#currently the one plaguing me is ‘you don’t need that much product’

[incidentalblr]

looking at makeup videos on instagram is so fucking annoying because i’m caught in the eternal loop of “YOU DON’T NEED THAT MUCH PRODUCT!!!!” “why are you presenting using eyeshadow as blush/eyeliner as lipliner or WHATEVER as a discovery. it’s all face pigment that you put on your face” “STOP CALLING IT A HACK IT’S A TECHNIQUE IT’S A TECHNIQUE” and “for the love of god please shut up about products and brands and hype and let me just enjoy this as an artform” i just think makeup is neat can everyone fucking stop

[fractured-shield]

Kiss tag

thanks for the tag @honeybewrites!!

Rules: Post an excerpt with a kiss! Quick cheek peck to make out session, platonic or romantic or familial, does not matter!!!

Sorry I couldn't pick just one, but I think these go pretty well as a set. The first is from an old scene in my drafts, the other two are new and much less edited my apologies:

1 “You’ve been here a few hours at most, and you’re already in here studying?” Idhren raised his eyes from the book he was currently reading, giving Maithyr a brief glance before returning his focus to the page. It was a particularly dry text, records of agricultural production in Ngelorim, an attempt at deciphering the patterns of the dragon-plague. “Well, yes. The weather slowed our arrival, so I’d like to make the best use of the time remaining before the council, sir.” Maithyr laughed—a rough, terse, sound that scraped its way out of his throat. “I can think of a few better ways you could spend your time, if you ask me.” Idhren remained standing behind the heavy table, taking his time in rifling through a few papers, trying to hide his smile. He really did need to finish reading—but there was no point to it if he couldn’t focus. “Really, sir, I can’t imagine what could be so—“ Maithyr stepped around the desk in a few long strides, and even without the coarse silhouette of his battered armor he cut an imposing figure. He stood next to Idhren, brushing the knuckles of his good hand lightly along the desk’s cluttered surface. “I thought I told you to drop the formalities.” Idhren took half a step back as Maithyr grinned, uneven and knife-sharp. He cast a quick glance around the library to confirm that it was otherwise empty. The semblance of privacy didn’t stop the flush that colored his face as Maithyr took another step. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, my lord.” Idhren answered, standing a bit straighter. “Can’t, or won’t?” He looked away, unable to hold Maithyr’s gaze, the keen grey of his eyes alight like polished silver from the dancing lanterns, and he didn’t answer. “You look like you’ve been sick,” Maithyr leaned closer, bringing a hand to the other man’s chin, turning his head ever so slightly for a closer look. Idhren huffed a laugh dismissively and let Maithyr do as he pleased. “I’m not well-fit to the mountain climate, as you know. —And I’m sure the clothes don’t help with appearances.” “Not that I’m complaining, you always look damn good in black.” Idhren offered a brief smile at Maithyr’s words. If that was the game they were playing today, he might as well join. He nodded at Maithyr’s attire: fine clothes in place of his usual armor. “It’s a rare sight, the Warmaster without his armor. I like the silver.” His shirt was of a rich cloth, a dark currant red that made his hair seem bright as fire, with bits of subtle silver trim that matched his circlet and sparked in the lamplight, still dim in comparison to his eyes. Maithyr was grinning at him again. “And you’re sure this work is necessary before the council convenes, you’re sure you couldn’t be…recovering from your travel in a better way than this?” He feigned a weary sigh. “Perhaps you’re right…Nar-thelyr’s winds are quite cruel this time of year, it’s so difficult to get the chill out of your bones.” Maithyr’s grin sharpened good-naturedly. “Isn’t that the truth.” He let his hand fall to ghost over the side of Idhren’s neck, tracing the line of his high collar as it curved down towards his throat. Idhren, for his part, couldn’t think of protesting, and merely let his hand fall from the open book to his side, let his lips part slightly as he looked up ever so slightly to meet Maithyr’s eyes. It was rare, to have to look up at someone. Met with no resistance, Maithyr closed the remaining distance between them. It was a simple kiss, and Idhren forced himself to ignore any trick of gentle affection that he wanted so badly to find in its slow pace. He drew back, a hand on Maithyr’s shirt, tracing the lines of silver. “Well, I suppose there’s a bit of time left, and my council preparations can wait until this evening,” he cleared his throat. He and Maithyr were near the same age, both marred with ill-healed wounds and old aches that weren’t fond of the northern chill. He likely wouldn’t have been up for it, with anyone else. “What did you have in mind, my lord?”

2 “I don’t think we’re supposed to be here, actually.” “If they didn’t want me to get in, they could’ve closed the gate, it’s fine.” Leithe took him by the hand, pulling him along as she set off at a quick march through the garden path. He’d never figured out how she could walk so quickly, slight as she was. The garden was beautiful after dark, he had to admit. The clear skies let the light of moon and stars fall on upturned leaves and blooms, gentle and cool. He didn’t really care where she was taking him. Her hand was warm in his, and she was as refreshingly vibrant as ever, even whispering in the court garden and dressed up in stiff, fussy clothes. “Gods, I’m glad that’s over, I don’t know how you put up with all of them.” It was a beautiful dress, even if she’d said countless times that night that it was uncomfortable. He’d never thought to appreciate such things before—well, before it had been on the table, between them, but the elegant curve of the neckline hung off her shoulders and the sheer capelet worn over top glittered with delicate gems along her throat. “It’s not so hard, once you get used to them.” He said, like he’d figured it out any better. “Orhireth is the most likely choice for Tarnuvin’s lord, once things get settled, so you’ll have to get along with him eventually.” She scoffed. “He’s too damn much like me, it’s insufferable. Ugh—I don’t want to think about him right now, get down here and kiss me.” Leithe stopped short, clearly distracted from wherever she was headed by more important matters. Idhren found himself smiling, more genuinely than he had in weeks. Oh, but it did wonders to ease his worries, any time he could spend with her. “Of course,” he answered softly, as if he could even think of refusing her, and did his best to lean down to her height. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him the rest of the way. Leithe’s kisses contained the same multitudes as she herself did. Soft, like she was trying to force a certain gentleness through his upright facade, and unyielding, because she gave him no choice in acknowledging that she thought he deserved such tenderness. She bit his lip. At almost the same instant, a bird took flight from the bush next to them, filling the hushed silence with the sudden flutter of wings and rustling of leaves. He drew back, startled and blinking in bewilderment. Only for a moment. She was laughing at him, not that he particularly minded. He leaned back in for another kiss, and she met him eagerly even as she kept laughing. He wrapped her in his arms, and she wasted no time in working her hands free so she could tangle them in his hair. “Someone’s going to find us,” he whispered into the kiss, and oh, he could feel himself flushing, warmth spreading across his cheeks and at the tips of his ears as she caught her fingers up in his hair, pressing lightly against the back of his scalp. He’d have to tidy it as best he could before going back inside. “So?” She answered, and he’d almost forgotten he’d said anything. “What’s a little more gossip? They talk about us both separately already, why not decide for ourselves what they get to talk about?” He didn’t know how to live in her world, so self-assured and unafraid, but he was beginning to think he wanted to try. And that he wanted her to kiss him again, of course.

3 “How are you holding up?” Therien turned back. She didn’t know how she was supposed to answer that. “Good..? I mean, kind of tired. But I’ll be ready to leave tomorrow, don’t worry.” “That’s not what I meant. It’s a sudden change. It’s alright to be unsure.” She could feel her expression crumple, as hard as she tried to hold it together. I don’t want to seem like a child—but if I can be honest with anyone, it’s my papa, right? “I—I’m so nervous,” she said before she’d finished deciding whether she wanted to say anything at all. “I just know everyone’s going to fuss over me tomorrow, and it’s the Sixth Watch, so I don’t know any of them, and I’m going to say something stupid or, or have trouble with my horse or something and make a fool of myself, and I’m already so much younger than all of them and so bad at everything—“ She was stopped short by the feeling of her papa’s hands on her shoulders, warm and solid, and she hadn’t even realized she’d screwed her eyes shut until she opened them again. “They won’t bother you too much. They’re far better behaved than the Third. The horse you’ll be riding is named Natha, and she’s very calm. Hal and I will be with you the whole trip.” His fond, reassuring smile dropped once he saw she was crying. She raised a hand to scrub at her eyes angrily. “I—I didn’t get to say goodbye to Oenith properly, and it was hardly any better with Condel, but Oenith and I argued—she was angry that I waited so long to tell her, and she was right, I was stupid about it, I’m always so scared and I always do the wrong thing—“ Her papa pulled her against his chest. She could feel her tears dampening his shirt as they fell, and she tried to hold on tighter, catching her hands in fistfuls of his cloak, heavy wool and smelling of leather and medicinal herbs. “Shh,” he soothed. “If it helps at all, I think you’re being very brave.” “No I’m not,” she shot back miserably. He didn’t try to argue, only held her more securely, which made it clear enough what he thought. It wouldn’t have helped to try to convince her anyways, she admitted to herself. She wondered how he always seemed to know exactly what to do. He didn’t say anything at all for a long while, only held her in the middle of the dark, empty street as she sniffled into his shirt. Once her tears had slowed, he pulled her back to arm’s length. He brushed back the ugly wisps of hair that never liked to stay in her braid, and leaned down to kiss her forehead. She gave a wobbly smile, trying to be as brave as he thought she was. “If you’re feeling up to it, go ahead inside and pack your things.” She blinked. “What?” “If you like. The rooms are a bit crowded, though.” He gave a small, patient smile. "Or you could stay here another night?" “No, right, of course.” She felt somehow lighter, even as she began to entertain distant worries about meeting Tarnuvin’s soldiers and somehow making a fool of herself again. Or maybe Deras and Ealrid were awake by some chance, and they’d cause a fuss— Her papa kissed her forehead again, then smoothed her hair back into place as best he could and wrapped her in another brief embrace. She didn’t want to let go. “I’ll be waiting right here, alright, sweetheart?” She tried again to smile. “Alright. I’ll be right back.”

open tag on this one, for anyone who wants to join in!!

tag list: @just-emis-blog @orions-quill @honeybewrites @leahnardo-da-veggie @robin-the-blind-sniper-rifle

[rabbityshen]

not sure who this post is for.

i think i just needed a way to get out some of my brainworms about genazo and some of the observations i've made about it as a movie and fandom phenomenon that's big in japan but basically not at all here. it was originally gonna be a pitch post on my Main, Professional writing blog but it came out kind of too.....silly for that. which is why the grammar and capitalization are generally proper and the tone is more formal (and has images). i wrote most of it back in august/september but have edited it so it's relatively current to right now.

it's mostly a bunch of rambling and info tidbits about genazo. cant imagine who would be interested in it, except genazo fans, but then it's also written as if to be read by ppl who don't know what genazo is. again, very confusing post. my bad. if u wanna read it go ahead, but lol (lol).

but if ur like "what's genazo?" well then this the post for you. maybe.

edit: added some more fun images for myself 😊 and some (spoilery) CWs for the movie at the very end

They say honesty is a virtue so I might as well start off by saying that my curiosity about this movie was not sparked by the anniversary productions being made for Shigeru Mizuki’s 100th birthday or through keeping tabs on the latest anime films coming out, but because I saw fanart and I thought the main character, Mizuki, looked hot.

After some sleuthing, I tracked down the source material and was surprised that it was from a movie, Kitaro Tanjo: GeGeGe no Nazo (which I'll shorten to GeNazo), part of the GeGeGe no Kitaro franchise.

If you don’t know of GeGeGe no Kitaro or Shigeru Mizuki, I’ll pause here to give a little bit of background info. Shigeru Mizuki was a mangaka born in 1922, who made manga at the same time alongside other influential artists like Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy) and Shotaro Ishinomori (Kamen Rider). Mizuki would ultimately become famous for GeGeGe no Kitaro (which I'll shorten to Kitaro from here on out), a manga series following a yokai boy named Kitaro and his adventures. Kitaro is on par with Asto Boy in terms of being a national icon. He’s credited with popularizing yokai stories for the modern masses, his imagery becoming what people would most associate with the classic folklore. Besides the 2023 movie, there was an anime adaptation that aired 2018 - 2020, which was also a 50th anniversary production based off of the first anime adaptation that first aired in 1968.

I had some passing, bare minimum familiarity with Kitaro, as much as anyone who’s liked anime and manga for decades would have, and I had never seen a character from it who looked like Mizuki. Clearly, the movie wasn't a straightforward adaptation, even if it was taking one of the manga chapter titles as its own (“The Birth of Kitaro,” which shows the origins of the eponymous character). Not only that, but the promotional material was fairly bloody and dour, obviously aimed at a more mature audience than the usual child demographic the franchise was geared towards, as with the 2018 Kitaro anime. The character design for Kitaro on the movie poster was very similar though, so I figured they likely shared the same continuity.

(i don't have enough relevant images to adequately disperse throughout this post so im just adding random screenshots of mizuki for enrichment and personal indulgence 🙂)

Since the anime series had been officially licensed and subtitled by Crunchyroll, I assumed the same had been done for the movie but that was not the case. It had been released in Japanese theaters back in November 2023 but as of April 2024 at the time, there was (and still is) nowhere official and legal to watch it with localized English subtitles. I had little interest in Kitaro otherwise so I shrugged and decided I would let my shallow interest taper off. It did not.

Instead it plagued me for months (my friends can testify to this). I can't exactly articulate why; The heart wants what the heart wants I suppose. So I finally caved in and found…other means of watching it. I'm not sure if I expected that to sate the brainworms already festering in my head, but basically the opposite of that happened. Now having context for what I was already seeking out on Twitter, new depths of investment were opened up. And that's when I discovered this movie was quite popular.

Now granted, this is still in relative terms. This was the year that other animated hit films such as The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Boy and the Heron came out. Even other anime franchise films such as Case Closed: Black Iron Submarine and Spy x Family Code: White were much bigger domestic and international hits from around the same time. However, while GeNazo never reached the status of being the #1 movie in Japan for the week, it was one of the top five grossing movies for four consecutive weeks (and in the top ten for a consecutive 11 weeks), making over two billion yen (~$17 million). It was also selected to be shown at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival in the Countrechamp category. A new version of the film called the “True Version” (真生版), which contains redone cuts and rerecorded dialogue (but no changes to the narrative), as well as bumps up the rating from PG-12 to R15, was released a few weeks ago.

And when you zoom in closer from a fandom subculture perspective, its popularity is undeniable. The doujinshi made for the GeNazo fandom and sold through the retailer Comic Toranoana is not only numerous, but has dominated the female-targeted section rankings for months (both “All Ages” and “Adults Only”), alongside doujinshi for much more internationally popular series like Jujutsu Kaisen and Slam Dunk. (Another way to compare this, Kitaro has a total of 2500+ listed and Delicious in Dungeon has a little over 40 items listed.) In the 2023 poll for yumejoshi (similar to the concept of “self-shipping” fandom) to pick their favorite characters for the year, the two main characters made it to the top twenty (Gegero at #15 and Mizuki at #9), even though the movie was released quite late into the year. Then in Animage’s annual Anime Grand Prix, GeNazo was voted as the top favorite anime for 2023, with Mizuki and Gegero also voted as the top favorite characters. At COMIC CITY SPARK 19, a popular Tokyo doujinshi event held last week, GeNazo is the third most popular fandom represented (above other fandoms including Haikyu!! and Honkai: Star Rail). Several months ago, a film concert event was held and it must've done more than well enough if they're holding the event again for two days in November.

So obviously, I was very much not the only one infested with brainworms! But in comparison, no one over in English-speaking anime fandom circles knows anything. On Archive of Our Own, there’s a tag for “GeGeGe no Kitaro (Anime)”* that only has under 50 works in English when accounted for the movie’s release. (In comparison, there are over 2,500 works in the tag for “ダンジョン飯 | Dungeon Meshi | Delicious in Dungeon” in English when accounted for the anime’s release. For possibly a more equivalent comparison, there are a little under 200 works in the tag for “Bang Brave Bang Braven (Anime)” a show that did receive an official English translation and was ranked second in the Anime Grand Prix.) Every time I peek into Japanese fandom, I feel like I’m stepping into a parallel universe. The gap is striking.

Anime has never been more accessible to foreigners, specifically Americans. Piracy still reigns supreme in terms of frugal personal finances, but it's less convenient and full of pitfalls, requiring some sophistication in navigating platforms and torrents. As a thirty year old with a full-time job, the low-risk convenience on its own is worth the money of subscription. It’s also easy to think in the age of streaming and simulcast—with plenty of titles getting licensed but then instantly buried under the oversaturation of Content and lackluster efforts at marketing—that we have legal access to everything, or at least everything notable. But similar to this year's cult hit Girls Band Cry (until the official English language translation available through Hoopla and, soon on November 6th, Crunchyroll as well), GeNazo fell through the license cracks. 

I shouldn't be too surprised though. While Kitaro is an iconic series with a deep cultural legacy in Japan, its popularity in the USA is much milder. In my experience, people who do know about Kitaro tend to regard it as a piece of classic manga history rather than engaging art or storytelling in its own right. As an older, episodic children’s series fundamentally focused on traditional Japanese folklore, its potential appeal to international audiences is less universal and it's less likely to be taken seriously by manga fans invested in more serialized storytelling. So it is a shame that this movie isn't licensed and officially localized. Tomohiro Harafuchi, the director of Mizuki Productions, said in an interview at the Annecy Festival that he hoped that screening GeNazo there would “inspire the international audience to discover these universes” since Kitaro is less well known outside of Japan. Especially since it stands out as fairly unique work among the other Kitaro movies, series, and other related media.

At this point, you might be wondering what GeNazo is actually about and what my pitch is for watching it besides Hot Anime Guy.

The version that's short and to the point: A nice horror mystery with some decent fujobait and anti-nationalist themes.

The version with a premise like you're reading the back of a DVD case: Mizuki, a salaryman working for a blood bank during Japan’s postwar era, is tasked with visiting a remote village. He hopes to curry favor with a powerful family whose patriarch has just died, causing a power struggle, as well as find out the secret of the miracle drug that they manufacture. Along the way, he meets a mysterious man searching for his missing wife. Violent, strange deaths begin occurring however, and Mizuki soon finds himself wrapped up in a disturbing conspiracy he never anticipated. Find out the twisted origins of one of Japan’s most beloved characters…

My actual, extremely condensed opinion: A fun 3/5 stars movie that I'm kind of ambivalent about.

“Whoa whoa whoa,” you may be wondering, “You wrote all of this about a movie you rated 3/5 on Letterboxd?” The answer is “yes” and I wish I had a better one.

That'll be for another post though, since I can't discuss it without really getting into spoilers.

Note [possible spoilers]: Content warnings for GeNazo include gore, war trauma flashbacks, non-graphic and referenced incestuous CSA, alcoholism, child death.

[cielenruine]

"Sir...Uh." He didn't know his name. "I would like to apologize for the way i acted at the rat's dorms." Of the people he could recall at that meeting he crashed he was one of them and thus deserving of apology. Alfred did not smile but instead wore an expression that perhaps spoke of how bad he felt for his actions. "I don't think you need to know the exact reasons of why i appeared the way i did, but it was wrong of me to come crashing in the middle of your meeting with demands and refusing to leave despite being told to multiple times to do that. I was not only rude but also unfair to everyone involved—I'm really sorry for the trouble i caused."

Hand hovered his own chest. "You don't have to forgive me and i will accept if you don't, but i wanted to apologize anyway."

His anxieties still stuck with him, brows furrowed into a frown but as he continued speaking his tone was far from angry—instead it was grateful. "I also wanted to thank you for taking Lord Rafal in. It was my fault he ended up needing to go to your team for some peace, very glad he's got people willing to support him." A heartbeat. "I don't want to know what happened after i left until he's ready to tell me himself, but thank you for supporting him when i failed to do so."

“Matthias.” Dry. Part of him was grateful he need not seek the other man out, that he had the courage to come to him, but he could not so easily be turned from the impression left on him that night. He listened, his expression scarcely changing as he did and at he end he could only find himself staring.

“Emotion takes us all at times. Irrationality isn’t something that can be prevented, specially so when one’s heart is truly dead set on something.” The words were spoken formally, far more akin to the voice he had used back home rather than the more soft spoken tone he had adopted to use with others here. ”You should concern yourself with sorting yourself out first.” A slight shift in his gaze accompanied by a shift of eyes and a sigh. “That you would even think to put your hands on him like that,” He couldn’t prevent the scold that had seeped it’s way in. “Be so absurd as to chase him where he sought solace most likely for your sake and think others might let you whisk him away so easily leaves no doubt for your devotion, but it seems sorely misplaced if that’s how you act.” “I’ve two sons,” The words would mean nothing to him, but it had plagued Matthias’s mind since that night. “You remind me of my eldest, so I say this with the utmost care I can-“ He took a step back as if to restrain himself. “If all the flowery language you spoke back then wasn’t utter drivel and a show, then you’d best learn when to leave well enough alone. I don’t know Lord Rafal nor you, nor do I wish to get anymore involved than you made any of us that night…but you seem earnest enough if misguided.” He turned to look back at the man. “For your sake and Rafal’s, I’d suggest you focus on things more important.” ”But you didn’t come here for a lecture.” His tone returned to the voice more suited to his current professor profession. “Thank you for the apology, you’re forgiven. The incident is as good as gone from my mind…and so long as you don’t ever pull such a horrible stunt again, then we can simply act as though none of this happened.” The man requested not to know…and maybe if only for Rafal’s sake, it was best he didn’t. “We were concerned about you as well.” Though for different reasons. He still had never seen whatever the hell it was Valter stabbed.

“I can’t offer you much in way of advice outside of what I’ve already told you, but should you ever feel so distressed you fear making such a rash decision again, I’d be glad to help you channel that energy into something more productive…a silent spar in essence. Feel no obligation to accept or decline. It’s simply an offer on the table.” The least he could do was try and end it amicably…though that sort of thing would never be his forte.

[oddygaul]

Fallout

Fallout was a surprisingly loving and accurate recreation of the source material’s tone, but it didn’t do much for me overall.

I really dug all the references and the pretty spot-on portrayal of the Fallout setting, though - it’s a confident example of… what I’d call postmodern adaptations. Let me explain.

When I was growing up (so, late 90s / early aughts), general-audience adaptations of weird source material were stricken with a sort of plague. It seemed that the producers would recognize that a given IP was popular and could be spun up into a major production, but, simultaneously, felt there was no way to leave the brand as-is without alienating the general populace. Now, I understand that change is a necessary part of any adaptation. Movies adapted from books, for example, inherently require significant writing changes due to how much less time you have to tell the story. The era I’m talking about was not defined by writing changes, though - it was defined by changes to the core tone, worldbuilding, and aesthetic of properties which often bastardized them nearly beyond recognition.

Typically, these changes seemed to be about attaining a level of ‘realism’. They were willing to adapt a story about a teenager without radioactive spider powers fighting a flying green man, but god forbid they present it in a way that doesn’t seem realistic! This is most evident in the visual design for adaptations from this era - they’re desaturated, normalized, and dour to a one, no matter how vibrant the source material was. Think Dragonball Evolution, think The Last Airbender - works with distinct, idiosyncratic visual identities mushed into a samey, gritty look to serve some notion of conforming to an audience’s expectations.

The other place this striving for ‘realism’ reared its head was in the nuts and bolts of worldbuilding itself - the idea that the audience needs everything to be explained. Typically in original settings, you take the fantastical as a given. It doesn’t need to have some deep logic behind it, it doesn’t need to make proper scientific sense in our reality - it makes sense in their reality, so roll with it. That’s the point of creating your own setting!

Adaptations in that era seemed to be afraid of this, and had a tendency to overexplain things, and justify how they could exist in The Real World. Look, it’s not magic, see, they’re actually drawing on the quazium particles in the air to fuel their powers! And their cool magic amulet glows when they cast a spell because, uh, it’s reacting to the local buildup of quazium particles! …or whatever. This dogged desire to justify the very quirks that make a property unique ends up feeling clunky and draining the life out of it, and often calls attention to those differences in a way that confuses folks more than if you’d just left it alone in the first place!

So, if we call that the modernist approach, the current, ‘postmodern’ approach to adaptation is to simply trust the audience. Like, look, we’re in the internet age - maybe you don’t know the ins and outs of this particular franchise, but we know you’re a little freak for some fandom. Sure, maybe you don’t know about X particular detail of this setting, but through osmosis you know that it’s primarily about Y, and you know that everyone online really wants B and C to fuck each other - so we’re just gonna get on with it. Because of this trust in the audience, movies like Into the Spider-Verse can happen: an overwhelming smorgasbord of color, characters and lore that would give someone from the 60s a panic attack, which we, the attention-deficit dopamine junkies of the 2020s, take in stride.

And my favorite facet of this trust is an understanding that they don’t have to rub your face in the reference - it’s fine to just have it happen and move on. The people that get it will love it, and the people that don’t, well, they won’t even know they’re missing anything. The recent D&D movie, Honor Among Thieves, has many great examples of this. Rather than overt namedrops, its references tend to be situational - they’re subtle little moments that every D&D player has dealt with around the table:

-The players relentlessly bullying the DMPC for no particular reason -All but one of the players succeeding on a history check and proceeding to spout off their suddenly recalled knowledge -The party coming to an obstacle, looking through their inventory on their character sheet, then sheepishly saying “Uhh… we could tie this axe to a rope?”

All of these moments work at face value without game knowledge. But for anyone who’s been in those situations, they’re fun nods - and bely a deeper understanding by the creators of not just the brass tacks worldbuilding of D&D, but of what it's like to play D&D.

i fuckin love Zach Cherry man

So anyway, Fallout has a lot of this type of reference, especially in the Vault. Lucy’s post-marriage sequence feels straight out a game intro - all I have in my inventory is this wedding dress, so I guess that’s what I’m wearing for this combat tutorial! Also, the consummation / assault scene is filmed in such a dark, hopeless way after she gets stabbed - in most shows this wound would be a death sentence. But it’s Fallout, so she opens her pause screen, jabs a stimpak in there, it heals up instantly and she’s good to go!

Similarly, her little presentation at the beginning of the show might as well be a character creation screen - Repair, Science, Speech, Melee Weapons, Unarmed, Small Guns, a pretty good skill spread. Later on, we even get Disney Channel’s own Moisés Arias investigating what happened in the neighboring vault by walking around and seeing the skeletons posed in certain ways - Bethesda’s famous ~✩ e n v i r o n m e n t a l s t o r y t e l l i n g ✩~, baybee.

'10 years of cousin stuff' was probably my favorite single line (pic unrelated) (but is it though?)

That unnecessarily long tangent aside, though, as a whole the show didn’t hit for me. And even after quite a bit of thought, I don’t really have a succinct reason, either. By all means the character work is pretty solid - the contrasting ‘playthroughs’ shown by our 3 leads is a neat approach, and Fallout uses it to touch on some interesting themes about the breakdown of the social contract as we watch the slow testing of Lucy’s morals. The show also pretty well nails the tone of the games, which is an achievement given how fucking weird that tone is.

And yet - meh. Partly due to the inherent camp and satirical tone, I never felt totally immersed in the setting - it was hard for me to see the camps and towns as anything but hastily built sets. I also quickly grew tired of the hyperviolence that defines Fallout. It was mostly played for laughs, and maybe it’s just where I’m at in life, but it was hard for me to find the humor in gratuitous slow-motion footage of entire communities being brutally murdered. There’s a point where it just feels like the show gets off on watching the bright-eyed ingénue suffer - by the time we got to the finger-cutting scene I was pretty checked out.

From a plotting perspective, it also felt like it was trying just a bit too hard to be prestige TV. There’s absolutely stories where the slow burn of a series-wide conspiracy coming together is deeply satisfying - Severance is one of the best shows this decade imo - but it felt contrived in Fallout. I thought the loss of innocence and contrast between the sheltered Vault dwellers and the hardened survivors out in the wasteland was compelling enough; does it really benefit that story when, actually, turns out, all of these characters are connected, and three of the major characters all knew each other 200 years ago before the bombs even dropped? Does every loose end really have to tie up so neatly?

The Vault-Tec twist was dodgy, too. As far as I’m concerned, the twist that the Vaults are actually big fucked-up science experiments and not some safe bastion of humanity is one of the more compelling bits of Fallout’s lore, and I think that reveal was handled pretty well for first-time viewers. Do we really have to immediately one-up that by implying Vault-Tec are actually the ones responsible for kicking off the war? Tell me it’s not definitive all you want, even the implication sours me on the story - again, we’re reducing the scope of this entire, centuries-long story to the actions of like, a handful of people who all end up in the same room together.

Also, huge tease to include Matt Berry and only have him in one scene. Unforgivable.

[comfortwriting]

Best friends Brother - G.W

Part 1 of my slow burn mini-series, inspired by and dedicated to @amourtentiaa , want to be tagged? Let me know!

Masterlist, Requesting Rules, Writing Prompts

Part 2

George Weasley x Fem Reader 

About: The Reader is falling for her best mates older brother, she confines in Ron who is already afraid of losing his best friend to the brothers he’s so pressured to be like.

Warnings: swearing, fluff, mention of food and eating, but of angst, George punching a creep.

Walking away from Hagrid’s hut towards the castle, thoughts about the more quiet Weasley twin filled your hazy head - you were planning on shooting your shot, but first you needed some advice and the only person who could do that right now is your best friend Ron - currently chewing your ear off about Hermione and the house elves. 

“She doesn’t know when to stop does she? All the S.P.E.W nonsense, if she brings it up one more time-”

“Hey, do you think George likes anyone?” you asked as cool as possible, trying to contain your nervousness and excitement. 

Although you and George had only spoken few words to one another, he was all you could think about, all you ever thought about, day in day out. You would share sweet glances and looks across the common room in the evening, the beautiful amber glare coming from the flames projecting onto George’s face, making him look like an angel. 

As much as you liked him, you were terrified that he wouldn’t feel the same, that he only saw you as his little brothers best friend - you hated it. 

Ron slowed down from his brisk walk and he continued to stare at the ground “George? As in.. my brother?” 

“yeah” you smiled shyly, swallowing hard. 

Ron could feel his heart flutter, the idea of another person - his best friend - favouring one of his legendary twin brothers over him made him sick to his stomach, he couldn’t lose anyone else, he wouldn’t let it.

He pondered his thoughts, perhaps you were asking for someone else, someone Ron didn’t care about - the desperation in his stomach kept churning to find out. 

“I don’t know” he replied in a huff “we don’t really talk much, why you asking anyway?” 

You went quiet, suddenly finding interest in the scenery as the two of you edged closer to the castle. 

“uh, no reason” you lied, running your hand through your hair. 

For all of Ron’s flaws, he could tell when his best friend was lying - he never failed calling you out for it in the past, you learnt not to play any card games with him - especially when galleons were on the table. 

The two of you entered the loud castle, pushing past students in the hall, making your way to the Gryffindor common room.

“you like him, don’t you?” Ron muttered under his breath, making sure everyone else around you couldn’t hear.

You sighed and made eye contact with Ron, his facial expression even more sour than when he puked up slugs in first year. 

You walked up the stairs and held on to the rail, looking around for the Fat Lady “I suppose I do, I was thinking of asking him to-”

Ron could feel the sweat form in his palms and under his arms, images of you and George being together all the time instead of him flashed before him.

“I don’t know, Y/N, you’re two years younger than him, you haven’t spoken more than ten words to each other.” 

Your heart pained for a moment, your spirits crushing like the ingredients in one of Snape’s potions.

“I just don’t think he’ll like you that much, I don’t want you to get hurt.” he finished, the two of you finally reaching the portrait. 

“I guess so” you mumbled “you know him better than I do.”

Over the next few days you couldn’t stomach being around George, each time you looked into his gorgeous eyes and seeing him smile, caused your heart pain, a lump forming in your throat, and hot tears filling your eyes. 

At first George didn’t notice but when he would wave and smile - only to be ignored, he couldn’t help but overthink; wondering if he had done something wrong. 

It wasn’t just George who you ignored, you kept away from your best friend Ron too - Ron felt like shit but you were away from George and that gave him enough of a clear conscience to sleep at night. 

You couldn’t sleep, you missed your best friend even when he hurt your feelings, you also felt hopeless, the only person you ever showed an interest in wouldn’t even give you a chance.  

“What’s been up with Y/N lately? George asked his younger brother, buttering his toast, causing Ron to almost choke on his. 

“What you on about?” 

George rolled his eyes and swallowed his food, “unbelievable you are, she’s been avoiding you like the plague and she won’t even look at me.”  

“So, did you make up your mind yet?” 

You swore silently under your breath, recognising the voice who called out to you - an attractive and charming Hufflepuff student in George’s year with short black hair kept asking you over and over to go on a date with him in Hogsmeade, each time you said no had failed to satisfy his desire. 

“Uh” you were trying to figure out the best way to tell him to fuck off, but then again, what did you have to lose? “yeah, I’ll be there” you faked a smile. 

Ron watched in the distance and felt relieved, from his perspective, the possibility of you and George seemed incredibly slim to none. He walked over towards you as soon as the lad split, a smile creeping up on his face. 

“Y/N, alright?” he smiled, his hands in his pockets. 

You stared at him, yes you were hurt, but you missed him - he could do much worse to cause a much bigger fall out between the two of you. 

“I suppose” you sighed “walk with me to Transfiguration class?” 

Ron smiled “can do”

“and took your bloody shirt in!” you scolded him, bumping into him playfully. 

As much as you enjoyed visiting Hogsmeade, you couldn’t help but want to go back home and climb back into your warm bed, hiding away from the world - but your habit of trying to see the best in people lead you here - waiting outside Honey Dukes for your date to arrive. 

“Look at you!” he called out, walking over and kissing your hand “ready for the best day of your life?” he grinned.

Best day of my life? with you? I should’ve stayed in bed.

“Sure” you replied, plastering a fake smile on your face. 

The best day of your life wasn’t too bad, you had someone new to talk to, to try and get your mind off things - but your heart couldn’t help but yearn for George. You looked around the shops thinking of the products he liked, disliked, and what he bought for Ron at Christmas. 

Your date had more to blab about himself than get to know you, he held your hand and bought you a much needed Butterbeer - but he talked so much that he didn’t even get round to drinking his own. The more he had to say, the more he tried to impress you, the more you disliked him, making you fall for George even more. 

Finally breaking out from the busy and overwhelming pub and out into the cold, your date stood in front of you with a strange expression on his face. 

“So?” he shrugged

“so, what?” you stared at him, your patience wearing thin. 

The shared laughter between George and Ron came to a halt when George spotted you with his classmate, he knitted his brows together. 

“Why’s Y/N around that plonker?” he asked his younger brother. 

Ron looked at you then back to George “she’s on a date”

George shook his head “he’s an absolute creep” 

The two of them stared, the student took a hold of your hand and tried to pull you in for a kiss, you pulled away and glared at him, trying to not make a scene. 

“Fucking pervert!” George hissed, storming over towards the two of you “Hey!”

George clenched his jaw, his nostrils flared and his glaring gaze settled on on the lad, he bunched his right hand into a fist and swung, everything went in slow motion as George punched him in the face. 

You were speechless, you didn’t know what to say, all you could do was stare and watch the fight unfold. 

“Stay away from her or my foot will rip you a new one!” George threatened him, he turned to you, his facial expression instantly turning soft.

“th-thank you” 

“you don’t need to thank me love, are you alright?” George searching your eyes with his, full of care and concern. 

Your heart fluttered, his voice, him speaking to you sounded like the most fascinating birds chirping, and his caring face caused fireworks in your stomach to erupt into the sky. 

You wanted to take your chance, ask him out and start over but before you could do any of that, let alone reply, Ron hurried over and interrupted; putting you back in your place and making you remember how his brother felt about you. 

“Proper shiner he’ll have in the morning” Ron laughed “sort your knuckles out George, if anyone sees they’ll send a letter home.” 

The fluttering in your heart died down, the chirping of the birds instantly turning into the most dreadful squawks, and the fireworks in your stomach burning out, starving the embers before they could relight.  

“Thanks again” you murmured quietly, flashing George one last smile before walking away, wanting to retreat to your bed and hide away. 

George had to admit, he felt quite hurt that you went back to ignoring him after he had your back the other week - he knew that you didn’t owe him anything, not even an explanation - but he couldn’t understand why even after making up with Ron, you still refused to look at him.

Sitting on the sofa in the common room in your pyjamas, you flicked through your Quidditch magazine and blinked over and over whilst you looked across the page, sleep trying to pull you in. 

“Georgie, I’ve already said-” 

“Shhh!”

Jolting awake, you looked behind you and stared at the twins, long roles of parchment in one hand and a map in the other, you yawned and rubbed your eyes, closing your magazine. 

“It’s okay boys, I’m going to bed anyway.” you yawned again, slowly getting off the sofa. 

Fred and George shared a look, the older twin nodding his head towards you “go on then, mate, I’ll be upstairs.”

Fred walked past you, he whispered a “goodnight!” and went off to his dorm, leaving you alone with the person you wanted more than anyone in the world. 

George pursed his lips, standing around awkwardly before approaching you “Y/N, can we talk?” he asked softly. 

You nodded slowly, the nerves piping up in your tummy. 

“What’s up?”

“You’ve been ignoring me, love” he said softly “have I done something wrong?” 

This was your moment, not to ask him out - but to tell him the truth. 

You pushed your stray hairs out of your face and sighed, the lad of your dreams standing beside you, looking down on you. 

“I have feelings for you George” you admitted, your mouth going dry “and that’s why I have to stay away from you, because I know you’re never going to feel the same.” 

George went quiet, the embers from the fire spreading and making it set alight, the amber tones coming from the flames resting on his face. He smiled for a moment and licked his lips, looking into your eyes.

“Tomorrow night” he whispered softly in your ear “where we first met”

Tag list: @reeophidian @inglourious-imagines @alwaysnforeverfangirl  

[aphrostarot]

Career Direction Pick a Pile

Where should you go in your career?

Please remember that this is a general reading and some things may not apply to you. Don't force it to fit. I offer paid readings on my page if you would like a personal reading. Prices are listed there. Please message me if you are interested!

Pile One (Rose Quartz):

Where are you currently?

Seven of Cups:

Currently, you are faced with a decision. Right now, you have multiple options to choose from and you don't know which one to choose. For some, I get the feeling that you have been going through the motions of your life thinking you want to do one thing but then you found another option, and now you don’t know what you want to do anymore.

What are your current challenges?

Queen of Pentacles:

Spirit says that you have been spending too much money on unnecessary things recently. It has not been working in your favor. According to your guides, you are spending money at the same rate as it is coming in, which means you have been struggling to maintain a stable balance.

Where can you find help?

The Empress:

Growing and having new things come into your life is the theme of this card. You can find support from your guides by accepting growth and striving for growth. As your guides say, you are capable of growing out of this mindset that you currently have. You will begin to move in the right direction once your mindset changes.

What are the long-term gains on your current path?

Ten of Pentacles:

You are on the path to great abundance. A life of success and wealth awaits you. You will accumulate great wealth and success in the future. By changing your mindset, you will remain on this path. As a result, your success on this journey will be enhanced.

What are the short-term gains on your current path?

Nine of Cups:

Wish fulfillment is represented by this card. It won't be long before you receive what you have been seeking. You are on the right path and your wishes will come true if you stick with it.

What are your strengths?

The Lovers:

It is your strength to make decisions, and your guides predict that you will make the right choice again. You are very passionate about life, and you never let your emotions cloud your judgment.

What are your weaknesses?

Page of Pentacles:

Once again, this shows that you are very immature with your money. Your champagne lifestyle is not in your favor and won't be if you continue it.

What should you focus on now?

Four of Wands:

Right now, your financial stability is what's most important. Since your lack of money maturity has been messing with your bank account for some time now, Spirit says that it is now time to take action towards stability.

What should you focus on in the future?

Ace of Pentacles:

When your finances are stable, you can focus on finding more money. This then allows you to work toward your desired lifestyle, one of abundance.

Strength:

Once you start to think before you spend, you can also find the strength to continue on your path to success. As soon as you accomplish this, your strength will emerge.

What are some opportunities coming your way?

The Star:

You will get everything you desire if you ask for advice from your guides if you are lost in your career journey. Let them help you; they are there to help. You will get to where you want to be. Additionally, this card indicates that you can succeed in the creative field if that is your goal.

The Sun:

Your career will be a great success based on this card. Soon, you will achieve great success. Your career might also be meant for overseas expansion if this is the case. You may need to sell online and try to sell your product overseas if you are able to do so. In addition, it shows that you may have the opportunity to work overseas.

What are your next steps?

King of Cups:

You have been so stressed out with your career status that you have neglected your self-care. During this time, your guides want you to be more empathetic to yourself and to take better care of yourself.

Temperance:

Currently, you need to strive for contentment. Right now, you may not have that in your life because of the stress you are experiencing with these choices you need to make. You are being guided to focus on finding contentment in your life as your next step.

Pile Two (Sodalite):

Where are you currently?

Five of Cups:

A period of sadness has been plaguing you recently. You are focusing on everything you have lost and you do not realize that you still have things in your life that need to be focused on.

What are your current challenges?

Seven of Wands:

Currently, your social group is going through a rough patch. You have had some fights with people close to you. Jealousy caused some people to act inappropriately. However, you are still fighting, despite feeling like you lack the energy to complete this fight.

Where can you find help?

Nine of Wands:

We know that this fight has hurt you deeply and that you feel as if you will never get over it. Your injuries have been constant, with no end in sight. Spirit says that the only way out of this seemingly never-ending cycle is to work hard to get out.

Fool:

To break this cycle, you need to embrace the Fool's energy. Fools are enthusiastic and energetic, representing new beginnings. You are being guided to embrace the idea of a new beginning of some sort. It might be better for you to leave these people behind and start over somewhere else. If not, you should leave these fights behind and start a new beginning with them.

What are the long-term gains on your current path?

Judgment:

As a future outcome of this card in a career reading, it shows that you will succeed very much in your career in the long run, all of your blocks will go away and you will be in a great place. Additionally, it is telling you that the career you are in is what you are meant to do. As soon as you embrace that Fools energy, these blocks you are currently facing will diminish.

What are the short-term gains on your current path?

The Sun:

You will be able to bask in your success very soon after all your hard work. In the near future, you will be very happy. You need to remain optimistic at this point. In order to achieve this, you need to embrace the energy of the Fool.

What are your strengths?

The Empress:

You know your worth, even if sometimes you do not let it show. You usually are the person who acts like you know your own worth because you do. By displaying that you know your worth, you allow others to treat you the way you deserve to be treated. You may not be aware that you can accomplish this right now, which is why things are not going well for you right now. Remembering this will help you get through this rough patch.

What are your weaknesses?

Three of Swords:

In this card, you are shown that other people are preventing you from reaching your goals. Your life is currently going through a rough patch because some people are jealous of what you have accomplished in your life. Your guides urge you to let go of these people, as they are hindering your progress.

What should you focus on now?

Eight of Cups:

These people need to be left behind and you need to start over. I apologize since this is very repetitive and can be very irritating to hear over and over, but your guides are being very concise, and they don't have much else to say to you at the moment.

Ace of Wands:

New beginnings in work or hobbies are symbolized by this card. Your guides are telling you to leave these people behind so that you can then start a new hobby or career. Those of you already employed can take this as your guides telling you that getting rid of the people in your office will make it easier for you to focus on your career.

What should you focus on in the future?

Five of Pentacles:

This is a card of great loss, specifically in money. Maybe you know someone who has been through this or perhaps you have been through this yourself. It appears that your guides are warning you to be careful of this happening. You should pay attention to your finances in the future, and make sure you are saving and spending your money wisely.

What are some opportunities coming your way?

Page of Pentacles:

Soon you will start something new. In the near future, your ideas and dreams will blossom. Your career and self-awareness will be enhanced. Your guides advise you to remain optimistic.

What are your next steps?

Knight of Wands:

This is a fast-moving card. Enthusiasm and all that comes with it are represented by it. Your guides tell you that as soon as you release these people from your life, your journey will take off, and you will be able to speed towards your end goal. Things will be coming to you very fast.

Pile Three (Amethyst):

Where are you currently?

High Priestess:

Intuition and psychic ability are represented by this card. Recently, you discovered that you possess psychic abilities and a strong sense of intuition. Since you realized you had these abilities, you have been practicing them and trying to improve them.

What are your current challenges?

The Chariot:

Whether you are aware of it or not, you have a deep-seated obsession. You may be going about your career in the wrong way. You have an obsession with fame, according to your guides. You only want success so you can be famous. There is no point in you focusing on fame because your guides do not want you to focus on that. Focus on your career because you enjoy it and find it fun, not because you want credit for it. You are being told that fame may not make you happy at all, it may even hinder your success.

Where can you find help?

The Moon:

The moon is your lens through which you view fame. Through rose-colored deceptive glasses. You believe fame will provide you with everything you desire, but your guides tell you that it will do the opposite. For you to move forward in your journey, you need to let go of this notion of fame fixing everything.

Ace of Cups:

You love your career only because you think it will bring you fame. You are guided to fall in love with your profession because it will bring you happiness rather than fulfill your idea of what happiness is. You must learn what makes you truly happy and follow that path. It's okay if that's not what you're currently doing.

What are the long-term gains on your current path?

Ace of Wands:

You will find the right career for you in the long run if you release the notion that fame will bring you happiness. You are being guided on your path towards your divine career and that may not be what you think it is.

Three of Pentacles:

You will be learning something new with this card coming out too. This is telling me that you will be finding something completely new to pursue in the future. You will be learning new approaches to your career and your success.

What are the short-term gains on your current path?

Knight of Pentacles:

In the short term, you will learn patience, and this patience will benefit you in the long run. You have been thinking for some time now that fame will bring everything you want, and you want it now. In order to progress on your journey, you need to change this. Things will come to you, but very slowly, and you need to keep that in mind as you move forward.

What are your strengths?

Knight of Swords:

You are extremely confident and not afraid to go after what you want. Being confident in yourself has helped you get to where you are today. As long as you follow what your guides want you to do, your confidence can take you very far in life.

What are your weaknesses?

Seven of Cups:

Making choices is not your strong suit. You haven't been able to for a long time. By providing you with this option, your guides are attempting to help you. You might not want to listen to them because you don't like their option, but, they are urging you to listen to them because they know what is best for you and it's not this.

What should you focus on now?

Seven of Pentacles:

This is the card of planning to build what you desire. Plan towards living the life of your dreams. The dream life you want now is not the dream life you have yet to discover. Consider trying new things, to find out what makes you happy and what makes you so enthusiastic about the future. As your guides explain to you, fame may seem like the cause of your happiness, but it is not. They are saying that you will soon find what it is, and then you will realize that what you thought you wanted and what you thought made you happy didn't and that this new thing is what truly makes you happy.

What should you focus on in the future?

The Well:

You should focus on your creativity in the future. Finding a purpose for your creativity will make you happy, and finding something to do with it will make you happy, this is your destiny. Focus on your creativity in the future, and you will be on the right track.

What are some opportunities coming your way?

Knight of Cups:

During your journey, you will be supported by someone who will provide you with great emotional support. They are there to help you build your career, and your guides tell you that this person will be of great help to you.

The Empress:

You will experience long-term career stability soon. Once you reach this point, you will have everything you have ever wanted and you will be extremely happy. You will be stable and you will reap the benefits of your hard work.

What are your next steps?

Ace of Pentacles:

To make money, you need to find something new. You need to find a new job. Your guides want this for you. Even though it is painful, it is for the best and will benefit you in the long run. As it stands, your guides want to do what is best for you, and in this current moment, you may not know what that is, so they are stepping up to show you. The way to do this is to find something new to do.

Pile Four (Amazonite):

Where are you currently?

Seven of Wands:

For some time now, you have been fighting with the people around you. It seems like people in your life don't agree with you about your career choice and this has caused some major arguments. They have been speaking up against you because they are jealous of your success.

What are your current challenges?

Two of Pentacles:

The Two of Pentacles represents financial difficulties in a career reading. Furthermore, you are having trouble balancing your career and your arguments. Your career has been negatively affected by both of these things.

Where can you find help?

Two of Wands:

It is necessary to work with someone else. Collaborate with someone. You will be able to accomplish this. Your guides tell you to delegate some things. Having a friend to talk to and bounce ideas off of will suffice, it doesn't need to be something huge. Perhaps you can find someone who can take over some of your responsibilities while you get back on your feet. You should find someone who can help you in your career. Your guides want this for you.

What are the long-term gains on your current path?

Knight of Swords:

You will be able to work hard to achieve your goals. Other people in your industry have gone the extra mile, while you have been struggling for a while. Long-term, you will be the one who is willing to go the extra mile. You will come out on top.

What are the short-term gains on your current path?

The Fool:

Your enthusiasm for your work is about to return. Your career will soon excite you. You will discover what you have been missing for a long time. You'll find that balance and regain your enthusiasm. It's just a matter of remaining optimistic.

What are your strengths?

Ten of Wands:

To get to where you want to be, you work extremely hard. Your persistence is admirable. Whatever you do, you work hard. Your hard work has already paid off in your life, and Spirit says that it will continue to pay off.

What are your weaknesses?

The Star:

To a fault, you are extremely hopeful. This has been a negative experience for you. You do not like to see the negative in any of your situations. There is such a thing as being too optimistic, and your guides tell you that you are too optimistic. Instead of seeing the situation as what you want it to be, you need to see it as it truly is.

Ten of Pentacles:

You are held back by tradition. You think you need to follow the traditional path in order to achieve your goals. This is not the case. Your family may also be involved in this. There is no need to follow in their footsteps in order to be successful.

What should you focus on now?

Five of Wands:

You must become more competitive in order to succeed in your field. Make sure you focus on achieving career success. Competitiveness is part of that.

What should you focus on in the future?

Ace of Pentacles:

You can then focus more on making more money in the future. At the moment, you should focus on finding your competitive side so that, in the future, you can focus on money and how you can acquire it.

What are some opportunities coming your way?

Knight of Cups:

Someone is coming into your life to help support you in your career. You will receive good emotional support from them. Your guides want you to work with someone in the near future, and that person is coming soon. I want to state another interpretation of this. The Knight of Cups represents you. You are very romantic and slightly immature, but you are still a very empathetic and romantic person.

King of Cups:

As a Knight, you are soon going to become a King. The person who is joining you may help you become more mature. However, it is also with your help. In the near future, you will gain more insight into your career and your empathetic nature.

What are your next steps?

King of Pentacles:

Embrace the King's energy and realize you are capable of great success and leadership. By embracing this energy, your next steps will be taken. Becoming the successful leader that you were destined to be starts with stepping into your confidence.

Though tips are not required, they are very much appreciated. Thank you!

Venmo: @ aphrostarot Paypal: paypal/aphrostarot

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Canary, Part 1

It was a good day. Why did stuff always have to go wrong on ‘good days’, Marinette thought bitterly as she rushed through the city, the rough edges of her phone digging into her palm. The message she’d been sent was burned into her eyelids.

She pushed the spiraling thoughts from her mind as she stared at the street sign nearest her. Only a minute and she’d be there and her fears would be either confirmed or denied.

She leaned against the wall to gather her thoughts. If she had messed up it had to have been today because, otherwise, he would have done something earlier. Did she mess up? She allowed her eyes to flutter closed as she thought back.

~

She’d woken up on an uncomfortable mattress on the floor and rolled off of it, the sheets sticking to her sweaty skin. It had been a particularly hot day for Gotham and she had been too concentrated on typing up a report for work to turn up the AC before her impromptu nap (translation: she’d passed out).

She rubbed her eyes until she managed to get her brown contacts out and set them in the weird not-quite-water that she had never bothered to learn the name for so her eyes could rest while she took a quick shower and changed.

Then, she’d waited. She sat in the window, eyes barely poking over the sill as she watched the building across the street. She didn’t feel like moving for a long while but, alas, the meeting was supposed to be that day and she was running out of time for that thing with Calendar Man and… yeah. Unfortunately, Marinette had to be productive that day unless she wanted more enemies.

She saw movement and her face lit up. She might get everything done soon, at least, and then she could pass out for a hundred years like she oh-so-desperately wanted to.

She checked that her gloves were firmly in place, pulled on the plague doctor (gas) mask that had accidentally become her trademark, and toed on her boots.

Then, she made her way up to the alleyway next to the building she had been watching. She’d been lucky enough to have a job right next to one of her safe houses and she kinda wished that it would happen again. It was nice to not have to travel a half-hour or more just to listen in on one boring conversation.

She pulled out her knives and, after testing to make sure they were still strong enough to hold her weight, began picking her way up to the roof.

She set everything up for the thing with Calendar Man. It took approximately five seconds. Yay her.

Alright, next thing: listening in on a boring conversation that, if she was lucky, would end in someone getting shot so it wouldn’t last too long. It was going to be even hotter inside the vent and she did not want to end up cooked. That would be embarrassing.

She crawled into the vents and dutifully wrote down everything they said on a notepad. They were negotiating a drug deal and her client wanted to intercept it to try and get both the money and the (… Big D? What the fuck is Big D?) drugs. From the sounds of it, it wasn’t possible but, hey, her job wasn’t anything more than gathering intel. If her clients wanted to die stupidly that was on them.

… maybe she’d kill her client herself, she thought angrily as she readjusted in the vent in hopes of not getting stuck to the metal. It was easy money but wow was it awful.

Or, at least, it was awful until a hand grabbed her by the hood of her leather jacket and started dragging her out. She tipped her head back, grin on her face in seconds.

“Signal. Hi.”

He sighed and pulled her the rest of the way out. She let herself hang from his grip like a reprimanded cat.

“So, what’s up?” She asked brightly, as if hadn’t just caught her listening in on a private conversation.

“Great, thanks for asking,” he said. “Even better now that I’m taking the famed Canary to Arkham.”

“We both know that’s not going to happen.”

He leveled her with a cold look for a few more seconds before splitting into a grin. “Yeah. Probably not. Got a backup plan?”

“Of course.”

“Is it even worth trying?”

“Probably not. But who knows? You could get lucky.”

She waited for a minute as he mulled over the idea in his head before he sighed. “I gotta ask: what’s with the egg?”

She swatted at his hand until he let her down and then led him over to her science experiment. “Know how there’s that expression that says ‘it’s so hot out you could make eggs on the sidewalk’ or something?”

“Yeah…?”

“Well, the pavement physically can’t get hot enough to do that and also we’re up north so: aluminum foil to try and get the process to work a little better.”

He stared at her for a while before snickering. “Need a magnifying glass? We can ‘kid with an anthill’ this.”

“Sure.”

He reached into his tool belt and started looking for his spare. Unfortunately for him, it seemed to be gone.

She could feel his sharp gaze turn on her even if she couldn’t see his eyes behind his helmet. He wasn’t stupid and magnifying glasses don’t usually just disappear into thin air unless they’re Plastic Man in disguise. She held up her hands for a quick search but, when he couldn’t find it on her, he just sighed and looked down at the science experiment. It didn’t seem to be going well. The egg was still distinctly not cooked.

Eventually, he groaned and sat down. The light around him flickered and started to move at his will. Marinette watched intently.

Ten minutes later, they had a cooked egg. They high-fived, delighted. They weren’t going to taste it, obviously, it had been out for a while without supervision and who knows what could have happened to it… but it was an egg! Yay them!

“My old science teacher would be so proud of me,” Marinette joked.

“My current science teacher would be proud of me.”

“Oooooh, going back to school?”

He smiled. “Yep! Robin is finally in college and Red Hood convinced me to go with him. You should, too, it’s actually not that bad.”

“Please. If I was going to do that I’d go back to my home country. American school is expensive and not all of us are sponsored by billionaires.”

“... aren’t you a millionaire?”

She grinned. “Of course. But why would I want to spend that much of my own money?”

He hummed his understanding. Then, she pushed herself up with a groan. “Right, we both have jobs. See you later.”

He hesitated and then held a hand out for her notepad. “Is it bad?”

She held it out of reach with ease. “Nah, just drugs. Unless someone got shot while I was gone but I doubt it. They’d been almost as bored as me last I heard.”

“If it’s nothing then let me see.”

“Ugh, do you really want to fight? It’s too hot for that,” Marinette complained. He started to square up and she, after a second’s thought, added a little something to convince him: “Also, there’s going to be a breakout today so you should really save your energy.”

“... really think I’m going to fall for that?”

There was an explosion in the distance.

“Yeah. I’d hurry. I’m pretty sure it’s Joker’s turn to get out.”

She waved him off with a smile… only for her smile to drop when she remembered her other job. She groaned again and stretched out while she still could.

Tikki floated over the side of the building, a magnifying glass as big as her head in her tiny paws.

Marinette rubbed the kwami’s head. “You’re the best.”

Her kwami sighed. “That I am,” she said.

Marinette grinned and sent the film of Signal using his powers to her computer so she could give it to Calendar Man when it was due.

People were always so predictable in Gotham.

~

She supposed she really had been tempting fate when she’d thought that. Still, that didn’t mean she liked it that Fate had called her bluff.

But, actually, it seemed that Fate was the one that was bluffing. That had been her entire day. She had finished up her work and then went to one of her more stocked safehouses for a nap. She’d woken up to the buzzing of her phone when she’d gotten the message. She didn’t think she had messed up anywhere…

Her shoulders relaxed. She was probably fine. Which meant it was just Oswald Cobblepot being annoying. As usual.

Marinette flung the doors to the Iceberg Lounge open. Every eye in the room fell on her, but she only cared about the eyes of one person.

She stalked through the lounge, pulling one of her twin karambits from its sheath and pointing the curved blade towards him.

“What the fuck do you want? You really think that, after almost seven whole years of rejecting your wrinkly ass, I’m suddenly going to say ‘oh, yeah, I guess I’ll work for him now’? Leave me alone!”

Cobblepot wasn’t concerned even as her knife came to rest under his chin.

“Canary,” he greeted, regarding her cooly through his monocle.

Guards surrounded them. Marinette somehow managed to look unimpressed without anyone being able to see her face.

Everyone present held their breath… except for the two with weapons pointed at themselves. They knew that they would never follow through with it, especially not in a place as public as this. It was little more than a warning, a reminder, that either of them could kill each other at any given moment and chose not to.

For now, at least.

Cobblepot dismissed the guards with a wave of a gloved hand and she, after a few seconds, lowered her knife.

“What do you want?”

“Currently? For you to get off my table,” said Cobblepot.

She snorted but hopped down with ease. “I meant: why did you call me here?”

“... we should go somewhere else to discuss this. I assume you don’t do all of your business meetings in public?”

“Only if I know ahead of time that I’m going to say no,” she said.

He motioned for her to walk with him to a private room and, reluctantly, she followed. He had to think he had something on her, otherwise he wouldn’t have tried calling her there. She was curious.

They came to a room with a metal door and she cringed a little. Fun.

She dropped eight knives down into a tray and Cobblepot put down a gun, a knife, and his umbrella. She let a female goon pat her down and then checked Cobblepot over herself. Nothing she could find, but she was sure he had found some way to hide one somewhere.

They stepped inside as a pair and each took a seat on opposing ends of the wooden table stationed awkwardly in the middle of the room. She leaned back in her chair and propped her feet up.

“So, what’s the job?”

“I’m surprised you’re even going to hear it.”

She shrugged. “I’m curious.”

He nodded slowly before leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table, steepling his fingers in front of his face.

“Power poses don’t actually work, you know, that’s just lies so companies don’t actually have to deal with all the discrimination.”

“Is that true?” He asked.

She shrugged again. “Probably. I’ve never worked for anyone, so…”

He chuckled. She didn’t like that.

But he didn’t say anything on that subject. Instead, he just smiled a smile that looked weird on his face and gave her her mission briefing: “I want you to figure out the bats’ identities for me.”

Marinette stared at him for a minute before breaking out into laughter. She couldn’t seem to stop. She stood up to leave, still giggling. Really? Did he really think that would work? People had asked many times, of course, and the bats’ identities weren’t common knowledge so she had to have said no. Why would she suddenly do it for him? She didn’t even like him.

She rested her hand on the knob but held off on leaving for just a second. She flashed a grin at Cobblepot. “Interesting offer. Bold. But no. Couldn’t pay me enough to do that.”

“Good thing I have no intentions of paying you, Marinette.”

~~~

And behold a new section I call ‘Marinette is a menace to society why would anyone let her on twitter’

(… the name may need a little work)

OliverQueenOfficial: Why does that one Gotham villain go by Canary? Black Canary already exists.

TheBetterCanary: if youre gonna vague tweet maybe dont put my name in it

TheBetterCanary: but anyways someone else named me that and it stuck before i could think of something to change it to

ScareCrane:… @/RiddleMeThis she’s dissing you

RiddleMeThis: LISTEN UP. IT WAS THEMATIC. DON’T ANY OF YOU KNOW ANYTHING OF DRAMA? EVER HEAR ABOUT CANARIES IN COAL MINES? FUCK ALL OF YOU AND YOUR UNCULTURED, UNEDUCATED ASSES. NOT TO MENTION IT WAS MAKING FUN OF THE BIRD THEME ALL THE VIGILANTES HER AGE SEEM TO HAVE. (1/14)

TheBetterCanary: @/ScareCrane why would you do that you knew he was going to do this

ScareCrane: Joker just broke out so Arkham is boring… needed to entertain myself somehow

TheBetterCanary: fuck you im not visiting this weekend

OliverQueenOfficial: Wow do I regret asking. I didn’t need all this family drama in my comments.

~~~~~

Next

Perma taglist: @nathleigh @peachmuses

[dabisqueen]

Okay, so it hasn’t been a bad week, persay, but I had spring break last week/went on vacation so coming back this week really has just made the whole week feel like it was hard and dragged on. I usually use this thought every now and then but it has plagued my existence this week so, now that it’s almost the weekend for me, I thought I’d share. (This is about to be extremely long and I am so sorry but it has been building for forever and the little voice inside me is screeching to write an actual thing for it but I don’t have the time right now so enjoy my current brainrot if you so choose)

So I’m a generally busy person. I’m a school teacher (5 days a week), I have a second job where I’m a retail manager (4 days a week), and I still attend graduate program classes at the university in the next city over (at least 2 days a week). Then I come home and make sure there’s dinner on the table for myself and my partner, clean, do laundry, etc. So I just generally feel like I’m constantly in charge and need to be on top of things and productive all the time.

So just imagining coming home to Dabi after a particularly hard day/week. And just you come home and he can just tell that his baby needs love and to be taken care of. To destress. And so he’s just so sweet to you, he lets you vent about it if you want to, gives you light and loving touches, maybe alcohol (if you drink it) to numb the edges a little bit, to let go a little bit.

And then he decides what you really need is just to not think. He decides to turn you into a moaning mess for him. Coos at you to just forget it all for a bit. Hand it over to him. Let him make you feel good.

He decides he doesn’t want you to think of anything but him. And then he makes you think of nothing but him. Convinces you to hand over your control. To let him take care of you. Let him make the decisions for you, even just for a little bit. And he takes control, and true to his word, ravishes you until there’s nothing but him. The all-consuming fire of Dabi erasing everything else away. Erasing, consuming, until you’re nothing but a pile of whimpers, cries of his name, conflicting pleas of ‘too much’s and ‘keep going’s. Your usual witty banter with him replaced by your incoherence as you go dumb around him. But you’re letting him have you however he wants because he knows what his baby needs.

And after you forget everything but him. When you come back and want to fall back to taking care of things. He’ll force you to relax, to take a hot bath (or a shower) while he finds the two of you food. Let him feed you and then let him pull you into cuddle and everything but him and you can wait until tomorrow. Let him take care of you for a bit.

(Geez it’s like 8am on a Friday and I’m not off til 10pm but my one day off is tomorrow and all I can think of is going home to him tonight)

Hey Kaze, so I finally got around to answering your ask. I have to say that this is soooo lovely! Thanks for writing so much.

To be honest, we all imagine Dabi as a jerk, a douchebag (he might be though *laughs*), but I also imagine him as very vulnerable.

I mean, look at young Touya. He was such an adorable boy, trying his hardest to please his dad. And was always rejected.

So with you, he has found his safe haven. A place he can be free and relax and be really himself.

I genuinly think that this could happen, him taking care of you, pampering you, feeding and washing you. Because the love he receives from you he wants to give back to you multifold.

Thanks for sharing this. This is so fluffy, if my WIP list wasnt already to long and I would have more time, I would write a fic out of this.

[egcdeath]

aunt flo

summary: your monthly friend decides to visit you while staying over at steve’s.

word count: 1.5k

pairing: steve rogers x reader 

warnings: periods (so blood as well), awkward situations

a/n: this is definitely inspired by the *ahem* cycle that is currently plaguing me. it also hasn’t been thoroughly edited as this was the first time in a while that i’d written something, and i wanted to share it with you all as soon as possible! i hope you enjoy <3 

Sleeping over at Steve’s apartment was never a bad experience for you. He seemed to always be completely prepared for what the night would entail, whether it be a plethora of snacks, or your favorite scent of lotion.

However, when you woke up in what felt like a pool of your own blood, saying you were alarmed was a bit of an understatement. You mentally cursed at yourself for not realizing ahead of time that your cycle was set to start any time that week, and the fact that you’d bled all over your boyfriends sheets.

You attempted to slip out of Steve’s grasp and out of bed to assess the damage done in both your underwear, and on the bed. Once you were finally standing on the floor and gawking at the red spot in bed, you rubbed your forehead exasperatedly. While it wasn’t as bad as you’d expected, it certainly wasn’t good. The quarter sized blood stain seemed to be glaring back to you, and you decided to glare back at it before heading into the en-suite.

Before plopping yourself down on the toilet, you searched through cupboard upon cupboard for some sort of period product. Behind the mirror: aftershave, Advil, bandaids, a random bar of soap, nothing you could use. Under the sink: Epsom salt, your favorite body wash, an extra bottle of shampoo, but not a tampon in sight. Above the toilet: a few rolls of toilet paper, yet nothing even resembling a pad.

Seeing as Steve seemed pretty prepared for anything related to you, you were more than a bit surprised that he hadn’t considered that you were a menstruating human. You huffed as you sat down on the toilet, then assessed the damage control you’d need to do. First and foremost, you needed something to protect the rest of Steve’s apartment from your uterine lining. After you figured that out, you desperately needed to get that stain out of your boyfriend's sheets before he’d notice.

Maybe you could order some pads from a grocery store to his apartment. That seemed like a safe bet, but Steve would probably become concerned if he realized you’d been in the bathroom for 45 minutes. Perhaps you could just leave without a word to Steve. But that raises the issue of a random blood stain, and possibly, an upset Steve.

“Think, Y/N, think,” you muttered to yourself. You attempted to brainstorm more options for yourself, but ultimately ended up dozing off, and waking up to the soft rapping against the bathroom door, along with the sound of Steve’s voice.

“Sweetheart, everything okay in there? You’ve been in there for a while, and I saw some blood on the bed. Did you hurt yourself?”

You mentally cursed at yourself, at least now you’d only have to worry about obtaining a pad, and not addressing the mess on the bed.

“Oh yeah, I’m completely fine. Actually, I should probably head home,” you attempted to sound convincing, but didn’t exactly hit the mark.

“Are you sure? I thought we were gonna get brunch together this morning.”

You could’ve sworn you heard the frown in Steve’s voice. “Oh, uh, I’m not super hungry right now.”

“Okay, that’s fine. But about that blood, what happened? Are you alright?” He questioned.

“I’m fine, Steve.”

“Did the headboard scratch you? Did I sleep fight you or something? Did you hit your leg on the nightstand again?”

“Jesus Steve,” you scoffed a bit at the overload of questions. “I just started my period. And you have nothing I can use here, so I need to go home. That’s why there’s blood in your bed, and that’s why I’ve been in here all morning.”

“Doll, you should’ve told me! I’ll go get you something, okay?” He opened the door just a crack, and blew you a kiss. “Just stay right where you are. I’ll be back quicker than you can say period. There’s medicine behind the mirror, and I can grab you my heating pad before I go. Maybe taking a shower would help t-“

“Steve,” you giggled. “That’s plenty. Now go get my shit so I can stop bleeding all over the place.”

“Got it. I love you,” he smiled warmly at you before closing the door softly, and heading out.

—

Steve basically sprinted to his nearest convenience store, getting lost in the feminine hygiene section, then finding himself completely at loss with what he was supposed to buy. There were just too many options. He considered calling you to ask what you need, but he didn’t want to bother you more than necessary. Plus, you could be standing in the shower right now, and what if you heard your phone ringing, tried to get out of the shower to answer, and slipped? The thought of you hurting yourself made Steve shudder.

He ended up settling on three different varieties of pads and tampons. If you didn’t need them, he could always donate them to a local shelter. He then stopped by the candy aisle to grab you some dark chocolates (he’d heard in passing that it was good for menstruating women), along with a package of panties that looked like they could be your size, before hopping in line at a register.

In the midst of Steve’s menstruation mania, he failed to notice a random customer snapping a photo of him with the over abundance of women’s hygiene products. He was much more busy with checking out and getting back to you as fast as humanly possible.

——

Once Steve made it back to his apartment, he found you still in the bathroom, surrounded by a light mist of fog from the shower, and clad in an oversized sweatshirt with a faded SHIELD logo.

“I didn’t know what to get you, so I got you everything,” Steve blushed at his own unpreparedness, then passed you the bags of period products. “I’m gonna go change the sheets. When you’re ready, just meet me in bed, okay?” He pressed a soft kiss to your forehead before leaving the bathroom, letting you handle your business.

——

A breakfast-in-bed and movie marathon later, you were still cuddled up in Steve’s bed, his massive body giving you an extra level of warmth that was soothing your cramps like nothing you’d ever witnessed before. You were probably more comfortable than you’d ever been. Except for the incessant vibrating of your phone on the bedside table.

You’d finally reached out for it, and were pretty shocked to see all of the messages you’d received. You opened the first message from one of your closest friends, and your eyebrows raised as you read it.

LMAO read this right now bitch

enews.com/caps-pad-problem

Curiosity got the best of you, so you opened up the article.

#Padgate?

If you've been anywhere on the internet in the last few  hours, you’ve certainly seen the word “padgate” trending. The reason why is more interesting than you’d think.

Early this morning, Captain America, America’s sweetheart was spotted buying out the entirety of the feminine hygiene section of his local convenience store.

From this, a huge question rises. Is he donating? There’s certainly enough pads and tampons to keep an army of women satisfied for a year. Is he seeing someone? She must be some lucky gal.  Either way, when we thought this man couldn’t get any more lovable- he did!

You blushed while reading the article, not exactly sure how to feel. After letting it simmer in your brain for a second, you began to giggle, deciding that more than anything, it was pretty damn funny. You texted a quick message back to your friend who’d sent the article, then finally began to speak to Steve, who was giving you a bit of a confused look at your giggling.

“Steve, you goof. Someone took a picture of you buying all of that period stuff, and now the internet has gone wild.”

“What? Let me see,” he reached for your phone, and you gladly passed it to him. He skimmed over the article, then furrowed his brows. “Tony and the PR department are never going to let me live this down,” he groaned.

“Don’t be so dramatic, maybe something good will come out of this!” You chided, giving him a mischievous grin.

——

As it turns out, the word good is subjective.

It’d been about a month post-padgate, and you’d been strolling through the store with Steve, working on getting your groceries for the week.

As you entered the wellness aisle, you looked at the shelves containing menstrual products, knowing that you needed to restock sooner than later.

When you first saw what you saw, you had to do a complete double take. Your eyes must’ve been deceiving you.

A Tampax box stared back at you, a logo with a shield containing a star clearly defined on the box, along with the text ‘Captain America approved!’

“No way,” you actually laughed out loud at the sight. “Steve!” you grabbed onto his sleeve, and pulled him in the direction of the box so he could see what you were seeing.

“No way!” He reprised. “Oh my God. I’m really never gonna live this down, am I?”

[nightwishesworld]

Hello! I hope you still do request! If you are, may I ask for the three daughters keep borthering Alcina’s partner while she is out for works. So Reader tricks them to play Hide n Seek and because all daughters are so competitive that they hide for hours, Reader just continue to work whatever she is working on until Alcina comes home, wondering where are her daughters at 🤣 Thank youuu

Ooh this was a fun write! Apologies for this taking so long...I’m starting to get backed up with requests...but I love it! haha

You were sitting at your desk in your private study trying desperately to get at least some work done. The only things that could be heard were the scratching over your pen across paper and the rhythmic ticking of the grandfather clock stood in the back corner of the room. The atmosphere was perfect for productivity. You promised Alcina you would get through at least half of the large pile currently cluttering the top of your desk, and you were hardly eclipsing a quarter of it. 

It’s nothing important, just the overview of various renovations needed in the castle. Most of what needed to be done were small projects and only required a small team of specialists to finish the job; those were easy enough to organize. It was the bigger jobs that were difficult to put together. For instance, the balcony of the East Wing Archives was starting to crumble, and cracks spread from the balcony to surrounding pillars. That one is going to be very tricky to work with. Out of all the rooms in the damn castle, it had to be the Dimitrescu Archives, really? You avoided that responsibility like the plague.

You were really happy when Alcina gave you full control over the project, even if it was because she didn’t want to deal with it, you took it as her trusting you with the restoration of her home. That both excited you and terrified you to no end. She wasn’t around very much during daylight hours as of late. Apparently, Heisenberg needed her help with one of his own “projects.” What exactly that is you have no idea and honestly, knowing how Heisenberg was, that was ok.

What wasn’t ok, was your darling step-daughters amuck in the corridors and distracting you with their laughter and occasional crashing sound. You can only hope whatever they broke wasn’t a family heirloom. Once they found you hiding in your study they starting pestering you to play with them. Every five minutes a different daughter found their way into your study, examining your various knick-knacks until you acknowledged their presence. Or ya know if they break something. Whichever comes first. 

After a while, they gave up on their subtle approach and all three of them burst through your door, demanding attention like the brats they were. But you love them anyway. They were clever little brats too; they learned very quickly how best to manipulate you into doing their bidding. Three little words were all it took to have your entire reserve crumble to waste. “Please, Mama y/n.” They could ask you to help them dispose of a body and you would happily follow as long as they say it like that.

So naturally, that’s what all three of them were shouting at you. But you can’t keep going on like this. Alcina always told you to just ignore them and eventually the lack of attention will bore them and they’ll leave; easier said than done. You had a sneaking suspicion the girls poke and prod at you more than Alcina, for obvious reasons. Alcina was like a lion when mad- ferocious and would not hesitate to bite your head off. You, however, felt like the girls view you as the pissy cat that got sprayed with water for scratching at the furniture.

After all, you’re just the step-parent. Of course, they don’t take you as seriously as their own mother. You were still their friend more than a parental figure. Nine out of ten times that was perfectly fine by you. Today they were really pushing their luck though, and you weren’t sure how much more “please play with us, Mama Y/n,” you could take before snapping. 

Then you had an idea. An awful, wicked idea that may just let everyone get what they want.

You slammed your pen down and the desk and turned to face the girls. “How about a game of hide and seek? I’ll count to one hundred while you three hide.”

That seemed to satisfy them so much they were already barreling out the door.

”Wait! I didn’t tell you the rules yet.”

Daniela rolled her eyes. “There are no rules, y/n; you count, we hide, you find us. Simple.”

“True,” you nodded. “But we’ve never played inside before and the castle is a lot bigger than the gardens, wouldn’t you say? No going outside, the secret passages are restricted as is the basement.” The girls nodded along. “And no leaving your hiding spot for another. If I find you roaming around you’re disqualified.”

“Can we go yet? I already know where I want to hide.”

“Go on.”

They vanished from your study within the blink of an eye.

“Finally some peace and quiet.”

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

Hours had passed since you finished creating the project guidelines. Now all that was left was to contact the specialists to get an estimate on price and time span. It was a very productive afternoon. Something felt off though. Oh well. You were far too tired to give it much thought. All you wanted to do was get through dinner and go straight to bed.

You walked into the dining room, where Alcina was already waiting for you and gave her a kiss on the cheek before taking your usual spot across from her. 

“Something troubling your mind, dear? You look stressed.”

You barely looked up from your plate, clearly too busy pushing your veggies around to properly address your wife. “Hmm? Oh yeah, sorry Al, I guess I’m just tired. Most of the paperwork is done so we can start scheduling some of the smaller projects.”

“That’s marvelous news. I hope the girls didn’t bother you too much.”

You shake your head and wave her off like nothing. “Oh no, they were fine. All I had to do was tell them to go- oh my god I forgot about the girls.”

“What do you mean you forgot about them? Where are vthey?”

You both make your way down the corridors, completely abandoning your meals. “I-I don’t know! I told them we’d play hide and seek and...well I forgot to seek.”

“I thought it was a little quiet around here,” Alcina sighed. “How do you forget about your own children?” 

“They weren’t letting me work! I was gonna go look for them eventually I just...lost track of everything. And who hides for this long? It’s been like four hours since I told them to go hide.”

“You remember who we’re talking about, right? Or have you forgotten just how competitive our children are.”

“Yes, yes I know. Well they couldn’t have gone too far. I told them the basement and outside were off limits. Is there something we can lure them out with? Like a lamp or something?”

Alcina shot a confused look. “Why would a lamp help us find them?”

“You know, cause they can transform into moths…”

Alcina only arched a brow at you.

“And moths are attracted to the light…? No? Whatever, that was a clever joke and it went right over your head.”

“If you say so dear.”

She really worries about you sometimes.

[crystalelemental]

“emrylurkeroftheloch: I have a theory that the actual issue with the trailers is that they need to produce so many of them, which is why they're focusing on this stuff (because of the perpetual hype that is a product of late stage capitalism).”

I think it was like a Plague of Gripes video from back when or something, but I remember a line about DBZ and how the focus on power levels and the scaling of power and that constant push of the next big threat resulted in entire sequences of nothing, where even before the climax of the main fight, people would demand to know what the next big thing was.  I think about that bit a lot, because man, you can see it everywhere now.  Just a constant push of what the next thing will be, even before the current thing has happened, and it’s a little distressing.  I imagine it’s tiring on their end too, having to constantly generate the next big thing to reveal, and getting caught between “don’t show off too much or the whole game has no surprises,” and “don’t show off too little or people will complain it didn’t show anything.”  It’s a tough balance.

“But, genuinely, how much did the trailers of early gen pokemon show off? They're trying new things with the gameplay, and whilst USUM and SwSh both fell flat for me, this one genuinely looks kinda decent?  It's got interesting gym leader designs, TM creation, some fun exploration mechanics, pokemon can follow behind you again (finally), you can take selfies. The professor is a thirst trap again, calling back to the best of the 3D games, X and Y. The battle gimmick is cool without being game breaking. Sudowoodo is there.”

I can’t remember early gen trailers.  I don’t think I watched a Pokemon trailer until Gen 7.  Please note I was in my mid-20s by that point.  In any case, I’d agree.  I feel like what this gen is showing off is a lot more interesting than prior.  At least, I like a lot of Pokemon designs, and recent gym leader designs are aces.  I don’t know how to feel about crafting but we’re talking about that in a different thread.  I dunno.  We’ll see what they pull out of this, but I’m at least engaged with this one.

[ibijau]

Concubine nhs pt10 / on AO3

Lan Qiren was predictably satisfied that next morning to learn that his nephew was finally willing to let him start looking for a young woman who would become empress. He had been pressing for it even before Lan Xichen met Nie Huaisang, and it had since become one of their few causes for arguments. This change of opinion pleased him so well that Lan Xichen felt a fresh new layer of guilt adding up to what was already plaguing him.

“I’m glad that boy can make you behave, where I can’t,” Lan Qiren said after being fed a lie. “I suppose I should have expected it. He’s smart, when he bothers.” To this Lan Xichen replied with a puzzled look, so his uncle explained. “I’ve been sending him books to study, and he sends notes saying what he thought of them. His understanding is usually shallow on most subjects, but he makes interesting observations sometimes. A good teacher might make something of him.”

That was something that Nie Huaisang had mentioned. Or at least, he had said that Lan Qiren was sending him books, blaming those less frivolous volumes he had in the little house on the emperor’s uncle. The way he’d spoken about it seemed to imply that he was not reading them, and he certainly never said anything about writing his own commentary on them.

It upset Lan Xichen to think that his uncle might have known Nie Huaisang better than he did.

He wondered if there was anyone who didn't know Nie Huaisang better than he did.

“If shufu thinks so, then he’s welcome to see if Huaisang might be interested in being taught,” Lan Xichen said, keeping his tone polite and distant. “Once I am married, I fear I might have less time to devote to him. Studying would provide him with something to do.”

And perhaps Nie Mingjue would hate Lan Xichen a little less in the future if his brother was given a chance for education. Perhaps that could still be saved. If Lan Qiren was the one to find him a teacher, it would certainly be a good one. Nothing but the best would do for an imperial concubine, and Lan Qiren had very high standards.

“I’ll see what can be arranged,” Lan Qiren promised. “I might visit him myself if I have time. I’ve missed having a student, and I’m curious about that boy. Even Wangji seems to think well of him, I can't continue ignoring him eternally.”

Lan Xichen smiled with as much joy as he could fake. He would have to warn Nie Huaisang then. His uncle was not prone to gossip, but he might become upset at Lord Nie for having used his son in such a manner, and Lan Xichen did not wish to see that friendship compromised. Not only that, but he did not want to be scolded for having behaved like a fool. He was ashamed enough about everything that had happened without his uncle lecturing him about it.

Having dealt with that matter, Lan Xichen went on with his day, not without some difficulty. He found it hard to focus on councils, or the people to whom he granted audiences. Every problem was important, and deserved his full attention, but his mind was elsewhere, and only through great effort did he manage to do his duty. Only a bad emperor would let private business distract him from his empire, he'd always been told, and yet there he was.

It took just as much effort to get ready to go to the little house that evening. Lan Xichen had prepared some reports he needed to read, hoping to somehow turn the time spent in that house into something productive. That plan crumbled when he opened the door only to be greeted by Nie Huaisang, dressed in his finest clothes, wearing too much jewellery, smiling at him as if nothing had happened.

“You’re home!” Nie Huaisang exclaimed, springing from the sofa where he’d been sitting and running toward Lan Xichen who only escaped his concubine’s embrace by holding up a hand and pushing him away.

“What are you doing?” Lan Xichen snarled.

Nie Huaisang stumbled, his smile wavering. He stared at Lan Xichen for a moment, eyes wide and terrified, before quickly lowering his gaze as he bowed deeply.

“His highness said he would continue visiting,” Nie Huaisang mumbled. “This humble one thought his highness would wish… that I should…”

“No!” Lan Xichen exclaimed, so embarrassed it made him nauseous.

He still wanted Nie Huaisang, still loved him. He couldn’t help it, not even when he now knew that the person he loved wasn’t real. But as much as he’d been desperate the day before for any sign that Nie Huaisang might wish to continue his comedy, now that it was truly happening, the thought of it was appalling. It was bad enough that he’d unknowingly taken advantage in the past, but to still kiss Nie Huaisang and take him to bed while fully aware that the other man did not want him back would have been criminal.

He’d made a mistake in taking what was only offered under duress. He would not make another mistake in continuing to take advantage.

“We’re not doing that anymore,” Lan Xichen said, prompting Nie Huaisang to raise his eyes and throw him a confused look. “I’ve told you, I’m only continuing to come here to avoid giving the impression that your family fell out of favour. I’m not… I won’t ask that of you again. You can be safe on that regard at least!”

That reassurance did not have the intended effect, and Nie Huaisang only looked more distressed. Perhaps now that the initial shock of being discovered had passed, he was worried about what his father would say when he heard about that failure, and truly hoped to mend what had broken. Lan Xichen felt angry, but sorry too. Maybe when the war was over, he would find a way to free Nie Huaisang from his current position without sending him back to face his father.

Maybe Lan Qiren had the right idea, about finding him a teacher. If Nie Huaisang could pass the exams and enter the administration, his father might find it harder to punish him.

“In the future, when I come here, just continue on as if you were alone,” Lan Xichen ordered. “I will do the same. You don’t need to dress up like this, either. Just keep on what you’d normally wear.”

“Yes, your highness.”

Lan Xichen opened his mouth, ready to say there was no need to be using his title, only to quickly change his mind. Much as that new proof of the distance between them pained him, it would be worse to be addressed in a familiar manner. This was safer.

“Let’s eat,” Lan Xichen decided. “Then I will work for a while and sleep. You’ll take the bed,” he added after a moment of reflection. “I’ll take the sofa.”

“Your highness should take the bed,” Nie Huaisang protested. “It would be more suitable.”

“The sofa is fine.”

Nie Huaisang hesitated, and bowed even deeper. “His highness is tall, and the sofa is not long enough for him to lay down comfortably. This humble one is shorter, and has fallen asleep there many times without issues.”

It was reasonable, but Lan Xichen disliked the idea of sending Nie Huaisang to sleep on the sofa while keeping the bed to himself. It would feel like taking advantage again.

“You take the bed,” he insisted. “I might not even sleep at all anyway. I have a lot of work.”

Nie Huaisang looked unconvinced. He pouted, as if ready to say something about Lan Xichen’s stubbornness, as he did sometimes. But remembering he didn’t have to pretend to care anymore, he just lowered his eyes and gave up on the matter.

The evening, after that, went on quietly and awkwardly. They ate without a word, Lan Xichen having to fight several times the impulse to put in Nie Huaisang’s bowl some vegetables he knew the other man liked, or to ask him about his day. That heavy silence between them was hard to handle and yet necessary, or so Lan Xichen tried to convince himself. When they were done, the table was freed and cleaned to Lan Xichen could work, while Nie Huaisang grabbed a book and took refuge on the bed. It was the same military treaty as the previous day. Lan Xichen couldn’t help being upset about that for some reason, though he tried to focus on the reports he’d brought.

Tried, and failed.

"Shufu has told me he'd like to come see you," Lan Xichen announced after a while, when he found himself glancing at Nie Huaisang again and their eyes met. "He is interested in talking to you about the books he's made you read. I would appreciate if you kept our current situation from him." 

"Of course, your highness,” Nie Huaisang replied, curling up a little tighter in his corner of the bed.

"He also spoke of finding you a teacher. If that's something you'd like, tell him. We have to start planning for your future after the war." 

"Yes, your highness." 

Lan Xichen frowned, wanting to ask what Nie Huaisang wanted, but refrained from it. Lan Qiren would be told, and he was the one who could organise those things. Having warned Nie Huaisang, the rest was out of Lan Xichen's hands. 

For a good while longer, Lan Xichen continued reading. He took notes as long as he could, until tiredness made that impossible. Then he laid down on the sofa, forced to fold his body in a rather uncomfortable position as he continued reading. 

After those last few days, even a bad position was not enough to keep Lan Xichen awake through the night. Without noticing he fell asleep, and only woke up a little before dawn. His aching back was what woke him, but the first thing he really noticed was that someone had wrapped a heavy blanket around him while he slept. 

There could be no doubt that it was Nie Huaisang’s doing. Aside from the two of them, nobody would have dared to enter the little house at night. Servants had been instructed quite strictly from the start to wait until morning to pick up empty dishes, unless ordered otherwise. But as to why Nie Huaisang would do such a thing, Lan Xichen couldn't be sure. 

It might have been nothing more than duty, and the need for every subject to care for their emperor. Or perhaps it was merely the force of habit, after three years of living together. Or else, if Lan Xichen allowed himself a moment of weakness, he could pretend that Nie Huaisang did care for him, not as an emperor but as a person.

A pleasant illusion to have in the vanishing darkness, but which could not be lingered on as morning light lazily inundated the little house. 

Lan Xichen got up from the sofa, and stretched as best as he could when he wouldn't let go of that blanket. Out of habit, he turned his attention to the bed, where Nie Huaisang was sleeping deeply. Just like Lan Xichen, he must have fallen asleep by accident: his candle had entirely consumed itself, and his book laid open on the mattress, not far from his hand. 

It wasn't an unfamiliar scene. Nie Huaisang would sometimes stay awake later than was reasonable, reading about poetry or devouring a novel. What Lan Xichen would do then, what he did again that morning, was to pick up the discarded book, placing something in it to keep the page. He would then make sure Nie Huaisang was warm enough, which he did that time by giving back the blanket offered to him during the night. And then, because Nie Huaisang always looked so sweet and peaceful in sleep, he would… 

Lan Xichen froze above Nie Huaisang, having stopped just before his lips could touch the other man's. He remained that way a moment, hardly daring to breathe as the realisation of what he had almost done hit him. Then, as if struck by an invisible force, he quickly stumbled back, nearly tripping on the hem of his robe in his haste to put distance between himself and the sleeping young man. 

Habit was a powerful thing, Lan Xichen thought as he hurried to make himself presentable so he could leave that cursed house. 

He would have to be more careful in the future.

[ghost-wonder]

Why Oliver March is My Current Top Suspect for the Leader (Even though I love him)

Buckle your seatbelts kids and get ready for my hot mess of a PH theory. I wasn’t sure where to put this and I just wanted to get my thoughts out. I’m in the last year of my media studies and production degree so I’m putting my 3 years of tears to use and have been brewing this theory since reading 85. Now let me clarify: I adore March, but the more we see, the more suspicious I become (especially with ep. 82 & 85), and while many think this may mean death or something tragic, I’ve been thinking of the possibility it’s something much bigger (Note: lots of speculation here so prepare for a lot of what if’s and I’m only using content up to ep. 85).

My thought process regarding the leader:

The leader is a rather dehumanized villainous entity. With them being anonymous and the reader not having a face to place with the actions, it’s easier for us to take the leader’s actions at face value. We are provided no means of sympathizing or empathizing with their actions and instead, our story follows characters who have been traumatized by said actions.

Therefore, to provide readers with the greatest impact, the leader would likely be a character who up until the discovery of them being the leader, the reader viewed them positively. A character already humanized. Already trusted. And this would be both in terms of how the reader views that character, as well as other characters in the story. It would leave the reader reeling, trying to figure out why such a character would be the leader.

And keep in mind: PH has used this approach with Harvey; the audience liked him for the short time he appeared before being caprisunned and we were shocked to discover his involvement in the PS. Additionally, we’ve had characters dehumanizing and humanizing with Kieran. He’s introduced as this deadly assassin who kills brutally, with the greatest death toll in the PS. But he becomes humanized through his interactions with Lauren, so much so that both the reader and Lauren forget his occupation and are provided a chilling reminder in ep. 43. However, even after those horrible events, as we learn more regarding his character in season 2, we begin to empathize with his actions and reactions (though we don’t condone them). It demonstrates a duality, a mix of light and dark, seemingly contradicting one another. Because people are complicated.

This is also why I can’t buy into the idea that Tristan or Stefan is the leader, in fact, I don’t think either one is even involved with the PS. For Tristan I think he comes off suspicious because A) he’s meant to be a red herring but B) LAUREN’S PARENTS WERE APOSTLES AND YOU CANNOT TELL ME HE DID NOT KNOW. THEY LEFT AT ODD HOURS OF THE NIGHT ALL THE TIME AND LIKELY GAVE LAUREN TO TRISTAN TO PROTECT HER FROM THAT LIFE. HE PROBABLY THINKS LAUREN IS PS. But anywho. As for Stefan, he’s already been villainized through his treatment of William. The audience doesn’t like him for this reason and is then inherently suspicious of him because they dislike him. So for me, it feels too obvious. (I have an additional theory that he was involved with the print shop shooting, assisting Lizbeth (from what’s alluded in 64 with Lauren’s parents and 68) as chief of police but that’s for another place another time.)

What we know about the leader:

- It’s a he

- Has to be part of the older generation (would have needed to be an adult about 15 years ago)

- Was a member of SD

- Knew Lauren’s parents

- According to Hecate, he is closer and more similar to Lauren than she thinks

So why March? (It’s not just the villain scar)

- His speech to Kym and Will in 60 had me SUS. It felt very contradicting (he acknowledges the flaws in the system while saying they must continue their jobs, which is valid, but his phrasing was still off to me) and generally in any mystery drama if I see a character go on a moral rant of sorts, my sus radar is dialed up to 11. Unfortunately, we don’t know how much of it was true and lies because Lauren wasn’t around but if he is the leader I’d find it so fascinating if everything he said is the truth. The idea that this terrorist does have sound morals would be SO INTERESTING and kind of fitting? The leader having a strong sense of justice or strong morals would make him more similar to Lauren as Hecate said. But more on Hecate later.

- As confirmed by 85, he knew Lauren’s parents. He even says they worked together on cases. Through their work together, did they start to realize the flaws in their system? Was there a case that was just too much? SD formed?

- The death of his daughter does kind of fit the SD timeline. (She died in xx11 the pamphlets are dated xx14 but SD was likely formed slightly before the release of the pamphlets but that's not yet really confirmed). We don’t know how her illness killed her (could be class-related. Like because of their class status perhaps they didn’t have access to the resources that could have saved his daughter? Who knows. He said they did all they could. March is likely middle class similar to Kym but we don’t know for sure. And even if he is middle class we don’t know if this was always the case, like if he was middle class at the time of his daughter’s death.)

- Additionally the death of his wife. The date is blocked and as others have theorized I find it very possible it could have been SD related. But this sentence is chilling: “She fell into the bloody hands of criminals that have been plaguing Ardhalis for too long.” March doesn’t specify these criminals as the PS. So could he mean the royals? (Literally everything he says to Lauren in ep. 85 could have a double meaning and it bugs me so much like he never specifies the criminals he’s referring to. And everything he says sounds like the monologue of a villain who sees themselves as a hero because they haven’t realized how far gone they are. But that’s just me. ) If she died in the print shop shooting could this have been the catalyst to drive March to become the leader and start the PS? Losing your daughter and wife is a lot to take and could drive anyone over the edge. Point is: if any of this speculation is true, it would give March motive for becoming the leader.

- Also March mentioned how Lauren reminds him of his daughter which could then explain why Lauren hasn’t been touched by the PS cause at this point the girl should have been caprisunned a while ago if she wasn’t being protected from the inside.

- To build on that as well, if March is the leader then he has kept an eye on Lauren since she joined the force aka since she would have become problematic for the PS (cause you can argue being the daughter of apostles may not automatically make her a threat since she was a child at the time. But being the daughter of apostles and joining the police force to take down the PS? Now that’s an issue). March says in ep. 60 that Lauren was one of his recruits meaning the leader could have had his eye on her the entirety of her time in the APD. Just something to consider.

- And going back to Hecate's words, he’s more similar to you than you think. March and Lauren share (seemingly) similar morals and additionally he is close to her just as Hecate claimed. Also if any of my speculation regarding the deaths of his wife and daughter are correct it would have put him in a similar position to Lauren, the difference being her enemy is PS and his being the royals (but also as we’re starting to see with Lauren learning more information, I think the royals are starting to become an enemy in her eyes the same way PS is. Again if any of this is correct it just furthers similarities between the two).

- This could then also be the betrayal alluded to in the cards; one of Lauren's mentors has been the leader this whole time. The betrayal is either past or future but March being the leader could count as both. He betrayed her in the past by ordering the death of her parents and may betray her again in the future as he continues to play the role of leader

- Plus this would also mean the leader has been present in the story FROM THE VERY BEGINNING MARCH WAS IN EP 2 HOW WILD WOULD IT BE IF WE’VE KNOWN THE LEADER THIS WHOLE TIME

- AND IMPORTANT NOTE: WHY IS MARCH NOT ONE OF THE PEOPLE LAUREN SUSPECTS DURING EP. 82 YET HE HAS HER BACK SIMILAR TO WILL AND KYM. "LAUREN OPEN YOUR EYES" BLINDEST OF THEM ALL TYPE STUFF. (Also with Lauren being the blindest of all, it led me to believe anyone Lauren is suspicious of, is not the one to betray her. I feel like it would have to be someone so unsuspicious, Lauren doesn’t even think of them. Which can be said of March; we literally have a whole scene in ep. 82 demonstrating how close they are and how a level of trust exists. Yet panels later, it doesn’t even cross her mind that he could betray her).

Now possible flaws in this theory (there are more I’m sure but here’s a few):

-Why voice support for lune and their actions: Lune’s actions have yet to affect the leader (at least to our knowledge) and have technically been helping the leader. The leader views Apostle 7 as an issue so obviously whoever the leader is, they won’t take issue with Lune taking down this problem for them. When first telling Lauren about McTrevor, Kieran said he was surprised he hadn’t been sent by the leader to kill him off yet. And when the 11th precinct received that first Lune letter about him, March was the one to voice that they should follow Lune’s orders. If he’s the leader, this could explain why he wanted to follow Lune’s orders and dispose of McTrevor without PS means. This is a possible explanation anyway.

- Why send moles into the 11th precinct if the leader himself is already there: I boil this down to a matter of seeming less suspicious. Like why possibly risk the exposure of your identity if your organization consists of hundreds of potential puppets who are easily disposable?

-Why place the PH in the 11th precinct if the leader is there: Okay this plays into another theory I have regarding Kieran. We know there are boatloads of parallels between Lauren and Kieran which left me thinking Kieran has had a similar Tim Sake type incident. What I mean by this is that Lauren’s whole deal with Tim Sake was heavily guided by her personal anger and resulted in distrust from her superior, Hermann. I think Kieran had a similar incident with killing that one person without orders, in which his actions were guided by his personal anger and resulted in distrust from his superior, the Leader. So we know from 83 Kierans been overseas for a while (Why? Was there a mission or did the leader need Kieran out of Ardhalis? Both?) and his comment in 64 (“I wonder how much longer his patience will last”), as well as the comments made by Bella and the messenger at various points regarding Kieran following and not following orders (ep 5 and 72-73?), further my thinking that the leader may be SUS of his best player. So what do you do with someone you’re suspicious of: you keep them right where you can see them.

- The one flaw I have yet to work out an explanation for is why order the death of lune? Regardless of who the leader is, this is a question I’ve mulled over since the end of season 1. J’en sais rien mes amis mais on verra.

Closing Thoughts:

Hopefully, this didn’t sound like the ramblings of a sleep-deprived senior (even though that’s exactly what this is haha) and hopefully, it gave you some stuff to consider. Up until this point, I never spent much time contemplating the leader, partly because I didn’t feel like we were far enough in the story to have enough evidence against one person. While much of this is speculation, I still think it’s the soundest case I have for any PH character we’ve met thus far being the leader.

[wandsandwheezes]

Till You Make It | F.W | CH5

Fake It | The Masterlist

Warnings // SMUT 18+, Hufflepuff!Reader, implied sex, teasing, lingerie, relationship, consent, sexting??

a/n // So im posting this one a day early as there is a chapter 5.5 coming out tomorrow which is pretty much just pure smut <3 once again i have to thank @starlightweasley​ my partner in crime for being my muse while writing this!!

When Fred left that evening after dinner, the under-the-table events still plagued your mind as you threw your head back against your pillow out of desperation. Fred made it very hard for you to concentrate on anything other than him or the feel of his fingers. Substituting his hands for your own didn’t help either, you fell asleep with your lips parted in half pleasure and half agony from missing the man who had been plaguing your thoughts. Chest heaving, shivers running down your spine and fingertips moving only left you breathless for him. You thought that maybe that desperate feeling would leave you when you woke the next morning, to be left in the night but as you walked to a day of appointments, your mind was truly somewhere else, somewhere with him. Each fleeting thought as you hem a skirt or completed your seams only brought you to feel his hot breath fanning against your skin or his stupidly delicate touch, having to take a deep breath just to pull you back to the reality that he wasn’t right there, he was across the street no doubt laughing and joking away like the memory of last night wasn’t plaguing his every thought. 

You were far from the truth. He wanted to storm into your shop like the first time he kissed you, hearing only your choked back moans like a sweet symphony in his brain. George tried to get his attention, only holding it for a few moments before he was distracted again. Fred was meant to be stacking shelves, but the sight of a current Gryffindor quidditch player donning their sweater made all of his thoughts of you race back. 

<< Morning, doll x

>> Fred Weasley I hate you.

<< No kisses? What have i done :(( x 

>> You left me frustrated you absolute git

<< There’s no reason to call me that, petal x

<< I could’ve left you much worse off x

He watched as the typing bubble flashed up on the screen before disappearing a few times. Smirking to himself as he locked his phone, pushing it into his pocket knowing full well what he’d done. You were sighing to yourself as you sipped on the now lukewarm coffee, tapping out the perfect message to retort back at him, but nothing seemed to fit, no matter what you say he would have the perfect witty response to chime back. It hit you, if he wanted to play games you would play along.

>> Wanna see the set I’m working on Freddie? x 

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, as he pushed a box of spare products onto the shelf in the stockroom. He checked the message only to feel his heartbeat about to burst out of his chest as it raced that bit quicker. He was alone but the thought of anyone just walking in or catching a glimpse of the picture on his phone drove his feet to his office as he tapped out his message to you. 

<< I’d love that xx

You smiled to yourself as you laid out the garment on the table for him, making sure that it was smoothed out to perfection before snapping the perfectly innocent picture to send to him. You knew that he was expecting more skin, a lot more skin in fact. In his head he was about to receive a tempting photo of his girl, for his eyes only. 

>> (1)  Attachment.

He tapped open the picture with shaky fingers, unaware of what to expect when the image flashed up on his screen, eyes gazing over the lacy fabric not on your body but on the worktop. Tease. He quickly realised what you were doing, huffing to himself as he let his head fall back against the headrest of his arm chair. If you kept up this teasing to and fro you’d drive each other mad by the end of the night.

<< Why don’t you put it on for me, petal? xx

Two hours had ticked by since his last text to you. He found himself checking every notification, praying it was you, even considering sending another message but he stopped himself. He tried as best he could to focus on his work; taking stock, doing orders and serving customers.  Another hour had passed and still no response. He couldn’t ignore the friction in his boxers at the mere thought of you, mind running wild once again, his thoughts alone pulled him through to lunchtime when he could finally see you. 

The way he stormed into the shop, seeking you out in the back room, eyes dark with hunger as he stared you down made your heart flutter. His brow was furrowed and he looked like a man who was starved. You liked the effect that your little charade seemed to have on him, biting the inside of your lip to stop you from smiling. 

“I don't find your little game funny, love." You simply cocked an eyebrow up at him before continuing with your sewing, the whirring of your machine filling the thick sexual tension in the air. There was an undeniable chemistry between you both, that was visible from the way you latched onto each other so quickly. You loved to see this side of him, less dominant but yet so desperate and needy.

“Uh huh,” you hummed nonchalantly as you pulled the material in the right direction, sending the machine whirring once more. Giving him the silent treatment was enough to send him wild. The sound of your machine muffled his steps as he drew closer to you, gentle touches over your exposed shoulder sending shivers along your skin. Your body wanted to give into him, let him have you right across your desk right here and now but the game was all too fun. 

“The silent treatment, really doll?” You looked up at him with a smile as he uttered those words, your hand moving to hold his, pulling yourself up from the chair to fall into his hold, staring up at him with a mischievous glint in your eye. You pushed yourself up onto your toes to press a kiss to the tip of his nose, breathing in the calming scent of his cologne and you did so. 

“Didn’t you like the lingerie, Freddie?” you asked him innocently as you bat your eyelashes, he leaned in to try and kiss you properly but you quickly pressed a finger to his lips, pushing him away cheekily as you giggled.  

“Buy me dinner first at least.” 

And he did, he bought you several dinners in fact. You made sure to dress up nice for him, let him get hot and needy before making him wait. It had now been a month of torture for the poor boy, letting him get by on no more than kisses and a few lingering touches. You wanted him to feel that same way you felt after the night at Lee’s. You swore he would’ve stopped you by now, out of pure frustration but he continued enduring his own torture just as much as you continued dishing it out.

Being invited to watch the Star Seeker’s last game of the season and coincidentally the last game before her wedding, filled you with pure joy. You invited Fred, not that he needed inviting telling him that it would be a nice date, to which the smitten boy agreed. You held hands in the stands as you both cheered alongside George, who was beaming with pride, listening to Lee commentating the game over the arena speakers.

“You know Freddie, this reminds me a lot of our Hogwarts days... I miss being up in the commentators box, it had a much better view, though for what I was looking at, I think I’m in the best seats now.” You leaned up to press a kiss to his ear as you spoke, causing him to chuckle as you moved to press your lips to his, only to be met by his finger against your lips as he mimicked how you had treated him in your shop all those weeks ago.  

“Just one kiss?” You pouted at him as he pulled you into a kiss, your heart leaping. Here Fred was, kissing you in front of everyone; his friends, family, press and every soul in the stadium but he didn’t care. The whole world could watch but he could only ever focus on you. 

It had been a week now since that event, Fred was still on edge with all of the teasing, he had grown to expect It now, waking up to a cheeky message or a voicemail, That was if he wasn’t waking up to your arms wrapped around him. He was smitten by this point, absolutely enamoured by your very presence, he would do anything to make you smile.

“Joining Lee and I tonight, Freddie?” George asked with a small knock to his brother’s office door. He pondered on it before it struck him. If Lee was out, you were all alone, the thought made his heart skip a beat. The days you’d both stopped yourselves, making out like teenagers on the bed before realising your best friend was only in the other room always seemed to kill the mood. 

“You know what, I don’t think I should be mixing with alcohol… A month sober and all.” Fred pled a fair case to his brother, a feasible enough excuse over the want to have a night with his girl. Even that sounded nice in his head, you being his girl. George nodded, suggesting a dinner instead, to which Fred shook his head again with a small laugh. 

“For the love of god, go out, get smashed and please get Lee laid… he’s driving me mental.” George nodded, laugh falling from his lips as his hand reached out to pull the door closed behind him as he went to leave, mumbling a small ‘noted’ and gesturing a salute from behind the glass.

As the evening fell, the rain came with it - a light dreary drizzle and not heavy downpours but still rain nevertheless. You managed to beat the raindrops before they fell, returning to what you called home to strip off the day’s work clothes. Between appointments you’d finally managed to finish and perfect the gorgeous red set that you had started working on all those months ago, discarded on your dressing table as you pulled on a fresh pair of joggers and Fred’s sweater which he had let you keep in all this time, grateful for the company of his scent as you realised this may be the first time you had been alone in the night since you’d left Joe. 

A knock at the front door made your heart pound out of your chest. Half of you wanted to ignore it but the curious half wanted to see who it was. Peeping through the looking glass to be met with the messy ginger locks you loved so much prompted you to pretty much swing the door open and jump into the unsuspecting boy’s arms, your legs wrapping around his torso. 

"Hi handsome, thought you were going out with George and Lee?" You peppered kisses all over his face as you held his face in your hands, fingers splayed against his cold skin yet his actions were more than inviting. You soon found your back pressed against the wall, soft quick kisses soon replaced with deep, passionate ones, lips locked together as if your lives depended on it. His foot kicked the door closed his hands keeping your thighs in place as he asserted his dominance over you. 

"I wanted you. Fuck, I've wanted you for weeks now, doll." You moaned and hummed against his lips with every kiss. It was electric the way his fingers touched you, everything from the cool sensation of the wall against your back to the heat of his shallow breaths fanning against your neck. You were nervous, wanting nothing but absolute perfection with the angel you cared so deeply about. 

Fred really was an angel to you, he helped you feel like a person again. 

“Please say something,” Fred whispered, forehead now pressed against your own. You hadn’t realised just how deep in thought you were until he spoke again, you could have swore you heard his voice crack ever so slightly as he uttered those words of vulnerability. You nudge your nose against his with a smile that leaves a reassured sigh escaping his lips just before you move once more, pulling him into another kiss, immediately feeling him relax as he closes the space between the both of you, effectively trapping you against the wall. 

“Isn’t it obvious that I want you too, Fred?” He chuckled, holding your weight in his arms as he carried you through the halls to your bedroom. He pretended to drop you twice, both times you hit him on his chest, laughing together in the most gorgeous way, creating a harmony of giggles. Each time he feigned your fall from his arms, droplets of rain fell from his soaking hair onto your face. 

“Oh yeah? Obvious is it?” His large hands gave your ass a playful squeeze before placing you on the bed. You leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek, pushing his wet hair back and out of his face. You caught how his eyes stared so lovingly at you, feeling butterflies in your stomach as he gave you his signature toothy grin. You stand from the bed, grabbing a towel that was hooked over the door to dry his gorgeous ginger locks. 

"Sit down, let's get you dried." He blushed as he sat down on your mattress, tilting his head up towards you ever so slightly as you find your place between his legs while his hands rested gently on the backs of your thighs and you swore to yourself that you had never felt such fireworks linger upon your skin as they did with Fred Weasley. Those hands you had admired for so long, those hands that gripped onto his bat tightly during your school years and hit away bludgers and all had you swooning as you gripped the towel. You draped the towel over his head, giving his hair a rough towel dry and letting your fingertips press against his scalp gently through the soft fabric. When you left him to go and hang the slightly damp towel up once more, his gaze caught a glimpse of something bright in the corner of his eye. Upon further inspection from afar, that something bright was a beautiful red lace that had been thrown on your dressing table in a moment of relief after you had finished it. He stood, making his way to them out of curiosity, his fingers taking hold of the soft lace, immediately recognising the feel and the pattern. His breath hitched, gazing upon the sensual piece that had nonchalantly been draped upon your dresser, his gaze hadn’t left the fabric and he hadn’t even noticed you were staring at him with a lingering look in your eye, your heart beat beginning to pick up once more and this time it wasn’t because he was pretending to drop you.

"It's the material you first kissed me on." You pointed out, holding your hands together in front of your stomach that was now experiencing somersaults and that familiar feeling between your thighs welcomed itself once more as you swallowed thickly. 

"I know… Is this for m–" 

"Yes." 

"Put it on then, petal. Do it for me." You could have sworn your cheeks were as red as the lace he was handing you, gripping onto the soft fabric with shaky hands. This was far from how you could have ever imagined your first time with Fred to have come about, a rain-soaked boy showing up at your door and taking your breath away with his kiss. The months of teasing were finally catching up and you had to take a moment to process it all as you retreated to your bathroom. Part of you wanted to change in front of him but more of you wanted it to be a surprise and if you were honest to yourself, part of you needed a moment before you faced him. To look at the reflection of a woman you hadn’t recognised in a long time and say ‘it’s okay’ because it was okay. This was Fred… it was Fred and you, no one else. 

There was something different about the way you pulled the straps onto your bare shoulders, the way your hair frames your face as you dressed. A smile spread across your lips and you blushed to yourself, how long had it been since you had felt like this? Something like this was truly paradise felt on earth amidst the darkness you had long been suffering within. Joe wasn’t here, you reminded yourself as you exhaled and glanced towards the door and you felt reassured by your inner thoughts. 

He had begun to pace about your room as he waited for you to return, feeling an unfamiliar wave in his stomach. Never in his life had he been nervous about intimacy with a woman, but when it came to you he couldn’t help the fluttery feeling that consumed him with every step. Fred had to remind himself that it was you, not anyone else, not Cherry, his exes or one of his lame one night stands. Lastly, it wasn’t the woman he had been pining for ever since he could remember… the one who chose his brother instead of him. It was a woman who he truly felt something for, a something that he didn’t want to ruin. He hadn’t even noticed your return, staring out of the window as he was consumed by his own thoughts. Your arms snaking around his waist as you pressed yourself into his back, snapped him away from his feelings of nerves and self doubt because he had you there. 

“We still don’t have to do this, you know.” You whispered softly as your cheek pressed against his damp t-shirt, his hands coming to cover yours, giving them a reassuring squeeze as he let out a deep exhale. He didn’t have to worry around you, he didn’t have to fear that it was Cherry’s touch masked as yours. He knew that it was you in the way he could have sworn your hearts beat together. There were no words that could have ever described the way you made him feel. 

“I want this.” he mumbled, as he shook his head, mostly at the way a leech like Cherry still was able to plague his thoughts in his most vulnerable moments. Turning in your arms, your eyes meet his face which is plastered with a deep smile, biting the inside of your cheek when you realise that you are stood half-naked but pressed against the fully clothed man. Against the man who had plagued your daydreams years ago and now your thoughts at night. He took your hand in his, stepping away for a moment before lifting your arm over your head to make you twirl in front of him. The sight of you took his breath away, solidifying the thought in his brain that you truly were a goddess. Fathoming that you were his to kiss and hold made his heart race out of his chest.

“You’re beautiful.” He managed to only just choke out the compliment as his other hand found your jaw to pull you into a kiss. Nothing had ever felt so right to him than the crave of intimacy with you right now, you let him guide your bodies, your skin now flush against the cool sheets while he leant over you. Standing up briefly he pulled his shirt over his head, exposing his toned torso that made you feel weak, counting yourself lucky that you were laying down otherwise you would have surely buckled at the knees. 

Fred knew that the minute he had the opportunity to, he would take his time in worshiping every dip and curve of your body, no matter how long or tedious the process was. His hot open mouthed kisses started at your jaw, it was intoxicating to feel him mumble praise between each kiss, telling you about just how breath-taking you were to him and how much influence you had on him. His kisses along your neck left marks not to claim you but to show you just how much he cared without having to say the words. His lips travelled down to pepper kisses down the valley of your breasts, his slow pace made you grab his face with both hands.

“Don’t be a tease, Freddie.” He chuckled, his hands wrapping around your wrists, pulling them away from his face so that he could press a sweet kiss to the insides of your palms, the hint of a smirk hanging off his lips as he did so. His fingertips grazed over your skin as they ran down your arms, sending goosebumps firing over your skin. His laugh sent every good feeling of pleasure through your veins. His hands went to his belt, immediately he thought of all the ways that this could go wrong, the image of your pained expression and the way you cried into his chest sinking his heart once more. He pondered for a moment before he asked, hardly above a whisper, ‘do you want to?’ before gesturing to the belt buckle. 

You felt your heart stop, remembering how you had stopped yourself going this far before, feeling a sense of calm fall over you as you reached to undo the belt buckle. You knew that this gesture alone was enough for you to realise that Fred really did care about your comfort, he wanted you to feel as if you were in control of the situation, not forced or pressured but completely at your own free will to pull away or stop but you didn’t. You slowly unbuckled his belt and pulled it from the loops before setting it down on the bed, smiling up at him. 

“No more teasing, yeah?” You nodded, pressing your lips to his again as your hands found the back of his head, giving the now damp hair a gentle tug. 

No more teasing. 

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[msmarvelwrites]

Season Of The Witch - Part 3

Summary: Your witchy abilities get you in quite a bit of trouble from time to time… But this time you don’t mind so much. 

Pairing: Bucky x reader 

Warnings: Swearing, Anxious reader, implied smut but still 18+ pleasee! 

Word Count: 2.7k

Author's Note: Hey you guys! Hope everyone is having a good week so far! It’s been a long couple few days here, but I’m feeling productive today so here we are. Happy reading! Please like and reblog if youve read, your support means so much to me! 

Thank you forever to @cutie1365​ for all her help and advice on this fic. She’s killing it and you should definitely go check out her work! 

You sat, defeated and mentally drained in the wreckage that was your bedroom floor. After you ripped almost everything out of your closet it was decided, you simply could not go tonight. All you wanted to do was sink into the floor and let the miss-matched fabric swallow you whole without surrender. It could be the idea of spending the night surrounded by screaming thoughts… It could also be the frigid rejection you had received earlier from Bucky, but either way your fate was sealed. It was better if you just bailed. Peter would be disappointed he wouldn't have someone to escape the ‘adult-ier adults’ with him, but he would understand. Wanda, however, would not be so forgiving. 

The knock on your bedroom door sufitialtly pulled you from your own daydreams. 

“Miss Y/L/N, Miss Maximoff is here to see you. Shall I let her in?” The A.I. spoke. You rolled your eyes, a groan slipping from your lips as you hawled yourself off the floor and onto the bed. “Yes, thank you, Friday.” You mumbled. 

Seconds later, Wanda was skipping into your room with a shy grin smoothed over her pink lips. You knew that look all too well, and to this day, it worried you. 

“Hello there friend.” She chimed, swinging the fabric bag she carried onto the bed and taking a seat beside you. “I can see I’ve interrupted your existential crisis.” She chuckled, gesturing to the mess you had made. 

“I’m not going, Wan.” You stated, watching her carefully as she rolled her eyes.

“Like hell you're not going. What’s Bucky going to do without you to shadow?” He chided, eyeing you carefully. She was watching for a reaction, anything to confirm her suspicions. She had probed you for information this time last week. You couldn't hide from her, she knew you too well. Not only in her gifts, but also in spirit. She was one of the first people you really opened up to, and she often used that against you. Especially when trying to discover why you andBucky seemed to be in a much better mood lately. ‘Antidepressants’ was your final answer. 

“I actually don't care what Bucky does. Maybe he’ll get lucky with Steve tonight.” You joked. God you hoped you were joking. 

“Shut up, Y/n. I know somethings going on with you two.” 

“Who two?” Peter inclined striding into your room and flopping onto the bed, his head sitting between you and Wanda as he looked up at her. 

“Y/n and Bucky are doing it.” She indulged him as his face fell. He crawled around so he could look at you dead on, his face contorting into that of disgust. 

“You and- and… Mr. Barnes? No…” He grimaced, shaking his head like he had tasted something sour. 

“No! There is nothing going on between Bucky and I.” you insisted, glaring at Wanda. 

“Don’t listen to her, Peter. She’s a filthy liar. And she’s totally banging Barnes.” Wanda giggled as you shoved her into the pillows. 

“Banging? Oh god no- I’m picturing it… Make it stop!” Peter gagged sarcastically, toppling over onto Wanda as they both fell into a fit of laughter. 

“I don't know why I tolerate you two.” You chuckled, watching your friends writhe on the bed. In a moment of distraction, Peter grabbed you by the wrist and pulled you down on top of him. 

“You know you need us. What would you do, huh? hangout with Steve the ninety year old virgin? And I know you avoid Natasha like the plague because everytime you see her she drags you to the gym… No, no you need us.” Peter smiled, tucking one of his arms under his neck as he shifted onto his back. You laid there on the bed between him and Wanda as you all contemplated that. 

“If I tell you, you have to promise it stays between us. I’m looking at you, Parker. Stark canNOT know about it.” You signed, glaring at him until he nodded. “So… Maybe it's possible Bucky and I might be… I don’t know what you’d even call it… I guess we're trying to…” 

“Is bump nasty’s still a term?” Wanda asked, false innocence in her eyes as she looked at you. Both you and Peter threw your heads back laughing and he elbowed her. 

“That’s awful.” Peter giggled, pointing his finger in his mouth and gagging. 

You spent the next hour explaining what was really going on between you and Bucky. How you were definitely not ‘bumping nasties’ and that it was just pure and new and so, so incredibly hot. 

“You have to go tonight.” Wanda sighed, holding up a little black dress infront of the floor length mirror.

“And do what?” You huffed, falling back on the bed and worrying on your bottom lip. “Bucky basically ran out of the room the moment I brought up the idea of-”

“Bumping Nasties?” Peter piped up, to which Wanda rocketed a pillow at his face, the crimson current sizzling around it. 

“Yeah, that.” You chuckled, letting your face drop in your hands. This was just embarrassing. You’d never been so hung up on a guy before. But then again, Bucky wasn't just some guy. 

“If only you could know what he was thinking…” Wanda smirked, turning on her heel and silently asking Peters approval of the dress. He shrugged in response, gaining a frustrated eye roll from the redhead. 

“Contrary to popular belief, I don’t mean to listen in… It’s an invasion of privacy.” 

“That's never stopped you before.” Peter argued, a goofy smile plastered on his lips. 

“Listen, read his mind- don't read his mind. It doesn't matter. The guy is obviously crazy about you. He’s always so dark and gloomy but lately the guy actually smiles. I heard him laugh the other day,” Wanda smirked, sitting beside you on the bed. “At one of Sam’s jokes.” She finished. 

“Yeah, Y/n. You gotta go. Do it for us. Also because you're the only one who will sneak me booze under the table.” Peter chuckled, his bottom lip wobbling as he pleaded with you. 

“Fine. But only because drunk Peter is the better Peter.” 

Wanda nodded her head in agreeance, grabbing the fabric bag off the bed and throwing it in your lap. “Perfect. Wear this, I picked it out specially for you…”

The thumping sound of music vibrated through the hallway as you tangled yourself in the orange and black tassels hanging from the door. You always liked Halloween as a rule, but Tony’s parties were starting to put a damper on your fun. 

You had thought that Bucky would have met you at your room to escort you to the event. He knew how badly you dreaded going, but he never showed. Maybe you had read him all wrong, you thought. Maybe this was all in your head, piecing together his thoughts into something you wanted to hear rather than the truth. Maybe the dress that Wanda had picked out for you was starting to cut off the circulation to your brain because it was getting harder and harder to think straight… Or was that just the music drowning out your mindless babble. 

“Good evening, beautiful.” Peter hummed from beside you. His presence startled you as you hadn't heard him coming. He held out his arm offering it for you to hold. “Are you going in?” 

The question hung in the air for a moment before you finally nodded your head, swallowing hard and taking his arm. It was moments like this that you were thankful for Peter. Truthfully you knew if he wasn't standing right there you might have ran for your life, bunkering down in your room in a blanket fort. 

“Such a gentleman.” You cooed, resting your head on his shoulder as he walked you into the party. 

“Nah, just a friendly neighborhood spider man. It’s good for my street cred, nothing more.” You brushed you off, pulling you into the buzzing room. 

Voices filled your head, swirling around you as you tried to concentrate on just one. There had to be at least a hundred people here tonight. They crashed over you, swarming in your mind like bees in a hive. It had been forever since you had been in a crowd like this and the anxiety was starting to coarse through your veins. 

“Hey. You're alright.” Peter assured you, pulling you across the room and over to the bar where Sam and Nat sat, laughing at something Tony had said. 

“Well if it isn't the wicked witch of NewYork.” Sam called, pulling you into his chest. “Your shadow is around her somewhere. Probably off staring longingly at Steve.” He chuckled. You rolled your eyes, gnawing at your bottom lip as you scanned the room. Lo and behold, Bucky stood in the corner of the room with Steve, his eyebrows fused into a knot as his friend spoke something you couldn't make out over the booming music. 

“He’s looking more pissy than usual.” Nat snorted, watching you as you gawked at the man. You didn't notice the small smirk that had appeared on her lips as she pieced together your frustration. 

“Nah, that's just his resting face.” Tony quipped, pouring a tall glass of liquor and sliding it across the bar to you. You picked it up, lifting it to your lips and downing it seconds later as you clanked it back on the counter. 

“Keep em’ coming. You guys are loud tonight.” You mumbled, your brain already beginning buzz as you forced your friends on ‘mute’. It was like a constant sit-up, you liked to describe. Eventually your body would cave and their thoughts would rush in, but the alcohol helped numb the ache and kept them at bay. 

With another double in hand, you decided the liquid courage was exactly what you needed to confront the ‘gentleman’ he so eloquently had put. 

As you closed in you noticed Steve elbowing Bucky, altering him of your presence. At the sight of you, his face fell, his eyes darting to the floor. 

“Evening geriatrics.” You chuckled, downing your drink as mustering every fiber in your body to make eye contact with the ethereal man before you. To your dismay, he was staring back, his eyes a violent thunderstorm you were on the verge of losing yourself in. You swallowed hard, clearing your throat and attempting to calm your nerves as you scanned him over. 

“Bucky. You look… Nice.” You choked out. His navy blue dress shirt was tucked neatly into his dark washed jeans, his hair perfectly placed in a way you knew had taken him forever before he was content to leave his room. The idea made you smile, but only for a moment as the sinking feeling crept back into the pit of your stomach. 

“I’ll leave you two, to… Talk.” Steve waved his goodbyes, pulling you into a side hug and whispering in a hushed tone, “Take it easy on him.” 

With that, Steve was gone, leaving you alone and vulnerable. 

“You look incredible.” Bucky hummed, his eyes falling down your form, but his face remained unreadable. 

Don’t just stand there, do something… Apologize… Kiss her… God, just stop staring and- 

“I should apologize- for earlier. I shouldn't have run out on you like that. It won't happen again.” Bucky mumbled, his hands, vibranium and flesh stuffed in his jean pockets. You were caught off guard to say the least. You were ready, guns drawn to defend yourself, but there stood the infamous Winter Soldier, cowering before you like a lost puppy. Your eyes softened as a small smile pulled at the corner of your lips. 

“Why did you leave?” You finally spoke, “I didn't mean to push you… Bucky, rushing is the last thing I wanted to do. If you want to-”

“No!” He blurted. 

“No?” 

“You're not rushing me. Damn, doll. I’m trying my best here, but you're walking around in that dress, with those lips and all I want to do is…” He trailed off, his eyes falling on your best as he worried on his bottom lip. 

“So its my fault?” You gawked. 

“No!” He almost shouted, lowering his voice when he caught a few unwarranted eyes at his tone. “It’s my fault. Y/n, I’m trying so hard to be respectful. I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m completely out of my depth here. This used to be so easy and now… The rules have changed and I can’t keep up and all I know if I want to throw you over my shoulder right now and haul you back to my room and make you mine. I just… It’s just that I’ve never…” 

You gaped at him, caught off guard by his confession as you waited for his next words, but his thoughts broke through the air before he could speak. 

Never used my arm as anything but a means to an end… You’re going to kill her with it… How can she see you as anything but a monster…? Doesn't she know how easy it would be to lose control…? It would take minutes… Seconds… 

“Bucky…” You hummed, your hand resting on his metallic arm as you pulled him from his self destructive thoughts. His eyes pleaded with you, boring into your soul. “Dance with me.” 

He stared at you, opening and shutting his mouth, trying to speak. It wasn't a question, but he nodded anyways, allowing you to pull him into the crowd of people swaying back and forth to the lulling music. 

You took the lead, lifting his metal hand and placing it on your hip. You intertwined your fingers with his flesh hand, stumbling forward as he pulled you in, his strength startling you a little. 

Oh, god…. Be gentle… Don’t break her, you ass. 

You chuckled, resting your head against his chest as you relaxed into his form. His heart beat drawing out the incoherent thoughts around you. You swayed back and forth like that, until Bucky’s breathing returned to normal again. Your hand trailed down from his shoulder to his cool metal fingers. They tightened around your waist at your touch as he stiffened, holding in a breath. 

“I’m not afraid of you…” You hummed against his chest. “That’s what you said to me… ‘I’m not afraid of you.’” You recanted the conversation you had had those weeks ago outside your room. 

“I’m pretty afraid right now.” He admitted, resting his chin on top of your head as he breathed you in. 

“You won’t hurt me, Bucky.” You assured, running your fingers up and down his arm, listing to it whirl as he moved. “See? We’re dancing. You're holding me, and I’m not broken. I’m right here.” 

Gently, you placed your hand on the side of his cheek, meeting his eyes. He swallowed hard, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth as he stared back at you. You would have given anything to kiss him right there, to melt into him and ease his mind like only he did for you. 

“I don't remember how to dance.” He signed, pain dripping from his words. 

“I can teach you.” You smiled into him, the smell of his cologne enveloping your senses. 

“And can you teach me what you like?” He asked, his voice a low gruff in your ear. “Where you crave to be touched, and kissed and moved.” 

His voice sent a shiver down your spine, the hairs on the back of your neck standing as his lips trailed down the shell of your ear. His words sent a heat straight to your core as his breath fanned across your cheek causing a blush to creep up your chest. 

“You have to sneak me out of this party first.” You chuckled, trying (and failing) to steady your rapid heart. 

“Baby, you're hanging with a strained assassin now. Let me teach you a thing or two...” He bragged, his pink lips pulling at the corner of his mouth into a smirk. 

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