#but her path was already set so she could not deviate from it.

[cesium-sheep]

they apparently agreed on watching some show on the tv I've never heard of and she put in a bunch of effort to get it to cooperate and they're both into it but they didn't like. ask me. and if it's mostly for arin's benefit because matt was working and he's gonna leave in a bit anyway, I don't get why she put all this effort into getting it on the tv in the first place, because it certainly fucking isn't for my benefit. but I'm not allowed to be a bitch about it even though they're both bitchy at even the slightest fucking inconvenience.

[talesofesther]

deep devotion

Wednesday Addams x Reader

Summary: Over time you came to realize more and more that sometimes Wednesday wears her words like armor. They become almost futile when you learn she speaks through actions.

Requested by anons: Here and here.

A/N: I combined two requests in this story, and I hope you guys like it, even if I feel like I deviated from them a bit. I'm not completely happy with how this story turned out, but it is what it is. Also FYI, there are a few descriptions of blood ahead, and flashbacks are in italics.

Masterlist

There was something morbid about the way the deep red color of blood mixed with the polished wood floor. It trickled down Wednesday's chin in steady droplets, splashing beside her boots in what would be an annoying stain to clean.

At least in that, the raven-haired girl could take some solace. Losing to Bianca had that effect, the one that makes you feel all bad kinds of miserable and enraged. Today especially, because it was one of those few times in which Wednesday allowed her feelings to dictate her actions.

If her labored breathing and the white-knuckled grip she had on her blade were anything to go by, she was fuming with rage. If you were here, you'd notice — this is where Wednesday's mind first goes to and she curses herself for it — but others don't, her face was kept impassive as the blade loudly clanked on the floor, as she stomped the ground with purpose, reaching the door of the fencing class quickly otherwise she'd be breaking one of the significant rules of the school. No killing your classmates.

Wednesday thought she heard the teacher calling, something about going to the infirmary; but the door had already slammed shut behind her, muffling his voice, and when he managed to reach it, she was nowhere to be seen.

She didn't really register where she was going. She just kept walking. The cold wind hit her cheeks when she stepped outside, it was comforting, she felt it on the damp and dried blood now stuck to her alabaster skin.

It was by luck, or maybe misfortune, that her path crossed with yours.

Wednesday saw you before you saw her, the pages of a book holding all of your attention as you slowly walked the stone path outside, between the lunch tables and the trees. Wednesday stopped in her tracks, waiting for the inevitable. She could taste the metallic flavor of blood on the corner of her lip, feel the sting of the recent cut and it kept her grounded.

There was something about you, something about the way the few lonely rays of sun on this cloudy day chose to shine upon the bouncing of your hair. You were all delicacy and warmth as you traced the lines on paper. While Wednesday was nothing short of a midnight moon covered by rain clouds.

That girlfriend of yours is too good for you anyways.

Maybe Bianca wasn't too far off.

"Wednesday!"

Your voice clashed with her thoughts, and before she knew it, you were shoving the book into your bag and had your hands reaching out for her.

Wednesday flinched at the sudden closeness, blinking a couple of times. The air is suddenly heavier, the clouds past the school walls are darkening quickly, it'll rain soon.

You gulped and dropped your hands, fingertips grazing the fabric over Wednesday's forearm. "What happened?" The worry in your voice was evident.

Wednesday didn't like the crease in your eyebrows or that she was the cause of it. She shook her head, strands of her hair — messy from the way she had forcefully taken her mask off earlier — getting stuck to her damp cheek, "nothing happened."

"So that just showed up there?" You deadpanned, eyes glued to her fresh wound, to the dark tone of the skin under her eyes.

"Nothing that requires you to fuss over me." Wednesday set her jaw, very much aware of you sneaking your fingers between hers. She'd never admit to liking it, but deep down she knew she didn't have to. You knew it already, you knew your way around her and it took having it, for Wednesday to understand how much she'd been wanting someone who took the time to understand her.

"I care about you," you spoke softly, somehow looking at her even softer. Raising your free hand, you pushed away the wisps of hair that had been caught in the drying blood. Your touch was all tender, as if she was fragile porcelain. Which was the furthest from the truth. Yet you did it anyway, following the same rhythm your bleeding heart set, pulsing with each beat for her. "There's a difference." You finished, and pulled her along with you.

The door to the infirmary appeared and you walked past it with no second glances, leading Wednesday to your room instead. Her hand gripped yours tighter after that.

You opened your dorm door for her and asked that she sat on your bed. She complied silently while you disappeared into the bathroom, the dark wood creaking under your steps.

Wednesday didn't say anything when you returned with a few damp gauzes and a bandaid. Or when you sat beside her, looking at her in a silent question before holding her jaw with one hand and cleaning the blood with the other; the white cloth became red, and then pink and then it didn't change at all as you cleaned every last bit from her skin, careful to not cause her any pain, eyebrows furrowed as you ever so slowly brushed her cheek.

The antiseptic stung bitterly, yet Wednesday couldn't look away from you even if she wanted to. Subconsciously, as if you were tugging at her heartstrings, she leaned into your touch, her lower lip met your palm when she relaxed. No one had the power to strip her down from her defenses as you did. It scared her, but she was addicted to the thrill of it.

You placed the purple bandaid right over the nasty cut on her cheek, and only then you asked again; "will you tell me what happened?"

Her dark eyes regarded you with caution before she averted her gaze, pulling her cheek away from your touch as it flushed pink. "Fencing class."

"Bianca?"

"She talks too much."

A beat passed in silence, the only sound being the howling wind outside your window preceding the storm. Over time you came to realize more and more that sometimes Wednesday wears her words like armor. They become almost futile when you learn she speaks through actions.

You picked up on it a few nights ago;

"Y/N if you don't turn that down I'll kick you out." Wednesday grumbled, before turning her attention back to her noisy typewriter.

You shared a glance with Enid — who sat beside you on her bed, biting her lip to contain a smile — promptly turning down the volume on your phone.

The night was a cold one, the glow of the half moon shining right outside the big round window cast bursts of color on Enid's side of the room and a soft white light on Wednesday's.

Time went by with you and Enid sharing a few laughs and Wednesday complaining about how you disturbed her peace. However, when Enid ended up sleeping on your shoulder and you squeezed yourself out of her bed to walk back to your dorm, Wednesday got up as well.

She quietly walked to her dark wooded wardrobe, opening its creaking doors to look for something inside. You followed, stopping right beside her to kiss her goodnight.

Wednesday paid you no mind, which made you frown. No matter what, there wasn't a day that came to its end without her lips settled on yours.

You reached out a hand to tug at her hoodie, but before you could, she was throwing a change of comfortable clothes into your face.

You messed up your hair as you pulled the fabric away to look at her. There was this glint in Wednesday's eyes, if you looked closely, you could see the shape of the moon on her irises. She pursed her lips in an almost smile, glancing at the clothes in your arms and then at you again.

Words weren't needed for you to understand, and your heart just about melted.

A few minutes after you exited the bathroom, now dressed comfortably in all black, you joined Wednesday in her bed. It was a tight fit and caused her body to be flush with yours — but you figured she didn't mind it much when she started playing with your hand under the covers.

Next morning you received just about twenty different pictures from Enid, most of them featuring you and Wednesday sleeping soundly, her head partly resting on your shoulder — though the last ones were all shaky, with a furious raven-haired girl reaching for the phone.

And today it's pretty evident that she's on edge, her eyebrows and lips hold a faint, permanent frown; her pupils are blown, yet miles away, as if she's here but her mind is trapped somewhere else.

"yeah, sometimes she does." There's more you want to say and Wednesday could sense it. You nagged on your lower lip as you gained the courage to do so. Her eyes followed the movement.

"Can I do something for you?"

Wednesday's eyes narrowed, her eyebrow twitched as if she was trying to solve a riddle. If you asked instead of just doing it, it was something you weren't sure she'd like. But you'd never given her a reason not to trust you.

She simply nodded, both hands resting on her lap, black nails tapping one another. Her eyes followed you as you moved to sit right behind her, close enough that she could feel the warmth radiating off of you. When she couldn't see you anymore, she searched for something else to focus on, more specifically the grey clouds behind the tiny crack in your window.

When the tip of your fingers touched the end of one of her braids, Wednesday went as stiff as a corpse. She felt it, your touch barely there at first; careful, soft, as though testing tentative waters. Only when she melted the slightest bit toward you, that you started gently undoing the waves on her hair, strand by strand.

There was a lump on Wednesday's throat that she almost couldn't breathe over, goosebumps filled her skin at the same time her body felt too hot to the touch.

Her hair slowly fell in waves, a sea of dark over her shoulders and back as your fingers ran through it, untangling what was left of her braids. It was intimate, almost overwhelmingly so. Wednesday wasn't sure what you were getting at, but it felt a lot like a promise.

Once you were satisfied, you brushed aside her hair to lay your lips on her shoulder. Slowly as your top lip grazed the fabric of her jacket, you kissed her there.

Wednesday felt faint with the way you loved her. The splashes of rain hitting your window got blurred in her sight; she realized you just said to her those three words everyone cares so much about. And now she understands the weight of them.

Wednesday couldn't help but reach for your hand — the one that was gingerly playing with the ends of her curls — cold fingers wrapping around yours as she brought your knuckles to her own lips.

She said them back in the only way she knew how. And when your thumb traced the lines on her palm, she knew you understood.

⋆* ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

Thank you for reading this little story. Feedback and reblogs are very much appreciated. <3

Wednesday’s taglist: @milkiane @bookfrog242 @heelaechan

[ddarker-dreams]

Entanglement.

Yan Kafka x F Reader.

Warnings: Yandere themes, unhealthy relationships, power imbalance, unwanted kissing, mild not SFW implications. Word count: 1k.

“You’re still refusing to wear the clothes I gifted you, dearest?” 

A dulcet voice smoother than the finest silk coos from behind. 

You don’t deviate from your original task. Just outside the window, the cold, unforgiving vacuum of space looms. A mere panel of specialized glass is the only barrier between you and infinite nothingness. The concept used to frighten you, to a paralyzing extent. It got to the point your oh-so-benevolent captor had to make adjustments. Using some technology you’re unacquainted with, the dark canvas morphed into a familiar, more palpable set piece: the scenery of your home planet. 

You’ve since overcome this hurdle and no longer require the mirage’s services. 

Space isn’t what you fear anymore. No, it’s the woman with the future in her eyes who holds that distinction. 

“It isn’t to my taste.” 

“I know,” she agrees. Her perfume is near stupefying when it invades your senses. “It's to mine.” 

Kafka is either aggravatingly unassuming or laser-sharp with her intentions. You’re never given time to adjust to her fickle ways, the second you think you might understand her, she reveals just enough that you’re right back where you started. 

Gloved fingers hover over your wrist, causing your hair to stand on end. As if she’s playing a glissando on the piano, her fingers slowly creep up, from your forearm to your bare shoulder. Presently, you’re wearing one of the few garments you were allowed to bring. It’s a plain, white dress that she longs to stain with her own palette. 

Her arms envelop your midsection from behind. She nuzzles her nose into your neck, swaying you back and forth while she hums a haunting ballad. Can she hear the skipping of your heart? Does she consider it just another instrument to compose her hedonistic harmonies? 

“Are the stars truly that interesting?” she murmurs against your skin. “Surely, they aren’t prettier than I am, hm?” 

“Maybe. At least they understand the concept of personal space.” 

“Oh, I do as well. I just choose to ignore it when it comes to you.” 

“I wish you wouldn’t.” 

You can feel her smile.

“You’d be lonely without me. Maddeningly so.” 

“Insanity is tempting if you’re the alternative.” 

She laughs, the sound low and husky, belying any offense taken, if you had the hubris to think anything you said could hurt her. Before you can register anything, she twirls you around. In this new, uncomfortable intimate position, you’re forced to look her in the eye. There’s no quality of hers that unsettles you more. They draw you in and devour you like a black hole, picking apart actions you haven’t even committed yet. 

It reminds you, similar to the path she walks, that nothing you do will ever amount to any meaningful change in your circumstances. 

Kafka settles her gloved pointer finger and thumb on your chin, tilting your head up. Whatever she’s thinking is as unknowable as the universe itself. Her fondness for you is an illness without a cure — even she must know how sick it is. Something tells you that if a remedy for it ever existed, she’d refuse to take it, and would instead crush the vial before your eyes. 

“What a beauty you are,” she praises through lidded eyes. “There is no greater joy than knowing you feel every second we’re apart, just as I do.” 

Irate, you try moving your head away, but this causes her grip to tighten. Never enough to hurt — it’s only meant to warn. 

“I take it you don’t like the cosmetics I brought back, either?” 

Kafka delights in asking questions she already knows the answers to. If she had anything resembling a hobby, you suppose that would be it. 

The skin beneath her eyes crinkled with amusement at your abrupt vow of silence. You fight off a shiver at the look. It’s all-consuming, dangerous in a way that rouses your primal instincts. She leans down close enough that you can feel her breath fan against your face. Her head tilts in a deliberate show of faux curiosity. 

“Is your tongue frozen? Should I think of a way to warm it up?” 

The hand that isn’t holding your head in place toys with the strap of your dress. 

Swallowing thickly, you shake your head. You know when to surrender in a losing game. 

“... No.” 

“No?” She repeats, mimicking the inflection of your voice. “Ah, well, that’s a shame.” 

You almost sigh in relief when her hand retreats. She reaches into a pocket on the inside of her coat and pulls out a tube of lipstick. She applies the roseate pigment, maintaining smoldering eye contact with you all the while.

After what feels like an eternity, she descends upon you, her lips seeking yours in a fit of scathing passion. You freeze up at the unexpected boldness. She takes advantage of your reverie, interlocking your lips in a languid motion. There’s no urgency to the kiss, she takes her time with you, just how she likes it. 

Her hand presses against your back, urging your chest to arch into hers. It isn’t until her hand starts venturing down that you return to your senses. In a fit of panic, you raise your hands to push her away. The defiance gets you nowhere — she catches your wrists with ease and holds them in place. 

Fortunately, she pulls back, although she doesn’t relinquish her grip. 

“I knew this color would look good on you,” Kafka sighs, almost wistful. Then, she raises your wrist and presses a lingering kiss against your pulse point. It leaves a smudged lipstick stain behind. “That leaves the issue of the outfit. Hm, what to do, what to do…” 

As if hit with an epiphany, her eyes light up in microscopic supernovas. “I know. If you need my help applying makeup, then why should getting dressed be any different? Why, you should’ve said so sooner.” 

Indignant, you seethe, “That isn’t…! Fine, I’ll put it on myself. Just— just turn around, okay?” 

“Of course. Anything for my sweet, shy girl.” 

Surprisingly, Kafka acquiesces. She pivots on her heel and covers her eyes with her hands. A teasing gesture, if you had to guess. 

Just when you believe you’re regained a semblance of control over the situation, she throws in a comment that snuffs out this fledgling hope. 

“I’ll give you to the count of a ten before I come and help you myself.” 

[cats-mayhem]

Cow Shaped Cloud

Ok! So I read the entirety of @shepscapades DBHC AU and I am immediately obsessed. So I thought i'd try writing something for it! Haven't written anything in a while so I'm a bit rusty but we'll see what happens! I tried to make it as cannon compliant as I can. So uh timeline wise this takes place in s8 after Etho deviates but before the Moon stuff so I hope it fits in fine! I just like Pearl and wanted to write a fic centered mostly around her. So enjoy!

Story under cut Word count: 2,663

When Pearl heard from X that she'd get a android specifically designed to help her build, she was beyond ecstatic. As much as she liked building, she'll be the first to admit that it is taxing job to do, so having a little building buddy would be a great help. She'd heard about the other androids on the server, and has Met a few of them like Doc and Etho (Although Etho nowadays seems a bit... Weird), so she knew what she was in for.

At least she thought she did.

When X first introduced Pearl's Android to her, an Android named Impulse, she was shocked by how he looked. He wore nothing but shorts and a black T-shirt with a capital yellow I logo on it. His hair was neatly combed back like it had been prepped with gel (wait, was that real hair?? Could gel work on it?). Overall he looked so... Plain. Which is a bad first thought to have, Pearl admitted. She wasn't expecting X to give her Android the Gucci, but the plain look made the android look so... Off. She couldn't describe it but it wasn't going to deter her from continuing the path of having a building buddy.

"Hello PearlecentMoon, I'm Impulse. An Android designed to help you with anything you might need. My specialty is in building and strength. I am designed to have a long term efficiency, I can go long periods of time without resting. Perfect for your building needs." Impulse said, all in a very robotic and uncanny way. His voice sounded so human... It was weird to Pearl.

"See! Look at that, I didn't need to explain him at all, he did it all himself! (Well, I told him to say that before you came here but..)" X said, mumbling that last part and scratching the back of his neck.

Pearl glanced over and gave a small laugh towards X for setting up her androids introduction. Her gaze fixed back to the android in question though. She extended a hand.

"Well hi Impulse, it's great to meet you! Although, you can just call me Pearl."

"Preferred to be called Pearl. Noted." Impulse said before just staring at the extended hand, the thing that was originally blue over his left eye suddenly turned yellow. Pearl's smile didn't fade but she was a bit confused.

"Ah, right, he doesn't know what a handshake is so he's trying to figure it out on his own." X chimed in.

Pearl looked over at X, "You seriously didn't program them to know basic stuff like this?"

"Nope! They only know what they're built for. So for Impulses' case, he only knows building." X seemed as chipper as ever.

Pearl let out an annoyed sigh but couldn't stay mad at X for long, "Well, looks like I just gotta teach him." She looked back over at Impulse who was still staring at her extended hand.

"This is called a handshake. Uhm, give me your hand."

"Affirmative."

Impulse obeyed Pearls' word, extending his right hand out to her. She grabbed it and shook it with a gentle yet friendly force. Impulse gave no reaction. She let go of his hand (it was weirdly cold yet soft?).

"That's what a handshake is. It's a typical greeting for most people. If someone extends a hand towards you when introducing themselves, you shake their hand like that!" Pearl said, still smiling. She'll admit, it's weird having to explain what a handshake is to something so closely resembling a grown adult, but she's been through weirder. Probably.

"information noted. Storing in memory for future use cases."

"See! You two are already getting along! Now, like Impulse said he'll do anything you say and his main specialty is building." X chimed back in.

"Like... Anything, anything I say?"

"Well, yeah!"

"Can he do what others say?"

"Unless you tell him to do so, nope! OH! But there is one exception. That being me. I created him and all and needed to test him and stuff. So other than you, he can listen to me. But I won't order him around or anything! He's not mine after all."

Pearl nodded. That does make sense. Looking over at Impulse, he really is an impressive work of machinery. X may not look like it, but he's an absolute genius. Doesn't stop her from bullying him sometimes for being a derp though.

"Well thank you very much Xisuma! He'll help me so much with my base and other projects, I'm sure of it."

"No problem! If you have an issues with him, just contact me or Doc and we'll fix it."

"Will do. Wouldn't even know where to start if he started to break down on me." She laughed. (Issues? Like what issues? He seems so high-tech that it looks like he could NEVER have issues. Guess sci-fi really does have flaws).

She looked back over to her new android, Impulse, who has just been watching the two of them talk. Not budging an inch from where he was initially introduced. She gave him her widest smile, "Alright Impulse, follow me! I'm gonna show you to your new home!"

Impulse nodded very stiffly. "Following initiated."

On the way back to Pearls' base, she asked Impulse few questions. If he would really do anything she said, to which he fully confirmed. If his hair was real, which he explained it wasn't and was instead some tech stuff (Pearl didn't really understand the words). And most importantly...

"So like, are you emotionless?"

"Emotionless? I do not recognize that word." Impulse said, his circle above his left eye turned yellow again (to which Pearl now knew was an LED. Xisuma gave her a text shortly after she left to explain it because he forgot to explain it to her in person. Derp).

"Like can you not feel emotions? Like being happy, or sad, or embarrassed?"

Impulse shook his head. "No, that's not within my programming."

"Not within your programming."

"I can find nothing relating to 'emotions' such as 'happy' or 'sad' or 'embarrassed' in my code."

"Oh..." Pearl looked away. So he really was just a robot, huh? Just designed to help her. Did he need to look so human though? And miss the one thing that makes human, well, human?

The rest of the trip back to Pearls' base was rather uneventful. She didn't know how to feel about owning something that looked so human, but he was designed for her, and she knows the others use their own androids for stuff, so surely it mustn't be wrong for her to use her own android right? Yeah, let's roll with that.

There's a lot of positives to be had with Impulse. He didn't need to eat, and from what she heard, he can go long period without even needing a rest. PLUS he really will do whatever she says, which would lead to great cooperation for pranks later down the line.

But the longer Impulse stayed at her place and helped her out, the more out of place he felt in her life. Sure, it would take some time getting used to a humanized roomba (haha get it? because room. Robot roommate. Hilarious), she was starting to think it was because he was not only extremely robotic acting, but also extremely robotic looking.

It was the clothes that did it for her, she thought. The clothes Impulse had were way to plain. She didn't want to disrespect Xisuma's original design... But he did say that Impulse was fully for her, and Impulse said that he would do everything she asked...

...And he would look good with her expert and totally professional design skills...

...

When Pearl finished up the finishing touches of adjusting his big purple bow and his big yellow top hat just right, she's never been more proud of her handy work before in her life. She had a devious little smile on her face as she made Impulse be put into a ridiculous suit.

Impulse closed his eyes, probably processing his new look. "Would you like this to be my new default uniform?"

"YES!" Pearl excitedly says.

Impulse nodded. "Default uniform updated."

Pearl couldn't help but giggle at her fine work, and honestly? He looked kinda cute with the top hat and bow. Way less plain now, and she defiantly wouldn't mind seeing him around in this all day. Despite how goofy it is, she could get used to it. Get more used to it than the plain look anyways.

...

It had been a few weeks since Pearl first got Impulse. She's still getting used to him just being there, but his presence is comforting nonetheless. She'd try and make small talk with him all the time, but of course, without emotions, he fails miserably at it.

It was a shame, but that's how he was made, nothing she could do about it.

...Or could she?

She texted X.

'Hey so this isn't meant to be rude at all, but I got a question about Impulse.'

'What's up? :D'

'So like. He's a robot right? Can't you program him to feel emotions?'

'Oh! umm... No D: I don't think I can anyways. So far with my programming I can't forcibly create emotions. BUUTTT there is a way for him to maybe feel them some way down the line!! :D'

'Really? How? :O'

And that's when Pearl learned about 'deviancy'. Apparently, the androids can realize they're androids and become self aware to the point they can register feelings? Pearl didn't understand the technicalities of it. It sounded really complicated when Xisuma texted it all to her (didn't help that sentences were always interrupted with emojis or improper punctuation). All Pearl really got out of it is: Impulse can feel emotions, he just needs to disobey his code.

At least she's pretty sure that's what it is. Sounds easy in theory, but then X told her how Etho deviated.

It wasn't so easy in theory anymore after hearing that story.

...

Pearl looked over at Impulse, still in that goofy suit and top hat. He was placing down blocks inhumanly fast, as she had asked him to. He really was a big help around her base. Things were getting done left and right. She really did appreciate her building buddy, but she wishes he could appreciate her appreciation.

Impulse caught Pearl staring at him. "Pearl? Do you require something?" He asked.

Pearl shook her head, snapping out of whatever daydream she was in. "Nah, I'm fine, just taking a break is all."

Impulse nodded. "I shall get back to work then."

Pearl just hummed, sitting down staring up at the blue sky of the midday life on Hermitcraft. Beautiful white puffy clouds filled the sky and a nice gentle breeze carried the smell of spring in it. She took a deep inhale and sighed.

She then got an idea.

"Actually, hey Impulse, c'mover here."

Impulsed stopped working and walked over to Pearl once more. "Yes?"

Pearl patted empty space of the slightly slanted roof next to her. "Come sit."

Impulse obey. As he sat down, he only looked at Pearl, who was just mindlessly staring at the sky. Impulses' LED turned orange again.

"What is the purpose of this?"

Pearl shrugged, "Eh, felt like you could use a break."

"I'm not even through an eighth of my stamina for today. Resting now wouldn't benefit me much."

"Ah, I ain't asking you to rest, just asking you to take a break with me." She looked down from staring at the sky and smiled at Impulse, "It's important to take breaks with friends after all." She then looked back up at the sky.

Silence befell the two for a bit as Impulse still tried to process all of that. He didn't really understand a word she said. The silence didn't last long though as Pearl spoke up again.

"Hey, don't you think that cloud looks like a cow?" Pearl pointed upwards at said cow-shaped cloud. Impulse finally looked up at the sky with Pearl and observed the cloud.

"While it isn't the exact shape of a cow, the outline vaguely resembled one." Impulse said, looking at the clouds with Pearl.

Pearl just chuckled, "Yeah, well you can't expect details with clouds y'know? Find any other clouds that look like real life things?"

Impulse started to observe the clouds, calculating their shapes and sizes. "Well, that one looks like a chicken at a forty-five degree angle." Impulse pointed at said chicken-cloud, just as Pearl pointed at the cow-cloud.

Pearl tilted her head, "Oh right, it does. Wouldn't have seen that one!"

And that's what they did for the next twenty minutes. Just pointing out shapes in clouds. Impulse typically nailed the more organic looked clouds, such as trees and farm animals, whilst Pearl saw the more intricate clouds, such as thunderstorms or typhoons. Impulse has never seen any of those, so he didn't know. His LED flickered from the normal blue state, to the yellow state, back and forth. Pearl noticed, but Impulse didn't seem to be too bothered, so she didn't mention it.

During the end of their little cloud exposition, Pearl started rambling about how one day she wanted to harness the power of nature to fully make her builds. Impulse recommended a few designs they could try. Pearl asked Impulse to put a pin in that for later. He did.

She got up from her sitting spot and gave a nice big long stretch. "Well, that was nice. Thanks for doing that with me Impulse, it was fun."

"I only did as you requested."

"Still, it was fun wasn't it?"

Impluses' LED flicked yellow again as he tried (and failed) to analyze if what just happened constituted as 'fun' or not. Pearl rolled her eyes, but in a friendly nice way and offered her hand to the still sitting Impulse.

"Eh, you can answer that later. Anyway, let's get back to working!"

Impulses' attention went to the hand, "Why are you initiating a handshake without introducing yourself?"

Pearl sighed, a sigh mixed with friendliness and annoyance. "Ok, when people extend a hand to you when you're sitting down on the ground, it's a friendly gesture to help them up. You just take my hand, and use it to help yourself up! Try it."

Impulse didn't have time to say 'i don't need help getting up I'm strong enough to do that on my own' because Pearl gave him the order to try it, and he did. He roughly gripped Pearl's hand and used it as a way to hoist himself up from the ground. Pearl put effort into Impulses' hoist, but he doubts it was necessary. He lets go of Pearls' hand as soon as he's on his feet.

"Oh man you're heavy."

"Storing this in memory for future use cases. Also, androids typically weigh a lot more than organics such as yourself do."

"Yeah probably should've predicted that one. Anyway, let's get back to working. I want to see if we can get this roof done by the end of the day."

Impulse nodded. "Affirmative." as he goes back to the task he was given before the cloud intermission.

Pearl just softly smiles at Impulse as she herself gets back to work. She wasn't going to force Impulse to deviate. She certainly wasn't going to purposefully traumatize him into deviating like how Etho deviated (although Etho's deviation wasn't Bdubs purposefully trying... You get the picture). Impluses deviation should be something Impulse discovers for himself, not something Pearl should force upon him. While it would be easier to be friends with him if he was emotionally aware, for now? She's fine with her building buddy as he was. If he's like this forever, she won't mind.

...What she doesn't know though, is that Impulse is now downloading information about clouds and storing it in his memory for 'future use cases'.

[waywardstation]

WIP THURSDAY!

For this poll, I Won’t Leave You Behind won!

So, here is a WIP from the fic!! It was hard to pick because at this point I couldn’t remember what I have and haven’t already shared, but I’m fairly confident I haven’t posted this segment yet.

Enjoy!

A recollection of an impromptu Garchomp biology lesson with Ingo emphasizes how bad his situation really is.

—————

Ingo reached out, stretching himself as far as he could go. His hands connected with her shoulder — thank Arceus — and he shoved hard. Hard enough to knock her right off her feet.

He had to.

Akari had made it. She landed in the snow and out of the path of destruction, safe.

“Well,” Ingo readjusted his position, shifting to get a better look at Akari’s Pokédex notes. His finger moved to point at the head of one of Akari’s observational drawings of a gabite, tapping gently on the paper.

“Notice their heads, how their lower jaws are noticeably less bulky than their upper ones. While the muscles that open their jaws are surprisingly weak, their downward bite force is incredible. It’s to ensure prey cannot escape, and every muscle in their neck is fashioned to specifically assist with this, resulting in quite an impressive steel trap for a set of jaws.”

Ingo’s finger moved down to the neck of the gabite as he talked, emphasizing his words. Akari found the information to be new and interesting to her, but she didn’t quite understand the reason for the impromptu biology lesson. Not until Ingo sat back, the glow of Ember’s back illuminating his side as he turned his head to her.

“Now, the design of a garchomp’s jaws improve upon this in every way, pushing power to a one-way extreme; practically all of its lower jaw strength is sacrificed for maximum downward bite force. Nothing can force its jaws open once they clamp down, except for the garchomp’s decision to open them again. And while a well-placed blow to the snout may possibly convince them to do so, it would not convince an enraged alpha like Jörmun.”

Akari glanced up at Ingo as he continued to talk, all prior attention for the Pokédex in her hands now abandoned. The worry in his voice had completely snagged it.

“Miss Akari, I cannot imagine the force behind the bite of an alpha of the species. If we are unfortunate enough to cross tracks with Jörmun tomorrow, I cannot stress it enough; above all else, stay away from her front. Do not let her catch you between her teeth. Nothing may ever get those jaws to open once they clamp down, besides Jörmun herself. And alphas do not easily deviate from their violent, one-track minds.”

Akari was quiet. She had stopped writing. Ingo could tell she was trying to figure out how to summarize all of his advice in her notes.

If she was having trouble summarizing it, she wouldn’t remember the most important part.

“Just, above all else, do not let her catch you between her jaws.”

Rows of jagged sawteeth clamped down hard, easily perforating right through layers of clothing, puncturing straight through skin, and settling deep into fleshy layers — sturdy as a steel trap.

[fantasyinvader]

Let's consider for a moment something people came to believe due to the Nintendo Dream interview. That Flower was added later on in the process due to test players wanting to side with Edelgard. If this is true, it says a few more things about the game.

For starters, the “trick” the devs wanted to play was originally much simpler. They expected players to pick Flower because, hey, the Lord character is a cute girl only for it to be revealed that (GASP!) she's a baddie. The player needs to fight their Lord character, be the Obi-Wan facing down their student who was already Vader before you even met her. That this was the only path for players who pickedthe Black Eagles class, making it the hardest route in the game because of the emotional connection they'd have to the villain, which leads into...

Edelgard was never meant to be presented as a hero. The devs made it perfectly clear in that interview that she was designed to be a rival character towards Byleth, a force counter to the Enlightened One. She was made with the whole dynamic of having to fight your former padawan in mind, serving as the basis for the Black Eagles route which also stood as the basis for the entire game through it's worldbuilding. To deviate from this is literally framed in the game as “changing the story,” with the devs saying to do otherwise led to a route built around the theme of having different beliefs in a world that was set up to support the other route.

Yet if the devs did cave to testers and gave them a route just so they could support Edelgard, they also made it clear that it wasn't a good thing. Whereas Claude went from a “villain you couldn't hate” to “a pure good guy,” Edelgard's victory is supposed to have negative implications, invoking the Mandate of Heaven with Edelgard representing hadou, or the path of supremacy. They're saying that Edelgard is not a benevolent ruler like Dimitri ended up being, rather the opposite in fact. The route also showed that while you believed something different, the person who told you those things turned out to be a liar. And if they didn't add Flower, Rhea and the Church would have been the good guys of every route of the game. But even still, when you get to the end of Flower and fight Rhea, it's EDELGARD'S final boss theme playing.

Really, it's no wonder why the fandom tries to ignore that interview. It's so damning, and I can only imagine how they would have reacted if we had gotten the game without Flower.

[batrogers]

Twilight Princess: the Resistance

In the game Twilight Princess, there is a group that meets in Telma’s bar, one that clearly knows each other very well and has for a long time. The bar they meet in has a connection to the castle, the group has clear and obvious disdain for the Hylian soldiers, and most notably of all, is willing and able to break into castle grounds with fairly elaborate weapons in order to aid Link in the end-game.

This is standard video game fare, but I want to go into a few other details about the storytelling that have always leaned me towards the group having a much more active past in which the resistance they had to the Twilight threat is a footnote on a much greater accomplishment: that of regicide.

[Note: I am discounting all comics canon in this analysis, as I do not have easy access to it, nor familiarity. This is based off in-game dialogue and visuals only, with some reference to Ocarina of Time.]

Also this is stupidly long and I'm about to post something even longer, so I guess uh, get yourself a drink. (1400 words)

The first necessary detail for that is this: Princess Zelda is the only member of her family we ever see. When Zant invades the throne room, Zelda is standing at the thrones alone, surrounded by guards, dressed in her formal regalia and wielding a sword. Nobody ever speaks of her parents, or questions her right to speak for the people of Hyrule. By every signal present, she is sole ruler and has been for long enough nobody questions it.

She is also very young: this isn’t usual either unless there has been recent, violent conflict or plague, and there’s no real evidence of there being a large war with an outside party or expensive civil unrest. Therefore, if something did kill her parents, it was likely targeted against them alone, or she had extraordinarily bad luck.

The second massive detail is the behaviour of the Resistance group in general. Notably, most group members are much older than Link or Zelda. Rusl has young kids, but he looks much older – more like 40-50 than 20-30. Telma and Auru are in that age range too. While Shad looks young, he talks old, so he could simply be a well-preserved 40 rather than merely a scholarly 20. Ashei definitely appears to be closer to Link’s age, but she speaks openly of her father as though he was involved before her, so perhaps she is here in his stead.

Notably, while there has clearly been time passing while the Twilight overlay the population and people were capable of moving around and doing things, there’s no real sense of it being a long time. Queen Rutela sent her son away, and he became suddenly and violently ill but none of the Zora are worried in a way that implies an absence of more than a few days. Impaz was secluded in the town but not long enough she reacted afraid for her life from lack of food or water. Others, again, are worried for lost family but not convinced of their deaths – a sentiment that, especially about children, would escalate quite quickly even in pre-modern times.

If that’s the case, how long has the Resistance had to set things in motion? If it was a new thing, in the face of the Twilight, the people involved would not be reacting so smoothly. But if it’s simply reconnecting with old allies, then that re-connection would be rapid. Rusl left Ordon village to look for the children: he appears to have gone straight to the Resistance rather than deviate from his path to follow likely leads. Why would he prioritize that? Only if he knew that was his best chance to chase multiple leads at once.

Only if he knew and expected them to be there, reachable quickly from Telma’s bar.

The Resistance does appear to have extremely rapid communication, especially for this time period. The group is already not only reintegrated but aware of current events and actively investigating them per expertise. They act as though they’ve never actually disbanded, in fact. Telma instantly tries to recruit Link upon his arrival, almost as if she was expecting him...

Almost as if Rusl might’ve told her to expect the boy’s arrival in Castletown in the recent future, possibly before this all began...? He was planning to send Link to the Castle in his stead after all.

I have another post about taxation that will likely be posted after this, but its stated that Rusl “made” the sword that’s going to be presented to the Royal Family from Ordon, the Village. This is not what a village would normally send in taxes, but it might be something they might send specially if the castle wants an extra gesture of good will from the village, possibly from a specific villager.

Possibly from someone they suspected was involved in recent activity they wanted to keep an eye on. A man who can make swords and armour (he’s the only one with a solid, defensive helmet we see, after all) is quite valuable in arming a small group of vigilantes, after all.

There is mention of “prolonged wars” that destroyed the guardians of the royal family to which Impaz belonged. That does not sound like a history of a royal family that has historically been kind or well-liked. We never get any specific sense of what caused these conflicts, but some things can just become entrenched power struggles over time. The Resistance are all incredibly disparaging towards the guards, who are useless within the city but around the castle are quite persistent and very solid. (Especially if you include that they are even proof against speedrun strats...)

In addition, Zelda’s royal garb skews incredibly militant. She is obviously trained in sword-fighting, or she’d have never grabbed a weapon when the throne room was invaded; the walls may be open but that offers as much opportunity for her to flee as it does defence, especially at the height at which this room is placed in the castle. While we do see two large cannons in use, and one hand-held cannon among the resistance after the fact, she is still so very high that’s not a real threat.

(Would this absolutely require magic to make the castle stable? Yes. Is that plausible in this context? Also yes.)

Lorewise, the previous game (Ocarina of Time) also has intense implications of prolonged conflicts: a civil war ten years before the story begins, evidence of torture by the Sheikah at the King's command, another war that ended in Ganondorf’s imprisonment by sages. Sages, who were clearly deeply distressed by everything going on, which implies the war had gone horribly for Hyrule and they were acting out of desperation. The Ocarina of Time script is an isolated language that never repeats which has its own implications of invasion and attempts to wipe out the history before it... (Changing a script on people has the “benefit” of forcibly making the literate population suddenly illiterate towards documentation you don’t want them to have access to, after all.)

If the people had become used to distrusting their rulers, and their rulers became used to suppressing dissent with violence, the cycle can continue for quite some time with periods of ebb and flow. And if the people have become used to the idea that you have to simply kill the King before things will change... Well, you’d have reason to keep a very close eye on them in the future, now wouldn’t you? You'd have reason to keep a group prepared to address matters quickly and finally when required.

In brief, there are a great many things that push me towards reading the Resistance as something that formed not in response to Zant, but in response to the government under which they lived.

Twilight Princess is a very settled era in the Zelda timeline. There are wide fields that clearly see a great deal of travel, elaborate and well-maintained bridges, multiple small villages in close proximity to each other that have walls but not elaborately defended ones. This world is not currently in serious distress. The Twilight War appears to be the worst thing to happen to the villages in some time.

It is not, however, particularly disruptive to the city. The people there are defensive, and strange, and alive in wonderful and interesting ways. We have a cursed rich man, a questionably ethical preacher, guards of both the poorly behaved and well-behaved variety, in which the well-behaved are strongly concentrated on the castle... As if the royal family expects to need strictly monitored guards at the castle.

As if there was perhaps something recent that caused it.

As if this isn't the first time the Resistance has broken into castle grounds in the recent past.

Perhaps Rusl had reasons to want someone who wasn’t him to present the sword to the young Queen, after all.

[starcrossedjedis]

Edgy/misc ask game for Mira! #6, 7, 13 anndd 24 ^_^ Enjoy.

Thank you ❤

tagging the OPLA squad: @auxiliarydetective @bravelittleflower @supermarine-silvally @oneirataxia-girl @daughter-of-melpomene

6. How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass?

eeeh... depends. She's the daughter of the most notorious "old guard pirate", so I think the whole morl compass thing is a little bit bendable to begin with. Mira is a good person at heart, but with morally questionable decisions she will very probably go and weigh the cost agains the gain and put her own reservations aside if the gain is worth it.

7. What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

Mira in herself is "a Sun who's changed since I first came up wit her" in that she is a version of Sun who grew up on her father's ship with Shanks and Buggy. But she's also changed since I first came p with her. Her devil fruit powers are more refined now and intertwined with what she inherited of her father's Haki powers. I'm bending the canon timeline for her A LOT. But first and foremost her personality deviates a lot more from Sun than it did in the beginning, becaus I realised how much Sun was a product of her experiences and that Mira didn't need that whole hard shell protecting her good heart, so she is now a lot softer than Sun.

13. If you met your OC, would the two of you get along?

I think so, yes. I love her a lot. Not sure she'd be just as fond of me, but a woman can hope (we definitely share our taste in men, so that's a start xD)

24. What is an alternative life path your OC might have gone down? How different would their life be if they'd made that decision?

Again, Mira is already on the big, alternative life path simply because she is the AU version of Sun, BUT there is one big decision that sets her life's course in a big way and if she didn't do it, things would be very different in that -

had she told Shanks what she found out about her captivity and the real reason behind her staged "rescue" instead of just running away in the middle of the night and breaking his heart, she would have had him by her side when she learned that she was pregnant and they could (and would) have raised their daughter togther instead of both being miserable on their own and their daughter always wondering who her real father was and why the thought of him made her mother so sad...

Their daughter might have never met the Straw Hats though, so not everything is bleak and sad in their version of reality ^^'

[squid-procrow]

As Gale's on the mind again, time to bring up BG1 lore about mystra!

For anybody who truly doesn't think Gale was groomed, that a good god would NEVER!

This isn't even the first time she's done something like this, sure it wasn't grooming for Dornar Silverhand but she did take over his love interests body so she could manipulate him into children...

Tldr She takes over a girl (who was enthusiastic to be a goddess's chosen, then unsure once she realized it was for this) to convince a guy (her very loyal follower who was already in love so he said no) for kids.

He watches his wife become a literal shell of herself so that she can have seven children with the energy of both their parents. And he ends up having to kill his wife because she's become a lich shell of a person.

To which after he cuts her head off mystra shows up and goes "yeah sorry, my doing." And he loses it, running from Neverwinter up to the north and disappearing until he dies for 30 years where she continues to protect him.

The worst part? Dornar goes back to her after it all, helping her find more chosen. What Gale could have been.

I feel like a big part of the story that the writers were trying to tell us was that even if you were formally mortal the second you go on to the pedestal of a previous God you inhabit who they were, and mystra is the weave before all.

It fits perfectly with the Durge (and Astarion) storylines, if you don't remove yourself completely from the cycle you will inevitably become what you dislike, even if you intended for the best.

Below is the full txt

History of the Chosen of Mystra:

The reason why Mystra, the Goddess of Magic, invested a portion of her divine might into mortals is not known. One of the popular theories, and one that is gaining more support in light of the other goddess' during that period, is that Mystra foresaw the Time of Troubles (and her own passing at the hands of Helm) and chose to give some of her powers to mortals in order to ensure that her successor (the female mage, Midnight, as it turned out) would have a number of nearly immortal allies in the struggle against the schemes of the gods (the now dead Bane, Myrkul and Bhaal) who precipitated the Time of Troubles by stealing the Tablets of Fate.

The theory goes on to suggest that Mystra informed Azuth at approximately the Year of the Rising Flame (0 DR), more than 1,300 years ago before the Times of Troubles, that some of her power must be put into the hands of mortals who would then become known as Mystra's Chosen. The power would sleep within the bodies of those mortals, allowing Mystra only to call on it only with their permission. It would give the Chosen to innate ability to heal quickly, and would give them life spans far greater than those of ordinary mortals. Mystra speculated that these mortals might be able to call on her power and thereby gain some special abilities, but that these powers would not rival those of a deity. (See "Powers" below.)

The Goddess of All Magic then began to select mortals she thought to be suitable. One of the first was the young mage Elminister, and she also singled out a promising wizard named Khelben Arunsen. Both of them proved to be worthy and capable receptacles of her power, but Mystra's other early attempts to invest her power in living humans were unsuccessful, and she came to realize that only a very few mortals were of stern enough substance to contain such power within themselves without being destroyed or corrupted. Even though some people aside from Elminister and Khelben may have possessed the requisite strength, it is possible that having lived for years prior to being visited by Mystra had set them on a path from which they were not able to deviate. Whatever the reason, the problem needed to be solved. To get around the difficulty, Mystra devised a plan to use herself as a vessel to breed individuals who could be nurtured and acclimated to her power from the very beginnings of their lives.

For the father of these individuals, she picked the best example of human stock she could find: Dornar Silverhand, a nobleman and a former Harper who lived near Neverwinter. Mystra then possessed the body of Elue Shandur, a helf-elven sorceress whom Dornal was already attracted to. Mystra revealed her presence and her plan to Eleu, who happily and eagerly agreed to have the goddess share her body. Eleu had been reluctant, but under the influence of Mystra the woman became a seductress, and Dornal found his advances being suddenly returned with great fervor.

Dornal and Mystra/Eleu were wed in the Year of the Drifting Stars (760 DR). The first of the seven daughters, Anastra Syluné, was born the following winter. Sylune's six sisters emerged at one-year interval thereafter: Endue Alustriel, Ambara Dove, Ethena Astorma (she prefers the name "Storm" these days), Anamanué Laeral, Alassa Shentrantra (known today as the Simbul) and Erésseae Qilué. These siblings have become known in Realmsian lore as the Seven Sisters.

Dornal, who had been kept in the dark about his wife's true nature through the years (presumably because Mystra didn't want to risk losing his services), was disappointed and distraught by the time his sixth child was born; he had always wanted sons as well as daughters. More importantly, he was seeing his wife deteriorate right before his eyes. The strain of coexisting with the goddess all these years had turned Eleu into a withered shell - in essence a lich, clinging to life only because Mystra's power was within her.

When Eleu was carrying the seventh child, Dornal consulted a priest who told him his wife had been possessed by a entity of great magical power. To spare both of them any further agony, he attempted to slay his wife's physical form by severing her head from her body.

As soon he had done this, Mystra was forced to reveal herself to him, and she went on to explain her scheme. Just as she had worried would happen, Dornal was aghast at how he and his wife had been used by the goddess. He turned his back on the corpse of his wife, abandoned his lands and his children, and vanished into the North. Mystra bore him no ill will, and in fact protected him for the final 30 years of his life. When Dornal finally did meet his end he called out to Mystra, and the goddess granted his continued existence as her servant. Now known as the Watcher, Dornal Silverhand travels the world unseen by mortals on a continuing mission to locate candidates to swell the ranks of the Chosen and to identify possible threats to Mystra and her minions

[george228732]

Fylass Through the Looking Glass - Chapter Eight - Days of Recollection (TW: IMPLIED MENTAL ISSUES AND DRINKING)

Fylass did the chores around the home as they waited for the time to come, and surprisingly, they didn’t have much to do, this time around, since the rest seemingly took care of almost everything when the kid was absent at Buddy’s Castle. Fylass was somewhat relieved about that, but also pretty guilty, since they thought that there was no need for them to be this kind, over a thing that they could’ve done easily.

The afternoon was cold and windy, as the kid realized the nearby trees’ leaves are starting to become red, but it was autumn after all, so it wasn’t too much of a worry, however, Fylass was worried about their flowers, and so, they tried to place many of them in the house, with that little hope that they would get to survive the harsh season for them if they were indoors.

"At least the Red Spider lilies will survive…"

With everything now set in place, they looked at the window to see their surroundings, before looking at the silent, ticking clock, which was stuck at 11:59, due to its battery running out, but they could figure out that it would be the perfect time to get going already.

They went to their bedroom, and took out a coat and gloves, to bear the cold climate coming down, and was about to leave the house, until they looked at the couch, looking at the red scarf that Buddy gave them, and decided to wear it as well, as it was comfy to wear too.

When everything was settled, they used their keys to get out of the house, and walked down the cold, windy path.

Beforehand, they called the rest to go shopping in a recreation of the Alivel Mall in a town quite close to Vegetable Valley, and considering that the kid lived in Cookie Country, the path wasn’t too far away, gladly.

Now, the path had Waddle Dees, Poppy Bros Jrs., Bronto Burts, etc, all prepared for autumn, with the softest clothes they could find at the moment, and even though it was cold, the feeling of people around, just helping their families and stuff, made the whole area feel warm to everyone, although Fylass, was quickly enough centered around something else, being Celesta sitting on the distance, right in front of a nearby lake, who seemed troubled about something.

Fylass couldn’t help but ponder what was happening to her, and quickly deviated down their way to check on the pseudopuff.

"...Hey, are you feeling alright?" Fylass asked to her with concern, but trying to be as subtle as possible. 

"Oh, hello Fylass. Y-Yes, I am doing alright, or at least I am supposed to. How about you?" Fylass was confused by that statement, and decided to ask further about it.

"I am alright, I think… What do you mean about "You are supposed to"?" 

"I feel really bad these days, not in a physical sense, but… it’s complicated, so I decided to go to a doctor to see what is happening, and they just told me that I needed some rest, so I am trying to ignore it as best as I can. I also hope that you are okay, or get better."

"Oh, dear… I hope it passes soon, but I want to ask, what are you feeling exactly?"

"To be honest, I don’t know exactly, but it isn’t good, but if you want a more specific answer, well, I get some odd fever dreams, where I am a gray jay in a weird world full of colors, and the last dream I had, was being chased down by Dolly, which had a queen outfit with a heart pendant… I am surprised I remember that much of it. Afterwards, I feel bad, and the feeling doesn’t go away."

"...What? I… I dreamed about something similar…" Fylass got a sense of uneasiness when they heard that. Could it be that Celesta dreamed about Wonderland too? How? When? Could it even be the same place, or was it just a big coincidence? "Since when have you been having those dreams?"

"...Ever since you woke up from that coma, I think."

"...Huh…" This only confused Fylass even further, but at this point, it was better to think that it was just a big coincidence, instead that she somehow was able to enter Fylass’ dreams. It was a more logical conclusion anyways.

"I’ll try to check on you a little bit later, since I am busy at the moment, but I’ll promise that."

"Don’t worry about me, I can deal with this." Celesta affirmed, but Fylass still wanted to help if possible, so they promised themself that they would try and visit Celesta if she still was in the same place when they came back.

"I am sorry, I got to go. See you a little later." Fylass said, as they parted ways with Celesta, to go to their destination.

After a little, they got to Vegetable Valley, filled with trees losing their green color, starting to become orange; autumn is pretty beautiful, but it was not time to focus on that specifically, for Fylass had work to do, right at the Revamped Alivel Mall in Waddle Town, a town that had been founded some months ago.

It resembled a plaza more than anything, with a fountain right at the center, houses resembling Kirby’s house were around too, although some were more stylized than others; orange leaves were all across the ground, being raked by Waddle Dees to play with them afterwards. Fylass looked at them, which were waving them back, which was a nice feeling overall, and after some more paths taken into the town, the kid got to the mall.

It looked like the exact same Alivel Mall, Fylass had heard from Elfilin, since both were sorta friends when the kid got to Popstar the first time, but the mall itself looked more stylized to fit the aesthetic of this star shaped planet, but it was just as welcoming. Susie and her company surely had their fun when designing it, to the point that it doesn’t even need any energy that isn’t renewable.

Fylass entered the mall, using the automatic doors, letting the cold breeze from outside behind, being replaced by a fresh breeze of the AC, and the lovely sound of steps and small talk from other Popstar folk around. They started to make their way towards one of the stores in it, being the groceries one.

The kid already had experience on this, so it wasn’t that bad, only using their ESP to move them on a shopping cart and that was it, take them to the cash register, pay, and leave; they had more than enough money to do this, but the one in charge of the register was quite appalled to see a little kid buying things on their own like if they were an adult like any other.

They quickly left the store to ponder on what they should do next, and decided to go to a nearby cake shop from within the mall, just to see what they could be serving at the moment, maybe even buy something, and also because they were sure that at least one of their siblings would be there.

The kid quickly turned a corner and walked through another hallway, and sure enough, they got to the cake shop, with some familiar faces being there at the scene. Fylass could see perfectly how Selene, Wisp and Dolly were buying some cupcakes and what seemed to be cheesecake. They couldn’t help but laugh and say hi.

"Hi, there!" Fylass spoke up as Dolly, Wisp and Selene quickly turned their backs, surprised to see them here already, but they quickly approached them to say hi as well.

"Hello there, Fylass! I thought you were going to appear in like an hour or so, but it’s really nice to see you here!" Selene said, still with a cupcake in hand. Good thing she didn’t leave the store by accident if Fylass stood a bit farther away. Dolly followed and hugged the chimera, as Wisp waved at them timidly.

"Hey, you should really take a bite out of this, it’s so good, I tell you! Let me pay it." Selene quickly got to the counter, and paid for her recently bought pastries, giving Fylass one of them. "Here!"

Fylass took a bite out of instinct, and yes, it tasted amazingly for sure, with Fylass’ ultramarine eyes having that distinctive glow of joy.

"Wow, it really tastes awesome! Where did you get the money, though?" 

"O-Oh, uh, Meta Knight gave some to me, and I decided to spend it here, ehehe…" Selene was quite uncomfortable when answering that question, for reasons she doesn’t really understand, but deep down, the reason was there.

"Oh, that’s… nice…! Eh… Say, did the rest come here too, or just you three?"

"Dolly came with Selene, TK, Dero and Ades, so she assumes the rest shouldn’t be so far away!"

"Alright, then! Let me buy some pastries, and we’ll go look for them." Fylass did as such, seemingly still having enough money to at least buy a little box of their favorite sweets, and when everything was settled here, Fylass, and the rest decided to keep going towards other stores, to explore and to find any other person that Fylass knew with certainty.

Left and right, they explored, but they wouldn’t expect to see Ades and Dero hanging out at a bar right at one of the stories, but to be completely honest, everyone knew they were there, specially Dero, and the only reason they didn’t come here just yet, was because it would be weird to see kids of their age going into a bar.

"Uh, hey there!" Selene said to them, with the little hope that they were sober enough to even pay attention to what she was saying; surprisingly enough, though, Ades seemingly hadn’t been drinking anything in there; with Dero, it was another case entirely, but no one was surprised.

"Oh, hey there, kids." Ades said with that calm tone Fylass knew him by hand, although he seemed… worried? Or at least, more worried than usual, and the kid couldn’t help but wonder why that was the case.

"Doing alright?" 

"I think so, I barely even drank this time around, so at least I am sober enough to hear this, haha…" Ades chuckled weakly, as he looked towards Dero. "Dero, though… Uh…" Dero was clearly not in this world anymore, barely being able to look around before he got a headache, or said something incoherent.

"Oh, Dero! Could you go towards Dolly for a little? Mother is surely waiting for you at the clothing store!" Upon Dero hearing that, he quickly scurried off to get to the store, and even if he wasn’t totally aware of the surroundings around him, he still managed to get there flawlessly. Fylass, deep down, knew that woman was no good, and had hopes that there would be a version of her that truly loved him.

"...Wow, good thing I paid for the drinks." Ades said. "Well, I am leaving. Would you guys go to the Food Aisle, though? I am pretty sure that Twilight is waiting for us there, for quite a while at this point."

"The Food Aisle…? I could get something there if I have enough money." Ades only just realized the bags Fylass was carrying on their arms, seemingly not being of any weight, thanks to their ESP nullifying that weight quite successfully. He was quite impressed to see this, but also, somewhat sad.

"Alright then; don’t worry about the money, though, I’ll pay for you."

Fylass stood silent, as they quickly shook their head in negation. "It’s alright! I can pay for my food, don’t worry."

Ades knew that trying to convince them to let him pay for their food would be futile, and probably leading to worse problems, so, he left it like that, with a defeated sigh. "Alright, then."

Selene, Dolly and Wisp were quite a bit saddened too, but did their best efforts to hide it the best they could; it wasn’t that successful, but Fylass just pretended that they weren’t feeling sad, just to not ruin the moment they had with this kid’s presence. 

Everyone left towards the food aisle, which was in the story right below them, and after turning even more hallways, they finally got to their destination; the room was quite emptier than the other hallways beforehand, and even if they were still quite some people, Fylass couldn’t help but to feel quite anxious.

"Hiyo, guys!" A voice was heard from within the aisle, being TK’s, which was already on his seat, among other seats across a table, making it perfect for the others to sit down without issue.

"Hey there, Twi..:!" Fylass said, as they left the bags right next to their seat. "How are you doing?"

"After the last time I saw you back at your house, I still feel dandy as day! What about you?"

"Well… the same, really." TK couldn’t really tell if that was a good or a bad thing, but the feeling of something incomplete was there.

"Hey, excuse me for a second, I am going to order something." Fylass stood up, and the others did the same, seemingly with the same intentions as them, all of them ordering their food, and quickly sitting down on their table, being reserved by TK.

"Soooooo…" Twilight decided to start a conversation. "I heard that Archie is coming tomorrow to Popstar, again! Is that right, Fy?"

"Oh, yeah. Archie told me through the phone that he would come back tomorrow, and I am honestly excited to see them again."

"I am glad you are excited! You deserve that." Selene said as Wisp nodded. Fylass could tell their intentions with that statement, but decided to ignore them in favor of just spending a nice afternoon. They looked at the ones sitting right next to them, seemingly quite happy, but they saw at Ades, which seemed uncomfortable, trying to hold something back. Fylass, however, thought it was something personal, and decided to ignore it as well.

Some small talk was heard here and there, but they quickly got interrupted by the sight of a Poppy Bros Jr. bringing their food to them, and it couldn’t look more delicious.

"Here it is! Hope you enjoy!" 

Fylass had ordered a burger, and the others also ordered something along those lines, but unlike the rest, the penguin decided to pay right away, with barely enough money at this point, after spending it on their necessities; the kid had to resort to look at the deepest part of their pockets, only to bring out a single coin, that miraculously, was enough for them to pay their food.

"Well, there goes all my money." They chuckled weakly after that statement.

"...I am sorry to ask, but… when do you think you can get your money back?"

"Oh, well… it depends on how many people will go buy my dying crops in autumn, heehee… To be honest, I don’t think I’ll get enough money for myself for these months, so I guess I won’t get that much food these days, but hey, I’ll fight through."

"..." Everyone was silent, as Fylass just realized what they’ve just said, and quickly tried to soften the blow.

"I-It’s alright, though! It’s not the first time this has happened, and I am still okay! T-T-There’s no need for you to be worried…"

"...Fylass…" Ades said as a tear started to drop down his face. "Can I ask you one thing?"

"...Y-Yes?"

"Please, forgive me."

The kid only realized now that Ades, the one that seemed the most calm out of the group, was crying.

"H-Hey, are you okay?!" Selene said with concern.

"I am sorry, it’s just that… life is so unfair! Why do people like you suffer this much?! No matter what, you don’t deserve to have this life! You really don’t!" He said, trying his best to not stutter mid sentence. "From what I know now, you barely even eat, and have to act like an adult because you have no one else to take care of you! It’s just cruel! Why do people like you and her have to suffer until you can’t bear it anymore, meanwhile people who don’t deserve it, have their lives already settled with riches and happiness?!" 

"..." Fylass had their head down, not only wondering who is this "Her" Ades had just mentioned, but their mind was boggled with guilt as well. Ades on the other hand, had also just realized what they’ve just done saying, and quickly doubled down. 

"P-Please, forgive me for not being able to catch on this late. I promise that I-"

"ENOUGH." Fylass’ yell echoed across the entire room, before quickly starting to gather tears in their eyes. 

"There’s no need to be sorry, so WHY are you feeling sorry for someone like ME?! I don’t deserve it! I deserve the life I got! I DO! It’s barely a miracle that I can be so selfish as to want your company, when I clearly deserve everything but that! I clearly do, ever since the day I told you about how I really feel, you guys have been nothing but kind, and that makes me SAD! I wanted things to be the same as before, but that’s clearly not going to happen…" 

The rest want silent, as Fylass started to sob, and did their best to leave as soon as possible, running towards the closest exit, although they could catch a glimpse of Lucid and Buddy being there too, quite surprised to see the kid in tears, but when they noticed them, they ran even faster than before, and soon enough, they left the mall to get home.

"Kid…?" Lucid was about to follow them, before he realized Selene, Dolly, TK, Wisp and Ades running towards them, before quickly stopping.

"W-What happened?!" Lucid followed his questions towards the group standing in front of him.

"Fylass left. We just wanted to give them a nice afternoon, but we failed…" Ades was feeling so guilty, seeing how he ruined a day that deep down, was supposed to be for their happiness. He had promised in his head that he would try to treat Fylass the same as the kid he remembered seeing, but those emotions quickly overwhelmed him, and now, the kid was gone.

Back at Fylass’ house, they quickly took off their coat and gloves, and went towards their room in affliction, trying to cry as little as they could to see if that could make them feel better, but to no avail. They placed the scarf Buddy gave them on their drawer, realizing that the box containing the brooch to Wonderland was right there; was it even there before?

By pure instinct, the kid placed it on their sweater once again, and tried to sleep as fast as they could, just to see if Wonderland could make them happy, like before. They had things to do back there, anyways.

"...P-Please, let this be a bad dream… Void, why?"

------

@lostsoulau-ask

@loaflovesdoodling

@monsterhatdoodles

@moon-mage

@ilikesillythingswooo

@that-fanperson-meg

@den-of-the-blue-dragon

[humanoidalien27]

Alright, game spoilers ahead, but game deviation too. I hope you enjoy.

Chapters so far below

One, two, three, four, five, six, eight,

Content warning: death (sorry everyone)

.....

Chapter 7

Not an enemy

You've still been...friendly with Sebastian, it was more reserved than you knew he liked, not that he was going to push it.

He had been doing a good job at keeping his head down and focusing on his normal day to day schoolwork.

Anne refuses to talk to him and she probably would have done the same to you, if not for Ominis.

It was something you'd decided to take on faith and try out as you moved over to him.

He had been studying in the room of requirement, but couldn't quite concentrate with you lurking.

"I was wondering when you'd come over, you spent enough time pacing," he teased as he set his quill down. "Is something wrong?"

"No, but given everything that's happened and still might happen, I think you should know everything."

Worry flicked over his features as his head moved in your direction. "Everything?"

The hesitation in his voice made you swallow hard. "That I've been doing, with Professor Fig and why I'm being actively hunted."

"You're actually going to tell me?" He asked, though you sensed his unease to trust your word, not that you could blame him.

You moved to take the seat closest to him, but not beside him, your nerves were already wanting to rabbit from the room.

He waited patiently as you took a deep breath to steady yourself, before you began from that day the dragon attacked the carriage.

Ominis looked paler than usual as he started in your direction, his body long deflated against the chair.

You'd have thought he'd have something to say, call you an idiot for jumping into danger or something. You hadn't spared any details, not about the ancient magic or about the adventures Sebastian dragged you into.

After everything, it felt like you needed someone to ensure you weren't going dark.

"That's one hell of a first year," he mumbled, while pressing his fingers to his forehead, before something clicked. "So that's what he meant when he said "between the two of you"."

Ah, you'd purposely tried to forget that night. "Yeah," you mumbled.

"Why now? Why'd you decide to tell me?"

"Well, Isadora became evil, stripping people's emotions away entirely, believing she was actually doing good-"

"And you're worried you're going to walk down the same path?"

Hearing it out loud made it sound real. Real enough to sting, to burn as your eyes burned and your nose tickled. "I don't want to hurt people."

He almost knocked his books all over the floor as he climbed out of his seat and squeezed into the chair with you with his arms winding around you.

"You won't."

He said it with such confidence that you almost believed him.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Everyone capable of great evil, are capable of great good. It's your choice to decide which you do," he replied softly, you could hear your father's voice echoing his. "If you don't want to hurt people, don't. If you're afraid you'd lose your temper, learn to control it so it doesn't control you. You have a choice, it's not predestined that you're going to follow in her footsteps, just like she didn't follow in her mentor's."

You nodded, grateful that he reminded you of something you lost sight of. It's easy to forget when you're the one who's in the dark without a light.

"Thank you," you whispered giving him a squeeze before letting him go.

"You're going to the last trial tonight?"

Worry laced his words as you glanced over his way while suppressing the urge to cry.

"Yeah, Professor Fig sent an owl."

"I know it's supposed to be a secret, so I can't offer to come with, but just, be careful."

A small smile forced its way into your face. "I will try."

You pushed yourself up from the chair and headed towards the door.

With Ranrok so close to the repository, you immediately set out to Ollivanders, but when Rookwood showed up, you didn't expect him to kidnap you.

Sirona, who had been stopped to talk to a local, barely caught the sight of you being apparated away, she instantly sent word to Professor Weasley as Ollivander sent one to Professor Fig.

Ominis heard the uproar as voices explode in the room, he moved to follow them, finding Professor Weasley interrogating Sebastian about your whereabouts.

"She said she was going to meet with Professor Fig," Ominis answered coming closer. "What happened?"

"Sirona informed me that she came out of Ollivanders and was ambushed by Rookwood. She was grabbed from behind and apparated away."

Sebastian glanced at Ominis as his brows pinched together.

"I will try to find Professor Fig, hopefully he'll have some answers this time."

She left quickly, leaving Deek, Sebastian and Ominis staring at her retreating figure.

"Rookwood finally nabbed her, this isn't good."

Ominis nodded, while they tried to think of anywhere he could have gone, but the problem was, there were too many places to pick from.

"Maybe Poppy and Natsai know," Sebastian offered. "We can't just sit here and wait."

"Let's go," Ominis said without hesitation.

After Solomon, you'd hoped you saw the last of those damned curses, but now here you were fighting for your life against at least twenty ashwinders.

Victor was dead set on wiping your existence from the face of the earth, if that wasn't obvious as he casted the killing curse.

You were too far away from the castle for any of the teachers to find you.

Being careful and mindful of the ashwinders behind you, you continued to fight back, slowly knocking their numbers down.

You decided it was a good thing they took turns for the most part and the practice you got from fighting them the whole term was helpful, but you knew you were tired from the last trial.

The last thing you could do is allow Victor to get his hands on the keeper wand. So, you fought until every last ashwinder was unconscious and it was down to you and Victor.

"Avada Kadavra!"

The words echoed in your head, a mixture of his, Sebastian's and every other ashwinder you heard speak it as you put all of your effort into your counter spell.

They slammed into each other with his determination and yours.

You pushed harder, knowing if you died here, no one would be able to stop Ranrok. You wouldn't see your muggle mother, your friends or your professors ever again.

Your wand began to heat up as if in silent agreement to live, to help you live and with the last bit of your energy, you sent the spell back at Victor.

It hit him hard enough to knock him off his feet, his eyes open and unblinking.

With all your energy spent, you collapsed to your knees as you heard a screech from above, before your body fell to lay down, ready to rest.

A hippogriff landed between you and Victor —no, Highwing, it was your friendly hippogriff.

People on brooms began to land as your eyes slowly fell closed.

Still unconscious, you were taken to the hospital wing, where Ominis stashed the funky looking wand you had on you, in his robes with his.

You were thoroughly checked for wounds, but nurse Blainey said it was just from exhaustion and tried to get everyone to leave so you could sleep, but two Slytherins, a Gryffindor and one Hufflepuff, refused to leave no matter how many points the nurse threatened to take.

"What happened?" Professor Weasley asked walking in with Fig not far behind.

"We couldn't just let our friend be out there alone, so we used Poppy's and Natty's ashwinder routines to figure out the best place they'd try to take her. Once we figured that out, we went to find her."

Sebastian's oversimplification seemed to confuse her more.

"On school brooms and beasts?" She shook her head. "You five will receive detention for being out past curfew, as will Imelda, Amit, Garreth, Samantha, Adelaide, Leander, Everett, Nellie and Lenora. I can't stress how dangerous it was going out there at night like that. Even if you were a tiny army of students."

There was a hint of pride in her voice.

Everyone turned when a small laugh escaped your throat as you woke up. "Man, now I wish I'd seen that."

"You're in a lot of trouble young lady," Professor Weasley replied.

You opened your eyes. "For being kidnapped?"

"You've done a lot of things this year that broke the rules and I still don't have an answer as to why."

"I can clarify that," Professor Fig replied, as he met your eyes. "I think it's time they knew."

Weasley looked between you two before Fig led her from the room.

"A small army of students?" You teased as your eyes drifted towards your friends.

"Arrived just in time to hear Rookwood use the killing curse," Natty answered. "When you collapsed after him, we thought-"

Your energy was still low, but you forced a smile onto your face. "Was it at least cool looking?"

Ominis appeared unimpressed as Sebastian chuckled. "One on one, spells connected, an unconscious army of ashwinders surrounding you two. It was pretty epic."

"Dangerous, he means it was dangerous," Ominis corrected. "How did he manage to grab you anyway?"

"Ashwinder apparated behind me. He paid the residents to stay in their houses and-" You started patting your robes down for the wand, only finding your own. "Oh no. No, no, no."

"What?" Poppy asked as Ominis reached into his cloak and pulled the wand free.

All eyes moved to it in curiosity. "I figured this was important."

He handed it back to you.

"It is. It's very important."

.....

[luck-and-larceny]

"Hey there, Malikat. How 'bout ya' tell me a tale 'bout th'best heist ya' ever done? I don't even care if its true. I jus' want t'hear a story."

Oh, now this was fun. Malika could always count on Law to catch her attention with a particularly creative question. She could also count on him to allow her complete freedom in how she answered. That this question was more about watching her spin a story than about recounting a historical record of her life charmed her.

"I could tell you about a terrifying, magical artifact liberated from a museum that has the power to briefly change its wearer's personality and how it affected mine. Or maybe about how I once smuggled a prisoner out of captivity right under the noses of his captors. Possibly, I could tell you about the time I dressed as a maid to steal a rowdy opo-opo…"

But those were verifiably true stories. He ought to be told something different.

"But instead… I'll tell you about when I stole a single thread spun from Nymeia's loom."

She smiled, eyes shining as brightly as the stars she'd soon reference.

"Every person, every one of us, has a destiny woven into Nymeia's loom. A common misconception is that this means that our fates are already made for us and there's no deviating from the course already set in motion. But that's a horribly sad, frustrating, and, frankly, boring way to look at life, isn't it? She's not the Author in the Stars. She hasn't written the conclusion and worked backwards. And we are not born with finished tapestries that can't be changed. She actively spins new paths for us as we live. The choices we make affect her work as much as her work affects the situations we find ourselves in. 

Sometimes the tapestry she creates for us snags. It needs to be unraveled and redone. You ever feel like you just barely escaped certain doom at the very last moment? Or experienced deja vu? Met someone you knew immediately would change your life, but had no explanation for how you knew that? Those are snags in the weave of fate.

And those snags keep things interesting for her. She doesn't like easy projects. She likes a challenge. So I've made it my mission to be her greatest challenge! And what better challenge is there than to pluck a thread from my own tapestry and genuinely control a measure of my fate?"

She smiled again and shrugged, "I'd say I'm sorry for this long-winded tale, but I'm not. So…

On nights when the sky is the color of spilled ink, when there is a hazy aura around the full moon, and the stars are shining so brightly it's hard to believe they're not diamonds… that's when Nymeia is closest. That's when she takes a break from spinning and dares to sneak a peek at the world below and look upon the creatures whose destinies she's been making art of. She turns her back from her loom and turns her face to the world.

On nights like that? Anything can happen. You can feel the magic in the air connecting all of us to one another.

And if you sleep with an astrologian deck beneath your pillow and a powerful wish upon your lips and then fall into a dream… It might be more than a dream.

My wish was to see my own tapestry. And I did. In the dream I walked through a room of them. I'd never seen anything so beautiful. Such colors! Such magic. All of them for those who had left this world, joined the Lifestream, but none finished. A person's tapestry is never finished, it turns out. It can't be. Because long after we're gone, we still touch the living, still affect them. In that way, we still exist. Our story isn't over.

I walked and walked for what felt like bells and bells until I saw it. The most beautiful thing I'd ever laid eyes on: threads of the darkest blue, the most brilliant purples, silvers unlike any I'd seen before and I knew, _knew_, this one was mine. But I'm no good at seeing but not touching. I have to touch. And I'm not so good at touching and not taking either. I reached out and felt my own fate beneath my fingers. And I plucked a single thread. And replaced it with a mundane thread from the waking world. All while Nymeia's face was turned."

Malika finished her drink, and the stars in her eyes twinkled ever so brighter. "And now, every so often, I can see what will come to pass for me before it happens. For instance… you're about to buy me Blackbelly whiskey, Roman." She winked. "How'd I do?"

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Skin & Scale (Part 31)

They decide not to bring Iroh along, there is no need for the extra stress, not when she is already entirely on edge as is. Today flying is every bit as lonely and stressful is it is exhilarating and liberating. Sometimes she thinks that she shouldn’t be left alone with her mind.  Mother and father can hear her but they have the tact to keep out of her mind as she thinks over what they have offered.

Hosekko.

It is a pretty name. 

Perhaps a touch too delicate for the person she has shaped up to be. She isn’t sure that it entirely suits her in sound and pronunciation. She likes to think that, in meaning, it suits her very well. That she is a small jewel, at least to some people–or dragons. The people and dragons that cherish her. 

Azula. 

Also a pretty sounding name. 

It is fierce and it has renown. It is known by most and familiar to her. But it ties her to a grandfather that isn’t actually her. She has grown into the name and set it stunningly apart from the man but it is a call to that she had only been a means to an end–an extension of someone else’s will. She likes to think that she has claimed the name for her own, outshined Azulon himself. That, if history is kind, people will jest that Azulon was named after her. 

And then there is the matter of Sokka.

Somehow this unsettles her much more deeply. She has complete control over which name she goes by. Sokka, on the other hand, is his own person who performs his own actions. She imagines that he will expect cuddles and overt displays of affection. The sort that make her feel uncomfortable. Perhaps she should tell him that she isn’t interested after all and spare herself the humiliations and discomforts.

The boy is on her back, hugging one of her spines. He seems perfectly content to stoke her scales. She doesn’t particularly mind the gesture but she hopes that he doesn’t expect her to return it. Really, she has no business trying to form this sort of relationship.

It would be entirely better and safer to just go off with Ran and Shaw and keep to herself. Better and safer for everyone. 

“You’re scared.” The voice, though familiar, and gentle, startles her. It isn’t supposed to be here.

“I’m not scared, Sokka.” She grumbles through the link. She isn’t scared but she is entirely unsettled that he has managed to slip into her mind. 

“Emotional bonds, naturally form links.” Shaw explains. 

So, inadvertently, she has invited him in. 

“I can leave if you want.” Sokka says. “I just thought that you might want someone to talk to. We’ve still got an hour to go.”

She supposes that she could use a distraction from her aching wing muscles. “Fine but don’t snoop.”

“He can’t.” Ran assured her. “The link you offered him is different than the one you have with us.”

But he had still overheard her contemplating whether or not he is worth it. Rather, if she is able to handle anything closer than a friendship. He doesn’t seem particularly offended. It is rather upsetting that he seems to have anticipated as much. But then, she has only ever indicated reluctance and distance. He is probably surprised that she let him in at all. 

“I am.” He confirms. “I’m a patient person if you like to take things slow.” 

“That would be preferable, yes.” She confirms. “Although I will be severely testing your patience.” 

“Pretty sure that I’ll be doing my share of that.” He admits. 

She supposes that if he is willing to deal with the things that she throws at him that she will commit to giving him a chance. 

“You going to tell your parents?”

“I’m pretty sure that they are well aware.” They had probably been aware of the connection before she had been. “They like you well enough Sokka.” She can’t imagine having introduced Sokka to Ozai–but then, back when he was a factor to consider, she wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with a waterbender anyhow. 

Her life is so, so terrifyingly different. This path has deviated so startlingly far from who she was supposed to be. 

And, strangely, she can’t say that she is all too upset. 

She was supposed to be lonely. 

Powerful and untouchable but so terribly lonely and used.

She was supposed to have the crown. 

A lovely thing but also a horrible fate. She is not idle enough to enjoy the throne. She is meant to fly and fight and quest for knowledge and secrets not to tether herself to one Nation, however sublime that nation is. However much she loves that nation. 

The wind whistles over her wings, it rustles her whiskers and spines. She is not where she is supposed to be–where she had thought she was supposed to be. But she thinks that she is okay with that. 

She is, however, not entirely okay with that she had forgotten to eject Sokka from her musings. 

“It sounds like you’re doing good.” He mentions. She can hear the smile in his voice. “Sometimes I worry about you…”

She swallows, she is still not used to people worrying about her wellbeing.

“But you seem to be taking things well.” 

“Well enough.” She agrees. But still not entirely well. Sometimes she still feels queasy with dread. Sometimes her acceptance falters and she finds herself longing for the familiar–however awful–and wishing that she hadn’t lost the Agni Kai that altered the course of her life entirely. 

“You’ll get used to it.” Sokka assures. “And then you’ll know for sure that this is how it was supposed to be.”

And is he not correct? She is a dragon, it was supposed to be like this to some degree.

.oOo.

By the time that they touch down in Huijang Azula’s shoulders are screaming for a massage. She huffs and stretches her back. 

“Sore?” Katara asks.

She nods. 

“I can do a little waterbending if that would help.”

“Or we can go to Huijang’s spa!” TyLee suggest. “I would love to get a massage instead of giving them for a change. Oh!” She claps her hands together. “One day we should all get a classic Fire Nation hot stone massage!”

“That sounds really wonderful.” Katara agrees. 

“All in favor of going to the spa, raise your hands.” Zuko says.

For once they are all in perfect agreement.

“Can I?” Sokka reaches for her hand. 

Azula considers. “I–I guess. But you better let go when…”

“When you ask me to. That’s doable.” Sokka grins. His hand curls around hers. It isn’t as though he hasn’t held her hand before, she had let him do it while she was going through her transformation and yet her tummy is still tickling. 

His hand, she deduces, is rather big. Hers fits into his very easily and he strokes the palm of her hand with his thumb. 

“Since when!?” Toph shouts and Azula grimaces as several pairs of eyes land upon their interwoven hands. 

“Since last night!” Sokka declares proudly. “Officially anyways. I feel like this was kind of a thing since our theater night.”

“I didn’t realize that you liked Sokka.” Zuko notes. 

“Neither did I.” She mutters. “It’s rather unfortunate.”

“That you didn’t notice or that you like him?” Mai quirks a brow. 

“Both of those things, honestly.” She flaps her free hand.

“That’s so cute!” TyLee gushes. “He can get dragon cuddles!”

“He is lucky to have the luxury of holding my hand.” She scoffs. 

And he laughs. “It’s very soft.”

Her cheeks pinken if only slightly. 

“So are you guys going to do the couple’s massage?” Aang asks. 

“We sure are!” Sokka declares before she can answer. It is just as well; mother and father have made a point of requesting massage beds in the adjoining room. And any notions that Sokka may or may not have had are dwarfed by two pairs of watchful, glaring eyes.

Frankly, they almost intimidate her too–and just maybe that is their goal. Perhaps it is more or less universal for parents, human and dragon alike, to disprove of overt displays of affection. 

Protectiveness. 

She doesn’t think that she minds it too much. 

“What type of massage oil would you like?” 

“Which oil will help with muscle relaxation?” Azula asks.

“We have an arnica, olive oil, sunflower seed blend.”

“I will go with that then.” She replies. 

“I’ll take your manliest scent.” Sokka says.

“He’ll take the apricot oil for his sensitive baby skin.” Azula tells the masseuse. 

“But–” Sokka beings.

“That’s what I usually use.” She mentions. “You said that you liked my soft hands. Perhaps I would like to hold a hand that is not scratchy and calloused.”

Sokka sighs. “Alright, apricot it is, but only because you asked so demandingly.”

“You really do think that you are so funny, don’t you?”

“I am. I’m also really smooth, like my hands are going to be.” He pauses. “I better get to hold your hand a lot after this.” 

“We’ll see.” She mutters. He almost certainly will get to. Of course she will not request holding and will very much pretend like she doesn’t enjoy it quite thoroughly. 

The masseuse begins working to massage the oil into her skin. The scent is divine and it fills the room as the woman works the knots and aches out of Azula’s shoulders and neck. Azula closes her eyes and exhales. This has been long overdue. For an hour or so she is able to slip herself into a thoughtless void of aroma and sensation. She can still sense her parents staring, eyes narrowed, at Sokka from their own massage beds.The massage artists are going to have one difficult time trying to work the sort of uncomfortable tension that only being stared at and observed can bring. But Azula herself pays it no mind. In fact, she thinks that she may have fallen asleep.  It has been quite some time since she has had a nap of any kind. 

.oOo.

It is luck.

Bad or good, Azula can’t decide. 

Not at first anyhow. 

It starts with a simple word. “Mother?” 

And one more. “Zuko?”

She lingers, as she always had, on the fringes of their mother-son relationship. Watching from afar has Zuko is swept up in an outpouring of hugs, kisses, and cooed words of affection and adoration. This time there are tears. “I’ve missed you so much.” 

But she hadn’t missed her. 

“What are you doing here?” Zuko asks although Ursa probably has more grounds to pose that question to him. 

“I like to have a day of pampering between sets. This show is doing particularly well. I have some extra spending money.” She explains. “And you, Zuko? What brings you to Hijang?”

“I was looking for you, mother. Father has been defeated, why didn’t you come back?” It is a conversation for outside and that is where they take it. 

“Oh Zuko, I haven’t had the means; monetarily or emotionally. I have been so afraid of how you would react…”

“Then you must be terrified about how I will.” Azula finally speaks. 

And the woman’s mouth falls open. It is as if the woman hadn’t considered her at all. Hadn’t even thought that her other child would tag along. 

“Azula…” 

“I know what you’ve done.” 

Ursa’s brows furrow. 

“Don’t pretend to be confused!” Her voice is a pitch or two higher than she had intended. “You also know what you’ve done.”

Sokka squeezes her hand but she jerks out of his grip. He has the sense not to reach out to snatch it back. Mother and father trail behind her. 

And all of that joy and delight reserved fully for Zuko dissipates, giving way to the resentment that has always been there for her daughter that isn’t really hers. “I’m not going to let you ruin this family.” 

“She’s going to ruin your family.” Shaw growls, the scales are creeping over her skin. “You’ve no right!”

The woman’s face pales.

“Azula, please.” Zuko begins. 

“You took me from my parents and hated me for what you did. Was it hard, mother…” she hisses the word. “To look at me and remember what you did. Do I remind you that you’re not the pure and gentle soul that you like to pretend to be?” The woman doesn’t like to look at her at all and she refuses to do so now.

“I look at you and I see when everything in my life started to fall apart.”

She is just like Iroh–hating her for the faults that she doesn’t want to confront within herself. “Did you ever care about me? Did you ever try? Or am I just your mistake?”

She ought not to ask questions that she doesn’t want the answer to.

“You are the worst thing that has ever happened to me.”

Azula swallows, she wishes that those words hadn’t cut so deeply. That they don’t make her stomach hurt. Somewhere deep down she realizes that she had been hoping that the woman would tell her that she had been reading things wrong. That father had been putting thoughts into her head. “Worse than Ozai?” She asks. “Worse than the man who…who…” she falters. Who warped her into something disturbing and grotesque–perhaps not in form but in principle. Everything she is, is a subversion to the natural balance of things. 

“She didn’t ask to be taken from us!” Ran snarls. “She didn’t ask to be raised by incompetent, cruel human.” Any cruelty she displays is a mark of her upbringing or so father means to imply. She wishes that she could say that she had no hand whatsoever in who she had become. But, lest she want to become like Iroh, she cannot. 

“Please don’t do this.” Zuko grimances. “Mother, you don’t mean that. You don’t mean that, do you?”

“Zuko, she isn’t your sister.”

“But she is!” He insists. “I said that to uncle and I’ll say it to you. Azula. Is. My sister. Whether she wants to be or not.”

Right now, she doesn’t mind being so. 

“Zuko, she is a monster. Dragons are evil.”

“Evil!?” Shaw bears her sharpened teeth. Her eyes flash something mighty and terrible. “We haven’t stolen human babies from their cribs!”

“We keep to our own.” Ran adds cooly. “We mind our business until humans trifle with us. Even then we reserve our restraint. Your palace is still intact with some minor damage that could have been avoided had our daughter known that she would be transforming.”

“You broke the palace!?”

“Why does it matter to you?” Azula mumbles, folding her arms across her chest. “It isn’t as though you had plans to return. So it is of no concern of yours.” And yet that screech had coaxed a buried shame back to the forefront. That she is destructive, a natural monster.

“It was just one interior wall and one exterior wall, mother.” Zuko tries. 

“I said that it was okay.” Sokka shrugs. “She was trying to step over the garden wall, I told her to just knock it over if she had to.” 

Ursa’s expression pinches. “A waterbender has no business giving input into Fire Nation matters.”

“I’m a non-bender actually.” He points out. It is amusing only in that it agitates Ursa.

Zuko swallows, clearly this isn’t the woman he remembers. “You…don’t like waterbenders.”

“Oh Zuko.” Her face softens. “I don’t have a problem with waterbenders. I rather enjoy talking to them. But they should mind their own affairs and I will mind Fire Nation affairs.”

“I hope that you’re doing a better job about staying out of Water Tribe affairs than you have been with dragon…”

“That is not my fault!” She snaps. “You aren’t my fault. I didn’t want you! Had it been up to me we would have tried for a second child the normal way. But your father…”

“He’s not my father.” Azula mutters. And this woman isn’t her mother. That small fragment of her that had been hoping to make amends with the woman fizzles out. And in its place is a loathing so deep that she doesn’t know what to do with it. It burns her composure away and laves her face red and hot. 

She has never felt like this before and it terrifies her.

I didn’t want you! No one had. She certainly didn’t want to become Azula. Not when she could have been Hosekko, loved and cherished and unburdened by the war and expectations thrown at her. I didn’t want you! It isn’t just Ursa who speaks these words; in her mind it is Ozai and Uncle. It is Mai and TyLee. It is Zuko, even though his actual voice is arguing with Ursa. It is Katara and it is Sokka. Even though Sokka stands next to her, probably assuring her that he does in fact want her. 

But there has been a shift. 

She hasn’t noticed the elongation of her claws. The sharpening of her teeth.

It all comes forward; all of the distress, resentment, and grief-fueled rage that she had been bottling up. This woman had taken the essence of who she was supposed to be. This woman had dropped her into the hands of a man who had twisted, warped, and broke her. Dropped her into a world that left her isolated, terrified, and unloved.

And now she will show them how warped and broken she is. 

Just the way that they deserve. 

She falls back and lets the transformation ripple over her in full. Somewhere on the very fringes of her mind there is a human girl and she is sad and terrified and conflicted. That girl holds rational and reasoning. At the surface is a dragon a full-blooded, impulse driven dragon. 

If the woman wants a monster the dragon will give her the monster that she had created. 

Perhaps, while she is at it, she will stop by for some tea.

[savingthrcw]

Open to: everybody in Becca's lab at the end of s3. Set: end of s3, the antenna works and she comes back at the last second.

She had made it. One minute to spare, and Clarke shoved the door of Becca's lab open, everybody already in their position except for Bellamy - but she slowed down then and deviated from the intended path, removing her helmet, broken earlier, so she could cough the blood. She had made it to the lab, but maybe she wasn't going to make it.

[rivensoerthe]

Close Reading - Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land

MARINA's Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land continues on an empowering route for her of making the music she wants to make. After three albums aimed, to varying degrees, at securing traditional fame and success, ADIAML is a continuation of her rebirth, where she dropped "and the Diamonds" and decided that this work was for her.

Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land

This is such a powerful way to open the album. To me, it planted really powerful seeds to center that I am the product of sooooo much evolution and in the process me, and those around me, stand at the apex of human capacity and ability. It simultaneously acknowledges the power of the present while also paying homage to the work and ambition of the past. Furthermore, it alludes to lost wisdom from ancient eras that it is incumbent upon us to return to.

You don't have to be like everybody else You don't have to fit into the norm You are not here to conform I am here to take a look inside myself Recognize that I could be the eye, the eye of the storm I am not my body, not my mind or my brain (ha) Not my thoughts or feelings, I am not my DNA I am the observer, I'm a witness of life I live in the space between the stars and the sky

The emphasis on breaking from conformity within it all also gets at a very important idea: enlightenment cannot be found on the beaten path. It requires self-reflection and an awareness of/deviation from patterns.

Venus Fly Trap

Venus Fly Trap is her reminder to us that she could be making more commercially popular music, easily. Electra Heart was majorly successful and she could've gone down that road. Big pop producers were fucking with her. But she tells us she says!!!

Don't underestimate me 'Cause one day you're gonna see you're in a losing battle Babe, you'll never stop me being me I got the beauty, got the brains Got the power, hold the reins I should be motherfuckin' crazy Nothing in this world could change me

It continues on this path of emphasizing "I am not here to be commercially popular!!! I am going to stay here and do my own fuckin thing and if y'all come great but if not I really don't care lol I already gamed this shit and got enough money to live the rest of my life just fine."

Man's World

Man's World, the lead single. Sets the tone for the broader spirit of the album: analyzing the structures that have restricted our thinking and calling them out. It's accessible: we all know the patriarchy is fucked up, we all (as MARINA listeners) also know that climate change is a problem.

It's also optimistic while being delightfully ominous.

Spring appears when the time is right Women are violets coming to light Don't underestimate the making of life The planet has a funny way of stopping a fight

This life can be disorienting, but playing on spiritual principles of balance she provides an understandably anxious audience solace and empowerment.

Purge the Poison

Right out the gate she's talking about witchcraft, finding empowerment in her ability to make an impact, and analyzing how we have created so much of the damage around us. She is also saying, quite candidly, that there's a lot of toxic institutions in our way but that has always been the case. However, she also reminds us of the work we've successfully done to fight these instutitions.

2007 when size zero was the rage Britney shaved her head and All we did was call her crazed Harvey Weinstein, gone to jail Me Too went on to unveil Truth and all its glory The ending of a story It's a new world order, everything just falls away Our life as we knew it now belongs to yesterday Inside all the love and hate we can now regenerate Stopped how we'd been living every single day

The appeal to 2007 and all of its horrors is used in a peculiar way as a comfort. Like, look how far we've come in a little over a decade. Look how powerful we are at creating a just world. Change is coming!!!

Highly Emotional People

Highly. Emotional. People. This is the break. The first three songs are so empowering about change, but this is where she strips down and acknowledges how overwhelming she finds this world.

She takes the universe's eye here:

The universe hangs like a necklace from God Jewels suspended in the cosmos And it makes me believe This is how we're meant to be 'Cause we're just highly emotional people And you don't need to hide Sometimes it's hard to tell me how you feel I never see you cry

She flips the messaging on its head. After talking all her shit, rightfully so, about how impactful humans can be, she goes back and acknowledges how daunting it is for us to feel small. She tells us it's okay to feel small. She creates safety.

She also flips Man's World on its head: the unenlightened will be like blah blah she's a misogynist blah blah. But she candidly calls out the male suicide rate and unpacks how men are really the first victims of toxic masculinity.

New America

Admittedly my least favorite. Idk why it did feel corny to me when it came out and in retrospect I do think she made some points but it's also just like soooo on the nose and i think she could stand to be a bit more abstract here.

With that said I mean she didn't lie in a lot of it. I think this is one of the instances where i do disagree with her cuz she talks her shit about GMOs and its like idk girl that's rlly helped us fight food scarcity. But like we're allowed to disagree!

And I don't hate the song rlly. I mean I think there's something powerful to the idea of an American reckoning and a blatant call out of American hypocrisy. I just also think her fanbase already kind of knows this tea so it's one of those things where it's like "I mean yeah true but you're not really inspiring me here....."

But you know what a lot of them prob found validation and further explication of what they knew in this song so let's celebrate that!!!

Pandora's Box

Part two of the album. Heartbreak songs. A friend once complained about this to me, they were like she was really cooking with broader social commentary and now here she goes talking her shit about her ex boyfriend and it feels petty.

But like, this is really just a switch from the macro to the micro. Our relationships teach us so much about ourselves and how the world should work vs. does work.

In this specific case, it's her admission of her partner's adultery. And an acknowledgement of how, for someone with her mind, this was earth shattering in terms of maintaining her trust with someone who she had let in in the most intimate ways. It's about heartbreak and betrayal when you are a highly emotional person. It also alludes to the dangers of trying to heal others to the point where you sacrifice your own well-being. You have to make sure your cup is full first and others get the overflow!!!

I Love You, But I Love Me More

She alluded to how her partner "almost turned her psycho," and this is the response to that. When Marina gets upset, she leans into this ominous character. A character who draws boundaries through appealing to her ego/self-love.

It's also a rejection of the toxic pattern she had found herself in. He failed her, and she wants to heal dude but refuses to choose healing dude over herself.

Flowers

As we know healing isn't linear!!! At this point she properly resolves to breakup with her boyfriend.

I think it made me stronger But I would rather not Betray myself, just to keep your love at any cost And it's most tempting to give in When you hear the firin' shots When you are steps from winning back All the happiness you lost, lost Lost, lost With every careless action you let me slip away If you just bought me flowers, maybe I would've stayed You didn't think I was serious, I guess you felt so safe If you just bought me flowers, maybe I would've stayed

This is her going back to big picture Marina; there has been a whole relationship here where dude had the opportunity to prove himself and he repeatedly failed. And she cultivated the shit out of this garden but it just didn't fucking work.

And yes! She really almost didn't turn away, but she reminded herself of this broader pattern and how much it hurt her and she walked away.

Oh and a final note, there is something sad to the fact that she wanted to be there for him and knew there were things that were fake about him but was invested nonetheless, and he self-sabotaged. RIP

Goodbye

The actual breakup song. it's cordial, it's grateful, it's gentle. It's sad, it's grieving. But it's also optimistic. It acknowledges where her faults allowed this dynamic to get as toxic as it did. At the center of it is her relationship with being a healer.

I've been a mother to everyone else To every motherfucker except myself And I don't even have any kids

She's putting herself first!!! Like it's that simple. She's drawing boundaries for her own protection.

[yanderecrazysie]

wdyt about yandere akaashi? personally i think he would be a possessive one! also did you see how he can memorize bokuto's weakness? yeah he knows everything about his darling as well (even something that he shouldn't)

I just now realized you were probably just asking a question and not requesting- I’m so stupid- but I couldn’t help but think this would make an awesome request! Like he totally does memorize Bokuto’s weaknesses, so why not Reader’s?

He’d totally be possessive and would commit every single little thing you do to memory.

This turned out super short but I’m just proud I finally wrote something after 5 weeks of writer’s block.

Title: Memorize

Pairings: Akaashi x Reader

WARNINGS: Yandere themes, swearing, stalking, Akaashi is really fucking creepy

Summary: Akaashi knows more about you than anyone else does- and when you decide it’s best to move away, he’s more than ready to use his knowledge to stop you.

memorize

/verb/

commit to memory; learn by heart.

(Y/N) Weakness #27: She rarely notices when she’s being followed.

It was both a blessing and a curse to Akaashi. A blessing in that it benefitted him when he “walked you home”. It was a curse in that you were open to any creep who may have ill intentions, unlike Akaashi, who only wanted the best for you.

The sun was setting in the most beautiful orangey-pink hue, casting a heavenly glow across your already-beautiful face, lighting you up like you were the angel that Akaashi considered you to be.

He didn’t like that you took classes so late, but he figured it could be worse. You were a night owl, so if you had decided to take college courses at night? You didn’t even have a car, nor any friends to give you a ride home in the dark.

You weren’t exactly a loner, not that you tried to be anyway. It was just that you had trouble making friends in your new university. Maybe it was because everyone was so much richer than you, a simple scholarship student, and you felt too out of place to reach out.

Akaashi liked to believe that he understood how you thought, how you worked, what made you tick, but so many aspects of you were still a mystery to him. It didn’t help that he couldn’t bring himself to put his heart on the line and befriend or, God forbid, ask you on a date.

No, it was better to observe from afar and memorize every little thing about you that he could. It was better to love you from the shadows and hope that, one day, he could bring himself to ask you to be his.

Sometimes he envied his best friend Bokuto, who had no fear of asking girls out or making friends. Akaashi was the opposite, quiet and a little socially awkward, not to mention he over-thought too often about anything and everything.

You took a sudden turn and Akaashi’s heart dropped. Did you realize you were being followed after all and were trying to shake him off your trail? It was too late though, he knew the way to your house by heart- he could find it with his eyes closed.

He could navigate the inside with his eyes closed too because:

(Y/N) Weakness #40: She doesn’t lock her door when she’s in a hurry.

Although you deviated from your path, you didn’t seem concerned, and Akaashi was good at differentiating your emotions by now. Still, his mind raced with horrible possibilities of you knowing exactly who he was and hating him forever for what a creep he was.

His fear only increased as you walked into town and another worry cropped up. How was he supposed to follow you when there would be witnesses? It was getting later in the day, sure, but there were still plenty of people walking up and down the street and coming out of the shops.

Thankfully, you walked straight into a café and Akaashi made the decision to pretend that, he too, was just thirsty for a milkshake. He knew that’s what you got whenever you went to this particular store, and he knew exactly what flavor you’d get- you were a creature of habit after all.

He was too far behind you for you to hold the door open for him, which was a shame because he knew you would. Then again, he was trying to be stealthy and anonymous, and it’d raise some real red flags in your head if you started to spot him everywhere you went.

There were only so many coincidences he could fake before you’d catch on.

He took a seat in the booth behind yours, facing the opposite direction so that he could sit closest to you and overhear whatever you said with that sweet voice of yours. The bell attached to the door jingled as a surprisingly familiar face walked in.

Your face lit up like Christmas tree lights when you spotted your best friend from your old city- the one you’d lived in before transferring to the much more successful university you and Akaashi attended together. The two of you began talking immediately, before she’d even had a chance to sit down across from you.

The chat started out generic with the ‘how are you doing’s and ‘what have you been up to’s then turned to more serious topics such as an argument you’d had with your parents and how your friend had just recently broken up with her long-term boyfriend.

Then, the topic changed to one Akaashi hadn’t expected.

“I’ve been thinking about moving back,” you admitted in a soft voice, one so quiet that Akaashi had to stop sipping the milkshake he’d ordered just to hear you, “I haven’t made any friends at this college and the scholarship doesn’t cover everything anyways.”

“But your new uni is so much more successful than ours!” Your friend exclaimed and Akaashi silently begged her to continue convincing you to stay where you were, “And you just need to go outside your comfort zone a little bit.”

“You don’t understand… I’m miserable here. No one wants to be friends with the kid with clothes from thrift shops and one, non-Gucci, purse.”

Your friend stifled a giggle at the purse comment, “Is everyone here really that rich?”

No. Akaashi thought desperately. I’m on scholarship here too. I’m the same as you, (Y/n). Why can’t you see that? Why do you never notice me?

“It’s too late anyways,” you sighed, “I already put in a transfer request for next semester and it was accepted. Soooo, I guess I’m coming home.”

Akaashi couldn’t see you but he could tell you were grinning, especially when he heard your friend squeal with happiness and tell you that she was “so so so glad to have you back”.

But Akaashi wasn’t smiling.

You hummed to yourself as you packed up some of your clothing. It would be two weeks until you moved back, but it didn’t hurt to prepare a little bit early by putting away clothes you weren’t going to wear in that time.

A knock at the door stopped you in your tracks and you instinctively looked at your clock. 9:30 pm. Who the fuck was at your door at this hour? Maybe Mika decided to stop by despite seeing you 15 minutes ago?

You wouldn’t put it past her.

You hurried down the stairs and to the door, flipping on the porch light and peeking through the peephole to see who was on your doorstep before opening it. To be honest, you were a little proud you remembered to do that, considering you sometimes just threw open your door, assuming whoever it was wasn’t going to kill or rob you.

No one was there.

Weird.

Suddenly, you felt a pinching sensation on the back of your neck, and arms snaked around your waist. Your scream came out as a little squeak and your felt tears blur your eyes as a sleepy sensation slowly began to overcome your senses.

Hot breath fanned against your cheek as your assailant leaned in to whisper in your ear words that would haunt you for the rest of your life.

“(Y/N) Weakness #46: She never locks her windows.”