#for this piece i went from black and white and then added colors

[nile-the-empathy-cleric]

I'm a huge fan of your work, your writing is so beautiful, and the way you add your own personal love of art is just; it's genuinely amazing. I was wondering if you have any paintings that you think each of your favorite characters would represent or maybe even what u see when u look at them. ❤️🖼🎨🖌

Oh boy do I love this ask! Firstly, than you 🥺 you're too kind 💕

Second I have so many paintings that spring to mind for various characters! Immediately off the bat my brain went right to Lestat and how his presence and aesthetic (especially in 1920s New Orleans) gave gigantic J.C. Leyendecker vibes.

(left) The Sleuth J.C. Leyendecker, ca. 1906 and (right) Arrow Shirt Collar Ad, 1916. By J.C. Leyendecker For Arrow Shirt Collars, 1916

The way Leyendecker plays with shadow, light, and color to project an air of seduction and power is just *chef's kiss.* He is a master at depicting an idealized masculinity that still has a level of vulnerability. I don't think it's just the styling/ fashion of the men in Leyendecker's illustrations that remind me of Lestat, but the features as well. J.C. gives them this attitude of nonchalance but there's something deeply concerned with appearances underneath. Is that not Lestat?

For Claudia there are a couple. First (not a painting but a sculpture) is Degas' The Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. I look at this piece and think of the history of ballet and the connotations of ballet at the time Degas was working. In France at the time ballerinas were highly taken advantage of and exploited. The exploitation was sexual in nature and simultaneously adultified and infantilized. They were highly fetishized. It's very sad and tragic and it reminds me of Claudia. The Little Dancer has an almost defiant energy to her, like there is a sense of pride and restraint, something dignified despite her lesser social standing.

I also see something of Claudia in this piece: Girl in Pink Dress, ca. 1927 by Laura Wheeler Waring. I also think this girl embodies the qualities of both Bailey and Delainey's Claudias–– there's simultaneously an innocence and maturity. I see something similar in Isabella, (aka Young Woman with a Fan), 1906 by Simon Maris and I just think it's neat to see art of Black people done by a white person from the early 1900s that isn't fetishizing or racist (don't look at J.C. Leyendecker's art of Black people, yikes!)

For Louis, my first thought was Derek Fordjour's STRWMN, 2020. It gives NOLA Louis to me in terms of style, but also the colorful and fun energy has the vibes of his little journey of gay self-discovery in Paris. I also see Louis in Lois Mailou Jones' Negro Youth, 1929. It mirrors depressed Louis for me. There is something very fragile in his expression, but you can tell he's trying to be strong, much like Louis.

As for Armand? Well, the number one is Botticelli's Saint Sebastian (it just has an uncanny resemblance to Assad) and the metaphor is too apt to not point out. The other that immediately make me think of Armand is The Abduction of Ganymede by Correggio. It's less the painting and more the myth it's based on, but out of all the Ganymede paintings, Correggio's is my favorite.

And Daniel is just like... any Nan Goldin photo, but I'll pick Heart-shaped bruise, 1980. I don't think I need to give my thoughts here 😂

Thank you again for such a fun ask! I appreciate every message I get from anons and mutuals alike 🥰

[*Edit: Being transparent––I went back and corrected a mistake I made in the original because I don't want an inaccurate/ racist post going around, even after a correction in the reblogs if people aren't seeing the original. I accidentally implied that Laura Wheeler Waring was white. I meant the statement about Simon Maris, who was a Dutch portrait artist. Laura Wheeler Waring was a prominent Black artist. Lesson to self: do not write deeply thoughtful posts at 1 am while you have a fever.]

[juubli]

Here are some of process snapshots of this piece of Astarion in Baldur's Gate.

I am a messy painter and I often adjust and change the designs as I paint. (Mostly because I don't have the patience to do proper line art haha)

I start out with a rough sketch, I usually sketch ideas out on my ipad and move to my cintiq to work with colors.

Next I block in rough color thumbnail. I keep this part messy as I just want to figure out the value structure and the overall mood.

At this point, I have collected a myriad of screenshots and reference images from the game, pinterest, and also from artists work that inspires me.

With the references on one screen, I start to paint the details, I work from foreground to midground to background. (Sometimes I'll bounce between the depth when I get bored from painting one thing for too long)

Sometimes after I block in the colors I'll make adjustments. I didn't like how warped the perspective was getting on the building on the screen right side, so I adjusted the vanishing point and added more tiers to the design. I went back into the game and looked at more how the stairs were designed and figured it out more thoroughly with a sketch on on top.

I think sitting down and doing the details is the most time consuming part. I still want the focus to be on the character despite all the detail going on the background. At this point I'm toggling on black & white filters constantly to check the value, grouping everything in the background together, making sure the lighting frames the subject in focus. At this point I realized, I forgot to paint Astarion's hair LOL, and that the bg was getting a bit too detailed, so I used a more textured brush and painted away some of the edge details of bg buildings.

Last, I make final adjustments, and I make a overall lighting/fx adjustment folder. Adding in some noise, adjusting the contrast, color balance, and lighting over all and call it done!

Link to Print shop!

[alfheimr]

My Favorite Cheap Art Trick: Gradient Maps and Blending Modes

i get questions on occasion regarding my coloring process, so i thought i would do a bit of a write up on my "secret technique." i don't think it really is that much of a secret, but i hope it can be helpful to someone. to that end:

this is one of my favorite tags ive ever gotten on my art. i think of it often. the pieces in question are all monochrome - sort of.

the left version is the final version, the right version is technically the original. in the final version, to me, the blues are pretty stark, while the greens and magentas are less so. there is some color theory thing going on here that i dont have a good cerebral understanding of and i wont pretend otherwise. i think i watched a youtube video on it once but it went in one ear and out the other. i just pick whatever colors look nicest based on whatever vibe im going for.

this one is more subtle, i think. can you tell the difference? there's nothing wrong with 100% greyscale art, but i like the depth that adding just a hint of color can bring.

i'll note that the examples i'll be using in this post all began as purely greyscale, but this is a process i use for just about every piece of art i make, including the full color ones. i'll use the recent mithrun art i made to demonstrate. additionally, i use clip studio paint, but the general concept should be transferable to other art programs.

for fun let's just start with Making The Picture. i've been thinking of making this writeup for a while and had it in mind while drawing this piece. beyond that, i didn't really have much of a plan for this outside of "mithrun looks down and hair goes woosh." i also really like all of the vertical lines in the canary uniform so i wanted to include those too but like. gone a little hog wild. that is the extent of my "concept." i do not remember why i had the thought of integrating a shattered mirror type of theme. i think i wanted to distract a bit from the awkward pose and cover it up some LOL but anyway. this lack of planning or thought will come into play later.

note 1: the textured marker brush i specifically use is the "bordered light marker" from daub. it is one of my favorite brushes in the history of forever and the daub mega brush pack is one of the best purchases ive ever made. highly recommend!!!

note 2: "what do you mean by exclusion and difference?" they are layer blending modes and not important to the overall lesson of this post but for transparency i wanted to say how i got these "effects." anyway!

with the background figured out, this is the point at which i generally merge all of my layers, duplicate said merged layer, and Then i begin experimenting with gradient maps. what are gradient maps?

the basic gist is that gradient maps replace the colors of an image based on their value.

so, with this particular gradient map, black will be replaced with that orangey red tone, white will be replaced with the seafoamy green tone, etc. this particular gradient map i'm using as an example is very bright and saturated, but the colors can be literally anything.

these two sets are the ones i use most. they can be downloaded for free here and here if you have csp. there are many gradient map sets out there. and you can make your own!

you can apply a gradient map directly onto a specific layer in csp by going to edit>tonal correction>gradient map. to apply one indirectly, you can use a correction layer through layer>new correction layer>gradient map. honestly, correction layers are probably the better way to go, because you can adjust your gradient map whenever you want after creating the layer, whereas if you directly apply a gradient map to a layer thats like. it. it's done. if you want to make changes to the applied gradient map, you have to undo it and then reapply it. i don't use correction layers because i am old and stuck in my ways, but it's good to know what your options are.

this is what a correction layer looks like. it sits on top and applies the gradient map to the layers underneath it, so you can also change the layers beneath however and whenever you want. you can adjust the gradient map by double clicking the layer. there are also correction layers for tone curves, brightness/contrast, etc. many such useful things in this program.

let's see how mithrun looks when we apply that first gradient map we looked at.

gadzooks. apologies for eyestrain. we have turned mithrun into a neon hellscape, which might work for some pieces, but not this one. we can fix that by changing the layer blending mode, aka this laundry list of words:

some of them are self explanatory, like darken and lighten, while some of them i genuinely don't understand how they are meant to work and couldn't explain them to you, even if i do use them. i'm sure someone out there has written out an explanation for each and every one of them, but i've learned primarily by clicking on them to see what they do.

for the topic of this post, the blending mode of interest is soft light. so let's take hotline miamithrun and change the layer blending mode to soft light.

here it is at 100% opacity. this is the point at which i'd like to explain why i like using textured brushes so much - it makes it very easy to get subtle color variation when i use this Secret Technique. look at the striation in the upper right background! so tasty. however, to me, these colors are still a bit "much." so let's lower the opacity.

i think thats a lot nicer to look at, personally, but i dont really like these colors together. how about we try some other ones?

i like both of these a lot more. the palettes give the piece different vibes, at which point i have to ask myself: What Are The Vibes, Actually? well, to be honest i didn't really have a great answer because again, i didn't plan this out very much at all. however. i knew in my heart that there was too much color contrast going on and it was detracting from the two other contrasts in here: the light and dark values and the sharp and soft shapes. i wanted mithrun's head to be the main focal point. for a different illustration, colors like this might work great, but this is not that hypothetical illustration, so let's bring the opacity down again.

yippee!! that's getting closer to what my heart wants. for fun, let's see what this looks like if we change the blending mode to color.

i do like how these look but in the end they do not align with my heart. oh well. fun to experiment with though! good to keep in mind for a different piece, maybe! i often change blending modes just to see what happens, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. i very much cannot stress enough that much of my artistic process is clicking buttons i only sort of understand. for fun.

i ended up choosing the gradient map on the right because i liked that it was close to the actual canary uniform colors (sorta). it's at an even lower opacity though because there was Still too much color for my dear heart.

the actual process for this looks like me setting my merged layer to soft light at around 20% opacity and then clicking every single gradient map in my collection and seeing which one Works. sometimes i will do this multiple times and have multiple soft light and/or color layers combined.

typically at this point i merge everything again and do minor contrast adjustments using tone curves, which is another tool i find very fun to play around with. then for this piece in particular i did some finishing touches and decided that the white border was distracting so i cropped it. and then it's done!!! yay!!!!!

this process is a very simple and "fast" way to add more depth and visual interest to a piece without being overbearing. well, it's fast if you aren't indecisive like me, or if you are better at planning.

let's do another comparison. personally i feel that the hint of color on the left version makes mithrun look just a bit more unwell (this is a positive thing) and it makes the contrast on his arm a lot more pleasing to look at. someone who understands color theory better than i do might have more to say on the specifics, but that's honestly all i got.

just dont look at my layers too hard. ok?

[saltofmercury]

Sentimental

Pairing: Jason Todd x f!reader

Author's note: Writing feels so good!!! I'm so happy to be writing again :)

Summary: Jason holds onto things that make him emotional. That doesn’t make him emotional.

*

Jason Todd would never call himself emotional.

He prefers the term sentimental. Sentimental is what surrounds the items in his trinket box. There’s not many items inside —some personal information mostly. A death certificate, a watch, and more recently items from you. A scrunchie, a broken keychain, and notes.

He had noticed the bracelets, gold and silver trinkets decorating your arm, then something not as shiny, the weird black ribbon scrunchie. The scrunchie you never gave it to him.

He watched as you pushed your hair back, your hands guiding the elastic weaving through your hair, sitting on top of your head.

What was left was the red indent on your wrist. You seemed to pay no attention to it, but he did not like the idea of something leaving a mark on you. Red and indented. The angry mark kept being shown, often closed off by your other bracelets.

“Does this hurt?” He asked you later at night wondering how it hadn’t gone down since the afternoon. 

“No, I get these all the time.” You say, carefully gauging his reaction.

“But I don’t like the impression it leaves you with.” He scowled, rubbing his thumb along the indent. 

Impressed by the mark it did leave—He took the scrunchie the next day, wearing it for a total of five hours. He had come back to the apartment you two shared, showing you the indent of his own. Now he keeps your scrunchie on his arm, willing to hold it for you. You never really take it back though, you just let him hold onto it. Seeing how he fidgets and snaps it on his own. He doesn’t give it back either.

Sentimental over the keychain you bought him for the key to your apartment. A big step in your relationship, where he had been earning your trust, giving you space, waiting for you to take the next step — you just wanted some peace of mind from him entering through the balcony window.

It had been a small joke between you guys about how you wish you had a pocket sized “him” so you could tell him at any moment anything that happened during your work day.

It prompted the idea to make him into a Lego.

You carefully selected the top, bottom, and head, and even added a red cap on top as an inside joke for his mask.

Jason could hardly respond. It leaves him tongue tied at the little figurine placed in his hand. Your smile beaming at him, then, expressionless when he doesn’t say anything. 

“You don’t like it?” You pout, hoping you didn’t cause offense.

He stares back at you intensely, suddenly breathless.

“I love it.”

He does wish he were more careful with it. After falling from a two story building, he had landed on it causing the little figurine to crack into multiple pieces. He would have taken a dislocated shoulder over the broken keychain.

“You fell on it?” you ask, seeing it cracked in multiple pieces in your hands.

“The guy snuck up on me and kicked me off the ledge.”

“And you fell … on it? Didn’t that hurt?” You peer up from your hands concerned he’s not fused with any other Lego pieces on his leg.

He tries to glue it back together, seeing the irony in himself in the Lego pieces. It frustrates him, he places it in a bag and puts it away in the box. He just starts to keep the key around his neck. The next day he gets surprised by the different figurine.

“Don’t land on this one ok?” You smile up at him.

Sentimental over every note you’ve ever written him— which causes his small box to overflow with colors of

“I’ll be back with dinner”

“went to the market” 

“Ice cream in the freezer!”

And all the “I love you’s see you later”

Scribbled in your writing on blue, white, pink, and yellow scraps of paper, post-its, and notepads. 

What seemed like a small note was a reminder to him that someone does come back for him. 

Someone is there for him.

So no, Jason Todd isn’t emotional. He’s just sentimental.

[recycledmoviecostumes]

This Edwardian-style gown was created for the Ascot scene in the original 1956 Broadway production of the Lerner and Loewe musical My Fair Lady. The scene was filled with beautiful gowns, all in black and white, in keeping with the famous “Black Ascot” of 1910, when King Edward VII died shortly before the event, making it inappropriate to wear color. Thus, those who attended wore all black, aside from accents of white from pearls and flowers.

The gown was designed by Cecil Beaton and executed by Helene Pons based on his sketches. The cream crepe dress has black velvet stripes and an embroidered lace bib. The photo above most likely shows actress Melisande Congdon in the costume, as she performed in the play for three years.

When Truman Capote decided to throw his famous “Black and White Ball,” – he used the scene from My Fair Lady as its inspiration. Deborah Davis’ wonderful book The Party of the Century mentions that much of the gossip about town was about “who” everyone would wear. Amanda Carter Burden, daughter of Babe Paley, was able to sidestep this conversation and not commit to any one designer when she chose a gown from the film My Fair Lady. A drawing of Amanda in costume, sketched by Kenneth Paul Block, appeared on the front page of Women’s Wear Daily.

But was her gown from the film adaptation of My Fair Lady? Amanda was based in New York City, and it would have been far easier for her to obtain one of the costumes from the Broadway show.

In addition, no costume in the film accurately matches the one she wore to the ball. There is one that is similar and clearly based on the same design, but it appears to be a different piece. 

In 2015, the dress from the Broadway production went up for sale, where it sold for $1280. It contains a lace dickey that the auction house noted has been added post-production. The dickey is clearly visible on Amanda Carter in the Black and White Ball photo. While I cannot confirm for certain that she is wearing the dress from the stage production rather than the film production, I am confident that she is.

Costume Credit: Katie S.

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[depresssant]

title : 'santa maria' aquamarine

yan!gojo x painter!reader

synopsis : he had never spared you a single glance before, but now here he was talking about getting you an aquamarine necklace to match his eyes

—————

“oh, [name]? yeah, that loser always holes herself up in her room."

your older sister's voice could be heard from a mile away with how obnoxious she sounded. 

well, she wasn't wrong.

sighing, you tossed your paintbrush into its cup and took a step back to look at your half-finished work. you spent an entirety of a week on it, not bothering to step out of your room unless it was to change the water in your cup, get food, or clean your paintbrushes. the painting was of a faceless woman in black walking in the opposite direction of all the colorful people as rain stormed from the clouds. she was the only one that didn't have an umbrella.

it reminded you a little of you...

who were you kidding?

the woman in the painting was you.

in the world of jujutsu, you were just a non-sorcerer that could only see curses. your family was a famous and potent clan who's pride was their cursed technique, so to have been born without one was a bad omen in itself. you were to be discarded, ignored, and shunned from what was considered a 'normal society.'

even your own family participated in such a trend, and you had soon found yourself turning into a hermit of sorts. what good did it do to even show your face to the world if the world didn't want to see you? it was a lost cause⏤one that you refused to believe in any longer. living like this until you turned eighteen was really the only option left for you.

you nodded in satisfaction⏤it was a rare occasion for you to be satisfied with one of your pieces⏤and moved to begin cleaning, but all of a sudden, your door swung open as if it was kicked down.

the sight that greeted you made any wisp of happiness you had crumbled away.

"[NAME]!"

when were the two of you on first name basis?

gojo satoru, in all his glowing glory, stormed into your room like a hurricane with a grin that reflected heaven's light itself and a bag of sweets from a bakery you knew all too well. he shut the door with his foot⏤why did he close the door⏤and avoided all the stuff you had laying across the floor before placing the bag on a clear part of your desk and tossing himself onto your bed.

"i've missed you so much, you know!" he whined and grabbed the dinosaur plushie situated in the crack between the wall and the edge of your bed. "you kept it!"

Only because he forced you to.

you sighed in disappointment and grabbed all your cups and paintbrushes to place them in a plastic container headed for the bathroom. "what are you doing here?"

"geez, is that any way to talk to your fiancé?"

"burn in hell."

"whateveeeeerrr! i got you your favorite. the chocolate chip cookie croissant!" the white-haired man rolled his eyes like this was simply playful banter and not literal words from the depths of your heart. he grabbed the bag and after rummaging through, pulled up some packaged good. 

how did he know that was your favorite pastry?

"thank you," you murmured back in reply. "if that's all, please leave. i'm sure sister wants to see you."

you grabbed a paintbrush with a smaller tip to begin adding the little details to the painting, but gojo didn't get the hint. he sat on your chair and looked up at you to watch you paint. there was a smirk on his face that told you he knew something you didn't, and it got under your skin like a parasite.

"stop looking at me like that."

"like what?"

"i said stop looking at me like that!"

"ugh, fine! you're no fun! how are we supposed to spend the rest of our lives together if you act so cold? you know... i know tomorrow is your birthday."

... shit.

your hold tightened on your paintbrush, but you sighed and shrugged. "okay? and?"

"I just wanted to ask because i know emerald is your favorite. we should've went shopping for it before the wedding, but i figured that since you didn't like going out, i'd just get them myself. what type of ring do you want? emerald? diamond? ruby? oh! i should get you one of those, uh, santa maria aquamarine gems! it matches my eyes, aaaannnndddd we can make it into a necklace for you!"

emerald? diamond? a wedding ring...

not a ring. a curse trapping you with him forever.

you remembered not too long ago when he had asked you if you wanted to wear a western styled gown or a traditional kimono picked out by his mother, and you thought he was joking. he had hated you for so long⏤going as far as to making your life physically hell, but then he strangely flipped a switch? you were supposed to believe that the man who scarred you as a means to rebel against your future marriage with him suddenly jumped in excitement at the sight of you? a man who didn't bother to glance your way for seven and a half straight years before finally talking to you willingly just magically knew all your likes and dislikes, the future dates on your calendar, and every contact on your phone?

damn it.

why did your parents pick you to get engaged with him instead of your sister?

"[name]? are you ignoring me again?"

huh?

"no! no, i'm not!" you lightly shook your head, but the damage had been done.

gojo rose and took off his glasses as a menacing look in his eyes was pinned on you. he grabbed a hold of your waist, hugging you from behind so tightly you felt like your ribs would shatter. his cheek rested on your shoulder, and the words that he whispered in your ear felt like your doom being set in stone.

he tightened his hold on you as a hand came to wrap around your throat.

"i don't think you know you're mine."

and he squeezed.

"forever."

[random0lover]

Hi! I was wondering if u can write how simon ghost riley reacts to if u want to fem!reader being all dolled up for an event or sumn. you imagine the rest 😭😭😭😭😭. love ur writing btw 🙏

A Day for First’s and Adding a Second

Pairing: Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley x wife fem!reader

Summary: It’s your and Simon’s son’s kindergarten graduation so you have to dress nicely and Simon loves it. Also a little surprise at the end.

Word Count: 1,686

Warnings: slightly NSFW (grinding while fully clothed) so 18+, established relationship, fluff at the end, reader is called love once, Simon being all hot and bothered, Price is your dad 🫣, pregnancy mentioned towards the end, is fem!reader and should be POC friendly! If you notice anything that makes you feel otherwise please let me know! I never want anyone to feel excluded with/in my work ♡

Notes: This is my first Simon fic and I honestly don’t know how to feel about it. Part of me adores it and the other thinks it’s trash, either way I wanted to respond to this request as it’s so sweet and the idea is adorable. I hope I was able to do your request justice my love! Also flashback are in italics.

You don’t often dress fancy but today your and Simon’s son was going to be graduating kindergarten. He goes to a private school at the moment so there were certain expectations and dress codes that you had to follow whether you wanted to or not.

The kids were all to wear navy blues and the parents were all to wear white or black. Everyone dressing formally.

You were currently getting ready in yours and Simons shared bathroom while Simon was helping your son finish getting ready.

You decided pretty quickly that while you would’ve loved to wear a white dress, being around children for up to three hours did not go well with the color white.

So you went with a black dress that reached right above your knees with loose sleeves that went down your arms to help make sure that you wouldn’t be cold with a neckline that was set right above your chest. The dress wasn’t to form fitting so that you would be able to sit for an hour or two without being uncomfortable or feeling constricted.

You were just finishing up your preferred makeup look when there was a light tap at the bathroom door.

You call out a small come in but start digging through the jewelry box on the counter that Simon had slowly been filling up over the years that you had been together no matter how much you protested against it.

You heard the door click open but didn’t hear Simon come in but you could feel his presence there, you always could.

“Hey Si, which necklace do you think I should wear?” You’re holding a necklace in each hand. The one in your right hand was the first necklace he had ever gotten you for your 6 month anniversary. It had two pear-shaped diamonds at the center surrounded by round-cut diamonds on a sterling silver chain.

The one in your left was a necklace that had been passed down through your family line and not too long ago your dad gifted it to you as a birthday present. It has 20 round shaped diamonds and in the center sits an oval shaped diamond with a white gold setting on a Singapore chain.

You usually didn’t have a hard time choosing a piece of jewelry but today you were slightly conflicted and his silence wasn’t helping.

You finally look up from the jewelry in your hand to look into the mirror and find Simon leaning against the bathroom door frame in an all black suit with gloves to match. He usually wears a black face mask out in public but he doesn’t have it on yet leaving it off until you were all ready to leave.

You feel his gaze slide along your body leaving a hot trail in its wake and you patiently wait until his eyes connect with yours in the mirror. Once they do you can’t help the sharp breath that escapes your mouth from the intense look he is holding in his dark brown hues.

A hum starts in your core when he steps towards you in three large steps and slightly leans his weight into you causing you to lean over the counter slightly.

You squeeze your eyes shut relishing in the heat surrounding you. Your lips part in a silent gasp when he slides his hand down your spine leaving it to settle on your hip and in the same moment runs his mouth along the arch of your neck and up to your ear.

“If we didn’t have somewhere to be I would take my time ravishing you against this sink.” His deep voice wraps around your body making goosebumps trail the lengths of your arms.

The impact of his words on your hazy brain makes you grind back against him, he lets out a small groan and rocks his hips into you while tightening his grip on your hip and pulling you back against him causing the perfect amount of friction.

You’re both lost in the moment trying to keep your moans and his grunts as quiet as possible so that your son didn’t hear.

Your body is getting hotter the longer you both claw at each other. It has been too long since the last time you’ve had the chance to feel each other's skin without being interrupted. You can tell that he’s getting close from the way his breath is puffing at your ear and he’s pulling you into him harder and harder, almost lifting your feet up off the ground.

Your ears are starting to ring from the pleasure and the rope in your stomach that is pulling taut when you hear little feet running across the house combined with giggling when you yank yourself away from Simon and open your eyes for the first time since this whole ordeal started.

You're busy trying to fix your dress and Simon is adjusting the bugle in his slacks when you hear the running stop outside yours and Simon's shared room before picking up again and the giggling sounding farther away.

He’s staring at you again when you look up at him making the fire in your body that was slowly sizzling out to start up again.

“The one your dad gave you.” You look at him confused for a moment and he smirks lightly, “the necklace.”

You look over at the two necklaces that had been carelessly tossed onto the counter during your moment. You pick up the necklace he said and offer it to him while moving your hair out of the way making your neck available for him.

You face the mirror and once he’s behind you you look into his eyes in the mirror, “Speaking of my dad,” you let out a sigh,”he offered to babysit tonight.”

He pauses mid wrapping the chain around your neck, his eyebrows lifting, “Price actually offered to watch him?”

You roll your eyes, “How many years have we been together and how old is our son now? I’m pretty sure my dad being mad at you is gone by now.”

He latches the necklace and slides his hand around you to grip your chin making sure your eyes stay connected in the mirror, “I don’t know,” he moves his mouth right up against your ear making you shiver, “I can still hear how mad he was when he found out his lieutenant was doing more than helping his captain's daughter move into her new flat.”

You sigh, mind flashing back to the day that all the tension between you and Simon finally snapped.

You had found a flat to finally move into and your dad was supposed to help you but something came up at work that was a bit more important so he sent over a man he knew he could rely on. What he didn’t know is that you and Simon had been fighting the urge to give into one another and you two being alone all day? It was bound to happen.

Price had walked in when Simon was helping you put the last of the furniture in which was your couch. You weren’t in a compromising position or anything but your neck was littered with love bites. You had a glow to you that you didn’t have that morning when you saw Price, and you were wearing Simon’s shirt leaving him with just a black wife beater on.

The man flew into a rage slamming his fist into Simon's face and a shocked Soap was left gawking until he kicked into gear yanking his captain up off of his lieutenant which was not an easy feat.

Simon didn’t fight back one bit as he knew that this was the reaction he was going to get. The captain had made one rule with his team, “Don’t touch my fucking daughter.”

It took months for your dad to even be okay with seeing you together at all. He could see how in love with each other you were and so the day Simon asked for his blessing he of course said yes.

You're pulled out of your thoughts from Simon sighing into your neck and gently kissing a sensitive spot. “Was thinking we could maybe make your favorite dinner and watch a movie?”

He nods, stepping away from you, “sounds good to me love.”

You give him a smirk in the mirror, “I also have a surprise for you.”

His eyes glide over you again focusing on how the dress hugs you in all the right places, “oh really? I’m going to hold you to that so no getting all cuddled up in my lap and falling asleep early.”

You know he’s teasing so you snort and roll your eyes before shooing him out of the bathroom trying to keep a knowing smile hidden, “I’m almost ready so why don’t you go get our little energy ball in his car seat.”

He gives you a quick kiss before walking out of the room and you hear him calling for your son. You listen for a moment to make sure he won’t be coming back and once you're sure you pull out a little key to unlock a part of the jewelry box.

You dig your hand into the open drawer and pull out a light blue rectangle box with a pink ribbon tied around it. Inside the box were three positive pregnancy tests. You wanted to be sure and didn’t want to get your hopes up so you wanted to take more than one.

You were so excited to tell him about the pregnancy as a few weeks ago he came to you asking if you would ever want another baby. You were hoping for a little girl this time around, the perfect addition to your family of three. Adding a second bundle of joy to your lives.

You hear Simon calling into the house for you and you yell back that you were coming. You put the little box back into the drawer and grab your purse and leave the room thinking about how your life is so different than what you thought it would be and honestly you couldn’t be happier.

Hi my lovelies, I hope you liked this little fic! I wasn’t sure how to go about the ending so personally don’t know how to feel about it and would love some feed back. Anyways I hope you all have amazing days <3

Requests are open! I can not promise when or if I will write them but I do prefer requests that are slightly more specific as I find them a little bit easier to write but it’s not required. Thanks for reading my darlings ♡

[billybangbang]

Imagine dressing up for Butcher like this after hearing his rant at the Believe Expo

You confessing your "sins" to Butcher.

Butcher x reader

Not proof read, we die like men

Trigger. SMUT, Religious kink, seriously please do not read it if you are easily offended by blasphemy, nipple clamps, riding crop, and teasing.

You listened to Butcher rant about God being a cunt. His bluntness and casual assurance made you bite your lips and squeeze your thighs together. You loved nothing more than a man who didn't give a shit. When M.M. stepped in and pulled him away. You grabbed Butchers hand. He immediately interlaced his fingers with yours, shooting you a smirk. The next few hours, you walked together through the expo. The more you saw the more you wanted to tell these fundamentalists to shut the fuck up. But it also gave you an idea. You glanced at Butcher, smirking to yourself with what you had planned.

You excused yourself after the plan was set for Hughie to blackmail the strechy man. Making your way to the costume shop, you walked through it slowly, looking at anything that had to do with religious undertones. But nothing really spoke to you. So you settled on a veil and some ugly cross jewlery. Butcher would get the hint, you were sure. The next stop was the lingerie shop. There, you picked out a white two-piece set. White the color of innocents and being pure. You bit your lip, looking in the mirror. You looked hot in it. Your boobs looked amazing, and your ass was on point. You shook your ass watching it bounce in the mirror.

Now, just one more stop. The sex store. Butcher would probably pout that you went to a sex shop without him, but he'll get over it once he saw you.

You walked through aisles after aisle admiring all the different toys. You stopped on some nipple class that connected to each other with a silver chain and had pearls adorned. You picked the package up, looking it over. Damn you would look good in them. Quickly, you added them to your other stuff. Then you went and grabbed some lube, cherry lip gloss, and a riding crop.

For a second, you wondered if you should get Butcher a black dress shirt or something, but then something different came to mind. Quickly, you made your way home to the shared flat with Butcher. You laid out the only black dress pants he had and your favorite black sweater of his plus his black dress shoes. You laid it out on the couch with a note saying "wear me" and a 💋 from your cherry lipgloss.

You took a quick shower and styled your hair a bit before putting on the smallest amount of makeup to look as innocent as possible. You got dressed and took some Polaroids. You were too hot to miss out on the opportunity to hide some sexy Polaroids in Butchers stuff to remind him of you.

Butcher shot you a text that he would be home in five, so you quickly made sure that everything was in order in your bedroom. You had cleaned the countertop that was next to your bed of everything besides the nipple clamps laid out. Then the riding Corp and the lube. You had made the bed up with black sheets. Finally, you heard him open the door and quickly climbed on the bed, kneeling.

You heard Butcher grunting, probably read the note. You could imagine his frown and eye roll, but he did as he was told.

You heard the footsteps getting closer to the bedroom, and you could not help but squirm already anticipating the things he would do to you.

He opened the door, to see you kneeling on the bed. The light was dimmed and candles were everywhere. Fuck, you looked so hot. "Ain't that a nice surprise." He smirked. leaning on the door frame just watching you with his predatory gaze. "Whatever do you mean?" You asked innocently, giving him a slight smile. "I thought we had an appointment." You leaned forward pushing your breasts together. "I have so many things to confess, Father." Never did Billy think the word Father would sound so hot. He felt all his blood rush south. "Ain't that a shame. Ya' been a bad girl." You just nodded with a pout. " I am afraid so, father, but I cannot help it. I have so many impure thoughts." Butcher had to hold back a groan. Instead, he pushed himself off the doorframe and walked closer to you. He stood a foot away just watching you. Your heart was racing anticipating what he would do next. He slowly reached out and you thought he would caress your face like he so often did before kissing you but instead, he swiped his thumb across your lip, taking off some of your lipgloss before putting it between his lips. "Hm," he closed his eyes imagining tasting you all over. You looked at him your lips slightly open. "Confess your sins, tell your father the impure thoughts you got in that pretty little head of yours." He commanded. You took a deep gulp, trying not to squirm. "Father, I confess I have thought about sinful things." Butcher nodded, "go on." You took a deep breath and lowered your eyes as if ashamed. "No, no. Do not take your eyes from me, confess all your sins to me. I need to see the shame in your eyes to know you are repentant." You almost left out a moan. "I sometimes think about ... things, when it is late at night." You broke off. "What things, go on child." "I think about a man, touching me and me touching him," Butcher grunted. "The kind of touch a good girl like me should not think about. I dream about a man coming into my room, and pulling the covers off my body. He starts kissing me. I cannot help these thoughts it is like someone else has taken over my body. Father am I going to hell?" You managed to tear up, one falling down your cheek. Billy wanted to reach out and lick the tear off your cheek. He knew it was fucked up but he liked it when you cried it made him even harder. "No child, not if you confess even the tiniest detail to me." You nodded dutifully and went on. You described how the man would push you into the mattress, rip your shirt and start trailing kisses down your chest until he takes your nipples into his mouth and sucks. Butcher hums in pleasure he loves licking and marking your beautiful tits. Slowly he started to unbutton his trousers which had gotten too tight. His bulge was prominent and you whined at the sight of it. "No, eyes on me." You immediately obeyed looking into his eyes. "Ignore the rest, just look at me." You nodded. "Oh, father but I have not told you the worst of it. Every time I imagine a man walking into my bedroom touching me I touch myself, run my hands over my body. I get so wet and cannot help it. I have to touch myself, rub my clit, and finger my pussy." Butcher groaned as he took his cock out of his boxers stroking himself to your words. You were so tempted to look down and watch his beautiful cock yet even though you were pretending to confess your sins it would truly be a sin for you to obey his command.

"Go on, my good little girl still has things to confess." He continued to stroke his cock so close to your face. It was getting harder for you to concentrate all you wanted to do was reach out and touch him. Finally, you snapped. "I dream about opening my mouth, sticking my tongue out, and tasting a man, in his purest form." You followed suit, looking into his eyes while leaning forward slightly, pushing your tits even more together. Mouth open and willing. You slightly connected with the tip of his cock through your veil his pre cum sticking to your tongue. He slowly pulled back watching a mixture of spit and cum connect your tongue and his cock. "I am afraid your sins are too great. God tells us to punish sinners. I need to punish you." He stepped back and you whined. He turned to the dresser with the new toys. Shooting you a smirk.

He picked up the lube, and made his way over to you, he kneeled in front of you. "You clenched your soul with your confession like a good girl. But now we need to get rid of the sin in your body." He slowly reached out stroking the string above your breast. "Do you understand, child?" You nodded instantly. "Tell me." "I understand, Father, I will do as you say, I just want to be pure again." "Good girl," with a swift tug he ripped the fabric of your bra and threw it on the floor. You tits bounced with the force. "Hmm," he hummed in pleasure at seeing your tits. He reached out weighing them in your hand. "Is this what the man in your dream those to you." You nodded pushing your chest more into his hands. He rubbed them slowly before taking the lube putting some on the tip of his fingers. He lifted your chin so you would look directly at him. He reached out tracing your nipples with the cold lube. He watches as your face transforms into one of pleasure. "Do you feel that? This is sin leaving your body." "Yes, Father." He took his time getting your nipples nice and hard. It was driving you crazy, your underwear impossibly wet. "Now, we need to punish you so you will never forget the lord's words." He went and picked up the nipple clamps. He kissed your right breast before pinning the clip onto your nipple. You moaned, closing your eyes. fuck this hurt so good. Before doing int to the other. You looked so good with the veil on your face, your tits out and adorned with clamps. "Now you look like the good girl I know you are. But God needs to know it too." With that he reached down, between your legs, under your panties. "Tss, tss, what do we have here." He felt the wetness between your legs, circling your clit. You let out small moans, holding onto his arm. "Your impure thoughts made you wet, this is not acceptable. I will need to punish you further, or God will not forgive you." He pulled his hand back and you cried out. He walked towards the dresser picking up the riding crop. "Spread your legs, put your pussy on display for me." Fuck, yes you wanted nothing more. You scooted towards the edge of the bed, spreading your legs. The white was almost see-through now from your wetness. "Lay back my child, take your punishment like the sinner you are." He stepped between your legs, admiring your stretched-out form. Your chest heaving, your body tense with anticipation. Wham, he brought the riding corp onto your pussy. "Ah," you arched your back. Wham, another one had you moaning. Before he continued he caressed your pussy. God, you wished that he had taken your underwear of first but he was such a tease he would not give it to you until he felt you deserved it. He gave you five more lashes. "Seven, the holy number. You should be pure again." He kneeled down between your legs, and slowly he kissed the inner of your right tight, before moving to the left always leaving out your pussy. Slowly he dragged down your panties. "Hm, seems like this holy punishment was not enough. I will have to take more drastic measures to ensure your soul is saved." He took of his sweater and got rid of his shoes and pants. "The only way to save you is to fuck the thoughts out of you. Lay back on the bed, and take your punishment." You crawled up the bed before spreading your legs again, you were more than ready to feel Billy's cock. "Please, make me pure again with your cock." Butcher gave you a smirk as he crawled over your body. He leaned down, covering your whole body with his. "Don't ya' worry, I'll fuck the sin outta ya'." He whispered in your ear before giving you the most intense and sloppy kiss. You still had the veil over your face but that didn't stop Butcher, he was all tongue and teeth. He tugged on the chain pulling on your nipples, "Ah, I can't, I need you Father please." He tugged on the chain again, making your eyes roll back into your head. "I dream about you father, the man that comes into my room. It is you, all you." Butcher gave you a satisfied smirk. "Good girl."

He reached down between your bodies. He took his cock into his hand and swiped it between your pussy lips, circling your clit before thrusting into you with one swift push. You both groaned in unison. "Fuck yes," Butcher lost all control pounding into you, spitting profanities. "My own personal fuck slut, such a sinful baby, Imma fuck it out of you." He punctuated every word with a thrust. "Say it, say you are my sinful fuck slut." "Ah, I am, Father." You moaned. "I am your sinful fuck slut, always." He reached his hand between your body drawing circles on your clit. You felt the coil in your stomach tighten but before you could reach your peak he drew back. He pushed your hands above your head. "Keep them here. I want to see your tits bounce freely." You held onto the headboard, trying to contain your screaming. Butcher held onto your waist pulling you back onto your cock while fucking into you. "Yes, yes, yes, please." You whined. He could cum from the sight of you spread out. "Imma keep you hear now. As my personal fuck slut, never let you go. You gonna wear that little veil of yours and the lord around your neck and nothing more. I will fuck you in every which way I wish. First Imma cum in that pussy of yours, then on your tits and face. I'll fuck you from the back put my cock in your ass make you feel me everywhere. 'cause this cunt is mine." Butcher let out a deep groan, as he felt you tighten around him. God this man could talk you into an orgasm. He quickly pushed his hands between the two of you rubbing circles on your clit, alternating between small and quick and slow and wide circles. You could not hold it in any longer, "I'm gonna cum, Father, oh please." "Yes, my slut, cum for your Priest. Make me proud." With a final thrust, you came screaming his name. Butcher watched in aw how your face contorted in pleasure and it was the final straw for him. He quickly pulled out, quickly sitting on your chest. "You don't deserve my cum just yet. You need to show me your devotion before I will fill you up. Make you my cum slut." He was groaning while stroking himself furiously. You moaned at the thought, pushing your tongue out of your mouth waiting for him to finally paint you with his cum. He let out a final groan and came all over your face, you could hardly taste him because of the veil. But it quickly became Butcher's favourite accessory. He stroked himself until he was spent before picking up the Polaroid camera on the nightstand and snapping a picture of your face, the cross necklace and your tits covered in cum.

"Guess there is something good about religion after all," Butcher commented pulling you to him.

[poniesart]

It's been a while... my new job has been a lot to get used to, so I haven't really been able to finish any pieces recently, but here is this. I've been meaning to catalogue my gratitude for my low-dose T. Before I went on hormones, I had been fighting my body in the background for so long without noticing, and T made me realize it only after it stopped really being a problem.

And while I am not transmasc, of course people who are transmasc can (and likely will) relate to this! I added that second panel because I want people to stop calling me or my experiences transmasc in my notes when it is incorrect and makes me uncomfortable. Thank you.

ID below thanks to @/rjalker!

[ID: A comic done in mostly black and white, titled, "A Love Letter To What Testosterone Has Given Me" with four hears in the colors of the nonbinary flag, yellow, white, purple, and black, lined up vertically next to it.

The panel next to the title reads, "A note: I am nonbinary, genderqueer, & maverique. I do not identify as transmasc or relate to transmasc experinces. Please don't refer to me as such!"

The five remaining panels are the comic itself:

The first panel shows a drawing of a person mostly offscreen, black shirt, dark hair, sideburns, and glasses just visible, and reads, "To the sideburns I knew I wanted since I was 14."

The second panel continues, "To the arm hair I never knew I needed", showing a light arm with dark hairs on it.

The third panel continues, "To the broader shoulders", showing a bare-chested person from behind with arms partly lifted.

The fourth panel continues, "& thin mustache", showing a smiling person's lower jaw and neck, covered with sparse hairs.

The fifth panel concludes, "& to the realization that people don't have to spend their lives fighting their body for peace.", and shows a person wearing boxers and a bra, with hair legs, arms, and belly, one hand on hip and looking with a small smile towards the camera. At the bottom are two small trans and nonbinary flags.

End ID.]

[pastel-greene]

The Daughter | king!sukuna x curse user!reader

Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 - Anger | Chapter 5

Summary: The mother of curses happens upon a blind child and decides to impart a portion of her power to them as an experiment of sorts. The power morphs the child in their image until they are part curse and part human. So what happens when they get employed by the King of Curses? Will humanity bloom as newfound emotions flow between the two? Or will they usher in an era of never ending terror?

Notes: not all of this will be canon, it will be loosely based off of the jjk universe :) taglist is open, comment your request on any chapter to be tagged in future ones

Genre: female reader, fluff, angst, ‘loads’ of smut, violence, sukuna true form but like not with the weird face lmao just double set of eyes and arms, dark reader

Warnings: profanity, explicit smut (two dick sukuna, sadistic sex, biting, oral m & f receiving, pet names, more to be added), violence, depictions of gore, dark minds cause yk, mentions of rape, toxic relationships, chaotic neutral reader, trauma, possessiveness from reader and sukuna, torture, vampire themes (reader’s blood is infused with the Mother of curses so if a curse user is to drink it it basically gives them a temporary stat boost bc what can i say vampire sukuna seems hot), cannibalism (no I don’t support it but it is true to his character), and more to be added as story progresses

Word count: 7.4k

This work contains mature content, so absolutely no minors I will block you if I find out :)

When the sun started drooping in the sky, Sukuna finally pulled out of your cum engorged holes, and streams of white gushed free. You let out a slight sigh of relief as it all drained from you. Your belly had grown a slight bulge from trying to contain all of it. You both lost track of the amount of times he came in you, but it had to be a lot given the pool of white that spread within the red. He watched in amazement as your holes healed and went from gaping to normal. Both still slightly twitched from all the stimulation they had gone through.

Sukuna never thought he would be able to fuck someone like that without them tearing apart. He had always either broken or held back with his concubines, never getting to do all the things he wanted. And there was still plenty he wanted to do, but he knew you would be there to take it. He was in no rush. He looked down as your blood soaked body started to get up and stretch. No sign of the mindless, shaking mess that was beneath him just minutes ago.

“Where are you going”, he asked, back to his usual authoritative tone.

“Uhm, probably to my room to bathe. What were you wanting a cuddle”, you asked with a smile as you teased him.

He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, “You are coming to my room tonight, we will wash there”, he said while getting up and coming over to you.

You crossed your arms, “What if I don’t want to?”

“Don’t care,” he said as he reached out and touched you, teleporting both of you to his chambers.

Why wouldn’t you want to come with him? Most people would be tripping over the opportunity to go to his chambers. Hell, not even Uruame has seen the inside of them. You were his and you would stay with him.

You let your eyes wander around his chambers. They were not what you had expected. You had kind of expected a villain’s lair. Dead corpses and bones scattered about. Ominous lighting showcasing the horrors within. Instead, you were standing in a room that had a ceiling lined with light, natural colored wood, tucked away by black support beams. The walls were a dark charcoal gray adorned with black trim pieces partially hidden by large paper sliding doors. In front of you stood a wide circle archway that led to a private bathing area complete with a hot spring.

“It’s pretty in here, completely different from the rest of the palace”, you said as you continued to look around.

He looked at you and scoffed a little while pulling you towards the water. “So the rest of the palace is not pretty, then”, he asked as he led you down into the bath water. The bath was filled with the overflow from the hot spring, making it perpetually warm.

You smiled while looking up at him, “Yes. It’s hideous and should be torn down. Not to mention egotistical. I mean, when I look up all I see are your past glories”.

He quirked an eyebrow up while joining you in the reddening water. “Should I have them put new conquests up there? Perhaps, your naked body submitting to me, squirting out my cum, sucking on my finger”, he asked as he ran his fingers over your body. He didn’t know why but he loved touching you. He wanted you to always be there for him to touch, never leaving his grasp.

You laughed at his comment before you kicked his legs out from under him and watched as he fell fully into the water, dodging his hands when they reached out for you. Did he really have you? Were you really his? He didn’t and you would show him that. His head ripped up from the water with confusion and anger etched on his features. He grabbed for you again and again, but you kept yourself just beyond his reach. He was about to teleport to you when you disappeared and reappeared behind him, holding him. You ran your hands in opposite directions along his abdomen. One landed upon his hip bone, nails grazing over the slight protrusion. The other landed between his pecs, your thumb petting the skin gently. He reached to touch you, but again you disappeared.

He looked around for you but you weren’t reappearing. He started worrying that you had actually left when you emerged from under the water, your hair draping over your form as water flew through it. “Was it you who conquered me, my King,” you said, turning to look at him, diluted blood tracing down your body. You walked back towards him, turning the water beneath your feet into steps. You were slightly above his eye level as your hand slipped under his chin to tilt it up. “I may have been on the bottom but it was you who fulfilled all my commands without hesitation. You wanted to please me, I could feel it. So who conquered who”, you teased.

He grabbed your throat, “You think you could conquer me”, he laughed as he squeezed your throat harder. “Just because I fucked you and brought you here to bathe you think you hold power over me”, his grip started to crush your windpipe and make your eyes bulge.

You were just playing around, but of course he couldn’t take a joke when his fucking ego was at stake. You just laughed at him, “I hold power over you because you let me. I don’t even have to use real magic to get you to submit to me. It shows in your eyes every time you look at me, even when you hurt me,” you said through gurgles. You had figured he would resort to hurting you instead of owning up to his own emotions.

Pissed. He was seething. He was going to have a nice bath with you, fuck you again in the water. Make you feel good, special even. All you had to do was be good. Now, he was snapping your neck. He felt blood trickle down his hand as bone shards splintered through your arteries and skin. You were still fucking smiling. He clenched his hand further and your head popped off and into the water below, your body following it. That you had not expected. You anticipated him hurting you, making you bleed, but killing you? You didn’t think he would take it that far. He stood there for a few minutes still panting with anger. He conquered you, not the other way around. He couldn’t be conquered, couldn’t be owned.

Your body floated up, red pouring from the base of your neck. He stared at you waiting for you to reattach yourself but you weren’t. Surely you weren’t dead, right? He waited several agonizingly long minutes before panic started to set in. This wasn’t right. You weren’t supposed to be able to break. You were supposed to be able to take all of his strength, all of his anger.

“(Y/N)”, he called out while pulling your body over to him. All of your energy was gone. Inside you was completely stagnant, empty. He started breathing quicker as he held your headless corpse. No, no, no this isn’t right. Why weren’t you coming back? You needed to come back to him, you weren’t allowed to leave him. He had never felt a negative emotion about death, but he was quickly being swallowed by them. The water around him started boiling as his energy ran rampant in it.

“(Y/N)”, he shouted over and over while shaking your cadaver.

“Yes, my King,” you said laying on the edge of the tub, feet dangling in the air and arms propped under you.

His face snapped to look at you before looking back to your “corpse”. It slowly turned back into water and slipped through his fingers. You hadn’t come out of the in between before. The figure he saw emerge from the water, was only that— water. You didn’t feel like being hurt, so you let it take the brunt for you. You were playing with him and it was making him seethe. He appeared on top of you, knees on either side of your body, cocks grazing your upper back as he pulled your hair back, forcing you to look up at him.

“Why do you hurt me? You are so sweet to me until I stop playing your game. You even went as far as killing me over a silly debate”, you say, your smile falling as the words come out. He was so sweet in earlier hours. Kissing up and down your body as if he worshiped you. Caressing your skin so softly it was like he was scared you would break. And now he was breaking you on purpose. You knew his intentions. He would hurt you over and over until you became the perfect doll for him. Now that you made him feel the way he did, he wanted to put you in a cage for only him to enjoy. You didn’t want that. You wanted to be an equal if you were going to be in a relationship, and you didn’t even know if you wanted him that way. You had just wanted sex and now he was making it more.

“Because you need to learn how to be good for me”, he said as he tightened his grip on your hair, pulling your head further back till it forced your lips to part. He used the hole as a receptacle for his spit before kissing you. Why couldn’t you just be good? He could give you everything, more than anyone else ever could if you would just behave.

“I don’t want this.”

“I didn’t ask.”

“What if I ran away”, you asked, watching as his face grew dark.

“I would hunt you down and break your limbs until they didn’t regenerate. And if I couldn’t find you, I’d go after Nanami or Shoko. I’d make them scream until you appeared”, he replied while kissing your hair line.

You teleported beside him, rushing him into a grapple. Two arms reached up to grab you but fell to the ground as they disconnected from his body. Tentacles of black shot through the bones in his legs and held them down. A dark mirage of wings contorted themselves from your back, the talons on the ends slamming down through his wrists and into the stone below. Your face was right above his and your scleras were darkening, teeth turning pointed, saliva turning black. Inhuman noises that sounded like strangled growls rang out everytime you breathed. Your energy was consuming you and he could feel it. Like a bomb waiting to go off.

“Don’t you ever. threaten. them. Or I will show you a world where you live as a human, not a lick of cursed energy in your veins. I will beat you over and over until you’re just a pile of viscera. And then, I’ll turn you into a curse and you’ll be forced to bow before me. The once terrifying King Sukuna turned into a mindless dog on a leash”, you say spitting black liquid onto his face.

The black tentacles continued to spiral up his legs to his abdomen. Poking him full of holes and binding him to the stone. Your consciousness was fading, you knew you needed to calm down before you went ballistic.

Sukuna had never seen you like this. Even your energy felt completely different. It was dark and cold like death, but also chaotic and fiery like hell. The longer it lasted, the less of your energy remained and the more the new one replaced it. He started to get the feeling that he might actually die if it took you over.

“Get off me, brat.”

You hated him. Every inch. He was so fucking up his own ass that he couldn’t interact with others in any intimate capacity. “This, whatever this is, is over. You will not fucking touch me again. I am not yours, you are not mine. I will work as planned and that is where our relationship will end”, you said giving him one last hateful look before disappearing.

“I’m sorry.” He said after you had disappeared. He hated himself for feeling the need to say it, hated himself even more for not being able to say it. He could have just killed you again and put you in your place. But he could feel the pain that radiated from you when you had watched him kill what he thought was you. It wasn’t physical, but emotional. It was supposed to feed his sadistic pleasures, instead it felt like he stabbed his own heart. He never wanted to feel that again. Never wanted you to feel that again. He knew you didn’t want to be chained down like he was now. He even knew it was selfish of him to force shackles on you. You were powerful in every sense of the word. You knew more about curses than anyone he had met, could do more than anyone. He should be proud to have someone he didn’t need to coddle. He was very old, but you were showing him things he had never seen before. Making him feel things he had always looked down upon. He could feel the feelings you had for him too. They were healing him in ways he never knew he needed. He didn’t want to lose them to hate.

Sukuna laid there for a while after his restraints dissipated, gaping wounds left in their place. He kept thinking of the look in your eyes. The hate in them was deeper than when he tore apart your hand. He wondered if the damage he had done was beyond repair, if you would look at him the way you used to again.

You had returned to your room still naked and partially covered in blood. You put a robe over you before peeking your head outside your door and asking your attending to start you a bath. They looked at you with mild horror from your appearance before hurriedly getting to work. Once it was ready, you sat and tried to relax but ended up angrily scrubbing your skin. Asshole. Dickhead. Dumbass. You wanted to hit him in the balls so hard he would sneeze cum. But through all the anger you were crying. You couldn’t believe he threatened them. You hadn’t really felt trapped here until he said that. You could always get there first and run away with them, but that wasn’t fair to them. They had people they cared about too and you knew Sukuna would wipe your whole town off the map if you ran. You could kill him, but you also couldn’t. You didn’t know why, but the thought of doing so made your whole body shake with grief. He killed you so easily, though. Without a second thought. You were stupid for getting close to him, letting him fuck you.

You got out of the bath and dried yourself off before putting on a nightgown. It was a long black dress made up of sheer layers. You tied a robe over it and sat on your bed. You were sitting there stuck in your thoughts when a knock rang out on your door. You could feel it was Geto but asked who it was all the same.

“It’s Suguru, I brought you dinner. I didn’t know if you had gotten the chance to eat.”

Your stomach growled at the thought. The last thing you had eaten was Sukuna’s finger and you wouldn’t even call that a meal. “Come in.”

When he entered he saw you on the bed, hair still wet and eyes slightly red. “Do you want to eat there or at the table”, he asked with what you noticed were two servings of food in his hand.

“Are you eating with me?”

He shrugged, “If you want me to. If not, I’ll eat in my room.”

You shook your head. Having his company would probably make you feel better, clear your head and give you perspective. You moved over to the table where you motioned for him to sit.

“Do you want me to move it back so you can sit across from me or?”

“Sitting beside you is fine. You’re not too smelly”, he said with a soft smile while sitting down, waiting for you to join him.

“I was asking out of hopes you would move given that you’re the smelly one. But I guess I can put up with it, since you come bearing food.” You sat down next to him and started eating. The food was delicious as always and warmed your body, but noticed he kept looking over at you and the way you sat while you both ate. “What is it?”

He just smiled and shook his head before putting an elbow on the table and propping a leg up just like you, “Nothing.”

“Asshole”, you said while shaking your head and smiling.

Silence grew between the two of you as you finished your food. Awkward tension bloomed within the air, you knew he had questions about what happened at the training grounds. You didn’t want to talk about it and he wouldn’t ask, but then the awkwardness would stay. So you gave in.

“You look like you have questions, it’s okay to ask.”

He looked at you with a sad look, “What happened when we left? Are you okay?”

You didn’t realize it, but tears started falling when he asked that. You weren’t okay. You felt like your whole world had shrunk to this tiny room and it was suffocating. You didn’t want to see Sukuna ever again but knew you would inevitably have to, and have to speak with honor when you did. You hated it. Hated it here. Hated him.

Suguru wiped your tears with his thumb before slowly pulling you into him. He smelled like cedar and jasmine. You wrapped your arms around him and let it all out. It had only been a few days and everything was already so messy and fucked up. You hated yourself for letting it get to the point it was at. Hated Sukuna for treating you like an object. Hated Uruame for attacking you when you hadn’t done anything. Hated the human part of you that felt these weak emotions. The emotions that kept you from just killing Sukuna and solving all your problems. You didn’t love him, but fuck you couldn’t deny the way he lit you on fire. The way your energies curled into one another until you felt like one. You were weak. You thought of the dagger the mother gave you, thought of your promise. You decided you would be human tonight and only for tonight. Tomorrow you would go back to being a monster. Tonight you were just a woman that hated herself.

You awoke to the sound of your servants knocking on your door. You faintly remembered Suguru laying you into the bed after crying into him for at least an hour. You stuck your palms into your eyes as you cringed from how you cried into him. You rolled around in your bed as you tried to fight off the memory before letting out a very long sigh. You told your servants to come in while sitting up in your bed.

“Good morning, ma’am. The King has sent for you. He said your training will start in an hour and you’re not to be late”, they relayed while bringing in your breakfast.

You dropped your head back and let out a groan. He was the last person you wanted to see. But you told yourself that you wouldn’t be dictated by feelings today. You would do your job, keep your head down, and act like nothing had happened between the two of you. You ate your breakfast and got ready, repeating that in your head like it was some sort of life-fixing mantra.

You were told to meet the King in the throne room instead of the training grounds. You weren’t sure if that was because of what happened yesterday or if it was preplanned. You approached the throne room and took a moment to collect yourself just like the last time you were here. Do your job, keep your head down, act like nothing happened. Servants swung the door open and you could feel Sukuna looking down on you from his throne while you entered.

He looked you up and down. You wore a black button up crop top, adorned with gold buttons, red trim, and his sigil on the back. He had requested it be put there when he looked over your clothes order, so that everyone could see you belonged to him. Under it, sat a black, fitted bodice that sank below the waistline of your pants. Your pants sat towards the tops of your hips and were loose around your curves. The slack bunched around where they were tucked into your steel toed boots. Beautiful girl.

“I heard you had summoned me, my King”, you said, keeping your voice professional.

“I did. Your training is going to begin today, or well not so much training as your first day on the job. I have a meeting with a few generals, at least one of which I am sure is plotting against me. I want you to get into their minds and write down who the traitor is and their plan. At the end, I will read it and gauge the others' reactions. Should they quickly condemn them, they will live. If they hesitate or defend him, they will die”, he explained.

The concept was easy enough. Get into their minds, find the traitor, discover the plan. “Are any of them sorcerers?”

He let out a little chuckle. “Gods no, they’re all weak little humans. I only keep them around because it keeps their troops in line. However, with you being here, the loss of some troops is not a big deal”, he said, trying his best to show you that he acknowledged your power. Acknowledged you.

Realistically he could cut down most of his troops and replace them with your curses if it was that much of a hassle. What better army than one that couldn’t be detected by most of the population? One that had powers overshadowing any human capabilities. You contemplated telling him about that option.

“Is there something on your mind?”

You looked up at him before shooting your eyes back down to the ground. “Well, I am not against your plan. I think it is good to make an example of the traitor, but it can also put contempt in the other generals’ hearts. I think it might be good to have a curse shadow the remaining ones. I would give them the ability to see it and tell them it was there to keep an eye on them. That only they could see it and wouldn’t be able to tell any of the troops about it. I think it would keep them in line with minimal effort on your part.”

“My, my, maybe you are meaner than me”, he said with a proud tone. He wanted to see you smile from his joke, but you didn’t. In fact, it felt more like you grimaced. But with your head down he couldn’t tell for sure. “Where do we get said curses?”

You twiddled your thumbs a little bit, something to look at and remind yourself to keep your head down. “I can summon them and order them to watch the generals”, you said flatly.

“You can summon curses? How will they know what they’re looking for? The curses I have seen haven’t had much of a brain”, he questioned while two of his arms crossed and the others rested on his chin and knee, pointer fingers tapping in contemplation.

You sighed not really wanting to go through all the details but going through with it anyway since you brought it up. “I can create curses from cursed energy. If there is a fear of something, I can use the energy and craft a curse that embodies that fear. Previously, I would use my magic to create hysteria around things I wanted as curses. Like zombies for instance. I wanted one so I used my energy to make it look like people’s loved ones had risen from the grave and were attacking the town. The word of flesh eating, undying creatures that should have already been dead spread to surrounding towns and thus energy for a curse was created. I took it and put it in a doctor that had been hung for experimenting on his patients. He was intelligent and knew about anatomy so he was the perfect vessel to put it into.”

He just stared down at you for a minute, processing the fact that you just said you created a zombie. Does that mean vampires could be real? Tch, he couldn’t believe you joked with him about that and made him feel so stupid. “So, to be clear, you can create curses. And you were behind the fall of Nanmoku? And the zombie hysteria? All because you wanted a pet zombie.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

He just laughed. You were fucking crazy. He rubbed his hand over his face, still slightly chuckling, his tongue feeling the inside of his cheek. “Show me him.”

“Okay, but you should know he is not exactly all there. I mean he is intelligent but crazy as hell. Like we will look sane next to him”, you said while summoning him. Black smoke pooled on the ground as hands with long overgrown nails reached around the edge and started tapping.

“Enough with the theatrics Miro”, you said while tapping your foot.

He pulled on the ground, shooting up and landing on the floor as the portal closed. “Yes my Lady, my apologies. I humbly offer my body to beat for my transgressions”, he said while crawling down in front of you. His back offered up to you in an arch, head shaking in anticipation as suppressed giggles fell through his teeth. His hair was stringy and white like a spider’s web and fell over his eyes. Eyes of light blue and dark brown that he had confiscated from his victims. His skin was pale with multiple holes carved between his neck and collar bones, making the the edges look like a connection of veins. His lips were pink and curved higher than they should up his cheeks revealing a perfect set of teeth, teeth that all seemed a little different. His abdomen was scrawny, the skin pulled taut across his muscles and dipping where his stomach was. Burn marks that resembled X’s went across each of his nipples and an O was scorched over his heart. A taunt for enemies to hit him there. He wore bandages that reached halfway up his abdomen and baggy pants that hung low over them.

The King looked down at him with lips curled in disgust. “So, what does he do?”

Miro looked up at the King as if just realizing they weren’t alone and sneered. “I can do anything my Lady asks of me. I can gut others, I can gut myself. I can bring people’s loved ones back from the dead and play house all day with them. Ooo I just love the way the little ones shake and sniffle and how the older ones comfort them and put on a brave front. None of them wanting to upset their returned family member. I play with my toys until they bore me and then I get rid of them all to make room for new ones. Some toys I keep, those that are strong. I keep them in my collection and use them to fight for my Lady. To keep her safe. To make her happy”, he said, getting more and more excited with each word. His whole body vibrated as he laughed.

You kicked him in the gut, his body rolling from the impact. “He didn’t ask you which meant you didn’t have permission to talk. Now pick yourself up and quietly sit beside me on your knees with your head down”, you said as your annoyance with him grew. You had always wanted a zombie but this one became crazier than you expected. Begged you to beat him, to experiment on him like you and Ieiri used to. The only upside of the crazy was that he was fully devoted to you.

He moaned out a laugh as he crawled next to you, tucking his knees under him, head down. You rubbed your face in slight embarrassment as you halfheartedly said, “Ta daa”.

You weren’t lying when you had said he wasn’t all there. Sukuna wondered if you had done something to make him that way or if that was just how he came. Crazy aside, Sukuna could feel a good amount of energy coming off of him, your energy mixed with another. It was undeniably stronger than any other curse he had ran into, and with intelligence he was all the more lethal. If you could really create and control curses on that level, he wondered just how many you had stored away. And how many people had died for your pleasure.

“You have more like him”, he asked.

You chuckled and shook your head, “Like him? No. Intelligent and strong? Yes.”

Sukuna sighed while looking up. “Who would you send with the generals?”

“It would depend on what they feared most. I would give them a curse born from their greatest fear, makes my curse stronger and them more obedient. Plus, watching a human consumed by terror is always fun.”

Little monster. “We will try it, but you will replace the army with curses if it ends with me having to slaughter the troops.”

You had already considered that an option so you had no qualms with that idea. “Works for me, my King.”

He hated that you weren’t letting him hear you say his name. Such a simple yet effective way to punish him. He got up from his throne and started descending down to you. Miro looked up at him before you smacked the back of his head, making him look back down. “You can dismiss him. He is not needed for the meeting”, he said now standing a few feet in front of you.

You looked down at Miro and he began to sink through the floor, back where he came from. Now that it was just you and Sukuna, the room felt awkward. Each step he took to close the gap made you feel like you were suffocating. You could see his black socks and sandals stop in front of your boots.

“Look up at me”, he said softly. Hand moving to touch you but not completing the motion.

You looked up at him, his eyes looked like they were withholding endless words that his mouth would not let out. “I shouldn’t have killed you”, was all he said before walking away and motioning you to follow.

In the war room, you sat beside the King, paper and quill in hand. The generals filtered in with their heads down greeting Sukuna with utmost respect. There were eight of them in total, four sat on each side of a long table with you and Sukuna at the head. They talked about various matters in politics that made you want to shove the quill through your ears. You were thankful you didn’t really have to listen and started poking about in the general’s head closest to you. He was a large man, not like Sukuna, but larger than most humans. He had a daughter and wife back home that he seemed to dote on. You could tell he did not like the King, but would never rebel for the sake of his family. You looked at memories of how his daughter ran into his arms when he returned home, just like the woman who contracted you. They both had wrapped their arms around their children with such care, hearts warm and full. You hated it.

The next man’s head was so bald it hurt your eyes to look at. It was like a mirror that refracted light right into your eyes, a very sweaty mirror. He had a wife that abused him regularly. Calling him names, hitting and throwing objects at him, sleeping with other men. He liked it though, got off on the abuse. A well respected general secretly a masochistic cuckhold. What a cliche, you thought. He had no thoughts on Sukuna. He was used to serving people and didn’t seem to care much about who as long as he had money to give his wife.

The man after him had long blue hair tied into a low ponytail. It looked better than yours and had you curious about what he used to get it so soft looking. You found out that he was one dark ass motherfucker when you went looking for the answer. He kept a haram of younger men at his mansion and tortured them regularly. Sometimes he even made them torture each other or themselves. His hair was so soft because he soaked it in a blend of his discarded servant’s organs and cum. He had heard hair needed protein to look nice and that was his solution. Cleaner methods existed but to each their own you figured. He liked Sukuna more than he should. He wanted to be chained up by him and used. He would follow him off a cliff as long as he continued to meet his gorey ideals. If Sukuna slipped up, his thoughts would shift to owning him instead. Sukuna not being a monster didn’t seem like an issue, though.

Next in line was a very buff yet very small man. He had a long red beard that showcased intricate braids. The hair on his head was also tied up in various styles and bright red. He hated Sukuna. You didn’t even have to really dig to feel the hatred he felt. Apparently, he had gifted Sukuna his daughter when she turned 18 and hadn’t been allowed to see her since. Ιt seemed he owned a massive farming setup that provided most of the food for the region. He had given up his daughter as an offering so that the King didn’t destroy the operation and condemn the region to starvation. He wanted to kill Sukuna, but would never make a move for the sake of his daughter and people. Pathetic. Not like you could really judge, though.

The fifth man had black hair that was cut close to his scalp and a scar that interrupted his hairline. It was him. You could hear all of his thoughts so loudly. Sukuna had murdered his daughter and son after his wife spoke out against him at a festival. You remembered hearing about it. He had strung the woman up by her own intestines for the whole festival to see. When her children saw it they cursed the King and exploded where they stood, a warning for all other viewers. He had lost his whole family that day and had to sit there quietly like a coward while they were killed. He planned to team up with the 8th man sat down. He had also lost his family to Sukuna because his baby would not stop crying at a different festival. Sukuna took the baby from the woman’s hands and bit its head off before throwing the corpse back in the mother’s lap. Ιt was then mother who wouldn’t shut up, so he silenced her too. Her head fell off without any movement from Sukuna. He turned to look at the general with his baby’s blood still flowing down from his mouth, challenging him to look up at him or step out of line. He even spat what was left of his son’s skull in front of him, but was met with no reaction. Pleased, he walked back to his seat.

Their plan was to poison the King at the next festival by dosing their newborns with poison as well as their new wives in hopes he would repeat his previous actions and ingest their blood. Sukuna may have been a monster, but they were no better using others as bait to be sacrificed for their petty vengeance. You wrote down what you learned and Sukuna’s lower left eye watched as you wrote. You slid the paper before him on the table. The generals eyeing it with curiosity. You sat there, bored and disgusted with the men before you, casually doodling on the leftover paper as you waited for the meeting to end.

When it came to an end and the generals were paying their respects Sukuna spoke. “So, what kind of poison did you plan to use, General Sho and General Ayato?”

The color drained from their faces as they froze. The others sat in confusion, but completely still as they noticed the air change.

“King Sukuna, whatever do you mean”, Sho, the man with short black hair asked with a clearly shaky voice.

The King smiled as he read out their plan and reasoning, their bodies shaking as they realized they were screwed. Sukuna looked to the other generals, “What do you guys think we should do about this little problem, hmm?”

Some closed their eyes, others smiled, but they all said “Punishment for treason against the King is death for the guilty and their family.”

Sukuna smiled as he looked at the other two, their heads finally raising to look at him, “Then I guess we have a decision gentleman”. Lines of blood appeared on their bodies before they fell into piles of pieces. “And before the rest of you go, my assistant has a gift for each and every one of you. You may look up.”

The remaining men looked up at you as you smiled, then they saw the monsters within the room with them. Weaponless, some of them started swinging before their assigned curses restrained them. “Now, I don’t think that is anyway to receive a gift from the King’s palace”, you said. “You’re supposed to smile and say thank you.”

Some of your curses pushed the men’s faces up into a smile and whispered the words in their ear, instructing them to say it. Fear filled the room until the air was thick. Some of the men saw what happened and immediately started thanking you profusely with wide smiles. The mother’s smile.

“You’re very welcome. They will accompany you every hour of the day to ensure no other coupes are designed. They will not interfere with your lives in any way. Only you and your fellow generals will be able to see them. Once you leave this room, you are to never mention them again. This is an order from the King. Failure to comply will be considered treason and death will be carried out immediately by your new friends.”

Their eyes were all wide, thoughts erratic and viciously mean, hands shaky, breathing short, but heads nodding in understanding. Sukuna told them they were dismissed and they all left trying their best to not acknowledge their gift’s presence.

Once the door closed, you let out a sigh and stretched your back. The meeting was boring, but the end was fun. Different from the work you used to do, but not entirely.

“That was excellent”, Sukuna said while looking at you. You peeked a look back before looking back down. “You can look at me”, he said hoping you would.

“I am okay my King”, you replied. You were still upset with him for killing you, even if he apologized.

“It wasn’t a question”, his patience with you was growing thin. He knew you were mad, and he guessed you had a right to be, but he was getting tired of it. He didn’t like the way you were making him feel. He would’ve just hit you until you acted better, but that approach was what got him here. He didn’t really know any other way to approach it, though. Never had a need to, never had feelings to hurt.

You looked at him, irked with the way he ordered you, “Yes, my King?”

“Stop calling me that”, he said as he scooted closer to you.

He was so close you could feel the warmth radiating from him. You didn’t want to, but part of you just wanted to give in and lean against him. “What would you liked to be called then? Huh? Lord Spooky?”

He just stared at you. Repeating the name a few times before he laughed. “I will let you call me Lord Spooky if you forgive me for killing you.”

“Did you hear the words that just came out of your mouth? You think letting me call you a pet name makes up for taking my head off?”

He pursed his lips together and shrugged, “I mean if you think about it, I technically didn’t kill you, I killed something that looked like you.”

You raised your eyebrows, lips twitching in anger as you slapped him across the face. He didn’t move much but blood did trickle from his cheekbone. From the look in your eyes, he knew he said the wrong thing.

“I didn’t mean it like that, I was trying to make a joke. I just wanted to see you smile. I don’t like you being mad at me. It makes me feel weird and I don’t know how to deal with it without hitting you. But if I hit you, you just become more mad at me and I am starting to think you might go ballistic on me if I continue. I don’t want to fight you. Which is also weird for me”, he said. It was the first time you had heard it talk so candidly. It was hard to be spiteful towards him when he was being so open, made you feel like a child. So you rubbed your hand over your mouth and decided to be just as honest.

“I don’t like it when you hit me. Most people don’t appreciate being hit just saying. I also don’t like how hot and cold you are. One minute you are telling me sweet things and the next you’re literally killing me. I don’t want to be owned either. I know you think I am yours because you enjoy the way I make you feel, but I am no one’s. Not ever again will I be owned. Threatening me is whatever, but if you threaten my friends again, I will make good on the threat I made. I know you’re the King and have to keep up appearances, and if I actually did something majorly wrong, then I would understand hurting me the way you do. But don’t say you care about me and want me to open up and play around with you and then punish me for it. It isn’t fair and I won’t tolerate it. I don’t want to fight you either, but I will if it comes to it”, you told him while making eye contact. He sat quietly for a few minutes while processing what you said.

“I won’t hit you, unless you commit a great offense. I want you to joke around with me, but you may only do it when we are alone like this. Otherwise you need to respect me as a King and follow the rules”, he hesitated, whatever he was about to say proving difficult for him, “I am- I feel-… I regret threatening your friends and killing you, truly. I want you to be mine, and me to be yours. I can’t promise I won’t be possessive, but I will try my best to not control you. I want you to be happy when you see me, not full of hatred. I do care about you and I want you to enjoy your life here. As pathetic as it sounds, I would like you by my side. Today, you were phenomenal. The way you asserted yourself over them, toyed with them, it was so attractive.”

You could tell he wasn’t lying or speaking in half truths. These was his thoughts laid bare. You reached out and grabbed his hand, fingers holding it from both sides as your thumbs ran up and down his palm. “So where does that leave us, then?”

He didn’t really know. He had never been close to someone like he was you. You weren’t an enemy, or a toy to play with, you were you. An anomaly he never saw coming. “Wherever you want us to be”, he said as he moved one of his hands to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear.

“I want to go slow. Everything up until now has felt so chaotic, so rushed and messy. And I mean, don’t get me wrong, there were good parts. Some very good parts”, you smirked at him, “but we need more. We need to figure out how to be around each other without any hidden intentions, how to relax in each other, before asking for more.”

He caressed your face looking at your lips but holding back, “Okay.”

Notes: hehe this chapter was a pain to write. Hopefully it comes off clear and not confusing to read :0 Extras v v

- Miro would 100% fight Sukuna for the reader. Miro loves the reader unconditionally and has an arsenal with some faces we all know that will be revealed later, making him quite the pain to fight. He is also hard as hell to kill, because his whole existence is made from being undead and “unkillable”. Sukuna could do it, but it’d definitely take some effort.

- Poor bb Geto. He doesn’t know the King and reader fucked. He thinks that any screaming he heard was from you two fighting/you being tortured and that you started crying because it was too hard to relive. He regrets being the one that brought you here.

- Sukuna is finally learning how to use his words. He would never let anyone else know, he would tell them he beats you because that’s somehow more acceptable than talking to you. He will still have outbursts in the future and there will still be more hateful sex to come, but he is trying. When he thought you were actually dead it felt like his whole world stopped. The breath left his lungs, gravity felt too heavy, his body felt weak and hot, he hated that feeling. He hated how you felt looking at him holding your fake corpse too. He doesn’t want to ever feel that again. He is fr being forced to learn empathy.

Taglist: @missroro @roxytheimmortal

[wolvebonez]

hypothetical fawn golden shaded grizzle!

Soooo as I have mentioned briefly I am in a wcrp, in which said wcrp uses genetic terms & has a genetic roller for rp. someone came in and asked what THIS beast might look like

And so I figure I'll share what I came up with since it took me So Fucking Long and I do think enough ppl who follow me might be interested!!

This is the end result!! I will be copy/pasting my explanation & inserting more images below

Im going to be using more basic explanations of a gene and only in relation to how they apply to this cat so im not writing 5 million word

To start, we have a regular fawn ticked tabby!

Wideband then makes the hairs of the cat have more pheomelanin (golden/background color) and less melanin (fawn color), as well as usually restricting the melanin to the tip of the hair.

Theeennnn we introduce silver (as seen below), which reduces the amount of pigment found in the pheomelanin; when combined with wideband making a cat look particularly pale (since any melanin in the wideband-effected hairs can also be broken up/less "solid," it can result in melanin looking more diluted/warm, it can also visually lighten the melanin areas on a cat.) I probably should've made the pale parts more desaturated at this point but ignoring that….

This is where we get Really Hypothetical!

As far as I'm aware we don't really know what chausie grizzle is or does. I've seen sources like messybeast (lol) claim that it is just silver-tipping found in black chausies/melanistic jungle cats but I dissagree. I personally believe a theory [User] initially mentioned to me is more probable; the idea that it is moreso the expansion of agouti; Potentially making the tabby hairs of the cat have more melanin than normal. (Maybe also restricts it towards the base of the hair to explain the satin-like appearance it can have?)

So…given that they basically would have the opposite effects assuming that this is true, there's really no saying how they'd interact. They could cancel eachother out, one could be dominant over the other, ect… There's also no telling which one of these options is more likely.

I went with the idea that the grizzle would be more dominant/have more effect, but that the wideband could potentially still be in effect where the grizzle seems to be least present (around the belly & flanks) which kind of breaks up the solid-ness of most grizzle cats (since grizzle does vary a lot.)

Silver would still work the same throughout all of this & make the phaeomelanin a lighter almost-white color. (There's a potential grizzle also does this too? But. shrug.) …Again I really should've made the light yellow color more silver-colored but i digress.

Now we have colorpoint! Also have no clue if it'd have some weird secret surprise fucked up effect on grizzle but it does seem to be a fairly reliable gene in that it is just a form of albinism so it should have a similar or same effect on everything. It just inhibits colors in the warmer areas of the body & allows it in the colder parts (thus, extremities!)

....And from there you've guys seen what I did when I added the thai white! Not sure how DBE would effect it, but I made my best guess & it wasn't the most important part of this . adventure jdbhjhg

Oh, bonus picture of my canvas with the most refs i've ever used for one piece lol. (Digital piece, anyway. Ceramics is another thing entirely....)

shoutout to @/felinefractious for sourcing pretty much all of said refs lmao

[last-starry-sky]

kinktober day 28 - leather

ghost x f!reader

[MDNI - NSFW - MIND THE WARNINGS: 1.4k, established relationship, leather kink, vaguely implied masturbation, no sex in this, just cute, kink-flavored fluff.]

tag list (lmk if you'd like to be added!): @slut-lmao, @mishaglass

“Si?” you asked peaking around the corner, trying to catch your boyfriend’s eye. “Mind if I wear this tonight?”

Your boyfriend looked up from where he was sitting on the couch, tying his shoes while you put the finishing touches on your outfit before you went out for the night. He looked up, dark brown eyes flashing over you once, down to his shoes, then quickly back again as his brain processed what he just saw. 

You stood in the hall, hands nervously clutched together as you waited for his response. Your outfit wasn’t anything special, just a comfortable and classic white t shirt paired with a short black jean skirt and a pair of high tops. You weren’t worried about those, though. It was the old leather jacket you had found in the back of his closet that had you dancing side to side, awaiting his approval. 

As he sat there, hands on his knees, slowly blinking like he was trying to decided if what he saw was real or not, you started to sweat. Then he stood up, wide-eyed stare on you as he crossed the room. He loomed over you, running his hands over the soft, cracked leather draped across your shoulders. 

“Where’d you find this, love?” he mumbled, eyes glazed as the feel and smell of the jacket brought back a flood of memories. “Thought it was long gone.”

“Bottom of a box while I was cleaning our closet,” you answered, biting your lip. 

His hands trailed down the arms of the jacket, fashionably oversized on you, but you could imagine when he had last worn it, practically a lifetime ago at this point, it would have fit him like a glove. His hands closed around your shoulders, scrunching the thick material as he hauled you closer to him. He pressed his face down into the crown of your head, a deep inhale ruffling your hair as his arms ran across your back, smoothing down the jacket almost reverently. 

You did the same, hands running up and down his torso, giving what comfort they could. You still weren’t sure what answer you were going to get. Any unexpected tiptoe into Simon’s past had usually not ended well, so you tried to avoid it altogether. 

“Don’t have to-” you started to say, trying to give him a gentle way to let you down.

“Looks fuckin’ gorgeous on y’, love,” he interrupted, pulling away to look down at you, eyes now half lidded and heavy. “Better than it ever did on me.”

With that, he stepped away, leading you with him toward the door by the hand. 

“Ready?” he asked, suddenly more excited for this night out than he had been all week. “Be late if we don’t leave soon.”

You stuck your head out of the dressing room nervously. You looked around for Simon, somehow unable to spot his unusually tall and wide form in the mostly empty shop exactly at the time you needed him. You stepped gingerly out from behind the curtain in your socks, the outfit you wanted to show him still on, when you spotted him flipping through hangers on a round carousel. 

“Si!” you hissed, catching his attention immediately. 

His back straighted as he turned, the small piece of clothing on it’s hanger swinging in his hand as he turned quickly to face you. You held your hands out, silently asking for his opinion.

“Nice,” he said flatly, before shoving whatever he had picked out into your hands. “Try this one on f’ me. Wanna see you in it.”

You held the miniskirt out to look it over. It was technically the correct size, which he had chosen by some miracle, but it was short. Short short. At least it was black and not some bright, tacky color.

“My ass is gonna hang out,” you said rolling your eyes. “Want me to look like some sleazy barfly, Si?”

“It’s . . . it’ll wear in. Leather, you know? Just try it on,” he urged you, slightly trembling hands pushing the hanger back toward you before tucking them away in his pockets. “Please, love. Just f’ me.”

“Okaaay,” you said with an over dramatic sigh, followed up with a smile before you walked back into the changing room. Before you disappeared behind the curtain, you turned back to your boyfriend telling him, “Now don’t wander away again, or else I won’t get it.”

You almost choked on your laugh at how fast he sat down. His expression graven as he took his position. Most people asked you how you got along with a man that came off so emotionless, practically expressionless most of the time. You could never make those people understand how wrong they were. Like now, you only had to look at him to read him. When he wanted something, it was so so obvious. 

You shuffled into the tight little skirt, giving yourself a look in a few poses, deciding you liked it before you stepped out. Simon didn’t even have his phone out, his attention fully on you the second you stepped out. The world must have slowed down for him, the way he reacted. You heard his breath catch in his throat. A blush dusted his cheeks, tinting his ears a violent pink. His eyes, heavy and half-lidded, went nearly black as he stood up, lurching like a Hammer Horror monster toward you.

You couldn’t help but let a little smile creep across your mouth as he closed his hands around your waist, fingers itching to stroke at the material.

“Like it?” you asked coyly, pulling the front seam down, already knowing his answer.

“Fuck, love,” he groaned, petting down your leather-clad hips. “Buyin’ this for you. Don’t care if you ever wear it out, just . . . just wear it once f’ me? Okay?”

You giggled, pulling out of his grasp and his shadow to back into the changing room. The way he was acting, riled up over almost nothing, had you regretting pushing him backwards to prevent him from following you in. You liked this shop, though, and it would be a shame to never be able to come back because your man couldn’t keep it in his pants until you got home. 

“Si, you have to stop,” you told him over the phone, connection crackling as you tried to catch up with him while he was off god-knows-where for the third month in a row. 

You toyed with the box in your lap, the latest package to arrive with your name on it and you had an idea what was inside. The first had held a pair of black boots. Expensive as hell, leather boots, mind you. They were exquisitely made, with tall uppers that zippered just under your knees, and a sensible, stacked leather heel. 

The second package was a pair of pants: white and boot cut. They didn’t look all that amazing at first, until you tried them on. They gripped your ass like no tomorrow, putting it fully on display. The sight alone made you blush, and that was standing alone in your bathroom. It had been your mistake sending Simon a picture, asking if he was sure about them. He was groaning and whimpering on the other end the whole call, not even trying to hide what he was doing. 

Now you were sat on your bed with the latest package between your knees, scissors in hand, opening it at his request.

“Want to hear your reaction this time,” he said breathless, ignoring your complaints.

Slowly you cut away the packing tape, knowing that whatever was inside could be punctured and was probably expensive. Inside was a smaller, decorative box. When you opened that, a sheet of folded over tissue paper protected the goods inside, gauzy material obscuring everything but the color. You held your breath as you removed the paper, revealing what the red mass was. 

“Oh,” you gasped into the phone, holding it up.

It was a dress, short, red and revealing in just about every place it could be. The tiny set of straps criss-crossed around your neck to hold up a bodice shaped into a shallow v at the front. Between your breasts, down the front center, was a barely hidden zipper that ran all the way down to the hem. It even had little slits at the sides.

Don’t want to look too demure, you thought.

“Well?” he asked. You could hear him pacing on the other end. 

“I love it!” you said with a laugh, breaking the awkward silence. “Can’t wait to wear it for you,” you continued, “But Simon, love. You gotta face the fact you have a fetish at this point.”

You could almost see his blush as he grumbled on the other end: something about “nothing being wrong” and “just wanting to treat his girl” while you laid back against your shared bed and had a good long laugh over it.

[mysewingadventures]

Making the ✨Lioncourt Gown✨ (Part 3/4)

It has been a little longer than I had hoped for since my last update but I've made some progress! The tape has finally arrived.

But for context - I am trying to make this:

into a (semi) historically accurate 1790s women's redingote and it's probably my favorite project so far. Anyways, here's what I did since my last update.

The tape arrived, but it was a little too light (it was basically white, I'd wanted it to be sort of beige/champagne) so I decided to dunk it into some coffee and hope for the best. It did work somewhat, stained it a pretty champagne color. It's still on the lighter side, but I'm okay with it. It may look white in some pictures though. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures of my dyeing process. Just imagine a tupperware full of instant coffee and some white tape in it haha. It's also thicker than I would have liked it to be but it was the thinnest one available, and I'm pretty glad it's thick-ish because with how difficult it is to sew it, I don't want to imagine my struggle with an even thinner tape.

I'd already prepped the color panels, so I applied the tape and used my sewing machine to sew them really close to the edges. A very time-consuming but weirdly therapeutic process. I started with the bodice and then went on to do the sleeves.

The sleeves seem to have black cuffs in the original picture, so I added some of that satin fabric to the sleeves.

Next, I attached the sleeves to the bodice. I can't help myself, I have to say it again: I hate sleeves. I hate sewing them, I especially hate attaching them, because they never turn out the way I want them to. This time again, I had to add little pleats to the tops because the armscye was too small for the sleeves, but since it's going to be covered by the collar anyways, I just pleated them. Redingote sleeves may have been pleated sometimes, it's hard to tell from the pictures of extant garments because of the huge collar, but it was a trend a bit earlier so it may have carried over to the redingotes.

I'm sorry about the cat fur in this picture I lost my lint roller I promise I'll find it.

When I was done with the sleeves, I attached the Lioncourt label to the inside of the bodice-

and went to work on the collar. I've put off making it as long as possible because I didn't really know how to attach it to the bodice, but I think I've figured out a way. I'd made the back neckline without any seam allowance, so I found an old scrap piece of black cotton bias tape and used that to hem the raw edge.

Then I draped some of my mockup fabric to figure out the correct shape of the collar and after some trial and error (cutting it out a total of three? or four times), I was finally happy with the shape and cut it out of the navy cotton twill.

I cut out two pieces of each so it would be sturdier, machine-stitched along the neckline part, turned it inside out, pressed it with an iron and applied the red tape. I seem to have forgotten to take a picture of the tape application process, but I then also applied the red tape to the entire bodice.

And here's the entire bodice so far (the collar is not attached yet so it looks a bit wonky):

On a side note, upon rewatching the scene in which Lestat wears this outfit, I noticed that the back also had the colored panels. However, I feel like it's colorful enough as it is, and frankly, I don't have enough satin and tape left to do it, so I'm just going to leave it. I like it better this way.

Anyways, I'm really excited to finish this up soon, but I also ran out of red tape so I'll have to find some time to go to the sewing store to get some more. And I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to do an actual button closure in the front or if I'm going to fake it. The satin is extremely prone to fraying and I'm scared to add button holes to it, even though I'd planned to add them over the horizontal stripes. I'm going to have to find some fabric scraps and see how the fabric behaves, and if it frays I'm going to have to fake it with some hooks on the inside of the bodice. I hope it's going to look good either way!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4|

[goodolddumbbanana]

The talk ( Moon meets Dark Sun in the dream.)

Moon had not dreamed much since his resurrection.

Perhaps it was the effect of being in a coma for so long, (Moon ignored the thought that someone had taken his place for over a year), or simply purely the fact that he rarely slept, but Moon often ended his days in dreamless sleep.

But rarely did not mean never, and often, unpleasant dreams were the ones that came unexpectedly.

The mysterious black mixed with purple and blue, lively with a thousand stars, filled with nebulae that sparkled like fireflies.

Books and blackboards filled with words drifted everywhere, filled with digital symbols and quantum physics formulas.

The white curtains floated without bars, fluttering as if blown by the wind, pulling the silk to reveal the person opposite Moon, flowing with soft lines and red flashes like the color of a melting sunset.

Cakes and honey were scattered around the milky wooden table, with the sharp pieces of a shattered vase that had long since stopped leaking, jagged glass shards that flashed purple, like someone’s crime scene.

A clanging sound of a honey-yellow porcelain vase and cup rang out in front of Moon, someone’s hand deftly pouring butterfly pea flower tea into the cup’s mouth, blowing out steaming steam leisurely.

They looked at Moon, who was sitting stiffly on a floating armchair, the only ones present at this unwanted tea party, smiling blandly.

“It’s more Wonderland themed than your shitty Kingdom Hearts 4, right?”

He could have replied, “First off all, How dare you, asshole. Kingdom Hearts is awesome.”

He could have also gotten straight to the point, “Where am I? Who the hell are you?”

Or Moon could—

His claws dug into the wood, accidentally crushing an orange macaroon that had been accidentally hit by a stray bullet. A few shards of glass stuck into the plastic of Moon’s palm, evoking a strange tingling sensation that had been constantly scratching at his train of thought lately before it shattered and sparkled like shooting stars in the air.

The flowers were the first to fly, followed by the cake and the shards of glass. The honey rippled out of the mouth of the jar, flying along with the tabletop straight into the face of the person he hated so much he couldn’t tear into a hundred pieces.

If it could reach that bastard’s face, Moon’s life would be truly good.

Unfortunately, nothing in his miserable life went his way.

Time frozen.

The four wooden legs stuck in the air, hovering as if to tease Moon about his own failure. Dark Sun still looked unharmed, the bastard wearing his brother's face like his favorite skinsuit, still languidly blowing on the teacup in his palm.

They looked so peaceful, with the way their ten fingers carefully hugged their torsos, while their elbows curled up as if afraid of the cold.

They painfully resembled Sun, from their movements to their voices, with the way their fingertips tapped the rim of their cups in 2/4 time, or their rays of light occasionally fluttering as if breathing.

The tassels and ribbons were too long, spreading to the ground, adding to the dust, yet they did not complain at all.

Red eyes stared at the mess that Moon had made without the slightest displeasure, only returning it with a soft sigh.

"You always know how to let others clean up for you, don't you?"

A snap of the fingers was all it took to return everything to its original state. The deep green color entered Moon’s eyes, a few butterfly pea petals still stuck to the rim of the steaming cup of tea in front of Moon.

“Lemons?” A few lemons rolled and fell into Moon’s arms. The green color was shiny and smooth, the cool sensation transmitted through Moon’s fingertips made him shiver. “Better for your health than all those times you went on a murderous rampage, right?”

“Shut it.”

He didn’t know what the hell Dark Sun expected of him with this fruit, did they think he could crush it with his bare hands?

And at the same time, even if he died again, Moon wouldn’t be stupid enough to drink anything this bastard made.

“Why are you here?”

Moon asked grumpily, squeezing the lemon in his hand unconsciously. It was a kind of stress relief he didn’t know he needed, especially when the other party was someone unknown to heaven or ghost.

The size fit perfectly in the palm of his hand, the lemon scent wafted up Moon’s nose.

A condescending chuckle answered him. Their bloodshot eyes looked at him pitifully, as their hands set down their cups.

The faint clicking sound echoed in the empty, hazy space.

“I could just bullshit my way out, couldn't I? Just take a guess.” Dark Sun tilted his head, as demure and beautiful as a still painting. The silk draped over them like royalty, as shy and clean as a rose. “Isn’t that what you’re good at? Solving puzzles?”

“This is a dream—” Moon hummed, scratching his fingers against the lemon peel, tracing the ripples in the flesh, ignoring the arrogant bastard’s shouts of agreement. “So you can’t really be Dark Sun.”

Dark Sun nodded, their voices flat, sore and dry like the way fingernails scratched a chalkboard after dipping in lemon juice.

the water of a cold winter day. They said, with empty chuckles and appreciation in their eyes like the way a snake opens its mouth wide at its prey.

“I could just be fragments, created from all the collected information you have gathered from Dark Sun. It just happens now because you’re under too much stress.” They chanted, as gracefully as if they could weave silks of words right in front of Moon. “--I could also be what your subconscious is trying to warn you about, what’s buried beneath layers and layers of self-loathing.”

“--or I could be something Nexus planted in your head,” their fingers curled as they unconsciously pushed the cup further away, “-a virus that accelerates the effects of the Kill code,” the table suddenly shook, the space seemed darker, with the only color being the red of Dark Sun’s eyes flickering in Moon’s night vision, “--to drive you insane like some beast you actually are.”

It was like the rustling of the wind and the shaking of the sea, when he could do nothing and they had all the control in his damn dream.

“You still haven’t answered my question.” Moon brushed off the chill that was running down his spine now, he threw the lemon at them with disgust, only for it to bounce off like it had hit a barrier.

He threw it again.

And again.

“Why the hell are you in this place!?”

“I don’t know Moon.” They spoke slowly, like Sun coaxing a three-year-old to stop sucking his toes. “The reason I’m here, it’s all up to you.”

“What do you mean?” Moon snorted in disgust. He threw another lemon.

It didn’t hit.

“I could be the worst nightmare, the biggest embarrassment you’ve ever created.”

Dark Sun stood up, their steps leisurely moving closer to Moon. Smoke wrapped around their bodies before slowly releasing a Moon model, revealing KC’s monstrously tall, slender figure, then in a flash the blue faded to bright yellow as their arms fell limp.

Bright as the darkness melted away, bright as the evil laughter that echoed like pins to the skin, painful as a phantom pain, painful as the time he’d been trapped in his own head for a month.

“-or I could be your heart, a precious memory you’ve been trying to avoid.”

The colors melted, fading into a soft metallic gold and the pearly clarity of their eyes was so soft that if it weren’t for some invisible force holding Moon to the chair, he would have pounced and broken their rays.

They dropped a ragged, dusty doll in the shape of Sun into Moon’s lap, and left him staring at it, not knowing how to react before their cold monotones were as flat and echoing as a piano that could only be played to a minor key.

“I am me, and I am you. I am the misery you create in that invisible prison you exile yourself to.”

“I am the truth in every lie you build, the helpless feeling of knowing you can’t do anything, can never reach it, with all the intelligence you possess.

“And I am the terror.” Their faces looked at him tenderly, their cold hands pressed to his cheeks with the impassivity of ice and plastic before they stepped back and wiped their hands with a clean handkerchief “--the way you look at Sun in horror whenever our brother acts differently.”

The ground shook and the universe melted. Darkness rushed at Moon and pushed him down.

And Moon fell.

Down a rabbit hole, past bolts and steaming machines and shuddering bells and the smell of concentrated disinfectant.

Falling like his feet had never touched the ground.

Falling like time was eternal, eternal, like the color of the sunset he learned to hate and love.

Thump.

The soft surface caressed Moon.

The brick red of the sofa caught Moon’s eye, followed by the smooth cream and patterns of the wallpaper.

He was in Earth’s office, but instead of his sister, it was Dark Sun, who was writing notes intently, wearing glasses and a warm brown suit that looked both old-fashioned and professional.

They were even wearing black pencil skirts, their legs crossed like real therapists, which was strange and Moon never wanted to think about it again.

The pen scratched on paper.

The Sun doll was still nestled in Moon’s palm, with its tiny bells and even tinier ribbons that looked like they were real.

Their voices rang out, hoarse and soft, like bubbles and waves crashing against the shore.

“Tell me, Moon. Why don’t you talk to Sun?”

“What?” Moon jerked his head up. Hearing that question from the bastard who had caused almost of it, even if it was a dream, felt almost unreal.

Dark Sun put down the notebook, their fingertips tapping the chair strap, the sound of wind chimes ringing in Moon’s ears. “--what are you afraid of, exactly?”

“Wh–” Moon stammered. The heat was coming from his face, pouring down his chest. The heat was building up to the point where his fan was humming so loudly that it seemed to melt his metal shell.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about? You can kill me or do anything to get me away from your fucking face right now?” Moon gritted his teeth, claws digging into each other, almost breaking the doll with the way he gripped it so tightly it was almost strangling.

A rumble and the rustle of folded paper.

“Always running away from the problem.” Dark Sun sighed. “Can’t you tell the truth? Even to yourself?”

Moon let out a mocking laugh. He looked defiantly at Dark Sun’s unimpressed face, leaning back in his chair in the most dignified manner possible.

“Aren’t you in my head, genius?” He mimicked their voice. “Then take a guess why I did it?”

A clock ticked steadily. Moon ignored them and glanced up at the clock, none of the hands moving. But the gears continued to creak together, almost like the ticking of a bomb.

The itching and restlessness still drove him crazy. Why had the dream lasted so long, perhaps it was the bad karma of all the things he had done before, that now he was being psychologically tested by this bastard.

“Avoiding it again.” Dark Sun sighed. “You know what you’re doing right now is wrong. But instead of trying to ‘fix it’ like you so pride yourself on,” Dark Sun double-crossed their index and middle fingers in the air, “—you hid, diving deeper into paperwork and projects that you knew you would never succeed at.”

“And how do you know I won’t succeed?” Moon narrowed his eyes, daring them to say more. The fabric of his shirt suddenly felt too itchy, too uncomfortable. It rubbed against his fingers too much, and the doll felt too heavy.

“Because that’s how it usually works.” Dark Sun tilted his head like a curious duck looking to see if it was a worm or a grain. “You’ve never won against your enemies. Always reacting too slowly, too fiercely, too stupidly. Always putting your ego first. You never figured anything out, and everything was just handed to you on a silver platter.”

“That’s not true!” Moon interrupted, only to be stopped by Dark Sun’s hand.

“I’m not done yet.” Their words were heavy as steel.

“Because of Monty you were able to split up successfully. Because of Lunar you were able to escape your prison, because of Sun Eclipse was blown away. And KC?” A soft chuckle seemed to pat his head. “If your little virus hadn’t had a sudden mind change, would you have defeated him? Oh who am I kidding. You still died, and let someone live your life before driving them crazy with having to deal with everything you did.” Dark Sun’s red eyes seemed to bore into Moon’s mind.

“You were destined to fail at everything you did.”

They pulled out their chairs, slowly standing up. Their hands slid over the notebook lovingly, before looking at him smugly.

“Can’t be a good cold-blooded killer. Can’t be a brother to Sun. You ruin everything you touch—”

“Yes, I know!” Moon cut in. His voice grew louder and louder until he could no longer hear anyone but his own. “I know I’m terrible! I know I shouldn’t exist! I know no matter how hard I try, I always mess things up!! I’m useless okay!?? Is that what you want me to admit?” Moon laughed maniacally, drops of oil dripping down his chin. The stormy emotions were instantly washed away, followed by the fatigue that had been oozing from his bones, the fatigue that had been there since the day he woke up.

Drawing a line across his cheek, he flicked the drops onto the floor, watching them soak into the red carpet.

Dark Sun’s shadow hovered above him, watching him with silent disdain. They were always like that, cold, indifferent, as if they were above everything.

A bastard who was always more than ten steps ahead of him, making Mooon at first it was so hard to understand why they were another version of Sun. One who… stared at the doll placed neatly next to him, despite everything that had happened, was still too kind, too merciful to the point that Moon never felt he deserved it.

“Are you done?”

They asked gloomily, adjusting their lapels, seemingly disgusted and unclean with themselves just by hearing him burst out.

“Yeah, I’m done.” Moon looked to the side, the wallpaper looked even more beautiful than Dark Sun’s annoying face.

The bell rang with each step they took, until they were right in front of him.

“You know what’s the worst thing about you, Moon?” Their voices were low, as if they were reciting poetry rather than speaking. Like they were scooping up the mud from the stinking sewer, and throwing it in Moon’s face. As if instead of looking into their eyes, he was looking into the mirror.

“It’s never because you're not aware of the problem. It’s that you always know where you’ve messed up but you never bother to fix it. The most horrible and cruel words from others, from your enemies, can’t affect you because you’re always your worst enemy.”

The smell of ink was too strong in the air, along with the salty, acrid taste of old blood.

“You hate yourself so much that you can’t get through your thick head that your actions did affect others.”

“Is that why you avoid Sun? Because you think you’ll hurt them more?” Their words were soft, but sharp and sharp, like an arrow was tearing his heart to pieces and someone was holding his head underwater.

“No..” Moon whispered. He closed his eyes, grinding each word. “It’s because I’m not good at–”

“Emotional things?” Dark Sun raised an eyebrow. They turned on their heels, returning to their chairs, running their fingers over the worn brown cushions.

“Really, Moon? Because you handle everyone else pretty well. Lunar, Monty, Molten, heck even Foxy and all the other Suns. Your brother’s the exception, right?”

“He is alway the exception for you, right?”

They sounded tired, as they used the metaphorical hammer to bash Moon’s head in.

“I’ll ask you again Moon… What exactly are you afraid of?”

Their voices echoed evenly in the quiet space.

“You know Sun, you understand Sun, even though your brother has changed a lot.” Their voices trailed off as if they were drowning in water bubbles as Moon’s eyes landed on the grinning sun doll, its beam resting against Moon’s thigh. “--No matter how badly you comfort him, Sun will always appreciate every effort you make.”

“Your brother will even comfort you back, will ask if you’re okay. Even in this state, he always thinks of others before himself.”

The armchair creaked as Dark Sun sat on it, the wheels creaking as they pulled it closer to the table.

“But you still stubbornly left and left everything to Solar. Why?” The red glowed like a lantern on Halloween night, looking at Moon maliciously. The silence stretched on, a battle between two bastards, and then Dark Sun let out a soft sigh.

Oh.

The realization on their faces when Moon couldn't form a word, satisfied like a cat catching its prey.

"It's not that you don't trust Sun, it's that you don't trust yourself."

It was like a thunderclap in Moon's ears, like rain soaking his lapels, like he was back in the damp bunker, Sun's cold and disappointed gaze...

"You're afraid that you'll say something stupid. You're afraid that you won't be able to control your own emotions and yell back at Sun."

They whispered, mixing with the sound of rain and metal.

"You're afraid that you'll say something wrong, you're afraid that Sun will admit that he loves Nexus more than you, you're afraid that the choice Sun made was just pity..."

[---"Why didn't you choose Nexus?!! Huh!! If you liked him so much." Moon shouted, like so many times before, he was irritated and Sun was the center of all his outbursts.

And his brother, with a tired expression and a blank look, just refused to meet his eyes.--]

“You’re afraid that Sun will regret choosing you.”

He could no longer hear Dark Sun’s voice. The doll collapsed into Moon's palm.

“But that’s not true either. Sun would never be cruel enough to say such things. Or act like that, like the terrible scenario you just imagined.”

“Shut up…” Moon muttered. He pulled his head back into his knees, covering his ears. He didn’t want or could hear any more noise. But Dark Sun continued, the mocking venom in their words growing thicker and thicker.

“No… What you’re afraid of is realizing that you can’t fix Sun. You’re afraid that you’ll make the situation worse again, and Sun will stay stuck like this forever. Your brother is sinking and there’s nothing you can do but stuff more pebbles.”

“Shut up…”

“You’re afraid that Sun will realize how worthless you are and just leave.”

“Please shut up…!”

“You’re afraid that Sun will abandon you.”

“Why are you talking so much!!”

“Compared to someone who always says he lives for Sun, you actually find every opportunity to leave him. Sun’s love for you is like a burden, and you think they’re suffocating you.”

“I don’t care!! Just shut up!! Shut up!!” Moon yelled at the air.

“You say you love Sun, you say you care about him, but do you love Sun enough to stay with Sun?”

“Do you want to be with your twin anymore? Or you just want to end up dead again after abusing Sun’s forgiveness?”

“I said SHUT UP!!!” Moon shouted. He stood up from his chair, accidentally dropping the doll to the ground. Its neck snapped to one side, torn to pieces, revealing cotton like circuit boards and wires. His eyes narrowed before he realized what he had done. He knelt down, trying to pick up the doll but only made things worse, his claws scratching its body and slicing another line across its face.

The only thing he could save were the small bell shells.

Dark Sun’s feet appeared before Moon’s eyes. Like sand sliding away, their voices faded… thinned in the air and slid into the thin blanket.

“If you’re not careful, you’ll get your wish.”

“You will be alone, Moon.”

And then Moon woke up.

[wooahaeruby]

Chapter 28: A Hand To Hold

Chapter Word Count: 5,126

TW

Mild panic, protective SVT

Master List | Prev | Next

There was a period where everything was going too…normally for the last week or so.

Not that you were really complaining- Things were calm! Work was going well, your relationships were going well, everything was nice and you were content- 

But there was a gnawing anxiety that crawled up your spine each passing day, eating your resolve alive. You were determined to not let whatever you were feeling dampen any situation, but you were getting tired of masking day in and day out. 

You arrived back at your apartment after a shorter training session with Chan at the penthouse, limbs sore, a fatigued mentality, and were ready to crash to get decent sleep for work tomorrow. One of your neighbors on your floor, an older woman with gorgeous salt and pepper colored curls, Ms. Nina, was shuffling to get her mail, asking how your day was while you also got your mail. The entire way back to your respective apartments she talked your ear off, not that you minded, and she bid you a goodnight, saying she was going to drop off a batch of muffles tomorrow once you got home. 

Near silently, behind the confines of your apartment, you placed your things down and kicked your shoes off, locking the door before sitting yourself down on the couch with your pile of mail. You sorted through each piece, placing it into different piles for bills, spam, before your eyes set on your typed birth name and address. 

Much like the last, there was no return address. It was a crisp, plain white envelope, however this one was thicker than the previous one. 

You tore the envelope open easily, taking the tri-folded stack of papers out. The first page was similar to the singular page originally, however more information was added; your grandparents names, your job title, and your old home street address . 

You tossed that page aside, seeing a black and white copy of your original birth certificate, as well as your most recent one after changing your name. There was a copy of your apartment lease and your parents’ death certificates.

Your stomach was on the floor, the sinking feeling was suffocating to say the least. You had a copy of these documents for logical personal reasons, you needed them for many years, but seeing someone got ahold of legal government documents and sent them to you?  

This was only to get worse, you could feel it by the tightness in your chest. Your skin was crawling and the beginning of pins and needles in your hands and feet were starting to set in. You focused on your breathing, taking on deep breath in, holding it, then pushing it out. The papers in your hands fell into your lap and you covered your face to collect yourself the best you could from your most definite panic attack. Each breath in was fire burning in your chest, engulfing you from the inside out. Tears were starting to blur your vision.

Anxiously, you patted around your person then stumbled to your bag at the door, digging through it to find it. 

“Pick up-” You tapped violently against the screen, calling the first person that came to mind. “Please pick up-” 

“ What's up, Mouse?” Your breath caught in your chest, hearing Seungcheol’s voice ring through the phone. 

“Cheol-” You sucked in a breath, sitting yourself down on the floor, not trusting your legs to keep you upright. 

“ Hey- What’s going on? Are you okay?” 

You could hear yourself stuttering, proper words weren’t forming. All you could hear yourself say was a string of curse words, there was a jumbled mention of a letter you think but you really couldn’t hear everything leaving you. 

“I’m at home-” Pushing the words out somehow between the burning breaths. “I can’t-” 

“ I’m sending Mingyu over since he is at Quartz, I’ll be there soon.” 

And the line went dead, leaving you in the panicked silence of your entrance way. 

You couldn’t tell how long it had been from the moment the call ended to the loud, repetitive knocking that came to your door. 

Barely managing to get yourself off the floor, you unlocked the door and leaned to peer through the small crack, seeing the worried eyes of Mingyu staring down at you. He pushed the door open slowly, letting you backup before his eyes darted around the space, closing it behind him.

“Is there anyone-?” He moved further into the apartment, looking around more before he turned to you, watching as you tiredly made your way over. 

“N-” You sighed, clearing your throat. “No one but me is here.” 

“Are you okay?” His voice was gentle, hovering his hands around your shoulders. 

You nodded. “Is Cheol coming?” 

“He should be a few minutes behind-” 

“Mouse?” Speaking of the devil…

Stepping through the door, followed in toe by Joshua, Jeonghan, and Wonwoo, was Seungcheol, panic in his eyes. 

“Oh thank god-” Jeonghan pushed Cheol out of the way, gathering you into his arms. He placed a kiss on your forehead, holding your face gently within his palms. “What happened, my love?” 

You didn’t notice Wonwoo stepped around the couch, only hearing the flipping of pages that clued you back in. 

“Who sent this?” For the first time, his tone actually sounded angry but one look showed only a stone expression. 

Joshua joined Jeonghan at your side, a hand being placed on your lower back to provide comfort. He leaned close, a chaste kiss being placed to the side of your head. 

“I don’t know.” You downcasted your eyes. “This was the second letter.” 

“Second?” Seungcheol grabbed the papers from Wonwoo’s hands, his eyes skimming through the documents. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” 

“I-” You broke away from your boyfriends, placing both hands on the back of the couch to think. “I thought the first one was a joke…”

Lifting your eyes, you met the hard gaze of Seungcheol’s eyes but he softened quickly, seeing the disheveled state you were probably in. 

“Sweep the apartment, see if there are cameras.” Seungcheol ordered and the four were off, making haste to search over every inch of your home. 

You rounded the couch and sat down, leaning your head back to stare at the ceiling. 

“Mouse,” Looking away from the stack of papers, Seungcheol took in your tired, definitely dissociative state. “Has anyone been hanging around here? Following you home?” 

“Bathroom is clear.” Hearing Joshua call down the hall brought some peace.

Your eyes wandered the slightly cracked paint of the ceiling, thinking if there was anything out of the ordinary. “No. No one has been hanging in the halls or by the mail boxes. No one has followed me from the penthouse or back home from what I’ve seen. Nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Seokmin told me to change up my routine every so often just to be safe and I have. I’ve been trying to keep an eye out.” 

“Bedroom’s clear.” Wonwoo called out. 

It wasn’t long before the four were moving about the living room, lifting things, moving items, and placing things back into their place. Their eyes were harsh, working quickly to get their task done. 

“When you are done, Wonwoo, head down and see if there is a tracker on her car.” The younger man hummed, moving into the kitchen, opening cabinets and cupboards. 

“It’s clear here too.” Jeonghan sighed, taking one last look at the windows to make sure they were locked properly. 

“Yeah, I got nothing either.” Mingyu stood beside Seungcheol, taking the papers from his hands curiously. “Jesus, some of this stuff is hard to get even for Wonwoo.” 

“Very reassuring, Gyu.” You closed your eyes for a moment, only opening them to find Jeonghan standing behind you, looking down at you with concern in his eyes. 

“We’ll figure this out, Mouse.” Cheol was typing something on his phone when Wonwoo opened the door to head downstairs. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“Is she hurt?” Hearing Seokmin’s voice had you sinking further into your couch. 

“Does fucking everyone know?” You threw your hands up, reaching for a couch pillow and hugging it. 

Jeonghan ran his hand through your hair, giving a small chuckle. “Okay well, that was my fault since I was on the phone with him when Cheol called, love.” 

Seokmin was beside you almost instantly, pulling you into his chest, firing off questions so fast it went in one ear then out the other. When he realized you weren’t paying attention, he whined. 

“I’m fine, Min.” Really, you didn’t sound all that sure of yourself but you basked in the warmth he brought since you felt freezing and vaguely numb from your panic attack. 

When Wonwoo came back, letting everyone know there wasn’t a tracker on your car, you felt lighter but still heavy at the unknown and creepy privacy invasion from whoever sent the letters. 

Seokmin was reluctant to let go of you until Jeonghan pulled you up and pushed you into the bathroom, knowing you needed a shower since you had trained earlier. He was sweet and pampering, getting you clothes and combing through your hair once you were finished. You didn’t mind when Joshua more silently fretted over you, having you brush your teeth and get your skincare done. 

The moment you entered back into your living room, Seungcheol was deep into a conversation with Mingyu, Wonwoo, and Seokmin. 

“It’s going to be hard getting anything from these.” Wonwoo didn’t look confident, looking through everything once more. “And getting the original birth certificate isn’t easy even if it is a copy. Let alone the death certificates.” 

“I have copies of all of those.” Breaking their huddle, Wonwoo and Seungcheol’s head shot up, tuning into your comment. “And unless someone broke into my apartment and my safe…I don’t think it’s plausible they got it here.” 

“There is too much foot traffic in the area and the building to even consider that fully.” Seokmin added. 

“Then someone went through the channels to get this?” Mingyu questioned. 

Wonwoo sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose to sit comfortably. “Had to. I’d have to dodge a lot of security to get this and I don’t even want to dip my hands into getting the FBI on us more than they try to be.” 

“So I basically have a really fucked up stalker?” The joke you tried to make didn’t bring anyone laughter… You looked away quickly and huffed through your nose. “Tough crowd.” 

“I’ll take this back to Pandora and see if I can get anything.” Stepping away from the group, papers in hand, Wonwoo moved towards you, placing a large hand on your head, almost…comfortingly. “If another comes in, let me know.” 

“Yeah, thanks.” You brushed him off, seeing the ghost of a smile on his lips before he was heading out the door. 

Seungcheol slid his phone into his jacket pocket, pushing some hair back from his face and nodded his head to Mingyu in acknowledgement. “Get back to Quartz, I’m sure Seungkwan needs help and to be filled in.” 

“Sure, boss.” Mingyu gave a thumbs up, quickly getting into your personal space and pulled you into a hug. “See you this weekend at the house?” 

You smiled up at him weakly, nodding as you brushed his growing bangs out of his face. “You promised to watch Legally Blonde with me, of course.” 

That left Seokmin and Seungcheol, both tense but trying to keep their faces neutral. 

Taking both Jeonghan’s hand and Joshua’s hand, you moved over and sat on your couch, pulling both of them down with you. “I’m sorry I called you mid panic attack, Cheol.” 

His head whipped to you, eyebrows furrowed together. “Why are you sorry?” Even Joshua and Jeonghan looked confused at your apology. 

“Well- I called you and I barely got a word out and had you all rushing-” Wanting to explain yourself turned into curling in on yourself… The four of them looking at you with different states of confusion made you feel dumb. 

“Mouse.” Seungcheol stepped toward, kneeling down in front of you. “I told you that if you ever needed help with your personal safety, we’d protect you. You are one of us, and you should know damn well that we protect our own. If we didn’t, we’d be some really shitty friends, don’t you think?” 

Staring down at him, eyes wide, you weren’t expecting him to admit that you were one of them. Hearing Seungcheol call you friends was even more shocking, but you gave a timid nod. 

“I’m sure I speak for all of us, but you could call any of the guys, day or night, and we’d be there in a heartbeat. You might have fallen into the shitshow that is SVT but you stayed and became a permanent fixture with us. I don’t think you will get out or away from us any time soon. Especially with dumb and dumber at your side.” Seungcheol smiled , full and reassuring, snickering when Joshua and Jeonghan protested at your sides. “We’ll figure this out, hopefully sooner rather than later. Promise.” 

“Did you seriously move the couches for this?” Standing near the kitchen table, you saw Mingyu and Seokmin beaming brightly at the very large, comfy looking floor fort they made. 

After dinner, you went to change and shower, being told that the living room would be ‘set up’ by the time you were done. Seeing the mountain of blankets and pillows that were cushioning the floor and the wide array of snacks in a pile was amazing, it put your mind at ease after the second mysterious letter. 

“Mingyu said you guys were watching Legally Blonde. I wanted to watch Legally Blonde.” Seokmin motioned you over with a wave of his hand. 

“I bought more of the good wine.” Jeonghan passed you on the left and Joshua, glasses and two bottles of wine between the two of them. 

Seungkwan and Vernon passed as well, taking a spot on the couch together, a bowl of popcorn and drinks in hand. “We need to watch the second one too, always my favorite movies.” 

It wasn’t long before Minghao found a comfy spot against the couch on the floor, pulling a blanket over his legs. Joshua promptly handed him a glass of wine, taking a seat beside him. 

“Is this a family event?” Though smiling, you shook your head and took the glass of wine Jeonghan handed you. 

“It’s turning into that.” Mingyu snickered. 

Sitting yourself down beside Joshua, Seokmin was quick to toss a pillow in your lap and sit down, crowding your personal space. You laughed at him, but he did nothing but get comfortable and wait for Mingyu to start the movie. 

“What are we watching?” Seeing Wonwoo for the first time in a few days since the group showed up at your apartment was nice. He had really set into trying to figure out what was going on with the letters but it was clear he was coming up short. He looked tired, more than usual, but he laid himself down on the floor beside Mingyu. 

Someone called out the answer, smiling as Jeonghan sat on your other side. 

“Don’t start without me!” Chan’s voice from down the hall and the heavy footfall of him running over had the group of you laughing. He jumped over the couch, crashing into Seungkwan’s side with a bright smile on his face. 

“I’m pressing play!” Mingyu grabbed the remote, starting the movie as everyone settled in. 

From the corner of your eye, you could see Junhui slip into the area, taking a spot on the loveseat, followed by Jihoon grabbing a few pillows and lying down on the floor near Wonwoo.

“Wait, where is Soonyoung?” You looked around the room, coming up short on your body count, and Jihoon snorted. 

“He fell asleep after dinner because he was out all night doing shit.”

“Did you start without me?” Seungcheol’s voice surprised you, leaning up and looking over the back of the couch to see the leader shuffle over in his usual pairing of an oversized set of gray sweatpants and sweatshirt.

“You didn’t say you wanted to join.” Mingyu teased, but Seungcheol dropped down behind you on the couch, tucking his legs close and grabbed one of the blankets to make himself comfortable.  

From the corner of your eye, you took note of Jeonghan throwing a look, one full of bewilderment, but he settled in at your side quickly. 

Much to your delight after the week, you relaxed between your boyfriends. Jeonghan’s arm was thrown over your shoulder comfortably and you could feel the gentle touch of Joshua’s hand on your leggings covered thigh. Seokmin didn’t move from laying his head in your lap, keeping your legs warm thankfully. 

The first movie was great for everyone. You, Seungkwan, and Mingyu didn’t hesitate to quote almost the entire court scene towards the end, which had a lot of the other guys giggling at the stupidity. Between the first and second movie, more snacks were grabbed, along with more drinks, people shifted their spots. Some moved to the floor while others kept on the couches. Jeonghan switched positions with Seokmin, but Joshua stayed at your side, now getting his turn to pull you into his side, holding you around the waist. 

The second movie was more quiet between you all, the drowsiness blanketing everyone but no one wishing to actually head to sleep just yet. Your hands were occupied by running your fingers through Jeonghan’s hair, smiling to yourself when he leaned into the touch every so often. You rested your head on Joshua’s shoulder, feeling him rest his head against you in return. It was no surprise when someone let out a quiet snore, even feeling your own eyes stay closed a little too long when you blinked. 

You made it through the rest of the movie while many others didn’t. Quietly, you stood with Jeonghan and Joshua, making sure everyone who was inevitably asleep on the couch or floor had a blanket and pillow. You had to nudge Seungcheol to actually be lying comfortably before placing a blanket over him, but he barely stirred from his sleep as you shifted him. The youngest three made their ways towards their room, bidding near silent goodnights before you and your boyfriends found themselves in Jeonghan’s room. 

Jeonghan already got himself comfortable under the covers, holding his arms open wide for you to join him. 

“I guess I’m never sleeping alone again?” 

“Not a chance in your life.” Flicking the lights off, Joshua passed you, making his way to the other side of the bed.

You climbed over Jeonghan, falling into his arms after getting under the covers. He peppered your face with kisses, wrapping his arms tightly around your waist. It took only a moment for a second pair of arms to wrap around you, Joshua humming quietly. 

Lying here felt safe, protected from the anxiety ridden world you’ve been living in. It felt right, a place you thought you belonged, a place that while challenging was where you were definitely meant to be.

Having nothing to do most of the week was…boring. There wasn’t anything important that was eating into his time, paperwork was getting done quickly with Chan’s help. With how much of a busy body he was known to be, Chan laughed at him as they sat at Pledis’s headquarters, trying to figure out what to do. Most, if not all of the paperwork was done for the day, he didn’t need to be at the warehouse until the later evenings. 

Monday, he asked Mouse to get lunch, and to his surprise, she accepted. That lunch was fine, it was a lot of simple…talking. He asked her more questions about herself, things she enjoyed most, the games she played, and Mouse got a chance to ask him about his interest in restoring cars when he actually has time on his hands. 

Tuesday, he asked her again, emphasizing that she didn’t have to say yes, he could go by himself, but she once again accepted. He didn’t let Chan know the second time, just saying he was getting food and he’d bring something back for the younger man, which he did…after sitting with Mouse for her hour lunch… They did have a good time, continuing their idle chatter, even joking about the guys or something she saw online. Seungcheol found himself really enjoying the mid-day getaway, letting himself continue to show Mouse the childlike, bright person he actually was. She let a few layers of her walls down too, letting him listen to her burdens even if they were simple complaints.

By Thursday, Chan asked if Seungcheol wanted to join him and Seungkwan for lunch but he…already had plans.

“I asked Mouse to lunch.” 

“You asked Mouse to lunch again?” Chan sounded surprised, even furrowing his brows and cocking his head to the side. 

“Uh- Yeah… I thought since her lunch is soon, I’d ask her, she already texted back yes so…” 

“Hm…Interesting.” There was a knowing look in Chan’s eyes, even a ghost of a smirk on his lips. “Have fun!” 

Seungcheol gave a frown, pouting at the youngest. “What’s with the look?”

“Nothing.” He waved him off nonchalantly, “Go enjoy your lunch with Mouse, boss.” 

He made his way to a small diner just down the street from her office, knowing he had more time than her in general. Placing himself down in a booth near the front window, Seungcheol waited, seeing as he arrived early, and stared out the window. Seungcheol…he saw her before she saw him, watching through the window as she crossed the street. 

She looked…good, impeccably dressed in one of her more professional outfits, but nothing as fancy as the tailored suit he saw her in all those months ago. Sleek black pencil skirt ending just above the knee with a white blouse and thick, long light taupe colored cardigan. 

Turning in his seat, more facing the entrance, he watched her look around curiously before her eyes fell on him and a smile bloomed on her face. His breath caught in his chest for a moment and he swallowed down the tight feeling in his chest as she sat down across from him. 

“Hey, were you waiting long?” 

“Uh-” He cleared his throat, shaking his head. “No, I only got here a few minutes ago.” 

“Good! I didn’t want you to wait long, I got caught up at the tailend of my meeting.” She grabbed the extra menu on the table, letting her eyes scan over the choices happily. 

Seungcheol only hummed, glancing over the menu to figure out what he wanted. 

“You said today was slow?” Her question had him nodding, sighing quietly. 

“I was sitting on my ass for an hour so I figured I might as well go out for lunch if I have nothing to do.” 

“Glad I could join you then.” 

“You’re…in a good mood.” His words were hesitant, but Mouse only laughed, sitting back in the booth some. 

“Despite everything that is going on, today was good so far. I got my annual review and with how my work has been, I’m getting a big raise which is amazing. Maybe I’ll actually have money to spend.” She laughed once more, smiling to herself. “I’m trying to stay positive despite everything. Wonu said he is working on things and doesn’t want me to worry so much, which I’m trying to do. Training with Chan is going great too. I’m feeling good, Cheol. Like, actually good despite the bullshit.” 

“That is amazing, Mouse.” He smiled across the table to her, the tightness in his chest showing itself once more. “I know things haven’t been easy for you recently and we are basically to blame, but you are taking this with a lot of bravery and I commend you on that.” 

Mouse stared across the table, that wide, pretty, smile on her face- 

Wait a minute- 

She pushed her hair back from her face, the strands somehow framing her face perfectly, and before she had a chance to say anything, the waitress popped in by. Her bubbly personality was infectious as she spoke to Mouse, taking both orders before she was hurrying off. 

And she was still smiling, and why the fuck is my chest so tight for? Is it hot in here- 

“Oh! Are you ready for the ball?” She perked up, “Siyeon said you picked up your suit but she wouldn’t send any pictures.” 

“To be fair, neither she nor Jeonghan showed me your dress.” 

“Hm, I see they are scheming as usual.” 

“Always.” He hummed, “but I’m ready either way. Han said Sona is going to be getting you ready?” 

“It’s almost like he doesn’t trust me to make myself pretty.” Mouse feigned disappointment, her smile changing into an exaggerated pout. 

“I think you are pretty.” 

“What?” 

Oh, he didn’t mean to say that outloud- Fix this- 

“I said…I think you are pretty. Is there a problem with that?” 

“Huh- No-” Her cheeks flushed bright red, averting her eyes for a moment. “I wasn’t expecting it.” 

He nodded, pursing his lips, trying to stop his heart from racing . “So…How are things with Joshua and Jeonghan?”

Nice one, moron. He reprimanded himself, mentally punching himself in the gut. 

“We’re good. I’m more glad there is no awkwardness between the three of us. I think there is an understanding between us that we can talk about if something bothers us. Jeonghan has been good at communicating when he needs more attention or just needs some one on one time.” 

“I don’t know how you did it, Han has always been the worst at talking. He is always the one that listens better.” 

“Probably after yelling at him for the stupid prank kicked his ass into gear.” Mouse snickered. “From that point on, I think he realized that I was serious about beating the idiot out of him.” 

Lunch finished rather quickly with Mouse rushing back to the office, thanking Seungcheol with a quick hug as she hurried her way out. 

When he arrived back at Pledis, Chan was sitting at Seungcheol’s desk, feet kicked up on the wood. “How was your date?” 

“It wasn’t a date.” He answered monotone, rolling his eyes. 

“Sure it wasn’t.” Chan stood up, rounding the deck. “How was it?” 

Seungcheol cleared his throat, thinking over the words in his head. “I…called Mouse pretty.” 

“To her face?” 

“Yes to her face.” 

“And you lived?” 

“I’m standing here, aren’t I?” 

Chan eyed him from head to toe. “Interesting.” 

Seungcheol raised a brow before frowning. “What is that supposed to mean?” 

“Nothing.” Same as the tone earlier, Chan nonchalantly walked past him towards the door. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Get up.” The door to Jeonghan’s room was thrown open unceremoniously, hearing Sona’s voice. “It’s after two in the afternoon.” 

You could feel Jeonghan bury his face further into your neck, grumbling quietly at the light coming from the open door. 

“Five more minutes.” You managed to say, tightening your hold on Jeonghan, hearing similar grumbles from Joshua behind you. 

“I already let you sleep an hour longer.” Her monotone words were accompanied by a huff.

Then all the curtains were pulled open, sending the three of you in fits of whining. 

“I have to get you to the city, get done shit, then bring you back here to get you ready, get up.” Standing at the foot of the bed now, Sona eyed the three of you with dissatisfaction. 

“I could fire you.” Jeonghan grumbled, sending a glare before hiding his face from the light once more. 

“Yeah, because you could survive without me. Sure.” 

“You are sassy today.” With reluctance, you peeled yourself from both their arms and crawled towards the edge of the bed. 

“Don’t blame me, blame King hustling.” Crossing her arms over her chest, Sona huffed. “He wants you ready by, like, seven. This event you can’t be late for. Way different than the Gala.” 

“Sadly, she is right.” You heard Joshua’s voice, muffled by the pillow he currently had his face pressed into before a yawn escaped him. 

Sighing, you got yourself ready, changing from your sweatpants into leggings and exchanging the wrinkled t-shirt for an oversized sweater ( totally not Jeonghan’s). You bid both your boyfriend’s a goodbye, kissing them both on the head before you were quickly ushered out by Sona. There was a quick wave to the handful of guys in the living room as you were pushed out the front door, down to her SUV. 

“And before you asked, I already got you food.” Reaching over into the backseat, she grabbed a takeout bag from a place in the town not too far from the house, a little Mexican place with the best tacos that you and the guys have had too many times. 

“A life saver.” You hummed her praise, taking the bag from her with bright eyes. “What is the plan today then if King has you and me on a time crunch?” 

“Nails, picking up your dress, shoes, and mask, then getting back here with enough time to get your hair and make up done before you get dressed.” 

“So…girls day at the nail salon?” You side eyed her and you could see the ghost of a smirk on her face.

“A thousand percent.” 

The outing in the city didn’t take too long, at least you wouldn’t say it did. Really, the longest parts were driving back and forth to the house. 

Speaking of getting back to the house… 

“Mouseeeeeeeeeeeee-” Jeonghan threw himself at you the moment both you and Sona stepped through the door. “They are bullying me!” 

Over his shoulder, you saw not only Joshua, but Mingyu, Seokmin, and Seungkwan roll their eyes. 

“Because he wouldn’t fucking shut up about how pretty my girlfriend was going to be.” Seungkwan gagged as he mimicked Jeonghan’s fawning, making you snicker. 

“Can’t I be infatuated with my girlfriend?” Jeonghan countered, hugged you to his chest, throwing a pout to the others in the room. 

“I don’t care if you are, but stop making me want to vomit every time you open your mouth about her. No offense, Mouse.” Seungkwan started, rolling his eyes. “Have a personality outside of her, please. I speak for everyone here.” 

“Don’t speak for me, she is my girlfriend too.” Joshua frowned.

“That’s enough,” Sona gently took your arm, “We have things to do. You can take all the pictures you want after I am done.”

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[demonicnarwhale]

So for my first project in my Proprint class, we had to make 5 separate prints (draw or photograph something then print it on a 17x22 paper, same thing as last semester) so here's my stuff!!! Oh! And the prompt was basically anything but monochromatic or black and white, but we can either use one or two colors

They're all based on my Small Town AU because I thought it'd help get my ideas for this AU thingy situated a bit, and cuz it's fun

The first one to start us all off is Doc Scratch! The one and only, the catalyst (if you will) of this small town turning to shit. It's basically him bringing a sort of day of reckoning thing going on. But not like reckoning in the idea that they're getting judged by god or whatever. In this case, Scratch himself just plays around in this universe (this is the "bad" ending). Basically, the townsfolk begin to turn and hurt each other (reasoning will be explained in the 2nd project tehee and the wording here is like this just so I don't spoil too much) (also the top is just the different edits I came across and thought looked pretty)

Motifs / Symbolisms:

- The time on the clock reads 3:19. So specifically Genesis 3:19 is pretty much just when Adam and Eve are cast out of the Garden of Eden. The idea here is that Scratch will turn this thriving and self sufficient, almost found-family-like town into a big ol' graveyard. That paradise they all have come to enjoy and build a community together? Buh-bye!!! Cast out! Into the miseries!!!

- The picture of the oil painting is of The Agnew Clinic 1889 painted by Thomas Eakins. The painting was commissioned in honor of David Hayes Agnew, a pretty well known and respected surgeon of his time, a leader in a way. And I just felt like Scratch would have some of these "lesser" known art pieces of important figures of the past around his house. (Die would approve of this painting I believe)

- The apples are purposefully way too round, almost Christmas tree ornament looking. It's to allude to this feeling or idea of something being too perfect, but very off putting. Basically Doc Scratch himself. He's a man that's a part of the town but also not there. He's a total enigma for everyone and most people will chose to just accept that and just be cordial with him, that placid and simple smile just has something deeper going on teehee

- The card he holds is a nod to tarot ones (obvious I know but I ain't no tarot or star signs believer so I had to search up which card would make sense here). So seven of swords just means betrayal so haha on the nose

- There was gonna be a violin added but I just wanted to get this drawing done so I said "screw that". The reason why I was gonna go with the violin is cuz that idea of "haha Scratch is another name for the devil" and I remembered a song The Devil Went Down to Georgia which I fuckin dig. Also the idea of the devil having a violin playing contest with a kid is so fucking funny cuz he got his ass kicked. (oh yeah and just the idea of the devil being associated with the violin)

So yeah! I just had a lot of fun just coming up with this drawing and doing a little breaking the frame/boarder with the small apple branches reaching into the top box.

What can I say? I love marine associated themes so of course I gotta draw Trace and Fin. Oh and the sketches (or draft) I did just made me feel so proud and happy. Cuz even though it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo, it all just managed to flow out really well with this one. It's a shame that the digitalized final piece isn't as impressive to me as my sketches. The two compasses are also pointed at 3:00 and 5:00 cuz, ya know. That's their numbers. The fish from bottom to top are sockeye salmon, moray eel, tunas, and I didn't look at one fish for the ref with the top one but let's go with red snapper.

i sadly had to rush this one as it was getting close to critique day (aka the 26th) and some of my other classmates needed to print too so I didn't want to get in their way and such later on. (originally we had to make 5 prints but he saw not a lot of people would be able to so he cut it down to just 3. And so I already had 3 prints done so why not just let everyone else who really needed to print, print)

So this print was going to have PM, AR, and WV doing their own things (as seen in the first draft) but I changed things up so it'd be simpler and allow me to work on the last 2 prints. But hey! At least WV's there!! And then I was messing with shadows and the last one just looked really funny. OH! Oh and the 2422 was when PM made her appearance in the webcomics (at least, that's what I think or recall) and since that's her plane, it was a little nod. And this is her logo thing (still being worked on but you get the gist of it)

I do however feel hella bummed that I wasn't able to keep the mechanic tidbits (for AR) in this drawing since I hate drawing cars, the tools I tried drawing didn't fit the look of the finalized drawing. I'm sorry AR </3. Oh and I completely forgot about WV's lil torn up red flag, but it wouldn't really match i feel anyways in the end results. WV being a farmer, PM a mail woman hence the stamps, and AR being a (car) mechanic!!!

Ok so that's all for now, I'll upload the 4th and 5th print and photos of them all printed in another post since this is fuckin lengthy

PT2 HERE