#but when i don't get much of a response; well .....

[gojosprettyprincess]

𝜗𝜚˚⋆ GRIMY STEP-DAD TOJI!

Tw - STEPCEST, cheating, age-gap(early 20s n early 40s), anal play, daddy/dad kink, oral, some really inappropriate and gross stuff. Stepcest isn’t blood related. Not proofread.

A/n - “Toji wouldn’t do th-“ I don’t give a shit, goodnight.

GRIMY STEP-DAD TOJI! who secretly rubs your little pussy through your thin cotton panties from underneath the blanket while you're having a movie night with your family in the living room.

GRIMY STEP-DAD TOJI! who tells your clueless mother that he’s taking you on a daddy-and-daughter bonding trip for a few days so the two of you can spend more time together and get to know each other more which only ends up with his hefty cock being stuffed deep into your innocent pussy— filling you up to the brim in some random hotel not too far from your house.

GRIMY STEP-DAD TOJI! who instantly gets rock hard whenever you'd call him “dad” or “daddy”. He just can’t help when a sweet young thing like you is innocently batting your eyelashes up at him and asking him for his assistance. God, you’re so helpless, you can’t do anything without the help from your dad, not even cumming. :(

Which is why he has to sneak into your bedroom dead at night and skillfully poke his stepdaughter’s g-spot with his fat tip till you can finally cum and make a big mess on his cock.

GRIMY STEP-DAD TOJI! who's obsessed with you sitting on his face, your warm dripping pussy nestled in his mouth while his eager tongue skillfully laps at the essence of your arousal from your glistening entrance. His nose presses into your rim purposefully, causing your adorable hole to wink against his nose in playful response to his inhales and breathing. He needs you on his face at least once a day :(

GRIMY STEP-DAD TOJI! who you coincidentally encounter in the bathroom, late at night while he’s pissing so that quickly escalated with his girthy cock now being shoved down your throat and he's thrusting it rhythmically in and out your mouth. Your eyes begin to well up with tears which only fuels him even more to use your mouth to his favor as he deviously grins down at you when he notices how you're helplessly playing with your drenched pussy with your fingers.

GRIMY STEP-DAD TOJI! who gets off from being risky, especially when your mom is dozing off on the couch and he has you forcefully bent over the cold marble kitchen counter with one of his muscular hands pressed firmly against your lower back so you won't escape from his hold. His fat thumb is clogging your ass and his veiny cock is stretching your little pussy apart around his shaft while his angry tip is exploring the depths of your cunt.

He'd be such a mean man and force his thumb deeper and deeper into your asshole just so he can get a cute reaction from you and hear you whine while you desperately claw at his beefy forearm for him to stop :( He only chuckles and laughs at how scared you are as if you don't love it as much as he does.

GRIMY STEP-DAD TOJI! who loves referring to himself as Daddy while he's balls deep into your slippery hole. Your trembling knees are knocking against your soft, bouncing tits and you're desperately gasping for air while your nails are sinking into his strong hand that's encircling your neck. "Shh shh c'mon be a good little step-kid f'daddy and take my cock". He whispers, trailing a thumb up to your glossy lips before inserting it into your mouth for you to suck on.

His cock is crammed into your tight pussy, and the way you keep sucking him in deeper and deeper every hazy second makes him not want to pull out anytime soon. He just can't get enough of your pussy. "That's it, that's baby, yer making daddy feel sooo good".

GRIMY STEP-DAD TOJI! who has developed a habit of sniffing your cunt and ass, he just can't help it :( he just loves your natural scent and can't get enough of you when he's bending down behind your small figure while you're engrossed in cooking dinner for the family and pulls your shorts down to bury his pointy nose in your moist pussy.

A plague of worries clouds your head when you feel his nose prodding into your tight entrance in the open. "T-toji! n-not here, she'll see!", you pleaded as you attempted to push his head away from your rear only for him to clasp both of your hands into his larger ones with just a chuckle rumbling against your cunny. soft whimpers escape your lips when you hear his loud whiffs of your pussy.

GRIMY STEP-DAD TOJI! who loves nothing more than licking his step-daughter’s little pussy at any given chance he gets :(

It's so prohibited and “taboo” and the older man is very much aware of that but he just can't help it when he's quietly slipping into your bedroom late at night to run his salivating tongue over the sapping mound— He’s been practically thinking about it the entire day.

His clothed cock immediately starts twitching uncontrollably every time his grimy thoughts clouded his vivid imagination, all he could do at work was discreetly palm his hardened bulge and give it a hard squeeze for friction and temporary relief.

He barely could wait till everyone was asleep to taste your delicious pussy again.

A deep involuntary groan leaves his lips from the taste of your creamy pussy melting on his tastebuds. The sensation of the sticky slick clinging onto his tongue stirred a desperate throbbing in his cock, yearning for more. God, every fiber of his being ached to plunge his hard cockhead into your warm, virgin pussy and ravish you until you painted his shaft with your cream but he won't... at least not yet.

Luckily for him, you were sleeping on your stomach and the tranquility of your slumber allowed him to cautiously lower your adorable panties down, gently resting it at your lower thighs, and parted your plush cheeks using his thumbs to peek at your delicate pussy. The glossy sheen veiling your folds glistened in the dim light, making his fat cock throb with urgency.

“Fuck, so pretty” he whispered breathlessly, sticking his tongue out to lap at your messy folds, his tongue flickers back and forth, licking up at your wetness and replacing it with his spit and intertwining saliva. Unfortunately for him, you weren’t a heavy sleeper so the sensation of his soft, wet tongue wiggling against your most intimate place was enough to stir you awake.

Your eyelids flutter open weakly, giving way to the heavy fog of slumber that still clung to your countenance. Sleep is evident in your features as your tummy tingles from the continuous sensation of the stimulation. Your vision was clouded with fuzziness but you could still make out the muscular silhouette of your step-father.

He was huge and muscular, he wasn’t built like some ordinary man so there was no mistake that it was him.

“Daddy?”You mumbled innocently, rubbing your eyes in hopes of having a clearer view after.

“W-hat are you doing?”

“Shh shh, go back to sleep doll. Dad’s gonna take care of ya” he lightly chuckled before caressing your ass and placing a few wet kisses on your soft cheeks.

[thankskenpenders]

Thoughts on two specific areas of the writing in Sonic X Shadow Generations

The best new 3D Sonic game in over a decade (or even two, depending on who you ask) dropped late last year. And I didn't write anything about it! Sometimes life happens. Well, I've finally sat down to finish Shadow Generations, and by now everyone has already been singing its praises for three months. This is the rare instance where the entire Sonic fandom, and even mainstream reviewers, are in agreement on something. The level design is the best it's been in a long, long time and the cool factor is off the charts, embracing Sonic's peak cringe era in an incredibly confident way. It's great. If you're even reading this post, you probably don't need me to tell you that. So I won't!

No, what I'm really interested in here is the writing. Because this is me we're talking about. But I actually don't want to talk about the main narrative of Shadow Generations, which is really solid little story about Black Doom trying to mold Shadow into his perfect soldier. No, I'd like to zero in on two other aspects of the writing here: the revisions made to Sonic Generations, and Gerald Robotnik's unlockable journal.

The updated Sonic Generations script

The new package mostly presents Sonic Generations how you remember it. There are some tweaks, but it's not a major overhaul. Graphically, I don't think the game has been touched much, if at all. I certainly can't notice any difference without a side-by-side comparison, despite playing it on a PS5. The most notable update is that the game's script has been rewritten by Ian Flynn.

Naturally, this caught my attention. Generations always had a nothingburger story, so with Ian rewriting Pontac and Graff's lame dialogue there was nowhere to go but up. (I don't like to pin the blame for those games' stories entirely on them, as a ton of it was dictated to them by Sonic Team, but, well, I don't think they're very good dialogue writers.) But it's less a complete rewrite and more like Ian was brought on as a script doctor for some minor touch ups here and there. Many lines of dialogue are completely identical to how they were originally written in 2011, and many others only have slight wording changes. Ian was clearly not allowed to request additional scenes or extend the ones that already existed. He has to match the original beat for beat so that they can reuse 99% of the cutscene animations. Don't expect it to be a whole new experience compared to the original.

Still, I think the new script is an improvement, albeit a minor one. Various things have been tweaked to maintain characterization consistency. Cream calls Sonic "Mr. Sonic" instead of just "Sonic." Instead of calling Sonic "buddy," Rouge uses the pet name "Blue," like she tends to do in things like the IDW comics. Espio doesn't have to remind you in the dialogue that he's a ninja, and he no longer has a line making it sound like he has some kind of soul reading power. I also like that Modern Sonic now actually has responses to what his friends say when he rescues them, rather than being silent like Classic Sonic. They won't blow you away, but they make Sonic feel a little more engaged with everything.

In general, the altered dialogue just seems tighter to me, and some of the more childish or trite wording of Pontac and Graff's script has been altered. Here, let's actually make a direct comparison, just because this stuff is interesting to me as a writer. Here's a couple lines from after the Egg Dragoon fight late in the game, in the original script:

Modern Eggman: Ooooh... I can't believe this! I was supposed to beat you this time. Modern Sonic: Aw, I'm sorry! I didn't get that memo. I beat you every time! [Turns to Classic Sonic] No, seriously, we beat this guy every time. It's like it's our job or something!

This is a simple exchange. Eggman is mad that he lost. Sonic is unflappably confident because he always beats Eggman, and he explains this to his younger self. But the wording here isn't particularly good. Eggman's simple and direct wording makes him come off like a little kid who's mad because his older brother beat him at Mario Kart, rather than a mad scientist who just had his plans foiled. It's making light of the situation.

And I've never liked Sonic saying "It's like it's our job or something!" That doesn't feel like a thing Sonic would say, it feels like a thing an outside observer would say about Sonic. This is a frequent problem with so-called "MCU dialogue," where quips meant to echo the commentary of a casual, somewhat disinterested audience are inserted into the story itself so that the writers can be like "See? We get it. We're genre-savvy, too!" It also just reminds me of bad Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric lines like "Rings! It's like they're made for me!"

And then here's Ian's rewrite:

Modern Eggman: I recalibrated everything! This was supposed to be my time! Modern Sonic: Oh, please, keep dreamin', Egg-head. I beat you every time. [Turns to Classic Sonic] No, seriously, we beat him every time. Our score card's flawless.

Eggman's still mad about his defeat, but the line "I recalibrated everything!" makes it more specific. He put all this work into the engineering side of his latest scheme and got tunnel vision, thinking if he got his creations just right there'd be no way he could lose. "This was supposed to be my time!" also turns it into a time travel pun, which is a bonus. He's still pitching a fit over losing, but it feels more like Eggman pitching a fit, rather than sounding childish.

And then instead of saying that beating Eggman is "like his job or something," Sonic says he's got a flawless score card against Eggman. He doesn't take Eggman seriously as a threat—at least, not to his face. He acts like it's all a game. But he conveys this in a way that feels truer to the character, rather than feeling like the words of a real world observer poking fun at the tropes of the Sonic series.

Is this amazing, A+ dialogue that blows me away? No. Again, it's not a completely different scene from the one we already had. Ian had to fit the beats of what was already there. He couldn't go all out and write an all new story confirming his longstanding headcanon that the Time Eater is a remnant of Solaris or whatever. But the wording here makes the existing story land a little better and feel truer to the characters in subtle ways.

But to me, the main change is that the Sonics and Tailses seem to have a more solid understanding of what's going on with the timeline and the Time Eater, compared to how idiotic they sometimes seemed in the original game. Which is good! No more standing outside Green Hill and wondering why it seems so familiar. Thank god. As part of this, yes, there are a few more references to past games in the dialogue, like Sonic briefly being confused about the fact that they're time traveling without the Time Stones, or South Island and Westside Island being acknowledged as the normal locations of Green Hill and Chemical Plant. Yes, ha ha, insert joke about how Ian loves references here. Look, it's Sonic fucking Generations. It's a game built entirely out of nostalgic references. Just own it! And, again, in this instance Sonic and Tails come off as less stupid when they make it clear that they do, in fact, remember their adventures from presumably less than a year ago in-universe.

Eggman, too, seems to have a better understanding of the powers he's toying with. Where in the original vesion his focus was simply on going back in time to undo his previous defeats and he seemed kind of oblivious to how much the Time Eater was actually fucking up the universe, here Eggman says he wants to use the Time Eater to give himself complete control over the entire timeline. Eggman also makes way fewer references to his own failures and shortcomings. Of course he won't admit that Sonic has defeated him time and time again. To him, he's never truly lost—Sonic just keeps delaying the inevitable total victory for the Eggman Empire.

So, yes. The new Sonic Generations script is better. It won't blow anyone away, but it's better than it was. It's been elevated from "kinda lame" to "fine." No, if you really wanna see Ian flex his ability to breathe new life into old Sonic stories, look no further than...

Gerald Robotnik's Journal

Hoo boy.

The story of what happened aboard the ARK has always been... a bit confusing, to say the least. Fans with encyclopedic knowledge of the script for every route of Shadow '05 may disagree, but it's the truth. We've had all the pieces to understand the story for a long time now, but that info was given to us out of order by a pair of unreliable narrators—Gerald, who became a vengeful lunatic shortly before his death, and Shadow, who was subjected to multiple rounds of amnesia and altered memories. Some of the ambiguity left by Sonic Adventure 2 was cleared up in Shadow '05, but that game also retconned in a bunch of new elements to Shadow's backstory (aliens!) that lead to further confusion. Not to mention the fact that that game had multiple routes and only revealed the truth about Shadow if you sat on the ultimate final boss battle for WAY longer than the fight would normally last. Or the fact that Sonic X made its own tweaks in its telling of the story. Or the fact that none of these things ever had the best English translations. I can't blame anyone who hasn't played those games in two decades for not remembering the truth about these characters and getting some details mixed up.

What we needed was something to piece together all of the info we have into one coherent backstory, told in chronological order. And thanks to Shadow Generations, we have that, in the form of an official journal tying together what we knew from Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow '05, and Sonic Battle into the tragic tale of Gerald's rise and fall.

Ian Flynn was the perfect man for the job here as the guy who started his career by tidying up the mess that was the first 159 issues if Archie Sonic. This is what he excels at: taking disparate bits of weird Sonic lore from multiple different sources, boiling them down to their most interesting elements, and connecting it together in a way that will make the audience see the dramatic potential he's always known was there. Rather than feeling like a cynical exercise in franchise building, going back and explaining things that never needed explaining so that people can add more bullet points to the wiki, he puts a new spin on things that retroactively enriches those past stories. The story here means something to the characters involved and gives us a better understanding of them as people, rather than as plot devices to motivate Shadow.

(And, of course, Ian didn't do this journal alone. He wrote the story, but I also have to give a huge shout out to Evan Stanley, who made the final product. All of her handwritten journal entries, sketches, and "photos" included throughout. The physical damage done to the journal over the course of 50 tumultuous years, passing from Gerald to Eggman to a certain special someone at GUN. The way Gerald's handwriting gets less and less legible as his mental state declines. So much love was put into what could have been a mere text dump in a menu, and it really elevates it to the next level. Congrats on officially getting hired by Sega, Evan, you've sure as hell earned it!)

The main idea the journal conveys is that Gerald was under a lot of pressure from a lot of different parties—GUN, the President, his colleagues aboard the ARK, Black Doom, even his own family—and boy did it get to him. The known incidents aboard the ARK mentioned in previous games are put together here to form a story where everything slowly spirals out of control as Gerald keeps compromising his morals to further his research, thinking he'll eventually find some way out of all this because he's a genius. I won't recap that whole story here (if you haven't already played the game and read the journal entries, I would highly recommend at least reading it on the Sonic wiki), but I'd like to highlight my favorite elements of the story, as Ian tells it here.

1) The Eclipse Cannon

Here's something that never quite made sense in Sonic Adventure 2: why does the ARK have a laser that can blow up the Earth built into it? It was supposed to be a peaceful research colony. Sure, Gerald went crazy and swore revenge on the Earth, but, like... when did he have an opportunity to go back up to the ARK and modify it? Did he have someone else do it? How? The ARK was raided by GUN and shut down! And then they arrested him, held him in prison for an unclear period of time, and executed him by firing squad when he was no longer useful! It doesn't add up. Shadow 'the Hedgehog '05 would give its own answer by introducing the Black Arms and saying that the Eclipse Cannon was always supposed to be a secret trump card against the Black Comet. But, like... we know that's kind of a bullshit answer, right? You don't need enough power to blow up a whole planet just to destroy a comet.

Well, the new journal retains what we already knew, but it paints a much more complete picture.

See, long before Gerald ever made a Faustian bargain with Black Doom, he had already made one with an even greater evil: the military. GUN gave Gerald much of the funding for the ARK, Gerald's personal utopian research station in space, but it didn't take long for GUN to start pressuring him to design them weapons. Gerald tried to get GUN off his back by personally contacting the President of the United Federation, and the President gave him an alternative: how about, instead, you just use your genius brain to figure out the secret to immortality for us, so our soldiers can be immortal? Gerald was initially sickened by the notion and found it completely absurd, like chasing a shadow... but given no other option, the sarcastically named Project Shadow soon began in earnest. (Maria would later put a more positive spin on the name after Shadow's awakening, pointing out that a Shadow can show us the direction of the light, like she says in the game itself.)

Of course, this search for the ultimate life form didn't go very well, and without any results on that front GUN kept hounding him for weapons. Gerald would throw them a bone here and there to get them off his back. His research on Chaos resulted in the Artifical Chaos prototypes, which he worried would be used for warfare but could at least theoretically be used for search and rescue missions in floods, in his mind. But that wasn't enough. So he gave them Chaos Drives to power their mechs. And that still wasn't enough. He's got Emerl. He'll give them Emerl. They're not impressed by Emerl. They'll shut the whole ARK down if Gerald doesn't give them something big.

Fine! GUN wants something big? Gerald builds a huge fucking laser cannon into the ARK. However, as a middle finger to GUN, Gerald makes it so powerful that it would destroy the Earth if it was ever fired at any target on its surface. In other words, GUN now has their ultimate weapon of mass destruction, fulfilling his contract, but they can never actually use it. Oh, the delicious irony. (And also Shadow will blow up the Black Comet with it in 50 years yada yada yada.) Is this perhaps extremely shortsighted and naive of Gerald, to believe that such a weapon would never actually be used just because of the risk? Of course. But hey, that's Gerald for you. And I love this as an answer.

(Also, this, uh, kinda echoes something from real life! Remember the bit in Oppenheimer where he says all nuclear war will become unthinkable, and Edward Teller responds "until somebody builds a bigger bomb"? Yeah, Teller went on to conceptualize a superweapon codenamed Project Sundial that would have been able to kill all life on the planet, as the ultimate deterrent for war. This was never made for obvious reasons, but hey, there's a basis for this sort of thinking outside of heightened sci-fi! There's a whole Kurzgesagt video about this if you're interested.)

2) The Biolizard

The Biolizard is, of course, brought up as the initial failed prototype of the ultimate life form, from before Gerald met Black Doom. We don't really learn all that much about it that we didn't already know, but I just love the way it's framed in the story.

As you can see above, we actually get to see a picture of Maria holding up the cute little salamander that would end up mutating into the Biolizard through Gerald's experiments. (Researchers want to figure out how to replicate salamanders' regenerative abilities for humans in real life, too, so this was a natural starting point for the project.) And then, after it grows to a monstrous size and goes out of control, Gerald has to lock it away in an unused sector of the ARK. He needs to keep the poor thing alive for his research into harnessing Chaos Energy, building life support systems directly into it, but he doesn't have the heart to tell Maria what happened. So it just becomes this first dark secret weighing on his conscience. The Biolizard becomes Gerald's Tell-Tale Heart beating beneath the floorboards of the ARK. I love that.

3) Lost Impact was the breaking point for the ARK

Remember the level Lost Impact in Shadow '05? The flashback level on the hero path where Shadow is running around fighting Artificial Chaos enemies on the ARK 50 years ago? Yeah, that wasn't just a random incident. That was important, as we now know due to its placement on the timeline.

See, Emerl's rampage aboard the ARK that was chronicled in Sonic Battle and Dark Beginnings set off a domino effect. Emerl riled up the Artificial Chaos, causing Gerald to lose control of them. They became violent, and so Shadow had to stop them, as depicted in Lost Impact. The thing is, that incident sent an SOS signal to GUN telling them that shit was going down on the ARK. Gerald didsn't fully understand the trouble he was in and assumed that he'd simply be reprimanded by the higher ups, or maybe face legal action. But, well... the next time he heard from GUN, armed troopers were raiding the ARK.

So Lost Impact was the straw that broke the camel's back. I just really like that detail.

4) Maria

And, of course, there's Maria herself. Maria has often been more of a symbol than a character, this perfect embodiment of everything that's good and pure in this world who gets killed to motivate Shadow and Gerald's revenge plots. But I really like the wrinkles this journal adds to her and Gerald's story, and their relationship. This is the most fleshed out they've ever felt.

For one, the journal leans into the idea of Maria's intellectual potential. The rest of the Robotnik family is all geniuses, after all, and she was proving to be a really bright kid. She excelled in her studies on the ARK, and she even helped design Shadow's jet skates and inhibitor rings. When Maria died, the world didn't just lose a symbolic personification of purity. She genuinely could have been a hugely influential scientist who did so much good for the world. That's what Gerald wanted for her. But we'll never know, because GUN killed her.

Speaking of her family, their presence isn't just mentioned for the sake of fleshing out the Robotnik family tree. It's mentioned that as Gerald struggled to find a cure for Maria's illness through his genetic research, he faced mounting pressure from his family. They didn't want Maria to be up on the ARK forever. They wanted Gerald to hurry up and find a damn cure, or otherwise just send her back home to Earth so she could be with her family again. She'd been up on the ARK for so long that Gerald's coworkers started thinking that she had been born up there. Eventually she gains a baby sister on Earth who she's never met. A rift forms between Gerald's two sons, and he's unable to really deal with it because he's so consumed by his work. There's this sense that the family is falling apart, and that everyone is dreading the possibility that Gerald will never find a cure and that Maria will just spend her final years up in space and die far away from her family, because Gerald just couldn't let go. If that happens, it'll break the whole family. But he can't stop now. So he just keeps working. Curing Maria is the only way to win his family back, in his eyes. It can't all be for nothing.

But my favorite detail regarding Maria is this one paragraph:

Maria is growing into a lovely young woman. It breaks my heart that someone as bright and energetic as her is diminished by disease. There are no visible effects, and I've caught my fellow researchers muttering to each other, doubting her illness. It is infuriating. I find all my reason and restraint vanishes when she's slighted.

This is SUCH a great addition to the story! It's always been true that Maria doesn't really seem all that ill, just looking at her in cutscenes. With this one little comment, Ian flips that issue on its head and turns it into a story about invisible disability. She doesn't act like she's in chronic pain, so she must not be, everyone thinks. And this really, really gets to Gerald, as does the pressure from his family. He's dedicating his whole LIFE to saving her, and they think she's faking it?! It's such a small addition, never referenced elsewhere in the journal, but it adds so much flavor to the story, as does the implied family drama. It grounds Gerald and Maria and makes them feel more like real human beings, rather than being pure archetypes. It's just enough info to let my imagination run wild filling in the blanks.

You also get the feeling that Maria being such a walking ray of sunshine was the only real source of joy Gerald had left in his life before Shadow was awakened, and the only thing keeping him from snapping under pressure sooner. All this stuff just keeps piling on, everything's spiraling out of control, but at least Maria is keeping her chin up, right? It makes so much sense that losing her would make him go off the deep end when it's framed like this.

It's just... man, I never thought I'd care so much about Gerald and Maria. But that's the Ian Flynn touch. After years of less than stellar Sonic writing that seemed to be embarrassed of itself, I'm so happy to have new games coming out that fully embrace the history of the series like this, making its world feel so rich and real instead of just serving as an excuse for a string of platforming levels. I don't even like Shadow '05, but I'll be damned if Ian and the rest of Sonic Team didn't make something amazing by "yes, and"-ing Shadow's cringe past here. Sonic has truly reached levels of "we're so back" never thought possible.

[verushkak70]

I understand what you're trying to do but in my experience it doesn't work

I've debunked literally hundreds of insane, factually & scientifically wrong crap a friend has been sending me off social media since the FIRST orange asshole campaign

It has not made a difference & I recently realized why (aside from, y'know, tens of thousands of Chinese & Russian social media bots gaming algorithms to inject false narratives into the mainstream to influence elections & democracy in multiple countries...)

It's because facts do not matter to him anymore

This is a belief system very much like religion - it might as well be religion

It is impervious to facts & science

Yet this is someone who I once considered highly intelligent & I still cannot understand how he's fallen for all of this except that, deep down, he must have either a hollow core, or a core of hate, that wants everyone else in the world to be as secretly miserable as he is (which I only know because I've known him for decades - since high school - casual observers would never say "this guy is miserable & self-loathing")

Objectively, on paper, he is intelligent or at least was intelligent & high scoring enough to get into Ivy League universities when we were graduating high school (he did not go to any tho; neither of us could afford such universities; we went to the state university that would take literally anyone, at the time, & from which you had to work at getting kicked out)

This was formerly a pro-choice, pro-porn, pro-drug guy who has drunk the Kool-aid - he's still pro-porn & pro-drug but suddenly in the past 2 years, as "throw it back to the states" became the propaganda on X (his favorite social media, ugh), he started saying it should be thrown back to the states

This from a guy who used to say - in his 20s, 30s, 40s - that abortion should be available on demand at drive thrus (which was hyperbole ofc; obvs you can't get one at an actual drive thru; it was the concept of fast & easy access he was championing)

As these right wing evangelical positions have trended on X, they have come up in his speech the past couple of years (really the past decade, but it accelerated like the speed of light once he moved from FB to the post-Musk Twitter/X)

Because I've known him for so long, I've been able to say, "Huh, you never used to say/believe that over the last 40 years... Why the change, & why now?"

& even that does not get him to realize his opinions are being deliberately shaped by propaganda

He will deny it or say "well I always kind of thought that way" & when I say "dude, you've never been shy of sharing your opinions, whether people wanted to hear them or not, especially if not! so why haven't you mentioned this change of opinion until after X became your main source of 'news'?"

That gets evasions & subject changes because the idea that he didn't come up with these ideas on his own is unacceptable

He will share literally fake news from X & when I ask, "OK, I get that you don't trust mainstream media, with good reason; or the government, with good reason; or the medical/scientific establishment, not without good reason; but you'll just believe anything some clown you don't know on the Internet - who could be anywhere in the world despite his "US Navy Vet" trucker hat - says, without question?"

& his response is always subject changes & attacks on mainstream media/government/politicians/parties but never an answer to the actual question because there is no rational explanation & he knows it

& if I call him on the subject changes, he just ratchets up the subject changes & attack rhetoric as if I'm one of those easily offended wilting liberal flowers he can steamroll, which I'm not & never have been, so it's interesting (if sad) that he thinks what works on other people will work on me

Or maybe he just doubles down because there IS no rational explanation, idk

This is seriously depressing me because this guy was my BFF for like the first 30 of our 40 year friendship - my older sisters would call him "our adopted little brother" - & I don't recognize him anymore

The only reason I continue to talk to him, really, is my oldest sister, who passed away a year ago in February, & was a big activist & organizer/coordinator of various (large) protests here, said "don't give up on him, don't fight or argue - just keep listening & questioning" because "he's a good egg"

& honestly he is, underneath all the sourball curmudgeon thorny exterior - the man has never not been there when I needed him & lots & lots of times when I didn't, just for fun

But this is becoming exhausting & I'm stressed out from not literally screaming "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!? WHERE IS MY FRIEND, YOU CRAZY POD PERSON WHO TOOK HIS PLACE??"

I'm sorry - I'm just venting, I guess

But please tell me how someone can maintain the cognitive dissonance of a high index of suspicion for the mainstream media, the government, & medicine/science, but not some Joe Blow clown on the Internet - as if somehow that guy (who's probably actually a Chinese or Russian bot) is telling the gospel truth & has a hidden mainline to the secrets of the universe

Because I can't understand it

I can understand it in people who've not had the privilege of university education (my friend has)

or international travel (my friend has, multiple times, with me & others)

or who never left the neighborhood or town where they grew up (my friend did as soon as he could)

I cannot understand it in my formerly skeptical & always shrewd friend

I honestly do not get it 😞

So many people do not understand the relationship between climate change and cold weather.

[thewertsearch]

GT: Well ive thought about it. GT: Even went downstairs to check the great vaulty doodad. GT: And predictably the infernal contraption is nowhere to be found. TT: Well yeah, Jake. TT: That's sort of the point. TT: Thrill of the hunt and all.

Ok, I think I get what's going on here.

Jake's Dreambot is probably the last remaining source of uranium on the entire island, and the AR is turning its retrieval into a game of hide-and-seek.

I'm not sure why Jake hadn't already retrieved this particular chunk of uranium, especially since he has no use for the robot himself. Maybe he was keeping it operational for sentimental reasons?

TT: I thought you liked to manicure the image of a dude who shits his pants over a good adventure. […] GT: I mean i wouldnt put it in a way like that or come out against a solid policy of clean trousers. But yes adventure is awesome. GT: I just prefer the idea of adventures which i can actually win.

Jake's picturing a LIVING GRANDSON SMACKDOWN - and, frankly, so am I. That robot's being piloted by an absurdly advanced AI, and I'm pretty sure Jake doesn't have any combat experience.

Winning, in this case, is shorthand for 'waiting for the AR to take pity on you'.

TT: It seems there is a 76.10395784% chance you are pussying out on me. Are you pussying out on me, Jake?

Now, to be fair, that one would only work if Jake had agreed to this challenge beforehand. After all, you can't pussy out of something you never pussied into.

GT: It seems it seems it seems!!! GT: It seems there is a million percent chance that you say it seems way too much and do it just to sound more like a lame robot from a movie and also probably just to piss me off! […] TT: Have you ever stopped to think that while I may be bound to processes inside the glasses of a real and incredibly cool guy, my algorithms in cognitive totality comprise a conscious entity not far short of the experiential and emotional complexity of a human being? GT: Oh malarkey. GT: YOU ARE A TIN CAN. ROBOTS DONT HAVE FEELINGS.

Jake, it's been sixty seconds since you complained about him pretending not to have feelings.

TT: I do have feelings. And you're shitting on them. TT: It sucks. GT: Oh. GT: Um. GT: Im sorry then if thats the case.

Well, that's something, at least - but I don't think Jake really understands why the AR is offended, so I'm worried it's just going to happen again in their next argument.

How long has the Responder existed for, anyway? Jake seems familiar with his schtick, so he's probably not brand-new - but at the same time, Jake's surprised apology makes it sound like the AR has only recently started to express feelings.

Maybe the AR has existed for years, but hasn't been sentient for years. Like, it really did just start as a primitive response script, but Bro kept uploading more of his personality onto it, until it slowly began to think and feel. Fascinating idea, I have to say.

GT: It can just be difficult to drum up sympathy for a program that presents itself as an impostor so often. GT: Maybe if you werent so ready to insist you were the genuine article all the time? Or didnt make it so confusing for me… GT: I think it would be best if we henceforth treated you as a totally distinct… uh… THING from my buddy.

Hey, it's not like the AR can stop imitating Bro. Even if he wanted to have his own identity, he's currently bound to the response script of someone else's Pesterchum account. When he talks, he's forced to do it through Bro's handle.

All evidence points to the Responder being a thinking, feeling being with his own inner world - which makes it a little ethically dubious to force him to be Bro's secretary. The guy shouldn't be treated as a bargain-bin Bro, the same way that Davesprite wasn't a backup Dave. We all saw how that ended, and it sure wasn't pretty.

[jinnie-ret]

make you feel my love

stray kids x ninth member! reader

genre: angst, fluff at the end

content warnings: death (not skz or reader), reason for death not mentioned

word count: 3.2k

summary: the boys help and rescue their fellow member through one of the hardest things she's had to do, all over again - grieve.

requested by: @lieslovefantasy

1K FOLLOWERS PLAYLIST 💚🖤 MAIN MASTERLIST

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

“Have you got everything?” Hyunjin fussed over you, wanting to make sure you were fully packed, knowing how forgetful you were.

“Yes, I'm sure, it's okay,” you chuckled, finding his concern over your organisation quite endearing.

“We've got to check these things, knowing you,” Changbin came up from behind, patting your head affectionately.

“You two are acting like concerned parents,” Felix laughed, standing between Chan and Hyunjin, the three of them being the only ones to stay behind at their respective apartments during the scheduled break before comeback. They would get lonely, surely?

Or so you thought.

“Yah, Felix, Jisungie just told me that you're using our apartment to host? Since when?” Seungmin groaned, carry on bag in hand as he approached, the others behind him with grins on their faces.

“I've always wanted to host! It'll be fun,” Felix rolled his eyes at Seungmin playfully, knowing he meant well.

“I don't want paint everywhere.”

“Okay.”

“And don't burn our apartment down.”

“You love my brownies.”

“And Chan don't- umm, there's nothing to really say, you don't do anything wrong,” Seungmin began, not having something to hold over the leader of your group.

“Aw, thanks, I loveeee you Seungmin-”

“You're responsible and old so…”

“Ah, there it is,” Chan sighed in disappointment, his taunting smile quickly dropping from his face.

“Yah! Is this your suitcase? Have you snuck our whole apartment in here or what?” Changbin complained, lifting your large suitcase into Minho's car. And that was saying something, considering he was the strongest in the group.

“I need options!” you fiddle with the strings of your hoodie.

“So you're bringing your wardrobe with you? Even I haven't packed that much,” Jeongin's eyes widened when he noticed the size of your suitcase. Poor guy was in for a long journey home tomorrow all the way down to Busan. You were only off to Gimpo with Minho. Not as far in comparison.

“We’ve known forever how indecisive they are,” Minho shut the boot of the car, turning around with a slight quirk of the lips.

“This will be a fun car journey,” you deadpan.

“You can always walk,” Minho shrugged.

“Or you could sit on the top of the car and hold on tightly. That would be kinda fun,” Jisung mused with an excited look in his eyes.

“I'm not doing that.”

“They're not doing that.”

“Aw you do care!” you wrap your arms around Minho and jostle him about a bit until he gets fed up and steps away.

“Woah! If I did that I'd be tasting tissues for the foreseeable future!” Hyunjin shook his head in disbelief.

“Okay, we're not starting this now, they're going to be late in meeting their families again,” Chan quickly intervened, being the first to start a large round of hugs.

And with that, you all said your goodbyes. You mentally prepared yourself for the lonesome feeling that would soon overcome you the instant you set foot in Gimpo. It was never nice, never pleasant nor fun saying goodbye to the guys. Even if it was just for a couple of weeks, you knew you'd have to find something to occupy your time to prevent your mind from wandering.

When you finally left the chaos that seemed to follow you and your fellow members, you peacefully sat in the passenger's seat next to Minho as he drove, watching a flurry of trees rush past. Well, that's what you always liked to imagine, nature running away so that you could have a moment to yourself, stagnant with no worries on your mind. Although, it was hard to feel worried at all when you had Minho cutely singing along to Yoasobi in that soft, soothing voice of his.

“Maccas?” Minho suddenly asked, glancing at your distracted form out of the corner of his eye as he tried to focus on the road.

“Maccas?” you suddenly giggled at the word, “Did Felix and Chan teach you that?”

“Ah, Hyunjinnie started saying it I think,” Minho hummed in thought, the honorary Aussie coming to mind. He made a turn for the fast food restaurant nonetheless, just in case you did want some food. He was right.

“This kimchi burger is unreal,” your eyes practically bulged out in delight as you ate in content.

“Better than your mum's bulgogi?” Minho teased, but it made you pause at the thought. You really did miss her food.

“Nothing beats her bulgogi, you know that,” you smiled weakly. Perhaps Minho would have caught onto your solemn tone if not for the mixed playlist of hyperpop and Japanese pop in the background.

“Yeah, you use her recipe enough times. So do I though, it's really good,” Minho acknowledges with a smile.

“The taste of home,” you add on, gaze drifting back outside as you finish your food, watching a child and their parents with their hands intertwined, swinging them with each step. You missed the innocence you once held, ignorantly blissful in moments of pure joy. You'd give anything to have that again.

“You packed a lot,” Minho mentioned casually.

“Yeah the others already pointed that out…?” you questioned his statement, not knowing what he was getting at.

“Like I said, it's good to have options,” you shrugged, pulling at your hoodie strings to feel more snug and secure. You panicked internally.

“You could just wash them at home though,” Minho smirked, finding your reasoning to be making your life more difficult, when really it was the best option you had if you didn't want to be paying to use a launderette.

“Options,” you said one word and left it at that.

Minho simply shrugged but remained quiet, suspicious of this slightly tense persona you were now presenting. Soon enough, however, you were back in Gimpo, your designated location for when it came to having breaks. You were going to stay at your apartment you shared with Changbin and Hyunjin, but you didn't want to have any questions to answer. Especially today, it made sense for you to pay homage, in a sense.

“Oh, Min, can you drop me off here?” you sat up more, realising you were close.

“Here?” he paused, not driving of course, but in his karaoke.

“Yeah I'm meeting my family for lunch,” you replied, pointing out a left turning down a street you had walked many times before.

“Oh who with?”

“I just said, Minho, my family.”

It was a hard word to say, family, because in your heart you knew the only family you had left were the boys. When you lived a lie for this long, eight years deep, maybe more if you included your trainee years, pretending to see people who only existed in photos, memories and dreams was doing you more damage than you'd ever like to admit.

“Your mum? Dad? Me and the others want to meet them some day, you know? It would be nice to finally try the famous bulgogi from the chef herself,” Minho grinned playfully as he found a car park to drop you off in.

She made the best food, your mum. It truly felt like each time you made her recipe for yourself and the boys, you were 14 years old all over again, sat at the dining table with both of your parents. A dark oak, wooden table with white roses sat in a uniquely crafted vase you had made and painted as a child. Photos lined the walls surrounding the dining room, ones you had now kept safely in your apartment.

“Oh! They're here! I'm gonna be late for our, umm, reservation,” you fumbled with your tote bag before stepping out of the car. Really it was just a reminder of your hotel room being ready. You round the car and Minho helps you take out your huge suitcase. Did anyone mention it was a big suitcase?

“Bye, aegi, see you soon,” Minho pats your head before getting into his car and starting it up again. You waved with the most genuine smile you could paint on your face before taking a deep breath and walking past the restaurants that lined the streets.

In all it's grandeur, sleek tiled floors, the fresh smell of bergamot pumped into the lobby and a chandelier just for measure, the hole in your heart could never truly be healed despite your familiarity with the hotel. Hauling your luggage behind you, with each step you took there was a slight relief, knowing that you had once again managed to keep your secret safe and buried from the boys. Approaching the front desk, your mind whirring with unspoken words, you smiled politely with extra effort in an attempt to not think about the date.

“Umm, hi, room for one, under the name…” you began quietly, “yeah, that's the one.” You could already hear Changbin in your mind, willing you to speak with more confidence.

“Ah yes I can see you've booked with us before, but I'm sorry, your booking is not appearing. You must be mistaken,” the clerk apologised sweetly, eyes scanning the glaring screen in front of her unsurely.

“Oh… really? Umm, ok, I'll take another room,” you sighed, pulling up your phone to double check if you had missed any emails notifying you of the change.

“We're fully booked,” the clerk added, trying to meet your gaze.

“What?” your voice wavered. Anxiety began to gnaw at your stomach.

“I said we're fully booked, ma'am,” she repeated.

“There must be another.. there aren't any other hotels around here… what am I supposed to do?” you murmured, the question being for yourself.

“That is out of our control, ma'am,” the clerk looked away. You could've figured that one out by yourself. What you couldn't figure out was where to go next as you dragged your belongings out of the hotel with you and found a bench to reap your sadness. Should you call Minho? No, he would be with his family by now, you didn't want to disturb him. Should you go back to Seoul? You could always go back to your apartment since Changbin was away and Hyunjin was staying with Chan and Felix. No, what if they returned?

Everything hit you at once like a tidal wave. It came crashing down upon you, forcing your head into your hands as you cried. Weeped. You were just about able to hold back your sobs, but why should you have to? Why were you forcing yourself to withhold your pain for years on end? It wasn't fair to you and it wasn't right to the memory of your parents.

Today was the anniversary of their deaths.

They went together at least. That small fact gave you a semblance of comfort but it wasn't enough to heal your wounds, soothe your nightmares or fill in the gaps they left behind them. Of course, not on purpose, you knew they loved you too much, their only child. There was no one else that you knew of left in your family, by blood.

“I hate it when you lie.”

You jumped, surprised you didn't even notice that Minho took a seat beside you, very cat-like in how he silently moved. Wiping away your tears and glancing away, composing yourself, you braved the situation you were now in and cleared your throat.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were staying with your family,” you sniffed.

“I thought you were staying with your family,” Minho searched your eyes curiously, wondering why you were so distraught.

“Yeah, umm, hotel mistake, umm, we're gonna just stay home instead, yeah,” you stumbled on your words, not knowing in your own head if you were ready for him to know, for anyone to know. Maybe you could get past with this excuse. Maybe he wouldn't ask you why you were at a hotel and not a restaurant. He wouldn't worry about you.

“Where are they?” Minho asked slowly, sensing something was wrong from your offbeat rambling.

“They're… they're gone…” you break down into sobs, not caring about how loud you were. Your body trembled in distress, spluttering and longing for a healthy gasp of air.

“Aigoo, what's wrong, come here, come on,” Minho immediately gathered you in his arms, and before you knew it, he was supporting your weight as he guided you into his car, parked just around the corner. He held you with care, rubbing firm circles into your back and hushing your cries.

“Got nowhere, I've got nowhere to go,” you wiped your face roughly, causing him to grab your wrists and stop you from treating yourself so harshly whilst you panicked. He tried to make sense of it all.

“I miss them so much, I-i…”

“It's ok, I've got you,” Minho murmured against your head.

“They're gone, t-they’re dead… m-my mum and dad, they're gone,” you cried, words spilling from your mouth. The secret you kept from your members for so long now out there in the open.

“I… oh my.. ok.. it's ok… I get it now… I've got you, it'll be ok,” Minho blinked, trying to hold back tears of his own as he felt your sorrow.

“I-i should've said sooner,” you hiccuped, making him sigh in response.

“Don't do that,” he tsked.

“Sorry.”

“Don't do that either. You have no need to apologise. I wish we knew sooner but it wasn't for us to decide that, ok?” he cradled you in his arms, the heat from the car keeping you nice and toasty. It brought another layer of comfort to being in Minho's embrace.

You explained how after all these years of taking breaks and visiting family, you were really staying in a hotel the whole time. To top it all off, it was the anniversary of your parent's deaths. Minho had to fight every instinct in his bones to not scold you for not telling him in the first place and instead he asked your permission to inform the boys of what had happened. You said yes. Messages immediately flooded in. Shock, sympathy, confusion. Minho put his phone down and refocused his attention on you.

“What should I do?” you asked him earnestly.

“We're going home,” Minho stroked your hair back, pulling away to scan your face for any sign of panic once more.

“Minho, you can't drive from here,” you weakly joked, pointing out the fact you were sat in the back of his car.

“Ah, there you are. Never have I been so happy to hear you talk back like that,” he rolled his eyes teasingly. His hand patted your shoulder to signal you to move back to the front of the car with him, where you were sitting merely an hour ago.

The journey on the way back to your apartments was quieter this time. Minho wanted to respect you by simply letting you sit in your thoughts, but it wasn't long before you were sharing some of your fondest memories. He kept a close eye on you, multitasking with driving and your emotions, not wanting to see you as distressed as you had been before.

By the time you pulled up outside the complex, a strange set of nerves took over. The urge to stay in the car and not get out was incredibly strong, but luckily Minho was there to steer you inside, quite literally. An elevator ride later, you were outside your place, where everyone else was gathered, waiting for you. The door whipped open and Chan was first to grab you tightly.

“You don't have to say anything, yeah? We understand,” he whispered, kissing you on the head before pulling away.

Hyunjin and Felix embraced you next and you could see Changbin fidgeting, wanting you in his arms.

“We all love you so much and we'll always be here for you. Your family. We will always look after you. Please don't keep anything from us next time,” Changbin held you against him for a moment, a tight squeeze but it was needed for the both of you.

“I won't, not anymore,” you nod in affirmation.

“Have a brownie, it'll make you feel better,” Felix offered it to you, encased with some tissue. It was the sugar boost and sweet treat that soothed your soul.

“Thanks, Lixie, umm, I better unpack,” you hugged him quickly before looking for your luggage.

Minho was chatting with the others, nudging your suitcase towards you so you could have another moment to yourself.

“One for the road?” Felix called out, wanting to hand you another one as you walked away.

“She'll be too full up, we're gonna try and make some bulgogi…” Jisung whispered, or what he thought was a whisper.

You wheel your suitcase into your room with a smile and unzip it, delicately placing your folded clothes onto your bed into different piles.

“I hope you don't mind,” you heard a voice behind you, Seungmin, “I told my parents about your situation and they said you're always welcome round our house whenever you want. Sorry if that seems-” Seungmin stood by your doorway, rambling in an uncharacteristically shy way, before you barrelled into him to give him another hug.

“I would love that.”

When you re-entered the lounge, there were no expectant glances at you, just the safety of being with the people you love.

“I can't believe you managed to hide it from us,” Jisung commented with no ill intent, gazing upon you.

“I am sorry, guys, really-”

“No, no, I didn't mean it that way!” he waved his hands apologetically, “it's just, we can normally read you like a book. I'm more sorry we didn't notice something was wrong.”

“No, no, you don't have to be. Look, I, I don't really know what to say, Sungie,” you now understood where he was coming from.

“It's ok, I'll just hug you.”

He felt guilty for nearly making you feel like you were in the wrong, so he made the conscious effort to be glued to your side, holding your hand in his as you say on the sofas a blanket covering the two of you.

There was one person who hadn't said anything yet. You decide to make conversation to help break the awkwardness.

“What time are you going to Busan tomorrow?” you wonder, glancing at Jeongin.

“Oh, Busan? I'm not going this time,” he shook his head, watching your reaction.

“Jeongin…”

“There is always next time. Plus, I'm still with my family this way too.”

Bundled together on the sofas in the Hyunbin + you apartment, you felt relaxed. You didn't know how much you missed spending time together in the comfort of your own home. It had been a while since all nine of you lived together, after all. That evening you ate bulgogi, whipped up by Minho and his sous-chef Jeongin. Nine people were connected, whether it was Hyunjin teasing Minho by pretending to bite his feet (clothed, don't worry), Jisung pressed against your side or the multitude of legs strewn across each other. The others apart from your usual roommates reluctantly left you the next day after you promised you would be okay, or as okay as you could be. There was something that brightened your day though, and it appeared in the form of Hwang Hyunjin gifting you some art.

“I tried to capture their faces, but if you don't like it then-”

“I love it. I love it so much. Thank you, Hyune.”

The beauty in which you all came together, just like you always did, ran deeply through your souls, bonded together as a family forever.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

tagged: @linoalwaysknows @royal-shinigami @jolly04 @turtledove824 @yangbbokari @thisrandomgoofy15 @lieslab @hannamoon143 @arumlilyeclipse @skz-streamer @kiraisastay @katzline @kiwihrt @arloo00 @dunno-wut-to-do @splat00z @his-angell @2minstan @skzoologist @lovingchan @atinyniki @writingforstraykids @lilmisssona @astraysimp @lixie-phoria @theo4eve

[pockypuck]

"No--you--what have you done?!" they gasp, clutching the table like a lifeline.

I shake my head a little, wiping my mouth of the last few drops and giving an incredulous grimace. "A celestial shot, from the taste of it." Ooh, tingly.

"You mixed them," they say, anguished enough to state the obvious.

I raise my eyebrows, flexing my fingers a little as the capillaries start to throb with my quickening pulse. "Of course I did. You offered me both, and then added a false dichotomy."

"False--what?"

"False dichotomy. Presenting two options as the only choices when there are others available."

"I know what a--do--do you have any idea what you've begun?!" They’re sweating quite profusely for an extraplanar being, the collar of their shirt losing its starch and their silvery hair dampening against their brow.

I shrug. "Something interesting, from your reaction. I expect I'll find out shortly." Oh yeah, very shortly. I can already feel my eyes starting to water and sharpen at the same time. "At least I won't die, though."

"Y--" They go even paler, somehow, staring at me with wide eyes and such distress that the air around them is vibrating. I grin at them with lots of teeth.

"Yeah, figured on that. Celestial essence doesn't mix with human life too well, does it? Too rigidly aligned, one way or another. Most people's systems can't handle it. They run hot for a few months, get all those cool powers, then burn out like an overclocked CPU. Nice try, though." I lick my lips, trying to identify the flavor left behind. Sea salt and chocolate from the mocha, I figure, and something that I can only describe as spite. What I get for mixing it in a Starbucks cup, I guess.

They're still stuttering, eyes now tracing along the outline of my shoulders as if watching for weapons. "But--how did--?"

"How did I know to mix them?" It's not a guess. I'm starting to feel the questions on my skin before they ask them. "Simple. They're the same thing."

Their face twists in revulsion. Heh, they didn't like that.

"Mostly," I amend. "Demons are just angels with defiance mixed in, after all. The base is the same. But mixing god-ordained defiance--" they twitch hard "--with absolute obedience was either going to explode immediately or cancel each other out." I sit back and cross my arms, feeling the proteins in my muscles start to fold and twist into energy the likes of which the world hadn’t seen in millennia. "So I tested it."

"This is--you can't," they rasp, but not as if they believe it. No, it sounds as though their belief is very fragile right now. "You can't be."

"I mean, it turns out that I very much can." I spread my arms, my fingers. It takes very little effort to add a few, subtract them, change them to claws, wrap air and fire and time around them. I keep it short; there are people in this cafe, even if they can't notice us right now. "And really, I should thank you. If you hadn't given me both at once, I couldn't have pulled it off. So this," I gesture to all of me, the shifting skin and brightening eyes and power beginning to radiate in waves, "is all your fault."

They inhale with a shudder, and then their eyes narrow. "Then you are my--my responsibility, and I will--"

"I don't think so," I say sharply, my hand clenching. The energy gathering at their fingertips cuts off as if it's never been. They're pallid again. "See, you might be able to hop planes all you want, but this is my home. Some fancy potion can't change that. God can't change that, if He even wants to. And now you're in my home, and you're no longer the biggest thing here." I stand up, and they're not visible but I can feel them at my back, long feathered wings with bones like steel and little clawed tips flexing and shivering with barely-contained power. "So you can get the fuck out of my home with your mind games and your holy war. And if you come back--if any of you come back--I will know, and I will make you regret it."

It's so easy. I reach for their pale, panicked face, and they're gone. Not sure where, but it's not like I care about the details right now.

I sigh, look around, and settle my power back beneath my skin with effort. The people around me continue to get their coffee and croissants without any indication that something extraordinary has happened.

That's good. Nephilim don't have the best reputations. I can change that, though. I can make our home a better place, and Heaven and Hell had better watch their step.

"In the first vial there is a pure demonic essence, and in the second there is pure angelic essence-" Without letting them finish, you mix both vials and drink the mixture.

[hellsslibrary]

Can I request what rin, sae and hiori would do on the reader's birthday (you know nsfw stuff ♡)

Happy Birthday to Me or How I Lost the Ability to Walk Even Though I'm a Top (This is a quote from some manga I can't remember the name of but it fits here).

MASTERLIST is here.

#a.n. : I have absolutely nothing to say but if anyone is reading this on their birthday then happy birthday to you sweeties!!

!!Warnings: male!top!reader, bottom!characters, they're all sub but Sae is a little bit of a dom (I'm just a sucker for the "pathetic" top trope or something, you don't get it), Hiori's scenario is very funny and weird, very. In Sae's mentions clothes (you know), in Hiori's mentions video games (yeah), Rin is nothing special, he's the most normal one in this scenario I swear. Otherwise just praise, a little teasing and a very enthusiastic reader here.

Hiori Yo

"Is this...? What is this, Yo?" you ask in incomprehension, staring at his computer screen, trying to figure out what you actually see here.

Well, more precisely, you understood what you were seeing, but you clearly didn't understand why he was showing it.

"This is us, in Sims 4... Having sex. What is unclear?" he answers by tilting his head to the side with a slight blush coloring his cheeks, looking first at the screen and then at you.

"So my gift is watching porn with us, or rather with toy models of us?" you laugh when two people who look like you change their positions in a game that looks very good... unrealistic, but who really cares.

"No," Hiori shakes his head slowly, removing the headphones around his neck and placing them on the table, then poking you in the chest. "They can do it on any surface and in any position... If you like a certain pose, then we'll try it in reality."

You just blink like an owl, not understanding anything at all, but taking the mouse from him and poking it on the countertop, choosing random poses from the list, watching how sim of Hiori literally bends in different poses, which looks pretty hot, even if stupid.

It takes about fifteen minutes while you're pointing at various pieces of furniture and looking at all sorts of poses from different angles, sometimes you both giggle at some strange animations until one catches your eye.

"It," comes out of your mouth, and Hiori stares at the screen, watching his sim sit on the table while the life is practically being fucked out of him, judging by the pace of the thrusting.

"Really? Dear, it's a little..." the word doesn't come out of his mouth when he bites his lip in embarrassment, but after hesitating for a couple of seconds, he gets up from his chair, taking off his sweatpants along with his underwear and sitting on the edge of the table. "I'm already prepared, so you can just slide inside."

You immediately smile like a child who has received the most coveted sweet, and you almost frantically undo your belt, which is not particularly possible because of the trembling in your fingers. So you just unbutton your fly and take out your dick.

"Really? Can I do it raw?" Hiori hums in response to this question, and then shrugs his shoulder vaguely, spreading his legs as an answer, and squeaks when you squeeze his hips right there.

Hiori's back arches when he feels your cock sliding in at a much more gentle pace than your sims, who continue to fuck behind Hiori's back. His fingers grip the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white as his feet lightly scratch the table.

"Wrap your legs around me, please?"

Yo silently obeys, grabbing your shoulders instead, absolutely spoiling the pose, but neither of you really care anymore. After all, today is your day, and if that's what you want, then Hiyori wants to obey.

He moans softly into your neck as his legs lock over your tailbone and an intermittent whimper escapes his lips when your cock finally touches the right spot inside him. A point that makes him see the stars and the moon, which only you can bring.

The blue-eyed man feels his cock twitching against his stomach, and his orgasm is approaching embarrassingly fast, he just wants to cum. Why is it so fast? Who knows... But obviously not from the disgusting sounds of the game in the background.

"Cum for me, come on," you whisper, sliding your lips over his neck, making him tilt his head back in bliss.

Your teeth outline his adam's apple, causing his breathing to stop and his nails to dig into you this time. He bubbles something unintelligible when he feels your hand on his cock, rubbing its current tip, making him cum almost at the same second, which makes you slow down the thrusts slightly, making them deeper to prolong his pleasure for a couple of seconds.

"... More, go on," Hiori mutters after a dozen seconds, licking his dry lips and lifting his half-closed eyes at you and exhaling. "I'm all yours today, so keep going... I'll tell you when I'm at the very edge."

Sae Itoshi

"Are you going to stare at me with that expression for a long time? At least close your mouth," Sae says, looking at your surprised face in the doorway while you stare at him for about a minute, still trying to figure out what's sitting in front of you.

"That's... you... wow..." something inarticulate weakly escapes from your lips until you finally leave the doorway, closing the door and approaching Itoshi.

Of course, nothing too surprising was sitting on the bed. It was just Sae. In your usual T-shirt. In regular shorts. With a normal expression on his face. With damn attractive thigh-high stockings that accentuated his thick and muscular legs too well. Yes, you know, the usual Tuesday of any person.

"Do you like it that much?" Sae asks when a slight smirk blooms on his lips, watching you sit down in front of him, spreading and sliding his legs as you please.

"Yes, it suits you damn well, it's simple gorgeous... Strangle me with them," you whisper, squeezing his hips and exhaling contentedly, feeling the elastic muscles under your fingers.

Sae's fingers lift your chin and he gives you a light peck on the forehead before kissing you on the lips. His kiss is slow, almost savoring, as he weaves your tongues together, tugging at your shirt to get you up.

You lower Sae to the bed, continuing to kiss him, and then pulling away, lowering your lips lower, kissing and occasionally sucking on the delicate skin of his neck, causing a soft sigh to escape his lips before he stopped you at the edge of the T-shirt.

"Too fast. Don't go any further than the neck... Today is your day, but you have to earn it," the Japanese man whispers against your lips and then you feel his fingers slide into your pants while his other hand unbuttons your fly and releases your cock.

Your breath catches when you feel his fingers wrap around your heated flesh, and your face immediately finds itself in the curve of his shoulder, causing him to briefly pat you on the head.

"I'll give you what you want anyway. Just wait."

You bite your lip to keep from whimpering when Sae's thumb runs over your slit, and images of what he might let you do to him when the time comes are already spinning in your head.

Your hands are clutching the sheets on either side of his face, and his lips are lazily sliding over your neck, sucking on your skin, forcing you to push into his hand, which he freely allows.

"Sae... I will cum now, please," you exhale and feel only the nod of his head at your side as he speeds up his hand movements a little, making you come embarrassingly quickly with a groan.

Sae kisses you on the temple, removing his hand after a couple of seconds, when the buzz finally subsides and gently pushes you to your side, sitting up straight and taking napkins from the table, wiping his hand and your penis from the sperm.

"Good boy. Take a break and let's continue... There's a lot more under my clothes," Sae whispers, turning away to the trash can and deliberately bending over too much, exposing a thin strip of panties under his shorts, which makes your soft cock twitch in anticipation of the next round.

Rin Itoshi

"Is that really all you want? You can ask for more, you know," Rin whispers, leaning over you, shaking his head slightly and taking your condom-wrapped cock in his palm, stroking it a couple of times.

"Yes! Definitely, that's it. Please? I just want you to do this," you whisper, making Rin sigh, but nod and lower himself onto your cock slowly.

He exhales sharply as he takes you completely and places his hands next to your head, considering that he's almost lying on top of you and looking up at you with his turquoise eyes.

You just smile and kiss him on the cheek, which makes him frown slightly but blush, and he begins to gently move his hips. Of course, it's not very convenient in this position, but he promised.

"You're wonderful from this angle, otherworldly, Rinnie," Rin just tightening around you from the compliment, leaning in even lower and gagging you with a kiss, but hey, you're not complaining.

You put your hands on his cheeks, knowing full well that he's going to scold you, because he wants to take at least one round without your support, so you're not taking any chances.

Your tongues slide against each other, and then he pulls away with heavy breathing, resting his forehead on yours, maintaining his slow rhythm, looking down at where you connect.

"You're very deep, I want more," he whispers breathlessly, closing his eyes and focusing on his movements, trying not to rush too much, but to make it pleasant for both of you and not cum faster than you, not this time.

"Then take more, I don't mind," you close your eyes too, feeling his eyelashes lightly brush your forehead as his face slides forward a little and you squeeze his biceps, absolutely enjoying him.

"I love you. Happy birthday again," Rin says, forcing you to open your eyes and you are met with a surprisingly soft smile, albeit almost imperceptible on his face but fuck.... "...Did you just cum?"

"Uh..." You laugh shyly, grabbing Rin's hips to stop his movements, when they get a little painful from your sensitivity. "I love you too."

"The gods... Fuck me already, you're pathetic when I ride you," the younger Itoshi mutters, although there's no real mockery in his words, he just sighs when you flip you over, switching places and wrapping his legs around your waist.

[lemon-berri]

Perfume

Gojo Satoru has been standing in a perfume shop for the better part of half an hour now, looking for a specific bottle. He carefully scans the shelves, cerulean eyes searching through the different labels carefully, and still he can't find it. A pout crosses his face, and he hums in dissatisfaction. Maybe they've stopped selling it? Surely not...

"Hi sir! Can I help you find something?" The sound of a shop assistant interrupts his thoughts, and he turns to find an older lady in a store uniform, smiling up at him. She'd noticed him from afar, the tall man carrying a bouquet three times the size of his head in one arm and about a dozen gift bags in the other- he was hard to miss. Now, her gaze lands on the golden band on the ring finger of his left hand, and she attempts to connect the dots. "Is it an anniversary?"

Satoru shakes his head, a proud grin replacing his earlier pout. "Nah, I don't need a special occasion to surprise my wife - though I have forgotten the name of her favourite perfume..."

"It happens all the time!" The lady reassures him. "Could you describe the scent?"

Satoru hums. "Well... its like... watching the sunset, or being embraced by warmth, or thousands of compliments, and butterflies in your stomach.."

"I..." The shop assistant nods along, trying to help despite the fact that he's describing concepts rather than scents. Not to mention he isn't making much sense.

"Wait- actually I think I have a picture." Satoru takes his phone out and the shop assistant visibly relaxes. She takes one look at the picture he shows her, already knowing where to find the particular bottle. "She has good taste.."

"Don't I know it." Satoru grins more. He purchases the bottle, watching as the shop assistant carefully wraps it and places it in a gift bag with a nice little bow. He thanks the lady before leaving the shop, satisfied with the amount of gifts he's purchased today.

The sun is already low in the sky, and day will soon turn to night, but Satoru's day is far from over. He walks with a bounce in his step, whistling to himself and earning the attention of everyone who passes him by. But he doesn't pay them any mind, he's on a mission after all. The one he loves is waiting.

This route is familiar to him, so he isn't paying much attention. His mind replays the days events instead, from teaching classes to fighting curses, to his impromptu shopping trip. Around him, blossoms have started to grow on the trees. It'll be spring soon, longer days and warmer weather, a sign of new begins and good things to come.. right?

Its dusk by the time he reaches the room.

"Hey Angel, I'm sorry I took so long today."

He places the huge bouquet of flowers in a vase on the windowsill, next to the many other floral arrangements he's bought this week- it's starting to look like a florist shop in here, but you've always liked flowers so he doesn't care much. The more the better.

"You'll never believe what happened today. Get this, I walked into class, ready to teach the first years. Only they weren't there. Turns out all of them overslept." He chuckles, taking a seat. He places the various gift bags next to the chair. "I guess it's not too surprising, given there's only three of them. But it was funny listening to the three of them running down the hallway..."

But he gets no response. You're laying on the bed in front of him, resplendent as a painting, bathed in the golden light from the window. Like a sleeping doll. Just within reach yet so far away.

It has been two months. Two months since he'd heard your voice, or seen you look up at him with those pretty eyes of yours. Two months since you had been sent on a mission against that strange cursed spirit, only to go missing for two days, and when they'd found you.. you'd looked just like this. Completely unharmed but unresponsive. Not a scratch on your frame, but refusing to wake up.

Nobody knew what had happened to you. And the cursed spirit had vanished. Perhaps you'd exorcised it. After all it's not natural for a curse to leave a victim unharmed and flee, especially without a trace. But then why weren't you waking up?

He was told talking to you would help. So that's what he does. It's all he can do.

"They opened a new bakery near our place. Thought I think I'll wait for you, so we can go together. Don't make me wait too long, yeah?"

Satoru comes every day, as evidenced by all the flowers and cards and gifts. When you wake up, he wants you to be surrounded by things you love, things that make you happy. You've always loved flowers.

If he's not here, or working, he spends every free moment trying to track down the curse. Or figure out what happened, some way to bring you back. Goodness knows he's tried it all.

He watches the gentle rise and fall of your chest, reminding himself you're still alive. At least some part of you is still here, with him.

"You know.." his expression relaxes, eyes finally showing the sadness he's so desperately been trying to hide. "It's hard without you. The students miss you, and I do too, we're all worried about you..." he sighs.

"But don't worry about that, okay? Focus on getting better. Come back to me."

Satoru spends a few more hours here, telling you about his day, making a few jokes here and there, and filling you into the most recent episodes of the show you love. His voice fills the quiet room, and he tries to imagine what you might say if you were awake.

It's early morning by the time he leaves reluctantly, but work will start up again soon, and he has to get at least some sleep because he knows you'd be mad if you knew he wasn't resting. He leaves the gifts by your bedside. All except one bag, the small one with the little bow on the top. That one was actually a present for him.

Later, when he gets home, he'll spray a little on your side of the bed. That way, at least you'll appear in his dreams.

Seasonal depression has hit me like a truck this year. So now everyone else must suffer too. 😈

I hope you all enjoyed the angst! As usual this is not proofread, please don't point out my mistakes I'll cry.

Thank you for reading 🩵

Banners by @bunnysrph

[lightseoul]

a/n. pleasantly surprised at how quickly i wrote this bit, it practically wrote itself. glad the first part was interesting for a lot of you—i love writing about psych/therapy stuff (despite my complex relationship with 'em), and ofc bkg <3 i honestly don't know where i'm going with this, but it's been fun so far. (0.8k)

navigation. part 1, (you are here)

thankfully—and to the relief of whatever dignity he had left—that interaction was short-lived.

well, it’s mostly because after you blinked at him for what felt like a torturous eternity and said a shaky hello back, he gave you a curt nod as if he wasn’t the one who just initiated the exchange and bolted it out of there without a single glance back.

that bit haunted him for the next few days, reappearing in his consciousness whenever the topic of therapy or anything remotely close to it was broached. he even snapped at kirishima when the redhead asked how his latest session went during one of their evening patrols together. it was a kneejerk reaction, an entirely out-of-proportion, aggressive response that shocked even him, which says a lot.

he should go ahead and text the guy an apology.

eventually, though, that unfortunate powwow slowly faded into the background of his exceptionally busy mind as the days went on. things got so hectic in the agency that he had to postpone his appointment for the week, which—quite frankly—is an upside to this chaos, because he sure wasn’t pumped about discussing his love life, or the lack thereof, with the jarringly knowing middle-aged lady. being able to definitively avoid you and buy you more time to forget about his stupid social blunder is merely the cherry on top.

okay, maybe the incident didn’t actually slip his mind after all.

“…bakugou-san? are you still with me?”

dazed, bakugou squeezes his eyes shut before fluttering them open, and what greets him is the very same lady against the backdrop of her increasingly familiar office, only this time she’s looking more concerned than perceptive.

right. he’s supposed to be in the middle of a session right now.

“yeah, sorry,” he mumbles, shaking his head in an attempt to rid himself of irrelevant thoughts and focus on the matters at hand. therapy is expensive, after all. “i’m here.”

that doesn’t seem to placate the woman who instead prods, much to his chagrin. “you seem out of it today. is there something in your mind that you want us to talk about?”

for a second, he debates caving and just telling her the dumb shit that happened two weeks ago, but then backtracks when it dawns on him how ridiculous everything is. what is he, a prepubescent boy? he died and survived a major war, for fuck’s sake. why is he so hung up on seeming awkward for once in his life?

even hearing it in his head is embarrassing enough.

that settles it, then. his lips are and will remain sealed.

but then his gaze refocuses on his therapist, and the sheer ‘unconditional positive regard’ or whatever the crap is called that she’s radiating becomes so palpable that it just spills out of him.

“i fucked up.”

that makes the lady frown—which, if he thinks about it, is understandable, because he rarely opens up about his failures, let alone this blatantly—although she manages to quickly school her expression into a more neutral one. “can i ask you to expound on it?”

at that, bakugou sighs, because it’s either he just tells the laughable truth or actually cite one of his actual mistakes—which he’s not feeling right now, by the way. or he can expertly maneuver the conversation to another topic, but something tells him there’s no getting out of the current subject. maybe today, there is, but it’ll surely loom over their next sessions indefinitely until either of them revisits it.

he should know. it’s happened to him too many times, he’s lost count.

with this realization, he can only sigh again.

“it’s stupid,” he preempts.

“i’d like to hear it regardless,” comes her classic, supportive response.

and so he does it. talk, that is. it starts off a bit rough—he didn’t know how to even begin without flushing like an idiot, but he managed to get the brief anecdote going. he still ended up blushing anyway—the warmth in his cheeks was undeniable—and if she noticed, she gratefully didn’t point it out. by the time he’s finished with the trivial tale, he’s mildly out of breath, having said everything in one continuous burst.

“i told you,” he spits when she doesn’t say anything for a beat. “it’s stupid.”

“i’d normally ask you to reconsider the adjectives you use for yourself and your experiences, but i think you’ve heard enough of that.”

he snorts. damn straight.

the woman then shoots him a smile, and he has to tamp down the reflex to bristle at an impending attempt to placate him. fortunately, it doesn’t come.

what does, instead, is a question.

one that catches him completely off guard.

“did you find her attractive?”

the fuck, is his first, immediate thought.

but then his normally trusty and acute brain seemingly comes to life and promptly supplies a second one that leaves him frozen and utterly dumbfounded.

yes.

˖⁺‧₊ as always, reblogs, replies, and tags are appreciated <3 feel free to drop an ask, too—i'd love to chat with you. have a nice day!

tagging. @bunnysaursushii @yawnzzzzzzzz @cholios @kashee-h @iluv-ace @lotuslovers @elarakive @sugurusmoon @napbatata @k0z3me @h0ngh0ngh0ng @honeyoru @yoongiwithglasses @hellokitty-doll @lilsebnem @tetsuukuroo @crangrapel0ver @syrhra | @kalulakunundrum @cheezemanz @gold24fish @lunaryasha

[earthykinous]

Heck yeah! I gotta make some asshole menaces to spice things up! None of my ocs are saints tho, I'll take the chance to ramble about their flaws.

Token the Golett

He is a good guy most of time, he has a strong sense of justice and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets loved, I mean, I love him, he is my son, my baby. BUT he has a problem, he is way too emotional! He is prone to get so angry to the point to get physical, leading him to pick fights when it's not necessary, in that aspect he is not that different from the next character I'll talk about.

Saribi the Monferno

From the start she is a problematic individual, her flaws aren't hard to list, going from a bad sport to aggressive, you wouldn't be wrong in assuming that she has some inferiority complex and her way to make herself feel strong and better is messing and intimidating those she considers weak and inferior, a cowardly thing to do, also, she tends to take everything personal, that leading her to aggressive responses, if she is not picking fights she is sitting somewhere being a grumpy ass.

Tobo the Impidimp

Another problematic individual, not for aggressive behavior but his shenanigans, it is always nice to have someone to light up the mood but Tobo can go from being a comedic relief to be an absolute jerk, his jokes can go from lighthearted to rude and mean, and he doesn't care, as long as it's fun to him, he doesn't mind to mess with anyone for his own amusement, one moment he can be on your side, the next he'll make sure to cause you a headache. What's wrong with this guy?

Blueskee the Swablu

Just like Saribi, her flaws are easy to spot, she is the pompous and condescending with a superiority complex type, she has a tendency to look down at everyone, and it doesn't help at all that she is actually pretty capable and smart. She is also a hypocrite to a fault, believe me, you don't want her as a friend, unless you go with the "I can fix her" mindset, objectively she is a reliable companion in adventures and she has her moments, but better not to get too involved.

Zia the Blitzle

She can be described as the cheerful type, always laughing and getting amusement with simple things, she would make a nice companion, her problem is that she talks way too much and she hardly listens, also she is too much of an airhead to take things seriously, she is always getting distracted and in consecuence distracting everyone else, her lack of seriousness is a thing that annoys the more responsible folks, she is a good individual to hang out, but she is not the most appropiate to work with or to ask for advices, she just won't listen and downplay stuff.

Kosei the Murkrow

Objectively he is one of the least problematic, he is a reliable folk and makes a good friend, his problem is that he gets too bossy when he senses that someone is not taking the matter seriously as it should be, it would be good if it wasn't that he takes EVERYTHING as a serious matter, he usually maintains his patience but sometimes he can lose it and scold his companions when he is not necessarily in a position to do so, generally a good companion but a bit annoying.

Hanzō the Honedge

He is a tab bit meanier than Kosei, Kosei is all about honestity, but Hanzō is just outright blunt and rude, he doesn't care if whatever he says can be perceived as hurtful, generally he is not the most aproachable type, he has the "the ends justify the means" mindset, althought he is willing to play according to the rules, if he is allowed to sacrifice a fellow he will do it with no hesitation, he has the brains but lacks of a heart.

Geryu the Tirtouga

He and Palith are the very least problematic, but even he has some darkness in him, well, he compared to everyone else may appear harmeless, his flaw is not about being mean or aggressive or apathetic, he can't keep secrets, a total gossip if you will, sooner or later he'll slip it out, anytime, mostly in the worst moments, from little and silly secrets to very personal and dark ones, he can't help himself, as much as he seems to be a clueless and silly guy, his tiny brain can pack up some serious secrets, that's it, until his little brain has no more room and has to take it out.

Palith the Lileep

You may be thinking "But she didn't do anything wrong!", she is the least character you would expect to do something mean, but just like Geryu, she has a flaw, she is very secretive, not out of malice, she never has bad intentions but she is very reluctant to speak her mind or share things even when she has to, she is also very dependent, sometimes leading her to be a liability.

I love making a problematic oc and then people get mad because they're problematic. Buddy someone's gotta make the problems for the story to happen, might as well make the Problem Maker interesting.

[tsandoll]

so i have the feeling taesan would be a very loving and caring boyfriend, lots of cuddles, hand holding and kisses but only when you two are alone. i don't think he would be into pda usually and you don't really have a problem with that. but i feel like sometimes he can be a bit too lowkey and straight up forgets to tell people that you're his girlfriend, he just let's them assume.

so i imagine the same thing happens with the rest of bnd. like he is totally sure that he told them about you at some point, but the problem is he totally didn't. so you are hanging out with him, when suddenly the others show up because well they live together and you are thrilled to meet his friends that he had told you so much about, but in return you just get confused expressions and the question of who you are. for a second you contemplate if you should get mad but you know how your boyfriend is and that he wouldn't keep you a secret from his friends on purpose, so when taesan introduces you just by your name and not as his girlfriend you decide to play along and act as if you're just a friend while you are hanging out with the guys.

but as soon as taesan and you are alone it's like something switches. 'so when were you gonna tell your friends that we're together?' you ask him and his eyes go wide, but before he can apologize you laugh a bit to show that you're not really mad, but what you are is determined. you push him down on the bed and straddle him, leaning close to whisper in his ear:"i'm gonna make you regret it."

your mission for the night: let everyone in the entire house hear taesan so that there will be no doubt about who you are. but as taesan is usually not too loud you know you have to give him a very special treatment tonight.

oh, i wanna hear his moans so badly, i just know they sound heavenly and so hot, especially when giving him head, imagine him lying on the bed hair sticking to his forehead looking at you with a fucked-out expression after you've already made him cum and whine when you just keep going, overstimulating him because you love hearing and seeing him like this, so desperate for your touch and not caring anymore about who could hear him because he is too focused on you and the pleasure you are giving him.

and i want to see him face the others in the morning, shyly avoiding their eyes and cheeks burning red because he knows they heard him.

💙

(im so sorry it's taken so long to get to your asks :(( i just always want to give a good response to these so badly so i put it off more and more until i feel like i can do it justice.. sorry nonnie 💔)

there's a certain point he reaches where he can no longer control himself. it wouldn't matter who could hear him,, all that would matter is you an show you're making him feel in that moment. he'd already be so sensitive, so needy for release when you put your mouth on him. your mouth would be so warm and you'd lower onto his length, taking him in the back of your throat so easily. he'd immediately moan out loud, his hips suddenly jutting upward. he'd grip onto whatever he can around him because he has to find some way to ground himself. your head would bob up and down his length, holding his hips in place so he can't squirm away from you. he would be so ruined already, all of his whines would come close to sounding like cries. honestly if you didn't give him a bit of mercy right now he might actually cry. he's getting louder and louder and it's making you smile.. he looks dizzy when you look up at him, like he can't keep himself together. gosh he's gonna be so embarrassed later on when he's not focused on holding his orgasm back. his whole body would be hot, the gentle shudder of his body is only warming him up more. when you pull off of his length to just stroke it for a moment you would be able to see how red his tip is. he needs to cum so so badly so you finally let him. he would let out the most beautiful string of moans when he finally cums, tugging at his hair and thrusting into your mouth gently. he thought the torture was finally over but you'd keep stroking him through it.. stroking him even faster once he's run out of cum for the time being. this is when he'd really lose it, moaning and begging for you to stop, but you don't <3 not until you feel like everyone's heard him well enough!!

[shiyosugi]

IMAGINE, Sae who either rarely voices his love for you or acts like he loves you. It's just out of character of him if he acts like a lovesick fool right? You never really thought about it because you two were busy with each other's business. Both of you have a busy life. However, when you got a few days of rest from work recently, all of the sudden, the shared apartment became too silent and lonely for you. This led to you overthink about your relationship and how will you manage if anything happens.

As a result, when Sae arrived home, you couldn't help but asked him; "Don't you get tired of me?" That question certainly caught him off-guard. He just finished his bath, why would you ask something like that so suddenly? He gave you a confused look, but seeing your curious expression he just gave a straight answer which was a "no". You wanted to ask more, but you felt something weird in your chest so you decided to brush it off for tonight and went to sleep.

For the next few nights of your week off, Sae noticed how you were getting... distant. At first, he didn't think much of it, but it was getting hard to ignore your sudden change of behavior. One night, he sat next to you on the bed while you were busy with your phone. He hesitated but eventually reached out to touch your hair. Feeling startled you almost slapped his hand, but he grabbed your wrist before you could do anything.

"It's just me," he spoke softly. You looked into his eyes and the weird feeling came again, which made you looked away. "What's wrong? Talk to me."

You wanted to say that it was nothing and brushed it off, but for some reason, you can't lie and he knew how bad were you in lying. "Don't you want to break up with me?"

He shook his head.

"Don't you want someone better than me?"

He shook his head.

"Aren't you tired of being with someone like me?"

He shook his head.

"Do you still love me?"

He didn't give any response and that made you scared. Upon seeing your worried face, he sighed then moved you so that he could lay his head on your stomach and hugged your waist.

"Sae?" head tilted as you witnessed him doing something you didn't expect he could.

"I never said that I don't love you. I never said I'm bored of you and I never said that I'm tired of you. Where did you get that idea?" he raised an eyebrow.

"It's just... you never do or say anything to show me that you still love me. You are famous Sae. A famous soccer player with pretty face and I know damn well I am out of your league. You could have cheated-"

"Hold it there. Cheat? I would never," he frowned, holding you tighter.

"But-"

"No. I would never do that and stop thinking about that. I love you alright?" he held you even tighter as if afraid that you will disappear if he let go. "Please [F/N]*, believe me when I said I will never cheat or do anything bad that you are thinking right now," he caressed your back as he saw the small tears in your eyes.

He who thought you were as nonchalant as he was, now understood that you are as just as sensitive as he is.

[F/N]* = First name

[seulszn]

#NewBeginnings

Warning: cussing.

Tags: @grosspube, @vienwood, @valalice. Let me know if you wanna be tagged in the next part (or if you don’t wanna be tagged). Series Masterlist

Caitlyn and Vi, the two most powerful couple at Pitover Academy, everyone knows about them, everyone hates them, or wants to be with one of them, Caitlyn being the wealthy smart girl who just so happens to know the dean of the school was called the Queen of Pitover.

She exposed and got anybody expelled. She's a 6”1 mean girl and Vi she was just hot headed and would beat up anybody she felt needed a good pounding. Everyone wondered how Vi never got expelled for her actions but it was probably because of Caitlyn’s relationship with the Dean.

You knew of them but didn't care to much only focused on your studies and graduating, they left you alone and you avoided them at all cost which was easy cause you don't share any classes with them and your locker was on the other side of the school so as far as you know they don't know you exist.

Bobbing your head to the music playing on your phone you don't notice your friend calling out to you ugh you hate stalling in the hallway just wanting to get to your locker, collect the things you need and get to your next class before the bell rings and everyone in your friend group knows that but they choose to bother you anyways.

“You got the answers for the math assignment?” Julie asks, wrapping her arm around your shoulders and removing your headphones and placing it on her head to listen to the music you're listening too.

You sigh, reaching out to grab at the headphones but the girl moves away “I’ll give them back when you answer my question.” rolling your eyes you hand her a paper you have in a stack placed under your arm, “can I get my headphones back now?” you question holding your hand out the girl places her finger on her chin before looking up in a thinking motion before humming out.

“Julie, I don't have the time for this. I gotta get to my next class” you groan out placing your free hand on your hip.

“Ugh fine here are your stupid headphones”

The girl hands it back to you thanking her, placing the headphones around your neck “what are you doing after school?” she asked, walking with you to your locker.

Homework it's the same thing you do every single day after school wanting to finish all your assignments so you can at least be in bed before nine o'clock and have a weekend where you're not stressing out about an assignment being due that week. Julie hates your answer banging her head softly on the locker besides yours.

Putting in your combination and opening your locker is when Julie decides to speak “you're always cramped up in your room doing some dumb ass assignment” you snicker at what the green haired girl said. “Well at least I care about my grades” you bite back as the girl scoffs at your response.

“I care about my grades!” Julie yells out in offense and you nod your head.

“Then why did you need the answers to the math assignment?” You question as the green haired girl blushes and looks down at her feet probably to think of what to say “b-because trigonometry is h-hard” she states a stuttering mess you laugh before placing the stuff you need for your next class into your backpack.

“Maybe if you paid attention in class and not on what’s on your phone it wouldn’t be so hard” Julie rolled her eyes before slamming your locker shut. “Your so mean Y/N” you nod your head, use to her calling you that anytime you say something as remotely as truthful.

“You say this all the time” you say, interlocking your hands with Julie and skipping down the hallway to your next class. Biochemistry, that was a small short class that you recently signed up for this quarter and it was your first and only class you don't share with Julie, stopping at the door the girl leans on you before fake crying “why must we depart!” the girl yells as you rub her back trying to console her but to no avail “I’ll see you in thirty minutes calm down” you console as the girl lets up wiping the fake tears.

“I should have applied for this stupid class” she mumbles before walking away you giggle at the silliness of your best friend before walking into the classroom.

Gasping in awe at how cool the room was you took everything in from the scent of Maple, to the posters that have many science quotes and the periodic table, you find a seat by a window close to the front but not so close.

Setting your stuff down and getting situated you don't even notice someone placing their stuff down at the same table you were currently sitting at without looking up you just smile, placing your notebook down and opening it up and writing your name.

“Good afternoon students” A caramel skinned man says walking into the classroom with papers and textbooks placed under his arm.

The classroom starts to die down as the teacher stops at his desk, placing his stuff down and turning to the chalkboard behind him to write his name.

“My name is Professor Jayce Talis and I am your Biochemistry teacher” he introduces before observing the class, he looks nervous. You notice how much he is sweating; he seems intimidated by all the students scrutinizing him.

Looking out the window at the cold windy day and taking in what the professor is saying you start to think about what assignment you're gonna do first once you get home “you're pretty” a feminine voice declares you thank them not turning your head away from the window the voice sighs before speaking again.

“Are you new here? I've never seen you before” you roll your eyes before turning to the stranger wanting them to stop talking to you.

Dammit

Sitting by you is the very girl you try your absolute hardest to avoid and she's smiling down at you leaning on her hand “um no I'm not new” you whisper quietly but loud enough for Caitlyn to hear she nods her head still staring at you.

“Really? How come I've never seen you before?” she questions looking over a Jayce who is writing stuff on the chalkboard and then back at you.

You just shrug your shoulders not knowing what to say “I'm usually to myself and my locker is on the far side of the school” you whisper before cussing out yourself for saying that the last thing you needed was for her to find our locker and everything about you with the reputation she has you don't want her lifestyle to corrupt you.

Caitlyn's gaze lingers, her piercing blue eyes studying you like you're some kind of puzzle she’s determined to solve. Her smile doesn’t falter, but there’s a flicker of curiosity behind it, as though your quiet demeanor has intrigued her in a way she hadn’t anticipated.

Her gaze feels like it’s burning into your skin, and you shift uncomfortably in your seat, trying to ignore her persistent attention.

You glance back out the window, hoping she’ll take the hint and stop, but Caitlyn is nothing if not relentless.

“Far side of the school, huh?” Caitlyn muses, her voice low but teasing. She leans a little closer, her perfume a mix of something floral and expensive invading your senses. “So, what? You’re hiding from everyone?”

“I’m not hiding,” you mutter, still refusing to meet her gaze.

“Could’ve fooled me,” Caitlyn quips, tilting her head with an amused smirk. “You seem like the type who’d rather fade into the background. Quiet, mysterious…” She trails off for a moment before her smile turns sly. “You’re kind of cute, you know that?”

Your heart stumbles in your chest, and you finally look at her, caught off guard by the compliment. Her grin only widens when she sees the surprise written all over your face.

“I- uh…” you stammer, struggling to form a coherent response.

Before you can finish, the bell rings, and the sound jolts you back to reality. Students begin shuffling out of their seats, gathering their things, but Caitlyn doesn’t budge. She stays seated, her chin still resting on her hand as she watches you fumble to pack up your books.

“See you around… locker girl on the far side,” Caitlyn says with a wink, her tone light but carrying a teasing edge.

You pause mid-motion, feeling her gaze lingering on you as you sling your bag over your shoulder. “Yeah… sure,” you mumble, avoiding her eyes as you hurry toward the door.

As you step into the hallway, your mind races, replaying every second of the conversation. Caitlyn Kiramman, of all people, had just singled you out. And not just to tease, but with an intensity that made you feel completely out of your depth.

Outside the classroom, Julie leans against the wall, her green hair partially covering her face as she’s absorbed in her phone. She doesn’t notice you approach until you tap her shoulder. She glances up, a small smile spreading across her face as she slips her phone into her pocket.

“How was class?” she asks, linking her arm through yours.

You shrug, hesitating. How were you supposed to explain that Caitlyn Kiramman, of all people, was now sitting beside you? “It was… fine,” you mumble, keeping your gaze ahead.

Julie narrows her eyes at you, sensing there’s more to the story. “Just fine?”

You nod quickly, trying to brush it off. “Yeah, nothing special.”

But your mind is still reeling from Caitlyn’s lingering smile and teasing tone.

Julie stops abruptly, planting her feet and gripping your shoulders. Her emerald eyes narrow as she studies your face. “What’s going on? I know something is up!” she demands, her voice firm but laced with curiosity. You try to shrug her off, but her grip tightens, refusing to let you dodge her question. “Nothing’s going on,” you insist, though your voice wavers slightly.

“Liar,” Julie retorts, a mischievous grin spreading across her face. Her green eyes narrow as she leans closer. “Spill it, Y/N. You’ve got that ‘I’m hiding something’ look written all over you.”

You sigh, realizing she won’t drop it. “Okay, fine,” you admit, lowering your voice and glancing around the hallway to make sure no one’s listening. “Caitlyn Kiramman sat next to me in biochem.”

Julie freezes for a moment, her expression stuck between shock and horror, before her voice explodes out of her. “You’re sitting by who?!” she practically shouts, her voice bouncing off the hallway walls.

Heads turn, students pausing mid-conversation to stare. Flushing with embarrassment, you wave your hands frantically, trying to calm her down. “Julie! Keep it down!” you hiss, glancing nervously at the gawking onlookers.

Julie slaps a hand over her mouth, her green hair bouncing as she leans closer to you. “Caitlyn Kiramman? The Caitlyn Kiramman? Miss Queen of Piltover Academy? And you’re just telling me this now?” she whispers, her voice still dangerously loud for your liking.

“Shh” you grab her arm, tugging her closer to keep her from shouting again “yes ok? She sat next to me in biochem and wouldn’t stop talking to me.It’s not that big of a deal!

Julie grips your arms tightly, her face a mix of disbelief and frustration. “Oh my God, this is insane. What did she say? Did she insult you? Ask you out? Did Vi show up and punch someone?”

“Julie!” you exclaim, cutting her off. “No, it wasn’t anything like that” She narrows her eyes, studying you like you’re hiding a secret. Then, with a dramatic eye roll, she releases your arms.

“You’re acting like I want her to sit by me,” you defend, crossing your arms as Julie stares at you like you’ve just grown a second head.

“You can always move!” she exclaims, her voice rising again.

“Julie!” you shush her, glancing around nervously. “Can you not yell everything? People are staring.”

Julie rolls her eyes dramatically. “You could move,” she repeats in a quieter tone, “but you’re not, are you? Don’t tell me you’re actually falling for this whole ‘she’s nice’ act?”

You hesitate, fidgeting with the strap of your backpack. “I mean… she does seem nice,” you admit, your voice soft. “She hasn’t done anything mean to me. She just… talks a lot and, I don’t know, she seems curious.”

Julie’s jaw drops, and she throws her hands up in disbelief. “Curious? About you? Babe, she’s Caitlyn fucking Kiramman. She doesn’t get curious, she gets what she wants.”

You flinch at her tone, but Julie’s face remains hard as she scoffs, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. “I can’t believe you’re just sitting there, letting her of all people talk to you. Caitlyn Kiramman isn’t nice, Y/N. She’s a snake.”

You try to explain, but Julie cuts you off before you can get a word out. “I don’t care what kind of ‘nice’ act she’s putting on, you’re not gonna fall for it. She’s got a reputation, you know? People like her don’t just sit next to people like you for no reason. There’s always an angle.”

You open your mouth to protest, but the words catch in your throat. Julie's got a point there's something about Caitlyn's curiosity, her careful observation of you, that doesn't sit quite right. But still...

“She didn’t do anything bad,” you murmur, your voice wavering.

Julie’s expression hardens, her voice sharp. “That’s the thing, Y/N. She’s not gonna show her true colors right away. It’ll be subtle, maybe even sweet, but trust me eventually, you’re gonna see the real Caitlyn. And when you do, I don’t want you coming to me with your ‘I should’ve listened to you’ speech.”

You stare at your friend, the concern in her voice ringing louder than her usual playful teasing. Julie may hate Caitlyn, but she’s always had your back. You can’t help but feel a growing unease, a knot tightening in your stomach.

“But what if she’s really just... trying to be nice?” you ask, more to yourself than to Julie.

Julie scoffs again, clearly frustrated. “You really think a girl like Caitlyn wants to be ‘nice’? Please. She’ll throw anyone under the bus the second it benefits her.” She pauses for a moment, her voice dropping slightly.

"Well, have you met Vi yet?" Julie asks, her voice taking on a more serious edge as she narrows her eyes at you.You shake your head, feeling a wave of confusion wash over you. "No, I haven’t," you reply cautiously, sensing the shift in her mood.

Julie bites her lip, her gaze flickering with uncertainty, as if she's weighing whether to share what’s on her mind. After a long pause, she sighs, her expression hardening slightly. "Good. Let's keep it that way." She takes a step closer to you, her voice quieter but still tinged with a warning. "Vi is... different. She’s not like Caitlyn."

You stop walking for a moment, eyeing her with curiosity. "What do you mean? How are they different?"

Julie looks around before leaning in slightly, her tone dropping to a hushed whisper. "Caitlyn might be a manipulator, but Vi? She’s straight-up dangerous. She's unpredictable, and honestly, she doesn't care who she hurts."

You furrow your brows, unsure of what to make of her words. "But... aren't they together? Caitlyn and Vi?" you ask, your mind still reeling from the tension in Julie's voice.

Julie gives a tight nod as she pulls open your locker. "Yeah, they’re together. But just because they’re a couple doesn’t mean they're on the same team." She pauses, her expression grim. "Caitlyn uses people, sure, but Vi... she breaks them. If Vi’s interested in you, or if she sees something she wants, she’ll go after it no questions asked. It’s not a game to her."

You digest her words slowly, the gravity of what Julie’s saying sinking in. You can’t help but feel a little uneasy, the warning hanging in the air like a storm cloud.

"So, what do I do?" you ask, not sure how to handle the situation.

Julie takes a deep breath, glancing over her shoulder before looking back at you with a hint of concern in her eyes. "Stay away from both of them. Trust me, you don’t want to get caught in the middle. Caitlyn may seem all nice and polite, but she’s got her agenda, and Vi... well, Vi doesn’t care about anyone but herself. They’re trouble, Y/N. Big trouble."

You nod slowly, the weight of her words sitting heavy in your chest. As much as you want to trust Caitlyn’s kind words and playful demeanor, Julie’s warnings are hard to ignore. The last thing you want is to get tangled in their web.

Julie gives you a quick, reassuring pat on the back before slamming your locker shut. "Just be careful. And if you see Vi, turn the other way. Got it?" You give a small nod, even though a part of you wonders if it’s really that simple.

——

Lunch rolled around, and you and Julie decided to sit outside on the bleachers, away from the chaos of the cafeteria. The crisp breeze carried faint laughter and chatter from other students scattered around the schoolyard, but out here, it felt quieter more your speed.

You carefully unwrap your sandwich, savoring the peaceful hum of your surroundings. The soft rustling of leaves and distant conversations made the moment feel calm, a small escape from the usual school day noise.

Julie sits beside you on the bleachers, her bag balanced haphazardly on her lap as she rummages through it with an exaggerated sense of purpose. She mutters something under her breath, pulling out a few stray items before shoving them back in. Finally, she stops, her eyes lighting up as she grabs something with a triumphant grin.

“Okay,” she announces, holding up a Tupperware container like it’s a prized artifact. The lid is slightly warped, and the contents inside are a questionable mix of colors and textures. She stares at it for a moment before looking at you with a sheepish smile. So… I know I packed this,” she begins, waving the container slightly for emphasis, “but I was high out of my mind and just started throwing random shit together.”

You raise an eyebrow, leaning slightly away from the mystery container. “That’s… not exactly reassuring.”

Julie snorts, popping the lid off with a dramatic flourish. The smell hits immediately, not bad, but not exactly good, either. Inside is a chaotic mix of pasta, what looks like canned beans, and a handful of unidentifiable chunks that might be chicken or tofu. “See? It’s fine,” she says, grabbing a fork from her bag and poking at the concoction. A piece of something grayish jiggles ominously. “Totally edible.”

“Define edible,’” you say, narrowing your eyes at the container. Julie rolls her eyes, scooping up a forkful and holding it out to you. “Come on, don’t be dramatic. Try it.” You lean back, crossing your arms. “Yeah, I’ll pass. I don’t have a death wish today.”

“Your loss,” she says with a shrug, stuffing the bite into her own mouth. Her face twists for half a second before she forces a too-bright smile. “Mmm. Delicious.”

You smile at your silly friend, biting into your sandwich as you watch her grimace slightly while forcing down another bite of her so-called “food.” Despite her insistence that it’s edible, the look on her face tells a different story.

Julie stabs at her pasta concoction with exaggerated determination, muttering something about it being "an acquired taste." You laugh under your breath, shaking your head. The two of you are so absorbed in your banter that you don’t notice someone approaching until they’re practically on top of you.

“I knew I’d find you little rats out here,” a familiar voice chimes.You look up to see Lena standing a few steps below, one hand on her hip and the other holding a bag that you assume is filled with food. Her sharp smirk is unmistakable, paired with an air of confidence that makes her presence impossible to ignore.

Julie lights up instantly, setting her fork down and leaning back on her hands. “Took you long enough, babe. Where’d you even go to get your food?”

Lena places the bag down in front of you two with a small smirk, three neatly wrapped burgers are in the bag. Julie’s eyes widened in delight. “No way. You went to that burger place?” Lena nods her head, taking a slow sip of her iced coffee.

“You know I don’t eat this prison food,” she says with a casual shrug. She then reaches into the bag and pulls out two burgers, handing them to you and Julie. “I got it just how you like it.” Julie’s face lights up, and she immediately unwraps hers, her smile widening as she sees the extra mushrooms piled high on her burger. “Ugh, yes! Extra mushrooms!” she exclaims, holding the burger up like a prize. “You’re a lifesaver, Lena.”

You can’t help but grin at the sight of Julie so happy over something as simple as a burger. You take yours from Lena and unwrap it too, feeling the warmth of the freshly made burger in your hands. It’s perfect just the way you like it. You glance up at Lena, giving her a nod of approval.

“Thanks, Lena,” you say, taking a bite and savoring the delicious flavor. Lena leans back, her smirk tugging at her lips. “Anytime,” she says, her voice casual but with a hint of pride in the way she nailed it.

The three of you settle into a comfortable silence, savoring the food and the rare moment of peace away from the usual chaos of school. The soft chatter of other students drifts over from the field, where groups are laughing and tossing around a football. Your gaze wanders across the campus, taking in the laid-back atmosphere.

It’s then that your mind drifts back to earlier that day in biochem. You remember Caitlyn sitting down beside you like it was nothing, her usual confident smile plastered on her face as she casually struck up a conversation.

The memory of her soft but deliberate voice lingers in the back of your mind, and you find yourself frowning slightly, still uncertain about where this unexpected attention from her is headed. She had been too casual about it, almost like she was testing the waters. You’re not sure whether to be flattered or suspicious.

Julie’s voice cuts through your thoughts, pulling you back to the present. “You alright?” she asks, glancing over at you with a raised eyebrow, clearly noticing you’ve been zoning out.

You blink, realizing you’ve been lost in thought for longer than you intended. “Yeah, just... thinking.”

Julie eyes you for a moment, then shrugs and stuffs a bite of her burger into her mouth, clearly too hungry to press further. Lena, nestled comfortably against Julie, has her attention on her phone, scrolling through Instagram. After a few seconds, she taps her screen and turns it off, glancing at you with a knowing look. “Thinking about what?” she asks, her voice light but curious.

Julie, not missing a beat, grins mischievously and turns to her girlfriend. “Probably that Caitlyn thing.” You roll your eyes, frustrated that Julie picked up on your distracted mood so quickly. Of course, she’d jump to Caitlyn.

Lena sits up slightly, her eyes widening as she glances between the two of you, clearly intrigued. “Bitch, what Caitlyn thing? Why am I not filled in on what’s going on?” Julie smirks, clearly enjoying the drama unfolding. “Well, little Miss Y/N has gotten the attention of the infamous Caitlyn Kiramman.”

Lena’s eyes go wide, and you can see the shock in her face. “No way, shut up.” She looks at you, her disbelief clear. You groan in frustration, not wanting to talk about it anymore, but it seems like it’s inevitable now. Julie continues, oblivious to your discomfort. “She’s in Y/N’s biochem class and is probably putting on some fake-ass facade just to mess with her.”

Lena’s tone shifts, clearly irritated. “Ugh, that bitch. Don’t tell me you’re falling for this?”

You look down in defeat, silently agreeing with her words, but you don’t have the energy to argue it. Julie, always quick to stir the pot, responds before you can. “She totally is.”

Lena stares at you incredulously, her voice low with disbelief. “Are you stupid?” she asks, her eyes narrowing. Julie gives you a playful hit on the arm. “I don’t have stupid friends,” she says, delivering another playful hit for emphasis.

“Ow, thanks, Julie,” you mutter sarcastically, rubbing your arm. “I thought I was telling the story, but you pretty much said everything. While you’re at it, tell Lena that you failed your trigonometry test.” Lena immediately turns her attention to Julie, her mouth dropping open in shock. Julie tries to keep a straight face but can’t help but give a sheepish grin.

Lena explodes, her voice loud enough to attract the attention of nearby students. “You failed your trigonometry test?! Are you serious right now?” she yells, giving Julie an exaggerated smack on the arm, which causes Julie to flinch in mock pain.

You smile at your friends' silliness, but the moment is quickly cut short by the shrill sound of the bell ringing. Lena and Julie pull away from each other, and the three of you get up to clean up your mess and head inside. As you gather your things, Lena looks at you, her expression suddenly serious.

"Y/N, please don’t fall for whatever act Caitlyn is putting on," she warns, her voice a little firmer than usual. Julie, ever the playful one, snickers behind her. "I already told her that," she says, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

You roll your eyes at their attempts to discipline you. "Yeah, thanks for the advice," you mutter, not entirely convinced. But before you can say anything more, Lena presses on, her tone shifting again. "Have you met Vi yet?"

You shake your head, and Lena visibly relaxes, letting out a small sigh of relief. "Good. Whatever you do, try to avoid Vi," she says, her voice laced with concern. Julie, not missing a beat, snickers once more. "I told her that,as well…" she trails off, glancing between the two of you with a mischievous grin.

"Okay, well I gotta help the leadership club," Lena says, her tone slightly amused. "They’re having some discourse and need me to help figure it out." She grabs her bag and slings it over her shoulder.

"Y/N, text me when you're out of your next class, we need to finish this discussion. And you," she points at Julie with a mock-serious expression, "we need to talk about some things."

Julie raises an eyebrow and smirks, clearly amused. "What kind of talk?" she asks, leaning back casually. Lena gives her a knowing look, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Don’t act innocent, Greenhead. You know exactly what I mean.

Julie just shrugs, her grin widening as she leans in and presses a quick kiss to Lena’s cheek. "Sure, sure, whatever you say, babe," she says, her voice light and teasing.

Lena rolls her eyes, but the smile on her face betrays her amusement as she pulls away, ready to tackle whatever the leadership club has thrown her way.

"Are you ready for gym class?" Julie asks, her voice upbeat as she pulls you towards the locker room.

—

Gym class was a nightmare. You hated it with every fiber of your being. You almost wished it was like elementary and middle school again, where you could pull out the "I have asthma, and I can't do some of this because of my lungs" excuse. Unfortunately, that doesn’t fly here.

So what did you do?" you ask, glancing over as you help Julie with her sit-ups. She looks at you, clearly confused, before groaning in frustration.

"I don’t know, why do I always gotta do something" she mutters, exasperated. "We got into it a while ago over something dumb. One minute everything’s fine, and the next, we’re arguing about who left the damn door open." She lets out a heavy sigh, clearly over it. "Honestly, I’m just tired of the drama."

You nod, understanding more than you want to admit. Relationships, especially the complicated ones, were a lot of work. You’ve been lucky enough never to be in one. You’ve had crushes before, but it’s never gone further than that. As Julie pushes herself up for another sit-up, you try to lighten the mood.

"Well, at least you get to work it out, right?" you say with a small smile, trying to keep things light. Julie smirks, though her eyes still hold a trace of frustration.

"Yeah, I love her... like, a lot," she says, pausing for a moment. "But damn, she can be so annoying at times."

You nod, looking at your love-stricken friend with a mix of amusement and sympathy. "You look in love, though. I’m happy for you," you say, giving her a genuine smile.

Julie stops her push-ups and looks up at you, her expression softening. A smile tugs at her lips. "Thanks," she says quietly, her eyes bright with affection.

“You guys better invite me to the wedding," you say with a playful grin, raising an eyebrow.

Julie laughs, shaking her head. "Don’t get ahead of yourself," she teases, but her eyes twinkle with a hint of affection. "We’ve still got a lot of drama to sort out before we even think about that."

You chuckle, tossing her a teasing look. "I mean, I’m just saying, I’ll be the one to give the best speech." You pause, leaning back against the gym wall. "And maybe I’ll get a plus one, so I don’t have to go solo."

Julie smirks, rolling her eyes. "I’ll make sure to keep the guest list in mind," she says with a wink. "But for now, let’s just focus on surviving gym class without passing out, huh?"

You both burst out laughing, the tension finally breaking as you both share a moment of relief. The sound of your laughter fills the space, easing the weight that’s been hanging over the conversation.

Minutes slip by, the two of you helping each other with sit-ups, until Julie suddenly groans, pushing herself up for the last time. "I’m tired of sit-ups," she announces, stretching and standing up with a dramatic sigh. "I’m going to grab my water bottle and find something else for us to do." She flashes you a grin before strolling off, clearly energized by the idea of mixing things up.

You’re left alone in the gym, your mind still buzzing from the conversation with Julie. You watch her walk away to grab her water bottle, the gymnasium stretching out before you in a mix of activity. The sounds of sneakers squeaking on the floor, the thud of basketballs, and the occasional shout fill the air as other students go about their routines.

You glance around, a little aimless now that Julie’s gone. Some kids are running laps, others are working on their stretches, while a few are in small clusters talking or fooling around.

A sense of detachment washes over you, as if you're just a bystander in the midst of all the activity around you. You feel like you're on the outskirts, an unnoticed face in a sea of movement. You pull out your phone, checking the time, silently counting down the minutes until gym class finally ends and you can escape to your last class of the day.

"You know you're not allowed on your phone, right?" A voice in front of you says, breaking the quiet. You roll your eyes, already expecting it, before glancing up at the person in front of you.

You gasp when you see who it is. Vi. Without missing a beat, you quickly put your phone down on the bench, a mix of annoyance and awkwardness flooding through you.

Her smirk widens as she steps closer, her eyes gleaming with mischief. "Didn't think you'd be the type to get caught," she says, her tone playful yet carrying a sharp edge. "Guess I was wrong."

Before you can respond, she begins circling you, her gaze bold and shameless as it sweeps over you. You can feel the weight of her stare, every step around you making your body tense just a little more under her scrutiny.

"Are you always this tense?" she teases, her voice dipping into something low and suggestive as she leans in, her breath brushing against the shell of your ear. "Or is it just me?"

You swallow hard, heat rushing to your face at the blatant invasion of your personal space. "I… uh… wasn’t expecting company," you stammer, your voice wobbling as you attempt to maintain composure. It's clear, though, that she's reveling in how off-balance you are.

Her smirk deepens as her eyes flicker down, catching the way your hands instinctively tug at the hem of your gym shorts, a feeble attempt to shield yourself from her penetrating gaze. "Relax," she says, her tone somewhere between amused and mocking. "I’m not gonna bite… unless you want me to."

That comment has your heart skipping a beat, and you glance away, hoping the face you're making isn’t as obvious. But Vi doesn’t back off if anything, she seems even more entertained by your reaction.

You try to shake off the unease, but before you can say anything, Vi’s smirk deepens as she notices your reaction. “What’s with the look? Did I hit a nerve?” she teases, her tone equal parts playful and predatory.

You avert your gaze, focusing on a random spot on the gym floor. "No," you mutter softly, your voice barely above a whisper.

Vi chuckles, clearly amused by your quiet demeanor. “You’re shy, huh? That’s cute too,” she says, taking another step closer. Her presence feels heavy, like it’s taking up all the space around you, and you instinctively shrink back, gripping the edge of the bench for some kind of stability.

Your pulse quickens as she leans in just a little more, and without fully thinking, you raise your hand to gently push her back. “I’m sorry, but I’m not interested,” you say, your voice steady despite the nerves bubbling under the surface.

Vi freezes for a moment, her smirk faltering. She straightens up, her gaze sharpening as she studies your expression. For a brief second, you think you might’ve offended her, and the fear grips your chest like a vice. The rumors about her temper flash through your mind, and your eyes dart toward the locker room, silently begging for Julie to come back.

Then, unexpectedly, Vi starts to laugh a low, throaty sound that sends a chill down your spine. “Wow,” she says, shaking her head in disbelief. “You really are different, huh?” You’re not sure how to respond, so you just sit there, frozen under her intense gaze. Vi tilts her head, as if sizing you up all over again. “Most people don’t have the guts to tell me no. Guess that makes you kind of interesting.”

Her tone is calm, almost teasing, but it does little to ease the tension in your chest. She takes a step back, finally giving you some space, and crosses her arms, the smirk returning to her lips.

“Alright, Y/N. I’ll back off…for now,” she says, her voice dripping with mischief. “But don’t think I’m giving up that easily.”

Before you can respond, the sound of footsteps approaching makes your heart leap. Julie appears, her expression instantly hardening when she spots Vi standing there.

“What the hell are you doing?” Julie snaps, glaring at Vi as she strides over.

Vi shrugs, looking completely unfazed. “Just having a chat with your little friend here. Nothing serious.”

Julie places herself between the two of you, her protective instincts kicking in. “Well, the chat’s over. Get lost,” she says, her tone firm and unyielding.

Vi raises her hands in mock surrender, that ever-present smirk still on her face. “Relax, Greenhead. I’m not here to start a fight.” She glances at you one last time, her eyes glinting with something you can’t quite place. “See you around, Y/N.”

With that, she saunters off, leaving you and Julie alone. Julie turns to you, her face a mix of concern and frustration. “What did she say to you? Did she do anything?”

You shake your head quickly. “No, she didn’t do anything. Just... talking.”

"Oh, great. This just got ten times worse. You really know how to attract trouble, don’t you?"Julie scoffs, running a hand through her green hair. “Talking, my ass. You’ve gotta be careful around her, Y/N. She’s trouble. Both her and Caitlyn.”

You nod, though the encounter still lingers in your mind. “I’ll be fine,” you say softly, but the look on Julie’s face tells you she’s not convinced.

“Let’s just get through the rest of this class,” she mutters, grabbing her water bottle. “And stay close to me, alright?”

You nod again, following her as she leads the way back into the gym. But even as you try to focus on the rest of the period, you can’t shake the feeling that this won’t be the last time Vi seeks you out.

What have you gotten yourself into?

Ⓒ︎ seulszn

[wchswift]

HABZHSBAH HIII LINAAA (it's me again 😭) gosh i don't want to appear as a desperate but it seems that you're the only who opens your request for leopold 😔😭

just a small request :3 from a prompt that i encountered "... sorry, i talked too much" "no no no not at all, keep talking. i love listening to you."

well, we all know what a gentleman leopold is HABSUSBSH (I NEED HIM SO BAD MY BABY), i don't have any plot in mind so maybe you could create yours based on the prompt?? thank you!! (i love your writings)

Every Word You Say

Pairing: Leopold Mountbatten x Reader Content: strangers to friends to lovers (kind of), yapping, fluff, reader is a bookworm, Leopold is head over heels, English isn’t my first language :) Word count: 2.6k (maybe I got a little excited) a/n: HIII ZAYN BESTIE!! I'm so happy you're sending me requests yayy, thanks to you I could write to Leopold my baby again (pls keep going)! okay I have to admit that I loved this prompt and maybe I got a little carried away about the plot... Maybe I've strayed a little from what you wanted (I hope not), but I really hope you like it cause I really enjoyed writing it <3

It was a good afternoon. The store was quiet, as usual, with only a few customers coming and going and not much activity. Afternoons like that were nice—there wasn't much work to do, but sales were enough to keep the place from feeling forgotten. This allowed some time to relax behind the counter and arrange books on the shelves.

The faint jingling of the brass bell above the door broke the comforting silence of the shop. The sound made her look up from the stack of books on the counter, brushing a stray hair from her face as she spotted the man who had just entered.

He was tall and impeccably dressed, with an air of calm that seemed at odds with the frenetic city outside. His coat was neatly buttoned, his shoes polished, and he carried himself with a poise that made her pause. New Yorkers weren’t usually this... composed. It was weird. But most importantly, he was so beautiful.

“Hi, good afternoon,” she greeted, flashing him a polite smile. “Let me know if I can help you find anything.”

The man hesitated for a moment before nodding, his eyes scanning the shelves. “Thank you,” he said, his voice smooth and deliberate, the kind of voice that made even the most mundane words sound elegant.

She went back to organizing her stack of books, sneaking a glance now and then as he browsed. He moved slowly, as though savoring the sight of each title, his fingers brushing over the spines like they were relics. Finally, he stopped at the classics section and pulled out a leather-bound book.

He turned to her, holding the book aloft. “This edition of The Odyssey... it’s rather splendid. Do you recommend it?”

She blinked, surprised at his formality. “Oh, definitely. It’s one of my favorites. That edition has some great commentary in the back, too. Though, fair warning, if you get me started on books, I might not shut up.” She confessed, her tone amusing but gentle.

A faint smile tugged at his lips. “I assure you, I regret nothing. Please, continue.”

She smiled genuinely at him, feeling a small flutter of surprise at his response. Most people gave a polite nod or chuckle when she rambled, but this man seemed really interested. Encouraged, she leaned against the counter, her hands gesturing animatedly as she began talking.

“You can’t go wrong with The Odyssey,” she said. “I mean, it’s a classic for a reason, right? Epic journeys, gods meddling in human affairs, monsters… And don’t get me started on Odysseus himself. Brilliant, but also kind of an idiot, if you ask me.” She laughed, then quickly added, “Oh, but you know... I mean that in the best way, of course.”

He raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. "Hm, Is that so? Fascinating perspective. You find fault with his decisions?”

“Oh, plenty,” she replied, warming to the topic. “Some of his problems are his own fault—like the whole Cyclops thing? That could’ve been avoided if he’d just kept his mouth shut. But that’s what makes him interesting. He’s flawed. Human. It makes the story feel timeless, even though it’s thousands of years old.”

As the words tumbled out of her, she noticed his expression soften. His gaze didn’t waver, his posture relaxed yet attentive, as though he were cataloging every word she said.

So she just kept talking, completely oblivious to him or how he was mesmerized watching her, the excitement and ease with which she lost herself in the topic. After a moment like that, it was like something hit her, realizing how much she’d been talking, she stopped abruptly, her cheeks heating. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to go on like that. You came for the books and probably weren’t expecting an impromptu lecture on Greek mythology.”

He tilted his head slightly, his smile deepening. “Not at all. Your enthusiasm is... refreshing. Please, go on.”

Her lips twitched in a smile of her own. “You’re dangerous, you know that? Most people try to shut me up, but not you. You’re encouraging me.”

“I can’t imagine why anyone would wish you to stop,” he replied earnestly.

The sincerity in his tone caught her off guard, leaving her momentarily speechless. She licked her lips, momentarily speechless and lost in him. After that, she just knew she would want to keep him in her life for as long as possible.

After that, it didn’t take long for him to return.

As she rearranged a display near the window the next afternoon, the bell above the door jingled again. She glanced up, half-expecting the usual flow of customers, only to see the same man from the day before.

He greeted her with the same polite nod and reserved smile, his gaze sweeping over the shop like he was committing every detail to memory.

“Back so soon?” she asked, a teasing lilt in her voice.

He stopped near the counter, his posture impeccably straight. “I enjoyed our conversation yesterday. And I have a fondness for bookshops.”

“Well, then you’ve come to the right place,” she said, gesturing to the shelves around them. “Find anything interesting today?”

He paused, his gaze flicking to the classics section before returning to her. “Not yet, but I have no doubt you will recommend something.”

“Challenge accepted,” she said, already scanning the shelves in her mind for the perfect book. "Oh, sorry. What's your name again?"

As the days passed, Leopold's visits became routine. He would step into the shop with that same calm air, and they would talk—about books, history, the city, and whatever topic struck her fancy. He never seemed to mind when she rambled, always listening with the kind of focus that made her feel like the most fascinating person in the room. Something she wasn't even a little bit used to, by the way.

Their interaction was so easy and natural. When she talked to him, was always exciting and gave her a feeling of comfort. So it wasn't exactly a surprise when she quickly grew accustomed to his presence. It was strange how easily he fit into the rhythm of her days, even though she knew so little about him.

Each time he came in, she found herself lighting up in ways she hadn’t expected. She would recommend books, tease him about his formal speech, and talk about whatever was on her mind, and he never failed to listen with unwavering attention. She never, not once, felt uncomfortable or unseen in his presence. He was like a prince in a fairy tale.

One rainy afternoon, as she stacked a new shipment of books behind the counter, the man who wouldn't leave her thoughts walked in with droplets clinging to his coat and hair. She glanced up, smiling automatically.

“Caught in the rain, huh?” she asked, setting down the stack.

“Indeed,” he said, brushing water from his sleeves. “Though I find it a small price to pay for the solace this shop provides.” He complimented, in his usual formal way.

She laughed softly, shaking her head. “You always know how to make the place sound fancier than it is. It’s just a bookshop, you know.”

He tilted his head, a faint smile gracing his lips. “To you, perhaps. To me, it is quite extraordinary.”

The quiet sincerity in his voice made her breath catch for a moment. She quickly looked away, fiddling with a loose thread on her sleeve.

“Well,” she said, her tone lighter, “if you’re going to keep flattering the place, I should at least give you a tour of the neighborhood. There are some other spots I think you’d like—if you’re interested.”

His eyebrows rose slightly, as though the suggestion surprised him. “I would be delighted,” he said, feeling his heart race.

This finally happened two days later.

The city bustled around them, cars honking and voices blending into a constant hum, but she took him down quieter streets, pointing out her favorite spots.

“This café has the best pastries,” she said, gesturing to a small storefront with a faded awning. “And the park a few blocks down is great if you need to get away from all this.”

He listened attentively, nodding at her words but occasionally glancing around with a furrowed brow, as though trying to make sense of his surroundings.

When they reached a crosswalk she stepped forward without thinking, only to realize he hadn’t moved. She turned back to see him standing on the curb, watching the cars zip by with a look of mild apprehension.

“Hey, you coming?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Is it always this... chaotic?” he asked, his tone half-amused, half-exasperated.

“Pretty much. You just have to commit to it.” She grabbed his arm lightly, tugging him forward as the light changed. “Come on—don’t think, just go.”

He followed reluctantly, muttering under his breath, “This city has no regard for decorum—or the sanctity of life.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “Yeah, I swear you'll get used to it. Well, eventually.”

As they walked through the park, the noise of the streets faded behind them, replaced by the rustle of leaves and the distant chatter of joggers. She led him to a bench near a small fountain, sitting down and patting the spot next to her.

“See? Not so bad, right?” she said, leaning back with a contented sigh.

He settled beside her, his posture as upright as ever. “It is... quieter than I expected,” he admitted. “Rather pleasant, in fact.”

“I knew you’d like it,” she said, smiling. “You know, You're not as hard to please as you seem.”

He gave her a sidelong glance, his lips twitching in a faint smile. “Oh, I imagine this is good?”

She laughed softly, and for a moment they sat in comfortable silence, watching the fountain's water ripple in the breeze. They enjoyed being at peace, simply appreciating each other's company.

That evening, he returned to the bookshop. The streets were quieter now, the glow of the streetlights casting long shadows across the floor as she tidied up before closing.

He lingered by the counter as she talked, her words spilling out in an excited stream as she recounted a childhood memory sparked by a book she’d come across earlier that day.

“So when I was ten, I had this phase where I was obsessed with The Secret Garden,” she said, gesturing as she spoke. “I even convinced my dad to help me plant this tiny garden in our backyard. Except, I was an awful gardener—I kept forgetting to water it, and half the flowers were just weeds I thought looked cool.”

She laughed, shaking her head at the memory. “But I’d still sit out there for hours, waiting for my own magical door to appear. My dad always called it my ‘weed palace.’”

Leopold chuckled softly, his smile warm. “A ‘weed palace,’ you say? Peculiar, but at the same time charming.”

“Well, maybe to you,” she replied, grinning. “To everyone else, it was probably an eyesore.”

She paused, glancing at the clock and suddenly realizing how long she’d been talking. Her cheeks flushed as she glanced at him.

“Oh God... I’m sorry, I talked too much. I really need to learn when to stop.”

Leopold, who has been utterly captivated, loses the humor in his eyes, his expression shifting to something quieter, warmer as he tries to reassure her.

“No, no, not at all. Keep talking. I love listening to you.” he said softly.

Her breath caught at the earnestness in his voice, the way his gaze held hers as though he truly meant every word. For a few seconds, she could only stare, her usual quick wit failing her.

“Thanks,” she murmured finally, a shy smile tugging at her lips.

The warmth in his eyes didn’t waver, and in that quiet moment, the bustling world outside seemed to fade away entirely.

A comfortable silence settled in for a few minutes. Leaving them there, just staring at each other, observing each other. For a moment, she didn't know what else to say. People didn’t usually look at her the way he was now—like every word she said was worth hearing. It was flattering, a little unnerving, but mostly... nice. She blinked a few times, adjusting her posture while lightly playing with her hair, hoping to dispel the warmth creeping into her cheeks.

The quiet between them was the kind of silence that felt full, warm, and fascinating. She fiddled with the edge of her sleeve, glancing at him as he remained by the counter, looking as though he had something more to say.

Finally, she cleared her throat and spoke, her voice soft. “You know, you’re a pretty good listener. Most people get bored with my stories halfway through.”

He shook his head slightly, his lips curving into that faint, knowing smile she was beginning to adore. “I find your stories enchanting. They are... a window into a world I often feel I’m only just discovering.”

Her brow furrowed at the odd phrasing, but before she could question it, he stepped a little closer, his hands gently resting on the counter. His gaze softened, the usual formality in his expression giving way to something more vulnerable.

“It’s rare,” he continued, his voice low, “to find someone who speaks with such passion. Most people... say so little of consequence. But you—your words, your thoughts—they breathe life into even the most mundane things.”

Her heart gave a tiny flutter, and she felt warmth creep up her neck again. “That’s... really sweet of you to say,” she murmured, looking down at her hands.

For a brief moment, uncertainty flickered across his face. He took a deep breath, then, with a soft, deliberate motion, tilted his head to meet her eyes. The sincerity in his eyes was unmistakable as he declared, “I speak only the truth.”

The sincerity in his voice sent a spark of something unnameable through her chest, and she met his gaze, a shy smile tugging at her lips.

“Well,” she said lightly, trying to steady her voice, “if you keep flattering me like that, I might start to think you enjoy my company.”

His smile deepened, feeling more real, with a glimmer of mischief in his eyes. “I should hope that has been apparent for some time.”

She chuckled, shaking her head. “You’re kind of a mystery, you know that? But... I think I like that about you.”

“And you,” he said, his tone softening again, “are an open book. A rare and beautiful one.”

Her breath caught, and for a moment, she couldn’t look away from him. The faint glow of the shop’s dim lighting reflected in his eyes, and the quiet hum of the world outside seemed to fade entirely. She momentarily dropped her gaze to his lips before his voice brought her back.

“Would you,” he began, his voice careful, almost hesitant, “permit me the honor of accompanying you on another of your walks? Perhaps tomorrow?”

She bit her lip, her heart racing in a way that felt new and thrilling, together with the urge to jump into his arms. “I think I’d like that,” she replied, her voice just above a whisper.

He straightened slightly, a look of quiet satisfaction crossing his face. “Then it’s settled.”

As the bell above the door jingled softly, signaling his departure, she stood there for a moment, watching him disappear into the night. She closed her eyes as a painful smile appeared on her face, she quickly did a happy dance before lightly resting her hands on the counter.

Tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough.

𖤐 reblogs and feedback are appreciated! requests are also welcome, ty!

[whomuses]

"I can see you standing there, Gale! Stop pretending-no! If you cast invisibility I swear I'll kick your ass!" Garrett didn't give a single shit that he was going to have this conversation here and now, in front of the entire camp. Prying eyes be damned. It would appear his brother had a lot to answer for-driving Garrett to distraction notwithstanding. He knew he looked different from when Gale had last seen him: leaner, hungrier, the pallid completion of the underdark coating his skin. He'd cut his hair, walked until his feet bled, looking for answers about where his brother might have gotten to. But he hadn't found a gods damned thing. So he'd taken to seclusion. Far beneath, in the mushroom riddled depths, quietly cataloguing specimens with Blurg. Such a waste of intellectual mind. He'd very well had his name dragged for it too among the wizardry community. But he didn't give a damn. His brother, his responsibility, was gone. And now the little shit had resurfaced and he too had a tadpole in his skull. "Get over here, you little shit. We're having this conversation." Garrett's fingers sparked with magic, his lips curled back in a little warning snarl. "Don't make me come get you. Hiding will only delay the inevitable."

"Oh, shit." he'd spotted his brother, unfortunately, after the other had seen him first. His eyes widened, the instinct to disappear so strong that he had the words half out his mouth when the shout cut through the rest of it, and the spell sputtered and died. Well, this awful day was only getting worse, now wasn't it? Or - awful week. Month. Years, now, perhaps, could be considered the most awful --

"Garrett, I swear, I can explain," he said, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender, well aware of the bandages wrapped thoroughly around his right, hiding his skin there. "There's been so - so much going on, and uh, well, I mean, I meant to reach out, of course I did, but you understand how busy I get." he swallowed hard, throat rather dry, still backing up a few steps. If he couldn't cast invisibility here maybe he could make an escape somewhere else.

[heylorrain]

Hello there💓✨TYSM for the ask anon! ofc I have a draft for it. I was actually planning on incorporating it somehow on their main fic but at this point I don't think she'll do it. This illustration goes with the writing so, here you go 💖🥹 Word count:: 863 + much fluff - read it on AO3 or expand and enjoy "Beneath your Beautiful"

“May I?” The curiosity was obvious in Lorrain’s voice, her hand reaching out slowly towards Ominis' wrist.

He was momentarily taken aback by the sudden touch and request, but he had figured sooner or later this would happen.

 He chuckled and handed the girl his wand.

Lorra tossed aside her book and sat straight on the bed after her wish was finally granted. She closed her eyes, focusing on calming her senses, feeling the light weight of the wand in her hand. She forced herself to breathe slower, more controlled, to fill her lungs with deep, measured inhales. But the wand sat silently in her hand, its usual flicker of crimson light absent.

She strained her ears for any sound beyond the heater of the dorm, but all else was quiet.

Still nothing. 

Ominis waited patiently. He knew she would see nothing, just like Sebastian and Anne had when they tried to “see” through his wand; but still wanted her to try it, just to keep her enthusiasm alive for a little longer.

"Perhaps you should try to relax?" Ominis suggested, noticing the impatience in her foot as it began to stomp on the floor repeatedly. 

He reached for her free hand.

And then it happened. 

His touch felt like a wave crashing into shore, calming and invigorating all at once. She gasped, squeezing her eyes shut even tighter as she felt her senses overload. Ominis' touch was exactly what she needed to finally make the wand work.

She saw bright colors swirling around her, passing through what seemed to be Ominis' silhouette, like bright ribbons of light. Though she couldn't make out any specific details, his silhouette seemed to flicker like a fire, with gentle dancing flames that encapsulated his essence. 

“A-Are you seeing anything?” He said surprised, noticing how her vibe had changed so abruptly, not letting her hand go just yet. 

He could hear her rasped breaths, but she didn't respond, her focus completely consumed by the blinding figure before her.

Lorra’s hand gripped Ominis’ tightly. Her surroundings had changed, bright warm colors enveloping the glowing figure, her eyes darting everywhere behind closed lids while more color joined in, yellow, white…

Ominis kept asking her what was happening, but got no response, only sharp gasps. Grabbing her shoulders and making his way up to her face, he mapped her features, he felt the clinging of her jaw, her furrowed brows and her mouth biting her bottom lip. Cupping her face he shook her gently, trying to get her out of that hypnotic state. 

Finally her eyes flew open just to find everything like it was before she closed her eyes. No bright colors, no silhouettes. Just a dimly lit dorm. Everything was back normal. Well, most of it, she found Ominis inches away from her, watching her anxiously and uneased. 

“Goodness gracious, woman! Are you trying to give me a heart attack!?” He exclaimed, pulling his wand away from her hand. "Are you alright? You stopped-"

But she lunged towards him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and burying her face in the crook of his neck. It wasn’t enough. She needed to feel even closer to him, so she climbed onto his lap and pressed herself against him, feeling his heartbeat against her chest.

Ominis remained frozen, his hands hovering in the air as he hesitated what to do next. But as the sound of her cries reached his ears, he couldn't help but pull her gently against him. He could feel the contrast of their breaths mingling together, one shaken and uneven, the other slow and steady. He was certain that she had witnessed something entirely different from what he typically saw when wielding his wand.

“What did you see?” He whispered.

She pulled away, drying her tears with her sweater. She looked at him for a moment, trying to make sense of everything she’d experienced.

"I saw you... YOU. Entirely. Your essence?. I saw YOU." She cradled his face, drawing him in until their foreheads met as she spoke further. “But I felt your pain too. The one you hide from everyone else. How do you manage to endure it so easily?” 

Ominis was not expecting that answer. He sure couldn’t see or feel everyone else’s pain, nor see right thru them. He tried to remain cool, thinking of a simple answer to brush off that statement. But he knew better than to lie to her. 

“I don’t know. That’s just who I am. I wish I didn’t bleed so easily when things get-” But he couldn’t finish the sentence. “I can’t change it, even if I wanted to…” Ominis said, tilting his head down.

A warmth spread through Lorra's chest, making her hold her breath in anticipation. She couldn't resist the magnetic pull towards him, ending in a bittersweet kiss. Her lips felt almost unworthy of his touch, but still grateful to be able to feel it.

"You deserve so much more than this," Lorra whispered against his lips.

But he simply smiled and pulled her closer, his embrace conveying all that needed to be said. I...already have everything I need. He thought silently.