#can you tell i like pumpkin duo just a little bit?

[cyncerity]

pirate Quackity my beloved! Anything you want to share abt him?

see i was gonna post a little blurb about Q’s backstory, but i have no self control, so you get an entire half-story-half-ramble about pumpkin duo since their backstories are very intertwined. it’s very long and i apologize in advance.

tw: minor character death, torture, slavery, discrimination

Quackity left his home in the trees of the forest he was born in at a young age. He had his flock, but he wasn’t particularly close with any of them, and he dreamed of bigger things than spending his life hiding from the society humans had built. He wasn’t stupid, he knew how dangerous those creatures were, what they would do to him, but he was 16 with stars in his eyes and he felt indestructible.

He traveled for a few months, never settling. He loved to move, to adventure. He thought he’d never be caught, but it all had to go wrong eventually.

When he was 17 he landed in a port town with a strong hatred of hybrids like him. He didn’t plan to stay for long, he was smart enough to know when staying in a certain place was too big a risk, but there was a storm coming so he decided to hide for the night in the nearest shelter he could.

he’d regret that decision for the next 3 years.

the owner of the building, a vile and greedy man, found him in the rafters. Quackity was scared, angry, and confused as to why he would even have been looking in the rafters when the man burst into a hidden room of the house and Quackity learned the horrible, horrible truth.

Lining the walls, stacked to the ceilings and in piles all over the ground, were dozens and dozens of avians in cages. All with clipped wings, some looking more scorned than others, some chirping pitifully and others completely silent. Quackity went off. He screamed and cursed as his belongings were taken, his limbs bound and he was shoved against the ground as his wings were clipped against his will and he was thrown in a cage.

Over the next 2 years, he learned a lot. This man he’d been taken by not only kidnapped avians, but bred them, forcing his captives to procreate against their wills in order to breed obedient avians. Avians that were raised as birds, as animals. They couldn’t even speak, only chirp and chitter, completely uninterested in anything their fellow avians tried to teach them about their culture and only excited when the man or his lackies came in to feed them. Quackity could see the start of the lack of sapience behind their eyes.

He learned he was being kept here as storage for any “potential sales.” The man who took him sold avians as pets, servants, food, you name it. As long as he was paid, he didn’t care what happened to the hybrids. It was his job, though, to make sure all of his stock was well behaved. Quackity distinctly wasn’t.

Quackity was never silent. They rattled his cage, tore his feathers, broke his bones, but he refused to silence his voice. The man even paid about a dozen men to take care of the avians so he didn’t have to see them, but the man took care of Quackity himself most nights he was punished. Quackity could see how much his insubordination was grating on the man.

It was the start of the third year when everything changed.

One day the man came in earlier than he normally did with a tall, imposing man with a stare that could kill following behind him. The new man was built. Thick arms, facial hair, and a massive beanie over his head. He could kill any one of these birds in a moment if he wished to. The man brought the supposed new hire to the cages, and told him about a “specific bird who’s too much a pain in my ass to deal with anymore who I woulda sold or killed by now if his species weren’t so rare in these parts. He can make us a pretty penny if you can get him to behave.” Quackity felt scared in that moment. The idea that the only reason his life was being spared was his species, a blue backed yellow parrot, and this new lacky had been hired specifically for him. He had no other duties than to train Quackity like a dog. He wouldn’t be able to speak to the other avians anymore when there were no humans around. But he wouldn’t give up hope.

The man handed Quackity’s cage over to the lacky and instructed that he be kept in his room so he “wasn’t a bad influence on the rest of the stock.” Quackity screamed and cursed the whole way to the room, only shutting up when the man unlocked his cage and grabbed him with a tight fist, knocking all the air out of him. He was roughly handed over to the new hire and the door was closed, leaving them alone.

Quackity was prepared for anything, in that moment. To be hit. Thrown. Killed, even. He waited for the shoe to drop (perhaps literally), and it took a long time. He carefully looked up to the man who held him in now open palms and saw some unreadable emotion forming behind his eyes.

Quackity was prepared for anything, except maybe what happened next.

The new guy’s eyes started to water. He set Quackity gently, so gently, gentler than he’d been handled in years. “Oh gods…” he heard the man mutter, the first words he’d said all day. He rummaged through a nearby drawer and found a first aid kit, pulling out a small splash health pot, disinfect, a roll of bandages, and scissors that he used to carefully cut the bandage into smaller strips. “Would you mind…?” the man whispered, gesturing to Quackity’s rapidly bruising chest. Quackity, too stunned to deny, lifted his arms and wings for the man to get easier access to his chest, which caused the stranger to suck in a gasp. Quackity looked to where his eyes went, and saw that they landed on his wings. His clipped, scarred, and battered wings. The human reached for them, but pulled his hand back before Quackity even had a chance to flinch. He simply poured a little bit of the health pot on his finger and carefully brushed it over Quackity’s chest, the bruises tingling and dissipating quickly. Quackity could feel the sincerity in his touch, the care behind it. Quackity felt his own eyes start to water. The man continued to try and fix him up, healing the rest of his bruises and bandaging what he could.

No words were shared between them. The human couldn’t be trusted, Quackity knew that. He was hired by the horrible, horrible man to train him to be a perfect little bird. But…he was tired. He hadn’t been touched in so long, it was nice to not be scared. This human hadn’t hurt him. Quackity didn’t have faith that he wouldn’t in the future, he didn’t trust the man, but he decided to take advantage of the situation while he could.

After the stranger finished a bandage on his arm, he pulled away and turned his back to the human. He bowed his head, eyes closed and praying, and spread his wings behind him, an open invitation. There was no immediate response, but slowly, so careful it made his heart hurt, he felt a finger trace down his wings. A shiver went down his spine, his muscles relaxing despite himself. Very gently, and didn’t that seem to be a theme with this giant, he felt an old feather be plucked from his back then fall away. He stayed like that, eyes still closed and head still bowed, for what felt like hours as this stranger took his sweet time making sure every feather on his wings was healthy, never pulling too hard for anything but the old dead ones to fall. Eventually, the giant broke the silence. “Thank you.” he said. Quackity didn’t respond, but raised his head in response. The giant took this as que to continue. “I know how important your wings are to you, as an avian. I know that you feel like your autonomy has been taken. I understand, on some level. I don’t know what you’ve gone through, but I’m sorry. If you’re letting a stranger work on your wings, especially a stranger like me, then I’m sure you’ve been through hell. Thank you, though, for letting me help you with something so intamately personal. I hope you let me keep helping you.” With that, he smoothed the wings down a final time, and Quackity felt that they were perfect, cleaner than they had been since he left home.

That broke Quackity. He sobbed quietly, still refusing to face the human. “My boss called you ‘parrot.’ What’s your name, really?” “You say you understand on a level.” Quackity said, his first words directed at the man all day pointedly ignoring the question he asked. “You don’t. Don’t you dare compare your experience with everything i’ve been put through here.” “I may understand more than you think.” Quackity, utterly enraged that this human have the gall to believe he had any idea how the avian felt, finally turned to look at the man.

The first thing he noticed was that his hat was off. The second was that the man was distinctly not human.

Looking at the man’s forehead he could see the remnants of large horns, and on the sides of his head were ears that had likely once been longer before being cut. Taking these things in mind, he took a longer look at the man’s face and realized that through the golden sunset light casting on his face through a window, lightening his dark brown eyes, his pupils were horizontal. “Ram.” the huma- no, hybrid, supplemented before pulling the beanie back on. “I get what it’s like to feel unsafe. Us hybrids have to be in this together.” Quackity sat silently, staring stupidly at the spot where the now covered horns were before. He introduced himself. The ram smiled back and did the same.

Quackity had met his savior in Schlatt. A fellow hybrid, Schlatt had spent his time “teaching the avian to behave” actually getting to know Quackity and appreciate his company. Quackity taught Schlatt everything that had happened in the years he’d been there, and Schlatt was horrified. Apparently he’d taken the job because it was under the table and a lot of money. He’d had some not-so-legal business ventures in the past, and a past employer recommended him to the avian thief who had kidnapped Quackity oh so long ago. Plus with his hybrid origin, he preferred to stay out of the public eyes as much as possible. He never expected to find anything like this. Quackity, in turn, learned about the world outside his prison. Apparently hybrids were legally less than people on this island, which sucked, but it was still illegal to be treating them like this. Along with finally treating Quackity like a person, Schlatt helped him achieve something he never thought he’d have again: flight. Re-learning how to fly, especially since his wings weren’t fully healed, was frustrating at best and dangerous at worst. Quackity jumped and fell more often than flew, but Schlatt caught him every time. The two grew closer as their hatred for the man who controlled them both grew more and more everyday, until they finally devised a plan.

It was a cold, dark morning when the man who’d for too long been freely torturing avians had died. Schlatt had taken note of where he kept his pistols long ago, and knew where he slept. If anyone heard the gunshot in the too early hours of the day, then no one cared about the man enough to check on him. Quackity, at the same time, had a list of keys that he and Schlatt had made over the span of a year. Quackity and Schlatt had taken careful count of what keys were used on what avians to open their cages for feeding, and had committed all the numbers to a single sheet of paper. Before Schlatt had gone to the man’s room that night, he had managed to snag the key ring from a fellow employee.

Quackity returned to the cage room and flew to each cage with the key, freeing his fellow avians and encouraging them to help him when they were out. Schlatt came back to help soon after, and soon everyone was freed. Schlatt and Quackity left together, not having formally spoken about staying together as a team after the fact, but neither felt the need to separate after it was all said and done. After all, they didn’t have anyone else. Quackity left his flock, and while Schlatt had a twin sister once upon a time, they were separated as children and sold off into different hybrid trades that Schlatt had to cut his own horns and ears off to get out of. He never saw her again, choosing to live as a human. He hoped that she was ok, wherever she ended up. For the while, Quackity and Schlatt had enough money from Schlatt’s job working there and some extra that he stole from the boss that they could charter a ship away. Finally, they could move on.

Except nothing could ever be simple, could it?

Schlatt found himself in chains the next morning, violently ripped out of the little inn he and Quackity were staying in for the night before they were set to sail off the next morning. Someone had seen the avian prison riot and Schlatt leave with them as the only human. The only one capable of operating a pistol. When they went to tell the boss, they found his body and had quickly figured out that the one missing employee was the one responsible. And in barging in, they had seen Schlatt without his hat on. A hybrid. A monster who had killed a human man.

He hadn’t stood a chance.

If there was one thing luck spared them, it was that Quackity was out of sight. When Schlatt was dragged away, Quackity followed a ways behind and eventually managed to catch up with Schlatt through the bars of a cell window. Schlatt gave him the news that he’d be headed to the gallows at sunrise in a few hours. Quackity said he would fix it. Schlatt believed as best he could, but still gave his best friend a tearful goodbye. Q refused to allow himself to give one back, only promising he’d return before flying off to find help.

Quackity was panicked. He was just an avian, Schlatt and him were just animals to these people, he had no way to get them on his side. And even if someone would hear him out to help, their money had been taken by the men who arrested his best friend, so he had no bribery. He was about to lose hope before he spotted something he never thought he’d see on the island: a man with a tail loading crates onto a ship. The man was strong, handsome, and so, so clearly a hybrid. His skin was grey and gritty in patches, his teeth deadly sharp, and had what looked to be a shark tail. Though the look of such an obvious predator frightened Quackity on an instinctual level, the thought of watching the one person he’d cared about in years be hanged in front of him was about one hundred times scarier.

He flew over and demanded the man’s attention, begging him to help a fellow hybrid in need. To his shock and delight, the larger hybrid set the crate down and devoted his full attention to what Quackity was saying. Quackity begged with all he had, offering anything he could. Remembering what the boss had said about his worth, he even offered himself. If giving his freedom back over to someone else and being sold for their fortune was enough to save Schlatt’s life, he’d go through that caged hell all over again, and then all over again after that for good measure. He couldn’t let his best friend die because he’d fought for his freedom.

The hybrid said that wouldn’t be necessary, and he knew people who’d help. He introduced himself as Foolish, a crew member on the ship he was restocking, and brought Quackity over to a sheep hybrid and a freakishly tall human man. At least, he initially thought he was human. But when he laughed to his companion, he had the same pointy grin as Foolish, and Q noted fin like ears hidden behind long black messily braided hair. The probably-some-type-of-mer man and the woman with split colored hair and long spiraled horns were talking and laughing before noticing their presence. Foolish introduced them as Puffy and Bad, the captain and first mate respectively. Quackity gave them a shortened version of his plea and both of them were on board immediately, even before Quackity finished begging, drawing the rest of the crew to the dock to fight with them. Quackity could have cried in relief.

They all made it to the gallows with little time to spare. The rope was already around Schlatt’s throat, a man in front of him speaking to the crowd on how a simple animal had taken the lives of one of their own before the wooden beam holding the rope spluttered into pieces with a loud bang and snap, dropping Schlatt unharmed to the ground of the stage. Everyone in the crowd, Schlatt and the speaker included, looked back to find the unruly band of pirates at the back of the crowd, one holding a smoking double barrel shotgun, and now plus one avian. And from the looks of the people, they seemed to know these pirates and not be to fond of them, especially since the man in front of Schlatt started cursing out Bad by name.

Bad tried to chastise the man, but Puffy stepped forward, surprising him into silence. She didn’t say a word, just kept her eyes trained on Schlatt, who Quackity realized was doing the same. She calmly walked to the stage, likely not being stopped by any townsfolk due to her two drawn and slightly bloodstained swords. When she got to the stage, she just stopped, staring Schlatt in the eye for a moment before seemingly making her decision. She sheathed her swords and climbed up on stage, wordlessly hugging the other ram. Schlatt was frozen for a moment before he began to sob quietly into her shoulder and tightly hug her back, and though they couldn’t see Puffy’s face, the sputtering of her chest seemed to indicate she was doing the same. The crowd was frozen, too stunned to move…until one of Puffy’s arms released its hold on Schlatt and soundlessly drew a pistol from her coat, shooting the announcer point blank in the forehead without even looking up. The crowd panicked, and the guards who were there quickly fought back, but were quickly either injured or struck down by the pirates as Puffy dragged Schlatt back to the crew and they all made their escape.

Schlatt and Quackity reunited, both happy the other was safe, and Puffy was able to introduce Schlatt to the rest of her crew: this was her long lost twin brother. It was complete luck that Quackity went to one of her crew mates for help, and now she has her only family back. She invited both Quackity and Schlatt to stay on the ship indefinitely, to join them on the ship not just as charter passengers, but permanent crew members. Quackity could see how eagerly Schlatt wanted this, but he looked to Quackity for confirmation. Q scanned the faces. Bad’s kind smile, Puffy’s fearless confidence, Foolish’s radiance of positivity, a man in green with glasses that just looked happy to be there, a taller man with pink hair and gold accents (the one who had shot Schlatt down from the pole), a pixie that hung around Bad’s shoulders at all times, and more. He found that he wanted to know these people more. With that, the two boarded the ship, quickly being welcomed in with open arms by the crew, and finally having found the means to escape.

[bloodhoundluke]

drunken smiles & fishnet stockings

pairing: luke hemmings x fem! reader

description: it's halloween and luke is hosting a party! luke and y/n know each other, but little do they know that this night would change something pivotal between the duo.

warnings: 🔞 MINORS DO NOT INTERACT. sex talk, smut, protected p in v, alcohol consumption, cursing, fluff, an embarrassing amount of pet names. (i don't think there’s anything else??).

word count: 5,8k-ish. a/n: hey there friends! 🌟 i wanted to publish this fic before publishing requested & other fics, i'm working on all of them so pls be patient! and this is my first fic which contains smut so there's a huge chance this sucks (i'm actually nervous to release this pls help me i'm scared lol) 😬 also, i have a lot of deadlines atm so pls bare with me, i am working on the requests whenever i can. thank you for supporting my blog, i adore you all so much 🤍 happy late halloween to everyone who celebrated 🎃

dividers by @silkholland.

"Y/N!", you heard your best friend yell from the other side of your studio apartment. You had been getting ready for nearly two hours, and to one one’s surprise, you and your best friend were already late. Calum had been texting you for a while now, telling you two to hurry up. 

"What?"

"We are so late! We need to get going! Oh my god, this is so embarrassing", your best friend sighed and now stood next to you. You were still fixing your hair in front of a full body mirror.

"Okay okay, stop fussing. Do I look okay?", you asked them and placed the curling iron on top of your drawer, shutting it off. You reached for the hairspray sitting on the drawer, and looked over at your friend who looked absolutely stunning. 

"Yes, you look amazing Y/N. If I wasn't your friend I'd totally hook up with you", your friend cheered and nudged your shoulder gently. 

"Gosh, thanks. I'd totally hook up with you too", you giggled and took a glimpse of their police costume. You ruffled your hair slightly and placed some hairspray on your locks to hold them in place.

You locked your hands with your friend’s, and got into the cab that was waiting outside. 

You had been invited to your friend Luke's Halloween party. You had met him a few years prior through your mutual friend Calum, who was also his bandmate and one of his best friends. Calum and you had known for four years or so, and you considered him to be one of your closest friends. You considered yourself lucky to have a friend like him, since you could tell him anything and you knew he wouldn’t judge you.

You looked through the cab window with the city lights passing by. You wondered who’d be at the party. Luke must have sent invitations for hundreds of people, since he was a pretty popular guy. You found the guy and his shy-ish exterior rather charming, but only in a platonic way. Luke and you weren’t extremely close, but you exchanged text messages every now and then. 

You arrived at the party and looked at the sea of people, who were mingling with each other in their Halloween costumes. Luke’s house was decorated in decorative spider web, pumpkins, and some skeleton figures. Purple lightning illuminated the whole house. You liked the decorations, it wasn’t too much or too little.

You and your best friend decided to go and say hello to Calum and his group of people. Calum hugged you tightly and commented on how he hadn’t seen you in ages. His girlfriend, Brandy, did the same. They were wearing a matching set of vampire costumes. You were happy for Calum, he had finally found a girl who loved him just the way he was.

You walked over to Ashton, Michael, Crystal and Luke. Ashton was dressed in a cowboy costume, which made you smile a bit since he practically dressed like one in real life. He brought you into a bear hug and you couldn't help but smile. Ashton always made you feel so welcomed. Michael and Crystal goofed around in their Anime costumes. You catched up with them and then finally noticed something familiar about Luke’s costume. It was a Harry Potter costume.

No fucking way.

"Cool costume", Luke commented as he saw you eyeing his Gryffindor badge, and the lightning bolt on his forehead. His hair had grown out a bit, but it didn't look bad. Actually, it looked anything else than bad. That man could definitely pull off any hairstyle, you were sure of it.

"Thanks! You too. Suits you", you stated and straightened your own Gryffindor badge on your costume. Dressing as Ginny Weasley, or what you called it low-budget Ginny since you had no cape, was a decision you had made a few days ago. You were supposed to dress as a Pumpkin, but you managed to break the costume and didn’t have the time to fix it. So the second best option was Ginny.

You sighed and looked around the room, thinking of grabbing a drink.

“Oh my gosh! We need to take a picture of you two”, your best friend suddenly exclaimed and you giggled, nervousness plastered all across your face. You saw them giving you the look, and knew instantly what it meant. They believed in fate, what you on the other hand called nonsense. You were sure Luke and you dressing in similar costumes was some sort of sign of “fate” to your best friend. Luke and you could never happen. 

“Really?”, you giggled as you felt a knot in your stomach. Luke was sometimes difficult to read, and you weren’t entirely sure if he would conform to the idea.

“Yes!”, your best friend commented, and ‘totally’ and ‘absolutely’ from Michael, Crystal, Calum, Brandy and Ashton followed after. You and Luke both looked at each of them, then finally looked at each other. Your friends would never let it go, so you’d better just get it out of the way.

“Okay”, you accepted your defeat. “You okay with that?”, you confirmed Luke. “Yeah, sure, why not?”, he took a sip of his beer and placed the bottle on the counter, giving you a small smile. 

You, Luke and your best friend found a spot in Luke’s house and you settled in with Luke against the white wall, as your best friend was holding their phone towards you two. Luke placed his other hand on your lower back, and you placed yours on his stomach. 

“This okay?”, you looked up to him and shuffled a little closer to the man. You saw him eyeing your legs, which were covered in fishnet stockings. His oceanic blue eyes met yours, and you did your best not to drown in them. You hadn’t even chugged down one drink, and you were already a fool for some man. And worst of all, it was your friend. You blamed this growing lust for him on the Halloween spirit. Surely someone had once said that Halloween brings out feelings you don’t usually feel.

“Uh..yeah, sure”, he cleared his throat and chuckled. “You ready?”, he offered you a little smile.

“S-sure”, you returned the smile and you both stared directly at the camera.

“And say….cheese!”, your best friend cheered.

You took an awkward glimpse in Luke’s direction and both of you bursted out laughing. The photos shown afterwards were pretty cute, you had to admit that. And Luke’s hand on your lower back left you yearning for more of his touch.

Damn, you really needed a drink. And to forget Luke fucking Hemmings' hands.

—❦

After taking the picture of you and Luke, you had been mingling with people, eating, and drinking a few tequila sunrises. You had just settled into Luke’s living room to play Spin the Bottle, the classic party game. The group playing consisted of you, your best friend, Luke, Ashton, Calum, Brandy, Michael and Crystal. To be honest you were zoned most of the time, since you found the game a bit ridiculous.

Then you heard your name as the bottle pointed towards you. In your alcohol-infused state, you picked a dare.

“I dare you to kiss the most attractive person in the room”, Ashton dared. You heard a few encouraging comments coming from your friends, and Brandy gave you a wide grin.  “Ash? Really?”, you squeaked, and gave him a deadly glare. “Well, didn’t you pick a dare, pumpkin?”, he asked and chuckled. Suddenly the rush of confidence you had seemed to fade out, and you mentally cursed the drummer.

“Okay”, you sighed, and looked across the room. The choice was obvious, but you didn’t want to give it away. So you pretended to consider your options for a while.

You got up from the floor, and got on your knees in front of Luke. You caught him looking at you, and he looked away. But then you leant to kiss him, and he kissed you back. The tingling feeling of him kissing you back flustered you. You shouldn’t like the feeling of his lips pressed against yours this much, but you did. His lips brushed over yours delicately, and your heart was pumping. It made no sense, but you loved every second of it. His beard stubble tickled you, but you didn't care. Not everyday you got the chance to kiss Luke fucking Hemmings, who was practically the hottest guy you had ever seen.

You backed away from the kiss first, then did Luke. 

 “Cool”, he let out a nervous chuckle and you did the same. Cool…really? You didn’t know if you should have been offended or relieved that the awkwardness of it was finally over.

“That was hot”, your best friend whispered into your ear as you went back to your place on the floor. “He’s hot”, you whispered back. The taste of pure tequila lingered on your lips.

“And Ashton’s so hot too”, they whispered. “Go get him, Y/B/F/N”, you advised, and winked at them.

The game continued and the next rounds were spent by hearing how Ashton’s favorite sex position was Basset Hound Doggy and Brandy’s biggest turn off in a relationship was controlling behavior. You also saw your best friend give a lap dance to the person who they fancied the most in the room, Ashton. They both seemed to enjoy it. Michael and Crystal had also shared a steamy make out session, to which you all cheered.

It was Luke’s turn next.

“Hmmm…okay. What is your biggest turn on?” Michael asked Luke and took a sip of his Corona, placing the bottle on the floor afterwards. Luke’s answer interested you, you had to admit. 

“Ohh…got many. But neck kisses are a big one”, Luke slyly answered and gulped down his tequila. “Ohhh, that’s a good one”, Ashton agreed and you saw him looking in your best friend’s direction. You rolled your eyes slightly, and giggled to yourself. They would totally share the bed tonight. 

Luke spun the bottle, which landed on Calum. He chose the truth. Luke didn’t come up with anything, so your best friend chose the question instead. 

“Which two people in this group should hook up?”, your best friend asked Calum.

Oh my god, were they serious? You totally knew where they were getting at. But hopefully Calum didn’t understand that, or anyone else for that matter. You were safe, Calum would definitely pick Michael and Crystal. Or Ashton and your best friend. 

“Well, the obvious choice would be Brandy and me. Or Michael and Crystal, but…I feel I want to stir the pot, I guess.. So… I think Luke and Y/N… I mean we saw the kiss Luke and Y/N had earlier”, Calum smirked devilishly at Luke, and then at you. The group around you chuckled, and seemed to agree with Calum as they were nodding their heads. But not you nor Luke. 

“Okayyyy, so maybe Cal should stop drinking for tonight”, you chuckled, and Calum gave you a humorous smile, which screamed a polite fuck you, in return. You saw Luke looking down at his drink on the floor with a drunken smile on his face. He fiddled with his rings on his left hand. He looked up and directly at you, boring his eyes into yours for a milli-second. You wondered what was going through his head, since yours was filled with so many questions. 

Why didn’t he say anything? Why was he so quiet? Did he find your kiss icky? Did he find you… repulsive? Why was he acting so strange? 

—❦

The party was over and people had left Luke’s apartment, which was now littered with red cups, beer bottles and pizza boxes. You had been settling into a spare bedroom in Luke’s house. Ashton, Calum, Brandy, Michael, Crystal and your best friend were staying over as well. 

You drank water alone in Luke’s kitchen, since everyone had already gone to sleep. The now quiet atmosphere made you feel at peace, and you smiled to yourself.

You enjoyed the brief moment of silence until a head of blonde messy curls appeared from the doorway.

Luke walked into the kitchen and gave you a tired little smile. He opened the refrigerator door and took a large water bottle, pouring it into a glass he retrieved from the cabinet. He placed the bottle back to the refrigerator and closed the refrigerator door as you were still drinking your own water.

You noticed how he had gotten rid of the jacket and the tie, leaving him with a slightly unbuttoned white collar shirt and dark gray pants. He had also wiped the lightning bolt off his forehead.

Standing here with Luke, in this terrifyingly awkward yet weirdly comforting silence, made you question your lust towards the man. Maybe it was just the alcohol running through your veins. That might just be the only logical explanation.

“Let me guess, you don’t want to get a hangover?”, you chose to break the silence.

“Hell no”, he sipped water, “did you have fun tonight?”. The blonde locked his eyes with yours and you looked away, your eyes now fixating on your ring-covered fingers.

You cleared your throat, and answered, “Yep, had a blast. And you?”. 

“Yeah”, he smiled and you went closer to him, as you were about to place the cup in the sink. Your hands brushed against his as he was just about to do the same. You both placed your cups in the sink, and your eyes met his. You both stood in your places quietly, and for some weird reason, you couldn't help but look at his parted lips. And you noticed him doing the same, then his eyes studying yours.

Your heart started to race a million miles an hour. You weren’t nervous around the people you fancied, but Luke was a different story. He was the epitome of gorgeous, so you couldn’t really blame yourself, could you?

He turned his body towards yours, and you took a step closer to him. You didn’t know what you were doing. Hell, you didn’t know what he was doing either.

Luke let out a low chuckle and you couldn’t help but bite your lower lip. 

Yes, even a fool could tell you wanted to kiss him. But you weren’t sure if you should. And you weren’t sure if the man in front of you noticed that too. 

Thankfully Luke had noticed your indecisiveness as he leant in for a kiss. You had imagined this after the kiss during the game, but now that it was actually happening, you couldn’t believe it. This was rougher than the last time. More passionate. More demanding. He moved even closer to you, placing his hands on the sides of your face. You felt his cold rings against your bare skin, but it didn’t matter. Not when he touched you like this, his thumbs brushing against your cheeks and his tongue battling for dominance over yours.

He backed away from you, licking his lips.

“Fuck… I shouldn’t have done that, I’m sorry”, he apologized and rested his body against the kitchen counter.

“What do you mean?”, you frowned your eyebrows. Was he being serious right now?

“It’d mess things up…if we go further. Shit, this on its own could make everything awkward...”

“What if…what if we just don’t think about the consequences? You want me, and I obviously want you”, you suggested. You didn’t want to think, not now. You didn’t want your growing lust for Luke to go to waste. It would be a shame if it did.

“Are you..sure?”, he scratched the back of his head.

“Yes”

“Okay”, he let out a low chuckle and took a step closer to you, studying your lips in the meantime. 

“Luke?”, you looked into his eyes as you spoke.

“Yeah?”, he bored his blue eyes into yours, and placed his hands on your waist, tugging you closer to him.

“Just fuckin’ kiss me already”

“Thought you’d never ask”, he whispered, his voice perfectly husky and seducing. His plump lips found their place on yours and you swore you had never kissed someone like him before. His lips moved swiftly, hungrily against yours.

You tugged his shirt, wanting to get rid of it as soon as possible. 

“Luke?”, you asked, out of breath.

“Yeah?”, he wiped his mouth with his hand, and you couldn’t help but stare at the man’s mouth. The mouth that you wanted to do incredible things to you.

“What are we doing?”.

“What do you want to do princess?”, his voice was heavy, and hoarse. And so god-damn sexy. He moved a few stray hairs out of your face.

“Fuck…”, you cursed.

“...me?”, Luke smirked.

You were totally gone off the rails, so whipped for him, there was no going back now.

“Actually, yeah”, you decided to toss logic aside, and once again, Luke placed his lips hungrily on yours. You kissed him back passionately and he grabbed your ass under your skirt. You wrapped your hands around his neck, and felt the need to do such things to Luke you could never say out loud. 

“Jump”, he groaned between the rough yet lustful kisses and you jumped into his lap. He grabbed you by your outer thighs and placed you on the counter. He left wet kisses on your neck, leaving you wondering why you hadn’t done this sooner with him. Maybe it was the fact you had known this man for years, and he had never shown you any sign of interest. But it didn’t matter now, he clearly wanted you.

“Is this okay?”, he reassured you.

“You’re perfect”, you sighed and stared at the beautiful man in front of you. Yes, you had always thought Luke was hot, but this was something else. You loved how soft and assertive he was at the same time. This was dangerous, anyone could see you two. But you liked it this way. You didn’t want to think, you just wanted him. You craved him. You needed him.

His lips found their way back to yours and you bit his lower lip by accident. You felt Luke giggling against your lips, and you couldn’t help but do the same. 

“Can I take this off?”, he asked between the kisses as he was holding the fabric on your shirt. “Please”. And he does, leaving your chest area covered by your black bra. You started to unbutton his shirt and when you were done, he threw the white collar shirt on the floor next to yours. 

Luke traveled kisses from the side of your face to your neck, then to your chest. “Fuck, you’re so hot”, he remarked and you chuckled slightly as a response. Luke kissed you, and you kissed him, sliding your tongue into his mouth. You made out for a while until he decided to move the strap of your bra over your shoulder. He placed a few kisses on your shoulder, and you didn’t understand how he did it all this, being this fucking good at everything, but you enjoyed the show. 

“Need to get my fishnets off”, you whimpered under his touch. 

He ripped open your fishnets using his hands, and you swore to yourself you hadn’t seen anything as hot as that. You lifted your body using your hands on the counter so he could take the remains of the stockings off. And when he was done, he nibbled your ear and his heavy breathing made you squirm. 

“Finger me?”, you asked as his lustful ocean eyes stared into yours. “It’d be my pleasure”, he smirked, pushing your lingerie to the side and pushing two fingers into you with the perfect amount of pressure.

“Fuck, you are so wet…so good, Y/N”, he remarked huskily and moved his fingers inside you in swift motion. You widened your legs so he’d get a better entrance. “Mmmmh”, you whimpered, your head tilted back and eyes closed. Luke trailed down kisses from your neck to your chest. You opened your eyes and his lips crashed into yours. 

“Need you to fuck me, Luke”, you whispered into his mouth. “Believe me, I will. Just wanna make you cum first”, he whispered and kissed you. And in under a minute, you were a whimpering mess under his touch, him giving you a smug look. You swore you just saw the stars, no one had ever known your body like him. And it didn’t make any sense, this was the first time being with him. But it didn’t have to make sense, you were now with him and god, he made you feel incredibly good. 

His fingers left your entrance and his lustful dark eyes met yours again. He brought his fingers into his mouth and sucked on them, still holding the eye contact.

”Baby, you taste so good... Fuckin’ incredible”, he mumbled.

”Fuck…”, you whimpered as you were still coming off your high and watching Luke taste you did not help to urge to feel him inside of you. Neither did the fact that you noticed his boner through his dark dress pants. What was this man doing to you?

“Wanna go to my bedroom?”, he suggested, and placed a strand of your hair behind your ear, giving you a small lingering kiss on your collarbone.

“Thought you’d never ask”.

You both grabbed your clothes from the floor and you went upstairs. In the upstairs hallway, Luke couldn’t resist but pin you against the wall, kissing your face like he had never kissed before. You grabbed his erected dick under his dress pants and stroked it slightly above the material, making Luke whimper. “Y/N…”, he started yet couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Mmmh? Tell me?”, you asked as you started to unbuckle his belt.

“Mmmmh, don’t tease me, Y/N”

“That’s bold of you since you started it...”, you pointed out.

“Mmmhhh…fuck, that’s true. Let’s go before I fuck you against this wall and everyone will hear it”, he gave you a quick peck on your lips, leaving you wanting for more. You didn't know Luke could be this smug, but it definitely turned you on.

Luke led you to his bedroom. You placed yourself on his California King, and looked around. You had never been in Luke’s bedroom. A few paintings hung on the dark -painted walls, a vintage record player rested on the dressing table and the TV across the bed covered most of the wall space.

Luke retrieved a condom from his wallet, which was resting on his night-stand and pulled down both his pants and boxers, revealing his hardened dick. In the meanwhile you got rid of your skirt, and underwear. He placed the condom on and you couldn't help but admire the sight in front of you. Luke tossed both his pants and boxers off to the floor. He placed his body on top of you, kissing you and making the kiss deeper as you slid your tongue into his mouth. Your tongues danced together and your anticipation for the following grew, even though you had gone through your high already. But maybe, just maybe, he could make you come twice. His lips parted from yours, and he looked into your eyes, his fingers traveling along your lips.

“You’re so damn beautiful”. 

“You’re fuckin’ beautiful too”, you answered, your need for him growing.

“You ready?”.  You nodded and he slipped into you slowly as you kissed his neck. You detached your lips from his neck and tugged his hair, your hands exploring the softness of his curls. A few moans escaped from both of your mouths. How could he make moaning sound so damn good? 

“Please keep on going”.

"Was planning on doing so, princess".

He thrusted into you, and your walls clenched against him. You saw him biting his lip, his eyes wide open, clearly enjoying the view of you. “Fuck, you are perfect. So tight around me.... So good”, he praised.

This would probably never happen again, so you decided to make the most of it.

You met his lips in a kiss and you slipped your tongue into his mouth, his own meeting with yours. His thrusts became quicker and you both moaned of pleasure. Your hands had moved to his upper back, your nails scratching the warm skin.

And when you both came undone, you cleaned yourselves up and laid in his bed. You both stared at the bedroom ceiling. Luke had asked you to stay, which had surprised you. 

“I held myself back when you kissed me in the game”, the blonde confessed. You looked at Luke, whose left arm was leaning against the back of his head. Only now you noticed his bird tattoo on his bicep. You couldn’t see it properly in the dim lightning, but you were guessing it was a hummingbird. To be honest, there probably were a lot of things you didn’t know about him.

“Did you?”, you asked in a rather suggestive voice, and turned your body towards him under the covers.

“Well, yeah, have you seen yourself? Fuckin’ beautiful. I wanted to rip those fishnets off you the moment I saw you in them”, he chuckled and his eyes met yours.

You couldn’t help but feel flustered. Luke Hemmings, of all the people in the world, thought you were…beautiful?

“In that case, I’m happy I decided to wear them”, you giggled.

“I can buy you a new pair of fishnets”, he offered.

“You really don’t need to do that”.

“If that gives me an excuse to see you, then I’d like to”, you saw an endearing smile appear on his face.

“What if you break them too?”, you chuckled, not that you wouldn’t mind him doing that.

“Then I’d have another excuse to see you again”, he reasoned, and shuffled closer to you. You didn’t know if it was still the alcohol clouding your judgement, but you liked him. Maybe a bit more than you wanted to. 

“Seems like you want it to be a pattern”, you suggested.

“Well, if it makes you scream like earlier…”, he smirked and took you in his arms, your face squished against his warm and toned chest. “Luke!”, you screamed into his chest.

“Hush hush now, everyone is asleep”, he kissed the top of your head, and chuckled.

“Sorry”, you giggled and wrapped your hand around his waist, snuggling closer to him. Your face rested against his chest, and he stroked your hair gently.

"Good night beautiful", he reached for your lips and planted a small kiss on them, then turning off the bedside lamp. "Good night, Luke".

—❦

“Quit starin’ at me princess”, Luke spoke with his eyes closed as you lied with him in his enormous California King bed. 

“I can’t, you’re way too pretty”, you played with his curls, both of your naked bodies under the same duvet.

You had been awake for a while now, mainly going over the memories of last night. Luke’s lips pressed against yours, his hands grabbing the sides of your body, him whispering sweet nothings into your ear as he was inside of you.  You had contemplated leaving Luke’s house, but you didn’t want to do it to Luke. And the change in Luke’s behavior towards you made you question his motives. He even let you sleep in his bed, and didn’t want you to leave to your room. Did he actually like your company? Or was he just lonely?

You removed your hand from his set of curls, and wondered what it must be like to be that beautiful. It was unfair how good-looking he was.

“Talk to me about pretty, huh?”, he opened up his eyes and scanned your face. “Hush”, you gave him a deadly glare and he grinned back at you.

“Tell me when did you get so freaking hot?”, you asked him.

“Haven’t I always been?”, he winked and readjusted the pillows on the bed, his face and body now towards yours. 

“Yeah, but I mean…like this hot. Ridiculously hot. So hot I want to jump into your lap”

“Now you’re just makin’ a fool out of me”

“Am not! I promise”, you exclaimed. “I swear when I saw you last night, something happened inside of me. This lust, I guess…I don’t know what the hell it was”

“Well, thank you. Good to hear I don’t look like an absolute knobhead”, he rolled his eyes, and letting out a chuckle.

“And he’s funny too”, you giggled.

“C’mere”, he motioned you into his embrace and you laid there for a moment in silence, taking in the moment. This silence felt comfortable in some odd way. His fingers brushed gently against yours, moving to cup your face, his mouth telling you compliments you never expected to come from his mouth. You’re gorgeous. Your eyes are pretty as hell. I like cuddling you. You smiled back at him, not really knowing what to answer.

“So this wasn’t a one time thing?”, you decided to break the newly founded silence.

“Nope. If that’s okay with you?”, Luke searched for your approval from your softened eyes, and you gave him that. “More than okay”, you smiled. You looked for something in his eyes. Maybe a hidden truth. You were his friend, but you didn’t know him truly. You did not really have an idea who he was deep in his core. But your instinct told you to find out.

"Good. Did you actually like my Halloween costume or were you just being polite?", Luke hummed, and placed his head into the crook of your neck.

"I thought you looked hot. And so dreamy... So yes Luke, I liked it", you beamed, and pecked his lips. "A lot", you added and caressed his pretty curly hair.

"You were a pretty dreamy Ginny yourself", he placed his mouth on your neck, sucking on the skin slightly, then placing a few sloppy kisses on your jawline. His breath started to become noticeably heavier, and you giggled, "Luke Hemmings, you are one hell of a guy".

After a while of lounging around with Luke, you both decided to do your morning rituals and throw some clothes on. Yeah, you might have hooked up with him again, only in the shower this time, and you felt as if you couldn't keep your hands off the blonde.

You and Luke had decided to go downstairs and cook something for breakfast, and now you waited for him to come out of the bathroom. Luke opened up the bathroom door attached to his bedroom, and you studied his features.

You couldn’t help but smile as he was humming some song you had never even heard of. He had a habit of doing that, making you smile. Or at least that was what he had been doing the past hours. And last night, obviously. He was dressed in a pair of gray sweatpants, which made you drool over him, and a black AC/DC t-shirt. He had also offered you an oversized band t-shirt to wear since your own shirt was a bit uncomfortable to wear. So now you were standing in front of Luke, wearing his oversized t-shirt and barely visible black skirt. You would have never guessed that something like this could actually happen.

“Ready?”, he asked, and you nodded. You were waiting for him to open the door, until he decided to turn around and he grabbed your face into his hands. He pressed a delicate and endearing kiss on your lips.

“Actually, now we’re ready”, he chuckled and finally opened the door. “You dork”, you giggled, the taste of his toothpaste lingering on your lips.

“No one should be up, it’s barely 9am”, Luke commented as you were walking down the stairs. “Yeah, there’s not a chance anyone’s up yet”, you agreed with him and you both walked into the kitchen, only to discover every single person that had stayed at Luke's sitting by the kitchen table. 

“Good morning, Luke and Y/N”, Crystal greeted you two, to which both you and Luke responded.

Luke offered you a glass of water with a side of lemon and ice, after he had convinced you of how the drink makes a great hangover cure. You and Luke found yourself seats by the kitchen table, next to each other since they were the only ones not taken.

"Luke? Y/N?" Ashton opened his mouth.

“We fuckin’ heard you last night”,  Ashton remarked as both you and Luke were caught up in your own worlds. And then you made sense of what Ashton had just said.

...Oh my god, had they really heard all…that? 

Your best friend was sitting next to Ashton, and they were giggling with Ashton’s arm resting behind their chair.

You hadn’t talked this through with Luke. Shit, shit, shit. You hadn’t really even thought about if anyone had heard you last night.

“Oh you are speechless now, is that it?” Ashton giggled, making your friend, Michael, Crystal, Calum and Brandy laugh too.

“We really hope you Luke cleaned up the kitchen afterwards”, Crystal commented. “Just saying”, she added and gave a quick peck to Michael. Michael chuckled, and took turns looking at you, and then Luke.

“I did, don’t you worry about it Crys”, Luke scratched the back of his head, obviously feeling awkward as hell. You cleared your throat, wishing to be anywhere else than being questioned about your little rendezvous with Luke last night.

“And you used a condom?” Ashton asked, making Luke groan. “Of course, you fuckin’ moron”.

“Okaaaay, should we change the subject? Us having sex isn’t the most exciting topic”, you chuckled nervously, avoiding eye contact with everyone. Even the handsome blonde beside you.

“It definitely did sound exciting last night…All the screams and objects fallin’ to the floor, all Y/N’s whimpers and Luke’s -”, Ashton remarked, but was soon interrupted by an annoyed Luke.

“Okay okay, we get it. We were a bit loud. But let’s move on, please”, Luke groaned. 

"I want to hear more details though... Were the kitchen and Luke's bedroom the only places you had sex in?", your best friend took apart in the conversation, grinning from ear to ear. Y/B/F/N had to be kidding. And were the walls of Luke's house made of paper? "Yes", you answered in turn, trying to sound as convincing as you could. They didn't need to know about the shower session an hour ago.

”It was no wonder you ended up sleeping together, I mean you were drooling over each other the whole night”, Michael continued, and chuckled.

”You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding me right now”, Luke cursed, obviously wanting the conversation topic to change sooner than later.

“Calm down, Hemmings”, Calum chuckled, earning a side eye from you and a deadly glare from Luke. “Okay, okay, I won’t say anythin’ next time”, Calum put his hands up in defense and grinned awkwardly. 

You looked at Luke only to discover him looking at you, a small smile creeping upon his pretty pink lips. Next time.

a/n: hey please do share your thoughts on the gifs, did they disturb your reading experience? i’d love to know, ty! 🤍

© 2023 bloodhoundluke.

[aquadragons]

what I think TF2 mercs would be/do for halloween

I'm aware halloween has gone and passed, but hey, does that make this illegal?

not requested

cws/tws : blood, mentions of gore in spys bit, that's..pretty much it

⚾ SCOUT :

- smn about him tells me he'd be a cartoon heavy zombie

- he'd just put on face paint n call it a day lmao 💀

- MAYBE put fake blood on his bat

- go around scaring the other mercs maybe

- idk I don't have much to work off of here 😭

🪖 SOLDIER :

- an eagle/j

- i feel like he'd be just, himself. ( he's already scary enough, according to scout after soldier almost hit him in the head with the rocket launcher )

- maybe, MAYBE, a little ( not fake ) blood on his helmet and outfit he didn't wash off

- he'd be the type of person to crush the BLU mercs pumpkins I'm sorry,, but,, it's true

🔥 PYRO :

- what

- what do you think?

- they're either going to be themself or in a unicorn onesie the whole day.

- fight me if u disagree

- if u wanna make this even dumber imagine them keeping the fireproof suit and mask on under the onesie 💀

🧨 DEMOMAN :

- I don't even know/srs 💀

- not much to go off here

- .

- what if he went as a stickybomb SMDNSSNSMMD.

- just,, a drunk demoman, struggling to get through doorways, in a shitty dollar store quality stickybomb costume

- frankenstein

👊 HEAVY :

- that's my thoughts

- goodnight

- OK NO BUT actually, duo costume with medic duo costume with medic duo costu

- they're best friends, I can imagine it

🔧 ENGINEER : ( edited from original )

- cowboy

- that's it goodnight

💊 MEDIC :

- victor

- Victor Frankenstein

- duo costume with heavy duo costume with heavy duo costume with heavy duo cos

- omg they were roommates

- I'm a sucker for heavymedic I'm sorry

🦘 SNIPER :

- idk if he'd even get a costume man

- he's a closed off person, sleeping in his van instead of the base with everyone else, literally pissing in jars, so idk if he'd even go through the pain of making/buying a costume

- shrugs

- sorry if u were looking forward to this I'm I just don't know 💀

🚬 SPY :

- kinda got forced into this

- he's a gore heavy zombie

- thought " eh what the fuck, what else am I going to do " and stole scouts idea

- idek

[skekthesilly]

im playing demo 3 right NEOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is gonna be so peaksauce

me gaming under cut (spoilers for demo 3)

4:18 pm, dec 16: ghostwalker??? oooo.... that sounds epicsauce.............. haunted manor you say???? dont mind if i do

4:19: just noticed that my name in shedletsky's dialogue is the same color as when he mentioned some "they're". just an observation. is this important? i dunno. maybe???

4:23:

4:31: IS THAT AMONG US AND LOSS??????????

4:38: DR TRAYAURUS MENTIONED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4:54: i love them <3

WAIT I LOVE THIS WAIT???????? WAIT??????? OMG??????

4:57: GREEN AND OURPLE????????????????

5:01: i heart noobador. epicsauce uncle

5:04: oh i did not process that green and purple were red n blues's parents or something like that. "talk about abuse!" oh. oh. you. dont do this to my poor heart

5:10: my siblings told me i can get a special card from cruel king if i kill him a bunch. i feed so bad for him bro hes having a mental breakdown the more i kill him. EVERYONE IN BLACKROCK IS FINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEYRE OKAY!!!!!!!!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEYRE OKAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5:15: "you dont have to go through this alone" cruel king do you understand how much i platonically love you right now. tgat sentence struck me with the force of a military fighter jet. oh my god

5:27: currently beating up bubonic plant !!!!

4:12 pm, dec 21: been a bit. played for a bit and got to the manor before remembering i was supposed to post my progress here. anyways, recap of my reactions from last playthru to now:

apparently bubonic plant doesnt drop a call card. shame. i fought them like 30 times i counted

went to go traverse the cemetery!!! also all the old opponents from ch 1 are here but zombies now. is that because of me??? aw man

shoutout to the pumpkins

theres food EVERYWHERE. i guess the zombies need to eat too

found a bunch of bux on the way to the manor and felt really good about myself

butler. why are you green. are you a zombie too

omg its the girl!!!!!!!! the woman from turtle police!!!!! or whatever the place was called!!!! also zamn is her sister okay????

ummm appaerntly im not ok??? theres voices in my head???? because of the swords???? okay. casually foreshadowing. okay. fun fun

WHAT THE FUCK THERES RED TEXT NOW???? WHAT DO YOU MEAN "GET IT" "YOURE WASTING YOUR TIME" IS THIS THE "HATRED" MY SIBLINGS WERE TALKING ABOUT??? OK. LISTEN UP BUDDY. I LOVE ALL THE CHARACTERS IN THIS GODDAMN GAME DEARLY AND I WISH TO INTERACT WITH EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. FUCK YOU

LIKE I THOUGHT THIS WAS JUST A HAHA FUNNY... I THOUGHT THE KIDS WERE TELLING ME TO FIND THE TOILET PAPER WHAT THE FUCKKK?????? GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY

thats about it

4:22: is this foreshadowing

4:23: why can you jump off of the balcony. is this intentional??? is this an accident??? is there a secret?????

4:26: yo witch?????? you know shedletsky????? also i noticed telamon and shedletsky have the same color name. theyre probably the same guy. maybe. i dunno. shedlesky's last name is probably telamon or smth like that

4:29: awww terry n jerry.... duo..... thats so sweet....

4:31: what the FUCK is going on someone BETTER FUCKING TELL ME or i am going to TEAR THIS MANSION TO THE BROUND WITH MY TEETH what do you mean the only options are dont tell him and LIE. what the FUCK are you trying t o TELL ME HERE i feel like fucking KRIS DELTARUNE im gonna CRASH OUT

4:34: expanding on the entry above: "you live a life of lies you better start believing it" ok. so im a little silly in th e head. ok. fine. whatever. fuck you. im gonna crash out and the only life im gonna live is the one six feet under after i accidentally skewer myself on a wooden pole while bashing the manor into itty bitty bits. fuck you

4:38: what the fuck is happening to me dude. what does this fucking game want from me. what do you mean i look dead. what do you mean im hearing shit. what do you mean. what do you MEAN. i need ANSWERS and i need them NOW or i SWEAR TO ALL THE GODS ABOVE

7:28 PM, Dec 22: GUESS WHO FORGOT TO POST THEIR PROGRESS AGAIN

went into the basement. so there's just a whole ass forest and graveyard in here??? cool

ugghhghghgh i NEED TO GET BETTER AT DODGING

got into the haunted manor and IS EVERYONE DEAD??????????? FUUUUCK

thats it

7:29: there's a thing guarding the ghost walker and it scares you???? ha ha ha tf2 reference dies

7:34: i love you tutorial terry

7:43: i love all of these dead guys. they're so whimsical. this childish wonder at seeing a living breathing robloxian makes me want to hug every single one of them

7:46: oh i already know, buddy. believe me. i know its gonna be VERY hateful. my siblings couldnt help but tell me themselves. but thank you for your foreshadowing anyways

7:48: hey so like what the fuck

im so hyped. also 7 CHAPTERS???????? DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW HAPPY THAT MAKES ME FEEL. ok lemme yap for a bit

ever since i saw deltarune and saw that it was planned to have 7 chapters, my mind has been HARD-WIRED to expect EXACTLY 7 chapters from any game that uses a chapter system. if i doesnt have 7 chapters i get so incredibly upset. poppy playtime? needs to have 7 chapters or else it'll be all wrong. garten of banban? fuck it. needs to have 7 chapters. havent checked on it for a while so it's probably got more than that now (fuck). indigo park? 7 chapters or i'm ending it all (joke). literally i need 7 chapters from everything or else i feel genuine panic that something bad is going to happen to me and i get this horrible feeling in my head and skin. its so weird like what the fuck

(edit fron 10:36, dec 24: skek those are literally the sword fight on the heights swords are you stupid. how did you not recognize that. buddy. pal. buddy.)

7:54: i love you kitchen wizard

7:56: GHOST OTION!!!!!! also i can't touch the ghostwalker? okay dokay. we might be fucked!!!! hip hip hooray!!!! my dumbass will ABSOLUTELY touch that goddamn sword

only those of pure sould can wield it? um . i have voices in my head. i don't think i qualify

oh so i just die if i touch it. sweet

omg kitchen wizard cares about me..... i love you kitchen wizard 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 i m sniffling and weeping all over your kitchen im so sorry its just. im. you. you. i. you. me. gas station. what are we getting for dinner? sushi of course! uh oh! th

8:00: tutorial terry you are so pure i believe you. you have a little brother and everything

8:01: oh my goodness i just moved the giant statues . i suddenly feel an urge to go "oh my goodness im so sorry i didnt mean to move the statues im sorry"

8:03: oh i see now. its a puzzle. nevermind

8:07: ohhh i dnt have a good feeling about this. there's a heal pad right next to me which means there's a boss/mini boss coming up

8:09: woah. masked man from the thumbnail of the new demo. coooool......

8:11: HYPERBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GROUND POUND!!!!!!!!! LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2:59, dec 23: im actually so stupid. yknow the room with the moving spikes??? for a whole 5 mins i didnt realize i needed ghost potion

3:01: no dont you dare touch that sword. dont you dare dont ou dare DONT YOU DSRE DONT DO IT DONT oh thank f DONT DO IT FUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

oh hi builderman

3:02: come to terms with my negative traits? either i die or i succeed. win win situation buddy lets do this

3:03: so you're gonna be my therapist now? you better be good

3:06: WHAT THE FUCK THIS IS SO COOL?????????????

3:08: woaaahh. what the fuck. i need a whole game that looks like this dude. also . avarice? rice? i love rice

3:09: i think im madly in love with demo 3 actually

3:13: why are the yous yellow. like telamon. and shedletsky. foreshadowing?

3:17: i love this i love this i love this ARGHHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS SO COOL???????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRR SCREAMS CRIES

3:21: greed i think im madly in love with you get your ass over here so we can platonically make out OUGGGHHH IM AETHETICALLY ATTRACTED TO YOU RIGHT NOW. YOU LOOK SO COOL IM WEEPING AND CRYING I M BAJGKTHUGNERHVYEVHVGSNMIDJFMGCJIDIGJ SHITS CRIES LITERALLY JUMPS OFF OF A SPEEDING TRAIN

3:24: builderman whenever you say I it wiggles. what does this mean

oh we're gonna face isolation now? fun. my favorite

3:25: DUCKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3:29: F!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3:32: wow. that is a really really big duck

3:34: oh this is such a cool puzzle. oh this is so cool. how do they KEEP COMING UP WITH THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3:36: ohhh buddy boy who do i miss??? well buddy boy this is real fun isnt it

the orange you (builderman) turned hatred red. fun fun!!!

3:38: FUCKING BREAKCORE OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GODDDDDDD??????????????????????????????????? YOOOOO

3:41: ouuuughhhh i heart isolation. wah................................ ough.......................... g...................... ourple guy here i come......................................

3:47: woag. flipped the swithc. the. switch. and now there's a buncha symbols in a language i dont knwo. coolsauce

3:49: death? death? in red? like hatred? death?

3:52: did i mention how cool this is

like. ohhhh my god. i love this so so so so so so so much. you cannot even comprehend. im going wild

3:54: wow. wowie wow. im loving the artstyle by the way did i mention that????? this is pretty epicsauce. just saying. fear maze!!!! woooo!!!!!

3:55: writing getting scribblier!!!! oooo!!!! love it when that happens. i just think it looks cool

3:56: KILL your fears? woah. dont use the kill word buddy. thats NOT pg

3:57: it? yeah no i figured that out already by now. builderman's the it. and considering IT is red, builderman's hatred. fun!! we get to fight mr roblox!!!!! hooray!!!!!!!! anyways i need to keep playing, fear!!!!!!!!!!!! lemme at it!!!!!!!!! lemme at you!!!!!!!!!!

i love yuo fear!!!!!!!!!!!!! heart emoji!!!!!!!!!!!

MORE BREAKCORE OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY- GETS SHOT

3:59: GABBA DRUMS????????????? I COULD KISS YOU RIGHT NOW

i need to add this to my playlist. I NEED TO TAKE NOTES!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS SO PEAK???????????????? IM GONNA CRY IM ACTUALLY GONNA CRY THIS IS. AGHRAGHRGAHGR I LOVE THE MUSIC IM GONNA WEEP

4:01: WOAH THAT WAS A COOL EFFECT FOR CALL FOR HELP. SIMPLE BUT COOLSAUCE!!!!!!! the freakin music stopped and everything!!!!!!!!!

4:04: builderman i already knew you were gonna sic me buddy im ready for you pal

ohhhh this is so cool. they even changed the quest name too. leaning on the 4th wall perchance? i love you

4:05: fall into darkness!!!! yippee!!!!!!! hooray!!!!!!!

4:07: the world revolves? revolving? the world revolving? like deltarune? like jevil? the world revolving? jevil is that y

4:11: these goofy silly guys. their names look like bible verses

oh THIS IS SO COOL. HATRED GET OVER HERE SO WE CAN PLATONICALLY MAKE OUT

4:13: i also want to say i love the sound design as well. WELL DONE BLOCK TALES TEAM!!!!!!!! ILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! /p

its so funny dude. there's such a well-done creepy atmosphere and stuff but as soon as i win a battle the little jingle plays and its like "good job!! you did it!! im so proud of you!!! hooray!!!"

4:15: "do us all a favor. curl into a ball and wither." i thought you would say kill yourself but im pretty sure that's what you meant bc that wouldnt be very kid friendly for roblox

4:17: fleshy hanging swingset from a tree. you sure this isnt just a metaphor for someone hanging themselves???? buddy????

aw :( i wanted to ride the swing :(

4:20: woah. that is a lot of people in the walls. im impressed. howd you get them in the walls?????

it can fix me??? giggles and twirls my hair.... tee hee... it can make me beautiful??? giggles... is it a girl, perchance????? giggles..... is it a girl??? could we be pookies??? could it really fix me??? giggles....

just like you? oh nevermind

4:24: unwrap the heart??? UNWRAP???? CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

omg hatred looks so cooolll!!!!!!!!!!!! that animation was so smooth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dude howd block tales go from joy and whimsy to THIS vro. im not complaining in the slightest. wow

4:26: oh this music boutta be fire OH HERE COMES THE DROP

OPJIOHGIRNHIUIORWNHGYUHRWTIMORWIJIYORWL<IYOWRMITKY<

4:27: dude i need to get good. i need to get good really really fast or else im done for

4:42: ok so this fight is gonna take a little bit

4:49: im havin g so much fun guys

4:57: I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! solo on my 5th attempt!!! hooray!!! im a gamer!!! are you guys proud of me??? i am. i'm so proud of me. can we skip and sing merrily together. can we???? stares at you with my big wet unblinking eyes

5:00: i finished the game at exactly 5:00!!! wow wow wow. wow.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

oh my god

DUDE.......... DUDE......

first of all! LOVED the foreshadowing. that was some really good foreshadowing. very clever !!!!

second of all: this was a MAJOR step up in quality. i mean. WOW. like???? this is wild????? this is amazing???? howd they do that. i LOVE the artstyles and the storyline here and. ohhh dont even get me started on the bosses

ohh my god. i DID NOT expect the game to go into 2d. that is super cool. i need more stuff like that. wow. and the animations were so smooth????? im just. im flabbergasted. im dumbfounded.

the mood is so serious too. we go from "ahhaha wacky silly" to "you need to face yourself and come out clean. destroy your hatred and make yourself pure. you can do this" and im just. im. i

this was such a wild ride. god i love this game. i LOVE the fact that i can also see how much the devs love this game too, and it really really shows because holy shit. holy shit

it's come a very long way from when it first released..... im so proud of block tales....

oh and also the MUSIC??????????? THE MUSIC IS SO PEAK. UGHHHH IM CRYING shoutout to the musicians. oh my goodness. they are literally my idols now

but WOW that boss was hard. wow. hatred was not messing around!! i dies 5 times dude... i didnt even die on griefer's 2 phases once.... (we dont talk about how i died to cruel king)

its. its really really amazing. and there's like... i think 4 more planned chapters as well??? if the quality keeps going up like this then. well pluck my nose hairs and send me to alaska /ref we've got a new favorite game on our hands

uggghhh i need to talk about the artstyle. its so CRISPY n SMOOTH and it looks so good and they made the MOOD SO GOOD. atmosphere so good. so spooky. oh they KNEW what they were doing. i want to open up the dev's head and peek at what's inside because how are they all coming up with this

i love block tales. oh my god. shoutout to block tales for being epic. there's more stuff i wanna keep talking about but I CANT REMBER IT ALL 😭😭😭😭😭🥺🥺🥺

BONUS STUFF HAPPENING NOW!!!

5:23: oh they made the snowy cave from ch 1 scarier......... woagh...... shivers my timbers....

5:25: got another speed spin from the caves!!!! thats all i wanted to do really

5:33: oooh they made the pit spookier as well

5:34: just donated 20 roux to this game because i heart block tales and i want that club animation. also i have like no roux so thats all i could give

5:38: i didnt know i could equip multiple.... what happens now 😁😁😁😁😁 (fnnuy)

9:14, dec 24: okay dokay. gayming time

9:18: currently grinding for the explosion sound effect card

9:43: got bored. decided to try and reach pit floor 30 instead

10:00: hooray. pit floor 30

anyways thats it lmao

[miniscrew-anon]

Favorite vampire duo ficlet featuring the line “he’s your daddy”

—-

“Do you ever think about Bram Stoker?”

Dark leaned right, furiously mashing buttons on his controller. His avatar stepped back to avoid Shadows' next attack but was caught in the combo. His avatar was thrown into the air and had his head ripped off. Match over. “Fucking fucker fuck-! What are you talking about? Who the hell is Bram Stoker?”

Shadow sighed disappointedly. “C’mon man. Aren’t you old guys supposed to be all cultured and shit? What have you been doing for the last few centuries? Other than not setting up a stock portfolio.”

“Can you get off my back about that already?”

“You’re a million years old and you work for minimum wage, dude. There’s living in your parents basement until you're forty, and then there's whatever you’re doing.”

The character select menu opened up and Dark quickly switched to someone else. That other one was useless. He’d pick someone with a shit ton of fire power this time. He needs to take Shadows head off. The little shit has been getting a bit too smug recently. “I’ve been busy. Mostly trying to survive. Drinking myself to undeath. A few crusades. You know, the usual.”

Shadow clicked his tongue. “And yet you don’t know the father of all erotic vampire lore.”

Dark pried his eyes off the screen to stare at the younger vampire. “What?”

“Bram Stoker wrote Dracula, you uncultured heathen.” Shadow rolled his eyes at Dark’s confusion. “How did you not know that? This is like a Hylian not knowing about Hylia. Or a basic bitch not knowing about pumpkin spice lattes-”

“What the hell are you talking about? Erotic vampire lore? What?”

“Think about it,” Shadow started, eyes glowing in the darkness of his apartment. “Stoker wrote the original broody, sexy vampire, right? Rich guy in a castle with hot vampire babes and a ‘take you passionately’ attitude? All the forebringers of modern cliches. His work inspired future film adaptations that have dark, alluring men pulling unsuspecting victims into their thrall. He took vampires from some ugly monsters in dark alleys into gracious counts with depth and sex appeal.”

“And your point is…?” Dark turned his head back to the game. While he listened to Shadows horrible reasoning his on-screen counterpart met his bloody demise.

Shadow grinned mischievously. “I’m saying that you owe him big time. You do know that the only reason you’re getting laid these days is because of him, right?”

“I’d ask you to elaborate but I really don’t want you to.”

“Well you know how Twi is into the whole vampire thing, right?”

“Yes I do. And I regret telling you about that every single day,” Dark sighed.

Shadow stuck his tongue out. “Right, well. Why do you think he’s into it?”

Dark side eyed his friend. He's not happy about the way Shadow smiles like a shark smelling blood. “Don’t-”

“Because of decades of sexy vampire lore - because of Bram Stoker! He’s the daddy of sexy vampires. He’s your daddy.”

“Stop talking to me.” Dark groans. “Stop talking in general holy shit. I’m going to kill you-”

Shadow giggles like the insane demon he is. He sits up fully, barely paying attention to the TV but still managing to kill Dark’s avatar with ease. “Don't get upset now. I’m just pointing out a fact.”

Dark cursed as his character was ripped in half brutally. Fatality. “Fuck this game! Piece of shit-! And I’m not the only vampire here, asshole. Whatever messed up logic you’re applying to me can be said for your bleeder, too.”

Shadow rolls his eyes. “Oh, please. Rain doesn’t care about that stuff. He does it because despite whatever he might say, I’m his favorite person. He’d feed me no matter what. But you, unlike me, have no redeeming qualities. So your only chance at getting some is to be someone's personal spank bank fantasy.”

Dark cracked his knuckles. Fuck doing this virtually. “You know what? I’m going to rip your head off.”

Shadow smirked. “If you think that’ll shut me up then you’re in for a surprise.”

———

-and after that Shadows dismembered head offers to get tickets to a showing of the original Dracula at a local theatre for twark because he’s an asshole who takes the bit all the way to the bank

So I was googling because I was wondering when vampires turned sexy and it was around the time of Dracula in the late 1800s. There were a few foreign novels too. Before that they were depicted as purely demonic and evil. So I figured that would be a fun lil factoid to write about. Especially when I thought about how old Dark might be and how if he predates Dracula then he’d have been around when vampires were only seen as monsters. No wonder he was so surprised Twilight didn’t outright reject him.

[tre78]

A Wraith and Mirage fanfic, canon-compliant, a soft story with fun and Entertaining scenes, with an emphasis on the 'E', wink wink.

When Everyone Can See It (TRE78)

Summary: Wraith is upset because others can see things they shouldn't.

Chapter 1: Rampart Storm Point. Barometer (tower). Round 4.

Sometimes she forgot that she was made of flesh and bone like any other woman. Her body reminded her from time to time; after all, it obeyed biological cycles of reproduction. As if hearing the voices all the time wasn't enough of a distraction, at least they warned her of danger, this only exposed her.

It was his fault. He shouldn't wear those clothes during the games. Well, it's not like the sponsors gave them many options either. She glanced at her own exposed abdomen. Still, those swimsuits were really tight on him. She swallowed…

“““Someone is aiming at you””” “““They’ve seen you””” “““Behind you”””

The voices snapped her out of her thoughts, but it was too late.

“tac tac-a-tac-a-tac” she felt the repeated tap of a finger on her head.

“Hah, Blasey, you’re supposed to be watching the left flank, not Witt’s crotch,” Rampart said with a mocking smile as she crouched beside her.

“I wasn’t…” Wraith blushed as she realized that Mirage was just a few meters away, checking his inventory next to the respawn beacon. He didn’t seem to have heard Rampart’s comment.

“And you shouldn’t be staring at the lifts,” Wraith countered, a bit annoyed.

“Don’t worry, mate, I’ve Amped Covers on all the entries. You know he would be willing, if you want to take a closer look” Rampart pressed.

“He's willing for anyone who says hello” Wraith said, feigning disinterest as she began scanning the surroundings with her Triple Take.

“He just likes attention. Ever since I set up my workshop in his bar, I’ve never seen him with anyone, especially since the story of the pumpkin that night on Dionysus was made public” Rampart laughed “That had nothing to do with me.”

Wraith continued pretending to pay attention to the surroundings.

"Sure, there are always stray bullets willing to do anything for some fame, but I’ve seen him dodge them all. He grabs a few beers with them, but then sends them away. He seems stupid, well, he is, but he’s not a bad guy," Rampart concluded.

"If you keep talking about this, I’ll phase and go harass some team by myself," Wraith warned.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I need to scan the ring console upfront, you think you can cover me from here?"

"Go ahead," Wraith nodded, glad to change the subject.

“Come on, Heartbreaker,” Ramya said to Mirage as she headed for the ziplines.

“Hey, don’t give me orders but yeah.”

Wraith watched them both zip down. Mirage took position on one flank and sent a decoy to the other, while Rampart moved forward to scan the console. She felt very uncomfortable. After this conversation with Rampart, the last thing she needed was another voice in her head telling her what to do, as if she wasn’t thinking enough…

"There are enemies nearby" the warning came again, too late. The loud roar of Fuse’s Motherlode deafened her, and she lost sight of Ramya as fire surrounded the ring console. She could barely make out the marks of Mirage’s decoys running in every direction. The last thing she heard was Horizon’s gravity lift, followed by:

"Ah, well that was a little careless of ya' love."

She woke up in the med bay. Rampart was standing in front of her bed, watching her, judging her.

“Is it so hard to watch your teammate’s back for a minute?”

Wraith turned to her side, giving her back to Rampart. On the bed next to hers, Mirage was sound asleep with a bandage wrapped around his head.

“We lost to a duo Blasey, oof, c'mon mate. Get your crap together, you're making us all look bad. You have him right there”

“Look, I’m really sorry, I got distracted, I take the blame, but Elliott and I are just friends, so stop getting weird ideas,” Wraith responded, still with her back turned.

“Well, whatever, get yourself some battery-operated device to take care of your… affairs, or you can use a pillow like you’re fifteen. I really don’t care, just focus when you’re on my team,” Rampart laughed. “And don’t think I’ll forget today. I lost money because of you. You'll pay my bar tab and rent this month.”

Wraith sighed, humiliated by Rampart’s comments. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

More chapters available on AO3 Link: here https://archiveofourown.org/works/56123239/chapters/142559293

[suncast-moth]

I decided to make fresh character sheets for some of my moths.

Here they are. And imma ramble a bit about them too, bc I wanna infodump.

First off, we have Lazer.

Lazer is a feisty little man. He's constantly itching to throw a punch, hence, why he may or may not have decided to start a fight club with a local sasquatch that is far off in the woods from the moth village.

However, Lazer can and will be extremely protective of those he considers friends, despite how rude and brash he may be.

Next up, are Wave and Droplet.

Wave and Droplet happen to be twins. Within this world of moths, there are some that are more powerful than others, such as those with power over the elements and weather. Such as this little duo.

These two happen to have more control over water, if you couldn't tell by designs or their names. Wave is the elder, much more calm and stoic of the two. Having more control over salt water, rather than the freshwater that Droplet works.

Droplet, however, is much more bubbly and joyful, finding admirable qualities in just about everything. Though, despite this, he ironically has a fear of what lurks deep within the waters.

Following that duo, is Loop and Astrid.

Much like the previous two, Astrid happens to have a special little ability of his. He has control over the weather, and feels horribly guilty when it comes to having to create storms. Especially from those that fear the sound that's created.

Astrid tends to feel bad about the accursed ability he has, as he knows that fellows like Loop are always scared and practically quivering during rainstorms, or even worse typhoons.

Loop happens to be a much more skittish fella. He's constantly nervous and picking at his own magenta fur in a panic. This always gets worse during the rolls of thunder that come from those clouds. Loop knows of Astrid, and does wish he personally wasn't such a scared little moth, but he just can't help how he was. He does want to get better with storms, but that's a goal that's ages away for him. As for Astrid; he would love to encourage Loop to chase that dream, but thanks to his own job, it's more the want of an overachiever.

In a way, they have a bit of a romance; a rather sad one that is, due to the fact that they wish to encourage each other, but can't make the moves to do so.

On a lighter, final note, we have Pepper and Ibarof!!

These two are practically best friends. One caters for shows and plays which helps both their little businesses bloom.

Pepper is an energetic and eccentric little moth, always obsessing over sweets and goodies. She's the type to be there for those she cares for, no matter what. If someone she adores has fallen ill, though.. it'd be best not to taste anything she cooks.. if it isn't a pastry she created, then it's bound to taste downright horrid.

Ibarof is eccentric in his own way. Always adorning that old pumpkin on his head, he refuses to reveal the look of his face underneath it, as to him, that'd be 'breaking character.' His role in this village is the theater man. He organizes and sets up all sorts of plays and shows, getting some people he knows to show off their own capabilities and sometimes even act. It's his way of giving to their small, humble community. He just loves making sure everyone is having a good time.

In a way, one could say they're like the embodiments of Halloween and Christmas. Both adoring sweets, and giving within their own ways. One being with gifts and direct care, and then the other being with dressing up and showing off different kinds of light.

In an almost fitting sense, one could assume they're lovers, though, they are only best friends..

however... in the future, they may end up with some mutual pining. Who knows. Maybe one day.

AAAAAND THATS ALL, FOLKS!!! THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO MY INFODUMP ABOUT MY MOTHS. THERE ARE MORE MOTHS TO COME.

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (July 9/2021) - NotDream SMP

Ponk comes to Foolish with a special request.

Tommy and Tubbo work on Tommy’s house and a strange new visitor arrives on the server.

---

VOD LINKS:

Ponk

Foolish

Tommyinnit

---

- Ponk works on the Boom Station and places down signs with instructions along the corridor

- Foolish examines the damage Drista’s pig squad did in Kinoko Kingdom and repairs it

- Ponk calls Foolish as the evil version of himself. Ponk arrives there

- They walk and talk to the tree house, and Ponk breaks some news

Ponk: “You see...I am but a humble servant of this poor world, and you’re a god. Right? Loosely? Well, your godliness is pretty cool, you know? And me being a humble wanderer of this cruel world...it is not my place to take a king’s life, Foolish.”

...

Ponk: “How many kings do you know, Foolish? How many kings?”

Foolish: “I don’t know, is this a trick question?”

Ponk: “I’m pretty sure you know two, alright?”

Foolish: “Wait, who’s the second one?”

Ponk: “Eret and...Sam. You know Sam’s king of the creepers. He wears a crown on his head, do you know that? Apparently he is.”

...

Ponk: “But Foolish...if it comes, a time and a place, would you do that for me? Would you take Sam’s life, yes or no Foolish?”

Foolish: “Well, is there like a good reason for it?”

- Ponk says he’s said enough and goes back down, saying he can get other friends to do it

Foolish: “Is this for the arm? You wanna kill him for the arm? I thought you and Sam were like, best buddies.”

Ponk: “...Best buddies?! BUDDIES?! Are you mad? Are you mad?!”

Ponk: “Foolish, Foolish, if I ripped off your arm and killed you -- he killed me, Foolish! He killed me!”

Foolish: “Oh...did you have it coming?”

Ponk: “I DID NOT HAVE IT COMING, FOOLISH! I DIDN’T! You know what I did? You know what I did, Foolish? I -- it wasn’t even -- ugh, and he did that to prove a point! Now I’m doing this to prove a point, and apparently my point isn’t gonna be proven because you’re not a good friend, Foolish.”

Foolish: “Woah, well don’t you think that’s a lot to ask for? Hey, good friend, let’s go murder someone.”

Ponk: “Well, Foolish, look. You’re not murdering them. You are simply a tool in this revenge plot, Foolish, okay?”

Foolish: “So what would I be doing?”

Ponk: “You’ll have to press a button or swing a sword, Foolish. That is all.”

Foolish: “Press a button or swing a sword.”

- Foolish doesn’t think that sounds too hard. Ponk leads him to the barn

Ponk: “Look, Foolish. Everything will be laid out for you, okay? Everything. Alright? You’ll just have to be there. You’ll have to be there and be square, okay? You know who built this? Come this way, you know who built this?”

Foolish: “Alyssa?”

Ponk: “You know, Alyssa was a good friend of mine. She would have done this for me without asking any questions.”

- They’ve been through so much together, as Batman and Robin, as Holmes and Watson...so if Foolish wants the duo to carry on, he’ll have to help Ponk seek his revenge

- Ponk can’t swing a sword nowadays. She tells Foolish he doesn’t have to help her if she doesn’t want to, but at least he must witness it

Ponk: “We need a witness to prove to the world that this happened, okay? Someone has to write it down in history.”

Foolish: “Do you still -- another question. Do you still have plans for that one thing? On what you want to do with it?”

Ponk: “Foolish, Foolish, Foolish, you see...a good plan comes together, alright? And a good plan master never reveals his plan. It’s all about playing six-dimensional chess. I am ten seconds -- ten seconds ahead of everyone!”

- Ponk asks Foolish to take his helmet off, promising they won’t put a pumpkin on him. They ask Foolish to trust them with a TNT cannon

- They talk about building the tree

Ponk: “When the time comes, can I trust you?”

Foolish: “Mm...you think Sam deserves this?”

Ponk: “Yes. 100%.”

- Foolish says he needs time to think about it before he says yes. The two part ways and Ponk goes to cry in the forest. She’ll ask Niki next

Ponk: “Okay, Foolish...but you’re a god! You’ve killed many people, have you not? You’ve probably had human sacrifices in your lifetime!”

Foolish: “Well -- I -- uh -- I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go now, I’m gonna go now!”

- He leaves the call

- Tommy logs in and sees Puffy’s new house. He promptly tears it down

- Then he rebuilds his own house while talking to chat

- While building the roof, a spider comes over. Tommy is fond of it and names it Shroud. He asks Foolish for a nametag, then Ponk. Ponk is offended at Foolish from the Endermite incident

- Foolish brings over a nametag for Shroud and they get Shroud back to the house

- Tommy finishes the house. Ranboo logs on just to say “cum” and immediately leaves. Then Tubbo logs on and runs over

- Tommy shows Tubbo Shroud

- He decides to go plant some trees around. They head to Las Nevadas to get more and Tommy shows Tubbo how to not be rich. They discuss Mumbo Jumbo, as Tommy claims he is too British

- They return home and fix it up a bit

- Then they decide to destroy Karl’s house. They get rid of the first layer and leave a message saying they’ll get rid of the rest if Karl says he’s using it

- Tommy goes to gather more dirt. Ranboo logs on as the Pringles guy then logs off. They start arguing over Pringles cans

- Ranboo logs in as himself. Tommy and Tubbo start filling in the holes in Tommy’s basement

- They go to get more dirt

- NotDream123 logs on. Tommy and Tubbo go looking for him at Spawn, wondering who he is, but he isn’t there

- Quackity logs on and starts running around Las Nevadas. Foolish is confused

- Tommy and Tubbo bein to run back to the main area when they notice NotDream following after them

Tommy: what’s your name?

???: whats your name

Tommy: tommy?

Tommy: Big Man

???: mine is Tom

- Tommy gets mad and says that his name is Tom, and “Tom” replies that Tommy said his name is Tommy

- Tubbo wants to keep him as a trophy

- Tommy asks what Tom’s interests are. Tom asks what Tommy’s are, and Tommy says “girls,” “Britain” and “dogs”

Tom: Same

- Quackity logs off. Tom likes the Queen as well, and his catchphrase is “POG,” which Tommy is not pleased about

Tubbo: “You’ve got like a little mirror buddy!”

- Tom gets a Discord

Tommy: “He has a stache! I can’t grow a stache!”

Tubbo: “Oh, so maybe he’s the better version!”

Tommy: “No! No!”

Tubbo: “I honestly -- honestly, I can’t even tell you guys apart.”

- Foolish and Ranboo spy on them from afar. Tommy and Tubbo decide to keep Tom for themselves and build “L’Landburg” around Tom to claim him

- Tom joins their call on Discord (his username is “NotDream”). At Tommy’s request, Tubbo goes into the other room to hit Ranboo. Ranboo quits Tubbo’s game and Tubbo disconnects

- Tom knows Dream since Dream whitelisted him. They start walking back to the main area and Tommy asks questions about how Tom joined

- Tom has watched all of Tommy’s streams, even the very first where Tommy joined and got exiled to the snow biome. Tommy presses him on what the very first Hypixel game he played in the first stream was, and Tom says “Skywars,” which he claims is how they say “Bedwars” where he’s from

- Tom is apparently from “Bedskytown.” Tommy pulls Tubbo aside and Tubbo has the idea to put Tom in Tommy’s basement cell

- Tommy reminds Tubbo of the “Tomtract,” which states that Tubbo is only allowed to be friends with one Tom

- Tommy gets Tom and they start walking down the path. Tommy asks Tom if he has a girlfriend. Tom asks if Tommy has a girlfriend and Tommy says yes, so Tom says yes as well

- Tommy accuses Tom of just being Dream. Tommy asks him if he likes smoking. Tom asks if Tommy likes smoking. Tommy says yes and Tom says yes. Tommy then says he doens’t like smoking and Tom doesn’t like it either

Tommy: “What’s your favorite smell?”

Tom: “What’s your favorite smell?”

Tommy: “You first.”

Tom: “Women.”

- They get back to the house and Tommy shows Tom Shroud the spider. Tom breaks a glass block, then grabs an iron chestplate from the chest to wear. Tubbo worries about Tom getting more geared up, but Tommy insists that neither of them wear armor

- Tom puts on some diamond pants and Tommy asks Tubbo to hand him his armor to follow the rules of the Tomtract

- Tom goes into the back room and Tubbo says he’s escaping. Tom asks if he’s a hostage, then asks if Tommy likes Coke. Tommy says yes, so Tom hands him the picture of Coke

- Tommy threatens to fall out with Tubbo if he doesn’t follow the Tomtract, so Tubbo walks away. Tom whispers to Tommy to say something so Tommy shouts to come back, then walks out after into the rain to dramatically ask for the armor. Tubbo cannot argue with a statement like this, so he gives it

- Tommy puts the armor in the chest. Tubbo asks what Tom’s surname is, and Tom says “Simmons”

- Tom runs away while Tommy is explaining his school’s points system and Tubbo tries to chase after him, but Tommy says not to since they should make a good impression. Instead, the two return to filling in dirt

- Tommy turns around and abruptly comes face to face with Tom 

- Tommy asks Tom some more questions about why Dream added him and what his purpose is

Tom: “What’s your purpose?”

Tubbo: “To find happiness and eternal bliss.”

Tommy: “...To get bitches.”

- Tom’s purpose is the same. Tommy scolds him because one should not call women “bitches.” Tom agrees with that as well

- Tommy brainstorms fun opinions for Tom to agree with. He likes the Sidemen and thinks they make the best vlogs. He thinks KSI is the best YouTuber and everything he does is incredible. He thinks George is really ugly (Tom pauses, then leaves the game)

- Tom comes back, Tommy repeats it, and Tom pauses for a long time before saying he agrees. Dream would never say that, and Tom is not Dream

- Tom begs for food, so Tommy eventually gives him some after leaving for some time

- Tommy says that the Manhunts are faked and Tom agrees, but he would have to ask his friend Detective Dream. Tommy and Tubbo are confused at why there are so many and ask to speak with Detective Dream

- Tubbo suspects that Dream may be able to clone himself

- Detective Dream arrives and Tubbo wants to interrogate him. Tubbo changes to his inspector outfit and Tommy changes into his suit

- Detective Dream’s first name is “Detective” and his surname is “Dream.” His parents are Mom Dream and Dad Dream. Tubbo concludes the case and decides that Det. Dream is official

- Tubbo looks Det. Dream in the eyes and gets him to say that he is a real detective. If that is true, Tubbo says, Detective would have laser eyes. Detective uses his laser eyes while looking at Tubbo’s face and Tubbo’s eyes get messed up

- Detective gets killed by Tubbo’s dog

- Detective knows about Dream and he has inside info on him that he can’t share

- “Drinnit” is Tommy’s detective name. He has been working on this case for fifty years

- After some more detective talk, Detective leaves. Tubbo tells Tommy he plans to kill Tom, as there can only be one

- NotDream comes back, this time dressed in a duck onesie. He is “John” now, and Tommy does not approve of the onesie

- Connor logs on

- John has a confession: He is actually just Tom. In fact, Detective Dream was also Tom! Tom heard Tubbo say he was going to kill him, so he created John, as he thought that Tubbo wouldn’t be able to kill something so cute. Tubbo says he didn’t mean it

- Connor asks Foolish for help getting back home

- Tom traps Tubbo and Tommy in a box. He does not have Creative mode

- Tommy asks Tom if he is good or evil. Tom says he is good and changes out of the duck onesie

- Tommy asks Tom what he thinks of destroying Karl’s house, and Tom approves as a third party. They watch Tom take down the house

- Connor arrives back home and starts building across from Tommy’s house. They VC him and Connor asks where his house went. Tommy tells him it was for tax purposes

- Tom dies by magic after Tubbo shoots him in midair

- Tommy tells Connor he can’t build on his land. Tom, Connor, Tommy and Tubbo chat about subscriber comments

- Connor starts building his house in front of Tommy’s bench and Tommy doesn’t approve of it blocking his view and destroys it

- Tom asks for food again. The server might be going through a bit of a famine

- Tommy continues filling in the basement and decides to form a Not Funny Club with Tom. They start telling jokes about YouTube

- Tommy gets the idea to do some standup: Minecraft Comedian vs. 3 Hecklers

- Tom gets hungry and takes Tommy’s God Apple to eat, but Tubbo shoots and kills him before can. Tubbo says Tom still has one canon life left though

- They walk down to the theatre stage by the Community House. Tubbo evolves

- Tommy does comedy up on the stage while Connor, Tubbo and Tom heckle from the audience. All of Tommy’s jokes are just pickup lines

- Tommy gets booed off the stage and next up is Tom, who tries but quickly gives up

- Tubbo is up next. He starts reading out information about tax legislation. Tommy starts taking notes

- Then, it’s Connor’s turn. He tries to play off of the audience

- It’s always canonically Tuesday on the Dream SMP

- Connor gives up and Tubbo goes up to keep reading the tax information. Tommy goes up to make it a comedy duo 

- Tubbo starts selling his cryptocurrency known as “Piss and Shit, Screw the Children Coin”

- Tommy leaves to speak with Tom by the Community House. Tom says he’ll be back. Tom looks at the poster

Tom: “Look at this. ‘Bee does science’ ...This is groundbreaking!”

---

Upcoming events remain the same.

[georgiapeach30513]

More on Owin and Itty Bitty, pleeeeaaase??? 😍

Owie!!! Well last we left him and Itty Bitty Bean, he was waiting on that blueberry muffin, and Mrs. Drysdale let you know, that if you're not interested to not give him blueberry muffins...so are you going to cave?

🖤🖤🖤🖤

Ellie's Special and Blackberry Muffins

Summary: Owin is very sweet with Ellie

Pairings: Owin X Reader

Rating: cuteness

Warnings: Ellie, 18+ ONLY

Word Count: 650

Desperate Lives AU Masterlist

Owin Everett-Levinson Masterlist

You could hear his loud boisterous voice before you saw him. Rolling your eyes at just the sound. And then hearing him nearly break the door down to get inside. For someone who respects Mrs. Drysdale, he didn’t seem to care if he tore the door of the hinges.

“Bear!” your favorite little customer, Ellie, runs towards the mountain of a man, grabbing at his hands, she climbs up him, until he holds onto her. “I was hoping we didn’t miss you. Becks brought me here to get coffee.”

“Well good ole Dr. Beck, gotta give him credit, if he’s taking care of my Ellie belly,” Ellie giggles at him. Shaking her head no, she covers her mouth with her hands. “Are you not my Ellie belly?”

“No, silly goose, I’m Papa’s Ellie belly.l

“And my Pumpkin,” Beck gives a little tickle to Ellie, and holds out a hand for Owin to shake. “Easy this time, big guy. Az likes my hands just the way they are.”

“Ellie, what do you suggest today?” Owin asks, his eyes looking towards you. Quickly you try to busy yourself, pissed off that he caught you staring.

Ellie, wags her finger at him, and ‘whispers’ in his ear, “Ask her for an Ellie special.”

“You have your own coffee?” Owin acts all surprised. Of course she does. She, Aster, and Beck were the cafe’s best customers. And they didn’t rely on family owning it. They always paid and tipped.

“Uh-huh. It’s so yummy! Be careful though, sometimes it’s too hot.”

“The scones aren’t bad either,” Beck adds in. He bids the duo farewell for now, sitting over at the table with Aster who finally got off the phone.

Owin walks up to the counter, giving you the sweetest smile, “I need an Ellie’s coffee special.”

“You know her special isn’t really…”

“I’m sure it’s very delicious,” he gives you a wink, clearly knowing that it won't be coffee, "I'll take my regular to go. Why don't you pick me out a muffin two, you itty bitty thing," you roll your eyes starting to make him Ellie's drink. Itty bitty, everyone is small compared to him.

His eyes look over the display of the muffins, and knowing there's always blueberry, you can almost see his mouth watering. You slide over his Ellie's special, and a black coffee, that Ellie turns her nose up to. "Mommy likes hers on ice. That's nasty."

"Your mom also likes an Americano with a splash of almond milk and one stevia."

"So you remember your customer's orders?" Owin asks, watching you reach in the display to pull out a muffin. His eyes lighting up at the one you grab. You give him a shrug, and tell him to go ahead and try the muffin. "Oh, these are my favorite," he takes a big bite of the muffin, and then looks at you oddly, "What is this?"

"Blackberry muffins. The blackberries are in season, so I thought it'd be a nice addition to the muffins. You're in luck, we've been selling these out so fast," you nod your head at him with a smile.

His face falls in defeat, "Well, it is a really good muffin. I have had better though."

"Oh really?"

"Well, we all have our tastes."

You dare to take a glance over to Ellie, "And what's yours?"

"Bear? This is weird, how about you sit with me, and we can talk about your behavior," with a smile, he grabs up his two drinks and muffin that is most definitely not blueberry. "You're off of your game. And I thought Mimi told you to leave that one alone," her sweet eyes blink up at him, and he sighs.

"I know. But I do like my black coffee and blueberry muffins," saying blueberry a bit louder, but he's still not getting one. Even though that giant man looks adorable attempting to sit in one of the children's chairs at the table.

Masterlist

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #879: The (Cute) Pumpkin King!! (Super Smash Bros Ultimate)

6:12 p.m. at the Smash Mansion, Outside of Mario and Peach's Bedroom.......

Mario: (Inside of His and Peach's Bedroom) Peach! You think you can come in here for a second? I need your help with something!

Peach: Of course, dear! (Opens the Bedroom Door While Wearing a Spiritual Mage Costume) What do you need help with-

Without warning, the mystery figure inside the room begins to reveal himself in a dramatic fashion while wearing a purple cape and an empty, carved pumpkin mask. The figure in question was none other than Mario himself

Mario: Rawwwar!

Peach: ('GASPS') Mario? Is that really you!?

Mario: (Laughs in a Evil Vampire Like Ascent) Who is this "Mario" you speak of? I am the figure that all men, women, and children fear in the night of Halloween. I....am none other than the Great and Powerful Pumpkin Kin-

'Sniff' 'Sniff'

Mario: Huh?

Peach: (Already Forming Tears in her Eyes)

Mario: (Eyes Widened in Complete Worry Before Dropping the Vampire Act Entirely and Rushing Over to his Girlfriend) Oh no. I'm so sorry, Peach! (Gently Grab Her Hand) I-I didn't mean to make you sad or any-

Peach: (Giggles a Little While Wiping the Tears From her Eyes) Oh sweetie....('Sniff') You didn't make me sad at all.

Mario: Wait. Really? A-Are you sure?

Peach: (Happily Nodded) Mmhmm. (Hugs Mario Lovingly) It just warms my heart to see how cute you really are~

Mario: (Stares at Peach For a Brief Second Before Giving her a Deadpinned Look on his Face) We're really doing this again, aren't we?

Peach: Yep!~ You're a precious bean, honey!~ (Gives Mario a Big Kiss on the Cheek) ('Mmmmmwah')

Mario: ('Sigh') How many times do I have to keep telling you this, Peach?..... I'm not cute.

Peach: (Gives Mario a Pouty Look) Oh, yes you certainly are! You're the most cutest man I've ever have to pleasure if meeting. Do I REALLY need to name you all the adorable moments you had in the past?

Mario: No. But I can remind you of all the times that you're more adorable than me.

Peach: ('Scoffs') Oh please. There's no way I can be more cuter in comparison....

Mario: (Raised an Eyebrow) Oh really? Then what about all the time you started fainting over everything little thing?

Peach: I'm a very expressive lady. I can't help but to react a certain way.

Mario: True.....But how about all the times you worry over everyone in this mansion.

Peach: Um. I'm a Certified Mommy, thank you very much. I will ALWAYS worry about you, our babies, and everyone else in our home.

Mario: Even Bowser?

Peach: (Starts Rolling her Eyes) Almost everyone......

Mario: (Chuckles Lightly) Fair. Ooh! How about the time you acted like a complete diva at the soccer tournament we entered together?

Peach: (Facepalms Herself) Oh God....You actually find all of that cute?

Mario: Yeah. I mean, I know it wasn't who you really are at the time, but I still find it pretty adorable. And....(Starts Blushing a Little) a bit more attractive....in a way.....

Peach: (Giggles Softly) Well, I'm oh so flattered that you enjoyed it~ But that doesn't change the fact that you're the cute one in this relationship.

Mario: Really?

Peach: Really times infinity.

Mario: (Noticed Dedede and Escargoon is Walking By Their Room) Oh we'll see about that. (Turns to the Duo From Outside Their Room) Hey, Dedede? Mr. Escargoon?

Dedede/Escargoon: (Stops Walking While Turning Their Heads at the Opened Room) Hm?

Mario: Could you two come over here for a minute? We wanna ask you something?

Escargoon: Uh....Yeah. Sure.

Dedede: What y'all wanna ask us?

Peach: Who do you think is cuter? Me or Mario?

Dedede: Oh that's easy. (Points at the Pumpkin Headed Plumber) It's Mario.

Peach: (Turns to Mario With a Smug Look on her Face) Ha!

Mario: (Immediately Glares at The Former King) Dedede!

Dedede: What!? It's the truth isn't it? I thought we already agreed on that being the case a long time ago.

Peach: (Playfully Nodded) We did actually. He just seems to forget is all.

Escargoon: (Turns to Dedede) You really think he's the cute one, De? I always thought the princess is a lot more cuter on comparison.

Peach: ('Gasps')

Mario: (Smirks Back at Peach) Ha! Exactly!

Dedede: (Turns to Escargoon) Nah, man. It's definitely the other way around.

Escargoon: How can you be so sure?

Dedede: Well, for one.....(Points at Mario) Look at his costume. Does it look remotely scary to you?

Escargoon: (Takes a Look at Mario's Costume) Mmmmmm......Eh. It's average at best.

Mario: H-Hey! This costume can be scary!!

Escargoon: Yeah. For little toddlers. Unless you have a few tricks up your sleeves, I don't think you'll be scaring anyone anytime soon.

Dedede: My point exactly. And that ain't even the half of it. (Turns Back to Peach) Peach! Carry your man for us.

Peach: (Smiles Brightly) You don't have to tell me twice~

Mario: (Eyes Begins to Widened) Wait! H-H-Hang on a sec-WOOOOAH! (Immediately Gets Scooped Up into Peach's Arms in Bridal Like Fashion)

Dedede: See that? The girl's twice his height AND could carry him with little to no problem.

Escargoon: (Starts Nodding in Agreement) Yeah. You know what? Forget my earlier choice. The plumber is definitely cuter.

Mario: (Groans While Facepalming Himself)

Peach: Mario-2. Peach-0.

Mario: T-That doesn't prove anything! (Notice Kirby, Wearing a Top Hat, Walking Back) H-Hey, Kirby! Can I ask you something?

Kirby: (Stop Walking Before Turning to Mario) Poyo?

Mario: Who do you think is cuter? Me or Momma Peach?

Kirby: (Put his Hand on his Chin While Thinking) Hmmmmmmmmm.......(Happily Points at Mario) Poyo Poyo!~

Mario: (Eyes Widened in Complete Disbelief)

Escargoon: See even Kirby thinks you're cute.

Peach: One more point for the cute Italian~

Mario: (Starts Blushing Again) T-T-That's only three people! I'm sure everyone else will say otherwise.

Dedede: Boy, I don't know why you're trying so hard to deny that fact. You might as well accept it at this point.

Peach: Exactly! (Turns Back to her Man) You don't need to be embarrassed just because you have a cute side.

Mario: It's not that I'm embarrassed by it or anything. I just..... (Starts Frowning a Little Sadly) don't want anyone to see me as less of a man is all....

Peach: Mario, you are more of man than ANYONE gives you credit for.

Dedede: The girl's right, boy. You're the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom for pete sake!

Escargoon: Yeah. That have to count for something at least. (Points at Dedede) Hell, I even think you're even more of a man than the big guy here himself.

Dedede: Yeah- (Eyes Suddenly Widened Before Immediately Glaring at Escargoon) HEY!

Kirby: (Giggles Softly)

Mario: (Chuckles Lightly) Okay. Okay. I'll try not to let it bother me as much. (Turns to Peach) IF you admit that you're just as cute as I am.

Peach: ('Sighs in a Bit of Defeat') Fiiiine.... I'm a cutie-pie.....

Mario: (Simply Nodded) That's. Right.

Peach: (Gives Mario a Playful Smirk) Not as cute as you though~ (Gives Mario a Loving Kiss on the Lips)

Mario: (Sighs While Smirking as Well) You're never gonna let this one go, are you?~

Peach: Never~

And with that, the couple begins to kiss each other lovingly and a bit more passionately.

Escargoon: (Smiles Softly at the Kissing Couple) Awww~ They really do love each other~

Dedede: (Already Has a Deadpinned Look on his Face) Yeah. I ain't watching this. (Walks Out if the Room) I need get changing.

Escargoon: Yeah. Same here. (Leaves Out if the Room as Well) Come on, Kirby. We're leaving.

Kirby: (Happily Nodded Before Walking Out of the Room as Well) Poyo!

@keyenuta

@caleb13frede

@26shann

@cyber-wildcat

@ma-lemons

@albion-93

@themariobro

@italian-love-cake

[spencerreidslove]

Trick or Treat

A/N This is part three of Matchmaker and Letters this will mostly likely be the last part. Thanks for all the love on the past 2 posts!

————

Halloween was fast approaching and your first grade students could not be more excited. The annual Halloween parade and party were the highlight of any 6 year old’s year.

Two weeks before the Halloween party you sent out notes asking for parents to bring in food and for volunteers to help with the crafts you have chosen that the kids would do.

Then of course, there was the matter of your costume.

You and the other first grade teachers had decided that you were all going to recreate a costume you wore when you were a kid. You decided you were going to recreate a vampire costume you had originally worn in 3rd grade.

And there was of course, Spencer. You and Spencer had gone on three other dates since your first dinner together.

It was two days before the Halloween party and Maggie was in your classroom after school while you wrapped pumpkin lights around your whiteboard.

“I’m excited for Halloween.” Maggie said from where she was drawing.

“Me too. What’s your costume?” You asked.

“It’s a surprise. Did you know Halloween is my Daddy’s favorite holiday?” Maggie said.

“I didn’t. What’s yours?” You asked.

“Christmas. Shortly followed by Halloween.” A new voice said. You turned twoards your classroom door where Spencer was standing.

“Daddy!” Maggie said, she grabbed Lily and her bag and then ran and gave him a hug.

“Hey there.” Spencer said.

He turned to face you. “This is for you.” He said, handing you an envelope.

“Thanks. Have a good night.” You said as they left.

You opened the envelope to find that inside there was an approved form to be a parent volunteer for the class’s Halloween party. You smiled and slid the envelope into your desk.

-

“Auntie Penelope?” Maggie said from her table in Garcia’s lair.

“Yes my love?” Garcia asked.

“I need your help for my Halloween costume.” Maggie said.

“Halloween’s in two days sweetness, don’t you already have a costume?”

“Yes, but I just need a little help.”

-

It was the day of the Halloween party and all your students were getting changed into their costumes. After the parade for all the parents, you would spend the day making crafts, eating snacks, and watching a movie.

You were lining all your studnets up and admiring their costumes when you reached Maggie.

She was wearing a bright pink dress, sparkley shoes, matching glasses, and holding a colorful pen. She also had a colorful hair tie holding up half her hair.

“And what are you?” You asked her.

“I’m my Auntie Penelope.” Maggie said.

You smiled and lead the group out and around the school. When you arrived back at the classroom you split the students into groups and assigned them each to a station with a parent volunteer.

As you worked with your group, you couldn’t help but glance at Spencer every once in a while. While the kids at his group worked in their activity they laughed at what he wa saying. You couldn’t hear it but seeing the way he interacted with the kids made you smile.

Later, while you passed out the snacks and then stood in the back of the room while the kids watched Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin Spencer stayed by your side.

“You’re a great vampire.” He said, looking at your costume. He had also dressed up.

“And you make a very handsome Jack Skellington.” You said, looking at his pinstriped suit.

“Maggie said she was her Auntie Penelope. Penelope must be very colorful.” You said.

“You have no idea. When I told her that Maggie had dressed up as her she jumped for joy. I didn’t think somebody could jump that high in heels that are six inches.”

“She sounds fun.” You said.

“You’ll have to meet her sometime.”

“Are you saying you want me to meet the people you work with?” You asked.

“Unless you don’t want to, then you don’t have to and-“

“Spencer, I would love to.” You said.

-

Maggie was still dressed in her Penelope costume when Spencer brought her to the BAU. They were making a quick stop before going out trick or treating.

“There is my mini-me!” Garcia said, when the duo entered the bullpen.

“I want to be just like Auntie Penelope when I grow up.” Maggie said.

“Are we sure that’s such a good thing?” Luke asked, teasingly.

Garcia shot him a look and then turned to Spencer.

“Now, tell me everything about this teacher you’re seeing.”

“Well, Maggie, that’s candy’s not going to get itself.” Spencer said, trying to steer her out of the bullpen.

“You can’t run from my questions forever!” Garcia called out after them.

-

You were handing out candy to trick or treaters and had just run out of candy when you heard a knock on the door.

You opened the door, prepared to disappoint some child when you were faced with Spencer, holding a very tired Maggie.

“Sorry to bother you, but we were a couple blocks away when she said she had to go potty.” Spencer said.

You giggled. “Right through there.” You said, pointing twoards your bathroom.

Spencer sent Maggie in that direction and then followed you back to the kitchen where you were making popcorn.

“I’m tired.” Maggie said a few minutes later when she excited the bathroom.

“C’mon, we’ll get out of Miss Y/L/N’s hair. We gotta walk back.” Spencer said, holding out his hand.

“My feet hurt.” Maggie said.

“I am not carrying you thirteen blocks home.” Spencer said.

“You two can stay here for a little bit if you want to.” You said.

This time there was no arguing about staying, like there was when you suggested Maggie staying after school.

You offered that Maggie could take a nap in your bed, and a few minutes later, Spencer joined you on the couch in your living room.

You had turned on one of the random channels that were showing horro movies and continued to eat your popcorn.

“An eventful night of trick or treating?” You asked, shifting your attention to Spencer.

“I think Maggie’s candy bag weights more than she does.” Spencer said.

You laughed and flicked a popcorn kernel at him.

“What was that for?” He said, reaching into the bowl and throwing a peice of popcorn at you.

“Why not?” You asked, throwing a few more pieces at him.

Soon, the two of you were in a full out popcorn war. A couple minutes later, you two were laughing at picking popcorn out of your hair.

“I think that’s the best way I’ve ever wasted popcorn.” You said, reaching over and ruffling a couple peices out of Spencer’s tangle of curls.

Spencer caught your wrist and used it to pull you closer to him.

“Trick or treat, Y/N?” He whispered.

You glanced down at his lips, and saw him to the same to yours.

You leaned in and closed the small gap between the two of you. His lips were soft and he tasted like popcorn and candy.

Spencer brought his hands up to your face and you wrapped your arms around his neck, playing with a few curls there.

You pulled apart a few seconds later and rested your foreheads against each other.

“Happy Halloween, Spencer.” You said.

He responded by leaning in to kiss you again.

Tags!

@rainsong01 @illuxions-x @acambridge @rexorangecouny @ordinarily0unordinary @bat-fams-bitch

[dossi-io]

An introduction to DeVita

Do you want to learn all about the AOMG artist DeVita? This article will cover everything you need to know about the third female member to join the labels roster.

The content of this article is also available in video format, embedded at the bottom of this article.

Prelude

In early April of 2020, the Korean hip-hop label AOMG ambiguously announced that a new artist was signing onto the label. This label was grounded by the Korean-American triple-threat; Jay Park, who’s also one of its executives. This is a label with a very organic feel and artist-oriented nature, which stands out compared to many other music labels.

On April 3rd, the label’s official Instagram account posted a video. It was titled, “Who’s The Next AOMG?” where fellow AOMG members talked about this upcoming recruit. They sprinkled small hints and details by sharing their thoughts on the artist without mentioning who.

Around the world, fans immediately began speculating on who this could be. The major consensus was that it had to be the solo artist Lee Hi, due to reporting like this: “AOMG responds ‘nothing is confirmed’ to reports of Lee Hi signing on with the label”

A few other names got thrown in fan speculations like Hanbin (B.I), previous member of IKON, Jvcki Wai, and MOON (문) aka Moon Sujin. This despite a few of these already being signed to other labels.

On April 6th, three days later, the account was updated with a part two. This time dropping more hints, which would exclude many names from fan speculations.

On the 7th of April, the label’s official Instagram account posted a short teaser. The video sported an 80’s retrofuturistic setting, with a woman turned from the camera, dressed in all black, rocking braids, and some glistening high-heels. As it seemed to be a female, some were now certain that it had to be Lee Hi. A small few actually guessed correctly that the one who would be joining AOMG would be Ms DeVita.

Finally on April 9th, it was official! She debuted with the music video, from which the teaser clips was taken from, EVITA!, which accompanied the release of her EP, CRÈME.

What does the name DeVita mean?

The name DeVita, draws inspiration and meaning from two things. Firstly, Eva Perón – also known as Evita – who was Argentina’s former First Lady. When Chloe was learning about Eva’s life, it inspired her to combine “Devil” and “Evita”, thus creating “DeVita”. The name signifies the duality of how both Eva Perón and DeVita could be perceived. Either being a devil, or an angel depending on the eye of the beholder. Secondly, Salvatore Di Vita, a character from Cinema Paradiso, was also a source of inspiration.

An introduction to DeVita

Chloe Cho – now known under the artist name DeVita – was born and raised in South Korea, until the age of eleven. In 2009, she moved to Chicago, where she would learn English.

In 2013, she went back to Korea and participated in the third season of the show; K-pop Star. A talent show, where the “big three” (the three largest music labels in Korea) hosts auditions to find the next big k-pop star. However she didn’t win, therefore neither got signed.

Later on, she returned to Chicago and graduated high school. After reflecting on what she wanted to do next, she decided to make music. In 2014, her pursuit to become an artist brought her to the talent show Kollaboration. On this show, she performed covers and actually ended up being a finalist. Despite her talents, she did not triumph as the winner of the show.

Not letting these losses stop her, she started releasing music on Soundcloud. The earliest release I could find, Halfway Love (Ruff), was from 2016. Her catalogue consisted of both covers and original music.

One day, Kirin, an artist and CEO of the music label 8balltown Records, was introduced to DeVita’s music. He liked what he heard and the two linked up. In May of 2018, WEKEYZ, one of 8balltown’s producer duos released a track titled Sugar. This track featured both DeVita, and the AOMG rapper Ugly Duck. This was the beginning of many collaborations to come.

On August 28th of 2018, just a few months later, AOMG released Sugar (Puff Daehee Mix).

This was a remix done by Puff Daehee, the alter ego of Kirin. Along with this track, it was accompanied by a music video starring Kirin, DeVita, and Ugly Duck. For most people, this was their first time seeing DeVita.

DeVita continued doing features on many songs by Korean artists while creating a little buzz for herself. There’s one notable feature, which could be seen as an important milestone in her career. That is her feature on the track Noise, from AOMG artist Woo Won Jae’s project, titled af.

In a tweet a few days after the release of CRÈME, she shared the significance of this moment.

“I was still making minimum wage working at a restaurant back when Noise dropped- I wrote my part during my shift on the back of this receipt paper. This was about a year and a half ago. A little bit after that I got a call from Pumpkin at 3am Chicago time. He said Jay wanted to meet in Philly in 4 hours. They put me on a plane and the rest is history.”

The phone call she mentioned in her tweet, about Jay wanting to meet, must have been made around September 2018. Jay was performing in Philadelphia at the time. The moment they met in Philadelphia was actually captured through a photo of the two. However, this picture ended up getting removed later on.

Fast forward a few months and Jay had just released his Ask About Me EP. The project focused on a western audience, so he went to the States on a promo run. During his visit, he also met up with DeVita once again, as can be seen here.

Finally, on April 9th, her being signed to AOMG was officially announced and she debuted with her EP titled CRÈME. Her joining AOMG, looked like something that happened pretty naturally. The vast majority of artists she had collaborated on tracks with happened to be AOMG members. Getting comfortable with the AOMG family, likely made the decision to join crystal clear.

Artistically

Just a quick look at her body of work thus far, a majority of it is in English. However, she has no issues singing in Korean, as proven by her feature on Code Kunst’s; Let u in. The tone in her voice has this sort of mixture of many singers, a melting pot of sorts. It reminds me of Audrey Nuna, SAAY, H.E.R, some vocal riffs from Dinah Jane, and at times, just a tiny bit of Ariana Grande.

As an artist, she’s still in the early stages of carving out her own unique sound and style. There’s incredible potential here, but her distinct identity is not completely there yet. I see before me a caterpillar that within a couple years, will transform into a butterfly, with its own identifiable pattern to spread its wings out on.

From what she’s shown so far, I would say she seems most comfortable doing R&B and soul music. However, beyond a quick description I prefer to refrain from categorizing her. Mostly because artists generally feel limited when categorized. More importantly, because we have no idea what she has in store for the future.

Debut EP: CRÈME

CRÈME is DeVita’s “crème de la crème”. She constantly modified the tracklist to present her debut project in a way that held her personal standard; essentially presenting us her best tracks. The result is CRÈME, which consists of five tracks, with a runtime of fourteen minutes altogether.

This EP showcases the fact that she is a competent songwriter, able to write some soulful, emotional ballads. It is completely in English and all the tracks are written by her, telling both life stories of her own and that of others. A majority of the production was handled by her “musical soulmate”; TE RIM, but other notable names, like Code Kunst show up as well.

Tracks:

Movies, introduces the project in a very gentle manner. In the track, DeVita paints a picture of a criminal couple, getting a rush, by committing crimes together. The lyrics feel inspired by movies like Bonnie and Clyde. My initial thoughts were that, for some ears, it could possibly be “too” calm as an opener. It doesn’t demand attention the way EVITA! does. Simply put, it’s not a bad track. I would just have put this track later on in the EP.

EVITA!, is something different compared to what I hear from others in the K-R&B lane. I love the 80’s aesthetic in both the track and music video. Sonically, the nostalgic saxophone riffs, warm lush synth pads, thumping bass line, results in a trip back to the 80s. With this recipe, topped with DeVita’s “current” contemporary soul and R&B voice makes for an interesting combination. The music video had that futuristic 80’s look with the neon colors, and I loved how the guns she played around with looked a lot like the “Needlers” from the Halo franchise.  The title is once again just like DeVita’s name, an ode to the controversial Eva Perón. The instrumental was originally used by TE RIM, the producer of the track in 2017. His version has the same title as DeVita’s version and I recommend giving that one a listen as well, as it has a different feel to it. This track was definitely one of the highlights of the EP.

All About You, is a simple yet beautiful piano love ballad. Originating from her own tales of love, her vocals effortlessly capture what she felt during these moments.

1974 Live, is yet another ballad, but this time, with a calm guitar backing, playing a poppier R&B chord progression. DeVita’s voice is given a lot of space to be in the center of the track. As soon as I heard this track I became curious. What was the significance of this year, which would have her title the track as such? My questions were left unanswered… until the EP had marinated a while, when she tweeted: “1974 Live is about Christine Chubbuck”. In case you’re unfamiliar, Christine Chubbuck was a television news reporter, who made history in 1974. She was the first person to commit suicide live on air. According to her mother Christine’s suicide would on paper be due to an unfullfilling personal life. All throughout her life, she had experienced unreciprocated love. With this information tying back to the track, it becomes a lot less ambiguous and reveals a more cohesive narrative.

Show Me, is the final track of the EP, featuring immaculate production from the talented CODE KUNST. The sound is very moody, which fits her voice like a glove. This is my favorite performance on the entire EP, both lyrically and vocally. The lyrics present someone who’s fed up dealing with men, who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. Now she’s looking for love with someone who’s honest and “real”.

With the project being a year old now, it has already gotten her nominated for both Rookie of the Year along with EVITA being nominated for Best R&B & Soul Track in the 18th iteration of the Korean Music Awards.

A majority of listeners seemed to enjoy the project. Many seem to be in love with her voice judging by the endless amounts of praise she has received, often described as painfully addicting, soothing, smooth, and so on.

I also asked a friend who’s a huge fan of Korean music, especially the hiphop and r&b scene to share her thoughts on the project. Here’s what she said:

"This whole project is empowering, in particular the tracks Show Me and EVITA! DeVita being a new artist, managed to impress me and many more listeners through this EP. As mentioned earlier, empowering lyrics with unique melodies and beats. Especially with the track EVITA! The fact that 1974 Live and EVITA! was referring to, two historically important women, is something that I love. This is one of my favorite EP:s of 2020 and DeVita is now included in my list of favorite artists." @Haonsmom

From what I’ve seen, only a few have been vocal about not really being too fond of the project. Some were left a bit disappointed, as they were expecting more hip-hop and R&B from an AOMG artist. The lack of “danceable” tracks was also a concern to some. Despite these criticisms, one thing was always mentioned; the girl has a beautiful voice and is obviously talented.

After listening to this EP, I hear a lot of potential. Being an EP with just five tracks, it definitely avoids overstaying its welcome. It’s brief enough to allow a listen through the entire project, no matter what you’re doing. My favorite tracks would have to be Show Me and EVITA!, but I found the whole project to be enjoyable. This EP is sprinkled with lovely vocal performances and simple but captivating production. I do still stand by my opinion that Movies would have fit better later in the tracklist if you’re chasing that mainstream ear.

I think the way EVITA! kicks you in the face, demanding attention, would’ve been a better fit as the opening track. In contrast to the other tracks, the energy level is unique, making the placement feel odd as the rest of the tracks have a chill vibe. All in all, this project gave me a taste of the “crème” but left me with a curious yearning for what this chef will whip up for dessert.

Bright future ahead

The addition of more female artists to the AOMG roster was much needed. Hoody was the first and only female member for about four years. This was the case up until late 2019, where she was then joined by sogumm, who had just won AOMG’s audition program called SignHere. Now funnily enough after DeVita, Lee Hi actually did end up officially signing with AOMG on July 22, last year.

Based on what I’ve heard during Devita’s Kollaboration days, she has improved immensely. This topped with her leaving the impression of someone passionate about their craft, bodes well for what's to come. She seems to be someone who'll constantly evolve.

Following an artist, at the early stages of their career, is something that I always find exciting. With such a lovely debut, I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for DeVita.

To view the content of this article in video format simply play the video embedded below.

Thanks for reading, watching. If you enjoyed this content feel free to follow my socials to stay up to date on when new content is posted.

https://allmylinks.com/dossi-io

Credits:

The first image in article: Original photo, pre-edit from @jinveun

Gif from the Sugar Puff Daehee MV: @moxiepoints

[concussed-to-pieces]

The Mettle Of A Man; Part Twenty

Fandom: Fallout (4)

Pairing: Paladin Danse/Female Sole Survivor

Rating: Holy shit M.

AN: Welcome to the end of our tale, everyone! Thank you so much for reading and enjoying over the years. I love you so much and appreciate you more than words can say. Here's to 2021, my friends! Ad Victoriam, and stay safe! Tagging @anonymouscosmos​, @culturalrebel, @wrestlingfae​, @toxiicpop​,  @mercy-and-malice, @deepkittycollecto, @nelba, @mechanicalism, @commandershepardshtole, @valkyriejack and @kovu-the-mythical-being. Enjoy!

Part One: ArcJet

Part Two: The Prydwen

Part Three: Orders

Part Four: Finding Brandis

Part Five: Weston Water And Oberland

Part Six: Meeting Preston And Matthew

Part Seven: Radstag And Radstorm

Part Eight: The Return To Sanctuary Hills

Part Nine: Domestic Ruminations

Part Ten: Institutionalized

Part Eleven: Two Weeks, Three Days

Part Twelve: Haylen’s Warning And The Glowing Sea

Part Thirteen: Under Fire

Part Fourteen: Dichotomy

Part Fifteen: The Litany Trial

Part Sixteen: Nice Try

Part Seventeen: Preparations

Part Eighteen: Divide And Conquer

Part Nineteen: Lucky

[!TRIGGER WARNING!: This installment contains holiday celebrations, brief emotional distress and unprotected sex. Stay safe!]

Time seemed to pass both too fast and not fast enough. 

  Synths were accommodated, reprogrammed at their wishes or helped to adjust to their new lives. Doctor Amari and the rest of the Railroad had no shortage of work, and Desdemona eventually tapped MacCready and Cait to oversee their caravan logistics back to the Capital Wasteland. 

  "And the people of the Commonwealth slept soundly, for the greatest monster was gone." Nick had remarked, touching the brim of his fedora in a half-salute. The old detective quickly appointed himself as head of first impressions in Diamond City, making certain that no trouble befell any wayward synth that accidentally wandered in. There was still a lot of work to be done to repair the Broken Mask incident, after all.

  New settlements sprang up overnight and while there may not have been total harmony, there was the sensation of the whole Commonwealth heaving a sigh of relief. Recruits flocked to the Minutemen and Brotherhood in droves as Piper's Publick Occurrences spread the word of their successful campaign against the Institute. 

  Commonwealth boogeyman decimated by combination effort: Brotherhood Of Steel and Minutemen join forces to save Boston from bodysnatchers!

  Deacon had effortlessly deflected Piper every time she asked for an interview, the mysterious man more than content to keep the Railroad shadowy. The less everyone knew, the less they could tell, and that suited him just fine. "You did real good, Icebox. Helped a lot of people."

  Elder Brandis sought approval to establish a permanent outpost at the Boston airport ruins, the former paladin keen to send the Prydwen back to the Capital Wasteland. "Oh the Prydwen's a fine ship, but put me in the field any day!" The airship, once a proud symbol of the Maxson reign, now served little purpose aside from blocking the sun on occasion. Scribes laughed and played in the massive shadow, kicking up dust until the circle where the litany trial had taken place was nothing but a memory.

  X6-88 had floundered for several weeks, the courser falling into a depressive slump that not even Curie could rouse him from. Oddly enough, it was Preston who ended up being able to haul him out of the darkness, the lieutenant making a point to visit the courser to drag him from his room for target practice and other low-effort patrol duties. "Sometimes all folks need is a hand, General." 

  The courser went on to reluctantly take the role of defective defector, working as a consultant to the Minutemen to help ward off any future attacks by desperate coursers or Institute scientists. Preston found his input invaluable, and the duo could often be found in the lieutenant's quarters poring over threadbare maps and trading tactical information. Preston also seemed to have a calming effect on the synth hunter, helping to blunt some of the cold steel edge that X6 had honed his entire life. Add on to that the constant caring presence of Curie, and they made a strange but surprisingly effective trio. 

  With the new supply line firmly established between the verdant utopia of Starlight Drive-In and Oberland Station, the strain of the prior lean months finally eased a bit. Faces grew less pinched even with the increased burden of the synths, and many settlers began to tentatively plan for a small celebration in the beginning of the winter. 

  "'The Holidays' is what they been callin' it, real simple and succinct. Some freaky hodgepodge of everyone's traditions. I guess a lot of folks on that fancy director's board also celebrated around this time of year. Not that the synths would know, naturally." Hancock had muttered, his expression sour. "Poor bastards always workin', and they ain't got fuckall to show for it. Seems like a shit deal."

  Elder Brandis granted Danse an extended leave of absence after the toppling of the Institute without the paladin even requesting it, the large man dumbfounded for a moment upon receiving the news.

  "If you're up for it, I could use a hand back at Sanctuary." Vega had grinned up at him, her eyes squinting a little under the force of her smile. "A lot of prep work goes into a holiday, after all."

  ...

  Danse had taken it upon himself to retreat from Shaun's previous bedroom when he accompanied Vega and her son back to Sanctuary. He debated heavily on returning to the airport; after all, there was no real reason for him to stay in Sanctuary Hills, at least none that he dared to dwell upon. The few small projects that Vega had to manage were easily accomplished and he was left a bit lost in the wake of the excess of his leave.

  Vega, however, had begun framing in what was once the carpark for her house. Sturges helped of course, and once Danse caught on he was touched by the gesture. 

  "I don't want you to feel like there isn't room for you just because Shaun is back." Elizabeth had said, lugging a chunk of scrap metal from the wreckage of her car. 

  The paladin had to take a moment, claiming sawdust in his eye as the culprit.

  Now Danse lived in the area she had partitioned off for him, uncertain if he still believed he was intruding. Those thoughts were troubling, because if he could get comfortable…

  What if Vega eventually decided that Shaun needed a father and what if...what if she chose a real man? Really real, not a sham like Danse was. And if she did, what man would permit Danse to stay? What real man would permit a synth that was currently entangled by these...human emotions to remain on their property, even if Danse proved he wasn't a threat?

  What man would believe him if he claimed to have no interest in Vega? Hell, Danse didn't even believe himself. 

  But he didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay. He wanted to tell Elizabeth...well, there were a lot of things he wanted to tell her.

  His silence was more of a burden each day, and Danse knew he must seem sullen. It gnawed at him; it felt like lying every time he choked the words back down because it wasn't the right time or he just didn't know what to say, and he didn't trust himself not to say something foolish.

  He decided he would wait until after the holiday gathering. Whatever the verdict was, it shouldn't take away from the joy she was clearly feeling over the festivities. So Danse threw himself into helping Sturges, Mama Murphy and the Longs around Sanctuary.

  Secretly making a toy truck for Shaun had been a painstaking process fraught with peril. Mainly because Danse was somewhat indelicate and carving tiny wheels had never been his area of expertise. Oh certainly, he could build a survival camp with nothing but a combat knife and time, but a toy...

  The paladin had spent countless hours creating prototypes in his cobbled-together room as he pondered the path he should take, sometimes working into the wan light of the morning. He eventually showed the truck to Jun, immensely fearful that Shaun might not enjoy the toy. Danse couldn't recall his own interests when he had been Shaun's age, and thus fell back on the other man's expertise. 

  "It looks good! Sand the wheels a little more, maybe give it a coat or two of paint." Jun praised the pensive paladin, turning the vehicle over in his hands to examine it. "Kyle loved these kinds of things y'know, trucks and trains and little toy boats." His gaze grew distant for a moment, the rough plaything stilling in his grasp. "Marcy thinks she's pregnant." He said abruptly.

  "Pregnant?" Danse repeated without meaning to, his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline.

  Jun nodded jerkily. "It's been three months now. She's scared, Mr. Danse, real scared. Thinks something bad will happen."

  "What can we do?" The paladin asked sharply. 

  Jun gawked up at him, seeming confused. "We?"

  "I am unfamiliar with this process. What needs to be done?"

  "I...I don't follow, Mr. Danse."

  "To simplify the duration! What precautions can I-"

  "Whoa, hang on." Jun protested. "We aren't sure if the general will even let us stay here with an extra mouth to feed. I've been trying to figure out how to bring up the subject." He admitted. 

  "You haven't even told General Vega yet?!" Danse squawked. 

  "W-Well, no! I figured maybe we would...we'd see how the winter went and play it by ear." Jun mumbled, seeming defensive. 

  Danse seized the other man's arm, heedless of his protests as he hauled him across the front lawn to Vega's abode. Today was the day that Vega had planned to sort through decorations; there were many left over from the fall holiday the Commonwealth had been preparing to celebrate before...well, time had stopped for most when the bombs fell, it was understandable that faded pumpkins and skeletons would still grace crumbling walls with their orangey-cream presence.

  Vega looked up from the veritable pile of brittle, salvaged decor in confusion when Danse barged into their...her home, the paladin immediately halting and offering a sharp salute. "Danse! I...uh, what's wrong?"

  "Mr. Long has something he needs to discuss with you immediately." Danse informed her, tugging the other man forward. 

  "I-I...er, General, you…" Jun struggled to speak, twiddling his fingers wildly. "M-Marcy--"

  "What's wrong, Jun? Is she okay?" Vega asked, getting to her feet and shooting Danse a worried look. "Did something happen?"

  "B-Baby." Jun squeaked. "Pregnant."Backhand went still, her freckles stark against the fresh pallor of her face. "I'm sorry, General, I know we haven't discussed it beforehand a-and I know food's been better as of late...I-I guess she got enough nutrients and got healthy enough for...er, well, you know." Mr. Long looked like he wanted to disappear into the ground. "We should have spoke to you sooner; I don't know if she can leave with the weather being--"

  "Wh-Where are you going? Why leave, what?" Vega stammered, "Jun, you can't travel now, if something goes wrong-!"

  "We weren't sure if you'd let us stay!" The thin man interrupted her frantically. "This is your base, after all, and you didn't sign on for an extra person to worry about."

  Vega inhaled deeply. "Danse, could you give me a minute with Mr. Long?" She requested, her voice suspiciously even.

  Danse obeyed, closing the front door gently and meandering a pointed distance down the main thoroughfare so as not to eavesdrop. He had a relatively good idea of how the conversation would go, despite Jun's misgivings. So he wandered down to the huge tree at the end of the cul-de-sac, fiddling with the truck in his pocket absently as he stared upwards at the barren branches. 

  "Y'know kid," Mama Murphy piped up from her customary chair on her porch and the paladin turned to face her, giving the elderly woman his full attention. "When I had the Sight, I saw this place. Sanctuary." She nodded in the direction of the river, then gestured upwards. "The bridge, and this tree. Massive and old, worn out from all those years." She cocked her head, giving Danse an appraising look. "The tree though, it was...covered in lights. Like what you see in the pre-war mags. The Holidays, shinin' like a beacon of hope at the end of the tunnel." 

  Danse hummed, the vaguest beginnings of an idea taking root in his mind. He couldn't bring Vega's old life back, but maybe...maybe he could bring something from it back to her. Like what you see in the pre-war mags.

  "I think you're pickin' up what I'm puttin' down, kid." Mama Murphy's smile was knowing, the old woman reaching over to pet Dogmeat. The dog seemed to materialize out of thin air sometimes! "Now get to it."

  ...

  Backhand was already scurrying around the kitchen when Danse rose on the morning of the Holiday celebration, the paladin pausing only momentarily to yawn in the doorway before sleepily offering his assistance. "Is there something I can help with, Vega?"

  "Uh, Sturges, he said something about you and stuff from Goodneighbor, I think?" Elizabeth replied, obviously preoccupied with whatever she had in the semi-functional oven. Danse nodded, trudging across the kitchen to tug on his boots by the door. 

  Shaun bounded out of the bathroom, his face still damp from his morning wash. "Oh, can I help too? Please Mom, let me help Mister Danse and Mister Sturges!" He begged.

  "You'd better stay right where Danse and Sturges can see you." Backhand instructed him sternly, one oven-mitted hand gesturing to indicate the gravity of the situation. "Otherwise you're coming straight back inside. Go put on your warm coat."

  Shaun cheered in delight, racing back to his room.

  "It's okay that he's with you two, right? I know he's not your responsibility." Backhand continued in an undertone to the paladin.

  Danse's throat tightened and it took him a moment to respond, "I don't mind at all. He's a very well-behaved child." 

  "Let me know if he's an issue and I'll bring him back inside. I just need to get this done and the oven is being all-" 

  Danse stood up and placed his hands on her shoulders, deliberately schooling his expression into something more stern. "General, you're doing a fine job. Stop worrying."

  "Am I? Shit, I really hope so." Elizabeth mumbled, tipping her forehead until it rested against his chest. Danse prayed she couldn't hear his heart, hammering merely from her proximity. God, his body was nothing but an embarrassment waiting to happen. "I've never really done this crap. Not sure if I'm cut out for it."

  The momentary respite was broken when Shaun reappeared in his oversized flannel and oilcloth jacket, the child bolting past the two adults to put on his boots. Danse reluctantly released Backhand, noting how flushed her face was but not really daring to dwell on it. "I'll...I'll watch him." The paladin said, his voice a bit stilted. "I promise."

  "Thank you." Backhand mumbled, wiping her eyes and then returning to coddle…whatever it was in the oven.

  "Ready, Shaun?" Danse asked the boy, who nodded rapidly and extended a hand. 

  The snow outside was still fresh from the night before and Danse took a moment to appreciate the view of the Commonwealth covered in a thin layer of white. Off in the distance, the towering crimson insignia of the Red Rocket gasoline station stood stark against the backdrop of the gray sky. Even further down the road slumbered the empty shell of Concord, the tallest of the town's dilapidated buildings only just visible from the paladin's position. 

  Shaun tugged at his hand, pulling his attention back to the present. "Mister Danse, Mister Sturges is waiting for us!" The child announced, waving up at the engineer who was currently settled into a crook of the brittle branches that graced the tree on the cul-de-sac island. "Hi Mister Sturges!"

  "Howdy fellas! Come to give me a helpin' hand?" Sturges called, grinning down at the two of them. 

  "What assistance can we offer?" Danse queried, wary that the other man might suggest Shaun climb up to him. His fears were quickly allayed when Sturges instead asked Shaun and Danse to begin untangling the long strands of old lights. 

  Hancock and his ilk had arrived from Goodneighbor, bearing the gifts of dubious treats and many, many mangled strings of lights. Goodneighbor had always been drenched in neon, after all, so Danse had assumed the ghoul mayor would be the best person to call upon for aid. It would appear that Hancock had delivered in spectacular fashion.

  "With your help, we'll have this place lookin' pretty as a picture in no time!"

  …

  Maybe she had bitten off slightly more than she could chew, trying to cook a traditional dinner. Backhand sighed, glumly poking at the cold poultry with a wooden spoon. Her cooking skills had never been much to write home about in the first place, and this only served to solidify that fact. 

  "Oh Mum, I'm so sorry. The old oven just isn't how it used to be." Codsworth commented, his mechanical voice tinged with melancholy. 

  "It's not a big deal, Codsworth. I hate to waste the food, that's all." Backhand muttered, assuring herself that she wasn't fighting back frustrated tears, her eyes were just tired. "Damn thing didn't even get to the warm phase."

  "Mum, if I might suggest…?" The robot started hesitantly, carrying on when she nodded. "Perhaps it can be salvaged. After all, we make bread in that same pan by tucking it beneath the hot coals out front. What do you say, shall we give it a go?"

  "Got nothing to lose, right?" 

  "It will be just fine, Mum! You're an adaptive sort." Codsworth remarked, drifting out the front door to stoke the usual cooking fire to life once more. "Indeed, just fine!" He called. 

  Vega shook her head ruefully. "Oh I'm sure." The woman grumbled. "Can't cook and comes with baggage. What a catch ol' Vega is." At least the bread had come out well, in spite of the brisk weather. She could thank whoever for that small favor.

  Once Codsworth had coaxed the embers to life in the fire pit, Elizabeth bundled up and brought the still-cold cast-iron pot outside. Maybe it had been wishful thinking to believe that the oven portion of her stove would still work. Or even heat at all. It had been promising earlier in the week, but this might be a blessing in disguise. If the whole house had gone up due to a cooking malfunction...well, the holidays wouldn't be too happy then, would they?

  "Please cook." She begged under her breath, troweling hot coals onto the battered dutch oven lid. "I need this, y'know? Just a little victory, that's all I'm asking for here." 

  "Shall I get started on the tatoes, Miss Vega?" 

  Elizabeth nodded, only half-listening to Codsworth. She knew she would have a good forty five minutes to an hour to wait, and it wasn't as if it was colder outside than it was inside. The joys of semi-functional heating! 

  Vega shook her head at herself after a second, since when did she dwell on everything that Sanctuary wasn't? At the end of the day, it was her home. She wouldn't trade it for the world, and she knew she had much more than most people.

  At that thought, her gaze wandered to where Danse and Shaun were. The larger man had Shaun on his shoulders while he patiently unwound a massive bundle of flickering string lights. Shaun, for his part, was passing the untangled lights up to Sturges. The engineer slid down the ladder so he could reach the child, looping the lights over his arm before climbing back up and painstakingly placing them in the gnarled grasp of the tree's limbs.

  The manufactured cheer that the lights had given off pre-war was still somewhat there, though the radiant colors were washed out to pastel and the warm whites had gone dingy gray. Instead of it being a melancholy reminder that her life had changed irreparably, Backhand was overcome with gratitude. For her son's safe return, regardless of his synthetic makeup, and for the man who was currently carrying Shaun on his shoulders. For her home, for her family.

  A family. 

  Perhaps she was getting a little ahead of herself. After all, Danse was still adjusting to life in ordinary time. It would be selfish of her to voice her feelings to him while he was coming to terms with everything that had happened. For better or for worse, their lives were different now. 

  It ought to be enough that he was in her life at all. She should be content. His presence alone was a miracle; for all intents and purposes he should be dead. Yet there he was, mere feet away, helping to brighten up the holiday celebration.

  Tonight there would be a multitude of visitors. God only knew how many would arrive from settlements near and far, to say nothing of Goodneighbor, Diamond City, the Prydwen and the Castle! It would be an incredibly busy evening for certain. Hancock had arrived early with a posse of ragtag drifters from Goodneighbor, all of them offering gifts of food or scavenged ornaments to decorate. Hence the massive mound of lights that was currently being diligently sorted through.

  The aforementioned ghoul appeared to have delegated the task of quality checking the lights, as his form currently leaned against the faded blue siding of her house. With cigarette smoke wafting from his mouth and nasal cavity in equal amounts, he seemed content to just watch the chaos unfold. 

  "Aren't you a little chilly?" Backhand queried, raising an eyebrow. The mayor was still clad in his usual garb of...for lack of a better term, repurposed period dress. Granted it wasn't seasonably cold out, at least not like how she remembered it being before the bombs dropped.

  "Nah, we ghouls run pretty warm. Ham's like a portable space heater." Hancock answered, giving her a lazy grin. "Cute of you to worry, though. I must be growin' on ya'."

  "Whoa there, let's not get too crazy."

  "Whatcha' think, General?" Sturges shouted from his perch, waving to get her attention.

  Danse turned in place, appearing to realize that she was watching as his hands flew up and grabbed Shaun's legs, stabilizing the small boy on his shoulders. 

  Backhand couldn't keep from smiling when she called back, "it looks wonderful! Keep up the great work!"

  "That ain't the only thing that looks wonderful, right Sunshine?" Hancock snickered, rolling his eyes at the now-sputtering woman. "You better give the Brave Little Toaster the ride of his life, that's all I gotta' say."

  "Hancock!" Vega hissed, making a half-hearted swipe at the mayor. "You fuckin'--"

  "Ah ah, little pitchers!" Hancock scolded, tilting his head to the side to draw Vega's attention to the rapidly-approaching form of Duncan, MacCready's son. "Gotta' watch that mouth of yours, Sunshine."

  "This ain't over, ya' raisin-lookin' bastard." Backhand snarled under her breath, pasting on a friendly smile for Duncan while Hancock wheezed with laughter. "Hey bud, how's things?" She greeted the child, who grimaced. 

  "Dad's kissin' Miss Cait again. S'gross." The little boy announced, wrinkling his nose in disgust. 

  "That does sound pretty gross." Hancock piped up before Backhand could reply. "But you like seein' your old man happy, right? The lady makes him happy. Simple as that."

  "Yeah, I guess. Can I play with Shaun?" Duncan asked Vega, eyes wide as he seemed to take in the tree covered with lights. 

  "Go ahead, kiddo! Just be careful and stay away from Sturges' ladder." Elizabeth warned, grinning when the little boy took off with a whoop. 

  Cait and MacCready strode up after a moment, both of them red-faced. MacCready bent double, his hands on his knees. "I'm not built for these bullsh--awful conditions." He panted. "I don't know how the kid does it. He was nearly dead a few months ago and now he's out here kicking the snow in the a--er, butt."

  Backhand glanced around, and then snorted. "You call this snow? It's a dusting. Back before-"

  "Ah ah, easy now Mumsicle, we ain't got time for yer trip down memory lane." Cait teased. "Work to be done, aye? C'mon then, General, shape up. What you doin' on the ground anyway, all crouched like a mother hen broodin'?"

  "I'm cooking." Vega replied tersely. 

  "Oh aye? Looks like yer shirkin' t' me, love. Codsy can manage that mess, c'mon." Cait seized her elbow, levering her up out of the snowy grass. "Now, what needs doin'?"

  ...

  The day was a whirlwind of arrivals, preparations and well wishers. Elder Brandis even stopped by briefly, taking precious time away from his all-consuming duties to distribute some useful supplies and catch up on the gossip. 

  The Diamond City trio graced Sanctuary with their presence shortly before noon, Nat scurrying off to play with Duncan and Shaun while Piper made a beeline for Hancock's merry band. Nick was more keen to meander around the outskirts of the groups forming, amber eyes taking in his surroundings.

  Preston appeared midafternoon with X6, Curie and the entire O'Brian clan in tow, later than expected but apparently they had stopped to help out a settlement along the way. 

  The cul-de-sac soon rang with the laughter of the rambunctious children; even little Siusan was permitted to briefly toddle about in the trampled snow under the watchful gaze of Eamon. The weather was chilly but the sun had broken through the clouds throughout the day, sending momentary waves of brilliance across the Commonwealth. 

  Every table and chair that could be salvaged had been assembled on the old foundation at the end of the cul-de-sac, and it was there that the adults began to gather as the sun set. Metal drums loaded with wood were lit, providing heat and illumination to the many guests of the Commonwealth's first official potluck dinner. 

  "Or rather," Piper amended, clearing her throat with a touch of self-importance as she tapped her notepad, "the first documented official potluck dinner."

  The large tree twinkled and shone in the fast-approaching darkness, the occasional flicker or broken bulb doing little to diminish the cheer it provided. The food was distributed, Backhand's roast chicken disappearing without a hitch. The young woman couldn't help doing a mental dance of victory, delighted that Codsworth's quick thinking had saved that particular endeavor.

  Vega found a place to sit somewhere in the middle of one of the many long tables, red from the praise of her companions and the persistent chill in the air. She got even redder when Preston loudly proclaimed a toast, to the General!, her lieutenant tipping his bottle and everyone else following suit. 

  "I remember when I first met the general, she was half-dead on her feet." Preston began the story, his smile fond. "Sturges couldn't even believe our luck. Hell, none of us could. When freedom called, our general answered!"

  Backhand, who had lived the story and knew all the ins and outs, found her attention wandering to Danse while Preston regaled the crowd with his tale. The paladin seemed to be listening closely, his meal forgotten. Deacon even began to thieve bits of chicken and tato out from beneath his nose, the Railroad agent shooting Vega a sly wink over his sunglasses. 

  Backhand shook her head at the other man's antics, then focused her attention on Preston. "...'Lurk queen, a huge, mean seabug, taken out by landmines! The Castle was ours once again, and we all had General Vega to thank for it." The lieutenant stated firmly. "The one who can get things done in the Commonwealth, the one who gave folks hope when it was in mighty short supply. We uh, we owe you a lot, ma'am." He raised his bottle once more. "To General Vega, leader of the Minutemen!"

  "To Elizabeth!" Hancock yelled, echoed by half the damn populace as Vega tried to wave it off, the young woman laughing awkwardly. "To our Sunshine, the hero of the Commonwealth!" 

  "Synth savior, a regular knight in shining armor." Deacon teased.

  "Well done, General Vega." Danse said warmly, "I can't know for certain whether the Brotherhood itself would be proud, but I certainly am." His praise for whatever reason made Vega's blush feel like it would scorch her skin. 

  Oh she knew damn well why, she was just being willfully oblivious at this point.

  "Speech! Speech! Is that not zee norm for zis sort of occasion?" Curie called, the diminutive synth currently sharing X6-88's coat as well as his plate of food. X6 didn't seem to have any reservations about the matter, his arm slung around her shoulders without a care in the world.

  Much to Vega's chagrin, the majority appeared to be in favor of such a vocal endeavor. She attempted to laugh off the suggestion to no avail, and finally got to her feet. "Alright, alright, settle down. I'll say a few words if it'll get you all off my damn back." She grumbled, her body thoroughly warm now with a combination of embarrassment and gratitude. "I uh…" 

  Vega trailed off as she looked out over the ragtag gang of expectant faces staring back at her. So many friends and neighbors, finally getting the chance to breathe. The chance to celebrate the fruits of their labor...it was sobering.

  "I can't thank you all enough for...well, for everything that you've done. You all sacrificed so much for this peace, stuff I could never imagine doing even before the bombs dropped." She cleared her throat. "My mentor, Sergeant Shaun Cathan, was a great man, and he often had some very succinct or choice words which I'm not about to repeat in polite company."

  "Aw c'mon-!" Zeke began to protest loudly, his voice fading as he noticed the small gaggle of children still gawking at his power armor.

  Backhand continued, her jaw set firmly, "but one thing I can say that he told me is this: a leader who permits their pride to impede their decisions is doomed to failure. Pride built the Institute, and that same pride rotted it to the core. Pride built the Brotherhood of Steel, the Minutemen, and we've seen the both of them nearly toppled." Vega clenched her fist. "Pride brought nuclear fire down on Boston, but people hauled themselves outta' the ashes of that fire. Good people, tough people. Folks I knew. Folks I cared for, even if some of 'em did spend a little too much time on the Cape. If pride can do so much effin' harm, I expect simple compassion and decency to do just as much good. Hell, more than that. Humanity's built itself back up after the cluster that was armageddon, and we ain't through yet." 

  She tipped the jar she had been drinking out of towards the crowd, sternly studying the collection of scavengers, families both new and familiar.

  ...

  "So here's to you, my friends. To all that you've done, and to all that you will do." 

  Vega's salute was rigid, pre-war. Like her helmet on the table beside her, scraped and covered in faded sigils. The mixture of candlelight and the lights on the tree reflected off the worn lenses of her glasses, shielding her eyes from view. Danse wished desperately that he could see her eyes; more than anything he wished to stand up and flat-out state what she had done for him to every soul there, display his...admiration. 

  Was that even the right word? Admiration, adoration, affection--

  His face was strangely warm all of a sudden. Danse flinched, staring down at his mug of coffee with single-minded intent as the buzz of conversation around him picked back up. His mind raced, pieces falling into place in a nigh-unstoppable rush.

  Affection. Like...what he had felt for Cutler? Almost. A little to the left of that. Brighter. 

  Happier. 

  Not perfect, nothing could ever be perfect. But...

  "Elizabeth Vega?" A male ghoul's voice barely penetrated the paladin's consciousness, his words not really registering until, "Beth, it really is you!" The ghoul exclaimed. "I thought I was crazy! It's me, Beth. It's Nate."

  "...Nate?" 

  Danse's head whipped up so fast his neck popped in warning, the paladin having been only tangentially aware of the conversation happening mere feet away from his position. But at that particular nickname his entire being snapped to attention, eyes darting sidelong from where he had been intently studying his mug of coffee. 

  The ghoul man that Vega was currently speaking to was an inch or two taller than her, with a single tuft of dark hair that still remained over his left ear. He appeared absolutely delighted, but Vega seemed...wary.

  "Beth," Danse heard him say once more, and he watched Backhand visibly tense. "I never thought I would see you again! After the bombs dropped--I mean how the hell did...is that Shaun? God, he got so big!"

  "Nate, is there something I can do for you?"

  Nate. 

  Danse's breath caught in his throat and his mouth went dry. Nate? Nate her ex-husband from before the war? Nate, the man who had divorced her once he found out she was pregnant with his child? 

  Somehow he had managed to survive? 

  Oh, what an incredibly bitter thing to think! Danse was somewhat startled by his own dark path of reasoning. But it wasn't untrue; his mind railed at the unfairness of it all. 

  The paladin stood up, his mug of coffee forgotten. He wasn't exactly certain what he was about to do, but he also wasn't going to do nothing. He cast around wildly for a plan as he approached Elizabeth from behind around the table, and Danse latched onto what was probably the least intelligent course of action that he could have conjured up.

  "Elizabeth," the paladin called, loud enough to be heard over the general hubbub. She turned and Danse briefly spied a look of intense relief on her face before he enveloped her in his arms. "You appeared cold, figured I could warm you up a bit." He reasoned aloud, smiling benignly over her head at Nate. "Who's this?"

  Vega began to introduce him even with her face still comically buried in Danse's chest, "Nate, I'd like you to meet-"

  "Paladin Logan Danse, Northeastern chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel." Danse interrupted her smoothly, extending a hand to Nate. "I've heard a great deal about you, Nate. It's a privilege to meet you, and a welcome surprise to see that you endured the radiation."

  "Uh, is it? Well I-I guess it is." Nate looked flummoxed and crestfallen all at once, glumly shaking Danse's hand. "I suppose you two are, er..."

  "Vega is my partner, yes. For over a year now." Danse replied once the other man had trailed off, his tone saccharine-sweet. He heard Vega gasp against his chest. "She is a truly incredible woman. I'm immensely lucky."

  "Yeah, I...yeah. Uh, I have to go...talk to--I'll see you later, Beth." Nate squeaked, sidestepping away from the two of them and making a beeline for the road.

  "I can't even believe it." Backhand's voice grated with tangible irritation. "I cannot even fuckin' fathom--I...dammit, why him?!" She seethed into Danse's jacket, clenching her fists on his hips. "Phew, boy, I sort of thought I'd already dealt with all that resentment." The woman admitted unhappily.

  "You do things in your own time." Danse replied quietly. "Are you alright?"

  Vega went still for a second. Danse felt her unclench her fists, hands going slack on his body. Had he misspoken-?

  "In my own time, huh?" Vega muttered, almost like she was thinking out loud. "I...I'll be back in a little while, Danse."

  …

  I'm not panicking. Definitely not panicking. One hundred percent not panicking, totally fine.

  Backhand scurried away from the paladin, trying to hide the tell-tale redness of her face. She needed to find either Mrs. O'Brian or MacCready, fast. 

  As luck would have it, MacCready found her. The former merc tapped on her shoulder as she bounced up on her tiptoes to search for Mrs. O'Brian. "Hey boss, Shaun wanted me to ask you if he could sleep over with Duncan tonight." The man began after she whirled around to face him.

  "Yes." Vega replied, perhaps a little too quick and definitely too enthusiastic. "Mac you're a lifesaver, I was just about to ask-"

  "-for me and Cait to watch your kid so you and the tin can can get some alone time?" MacCready smirked, giving her a wink. "Dang General, I don't think I've ever seen you so red! Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

  "Shut up, Mac, you're so exasperating." Backhand jabbed a teasing finger into the center of his chest. "You talk, Mayor, and I'll know." The threat was toothless; the both of them grinned at each other after their fierce staring contest. "Thanks for everything."

  "Don't mention it. I figure getting you some Brotherhood...uh, Steel, heh, is a pretty decent way to make up for the fact that I didn't bring you a present." Mac shrugged, fiddling with the bill of his hat. "I have beef with the Capital Brotherhood, but these guys...I mean, they don't seem all bad." He allowed grudgingly, giving Vega a gentle nudge with his shoulder. "Go on."

  A bracing shot of whiskey shored up her tenuous spark of confidence and Vega marched back to Danse, the large man now engaged in conversation with X6 while Shaun, Duncan, Bridget, Nat and Matthew swirled around their ankles. 

  Danse was saying, "--collateral ramifications would be inadvisable, I suggest a soft breach. With adequate preparation-" 

  "Adequate preparation on your part borders on over-caution." X6 interrupted him dismissively. "However, I will take it into account and speak with Preston on the matter. He seems to share your morality. A pity."

  "Play at the unfeeling machine all you want, X6." Danse retorted. "It does you no favors. You have people who care about you now, and you would not have asked for my input if you believed the endeavour would be futile."

  "True enough, Paladin." The vaguest hint of a smile tugged at X6's mouth. "You are capable."

  "I suppose that is the best that I can hope for."

  "Hey, Danse? Can I uh, have a little chat?" Backhand asked, stifling a hysterical giggle when Danse immediately looked guilty. The paladin nodded, bidding X6 farewell and attempting to sidestep around the children who were currently playing tag in an ever-tightening circle. "Not um, here though. Let's go to my house, okay? Shaun, you're all set to stay overnight with Duncan, Mac and Cait, right?"

  "Yeah!" Shaun replied breathlessly, pausing in his chase to give his mother a massive grin. "Already brought my blankets over and everything. Mister MacCready said Duncan and I could sleep in their wagon, and that he'd tell us Grognak stories!"

  Danse's brow furrowed. "We are leaving the gathering, then?" He asked, looking a bit distressed when Elizabeth nodded. "A moment, please." He turned back to the children, calling for Shaun. 

  The boy bolted away from the group, skidding in the muddy slush. "Yeah, Mister Danse?" He asked, his impatience plain.

  "I, er. I...happy holidays." The paladin mumbled, extracting a small bundle from his jacket pocket and giving it to the child. 

  "Whoa, for me?!" Shaun practically crowed, tearing through the old newspaper to reveal the gift.

  It was a sturdy carved vehicle, its edges sleek and smooth. The wood was coated in shiny green paint, giving the little truck a distinct air of newness in this post-apocalyptic world. Danse swallowed audibly as Shaun stared down at the toy without saying a word. 

  Backhand closed her eyes, hoping and praying that the kid remembered his manners. She hadn't even known Danse had planned on giving him something. Did he make the truck himself? It was wood, not the usual plastic or aluminum of pre-war children's toys. When had he found the time to make a toy? She suddenly remembered his uncharacteristically wide yawn that morning and her eyes flew open, darting to look at Danse. He had been staying up, hadn't he?

  "I love it, Mister Danse!" Shaun interrupted her mental panic with his enthusiastic eruption, smiling wide and bolting forward to hug Danse around the waist. Danse's own relief was evident, the large man patting the child on the back with an awkward chuckle.

  Oh Jesus, I'm not going to cry, Vega insisted, taking a deep breath. Nope, won't do it.

  "Mom look, look what Mister Danse gave me!" Shaun exclaimed, as if she hadn't been standing right there the whole time. 

  "It's really cool, right?" Backhand grinned, rumpling his hair and then giving him a kiss on the forehead. "Make sure you wash your face and brush your teeth before bed, okay? I hope you and Duncan have fun. I love you." 

  "I love you too, Mom, I will. Thank you again, Mister Danse!" Shaun rushed to say, clearly eager to return to his friends. 

  "Alright, go on." Vega tapped the end of his nose, "go have fun." She watched him scramble through the slush, nearly tripping again. "Jesus, he's a bull in a china shop," she sighed, making Danse snort. "Shall we, Paladin?"

  He fell into step beside her, his hands tucked into the pockets of his jacket and his back ramrod straight. He was silent until they were actually in Elizabeth's living room, the young woman barely able to shut the front door before he started babbling, "if I offended you earlier, if I-I overstepped my bounds, I apologize. I just recalled what you had said about the name he used for you and I'm afraid I started moving before I could reconsider-"

  "Danse, do you remember how we started all of this?" Vega cut off what promised to be a downright incredible justification, cocking her head to the side. "How we met, and what happened?"

  "You came to our aid at the Cambridge police station. Then you carried on assisting me with our mission. You helped acquire the deep range transmitter. You greased my armor." Danse paused, fidgeting. "You...said it was alright if I wanted to kiss you."

  “It’s alright if you want to kiss me, you know.” Her smile was gentle. “I wouldn’t mind.”

  Vega nodded, smiling once more. "The offer still stands, naturally."

  "I...things are different now. I'm different. You still...even now, after everything that you know about me?"

  "Of course."

  "I didn't want to believe you felt that strongly about our...about us." Danse was smiling, actually smiling! "I'd given up hope a long time ago that I would ever be enough for anyone. I was never...enough. Smart enough, or strong enough or...well, just enough, I suppose." He shrugged, his smile fading. "With what happened between Maxson and I, and previously with Cutler…" The large man trailed off.

  Vega took a deep breath, nodding furiously. "I do feel strongly for you. Danse, I know that this is a lot, b-but I...uh, I think I love you." She gestured up and down at the speechless paladin, feeling the heat that bloomed fresh on her cheeks. "Not just the wrapping, y'know, but uh. The whole package. You."

  His look of shock and confusion slowly dissolved into something unreadable, and he broke eye contact for a moment to stare down at his boots. 

  "Uh, it's okay if you don't reciprocate! O-Or even if you can't reciprocate, I'm not going to be offended!" Elizabeth rushed to add, waving her hands nervously. "I know that this is a lot to dump on you all at once, I-I'm sorry. I don't want you feeling pressured to give me an affirmative answer just because you don't want to hurt my feelings or whatever."

  "I...I can't say that I haven't thought about it." He admitted softly. "But Shaun, he needs--Vega, I'm not really human." 

  "Neither is Shaun, but I don't love him any less." Elizabeth replied. "Shaun is my son. For all intents and purposes, he is my real son, Danse."

  "It's one thing to overlook it for a child, Vega. But I'm...what if something goes wrong with me? What if there's some sort of fault in my programming, and that's why I'm like this? What if-"

  "It's alright if you don't want me, or even if this is too much right now. I know, it's a lot." Vega interrupted him, her heart sinking but determined to make damn sure he didn't feel pressured.

  "Christ, that's not what I meant. I just want to make certain you know exactly what it is that you're agreeing to." Danse cut her off, his shoulders rigid like he was bracing for impact. 

  "I understand, Danse. I've understood for a while now." Elizabeth dared to rest her hand on his arm. "I want to be with you. I know that nothing in this shitshow of a future is guaranteed and I want to have something good in my life before my inevitable demise at the hands of some overconfident mole rat."

  Danse nodded stiffly, and then grabbed her by the lapels of her canvas coat. Vega found herself abruptly pinned against the wall, Danse's mouth hungrily seeking her own. "You mean that?" He panted.

  The brush of the stubble on his face reminded her of their first kiss in the Cambridge station and drove home the differences between he and Nate for the hundredth time. Nate was always clean-shaven, favored pecks on the cheek and lived saturated with cologne. But Danse was grizzled, earnest, reeking of the outdoors and power armor grease. Nate had been eloquent, while Danse was taciturn or tripped over his words. Nate was cold and calculating, and Danse…

  Danse was fiery and raw, more vulnerable now than she could ever recall him being before. His knee nudged against her thigh and without conscious input, Elizabeth parted her legs for it and threw her arms around his neck to try to urge him even closer. "Yes, Danse," she gasped. "Oh, Jesus, yes, fuck-ing shit--"

  She ground herself down against his leg, relieved that everything seemed to be functioning normally and somewhat impressed by her body's ability to mount such a rapid response after a two hundred-plus year dry spell! 

  "Language," Danse rumbled in reply, his hands tugging her heavy coat off of her shoulders. "Too fast?"

  "No, hell no!" Backhand protested, "not fast enough."

  "Shh," Danse rested his hands on her hips, shoving up her shirt slightly so he could touch bare skin. "I have you, Vega." Vega pushed herself excitedly into his grip, grinding on his thigh and arching her back. The way his breath hitched sent shockwaves to her core; the way he watched her...

  "Danse we should...we should-" Vega's voice wavered as Danse laved her throat with tender kisses. "-should--bedroom, bed."

  "Yes." The paladin growled, making no move to actually follow the direction. That is, until he hoisted her up to rest on his hips. 

  Backhand yelped, her thighs gripping his sides tightly. "H-Hey!"

  Danse pressed his forehead to her own, brown eyes attempting to read her soul. "Elizabeth…" he sighed, his expression gone hopelessly soft. "I should warn you, if we...if you do this, I...listen, I can be a little--a little wordy, sometimes. If I am speaking too much-"

  "Hey, no, you talk as much as you'd like, okay? Doesn't bug me at all." Vega assured him, slightly curious about what this might mean. Wordy? 

  "Elizabeth, you are everything that I never knew I was looking for." Danse murmured. "When I lost Cutler, I didn't think I deserved to be happy again. I assumed that my failure would continue to darken any future triumph, and when the majority of Gladius was...I feared that I was unfit for my rank. How could anyone have faith in my skills after such a catastrophic loss of life?"

  "It's hard being the one making the choices. You have to be able to bear the burden of responsibility and also the burden of guilt." Vega reasoned, sympathizing with his plight.

  "You had faith in me, though. You didn't even know me, but you didn't judge me for my inadequacy and you allowed me some damn peace. I'm just sorry you had to go through that abuse at Maxson's whim for my sake." Danse cupped her hand in his own, pressing kisses to her scarred knuckles. "You've already done so much for me, Vega. Let me undo you?" He offered seriously, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

  "Well, I uh, I-I can't say I've ever been propositioned quite like that!" Backhand stuttered, certain that her flush covered her entire body at this point. 

  His laughter, heard so rarely, washed over her like a tidal wave. "Forgive me."

  "Only if you keep asking me to have sex like that." Vega shifted her hand in his grip, intertwining their fingers. "C'mon, bedroom."

  "It's not just that." Danse tried to protest, shaking his head. "I care about you. About your wellbeing. I want to make you happy."

  "You do. So happy. I'm so glad that you're here with me still." Vega turned in the doorway of her room when he set her down, seizing Danse by the collar of his worn t-shirt and tugging him into her arms. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, Danse."

  "You don't know how much it means to me to hear you say that." 

  "It's the truth, though!" She insisted.

  Danse surged forward, his kisses still rough and demanding as he fought to claim her affection. But she gave it freely, all he could ever want and more.

  He stripped her of her shirt and dragged his own off over his head, chuckling at the way she greedily drank in the bare skin he presented. "See something you like, General?" 

  He was hairier than she was used to, but Backhand decided it suited him. Nate, after all, had been absolutely adamant that body hair was grotesque, and now look at him. He'd likely never have to worry about that again.

  Thinking of Nate yet again put a frown on her face and Danse paused, giving her a quizzical look. "Is something amiss?"

  "Oh! No, I'm sorry. I was just remembering. Nate was all…" Elizabeth gestured vaguely at Danse's chest. "He shaved everything. I'm not used to all...well, seeing so much."

  "Is it off-putting? I assure you it's within the Brotherhood's hygiene guidelines, but if you don't like it I-"

  "No, I love it. It's new. I've seen your arms, after all, I knew what I was getting into." Vega teased, grinning to ease his worry. "If you can accept all my stretch marks and leftovers, I can definitely handle your chest pelt."

  "I'm planning on doing far more than accepting." Danse cradled her breasts in his palms, the paladin lowering his head to draw his tongue over one of her nipples. "I don't care." He soothed when Elizabeth tried to stammer out something else in regard to her stretch marks. "I don't care. It doesn't make you any less desirable to me, Elizabeth."

  Vega squeezed her eyes shut, kissing his forehead as he continued to cautiously rouse her peaks until they were stiff and aching for more. Then his thumbs took over, stroking in slow, firm circles that made her quiver from head to toe. "You...you're really good at that." Elizabeth said faintly.

  "I'm pleased you think so." Danse grunted when her fingers found his belt buckle. "It has been a significant amount of time for me as well, I...my excitement may be a bit obvious." He admitted, his smile sheepish. 

  Vega's breath caught in her throat, her hands trembling as she struggled to draw down the worn zipper of his jeans. The underside of his cock throbbed against her palm when she dared to slip her hand into his briefs, his skin searing and smooth. 

  Danse huffed out a breath, crumpling a little at her tentative touch. "Elizabeth," he groaned, hiding his face in her neck as he rolled his hips eagerly into her hand. 

  "Keep saying my name like that." She ordered, laughing when the paladin nodded rapidly into her shoulder. "I love you, Danse."

  ...

  Danse rumbled again, words failing him while Elizabeth's fingers wrapped around his cock. This seemed like a dream, another one of his fantasies brought into being. He couldn't seem to do anything aside from stare down at her hand. 

  "Hey, Danse?"

  He jerked to attention, eyes flying up to meet her own guiltily. "Y-Yes, Vega?" He stuttered.

  "Do you...uh, y'know." Backhand fumbled to undo the button on her jeans. "You can, if you'd like." She finished awkwardly.

  No sooner had she given him permission than Danse was pulling her hand out of his pants, urging her backwards onto her bed even as he kissed her battered knuckles again. "Yes." He grated out, kneeling to untie her boots so he could get her pants off. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes."

  "A for enthusiasm, big guy." Elizabeth teased, lazily fingercombing his short hair back. Her veneer of composure was shattered when the paladin eased her underwear down her legs, the young woman covering her face as if she was embarrassed. "Listen, just uh, go easy on me. It's been over two hundred years, after all." She reasoned weakly.

  Danse swallowed hard. Cutler had always praised his dirty talk, the calculated way he could take apart a person with his words and touch alone. Maxson hadn't appreciated his speech, granted, but perhaps…

  "You're saying you don't want me to bury my fingers in you, Elizabeth? You don't want me to open you up, work my way into that beautiful, flushed little cunt of yours?" Danse rasped, two fingers tracing lightly on her pubic mound. Her cesarean scar was faintly visible, and he felt a brief flare of concern before recalling that was indeed where the scar was from.

  "Oh, Jesus. Okay." Vega gasped, blue eyes wide in what Danse could only assume was shock. "Keep that up and you won't have to worry about using anything else. Fuck, Danse, have some pity here." She pleaded, burying her hands in her hair. 

  "Language. Do you deserve my pity? How would you earn it?" The paladin queried, the heel of his hand applying steady pressure to her mound now. 

  "I can be good, Paladin! I can be really good. So good." Her breathless use of his title had Danse's cock pounding, though he tried not to make it obvious. "Please Danse, please touch me…"

  Danse climbed up onto the bed alongside her, gently parting her labia with his fingers. "You'll be good for me, Elizabeth?" He asked, propping himself up with an elbow.

  "Yes, please."

  She had wonderful manners. Danse grazed her clit and her breath stuttered, the paladin spreading the liberal lubrication that she had already created with deft, slow strokes of his index. "Please, what?"

  "P-Please...Danse."

  He cautiously eased one finger into her, exhaling raggedly when her hand sought out his cock. "Vega-"

  "Shh, let me." Elizabeth hushed him, her smile a little dreamy as Danse crooked his finger and rubbed in just the right spot. "Oh, f-uck, Paladin, you--"

  "Language, Vega. Can't have you being a bad example while I'm knuckle deep in your cunt." Danse admonished, groaning when she whimpered. "You're so tight, this could take ages. We'll need to come up with some stretches to cope with this." He teased gruffly, sliding in another finger and spreading her open. "Mm, Elizabeth, you need to relax. Relax." He murmured, latching onto her breast.

  He felt her pussy clench down around his fingers and he took a greedy suckle from her breast, making Vega cry out his name, "Danse!" She twitched and writhed under his deft attack, her thighs quivering even as she tried to spread them wider for him. Her hand fell still on his cock, not that Danse minded. It had always been more about his partner, he couldn't care less if nothing was done for him. Watching someone else fall apart because of him...now that was its own reward.

  "What do I need to do to get you there, hmm?" Danse taunted playfully, tonguing sloppily over the peak of her breast. "What will it take, Elizabeth?"

  She arched her back in response, pressing her breast firmly against his mouth, and Danse gently nibbled on the sensitive area she had offered up. Elizabeth sobbed out, shoving one hand down to her cunt to spread herself even wider for his plundering fingers. "More, Danse! Please please please-" she begged, her moan when he pressed a third finger into her absolutely enough to have Danse hurrying to talk himself down. "Yes, Danse." She was practically growling, her arousal something primal and untamed. 

  If Danse had his way, it would stay like that forever. 

  "What is it that you want, Vega?" His inquiry was almost lazy, three fingers stroking in and out with much less resistance now. "Hmm, I wonder if you're wet enough to take me."

  "You can't just-" Vega made a noise of dismay. "That's not fair, Danse, that's not fair, you know it's not. Please, please fuck me." 

  Jesus. Danse almost choked on his own breath, letting his fingers slip out of her cunt. "How do you want me?" His voice broke noticeably. It felt like a lifetime since he had been desired, wanted in such a blatant and strangely pure fashion. She loved him. She wanted him inside her. Wanted him to make love to her. Wanted him.

  The speed at which she flung herself up a little higher on the bed made Danse want to laugh, but then she was arching her back and looking over her shoulder at him and he suddenly forgot how to breathe for a moment. "This okay?" She panted, brown hair all tumbled around her face as she took off her glasses and pitched them in the general direction of her bedside table.

  Danse nodded hurriedly, kicking his pants off. "If you need me to stop, just grab my hand." He instructed.

  "This isn't exactly my first time getting fucked, Danse-"

  "Language," the paladin reprimanded her with a chuckle, greedily fondling her rear as he mounted up behind her. "You have such a beautiful form, Vega." He murmured, leaning over to press a kiss between her shoulder blades. "An absolute vision."

  "I do have nice tits." 

  Danse rolled his eyes, slipping his hands down to grope said breasts. She gasped out, rocking back against him as he agreed, "yes you do, that can't be denied. Soft, the perfect size, they fit in my hands so well, and so sensitive." He found himself laughing when she whimpered again. "Don't offer up all your weak spots unless you want them taken advantage of, Vega."

  "The only thing I want to take advantage of right now is the raging hard-on I can feel." Elizabeth wriggled and Danse grunted, shuddering. "Pl-ease Danse, please put it in me."

  The paladin slipped his cock between her labia, the hot, slick flesh pressing against him mercilessly as he teased her. He suddenly felt her fingers on his cock and then-

  "Fuck." The paladin grated out the uncharacteristic curse through his teeth, his fists meeting the bedding on either side of her body as he fought the urge to thrust himself home in one breath.

  Elizabeth half-collapsed while he slowly, slowly rutted into her, the woman panting and clawing at the blankets. "Mmmgod, Danse-" she slurred, sighing loudly. "So good, fuck, Danse…"

  Danse toyed with her nipples, stupidly snarling "language," as she keened in reply. "I'll take care of you, Elizabeth. Be good for me." He pressed a kiss to her temple, smirking at the way her body quaked when he finally bottomed out in her. "That's it, look at you, taking all of me so well," he praised. "Now, how can I make you come?"

  "Fu--Please use your big cock to get me off, oh please Danse!" She begged and Danse fondled her breasts yet again.

  "You don't want me to touch you here, just like this?" He asked, stroking over her nipples and lingering to tease the area. "They're so hard, though, begging for my attention."

  Backhand made a noise of despair, burying her face in her pillow. 

  "I think you need me to play with them, don't you? You like when I touch them like this." Danse muttered, thinking out loud and coming to that realization even as the words left his mouth. "What is it about it that you like?"

  "S-Sensitive." Vega whimpered, "feels good."

  Danse rumbled again, bending over to press his chest to her back so he could whisper in her ear, "does it feel good when I'm inside you, Elizabeth? Can you feel how hard I am for you? Feel how badly I need you?" 

  Elizabeth gifted him this pitiful sound, canting her hips and clenching down around his cock so tightly it took Danse's breath away. "Yes, I love it. I need you too, Danse." She murmured, shifting back and forth ever so slightly.

  "Good. I'm glad." Danse took hold of her hips, seating his cock as deeply as he could in her cunt. Elizabeth whined, burying her face in her pillow again as he slowly began to make love to her. 

  Paladin Logan Danse, pride of the Brotherhood of Steel, had never been a man who took sex lightly. It was too important. Even after everything that had happened with Maxson, Danse still held to that belief. The display of vulnerability, the offer of power in exchange for pleasurable release, the brief moments of tenderness in an existence that was soul-crushingly difficult…

  It was serious. It always was. 

  Vega's arms gave out and she slumped onto the bed, but Danse followed her down. Covering her with his body, the paladin thrust into her again and again, her soft whimpers and cries of his name music to his ears. "What do you need, sweetheart?" He asked raggedly when she began to squirm and arch back against him. "What can I give you, Elizabeth?"

  "Fuck me, Danse!" She pleaded, turning her head to the side so she could see him. 

  "Language," Danse smiled, kissing her temple again. "But understood, ma'am."

  …

  For the first time since she'd awoken to an irradiated hellscape, Vega was wholly content to just lay down and be taken care of. 

  Danse was huge, proportionate to his already overgrown size, and he made the most incredible sounds when she inadvertently squeezed down on him. Groans burring in his chest like some untamed animal; he seemed content to just slowly fuck her into oblivion. Which was honestly more than she thought she would ever get. 

  Her fantasies, much as she'd believed they were wrong or silly at the time, didn't hold a candle to the reality of having Danse on top of her. She had gotten off more than once to this exact idea, being dominated and pinned by the massive paladin. This was a dream come true.

  Elizabeth whined when he bottomed out in her again and just rutted himself back and forth slightly, making her feel every inch of his cock. The underside of his dick throbbed against the spot that made her see stars and then, the bastard, he slid his cock out of her cunt to press the head to her clit for a second. "Turn over for me?" He requested, punctuated by a gentle smack to her ass.

  Vega rushed to obey, eager to have him back inside her as quickly as possible. The woman spread her legs wide so Danse could settle in between them and when the paladin did, he shifted upwards to kiss her tenderly. 

  "I've wanted this for so long." He admitted quietly.

  "So have I!" Elizabeth replied in delight, her grin beaming. She was sure she looked like a mess, her hair stuck to her forehead with sweat and her face all flushed. But the way Danse was smiling at her…

  She found she didn't really care about her appearance at this point in time.

  "I love you." Danse murmured as he slid back inside her. 

  "I l-love you, Danse." Vega stuttered, the natural curvature of his cock applying steady pressure to her g-spot. "Make me feel so good, fuck."

  "Language." He growled, making her laugh and then moan. 

  "Feels too good, brain can't cope." She gasped, wrapping her arms around his neck and tugging him closer until all he could do was grind down into her in a merciless manner. The motion flung her towards her peak, disconnecting her mouth even further from her brain and making her ramble into his ear, "God, I love you so much, make me feel so good--"

  "I love you too, Elizabeth." He panted into the hollow of her throat, "you feel incredible. Outstanding."

  Elizabeth wasn't sure how she could feel both so aroused she thought she might die and so annoyed that she wanted to explode. "Danse, did you just call my pussy outstanding?"

  "It's not an incorrect statement, from my perspective. It's perfect. Wet and tight and hot." The paladin praised her freely, a hand lowering to apply gentle pressure over the scar on her lower stomach. "Beautiful."

  I am not going to cry, Vega told herself sternly as she hid her face in Danse's neck. Definitely not going to cry, not going to.

  A sob somehow escaped her as she came and Danse froze, his whole body flinching when her cunt clenched down on his dick. "V...Vega?" He asked tentatively.

  "I'm fine! I'm fine, I promise, m'not hurt or anything. My brain is just dumb." Elizabeth hiccupped, rubbing her eyes. "I'm okay, Danse, I'm fine."

  The paladin seemed uncertain and she couldn't blame him, she didn't seem fine even if she felt a thousand times better than she had in literal months. 

  "I swear I'm okay, that was just...it was really intense, y'know?" She mumbled awkwardly, unable to make eye contact anymore. 

  She felt Danse shift his weight and then he settled down on top of her, holding her close and tight. "You're sure?" He murmured, "if you're overwhelmed, that's entirely acceptable. I'm not hurting you, am I?"

  "No, shit no, you feel incredible. I'm not going to be able to walk after this." Vega huffed, giggling a little when he rolled his eyes. "Keep going, okay? It feels fantastic."

  "If you're certain." Danse acquiesced, kissing a hot trail down her neck when she nodded. "Let me know if you need me to stop." 

  Watching his forearms cord with muscle as he propped himself back up again, Vega's mouth went dry. "I have to say, this might be the best night of my life." 

  Danse pressed a sweet kiss to her forehead, the tenderness of the action a wonderful contrast to the needy way he sheathed his cock in her body once more. "I've thought about this." He confessed again, punctuated by a roll of his hips. "What you'd sound like, look like beneath me. You put my imagination to shame." 

  "What did I do in your dreams?" Backhand asked, unable to keep from breathlessly laughing when Danse hid his face in her neck. "So shy, Paladin! Even with that huge cock in me?"

  "It's lewd, Elizabeth, I-I'm not proud of it." He mumbled. "Shouldn't have thought of you that way." He spread her legs wider, one hand on the back of each knee to urge her to bend. 

  "Mm, you thought about fucking me? Nice to know I'm not the only one with dirty thoughts." 

  "I did not." He protested staunchly. His cock slid back and forth between her pussy lips in a purposeful teasing motion. "I thought about how...I thought about how good it would feel to make love to you." He continued, his voice wavering slightly as his dick brushed her entrance and he plunged deep yet again. "Thought about how good I could make you feel."

  Now it was Vega's turn to be shy, the woman looking away from him and flushing.

  "It was still inappropriate at the...time, but I assure you it was never about that. I am not-" Danse struggled for a moment to find the words, before he sighed and rested his forehead against her own. "This already isn't simple, and I know I make it miles less so. Forgive me."

  "I feel like it's pretty simple." Vega gasped, twitching as his fingers landed on her clit. "I f--fuck, Danse--I feel like it's real simple. You like me. Love me, yeah?"

  "It's more than that, dammit." Danse growled, rubbing her clit in merciless circles. "What you did for me...how can I ever be worth your affection? Hell, your time?"

  Elizabeth threw her head back, arching her entire body up into his chest. "Whatever good I give to you," she moaned, almost exasperated that they were even having this discussion, "you deserve it. Take it." 

  Danse's hands latched down on her hips, thumbs stroking back and forth over her pronounced stretch marks as he fucked into her so fiercely that Vega swore she saw stars. His pelvis ground against her own, body hair providing a delicious new sensation that had Vega grasping at the blankets in an effort to keep herself grounded. "I'm going to come, Elizabeth." Danse panted. "Where do you-"

  "Inside." Backhand implored him, "come inside me, Paladin, please come inside me-" Her voice broke as she begged and Danse groaned loud, the sound incredulous.

  "You...inside? Are you sure?" He asked through gritted teeth, dark brown eyes conveying his uncertainty. In reply, Vega dug the heels of her feet in beneath his rear, effectively locking him in place. 

  She caught a handful of his hair, gently tugging it until he leaned down again so she could seethe in his ear, "yes."

  "Oh, dammit." With that wonderfully characteristic swear, Danse shoved his mouth against hers gracelessly. The heat in her belly spilled over from the onslaught of his enthusiastic thrusts and Backhand cried out, fingernails digging into his back when she came a second time. 

  Danse, either spurred on by her sounds or by the way her pussy gripped his dick (maybe a combination? Backhand mused) found his release seconds after, his voice breaking and dropping into a lower tone as he moaned her name. Her real name.

  Elizabeth.

  Vega cupped the nape of his neck, guiding his face into the hollow of her shoulder. "Lay down, sweetheart, you're shaking." She murmured, stroking over his quivering back.

  "Don't want to flatten you." Danse rasped, his dick still throbbing inside her.

  "Lay down. It's okay." Elizabeth flexed her bicep. "I'm strong, I can handle it." Danse laughed wearily, almost immediately going limp on top of her. She wrapped her arms back around him, fingers digging into the knots that she found to ease out the tension. "There, isn't that better?"

  "Mmmmuch." Danse slurred into her neck, sounding exhausted. "Love you."

  "I love you. Sleep, okay? We'll get cleaned up later. Right now though you seem like you could use a nap."

  Danse nodded, the tangled mess of his hair mashed flat against her cheek in the process. "Want...to be a good parent." He mumbled several minutes later, just as Vega had thought he was dozing off. Danse propped himself up with one arm, cradling Vega's cheek in his palm. His thumb absently traced the cryo burn marks from the stasis as he continued, "a true partner for you. I don't know if you...if you even want me in that capacity, I--I don't know whether you would prefer that Shaun thinks of me as simply your friend, but I-"

  "Danse," Elizabeth interrupted him sternly, raising an eyebrow. "Someone who's simply a friend wouldn't be balls deep in me."

  Danse sputtered, his blush spreading down his neck to his chest. Despite his proclivity for dirty talk in the moment, he was endearingly embarrassed by her blunt words. Vega felt her heart pound as he floundered to collect himself, the large man looking away. 

  He's really nothing at all like Nate.

  "Danse." Her voice was gentler this time, unmistakable affection bleeding through. "I would have to ask Shaun, of course, and I'd like to have an adjustment period before I do so that he can get comfortable with the idea on his own, but���" The young woman swallowed hard. Why was she so nervous all of a sudden? Oh sure, she could handle the vulnerability of being naked and fucked with absolute abandon but this? This was where her brain drew the line? Unbelievable, Backhand grumbled at herself. "I think the odds are in your favor." She concluded with a grin.

  "You...even though I'm not-?"

  "He's probably the last person to care about that kinda' stuff, Danse. C'mon." Vega chided, running her fingers through his sweaty hair. "Now. We are...absolutely disgusting. We need a bath big time."

  "I...you're right, of course." Danse agreed absently, still seeming shocked at the whole scenario. "I should...w-we should bathe. Er, at the same time. To save water." He didn't meet her eyes, his attention focused somewhere by her left shoulder. 

  Elizabeth laughed, bumping their foreheads together before carefully scooting up the bed. His cock slipped out of her and she couldn't help her sigh, the noise echoed by the paladin who tilted his chin to catch her with a kiss.

  "You are amazing." He breathed when they parted, his smile small but sincere. "I'm...I'll be hard-pressed to keep my hands off you, Elizabeth."

  "Why bother?" Vega asked, chuckling as he ducked back in for another kiss. 

  ...

  Hours later, Danse laid awake while Elizabeth slept peacefully on his chest. The paladin stared up at the ceiling, his mind running rampant.

  The future.

  He hadn't really dared to think about it since discovering his true identity. Hadn't felt like it was something he deserved. After all, if he was just a machine, it hardly mattered. But Elizabeth…

  She thought it mattered. She wanted him. Wanted him to stay with her. Wanted him to act as a father. Pending Shaun's approval, of course. 

  It was surreal how much his life had changed, how far they had come in such a short amount of time. Danse was a little overwhelmed by it all, if he was being honest. Scared, yet hopeful at the same time. And, he thought as he wrapped his arm around Elizabeth, incredibly, immensely grateful.

  This new world was unforgiving, the universe coldly testing the mettle of a man time and again. But Danse had finally come out the other side, and he liked to think he had changed for the better. 

  Whatever the future held, they would face it together. 

  Ad Victoriam, General Vega. Thank you for having faith in me.

[ickle-ronniekins]

just friends

request from anon: I desperately need a fake dating trope with our fav Georgie boy with a cutie Gryffindor girl <333 pls?!

word count: 6.7k holy hell mates

A/N: WAIT OMG i’m obsessed with fake dating trope stories—they’re so cute! and i’ve never written any before! i don’t think, at least lmao. thank you for blessing me with this request, am so excited, also sorry i got a tad carried away

tag list: @mintlibri @georgeweasleyx @seppys-return-to-madness @fopdoodledane @fredd-weasley @iprobablyshipit91 @darling-details @laneygthememequeen @lupinsx @keoghans @helloallthethingsilove @bobduncanlover | message me if you’d like to be added!

“Quick! Hide me!”

George Weasley normally doesn’t mind the fame, if you will, that comes with being part of the most well-known duo Hogwarts has ever seen.

In fact, he welcomes the attention. Maybe not as much as Fred, but he welcomes it, nonetheless.

That is, until a boisterous Ravenclaw is doing everything in her power to grab his attention. How many times can he possibly tell her, in the nicest way possible, that he doesn’t fancy her?

Maybe being nice, Fred explains to him, isn’t the way to go. He doesn’t need to be rude, but he needs to be aggressive—or, blatantly obvious in a way that she won’t be able to ignore. Why can he not seem to shake this girl? She’s undeniably obsessed, Ron laughs one day, as George does his best to push his headache away, his eyes tired from constantly looking over his shoulder to make sure that feisty Ravenclaw is nowhere to be found. He was finding it harder than usual to concentrate in classes—and not in a good way.

George is used to the teasing by now—from his brothers, from Ginny, from Harry, from you—the friendly, fellow Gryffindor prankster—giving Fred and George a run for their money.

He ducks closer to you when he spots her peering, and you nearly choke on your soup during the feast, as the Ravenclaw twirls her hair, watching George with what can only be described as googly eyes.

“Oh dear,” you begin sarcastically, elbowing George next to you, “someone’s in rare form tonight.”

“Ha-ha,” he replies sarcastically as he shifts in his seat uncomfortably, doing his best to block her out by adjusting himself so that Ron’s head covers her face. She notices this, and schooches over in her seat, until George is in her line of view again.

“Merlin’s beard,” he says through gritted teeth, looking down at his food, “I laugh at one of her jokes one time and she can’t seem to let it go.”

“These girls are crazy,” Ron says as he sips on his pumpkin juice, only to receive death glares from you, Hermione, and Ginny. “I—I mean, just that girl—not all women—” he uncomfortably clears his throat and smiles, the tips of his ears turning a bright shade of scarlet.

“Have you tried landing yourself in detention more often than not?” Seamus Finnegan pipes up, “in me own experiences, girls don’t fancy a lad who’s always getting scolded,”

George shakes his head. “The more outrageous the prank, the more brutal the scolding, the more obsessed she becomes,” he tells you all begrudgingly, “I can’t bloody take it anymore.”

As the feast ends, George’s admirer stands up, eyeing him curiously, ready to make her move, yet again—but he finds himself scurrying out of the Great Hall as fast as possible—he’s flying up the staircase and it doesn’t even register with him that he’s not breathing until he enters the common room and lets out a huge sigh of relief. Only narrowly escaped that Ravenclaw, he did. He’s resting in an armchair as the rest of you wander inside a few minutes later, laughing at the flustered sight of him.

George doesn’t know what he’s going to do to get this girl off of his back. It seems as though he’s tried everything.

Unless?

A solution pops into his head very late at night whilst laying in bed, staring up at the curtains of his four poster in the darkness. He jumps up, checks his watch, and groans when he sees the time. In the bed next to his, Fred is sprawled out over his bedsheets, snoring quite loudly as if to say, I’m having a lovely sleep, thank you! George sucks in a breath and lays back down—his mind now swimming with ideas, his smile cheeky, his eyes widened. If this doesn’t give her the hint that he’s not interested, he doesn’t know what will.

It’ll just have to wait until morning, he supposes.

— -

“Y/N!”

You jump a little, not expecting to hear your name yelled across the Great Hall so very early in the morning. George spots you from the entrance, and after making sure there are no other unwanted guests around, he calls out to you and rushes toward the table.

“Hi, George,” you begin, smirking a bit, “you’re up early for someone who has a free period.”

“Needed to catch you before your Herbology lesson,” he places himself across from you and pours himself a bit of coffee—it’s aware to you now that he still needs a little bit of a pick me up. “I need your help.”

“Ah,” you reply and clap your hands together. “The time was quickly approaching—I’m in need of a good prank, you know! It’s been a bit since I’ve gotten involved in a bit of mischief, classes have been so bloody draining lately—so what were you thinking?”

George laughs at this. He does admire your sense of adventure and your equal love of pranking, but no. That isn’t what this is about. He sucks in a breath as he shakes his head, eyeing your curious look before opening his mouth again.

“I think I’ve figured out a way to get… you know who,” he eyes the Ravenclaw table suspiciously, “off of my back.”

You gasp audibly, bringing a hand to cover your mouth as your eyes widen. “Blimey, Georgie—you know who? Why didn’t you tell me that Volde—”

George nearly spits out his coffee due to a snort. Thank goodness he doesn’t. “Ha-ha, anyone ever tell you you’re absolutely hilarious?” He sinks into his seat and rubs his hands over his eyes, as if to brush away tears from laughing too hard. He then continues, after a bit of a laughing fit, “She just needs a push in a different direction, is all.”

You furrow your brow in confusion and bite into a piece of bacon. “And you need my help for that?”

“Precisely,” George tells you, scooping some eggs onto his plate. “Just hear me out.”

“That’s not a great way to start things out, you know.”

He scoffs and then grins cheekily at you. Then, he says, “You need to pretend to go out with me.”

You nearly choke on your piece of toast. “I beg your pardon?” you ask, completely stunned by his request. As you begin to laugh, George feels his insides tighten, and he wants to say, What the bloody hell is the big deal? but instead, he waits, and ends up laughing too.

“Oh, George,” you say after regaining your composure, spreading some more butter onto your toast, “you’re a riot, you are.”

When he doesn’t answer, but instead licks his lips impatiently and takes another sip of coffee and peers at you, as if waiting for your answer, you freeze.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“You’re bloody right I am.”

“So you want me to pretend to be your girlfriend so she’ll end up stalking me too?”

The two of you erupt into a fit of laughter. Then he peers solemnly at you with wide eyes, as if to beg. “Pleaaaase, Y/N?”

You eye him suspiciously. “What’s in it for me?”

He scoffs again. “Extra time spent with me,” a loud crunch comes from his mouth when he bites into his piece of toast, and he winks. “I know you can’t get enough.”

You snort. “Don’t flatter yourself, Weasley.”

He picks up his cup of coffee, holds it up across the table to you and asks before you have time to think things through, “We have a deal?”

You roll your eyes at this gesture, but he’s patiently waiting for you to agree. What will this mean, exactly—pretending to date one another? You’re about to ask him, but it’s almost as if you know—it won’t last long. Soon she’ll get the hint, and the shenanigans can end. You go against your better judgement, acting on the very fearlessness that landed you in Gryffindor house to begin with, pick up your cup of tea and clink it with his. Feeling very pleased with himself, he leans back in his chair and grins cheekily, wiggling his eyebrows at you. You narrow your eyes and say, “Fine—but only because you’ve asked so nicely.”

Just then, you both notice a giggling gaggle of Ravenclaws enter the Great Hall, and George is already feeling his insides begin to swirl nervously. He’s doing things before he can even fully register what’s going on—

He leans across the table and takes a chunk out of the piece of bacon you’re currently also biting into, his face just inches from yours. You nearly choke on it due to surprise of how close he is to you, and he can’t help but begin to laugh, yet again. Always laughing with you, he is. “Erm—excuse me! Eat your own breakfast, you git!”

Just then, you notice her eyes flicker back and forth very quickly between the two of you, before she slowly passes you both by on her way to the Ravenclaw table, careful to listen to whatever the two of you are speaking about.

George can hardly contain his nerves, but figures he might as well get started on this fake dating thing. The sooner she leaves him alone, the better off he’ll be, “Love it when you talk sweetly to me, darling.”

— -

“You two’re out of your bloody mind.”

Fred does not hold back his laughter later that evening when George divulges your plans. The unmistakable sound of Ron snorting bounces off of the walls in the common room, and he turns red in the face.

“You two? You two?”

“What?” you and George chorus together. George continues explaining to the younger redhead across from him, “It’s perfect—we’re best mates already, and we’re all in a bunch of the same classes together—maybe this will finally give her the hint,”

“It’s not going to work.” Ron replies, looking rather amused. He shoots you a look.

“Well, can’t make any promises, of course,” you tell the lot, “but I reckon we put in the work, it’s bound to fix the problem eventually.”

Ron, Harry and Fred continue to roar with laughter in the common room. “She will never fall for that!”

“Why not?” George asks a bit angrily. He’s nervous now—if this plan doesn’t work, he doesn’t know what the bloody hell he’s going to do. Transfer to a school on the moon, at this point.

“Because,” Ron starts, holding back a snort, “Y/N’s Y/N and you’re—you.”

You and George glance at one another, and then back at Ron. The common room is now buzzing with chatter and gossip and it’s becoming hard for everyone to focus on the conversation. “Meaning?”

“I dunno,” Harry pipes up. “You guys just don’t really look like you’d be a couple.”

“Exactly,” Fred agrees, “you’re too—close. Friendly. You’re just.. friends,” he leans back casually in his chair with his hands behind his head, “it wouldn’t work. But, by all means—” he puts his hands up in surrender, chuckling before he continues, “—go for it and embarrass yourselves. I’m in a good need of a laugh.”

— -

Charms is, by far, George’s favorite class at Hogwarts. If he could take that and only that, he reckons he would. But with Little Miss Obsessed on the other end of the corridor, watching him as if her life depends on it, he can’t help but count down the seconds until the lesson is over—or, at least, the seconds until you get here.

You walk up next to him, finally, with Fred on his other side. “Morning, you two,” you tell them through a yawn. Your few cups of tea haven’t seemed to help your exhaustion from the night before—multiple games of exploding snap and copious amounts of butterbeer until the late hours of the evening did not do you good. You lean against the wall and close your eyes. “Are we awake yet?”

“Morning, Y/N!” Fred says brightly, patting you on the shoulder, waiting for Professor Flitwick to arrive and open the door to the classroom.

“Merlin, Fred, it is far too early to be this bloody excited about anything.”

Next to you, George laughs sleepily and nudges you with his elbow.

“Oh,” Fred replies. You can hear the smirk and mischief in his voice, even with your eyes half closed, “I just thought you’d be more excited to see your boyfriend this morning.”

This certainly wakes you up. You jump slightly and peer at George, who’s rather alert now, as well. You’d almost forgotten. Nearing closer to the classroom entrance, you eye the Ravenclaw, who’s watching you both very suspiciously and whispering to her cronies around her. Before any of you can register what’s happening, you lean over and place a kiss onto George’s cheek.

Fred stifles a laugh, Flitwick is opening the classroom door, the Ravenclaw is fuming, but all George can focus on is what just happened. Through gritted teeth and a very cheeky smile he’s trying his hardest to suppress, he asks you, “What the bloody hell was that?”

“Just abiding by the rules of your request,” you whisper back, grinning at him. “If she’s going to think we’re a couple, we better act like it, haven’t we?”

George hadn’t really thought about this—embracing you, kissing you, holding your hand. If he was being honest, he didn’t think about it because everyone had already mistakenly taken you two for a couple just a few months prior, when all you two had been doing is exactly what you’d done all along—be friends. He kind of just assumed the same thing would happen.

“Right,” he says, the heat of the fleeting moment dying down. “Yeah, of course.”

The three of you waltz into the classroom and take your seats near the middle, with the Ravenclaw sitting a few rows ahead, trying her hardest to peer stealthily over her shoulder at the two of you. It seems as though she’s definitely noticed something.

Flitwick begins the lesson and you lazily lean your head against George’s shoulder, sticking the back end of your quill in your mouth and listening as Flitwick tells you the desired page to turn to in your textbooks. Teasingly, George asks, “What am I—your pillow now?”

You turn to peer up at him. In a low voice you tell him, “If I’m going to be your fake girlfriend, you’re going to let me lean on you when I’m sleepy. Deal?”

You turn your focus back toward the front of the class and George can’t help but smile at you, shaking his head in admiration. He slings an arm around you and props himself into a more comfortable position.

“Okay, then. Deal.”

— -

George is now finding it incredibly easy to pretend to be your “boyfriend”. The hand holding, constant embracing, and laughing into oblivion seems to come naturally—it doesn’t even feel strange to him, and he’s amused to see that you’re taking it the same way. Probably because you got on so well with one another before all of these shenanigans started. Right?

While his admirer’s persistence has seemed to die down a bit, she still winds up watching and cornering him in corridors from time to time—but it’s easier with you arm in arm with him. She doesn’t linger too long, or continue to flirt obnoxiously with him. It seems as though your plan is working. Now, if only she can find a significant other of her own to pay attention too—

You’re sitting in Transfiguration, working on the bird conjuring charm you’d been dying to perfect in your free time whilst McGonagall steps outside for a moment to meet with Professor Sprout, and you’re doing your best to ignore the glares from the other end of the classroom.

“How d’you reckon the plan is working out?” Fred asks you both.

“Well, she’s certainly not as persistent,” George tells his twin in a low voice, eyeing the Ravenclaw stealthily across the classroom, “but I’m not sure she’s entirely convinced.”

You break your focus on the charm and turn toward the twins. “Reckon she will soon.”

“Yeah?” they chorus together.

“Yeah,” you reply, picking up your wand, not giving them any further information.

Fred crosses his arms and looks at you quizzically. When you neglect to continue, he asks with a twinge of sarcasm to his voice, “And how, may I ask, do you know this?”

You stifle a laugh and practice your flourishing movements without conjuring the charm. “—‘cause.. she’s just got to, hasn’t she? I’m telling you—we keep this up for a bit longer, and she’ll forget all about you. Mark my words.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Avis,”

A puff of smoke emits from your wand, along with a loud blasting sound, and then a flock of birds twitters in front of you and you stand up straighter in front of your desk, feeling extremely pleased with yourself.

“Bloody hell,” Fred and George say together, peering admiringly at the flock of birds you’d managed to conjure. George continues, “That is N.E.W.T Level stuff you’re doing, Y/N!” He picks you up and spins you around, your hair flying into your eyes. You’re weightless to him. When he places you back down gingerly on your feet, he brushes the hair gently out of your face and says, “You’re brilliant, you are.”

Breathlessly, you answer him, “Thanks,”

His hand is still in your hair, his fingers delicately brushing your cheek. George can suddenly feel his insides tighten and his face go rosy—but why?

The entire world seems to stop around you both. It’s as if nobody else exists.

Thankfully, though, when both of you snap back to reality at the sound of McGonagall re-entering the classroom, you both see that nobody else has seemed to notice your small intimate moment.

You pull nervously at the edges of your sleeves and take your seat again next to George, who is running a hand through his hair. When he turns to look at Fred, who must’ve noticed this small exchange, George is relieved to see that there’s no cocky or amused expression on his face—he’s merely pouting due to the continuation of the Transfiguration lesson.

— -

The weather is surprisingly warm for a winter day. George is seated up against a tree near the water’s edge, fiddling with something in his hands—an invention, no doubt—when you plop down next to him with a slight groan.

“Long day?”

“Why in the hell did I decide to take Double Herbology?” you whine, letting your bag sink into the ground next to you. You place your head into your hands, grinding your knuckles into your temples to rid yourself of your headache. You elbow him slightly, “How come you didn’t stop me?”

George laughs, looking back down at this knick knack in his hands yet again. “You were pretty adamant about taking doubles,” he recalls, thinking back to when you’d originally picked these few classes, “don’t you remember?”

“Yeah, well,” you begin, breathing in the smell of the sweet air, picking at the grass in between your fingers, “I suppose it was sort of a silly decision, wasn’t it? I’m bloody exhausted.”

Up near the castle, Ron spots you two and is about to run down to join you both, when Fred tugs on his robes and holds him back, nearly choking him. “Oi!” he exclaims, turning back toward his older brother. “What the bloody hell was that for?”

“Before we all head down there to join the lovebirds,” Fred begins, grinning cheekily at Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny, “I’d like to pick your brains.”

“About what?” Ginny and Hermione ask together.

“Well, precisely what I’ve just said,” Fred tells them, leaning against the entrance of the castle, his bag slung over his shoulder. “The lovebirds.”

Ron and Harry glance at Fred quizzically. “What about them?”

“I’m starting to believe this whole fake dating nonsense isn’t really fake at all.”

Harry laughs at the site of Ron’s agape mouth, when Ginny just shakes her head at her older brother. “You’re off your rocker, Fred. No way they’re really together. They would’ve told us, no?”

Fred crosses his arms. “I’m not so sure of that.”

Harry asks him, “How d’you reckon?”

“I was watching them in Transfiguration the other day,” Fred begins to tell them, watching to make sure the two of you are still out of earshot. “We were all chatting whilst McGonagall needed to step out, Y/N was doing some really advanced type of magic—N.E.W.T Level,”

Still, Ron’s jaw is dropped. He’s seemingly impressed. “Blimey—really?”

“Not the point of the story, Ronniekins.”

Ron turns a bright shade of pink and goes very silent at everyone’s slight snickers. Fred continues, “Anyway—we were all talking about how this plan of theirs was unfolding—to be honest with you, I haven’t seen much of that Ravenclaw around, but George swears she’s still pining over him. So, Y/N does this really advanced charm and George nearly topples over, picks her up and spins her around—you know,” he turns toward his brother and sister, “like those scenes in those silly Muggle movies mum watches. Then, everything went really quiet between the two of them, and they were just—looking at one another, for a really long time.”

Hermione asks, “Like how, exactly?”

Fred thinks on this for a moment. Then he replies, running a hand through his hair, “Like they’re in love.”

Ginny narrows her eyes. “So? Doesn’t mean they’re actually in love. I mean.. they are supposed to be acting like a couple—that’s the point of all of this.”

“So,” Fred says, ignoring everything else Ginny has just mentioned, “I’ve got a plan.”

Ginny turns toward Hermione, “Never a good sign.”

Fred nudges his sister playfully through bits of hearty laughter from the group. “I think we should slip them both a love potion—see if anything changes—if it does, we know they truly are faking. I’ve got the antidote all ready to go.”

“A love potion?” Harry asks.

“Those pink bottles you’ve got all over your room at home?” Ron adds.

“Yes,” Fred says brightly. “Admittedly—it’ll probably be one of our most popular inventions in due time. But Merlin, they are dangerous—you know, when it comes to love, and all that.”

After nearly everyone agrees, Fred begins to put his plan into action—when it will happen, the time of day, just exactly how they’re going to pull it off—when Hermione decides to interject her opinion.

“Nothing’s going to change, you know.”

Ron nearly drops his bag onto the ground. “D’you know something we don’t?”

Hermione laughs. “No, of course not, but—well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?” But clearly, it isn’t quite as obvious as it should be. “They’re already in love!”

Before Ron, Ginny, and Harry can interject their thoughts and objections, Fred turns toward her and says, “Cheers, Hermione.”

“You agree, do you?”

“I do,” Fred replies, now focusing his attention on the two of you down by the lake. It seems to him, he realizes, that while your love may be obvious to some, it’s the two of you that are completely oblivious. He watches as you sink back into George’s chest, his arm slung around your shoulder as you both continue to laugh animatedly about something. Fred points and says, ”Just look at them, would you! D’you see the Ravenclaw anywhere near here? No.”

“Fred,” Harry begins, “if you think they’re faking, then why in the bloody hell d’you want to waste a love potion on them?”

Fred just smiles evilly. “So it’ll be easier to get them to just admit it already.”

— -

“Okay then—enough homework for one evening, I’m absolutely knackered,” you tell the twins, folding up the parchment of your Potions essay and slipping it carefully into your bag, “you two coming back to the common room?”

“Yeah, in a bit,” Fred says, a look of absolute disgust on his face as he flips through his spell book, “this assignment is a right pain in the—”

He stops himself when he notices Madam Pince in the corner, eyeing him suspiciously. You ask them both, “You sure you don’t need any help?”

“Nah, that’s alright, I know you’re exhausted,” George tells you, appreciative of all the help you’ve given them already. “You go on.. we’ll meet you before you head off to bed.”

“Alright,” you reply sweetly, leaning in to place a featherlight kiss to his cheek. His hair at the nape of his neck feels so soft beneath your fingertips, “See you later.”

The Ravenclaw at the next table, Fred notices, isn’t quite as angry at this exchange as she would have been a few weeks ago. Has everything truly been working in their favor?

But George hardly notices—he just looks back down at his bit of parchment and continues to work on his conclusion, trying very, very hard, in Fred’s opinion, to suppress a grin. It’s rather noticeable alongside the cherry red color of his cheeks.

Only a few minutes pass by of silence between the twins before Madam Pince is hurrying everyone out of the library. The group of Ravenclaws make their way, albeit slightly reluctantly, to the opposite end of the castle toward their common room. George has never been so happy to be heading up to bed.

“Oi, Georgie,” Fred begins as they trudge through the corridors, “how long d’you reckon this thing between you and Y/N is going to last?”

“Dunno,” George tells his twin truthfully through a yawn. His four poster is so close, just a few more corridors to get through… “Until that Ravenclaw stops showing up everywhere I go, I suppose.”

Fred snorts at this comment. “Well, you can’t help class, mate.”

“Yeah, but, I mean everywhere else.”

Fred tugs on his brother’s robes and gets him to stop right before the entrance to the common room.

“C’mon, just be straight with me,”

George just glances at him with a confused look.

“About Y/N,” Fred prods.

“What about her?”

“You may be fooling everyone else, but you’re not fooling me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Fred’s feeling slightly annoyed at his brother’s obvious denial now. “I know how you feel about her, Georgie. I see the way you look at her. Why don’t you both just come out and say it so you can be together for real?”

George actually has to place his bag on the ground. He rolls his eyes—somehow, he knew this was coming. “What the bloody hell are you on about? We’re just friends, like you said—this is purely strategic.” George turns around, picks up his bag, and is about to say the password to enter the common room, but—

“Strategic,” Fred echoes his twin. “Right. So I guess I can go along with my plan, then, slip you both love potions, make sure there’s definitely a change in your feelings toward one another so we know you are truly faking—”

This certainly grabs George’s attention. He can feel his heart thundering in his chest. He turns back toward his twin with narrowed eyes and asks, “What plan?”

“Oh, sorry—forgot to mention,” Fred jokes, careful not to wake any sleeping portraits, “I told the rest of the lot that I’ll be conducting a.. bit of an experiment, if you will—for research, you know. Don’t worry—got the antidote ready to go for when you both, of course, fall madly in love—”

“Fred,” George says through gritted teeth, but lets out a laugh, as well, “I’m not taking a love potion. First of all, those are prototypes for the store, remember? Reckon I’d need to be barking mad in order to take one of those anyway—we know full well how powerful they are.”

Fred’s been ready for George to argue about this. “But I told you, I’ve got the antidote—” Fred’s grinning cheekily at his twin now, he doesn’t even mind getting cut off completely.

“The answer’s no, Fred. You’re out of your bloody mind.”

“What are you so afraid of mate?” Fred laughs and punches George in the arm. “Are you scared that your feelings are going to change?”

George doesn’t want to answer this. He quickly runs a hand through his hair and suddenly seems a bit on edge. He absolutely hates getting cornered like this—he can’t shake the feeling that there’s something sharp lodged in his throat. He opens his mouth to argue, but once again, Fred takes him by surprise.

“Or, I wonder—are you afraid of them not changing at all?”

— -

George hasn’t slept in days. Weeks, maybe. No, that’s being too dramatic—maybe three days, tops. But to him, it certainly feels like a much longer time.

He drags himself, quite reluctantly, toward the dungeons. He’s looking forward even less to the Potions lesson in front of him. He can barely pay attention on a normal day—now, when he’s sleep deprived and running on not much other than caffeine and his own musings, he’s almost certain he’s going to fall asleep just walking there.

Until he spots you, of course, strolling down the other end of the corridor. You see him, too, wave frantically, and bounce your way over to him. Perhaps, he thinks, Potions won’t be so bad after all.

“Hey,” he says brightly, nearly over the moon to see you.. even if it is early in the morning.

“Georgie! I’ve got news,” you say excitedly, poking him in the ribs and wiggling your eyebrows at him. “Guess what I’ve found out?”

George is peering at you, as if in a dreamlike trance. His voice floats through the air between the two of you. “Tell me.”

“It’s about you know who,” you tease, “got herself a boyfriend, she has.”

George suddenly feels very warm. Blimey, it’s hot. He loosens his tie a bit, a hitch in his voice, “Wait, r-really? Where’ve you heard that?”

“Saw them together in the Great Hall—some Slytherin bloke,” you tell him, clutching your spell books tightly in your arms, “she was nearly drooling all over him—reckon her obsession will move to him now, no?” When George doesn’t share the same enthusiasm you do, you prod him with your wand and joke, “What’s the matter? Don’t tell me you’ve actually fallen for this girl.”

“Merlin, no,” George answers quite quickly. You watch as his expression changes from sullen to chipper within a matter of milliseconds. “That’s great news! Gets her off my back, doesn’t it?”

“Exactly,” you reply, “and now you don’t have to hang around little old me all the time. Not that I don’t enjoy your company—” you add quickly when George furrows his brows, “I just mean, now you’re able to go after any girl you fancy, not worry about her anymore—”

“Yeah,” a laugh escapes his lips, “yeah.. reckon you’re right! Blimey, have got to tell Fred.. he was starting to get freaked every time she so much as glanced over at us.”

Students begin to walk a bit more speedily, and you both realize the sound of the bell is drawing nearer. You push playfully on his chest and say, “Anyway—wanted to tell you before class! Meet me in the common room before dinner, yeah?” And before he can answer, you flash a toothy smile and turn in the opposite direction, making your way as quickly as you can toward the library.

You want to tell him. You want to tell him that you’d heard him and Fred that night when they’d been discussing love potions and whatever Fred has up his sleeve—you’d gotten caught up in the corridor around the bend, chatting with another student about an assignment, and had heard the entire exchange. You reckoned it was best to just end it now, before things get really messy.

Things seemed to be working in your favor, though. You hadn’t lied. That Ravenclaw did find herself a boyfriend, so, it seems as though the plan you two had formulated had worked, and that’s a good thing—right?

It’s the first time in—weeks, months?—that you and George part ways without a kiss on the cheek, a tight, romantic embrace, and it makes him feel weird. Off balance. He doesn’t like it. Is he really.. missing those times? Doing those things with you? He shakes his head in defiance, begrudgingly making his way toward Potions. Fred’s words ring in his ears. Just friends. Even if he does feel those things, it’s obvious that you don’t, he realizes. You’re nearly bouncing off the walls knowing that this fake relationship is over. So, why doesn’t he feel the same way? Why does he feel so sad?

He swallows thickly before bumping into Fred. They make their way into the classroom, George’s head and heart feeling heavier than they have in weeks.

Little does he know, you’re sitting in the library, staring into space, a piece of blank parchment in front of you, feeling, if not more so, the exact same way.

— -

A few days later, George can finally sit in the Great Hall in peace without ducking behind anyone, crouching down in his seat, or skipping feasts altogether. His prior admirer seems so wrapped up with her new love, that George Weasley might as well not even exist. He feels relief wash over him.

He’s sitting with Fred, Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione, but you—you’re nowhere to be found. In fact, he hasn’t seen all that much of you in a few days time. Guess he sort of got used to always having you around. Loads of Herbology assignments, you told him the day before with a cheeky grin, reckon Doubles is catching up with me.

“So Georgie,” Fred says brightly through mouthfuls of potatoes, “reckon we should get back to our regularly scheduled mischief now that our unscheduled hiatus has been lifted, yeah?”

“Oi, Fred, can’t you see that he’s not listening to you?” Ron asks before lifting a hand to slap George right across the face.

“Easy, you two,” Ginny scolds them and grabs Ron before he can do anything. Then she taps her older brother on the shoulder, “Hey, earth to George.”

“What?” George says, finally joining the group, the haze above his head lifting slightly, “oh, erm, sorry.. was—distracted.”

Fred eyes his twin curiously. There’s a tiny bit of sarcasm in his voice, “What’s going on, mate? You’ve been awfully quiet since your little plan wrapped up.” But even in his delirious state, George knows what Fred is trying to do. And he’s so bloody exhausted and tired of fighting everything that he doesn’t even argue. Instead, he takes the group by surprise, and stands up without touching his meal. “What’re you doing?”

“Something I should’ve done months ago!” he calls as he flies toward the entrance, maneuvering himself between students and professors alike. He’s doing things without fully registering what’s going on, he’s taking steps three at a time, he’s jumping through the portrait hole in a huff, he’s panting heavily with a very confused you in front of him, baffled at his state.

“Hey there,” you say brightly, “you alright?”

When George catches his breath, he takes you by surprise. “‘m doing just fine, love.”

“Love?” you ask teasingly, “you missing what we had, Georgie? Our fake little relationship?”

“It wasn’t fake.”

You shoot him a glance and freeze completely. George is almost certain he can hear the pounding of your heart reverberating off of the common room walls. He’s thankful, now that he’s recognized, the two of you are completely alone. “It—it wasn’t?”

“Of course not.”

You offer a nervous grin, and George knows he’s said the right thing. The tension between the two of you is rising and you ask him jokingly, “This isn’t a love potion talking, is it?” Realization hits him like a ton of bricks and he lets an exasperated laugh escape his lips. Damnit, Fred. He shakes his head no and waits with bated breath for your next words.

“So this,” you say, pointing back and forth very rapidly between the two of you, “it’s..it’s been real this entire time?”

“Of course it’s real, it’s always been real,” George is finding it difficult to breathe correctly now, “hasn’t it been real for you?”

But you realize, as you’re choking back tears, that by saying yes, you’ll only be delaying the inevitable—which is, of course, to kiss him into oblivion. And you’d both waited bloody long enough already, hadn’t you?

So instead of saying anything, you bite back a very large grin before stepping forward and pulling on his tie and pressing your lips to his. He’s not even surprised—if anything, he’s relieved, to finally know what it feels like to have your lips on his after many moments having dreamt about it. Immediately, you want to ask him why you two haven’t been doing this the entire time, but you can’t bring yourself to break from him now that you’re intertwined together. It’s slow and warm, his lips molding perfectly with yours, his thumb brushing gently against your cheek, soft moans escaping his lips, the rest of his fingers making their way through your soft hair. It sort of feels as if you’re floating, actually, bouncing delicately from cloud to cloud, high above the trees and the castle. Breaking slightly and pressing his forehead to yours, he says, “So, erm, silly question—but are we—?”

“If you even have to ask if I’m your girlfriend for real now, you’re out of your mind, Weasley.”

George’s head is spinning. He leaves trails of kisses along your cheeks, your neck, and your collarbone, all before finding your lips again, and as they form a smile against his own, he can’t seem to shake the feeling like he’s coming home.

A very amused voice startles you both, making you part at the mere sound of the clearing of a throat. “Alright then, Ron, Ginny, Harry—you all owe me two sickles each. Hermione—cheers again, reckon you did well to agree with me on this one.” And then, when he notices you two watching, Fred says, “Oi—well it’s about bloody time.”

“I’m sorry,” you begin, doing your best to not think about the scarlet color of your face, or the fact that they’d all seen quite possibly the most intimate moment you and George have shared together, “you lot placed bets on us?”

“Sure did,” Fred replies, looking rather pleased with himself as he’s handed his earnings from a very grumpy looking Ron and Harry. He slides the sickles into his pockets and crosses his arms in delight.

As Ginny and Hermione squeal excitedly and wink at you before heading up to the girls dormitory for the evening, George pulls you back into his arms, confidence engulfing him, and says to the others, “If you don’t mind, we were kind of in the middle of something here.”

The tips of Ron’s ears turn extremely pink and he smiles warily. “Guess you didn’t have to use those love Potions after all, Fred,” Harry says.

With a wink at you both before making his way toward the stairs, Fred replies, “Was never going to, actually. Just had to make them think I was. Knew these two would break eventually.”

“Hate to admit it, but you’re kind of brilliant,” Ron says admiringly, but continues to pout when Fred slings an arm around his shoulders and tells him,

“Next time, Ron, just side with your wiser, older brother, yeah?”

You turn back toward George, your arms around his neck. When you make sure the others are finally out of earshot, you say to him, tugging gently on his tie again, “He’s outrageous, he is.”

“Got us together, though, didn’t he?”

“I suppose I’ll give him that one.”

“Oh,” Fred calls from the top of the stairs, “and Y/N? No snogging my brother until the wee hours of the evening, alright? He needs his beauty sleep.”

“Shove off, Freddie,” you call. A cackle of laughter floats down from the boys dormitory, but you find it easy to ignore. What do they know? The two of you have tons of lost time to make up for. You stand on your tippy toes, press your forehead to George’s before he kisses you again. He lets out a soft laugh when you say against his lips, to a Fred who can’t hear you, “Can’t make any promises.”

reblogs & feedback are greatly appreciated, thank you for reading & requesting x

[amphxtrite]

draco malfoy x fem!reader

part two: a wordless promise

warning: Angst

summary: song fic loosely based off Isak Danielson’s song Broken

A/N: This is my first time writing a fic so sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes, hope you like it :)

enjoy <3

__________________________________________

Do you need, do you need someone?

Are you scared of what's to come?

If you leave then who will the next one be?

Will he do the same or will he let you see

“y/n, I’m breaking up with you.”

your heart stops, you can feel the tears welling in your eyes, but you refuse to let them fall just yet.

“Draco.” you start, “w-what did I do wrong?” you curse yourself for stuttering, but the words just won’t come out properly.

“I- I don’t think this is working y/n. We can’t be together when you’re a filthy, useless half-blood.” he spits

Draco’s face remains stoic and cruel, but on the inside he’s breaking down. He doesn’t want to do this, but he won’t let Voldemort or any of his vile followers put a target in your back for being in a relationship with him. He won’t put you in that kind of danger.

“you-you don’t mean that. Draco.” you cry out pain written on all your features. “I love you, you said you didn’t care I was a half-blood! I need you please, please don’t break up with me.” your voice is reduced to a gentle plea. The tears have flown free now, cascading down your face, you can taste the salty tears, but it’s the least of your worries right now.

Draco’s heart tightens in his chest, you were right, he doesn’t care your blood status, he never really did, half of him wants to take it all back, tell you the truth and rush back into your arms. His other half knows this isn’t a possibility, that you’d die staying with him. You didn’t deserve a man like him.

“people change.” he states plainly, before turning on his heel and walking away from you as fast as he could. He can feel his own tears begin to well in his eyes, but doesn’t let them fall, he breaks into a run when he knows you can’t see him and rushes into the castle and into an empty classroom. He breaks down. Let’s all the feelings of regret and sadness take over him as he sits, rocking himself back and forth, silently cursing himself for this.

When Draco is no longer in your field of sight you fall to your knees in the wet grass beneath you.

“this, this isn’t real.” you murmur to yourself.

No, you’re going to wake up any second now and your love will be there with his arms wide open to hold you, tell you it was just a nightmare, that he would never leave your side.

you needed him, he was your light in the darkness, your reminder that you were safe and loved, the one who would hold you close when you were scared, hold your hand while you walked to classes, and make sure you were eating when you were studying too hard.

You never woke up from this nightmare, no, this was real. Draco was really gone... your love had left you.

That you don't have to hurt, you don't have to hurt anymore?

With a little time, take a look and find what you're searching for

It had been exactly a month since the day Draco had broken up with you.

It was hard to eat, hard to sleep, or focus on your studies and you became a shell of the person you used to be.

Your h/c hair no longer shined

Your skin seemed to sag and you had grown accustomed to the dark circles under your eyes.

Your uniform seemed to hang very loosely against your form.

It was very obvious to everyone around you that you were not taking the break up well. And your best friend Hermione was trying her best to try and help you.

“c’mon y/n, just take a few bites of your sandwich you haven’t eaten a full meal in weeks!” she whisper shouts to you at dinner.

you simply nod your head at her comment and nibble a bit at your corner of the bread.

Hermione was worried. She knew that you loved Draco with your entire being and that not being with him was taking a toll on you. She wanted her happy best friend back, but she had no idea what to do. Draco seemed to always be avoiding you and Hermione almost never saw him. It had gotten to the point Harry hadn’t been approached by Malfoy’s snide comments once in the month he had broken up with you. She decided to take a different approach to try and get you happy again.

“hey y/n, how about we go to hogsmeade tomorrow, for a butterbear and some sweets from Honeydukes, hm?” she suggests with a smile, she knew her best friends weakness for sweets and decided it would be a good to use to her advantage to help.

“sounds good ‘mione.” you say with a small smile. You were thankful for your best friend’s attempt at making you smile, but really you wanted to just climb into you comfy-bed and wallow in your sadness.

“Good! I’ve got to go, but i’ll meet you tomorrow in the courtyard okay?”

“see you then.” you respond, taking a couple more sips of your pumpkin juice before leaving.

You head back to the y/h common room and head up to the girls dormitory thinking, maybe this was a good thing going out again, having fun. This could be your first step forwards to trying to recover, but a little voice at the back of your head told you that wasn’t going to happen.

You are broken on the floor

And you're crying, crying

He has done this all before

But you're lying, lying

To yourself, that he'll find help

That he will change to someone else

But you're broken on the floor

Still, asking him for more

Draco had tried to break up with you once before, like this time he was scared that you being with him would only hurt you and he couldn’t let that happen, it scared him greatly. He tried to bring himself to do it but only a few seconds after the words tumbled out of his mouth, he started to tear up at the look of hurt on your face and apologized, taking it back and gathering you into his arms, whispering i love you’s in your ear and drying the tears that had just begun to flow.

That was the dream that clouded your mind as you woke up the next morning, Draco apologizing to you for almost leaving, and pulling you in to him, muttering in between kisses that he was sorry and didn’t mean it. you reached up and brushed your lips with your fingers, it was like you could still feel his soft lips on yours, the thought brought even more pain to your heart and you quickly brushed away the thought. You opted for a quick shower before getting ready to hang out with Hermione. Letting the hot water run over your body, you focus on the feeling of how nice the water feels, simply standing there, you realize how long it’s been since you really focused on yourself and your needs. Quickly turning off the shower, and toweling down, you grab your outfit and get dressed, you put on your black track pants, a grey sweatshirt and pull on your coat and a scarf. Slipping your shoes on, you grab your bag and leave.

“Hey ‘Mione!” you shout at the curly haired girl as you enter the courtyard.

“y/n/n!” she runs over to you and wraps you in a hug. She’s glad some of the colour has returned to your skin and your smile is a bit wider.

The duo is soon greeted by Ron and Harry as they make their way to Filch, the boys are cracking jokes and talking about quidditch and when their forms are checked, they’re off.

As you walk through the beautiful village you can’t help but think back to the times Draco and you would come to spend time together, drinking butterbeer and him spoiling you with sweets at Honeydukes, a small smile plays at your lips.

Hermione starts to drag you towards a shop as you finally snap out of your thoughts.

“let’s go y/n! Ronald and Harry are already in the shop!” she laughs as the two of you. rush into the familiar store. You stop for a second to breathe in the intoxicating smell of chocolate and candy, and then you’re rushing around the shops, the golden trio by your side.

“Merlin, there’s so many options.” you breathe out.

“You can’t go wrong with the classics though.” smiles Ron as he throws you a chocolate frog.

“A man of good taste.” you agree and continue to look around to find something new to try.

As you reach out for some kind of taffy that will change your voice, a familiar glint of platinum blonde hair catches your eye, you turn to see the familiar slytherin boy grabbing a couple chocolate frogs, looking lost. You must have been imagining it but Draco looked as bad as you did. His blonde hair was drooping in front of his eyes, his skin was almost a sickly yellow colour, and you could see the dark circles that hung under his beautiful eyes.

You don't have to hurt anymore

your lips turn up at the sight of his eyes lighting up at the chocolate, your thoughts flash black to a day long ago, lying in his 4-poster bed.

“Draco that’s your fourth chocolate frog, is it healthy to be eating that much?” you questioned with a laugh.

He looked at you like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Well, I guess not love, but how can you resist the perfect chocolate taste.” He says slightly airily. Snuggling you closer to his chest.

“I guess you have a point darling.” you sigh, perfectly comfortable in his arms.

“You know what love? I think I love chocolate almost as much as I love you.”

you put your hand up to your chest in mock offence.

“I said almost!” he laughs wrapping his arms around he securely and kissing the top of your head.

Before Draco could catch you staring, you quickly grab the taffy and meet up with the rest of the gang.

Little did you know Draco had also seen you and while you were daydreaming he glanced at you and felt his heart break when he knew you weren’t there with him.

Will you leave or will you carry on?

Is your love from before still strong?

If you leave, will you keep the memory

That made the night so long, that cut so deep?

Paying for your sweets and heading back out into the crisp fall air you let your thoughts run wild. You missed Draco so much, you knew this feeling wouldn’t leave you, you’d be in love with the slytherin till your last breath. Though as much as you loved him, you couldn’t help but wonder, what would your life look like if you did move on? Would you meet someone else? fall in love with them? The thought felt foreign to you and you pushed it away.

The Golden Trio began to head over to The Three Broomsticks for some butter beers, but you decided to excuse yourself and head back to the castle.

“Are you sure y/n?” Hermione questioned.

“Yeah,” continued Harry, “it’ll be fun, besides it still to early to head back”

You smiled at the group.

“I’m sure, you guys go ahead i’ll see you back at the castle.”

Hermione seemed hesitant, she didn’t want to just leave her best friend alone, but the look in y/n’s eyes made her realize she just wanted some time for herself so she nodded her head and followed the boys into the pub.

grateful for your three friend’s understanding, you start to take the trek back to the castle.

You don't have to hurt, you don't have to hurt anymore

With a little time, take a look and find what you're searching for

breathing in the evening air you continue to think to yourself.

Draco was your one, your person, the only man for you. You could never see yourself give that love up. You were deeply head over heels for the blonde boy, even if the words he spoke cut deep.

The words “filthy half-blood” seemed to cut into your soul, making your stomach feel weak. No matter how hard you tried to push those words out of your memories by remembering all the good times, your head seems to give you a harsh reality check.

You didn’t even realize the tears on your cheeks until you felt a gentle wind blow against your face. Deep inside you was the hope that Draco hadn’t meant what he said and that there was a good reason for trying to distance himself from you.

You held onto that hope, held it tightly in your arms, the hope that one day your prince would return to you, when he was ready, when the stars would align and show him that the love he had tried to leave behind was still there waiting, with their arms wide and a smile on their face.

[shimmershae]

Just watched the episode and I’m going to have a lot of thoughts for you, most of them probably bordering on incoherence (LOL) so this is your last chance to nope on out of this post because I’m going to go ahead and put everything else behind a cut to save the eyes that do not want to see any  spoilers at all.  Unlike mine, that very much wanted to see but in a lot of cases?  Could not see shit, but I digress.

Shae’s stream of consciousness coming at you in 3-2-1.  

First of all, can I saw how good it is to have my show back again?  Like, no.  I don’t quite have Season 5 levels of excitement about the new/last season, but it is definitely nice to have all these characters back.  

So all these thoughts of mine.  Okay.  Bear with me because there be a whole lot of them, lol.  

My immediate impression as the episode opened was WHOA.  Such a cool shot of Daryl with one light wing, one dark wing (representing the two sides to Daryl maybe--the man of honor versus the man he was raised to be, hmm?) looking out over some dark vista of something.  Seriously.  It’s dark.  My room is also dark at the moment and still I was squinting to see.  To make out what I’m “looking” at.  I really, really hope the rest of this season isn’t this hard to make out.  

Is that a tank?  Kinda sorta a callback to Rick’s first episode?  If so, cool.  If not, well.  Us fans have always put way more thought into things.  For real.  Change my mind.  

Holy intense eye contact, Batman!  Daryl Dixon has literally never looked at anyone--not BethusConLeah--in quite the same smoldering way as he looks at Carol.  It’s next level.  I don’t know why people be fooling themselves into thinking different.  

Let’s see.  I can make out--besides Daryl, Maggie, and that face mask dude I already forgot the name of--Kelly, Magna, Jerry (who’s that with him?), and Carol.  Sorry.  My world, like Daryl’s, inevitably narrows to Carol.  She’s loking fierce and fine AF per usual.  

Was that Rosita I noticed rewinding to relive Daryl eye-fucking Carol?  

I’m guessing this is the army base they talked about in 10C.  

That Walker perking up like “I smell food--pancakes and bacon and oohhhh” has me giggling inappropriately right off the bat.  WTF.  

Look at all my fabulous ladies tiptoeing through that Walker minefield.  And Carol spotting that gun that might be useful right away.  Listen, if you don’t think her mind ain’t always ten steps ahead of everybody else’s, you’d be wrong.  

So.  Are these Walkers just so old and feeble not even the call of fresh meat attracts them?  Because just tiptoeing through their midst without the knockoff Lady Gaga meatsuits or skin masks has never really worked before that I can remember.  

I just want to see most of this season.  Is that really too much to ask?  Don’t X-Files and Game of Thrones us, Angela.  Please and thank you very fucking much.  

Okay.  Is the one drop of blood thing making anybody else have 28 Days Later vibes?  Kinda?  Sorta?  No?  Just me?  Okay then.  Carry on.  

Wait a minute, though.  How they be explaining how Daryl keeeps acquiring all these new tats all the time?  Hmm?  It’s like they just quit giving a shit about continuity in these latter seasons.  

I mean.  Do Walkers sleep now?  LMAO.  What is this?  I guess they’re constantly evolving?  

There’s my baby Lydia.  Love my smol bean.  

Alright though.  I love to see the ladies of TWD kick some ass.  It’s very gratifying.  Gimps would never.  Thank you, Angela.  

Clever, resourceful, calm and collected, quick thinking Carol to the rescue!  Seriously.  Her haters must be withering away inside with absolute envy.  

Hey, ya’ll.  Remember when Carol was still mastering her sharpshooting skills at the Prison yard and shot at Rick’s feet?  Her little “sorry, sorry”?  LOL.  If Rick could only see her now.  Wait.  He already knew what so many of his stans refuse to acknowledge--Carol=ultimate survivor and true savior to the group many times over.  

Maggie’s got herself a gun, too.  Go my badass girls.  

Of course, Carol’s got everybody’s back.  Of fucking course, Daryl’s got hers even when everybody else seem frozen in some kind of awe or stupification or something.  Microcosm of the whole damn show right there.  

Carol’s like “here’s your knives, love of my life.”   

Eh.  Maybe that’s just me.  

Nah.  She’s totally thinking it, too.  

YAS!  YAS!  Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride with the top billing.  How very far my babies have come.  

Listen.  I miss all the characters we’ve lost.  Absolutely.  But I love the ones that are still with us, that have been with us for so very long so hard.  Whether I love their stories or decisions or not.  

Is that THE Alexandria sign?  That sign’s been through some shit.  

DOG!  Daryl kneeling to embrace our Grimes babies has me all up in my feels.  And how cute is Dog getting all excited and making sure he’s the first one there to welcome back, Daddy?  

Hershel is literally just as puppy dog cute as Glenn ever was.  Really some Grade A casting.  

What did Maggie call Mr. T?  Ducky?  Dougie?  Sometimes with Maggie?  I really cannot tell.  Anyway.  He’s Mr. T. for me until I find out differently, probably through rewatching with close captioning, lol.  

Maggie’s got more people.  So.  Some new redshirts to sacrifice for plot purposes.  I don’t know if I should bother learning their names or not. 

I seem to remember Meridian being mentioned in one of the episode synopses.  

Sophia’s hair tie around Carol’s neck will never fail to be an emotional throat punch.  My heart.  

“They come at night and by the time you see them, you’re already dead.”  Welp.  Guess that means we ain’t seeing shit for at least this first third of the season, lol.  Very horror-eque though.  

“You’re leaving to fight ghosts.”  Aaron, to Maggie.  So I see Aaron’s the type to get the hell outta Dodge when the Boogeyman comes calling, hahaha.  Least he was.  In the old world.  

Rosita’s pissed off expression at Gabe’s decision to volunteer for the so-called suicide mission gives me life.  

My baby Carol is tired AF of suicide missions.  You can tell.  Also?  Methinks she has something to prove to Daryl here.  Or at least feels like she does.  

Dog with his little tactical vest.  I love it.  

I guess I get why they had Carol and Rosita stay behind.  They had to more evenly split up the badassery to make things more fair and balanced, lol.  

Okay.  So Negan’s definitely earned everybody’s disdain.  But they’re being woefully short-sighted by not at least hearing the dude out.  Isn’t he at least native to the area?  

“That is God telling us to turn around.”  I’m actually on Negan’s side with this one, but Gabe answering him with “I’m pretty sure he would have run that past me first” has me howling with laughter.  Father Gabe has gone straight up savage in these last couple of seasons.  Rosita’s influence, perhaps?  

I see what Angela is doing.  Trying to make Negan the voice of reason.  In this particular case?  It’s kind of working.  I’m still ultimately on Maggie’s side with this though BECAUSE GLENN.  

Imagine showing up to work and unironically dressing like a storm trooper every day.  Excuse me while I LOL.  

Even in the ZA, there’s bullshit paperwork.  

“Pumpkin colored spacesuit.”  Good one, Ezekiel.  

LOL forever.  I love Princess.  

“Michonne.  Our Michonne shut people out of Alexandria for years.”  Timely reminder that choices aren’t always perfect.  Neither are people.  

WTF is reprocessing?  Sounds ominous.  LMAO at Eugene’s “Okay.  We gotta go.”  

What in the actual hell with all those bagged, squirming undead?  Creepy AF in that subway tunnel.  

Should I just go ahead and call that the Easter bunny?  We’ve had some version of it pop up since Season 1.  

Is it stubborn pride with Maggie or what?  Why go through with something when all signs point toward the wisdom of stopping?  You can argue that she’s acting similarly to Carol last season, but there’s a huge difference here folks.  Carol did her damndest to Lone Wolf that shit and minimize the danger to those she loved.  Maggie’s straight up enlisting those she “cares about” to carry out her mission of revenge or vengeance, what have you. Let’s see if she gets near the amount of hate for it.  Personally, I don’t blame her for her feelings one bit.  They are valid.  But her knowingly drawing the others into the game?  That’s my sticking point.  That’s how she and Carol differ, even if some people refuse to see or accept it.  Anyway.  Hopping right on off my soapbox.  

“Why don’t you get up on your little tippy toes and try?”  Omigosh, I’d dying.  When I tell you I about passed out with laughter, I do not exaggerate.  I should hate Negan forever and I do.  Really.  But I adore JDM and he frequently makes me LOL.  He’s made Negan entertaining if not completely redeemable since Angela took over and more layered so I say kudos.  

He has a point about Maggie playing dictator.  Damn you, show, for slanting the writing just that smidgen that makes Negan make sense over his victim.  I guess, though, it’s better this way.  Gives both characters more shades of gray.  

“He’s a dick but he makes sense.”  I feel like this is Angela calling us all out when we dare to harbor any lasting resentment toward Negan for what he did to Glenn.  

Speaking of--Negan.  You deserved Daryl’s punch to the mouth.  You just went a bridge too damn far.  

“Keep pushing me, Negan.  Please.”  Warning shots fired, Asshole.  You better watch yourself around the Widow Rhee.  

Have I mentioned how much I love Princess?  Her shipping the Commonwealth guards is killing me, lol.  I can’t wait ‘til she meets Carol and Daryl.  She’s going to have their number in two seconds flat.  

I like Ezekiel and Princess as a duo.  I’m not saying romantically necessarily.  I just like them in scenes together because they’re fun.  There’s sort of a protective indulgence Ezekiel seems to telegraph whenever they’re in scenes together.  Like he’s like don’t hurt this one.  I don’t know.  For all these words I’ve written, I can’t quite find the ones to adequately describe what I mean.  

The wall of the lost gives me such Battlestar Galactica feels.  What sad thoughts it inspires.  

Eugene in that Commonwealth gear.  Omigosh, lol.  So did they just sneak up and take Princess’s little Commonwealth ship’s gear when they were sneaking off on their own to have a quickie?  

Princess finding that note for Yumiko on the wall actually gave me chills.  Yeah.  I’m easy.  Just the suggestion of someone getting reunited with lost family gets me all up in my feels.  Yumiko saying “I have to stay”?  I felt that.  

Oh no.  Dog ran off!  Somebody protect my favorite fictional puppy.  Of course, Daryl goes after him.  He’s always been the sweet one.  Merle said it.  

Eh.  Negan taking Maggie’s hand at the end there would have smacked too much of Negan Sue and Maggie’s biggest plot of the season would have been prematurely dealt with so I get why they did what they did.  But c’mon.  It’s not really that big of a cliffhanger, is it?  

Okay, so Angela calls those sleeping beauty Walkers “Lurkers” and I get it.  Apparently they’re a bigger deal in the comics, but I really don’t remember seeing them all that much on the actual show.  Somebody jog my memory.  

Of fucking course, you can actually see what’s happening in the inside the episode clips.  I wish we could choose to view the episode with that lighting because some of us be blind.  And this time I mean in the more literal sense.  Not the figurative one.  

Anyway.  I’m going to stop trying to write a novel for ya’ll and move on to better things.  Like maybe a nap.  Maybe some early dinner.  I don’t know.  I’m tired AF and need a little recharge.    

Before I go, though?  Overall impression of the episode?  I liked it.  There were parts that I loved (all the ladies being badass, every second of Carol, Daryl reuniting with the Grimes babies and Dog, all things Princess, some of Negan’s one-liners about had me busting a gut, Rosita serving looks, Kelly and Lydia getting to be badass too) and parts I didn’t love (not being able to see a damn thing, Angela trying to tip the scales in Negan’s favor, not enough Carol or Aaron or Rosita, no reunion between Aunt Carol and the Grimes babies even though that picture floating around suggests it was at least shot, not being able to see a damn thing, all the Alexandria people playing follow the leader for Maggie when she’s been gone 6 years and Daryl’s right there--hell, even Father G deserves the honor over her because it’s obvious they’re not exactly on the same wavelength anymore).  

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m just glad to have our show back.    

Later, lovelies.