#downside: the oc barely talks

[lovelyladyabsinthewrites]

Love Song for a Vampire Pt. 36

Pairing(s):Edward Cullen x Wolf!Reader, Jacob Black x Witch!OC

Warnings: underage smoking (non nicotine, non cannabis)

Words: 3242

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7 Part 8  Part 9  Part 10  Part 11  Part 12  Part 13  Part 14  Part 15  Part 16  Part 17  Part 18  Part 19  Part 20  Part 21  Part 22  Part 23   Part 24  Part 25  Part 26  Part 27  Part 28 Part 29  Part 30  Part 31  Part 32  Part 33 Part 34 Part 35 Part 37 Part 38 Part 39 Part 40(series finale)

The time was growing late where you should have been back home already preparing for bed. You couldn't leave the comfort of the forest though, not when you and Edward lay side by side, him listening as you described Dieufel's magic and Nadege taking over Bella's training. Soft grass tickling your bare arms and legs and the singing of evening birds swooping into the trees after a long day. Bugs kept away from you and Edward, probably thanks to whatever supernatural scent was embedded into you.

You also brought up that in just two days you'd be free of all academic obligation. That meant you could finally go on your long overdue date.

Edward smiles, turning onto his side to face you. "I've been thinking of all the things we can do. Can't seem to decide on just one though."

Laughing you follow suit and roll over to talk to him. The sun wasn't bright any longer, but just a few meager rays were enough to dance off of Edward's skin and illuminate the prism-like structure of Edward's skin and how it's almost blinding. Odd how vampires took on such a trait. "Yeah? What are some of your ideas?" All the while you covertly admire how handsome Edward is in daylight. Your fingers itch to touch his luminescent skin and feel it's coolness against your skin.

He watches the subtle twitch of your fingers as you restrain them from reaching out to him. That makes the corner of his lips curl. Boldly he grabs your hand as he replies "Well, I thought about maybe a movie but that's too cliche. Go-karting sounded like fun when I was researching what girls these days like to do on dates."

You snort, hiding your blush while Edward plays with your small fingers. "You sound old when you say things like that."

"I am old!" Edward chortles before shaking his head. He likes how soft your hands are. It really felt like you were made for him the way your hand easily melds into his grasp. Pale fingers weave themselves with your's offering a contrast in skin tone that mesmerizes both you and Edward. "Then I remember you telling me how the pack go cliff jumping. We could probably both appreciate a bit of fun adrenaline."

"What about the sun? If we go during the day people might see you light up like a disco ball." Oh you love his laugh and how it rumbles his whole body. You don't remember him laughing as much as he did when he was with you.

He acknowledges your concern though. "Unfortunately we'll have to go later in the day to avoid that." An apologetic tone laces his words. There were limits on what the two of you would be able to do together. You don't mind though. The most important thing was being with him and nurturing your bond.

An amusement park would be ideal since places like that have many different types of rides to enjoy. The downside was that anything like that would not be found near Forks. You'd have to travel outside of the city, possibly several hours out but thanks to Edward's driving, it wouldn't be a long drive. It would be a sight to see the vampire on a roller coaster. A picture would be necessary to show the others that Edward wasn't us stiff and brooding as they all thought he was. At least with you, he came to life.

"What would you like to do?" He asks you.

You think for a moment and shrub against the blades of grass. "I don't know. I've never been on a date before."

That was news to him. "Really? You and Embry-"

Instantly your upper body shoots up and your hand falls from his. "What're you talking about?" For some reason it made me defensive when Edward brought up Embry. Not like anything happened. It had only ever been a crush plus that one kiss several weeks ago.

Gauging your reaction, Edward makes sure to compose his sentences more delicately. "I'm sorry. Just. . . The way I've seen him look at you and his thoughts. . . I thought there was something between you two."

What had Embry been thinking while around Edward?

Evita was going to need to make more amulets to prevent Edward from reading anymore intimate thoughts.

You purse your lips and relax back down though there's now a frown pulling down your lips. He wasn't exactly wrong. "Nothing like that at least. I did used to have a crush on him a couple of years ago and I think he did too, but nothing came of it. We've just decided to stay friends. Other than that, no dates. This will be my first."

That seems to make him grin a little as he was tickled by that. "I'll make sure not to disappoint."

The next day was spent with you itching to get out of your summer school classes and Bella continuing her lessons with Nadege while Dieufel and Evita tag teamed on making the wards. Their energy was always spent after making just one and needing a recovery period of at least the rest of the day so they could get back at it the next. However, even after getting out of your lessons, you and Embry had patrol duty and couldn't stay at Sam's for long. Seth is assigned to your shift too but linked to his mind, you feel something off. Unsettled as he attempts to keep whatever secrets that were bothering deep inside of him under lock and key. Embry exchanged a look with you but you shook your head. It was something to discuss later. Right now they had to keep constant vigil. Like the Cullens had reminded them, time was of the essence. No one knew when the Volturi would learn of everything. Not exactly. So every minute counted. Edward, Esme and Rosalie also aided in security as they kept to the treetops. A good thing they didn't require sleep.

Spreading out in a tactical maneuver, your pad along as your eyes easily adjust to the darkening sky. Above you hear branches groan against the landing feet of Edward. A reassuring sound for you as you had broken apart from Embry and Seth. You could still hear them, both in your mind and outside. Random check-ins with one another. Nothing to note. All the anxiety over when the Volturi would arrive was starting to wear on you. You hadn't been able to sleep well to begin with thanks to Xiomara, but now it was damn right impossible to fall asleep right away. If you were lucky it took you about four hours to fall asleep meaning you were getting about three hours worth of genuine sleep. But you couldn't complain. You didn't want to as you felt Seth fretting over something he didn't want you to know about. Even Embry was wearing thin thanks to summer school and was running on exhausted fumes.

Thankfully the both of you would be free soon. It was just one more day then You could focus your energy completely on patrol. Unfortunately you'd had to explain the circumstances to your parents on the simplest level. You kept the major facts away from them like how the Volturi most likely wouldn't like that fact of the existence of your pack and that they most likely wanted to exterminate all of you. Nothing too big.

A twilight glow takes over the sky that gradually fades into indigo and then eventual blackness. If only you could check your phone just to see what time it actually was. You wouldn't know if you're shift was up until the voices of the others became vocal in your mind. The residual scent of magic still hung in the air, waking you up and providing enough energy to keep moving through the part of the forest that was densley packed with trees and foliage alike. It echoes in your bones and fills your lungs up with the sweetest spices that envigorate you.

Thinking about the witches made the time go by faster thankfully as your conversations started to lean towards Bella's involvement.

"I still can't wrap my head around that Bella Swan, the weak human girl, can actually use magic and help us." Embry snorts at the thought and Seth's mind hums in quiet agreement as he half pays attention to the conversation.

"Oh come on. Don't say that. You make it sound like she was completely useless to us before. Just because she's a human doesn't mean she should be disregarded. She has her own given strengths."You roll your eyes at him. Granted she was the one to instigate this whole mess but it had never been her intention.

There's an accusation in his words "When did you two become friends." You didn't appreciate his tone and though you couldn't see him, you stop dead in your tracks and glare toward the direction you scented him.

"We're not."You shrug to yourself knowing Embry wouldn't understand. Though the hackles on your neck are now standing at attention, literally ruffled by him.

Embry wasn't about ready to give up though. Whatever bone he was gnawing on, he refused to relinquish it. "Even if Edward still loves her?"

Finally Seth butts in. "Embry. . ."The last thing he wanted to hear was more arguing. You catch a glimpse of his memory of earlier that morning. Leah was there as well as their mother Sue. Mouths moved with no sound produced but even that bit of a picture quickly dissolved as Seth didn't want anyone to pry.

You feel the skin of your snout scrunch up into a snarl, your teeth showing and your tongue licking across them in agitation. "Why are you bringing this up? Is it so wrong that I don't mind Bella? Can I not just be pleasant toward her for the sake of it? Edward has nothing to do with it."Why was everyone ready to pit you against Bella when she had never really done anything hateful toward you?

In response, you could feel Embry's embarrassment and shame, maybe even a lick of jealousy too as he finally backs down and doesn't say another word much to the relief of both you and Seth. You didn't like fighting with Embry, it never felt right. But it didn't sit right with you what he said. Bella wasn't useless. She just didn't have the special abilities that the pack and vampires did. Well, technically she's had magic in her all this time, just no way of knowing how to wield it or that she could manifest it into something greater.

Around midnight (or so you guess) you hear the voices of the others coming to take over for the rest of the night. Jared, Colin and Paul could already be heard padding through the trees.Glad that you could finally return home, you make a pitstop after you switch back to your human skin and slip on your shorts and tank top. You stumble into Sam's occupied backyard. There are two tents already set up, one for Nadege and Evita and the other for Diuefel though the later is the only one still awake. He's sitting outside the flap of his tent, from his lips is what looks like a cigarette but it smells sweet and calms you. Like herbs and not the sickening fumes of nicotine.

He notices you and smiles softly. "Welcome back. Hard day?"

"Not really. Just tedious." When he pats the spot next to him, you take it. "What is that?"

Pulling the small stick out of his mouth, you notice that the paper is black and not white. "It's a special blend of herbs that help me go to sleep. Even though I'm beyond exhausted I still have difficulties going to bed. Even when I was little it takes me hours to really fall asleep. Annoying but this helps." Dieufel hands it to you. "Try it."

Since it wasn't toxic like nicotine you gingerly take it between your forefinger and thumb, lifting it to your lips. You felt naughty but even sniffing the smoke that twirled from it's lit end has your muscles relaxing.

"Inhale very slowly." Dieufel instructs, watching you carefully. Even though you do as he said, you're still hacking up a lung. Not used to anything other than oxygen circulating in your lungs. You're basically tossing back the herbal smoke at him as your eyes water, throat up in flames. He pats your back and reaches into his tent for a bottle of water. Again he warns you to drink slowly.

You wheeze out that you're okay and hand the bottle back to Dieufel. "S-Sorry."

He chuckles. "Don't worry about it. Not your fault. It happens to everyone their first time." Returning the smoke back to his lips, he expertly inhales, holds it in then leisurely lets it go. Even though you weren't successful, you were still feeling a bit of a soothing effect that has your eyelids growing heavy and you have to lean back on your hands in order to keep yourself up.

"How'd you guys do today?" Voice still raw, at least you were capable of speech once again.

Rolling his neck to produce a nice 'pop', Dieufel groans. "Evita got sick when making her's. She's not used to using so much magic. I was only able to make one as even I am growing weary. But Bella, I don't know how she does it. She's able to take in so much information, absorb and utilize it appropriately. It took me two years before I could successfully conjure flames to light candles. Bella did it in a second after her lesson."

"How long until she's ready to make a ward?"

His grimace was enough of a response to you but he goes on to say "I don't know. Hopefully she'll surprise us. But. . . something like that is complicated. You see how it wipes us out each time. And the refractory period becomes longer. A spell like that is similar to weaving. You twine different spells together for a ward. In order for it to stick, the threads can't risk being unraveled. If it unravels at the wrong time, it could mean calamity to Forks."

From one of his pockets he pulls out the ward he had made today. The carvings that were magically etched into, he explained, were actually the spells woven together. No wonder it felt alive in your palms, warm and buzzing with energy.

He sadly regards it in your palm. "If we had older witches, they would have been done in a faster manner. We're young though, our magic not as strong."

"You guys don't know any other witches that are older?"

Shaking his head, Dieufel takes another drag from his smoke. "Not one that can travel easily. Plus witches tend to scatter themselves in the wind. It's dangerous to have a coven of witches. All that magic concentrated into one place? Any monster could descend on them with no trouble at all. Even with wards erected, there can be leaks if you're not absolutely careful. One leak will be the doom of the entire coven. I'm not going to lie, I feel uneasy with all of us being here. That's how Nadege and I were able to find Evita so easily from the sky."

"Why haven't we been attacked then?" You ask.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Lowly chuckling to not wake up the girl's in the tent next to him. "Could be because of the Cullens. Even other supernatural creatures try to stay away from vampires."

You were unable to stop the flow of questions coming out of you. Curiosity encouraging you. "What other things are out there? Witches, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters. . ."

His smile turns sympathetic. As if you didn't already know the world was actually a more dangerous place to live in since vampires existed. Now the possibilities were vast and endless. "Lets see. . . There's ghouls, you definitely never want to encounter them. A pain to kill. Ghosts certainly. Zombies, in a way. Wraiths. Sea people. Necromancers."

All that was missing were aliens which Dieufel could neither confirm nor deny since he'd never personally seen one.

Noting the subtle fear on your features, he attempts to reassure. "Not all of them are evil. Just like with vampires, there are good ones.Those who resist their thirst for blood and flesh. They still have their humanity."

You glance up at the stars. "Then. . . is it possible that there might be some good members of the Volturi? Those who we can talk sense into."

"If they are then they remain silent. Likely they have no real power and are just as helpless." Finally he's down to the stub of his smoke and Dieufel deposits it into a homemade clay ashtray. "It will not do us any good worrying about what is out of our control. We both need rest. Best if you head home."

That was the best idea you'd heard all day.

You drag your exhausted body home, taking care not to make too much noise as you go in through your bedroom door. Easier. The front door had obnoxious, creaking hinges that no amount of WD40 could fix. Tired, burning eyes barely manage to pick out your pajamas from a small heap near your bed. You let your body fall atop of your mattress face first.

"(y/n)! Please wait!"

You'd been dreading talking to Embry after the brief spat last night. No longer angry, you just didn't want things to grow awkward. Feet halting, your hands fly up to your backpack straps and grip them tightly; an anxiety soother. "Em. . ."

Equally nervous about confrontation with you, Embry hurries with his words before he lost his courage "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I said. I had no right and it wasn't fair of me. I'm. . . I-It's still hard for me to really let you go. . . I get jealous. But I'm working on it, I promise."

Demeanor softening, your lips turn up in an understanding smile. "No, it's okay. Embry. I appreciate the apology. And I get it. I'd probably feel the same way as you if you were the one to imprint on someone." Before your feelings had transgressed to those of romantic, you were best friends first and foremost.

Embry's face brightens and a blinding grin shines. There was nothing more that needed to be said about it.

Once backpacks were dropped off at your place, you and Embry hustle through the woods but stop when you pass by the Black residence. Gloom weighs heavy in your chest, remembering getting into a fight with Jacob over you revealing his imprinting to Bella. Bella needed to know but at the cost of your relationship with him? "Do you think Jake will forgive me?"

"Of course he will." Embry immediately replies with ease. He misses when it was just the four of you guys, back to simpler times where the four of you would spend hours outside in the woods at the back of Jacob's house. "Let him blow off steam. You know how stubborn he is. Give it time. Maybe Sam will let him back to patrol as long as he behaves himself."

One could only hope so as both of you continue to stare longingly at the back of Jacob's house.

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[heksen-sabbat]

I see u tag a lot of ocs tags👀 id love to hear more abt them can you tell please??!?

!!! sure, i can try to! there's too much information to tell in one post, so my explanations will sound very bad probably, but i'll try to summarise where it's relevant to the kind of things i tag them in

ouu sorry in advance

the main ones i tag are the two ⁎rotterdam wizards⁎ gauricus and steentje (they just happen to live in rotterdam at the same time)

gauricus (gender androgyne, any pronouns but it depends on context) is a young man who has been around for a long time, he was born during ww2 in a small rural village which was insular and very religious. for this reason (and he's a big fan of historical texts) he talks very old-fashioned, so i tag him in things that remind me of how he talks

he was convinced as a child that he was condemned to belong to hell, so years later after he left home and happened to become associated with secret members of a cult who love communing with demons and hoping for armageddon to happen so that the world will be left for sinners to rule, he thought that sounds great! and he should join them!

he becomes one of their top 3 members because he's very passionate about it, and he partakes in a ritual which kills him and loses him his soul but he gets a fragment of demon to replace it so once he comes back to life he can do Unlimited Black Magic (it has a limit… it's just a lot easier for him to do magic than someone who learnt it the proper ways)

his area of magic is transmutation, so he shapes materials into different things. he uses this to create homunculi of himself that he buries in the ground, and if he gets killed, his spirit will inhabit one of them and emerge out of the ground and he continues as normal. he wants to live to see the end of the world, after all! he never ages older than mid 20s because he's in love with himself and doesn't want to change. except his sex he changes that sometimes

he likes to be very nice to people, enormous fan of nature (particularly the moon) and philosophy and religion, but he can also be really scary because he messes with people's lives as a pastime

he's my most developed oc ever i write essays about a bunch of stuff i'm not touching on here😑😑😑 BOOO onto one who's not a freak 💯

steentje tellen (dutch for "stone counting" which is a phrase about people who walk slowly because they're looking at the ground) is the alias of yenthe, who is a modern folk healer burnt out at the ripe old age of 24. she is a part of the gabber subculture, she exclusively enjoys hardcore music and makes some too. antisocial unemployed urban loiterer, you understand

for no particular reason she has a lifelong conviction to help people who are injured physically or mentally; she learned some white magic from two women in her childhood apartment (#community). seeing so many injuries has been very taxing on her young life, though, and she has worked out an extreme dependency on cigarettes and energy drinks to keep her functioning. and maybe like a big gyro

her magic use blends in very well with the world because it usually just looks like she's preparing to smoke something, using different plants she grew to have different properties. also has cool hand tattoos to help her. and the benefit to being a healer is she barely has to look after herself because if her body gets any problems she can just cure it. she will not get lung cancer <- manifestation (the downside: she barely looks after herself)

gender She Doesn't Think About It only that she likes to be called mister instead of miss, but for everything else she doesn't care. it will get bad if she introspects for too long about anything so she Does Not! hostile about any level of intimacy unless she's high, too much of a toughguy to talk much unless it's insults

[yanderefarm]

I like them all not gonna lie (they all are my obsession every single one of them) but if I had to explain

Ajax/Emil are my least favorite even if internalized homophobia resonates with me a lot actually (military field was pretty hard on me ahh-) I need to work on that because I'm pretty sure I can do big things with them.

Achilles, I still don't know what to do with him, I really like him but I think that I want to transform him in a dumb husband like let me take care of you after rough session, plus I don't think that he should work as a crime lord, he could get in dangerous situations (and I'm the only one who can hurts him). If he wants to keep going with his job? Then let me be your guard dog at work and your tormentor at home. I think that he is the most capable to help me even if I would probably need to tell him what to do first but is he enough of a yapper?

Ares is... Well. I think that he got a lot of potential, as I think that he would actually be a cool wife even if I would have to break his hearts jar first, I am supposed to be the only one. I like the idea of fake flirting but not with him I guess that it would enraged me more than excited but it never happened to me before. Probably be one of the best to help me with pain from day to day life because he would probably know how to help me and all.

Nephite, well as said in a thought sharing, I discovered him recently, at first I just didn't care about him but now? He is cute. I like his way to be and definitely want to 'break' his mind to get out of his cult, like come with me I want to see you discovering everything and freeing yourself from Religious stuff.

Noemie, aaah Noemie, I think that he is cute even if a bit too extreme sometimes (As said I could bite his left ring finger off but I'm not really into cannibalism.), I like the fact that he is a yapper, I need someone to talk about anything every fucking seconds of their life, it helps me a lot actually. So he is pretty high on the tierlist but eh he got some downside.

Silvan, it is pretty hard because he got pretty popular at some point among anons so I'm forced to like him because I've read a lot of things about him. I could definitely show him off to people but not as clear. He is my doll but I would be more subtle about it, but I would definitely call him doll and probably get him nice necklaces, clothes and all to show to people that he is mine without having to say it outloud.

OK I think that everyone is here, to cut a long story short, They are all my favorite because they are my brainrot, plus I would get their knees no matter who they are, I need to remind them where their place is. By my side and only mine (and yours, so I should ours). Which can be easily done considering that, I'm really tall and pretty muscular despite pain (knees, hands and back pain ahah-) I could almost break their skull with my bare hands. That's probably why I'm not into removing their body autonomy (mainly because trauma) because I can make them submit by force and if really needed I can break their legs but they will always get them back.

Sorry for the long request I never been this active on a blog nor been this obsessed with OC from someone, so well done bunny! GGWP, you got yourself an obsessed tall man who would write you lot of request during the night (because I'm in EU so for me it is during the day) because he thought that you (and anons) would be interested in thoughts in his brain.

-Tall anon (Can I do this? Can I just say tall anon and go on or do I need an emoji?)

tall anon i just know you're really hot. also yeah you can just be tall anon dw hdskjdj

this is interesting to read!!! i like to know what you like about everyone.

also jsyk the yappers are noemie, ares, and nephite. achilles is a lot more quiet but he can talk a lot about things he likes (i.e mascot characters). silvan is pretty much only speak when spoken to. emil and ajax aren't yappers but they could be like they both fully have the capacity to talk your ear off if you wanted them to.

[angelasscribbles]

Savage Love Chapter 37: Gone

Series: Savage Love

Fandom: The Royal Romance

Pairings: Riley x Liam, Riley x Drake

Rating: R         

Warnings: Mature themes, violence, guns

Word Count: 987

A/N: Wow, I can't believe it's been five months since I posted an update for this! I've known since before I started writing it back in December 2021 how it's going to end. This is the downside of having so many ideas.... I can't work on all of them at once.

That said, this is a bit shorter than my regular chapters, but I just needed to see what Drake was doing while Riley was in Hidar in her quest to take down the Via Imperii and Leo was in Rivala getting the shock of his life. The next chapter will bring everyone back together again in Cordonia.

A/N2: I realize it's been a while and readers may be confused with all the OC's in this chapter, so here's a rundown. Nick is Riley's ex-fiance and also another GIA agent. Frederico Sanchez is Nick's informant. Saguaro Laurent is the head of The Gladius Company. Lorenzo is not in this chapter but is mentioned as a loan shark to whom Tariq owed money and who, on Saguaro's orders, leveraged Tariq's gambling debt to get him to abduct Riley (Tariq failed and was murdered for his failure, Lorenzo is in custody at the palace). Rico Mendez is the son of a former mafia don who wants revenge for Riley using him to take down his father's organization.

My other stuff: Master List.

Series Premise: Agent Riley Brooks is undercover on assignment in New York when she has a one-night stand with a handsome, mysterious stranger. Both of them hiding their true identities, names are not exchanged.  After one scorching night, they part ways, both returning to the duties they have pledged their lives to. Fast forward several months later and Agent Brooks is assigned a new case: investigate and infiltrate any Via Imperi influences in the small, Mediterranean country of Cordonia. Her cover? Posing as a suitor competing for the hand of the crown prince. Her way in? Civilian contractor and cyber security expert Maxwell Beaumont.

Drake…..

Nick and I arrived at the warehouse where we were meeting his contact in the Liberation Core. The one that had gotten me a meeting with the head of the Gladius Company.

The air in the dimly lit warehouse was thick with tension as we made our way through the maze of crates toward their rendezvous point. The echo of our footsteps ricocheted off the walls, adding to the sense of foreboding that permeated the atmosphere.

Nick's informant, a wiry man named Frederico Sanchez, stood waiting nervously near the entrance. His eyes darted back and forth, scanning for any signs of danger. As we approached, Sanchez straightened up and extended a shaky hand.

"Drake," Sanchez said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Nice to finally meet you. Nick here has told me a lot about you."

I nodded curtly, assessing Sanchez's demeanor. I could see the fear etched into the man's face, evidence of the high stakes involved in the mission. Time was of the essence; we needed to infiltrate The Gladius Company as quickly as possible.

"Likewise," I replied as I returned the man’s handshake. “Now let’s go over the plan before we meet with your guy.”

Being on the same page was crucial. If any of these guys got a whiff that this was a setup, we were both dead. Nick would stay in the surveillance van, ready as backup if necessary. He couldn’t be seen by Saguaro or any of the men he’d brought with him from New York. They’d recognize the GIA agent that had brought down their last organization in an instant.

We poured over the plan twenty times, looking for inconsistencies, committing our cover story to memory, and working out the kinks. When it was time to go, I waved goodbye to Nick and got in a nondescript sedan with Sanchez. A quick check-in with headquarters told me that they had picked up Lorenzo’s contact, but he wasn’t talking.

With any luck, we wouldn’t need him to. I was hoping to set eyes on Rico when I met with Saguaro. If he was there, I was giving the order to breach. I knew what Nick’s objective was, but I didn’t give two shits about arresting Saguaro Laurent. It was Rico I was after. The man that had sent a kidnapper, albeit a bad one, after the woman I love.

The American justice system had failed and released a known mobster, allowing him to slip through their security net. But he wasn’t in America anymore. He was on my turf, and I had a literal license to kill.

Rico Mendez would spend the rest of his life in a Cordonian prison, or he would die, and it didn’t matter much to me which one it was. All I cared about was getting him off the streets and keeping Riley safe.

We arrived at the rendezvous spot, but nothing went according to plan.

I found myself in another damn warehouse. This one was on the waterfront and, if our intel was correct, not far from the empty factory that was serving as headquarters for The Gladius Company.

We arrived first and waited. Saguaro and his men were late, which only served to ramp up the already rapidly percolating anxiety in the man at my side.

Sanchez was too damn twitchy. Saguaro picked up on it instantly. He barely glanced at me before fixing Sanchez with a piercing stare. “What’s the problem, Freddy?”

“What?” Sanchez tried to laugh it off. “Nothing. What do you mean?”

Saguaro’s flinty eyes squinted at him, then flicked to me as his hand went to his waist. I had my gun in my hand before he could pull his. “Don’t do it! I really don’t want to shoot anyone today, but I will if I have to. What’s the problem?”

Saguaro moved his hand away from his piece and put his arms in the air. A flash of metal in my periphery caught my attention. “Get down!” I hit the ground just a shot rang out. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! This wasn’t how it was supposed to go down.

Men scattered everywhere. We were outnumbered, but not for long. I could hear Nick in my earpiece giving the order to breach. Sanchez was hit. I drug him with me out of the line of fire, ducking behind a stack of metal barrels as the rat-a-tat-tat of machine gun fire spattered all around us.

“Hey, Laurent!” I craned my neck to peek around the barricade.

The only answer I got was more gunfire. I retreated back behind the stack of barrels for safety as my team poured into the building.

Now they were outnumbered, and the warehouse was surrounded. Less than fifteen minutes later, Saguaro and his men were cuffed and being loaded into the back of several guard-issue SUVs.

“Johnson, hold up!” I jogged quickly across the asphalt to intercept the lieutenant escorting the head of Gladius Company to one of the waiting vehicles. I grabbed him by his shirt and shoved him roughly up against the car. “Where’s Mendez? Was he with you?”

“Fuck you!” He lurched forward in an attempt to headbutt me, but this wasn’t my first rodeo. I snapped my head sideways, causing him to stumble forward.

I grabbed his shoulders to steady him, then brought my knee up hard into his gut. “I look forward to interrogating you, asshole.”

I beelined for the tactical van. Bursting into the mobile command center, I demanded, “Did we get Mendez?”

“Sorry, man, no,” Nick shook his head. “No sign of him. But the good news is, we got Saguaro and his second in command. There’s a second team sweeping their headquarters now. We successfully took The Gladius Company down!”

He was far too jubilant for what I considered a botched mission. I slammed out of the van with a huff. Goddamn it!

Rico was in the wind.

[masked-and-doomed]

heya do you got any oc's or anything? like funger oc's n stuff? i'm obsessed with oc's

*since this post mentions her relationship with pocketcat, implied csa warning. also she's depressed so suicide warning ig*

Also. this is 2k words. waow.

Not specifically funger OCs, but I do have a self insert character that I've put in the funger universe!

(the hair is supposed to be black btw it looks more brown to go better with the colour pallette)

I welcome you to- uh. Right. *Turns to face her* You don't have a name. It's been what, fuckin' 3 years? You still haven't decided anything? Oh, now it's kinda maybe meaningful for your character to have no name? Poetic shit? Yeah sure. *Turns back to face you* So, no name. For our sakes, I'll call her Unnamed Girl(ie). UG for short.

She was a human that suddenly got snatched from Earth and put into a white void. And she was trapped there. With memories of nothing. Why she has no name. Well she has some vague memories of her previous life, like her being fatherless, she doesn't remember any names, faces. Just some interactions.

We dunno what the hell happened to Earth nor her, really, all we can assume is that there's probably some sadistic ass higher being that's putting her through that shit? Watching her suffer every moment here. But, we never got to know. They don't really matter to us really, they've never showed up. Not important.

In the white void, she also gained. Some sort of Godhood? She got powers of some sort. So that's one upside. Downside with this is that she's immortal. And as you see, a white void. Is well. A white void. Nothin in it. Sure, she's made a room for herself to get comfy but then you start to go insane with the fact that you're isolated and that there's no one to talk to and you have no purpose in life and that it feels like you were an unwanted part of the universe that wasn't meant to ever be existing but yet you still do, and then erm she can't take it anymore and tries to. Off herself. Multiple times, in fact!

Too bad for her, immortality exists. Or perhaps better called, eternal youth. She hasn't aged since she got here. Perpetually 12, what a hell to be in, huh buddy? Fucked up thing to add on, the way her immortality works is that she suffers the wounds, damage, pain, before her body starts to regrow it back. (Usually like a minute but if she pushes it, it can be instantaneous.)

After a few days in the white void she starts conjuring up friends in her head to try and combat the eternal loneliness. Barely works. She's got three guys in her head, that talk to her from time to time. They're pretty flat and 2D in personality, UG really isn't that much of a creative girl.

(Oohh tumblr compression...)

So, with these characters, let's show you how horrible she is at naming, hm? We got the furry one, Kats. Sadistic and mean one. Guy with the hat is Meowzerz. Cheerleader, also tries to advise UG to be kind. Gas masked fellow is Koolmeow. Wild card, she does whatever she finds fun. Mostly burning things up.

Really shitty names for those last two. No wonder she hasn't picked a name for herself if these are the names she gave these mfs.

...

Well, fuck. Friends aren't really friend-ing great unfortunately. What to do?

Oh, lookie that. That's a buncha.. games and anime. Huh. Well, might as well get through them. All this white is awfully boring.

So after some days of hell, she got to see stories she's vaguely familiar with. Must been stories she experienced back in her previous life. Entertainment is entertainment.

With nothing else in the void really, she gets heavily attached to these media. Filling her time with making fanart and obsessing over the characters. Three in particular she got attached to, but only one of them is of importance considering where we're headed to in this timeline.

Ahh the cat. The horrid horrid cat. I mean she's a young child, having a man tell him she loves her even when it's just a character written by someone else to be a creepy piece of shit is. Well a charming and interesting specimen such as him sharing affection? She can't help but reciprocate back.

With all the time in this non-existence, she makes a whole shrine of shit. Plushies, posters, figures. She loves recreating his likeness and having something physical to hold. Well, she is most well versed in digital art. That she does remember about herself. She was an artist. And most of him is drawn in a computer over and over again. She has no other way to show her love other than to put him in silly situations and emulate how he reacts. Yes I do mean fanfiction. She has a lotta files of just art of him she made, you don't wanna know how big it is.

Even besides him, she's pretty enamoured with this world of Funger. She'd much rather go through that hell than this hell. At least you can die there. And things actually happen.

...

Oh? We can finally go out? After all this time?

You really did get to find a way out, Kats?

It's.. Ahah. The multiverse thing does actually exist, doesn't it? This.. this is the dungeon...

...

Ah, so much explaining her backstory and I haven't gotten to her personality! Well she's. Seriously mentally ill for one. Isolation for god knows how long and all that. I can only conclude Depression or some variation of it for now, though there is definitely another mental disorder at play here. Erm. We might never know. I don't think she'll ever go to therapy or a psychiatrist.

Due to her being in that void for so long, and with barely any memories, there's some things that she's real bad at. Of course, she retains her memory of how to walk, how to speak and communicate, and most basic human things.

However, this bitch cannot social interaction. How unfortunate, my friend.

She can be very blunt and clear with her words. Oh she also has this stupid thing where she's either really crass and informal or just talks fancy and with a thesaurus. Fucking weirdo. can't talk normal ever.

Next note, she has no respect for anyone. That's not to say she doesn't appreciate anyone's company, she definitely likes a good amount of people. Thing is, since she saw this all in a game she played and saw as fiction. Little dolls for her to play with. She never really got to get out of that thinking. Also that with her being some sorta higher being? Yeah, she thinks a little high of herself. Sometimes. Sometimes. (She also think she's the worst thing ever that existed lmao)

Adding on, she also possesses no self respect. No shame. No dignity. No regrets about anything ever. She just lives on. She's a very YOLO it is what it is kinda gal.

UG has a very normal perception of love. She thinks of violence as a sort of love language to her, she just wants to rip her beloveds to shreds. She also has an intense hatred for the cat, despite him being the one she loves most. The hatred plays along with her obsession of the cat. Also. Um. Yandere. yeah. She's obsessive. Isolation and all that. Makes you intensely crave affection and attention. And also being a child. Forever. Yeah she's quite an attention whore. (self label)

Other effects from the isolation also happen to be extreme boredom. She wants to do anything. In her life. And hey, she's got a lot if it to spare.. plany of time. It is mildly boring her that she knows she's most likely gonna win any battle with enemies but still, the experience of fighting is pretty banger. The adrenaline... Thrill seeking. Ahh... She loves fighting.

So um, with those last two paragraphs, she does normal things to both the party that dared step into the dungeon, and the termina contestants. She's normal about them. She is both heavily protective and extremely violent murder maim.

Ah, next thing! She's quite the contradictory thing. Mental disorder again, she can go from one extreme scale to another. Like her love and hatred, protecting her allies to killing them. High self confidence and self praise to self loathing. Sometimes a little bit of a hypocrite. She's weird.

Her morals are. Eh. Eh. Again, she both cares about everyone's lives yet is also apathetic. She doesn't mind murder too much, as she'll dirty her soul a lot through experiencing the funger universe. This. Image.

Everything might as well just be a game to her.

With all o' this. There's multiple timelines of her doing many different things because of how much she can vary and still be in character (well to me, at least). She can do so much. Silly girl.

--

That's all I can think of for now about personality! Little tidbits about her powers before onto the brief timeline. She has some future telling. If the future is far, she can see more possibilities it can go in, not giving an exact determined route of what will happen. If the future is soon, as in, will this guard swing at her right arm or her left arm in 5 seconds? She can check and the future will be certain, that it will be her left arm that will get cut if she doesn't prevent it.

Most of her powers stem from the other media she watched during the isolation period; she rarely uses the Gods' powers in funger purely to fuck around with it and also confuse smart asses. (enki)

--

After finding an escape from the white void, she wakes up in front of the.. dun dun dun... funger dungeons...

She does what any sane person would do and explores with glee.

They aren't really all that scary to a creature like her, only serving her to activate fight mode and get a rush.

She recruits everyone possible with her knowledge of these dungeons, and decides to change some things.

She approaches Pocketcat as she is done with her journey. There are no more battles to fight. No more exploration to be done in this dungeon. She is satisfied. The girl wishes for Pocketcat to eat her, since she hasn't tried that method of killing herself. (Also because she is crushing hard on this man and she knows he loves her too)

He instead gives a different proposal...

...

Remember how she's a sort of 'god' (but not in the funger way) and has OP ass powers? Well there's actually 2 drawbacks to them.

First one, it is quite exhausting. It is also exhausting just living and breathing in fact, but that's the mental disorders. She can go on long without rest but she will be extremely fatigued if she pushes. And my, she pushes a through a lot.

Second, there's one thing that nullifies her powers. Fear. But ah, with a soul like hers, it is quite difficult for her to fear anything. With problems in her way, she either brushes it over, gets enraged, or drowns in sorrow. How on earth could anything scare her?

Ahaha... Well a few actions made by a specific person could scare her...

(he soo gets off being the only one that can get her into such a submissive state, btw)

The one thing keeping her heart from total darkness, now entirely painted black. What a sad soul.

...

So, he didn't kill her. big whump. Fine though, she thinks about the termina festival in 350 years. She wouldn't mind living for that long to see more silly people. Plus, the dungeon took a lot out of her. A lot more magic she used than usual. This period will be... A nice and long break, she thinks positively. One hell she has endured in here, she will prepare to live through and enjoy another. Plus, if it's all adrenaline rushes, how is she meant to savour Termina?

She occupies her time by living with Pocketcat, and.. His usual activities. She joins in on his child murders from time to time. Not as fun as killing monsters that are fully intending to end her life but snuffing another life is still somewhat satisfying, nevertheless. And hey, fun bonding activity, right?

She also does the same as she did in the void, making a bunch of art and stuff. But this time, she actually has someone she can show it to! Speaking of the cat, they do typical lover activities time to time. Dates, and stuff. Doing things together. Fun!

Both of them had their fair share of isolation for a long period of time and needless to say, their 'eternities' are much more lively and worth living through with a like-minded being by their side.

She also.. has a little fun with the contestants before they enter the worst period of their life..

(This part is totally not because of recent events) After spending 350 years with Pocketcat, she picked up some of his mannerisms to her misfortune. Her hand feels like it should be doing something within conversation, so her subconscious makes her jack off a ghost dick. She's gonna have a fun time with talking to people.

...

Now we're at the festival, one meant to end all festivals! And boy it'll end more than just festivals, alright! Hehe.

At the end of this festival, she has one plan.

And that is to finally rest.

She will not be returning from this trip.

...

So, some stuff were left vague because. well. yeah. I don't fully expect to write this into actual fanfiction, but no worries, I'll reveal the gist of what happens at some point. Whether I actually can find it in me to write it out or just make a post about what happens, we shall see.

Extra stuff to mention:

This is basically her. In every universe she visits.

You can check out the '#unnamed OC core' tag to see. More of her vibes.

I also got a playlist.. of her..

(Also, since this is a self insert about half of the traits mentioned are. me. so. yeah. I should try getting diagnosed for something but idk man I can't find shit)

Got any questions! Feel free to ask anything!! >:3 Hell, I'll even answer in character for fun.

[cjcraziness]

Fe OC Week - Day 3/4 - Backstory and Tragedy @fe-oc-week

A day late but better late than never. Putting both together backstory and tragedy together.

Name: Regulus

Basic Info, Picture and Relationships:

Now to Background:

Regulus is a Commoner, born in an old town named Fairhaven, on the Brodian-Elusian border, into a cattle farming family.

When Regulus was barely old enough to talk in full sentences, his sleepy border town was overrun by Elusian soldiers. They came quickly and efficiently, using planned strikes over the brute force preferred by Brodian soldiers... The town changed hands from Brodian to Elusian almost overnight.

He remembered little, though his Mother’s quiet cries as she held him and his sister close still occasionally echo in his mind... As they hid under the floorboards of their small farm homestead. His Father had gone off into the night, to protect his land and cattle... His Mother hadn't been expecting him to return.

Yet, he did, shaken and a little blooded but his Father returned that following morning with two Elusian soldiers in toe.

Regulus remembered them most vividly... The colours of their garb, the neatness to them, that one was clearly a Mage, someone he had only heard of in stories. With Brodians only having Mages in high ranks of the Army, or it was seen as a passtime for Nobles, certainly not Commoners.

Life did not change as drastically for Regulus as for his Mother, Father and other members of his family. The farm produced for a different figurehead, his oldest sister was inducted into the local town watch (training to be part of the militia and maybe a soldier when she was old enough), his Mother worked more than she had under the Brodians. Everyone had a job and purpose to perform. "No idling to be found. No freedom, only work." His Mother had once said to him.

His family remained Brodian behind closed doors while Regulus struggled to understand why.

Regulus only saw the good and interesting things that changed, blinded by his youth and misunderstanding of the world. He saw the new people – from Elusian soldiers, Commoners to Merchants came to their once quiet and frankly struggling town. He learnt about the Elusian way of life where he would have been schooled in the history of Brodia. He made friends with Elusian citizens.

He borrowed books on magic and learnt he had a budding talent in the arcane arts. The rest of his family were never interested in such things, brought up in the ways of Brodians, that strength, fighting and freedom were the way things went.

Once his Father had found a tome he had been reading and thrown it into the muck outside, declaring they did not learn magic... For they were Commoners not Nobles, and certainly not Elusians. From then on he taught himself in secret. The only one that knew and approved was his older sister.

Life for Regulus was mostly good for a time.

He never saw the downsides... That his town had been forcely taken hostage until all the original Brodian watchmen and governence were dead or had fled. That they had a stranglehold over the growing town and trade, even if it now thrived moreso than it did before. That under Brodia, people were more known for having more choice than under Elusia.

Eventually, all good things end and the Brodians fought back, once again upending Regulus’ life... and this time for the worse. Much worse.

Many around him saw the Brodians as their saviours. The Elusians dead or sent packing... That life had returned as it once was, the many years before.

Not Regulus though, Regulus lost his new way of life...

He lost his source of knowledge and magic. His dreams of being a Mage.

He lost his friends as all Elusians or sympathisers were killed or forced out.

Worst of all, he lost his older sister as she defended the Village with the local watch and an assortment of Elusian soldiers... Butchered as she was seen as an Elusian soldier or a sympathiser.

And Regulus became bitter towards his so called Saviours. Declaring himself an Elusian, much to his family chagrin, and leaving a short time afterwards before he could be exiled.

He fought through the Elusian Winter alone to travel to the Capital, where he enrolled in the Magical Academy after he convinced them he was worth the effort and learnt all he could. Hoping to one day serve as a Mage in the Army, Knight for the Elusian Royal Family, or Border Guard to stop the Brodians from ever hurting anyone like his sister again.

In the capital, he found his place... Where he was meant to be.

Themes:

All three of the most memorable and defining moments of Regulus’ life are tragic.

His home being forcefully taken over and possibly changing the course of his life.

His older Sister’s death in the retaliation attack by Brodia - fighting for something he believed in while she did not.

And his acceptance that he is different from his family and his self-imposed exile from his Home.

As a character, I hope Regulus can convey a few themes and ideas: Personal perception of events vs both sides of a story is a big one. Unquestioning admiration and loyalty, and how admiration without criticism can be a problem. Especially in organisations and governments.

Big parts of Regulus’ personality are shaped by events in childhood... Seen from one side of view.

If the Countries were reversed would Regulus feel the same way?

If he had a more neutral view of both Countries like his sister, would he have become the young man he is today?

Both Countries and their governance were in the wrong in many ways, neither should be praised or idealised, due to his childhood and nurturing he prefers one over the other.

However, throughout his supports in the game storyline he starts to question these ideals... Questioning his beliefs, loyalties and sense of self, and further grows as a person from doing this.

Other Notes:

The scarf and hat he wears in his picture were originally made by his Mother for his older sister, she only wore them once before she died and Regulus took them as a reminder.

On the anniversary of her death each year, Regulus has a day called Antares' Day (he writes it in every calendar he finds) where he plans a small meal of his sister's favourite food and writes a letter to her which he burns at dusk in a self-made ritual.

His older sister was called Antares. Who was 7 years older than him and was training to be a swordsman while in the town watch as she did not want to continue as a farmer like the rest of her family (just as Regulus didn't). She was one of the few that approved of Regulus' dream of being a Mage and him branching out to learn magic. As well as him making friends with the Elusian citizens, even if she did not particularly like the Elusians for what they had done, she was civil with them. Much more than most of her family and the original Brodian citizens of the town. While she identified as Brodian herself, she did understand that both Countries were as bad or good as each other... Moreso than Regulus ever did.

Both were named after stars, Regulus is a star sometimes called the Heart of the Lion while Antares is often known as the Heart of the Scorpion.

[estbela]

Gonna try to talk about the relationship/dynamic between Hungary & Romania in my hetalia verse. Idk im gonna try to explain my thoughts. (Ft. My transylvania OC)

(Also in my hetalia verse Romania is tehnically also a girl altho he eventually figures out he is genderqueer and uses he/she prns and doesnt really look much different than his canon design. And I hc Hun to be genderqueer as well and use he/they/she prns. I swear it's important to the post)

(Rest of post under read more)

Throughout history, they've almost always been at eachoter's throats and stuff. So theyre like enemies I suppose, and I think they always thought that they werent similar at all and stuff. For Romania, it was like Hun took her sister (Transylvania) away from her, when he'd already lost some of her family. And it hurt him a lot.

From Hungary's point of view, she cared a lot for Transylvania and perhaps even loved her (and Transylvania might have loved her too). They were friends(sort of) and when Transylvania joined Romania, she greatly missed her. To her it was like Romania took Transylvania only to hurt her.

Anyhow, I don't think theyunderstood eachoter that much(and struggled to see stuff from eachoter point of view, yet somehow I do think that they admired eachoter from afar in a way. I think Ro admired how much power Hun had, after marrying Austria, importance and greatness that Ro could only dream of, while Hun admired how free Ro was(not being a very important country had it's downsides but at least Ro had the freedom to do whatever he wanted, to present and dress whatever way she wanted. Almost no one(besides like maybe France) had great expectations of her for his name was barely known anyway).

Also I have this story idea in my mind, that happens in the cold war era, where I basically lock Hun & Ro in a room and force them to talk. And they talk about stuff, and even figure out that they aren't so different after all. They also come to the conclusion that gender is confusing and that gender roles suck. After, they are still not quite friends, and they still argue, but rather than being full on enemies I think they moreso become rivals, or perhaps frenemies. In modern times they might even consider themselves (reluctant) friends. They tease eachoter a lot and do kinda argue but it's (usually) not out of malice. It's more like friendly teasing, I suppose? And they both get along well with Poland so there's that.

[saiilorstars]

Ch.30: If I Could Have You

Steve Rogers x OFC fic

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Story Masterlist // Seren’s Masterlist​​

Also available on Fanfic ○ Ao3 ○ Wattpad

If you’d like to be a part of this OC’s work/edits, let me know!

By the time October rolled by, Seren was proud to have three recruits in tip-top shape. She was confident in them enough to advocate for a few missions here and there. It took her nearly 3 months to get them to where they were and she was sure that with more time, she would be able to create a full fledged team.

The only downside was the time it took out of her daily life. She wasn't able to call home a lot. She often went weeks and without contact and if she wasn't careful, she would go months. She still needed and wanted to know what was going on back home.

Mid-October is when she finally managed to get ahold of someone for a decent conversation. Natasha was in the lead for most answered calls. As it turned out, Steve and Chloe were incredibly busy lately. Chloe was off in one of the southern states for God knew what and Steve was in the opposite train.

"There's some news," Natasha almost sing-sang over the video call.

"What is it?" Seren was on her way into the apartment.

"We're being relocated to D.C."

Seren picked up on the key word. "We're? As in…"

"Everyone," Natasha smirked. "Fury won't say it but I know there's something going on. I'm already packed but I think Steve is taking it a little harder."

"Well yeah, he's being asked to move out of his home city. I'd have a thing or two to think about."

Natasha smirked suddenly. "Didn't you?"

Seren groaned. "Missing the point! So, is he okay?"

"You could ask him yourself, you know."

"I think I'm the least qualified person to talk about moving," Seren's sharp eyes made an entire reminder of where she was at the current moment. "But I'm sure it'll inevitably come up in our next call."

"What about you, when are you coming home?"

Seren sighed. Each time someone asked the question she answered them with the same thing: 'I don't know'. It was frustrating but what could she do? Just last week, Rebeca had confided in her that another country was getting more and more curious about their proposal. What Seren had accomplished so far was incredible and if it could reproduce what the Avengers had done in New York, even something remotely close, it was something that any country would grab. Rebeca promised that if that was the case, Seren would become BIG big. She would do "wonders" but Seren's first thoughts went to the family she would leave behind if that happened.

It would be days before she could share that information with Steve too. When Natasha first heard of it, she admitted she wasn't that surprised but not too happy either. She missed Seren—she was the only Agent that Natasha could fully trust in and apart from everything, they were together from the start. She wasn't afraid to tell Seren that she was due back home, though she understood why Seren would say no.

Steve wasn't that brave. He was happy to hear that things were going well on her end and he would keep his aching thoughts to himself. "Send me a postcard when you go to Paris," he joked with her instead.

Seren chuckled. "Yeah, but I don't think I'd have a lot of time for that kind of stuff. I barely sleep right now."

"Well take care of yourself, Seren. I know it's rich coming from me but slow down sometimes."

Seren appreciated his advice because God knows that she did need to slow down every once in a while. Risha told her the same thing, especially when Seren told her to take a break. "I heard about the move..." she started with all the caution in the world. She'd been trying to work her way to that subject without making it sound like it's all she wanted to talk about, especially if Steve wasn't going to comment about it anyways.

"Uuh, yeah," his nod wasn't much to go on by.

"Are you...are you alright with it?"

"Honestly? I don't really know." Steve had gone about it several times in his head. If he was being completely honest with himself, there was nothing tying him to New York anymore. His home was gone, his family and his friends. Even now Seren was gone from it too. What was he staying there for?

"I've been working on reconstructing the tower and I've had a few ideas...about a team. Make a new team under new rules with absolutely no secrets."

Tony's proposal sometimes didn't seem all that bad anymore. He hadn't mentioned it to Steve anymore but he knew that Tony was still waiting for an answer.

"Steve?" he heard Seren's call. He had left her with silence. "Are you okay?" She was concerned that he wasn't telling her all the truth, and she was right.

"Umm, I mean...there's just some things," Steve rubbed a hand over his face. "Stark, he…"

"Oh, what did he do now?" Seren dreaded the gimmicks that man would come up with.

Steve smiled at her obvious dread. "No, no, this time he...he's doing something good, I think. He...has this idea, about starting a new team."

"A new team?" Seren's eyebrows knitted together. "Who does he want to recruit?"

"Us."

"Us!?"

Steve nodded. "You, me, Natasha, Clint, Chloe...all of us."

"Wh-why? I thought he didn't even want to be a part of the Initiative!"

"Things change," Steve shrugged. He hadn't really asked Tony all of his reasons for such an idea but he did get one jist, the same jist that even Seren knew about. "Plus, he doesn't trust S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Ah," Seren remembered that all too well. "What do you think of it, then?"

"Like I said, I don't really know. To be honest, I'm still just trying to figure out my role at S.H.I.E.L.D."

"What do you mean? You're...you, what else is there?"

"I'm way behind on everything Seren and you know that." He appreciated her trying to be kind but the truth was the truth. He had a long way before he truly consider himself one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agents. "And I still don't know what to make of Fury. He's relatively okay but there's still some things about him that don't rub me well."

"I'm not going to lie, that feeling's never going to change. I've known Fury since I was a kid. It's just who he is."

"But doesn't it bother you that he doesn't always tell you the truth? Look what happened with the Hydra weapons?"

"I don't know, Steve," Seren shrugged but there was a clear confliction marking her face. Steve wouldn't ask her if that also bothered her—the fact that she didn't even know what to make of her awareness of the lies—but he sincerely hoped that his questions would make her think about it more. "I guess...I guess I just trained myself to go with it. I've been there since I was 10. I don't really know what to do without S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Looks to me like you're doing fine," Steve pointed out her entire mission in England. It was an extension of S.H.I.E.L.D. but she essentially wasn't working for them anymore. She was doing her own missions and if things went well for her, she'd be off in other countries too far from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s reach.

Seren sheepishly smiled in return. "Yeah, but...I've always had S.H.I.E.L.D. in my life and to suddenly leave it behind and start a whole new team? I wouldn't know what to do."

"I think you would be fine," Steve had no doubt about it. Seren was doing what she did from an early age. She didn't need S.H.I.E.L.D., it IT needed HER her. She just hadn't realized it.

"Are you considering Stark's proposal then?" Seren curiously asked him. "Because if you did, you know that I would support you. Although, I don't know how you and Stark would work together…"

Steve laughed. "Oh, I know."

"I might have to pull you out of some epic fights with each other!"

"Yeah, yeah, I may have to hold off on that then...at least until you're back." He hadn't planned on saying those words but he couldn't say that he regretted them either, not when Seren smiled so sweetly at him.

"Wouldn't that be nice?" she mused, desperately hoping that her blush wasn't noticeable on the screen. "My absolute dream is to be Captain America's and Iron' Man's babysitter."

"I'm sure the pay would be good!"

"Steve!"

"I was just saying," he raised his hands in surrender.

"Mhm, sure," Seren rolled her eyes at him. She suddenly heard a knock on her door and, knowing that it was her neighbor Holly coming over for that lunch they planned, she had to end the call. "If you allow me my two-cents, I think you'll be just as good in D.C. as you were in New York. It's a beautiful place and kind of patriotic...just a note…"

It was Steve's turn to roll his eyes. "Right. But thanks."

"And if I could, I'd be there to help out."

"I know you would but right now people need you over there. Help them." Steve knew that would make her incredibly happy so...he should be happy too. That's what he kept trying to convince himself to believe in.

Seren nodded but said nothing else. She couldn't trust herself not to say anything imprudent. It was getting more difficult to keep her mouth shut about certain things and she blamed Chloe for all of them. It was much easier living in bliss but after Chloe's visit in June, every single thought that Seren had about Steve was coming out like a gusher. She'd become self aware and it was the worst thing she could've done.

She had to distract herself. So she did...with work. A lot of it.

~ 0 ~

In the last week of October, Steve found himself examining his new apartment in D.C. It was bigger than the one in New York, he would definitely have more space for more things. What things? He hadn't exactly bought many things to begin with. The things he had were all bought over by Seren. He'd have to start over again and this time it would be by himself.

Almost.

Chloe had made herself present two days after he settled in, but with a mission. "I'm here for 2 days then I'm off to England," she explained on their way into the new S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ.

"What short mission involves you being here for 2 days?"

"Please, sound more excited about me being around. It truly warms my heart."

Steve met her sarcasm with a smile and a roll of his eyes. "Sorry, you know what I meant—"

Chloe stopped in the hallway and raised a hand in the air. "I know," she smiled. "And to answer your question, I don't really know what I'm here for. My plans were to go to England for the whole week and surprise Seren. Fury called me back."

"But you don't know what you're here for?" Steve watched her shake her head ever so casually. "And that doesn't bother you? That, you don't know…?"

"That I don't know everything about this place?" If there was one stark difference between Chloe and Seren, it was that Chloe went directly for the point, no filters needed. She knew exactly what Steve meant to ask and she answered it with the truth. "I learned to get used to it. You never know why they do it. Sometimes it's necessary."

"But why would that be necessary? You're a team."

Before Chloe turned away, Steve caught an almost sad smile marking her face. "We compartmentalize." She continued walking down the hallway, prompting Steve to do the same. "Sometimes it's for the greater good and sometimes things just aren't meant to be known by everyone else. It's better this way. Every group knows what they need to know in order to complete their given missions. You'll get used to it."

"I'm not sure that I will," Steve admitted. Already he found it hard to work with SHIELD, what hope did he have to settle into an organization that wasn't keen on honesty?

Chloe could feel all of his troubles radiating into the air. "I hope you don't keep this attitude when you visit Seren this week. It'd be a real downer, you know."

"How do you know that I'm—?"

"Please, Stark and I talk. That was real nice of him what he did. When do you leave?"

"Since when do you and Stark talk?"

"Don't change the subject," Chloe wagged a finger at him. "When do you leave? Because you're still going, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Great! Because I have plans to help—"

"No, no," this time it was Steve wagging a finger in Chloe's face. "I don't need any help—"

Chloe scoffed. "I think you do! Everyone knows it!"

"Knows what?"

"Don't make me say it in a place where every conversation is recorded."

"Say what — wait, everything is recorded?" Steve was now looking up at the ceiling with a new sense of dread. Even that was different nowadays.

Chloe chuckled at him. "Sometimes, you're too innocent. It's a good thing you have me to help you out."

"Chloe, I've done this before and Bucky was never able to really 'help me out'." And Steve knows that he had tried but it was simply not meant to be.

Chloe's face remained straight. "Then he sucked and clearly he had no idea what he was doing." She turned around, her long tresses of hair flipping with enough force to hit Steve in the face.

"Um, I think he did, actually," Steve followed behind her until he caught up. "He was the one who always tried getting us double dates."

"Mm, and how'd that end up?"

"For me, not so great. For him? Double great."

Chloe snorted into a laugh. "Oh honey, I can do better for you. In fact, I take it as a challenge."

"Please don't." Steve went for Chloe's arm just as she was about to make a turn. "Chloe, I mean it. I'm grateful for everything you've done since I met you but this is something that I don't want planned. All I know is that it's been a very long time since I last saw Seren and I just want to see her."

"So you do know what you want," Chloe said cleverly and smirked at Steve's deadpanning face. She raised her hands in the air. "No worries, I do know how to control myself. I promise." She winked and continued on her way.

For some reason, Steve wasn't entirely convinced with her.

~ 0 ~

On November 1st, Seren found herself with a short day at work. She had come in with all the intentions of working as if it were any other day. She had her new team: Risha, Joshua and Blake to train after all. Today she was going to focus on landing strategies...or so she thought.

"You can't work on your birthday," Risha was adamant that Seren return home the moment she walked into their training room.

"Isn't that a rule somewhere?" Joshua looked around the room as if said rule was hanging on a plaque on the wall.

Seren shook her head at the trio. "It's fine, really."

"You should've gone home," Blake said. "I'm sure Miss Hale could've arranged that for you."

"That she would've," Rebeca Hale said herself as she strode into the room. "But Seren said it wasn't necessary."

"What!?" Risha exclaimed. "What do you mean you didn't want to go home for your birthday?"

Seren only smiled at the question, a strained one too. She had thought about the offer when Rebeca came up with it but she eventually had to refuse it. She would love to come home and...stay there. It would hurt too much to be around for a couple days and then have to do the goodbyes all over again. She wouldn't torture herself that way.

"Nonetheless, you are getting a present," Rebeca came directly to Seren and held out a small white box.

"Rebeca," Seren shook her head but it was done in vain. Rebeca forced her to take the box. With a sigh, Seren did as such and opened it up. Inside were four airplane tickets. "Rebeca, I said I wasn't going home—"

"Check the destination," Rebeca's eyes briefly flickered to the trio of trainees behind Seren without being noticed.

Seren searched for the destination and found 'Paris' listed. "Hold on…" Her eyes met Rebeca's soon enough. "I'm going to Paris?"

"Mhm," Rebeca nodded. A smile was spreading across her face. "Not just you, though, your team."

"What?" went the trainees in question.

"Rebeca, I don't understand," Seren said. She put the lid back on the box.

"It's France—I told you they were getting more interested in what we're doing here," Rebeca was now grinning like the cheshire cat. "They want to meet with you, Seren, to talk about the team. I booked the tickets and I may have made the return date a couple days after your meetings for some, uh, vacation time?"

"I'm okay with that!" Risha's hand was soaring in the air. Seren looked back to see her overly excited face and had to smile. As soon as Risha met Seren's gaze, she dropped her hand to her side. "I-I mean...if that's okay with you of course."

Seren playfully rolled her eyes and shifted her gaze back to Rebeca. "Thanks Rebeca. Of course I'll be on that plane. We'll all be."

"Excellent, because they're truly interested in the team now. If all goes well, France will be your next stop and then who knows!" Rebeca patted Seren's shoulder and turned to leave the room. She only stopped by the doorway to give Seren a head's up. "Oh, there's someone waiting for you on your way out."

Seren wouldn't make an argument to stay. Rebeca had already made her point and, plus, she was a little curious who was waiting for her.

"Guess I'll see you tomorrow," she gave a languid wave at her trainees.

"Or not, if you get drunk correctly," Joshua smirked.

Seren rolled her eyes. "Just for that, you all get to train an extra hour." She pointed a warning finger at the trio. "I mean it. One extra hour."

"Way to go, Josh," she heard Blake mutter on her way out.

Seren made a note to send them a text later on to let them get off free. She went on her way to the front entrance only to find a tall, rosy-cheeked blonde woman outside. "You have got to be kidding me," Seren exhaled deeply.

Chloe grinned. "C'mon, at least pretend you're excited to see me. Happy birthday!"

Seren smiled. "Yeah, alright."

~ 0 ~

Since Chloe had arrived early in the morning, she had ample time to spend with Seren and unknowingly to the Celessian, prep too.

"How long are you here for?" Seren asked the usual question once the two were back in her apartment.

"Just for today," the blonde shrugged. She went directly into the hallway, ignoring Seren's puzzling look as she followed behind.

"You seriously came to England for one day?"

"Yup," Chloe pushed Seren's bedroom door open and walked right in. She made a beeline for the closet. "I'm off for Denmark tomorrow."

Seren long ago learned not to waste her breath on Chloe's erratic solo mission schedule but it never meant that it stopped bothering her. "So you're here with me for the day?"

Chloe flashed her a smile. "You know it. Since you refused to come home for the day. Don't know what that's about—"

"Please don't. And what are you doing in my closet? What are you, 12?"

"I never had sisters," reminded Chloe as she passed some hands through the wardrobe. "Just brothers. And I'm looking for something good for today."

"So you're raiding my closet...on my birthday…" Seren folded her arms over her chest. "I never had sisters either but I'm pretty sure that's not what sisters should be doing."

Chloe rolled her eyes and plucked out a black, spaghetti strapped dress. "Oh, this is nice. And it's not for me, just so you know. I thought that would've been obvious."

"So you have plans for us today or what?" Seren noticed the fancy clothes Chloe was picking out from her closet.

"Yes and why do you have so many pant-suits?" Chloe wrinkled her nose as she pulled out two pairs of said suits.

"Because I work for an organization and I prefer a good suit sometimes?"

"Well it's wrong for today! You need something…" Chloe kept searching for whatever it was that she was looking for, all in the meanwhile insulting the next suits that she happened to see. "Wait! What's this?" She plucked out a white lace dress with a very defined sweetheart neckline. "When did you buy this?" she shot Seren a look.

Seren could only shrug. "I don't know, one of the rare moments I splurged. It wasn't cheap, you know."

Chloe smirked. "It's like you already knew."

"Knew what?" It really concerned Seren the way Chloe's smirk widened. She was up to something alright. "Chloe, you should know that it would be absolutely wrong to do something horrible to me on my birthday."

Whether or not Seren had actually wanted, the dress was on her and it wouldn't be coming off for anything. Her hair, though incredibly short, had been curled to one side while the shortest of strands had been twisted on the other side of her head.

"I feel like I'm overly dressed," Seren huffed on their way to some restaurant Chloe had talked about earlier.

"You know that if Tony picked it out, it has to be fancy," Chloe shrugged beside her on the street. "Just be glad I said no to the limousine."

Seren actually was thankful for that. She didn't know Tony enough but she was aware enough to know that he did things over-the-top. "Can you at least tell me why we even bothered to dress up? I'd be completely fine if—"

Chloe sharply glanced at her friend. "You're serious?" Seren nodded. "It's your damn birthday and you don't want to dress up just a tiny bit? God, work has made you even more into a bore!"

"Thanks," Seren said flatly. She dug her hands into her cream-colored coat's pockets. "I'm thousands of miles away from home and I just realize that it'll probably be a very long time until I'll be done with all this."

Chloe sensed a new degree of certainty in Seren's tone this time around. She didn't want to push further, not today of all days, but she hoped that later on Seren would tell her what changed. She checked the time on her phone and was delighted to see she still had time.

"I hope I at least get some decent red velvet cake," Seren warned when the two women were seated in the restaurant.

"How about a cinnamon roll?" Chloe looked Seren and saw her friend's face practically fall.

'"I, um, I haven't really been in the mood for those lately." 'Lately' would be an understatement considering she had not had a cinnamon roll since June when Chloe last visited.

"Seren without a cinnamon roll?" Chloe dramatically gasped. "The travesty!"

Seren tried to smile and play it off as a joke but she failed miserably. Chloe saw right through the smile and sighed to herself. She truly wanted Seren to enjoy herself, her damn birthday! Seren's major problem is that she worked too much and paid very little attention to herself. True, that kind of flaw is what benefited Chloe when they first met. Chloe would never deny that. Seren put all of her efforts into helping Chloe handle the newly embedded Hive Mind in her head, trained her as much as she could, and gave her friendship.

And now Chloe felt like it was time to repay all that.

Their combined lunch and dinner went by finely, if not a bit quiet. Chloe insisted that Seren should get a birthday cake, even if it was a small red velvet cake.

"Honestly, Chloe, it's almost night and you have a flight to catch later. I'm okay," Seren shrugged.

Chloe insisted that was not going to be the case for tonight. "You need to stop settling already."

Seren rolled her eyes and continued to walk alongside Chloe. "I'm not settling. You're going to be late for your own flight! If this is a mission then I cannot allow you to jeopardize it over something as silly as my birthday."

Chloe met her look but it was only to scold her. "You seriously need to stop putting yourself down. Everything about you is important and that includes your birthday." She pressed her index finger against Seren's forehead for effect.

Seren pushed her finger away. "Chloe, I refuse to believe that you're being careless right now—"

"Good, because I'm not. I'm a woman with a plan."

"Sometimes I just want to strangle you."

Chloe smirked. Her eyes flashed blue. "Yeah, even the aliens in my head don't believe that. At least I think since they don't really speak English to me. I haven't untapped the language barrier between us—"

"Chloe!"

"Fine!" The blonde huffed and flapped a hand towards the end of the street. "There's my damn plan!"

Seren looked over and saw nothing special in particular. It was just businesses that included a dessert bakery. "What?"

"You're going to get your red velvet cake. Go get it!"

"But Chloe—"

"I already ordered it so go fucking get it!"

"Chloe!"

"I said go, dammit!" Chloe could be very impatient but she was usually good at restraining herself. Clearly right now wasn't one of those moments. "I'll really be late so I'll have to leave you here."

"What—! Ah!" Seren felt her body pulled back and suddenly she had Chloe's arms around her in a hug. "Chloe!" Seren laughed. "You're so crazy!"

"Absolutely the craziest!" agreed Chloe with a nod. "Happy birthday, Seren. I seriously don't know what my life would've been if you'd never found me," Chloe murmured in her tight hug. Seren smiled lightly and hugged her back. "I really mean it. I know that I'd probably be dead without you."

"Oh Chloe, someone would've helped you," Seren patted her friend's back.

"No, because not everyone is as kind as you are, Seren. I know that I would've died and that's why my favorite Avenger is Stardust." Seren laughed with her. "And it's also why I would do anything to make you happy."

Seren chuckled, but secretly felt her heart swell. "Oh, you know you really are like my sister, right? The one I never had?"

Chloe stepped back from Seren. "Just like you're my sister. My selfless, big sister. And now as the annoying little sister, I must fulfill my role by insisting you pick up that cake I ordered for you."

"You ordered me a cake?" Seren blinked.

Chloe laughed. "Of course! Have a slice on me, okay! I gotta go!"

"Well, let me take you to the—"

But Chloe didn't let Seren finish. She manually turned Seren around and pushed her forwards, insisting that Seren pick up the cake. With no other option, Seren started making her way towards the bakery. The idea of having some red velvet cake was, admittedly, sounding very good to her the closer she got to the building.

The building looked perfectly normal to Seren. There were a few customers inside but nothing really made it stand out. She hoped the cake truly was ready. She walked inside and immediately smelled the sweet air of pastries. Her first thought went to a cinnamon roll, and that just brought her already little smile down.

She walked up to the counter and asked for the cake, deciding Chloe must have put it under her name. Sure enough, 'Seren Soul' was the name on the receipt. She was handed a pink cake box and then a plastic box of cinnamon rolls.

"Oh, no, no," Seren started sliding the box back on the counter, "Those aren't mine. I didn't — there were no cinnamon rolls ordered." Just looking at them hurt her.

The employee checked the receipt and confirmed the rolls were part of the order. "They're already paid for," she told Seren when the latter insisted they weren't hers.

Seren begrudgingly took the box and put it over the cake box. She might just be giving them to her neighbor or something. She couldn't bear to eat them on her own. "Thanks," she mumbled and picked up the two boxes from the counter.

She made it to the door and realized it would be a nice challenge getting out without dropping anything. If I can fight aliens, I can open a damn door on my own. She shuffled the boxes into one arm and reached for the door handle. In doing so, the cinnamon roll box slid off the box.

"Crap—!" Seren exclaimed, turning and bending quickly to try and catch it. Fortunately, someone else caught the box before it fell to the floor.

"Let me get that for you, ma'am..." she heard but instead of being thankful, she froze. She looked ahead and saw a pair of bright blue eyes that sent about a dozen (or possibly a hundred) butterflies in her stomach.

Steve was smiling like he always did, like nothing had changed, certainly not where they lived. They were out and about as they tended to do outside of missions. He did swear, however, that Seren looked even more beautiful than he remembered. He almost felt guilty for forgetting that. "Hi, Seren..."

Seren slowly got over her shock and began to smile. "H-hi." She felt breathless, and maybe she was. It was the first time she saw Steve after becoming aware. I hate Chloe, she grumbled to herself. They straightened up at the same time and looked at each other. Gosh, was he always that handsome? He had on a button-down blue plaid shirt, black pants and his favorite brown leather jacket. His hair was neatly combed to the side — the Golden boy look as Natasha had joked about plenty of times before. Now that Seren looked, she decided the 'golden boy' look was far more appealing.

"Happy birthday," Steve said, revealing to be holding a small bouquet of curious purple flowers in his other hand.

"I—" Seren's eyes flickered from him to the flowers, to the cinnamon rolls. Her head was spinning. "But you're — you're here — with the—" She shook her head, and heard Steve's light chuckle. "Shut up, don't laugh at me..." She looked up at him from under her lashes, feeling her cheeks flush warm.

"I'm not — laughing at you is the last thing I want to do right now," Steve said, "I really wanted to see you."

Seren finally raised her head and met his gaze. "Me too..." she admitted.

Not knowing what to do then, Steve motioned the flowers to her. He felt so awkward because there were about a hundred things he wanted to tell Seren and he couldn't say a single one. Luckily, Seren took the flowers from him in her free hand.

"They're so pretty," she mused as she took a sniff of them. "I don't think I've ever seen these kinds..."

"They're called Aster flowers," Steve said, "They're um, well, they're flowers that usually mean 'stars'."

"Oh!" Seren's brows raised in delight. "How sweet! Thank you!" She felt a new rush of appreciation for her flowers and definitely for Steve himself. She would hug him if her arms weren't full. "How did — I mean — this was Chloe's doing, wasn't it!?"

Steve couldn't help it and laughed. It was a fair presumption but he still told her that Chloe was free from all responsibility. "Stark gave me the ticket. Birthday presents, you know."

"Ah..." Seren honestly had not been expecting that. She might have to give Tony a call and thank him for the gesture.

"Here, let me help you!" Steve said and took the cake box out of Seren's arm. "I'm, uh, basically here for a few days."

Seren could not help but beam. "Really?" Steve nodded. "Oh, that's great!" She would definitely call up Tony later and thank him. And Chloe.

Steve wouldn't ever refuse a hug from her. He wrapped his free arm around her and took in her sweet cinnamon scent. He picked up a long time ago that whatever perfume she used had to have some type of cinnamon scent in the mix. He didn't realize how much he missed even that from her.

Seren pulled away eventually and still held the biggest smile on her face. "You actually came here…" She laughed with the flowers he was still holding. Orange poppies. Her favorites. "For me?"

Steve nodded. "I know it's probably outdated but…"

"Not for me, it's so sweet," Seren happily took the bouquet into her hands. It was REALLY really sweet and definitely him. "Thank you."

"Chloe mentioned you liked red velvet cake? Whatever red velvet is…?" Steve made a gesture towards the bakery. "There might be an order waiting for you."

Seren's eyes flickered between him and the bakery. "Have you and Chloe been plotting for this?" The smile on his face was answer enough for Seren. "Oh my God!" She laughed. "Seriously? You and Chloe?"

"She's actually really good at these things." Steve would give Chloe her credit where it was due. "I already had the ticket—"

Seren raised an eyebrow at those words. "Since when?"

"For a while." Steve preferred to leave Tony's name out of it for the moment. "I was coming to see you and...Chloe found out. She just helped me out a bit. This world…it's still confusing." He hated repeating the fact he still wasn't adept to the new world. It only helped solidify his hesitancy to start something with Seren. She really didn't need that in her life.

But in reality, Seren didn't see in that way at all. She smiled softly at him. "I really appreciate you doing this. Was the bakery your idea?"

"I know you like sweets but I wasn't sure what your favorite was and honestly I'm not sure what red velvet is."

Seren nodded, chuckling. "Well, I could show you." She made a nod at the bakery still waiting to be entered.

Steve quickly reached for the door again and this time actually pulled it open for them. "After you."

Seren smiled. Very him indeed. "Thank you."

~ 0 ~

Seren's apartment was in a nice neighborhood—it should be given that it was acquired for her by her job—and the inside was just as nice. It was far bigger than her old apartment in New York and more elegant.

"Please tell me you'll be staying for a few days," Seren felt awfully brave when she said those words. She set her flowers down on the coffee table and shook off her coat, leaving it on the couch. "There's so many things I could show you here!"

Steve was speechless for a moment as he got a good look at the dress she was wearing first. She was beautiful, to put it simply. The defined sweetheart neckline was particularly eye-catching but he certainly wasn't going to tell her that. The makeup on her face made her eye pop, and who could get over her smile? He cleared his throat and, when he was sure that nothing uncomfortable would slip out from him, he told her his stay was indeed for a few days.

Ecstatic, Seren hurried into the kitchen for some plates so they could have cake and cinnamon rolls.

"Have you ever tried red velvet before?" She returned with the utensils and plates and set them on the coffee table.

"Uh, no, I don't think I have," Steve said with a shake of his head. He watched her open the box to reveal a pretty cake inside. He could see the glimpse of red bread with a bright white cream topping. 'Happy birthday Seren' was written in beautiful cursive.

Seren cut two slices of cake for them and slid Steve his plate. She was excited for him to try it out. "You'll love it," she promised as they sat down together on the couch.

"It looks good," Steve shrugged. It seemed like a regular cake but since Seren was so excited, he didn't have the heart to disappoint her even if he ended up not liking it. He grabbed his spoon and took a piece of the cake into his mouth, prepared to lie through his teeth if he needed to. However, he soon discovered that disappointing Seren wouldn't be an issue because, as it turned out, the cake was actually delicious. "Okay, you're right. It's good!"

Seren laughed. "Yes! I knew you'd like it!"

Steve could not, for the life of him, stop the automatic smile spreading across his face as they ate their slices together. "You have no idea how much I missed you, Seren." He missed how easy it was trying new things when Seren was the one leading him into it. He trusted her with his entire life, never doubting her intentions. He had yet to find someone he could do the same with.

Seren blushed at Steve's words and decided that her red velvet cake was a much safer thing to look at. She didn't want to embarrass herself by saying something stupid. There was one thing, though, that she did want to say. "I missed you too." She wished she could've said it more confidently but for now it would have to do. "I'm really glad you're here. No matter how many friends I make, it's not really the same as...you know, New York."

"It's a brand new country for you, brand new everything," Steve said, "It's normal to feel out of place."

"I just hope the feeling goes away at some point..." Seren said with a small sigh.

"Now wait a minute, it's your birthday. I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be sad on your birthday," Steve said and motioned her to keep eating from her slice.

Thankfully, she chuckled and continued eating. She finished her slice in no time. Afterwards, she went into the kitchen in search of a vase for the flowers Steve had given her.

"I really love these," she reiterated when she arranged them in the vase now filled with fresh water. "I never even knew there were flowers that looked like stars."

"Me neither," Steve admitted, making her laugh. It was a stroke of luck finding that store. Although now that he thought about, it was Chloe who had suggested he go into the store to ask for flowers. He suspected the Hive Mind had something to do with all that.

Seren smelled her new flowers again and hummed. "I've never had the hand for flowers but I'll try to keep these alive for as long as I can," she smiled at him softly. "Because they're from you."

Steve wasn't a stranger to knots in his stomach. God knows he spent the better part of his life having that with every health complication he would have. But right now, that knot felt so good. Even the loss of air wasn't a problem. He went back to eating the remainder of his cake slice before he did something stupid.

"So do you have a place to stay?"

"Yeah, yeah, Stark actually helped with that too," Steve nodded.

Seren's expression seemed like she was suspicious of something. "He's so involved with you lately. Are you sure you didn't take his offer up about that new team and just forgot to mention it?"

"I would never forget to mention something like that," Steve said.

"Well, you know you're always free to move on from SHIELD. You should work where you're comfortable, Steve. Nobody would fault you for that."

"Thanks, Seren." Steve knew that she meant her words and it warmed his heart to see her care so much for his comfort. Truth be told, he'd be most comfortable wherever she was too.

"I'm just letting you know because you're too polite to tell me 'no'," Seren said, wagging a finger at him while he laughed.

"What?"

"It's true! You're too polite for your own good!"

"Mm, not always true! Not when I get really, really mad. And, really, you're one to talk!"

"Me?" Seren blinked.

"Yes, you! I don't think I've ever seen you get really mad," Steve said as he thought about it some more. Seren had only expressed a heightened anger when they were fighting the Chitauri. Other than that, he couldn't remember another moment. "Well, no, there was that moment when Natasha jumped on your bed with shoes."

"I hate shoes on the bed," Seren frowned on the spot. "They're icky! They've got germs from everywhere! You don't bring those to your bed! Or people's beds!"

Steve started to laugh. "I'll be sure to remember that."

"Why? Planning on jumping on my bed anytime soon?" Seren crossed her arms in front of her. "Don't you dare."

Steve rolled his eyes at her.

"So," Seren put her hands on her lap, "I won't be getting Natasha or Tony jumping out of somewhere to scare me, right? Because Natasha's done that before too."

"As exciting as that sounds, no," Steve assured her. "It's just me. I figured you didn't really want such a big thing for tonight."

Seren was impressed with how accurate he was. She didn't realize how well he had come to know her. If she thought about things, she knew a lot about him too. "You might be right about that," she offered him a kind smile. "Growing up I had to make myself scarce and that didn't really leave a lot of chances to do certain stuff. Guess I just got accustomed to it that now I don't really do much."

"Funny, I was completely human and that's why I missed out on a lot growing up."

"Like what?"

"Uh, you know, usual kid stuff. Boy stuff."

"Aahh." The smirk that came to Seren's face made Steve regret those words in a snap. "I see."

"No, no, not like tha—"

Seren started laughing. "I think so—"

"No! I just meant—"

Seren moved around, still laughing, "No, no, I think you meant exactly what you said."

"Seren!" Seren had a playful smile over her lips was far too cheeky for Steve's liking. "I think the sugar's getting to your head, you know."

"Maybe," she shrugged. "But it's also so pretty funny making fun at you. Not that I'm making fun of you for what you endured," she said pretty fast once she realized how her previous words could come across.

Steve knew that too and for that, he smiled. "I think I know you well enough to know that."

"Good. Because I really am sorry for that. What kind of things did you miss out on, for real this time?"

"Seren, I didn't cross an entire ocean to talk about my past with you." Steve didn't think his words through because the next thing that Seren said really threw him into a much more flustered state.

"So why did you cross an entire ocean then?" Seren had scooted closer to him on the couch. Her big green eyes were anxiously waiting for him to answer her question.

Oh God why did he have to go and say that? He meant it, yeah, but now he had to explain to her why he said it.

He looked Seren over in that God beautiful dress she was in. He swallowed hard as his eyes wandered down her fitted figure. She was absolutely gorgeous and she wasn't taken. How? "To see you," the words fell from his mouth in the easiest of ways, like it was meant to be said.

Seren approved of the answer. Her heart did a bit of fluttering. "You're here now. What do you want to do?"

"Uuh…" There was one thing that Steve thought about doing after a suggestion she made a couple months back. "I heard your songs," he said, puzzling her for a second until he added, "The ones that you recommended after you gave me the record player."

"Oh," she blinked and chuckled. "Right, right, you listened to them?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah, they were nice. It had a home feeling to them."

"I thought they would. Do you use the record player, then?"

"All the time," Steve said like a promise. Each time he used it, he thought of her and since she wasn't around, he thought about her a lot. "Your songs are the most played."

Seren chuckled. "Get out of here…"

"I'm serious!"

"No way—there are so many songs out there!"

"I always listen to them, Seren, I swear. Here!" He started digging into his back pocket and pulled out his phone.

"What are you doing?" Seren was still laughing as he searched for whatever he needed on his phone.

If he was being honest, Steve had no idea what he was doing. His fingers were doing the search quicker than what his brain could process. He ultimately silenced Seren when she heard Put Your Head on my Shoulder playing.

"I don't know if I should be impressed or not that you learned how to search for that pretty quickly…" Seren said and suddenly Steve was the one laughing.

He lowered his phone to the coffee table. "You sounded like Chloe…"

Seren narrowed her eyes at him. "Not on my birthday, you don't, Rogers." Steve put his hands up in front of him. Eventually, Seren let her sarcasm pass for the sake of the song in the air. "I do like this song…" she said sheepishly.

"Would you like to dance?" Steve asked before he even thought about it. Maybe it was something he'd been thinking about for a long time now and having her in front of him after so long was just too much to take. He stood up and held a hand out to her.

Seren knew very well that she would love nothing more than to dance with him. She nodded before she lost all courage. She took his hand and stood up, stepping back from the couch with him.

"I'm going to admit that I do not know how to dance very well." But Steve was sure that she had presumed that already. Still, she smiled like she was just learning it for the first time.

"I didn't learn how to dance until I was out of high school," she admitted. There weren't many moments to dance with someone growing up, not when she was so busy keeping herself hidden.

"Still younger than me," Steve's remark made her laugh. It brought them into a gentle sway of a dance. "And, you know, you actually had a chance."

Seren cocked her head. "If they were alive, those people would be kicking themselves for how they treated you. And if not, I would've kicked them." It was Steve's turn to laugh. "I'm not joking," Seren said. Her hands gripped his shoulders a little tighter. "It infuriates me that people were so mean to you."

"It was fine, Seren." In truth, Steve had grown used to it, not by choice but it was still a fact. "Some people are always going to be mean. I'm sure, unfortunately, that even though you were quiet as a mouse you still had someone picking on you." The answer was evident by the deep scowl that marked Seren's face.

"Valerie Jordan," she muttered. "She absolutely hated me and I never understood why. I was quiet, I literally barely spoke to anyone at school, but she just...she hated me. God, she never ran out of insults."

"Well, you don't have to think about that anymore, especially today." The last thing Steve wanted was for her to start remembering the darker moments of her past. He swayed her a bit more until she laughed again. That's what he wanted to see from her, it's what she deserved.

"I guess it's just better to focus on what's in front of you instead of what should be behind you," she said, eyes keenly locked with his.

"Exactly. And do you know what I see for you?"

"Hm, what?" Seren leaned her body against his in her attempt to be closer for when he spoke again.

"I see a good future for you, a successful one."

"So we're psychic now?"

Steve chuckled. "No, I just see clearly. Most of the time. And I knew, a while ago, that you were going to do big things." He had, at some point along his words, lowered his head beside hers so that his left cheek was resting over her head.

Seren felt a surge of heat rush over her face. He was far too close to her, or rather she'd done it without realizing it. Whoever was responsible hadn't thought it through but at the same time, it wasn't unwelcoming. It was fitting, actually, almost like they belonged in that position.

"I don't know how right you are…" Seren's voice was a low whisper. Her bravery was gone and suddenly she felt more exposed than she actually was. "I don't think the world was ready for someone like me, no matter how modern we are."

"They said no one was ready for me and it was the 40s. I still got off well…"

"You ended up frozen for decades, Steve. Call me a coward but I don't want that to happen to me." She may have squeezed his shoulders again. "That's my fear, you know. Being buried alive."

"I'd never let that happen to you." Steve wrapped his arms around her a little bit tighter. She felt it and along with it came some relief, as if knowing that she was absolutely safe with him around.

"You know when I was little, my biggest fear is what would happen to me if somebody found out what I was. Even when I was older, I always wondered what S.H.I.E.L.D. would do if it couldn't protect me." Seren was guilty to say that even now, the same thought still ran through her head every now and then. She was strong, and she had powers, but would she really be able to protect herself all the time?

"You're a star, Seren." Steve could feel Seren's smile against his shoulder. He had to pull away to see it up-close. "What does your grandmother call you?"

Seren flushed. "...star soul. It's a literal translation of my name. 'Seren' means star."

"A very accurate translation if you ask me. You're a star and if anyone says otherwise, they're wrong." Steve was aware that he was much too close to Seren to not be tempted. And boy was he tempted.

Seren watched him so fondly that she missed all the conflict Steve had going on. She loved hearing the compliments he'd been paying her in these past minutes. She wasn't much for attention but when it was coming from Steve, well...she loved it.

"You're a star," Steve said quietly. Suddenly the music seemed louder around them.

Seren had heard that specific line so many times she lost count but when Steve said, it had a whole new meaning to it. "Oh lovey, I almost believe you." The words left her lips before her brain could catch up.

Steve immediately remembered the few times she had used that pet name. Each time she said it, it didn't even appear like she realized it. Did it come automatically for her? He never heard her use it with anyone else, just him. Why me? The possible answer made his heart leap with hope. And courage. A quick surge of hope pushed him to do what he'd been tempted to for the past endless minutes.

"Believe me then," he said then pressed his lips on hers.

Even though it came as a surprise for Seren, she fell so easily. It wasn't like she hadn't thought about it. She was guilty of thinking about it for a while now and tonight she realized that those thoughts paled to what it actually felt like. Dozens of butterflies fluttered in her stomach as Steve slipped his hand around the back of her neck to cradle her head exactly how he needed to. He would never tell her that while her height difference was frankly adorable, it left some maneuvering to do. He didn't mind; it seemed like for the first time he knew exactly what to do. He had Seren Soul, his literal star, in his arms. Nothing could be better than this.

But suddenly, the music stopped and instead the sound of Steve's phone buzzing filled the room.

They broke apart, dazed and confused — and perhaps a bit frightened in the beginning — until they connected the dots. A phone was ringing. As soon as Steve let her go, Seren missed his warmth.

Steve turned to where he'd left his phone and picked it up. "Natasha." He would absolutely get her for this one.

"You should take it," Seren said, awkwardly folding her arms over her chest. She was finally realizing what had just happened. "It could be important."

"You're important," Steve was quick to say and with all the meaning behind it too.

"Work is too." Seren smiled lightly, though somewhat sadly. There was something she wasn't saying and Steve felt like he honestly wasn't going to like it.

He turned his phone off and stuffed it into his back pocket. He was making it clear that whatever Seren wanted to say, she should say it now. He was giving her his undivided attention. "What is it?" he asked her.

Seren was reluctant to speak at first. She had just had possibly the best moment of her life and she was about to ruin it, and much worse she was about to hurt Steve. "You're important. You're so important—to the world and...me." She was promising herself at that moment that whatever she would say wouldn't hide her feelings. At this point, after a kiss like that, there was just no point in denying it anymore. "You're actually a bit intimidating." Her last minute admission prompted a light chuckle from Steve.

"Seriously?" he raised an eyebrow at her.

Seren nodded her head. Her arms dropped to her sides as she went on to explain. "You fought in a world war. You're everywhere in the history books. You fought, along with your friends, so that people like me—everyone—could live the way we do now. You're so important to the world, don't ever think you're not."

"As much as I thank you for those words, I have to confess that none of it really matters as much as it would to know what you think of me." Steve came up to her and stopped her body from turning away. Why couldn't she look at him all of a sudden?

"I already said it," she whispered. "Of course you're important to me. I have no idea when the hell you did this to me."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming along here…" And it terrified him.

Seren finally gathered the courage to raise her head and meet his gaze. "But where we are right now...what we're doing...it's not a good idea."

"What do you mean?" Steve was utterly confused. He could see the pain flashing across Seren's eyes, a tell that she wanted nothing but the opposite of what she had just said. So why was she denying them the opportunity of being together?

Seren sighed heavily and moved around him. As he turned after her, she made it to the table against the wall. She picked up a slip of paper—a plane ticket—and turned back to him. "I'm going to France next week. Rebeca said that they're really interested now in what I'm doing here. Once I'm done here...it's more than likely that I'll be moving to France after. I'll be doing this all over again."

Steve didn't have the words at that moment. He was trying to quickly process everything Seren had just said. Moving? Again? Without knowing it, he was feeling the same ache in his heart as Seren was.

"Work is important," Seren went back to her previous words. She left the ticket back in its place and walked back. "If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll be ranking up top at S.H.I.E.L.D. That means more missions, long-term missions, and that'll lead to less opportunities to video call anyone, especially someone around the world." The more she thought about those potential missed calls, the harder it was to control her tears. "I don't want to put myself in a situation where I want you but I can't have you. I'm sure that you wouldn't want that type of relationship either."

No, no he wouldn't. It was painful enough going through that with Peggy and right now he was a lot closer with Seren and yet it didn't seem to be enough. She was right—she was around the world and he was doing his own missions on the other side.

"Steve," Seren reached for his hand and squeezed it. "I do want you. I want to be able to hold your hand like this, I want to talk with you every day, go on dates with you. God, I would really like to go on a date with you." She had to blink rapidly to avoid letting any tears get loose. "I want to do all the stuff I didn't get to do before."

"I want that too." Steve used their interlocked hands to tug her closer to him. He had no idea what to do for a date in the modern world but he had no doubt that whatever he'd come up with, Seren would flash him one of those soft smiles at him and tell him that he did just fine. He kissed her curled hair and rested his cheek over her head for a moment. "I understand what you're saying, Seren. I promise I do. I'd never want to force you into anything."

Seren hugged him tightly and, because he couldn't see her face at that moment, a few tears rolled down her face. "It just wouldn't be fair either of us. I don't want you to wait for me either."

"Seren—"

"No, Steve," she pulled away to meet his face, forgetting the stains of tears on her cheeks. "That's not fair to you." As much as it pained her to imagine him meeting someone else, she had to be fair and reasonable. "You're going home in a few days and you have every right to move forwards. You need to discover this new world, figure out what you want to do and what you will do. I've told you to do this from the day we met. Don't get stuck in the past."

The story of his life.

When would things actually work out for him? Before he said anything, Seren let him go and sat on the couch.

"I don't know how long I'll be away from home," she said. "It can be years. You can't waste your life waiting for someone who might never come home. I heard that can be a bitch."

Steve came over and sat down beside her. "Yeah," he solemnly agreed. It seemed like fate always wanted to hurt him in some kind of way.

Seren let out one long sigh. "The thing about S.H.I.E.L.D. and all this stuff is that...you don't really get to plan that far out. It never really bothered me before but...now I get it. You live in D.C. now. Who's to say that they won't have you relocate for a while? That's how Chloe started, you know. She lived in Arizona for a while and then they moved her to Florida. And then before I knew it, she was going all over the world."

"I wouldn't let that happen," Steve said firmly but Seren knew that if the situation really called for it, he would get up and leave. It was who he was and that's probably one of the reasons why she wanted to be with him. He was as committed to the job as much as she was.

"Yeah, you would," she said quietly, once again reaching for one of his hands between them. "Because you wouldn't be you if you didn't. I like you, I really do, but we can't act on it. At least not right now. You know we can't, right?"

"...yeah," Steve nodded. He squeezed her hand around his. He was unable to bring himself to look at her right now. It was like she said, he wanted her but he couldn't have her and that was the worst pain he ever felt in his life. The punches she gave him when she was brainwashed hurt way less than this.

He was afraid that Time might get in the way again and he might possibly never have her.

[laughingpinecone]

Candy hearts exchange 2024 letter

AO3: laughingpineapple (double-checked a-ok for treats as per the recent AO3 update blah blah)

Hello and thank you for writing for me! I hope you’ll have a great time playing with one of these wonderful canons!

I love a wide variety of fics - from the most delicate gen to explicit, any tense, any format, big yes to all kinds of weird experiments up to and including interactive fiction. In general, I love canon expansion (showing new places in the setting or exploring those that are barely mentioned, just outside the borders, and ditto with events), character work of all stripes (expanding on little quirks, putting characters in situations that complement/challenge certain personality traits of theirs, just... observing these weirdos as they live their lives, for better and for worse), magical realism and adjacent approaches. I eat up emotional moments with a spoon when a fic is character-centric (danger! catharsis! hurt/comfort! the nitty-gritty of attraction!) and also love abstract stuff that is not character-centric at all: fake academia, a wider focus, inhuman povs, anything goes.

For both romance and friendships, I love it when it’s clear (not necessarily to the characters themselves, but to the narrative) what they like about each other, how they get along, if and how they trust each other, what’s annoying but worth it, what flaws of the other are they or are they not well equipped to handle... The specificity of each dynamic! I also love it when the characters are very into something that makes sense for them, be it a hobby or a kink or whatever, even if it’s something I may not personally care for.

For art, I love when characters are doing something. I much prefer a simple illustration of a moment in their lives (basic examples: sharing coffee, walking together) to a more ornate symbolic illustration like eg a tarot reimagining.

DNW: non-canonical rape, non-canonical children, focus on children,  pregnancies, unrequested ships (background established canon couples are okay, mentions of parents and paired-up OC randos are okay!), canon retellings  

GHOST TRICK

Alma/Cabanela/Jowd: Jowd navigating the "whoops turns out I'm bi" part of the whole thing is always fun Alma/Jowd: what's their dynamic, exactly? I'm open to many possibilities, for example an Alma who's just as much of a cosmic pessimist as her esteemed husband! Cabanela & Pigeon Man: unexpected intergenerational friendship of my heart, Cabs is A Lot and Pigeon Man expertly wrangles him. Guess he’s good with birds Cabanela/Jowd: please let them be intensely ridiculous about their attraction Emma & Jowd: double menace pls Jowd & Pigeon Man: what sparked PM's unshakeable devotion toward Jowd? Alma/Cabanela: fashion! and legs! Clothes swap? Some time on their own?

PYRE

Bertrude/Pam: they get each other quietly… anything based on their paired ending, especially Downside? Ignarius & Oralech: I’d just like to weaponize Iggy’s fascination for big survivor demons and point it at an unsuspecting Oralech, for fun Oralech/Tariq: beyond the Scribes' vision… Oralech/Volfred: Downside reunion! How do you let go of all that mis-aimed anger AND mourning? Volfred & Pam: here's a guy who's very pragmatic about reaching his idealistic goals, and a gal who's a trained agent. Or maybe just two teammates after a rite. Volfred/Tariq: Tariq's small attempts at defiance?

DISCO ELYSIUM

Call Me Mañana & Steban: that time when Steban tried to talk Mañana into joining the group and it sounded like he was hitting on him (at least according to Harry, who is, on occasion, an uncannily accurate judge for this sort of thing) was fun! What about a second meeting between them, or would Steban be willing to just sit next to him and talk? DJ Flacio & DJ Mesh & Kim: I just want Kim to meet his loud, vulgar, communist-leaning (according to one line in reply to Harry, at least) heroes. Maybe after he got his shout-out? (Harry and Kim/Harry welcome if you want) Liz/Cindy: Things got very real very fast for Liz at the tribunal, can actual gang member Cindy help her through it or make things worse? Dros & Nilsen: bitter, cancelled old codgers, how unpleasant could they get? I like to picture Nilsen's ghost bothering assorted leftists in the game and Dros could do with the company… Uli/Steban: a Wirrâl session turning intensely homoerotically charged? Anything else turning intensely homoerotically charged (looking at the canon slap, it's kind of what they do)? What Mazov/Nilsen parallel do they see in themselves?

SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR

Khan & Nilsen: as one of Elysium's famous disappearances (as per a stray line by Lilienne in the game), Nilsen should by all means be part of Khan's special interest. Khan who, for his part, dresses as a dialectical materialist, so did he like what he was reading about Elysium's Most Cancelled? Khan & Tereesz & Jesper: any exploration of their strange, frayed friendship, the ways in which they care for each other, their breaking points, how they're all called to the void… Khan & Zigi: does Khan find him, at the end of the world? Or is Zigi forever out of reach, beyond even the totality of the pale? Or does Khan manage to reach Rodionov's Trench at last, in dreams or otherwise? Mazov/Nilsen: they held hands… any exploration of any part of their lives (first meeting? Nilsen's return from his feral hut era? Reunion in the pale?) and their beliefs and their opposite responses to defeat? Lund sisters & Rodionov: party at the heart of the pale! Tereesz & Frantiček the Brave: echoes, archetypes, feeling the weight of dead revolutionaries and joining the ICP, the same story happening again, once as tragedy twice as farce… Zigi & Nilsen: ngl I need seven seasons and a movie of these two. The dialectical angle is great, the embodiment of the core dialogue between communism and nihilism, the imaginary frenemy angle is great, the ghost story is great, the concerning amount of applicable Breaking Bad memes is also great, and so on…

FULL CORE STATE NIHILIST

Esteban/Hulio: political posturing and transgressiveness bleeding in and out of actual queerness. Any exploration of nihilist, petrofascist Innocentic seat and global superpower Mesque is welcome, as well as the characters' approach to nihilism vis-à-vis Ambrosius'!

PENTIMENT

Gnaziu/Baltas: I love Baltas' whole thing and seriously what is UP with Gnaziu. I thought I'd missed some plot but he's just… hanging out there? How does he spent his days over at Baltas', in this little village so far away from home… Magdalene & Andreas: post-canon letters, maybe even a collaboration on some book to print? Otto & Ulrich: they were my act 2 faves and I just think they're neat? ;^; to Tassing's martyrs, to their kindness…

[lavishedinjimin]

i be treating your requests like it's once in a lifetime LMFAOOO but here's my take for kinky hours !

class president&popular!tae and nerd!reader having a secret relationship in their college. kinda mean but very soft dom!tae when reader gets jealous because lots of girls confess to him but he proves that he only loves her through a soft yet teasing sex.

why do i feel like this request is based on real-life situations? anyhow, i hope this shall satisfy your fantasies although i didn't write any 'sex' to fit the wordcount for a drabble :[

also i'm getting drunk while writing these so bear with me lol

tags: throatfucking, gagging, oc is wearing glasses

~

it was a whole line leading up to kim taehyung. the scene seemed too familiar as if it came from a page in a manga. taehyung, with a blush forming on his cheeks, was benevolently receiving valentines gifts from other girls that admired him.

he was a prominent, popular figure on campus. he's known as a jack of all trades, being in numerous organizations, and was always valedictorian. he bagged multiple academic achievements, talented, and had an alluring personality.

but what's more important is he's your boyfriend. you didn't know how you got him, or what you did in your past life to deserve a man like him, to be loved by a man like him. but you were thankful to the love gods above.

but there was the downside to all of this. no one knew that you were together. so girls would always try to slide their way into him like a snake, trying to get his number to have a chance with him. yet you were always in the background of everything.

taehyung was receiving flowers and cards, even boxes of chocolate from women he barely talked to. kudos to them for having the guts to reach out to him first. you smile sheepishly, secretly falling in line at the very end.

once you were next to reach him, astonishment was prominent on his face.

"y/n?"

"tae." you smile bitterly, clutching your book tighter to yourself. "are you done?"

he looks around as if to check if anyone can hear you. "uh, yeah. w-wait for me at the car park, okay?"

he doesn't want to be seen with you, for some reason. but you never questioned it. once at the car, he follows behind and throws all the gifts at the backseat. you pick up a single pink card and decide to read it.

"dear kim taehyung," you say out loud as taehyung hops on the driver's seat, buckling his seatbelt. "you're probably tired of hearing this, but i can't help but admire you from afar..."

you gulp, heart stinging. you discard the stupid card and sit in silence, dwelling in your own pain. it was obvious that the other cards wrote the same thing.

"there's a reason why i don't read those, babe." taehyung chuckles, trying to lighten up the mood. but you stayed silent. not saying a single word until the ride back to your shared dorm.

"come here," taehyung instructs, welcoming you with arms wide, but you shake your head.

"never knew I'd hate valentine's when i'm with you."

taehyung takes initiative and hugs you from behind. his taller figure kisses the top of your head and leads you in front of a large, wall-sized mirror.

his long, slender fingers dance along the hem of your blouse, looking directly at your eyes. his eyes were one of the things that intimidate you the most but in the best way possible. he creeps his hand up slowly, the pads of his fingertips gently grazing against your soft skin. "sweetheart," he whispers, "you know i'm all yours, right?"

you lean your head against his shoulder, biting your bottom lip as he gropes your breast. you allow him to take off your clothes, stripping you down to your underwear.

"there's nothing to be jealous about, y/n. you have my heart." he says before undoing the buttons of his pants, "and my cock."

taehyung removes his clothing apart his boxers and instructs you to kneel. you do so, entranced by the look in his eyes. with his cock in his hands, he strokes it a couple of times until precum comes out. your mouth instantly waters.

taehyung curses beneath his breath, adjusting the frames of your eyeglasses while putting the very tip of his cock against your lips. "pretty girl," he moans, fucking his dick with his hands. you can feel yourself getting wetter just from the sight of him. kim taehyung, the guy every girl on campus wants a piece of; and you're kneeling before his cock.

he slaps his cock on your right cheek, making you giggle. he hums, grinding his teeth together from how cute you look below him. "take it in whole, baby."

from how big he was, it was actually impossible to take everything in without choking and gagging around the thickness of his dick. saliva drips down your chin as taehyung forces your head down by grabbing a bunch of your hair on a fist. "oh, baby, tsk tsk tsk," he teases, "you better take all of my dick or else i might find a better whore than you."

you whimper against his shaft, looking up at him with tears in your eye. "you want that?" he asks with a raised brow, and you shake your head 'no.'

"that's what i thought. i'm gonna have to force you further, alright, babe?"

taehyung chuckles as he moans loudly, throwing his head back with his eyes closed as he feels your throat tighten around him. the gagging sounds turned him on further, urging him to use his hips and thrust into you without mercy.

"oh god," taehyung practically whimpers, putting your head in place for a couple of seconds before pulling away, allowing you to breathe. within a split second of letting you go, he tugs your hair back and puts his face close to yours, merely centimeters away. he strokes your bottom lip with his thumb, watching you pant pathetically.

"i bet other girls can deepthroat better than you."

"no! please, tae..." you beg, hands crawling up his thigh, "please fuck me. only me."

"yeah? that's what you want?"

you nod impatiently, and thank god he listened. he picks you up, using his strength to bring you to the bedroom. it was still valentine's day, he had to be romantic.

"you're one lucky girl, you know that, y/n?"

"yeah," you reply, still couldn't get his cock out of your mind as if you were in a trance.

he crawls over to you and places a gentle kiss on your forehead, his hand on your chin. "you're my girl, and i love you. never fucking forget that."

~

rules for commissions

[delimeful]

nothing in this world (i wouldn’t do) (3)

warnings: misunderstandings, OCs, mild drowning/hypothermia, violence, one instance of self-inflicted injury, attempted self sacrifice, cliffhanger

-

Virgil laid low for a while after his encounter with Roman, avoiding towns and taking winding paths far from the main roads. Every passing moment, he half-expected a maniac with a sword to descend upon him out of nowhere.

Isolating himself probably made him seem more suspicious, an easier target, but he didn’t want to risk getting caught in a crowd. Demon slayers were an odd bunch, rumored to have supernatural senses to counter a demon’s, and the last thing he needed was to be outed in front of everyone.

The rumors about the ‘Hooded Demon Slayer’ had shown him that gossip spread in unpredictable ways, and he didn’t want to have that unpredictability turned against him.

So, yeah, no towns.

Unfortunately, that plan hadn’t accounted for the people living out in more rural spaces, the way his own family had once.

And now he was here, in a silent standoff at the shore of a frozen lake with a stranger who was staring at him with far too much alarm for his liking.

He held up a hand in an awkward wave. The stranger threw a handful of salt at him, made a sign to ward off evil, and then twisted on their heel and bolted.

Virgil blew some salt out of his fringe, nonplussed, but didn’t move after them.

Either they’d noticed his eyes reflecting eerily the way they sometimes did when light caught on them, or they really hated social interactions. Regardless, who was Virgil to stop their frantic flee to safety?

There was an ominous cracking sound from the direction they’d just run off in.

That could be anything, Virgil told himself stalwartly.

As if in retribution for the thought, there was a splash, as though perhaps something approximately human-sized had been abruptly plunged into the waters of an icy lake.

Virgil was sighing even as he hurried onto the ice after them.

Sure enough, the stranger was scrabbling at the edge of the brand-new hole they’d made, eyes wide and breath coming in tiny little gasps as they clawed at the ice.

He stepped closer testingly, and the ice pinged in warning, hairline fractures spreading under his feet. The stranger let out a half-sob, probably thinking that an evil demon was taunting them or something.

Virgil pulled off his cloak, brushing his fingers over the clumsy stitching of the patch closest to the neckline for good luck. He really hoped he wouldn’t have to patch it up further after this.

His ears catching every minute noise the ice made, he leaned forward as far as he could and tossed one end of the cloak in front of the stranger’s grasping hands.

They latched on with surprising speed, maybe due to cold shock, and Virgil tugged them up.

The ice in front of them broke the moment their weight was leaning on it, and he hissed through gritted teeth. Didn’t this person know anything about escaping thin ice?

He struggled to speak, and only growled, the noise low and half-choked. Somewhere between his mind and his mouth, the words became tangled and refused to form. He would guess that horrific man-eating monsters didn’t deserve to talk, but he’d witnessed other demons chattering away, so maybe it was just something in his brain that had been scrambled. Figured.

Giving up on words, he instead slowly lowered himself until he was flat on his stomach, now eye level with the stranger. He forced his hand into a flat shape and laid it on the ice several times, hoping that they would catch on.

Gradually, they did, though they looked as though they could hardly believe they were listening. They stretched their arms out and kicked their back legs in the water until they were as level as possible, though their movements were growing more sluggish.

Virgil reeled the cloak towards him, providing the leverage needed to help them propel themselves onto flat, unbroken ice. He relaxed slightly in relief.

They immediately tried to get to their knees, prompting a creak from the ice beneath them, and Virgil snarled so viciously that they went right back down like their limbs had given out, terrified eyes locked on him.

That was one way to tell them not to stand, he supposed.

As quickly as he could, he shuffled back to solid ice, towing the stranger along with him over the smooth icy expanse. Once the ice beneath them was solid against even a few elbow jabs, he rose to his feet and gestured for them to do the same.

Apparently being dunked in life-threatening waters had taken the fight out of them, because they followed without protest, trembling from the cold or fear or both. They were still clutching tightly to the cloak, so Virgil used it to lead them along the ice until they reached solid ground again, mindful of their slow, stumbling pace.

All told, they hadn’t been in the water very long, perhaps under a minute or two. Still, Virgil knew better than to leave them to their own devices. One didn’t grow up on an icy mountain range without knowing what the cold could do to people.

He sniffed the air, the dip in water thankfully muting the scent beside him, and easily caught the trail that the human must have taken. Hopefully, it would lead to an actual building as opposed to some campsite in the woods.

The stranger seemed to be about Thomas’s age, though they currently looked more like a drowned mouse than anything else, and Virgil had been able to lift Thomas up into a fireman’s carry even before he’d gotten the supernatural strength of a demon, so he had no problem scooping them up and beginning to run.

They kicked and flailed for a short moment before seeming to just… give up, letting their limbs go limp and heavy, their only movement the full-body shivering that was still tearing through them.

Shivering was good, Virgil reminded himself, shivering meant they weren’t at lethally dangerous levels of cold or shock yet. He should feel reassured about that, but he couldn’t ignore the terror that was practically coming off the stranger in waves.

He couldn't shake away the memories of carrying a younger Thomas around in the same hold, either. The gleeful shrieks of his kid brother being toted around overlapped with the taut, tremulous silence of this stranger, painful nostalgia twisting in his chest.

Once again, the world proved that he was right to have left Thomas. Even the idea of his little brother like this-- drenched and resigned and terrified of him-- was enough to make his stomach roll. He didn’t want to imagine how bad it would feel to face it in reality.

He bit down on the inside of his cheek and kept moving, hoping that shelter was nearby.

-

The upside was that Virgil had found a small house, saturated thickly enough with the stranger’s scent that it had to be their home.

The downside was that there was someone in there.

The other downside was that as soon as he got within sight of the little home, the drowned-kitten stranger found a reserve of energy apparently dedicated to trying to smack the shit out of him.

He grunted in annoyance as another swing thwapped against the back of his head, their other hand frantically attempting to grab at his ears and throat with surprising vehemence. It was about as effective in actually harming him as a kitten’s pounce, but he tilted his head away anyways before they could get too close to one of his eyes. Sure, his eye would probably heal from any damage human hands could inflict, but superhuman regeneration didn’t mean he couldn’t feel it.

Calm down, he tried to project, but the few throaty chirrups that curled out of him weren’t exactly reassuring to a human.

They continued to struggle, not subsiding even when Virgil’s annoyance turned to literal growling, and he eventually just gave in and crouched to shift them off his shoulders.

Rather than try to struggle to their feet and bolt for the door, they plunged a hand into a pocket and came out with-- Virgil’s irritated rumble spiked up into an alarmed snarl, but he was too late to keep them from putting the carved whistle to their lips and blowing hard.

The piercing noise was enough to make him shift back, and two heartbeats later, the door of the cabin slammed open, revealing the silhouette of a new stranger.

Next to him, Drowned-Kitten was making a motion with their hands over and over, but the new person barely even glanced at them before running directly at Virgil, pulling a knife from a sheath with vicious intent.

The dagger’s blade practically glowed, even in the dark of the night, and the hairs on the back of his neck rose up the moment it got in range. He jumped backwards, but Stab-Happy just kept coming, matching his ‘back-off’ growl with a shattered human snarl of her own.

Slayer-knife or not, this human didn’t have nearly half the trained grace he’d witnessed from Roman, and so he was able to trip her up and grab her wrist mid-strike, ignoring the way being so close to the blade made his skin crawl.

He twisted, forcing her to drop the knife, and the moment it hit the ground, he dragged her back toward the open doorway, ignoring her vicious swearing as she struggled to break away.

Drowned-Kitten made a choked-off sound but was barely able to move, let alone stand and stop him.

The interior of the cabin provided what he needed, and he yanked a blanket from the mat on the floor and shoved Stabby into a chair, swiftly wrapping the blanket around her until she could only snap her teeth and kick her legs, the rest of her swaddled against the chair back.

“Get back here!” she screamed when he turned back to the door, the anger in her voice cracking into something close to fear.

Drowned-Kitten had crawled a few paces from where he’d left them, and they’d grabbed the fallen blade. Virgil grimaced as they pointed it at him with trembling hands, looking frantic enough that they seemed more likely to injure themself with the jittering knife than him.

He couldn’t tell exactly in the dark, but it seemed like their hands were turning the shiny red that heralded frostbite. They needed treatment. Why did people have to make everything so damned difficult?

A moment passed in this silent standoff, Stabby’s angry shouts still going strong, and Drowned-Kitten’s gaze strayed past Virgil to the doorway before their gaze went firm and hard.

They tightened their hand on the knife hilt-- and ran it clumsily over their other palm, opening a thin red line.

Virgil was there in the next instant, wrenching the knife away before they could try again for a less shallow injury. They shuddered but didn’t recoil, tucking their face away like they didn’t want to see what happened next.

The smell of blood turned thick and cloying in the air, and Virgil swallowed the sudden welling of saliva in his mouth with no little irritation.

Snarling, he grabbed the back of their shirt with his other hand and yanked, using the shirt as a makeshift scruff and stomping back inside. He dropped them on the mat, pulling the satchel he’d restocked at the last town from his back.

“Don’t you dare touch them, you monster!” Stabby yelled indignantly, and Virgil ignored her entirely to press a pad of gauze against the cut and breathe very carefully through his mouth.

Drowned-Kitten watched him wind thin cloth bandages around the gauze with wide eyes, like they weren’t quite sure this was real. More of those hand motions-- signs?-- and even Stabby grew quiet, thankfully for the headache beginning to pulse behind Virgil’s eyes.

The two of them were eerily silent as they watched him poke around their cozy little home with bated breath, dragging any extra cloth he could find to drape over the one who’d fallen into freezing waters and stoking the fire stove until warmth suffused the room.

Drowned-Kitten’s breathing turned strained almost immediately, the increasing temperature likely feeling much too hot on their skin, but they grit their teeth through it and didn’t try to shed any of the blankets after Virgil just insistently pressed them back on.

He crouched in front of them and held his hands up, moving his fingers through the slow stretches that would help ease the near-frostnip that had blistered Drowned-Kitten’s fingertips red. This, at least, was something he was familiar with, having done it frequently for passing travelers back when he apprenticed under the town’s doctor.

Back then, he’d mostly helped neighbors with colds or bruises and ran delivery errands, rarely seeing the doctor perform actual large-scale treatments. How was it that he was only getting more experience with medicine out in the field after becoming a demon?

Seriously. He was pretty sure that having a monster tending to them was freaking people out.

Case in point, the silent, secretive conversation that the two teens behind him were trying to have, made slightly less discreet by Stabby’s occasional hissed answer. He added a bit more charcoal to the stove, and rose from his squatted position to stare at the two of them, feeling fairly satisfied at the way Drowned-Kitten no longer looked as though they’d been dunked in freezing waters.

It had been an annoying detour, but at least he could say that he hadn’t yet managed to drive someone to death-by-lake just by walking past them.

Dawn would come soon. He unraveled the knotting keeping Stabby in the chair and ducked through the door back into the cold night air before she could fully untangle herself.

He took the knife with him.

-

Naturally, because the fates weren’t fond of him, the pair found him curled up in a cave the next day.

Drowned-Kitten-- or Harley, as Virgil would learn-- could smell demons, and had followed his trail, DW-- also known as Stabby-- right behind them. He hadn’t bothered to hide his scent trail because he hadn’t caught wind of another demon for miles, and foolishly assumed that he was safe. Which had led to him being cornered and interrogated by two teenagers.

Yeah, he’d been less than pleased.

Still, he could snarl and snap until they stepped out of his cave, but he couldn’t exactly get away with the sunlight bright overhead. So, he grumpily conceded to the questioning.

Surprisingly enough, they seemed to believe him when he shook his head ‘no’ to ‘are you going to eat people’. They hadn’t outright expressed doubts, at least. It was kind of concerning that they took his word for it.

DW had demanded the knife back, at least. Smart kid.

He’d attempted to shoo them off afterwards, but Harley had been very insistent on ‘repaying their debt’, wary in the way that meant someone had given them kindness before, but with strings attached. DW had eyed him with more blatant suspicion.

They didn’t owe him anything. Debts, deals, returned favors... Those were for people, not monsters. Virgil had dragged a hand over his face and wished he could say as much.

And then he’d paused.

He’d jabbed a clawed finger at the little hand signs that Harley made, the ones DW had been translating the entire time, and tried to mimic them sloppily until the two cottoned on to what he was asking.

Lessons in hand-speech.

Maybe there was still a way for him to speak after all.

-

From there, they settled into routine.

Virgil spent his days in the shadiest corner of their little house at the urging of Harley’s puppy-dog eyes, and at night, after their daily work was done, he would slink out under DW’s wary gaze and learn how to angle his hands into the proper shapes and flick small motions full of meaning in the right directions.

He picked up on the structure of the language surprisingly fast. Harley was a patient teacher, and DW was always willing to provide extra details on where Virgil had gone wrong.

He’d half expected them to usher him out the door once he’d had the basics down, but the season began to turn and still, they allowed his presence. The blatant trust was enough to make him worry, though any attempts to convince them to be more careful around demons earned him a confused look from Harley and a derisive snort from DW.

Hopefully, Thomas wasn’t being so reckless.

Since he was staying, he insisted on carrying their heavier goods down to the market in the nearby town, heading out with them in the early-morning dark and making sure they didn’t fall into any more lakes on the way there. He spent those market days waiting in a dark spot, his nerves frayed, until evening fell and he could meet them at their agreed rendezvous point.

As he adjusted to the sudden presences around him after so long traveling alone, the two adjusted to him as well. He hadn’t realized just how many noises he made aloud in substitute for his thoughts until Harley showed him all the signs for different emotions, and matched each of them with a soft imitation of Virgil’s growl, or huff, or even, embarrassingly, that cat-like purr that got started when he was particularly pleased. DW had laughed hard enough to make her side cramp up.

He could admit it. It was… nice. To not be feared. To have people to look after again.

Naturally, though, his occasional presence at their side couldn’t go unnoticed forever, and once one person knew, practically the whole town was guaranteed to hear about it. If Virgil had been paying better attention to anything but the two teens under his protection, he could have had advance warning.

But he hadn’t, and so he wasn’t ready when a polite knock came at the door, unusual considering how remote their little home was. He wasn’t ready for the sudden foreboding that washed over him as the three of them exchanged glances.

He wasn’t ready when DW opened the door to the sight of a smiling stranger with a sun-bright sword at his hip.

[skullchicken]

emoji ask for Alberich: 🤥 LYING, 🍩 DONUT, 🙊 SPEAK-NO-EVIL, 🏊 SWIMMING, 🔫 PISTOL, ⚙️ GEAR, 🌈 RAINBOW, ❤️ RED HEART

Get ready for T👏 M👏 I👏 !

🏊 SWIMMING - can they swim? or are they afraid of water? how well do they swim? how do they feel about swimming in the ocean? Alberich can swim - barely. He goblinized into a giant as a teenager (at goblinization day, no less - he's pretty old) and didn't get much use out of the skill since then because

a) it's kinda hard to swim in pools when you're 3 m / 10 feet tall

b) he dislikes showing his body in public. To quote "I have some intense stretch marks. No-one needs to see that."

🤥 LYING - are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying? Yes. As a former citizen of Horizon (he got a cushy job at an art museum which he finally became the director of because of his parent's influence) he has decades of experience lying through his teeth and especially to himself. Once the disillusion really hit him, he simply continued the habit by selling forged artworks to rich people.

Until one day he sold one to a certain draconic CEO and had leave the country real quick to start a new life in the UCAS under a new name.

🙊 SPEAK-NO-EVIL - what is something your oc will refuse to stay quiet about?

If you get his mind into an altered state (sleep deprivation, too much wine, cram…) he will start ranting about…

Bauhaus "if you think about it, it really is an economic, practical and - at its inception - even equalist architecturial style. It's only downside, really, is that it's horrendous to look at and hostile to human life")

the art of Gauguin "what possessed the man to mix every color palette with mustard? And don't even get me started on the objectifying, exploitative, colonialism-extravaganza of his subject matters!"

... or any other topic of art history he has Big Opinions about.

Putting the rest of these under the cut :)

🔫 PISTOL - do they trust people easily? how easily will they turn their back to someone? have they been backstabbed before? will they betray someone if given an ultimatum?

Ohoho, he is so paranoid for the above reason. Yet on the other hand his mentor spirit is Oak, which translates to literally being willing to die for someone he sees worthy of being protected. (Though of course he doesn't let people know.)

e.g. in the game where I played him, he quite quickly befrieded a lil elf-poser hacker and he did in fact almost die for her, because she asked him nicely to fend of a guard-spirit so she has a shot at freeing some prisoners from a bunraku.

At the same time, every time they talked via commlink he would tape over the camera and worry she might find out where he lives ¯_(ツ)_/¯

❤️ RED HEART - their love language(s)?

Words and gifts.

He considers being nice to people to be the easiest way to get people to do what you want. But he also just enjoys complimenting people and speaking kind words when he gets the chance. He would send his co-runners thank-you-notes after their missions.

He also once had a very sweet conversation with the aforementioned elf-poser hacker who confided in him by showing him her matrix-persona who she wished she was more like (in meat-space she was very shy and socially anxious, on the matrix she was a confident leader). So he logged into the MMORPG she liked to play, downloaded the persona-model and 3D-printed it to give it to her.

Y'know. As a symbol to help her bring her ideal self into meat-space.

🌈 RAINBOW - what advice would they give to their younger self?

Oof, that's a painful one. So, Alberich was married twice. The love of his younger years was Terry, an Orc who died of VITAS. He didn't take it well and due to that and his job being very… corporate, he was dipping in and out of depressive phases when he met his wife. His wife was funny, quirky and optimistic. But one day she decided to leave out of the blue, saying that she needs to find herself. He's still fears that it was something he did.

What he would say to his self from 5 years ago would thus be: "Get professional help for your depressive phases. Your wife is trying to carry both you and your emotions and you're crushing her."

⚙️ GEAR - what are your ocs thoughts on science & art? which do they give more importance to? how much value do they place on each?

Alberich loves art with a passion, but he is also very disllusioned with the art world. Science and technology brought him companionship shortly after his goblinization, since he became a shut-in for a good half to a full year. Rationally he thinks science is more important. Emotionally he just loves in what ways the human spirit can express itself way too much.

🍩 DONUT - favourite sweet treat?

Ice cream :)

[anileahvictoria]

Osha!

Aaaahhh, I love talking about my OC Osha! I have done SO. MUCH. RESEARCH. for her character.

About Osha's Disability:

Starting off with a headcanon! Hearing impairment due to birth defects in the auditory organs of female Twi'leks are not uncommon. (I headcanon this could be a reason for Ryloth's native language, Ryl, being so heavily dependent on Lekku and hand gestures.) These birth defects could be because, while male Twi'leks have ears, females have cone-shaped auditory organs that aren't naturally protected. There's no outer ear to protect their fragile inner ear, they're just oUt ThErE. Because of their lack of protection, these organs are vulnerable to injury throughout life (I headcanon that protection is one of the main functions of twi'lek headdresses). But are especially susceptible to defects inside the womb and injury during births. Canonically, Twi'lek births are quite rough on both the mother and the baby, more so than human births. Hence, injury to the baby's auditory cones commonly happens during childbirth. But as I mentioned above, Ryl has already evolved to accommodate this. I headcanon that their sign language isn't that different from Ryl and is already well integrated into both the hearing and Deaf cultures on Ryloth. Rylothian culture is quite similar to what I've read about Deaf culture (very animated while talking, lots of touch in their interactions, hugging or imbracing at greetings and goodbyes, etc.). So, I think it's safe to headcanon that communication and interactions between a Deaf and hearing Twi'lek aren't nearly as different or difficult for twi'lek's as it is for humans. Still, with all this inclusion and getting along, It's important to note that Deaf twi'lek's are still the minority. While they don't have as much trouble with biased people, communication blocks, and cultural differences, they still struggle with many things that hearing twi'lek's will never understand. I don't want you to think that their lives are just as easy as anyone else's, and there are no downsides to this disability because that's just not true. More on that later.

Twi'lek births are already very rough, but Osha decided she would add to the stress by coming into the world breech and prematurely. Sadly, this resulted in her delicate, barely formed, hearing cones getting crushed on her way out, permanently deafening her.

Osha speaks Ryl, Ryl Sign Language, and BSL (Galactic Basic Sign Language). While she can read lips, keep in mind that this is very draining and only accurately captures around 30%.

She uses a speech pad with all the languages she could possibly need when interacting with hearing people.

Hearing aids and implants obviously would exist in the futuristic world of Star Wars, so what reason would Osha have not to use them? I urge you to look up the impact implants have on Deaf culture and why they aren't a "cure" and learn more about the different opinions. Super fascinating stuff and a real problem I don't think enough people know about. I sure had no idea.

Osha's opinions on hearing aids and implants: Osha doesn't think they're bad, but she feels like everyone wants people like her to use them, not for her benefit, but theirs. They refuse to take the time to try and accommodate for her and instead force her to accommodate for them. She has a cochlear implant, but it's really tiring to use it (look up listener fatigue). It's uncomfortable and not a pleasant experience since she doesn't use it often enough to adapt to it. Like I said, she doesn't use it often, but other people give her a hard time if she doesn't. They're supposed to be for her benefit, not others.

It should be mentioned that Osha's Father is HOH and grew up on Ryloth, so he raised Osha in as much Deaf culture as he could sense they don't live on Ryloth.

Age: It should be mentioned that the majority of Osha's story happens between 11 and 15. The pictures I've made are older than when the story takes place.

Education: She did not attend a mainstream school, which were, unfortunately, the only schools available on Naboo, thanks to the empire. Instead, her parents taught her everything they knew about their crafts, trained her in said crafts, and involved her in running their business.

Ok, now that we've got that out of the way, now we can really get you guys introduced!

Clothing Style:

Osha's headdress is just a simple black leather one, but it's adorned with many small impressions and designs that she doodles and adds herself.

She's got these elaborate steampunk-style jewelers glasses that are usually perched on her headdress. Usually, she's wearing a plain black shirt covered by her small leather supplies jacket with more pockets than a Jawa has trinkets. This jacket is also adorned with many impressions she's added over the years.

Around the shop, she wears black cargo pants that are covered with more zippers, pockets, and pouches than I care to describe. Her belt is less for keeping her pants up and more for keeping the assortment of leather bags and pouches securely at her waist.

When she's not at work she loves wearing loose, patterned clothes like harem pants and other fun clothes.

Personality:

Likes: Pockets, shiny things, anything small and complicated, talking, tinkering, teasing and fighting with Bhay, trying new things, teaching and showing others new things, being social, handling the family business.

Dislikes: Communication blocks, rude customers, anyone other than herself teasing Bhay, plane things, getting ignored, people not taking her seriously, when people don't take her advice.

Quirks: Has a big fantasy imagination and will sometimes be found reenacting made-up scenes.

Flaws: Not the most understanding/considerate at times, speaks her mind, shows embarrassment through anger, can be a bit overwhelming, selfish at times.

Strengths: Fiercely protective, passionate, loving, honest, never gives up, loyal, supportive, independent.

Pet peeves: Poor lighting, people covering their mouth when they talk, not making eye contact, plane stuff, empty spaces.

Personality type: ENTJ, Commander, Blue/Red.

Love language: Quality time, words of affirmation.

Family Life:

Osha lives on Naboo with her two parents, Mr. SkawnZota (a red Twi'lek), and Mrs. TeeuboZota (a white Twi'lek). The family owns a small, popular shop on Naboo and spends most of their day handling business and making merchandise there. Osha has been very involved in running said shop from a very young age as part of her schooling.

Speaking of schooling, Osha is homeschooled, though she did try mainstream school for a few months. As expected, an empire-run mainstream school was very unaccommodating and unpleasant, and Osha was well ahead of the others. But it wasn't all bad. She made many friends a still keeps in touch and hangs out with them. The goal in the first place was to have a larger social experience with peers (she got plenty of social interaction with adults through working in the shop), so it wasn't a total waste of time.

Homelife: Their home was a comfy little cottage in the woods not too far from the market, and it was always full of decorative carpets, cushions, and scented candles. Home was the perfect little world where Osha could learn and grow at her own pace and speak her own language, but the deal was it only stayed a perfect sheltered paradise so long as she spent as much time as she could out in the real world. And Osha did. She spends most of her time out in the market playing with the other kids, working in the shop, or even chatting with her favorite homeless person, Malkova.

So that's Osha for you! Ofc you'll get to know her better through seeing how she responds in different situations (true for any character), but this came out pretty long. So, if any of you are still interested, I'll make another post telling you all about the actual/adventure she shares with Bhay.

Tysm @kanerallels for your asks and interest!

[gingerbravecookie]

it sure has been a year: cursor's kind of retrospective (or resume idk) on 2022

happy new years everybody,, or new years eve depending on where you live at the time of reading this

I'll go straight to the point 2022 has been one of the most mixed bag of a year I've had since i have the memory

The start of the year was kinda cool honestly,, the weather in my country was great and i was starting to get new interests,, of course also expecting you know what games near the end of it,, going back to normal class was weird and tiring but i got to make new friends and recconect with old ones i hadn't talked to since the start of the pandemic,, i got to see the coolest fucking movie at the start of april and i loved it,, i had also met kit and joined pocket home and i met good people in there shout out to everyone,, the start of the year seemed pretty good

and then things started going downhill

for starters right at my birthday i started feeling kinda weird,, specially my nose felt funny,, the next day at school i was barely on my feet,, with my entire respiratory system in shambles,, with an awful fatigue and trembling every single moment,, i wanted to go to the nurse's office but i persisted due to having to show a cosplay i worked hard on that same day

long story short the next day arrived and i got positive for covid,, i spent two weeks at home

it didn't help that i missed multiple tests due to quarantine and had to do 5 the same day,, my stress level was on the god damn clouds

in that next month i caught colds and stuff way more easily but hey,, it was june!!! pride month!!! Gay month!!!! also i had finally decided to get into artfight and was ready to make refs for my oc's

Also i had made my very own server and got to meet cool people!!! shout out to kino,, harp and jaz

and then right before winter break started and got time to work on them and the event itself my knee snapped off

yes it did hurt like hell,, i went to the hospital and luckily i didn't need surgery but it was still awful,, i got out of the thing at 3 am and i couldn't even move

I spent the first few days of july on bed,, when i finally was able to barely walk again i got to do a few art fight attacks but then my family from the capital arrived and i couldn't access my laptop for two weeks,, i was pretty bummed out i barely got to do attacks AND that i had to be almost every single day to the doctor in order to heal my leg

also i joined ballcord and then maincord as my cookie run interest started coming back to me

anyways september came along and of course it was independence day for chile,, cool date tbh,, and i decided one of the most drastic meassures i took on my irl image,, i cut my hair

"what's the great deal with that" thing is i've had my hair pretty long and i didn't like cutting it at all,, but as i grew i pretty much realized i was growing out of it and it also became more tiring after it getting tangled everywhere,, best desicion of my life tbh it felt great

I got the funni squid game 3 as well

well i also continued getting sick as a downside of things,, which was weird as fuck since years prior i only got sick at least once a year

my school situation became worse every day,, my grades started lowering and to top that. i started getting bullied. again

i had been on that school since 10 fucking years and they still fucking bullied me,, none of the teachers did shit about it

my mom got an interview at school where they took account of my anger issues and fucking guess what happened there

after years and years of asking i finally got therapy

proper therapy as i had a meeting with one of them before and he just said i was a spoiled child lmao

so news!! I'm pretty much part of the autistic spectrum,, with very minor traits according to my therapist but yeah pretty much that

she's a cool person,, she really helps me and i mean that in a genuine way

my family. well,, they're trying,, our relationship has gone two sides and sometimes made me feel kinda shitty tbh,, anyways back to topic

even if my teacher knew about the bullying it still got worse and worse from heavy verbal abuse to almost physical attacks

the school said they would talk to the bullies and me to get to an agreement and then. never talked to me again

it would all come to a close in early november,, after i snapped in front of the whole class about it

i had a massive panic attack

i had to ask my mom to come get me early and i had to talk to the teachers where it turns out. they talked to the bitches but never to me.

if i had known that then i could have told them so they would actually stop

and then they started twisting the blame onto me for staying quiet when they didn't fucking tell me shit to start

anyways,, my mom decided i wouldn't go to that school again,, i have been home ever since,, we are hoping another school accepts me in the meantime

As of social media well. i have gotten into a few projects i want to really get through,, i still need to do owed art and i apologize for making it so late. i really really do

my first comic project,, a game (RPG maker Is a bitch sometimes btw) and of course my askblogs and au's,, I'll try to get them fully moving in 2023,, i really want for everyone to see what i have to tell storywise

also i hope i stop getting sicker lmao

i guess this Is going nowhere tbh,, kind of a long resume of the shit that happened to me this year and an excuse for why i barely post decent art and ideas here nowdays (sorry),, but hey at least i met cool people

thanks for sticking around Is pretty much what i have to say

2022 has been kind of a bitch,, here's to hoping 2023 Is at least a little bit better

happy new years everyone,, happy to still be here

-cursor

[mostbrilliantidiot]

i humbly request the letter G for the OC Alphabet Soup asks 😊

OC Alphabet Soup

Send me a letter of the alphabet A-Z, and if I have an OC starting with that letter, I'll tell about them.

So for G I've got Gentry and Gregory (currently listed anyways). I like Gentry better, so let's talk about her.

Emily Gentry is a fun character. when first introduced the description I give is "She looked like the sort of woman who could break a man’s neck with her bare hands--and likely had." And yes. She has

The number of people who can get away with using any form of her first name can be counted on one hand.

In a world full of magic and weird shit, her particular talent is an incredible ability to heal (also super strength). One of the downsides to this is somewhat poor impulse control--she'll just do things, because hey, it's not like it'll kill her .

Now this makes it look like she fears nothing. Not so--she just doesn't fear much. Her two biggest fears are fire and emotional vulnerability. And yes, those two rank equally.

As far as relationships go, she's in a relationship with Amy and Evan (and yes i joke that Amy's type is 'tall, dangerous, somewhat stupid, and bad at communicating Feelings'), and it should say something that this is the best relationship choice she's made in a long time. (Her Most Toxic Ex, Sebastian, features as a recurring annoyance/villain for a bit during what I have plotted. For some reason he's all angry about having been left for dead in a shallow sandy grave?? Who'd have thought that could be a problem???). Gentry is the person that when you call for help about something, will offer to help bury the body. And she's 110% serious about the offer. She has experience.

some fun little quirks in no particular order:

can and will steal Evan's shirts

her mercy tends to be one of the most destructive things about her

does Not fucking apologize. Ever. this is a Problem

her cooking is Not Good. It's edible. It won't kill you. But you Will Not Enjoy The Experience

Some memes I have saved for her:

[alpacaparkaseok]

Mine

1. He what now?

Genre: Yoongi x OC

Warnings: none

Word Count: 2.4k

Synopsis: The first time Cara Richie sets foot on the Graham Norton show she’s confronted with questions that have less to do with her upcoming film “Young Rising”, and much more to do with BTS. More specifically with one of their rappers, Suga. Cara is an open supporter and fan of the band, however when Min Yoongi is shipped with the bilingual up-and-coming actress after mentioning her in an interview, things start to get out of hand. Fanart, twitter trends, and stalkers ensue, leaving Cara’s career up to an unknown fate. Then comes the moment the world didn’t even realize it was waiting for: a solo track from Agust D that raises more questions than answers, especially for Cara. 

I would recommend the Graham Norton show to anybody purely based off the quality of their couches. 

 It’s our five minute call when Sebastian Stan, my co-star and annoyingly close friend, shakes me out of my half-asleep daze. 

 “Hey, we’re about to be called up. Ready?” He helps me to sit up, laughing at the state of my hair. No doubt it looks like a bird’s nest. He motions for one of the crew to help me out, a petite makeup artist appearing out of nowhere and touching up my hair.

“Yeah, I’m excited I swear. I just wish I wasn’t so tired.” Sebastian and I rolled in from where we were shooting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at about ten o’clock this morning. I have yet to recover from the long trip. Unfortunately, our interview was scheduled for tonight, and we stand to begin our course of promoting the movie for the foreseeable future. It’ll still be a few hours before I can crawl into a bed.

“At least it’s only an hour time difference, right?” Sebastian stands me up, instructing me to do some stretching.

“At least we finally have service. I haven’t spoken to my family in three months, they probably think you killed me and left me there in the middle of the jungle.”

One of the perks of our on location shooting was the fact that we only had a couple of satellite phones. No contact with the outside world for nearly three months. I grew way too attached to it, although the one downside was not getting to know how my family and friends were. A lot can happen in three months. I’ve been so rushed to get ready and get over here to the show that I’ve hardly had any time to even glance at my phone besides a cursory text to my group chat with my family letting them know that I’m still alive and back in civilization. 

 “Tempting, but too many witnesses.” Sebastian winks at me, coming to attention when we’re motioned over by one of the staff. Glancing at the TV in the waiting room I can see Graham Norton beginning to introduce us. 

 “Our next guests have just re-entered into civilization, so do excuse them if they’re a little off. Please welcome the dashing Sebastian Stan and lovely Cara Richie!”

Sebastian motions for me to go first, and I jump out into the bright lights. Even though I’ve been on a few shows by now, it never gets old. Granted, I’ve only had one successful blockbuster. Maybe I won’t feel the same once that number starts to climb. 

 I greet Graham before settling down on the couch beside Billie Eilish, the musical guest of the day. I’ve met Billie before, we actually became fast friends. I was invited to a music awards show (I found out that actors are often invited to them for some reason), and we decided to ditch the after party and settle for pizza and a movie instead. 

 “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you, glad to know you’re still alive.” Billie mumbles. 

 “Barely,” I whisper back. Sebastian sits down on the other side of me, waving to a few people in the audience. There are a group of girls near the front row that scream even louder when I look their way, and I smile at them. Sebastian sure does have an affect on people.

“Well, well. Glad to see you’ve made it. Didn’t you two just fly in this morning?” Sebastian jumps in to answer. I appreciate him taking the lead, he definitely has a lot more experience than me. 

 “Sure did. I think you’re trying to kill us, Graham.” Graham gasps, every bit the entertaining host. 

 “Now, Cara,” I smile at the man, hopefully masking my exhaustion. I’m a huge fan of him, and I want to leave a good impression. “This is your second major film. How are you feeling with all of the attention you’ve received? Because really, you came out of nowhere.”

I nod, reminding myself not to depend on Sebastian. “That’s true, I kind of did. It’s been amazing though. I think they sent me off to the middle of nowhere so it wouldn’t go to my head.” Graham laughs, the audience joining in. I sit up a little straighter because of it. 

 “That’s probably smart on their part. Really, from what I’ve seen of the previews for this film, it’s called ‘Young Rising’, correct?” We nod. “Right. It looks quite intense. But you two, you two are lovers in this.”

 I shoot Sebastian a look that tells him we are anything but. “Yeah,” I draw out the word. “You could say that.”

“I really don’t know what they were thinking, putting the two of us together.”

“You mean to say that you don’t like each other at all?” Graham asks, feigning concern.

I shake my head. “I loathe him. But he won’t leave me alone, can you believe it?”

Graham nods. “Actually, I can. After all, you were recently named among the ‘most wanted’ stars in the world.”

I look at Billie completely surprised. “I was?” I ask her. She nods, shrugging her shoulders. 

 “Most wanted? That makes me sound like a criminal!”

“Isn’t that the point?” Sebastian taunts. 

 We continue bickering for a while. “I had no idea, but really I have no clue what’s happened over the past three months.”

Graham hums, shuffling through his papers before coming upon what he was looking for. “Really? Well I find that quite interesting, because something happened just last week on this show.” Suddenly the girls up front start screaming again, hardly able to contain themselves. 

I look at Sebastian. “What did you do?” I whisper. He shakes his head at me, mouthing ‘nothing’. 

 “Alright, calm down you three. I haven’t even gotten the chance to tell her yet, you’re going to spoil the surprise!” WIth great effort the girls pipe down. Graham swivels back to me, a mischievous smile on his face. 

“Oh no, what surprise?” I groan. 

Billie pats my knee. “I know what this is about, it’s been all over twitter. This is what I’m thinking of, right?” Billie asks, shooting me a close-lipped smile. 

“All over twitter? I haven’t had a chance to check twitter.” To be honest, I was putting off checking the hot mess that is social media. Three months of peace and quiet have been so nice, I’m clinging to it before I have to dive back in. 

“Last week, we had a very special musical guest. You’re a fan of BTS, aren’t you?”I nod, furrowing my eyebrows. Where is he going with any of this? 

“Yeah, I love them. We were just listening to them in the car, actually.” I gesture between Sebastian and I. Graham studies us like a textbook, nodding along. 

“That’s perfect! They came on the show last week, it was amazing. Wasn’t it?” The audience cheers and claps in response. “We got to have a little chat before they performed. A nice little heart to heart if you will. Somehow, I have no idea how, we got onto the topic of their love lives.”

We all give him a complimentary laugh, knowing full well how they got onto that topic. Any successful interviewer knows their way around questions to make even the most composed celebrity fidget in their seat until they slip up. 

“Oh did you?” Sebastian prompts Graham on. I know him well enough that he’s just wanting to move on at this point. We’re here to talk about our movie, not BTS. Heaven knows they’re famous enough already.

“Yes. You’ve heard of Suga?” I nod. I know who each of the members are, I really do like them a lot. “Well, he said something quite interesting, er, about you.”

My eyebrows flit up. “About me? He knows who I am?”The audience laughs, the girls in the front are practically causing an earthquake with how much jumping around they’re doing. 

“He most certainly does. In fact, when I asked the boys if there was anyone they had their eye on, they all immediately turned to him! It was difficult to get it out of him, to say the least, but I found out that he’s a big fan of yours. And not just from a professional standpoint, if you know what I mean.” Graham winks at me even as my mouth falls open.

Me?

“You’ll have to watch the clip,” Billie says, nudging me. “It’s been all anyone can talk about all week. It’s been so annoying, I see your name everywhere now.” She laughs, and I pull myself together enough to laugh along with her. I look around, reminding myself that I’m on international television, and word will get around quick if I look like a high schooler that just got asked to the prom by her long-time crush.

Even though that’s exactly what I feel like.

The rest of the interview passes in a blur, Graham even going to far as to show me a couple of tweets with the hashtag, #CaraBTS. I’m just relieved there isn’t some weird couple name trending...yet. 

“Oh, look at this one! You’ll love it.” Graham holds his paper up to the light, reading off of it. “‘This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill. Cara and Yoongi are finally happening. I’ve been pushing for this since I found out she went to school in Seoul!’ It would appear this has been a long time coming for some fans. There are others that aren’t quite as excited though, as you can imagine.” 

Shuffling his papers he pulls out another tweet. “Here we are, ‘I’m telling you if Cara Richie lays a single finger on my lil meow meow I’m suing.’ Well isn’t that lovely?”

We finally move on, Sebastian telling a funny story from our time filming in the Congo. I add in whatever tidbits I can, but I remain so focused on looking normal and unbothered by this new information that I nearly miss Billie getting up to sing. It’s during her performance, when the lights are down low and our mics are turned off that Sebastian nudges me, whispering something under his breath. 

He makes it look like he’s pointing something out on stage, “Hey, you alright?”

I nod along, looking for all the world like we’re chatting about the lighting. It’s true that it looks striking, the dark greens and blues cut across the stage, highlighting Billie’s haunting voice. 

“I think I will be. Is this going to be a disaster? Now all anybody will want to talk about is my love life.”

“Which we both know is nonexistent.”

“Exact-hey!” I shove my friend before turning my attention back to the performance. I still can’t quite relax, but I feel a little better. At least I have Sebastian by my side. He certainly knows how to remain low-key when it comes to the press. 

Once the interview ends the three girls at the front squeal until I look at Sebastian who gives me a shrug.

“I don’t think it’s for me,” he gestures to them. “Look at their sign.”

Sneaking a glance over there my eyes widen and I struggle to keep my mouth from hanging open. One of the girls holds up a little poster that I didn’t see before. She probably wasn’t allowed to hold it up during the show because she would block other people’s view. 

There, written in big bold miss that only a blind man could miss it reads:

                Cara x Yoongi nation

Graham notices my attention from where he’s saying goodbye to Billie and makes his way over to me. He gives me a pat on the back. 

“That,” he points out the sign that is now burned into my eyelids. “Is only the beginning, love.”

🌙

By the time Sebastian and I make it back to the hotel where the rest of the cast and director/producers are staying, I want to lock my door and throw something. 

Sebastian told me not to check twitter, but I ignored him. Curiosity did kill the cat, folks. News flash. 

If I wasn’t known before, I certainly am now. Twitter is a mess of supportive fans, those fans who are heartbroken but happy for Suga, and the fans that are out for blood. Like, real blood. I’ve read the words “better watch out” so many times that I can’t help but look over my shoulder every few minutes. 

I do appreciate the fans that claim that only true ARMY will support the boys’ decisions. Nevertheless, I decide to hold off any kind of presence on social media until further notice. A glance at the official BTS twitter shows them doing the same thing, apparently. I’m not sure whether I should be relieved or worried about that.

“I told you not to,” Sebastian chides once we enter the hotel. “Now you’re all depressed.”

“I’m not depressed,” I defend myself. “Just nervous. I’m not sure what this means for my whole acting career. I don’t like knowing that I have no control over it.”

Sebastian wraps an arm around my shoulders as we enter the elevator. “Not to worry, I’m sure the PR team is on it. Stacey is good with these kinds of things. Trust me, I’ve put her through enough near disasters that this will be a piece of cake.”

Sebastian and I share managers, PR reps, and many more things. We’re strange friends, thrown together through a series of random events, but I’m so grateful for him. I would be so lost without all the resources he’s provided me with. 

I give a dry laugh, slumping against my friend as the thought of being so close to a bed only serves to make me more tired. “She’s probably glad that it’s not you for a change.”

“Yeah, probably.”Sebastian bids me goodnight, heading down to his room on the other end of the hall. I can hear our director and a couple of the producers talking, but it’s too muffled to make out much more than their voices. I’m too tired anyways, so I opt to head straight to my room and get into bed before anyone can ask me any questions. I barely make it into my pajamas before I hit the mattress, sighing as I sink into the covers. 

“Ah, finally. Goodnight world,” I mumble, turning to flip my phone on silent. The moment I go to grab my phone, it lights up with a notification. Groaning, I pick it up, squinting at the light. 

“He...he what now?”

Next

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What do you guys think Yoongi did?? 

taglist: @taylorroe3​ @eusticenatalie​