#do i tag the main characters. do i tag the OCs. i will decide late

[dean-winchester-is-a-warrior]

Things Learned and Unlearned Ch. 1

Series Summary: Y/N has spent her life trying to outrun her mother's reputation. When she meets the rich and successful playboy, Dean Winchester, how quickly can he get her to stop running?

Pairings/Characters: Dean Winchester x Y/N, Sam Winchester, Jessica Winchester, Lucy Winchester (OC)

Warnings: Each chapter will have it's own warnings, but there will be smut, seduction, virgin!reader, playboy!dean, Edwardian era BS attitudes surrounding sex and women. (Technically it's set in 1900 and the Edwardian era started in 1901, but you get it.) Angst, Fluff, all the good stuff that regularly pops up in my series. 😁

Chapter Warnings: None really in this first chapter.

Word Count: 2,656

A/N: Okay, so this is the series that I orphaned over on fanfiction.net and I conducted a poll on what people wanted me to do with it if I brought it over to Tumblr. Converting it into a Dean x Reader AU won quite handily. So, that's what I'm doing. I hope you enjoy.

Just so everyone knows, this is a historical AU set in 1900, and there is no hunting involved. (Though there is a family business. 😄)

Series Master List | Main Master List | Tag List

Dean Winchester was bored; he admitted it. He was bored of the balls, the soirees, the empty conversations, the glittering jewels and the painted smiles. He needed a break. So he'd left New York City and all its glamor and come to Newburgh to spend time with his brother, Sam, Sam's wife Jessica and their little girl, Lucy.

However, now that he was standing in the quiet train station, waiting for Sam to pick him up, he had to wonder what he'd been thinking. With the sleepy ticket agent sitting behind the counter, gently dozing, and an old man sitting on a bench, lazily browsing through a local newspaper, this no longer seemed like a solution to his restlessness and boredom. This place actually seemed like the town that boredom was born and raised in!

But what could it hurt to stay for a week or two? He'd visit with Sam and Jessica, see how much Lucy had grown in the last year and maybe it would wash away the taste of sweaty, over-crowded ballrooms and smoky parlors with too much lemon furniture polish.

He shook his head. He didn't know what had gotten into him lately. That life was all he'd ever been interested in. Certainly, he'd never wanted his brother's life. Slaving away at his private law firm, saddled with a wife and child, and living in the middle of nowhere, a six hour train ride away from civilization; it had always horrified him.

In the last few months, however, the idea of breathing fresh air, of laughing with and even arguing with his brother, of bouncing his niece on his knee, and even the idea of listening to Jessica's bouncy chatter, had been growing in his mind until it was a constant disruption in his thoughts. So, he'd left the reins of his family's shipping and trade business in the hands of his very capable manager and sent a telegram to Sam that he was coming to stay, and to pick him up at the station.

But Sam was late. Dean had been waiting nearly an hour. Tired of standing around, Dean decided to wander a little. He woke up the ticket agent briefly to ask if he could leave his suitcase behind the desk with a message for his brother. The agent yawned and gave him a pen and paper, reaching over to take his suitcase.

Sam,

Got tired of waiting for you. Went exploring. Be back in an hour - two o'clock.

D.

"Thanks." He said to the agent, and set off on his quest to cure his boredom. There had to be something in this town to interest him.

***

Y/N breathed in deeply, and let out a long sigh. The air was crisp, fall air that smelled faintly of damp leaves, spice, and wood smoke. It was a warm and inviting smell and it made the lonely chasm inside her heart widen.

"Miss Y/N, watch!"

Y/N gave her attention back to the little girl who was running down the hill, scattering the birds, and laughing loudly. She couldn't help but smile at the little hellion. It might not be very ladylike behavior, but she wasn't even four years old yet. Y/N decided to save the admonishment and let her be a carefree little girl while she could. These years of innocence and abandon were fleeting. The little one should enjoy them.

"Hello."

Y/N jumped abruptly at a man's deep voice. With a hand over her thumping heart, Y/N turned to scowl at the stranger who'd startled her. As she looked up into his face however, her scowl melted and her heart started beating hard enough to jump out of her chest.

The man was smiling at her, a smile that hitched up one side of his mouth and made Y/N's breath catch in her throat. He was very tall, towering above her where she sat on the park bench. The perfectly tailored, brown traveling coat he wore stretched across broad shoulders and narrowed in a V shape over his flat stomach. His wool pants were of very fine quality and accentuated the strength and muscle of the legs beneath them.

He was beautiful, there was no doubt, but his eyes were something more than beautiful. They were a bright emerald green, long-lashed and penetrating. They stared into Y/N, like he could see through to her back collar button. His eyes alone caused Y/N to blush and she realized she was blushing because there were promises in his eyes, promises of something dark and sensual and all consuming.

He was speaking. She tried to clear the buzzing in her brain so she could hear him.

…"Dean."

She shook her head. "What?" she asked quietly.

He chuckled softly and Y/N's stomach clenched at the sound.

"Dean. I said my name is Dean Winchester and I asked you for yours."

"Y/N!"

At the sound of her name, Y/N turned, thinking wildly for a moment that someone had simply been telling this man her name, but then she realized it was Mr. Winchester, her boss. And as she realized this, the name the man had just given her penetrated through the haze in her mind.

She looked back at the stranger. "Winchester?"

But he wasn't looking at her anymore; he was looking at her boss who was jogging slightly towards them. "Dean!" he called out. "You weren't at the station, so I thought I'd track you down. Sorry I'm late." Mr. Winchester threw his arms around the man and pulled him into what looked like a bone crushing hug. But the man simply pounded Mr. Winchester on the back before her boss turned to face her.

“You’ve met my brother?”

***

Dean closed the door of his wardrobe and leaned against it, closing his eyes so he could bring that perfect face into his mind's eye. Beautiful (y/c) eyes, soft features, and an incredibly succulent mouth. He'd immediately had plans for those perfect lips and he'd already begun imagining them beneath his own, or moving down his body, slowly…

Then suddenly, he'd heard his brother's voice and was crushed in an embrace. When he pulled away, he could see the woman (Y/N?) was blushing profusely and trying to stare a hole into the ground.

He had quickly learned this woman was governess to his niece, his brother making the formal introductions. Lucy came running over and launched herself into Dean's arms.

"Uncle Dean! What did you bring me?"

"Lucy, manners." Sam had scolded. 

But Dean chuckled, and pulled gently on one of her braids. "I have lots for you, kiddo, but it's back at the station."

So, Sam had herded them all back towards the station. He'd told Lucy and her governess that they should get into the carriage as well and ride home with them, but Y/N had refused quickly, blushing again.

"No. Thank you, Sir. You're very kind, but Lucy needs to stretch her legs and wear off her energy. We'll walk back. I'll have her ready for supper at six o'clock." With that she took off with Lucy's hand in hers, walking fast enough that the little girl had to jog a bit to keep up.

"What did you do?" Sam had asked immediately, cuffing Dean none too softly in the back of the head.

"What?" Dean asked innocently. "I barely said two words to the woman."

"Really?" Sam asked, disbelievingly. "Well, two words from you and my level-headed, almost stoic, governess has turned into a blushing school girl."

Dean had just grinned. Sam rolled his eyes and cuffed him again.

Now Dean was changed out of his traveling clothes and into a fresh suit having bathed and rested. And he was bored once again. Sam had returned to his office in town to see his last client of the day and Jessica was out paying calls. He wandered around their modest, but beautiful home, reacquainting himself with the warm wood floors, expensive oriental rugs, and the smell of freshly cut flowers that Jessica grew in a hothouse in the back.

After a half hour, he was officially restless and all the signs of his brother's apparent domestic bliss had him desperate to find a distraction.

He wandered into the library hoping to find a book that might do the trick. Instead he found the beautiful governess he'd met so briefly. She was sitting on a green chair in the corner. She had her legs tucked up on the seat and one stocking clad ankle was showing as it peaked out from beneath her skirts. Lucy was nowhere to be seen, and he assumed she was taking an afternoon nap.

His body thrummed with desire immediately and he had to give his head a shake. He wasn't some green boy about to lift his first skirts. He needed to get control of himself.

Then she looked up from her book, sensing him, and her look of surprise mixed with the innocent desire that flooded her gaze took that control away in an instant. He pictured pulling her into his arms, and ravishing her sweet, lush mouth, which was now open slightly in surprise.

He swallowed and cleared his throat. "I apologize, Miss Y/L/N. I seem to startle you each time I see you."

She closed her mouth and shook her head. "Not at all, Mr. Winchester. I'll leave you to your reading." She stood to go, but Dean leaned against the closed library door and crossed his arms.

"No, I'd like you to stay, please. Can you recommend a book? What are you reading?"

She took a moment before answering, swallowing several times. She held up the small book. "It's a book about biblical poetry."

"Oh?" Dean couldn't think of anything less interesting, but he moved to her side, and took the book from her hand as an excuse to get closer.

The scent of something sweet, but spicy hit him as he stood near her, making his head foggy, so it took him a moment to register what he was reading as he looked down at the page she'd been on, it was marked with a piece of ribbon.

Taking the ribbon out, he read the words again and then looked back at Y/N with an incredulous expression. "You were reading…this?" He turned the book back to her and pointed his finger at one passage in particular.

"Yes, that's right." Y/N confirmed. "I must confess, I'm not much of a poet, it all sounds fairly confusing to me. This poem talks about a man and woman who are gardening. What a mundane subject to write poetry about." She shrugged delicately. "But it is biblical, so I thought it could only enrich my mind."

Dean couldn't help the wicked grin that spread across his face. "This is the Song of Songs. It's love poetry."

Y/N looked puzzled. "Love? Of what, gardening?"

Dean's smile deepened. "It's written in metaphor. You know what a metaphor is, don't you?"

Y/N's expression became slightly annoyed. "Of course I know what a metaphor is, I'm a governess."

"Of course." Dean said and suddenly he had a wonderful idea. "Let me see if I can help you see the metaphor here. Sit back down, and allow me to read this section to you and see if you understand."

***

Y/N was trying hard to pull air into her lungs without appearing to pant. There must be something truly wrong with her that made these kind of thoughts run through her mind. She couldn't focus her gaze on anything. When she looked into his eyes, thoughts fled completely and her mind was just a rolling mass of red haze.

So, she tried to focus on his neck. But the column of his throat and square corner of his jaw, with it's slight shadow of stubble made her breath catch again. She looked lower to where his hands held the book. But his hands were large and his fingers were long and thick, with blunt squared tips. They made visions pop into her mind's eye, visions that no respectable lady would be having. She pictured those fingers taking hold of her hand, wrapping around it, she imagined the warmth of his skin on hers, and soon she was nothing but a mass of nerves again.

She was very proud of herself for getting words past her lips. But then he'd suggested he read to her and she heard herself agreeing. A part of her mind was telling her to simply leave, but she thought it might seem rude, he was the brother of her employer after all. So she sat.

He opened to her page and began:

Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits. I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My beloved is knocking: "Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night."

Y/N listened and the words themselves held no new meaning, she could find no metaphors in them. But she heard the husky timbre of his voice, heard the low rumble as his tongue and lips formed the words, and she suddenly knew that what he was saying was scandalous. She could hear the impropriety in his voice, knew it from the way it made her shiver. Quoting the bible shouldn't create such a hedonistic reaction!

She jumped to her feet, unsure of what her next move would be, but she knew she couldn't stay in this room alone with this man another minute.

Dean stood slowly, putting the book down.

"Did you like it?" He asked and his voice was rough and low, slow and drawling.

She shook her head. She definitely didn't like this feeling. Her head felt stuffed full of cotton and her body tingled. He stepped closer to her and reached out to take her hand.

It felt exactly as she had imagined. It was warm where his fingertips held hers.

"I just realized that when we were introduced earlier I was very rude. I didn't even offer a kiss for your hand."

He tugged gently on her hand and she shuffled forward until only a few inches separated them. Her breathing was rough and her mind screamed at her to pull away. But she didn't. Instead she watched as he brought the back of her hand up to meet his plump lips. They were smooth and warm, and his breath just heated her skin there.

He moved his lips slowly, turning her hand in his so he could kiss the inside pulse point of her wrist. She had to tell him to stop. He was behaving with unbelievable impropriety. But his lips…they moved again, grazing her skin as they did, up to the tip of her thumb. Then he kissed the tip of each finger, before grasping her hand more firmly and pulling her the last inch toward him, so that now she could feel the heat radiating off of him. He dipped his head and she felt his lips in the center of her palm. Suddenly she felt his tongue flick out briefly to taste her.

It was the jolt of fire that shot up her arm that brought her to her senses. She gasped loudly and wrenched her hand out of his. She stood frozen for a moment, staring at the mouth that had brought on such a feeling. Then, desperately, she bolted from the room, trying to outrun the image of the heat burning in those stunning green eyes and of the wide, sensual mouth she suddenly longed to feel against her own.

Jensen RPF and Any/All Characters:

@lyarr24

@lacilou

@deans-spinster-witch

@globetrotter28

@suckitands33

@alwaystiredandconfused

@evznackles

@jackles010378

@impala67rollingthroughtown

@krazykelly

@candy-coated-misery0731

@envyaurora95

@spnwoman

@deans-baby-momma

@luvr4miya

@arcannaa

Dean Fics Only:

@roonthelittlespoon920

@slamminmine

@zepskies

@safiyas-world

Any/All Fics Regardless of Character or Fandom:

@kazsrm67

@slut-for-evans-stan

@sexyvixen7

@nancymcl

@hobby27

@waywardcheshire

Everything Incl. Fan Edits:

@k-slla

@leigh70

@eevvvaa

@kickingitwithkirk

@foxyjwls007

@notinthislife50

@roseblue373

@mishkatelwarriorgoddess

@avanatural

@mrsjenniferwinchester

@all-alone-he-turns-to-stone

@deangirl96

[icehearts]

THEN vs. NOW.

Tagged by @sealrock -- thank you friend! This is such a fun idea so I decided to do all three of my (currently) (sorta) active characters! Not sure who has been tagged yet or not, but I'll tag @tsunael @tearlunars @viiioca @spiral-cut and YOU. 🫵

ESCA. 2018 vs. 2024. Honestly? She hasn't changed TOO much outside of a few tweaks and the addition of crimes like hair and makeup. Most surprising to me is that she didn't have her beauty mark when I first made her back during uhhh, late Stormblood, I think? Also it feels so weird to see her forehead now.

SEYUN. 2021 vs. 2024. Pretty similar situation here -- Seyun's DNA is pretty close to her original incarnation. Her hair and eye colors have been SLIGHTLY altered over time since I'm picky and indecisive, and she also got some limbal rings somewhere along the way. It's pretty crazy how much of a difference custom makeup/brows/lashes can make though.

"YURI." 2017/2018 vs. 2024. So. Yuri is a special case, because they aren't an OC for me in the same way that Esca, Seyun, and my other characters are. I'm not attached to a 'canon' appearance (or name or personality or race or gender or aesthetic) for them, and I like feeling free to change things up on a whim. The only constant is that I've been a dragoon main since day 1.

Actually, I've swapped things up SO much on my main that I decided to do a bonus round under the cut:

They started out as a face 4 au ra, but Yuri has also spent some time as a mooncat, fem viera, face 4 au ra AGAIN, male viera, and now fem elezen as of Dawntrail. I'm quite pleased with elezen at the moment, so I don't forsee myself changing any time soon, but who knows!

[teamchasezwrites]

Second Chance (3/3)

Word Count: 6,538

Characters: Damian Priest/Unnamed OC

Genre: Romance

Tags: Hurt and Comfort, Kissing, Getting Back Together, Some Fluffiness

Summary: some people are worth a second chance. (A Wrestlemania XL Night Two fic)

Catch up: Part I Part II

Author's Note: The last part of what was only supposed to be a one shot. I did go back and forth with adding smut here, but I decided to keep it fluffy. Thank you for reading.

Embassy Suites was located near the Philadelphia airport. Tucked on the opposite side of the Interstate with a handful of other hotels for weary travelers. She was a bundle of nerves. The ball in her stomach grew as she got closer to her exit on 95 from her place in Northeast Philly.

After Wrestlemania concluded, she and her sister fought the crowd out of the stadium to the parking lot, then fought those same people in vehicles out of the sports complex where police office directed the majority of people onto 95 south. Which was annoying because they needed the north bound lanes but she was happy not to be tunneled onto 76.

The traffic cleared tremendously once they were headed north, so it took them no time at all to make it home. She used the time to freshen up and ward off her sister who wanted her to pack an overnight bag. Then there was nothing to do but wait. The clock was pushing one in the morning before her phone lit up with a text.

‘Sorry for it being so late.’

‘I’m back at the hotel.’

‘I hope you can still come.’

Now it was pushing two. She was hard pressed to remember the last time she stayed up late. Usually she was crawling into bed at nine and turning the bedside lamp off at ten. Right now she was nowhere near tired. She was wired. Nervous but wired.

There was one parking spot remaining near the main entrance. A sign verified it was for hotel visitors. The rest of the parking spots were behind a barrier arm that needed a room key to be swiped. Those looked completely full; probably from Wrestlemania attendees.

Climbing from the car, she hovered in indecision on taking her purse. Deciding she didn’t need anything beyond her car keys and phone, she shoved her purse beneath the driver’s seat. The headlights flashed with the press of the lock on her key fob. With a deep breath, she entered the hotel, her eyes darting around.

The front desk was empty. A sign told people to ring the bell for assistance. Not a soul in sight. Her hand made its way into her coat pocket to pull her phone when she heard her name being called. Looking over her shoulder she spotted Luis coming down the hall.

He was just as commanding walking through the dimly lit hallway wearing black joggers, black hoodie, and white Vans as he was standing in the ring in front of thousands. She was struck how much confidence he exuded now than he did when they were together.

“You made it.”

His voice blanketed over her, a deep lilt that caused goosebumps to break out over her skin. She shivered involuntarily.

“Thankfully the traffic was all cleared so it was a pretty quick drive.”

A blush darkened her cheeks. She felt awkward talking about traffic something her father tended to do. A small topic conversation one would have with a stranger while waiting somewhere.

“I know it’s a little chilly, but they have a seating area outside with a fire pit. I wasn’t sure if you wanted to go to my room or not…” It’s what he wanted. To gather her up in his arms. To reignite that spark he felt when his lips touched hers at the stadium. To feel her body against his, skin on skin.

The offer was tempting. It was on the tip of her tongue to say yes. To take his hand and allow him to lead her further into the hotel and to his room. “That sounds good. Lead the way.”

Damian swept his arm out toward the hallway he just walked down. He smiled, “after you.”

“Thank you, Sir,” she returned his smile and walked down the hall with him falling in step with her. A ghosting touch rested upon her lower back and her breath hitched. How many times had they walked like this? With his hand on the small of her back as they worked their way through a crowded Atlantic City club or filing from the movie theatre where he made her watch Paranormal Activity 4.

With a palm over her head, he held the door open. Before he allowed it to latch, he did a quick pocket check to make sure he had his room key. A short distance away stood a propane gas fire pit in the middle of a concrete slab. Two sides of the fire pit had 2 black Adirondack chairs while the remaining two sides had a couple of whicker outdoor loveseats with grey cushions. Damian was happy to find the little spot when scoping out places they could spend time. The late hour would give them the privacy.

He hoped.

While he reached down to turn the knob and pressed the ignition switch, he let her pick a seat. Flames came to life dancing over the fake wood. Turning, he couldn’t keep the smile off his face when he saw she chose a loveseat. Thanking God for the gift, he sat down on the cushion next to her.

The fire chased away the chill surrounding her. Though it could be the heat radiating off Damian next to her. His tall stature nearly dwarfed his side of the loveseat. The creaking of the whicker made her second guess her decision not to take one of the Adirondack chairs. Her reasons for not selecting the chair were sound. The slope of the seat would angle her away from the fire and it was cold. Two – the loveseat allowed her to be closer to Damian. She wasn’t going to pass that up.

She watched the flames dancing in front of her aware of Damian’s presence next to her. She could probably use her sister at the moment to kick her foot or shout out she loves him. The silence was slightly awkward. They had nothing to talk about and everything to talk about.

“What made you come to Wrestlemania?” Damian asked breaking the silence. He had so much he wanted to say. He wanted to drop to his knees in front of her and beg for forgiveness for taking control of the decision to end their relationship.

An undignified snort escaped. “My sister says it was cheaper than getting a tattoo removed.”

“You have a tattoo?” Damian’s eyes widened. She couldn’t even come with him when he was getting work done on his tattoos or adding a new one. Completely terrified of needles. “No…” he said when she nodded.

“Guilty.” She looked at him with a small smile and shrugged. “Apparently all I have to do is be really drunk. Like insanely drunk that I don’t even remember it.”

Damian laughed. “Can I see it or is it in a delicate location?” He wiggled his eyebrows.

She blushed, her face heating on top of the fire. “Ask me later.” The words came off flirty and were met with his smile. She blew out a quiet breath and slowly felt herself relax. “I came with my sister. I’m glad it was a little warmer tonight. I nearly froze last night.”

“Yeah, I’m almost glad I didn’t have a match last night. Everyone was talking about how cold it was. Especially the later on it got. I was supposed to wrestle but Finn got hurt a few weeks ago. So we had to relinquish the tag belts.” It stung to relinquish them due to injury, but they were slated to lose them last night so it didn’t hurt as bad.

“You were supposed to be in that ladder match?”

Damian nodded. “Finn and I had the belts. Both sets. The red are Raw tag belts and the blue for Smackdown. They are usually on different teams for each show, but they’ve been combined for awhile now. The ladder match was to make sure different teams won them so they’d be separated again. When they found out Finn wouldn’t be cleared, we vacated the titles and had to withdraw from the match.”

“That had to have sucked.”

“A little, but we were losing them anyway.”

“Did you know everything in advance?”

“Sometimes. Sometimes it’s just an outline,” Damian explained. He placed his right arm along the back of the loveseat and he scooted back into the corner of the loveseat. As he relaxed he rested his ankle on his thigh. “Anything can change up until the last minute. I was nervous all day today. Got to the stadium hours before Wrestlemania even started. Kept thinking I was gonna get pulled aside and told they were scrapping my cashing in. Between Seth’s match and everything with Roman, Cody, and The Rock, my opportunity was dependent on all that. They had to flush that out before I was even in the picture.”

“The crowd really loves you.” A sense of pride enveloped her for Damian. Not only did he achieve his dream of wrestling for the WWE, but he was the champion. The fans went crazy when his music hit and then again when he was declared victorious.

Damian smiled, ducking his head in a wave of embarrassment. “It’s been awesome. Each week it seems to get louder and louder.” The fingers of the hand on the back of the loveseat tangled in the soft silky strands of her blonde hair. He played with the strands as he continued talking. “I’m supposed to be a heel… a bad guy. They are supposed to boo me…hate me… but somewhere along the way fans started cheering for me. I can’t believe it.” Another feeling of complete disbelief washed over him. “I’m actually the champion.”

Without thought she reached out and placed her hand on his thigh. The hard muscle twitched beneath the knit black fabric. “Oh Luis, you deserve it. You worked so hard for this.”

“There were a lot of moments over the last ten or so years I questioned if I even belonged here. If it was ever going to happen. Questioning if I was even good enough.”

“You’re right where you’re supposed to be.”

He moved his left hand from the arm of the loveseat to her hand resting on his leg. He wondered at her words. Right here was on top and next to her. “The road to get this point was probably…”

“Like the roads of Philadelphia? Filled with assholes, potholes and construction cones?”

Damian laughed and squeezed her hand in his. He shifted in his seat sitting more upright. The move put him closer to her. “Something like that. I’m not sure there were assholes unless maybe in the mirror.”

“Oh come on,” she rolled her eyes. “I doubt that.”

“Maybe not an asshole,” he gave in. Looking down he stared at their hands in the glow of the fire. His hand was void of the rings he usually wore. She had a thin gold ring on both her index and middle fingers. Her fingers were long and elegant. Her hand such a contrast to his which made it fit perfectly in his.  “Maybe a dumbass.”

“Now that I can believe,” she laughed. Warmth wrapped itself around her when Damian grabbed her hand. Her heart beat faster when their eyes met. She nearly melted under his gaze. “You wear eyeliner better than I do.”

Damian gave a surprised laugh, not expecting that particular line to come out of her mouth. “Thank the make up department for that. Sometimes I swear they use a sharpie with how hard it is to get off.”

“The hair is amazing.”

“I think I was in the hair department longer than some of the women.” He still had the dreads in, pulled back away from his face. Before Raw, he’d get them taken out and go back to his regular look.

The night grew darker as they sat there letting the fire chase the chill away. She filled him in on her sister’s new marriage, her job in the city, and the small place she had in Northeast Philly. He updated her on his family and his newfound family in wrestling. He even spilled the direction creative was thinking about taking.

“I can’t believe after the celebration I saw tonight they are gonna break you guys up.” She’d gravitated toward him – or him to her - while they talked. Now she was pressed against his side with his arm wrapped securely around her shoulders. His left hand still held hers in his lap. What chill the fire didn’t chase, his body heat did. Not a part of her was cold. Sleep was the furthest thing on her mind.

“It’s one thing you gotta learn in the business. Pieces are constantly moving and evolving. With Rhea taking time off here soon to get married, it’s just something that can easily be inserted into the storyline almost organically. It’s gonna suck to not be with them anymore. We travel together. Room together. Then in one night the plug gets pulled and that’s it.”

“Like a break up.” The words were out before she processed them. What Damian described mirrored a relationship. Days, weeks, years spent doing everything together. Being in the same orbit. Then it was just gone and you were supposed to carry on.

Carry on as if your whole world hadn’t ended. Carry on like your heart wasn’t in pieces all over the floor. You were left to pick up and try to put them back together. The pieces never truly fit together though. Pieces were too damaged. Some even missing.

Damian felt the words as if an arrow pierced his heart. If his hands weren’t currently holding her, he would have rubbed one over his chest to sooth the aching muscle. The chill sweeping over him had nothing to do with the outside temperature. It was time to pay the piper.

“What happened Luis?” She asked staring into the fire watching the orange and yellow dance. Just like that her heart recalled that painful memory where he walked out.

‘This isn’t working anymore.’

“Honestly?”

“No. I want you to lie to me.” She snapped and sat up. The movement displaced his hold and she felt the immediate chill penetrating her body sweeping through every recess pushing the warmth out. “Why did you break up with me?”

“Looking back now I can see all the things I should’ve done and how I should’ve handled it. But at the time, I was that dumbass in the mirror and made a selfish decision.” Damian sat up, his own body chilled with the loss of her in his arms. He leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees. His head hung looking at his hands dangling between his legs.

Silence greeted his admission. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Our relationship was never the issue. I…”

“I swear to God if you give me the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ I’m gonna punch you in the face that will have you spending more time in the make up chair than Rhea.”

Damian believed it. After all, he taught her how to throw a punch. “I’m sorry…”

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. The beginning of anger starting to creep on the outer edges. The emotional rollercoaster of the weekend was going to end right here. Off the rails and crashed into the pavement. She moved to stand but his hand shot out. Her leg burned where it rested on her. She moved her eyes from it to his face. His eyes were pleading.

“Please stay,” Damian begged. The bubble they were in the whole night, cocooned in old memories and past feelings burst. That selfish part of him wanted to blow it back up and allow those feelings to encompass them once again. To not allow old hurts in.

She nodded and watched as his shoulders sag. His posture reminded her so much of Luis back when they were together. He rubbed his eyes beneath clear framed glasses. There was a vulnerability coming off him and her heart twisted. “Luis…” she whispered.

“I know you don’t want to hear it. But it was me. It was all me.” Damian’s voice came out low and muffled behind his hands as he rubbed his face. “I was in such a bad place… bad mindset. I wanted to become this wrestler... it’s all I ever wanted to do and I thought it would just happen. And it didn’t. It wasn’t working out. I had no back up plan.”

She stayed quiet listening to Damian. She knew it was rough for him trying to break into the scene. It wasn’t a business you could just walk on and succeed. You had to put in the work and pay dues in hopes that someone would notice you who could give you a shot.

“There was such a spiral. Where I tried out for WWE the first time and didn’t make it, it was just another hit already beating me down.” He stared into the fire as all those old feelings of inadequacy and failure were drudged up from deep places inside of him. “I was lying to you…I quit my job at the club because they wanted to give me a promotion and a raise, but I had to stop wrestling.”

“But…” she started but the words never came.

“I didn’t want to give up wrestling. It’s all I wanted to do. So I walked. I walked and it just got worse. I lost my apartment with the job. I ended up sleeping in my car a lot. Even on church steps…”

“Luis,” she whispered. Her eyes filling with tears. Her heart twisted up with hurt. She had troubling swallowing past the lump in her throat.

“I was broke. Living off the few dollars I’d get wrestling.” Damian’s own eyes grew wet with tears as he remembered those days. The unknowing. The desolate feeling drowning him as he parked his car in a random parking lot to sleep.

“Why didn’t you tell me? You could have stayed with me?”

“I was in a bad place mentally. You were the only good thing I had and on those nights where I laid on the church steps I kept thinking about you and how I had nothing to offer. I was a loser in my 30s. Homeless. How could I ask you to stay? How could I ask you to believe in me when I was starting not to believe in myself? But I was just selfish enough to keep you… then my car got broken in to and all my ring gear was stolen. It was all over.”

“Because I loved you?” She said quietly, her heart breaking. “I believed in you because I loved you. You didn’t have to ask me to. I already did. Sure we didn’t have much but I just needed you. Nothing else mattered. You were my person.” While she hurt for Damian and what he was going through at the time, she hurt for herself too. How could she not have seen it? How could he not trust her enough to open up to her about how bad it had gotten?

“I know.” Damian turned his head to look at her. His fingers rubbed together in jerking movements and he wished he had one of his rings on so he could twist it back and forth to control his hands. “I knew that, but in my head the voices were louder that you deserved so much better than what I could give you… what I was giving you.”

He wondered, as he watched a tear escape and roll down her cheek, if it had been better to not have noticed her in the crowd tonight. If they should have just let the past lay. He thought about her over the years sure, always equated her with the one who got away. Because of that, a part of his heart would always be hers. But was it worth it to drag up all the pain from the demise of your relationship?

“I felt like I was doing you a favor. Letting you go. I would end up wherever I ended up, but you… you had your whole life ahead of you. You’d move on, meet someone new. Someone better and more stable who could give you the life you deserved.”

“That was never your decision to make.” Her tone was hard and bitter.

“I know,” Damian said with a sigh. “At least I know that now. Rhea was coming to me for relationship help with Matt – who is her husband now. I could see it clearly. Probably because it wasn’t that long ago I was doing the same thing.”

“And what’s that?”

“Standing in her own way. Making decisions for the other person without consulting them. Placing the weight of the entire relationship on her shoulders.”

“Did the irony slap you in the face?”

Damian chuckled, nodding. “Oh yeah. By then I knew it was too late. It been too long. I had no idea where you were. And even then,” he shrugged. “Assumed you’d be married and out of reach anyway.”

“There you go assuming shit pertaining to me again.” She reached into her pocket, where the make up wipe her sister handed her earlier in the night remained. It was still damp enough. Removing the towelette she rubbed it over the inside of her ring finger on her left hand.

Damian watched the movements perplexed. It wasn’t as if she was washing her hands. She was concentrating on one spot in particular. He wondered if she put her hand in something on the loveseat.

“You asked me why I came to Wrestlemania and I told you it was cheaper than getting a tattoo removed…” she kept her eyes down as she held her hand out across the seat to him. Her hand trembled as he took it in his.

Damian’s gaze hovered on her face for a moment before his eyes dropped to their hands. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for until a slightly dark blemish caught his eye. Hard to see in the shadows of the fire.

Turning her hand so her thumb faced up, he squinted. She curled her index and middle fingers down out of the way and his breath caught in his throat. The delicate script font stood out like a beacon in the night. A lighthouse in the harbor calling a ship home.

He raised questioning eyes to her, but she still kept her gaze averted. The tattoo pulled his gaze and he stared at his name etched in black against pale ivory skin. He took it all in. The cursive font made his name look so delicate. The heart attached to the tail of the s drawing him in; a siren calling a wayward sailor. He ran his thumb over the tattoo.

“I don’t remember even getting it,” she spoke softly. Her eyes followed the movements of his thumb gently moving back and forth across her finger. “Happened about three years after we broke up. My roommate at the time wanted to be a tattoo artist…”

“You let an inexperienced person ink you?” Damian’s voice rose. The disbelief evident in his tone.

“I like to think I put up a good fight that night to ward her off and that she just eventually wore me down. Either that or held me down,” she laughed quietly. “I really don’t know. I woke up with a massive hangover the next day, no memory of the day before, and your name tattooed on me.”

Using his free hand, he reached across his body and cupped her cheek. Her skin cool against his warm hand. He didn’t give her a chance. He ducked his head and pressed his lips to hers, swallowing her surprised gasp.

This time there were no cameras, no fans yelling and screaming trying to get his attention. It was just them. The quiet of the night only broken by the hum of passing cars on the nearby interstate. Their lips moved together, opening and closing on each other. Their hands shifted in his lap to clutch and fingers entwine. His hand shifted up her cheek and his fingers tangled in her hair.

He licked against her lips, nipping at her bottom lip. When she sighed and her lips parted, his tongue licked into her mouth. Chasing a taste that was both foreign and familiar at the same time. He tightened his hold on the back of her head, pulling her closer to him. A moan fell from his lips when he felt her hand press against his chest in an effort to balance herself. He wanted her to fall onto him.

With that thought, he dropped her hand and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her into him. The kiss turned slower and deeper.

“Mi Corazón, te extrañé…” he whispered against her lips.

“I missed that,” she sighed, blinking her eyes open. During the kiss she moved closer to him, now pressed to his side. His arms wrapped around her holding her in place. She was turned toward his body.

“Missed what?”

“You speaking Spanish to me…”

Hearing this, Damian let the words fall from his lips as he trailed kisses across her cheek to her ear. His accent heavy as he spoke words of love and how much he missed her. How he would do anything for her. How he would never let her go again.

“You’re not playing fair,” she answered, her words soft. His breath was warm against her skin. She shivered not from the cold. From his words. His voice. His touch.

Damian chuckled, his breath dancing across her cheek. He trailed his nose once again on the soft skin of her cheek. This time his goal was her lips. Those sweet tasting lips made him weak inside. “I’m a bad guy… I play dirty.”

He captured her lips again. When the kiss ended they were both breathless. She laid her head on his shoulder, the material cool against her flushed cheeks. His arms wrapped around her, holding her close to him. Her right hand lay on his chest. Her left caught between them. She shuddered and snuggled closer. “Fuck it’s cold.”

Damian laughed and tightened his hold. The temperature dropped noticeably in the time they’d been sitting outside. He wasn’t even sure what time it was. He was sure he wasn’t ready to let her go. “We can go up to my room…”

The invitation hung between them. A door masked as Pandora’s Box. Going upstairs with Damian – to his room – was a major decision. She’d already given in to kissing and being held by him. Did she want to take it a step further? Hours ago, the answer was no. Her sister tried to make her take an overnight bag. Nearly thrusting the duffle in her hands with a knowing wink. She could still hear the scoff and see the eye roll when she tossed the bag back on her bed.

“I’m just not ready to let you go,” Damian confessed.

“I’m not ready to jump into this like nothing ever happened between us.”

“I’m not pressuring you to. I’d stay right here all night like this. I really just don’t want you to go. If you’re not comfortable going to my room, there is a little alcove inside we can sit.”

Truth be told, she didn’t want to leave either. She wanted to stay just like she was, wrapped up in Luis’s arms. Her toes, however, were screaming. She can no longer feel them and she was close to thrusting her hands beneath his hoodie seeking his body heat. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Damian repeated. “My room or the sitting area inside?” He wanted to be sure he didn’t misunderstand. God, he didn’t want to screw this up.

“Your room,” she answered and used the hand on his chest to push herself up to a standing position. “No funny business though.”

Damian laughed and stood. With frozen fingers he killed the fire pit. The chill was instant. “Scouts honor.”

“That’s not even the sign,” she rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand with only two fingers held up instead of three.

“The third finger was frozen,” he grinned. He adjusted their hands so their fingers were entwined. They walked swiftly up the sidewalk to the side door. He pulled his room key from his hoodie pocket and pressed it against the pad next to the door. The light turned green and the click of the lock disengaging echoed in the night.

“Oh that feels nice,” she groaned as the heat of the hotel hit them as they walked inside. She followed his lead down the hall to the elevator. The car was waiting for them so the doors opened immediately when he pressed the button. The front desk was still unmanned. The clock on the wall read four am. She groaned as she stepped into elevator.

“You okay?” Damian asked, pressing the button to the fourth floor.

“Just saw the clock. It’s already four.”

“Really? Doesn’t feel like it.”

When the doors opened, he led her from the elevator; his hand still grasping hers. The hotel was completely silent. The patrons all tucked into bed hours ago, except for them. Two people who were reconnecting again; looking to start a new beginning. He squeezed her hand. He turned his head and looked down at her with a smile.

“You okay?” She asked as they came to a stop outside a door with a do-not-disturb placard hanging on the door knob.

“Oh yeah.” He held the room key to the key fob on the door. Just like the door downstairs, the light flashed green and the sound of the lock disengaging echoed into the quiet hallway. He held the door open, allowing her to go first. He had a momentary freak out as he ran through his mind at the state of his room.

There was no need to worry. After leaving the stadium and arriving back at the hotel, he showered and picked up his room in hopes she’d be joining him.

The suite had two rooms – more than he needed. The door opened directly into the first room. It housed a pullout sofa bed to the right with a bedside table on either side. An ottoman in front and a green flowered chair to the right of the couch in the short wall shared with the bathroom. A table with two chairs sat in front of the window. The window looked out over the hallway which he felt was weird. The first thing he did when he checked in to the room was pull the shades closed. Across from the couch was a dresser with a flat screen TV on top. The section came in handy last night when the rest of Judgement Day came to hang out after the show for a celebratory drink for Rhea’s successful title defense. A small counter that housed a mini fridge below was the last item in the room.

The bathroom door stood open across from the fridge. His shower items still littered the shower and the bathroom counter. A damp towel hung on the hook behind the door. A few droplets of water still clung to the porcelain sink from where he brushed his teeth after showering. The blue pack of make up remover wipes would have caused him some embarrassment but it was what it was. He wore eyeliner sometimes and it was a bitch to get off.

A step further was the bedroom, the king sized bed taking up the majority of the room. The shades were tightly shut to block out the morning sun. The bed still messed up from where he crawled out of it nearly twenty four hours ago. A flat screen TV stood on a dresser across from the bed. The remote thrown haphazardly on the bedside table where his phone charger cord hung off.

Next to the dresser on the window side was an armoire. The suit he wore today already hung from the hanger neatly, next to the one he was going to wear on Raw. A table with a lamp sat right inside the door, it held his black suit case, the lid open. His clothes – both dirty and clean – held a riffled through look. Usually what his suitcase looked like at the end of a trip. Nothing was neatly packed. Everything ended up thrown inside ready to be tossed in the washer when he arrived home.

She slipped out of her coat and placed it on the back of the chair at the table. Her body still held the chill from behind outside in the early spring temperatures. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get warm again.”

“I can help,” Damian said and pulled her into his arms. He wrapped one arm around her waist, the other around her shoulders. His hand dug into her hair and pressed her head to his chest where he tucked it under his chin. He felt a shudder run through her body before ending in his. His eyes drifted close as her arms wrapped around him.

She laid her head on his chest and pressed her hands on his back. She released a shuddering sigh and closed her eyes. He smelled of the crisp spring air and a spicy musk that made her turn her nose into him. She breathed deadly as something inside her settled.

“I will be forever grateful for you shouting you loved me to get my attention tonight.” Damian’s words were spoken softly as he continued to hold her in his arms. There was no coat between them. No barricade. She was flush against him. Finally. After all this time.

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She lifted her head from his chest to stare at him. “I didn’t say that.”

“What?” Damian stared at her, his eyebrows drown down.

She giggled. “That wasn’t me.”

“No way… I heard you.”

She shook her head, the teasing smile on her lips. “Nope. It was my sister. I was struck stupid. I couldn’t even breathe, let alone speak…”

“No…” Damian started laughing. That shouted proclamation caught his attention, causing him to turn his head and see her. He assumed it was her. “I guess I owe your sister a thank you.”

“She’s accepting a seven day Italy vacation.”

Damian laughed as he tucked her head back under her chin. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

She stayed in his arms another moment or two before lifting her head. She stared into his eyes. The deep chocolate orbs reflecting back everything she wanted to say. She saw their past - the love they had, the memories they shared. She saw the present – the moment their eyes met earlier surrounded by thousands of screaming people and how everything stopped and faded until it was just the two of them.

Raising up on her tiptoes, her lips pressed against his. No words were needed. Their lips said everything that needed to be said and things that couldn’t be said… yet.

Her hands drifted from his back around his sides and up his chest. Her hands cupped his cheeks, the stubble of his beard scratching the soft skin of her palms. She tilted her heard and the earth moved beneath her feet. It felt like an electric current moved from their lips through her body following each vein down to her toes and back igniting a fire she hadn’t felt since these very same lips kissed her a decade ago. Damian’s arms tightened around her drawing her impossibly closer. Her toes barely on the floor. Thrown off balance, she trusted him to keep them upright.

The kiss broke and they pressed their foreheads together. Their breaths mixed, coming out in heavy gasps. Her fingers traced the planes of his face where her hands still cupped him. “That’s really playing dirty.”

“Corazón, you kissed me.” Damian pointed out, pressing a series of small kisses to her lips.

She hummed against his lips. “So I did…” She opened her eyes catching his gaze again. His irises were blown wide, the black nearly over taking the dark brown. She took a step back from him, her hands falling from his face and kicked off her shoes. With a quick glance around the room, she reached back and flipped the light switch by the door, sending the room into darkness. A feint glow from the bedroom offered the only light.

Without a word she took his hand again and this time, she was leading him. Toward that glow in the bedroom. Spinning on him, she tugged at his hoodie. “Off.”

Curious to see where this was headed, Damian didn’t voice any complaints. He simply reached down and pulled his hoodie over his head. He smirked when he heard a soft gasp as his bare chest was revealed.

“No shirt?” She stared at his chest, unable to look away. She thought he had a t-shirt on underneath. Her eyes roamed over the bared skin. The tattoos she remembered on his pecs and down his left shoulder. His arms were filled in more and she wanted to explore the ink. A new tattoo sat on the left side of his belly, like birds in flight.

Her fingers trembled and she itched to touch. She drew her own sweatshirt over her head revealing a tank top. She placed both the sweatshirt and her socks over the pushed in chair at the tables where his suitcase laid. The jeans were a bad idea, but she hadn’t planned on being in this position.

That position was climbing into his bed where the covers were already tossed back. The sheets were cool to the touch and she was quick to shove her naked feet beneath the blankets. She looked up, meeting his eyes and sent him a smile while patting the empty space next to her.

“What are you doing?” Damian asked after he climbed in next to her still wearing his pants. He pulled his phone from his pocket and placed it on the charger. He double checked the alarm set before settling back against the pillows.

She moved closer to him and there was a few moments where they shifted and maneuvered in the bed to get into a comfortable position. It ended up being Damian laying on his back with her snuggled into his side. Her head lay in his chest, an arm across his stomach with her hand resting on that new-to-her tattoo. She crossed an ankle over his. His arm wrapped around her back, his hand resting on her hip. The blankets pulled up to help chase away the remnants of the outside temps.

“We’re gonna talk, probably kiss, and maybe sleep.”

“Okay,” Damian said not offering up a complaint. After all, why would he? She was in his arms right where he wanted her. He wasn’t letting this moment – this second chance- pass him up.

Before he reached out to turn the light out, casting the room in darkness, she saw the future in his eyes.

[profilepictur3]

OCT (Original Character Tournament) taking auditions!!!!

This is a project I forgot to continue, but here's the text and the DA link!!!!

Have you wanted to join a Original Character Competition, but you're really late to the trend, or just got into Endzone/Law of Talos and got inspired and decided to join one? (definetly did not happen to me just now.) Whatever your situation, I bet you want to join one, if you're viewing this journal. Well no fret, for I'm opening auditions for a (very late) OCT,

Combatacademy!

Currently there's 1/16 places taken, so submit your auditions if you're intersted! I will update this as we get more contestants.

LORE (PLEASE READ THIS!!!)

Combatacademy was founded by two people, currently unknown, who had a strange idea of making a competition in a big old school. They hired some teachers and janitors to act as the faculty members, and chose the competitors very carefully and with care.

The OCT is located in a big old school, with three floors. Each floor has many classrooms, closets, and other rooms schools usually have. The school also has a big gym, a cafeteria (that works as the main hang out space for the contestants), a pool, a massiye yard with large, almost 9ft tall electric fences, a basement with a large, dirty, maze-like sewer system, and some teacher's rooms. More info about the school will be revealed later, remember that the OCT is a WIP still! ^^

The judges will be my friend group and me, and the OCT will be held on my personal DA account, which is this one you're viewing this journal on! So be sure to stick around if you're interested!

We will allow any kind of digital or traditional art, as well as literature. The main art types that are recommended are:

- Comics and animations, as usual

- Still art, as long as the winner can clearly be figured out from the art.

- Those but trad art is also fine

But the main factor is that you had fun doing it, am I right? ^u^

Anyways, be sure to watch (follow) me if you want updates, as I will probably make some more stuff about this before the OCT really starts. Let's hope we can bring this genre back!!

(Auditions can be posted here on Tumblr, on DeviantArt, or on X (Twitter)! You can post a piece of art of your oc, and tag me on the post! Have fun! ^v^)

Edit: Honestly, I forgot to mention that I will personally draw every character that joins!! So you'll also get a free commission at the same time. I'm also so happy that we have some people joining! It really makes me happy to see that people actually care about this ^^ Thank you to everyone who has joined already!

Discord: mmegaddict

DA link: https://www.deviantart.com/da-vey3/journal/OCT-taking-auditions-1063211214

[coimbrabertone]

A Self-Indulgent Blogpost About My Motorsports Fiction

So, this weekend, MotoGP had a good sprint while the main race was a snoozer, and NASCAR ended with a twenty-eight-car pileup followed by a plate merchant winning the race.

Which makes me not really want to talk about either of them.

I could talk a bit more on Andretti - Michael revealed today that stepping back was a personal decision after forty years of being involved in Indycar, half as a driver, half as a team owner - but I don't really have a ton more to say on that either.

So, what do I want to talk about?

Well, I kinda want to talk about my writing.

I've kinda wanted to do that for a bit now, but I always thought that one: it was a bit self-indulgent to promote my fanfic on here too much, and two: I wasn't sure if people would particularly care. Well, I talked to some friends about it, and they encouraged it, so I figured...why not?

Thus, today I'll be talking about my motorsports fiction, my racing fanfics that I primarily post on AO3. I've completed one story Life at the Speed of Formula One, I wrote a 1950s Grand Prix one-shot called A Beautiful Race, and I'm currently writing two stories: An 1980s CART Indycar story called The Fastest of the Prancing Horses, and a 2000s NASCAR story called Racing in the Golden Age.

For this blogpost, I will mainly be talking about LatSoF1 because it is finished and because as my first real motorsports story, it more or less set the mold for the rest.

The link:

So...where to begin but the tags?

I have this story labeled under two fandoms, Original Work and Formula 1 RPF, why is that?

Well, it boils down to the fact that I don't quite think it fits firmly into either category. It is an original work about Formula One, but it's not really RPF either.

RPF, for those unaware of fanfic terms, means Real People Fiction.

In my stories, however, I've decided to fictionalize living people, particularly those central to the plot. There's a few reasons for this, one is that I felt odd having my OC (original character) interacting with real drivers - and admittedly a part of that is that I didn't really want this to read like a self-insert fic, where my Mary Sue gets to race with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel and all that - especially when I'm going to tackle things like tabloid rumors and opinions on homosexuality and driver feuds in these things.

The long and short of it is that I feel more comfortable having fictionalized driver Felipe Alvarez as an antagonistic figure rather than Fernando Alonso himself.

Does that matter to people reading it who are just going to connect the dots and see Alvarez as Alonso anyway? Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Let's get back to establishing the context.

The story begins in 2007, with Kazakhstan-born ethnic-Russian driver Tamara Shchegolyayeva signed to Williams banked by Kazakhstani oil and gas companies.

Let's unpack that a bit.

Why 2007?

The initial idea of the story, before it branched off into something larger, was to cover the tight and dramatic 2007 championship battle from the perspective of someone in Formula One but outside of the proper title battle. Almost like a third-person view on the title challenge from a first-person perspective.

Tamara Shchego-what's it?

Okay, so admittedly Kazakhstani driver with a really long name probably isn't the most believable package for a late-2000s Formula One driver, but I think that's part of what made this idea interesting to me.

I'm a geography and history nerd, so I'm drawn to off-the-wall places where so many different cultures and histories intertwine. Kazakhstan has the Silk Road, the Mongol Empire, Russian Imperialism, and Soviet Communism all in its history. Its people are like a microcosm of all of Asia with East Asian, Turco-Persian, and Indo-European phenotypes all present, with people ranging from literal nomads to Kazakh Muslims to ethnic Russians.

Thus, I decided that it would be interesting to write a protagonist from there.

However, Formula One is also...Formula One. So how does a person from there get to the cynical, cutthroat world of big money global motorsport?

Well, I made her the daughter of a petty oligarch and sponsored by oil money.

This also allowed me to explore a number of things. The legacy of Russian Imperialism, the question of where she belongs - I placed her ancestry right on the tripoint border of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, had her born in Kazakhstan, and had her grow up and live in Monaco - the morality of oil money, the morality of sponsorships in general, and, eventually, of being a gay woman in a male-dominated, conservative, globe-spanning sport.

I won't pretend I covered these areas perfectly - and at least in some cases, I wrote Tamara as having complicated, potentially problematic feelings on things - but I think it was at least interesting.

Fictionalized Drivers.

My general rule with people in the story is that the more involved in the plot they were, the more I'd differentiate them from the drivers they were based off of.

Thus, German Nico Rosberg became Finn Tommy Koskinen. The background was generally the same - Finnish father, German mother, raised in Monaco - but by distinguishing him from the driver he was based off of in these ways, I felt more comfortable having him interact with Tamara, to show his opinions, to have a teammate dynamic with her.

This extended to Anthony Harrison, probably the most fictionalized of the drivers. Based loosely off of Lewis Hamilton, Anthony is the son of a black American army mechanic and a white Englishwoman, growing up in that background to become a top Formula One prospect with McLaren.

He enters the plot as a fellow rookie to Tamara, and eventually, the two of them bonding leads to tabloid rumors that they're a couple. A bit of drama that Tamara wants no part in, but foreshadows a later storyline that turns her career upside.

Kazakhstan and Russia.

I mentioned before that Tamara struggles a bit with representing Kazakhstan as an ethnic Russian, but as part of her caught between two worlds storylines, I also had her struggle with her Russian identity as well. She's got it in her blood, but she wasn't born there, didn't grow up there, and has no love for the regime there.

This got more complicated because, in real life, Russia escalated the war in Ukraine a month after I started this story.

One of the cited reasons was Russian-speaking minorities in Ukraine.

That made writing about a Russian from another post-Soviet country awkward, and I wanted to find a way to address it within the context of this story.

Thus, during the 2008 season in LatSoF1, I talked a lot about the Russian invasion of Abkhazia and South Ossetia within Georgia, where Putin and Medvedev tried more or less the same tricks. Using Russian minorities in those countries to justify naked landgrabs.

This allowed me to solidify Tamara's position as someone who was born in Kazakhstan and is of Russian descent, and loves the people of both countries, but does not love either regime.

And come 2009 and 2010, the final two seasons featured in the story, and she gets away from depending on either country for sponsorship.

So, that's a whole lot of background out of the way, now...let's talk about how I wrote the story itself.

Writing Races.

LatSoF1 was my first real racing focused work and therefore in the early days, there were some adjustments to how I wrote things.

I decided on two races a chapter being the norm, thinking it would be an efficient way to get through the season without getting bogged down too much in yapping about a fictionalized version of a real race.

And to a degree, it did its job.

However, I did also end up more or less skipping the Malaysian Grand Prix that first year as I jumped to the race results. I don't think I'd do that now. I'd write about how the race was going overall and what Tamara was doing and then end on the results.

How did I get the results? Well, to keep things grounded in reality, I based Tamara's 2007 results on what Alexander Wurz achieved in that 2007 Williams irl. I can get the results real quick on Wikipedia, maybe go to Racing Reference for an obscure race or if I need more detail, and another thing that helped a lot for LatSoF1 specifically is the old F1 season review videos. I watched the reviews for 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 in the making of LatSoF1.

For CART stuff more recently, it's been a bit harder to find some specific information for like qualifying sessions from 1989. Some of that stuff is preserved on VHS rips on youtube and I've used those before, but what I've found to be helpful is actually some skills I picked up as a history major in college: old newspapers.

The LA Times and Chicago Tribute have tended to be my personal favorites because they have a significant digitized backlog, and don't require signing up to read through it like the New York times.

Hell, earlier this very day I was looking for some information on the Galles-Kraco merger ahead of the 1989 season - I wanted to know if Kraco stayed in the Compton garage or if they moved in with the Galles team in Albuquerque - and finally found the information in a brief mention at the bottom of an LA Times article.

This one, to be exact:

Thank you very much LA Times for making random stories from June 1989 accessible.

So yeah, sometimes it's easy and I can just get what I need off of Wikipedia and work from there, other times I need to go digging deeper, but the point remains: I find the real results and use them a s a baseline.

All that being said, it would be a bit boring to just slap my OC's name on a real driver's results and call it a day, so once I find what I need, I tend to change things around a bit.

First thing that comes to mind from LatSoF1 is the 2007 European Grand Prix, where Mark Webber finished third, just barely holding off Wurz.

In LatSoF1, Tamara got him in the last corner and took a podium finish.

That being said, I made sure not to get too carried away either.

At the end of 2007, Tamara finished on 18 points with two third places (Canada and Nürburgring) being the highlights of her season. In comparison, Nico Rosberg - and indeed Tommy Koskinen - finished 2007 on 20 points, whilst Wurz irl finished on 13.

Five points gained on real life is hardly Mary Sue behavior imo, so i don't consider that too obscene.

Who did I take those points off of? Well, I tried to keep that pretty even-handed as well, switching Mark Webber's third for Martin Weaver's fourth place in Europe.

Tamara also took Ralf Schumacher's eighth place in Australia from Roland Ziegler. Another eighth in Turkey off of Robert Kubica/Piotr Kaminski, a third eighth place in Italy off of Jenson Button/James Buxton, and a fourth eighth place in Brazil off of Jarno Trulli/Ivan Tripoli.

Pretty even-handed overall. No one driver was bullied for his results, and I didn't cause any massive swings in the championships.

Speaking of all those drivers I just named...

Fictionalized Names.

How did I come up with driver names? It varies.

Some names, particularly for people who didn't feature too much in the story, were just playing around with their real name. I'd put Martin Weaver for Mark Webber and James Buxton in that category.

Other names are little inside jokes I have with myself. I can't think of any from LatSoF1 off the top of my head, but in my CART story, real life driver Rich Vogler is renamed after Saints Row 2 antagonist Dane Vogel.

Why? Because I love Saints Row 2 and that popped into my head when I saw Vogler. Vogler-Vogel, it makes sense.

A good amount of names are ripped from players I had in Football Manager saves. Piotr Kaminski (Robert Kubica) I had at Cracovia in a save on FM21, and later on that same manager moved to Napoli, where I had a Japanese winger named Yoshikazu Higashiyama. I loved that player so much I used his name for Kamui Kobayashi once I included him in the story.

And other names are in reference to other drivers. In the late 2000s, Red Bull had a fetish for drivers named Seb: Sebastien Bourdais, Sebastien Buemi, Sebastien Loeb, Sebastien Ogier, and of course Sebastian Vettel.

In LatSoF1, that's replaced with a fetish for drivers named Max, in reference to their current boytoy Verstappen: thus, it's Maximilien Lecroix for Bourdais, Maximilien Longpre for Buemi, and Maximilian Renner for Seb Vettel.

Oh, and I made Longpre a Luxembourger in place of Buemi who is Swiss. Why? Because I like throwing in a comparatively underrepresented country every once in awhile.

Fringe Benefits.

On a lighter note, this is something I enjoyed about LatSoF1 a lot: it was a Formula One story, but being set in the near past, there was so much little stuff I could touch on. Tamara would have thoughts on geopolitics, video games, TV shows, other racing series, other sports, she'd get to tour a nuclear reactor at one point, she's get to rock some cool outfits, and she'd build up a bit of a car collection.

It was cool!

Most of the stuff I wrote before LatSoF1 was like historical fiction or Star Wars stuff, so it was nice to just be able to write about a person who, outside of an extraordinary job, is more or less just a regular person.

When I was getting into MotoGP for the first time, I could write a scene about her discussing MotoGP with some Italian engineers.

When I was watching Chernobyl, I got to have her tour a Soviet nuclear reactor in Saint Petersburg.

When I wasn't loving Formula One as much as I used to, I had her dabble in sports cars and Indycar during a bit of a sabbatical I had her in.

Speaking of, that brings me to...

What I'd Do Differently Now:

I started LatSoF1 in January 2022 and finished it in June 2023. I still consider it to be one of my best works and I'm proud of it, however, part of writing - and this is for everyone, not just me - is that you're always learning more. I'd say my writing back then was good, but I think it's gotten better now - certainly not perfect, but better - so...what would I do if I was doing it now?

The first two things are more technical:

One: I think I'm better at breaking up big blocks of text now, alternating between paragraphs and short lines, which I think makes for a more readable experience.

Two: I was getting better at this as I was writing LatSoF1, but I still think I could've been better about dialogue. I think dialogue is a bit of a weakness in my writing, one I'm working on, but a weakness nonetheless.

I probably could've done a better job with dialogue in LatSoF1.

Beyond that...I struggle at having my protagonists do things that are out of my character. Part of that is inevitable - write somebody long enough, particularly in first person, and parts of you will bleed into that character whether you like it or not - but it also led to me dropping one and a half plotlines.

One and a half? Let me explain.

There is a part of LatSoF1 after the 2008 season where Tamara loses her sponsorship in F1 and goes on a bit of a downward spiral. I initially had the idea that she'd develop a drinking problem during this point and eventually recover for it, to the point where she wouldn't drink podium champagne and would always just spray it before handing it off to the team.

I chickened out on this because I didn't feel comfortable writing about someone struggling with alcoholism given that I don't drink.

Then we move onto the half.

I initially wanted Tamara to be a bit more promiscuous once she comes out, and she'd have a few different girlfriends and maybe a few one-night stands throughout the storyline. It the end, I chopped this storyline way down.

Roksana is her first girlfriend, she has a one-night stand with Daniella, and then she's with Ysabella for the rest of the story.

Alexis was supposed to be another girlfriend, but in the end she's just the Ferrari PR that follows Tamara around for that little half a season she did there.

Again, my only romantic experience has been monogamous, so I chickened out of writing something I didn't know.

Now, who knows if writing out of my comfort zone would be any good, but I do wish I tried.

As I move on from LatSoF1 and onto new projects, I'm trying to be better about writing outside of my comfort zone. Right now with the CART story I have Vincenza Taghzouti becoming more assertive and combative in the media, arguably taking a bit of a villain role as she battles the American "boys club" of established drivers.

Meanwhile in the NASCAR story, Lilith Zilinskas has been more promiscuous and had a bit of a self-destructive streak for awhile, and now is dealing with her ex-girlfriend reentering her life...with a daughter, no less. This lets me explore some of the themes I chickened out of doing with Tamara, and also adds in a bit of a parenting aspect in the current day that I've never touched on before.

I'm excited to see how these attempts play out, and I hope that by the end of them, I'll have sufficiently differentiated my three protagonists.

Anyway, this has been a long and self-indulgent blogpost, but I very much enjoyed writing it. Please feel free to ask questions below, because I could go on much, much longer about my writing if given the chance.

[dimonds456]

Howdy!

I'm Dimonds456, and welcome to my garbage pile. I'm a bat who stays up way too late and cannot decide whether or not to be productive. I draw, write, animate, play/write music, and I'm also insane so watch out for that.

I'm neurodivergent, disabled, queer, white, a singlet, fictionkin, and a proud cat papa. I am a cartoon character who is way too bouncy for their own good lol.

They / he / xe!

This is my main blog, but my ADHD ass also has a bunch more.

@dimonds456-art - my art blog! Almost all art gets rbed there!

@dimonds456-but-only-hlvrai - my HLVRAI sideblog! Because yeah why not. This is one of me current hyperfixations lol it's bad

@rubberhose-roy is my sideblog used to gush about 1920's-40's aesthetics, music, culture, ect., as well as an animation blog! All my animations specifically will be reblogged there, as well as any animation rambles or gushes I do.

I have more but those are the main three.

My fandom-specific blogs are:

@dimonds456-but-only-hlvrai (again)

@hlvrai-stuck-together - HLVRAI AU I run!

@halfnautica - Half Life / Subnautica AU!

@a-second-chance-su-au - Old SU AU that has been discontinued, but the blog is still there!

@batim-rewritten - a Bendy and the Ink Machine rewrite I'm working on

@cuphead-contract-au - A Cuphead AU where Mugman makes a deal (discontinued)

And, I have my own OC story, Follychromatic! I reblog all that stuff here, but its main blog is here!

@follychromatic

To see pictures of my cats, check the #Checkers and Chess tag! :D

Okay great. Now, DNI, trigger warnings, disabilities, special interests, and more below the cut. Make sure you read at least once, k? Thanks.

Welcome to my cave!

DNI

Do not FUCKING interact if you are:

- Someone who ships pedophilic, incestuous, or abusive ships while portraying them as positive and a good thing

- A bigot

- An LGBTphobe / transmed / ect

- Trump supporter

- Nazi / fascist / conservative

- Weird about furries or furry art

- Weird about fandom headcanons (specifically trans woman headcanons)

Trigger Warnings

I will tag as much as I can, and if you want me to tag something specific, let me know! But as a general blog cover, things that appear on this blog often are:

- Current events

- Talk of / discussion of sexuality (sometimes boardering on NSFW but not usually)

- Blood

- Guns

- Flashing

- Talk of proshippers (I try to be respectful but also I don't stand for them and I don't support them. I block and move on, and try to explain why proship is bad, but eh. I've only been listened to like once lol)

- Swearing / swear words

- All caps

- Bugs

- Suggestive content / NSFW (RARE DONT WORRY)

I will add more if anyone wants me to, or we can come up with a custom tag, like what I do for one of my friends! (#dimond don't look)

DISABILITIES

Hiiii I'm disabled! Both mentally and physically. I talk about being disabled a lot and try to generate positive talk about it. I also vent about it. I've had quite a few of these, and I also try to reblog as much about others I don't have as I can to increase awareness and understanding. So yeah! These are just the ones I have, but they are not the only ones that appear on my blog!

Hyperthyroidism

Graves Disease

Graves Eye Disease

Astigmatism

Athsma

Audio processing disorder

ADHD

Autism

Trauma / PTSD

Brain fog / disassociation / memory loss

Anxiety

Depression

Cane user

Weak / trembling limbs / trouble walking / trouble holding onto things sometimes

More to be added lol.

This is also a meds/treatment positive blog, a self-diagnosis positive blog, and my general attitude is just "if you think something is wrong you're probably right, you know yourself the best, even if you don't know what exactly is wrong." This attitude has saved my life and other people I know. You don't need a diagnosis or medication to be disabled.

THIS IS A SAFE SPACE.

If you are Jewish, black, brown, Muslim, indigenous, any religion, any race, any sexuality, any weird gender, anything at all- I love and support you. I'm still learning, and I try to learn as much as I can, but I'm not perfect. If I say something offensive or something adjacent, it was NOT on purpose. PLEASE, PLEASE tell me what I said wrong. I will make an effort to improve in the future.

I directly support:

- All races

- All religions*

- All sexualities (except pedos, y'all aren't LGBT, I'm sorry. You're actively hurting children. I've seen it again and again. Stop.)

- All genders and pronouns

- All "weird" identities outside of that as well (I'm fictionkin myself)

- Protests and protesters

- Neurodivergent people of all types (and yes, this means NPD, schizo, and all those other types that are often seen as bad or evil. I love you, I see you, and I support you.)

- DID & OSDD systems

I DO NOT support:

- Antisemitism

- Genocide

- Cults (*stuff like Jehova's Witnesses. I support the members, as they are victims, but I actively dislike the people on top who perpetuate the cycle. Not just JWs, but those are the big ones who come to mind. Hearts out to all the victims, I hope everyone gets to a better place soon)

- Racism in any way, shape, or form

- Religious discrimination of any way, shape, or form

- Israel specifically

- Trump, conservatives, Nazis, ect.

- Endo systems

If I have reblogged or said anything that aligns with the bottom list, that was a mistake. PLEASE let me know and I will fix it as fast as I can. You reading this right now, I love you. I hope my blog can help you feel welcomed and like you have somewhere to go if you need it. /gen

MY FANDOMS / INTERESTS

I HAVE ADHD AND AUTISM AND I'M MAKING THAT EVERYONE ELSE'S PROBLEM /silly

The current special interests are HLVRAI and Half Life, current hyperfixations are Half Life and Poppy Playtime.

SPECIAL INTERESTS:

- Minecraft

- HTTYD

- FNaF

- Undertale / Deltarune

- BATIM / BATDR (unfortunately)

- Subnautica

- Biology

- Steven Universe

- Cuphead

- 2D Animation

- Writing

- HLVRAI

- Half Life

HYPERFIXATIONS (interests but not the special ones):

- Little Nightmares

- Hello, Neighbor (unfortunately)

- Petscop

- Portal

- Freemanverse (HELP ME)

- The Amazing Digital Circus

- The Owl House

- Gravity Falls

- Monster High (very first from what I can remember! I remember nothing though! But it's there!)

- Poppy Playtime

- Half Life

- Wild Kratts (I didn't even know there WAS a fandom until very recently, hi guys)

theres more but my brain is an egg :/

When it comes to ✨me,✨ I have a couple of original works as well! Specifically, Follychromatic! I won't get too into it here (bc shy) but it's 2D animation, rubberhose animation, magic, character-driven, action/adventure, mystery- yeah!

Outside of fandom, though, my special interests are biology, 2D animation, and writing. I am an animator and I suffer for fun.

YOU MADE IT! Have some Checkers and Chess pictures for your time! :)

[op-smash-or-pass]

Welcome to One Piece smash or pass

This is based off of @fe-smashorpass except with One Piece characters here are the guidelines:

-Each day we will have 2 characters be chosen for smash or pass. The polls will last for a week.

-Obviously I am skipping: Animals/Minks, Children, characters that look like children, and dwarfs(Any character that is over the age of 18 after the timeskip we will use those designs)

-You guys can send me asks! Honestly I don’t know how quick I’ll respond to them but go ahead! It can be about anything (yes including headcannons + ships)

We also have a popularity poll going on! Here

Some important tags: #OP smash or pass (where you can find all the current and previous polls)

#Inbox trick or treating- the trick or treat event that went on

#Rosi’s holiday exchange- Holiday event that went on

Below are some FAQ’s that might pop up:

Q: how are you keeping track of the characters? How will you prevent from repeats?

A: I spent four hours making a spreadsheet and tried to weed out all the characters we can’t post here. If a character I missed pops up and I post it I’ll take it down and post a new one.

Q: What else are you a fan of?

A: I’m really into Coral island as of late. Fire emblem has always had a special place in my heart. I also have been playing a ton of Identity V as of late. (I’m a college student so I can really only watch anime)

Q: Are we allowed to ask you things not about One piece?

A: Yes but please keep it to a minimal, I love answering questions but remember this is a One Piece gimick blog first

Q: Are you gonna make a spreadsheet of the most smashable characters?

A: Yes! I have a friend who is willing to do it! Plus at the end I have something else planned :]

Q: Are we allowed to request characters?

No, I’m going in alphabetical order, but if I miss someone please let me know! Though if you want people to smash or pass your One Piece OC’s I can do that!

Q: What characters are we including?

A: As long as they fit in our categories and have a photo of them, they are welcome in this. So yes we have some movie characters but not a lot.

I have decided Momonosuke will not be in this poll because he has the mindset of a child

Q: Why are you doing this?

A: I’m jobless, bored, and hyper fixating hard. Also I thought it would be fun. Plus I wanna get a consensus on characters

Q: Do you have an age limit on this blog?

A: Not really, though if you are a minor and try to argue about this being NSFW then…unfollow idc it’s just a silly poll

Q: The series is still running what about future chapters with characters?

A: I’ll add them to the end of the list and we’ll circle back to them once my main list is done.

Q: How many characters are in this poll?

A: 1000+ most are male there’s only about 250 women in this poll. And yes I checked EVERY big mom child

Q: How are we incorporating Zoan devil fruits in this?

A: As long as they have a human form we will be using them. But the lab made zoan fruits were gonna go with how they look

Cheetah for legs: ❌ Ox for stomach: ✅

Q: Why are people smashing XYZ?

A: Idfk it’s Tumblr man, have you seen the bitches these people are into??

Q: I came from TikTok are you redo’ing any polls?

A: Nope! As long as I didn’t mess up the photo or made the poll one day we aren’t redoing any characters.

Q: I have a friend who you blocked why did you do that?

A: They probably shipped Coralaw, DoffyCora, or some other illegal ass ship, we’re a pornbot, or straight up being racist. Just don’t be fucking weird man and I won’t block you. I love shipping but if your shipping something illegal I’m gonna block you.

Q: Why is Corazon the profile photo?

A: I think he’s hot + idk heart theme kinda fits. And he has some good alts so I can do Halloween and spring themes

Info about OP:

Hello! You can call me Deer/Rafiel (Raffy) /Michael/ or Rosinante!!

I am trans masc and use He/they/it/thing pronouns! Though just He/they is fine too!

I am in my first year of college majoring in creative writing leaning towards video game scrips with a minor in digital art.

This account is run by a DID system and the fictive host Rosinante. Though please do not ask questions about our system due to privacy reasons.

I’m still catching up on the One Piece manga (caught up on the anime), so I apologize if I don’t know the manga characters

Dni:

-Homophobes/transphobes

-Proshippers (fancy way of saying illegal ships)

-Racists

- People telling me how to run my blog

-Coralaw shippers

-Trump supporters

[skierisa]

Runaway - Lloyd x Valerie (oc) chapter 1

disclaimer: this is inspired by my 90s au, which does have a main story line, however I decided to tell it in a non linear way as I make things up (yeah not a smart move, I know). if you wish to know more about my ninjago 90s au before reading this, you can check the tag #n90sau in my blog! I may or may not come back here to correct spelling mistakes!

Valerie is an oc I shipp with Lloyd, you can check her character sheet for the og universe here! the only things that change in this au is that she isn't an assassin or a gang member and neither a werewolf, just a regular punk teen in the 90s.

also, i think it's my first time writing in english (not counting any translation i did), so i'm sorry for the spelling and gramatical errors! i also tend to mix british and american spelling. sorry again.

special thanks to @prii-arts for helping me with some of the writing!

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

summary: Lloyd and Valerie are running away after having arguments with their parents, both arguments somewhat related to their partner. However, they discover living like adults isn't easy, and Lloyd has been having a ton of nightmares lately...

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

It had been a while none of them said something, either asking each other if they were fine or asking something about the fights. Some music played on his car's radio, it was a random Sex Pistol's song Lloyd didn't know the name of. Or maybe he did, but he was too busy focusing on the road ahead swollen by the dark of the night to think about it. Besides the car lights, the only thing illuminating their way to –what they have been calling– “whatever” was the silver shine of the full moon above them.

He was afraid of looking at the passenger's seat for a few moments now. Not because he might crash into something, no, they were in the middle of the desert, afterall. The thing is, Valerie was sitting there, quiet. Too quiet. As someone who always had something to say about anything, even when she shouldn't, she was too quiet, just hugging her legs under a ball gown, gazing at the shining stars in the dark sky. A quiet Valerie was never a good thing. Whenever she was like this, there would be a cold and heavy thing in the air. 

It was understandable if she still was angry, though. Lloyd was waiting for her inside his car when the yelling started. It was muffled and he could only see them through the living room's window. They always gestured as they spoke, but this time, both of their movements were quick, stiff and violent. He had to hold himself back from going in there whenever the mother's hands came too close to hitting his girlfriend –by accident or not. When it was over, Valerie stomped out the front door with a bag full of clothes in one hand and a guitar case in the other, turning back to yell as if she was holding back tears that she wouldn't be back. Once in the car, she gave a brief explanation of the obvious: “we fought”. It was over something stupid again, but she refused to elaborate more than that, saying she would rather talk about it later, when she would be less exasperated. 

So he didn't ask anything about it for the past hour until that moment, even if bothered by her poorly filled silence. Lloyd finally realized he had been so distracted with all the thoughts about that night that he didn't notice the song had changed long ago.

“What?” Valerie finally asked, not moving her head from the window view.

Quickly, he turned his head to the road again.

“Nothing”.

“You're starring".

“No, I'm not. I'm driving, how could I?”

“Because you are. Well… were” She turned her face to him, finally, staring at him with her sky blue eyes and bored expression.

Valerie crossed her legs and raised her head, now staring at the ceiling of the car. She let her arms lazily fall on her lap; on her wrist, along with some bracelets, there was a corsage of blue and yellow flowers he gave her earlier that night. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

"... I mean, I don't want to force you, or anything.” He shrugged. “But it's okay if you don't, really.”

“Thanks…” She sighed, looking back to the window, frowning a bit. However, she quickly looked at him, one brow raised. “Do you… wanna talk about yours, then?"

Lloyd breathed deeply, holding it as he pondered the idea. 

While her fight was a mystery to him, his… could be perceived as worse, somehow. Thinking about it made Lloyd feel some anger flourish in his chest; just thinking about how they could be so wrong on so many levels about her would make his blood boil in his veins. Sure, his parents were right about one thing amongst all the annoying assumptions, but he was completely sure Valerie would never do what his ex did… She wouldn't, right?

“No” he finally answered, letting out his breath. "Not now, at least".

Valerie stayed quiet for a few seconds.

“Alrighty, then…" she mumbled.

“By the way, Val, um… do you perhaps know where we're going?”

She blinked her eyes slowly, raising her thin eyebrows in shock.

“I thought you did".

“Why did you think that?”

“‘Cause you simply started driving!” She exclaimed, waving her hands to the road.

“I thought you would come up with something!” He started laughing, nervously and loudly. 

Valerie puffed, grabbing a piece of her bangs and squeezing it in frustration. But she couldn't help but also laugh at the situation, cracking in mere seconds of hearing his laugh.

“Shit, we can't even run away properly…” she tried speaking amidst the laugh.

“It's… It's okay” he breathed, containing his laugh but still smiling. “But we can't keep on going like this".

“Do you have a map, or anything?”

“No, sorry”.

She sighed melancholically. 

“... Okay, we might need to spend the night in your car, then" She crossed her arms.

“We could also ask for directions to some motel, y'know…”

She turned her head to him.

“To whom, Lloyd?” She pointed outside with her hand.

Oh. That's true. We're in a desert. “I don't know".

“Now I'm thinking that staying over with my brother wouldn't be a bad idea…"

“I'm not turning back” He stated, giving her a quick look before turning to the dark road again.

“Didn't ask you to! Just really regretting not doing it". Valerie looked away. “Sorry, it's just that we've been here for an hour now, I bet you're tired too… Anyway, it was my idea running away, so let me come up with something…”

Finding a motel was their main option, especially because they had no idea where to go, and  Ignacia or Ninjago City weren't an option, since they were trying to leave those places behind forever. They needed somewhere to restart, but where? Not Stix, definitely not Stix. She had heard good things about the Kingdom of Shintaro by that time, maybe that could be an option. The idea of living in Jamanakai Village didn't sound like the end of the world, but they might still need to go back to the city to find jobs and to buy some things. 

But she was thinking too much ahead. She had time to think about this later, but it wouldn't be so long until it was the time to actually think about it. Okay, okay, okay, think, Val! She reminded herself. It was the highway, probably wouldn't take long before they found something like a convenience store or a diner to ask for directions. Not exactly directions, more like a recommendation of where they could sleep that night, be it a camping spot or a straight up motel. She was hoping for a diner, because her stomach had been growling for the past hours since the dance ended. 

“Do you think it'll take long before we find a diner?” She finally asked as she played with the flowers on her corsage.

“Did you forget to eat again?” Lloyd raised an eyebrow.

"... Maybe" She crossed her arms again, looking to the side.

“Dunno” he sighed. “Probably not long. I mean, how long have we been…”

“Oh, look over there!” She bent onward, pointing to the colourful billboard of a dinner.

He parked the car, and if she wasn't on hills, he was sure Valerie would've probably run inside the place. However, she quickly made her way towards him, taking his warm hand with a sweet smile on her face while he adjusted his suit. On the lapel, there was a green rose made of sattin she gave him earlier.

“So, did you come up with anything?” Lloyd asked as he chewed a piece of his burger.

They decided to eat inside the car while listening to some songs in a cassette they found lost in there. His car was a secondhand from the 80s, so who knows to whom it belonged to. It had mostly city pop songs, and each time it changed Valerie would sing along while jamming to it. Whoever it belonged to, the playlist wasn't bad. 

“Nope”. She covered her mouth as she chewed, looking away squinting her eyes. “I mean– Yeah, I did come up with a few ideas, but none are good". 

“Tell me anyway, they can't all be bad. I can give you some ideas too".

Valerie took a long sip of her soda cup.

“Okay, so, I heard good stuff about Shintaro. We could go there, maybe?” She raised an eyebrow, gesturing with the hand holding the cup.

“Kinda too far away from here… Maybe someday, but not now.”

“Hm, suppose you're right… I thought about Stix, but…”

“The only job there is fishing” Both said at the same time, nodding. 

Lloyd sighed.

"There's also Jamanakai Village" Valerie mentioned.

“Not a bad idea. But we might need to go to the city to buy… Well, anything".

“That's why I wasn't considering it that much…” Valerie hugged her knees again.

“What else?” He asked, taking some of their shared fries.

“Stay around here until we think of something better”.

He stayed quiet for a few seconds, looking around. With another sigh, he said:

“I don't think we have any other option. But hey, it isn't bad. As long as we find a place to stay, we might be able to keep our jobs in the city…”

“Yes, it's easier… But I really didn't want to stay" She took another sip. "Especially because they are part time. We need cash if we're living on our own now".

“We don't have the option to go so far away, y'know… Nor have the experience for full time jobs. I mean, would you hire a seventeen year old full time?”.

“No, but it doesn't make it less disappointing, though”. Valerie frowned, putting her cup down. Seconds ago there seemed to be many doors for many different futures, but now all of those have closed.

He furrowed his eyebrows in worry, looking at her eyes; they were more shiny. Was she really holding back tears again? Of course she is, he thought to himself. Her gaze met his and it was like the shine disappeared in a second, giving up space for a grin.

“But it's okay, seriously” she bent over towards him. “I'm happy to be with you at least". She whispered.

Slowly, he leaned over closing his eyes and kissed her, not caring if her dark red lipstick would get on his lips.

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

criticism is welcomed! I really want to better my writing in english, specially because I know I can write better than this. This was also the first time I wrote Valerie in a super long time, so I really hope you liked her!

[mels-misc-art]

OC Patron Saint Game

I was tagged by @feydstan for this fascinating oc challenge, and even though I'm very late in answering, here it is!

Take this quiz for your character to see what they would be the patron saint of

It was a little difficult to decide which characters I wanted to do this for, but I ended up settling on my Drow brothers Morrow and Petrichor because the vibes are so there.

Morrow is the patron saint of Obsession.

patron saint of devotion. of dedication. of passion. of everything you won't call it, in the spaces between. patron saint of holding tight to it until it bleeds. patron saint of pushing it too far. patron saint of staring into the sun until you're blind. patron saint of gazing onto beauty until you can't see anything anymore.

Petrichor is the patron saint of Heartbreak.

not of comfort. not of condolences. there is a heart and there is a fissure, a fracture, something that starts to splinter and break open. you're the patron saint of the way a heart is rent open. the way it tears itself apart. patron saint of the rift. patron saint of the gash. when they say to "open your heart" to somebody, you are the patron saint of bleeding out.

This is a super fun challenge, and I think these answers fit the characters so well!!

Tagging: @molasses-being-slow, @saephrond, @ritelli-main, @kociamieta, @linden-leaf

[mk-writes-stuff]

OC Most Likely Tag

Rules: decide which OC would be most likely to do various things

Thanks @kaylinalexanderbooks @moltenwrites @willtheweaver and @illarian-rambling for the tags! CW for mention of drugs/addiction

Most likely to watch children’s cartoons well into adulthood

I know I’ve barely talked about her but Gravity Wells Beneath Gravity Wells (the late mother of First Station Head Septimus) absolutely did this

Most likely to LARP

Stellaris. Stellaris would kill it at a Ren fair type LARP situation, he’d be having so much fun

Most likely to have been a Vine star

Narcissus wishes it was him but it’s actually Cassie. A video of her nailing the punching bag so hard it snapped the ropes and broke a light would’ve done numbers

Most likely to daydream

Again, Stellaris. He does it all the time

Most likely to become addicted to something

There are two characters in the Seven Stations who struggle with addictions, Nellie and another character who’s a spoiler. Nellie didn’t start taking mindsplit (the drug she’s addicted to) of her own free will, but she’s still having a rough time trying to quit

Most likely to have an incredibly niche obsession

Stellaris. He’s definitely been obsessed with like… African grass varieties or something. Dom from the prequel is also up there for this one

Most likely to sneak food into a movie theater

Cassie. She loves food and is not paying exorbitant movie snack prices

Most likely to try bungee jumping

Also Cassie. She’d love the adrenaline

Most likely to miss a flight

Cassie is also in the running for this one, but I think it would be Narcissus doing emergency overpacking the day of

Most likely to sleep with a knife under their pillow

Lmao it’s Cassie once again. She loves knives and doesn’t trust people

Most likely to gossip behind someone’s back

Cassiopeia. This is like her main MO, she does this constantly

Most likely to carry snacks at all times

Probably Nellie. She spent a while with heavily restricted food and also likes making treats

These were all very fun, thank you!

@touloserlautrec @somethingclevermahogony @ominous-feychild want to play? Your prompts are:

Most likely to have someone ask for help reading their handwriting

Most likely to unironically buy a ridiculous hat

Most likely to scream at someone

[graveyardshift-ing]

Hey guys!

Welcome to my Shifting Tumblr!

————————————————————

So, I’ve been mostly on Shifttok since the beginning of my shifting journey, but with the potential ban of the app in the US, a lot of the shifting community from there is gonna be gone when that happens.

So I thought I would expand and make dedicated accounts for shifting across multiple different platforms until we’ve decided collectively where we’re making our new base of operations, so to speak. To reconnect with people from there, as well as meet new people who’ve been part of the shifting community on here.

For those who don’t know me;

My name is Karys, I’m 31 from Northern Ireland and I am a reality shifter.

I discovered shifting before 2020 Shifttok, but I’ll be honest, I hadn’t a clue what it was about.

I was big into Law of Attraction and ✨manifestation✨ in the late 2010s, getting back into it after a few years of having just forgotten about it. A lot of the coaches I watched on YouTube would talk about quantum leaping/shifting, and a couple of them had mentioned about hearing of those going to fictional places like Hogwarts and how they’d never done it, but it was technically possible since anything was with LoA. The most I thought at the time was “What? Going to Hogwarts?”, and because they didn’t go into more detail than that, by the time the video was over, I had completely forgotten about it and went about my day.

Then I ended up on DracoTok in 2020 (naturally). Before that, I had been following the Hogwarts Professors tag, which was actors, LARPers, and just people having fun making original characters and storylines that often interacted with one another. Since these videos had sharing hashtags, that got me into general Harry Potter TikTok, which lead to DracoTok. And when I saw the “Things Draco does in my DR” videos, I just assumed it was fan fiction, or things they thought he would do. It hadn’t clicked yet that this was what the LoA coaches had been talking about. I honestly can’t even remember the click moment for me or any sort of “is this actually fr?” thinking, I just kinda… accepted it with no question.

I was more of a casual spectator at first, mind you. I hadn’t any intention of doing it myself, at least not yet. I am the type of person who likes to know how to do something before actually doing it, plus I just wasn’t that into Harry Potter at the time. So attempting to go there, specifically, wasn’t really enough to motivate me to try.

…then in October of 2021, I rewatched Pirates of the Caribbean for the first time in almost a decade. And my god, the hyper-fixation was fully set in. This was a series that I was so obsessed with as a teenager, my Granny even got me a Pirates of the Caribbean tv for Christmas, one year. And now, it came back into my life at a time where I found the means to actually go there like I had always dreamed about, reading self insert fan fictions and hoping one day I would fall into the world like the OC’s I read about did. And now, I could.

I have been on my journey for just over 3 years, now. I have garnered many more DR’s since then, my main ones being Stranger Things, Baldur’s Gate 3, Stardew Valley and Community. And while I have only mini-shifted within that time, I haven’t given up. I honestly don’t think I could, even if I wanted to. Knowing this is real, knowing this is possible, knowing this exists, how could I ever? And no matter how much time goes by, I will get it all back and then some. So we’re keeping ‘er lit! 🔥

[sunset-a-story]

Get To Know Your Moots Writeblr Interview

Thank you to @ceph-the-ghost-writer who tagged me in this and you should def go read their post here! And thanks to @davycoquette for creating the event!

On the Tumblr Writing Community

How long have you had your writing Tumblr/Writeblr?

Since November 2022

What led you to create it?

After having a beyond shitty 2020-2021 and pulling away from social media in general, a friend suggested I give tumblr a shot. I was also desperately looking for beta readers for Sunset and wanted to get involved in a writer community.

What’s your favorite thing about the Writeblr community?

The people! Getting to connect with writers whose brains work like mine!! And getting to rotate their ocs in my head! I've made some incredible friendships through writeblr that I wouldn't trade for anything.

What’s one thing you’d like your mutuals to know about you?

I am as obsessed about Sunset as I seem (possibly more--let's not get into it) but I also love listening to people talk about the things they're obsessed with so I'm always up to exchange some excitement about our respective projects. Also, I'm hella dyslexic so if we chat, be warned you may get some word salad from me sometimes.

Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash?

I love seeing little quotes or snippets of info about OCs that help me become obsessed with them. And out of context lines/dialogue! Those are always a delight.

What tips/advice do you have for someone who made a Writeblr today?

Just put yourself out there! It took me a long time to be comfortable posting anything at all but that's the only way people can get a sense of your stories. Also, don't be scared to reach out to other writeblrs through asks and dms. We're a shy breed but once you corner us into a conversations, you've unleashed a flood of excitement.

WIP it Good

Which Works-in-Progress (WIPs) or writing projects are you noodling about, lately?

Sunset is my main project that I'm writing with my partner @touloserlautrec. It's a behemoth 2,000+ pages of converging plotlines and slow burn romance and intrigue and monster hunting. It's everything I love in a story wrapped up into one. Volume 1 (Sunrise) is out, Volume 2 (High Noon) is releasing weekly, and Volume 3 (Sunset) is probably 75% drafted. (Links in my intro if this somehow reaches someone who isn't already following me.) I've also been poking at a fluff side project to blow off steam for the first time in forever. It's a fluffy romance urban/fantasy with fae and a gay strip club. Just 'cause. I don't know that I'll ever post what I'm writing of this, but who knows?

How long have you been working on them?

Sunset for about 17 years, but seriously writing it for the past 8 years. Fluff Side Project? A month?

Do you remember what inspired them/what got you started?

I ran an in-person RPG back in college that led Tou and I to create the world of Sunset and the initial core cast (Reeve, Alex, Hannah, Gareth, Misha, Adler) and then it all spiraled out from there. Fluff Side Project comes from some characters we made just playing around in a world we created as a no-stress play zone. The problems are smaller. The stakes are nothing like the high tension world of Sunset. It's fun. It's gay as hell. It's fluffy. And July is my least favorite month so I decided, hey, why not write it down while I've got writer's block for Sunset?

How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them?

Sunset: 28 hours a day. Fluff: I squeeze in 3 or 4 hours in the evening.

When someone asks the dreaded, “What do you write about,” question, what do you usually say?

I struggle to answer this question and it depends on who is asking. If it's on tumblr? I say I write science-fantasy slow build action with horror elements and lots of intrigue. IRL? I deflect.

What do you want to say (if it’s different from what you do say)?

I write about ruining Alex and Reeve's life.

Let’s Rotate Blorbos

Name any characters you created.

There. Are. Too. Many. My favorite babies from my head are Reeve, Penn, Marek, and Anise.

Who’s the most unhinged?

Hannah is my most unhinged trash-panda gremlin. My nudist sniper. Ace Queen. Never shave, never surrender.

Who comes the most naturally for you to write?

Reeve. And yes, that does worry me. (And my therapist.)

Do you ever cringe at them?

The #drag Reeve tag is a thing for a reason. (But really, I love him dearly and he doesn't truly deserve to be dragged as much as he is imo. It's a good bit tho)

How much control do you feel you have over your characters?

I can wrangle when I need to but they do feel like independent little critters in my head. Writing for me tends to be me transcribing the movie I'm watching in my head while muttering, "OHMYGOD Hannah are you seriously going to say that? What is wrong with you?" Or "Reeve. Reeve. REEVE NO."

Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters?

OMFG YES. Please give me any excuse to talk about these guys.

On Writeblr Engagement

What makes you want to follow another Writeblr account?

If I jive with their WIP concepts or they have interesting OCs. Fantasy or sci-fi elements. Queerness. I'm more likely to follow if their intro has something about wanting to connect writers who are looking to hype each other up because that is what I am also looking for.

What makes you decide against following?

If their blog is full of hateful stuff or just super negative.

Do you interact with non-mutuals often?

Sure! I'm new enough to Tumblr that the lore of mutuals and non-mutuals hasn't rooted in my brain enough for me to super know which is which in my feed except for my small core group of moots I talk to regularly. So I interact with whatever posts catch my attention, moot or not.

Do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle?

OHMYGODYES. There is a little mobile of characters and animals (a fish and some frogs) that dangles over my little brain threatening to distract me at all times.

I'll no-pressure tag some of my beloved moots here that I haven't seen recently tagged with this: @scribe-of-stories @words-after-midnight @pandoras-comment-box @revenantlore

@void-botanist @covenscribe And of course, anyone else who wants to do it!

You can find the clean question template here

[ruvviks]

// oc in 15.

tagged by; @devilbrakers, thank you so much!! tagging; @reaperkiller, @vvanessaives, @hibernationsuit, @katsigian, @adelaidedrubman, @dickytwister, @rindemption, @noirapocalypto and YOU!

rules: share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an oc, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the oc. bonus points for just using dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

decided to do this for vincent since he is the main character of my cyberpunk universe and it's been a hot sec since i talked about him! these bits are all from various fics including the broker which is a long fic that i'll never shut up about. sorry. i've included more than just the dialogue since a lot of vincent's manner of speech is also in his body language and internal monologue :^) his voice claim is basically masc v from in-game but with very distinct southern flair

from chapter 7 of the broker:

‘Here we are,’ Vincent repeated, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jacket and flinching lightly when he heard an explosion in the distance. ‘Just another fuckin’ day in Night City.’

from an unreleased fic i still need to finish and post:

‘The Deckhead?' Vincent asked. 'Fried to a crisp. Found ‘im hooked up to the Net high off his tits- he had an intruder alarm set up but it caused him to panic, ‘n he disconnected himself too soon. Lights went out before I could do anything.’

paraphrased from this fic, showing that vincent can and will talk to johnny out loud whenever he wants:

‘What the fuck,’ Vincent blurted out, voice shaky as he took another step back. […] Johnny raised a hand and gestured vaguely at Vincent, and himself, and the space between them. ‘You don’t have to speak out loud when you- I feel like I’ve said this before.’

from an unreleased fic:

‘Maelstrom wasn’t too happy I was running off with their toys,’ Vincent answered, eyes lingering on the bruise on Vitali’s face. ‘Had to flatline half of ‘em before I could get out.’

from chapter 11 of the broker:

‘Peachy,’ Vincent said and gave him a thumbs up. His mantis blade was still deployed and he nearly cut himself with it.

from chapter 16 of the broker:

‘Right.’ He stepped back, visibly biting the inside of his cheek as his eyes wandered off into the rest of the living room and he did a mocking salute in Vitali’s direction. ‘Yessir.’

from chapter 2 of the broker:

‘Pleased to make your acquaintance?’ Vincent said, the sentence more a question than a statement, and he frowned slightly as he watched Dupoint walk around the desk and sit down opposite of him while unbuttoning the jacket of his slightly too big suit.

from an unreleased fic:

‘Yep, that was me,’ Vincent said in response, his voice suddenly a couple of octaves higher. Smooth talkin’, you fucking airhead. You sound like a damn high schooler.

from this fic, talking to johnny out loud again:

‘Right, ‘cuz apologizing means everything is instantly forgiven and forgotten,’ Vincent snapped, accidentally startling an old lady he passed by; he quickly raised his hand to her as an apology and fastened his pace.

from an unreleased fic:

‘Born ‘n raised in the Glen, yeah,’ Vincent answered, flinching when he noticed the edge of someone’s umbrella get dangerously close to his face. ‘Won’t find the nicest people there but at least they generally know they’re not the only gonk on the fucking road.’

from this fic:

‘Headache that comes and goes-’ Vincent paused and glared at Johnny. ‘- but yeah, peachy. And you’re right. Worrying doesn’t help anyone.’

from chapter 2 of the broker:

‘V has had a lot of things on his mind, as of late,’ Vincent dryly said. ‘Please do enlighten me.’

from this fic, talking to johnny out loud again:

‘Alright, speaking rights fucking revoked,’ Vincent cut him off, visibly startling Vitali who had just slightly leaned in to Vincent’s touch. ‘Piss off, Johnny. Jesus.’

from chapter 15 of the broker:

Grant Armitage. Some seemingly random Arasaka exec with “his greasy little fingers stuck right up Yorinobu’s golden ass”, as Vincent had described him a few days prior.

from chapter 2 of the broker:

‘A fully opened center.’ Dupoint paused, raised an eyebrow, and glanced back at Vincent. ‘Do you know what that move is called, V?’ Vincent shrugged, and swallowed his laughter. ‘Dunno. The American Nutcracker?’

[teamchasezwrites]

Still of the Night

Word Count: 7,387

Characters: Drew McIntyre/OC

Genre: Romance

Tags: Angst-y, Fluffy, Implied Cheating, Ex-Boyfriend, Getting Back Together, Butchering of Scottish Dialect, Sexual Tones, Minor Dirty Thoughts

Summary: She didn’t want to call him, but he as her only hope.

Inspired by: @theworldofotps “Call In The Night”

Author’s Note: Written for my friend, Melissa, who wanted a Drew McIntyre story. It faced about 3 rewrites at the beginning and still didn’t end like I wanted. Maybe inspired a different version of events in a revised story. We’ll see.

“Come on come on come on,” Melissa pleaded as her engine gave another sickly sputter and seemingly coughed. She let off the gas pedal allowing the car to slow even more than her already crawl. At the pace she was going her Granny – God rest her soul – would probably pass her.

With her walker.

The car seemed to settle at the slower speed. She gripped the wheel with both hands. Each hand stood at ten and two. Her back was ramrod straight as she stared out the windshield. The darkness of the late hour loomed around her. Trees lined either side of the gravel road. Their limbs bare having already shed their foliage by the late December hour. Snowflakes caught in the dim glare of her headlights and landed on her windshield.

If she weren’t scared, she’d be transfixed on the big fluffy flakes. The perfect, pristine shapes as they laid before her on the glass before the wiper squashed them away leaving behind a smear of water droplets.

Her breath came out in a white cloud against the chill in the cabin of the car. Her heat decided tonight of all nights was the night to stop working.

“Come on,” she whispered in the silence. The radio was cranked way down and had been for the last ten or so minutes once she realized she might be lost. How turning the radio down would help her see better to find the road she needed, she didn’t know. But who was she to argue with her brain?

Her eyes peered out the windshield while shifting quickly to the left and the right looking for the turn off. No break in the trees appeared. A look in the rearview mirror revealed a bleak nothingness. She wouldn’t put it past her bad luck to have somehow entered a black hole that caused her to slip in time.

Why she turned off the highway, she had no idea. She wasn’t good with directions on a good day; let alone on a night like this with a winter storm moving in. All she wanted was to beat the storm and thought she remembered the way Jason taken once.

Apparently she didn’t.

Maybe she was supposed to turn left at the previous intersection instead of right?

Or was she supposed to go through that intersection and turn at the next one?

She didn’t know. Guessing wasn’t going to help her. It’s not like she could turn around and go back. She didn’t even know how to get back to the main highway.

“Stupid stupid stupid,” she muttered.

The clock illuminated on the dash stared at her almost mockingly. It let her know if she’d just stuck it out on the highway – her usual way – she’d be home and in her pajamas by now.

Just another bad decision she made recently.

Melissa sighed and slowly let herself relax against the back of the seat. Her back nearly cried in relief. Her shift at the hospital ended up being a double and that was already coming off a double the day before. The money was too good to pass up and it’s not like being at home was all that fun.

Her car shuddered again and she tensed waiting for the inevitable. It never came. Her little Toyota Corolla continued on. Her jaw clenched in anger, her lips pursed. Jason was supposed to look at her car last month when she first noticed the issue.

Obviously he hadn’t gotten around to it.

She wanted to call the garage in town and schedule an appointment, but her boyfriend wouldn’t hear of it. He could diagnose and fix it himself.

He could.

He just never did.

It was an ongoing issue between them. The fact she constantly had to remind him to do things. She asked him to check out her car last month. He said he’d do it. He hadn’t. She’d ask him to change the laundry over to the dryer as she left for work. She’d come home twelve hours later to it still wet in the washer. Ask him to run to the store to pick up the items on the grocery list so she could fix dinner when she got home. He forgot.

Don’t forget dinner at my parents on Saturday.

Don’t forget to renew your driver’s license.

The last one caused her to snicker. Jason ended up getting pulled over for speeding. What could have been just a warning ended up being an infraction for not only speeding, but an expired license to boot.

Of course it was her fault. She didn’t remind him.

It wasn’t like she could renew the damn thing herself.

She sighed, blowing out another white cloud. It brought a small smile to her face as she remembered pretending to be smoking as a little girl when it was cold outside. She’d bring her fingers to her lips and blow – her breath coming out like a puff of smoke from a cigarette. She thought it was so cool.

Snowflakes started to swirl down around her faster. With a flick of her wrist, she turned the wipers up another notch. Tension coiled in her belly. She hated driving in the snow. She hated driving in the rain. Hell sometimes she just plum hated driving. Definitely wouldn’t mind being a passenger princess.

At one time she was.

Last December she wouldn’t be in her current position. With the threat of the storm coming, her ex would have been waiting at the hospital for her at the end of her shift to drive home.

Her fingers straightened on the wheel leaving her thumbs curled beneath the black leather. She flexed her fingers back and forth a couple times, before she wrapped them around the wheel once more. She glanced in the rearview mirror more so out of habit than to check what was behind her.

Still pitch black.

Glancing back out the windshield, a scream bubbled up in her throat and out. Standing in the middle of the road was the largest buck she’d ever seen. Her Pappy would have been ecstatic to have seen it through his scope. She however, was not happy to see it through her windshield.

He was large and majestic caught in her headlights with the snow swirling around.

She slammed on her brakes and her car started to fish tail on the slick road. Her eyes were wide as the deer’s. Her hands fought with the steering wheel to keep the car on the road and the back end behind her. The car slid toward the right, right for the trees. Thankfully her speed was already well below the speed limit and the car came to a stop before she made impact with anything. The engine ceased and the car shuddered beneath her like it was blowing out a ragged breath.

The deer leaped from the road and disappeared into the night. Completely unaffected by the chaos it caused.

‘Typical man,’ she thought. Her heart beat wildly in her chest. Her eyes wide as she stared out into the night. Her hands still in a death grip on the wheel.

“I hope Santa demotes you!” Melissa yelled out as she caught her breath.

With her wits gathered, she let her foot off the brake expecting the car to move forward once again. It didn’t. She frowned and looked at the dash seeing the display lit up with a bunch of lights.

‘Achievement badges,’ she declared, her grin broadening at the muffled groan.

Melissa closed her eyes and blew out a breath trying to center herself. Placing her foot on the brake, she reached forward and turned the ignition key into the off position. The dash went dark. Counting to ten, she flicked her wrist.

Nothing.

“No no no,” she pleaded with her car. “Come on. Don’t do this to me.” She tried the ignition again, but the car didn’t start. Manically, she tried three more times to the same result.

Her car was officially dead.

Her car was dead and she was stranded in the dead of night.

A winter storm was upon her and she had no idea where she was.

“Damnit,” she groaned, leaning her head back on the head rest. She closed her eyes and took some breaths trying to calm the brewing hysterics.

With the freak out currently curbed, she reached across the center counsel of her car to her purse laying on the passenger seat. Even though it was the last item thrown inside, her phone was buried at the bottom.

The display lit up offering the only light for miles.

One bar greeted her and she gave a prayer of thanks.

Pulling up her recent calls, Melissa selected Jason’s name and tapped the speaker button. She didn’t want to risk losing service by putting the phone to her ear.

The phone connected and ringing broke the silence. She waited.

And waited.

The call rolled over to voicemail.

Melissa cursed.

She ended the call and tried again.

Voicemail.

Anger grew.

“On the damn phone all the damn time. Can’t even take a shit without it, but the one time I fucking need you…” she unleashed as she tried again to no avail.

The next call was to her daddy.

The call barely connected to ring once before she ended the call with a groan remembering her parents were out of state visiting her brother and sister-in-law and their rugrats.

She pulled up her contact list and went down the names summarily dismissing them one by one. She had friends and a lot of acquaintances but none she considered someone she could call in the dead of night while stranded on the side of some county road.

Except one.

She growled in frustration at the thought and tried to call Jason again. The phone nearly sailed through the windshield when the call kicked over to voicemail again.

Clutching the phone in her hand, she leaned back in the seat and stared. With the headlights cut, it was blackness all around. She couldn’t even see the snow falling any more. No stars twinkled in the sky offering her a guide like it did centuries ago. Then again, what could she do with North? That kind of information didn’t help. She needed left or right. Not head north…

Silence weighed heavy in the car. The outside chill started to seep into the interior of the car. The long sleeve white shirt and scrubs offered no resistance to the temperatures. Fear began to grow. The likelihood of anyone happening upon her before the morning was slim to none.

It was just her.

In the dark.

In the middle of nowhere.

Unbuckling, she leaned into the backseat to grab the coat she tossed in there after climbing into her car after her shift. It was just a lightweight quilted Columbia one. A far cry from her heavy insulated winter coat. She hated driving with a coat on, but especially her winter coat. It was big and bulky and restrictive. Since she only needed a coat to and from her car, she grabbed one she wore before the temperatures turned freezing.

She didn’t plan on being stuck on the side of the road.

With a few acrobatic movements, she had her arms threaded through the sleeves and it settled around her. Slightly out of breath, she told herself she needed to remove the clothes piled on the treadmill in her bedroom and start walking.

‘Maybe in the New Year,’ she thought. After all, who started new resolutions in December?

She definitely wasn’t going to make a goal to eat healthier. Not with Christmas coming up. Don’t even get her started on the terrible eating she’d been doing since Thanksgiving a couple weeks before.

‘Halloween,’ her mind nudged her.

Melissa made a face at the voice inside her head. Sure she imbibed in a few pieces of Halloween candy. She only had so much self control when faced with Reese Peanut Butter Cups.

Thinking about food only made her hungry. The last sustenance in her body was a quick swig of Dr Pepper and three bites of her ham sandwich before an emergency caused her to rush to the ER. She’d give anything to have Golden Arches sprout out from the ground. Her mouth watered at the thought of salty fries and a fountain coke from McDonalds.

Melissa pushed the thought of food away. She grabbed her phone to try her boyfriend again.

Nothing.

The wind kicked up and whistled as it traveled passed her car on either side as it continued down the road. She shivered once more peering out into the abyss.

She was all alone.

Her hands shook as fear started to engulf her. She could freeze to death before anyone would happen upon her. It’s not like there was a glowing light of a cottage in the distance. No headlights coming up behind here with an older gentleman on his way home to offer assistance. Temperatures would only continue to drop. Snow would continue to accumulate throughout the night. The weather forecasters were calling for at least six inches. More if the front dipped further south than originally called for.

“Fuck,” she breathed as her eyes grew wet with tears. “Come on Mel, think. You can’t die out here. You’ll miss the end of Yellowstone…”

Drawing her phone up again, she went back to her contacts. This time desperate.

It was on that scroll one name stood out. One name she wasn’t sure why was still in her contacts.

Drew.

Her ex-boyfriend.

She stared hard at his name. At one time a red asterisks accompanied it signaling him as her emergency contact. Not anymore.

She thumbed the screen and sent the contacts list rolling like the wheel on Wheel of Fortune. It moved slower and she stopped on the J’s where she tapped Jason again.

No answer.

The wind whistled as it swept down the road causing the car to rock slightly. She wiggled her toes in her white Skechers slips-ons. Shoes offered her feet great comfort when she was on them for twelve hours. However they left a lot to be desired for warmth.

“I should leave them a review,” Melissa muttered and stared at her phone. It was time to make the call.

Her thumb hovered over his name in hesitation. Clenching her eyes closed she tapped his name and held her breath.

The sound of a ringing phone echoed in the silence of the car. She couldn’t breathe as she counted the rings in her head.

One.

‘He’s not going to answer.’

Two.

‘He’s probably not even in town.’

Three.

‘He’s probably sleeping…’

Four.

Melissa’s heart sunk at the ring. It was going to kick over into voicemail in the next moment. Then she was truly on her own. She swallowed against the lump in her throat. Tears filled her eyes causing Drew’s name to blur.

“Mel?”

A deep voice with a Scottish lilt filled the car. It was so unexpected, Melissa yelped and fumbled the phone causing it to fall from her hands. It landed on the floorboard at her feet. She groaned and she reached a hand down, searching blindly for the device. She’d give anything to be able to move her seat back but of course it wasn’t a manual level like her first car – a ’98 Pontiac Grand Am.

Damn she missed that car.

“Melissa?” Drew pulled the phone away from his ear to stare at the screen. The call was still connected. He sat up in bed, the blankets pooling at his waist. Reaching over, he flipped on the lamp on the bedside table, a soft yellowish light covered the room. He glanced at the clock next to the lamp and groaned at the late hour. He rubbed a hand over his face, scratching at his beard.

Muffled scuffling came through his phone and he frowned. His ex-girlfriend had yet to speak to him. At first thought, he assumed she called him accidentally but the days of butt dialing were over. The second thought…”Are you drunk?”

He’d rather have a butt dial. The last thing he wanted was a drunken Melissa cussing him out… or worse telling him how much she loved him.

The latter would cause him to hop in his truck now, boyfriend be damned.

If he were honest with himself, the former would too.

“Melissa… are you there?” He spoke louder into the phone hoping she’d hear him.

“Y-yeah,” she croaked. A cough came over the line then she spoke more clearly, “yeah.”

Her fingers finally brushed against her phone and she picked it up leaning back in her seat. “I…I shouldn’t have called,” she stuttered into the phone.

“What’s wrong?”

“I-I don’t want to interrupt…”

“Melissa!” Drew snapped.

“I’m s-sorry…” her eyes filled with tears.

Drew’s heart caught at the sound of her sniffling. In a flash he was throwing the covers back and swinging his feet to the floor. Goosebumps dotted his skin from the coolness of the room. He preferred his house set in the mid to late 60s during the winter months. Usually settling on a nice 67 degrees. Plenty of blankets on his bed to keep him warm. Though his preferred method was body heat, but he hadn’t shared his bed with someone since the woman on the phone.

“Mel wha’s wrong?” Drew grabbed a dirty pair of jeans from the top of the laundry basket. The denim sliding up his legs and over the black briefs he slept in.

Embarrassment set in and Melissa couldn’t find the words. She should hang up and try Jason again. If he didn’t answer, then a tow truck. Or maybe even 9-1-1. A howling sounded close by and a whimper escaped. Her hand slowly moved toward the buttons on the door, afraid to make sudden movements. A click sounded in the car affirming her doors were locked. It did little to settle her nerves.

“Melissa, baby, you’re killin’ me. You gah’a tell me wha’s wrong?” Drew pleaded. He pulled a hoodie over his bare chest. He left the bedroom, making his way downstairs.

Melissa’s eyes peered out the windshield before looking out the passenger window and finally the driver’s. Nothing but blackness greeted her. Anything could be there, looming. Circling. Waiting. Isn’t this exactly how horror movies started? Her hand clutched her phone; a lifeline. She wasn’t alone.

“Mel… where are ye?”

“I don’t know,” Melissa answered. The window howled again. This time she heard branches creaking. A new fear was unlocked. What if the wind knocked over a tree on her?

“Talk to me Sweetie. Wha’s wrong? Are ye hurt?” Drew coaxed as he sat on his couch pulling socks on his feet. The phone held between his cheek and shoulder.

“No. I tried to take a short cut home… and I don’t know. I took a wrong turn somewhere…”

“You’re lost?” Drew’s leg fell to the floor with a thud from his knee where he had it crossed to put on his boot. Irritation grew in his gut. She called him because she was lost? He opened his mouth to tell her he wasn’t Google Maps when she spoke again.

“There was a deer and now my car won’t start. It’s snowing so much. It’s so dark. I can’t see anything around. It’s just trees. There’s this howling…I don’t… I’m scared.”

The last words came out as a whisper and Drew’s heart clenched. He barely caught any of her babbling words but those final two – I’m scared – pierced his soul.

“Please Drew…”

Someone might as well have stuck a knife in his chest. A gapping wound would probably hurt less. Hell the staples he received after his Hell in a Cell match with Punk in October hurt less. He jammed his arms through the sleeves of his coat, trading off his phone to either hand.

“Mel –“

“I don’t have anyone else.”

The knife twisted at her soft words. “I’m comin’,” he told her. He grabbed his wallet from the kitchen counter, along with his keys. A curse flew from his mouth when he opened the door and saw all the snow on the ground. None of it had been there when he went to bed. Shutting the door against the whipping wind, he dug in the hall closet for his gloves. Once they were on his hands, he pulled a brown Carhartt toboggan down over his ears.

Keeping her on the phone and pressed to his ear, he walked through his kitchen toward the door to the garage relying on muscle memory in the darkness. “Can ye send me your location? Be the easiest to figure ou’ where you are.”

Melissa’s fingers shook with the cold. It took her a couple swipes to even get the call screen to move up so she could open her text messages. It took her a few minutes to tap out Drew’s name in the new message box. When she finally got it, it was a few more swipes until she was finally able to send her location. She nearly cried with relief when her phone swished signaling the message sent. “It’s sent.”

Drew’s phone pinged a nanosecond after Melissa confirmed the message delivery. “Give me a second.”

“Don’t hang up!” Melissa blurted quickly, sitting up straight in her seat.

“I’m not. I’m not,” Drew promised. The words pretty much solidified what he’d known. He wasn’t walking away from her without a fight. He didn’t care who he had to go through to get her back. “Just putting ya on speaker.”

He climbed into his truck in the garage, turning the engine over. The truck roared to life. He turned the radio down, not needing the distraction. The air knobs were turned all the way to the red. The vent turned all the way up. Air blew in the cab at an intense rate. Cold, but he paid it no attention.

He ripped off the glove of his right hand so he could work the screen of his phone. A few taps and scrolls later, he had Melissa on speaker and her location pulled up. He whistled softly. She was in the middle of nowhere. Nothing for miles. How on earth she ended up where she did, he had no idea.

Plugging the location into his GPS, he frowned at the time it was giving him to reach his destination.

Too long.

“It’s gonna take me about twenty minutes ta get ta ya, Lass” That wasn’t even factoring in the weather.

“Okay…”

Drew barely remembered to open the garage door before backing his truck out. The shakiness in her voice scrambled his brain. She needed him and he was too far away.

The tires crunched on the snow covering his driveway. At least a couple inches blanketed the land. The headlights cut through the dark night showing the snowflakes falling rapidly from the sky. The flakes were big and fat promising to cripple the area in another hour or two.

The road at the end of his driveway sat untouched. The plows haven’t been through. He wasn’t considered a main road, so he wasn’t sure when his road would be plowed. With as fast as the snow as falling, he was sure they were concentrating on the roads in town and the nearby interstate. His road would probably be touched in the morning.

Where he hoped to be stuck in his home. With Melissa.

“You still here?”

“I’m here.”

“Jus sit tight. I’ll be there soon. The roads haven’t been plowed yet.” The heat finally kicked on, blowing hot air in his face, quickly warming the cab of his pick up truck. He turned it down and turned the vent away from him. Synthetic heat blowing in his face always gave him a headache.

“Maybe you should go back home. I don’t want you to get into an accident. If they haven’t plowed yet.”

“Hush Lass…” Drew chided gently. He held his phone in right hand gripped between his thumb and pointer finger. The remaining three curled around the steering wheel. His other hand wrapped around the wheel, gripping tight. The road was slick beneath his wheels. He kept his pace steady.

The phone between them remained silent. The connection between them proving to be enough. His eyes flickered between the windshield and the map on his phone. His blue dot getting closer to Melissa’s. The lights of town disappeared behind him, casting him in darkness except for his headlights. He met no other vehicles on his trek. Everyone safely at home, tucked in their beds while a winter wonderland was created outside their windows.

Everyone except him.

And Melissa.

“How ya doin’?” Drew checked in.

“I’d kill for a cheeseburger right now.”

Drew chuckled, his lips twitching. “That’s my girl.”

The words rested heavy between them. She hadn’t been his girl in almost a year. Not since he put her at the end of his priorities. By the time he came up for air and realized his priorities were out of whack, she was long gone and his aunt – the woman he considered a surrogate mother after losing his own mother over a decade ago – passed away.

Before he would never consider asking for time off, but the atmosphere at work changed with Triple H at the helm. For the first time in his life, he made himself a priority. He took a leave of absence from work and headed home to Scotland. There he started mending relationships with his family and properly grieving his loss. It lifted his heart to be surrounded by family; sharing memories and laughs.

Now he was back in the States. Back at work. There was only one more line on his priority list. The one at the very top.

He was five minutes away.

The road was off the beaten path. Definitely one Drew never travelled. He wondered what Melissa was even doing out here. It wasn’t close to her place. Wasn’t even on the way. The roads were becoming slicker and he grew worried about the drive home. Snow continued to fall accumulating faster than predicted. He just gripped the wheel tighter and stayed steady on the gas.

Finally the headlights picked up a car on the side of the road. The backroad offered very little in terms of a shoulder. The car sat nose toward the tree line, showing the results from the dance with a deer. Most of the car still sat on the road, an issue for any vehicle that happened to be traveling by. At least an inch of snow covered the hood and the roof with it started to pile up on the windshield.

Not that there would be a lot of traffic at this time of night and in this weather.

Drew pulled his truck nearly alongside Melissa’s car. Keeping it running with the headlights shinning, he clicked on his flashers just in case of another traveler.

The cold slapped him in the face when he opened the door. The heat of the cabin quickly overtaken by the outside temperatures. He shut the door, trapping what little heat remained. His boots crunched on the snow. With a gloved hand he reached for the handle and pulled the door open.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

Drew’s lips twitched with a smile he tried his best to keep at bay. He stared down at her huddled in the driver’s seat in the flimsiest coat he ever saw. “This was a little drastic to get my attention, don’t ya think?”

“Well when you can make a statement, I say go for it.” Melissa grinned up at him.

“Let’s go,” Drew held out his hand expecting Melissa to take it.

“Oh no…” Melissa shook her head. “I probably just need a jump. My car’s been on the fritz for a few weeks now. It has to just be the battery. I can’t get the lights or.. Oh!” She shrieked as she was hauled from the car. She swatted at his hands where they held her waist. “Grabby hands…”

“I am not staying out here in this weather trying to figure out what’s wrong with your car, Lass. If we don’t start moving, we are going to be stuck out here.”

Melissa sighed, her shoulders deflated. She hoped Drew would be able to get her car running again and pointed in the right direction so she could get home. One look at his face, she saw the decision was final. She wasn’t going to be able to change his mind. “Fine. Just take me home.” She’d worry about explaining why her ex-boyfriend brought her home to Jason later. She just wanted out of the cold.

Gripping her upper arm, Drew led her toward his truck. When she slid through the snow in front of his truck and nearly took them both to the ground, he swung her up in his arms. In the shine of the headlights, he got a good look at her shoes. “Where are your boots?” He growled staring at the white slip-ons.

“Home. I thought I’d make it home before the snow hit.” Melissa shivered in his arms, even as warmth radiated through her at his hold. Her comment caused another growl from Drew. His chest vibrating with the sound as it moved up his throat. Then she was shivering for a totally different reason.

With her secured in his arms, Drew carefully made his way around the front of his truck to the passenger side door. It took a little maneuvering but he was able to get the door open where he deposited her in the seat. “Stay.”

“I’m not a dog.” Melissa couldn’t resist as she shifted in the seat to sit properly. The blast of the heat from the vent nearly brought tears to her eyes. She quickly raised her hands to the vents allowing the warm heat to envelope them. “Grab my purse please?”

With a grunt Drew shut the door and made his way back to Melissa’s car. The keys still hung in the ignition. Her purse lay on the passenger side seat. Her phone in the cup holder. Dropping both items in the purse he hit the lock on the door jam. The mechanism clicked as the locks turned. He gave a cursory look over the interior but didn’t see anything he thought Melissa would need.

He could see Melissa sitting in the passenger seat through the windshield. The wipers keeping the glass clear. Unbelievable she was sitting in his truck after all this time. His arms still burned where he held her in his arms. He climbed into the truck and the heat hit him full force. The air gushed from the vents, turned on high.

“I’m freezing,” Melissa answered his look when he dropped her purse on her lap. “My heat wasn’t working even before the engine gave out.”

Drew said nothing. He simply pulled his arms from his own jacket and passed it across the cab.

“What? No.” Melissa tried to shove the Carhartt back to Drew. “The heat is fine. I don’t need your coat. I’ll be fine.”

“Take it Lass,” Drew stated. He continued to hold his hand out with the coat, taking her shoves. He rolled his eyes and dropped the jacket in her lap. “I’m fine. You have it like a damn furnace in here.” The words weren’t a lie. The chill from being outside was gone. In actuality, he was reaching out to turn the vents away from him. The heat proving to be too much.

“Drew…” Melissa started. The coat was clutched in her hands. The material warm beneath her fingers. She fought to keep from raising it to her nose and breathing the woodsy scent.

“Please keep it,” Drew meet her eyes and felt a rush of victory when she nodded. He watched as she pulled the coat up around her like a blanket.

Drew pulled his seatbelt across his body. His eyes flickered in the rearview mirror showing complete darkness. He turned off his flashers and put the truck in drive. Easing on the gas, he moved them forward at a crawl. The road was completely covered in snow. Melissa’s tracks no longer visible.

“Thank you.” Melissa’s voice broke the quietness of the cab a few minutes later. She watched the snow falling in front of the headlights as Drew trudged down the road. Her body warm beneath the thick coat. She had it pulled to just below her chin. His cologne wafted in her nose, warming her from the inside out. This time, she tucked her chin and buried her nose in the coat. Her eyes closed as she breathed deep.

“What were you doing this far out anyway?” Drew fought from reaching over. He watched out of the corner of his eye as she buried her face in his coat. He shifted in his seat as his jeans grew tight. He wished he did have that 1967 Ford Melissa’s Pappy used to own. Teal in color with the all important bench seat. One where he could reach out and pull her across the seat to burrow up in his side. He could have one arm wrapped over her shoulders holding her to him. One hand on the wheel. The future ahead of him.

“Thought I remembered a shortcut home from work. Apparently I didn’t.”

Drew chuckled. “You’ll have to explain that to me later because I’m not sure how any of these roads are a shortcut.”

“Well I’m still directionally impaired. That hasn’t changed any.” Her heart stumbled and beat faster as she watched the smile grow on his face in the darkness of the cab.

Melissa must have fallen sleep. The next thing she knew they were pulling into a garage that was definitely not hers. First thing, she didn’t have a garage. She sat up right, Drew’s coat falling to her lap She glanced around, eyes wide. The garage door shut behind them. The wipers rubbed against a dry windshield, bouncing over the glass before the truck went silent beneath them when Drew shut it off.

“Where are we?” Melissa asked when Drew opened his door.

“Home.” Drew stated as he climbed from the truck and shut the door behind him not allowing Melissa to argue. She was ready when he opened the passenger door.

“What do you mean home?” Melissa said as he opened her door. “This is your home. Not mine. I don’t live here remember.”

“I remember,” Drew answered solemnly. He absolutely remembered Melissa no longer lived with him. Each time he came home to an empty house. Darkness would great him as he pulled into his driveway. The windows all darked. The only light coming from the outside light at his garage. Inside the silence was deafening. His movements would echo in the vacant house.

“Then what am I doing here?” Melissa asked. Muscle memory left her climbing from the truck and following Drew to the garage door that lead them into the mud room. It was also habit that had her kicking her shoes off leaving them next to random pairs of Drew’s.

“Fixing a mistake.” Drew turned away and hung his coat up on the hook next to the door. He kicked off his own boots, leaving them next to Melissa’s. He stared down at the scene. His dark brown Carhartt boots with their black soles and golden yellow laces. One sitting up right. One turned over on its side. Melissa’s white cloth sided Skechers with tieless shoelaces sat neatly beside them. Their shoes hadn’t been side by side in a long time.

“F-fixing a mistake? What does that mean?” Melissa watched as he didn’t answer, but walked from the room. She had no choice but to follow. “Stop,” she reached out grabbing his arm as he walked deeper into his house. “You can’t keep me here. You need to take me home, Drew.”

“No.”

Melissa stared at him bewildered. “No? What do you mean no?”

“Exactly what I mean Lass.” Drew knew he was going about this all wrong. But she was here in his house. Finally.

“You can’t just keep me here.” Melissa rubbed the bridge of her nose. She was too tired to get into an argument with Drew.

“Call your boyfriend then.” Drew’s jaw clenched at the thought. Discovering Melissa had a boyfriend caused him to carry on his one track mind of wrestling. Obviously her moving on that quickly after their break up meant their relationship wasn’t as serious as it was made out to be.

It wasn’t until he took a break from wrestling when he realized what the relationship meant to him and what he’d lost. Then the thought of Melissa’s boyfriend pissed him off. He didn’t know who it was, but he knew whoever the maggot was wouldn’t be good enough.

He watched as Melissa spun on her heel, marching back into the mudroom. He followed like there was an invisible tether keeping them together. His heart lodged in his throat when she pulled her phone out of her purse hanging from the hook with her jacket. Anger rose and he snatched the device from her hand.

“Wh-what are you doing!” Melissa’s voice rose as she turned around. She bumped into his body, he was so close to her. She lifted her head to meet his gaze. Her breath caught at the look on his face. Emotion swam in his blue eyes.

“Why did you call me?” Drew asked in a low voice as he crowded against her. “Why didn’t you call him?”

“I-I did…” Melissa answered. She was unable to look away. His eyes captivated her, drawing her in.

“Then where is he?” He pressed, taking a step closer to her. She took a step back and nearly tripped over his boots. He quickly reached out, wrapping his arms around her. Her phone tumbled from his hand to the floor. The device lay on the floor forgotten. He pulled her against him. Their bodies flush.

“He didn’t answer…” Melissa admitted in a whisper. Her body trembled pressed against him. A growing hunger swirled deep in her belly. With their height different he towered over her. Her head arched back, baring her neck.

“He didn’t answer,” Drew repeated, silently cursing the deviant. On a night like this, he couldn’t pick his girlfriend up from work. Instead leaving her to drive home with an unreliable car in terrible weather and not even having the decency to stay awake until she was home safely. Disgust for the man dripped off him. He was right. The man didn’t deserve Melissa.

He dipped his head down, watching as Melissa’s eyes widened. Her irises grew heavy with desire. He heard her breath catch. Her fingers grasped his hoodie pulling the material tight across his back. He wanted to rip the offending article of clothing from his body so he could feel her hands on his skin.

“I answered,” he breathed. His lips millimeters from hers. Their breath mixed together. The press of her body to his. The feel of her hands on him. The sweet scent of her perfume invading his senses… Desire curled inside him. His dick started to thicken in his jeans. He shifted minutely, pressing his desire to her belly.

“Drew…” Melissa whispered. Heat pooled at her center.

“I answered Mel,” his voice low. “I answered and without hesitation I came. I came when you needed me.”

Melissa nearly melted against him, giving in to her desire. With strength she didn’t know she had, she broke away from him. “Now. But you didn’t before. You weren’t there. You were never there.”

Drew’s eyes closed briefly at the pain in Melissa’s voice. Opening them, he met her gaze head on. “I know, Love. I had my priorities all mixed up. I placed the company above everything – my friends. My family. You...”

She watched as he moved closer to her. She didn’t know why she was allowing him to plead his case. She should have been demanding he take her home immediately. Should have been finding her phone and calling Jason. But she didn’t and she wasn’t.

“I didn’t realize I had given a bit much to wrestling. Didn’t realize while I was giving them everything, there wasn’t anything left to give to the people I loved. I was sacrificing you and my family for the job…” Drew confessed. He stopped in front of her. Not once did his eyes waver from hers. “I’m sorry…”

“You think you can just erase all the hurt with an apology?” Melissa fisted her palms in an attempt to stop herself from reaching out. The emotions swirling deep in his eyes called out to her. She could see the hurt and sadness. She could also read the resignation in them. As if he knew his actions had lost her to him forever.

“It’s all I got Lass,” he admitted. He raised his hand and brushed the short blonde hair from her face. Her skin soft beneath his fingers. Her eyes closed at his touch and she nuzzled his hand. He brought his other hand up and cupped her face with both hands. He tilted her face up and waited for her eyes to open.

When her eyes blinked open, he lowered his head. Her breath quickened. He brushed his lips softly against hers. A short whisper of a kiss. He pulled back slightly, his hands still on her cheeks. His thumbs caressing back and forth. “I know you’re not gonna jus forgive me. I know I have my work cu’ ou’ for me to earn your trust back. I know I don’ deserve a second chance, but I love you.”

Melissa’s breath caught in her throat. Her eyes widened at Drew’s declaration. Her hands rose and pressed against his chest. Her fingers clinging to the hoodie. She stared in his eyes, unable to look away. His voice – soft and deep with his accent more pronounced – wrapped around her.

“The past couple months… it’s been eye openin’ for me. I can see everything I did wrong. The mistakes I made… I see it all now. The family I though’ I had wasn’t there. I was losing my real family by givin’ to an industry that wasn’t givin’ back. I started mendin’ that. After coming home from Scotland… this empty house without you here… I was comin’.”

“I have a boyfriend,” Melissa said weakly. Though try telling her body that piece of information. Her hands on his chest. Her lower half pressing against him. Her heart swooning over his accent...his words. Falling all over again.

“I don’t care,” Drew said matter-of-factly. The tips of his fingers slid into her hair. “I don’t care what boyfriend you have. I don’t care who is in my way when it comes to you. Nothin’ will stop me from getting’ to ya.”

Desire coursed through her at his words, pooling at her center. She knew Drew meant the words he said. He would do anything and everything to get her back. She shivered. The words almost made her want to test him. To brush him off right now. To make him work to get her back. To make him prove what he spoke was the truth.

“I won’t force ya to stay here,” Drew continued. He knew he had to say the words, but they stuck in his throat. Sour. “You want to go home, just say so.” It was the step in the right direction in order to win her back. Kidnapping her did have its advantages. It crossed his mind to take her upstairs to his bed and kiss every inch of her skin until she was begging for him to claim her. Then take her until she was shouting out in the silence of the house she was his until her voice was raw as they spilled over into ecstasy.

It was less than a split second. Melissa’s hands were moving up his chest. Her palms cupping his bearded cheeks – soft and silky at her touch. “What are you talking about? I am home.”

At the words, her lips touched his.

[lyranova]

Hello everyone I hope you’re all doing well 🥰!

I decided to post this early since the “William Appreciation Week” will be taking place from 12/18-12/24 which is right in the middle of the holidays 😅. I want everyone to have enough time to write or create art or whatever they would like to do without it interfering with IRL, so I decided to go ahead and start this a month in advance!

Rules:

1. For Fics there is no word count, it can be as long or short as you would like!

2. You can participate in some of the days, or all of the days, its really up to you! Also even if you post them late that’s totally fine too, IRL comes first 😌!

3. You can create Fics, Art, Moodboards, Headcanons, whatever you feel like doing 🥰! Please tag your works with “#William Vangeance Week 2023”!

4. While this is supposed to focus on William, you are allowed to add secondary characters to your works (Canon, Reader, OC, etc;). But the main focus should be on William and his POV!

5. Just have fun! And if you have any questions please feel free to ask 🥰!

Prompts under the cut!

[silentstaresfanficandfanart]

Hello hi good definitely night!

I just finished reading Halcyon and WOOO that was awesome! (Also I get the spino discourse now heheee).

I however noticed an issue: there isn't enough words. I wanted to keep reading. I want to keep reading of these guys. Where can I read more of Darling and Hare (and Hearts and Diamonds and Tiger and Wolf and *proceeds to name every character*)????

GOOD DEFINITELY NIGHT HELLO AND HOWDY TO YOU TOO!!!

WOO!!! im SO SO SO GLAD YOU LIKED IT pBTTHPPTH i hope the spinosaurus was to your taste <3 i know he was to lovettas- Hehehe- and OHO? is that so! my my well good news i do plan at least one big update to the fic near the beginning where you can get FAR more interactions with all the suits as Ciero sets up his little squad AND that means more interactions with several of the characters and I also plan a special scene with Acianne but im not sure yet on that one! As for where can you read more~ Ill have to work on that! I plan to make more books, but if you want more lore and info and stuff like that you can look through my blog on the Halcyon tag, and if you follow them youll probably see my other account thats specifically for Halcyon which has a lot of the early concept art and stuff in it! Which means MORE THEM!!!! Untill then though youll either have to make your own or wait~ sadly- heheh- though a friend of mine is working on a halcyon fic- we'll have to look forward to that! I hope you look forward to more Halcy- OH THATS RIGHT I DO HAVE SOMETHING YOU MIGHT LIKE I have a LOT of notes from the development of Halcyon and id be happy to share some fun neat changes that happened over the course of the books development!

Originally Acianne was a boy, but i decided I wanted to have more female characters 2. Heartbreaker had a perfectly good family wife, he only became like this after his wife died trying to save him from a superhero while he was on the job, she was a hero herself, and originally had love based powers, these were passed onto him and strengthened by her spirits love for him, and they were also passed onto Ciero! 3. Heartbreaker had a thing for Aciannes mother as she was very kind and polite to him and reminded him of his late wife, but understandably she had no interest in the man-

4. Cendre's conflict with his parents has been going on MUCH longer than he ever admits in the story and that's why during the spinosaurus thing he was glad he could blame those bruises on the spino 5. Hearts actually used to work at a zoo and was a very important figure in hyena conservation and they've always been his favorite animal! 6. The reason the younger siblings are a bunny, a kitten, and a puppy respectively, is because they're meant to represent the idea of "a future where things are more peaceful and calm" to contrast with their older siblings who are "the hare" (though shes actually just a bunny like her little brother- a tiger and a wolf!

7. Originally Cendre was going to get his powers saving a girl on a merry-go-round that caught on fire in a mall, and the girl he saved became a dear friend of his who went on to get into a fistfight with his parents in the hospital and she had to flee to not get arrested and she was the first person acianne didint kill for comitting a crime in front of her originally 8. Originally Ciero was actually an Ensemble stars oc and he wasn't supposed to go into halcyon at all but i loved his design so much i replaced the oc with another guy and made Ciero his own character : ) 9. Originally Acianne was the only main character, Ciero straight up just took over the entire story honestly, and im glad he did, he really was the heart of it- hehe- pun intended

10. Diamonds sibling group comprises of elemental vibes, her being earth, and her brothers being water, fire, and air. It was the fire sibling that died, and the only one i havent drawn a design for is air! He was killed by acianne while he was frankly, on an utter rampage, he's always had a LOT more energy and a lot less empathy than his siblings and Diamonds always was worried he was going to die.

11. Ciero has been banned from at least one craft store for "musical antics" and "unconsensually ballroom dancing with a mannequin" And one person was so angry about it they called the cops about it, Acianne wound up showing up instead because she listens to police radio calls and she had to drag him out by the ear for his poor behavior. He learned nothing from this incident.