#but he fixates on my refusal to play nicely with family that has not done right by me for the whole of my life and bases

[lupismaris]

No one gets under your skin and makes you feel sick quite like your siblings, and there's no numbness quite like the feeling of having to put a boundary firmly in place with a wide open door for them to walk through should they see it for one

[multifandomwritings]

How the slashers would react to their S/O painting their nails

So sorry again for how slow I am these days! I promise I’m not ignoring anyone or haven’t forgotten! (also my confidence in my writing has once again plummeted so aslfkdj) I hope you all like this ^^ (if anyone has any character suggestions lemme know! Like horror characters and slashers. However if I end up adding more I might have to start splitting these up a bit!) 

Thomas:

- Thomas might be hesitant at first, but the second you took his burly hand into your own, he'd melt

- You would get complete creative control — he wouldn't mind what colors you chose, and any worries of being teased by his family would disappear as he watched how eager you were 

- Seeing you so fixated on his hands would make him blush beneath his mask, though he would appreciate the opportunity to freely stare at you as you worked

- He'd smile to himself every time he looked at them, and would happily let you do it again (No one, even Hoyt, dares to tease him about anything relating to you after a certain point, knowing it’s off limits! So he’ll happily show them off. Luda Mae thinks it’s precious, but is also kind of salty that you haven’t offered to do hers lol)

Brahms:

- Brahms would take any affection and attention he could get, so the second you even suggested it he'd just sit down and put his hands out for you

- You wouldn't be able to stop smiling at how seriously he took it. He'd have a surprisingly good eye for color combinations, handing you the colors he liked and making you blush with how he focused on you

- He'd want to polish yours too: matching colors, of course (when you noticed this, you'd smile even wider, which would not go unnoticed by Brahms, who would smile in self satisfaction)

- This would probably become a regular thing. He’d adore anything like that, that made him feel close to you. Of course you have to match though! Or at the very least, coordinate 👉👈

Michael:

- Michael wouldn't really know how to react to you asking about it, to be honest. He wouldn't really mind, he'd just be kind of iffy about it

- It would probably take him a while to warm up to this (or pretty much anything) but he ~might~ allow it, since it's you

- If you reach for anything pastel or colorful he'd just take your hand to stop you and shake his head, causing you to have to hold back a laugh

- He wouldn't admit it, but he'd actually like how it looked. He'd forget about it, and would think of you every time he noticed them. He isn't really soft but he would be for you

Jason:

- You’d be going through your nail polishes when you’d gesture for him to come over and sit, offering to paint his nails

- He agrees of course! Like he’s gonna refuse anything you wanna do for him like that!...Although you’ll have to excuse his slightly crusty hands

- He always admires your own nail polish, thinking the colors are so pretty and cute. If you offer to let him pick out the colors he’ll just shake his head, knowing you’ll choose something nice 

You, reaching your hand to hold his while you polish: Okay, gimme your hand

Him, ~misunderstanding~: *takes your hand as if to hold it* 

You: 🥺🥺🥺

(A bonus thought that you might disagree with: if you’d been in a relationship with Jason for a while, he’d begin to pick up on his own cuteness. Or at least, what you think is cute. And he’d take advantage of it, if only to make you smile. Also, he secretly loves the effect he has on you alsdkfj) 

Bubba:

- Bubba would love this. He'd carefully watch and learn, already planning on doing yours too

- If you hold his hand while you do it his stomach would be full of butterflies, cheeks all pink beneath his mask. He adores when you’re soft with him like that

- He'd probably chip them up really quickly, to his own dismay. When he would notice, he'd want them done again asap, as they'd remind him of you

- You would melt when he did yours. He hold your hand close to his face, focusing intently and going slowly to make sure it was perfect

Chop Top:

- It would probably be his idea to be honest. He'd see you doing your nails and would excitedly pester you about it until you did his, too

- You end up getting ~playfully~ annoyed, as he'd keep pulling his hands away to look and would keep changing his mind on what colors to use

- Eventually you just snatch his hand and hold it still so you can finish. He'd stop whatever he was saying with a nervous laugh, getting surprisingly flustered at you being like that with him 

- He'd be another that would paint yours, too, trying his best to pick colors that would suit you. He'd adore his, and would want to impress you by doing his best!

Nubbins:

- Nubbins would see you doing your own nails and wouldn’t even give you the opportunity to offer to do his. He’d just pick up a random color and would start doing it himself (badly)

- You don’t really notice at first but after a while you glance up and chuckle at what a sloppy job he’s done, prompting him to smile at you so sweetly that you don’t even say anything about it

- Instead, you just gesture for him to hand it over, which he happily does. You can’t help but smile at how delicately he drapes his hands into your own, allowing you to fix his mistakes and finish it 

- Once you’re done he’ll continue holding your hand, too. Good luck getting unlatched for a bit. Nubbins will use any excuse he can to be close to you (tbh he doesn’t need an excuse but if he has one he’ll use it) 

Beetlejuice:

- Beetlejuice would probably tease you for suggesting it, despite the fact that he'd be choosing his colors as he did 

- Spooky colors only, of course! Neon purple, black, green, things like that. He'd love it, tbh

- He'd be flirting with you the entire time, enjoying the close proximity as he could watch your face flush as he spoke

- Despite his teasing, he'd actually enjoy things like that a lot. He'd love that you wanted to do things like that for him, feeling all special and cared for

Candyman:

- Daniel would probably seem a little indifferent to it at first, although he would enjoy seeing you dote over him like that

- He'd smile to himself as he watched you carefully pick colors, refraining from suggesting anything because he'd want to see what you thought would suit him

- He makes you melt the whole time, his hand gently draped over yours as you try to ignore his intense gaze, gnawing at your lip all the while

- He would unintentionally show them off *a lot*, showing off his hand way more than he normally would. You'd have to hold back smiles as you noticed, finding it so sweet

Bo:

- Sort of like Beetlejuice in that he'd tease you and act playfully annoyed like, "You want to paint my nails? Pfft, I don't know..." (he says, while sitting down and stretching his hands across the table for you) 

- Isn't really paying attention (or so he'd have you think), just looking around or closing his eyes while you polished away, occasionally glancing over to see what you were up to when he thought you weren't looking

- If Bo liked you, he'd pretty much go with anything tbh. You could paint his nails the softest, brightest colors and he wouldn't even really have the heart to gripe about it, seeing you all smiley over it 

- Will be all smiley himself anytime he looks at them, but if someone else notices (besides you) he'll shoot them a death glare

Vincent:

- You wanna paint his nails? Okay! He has no hesitation whatsoever and will ask no questions — if you want to, you can 

- You’re so cute to him and he loves your attention, anything you want to do like that he’ll allow. If you want to do his nails, brush/play with his hair, or anything like that, you can! In fact, please do 🥺

- Will be smiling the whole time behind his mask, happily suggesting colors if you ask. He’ll end up with cute and sparkly rainbow nails because you both keep finding different colors you like

- He would do yours, too. All the colors you couldn’t fit on his hands will go on yours! You both have equally colorful nails that will be teased by Bo and Lester, who are both secretly envious of Vincent (plz do their nails too)

Lester:

- When you asked if you could polish his nails, he'd immediately light up, loving the idea of it but quickly getting shy

- He'd disappear for a second so he could go scrub his hands and make them as clean and pretty as possible for you 

- He'd be kinda nervous?? His eyes would be flickering back and forth between your face and his hands, smiling as he watched you

- Little things like this would make his heart flutter endlessly, and he'd try so hard to keep them all tidy and unchipped. (This would result in him being ridiculously delicate with everything he touched) He'd love them no matter what colors you chose!

Graverobber:

- Graverobber has some clammy, crusty hands, (I mean, he hangs out in dumpsters) so beware. Still, if you offer to paint his nails, he’ll just lazily offer up his hands without a second thought

- Watches you the whole time with a satisfied smile. Anytime you glance up and catch him, he’ll give you a look that somehow manages to be both sheepish and smug, wiggling his eyebrow to make you laugh

- He'd smile every time he looked at them, thinking of you. You’d match them to the streaks in his hair which makes him just :o !! Will show them off a lot too

- He'd wear them until they were completely chipped up (which wouldn’t take long), patiently hoping you'd offer to do them again

Luigi:

- Luigi would initially agree with no complaints, but chances are you’ll only get a few nails done before he gets impatient 

- He feels kind of bad about it later, though, seeing them unfinished and smiling a bit as they reminded him of you. If he’s in a grouchy mood he’ll ease up right away when he sees them

- He’ll let you finish later, though not without some amount of awkwardness, as he’d be embarrassed to bring it back up 

- Of course, you’re happy to do it though! You snatch his hands right up and get to work, choosing colors such as black, red and white. He’d smile the whole time he watched you. His expression would change freakishly fast if someone interrupted, though

Pavi:

- He probably paints his nails anyways, but he’d always be happy to be doted over by you, so of course he’ll accept your offer!

- If you offer while he’s already wearing nail polish he’ll quickly run off and remove it so you won’t change your mind 

- Compliments you the whole time, even if you’re just messing around. You end up giggling the whole time at how extra he is, calling you an artist and talented and actually making you blush quite a bit with how sincere he was about it

- Shows his nails off endlessly, staring at them constantly and making it a point to be as showy with his hands as possible. The moment they chip he’ll be so over-the-top dramatic, only feeling better once you’ve redone them (you will forever be Pavi’s manicurist from then on, sigh) 

Billy Lenz:

- Probably confused by it, but he'd be happy to give it a try. He'd watch you intently the entire time, saying very little

- ...Which would result in you getting nervous, low-key trying to rush through it and accidentally messing one or two up (Cue Billy looking at you like smh, Y/N, smh...)

- He’s only messing though, he genuinely couldn’t care less about it really. You could be painting his whole finger and he doesn’t even mind because he’s more focused on you and the fact that you’re doing something like that for him

- He is unused to being treated like this so he never really knows how to react. Any kind of looking after will always be met with some amount of nervousness, though he adores it. Will retreat to the attic afterwards and just stare at his nails like 🥺 (Even the messy ones! Especially the messy ones tbh)

Asa Emory (The Collector):

- He'd agree to you doing his nails so quickly that you'd actually be shocked, not expecting compliance at all. He'd offer up his hands so willingly that your jaw would almost hit the floor

- Nothing flashy! He just wants tidy, pretty nails. He's very sure about what he wants, which would almost make you laugh, as he'd be quite assertive about it

- Needless to say, he'd stare at you intently the whole time, lips twisted into a small but wicked smile as he noticed your cheeks flushing and eyes refusing to meet his

- He'll do yours too, of course. You have to bite your lip the whole time to keep yourself from smiling because he’s so meticulous. He’ll carefully choose a color, eyeing you for approval before pulling your hand close to his face, seriously and slowly polishing each nail 

Otis Driftwood:

- Otis will absent-mindedly swat your hand away when you try to do his nails. However, when he glanced over to see you frowning at his grouchiness, he’ll feel bad and will just roll his eyes as he gives up his hands

- Will complain the whole time though. It smells! It’s cold! Stop squeezing my hand! (Tbh he loves these kinds of gestures, but he’s guarded, to put it simply, so he doesn’t know how to deal with it. So, he’ll gripe, all while staring at you lovingly when you aren’t looking)  

- You end up using simple colors such as black and white, and he would end up liking it much better than he thought he would. In fact, he’d want you to do it again in the future, but would be too embarrassed about his complaining to ask

- You’re going to have to give the whole family manicures now too though, especially Baby (honestly probably pedicures too? They’d get greedy lol) 

[yoichichi]

NSFW Zeke HCs

18+ MINORS DNI

Zeke x reader (sorta)

warning(s): fem!bodied reader, breeding (& mentions of pregnancy), degradation, over stimulation, messy?? Fluids? - but not piss, overstimulation, cuckholding, nipple play, slight dumbification & dacryphylia, edging, humiliation?, and mutual masturbation

a/n: got a request for some general NSFW zeke HC so that’s what this is! This is just my take :) I hope you guys can enjoy! NSFW below the cut!

Breeding Kink

It’s most definitely the possessiveness element of this for him, not so much imagining you pregnant for the sake of family - but knowing only he gets to fill you up. He loves the thought of either seeing his sticky seed drip down your thighs or maybe even fuck you while you’re pregnant.

Just the idea of you going out in public with him with your swollen stomach gets him hard. The way those people who’d cast you a second glance would take note of who’s hand you’re holding and how pregnant you are and know that you’re taken, know that it’s his cock who filled you up and got you pregnant, know that you’re his.

“Yeah? I know baby don’t worry, I’ll fill you up all nice and full and warm.”

Degradation/Humiliation

It’s not exactly the act of degrading you that he loves so much, it’s the way you react to it.

You get all shy and embarrassed, act all pouty and needy, but he loves the way it contradicts how your pussy clenches around him when you he calls you his dumb little whore.

He really just loves humiliating you tbh.

Overstimulation

I see this one going both ways!

He wants to fuck you stupid and make you cum until your clawing at his chest or pushing away at his stomach, begging him to let up cause it’s “too much”. Your eyes puffy from sobbing for the past 10 minutes cause he refuses to remove his head from in-between your legs no matter how many times you’ve came on his face. It’s not good enough for him until he has you saying nothing but his name or a jumbled mess, he needs it to stroke his ego.

However, maybe it’s the slight masochist in him, he wants nothing more than for you to return the favor. Suck him dry and then bounce on his dick while he whines from the sensitivity, he lives and breathes to please you and be your fuck toy. He thinks it’s so hot seeing you fuck him just to find your own release, not caring about how much he pleads and whines for you to give him a break - it’s even better if you edge him first.

Messy Boy

He. Likes. His. Shit. Messy.

If you’re giving him a blowjob it’s not good enough unless you’ve spit all over his cock and you’re drooling around him while he face fucks you. He’ll even pull you away to “give you some air”, but really he just wants an excuse to see your pretty face and spread your spit all over your cheeks, smacking you once for good measure before he pulls you back down.

If he’s giving you head he wants it the same way, he wants his face sticky and coated with your own release, mixed in with his spit cause of course he’s spitting all over you too. So getting you to squirt all over his face is definitely a goal of his.

When he’s fucking you it’s really no different, he’ll even over stimulate himself to see his cum mixing in with your own fluids as his dick pumps in and out of you. And yes, he’s spitting in your mouth while he fucks you, too.

And do not get this man started on the possibilities with proper lube.

Cuckholding

There’s a couple things with this:

Part of it is seeing you get fucked by someone else and knowing that you’d rather it be him. Seeing you look over at him and knowing you’re imagining it’s him between your legs is also a big ego booster for him.

But the other part is just the fact you’re hot. Him getting to see you and actually focus on how erotic you looked getting fucked is something he can appreciate. Cause while he’s fucking you he’s usually a little too pussy drunk to really watch you. So this is nice.

Not to mention he loves teasing himself so this just fits that bill

Nipple Play

Again, again, he likes this on both ends.

I think part of it is the teasing aspect for him, getting to pinch, nip, and suck at your nipples while you beg for another form of pleasure from him drives him crazy. But it’s also self indulgent, he’d be happy sucking and playing with your nipples for hours if you’d let him. It’s one of the few times he’s actually quiet while he’s fucking you, too busy humming and sucking at your nearly sore bud. Oral fixation gang

However, I think seeing you suck on his nipples would also excite him too. It could be because maybe you’re embarrassed by it, and he loves humiliating and degrading you. It’s the way you can’t look up and lock eyes with him while you do it, and the way drool is pitifully coming out of the sides of your mouth and down your chin, getting his chest all wet. When he does let you pull away and you think maybe he’s done teasing you, he pushes your head back down to the other side of his chest, insisting you’re not done until he says you’re done.

But it’s also all the other erotic parts of it. The sensations he gets, the way saliva is sticking to your mouth when you pull away and the way your lips are slightly swollen, and the way he’s painfully hard and dripping pre cum - teasing and edging himself before he ruins your cunt.

Mutual Masturbation

Idk how many times I gotta tell you this but this mf loves getting an eyeful of you & teasing you and himself, so this is the best of both worlds

The way you’re so close yet he can’t touch you, he can practically smell you while you finger fuck yourself in front of him but all he can do is imagine it was him instead. It’s almost all too much for him:

The vulgar squelching sounds and meek whimpers leaving your lips; the sight of your slick making your fingers shiny and just knowing how good it’d taste if he were to reach over and suck on them; the way your face looks so fucked out and desperate, your eyes either closed from the embarrassment - god your shyness turned him on - or the way they were staring at his own ministrations, the act almost making his own cheeks heat up from the attention; everything about it made it that much harder for him to deal with it - but he loves a challenge.

It especially made his cock twitch when he’d catch a glimpse of neediness from you, the way you needed him bad, that never fails to make him give in.

Pro tip: lock eyes while you’re fingers are buried deep and let out a breathy, “zeke”, and look from his cock back up into his eyes - that’ll usually do the trick after and get him to give in after a few minutes

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ITS BEEN A WHILE BUT IM BACK W A HORNY POST BABES <33333 u know I always appreciate your thots so send em in!! And if you’d like to be added to a taglist lemme know :)

requests are open

taglist: @plutowrites @armins-futon @peachysimp

[lunarliza]

Fake Boyfriend | Chapter 1: Two Truths and a Big Fat Lie

JJ x Kook!reader Series 

You’re a Kook Princess who has everything you ever wanted... until your handsome Kook Prince dumps you for a hot new fling. To save your reputation, you bribe the one person he hates the most, JJ Maybank, to pretend to be your boyfriend for the summer. All’s fair in love and war. But where do you draw that line when you’re suddenly wishing your fake boyfriend is your real one?

ahh yes, my third rendition of a fake dating/enemies to lovers story. this is just a short lil intro but i’m excited for this series! 

“He did what?” 

“Yup, broke up with me right over the phone,” you repeated to your hairstylist, Boris, who almost snipped off a chunk of your locks in utter shock. 

“What a complete asshole!” Boris groused, clipping away at your dead ends, “What did you say after? Please tell me you told him off and slashed his tires or I have failed as a mentor.” 

“Well I was so angry and shaken up I didn’t know what to say,” you pouted, “So I just said whatever and hung up.” 

It had been a couple days since your nasty break up with your ex-boyfriend who blind-sided you and ended things out of nowhere. Needless to say, you were a cluttered mess and this was your favorite form of therapy: self care, a new hair color, and mindlessly ranting to Boris-- the one person on the island who would absolutely destroy anyone who did you wrong. 

“Y/n!” he droned, “How are you gonna let him end a two year relationship and just say ‘whatever’? No, you need to get to slashing right after I fix you up or else you’ve missed your Carrie Underwood moment!” 

You sighed. “I know I should’ve gone all psycho bitch on him, but I didn’t want it to seem like I care all that much! Besides,” you mumbled the next part, “he’s got a new girl already.” 

The grown man nearly dropped his shears. “Already?! This just happened like two days ago!” 

“I know,” you cringed, “My friends came over last night to investigate her Instagram. I think she’s their family friend or something. Word on the Eight is that she’s here for the summer from California and is staying at his house.” 

Boris scoffed and tossed his finished scissors on the counter in frustration, starting up the curling iron. “So he dumped you after two years and dates someone else a day after?” he shook his head, “Unbelievable. He probably had her on the side when you guys were together too. Honey, you’re so much better off without him.” 

“Yeah, you’re right!” you agreed cooly-- as if you weren’t bawling and moping over old camera roll pictures just minutes before pulling up to the salon. 

Boris lightly blow dried your newly dyed hair while you admired it through the mirror. “I like this color a lot,” you commended, “I was a little iffy that it wouldn’t look right, but I knew you’d work your magic.” 

Your freshly manicured hands played with the ends before Boris began curling the back strands. 

“You deserve it, sweetie. Forget about that piece of trash and move on with your life! You have all summer to find a new beau,” he chimed, “Where are you going tonight again?” 

“Just dinner with the girls. My friend Sarah’s dad got us reservations to Chalet Basque so we’ll definitely be treating ourselves.” 

You giggled when he began doing fake French impressions of the servers. Leave it to him to lighten your mood during trying times. When he finished the last curl, he basked you in a hairspray that smelled like rosewater and spun you in the seat for the final ‘voila’ moment. 

Boris never failed to make you feel like a full-on beauty queen during your weekly glam seshs. 

As he undid the little cape around you, you spotted a familiar combo of tall dark and handsome waltz through the front door from the corner of your eye.

“Shit,” you cursed, a little louder than intended, and shielded your face, “It’s him! And he brought the girl!” 

Boris’ eyes widened. “That’s her?” he yelled-whispered, eyeing the couple that just plopped down in the waiting area, “Oh you’re so much prettier.” 

You smiled and covertly peeked over at them-- the island’s new supposed ‘power couple’. You almost hurled when you heard kids on the Eight were coining them that name. 

There he sat, Max Vega, in all his preppy, muscular, Spanish-rooted glory. He was even wearing the expensive polo you got him last Christmas. Oh, he looked so cute with his jet black hair slightly slicked back with a single strand hanging on his forehead. Just the way you loved it. 

Tucked under his arm was his new trophy girl. Her beach-waved blonde hair came all the way down to her perfectly shaped hips and her tan model legs draped across his while they watched some video together on his phone. 

Your heart sank at the way he tapped her nose when he said something cute to her. The same way he used to do to you. 

Before you could turn away, his chestnut eyes met yours and he stiffened. You hurriedly tried to avert your gaze, but saw him begin walking over to you through Boris’ giant mirror nonetheless. 

“Y/n!” he greeted, coming up behind you.

“Max! Oh what a surprise!” you mimicked his fake seething enthusiasm, whipping around the chair. 

“Yeah,” he scratched the back of his neck, “I didn’t think I’d run into you here.”  

You held back a scoff. As if you hadn’t made weekly trips to the place to get your hair, nails, and eyebrows done since you were ten. You seriously wondered sometimes if you were truly in love him or if he was just pretty. 

His girl stood a little behind him, clutching onto his toned arm like a shy little bunny. “Anyways,” he snaked his hand to the small of her back, “This is Anya. She’s my dad’s partner’s daughter from Huntington Beach and is staying in our guest house for the summer.” 

The giant perky blonde straightened her back and held out her hand, that wasn’t wrapped around your ex-man, to you. “Hey girl! It’s so nice to meet one of Max’s friends!” 

You heard Boris lightly gag in the background and had to suppress your impending laughter. 

With all the willpower you could muster up, you rose from the chair and put on the most forced smile you have ever done. “I’m y/n, nice to meet you too.” 

“So uh, you look nice,” Max noted at your elaborate hairdo, “What’s the occasion?” 

“I-” 

“She’s actually going on a date tonight,” Boris butted-in as-a-matter-of-factly. You whisked your head around to the man, giving him a frantic ‘wtf’ look.

Max wrinkled his brows. “Oh... well that’s nice. Who with?” 

You racked your brain for a name. Any name. 

Briefly, you glanced out the shop window and caught a glimpse of a trio skipping by outside. One of your friends, Kiara Carrera, linked arms with two of her best guy friends as they munched on ice cream cones from next door. Your eyes fixated on a certain blonde boy in a snapback and untucked black button up.

Bingo. 

“Uh, it’s with JJ. JJ Maybank. You know him right?” you brought up slyly. 

Your ex was definitely taken aback- especially at the mention of the one guy he despised most on the island. “Oh, what? W-Wow,” he sputtered, “I didn’t know you guys talked like that.” 

“Yeah, I mean it just kind of happened. Sarah set us up,” you continued to fib, crossing your arms. You felt bad having to lie like that, but the look of pain and confusion on Max’s face almost made it worth it. 

Almost. 

Before he could pry any further, the nail technician called for Anya from the other side of the salon. 

She cheered and bid you goodbye before yanking Max along with her to get their couple’s treatment. The same one he refused to get with you no matter how many times your begged. Who knew all it took was a leggy blonde with a butt thrice the size of yours to do the trick. 

You sighed in relief once they disappeared to the pedicure station and smacked Boris’ arm. “What’d you do that for?! A date?! He had to know I was lying!”

“Ow!” he rubbed his tattooed arm, “Look, if he’s moving on, then you gotta act like you are too. Trust me, you’ll thank me later for this.” 

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

note: lowkey basing the girl off of cher horowitz from clueless lmao. anyways chapter two to come

chapter two

[mogsk]

So I watched an anime called “Violet Evergarden” recently, the elevator pitch of which is basically “feral girl is taken in by military man, turned into a child soldier, military man dies, but not before telling her ‘I love you’, but she doesn’t know what that means, so after the war she becomes a ghostwriter with the ostensible aim of figuring out what ‘I love you’ means through other people’s expressions of love via letter-writing.

It’s a good little concept, and while I enjoyed it, it’s also stuck in my brain as being profoundly odd from a storytelling perspective.

Like, the initial premise is v strong, Violet’s driving objective is to understand the last thing she heard her father figure, “The Major”, say to her before she blacked out and woke up with no arms. She was a feral orphan child with little grasp of language or expression, and so she is burdened with not understanding what this very important person to her was trying to convey before they parted ways. Good shit.

And it seems to carry this fairly well at first. Each episode varies in how much it advances the central plot, but each boils down to Violet having to learn a lesson about how people express their feelings for each other, how they express love through words, or how they fail to do so, and so slowly she goes from only being able to produce very precise and terse letters which read more like military reports, to being able to swoop in and fix people’s interpersonal problems with the power of a well-dictated love note.

Where it kinda falls apart for me is about halfway through the series, where we see that Violet has more or less grown into her role as protagonist in an anime about the power of letter writing and the meaning of love (-ish). She’s gotten so good she’s tasked with facilitating one half of a romantic correspondence between the nobles of two nations whose relations are still tense after The War (which Violet fought in), and so have decided to arrange a marriage between their noble children -- a 14-year old girl and a 24-year old man.

Now up to that point, the messaging around the central theme felt odd, but it made sense, like, Violet is growing to understand love, and so how the show does this is by giving her a lot of weird and fraught situations around that theme: we have a woman who is in love with a man, but she wants to play hard to get which Violet ruins by writing a letter that just directly states ‘I have no feelings for you, please stop calling on me’. So then she goes to letter-writing school where one of her classmates has an alcoholic brother who she wants to express her love and thanks towards, but doesn’t know how to pierce the barrier of grief surrounding him due to the death of their parents in The War. 

It keeps on like this p consistently, the central question “What is love? What does someone mean when they say ‘I love you’?” is addressed fairly cleanly, but then, once the issue of Violet’s struggle with being able to convey people’s emotions becomes effectively resolved, we kinda start to leave the rails!

Back to the mid-point episode, so, through trying to properly convey this 14yo princess’ feelings, Violet learns what her true feelings are. No, it’s not that she is discontent with being forced to marry a man ten years older than her because, you see, they already secretly met at a royal party when she was, like...10?? And he found her crying and was, like, “Hey kid, you okay?” and that was the first genuine expression of human emotion outside of her dutiful maid she’d ever gotten. You see, what her discontent is is that she knows the man she met, with a heart so simple and pure he feels compelled to comfort a crying child, would never write these letters, and so Violet conspires with the prince’s ghostwriter to allow them to have a more honest correspondence (which is then reprinted in all the newspapers around both countries.)

What got me about this episode is how it, like, throws all these different narrative threads in the air around this central theme of “What is love?” -- the concept of arranged marriage, the idea of confusing appreciating someone’s kindness for having other feelings for them, the MAID who is, like, the princess’ closest friend and confidant, but who has to explain that, once she’s married off, they will have to part ways because she doesn’t serve the princess, she serves the royal family and there’s this great scene where the princess is weeping after she says that and the maid is like “I cannot accept that command, I will continue standing here right by your side” and it’s really intense!

But then...it all gets dropped in the interest of the final note being...yeah sometimes you have to marry a guy in his twenties when you’re just a teenager, but love’s just funny like that ig!

Which sounds ungenerous, and like, I wanted that to be the case, I wanted it to be setting up something, like, “Despite Violet gaining proficiency in letter writing, she still is struggling to understand the more nuanced dimensions of love and so her shortsightedness will come back round to bite her in the ass” (it does not, we even get a montage of all the people she’s helped including the newly married royal couple smiling happily at the camera.) 

We then get more episodes like this, where Violet’s done learning about Love and is now in effect teaching it to others. She does this by...sitting and looking pretty with a guy while they wait for a comet to go by, imitating a playwright’s dead daughter so he can be inspired to finish his play, and...writing a bunch of letters on behalf of a mother dying from anime mom disease, but who wants to be able to speak to her daughter as she grows up through a series of pre-written birthday letters.

And, like, in isolation, it’s all very moving! Each story has a very touching emotional drive to it, but it seems like the question of “What does ‘I love you’ mean?” p much falls to the wayside, even after we get the big 3/4s of the way through reveal that the Major is dead and Violet didn’t know! So we’re treated to flashbacks of their relationship, including the moment where he repeats that damning phrase!

But then we really don’t pick it back up again? It kinda superficially grows in relevance as we approach the conclusion, but it’s never again properly addressed until after a sudden spat of military drama breaks out with people trying to reignite The War and Violet suddenly having to put down her typewriter and pick up her combat knife, but now, for some reason, she refuses to kill people because...she isn’t just a tool?

And I think this is what ultimately frustrated me, is that those are two great themes “Discovering what it means to love” and “Can a person conditioned to fulfill a specific purpose ever be free to choose their own path?” but the problem is, the series really has centered itself on the former while kinda sorta implying the latter, but in the final scenes, we are suddenly given a resolution to the latter (which is basically Metal Gear Solid, “You are not your DNA”, “Just live Snake” that’s been done beautifully and with more thought already by, well, Metal Gear Solid) whereas the former, what was the entire driving force behind Violet’s character development is kinda sorta hand-waved off as “What is love? I still don’t think I know, but maybe that’s just how it is!” which is fucked up coming from someone who by the midway point is basically counselling or facilitating love between people!

So, like, I enjoyed it a lot, there were some great moments and the supporting cast, while mostly one-dimensional save for Violet herself, made for at least nice scenery, but I’m just so blown away by how they seemed to manage to forget (or ceased wanting) to tell the story they laid out in the beginning in favor of some p uniform military drama that suffered precisely because most of the series was dedicated to developing the central theme that it ultimately seemed to abandon, or perhaps came across as being burdened with having to carry into the conclusion.

Also it was super fixated on dads, like, The Major is basically Violet’s dad, his best buddy who goes on to hire Violet as a ghostwriter has a big reveal in the end that he’s been writing letters to his hypothetical future child, the sad dad playwright with the dead daughter -- I dunno what to do with all this besides the usual base level of suspicion I have for all dead-heavy content, but yeah!

There’s two movies, a side story from mid-way through the series and a sequel, and I feel like I almost have to watch them at some point, just so I can tie a neater bow on how I experienced this whole story, but yeah, Violet Evergarden, come for the cool metal typing hands, stay for the heartfelt explorations of what it means to love people, shift nervously in your seat when dads suddenly become involved!

[vampiresuns]

Aelius Anatole Radošević De Silva

Anatole has changed a bit as a character since i was around the first time, so he’s getting re introduced. His open to make friends.

art by @elizastarkart​

Name: Aelius Anatole Radoševic De Silva. He has two surnames because his mother is latina. He is a mixed Latine-Slav, with family that is all latine, vesuvian, and slavic. People he’s friend’s with call him Anatole (russian/greek pronunciation, he doesn’t acknowledge the French one). Only people he has a strictly professional relationship with, and his uncle call him Aelius.

‘Aelius’ means sun, while ‘Anatole’ means sunrise. He’s fully aware of this, he chose his name himself.

His nicknames are:

‘Nana’ is the most common nickname, and the one most people use.

His mother calls him Lilito, Nana, Nanito, Toly, Tolito, Tortolito.

His father calls him Lily or Lilu.

Toly, Tolytoly or Tolito are nicknames used by his maternal grandmother, his aunt, and his Vesuvian family.

He will not mind if you want to call him Toly, but you cannot call him Lily/Lilu if you’re not his father.

Asra came up with Nanatole, which he doesn’t like but lets Asra call him anyway. Asra also came up with Nana Banana and that is absolutely forbidden.

Family: on his father’s side both the Radošević, who are slavic (yugoslavic, specifically), and the Cassano, a prominent Vesuvian family who has had a hold of the Consulship for years.

On his mother side, the De Silva.

His father’s name is Vladislav, but everyone calls him Vlad, he’s an alchemist, a polymath, and works in what is most similar to biochemical engineering. He has one bother, named Valeriy, who you, however, might now as Valerius. Vlad’s biggest personality trait is being head over heels in love with his wife, and adoring his son more than he thought it was humanly possible to care about someone.

His mother’s name is Louisa De Silva (if you want to add her mother’s surname, it’s Lascal). The L-o-u spelling was a registry mistake she never changed. She moved half across the world while her native country suffer a military-civilian dictatorship to study Medicine. She swore never to go back as long as vestiges of said dictatorship remained in the country. She has two sisters: Paris, who lives in Vesuvia, and Alma, who remained with her parents out of her own choosing. Her medical experience include having been a volunteer war doctor. She didn’t change her surname when she got married.

The Radošević (pronounced Radozheveech) and the Cassano have been entangled families by friendship for generations upon generations, with some marriages between them. Notoriously: Vlad and Val’s father married a Cassano, Matilda, and his bother Mircea, Anatole’s great uncle, also married a Cassano: Florentino. Mircea’s brother and Matilda Cassano died when Vlad and Val were children still, so him and Florentino brought them up.

The Radošević are an overall eccentric family (think the european Addams family), whom are noted for: one, their self-sufficiency/self-preservation, which comes out in a very ‘eccentric people of the world unite’ manner. They appreciate people with character. Two, their leanings towards trades/professions, they do not conceive not doing anything (work hard to play hard). The Cassano, while sharing the quirk, they add the zest for life. It’s like they grabbed the Radošević and told them “you have forgotten how to live and we will remind you how.” Both of them are ridden with racially ambiguous bastard you cannot kill in any way that matters. They simply refuse to. Someone (either the courtiers or Lucio) compared them to roaches, they took it as a compliment.

This will tell you a lot about Anatole’s character.

On a last note, Anatole’s an only child. He has a good relationship with his parents, albeit marked by a sense of distance, solely because he was privately tutored from age 15 and on, which required him to travel a fair share. He was an argumentative teenager, but always cherished whenever he could see his parents. The older he gets, the closer they all become.

Favourite Food: Cake

Favourite drink: Coffee, in general.

Favourite Flower: Iris

Birthday: Nov 1st

Age: 29 (I calculate his age as if he had been born in 1991)

Zodiac:

Sun: Scorpio

Moon: Virgo

Rising: Libra

Mercury & Mars: Scorpio

Venus: Virgo

Patron arcana: Strength & Ace of Swords

Strength

Upright: inner strength, bravery, compassion, focus, Reversed: self doubt, weakness, insecurity      

Ace of Swords

Upright: breakthrough, clarity, sharp mind, Reversed: confusion, brutality, chaos

MBTI Type: INTJ-A

Gender: Transmasculine, but Nonbinary. Uses He/Him pronouns only

Orientation: Identifies as NBLM.

LIs: Julian, Muriel, @ilyamatic​‘s Andrico, @thelazaretmakesmesad​‘s Vishal.

“The sun-like strategist with a solution for everything, and a whole lot of hope in the future.”

More details under the cut!

Physical appearance:

art by @lesbianarcana​

5′4. As you can see in the sprite down below, while he’s slim but with muscle, out of doing a moderate to high level of physical activity. The man has a nice waist and inherited his mother’s hips, which he’s very proud of. He likes his legs and his butt the most about himself

Dark brown eyes, long eyelashes. His hair is naturally black, but he dyes it blond.

Has a mole over his right eyebrow, on the left side of the bridge of his nose, and on his left jaw. He has freckles.

An horizontal scar on his nose, which he got by getting hit with a wooden scaffold square in the face. His nose wasn’t broken out of sheer dumb luck. He has a smaller cut on his cheekbone, which was done by a fencing sabre which lacked the proper tip protection/button. It was done onto him by someone else.

The nose scar is how he met Julian before the plague, as he was the doctor which cured his face.

He has several tattoos:

Right arm: A rapier on his inner forearm. Over his elbow he has a black work band, and over it the words ‘THE SUN IS MY UNDOING’ in all caps, circling his arm.

Left arm: a snake wrapped around his forearm, near to the wrist. The Odyssey quote ‘let’s have a toast to the incompetence of our enemies’ under the inner crook of his elbow, and a floral half sleeve.

Chest and Torso: AMOR OMNIA VINCIT over where his heart is supposed to be. He has laurel leaves on the base of his waist.

Legs: ‘o serpent heart hid with a flowering face‘ in his upper, inner thigh, like really up his left inner thigh. A floral anklet on his right ankle.

Languages Spoken: Too many. He speaks nine languages.

Magic Specialities: His magic is connected to both light and languages (it is a play on words with ‘logos’) so he is both adept in photokinesis — he is able to create and manipulate sources of light — and language related magic — which includes incantation and language manipulation. He learns languages as a faster rate than most people, and while he cannot speak or literally understand a language unless he learns it, his magic allows him to intuitively grasp the meaning of words that are being spoken to him.

This capacity also makes him very good at recognising hidden intentions in people. This is not an ability that he broadcasts having, and when he later succeeds Valerius as the Consul, it is something which aids his diplomatic work but he keeps private.

His words tend to carry more weight sometimes because of his magic, something which he can’t always control — it depends on many factors — so he tries to choose his words carefully and with consideration.

His familiar is a Raccoon, named Antu.

Occupation: While he did study magic and is in touch with his magic, he studied politics, diplomacy and international relations. By trade, and out of will to help people, he is a political analyst and, later in life, a Statesman.

Personality/Trivia:

Willpower or Stubbornness? Depends how you look at it. Passionate, generally devoted, hopeful, independent and sometimes defiant. He is a people-oriented introvert. Competitive, but not aggressively so.

Smarter than he gives himself credit for. Overall charming, even debonair.

Curious by nature, hates having his decisions taken for him.

He is proper, sometimes even distinguished, but he is feral. A firm believer in being kind and compassionate with people, until you cross him one too many times, then nothing will make him taint his vindictive wrath.

Is he humble? For the most part. His humbleness comes from knowing his own limits and knowing he’s not infallible. He does have, however, a good deal of pride in himself and trust in what he can do, and he doesn’t like being underestimated.

He’s not particularly loud, though when the chatterbox is on, then it is on, specially if he’s nervous. He is often never still. 

He’s known he has ADHD since he was seventeen.

Likes dancing.

He fences, almost every Radošević fences/sword fights, and he will let you know at the slightest chance. Which can be either him simply being hyper-fixated in fencing, him flirting, or him letting you know that if the occasion rises, he’s armed.

Friend shaped, lover shaped if you’re daring enough.

He wrinkles his nose when he doesn’t like something.

Speaking of which: he doesn’t like abuse of power, the Court, injustice, supremacists of any kind, unkind, hurtful and selfish people in general; he doesn’t like red meat (he says it tastes like metal or dirt), narrow minded people, incompetence, specially when displayed by people in positions of power, and purposeful apathy.

A mastermind archetype, but he draws his power from connection. He does not conceive a life not lived with others.

A bit of a bastard, he enjoys a good laugh.

He plays the piano and the harp, he sings, he cannot draw, he’s a lightweight when it comes to alcohol (which doesn’t really stop him), he likes the opera because he likes watching other people’s drama without being dragged into it, and his favourite season is winter. Also likes playing chess, reading, coffee, flowers, a well tailored outfit, learning, languages, the sea, mysteries, winter, a well laid argument, collecting quills, music, winning, knowing he loves and is loved in return.

When he was 7 he bribed his dad for more dessert, and he ate so much he vomited. His sweet tooth hasn’t gone anywhere, it is alive and well.

Perceptive little bastard, will knife cat you for the sake of it. He has a way more present sense of humour than what he comes across.

Would call himself a ‘trans masculine Mary Poppins’.

He is closest to his parents, his uncle, my other ocs Leonore, Medea and Sabine, his cousins Amparo Cassano and Milenko Radošević, Natiqa, Asra, Portia and Nadia.

If he liked women, he would be paired with Nadia. The possibility both terrifies and fascinates me.

@ilyamatic​, @viviae​, @gaybirdwrites​, @arcanaprentiss​ @apprenticeofcups​

[definitelyseven]

it was always you

summary: in a twisted turn of events, you find yourself naked in the bed of your best friend, Mark Tuan

one (m) | two | three (m) | four | five (m) | six | seven (m) | eight (m) | nine | ten - final | epilogue - one (m) | epilogue - two |

“Then why did you have to go and ruin everything?” Sana said through her teeth, jaw clenched. She brushes your hand away from her face, making you drop the makeup brush and lose your balance. You catch yourself on the table.

Did she know what you and Mark did last night? How could she have possibly known?

You stood up, and looked at her, “Sana, I don’t know what you're talking about.”

Sana walked towards the couch where her purse was, “Yes you do! Don’t act stupid, Y/N!” She sat down on the couch with her arms crossed. You could tell she was getting angry with you, so you were careful with your words. You made your way towards her. 

“Sana, I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” you confessed. 

She angrily reaches for her purse and pulls out her phone. You watched her scroll through her phone and then slammed it on the coffee table. A video was playing: 

“I know. I know I’m supposed to marry her, but I can’t stop thinking about you. Everything I do reminds me of you. I didn’t have a choice but to chose her…but it was always you.”

Your eyes widened, starring at her. How could she possibly have a video of last night? “How did you get this video?”

“Oh, it gets better,” she said clicking through her phone again and placing it back down on the table. 

It was a video of you and Mark in his room fucking you. His mouth attacking your core and you shoving his dick in your mouth. You gulped, standing their frozen. How is there a video of last night? Did Mark video tape this?

“Did Mark do this?” you questioned.

“You promised. How could you?” Sana said on the verge of tears. 

“Sana, I’m so sor-” 

She interrupts you, “I don’t believe you’re sorry, Y/N! If you cared about me as a friend, you wouldn’t do this to me. You wouldn’t do it over and over again,” she paused looking at you. “God, I knew you always had feelings for him, but I believed you even when you slept with him. I chose to believe that if I asked you to stop, a small conscious of you would leave him alone...leave us alone.”

You felt terrible. Not only did you betray her once, but you did it over and over again. You didn’t keep your promise.

“I know there’s nothing I can say or do to make it better or make it okay. But please, you have to know I’m sorry. I never meant for it to happen again,” you paused swallowing the lump in your throat. “It was the last time.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you? After everything you did?”

“No, you have no reason to trust me again and I don’t blame you if you didn’t. This is the last time. It was my goodbye.”

“So it being the last time makes it okay?” 

“No of course not! I’m not saying it’s okay. None of this is okay. I know it’s my fault. I know I betrayed you. Don’t let what happened get between this wedding.”

“But it already did...I’m supposed to marry him knowing he has feelings for someone else. I’m supposed to build a family with him knowing he loves you!”

“He will love you and he will love the baby in your belly more than anything in the world.”

“Only because he has too. You heard him,” Sana said tears falling on the side of her cheeks, “It was always you.”

There was a silent pause between you two. She wasn’t wrong...no matter how hard the three of you tried to forget this ever happened. It still happened. There will always be a wedge between the three of you; the thing you were most afraid of. 

“Sana, you can’t keep the video. You have to delete it.”

“Why?” she chuckled, wiping the tears off her cheek, “Why would I delete the one thing that will keep you away from Mark?

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t. You don’t understand anything! You don’t think before your actions!” 

She wasn’t wrong. You didn’t think before your actions, that’s why you’re in this mess right now.

“Don’t you get it?” 

You shook your head making her laugh again. 

“You’re so gullible,” she finally said. “Think about Y/N. Think about it real hard,” Sana said pointing to the temples of her head. “This isn’t a movie where the unpopular girl is best friends with the most popular girl at school.”

You never thought of it like that - not once. Sure, you were never popular but you were never an outcast. You had a solid group of friends. She was the one who chose to sit next to you in class that day.

“Did you really think I wanted to be your lab partner? I didn’t need a partner. I was perfectly fine working on my own. In fact, I’d probably would’ve done better if it wasn’t for your stupid ideas.”

“What?” That was all you could get out. You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. 

“I picked you on purpose! I wanted to get close to you because I knew you were Mark’s best friend. It was always about him.”

“That’s not true,” you refused to believe what she was saying.

“It was the only way for him to notice me. For weeks, I tried to get his attention, but nothing. Everyday in the cafeteria, his eyes went straight to you. That’s why I was nice to you; that’s the only reason why I was nice to you.” 

You watched as she got up and walked back to the mirror, sitting down to fix her makeup.

“And it worked. When I befriended you and hung out with you, he finally noticed me. I thought if having you by my side can make Mark mine, it was worth it.”

“Mark’s not a possession! He’s a live human being! How could you use us?” you tried to remind her but that only made her laugh at you again. 

“I never used Mark. I loved him from the moment I saw him, I knew I had to have him.” 

Tears were clouding your eyes, as the words spewed out of her mouth. Everything between you and Sana was a lie. She was never your friend, she only used you to get to Mark. She was only pretending to be nice so that Mark would like her more - so everyone would like her more. 

“When we finally got together, I thought maybe, just maybe I could tolerate you and, we could actually be friends. It was all going well, wasn’t it?”

Tears were falling from your eyes and down your cheeks. How could you be so wrong about someone?

“But you did what I was most afraid of, you slept with him! You took him away from me!”

“I didn’t take him away from you...we both chose to do this.”

“You seduced him!”

“I-I didn’t...” you sobbed. You really didn’t try to seduce Mark. Sure you wanted it but it wasn’t like he didn’t. It wasn’t like you didn’t try to stop yourself - you tried plenty of times. “It takes two people to cheat,” you said honestly. 

“Oh please, don’t act like your the victim. Let’s be clear, I’m the victim,” Sana said pointing at herself.

“So this whole time, you were pretending to by my friend? Were you ever genuine?”

“If you hadn’t slept with him again, I would probably have never said anything. I would’ve kept pretending to be your friend because I knew as long as we were friends, he will always be by my side.”

“So you put the camera in my house?”

“Yes! I put it there after I confronted you last time. I thought if I was nicer to you, you’d back the fuck off, but no. You continued to fuck him. Does he know you fucked JB too?”

“Oh god, I think I’m going to be sick,” you said holding onto your stomach. “Why are you doing this?” you asked, eyes watery with tears. 

“Because it was always you! Don’t you get it! He will never love me like he loves you,” she said angrily. “I knew it so I had to do whatever it takes to make him stay, even if it meant persuading JB to make you fall in love with him.”

Your head was spinning in circles, “What do you mean make me fall in love with him?” 

“It was no coincidence that you saw him again at the club. I told him to go there, to get close to you, to make you fall in love with him so you could leave Mark alone. I thought if you had him, Mark would be mine again.”

Did JB know about her plan? Was he in on all this? You honestly thought he liked you, but it was all a lie. He only approached you because he wanted to help Sana get you away from Mark. He only stayed by your side to persuade you to leave him. 

“You used me...”

“There you go again! You’re not the victim.”

“Why are you so fixated on being the victim?! We’re both victims...we’re both losers in this situation.”

“Because I need to be the victim in order for what I’m about to do next to be believable.”

You looked at her confused as she walked towards you.

“Listen carefully Y/N,” she grabs onto your chin making you look at her. “You will never tell Mark about this...one word from you and your little sex tape will be posted online for hundreds and thousands of people. Everyone will know what a little slut you are, stealing your friend’s boyfriend.”

“You can’t blackmail me!” you said turning your head away from her hands reach. “You’ll go to jail from illegally obtaining this video.“

She smirked, “And do you really think people will believe that the poor little fiancé will upload this embarrassing video of her soon-to-be husband cheating on her?” She stood up, looking down at you. “Mark will be blamed for this. It’s in his house, in his room after all.”

“Do you even love him?” you sobbed.

“I’m doing this because I love him,” she said through her teeth. “So let this be my last warning. If you ever go near him again, not only will this video be posted, the video of you and JB will be posted too.” Sana walked towards the mirror again to fix her dress and her hair before heading towards the door. “And one more thing, if it wasn’t clear already...you’re uninvited to the wedding.”

You sat in the room for awhile, contemplating on whether or not you should tell Mark. Tell him and risk having your sex tape be uploaded to the world - embarrass your entire family and Mark’s family. Don’t tell him and let him marry the wicked witch of the west. And JB? How were you going to face him after everything Sana just said? You finally got the courage to get up and leave the room. When you opened the door, the first person you saw was Mark.

“You okay? You were in there for awhile,” Mark said rubbing your arm up and down to comfort you. In the corner of your eyes, you could feel Sana burn you with her stare.

a little note from jennie: will you tell Mark or risk having your sex tape shown to the world?

[ohokimdumb]

Carlos Oliveira Headcanon (Quarantine Time) SMUT+FLUFF ❤🥵🍭

Request:  A Hc list about Carlos in quarantine with his gif- smut and fluff included. Doing my request or not tho I love your fics and they have been one of the few consistent positives in this whole pandemic crisis for me. Seriously thank you so much and I’m glad your doing what you love in in general👏🏾❤️

A/N: Thank you @fangirl1071​ for dropping in this request, I hope you love it as much as I loved writing it for you! ♥ Thank you so much for supporting my work and for the amazingly kind words ♥

Fluff:

Quarantine means you and Carlos will have more than enough time with each other. Both of you have been laid off work due to the unfortunate circumstances. The two of you act like it’s torture, being out of work. Truthfully, it’s been the time of your lives. It’s also the perfect time for Carlos to challenge you. “I challenge you to complete my entire workout routine for a month.” Carlos challenges you. He thinks it’s funny, you believe it’s torture.

There’s a lot of movie watching and hand holding on the couch or bed, whichever you two agree on. Carlos chooses scary movies to hold you tightly in his protective embrace. You are easily startled so it’s a perfect, but selfish situation to put you. He only has you watch scary movies so he can feel like he’s protecting you. It’s who Carlos is, who he’s always been.

When time seems slow, board games come in handy. The two of you tend to argue about what to play, since you both want to play what you’ll win at. The decision always happens after an intense tickle war. Occasionally, Carlos lets you win, by pretending you have the ability to overpower him. But, he does act like a sore loser. “Babe, you always want to play ‘sorry’ because you’re top tier at it.” Carlos complains and you smile at his sour, but adorable attitude.

You and Carlos will also have moments of silence in your dimly lit bedroom. Laying on the bed, Carlos pulls you into a tight embrace as you both lay in silence. It’s the perfect time to contemplate life and why it’s on this path of struggle and horror. Sometimes you grow emotional at the thought of getting sick, or getting Carlos sick. Carlos knows when you’re distressed and immediately comforts you; pressing a gentle kiss on your forehead. “We’re in this together. No matter what happens, or what odds we face...it’s you and me.”

Mini-Fluff:

Snuggle showers; lots of hugging and hot water. Carlos strokes his fingertips up and down your broke as a sign of comfort.

Making dinner together every night. Carlos finally decides to share his family recipes with you; Frango a Passarinho, Pastel de Queijo, and his grandmother’s famous Sopa de Milho Verde.

Carlos letting you practice hairstyles on him. Only if you agree to give him professional head scratches after. (if you’re really nice, he might let you put his hair in a man-bun)

Smut:

Quarantine has Carlos craving more than your kisses and the soft touch of your fingers twirling in his long, fluffy locks of hair. He wants to taste every piece of your body; from your breasts all the way to your ankles. He’s been so fixated on the lips between your thighs. Carlos loves the salty taste you have, and will do anything to feel your delicious saltiness on his tongue again. “Baby, please...I want to taste you again, I’ll do anything.” Carlos wraps two fingers around the side of your panties, awaiting your approval. You giggle at his adorable desperation to have you once more.

There have been a couple petty arguments between the two of you; verbal fights that make no sense. There is no shame in angry sex, and Carlos certainly lets out all of his emotions as he bends you over and fucks you doggy style. Even after he’s done teaching you a lesson, you are given a few loves spankings for talking back. It’s refreshing to see the dominant side of your protective teddy bear. “Is your butt sore?” Carlos smirks as he caresses your cheek with his thumb. You nod and his inner demon is satisfied with its work.

“Carlos, d-don’t stop...I’ve been good.” You beg as your nails dig deep into Carlos’ sweaty back, bouncing up and down as his cock roughly buries itself inside. Carlos huffs at your plea for more; desperate for him to fuck you into beautiful oblivion. “Good enough for me to cum inside?” Carlos asks you. You whimper in response as your walls intensely tighten around his throbbing cock soaking in your salty cum.

Carlos gently pushes you face-forward against the glass shower door, as he rubs his cock in between your cheeks. You gasp as you feel his excessively large member poke against your entrance. Carlos isn’t typically one to tease you, but constantly being stuck inside the house has him trying out new methods of pleasuring you. He sucks and nibbles all around your neck and upper back. Every so often his bites will be rough and painful, but it’s all in good fun; and he’s always been a man to mark his territory. Currently, you aren’t working...so Carlos can mark you wherever he wants.

Mini-Smut:

When quarantine first starts, your body is ready to be fucked and and used in ways you’ve dreamed of. Carlos tries all types of positions with you for an extremely long period of time; hours. By the end, there are love bites, bruises, and scratches on both of you. Carlos can’t get enough of you, and refuses to let you out of bed.

As quarantine keeps extending, your body has become exhausted and you’ve grown weak. Carlos can tell, and he’s okay with being gentle and caressing your body in ways no other man can. As much as he loves to hear you scream and holler his name as he fucks you passionately until the neighbors file a complaint, he also craves gentle, loving intimacy with you.

Dirty talk...

“Say it...” Carlos growls in your ear. “I’m yours...no one can protect me like you...” You moan as Carlos deeply thrusts inside while he holds your hand tightly in his; letting you know you’re safe with him.

“How bad do you want to be filled up, meu amor.” Carlos harshly bites down on your neck, surely drawing blood from the sheer passion coursing through his veins. You can’t even respond from the delicious pain your nerves are expressing.

[phoenixtakaramono]

THE UNTOLD TALE - CH3 PREVIEW

There was an important takeaway to be had from tonight’s interaction: Shen Yuan had asserted his place as the lord of this residence and as Luo Binghe’s future ally.

Several thoughts had, however, been plaguing him ever since Shen Yuan gifted Luo Binghe the handscrolls, leaving like the composed gentleman he was while the half-demon pondered over the newfound revelations for the night. Those thoughts filled Shen Yuan’s brain with a renewed vigor that his exhausted body did not feel, roiling through his brain as he changed into his night clothes. Even now, lying down with his hands folded over his stomach, they consumed his mind as he stared up at the azure, gauzy canopy that looked eerily similar to the one in the guest bedchamber that Luo Binghe now slept in.

Wisps of hazy white rose from the lotus-shaped censer he’d brought to his bed. The coals within were still fresh in the copper, keeping him warm in the night, with the fragrance of sandalwood circulating within the room.

His unyielding companion, the blue text box, hovered above. Shen Yuan kept his gaze averted from it; he had read and reread the Chinese characters countless times that if he closed his eyes, he could still see the most recent notification engraved in his mind’s eye.

【Prediction! Future Event <<A NIGHT OF PASSION>> has been changed into <<LOADING CHEKHOV'S GUN>>. You have reached the conditions to clear the scenario. Countdown commencing. Reward: B-Points +50.】

The planes of his face were bathed in a soft blue glow as he ruminated. Shen Yuan couldn’t find it within him to feel any guilt or to throw blame at anyone other than himself. He’d unlocked the <<TRUE END>> main scenario and, judging by how the <<SYSTEM>> was not giving him a choice, he had to build that rapport between themselves and see that friendship through.

These are the seeds you’ve sown, Shen Yuan, he reminded himself. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. He could only dig his hands into the soil and watch the seeds slowly bear fruit.

Bing gē—or, rather, Luo Binghe—was not a 2D character on paper; he was now a real person who breathed and talked and had a will of his own. Even so, Shen Yuan didn’t know the extent of the ramifications if an extraordinary “prodigy” gained self-awareness that he was the male protagonist of a fictional erotica series.

It’d be interesting. If someone found out one day that they were a precious existence in a world which catered to them, they’d naturally become arrogant. All the attractive people belonged to them, hearts were won over for no real reason, and enemies would be seen as less of a threat and more as an annoyance. Shen Yuan could envision it; Luo Binghe would probably behave more recklessly, confident in the fact that he was protected by plot armor. He’d be a spoilt menace in a male power fantasy world—until the novelty wore off, and then the boredom set in.

The corners of Shen Yuan’s mouth curved. He didn’t know how likeminded Luo Binghe was, but if he thought like he did, he’d exploit his advantages.

A protagonist’s existence was akin to a cockroach, dragged from door’s death each time without fail.

This was not merely a case of schadenfreude—another difficult foreign term he’d learned during his pursuit as a novelist—where he reveled in another person’s misfortunes. It was a well-established trope in all forms of literature that when a person was casually dropped into a life-or-death situation, they would resurface as calamities. Since Luo Binghe was an important main character, he would naturally benefit.

...Sorry, youngster. Shen Yuan raised a white flag in commiseration for him in his heart. I didn’t mean to conscript you, but you must continue to work hard. Nationalistic pride exists among many Chinese writers.

Even pre-enlightened Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky had not been exempt from that.

In most narratives, the protagonist’s role was to rise above the rest and “smash the system.” Shen Yuan squinted up at the UI, his eyes beginning to water from its bright glow. He blinked rapidly, but the strain in his eyes refused to ease.

He swore in his head. This better not be the sort of tale where he and Luo Binghe had to compete to establish who was the one true protagonist, having to assert narrative dominance. Shen Yuan had no intention of pulling aggro to himself.

Raising a forearm up to shadow his vision, he groaned. He declared to no one, “Airplane brother, you’ve done your first son a great disservice.”

(He’d done a disservice to the original Shen Qingqiu and Yue Qingyuan as well as among many others.)

The events that had played out tonight strengthened Shen Yuan’s conviction. He could now see how people easily fell for his act; the charisma of a stallion protagonist was potent. Even so, he had capitalized on goodwill—and Luo Binghe’s strange fixation—hoping continuous acts of kindness being demonstrated toward him would soften him toward Shen Yuan and prove his intentions were sincere.

Should he prove himself to be of use, surely even somebody like Bing gē would not discard him during his rise to power or see him as a threat?

The only method he could foresee showing his fellow protagonist that his services were indispensable was by lending him his wisdom—and his predictions on the account of Shen Yuan being a <<FORTUNETELLER>>. His goal to leave a favorable impression with the other protagonist was already well underway, with the aim of establishing how it would be in Luo Binghe’s best interests to remember Shen Yuan’s acts of compassion and to return them tenfold in the future unless he wished to owe the celestial favors.

He recalled the last question he’d asked of him before Shen Yuan left, regarding the compatibility of his fated one.

Would it be strange if I wrote a predestined romance, for once? As much as Shen Yuan favored subverting expectations, he was aware of what sold commercially. There was a structure that made their literature different from those in the Western market whose shocking narratives could not only arouse pity in their audience, but also a sense of awe, excitement, fear, and suffering.

Their protagonists were not always someone of high society; they often hailed from humble origins as a device for the writer to underscore the merits of working hard and to criticize the system—a fictional one though, to avoid absolute censorship by the Chinese government. Their heroes began as nothing more than a windblown leaf in the social structure and years of ethical traditions set in place. They started on the bottom rungs of society to draw people’s attention to their lives, to the injustice and unfairness, which made their struggles all the more impactful to the reader.

The fates of the leading characters were tied to the juxtaposition of the harmonious ideal of society and the reality of a flawed system. Chinese tales were inherently romantic oftentimes, with tragic conflicts written to emphasize the beauty of a bond and rousing sympathy and pity for their plight. The archetype of a tragic hero was meant to be presented so profoundly that great reverence would well up spontaneously in one’s heart.

In his opinion, Luo Binghe had suffered plenty.

Under normal circumstances, as Peerless Cucumber, Shen Yuan was the sort of novelist where it would not be considered strange for him to challenge the romantic notion of soulmates by making his leading characters comrades or adversaries instead of lovers.

It was like the overseas Inception movie; he’d satirized enough old and tired clichés, it almost became expected of him to subvert expectations for all of his publications.

Guilt weighed on his mind. While he understood the implicit reality of his situation, he still felt like he was, in some way, disappointing his audience. The shame he felt was bizarre.

He swallowed. “My cherished readers...,” Shen Yuan murmured to the void as though they could hear him, “forgive this writer if I don’t subvert your expectations in this aspect just this once.”

The harem was the closest Luo Binghe had to a family. After the parental kindness of the washerwoman was torn away from him early in his life, after having endured the unhealthy environment that followed, the only love and tenderness he received in his life came in the arms of beautiful women. Tokens of affection were given in the form of intimate acts. It was no wonder Bing gē’s character had ended up twisted. He collected lovers with a greed not unlike a hedonistic minister who accepted bribes.

What a complicated man. Shen Yuan’s heart ached for the “blackened hero.”

There were so many women in the harem. In the presence of Luo Binghe, each one was gentle, kind, respectful, and submissive. But it was unrealistic for one husband, who had undergone the traumas that he had, to share his heart equally amongst them and not expect any misgivings.

What this Luo Binghe needed was a foil to his temperament, somebody patient, charismatic, and well-educated. Since Luo Binghe would be uniting the Three Realms, they needed to be proactive keeping him in check from becoming a self-indulgent, fatuous ruler. They cannot be sensitive to criticisms and speculation. A sensible head was needed on their shoulders to guide their merciless husband in understanding right from wrong and from any sycophants looking to lead him astray. It was integral to help the protagonist maintain a harmonious empire so that, together, they could lead a golden age of reform.

Shen Yuan wondered if there even existed such an extraordinary person.

Luo Binghe’s reputation was already in tatters in the Mortal Realm on the account of having a demonic heritage and having razed down the great righteous sects. Whatever goodwill he’d originally cultivated with his deceptive “nice guy” act had to be regained. Winning the war against the son of heaven and finding a good match would be integral in swaying public opinion to his favor. In public, they must present a united front, ruthless against their adversaries but dependable towards their subjects. It was only over time that the Sacred Rulers would prove themselves worthy of being idolized and beloved by the masses.

The <<SYSTEM>> had said that he and Luo Binghe should work together and in the end, they would unlock the epilogue that blessed them with their star-crossed lovers.

Until such a person was found, he supposed he could step into the role as his counsel whenever Luo Binghe needed advice. It was like tossing a peach and getting a plum back. Celestial or not, Shen Yuan used to be the son of a family of manufacturing executives. His profession might have been as an author, but he was educated in the principles of economics. Aside from sharing the <<PROTAGONIST’S HALO>>, his modern knowledge and his knowledge of both novel series were his cheats.

Like the spring breeze that thawed the frozen soil, he would be someone who reached into the abyss and grabbed that bloodstained hand. He could set a standard for Luo Binghe to emulate as the type of wise leader he should be, and his handsome junior could learn from his modern examples and put some of them into practice for his kingdom.

He’ll enable him into becoming the best person that he could be. And maybe, just maybe, the new era might be salvageable and worthy of pride for generations to come for not only the immortals and demons, but for the mortals as well.

“I’d redeemed you once,” Shen Yuan declared, his lashes fanning against his cheeks. He closed his eyes in reminiscence of his own fanfiction, inhaling the light, woody scent of the censer nearby. “I can do it again.”

In the meantime, he reflected, I must collect more merits. I cannot be lazy and lag behind in accomplishments.

While Luo Binghe fought his battles, Shen Yuan would be fighting his own—whatever they might be. He would not be outshone by his junior in his own meteoric rise.

“...System?” he inquired drowsily, his voice barely above a whisper. Turning on his side, he stared at a faraway wall. The glazed white surface of the porcelain pillow felt cold against his cheek, its smoothness reminiscent of jade. “Can you hear me?”

Ping.

【This <<SYSTEM>> provides the Esteemed Host a 24-hour service.】

“I don’t remember Airplane brother going into detail about what the education system is like in this setting. Is it supposed to be historically accurate to the ancient feudal model or…?”

Ping.

As he listened to the long encyclopedic explanation, what he’d heard confirmed his worst fears. Education was the privilege of the elites. Immortal cultivators prioritized studying matters of the “spiritual heart” and Qi refinement, in the martial and mystical arts, breaking through the bottleneck of each cultivation stage until their dedication allowed them to reach the pinnacle that was the Ninth Stage.

With that narrow-minded focus on self-enlightenment, the basic education curriculum of the twenty-first century would be seen as innovative in the pre-established setting of this strange world.

In the early webnovels, Bing gē had stagnated as a late-stage Core Formation expert. Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky, in his laziness to research the many intricate nuances of the Cultivation World, had waved it all away by attributing his protagonist’s OPness to his ancient, heaven-fallen demonic heritage and to the deus ex machina that was his legendary sword. Even then, Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky still occasionally confused the Foundation Establishment with the Nascent Soul stages.

It wouldn’t be until the end of the series—after the outcry of the netizens—that the unsatisfied Luo Binghe made the breakthrough into the proper Nascent Soul stage with the help of his wives and their many gratuitous papapa scenes.

Then in the epilogue, the author had infuriatingly time-skipped all the way to the penultimate Ninth Stage, describing how Luo Binghe became a legend among legends who had finally attained eternal youth and aged back into his late twenties in his new immortal body after having miraculously passed the Heavenly Tribulations—disasters from heaven which were akin to nuclear radiation for those of demon blood. After an unspecified many years of rule, he’d left his legacy behind—with the uncountable size of his harem and a boundless number of his descendants “mourning the loss of a great and oftentimes misunderstood man.”

Just remembering it made Shen Yuan’s blood pressure spike dangerously. Taking deep, calming breaths, he rolled back onto his back as he forced himself to attain catharsis from listening to the mind-numbing exposition the <<SYSTEM>> was extolling to him like a history program. His fingers clenched the bed sheet.

Eventually he found himself feeling adrift, the words beginning to lose their coherency to him as he phased in and out of consciousness, his mind becoming wrapped in a haze of smoke. Soon his tense muscles relaxed.

The countdown had reached 00:00:00 when sleep finally claimed him.

Note: Small details of this scene might be subject to revision when the final draft comes out. Ch1-2 can be found on AO3. Link is in my bio!

[niamaggie]

100 - Julie and the Phantoms Prompts

In honor of my favorite holiday and one of my more recent obsessions, I have been posting fic prompts over on the Julie and the Phantoms Discord server (https://discord.gg/2WC6GD23UT). Today I reached a milestone of 100 prompts and decided to masterpost them here. 

Some of these are fluffy, but many are angsty/whumpy, but they’re all ones that have popped off in my brain in the last month or so. Many are of the guys and Julie, but they’re are prompts for pretty much every character. I’ve done my best to put triggers before the actual prompt, but if I’m missing any, please let me know.

These are free to use, however, I do ask that you tag me or send me a message if you decide to fill one since I would love to read it and add it to this list. <3 

Prompt 1: *Triggers - Body Horror* The Phantoms feed off of Julie’s energy to stay corporeal. The more energy, the longer they can stay visible and the easier they can interact with everyone. At first, it’s really great. The guys get to meet everyone officially and things are looking up. But, Julie is having a harder time staying awake and keeping it together. She feels guilty since she loves how the guys are able to enjoy themselves. She doesn’t want to end that for them. Eventually, she can’t keep up anymore and tells them what’s going on. Queue cuddle time to recharge and talk it all out. They decide to slowly build up Julie’s abilities. Bonus: ALL THE CUDDLES

Prompt 2: What if Julie knew Caleb outside of the guys (maybe history with her mom)? What if she considered him family and didn’t realize he was the one causing issues with the guys? They run into each other when Caleb comes after the Orpheum performance expecting the band to take his deal. Julie: “Uncle Caleb?” “Julie?!”

 Prompt 3: *Triggers - Nightmare* Julie has a night terror after the Orpheum performance, thinking the guys are gone. She runs into the studio and the guys are all there sleeping/napping. She breaks down, and just grabs onto them and won’t let go. They all cuddle her to calm her down, telling her they are still there. They all fall asleep on the couch.

 Prompt 4: *Triggers - Child Neglect, Child Mental Abuse, & Anxiety* There’s more to Alex’s story with his family than what Luke said. They don’t just disapprove of him; they outright pretend he doesn’t exist. It gets to a point where he completely breaks down in the studio after having a bad practice day (the kind of day where nothing is going right). Being a ghost, is like what his family did to him, but on a much bigger scale. It’s much harder to deal with... Just want the band to comfort him, please?

Prompt 5: *Triggers - Mental Health* Reggie really, really wants to be able to interact with Julie’s family. Now that they can touch her, he shyly asks if they can officially meet them. “If that’s ok?” “It’s just they..” She beams and says, “ Of course.” Reggie just hugs her super tight with watery eyes.

 Prompt 6: *Triggers - Murder* The hotdog’s weren’t rancid; they were poisoned. Why did someone want Sunset Curve dead? (Not Bobby/Trevor)

 Prompt 7: With all the new found fame for “Julie and the Phantoms”, the band starts amassing quite a fan following. One particular “fan” thinks Julie doesn’t deserve/is good enough to be playing with them. They’re determined that she needs to go. #ProtectiveGhosts.

 Prompt 8: Hanging out with the boys has some perks (especially since they can now touch). With practice, the guys can do a lot more than just poof away. So, they decide to use more ghostly tricks on Julie in their set/show. Julie phasing through the boys like in Bright, teleporting her to different areas of the stage, helping her with magical costume changes?

 Prompt 9: Ray decides he needs to meet the boys, especially after that performance. If nothing else, he just wants to thank them for saving his daughter and his family. When he does meet them (and catches the little things they say about their families), he decides to officially/unofficially adopt them into the family. There is no way he can let any child (let alone these ones) think that no adult is in their corner.

 Prompt 10: The boys being involved with Julie’s family. Simple things like helping set up the dinner table (spots for all of them and Julie’s mom) and talking about their day. Cue, Tia Victoria showing up and being condescending/rude to the family. So, the boys decide a little payback is in order. Meanwhile, the Molinas just sit there and are like “What are you talking about? We didn’t see/hear anything?”.. #TheBoysDon’tPutUpWithThat

 Prompt 11: *Triggers - Physical Abuse* - Julie notices things are off with “Nick”. She can’t explain it, but she knows something isn’t right with him. He’s asking all sorts of questions about the Phantoms, asking who are they, how did you meet, how does it work, etc. Julie tries to brush him off with short answers, but, “Nick” is persistent and he wants what he wants. “Nick” eventually gets fed up with playing nice and grabs Julie’s arms hard enough to leave bruises. Julie gets away after a few moves (there’s no way that girl doesn’t have some killer martial arts moves). She shows up to practice with angry tears. The guys ask what’s wrong, but tells them it’s nothing and tries to start practice. Luke holds her arm and she hisses while taking a half step back. The guys are shocked when Luke pulls up her sleeve and they see the finger-shaped bruises. #ProtectiveGhosts #PissedOffGhosts

Prompt 12: *Triggers - Bullying* What if people did notice Julie talking to thin air? She’s shunned/bullied by everyone at school including Flynn (Julie never gets to sing “Flying Solo” to her). It gets so bad that she runs away after an exceptionally bad day. The boys try to convince her to go home, but she refuses. Feeling guilty, they decide to watch out for her. So, her new life a mix of epic shows at night with the guys, but the reality is she’s still homeless on the streets of LA. Eventually her dad and brother find her (and with some words from the boys about their own regrets), they all take her home.

 Prompt 13: *Triggers - Bullying* One of Carrie’s dancers decides to pick on Julie about her mom, thinking it will put them in better standing with Carrie. Unfortunately for them, that type of “attack” on Julie was the one thing that Carrie won’t stand for. Because even if Carrie and Julie aren’t friends any more, they have a mutual/silent agreement that their moms are off limits. Carrie apologizes to Julie for the attack and says she knows better. They don’t magically end up best friends again, but they’re no longer enemies.

 Prompt 14: *Triggers - Murder* The line in “fit to kill” from “You Got Nothing To Lose” stirs up some ideas because what if Caleb was responsible for the boys deaths? After all, he does seem fixated on them... Maybe he just wants them as more ghosts for his club or as a part of his house band? Maybe it’s more their potential? Either way, the boys ruined his plans by not showing up for 25 years… Good thing he had Willie keep an eye out for them… But then again, he did bargain with Willie for his freedom in exchange for theirs.

 Prompt 15: *Triggers - Child Neglect & Abuse* What if Julie’s family were the opposite from cannon because they blame her for her mother’s death? … If only, Julie hadn’t needed a ride from voice lessons and a reckless driver was actually paying attention… Julie connects with the boys on another level since none of them have good families. They become each other’s found family instead.

 Prompt 16: There are consequences for using the likenesses of the deceased. What happens when Julie and the Phantoms get CEASE & DESIST notices from the boys’ families? What do they do since they can’t play/preform?

 Prompt 17: Julie and Flynn think it’s time that the boys got some new clothes and personal items. Queue ghostly shenanigans at the mall/stores with all three of them.

 Prompt 18: Actual Witch Julie! She meant to summon her mom (also a witch), but accidently summoned the guys. Oops. She tries again using part of “Wake Up” lyrics to talk to her mom, but it doesn’t go anywhere… Julie’s best gift is her voice, good thing she’s working on her enchanting skills.

 Prompt 19: *Triggers - Injury* Concussion – Julie has an accident and has some retrograde amnesia of the last few months, meaning she doesn’t remember meeting the guys. How do you explain to someone that you’re ghosts, but only you can see them unless you’re preforming together? “Like how?! That doesn’t make any sense?!” Just want the guys trying a couple of different ways to convince her, but Julie is being stubborn. Think first scene of them together, but more denial and more of “Stop talking to them. They’re not real. There’s no such thing as cute ghosts.”

 Prompt 20: Comic Con?! Julie and the Phantoms go to Comic Con (either as guests or maybe as performers?). They’re all super excited, but Reggie can’t contain himself. How can he with all the costumes, the artists, and the actors. Hello?! “There’s so much to see!” Plus, how much mischief can they get into? 😉

 Prompt 21: Rules/Boundaries – You know how Julie keeps mentioning boundaries and the guys keep breaking them? She decides to come up with a list to keep in the studio… Honestly, I would just like to see little moments where the guys keep breaking Julie’s rules. Could be a 5+1 fic, where most of them are comedic, but the last one is gut-wrenching?

 Prompt 22: What if Julie was more physically connected to the guys? Like when she’s sick, they’re sick, etc. And what if they start showing signs of aging like their hair getting longer as months go by? What does that mean?

 Prompt 23: Julie starts experiencing shooting chest pains. At first, she brushes it off, but they’re getting worse. During practice, she gets another one, only this time she can’t take in a breath. Can the boys help her?

 Prompt 24: When the guys are “preforming” at Caleb’s club, Julie goes looking for them. When she finds them, she can tell they’re in trouble and decides to crash the party. She helps free the guys and everyone else from Caleb’s clutches with a musical number of her own. Without the other ghosts feeding his abilities, Caleb fades away into nothing.

 Prompt 25: Birthdays – Would love to see everyone else’s birthday moments, but with Julie and the Molina family? Maybe a little angst since I don’t think Reggie or Alex’s family really celebrated theirs and here are the Molinas stepping up for some boys who are eternally 17?

 Prompt 26: *Triggers - Body Horror, Human Remains, Murder* The guys are feeling pain again, but it’s all over, and it feels - different and wrong. It takes a few days to find out why. On the news, are their photos. They’re bodies are being exhumed as their deaths have been reopened as possible homicides.

 Prompt 27: Band Life – Just a little cut scene where everyone is doing warm-ups. But, I really want to see the guys helping Alex stretch before (since apparently drummers can get terrible muscle aches/cramps).

 Prompt 28: Holidays – Just imagine the guys’ first holidays with Julie’s family. All the usual cheesiness, but must include a trip to the mountains and a snowball fight.

 Prompt 29: Sleepover – It’s late and the band decides to have a sleepover in the studio. After a bit, it turns very deep and emotional. It becomes a really eye-opening experience for Julie as she learns more about her bandmates and they her.

 Prompt 30: *Triggers - Allergic Reaction* Food - The boys are very protective of what the Molina family eats. I’m talking they will throw out, reheat, overcook food if the food is at all questionable. One day, they throw out Julie’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich “because the jam looked off”. So, they make her a peanut butter and fluff one, too bad that they didn’t know Julie’s allergic to corn (which can also be used to make marshmallows).

 Prompt 31: *Triggers - Cheating* The guys ask Julie what the situation is with Carrie and why she’s seems to be out to get her? Julie explains that they used to be best friends before Carrie’s mother cheated on her dad and Carrie caught her in the act. “After that, Carrie was gone from school one week and it was like her personality changed overnight into this plastic I’m-better-than-you robot. I tried talking to her, but she ignored me for months. Anytime I tried, she pretty much just harassed me to go away. Then my mom got sick and then she died. I just didn’t have the energy to keep trying.”

 Prompt 32: Julie singing in Spanish and the guys being in awe.

 Prompt 33: *Triggers - Death of a Parent & Grief* Rose’s death… How did she die? What were the Molinas like in the first year after her death?

 Prompt 34: Something where the Julie is being interviewed and has to describe the guys and they her?

Luke – Contagious, Sensitive, Intense

Reggie – Lovable, Goofball, Questionable

Alex – Loyal, Emotional, Careful

Julie – Gifted, Fiery, Thoughtful  

 Prompt 35: Luke singing “Unsaid Emily” acoustically for a show (Julie did reach out to the Pattersons beforehand).

 Prompt 36: *Triggers - Illness* Julie having to perform while she is seriously sick. The guys try to convince her to postpone, but she’s being stubborn. She continues the show until she literally collapses at the end of it. The guys are worried and take her home afterwards to recuperate.

 Prompt 37: I really want a protective Flynn fic where she doesn’t trust the boys after they ditch Julie and her at the dance. She makes them work hard to make it up to them.

 Prompt 38: *Triggers - Character Death* What if Rose was the one who found the guys after the rancid hotdogs and called 9-1-1?

 Prompt 39: *Triggers - Injury* The jolts happen to Julie instead of the guys. Despite the guys being the ones cursed, every jolt is felt by Julie instead and she gets weaker and weaker. What better blackmail and incentive to the guys need to join Caleb’s club?

 Prompt 40: *Triggers - Possession & Stalking* The guys notice possessed Nick stalking Julie at school and eventually her house/studio. #PhantomBodyguards

 Prompt 41: *Triggers - Bullying* What if Carrie witnessed Flynn and Julie being bullied by another student? Something in her snaps and she rips the bully a new one before helping Flynn and Julie.

 Prompt 42: With Julie’s help, Luke is able to track down Reggie’s and Alex’s families as a surprise/gift. He wants to give them the same closure that Julie gave to him.

 Prompt 43: Role reversal – After a performance, Julie is the one to poof out.

 Prompt 44: What if Julie was a medium (since birth) and was trying to talk to her mom, but can’t? Instead, she got the guys?

 Prompt 45: *Triggers - Physical Child Abuse, Child Emotional Abuse, Child Mental Abuse, Child Neglect* The boys’ lives are a lot darker than canon. Reggies’s are physically abusive, Alex’s are emotionally/mentally abusive, Luke’s are neglectful/never around. 3+1 (Molina family being awesome).

 Prompt 46: *Triggers - Suicidal Thoughts & Ideation* Reggie was suicidal before having found a family with Luke and Alex (and then Julie and her family). He looks back on where he was and where he is now. “I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless and they don’t want anyone else to feel like that.” And “All it takes is a beautiful fake smile to hide an injured soul and they will never notice how broken you really are.”– both Robin Williams

 Prompt 47: Julie is the new student at school, but the guys are still ghosts. How would it play out if no one knew Julie before “Bright”?

 Prompt 48: JATP are being interviewed (virtually) and the interviewer starts asking inappropriate questions about Julie and the guys’ relationship. Julie is clearly upset (as are the guys). It gets so bad, the guys decide to disconnect and refuse to continue. Afterwards, they cuddle Julie and talk about it.

 Prompt 49: A lifer from Caleb’s club sees a JATP performance and are not happy to be paying for an exclusive ghost experience only to find it available for free. As time goes on, more and more lifers are refusing to go to Caleb’s club until it’s an actual “ghost town”.

 Prompt 50: Bobby/Trevor is a lifer at Caleb’s club.

 Prompt 51: *Triggers - Murder* Bobby/Trevor made a deal with a ghost in 1995. Help him become famous now and in return, he will join his ghost club after his death. Too bad Bobby/Trevor didn’t read the fine print. He didn’t just sell his soul.

 Prompt 52: Battle of Wills – Julie goes to Caleb’s club and tricks him into letting the boys and Willie, by intimidating him with her “powers”. Something like, “If I can do this now as a lifer, I wonder what else could I do?” Caleb would then threaten her life and Julie would reply that she would just come back as an even more powerful ghost and make his afterlife a nightmare. Instead of his nightly parties, it’ll be nightly riots. Caleb eventually agrees to let the boys go in exchange that they (and Julie) never enter his club again. After being freed, they meet up back at the studio and the guys are in shock. They can’t believe she did that. Julie responds saying, she couldn’t just leave them behind. They’re her band, her family. Plus, it’s not like she has any actual powers that could take on Caleb… Or does she? #BADASSJULIE

 Prompt 53: *Triggers - Murder & Body Horror* What if Caleb took more than souls? Turns out he drains the life of the living to run his club, and then takes your soul as part of his deal. The drain isn’t a part of the deal, but rather a consequence of going to the club itself. The more often you go to get answers about the other side, the closer you are to joining it.

 Prompt 54: *Triggers - Murder* What if Julie was also a ghost? A terrified ghost who doesn’t remember how she died. Her mom is still alive and her family still lives in their house, but they’re more zombies than people. Julie can’t interact at all with them unless she’s playing with the guys. The guys try to help her remember as her family grieves. As time passes, Julie gets flashes of memory of her death or rather, her murder. She was killed in the studio by Bobby/Trevor after discovering he stole Sunset Curve’s songs. It isn’t the first time he’s killed…

 Prompt 55: *Triggers - Death of a Parent & Grief* Before Julie played their CD and the guys appeared, changing her life forever, she was just a girl grieving for her mom. One day, something sparks her to laugh. A laugh that makes her feel so light, that’s she’s floating only to crash down to earth when she realizes her mom won’t ever laugh like that again… Julie refuses to laugh if her mother can’t… Just want something where someone tells Julie that it’s ok to laugh again.

 Prompt 56: How did Alex and Luke find out about Jar Jar? 😉

 Prompt 57: *Triggers - Bullying* Carrie’s getting harassed by someone and breaks down after a Dirty Candi number. Julie sees it (or maybe Alex spots it and tells her) and puts a stop to it and defends Carrie and her performance. It leads to Carrie sticking up for Julie a couple of days/weeks later, and it slowly leads back to a road of friendship.

 Prompt 58: *Triggers - Possible Injury* (Before 1x9) In his excitement to catch ghosts, Carlos sets up a trap for the guys, but Julie gets caught in the crosshairs. Option A: She’s more annoyed then injured. Sibling hijinks ensues. Option B: She gets hurt and Carlos has to help her. Either way, the guys apologize for making her life harder and antagonizing Carlos.

 Prompt 59: *Triggers - Injury* Julie gets a concussion at school (I’m thinking gym class). She’s extremely confused, which the nurse warns is normal but also gives her a list of protocols to follow. Julie gets home and can’t see the guys, but she can hear them. She doesn’t understand what’s going on and gets very frustrated with them and herself. As she starts to cry, she asks for her mom.

 Prompt 60: *Triggers - Possession* You know how Flynn yells at demon and Carrie responds? What if Carrie was actually a demon? Think Buzzfeed Unsolved (fandom) head canon with Shane, a demon posing as a human, and Ryan, as the unsuspecting human.

 Prompt 61:  *Triggers - Medical Condition* Julie arrives home after school with a migraine that’s been building all day. Everything boils over when she steps into the kitchen and Ray’s cooking dinner. She heads right for him and seeks comfort. The guys are a bit lost, but are quiet as Ray whispers to Julie.

 Prompt 62: *Triggers - Character Death & Missing Characters* What if the guys don’t actually know how they died? And what if, their bodies were never found and that they’re still considered “missing”? How would that change things?

 Prompt 63: I can see this falling under Witch!Julie, but it doesn’t have to? Julie marked the boys by gifting them Dahlia pins (which they wear with pride) before they visit Caleb’s club. He goes to mark them on the night of the dance, but the stamp doesn’t “stick” and his other powers don’t work on them. He makes up some excuse, but he decides to investigate. He goes to the house and confronts Julie. He tries to pull on his usual bag of tricks, but they don’t work on her either. Caleb threatens her, “I’ll get them one way or another.” “I wouldn’t bet on it.” “Haven’t you heard, all bets on me?” “Yeah, the odds aren’t in your favor.” “Who do you think you are?!” “Julie Molina, from Julie and the Phantoms. You... obviously don’t get out much.” #FlusteredCaleb

 Prompt 64: After a couple of weeks of constant late-night rehearsals, gigs, and studying for finals, Julie can’t keep her head up during band practice. She keeps nodding off at the piano, blinking rapidly, and shaking herself to try to stay awake. The guys stop playing after the nth time Julie slows down or misses a cue. They decide that it’s time for her to go to bed. They drag her to her room and with strict instructions to change, go to bed, and that she has to sleep in tomorrow until noon.

 Prompt 65: Slang Exchange – Flynn and Julie teach the guys 2020’s slang while the guys teach them early 90’s slang. They each keep explaining more obscure and crazy words/phrases until it turns into a friendly competition of each era’s craziest terms.

 Prompt 66: In Julie’s dance class, they’re given their mid-term or final exam where each person must preform 3 different styles of dance with a partner. Julie asks if the dances can be performed with people outside the class or even multiple someone’s and the teacher agrees as long as the person or persons are there on the day of the exam. Julie asks the guys to help her since they have such distinct body moves/styles. Examples: Hip-Hop, Rumba, Salsa, Waltz, Cha-Cha, Swing, Tap, Foxtrot, Jive, Tango, etc.

 Prompt 67: *Triggers - Physical Child Abuse & Scarring* Julie walks into the studio after school and sees that only Reggie is there and he’s changing his shirt. It’s not an usual sight to have Luke or even Alex change shirts in front of her, but Reggie had always been a little shyer. When she sees his back, she now knows why. There are a lot of thick old scars near his spine. When she drops her bag in shock, Reggie gets spooked and poofs out. Julie then spends the next few hours anxiously waiting for him to come back. When Luke and Alex later poof in and see her distress, she explains what she saw. Luke and Alex exchange looks and Alex tells Luke to go talk to him while he explains things to Julie.

 Prompt 68: Ever notice the amount of jewelry the guys have? I would just like to see the stories behind how they got them, particularly their necklaces? My head cannon is that the necklaces are gifts from each other over the years.

 Prompt 69: *Triggers - Mental Health* Five times Julie can’t touch the boys when they needed comfort and the one time (and more), she can after the Orpheum show.

 Prompt 70: *Triggers - Mental Health* After Julie can touch the guys and after Ray and Carlos know about them, the Molina family decides to surprise them with their first family meal. The guys are super happy, but a little worried. The last two times they ate, things didn’t end well (the hotdogs and Caleb’s club). The idea of being able to food or being able to eat, feels… tarnished?... #FamilyComfort

 Prompt 71: JatP debuts a new song and they decide to switch things up, literally. One second everyone is in their normal position, the next everyone is playing a different instrument and killing it. For example, Alex on guitar, Julie on bass, Reggie on piano, Luke on drums.

 Prompt 72: *Triggers - Death of a Spouse* Can we have a Ray and Rose moment like Amelia and Dr. Harvey from Casper (the scene with the red dress)? One where they tell each other how much they love and miss each other?

 Prompt 73: *Triggers - Mental Health* During the day while Julie is at school, Luke is in Julie’s room. He knows he shouldn’t, but he’s been feeling off and being in her room makes him feel better. But, the more he looks over her pictures and reads through the writing on her desk (he learned his lesson about breaking her trust with looking in her dream box), the more he feels guilty when he can see all the good memories in them. He feels so guilty because it feels like everything wrong or that has gone wrong lately is his fault – running out on his parents, having the idea to eat the hotdogs, making Julie’s life difficult by making her lie to her family, needing to get revenge against Bobby/Trevor, which led them to Caleb and missing the dance, which breaks Julie’s trust, almost not making it to the Orpheum show… He just keeps spiraling until Alex and Reggie come looking for him.

 Prompt 74: After that magic hug, Julie takes note of the guys Orpheum outfits.

 Prompt 75: *Triggers - Mental Health* Empath!Julie. She feels things on a deeper level and can sense what other people are feeling. She channels her emotions through her music and it’s why it feels so alive. It’s why her family has been so worried about her not playing music for nearly a year. She was so shut down, they feared they would lose her too… When the guys show up, she isn’t ready to open herself up emotionally to them. It’s also why she can’t touch them. As time goes on and she opens a bit and she tries to touch them, it doesn’t work because she’s not strong enough yet. It’s only after “Stand Tall” that she allows herself to be vulnerable/strong enough at the same time that she can touch them.

 Prompt 76: During “Perfect Harmony”, when Luke says, “Step into my world”, Julie actually steps into the ghost world. After that, she can see more than just the guys and now sees ghosts everywhere.

 Prompt 77: *Triggers - Food Hoarding & Child Neglect* The guys were food starved before the hotdogs. Reggie’s family was poor and couldn’t afford enough good food at home. Luke didn’t have much money for food after running away from home nearly six months before he died. Alex wasn’t welcome at home, let alone the dinner table.

 Prompt 78: *Triggers - Graphic Murder, Possession, Medical Condition, Possible Medical Disability* This one is gruesome and it’s based on a nightmare… Caleb possesses Nick a little earlier than cannon. He still goes over to the Molina’s with flowers and rings the doorbell. When Julie opens the door, he slashes her throat and then stabs her. He runs as Julie staggers with her hands on her throat and torso. Ray hears her struggles and rushes over, yelling for Carlos to call 9-1-1. The guys try to keep Julie calm and in the present. They follow the Molina’s to the hospital, where Julie is placed in a coma. She’ll live, but her ability to talk, let alone sing is unknown. Meanwhile, the police think it was a crazy fan because of the dropped flowers.

 Prompt 79: *Triggers - Body Horror* What if Caleb’s stamp only caused the guys pain if they’re playing their instruments or preforming outside of his club? Being unable to perform is excruciating, but spending their afterlives as Caleb’s puppets isn’t enough/real either. Which leads to Luke’s words, “No music is worth making Julie, if we’re not making it with you.”

 Prompt 80: *Triggers - Body Horror & Nightmares* Caleb haunts Julie’s nightmares and causes her to sleepwalk into danger. Think the nightmare scene in “Anastasia” where Anya nearly jumps off the ship thinking she’s jumping into a lake to see her family. Who/what does Julie see? Who/what wakes her?

 Prompt 81: Halloween special! The Molina family are a bunch of werewolves. Can you imagine the craziness when the guys realize what they are? The questions they might ask (particularly with Alex’s “softer touch”)?

 Prompt 82: *Triggers - Mental Health* Reggie’s biggest fear is being alone and the absolute worst thing you can do is ignore him. His parents used to do it all the time to punish him. So much that, he felt like a ghost long before he died. The only thing that kept him afloat were the guys, and now Julie with her family… After a bad day of flashbacks of his old life, all he wants is to be with his new family.

 Prompt 83: *Triggers - Child Neglect, Child Mental Abuse, Child Emotional Abuse, Mental Health, & Anxiety* The feeling of not being enough, let alone good enough is something that haunts Alex constantly. He was a good kid, who had good grades, never talked back or caused trouble. He helped out around the house and did everything his parents asked of him… So, why wasn’t he enough for them?

 Prompt 84: *Triggers - Mental Health* Julie comes home upset and runs into Alex. He stops her and talks to her. Over time, he calms her down enough to explain what happened. She does and he hugs her as he tells her that she can always come to him. After all, a big brother always looks after their little sister.

 Prompt 85: *Triggers - Body Injury/Horror* Some thing a little different? What if the guys didn’t know how they died (or anything about their past really)? What if they only knew their music/instruments, their friendship, their first names, and not much else? It’s pretty much a foggy mist when they push too hard. Julie has to play detective to figure out who the guys were and what happened to them. She still loves music, but she’s not ready to play/sing quite yet. I just imagine Julie in the studio trying to piece together bits and pieces of information to dig into the mystery of who the guys were/are.

 Prompt 86: Artist!Julie. She’s obviously a creative soul and I can just see her drawing the guys in their element. And also sketching them how she sees them in normal everyday activities in their afterlives.

 Prompt 87: Julie walks in on the guys hanging out with her family. She realizes that the guys are more than family to just her. Her family is their family too and she loves them all the more for it. Later, she gives the guys extra hugs/cuddles.

 Prompt 88: *Triggers - Stalking* After a gig, Julie is harassed outside by a creep. The guys poof to her wondering what the hold up is. They end up scaring the creep off by becoming visible and corporeal. The creep is terrified.

 Prompt 89: Willie teaching Alex the choreography to “The Other Side of Hollywood”. As Alex opens up and allows himself to relax, he teaches Willie some dance moves.

 Prompt 90: The guys help Julie and Flynn study for finals. Luke – English and Music Theory, Reggie – Calculus and Chemistry, Alex – Social Studies and History

 Prompt 91: *Triggers - Mental Health* Reggie overhears Julie talking to Flynn on the phone about being a waste and thinks they’re talking about him… He’s obviously very upset and decides to leave, but not before leaving goodbye notes/gifts for everyone. It takes over a day for Luke and Alex to track him down and bring him home.

 Prompt 92: *Triggers - Illness & Mental Health* Burnt Out!Julie. Suffering dehydration, exhaustion, and just feeling overwhelmed, Julie isn’t sure how much more she can take. The guys step up and force her to take a break. They may be ghosts (sorta), but she’s still human and she needs to rest.

 Prompt 93: During a Molina family dinner, the guys are curious to what they’re having and Julie replies it’s ____, her mom’s favorite dish. The conversation stalls, and the guys offer up some of their favorite dishes (and least favorite) to help ease the tension.

 Prompt 94: *Triggers - Racism/Sexism & Mental Health* Someone says something bad or gives a backhanded compliment to Julie about her looks, but compliments the guys. The guys are horrified/disgusted with that person.

 Prompt 95: Family Game Night – The Molina family, Flynn, and 3 ghosts play classic board games (think Twister, Monopoly, Payday, Clue, Uno, Pictionary, Apples to Apples, Taboo, Jenga). I just keep imagining Alex with his “let someone with a softer touch” and being the most competitive one.

 Prompt 96: *Triggers - Mental Health* Julie writes a song about missed opportunities in honor of the guys. The first time she plays it for them, the guys just break down. After that, they decide it needs to be part of their set list with an acoustic version.

 Prompt 97: For a school project, Julie has to take a play and then write a song about it, however, they’re not allowed to say which play it is or name any characters. After the songs are presented, the class gets to guess what play it is for extra credit. She’s given Romeo and Juliet… And she knows exactly what to write about.

 Prompt 98: Alex being introduced to Adam Lambert. That’s it, that’s the prompt.

 Prompt 99: *Triggers - Mental Health* When Julie calls Luke out for only thinking about himself before walking away, her words hit a lot harder than in cannon. Luke poofs away and breaks down because he knows she’s right… Because all he can think about right now is how much he misses his parents… Just want more expansion from Luke’s POV.

 Prompt 100: *Triggers - Possession & Injury* When Nick starts acting weird, Julie grabs his arm to get his attentions. She let’s go immediately because her hand feels like it’s on fire as Nick screams in pain. Something is not right… She realizes it’s not Nick and forces Caleb to release him. Julie and Caleb both feel the burning pain, but Caleb gives up first. He’s forgotten what actual pain felt like and vacates Nick’s body.

[anistarrose]

This is Your Last Ride Ever, Forever (TAZ Amnesty x Balance)

Summary: Ned meets the Grim Reaper, who’s surprisingly encouraging of breaking the laws of life and death to stop the apocalypse.

Word Count: ~2100

Warnings: (canonical) major character death, character undeath, canon-typical violence

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19192672

A little Amnesty/Balance crossover to help cope. (Title is from Lifetime Achievement Award by Lemon Demon!)

***

The stars are beautiful, and then they’re gone…

And then, they’re replaced by a million spiraling lights, dancing above a serene blue sea.

Ned doesn’t join them, though. He feels anything but serene — no, he’s the roaring ocean that’s torn up and whirled around by a cyclone. He’s the weight that turns the storm deadly as it batters away at the harbor, as it rushes in to drown anyone who thought they could trust the sea.

But even now, he refuses to accept it as the end of the story.

Where’s Dani? Where’s the gate?

Am I dead? I can’t die yet, I still haven’t warned anyone that the shapeshifter was after the goat…

I still haven’t finished cleaning up the mess I made…

It’s ironic, perhaps, how close he came to leaving them just a few hours ago when now he’s so desperate to return — but really, there’s no excuse for him not to have seen this coming. Every time Ned thinks he’s lost it all, thinks he’s hit rock bottom, he’s proven wrong and finds himself sinking lower and lower — so why should this time have been any different?

A jagged rift slices through the air just a few feet in front of him, and he dives towards it without thinking. He’ll do anything to get back to them even for the briefest of moments, anything to warn them —

Appearing out of nowhere, a scythe swings in a broad arc, binding the rift shut before coming to a stop just inches away from Ned. He can feel the power emanating from it with a instinctive certainty he’s never before had about magical objects, and he knows in the back of his mind that one touch of that blade will banish him to the furthest depths of the afterlife, from which he might never see Kepler again even if he spent a whole century struggling to climb back out.

The figure holding the scythe is cloaked in black robes, their face obscured, and something tells Ned that missing him with the scythe was a calculated choice, an intentional choice. That if they’d meant to strike him, they would have, and that would have been the end of that.

But the scythe-wielder — a humanoid, somewhat stout figure with sparks of red electricity dancing all across their sleeves like static electricity — doesn’t make any further move to attack, and instead procures a book from within the folds of their robe. It floats in the air alongside their head, flipping through pages all on its own as if assigned to search for a particular entry.

“Look, bud, I don’t really want to send you to the Eternal Stockade,” the figure addresses him, voice masculine and tone surprisingly casual. “You look pretty disoriented, and I can’t really blame you — but you did just try to make a break for it, and if it turns out you’re a repeat offender, I can’t in good conscience let you keep hanging around in the low-security sector.”

He says all of this in such a matter-of-fact tone that Ned is left at a complete loss for words. Of all the visions of the afterlife he’d ever entertained, none of them had been so full of… bureaucracy.

The pages of the book come to a standstill, and the figure raises a skeletal hand up towards his shadow-obscured face, allowing Ned to catch a glimpse of something reflective — adjusted glasses?

“Let’s see here… Edmund ‘Ned’ Chicane, human, only one death — good for you! — at age sixty-three. You’re good to go, then — just don’t try anything like this again, or I’ll have to lock you up.”

Ned finally manages to collect himself, and choke out a few words. “You’re the Grim Reaper, aren’t you?”

The specter approximates a shrug. “Well, not the Grim Reaper. There’s three of us, for one thing, but… well, I guess it’s a pretty accurate description aside from that.”

Another thing Ned had never imagined was that death incarnate would be so willing to make casual conversation, but the realization gives him all kinds of hope. Escaping prison — and supernatural prison, at that — would be a daunting task, but just talking his way out of a bad situation? That, he could do.

“Well, you know, Mr. Reaper, if I may call you that — I’m a huge fan of yours, loved you in ‘The Masque of the Red Death!’ And I would really hate to throw a wrench in the operation you have set up here, but…”

The reaper’s book vanishes in a plume of smoke, and his grip on his scythe tightens. “Okay, I think we both know what you’re playing at here, and let me just warn you now — even if I did want to let you go, it’s not my decision to make. I already told you I wasn’t the only reaper, and even if we all agreed to let back into the world of the living, the Raven Queen would never sign off on it. Flattering me isn’t gonna get you anywhere.”

“But I need to get back!” Ned blurts out. “I made a mistake, a whole pile of mistakes, and I need to fix them — there is an entire planet, an entire world in danger because of me! The apocalypse is impending for a whole world of innocent, sapient creatures, and hardly anyone knows the truth of it! Hardly anyone can stop it, except me and —”

The reaper flinches at the mention of a world in danger, but Ned doesn’t notice because the words, the confessions, the pleas are now pouring out of his mouth too fast to contain. “Except me and the rest of the Pine Guard, but I left them without doing nearly enough to help, to make it up to them — so I need to get back, just for a few hours! Just to make sure they’ll be alright! To warn them, and — and to say goodbye, because they and Kirby were still the closest thing I ever had to a family…”

He’s oblivious to the enchantment the reaper has cast, compelling him to speak the truth — because if telling the truth meant getting back to Kepler, meant saving the world and in particular the Pine Guard… then not even Ned Chicane would dare to lie.

“Just a big, weird, dumb family of cryptids and magicians and park rangers and crazy old men trying to stave off the apocalypse together! I can’t abandon them now, I can’t —”

“Shh.” The reaper holds up a hand. “Shh, it’s alright. I just need to check something, okay?”

With his scythe, he cuts a small tear in the dimension, edges of the rift glowing a vibrant green. Yet the inside of the gash shows nothing but a churning storm of dark purple clouds that cover the night sky, blotting out the stars as the wind roars and howls like chained beast straining to be free.

“Yikes. It really does look apocalyptic in there. Tell you what, Ned…”

In the shadowy void beneath the cowl of his robe, a devious smile lights up. “Legally, there’s nothing I can do to help you. But if it just so happened that Edmund Chicane was an unnaturally skilled necromancer, who overpowered me and stole my scythe to slip back into his own plane of existence… well, he’d need a corporeal form to be much of a help to anyone, but surely someone of his skill level could reanimate his body without any help from me whatsoever… I’m sure he’d be in a good position to avert the apocalypse, in that case.”

“Thank you,” Ned whispers, but the reaper quickly raises a finger to his lips.

“Don’t thank me yet,” he replies. “Really, you should know… a stunt like that, it’s gonna earn you a lot of prison time. I’m gonna have to bring you back here eventually, and when that happens, a bunch of folks are going to want you locked up in the Eternal Stockade. I can try my best to get your sentence mitigated, but… the Stockade’s not a nice place, even if you’re only in for a few decades.”

“I don’t care. I’ve done prison time before.”

The reaper nods slowly, and with a flick of his scythe, he tears a longer gash in the air, widening the small rift he’d opened before.

Before he steps through, though, he waves a hand across his robes, and stands still for a moment as they melt away into… a plain white shirt, battered denim jacket, and faded pair of blue jeans, worn by possibly the most mundane-looking middle-aged man Ned has ever laid eyes upon.

“Now, Mr. Reaper, I realize that I’m deeply indebted to you,” Ned says, “but that said, what on Earth are you wearing?”

“Can’t walk around looking like a skeleton if I’m gonna sneak over to your dead body and resurrect it,” the reaper answers. “And just call me Barry, by the way.”

***

Kirby is speeding across Kepler in a stolen car with a screaming goatman buckled up in the back seat, and none of it feels real. Street signs and traffic lights pass by in unidentifiable blurs, but he doesn’t dare take a hand off the steering wheel to wipe his tears away. His knuckles are white, and the old station wagon’s engine is groaning from the exertion —

The four-armed figure of pure white light springs down onto the car, and a spiderweb of cracks spreads across the windshield. Kirby slams the brakes on instinct, and Billy lets out an anguished bleat as his head collides with the back of the driver seat.

“Fuck!” Kirby shouts as two of the figure’s arms jab in through the windshield, grasping at thin air at first but stretching ever closer to him, and he fumbles with his seatbelt and flings the door open. “C’mon, goat, we gotta run!”

“Duuuuuck!” Billy bleats, flailing his arms nowhere near his buckle as Kirby opens his door. Somehow, the seatbelt has gotten twisted all around his horns, and he won’t stop jerking his head around long enough for Kirby to untangle him.

“Stay still, please stay still, we don’t have any time —”

Billy’s head abruptly jerks up, and his slitted eyes fixate on something just past Kirby. “Nedddddd!”

“Ned’s not gonna be able to help us anymore,” Kirby chokes out. “Please —”

A firm hand lands on Kirby’s shoulder, and his blood runs cold as he realizes he can make out a white glow in his peripheral vision. The figure squeezes tighter and tighter, dragging him back from the car and away from Billy —

He hears the satisfying swish of a blade swinging through the air, and the figure’s grip goes limp. He collapses to his knees, and around him, tiny particles of light drift through the air, winking out one at a time like lightning bugs.

Behind him, a familiar voice remarks: “Got here just in the nick of time, didn’t I?”

Immediately, Kirby staggers to his feet and whirls around. “You — you died! I saw it on the drones! How —”

His voice cuts off, as his brain begins to process what his eyes are seeing.

Ned is smiling slightly, but it’s not that fake showman’s smile that he always wears at the Cryptonomica. No, today his smile is confident and determined — and just a little bit melancholic, too, in a way that someone who doesn’t know Ned as well as Kirby does could easily miss.

But then again, maybe Kirby doesn’t know Ned as well as he thinks, because Ned is currently wielding a giant ebony scythe with a long silver blade, and standing above the glowing, bisected body of the four-armed figure. Even as it disintegrates, it’s clear that it was sliced in half at the waist by a single clean cut.

And perhaps most damning of all is Ned’s shirt — ripped and bloodied just above the stomach even though the bare skin shows no sign of a wound, and the body as a whole shows no signs of being dead as an injury like that should surely mean.

“What happened to you?”

Ned’s smile widens, and the melancholy immediately drains right out of his expression as he launches into his familiar “storyteller” mode.

“To put it succinctly, my friend, I met Death and we struck a deal! He’s a surprisingly helpful fellow, you know — he did wear a truly unconscionable amount of denim, but there’s no accounting for taste.”

***

(Thanks for reading, feedback/reblogs are welcomed as always!)

[darling-clemmy]

Queen of Diamonds (ClemxLouis Fanfiction)

Summary: During a simple card game, Clem and Louis get a whole lot more than they bargained for. Requested by Anon💕. (Everyone is alive and Clem and Louis aren’t together yet.)

Word Count: 1,719 words

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: Underaged drinking

A/N: I’m not super proud of this fic, but nonetheless, I wrote it, so I’m posting it. I hope you enjoy :))

“Okay, everyone! Everything is all set!”

The short redhead trotted back into the main building after catching everyone in the courtyard’s attention. It was a cool late spring night, and the green buds on the oaks had just blossomed into delicate leaves. Taking advantage of the nice night, the kids decided to hang outside, but Ruby (and Violet since she got cold easily) had another idea: to have another hootenanny in the music room.

AJ, Tenn, and Willy had decided on their own accord to have a party of their own, away from all of the older kids. Although Clem, Violet, and Mitch had all loved their respective kids endlessly, they appreciated the fact that they’d be getting some free time away from them. The absence of the younger boys also allowed for the teenagers to be, well, teenagers. This was also promised in two bottles of beer that Marlon and Mitch had found on a supply run not too long ago.

The group made their way up to the music room, now basked in the glow of red candlelight and the crescent moon in the sky. Soft upbeat instrumental music vibrated from the record player, filling the room with a sense that maybe the world hadn’t entirely gone to shit. Louis quickly identified the genre as country, to which he pestered Ruby about, knowing she chose it. She didn’t pay him or his cruel words toward the music any mind, and refused to put on a classical vinyl.

After groaning in dramatic agony, Louis changed the topic. “Seeing as there isn’t much else to do, how about a game?”

The idea excited Clem, as she always enjoyed playing Louis’ silly lighthearted card games. It gave her a sense of peace, of joy, for a few minutes in the midst of living among the animated dead and the cruel living. Even if it was just the two of them playing, it made her feel happy. Actually, especially if it was just the two of them playing.

“Oh, my god, really? We have a party and we still have to play one of your stupid card games?” Brody whined, already reaching for one of the glass bottles in the middle of the circle they were all sat in.

Louis swatted her hand away. “Hold on. How about we compromise?”

Brody raised her eyebrow. “Compromise?”

Clem could see Marlon smirking, looking between his best friend and his suspected girlfriend.

“Yeah. How about we play truth or dare, but with a twist. Whoever has to answer or do, has to also take a drink.” Louis explained, not waiting for a response before passing out small decks of cards. “You all know the rules—highest card asks, lowest card does.”

“Fine, I guess I’ll play. Only for a little, though,” Brody sighed.

“I’m surprised you caved in so easily.” Marlon teased while everyone else grabbed their cards, earning him a scowl from the girl.

For the first round, Clementine got the lowest with a two of hearts, while Mitch got the highest with a king of spades. Clem looked up, meeting the mischievous eyes of the boy across the circle from her.

“Huh, look at that, I win,” he brags. “How about a truth?”

Clem shrugged silently before sliding a beer over into her lap. Not bothering to read the label, she pryed the cap off and took a quick sip. She already knew she wouldn’t like the feeling of drunkenness or the taste of the alcohol. Her face stayed moderately straight at the bitter taste, not wanting anyone to taunt her.

“What’s the farthest you’ve gone with a guy?” He asked as simply as asking her favorite color.

At his words, Clem blushes instantly, embarrassed at both her truthful answer—not having done anything at all—and how she’d have to admit it in front of Louis. Would he think she was boring? A prude? She had never really talked to him about his past relationships before she arrived at Ericson a few months ago. How far had he gone?

“That’s a gross thing to ask, Mitch,” Ruby chastised.

Noticing her silence, Violet spoke up, too. “You don’t have to answer that, Clem.”

“No, it’s okay.” Clementine replied, pushing away her thoughts. “I haven’t done anything, really.”

“Really? Nothing at all?” Mitch pressed, not so sneakily glancing between her and the dark boy beside her.

Louis noticed this. “What are you insinuating, dude? She answered the question, leave it be.”

The tall boy rolled his eyes in response and grumbled something under his breath. As everyone else began to move onto the next round, reaching for new cards, Clementine looked over to Louis, giving him an appreciative smile. He smiled back, sending over a discreet wink, too, burning up her just cooled down face once again.

In the second round, Aasim got the high card and Violet got the low.

Violet’s face fell into an anxious expression. “I hope everyone is okay with me, like, not drinking. It just doesn’t really have a great history in my family, if you know what I mean.”

Everybody sincerely understood and nodded quietly. They had all been through their fair share of trauma, and Violet’s just so happened to be related to the addictive liquid. What kind of friends would they be if they pushed something like that on her?

“How about a dare,” Aasim decided, thinking for a few moments before speaking again. “Tell anyone in this room something you’ve wanted to tell them for a while, but don’t say their name.”

“What kind of dare is that?” Marlon ridiculed, to which Brody lightly jabbed him in the bicep, telling him to shush.

“Ah, shit, okay,” Violet whispered. She took a deep breath, “I really—“ she paused before her face hardened and she stated, “You’re a huge dumbass.”

“C’mon Vi, we all know that’s directed at Louis,” Aasim replied.

They all began to laugh, yet Clem remained quiet, especially once she saw Louis’ solemn face. His usual starry, hopeful eyes were fixated on the wooden floor. His bottom lip was puckered out, something he instinctively did when his hands cramped up when playing the piano, when Marlon hit him in the arm a little too hard, when AJ mentioned some scary story from before him and Clem had arrived at the school. Louis made this face when he was sad, and Clementine didn’t like it one bit.

Before she could say anything, the group silenced and continued playing. They reached for new cards and Brody drank a long swig, claiming it was in place of Violet’s. Louis looked up and met Clem’s staring eyes for a moment before she looked away, embarrassed.

A chorus of “oo’s” echoed as it was realized that the apparent king of games had the lowest card. A three of clovers.

Mitch had the highest once again. A queen of diamonds.

He’s probably cheating somehow, Clementine thought to herself.

“Now I’ve beat both of the lovebirds,” he teased, smirking.

“Do you ever stop, Mitch?” Ruby scowled.

Ignoring the upset redhead, he kept his blue eyes on the boy with dreads. “I dare you to give Clem a kiss.”

“The most legitimate of dares,” Aasim mimicked, referring back to a card game a few months back where Clem dared him to kiss Ruby.

Clementine went red, a hot prickling sensation moving across her torso, up her neck, and to her face. Of course she’d like to kiss her long-time crush, but in front of most all of the other kids? That just seemed to suck all of the giddiness and magic out of it.

“I’m not doing that if she doesn’t want to.” Louis refused, squinting his eyes at the group before widening them at the sight of the girl avoiding eye contact with everyone else. His voice lowered. “Do you want to?”

She had felt nervous before, of course—the first time she walked through a herd, when she thought AJ was dead after he was first born, when she read a poem aloud to her kindergarten class. This was different, though. Very different.

Clementine knawed on the inside of her cheek. She looked around the room from the foggy windows to Brody and Marlon sharing the bottle of beer to the mahogany piano to Louis’ impending stare. After squeezing her eyes shut to clear them of the blurriness, she opened her mouth to speak.

“I don’t know,” she choked out.

Louis’ eyes softened more, if that was even possible. Yet, at the same time, there was still a flicker of disappointment in them. “That’s okay, Clem. We don’t have to.”

She exhaled shakily before jumping to her feet and pacing out of the room. It was all too awkward. Too embarrassing. She was angry at herself and Mitch and the fact that her head still felt heavy despite her not drinking much.

Before she could open her bedroom door, she felt a heavy hand grab her shoulder. She turned and was met with a pair of dark, kind eyes.

“Louis,” she sighed. “I-I’m sorry for walking out like that.”

“It’s okay, Clem. I just wanted to make sure you were alright.” Louis said, reaching his hand up to touch his neck.

She leaned back against the door. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Embarrassed, but fine.”

“Mitch was being an ass. You don’t have to be embarrassed,” he comforted, moving his hand out to clasp her’s.

Clementine gasped softly at how warm and coarse his palms were. Still, she didn’t pull away.

The teenagers’ eyes traveled from their entwined fingers to each other’s faces. The hallway was dark, with the only light radiating from the shadows of the moon and stars. Despite that, Clementine was able to see each and every freckle dusted across his nose, his chapped lips, the barely noticeable dimple on his left cheek. All of these features on top of Clem’s already instense attraction to him resulted in a surge of bravery.

Standing up on her tiptoes, she kissed him. It was sweet and gentle and somehow even better than how Clem had rehearsed it in her head millions of times.

She pulled away, just enough to where their lips still brushed over each other.

Louis chuckled ecstatically. “What was that for?”

Clementine grinned. “I think I owed you a dare.”

[bellarkefanfiction]

Let Your Heart Be Right 

2 Sleeps until Christmas ❄

written by: Josefine / @selflessbellamy

summary: Two people who have a one night stand are snowed-in and have to spend Christmas Eve together.

word count: 2231

Though Clarke hasn’t had the most colorful sex life, she’s fairly certain that it’s not common to have hot chocolate before a one night stand — Nevermind the fact that there was a bit of alcohol in the beverage; it’s still weird, but in a good kind of way. The stranger’s dark eyes had a dreamy look to them, which drew her in faster than she anticipated. For some reason, she’d been set on playing hard to get, tease him a little bit before taking him home, yet that’s not how the night turned out. And now, he — Bellamy, she recalls — is lying next to her in bed, sleeping soundly on his stomach, which would’ve been an unsettling sight if she didn’t remember telling him to stay last night.

Not because she would’ve been lonely otherwise. Bellamy, she discovered, is actually great fucking company. He made her laugh out loud with weird, sarcastic jokes that were right up her alley and at some point she just had to know if the chemistry that she was feeling between them would intensify in bed.

Spoiler alert: it did.

After a couple of minutes, being the only one awake becomes a little boring, so she pokes his foot with hers, causing him to grunt. “Jesus, your feet are like blocks of ice. Put some fuzzy socks on them, dammit,” but she only chuckles.

Then he slowly opens his eyes, his long eyelashes fluttering a bit. When a warm smile grows on his lips, she feels heat rise to her cheeks without warning. “Thanks for last night, Princess… Hope you had fun.”

Clarke laughs and dares to run her hand up his spine. “Don’t worry, you know I did. Do you want breakfast before you leave? Coffee? Oh my God, we need coffee.”

At that, his eyes crinkle at the corners. “I thought you told me last night that you can’t cook?”

She huffs. “It’s microwavable oatmeal, Bellamy. It’s not that difficult.”

Chuckling, he moves out of bed, giving her a nice view of his ass as he stands to pull his boxer briefs back on. Although she tries to be discreet about looking, he catches her and winks. Then, he questions, “What’s with the frown? Were you hoping for a second round?”

“You weren’t?”

Licking his lower lip, Bellamy seems to think about it for a minute before he reminds her that that’s not exactly how one night stands work, and she rolls her eyes. Even though she admittedly isn’t the most experienced person when it comes to casual sex, she did have a few hookups in college until she started dating Finn.

Out of habit, Clarke turns on the radio in the kitchen to listen to some music while she “prepares” the microwavable oatmeal. Before she can switch on Bluetooth, however, a radio news host has something important to say.

“A lot of new yorkers seem to have had quite the surprise this morning, because a sudden yet powerful blizzard last night has left most of the city covered in a thick layer of snow. Some buildings have also experienced problems with electricity. This is bound to cause a lot of unpredictable issues for people who wanted to spend Christmas Eve away from home.”

Bellamy looks at her, his brow furrowed in confusion, but then his eyes widen as the realization appears to dawn on him.

“Are we… snowed in, do you think?”

Right away, they go down to check the front door of the apartment building, and yeah… the snow has it blocked, sealed shut so that not even a man as strong as Bellamy is able to push it open. After his fifth try, Clarke sighs, “Come on. It’s not gonna work. Let’s just go back and listen to the news. See if any help is coming soon.”

But of course not. It’s Christmas Eve day, meaning that no one is around to operate the machines that can clear the snow. As the morning progresses with little promising news, Bellamy and Clarke — two strangers who were just looking for a hookup before Christmas — flop onto the couch with heavy sighs. “Who are you spending the day with tomorrow?” she asks, turning to look at him, and he offers her a tiny smile.

“Friends from college… Not the TV-show, though. That would be too depressing.”

In spite of everything, those words manage to make her laugh, but then he asks her the same question and she frowns again. “I don’t know,” is her admission. “My mom doesn’t celebrate the holiday anymore, and… she’s the—she’s the only family I have left.”

Wow, this got heavy real fast. Yet somehow Clarke had the feeling that she wouldn’t be able to lie to Bellamy; he has this empathetic spark in his eyes, which has her believing that he’d be able to see right through her — through anybody, as a matter of fact. Some people have that gift. Wells and her dad had it, too, but they’re both gone.

Carefully, Bellamy reaches out to touch her shoulder. If she didn’t know better, it’d be easy to forget that she had sex with him last night and that he is actually a stranger as opposed to someone who’s known her for years — at least long enough to know what soothes her. Then, to her utter surprise, he replies, his voice quiet, “My friends are the only family I have… You want some hot chocolate? I’ll make it for you.”

Clarke manages a slight smile at his offer. “Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks.”

There was no forgettable aspect of last night, his hot chocolate included. Still, even though she kindly asks for it, he refuses to give her a copy of his recipe, stating that it’s a “Christmas secret,” which is most certainly bullshit but she’ll let him get away with it, if only because he lets her taste it off the spoon after he’s stirred it all together in the pot.

Closing her eyes at the taste, nostalgia hits her like a train. Of course, it’s not a complete replica of the hot chocolate her dad used to make, but it has the same amazing richness. “That’s delicious…”

He beams at her, pours the beverage into her two Christmas-themed mugs; one of them has Rudolf on it, the other a snowman and she remembers them from her childhood. “Are you a marshmallow person? It’s crucial information. You didn’t have any last night.” Bellamy states, making her chuckle.

“A couple is okay.”

For some reason she didn’t have him pecked as a person who enjoys adding extra sweetness to hot chocolate, but last night she found out that he puts numerous marshmallows — even more than she does — into his own cup. “I drink black coffee. I need some sugar in my life,” was his reasoning when she’d questioned it. He’d winked at her as he said it, and despite the cheesiness of it, she found his flirting quite endearing.

“Why doesn’t your mom celebrate Christmas? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t—“

Clarke smiles a little. “No, it’s fine. My dad loved Christmas so much; it was his favorite holiday, and that was evident in our house during December — decorations everywhere, jolly music playing all day, but he died a few years ago and my mom’s heart hasn’t… well, she can’t bring herself to enjoy it anymore. I’ve tried to tell her that that isn’t what dad would’ve wanted, but… um.”

Before she can tear up, Bellamy moves a piece of her behind her ear, distracting her with his gentleness. When she asks him about why he only celebrates Christmas with his friends, he tells her that his parents passed away many years ago and that he’s estranged from his little sister, which makes her feel sad for a moment until he shrugs. “Well, my friends are amazing. They’re the only family I need. You’d like them… Hey.”

At his sudden change of voice that clearly indicates that an idea has formed in his mind, Clarke chuckles.

“You could join us tomorrow! I’m sure they won’t mind. If we ever get out of here, that is.”

In spite of the kindness of the proposal, she still isn’t sure. “Bellamy, we met last night. We had sex, you don’t think your friends will find it a bit weird if I join your little Christmas celebration?” He had been the one to draw up the unwritten rules of the one night stand a couple hours ago, and she’s pretty sure that you’re not supposed to extend the time you spend with your hookup for longer than necessary, but right now they don’t have a choice. Tomorrow they might — and he’s going to decide to introduce her to his friends? Seems a bit untraditional. Still, he appears unfazed by it, shrugging.

“We don’t have to mention the sex. I’ll just tell them that you’re a friend that I haven’t told them about.”

She grins. “Are you a good liar?”

“No, I’m terrible.”

At that deadpan response, Clarke throws her head back in warm laughter. “Well, we’ll be just fine then.”

To her surprise, hanging out with Bellamy for the rest of the day is far from awkward. Last night in the bar she’d recognized that they had chemistry from the moment their eyes found one another, but she never guessed that spending the day with him would be so… natural. Because they’re tired of hearing the same messages on the radio regarding the blizzard, they turn it off and decide to watch the worst Christmas movies on Netflix together, just to laugh at the horrible scripts and bland plotlines. In the end, it proves to be a very good way of passing time, because when the second bad movie is done, the sky outside has been dressed in black velvet.

“Are you hungry? I can make us something,” Bellamy offers while she tries not to fixate on how his fingers have inched closer to her thigh.

“I think I have some pasta in the fridge. And some wine.”

At the last part, Bellamy’s smile grows to a bright grin. “Perfect, Princess.”

Oh, right. The nickname… It had started last night in the because of the tiny crown that’s glued to the top of her iPhone. To her relief, he didn’t call her ‘baby’ like Finn loved to do; it’s safe to say that she likes this pet name better somehow. One thing she neglected to tell Bellamy last night is that right before she went into the bar, she’d thrown her old engagement ring into the sewer — after two months, she was sick of holding onto it, even though she wasn’t wearing it. Now that there’s a nice, handsome man cooking dinner in her kitchen and humming the melody of ‘Last Christmas’ the decision to let go of the past couldn’t be more liberating.

“How much cheese do you want on your pasta?” Bellamy asks, causing her to chuckle a little.

“LOTS.”

And that’s what she gets. Honestly, he is amazing. Finally, a person who understands with the perfect sauce-to-cheese ratio is without having to ask. Though he could probably be a cook (he could certainly cook for her anytime), he’s already told her that he’s a freelance journalist and historian.

Basically, out of all the people in the bar that night she definitely chose to talk to the right one. This is especially true when you consider that he’s invited her to spend Christmas morning with him and his friends, just so that she won’t be alone.

Then a thought hits her. “Does you inviting me to celebrate Christmas with you tomorrow mean that you want to continue seeing me? Or did I… misunderstand? Are you just being the nicest person ever, and I—“

Blood rushes to her cheeks in embarrassment, but then he releases a warm laugh as he grabs her hand. When his eyes meet hers, there are thousands of twinkling sparks within the dark brown shades of them, which makes relief surge through her. A smile pulling at his lips, Bellamy replies, “If I didn’t want to continue seeing you, I probably wouldn’t have approached you in the bar at all. My days of casual sex have been over since college, but I was willing to do it if you didn’t want more than that.”

“But you didn’t wanna sleep with me again this morning,” she says, a skeptic eyebrow raised.

Grinning, Bellamy moves his hands up in defense. “Okay, I admit it. I was trying to play hard to get. It didn’t work, did it?”

“No, but your Christmas invitation did.”  

His grin morphs into a confident smirk as he puts his arm around her shoulders, but they haven’t been sitting like that for long before he challenges her at a game of cards, which is another thing that reminds her of the Christmases she had while her dad was alive. Every time she glances at Bellamy he beams, golden like the sun — and she is brought to think that tomorrow will be the best Christmas she’s had in years.

(Luckily, it is far from the last one they get to spend together)

[pass-the-bechdel]

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Ant-Man (2015)

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, once.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Four (22.22% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Fourteen.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Film Quality:

It’s delightful. 

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Maggie passes with Cassie as she puts her to bed.

Female characters:

Peggy Carter.

Hope Van Dyne.

Cassie.

Maggie.

Male characters:

Howard Stark.

Hank Pym.

Scott Lang.

Peachy.

Luis.

Dale.

Kurt.

Dave.

Darren Cross.

Frank.

Paxton.

Gale.

Mitchell Carson.

Sam Wilson.

OTHER NOTES:

Dave calls Scott a pussy, and Scott is not fussed at all about accepting the attempted insult.

Ah, the old ‘wish you’d call me dad’ cliche, the most worn-out lazy way to establish an antagonistic parent/child relationship. 

“a sustainable environment of well-being”, what an excellent fascist euphemism.

Maggie is very reasonable with Scott about the conditions for seeing Cassie; it’s refreshing to not have this played as ‘harpy ex-wife refuses to let man see his child because she’s just the worst!’ Maggie has a child to look after - and has been doing so for years now while Scott was in jail - and she has every right to impose rules on how things proceed, Scott doesn’t get to just march in and have things his way ‘because she’s my daughter!’ Children are not possessions or status symbols, and this movie does a nice job of recognising that and having the adult characters recognise that and behave in reasonable and understanding ways for Cassie’s benefit rather than their own egos. Other films should take note. Also, real people.

“Yeah man, it killed DiCaprio.”

Turning lambs into goo is worse than kicking puppies. What a monster.

They do a pretty solid job with the reason for Hope not being allowed to don the suit instead. It has strong potential for seeming like flat-out sexism, the idea that a woman can’t get the job done (in universe) and that a female hero won’t sell (out universe), and while that may indeed still be the core reason, they still pull off the reasoning as if it’s genuine.

Pym’s excuse for why he never told Hope the truth about her mother’s death, on the other hand, is pretty fuckin’ weak. Tell people to stop pretending ‘I was trying to protect you’ is a reasonable explanation for lies. It’s super-high - easily Top 5 - on my list of Worst and Most Tedious Cliche Lines.

Kurt suggests that the suit is the work of gypsies and it’s...not the best line they could have picked. Something less racist instead, maybe? No?

Cross is really fixated on Pym as a father figure. It’s different. I like different.

“That’s a messed-up looking dog.”

Scott and Paxton making peace is so great. Paxton peeing in all the corners and Scott being all jealous and threatened by Paxton ‘usurping his place in the family’ would have been such a predictable cliche for them to use, and this very palatable mature adult behaviour is sooo much better. This is how you stop normalising petty possessive rivalries. 

Luis is magical, and also, mad cultured. I love it, but I love even more that they don’t hang a lantern on it, they just let it be part of his character.

Ok, I confess, this is probably gonna be a weird sort of meandering review, because I’ve had this post sitting in my drafts for two months gathering dust while I deal with the mental and physical fatigue of the first trimester of a pregnancy (it’s FUN), and now the due date for this post (pun definitely intended) is right on the horizon, so...I’m just gonna get it done, and it’ll be whatever the heck it is in the end. This is not a complex film filled with deep nuance, it’s basically just an action-y heist movie with some hand-waved scifi on top. And there’s ants. It’s not a hard film to talk about, so you’ll excuse me if it doesn’t get my very best effort. I’m kinda busy growing a human over here.

I remember a lot of grumbling and even some outrage in fandom, back when this film was announced; a lot of people upset that the MCU was bringing in a comparatively little-known and perhaps little-loved superhero like Ant-Man when they still hadn’t bothered with a single female-led film yet, and various complaints about the problematic nature of the Ant-Man character from the comics (referring, I believe, to the Hank Pym version). And then, of course, there was the doubt about whether or not an Ant-Man story was just a fucking idiotic idea in the first place, what with the questionable application of science and the even more questionable appeal of a tiny little man running around playing with ants. Expectations were not high. And yet, Ant-Man pulls through, not just with a great fun romp, but with what I consider one of the more entertaining films the MCU has churned out to date.

I have made my fair share of sour comments about previous films in the MCU and their unimaginative paint-by-numbers plots, and so what I’d like to talk about with Ant-Man is how it manages to be such a success to me despite an essentially uncomplicated story that follows a predictable narrative arc the likes of which we’ve all seen a hundred times before. The basic tenets of a heist movie are all there; the basic tenets of a good vs evil story play straight, alongside a low-key but typical redemption plot, and some plight-of-the-regular-guy vs corporate greed and warmongering, and the leading man hooks up with the leading lady in the end and proves himself as a hero to his family and all that jazz. We know every one of these story and character beats. So. Why do they work?

Let me back this up a second to talk about a couple of major-league pet peeves of mine, the one a microcosmic version of the other: firstly, when people say ‘all Marvel films are basically the same’, and secondly, the Advanced Level Faux-Intellectual Douche version of that sentiment, when people declare that ‘there’s no such thing as originality anymore! There are only seven types of story in the world anyway! Everything is derivative!’ It’s an obnoxious absence of a viewpoint that betrays a lack of imagination and a use of such broad-strokes surface-level comprehension as to be essentially meaningless. Sure, if you break down story concepts to their most fundamental core drives, you can summarise their arcs in a relatively small number of ways, and familiarity with these core concepts can provide a degree of predictability in the way things play out. But that doesn’t mean that every single version of, say, the classic Hero’s Journey is the same damn story, and therefore a useless derivation from which no entertainment or message can be gleaned. If someone asks you to tell them the plot of a movie and you just go ‘oh, it’s a Hero’s Journey’ and leave it at that, you’ve told them almost nothing about what to actually expect. The Matrix is a very, very different Hero’s Journey to The Lord of the Rings, which is a very different Hero’s Journey to Finding Nemo, which is not at all the same as Iron Man. And which of them is closest to The Odyssey, anyway? One of the most obvious differences with all of those examples is genre, and the traditional trappings which often (but not always) follow from them. Sure, the MCU films tend to all fit superhero-comic genre conventions, and some of them (particularly origin stories, as with Iron Man and Thor) may employ a lot of the same tropes while they’re at it. But does anyone really, genuinely think that Ant-Man is ‘basically the same’ as Captain America: The First Avenger? Is Guardians of the Galaxy almost indistinguishable from Black Panther? Does anyone who says ‘Marvel movies are all basically the same’ actually believe the words out of their own mouth, or do they just hope it makes them sound smart if they imply that they’re ‘above’ enjoying mainstream popcorn action?

All of this is to say, what makes Ant-Man work where other trope-heavy films fall apart? The same thing that makes literally any story ever work, and be worthwhile, whether it ‘breaks barriers’ or ��teaches something’ or is considered ‘high art’ or not: details. Some films are too light on details, which makes them boring because they never really bother to build anything on top of those core foundations we know so well. Sometimes, the details - numerous as they might be - are too generic to have an impact, and the dull result is the same. Sometimes the details are too absurd to land, or there are too many to keep track of, or they require too much extraneous qualification to fit into the flow of the rest of the story, or they’re irrelevant to the rest of the story anyway. The thing about details? There are countless options. People come up with new ideas all the time, through the exercise of imagination or through developments and innovations in the real world. Basic, core plot arcs may be distilled to a handful of options, but story details are limitless, and the possibility of fun new combinations is always there, whether you’re inventing something entirely never-before-seen or not. The idea that you have to be shocking and unexpected to be worthwhile is ridiculous, and shepherds illogical contrivances and gimmicks without narrative cohesion or purpose much more often than it achieves something genuinely surprising with merit (and storytelling that prioritises ‘shocking twists’ is usually so busy trying to look clever it forgets to actually be clever, but, that’s another conversation). The point is, Ant-Man being a delightful film isn’t rocket science. It’s as simple as just a little forethought in the construction of its details.

As noted back near the top, the whole Ant-Man concept and its wobbly science was something that drew some doubt regarding whether or not it could be pulled off in a convincing manner; the solution to achieving that is to do more than just lean in to the idea. The film throws itself whole-heartedly into its core conceit and its tropes, and it drags us along with it to gleefully delight in the act. The story is not embarrassed by itself, it doesn’t try to keep its distance; instead, it gives us a flying ant named Antony, and a dramatic death scene for that ant. What is the point of the Pym particle science conceit if we don’t enjoy the comedic potential of an epic battle inside a briefcase, or on a child’s train set? Relevant to this also is the subject of casting choices (as much a detail-of-interest as anything; a single casting choice can legitimately make or break a film). Paul Rudd has a perfect blend of leading-man charisma and affable comedic chops; he plays Scott as a beta-personality, which is always a refreshing change-up for a lead, and one which invites other refreshing changes around him. It avoids tedious masculine antics in his interactions with other men, while encouraging balanced and respectful interactions with women; Scott never asserts himself as the boss or leader in his relationship with Luis and the rest of his crew, allowing for a smoothly-cooperative dynamic; no time or plot is wasted on pointless jostling for control of the operation with Pym; the idea that Scott needs to prove himself to the three female characters in his life - Hope, Maggie, and Cassie, each for similar but different reasons - is given legitimate weight, instead of implying that Scott and his perspective is inherently superior and correct and the onus is on the other characters to realise that, rather than being on him to live up to other people’s reasonable expectations. It should come as no surprise that the latter element is especially interesting and heartening in the context of this blog.

This is particularly good news when it comes to the kinds of relatively minor details which can make a huge difference in whether or not one reflects on a film in a positive or negative manner; the fact that the narrative supports and validates Hope’s anger, her frustration and resentment and her all-business-no-fun attitude, is vital to keeping a viewer like myself on-side with the film. Hope is never presented as someone who should ‘just loosen up’, or ‘have faith in her father’s plan’, the fact that she is denied the Ant-Man technology because Pym ‘can’t bare to risk losing her’ is offered as a reason but not as an excuse for something deeply patronising, and Scott proving that he can get the job done despite Hope’s misgivings about him is not framed as her being ‘wrong’ - her concerns were legitimate, as all her emotions across the film are, and the story never compromises on that in order to bolster another character. Whether or not Hope is well-handled is not important to the operation of the central narrative plot in a technical sense, but it means a lot in terms of delivering strong characters with satisfying arcs, and a central plot can easily fall flat if the characters participating in it don’t work well, individually or together.

I’m trying to wrap this up coherently, but it’s just as well that I disclaimered myself in the beginning because all I’ve got are frayed pieces of, probably, five other paragraphs I could waffle about. It’s not a complex film, no, but it has a surprising amount of quality details, the more I think about it, even regarding aspects of the movie that I liked less than others (Pym, for example, I did not love, but I like that the movie never tried to pass off his ‘genius’ as an excuse for him being a significantly flawed figure in the lives of most people who encountered him, often with bitter consequences. I’m also a big fan of the fact that both he and Scott have complicated but loving relationships with their daughters, considering that Hollywood has a hyper-obsession with the idea of ‘A Man And His Son’ as the beating heart of family narratives). I’m going to close this out with what may be my personal favourite refreshing detail of this movie, and that’s the mature adult relationship between Scott, Maggie, and Paxton. I mentioned it already in the notes, but honestly, how many times have we seen that toxic cliche, with the shrewish ex-wife and the terrible new man in her life, where the main character (who is Doing His Best!) has to prove through [insert plot heroics] that ex-wife is WRONG and should have stayed with him, the father of her child(ren), because did we mention, her new man is terrible and the main character is always right and good and better! In the end, ex-wife almost certainly leaves her terrible new man to get back together with the main character, because he is Doing His Best and that’s more important than actually being a stable/responsible person! The American nuclear family is the ideal! Divorce is for heathens! Y’all know that toxic plot. I can think of three different examples of it in action right off the top of my head, with no effort required. Point is, the degree to which I was utterly thrilled by this movie subverting cliche at every turn of its family saga really cannot be overstated. Maggie is a reasonable person! Scott respects that Cassie’s needs are more important than his wants! Paxton cares about his family and genuinely wants Scott to land on his feet, for the benefit of everyone! There’s no jealous posturing and Scott acting all hurt about being ‘replaced’! HE LITERALLY THANKS PAXTON FOR EVERYTHING HE DOES, WHEN HAVE I EVER SEEN THAT BEFORE?! Honestly, you don’t have to tell the most original story in the world to tell a story that resonates. You don’t even have to avoid common tropes, you just have to think about what you want to do with them. It’s not rocket science. It’s just good honest storytelling.

With ants.

[sims3morgans]

Siblings Interview Tag

I was tagged by @dreamsongsims​ Thank you! It was fun to write dialogue for Olwyn and Bethan, I’ve not done that before because of the style of my blog. I got a little bit carried away, hope you enjoy!

Tagging: @simcatcher​

Interview under the cut...

The following is part of the transcript of an interview with the Morgan Sisters, following the publication of Olwyn Morgan’s second book. Under her pseudonym Octavia Morrigan, Olwyn has had incredible success but has until refused all calls for media interviews. She agreed to this one for International Sisters Day so long as her sister Bethan could join us.

1. Which one of you is the older sibling?

Bethan: That would be Olwyn.

Interviewer: Do you remember a time before Bethan came along Olwyn?

Olwyn: I do, but only just. My earliest memory is watching my parents renew their vows when I was a toddler. After that I hadn’t long aged up into a child when Bethan was born – so I haven’t got many memories without her.”

2. What do you like about your sibling?

Interviewer: Bethan, would you like to start?

Bethan: Sure. Okay so the first thing you need to know about Olwyn is she’s kind. And patient. I’ve seen that my whole life, she’s been the perfect big sister, balancing me out – I’m a little more abrupt I guess.  But as I’ve got older I’ve seen she’s got a wicked streak too. She kept her success as an author a secret but played with us by buying expensive presents… I knew my prom dress was hella expensive but I couldn’t prove it! Oh yeah, so she’s generous too.

Interviewer: And you Olwyn?

Olwyn: Bethan is patient in her own way too. When we were children she tried  hard to help me out of my shell, I was so shy you see. What I really admire in her though is the way she feels things so deeply. I can remove myself form my feelings a bit, but Bethan really feels whatever she’s feeling. Love, hate, loyalty… it’s wonderful.

3. What annoys you about your sibling?

//Bethan glances at Olwyn, she’s grinning.//

Bethan: Olwyn?

Olwyn: Bethan can be a bit… well sometimes she….

Bethan: I’m a bit much!

Olwyn, smiling: Exactly. When a family friend was living with us, back when we lived in Bridgeport.

Bethan: That ****.

Olwyn: Bethan! You see? Well sometimes she feels things so deeply she actually makes the situation worse. A***** (name redacted) was being unpleasant to me personally, but the three of us shared a room. The smart thing to do was to swallow our feelings so we could rub along in those small quarters – Bethan took against him and created an atmosphere.

//Bethan rolls her eyes and leans back in her chair.//

Bethan: A***** (name redacted) was a ****. Whatever. You know what annoys me about you Olwyn? You’re too easy going. You forgive people, and let them walk all over you. If I ever see A***** again, he won’t know what’s hit him.

4. Describe your sibling(s) with three adjectives.

Bethan: Olwyn is serene, kind, and unaccountably humble.

//Olwyn appears touched, her hand on her chest.//

Olwyn: Thank you. I would say that Bethan is earnest, adaptable and loyal.

5. What is your sibling’s/siblings’ biggest talent(s)?

Bethan: Oh that’s easy, she’s an amazing author! I loved her work even before I knew she was the one writing it.

Olwyn: Thank you Bethan, it was quite tough listening to you speculate about the plot for the sequel, you had it all so wrong! But anyway.  Bethan’s biggest talent is her ability to see the diamond in the rough. She does it at work, finding scrap to turn into art, but also in people. She’s see’s inside people instinctively, and often brings out the best in them just by being herself.

//Bethan’s mouth drops open.//

Bethan: I… Olwyn. I… that’s beautiful.

//Olwyn shrugs.//

Olwyn: It’s what you do.

6. What is your sibling(s) really bad at?

Olwyn: Bethan can’t always see very far ahead. She lives in the moment you know? She can be so fixated on doing what she’s doing the consequences escape her.

Bethan: Oh so you’re bringing up the swimming thing again…

Olwyn: I…

Bethan: Okay, I swam too far out into Bridgeport River. I was having fun!

Olwyn: Bethan it’s all water under the bridge.

//Bethan pauses, then grins.//

Bethan: That was terrible. Right, okay so Olwyn is really bad at gardening. Mum and Dad, their whole livelihood is gardening and Olwyn’s been trying to help them since she was a kid but they’ve never had the heart to tell her how bad she is at it!

Olwyn: They all look the same! How you can tell a shoot from a weed…

7. Do you have nicknames for each other?

Bethan: No not really. We don’t do that in our family I guess. Olwyn would you..?

Olwyn: Yes I agree. Both our names are quite short so we’ve not needed to shorten them further, and silly nicknames… no – it’s not for us.

8. What’s one thing you can do that your sibling(s) can’t?

Olwyn: Bethan’s not really at home in the kitchen. I can cook quite well, I do a nice ratatouille. Which is just as well we eat a lot of vegetables. We were quite poor for a long time you see, sometimes we only had the vegetables we’d grown ourselves to eat, for weeks at a time. You learn to make the most of what you have.

Bethan: I paint – I don’t know if Olwyn’s ever picked up a paintbrush! I did a few for her side of the bedroom because she was going to be satisfied with bare walls.

9. Did you get along when you were younger?

Bethan: We did. We’re fairly different Sims, but we got along very well.

Olwyn: We had to I think. Our bedroom in Bridgeport was so small… any arguments could have got nasty. Maybe being so different was our saving grace, less conflict?

10. What is your funniest childhood memory of your sibling?

Olwyn: Bethan was a treasure trove of funny moments, I think she put it on a bit to lighten tension. When we were both children, she had this signature pratfall off the climbing frame at school – cracked me up every time!

Bethan: Looking back, there’s loads of moments where Olwyn was being really funny but in her understated way you know? I think for me it’s when we were both teens and we had this really nasty teacher for music class. Neither of us are musical, so she was pretty mean to us. Olwyn would insist in smiling sweetly and saying “See you next Tuesday” to her after every lesson. Cracked us all up, because we weren’t sure whether the good girl Olwyn knew what she was saying! Mrs Bridey wasn’t sure either – her eyes would bug out!

Olwyn: Oh I definitely knew what I was saying.

11. Are you closer now or when you were younger?

Bethan: Physically obviously we were closer when we were younger. Not living together does limit things! I miss Olwyn’s cooking, and chatting over breakfast… but we’re still close.

Olwyn: I think we have that kind of relationship where you might not see each other for a couple of weeks, but when you do it’s like you’ve never been apart. We’re not brittle, we’re sisters and friends and no amount of time apart could change that. We’re young adults now, and making our own lives, and we’re confident enough in our relationship to give each other the space to do that.

Bethan: Ugh, Olwyn you always say things so nice!”

Olwyn: I am a wordsmith Bethan!

12. Did you compete with each other?

Bethan: Nope.

Olwyn: No, not really. We built each other up.

13. Which one of you is more likely to turn out like your mum or dad?

Olwyn: Well neither of us is particularly interested in vegetables…

Bethan: Olwyn! She means like, emotionally and stuff.”

Olwyn: Oh of course. Well we’ve both inherited a strong sense of family being important from them. Of sticking together, and helping each other out. Financially, emotionally, we’re a team.

Bethan: Right. Olwyn’s got it in one – family is more important than anything. Than money, than fame… it’s everything.

14. Which one is most likely to have a big family?

Both at the same time: “Bethan.” “Olwyn.”

//The sisters look at each other, both surprised by the others answer.//

Interviewer: Hmm, moving on…

15. What is one thing about your sibling(s) that has changed as you’ve gotten older?

Olwyn: Bethan where’s her hair down sometimes now. It’s been in a ponytail since she was old enough to reach behind her head to tie it up! But I guess she’s also more secure in herself. You seemed to want to prove yourself when we were younger Bethan, you still have drive and ambition but the edge to it has softened.

//Bethan nods.//

Bethan: I guess I can see that. I was desperate to help the family with our finances, then I was desperate to make a connection with a boy – any boy! I think the urgency wore off both those things, and I was much happier for it.

And you Olwyn, I think you’ve found your niche. In Bridgeport you never really fit in anywhere, but here in Appaloosa Plains you’ve found friends and  - oh I dunno. You just really seem to belong here.”

16. Who’s better at math?

Olwyn: Bethan.

Bethan: Yep, definitely me.

17. Who is more pessimistic and who is more optimistic?

Bethan: We’re both optimists, but it comes out differently I think. Olwyn finds the silver lining in any situation, so is happy to sit in it even if it’s actually not that great. I look at a situation and look for ways to make things better, or move things along at least.

18. Is there anything you don’t like doing together?

Olwyn: I don’t think we’ve ever gone drinking together, I’m not sure if it’s because Bethan and I don’t want to or just haven’t…

Bethan: Hey that’s right! And a lot of our friends overlap. Weird.

19. Which one of you do you think will get married first?

Olwyn: Bethan, things are looking pretty serious with her and Calvin..?

Bethan: I’m not sure we’re there yet!

Olwyn: Bethan, you have matching tattoos.

Bethan: Yes but… well he hasn’t asked. And I don’t plan to. Getting married is just so – I mean I love him but… It’s so public! You’ll probably get swept off your feet and marry someone within a season while Calvin and I are still figuring things out.

20. Lastly, how often do you argue?

Olwyn: Not often.

Bethan: Only about the big things, we don’t stress the small stuff. We get that from our dad, he’s pretty easy going.

Olwyn: Whereas mum...

Both laugh

[tonystarktogo]

“Sam and Dean Winchester,” Steve reads the names on the files. “Accused of murder, multiple spree-killings, bank-robbery and various cases of torture, among other-- is that grave desecration?”

Fury smiles, which is terrifying enough on its own. “Charming fellows, aren’t they?”

“They’ve been on the FBI’s most wanted list for years,” Natasha comments off-handedly, not looking half as disturbed by the content of these files as Tony thinks she should be. “Excluding the times they were thought dead. Why are they our problem now?”

“There’s been suspicions for years that the Winchesters aren’t entirely human. Wounds they shouldn’t have survived, locked rooms they disappeared from, deaths too good to be faked.” Fury’s eye narrows. That doesn’t actually answer Natasha’s question, but if anyone else notices they don’t call him out on it.

“A mutation, a rip-off of the serum, aliens, whatever it is, they’ve done a damn good job of covering their tracks so far."

“Or maybe they’ve got a guardian angel watching their backs,” Clint jokes -- earning him one of Steve’s patented I am disappointed that you would make light of such a serious situation™ looks.

Tony carefully doesn’t look up from where he’s staring at a cockily smiling Dean Winchester’s face.

*

“Do you believe in magic?” Madelene -- his favourite babysitter to date -- asks him quietly, and there’s a softness in her sad eyes as she looks down at him that makes them light up oh-so prettily.

*

Staring at the surveillance tapes of a strange man in the odd, roman-or-something-equally-out-of-date get-up with a glowing staff causing havoc in Germany, Tony says the only thing that comes to mind:

“I fucking hate magic.”

*

The kid can’t be a day older than fourteen, but the gun in his hands doesn’t waver. There is blood running down his temple, bruises forming along his throat, and Tony has the odd urge to push the kid behind him, to shield him from the crazed bitch trying to kill them both.

Once again, the kid pulls the trigger. Hits his mark with deadly accuracy. 

“Fucking witches,” he hisses between his shots, and there’s a hatred years too old for his appearance in those words.

*

Rhodey laughs, loud and boisterous. Until this very moment, Tony had forgotten how much he’s missed that that sound.

“Come on, Pepper,” Rhodey says teasingly. “There’s no such thing as magic.”

Pepper grins, cheeks flushed from the cold and the two glasses of champagne, eyes sparkling. Even Natalie’s lips twitch into a slight smile that Tony thinks might even be genuine.

“Alright, alright,” Pepper concedes with a head shake. “All I’m saying is, it’s a nice thought.”

“I suppose.” Rhodey shrugs, like he doesn’t much care one way or another. Has never seen much of a point to contemplate the aching what-ifs.

Tony doesn’t laugh. Tony doesn’t say anything at all.

*

“So.” Tony clears his throat, ignores the burning in his chest, the rawness of his throat. Being quiet doesn’t come easy to him. “Witches, huh?”

The kid looks up from where he’s kneeling over the bitch’s body, looking way too used to dealing with dead bodies for Tony’s comfort, and his eyes are hard with a wariness Tony is all-too familiar with. For a moment, he thinks the kid is going to snap. Shoot him or, hell, mind-magic his memories away, the way Tony’s day is going. But then the kid sighs, shoulders drooping in exhaustion, and he looks so fucking young.

“Yeah,” the kid mumbles, followed by Tony’s least favourite words in the world. “Among other things.”

*

“Sir, may I advise you to cut back on your drinking? The level of alcohol poisoning in your blood is approaching a Protocol Shutdown height,” JARVIS says calmly.

Tony doesn’t bother acknowledging him. His gaze is fixated on the screen in front of him, where he watches the too-familiar face of a total stranger smile a deranged, blood-thirsty, familiar smile. Tony has lost track of how often he’s watched the footage of the massacre a while ago, but the content remains the same.

Sam and Dean Winchester publicly gun down twenty-seven civilians. Brutally and clearly enjoying every second of it.

Tony feels sick.

Everything he is, everything about the man he’s so desperately trying to become, screams for him to get into his suit and hunt these sick fuckers down. Eradicate them from existence. Give the poor families of those victims the only peace of mind that is left to give.

Tony feels sick.

Everything he was, everything about the man he so desperately doesn’t want to be anymore, rallies against that plan, refuses to accept the truth that so clearly plays out in front of his eyes. Remembers a kid with too-steady hands and too-knowing eyes, asking him “You’re gonna believe me? Just like that?” with the bitter disbelief of someone who has forgotten what it means to be trusted -- has never learned it in the first place.

Tony feels sick.

There’s a chance that this is a frame-up. God knows, there’s enough fucked up shit out there that could pull something like this off. But Tony’s already checked the footage for the most common ones, and there is a chance, no matter how much he hates to admit it, that this is real. Tony knows the numbers. He’s damn good with numbers.

And he knows what he’s going to do, with a certainty that terrifies him, scares him, makes him sick on his stomach. Because this is a risk that can’t be taken, not by Iron Man, not by a hero.

But Tony Stark was never recommended for the pretty hero club -- and maybe, underneath the hurt and the manipulation, there was an actual reason for that.

“JARVIS,” Tony says, manages to keep his voice as steady as Dean once held his gun, all those years ago, despite the heavy taste of whiskey on his tongue. “Enable Protocol Ghost. Targets are Sam and Dean Winchester and that trench coat guy, what’s-his-name. And the car. Parameters include all intelligence agencies, social networks, fucking WhatsApp. And get rid off those pesky APBs. No one’s getting anything on these guys that I haven’t personally approved, got it?”

“Understood, sir.” Then, after a beat of silence. “Sir... are you sure?”

Tony closes his eyes, thinks of twenty-seven dead civilians, thinks of their families who’ll never get the justice they deserve, thinks of a kid with green eyes, thinks of the names of every soldier that got killed by his own weapons, and he makes his choice.

His resolve does nothing to combat the sick feeling in his stomach.

*

“Hey kid, if you ever... Just, you know. I owe you one.”

“Look, keep your cash and whatever. I was just doing my job.”

Barton’s joke was surprisingly spot on, wasn’t it? Almost suspiciously so...