#first it was from smoke because of the yearly burning

[emsleyanbluejay]

*muffled screaming*

[mikavlcs]

Start a Fire

Pairing: Gwen Stacy x gn!reader

Summary: Gwen saves you and you help her out in return.

Warnings: nothing besides some probable medical inaccuracies and my writing lmao (no atsv spoilers btw)

Word count: 2k

Notes: idk why everything i write is kinda unserious. this also may not entirely make sense, sorry about that...

Masterlist

Firsts were a special thing.

Everyone, for better or worse, remembered things like their first kiss, and their first date, and their first heartbreak. Because of the novelty of these events, their importance is inescapable, even to the most unsentimental of people.

This same principle applied to superhero activities—or, at least, it did for Gwen.

She would never forget her first high-speed car chase, or her first armed bank robbery, or her first (incredibly embarrassing) criminal interrogation. So, of course, she was excited when her police radio picked up reports of a burning apartment building over on the west side.

Okay, maybe excited wasn’t the right word since people were in danger and Gwen would never be excited about that, but she was looking forward to checking off another box on the list of ‘classic crime tropes’ she kept in her journal. Burning buildings were a staple in superhero comics, and after nearly nine months on the job, it was about time for her to experience it firsthand.

She zipped in and, after a quick chat with the outside firefighters, began extracting civies from the upper floors while they covered the lower floors. Thankfully, the fire wasn’t terrible. They caught it pretty early and since the apartment building was three blocks away from a fire station, there were firefighters on the scene within ten minutes.

Since the fire started on the first floor, the worst of it was easily at the bottom floors, which the firefighters elected to cover since Gwen had more verticality and speed, but there was still smoke. A lot of it.

Now, Gwen knew a lot about fire safety thanks to her elementary school’s yearly presentations on the subject, but by the ten-minute mark, she was beginning to see that she had vastly underestimated the effects of smoke inhalation.

She didn’t have the respirators that they wore, her only protection against the smoke was the cloth of her mask. And at first, that was enough, but it was starting to get to her now. Luckily, she only had one more person to grab—someone on the top floor, frantically waving out one of the windows.

Hastily, Gwen crawled up toward the window you were leaning out of. The smoke was much thinner up here since the fire was only just spreading a few floors down, and she was very grateful for that. She crept to the side of the window, offering a grin you couldn’t see and a wave.

“Hey!” she greeted, securing an arm around your waist. “Hold on tight. This will be quick, just, uh, close your eyes if you’re afraid of heights.”

Once your arms were looped behind her neck, she webbed a nearby building and swung toward a nearby alley.

She deposited you down first, making sure you were steady on your feet before releasing the web and stumbling toward the nearest wall. A series of hacking coughs forced themselves from her throat, making her lean most of her weight against the wall.

“You okay, Spider-Woman?” The question came from her left and she looked over to see you resting against the same wall as her, staring with a mixture of confusion and concern. Gwen flashed a shaky thumbs-up in an attempt to both placate you and preserve her image.

“Perfectly fine. This is actually my first burning building rescue, so this—” She cut herself off with a particularly painful wheeze then finished with, “This is actually a pretty big moment for me.”

“Uh-huh, well maybe you should sit down for a minute,” you suggested, but her mind was already on her next destination, wherever that may be.

She shook her head at the idea, fighting the nausea that came with the motion. “No, no, I’m good. Feeling great. I’ll, uh, I’ll see you around.”

There was an attempt to raise her arm and shoot a web, but it failed rather miserably. She didn’t think the limb even moved, but the sudden, heavy wave of drowsiness that washed over her made that really hard to care about. A sigh slipped from her mouth, eyes drooping.

“Okay, yeah, maybe I’ll just take a little nap first.” The admission came out mumbled, but Gwen didn’t really notice. Nor did she feel herself pitch forward and slip off the wall entirely as her eyes were already slipping closed.

The world went dark before she could even hit the ground.

—

When Gwen woke again, the first of two major things she noticed was that she wasn’t in the alley she collapsed in.

In fact, she wasn’t outside at all. Her eyes cracked open and instead of staring into the cloudy afternoon sky, she was looking intently at a ceiling. And instead of laying on hard asphalt, she was resting on something soft—a couch, maybe.

She was in someone’s house, she belatedly realized, and that was when the second thing registered all at once.

Her mask was still on.

And it wasn’t just on, it was still tucked snugly into the neckline of her suit, the way she always kept it to ensure it never rode up. That meant that either someone went to great lengths to put it back in the exact position she liked it, or it was never taken off in the first place. When she saw you sitting in the chaise lounge across from the couch, her suspicions leaned toward the latter.

You hadn’t noticed her wake, eyes glued on the tv to her right, so she took the initiative to speak. It was harder than she expected since her throat was so dry, but after a few swallows, she managed to rasp her question out.

“Uh, where am I, exactly?”

Your eyes flicked to her instantly, and you sat up straighter, leaning forward a bit. “My house. Well, my mom’s house actually. She’s at work, won’t be back for a while. Good thing, too, because she would lose her shit if she saw you passed out on her couch.”

“Not a big fan of vigilantes?” she asked dryly. You chuckled.

“No, she’s not a big fan of her furniture getting dirty.”

“Oh,” Gwen muttered, pushing herself up to sit, “sorry, I can—”

Her sentence was cut short by you standing and gently shoving her to lie back down. “It’s fine, I’ll clean it later. Stay there.”

You watched her and, once you knew she would obey, walked out of her sightline. Gwen listened to your footsteps, noting the way you stopped around fifteen feet away. Then, she tilted her head back to glance at the windows and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the light shining through the thin, drawn curtains. She couldn’t have been out for more than an hour.

Now that her initial question had been answered, she moved on to her secondary. “Did you drag me all the way here by yourself?”

“Well, I was visiting a friend’s apartment earlier, so we were only a few blocks away,” you called from somewhere on the other side of the couch, the faint sound of a refrigerator being opened and closed compounding the statement. “But yes, I did drag you here myself. You’re heavier than you look, by the way.”

Gwen’s eyes narrowed beneath her mask, but she chose to take it as a compliment to her forming musculature.

You returned a few minutes later with a glass of water and a pitcher filled nearly to the brim, setting them both down on the coffee table in front of her. Immediately, she pushed herself to sit up, hiking her mask over her nose and downing the entire glass in a few gulps. In her peripheral, she saw you sit back down and look at the tv again, letting the room lapse into quiet.

Gwen let the silence sit for a bit, then asked, “So, why didn’t you take off my mask? Most people would jump at the chance to figure out my identity.”

“I’m not into invading other people’s privacy,” you said plainly with a light shrug. “Plus, you saved my life. Taking the mask off after that would’ve been a dick move.”

She stayed quiet for a minute, absorbing what you said, then, with genuine sincerity, said, “Thank you.”

You waved it off. “Consider us even. I wouldn’t have made it out without your help, this was the least I could do.”

A nod was the only response she gave. She knew she should probably leave now; she was in a stranger’s house, after all. But you didn’t seem to mind, so she poured herself another glass and settled back on the couch.

Despite the unorthodox situation, the atmosphere remained calm and quiet with occasional thought-provoking questions from you such as “What’s it like being wanted for murder?” and “Why do you wear ballet shoes instead of shoes that will protect your feet in fights?” neither of which she had solid answers for but had fun with anyway.

It was nice. Weird, undoubtedly, but a nice change of pace from the more turbulent and fast-paced interactions she was used to having with people as Spider-Woman. You seemed to be enjoying it too, if the fact that you didn’t kick her out an hour ago was anything to go by.

Time continued to pass, the darkening sky outside the window escaping both of your notice. Her phone buzzed in her pocket a few times while you were talking, but she elected to ignore it. That is until the tranquil air was eventually broken by her phone ringing, the Spider-Woman theme song echoing throughout the room.

“Sorry,” Gwen mumbled, pulling her phone out of her suit pocket. She scanned the screen and her eyes widened. It was her dad. She squinted slightly, confused as to why he was calling already, but then she looked at the time, and her eyes widened. Her dad had been expecting her home over an hour ago.

Panicked, she shot to her feet, narrowly avoiding slamming her shin into the coffee table by the couch. She took one step, then another, testing. Her limbs still felt a bit heavier than usual, but it wasn’t as bad as earlier, and she’d be able to swing home with minimal issues.

“Gotta go?” you asked, eyeing her from your seat.

She sighed, nodded. “Yeah, sorry, just remembered I have somewhere to be.”

You gave an understanding hum and she ventured to the door. Her hands were about to twist the doorknob when an idea suddenly popped into her head. It was a stupid idea, which made it all the more pervasive to her waning self-control. She debated back and forth with herself for all of seven seconds before she spun on her heels.

Gwen cleared her throat and put on a casual tone, praying her voice didn’t crack. “Hey, do you wanna get coffee,” she paused briefly, combing over her schedule in her head, “this Saturday? Y’know, as thanks for all this.”

“I thought we established that we were even,” you said, eyes narrowed.

“Well, I’m unestablishing it. So, coffee?” She rocked back on her heels, watching you ruminate on the offer. 

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, you shrugged. “Who could say no to coffee with a wanted vigilante?”

Remembering that her mask was still pulled up halfway, she restrained the large smile threatening to creep onto her face to a small smirk. “Great, I’ll see you then…" Her sentence came to an abrupt end when she searched for a name and realized you had never given her one. “Uh, I didn’t catch your name?”

You raised a brow. “Are you gonna give me yours?”

She paused, then cocked her head to the side. “Fair enough. Then I’ll see you Saturday, stranger.”

“See you, spidey,” you said with a smile and a two-finger salute, both of which Gwen returned before pulling her mask down and jetting out the door.

She swung across the city with a speed that impressed even her, weaving through buildings and traffic with a racing heart and an immovable smile the whole way to her apartment.

In the end, Gwen wound up being grounded for a month since she was a little too distracted on her swing home to come up with a plausible excuse for her dad, but it wasn’t a problem. She would just sneak out Saturday during her dad’s shift for your coffee (maybe) date, and if she got caught and her punishment got extended, then so be it.

It would totally be worth it.

—

hi, if you made it this far, thanks for reading and i hope you have a good day 🥳🫶

[sunaleisocial]

NASA “Wildfire Digital Twin” Pioneers New AI Models and Streaming Data Techniques for Forecasting Fire and Smoke - NASA Science

New Post has been published on https://sunalei.org/news/nasa-wildfire-digital-twin-pioneers-new-ai-models-and-streaming-data-techniques-for-forecasting-fire-and-smoke-nasa-science/

NASA “Wildfire Digital Twin” Pioneers New AI Models and Streaming Data Techniques for Forecasting Fire and Smoke - NASA Science

5 min read

NASA’s “Wildfire Digital Twin” project will equip firefighters and wildfire managers with a superior tool for monitoring wildfires and predicting harmful air pollution events and help researchers observe global wildfire trends more precisely.

Whereas current global models describing the spread of wildfires and smoke have a spatial resolution of about 10 kilometers per pixel, the Wildfire Digital Twin would produce regional ensemble models with a spatial resolution of 10-to-30 meters per pixel, an improvement of two orders of magnitude.

These models could be generated in a span of mere minutes. By comparison, current global models can take hours to produce.

Models with such high spatial resolution produced at this speed would be immensely valuable to first-responders and wildfire managers trying to observe and contain dynamic burns.

Milton Halem, a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, leads the Wildfire Digital Twin project, which includes a team of more than 20 researchers from six universities.

“We want to be able to provide firefighters with useful, timely information,” said Halem, adding that in the field, “there is generally no internet, and no access to big supercomputers, but with our API version of the model, they could run the digital twin not just on a laptop, but even a tablet,” he said.

NASA’s FireSense project is focused on leveraging the agency’s unique Earth science and technological capabilities to achieve improved wildfire management across the United States.

Earth System Digital Twins are dynamic software tools for modeling and forecasting climate events in real time. These tools rely on data sources distributed across multiple domains to create ensemble predictions describing everything from floods to severe weather.

In addition to assisting first responders, an Earth System Digital Twin dedicated to modeling wildfires would also be valuable to scientists monitoring wildfire trends globally. In particular, Halem hopes Wildfire Digital Twins will improve our ability to study wildfires across global boreal forests of cold-hardy conifers, which sequester vast amounts of carbon.

“The reason CO2 emissions from Boreal wildfires are taking place at an increasing yearly rate is because global warming is rising faster at high latitudes than the rest of the planet, and as a result, boreal summers there are becoming longer,” said Halem. “Whereas the rest of the planet may have warmed one degree Celsius since the pre-industrial revolution, this region has warmed well over two degrees.”

Halem’s work builds on other wildfire models, particularly the NASA-Unified Weather Research and Forecasting (NUWRF) model, developed by NASA, and WRF-SFIRE, developed by a team of researchers with support from the National Science Foundation. These models simulate phenomena like wind speed and cloud cover, which makes them the perfect foundation for a Wildfire Digital Twin.

Specifically, Halem’s team is working on new satellite data assimilation techniques that will blend information from space-based remote sensors into their Wildfire Digital Twin, enabling improved global data forecasts that will be useful for emergencies and science missions alike.

In October, Halem’s team participated in the first FireSense field campaign in collaboration with the National Forest Service’s Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE) to observe smoke as it traveled more than 10 miles during a controlled burn in Utah, using a ceilometer. Now the team is feeding that data into their modeling software to help it track plumes more accurately.

They’re especially interested in tracking particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers, which are small enough to pass through a person’s lungs and enter the bloodstream. These particles, also known as PM 2.5, can cause serious health issues even if a person is nowhere near an active burn.

“When these fires ignite and start to burn, they produce smoke, and this smoke travels considerable distances. It affects people not only locally, but also at distances of thousands of kilometers or more,” said Halem.

Data from the controlled burn will also help Halem and his team quantify the relationship between aerosols and precipitation. Increased aerosols from wildfires have a huge impact on cloud formation, which in turn impacts how precipitation occurs downstream of an affected fire burn.

Assimilating all this information as it streams from sensors in real time is essential for detailing the full impact of wildfires at local, regional, and global scales.

PROJECT LEAD

Milton Halem, University of Maryland at Baltimore County

NASA’s FireSense Technology Program, a part of the agency’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), funds this project.

[spacenutspod]

5 min read NASA “Wildfire Digital Twin” Pioneers New AI Models and Streaming Data Techniques for Forecasting Fire and Smoke NASA’s “Wildfire Digital Twin” project will equip firefighters and wildfire managers with a superior tool for monitoring wildfires and predicting harmful air pollution events and help researchers observe global wildfire trends more precisely. The tool, developed with funding from NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office and NASA’s FireSense Program, will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to forecast potential burn paths in real time, merging data from in situ, airborne, and spaceborne sensors to produce global models with high precision. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A wildfire simulation describing the spread of PM 2.5 aerosols during a recent controlled burn, generated using the WRF-SFIRE model. “Wildfire Digital Twin” will build on this and other models to simulate active burns with unprecedented resolution. Credit: Kathleen Clough/San Jose State University Whereas current global models describing the spread of wildfires and smoke have a spatial resolution of about 10 kilometers per pixel, the Wildfire Digital Twin would produce regional ensemble models with a spatial resolution of 10-to-30 meters per pixel, an improvement of two orders of magnitude. These models could be generated in a span of mere minutes. By comparison, current global models can take hours to produce. Models with such high spatial resolution produced at this speed would be immensely valuable to first-responders and wildfire managers trying to observe and contain dynamic burns. Milton Halem, a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, leads the Wildfire Digital Twin project, which includes a team of more than 20 researchers from six universities. “We want to be able to provide firefighters with useful, timely information,” said Halem, adding that in the field, “there is generally no internet, and no access to big supercomputers, but with our API version of the model, they could run the digital twin not just on a laptop, but even a tablet,” he said. NASA’s FireSense project is focused on leveraging the agency’s unique Earth science and technological capabilities to achieve improved wildfire management across the United States. NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office supports this effort with its newest program element, Technology Development for support of Wildfire Science, Management, and Disaster Mitigation (FireSense Technology), which is dedicated to developing novel observation capabilities for predicting and managing wildfires –including technologies like Earth System Digital Twins. Earth System Digital Twins are dynamic software tools for modeling and forecasting climate events in real time. These tools rely on data sources distributed across multiple domains to create ensemble predictions describing everything from floods to severe weather. In addition to assisting first responders, an Earth System Digital Twin dedicated to modeling wildfires would also be valuable to scientists monitoring wildfire trends globally. In particular, Halem hopes Wildfire Digital Twins will improve our ability to study wildfires across global boreal forests of cold-hardy conifers, which sequester vast amounts of carbon. When these forests burn, all of that carbon is released back into the atmosphere. One study, released in August of 2023, found that boreal wildfires alone accounted for 25% of all global CO2 emissions for that year to date. “The reason CO2 emissions from Boreal wildfires are taking place at an increasing yearly rate is because global warming is rising faster at high latitudes than the rest of the planet, and as a result, boreal summers there are becoming longer,” said Halem. “Whereas the rest of the planet may have warmed one degree Celsius since the pre-industrial revolution, this region has warmed well over two degrees.” Halem’s work builds on other wildfire models, particularly the NASA-Unified Weather Research and Forecasting (NUWRF) model, developed by NASA, and WRF-SFIRE, developed by a team of researchers with support from the National Science Foundation. These models simulate phenomena like wind speed and cloud cover, which makes them the perfect foundation for a Wildfire Digital Twin. Specifically, Halem’s team is working on new satellite data assimilation techniques that will blend information from space-based remote sensors into their Wildfire Digital Twin, enabling improved global data forecasts that will be useful for emergencies and science missions alike. In October, Halem’s team participated in the first FireSense field campaign in collaboration with the National Forest Service’s Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE) to observe smoke as it travelled more than 10 miles during a controlled burn in Utah, using a ceilometer. Now the team is feeding that data into their modeling software to help it track plumes more accurately. They’re especially interested in tracking particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers, which are small enough to pass through a person’s lungs and enter the bloodstream. These particles, also known as PM 2.5, can cause serious health issues even if a person is nowhere near an active burn. “When these fires ignite and start to burn, they produce smoke, and this smoke travels considerable distances. It affects people not only locally, but also at distances of thousands of kilometers or more,” said Halem. Data from the controlled burn will also help Halem and his team quantify the relationship between aerosols and precipitation. Increased aerosols from wildfires have a huge impact on cloud formation, which in turn impacts how precipitation occurs downstream of an affected fire burn. Assimilating all this information as it streams from sensors in real time is essential for detailing the full impact of wildfires at local, regional, and global scales. PROJECT LEAD Milton Halem, University of Maryland at Baltimore County SPONSORING ORGANIZATION NASA’s FireSense Technology Program, a part of the agency’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), funds this project. Share Details Last Updated May 21, 2024 Related Terms Earth Science Earth Science Technology Office Science-enabling Technology Technology Technology Highlights Wildfires Explore More 5 min read How NASA Tracked the Most Intense Solar Storm in Decades Article 5 days ago 6 min read Breaking the Scaling Limits: New Ultralow-noise Superconducting Camera for Exoplanet Searches Article 2 weeks ago 5 min read NASA Is Helping Protect Tigers, Jaguars, and Elephants. Here’s How. Article 3 weeks ago

[someonelookingpraediti]

FairyLoot Unboxing

The Witching Hour November 2022

The theme is "The Witching Hour", and the box has a witchy theme to it - the thing is, the cover of the book doesn't look witchy. I just would not guess that was what the book was about, so the rest of the box doesn't really seem to fit with it. But that's more the fault of the cover designer, than the theming of the box, I guess?

This box was super late, and when it arrived, it was in a huuuge box, so I thought there must be a really oversized item in there! There wasn't, it was all packaging, so I guess they just ran out of regular boxes.

The featured book is "The Ones We Burn" by Rebecca Mix. The cover is a recolouring - the flames coloured grey to turn them to smoke, and the lettering changed from silver to gold. I really don't like the design, it doesn't draw me in, and I'd never pick this off a shelf in a bookshop. The edges are sprayed black and orange ombre, which is interesting. It has detailed foiling on the hardcase, although only on the front, and black and white artwork endpapers. There's also a black and white reversible dustjacket, to match the endpapers, which is really nice, although it unfortunately doesn't work very well with the ombre edges.

The first item is a mug, inspired by "Kingdom of the Wicked". It's on my list, but it's pretty low priority. It's a nice mug though! It's somewhere between greyscale and sepia - like a sepia with the saturation turned way down, and its got metallic foiling. I love that all the FairyLoot mugs are the same shape, so they work as a set.

The next item is FairyLoot's yearly reading planner. I've been anticipating this, because I wanted to get all three subscriptions' planners before I decided which one to use next year. (Spoiler: it's the Illumicrate one) They're actually billing this as a "book review notebook" which is probably fair, because it's not a full reading planner. It only has one page design, repeated on every page, which lets you review a single book. No calendars or TBR pages or monthly wrap up spreads. Not very practical for me, personally. It's a nice design, sort of a witchy, cottagecore vibe. But a weird, colour, a kind of "barely green".

Next we have another collectable letter opener. This one is based on "Serpent & Dove", and it is absolutely gorgous, but totally impractical to actually open letters with! I won't be using this for it's intended purpose - it would mangle my envelopes beyond belief - but I will be keeping it around because it's just so pretty.

And lastly, there's a pin. I love a pin. I especially love a pin that works on my black denim, as this does. It's a little black spellbook with gold detailing. And they accidentally put two in my box, so I can give one to a friend!

This month's tarot cards feature Loulie and Mazen from "The Stardust Thief", which I still haven't read!

An "okay" box, overall. I think we're over our run of amazing boxes we had in the autumn, but I do seem to remember the same thing happening this time last year as well. I'm loving the current trend of alternate dust jackets though!

[loveofentropy]

when i look at the most prominent thing in my childhood, i think of a pack of cigarettes. the click of the lighter between the lips of my parents is a sound that still sits with me when i click the lighter to light my candle. the smell of the smoke once made me cringe but now brings a nostalgic smile to my face when the once disgusting scent hits my nose. cigarettes are what i think of when the angry feeling rises amongst my surroundings. i remember my father stomping down the stairs and fumbling in his hand for a lighter to calm himself down from one of the many fights that left my mother slamming their shared bedroom door. cigarettes are what i remember on road trips, because my mother never wanted a vape. even when she had a vape in her purse, the window in the car on the way to the doctor’s office was rolled down so the cigarette smoke would instead go out the window. i still know the words she would repeat to the man behind the counter at 7/11 or the native reservation always close to home. the words “one carton of seneca menthol 100s” were words i heard after coming out to my mother in the car. she never cared, but the cigarette my father immediately took out of the pack to light when hearing me say i have a girlfriend was enough for me to know. it’s funny how now i will be asked if i smoke or drink or if i go out too often or if i meet the criteria of being considered an addict. “do you smoke?” are the words i heard at a younger age than most due to the distinct green packaging sticking out of my mom’s pocket at my yearly doctor’s appointment. my reply for a long time was “no, but my parents do.” at age 15, however, when i left the house to meet at a park to smoke weed with people who also understood me, i grabbed the lighter off my dining room table and took the half-full pack my father would easily forget about to try to find a sense of internal understanding. the instant relief made me scared of the addiction that follows. at 16, i took the same half-empty pack out of an old purse and the same black lighter i always bought from the 7/11 three blocks away back to the same park i had my first cigarette. the gray smoke that surrounded my face for a mere millisecond somehow helped me breathe easily compared to the minute before. after my endometriosis diagnosis, and my pcos diagnosis, a different friend group; because the one before made me feel like i had a home and i was too scared to admit that my birth home wasn’t made for me; picked me up from my house on a spontaneous note. i smoked my joint in the car but quickly switched to a cigarette when we stopped at the dispensary. after having my heart broken by someone i still call one of the loves of my life, the burning feeling hit my lungs outside of my house at a late night. when my bipolar disorder inevitably got worse from the mass of stress around being a young adult in these years, i took the offer of a vape that i needed so badly. when it died within 2 weeks whilst i was sobbing over a person i thought could love me but wasn’t a person i knew at all, i went back outside at the late hours of the night. the sharp cold winds of the december air contradicted the burning hot relief that hit my lungs. somehow the cigarette kept me warm. it was when i was leaning on the back door from my childhood that i realized; i survived. you may think the cigarettes aren’t worth it but in comparison to the real childhood i had, i am happy to say that the cigarettes are the only habit i have picked up from my parents. of course, i will do my best to do the one thing they could never do for my brother and i: finally being able to put the green package, now almost empty compared to the half-full mentality a mere year ago, and use the lighter to light my candles once again.

[redacted-headcannons]

Obey Me! Headcanon: Most Traveled Locations in the Human Realm!

Where in the human realm do the demons go?

Lucifer 

always visits the exact same spot if its for him time 

a small village in Greece

which is once a year and he stays for a week

its the spot Lilith fell to 

he lovingly touches the ground 

sobs hysterically and loses composure to the point of bursting into demon form 

the locals here started offering him fruit at the entrance of the village

lucifer hated it at first 

local legend and translations call him the “Mourning Man” or the “Morning Man” bc of his wailing and tendency to stay from sunset to sunrise 

Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej definitely do a segment on him 

Mammon

as much we all might think its Vegas

its actually the red light district in Amsterdam 

hes a patron there 

not bc he sleeps with the workers but bc he has a shelter in the middle of the district 

its disguised as a sex shop but its just a front for mammon to run a school for uneducated workers in the district 

used to sustain it with all his gambling money but the graduates decided to become self sufficient 

the shop half makes a ton of money off of tourists AND humans give him a “principal” fee? amazing 

its something he’s actually really proud of and won’t tell anyone about

he honestly only visits every few years and very secretively 

Leviathan 

its Piss Alley in Tokyo 

though Levi will get mad if you call it by its English name. The Japanese translation is Memory Lane 

the tight alleyways made him extremely anxious the first time 

a kind restaurant owner who was smoking outside brought him in for tea and snacks 

they also happened to be streaming some anime 

Levi couldn’t get enough 

though he found it recently he travels there once a month 

recently for Levi is like 40 years ago though 

the couple who owns the joint think that levi is the spirit of their deceased son 

bc Levi only visits when no one is wandering the alleyways or inside the restaurant

their suspicion grows when levi mentions he was in the navy once 

Satan 

doesn’t have a favorite place 

travels through South America pretty frequently 

he grew bored of literature on Greco-Roman history 

decided to say f*ck it and travel to a random spot 

it was definitely Barranquilla

then discovered different dialects of spanish in South America 

ran into a language block in Brazil 

cannot understand Puerto Ricans 

but the countries he visits keeps his mind going and the cultures fascinate him

Asmodeus 

as the self-appointed part boi he loves South Korea and East Asia in general

something about a more or less conservative culture going absolutely ballistic with some alcohol and lust makes Asmo go feral 

one of the few brothers to exercise his sin while in the Human Realm

the country in general has a crazy range of seasons, which Asmo is really jealous of 

also likes it because people tend to compliment him in obvious ways here like taking pictures, giving him gifts on the street, or being scouted by entertainment companies 

no one can quite place if he’s a foreigner or not 

also likes traveling with Levi but mostly for the fashion scene in Japan 

Beelzebub 

it’s an American diner in Tucson 

its open 24/7 and run by a father-daughter duo whose trying to pay for her education 

the father is a big burly man with a kind smile and he thinks that Beel is probably what a son of his would look like 

the daughter has a crush on Beel 

Beel politely informs her that he’s “probably” around the same age as her dad 

understandably, they are shook

they talk about how they can’t tell where his accent is from and are weirded out that his bright orange hair looks like it actually grows out of his head

despite their suspicions, they feed him as much as his human form can handle

Beel returns the favor by tipping generously 

not like $100 tips kinda generously 

but like a few months of rent kinda generously

Belphegor 

used to go on yearly unexplained trips to Greece with Lucifer 

hated them 

when he finally got permission to travel on his own, he went to Mongolia 

it was an accident 

but the fresh air, the large open planes of grass, and the silence were really welcoming to him 

he could watch the stars for another 1,000 years there if his brothers stopped trying to retrieve him 

he avoids people like the plague here 

but its okay bc they don’t know he’s there when he visits 

actually the nearby village’s children think he’s just an odd cow 

Barbatos 

enjoys trips to countries that border the Alboran, Mediterranean, and Black Seas

there’s just so much to learn in these areas 

he can never really choose a favorite place 

frequents the ruins of the library of Alexandria, the island of Cyprus, and Gibraltar

was there when the library burned 

the food in these countries are also vastly different from each other with seafood often the common denominator 

he loves it 

unlike the stagnant nature of the devildom, the ever changing paces, cultures, and people of these regions and countries keeps Barbatos overwhelmed and happy

Diavolo 

he actually thinks that visiting random churches is super funny 

made it three steps in the vatican before feeling super sick 

not from the holiness 

but the stench of overwhelming human sin 

when leaving he cackles because its just so very human 

is interested in what humans interpret as sin within Christianity because their concept of good and evil is so grey

he doesn’t get to the Human Realm very often 

but stays for at least a month every time 

[coexiising]

Good Neighbors - Chapter One

SUMMARY ✦ You were excited to learn that someone was finally moving into that old house next to your own. The Skywalker-Amidala family seemed like a great addition to your friendly neighborhood, with their two twin kids and happy personalities. Though, the more you get to know your neighbors, the closer you get to the husband of the family: Anakin Skywalker.

WARNING(S) ✦ Modern! Anakin Skywalker, Alternate Universe, Infidelity, Eventual Smut, not so slow burn, Eventual Romance, Neighbors, and they were neighbors, anakin looks so good in a suit, sneaking around, forbidden love

NOTE ✦ I’ve been wanting to write a Modern! Anakin fanfic for a while now, so here we go! This will be a multi chapter fic, I don’t know how many yet but expect a lot because I’ve got some ideas to play out! This chapter is more of an introductory, but expect some more spicy drama in the next coming chapters. 

»»————-　✼　————-««

As tradition goes every year, you could smell the smoke coming from the middle of your neighborhood's culdesac while you made your way outside your garage with your mother, who held a large tray of potato salad in her hands that she insisted she carried herself over to the white tables in the distance. It was hot outside, early July was coming strong this year with the heat, reaching a staggering eighty nine degrees outside and it was already well past noon. Though, you should’ve been expecting the heat, since it seemed to creep up on you every time this yearly cookout happened.

It had been a little tradition, jokingly deemed a ‘holiday’ by your younger brother, that had been going on for as long as you could think back to. You could remember being five years old and running around with the neighborhood kids and jumping into your pool after eating the bountiful amount of food that was supplied for the families that participated. It used to be a handful of them, three or four families that came and had a small little barbeque together. But over time that changed, and now it became a whole neighborhood thing.  

The dads of the block always started earlier to get everything set up, which was really the long white tables where food could be set and setting up the large grill on the pavement. And the moms always slaved away in their kitchens making some type of side dish, whether it be fruit cups, potato salads, or whatever. You were twenty two now, almost done with your undergraduate degree, and you wondered if you would ever find this sense of friendliness anywhere else when you eventually moved from your home. It wasn’t that you didn’t want to leave, it was just more convenient for you to stay and you didn’t mind your family that much. They were supportive, there for you no matter what, and your home was close to your University anyways.

“I wonder if Lisa is going to wear that ugly dress she bought the other day,” Your mother stated, making short, languid strides next to you. “She brought it to the house a few days ago when we were having a little wine date and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she was definitely not twenty five anymore and that dress did not hug her in the right places.”

You laughed, jokingly hitting your mom on the shoulder. “Mom, come on, it can’t be that bad.” She didn’t respond, only grinning towards you with a hint of playfulness filling her eyes behind her thick, black sunglasses. Your eyes scanned the crowd already forming, kids on the outside running around with a ball. You knew a lot of them, even held some of them as babies after they were born. But when you took another glance at the group, you saw that there were two you didn’t recognize. A boy and a girl, both looking similar to one another and the only difference being the slightly different shades of their hair. “Mom, who are they?” You asked, pointing to the girl and boy who were now fighting each other for control over the soccer ball.

“Oh, they’re the kids of the new neighbors,” Your mom answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. You looked over at the house next to your own, a two story one with white coloring and many windows. It had been for sale forever and it became quite the local news when someone actually bought it. You guess you hadn’t realized that the people who bought it were now occupying it. “They’re twins, I think. The mom and dad are on the younger side too. Courtney says that the husband is working at that law firm down on first street and apparently the wife wants to run for senator in a year.” How the hell did she know this much about everyone? You shouldn’t even question it at this point, since she was friends with all the neighborhood moms who loved to gossip.

Looking around for any unfamiliar faces, you were surprised to see none. Were they not coming out for the cookout? It seemed like the perfect place for them to meet everybody. “Oh!” Your mom exclaimed. “I forgot the tongs on the kitchen counter, could you go get them for me, please?” Without a second thought you nodded, turning on your heel and making your way back towards your house. As much as you loved your mom, you were sometimes annoyed with her forgetfulness, especially because you asked her if she had everything three times before you left just a few moments ago. Oh well, it wasn’t that big of a deal, you would be in and out in no time.

You walked up the well cut grass of your lawn to your front door, sandaled foot almost hitting the concrete when you heard the creak of another door. It belonged to the door of the house beside you, the light tapping of shoes making their way onto the patio filled your ears, feeling somewhat foreign since you weren’t used to hearing anything from that house. You wondered what it looked like inside, if everything was rusted and worn. It had to have been almost ten years since someone lived there.

But when you turned to finally get a look at your neighbor, your thoughts were completely halted.

Your mom was right, he, most likely being the husband, was on the younger side. He had to be in his early thirties, still a lot of youth painting his broadened features. His skin was lightly tanned, it was hard not to notice the way that the sun seemed to do a good job in painting his long, muscular arms that reached to close the door behind him. He was wearing a short sleeved shirt and black pants, though it wasn’t like something that you had seen other dads wear before, it was more formal, more pristine like he was trying to make an appearance. But if the story checked out, he was supposed to be a lawyer, it was his job to look professional. You continued to look at him, almost shamefully so as your eyes trailed from his clothing to his face, taking in the sharpness of his jaw and the blues of his eyes that very much reminded you of the light blue sky above you now. And then to his hair, which was cut short and had a golden glow to it.

Right as you were about to turn and get into your house, the ball that had been with the group of kids came flying your way, hitting against the door next to you and making you jump at the loud noise. It was lucky that it didn’t fly through a window, or your parents would’ve gone ballistic. You could hear some of the parents start to shout at the kids, telling them to stay away from the houses if they were planning on kicking that thing off of the ground. The same kids you were questioning earlier ran up your lawn, most definitely to retrieve the ball that would’ve hit you dead on if you hadn’t been gawking at their father.

“Luke, I told you to not kick it that way!” The girl, Leia, yelled towards her brother, a little stomp in her step as they made their way towards you. You picked up the ball and held it in your hands, kneeling down and waiting for the kids to approach you. Luke shook his head, shaggy hair falling into his eyes and saying, “It wasn’t me! It was that other guy over there. Why do you always blame me!” You laughed, the dynamic almost reminding you of you and your brother when you were younger.

Handing them the red rubber ball, they both gave you a small ‘thank you’ and Leia muttered a tiny ‘sorry’ and they went on their way. Watching as they went, you didn’t even realize that someone else was walking up to you. Still kneeling, you looked up and saw that it was your neighbor, looking down at you with a tiny, pleasant smile on his face. You blushed, realizing the awkward position and stood up, ignoring the heat coming to your cheeks and offering a smile to him as well. Being this close to him, you could see that he was tall as well, standing a good couple inches over you. Usually this would’ve made you feel intimidated, but for some reason it made you want to draw closer to him. You mentally scolded yourself for thinking this way, knowing that he was your new neighbor, and not to mention he had two very cute twins and a wife who was probably beautiful.

“Sorry about that, I hope they didn’t scare you that bad,” He said, taking a glance at his kids who were already starting another round of whatever game they were playing with the others. His voice was low, but there was a sense of calm to it. It wasn’t rough or gravelly, almost like honey as he spoke to you. “I haven’t seen you here before, do you live here? I think I’ve seen your mom and dad around but we were waiting until the cookout to introduce ourselves.” Kind of a stupid question to ask since you were standing on your porch with your keys in your hand, though you gave him the benefit of the doubt.

“Yeah, um,” You thought back to the day you saw your neighbors two cars parked in the driveway, was that a Sunday? No, it was a Monday. “I’m usually around here more but last week I had to pick up a couple shifts at work to help my friend.” Your coworker and friend came down with the flu and had to find someone to cover her ships ASAP, and you weren’t doing anything important and stepped in to help.

He nodded. “Makes sense. I’m Anakin Skywalker, you already met my kids but they’re Luke and Leia.” Skywalker. A strange last name that confused you for a moment, realizing that you’ve never heard of anything like that before. Then again, you hadn’t heard of the name Anakin either, but somehow the unique name fit him.

“Y/N,” You responded, giving him a nod.

“Y/N,” He said, like he was testing the name out on his tongue. You tried to ignore the feeling you got when you heard it come out of his lips, which were very nice by the way when you took a second to glance at them. It sounded good in Anakin’s voice, and you found yourself wanting him to say it over and over again if he would. There was a moment of awkward silence between the both of you, a random amount of tension that you didn’t know if you were imagining or not. Then Anakin opened his mouth again to say, “My kids were looking at the pool in your yard the other day when they were exploring our backyard.”

“Oh, yeah,” You said. “They’re welcome to come over any time and use it if they want.”

“Are you sure?”

It was normal for the people in the neighborhood to use it if they wanted to. It was a big underground pool that had been built when you were a little kid. “Yeah, everyone does. Just make sure to ask someone before and they’ll most likely say yes. We like to get the most out of it every summer.” You realized that you were supposed to be back with your mother, she was most likely getting antsy as to what was taking so long. So you took the opportunity to leave, even though you wouldn’t mind staying and talking to your new neighbor for as long as he wanted to. He wasn’t just attractive, you thought that he was nice too.

“Well, I need to get something from the house and get back to my mom. See you later, Mr. Skywalker.”

“Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“Just Anakin is fine.”

You felt your cheeks heat up. “Right, see you later, Anakin.” He gave you one last smile and right as you turned around, you could’ve sworn you saw a wink. You turned on your heel, ignoring the eyes he clearly had on you and making your way into your house. The moment the door was closed, you leaned against the wood and closed your eyes, replaying that last moment over and over again in your head. Had he really winked at you? Or was that just your mind spinning some kind of fantasy?

Oh, Christ.

It was hard to ignore the butterflies swarming in your stomach.

[latte-fairytaekwoon]

❥𝓔𝓻𝓸𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓟𝓼𝔂𝓬𝓱𝓮

𝑃𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔: 𝐸𝑟𝑜𝑠! 𝐾𝑎𝑛𝑔 𝑌𝑒𝑜𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑔 × 𝑃𝑠𝑦𝑐ℎ𝑒! 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟 (𝐹𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑒)

𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑟𝑒: 𝐹𝑙𝑢𝑓𝑓, 𝐴𝑛𝑔𝑠𝑡, 𝐿𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑆𝑚𝑢𝑡, 𝐹𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑦/𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑘 𝑀𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦 𝐴𝑈.

𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡: 11.8𝐾

𝑊𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠: 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑦 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝, 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠, 𝑚𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠/ 𝑑𝑒𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑠𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠, 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒, 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘, 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡.

~"𝑀𝑦 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑙 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑙 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑚𝑒𝑡.

𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑚𝑦 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢, 𝐼 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢.

𝑌𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑑 𝑚𝑦 𝑓𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠." - 𝐴𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑎 𝐾𝑟𝑖𝑧𝑧𝑎𝑛.

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

"Eros, my darling son.......come here for a minute."

The golden haired goddess gently stroke the dove that was nestled in her embrace, her eyes fixated on the ray of light that shone through the crystal windows of her palace.

She heard the footsteps of her beloved child stop right in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him bend down in obeisance to her, his arm rested across his chest.

"Yes mother?" The snowy white haired deity awaited her instructions.

"I've been rather uneasy lately my love. Very uneasy." She waved her hand and he slowly rose up, eyes meeting hers.

"Why is that?"

The Olympian got up from her seat, sending the little dove flying away to perch itself on one of the trees that decorated the room. Gracefully, she paced around the room, her hands folded in front of her abdomen, fingers tapping against each other as she mused about the current situation.

"There's been....some unsettling rumors being spread in the mortal world and it has reached Olympus..."

Eros waited for her to continue. It must have been something very grievous for her to be so out of sorts, and this was the same goddess who didn't fear the consequences when her long life affair with his father, Ares, was discovered.

She peered down the window, sneering at the city below that was barely visible with all the clouds covering a vast majority of it.

"Apparently one of the daughter's of the King of Athens is said to be remarkably beautiful....."

She paused as she took a deep breath, jaw clenching as she sputtered out the next words.

"So enchanting that they dare compare her to me....Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty itself....

They've even begun to bring gifts and worship her on the day they're supposed to pay respect and praise to me!"

Eros flinched slightly when she hastily turned around and marched past him, tipping over a table that held a tray with a golden tea set. But he didn't stop her, so used to his mother's infantile tantrums, although he was pretty shocked to hear the severity of the issue. To worship a mere mortal, one who was so far below one of the gods, and not just any god, but one of the 12 Olympians themselves, was inconceivable.

Aphrodite clenched and unclenched her fist, trying to control her fury threatening to seek vengeance.

"I need you to go down there and find out who she is. And when you find her.....shoot her." She commanded him.

Eros nodded, understanding what she was asking of him.

"Who would you like me to have her fall for?"

Aphrodite groaned in annoyance.

"Oh! I don't know! Anyone or anything! An old haggard beggar, a toad, have her go mad over a tree stump for all I care! Just make her go insane!" She threw a cluster of grapes across the room, scaring the flock of doves who flew away to different parts of the room.

"As you wish my goddess."

Eros bowed to his mother one last time before retreating out of the hall, and going to his own chambers to prepare his necessary equipment for the journey. He too was curious to find out just how captivating this woman really was.

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

The young girl sighed softly as she looked at all the smoke coming out from the temple, the light scent of incense could be made out from her bedroom window. She was well aware and against what was going on in there. It was utterly disrespectful of her father to allow them and even encourage his citizens to offer sacrifices to her in Aphrodite's sacred temple, and on her very own yearly celebration. Had they no fear of a wrath from the gods?

She simply looked away and went to her own little corner where she made a small shrine dedicated to the goddess of beauty, love and fertility. She admired the small marble figurine of the goddess herself, and straightened out the roses and pearls surrounding it. She lit fire to a few myrtles and let them burn in a small ash tray as she murmured one of the many hymns in devotion to the deity. If she wasn't so soft hearted, she would have finished it off with sacrificing one of the best doves that were kept in the stables, but she could never bring herself to do that. She hoped the goddess would understand and forgive her, or at least, try to appease her for all the foolishness her father was causing.

She straightened her nightgown and crawled under the blankets of her grand bed. She was exhausted from the day's festivities and from the guilt and fear eating her alive. She shut her eyes, secretly hoping it was nothing but a bad dream and when she awoke, everything would be fine and back to the ways it was meant to be. She soon was fast asleep, only movements coming out of her body were the rising of her chest, signaling her breathing.

A soft thud landed on her balcony. The being looked behind him, making sure nobody had seen him. Not that it mattered, even if they did, they would tremble away in fear. Pushing the window open, he let himself inside the girl's bedroom, the one they reverenced as Psyche. His eyes scanned the room, landing on the bed which he cautiously approached. His hand reached out to pull away at the drapes covering the sleeping figure.

"Let's see who is it that is said to rival Aphrodite."

Eros pulled the drape away, letting the moonlight behind him shine on the face of the occupant on the bed. His arm fell to his side, slapping slightly against his thigh as he took in the beautiful countenance of the woman sleeping peacefully in front of him. He blinked slowly, trying to decipher if what he was seeing was indeed real. She was absolutely breathtaking, almost ethereal, never had his sight been blessed by such radiant and magnificent beauty, and he'd spent some time around Poseidon's Nereids.

Without realizing it, his hand reached out to caress her face or simply push back a lock of her hair, he himself didn't know what he was doing. But a small shifting of position on her part made him retract his hand, elbow grazing on the leather of the pouch on his back.

That's right. He still had a mission to carry out.

His arm reached back and grabbed an arrow from the pouch. He then proceeded to hover his hand above the tip, humming the soft incantation that would allow him to pierce the girl's heart and render her insane for the first object she saw. As he chanted, she began to stir in her sleep, putting Eros on guard, hoping she wouldn't wake up. He took in how her once peaceful expression, showed now sorrow and pain. It somehow pained him to see such a beautiful girl seem so troubled. He was so lost in her gaze that he didn't realise it until it was too late...

Until he felt the sharp tip of the arrow prick into his palm, even piercing the skin. Eros widened his eyes as he quickly yanked the arrow out, flinging it across the room. He looked at his hand, no blood coming out because he was an immortal, but he still clutched it as he felt an overwhelming pain and flutter course through his entire body. His heart started to pump at a faster pace, and his breathing became heavier. He tried to look away, but his mind forced him to look back at the unsuspecting girl on the bed.

"Oh no......what have I done?" He whispered softly.

Feeling dizzy, he scurried out the window, not caring anymore about being seeing in the dark of night, he just knew he wanted to back in Olympus as soon as possible. He flew back into the heavens, discarding only a few white feathers on his desperate flight back.

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

Psyche stood in front of the mirror, trying not to gaze at her own reflection, which she thought of as more of a curse than a blessing. She simply let her maids comb and adorn her hair as they wished and wrap a golden belt around her lilac colored tunic.

"My lady would you like breakfast brought to you or would you prefer to go down to the dining room?" One of them inquired.

She shook her head.

"I won't be taking breakfast today thank you."

The maids exchanged a puzzled look between each other but decided not to pry any longer. They simple allowed their mistress to wander off to the castle's pavilion located in the center of the gardens.

She preferred being alone these days, avoiding as many people as possible, but especially her father. Lately he had been rambling and complaining non stop at the lack of suitors coming to propose marriage to her. It'd been almost a year since he put out the announcement that she was of age and ready to be betrothed to any suitable prince or monarch, he had even raised the dowry triple what it was originally worth, but still, no one had come to claim her or propose.

"Perhaps it's just as well." She thought to herself. It wouldn't surprise her if this was how Aphrodite was showing her anger, by making her face the humiliation of being unwedded and childless.

Perhaps the biggest thing bothering her was the fact men just came to admire her beauty, but seemed to never really fall in love with her, and she herself couldn't fall in love either. Was she just a pretty face for people to gawk and fawn over? Was she destined to feel lonely and empty for the rest of her life?

"Little Psyche out here all alone?"

She stiffened when she heard the voice of her eldest sister, Amara, from behind her. Small steps let her know she was entering the pavilion and soon enough, she felt her presence stand right next to her.

"I wanted to be alone. That's all." She explained, although she really didn't feel the need to.

Her sister hummed softly.

"Would one really think that to be such a good idea? Father would be concerned if anything happened to his precious and beautiful Psyche, especially after that incident of the arrow in your room."

She was getting irritated at this point, her hand gripping harshly at the side of her tunic, creasing it slightly.

"That was many months ago Amara.....and I've said before that I don't like the title given to me by my father and the people....."

She took a deep breath before stating firmly:

"My name is Y/N and I shall be referred as such."

Her sister was taken aback by her sharp tone, but paid no attention to it. She opted for plucking some of the little violets that surrounded one of the pillars.

"As you wish....after all, anything you say is practically law. Anything you desire, you'll get." Her voice was laced with envy.

Y/N shook her head.

"Not everything."

Although she was referring to the fact her father refused to listen to her in the matter of Aphrodite's temple, her sister wrongly thought she meant the matter of matrimony.

"Oh don't worry little sister. Father is to go visit the Oracle of Delphi to seek help from Apollo in regards to your.......shameful circumstances."

Y/N couldn't stand it anymore. It's not that she hated her sister, but lately she seemed to enjoy in taking delight of her misery and pain, hurting her with her mock pity and double sided remarks.

"If you'll excuse me Amara, I shall go back inside."

Y/N was barely 4 feet away when her sister dismissed her.

"See you later......Psyche."

Y/N refused to eat during the entire day, worrying her loyal and trustworthy maids.

"But Miss....you must eat at least a little. Whatever shall you do if your beauty fades away?"

'Then I shall be content.'

She only thought those words but didn't say them out loud. She felt bad about her maids attending to her with such tenderness that she forced herself to at least eat some of the grapes in front of her. It seemed to put her maids more at ease and Y/N was happy about it.

"Anything in particular you wish for us to do Miss?"

There was one thing she really wanted. Something everyone around her never seemed to do anymore.

"Could you......could you please call me Y/N?"

The two women looked back and forth at each other, unsure of whether to refer to the princess in such an informal way.

"Please?"

Y/N was just craving to be reminded of who she truly was, be assured about her existence and her true person. Both women smiled fondly at her before curtsying to her.

"Lady Y/N."

She felt her heart full with warmth and felt happier in that moment than she had felt in the last 8 months that had gone by. But that happiness was short lived when her door swung open, her other sister, Melia rushing in, looking out of sorts and with fear in her eyes.

"Melia? What's wrong?"

Y/N stood up, but it was her sister who clutched onto her and sobbed on her neck.

"Oh poor Psyche! Why must this have happened to you? To my dear little sister?"

Y/N didn't know what to make of this, but it must be something dreadful if her usually composed and quiet sibling was hysteric. She pulled her back to take in her countenance.

"Tell me. What is it?" Y/N pleaded.

Melia pursed her lips before recounting what she heard and witnessed.

"Father came back from meeting with Apollo's Oracle......and Psyche, it's dreadful!"

Y/N gulped slightly. Although she was expecting the answer to not be a favorable one, she was not expecting this outburst.

"Tell me Mel.......am I not to get married ever?"

Y/N braced herself for the negative response.

Melia shook her head though.

"No Psyche.....it's much much worse than that."

Y/N felt her heart drop at that. What could there possibly be that was worse than not getting married?

"The Oracle told father that your husband has already been chosen for you. He gave us instructions that we are to deliver you to the top of Mount Lycabettus, dressed in black and to leave you there...."

She sniffled and held her handkerchief to her mouth.

"Will my husband meet us there?" She questioned.

Melia shook her head no.

"Well- then how can we be married?" She was beyond puzzled at this point.

"We don't know Psyche, the Oracle only said to deliver you. One thing is sure Psyche. Your husband is not mortal."

Y/N would have rejoiced at the information would it not have been for the terror in her sister's eyes.

"Melia tell me.....who exactly is my husband?"

Melia seemed troubled to reveal more information to her, but she knew she had to say it.

"We don't know. He refused to tell father. All he mentioned was that he flies through the skies and even the gods are terrified of him.....

"Psyche....I fear you're destined to marry a monster..."

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

The girl watched as her parents, sisters and their husbands disappeared from sight, not even leaving behind their footprints to keep her company. Crouching down, she settled herself onto the ground, her arms wrapping around to hug her knees. She sighed in despair as she thought about what was going to happen to her now. Was her new husband really a monster? It seemed to be the only logical explanation if even gods were afraid of him. The only thing she could think of was....

A titan?

'No it can't be.'

She quickly discarded that thought. All of the titans were locked away in Tartarus. And the world would have definitely known if a titan had gotten out.

She anxiously waited for a sign, a movement of some kind, but nothing ever came. All she had to accompany her besides her solitude was the light breeze that blew some of her hair in front of her face. She shivered slightly, her arms crossing over her chest as she rubbed them with her hands. She faintly noticed that the wind seemed to be getting a little more heavier, and it seemed as though fog started to appear around her. But Y/N couldn't really pay attention to it as she felt herself getting drowsy and tired. She struggled to keep her eyes open, but the feeling was overtaking her. Her eyes ended up closing as she fell back onto the moss underneath her, falling fast asleep without even knowing why.

While asleep, she felt a strange sensation of being lifted up and carried up into the sky, almost as if though she were flying.....but that was surely impossible? But it felt so real. She had a fantastical dream of flying above the peak of mountains, drift through the clouds in the sky and somehow even be close to the stars. She felt as if she were being carried in the arms of some strong entity. And at the end, she could faintly hear a voice assure her:

"Have no fear little one, for you are truly loved."

Awakening hours later, when it was even darker and more deep into the night than before, she sat up and looked around at her surroundings. The green moss from before was no longer accompanying her. Instead, she awoke to find herself placed on an ivory marble resting bench. Beautiful varieties of roses surrounded what she guessed to be a very beautiful and luxurious garden. Her hand reached out to caress one of them, its petals being one of the most soft things she'd ever felt.

Standing up, she followed the stone path that was right in front of her. A tiny river flowed through the garden, a slight trickling sound was the only noise that was heard. She stopped when a grand and extravagant mansion stood before her. It was 10 times more beautiful and seemed more expensive than the very castle she grew up in. Cautiously, she over to the front door, which seemed to be made out of pure gold, pearls adorning the edges of them.

Y/N was about to knock on it, but to her surprise, the doors opened by themselves. She slowly stepped inside, her eyes bulging out as her eyes took in the hall in front of her. Clean and neatly polished marble floor, crimson red silk drapes covering large and vast windows, the furniture looked unlike anything she had ever seen before. Her hand was gliding over the ottoman in the center of it when a voice called out:

"Welcome mistress! We have been expecting you!"

She whipped her head around, then looked at all directions, but found no one standing anywhere near her.

"Who...who are you?" Y/N fearfully looked at the ceiling then at every corner, wondering where the voice was.

"We're your servants mistress." A chorus of at least 5 women rang out, puzzling her even more.

"Where....are you?"

The invisible women giggled amongst themselves.

"We are right here next to you mistress. I'm afraid you just can't see us."

Y/N watched as a silver pitcher was lifted up in the air, pouring what seemed to be wine in a glass cup, which was then hovered right in front of her.

"Wine mistress?"

Y/N hesitantly took the cup, indeed feeling someone's weight let go of it. She took a small sip of the wine, its rich and crisp flavor enticing her to drink more of it.

"Would you care for any fruits?" A platter holding strawberries, grapes, cherries and blueberries were held up in front of her. They looked so fresh and ripe, Y/N couldn't help but reach for one of the grapes, her tastebuds becoming completely engaged at how delicious and juicy they were.

She no longer felt disturbed by the faceless voices talking to her, nor about the objects floating around, carrying articles that were being offered to her, and she did not get startled when she heard music filling the room, playing the most sweet and beautiful melody her ears were blessed to hear. She just let her invisible attendants feed her some exotic foods that she never even knew existed. She also didn't mind them guiding her to a lavatory, where there was a bathtub, the size of a large pond already waiting for her. She nearly slipped into another deep sleep when she stepped inside, the warm water relaxing her muscles while the scent of lavender calmed and eased her mind. After washing her body, her maids oiled and scented her body with vanilla and jasmine while they dried her. She saw as a periwinkle blue robe was extended towards her and Y/N slipped into it, her hands caressing the soft, velvet material, smoothing the folds on her waist and hips.

"Oh mistress! You look so beautiful!" One of them cheerfully exclaimed.

"You're the most beautiful creature we've been honored to serve." Another piped in.

"We're so happy to have you here with us. It shall be a lot more livelier now." She heard someone chuckle.

"I think our job for tonight is done. My lady, please step into the room behind the other door. The master will join you shortly."

Y/N was so filled with bliss and contentment, that she had completely forgotten why she was here in the first place. Recalling her sister words, she begged her maids not to leave her, but they apologized and retreated to who knows where, leaving her by herself once again. Her hand reached for the doorknob, turning it slowly before she stepped into the next room.

Y/N tried to move around in the space, but it was extremely difficult because the room was pitch black. She could barely make out the outlines of the chairs, the bed draped with curtains or the dressers. On the corner, she saw a single window, but the curtains were drawn, and even if it was open, the dark night would hardly help her see any better. Y/N out stretched her arms, grabbing onto the empty void around her to maneuver herself to the bed, where she settled down into, hugging her knees like she did back when her family left her on top of the mountain.

She rocked herself back and forth as many thoughts ran over her mind:

'When will he arrive? Will he be kind or not? What will he look like....

And who was he?'

Y/N rested her hands on her arms that were hugging her knees, her eyes closing, but she wasn't tired at all. She just wished time would speed up faster and someone could explain to her what was going on. She felt a light breeze suddenly pass through the room. Looking up, she saw that the curtains by the window had been moved, pushed slightly open, letting just the dimmest sliver of light pour in, but she still couldn't see anything.

She felt something .....someone else in the room with her. On edge, she quickly sat up from the bed and tried to make way back to the other room.

"You have nothing to fear my dearest Y/N."

She halted at the sound of her name. She was expecting to be called that odious title she was often referred to, but instead, she heard her very own name.

"How....how do you know my name?"

The deep, baritone voice spoke again.

"It wouldn't be fitting for a husband to not know his own wife's name, don't you think?"

Y/N eased slightly at his words but still felt nervous.

"Where...are you?" She took small steps, eyes squinting to see something, anything.

She felt a rush of warmth fill up her body when a gentle hand placed itself on her shoulder.

"I'm right here beside you, where I shall always be."

She didn't tremble at his touch, on the contrary, she relaxed and her fear was suddenly gone. Whoever the stranger was, he slowly turned her around to face him. She could make out a bit of his outline, but still couldn't define any of his features or details.

"Why aren't there any lamps? I can't see you."

Lifting her hand, he placed it on his cheek, his skin feeling as soft as a petal.

"See me with your touch my love."

Her hand delicately traced his features, trying to imagine what he looked like. He had a very sharp jawline, a well defined nose and delicately carved lips that tempted her to reach up and kiss them. She was still confused as to why she couldn't see him though. As if on cue, he spoke:

"I know it must be difficult for you to understand this Y/N. But please don't be afraid of me. I would never hurt you."

Y/N retracted her hand.

"My...my sister said you're a monster."

He chuckled heartedly, his voice full of music and splendor.

"Do I feel like a monster or sound like one?"

Y/N giggled softly, realizing it did seem silly.

"If you're not a monster though......why can't I see you?"

She could feel the man in front of her think about how to answer her. Sighing softly, he took her hand again, holding it with his two hands and running a thumb on the top of it.

"I'm afraid I can't give you the answer to that question yet...."

She felt her heart sink at his words. She lowered her head in disappointment. Not wanting to upset her more, he kissed the palm of her hand and swore:

"Just please trust me Y/N, and I'll promise to love you forever......can you trust me?"

Maybe she was mad or delusional, but in spite of all the mystery surrounding him, she sincerely felt the veracity of his promise and had no doubt in her mind about trusting him. She moved closer to him, accidentally stepping too far and colliding with his firm chest.

"Umph!" Y/N groaned slightly.

He giggled softly at her cute action. He saw as she tried to reach out again to feel him, but instead pulled her hand away.

"You can touch me love."

Her hands once again traced his smooth face, traveling down his neck before resting on his broad shoulders. Although he felt somewhat slim, his body seemed very toned and vigorous. Y/N wanted to drop her hands further but she felt to shy to do it. Once again, he read her mind.

"Y/N....it's ok. We're married." He drew out that last word, more to himself than to her.

Her hands pressed down across his chest. She could tell his tunic was made out of fine linen, even if she couldn't see it. His chest felt strong and sturdy, she bit her lip slightly as she pictured what it would look like in the light, without his garment.

She gasped when she felt him pull her against him, his breath against her lips, just wanting to close the space between them and kiss her. His finger traced the curve of her luscious and plump lips. Although she was content with everything he'd said so far, there was just one more question she had:

"I....... I don't know what to call you."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean....you know my name....but you never told me yours." She pulled away slightly.

He realized she was right. She felt him smile at her as he brought her face close to his again.

"Please call me Yeosang." Her heart fluttered when she heard his name.

Yeosang brushed his lips against hers.

"Trust me my dear. I love you with all my heart."

Y/N melted at his words and before she knew it, she whispered back:

"I love you too....Yeosang."

As soon as she spoke out those words, Yeosang could no longer control himself as he enclosed his lips over hers in a passionate and loving kiss. Y/N blushed at being kissed for the first time in her life, but happily returned the gesture, surprised that she easily could. Even though she couldn't see him, she knew Yeosang was beautiful, ethereal and very kind...

And she was already falling in love with him.

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

It had been roughly 4 months into their marriage and Y/N was extremely happy. He'd visit her in the dead of night everyday, as usual, in the pitch black so she couldn't see him, but she had grown accustomed to that. He'd usually leave before she was even awake and before the sun would even start coming out. He'd always leave a red rose by her dresser everyday, attached with a small note filled with terms of endearment and vows of love and adoration for her, always succeeding in making her blush.

Y/N was more than content. Now, whenever she looked in the mirror, she wouldn't turn away nor hate the face she saw. She came to love her appearance now, because there was light and love in it. She was in love, she was loved and there was no greater feeling than that.

During the day, she would either spend time outside in the garden or inside, her maids, or rather, their presence, always keeping her company. She loved listening to their stories about the world she was now a part of, finding them extremely fascinating. They were all so gentle and caring towards her, attending to her every needs and overall staying by her side so she wouldn't get lonely.

"Won't you tell us something about where you are from for once Mistress?"

Y/N was elated, happily telling them all about her home, her family, how she grew up and various other aspects of her life.

"You seem very close to your family Misstress." One of them observed.

"I am. I love them very much, and I have such fondness for my sisters...."

She stopped at the moment. It hit her how she hadn't heard from her family since she got there, nor did they have any idea of her whereabouts or her fate. Her heart suddenly felt sad as she began missing them terribly.

"Mistress is something wrong?"

Y/N quickly plastered a smile back on her face, not wanting them to be concerned at all. Instead suggesting they all play a game together so she wouldn't think about it. But it was futile. Her mind kept thinking back to her family. She missed them more and more. She hardly ate anything else for the rest of the day, instead opting to go to her room rather early, even though it'd be hours before Yeosang got there. She wept silently, her tears staining the pillow underneath her face. She tried to keep a positive and cheerful attitude when he did finally got there, but he could sense that something was troubling his beloved wife.

"What's bothering you my love?"

Y/N sighed softly.

"I miss my family...."

Yeosang tightened his embrace around her, his lips kissing her temple. Y/N nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, drinking in his scent that always calmed and soothed her mind.

"They must be so worried about me. They probably don't even know if I'm alive or not." She continued to pour out her distress.

Yeosang was pensive for a moment, wondering what he could do to help his sweetheart.

"Would you like to write to them? I can have someone give it to them." He offered.

Although Y/N found it kind of him to offer it, more than anything, she wanted to see them.

"I was actually wondering......if maybe they could come see me?" She reluctantly asked.

She very well noticed how Yeosang tensed up. Even in the darkness, she had learned to read his body language and knew he was hesitating about what to respond.

"I......I'm not sure that's a good idea love..."

Yeosang's heart felt when he heard a disappointed sigh escape her lips. It hurt her to see her in such a state. All he wanted was to make her happy. So although there were going to be risks, he agreed.

"They can't meet me. But if you wish, I can have Zephyr bring them here just like he brought you."

Y/N became so happy at the thought of seeing them again. Cupping Yeosang's face, she kissed him fervently, her reaction making Yeosang chuckle.

"Does it really make you that happy?" He questioned as he caressed her face.

Y/N nodded happily.

"So I take it you won't need anything else tonight?"

Well....there was actually one more thing. Y/N bit her lip as she stared up at Yeosang with a sparkle in her eyes.

"Oh.....I see."

Y/N could hear the smugness in his voice, but she didn't care. Not when he lips made her melt, when his hands caressed and fondled her tenderly and especially not when he slid in and out of her in such a passionate and loving way, bringing her into such a euphoric state. Another thing she discovered about Yeosang: he was an amazing lover, she almost felt drunk in his love whenever his body became one with hers.

Yeosang let out a grunt when he spilled himself inside of her, enjoying the feeling of her walls tightening around him as she also reached her own high. Without pulling out, Yeosang bent down to kiss her again, his hand reaching down to press against her stomach.

"I can't wait until you become pregnant with my child. I bet you'll look even more lovely than what you already are."

Y/N felt her face flush at his words. Suddenly feeling confident, she teased him.

"How about we try again? Just in case."

Yeosang sucked in a breath, his hands gripping at her hips.

"I thought you'd never ask."

Y/N's hands clutched at the sheets underneath her, moans slipping out of her lips as Yeosang moved inside of her once again, this time at a more fast and rough pace than before.

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

Y/N offered more pastries to her sisters. Melia excitedly accepted them, loving how rich and exquisite the foods at her little sister's place were. Amara however refused, her eyes still looking around at the place. She was very put off by how strange Y/N's circumstances were. The weird wind that transported them there, the invisible servants, the fact they could not meet her husband? It was extremely confusing. But most of all, she was insanely jealous of how Y/N was living. Her mansion was 10 times better than hers, the food was of better quality than what was served at her castle and everything was just so much more expensive.

"You seem to be...very happy here." Amara pointed out, her lips pursed tightly.

Y/N couldn't help but smile.

"I'm more than happy. I love it here. And I love my husband."

"Such a shame we couldn't meet him. Do you know when we will get the opportunity?" Melia asked.

"Oh...umm.....the thing is...you can't meet him..." Y/N fumbled with the sash across her dress.

Her two older sisters looked at her incredulously, then they looked at each other with a suspicious look.

"So is it true then? That he's a monster with scaly skin, serpent tongue and sharp teeth?" Melia looked frightened.

Y/N slammed her fist on the table, outraged that they'd dare think such things of Yeosang like that.

"He's not a monster! He's beautiful, absolutely handsome and the most kind being I have ever met!"

Her outburst made them even more curious.

"Then tell me Psyche, what does he look like?" Amara raised an eyebrow.

"It's Y/N! My name is Y/N. And.....I......I don't know! But I just know he's beautiful!"

Melia seemed puzzled.

"You don't know? What does that mean?"

Feeling cornered, Y/N had no choice but to tell them how her husband would only visit her at night, shrouded in darkness and whisper loving words in her ear. That only served to sprout out more questions from her siblings.

"How can you possibly be in love with him if you've never seen him?"

"I just am!" Y/N exclaimed.

"If he doesn't see you during the day, where does he go to?" Amara pressed on.

"I don't know." Y/N answered.

Not wanting to miss the chance to hurt her younger sister, Amara smirked wickedly at her.

"I bet I know where."

It took Y/N a few seconds to comprehend what her sister was implying, but when she did, it only served to further anger her.

" You're wrong. I know What you're thinking and you're wrong. Yeosang loves me!" She was fuming at this point.

Amara however rolled her eyes at her foolishness.

"All right. Let's say he really is as handsome as you say he is. Why must he be so stubborn about not letting you see him nor know where he goes off to?"

Y/ N crossed her arms.

"I don't know. He asked me to trust him and I do".

Melia now seemed concerned for her.

"Psyche... do you not realize that maybe ...... he could be seeing other women while he's away?"

Y/N now froze at what her sister said. Her brain kept telling her not to listen to them, that Yeosang was faithful to her and would never lie to her. But then she remembered how her own sister's husbands behaved and she couldn't help but think if perhaps Yeosang would do anything similar like them.

"No..... it can't be true...."

Amara suspiciously came up behind Y/N, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"If he really did love you.....why would he force you to live with such doubts?"

That was the final drop that made the glass tip over. Y/N had to find out who exactly it was that was sleeping with her every night.

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

Y/N waited until Yeosang was fast asleep, his breathing calm and serene. Carefully, she peeled herself from his grasp and crept out of the bed and to one of the dressers. She silently took out a candle and match that she had secretly hid inside. Walking as cautiously as she could, she stood by the edge of the bed where Yeosang was. Taking a deep breath, she striked the match and lit up the candle, holding it up so she could finally see him for the very first time.

Her eyes grew wide as she stared into the most beautiful face she had ever seen. He was absolutely glorious. His hair was white like the snow in winter, skin fair like marble ivory, his jawline was chiseled to perfection with a nose that seemed to have been carved to perfection. And he layed there, sleeping soundly with absolutely no clue that she had just betrayed his trust.

"Oh no.....what have I done?"

Y/N was so horrified with herself that she unconsciously tumbled backwards, hitting herself on a piece of furniture. Suddenly Yeosang awoke, his eyes painted with agony once he realized what was happening.

"I.....I can explain!"

But Yeosang simply sat up without a word, already reaching for his tunic. He sighed as he stood up and walked towards the window.

"Please forgive me Yeosang! I beg you!"

Y/N dropped to her knees, tears pouring out her eyes. Yeosang pinched the bridge of his nose, head full of turbulent thoughts that he couldn't place in order.

"Please just say something!" She cried out, desperate to hear his voice.

"I knew it would be a bad idea to let you see your sisters. I knew they'd turn you against me and actually betray me...."

If they were still in the dark, Y/N would have still been able to recognize the hurt and pain in his words.

"I'm sorry Yeosang! I'm sorry for not trusting you! But I kept thinking about their words, they said you were probably visiting other-"

"You could have chosen to not listen to them! No one forced you to believe them! You chose to act on your own accord!".

It was the first time he had ever raised his voice at her, and it boomed all over the room, making her tremble in fear. Yeosang opened the window and stepped out into the balcony.

"No no! Please!"

Y/N ran after him, her hands wrapping around his neck in an attempt to keep him there. Gently, he pried her hands off him, looking somberly at her.

"My mother told me not to trust you. That you were a mortal woman and would never understand me or us, and break my trust. I could never believe that she was right....."

Y/N saw as tears filled on the brim of his eyes.

"But I was too madly in love to listen to her..... I guess I truly did get a taste of my own medicine."

Yeosang made way to leave again, but Y/N held onto him.

"Please don't leave me! I'll die without you! I love you Yeosang!"

Not able to contain his feelings anymore, Yeosang pushed her off him and turned sternly to her.

"Don't.....ever say such lies again...and don't address me so informally you lowly mortal. I am not your equal and I am no longer Yeosang to you..."

Y/N covered her mouth in terror and astonishment when ethereal and shiny wings sprouted from his back, making him look even more heavenly than he already was.

"I am Eros, son of Aphrodite and Ares, the god of love ......... and you......."

He sniffled as tears streamed down his face.

"I can't stay here knowing that I want to hold you..."

Without any other word, speedily flew out of there, disappearing from her sight. Y/N shouted for him, going mad at the thought that she had just lost the love of her life. She was so erratic that she didn't think twice before she flung herself down the balcony, not wanting to live without her love. Unfortunately for her, a large gust of wind stopped her fall, placing her gently on the ground, thwarting her plan.

"Let me die!" Y/N pounded the ground.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that Psyche. Aside from being tasked to bring you here, Eros appointed me to make sure no harm should ever come to you."

Although it was supposed to be calming, Zephyr's voice only angered her.

"So I can't even die?!"

Zephyr sent a small breeze, the only physical way of comfort he could bring her since he was invisible.

"Psyche, we both know you don't actually want to die."

"Yes I do! My heart is broken. My love is gone and it's because of my foolishness. I have nothing else to live for!" She declared.

Zephyr sighed.

"My lady....all hope is not lost. I may perhaps.....know a way of helping you."

Y/N perked her ears at his words.

"But first, allow me to tell you a little story, one you don't know about but in which you were the main protagonist."

Y/N watched as a swirl of clouds formed above her, Zephyr trying to make his presence manifested as he began recounting a story:

"Now...it all began when the people began to worship you instead of Aphrodite. I know, we all do you tried to stop them. We weren't blind to it. But Aphrodite is a jealous goddess. She could not stand someone being compared to her. So she sent Eros to you with the task of making you fall in love with a toad or something similar."

Y/N didn't seem too surprised by that. She knew fully well who Eros was and why he was feared even among gods, because no one was immune to his arrows that made them fall in love.

"He came to you one night while you were sleeping. He was so distracted by your beauty that he ended up pricking himself with his own arrow."

Now it made sense to her what he meant when he said he had gotten a dose of his own medicine. She was shocked that this actually happened.

"Eros had fallen in love with you. Curious isn't it, that while you were the most admired woman in the country, no one proposed. Wanna know why? Because Eros stepped in every time, making any suitor fall in love with someone else so they wouldn't take you away from him."

Y/N remembered all those months where no one approached her. Now it all made sense.

"Poor Eros was also begging his mother to let him marry you. But of course, being as stubborn as she is, Aphrodite refused. It became such a quarrel between them that Eros refused to obey her anymore if she didn't agree. Of course, she couldn't have that, so she allowed him to marry you on one condition: your love had to be put to a test....which....I think you know what it was."

Y/N nodded. He asked her to trust him even if she couldn't see him, but she betrayed him.

"Aphrodite probably isn't surprised. She expected it all along. But Eros......he was so in love with you that he put all his faith and trust in your love. And now.....he's probably back home again, moaning and crying just like when he came back that night he met you."

Now the guilt began to eat her up.

"I don't deserve him. I never did. I deserve to die."

Zephyr sighed once again.

"Now now child. As I said. Not all hope is lost. Listen very carefully to me Psyche. Here's what you're going to do."

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

Y/N waited for the goddess to arrive. Her fingers fidgeted nervously, playing with the belt on her tunic. She suddenly felt a gush of wind pass by her. Light started to emanate from the ground. Y/N stared in wonder as a powerful entity appeared before her, looking so radiant and angelic that Y/N froze in place before remembering who was standing in front of her. She fell to the ground in honor and respect for the goddess in front of her.

"My goddess Aphrodite. I am your humble servant who has offered sacrifices at your temple and-"

"Oh stop groveling like a little bitch and get up." The goddess sneered at her.

Y/N slowly got up. Aphrodite stepped closer to her, one of her slender fingers tilting her chin up as she closely scanned her rival's face. Bewilderment took over her features, a scoff coming out of her mouth.

"Impressive. Very extraordinary. ..."

She let go of her and backed away.

"Pity though that your eyes are still red and puffy from weeping like a child. It really does not suit you....nevertheless, even I acknowledge you're beautiful and pleasing...."

She crossed her arms.

"No wonder my son is so smitten with you."

Y/N glanced up at the mention of Yeosang.

"Tell me, how is Yeosang? How is my husband."

Aphrodite lifted a hand.

"First of all, you have no right to call him by his birth name. You shall only address him by his godly name you mortals know. And second, he isn't your husband anymore, not after you broke your end of the marriage."

Being reminded of her acts, Y/N once again felt remorseful and ashamed. But she was not about to give up.

"If there's anything I can do to mend things, I'm prepared to do it."

Aphrodite rolled her eyes.

"Yes yes I know very well you are willing to. Zephyr didn't bring you here just for giggles or a cup of tea. And either way, sooner or later Zeus and Hera would have been on my ass about intervening, not to mention that his father wouldn't leave me alone if he saw the state his son was in."

Y/N beamed with joy at the thought of being able to mend things with her love.

"Thank you oh most merciful goddess!" Y/N resisted the urge to throw her hands around the goddess and hug her.

Aphrodite, however, dismissed her thanks.

"Don't get so happy yet foolish girl. I haven't even told you what the tasks are yet."

Beckoning her to follow, Aphrodite lead her through a meadow and deep into a forest. There, she approached a tall laurel tree and pointed at something on the floor.

"Before your eyes, you see a pile of different types of grains. Your job is simple: separate them all and arrange them into piles."

Y/N's jaw dropped at the task.

"That's impossible! It's not simple!"

Aphrodite merely shrugged. "If you truly love Eros, you'll find a way."

She turned away and began walking back to where she came from, but not before telling her:

"Oh and Psyche? You have until sundown to finish."

Y/N knew the goddess was probably laughing by now, already gloating in her failure and inability to finish such a task. She slumped down on the ground and began picking at the grains. They all looked too similar, there was no way to tell them apart. Y/N flung the grains back in the pile.

"It's hopeless..."

She wasn't offered a second chance, she was merely being humiliated for the own amusement of Aphrodite. Y/N couldn't help but wonder if she deserved this....

Suddenly she felt something crawl up on her hand. Looking down, she saw a tiny ant perched on one of her fingers.

"Hello most beautiful mortal. Please don't cry. Let me assure you that this grain will be sorted before Aphrodite comes back."

If Y/N hadn't already seen so miracles and fantasy sightings since she arrived, she would have seriously thought she was insane for thinking an ant was actually talking to her. She watched as thousands of other ants crawled up and began carrying the grains out of the pile, effectively assorting them into neat and tidy piles.

"How are you..?"

The tiny ant let out a squeaky laugh. "This is our specialty my lady. We do this every year."

"But...why are you helping me?" She couldn't understand why they would help her.

"Don't fret about that right now. Leave this all to us and just worry about being reunited with your loved one."

Y/N was touched by their tremendous kindness, thanking them incessantly as they eagerly finished what seemed to not an impossible task for her. True to their word, before the sun set, it was already finished. 5 piles stood in front of her. The ants bid her farewell and good luck for any upcoming tests Aphrodite was going to put on her.

When the goddess came to inspect the work, her eyes nearly bulged out when she saw it was accomplished. Scoffing, she crossed her arms.

"I see you finished it....very well. Tomorrow I shall take you to do the second task. But trust me, you won't get very far."

The goddess was so sure Y/N would never be able to finish them, but she didn't count on the fact someone was pulling strings behind the scenes to make sure Y/N would be successful. When Y/N was tasked to collect the gold fleece from the magical sun rams, the mystery person asked the reeds growing on the riverbank near her, to tell Y/N to wait until the rams left the pasture to fall asleep in a meadow, then she'd be able to collect fleece that would usually get caught on the brambles where they often played or fought in. On her third task, she had to collect water from a pit that was guarded by a fearsome dragon. Y/N dared not approach the beast, but once again, the hidden figure sent an enormous eagle to help her by flying her down the pit while the dragon slept so she could fill up the bottle Aphrodite gave her. Y/N asked the eagle, like she did the reeds and ants, why were they helping her, but all of them remained silent, not answering her question. They only wished her luck and encouraged her to stay determined to win back her husband.

Aphrodite took the bottle in her hands, fury in her eyes as she flung it across the room in pure outrage.

"I don't know what kind of tricks you've pulled to accomplish these tasks so easily, but I will not stand for it any longer!"

Determined to make sure Y/N would never see her son no matter the cost, she declared her last mission:

"You must go into the Underworld and bring me Queen Persephone's beauty cream, the one she makes herself. I was going to go there myself....but you can do it for me."

Aphrodite's eyes did not hide her malice or her hatred towards the poor girl.

"But....no human can descend into the Underworld and return!" Y/N exclaimed.

"Then I guess you shall have to be the first."

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

Y/N touched the ground softly as Zephyr dropped her down.

"Psyche listen to me very carefully. There is a way for mortals to go into the Underworld and return alive. But pay very close attention or you'll never see the light of day."

Out of thing air, Zephyr made 2 coins and a loaf of bread apart before her.

"The coins are for Charon. He's the boatman that will take you to the Underworld and will also bring you back. The bread is for Cerberus."

Y/N gulped at the mention of the dog that guarded the gates of the Underworld.

"You mean.....the one with 50 heads?"

Zephyr laughed.

"You humans sure do like to add charm to stories. No Psyche. Cerberus only has 3 heads. He won't do anything to you while going in, it's when you're getting out that'll be the problem. You see, he's not guarding souls from going in, he guards them from leaving."

Y/N nodded, drinking up all the information he was feeding to her.

"When you're leaving, give a piece to each of the heads, it'll put him to sleep long enough for you to get out of there as fast as you can."

"Got it."

Y/N began walking into the foggy mist, trembling slightly as she realized she was about to be in front of the gates of hell very soon.

"Another thing! Accept no food or drink and do not rest at all! Just go in, take the cream and get out. I'll be waiting here for you."

"Thank you Zephyr."

Y/N wandered through the dense and humid mist that blurred most of her vision. She spotted a light looming out of the water and headed towards it. She stopped when she reached the end of the dock and stood face to face with a dark cloaked figure. Its face was completely hidden by the hood, the only thing she could see were its hands that were holding a staff that was no doubt used to row out boat.

"Are you.....are you Charon?"

The cloaked figure simply nodded very slowly.

"Can you take me to see Queen Persephone?"

Charon did not respond either that time, instead he held his hand out. Y/N now could clearly see that his hand was only bone, absolutely no flesh or skin surrounding it. Although startled, she handed one of the coins to him, which he put into a small purse that he kept tied to his waist. He signalled for her to get in. Y/N had some difficulty getting into the boat, slamming down on it, her bum hardly hitting the wood floor. She was sure if Charon was able to, he'd probably be laughing at her. He waited until she was settled into the boat before he began rowing down the Styx river.

Y/N hugged her knees as her eyes scanned everything. So far only the splashing of water and the silent boatman kept her company. And then a foul and putrid stench filled her nostrils, making her want to gag. As she kept looking around, she noticed what seemed to be people standing by another dock, looking pitiful and some even crying.

"They're the souls of people whose families didn't pay the fee or didn't have a burial upon death." Charon spoke up for the first time, his voice sounded hollow and had somewhat of an echo in it.

She understood what he meant. All people usually put a coin under their deceased loved ones tongue as payment for a ride to the Underworld.

"Will they stay there forever?"

Charon let out a raspy breathe.

"They'll stay there for a hundred years before they're allowed to cross over. Our master is not that cruel as you mortals depict him."

Mention of his master sent Y/N into panic. She was about to meet the actual god of the Underworld and his wife. She shivered as she remembered all she was ever taught about him: her teachers often painted him as a cruel, evil and wrathful god that loved tormenting the souls that were sent to him. The only reason he had a wife was because he kidnapped her, only allowing her to spend time in Olympus for half of the year. Y/N feared seeing him.

"This is the end of your journey."

Y/N saw a colossal black door in front of her. She lifted her hand to knock on it, but wondered if it was even possible for them to hear her. She felt someone or something sneeze by her right side so she turned. First there was only a gigantic dog head that soon turned into three, Y/N almost fainted when it began approaching her. This had to be Cerberus. The hellhound merely scanned her, puzzled as to why an alive human would be there. But he went back to his job and used one of his heads to push open the door for her. Y/N was prepared to see a sea of tormented souls being stirred in fire or some other kind of torture, but instead, she walked in a long and regal corridor, much like the one back home in Athens. Everything was decorated in either black or a deep purple color. At the very end, she saw two thrones side by side, black and made out of hard iron and steel. 2 figures sat by them and when she reached close enough, she was face to face with the rulers of the Underworld.

As per custom, Y/N bowed to them, trembling in the process. The monarchs looked at each other in confusion.

"You are not dead nor dying, what business do you have here?" A male voice inquired.

Y/N swallowed harshly, trying to speak but fear made her paralyzed and unable for recall what she was there to do. Noticing how scared she was, the queen stood up and walked over to her. She gently lifted Y/N up, her hand cupping her chin to look at her. Y/N finally had a glimpse of the Underworld queen and she was mesmerized. She wasn't as beautiful as Aphrodite, but her beauty was so haunting and eerie, unlike anything she'd ever seen before. It made her very unique and therefore more interesting in her eyes. Y/N felt self conscious now. She hadn't properly cleaned up or slept ever since Aphrodite had her do all those tasks, so she probably looked like a mess in front of the beautiful queen.

Persephone merely smiled at her, a genuine and kind smile.

"You're Psyche aren't you?"

Her eyes widened at the mention of her name. The man behind her also became curious at him mention of it.

"How do you know who I am?" But Y/N soon wanted to slap herself for asking that. She was a goddess, of course she'd know.

The lady chuckled. "Not everyday one meets a face that rivals Aphrodite's. I've heard so much about you."

She turned back and Y/N assumed she was going to take her place on the throne, but instead, she shocked her when she opted to sit on her husbands lap, her arms wrapping around his neck. He visibly stiffened, and Y/N was surprised to see him......blush?

"So tell me. Has the mighty goddess of beauty sent you here for another task?"

Persephone looked back to see Y/N with a mouth wide open.

"We know all about your endeavors to win your husband back. News reaches here first before it reaches Olympus. Gives a little entertainment to us and our subjects you know."

She waved her hand and instantly a grey and cloudy figure appeared before her, offering her wine or food from a platter. She didn't want to seem rude, but she remembered what Zephyr said and thus refused any of it. Persephone chuckled softly.

"Very smart." Persephone observed. She above anyone knew what eating food from the Underworld would mean.

"So tell me Psyche. What has she sent you here for?"

Y/N began explaining how the goddess wanted some of her beauty cream. Persephone rolled her eyes, knowing all too well how vain Aphrodite was. Her fingers stroked through her husband's hair, puzzling Y/N more. If she was kidnapped and forced to marry him, how could she be so....in love with him? Persephone only took her attention away from her husband when another grey figure brought out a box to her. Thanking the servant, she held out the box to Y/N.

"Take this to Aphrodite and be reunited with your love."

Y/N thanked the merciful queen and walked back, now more happy at the thought of seeing Yeosang again. Persephone watched her with a motherly gaze, feeling somewhat nostalgic.

"You seem to be very interested in that human." Hades' voice broke her trance.

"She's an extraordinary girl if you ask me. And she's doing everything for love."

She smirked as she cupped her husband's face.

"Reminds me of a certain someone who also went to great lengths to win the person he loved the most."

The Underworld God cleared his throat.

"Love makes us do crazy things sometimes." He justified himself.

Persephone nodded and leaned in.

"I know. That's why am going to vouch for her when Zeus holds the meeting."

Hades looked puzzled. "What meeting?"

The queen let out a hearty laugh before kissing his lips.

"Married life has made you lose some of your sharpness my dear lord." She teased.

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

Y/N successfully fed the bread to the demon hound and made it back across the Styx with Charon's help.

"Thank you Charon." She handed the other coin to him.

"First time anyone has thanked me to the work I do." Although he tried to be neutral about it, Charon's voice had a lighter and more grateful tone to it.

Y/N crossed the swamp again and came back to the meadow where Zephyr had left her. She called me to him, but he did not answer. Y/N sat on the grass and waited for him, growing tired in the process. It had been 4 very long and tiring days and she was beginning to feel the intensity of them. Her eyes began to flutter, trying to stay awake, but tiredness began to overtake her. Her gaze fell on the box she was holding. Feeling curious, she slowly opened the box to peer into its contents. A sudden burst of light shone right in front of her, the power being too much for her and instantly, she fell unconscious on the floor.

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

Eros sighed softly to himself, the longing for his wife becoming too unbearable.

"Would you please stop that moaning? It's getting on my nerves." His mother said from the doorway.

"I miss her...." He covered his face with the pillow.

Aphrodite scoffed.

"Seriously this lovesick fool."

Eros ignored his mother, all his thoughts were about Y/N and the last time he saw her. He recalled the harsh words he said to her, regretting them so much, each letter feeling like a stab to his heart. Although it hurt him to have her distrust him, it hurt even more to be separated from her. He wanted her back in his arms, he wanted to kiss her, he was going even more insane than the first time when he pricked himself on his arrow.

Suddenly he heard a commotion coming from the living room, with the way a voice roared like thunder, he knew who had just came in. He got up, ready to intervene in case the two individuals in front of him started getting physical. Not noticing him, they just continued their screaming match.

"I've put up with so many of your antics, but this my dear goddess, is low even for you!"

The anger in his father's voice was unmistakable, but it was even more serious than all the other times he'd quarreled with his mother.

"Oh shut up Ares! I did what I had to do for our dear son."

Aphrodite twirled her hair on her finger, batting her eyelashes at her longtime lover, hoping to seduce him and get his mind off the subject, but this time it didn't.

"No, you did this because you're a selfish, conceited and cruel woman! Putting an innocent girl through so many hardships just for your own amusement! Don't you think Psyche and Eros have been through enough already?"

Now it was Eros' turn to make his presence known.

"What about my wife?"

Both of his parents turned to look at him, one in shock at being discovered and one in sad pity for him and his love. Ares crossed his arms.

"Well? Tell him Aphrodite. Tell him all about the tasks you made Psyche do these past days." He challenged her.

Eros looked at his mother, waiting for her to answer, but she kept her lips shut. Getting fed up, Ares spilled everything to him. Eros immediately got worried.

"Where is she now?"

Ares looked to the goddess in front of him as he did not know what the last task was. Gathering some of the rage he inherited from his father, Eros harshly grabbed his mother and shook her.

"Where is my wife?!"

Aphrodite pushed him off her.

"I sent her to the Hades and Persephone."

Eros wasted no time and grabbed his bow and arrow. The Underworld was dangerous even for a God and he knew he had to go get her before anything happened to her.

"Eros! Don't you dare go after her! She isn't your wife anymore!"

Turning back to his mother, he looked at her in defiance.

"She is my wife. She'll always be my wife. I love her.....and I'm going over to her now."

Spreading his wings, he flew as fast as he could to the swampy forest where she had been hours earlier. He asked the boatman if he had seen her, but Charon only said she had completed her voyage and was headed back home. He breathed a sigh of relief, at least she was alive. He flew back to his mansion, bursting the doors open, alarming the servants who were no longer invisible. He didn't spare a glance at them, he simply ran upstairs to his room. Slamming the door open, he saw as Zephyr, now in his physical form was hovering over an unconscious Psyche.

"No..."

Eros ran over to her side, taking her hand in his.

"The power inside the box her majesty gave her is too much for a mortal to bear. I've tried everything, but she still shows no sign of waking up. Her body has also been weak these past days due to exhaustion. ....and heartache." Zephyr said somberly.

Eros spilled tears when finding out all she had been through and how much suffering he had put her through.

"I'm so sorry my darling."

His arms encapsulated her in a tight embrace, almost crushing her from the intensity. Eros sobbed uncontrollably. Zephyr decided to retreat from the room, giving him the space he needed.

Brushing out some of her hair, he pressed his forehead against hers.

"Please don't leave me.." he whispered before pressing his lips against hers.

He heard as she started breathing slowly, pulling away to check on her. Y/N's eyes slowly opened, thinking she was dreaming when she saw her love's handsome face in front of her.

"Yeo- Yeosang?"

His heart started beating faster when he heard her call him by his name.

"Oh Y/N thank Zeus you're all right!"

Y/N held him tightly, not wanting to let go.

"Yeosang I'm so sorry! I should have listened to you but I was so stupid!"

He hushed her, his hands caressing her arms.

"It's ok. I've forgiven you my darling. I don't care anymore. All I want is for us to be together again."

Y/N hesitated.

"Will we be allowed to?"

Clearing his throat, they both turned their attention to Zephyr who came back.

"Even if Aphrodite won't like it, she'll have no choice but to allow you two to be together after a power greater than her allows it."

Yeosang and Y/N looked at him in confusion. Zephyr once again began explaining:

"I'm sure Y/N..." He smiled when he called her by her real name for the first time.

"You've been curious about why so many creatures helped you while you were performing the tasks for Aphrodite."

Y/N nodded, none of them had told her why they'd help her.

"They were all sent by none other than Zeus, who had been watching all this happen and agreed it was unfair of Aphrodite to put you through such hardships."

The couple couldn't believe their ears. The king of the gods himself intervened on their behalf.

"He looks favorably upon your marriage and has even called a meeting to determine if Y/N should be allowed to become an immortal herself."

Y/N's mouth dropped unable to comprehend his words, but Eros was delighted. He could finally be together with his wife for all eternity, not fearing that one day he'd lose her in death because she was human. He felt so grateful to Zeus.

"It shall be put to a vote and needless to say, your mother won't say yes."

Of course they expected that.

"But fear not. There's already many who are willing to vouch for you. Persephone and Hades for example, Ares, Apollo, Demeter and I'm willing to bet that Dionysus will show up drunk and will agree to anything."

They all let out a chuckle at that.

"I'll let you know what the results are. Zeus agreed it'd be better if you two weren't there. He wants a peaceful meeting without Aphrodite throwing a tantrum."

Leaving them alone, the two lovers stared at each other for a while, unable to believe how lucky they were. Y/N reached up to touch Yeosang.

"It's ok Y/N. I'm real and I promise I won't ever leave you again."

His hand cupped the side of her face, thumb drawing circles on her cheek.

"I love you and I promise to love you my heart......

For all eternity."

━━━━━━━༺۵༻━━━━━━━

[tangledbea]

Polygon has the excerpt for What Once Was Mine!!! I'm cackling it feels like I'm in 2011 again looking at "Edgy" fics or pre-season 3 and all the Moonpunzel art!!!

Yep, they sure do!

When it rain’s Tangled, it pours!

For those who don't want to click the link, I'll copy/paste the excerpt below, under the readmore:

“Well, turning nineteen means that I’m an adult. By any definition,” Rapunzel continued, standing up as straight as she could. “Grown up, and responsible, and … things.

“Which brings me to my next point: Every year during my birthday week there are those floating lights in the sky.”

“What?” Gothel asked, sounding honestly confused (or as though she was expertly feigning confusion).

“You know.” She grabbed her mother by the hand and led her over to the painting she had made years ago, when she first started noticing the yearly regularity of the lights. It wasn’t a technically sophisticated piece: just pretty golden orbs with faint auras rising up into a night sky.

“Every year at this time, the mysterious glowing things float up into the sky in the west. This year it should be especially bright because it’s a new moon tonight, which means the sky will still be pretty dark a few days from now, and —”

“And you want me to watch them with you, dear,” Gothel said, making a moue of her lips and squeezing Rapunzel’s hands. “How very sweet. But —”

“No, I want to go see them. Myself. Ourselves.” Silence fell over the room, which was also suddenly dim and dusky as a dramatic cloud took the opportunity to pass in front of the sun. The two women stared at each other, both silent: one, now that she had finally spit out the words, with a pregnant pause of hope. The other with disbelief.

Gothel pulled her hands out of Rapunzel’s. She spoke flatly.

“You know you can’t. Why are you even asking.”

“But, Mother,” Rapunzel said, trying not to wheedle or whine. “I’m older now. I can control myself. I won’t see anyone or anything else. I won’t touch anything. You’ll come with me. You’ll take me there and you’ll make sure I don’t—”

“That you don’t kill anyone else, like your own mother and father?” Gothel hissed.

Rapunzel deflated like a tower that had an inferno raging through it a moment before. Everything burned out; the soot, smoke, and heat sucked themselves back into wherever a fire’s energy came from. Ashes clogged her nose; her body felt fragile, sapped of its inner structure.

“Mother,” she pleaded weakly, looking at the ground.

“Mother indeed,” Gothel said — but what she meant by that was unclear.

This was what Rapunzel had lived with for nineteen years. The silent secret that destroyed her inside when she wasn’t strong enough to stop it. The thing that took all the color from her already tiny world, the light from the faraway sun, the small amount of air her lungs used.

Rapunzel was locked in a tower because she was a murderer.

Her beautiful, treasonous hair had killed her birth parents just after she was born, in a moment of infant rage.

The hair that she now bound, braided, knotted, and tangled with charms to keep under control.

She couldn’t even cut it off; to do so would be her death.

So there it was: endless sparkling braids of it, knotted up with charms and wishes, reminding her every day of why she was imprisoned. How she couldn’t be allowed to hurt anyone else again.

“Look what I brought, for your birthday,” Gothel said coldly, reaching down and opening up the giant basket she had brought.

Rapunzel miserably leaned over, guessing what it was, afraid of what she would find.

A fat, beautiful old chicken, her egg-laying time now passed. A yard bird of mixed feathers and heritage. The hen looked up at her, blinked in the light, but didn’t make a sound.

“I was going to wring her neck myself,” Gothel went on. “Because I know how squeamish my precious, tower-dwelling princess is. But I think maybe it’s time for another lesson on why you are in this tower.”

“No …” Rapunzel begged.

“Do it,” Gothel ordered. “You need to do it. You need to remember just why you’re here.”

As if the girl with the silver hair could ever forget.

The woman took her daughter by the arm and steered her over to the armoire, slamming the basket onto a table there harder than was necessary — or nice. The chicken squawked quietly.

Rapunzel began to cry.

She reached into the basket to stroke the bird, unsure if that was a terrible lie or a final kindness. Murmuring softly, she picked up the thing that was to be dinner. What a wonderful pet the old hen would have made—

—but one look at Gothel’s large, cold, set eyes made Rapunzel forget even the idea of asking.

She drooped, listlessly taking a single small braid out of its knot. She laid it across the chicken’s neck.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

She closed her eyes and reached out with her voice, humming a sad little nonsense song. Her mind went blank. She felt an icy blackness coursing from her head down her hair to its tips, like freezing water down a chute. Her silver hair pulsed with an unnatural glow, throwing little shadows everywhere they shouldn’t have been.

The bird relaxed … entirely. Its feet changed color first; its eyes rolled up into its head.

It died.

“Do you see that?” Gothel whispered.

“Yes, Mother,” Rapunzel said dully.

“Do you understand why you can never leave this tower?”

“Yes, Mother.”

Gothel shook her head. She took the dead chicken in one hand and patted Rapunzel’s cheek with the other.

“Darling, you know I’m only doing this for your own good. You’re too dangerous to be around other people. You’ll hurt them.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“You’ll see, you know I’m right.” She paused, her eyes narrowing.

“Mother knows best.”

[zsweber-studios]

Sebastian Adrianis DeMarc Jean-Luc Perinal

or

The True-Heir Transmuter

(art by @the-east-art​)

Born to Antoine Leonidas Perinal and his wife Gabrielle Perinal, Sebastian’s early life was one of comfort and ease. Though not rich, his family was never left needing more--even if his father often seemed very frustrated with their less-than-luxurious lifestyle--and even had a comfortable townhome themselves to live in. Sebastian was aware that his father’s older twin brother was rich, having inherited most of the family wealth upon reaching adulthood, but he didn’t care much on this until he was older, around ten years old.

Sebastian had always shown himself to be incredibly bright and intelligent, but he truly blossomed around the age of ten. About that time, Sebastian stumbled upon an old journal that had been left in the attic since Sebastian’s father moved into the comfortable townhome. Upon reading it, Sebastian discovered the true weight and meaning behind the Perinal family name, and the true tragedy in being cut off from the majority of the Perinal family inheritance.

The journal was that of the Perinal family’s founder, Jean-Luc Perinal--a gifted alchemist responsible for his family’s current wealth through his inventing of various potions and elixirs that were now used and sold in various apothecaries and magic shops throughout the kingdom. He was also a gifted wizard, and from his journal entries, Sebastian found a love for magic, and began practicing on his own, in secret.

Unfortunately, his studies of his many-times-great-grandfather’s arcane writings came to an abrupt end when he realized the rest of Jean-Luc’s works were kept in the Perinal family vault, something no one outside of the main family could access. And, because Antoine had been born just a minute later than his brother, he and his family were no longer considered true inheritors of that legacy.

For the first time, Sebastian felt true indignation for the confusing inner-house politics of his own family. According to Jean-Luc’s writings, the person he considered a true inheritor of his will and wealth was someone who followed in his footsteps--someone with a love of magic and life, inventive and investigative, who pushed boundaries and sought the secrets of the universe. In Sebastian’s eyes, he fit the mold perfectly, while the ‘true inheritors’ of the main family were all lazy, too focused on the business, and not one of them with an ounce of arcane proficiency.

From that moment onward, Sebastian made it his goal to prove himself the true inheritor of Jean-Luc’s will. He would follow in his footsteps and become a powerful alchemist and wizard as is ancestor had done, and seek to earn his right to access those ancient tomes.

His father disapproved. Magic was a waste of time, in Antoine’s mind, and Sebastian would do far better to study business and economics, preparing himself to attend the local private school and be groomed into the man his father wanted him to be. Thankfully, Antoine did not have final say in the matter--Gabrielle had taken note of her son’s burgeoning arcane skill, and had already set him up to try for a spot at Nindovia Academy of the Arcane, in the capitol city.

By the time Antoine found out of this, it was too late--Sebastian had been accepted, and would be leaving in the fall of his eleventh year.

Sebastian spent seven years at the Academy, delving into every textbook and spellbook he could get his hands on. He worked hard, burning the candle at both ends with late nights and early mornings. By his seventh year, he was top student in every field--Evocation, Abjuration, Illusion, Conjuration, and especially Necromancy and Transmutation. He was so gifted, in fact, that during the school’s yearly arcane talents festival, he caught the eye of an archmage.

Devexian Yngvelja was an archmage gifted in transmutation himself. He’d heard word of a Perinal at the school, and as a fellow practitioner of the art the legendary Jean-Luc had perfected, he needed to meet the young man for himself. He was certainly impressed, and after getting a chance to meet him offered Sebastian the opportunity to become his apprentice and study directly under him for the next ten years--something Sebastian was quick to accept.

When he returned home to celebrate his graduation and acceptance as an archmage’s apprentice, he found the atmosphere at home odd. Though his mother and three younger siblings were all proud and excited for him, his father was more aloof than normal, and even more embittered over their less-than-luxurious lifestyle. Apparently, his rising through the ranks of the arcane in the capitol city wasn’t good enough in his father’s eyes to pay whatever debt he owed for being raised by him.

There was...a fight. Words exchanged. A door slammed behind a frustrated young man who left in a huff. And bags packed to go by dawn the next morning. Sebastian left to the capitol, and while he wrote his mother often, he didn’t return home for years.

On his twenty-fourth birthday, however, he got word from home. Tragedy had struck the main branch of the Perinal family--a sickness had come and claimed the lives of first the children, then their staff, and finally the head of the house himself, Antoine’s older twin brother. Sebastian returned home suddenly to join his family in grieving and to attend the funeral. His father, as always, was aloof to the situation--but everyone grieves in their own way.

That night, Antoine left to fill the papers necessary to accept the title and rights as the new head of the Perinal family. Sebastian stayed with his mother and sibliings, putting them to bed and helping comfort her, before he finally went to sleep in his old bedroom. His world had changed so fast--in just a few hours time, he would go from simply a Perinal, to a DeMarc Jean-Luc Perinal, the direct descendant and inheritor of Jean-Luc’s will.

Unfortunately, yet more would change.

At around midnight, Sebastian woke to smoke. Pushing himself out of his bed, he found the house wreathed in orange flames, smoke filling the room. He tried getting out through his bedroom door, but it was jammed--something on the other side was keeping it lodged shut. Even worse, he could hear the screams from down the hall, his younger siblings screaming in fear as the fires drew closer. Seeing no other option, Sebastian burst through his bedroom window, then ran around to the front to run back in and save his family.

There was a man out front. Sebastian didn’t recognize him, but he was dressed in dark clothes like a rogue, a hood over his head. The man rushed at him, casting magic to try and overwhelm Sebastian--Sebastian was quicker. It was all a blur, a flurry of spells, but by the end, Sebastian was standing over a cold and lifeless corpse as his family’s townhome, the one he’d grown up in since an infant, crumbled to the ground.

The authorities came quick, and though they were quick to assume the well known wizard had caused the arcane fire that consumed his own home, Sebastian was able to provide the body of a nameless corpse to clear himself. Even so, he couldn’t help but feel wracked with guilt. If he’d been faster, if he’d been stronger, if he’d used a better spell, maybe, maybe he could’ve saved his mother and siblings. Instead, he and his father were the only ones still alive.

Rather than sink down into that grief, though, Sebastian felt resolve settle. Someone had done this. That man he’d killed, he was clearly just a pawn. Someone had wanted his family dead--but for what reason? He didn’t know, but he would find out. As soon as the funeral for his family closed, Sebastian packed his bags once more, leaving his home far behind him, and focused on finding out who was responsible for this.

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Club Takamagahara (Part 3) The Main Character

Feels. If opportunities were broad sides of barges, the Devs couldn’t hit them.

I’m enjoying the heck out of this, and its not even hard to write.

Enjoy!

“MC!” Caesar’s voice startled you, even though you were awake. How could you sleep when your emotions were in such roiling turmoil?

You had just woken up in a strange place where people exploded everything that was inside themselves and doused the flames in showers of liquor. They poured it on each other, hugged, touched, screamed! If you grew up in the polar north, this was the tropics with its searing heat and blazing sun. You were calm about it, but like a sunburn, as you lay in the dark and closed your eyes the images of flashing lights and heaving bodies was turning into a strange red mark on your brain that you couldn’t ignore.

So you quickly get out of bed and open the closet.  It was Caesar. His expression was serious.

"Ten minutes, dress yourselves up, the store manager wants to see you." Caesar was once again dressed in full costume. He wasn’t wearing the same tight-fitting suit. It was replaced by a see-through silver shirt, tied a rhinestone neck scarf. The back of his tight pants wrapped his buttocks so that the muscle was visible.

“Why?” You ask, as you’re drawn out of the closet in confusion. The other boys were also dressed.

“While you were resting, we went into our interview. The Whale doesn’t want to make a decision without seeing you first.”

Your mind briefly flashes back to the Whale in Siberia. “Whale?”

Chu Zihang spoke. "Japan is surrounded by the sea on all sides, so the Japanese worship the ocean. In the sea, the whale is the most powerful animal, and whale meat is also an aphrodisiac food, so the man with the title of ‘Whale’ should be said to be the most powerful of men." 

“Here, get dressed.” Caesar had produced yet another outfit.

This Cheongsam was different, black. The chest was still covered, but your skin shined through lace roses on your chest. The skirt only barely covered the front and the back. The slits in both sides of the skirt rose all the way to the curve of your butt.

Mingfei peeked through his fingers. “Boss…”

“No time to worry about anything. You have to nail this.” Caesar said.

“Yes.” You held out your leg so he could help you into your fish nets, his fingers gently sliding up your calves and thighs.. “What do I have to do?”

“The Whale interview isn’t difficult, but it’s pass or fail. You have to open your heart to him and be as honest as you can. You can’t hold back or lie, because he’ll see through it. If he likes what he sees, he’ll let you stay.”

He stands behind you and removes the comb from your bun. The hair falls over your shoulder and he starts running a brush through it, pulling through the tangles roughly in his hurry.

“What is he going to ask?” You’re not minding his yanking. In fact, it felt nice to have your hair pulled like this. It gave you a tingly feeling in your scalp.

“I don’t know. If you do your best though, I think, you’ll be fine. But you’re very closed up. You can’t be that way in front of him. So just prepare yourself to be open.”

“Okay…” 

He turns you around. “Lu, get me the make up case.”

“Yes, boss.” 

He’s crouched in front of you, eyes sharp. His eyes search your face. “Your skin is good at least.”

You smile, but you feel nervous. He was right. Being open wasn’t your strong suit.

Lu Mingfei returns with the make up case and Caesar paints your eyes, sweeps a brush through your eyelashes and paints your lips. “I think simple is best in this situation.”

“Little sister… if you don’t feel comfortable. I understand…” Mingfei mumbled.

“I cannot do anything else, right now. If we’re thrown out, it’s over! So please just believe in me.” 

You glance up at him. Mingfei’s cheeks turn a little red. “I… Okay.”

As the four of you rise through the elevator, Caesar continues to explain to you. “The first floor is a stage and dance floor, a place for grand performances and female guests to drink and dance; the second floor is a spa and beauty salon; the third floor is a kaiseki restaurant called "Barnacles" and a tea house. The retired performers have their own suites on the third floor. We can only live in the basement as interns.  Well, it’s more accurate to say that we live in that bathroom.”

“No wonder you’re always bathing.” Your heart is leaping in your chest, but you stay calm on the outside, ever humorous.

“The fourth floor is off limits. Only those invited by the store manager can set foot here. They call it The Sea.”

You step out of the elevator. Fourth Floor.

Doors painted with blue acacia flowers opened one after another and, by each door stood tall, sturdy, black-clad bodyguards. You clasp your hands in front of you, just like you did for the man in the striped suit. Just like the high school student in the manga, you keep your eyelashes low, and your back straight. Only now there was no breeze to lift your skirt or hair.

Of course, the giant whale should live in The Sea, so this whole floor is the residence of the store manager. The main color of the whole floor is sea blue -- sea blue walls, sea blue carpets, sea blue curtains, even the table porcelain are sea blue. The bodyguards have turtles, starfish, and sea crabs tattooed on their bald heads.

In front of the last aquamarine door, a man, tall with a body overflowing with mounds of fat, stood. If this was the sea, and you were going to meet a whale, this man was truly like a male seal. The Baikal Seals live in Russia, in the great lake. They could reach five feet and length and weigh 290 pounds. But this man was far bigger than even the biggest seal you’d ever seen. You look up at him, jaw dropping. This man would probably rule the beaches of Baikal as a seal!

He looked down at you. “The only way to impress the store manager is to show your true self.” He rumbled. “I have never seen a woman do this before. So who knows what might happen? But it will be a clash of heart upon heart. If your woman’s heart can reach him then…”

The Seal Man trailed off into silence and stepped to one side.

The last door slowly swung in. The fresh scent of seaweed comes to your nose, and your ears are full of the sound of water, as if you were facing the undulating sea. 

Behind the door was a rotunda, with a huge ring-shaped transparent fish tank as the wall. Clusters of soft coral grew on the rocks. Sea grass swayed in the artificial waves. Sea turtles slowly floated up, to just touch their noses to the surface. The two-meter long tiger shark has swam around the hall. 

The ocean… again. You think bitterly. The Arctic Sea, then the Deep Sea of Japan, and now this? Most people were overwhelmed by the sight of such a magnificent office. After all, the amount of money to maintain something like this had to exceed the yearly salary of an ordinary person every month! But your eyes grow cold and your frown with annoyance. You’re sick of the ocean.

The hall was very open, with two rows of bookshelves behind an oversized desk. In the light sat a stout man that reminded you of a giant bear. His whole body bathed in aquamarine - from his aquamarine satin suit to his aquamarine leather shoes, with a huge aquamarine ring on his ring finger and a red coral brooch on his chest. He sat on an aquamarine velvet sofa, smoking a thick Churchill cigar, gently stroking a famous breed of Himalayan cat, and shaking a cup of golden alcohol on the rocks, which reflected a splendid light. 

True to his name, the store manager Whale is even more dominant when he appears in private marine settings. He wore huge sunglasses. The top of his head shined like bright tile. Were it not for the blue whale tattooed on the side of his head, you would have thought that he too was part of the yakuza. But seeing it took away from the seriousness of it all.

He looks at you and quirks a single eyebrow. He eyes you up and down once and then nods, looking over to Caesar, Zihang, and Mingfei. “It looks like you weren’t kidding me about her.”

What did Caesar say? You wonder and glance over your shoulder, but the three men were already moving to the aquamarine sofas near the glass walls.

This was it. You take a deep breath. Whatever the question, you would answer with your truth. No matter how difficult, no matter how dark, no matter how cold. If he didn’t like it? Tough. Such rich and privileged men could rarely handle a truth, especially a woman’s truth. Such was reality. You doubted this sort of tactic would let you win, but you had to trust Caesar.

And yourself.

The Whale picked up a brush and dipped it in ink. Instead of writing he froze, looking up at you once again. His eyes behind the tint met your cold challenging ones. He slowly lifted the brush, looked down at a small parchment.

He wrote in quick elegant calligraphy, two characters which he held up for all to see. “Lost Love.”

“Ms. MC. The question I am asking you is about lost love.”

You inhale sharply through your nose and your eyes widen. You’d opened your heart and now, it was like he had taken a long sword and run you through with it! Your ears tingle. Your eyes burn. Your hands, still clasped in front of you, jerk tighter to dig your nails in, a reflex to stem the emotional pain.

“In this line of work, we deal with many women who have no love or have never experienced it. Caesar says you have never experienced the love of a man. So tell me. What can you say about Lost Love?”

Your mouth opens but nothing comes out. The memories spiral up from your heart and through your mind like a long sleeping geyser that had finally erupted, flooding your body and rendering you speechless.

The darkness of the winter solstice comes again, but it’s midday in the arctic. So the pale blush of the reminder of sun was just starting to appear on the low horizon. The sky is full of stars. The green aurora dances over head like a parade. The lighthouse in the distance peals its church-like bell, slowly rotating its sword of light though the thick night air. A flock of white snow geese pass by, in V formation, calling encouragement to each other on the journey.

Renata is sitting alone on stones swept free from the fallen dry snow. Her blond hair is tucked up in her fur lined hood and her body is covered head to toe in the thick coat that was patched over and over in many colors. 

Your breath fogs in front of your face as you sigh and make your way up.

A whale always passed by here this time of day on Christmas. It was a secret you shared only with her and you came up here every year to see it. As you go to sit down next to her, the whale appears, a black shadow moving under the ice.

“Make a wish.” She whispers.

Normally, people wished on stars. But the stars were frozen and inert in the sky, stuck here, just like you. The whale, however, was free to roam as it liked. It had the power to make dreams come true.

After a moment, Renata looked up at you, her pale blue eyes sparkling. Her skin was good, her lips bright and her cheeks flushed against the winter frost. “What did you wish for?”

“The same thing I wish for every year.” You reply warmly.  “I want to be just like the whale. To be free and live in the ocean."

Renata grins and giggles. "If that day ever comes, I hope that I'll be standing right next to you. I'm very happy to have you... by my side.”

Your breath suddenly flies from your lungs and your eyes rise again to the sea of blue around you. The fish, the shark, the coral and the tortoises. It is just like you were once again miles under the sea. 

Your hand goes over your mouth.

You’re speaking with a whale.

“Renata…” Your voice squeaks and your knees shake.

Whale doesn’t understand your words and his confused look brings you back to earth. But you can’t school your expression. You feel like you’re bleeding out and you can’t stop it. Your mind is in a daze of joy and pain. Even though your eyes are swimming with tears, the joy stretches your face into a rapturous smile!

You were swimming free, like the whale in the ocean. You’ve been to the big city. And even though you could no longer hear her voice, you can feel her with you, like a shadow that held the warmth of her hand in yours. Never had it been so strong as now.

“Lost Love?” You look him with this blaze of emotions pouring from your cold dark eyes. “Oh, Whale… there’s no such thing!”

The Whale’s jaw drops. His hand goes limp. The ink brush drops from his hand and falls to the carpet, spraying the ink on his aquamarine shoes.

For a moment, there is silence. And then a wail, like a roar of an injured beast!

The fat man who had greeted you is weeping openly, one arm over his eyes. He’s moaning out something in Japanese that you don’t understand.

Lu Mingfei quietly translates. “That guy's name is Fujiwara Kanousuke. Before he went to The Sea to become a male performer he was a Daiguan-level sumo wrestling star, just shy of rising to the top 'Yokozuna'. His previous girlfriends were all Japanese drama stars, and he was considered a hot and beautiful man in Japan. But then a female fan heard the news that he was getting engaged and desperately jumped to her death. This is the first time he understands how she felt." 

His eyes lower and he falls into silence while the man sobs.

Chu Zihang stands up and wanders away from the group, raising his eyes to watch the sea turtles swimming by.

Whale slammed his fist on the desk and everyone jumped. The cat hisses and flies off his lap in a blur to hide behind the bookcases. “This… this…” He croaked, shaking. Beads of sweat were rolling down his bald head. They moistened his nose and his glasses slipped down his face. “This power… I thought I’d never see it.”

Power…? Your emotions are almost calm but the effort of control has left crescent moon bruises in your aching hands.

“The power to move a man’s heart to action, to reach out and to embrace another woman’s heart, uncontrollably! Yes! YES!”

He leans on the desk, glaring at Caesar, “BasaraKing… I want to keep her here but I cannot accept your offer to make her do something as crass as bidding up fish. I want her to be a challenge to my precious performers! To pour out their love on her to the superlative degree!”

Your eyes widen and you freeze in place. What did that mean?!

Lu Mingfei was equally appalled but as soon as he opened his mouth, Caesar’s hand slapped over it to silence him. “Yes, sir. I’m glad her answer pleased you.”

“I cannot give you an Ikemen persona… you are not Ikemen… no… the opposite. You…”

He pointed a shaking ringed finger at you. “You! Are!”

He swept out his hands and raised his eyes to the ceiling, shouting like an evangelical preacher. “YOU ARE THE MAIN CHARACTER!”

[bondsmagii]

This is definitely one of the… wilder stories here, but as always, I suppose people will believe what they will. 

This will unfortunately require some backstory, but I guess you could say the long and the short of it is that I played at being God, and it. Well. Kind of sucked, actually.

So, the backstory. I’ll try to keep it brief. I grew up in a small country village about forty-five minutes away from Belfast, Ireland. There wasn’t much going on there, as you could imagine – just a standard rural Irish town, where the most exciting thing that might happen in a week was old Farmer Joe getting a new tractor or something. Anyway, I’m not sure how many of you know about Ireland’s rather troubled past, but for the most part I missed all that. I was born around the time things were finally settling down, and while my earlier memories are filled with bomb scares and low-flying helicopters and gunshots in the night, the distant sound of shouting and the acrid smell of smoke burning a little too close for comfort, by the time I hit my teenage years most of it had wrapped up. Of course, there was the occasional scare here and there, and I’m not saying my friends and I didn’t go out looking for trouble once we were old enough, but it wasn’t the same. I’m not saying that out of a sense of, I don’t know, regret or annoyance or anything. Now I’m older, I’m not so enamoured by the idea of that much violence. I’m just saying it wasn’t really a patch on the kind of violence that used to happened there – the kind of violence that fascinated my friends and I so much. It sounds bad, but really we were just kids being kids. Little boys everywhere play at war games. It just so happened that the war we were playing had happened in our own country. It’s difficult not to be obsessed, when you see the reflection of history on the faces of every generation around you. Even slightly older siblings would know all about it – it wasn’t something you asked your grandfather, distant war stories over some vague European country that you’ve only seen on a map in your Geography classroom. This was our street corners, our high streets, the road outside the house. Here the grass verge at the side of the road where the bodies were dumped; there the lay-by where over a dozen people were blown to pieces. It was awful, but we were children. We were enamoured.

Anyway. The only violence we got really involved in was the summer rioting that happened yearly, like clockwork. It sounds like a joke, but that’s how it goes. You don’t need to know the details, but suffice to say in mid-July every year, the city would light up like we were back in the 1970s. Localised, of course, and still nowhere near as drastic as it used to be, but enough to get a taste. Petrol bombs. Police lines. Armoured cars. Water cannons. Unrestrained summer fun, you could say. But that’s for a bit later.

I’m a writer. I have been since I was four years old. Generally speaking I’m a horror writer, but I’ve branched into historical fiction a fair bit over the years. Living in Ireland, growing up how I did, it was inevitable that I would develop a fascination for Irish history. I was always a very curious child, my head in books, chasing up stories that would keep me awake at night. I never knew any boundaries. I would go after answers with military precision, asking questions, going places I shouldn’t. Dangerous for anyone, of course, but in a country like mine, where crossing the road could quite literally lead to your murder? It was reckless. I was reckless. But that’s the thing about being that age. You think you’re invincible. You think you can do anything.

I was about fourteen or fifteen, at the height of this obsession. I believe I was fifteen when I wrote this particular story, but it’s difficult to say. It was part of a series, and I was going back and forth on it and other projects for many years. Here we finally get to the point of the whole story: I had developed an obsession with Irish history, as I said, and specifically the more “modern” history – from 1916 onwards, the Easter Rising, the War of Independence, all that. I was fascinated by the Irish struggle for freedom, and while age and hindsight has lessened my… enthusiasm for the violence, I do maintain a strong opinion towards the whole thing, which is not the point here so I won’t get into it. What I’m trying to say is that my stories reflected this enthusiasm, and were undoubtedly glorifying in nature, and also at that age I was more concerned with living the fantasy than doing the research, so it was all very self-indulgent. I’m sure anyone who wrote at that age knows what I mean.

My main character… well. I’m sure you know what to expect. He was—well. Me, really. In the way of all main characters at that age, and perhaps a little even as we get older, there’s a piece of us inside all our main characters. Sometimes a little piece, other times just a cooler and more badass version of yourself. Michael was that for me. I suppose that must is obvious; I wasn’t even trying to be subtle. My name is of course Miceál, which for those of you keeping track is the Irish form of Michael. I’m just grateful that I didn’t go as far as to give him my last name, too, but everything else was there. He looked like me, he held the same views and beliefs as me, he acted like me – or at least, he acted in the ways I liked to think I’d act, or how I imagined acting later that night in the shower, reliving the scenario again. He was the best kind of self-insert character, indulgent and fun and a good friend to me. I poured a lot of myself into him. I poured everything into him. He was a constant companion, something that became ever more important to me as my real life—well, went to shit. To put it mildly. I would sit in my room writing my stories, and Michael would go out there and fight the good fight, killing and bombing for good old Ireland, and then I’d shut my computer down and go to sleep feeling just a little better than otherwise.

I’m not afraid to say that I can be obsessive. I like to get into the heads of my characters; I like to know them as well as I know everything. Yes, Michael was me, but he was also a version of me who had done things I have never done. Sometimes I would try to imagine myself as him; wonder what it was like to see through his eyes. Wonder what a me who had done that would look like. Wonder what he would do in a situation. I asked myself that a few times; a lot of times. What would Michael do? I could have put that shit on a wristband. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I’ve always been a bit of a method writer like that. It was normal, until it wasn’t.

I first saw Michael on a hot July day, in Belfast. What we call the rioting season had come around; my friends and I were there to take advantage. Just at the sidelines, mind you – nobody wants to get a face full of water cannon, even on the hottest of days. Michael was in the thick of it though. Of course he was. I’d written him to be that way.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. At first I thought I must be seeing things, but the more I looked the more I realised he looked exactly like me. Only he was a little taller, a little fitter, and his hair looked different. His clothing was different, too; perhaps a couple of decades out of date, but looking at him I saw his clothing didn’t remain consistent. The changes were subtle – material, tone – but I noticed. Looking back, I assume it’s because I never did give a specific date for his story to occur in. Well, wherever he was from he was there now, throwing rocks with the best of them, skipping from stone to stone and hurling them at police lines with an easy swing that could only come from years of practise. When we had all finally cleaned out the area – soldiers coming, a helicopter, the kind of trouble you don’t want to toy with – I managed to catch up with him. He was talking to my friends. They noticed we were both there, but didn’t seem to realise we were two different people. The whole time we were all talking, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Michael. I tried, because I knew how obvious I was being, but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t work him out. I couldn’t even trust that’s what I was seeing. And the whole time, Michael watched me back. I knew the look in his eyes. It was his smug little, I know something you don’t know look. Of course I knew it. I had made him like that. I had given him that look.

I didn’t see him for some time after that. Believe it or not, I put it out of my head. I mean, come on. It was probably some other guy that my friends knew. We were in Belfast enough, and Michael isn’t exactly an uncommon name. I put it out of my mind, but I was sure that sometimes, I saw him. I was sure I’d see him in Belfast, ducking down side streets or leaning in close conversation with someone I couldn’t make out. He was always watching me. Sometimes I’d feel eyes on me and know it was him, but when I looked around I wouldn’t spot him. On some occasions – and these were always the worst – I would feel his eyes behind my own. Like he was on the inside looking out, moving independently in there, a set of eyes swivelling around over my own. It happened most often when I was trying to write his story. As you can imagine, I was nervous to do so. The more I thought I saw him, the less I wanted to write, but I didn’t think that was a good idea either. I didn’t know what to do.

It was a sunny weekend just before school started back after summer that I finally resolved to do something about it. I didn’t even feel stupid as I booted up my old Windows 95 desktop and opened Word. Michael’s story was there, in 12-point font as I always wrote then, plenty of enthusiasm but a lot less technical skill. My fingers hovered over the keyboard for a moment, and then I typed.

Hello?

Nothing, of course. I deleted the word, wondering what I had expected. Feeling a little stupid now, I tried to think about where to go with the story. It was difficult to write now I had some kind of real person to assign to it all – what were the ethics here? How could I—

I won’t get into that. It would be a philosophical essay all of its own. I sat for a while wondering what to write, and then it hit me that the story had changed. The words Michael had spoken, in the paragraph that I had left off – they were no longer the words I had written. I forget what the original words were now, but they were something relatively simple; some response to another character, and I remember that another name was mentioned in it – the name of Michael’s in-universe best friend, Eamon. Now that name was gone, and the rest of the text had changed, too. Now the writing read something different entirely.

I thought you wanted to know?

I lied earlier. I said that age and experience and perhaps some more emotional maturity had led me to turn away from the kind of violence that fascinated me so much then, and I have no doubt that under normal circumstances it would have done. I had somewhat of a speed run, however; I turned my back on it because

I’m getting ahead of myself.

I had often wondered what it would be like to do what Michael did, of course. To kill and risk death for a cause, to face down prison, torture, exile. I had wondered what it would be like to commit those acts; how easy or difficult it would be to pull a trigger or push a detonator. I liked to think, in my foolish, idealistic teenage mind, that if it came down to it I could. Of course, I was in the very privileged position to not have to actually answer that question.

Michael, on the other hand, knew. And Michael was, if not me, than a product of me. Could it be possible that he could show me?

I ignored the message for several days. I didn’t know what to think. Truth be told I thought I was going mad. School started again and I got so busy that I almost, almost forgot about it – and then I opened the document by mistake one day, got into reading it over, laughing at my brilliant comebacks, you know how it is. And there it was again.

I thought you wanted to know?

Yes, I remember thinking. It stunned me – I remember that. I didn’t want to mess with this kind of stuff – I’ve always been a huge believer in the paranormal, always been cautious when it comes to fucking with that kind of stuff. I believe that magic like this, it requires intent. It needs you to be sure. It knows how you feel, true in your heart. So even when I ignored it again, even when I deleted the words and re-wrote whatever the original had been, even as I didn’t reply… I knew in my heart that my question had been heard by something. I could feel Michael’s eyes on me again, though now I wondered if it was Michael’s eyes, or something else entirely. It felt like a weight. Have you ever been in an old, old place, where you can practically feel the people who lived and died there; reach out and touch them? It felt like that. Like the weight of history was pressing down on me. I didn’t fall asleep easily that night, but when I did sleep was dark and endless.

I don’t know how long I spent in that state. In reality it was only seven hours; I woke up with my alarm. In that time period, wherever I was – because I was not living – I seemed to witness a hundred different lives. Over the course of Michael’s story I had him do all kinds of things; live all kinds of situations. I deleted things, changed others, added things in. I wrote what would now be called alternate universes. In that night I experienced them all. I know how it feels now. I know how it feels to pull a trigger; to watch the spray of someone’s life splatter a wall or a windscreen or the screaming backseat passengers of a car. I know how it feels to push the button, the one that sends a charge surging down a wire or flickering out over my head in an invisible wave of death, notifying the bomb, detonating the explosives. I know how it feels to sit in a hotel bar across a border, listening to the news, sipping a drink and feeling my heart beat in my chest as I add more numbers to the tally, more blood to my hands. I know how it feels to be shot, to be beaten, to watch a friend die, to kill someone who used to be – who still is, despite everything – a friend. I know how it feels to cough blood into my hands, onto the ground; to grip a wound that won’t stop bleeding; the blinding flash of an explosive detonating too soon and how the whole world seems to roar and how there’s a difference between the thud and slap of wet mud hitting the ground and the warmer, denser rain of something that used to be human. For days, weeks, years – I walked in Michael’s shoes, I lived his life, I committed every act.

I felt his pain. His fear. This hellish world that he lived in, created to kill and die and lose and fear, over and over. To meet his God and to finally, finally ask – why?

And what could I say? Because I wanted to know?

Well. Now I do.

[cbk1000]

Had quite the exciting morning. Woke up at about 5:30 AM to the sound of a smoke detector going off. Ok, there’s a lot of dust in this area, sometimes flecks get on the sensor and set it off. We’ve had false alarms like that before. 

Except when the alarm wakes me up, I IMMEDIATELY smell something burning. Like, that nasty, burning plastic smell, so I think it’s some electronic. I go bolting out of the room as Mr. Jenn is opening the door, trying to figure out where it’s coming from, if there’s any smoke, etc. (We have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen so I was hoping whatever it was was still small enough we could put it out by hand before it got out of control.)

Can’t find anything. Strong smell, but no actual smoke, and no fire. It’s strongest in/around the master bedroom, so we check the outlets, they look ok. Smell the vents to see if it’s coming from there, nothing. Cannot find a cause. Check the breakers, they look ok. It’s very dusty out here, so of course we think, maybe dust burning off in the vents, but I couldn’t smell it there, and it’s not like our HVAC system has been sitting for a while not getting used; the house is climate controlled, so the heat or air conditioning kicks on depending upon the temperature, and it’s still cold enough in the evenings for the heat to be kicking on regularly. Debate about what to do because the smell is very strong and persistent, and it could be wiring in the walls that we can’t see. Especially since we recently had a rodent problem (found this out when we busted down the walls for the shower), and they can get in there, chew on the wires, and of course that can cause an electrical fire or smoldering where you can’t see it. We have no electrician we can call early morning Sunday to check things over and make sure everything’s ok, so we decide to call the fire department since they can investigate with more sophisticated equipment that can detect hot spots where you can’t see them. (Thermal imaging; neat, sci-fi shit.)

I explained to dispatch that we had no visible smoke or flames, just a burning smell, possibly electrical, and we couldn’t identify the source and would feel better if the fire department could check it out for us and make sure everything is ok, but of course you get the full bells and whistles because they have to respond to it as if it’s a potential house fire. They go through and check a bunch of stuff and use their imaging equipment to make sure there isn’t an electrical shortage in the walls. They can’t find anything, fortunately, and tell us they feel safe leaving the house. The guy I talked to said it probably was something that ignited in the vents or possibly the furnace, and that it just burned off very quickly and didn’t (fortunately) have anything flammable near it to start an actual fire and the smell just hung about for a while, which was why I couldn’t smell anything coming from the vents. I told him the heater should be kicking on regularly at night since we don’t turn it off, and it’s still pretty cold at night, and I’ve never smelled that burning before, especially that strongly. He told us it was likely in the furnace, and took us over and opened it up to show how dusty it was, and said we should take a vacuum to it. Mr. Jenn does clean the outside, but had never thought to actually open it up. (This is a fire hazard we had never thought of, so please remember to clean in areas you wouldn’t normally think of, especially if you live in a really dusty area. Also have an HVAC technician inspect air conditioning/heating units yearly to keep on top of any components that are wearing out so you can identify a problem and get it fixed before it burns your house down.)

So, anyway, that was a very lively start to our morning. Seamus was very excited that some new friends came by to pet him, though.

Also, if you have a similar situation or ever smell smoke, or burning, but cannot figure out where it’s coming from--call even if you have no visible flames. You could have something smoldering somewhere in your walls, or someplace not visible/easily accessible to you. We felt bad about calling people out that early, and I actually apologized to them a couple of times, and the firefighter I was talking to said, “This is literally what we do. This is what we’re here for; it’s much better to be safe rather than sorry.” They definitely prefer to check out a potential problem and have it be a false alarm, then have your house burn down because you ignored the smell of something burning. There should be a non-emergency line you can call during weekdays. (Tried that first just because I really did not want to call 911 for something that was an immediate concern but not technically an emergency, but of course their office hours are Monday-Friday eight to five, and we had no other option that I could find for getting them dispatched out here. But, please, try the non-emergency number first. Unless, you know. Your house is literally on fire.)

[ananapanini]

Sicknesses, Disasters, and Weather

Trigger Warning! descriptions of injuries and death! For example: mention of blood, burning, drowning, freezing, heatstroke, etc.

Side note before hand because it's technically relevant

A state that's down south and almost always has hot weather would feel warmer to others and be affected by the cold easier, while a state up north with colder weather would feel colder to others and be affected by heat easier.

Fighting over thermostats and cuddles ensue

(Most people go to Alaska when they have a fever, and to Georgia when they're going through a cold front (they'd go to Florida but he's chaos and Texas is,, Texas. Besides, Geo has blankets))

Wisconsin: *opening all the house's doors and windows to enjoy the nice warm 60 degree weather*

Texas: *on the couch in a bundle of 5 blankets* how the fuck are you not dead

Florida: *next to Texas, trying to steal some blankets* Sconnie, I love ya dude but I will not hesitate to set this house on fire to warm up

Colds/Flus

The states can get sick two ways, outbreaks or just catching it.

Outbreaks

If there are a ton of outbreaks of something, for example: flu season, in their state there's a 50/50 chance they develop symptoms for however long the illness would last for someone who actually caught it. Though they'd suffer through the symptoms, they wouldn't actually have it and wouldn't be contagious or anything. But! Just because they're not contagious doesn't mean the other states wouldn't back up when they hear the news, being coughed on is still gross even if it doesn't endanger your health.

According to last year's report Louisiana had the most influenza outbreaks, followed by Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas. So for that years flu season Louisiana would be sick and at least half of the others listed would also be sick.

Catching it

Now, they probably have really strong immune systems.

Or at least, they should but things can happen in the state that compromises that.

If there's a natural disaster, somethings changing in the state's government (new governor, new law, system change, etc), or there's riots impeding/distracting the state government their immune systems would be weak for however long it takes to readjust or fix the problem. During this time they can actually get sick, symptoms and all.

If this happened then the state would be contagious to the other states, immune system be damned. It'd be like when another person is sick, you have a chance of catching it.

On the rare occasion there'll be a state with a naturally horrible immune system (his name's Washington, someone please get him a cough drop and some water)

DC

He doesn't have people or land for outbreaks to affect him, only the government buildings.

Instead of having outbreaks he has government workers, if a handful of them or just the president gets sick he'll have the 50/50 chance of having symptoms.

Now, if the government is going through big changes or something is happening then DC will have a weaker immune system and would be able to get sick from the states. They honestly don't know if he could get them sick because he always self isolates and denies help when he is.

If there's some serious chaos going on with changes in government then he'll just straight up get sick. No catching it from anyone, nothing giving him a bug, he just develops symptoms of a really bad cold.

Recap:

Humans can't get states sick unless the state isn't at 100%, unless it's just an outbreak states can get other states sick no matter what, states can't get DC sick unless he's not at 100% leaving him as the designated caretaker when no one else wants to help (he would help regardless even if he could get sick, tis his job as parent friend)

Hurricanes + Tropical Storms

The way they affect the state depends how much damage was done and how their population reacts to it.

For example, a tropical storm or low level hurricane would maybe give Florida a bit of head rush or he'll get a little dizzy but nothing he can't ignore with a white claw. His people are used to them and honestly Don't Give A Fuck, if the house is fine and the car's still there we move on with our lives.

Then you have states that rarely get hurricanes and would panic when one hits, even if it's just a weak one. They'd have a headache, feel dizzy and sore.

Then there's higher level hurricanes, for those bruises will appear along with a migraine. Everything hurts and they're coughing up water, it's hard to breathe, and cuts from debris being thrown around by the winds are appearing everywhere.

In the end though, regardless of what scale it was, they're always left soaking wet and cold.

Earthquakes

First there's the feeling of a sea sick like nausea, that's the only warning they feel and only a few states (Literally just California and Alaska, someone please help them, the poor fault line babes) know how to recognize it instantly.

If they're outside of their own state then they'll get dizzy, balance is Gone and they fall over. If they're lucky enough to not hit their head or crash into something when they fall over then depending on the magnitude they could black out any number of times. I say black out and not pass out because while usually mixed up, blacking out doesn't always mean you loose consciousness.

Their vision goes completely, their eyes are open but all they can see is a dull black with staticky darker specks causing, well, static. They can't see if they try and if it's one of their first earthquakes they do try but it hurts to keep their eyes open, only worsening the feeling that their head is splitting open.

Sometimes their skin cracks. Sometimes if a highly urbanized area was hit and buildings go crashing they feel an invisible weight building up on their chest, it can lead to trouble breathing, or a broken rib, maybe multiple broken ribs.

Fires

There's two kinds of fires, fire season which is mostly for the western states and Florida who have the normal yearly stuff that the ecosystems need in order to function, and then there's when fires get out of hand and turn into disasters.

Fire Season:

Fevers that can range from low to high depending on how much land is burning, overheating when things, tiredness, dry skin, but overall manageable symptoms. Occasionally there are bad days but it's usually chill. It's not particularly nice, it sucks actually, but it's a yearly thing and they're used to it.

During the worse parts of fire season, for states with a ton of land on fire, smoke will come off them. They can suppress it but it takes a lot of energy. Statehouse living situation isn't the easiest because now it'd really suck to smoke out the house, others could get hurt, so they get good at minimizing it. (This mostly applies to California)

Irregular, Out of hand, or Man-Made:

A really high fever and burns slowly appearing everywhere. Smoke is harder to control and fills their lungs, making it hard to breathe. Sometimes they'll straight up faint, staying conscious while you're literally burning up isn't easy.

Death

They're immortal for as long as whatever they're a personification of exists. They can die just like any of person and it'll be painful but they always just,,, wake up. In the exact same spot they died except healed. If whatever killed them is still there then they'll die until it's over or someone saves them. If they die multiple times within a short period of time then every time they come back they'll have healed less and less.

Leftover Stuff

Floods = Initial flooding has them throwing up water and sometimes they can't breathe but afterwards it's more of just a cold, murky feeling in their chest (since these usually happen during big hurricanes just slap this on top)

Droughts = dehydration (dry skin, thirsty, insert symptoms of dehydration here)

Heatwaves = just, hot. For no reason. Air conditioning? Ice pack? Fan? Doesn't matter, they're hot.

Cold fronts = same story, different day. Blankets, jackets, and heaters don't matter or help much, they are cold. Depending how cold it gets and taking into comparison the usual temperature for their state they can develop hypothermia.

Tornadoes = Dizzy and disorientation. Bruises if they hit populated areas and destroyed stuff.

Dust Storms = trouble breathing, irritated eyes, more trouble breathing. Afterwards there's that feeling of when you went to the beach yesterday and suddenly there's the crunch of sand in your mouth.

Power Outage = they can't turn on or operate electric things, even living in the statehouse. For example, with the situation in Texas he wouldn't be able to turn on the lights, flipping the switch wouldn't do anything, but another state could do it for him (if they choose to help)

[fairytail-multishipper]

HCs for Makarov? Anything in general is fine but more specifically his relationships w the FT kids? Please and thank you 🥰

Send me a character/ship and I’ll tell you some headcanons

Please let me know if you want nsfw in your ask or I’ll assume sfw

Makarov & Natsu

Natsu has the least amount of information listed in his guild records

Mostly because Makarov tried to interview Natsu when he first joined, and Natsu got up because he couldn’t answer all of the questions

So Makarov left most of it blank

Makarov burns a lot of paperwork, so Natsu gets a lot of small snacks

Natsu started calling Makarov “Gramps” because he couldn’t pronounce Makarov when he was little

Makarov & Gray

Fairy Tail has yearly meetings with its members because of trauma that comes with being a wizard

Gray rarely came to the guild during this time of year, until after he came back from Guluna Island

He told Makarov about how he tried to cast Iced Shell, and Makarov made him start therapy

Gray also stopped smoking as much around this time

Makarov was the first person Gray came out to as Bi, and now Makarov makes small comments on Gray’s sexuality, just to make him blush

Makarov & Erza

Erza broke down when she told Makarov about Rob dying

She blamed herself and told Makarov that’s why she couldn’t join Fairy Tail

Makarov explained that Rob wouldn’t want her to live in guilt, and that if she wanted to honor his memory, she’d live as a proud wizard, Fairy Tail or not

Erza got in trouble a lot as a kid for fighting with Mirajane, so she visited his office almost every day

Sometimes he still can’t believe she acts like the guild’s mom now