#but i've always been the “if you don't like it don't buy it camp”

[corneliaavenue]

maybe i am a cupcake, but taylor could release 100 versions of ttpd, and i wouldn't have an issue with it

[woso-dreamzzz]

Wiped Out II

Fridolina Rolfö x Teen!Reader

Summary: You look like your cousin

"Wow."

You frown a little bit, eyebrows drawn together as you look at Aitana.

You met her after the match against Spain in the World Cup and you know she's Frido's friend.

"What?"

Aitana's eyes glance between you and Frido, dancing from one of you to the other.

"I mean...it really is uncanny!"

"What is?"

Her finger is raised to point at you and then to Frido. She can't seem to make words as her mouth opens and closes

"You two are practically identical!"

You puff your cheeks out in outrage. "No, we're not! Don't say that!"

Frido scoffs next to you. "Is it really that bad? To be told you look like me? Most people would consider me pretty." She pinches your cheek and you swat at her.

"It's different when I've been told that my whole life," You say," You know I had someone ask at school where my sister was."

"But you don't have a sister."

"They meant you, Frido."

"But I'm your cousin. Why would they think I'm your sister?"

You exchange an unimpressed look with Aitana.

"Because we're practically identical. We look more closely related to each other than just cousins."

"I mean..." It's Ingrid that's speaking now, sitting in her cubby. "It is scarily uncanny. I don't need to look at old photos to see what you used to look like, Frido."

"Wait until the baby photos come out," You warn her with a little smile," Then you'll see just how alike we really used to be."

It's not a bad thing, actually. Looking like Frido, that is. No matter how much you jokingly complain.

She's your cousin but she's always treated you as something closer than that despite the age gap between you. You love her a lot even though she's a bit protective and has a bunch of random rules for you like mandatory hugs every day and being her taste tester for when she makes dinner.

"She used to be called my mini," Frido brags, a casual arm being thrown over your shoulder," I used to buy her outfits so we could dress the same."

You giggle a little. "Until some woman at the store asked if Frido was a teen mum?"

Her own smile falls. "I thought I told you to stop telling people that!"

"If you want to bring up the matching outfits then I'm bringing up the teen mother incident." You shrug and Frido rolls her eyes fondly at you, a ghost of a smile on her face.

"Alright," Ingrid says finally, standing up from her cubby and stretching out her back," Let's get down to training. We've only got a few more minutes."

Frido walks with you until about halfway where she pulls you to a stop.

With her knee still being hurt, she's on a strict rehab schedule and can't come down onto the pitch with you but that doesn't stop her from walking most of the way there.

"I'm only in rehab for a few hours," She tells you," So I'll come out and sit on the grass until training's over, alright?"

You rolls your eyes. "Yes, Frido. Like every other time you say it. I think I know this speech by heart by now."

"Go on," She pushes you lightly away," You can take your snark elsewhere."

Like clockwork, hours later, Frido appears at the side of the pitch, sitting down on the grass and stretching out her knee.

You can just tell by the way she's squinting that she was getting impatient during her rehab.

She's clingier now that you've made the move from Sweden to Barcelona with her. She'd been ecstatic when the announcement went out and then stern when she realised you hadn't told her in advance.

It was funny, winding up your cousin but once she'd gotten over that, she'd been very excited to tell everyone she knew about the fact that you and her would finally be playing for the same club.

She was probably more excited than you were and Magda begged you to make her shut up about it during camp.

But no one could make Frido shut up, not even when you called your auntie and uncle to see if they could.

Frido was just too excited.

"All done?" She asks as you jog over.

You nod, helping her up onto her feet.

"Let's go get you checked out," She says, her arm finding it's familiar spot over your shoulders.

Frido had been excited when it was announced you were joining Barcelona. You had been excited too.

You had just forgotten about how much she fussed over you.

It was routine now as you sit in your cubby and peel off your socks and boots.

Frido's always been a bit fussy with you. She'd never truly been just your cousin. More like a sister sometimes with the way that she annoyed you. More like a mother with just how much she fussed.

She does this every time, ever since that third place match against Australia when Raso's studs hit your back.

She inspects your legs for bruises and presses on your muscles, watching for even a hint of a wince.

You know she's noticed one of your new bruises after you and Esmee collided earlier but it's not too bad and the pair of you just burst out laughing the minute your legs got tangled together.

Frido purses her lips though, pressing experimentally on the patch of skin and you nudge her with a toe.

"I'm fine," You say.

She doesn't look convinced.

"It was just a bit of silly fun."

"We should keep an eye on it," Frido insists and you roll your eyes," Just in case."

"How is it that you're the one that's just undergone surgery and you still find time to fuss over my tiny bruises?"

Frido kisses your forehead. "Well, I've got to keep an eye on my mini-me."

[oinonsana]

realities, maximalism,and the need for big book™️

some gubat banwa design thoughts vomit: since the beginning of its development i've kind of been enraptured with trying to really go for "fiction-first" storytelling because PbtA games really are peak roleplaying for me, but as i wrote and realized that a lot of "fiction first" doesn't work without a proper sort of fictional foundation that everyone agrees on. this is good: this is why there are grounding principles, genre pillars, and other such things in many PbtA games--to guide that.

broken worlds is one of my favs bc of sheer vibes

Gubat Banwa didn't have much in that sense: sure, I use wuxia and xianxia as kind of guideposts, but they're not foundational, they're not pillars of the kind of fiction Gubat Banwa wants to raise up. there wasn't a lot in the sense of genre emulation or in the sense of grounding principles because so much of Gubat Banwa is built on stuff most TTRPG players haven't heard about. hell, it's stuff squirreled away in still being researched academic and anthropological circles, and thanks to the violence of colonialism, even fellow filipinos and seasians don't know about them

this is what brought me back to my ancient hyperfixations, the worlds of Exalted, Glorantha, Artesia, Fading Suns... all of them have these huge tomes of books that existed to put down this vast sprawling fantasy world, right? on top of that are the D&D campaign settings, the Dark Suns and the Eberrons. they were preoccupied in putting down setting, giving ways for people to interact with the world, and making the world alive as much as possible.

one of my main problems with gubat banwa was trying to convey this world that i've seen, glimpsed, dreamed of. this martial fantasy world of rajas and lakans, sailendras and tuns, satariyas and senapatis and panglimas and laksamanas and pandai... its a world that didn't really exist yet, and most references are steeped in either nationalism or lack of resources (slowly changing, now)

i didn't want to fall back into the whole gazeteer tourist kind of shit when it came to writing GB, but it necessitated that the primary guidelines of Gubat Banwa were set down. my approach to it was trying to instill every aspect of the text, from the systems to the fluff text to the way i wrote to the way things were phrased, with the essence of this world i'm trying to put forward. while i wrote GB mainly for me and fellow SEAsian people, economically my main market were those in the first world countries that could afford to buy the book. grokking the book was always going to be severely difficult for someone that didn't have similar cultures, or are uninterested in the complexities of human culture. thus why GB had to be a big book.

in contemporary indie ttrpg spaces (where I mostly float in, though i must admit i pay more attention to SEAsia spaces than the usual US spaces) the common opinion is that big books like Exalted 3e are old hat, or are somewhat inferior to games that can cram their text into short books. i used to be part of that camp--in capitalism, i never have enough time, after all. however, the books that do go big, that have no choice to go big, like Lancer RPG, Runequest, Mage, Exalted are usually the ones that have something really big it needs to tell you, and they might be able to perform the same amount of text-efficient bursting at the seams flavor writing but its still not enough.

thats what happened to GB, which I wanted to be, essentially, a PbtA+4e kind of experience, mechanically speaking. i very soon abandoned those titles when i delved deeper into research, incorporated actual 15th century divination tools in the mechanics, injected everything with Martial Arts flavor as we found our niche

all of this preamble to say that no matter how light i wanted to go with the game, i couldnt go too light or else people won't get it, or i might end up writing 1000 page long tome books explaining every detail of the setting so people get it right. this is why i went heavy on the vibes: its a ttrpg after all. its never gonna be finished.

i couldnt go too light because Gubat Banwa inherently exists on a different reality. think: to many 3 meals a day is the norm and the reality. you have to eat 3 meals a day to function properly. but this might just be a cultural norm of the majority culture, eventually co opted by capitalism to make it so that it can keep selling you things that are "breakfast food" or "dinner food" and whatnot. so its reality to some, while its not reality to others. of course, a lot of this reality-talk pertains mostly to social--there is often a singular shared physical reality we can usually experience*

Gubat Banwa has a different fabric of reality. it inherently has a different flow of things. water doesn't go down because of gravity, but because of the gods that make it move, for example. bad things happen to you because you weren't pious or you didn't do your rituals enough and now your whole community has to suffer. atoms aren't a thing in gb, thermodynamics isn't a real thing. the Laws of Gubat Banwa aren't these physical empirical things but these karmic consequent things

much of the fiction-first movement has a sort of "follow your common sense" mood to it. common sense (something also debatable among philosophers but i dont want to get into that) is mostly however tied to our physical and social realities. but GB is a fantasy world that inherently doesn't center those realities, it centers realities found in myth epics and folk tales and the margins of colonized "civilization", where lightnings can be summoned by oils and you will always get lost in the woods because you don't belong there.

so Gubat Banwa does almost triple duty: it must establish the world, it must establish the intended fiction that arises from that world, and then it must grant ways to enforce that fiction to retain immersion--these three are important to GB's game design because I believe that that game--if it is to not be a settler tourist bonanza--must force the player to contend with it and play with it within its own terms and its own rules. for SEAsians, there's not a lot of friction: we lived these terms and rules forever. don't whistle at night on a thursday, don't eat meat on Good Friday, clap your hands thrice after lighting an incense stick, don't make loud noise in the forests. we're born into that [social] reality

this is why fantasy is so important to me, it allows us to imagine a different reality. the reality (most of us) know right now (i say most of us because the reality in the provinces, the mountains, they're kinda different) is inherently informed by capitalist structures. many people that are angry at capitalist structures cannot fathom a world outside capitalist structures, there are even some leftists and communists that approach leftism and revolution through capitalism, which is inherently destructive (its what leads to reactionaries and liberalism after all). fantasy requires that you imagine something outside of right now. in essence read Ursula K Le Guin

i tweeted out recently that you could pretty easily play 15-16th century Luzon or Visayas with an OSR mechanic setting and William Henry Scott's BARANGAY: SIXTEENTH CENTURY PHILIPPINE CULTURE AND SOCIETY, and I think that's purely because barebones OSR mechanics stuff fits well with the raiding and adventuring that many did in 15-16th century Luzon/Visayas, but a lot of the mechanics wont be comign from OSR, but from Barangay, where you learn about the complicated marriage customs, the debt mechanics, the social classes and stratum...

so thats why GB needs to be a (relatively) big book, and why I can contend that some books need to be big as well--even if their mechanics are relatively easy and dont need more than that, the book, the game, might be trying to relay something even more, might be trying to convey something even more than that. artesia, for example, has its advancements inherently tied to its Tarot Cards, enforcing that the Arcana guides your destiny. runquest has its runes magic, mythras (which is kinda generic) has pretty specific kinds of magic systems that immediately inform the setting. this is why everything is informed by something (this is a common Buddhist principle, dependent arising). even the most generic D&D OSR game will have the trappings of the culture and norms of the one that wrote and worked on it. its written from their reality which might not necessarily be the one others experience. that's what lived experience is, after all

*live in the provinces for a while and you'll doubt this too!

[thatonepersonwhocantwrite]

BackBiter

Platonic May castellan x Gender neutral friend reader

Platonic yandere show version Luke castellan x parental figure reader

Platonic yandere camp half blood x Gender neutral reader

Y/n/n= you're nickname

Idk if I like this one...but spent way to much time writing it

TRIGGER WARNINGS swearing, implied kidnapping, accidental injuries, dark themes

The Castellan's had always been close with your family. You and May had been close from a young age. Although May claimed she sometimes saw things..... " I don't know of you should trust someone who claims to be a God sounds delusional and uptight. " You told your friend to which May just rolled her eyes. One day you found May muttering nonsense to herself in the corner of her house. " Hey hey May what's wrong? I'm here. I'm here. " You said gently helping your friend up. " Y/n??! Oh thank the God's it's you! It's really you!" May said squeezing you tightly honestly it was surprising how tightly she was hugging you. " I've got you May. I've got you." You said hugging her back but not as tight. " Y/n?" May asked. " Yeah?" You replied. " I'm pregnant." May stated.... You're mouth dropped.

You moved in with May to help her with the pregnancy and ended up using the couch as a bed since you both agreed to use the spare bedroom as a nursery for the baby although May did argue about it because you shouldn't have to sleep on the couch. You also made sure May was always comfortable and also worked a few extra hours to make sure there was enough to buy stuff for the baby. " Y/n I can't thank you enough for all you've done for me." May said. " Of course you're my best friend. " You replied. " So if it's a girl I was thinking Lily if it's a boy Lucas." May said. " How about just Luke if it's a boy?" You asked. " Luke...." May smiled softly. " I like that. " May said.

" Luke it is then." You replied. " If it's a boy. " May replied. " If it's a boy. " You repeated back.

................................................................................

" Y/n? Are you awake?" May asked shaking your shoulder. " I am now." You replied sleepily. " Good because I think........ my water just broke. " May said and you sat up alarmed. Somehow the two of you managed to make it to the hospital in one piece. " Excuse me but you'll have to step out of the room." One of the nurses told you. " No wait I want them to stay.....please. " May said. After hours May finally gave birth to Luke. You gently cradled the little baby in your arms as May slept. " Y/n?" May asked a few hours later when she woke up you handed her the sleeping Luke. " My Luke....my perfect boy." May muttered and you smiled softly. " You did amazing May." You said.

................................................................................

Well so you're plan was just to stay a month or so until May got back on her feet however what was not part of the plan was May going insane. Surprisingly Hermes tried to be a happy family with Luke and May so you moved out for like a year but would often come visit and help in anyway possible well that was until Luke turned 1, Hermes was nowhere to be found and May had now gone insane so you moved back in with May and Luke because you didn't want them to see May as an unfit mother and take Luke away from her knowing Luke was one of the only things keeping May from complete insanity. " My baby....." May muttered as you cradled Luke her arms shaking. " Would you like to hold him?" You asked and she nodded as she stopped shaking enough to hold Luke you gently put him in her outstretched arms.

You sighed softly. " I have to go to work tomorrow are you going to be alright with Luke alone for a few hours?" You asked quiet and gently. May nodded softly.

..................................................................................

A five year old with curly black hair and brown eyes came up to you with tears in his eyes. " Y/n/n my mom is doing it again. " Luke said. You sighed softly knowing what he was talking about May was muttering something about a prophecy again while some of it made sense most of it was nonsense. " Come here sweet boy. " You said opening your arms for him. " I've got you sweet boy I've got you." You said hugging him. " We'll let May rest for a bit she's had a ....... stressful day. I'll take you to the park and get ice cream. " You said that put a smile on Luke's face. Someone a little kid made the mistake of calling you pretty/cute/handsome not in a creepy kinda way but little kids tend to be overly friendly yeah Luke didn't like that so he bashed his ice cream cone into the kids face. " LUKE!" You scolded the five year old and turned to apologize for Luke's actions however Luke didn't like that either as he ended up kicking said kids parents although he was only five so it probably didn't hurt.......that much.

" I'm so sorry . He's a little boy little kids need attention......anyway again I am really sorry about his behavior. " You rambled and the kids parents are just like it's fine we understand.

..................................................................................

One day when you came home you found May sobbing in a corner of the house clutching a picture of her and Luke. " May what's wrong?" You asked gently kneeling in front of her. " Lu....Luke ran aw....aw....away. " May manged to stutter out. " Oh May....." You said hugging her.

..................................................................................

There was a knock on your door to the house as you were getting ready for bed. You no longer lived with May but lived a few houses down it had been a couple years since Luke ran away and you'd constantly go to check on May to make sure she didn't spiral any worse. The knocking noise again but this time it sounded more impatient. " Yeah Yeah I'm coming hold you're fucking horses. " You replied walking towards the door. " Who the fu...." You stared but got cut off when you saw three teens and a 7 year old at your door however one teen caught your eye. " Luke....." You muttered.

" Hi Y/n."... Honestly as mad as you were at Luke you started to bond with his friends and him again.

" Hey Annabeth want me to read a story to you?" You to Annabeth. " Bed time stories are for babies. " Annabeth replied. " It can be anything. " You replied. " Anything?" Annabeth questions. You ended up reading her a few chapters of Frankenstein honestly you don't remember buying it but you found it on your bookshelf so.....( Athena cough cough).

" Hey Y/n can I borrow your keys?" Thalia asked. " Urmmmm how old are you?" You asked. " SHE'S TWELVE!" Grover shouted from the other side of the room. " Ehhh that's old enough in my opinion. " You replied and let her drive on the back roads where almost none drives.

" So you like my little forestry area?" You asked Grover. " Yeah nature's beautiful." Grover said. " Yes it is.....sometimes I think we don't deserve nature." You replied

You placed a plate of sandwiches and cookies infront of Luke as the other three munched away at their own sandwiches and cookies. " You know you really should go visit her she's your mother after all." You said but Luke didn't reply. " Luke?" You asked. " Fine if it'll make you happy. " Luke replied.

..................................................................................

1 week later. " Y/n come with us." Luke said. " I can't Luke." You replied. Luke's expression turned into one of rage. " Why the fuck not?" Luke asked angry. " Luke calm down please..." You stared as he slammed his hands down. " You're the only parental figure I have you can't turn your back on me. I'm your son! I WON'T LET YOU!" Luke exclaimed, angry he still definitely had anger issues. Luke stormed out of the room leaving you, Thalia, Grover and Annabeth stunned slightly.

..................................................................................

You woke up in a bed however it wasn't your bed. " They look so......fragile and weak. " You heard a voice say. " Why would they bring a mere moral to camp with them?" You heard a voice question . " Huh? It has a name." You replied waking up groggy. " Oh great it's awake like we need a mortal to take care of when we already have these half blood brats. Chiron take care of it." The voice said and walked of an older looking gentleman with gray hair and brown skin who ended up being very kind to you. Chiron was honestly started to become platonic obsessed with you when he saw the way you tended to Luke, Grover , Annabeth and some of the younger children.

Chiron smiled to himself. " Maybe just maybe having a mortal here wouldn't be so bad..." Chiron thought to himself. " Why don't you stay a day or two? It's dark and wouldn't be safe for you to travel. " Chiron said. " I really should be getting back home....." You replied. " Please I insist. " Chiron said putting a gentle hand on your shoulder. Well those days turned into weeks and weeks into months until you found out the truth about the children being demigods , Chiron being a centaur and Mr.D being a God. Mr.D pretends to hate you but like Chiron he adores you. Honestly you had become a parental figure to all the halfbloods but while you tended to all the children the two cabins that took up most of your time were the Ares and Hermes cabins. Luke came back with the scar and you fussed over him like a worried parent he definitely liked the parental affection.

One time you decided to decorate Thalia's tree for Christmas Chiron nor surprisingly Mr.D had the heart to tell you no. You got some of the younger campers to help you decorate Thalia's tree as well.

" Clairsse put Chris down!" You shouted looking at the boy being held by his ankle. " But he hurt you......" Clairsse muttered that was true Chris and Luke had gotten into an argument about God's knows what you had stepped betten them and accidentally got stabbed in the arm in the process. That set all the camp off especially Luke as Luke stabbed Chris back in the arm and probably would have continued if you didn't pull Luke off Chris. The other campers watched with jealousy and rage in their eyes as you tended to Chris's injuries like a worried parent because they wanted your attention all for themselves most of the time when your reading to the younger campers the older ones will come in and listen as well. Especially Annabeth.

when Percy eventually arrives a few years later Percy shows up it gets worse because how dare this unclaimed himbo steal you and your attention away.....

[alicelufenia]

Killing The Grove But Not Killing Your Friendship With Karlach And Wyll - A Patch 7 Guide

Friendship ended with Halsin and the druids, but not with the two good-aligned companions. As a dark mirror to the KO Method for recruiting Minthara on a good playthrough, this is what has been dubbed the "Murder Method" to recruit Karlach and Wyll on an evil (or at least very chaotic if at one time well meaning) playthrough.

Pictured above: Kagha giving even a good-aligned Tav a reason to side with Minthara, probably.

This is a follow up to my original guide [x], so I will only give the highlights here. The general gist is this: So long as a civil war between the druids and the tieflings at the grove is triggered, AND the tieflings die (completing the Save the Refugees quest), the Raid the Grove quest can be completed without a raid battle.

To explain, there seems to be only two things that cause Karlach and Wyll to leave:

Triggering the raid battle against the tieflings, no matter how many remain from the druids attacking, triggers Wyll to leave and Karlach to lose so much approval she's likely to leave just from that alone.

Speaking with Minthara in the Secluded Chamber and proceeding to the goblin party causes both Wyll and Karlach to leave, but only if they are currently alive when the transition happens.

EDIT: I've gotten reports of people losing Wyll and Karlach upon moving to the goblin party, even if they're dead before hand. So I need to clarify, for this to work they need to be both dead and not in the party. This can be done by getting them killed (by enemy attacks, damage over time like fire, or jumping to their death), then instead of Withers resurrecting them, ask him to collect your fallen companions. This will spawn their corpses in camp (all their loot and gear will stay on them) and remove them from the party list. This will be how you know they are now in his care, and can proceed.

This also means that you don't need them dead before the fighting starts. They can steal the idol, fight Kagha, whatever you want to do to kick off the druids attacking the tieflings. As long as they are dead and in Wither's care before proceeding to the goblin after-raid party, this should work (but as always, have a backup save, and attempt this in Honor Mode at your own risk).

For this test, I had two objectives: Steal the idol without my party members getting caught (so as not to slow down the druids and give the tieflings a fighting chance) and returning it to Mol for the "Steal the Idol" quest reward, and, on the chance Kagha is still alive after the fighting, TAKE THE IDOL BACK FROM MOL. This is critical I think, as every time it's not been in my inventory when Kagha is still alive, the grove seals as soon as we leave.

Once again, because Alice sucks at pickpocketing, I just paid through the nose (800 gold) to buy it back from Mol. I'm sure she's satisfied with the results. It is possible to pickpocket it from her though. I then shapeshifted into a halfling and escaped out the secret exit and waited out the fight.

And that's when I saw Arabella again!

I swear she came running out the secret hole right past me!

She was too fast for me to keep up with Shovel, the druids all ignored her, and she doesn't stop moving in turn-based mode. Still, there she goes.

It's a shame I'm going to have to redo this whole sequence for my main save (I skipped a lot of things I did previously to get this done fast), however now that I know where she appears from I may be able to trigger it consistently. If so, I will report back on whether Arabella shows up later!

Despite Kagha surviving, the grove doesn't seal when we leave the area, and the Emerald Grove Environs waypoint remains. So holding onto the idol was the key here.

Minthy is upset that we started the slaughter without her, but she prepares her raiding party all the same. One long rest later:

Here's something new for patch 7, Karlach has something to say upon finding Dammon's body.

It's genuinely pretty sad, and you've got a couple things you can say in response. Honestly it's been a long time coming.

I'm curious whether this triggers if he dies at Last Light too. Something for others to investigate (I do not guarantee the safety of the inn either on my playthrough :p)

Looks like Minthara took care of Kagha for us. She was even nice enough to leave the loot. No sign of Rath though, so no getting the Sorrow glaive. Just pickpocket the rune off him first, I guess.

For the record, nothing happens when we investigate her secret stash and notes at this point. Oh well!

All the animals are dead except for Topaz! I guess that was his lucky coin after all.

Also something I forgot to confirm last time, the kids' hideout is still empty. So I still say Mol and the others got out. Another point in the favor of doing things like this.

The game still is treating it like you killed the tieflings. Strange, the patch notes said Minthara would have something to say if there were no tieflings left, but it's all the same here. Wow, Larian saying something was added for Minthara, only for it to just not be there? What a wild concept.

Also you can barely see it but Karlach and Wyll here also have their eyes closed, implying Minthara's sharing her mental snuff film and porn movie with them too. Yikes, that's awkward, sorry guys this is. Like, a Durge and Minthy thing, just for the two of us? Didn't mean to involve you, just lie down in fire a bit for me.

Thanks guys, you're the best!

I swear they're both some of my favorite characters! I do this because I love them.

So yeah, make sure Karlach and Wyll are dead and entrusted to Withers before talking to Minthara, as finishing her dialogue moves you to the goblin party, and they'll both ditch if they're alive for it.

You can bring them back once you're actually at the party though.

Also they changed Withers' resurrection animation to be much faster! They were revived before he was done speaking!

They're both chill! And Wyll has new greetings dialogue for higher approval! This is apparently his "Very High" greeting. EDIT: Actually it's his low approval greeting, because the only companion Larian hates more than Minthara is Wyll, sadly. It's a bug that should get fixed soon, but who knows when.

Once again, you probably don't need their approval this high, but it doesn't hurt. Plus hey, I honestly think they'd get along with Alice, so I'm glad they're here this time.

We roll in the hay with Minthara, have a civil discussion over drawn knives, and she gives me her lyre so we can take the mountain pass way to Moonrise. And the camp is just how it should be: Karlach and Wyll still with us, and a huge ritual circle painted in tiefling blood in the middle of camp (because of Durge things, not the goblins).

Keeping Wyll and Karlach post goblin party in patch 7 - Success!

I hope everyone enjoyed this, and it helped you make the most of your evil playthrough. Now you can have all origin characters along for the horrible, horrible ride.

[aphroditelovesu]

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⤷♡.+ ITZY; 🧡

⤷♡.+ Stray Kids; 💙

➷ EXO: Yandere Baekhyun (Romantic), Yandere Suho (Romantic).

➷ TWICE: Imagine as Classmates.

⤷♡.+ Greek Mythology; ⚡

⤷♡.+ Egyptian Mythology; 𓂀

⤷♡.+ Historical Characters; 📜

➷ The Lost Queen | Yandere!Alexander the Great ❝You woke up near a military camp without remembering how and why you got there, you didn't understand why they were dressed like ancient Greeks, all you knew was that you weren't safe and you needed to get out of that place as soon as possible. Too bad for you that you found yourself attracting unwanted attention from the Macedonian King and he won't let you go so easily.❞ The Lost Queen Series Masterlist

⤷♡.+ The Vampire Diaries + The Originals; 🧛

⤷♡.+ House of the Dragon; 🐉

⤷♡.+ Game of Thrones; ❄️

⤷♡.+ The Sandman; ⌛

⤷♡.+ Outlander; 🗿

⤷♡.+ Wednesday; 🎻

⤷♡.+ Brooklyn Nine-Nine; 👮‍♂️

⤷♡.+ Bridgerton; 🐝

⤷♡.+ Shadow and Bone; ☠️

⤷♡.+ Outer Banks; 💰

⤷♡.+ K-Dramas; ❤️

⤷♡.+ Reign; 👑

⤷♡.+ The Tudors; 🗡️

⤷♡.+ Hannibal; 🍽

➷ The Bloody Viscount | Yandere!Anthony Bridgerton ❝You had fallen in love with Viscount Bridgerton and he had fallen in love with you. The marriage seemed perfect, but then why did Anthony Bridgerton always come home late and bloodstained?❞ Prologue; Chapter 1; Chapter 2; ➷ The Shadow of the Golden Dragon | Yandere!ASOIAF/HOTD/GOT ❝You have always been an avid reader and your greatest passion was delving into the pages of "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin. You knew every character, every twist and every detail of the Seven Kingdoms as if they were part of your own life. But what you never imagined is that an unexpected encounter with a mysterious antique book seller would change your life forever.❞ The Shadow of the Golden Dragon Masterlist

⤷♡.+ Percy Jackson; 🌊

⤷♡.+ Harry Potter; 🔮

⤷♡.+ A Court of Thorns and Roses; 🌹

⤷♡.+ A Song of Ice and Fire; 🔥

‘‘We were born to be alone but why we still looking for love?’‘ ˚˖੭ Lovesick Girls, BLACKPINK.

⤷♡.+ Attack on Titan; ⚔️

⤷♡.+ Naruto; 🍥

⤷♡.+ Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir; 🐞

⤷♡.+ One Piece; 👒

⤷♡.+ How To Train Your Dragon; 🐲

⤷♡.+ Death Note; 📓

‘‘Don’t you know that you’re toxic?’’ ˚˖੭ Toxic, Britney Spears.

⤷♡.+ Marvel; ۞

‘‘I wish you would love me again, no, I don't want nobody else.’’ ˚˖੭ Love Me Again, V.

⤷♡.+ Love Letters; 💕

⤷♡.+ Love Letters II; 💕

⤷♡.+ Kinktober 2023; 🎃

➷ A Black Rose | Yandere!Ian Daerier ❝A cruel and narcissistic reaper falls in love with the woman he was supposed to take the life of.❞ Oneshot;

[clarisse0o]

Camp Wiegman-Part 31

Lucy Bronze x Ona Batlle

Alternative Universe : Military School

Words : 5k

Masterlist

———————————————————————

Wednesday, January 6th, 2:45 PM - Class

Three days since classes resumed. Nothing much has changed for now. The only difference is that I can finally go back to the common room after class. My exams are finally over, and I've caught up on all my classes. It’s nice to be able to hang out with my friends again, especially Alexia since we'll soon be in different classes if all goes well. We should receive our responses to our choices tomorrow. The class council meeting will take place in a few hours. Yet the teachers haven't become any less annoying at the end of this semester. I'm relieved when the bell rings, signaling the end of our last class. Ale and I walk out with smiles on our faces. I received my last grade today, and let’s just say I aced it all.

"Hey, Bronze!" I shout when I see her in the hallway.

I apologize to Alexia, telling her not to wait for me, then walk over to meet my advisor, who's pinning up posters on a notice board. Apart from the morning checks, we've barely seen each other since classes started again. She's been less on my back, but I can tell she's still watching me from the shadows ever since I told her about Feli.

"Ona. How can I help you?"

I show her my math paper, proudly displaying a red fifteen. She congratulates me before continuing her work, without giving me much more attention. She’s distant. It's like she resents me for hiding Feli's intentions from her. I hate it when she makes me regret things. She should know that this situation already affects me enough without her adding her two cents.

"Can I ask you something?" 

"Help me, then, if you're going to stick around."

I nod and hold the poster for her while she tapes it up. She pauses for a moment to take a look.

"So? What did you want to ask me?"

"I wanted to know if you could buy me a new phone? Or at least come with me to get one this weekend? Ever since mine broke, I haven’t been able to contact anyone."

"No."

My smile fades at her refusal, catching me off guard. I was expecting there wouldn’t be any problem. I hadn’t even prepared to convince her otherwise.

"What do you mean, no?"

"The answer is no. You won't be getting a new phone."

"But why? You already keep me here, and I'm getting tired of having to bother Ale every time I need to borrow hers."

"I said no, Ona. Don’t insist."

"But, but..." I stammer desperately. "You’re cutting me off from the world!"

I let go of the poster to face her. It falls to the ground since it was only attached on one side. Lucy sighs in frustration at the mess I made. It probably got torn, but that's the least of my worries right now.

"Pick it up, please."

I squint at her, but her stern gaze wins by a long shot. I give in and pick it up. I put it back in place so she can fix my mistake. I only let go once it's properly secured this time, then cross my arms, waiting for her response before continuing to help her.

"I don't see why you'd say no."

"And I don't see why you're reacting like this. You’re acting like a spoiled child."

"Yeah, well, I don’t like it when you tell me no."

"Someone has to, so you understand that not everything is a given."

I puff out my cheeks under her amused look. 1-0 for her. I finally sigh when she gives me a small hug and hands me a new poster.

"Come on, stop acting like a child. I’m doing this for your own good."

"I don't see how," I mutter.

"You don't see why?" she raises an eyebrow.

"No, I don't. How is refusing me a new phone for my own good?"

"Well, for starters, your ex is a dangerous psychopath. Does that answer your question?"

"That’s not a reason," I complain in a displeased whine.

"It is. By now, she’s probably still harassing your number, so if you want a new phone, you’ll need to change your number first."

I'm so tired of her always being right. I didn’t dare put my SIM card in Alexia’s phone for that exact reason. I didn’t want to face her messages and calls.

"Fine..." I concede, facing the facts.

"I can help you sort this out, but in the meantime, you’ll have to make do with Alexia’s phone or mine if you really need to contact someone."

I feel ashamed for thinking she just wanted to stop me from communicating. She only wants to make sure Feli can’t find me. She’s redoing all the steps my mother took a year and a half ago.

"I’m sorry..."

She smiles, ruffling my hair in response. I help her hang the last poster, and she picks up the old ones she left on the floor before we head down the stairs.

"The steps are going to be complicated... My mom usually handles that kind of thing since she pays for my plan. I have no idea how to do it."

"I figured. That’s why I’m offering to do it together since you’ll need to call her."

"Are you serious?"

"You want a phone, don’t you?"

I groan, already knowing what her next answer will be. How am I going to ask my mom to change my SIM card without explaining the situation? I didn’t want her to know. I need to prove to her that I can handle things without her intervening in my life.

"Luce?"

"I already told you not to call me that here, Ona," she scolds.

"Sorry... But... Do you think I’ll have to tell my mom about... Feli and all that?"

"I won’t force you to tell her if you don’t want to, but she’ll need an explanation. As a mother, I’d want to know about this kind of thing with my kids. But I know you’re not on good terms with her, so it’s up to you."

"I’ve been wanting to switch to another mobile phone plan for a while. This could be a good opportunity to negotiate."

"Then you just have to come up with a believable excuse," she says, stopping in the hall. "In the meantime, you’ll have to wait. By the way, you’ll need to give me your phone. Or I’ll come to your room tonight instead. I want to destroy your SIM card."

"Okay... Do you think the stolen phone excuse will work?"

"Maybe," she shrugs. "Now, can I get back to work?"

"Can I stay with you?"

"Now that you’re rid of me, you want to stick around?" she laughs.

"I never wanted to get rid of you," I say, following her to her office. "Well..."

I turn around and walk backward. I return her smile when we face each other.

"Maybe that was the case at first. But it’s not anymore!"

Unexpectedly, Lucy grabs my arm. She must have underestimated her strength because I find myself pressed against her. She takes a step back, apologizing. I frown when I realize the apology isn’t directed at me.

"My apologies, Mrs. Wiegman. She’s a bit scatterbrained when she wants to be."

I widen my eyes, realizing who’s behind me. I slowly turn around to indeed see the principal I almost ran into. Luckily, she said her name, or I would have made a fool of myself. This time I would’ve gotten scolded by Wiegman herself.

"No worries, it’s more fear than harm. Did Ona cause any trouble again?"

"Oh, no, no. She just told me she lost her phone. We’re going to call her mom to have it blocked."

"Did it get stolen here?" she asks me.

"Uh, no. It happened outside the camp... I haven’t had time to tell Bronze," I lie.

"Oh. Will you take care of it, Miss Bronze?"

"Of course. That was my intention."

"Good, I must go. I have a class council meeting to attend. Yours, in fact," she informs me.

"Oh..." I murmur, feeling uneasy.

"Good evening."

She continues on her way to the stairs. I feel Lucy’s hand on my lower back, urging me to move forward. That was a close call. I enter her office, which is empty. Lucy drops the posters she was still holding into a bin and sits behind her desk.

"Is Ingrid not here today?"

"She is, just not here."

"Okay," I reply, sitting across from her. "Why did you say that to Wiegman? Are you really going to call my mom?"

"Of course not," she laughs. "I don’t even have her contact info. I just didn’t want her to know you’re staying in my office for fun."

"Hum..." I mutter, resting my head in my hands. "Hey, I’ve had a question on my mind for a while."

"Hum?"

"Why did you take it so badly that Jenni and-"

We’re interrupted by a noise at the door. We both look toward it, and I’m surprised to see Alessia there. She seems just as surprised as I am. My advisor breaks our eye contact by inviting her in. She hands her a paper about a student who apparently went to the infirmary, if I understood correctly. Lucy needs to sign it to acknowledge that the student won’t be returning to class.

"Aren’t you with the others?" she asks me.

"No," I reply simply.

"Are you going to join them?"

"I don’t know, maybe," I shrug.

"My office isn’t a tea room," Lucy says harshly, handing back the paper.

"Sorry," Alessia replies. "Thanks for signing the paper."

"Hum. Now get back to class."

Alessia nods, giving me one last look. She says, "See you later," before leaving the room for good. I follow her with my eyes before turning back to Lucy. She rolls her eyes, making me chuckle.

"She really doesn’t leave you alone, does she? What was that New Year's thing with her?" she asks.

"Mapi wanted to prove to me that she’s got me in her sights, if you know what I mean. She stuck to me all night to make her jealous."

"Well, it seems like she succeeded, given the way she’s eyeing you."

"You should’ve seen, she got wasted before midnight," I sigh.

"And does she interest you?"

"No. I found her nice, but much less so since we disagreed on a subject. And besides, she’s not my type. Even if she was, I don’t want to get into a relationship right now. As you said yourself, I have a dangerous ex-psychopath."

"That doesn’t stop you from having a new relationship. Maybe not with Alessia, but with someone else in your life could help you move on."

"Drop it," I mutter. "I don’t want to talk about it."

I avoid the conversation by burying my head in my arms. I hear her sigh, but it seems she drops the subject, getting back to work based on the noises I hear. I wait a few more minutes to make sure before lifting my head from my hiding place. I smile when I see she’s wearing her glasses. I love seeing her with them; she wears them so well.

"I can understand that you had a disastrous relationship, but to the point of not wanting another one..."

And she’s back at it. I roll my eyes in exasperation.

"I’m not ready, that’s all. I understand that everyone’s different, but I can’t. There are still too many scars."

"Okay, no need to take it like that," she rolls her eyes in turn. "I won’t insist on the subject anymore."

She finally goes silent, much to my relief. I continue to watch her, or rather, admire her as she works. I have to admit, she has a lot of charisma. Our silence reminds me that I didn’t get to finish my question about my roommate’s relationship. That’ll have to wait for another time. Since she decided to stop talking, I rest my head in my arms and enjoy the quiet to relax.

Wednesday, January 6th; 6:15 PM - Instructor's Office.

I groan as tremors take over my body. I gradually emerge, remembering where I am. I sit up and rub my eyes, catching Lucy's smug smile.

- "About time."

- "What time is it?" I murmur sleepily.

- "Quarter past six."

- "What?" I exclaim, fully awake now. "You let me sleep? For two hours?"

- "Actually, you left me talking to thin air for a while. I realized at some point that you’d fallen asleep, so I decided to let you be. You looked like you needed it."

- "You should’ve woken me up earlier! I wanted to join the others!" I grumble.

- "Well, you'll spend time with them tomorrow."

I sigh, stretching to chase away the stiffness in my body from the nap. Lucy mocks me.

- "Come here."

Without thinking, I lean over the desk. My reflex is to pull back when I see her hands approach my face. She chuckles.

- "Come on, I just want to clean up your smudged makeup."

I lean forward again, understanding her intent. I roll my eyes as she wipes under them with her thumbs.

- "There, all done," she smiles.

- "Thanks, and thanks for letting me sleep," I say, slumping back against the chair.

- "You’re welcome. I knew it would do you some good."

- "If you say so," I reply playfully, rolling my eyes. "Any news from the class council?"

- "No, sorry. And even if I did, you'd have to wait until tomorrow, like everyone else."

- "You’re mean," I pout.

- "Patience. I’m sure you’ll know more by tomorrow morning."

- "I hope so. Weren't you supposed to attend?"

- "No, it's just for the teachers and the principal in this kind of meeting."

- "I didn’t know that."

- "You couldn’t have known," she smiles. "Anyway, didn’t you want to meet up with your friends?"

- "At this hour, I’ll just join them at the cafeteria."

- "Alright. So can we talk about the insomnia you mentioned on New Year's? I doubt your little nap was a coincidence."

- "On second thought… Maybe I’ll go meet the others..."

- "Too late, your chance to escape is gone," she teases.

She’s only half-joking, as I know she won’t let me go now. Why does she have to remember everything?

- "They persist, but I’m managing," I say honestly.

- "I thought I told you to talk to me if that was the case," she frowns.

- "I’ll tell you if it gets worse."

- "So it could get worse?"

Clearly, I tend to speak too quickly with her. She manages to get me to talk so naturally. I’ll have to learn to watch my words if I don’t want her to know too much.

- "A few weeks before starting school, I had nightmares. I’d wake up in the middle of the night, and it’s starting to happen again. They’re not as bad right now, but they could become more intense."

- "See, this is exactly the kind of thing you should talk to me about more often."

- "I’m sorry," I sigh. "There was a time when I wasn’t having them anymore… I didn’t think they’d come back."

- "Do you want to talk to me about these nightmares?"

- "No. They’re about my past... It’s nothing important," I lie.

- "Hmm," she responds skeptically. "And what’s the worst consequence you’ve had so far?"

- "A panic attack, I guess. The nightmares feel so real that they make me panic," I admit in a whisper.

She sighs, running a hand over her face. I bite my lip, thinking I probably should have told her as soon as they returned. I wanted to avoid worrying her over something so minor while I was still in Barcelona. I had hoped to solve the problem before coming back, but that wasn’t the case. Seeing Feli again must be the cause. I’m angry at myself for not being able to shake it off. I had managed to get rid of it before coming here.

- "Alright. If it gets worse, I want you to tell me as soon as possible, and if you have a panic attack, I want to be notified. Is that clear?"

I nod, not daring to argue. Her tone leaves no room for disobedience.

- "I’ll also inform the night supervisors on your floor."

Great... Now I’ll have to be even more discreet than before. Well, at least they’ll be warned if something more serious happens. I don’t think it will, but you never know. I’d hate to disturb Lucy in the middle of the night. I’m already bothered just by the thought of possibly waking up Alexia if I’m not careful.

- "Alright, I’m done with my work. We can head to the cafeteria together if you want."

- "Yeah."

- "No homework for tomorrow?"

- "No. Our teachers aren’t giving us anything since we change classes next week."

- "Oh right, silly me."

- "By the way, um..." I begin hesitantly. "Can you help me with that? Well, not really help, but supervise me or something like that. I was more serious when you were helping me, and I might slack off if you’re not on my case anymore..."

I feel embarrassed seeing her raise an eyebrow. I don’t like asking for this kind of thing, so I sink into my chair as if it would make me disappear. A refusal from her would be utterly humiliating. Finally, she gives me a silly smile.

- "You’re going to end up on the floor if you keep sinking like that."

- "Oh, shut up," I say, sitting up straight. "I’m not used to asking for this kind of thing. I’ve always managed on my own until now."

- "Oh, but I didn’t say anything," she smiles a bit more.

- "But you’re thinking it really loudly!"

- "Here, after your classes. You can manage your time based on how much homework you have. Does that work for you?"

- "Really?"

- "Yes, of course. But I won’t be able to help you as much as before. I’ll only step in if it’s absolutely necessary. Don’t forget that I have a job too."

- "No worries. I just need your supervision to stay motivated."

- "I know," she smiles. "We’ll start when you switch classes and all that."

- "Yep, that works for me."

- "Good," she says, closing her binder. "Now, how about we go eat? I’m hungry."

I nod enthusiastically. She puts away her binder while I grab my jacket and bag. The building is empty at this hour. She locks the main door behind us. It’s pitch black and still freezing outside. I tighten my jacket as I see snowflakes clinging to the ground.

- "Does it ever stop snowing here?" I complain.

- "I think we’ll have it for a little while longer," she laughs.

- "How do you handle it, coming from Portugal too?"

- "Well, you get used to it, and I don’t complain as much as you," she teases.

I sigh and cross my arms to preserve my warmth. She’s probably right. Lucy complains less than I do. We reach the cafeteria, where she waits with me at the entrance after I tell her I see my friends coming from a distance.

- "Still good for this weekend?"

- "Of course, if you’re still up for it. It’s your only way out of school anyway, since I’m not letting you go home."

- "So I can crash at your place in return?"

- "I never said that. I said a weekend, not multiple."

- "You’re forbidding me from going home. You owe me at least that."

- "I don’t owe you anything," she laughs. "I’m doing this for you," she adds with a wink.

- "Yeah, right."

I turn around when I hear the door open with a rather noisy group. Bingo, it’s my friends.

- "Well, enjoy your meal."

- "Thanks, you too," I wish her.

We exchange a smile before she leaves with Ingrid, who arrived shortly after my friends entered. Everyone heads to the dining hall except Alexia, who comes over to me.

- "So, what were you doing after class?"

- "I was with Bronze for a bit. I wanted to join you all after, but I fell asleep at her desk," I admit.

- "Bravo," she teases.

Alexia is in the best position to know that I’m running on short nights. I had to tell her. I could have hidden it, but I wanted to avoid scaring her by going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. That’s where I need to go to pull myself together. Given my clumsiness, I’d probably wake her up by accident while doing so. It hasn’t happened yet, but stealth isn’t my strong suit. For example, on the first night, I bumped into my desk. Last night, I stubbed my little toe on the bed frame... I’m already dreading what will happen tonight.

We arrive at our table with our trays full. I start eating while they tell me about what I missed after class. It doesn’t seem like much since they didn’t do much except play foosball. Everyone is here tonight, which is quite rare. At least, that's what I thought until I noticed someone was missing.

- "Isn't your sister eating with us tonight?" I asked Leah.

- "Nah, she told me she's eating with her friends. Why?"

- "Just curious. I saw her this afternoon, so I expected to see her with you guys."

- "Oh yeah? Where was that?"

I explained to her what happened in Lucy's office. Based on what she told me, I thought she'd be here. I hope she didn't take it badly that Lucy kicked her out of her office. I didn't really understand why Lucy acted that way. Since the topic of Alessia was brought up, Alexia took the opportunity to question Leah about me to see if she knew anything. I quickly kicked her under the table, not particularly wanting to discuss such matters in front of everyone. It didn't convince Alexia, though, who seemed determined to find out more.

- "I have no idea," she replied. "We don't meddle in each other's relationships. Why, are you interested?"

The question caught me off guard. We had never discussed this kind of thing together before. She didn't seem to mean any harm, judging by the smile on her face.

- "Oh no, not really," I replied, smiling back. "I just like her as a friend, that's all. It's just that Ale and Mapi have been fixated on this since New Year's, so she couldn't resist asking you."

- "What's your type, anyway?" Alba asked.

- "I don't have any particular preference. I suppose brunettes, since all my exes were. But I don't just judge by appearance."

- "Speaking of brunettes..."

I furrowed my brows at Claudia's insinuation. I quickly understood what she meant when I jumped at the feeling of a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see my supervisor's green eyes staring back at me. Since I was facing away from their table today, I didn't see her approach.

- "Don't you get tired of scaring me all the time?"

- "It's not my fault you get startled so easily," she smiled. "When are you heading back to your room?"

- "Probably after dinner," I shrugged. "Why?"

- "Aren't you going to the common room first?"

- "I don't think so," I said, briefly glancing at Ale for confirmation.

- "I'll stop by after eight to fix your phone problem."

- "I can handle it myself, you know."

- "No. I said I'd take care of it. See you later."

I groaned as she ruffled my hair before walking away. I watched her until she left the room. When I looked back at the table, I noticed everyone was staring at me.

- "What?"

- "What's this phone problem?" Patri asked.

- "My phone's dead. I threw it in a fit of anger."

- "Do you want us to take a look at it?" Claudia offered. "Maybe we can fix it?"

- "I don't think so. It's in pieces, so I doubt you could do much, but thanks for offering."

- "Whatever you say."

- "Come on, finish your meal. The last thing we need is Bronze getting on our case for being late."

- "Relax," I teased. "If she takes it out on anyone, it'll be me, not you."

I finished my meal, as I was one of the last ones eating. It was clear the issue between Ale and Lucy was far from resolved. It seemed like she was trying to make a good impression at every opportunity. I really need to talk to Lucy about it. Once we all finished, we headed back to our rooms just before eight. No one felt like going to the common room. We made it back in time, as Lucy arrived a few minutes later. For the first time, she sat next to me on the bed instead of taking my desk chair. She got straight to the point, asking for my phone. She started working on it while asking Alexia if she had a good day. Alexia seemed too surprised to respond properly, which made me smile. She was so thrown off that she excused herself to go take a shower.

- "Are you really going to destroy it?" I asked when I saw her remove the SIM card.

- "I'm going to put it in my phone first. Do you have something to write with nearby?"

- "For what?"

- "To save important numbers, like Mapi's, for example."

I nodded and went to get some paper and a pen. By the time I returned, she had already inserted the SIM card into her phone. She handed it to me so I could enter my passcode to unlock it. Lucy looked over my shoulder as notifications flooded the screen. I bit my lip at the many missed calls and unread messages. Most were from unknown numbers. The rest were from Mapi, worried about not hearing from me.

- "Can I read them?" she asked.

I nodded and handed it back to her. I had nothing to hide and preferred she read them herself rather than me. Curiosity got the better of me, though, and I noticed she started with Mapi's messages. One message in particular caught my attention. I panicked and tried to grab the phone from her, but Lucy held me off.

- "No, please! Don't read that nonsense!"

I nearly crushed her, but she managed to pin my hand behind her back and wrapped her arm around my neck. My free hand tried to reach the phone, but it was a lost cause as she stretched her arm out of reach.

- "'Sexy Commander took away your phone?'" she read, raising an eyebrow. "What's with that nickname?" she laughed. "I assume she's talking about me?"

I stopped struggling now that she had read the one thing I didn't want her to. She looked at me amusedly, waiting for an answer.

- "It's just a Mapi thing. I already told her to stop, but you know how she is; once she starts something, it's a lost cause."

- "Hmm," she smiled. "You'll have to explain the origin of that nickname one day. I imagine it's not new."

- "You don't need to know everything in life."

- "But I want to know," she challenged.

- "I think we have more important things to do, don't we?"

- "You're right, but you won't get away with it," she teased. "Let's check the other messages."

She released her hold on me so I could sit properly next to her. Most of the messages were from unknown numbers. It couldn't be Feli's since I blocked her. But the content of the messages made it clear it was her. They were full of apologies or "let me talk to you." Some even contained the violence and anger of being ignored. I eventually stopped reading, but Lucy kept going until the end. She said nothing before telling me to grab something to write with. I listened as she started dictating the numbers I needed. I didn't save many. The first ones I took were Mapi's, Sam's, and Lucy's. I also kept the numbers of my high school friends I reconnected with, as well as my mom's, the house's, and Marcus's. Since the SIM card would be destroyed, I might as well keep them. She turned off her phone, removed the SIM card, and unceremoniously broke it. She folded it several times until it snapped in two. I wasn't sure what I was feeling at that moment.

- "Are you okay?"

- "Yeah... Thanks for doing all this."

- "If you need to communicate, you can come see me, and I'll lend you my phone."

I nodded, biting my lip. She raised her arm, inviting me to snuggle against her. I sighed as she stroked my hair to help me relax. I'll never understand why she gets so involved in my problems, but I'm really glad she does. From the beginning, she said she wouldn't let me go, and she wasn't lying. I'm developing a real affection for her, and it's growing stronger every day. I moved away from her when Alexia interrupted us by coming out of the bathroom. She doesn't know the extent of our relationship. Plus, since I know things aren't going well between them, I don't want her to know about us.

- "Alexia?" my supervisor called.

- "Yes?"

- "If one night things get really bad for Ona, I want to be notified. You'll tell the instructor in charge of surveillance."

- "I can handle myself just fine," I retorted.

- "Be quiet; I'm not talking to you," she scolded me harshly. "I know you won't tell me. Can I count on you, Alexia?" she asked.

- "Yes, of course."

- "Good. I'm going back to my room now that everything's settled. Good night, girls."

- "Good night," Ale and I replied.

She closed the door behind her. I sighed and collapsed onto the bed. My break was short-lived, as I still needed to shower before crawling under the sheets.

Thursday, January 7th; 3:30 AM - Ona and Alexia's Room

I woke up to persistent shaking. I was completely disoriented. I looked around to get my bearings. I felt like I was suffocating, like I couldn't breathe. I realized what was happening when I saw Alexia's panicked face. She forced me to look at her by gripping my head between her hands. I felt sticky and tried to catch my breath as best I could.

- "Hey Ona! It's just me, calm down. Do you want me to call someone?

I shake my head slowly. I don’t want to disturb anyone else. I have no idea what just happened, but my condition doesn’t look good. Alexia nervously bites her lip. She doesn’t seem to agree with me.

- "I need to inform Bronze... She was clear about her orders..."

- "No," I almost shout. "It’s fine, I promise... D-don’t wake her for nothing."

- "Ona... It took me ten minutes to wake you up... You were really panicked, and you were almost screaming in your sleep. She made me promise to inform her... I don’t want to get on her bad side more than I already am! She’s my boyfriend’s best friend," she adds dramatically.

- "D-don’t call her," I insist. "I’ll deal with her when the time comes. I-I, it’ll be okay. You can go back to sleep."

- "No way. You were having a panic attack, weren’t you?"

I sigh and get out of bed. Alexia remains sitting while I search for a new pajama set in my wardrobe. She watches me until I’m in the bathroom. I change because my pajamas are soaked with sweat. I sigh as I lean against the sink. When I open my eyes, I see my roommate watching me intently from the doorway. She looks really worried, which only makes things worse.

- "I’m fine."

- "Don’t lie to me. Who’s Feli? You kept saying her name, telling her to stop."

- "Please keep this to yourself."

- "If you don’t tell me, I’ll find Bronze right now."

- "She’s my ex, nothing more," I concede. "And stop being afraid of her. She’s not that scary once you get to know her a little."

- "I didn’t know you were that close to her..."

I let out yet another sigh as I splash water on my face to clear my head. I then dry my face.

- "That’s not the case," I say, leaning against the sink.

- "I’m sure she knows more about this than I do. Am I wrong? You could have talked to me, you know. I wouldn’t judge you for being close to an instructor!"

- "Ale... It’s not like that. She’s just helping me get better, that’s all."

- "Should I go look for her?"

- "No, I’m fine."

- "You’ll talk to her about it tomorrow, then."

I groan but nod to appease her. I don’t plan to do it, but at least she’ll leave me alone. We leave the bathroom and return to our respective beds. Alexia quickly falls back asleep. As for me, I try not to think about my nightmare, which keeps replaying in my mind. I just had my first panic attack, and I wasn’t even awake. It’s the first time it’s happened to me. I hope it’s the last because I really don’t want to involve Lucy in this. She’s already taken enough care of me during the day, and I don’t want to disturb her during her sleep. I eventually manage to drift back to sleep a few minutes later.

[hollowtones]

ayy monhun fan! what are you thinkin of what we've seen of wilds so far?

The initial trailer they dropped months ago was pretty cool. "World" is my least favourite game that I've played (even thought I liked it a lot!!), and 90% of why I felt that way was "this is the first time they're making a game of this scale / scope / direction", so it's exciting to see them make a successor to it now that they're not also learning how to make a game like it from the bottom-up & not also building the tech side of it from scratch.

Big desert environments have me excited!!!! I love the way these games do deserts. I'm always dreaming of Val Habar. I love the colour palette they're using for this area. Big fan of Yoshi being a new mechanic. In general I'm noticing a lot of things in "Wilds" that feel like a really cool mix of ideas from "World" and "Rise" in a way that feels a little more grounded. It's cool that they're bringing back a buddy you can ride around on & control. I wonder if they'll let Yoshi fight with you. I don't remember if they showed that off already. Getting to hotswap between 2 weapons without having to run back to base camp feels like a big deal that I haven't really wrapped my head around yet.

The focus mode thing seems fine. More granular control over aiming sometimes seems neat, & the footage we've seen makes it feel like positioning & animation commitment are still a part of it, which I like. Expanding part-breaking into "opening wounds that take more damage & enable special attacks" seems cool! (There was a similar-ish tenderizing mechanic with the Clutch Claw in "Iceborne", and I fuckin hated using it. Loved the idea of it at first. Having to do this whole separate action that interrupted the flow of the fight in a weird way to enable more damage felt awful after a while!! And they designed all the fights around the fact that you have it & use it! So I'm glad they're seemingly taking what I liked about it & chucking out the rest, haha.) I remember there was some hubbub about focus existing at all when news was first dropping. Some people were mad about it? I feel like this happens every time they announce a new Monster Hunter. They reveal a new feature, and a couple guys crawl out of the woodwork to go "THEY HAVE MADE THE VIDEO GAME PITIFUL AND EASIER - THIS IS THE DEATH OF THE FRANCHISE!" The franchise has died every game since the first one, by my count. (They end up buying the game anyway, of course.) I hope they put out a demo soon, though. I wanna get my hands on it & see how it works in the middle of a fight to see how I actually feel about it.

Weapon & armour design so far has been great. Happy about that. The bits of NPC designs we've seen have been cool. I don't really like the smith's look very much. Which makes me sad because I'm pretty sure she's supposed to be Little Miss Forge. LOL

When they first showed the game off I remember thinking "yeah, that's cool, I'm looking forward to this, but it's coming out Next Year & we're not even halfway done with 2024." Well now we're almost two thirds of the way through the year. And they keep dropping gameplay trailers. And they look hype as fuck!! And now I'm feeling more impatient!!! I wanna try this shit out soon!!! I wonder if they'll drop a public demo after Gamescom or something. I wonder if my computer could even run it...

I liked the way Hunting Horn played in "Rise" but it's cool to see the more traditional recitals back. (But faster!! And with new combo paths!!) I think I've spent a cumulative hour or two watching that horn trailer over and over again for little details. The funny bubble reminds me of bead of resonance but it seems like it might also be some kind of AoE team buff? It could also just be extra damage like bead was. But I loved bead. So I'll take it. Being a Hunting Horn fan is accepting that you'll be playing an entirely different weapon in every subsequent game, so I suppose I fuss less about whether or not it plays like any one specific game. But mannnnnn it looks cool as hell this time around.

[wayfayrr]

I see your human!reader and raise you: the Chain struggling to find food they can actually eat, reader feeling terrible and maybe a bit like a burden because of it, and getting into a dangerous situation in order to make it up to them

Source: the Owl House :)

I'm so sorry that this took so long to answer!! I've been quite busy recently but while I haven't watched the owl house I hope this does what you wanted justice, it got out of hand the more I wrote!!! I've heard it's great I just don't really watch shows :( Fair warning this got way more angsty then I planned for it too, with reader being pretty flippant about their own safety than they really should be, there's a brief not very detailed description of gore too. (it's also fairly wars centric towards the end)

[masterlist]

“[Name]! So wind and I’ve just been to the village right? I think I’ve finally found something I can cook that you should be able to eat! It was quite expensive but I’m sure it’ll be worth it for you!” 

“We looked around for ages, so if you can’t eat this then there might not be anything in Hyrule that you can eat!”

Wind means well with what he’s saying; I know that Wild does too, they don’t mean to make me feel bad - I think they don’t anyway. Not like they really need to try with how much of a burden to them I am. Buying expensive supplies just for me? When they’re already struggling to afford their own basic supplies, now I’m just adding unnecessary costs for them. Don’t get me started with the looks of pity they give me either. 

“Thank you both but, please don’t go spending so much on me.”

“But we have to find something you can eat, you’ll just be a… It’s not good for you to starve!”

That - that’s the closest any of them have gotten to saying it outright, they really do just see me as a burden - they aren’t even trying to hide it now. No wonder I’ve always been kept to the side in any fights, Hyrule can’t heal me so I’d just be deadweight if I got hurt, I can’t fight like they can really all I’m good for is as a meat shield to defend them from magic. “Hey [name], are you alright? You zoned out a bit there…”

“Oh, yeah I just - I think I just need to have some time alone if that’s alright? I’ll make sure to stay in distance of the camp.”

“As long as you’re careful and not there too long, I’m sure it’s fine. I’ll tell the others for you.”

I hope he doesn’t.

He seemed content with how I nodded at him, so I should be in the clear to go and just vanish for a while even if it’s just to pretend I’m not causing them issues for a little while.

It doesn’t feel like it takes me long to get to a nice place to sit, so it should still be pretty close to camp - not that they should be worried for me. Somewhere nice and open to sit next to a gentle babbling brook, it’s calm and I’m alone, everything I need at the moment.

Shit - how did I not see a sleeping lynel!? No no, not now I don’t even have a weapon! … What if I did kill it though - their parts can be sold for a fortune… I could pay my way and prove I’m not just useless. Even if I don’t - well they won’t have to worry about me in that case.

It hasn’t seemed to notice me yet, maybe there’s a chance I can come back from it. If I just stay low and as silent as I can then I should be able to jump it. 

Stay quiet, take its weapon. Wow, that’s a lot lighter than Wild makes it out to be. Now to just - Just go for its neck! I - I actually managed to slit its throat!

IT’S STILL ALIVE!?

Okay. OKAY! Its movements are sluggish and it seems to be bleeding out so just get away from it - 

Why - why can’t I feel my arm properly? Why is my shoulder so wet all of a -! The pain hit harder than a truck every nerve on my left side feels like it’s being set ablaze, there wasn’t a single hope of keeping in the scream I just let out, one I didn’t even realise had ripped its way from my throat. Tilting my head down to see the cause; suddenly my body feeling nothing but raw visceral pain suddenly makes a lot more sense than before. The stupid thing cut half through my shoulder with my arm now hanging limply by my side. 

“[NAME]! WHAT ARE YOU DOING - YOU’VE BEEN MISSING FOR HOURS - WHAT Did you - [name]!?”

Wars is here..? Didn’t Wild say I was going off for a bit? Why would he be looking for me? I can’t be worth so much that he’d go off on his own to look for me.

“Oh goddesses [name] what - no, no, no stay awake, you’ve got to stay with me darling.”

“‘m awake… ‘m - still ‘ere…”

Is that really what I sound like right now…  I sound so slurred… like - like how people on tv sounded when they were. Oh.

I’m bleeding out and delirious then, no wonder Wars is ‘here’, he’s just my brain giving me one last happy memory before I kick the bucket. Isn’t that wonderful, to spend my last moments hallucinating my unreciprocated crush caring for me. Closing my eyes feels all too easy, even when I’m about to drift off it still feels as if he’s holding me, maybe this won’t be too bad?

“[Name] don’t you DARE close your eyes, you - I’m not losing anyone else I care about - I can't lose you… I haven't even-”

A harsh slap to the face after a shaky breath - one that feels all too real - has me reconsidering things, the feeling of something tears dropping onto my face is the thing that finally has me opening my eyes despite how hard it is to do so. 

“I - I have some bandages, a potio- no that’s not going to help you I’ve got bandages I just need you to talk to me while I use them, so I know you aren’t close to passing out. You’re going to make it out of this - I need you to make it out of this.”

The agony of him adjusting my arm to bind it, well it’s proof that I am still very much alive. If he really wants me to talk… well then I might as well try to get some answers out of him.

“Why - why ‘re you - wh’ ‘d you come lookin’ fr me?”

“You - vanished for hours without a word, did you really think none of us would get worried? Even if none of the others would, I will always come for you.”

“Hm’ wild said he w’s gonna tell the rs’ o’ you… b’sides ‘m just a burden ‘nt I? Wil’ pretty muh said i’.”

“...Wild. but why would he risk - he wouldn’t put you in the… Don’t worry about what wild says he’s lying, you’re not a burden, even if you were. You’re one I would choose to carry every day for the rest of my life without a single regret. Don’t let what he says get to you, darling.”

Murderous, that’s the best way I could hope to describe the look on his face, it’s like he wants wild dead. His bandages seem to have stopped the bleeding though, so while I still feel lightheaded I should live as long as the wound doesn’t get infected. 

“Wai’ why’r you callin’ me darlin’? ‘M not - you’r…”

A little smirk crossed his face then barely lasting long enough for me to just notice it before it was replaced by concern, did I forget something, I mean it’s not impossible that I also hit my head right? Right?

“But you’re my partner, honeybee, we’ve been together for a few days now - you - you can’t have forgotten that right? If that’s the only price for you surviving, I mean we can always just make better memories. You - You’re still alive and that’s the most important thing.”

Well that’s not impossible, I know I’ve had feelings for him for a while so if he did ask I would’ve said yes…

“We can remake the memories later after you recover. You know I’m so glad that human blood flows slower than ours, those precious few extra seconds are literally lifesaving.”

He’s just babbling to himself now, must’ve been stressed over me; now that I’m safer it’s all just draining out of him. The way he’s clinging to me and shaking shows that fairly well too, like he doesn’t plan to let me out of his arms for a long while. 

“Please never do this ever again, I don’t even know what you were planning but you could’ve died [name], you could’ve died and I wouldn’t have had a chance to say goodbye. Please you have to explain why when you’re better. Please promise me you’ll tell me why.”

“I will Wars, I swear.”

“...That’s all I needed to hear, thank you darling.”

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

More voice line posting! Because I like digging them up and I always want to see/hear more of Isobel.

At some point you were able to have Isobel join your camp by herself even after letting Shadowheart kill Aylin - a game state that's no longer possible, as Aylin's death means Last Light falls, too. But all the voice lines and dialogue trees are still there. I haven't had a chance to try, but manually messing around with the "SHA_Nightsong_State_PermaDefeated" flag might be able to get these lines to trigger.

Here are some highlights (and transcripts) from the Moonrise reunion and the camp conversation that we now only see the "take care of my angel" branch of.

Isobel: You did it. I knew you would. Player: Yet you don't seem glad. Isobel: Oh, I am. It's a momentous day. I suppose I need to catch my breath or the momentum will outpace me.

Player: What will you do now that your father's gone? Isobel: Oh, I don't know. Change my hair colour. Buy a horse. [Curse was lifted] Isobel: In seriousness, I intend to help you fight the Absolute - what lies behind the Absolute, that is. Isobel: None of us will be safe until that looming horror is defeated. When the time comes, I'll fight at your side.

[Curse wasn't lifted] Isobel: In seriousness, my home needs me. It's still enveloped in Shar's horrific curse. If it can be cleansed, I'll find a way. Isobel: But I admit that plays second fiddle to helping you. None of us will be safe until the horror behind 'the Absolute' is defeated. When the time comes, I'll fight at your side.

Player: Why wait? Isobel: To be perfectly frank, I'm exhausted. It feels a bit as though I've been dropped into another dimension. Isobel: A little time to rest and reflect, and I'll be ready to go at it anew. What say you? Player: It's not over yet. A nautiloid is on its way to Baldur's Gate. Isobel: Gods. One day, you go to sleep and everything's square. Then you wake up, and it's a dodecahedron. With tentacles.

-

You could also talk about Aylin specifically. If you were feeling particularly horrible, you could lie and convince Isobel she could still find and save her beloved. Presumably, however you played this, she would leave your camp either hating you or trying to save Aylin - which is a bit similar to how the Act 3 Lorroakan betrayal pans out.

Player: Aylin - do you mean Nightsong? Isobel: Nightsong? What do you mean?

Player: Ketheric captured her and was using her to fuel his invulnerability. She was called the 'Nightsong'. Isobel: She... what?! Does this mean she's still alive? I've got to find her - set her free! Tell me everything you know. Please.

Player: It's too late for that. She was dead when I found her. [Roll Deception] [Roll succeeded] Isobel: My father said she was gone. I'd tried to make peace with it. But... she was so special. So very dear. Isobel: When we met, it was like a lightning strike. My father wasn't sure about us - she was immortal, after all - but I never doubted. [Roll failed] Isobel: Liar. Wicked, wicked liar. Murderer.

Player: Give me your map. I'll show you where she's being kept. [Roll Performance] [Roll failed] Isobel: You're lying. She can't be saved, can she? My father told me she was... gone. It's true, isn't it? Isobel: Why would you lie? What's the matter with you? [Roll succeeded] Isobel: Thank you - thank you so much. I'll gather some supplies and head out shortly. Aylin... I can't believe she's alive. Before the day's end, I'll have her in my arms. Incredible.

Isobel: I hope Aylin's alright. I can't wait to have her in my arms again.

Player: Never mind. Isobel: As I was saying, I fell in love with Aylin swiftly. It was as easy as breathing.

Player: That's what Ketheric and his chums called her. Killed her myself. / It's too late for that. I killed her. Isobel: You what?! But she was immortal. How could she... how could you...? She is the Moonmaiden's daughter. And you call yourself a Selûnite?!

Player: It was the only way to make Ketheric vulnerable. Isobel: Was it? Was it truly? I don't believe that. Not for a second.

Player: Shar got the better of me. It won't happen again. Isobel: Oh it won't? Then I suppose we'll just forget this little misstep, file it under 'lessons learned'?

Player: It was a mistake. One I bitterly regret. Isobel: I should hope so. I can't imagine what insane course of thought led you to murder someone so dear. Isobel: Get out of my sight before I do something you'll regret.

Player: When the Lady of Loss speaks, her faithful act on her behalf. Isobel: You're disgusting. You've killed someone so precious, so good. I knew Shar was wicked. But I'd hoped for better from you.

Player: I couldn't hold my companion back. She had a mission to fulfil. Isobel: A mission? A mission?! That Sharran murderer destroyed someone so precious, so good...

[chemicallywrit]

Happy Audio Drama Sunday! I heard so many good shows this week, let’s goooooo

🥃 I started listening to @breakerwhiskey this week, and I’m on episode 21 (which is nothing, it’s microfic), and it is so compelling. Lauren Shippen said in episode zero that she misses the improvisational feel of early audio dramas and that really comes through in this show—the wandering of the story reflects the wandering of Whiskey herself. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

🎵I am not alone in my reaction to the new season of @hellofromthehallowoods, which I think goes something like, “Wh—who—but—Arnold?????” (Seriously, Arnold???) but I love a mystery, and I love how linear this season is starting out. I’m sure that it’ll all get more complicated soon.

💔 Have you all heard Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club? It’s a call-in advice show from a fictional radio station and it is HILARIOUS. Until this last episode, which got SAD. It's a partially improvised show, so the whole thing feels so incredibly human and it always hits. Please listen, more fictional advice shows all around.

🐺 The Midnight Burger/The Amelia Project crossover was exactly as delightful as I expected. We got two shows that love historical figures and putting people in the deep freeze. What could go wrong! Absolutely nothing. With a crossover episode I always wonder if there will be enough character interaction to slake my insatiable character dynamic thirst and for this one I definitely think there was.

🍺 Inn Between dropped an episode of Dragon’s Rest on their feed this week, and I'm here to say that we did that because it's frikkin hilarious. This last episode was so good, especially with Shax trying to talk to a bartender and the bartender getting mad that Shax was complaining about her friends and not having a professional business conversation. I love you, southern-sounding bartender, and I love you Shax.

🩸Hemophobia continues to scare the heck out of me. This series, Camp Havenside, ended exactly how I expected it to, with the extra twist of that horrible half-possessed state Sam is in. Lordt. Listen to this show. Mind the content warnings. Then like, message me about it, it has taken permanent residence in my brain.

🎭 Oh Malevolent, you never disappoint me. I adore the twists the season finale took, and the real danger Arthur and John were in had me on the edge of my seat. How are we gonna get outta this one boys! Frikkin Kayne.

💎 As it ever is, @kingmakerpod was a blessing visited upon my podcatcher. Oh man though, Lucas Lando, what a scuzbag. Like maybe the worst villain yet in this series for me, and I'm including the psychic child. Lando's just unsavory. The action scenes in this episode were excellent, and I love the use of Pocket Cinnamon. For a minute when they were looking for things in the barn that don't conduct electricity, I was very worried for the cows. Honestly now a little surprised they didn't explode a cow. Hey guys, why didn't you explode a cow?

🌈 I've been listening to this actual play, @ourstoriedinsight, and it's about all the typical actual play stuff--a party of misfit adventurers, thrown together by circumstance, trying to stop the end of the world. What stands out about this one is its wonderful sound design and its tone--it's so introspective and kind. The characters are great too. I would die for Vishakapar. If you like an actual play and you don't want to wait for it to get really good, please check out Our Storied Insight.

As for personal news, boy oh boy am I working hard on the Dead! Pray for our recording schedule these next couple weeks. As for Inn Between, we'll be putting up an episode this week that is a true banger, I hope you like it.

That's it for me this week! If you like what I do, send me a tip!

[normal-thoughts-official]

karlach gushing about wyll to fytz always makes me all mushy inside. like. wyll has probably had his praises sung by a million bards, most of whom don't even know what he looks like, much less his name. but he hasn't felt like he's enough a day in his life since he became the blade of frontiers. if anything, that persona only made him see wyll ravengard as lesser and lesser

karlach, in contrast, doesn't give a fuck about the blade of frontiers. she's not exalting his battle prowess with edited and sometimes made up notions of what a hero is like. she's not talking of a legend. she's talking about her boyfriend wyll, isn't he handsome, and you should see how well he dances, i swear the man knows every style this side of the sword coast. he's travelled everywhere, im telling you, and none of that fancy shmancy touristy bullshit either, he knows all the locals and really learned everything about their culture and i learned so much about it from him. i was raised in baldur's gate my whole life and then i was out of the loop for a godsdamned decade and it's like every time we talk he takes me across the whole world, everywhere I've never met. it's crazy. and everyone loves him too. we get a discount everywhere we go, i swear, he once got 40 camp supplies for free in the shadow cursed lands! the poor fuckers in there couldn't even grow grass, everyone was eating stale bread and spoiled tarts and he just scored a full meal scot free out of some lady he had just met! didn't even say anything, just asked and she was like "yeah sure, here's a camp supplies pack for free". what's even the point of buying anything after that! it's not even magic because he refuses to use charm people on civilians, he's such a gentleman, he's just that charming. and the kids! he always stops to teach them and after a while even the kids from elturel didn't care about me anymore, it was all wyll this, wyll that, "yes karlach we've heard about how you defeated a cambion but it's cooler when uncle wyll tells it". ha! little turds. and the grandmas, man, i swear some of them straight up try to steal him from me-

it literally just keeps going and wyll can feel the heat spreading on his face but he's so pleased. he never knew being praised could feel this good, be coated in lightness instead of expectations, make him feel seen instead of heard of, make him feel whole and enough instead of constantly chasing a shadow of himself. and the love is so real and palpable because it's all stuff he does like it's breathing; it's part of who he is, it's wyll down to the bone and that's what she loves. and he's not sure he's ever been loved like this before, has ever enjoyed a compliment not because it felt some approval void he had in his chest but because it made him feel whole and enough. aooougggghjhhhhhhh

[boyfietxts]

txt when their s/o loves another group!

a/n: Poor boys would be so jelly but they all show it very differently so let's see what that looks like! I hope you enjoy it!!!

song rec: tefutefu - Plastic Tree (I've been super into jrock/vkei recently so if you like those genres, this song is perfect for you!)

yeonjun

SO JELLY OMG but also excited because he knows them personally. one day, when picking you up for a date, he spotted a changbin photocard on the back of your phone you had forgotten to remove and he gasps. "yeonjun whats wrong?!?!!" "oh nothing. i just saw a picture of my buddy on your phone case!" you almost beat him up because he scared you! once he starts to introduce you to his friends and his band, he introduces you and stray kids, changbin specifically. you two click and actually become friends, teasing yeonjun all the time! he lowkey regrets his decision.

soobin

so supportive! goes at concerts with you all the time because he see's it as really good bonding time with his lovely girlfriend. once it got out that you were a huge twice fan, he was immediately seeing what he could do to organize a meet up. he makes sure you get to see all their shows and he likes to celebrate their new releases with you! twice release party at the choi residence! he loves collecting albums with you but anytime there's a twice release, you two buy all the versions of the album and get your hands on all the inclusions and photocards. there is a whole book shelf in your apartment dedicated to twice.

beomgyu

JEALOUSY IS AN ILLNESS, BEOMGYU! GET OVER IT! homeboy is heartbroken when you tell him how excited you were to go to the next ateez concert. "why!? why do you wanna go see them? they're good but I'm better!" "beomgyu! I'm not gonna not go! don't be so jelly" "can I at least go and witness the moment my gf get's stolen away by a stylish pirate?" at this point, who wouldn't roll their eyes at him? he loves seeing you excited for a concert and is just trying to tease you. he knows you like him. he always randomly comes home with albums and stuff and tells you he found it laying around in the building or that one of the boys sent it to you (obvi not true! he just doesn't want to admit that he's cool with it)

taehyun

straight up rolls his eyes at you when you tell him the big news about you getting VIP tickets to the next enhyphen concert. "They're cute but I didn't think you would like them that much." he secretly finds it so cute that you're such a big fan of his labelmates and organizes a meeting with them for you. The Best Boyfriend Ever award goes to kang taehyun! he just wants to give you whatever he can, even if he is jealous that you're constantly blasting 20 cube in the car when going somewhere.

heuning kai

honestly, he's not even jealous at all when he hears about you going to bunnies camp! he wants to go with you actually and arranges for you to be seated together. he totally supports you stanning new jeans and is actually a bit of a fan himself. he's also one that organizes for you to meet the girls and it's super cute! he's like a proud big brother and he loved seeing you interact with them. he get's you all the merch they put out and he contributes to the collaborative collection of albums you two have! absolute cutie.

[mins-fins]

☆ 4 free boba

❝ the jasmine milk tea has spoken. ❞

⌗ NOTE 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 hiii…. six months later….. i have no excuses!! i literally just hate everything!! me trying to progress the plot without killing someone 😞😞 i start med camp soon… i can already feel the med student exhaustion coming, but my new roommates are nice!! thank god im away from the abusive baby!! alright see you in december with the next update 😊

⌗ WORD COUNT 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 1.3k

⌗ PREVIOUS | MASTERLIST | NEXT

YOU'RE ABOUT TO BECOME A DROPOUT.

talk about stress from your horrible job, the field you decided to study is enough to make you want to jump off a bridge. you thought studying architecture would be fun, because it's been such a vibrant interest of yours since when you were young, but oh boy, becoming an adult just crushes every single dream you had as a kid.

you always threaten to drop out, but your friends (namely renjun) always forbid you from doing so, he always says you have too much to achieve to quit because your professors being an ass, you've gone through even worse stuff before.

"seriously y/n! why not?"

your tired of hearing chenle whine in your ear about stupid shit that doesn't matter. he's gotten good at annoying the hell out of you, you'll give him that. he's like a mosquito, buzzing around in your ear and slowly making you go more and more insane the longer he's around. "because chenle, i've done you so many favors this year! i'm not doing you another one!"

you hear a frustrated sigh sound from the zhong, but you don't budge, even as he continues following you through the halls, begging for you to just do this one thing for him. "just get jisung to do it for you".

chenle looks dumbfounded by the suggestion, as if that was a stupid to say. "are you kidding me? jisung can't lie for shit! he's gonna get me caught immediately!"

you scoff, a sarcastic grin tugging at your lips as you push the doors to the library open, eyes narrowed as you search for a certain someone. "go ask one of your other friends" you mutter, searching the place top to bottom before you finally find your target.

you don't think you've ever made your way over to mark faster in your life, when he finally spots you, he almost jumps back from how you quickly put your hands on him and try to hide behind him. "help me please".

mark blinks, raising an eyebrow. "what's going on here?"

"chenle's harassing me".

chenle gasps loudly at the accusation, offended. "i am not! you're such a fucking liar!"

"hush! were in a library!" mark nudges you off him, and you cross your arms, remaining silent. "now what are you two going on about now?"

"he wants me to do him another favor!"

"it's one favor, i don't ask a lot for you like jisung, at least mine makes sense!"

"i'm not covering for you because you have no time management, chenle".

chenle's face drops, and that familiar frown tugs at his lips. "what kind of a friend are you?"

"oh don't pull that card! when was the last time you did something for me—"

and just like that, you two begin arguing, mark awkwardly in between your just below average shouts. he's beginning to grow anxious as chenle grows louder, this is the school library, give him a fucking break. so, before chenle can let out that imbecilic dolphin screech, he slaps a hand over his mouth. "you two can never agree on anything".

chenle glares, aggressively shoving mark's arm away from him. "y/n please! i'll do anything!"

you scoff. "really?"

"i'll pay for all your boba for the next few weeks!"

you blink, that does sound like a tempting offer, but chenle's rich already, so you aren't really taking any of his money if you got him to buy you boba for the next three weeks.

but chenle clearly senses that, because he knows you well enough at this point. he sighs, lowering his head. he cannot believe what he's about to say. "i'll take over your shift this weekend.."

mark quite literally gasps at the words, and you blink again, your first instinct is to let out a chuckle of disbelief. "are you serious?"

chenle rolls his eyes. "yes".

you laugh again. no, he's not serious. any minute now chenle is going to burst into laughter and say it's a joke, but the punchline is taking too long to arrive. "oh my goodness your deadass?"

"yes y/n i am!"

now it's your turn to be surprised. "since when were you so considerate?"

chenle has to resist the next eye roll (and a smile, for some reason, how strange). "you're doing me a favor so i'm also doing you a favor, stupid.."

those words are ironic, but you don't voice such thoughts, you simply smile. "is the free boba a plus?"

chenle stares, and mark glances between you two, trying to figure out if your telepathically communicating or just zoning out. "yes".

you smile, satisfied. "fine".

"fine?"

mark gives you a look. chenle is never that convincing, especially not to you. "did you just— did chenle just promise you a favor? did you just agree? were you two just civil with each other!?"

you place a hand on mark's shoulder. "it's a true mystery mark".

all mark can do is give a stare of disbelief.

"DID HE HYPNOTIZE YOU OR SOMETHING? I'M SCARED".

donghyuck's fear is also mixed with amusement, but you're too busy fueling your bubble tea addiction to care about that. he places his arms on the table and leans forward, suddenly very interested in this arrangement. "so what did you agree to do for chenle?"

you stare at him for a moment, narrowing your eyes. "i'm going on a date with some weird dude from his class".

renjun chokes on his drink, beginning to cough uncontrollably. jaemin sends him a weird look, jeno beginning to gently pat his back to make sure he doesn't choke. "why would you agree to that?"

you blink, pretending to think it over. "free boba, and.. i can be lazy this weekend".

jeno's jaw almost drops. "you're kidding".

you shake your head.

"chenle agreed to take over your shifts!? since when was he so considerate?"

you slam your hand onto the table and point at renjun. "that is exactly what i said! i thought he was kidding!"

"all that for you to just get laid?"

you give donghyuck an incredulous look. "no one is getting laid, i'm simply getting a guy off his hands".

"yeah hyuck, y/n can't flirt for shit".

"oh and you can? the only thing that gets you anywhere is your looks".

jaemin gasps, a true tone of offense in the inhale of air. "you take that back!"

"it's pretty true actually".

jeno winces as jaemin lands a slap on his shoulder, he scoots closer to you and wraps his arms around. "can't believe your such an abusive best friend" he mutters, leaning against you.

"you're supposed to be on my side".

"i am! but that doesn't mean it isn't true!"

"you two are giving me a headache" your roommate massages his temples, gritting his teeth, you can just barely pay his shoulder with how jeno is squeezing you.

"even more than donghyuck?"

"never more than donghyuck".

donghyuck bites his tongue, holding back the very rude rebuttal he had planned. "all of you shut up, we have to focus on the main mission".

"the main what?"

"getting y/n laid".

you choke on your spit, beginning to have an uncontrollable coughing fit. donghyuck almost laughs at the sight, but renjun glares, so he keeps silent. "wait since when was that the mission?"

"y/n is painfully single!"

"no i'm not! i have jeno!" you point at the other with your thumb, and donghyuck scrunches his nose at that response. "i don't need to get laid, you need to get laid".

"that's projection".

if you weren't being crushed by the weight of jeno's grip, you would absolutely clock na jaemin right in the face. "if you want y/n to get laid so bad just do it yourself.."

"oh there is no way in hell i'm getting in bed with him—"

"what the fuck is that supposed to mean!?"

renjun's eye twitches, now you and donghyuck are fighting. how great. he's definitely having a great day.

he won't even try to break up a physical fight.

[aoharushiyo]

the recipes for... | track 1 — chocolate pudding

Translation: en Proofreading: aca, dimi, kimi, myun, jay, jelly

Content Warning: light jokes about death

PatiBattle is my life. A masterpiece containing the quintessential element, the character that gives meaning to my very existence— yeah, you heard that right: his name is Chiyoda Reito.

PatiBattle is my life. A masterpiece containing the quintessential element, the character that gives meaning to my very existence— yeah, you heard that right: his name is Chiyoda Reito.

---

"Come the hell on, if I don't get there soon, it might all be gone…!"

I was held back after school for ages by the teachers today. Some lecture about my behaviour in class or something. Stuff like my attitude being all over the place, or reading manga under my desk in class… But why today, of all days? Of course, I just had to run my mouth and say that I'd listen any other day, please let me off just for today… but that just ended up adding oil to the fire and I got held back even longer.

[ Next Restock TBA ] "…"

I flew into the anime shop I frequented and stopped in front of the display case for newly stocked merch. I hadn't been able to pre-order, so all the merch I wanted had all already been snagged.

"Seriously… I wish this would stop happening…"

And it's just my luck that I don't have any friends I can ask to buy merch for me.

"'Restock TBA'…? The very concept of this should fuck right off."

Student life may as well be slavery. Sure, pointing and laughing at the working class and calling them corporate slaves has been a thing since ages ago, but isn't being a student pretty much the same thing? At these places called 'schools', you're physically limited to what you can do, you're forced into doing club activities after school, and even once you get home, you've gotta do homework or chores… All that takes up a shit ton of time. Adults always overestimate the amount of free time we kids have.

"Fuck…!"

Despite all of that, somehow I'm making do with the little free time I have. Attending events, making shrines, exchanging official and blind box merch, buying out merch stocks[1], nui outings, birthday pilgrimages…

"Aah… my life has no meaning anymore… Just end me already…"

I just couldn't take it any longer. I stumbled out of the store, and, after sparing only a glance to make sure no one was around, started hitting my head against the wall, over and over. Over, and over, and over. I failed. I'm a failure. I'm sorry, Reito, I'm so sorry that I couldn't bring you home.

The theme for the acrylic standee set this time around was 'Training Camp - First Year, Winter ~Wedding Cake~'. A set that dressed every single character in exquisite bridal attire. Not being able to get something like that on the day of its release is absolutely unforgivable. I might as well just die.

The way back was freezing cold. The weather sucked ass, too.

---

Today, I decided to go home instead of returning to the dorms. Here, I can do whatever I want without anyone getting in my way.

"…Yeah, I guess it'll do."

My feelings of frustration needed some kind of outlet. All of the love I was so ready to shower on my new standee had to go somewhere, too — so I eagerly channelled it into something else.

"Aren't you looking pretty good now?"

I held up my apron, extremely pleased with the crooked rows of can badges and pins that covered its entirety. Naturally, the apron was in Reito's image colour. And right over the chest, where my new merch should have been, shone in its place a new, extra-large aluminium standee.[2] That's right. In this patisserie kitchen, we don't have ita-bags — we have ita-aprons, obviously.

"I've gotta finish this before Reito's birthday…"

I guess you could say it's like a way of measuring love. If this weight is the weight of my love, then even if it's heavy because of how many things I've slowly added to it, I can't get enough. I just can't get enough of the insanity of wearing it. Merch of Reito is in ridiculously high demand, so it's really not great for my wallet, but… I'm fine with that. Because only then does it feel like I'm giving up even my soul for Reito.

"Now then…"

Finally satisfied with my sparkling, gleaming rows of badges, I moved onto the next part of my daily routine — checking socials. After all, numerous new fanworks are being created every day.

"Searching for… 'PatiBattle!'…" With great enthusiasm, I searched for every single keyword that I could think of. 'Patissier Battle', 'Chiyoda Reito', 'ReiOu', 'Rei0u', 'ChocoPudding'…[3]

"Damn, this person's art is so good… wait— wait, they drew this!? This is insane! Fuck, oh fuck… I can't take it, it's so radiant that I can't even look at it properly…!"

This must be what it means to be happy. Being able to see the masterpieces being born every day is happiness. While happily wading through my feed, I spent hours lost in the online world.

"…Ah."

There it was: Reito/Shouta. And… blocked. It's like I never saw it in the first place. It really was a shame that they didn't understand the better dynamic. But staying in your own lane makes the world go 'round, so never having to see it again was good enough.

And finally, after checking everything else, I'd left the best for last:

"Sanseiu-sensei…!"

Sanseiu-sensei, the god of ReiOu. Even if they hadn't uploaded anything new, I could spend hours rereading all of their older works.

"What's wrong? Could it be… is that embarrassment I see?" "H-hey! I still can't believe it… What would someone like you see in me…?" "If you keep saying things like that, I'll just go ahead and eat you up." "Mmph…!?" "…Delicious." "R-Reito-kun!" "Aren't you so sweet? Maybe… even sweeter than chocolate."

"Aaah, it's still this good every time I read this!? Even though I've read it before? This flavour never gets old no matter how many times I reread it! Seriously! What the fuck! I'm gonna go insane!"

After rolling around on my bed, I grabbed my pillow and screamed into it while writhing in glee. How was I supposed to remain sane after reading that!?

"It's so cute! It's so cute that I'm gonna die! Killing me directly would be less painful, Sanseiu-sensei!"

Throwing my emotions into this much disarray… that was the power of the great Sanseiu-sensei. I'd heard that they tabled at a large convention a few months ago, but…

"I wanna meet them and thank them…!"

I wanted to go so badly, but…

"…I can't deal with crowds…"

---

[1] 無限回収 mugen kaishuu refers to the act of buying the same merch over and over without caring about the cost. If you've ever seen one of those huge birthday shrines with a million of the same pins? That's the energy.

[2] アルミ arumi basically is a shortened form of ‘aluminium’. This could refer to a can badge, but it could also be an aluminium standee, which is a cutout of an artwork from an aluminium can. Since Ushio is saying that instead of the acrylic standee, he got an arumi, and also that he mentioned can badges earlier, I've gone with this option.

[3] 礼王 is Ushio's OTP, Reito/Ouji. He'll explain this later! After this, he searches for 礼玉. Note that 玉 looks like 王; it's pretty common to use something to censor part of the name so that it doesn't appear in searches. I've replaced the O with a 0 to replicate the same effect since it wouldn't make much sense to literally transcribe it. 'ChocoPudding' is another version of their ship name (which he will also explain later).

---

masterlist | next →

[slasher-male-wife]

Slashers with a hippie s/o

Spring is upon us and I've been leaning into more of a hippie style with the warmer weather. I've been running out of ideas for what to write about so I hope this doesn't suck.

Includes: Bubba Sawyer, Thomas Hewitt, Jason Voorhees, and Baby Firefly

Warnings: Mentions of what slashers do, weed mentions in Babies part

Bubba Sawyer

He honestly loves your style. He's noticed the shift to hippie styles for awhile now while dealing with victims and he's always admired it from afar.

If you go all out with it and don't wear shoes often then Bubba is going to be a bit concerned about you hurting yourself while walking around. He's probably going to refuse to let you leave the house without wearing some kind of shoes.

If you have long enough hair for him to style he's going to have a field day with it. Braiding flowers into your hair, brushing it out, curling it if it's straight or twirling his fingers around it if it's curly. If your hair is more coily/kinky he's going to adore sticking flowers in it and making a flower crown for your hair.

If you need any new clothes or Bubba finds some on a victim that he thinks you'd like he's taking them for you to have. I have a feeling he can sew pretty well so if he ever has enough fabric and a pattern he'll try making you some clothes.

He also enjoys hippie music. It's mostly slow, calming stuff that helps keep his mind at ease. He can't go out and buy new records to play so all of his music comes from the radio which is fine by him.

Thomas Hewitt

His family (meaning Hoyt) has made him look down on hippies since they became aware of what hippies are. But meeting you has challenged his view on them.

If you're a man/look more masculine he's going to feel conflicted about how you dress, because in his eyes (and the way Hoyt has talked about hippies) "real men" don't dress like that. But you, again, change his mind about that.

Will also steal clothes from victims if he thinks you'd like them. Your clothes are going to get dirty often from all of the work you're doing around the house and on the farm so he's going to have a few pairs of work clothes set aside for you.

Over time he becomes more of a fan of your style, even if Hoyt makes comments about it. But when Hoyt does make those rude comments on your style, Thomas gives him a death glare, because he's not brave enough to outright fight his family but he's not below intimidation.

He's also a fan of the music. It's a nice break from all of the screaming and yelling of victims and his family. It's calming to him and whenever he has the time, he likes to put of the radio and dance with you.

Jason Voorhees

Jason lived in the woods for most of the mainstream hippie trends, but he still saw them and he wasn't the biggest fan of the style. His mother raised him Christian, and while I don't think he stayed Christian as he got older, he did keep some ideals from the religion, like modesty.

He's not against your style, he just doesn't love it when you show a lot of skin. But if you make a hippie outfit where you're more modest he's all for that. Although he's also worried about the longevity of the clothing. Because of all the activities you're doing around camp.

Another slasher who will steal clothes from victims to give to you, unless he deems it to be too immodest. Like Bubba he's not letting you leave the house without shoes on. Will honestly only let you keep a pair of boots just because of the practicality of them.

He does like the more nature inspired themes in the hippie style. As your relationship goes on he's going to try and find ways to make hippie clothes more practical for the life you two live.

As for the music, he's kind of a fan. It's not like 80's rock music which I feel like he despises. He likes how it's slow and calmer and while he doesn't agree with all the parts about sex and drugs, he's not too against it.

Baby Firefly

Her style is kind of the opposite of yours. She loves more tight fitting clothing that's all ripped up and edgy. She probably laughed at your outfit and made a comment about it when she first met you. "Just letting you know Woodstock was three years ago."

But she loves dressing you up in whatever stuff she can. She probably has some kind of hippie clothes laying around her bedroom that she'll want you to try on. Half of them are her's, half are from victims. But she's always happy to hit up a second hand store to buy more clothes or try and diy some new ones.

She agrees with some of the ideas that come with being a hippie. She's all for free love and smoking weed, she's against the Government too and she thinks guys with long hair are pretty cute.

Her family is probably going to make comments on your style, except for Mamma and Rufus, they'll be more polite. But if her family makes rude comments about your style she'll defend you. But if a victim insults your style? She's going to see red, because nobody is mean to her s/o unless it's her.

Not a huge fan of hippie music. She prefers heavier stuff, but since you listen to her music all of the time she'll sit and listen to some of yours for a little bit. She can't promise that she won't get bored after a few songs but she'll try her best to not complain about it.