#especially since everyone has the ability to block the tags i said you can block so you dont see it

[dragon-tamer-1]

To that anon that asked me about why I still follow a certain person, I hope you can understand that I do not want hate for this. I am very much unaffected by the choice of belief someone else has. And while I know that others don't like or care for that person, I still do enjoy the art and writing by that person. Their choice of belief doesn't really matter to me, especially since that person hasn't ever done anything to anyone that was harmful, that I know of. Everyone is free to dislike someone, but I don't feel it necessary to hate anyone, especially over beliefs.

Please understand that I am not attacking anyone, nor do I advocate for hate of anyone really.

[broodwolf221]

my message to new/returning fans

as da4 approaches and the fandom changes, gaining both new and returning users, i want to state very clearly:

share your thoughts! it doesn't have to be "original" to be valuable! no more than it needs to conform to current fanon! you don't need to read everyone else's theories in order to state your own

I'm familiar with that pressure and how much it can dampen the urge to share, to actually engage with the broader fandom. even though i was there at the start of dai's fandom, i fell out of it for years and came back recently, and there was a definite undercurrent of pressure to a) conform to the theories already stated, especially by big name fans, and b) to only ever post a truly original theory

the former inherently limits fandom and treats it more like an academic field that one needs to be familiar with before stating anything; the latter is fundamentally ridiculous, since we're all engaging with the same source material and have the ability to perceive foreshadowing and explore what it means. the first person to perceive and write about a bit of foreshadowing has no more fundamental "right" to that perspective than the hundredth

it can also be hard to wade through the tags of a fandom that's been out for a decade+, especially if you like a character or ship that gets a lot of hate. that's exhausting and no one is obligated to do that research

you're not too late to the fandom to have theories, to post meta, or to express your feelings. those of us currently in the fandom would do well to remember that new people will be joining us and they likely won't even know the bloggers who have already posted meta, so seeing someone ask if xyz has ever been considered should be treated as a valid question. seeing someone say they've never seen ppl talking about xyz should be viewed as an invitation to (gently!) point to some people who have talked about it. "oh, if you're into this idea, you might like [username's] meta"

i think it's valuable to draw attention to the fact that a long-established fandom has been getting new blood throughout the whole time it's been here, and will be getting considerably more new blood soon, and that it might be worth adapting to that early. because regardless of any established fan's preferences, we are going to be getting new fans unfamiliar with established theories/fanon. and no one should be beholden to fanon anyway

but all this is to also say - new fandom members? i see you. I'm here for you. if you want to know what's been said, you can ask me and i will direct you as best i can; if you want to come up with stuff on your own, i support that. i will never come onto your posts to "disprove" your theory or to claim it's unoriginal

also, know that when you see vent posts where people are feeling annoyed about fans or complaining about them, they are almost certainly talking about fans who are engaging in discourse, are argumentative, or are otherwise being kinda shitty. i know - from personal experience! - how easy it is to take a vague vent post personally, especially when the kind of behavior they're actually annoyed by isn't clarified, but it's unlikely to be directed at fans who are engaging with curiosity and excitement. being new to a fandom is intimidating and as someone who's trying to be respectful, it can be so easy to internalize messages from people's venting, but fr, it's rarely about new fans and their conclusions. that said, if those posts bother you… unfollow! or block! blocking is not a mean or cruel action

find your niche, curate your experience, and you will definitely find people who support you. I've really enjoyed my time here and met many people i care about and respect, but it was a bit of an uphill struggle early on and i know a message like this from an established voice in fandom would have helped ease my own concerns coming into this space

[ghostinthelibrarywrites]

Come rest for the winter

The fifth installment of the Don't know what's out there series is up! This one is pretty much pure holiday fluff (yes, it's March, but let's just pretend it's still December.)

Relationships: pre-Geralt/Jaskier/Yennefer; established Geralt/Yennefer

Rating: T

Warnings: none

Word count: 14k

Summary: To help Jaskier combat a bad case of writer's block, Geralt and Yennefer invite him to celebrate Midwinter with their family at Kaer Morhen. But between making Midwinter ornaments, learning how to hold a sword, and tagging along on forktail hunts, Jaskier starts to realize something about his feelings for his two dearest friends.

Read the first couple of scenes below or here on AO3!

***

“Gerrrrrrrralt!”

Jaskier has an incredible ability to make Geralt’s two-syllable name stretch out to five or six syllables when he’s whining. With a sigh, Geralt peers into Jaskier’s living room, where his friend is sprawled dramatically on his couch, laptop perched precariously on his chest. “Hm?”

“In your professional opinion, is it possible to die of writer’s block? Because if so, I think I’m dying.”

“You’re not dying.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’m a professional.” Geralt finishes stirring a ludicrous amount of cream into Jaskier’s coffee and strides into the living room to hand him his mug. As Jaskier reaches for it, his laptop starts to tilt. Geralt catches it just in time and relocates it safely to the end table.

Jaskier tilts back his head and lets out a groan that sounds more than a little like a dying kikimora. “I’m never going to finish this book.”

“You said that about the last book. Probably about the one before it too.”

“Yeah, but my publisher didn’t send either of those back to me because they hated the ending so much.” Jaskier heaves the sigh of a man who has seen untold horrors and will never be the same. “You should hear what they’ve been saying online since the release date got pushed back. People are saying I’m going to be the next C.R. George.”

Geralt shoves his legs out of the way so he can perch on the end of the couch. “You have to know I don’t know who that is.”

“He wrote the Heartsword Cycle.”

“Hm, right, one of my favorites.”

Jaskier lifts his head from the couch to squint at Geralt. “Really?”

“No.”

With another sigh, Jaskier flops back down, sloshing a good deal of coffee down his arm. “He wrote four of a five-book fantasy series, then got hit with writer’s block. For ten years, the final book kept getting delayed, until he went and dropped dead of a stroke. Then his publisher hired someone else to write the last book, but it was an enormous flop and everyone hated it. And two years later, his daughter announced she’d found a nearly-complete handwritten draft among his papers and released it online. There was a lawsuit and there’s this whole thing about which book is the real final book and—”

“Jaskier, you’re twenty-four and in reasonably good health. You’re unlikely to drop dead of a stroke.” Geralt takes a sip of his own coffee. “You just need to sit down and write it.”

“Oh, that’s easy for you to say.” Jaskier scowls up at him. He seems to be hamming up the whole tortured artist thing, with a week’s worth of scruffy facial hair. From the smell of him, he hasn’t bathed since at least yesterday, if not the day before. “What do you do when you’re stuck?”

Geralt shrugs. “I usually try one of Lambert’s bombs.” At his friend’s pensive look, he adds, “That wasn’t a suggestion.”

“But what if—”

“No.”

“Fine, then leave me to my suffering.” Jaskier takes a swig of what’s left of his coffee.

Geralt is tempted to do just that, except for the fact that he came over here just to alleviate Jaskier's suffering. He's been worried about his friend ever since the release of Will of the Order got delayed, especially since it came on the heels of yet another messy breakup. It's not like Jaskier to be lying on the couch in the middle of the afternoon, unshowered, still in his PJs, and seeming to not even have noticed that he just spilled coffee all over himself.

“Do... you want to go grab a drink?" Geralt asks. He has no desire to go grab a drink, but maybe an excuse to put pants and deodorant on will cheer Jaskier up.

That earns him an arched eyebrow. “Are you having a stroke? You want to go somewhere? Outside the house? With people?”

“I do occasionally go out and interact with people.”

“Since when?”

Geralt thinks about it. “I came to your college graduation.”

“That was two and a half years ago and Yenn made you.”

“I was still there,” Geralt says. “And I came to the launch party for Will of the Enchantress.”

“Yenn made you come to that too. You spent the whole night standing by the appetizers.”

Geralt shrugs, conceding the point. “The shrimp was good.”

Jaskier snorts with laughter. “Ugh, am I that pathetic that you’re willing to go out to a bar with me to cheer me up?”

“Yes,” Geralt says.

“Geralt, I’m touched.” Jaskier puts a hand over his heart. “And a little offended, but mostly touched.”

Geralt shrugs again. “When’s the last time you showered?”

Jaskier looks outraged. “Yesterday!” At Geralt’s raised eyebrow, he deflates. “Okay, maybe the day before.”

“And the last time you shaved?”

“I refuse to have my hygiene criticized by someone who uses 2-in-1 shampoo.”

“And yet, I showered today,” Geralt says. “And yesterday too.”

Jaskier groans. “I’m a mess, aren’t I?”

“Do you want me to be honest or encouraging?”

Jaskier sniffs. “Next time I need cheering up, can Yennefer be the one who comes over?”

“Do you really want that?”

“No.” Jaskier groans again. “It’s just, I was so proud of that ending! It was the ending I’d had in mind since I started the first book! And they just said it was ‘trite’ and ‘out of character’ and told me to start over.”

Geralt makes what he hopes is a vaguely encouraging noise.

“And I don’t know what to do now,” Jaskier says. “I just keep staring at my computer screen, hoping inspiration will strike, but words just aren’t working and ugh.”

“You have time.”

“I have a month. That’s no time at all.” Jaskier looks up at him beseechingly. “Geralt, I need you and Yenn to go do something heroic and inspiring that will get my creative juices flowing. If it contains some dramatic irony and moral ambiguity, all the better.”

“It’s winter,” Geralt tells him. “Most everything that requires me to be heroic is hibernating right now. And Yenn and I are leaving for Kaer Morhen this weekend. The whole point of going to Kaer Morhen is not having to do anything heroic.”

‘Fuck, I’m doomed.” Jaskier sags. “I’m going to be the laughingstock of the literary world. Everyone will know I’m a fraud.”

With a jolt, Geralt recognizes the salty scent of approaching tears. It’s been over five years since he first met Jaskier and he doesn’t think he’s ever seen the kid cry, except for that time he got his wisdom teeth taken out and then tried to watch nature documentaries with Geralt. Apparently, watching a gazelle get taken down by a crocodile was too much for him under the influence of painkillers.

But even that wasn’t this kind of despairing hopelessness. Geralt has seen Jaskier angry, frightened, indignant, hurt, and sick. But he’s never seen him so defeated.

“You could come with us to Kaer Morhen,” Geralt hears himself saying. “We’re spending Midwinter there. There will be five other witchers there, plus Triss, Ciri, and Cerys. That’s a lot of inspiration.”

Jaskier looks up at him with wide eyes. “I thought Kaer Morhen was just for family.”

“It is,” Geralt says and promptly regrets it when Jaskier’s lower lip begins to wobble. “It’s not a big deal.”

The next thing he knows, Jaskier’s arms are thrown around Geralt’s neck. Geralt just manages to save his cup of coffee, enduring the embrace for a long moment before he asks, “Does this mean you want to come?”

“Do I want to see the hallowed ground where you became the man you are today? Where you held your first sword and killed your first monster? Of course I do.”

“You can come so long as you don’t say shit like that.”

“You already extended the invitation, Geralt. No takesies, no backsies.”

“You should have no trouble finishing your book, with turns of phrases like that.” Geralt waits a moment for Jaskier to let go of him. When he keeps clinging on, he says, “If you keep hugging me, you’re going to need to at least put deodorant on first.”

“You were alive in the Middle Ages. There’s no way I’m the worst smelling thing that’s ever hugged you.”

“You’re right. There was the time I had a grave hag covered in alghoul guts clinging to my back. Long story.”

“And that hug is over.” Jaskier scrambles backwards. His eyes are still a little watery, but he seems to have composed himself. “Thank you, Geralt. Genuinely, I’m honored.”

Geralt shrugs, feeling unaccountably embarrassed. “Lambert’s been wanting to meet you anyway ever since you put Eskel in the second book. He wants to one-up him and get his own spin-off.” He pauses considering. “On second thought…”

“Nope!” Jaskier scrambles for the bedroom. “I’m going to go pack now. You can’t uninvite me if I’m already packed”

Geralt rolls his eyes at the ceiling. “We leave the day after tomorrow. You better shower first. I’m not spending all day in the car with you smelling like that.”

“Love you too, you grumpy fuck!”

With a sigh, Geralt goes to finish his coffee.

***

“Wow,” Priscilla drawls from her perch on the bottom of Jaskier’s bed. “You’re spending Midwinter with the sugar daddies. It’s getting serious.”

Jaskier raises his head from where he’s searching under his bed for his favorite sweatshirt to glare at her. “You need to stop calling them that.”

“I don’t think I do,” she says. “Since they are, in fact, your sugar daddies.”

“If they are, they’re quite bad at it. They gave me socks and a gift card for my birthday.”

Priscilla shakes her head mournfully. “They just don’t make sugar daddies like they used to.”

Jaskier throws a pillow at her. “I’ve already told you, it’s not like that. They’re just being nice and inviting me along to Midwinter so I won’t spend it alone with a frozen pizza and a blank Word document.”

Priscilla doesn’t even bother voicing her skepticism; it’s well-documented at this point. “You could have come to Midwinter in Cidaris with me and Valdo.”

Jaskier shudders theatrically as he throws his sweatshirt into his suitcase. The fact that Priscilla is now dating and fronting a two-person folk band with his college sometimes-crush, sometimes-nemesis, Valdo Marx, is still bizarre to him, though he thinks he’s taking it with a measure of grace. “The frozen pizza and blank Word document is better company than Valdo. No offense.”

“He would say the same about you.”

“Well, he never had very good taste.” At the raised eyebrow that earns him, Jaskier hastens to add, “About everything besides girlfriends, of course.”

“Of course,” Priscilla says dryly. “So, back to the sugar daddies—”

“I already told you, they’re not—”

“You’re going to spend two weeks in the mountains with them and their family?”

“Yeah, Geralt has two brothers and a father,” Jaskier says carefully as he throws a handful of boxers and socks into the suitcase. “And then there’s their daughter and her girlfriend—”

“Geralt and Yennefer have a kid?” Priscilla’s eyebrows draw together in confusion. “You’ve never mentioned her.”

Abruptly, Jaskier remembers that for all Priscilla’s jokes about sugar daddies, Geralt and Yennefer look no older than their mid-thirties, while Ciri looks like she’s just out of college. “They adopted her when she was twelve,” he says, which is technically true. “She lives in Skellige with her girlfriend now, but I’ve met her a few times.”

“So.” Priscilla’s lips curl into a smirk. “Does this make you her brother or her stepfather?”

Jaskier throws another pillow at her. “You’re the worst and I don’t know why we’re friends.”

“We’re friends because I was the only person in our hall who didn’t threaten you with bodily harm freshman year for blasting showtunes all day, every day. And because I had the good sense not to sleep with you when you hit on me.”

“You and Valdo have equally terrible taste.”

Priscilla throws the pillow back at him, hitting him full in the face. “Look, all I’m saying is that you’re going to be spending two weeks at some picturesque cabin in the mountains.”

From what Jaskier has heard, Kaer Morhen is more of a looming castle than a picturesque cabin, but he doesn’t bring that up.

“There will be hot chocolate, Midwinter lanterns, snow. It sounds awfully romantic.”

Jaskier blinks at her. He’s never considered Midwinter a particularly romantic time of year, given that he’s spent most of his Midwinters either being reminded of what a disappointment he is to his parents or at Essi’s place, watching her and Shani canoodle. “Their entire family will be there.”

“I don’t know, it’s like something out of a movie. They take you to meet the family, you bond with their daughter, maybe you twist your ankle skiing and Geralt has to carry you gallantly back to the cabin—”

“Skiing? Really, it’s like you don’t know me at all.”

“Maybe you twist your ankle walking down the stairs?”

“Slightly more likely.” Jaskier starts to zip his suitcase, realizes that he doesn’t have a chance in hell of getting it closed, and grabs a duffel bag to relocate some of his things. “Have you forgotten that Geralt and Yennefer are as good as married? To each other? And I don’t think they’re looking for a third.” At Priscilla’s pointed look, he hastily adds, “Not that I would be interested if they were. I’m just going to spend some time with friends and to get my creative juices flowing.”

“I don’t know if it will be the creative juices flowing.”

Jaskier throws the pillow back at her, and then the two remaining pillows on his bed for good measure. She makes no effort to defend herself, which he takes as an admission that she knows she deserves it.

***

“He won’t be any trouble,” Geralt says, cradling his phone between his ear and his shoulder as he throws an armful of underwear into his suitcase.

Zipping her own suitcase closed, Yennefer snorts pointedly.

Geralt’s eyes flicker to her and his lips twitch. “Well, he might be trouble, but not the kind you’re worried about. He won’t write about Kaer Morhen if we ask him not to. He’s respected the other things we’ve told him were off-limits, like Ciri.”

Yennefer can hear the rumble of Vesemir’s voice from the other side of the phone.

“Sorry for the late notice,” Geralt says. “I would have invited him sooner if I realized he didn’t have plans for Midwinter.”

Yennefer cocks an eyebrow at that. Geralt has never given a single damn about holidays, including Midwinter, in the entire time she’s known him. The only reason he deigns to celebrate Belleteyn is because it’s Yennefer and Ciri’s birthday. 

“See you in a few days,” Geralt says. “Tell the others not to drink all the White Gull without me.”

As he hangs up, Yennefer asks, “How did he take it?” Vesemir has always been fiercely protective of Kaer Morhen. It took him years to get used to Yennefer’s presence, and even longer to get used to Aiden’s.

Geralt shrugs. “He’s not thrilled by the late notice, but he says there’s plenty of food and liquor to go around. I think he’s just happy that there will be something to distract Lambert from finding new ways to blow things up.”

“It’s not like Vesemir to be overly optimistic,” Yennefer says. “Have you warned Jaskier that he’s in for two weeks of drinking that horrible White Gull and watching you spar?”

“I’m not letting him touch White Gull. Kid’s a lightweight.” He circles around the bed to stand behind her, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Anyway, I think a quiet Midwinter will do him good.”

She leans back into his embrace, closing her eyes. “I wouldn’t call Kaer Morhen ‘quiet,’ especially once the bombs come out. Remember to keep Jaskier away from those. I can’t heal him if he gets his arm blown off.”

Behind her, she can feel Geralt’s wince. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

“Probably not, but it’s just as bad an idea to leave him unattended for two weeks. He’s good at finding trouble.”

Geralt huffs a laugh and presses a kiss to the sensitive spot under her ear. “That he is. Befriended us, after all.”

“A rare moment of good sense on his part.”

“Hm, if you say so.” Geralt kisses her again. “Not looking forward to the drive though. Sixteen hours is a long time to spend in the car. And you can’t curse him to be quiet.”

“Oh, Geralt.” She turns to face him, cupping his face in her hands. “You know that I love you more than anything in this sphere or any other, right?”

His face softens. “It may have come up once or twice.”

“And there’s almost nothing that I wouldn’t do for you.” She brushes her thumb over the scar slashing across his eye. “Almost nothing. Because no matter how much I love you, I am not spending sixteen hours in a car. I will be portaling to Kaer Morhen. You and Jaskier have fun on your road trip.”

***

When Jaskier pulls up in front of Geralt and Yennefer’s townhouse, he finds Geralt leaning against the bed of his truck, arms crossed over his chest and an unimpressed look on his face. 

“Yes, yes,” Jaskier calls as he scrambles out of his car, nearly forgetting to park the car and turn it off in his haste. “I know I’m a teensy bit late—”

“I told you we were leaving at six. It’s nearly seven.”

“I stopped for coffee!” Jaskier raises his tray of drinks like an offering to the sky. “Caramel latte for me, cappuccino for Yenn, black coffee for you.”

“And that took you an hour?”

“Well the barista wrote her number on my cup so I had to stop and chat so she’d know why she probably won’t hear from me for the next two weeks. I’d hate for her to spend her Midwinter pining.”

“Can’t have that.” Geralt’s annoyed expression softens as he takes the tray of coffees. “And Yenn portaled ahead, so it will just be you and me. She refuses to spend two days driving to Kaer Morhen.”

Jaskier covers up his surprise by rolling his eyes. “What a diva.”

“I’m going to tell her you said that.”

“We’ve discussed this,” Jaskier says as he retrieves his bags from the backseat of his car—his suitcase, a small duffel bag, his guitar case, and the messenger bag where he stores his laptop. “I’m not even a little bit afraid of your partner.”

“Sure you’re not.” Geralt’s eyebrow raises as he surveys Jaskier’s luggage. “I invited you for Midwinter, not to move in. Don’t think Vesemir is looking for a roommate.”

“Har,” Jaskier deadpans. “You did warn me that it would be cold in the keep.”

“So your plan is to wear all your clothes at once?”

“It’s adorable that you think I could fit all the clothes I own in this little thing.” Jaskier pats the duffel bag.

“Looks like you could fit your entire apartment in there, couch and all.”

“Well, I have no idea what to expect, so I packed for all occasions. Drink your coffee. Maybe it will make you less grumpy. I’ll get the next round too.”

“We’re not stopping a thousand times for coffee.”

“It’s what, sixteen hours of driving in total?” Jaskier flashes his most innocent smile. “That means I’ll need at least eight stops for coffee. Once every other hour is reasonable, don’t you think?”

Geralt rolls his eyes. “Get in the truck, Jaskier.”

“Six times? That’s my final offer.”

“I will leave you.”

“No you won’t.” But Jaskier climbs into the passenger seat anyway. “I stayed up late making us a road trip playlist. I think you’ll like it. It has everything from modern pop to classic rock to sea shanties.”

“A playlist?” Geralt says the word like Jaskier has announced he’s going to set a wyvern loose in the car.

“But of course! It’s not a road trip without music.”

“Of course not,” Geralt grumbles and starts the car.

***

“Baby, you’re a firewooooooork!”

“I’m going to leave you at the next rest stop.”

“Make ‘em go ah ah ah!”

“Not going to wait for the next rest stop. I’m going to leave you right here on the side of the road.”

“As you shoot across the sky—Geralt, why are you pulling over? Geralt!”

***

Read the rest on AO3!

[notetaeker]

Hi! I support palestine, financially and emotionally and out loud to people around me, but I do want to say that for a lot of people including myself seeing images of deceased human bodies, especially of children, can be a little much at times. I opened tumblr and it was the first thing that came up and I did not have a safe reaction to it. In the future could you please tag any videos with a trigger warning about dead or Deceased bodies please? It really broke me up, I'd like the ability to opt out when it becomes unsafe mentally. I know your argument if you're against it is that the Palestinian people can't "opt out", but it just becomes really hard to willingly constantly be supportive without boundaries of what you are able to see at certain points (im on mobile as I know many people are, so for me tumblr will always automatically open up to the for you page and I don't think I can change that? I don't follow this page otherwise I wouldn't bother you with this issue. Thank you!)

Hey I think you might be sending this ask to the wrong blog dklfjas

I personally also struggle with seeing images of deceased children/ bodies specifically so I try my best not to rb those and also don't post them myself. If I do post anything with blood I always add tw and cw tags

If you can let me know which post of mine was untagged I'll be glad to tag. I'll also look thru my posts just in case. If it's difficult to go to the post again, maybe you can tell me if it is something I posted or rb-ed? For future reference, maybe you can de-select autoplay for videos that might be helpful- its helpful for m. You can also block tw corpse / cw corpse / tw death if you haven't already because that's usually how I tag anything with deceased bodies in it.

Also i personally don't believe the 'Palestinians can't opt out so we must inundate ourselves with what they're seeing' rhetoric so there's no way I've ever said anything of the sort- just wanted to clarify But again if there is any specific post that I forgot to tag or smth let me know edit// I looked thru my posts and I'm guessing it's probably the video of the dad who went to buy biscuits. I noticed that it didn't have any tags. Really sorry about that- I added them now 😭 It was okay for me since the rest of the boy was covered but not everyone has the same sensitivities, which I didn't consider

[western-magical-girl-confessions]

✨Western Magical Girl Confessions January 2023 Update!✨

Hi everyone!^^ Happy New Year! 🎊

How are you all? What’s new? Still here? Lol Anyways, some of you may be wondering what’s going on with me? Maybe? Maybe not?lol Either way, I’m here to give you an update!

I’ve actually been sick with the flu for almost 3 weeks now! Has it been easy? HECK NO! 😆 So unfortunately, that’s a big chunk of the reason why I haven’t been motivated to make confessions. I’m starting to feel better, but I’m not planning on making any confessions until I’m 100% well! So once again, stay turned and thank you for being patient!

I’ve been just taking a break from this blog in general due to past events that have happened on it. Some due to my own ignorance and mistakes, some due to other factors, like anons. Either way, when I do eventually start making confessions again, I want to start off on a cleaner slate.

Just basically life stuff. Some stressful, some just average.

So after all of that is over and done with, I really want to make confessions again! I really miss doing them! Also, another thing I want to mention, throughout this hiatus in the past few months, I’ve been thinking about a lot of things. So I have a couple of things that I want to say and mention once more before I start up confessions again. I also want to say that this is going to be the last time that I’m going to repeat myself like this when I explain the bare bones of this blog, and to anyone who still doesn’t get it, I’ll just link the rules or link them back to this post.

Note: This stuff isn’t really meant to be aimed towards a particular group of people or certain fans, I’m just explaining this through my experiences and to make sure we are all on the same page here. My goal isn’t to “offend” anyone, it’s for my followers (and others who may pass this blog) to understand more clearly! So please don’t take what I say as offensive, please?

So, like I just said above, this is a confession blog about different western magical girl shows for different criticisms alike. It’s about people being able to express their feelings about different issues that they have with shows, it’s ships, it’s writing etc. I’m doing this blog for fun, for people to have a voice and to give people a chance to vent and to express their opinions without being directly attacked by certain people.

This blog is not JUST about a particular show. It’s about many western magical girl shows alike. So it’s not really fair to act passively aggressive towards the mod or the blog it’s self just because it allows a confession that said something negative about a show or ship that you like (or vice versa). Every opinion alike is allowed, even negative ones.

The mod’s thoughts and opinions on these shows, it’s ships, it’s characters etc. AREN’T a factor on this blog. This blog is about the mod submitting other people’s opinions and thoughts through cards. Their opinions and thoughts litterally have nothing to do with it, so please don’t act like it does to cause disclosure (or anything else of the sort).

If you have certain concerns about certain confessions on this blog, then you need to come to the mod about it so the situation will be taken care of to the best of it’s ability. If that particular problem is not solved in the way that you like it, then I’m sorry. The only other solution that I can recommend to you is to even ignore said problem, block the tags, or just block this blog in general. I personally can’t solve every single problem, especially since they come from different kinds of people, in which their opinions might contradict other’s opinions. If you truly aren’t satisfied with the way I run things, then it’s probably best if you just block and move on. I won’t get offended nor stop you. Sometimes, things just won’t work out 🤷🏾‍♀️

Like I’ve said above, this blog WILL be filled with different opinions and criticisms alike, even ones that you disagree with. If you can’t accept that, then just block this blog and move on. You’re allowed to reblog or comment on these confessions with your own opinions if you like as long as it’s aimed towards that confession in particular, not the blog it’s self. So if I feel like that your just trolling or what your saying is being indirectly vulgar towards this blog, then I’ll just block.

Again, anon hate will automatically be blocked, plain and simple. I don’t have the patience or tolerance anymore.

Again, like I’ve said many times before (and this will be the last time I’ll say this), Confessions are by DIFFERENT people, not the same person, so not ALL confessions are by the mod, nor are they by the same person. So don’t send hate that’s directed at the mod, since not all confessions are by them.

Look, I’m going to try to say this in the most non-belligerent way possible. I will try to take the necessary steps and make the necessary choices to make the blog enjoyable for everyone, not only me of course. However, sometimes those “steps” and “choices” might not be the same as what you want. If you don’t like that, that’s perfectly fine! However, being rude or gaslighting me about it isn’t going to change my mind. Even block the tags that are added to the confessions, or block this blog in general. Your opinions and feelings matter, but they aren’t the only ones that do.

Before submitting your thoughts & confessions, please read the rules.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please leave it in my ask box!

Now! With that out of the way! When I get back into making confessions, some will be unbanned and some will not!

The following confessions that will most likely be unbanned

Nex (Winx Club) confessions.

Positive Nabu (Winx Club) confessions.

All Chloe Bourgeois, Marinette Dupain Cheng, Zoe Lee, Sabrina Raincomprix (Miraculous Ladybug) confessions, regardless positive or negative. However, repetitive ones will most likely be submitted much later!

Anti Catra/Catradora confessions. However, ones that talk too negatively about its fans are still banned!

Negative Hordak (She Ra) confessions.

Negative Entrapta (She R) confessions.

The confessions that will still be banned or will be banned too

Confessions about Thomas Astruc (the creator of Miraculous Ladybug). You can still make criticisms about the writing or other issues, but avoid directly talking about him.

Confessions that talk directly about Chloe Bourgeois’s “redemption arc” (Miraculous Ladybug).

Nabu’s Death (Winx Club) Confessions.

Winx Club v.s. W.I.T.C.H confessions. You can still talk about both shows together, but NOT against each other.

Bloom, Sky and Diaspro (Winx Club) confessions, mostly ones like “Bloom/Sky are crappy people for what they did to Diaspro!”.

Anti Starlight Glimmer (My Little Pony) confessions. I just feel everyone and their grandmother knows how much of a “bad character” she is at this point, and has talked about it enough. I just don’t see the point anymore and just beating a dead horse.

“Bloom (Winx Club) is a Mary-Sue” confessions.

Confessions that claim characters as “Mary-Sues” or “Gary-Stus” in general. I just feel that the term has lost it’s meaning.

“I want the old Winx to come back!” confessions.

Things that could help!

Let me know if there’s any words, triggers, or tags that you would like for me to add to post so you can blacklist/block them.

Explaining your reasons for wanting a certain thing banned or not might help. I might understand or explain why this certain thing is valid/invalid.

The purpose of the blog IS for you to get things off your chest, but positive confessions are accepted too! I would love to hear some positivity about the shows, ships, characters etc. ^^

Please write *SPOILERS* in your confessions before writing it if you know that it’s a spoiler, especially if it’s Miraculous Ladybug and The Owl House. They’re the only active shows right now.

That’s all I really have to say. Sorry if this seems like I’m “making a mountain out of an anthill”, because I understand that this is just a side blog for fun, something that I don’t have to do lol However, I just want to be able to run my blog in peace, without any hurdles from people who refuse to understand. I’m just letting it be known that this is most likely the last time I’m going into detail like this.

So with this said, my little hiatus should be over soon, and I hope to do confessions again! Thank you for listening and if you have any thoughts or questions about any of this, feel free to leave it in my ask box!

Confessions at this time are closed until further notice, so please reframe from sending in confessions and headcanons! If you do so, it will be saved, but be released at a much later time!

Stay Magical!~

-WMGC Mod

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Okay, this?

This?

This is exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned the Malleus harassment asks I’d been receiving. People would briefly acknowledge my negative feelings for the character before immediately launching into an argument about why my thoughts on him are wrong, or telling me that I don’t “understand” him, thus invalidating my reasoning for why I dislike Malleus. Several of these asks would also end quite defensively, claiming that they are not telling me to change my opinion but that they are doing this to “help” me.

You do realize that you don’t need to be outright swearing at me or insulting me to be disrespectful of my opinions, don’t you? Subtle things like negging can be JUST as hurtful, especially at the frequency with which I’ve been receiving these.

It would be a different matter entirely if these asks were just sharing their own thoughts on Malleus (which is totally fine, I welcome different viewpoints and polite discussion), but the asks I’ve been getting would make a POINT to imply my way of thinking is wrong or put down other characters/my intelligence first before bringing up “why Malleus is actually great, you just don’t get it yet”. This is THE definition of gaslighting. You’re entitled to your opinion, but you really don’t need to tear others down (whether real people or other characters) in the process of sharing your thoughts, and you should NOT be forcing your opinion down others’ throats (especially if said someone has made it clear they are not interested in it.)

I don’t know how many times I need to say this before these types of people understand: you are NOT “helping” me, you are only making me dislike Malleus more every time you send in this kind of thing, you are making me more and more hesitant to keep doing what I do. I do NOT need to “understand” him more, and I do NOT need to be told this over and over again. You are NOT making me change my mind with tactics like this and you are NOT doing the character or other Malleus fans any favors by pushing the subject to this extent.

I seriously do NOT get what you hope to gain from doing this. You need to stop, because all you’re REALLY doing is 1) bringing me immense distress and 2) ruining things for everyone else that DOES enjoy Malleus. If you cannot respect a difference in opinion and quit it with this harassment, then I’m going to just stop accepting writing requests forever, take away the ability to send anonymous asks to my inbox, or just ban Malleus from my blog altogether. I don’t know what else I can do to help myself and my mental health but take these drastic steps.

To the person that specifically sent this in, no. Being fae has NOTHING to do with this. Many of the points I gave for why I dislike Malleus are NOT because of his species, they are problems I have solely with HIM as a character. You cannot attribute me disliking a character or not “understanding” them to their species. I have NO problem with Lilia, who is also a full fairy and gets up to more trouble than Malleus does. I understand Malleus’s character just FINE, but it doesn’t mean I am obligated to like it. I am ALLOWED to dislike the characters that I do, REGARDLESS of the reasons, even if you don’t agree with them, and you need to understand and respect that. I shouldn’t even HAVE to explain this so many times. One time should be enough.

For the safety of the user being tagged in the ask, I have blotted out their handle. I don’t want my readers seeing it and potentially confusing the user for the person that sent in the ask anonymously. They are not one and the same, and I don’t want to get other people involved in this; this is my situation and my situation alone to deal with.

Speaking frankly here, I am at the end of my rope seeing messages like this so often. Literally TENS and TENS of them almost DAILY since October 2021. I’d normally just quietly delete the asks or block Anons before, but they would always come back no matter what I did.

I am tired of being nice and patient.

This blog is meant to be a fun and creative outlet for me and the people that frequent it, and it is being tainted by things like this.

[harfanfare]

I saw this post and I was wondering if you write Malleus' too, is okay for you to make that?

How to win a heart of Malleus Draconia?

a/n: I started posting my writings here because I want to improve my English — so I technically wouldn't make this request. But! Someone on Wattpad (where I take requests) asked for the same thing, so I rolled up my sleeves and wrote this guide today in both languages. Enjoy~

1. Don't be afraid of him.

It is said that the first impression is the most important.

So when you first saw this guy walking through the corridor of Diasomnia, it was hard for you to get rid of that view from your head.

Illuminated both by the green magic flames set in the lobby, as well as by the moon, which eventually managed to break through the dark clouds and with a bright glow appear in the windows of the dormitory, he seemed... lonely and beautiful.

You shuddered as you took a step down the hallway and the dark-haired man turned to you. He measured you with his emerald eyes. And then you recognized him; all the conversations about the mysterious and fearsome Malleus Draconia flew through your head.

Everything told you to rush towards the hallway and run as far as possible, but a piece of you found it inappropriate. Or rather, no one would want to chase everyone away from themself... right?

When you realized you were looking at him for a while, you took a deep breath and nod slightly.

"Good evening, Draconia-san," you said quickly. After a while you added, "The moon is beautiful today, don't you think?”

 2. Smile a lot.

Today was a really wonderful day: the test was postponed, your favorite dish was given in the canteen, and for some reason, the last two lessons were canceled – your class had to make just a quick note about a topic and it took less than fifteen minutes.

"Something happened?" Malleus asked, seeing how almost in the jumps you walk past him. When you looked at him, he added, "You smile a lot.”

"I can stop smiling if you want," you made a sad face, but after a while, the corners of your mouth began to tremble uncontrollably and twisted up again. "Oops, I can’t. Today... it was such a good day... that I think I'm slowly using my life's happiness.”

"I didn't say that smiling is bad," he said. "You look so much better when you smile.”

"Oh," you sighed with apparent surprise. "Is it a compliment?"

"It’s rather a fact..?"

 3. From time to time visit him during club activities.

"Is this a class of the ‘Gargoyle research society club’?” with a deaf knock you opened the door. Malleus turned to you, making a break from browsing through the materials gathered in the library about the history of each of the gargoyles on the school grounds. And there were a lot of them.

"Yes," he replied briefly, getting up. "Do you need something, [Name]?"

"Not at all, my club don’t have a meeting today," you said, closing the door behind you.

You looked around: the room was as clean as ever, except for one desk, where were laid several huge volumes about statues in NRC.

“Are you here alone?” You said before you thought. You lowered your eyes to see Malleus nodding unconcerned slightly. You blinked several times trying to think of what else you could say. "This room... could be a secret base," that was the first thing that came to your mind. Malleus turned his head to one side, uncertain of your response.

“A secret base..? Why?”

"I have no idea," you admitted quickly. "But the very existence of a mysterious point is interesting, isn't it? Doing normal things, such as watching movies or just talking, seems more interesting in places like this,” After a moment of silence, you sighed. "You know what, this idea with the base is stupid”

"We can try," he replied with serious tone. You raised your eyes to see how he looked around the room. "But you'll just have to explain this idea to me in more detail. We can also tell Lilia, Silver and Sebek about it...” he smiled as if seeing your five together in his thoughts was a pleasure. "It will be surely... fun.”

 4. Get yourself a Tamagotchi.

"Look!" you spin a new key chain on your finger. You finally stopped and showed it to Malleus. "Now they are matching!”

A small electronic toy, in a dark green screen that, when it flashed, showed a virtual, pixelated animal. You were impressed with how good quality it was made, especially since you only gave the Shroud brothers a sketch of a toy that Malleus owned.

Your keychain was exactly the same, just a different color and with another pet.

Malleus pulled out his own device and put it on the table. He pressed one of the buttons and a small pet appeared on the keychain – a dragon.

"They can now be friends," you brought your toy closer to so-called Gao-Gao Dragon-kun.

"Do you think so?" He asked in a very surprised tone, but it sounded as if in a moment he were about to burst out with an inexplicably joyful and surprised laugh.

"Of course. Everyone needs a decent friend, no?”

 5. Gain the trust of Lilia, Silver and Sebek.

Lilia, one of Malleus' closest people. It is much more likely that you will meet him before Malleus. He will be very proud when he learns that Malleus has found a friend. If you become a taster of Lilia, in terms of his pastries, he will 100% like you, and at 20% you will leave the kitchen alive and well.

Silver, who has mastered the art of sleeping in any conditions. It's easy to get him into your plans, although with the craziest ones he will hesitate. Rather well-disposed towards everyone, he can cover for you when you are not in class— but he usually inadvertently falls asleep and both of you often have penal assignments after school.

Sebek, faithful to Malleus, if he doesn't like you, you won't have too many opportunities to stay by Malleus's side without a thunderous glances at you. He will recognize you if you will listen carefully to his monologues about his master and as a sign of your friendship, he will teach you by heart of all the titles and achievements of Malleus so far.

With this trio by your side, you can get a lot further than you might have imagined...

 6. Be a master in hide and seek.

You’d give your right arm that your breath was too loud.

You pressed your hands to your mouth as you crouched in the corner of the room.

From whose voices you already heard, you knew that Lilia had already found Sebek. This meant that you or Silver would still be helping cook dinner since Malleus didn’t come at the start of the game.

This may seem silly, but the ability to play classic games was one of the elements of the art of survival in Diasomnia.

It was thanks to games like ‘stone-paper-scissors’, hide and seek or tag that household chores fell on the shoulders of the losers. Lilia loved the idea, and there was always a proud smile on his lips when he saw his beloved children play together.

You heard the steps behind you and shivered.

Very slowly you turned around and looked up to see Malleus standing over you and wondering what you were doing, crouching in the darkest corner of the room.

Puns were also included in the survival pack.

Fearing that Lilia would hear your whisper, you put your finger on your mouth, asking him not to say a word. You put a begging eye into it – all but not cooking with Lilia. Not again.

Malleus nodded, recognizing the gravity of the situation, although he smiled.

Really, no one would want Malleus to be an enemy.

Or at least in such a situation.

 7. Do not hesitate to ask him for help with learning.

"In theory, you should focus on the space around you," Malleus pulled a wand in front of him. It flashed, and almost at the same time, a thin but incredibly strong protective barrier was created around him. “Weaker spells can be reflected. In turn, the stronger ones are better to block”

You nodded understandingly.

Defensive magic was not something easy to understand. Most depended on the person against whom the counter spell was being prepared. And there are countless people who walk on this Earth and want to start fights.

"Unique spells block or avoid physically," he continued. You nodded at every subsequent sentence, slowly feeling like all the lessons are eventually gaining transparency. “Using unique magic against unique magic, the stronger will win, both will lead to explosions or completely reduce.

He looked at you when you wrote down the last sentence in your notebook.

"I sincerely hope that you will only need this information in class," he said with a sigh. "If you need help, call me. I will come. I promise.”

 8. Sometimes be persuaded to wear extravagant clothes.

"Do you really think it suits me?" you turned around, looking at yourself from every possible angle in the mirror.

You were going to the theater in a few classes to see some era-related play that you've been discussing now in history lessons. Everyone, respecting the reputation, actions and achievements of theatre, dressed in their best clothes.

Malleus stood next to you.

He was already wearing a black and white outfit with green accessories. They all worked so well together and fitted him like a glove that you were sure that the whole outfit was made especially for him.

"Yes," he replied. "Everything you put on today suited you very well.”

Once again, with critical eyesight, you looked at the outfit, face and hair, before you quickly turned off the lights in the room and closed the door behind you.

Then you smiled at Malleus.

"We can go now," you said. You made your way through the portal to the main NRC building. "And... thank you for your help.

"My pleasure," he said. Under no circumstances was it just a polite formula. He really loved looking at you.

 9. Invite him to your birthday/party.

"Another break from school soon, huh?" — you muttered, leaning against the railing.

You took a deep breath and let the fresh, pleasant air refresh you.

"Are you going to home, [Name]?" Malleus asked. Green lights were still flying around him, so you guessed he’d just appeared here.

"I haven't decided yet," you sighed. "It would be nice to go home, but the break won't be very long... Ah, that's right!” you straightened up and turned to him. "How about spending another break together? As soon as I can, I will contact my family... although I cannot promise anything.”

Though he did not show it, Malleus' heart beat a little faster.

Spend free time? With someone? With someone he likes?

"Of course," he sounded less calm than he thought. He wasn’t often invited anywhere, even for the things he should have been on, so there was a lot of excitement growing in his body. "I don't see anything against it.”

 10. From "The Great Malleus Draconia-sama" to "Love".

"Ah, The Great Malleus-sama!" you sighed theatrically, taking from him a box of chocolates with a joyful smile. You could promise that because of this dark-haired boy here, you slowly become pampered. "Thank you for your generosity!”

Malleus frowned.

"The Great Malleus-sama"..?” he pondered, putting his fingers to his chin. "Did Sebek told you again to call me with this title?"

"No," you laughed softly at his reaction. "I did it out of curiosity. Maybe I could call you some cute nickname, hmm?" you smiled mischievously.

"For example?"

"By adding ‘-chan’ to your name?” you turned on your phone and typed something related to the nicknames. You started reading suggestions and struggled to hold back from laughing. ” ’Sunshine’, ‘star’, ‘flower’, ‘sweetheart’, ‘love’...

"I like the last one," he said, and the invisible force stung you to the ground.

"Would you like me to call you like that? Out of curiosity or out of love?" You laughed, but your cheeks were all red with blushes.

He smiled sincerely at your reaction.

"Hmm, I wonder..?"

[high-functioning-lokipath]

14 - A kiss so desperate that the two wind around each other, refusing to let go until they are finished. - Words: 1,052

Lokisses Mini-Imagine Series

Lokisses Masterlist

⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️: Mentions of kidnapping and torture, allusions to sexual assault although nothing is bluntly or graphically mentioned.

"I don't want you to go."

"I don't exactly want to go on this mission myself, Loki," You whispered, snuggling into him further under the warm blankets. "But I really have no choice." Loki hummed softly, kissing your forehead.

"Still," He trailed off. "When do you have to get up?"

"Not for another half hour or so."

"Good," Loki replied. He pulled you closer to him, kissing you earnestly. "Give me more time for this," He grinned.

"Silly boy," You replied. However you did not oppose his idea and kissed him back.

2 weeks later you are seriously regretting ever getting out of bed that morning. You were terrified. It had been 2 very long weeks since they'd kidnapped you and you knew it simply wasn't possible that your distress signal had activated in time. Loki would have found you already, you reasoned.

"Well, well, well. Hello there, little girl. Feeling a bit more cooperative today?" Your kidnapper sneered as he walked in the room.

"You will never get any information from me," You replied coolly. He walked up to you, breathing down your neck, caressing your arms.

"Perhaps a little more persuasion? Everyone has their breaking points. Especially a little whore like you." You fought the urge to pull away, knowing it would only make things worse. They'd put handcuffs on you that blocked your abilities so you had no way to escape.

"No," You said firmly. With that the man threw you against the wall.

"Fine. Have it your way. Boys, you know what to do to her."

Hours later you laid on the floor close to unconsciousness. If you weren't found soon you knew you'd die. Giving into the exhaustion you thought that perhaps that would be better. At least Loki and the Avengers would be safe.

"Y/N? Y/N! Wake up! Please!" You heard a voice calling out to you but everything was fuzzy. You couldn't open your eyes or even move to reply. The voice sounded familiar, safe, but you couldn't think straight. "Sh-she's not responding. She's been injured really badly. W-we need to get her to the healers!"

"I've got her, Loki," Another voice said. "She'll be ok. Tony has the best doctors in the world back at the tower waiting."

"Ok, Steve."

When you finally woke up, the first thing you processed was Loki leaning onto the edge of your bed uncomfortably from his chair while holding your hand. The second thing you processed was the immense pain you felt from the tips of your toes to the crown of your head. You gasped harshly as the wave of pain hit you. Loki woke with a start, eyes widening in surprise when he saw you awake.

"You're awake!" He cried, smiling widely. "I'm so happy! Oh darling! I was so worried for you!" At this point he actually was crying, tears streaming down his face uncontrollably.

You hadn't said a word yet before the Doctor and a couple nurses came rushing in. Loki watched worriedly as they rushed around running various tests. Finally they decided that, since you lived in the Tower, you could be released as long as someone cared for you 24/7.

"We're almost there," Loki whispered to you as you rode in the elevator. He had taken it upon himself to watch over you since he was officially your boyfriend. Walking you over to the sofa in his room, he made sure you were comfortable before getting out one of your favorite t-shirts of his and a pair of sweatpants. "I thought you might be more comfortable in these," He said, holding them out to you. You took them abit hesitantly but nodded. You stood and started to pull your shirt off but Loki quickly stopped you. "Woah! Not that I don't-I-well-" He stuttered nervously, taken completely off guard at your actions. "Don't you want to change in the bathroom? Have some privacy?" You looked at him oddly but walked to the bathroom to change. Loki quickly dialled Steve on his phone.

"Hello?"

"Steve, what happened to her while they had her?"

"Well it was obvious they beat and starved her. There was probably some other form of torture but we're not sure."

"Alright," Loki sighed.

"What's wrong? Is she ok?" Steve asked worriedly.

"She's fine. I think. Just acting a little odd."

"Well let me know if you need anything."

"I will," Loki said. Once he hung up the phone he sat on the end of the bed to wait for you. When you came out he smiled brightly and held his hands out to you, inviting you over for a hug. You walked over slowly, leaning into his arms but not hugging him back. "What's wrong darling?" Tears started streaming down your face and Loki tried not to panic. "Talk to me, love," He whispered. He went to kiss your forehead but you flinched, pulling away quickly and curling up into ball on the sofa. He ran over to your side, kneeling on the floor. He wanted to reach out for you but he knew better. "Darling? Can I see what's going on?" He asked, reaching out for your head. You nodded slowly, giving him permission to look into your memories.

About 15 minutes later, Loki finally pulled away. "Oh my love," He whispered, crying himself. "I'm so sorry. You should have never had to go through that. I should have found you sooner."

"No!" You yelled, finally speaking up. "Don't-don't blame yourself."

"Well don't blame yourself either," He cautioned. You nodded slowly.

"I'll try." He held his arms open again and this time you immediately hugged him, holding him as close as possible.

"Come on. Let's get some rest." He carried you over to the bed and pulled the blankets over you. He crawled in next to you carefully and you snuggled up to him.

"Thank you, Loki," You whispered, reaching up to kiss him.

"You're ok with this?" You nodded and kissed him desperately.

"I love you, Loki, so much." You pulled him as close as you could and he chuckled.

"I love you too, Y/N," He smiled, kissing you again. "Now go to sleep. I'll be here when you wake up." You nodded, wrapping yourself around him tightly.

"Alright, Loki. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, my love."

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[xxtha-blog]

Hello, I have an announcement to make. I will be calling out myself today.

It’s been brought to my attention something that happened just over 2 years ago has been brought back, so I’d like to talk about it:

So here’s a story. If you follow my blog you know I’m very critical of a lot of things, especially surrounding Dreamtale AUs. Now, I believe in one very important thing when I criticize things: No one deserves unsolicited criticism. Thus I tag/warn/hide all my stuff so those who continue reading it are prepared and I NEVER send my stuff to the creators of the work. EVER. If they’re in a server and I want to talk about it with someone, I move to DMs. If I get asked an opinion on tumblr I tag that shit with warnings, put on a read more label, and keep my criticism as constructive and analytic as possible.

So what does this have to do with anything. Let’s go back to November 2019. It was just prior to Dreamtale being continued, and a peak everyone hates Dream and knows nothing about his character. So if you think I dislike Dream alts and AUs now, it was a lot worse back then. Especially about one particular AU: Shattered Dream. One day I sat down and wrote a very long vent/rant essay on Shattered Dream, put all my emotions into it, then put it down and promised never to touch the AU again. I had it written down, it was done. No more would I rant about Shattered Dream. I had already put every opinion I could think of in a stupid document to get it out of me. The only people that were supposed to see that rant essay bullshit were my friends. It was meant to be private. It wasn’t constructive criticism. It wasn’t nice. I put all the frustration I possibly could into that thing. And I absolutely NEVER wanted it to be read by the creator. Why would I, it was me being an asshole for like 10 solid pages. It was just every problem I personally had, written down for me to get tf over it. I didn’t post it anywhere but my dms/private server. For any of my followers on this blog, you’ve probably never heard about/read this thing for a reason. I never posted it here, and if you do read it now, know I certainly don’t stand by the things I said in it.

However, me being a dumbass, I thought it was fine where it was. Discord. There was no possible way it could get out there. It was in a google doc. It was tagged with a big content disclaimer at the top for my friends (because a few of them did like the au). I did not post it anywhere beyond my own private dms and discord channels.

And the worst possible thing happened to that document.

Someone sent it to the creator. And they read it. And I was fucking mortified. I don’t know how they found it and I don’t know who sent it to them and I immediately asked to talk to them in discord so I could apologize. I also disabled the link for it to remove access since it had gotten out.

They sent me a message something along the lines of: I don’t want to hear your apology, what’s done is done, just take it down. And I was blocked before I could send a single message. I obviously had taken it down. The link they currently have posted it is a copy of it, the original was deleted.

So shit. I felt terrible. I believe very strongly in the idea that you should make things for yourself and nothing but yourself, I’d never want my opinions to genuinely affect someone’s ability to create, that’s terrible, that’s not what criticism should be ever. And then they quit their AU and I felt even more abysmal. And the situation was essentially the equivalent of someone screenshotting or copy pasting some shitty rant you made in a discord server about an AU, and having it sent anonymously to the creator. I had a false sense of security it was safe. I shouldn’t have. That was stupid. That will forever be on me.

Now, present day, they post a copy of the essay on their blog and say it was sent anonymously to them. I can promise you I would never send that to them or anyone connected to them. That’s insane. It was not me who sent it, but I am genuinely so fucking sorry you had to read that. I am so sorry for the pain it caused you, for the demotivation, for the loss to your followers of an AU they loved. It was not meant for you. It was not meant to accuse you of anything. it was solely a vent, full emotional bs rant keyboard smashed onto a page. If I could go back and redo things, it would never have been written in the first place. I wish you had continued your AU. I really wish none of this had happened.

I have been waiting 2 years to be able to say that. @shattereddreamsau I know nothing I say can make up for the two years, but if you’d be willing to talk about anything, I’m fully open to making up for this in any way I can. I know I can’t take it back, the internet lives on forever, but know that I will do whatever it takes to make it better if you’re open to that. If not, and I totally understand if you want absolutely nothing to do with me, but I do hope you see this and know I am truly sorry. If you do reply, I ask we continue it privately so we can sort this out away from tumblr.

I avoided making this type of post on tumblr for the last two years to avoid other people getting involved and to avoid causing you more problems, but since the essay has now been posted here, I am here to take responsibility for writing it.

I appreciate the effort people put into AUs even if I don’t like them. I hope you know I appreciate different opinions on AUs. I’m glad to see people find enjoyment out of things I do not. I do not ever want to take that away from someone, and I hope in the last two years, you have seen me make an effort to keep my criticisms properly hidden/tagged and short/respectful. AUs are supposed to be fun. I never want something like this to happen again and will do my best to make sure it doesn’t.

[percabeth4life]

Sorry to just jump in here and drop this on you, but i saw a blog once call percabeth an abusive relationship???? and i was like ?????? but none of my friends read pjo so i cant ask them for thoughts, how about you?

Oh boy anon so this is a thing.

Percabeth is abusive is a common thing those that hate percabeth or ship something else and want to validate it say, and why I have the “anti-percabeth” tag blocked.

I’ve seen people say Annabeth just giving him a dirty look was abuse, people will reach for anything done between them that isn’t perfect, usually to justify why their ship is better.

Honestly, I’m open to most ships. Percabeth is my main but if you ship things that’s totally fine, even if I don’t like it I won’t say you shouldn’t ship it. I read non-Percabeth ships, but a lot of people feel a strong need to insist a ship is abusive if they don’t like it.

It’s fine to just not like a ship.

First off lets preface all of this with a warning that I’ll be discussing abuse here so if that’s upsetting skip it.

It got long, like very long (word count is nearly 3k), so it’s all under the Read More, there’s a TLDR at the very bottom.

Now then, what is abuse?

There are two definitions that pop up with a quick google search

Use (something) to bad effect or for a bad purpose; misuse. 

Treat (a person or an animal) with cruelty or violence, especially regularly or repeatedly.

If you look up the legal definition (law.cornell) used to define abuse there are more options, but I’m leaving out 2, 3, and 4 cause 3 and 4 def have nothing to do with this and definition 2 is in regards to child abuse.

Abuse, generally: physically, sexually, or mentally injuring a person.

Now if we want to go deeper in lets define physical and mental abuse. I’ll be leaving out sexual as that has no bearing on this particular situation.

Physical abuse is defined by healthyplace.com as

Non-accidental use of force that results in bodily injury, pain, or impairment. This includes, but is not limited to, being slapped, burned, cut, bruised or improperly physically restrained.

Now lets expand on this.

Something that is pointed to specifically is the mentioned intent. “Non-accidental”. It must be purposeful harm.

Now, I will also point out that Physical abuse doesn’t necessarily say the intent needs to be abuse, but as my lawyer parents state it simply needs to be “intent to harm” and it gets labeled abuse. The legal definition (given above) agrees, it is simply that it needs to be purposeful harm. But then we need to define this harm, especially the bodily injury, pain, or impairment.

Bodily injury is defined by Merriam Webster as

any damage to a person's physical condition including pain or illness

Now what is damage?

loss or harm resulting from injury to person, property, or reputation

So then harm is defined as... damage, so the definition I prescribe to (and I asked my lawyer parents to confirm, unfortunately I have no link for that).

Causes pain (pain defined as suffering)

Pain is defined by Merriam Webster as

a localized or generalized unpleasant bodily sensation or complex of sensations that causes mild to severe physical discomfort and emotional distress and typically results from bodily disorder (such as injury or disease)

a basic bodily sensation that is induced by a noxious stimulus, is received by naked nerve endings, is associated with actual or potential tissue damage, is characterized by physical discomfort (such as pricking, throbbing, or aching), and typically leads to evasive action

mental or emotional distress or suffering

Finally impairment is

diminishment or loss of function or ability

(all of the above definitions except harm are pulled from Merriam Webster linked with Bodily Injury)

Okay, so now lets consider it, physical abuse needs to cause damage to someone, it must be purposeful damage though the intent to abuse does not necessarily need to be the intent. So if your actions do not intend physical harm then it is not physical abuse.

So then, do Percy and Annabeth have a physically abusive relationship?

Lets start with the classic one that everyone likes to bring up, the Judo Flip.

First off, do Judo Flips hurt? [sourcing (1) (2) (3)]

They CAN hurt if done with that intent, but if your intent is to not harm and you are trained properly, No Judo should not hurt. Anyone properly trained in Judo should know how to prevent harm. (1, 2)

On top of that, the first thing anyone learning Judo is taught is how to fall.

All judoka learn to fall safely, by rolling and breaking their fall with Ukemi. This breakfall absorbs the impact of the throw. (3)

Percy should have the basics of this down seeing how he was already in matches (mentioned in book one prior him being claimed) in his first summer at camp, after four years he’s definitely got the basics down.

Therefore, the Judo flip did not intend to cause harm, nor did it appear to. Despite that it was on stone, and Annabeth had him pinned, Percy didn’t even show discomfort. He laughed.

On top of that, when Annabeth last saw Percy he had the Curse of Achilles. As far as she was aware, he still had it. A requirement of Physical Abuse is the intent to cause harm, every factor here shows that there was no intent to cause harm.

This scene was not physical abuse, it was just bad writing.

I can think of other scenes, only a few, before they were actually in a relationship. In book three Annabeth punched Percy in the stomach when he didn’t catch her hint that he should ask her to dance

She punched me in the gut. ‘Me, Seaweed Brain.’

‘Oh. Oh, right.’ (TTC, chapter 1, page 8 of book on my copy)

There doesn’t seem to have been any harm done as he doesn’t even mention it hurting, not even a pause, just went “oh yeah her”. So it was likely a light punch, the kind friends do that don’t hurt just catch attention. Annabeth has been trained since she was 7, she should know how to throw a punch without actually causing harm.

If anyone wants to bring up other examples, feel free, I’m not combing the books right now for examples but I will reply to them (preferably in asks so this post doesn’t get super long...)

I cannot think of any examples of Percy hitting/punching Annabeth nor any other kind of physical interaction, if someone wishes to bring one of those up feel free.

Does this mean that I think they should be hitting each other despite the fact that it’s clear there is no intent to harm?

No, I don’t really think they should be hitting each other.

But! An important thing there is their own boundaries, not mine. I would not be up for being hit but I do share friendly punches with my friends, which is similar in intent. It’s simply that they’ve been trained to fight and have to a lot to survive so their boundaries for what is “harmful” are different.

But that’s a whole different issue and a different academic essay :)

I don’t believe there is any physical abuse in Percabeth.

Moving on, Emotional abuse (which Psychological and Verbal added as they all connect).

Emotional abuse is defined by helathyplace.com as

Any act including confinement, isolation, verbal assault, humiliation, intimidation, infantilization, or any other treatment which may diminish the sense of identity, dignity, and self-worth.

It also covers Psychological abuse and verbal abuse. Psychological abuse does not have a definition available on the site I’m using but it does have a description. If you’d like to read the description go (here). I will add a detail of how it works though

Psychological abuse signs and symptoms may start small at first as the abuser "tests the waters" to see what the other person will accept, but before long the psychological abuse builds into something that can be frightening and threatening.

Verbal abuse definition defined by healthyplace.com is

Any language or behavior that seeks to coerce its victim to doubt their perceptions or their abilities and subjugate themselves to the abuser.

So considering that, we note another important factor here, they also have intent involved. “Test the waters” and “seek to coerce” for Psychological and Verbal abuse.

Emotional abuse is different in that it does not specify intent, except every item mentioned is purposeful. If you’re confining someone then you’re doing that on purpose, you cannot easily accidentally do most of that. Those actions carry intent, even if the intent is not abuse.

Now then, is percabeth emotionally abusive?

Once again I’ll start with the big thing people point out, the Judo Flip.

I’ve seen it point out that it could be seen as humiliation.

Annabeth grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. He slammed into the stone pavement. Romans cried out. Some surged forward, but Reyna shouted, “Hold! Stand down!”

Annabeth put her knee on Percy’s chest. She pushed her forearm against his throat. She didn’t care what the Romans thought. A white-hot lump of anger expanded in her chest—a tumor of worry and bitterness that she’d been carrying around since last autumn.

“If you ever leave me again,” she said, her eyes stinging, “I swear to all the gods—”

Percy had the nerve to laugh. Suddenly the lump of heated emotions melted inside Annabeth.

“Consider me warned,” Percy said. “I missed you, too.” (MOA, chapter 2, page 19 of my copy)

If you look at the scene itself you’ll see that Annabeth is very emotional right then, she just got her boyfriend back, she’s exhausted from months of worrying, she’s emotionally very strained, and she judo flips him as all her pain just fills her.

A lot of people with anxiety or high stress or similar issues have times when the anxiety doesn’t affect them during the time they’re stressed, but right after the stressors are gone.

It’s clear that’s what happened here, all her feelings that she’d been burying to work just filled her.

And Percy smiles up at her and says he missed her.

It’s clear from her own comment that she didn’t care what the Romans thought (said right after they almost attacked her) that her thoughts were not on how this looked for Percy, but for her. She knew it looked bad for her to attack him.

She wasn’t trying to embarrass or humiliate Percy, she was trying to get all that pain and stress and anger out. I don’t like how it was done, but it did not physically harm him (nor did she expect it to) and it clearly did not humiliate him.

He smiled and said he missed her.

He understood what she was going through, and made it clear he loved her.

I still think it was bad writing, but it’s not humiliation, nor is it emotional abuse.

Another thing I’ve seen pointed out is Annabeth’s nickname for Percy.

Seaweed Brain.

I will start this with a reminder that both of their nicknames for each other were originally meant as insults.

Wise Girl was first used by Clarisse and it clearly upset Annabeth, it is used twice by Clarisse actually.

Once in TLT, when she and Percy first meet, and once in SOM when they’re attacking Charybdis.

Percy in comparison uses Wise Girl twice as well, both in TLT, once when he was mocking her at her coming along on the quest and once when they were saying goodbye. It’s also used once in HOO, in BOO.

Honestly it’s not much a nickname... only used by Percy 3 times in all the (main) books. There are like 3 other cases in all the side stories and MCGA combined.

Annabeth uses seaweed brain a total of 41 times in all the books combined, in PJO it’s used 25 times, 22 by Annabeth, and HOO it’s used outloud 9 times, all by Annabeth. On top of this, while the PJO cases were all outloud, the HOO cases were not, with 2 (making the total 11) used only in Annabeth’s thoughts.

Seaweed brain is used in TLT 6 times, 5 times by Annabeth.

The first time is when Annabeth is joining the quest, then when he says things are going fine so far when they start the quest, then when at the Ride of Love, then when Annabeth calls him her friend, then when they’re saying goodbye.

If you watch the progression of it it’s the same as with Wise Girl, though used more often. It starts as an insult, and then becomes fond and a term for her friend by the end of it.

I don’t particularly want to label every single instance, but a quick overview of all the PJO books is that it’s used by Annabeth in annoyance a total of 4 times, in fondness/exasperation/worry 18 times. Those times of annoyance were all in books 1 and 2, the time of exasperation (1 of the 18) was in book 2.

The vast majority were done out of worry, and the rest when she was being soft.

It’s not meant to diminish his intelligence, nor is intended as an insult beyond book 1 and 1 instance of book 2. It is rarely used because he’s being ignorant either. You can make an argument for the first case in book 3 being done because he wasn’t catching her hint to dance and thus was mocking his inability to catch a hint, but it was mixed with fondness from my read.

Overall the nickname is not intended as an insult anymore, it has become a friendly name for Percy that shows how fond Annabeth is of him. She does not have nicknames for anyone else.

In HOO all the cases were relatively fond, with one that she didn’t say outloud being used when she was cheering Hazel up by telling stories about Percy (ah the benefits of long time friendships, you get to tell all the good stories).

In the end I think that it’s cute that they have a nickname for each other, and though there could be more flattering ones, the intent that Percy understands from it and the intent Annabeth uses it with clearly show that it is meant in fondness and was a gradual change from a name that was meant to poke at him. It’s meaning is is fond and loving and it was only used 3 times prior with any other (negative) intent.

Also friends give each other nicknames, and commonly they are meant to be teasing.

There is one other thing I’ve seen brought up, being Annabeth thinking that she needs to keep Percy on his toes (specifically about Rachel in this case) when they’re in Tartarus.

‘Rachel?’ Percy asked. ‘You mean our Rachel? Oracle of Delphi Rachel?’

‘That’s the one.’ Annabeth suppressed a smile.

Whenever she brought up Rachel’s name, Percy got nervous. At one point, Rachel had been interested in dating Percy. That was ancient history. Rachel and Annabeth were good friends now. But Annabeth didn’t mind making Percy a little uneasy. You had to keep your boyfriend on his toes. (HOH, didn’t bother to check chapter number, page 109 of my copy)

So here we see that Annabeth is “keeping him on his toes” but in context, they’re sending a note to Rachel through the Hermes temple in Tartarus. It was not Annabeth bringing it up to mess with him, it was her smiling at the little moment where he was thrown off about Rachel.

Frankly, in general Annabeth doesn’t do anything like that. She occasionally teases Percy but he always teases back. After the Rachel stuff in book 5 things were chill with all of them. We’ve seen no evidence of Percy being uncomfortable with Rachel being brought up, nor Annabeth thinking that it should be brought up for that purpose.

If anything Annabeth has shown some serious abandonment issues in fearing that Percy would leave her over other girls (she needs some therapy after that mess of a childhood but Khiron apparenlty doesn’t think so).

I see this as a case of bad writing with nothing else supporting it, including the scene it happens in.

Even had it actually been something supported by other instances, in the context she says it in it seems more like teasing over an ex where the break was amicable and everyone is still friends, which isn’t abusive or manipulative.

It’s just that Rick is tasteless.

So is Percabeth emotionally/psychologically/verbally abusive? No.

If someone wishes to bring up other instances shoot me an ask.

So in conclusion,

I do not see how it is abusive. There are elements I do not like, and some parts that in my own relationship I wouldn’t be okay with. But in Percy and Annabeth’s relationship they have clear boundaries, they are both more than capable of stopping the other if they do something that upsets them. They have both shown fondness towards the others actions even if it is something that we don’t approve of in our relationships.

If Percy showed upset at her actions that would be different. But we literally see into his mind and he shows no upset at her words or actions. He is fond, he is understanding, and he responds to each instance of teasing with teasing of his own.

Notably I never see people saying Percy is abusive, only Annabeth.

I get a feel that people ask for flawed characters then crucify them if they’re not flawed in easily likeable ways. Annabeth is not a perfect character, I don’t like everything she does, but she is a realistic character and should not be demonized.

TDLR: Annabeth has never purposefully harmed Percy, and Percy has never purposefully harmed her. Neither have verbally/emotionally/psychological taken actions with the intent of harming the other when in their relationship or since becoming friends. There have been instances of upsetting the other but they talked and it clearly was not meant to hurt the other but because they themselves were hurting

Percabeth is not abusive

[melanielocke]

Lost in the Shadows - Chapter one

Lucie, Cordelia, Thomas and Alastair are spending the summer in a small town at the edge of a forest. Lucie hopes she can finally tell Cordelia how she really feels, while Thomas hopes to get to know Alastair a bit better. Alastair and Cordelia are glad to get some time away from their family and their parents separating. But something is not right in the forest. People are disappearing, and a creature warns Thomas that he is in danger, that a debt to a powerful being has not yet been repaid and they will need to combine all their abilities to stop what’s coming, and save Thomas.

CW: past toxic relationship, past abuse, mentions of alcoholism, PTSD It won't be super gory, but can be creepy

Tag list: @foxglove-airmid @alastair-esfandiyar-carstairs1 @nott-the-best

Tagging @julywood because Thomas is one of the main characters

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32505550/chapters/80620474

‘Are you finished packing, Lulu?’

Lucie heard her father’s voice from behind the door of her bedroom, but she didn’t respond immediately. She was working on her story, and needed to finish this chapter so she could email it to Cordelia. She needed to concentrate, and that required blocking out all sounds coming from the outside world. The chapter had taken a bit longer than anticipated and the ghost of one of Cordelia’s dead boyfriends had somehow made its way into the chapter. Fictional Cordelia had had many boyfriends and all had died tragic deaths to make way for the next. She currently didn’t have a boyfriend and Lucie wasn’t planning another one yet. The real Cordelia had only dated her brother James for a while a year ago. Lucie didn’t think she wanted real Cordelia to have a boyfriend either.

The door opened and her father peeked inside. ‘You haven’t started packing at all, have you?’

‘I need to finish my chapter for Cordelia,’ Lucie insisted. ‘She will be stuck in a very long car ride with only Alastair for company and she needs something to occupy herself with.’

Lucie would be staying the summer with her parents in her grandmother’s manor, whereas her grandmother would be traveling to southern Italy with a couple of friends. While Lucie was usually excited about spending her summer there, she had feared it would be lonely considering her brother James wouldn’t be coming this year. He’d graduated school and he and his best friend Matthew were going to travel across the continent by themselves. She’d feared she’d be alone all summer, but then Thomas, her closest friend besides Cordelia, had convinced his parents to travel to the same town this summer, renting a cottage nearby her grandmother’s house.

‘Alright, I’ll pack for you,’ her father said. ‘But if you find your swimsuit or your sparrow plush toy is missing, then I will not be held responsible.’

‘Jack is coming,’ Lucie insisted, referring to her sparrow plush toy she’d once named after Jack Sparrow, and she put her laptop away to put her plush toy in her bag.

After a short moment of contemplation she put her new pink bikini and an older black and red striped one piece in there too. There was a lake close to grandmother’s manor and Lucie expected she’d go swimming regularly. She returned to her laptop, and tried to think of a good ending for the chapter. She didn’t like to end everything in a cliffhanger, but the story needed to remain intriguing.

‘No clothes? Underwear?’ her father asked.

Lucie considered just bringing everything suitable for the summer but realized they didn’t have that much space in the car. So instead she opened her closet, picked out some tops, skirts, dresses and jumpsuits and put them into her bag. She would probably regret leaving something behind later on but there was no time. Just to be sure, she went over the closet again and added a couple more dresses. She couldn’t leave her new yellow wrap dress behind, she’d sent Cordelia a picture of her wearing it a couple of weeks ago after she’d bought it and Cordelia had commented that she looked gorgeous. Lucie suspected it was just Cordelia being nice but the comment had still made her heart run wild.

She added enough underwear to last her several weeks and then went back to adding clothes at random until the bags were full.

‘Done,’ she announced, and she went back to her laptop, finishing her chapter.

Adding in a ghost was a difficult choice, but Lucie had decided fictional ghosts behaved similarly to real ghosts. Lucie had never seen a ghost of a dead boyfriend though. She hadn’t seen Jesse Blackthorn even once since he’d died four years ago.

When the chapter was finished, she emailed it to Cordelia, hoping she would receive it before she and her brother left home. Cordelia had almost not been allowed to come stay with her family this summer, her father tended to be strict and wanted to keep Cordelia at home. There had been some trouble lately at the Carstairs home though, and Cordelia’s mother had decided it would be good for her to go spend time with Lucie. Cordelia’s brother Alastair had decided to come with her, although Lucie wasn’t sure why. Either way, Lucie had decided she and Cordelia were going to have the greatest summer ever.

 ***

Thomas hadn’t been this excited about going on a vacation with his parents in a while. The small town where they’d be staying sounded boring, and certainly wasn’t the location most boys his age wanted to spend the summer, but then Thomas wasn’t interested in drinking and partying all night and would much rather explore forests and go swimming in lakes with Lucie Herondale. That wasn’t the main reason he was excited though. A week ago, Lucie had confirmed her close friend Cordelia Carstairs would be staying the summer with her, and a couple of days later Lucie had informed him Cordelia’s brother Alastair would be coming as well.

Thomas had gone to school with Alastair for a year, Alastair a year ahead of him, and at the time Alastair had been rather awful, especially to Thomas’ friends James and Matthew. To be fair, Alastair’s jokes about Matthew behaving like his mother were funny. Matthew did behave like his mother, always coming to collect him when he’d spent too much time around Alastair. Why he’d fallen in love with Alastair anyway, he wasn’t sure. He’d been intrigued by the mystery, he guessed, Alastair’s sad eyes and vicious tongue.

But after that year, Alastair had changed schools, and had gone to school with Lucie and Cordelia instead and he’d heard much from Lucie about him. Alastair had defended Lucie from bullies had kept to himself and created this image of someone who was untouchable, no longer a bully, but he would destroy you if you even considered hurting his sister or her friend Lucie. Thomas was once more intrigued. While James and Matthew were still angry, Thomas had decided he must have changed and he was thankful Alastair had protected Lucie, heaven knew that girl knew how to get herself into trouble.

Thomas checked his phone for the millionth time. He was done packing, but his parents were not. Lucie hadn’t send any new texts and Thomas suspected she needed to pack or finish the latest chapter of her novel before her parents left. She’d listed some ideas that might help him spend more time alone with Alastair, although Thomas was not yet sure if he wanted that. He wasn’t out to anyone but Lucie yet, and although he intended to tell his parents, he wasn’t yet sure how. He wasn’t yet sure he was ready for a relationship, and although he liked Alastair, he was also a bit intimidated by him.

Barbara had sent a message, and Thomas opened it. It was a picture of her and Oliver in front of the Eiffel Tower. Barbara and her boyfriend Oliver had gone to Paris to celebrate their two year anniversary and to celebrate Barbara graduating as a nurse.

Thomas texted a response and put his phone in his bag and walked outside, checking to see if his parents needed any help. A couple of gnomes were running around the garden. Thomas didn’t mind them, they took good care of the garden, and were far from dangerous, but they could get up to mischief. He’d learned that whenever cookies, forks or socks went missing, it was usually the garden gnomes. They lived in forests sometimes, but also liked to build their homes in human gardens. Of course, most humans had no idea they were there, but Thomas could see all sorts of strange creatures. Most were harmless, so Thomas never minded much. He didn’t seek out the supernatural, but he didn’t mind its presence.

Both his mother and Barbara had the same gift, and although Eugenia didn’t she had learnt to see the gnomes. Thomas had found out everyone could learn to see the supernatural if they knew what to look for and knew it was out there. Most people didn’t believe so they didn’t see, but Eugenia had grown up with a mother and siblings who saw everything whether they wanted to or not. She had always known what was out there.

Eugenia and her friend Kamala would be spending the summer in India this year, they’d saved up for months for their big trip. Thomas suspected they might be more than just friends but so far Eugenia had not confirmed this.

‘We’re almost done,’ his mother promised, handing him a plate of cookies. ‘Give some to the gnomes, will you? To show them our thanks for taking care of the garden.’

Thomas went into the backyard where even more gnomes had gathered. It was difficult to imagine most people could look at this scene and see nothing out of the ordinary, when several gnomes were running around, holding something shiny in their hands.

‘The car keys,’ Thomas groaned out loud and he put the plate of cookies on the ground.

‘You can have these, but please give me the keys back,’ he said.

The gnomes said something, but Thomas didn’t understand their language, and then attacked the plate of cookies, dropping the car keys in the process. Thomas picked them up before the gnomes realized anything, and picked up the plate as soon as it was empty. Gnomes could be monsters when it came to cookies and they didn’t have table manners, they just attacked any food they saw. Thomas couldn’t blame them.

Thomas quickly washed the plate and put it back with the others before joining his parents again, who were finally finished with everything.

‘Feeding the gnomes again, Sophie?’ his father asked. ‘Are you sure that many cookies are healthy for them?’

His mother shrugged. ‘They’re gnomes, Gideon. Who knows what’s healthy for them?’

His father couldn’t argue with that logic. Thomas wondered if there would be gnomes too at the cottage where they would be staying, or if other creatures would show themselves. Thomas had learned that if there was a myth or any kind of story depicting it, it probably existed somewhere, but most such beings were very rare and so far Thomas had mostly encountered gnomes.

Checking the car one last time to see if they had everything, Thomas got into the passenger seat next to his mother who would be driving, his father behind. Thomas had gotten too tall to fit in the backseat of this car and sitting there for a long drive would be unnecessarily painful. Besides, Thomas was better at reading maps than his father, and if they got lost they would depend on him to find the way.

As they drove, Thomas couldn’t help but think of Alastair Carstairs. Why had he decided to join the Herondales? Thomas didn’t think he was particularly close to Lucie, although he knew Will Herondale had a weak spot for anything that carried the name Carstairs. He wasn’t surprised the Herondales had invited him along. Could he be thinking of Thomas? And would Lucie’s plans to get them to spend time together help, or only make everything worse?

 ***

‘I cannot get this bag to close,’ Cordelia complained.

‘Perhaps that’s because there’s a limit to how much fits in there,’ Alastair said without looking up.

He was finished packing, of course. Cordelia, on the other hand, had decided she had not yet enough clothes packed and with some suggestions from her mother and aunt Risa had tried to add more.

‘Don’t you have another bag for me?’ Cordelia asked, annoyed.

She loved Alastair, but sharing a room with him was a bit too much and they’d gotten on each other’s nerves. They were currently staying with their aunt Risa, their mother too, but Risa’s apartment was a bit small for all of them. It was a temporary situation and Cordelia hoped that after the summer she and Alastair didn’t have to share a room anymore. At least in the Herondale manor, there were plenty of rooms and Cordelia intended to get one as far away from her brother as possible. Alastair tended to be neat, and his half of the room was always perfectly in order, whereas Cordelia was a bit messier, and both were irritated with the other.

‘You can check if any of my bags have some space left. Or you can leave the bag opened and put it in the car like this and hope it doesn’t end with clothes littered everywhere.’

Cordelia went to the building’s parking garage and to the car and put the bag there, half open, making sure nothing fell out. No one but the two of them would be fitting in there with how much Alastair had packed. Cordelia couldn’t imagine he’d need all that, but she knew better than to attempt to convince her brother he could leave something behind.

Back inside, she saw Alastair sitting on his bed, vaguely staring into the distance as if he was daydreaming.

‘Alastair, stop doing that,’ Cordelia said.

Calling his name usually brought him out even when his senses were closed off from the world around him. Alastair had an ability that Cordelia best described as him being Harry Potter’s pensieve. He could revisit his own memories, and if they allowed it, other people’s memories as well, as well as bring people with him into memories. Alastair tended to stay out of other people’s memories, but could get lost in his own. Outside their family, no one knew about it and Alastair preferred to keep it that way.  

The Carstairs family had always been aware of the supernatural, of course. Once their father Elias had carried the magic sword cortana and fought evil creatures with it. That had been a long time ago though, and Cordelia owned cortana now, but she had never used it to fight anything beyond straw men in the backyard. She didn’t have any abilities though, not beyond her connection the sword, nothing like Alastair’s odd memory. Neither of them understood why he was that way.

‘Were you revisiting your break up again?’ Cordelia asked then.

She knew he’d been revisiting that memory over and over lately, although she didn’t understand why. It couldn’t possibly make him feel better, could it? Of course, Alastair wasn’t exactly known for making the healthiest choices when it came to coping.

‘Charles has been texting me,’ Alastair said, his face blank. ‘I made sure that when I broke up with him, I was very clear about not wanting him to contact me. I wanted to see if there was anything I said that might have made my meaning unclear, any invitation for him to keep texting me.’

‘I don’t think Charles has ever listened to a thing you said,’ Cordelia said. ‘That’s his problem, not yours. Have you blocked his number yet?’

Alastair didn’t say anything.

‘You can block him,’ Cordelia insisted. ‘And you should. It’s creepy how he keeps texting you.’

As far as Cordelia was concerned, Charles had been creepy long before that, ever since he began a relationship with her brother despite Alastair only being sixteen at the time when Charles was six years older than him. Charles must have known how wrong and creepy that was, even if Alastair hadn’t.

Alastair hadn’t told anyone about his relationship, not ready to come out yet, which must have been convenient to Charles. Cordelia had only found out four months ago when she’d started to worry about Alastair, how he’d seemed more nervous and prickly than usual, how he’d lost weight from not eating. Reluctantly, Alastair had told her about his relationship, and Cordelia had been horrified to learn just how much abuse he’d accepted, believing that was how relationships worked. After a month of Cordelia trying to convince him of how toxic Charles was, Alastair had broken up with him. She’d been very protective of him ever since finding out, and was glad he’d decided to come stay with the Herondales with her this summer. Some time away from everything would be good for him, right?

Then Cordelia had found out Alastair had been keeping even more secrets from her, this one surrounding their father. Cordelia had always loved her father and looked up to him, a former warrior who’d slain the supernatural horror that had taken his brother and sister in law, a former hero who’d fallen ill in later life. A while ago their cousin Jem, who was a psychiatrist, had visited, despite their father trying to keep him away from their family, and he’d noticed Alastair was not doing well after an anger outburst. Cordelia and her mother had always assumed Alastair’s moodiness and anger outbursts were just him being a difficult teenager, although at eighteen he was getting a bit old for that. Jem, familiar with mental disorders, had recognized symptoms of something more.

He had recommended Alastair see a therapist. After some pressure from both her and Jem, Alastair had gone and he’d been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. Cordelia had found out father was not sick, but addicted to alcohol instead. Alastair had spent years protecting her from the effects, attempting to take care of father while he was drunk so she have the illusion of a normal childhood. Now that she knew, she guessed she understood a bit better why Alastair had thought what Charles had offered was love.

‘I guess I can block him,’ Alastair said.

‘I’m serious,’ Cordelia insisted. ‘You have to stop revisiting bad memories, you’ll only get hurt again. I don’t like seeing you hurt.’

Alastair took his phone out his pocket, presumably blocked Charles’ number, and put it back.

‘Are you ready to go, Layla?’ he asked.

When Cordelia was young, she’d loved the story of Layla and Majnun her mother used to tell her, and Alastair and her mother had taken to calling her Layla.

‘Ready when you are,’ Cordelia said. ‘Lucie just emailed me the latest chapter of the beautiful Cordelia. I’ll have plenty to do on the way.’

[jordanlahey]

Blast From The Past...(3/?)

Pairing: Poly!lost boys x Reader

Summary: The boys feast and chase downs local witch coven and it didn’t work out in their favour. Home was home but at the same time it wasn’t.

Warnings: alcohol, drug mentions, some small fluff

Word count: 1675

"Wait are we seriously walking to the boardwalk?" Marko stopped and crossed his arms, he looked at you with a disappointed face.

"I don't drive and I don't see any faster way to get there." You replied back, you were starting to regret you decision on helping them if they are all gonna act like whiney bitches the whole time. You noticed that all the boys shared looks at each other, each face was full of mischief and it terrified you on what they were thinking. "Wait. What's that face for?" You furrowed your brows in concern and confused, they said nothing and Dwayne walked towards you and picked you up bridal style and the next thing you knew you were all up in the air. YOUR FEET WAS OFF THE GROUD! PANIC TIME!

You covered your eyes as the boys laughed and cheered, you even felt the rumble of laugher from dwayne a few times. It wasn't actually that bad flying but the water below made you nervous, he could let go and drop you into the water and you'd be a goner. They wouldn't do that to you not if you figured out a way to get them back, they needed you.

"Cheer up babe, Dwayne wouldn't drop you." Paul was now flying backwards keeping his eyes on you.

Babe?

"Babe?" You repeated under your breath. 'What is with all the pet names?' It's probably nothing they are from the 80's the best time for flirty comments that don't mean anything. Right? You all were there in no time and had landed somewhere nobody was gonna see and Dwayne steadied you back on your feet. "Right it's dinner time." The boys took the lead, walking and looking around for what you had presumed was their next meal or at least their first meal of being here. You followed behind them keeping your distance, you weren't 100% sure if you were to follow them or just hang around somewhere and they'll come get you but really did you want to watch them eat? Would it terrify you seeing them act animalistic?

"Y/n! Glad to see you." You cringed slightly at the high pitched voice that called your name. The boys all stopped when they heard your name and turned to see who caught your attention. "That was some party the other night although you could have at least pretend you were having a good time." The girl added making you roll your eyes.

"Oh believe me it was so entertaining watching you and a bunch of others exchange saliva and getting high. So. Much. Fun." You sarcastically remarked. The girl glared at you then noticed the boys behind you.

"Hi there I'm Nancy if you'd like, me and some of my friends are gonna head to the beach if you care to join us." Nancy spoke in a sickly seductive tone which cause you to look at her in utter disgust, she'd flick her red hair every so often. Who does she think she is throwing herself at them like that! Ugh! Won't they feed of her and her friends, please. You weren't jealous or anything...you just hated how she does that to them. You were too busy glaring daggers in the back of her head to notice that they boys kept looking at you and reading the thoughts in your head. The boys looked at you then at Nancy they all had come to an internal agreement.

"We'd love you go." Marko pulled a cheeky smile and nudged Paul, when you heard what he said your jaw dropped and your eyes widened. "But we're only going if Y/n, here is invited." Marko sauntered over to you and hung his arm over your shoulder.

"Oh y/n can't, I bet she has better things to do." Oh that's the last nerve, you balled your hand in a fist then took a deep breath.

"Actually, I'd love to tag along. I can predict tonight will be one to remember." You said with a smirk as Nancy glared at you.

The six of you joined Nancy's friends, you never liked them they were all too sleazy and had all sorts of lewd thoughts running through their heads it was too loud to block out and surely the boys can hear it too. You wouldn't have to worry about them after tonight or at least you hope you won't have to.

The night went on and you stayed in the background not getting involved with them, you just sat and watched how Nancy had basically ignored her so called "date" not that you are surprised but instead latched herself onto Dwayne and Paul while her other friends do they same to David and Marko, this was no surprise for you but you sat on one of the logs sulking and glaring daggers at the girls whenever they got too close for comfort. What was worse was that Paul and Marko were eating up all the attention you couldn't expect anything less they are probably use to so much female attention. They could at least have some self control. Nancy's date would occasionally sit next to you and make small talk but you had to shoo him off since you weren't interested. The boys noticed your irritation, they enjoyed seeing you so jealous and they partly wanted to see just how long you'll sit through it.

You were starting to lose interest in this whole party, you much rather go back home and look through your books for something to get them back to their time. Marko then joined you, slinging his arm around your shoulder.

"Enjoying yourself?" He spoke loudly close to your ear so you could hear him over the music, you move your head away from him, his breath stunk of alcohol it made you cringe.

"Hardly I'm bored and your breath stinks of booze." You scooted away from him but he followed. "What." You smiled sarcastically at him. "I'm sure you're being missed by those two over there." By this time the other guys had left, they weren't up for being ditched for other guys which is understandable.

"Someone's moody. Fear not the show is just about to begin." He sadistically grinned and looked at everyone, it was pretty clear that there would be no survivors, it made you wonder just how violent they could get. You watched as Marko got up and walked to one of the girls, shamelessly flirting with her then your eyes went to Paul who was already kissing the neck of a different girl. The screams caused you to snap your head towards David who had already started drinking from her and after that they all started to feed, you kept turning your head at each boy, they screams getting louder than quieting down. Staring wide eyed at them, you couldn't tell if you were afraid or not they were like animals, tearing into the necks of their prey.

It wasn't till they started laughing and whooping that the screaming had stopped and you watched them throw the bodies into the fire clearing the evidence, you now felt bad for wishing death upon Nancy and her friends but that didn't mean you'd never see them again you'll see them tomorrow, they're faces all over the news, phones, and on missing posters.

"Earth to Y/n." David wave a gloved hand in front of you and you blinked back into reality. "Have scared you off have we?" He chuckled darkly, looking back at the others who also laughed.

"You're brutal." Was all you managed to say.

"Hey, you were the one wishing we would just feed on them." Paul added, he had a point and it's true you did. You were jealous it's a dangerous emotion to have. "Come on, we can all have a good time now."

"Can't let alcohol go to waste." Dwayne picked up a bottle and opened it with ease, the rest joined it and all waited for you. It was clear they had no intentions on killing you so you picked up a bottle and held it out for someone to open it. You soon just let yourself go and has a good time for once you weren't the moody one at the party.

David sat back against one of the logs smoking watching you dance with Paul, you were wasted and he was high and David was making sure Paul behaved himself, he had a tendency to be grabby when he was high. You however, were just too drunk to care about anything else, the alcohol coursed through your body making you feel all buzzed as you danced with Paul through the music. The alcohol coursed through your body creating a soft buzz, you were having fun and you had never let yourself get this wasted especially around other people but you lost all ability to care as you danced with Paul. Occasionally you would feel his hands on your waist but not even a minute later Dwayne would slap him up side the head to remind him to keep his hands to yourself but soon everybody realised he would do it on purpose just to hear the laugh bubble from your lips. You slowly felt the buzz leave and you began to feel tired, your feet couldn't even keep you upright and slowly you leaned backwards but David had caught you and held you against his chest.

"Tired?" He asked. You couldn't even speak without your words being slurred so instead you just nodded, David picked you up and all of you fled back to the cave.

It wasn't just the five of you at that spot no no, not to far behind someone else was watching. They weren't too pleased with what they had witnessed, in fact they were disgusted from the sight of the feeding and then whatever they had just saw. The boys and yourself had something bigger to worry about than just finding a spell.

[cheri-translates]

[CN] Lucien’s R&S - My love rival older brother (Eng Translation)

🍒This R&S (我的情敌哥哥) was part of the Dream Heart Lake event which will unlikely come to EN🍒

More Lucien R&S from this event:

> regarding what books don’t say

> my love rival older brother ♡

> the victim who disappeared

> since that rainy night

[ Chapter One ]

I have a really, really strong rival in love. His name is Lucien.

All the girls in class like him, including Nana. I initially thought she would be different from other girls, but I didn’t expect that she’d start talking about becoming Lucien’s bride all day long lately.

Their starry-eyed infatuation leaves me feeling rather confused and revolted. Isn’t he just a guy who’s slightly taller than I am, a little more dashing than I am, and a little more intelligent than I am right now? When I grow up, I can definitely surpass him.

I’m not saying this groundlessly - the Auntie from the canteen said it. She would secretly give me an extra fruit candy whenever she hears me complain, and will say, “Xiao Kai is still growing. As long as you eat properly, there will be a day when you’ll be even taller and more dashing than Professor Lucien!”

I really wish the girls in my class could be as rational as Auntie Zhang, instead of waking up early to squeeze in front of the mirror to apply make-up when they find out Lucien would be coming.

Under normal circumstances, I’d be the one tying the bow atop Nana’s hair. If I were to acknowledge that I’m the second best in tying bows, no one would dare to acknowledge that they’re the first.

However, ever since Lucien helped Nana tie her hair once, she started getting dissatisfied, commenting that my tying didn’t look good, and would deliberately make things difficult for me. She would wait for that man, who comes once every half a month, to help her tie it. 

That man appears even fewer times than the number of Power Rangers episodes shown on TV over the weekends. But his popularity among the female students is incredibly high. Every time he arrives, he tells us stories, show us the Cat’s Cradle, occasionally adds a small science lesson, performs little magic tricks, and things like that. 

The girls don’t seem to care about what Lucien talks about. After all, I can tell how the words “Lack of Understanding” are written across their faces when they’re listening to the class.

He, on the other hand, teaches very seriously, and explains the originally plain and simple knowledge of those books even more plainly and simply. I don’t know if it counts as a hobby, but the girls seem especially keen on hearing him explain the same learning point three times in different ways.

He’ll be visiting us again tomorrow, and I’ve decided that this time, he’s not going to steal my thunder.

-

[ Chapter Two ]

As usual, the girls get up early to welcome Lucien - including Nana.

What they weren’t expecting was for Lucien to bring a pretty-looking Sister along with him. The both of them are walking very closely, slightly different from people who were brought over as accompanying teachers.

“I know what’s going on. This Big Sister is Brother Lucien’s girlfriend!”

The boys immediately start hollering along with me, while the girls engage in a discussion. Big Sister is at the side, frantically shaking her head in denial. But Lucien just smiles, crinkling his eyes at her. Anyone with clear eyesight can tell that he’s interested in her.

“What nonsense! I’m Brother Lucien’s bride!”

“That’s right, that’s right! Brother Lucien has given me candy before!”

“Everyone received a piece of candy. But I have a brush that Brother Lucien rewarded me with!”

Everybody starts talking, and the scene becomes chaotic, just as I expected. Lucien doesn’t seem affected. Just like what the adults often say, he’s “A Master of Love.”

While everyone is still busy with their fervent discussion, he says something into Big Sister’s ear, without a change in his expression. The red hue on Big Sister’s face turns redder. Even without much thinking involved, one can already tell that he must have said something embarrassing. 

Nana seems to have noticed Lucien’s action, and starts bawling. Thinking that this is a great opportunity for her to let go of Lucien, I tag on a sentence triumphantly. “There’s no use in crying. You’re no longer Brother Lucien’s wife.”

This just makes Nana cry even more fiercely, and her entire face gets red and swollen.

Seeing how upset she is, I feel a twinge of guilt. Thinking that softening my heart at this moment would be equivalent to a loss, I take out the handkerchief I’ve been gripping tightly in my pocket to coax her.

I didn’t expect that Lucien would act before I could. Although he was at Big Sister’s side just a second ago, he immediately moves over to Nana’s side in the next moment. In his hand, he even has a little flower hair tie.

“Here, don’t cry. Nana’s such a cute girl. Next time, there will definitely be many boys who will compete to marry you.” After tying the flower onto her hair, Lucien pats her head.

As though an ‘off’ switch has been clicked, Nana, who was weeping earlier, stops crying instantly, breaking into a smile.

Watching how she has once again revealed a smile to this man - one she has never shown me even half of, I really can’t stand it. In my heart, I decide to win the next round!

-

[ Chapter Three ]

Perhaps due to Big Sister’s request, Lucien is attending the PE class with us for once.

Judging by how gentle and frail he looks, I think this is a great opportunity to reverse the impression Nana has of me.

The regretful thing is, my luck in drawing lots remains as poor as always. I end up drawing a lot which puts me in the same group as Big Sister. And our opponents happen to be Nana and Lucien.

Looking at how Nana is so excited to be holding Lucien’s hand to the point where she’s jumping three feet into the air, I grit my teeth silently, drawing up a plan for the following battle.

Before the competition, I pull on Big Sister’s hand, standing on tip toes as I  tell her the overall strategy for the competition. Surprisingly, Big Sister seems eager, which makes me heave a sigh of relief.

If she were another Lucien enthusiast, my “Concentrate All The Firepower on Lucien's Face” battle proposal would have definitely failed before it could be carried out.

Prior to the official start of the competition, I grip Big Sister’s hand tightly, stating our grand goal. “Pretty Sister, we must definitely win this competition!”

With a blow of the whistle, the two of us focus our firepower on Lucien as we whack the balls. Big Sister is even more cooperative than I expected. But I didn’t expect that Lucien had actually been keeping his abilities hidden. His ability at sports is shockingly good.

He’s as agile as a leaping tiger, dodging and jumping with his long legs. Although we go all out to throw the little balls, not even one hits him. Just as the battle enters its most intense juncture, Big Sister gets carelessly struck by a ball that Nana throws, and has to leave the court regretfully.

At this moment, I had miscalculated and underestimated the battle between women. But this didn’t mean that the showdown between Lucien and I would end.

Standing by myself in the court while carrying the determination of two people, I swing my arm and wave the small ball in my hand. Increasing the speed of the ball would inevitably cause my accuracy to deteriorate. But I didn’t expect for my hand would slip, sending the small ball in Nana’s direction.

“Nana, be careful!”

Although warning your opponent in a competition is an absolute taboo, I couldn’t care less given the circumstances. Poor Nana is scared frozen to the spot as the small ball flies towards her. In the meantime, Lucien rushes over to block it from the other side of the court.

“Nana, are you all right?” 

“Mm, I’m fine. But Brother Lucien has been hit by the ball. Does it hurt a lot... Let Nana blow on it for you. Once I blow on it, the pain will fly away!” While Nana says this, she’s so frantic that she’s on the verge of tears. It’s as though she was the one hit by the ball instead.

“Mm, I’ll have to trouble Nana then.” Lucien places his arm before Nana, letting her hold it carefully and blow on it for a very long time before he leaves the court.

Although Nana is still on the field, her heart has long since ran off with Lucien. When she sees Lucien bringing Big Sister out of the sports hall, she loses her will to fight even more. As though she’s venting her anger, she smashes the ball onto the floor. “I’m not playing anymore. You’ve won!”

When faced with this competition, which I won for no reason, my heart doesn’t feel anything...

I’m thinking - what kind of evidence must I obtain about Lucien before Nana would completely give up on him?

-

[ Chapter Four ]

At noon, everyone has returned to the dormitories for their afternoon rest. But I’m still burdened with an incomplete task, and am unable to sleep!

Secretively, I sneak out of the dormitory when the teacher-on-duty dozes off, looking for Lucien everywhere.

I don’t see any traces of Lucien or Big Sister at the lakeside, the tiny forest, and all the locations suitable to bring a girlfriend to. Without harbouring any hopes, I return to the classroom. I didn't think that i’d discover something unexpected:

I see both my targets, who have completely lost their fighting spirit, laying down on the table, looking as though they’re asleep.

In order to capture such an image which harnesses historical value, I had specially taken the phone the teacher-on-duty had left on the table secretly before heading out. Since what one says isn’t necessarily true, I have to use real evidence to enable Nana to give up on Lucien.

Carefully, I tap on the camera function. After pointing it towards Lucien and Big Sister, I capture a photograph of their intimate moment with a “ka cha”.

Wait a minute, why is there a “ka cha”?!

I frantically fiddle with the phone, but accidentally tap the capture function several more times. The sound of “ka cha”s fills the air. Before I can find the cause of it, Lucien has already woken up.

I meet Lucien’s eyes awkwardly, thinking in my heart that this man was obviously just pretending to be asleep. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been roused awake by such a soft sound!

He places a finger in front of his lips to do a “no sound” gesture, then takes the phone in my hand, flipping through the substantial evidence I had painstakingly captured earlier.

Just when I thought the photographs would be destroyed without a trace, Lucien returns the phone to me, and speaks in a soft voice. “Mm, your photography skills aren’t bad. But this phone - isn’t it Teacher Liu’s?”

In order to protect this evidence with my life, I have no choice but to tell a tiny lie. “T-that’s because I behaved very well today! Teacher rewarded me by letting me play with it!”

“Take a look. Sister is very tired too. If you leave obediently right now, I can give you another reward.”

“Okay! If you can honestly answer a question I have, I’ll leave immediately!” I didn’t expect that there’d come a day where I’d be able to exchange conditions with Lucien. With such a great opportunity, of course I have to ask him something especially important.

“Mm, go on.”

“What’s your view on Nana?” To me, this is an extremely important question.

“She’s a very obedient little girl. And let me tell you a small secret. As compared to pink, she likes lemon yellow even more.”

Lemon yellow.

I remember this quietly in my heart, and recall how Nana does indeed like collecting small, lemon yellow objects. I originally thought she cherished them so much because they were things Lucien gave to her.

As the saying goes, opportunity only knocks once. Seeing that Big Sister wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon, I grasp at the chance to push on in the flush of victory. “In that case, is Big Sister your girlfriend?”

But Lucien is an astute man. He doesn’t let anyone take advantage of him. “Didn't we agree that it’d only be one question?”

Hmph, fine. Anyway, I already know that Nana likes lemon yellow, so I’ve got nothing else to fear!

With such a thought in mind, I grip the phone and leave the classroom with huge strides.

When I turn my head once more, Lucien is once again pretending to be asleep next to Big Sister.

[lilxberry]

You Owe Me 20 Bucks - Steve Rogers

Synopsis;

Steve just simply wants to protect you, you find it extremely annoying how his plans to protect you get in the way of you doing your job as an Avenger, and Bucky and Sam have a running bet.

Warnings: A lil bit of language. Arguing. Mentions of violence. Mentions of betting. Wack ass stuff man. Fluff.

Words: 2,030

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Reader 

_______________

You walked into the meeting room, ready to be briefed by Fury for the next mission. This would be your first assignment in 2 months since your injury. Ever since you had woken up, everyone had babied you, especially a certain super soldier, which ticked you off to no end.

You took your place in-between Wanda and Bucky and prepared yourself for the droning voice of Fury and the nagging of Steve. “Hey, you good?”

You inwardly groaned at Bucky’s question. It was nice that the team cared so much but it was a bitch to deal with all their incessant babying and over protectiveness. “I’m fine, Buck, really.”

As if he could sense your irritation, he retreated and opted to leave you be. You signed in relief and sunk back into your chair. Just as you had gotten comfortable, Fury entered, followed by Maria then Mr. Patriarchy himself. “Avengers.” Fury simply greeted to grab everyone’s attention.

And so, the briefing had commenced and passed by, the only thing left on the check list was to discuss who will be part taking in the mission. “A team of 6 will be going in, the others will stay behind and only move out when needed. Stark, Barnes, Barton, Maximoff, Y/L/N, you 5 will be joining Rogers at the base.”

Before any body got the chance to voice their readiness, Steve had spoken up. “Y/L/N isn’t ready.”

You saw red as he had easily diminished your ability to be out in the field. “Like fuck I’m not ready.” You quickly stood from your seat so fast, the chair had scrapped against the floor before falling over harshly.

“If I say you’re not ready then you’re not ready.” Steve crossed his arms over his chest, standing his ground. Thing is, you were stubborn, every Avenger and agent knew that about you.

You walked towards in quick, long strides and stared him down, inches from his face. “It’s my body, I know when it’s damn ready.” You stepped back and looked towards Fury. “So, when we due to head out?”

“In an hour.”

“Great, see you guys at the jet.” You quickly turned on your heel and headed towards your room, ignoring the calls of your peers.

“I guess that’s all. Dismissed.” Fury disbanded the meeting, sending the remaining Avengers to prepare for their mission or go back to lazing around, ready to be called out as back up. Steve sighed heavily through his nose as her closed his eyes and pinched the bridge between his pointer finger and thumb.

As Bucky passed his best friend, he patted his shoulder and flashed him a tight-lipped smile, sympathising with his friend. This is gonne be one long mission.

_______________

The time came for the team to meet at the jet. You stepped on to the platform and headed over to the jet to meet with the others. Just as you placed one foot on to the flying metal contraption, the blonde of the 40’s due spoke. “I said you’re not ready.”

You rolled your eyes and chose to ignore his complaints. Ensuring your gear that you’re decked out in is securely strapped on, you made haste towards a free seat at the back off the jet, unfortunately getting blocked off by Steves’ broad and muscular form. You huffed and quickly side stepped him, proceeding to sit.

“No matter how much you nag, they’re still gonna tag along, dude. May as well give up before you’re driven mad.” Clint commented, eliciting a soft giggle from Wanda and a snicker from Tony, both trying desperately to cover their amusement up in any way available to them.

“He has a point. Maybe instead of butting heads, you could help her through this mission.” Bucky spoke directly to his friend.

“Or they could actually listen and not go.” Steve narrowed his eyes towards your ignorant and slouched form, folding his arms across his chest. Tony rolled his eyes before making his way through the jet to pilot it.

“Okay losers, can we all quieten down now. Daddy’s got a jet to fly.” And with that, Tony had the jet off the platform and heading to your destination. Steve huffed and sat opposite you next to Bucky. He stared you down whilst you continuously ignored him through the whole flight.

_______________

“What the hell, Steve?! I had it handled!” You yelled at your fellow Avenger as you all boarded the jet, ready to head back to the compound.

“Didn’t look like it!” Steve had replied, matching your volume.

You scoffed and threw your arms up into the arm in exasperation. “You have a seriously fucked up hero complex, you know that?!”

The yelling match continued between you both throughout most of the flight. By this point, the others within the small confides of the jet had pounding migraines and are in need of about 20 Advils each.

As soon as the jet landed back within the grounds of the compound, you both stormed out of the jet, heading to your separate rooms, both slamming them shut as loudly as possible, hoping the other would hear and convey how pissed you were.

“Ah, young love.” Tony quipped as his suit disassembled from around his form.

_______________

It had been a full week of you ignoring Steve. He had tried previously throughout the week, but you blanked him, simply as if he hadn’t existed. He knew he seriously messed up the second enemy after enemy headed towards you. He knew you could have easily defended yourself and have taken them out even easier but, you were right. He does have a fucked up hero complex.

But mostly, he always felt the need to protect you. Falling in love with a completely independent and able Avenger is a tough gig. Apparently.

Steve had had enough and decided he was going to talk to you, whether you wanted to or not. He marched with determination straight to your room and knocked brashly. He heard you groan from the opposite side of the door before the light patter of your feet pad along the floor. You swung the door open widely with a look of annoyance across your face, but it had quickly faltered as you tried to close the door just as hastily. He jammed his foot between the door and its frame.

“Leave me alone Steve.” He could easily detect the irritation and impatience within your voice. He pushed the rest of the way into your room and you groaned loudly once again. “You clearly don’t understand English, should I try Spanish? German? Ukrainian? Mandarin?”

“Okay, I get it, you’re pissed and you don’t want to see me. Well tough shit.” He stepped closer to you as you stood your ground. “We need to talk whether you like it or not.”

“Oh yeah? And what do we need to talk about exactly?”

Steve inhaled deeply before continuing. “About how you’re acting. You can’t act like a stroppy teenager whenever someone gives you a helping hand during a mission.”

You scoff, unbelieving of what he is saying. “That wasn’t a ‘helping hand’, that was undermining myself as an abled agent and my abilities to handle the enemy. That wasn’t a ‘helping hand’, that was throwing me to the side while you did all the work.” Your shoulders heaved up and down as your breathing became heavier the more anger filled you.

“Jesus Christ Y/N, I was trying to help! I led the mission that day and it’s my responsibility if any of you screw up. All I did was ensure none of you did.” Steves’ voice raised to match yours.

“NO! You ensured I didn’t screw up because “I’M NOT READY!”” At some point you had started to pace around the room in an attempt to calm you.

Steve ran his hand down his face as he groaned loudly. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in, willing himself to calm himself down also. “I just care about you Y/N/N. Please, why can’t you just understand that.”

“Well, you should go care about someone else. I didn’t see you hounding Starks’ ass about being careful.”

“Jesus H Christ, I’m in love with you, alright?!” Steve had exclaimed loudly in exasperation. You froze on the spot and slowly turned, shock evident across your face.

“Wha-what?” You stuttered out in a quiet whisper. Steve registered what had just slipped passed his lips and opened and closed his mouth, attempting to come up with some form of excuse for what he had said. “What did you just say Steve?” You spoke, your voice raised, pronunciation clear.

Steve sighed and looked down before tilting his head in the slightest to gaze into your eyes as he spoke sheepishly. “I said I’m in love with you, I love you.” He searched your face for the slightest inkling of reciprocation in the mix of a million emotions displayed across it. It had been a good minute or so of silence as you comprehended what he had just told you. He began to feel self-conscious and paranoia presented itself within him deeply. “Please say something.” He pleaded, his voice quiet.

This seemed to have snapped you out of whatever trance had engulfed you and you swallowed thickly as you looked up at him with wide eyes. You willed yourself to be brave as if you were back out in the field. You charged forward and crashed your lips to his, the move bolder than what you were used to doing.

You grasp on to him tightly, afraid he would pull away, although, you knew that was not going to be the case for he instantaneously reciprocated the intimate action with as much gusto and desperation. His larger hands came to hold on to your hips, knuckles turning white from how tightly his hands balled up your shirt.

Sooner than you had liked, you both parted and laid your foreheads against the others as you panted, desperate for any intake of oxygen. “I love you too, Steve.” You whispered breathlessly, looking up into his beautiful, blue orbs. They had even seemed to have an extra shine in this moment as you gazed deeply into them.

He smiled a huffed out a small chuckle, his thumb rubbing up and down against your side in a soothing and loving manner. “God, you drive me crazy.”

You both continued to stand there for what felt like hours when in actuality, was only a minute or so. Suddenly, a loud knock at the door echoed throughout the room before opening and revealing Sam and Bucky on the other side. “Hey, you guys comin-oh, damn, our bad. We’ll uh, leave you to it.” And with that, Sam quickly turned and shoved Bucky out along with him as he closed the door behind them.

“I think you owe me 20 bucks.” You heard Bucky’s voice through the door which had muffled the sound slightly.

“Man, I was sure they’d go another week before one of ‘em confessed.” You heard Sam whine as you presumed while he fished out the bills from his pocket to hand over to his apparent betting partner.

Their interaction had caused both you and Steve let out a small bout of laugh before turning your attention back towards one another. “I guess we should head down for food, huh?” Steve suggested whilst he had a boyish grin etched upon his face.

All you could do was mirror his smile and release a near inaudible ‘yes’ as you nod and step back, taking his larger hand into one of your own. He quickly pulled you towards him to lay a final pure, sweet, gentle kiss upon your plump lips. “Let’s go.”

He led you out of your room and towards the elevator, ready to join the others for food. As you stood in the elevator, you felt Steves’ gaze on you. You turned you head and sent him a wolfish smirk. “Bet you 20 bucks that they told everyone.”

Steve threw his head back in laughter as he wrapped his arm around your shoulders and brought you closer into his side. “You’re on.”

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Those pants are nice, yeah, just the pants, definitely just the pants I’m admiring, nothing else... *definitely is looking square at his ass* ...yeah man, nice pants...

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I did a Steve fic, noice

I’ve been super sucky with fics recently but I mean, college stuff, losing family, this, plus messing my knee up badly yesterday after accidently yeeting myself down some stairs, it be like that 

I really hope you enjoy this

As always, constructive criticism and requests are welcomed and greatly appreciated :D

[dreamnotnapper]

ok, listen. i will gladly hivemind about many things, but one of the things i will never hivemind about is mcc

i am way too invested in that block game tournament to not have my own opinions, and trust me i have a Lot of opinions after sapnaps stream

(this will be very long, feel free to ignore. also, this is all typed up on mobile so i am so sorry)

the most prominent things is when he said he thinks he should be an s-tier, and when he said he thinks cyan is the best team

1. i dont think sapnap is an s-tier. god forbid i post this on twitter where everyone thinks he should be, but genuinely i dont. he is definitely the closest non s tier player to s tier, but i dont think hes s tier yet. i dont have stats on hand (bc im not a Nerd /j), but comparatively, sapnap isnt as good. hes one of the best pvpers and parkour players, yes. but hes pretty weak in build mart, rocket spleef and bingo, and hes decent at ace race and hole in the wall. a question we have to ask ourselves when ranking sapnap, is he at the same level as the other s-tiers? is he as good as pete, quig, fruit, techno, and dream? so far, all current s-tiers have: won at least 1 mcc, had 1st individual at least once and have 3000+ average coins. sapnap has only achieved the first. another thing is that sapnap isnt balance the way an s-tier is balanced. most notably, pete, fruit and quig are all balanced with weaker teams. pete and fruit are commonly teamed with hermits, when not with hermits pete is with b tiers or below, and quig is usually put on for fun teams (techno hasnt played in a canon mcc in a while so i cant rly say how hes balanced nowadays). sapnap isnt balanced this way, he isnt put on weaker teams. if anything, hes put on teams where someone else helps take up a leader role. mcc15, he'll most likely co-lead with dream, mcc14 he had punz, mcc13 he had dave krtzyy, (i dont remember his mcc12 team), mcc11 he had dream, etc.

so sapnap hasn't gotten 1st individual or 3000+ average coins, and scott doesnt balance him the way he balances the other s-tiers therefore i dont think sapnap is an s-tier. however, if he continues improving the way he is now, i believe he will be s-tier eventually. dont say that i'm too hard on him and that my requirements are too harsh because i'm a firm believer that once a player is s-tier, they dont leave (unless they just fuck up that bad, in multiple consecutive mccs)

2. i think sapnaps prediction of cyan being 1st is wrong. first of all, theres a reason why nearly the entire subreddit predicts cyan to be lower on the leaderboard, and its not because the subreddit is biased or playing an elaborate prank. i think both sapnap and dream really overestimate cyans abilities, especially with 2 new players. both dream and sapnap agreed that wisp is cracked, 5up is cracked, antfrost isnt bad, and scott is decent. the stats kind of do tell a different story though. again, i dont have the stats on hand, i only have what i remember from posts ive seen on the subreddit so take what i say here with a grain of salt. i dont think wisp is as cracked as dreamnap think he is. wisp has only played in (iirc, and if the subreddit was correct) 3 events, and his first 2 were very average with his mcc14 performance being the outlier. another thing is that they have two new players. that is not going to be easy. when you look at new players that joined after mcc began getting more competitive, youll see that they always underperform during their debut mcc. take illumina, for example. illumina is one of the best speedrunners in minecraft. he spent hours practicing and studying vods to optimize his performance. iirc, his first mcc he got 17th. that is already impressive, especially for a debut but his next placement was 5th. that is a huge improvement. 5up and antfrost are no illuminas, they dont have the same skill that he does. if illumina couldnt get top 15 during his debut, there is no way 5up and antfrost will during theirs like dream and sapnap predicted they would. the last thing i wanted to say about this is that 5up can practice all he wants on the practice server. he can get himself acquainted with ace race mechanics and the environment of battle box and parkour tag, but the practice server =/= the real event. no amount of time on the practice server can prepare new players to the atmosphere and pressure of the real event

thats my rant over, thank you if you stuck around. also really sorry if you stuck around, i doubt my thoughts were very coherent as its 4:30am. but yeah, i just wanted to get my thoughts out because sapnap and dream discussing mcc predictions made me very frustrated. especially since their predictions were all based on their initial thoughts on the teams and absolutely zero statistical analysis. absolute himbos, the two of them /lh

[floraone]

So, September is coming up, and with it smutember, and we’re doing it again! (At least I hope you’re with me, lol).

Just like last year, it runs alongside to the official daily word prompts on the official smutember blog: Smutember is an event that runs all throughout September for all fandoms. The following is meant as an addition, not a replacement. If you want to do daily prompts, please use the official words prompts (linked above). However, since daily prompts can be a bit intimidating (especially for a fandom corner that’s 25+ years old like ours and people in it have busy lives), as the resident smut advocate in our fandom, I again customized an alternative that can still incorporate the official themes.

Just like last year, down below you have a list of TROPE AND THEME PROMPTS. They’re a remix of sorts of last year’s tropes, with some you’ve seen before and some new ones, meant to spark a variety of ideas. The idea is that with these you can post once (or twice) per week instead of daily.

Be it for fanart or fanfic or any other sort of fanwork, tropes can be combined, (and they can be combined with the daily themes too), whatever floats your boat. Also, specifically: This event isn’t Usamamo-centric only. I will reblog any Sailor Moon content of any pairing as long as it follows the rules! (See below)

The aim of this event is to create sex-positive content together that celebrates a healthy depiction of consentual sexuality. Erotic fanfiction is a beautiful art, especially in a fandom of ours so largely cultivated by women and for women, as well as a strong inclusive focus on queer and gender-queer content and their creators!

What’s new: I’m taking a page out of the mini-bang’s impressive book, and when smutember is over, I will compile all entries that followed the rules into an online-only e-zine! This also means that art that may be too explicit for tumblr can still be included in the e-zine!

Here are the weekly trope challenges:

Reinvent a trope!

WEEK 1 (September 1st - 7th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Reunion Sex 🍋 Sex Fails 🍋 Second Chance Sex 🍋 You Talk In Your Sleep 🍋 Unresolved Sexual Tension 🍋 New Old Flame 🍋 Go Seduce My Archnemesis 🍋 Bedsharing 🍋 Sex with the Ex/Break-Up Sex 🍋 In Public 

WEEK 2 (September 8th - 14th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Make-Up Sex 🍋 Battle Couple 🍋 Mission Sex 🍋 Work-Out Sex 🍋 Accidental Pervert 🍋 Bathing/Shower 🍋 Pool/Onsen 🍋 Sexual Fantasies 🍋 Blind Date 🍋 Aroused By Your____ (pick a feature) 

WEEK 3 (September 15th - 21st): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Established Relationship 🍋 “Thank God We’re Alive” 🍋 Caught In The Act 🍋 First Times 🍋 Introduction By Hook-Up 🍋 Pining 🍋 Locked In Together In A Small Space/ Trapped Together 🍋 Huddling For Warmth 🍋 Socially Distanced Sex 🍋 Stupid Sexy Friend 🍋 Caught In The Rain 🍋 Living Food Platter/Eating Off You 🍋 Shunga

WEEK 4 (September 22nd - 30th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Mutual Masturbation 🍋 Awkward/Clumsy Sex 🍋 Oh Crap There’s Fanfic Of Us 🍋 Talking In Bed 🍋 Fidelity Test 🍋 Fake-NOT-Dating 🍋 Mindlink 🍋 Sex Games 🍋 Tinder 🍋 Blackout/Quarantine/Disaster Warning/Weathering The Storm

RULES

1. Rating: These fics don’t necessarily need to be M or, in the case of Ao3, E- rated. Obviously, they are very, very welcome to be explicit for this event, but you can also go T-rated and stay in lime or ‘blacked out’-territory if you’re uncomfortable with writing explicit scenes! Both is perfectly and absolutely welcome! This of course also goes for fanart - your fanart may depict sexy scenes, but does NOT have to be explicit! (It can, though! Be aware that for tumblr’s guidelines, when sharing your art first, you may have to clip your images as a sort of preview. The original can then be sent to me privately to include into the e-zine!) 2. Minimum Age of Characters: Since this is a community event, if you do go explicit M rated material: age them up where necessary! So that everyone can be comfortable writing and reading these, let them be 18 at the minimum if they’re going to openly and explicitly wohoo. (16-17 is the global average age of consent worldwide, and also the average age for first sex among girls in many western countries. However, since most fanfic readers are located in the US, where the age of consent is 18, we’re going with 18 so that everyone can be comfortable reading!) If you go for canon fics at a time they are below this age, where you do not want to age up (say you’re going for an episode fix!) please stay in T territory for this event. 3. Off limits: Depictions of sexual acts that contain harmful, violent and non-consenting behaviour with non-consenting individuals (or those that aren’t able to consent, for instance because of their age, or state of mind among else!). If it doesn’t fly by law or the ICD in real life, please refrain from depicting it in the context of this event. This means that dubcon and noncon will not be reblogged for the event, so that people can be safely consuming the content without being triggered. All content will be screened in this regard, and I may contact you regarding trigger warnings. This is not at all to censor content, or that this content is in any form less valid (as long as it is properly tagged and not including characters that aren’t of age), but simply to ensure a safe environment for everyone reading. 4. Tag your triggers. Except the aforementioned limitation of harmful content, nothing is off limits. Explore your kinks! But if you write something that might be offensive to your readers, please tag it. This is ALSO a good way for your readers to find exactly what they ARE looking for! On Ao3 this can be done directly on the fic tags, for FF fics and fic links you can do it here on Tumblr via the fic post tags or in ANs. This is in consideration of your readers. 5. You can obviously post art for this event too. All previous rules apply here, as well. Unfortunately, Tumblr is now against tasteful nudity. That doesn’t mean you can’t link to a deviant art or similar account though, should you want to. And, since this year will include an e-zine at the end of it, all art will still be included fully in it. Here too, please tag your triggers. If you still want to post art on Tumblr, choose a T rated image - clip them where needed, or keep them (semi-)clothed, show us a heated kiss, etc! (Obviously we would love ALL the art and the nude body is a beautiful, wonderful thing, but obviously Tumblr doesn’t agree with us anymore!) 6. Have fun! Celebrate sexuality in an open, sex-positive way with us, try to be unapologetic about your likes while you write this, and appreciate the beauty that comes in the form of content with a largely female-gazing creator-base and audience! Smut in fanfiction has been beautifully put as the subjectification of sexuality (as opposed to  objectification). So let’s celebrate this art form together! 7. Reviews: No one is forced to review. It can be uncomfortable to review a fic that contains sexual acts for any number of always valid reasons. Keep in mind, however, that much like a Burlesque dancer on stage, putting out sexual content can also be very intimidating to an author, and nothing is more discouraging than silence when baring yourself to an audience like this. That being said: Both Ao3 and FF have the option to review in anon mode. That means you have the option to remain anonymous while cheering the author on all the same. Just like the Burlesque dancer, your resident smut authors prefer to go on stage to loud cheering - it makes it all less awkward for them, and feels a little more like a big celebration!

If you’re unsure what sex positivity entails and want to read up, I wrote a post about it here.

This event is not supposed to cause harm. This means that I will screen all content before I reblog it here, and include it in the e-zine. So that everyone of age can feel safe reading the fanworks in the event, dubcon and noncon will not be reblogged and included in the e-zine, and accurate tagging and content warning will be watched. This does NOT MEAN that you cannot post this material: your own desire to write it and someone else’s desire to explicitly read this material are valid. I do not entitle myself to censor. It just means it will not be reblogged and shared through the event so that everyone may feel safe to read to the best of my ability. (But, of course, remember that I, too, might be biased, and not discover subtle forms of it, either. We’re all, in the end, a product of our upbringing and society, and I cannot be completely unbiased.)

During the event, I will be posting all Sailor Moon Smutember contributions in this format on my blog if you @ me to the post.

The official hashtag for the event is #smutember2020 hosted by the official smutember blog. Using it helps people find the content who search for it as well as those who wish to block it!