoung, was absolutely blowing up your phone. It wasn’t even actual stuff that mattered, most times it was memes or video game references that you did know but refused to admit. He wanted to hang out when his group and the youngest three got back, maybe bring some of Dreamcatcher members along. Now that you’ve seen inside Ruby, maybe you’d be able to snag seats at the very nice and very cushy upper VIP area that Jihoon books out for the filthy rich or mafia meetings . 

“This is boring.” Turning around to face Mingyu, he looked back at you with a pout and a roll of his eyes. 

“And what do you want me to do about that, Mouse? I have to finish all this before the club opens.” 

“Can I go downstairs?” 

“I don’t know, can you?” 

Your face dropped into a deadpan expression. “ May I punch you in the face? Please?” 

“Wah, Jeonghan is right, you are spending too much time around Cheol.” Mingyu sat back in the leather chair, mouth agape but a half smile on his spread lips. 

“What- I barely even see him half the time, he barely talks to me.” 

“But when you do, you gotta admit, you’d rather be throwing hands with him.” 

“Well- I mean-” You stammered, crossing your arms over your chest. “Cheol kinda does have a punchable face…”

“I’m telling Jeonghan-” Mingyu whipped his phone from his pocket, shifting oddly in his seat to get it out. “He is going to love this-” 

“I’ve already told him before…” 

Mingyu paused before his smile just spread wider and he laughed with his whole chest. He looked so bright and childlike in comparison to the professional crisp white, collar shirt and gray suit slacks. But he still looked dumb with the clip on the top of his head holding his hair back. “I need more tea nights with you, Minghao, and Seokmin.” 

“I can tell you all about how I whooped Wonu’s ass in League. Now get back to work, I’m going to see if anyone needs help downstairs.” 

“You don’t have to-” 

“Enjoy the paperwork~” 

Making your way out the door, the soft thrum of a non-lyrical beat quietly filling the space. The walkway was decently wide, a couple feet, boarded on the side with a half-wall and a small railing to protect anyone from going over the side of it. You ran your hand over the railing, following the path towards the stairs at the other end of the walkway, stopping at the stereotypical red ropes that ‘gated’ off the office from the upper VIP area. 

Unclasping the rope and securing it once more when past it, you took in the black and red scheme that bathed the area. The couches and tables were much nicer than the ones you could see downstairs, the lights were on but dim, feeding into whatever ambiance that Jihoon probably wanted to give off. With the half-wall beyond the walkway, it gave more privacy to the area above if patrons looked up, but anyone could stand by it and look down upon the masses that filled the floor below. 

No one was upstairs currently, the tables were shining and dust free, probably cleaned not that long ago. With nothing of interest, you walked towards the staircase, the same red rope that you got past, and headed down to the main floor. 

Standing at the foot of the stairs, you nodded to yourself as you took in the room. Under the overhang of the office and upper VIP area was the bar. Its center island held different tiers with decently priced liquors to some more expensive name brands near the top shelves. The outer counters were surrounded by plenty of cushioned, well maintained bar stools for patrons to occupy. From above the dance floor was huge, but being able to stand in the middle of it was weird. It probably didn’t feel as large when it was packed with bodies. With tables encompassing the outer edges of the room, you leisurely made your way around alongside them, hoping to find someone working to get something to do. 

“Ya, what are you doing?” Jihoon’s voice startled you and you whipped around to find where he was. Towards the front of the building, Jihoon stood at the double door entrance to the club, dressed in a crisp black button-up and matching black trousers. His hair was slicked back out of his face and the sleeves were being rolled up as he spoke. 

“I was bored.” Shrugging your shoulders, pointing up towards the office. “ ‘Gyu is doing work and I didn't want to sit around anymore.” 

“You want to help me with something then?” 

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[linisiane]

I’ve seen that post on here that’s like “What did they put in this game to make us all Like That,” and I think we’re all Like That about Disco Elysium bc we’re all hyperfixating on it because it surprisingly speaks to the chaos of living with ADHD. And we SEE that and feel seen.

- First of all, Harry Du Bois Adhd headcanons pop off hard, especially with the whole “I do speed to do detective work,” aka I need stimulants to focus, aka unintentional self-medication. Also the poor impulse control, emotional disregulation. And the voices remind me of the way my brain jumps topic to topic so I have like 4 ongoing topics going at once. Stereo investigations, thoughts in the thought cabinet, if you will.

- Additionally, a lot of interactions surrounding Harry’s memory loss even feel very ADHD. ADHD is a problem with working memory (attention/focus), which cascades into causing problems with encoding memories for long term storage. You can’t remember what you never even focused on. Because of this, being forgetful of things that seemed basic or obvious or easy to remember for other people is a staple problem for people with ADHD, and while the game is obviously much more extreme with total retrograde amnesia, I find that the game’s demonstration of “the people being frustrated or confused by basic things you’ve forgotten or misplaced” (and this being taken seriously as a Big Issue affecting your life, even if the others don’t take it seriously/brush it off) is very relatable and almost cathartic. Even if the only reason why it’s taken so seriously in the game is because you’ve just literally lost all your memory… and your gun lol

- Harry doing buck wild things to get results based on the conversations going on inside his head, which don’t get read to the outside world, is very relatable. Again, my brain jumps topic to topic so much that it’s almost hard to track the logical thread connecting the thoughts internally, much less explain them to another person at the same time. The “how did we get here, what exactly brought you to this course of action? This seems unrelated, detective” is very much a conversation I experience on the daily, whether with myself or the people around me.

- Kim Kitsuragi is the ADHD fantasy. @snowberry-pie’s got in one. He’s perfect for fighting off that executive dysfunction by helping you actually get shit done while not being suffocating/controlling/shaming about it. He sorta takes responsibility of you to help you take responsibility of yourself. He’s a body double, your partner in it with you. Lets you go on your barely related stereo investigations and indulges your inexplicable actions instead of controlling you, trusting that it’s part of the process lol. Offers positive reinforcement instead of using shame (like calling Harry a burden) to get Harry to focus on the case.

Disco Elysium has lots to say about how disability is exacerbated/unsupported by the system for a lot of characters, including Harry. Adhd fits right into that, especially with the ways an ADHD!Harry interpretation would highlight the understandable nature of his drug addiction (not only was it a way to cope with chronic pain that no one was treating him for, but also a way to cope with unmedicated ADHD).

Anyways I wrote this instead of writing my paper.

[aihoshiino]

Between Akane, Kana, and Ruby, which do you think is the best written, and has more depth outside of their relationship/crush on Aqua? The argument I’ve been seeing most often from diehard fans of any of the three girls is that the other two (or one of the other two) don’t have any depth beyond liking Aqua. Been seeing this especially from people who hate Kana, but also from Akane haters and Ruby haters

Anon I truly believe you sent this with nothing but good faith in your heart but never before have I received an ask that looked more like the internet equivalent of someone handing me a baseball bat and pointing me in the direction of a hornet's nest. AND BROTHER, I'M ABOUT TO START SWINGING!!!!

In order from best to worst I'd say right now, it goes Kana -> Akane -> Ruby. If you'd asked me this question in a pre-123 world I probably would've said it's Ruby -> Kana -> Akane but… well i'll be getting into what existing in a post-123 world has done for ruby's character soon enough anyway lol.

I fully expect to be hit with accusations of bias in this regard both because I just have generally always liked Kana and fandom lately has been so fucking weird about her but the reason I like Kana is because I think she's the most consistent and fleshed out beyond the scope of her relationship with Aqua. Like, to be clear, all the girls definitely revolve around him way more than they should - to a degree, this is just kind of the nature of the beast in a story like OnK where a lot of characters' foothold into the story are their personal relationship with the protag. But so much of their screentime and story relevance is eaten up by the romance subplots that it ends up coming at the expense of giving the viewer a strong sense of who they are outside those relationships.

This is the trap I think Akane falls into, to the detriment of her character writing. On paper, she's a super interesting character with a lot of potential to add to the story's themes and overall commentary but her actual role in the story and the context within which she's allowed relevance is purely just Being Aqua's Love Interest. Hell, her foothold into the cast period is just that she and Aqua are fake dating and Akane is catching both feelings and a sense of indebted gratitude towards him, so she's totally down to match his freak about it. There's a reason I think Tokyo Blade is her best post-LoveNow arc and it's because while the developing relationship between her and Aqua is an important part of the story, it's absolutely not Akane's focus when compared to everything else she's got going on with Kana. After this arc, though, she's given basically zero plotlines or things to do that aren't wholly predicated on Being Aqua's GF and the interesting underlying issues suggested to exist in her character go largely ignored in favor of her serving Aqua's story. She doesn't really have any relationships with the other cast members outside of Kana and even that ends up devolving into love triangle slop. The result is that, based purely on what exists in the text of the story, Akane is isolated from any other character that she could interact with to create a sense that she has a life and interior world unrelated to Aqua.

This is also why I say Ruby is the worst hit by the Love Triangle Brainrot Disease out of the three heroines because she had an interesting, lively character with a full world and social life that had nothing to do with Aqua only for 123 to come along and infect her with terminal love interest brainrot. Honestly, Ruby being Like This with Aqua right now is probably the biggest singular issue with OnK at the moment, because it means one of the series' primary protagonist is stuck in this malformed relationship cul-de-sac where the feelings we've spent the entire series building up and fleshing out have somehow simultaneously taken over her entire character at the expense of all her other ongoing plotlines while also going entirely unaddressed by the narrative. 123 essentially wiped Ruby's slate clean of anything that wasn't the AquRuby stuff and then proceeded to treat it like a massive joke for literally 20 entire chapters - once again, at the expense of what was a genuinely really necessary arc for her. Ruby's so-called 'revenge' peters out with a wet fart because all the moments leading up to it that should have given any of it weight are offscreened in favour of yet another panel of Ruby splooging over her brother. But despite this being like the one singular thing her character has going on right now, Akasaka is simply refusing to address the massive incest elephant in the room, which means that both Ruby as a character and the story as a whole are robbed of opportunities to develop and be developed by an exploration of how that massive taboo intersects with and affects… literally anything! Since 123, we've gotten exactly one chapter that bothered to even pretend it was taking Ruby's feelings seriously but despite it ending on perhaps one of The Biggest Status Quo Shifts in the whole series… it too has gone entirely unaddressed!!!

Both Akane and Ruby are trapped in this bog of having their entire characters reduced to revolving round Aqua while being disallowed from meaningful development that would probably advance or give closure to that relationship. Akane… sort of gets this with her whole "i'm his mom now btw kana you should suck him silly" thing and her big dramatic haircut but even then, she's still orbiting Aqua and his revenge quest because apparently she has nothing better to do. Ruby, meanwhile, is in this baffling place where the story is having to twist itself into so many pretzels to avoid addressing whatever the hell is going on with her and Aqua before the Akasaka ordained Most Dramatic Moment that she is not getting any moment-to-moment development that might even risk letting her address or untangle any of this stuff. She and Aqua are not allowed to have any direct on-screen interactions and even when they did in 157, it just felt plastic and artificial and honestly kind of forced because of that failure to so much as acknowledge UH, HEY, REMEMBER WHEN RUBY STUCK HER TONGUE DOWN AQUA'S THROAT?

anyway. ALL THAT UP ^ THERE ^ is the reason I think Kana is the character who feels the most fleshed out beyond the bounds of her relationship with Aqua, ironically because of having comparatively less romantic focus and explicitly romantic interactions with him. Because less of her screentime is taken up by romance drama, it allows her to just breathe and exist as a person without her entire role in the story being Aqua's Love Interest. Her major moments of development are all built on Kana's own backstory and baggage which has basically nothing to do with Aqua and everything to do with her own insecurities, her history of abuse and abandonment, her obsession with acting and her fervent desperation to cling to the entertainment industry even when it has made clear that it doesn't want to make a place for her anymore, because so much of her personhood is warped by and tangled up in her childhood growing up in the public eye. That's not to say Aqua isn't involved in Kana's arc and he has an undeniably huge impact on her, but when you look at the ways his interactions with her push her story along it very much feels like Kana is just having her own arc that Aqua is serving and sometimes intersecting with rather than the other way around (as it feels for Akane and Ruby).

WITH ALL THAT SAID… it is just blatantly a bad faith reading of the series to the point of flat out lying about the contents of the story to say any of the three heroines have nothing going on outside their relationships with Aqua, even if we don't get as much focus on that stuff as I'd like. Ruby has her whole history as Sarina and the experiences of abuse, disempowerment and abandonment that have created the bullheaded high-energy Ruby of the present day. Akane struggles with low self-worth and tendencies towards creating narratives for herself and other people in her head that don't always survive impact with reality. Kana has… well, I rambled about all that up there lol. In fact, all three of the heroines are interested in Aqua for imo, at least hypothetically well developed reasons that have observable and tangible roots in their own histories and personal baggage and how Aqua, as a person, has impacted them.

The issue is not with the girls themselves or their feelings for Aqua. The issue is that Akasaka is a romcom guy flying by the seat of his pants trying to write a murder mystery character drama and it's just not what he's cut out for. So he falls back on what he knows - the romance stuff - regardless of how it does or does not cohere with the arcs of the characters involved or the wider story at large. He simply doesn't have the chops to balance both halves of the story at once and his clear interest in playing shipping drama for all its worth has ultimately compromised the integrity of the surrounding story, to the detriment of the characters involved.

[familyvideostevie]

hey.

okay. hello! i'm back. :)

maybe you noticed, maybe not, but i have been away for a while.

i wish i could say i've been out living my life, so caught up in happiness and joy and loving each day that i've just not had time for tumblr. but....that is not true. i have been having a tough time! being away has been good, as i've had time to do other things that i like and to put energy into my own well-being, but it hasn't been the best time, I'll tell you that.

i peeked on the dash every now and then to keep my queue full and reblogged soothing things to my main blog and tried my best not to feel guilty about it all (i was also booping on April 1 lol). i just...I really needed a break. i've really enjoyed being here the last six or so months as i've changed my blog and entered the pedro/tlou space but i've also felt so, so alone.

and i know that it doesn't really matter!! like, we should all take breaks and go outside and all that stuff. and I know plenty of people are not very active, but this blog has been such a vital part of my life and happiness since I started it almost two years ago, so any lapse in activity feels like a loss. I've met lifelong friends and flexed my writing muscles and learned a hell of a lot. the fact that I have started to feel isolated and alone on here is a sort of personal betrayal, and there is no one to blame but myself.

So, I’m pulling back.

it means a few things — i don’t know how much writing I’ll be doing from now on. For Joel, especially — it’s been wonderful to meet folks in that community but it has also been really detrimental to my passion for both the game and writing. I’d like to return to some other characters on my masterlist, but we’ll see. I’ve got endless personal projects away from tumblr that I want to pour love and time into (my non-reader fics, my newsletter, a romance novel, a sci-fi novel, poetry, etc). I need to fall in love with my own work again.

it's a me problem, I want to stress that. i'm working on it! irl stuff has been kicking my ass. I've had a really, really hard winter and my mental health has suffered probably more than ever before. i let things I love -- like this blog -- fester and become negative and no longer being me joy. writing became stressful and difficult and I was focused on notes and interaction and looking around me and seeing success and then looking at myself and only seeing lack.

but that's why I took a break! i am getting help and support irl, i am putting in the time and effort to feel better about being alive and to be a better friend and person all around. And I want to tell you all about it because I am so grateful for your time and attention and support, even if we’re just strangers on the internet. i know this probably seems silly -- who cares about a fanfic blog? well, i care! i care a lot! it matters to me and therefore it matters!

anyway. on to the important stuff. here I am! and here's what's going to happen on this blog:

I am working on replying to asks and reblogs and comments I missed. Thank you for being patient with me! I don't know if I'll get to them all but know I see them and I am honored every single time.

I made a totally separate ao3 account with this blog url. I'm working on uploading everything I've posted here onto there and hopefully will continue to crosspost. It is going to take a long, long time, so please be patient! (you can follow my other ao3 here for my non x-reader fanfic).

I posted this fic! Jackson!Joel pulled me back into his world. It’s the first thing I’ve written in ages, so let me know what you think. as of now it's the last planned fic for that series, but who knows!

I hit a milestone while i was away that I am absolutely blown away by. I'm planning a celebration around it sometime this spring (hopefully) and I’d love to see you participate :)

lastly, thank you so much to my friends for letting me complain, whine, winge, etc. I am so sorry for missing all of your work, your celebrations, your bright energies, and all the rest. i am so sorry if it seemed like i was ignoring you. you are my guiding lights, my silver linings, my touchstones. you make me want to be here. i will try to make it up to you!

I want to be online less but make sure I’m connecting more in the moments that i am here. I want to pressure myself to write less and not feel bad that I’m not engaged all the time. I want this blog to once again feel like a place that nourishes me and not sucks me dry. i want to stop feeling like shit about all of it!!!!

so. come hang out in my inbox, my dms, let me know what you've been up to. I am really sorry for missing so much. thank you for sticking around. <3

[an-aroaces-harem]

Ellis Twilight Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I just deepl and google translated my way through this because I wanted to know what’s going on, so there are definitely mistakes but I believe I managed the general gist of the story. Anyway, it’s just a fan-made translation solely for entertainment purposes. Ikemen Villains belongs to Cybird.

Another note: I know Ikemen Villains is set in victorian London, but I will use the japanese suffixes because I prefer them.

What is happiness?

It is like a twilight sky that changes color as soon as it is burned into the eye …

It holds your heart forever and never lets go, but you’ll never have the same one again.

Time, stand still, and let not this happiness fade away.

.

(From today onwards, my life will be monitored by the members of the assassin organization ‘Crown’ who control evil with evil.)

(As a ‘fairytale writer’, it is my duty and my only lifeline to record their sins.)

I get myself ready in front of the mirror and reassure myself that I am ready.

(I am honestly afraid to see this ‘sin’ again, but …)

(I’ve handled a lot of complaints and deliveries at the post office in the past, and I’ve also worked in busy and crazy situations.)

(Don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll manage.)

Kate: Only one month. You can do it, you can do it …

I said to myself like an incantation, opened the door, and took a vigorous step forward.

???: Whoa.

Kate: Ah!?

I bumped the tip of my nose against the chest of someone standing in front of the room.

Kate: I-I’m sorry …!

Ellis: I’m sorry, too. … Does it hurt.

(Ah … that person …)

–flashback–

Last night, I discovered the secret of Crown, an assassination organization und the direct control of the Queen.

Harrison: … And? What are you going to do now that I’ve explained it to you so thoroughly, Victor?

Victor: Hm … yeah …

Ellis: Shall we kill her?

(Eh …?)

Ellis: She doesn’t seem happy at all, but I’ll take care of that business.

–flashback end–

(He was the first person to suggest killing me.)

(But, then …)

–flashback–

Ellis: I’m Ellis.

Kate: Ellis … -kun. Nice to meet you.

Ellis: Hmm … nice to meet you. Jude and I often go out for outside work.

Ellis: I’ll make you as happy as I can while you’re here.

–flashback end–

He was the same guy, but he calmly said something like a marriage proposal … a slightly different person.

(Why did Ellis-kun come in front of my room …?)

(Oh, right. Surveillance has already started.)

If I do a bad job, they might kill me.

I remember the fear I felt last night, and I’m sure I stood up straight.

(We shouldn’t be in the same mood as we were before.)

(I’ve already stepped into a different world.)

Kate: Ellis-kun, right? Please take care of me from today.

Ellis: Yes, Ellis Twilight. Come on … don’t be so stiff.

Ellis-kun laughed lightly and looked into my face with concern.

Ellis: … your nose is turning red.

Ellis: I’m sorry. I was just about to knock when the door opened and I couldn’t avoid it.

A long, slender arm held the door.

Behind his habitual hair are the one and only twilight-colored eyes of his namesake.

I gasped at the unexpectedly close proximity and hurriedly apologized.

Kate: No! I’m sorry I was too enthusiastic and stepped out too fast.

Ellis: Spirited? Why?

Kate: Eh!? Umm …

(“I was afraid of living with you guys, and I was trying to get my mind off of it.”)

(How … can I say that?)

Kate: It’s like being transferred to a department you don’t know at all, so … it’s …

Kate: Oh, yes! It’s like that …!

Ellis: Oh, yes …

Ellis-kun blinks his eyes.

(Hmm, too unnatural …)

Ellis: … You’re such a cute person.

Kate: Um … it’s okay if you don’t follow me …

(I should have been to have an excuse, but it’s kind of very embarrassing …)

As I averted my gaze as if looking for a place to hide myself, Ellis-kun returned to a straight face and said something in a loud voice.

Ellis: I’d like to ask Hana-san to do her first job in a new department.

Kate: … Wow …

(Beautiful garden.)

I was taken to the courtyard of Crown Castle …

There was a beautiful garden there that had been meticulously manicured in every detail.

Seasonal flowers are in full bloom and smell good, like paradise.

(Although last night I felt nothing but majesty and danger in the towering castle …)

(There are some places that are so restful.)

I followed Ellis-kun along the path, admiring the beautiful gardens, until we came to a pavilion.

Tea and scones are prepared on the table as if a tea party is about to begin.

Ellis: Go ahead.

Kate: Uh … T-thank you very much.

I sat down in the chair, puzzled by Ellis-kun pulling out the chair and waiting for me, and he sat down on the opposite side of the table.

(He asked me for a job. But I’m not sure I can do it …)

Kate: Do we do my first job here?

Ellis: Yeah … your first job is to have breakfast with me.

(… Eh?)

Ellis: Tell me about you over a nice meal. I’ll tell you about me too.

Ellis: If you record it, it will be a record as a ‘fairytale writer’, won’t it?

Kate: That would be … honestly very helpful.

Ellis: Good, I’m glad I could be of service.

It seems like he is serious and trying to help me.

Ellis: I’ll tell you about the other members of Crown.

Ellis: I think it’s a bit scary to live among people you don’t know at all.

Kate: …!

(I never expected this ‘first job’ to be …)

Kate: Did you ask me out to relieve my nerves?

Ellis: … kinda right.

Kate: ‘Kinda’?

Ellis: It’s also so I can talk to you, which is … a little incorrect.

A soft, faint smile is on his lips.

(I wonder if the first impression I had of Ellis-kun last night was a misunderstanding.)

Just by being near him, the temperature of my body feels cooler …

… it is as if something is peeking at us from the blurred open darkness …

… I’m sure I felt that kind of anxiety last night …

(I don’t feel such anxiety from Ellis-kun in front of me.)

(Maybe that was because that was right after I saw the murder scene.)

I quietly brushed aside the strange feeling that was surely brewing in my chest, and decided not to look at it.

… In hindsight, this was a mistake.

(Anyway, since Ellis-kun arranged this for me …)

(With all due respect, let’s hear what you have to say.)

Kate: Thank you very much, Ellis-kun.

Ellis: I didn’t do anything for which you could thank me.

Ellis: Do you like sweets? These are the scones Victor baked this morning.

Kate: What? Victor bakes …?

Ellis: Yeah, it tastes really good. Al is also a good cook.

Ellis: The clotted cream is something I learned from Al and made it myself.

Ellis: Liam recommended this jam, so he bought it for me.

Ellis: Maybe it’s because he’s a stage actor, but he knows what’s trendy.

Ellis: This meat pie is from a place Roger-san used to take me for lunch. He often writes about it.

Kate: W-wait a minute. I want to write down what you just told me …!

I took out my pocket notebook.

Ellis-kun told me all about the people of Crown, and I was very impressed.

Kate: I know this apricot crumpet store! There’s quite a line, isn’t there?

Ellis: Harry and I bought them side by side. Harry has a sweet tooth and loves a good sweets store.

Kate: Hehe … I see you are all good friends at Crown.

(I’ve always felt like I lived in a different, though.)

(I feel a little relieved to know that we are the same people who live in London …)

(Thanks to Ellis-kun.)

Keeping the overflowing smile on his face, he spreads cream on the scone at hand.

Ellis: Kate-san.

Kate: Yes …?

Very naturally, Ellis-kun’s large hand reached up to my face.

Ellis: … It looks like cream is on your hair.

Kate: Eh? Ah …

(Really, I didn’t notice.)

Ellis-kun scooped my hair with his fingertips and gently pulled it over my ears.

Kate: Thank you very much.

Ellis: You’re welcome. Was it so good you got carried away?

Resting his face on one hand, Ellis-kun looked at me and smiled.

Kate: … Yes, it’s delicious.

Ellis: Good.

(I can’t believe you can do this casually, Ellis-kun seems to be … popular.)

Realizing that my heart was pounding, I tried to calm down my erratic heartbeat.)

Kate: You prepared a seat like this for me, you cared about me …

Kate: Why are you being so nice to me?

(I don’t even remember doing anything to Ellis-kun that would make him be this nice to me yesterday …)

Ellis: Kate-san, you didn’t look happy all last night.

Ellis: I just want whoever is around me to smile as much as possible.

(That’s it …?)

(To Ellis-kun, I’m a stranger who knows nothing about him.)

Kate: Do you do this for everyone? Even if you have never met them before?

Ellis: Eh …? Hm … I guess it’s no good.

His naive doubt, on the contrary, made him look puzzled.

(Ellis-kun is a bit of a strange person after all.)

(But …)

Kate: … I was happy.

(I’m sure Ellis-kun made me feel better.)

Ellis: I see. … I’m glad you don’t mind.

… By the end of the harmonious breakfast, my guard was completely down.

Ellis: Do you enjoy the theater?

Kate: Yes, I do. In fact, last night, I took an unfamiliar night shift because I wanted money for tickets …

Ellis: Fufu … quite passionate.

I chatted with Ellis-kun endlessly, as if we were new friends.

Then, the sound of footsteps echoed.

Victor: Hey, hey, it’s so exciting!

Ellis: Victor.

Kate: …! Good morning.

Victor: Oh, don’t get up! I don’t mean to interrupt your pleasant banter.

Victor: Ellis offered to take care of breakfast for me, but … have you relaxed a bit?

Victor smiled at me and looked at me probingly.

The shadow of unfathomability I felt from him last night has faded, and I sense warmth and concern in his jewel-like eyes.

(Maybe it was because I enjoyed my ‘first job’ with Ellis-kun so much that I was able to relax.)

Kate: Yes, thanks to Ellis-kun and the delicious scones Victor baked for us.

Victor: …

I smiled gratefully, and Victor seemed a little surprised.

But soon after, he smiles like a blossoming flower.

Victor: Yeah, yeah. Your open smile says “I’m so happy to be Crown’s exclusive fairytale writer”!

Ellis: … Didn’t you say that much?

Kate: … Hehe.

Victor looked at me with a small shake of his shouldered and narrowed his eyes.

Victor: Well, I have two requests for you, fairytale master. You must keep the secret, and you must write down the sins.

Victor: The former is fine, but I didn’t want you to be lost as to what to do about the latter.

Victor: Can I explain a little?

Kate: Yes, by all means.

Victor: It’s not that hard. I want you to take a good look at the people in Crown and write down what you find sinful.

Victor: I’ll leave it to you to figure out how to do it.

Victor: You can see multiple people on different days, or you can focus on one person and work with them.

(Observe the Crown members carefully, the methods and partner are free … I see.)

Kate: I understand. … Um, what is the extent of my surveillance?

Victor: I don’t want to restrict your freedom of movement except to go out alone.

Victor: I may ask to accompany me on missions, but you can spend the rest of the time however you like.

I’m a little relieved because I thought I’d be under more intense scrutiny.

Kate: I understand. Thank you for your explanation.

Victor: … I have to admit, I was a little surprised just now. I didn’t expect to see your smile so soon.

Victor: We showed you a terrible scene and we are an evil organization that can’t even say that you can rest in peace.

A joking wink …

Then Victor squinted his eyes to watch the dazzling sunlight.

Victor: Hopefully, this will not take away your smile and the darkness that will inevitably touch you.

Strangely, I didn’t think the words he told me were a lie.

(The people at Crown are no doubt dwellers of the darkness, horrible people who are willing to lay their hands on people.)

I thought that if I looked into the depths of their hearts, I would be able to understand their feelings.

Victor: I’ll leave you to it. The Queen’s aide is quite busy.

It seemed that he was just there to see how things were going, and Victor quickly left without getting on the tapes.

(To note a sin, you must first take a good look at the person in Crown, huh?)

Then I’d like to know more about Ellis-kun first.

Such feelings come very naturally.

Kate: Um, Ellis-kun … what are your plans for today?

But my voice is interrupted by a swarthy voice.

Jude: You have to work, right? Why are you slacking off? I’ll kick your ass!

Ellis, Kate: !

The dusky voice makes me jump up and down.

(That voice …)

Fearfully, I turned around to see Jude-san standing in the courtyard with his arms folded, looking exasperated.

(Oh, he is angry …)

Ellis: Sorry, I’m coming.

Without even standing up, Ellis-kun leisurely turned his gaze towards Jude-san and answered.

(So carefree …)

Jude-san clicked his tongue and quickly flipped his cloak and went.

Ellis: … today’s schedule, as you can see.

Kate: You work for a trading company, right?

(Jude-san was the president and Ellis-kun was his assistant …)

(I was going to observe Ellis-kun, but maybe I should change the day.)

Kate: Thank you for taking the time for me. Good luck with your work.

Ellis: …

Ellis-kun stared at me, thinking about something.

Kate: Um …

Ellis: If you want, you can come with me.

⤷ next chapter