#but it would be cool to have more suggestions for stuff to read that treats the setting with respect while leaning into the horror elements | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

prttylilbunny · 1 year ago

Note

puhlease PLEASE a hazel callahan fic takşng place after the movie when hazel thought the kiss was special but PJ is treating her the same so hazel tries to make PJ jealous with y/n but they actually start having feelings (at first passionate) towards each other????????

FEELING'S AREN'T FAKE

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

plot: fake dating never works but sometimes it does just in different ways

warnings: light angst, nothing too serious, r is a cheerleader but that doesn't really affect the story!

word count: 1.8k

notes: sorry this took so long to get out but I'm a little burnt out rn! hope you like this anon🫶🏼

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

after hazel and PJs kiss, hazel thought that something was there, she tried hanging out more with PJ, but she would just pushed away and end up getting hurt. one lonely night hazel had the bright idea that maybe she could try and make PJ jealous, of course it was a dumb idea but at this point it was all she had.

she opened your contact and sent you a short message proposing the plan

'hey I know it's late but I'm trying to make PJ jealous so I was thinking we could fake date for a while, you down?'

of course she rewrote the message a couple times but when she got it down she nervously pressed send. a half hour later she got your confirmation

'sure, make it simple please I don't wanna waste too much if me time on this'

she smiled at your message excited for tomorrow, trying to go to bed all she could think about was PJ, how she would finally get to be with her, after years of waiting.

you sat on your bed and typed on your computer trying to finish up an essay do tomorrow, but you kept getting distracted by the thought of fake dating hazel, after a long 40 minutes of homework you closed your computer and put on some comfortable clothes. laying in bed you turned over and shut your eyes all of your thoughts just being about hazel

you walked onto school campus and saw hazel sitting on a bench reading something in a small book, 'i wonder what she's reading' you furrowed your brows and started walked over to her, 'hey!' you shouted to her, she quickly looked up and waved at you, you sat down next to her and she closed her little book, 'whatcha reading?' you questioned, 'uhm...she drives me crazy' you nodded, 'okay so what's the plan stan' she chuckled at your lame attempt of a joke and turned her head to you.

'so were just gonna act like we're dating, so hug and flirt and hold hands, all that gross shit, and hopefully PJ will get jealous' she said with a look on her face insinuating she was a very proud of her plan, you nodded and stood back up, 'sounds great to me, I gotta get to class so I'll see you later' you waved and grabbed your bag, 'wait!' hazel said a little too loud, you perked your head up at her, 'shouldn't we go in...together?' she suggested in a nervous tone

'oh shit yeah you're right' you stuck out your hand for her to grab on to, she took your hand and you started walking side by side, you entered the hall and people already turned they're heads to look at you two, I mean it is pretty weird seeing a cheerleader and a total nobody date, you got to hazel's locker and you leaned against against the a near wall, out of the corner of your eyes you saw PJ and Josie walking towards you

'pj and Josie are coming over here' you whispered to hazel, she turned around and shut her locker, a couple seconds later they stood right in front of you, the weird thing is that you had never actually talked to them, so now that you "dating" they're friend you would have to, talking to the girl your crush fake girlfriend is in love with was not on your bucket list. as they started talking you zoned out mid conversation, they talk about such boring stuff, how were you supposed to keep up?

next thing you heard was the loud bell ring, you saw that they had left and now it was just you and hazel, and of course the swarm of students late to class. hazel unexpectedly grabbed your hand and led you through the crowd, you both got to class in time, kinda. the boring school hours past by fast and as soon as you knew it was lunch, you thought you would sit down with your friends like you do everyday, but that was before you were pulled to a table in the corner of the cafeteria with hazel and the rest of the fight club.

as they talked you felt hazel's hand snake around your waist, you felt you face get hot but you continued eating, after an excruciating hour of listening to them talk as hazel moved her hand from your waist, to hips your to shoulder to your thigh, it was finally time to leave you packed everything up and sped out of the cafeteria, hazel catched up to you and walked with you out of school. you both sat down at the same bench from this morning

'so did I do good as a fake girlfriend?' she questioned with a cocky grin on her face, you rolled your eyes and turned your head to face her, sure having her as your fake girlfriend was gonna be nice but what if you catched even more feelings? what if her and PJ actually get together and you're just left alone again. 'you did pretty good' you said leaning against the back of the bench, you smiled and immediately started talking about the rest of the plan.

it has been 2 weeks of the fake dating and it really seemed like PJ didn't care, but tonight there was a big party at Isabel's, hazel thought it was perfect opportunity to make PJ "jealous". you decided to get ready together like a cute couple,hazel wore some simple baggy jeans and a white t-shirt, she almost looked like a frat guy, you chose what you usually wear to party's, nothing to flashy but nothing too simple.

when you got there it was loud and already smelled like BO and alcohol, you sat down on a couch with hazel by your side, she put her arm around your shoulder and you stiffed up, still not used to her touch. almost the whole party you say right there, getting up a couple time's to go to the bathroom, when the party died down, Isabel came out from the kitchen with an empty beer bottle, 'what are we 12!' PJ shouted, you chuckled and sat down next to Josie I'm the big circle of people

Isabel spinned the bottle and it landed on Josie, you could see Isabel blush and Josie had a nervous look on her face as they entered the small downstairs bathroom, after was felt like a life time someone yelled, 'seven minutes is up' you heard the door unlock before Isabel came out with a very visible hickey on her neck, some people gasped and others laughed, they sat back down and now it was Pj's turn, she spinned the empty bottle and it landed on, hazel.

hazel tired to hide her smile and she looked over to you, 'aren't you guys dating?' PJ looked at hazel then you, you opened your mouth to say maybe it was better if she re spinned, but before you could hazel spoke up, 'no it's okay, I mean it's just a dumb kids game right?' hazel looked at you trying to indicate that she really wanted to do this, you looked at the ground for a second before agreeing with her, some guy patted your shoulder and called you a 'chill girlfriend' you let out your best fake laugh and put your knees to your chest

meanwhile the scene of hazel and PJ in the bathroom was to say the least very awkward, 'so do we kiss?' hazel anxiously asked, PJ nodded and moved closer to her trying to make things more natural, hazel cupped PJs face and brought her lips to hers, she finally kissed PJ, after years of waiting she finally did it and she felt, nothing. absolutely nothing, she bearly even kissed back, you got up and told your friends you needed a drink and somehow they believed you, you walked into the kitchen grabbed your purse and left that god awful party, you didn't even think about saying goodbye because if you did you would have to watch them come out of that bathroom and see the start of they're relationship

hazel unlocked the door early and people were confused, 'you have to do seven minutes not three!' Sylvie shouted and people agreed, hazel noticed you weren't there and got worried, 'c'mon guys we're not middle schoolers and where's my girlfriend?' she shouted back, 'oh I think she left' some guy slurred clearly intoxicated, hazel grabbed her phone and said goodbye to everyone and that she was going to find you. what she didn't know was that you were already home by the time she had left, she urgently called you trying to understand where you were so you could talk

after 5 missed calls you finally picked up, 'where are you?' she said through the phone, 'home' you responded dryly, she let out a sigh of relief and started walking to your house still on the phone with you, 'why did you leave?' you thought about actually telling her why but the you remembered you actually dating, 'i was tired' she scoffed as she finally saw your house through the dark, 'open your front door please' she stood waiting impatiently for you, 'are you outside my house?'

you said walking down your stairs, 'yes just please open up it's cold' she hung up, you put your phone down and opened up your front door, you looked hazel up and down and saw no hickey, weird. you moved from the door and she stepped in, she shut the door behind her, you quickly grabbed her hand and took her to your room, she had never actually been in your room, you had been at her house but she'd never been to yours, you closed the door and say down on your bed next to her

'so why do you wanna talk haze?' she sighed and looked you straight in your eyes, 'i don't think I like PJ' she confessed, your eyes widened, had you done this whole plan for nothing, had you hurt yourself...for nothing? 'okay then who do you like? I'm not going to go through this plan another time just with a different person, I really hope you know that' you said in a frustrated tone, she moved closer to you and put her hand on your thigh, 'what the fuck was she doing?' you questioned to yourself

she just responded by crashing her lips with yours, at first you were taken aback, very taken aback, but then you felt how soft her lips were and how passionate and pure this moment was, you quickly kissed back and moved yourself closer to her, she dragged out the kiss for a couple more seconds before pulled away. you couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation, she laughed with you and pulled you into a tight hug.

'i love you' she mumbled into your shoulder, you sighed and kissed the side her neck, 'i love you too' you mumbled back.

#hazel callahan x reader #hazel callahan #hazel callahan fanfiction #bottoms 2023 #bottoms movie #hazel callahan oneshot #hazel callahan imagine #hazel callahan x you #hazel callahan x fem reader

483 notes · View notes

seelestia · 2 years ago

Note

If you really want to write something for me (crab 🦀) then how about some Kaveh fluff because he is way to relatable right now, especially in my current situation (doesn’t have to be though, I didn’t expect you to want to write something for me so get a bit creative with it lol) 🦀 🦀 🦀

— 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 & 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐲.

SUMMARY. when you offer a friend a suggestion on how to increase his efficiency, you don't expect your intimacy for him would also increase alongside it. (he doesn't expect it too.) (1.5k+ words)

CHARACTERS. kaveh + GN!reader.

GENRE. fluff, angst with comfort, friends to ??? (when ur friend starts looking a lil too good for some reason...).

CW. references to kaveh's backstory, implications of crying and stress (kaveh our beloved <//3), reader wears reading glasses (cool stuff) and rambles abt naps.

THOUGHTS. ik all kaveh simps and kinnies want to give him a hug, so here you go! i cherish him vv much. to 🦀 anon, let's just treat this as like your commissioning me in a way (i hope this ficlet is alright?? i'm rusty hhhhh) ♡

✰ masterlist.

"Ughhhhhh."

So, the rumors amongst the people of the Akademiya are true, after all; that there can never be a silence that lasts too long when a certain man with blond hair is present.

"Gahhhhhh."

For someone who is still at the prime of his life, KAVEH sure looks like he has already aged a hundred years in the span of a single night. But according to the people at the Akademiya, this occurrence is nothing out of the ordinary and as someone who has known him for years, you can absolutely concur with them.

With a hand on his temple and a heavy sigh that weighs a thousand troubles, there is no other way for the blond male to express his frustration besides verbal means — and to that, too, you are a witness sitting across from him on the table.

Guess that's just the price you have to pay for agreeing to help him when he begged you yesterday. According to him, your "job description" is just to stop him from dozing off because a deadline from a client of his is nearing way too quickly for his liking.

Thus, here you are — watching him do his work while you do your own work on a table at his place (or more precisely, his room in Alhaitham's place but you don't want Kaveh to fly into a fit of rage).

"My head hurts," Kaveh groans.

"Because you've stared at that blueprint for hours now," you answer.

"My back hurts too," he complains again.

"Because you haven't changed your position ever since we started sitting," you retort again.

If anyone were to ask for some sort of proof about the frequency of Kaveh's grumbles, the fact that you could respond so naturally and quickly while barely taking your gaze off the documents spread out in front of you, as if you've done this so many times before (which you have), would have sufficed.

"[Y/N]," Kaveh calls your name in a dramatic whine, "You're supposed to sympathize with me...!" But you don't find the need to look up from your paper when you can almost feel the pout forming on his lips already.

It isn't as if you don't want to empathize with him, but that sight of his pout happens to be quite adorable — does it count as being mean if you want him to keep it on for a bit longer? Ha, what a strange feeling.

"Then, why don't you take a nap?" you give him a suggestion as you look up to spare your colleague a glance, "I'll wake you up in about 20 minutes or so."

That look of hesitance on Kaveh's face makes you raise an eyebrow. "Sounds tempting, but are you sure doing that wouldn't waste more time instead of saving it?" the man tilts his head questioningly with a frown as if he is unsure of the right answer himself.

"Idiot," you blurt out.

Thank goodness the circumference of the table isn't wide enough to interrupt your movements as you put down your reading glasses and reach out to pull on Kaveh's cheek gently. He, as the one on the receiving end, doesn't think the gesture is as gentle as it looks though.

"Hey! Ouch, ouch—" Kaveh cries out a little yelp that is a perfect representation of his surprise. "Let me ask you this," you release his cheek from your grasp and he expresses gratitude to the Dendro Archon like never before while you continue, "Why do you think you've been staring at that blueprint without being able to function properly?"

"Uh, umm," he stammers, "...Because I feel tired, maybe?" Again, he sounds unsure of himself but that is most likely because you've shaken off half of his brain cells by pinching his cheek just now. Fortunately, judging by that satisfied expression on your face, he seems to have gotten it right.

"Good," you nod approvingly, "Naps have been proven to provide relaxation, reduce fatigue, and increase alertness. The most optimal time for adults is between 10 to 20 minutes."

Kaveh listens to you intently, but that dumbfounded look he has on almost says otherwise. Noticing this, you decide to feign an aura of seriousness as you add, "I was being generous when I offered to wake you up after 20 minutes, by the way. I could've set it to 10 minutes instead."

"You're ruthless," he gapes.

"So, are you going to take a nap or not?" you stifle a giggle.

"Seems like that's the best option I have right now," your dear friend can only shrug his shoulders defeatedly. In order to prepare for his nap, Kaveh sets aside the blueprint he has previously spent hours working on and neatly folds his arms on top of the table.

"Sleeping on a desk isn't very comfy but it'll do," he heaves out an exhausted sigh. Not even one second into placing his head atop his folded arms, he is already missing the softness of his bed back at home — but he can't really complain, so he closes his eyes in silence despite the slight discomfort.

You observe, picking up the disgruntled noises Kaveh makes as he shifts around to find the right position to lay his head. This quiet moment where your banters with him finally die down is when you can truly see the burdens weighing upon his shoulders and your gaze can't help but soften.

Despite how empathetic he appears or how his dramatic antics always elicit a laugh out of others, you know Kaveh really has been through a lot — and you wonder if you didn't suggest he take a nap, would he have neglected his health to do more in a state of low efficiency? Does he often allow himself some time to rest like this?

"You're really tired, aren't you?" your voice lowers into a soft murmur.

"...Yeah," his answer comes out quieter than your question.

"Deadlines are killing me. I know it's meant to help me be organized and all," you see how he opens his eyes to glance at the blueprint mere inches away from his face, "But right now, it's putting more pressure on me than anything."

Kaveh exhales another drained sigh, "And I still have my debts to worry about too. God, when will this all end..." His voice eventually trails off into an evident crack like he is about to choke, "So many things at once, I feel like it's all crashing on me..."

Your heart clenches. He's about to cry, you note.

"Hey," you speak tenderly. "Don't frown so hard, it'll make your head hurt more," you extend your hand to rub soothingly at the deepening frown on his forehead with your thumb. "Oh, s-sorry," his lips try their best not to tremble when he lets that apology slip, but you're not here to scold him.

"Even if it all comes crashing down on you, you'll be able to push them all off eventually, right? One at a time," you say as you rub a few more circles on his forehead to soothe his headache. You're not certain on how he'd receive your words, so you purse your lips with a tinge of reluctance, "Even now, you're still working on it, aren't you? Don't beat yourself up for not reaching your goal when you're still in the process. That's not fair to yourself."

There is a moment of silence before you hear a series of sniffles. "Curses..." he mumbles with a pathetic chuckle, "Look at me, putting this all on you when I'm supposed to be taking a nap." Just as you're about to shake your head in denial, Kaveh's eyes flicker to meet yours — and you're momentarily stunned by how they look.

Mesmerizing irises in the color of red stare back at you; they're glassy as if a single touch would make them ripple and a dam of tears will burst from it, yet filled with unspoken gratefulness.

"And... thanks for saying that," he smiles, "It's been a while since people actually took my problems seriously, s-so um, shoot—" Darn it, his tongue just has to mess up at the worst timing! Kaveh picks himself back up with a small cough, "Uh, anyway, what I was about to say is that it means a lot to me... So, thank you."

He peers at you worriedly after finishing his words, concerned that you'll laugh at him instead. But rather than a laugh, he is met with the softest smile and Kaveh swears— he swears that his heart has never thumped this hard before. Never ever.

"I'm glad," you say and suddenly, he feels oddly exposed underneath your gaze. He has always been more used to your sterner yet caring side; so, this gentleness of yours is sending inexplicable warmth rushing through his veins.

Oh no.

How is he supposed to sleep now?

Then, comes the sensation of something in his hair and Kaveh winces before registering the fact that it's actually your fingers that are combing through his hair. The shock easily fades into relaxation and he lets out a sigh of contentment, "That feels nice."

"Should I stop?" you ask.

"N-no," his hand grabs onto your wrist almost desperately as if keeping it in place. "Keep going... please," Kaveh utters the last word so meekly you almost mistake it for a whisper.

You smile to yourself.

"Sleep well, Kav."

Perhaps, you uttered those words with more love and newfound affection for him than you realize.

And maybe he, too, realizes the same.

─ ⊹ ⊱ ・・・・・・☆・・・・・・・⊰ ⊹ ─

✰ TAGLIST: @meimeimeirin @hcikazu @tsuk4sa-yug1 @catcze @semi-orangeapple @yuuki4646 @d-a-r-k-s-w-a-n @daisydkj @omgscaramouche @coquettemaiden @lemontum @herdrops @lleoll @xiaosonlybeloved @chiisananingen @irethepotato @ainescribe @blooodyvampy @starlightaura @jihyuniepark @duhsies @maybemiko @lordbugs @sakkaku-squared @lupicalbestwolf — [ bolded names are unable to be tagged because of url changes or visibility settings + register here to be a part of my taglist! ]

#genshin x reader #kaveh x reader #genshin x you #kaveh x you #genshin fluff #kaveh fluff #genshin scenarios #genshin imagines #genshin fanfic #genshin headcanons #seelestial.inks

655 notes · View notes

sakuraryomen01 · 2 years ago

Text

Sex Exercise /Jjk Characters x Reader/ Prt. 2

warnings: based on a comic called "Sexersize" . reader is a little chubby . sex gym . working out with Sukuna as the trainer . gojo x reader x sukuna (sorta) . risky relationship with sukuna . jealous sukuna and gojo . [reader is also sort of caught in the crossfire of their pettiness and kept in the dark ^^;;] . more or less a sexual crush . gojo's a little mean/of a tease . oral sex (reader receiving) and a blowjob (sukuna receiving) . face fucking . multiple rounds, and positions; reverse cowgirl, scissor style, and missionary . getou also is back to his normal trainer position ^^

reader: female reader; slightly chubby

plot: smut + story . reader goes to a sex gym, having no knowledge of the actually training regimen

words: 4.635k

a/n:: hello hello! ^^ tbh i wanted to take another pause on Valentino as Easter is coming up in a few days! And, I just couldn't get over how popular this drabble was so I decided to make it series of sorts! i hope you're looking forward to getting more of this stuff out lol >_>;; i'm going to also post something with Getou soon! ♡

. . .

Thank you for reading this bit! Enjoy!

It felt like the last month and a half was a fever dream, because you were wondering if Sukuna had decided to really give you special treatment.

He was usually texting you about newer and better sexual positions to test out for extra weight loss. And he also wanted you to come in more and more whenever you had the chance. Whatever this was, you really enjoyed the attention.

To be honest, you almost felt like an attention whore.

For whatever reason, you began to obey the man's commands. And, oh boy, did it pay off for you in the end.

Especially during every session you had paired with the pink haired trainer. It was like he didn't care that the rules in the policy existed, he treated them like helpful suggestions rather than rules when he was in the same room with you. Always daring to kneel behind you while you and your assigned partner for the day were fucking, grabbing some oil and lubing his hands before playing with your ever so soft tits.

"That's it," He'd coo, pressing a soft kiss to your temple before rolling your nipples in his rough fingers. "Make sure to keep your hips angled, sir. She likes it hitting deep inside."

Your partner would always blush a flustered pink before nodding and doing as instructed, grunting in pleasure whenever your pussy tightened around their cock.

"Good job, just don't cum yet."

Like any other day though, today wasn't like that. After Sukuna had gotten into the groove of playing with your pearly chest and precious clit, he wouldn't be prepared for the days to come. After all, fucking his client instead of being patient would have its consequences.

One day in particular might've set off the current chain of events.

"I've been called into a meeting?" Sukuna questioned, his phone raised to his ear after you finished your second session that week. "But, I didn't have anything planned afterwards. I was going to eat and head home."

"Well, you'll have to reschedule," Getou's cool tone echoed through the speaker. "It's not a request. The boss is upset with you after what you did a while ago."

Sukuna groaned, rolling his eyes and you and your partner dressed and departed. Although he seemed stressed and unhappy, you didn't want to meddle in his business, no matter how much it bothered you.

"I'll be there. When is it?"

"Right now, actually. He's waiting for you upstairs in the conference room."

With another curse under his breath, Sukuna cleaned off his fingers from before and headed to the showers. Quickly changing his clothes and washing himself, Sukuna made his way to the front of the gym and turned right. Going up the same stairs you went up your first day at the sex gym. While he didn't care what happened, Sukuna really wouldn't mind being fired.

With a perverted smirk, he huffed as his mind began to cloud once again with pictures of you.

If he got fired, he could fuck you whenever he wanted!

Trying to keep a cool head, and relaxed cock, Sukuna pushed open the door and came face to face with his boss immediately.

The white haired devil's eyes were a piercing shade of sky blue. Shining under his dark sunglasses and pretty white lashes. His head tilted, cheek resting against his palm, and his light grey button up slightly undone like he was some mob boss and not some shady gym owner.

"What is it, Satoru?" Sukuna grunted, closing the door quickly and crossing his arms.

"That's no way to talk to your boss," Gojo cooed in a mock whimper, as if to pretend to be hurt. "I wanted to talk to you. Please, take a seat."

Sukuna would rather not. He didn't know how many girls Gojo's fucked stupid in the room and he didn't want to find out.

After Sukuna was forced into the chair, Getou was soon summoned to join before Gojo started. "So, what's up?"

"That cute lil' client you banged," Gojo said rather bluntly, his charming smile never faltering as Sukuna's eyes glazed over. "When were you going to tell me that incident happened?"

Getou stood beside Gojo's chair, his hands in his pockets with his hoodie sleeves rolled up. There was a small smirk that made its way onto his features, eyes lazily looking between Sukuna and Gojo as the tension grew.

"Did you have your errand boy tell you?" Sukuna grumbled, arms folded and a vein bursting on his neck. He wasn't particularly happy that he was having this conversation.

"I'm wounded," Getou pouted, holding a hand to his chest. "I only watched from the sidelines."

"Whatever, that's not the point!"

There was a collective sigh from Sukuna and Getou, before Gojo butted in and continued his small rant.

"I'm going to do another workout with this Y/n girl and you're not going to get whiny about it, or, I'll make Suguru her new trainer."

That vein of Sukuna's neck was bulging with pure anger and pettiness. He didn't want to be switched with Getou, but watching Gojo fuck you would be just as torturous. Even if he did bang his client when he wasn't supposed to, he didn't want to go through a punishment because of Gojo's choices.

"..If you don't show up, I'll fuck her again," Sukuna threatened, standing and running a hand through his pink locks. "I don't want to leave her high and dry over your whorish nature."

"That's understandable," Gojo said, huffing with pouty lips, lifting his glasses up to rest on his head. His blue eyes practically glowed, shimmering as an amused glint shined. "Make sure I don't find out next time."

With a click, Sukuna left the conference room and headed down to the main lobby, seeing Shoko with her spiked coffee like always and a lazy glimmer in her dark eyes.

"Oh? Someone got your balls in a twist?" She asked, sitting up and removing her feet from atop her desk.

Sukuna grunted, picking up the session notes for next week. His maroon eyes scanned every column until they landed on yours, your cute little photo needed updating. You cheeks weren't nearly as chubby as they used to be.

Was that really a problem tho? Sukuna had wondered to himself, and this wasn't the first occasion.

Many a time did he wonder if your chubbiness was such a bother. Sure, wanting to look good and feel good about yourself was one thing, but Sukuna thought that you looked like an adorable plush pillow. One that he could squeeze in his firm grip and play with like a little ragdoll.

"Getting heart eyed, hm?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Sukuna sent a glare Shoko's way even though all she had in store was curiosity. "Don't be so harsh. You'll chase off girls with such a 'fuck off' face."

"I don't care," Sukuna snapped, his nose crinkling in disgust. "All the girls that want me are whores running from their husbands anyways."

"So harsh," said the receptionist. Clicking her tongue and rolling the sparkling tongue piercing around her mouth before letting her tongue hang from between her glossy lips. "Don't be like that around that Y/n girl you're fawning over. She'll ask for a new trainer right away!"

Sukuna scoffed, looking at the partner's empty blank and writing in Gojo Satoru. Once he handed the clipboard back to Shoko, she raised her brow in confusion and looked at him.

"Again?" She asked, the corner of her lips turning up in a smirk. "Do you have a humiliation kink by any chance?"

With a grimace and a sigh, Sukuna walked out of the gym after grabbing his things from the trainers washroom. Whatever was going to happen that following week was probably fated to happen. And Sukuna didn't wish to witness it, but he didn't expect it to happen like the first time.

Gojo sometimes followed through on his threats.

Sukuna was walking down the street with a homemade strawberry smoothie in hand, his phone occupying the other. His earbuds in, blasting some (S)aints on Spotify until he arrived at the gym. Although nothing strange had happened to him just yet, he was expecting some kind of a weird greeting from his coworkers.

He quickly finished his drink and threw the cup, walking over to Shoko's desk to sign himself in. She wasn't present at the time, but it was almost 8 in the morning, and she didn't normally like showing up before 9.

Before opening time, Sukuna started to clean his workout room and placed a fresh mat and pillow for his clients. Checked his clipboard and the positions, the AC and if the air was running properly. The oil, the lube, and the condoms— he checked it all.

When nothing out of the ordinary really showed up, Sukuna walked out of the freshly glorified room and made his way to the showers. Stripping quickly in one of the private stalls and bringing along some body wash and a loofah from home.

He washed up rather quickly, not really wanting to run into Gojo again and get bombarded with teases and jealous remarks, and got out to dry off. Though all of Sukuna's wishes weren't able to come true, and his boss walked into the washroom right as Sukuna was dressing in a loose shirt and shorts.

"Ah, you're here early!" Gojo chirped, a smile plastered on his pale face. "Didn't expect you to be so excited to see me naked. Are you a pervert, Sukuna?"

"Of course not," Sukuna responded, grabbing a water bottle from his bag and walking by the male. "I've been dreading this day for a while."

"See you later, Sukuna~"

It was almost twenty minutes later when Sukuna heard a knock on his door, and a cold shiver ran down his spine. Wondering who it was, it made him grumble with annoyance and jealousy. He didn't want to see what Gojo had planned for you, even though it was planned specifically for your workout schedule.

When he opened the door, a small sigh of relief was released at the sight a little you.

"Hey," You mumbled, a smile on your face and a blush tinting your cheeks. "I came a little earlier than normal since I have work later on tonight."

Sukuna nods and lets you in, only to make eye contact with your partner for today. Gojo's smile as shiny and smug as always, but there was also a shine in his eyes that made him look especially aroused. Gojo said hello to Sukuna again, before walking into the room and looking down at you.

"Hello," You waved your hand, already seated on the mat. "Are you my partner for today?"

"Mhm, I see Sukuna already informed you my name."

As you and Gojo exchanged pleasantries for a moment, he sat in front of you and glanced at the clipboard deciding whether or not to follow through with the planned positions or not. But, once Sukuna closed the door, there was an awkward silence.

Sukuna deeply regretted coming to work today.

"We're going to start with a massage," Sukuna instructed, kneeling beside you both and gesturing to the same golden vial of lotion that was provided each and every time. "If you're alright with it, please begin to—"

"I know the drill," Gojo interrupted, rolling his pretty doe eyes before landing them on you. Scanning your chest and waist like they were snacks, making you squirm in your spot and your cheeks flush pink.

"I'm just supposed to get this little lady's clothes off and play with her pretty nipples, right?"

Sukuna grimaced, putting the clipboard down and opening the lube bottle, making his way behind you and patting on your shoulder. Turning your attention to him, his maroon eyes sparkling as he lifted up your shirt. There was an annoyed groan from Gojo, watching as you got played with.

He didn't mind a show, but just watching and not getting to touch really got on his nerves. "Oi, I'm the partner- not you!"

Sukuna clicked his tongue, taking off your shirt and watching your tits bounce from their confines. A satisfied coo rumbling from your trainer's throat, seeing your pretty nipples again as if it was like his first time. And even then, his annoyance (and small hint of jealousy for Gojo) wouldn't make Sukuna hate them.

"Whoa," Gojo chuckled from his spot, although he wasn't in the same place. He had crawled closer and closer to you, eyes trained on your perky little breasts. "And I thought these looked good from the side lines."

With another click of the tongue, Sukuna uncapped the oil and lifted it above your chest. Tilting it until it began pouring the oil onto your skin, a shiver going down your spine at the familiar coolness that coated your body. You let out an almost satisfied sigh, closing your eyes as Sukuna's hands began to wander.

"Heh, there you go," Sukuna's calm whisper tickles your ear, his soft lips press against your neck, leaving small marks. "Is it too rough, miss? Doesn't hurt?"

You shook your head quickly, leaning into Sukuna's touch. Feeling his large hands on your chest again made you feel tingly down there, as if it was sparked by his hand. Whatever the reason, you watched his thumb rub against your nipples, fingertips pinching them and twisting them a few times.

Meanwhile, your soft moans and gasps had made Gojo's cock extremely hard. So hard, it was dripping and making a stain in his briefs, throbbing and pulsing underneath the fabric as if the sight alone was enough to make him hard.

"Hey, I'm getting blue balls here," He grumbled, trying to get some kind of attention. When your lidded eyes flickered up to him, a soft grunt left him. How could you be this cute?

"Shouldn't I be doing this?"

"..That's correct," Sukuna eventually answered, releasing his hold on your chest and snacking his hands down your hips, squeezing and pinching at the soft flesh like it was a plushie. "But I think she rather enjoys my hands than yours, sir."

A glare was shared between the two men, and a wave of jealousy and petty feelings entered the atmosphere. Making a shudder go down your spine, looking between the two men with a dumbfounded expression.

What was with the tension..??

"A-Anyways," You mumble, the duo's eyes light up— more or less —as they turned down to you. "Isn't it time for the man's massage?"

Gojo's smug smile definitely ticked off Sukuna again, a small squelch sound being made as he released his hold on your hips. "That's right."

Nodding, you picked up the oil bottle just as Gojo removed his shirt and laid down on his belly. You could tell just how excited he was with the light pink tinting his cheeks, his feet kicking a little as you climbed onto his back. Your bum rested just above his, right over his waist, and you coat your fingers in the sticky oil.

"Gentle around his nape," Sukuna suddenly said, his voice so low it was almost a whisper. "He's a bit of a sensitive tyke, and his hips too."

"Oi, don't go flirting while I'm right here!" Gojo pouted.

You nod again, spiral eyed as you started the massage. Never in your adult years did you think you'd be sandwiched between two men and their bickering. Whatever the reason their fighting continued, you hoped it wouldn't get too bad.

Pressing your thumbs down on his nape— an obvious shiver being sent down Gojo's spine —you started to work out all the knots and kinks that you could feel. Rolling your wrists and pressing your palms into Gojo's shoulders, focusing on his muscles relaxing while your mind begins to wander. Feeling him flexing underneath you when you hit a tender spot, watching him tense up with a small grunt. It was so cute and hot at the same time how much of a baby face your partner had, and you wondered what he'd look like during sex.

Would he look like a total demon? Or like he was having his first time?

As your mind swirled with all the possibilities, and more, you had begun to get wet. Dampening your panties and letting it soak like it was a waterfall between your thighs. Eventually, Gojo noticed this growing warmth on his lower back, turning his head back slightly and angling his eyes to catch a glimpse of what he thought might be true.

"Getting wet, are you?" His cool tone making you jump, pretty eyes catching you in the act of daydreaming. "Do you like a good body as much as I do?"

"Uhm," You mumbled, unable to respond after being caught. "I-I suppose so, sir."

Gojo giggled at your response, pushing you off gently and rolling back onto his bum. Pulling you into his lap, his white lashes fluttered against your cheek while his boyish eyes sparkled.

"My name's Satoru Gojo, ya'know?" He teased, kissing your cheeks and holding your face in his massive hands. "Call me by name, it'll get way too kinky if you call me that!"

With a whimper, you were placed down onto the mat, the pillow that was placed ahead of time resting under your head with a small poof sound. Gojo towered over you, looking down at you like a large cat about to devour its prey. He licked his lips, hooking his fingers under your waistband and tugging down. Pulling your shorts and panties off in such a swift and quick motion you worried he torn them.

"Gotta get a taste of that juicy pussy," Gojo purred, his eyes practically glowing when they shot down to the moist area. Seeing your folds soaking in their own slick made his dick throb in their confindes.

"Looking mighty savory, aren't you?"

The vulgarity was making you shiver, watching in stunned silence as Gojo's hands pressed against your inner thighs and he quickly leaned his head down to sniff you. Hid body soon follows suit and resting on the mat, and his tongue catches you off guard when it flicks at your clit.

"Waah!!" You cry out, hands making their way to tug at Gojo's fluffy hair. "Th-That was too sudden, be careful!"

Gojo responds with a very muffled "I got this," and continues working your pussy with his mouth. It was almost a complete contrast from how Sukuna did it. It was sudden, and Gojo didn't leave anything to chance. Paying lots of attention to your hole while thumbing at your clit, practically grinding his nose under the hood and incidentally pinching it between the two.

He let out little sighs of satisfaction at your taste, letting the fluids into his mouth and pushing his tongue into your hole. Feeling you clench around him and forcing another jolt from his cock.

"God, you're making me so hard right now," Gojo taunted, swirling his tongue around and chuckling over how hard your cunt was sucking in his tongue. "So welcoming, I can't wait to feel how tight you are down here."

A few short moments and he had you cumming from his fingers and lips, your thighs shuddering under the force of your orgasm and an unexpected moan erupting from you. Gojo was a little surprised as well how fast he got you to cum, considering how much stamina you must've developed exercising here.

"Must be weak for someone good with his hands, eh?" Gojo smirked, feeling Sukuna's eyes burning holes in the side of his head. It was so worth it.

After his teasing resided, he looked over at Sukuna and asked what the first position was. With a grimace, Sukuna lifted the clipboard and read it off the top; "Reverse cowgirl."

The male cooed with delight, a smile on his face as he began peppering your neck with kisses and nibbles. You yelp when you're suddenly lifted into Gojo's lap and flipped around, pressing against a very firm bump in his lap. He pushed down his shorts and briefs as you look back to see just how big he was, and what you saw made you shudder.

It was massive.

"Oh my.." You mumble, trailing off as Gojo ripped open one of the condoms Sukuna provided. "Are you even sure it'll fit?"

Gojo nods as if to play with you, slipping the condom over his dripping and pink mushroomed tip. "Of course it will! I prepped you good for my cock, and you'll take it like a good girl."

Gojo's hand gripped his base firmly, tilting your ass up so he could get a good look at your pussy. Tracing his tip on the outline of your entrance, he pushed it into your opening and sighed once your tightness enveloped him.

It felt like heaven inside you.

You pulsed and squeezed in all of the right places as Gojo continued pushing himself inside you, putting it inside like a sword to its sheath. Once he felt his balls pressing against your swollen clit, grinding them against you, he laid down on the mat and held your hips in his hands.

"Go ahead and start the work out," Sukuna muttered from his spot by the tinted window, arms folded and staring down at where you and Gojo were now connected. "Make sure to be gentle, she's not some blow-up doll."

Gojo scoffs, sending a glare to his worker and receiving one in return.

Once you managed to catch your breath, you pressed your shins into the mat and lifted your hips. The friction of Gojo's shaft rubbing your insides as if he wasn't even wearing a condom, your nails digging into his thighs skin and creating indents. You whimpered at the feeling of Gojo's cock being so deep inside, feeling it rub all the bumps and spots that made your toes curl.

Soon, Gojo decided to take matters into his own hands.

Jutting his hips up and rocking you against him in a fast paced rhythm. Knocking his leaking tip against your womb, rubbing your clit against his swelling balls with every thump. It was hard to hold back your orgasm like this, the pressure you were getting was almost perfect.

"..Five.. Six.. Seven," Sukuna counted, watching your tits bounce and your back arch for someone that wasn't him. He didn't even want to pay any mind to Gojo, but it was him that was making you feel so good.

Making your face morph with pleasure and bounce so perfectly. You looked so cute and sexy, that it made Sukuna grunt with lust. He's ashamed he's so horny for his client, seeing you everyday get fucked by someone that wasn't him and imagine it was himself doing it. He had that one chance, and he took it, and now his cock was being punished in its confines, dripping and oozing for you.

"O-Okay, time to move to a different position," He announced, looking at his clipboard and hearing a pop! "Scissor style. Miss, please lay on your side and we'll continue."

You nod, panting and shaky, already almost spent. It was a surprise that you weren't used to this, it was like the first time you ever walked into the gym all over again. Laying down, you lazily lifted your leg, watching Gojo come up over you once again and putting it over his shoulder. Slipping his cock back inside you and groaning quietly, looking down and watching your hole constrict around him as he started moving his hips, holding onto your leg and kissing your calf.

"Fuck, you feel so good," Gojo said, rubbing up your thigh and pressing his hand against your hip. "I want to come so bad inside you, but there's this fucking condom."

Your whimpers and moans were like music to Sukuna's ears, watching you struggle to hold your orgasm back after being edged. Seeing how tight your tummy was clenching just to handle Gojo's sharp thrusts, his pubic bone slapped against your thigh. He let out a groan, pressing his brows together as his movements became sloppy and desperate.

He really wanted to cum.

"..Nine.. Ten!" Sukuna clapped, startling both you and Gojo at the same time with his presence. Seeing as he wasn't normally as handsy like any other day, but oh did he want to.

"You'll now be switching to missionary, the final position for today. Anyways, before we do that.."

Sukuna took a few steps towards you and sat down a little ways from your head as Gojo released you from your compromising position. Your confusion made him smirk, watching in amusement as your face changed from a look of confusion to embarrassment and pure cuteness.

"You'll be sucking me off, too," He finished, undoing himself from his pants and letting his hard cock slap against his stomach. The tip was oozing with pre-cum, dripping down the underside and ending up trailing along one of the veins that was throbbing.

"You could get written up for that," Gojo interjected, glaring at Sukuna's dick like he was hoping it'd just fall off. "Against policy, y'know?"

Sukuna shrugged, fisting himself for a moment while you were still stunned and not paying attention to the argument at all. Looking up at the enlarged head until it was tapping its pearled up tip to your puffy lips, pressing and rubbing for you to invite it inside. Your eyes sparkled while Sukuna and Gojo continued their banter before you opened your mouth and began to suck on the tip.

"Just don't be a dick and let it—" Cutting himself off with a moan and slapping a hand to his face, turning his attention back down to you whom was already making around the halfway mark and suckling gently on his cock.

You let out a small purr at the taste, seeing as you had been wondering its flavor for quite some time, and having it finally was making you feel better than before. A large hand patted your head, causing you to look up and see Sukuna's proud smirk plastered on his face.

"Like it?" He asked, playing with your hair and gesturing to Gojo to get into the next instructed position. "Keep sucking, just make sure that you don't choke."

You nod, resting on your back as your partner lifted your legs over his hips. The familiar stretch of Gojo's dick pushed back inside your cunny, dripping and squelching as he started to move and press his thumb against your clit. Rocking his hips hard against you to try and get your attention back onto him, watching your mouth take Sukuna deeper and deeper into your throat.

"That shouldn't be so sexy, dammit," Gojo huffed, working up a sweat as he pressed his hands on the mat next to your hips. "Fuck.. so tight and warm.."

With each of your holes being filled up, you moaned around Sukuna's. Feeling the pleasure touching every nerve ending and limb that was being consumed. It was as if you were being welcomed into a hug, even though the people currently embarrassing you had some form of hate for each other.

Sukuna grunted, holding your head in place while he started to move his hips. His cock tapping at the back of your throat and your drool pooling around its middle, an almost harsh pace being set to where you wanted to choke.

"Is it too much?" Sukuna teased, looking down at your flushed face.

Although you couldn't speak, you let out a small whimper, running your tongue on the side of his cock and watching his brow twitch. He let out a chuckle, a groan following it, and a sigh. Feeling your soft lips around him made him want to finish already, and he most likely will even though Gojo was there and would tease him about it for the days to come.

While Sukuna's dick knocked at the back of your throat Gojo's cock rubbed at your sweet spot deep inside. Grinding his pelvis into your clit, squeezing at your hips until you knew they'd have bruises tomorrow. His large palms made they're way up your body, tickling at your sides until his thumbs grazed at your nipples.

Rubbing around them and playing with them while he moved his hips against you gently, even though he should've been going at a faster pace.

"Squeezing me so tight," Gojo mumbled, thumbing your nipples and cupping your tits. His eyes glowed with want as his hips started to pick up their pace. "Gonna make me cum so fast, Y/n."

"M-Mgh!" You responded in return, feeling Gojo's fingers pinch and tug at your nipples. Bending his head down to suckle on them, licking around your swelling nub until it was a bright red.

"Such sexy lil' nipples too. Wahh, I get why Sukuna was so protective of oyu now!"

The man in question grunted, his face flushed and rocking his hips into your mouth more. Panting and playing with your hair while his cock continued to drool and drip more into your mouth. Soon Sukuna's aching member gave a final throb and shot his load down your throat.

A warm and bitter taste on your tongue, you swallowed. Some of the excess dribbling down the corner of your lips and landing on the tatami mat, Sukuna's cock pulling from the heat of your mouth with a pop!

"Thanks, darling," Sukuna teased, watching your fucked out expression get worse. "You've got a great mouth on you."

Letting out a little whimper, Sukuna pinched your chin between his fingers, leaning his head down and pressing a small kiss to your bottom lip. It sends a shudder down your spine and made your toes curl.

His lips were so soft and warm even if it was for a brief moment. Once he pulled away, you noticed Sukuna's other hand trailing down between your breasts and down your stomach. Drawing an invisible line while Gojo's eyes followed, watching as it went further and further to meet your clit.

You gasp at the contact, feeling Sukuna circle his fingers in slow and gentle circles, Gojo's dick throbbing and pulsing between your folds adding additional pleasure. Sukuna started peppering kisses on your temple while his eyes continued to bore down at your little nub. Telling Gojo to go faster and make you arch your back, to which he did even though he had a grimace on his face.

"I'm gonna cum soon, shit," You whimper, reaching down and wrapping a hand around Gojo's wrist. Digging your nails into his skin as another orgasm began to wash over you.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck!! Gojo!"

All he needed was your voice to cum, to fill up your insides while your pussy clenched. The soft moans leaving Gojo makes you blush, seeing him pressing his brows together and closing his eyes. A slight sweat collecting on his hairline and making his bangs stick to his forehead.

"Mgh! Take it, c'mon," Gojo grunted under his breath as if he wasn't talking to you specifically, pumping his cock and riding through your climaxes together.

Once his hips settled and your breaths calmed, Sukuna sat up and licked at his fingers. Tasting your slick on his digits while Gojo pulled from your now puffy and cumming pussy. The pair may not like each other, not in the slightest, but they both mentally agreed you were absolutely ravishing when you came.

"Good session everyone," Sukuna said after a few moments with his shorts and underwear pulled up. "Though I didn't like your partner for today, he was... alright."

"Alright?" Gojo scoffed, scrunching up his nose and panting. "I did amazing. That's the word you're looking for, mister."

While you patted yourself down with a towel Sukuna provided you with, your brain was still in a blur from your high. Looking from both of them, you hummed and sat up as best you could.

"Both of you made me feel good," You finally mumble as the duo turn their attention to you once again. "So thank you to both of you. I'll be looking forward to next time, maybe."

Maybe?

Now that you had dropped the pounds you felt were needed to be lost, you had been considering whether staying with the gym would be the best for you. And you could tell that on the two male's faces that they had gotten the gist of it, seeing a pout look on both of their faces.

"At least one more session wouldn't hurt, right?" an unfamiliar voice said from the door, causing a sudden shock of embarrassment wash over all three of you.

At the door stood Getou Suguru, one of the other trainers at the gym that was here to run you down about its policy in the first place. His black hair was tied up in a small bun, in a plain grey T and some gym pants.

"Your one month membership is going to expire anyways," He said matter of faculty, his lidded eyes scanning over your shaky figure. "It'll be like a fare well parting gift, I suppose."

You hum, trying to hide most of your body while Gojo continued to be stark naked in front of you. Getou shrugged his shoulders, stepping further into the room so he could close the door and tapped his side.

"It's not my choice though, so I can't comment."

You eventually dress, saying goodbye to your partner, Sukuna, and Getou before making your way to the showers to head home for the evening. While you didn't want to stay any longer, and you needed to at least get your friends off your back about the place, Getou's point did make sense.

It'd be a waste to just let your membership go to waste over one day.

After gathering your things, you walked over to the sign-out sheet and wrote your name. Placing one last session for you, and just waiting to see what was going to happen. Shoko had gotten to work a little after 9, but she was a tired little mess.

Her sleepy eyes glossy as they looked up at you from over the rim of her cup of coffee. "One more session, love?"

"Mhm," You respond, handing her the sheet and waving. "I'll be seeing you guys one last time, then it's back to my normal schedule!"

You walked out the glass paned doors and down the sidewalk towards your home. Inside, you knew you'd miss the place, but it was just convenient for your weight loss at the time.

"Man, it shouldn't be this hard to say goodbye," You chuckle to yourself, a smile on your face as you continued to walk home.

Waiting patiently for your last day at the sex gym you had grown to adore.

a/n:: ty for enjoying and taking the time to read this! i didn't know where i was going with this, and honestly was hoping to post this sooner than now! Looking forward to writing the next part soon!! ^^ a/n::

og drabble || next part

557 notes · View notes

lily-alphonse · 5 months ago

Note

your ancient gold biland post has captivated me 👀

HELL YEAH

Eiland x Balor (check out the original post here) are so good. I actually have so many ideas for them, even at just 4 hearts I think I have enough background to work with.

For one, Balor is the only character so far that has even a hint of a troubled past (which is like catnip to me I zeroed in on him right away lol). Besides the very obvious giant scar on his chest he has a line: "Elsie speaks fondly of the Capital, but that place only holds bad memories for me" ohoho when I read that I got lazer eyes like you wouldn't believe.

Eiland on the other hand is so naive and full of wonder about the world. He pushes for adventure even where it might be dangerous. He pushes even when those below his station try to argue with him, like he does with Errol. He's actually a bit of spoiled brat in that sense (I say with no hate, I love a complex character). He doesn't want to hear about how reopening the mines might be dangerous, he wants adventure and cool artifacts!

So already we have one approach, where Balor might harbor a bit of disdain for Eiland at first. He's a spoiled Capital brat who doesn't understand the work that goes into procuring his merchandise, stuff like that. Maybe they butt heads about that and its rivals to lovers. OR hatefuck to lovers, because Balor sees an opportunity to put Eiland in his place via domination. Or like I suggested in my original post Eiland just ends up with a crush on him because he's rugged and mysterious and worldly, and Balor sees easy prey in the innocent dork.

No matter how it starts, I think where things would really develop is as they uncover more about the other person.

Balor learns that Eiland actually grew up pretty neglected, and expected to meet a specific mold established for him long ago. Try as he might he never could outmatch his sister, who everyone compared him to. He felt really lost until he found his purpose in studying archaeology and architecture, and it was like a switch flipped within him. He wouldn't let anyone try to tell him what to do with his life anymore. He would speak up for what he wanted, because he had wasted so much of his life already doing what was expected of him (hence where the brattiness comes from).

Eiland learns from Balor that the world is not fair, and a darker place than he imagines. I don't want to speculate about Balor's potential trauma but I imagine it would make Eiland view the Capital and maybe even his family in a different light. Actually it might give him a new passion for making things right in the world now, rather than getting lost in the past and treating it like a different world.

I think they'd level each other out, with Balor grounding Eiland and Eiland giving him hope and whimsy. They would absolutely have dorky moments together. Imagine the Dnd night where Balor takes over as DM except behind the scenes they have recently gotten together, and Eiland is so proud of him for taking over. But Balor is lovingly exasperated with his silly archaeologist boyfriend who keeps trying to avoid fighting lmao.

WE NEED BILAND! Let me know what yall think

PS Check out this lovely fanart that inspired the first post. I dont think its meant to be ship art but it instantly had a gay lightbulb going off in my brain

#fields of mistria spoilers #fom spoilers #only to 4 hearts #biland #fom eiland #fom balor #balor x eiland #eiland x balor #lily speaks #anon ask #fields of mistria #fom #fom headcanons

31 notes · View notes

submalevolentgrace · 4 months ago

Note

Question about hand prostheses; would it be more worthwhile to get them if the character had lost BOTH hands, or would it still be easier to just learn to do stuff with their feet/mouth/whatever? Does how far up the arm the severing point is make a difference to whether it's worth it, like a wrist is relatively easy to do things with but a shoulder is not? (Also, I recommend Sigdi Thundershield from Order of the Stick as a character who doesn't use an arm prosthetic and manages just fine without.)

i get that there's no way for any one asker to know how often i get asks like this, and probably 2/3rds of the time i don't even answer them, but when i do i like to try and mix up my responses based on what i can glean from the way the question was asked. if we're going to call ourselves writers, let's engage with the text given. so here's what i've got this time:

i have already written out my opinions on the topic of upper limb prostheses in fiction. it's long, carefully and purposefully constructed to deliver all the information and emotion i think possible and necessary... short of sitting down one on one for hours at a time of interview style back and forth to really dig down into it. you've ostensibly read it - that writing, my pinned post - because you're responding to it and had to metaphorically step around it to get to my ask box. and yet... i'd say in it, i overtly expresses 3 major themes; the first two of which already answer your questions, and the third of which should hopefully have inspired you to not need to ask them at all.

so based on that, and how you constructed your question, from my perspective i reckon there's one of two possibilities going on here:

1) you've already written/conceptualised a character with one or more cool robot arms, and you're unwilling to do the introspection or self-editing to change that and 'let go of them', so you're looking for loopholes and where exactly the line is drawn. you want permission that it's okay from that tumblr blog linked on those 'how to write disabled characters' lists. why not just accept responsibility as an author, and change your character? or...

2) you want to write a character that has a robot arm or two because it lets you score Disability Representation Points with your audience for including a Disabled™ character, but like, not in any awkward or difficult way that including someone actually disabled would, like a real amputee or someone in a wheelchair or blind-without-magic or whatever. why not just write a disabled character, with a disability you understand?

neither one of these explanations for your ask reflects on you particularly well as a crafter of fiction, so hopefully i'm just being a pretentious judgemental bitch and you composed this after only half skimming my writing while barely awake, or some fourth other option that makes you look better.

but then again, in response to an essay where i laid out my feelings on medical abuse in pursuit of normativity and and a society that treats me as barely human because of the shape of my limbs, you suggested to me a character whose backstory seems to be 'trauma porn for easy pathos', from a webcomic that, in my time at least, was famous for jokes like 'a lead sheet blocks detect evil so you can't prove he's a psychopath' and 'the gang tries increasingly insane ways to spy on the genitals of their gender ambiguous companion'.

which is to say, i'm fucking tired of self-described writers apparently not really thinking about anything they're writing; in their work, in their joyful suggestions, or in their clumsy asks to a clearly hurt individual on an obviously sensitive topic.

25 notes · View notes

goodluckclove · 5 months ago

Text

WRITERS - Read More Nonfiction! (With Recs)

Okay so before I start I'm making it very clear that I don't say this as some generalized statement about how All Online People Aren't Reading Right. I doubt that's true! But based on some of the threads and discourse I see on my corner on Writeblr, it definitely seems like a lot of you would greatly benefit from expanding the scope of what you read.

I think there's probably a big stigma against nonfiction for a lot of people - there was for me for the longest time. Maybe six years ago, though, I stumbled into the genre and found that it can actually be rad as shit. It's been an invaluable form of research from people who definitely know what they're talking about, as well as a way to open myself up to new ideas.

You have chronic writers block? It could potentially be because you're consuming exclusively one genre of media. If that's the case, this will definitely get the gears turning!

Below are a collection of my favorite nonfiction books from my own shelf. The funny thing I immediately learned about suggesting more than like three nonfiction books at a time is that it does paint a kind of intimate picture of who I am. Feel free to tell me if these recommendations surprise you based on who you view me to be.

Clove's Favorite Nonfiction Books!

The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth by Thomas Morris - a collection of historical medical cases back when someone would see a doctor for a gunshot wound and the doctor would treat it with a laxative. WILD stuff.

American Monsters by Linda S. Godfrey - US cryptids! Lots of first person accounts.

Cursed Objects by J. W. Ocker - Famous cursed shit. Quick read but very fun.

The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Prector-Pinney - this was written by the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, a real organization. It tells you everything you need to know about clouds. Fascinating.

Gory Details by Erika Englehaupt - stories and studies of more morbid and "gross" aspects of science, like the guys who stung themselves with instincts to measure the pain or that beach that feet kept washing up on for a while. Cool interviews with science people.

Fuzz by Mary Roach - wild animals break the law a lot actually and we still as a species don't really know what to do about that.

Spook by Mary Roach - an account of Ghost Believing from all sides of the argument. There was a guy who measured dying bodies to see if he could see them get lighter as their soul escaped.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimberly - an indigenous-influenced look at our relationship as a species to nature around us. Really beautiful prose from someone who I believe is primarily a botanist and activist?

All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell - stories and analysis from different aspects of the death industry! Embalmers to crime scene cleaners! Super interesting!

American Afterlives by Shannon Lee Dawdy - I have. A lot of death culture books. A lot. This one talks about all the neat things people in America do with their bodies after they die in the modern age. It's fun!

Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom - so this IS a book on the history of Anthropodermic bibliopegy, or books bound in human skin. I'm actually midway through this now and it's super fascinating and cool. Also my wife refuses to talk to me about this so I'd love someone else to talk to.

The Secret Lives of Color by Cassia St. Clair - I read like four books on color theory and pigment for a novel I wrote a few years ago and this was my favorite. It's a look into a ton of major hues and pigments throughout history as well as a peek into the timeline of color making. Did you know making green fabrics used to be illegal?

Atlas Obscura - a fucking cool look into weird and unique spots across the globe. Every artist who works with places should have access to this. It's awesome.

Every Caitlin Doughty book they're all great. She's a modern mortician and founder of the Order of the Good Death. Just an incredible human being and a super engaging and informative writer.

If someone wants to reblog with their favorite nonfiction books and what they got from them, be my guest! Maybe someone could use a new read to get their next idea or refine what they're currently working on!

#writeblr #writing community #on writing #writing resources #book recommendations #aspiring authors

15 notes · View notes

cephalofrog · 1 year ago

Text

finished reading monstrous regiment

they weren't kidding that book can queer rep

spoilers below cut ofc

I kinda already knew about like... a queer relationship + trans character existing in the book but it still kinda caught me off guard - like I guess I shouldn't assume stuff to be generic from terry pratchett but I didn't know anything about jackrum aside from him being trans going in and it caught me off guard just how damn GOOD a character he is.

I'll admit I wasn't even certain that he was the trans character for a lot of the narrative, like I thought I maybe misremembered the posts or something cause surely the fat, extremely skilled, morally grey man with a lot of PTSD but who clearly cares deep down isn't actually gonna turn out to be a trans man right cause no one would write a trans character THAT interesting and good in 2003 and god dammit I underestimated terry pratchett so much. I am a fool.

the fact that he's like. no I don't want to reunite with my kid + grandchildren cause I can't stand the thought of just being their old granny cause he can't imagine a life for himself where he can exist as a man outside of needing to do so to survive then to have polly suggest it, giving him a new idea, letting him let go of not only the dangerous life of existing in the army but also giving him permission to himself to exist as someone's grandfather?? as a man, not because he has to, but because he wants to??????

god that final conversation between polly and jackrum is fucking perfect. I'll admit I need to consume more media centering trans narratives cause I don't really have a comparison point but it feels like the first piece of media I've ever consumed that honestly reflects how I feel about being trans. you don't need permission or a logical reason to exist a certain way - you're allowed to exist in a certain way just because you want to exist that way.

it's super impressive how deconstructive the book is - like it makes me wonder whether terry pratchett learned about queer theory prior to writing the book or whether he just developed the way that the book talks about gender of his own accord cause the entire damn plot hinges on the fact that gender is socially constructed and fully based upon perception. people see the characters as men, they treat them as men, and so they are men. the entire concept of men and women having some impossible-to-overcome differences is questioned, stereotypes are introduced and then used to disprove themselves.

I think the only thing that the book kinda dropped the ball on was maladicta's character - she gets a lot of focus and is super cool and likeable in the first half but I feel like she gets left behind a bit after running out of coffee, and I do wish there had been a more interesting conclusion to her being the last of the regiment to be confirmed as female (since we all kinda knew it was coming but for some reason it takes a long time to get around to it with no real reason since everyone knows everyone else is a girl at that point).

I'm glad polly and maladicta end up leaving on the boat together though. (they kiss after the book ends, terry pratchett appeared in my dream last night and confirmed it as canon)

#discworld #monstrous regiment

49 notes · View notes

p0tat0-ficblog · 29 days ago

Text

the Fall, Angel, Fall series so far recap for people who don’t feel like reading the like 120k words

Fall Angel Fall (Book 1)

Book starts with Evangeline laying on the ground in a rainstorm, with an arrow through her wing. She reminisces morosely for a moment before an unfamiliar person appears, picks her up, and she passes out. She wakes up inside a dirt house with her wing treated and wrapped and is like "?????" for like 12 seconds before she spots her host, Herobrine. They've never met before, but she knows him from the time she helped kick him out of the Nether like 300 years ago because he was being A Big Meanie. He explains that he found her in the rain and brought her inside because if he didnt she would die, and she's like "why would you care" and he's like "idk, I'm a good person now" and she's like "oh ok. I got banished by the way" and he was like "sick me too". A couple of days later she can walk and stuff and they chat and she explains that she and her best friend (Meryl) were investigating the disappearances of some of her fellow soldiers when Meryl was brutally murdered, Evangeline was framed for it, and she was banished before a proper trial could be had. When she protested, she got shot and subsequently fell out of the sky. Herobrine is like "hmm. that sucks. anyway (goes back to gardening)"

That night, Evangeline wakes up to a valkyrie standing over her with a sword, whom Herobrine keeps from murdering her. They kill him and come to the conclusion that whoever had killed Meryl had sent an assassin after Eve to keep her from being able to snitch about the murders, and Herobrine points out that now they're both in trouble because the assassin will have reported her location before trying to kill her, meaning that now he has to leave his home and live somewhere else. Evangeline feels guilty about this and says she'll leave but Herobrine is like "NO im going WITH YOU. sorry." and shes like "??? okay??"

The next day they set off in a random direction. it is late autumn and herobrine is being grumpy about the fact that it's cold outside. Evangeline is a gamer and doesn't care. They walk for a while and eventually go to bed, and Herobrine stays up all night to watch over her instead of letting her take a watch. Evangeline is annoyed by this. On the second day they go to cross a river and Evangeline says it would be better for them to walk IN the (shallow) river instead to throw off anyone following them and herobrine is like ":( it's cold" but she bullies him into it. herobrine proceeds to trip over a rock and fall in the water, getting completely soaked. After Evangeline is finished making fun of him she realizes that he's actually rapidly becoming hypothermic and herds him into a cave to rest and dry off, and promptly gets Flustered when he takes off his shirt.

While hypothermic, Herobrine is slightly more open about his Feelings, and Evangeline begins to feel Feelings.

The next day they continue walking and come across a human town, which Evangeline suggests they enter in search of more supplies as they are running out of food and water. Herobrine points out that everyone hates him, but Evangeline's like "it's fiiiiine, just pull your hood down, nobody will even look at you because im a valkyrie and im cool like that" and he's like ":/ fine". they successfully get into the village, Evangeline pulling her "im a holy warrior of Literal God please give me free stuff" card and successfully getting Free Stuff. Unfortunately, a former friend of Evangeline's named Hannah happens to arrive right after her and runs into her at the general store. Contrary to Evangeline's fears, Hannah is happy she's safe and says that her getting banished was ridiculous and that everyone with half a braincell knows that she would never hurt Meryl, so what's going on?? Evangeline doesn't know but she's glad Hannah is on her side.

Hannah then proceeds to spot Herobrine's glowing eyes and is like "👁️ 👁️ 🫵" at him, to which he points out that he's not breaking any laws since he was only banished from the Nether, not settlements on the Overworld. Hannah gets mad at Eve for hanging out with him, to which Eve points out that she didnt have anyone else to turn to when she got literally shot down from the Aether. Hannah is still mad but lets them leave without raising a fuss and telling all the villagers that Herobrine is there. They leave in a hurry with their Free Stuff.

That evening, Herobrine feels bad and tells her that she needs to stop being so friendly with him because she's going to get a bad rep. Eve says frick that, we're pals. In the meantime, Hannah has made an official report of their location, which makes it to Eve's commander, philza minecra- I mean Phillip Zenith, Commander of the Valkyrian Armies. Philza is also convinced that Eve didn't kill Meryl but she was tried and sentenced before he could do anything about it. technoblad- I mean David Tekno is fairly convinced that Eve has lost her mind, if not before then definitely now because she's hanging out with herobrine, who, as we have discussed, was A Big Meanie. Philza decides he's going after her to learn the truth, Tekno tags along so dadza doesn't get himself murdered by Herobrine.

The next day, Eve has begun molting, which is good because she'll grow back her feathers and be able to fly again but bad because she is now leaving a very obvious trail. Herobrine is mad about this. Eve is mad about this. Nobody is having a good time.

Suddenly, three valkyries appear in the skies above them. they land and Eve doesn't recognize any of them, but tries to talk to them anyway, despite Herobrine's instance that they get away before they get shanked. The valkyries don't respond, and when Eve gets closer she realizes that they're not breathing. The valkyries attack them and lose, and Herobrine discovers that they all have stab wounds over their hearts preceeding their battle, which means they were already dead. He makes Evangeline leave while he beheads them. Evangeline is big sad because Literally What The Actual Flip Bro, That's Messed Up and herobrine gives her his cloak because he wants her to feel better.

In the meantime, Philza and tecknoblade have discovered Herobrine's old house, where they find the assassin's body buried in a shallow grave. They are now more convinced that Eve and herobrine have gone on a couple murder spree.

The next day it's snowing, which is bad because leaving footprints. Herobrine insists they take shelter in a mineshaft from the storm, Evangeline hates this idea but goes along with it. 15 minutes after, Philza and Techno follow their footprints into it, but are forced to split up as there are two mineshafts. Eve is having a terrible time because she's claustrophobic, and Herobrine's half-a$$ed attempts at comforting her do not work. They find a natural cave which Eve hates slightly less and hang out there for a bit, and Herobrine helps her pluck out all the loose feathers so that she's not leaving them everywhere anymore. Evangeline is steadily falling for him.

Surprise! Technoblade! Tekno finds them and is like "yo, please explain the murder before I axe your sorry butts". Eve tries to explain that the people they killed were already dead and Tekno, who has never heard of a zombie, is like "mmmmmmyeaaaaaahhhh nnoooooooooo I dont think so." Eve convinces him to let them talk to Philza about this when they get up to the surface. Herobrine attacks him with a knife.

Eve tries unsuccessfully to get Herobrine to stop attacking technoblade with a knife. They fight for a while. herobrine fire powers reveal. Techno absolutely owns him and slams a pickaxe through his ribs. Herobrine collapses, Techno moves in to finish him off but Eve makes him stop because actually! no amount of physical damage can kill herobrine, which is common knowledge amongst valkyries but technoblade is not one (he's half-human half-piglin, which, as my brother irl says, is an abomination). Techno agrees to let him just lay on the floor and gasp pathetically while they drag him up the mineshaft to get Philza, but Herobrine abruptly gets up, grabs Eve, teleports (teleportation powers reveal) and sets a support on fire, collapsing the tunnel between themselves and techno and allowing them to escape. Techno is fine, Philza finds him later.

Eve does her best to wrap up his wound while also scolding him for being a dumb idiot since he had literally no reason to attack. Herobrine sort of apologizes but is obviously mad about it and also in pain. Once there's more blood inside him then out, he insists he knows where they are and knows a safe place, and they head off again, gone by the time their pursuers get back to the surface.

Herobrine leads her to A Whole Mansion, which she thinks is really stupid and he refuses to offer any explaination for, just keeps telling her to trust him. She decides she will and they hide out in the garden overnight, and Herobrine sneaks into the building to steal food for them. The next day, upon seeing philza and technoblade arriving, Herobrine insists they hide in the building, which Eve confusedly goes along with and they hide in a cellar. They listen while the owner of the manor says he hasn't seen them, philza and technoblade leave, and then the owner walks into the cellar and is like "hi :3". Surprise! it's steve minecra- I mean Steven Lancaster, Lord of the region of Mosenta and also herobrine's older brother.

Steve is like "what kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into now" and herobrine is like "lots. pls help :(" and eve is like "??????? ???????????????????? ?????? ???????????????????????????? WHYT DIDNT YOU TELL ME THIS BEFORE" and herobrine was like "idk it wasnt important" "IT WAS TOO IMPORTANT"

Steven listens to their sob story and agrees to give them shelter for the night, new clothes, and supplies for the road. Eve goes to bed because Girl is Tired while Steven and Herobrine have some bro time and Herobrine gets a hug for the first time in like 500 years probably. The next night they head out with their new loot and they have a lovely conversation for once that isnt about being on the run and being hunted down by murderous valkyrie necromancers.

In the meantime, Philza and Techno have decided that maybe they went to the nether for some reason? so they go to the Nether to talk to the Nether Queen, who was established 300 years ago after Herobrine got ousted. she's a regular human who got granted eternal life because she was doing a banger job of being queen, and philza is a little leery about whether or not that might be affecting her psyche at this point- oh no she's hot. anyway the queen hasn't seen them but she'll keep an eye out. also they're flirting. techno has things to say about this

The next night, Eve and Herobrine are walking again when they get attacked by another valkyrie zombie, but this one is meryl. oh no.

Eve is obviously Very Thrown Off by this but the logical part of her brain allows her to fight and defend herself. Unfortunately, she's off her game enough to let Herobrine get whacked where he was already injured and get knocked down, and eve gets disarmed and pinned against a tree. Instead of killing her though, Meryl just stares at her, expressionless, with tears in her eyes, which is enough for Eve to decide that she's still conscious and insist that they don't kill her. Herobrine reluctantly goes along with this and they manage to trap her and get her tied up instead. Eve starts crying (girl has had a hard week) and herobrine gives her a hug (girl is also down bad).

They drag a very angry and wiggly meryl back to Steve's house, where they appropriate his dungeon as a holding cell and explain what's going on. They come to the conclusion that a golden apple may be able to cure her, if her wounds are what are keeping her in a half-alive state. With this in mind, Steven somehow gets a message to Philza and Techno and summons them to have a nice friendly chat about zombies and such. They arrive and manage to have a diplomatic talk with Herobrine despite their murdery last encounter, and Philza is glad that Eve is ok. Philza goes off to get a golden apple, Techno goes off to acquire a potion of weakness since he says that should help.

While all this is happening, Eve and Steven are watching over Meryl one evening and Eve asks him why Herobrine seems to have a weird vendetta against piglins. Steven explains that about a year after Herobrine was instated as the king of the Nether, a group of assassins broke into the castle and brutally murdered him, except he can't die so he was just left in excruciating pain until he was found and treated. This gave him a lasting paranoia which eventually turned into the tyrant that he had come to be known as.

Once all the materials have been gathered, they force feed Meryl the golden apple and Eve takes a stress nap. herobrine wakes her up from the stress nap because meryl is cured YAY!!! Meryl explains that she doesn't remember much after being murdered, only faint images and sounds. Eve is just glad she's okay. Since Meryl is no longer dead, Eve can no longer be banished for her murder, so her innocence is offically proven. Herobrine points out that the people that tried to take them out are going to do so again. Philza acknowledges this and says they're going to launch a full investigation now.

While people are chatting, Herobrine slips out, and Evangeline has a bad feeling so she follows him. She catches him trying to sneak off into the current snowstorm, calls him out, then confesses her love for him. Herobrine takes a solid second to process this and then very firmly rejects her, saying he's a terrible person and they should never see each other again. 10 seconds later, they both get knocked out and kidnapped.

They wake up in a dungeon, chained up next to each other, and Evangeline immediately recognizes that they're in the Aether. Herobrine is bound in magic cuffs that block his powers so he can't teleport. After a slightly awkward but mostly on-topic assessment of where they are (in a dungeon), their captor appears.

Enter, Sirben (💃✨)

Sirben is very angy that they managed to cure one of his zombies, and demands to know how they did it. Evangeline wont tell him so he beats her with a zappy stick until Herobrine tears his chains out of the wall and beats HIM with the zappy stick. Unfortunately he's wounded and not feeling so great so he can't defend her further, and Sirben ultimately decides this is too much to deal with and leaves them alone for now.

In the meantime, the gang at Steven's house has noticed that they're missing and has come to the correct conclusion that they got kidnapped, and are on their way to the Aether to regroup. On the way, they get attacked by valkyries, but not zombies this time, these are Sirben's goons. Steven reveals his earthbending powers by absolutely clowning on them. Also, Meryl is feeling kinda funny.

Herobrine and Eve, still in jail, have a long conversation about her love confession and who he is as a person and why he doesn't feel like he deserves her love. He brings up the time he ordered a third of the population of the nether capital city executed because he was afraid they would overthrow him, which she agrees was in fact Really Really Bad but also it's been centuries, he's going to live forever, and he can't do anything to undo it so he's going to have to live with it, and also hiding in the wilderness is never going to do anything for his reputation as a reprehensible tyrant. Herobrine doesn't really agree with her. he tells her that he doesn't love her, but he does care about her as a consequence of watching over her through so much. Because he cares, and also because Sirben made it very clear that he was going to kill her, Herobrine kisses her because he wants her to be happy before her inevitable death.

Sirben then proceeds to separate them, taking Eve into another room so he can interrogate Herobrine about the cure and also make grandoise threats, including that he's going to kill Evangeline in some gruesome way and also that he can find a way to kill Herobrine somehow (Herobrine, suicidal: cool 👍). In the meantime, Evangeline tries to subtly question the two goons watching her, but they are smart enough to not actually tell her anything.

When they're brought back together, Evangeline trips over her feet and bumps into her guard before she's chained up again, at which point she reveals to Herobrine that she stole the key to their chains because she succeeded her sleight of hand check. They break out and start trying to navigate their way out of Sirben's lair.

In the meantime, Philza and the gang are back in the Aether, where they meet up with Meryl's commander (Erika) and start trying to plan how to find the bad guys. Meryl claims she feels drawn in a certain direction, the gang hypothesizes that she's still connected to the bad guy somehow, and they decide to follow her vibes into the horizon.

While trying to escape, Eve and Herobrine duck into a room that they quickly realize is filled with the bodies of dead valkyries which are most likely zombie fodder. They get into a fight because Herobrine wants to behead them but Eve insists that they can be cured so they shouldn't. While they're arguing, the zombies wake up and capture them (oops). They're dragged out into the hall where Sirben rendezvouses with them, and he makes some vague comment about unexpected guests and takes them to a large, dome-shaped room with a giant glass skylight over an altar. Turns out the vibes gang are incoming fast with many angry valkyries, and Sirben is trying to kill Evangeline and then escape through a Nether portal he has in his base. Herobrine can't really do anything to stop him as Eve is brought up to the altar and Sirben goes to kill her, but he's stopped at the last moment by Philza making an epic entrance through the skylight and smacking him. Chaos ensues.

In the resulting battle, many of the zombies are bound or incapacitated, the goons are either captured or killed, and Eve and Meryl reunite and hang out with herobrine and try to stay out of harm's way. Sirben tries to slip out through the nether portal without anyone noticing, and Evangeline takes advantage of her finally healed wings to catch up to him and steal & break his zappy stick, breaking his connection to the zombies and also Meryl. Sirben, now stickless, escapes into the Nether.

Post battle, all the goons are imprisoned or dead and the zombies are just kind of lost and wandering while treatment is gotten for them. Meryl recognizes that her bestie is Down Bad. While Eve is celebrating though, Herobrine approaches her to tell her that he's Leaving Forever, Sorry, bye, and he disappears through the Nether portal (where, if you recall, he was banished).

Herobrine proceeds to go to the Nether Queen's castle and turns herself in. When she asks him what the flip he's doing there, he tells her that he wants her to lock him up for all eternity so that the nether doesn't need to worry about him anymore. She says no, she has her own ideas.

In the meantime, Meryl and Evangeline are awared medals of valor or something for revealing Sirben's plot, and they get a pat on the head from Notch and he says they did a great job. Notch also makes a comment about how he wishes Herobrine was there too. Eve also misses him and she is sad.

Sirben is not having a good time in the Nether. It's hot and he almost got gored by a hoglin. he also just lost the zombie army he's been building up for years, AND he lost his zappy stick, but he's not too concerned about that, because his boss is gonna absolutely clown on these idiots, you'll see.

THE END

Fly, Phoenix, Fly (book 2)

Book begins with the Queen of the Nether getting visited by a young lady who’s bringing the corpse of a young piglin man with her. Young lady (Alex) claims that this piglin attacked her and acted sick/feral, and she was forced to kill him in self defense. Nether Queen has Herobrine check out the body, and he comes to the conclusion that Sirben is responsible. Cut to the Aether, where Evangeline and Meryl have been summoned by Philza to the Nether because of something mysterious, but they’ve both already decided it’s probably Sirben since they both have personal experience with him. Also, it’s been 40 years since the end of book one. And Eve is still in love with Herobrine. They go through the nether portal and are immediately greeted by a strange cloaked man whose disguise lasts all of 12 seconds before Evangeline outs him as being Herobrine, sent to guide them from the portal to the castle. She demands to know where he’s been/how he’s been and he’s just like “oh yeah I work for the nether queen now” “what? for how long?” “for 40 years”. Eve is Madge.

The three of them make their way towards the castle, Herobrine pointedly ignoring them while Eve and Meryl go “?????” At each other. When they reach the castle they are brought up to speed on the situation, and they agree with Herobrine’s opinion that Sirben is to blame (minecraft zombie piglins????? 😱). They decide that they (along with Philza, Techno, and the queen, who insists on coming along because she’s bored) will go with Alex to the spot where she found the zombie piglin and then search around there for evidence that will hopefully lead them to Sirben.

The next day, they all set out. Herobrine is still pointedly ignoring Eve, but in a scene from his POV it’s revealed that he’s very much in love with her and is having a very hard time not showing it, hence the ignoring. The queen is very much aware of this and forces them to talk to each other. It’s also revealed that Herobrine has been sending letters back and forth with Steven (bros :) ).

After a couple of days they make it to where Alex found the piglin, and they start hunting around for clues. They find plants that seem to be withered, but before they can make any progress they get attacked by hoglins (which aren’t scared of warped mushrooms like they’re supposed to be and scatter. Philza grabs the queen (oh yeah, they’ve also been dating for like 40 years now) and flees, Eve brings Alex to a safe place and then returns, and Herobrine grabs her and teleports away from danger while Meryl flees with Techno. Meryl and Techno find Philza and Mumza, while Alex finds Herobrine and Eve. Neither group knows where the other is, and both of them start walking in the wrong direction to find the other.

While walking through a warped forest, Eve and her gang encounter an Enderman, who plucks a few mushrooms and then vanishes. In the meantime, the queen and her party are in a soul sand valley. Also, over the course of these chapters we see a series of flashbacks from Herobrine’s childhood (smol baby) to when he was a young man (30-100) and is established as the king of the Nether. he was, in fact, a good boi.

Eve’s party eventually descends into a ravine because Herobrine insists that it’s the sort of place that the queen would take shelter in. Unfortunately, she’s not there. Eve keeps arguing with him but he keeps brushing her off and ignoring her, which pisses her off enough that she confronts him directly, accusing him of leaving her to go serve the queen. Herobrine admits that he came to the Nether in the hopes of being locked up forever, and apologizes for brushing her off. Immediately after, they are attacked by hoglins.

After getting out of the ravine, Herobrine points out that there’s a boar spear sticking out of the hoglin and suggests they try to kill it to win the favor of whoever was trying to do so in the first place. Evangeline agrees, and they leave Alex in a safe place (much to her chagrin) while they fight it. They successfully take out the hoglin, only to realize that it’s a zombie. A second hoglin sneaks up on Evangeline and gores her, injuring her badly, and Herobrine teleports with her to safety and cauterizing the wound to keep her stable while Alex brews healing potions.

By the time she’s woken up and is doing okay again, Herobrine is acting a lot more affectionate, immediately offering to carry her so she doesn’t have to walk. The next time they rest, Alex interrogates Eve about her relationship with Herobrine since she has observed very mixed signals from them. Eve tells her that she still has feelings for Herobrine, but he doesn’t return them and she can’t force him to, so she’s not going to try. In the meantime, Philza and the gang finds a piglin village where all the inhabitants are dead and crumbling into black dust.

Herobrine continues to carry Eve the next day, and as they’re walking they encounter a pair of piglin hunters. They explain how Eve got injured, and it turns out that those piglins were tracking the hoglins that attacked them, since they were ‘strange’ and not deterred by warped mushrooms like they’re supposed to be. The hunters invite them back to their camp, and Herobrine reluctantly accepts at the promise of being given fresh supplies.

The piglins bring them back to their camp, where they’re welcomed. Herobrine is a little uncomfortable around them, but after 40 years in the nether his piglin phobia has reduced considerably. The piglins celebrate because the hoglins were murdered, and Herobrine invites Eve to dance with him. Bewildered, she accepts. Alex is now more confused.

After dinner, the highlord of the camp calls them all in to speak with him. They explain who Sirben is and what they suspect he’s doing, and it turns out that the zombie piglin that attacked Alex came from this camp. The highlord sends out Eve and Alex to talk to Herobrine alone, and reveals that Herobrine was responsible for killing his grandfather about 400 years ago. Herobrine apologizes, which the highlord is not satisfied with, but Herobrine promises to do his best to protect the Nether by dealing with Sirben. The highlord agrees to give them supplies and tells him to never come back, or else.

The following chapter begins with a flashback of Herobrine being attacked in his castle and left for dead. In the present, shortly after leaving the piglin camp, he and the girls find a bloodstained feather, directly after which Sirben reveals himself along with two huge, black skeletons. Eve and Sirben banter for a bit, then Herobrine notices a crest on a banner that a skeleton is carrying, which is the same crest as the assassins who attacked him wore. He promptly spirals into a panic attack. Sirben leaves, the skeletons go to attack them, and Herobrine grabs the girls and teleports away.

Eventually, they get far enough away and Herobrine has calmed down enough to explain what freaked him out. Eve is sympathetic. They find a cave to hide out in for the night, and Alex goes to bed, leaving Eve and Herobrine awake. Herobrine refuses to sleep because he’s afraid of having nightmares. They talk for a while, which culminates in Evangeline demanding to know why he’s been acting weird and Herobrine admits that he’s in love with her, but he’s been avoiding her because he doesn’t deserve the happiness that she would bring him. Eve gives him a hug, then kisses him and he starts crying. In the meantime, Philza and the gang finally make their way back around to the capital.

The next day, Eve’s gang agrees (reluctantly on Herobrine’s part) to let her fly around to scan for any sign of Sirben from the air. She heads out and makes it back safe, reporting that she found tracks in a soulsand valley. In the meantime, Techno and Meryl head out to track them down, this time with a lodestone compass so they don’t get lost themselves.

Eve and the gang pass through the soulsand valley, which is Annoying because the sand is basically quicksand. They lose the trail in a crimson forest, and Eve flies off again. This time, she finds a sword abandoned in the middle of a clearing, and while investigating it is kidnapped by Sirben and his piglin brutes. When she doesn’t come back, Herobrine and Alex go in search of her, and they find her sword, which Sirben left intentionally to bait them into following.

Sirben ties up Eve and leaves her in his base, which is a cave system (RIP claustrophobic Eve), with the express purpose of baiting in Herobrine. Eve tells him he’s going to get smacked. Sirben, who has ego problems, doesn’t believe her. She also notices that he has a bunch of captive hoglins. Herobrine and Alex track down the camp (which is covered with the same crest as the assassins that attacked Herobrine), and devise a plan to break in and save her.

Herobrine teleports into the caves and murders every piglin that he comes across, eventually locating Sirben in a larger room and attacking him. He’s promptly attacked by wither skeletons, which are far stronger and faster than he expects, but he manages to hold them off until the hoglins (which Alex released) flood the cave system and destroy everything in their path. Herobrine slips away and finds Eve, kills her guards, and gets out with her safely. As they make to leave, they notice Sirben escaping, and Eve goes after him, but she doesn’t take him down before he reaches more wither skeletons. He and Eve have another shouting match, then one of the wither skeletons attacks Sirben and cuts off his wing, causing him to fall off the ledge and land in the forest below. By the time Eve and the gang get to him, he’s dying, and he explains that a single blow from the skeletons inflicts Wither, which is lethal. He says that his master is named Null and that it’s impossible to kill him. Eve sits with him and holds his hand while he dies.

With Sirben dead, the gang heads through the tunnel that he was about to flee through in search of Null. During a rest stop, Eve and Herobrine talk about Sirben’s death, then they kiss more, despite Herobrine’s insistence that he’s going to leave her after this mission and they shouldn’t make the separation harder (because he doesn’t deserve to be happy etc etc etc). In the meantime, Meryl and Techno find the camp where they stayed and talk to the Highlord about where they went.

When they get to the end of the tunnel, they spot a group of piglin brutes leading a prisoner, and Eve convinces them that they should rescue them because they might have info for them. Eve and Herobrine beat up the piglin brutes and rescue the woman, who is a former member of Null’s cult, and she leads them back to the bastion where she’s been living.

Hama goes to take a nap and Herobrine sneaks off to treat his wound and have some alone time, which Eve crashes because she wants to spend as much time as possible before he leaves her. When Hama gets up, she explains to them how she was born into Null’s cult and left when she became elderly, which made her a target for the younger, more bloodthirsty members. She describes Null to them and explains his wither powers, and says that the cult worships him and he has lots of wither skeletons. She also says that he was directly responsible for the attempt on Herobrine’s life, since he was doing such a good job uniting the Nether and that was a bad thing for Null, who thrived on chaos. They ask her where to find him, and she says she can’t tell them, but she produces an old map that she says her parents had. Alex, being a mapmaker, is able to read it and can lead them to Null’s fortress. In the meantime, back at the Nether Castle, Philza tries to propose to Mumza but is interrupted by the castle being attacked by wither skeletons.

On their way to Null’s castle, Herobrine tries to convince Eve to take Alex and leave once they get there in an attempt to keep them safe, but Eve refuses since she wants to protect him to. They argue, and then he kisses her. Alex is very confused about the current state of the ship.

Over the course of these chapters, we get a series of flashbacks of Herobrine growing more and more cruel and paranoid, including how he murdered a valkyrie woman named Angela because he was afraid she was a spy from Notch. This ultimately culminates in him having a third of the population of the capital executed, following the death of his most trusted advisor, Mikkael.

In the present, Eve and Alex chat about family, and Eve explains to her how valkyries who suffer severe injuries or mental trauma retire from fighting and take care of the young valkyries instead.

The wither skeletons at the nether capital are currently breaking into the castle, and Philza manages to convince Mumza to flee to the Aether with him for safety. As they’re fleeing, the wither skeletons break in and attack them, and Philza is forced to break through a window with her to escape. The moment they reach the Aether, he proposes and she accepts.

Eve and her gang encounter another zombie piglin, this one being a member of Null’s cult, and they follow his tracks to the cult camp, where they find that the zombification has spread and infected the entire cult (L). Herobrine is also being more affectionate towards her now. In the Aether, Philza and Mumza meet up with Erika (that’s Meryl’s commander) and Notch, who is obviously concerned about the fact that there are animate skeletons that 1-hit KO anything they touch. They all decide to go through another portal to scout out the situation. Upon arriving, they conclude that the city is so far safe, but the castle is completely overrun by the skeletons. They decide that the plan will be for Notch to go in and start beating them with his hammer while the valkyries drop big rocks on them.

Eve and the gang reach the lava lake that Null’s Nether Fortress is located in, and they stop one last time to rest before they attack. They’re all stressed, but they’re trying their best to keep up morale. Eve tries to convince Herobrine once more that he’s not an irredeemable piece of trash, with debatable success. Meryl and Techno are getting close to finding them.

The next day, Herobrine goes to the fortress alone to confront Null, and he gets his attention while Eve sneak attacks him. At the capital, Notch engages the wither skeletons, and he gets withered but fights off the infection. Philza and Mumza watch from a distance with Steven (who’s also there), until they’re attacked by wither skeletons and Philza carries her to safety. Steven joins Notch at the castle to help him fight, despite Notch’s protests that he should keep back.

At the nether fortress, Eve and Herobrine continue to fight, and they encounter a wither skeleton made from the remains of Sirben. Upon taking out all of the wither skeletons, Null attacks them himself, and Eve manages to push him off the fortress, but he throws an ender pearl and teleports back up. He almost manages to kill Herobrine, but Eve pins Null down for just long enough for Herobrine to run him through and kill him. The wither skeleton reinforcements beginning to arrive start to crumble, and Eve and Herobrine hug. Eve is the only one to spot a wither skeleton archer before it fires on them, and she blocks the shot with her wing to keep it from hitting Herobrine, who she suspects would be killed by wither. Herobrine is distraught as she begins to die, but Meryl and Techno arrive just in time to get her to eat enough of a golden apple to save her, and Meryl carries her back to the Aether for further treatment. At the capital, the rest of the wither skeletons crumble.

Eve wakes up in the Aether with her wing destroyed, but with Herobrine there waiting for her, and he doesn’t waste any time in professing his love for her and proposing. They get married, and become a set of surrogate parents for the young valkyries while dealing with their own demons.

THE END

#I’ll recap book 3 when I finish writing it #evangeline #FAF!Herobrine #Sirben #FAF #FPF #fanfiction

4 notes · View notes

mothman-can-write · 1 year ago

Note

hi !!! i saw u said you were open for prompts, i mean this is kinda less of a prompt really, but like i loved that blackhill mission transcript thing you did a while ago and would be really cool to see some more stuff in the same vein ig ! but also maybe something like a kinda blackhill first meeting kinda thing idk !! i just love your work tho ! you really have the ability to make me feel all the emotions

OOOOO i just thought of this whilst writing this but maybe something like with clint teasing nat ab having like feelings for maria or something ?? idk i just love ur writing ! sorry these are kinda shitty hahah

NGL I took this prompt and mangled it in my hands. I heard first meeting and my brain was immediately like well that could go seventeen thousand different ways, so I sorta mashed in Clint's teasing to go along with it and made it a little more suggestive than outright shippy. Realistically, I think if Natasha is only meeting Maria for the first time, she's probably still in a place where she's not totally open to such self indulgent things as having a crush

Also, this isn't a mission transcript but I'd love to do more of them that one was really fun! I just don't really have any good ideas for the sort of things they'd have to talk about in the field besides dying haha

ANYWAY enough rambling, though you're all familiar with my inability to shut up these days. ~3k under the cut of Clint being a ballache and nat being sceptical but gay

The only person that doesn’t treat Natasha like she’s a project – or a live wire – is Clint. He’d had his fair share of looking at her with those careful eyes, something behind them that made her teeth itch in her gums like some trained dog. He doesn’t do that so much anymore, not unless she’s in a particular state and doing a very bad job at hiding it. She likes him, she thinks. He might be one of the first people in her entire life that she can truly say she likes.

Naturally, she finds herself in his quarters more often than her own. She lays on his bed as he works on something probably explosive enough to kill them both if he sneezes, and she ignores the pip of her emails as she braids a small strip of hair under her ear. She’s bored, if she’s honest, but she doesn’t want to waste her first free morning of the past fortnight on something so trivial as emails. Or helping Clint.

“You not gonna answer her?” he says without looking up from his work. He holds it close to his face, something far too small in his tweezers.

Natasha’s fingers pause in untangling her braid. “How do you know who it is?”

He still doesn’t turn in his seat, matter of fact when he speaks. “You have a different tone for Hill.”

“How did you figure that out?” She tries not to scowl at him, but she still isn’t used to feeling so see-through. Quite frankly, she’d like to be as opaque as possible, but she seems to have grown rather attached to someone with x-ray vision.

Clint puts his miniature contraption down and turns to her at last. She’s not fond of the smile on his face as he leans over the back of his chair. “You’re not the only spy on the ship. Also, you weren’t trying very hard to hide it.”

“Her emails are usually more important,” Natasha argues, not quite sure why she feels the need to defend herself on it.

Clint grins ever wider. “I never asked why. I just thought you had a massive crush on her.”

Natasha scowls fully this time. “I’ve never met her.”

He shrugs. “I don’t know what’s in those emails.”

“Shut up.”

She reaches for her phone anyway and pointedly ignores the way Clint watches her. The email is much the same as they always are, telling her about meetings and progress and such. She’s overtly professional in every one, but now that she’s thinking about it, Natasha likes the words she uses – just slightly like she enjoyed reading dictionaries as a child. Very, very rarely, Maria will let something slip in her emails that is almost like humour, and Natasha doesn’t tell Clint that she actually does enjoy receiving emails from her just for the fact that she feels a little special when that happens. She’s heard the rumours; she knows not to expect giggles and grins when it comes to the Assistant Director.

In the end, she doesn’t bother to respond to the email anyway and Clint has already turned back to his work. “Not in the mood to sext her back?”

She scowls at the back of his head. “It sounds like Laura needs to watch her back.”

“Oh, god,” he laughs. “Gross. Absolutely not. Not my type.”

“What makes you think she’s mine?”

“You need someone to match your weirdness.”

Natasha wishes she had something to throw at him. She won’t admit that she intrigues her in small ways. She doubts she’s any different from every other CEO and government lead in the world, but some small part of her feels thankful to her faceless emails. She could’ve easily overridden Clint’s choice, could’ve had her put down before she could even think to beg for forgiveness. But she’d given her a chance, and she’d kept in contact despite her supposed overbooked schedule every day since. Maria held her life in her hands at one point, and she’d given her another shot at it.

Despite everything, Natasha still doesn’t sleep well. Or, rather, because of everything, she supposes. One good month doesn’t erase a lifetime of bad – and she’s really a little hesitant to say that this month has even been good in many senses of the word. She wonders if the nights will ever get easier on her with time, or if she’s stuck with these hours of restlessness and sweat for the rest of her life. It’s not a nice thing to think about, and it doesn’t really do all that much to distract her from the shadows that still play behind her eyelids or the way the shapes of the room still seem to swim around the edges. So, she swings her legs over the side of her bed and scrubs at her face with her hands. She can appreciate, at the very least, that she isn’t handcuffed to her bed here. Somehow, that had been a hard thing to get used to. She still sleeps with one arm by the headboard.

There aren't many things to do at this hour. Clint has told her countless times that she’s perfectly welcome to pester him at any time of the night if it would make her feel even minutely better. He says he understands, and she believes him enough from the way his past lines his own face, but it doesn’t make it any easier to put into practice.

She doesn’t have a plan as she steps out into the corridors. She dresses like she’s going to the gym on the off chance that she might be able to sneak into it and punch something until she’s sweaty for reasons more tangible. She wishes the firing range was usable at this hour, but she’s sure that’s much less subtle. Still, there are some nightmares you can only really feel better by shooting at. Maybe she’ll bat her eyelashes into an hour or so at the targets tomorrow.

She passes the odd agent as she trails around the corridors and considers that the ship never really sleeps entirely. There’s always someone on the night shift, always someone pottering around with something. She thinks it would be nice to work when it’s so quiet. Maybe she should ask about changing her hours. It might be a little soon.

The gym isn’t so far from her quarters, and by the time she reaches it her shirt still feels sticky at her back and her stomach still feels like it’s alive in her ribcage. Her hopes are low enough to limbo as she presses her hand to the door, and she could almost sigh with relief when the door opens easily. She’s not against breaking in, but she likes to think she’s been doing a pretty good job of building a better reputation lately. Maybe not socially, but Maria’s emails haven’t managed to sound short lately – not since the last time she’d bypassed what she maintains was a criminally simple encryption on one of Clint’s jobs.

The gym is utterly silent at this time of the morning, which is entirely unsurprising. She doubts anyone else sensible gets out of bed for another hour or two, let alone starts their training regime. Generally, agents are allowed the privilege of breakfast before they’re worked to the bone. Natasha’s never been a fan of food so early in the morning.

She doesn’t really know when she fell out of the habit of scanning each room on this ship like someone will be waiting to haul her out of it, and she blames it firmly on her lack of sleep and nightmare slurred thoughts when she doesn’t notice the other body in the gym until it’s too late.

“I did wonder,” someone says, and Natasha’s attention snaps to one of the benches on the far side, half covered from the entrance.

It takes Natasha an almost embarrassingly drawn out moment to place her features, and she’s sure she only half succeeds in hiding her surprise into an intrigued eyebrow. The Assistant Director didn’t really strike her as the type to be in the gym when everyone is supposed to be sleeping.

“Wonder what?” she asks instead of every other question that gnaws at her head. She stays firmly planted in the middle of the room.

“Who would come in at this time.”

Oh. She’s not wondering about Natasha. She doesn’t really know what that feels a mote disappointing. She hates it when Clint asks how she’s sleeping. Maybe she just doesn’t like lying to him.

“I thought it would be empty.”

Maria places her water bottle beside her on the bench and makes absolutely no move to stand up yet. Somehow, Natasha finds it unnerving, even if she’s taller here. “It usually is,” she says simply.

Her eyes bore into her in a way that makes the back of her neck crawl. Something about her says that she’s calculating, that she’s looking at Natasha and breaking her down into little bite sized pieces. Natasha has never liked being dissected. Maria’s eyes are very blue.

“Do you usually spend your mornings here?” she asks, if only to stop Maria from burning holes into her skull and reading her thoughts directly.

It works, in the way that her gaze flicks away for the briefest moment before pinning her again in that same cool tone. “I guess you could call this morning.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Maria’s eyes soften ever so slightly around the corners, and Natasha would almost call it a squint. “I’ve made a bit of a habit at this point, yes.”

She almost seems reluctant to admit it, and Natasha can’t help the way she wants to pick this woman apart. She has always liked puzzles, and people are just some of the more complex the world has to offer. She thinks she understands the rumours a little more now, even through this uncanny meeting. She wonders if Maria feels her own searching gaze as intently.

Maria stands at last, and Natasha had almost forgotten how tall she is. She thinks she preferred it when she was sitting. “Don’t let me stop you,” she says, and Natasha is silently thankful for the way that answers her question. Again, not that she wouldn’t break the rules. It’s just much harder to make an excuse when the Assistant Director is the one who catches you.

“I would’ve expected the AD to send me back to my quarters,” she notes, as forward as ever when it gets her information. She’ll admit this woman seems to be intriguing. She’s curious as to just why she’s indulging her so far.

Maria’s expressions are all very small, mere suggestions of emotions that only make Natasha want to pick her apart. “That would make me more of a hypocrite than I already am,” she says simply, almost smiling. “Are you getting on okay?” she asks instead , and her eyes are on her like she’s deciphering her again. She’s closer now, making direct eye contact, and Natasha holds it like a game. “Besides the obvious, of course.”

Natasha tries not to scowl. God, does she hate when people pretend like they know her. “What’s the obvious?”

Maria raises one eyebrow ever so slightly, her expression caught somewhere to amusement. “Did the Red Room have you in the routine of training at four in the morning?”

“Sometimes.” They both know that’s not the reason that she’s here, as much as Natasha wishes Maria didn’t.

Her eyes are almost soft. Almost like she truly cares about her. Natasha doesn’t like to let herself believe the sort of things that might cost her later. “Half of the people on this ship struggle with it, Romanoff,” she says, nearly gentle in the silence around them. “You don’t have to be ashamed of it.”

She can almost imagine her setting a heavy hand on her shoulder as she says it, though Maria remains in her own space. She’s still slightly too close for what Natasha is used to however, and it’s the first time she realises the darkness under her eyes. Her face is lined, something bone deep that she doubts ever goes away. It lends her a certain sort of…imperfection that makes her seem a whole lot more human. For everything she’s heard, though she knows to take gossip with a healthy grain of salt, she could almost imagine Hill to be some sort of robot, some living excel sheet.

Standing in front of her, she sort of just looks like a woman who could do with some sleep. She looks like a woman who has spent the last who-knows-how-many hours beating out her own past the same way Natasha intends to. She won’t call it affection. It doesn’t mean Natasha likes the way she looks straight through her any more.

“You have any tips?” she says, aiming for something playful. She really, really just wants her to stop looking at her like she can figure her out right here in the middle of the room. Maybe if she seems better than she is, she’ll leave her alone. She’d rather her conduct a genuine vivisection out on the boxing ring floor if she’s going to continue to examine her.

She’s certain Maria almost smiles at that, a tug at the corner of her lips that is almost sad, almost conspirational. She shrugs ever so slightly. “Shooting things usually helps.”

Natasha tries not to scowl like a child. As if she wouldn’t be there right now if she could get away with it. “I’m on supervised arms training.”

This time, Maria does smile, though Natasha thinks she’d have missed it if she blinked. “Not from tomorrow,” she says plainly, and Natasha can only watch her walk away without another word.

The door closes behind her, and Natasha lets herself furrow her eyebrows as deeply as she likes. She is overtly aware that she is not being let off of supervised training tomorrow. She’s aware that she has been seen as a weapon and an explosive since the moment Clint forgot that he was meant to shoot her. Somehow, she doesn’t think that Maria is one to tease.

It makes it very hard to punch things as effectively as she’d like to when she can only think after Maria. She wonders what keeps her up at night. She wonders what else she does to get rid of the shadows. She wonders why on earth she would let her off of the hook so early. For all they know, Natasha might decide to defect back. She might’ve been biding her time until she could get a hand on one of those guns outside of the range. She’d never even dream of it, of course. She’d rather be supervised for every split second a gun is in her hands for the rest of her life than have to go back to her life before. She wonders just how deep Maria managed to dig. She wonders if she really is all that transparent after all.

She finds herself in Clint’s quarters again as thoughtlessly as breathing. Every spare minute in her schedule that lines up with his, she’ll spend hiding from the rest of the world. This time, she’s sitting in his chair, her knees resting against the edge of his desk so that she can spin it slightly from side to side. Clint is behind her in his bunk, his arms tucked up behind his head and his eyes closed. It’s only 2pm. Natasha wishes she could have a nap too.

“Is she always like that?” she says on a whim, her thoughts still stuck on tired eyes and snap decisions.

“Like what?” Clint asks, completely brushing over her lack of context.

“So…intense.”

“Ah, we’re back on Hill. Yes.” He falls silent again, and Natasha listens to his breath. “Hold on.” His eyes open and his head turns on his pillow to face her. “Did you meet her? When?”

“This morning.”

“You were at the range this morning.”

“Before that.”

“You were asleep before that.” She doesn’t answer, and that tells him everything in as little effort as possible. “Natasha.”

She doesn’t meet his eye. “It’s better than moping.”

“You don’t need to mope. You can come wake me up.”

“But then you don’t sleep.”

“Tasha, do you really think I’m sleeping well either half the time?”

She stays silent again, staring intently at the dimples Clint’s chair has made in the carpet.

“How did you even find her?” he asks eventually, giving up the argument for the countless time. “She’s practically booked to the minute.”

“She was in the gym when I got there.”

“I’m going to skip over the fact that you’d rather punch something until you bleed than come and bug me. Was it worth it? Was she all sweaty and hot? Did you two finally canoodle in person?”

She doesn’t dignify his jokes with a response, her thoughts plain in her expression. “I don’t think she sleeps well either. She looked tired.”

Clint grins a little. “You paying attention to her face?”

Natasha scowls at him. “It’s normal to look someone in the eye.”

“Mhm…” He retucks his arms under his head, settling back against his pillow. “It’s for sure normal to think about them all morning.”

“She took me off of probation,” she says, almost in a rush, like maybe this will change the subject – maybe a little bit like she’s admitting something.

“Oh you definitely have a crush on her. It’s like she’s trying to get in your pants. Remind me never to read your emails.”

Natasha only squints at him, wishing once again that she had something appropriate to throw. The urge distracts her enough that she never does reject the notion. And when she finds herself imagining Maria’s secret little smile in those few and far casual emails, she decides that Clint doesn’t need to know. She’s not been given many chances in her life, and she thinks she could make space in her life for two instead of one. She wonders if Maria would ever want a gym buddy on long nights and promptly decides not to think any deeper into it.

#words #tumblr exclusive #prompts #blackhill #natasha romanoff #maria hill #clint barton

30 notes · View notes

torchwood-99 · 11 months ago

Text

Theoden and Eowyn's Relationship

There seems to me a shift in the way that Theoden treats Eowyn in Two Towers, to how he treats her in Return of the King.

In Two Towers, the first thing he says to her on awakening is an order for her to leave the room. The danger is passed, he is healed, she can go now.

Theoden hears of how Grima, the man he trusted, stalked Eowyn and obviously had malicious plans for her. Whereas Eomer is rightly incensed by that, we get little reaction from Theoden that his adoptive daughter had been harassed by the man he welcomed into his halls and allowed great authority to.

We then see Eowyn serving Theoden, waiting on him, while her brother and Theoden's guests get to sit with him.

Then, (an oh god does this piss me off) we get Theoden pretty much forgetting she exists when the people tell him they want the House of Eorl to rule them, even when he and Eomer are gone. The scene where Theoden heeds the people's wishes and puts Eowyn in charge, even giving her a corselet and a sword, could have been moving and a moment of pride for Eowyn, but it comes on the back of that total dismissal of her as a member of their house. Their parting is perfunctory, with Theoden giving Eowyn orders and then riding off, leaving her behind to guard an empty hall.

In turn, when Eowyn is dismissed from the hall, she looks at Theoden with "cool pity." She isn't rejoicing to see him recovered, she isn't warm and tender, she is removed, even contemptuous. Then, when she bids Theoden farewell, she says all the right stuff about how hard the parting is, but her focus is clearly elsewhere. It is with Aragorn, (the man who is everything she thinks a king should be.)

Reading Two Towers, any great love between Theoden and Eowyn would be a case of telling instead of showing. There's little warmth, interest or respect between them. The greatest hint of there being anything personal between the two is when Theoden has to insist Eowyn leave, as that suggests Eowyn was reluctant to leave his side.

In Return of the King, the dynamic shifts considerable. It is far warmer and much more tender and personal. When Theoden returns to Dunharrow, he asks after Eowyn, checking on how her work is going, but also asking how she is, probably seeing that has been weeping as Merry had noticed.

In Dunharrow, Eowyn is at last allowed to sit with her uncle while he dines with her brother, instead of waiting on him. During this dinner, Theoden notices Eowyn seems in need of comfort, and tries to offer it to her. Furthermore, just as he started calling Eomer "son", he now calls Eowyn "daughter".

Their parting is described as having been very painful, and Theoden later notes that Eowyn didn't want him gone from her side. While he dies with some peace, feeling like he has regained his honour and accomplished worthy feats, he mentions how Eowyn didn't want him to go and now he will never see her again, the closest thing to regret we hear in his dying speech. He calls her dearer-than-daughter, and uses his last breath to bid her farewell.

Eowyn, in turn, breaks away from Elfhelm's eored so she can ride close to the king, is noted several times to have Theoden as a father, and of course, is willing to endure a terrible death to allow Theoden to die in peace.

Now, the shift in their dynamic can be attributed to Tolkien needing to make Eowyn's attempted sacrifice and Theoden's following death more moving, but I also think there are in-universe reasons for the shift in dynamic as well.

First, in Two Towers, Theoden is still coming out from his own traumatic experience. A traumatic experience that probably left him feeling ashamed, as during that time he fit into his people's conception of neither a man nor a king, and his country suffered for it. Eowyn was with him that whole time, she saw his fall into dotage, and as the narrative noted that Eowyn "pitied" him for it, and saw in him the fall of their house, Theoden likewise felt the same, and also either saw or at least suspected Eowyn's own feelings. She is a symbol of his hurt pride.

Eowyn's presence at his side was a reminder of his time spent being nursed by her, a time of suffering and degradation, which Theoden would rather not be reminded of. and now he's coming out from that, there's a distance between them. That their relationship has been one of nursemaid and patient, only to be drastically altered, also makes it reasonable for there now to be a gap between them, now that Theoden has taken up a role of authority and power once more, and Eowyn, his living crutch, is no longer needed.

At the same time, Theoden has gotten used to seeing Eowyn as a crutch, a staff for him to lean on, and not a person with a will or capabilities of her own.

Eomer is his sister-son, the last of his house, the brave warrior who endured imprisonment at his own adoptive father's hands to do what's right for their people, and the future of Rohan. Eowyn is the nurse he no longer needs, the reminder of his lost pride and power, the crutch he can now throw aside and pray he never needs again.

That he lives in a patriarchal society and thus already has a lazy, general expectation of women and women's roles, also means he is going to have something of a blind spot to Eowyn. She waits on him and comes and goes at his calling because that is what women do. It doesn't occur to him that Eowyn can lead, because Eowyn as a leader simply isn't something he has ever seen her as.

The fact that he's dealing with his own trauma, loss of his son, the threat of Sauron and Saruman, and his imminent march to war, all means that he really isn't in the head space to re-think things with Eowyn, notice how she too has been suffering, or acknowledge the power in her that has been overlooked by him. Eowyn, likewise, has little time or cause to reform the bond with her uncle.

Come Return of the King, things have changed. Time has passed, for one. Theoden is a leading king once more, with a victory under his belt. His pride, to an extent, has been restored. At the same time, he knows more war is coming, and he will probably be dying soon. As such, Eowyn is less the shameful reminder of his past, and more a child he will have to say farewell to very soon.

On returning to Dunharrow, he is presented with two bits of information about Eowyn. One, that she had done her duty very well, the people are settled and safe, and they followed her, just as Hama said they would. At the same time, Eowyn has obviously been suffering. Before, Theoden was the king, the leader, and at the same time, he was the patient and the sufferer in need of tending to and comfort.

Now, Theoden sees that Eowyn is a leader, that she has an existence and virtues aside from being his carer. At the same time, he is reminded that Eowyn has feelings, that she suffers hurts and losses, and needs comforting.

The tension from Eowyn having seen and nursed Theoden at his lowest might be eased, at least on Theoden's side, for Eowyn is no longer just a crutch that Theoden doesn't want or need, and Theoden is now in the place of seeing Eowyn vulnerable and in need of comfort.

And just as how Theoden now looks on Eomer fully as a son following the battle, Eowyn is now fully his daughter. He has made that choice to embrace them so, and on doing this, he sees Eowyn has proven herself a leader, but is also in pain. Paternal pride and paternal comfort now have cause to meet.

On the note of leadership, that Eowyn now sits with Theoden at table, instead of waiting on him, marks a shift in their dynamic and Eowyn's position. Eowyn has taken charge of the people, she has organised the camp, she has acted as lord in his place, it's no longer right that she act as his cupbearer.

Going into speculation, we can also look at how Theoden assigns Merry to serve Eowyn. Now, this is to give Merry some purpose, and to keep him safe. But at the same time, he is acknowledging Eowyn as a leader, while also perhaps ensuring she has someone in her company who might be comforting to her.

Theoden rides off to death, knowing that this may very well be the last time he sees Eowyn. Eowyn, having had some part of her bond with Theoden reforged, her love and respect for him re-captured, coupled with a lingering sense of duty that it's her role to care for him, doesn't just ride to battle, but rides to protect him.

Finally, in terms of framing, we see Eowyn and Theoden through the eyes of Merry. Merry is compassionate, able to pick up on people's feelings, perhaps more inclined to notice the familial stuff, than the more removed narrator of Two Towers.

In his recollections, retold to Sam and Frodo for the Red Book, it is likely that he would have remembered more of the tender moments between Theoden and Eowyn, than whoever it was who told Sam and Frodo about the pair in Two Towers. Especially as Merry loved Theoden like a father and was very close to Eowyn, and in hindsight knew about what love for Theoden would drive Eowyn to do. Therefore, both at the time and in memory, he would have placed far more importance on their interpersonal relationship, than the Three Hunters would have done with their re-tellings.

Who knows what moments between Theoden and Eowyn we would have seen in the Two Towers; Eowyn's reaction to Eomer being called last of their house, Theoden's face on being reminded Eowyn was there, whatever passed between them when Theoden gave her that sword and corselet, had we got them from Merry's POV,

#Lotr #Lord of the Rings #Eowyn #Theoden #Merry Brandybuck

12 notes · View notes