#have fun in my tag when you finish! god knows i lost my mind after finishing

[tamaharu]

im still only like 42% thru orv (torturous) (the demon king selection just started if u were curious idk)

anyway but my secret is there were TWO reasons i wanted to read orv #1 i reblogged a lot of posts from you and tagged em as zero escape but you tagged em as orv. which basically guarantees orv is good

THE OTHER SECRETER REASON is cause i saw u had a tag for shipping 3 of the characters together and i was like ok dont mind if i do

anyway youre doing good work to remake/rehash memes to make sure they include all 3 and i kno i dont have most of the appropriate context at this point (mortifying ordeal of only being halfway thru media. excrutiating. death and dying) BUT ITS A SENTIMENT I TOO HAVE FELT. WITH OTHER MEDIA. SO I APPRECIATE IT.

so anyway in 10 years when i finally get all the way thru prepare to have your notifs wrekt i WILL be going thru ur tags

thank you for your time

ehehehe if my memory of the order is correct youre getting extremely close to an veeerrrry fun arc. so good luck for when you reach that :3

I WANT TO PLAY ZERO ESCAPE! I've heard very good things about it.. mostly from a lot of fellow orv fans! and i played some of aitsf (although i didnt get the chance to finish it) and enjoyed it, so im interested to see the predecessor to that. i just havent found the time/money to pirate/buy and play it but its definitely on my ever-expanding to do list..

and YES ahahaha! i knew having that tag would be of use (besides my own personal enjoyment)! the unfortunate part of the yhk trio is. oh its so good howls to the moon. but hsy is introduced comparatively late into the game and a lot of her Deal is only properly contextualized at the very end, so when a lot of the readers are webtoon-only/primarily or just going slowly when working through the novel, she can often get excluded sad face. it really doesnt help that shes A Girl and fighting for prestige against the blowjob brothers. but its okay. i know her heart. i know of the yaoi and yuri she engages in with those two. han sooyoung, fighting!

[eccentricwritingbaby]

surprise!

oscar piastri x reader

summary - after a few long months of not being able to see each other - y/n at university, oscar racing and training - reader is feeling the blues of long distance. until a certain surprise comes her way. 

masterlist

-

it was final exam season. final exams. instead of the calm before the storm, you would argue they were the storm before the calm. finals stressed you out beyond belief, they were always harder than what your professor claimed, always had information on them that wasn’t on the study guide, and you were constantly swamped with work. you didn’t have time for anything but studying.

but after. after. you would be out of school for the summer, finals off your mind, school off your mind, and you’d get to see your sweet, sweet boy. you and oscar had been going out for a year now, you knew the routine of both of you not being able to see each other often, or call often - your schedules so opposite it was constantly a game of phone tag. but summer was your time. you were out of school, thank god, and he usually had only a few races left - that you got to tag along to - and then it was his break. and you both could bask in each others presence before the school year and his season starts yet again. 

the good news was that you had only a year left of school, the bad news was that you had a whole year left of school. you were usually a glass half-full kind of girl, but at times when the stress wore you down, and the facetime call to your boyfriend was missed, you needed a break before you lost it. 

it was now the second time you tried to call oscar, trying to reach him on the verge of your mental breakdown as you were staring at books and your computer for the last four hours. 

“hi, baby, sorry my phone was in my room,” he answered the call with a smile on his face, “how are you doing?”

“i’m fine,” you mumble out through the phone, your boyfriend frowning at the solemn disposition read across your face, “just miss you,”

“i know baby,” he gives you a sad smile, “i miss you too,”

“what were you up to?” you ask him, taking every opportunity to hear his voice and see his face.

“i was just with lando and alex in logan’s room for a bit, we were playing this new game,” his eyes brighten a bit as he speaks, happy to see your eyes lighting up as well on the other end of the call. 

“oh really? that sounds fun, tell me about it,” you urge, not fully caring much about this video game, but also loving watching oscar speak with passion and humor - a great distraction from the mess of work you had left on your desk. 

oscar drabbles on for a few more minutes, giving you stories about how lando died in the game and almost broke the controller, logan almost falling off his chair from laughter, alex and oscar making fun of the both of them, and so on. you sit on your bed holding a large smile on your face, happy to finally be connected to your boyfriend and talking to him. 

“what else do you have tonight?” he asks you the dreaded question and you roll your eyes, breathing out a huff of air as you do so. 

“so much, i still have two essays to finish up, but it’ll just be some finishing touches,” you sigh, “thanks for reminding me,” you add on sarcastically with a laugh. oscar laughs with you, glad that you aren’t too stressed and can still joke around. 

“well that’s good,” coming down from the shared giggles, his face turns a bit more serious as he asks his next question, “what are you doing tomorrow?”

“um,” you think for a minute, a bit uneasy about his quick change in demeanor, “just studying for tomorrow, because the next day - that’s tuesday, right?” you ask him, or yourself, quickly before seeing him nod through your screen, “yeah, tuesday’s my last final and then i’ll be flying out to you on wednesday!” you end your little ramble with a cheer. 

“i’m so excited, baby,” he chuckles at your happiness, “i can’t wait to see you,” 

“me too,” you smile back at him, the unspoken words of love dangling between you two as your eyes and smiles don’t leave each other, “i wish it would come sooner, though,”

“yeah,” he agrees, clearing his throat a bit, “listen, i’ve got an early flight out of here tomorrow so i’ll call you then,” he now moves to end the call, “and you’ve got some essays to finish up,”

“trying to get me off the phone, piastri?” you ask with a giggle.

“ugh yes, i hate talking to you,” he laughs out with insincerity. 

“okay,” you fake frown, “i can take a hint,”

“shut up, y/n, you know i’m joking,”

“i know,” you laugh, “call me tomorrow, i love you,”

“i love you too, baby,” you blow each other light kisses and hang up the phone. groaning and stretching, you move over to your desk and stare at all of the work you have yet to finish. 

“one more year, y/n, one more year,” you whisper to yourself to gain some momentum. wiping the tears that accidentally escaped quickly, you shake your head and pick up your pen, ready to finish off your second to last year. 

-

you woke up to books sprawled across your bed, having tried to study a bit before you fell asleep the night before. a distant ringing had you coming out of the sleepy fog, your eyes still closed and your hand slapping around the bed in order to quiet the sound. once your phone was found, your eyes squinted open and you immediately gained energy when you saw who was calling.

“hey, osc,” you’re morning voice evident, leading you to clear your throat a little.

“hi, baby,” you hear through the phone. it was odd for oscar to not call you over facetime, his constant push for ‘seeing your cute face’ was all you heard about, “i’m sorry, were you sleeping?”

“yeah, but i needed to get up anyways,” you groan, now stretching in your bed, fully waking up. 

“can’t waste a minute of studying?” he asks you, you hear voices in the background and some wind, assuming he was walking towards his destination.

“yeah,” you chuckle, “where are you? i can barely hear you over the wind,”

“oh um, about that,” he sighs, “i took a detour,” your eyebrows knit in confusion, wondering where he would have gone other than back home. 

“oh?” you ask him, now hearing a knock on your door.

“you should get that, y/n,” oscar laughs through the phone.

“what?”

“the door, baby, go get the door,” finally understanding what you had hoped he was implying, you jump out of your bed, out of your bedroom, and towards your front door, swinging it wide open to come face to face with your boyfriend. 

“oscar,” you breathe out, dropping your phone and rushing into his awaiting arms, “oh my god,” you begin to cry, holding onto him tighter. he returns the emotions, holding you and rocking you, soaking up all of what he had missed so much. 

“couldn’t last one more day without seeing you,” he whispers into your hair, now walking you both further into your apartment and shutting your door. 

“i can’t believe you’re here,” you whisper into his hoodie that your face was buried into, “i’m so happy,”

“me too, baby, me too,” he just sighs, breathing in your scent he had missed so much. finally pulling apart, his left hand comes up to hold the back of your neck, kissing you softly and feverishly. your antsy lips accept, your right arm coming to grab the neck of his hoodie and pull him closer, if that was even possible. 

breaking apart for air, your foreheads lean onto each other as you both bask in the feeling of being able to hold each other once again. 

“i-um,” you clear your throat a bit, “i’ve got studying to do, i’m sorry-”

“no, no,” he cuts you off, kissing you again, “baby, i know you’ve got to study, i just wanted to be with you,”

“okay,” you smile, grabbing his hand and leading him into your bedroom, he takes a look around at the books and papers spread everywhere and just laughs. 

“you are the same chaotic girl every finals season,”

“that’s the only way i know how to be,” you shrug at his joke, pulling out your desk chair and opening your computer, “i’m gonna throw my headphones on so you can watch the tv or something if you want,”

“okay, baby,” he places a kiss to the top of your head, moving to lay down on your bed and flip the tv onto his favorite show. 

he sits there for a moment, watching your pen spin in your hand, then moving to flip open a book, then moving to type on your computer, and he is in awe. you always told him you loved watching him in the garage because seeing him be intelligent and passionate was attractive as well as endearing. he finally understands what you meant. watching the person he loves be in her element was not only beyond attractive, it was inspiring. to see you push yourself and dedicate yourself was beautiful. and he knew he was the luckiest man on the planet. 

“what?” you turn and look at him, taking out one of your headphones. 

“nothing,” he smiles back at you, watching you turn around and get back to work.

-

[trensu]

Have a snippet from that one holy warrior au. thanks to @ent-is-indecisive for helping me come up with a title for this fic. i'll be tagging it as stasis in darkness for easy tracking. this is part of a rough draft so it probably will be modified by the time i finish the damn thing and make it ao3 ready. but my brain's kind of stuck and needs a kickstart to get it going again, so i thought i'd share it and hopefully get motivated again

It happened again.

–

The fourth night:

“Isn't it true the King of Darkness–”

“Lord of Night.”

“Yeah, him. He controls all the monsters in the dark and sets them on innocent people for fun. Don’t see why you’d want to throw your lot in with a god like that.”

“Because he doesn’t. He takes care of nighttime animals. Bats, coyotes, owls…”

“The scary ones, you mean.”

“No! Besides, he takes care of cats, too. Cats aren’t scary. They’re, you know, cute.”

“Hmm. If you say so.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You got something against cats?”

“Of course not!" The man said, sounding mildly offended. Steve opened his mouth to go on about the Lord of Night's chosen creatures but the man interrupted with, "Well, look at the time! Later, gator.”

The man ran off with a grin not sparing him a second glance. Steve stared after him, baffled.

“What the fuck’s a gator?”

–

The fifth night:

“Don't you know your King, excuse me, Lord of Darkness–”

“Night. Lord of Night.”

“Same thing. He helps criminals evade justice. Pretty sure that one’s true.” The man lounged lazily on a nearby boulder as he asked. Kind of like a cat, Steve noticed with a trace of amusement that was easily smothered by annoyance at the man's…everything else.

“He helps people who travel by night. Most of the time they’re just night workers or people with nowhere to go. The ones that are shunned for being different or the ones too poor to afford safe shelter.”

“Huh. Alright, explain the horse thief thing, then, if he’s so good and noble.”

“...fine, he’s got a soft spot for horse thieves but thievery isn’t that bad of a crime in the grand scheme of things.”

“Ha! Sure,” the man conceded. “But! You can’t deny that this Lord of Night cursed people with terrible nightmares that left them sleepless and suffering for days. To the brink of lunacy, some say.”

The man said it with triumph, as if with this he’d finally break Steve’s faith. Steve shrugged. 

“All gods get angry.”

“And that’s okay? You’re fine with him inflicting mind torture on some poor mortal just because he threw a tantrum?”

“First off, he wouldn’t just throw a tantrum," Steve said with exasperation. He might end up throwing a tantrum if this guy persisted. "I don’t think he’s the kind to get angry easily. And second, the people he cursed before always deserved it. Besides, he helps with good dreams, too. It’s not all bad.”

“Uh-huh, I totally believe you," the man said, heavy with mockery.

“Look man, if you’re so against the Lord of Night, why are you still here? Why do you keep coming back and bothering me?”

“...curiosity?”

“Well, be curious quietly. I need to pray.”

“...he probably doesn’t even have prayers.”

“I said shut up, man. I need to concentrate.”

The man leaves without any more fuss. 

–

The sixth night:

“You have a lot of faith in a god who lost his own name. Does he even have any holy texts left?”

“Dustin could only find one, but that was enough.”

“Really? Other gods have entire libraries of stories and whole tomes of holy words. They have temples and monasteries all across the land of mortals.” The man motioned derisively at the crumbling statue. "This thing here is barely a shrine!"

“Hey, I'm working on that, alright? It's going to look great when I'm done with it," Steve protested. "And so what if he doesn't have more? Robin says quantity’s got nothing to do with quality.”

“Yeah, but the other gods are remembered for a reason. That counts for something,” the man's voice lost some of that smug edge. He fiddled with the hem of his fraying shirt as he spoke. 

Steve refused to rise to the bait. He responded calmly, but firmly.

“I don’t need libraries to know I want to carry his symbol. From what Robin and Dustin found, he represents all the things my friends taught me were important.” Steve pauses. "I’m not a good reader anyway so less books are better for me.” 

"Oh, so that's why you picked him! Very convenient," The man sounded very amused. Steve ignored him until he heard the man wander away for the night. He sighed in relief.

With a surge of restless energy leftover from being very good and calm about that nuisance of a man, Steve approached the statue elevated on its crumbling plinth. He reached up towards its open hand held at its side, barely within reach, and brushed his fingers along the worn knuckles. 

"That guy's wrong about you, I know he is,” Steve whispered, fervently. “You deserve a temple. A hundred of them, all for your own."

Steve thought, for a moment, he heard a sharp intake of breath, but when he looked there was no one but him around. 

“I’ll make sure you get a great temple."

He waited, strained his ears for even a single word from his god. He tried not to be disappointed when he heard nothing. Again.

–

ps: i do not do those reader tag list things. if you’d like to keep up with my stuff, follow my writing tag: trensu tells stories

[serenaoffaerun]

Tenacity - Chapter 3 of the "Consequences" series

It's finally here!! Thank you all for your patience. Because of the physical letter writing I drew for Tav and Gale's back-and-forth, this took much longer than I anticipated. Plus, the story just kind of...ran away with itself... This chapter comes in at a word count over 8,000 and I don't know how that happened LOL.

Big thanks again to @alpydk who started off this series with what was supposed to be a one-off angst story, and allowed me to write my own sequel chapters to finish the story my own way. (Alphydk's chapter 2 can be found here.) As my first long-form writing in over a decade, it's been a fun challenge to take two characters I love so much and get them out of a position I wouldn't have put them in in the first place. 💜

Without making you all endure any more of my "propensity towards verbosity," I present chapter 3: Tenacity (complete with hand-written letters!)

Summary: After agreeing to try to re-establish their friendship/relationship by writing letters back and forth, Tav and Gale set out on their journey of communicating, listening, and healing. You better believe they're both going to hold on for dear life.

Word Count: 8,289 (I'm not sorry.)

CW: References to depression, alcoholism

Tags: GalexTav, angst/fluff, pre-established (albeit rocky) relationship, future smut? (no spoilers...), brief mention of infertility (in a positive way??), depresso espresso, communication, healing, Tara's getting ALL the tuna.

[I'm sure I left some out, I'll come back and add to it once I get this on AO3 - coming soon!!]

Screenshot: Taken from my own gameplay. Please do not re-post as your own.

NOTE: For those who don't want to read Tav's mediocre (but improving) handwriting or Gale's flowy cursive, the text version is printed below each letter (including doodle descriptions!)

9/2 4:45PM Pacific - EDIT FOR MORE NOTES:

My underlines went away when I copy/pasta'd from GoogleDocs, and now I realize that you can't underline because of links, so they're bolded and italicized instead.

REGARDING BHAALSPAWN INFERTILITY - this is NOT canon to BG3/DnD/Forgotten Realms. I totally made this up to fit my literary needs. 😉

Alpydk's chapter 1: Consequences

Chapter 2: Acquiescence

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tav assessed herself before she even opened her eyes. Between the wine and the crying, she was probably the most dehydrated person in all of Faerûn. The pounding headache she was used to. She'd made blackout curtains for a reason, after all. But the soul-wrenching nausea, that was new.

Being blissfully infertile, she knew there was no risk of pregnancy. One of her permanent "gifts" as Bhaal's former Chosen was the ability to be as promiscuous as she pleased without fear of pregnancy in order to weasel her way into the hearts, minds, and pants of any of her previous victims. Not that she'd needed that ability since the Nautiloid, or especially her subsequent severing from said god. But this was no ordinary nausea anyway. It was coming from somewhere much more complex.

Among the growing list of sensations Tav noticed from her downward-facing zombie position on the couch, she found two long-lost friends: the physical feeling of being simultaneously sated but also achingly empty in her core, and...hope. Surprisingly enough, she realized it was the latter that brought on the nausea.

Crippling anxiety, overwhelming depression, stabbing guilt, these are feelings she was familiar with and knew how to handle: with denial and alcohol. Just ball it up and shove it in the "future ulcer" pocket by the stomach and cover it up with a bottle of wine or two.

Hope, on the other hand, is a fickle bitch. It introduces the possibility of a better future. The idea that things could get better. Then comes the uncertainty.

‘Desirable things in life are never guaranteed,’ she told herself. ‘You can always lose them. Don't get TOO comfortable! You might still have to live the rest of your life without the man you truly believe is your soulmate.��

Tav had NEVER believed in the idea of a ‘soulmate’ before. That was even more laughable than ‘love at first sight.’ But she’d come to believe it now.

‘And you fucked it up, didn't you? You let yourself have the worst lapse in judgment, then you doubled down on it by screaming and being a hurtful wretch. You did this. You did this and you don’t deserve forgiveness, you don’t deserve mercy. No one else will ever fill the hole in your heart, so you’re going to die alone and unloved. That’s what you deserve.’  

The words from the voice in her head kept playing on a loop for the last six months and they wouldn’t shut up. Drowning them out with wine and sleep had become her modus operandi. There’d been nothing to look forward to, nothing to hope for. It was the way things were going to be, she’d accepted it. Especially in the last few months after Waterdeep. She couldn’t have her heart broken again if she didn’t expect anything.

But now, new words were taking up space in her brain. His words.

‘…there was a time that we’d also brought out the best in each other, once. I refuse to believe we can’t find our way back there again.’

‘Fuck.’ Those words had stolen her breath. Given her reason to think that there was a chance. That maybe he would give her the mercy she knew she didn’t deserve. Gale was just that kind of man.

If that were truly the case, though, why did he shut her out so quickly in the first place without getting to even talk about things. Why did he go straight to the biting comments and yelling instead of showing any kind of signs of forgiveness being a possibility.

‘Because you ripped out his heart that was already broken and threw it on the ground with all the remains of any self-confidence he had left after Mystra, you inconsiderate, unfaithful monster. It’s a wonder he’s still alive.’

These were the new conversations Tav now had running back and forth in her head and that’s where the source of the nausea was seated. In the unknown future where happiness still existed. Along the path that could go to life-long depression and loneliness or a blissful existence with the man who completed her, and she wouldn’t know which way she’d end up traveling until she got there. It was terrifying.

‘I refuse to believe we can’t find our way back there again.’

Face still mashed in the couch pillow, she balled up her fist and slammed it down into the cushion. Depression wasn’t going to win today. Or any other day, for that matter, at least not like it had been. She would not allow herself to be swept up in the waves of self-loathing and doubt to the point of being non-functional. Not anymore.

She took a deep breath and sat up, eyes still closed. There was a warmth on her face that she knew would be the late-morning sun coming in through the living room window. As she cracked her eyes open, she winced as the light seared into her brain and fired off pain signals. Slowly, she stood up, walked across the room, and felt around for the blackout curtains.

Medicine. Shower. Food. In that order.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Looking around the room later that day, Tav felt pretty proud of herself. Once she got herself cleaned, fed, and a bit more clear-headed, she opened the curtains again and opened all the windows. Her little depression hole needed a good airing out.

Starting with all the trash, she got rid of the wine bottles, the old food, even the bin filled with dirt and burned clothing. After washing off surfaces and sweeping floors, she put all the books back on the shelf, keeping a box full of scrolls and a quill pulled out on her desk. One sandwich and two sinks full of dishes later, it was nearing night time, but she had one more task ahead of her: the letter.

She’d been chewing over words in her head all day, but she still had no idea where to start. How do you even begin a letter like this? ‘Hi, Gale’? ‘Dear Gale,’? ‘Esteemed Professor Dekarios,’? If the greeting was this difficult, how would she even move on to the rest of the letter? She knew for damn sure that she wasn’t quite ready to be fully emotionally vulnerable, especially with him (even though he’s the only one she should ideally be emotionally vulnerable with…).

‘Welp, might as well just start,’ she said to herself as she sighed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hi Gale,  [in the top right hand corner was a little swirly doodle with some flowers and leaves. Next to it was written ‘I don’t have fancy paper, so I tried to do something cute?]

I’m having trouble starting this letter, so I figured maybe just admitting that is as good of a place as any. I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what you want to hear, I don’t know what will help or what will just hurt… Here’s what I do know:

-          I’m sorry. [there are tear stains on the paper here]

-          There’s no excuse for what I did.

-          I don’t even know if I know the reason for what I did.

-          I don’t feel like I deserve your patience, your forgiveness, your mercy, anything, really. Your anger is totally justifiable.

-          I don’t know who I was that night or in the months following.

Except, I do. I’d reverted back to the person abomination I walked away from. The hateful, murderous, evil, wretched thing I said I’d never be again. Yet, I can’t claim that I wasn’t in my right mind at the time either. I never lost consciousness. I was aware of the decisions I was making. I just don’t understand why I made them in the first place, other than I’d lost hope. I’d stopped trusting you. I’d assumed you were going to leave me and go back to Mystra or pursue godhood where you’d no longer be…you. [Next to this is a small sketch of a broken heart.]

Here's what else I know:

-          You didn’t deserve that.

-          I don’t deserve you.

[Below this was another item that was heavily crossed out, but you can make out the words ‘I still’.]

(this letter is a mess, I’m sorry. I’m just…flustered)

[On the right side of the paper, there was a list of four items outlined in a rectangle, above which was written ‘Good things’ – a question mark had followed this, but it was crossed out with an X. The four items are:]

-          I took a shower today.

-          I cleaned my house for the first time in weeks today.

-          I’m going to stop drinking for a while.

-          I’m exhausted and I’m going to bed.

It’s not ‘the letter of a lifetime,’ but it’s a start. I hope you’re well and that your students aren’t giving you too much of a hassle. Can’t be as bad as slaying a whole camp of goblins, right? [Here there was a small doodle of a goblin head, X’s for eyes and tongue sticking out, laying in a pool of blood next to a sword.]

I look forward to hearing from you. Take care of yourself, please.

-Tav

P.S. I’m working on my handwriting. I’m sorry if any of this is illegible. Not really a subject that was covered in “Bhaalspawn University.”

[At the bottom of the letter was drawn a curvy vine with leaves, flowers, and flower buds.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Gale swallowed thickly as he held the letter in his trembling hands.

‘She did it. She actually wrote, and it wasn’t full of anger and insults. It was a real, honest-to-the-gods attempt at talking.’

His eyes shimmered as he re-read two lines over and over again:

-          You didn’t deserve that.

-          I don’t deserve you.

His heart ached as he pondered the fact that she thought so little of herself. It made him remember his inner monologue after the debacle with Mystra and the orb. All Gale told himself for a year was that he’d made mistakes so huge that no one should have to ever bear the burden of his presence again. Anyone who showed any affection towards him, platonic or otherwise, was a fool who was wasting their time. They’d just end up being let down by this depressed shadow of a former Archmage. Knowing that Tav was the one now who truly felt she wasn’t deserving of forgiveness or mercy brought tears to his eyes.

He felt a bit lighter, however, at the implication that she even cared whether or not she was worthy of him. Not only cared, but was taking bolder steps forward. She’d apologized, she’d wished him well, she’s taking care of herself… Then it dawned on him that she’d gotten so low that a task as mundane as taking a shower was to be celebrated on a list of positive things.

Oh, did he remember that pit of despair well. He’d spent a year down at the bottom of it. Cut off from all outside contact, forgetting (or refusing) to eat, going days, even a week or more without bathing because he didn’t have anyone to see anyway. No point in expending the energy.

Now, however, Gale was at least teaching. That had kept him going. Even if he didn’t interact with many people outside of Blackstaff Academy, he was still getting dressed, going to a place with other people, and teaching Faerûn’s youth to harness and control the Weave.

But what of Tav? How often was she seeing others? It seems she had relocated after all. The return address is listed in Daggerford, a town not far south of Waterdeep full of retired adventurers, artisans, craftsmen, and farmers. A relatively quiet place compared to Baldur’s Gate, but still a city with plenty of opportunities. (And only a three-, maybe four-day travel from Gale. That would explain how easily she ended up in Waterdeep in the marketplace on that cold, rainy day…).

He remembered her telling everyone how much of a hero she’d been at the reunion party. What happened to her adventuring? Would she even be home enough for their letter-writing to be consistent? She’d made no mention of her activities, that was something he’d want to follow up on. As much as it would have previously brought him satisfaction to see her put in her place for everything she’d said, cut off from others and alone, now it just caused an ache in his chest.

The threads of his bitterness and rage had already begun unraveling. He’d been letting the truth sink in since the reunion: Tav had acted reckless and lashed out because she was scared. Scared of losing him. The thought of him abandoning her for Mystra or for godhood drove her to seek pleasure in someone else. Yet he hadn��t bothered to get to the root of the problem at the time. All he knew was that he had his heart broken. He had been betrayed. He had been ‘abandoned.’

He sighed heavily as the pangs of grief and remorse started to take hold. What a fool he’d been. A self-centered, arrogant, quick-tempered fool. But he shook those thoughts out of his head. This wasn’t the time to keep dwelling on what he had or hadn’t done in the past. Where the ball of anger had resided in his chest, just as roiling and hungry as the Netherese orb had been, he felt the tension had begun to break apart. There was still much healing to do, but now there was a little room for the patience and understanding he’d wished he’d displayed before.

He re-read the letter again, chuckling lightly at her doodles and scratches. Her handwriting had much improved, she gave herself too little credit. It was good to see she still had her silly sense of humor as well. She hadn’t been completely robbed of her beautiful qualities.

Draining the last sip of wine in his cup, he arose from his spot on the balcony and walked inside to sit at his desk. One thing nagged at him before he could start writing his response, though. Underneath the bottom list where she said she didn’t deserve him, she’d written something and then furiously scratched it out. He thought he might know what it said, but didn’t want to get carried away if he was wrong. Holding the letter carefully in front of the lit candle on his desk, he stared at the scratches, trying to piece together the words underneath. His breath caught when his eyes brought them together:

‘I still’

I still… Still what? I still hear the voice of the Dark Urge? I still won’t forgive you?

No. Given the context of what was said and the direction they were going, it had to mean only one thing. He would only allow himself to think it was one thing.

‘I still love you.’

Hoping with everything he had that it was true, he took another deep breath and pulled out a scroll from his desk drawer. It was his turn now.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dear Tav, [In small writing to the right of the greeting, it says (my ‘fancy paper’ is at the academy) with a winking face doodle.]

Sometimes I think I’d prefer a good goblin massacre to a room full of hormonal teenage wizards learning to control a firebolt spell, but each day is a new adventure, after all! [After this sentence, Gale had doodled a flame, his head/hair with wisps of smoke, and in small writing with an arrow pointing to the drawings, (I tried).]

Thank you for your thoughts, and especially for your apology. I can’t in good conscience say that everything is forgotten, but I fully believe we are on the right path forward.

I would also like to apologize, because you deserve it. You are so much more deserving than you think you are of kindness, understanding and, yes, when I am able, forgiveness. I understand, likely better than anyone else you might know, how strongly self-loathing can take hold.

Which is why I want to tell you that I’m proud of you. I don’t know what you’ve been up to in recent months. I heard you telling the others about some adventuring opportunities, but I gather from your letter that self-care had gone by the wayside. I’m proud and happy to hear that you’re starting to focus on yourself. Yes, I agree with you: showering, cleaning, limiting alcohol intake, and even being tired enough to go to bed are all good things. I hope you continue being kind to yourself.

Admittedly, I’d fallen into a similar rut. While I get plenty of social interaction at the academy, my extra-curricular life has been…non-existent. I come home to my tower, I usually remember to eat, I grade papers, stay up entirely too late researching, and then attempt to get enough sleep to repeat that schedule ad nauseum. The cleanliness of my home, and myself, had been sorely neglected. But as you are focusing on self-improvement, I shall endeavor to do likewise.

Speaking of self-improvement, that’s where the letter-writing idea came from. Rather, through Tara’s efforts to help me during my year of isolation. She’d suggested I do some journalling to write out my thoughts and emotions regarding Mystra. Not only to get them to stop rolling around in my head, but to be able to articulate them. It did help, quite immeasurably, in fact. That’s why I’m so thankful you’ve agreed to this in the first place. I feel like it will serve us well. [A filled-in purple heart was drawn here.]

Actually, I can’t tell you how many letters I started writing to you in the last six months. I really did try. It just always felt…wrong, somehow. Like it wasn’t the right time, or my words weren’t sincere, or they’d fall on deaf ears. But I’m so glad we’re ‘talking’ now. I’ve missed you, Tav… [A filled-in but broken purple heart was drawn here.]

Tell me what you’ve been up to! Tell me your thoughts. Tell me any and everything you want to. I’ll be waiting to take it all in.

Yours,

Gale

[To the left on the bottom, Gale had drawn an open book with an ink pot and a quill. In the middle on the bottom, Tara had been drawn, wings outstretched, lying down, eyes closed, with a small note: (Tara’s sleeping on my desk and she’s adorable!). On the right under his signature, Gale drew a wand with sparkling stars and a curved line of weave making a flourish.]

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dear Gale – [Here, she had drawn a wand with stars similar to the one he’d put by his name in his letter]

Thank you for saying that you’ve wanted to talk this whole time. That makes me feel so much better. I never put quill to parchment, but I started countless letters in my head. Like you said, it just never felt right. [After this, Tav drew a scroll, an ink pot, and a quill.]

This does feel like the right path at the right time, but to be honest, Gale…I’m scared. I’m scared to put everything on the table again. With how much I got we got hurt last time we allowed ourselves to be vulnerable with each other, I can’t go through that again. Nor do I want you to go through it again. [Tav had drawn two filled in broken hearts after this paragraph.]

It humbles me to think you feel I’m deserving of good things. Truly. I don’t feel like I am, so I suppose it’s good that someone in this world does. Your encouragement in taking care of myself is unexpected, but ultimately not surprising. That’s just who you are. I’m thankful to hear that you’re taking it upon yourself to improve as well. [Here, Tav had drawn some grapes and cheese on a plate, and to the right of it, a broom and dust pan.]

I fully understand, however, that you can’t forgive me, at least not yet. (I wouldn’t forgive me either.) Hopefully I can begin to earn it over time. I’m not going to sit here and defend my actions with trying to find solace in Mizora’s…experience. It wasn’t even fulfilling, if it makes you feel any better. (It won’t, I know you). It was just tricks of the mind and a devil’s words of promises for things I didn’t even desire. (Perhaps the ‘old me’ would have.) I regretted it immediately, yet it has marked me forever.

But I know that how it left me afterwards is not the point. The point is why I let myself go along with it in the first place. I’ve done a lot of thinking in the last months, especially since the reunion. Let me preface this by saying that I am not shifting the blame. I still made the decision to give in. However, after days and weeks of your near-obsession with the Crown of Karsus, I could see that look in your eyes. You couldn’t stop thinking about the power it could offer. Power that we know all too well would only corrupt you and change you. Then, your meeting with Mystra, introducing her back into your life with her deal to get rid of the orb for the crown… I could feel you slipping away from me.

[On the left side by the words Crown of Karsus, Tav had drawn the crown with a big ‘X’ through it. Near where Mystra is mentioned, she drew a scared ‘Mystra,’ identified as ‘witch bitch,’ being threatened by Tav with a dagger.’]

What I should have done was keep talking to you, seeking reassurance. I should have spat in Mizora’s face and told her to get the fuck out. [In this area, Tav drew herself spitting in Mizora’s face.] I should have sought solace in your embrace, in your words, in your love… But one thing I need you to understand: I was brought up my whole life to be let down. Every success came with a defeat. Every win came with a loss. Every gift came with a sacrifice. You were the most important gift I will ever have in this world or the next. I was positive I was going to lose it, so…I don’t know. I think maybe I wanted to push it from myself first before it was taken outside of my control? Mizora approaching me with her “offer”… She knew exactly what she was doing: giving me an “out” that she knew I would take because I was at my most vulnerable.

For all my accolades being a “Hero of Baldur’s Gate” and savior to many, I clearly didn’t have the strength to stand up to her temptations. I let her use the fact that I have major trust issues to weasel her way into my deepest fears and exploit them. I didn’t have a chance. It doesn’t excuse my actions, but I hope it at least explains them.

I’m running out of parchment. You asked what I’ve been up to. If it’s of any comfort, things are going well enough. I’m eating mostly regularly, I’m keeping up with the chores, and I’m even starting to finally organize some garden space in the yard. I’m trying to spend some time outside every day, and I’ve replaced the wine with various teas. They’re small steps, but they’re steps.

I don’t know if I’ve gotten us closer to any kind of resolution, but hopefully my words can fill in some of the gaps. I look forward to hearing your response.

Thank you, by the way, for giving me something to look forward to again.

I’ve missed you too. Very much so.

Humbly yours,

Tav

[At the bottom left of the page, she drew a cup of tea]

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dearest Tav, [to the right of the greeting, it says in smaller writing (I apologize for the condition of this letter. It was rather difficult to write.) The letter is littered with smudges where tears had fallen and letter had been re-written over them.]

As I wrote my last letter and have been pondering your response, it weighs on me just how grave a mistake I also made. The blame for our downfall does not fully rest with you. (Let me finish…)

Feeling like you’re not worthy, like you made too big of a mistake to recover from; you know how familiar I am with those thoughts. Looking back, this means I should have been the one who was there for you the most. Yet I wasn’t. I was the furthest one away.

I agree with you that my anger was justified. I’d felt like I’d been told I wasn’t enough for you, which is exactly what I feared from the beginning. In my mind, you had openly told the entire world that Gale Dekarios, fallen Archmage of Waterdeep, scorned by Mystra herself, could not, in fact, make you or anyone else happy. You had to go find your pleasure elsewhere.

Where my mistake lies is in never stopping to think how much you had to have been hurting in order to find solace in Mizora in the first place. I don’t think I even gave you the chance to confirm you hadn’t been possessed, quite frankly. It’s no wonder your defenses went up immediately. My reaction, while potentially understandable, was absolutely awful.

I am so sorry that I never gave you a chance to talk things through before letting my hurt and rage take over. What I should have done was walk away and screamed into the void instead of at you before hearing any kind of explanation. I suppose I figured there would never be one good enough. Never did I think until recently that I could have possibly had something to do with you feeling pushed in that direction. I should have been more reassuring. I should have given you no reason to doubt my love for you and my dedication to you.

The possibilities that came with the crown had taken over my waking thoughts, and even infiltrated my dreams. Providing an eternal life without conflicts for both you and I sounded like the perfect solution, and I became hyper-focused. You had tried telling me that you were scared, that you didn’t want me to lose my humanity. I just still thought I was smarter and had this whole grand plan all figured out and you would realize it eventually.

[Before the next paragraph is drawn an infinity symbol, a heart nestled into the loops on either side.]

But I didn’t do enough to put your mind at ease. I didn’t help you understand that I wouldn’t have actually left had it come down to choosing between you and the crown. I never, never would have left you, Tav. As I shouted rather rudely before, I only ever truly wanted you. I assumed you knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt, so I didn’t spend any time reinforcing it. I let my focus drift too far. Then, I left you scared and alone afterwards with no chance to explain. I, the ex-Chosen and ex-lover of a goddess, from whom he should have learned humility after his hubris, the man to whom you showed so much kindness and understanding and support when anyone else would have run in the other direction, I couldn’t even show a fraction of that back to you.

Taviela, my heart, I am so, so incredibly sorry that I wasn’t there for you. When you pulled me from that portal and later heard my harrowing tale of foolishness and desperation, you stood by me. You took care of me and encouraged me, and I threw that back in your face at the first opportunity. It will be a long time before I can forgive myself for that. But I humbly, honestly, and hopefully ask if you could ever forgive me. I understand if you cannot, but know that I will spend the rest of my life proving myself to you.

Please keep telling me your thoughts, Tav. I want to hear them. I need to hear them.

Repentantly yours,

Gale

P.S. I’m far too emotional at the moment to do many little doodles, but yours warm my heart. Please keep doing them. [A filled in heart was drawn here. He had also drawn a simple version of the wand and stars under his name.]

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

My Dearest Gale, [Across the top of the page was a wand, a wavy line of weave, and small stars.]

I’ve been staring at this parchment for at least an hour, but I haven’t been able to write anything until now. I’m sobbing at your words. Your insight about everything I put you through, the weight of what happened after all your hurts and insecurities from Mystra and the orb, the fear of being inadequate to me… That weight is almost too much to bear. I’ve berated myself for months now for hurting you, but the full impact never hit me until I read it in your words. I want to fall on my knees and cry at your feet and beg for mercy. But how could you possibly ever forgive me? I’m sorrier than you will ever know for allowing you causing you to feel that way again.

Also, to think that you are taking any of this upon yourself so strongly, I really don’t know what to say about that either. I still feel like this is all due to my deficiencies. My weaknesses. My fuck-ups. But I can understand where you’re coming from, wanting to take some responsibility. All I’ll say is that there is nothing to forgive anymore. I hold no more ill will towards you. We both acted like children throwing tantrums, but we were each already pushed to our limits and didn’t stop to think about, well, anything, really.  [Tav had drawn 5 filled in hearts here, along with writing (I don’t know what else to doodle here because I’m also emotional).]

It feels cheap to keep coming back to my upbringing, but it’s an unfortunate reality where I’m concerned. Everything was always a bitter fight of either words or daggers. There was no real “communication” to speak of. There were no “feelings” shared. It was all cruel lessons with harsh punishments. ‘Be a bitch, or get walked over’ was something I told myself a lot. I never truly learned to stop and step back and give things time to breathe. Putting myself in another person’s shoes is something I’ve forced myself to learn, especially during our adventures.

I have a confession to make. When I (literally) ran into you in Waterdeep a few months ago, it wasn’t just happenstance. I’d come there with a purpose. The downward spiral had begun weeks prior and I was nearing rock bottom. I came to look for you. To see if you were possibly even half as miserable as I was without you. I was certain you would be, and that it would give me a reason to approach you. We would be on common ground and might actually be able to talk. [On the right side of the page, Tav had drawn an open book sitting in a puddle of water in the rain. On the pages of the book it said ‘I’m sorry about the books.’]

But then I saw you. You were in the marketplace, smiling, making small talk with the merchants, even laughing with them. You looked full of life. You looked like you were doing just fine – without me. My heart dropped into my shoes and I’d considered just walking away, never letting you see I was even there. But something in me snapped. I apparently just had to get in a couple more digs before I walked away forever. That was childish and unacceptable and I’m sorry I put you in that position. (I don’t blame you one bit for the Hold Person spell, for the record. I deserved it.) [Tav had drawn the symbol for the Hold Person spell here, along with Tav approves.]

Please forgive me, but I’m emotionally spent. I think I’ll wrap this up to send in the morning, go sit on the back porch with a cup of tea, and just think for a while.

Still yours,

Tav

[Along the left side of the bottom of the page, Tav drew a small flower garden. On the right side, a cup of tea.]

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

My Darling Taviela, [On the right side of the top of the page was carefully drawn an eternity symbol. Inside each side was a heart – a G written in the one on the left, a T written in the one on the right. Next to it, Gale wrote:] (I’ve been doodling this a lot lately.)

My heart aches for you, for us both. You’re right. There’s nothing to forgive anymore. We were both stretched so far beyond our limits, no wonder we broke down. We both have acted out of turn, we both have put ourselves through the wringer, and we both built impossibly high walls around ourselves. I’m happy to say that I believe we can push those walls down now. I want to move forward in whatever way we can, even if that ends up being as friends (though judging by your comments, it doesn’t sound like that will be the case, but please correct me if I’m reading the situation incorrectly).

I have a confession for you, in light of your revelations regarding our “run-in” in the marketplace. It was all an act to save face out in public. The laughter, the ‘life’ you say you saw in me, the light-hearted interactions – they were all a façade. I was miserable without you, however angry I was. After that interaction, it got even worse. I felt awful immediately, leaving you standing there shivering in the rain. [Gale had drawn a hand getting smacked by a ruler with words in a bubble outlined in sharp angles: BAD WIZARD!] I couldn’t believe that, even though there was some provocation, that I’d still reverted to such a childish response. I sank further into my depressive state. I almost didn’t come to the reunion with our companions either, actually. It felt like more of an effort to get myself put together than I was capable of. Fortunately, Tara snapped me out of it.

Speaking of Tara, I’ve been working on getting her to be more understanding. I’m sure you have noticed that her protectiveness of me overrides any kind of empathetic nature towards anyone who has caused me even a lick of hurt. But she’s come a long way in understanding both sides of our…predicament. I’ll keep at it, for both of our sakes. [A trail of small paw prints was drawn after this.]

I’m pleased to say that I’ve been keeping up with the cleaning, [on the right side of the page, Gale doodled a robed hand holding a sparking wand next to two balls of dust that look like rabbits. Underneath was written, (dust bunnies).] I feel like I finally have a handle on my students and my lesson-planning, and I’ve found joy in cooking meals again. Too much time is being spent grading sub-par assignments in the evenings, I’ll admit, but it comes with the territory. My heart has been all the lighter in the last couple of weeks, and it’s all thanks to you: your words, your patience, and willingness to work on…well, us.

What have you been up to lately? Any more adventuring opportunities coming your way? Are you doing any traveling? I wonder if there’s any chance our paths might cross in the near future.

I’ll admit, my mind has been wandering to thoughts of seeing you again. I miss the warmth of your embrace, the sparkle in your smile, the feeling of home when I look into your eyes – I feel like a part of me has been missing since our falling out.

I was actually thinking… What would you say to coming back to Waterdeep for a proper visit?

Take care of yourself, my darling [a filled-in heart was drawn here]

Gale (no fancy drawing in my name this time. Just me, missing you.) [above this, Gale had drawn a side profile of himself from the chest up, looking down, eyes closed, a tear falling from his eye.]

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The letters had been going back and forth at a regular, weekly pace. It was about six weeks after the reunion, which already seemed like forever ago. They had come so far, and his words made her realize that she missed him more than she knew was possible.

However, when Tav saw the last question in Gale’s letter, she froze. Her chest tightened and her breath quickened. She got dizzy, her hands shook, and her mind raced, tears threatening to overflow onto her cheeks. She was having a panic attack.

She threw the letter in her top desk drawer, slammed it shut, ran down the hall, and pulled the lever for her shower without bothering to warm the water first. Fully clothed, she stood underneath the cold deluge until her breathing slowed and she could process her thoughts.

The nausea was back. She sat on the floor on a towel and just let the water drip off her. Tucking her knees up to her chin, she stared at the wall and focused on her breathing. She wanted nothing more than for Gale to walk in the room right now, pick her up, and hold her in his lap, caressing her hair and whispering comforting words to her until she felt better. But as much as she wanted to feel his arms around her, to smell his scent, to run her fingers through his hair and more, she was absolutely terrified.

All she could think of as she started rocking back and forth was that she was going to end up hurting him again. She cried and cried until she resigned herself to lying down on the floor and crying herself to sleep, shivering in her damp clothes.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A week went by and there was no response from Tav. Gale tried to brush it off, attempting to convince himself that perhaps she had gotten a chance to do some traveling, and was running behind sending her letter.

Nine days went by and his resolve started to falter. He replayed every word in his head that he’d written in his last letter. Was he moving ahead too fast? Did he assume too much? Did he push her too far? He ached to see her, to hear her voice, and to comfort her. But he could NOT let himself fuck things up again…

On the tenth day, he sent just a short message in hurried writing, requested for the utmost urgent delivery.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tav,

I’m truly, deeply sorry if I’m pushing you too far. You don’t have to answer the last question. We can continue just writing if that’s what makes you comfortable. I’ll do whatever you need, but I cannot, I will not lose you again.

Please, talk to me, my love.

Gale [A filled in heart was drawn after his name.]

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sleep never found him that night. He let his brain run through every worst-case scenario it could come up with. Tears were still crawling down his face every so often as he saw the faintest colors of the dawn coming to greet the eleventh day. Thank the gods he had the next couple of days off for Midsummer…

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

On the afternoon of the twelfth day, Tav’s response arrived. Gale didn’t even go back inside or shut the door. He ripped open the envelope and tried to steady his breathing as his shaky hands held her letter. He let himself take a deep breath and fall back against his door frame as he read:

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

My precious Gale,

I am so very sorry for the delayed response and for making you worry. I don’t know what came over me, but when I saw you asking to see each other again…I panicked. I had a full-on panic attack, after which, I slept for days. I lost all track of what day it was or how much time had gone by. I kept picking up my quill and the words just wouldn’t come. I’m so sorry. Your words in the message I received today snapped me back out of it. Thank you for checking on me. [A filled-in heart was drawn here.]

Gale, I can’t bear the thought of hurting you again. I’m not saying that I don’t want to see you. Believe me, nothing would make me happier. My dreams of getting to be near you, to hold you again, to be held by you, they are my greatest source of comfort. But we haven’t spent any time together in person since the reunion, and we spent months before that acting like completely different people.

What if we can’t change, Gale? What if seeing each other brings out all the anger and spite again? I can’t forgive myself, even if you have. I don’t know what to say – I can’t lose you again either, I won’t survive it. And I fear that I will become upset by something and fall back into my old ways of dealing with arguments: with juvenile pettiness and venomous words. I’m so scared…

In fact, I’m going to deflect now so I don’t dissolve into another panic attack.

To answer your other questions – honestly, adventuring hasn’t happened in a while. I was being truthful at the reunion when I said I’d been adventuring and helping people. But coming back from Waterdeep is when I started to shut everyone out. My house descended into chaotic messes that I didn’t have the energy to clean, I stopped eating regularly, I was drinking at least a bottle of wine a day, and I slept all the time. I have enough money set aside that I can get away with not working for quite a while, but that won’t last forever.

The gardening is going well now though! I haven’t killed so much as a tomato plant! I’m growing flowers and selling bundles here and there. I’m also growing my own vegetables and some fruits, though I haven’t begun selling those yet. I’m getting the itch to start baking, however… I’ve found a great deal of fulfillment in creating (growing) some kind of life now instead of dwelling on the memories of taking it. [Along the left side of the page, she drew a tomato plant crawling up the side. Along the right, she drew a plate of danishes and a cup of tea.]

I’m so sorry again for worrying you. I just froze because I don’t want you to get hurt. I’ll get this sent to you as quickly as I can, but please tell me your thoughts. I’m hoping your insight can be of some comfort.

With all my heart,

Your Tav

[At the bottom of the letter, Tav drew the same symbol Gale had been doodling on everything he could: the eternity symbol with the hearts in the middle, one with a G, one with a T. Next to it, she wrote:] (I tried… Yours looks much nicer.)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

My sweet Taviela, [Their infinity symbol with hearts and their initials was on the top right.]

Thank you for explaining the reason for the delay. I completely understand, and I’m sorry to have caused you to panic. If I may offer some encouragement, however, perhaps I can help quiet your heart.

Neither of us are under anywhere near the amount of pressure and stress that we were at the time back in Baldur’s Gate. We are taking care of ourselves now as individuals, fully independent of others, and neither is a crutch for the other. This bodes well for quelling any fears of being too dependent on each other for our own good.

We’ve seen what damage can be done by careless words and actions, and we’ve walked back from that ledge – together. Now we’ll be more aware of the warning signs should we become frustrated with each other again. We’ve talked about what we can do to avoid arguments in the future, like walking away for a breather, should we need to. Lest you have any unrealistic expectations, please remember that we will become frustrated with each other and we will likely have some arguments. That’s only natural for any two beings that have a close relationship. But we have some experience now and wisdom gained. I truly believe that we can be better for each other. We can change. Together. [A filled in heart is drawn here along the left side of the page.]

If you are comfortable thinking about the possibility of visiting, I have a proposition for you. Some simple guidelines that will help keep us in check as we try spending time together again, under completely different circumstances.

-          I will get you set up in a lovely room at The Yawning Portal for one week. The bartender owes me a favor for clearing out some riffraff a few weeks ago. Then you can have a place you feel comfortable retreating to without feeling trapped in my tower, should you wish to get some space.

-          So as to not put too much pressure on either of us too quickly, we can have a date each day, but we don’t spend the entire day together (at least not every day). It may be midsummer, but I still have regular responsibilities with the academy that I need to see to. Besides, that will give us time to individually reflect on our time together and how we’re feeling.

-          At the end of the week, we can talk about how things have gone and what direction we should go at that point. We won’t pressure each other, and we’ll agree that we won’t be disappointed if one person needs more time than the other. Above all, we need to make sure our friendship stays in tact.

So, what do you say? Look! I even got Tara’s stamp of approval! [On the side of the page is an ink pawprint.] (Do you have any idea how much convincing it took to get her to put her paw in ink? I owe her tuna for weeks…)

I won’t pressure you, but if you’re amenable to this plan, we can do this as soon as you’d like – even next week. Having said all that, if you still want to take things slower and keep writing letters for now, I will fully support that decision and be delighted to keep doing so.

If you will allow me, however, I would like to make one last plea: I want to see you, Taviela. I need to see you. My heart aches for you and my arms feel so painfully empty without you in them. I long to curl my fingers into your hair, to hear your contended sighs, to be lit up inside by your laughter, and, when you’re ready, to make love to you and cover you in affectionate, healing kisses until every hurtful word we’ve ever exchanged is erased from memory itself.

I know you’re scared, my darling. But I believe in us. I believe things will be different this time around. I hope and pray to every god and goddess who will listen that you can find it in your heart to take the risk.

Come here to me, my love, and we can keep walking our way forward - together. [A filled in heart is drawn here.]

I eagerly await your reply, whatever it may be.

Yours always,

Gale [A doodle of a wand surrounded by stars is by his name.]

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tav’s hands trembled. Gods, she missed him so much it physically hurt. Especially now that she knew how much he was missing her as well. Sitting at her desk, she re-read his last full paragraph with tears flooding her vision and heart filling her chest, not to mention a familiar heat between her thighs. She knew at that moment that her desire and her renewed trust in Gale Dekarios FINALLY outweighed her fears. She didn’t even need to think about her response. It was short and sweet:   

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Gale, my love, [Their eternity/hearts/initials symbol was drawn on the top right.]

I’ll set out tomorrow by horse from Daggerford and will arrive at the Yawning Portal on Sunday evening around dinner time. I sincerely hope your arms will be waiting for me, because I’ll be rushing into them the moment I see you. [A filled-in heart was drawn in.]

Just don’t be holding a stack of books this time… [ Tav had drawn a doodle of a winking face here.]

Yours always,

Tav

P.S. I doubt we’ll be waiting long for those healing kisses… I know we’re going to space out our time together, but stay with me the first night? Help me “settle in” to Waterdeep? [Tav sketched a set of lip prints in the bottom right.]

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tears fell from Gale’s eyes, but happy ones this time. He could tell his cheeks were flushed too from her “P.S.”… He laughed at her jab about the books, then folded up the letter and brought it to his lips, kissing the edge she would have folded with her soft hands.

He had planning to do. 

[sphnyspinspin]

[ INTRODUCTION ]

>> Be mindful that this will be forever under construction and continuously updated <<

Sup!! Welcome to my blog!! I mostly go by Sphny.This is my Transformers fan blog! I usually just draw, write, review, and reblog about stuff that I like.

Some I, admittedly, like more than others when it comes to this franchise’s wide array of options. These are just the ones that take up larger capacities of my headspace 24/7/365. Hell, this isn’t even all of them.

| Transformers: ONE — AHHHHH THIS MOVIE CHANGED MY LIFE FUNDAMENTALLY—I will never be the same because this movie is such a masterpiece the art, the animation, the writing—OMG THE WRITING—I’m so happy that I was able to see it while in the fandom.

| Transformers: Rescue Bots — Good God, this show was like the very first layer of my TF hyper fixation—not my biggest fixation just my first.

| Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy — THIS SHOW is my biggest fixation it’s so cute and wholesome and clever and fun it is such a good show I love the characters so much.

| Transformers: Robots In Disguise (2015) — Hear me out, this show is actually kinda funny in a non-ironic way I promise, and the designs aren’t half bad.

| Transformers: Prime — Amazingly alien, and I say that with the upmost adoration I can muster, because OMG I seriously regret not appreciating the art and character designs in this show (I hate noses on transformers now).

| Transformers: Cyberverse/Transformers Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures — PLEASE—this show is AWESOME, I praise it for the characters, the story, the character designs, the animation, the EVERYTHING (this is where I personally think Soundrod first originated).

| Transformers: Earthspark — This show, oh my god, I have a love-dread relationship with it; it has so much care-free positivity, an adorable group of characters, nice designs with world-building being amazing so far, but I know for a fact it will destroy me sooner or later (P.S. it already has).

| Transformers: Animated — This show SHOULD be more popular, and it’s the main reason I have my artstyle today (and please don’t bully me but when I found out my fave character dies I stopped watching….. like immediately………. I didn’t even finish season one.

| Transformers: Botbots — This show… Where do I begin… Oh right, literally the TF fandom parody—like I know for a fact that 85% of the characters’ personalities are inspired by random TF tumblr posts, you can’t deny that.

| Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye — I have read zero TF MTMTE comics and I never plan to, because I would actually die from dehydration after crying so much; but the fandom makes me laugh and I like the art.

| Transformers: Lost Light — I have only read three issues of this series—#23, #25, and #27, because they were the only ones available to me (and fyi for in-between comics I just read the TFWikis).

| Transformers: Last Bot Standing — HOLY SHIT—This made me so… so very sad, and at the same time I was ABSOLUTELY INSPIRED, the premise was amazing and the characters were awesome (oh and uh, I didn’t read the actual comics I just read the TFWikis… again).

| Transformers: IDW (2005/2019) — Okay, okay, I might’ve read a few IDW comics but trust me when I say this—I LOVE reading about IDW’s take on Transformers, I’m forever in awe of its storytelling and fandom.

[ ABOUT BLOG ]

#sphny arts (𖦹w𖦹)•*°⊹ is my main tag for all of my original art

#sphny reblogs (𖦹Q𖦹)•*°⊹ is my main tag for any and all reblogs

#sphny speaks (𖦹<𖦹)•*°⊹ is my main tag for small IRL commentary

#sphny answers (𖦹0 𖦹)•*°⊹ is my main tag for when I answer any asks from my ask box

[ DNI ]

Do Not Interact with me, or this blog if you’re an advocate for: Homophobia, Transphobia, TERFs, Sexism, Racism, Proshipping, or Ableism etc.

[ ASK BOX ]

Asks about my art, writings, WIPs, and reviews are very appreciated, I’m honestly not the best at answering them right away, but they’re still appreciated nonetheless.

Requests for art or writing aren’t usually what I like to receive in my Ask Box casually, so in the nicest way possible I will reject any Requests I get from Asks, unless I make it very apparent that I’m opening/seeking Requests.

[ SIDE BLOGS ]

@transformers-bold-bright-brisk is my Transformers-Fan-Continuity blog that I’ve been using for my AU side project(s): Transformers: Roll Call Rescue Recruits and Transformers: Reach Out To Reassemble.

[ SOCIAL MEDIA ]

BLUESKY @sphnyspinspin.bsky.social — I’m loving the vibes here in general 10/10 would recommend to chat in.

CARA @sphnyspinspin — I haven’t used this in a bit, but I like it so far.

TIKTOK @sphnyn23 — I literally only have three TikToks uploaded and they are cringe, please don’t bully me.

INSTAGRAM @sphnyspinspin — I deleted EVERYTHING on here, and I’ve mostly been using it to “interact” with other artists whose main platform is instagram.

[lunamadhatter99]

Pastries

Charlie Weasley x Fem!reader

So... here's a new Charlie fic for you, waiting for inspiration to "overwhelm me" so I can finish the third chapter of my Steddie fic😅 hope you like it❤️

@once-upon-an-imagine here's your tag.

If anyone else wants to be tagged in any Charlie Wealey/Harry Potter related fic tell me🥰

Summary: the library is usually a peaceful and quiet place... sometimes it's not.

Warnings: non-con touching, heavy mention of rape, it might trigger someone so don't read it unless you're sure about it.

The library has always been my favourite place here at Hogwarts. It's quiet and... magical. Quite a bold thing to say considering I'm living in a magical castle, a magical school that teaches us magic.

Regardless, the library has a different kind of magic. Different stories, different adventures and different people to "meet".

It's always been my favourite place, I prefer it to the ball after all...

It's not that I don't like balls... it's simply not my scene.

Charlie, my best friend and boyfriend, doesn't mind it. He knows I sometimes enjoy books more than people, he teases me about it but never makes me feel bad about it. He's more social than me, however, I think he's gonna join me soon.

I look for a book to read and when I find it I go sit down in one of the quieter spots in the library.

I start reading Frankenstein, one of my favourites and I just get lost in the pages as if it were the first time.

I get so lost that I couldn't hear someone enter the library, not until I heard footsteps getting closer.

"Charlie?" I call, but no answer. "Charlie? Is that you?"

"Someone way better, don't worry, babe"

Kyle. God... can't this guy take a hint?

He's been bothering me all year, even before I got with Charlie he constantly asked me out, tried to touch me whenever he could, always leaving notes here and there... some very explicit.

"What do you want?" I ask, trying to hide how nervous I am to be alone with him.

"A girl shouldn't be alone on a night like this, don't you think?" He asks back with a smirk.

"I'm very much okay on my own, thanks," I tell him dryly.

"Where's your little boyfriend? He should be with you" he looks at me up and down walking closer to me slowly "that's not very nice. Leaving you here... alone... anyone could come in here and just take advantage of you"

Realising his intention, I quickly stand up and just go to move away from him, but he quickly catches me and makes me walk backwards until he corners me against the wall, his face's too close to me and even though his hands are not touching me I feel completely stuck.

"This is not funny, Kyle. Let go" I say, even though it comes out shakier than I intended.

"Nor is teasing me as you do" he replies.

"What the-"

"Don't play with my emotions, sweetie. You're breaking my heart here." He pouts "I think you should apologise"

He moves his hands from the wall next to my head to my hips, squeezing.

"N... no... Kyle... please. Don't." I plead while I push his hands away from me, failing.

"Sh sh sh, we're just gonna have some fun, babe."

And with that, he leans down to kiss me and when I move my head to avoid him, his lips simply meet my neck.

I keep trying to push him off, but he doesn't let go.

He just keeps caging me.

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

Charlie's been dancing all night, trying to have fun with his friends, which he had of course, but there was one thing missing.

Her.

Y/n convinced him to stay and enjoy the ball, saying he could've joined her later. But Charlie can't seem to think of anything else except "I wish she was here"

"Go find her, mate," one of his friends tells him. "You've been miserable all night without her"

"I haven't" Charlie defends.

"Sure..." his friend replies with a laugh "go. You've waited long enough"

"Enjoy the rest of the night" he shouts at them as he rushes out of the Great Hall.

He knows exactly where his girl is.

Charlie decides to treat her a little bit, he rushes to the kitchen and asks the elves for some sweets.

"C'mon! You know those are her favourites!" Charlie tries to convince the cooks to let him take some pastries.

"You know you shouldn't be here" one of the Elves playfully scolds him.

"Yeah... but... but she deserves that. Right?" Charlie smirks. "I mean... you all went out of your way to make her that big... huge cake for her birthday. I'd say I'm not the only one caring for her"

"Fine! But only for her, Mr Weasley." The elf tells him to gather some of those delicious pastries she (and Charlie) loves so much. "Go now, before a professor sees you"

"Thanks!" Charlie grabs the food and rushes out, heading to the library.

'Can't wait to see her' he thinks.

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

I don't know how long had passed since Kyle ran away.

I just know I can't move, not because I'm tied up or anything... I just don't have the strength to do that.

He got what he wanted and left... but not without a threat.

"This isn't over." He said.

I try to stand up, everything hurt, but I manage to stand holding onto the desk next to me. My dress is ruined, torn apart by Kyle's disgusting hands.

I'm taking deep breaths to calm down when I hear a voice. I can't understand who that is or what they saying yet.

"Love? You in here?" I freeze when I realise it's Charlie's happy voice.

Shit.

He can't see me like this.

I don't have any time to think of a way to hide though, he immediately finds me.

"Love? I brought some...." he stops, and I can't even turn to look at him "love?"

I feel him walking close and I take a small step back, he stops.

"Y/n, what's wrong?" He asks getting worried.

"I... I was.." I shakily try to speak.

"Love, can I come closer? Is that okay? I won't touch you if you don't want me too, I promise" his sweet tone manages to comfort and calm me a little.

I nod slowly and he walks to me, putting down a small package on the desk.

I recognize it... it's from the kitchen.

Charlie...

"Can I do something? Tell me what I can do and I'll do it" he tells me. "Want me to go get someone?"

"No. Please... " I say looking up at him, at his worried face. "Just... hold me, please?"

He instantly wraps his arms around me careful not to cross any line.

I start to sob, turning around to hug him back and hid my face in his chest.

"I'm here, my love. You're okay." He whispers caressing my back.

"Kyle..." I start and I feel him tense.

Charlie lets me go and helps me sit down, him sitting in front of me holding my hands in his. His full attention is on me, and even though I know he's already furious his expression is still soft and loving.

"Kyle came looking for me here... started to say his usual nonsense." I take a shaky breath "saying things like how I shouldn't be alone on a night like this and that you weren't being a good boyfriend... That he was better."

Charlie gently kisses my hands, I notice his eyes slightly watering. From anger or sadness, I can't exactly tell... maybe from both.

"He then...he... he started touching me and... and then he... did that," I say in between sobs.

"Love..." he gently pulls me closer to him kissing my head reassuringly.

"I'm sorry.." I say.

"No." He pulls away to look me in the eyes "no. None of that. Okay? Nothing of this was your fault. Do you understand?"

I nod weakly.

"Please, say you understand. None. Of this. Was. Your. Fault. Okay?" He urges, still using a sweet tone.

"I... I understand" I say and he nods, kissing my head once again.

"Do you want to get out of here?"

"Please"

"Boathouse?"

I nod.

He gently helps me up and holds my hand ready to walk out.

We don't get too far before he suddenly stops.

"Almost forgot the pastries, love," he says taking a package he put on the desk.

"Are those...?"

"Yap," he says proudly popping the p.

"You didn't have to," I tell him, holding onto his arm.

"You know I like to treat my girl properly"

We walk to the entrance of the castle to get out and finally head to the boathouse, Charlie offered his jacket to help cover my body.

We're almost there when we hear another voice calling for us.

"Mr Weasley? Ms L/n?" Professor McGonagall catches our attention "shouldn't you be in bed by now?"

"I'm sorry, Professor... we're... Uhm..." Charlie starts to explain.

"What happened?" Her demeanour suddenly gets softer. "Ms L/n?"

I look up at her with tear-filled eyes I open my mouth to say something but no sound comes out.

"Want me to..?" Charlie softly asks and I nod. "Stay here, love."

Charlie walks to Professor McGonagall and starts to explain what I told him.

"Are you sure, Mr Weasley?"I hear her ask.

"Yes, ma'am. 100% sure. And it's not the first time he bothers her." Charlie says, getting angry.

"Why didn't you say anything earlier?" She asks again.

"Because we always thought he was just all talk. Also, she didn't want me to do anything, because I'm not gonna lie, professor, if I find him in front of me I wouldn't hold back" he firmly explains.

"I know, Mr Weasley. I wouldn't blame you. The only thing that prevents me from letting you is that you'd most likely get in more trouble than him." She tells him, and her words make me smile a little.

"Does that mean you're gonna do something about it?" Charlie asks hopefully.

"I will, Mr Weasley." Professor McGonagall walks close to me "I'm sorry, ms L/n. I promise you, I'll do anything in my power and make sure there will be consequences"

"Thank you, professor. Thank you" I say, smiling a little.

"Now..." she sighs "I haven't seen you sneaking out. Alright?"

Charlie just laughs and thanks professor McGonagall, who winks at him nodding for us to go quickly.

"Let's go, love"

We quickly walk outside to the boathouse.

Once we get there Charlie builds a sort of fort for us to sleep in.

"You okay?" He asks me while we both lay down.

"Yeah" I softly answered.

"Is... uhm... is it okay..?" Charlie's hesitant to ask, wanting to get closer to me and wrapping his arms around me like he always does when we sleep together.

"I always want you to hold me, Charlie." I get closer to him so he can put his arm around my middle "You're my safe place"

"I'm sorry I wasn't there... I should've-" he starts apologising but I turn around to face him.

"That wasn't your fault either. I don't blame you, I would never. The only one to blame is him" I say and then kiss his cheek.

"He's lucky professor McGonagall will take care of him. If it were for me.."

"Love... I think he would be luckier if you took care of him. I'm not sure you saw the look in her eyes" I chuckle.

"I guess you're right" he laughs "but still if I find him before them... he's done"

"My hero" I smile at him grabbing his hand and interlocking our fingers.

"I try" he smirks then turns more serious "I love you"

"I love you more. And thank you for the pastries."

He kisses my head and then we just lay there together enjoying each other's presence... and the pastries of course.

[redfurrycat]

💕Know Your Tumblr Friends💕

Tagged by @callsign-crow, @itshoneywhatever, @mafiatsunafish, @merryandrewsworld, @perishablealex, @renai-chan in different versions of the tag game, so I just took all the questions and answered them all in one post, if ya don't mind, you lovely souls! 💕

*

Name? Starts with a P. It's a pretty common name where I’m from. (But you can call me Red here 😉)

Were you named after anyone? Nope.

Pronouns? She/her.

Where do you call home? Belgium.

Sign? Aries.

Time? 11h49 (I’m HUNGRY.) (Update. I ate and it was fries and homemade burger).

Fav band/artist? Hans Zimmer (composer). But I love many other composers! I don’t exactly have a fav band or artist as it’s not the kind of music I listen to (OST-Forever-Girl).

Do you have kids? No. I don’t want kids right now, I’ll wonder about that muuuuuch later. (Although I’m a cat mom at the moment.)

Use sarcasm a lot? I do sarcastic quips all the time… xD

First thing you notice 'bout people? Their smile. :)

Eye color? Hazel Eyes.

Scary movies or happy ending? Happy Ending FOREVER.

Special talent? *blank* (Too hungry to think of one... xD)

Your hobbies? To talk about something NOT related to fandom, I like Sudoku and Word scrambled games.

Any pets? It may be shocking to all of you, but I have a she-cat. A red she-cat. *grinning*

First pet? Twas a hamster….:D

Favorite animal? I love felines and birds of prey VERY MUCH.

Cereal of choice? As a kiddo it was Miel Pops, now I do the healthier version of honey cereals when I do eat cereals. And I occasionally eat oatmeal as well.

Are you visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner? All three of them, depends on what is it I’m learning.

Playing any sport? Used to be tennis. Now I do walking and running, and I’d love to swim again!!!

How tall..? Small bean of 1m58.

Favourite subject in school? Latin in secondary school, and my American and British Literature at Uni, as well as all my Law and Judiciary classes. Instructive, especially because I now understand the related news.

Dream job? I don’t even know anymore… I’m completely lost. ☹

Favorite scent? honey and lavender, and strawberry.

Do you believe in astrology? Absolutely not. "Not in any god, not in myths and legends." (Although it’s pretty cool to read about myths and legends! :D *mythology nerd*)

How many playlists do you have on spotify/apple music? 0 because I refuse to use spotify or apple music. :D

Sharpies or highlighters? Both are good!

Song that makes you cry? Songs don’t usually make me cry. However, OSTs do. I’m HIGHLY sensitive to Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron/The Last Samurai/LOTR OSTs.

Last song? Dela by Johnny Clegg (That’s right baby, GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE SONG! :D)

Last series? still ER! (I mean there are 15 seasons or so, and I’m watching season 5)

Last movie? I was in the middle of ‘While you were sleeping’ but couldn’t finish due to stellar internet connection. :(

Song that makes you happy? Ain’t Worried by OneRepublic, Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins, and the Rickrolling Song! xD

Do you write/draw/create? Don’t EVER ask me to draw. I’ve started to write, which I’m still surprised about, I guess you could say I create some Top Gun content as well? Like silly posts about my fav pilots! :D

Currently working on? My Cheerleading Top Gun Sideblog. I’m still in the building process but it’s been fun so far! I discovered or rediscovered REALLY amazing content!!! :O <3 Writing-related? Dr. Goose Bradshaw Series. YUP. THAT’S RIGHT. 😉

When did I create this blog? Dunno…2013/14?

What I post? I reblog A LOT. And I LOVE adding to posts when inspiration strikes! xD Right now? I’ve posted several Top Gun  Recs Lists. (Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick have bewitched me body and soul!)

Other blogs? The Sideblog I was previously talking about can be found at @timetobuzzthefandomtower.

Do I get asks? Very occasionally 😊 (Though I don’t check it very often, so very sorry to anyone who might have sent something, I promise I’ll get back to you!!! <3)

Followers? 246?! (Holy Shit. When did that happen??????? I’ve never checked before! :O)

Average hours of sleep? 8 hours is the best for me, but I sleep less than that I’m sure.

Instruments? Fuck that. I hated the music class during HS. :O 

What I'm wearing rn? Short & T-Shirt. All comfy clothes.

Dream trip? New Zealand. Seems very far away, almost unachievable! xD And, the Vikings Lands. I. WANT. TO. GO. THERE. <3

Favourite song at the moment? Fake ID from Footloose :D

*

NO PRESSURE TAGS!!!

@auprintempss, @bradleybonkbradshaw, @captainclaudeandthehiddenlogs, @hardballoonlove, @missathlete31, @nanny-sc, @scottishaccentsareawesome, @skiddit, @the-ace-with-spades.

I know there are A LOT of questions, feel the heck free to choose which ones you want to answer, IF you want to of course! Have the sweetest of days! <3

[thisliminalspacedaydreams]

Hi, probably weird question, but can you offer any tips on how to co-write, like two different authors working on the same fic? How does that work?

hello there is actually nothing i would rather do let me give you the unabridged version because I think people romanticise it and it's important to be real. I'm going to give you all of my experiences and why I did it and which ones worked and which ones didn't.

HERE IT IS :

2-Let's start with @greenvlvetcouch who was my first duo writing experience. I was heavily part of an online thing at the time and I met him there, and we somehow (I genuinely can't remember how but I think it was me) ended up DMing about something, which actually pretty quickly evolved into me throwing a concept idea into the chat, and it just took off. We ended up losing our minds over the library scene from God Eater and that was that. I had read Zar and Jude's fic where every 15 min they switched (I think??) and I'm not a "minute" writer so I suggested to Green we did 700-1200 words each and pass it back. I also have a background in theatre, and I am part of a improv group in my city so improv games was part of my curriculum and I've always LOVED IMPROV GAMES, especially in small groups. (this is relevant for later). That's how God Eater was written. it happened very organically. We wrote it all in four months, in a doc, and didn't talk about publishing it until we realized that actually it was going to be a thing we were super proud of, that we would want to post it. The writing experience itself had none of the stress of "what if it's bad". We just wrote until we were done with no expectation. There were a lot of inconsistencies we fixed when we were done and TA-DA.

Since then Green has been a writing partner for a lot of published and unpublished works. We have several projects, some which we started and never finished because we lost the interest, some that we might publish, we don't know. I think he and I are aligned on the fact that writing is meant to be this fun thing and if the joy isn't there when writing, then the project dies. We had a LOT of really cool fun projects that only lived inside our mutual DMs and I think it still makes them real and great. They just weren't tangible enough to see the light of day. Green and I's writing process isn't *super* involved. We rarely fangirl over each other's works. I think we've reached a healthy balance of we *know* we love each other's writing, so we don't need to tell each other that. We will when a line slaps particularly well but other than that we mostly just hype the story up which is our way of saying we love working together.

Which is a perfect segway into inthesquare and I's writing process (hi I still don't know if I can tag you so imma send it to you after).

2-I'm currently writing a story with her, and our start was very different. I read this fic from hers and lost my mind. I cried and was very upset, it was such a great story, so I left a comment (as one does). What would you know, a few days later I get a comment on my fic about how she freaked out because she liked *my* work. So we literally met the most organically way possible: through ao3 comments. Then the normal pipeline happened: Tumblr, then Discord, then Whatsapp.

I wrote one fic that felt very much like something she would do and asked her to participate and add bits and bobs, she said yes, I was overjoyed. And then a few months ago I popped in and was like... *you like myths, right?* and TADA we have the amaranth hymns.

The writing process with us is very different. We each write until we're done with a scene (which usually ends up capping at 1500/2000 words-ish). We are posting as we go, we have 0 plan, zero foresight, we're just hoping for the best, rocking with a Pinterest board and voice noting each other at 3am going "hey do what was this thing you wrote and what does it mean?" "oh cool" "and so does this mean that X? Cuz we need to Y then" "Yes, right". We're problem solving as we go, and I think we're both kind of unbothered and unstressed about it: the story will write itself, we're just along for the ride. We also don't really hype each other up (a little ya know, when a line slaps), but we *do* talk about the fic itself a lot, which I think is our way of showing our engagement. We talk about the fic because we like writing it (I have a point to make later on bear with me).

3- You remember how i LOVE improve games, right????? WELL. There is a game called the "yes" game. A scene starts, you have a theme and a concept and you can't backtrack. Whatever the person throws your way you have to work with it....hence the "yes". You can only move forward, never back. That's how Raise Hell was created. I asked a bunch of my friends if they wanted to create a frankenstein fic, some said yes, some said no, and Raise Hell got started. I knew all of these people beforehand, so that made it easier. We still want to finish this fic but ya know, life got away from us.

What ended up happening is that there were no "writing" rule aside from : you must write enough to propel the next person. Give the next person *something* to work with. So what accidentally ended up happening is each person ended up writing a chapter.

Now let's talk about the rest:

As stated before, I love writing with people: I have the bandwith to work on numerous fics at once (it keeps my brain fed and entertained, I like the community of it), I like it, and thus I seek it.

But I think (and THIS is my point) that people romanticise it and it can stress people out. This is what I mean:

I started writing fics with several other writers because *I like it and I seek it and it brings me joy*, but some writers didn't like feeling like they were one in a lineup.

I wrote 30k with a writer and then the story died and we never picked it back up.

I have had two people I was writing with tell me they didn't like it because I wasn't 'involved' enough (by this I think what they meant was that I wasn't showing enough hype and enthusiasm for their writing).

I had one person tell me that our writing didn't match up and it felt weird and they didn't want to continue.

I have had one person tell me I hurt their feelings because I made them feel like their writing wasn't good enough by the way I edited.

I think it's important to mention that co-writing *is* a skill and it's not something that will work for everyone.

I have a graveyard of fics and a few friendships that died because of that, too. I'm not a big hyper. I do edit a lot. I show my enthusiasm in ways that perhaps isn't obvious enough. I don't praise other people's writing that much because in my mind, the fact we're writing together is proof enough that I love their writing, but that actually isn't always enough.

And I think the difficult part of all of this is that writing is a very personal endeavour. When you expose your guts to another person and they do not react the way you want them to, it's not very easy I think to say "Hey, you hurt my feelings because you didn't tell me you loved this and that". That's another layer exposed and because talking about hurt feelings is hard and uncomfortable, sometimes it will drag on and take proportions that lead to broken friendships.

So you do have to be careful.

...But I also don't know how, in the sense that *before* you start writing with someone, you won't *know* how they will react to the duo process.

What I'm saying is it' a gamble and actually I have lost more than I have won, BUT I still don't regret trying. I personally have had good experiences every single time. I have grown and I have learned.

I know for instance that writing with Green and Inthesquare is a great experience because we approach writing in the same way and we are all very confident in our own writing. We like how we write. We like how the other person writes. We know that, we don't feel the need to say it.

But I think I tend to forget that some writers (even really good ones!!) can feel self-conscious about their own writing and need more praise than what I give.

So bearing all that in mind here is my advice:

-Talk about what you need from the experience BEFOREHAND. How much hype, can I edit, how much editing can I do, etc etc. When green and I edit our works, we fully destroy each other's parts. We will go in and add and remove a LOT, to the point where it really becomes kind of undetectable, who wrote what, because we're in each other's lines everywhere. This isn't something that will feel good for everyone. When I write with inthesquare, we *barely* edit each other's work. The separation is much more obvious, and I don't really know why this is? It just is? We just kind of never edited the other person's part. And it works really beautifully, too. My point is these are two very different approach yet there isn't one better than the other, it's just different.

Some people do not like when you tinker with their writing too much. Some people do not like when you tinker with their writing at all. Make sure you know what each person is comfy with.

-Decide on a plan: are we writing each for a set amount of time? Of words? Are we each doing a chapter? The only rule is the one you make up.

-Don't put pressure on the work. See where it goes. If it dies, let it.

-I would advise against posting as you go if this stresses you out. That way if the story doesn't finish, no stress.

-Start with someone who you feel very confident writing with. Someone you know, who knows you, where the communication canals are OPEN. You're gonna need to be able to tell each other if someone does something that wasn't appreciated.

Not all co-writing will end up with a fully fledged fic. Not all co-writing will end up being a good experience. If the person you really want to write with doesn't want to write with you, don't take it personally. It just do be like that.

But I'm the kind of person who really has come to love it, and while I'm a lot more picky now with who I write (because I'd love to like, not lose more friends), I think I will always seek it out, especially with the people with whom it's been a success before. I love, love, loveeeeee writing with my friends. I find it so rewarding and fun and great and I have nothing bad to say about it. I just really, really love it.

And if you've made it till here just know I have ONE fic I wrote with 2 other writers that we published under anon. and it's just out there. Doing its thing.

[cittielinks]

amateur streamer!kdj

Where amateur streamer Kim Dokja who has no idea about gaming mocks the supreme king for losing one match. After mocking him he left the streaming industry thinking that streaming is not his forte. 

The world lost their minds after a nameless streamer mocks one of the best, if not the best gamer in South Korea. The fans went into uproar trying to dox the said streamer, only to realize he only has one stream and then never streamed again. The only indicator they have was the voice, no one knew who the streamer was, what they do

And what idiocy he has for mocking the best. 

Kim Dokja does not know that he had accumulated so much hate after that stream. Not that he cares, he has a job to do from 7-5. 

Currently, minosoft has acquired the best player to endorse their new game.

And surprisingly, Kim Dokja is part of the group that’s gonna make it happen. His work isn’t much just trying to check the spelling and check for the bgms of the game.

When his supervisor beckons him to greet the player ( he has no idea who it was). He greeted him formally, noting that the gamer is tall and handsome and probably has the most killer voice that Kim Dokja would die for. 

As he was tasked to give the player, who was called Yoo Joonghyuk apparently. He took him to their offices, introduced him to all their games giving him

A quick rundown of the new game he’s about to endorse. 

The taller man did not reply, only giving a curt hum, and kept staring at Kim Dokja. 

It’s weird but he does not care, as long as his day is finished, all bullshits are nothing.

When Kim Dokja finally sat down with him to the conference room, Yoo Joonghyuk spoke. 

“I don’t think I can win the game you endorse. I am a loser after all.” 

“I’m sorry? I don’t follow.” Kim Dokja replied, visibly confused as to what Yoo Joonghyuk said.

“I go by the ID game tag, Supreme King. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. You did mock me for losing one game after all.” 

“OH MY GOD—“ 

Yoo Joonghyuk smirked as Kim Dokja’s face paled. He can’t believe he just made fun of the best gamer in the whole world.

“Please take care of me, Mr. Kim” 

And Kim Dokja knew he’s gonna get fucked. ( figuratively and literally)

[waffles-for-brunch]

20 questions for fic writers!

tagged by @lovevamp

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

4. One's an okay oneshot, then I did a fix-it after 15x20, then I lost my mind completely and spent three years on a season 12 rewrite and now I'm back again writing another fix-it. My twilight zone is self-inflicted.

2. what’s your total Ao3 word count?

540,492 (insert kevin james shrugging meme here)

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Just Supernatural. I started writing a fic for Baldur's Gate Bloodweave but then Destiel dragged me back to the dark side. Maybe I'll finish that one eventually.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

they're not gonna be in order bc I'm just gonna go thru my bookmarks real quick but - "And this, your living kiss" by opal_bullets "On labor" by a_good_soldier (i reread this one twice this week) "The Nanny" by Kitmistry and those are the ones i feel like mentioning. :)

5. do you respond to comments?

Admittedly rarely. Mostly because I'll open my email when I'm getting up in the morning and read them and then work all day and forget to respond. I do appreciate all the comments I get tho. And a lot of the really kind ones I send to my groupchat and/or save in a folder on my email labelled "nice comments" also just sometimes I don't feel like I have anything to say. Like idk sometimes thank you just seems too small or something you know. It's strange. Then I'll just get in my head about it and say nothing and the cycle repeats lmao. But I do read them all.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Dog you know I'm not writing any angst without a happy ending. I can't take that shit lmao. It's happy endings only in this house. Happy and found family and loveliness. :)

7. what is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I literally end everything the same way. Please I have the worst case of projection imaginable with these fics.

8. do you get hate on fics?

If I do I'm unaware. But I'd probably know it if I do, I stalk my own name and fics wherever I can because I'm insane and nosey. But nah the most I've gotten is just people being mad about a certain character's actions, but like that's not even hate it's just frustration with a character which is a given in certain circumstances. Now if someone was like "wow bad characterization" I'd be like girl, but no I think people are pretty respectful in my corners for the most part.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

Bro let me tell you in "Our Old Heroes" I wrote like a singular sex scene and like maybe one or two other hot and heavy ones and good god did they take me so long to write. Like I'm not a very sex oriented person in general so writing this stuff out? Bro it's embarrassing how much poetry I put into that in retrospect (i jest, it's fine) but like I don't generally orient towards it just because it's very time consuming for me. It has to be very intimate and just right.

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you've written?

So short answer no, I haven't. Longer answer I love the concept and would be open to it. Particularly if it involves Dean being psychoanalyzed in some way because that's my favorite thing to write so it would probably be criminal minds. I think crossovers have so much fun and wonky potential tho.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope someone printed my fic to bring into prison and make a black market hot commodity. It would be the highest honor. I guess that's not theft, it's just the free market. But so I guess really no, if I have I'm unawares.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I'm aware of but I have had people comment in other languages or on twitter people will talk about it in a different language, which is pretty crazy. It's so wild we can be so connected to a story in that way despite not speaking the same language or growing up in the same environment.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

no! but as @lovevamp has said we've talked about a few that I'm certain one day we will follow through on. I've also talked with @icaruspendragon about maybe doing one at some point bc we seem to have the exact same mental illness that is the dean winchester brain disorder.

14. what’s your favorite all time ship?

I live breathe and bleed destiel, it's truly unfortunate for me.

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I just have a lot of ideas in my docs that will probably never become more than the ideas they are. Usually when I start a fic like for real I follow through with it. I would feel bad if I didn't lol.

16. what are your writing strengths?

I've been told my characterization is pretty good, which I appreciate. If it was bad I'd probably kms (jk). But fr idk that's the biggest comment I'll get is in regards to that which I really do like because I spend a lot of time trying to find a balance and make sure I'm expressing everyone the correct way they'd express themselves or not express themselves.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Sex scenes aside I do struggle with action mostly because I find it boring to write out. You just have to try and find so many different words. Ugh. I love dialogue. That's really where I start getting going. But writing action? I tend to do that last because I wanna get through all the good bits first then circle back and do the boring bits.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

listen I can barely remember english i'm sorry

19. first fandom you wrote for?

i'm an og baby i started here (destiel) and this is where i'll die (maybe not, we'll see)

20. favorite fic you’ve written?

Well, I don't really have many so it's probably the massive one. "Our Old Heroes" by adelaclancy (that's me). I was really in a bad place when I started it and I kind of just gave myself this crazy project for several reasons. One I was stopping drinking so I needed something else to do with my time. Second I was jobless and goalless and really didn't have a lot going for me and writing was really the only thing I have ever had consistently so I was like okay well I'll start this stupid project and it's gonna be like 26 chapters and 500,000 words long and it's gonna delve into all my issues through projection of these fictional characters and if I actually manage to finish it I can finally say I finished something. So I did. And I actually managed to work on myself a lot in the process. So over all that time I went from living in bad straights as an unemployed drunkard to a full time worker with a few years sobriety under their belt and a better sense of my own boundaries and thriving friendships and I dunno man, in a way that fic really was a bridge for me and I think in that too for a lot of the readers they get to see that now too. Like they can see my little notes at the beginning of chapters and how they change over time alongside the characters in the book and it's kind of an experience in that way I suppose. If not through Dean Winchester and Castiel then maybe through me, if someone out there finds a little bit of hope from that silly little mess of words then I suppose that's something to be proud of then, isn't it? Anywho...

tagging: @icaruspendragon

(Bro I know like two people sorry)

[linusbenjamin]

Hey! I loooove your Lost edits so much. It’s my fave show of all time and I love seeing more activity in the tag, thank you ☺️

Your first watch of the show has coincided with my latest rewatch (I’ve just started s3, so I’m a tad behind you). But as someone watching it for the first time I just HAD to stop by and ask how you’re finding it so far and what your thoughts are? Tell me everything! No thought or detail is too small, I love talking about Lost so much 🥲

oh my god thank you so much!!! i just love it when lost fans come by here to say me they love seeing activity on the tag again and they say my gifs made them rewatch the show (i can't check tags cause ✨spoilers✨) it's shocking to see there are very few people who actually gif popular shows like lost, breaking bad etc. and i've even realized there are not any marvel fans anymore like it used to be, i don't know how i feel about this, but i'm glad to contribute 🥹

that's so great! <3 it's so great to see people are still rewatching it after 19 years because that's what this! show! deserves! i didn't know what it was about and after i read it, i said "a plane crashed on an island and some people survived? eh it's not that interesting and so cliche" and later my brother watched it and he was literally obsessed with it and he was very pissed off that i was constantly putting it off. so i started and the first two episodes were the most intense and chaotic episodes i've ever watched in any series 😬 so as i keep watching, i realized i love mystery series (which was sth i've noticed about myself) and i absolutely love science fiction and psychological series. it was so hard to keep so many character's name in mind at first and you know better than me, there are SO many details in such random places that i bet, most people didn't even notice in the first watching 😅 it's like, the smallest thing you saw in a random episode of s1 turns out to be something much bigger in a random episode of s3 etc. 😅 so since i can't see all of the easter eggs, i watch it with my brother mostly who has seen it 3 times and after finishing the eps he says "did you notice that" and then he goes "look there are numbers right there and there's hurley on the tv of the people jin went to kill" etc. 😅 but you know, this series is magnificent and full of surprises and it always ends with killer cliffhangers and now i'm on mid s3 and desmond started to keep saving charlie's ass, i've seen ben and his people, i feel like i'm really into the show and the scifi part of it 😅 i don't know how it will all fit together, you know, everytime roll credits, i'm like "i dunno what i've just watched and how it's gonna play out by the end but it's freaking exciting" 😅 i'm really glad that i'm watching lost at 22 because lost is mostly about life itself, good memories, regrets, personalities, sins and grace, there's always a moral of the story in the end. so, if i had watched it when i was little, i probably wouldn't understand a shit. but now i feel a little more mature and i've been through a few things so the character's stories are a bit more relatable now.

so what i'm most curious about is that, now i'm on mid s3 and i found out claire's father is WHO!!! (freaking out!!! not spoiling this cause there might be someone reading) can you say that i've seen the most of this show OR things has just started and i've seen nothing yet 😂 i can't make gifs a lot 'cause i'm currently busy with life and my thesis but giffing this show is fun, so if you have specific requests, i'm writing which episode i last watched in my pinned post, u can check it out from there ✨ i'm so glad you had to stop to ask me this, lost is going pretty mysterious and chaotic and i'm so thankful for that 😂

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

💥 and 🌕 for any or all WIPs you have!

'Any or all' you say! I'll answer this for multiple, just because I can. Project names in bold are the tags I use for these ones if you want to look them up (and also feel free to ask me about them!), some more talked of than others.

💥 - What is the main conflict of the wip?

taira - The danger of the dragon rising is becoming more and more prominent, especially once Taira the white rabbit exists. Taira and her friends are trying to stop it from happening. [drafted and unedited]

knitting oc - Patience is angry that she has a new adopted sister, and the main focal point of the story is really them getting to know each other and getting along. Two fun facts: one, Patience is one of my older OCs who I've recently realised is unintentionally autistic, and two, that whole story is heavily inspired by Dear Enemy, only platonic and whatnot. [partially planned]

vaniah - Arranged marriage happens (well, to simplify), and they - already good friends - have to work out how to get along in a marriage. Also Emily discovers how terrible Vaniah's self-esteem is, and also many terrible things he's done she never knew about. They kinda pull each other out of their problems in a way. The conflict is much more internal than anything else. [drafting rn]

adira - Adira trying to work out the truth of the world and how it was created and who God is, really. More complicated than that but it can truly be summed up into What is truth? [much draft but mess]

story:wcb - a short story (well, currently 23k and expected to get more like 25k I think by the time I'm finished the final round of editing). The main conflict is that Miriam and Edward are trying to work out what happens after you die. Because (spoilers) Miriam hasn't got long to live. So there are lots of emotions and things. I never meant to get attached to Miriam as a character tbh - she's a background character already deceased by the time Edward appears in Adira's story. But when I was brainstorming short stories surrounding Adira's, this was one of the stories that came to mind pretty quickly. [on second-last round of edits]

story:hiraeth - another short story (13k, from memory), this one dealing with a crisis of faith of a completely different character, after her father loses his faith. It's an extremely personal story to me, as it deals with what I went through (not entirely the same, of course) after two of my siblings (a couple of years apart) lost their faith. [on second-last round of edits]

judastale - a novel still in the planning stages, which I'd intended to write next but I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being my nanowrimo project, since vaniah jumped the gun and I started writing it earlier than I intended to xD It's a Bible-based novel about Judas, from a somewhat sympathetic viewpoint, but - of course - ultimately a tragedy. I intend to remain faithful to the Biblical account, but to add in things to make it human and - yes, if I do it right I expect to end up crying over Judas Iscariot. So far I've written a short prologue and nothing more until I get my notes in order; I really might just wait until November and write it then. [planning]

inklings - I originally began to write this as a short story for the Inklings Challenge, for which I was part of Team Lewis during October last year, using an old OC from when I was in year 10 (who is one of the other 'huh she's autistic' characters lol). The story revolves around Hadassah finding a place for herself in the world, really, but she also goes through a portal to a new world during the story. I've written 8k so far, and she's just gone through the portal and beyond that I've basically stopped because I need to do more planning of what happens beyond the portal. I wrote two shorter stories, one of which is available both here and on my website under two different titles I think lol and the other I'm not yet happy with; both were to submit to fairly local competitions, and surprisingly both were commended in their competitions. I'll probably post the other at least to my website at some point. This story is very dear to my heart; though it started out entirely different, it was directly written when I was in year 10 as a coping mechanism because I didn't have many friends and I couldn't understand why I didn't and why I was always the forgettable one. I still don't understand it entirely, but I've got more used to it, and found more friends who don't forget about me. (And friends who get annoyed by me as well as being friends, but that's just life I suppose.) [partly written and planning]

"Do I have any other wips really right now? Ah yes that other one - nope that's nonfiction and wouldn't suit this question. And that other one - wait no that's literally tagged secret project for a reason. What about that one - silly silly I haven't even opened the Scrivener file for months even though I have edits waiting for it, I can't call it a wip at present."

~

I couldn't see an emoji matching the second one you sent... feel free to either give me a different emoji or clarify which one you wanted, sorry!

Ask me to elaborate on anything of what I've mentioned above if you like!

[nymphs-library]

here goes with a geordi smut because there’s not enough of him-

pairing: geordi x reader

tags: smut! (minors dni), cutie finally being less of a little shit, praise, afab reader but they/them pronouns used, use of telepathy (obviously), what happens after the pool party

synopsis: after getting home from their friend’s pool party, cutie makes good on the teasing they’d subjected geordi to…

———————

briefly, cutie wonders if listening to geordi’s thoughts on the drive home from the pool party counts as distracted driving.

with the way geordi’s thoughts were going a mile a minute, they figured it had to. but they just can’t help themselves. after all, what fun is edging someone in a hot tub if you don’t get to hear their slightly frustrated and definitely horny thoughts?

“almost home…finally…i’m in for it when we get home, aren’t i? yeah. definitely in for it. is that a bad thing though? no, good thing. definitely good thing. fuck, i wish we were home already.”

speaking of which.

“yeah, you’re in for it, hon. don’t worry. i won’t tease too much…”

at the sound of cutie’s voice in his head, geordi seema to be reminded that they were still there listening, and laughs nervously. but cutie doesn’t miss the way his thighs tense.

“forgot they were still there…that’s embarrassing…is it though? i mean they’ve already seen me almost lose my mind not twenty minutes ago…oh my god i almost lost it at a party…god, they’re evil…you’re evil, you hear me?…evil…i love you…still evil…”

geordi’s train of thought slowly began to run off the track as they pulled in, nearly incoherent by the time they’re up the stairs and heading inside. cutie only catches brief words in the jumble, one of which is a quiet call of their name. they turn to face geordi- flustered, red-faced geordi, who is so, so close to their face, waiting for them to close the distance between their lips.

and so it begins with a kiss. sloppy, rushed, desperate, and everything geordi wants. he barely even registers that cutie is taking his hand and leading the two of them back to the bedroom until they’re turning him and the backs of his thighs hit the bed. He crumples at that, taking cutie with him as he falls back on the bed. now squarely on top of him, cutie has a perfect view of the way his chest is heaving. his thoughts are finally beginning to come back together now.

“god they’re so pretty…so pretty…on top of me…can’t- o-oh, oh, that’s-“

when they straddle him and take the opportunity to grind down onto him, geordi’s head tosses back and a choked gasp escapes his mouth. of course he’s still sensitive from the devious teasing he’d endured at cutie’s hands. but cutie knew that he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“geordi,” they coo at him. “geordi, baby, look at me…”

obediently, his eyes flutter open and find cutie’s, holding their gaze.

“how do you want me?” cutie asks, as if it were some trivial question.

the maelstrom of thoughts and images that flood geordi’s head nearly makes cutie cover their ears reflexively.

“can’t choose, can’t choose…love it when they’re on top of me like this…love it when they’re under me too…or that one time on their side, oh…oh god, or their mouth…no, no, want them close…need this, need them…just like this…on top of me…”

cutie has their answer. geordi only watches like a lovestruck idiot as they pull their shirt over their head, climbing off of him briefly to shed the rest. he takes the hint after they climb off, though, shucking his own clothes and discarding them on the bedroom floor along with theirs. the moment they were both finished, cutie is all over him, straddling him, pressing their lips to his hungrily.

their lips travel down his jaw, over his neck, and geordi grips their hips tight.

“god, they know what that does to me…i know they know…fuck, but it’s so hot…love them like this, love their body, love them. love you-uoh, oh, fuck-“

“love you too,” cutie replies out loud without thinking, the words murmured against the skin of his neck just before their teeth turn it dark and mottled with love bites. it almost distracts him from the sudden, overwhelming feeling of them sinking down onto him.

almost.

a loud cry comes from geordi, his back arching the tiniest bit as his grip on their hips grew tighter. “O-oh, oh, fuck, cutie, th-that’s-“

they don’t bother to let him respond before raising their hips and dropping them. cutie starts a rhythm as geordi’s cries grew louder, a soft moan falling from their own lips at the feeling of him inside them. geordi manages to finish his sentence.

“s-so good, shit…”

“swear I could listen to your sounds all day,” cutie grits out between bounces. “so pretty, sound so pretty for me…”

geordi’s only response to that is a whine, another sound that joins the symphony of heavy breaths and the sinful sound of skin on skin. his grip on them tightens.

“fuck, love it when they call me pretty…”

“yeah, i know you do. that’s why- mm! why i say it. gotta- ah…gotta remind you…”

cutie’s pace is getting faster, and geordi feels his ability to form coherent thoughts slipping away into oblivion.

“l-love you so mu-uh! so much!” he manages.

cutie stares down at him with nothing but adoration in their eyes, soft pants coming from their mouth. “love you t-too, my pretty boy, so p-perfect…”

for geordi and cutie, it feels like the whole world slows, suspends the spinning of her axis just for them. time means nothing when they’re lost in pleasure, and each other. the second it takes for cutie to roll their hips in a way that hits that sweet spot within them and sends geordi’s head reeling at the same time seems to be drawn out into half an hour, every bit of sensation ingrained in their brains. so for the two of them, the sudden tension in their bodies threatening to snap is almost a surprise, something that brings them down from the clouds a bit.

geordi stutters out “close-“ between whines at nearly the exact moment that cutie moans out “fuck, geordi, so close.” say what you want about geordi (granted, probably not without incurring cutie’s wrath), but god, cutie thought, is his stamina amazing.

“it’s- mmh, it’s okay, b-baby, l-let go.”

geordi only nods frantically, hips bucking up into cutie’s in a desperate bid to fall over the edge that he’s been worked up to. and all the while, cutie is lost in pleasure and thoughts of how much they love him, one of their hands smoothing his hair away from his forehead.

it hits them both like a shock straight to the spinal cord. both tense up, cutie trembles, and the debauched sounds from the two of them’s mouths entwine themselves like a pair of ivy vines up a trellis. it’s a good few seconds before they’re coming back from oblivion, pleasure still clouding their minds. geordi’s voice breaks the near-silence, tired but clearly satisfied.

“if this is what comes with pool parties, sign me up for the next one,” he jokes, and cutie swats his shoulder lightly. The gesture is paired with a radiant smile, though. “You’re lucky you’re cute,” is the thought that pushes its way into geordi’s head, echoing in cutie’s voice.

“I love you.”

“I love you most.”

[butternut-zippersqaush]

CH3: DBKS Return

Authors Note: So glad that people are enjoying the story so far!! Ao3 wont be ready till the end of the month, I decided to post chapter 3 here for you guys for the time being. This will be the last chapter I post on here, but I’ll be using tumblr to post updates and such for when I finish writing more parts. I’ll try to reorganize the page too for easier navigation later. The chapters quite lengthy, as it starts merging the reader into the main storyline.  Apologies for any writing errors, but otherwise enjoy!

Previous Post!

With the start of the new day, you felt much better waking up knowing that you finally had something to do. After getting ready, you texted MK that you were on your way. The city in the morning was surprisingly pleasant, as you watched the flow of cars and people pass by through the bus windows. Originally the thought of such busy traffic overwhelmed you, but it didn’t seem as bad when you took public transport. It was a good idea to leave your car in the care of one of your neighbors.

Once you arrived at the shop, MK immediately coddled you with attention, ecstatic to be your personal tour guide. You wave politely to Pigsy, who was preparing the orders MK would be delivering on your trip. The same man was sitting at the counter, who was quickly introduced as Tang by your new companion. After exchanging pleasant hellos, you offer to assist in carrying the orders to the small vehicle that was used for deliveries. 

“I just can’t wait to show you around! There are so many places around here that I’m sure you’ll love, like the arcade, the movie theater, and the cool clothing stores and cheese tea stalls..” MK rambles on to you while starting the engine and driving, with you securely on the seat next to him. “And I should totally introduce you to my other friend Mei!! I’m sure you two would totally get along. I mean- I’ve only known you for a day but you seem so nice, so I think you guys would have fun together!”  You smile at him, grateful that you made a good first impression.

“You seem very nice as well MK! I don’t know many people who would be so kind to just show a random stranger around. But I hope we can start being friends from now on, along with that Mei girl as well.” You raise your fist and he happily bumps it, which makes the cart swerve ever so slightly. Thank god for seatbelts, you think.

The day flew by in a flash, as you drove all around Megapolis. You admired the different areas of the city and took note of the places that MK commented on previously. He decided that you should go visit them with him and Mei on his days off. The deliveries also went by smoothly, with the both of you going back to the shop whenever you finished a batch of orders.

“That was so much fun!” MK hugged you, and you returned the affection as the both of you went back to Pigsy’s after finishing the final deliveries. You nod in agreement, before slumping down into one of the seats in exhaustion.

“I’m not sure what you did, but you somehow made MK do his job ten times more efficiently than usual.” Pigsy snorted while MK chuckled in embarrassment. He slid a bowl of noodles to you. “It’s on the house. As a thank you.” 

“Hey, what happened to no free noodles??” Tang huffed as you dug in. Pigsy angrily smacked him with a spoon. 

“Unlike you, they actually contributed to my shop's well-being!” 

You laugh at the banter, which seemed only friendly between the two. Pigsy then looks back at you, seemingly lost in thought.

“You know,  if you truly have nothing to do in the city, maybe you can keep going around with MK and help him stay focused from time to time. I’ll pay you of course.” 

“I wouldn’t mind doing that!” You placed the empty bowl away from your face, licking the remaining soup off your mouth. “There's truly no need to pay me though, I’m just a friend tagging along after all.” MK flew from his place to smother you in a hug once again, making the both of you laugh. “It’s a plan then!”

And so for the next few weeks, you started becoming accustomed to Pigsy’s Noodles as your new hangout, with MK, Pigsy, and Tang as your new companions. You would help MK stay on track with his deliveries when you were in the mood for a joyride and occasionally served the noodles to the customers to get more used to city locations. You conversed about more adult topics with Pigsy, talking about growing up and your past lives with one another. After confessing about your enjoyment of cooking, he invited you to see how he prepared his food while you both happily exchanged recipes and treats with each other. Tang would always talk about his expert knowledge of Chinese legends to MK and you, such as the Monkey King (who he was very passionate about and nearly shook you to death when you said you didn’t know much about the said monkey as he tried to cram every piece of story he had about him). MK was a major fan as well and showed you his book crammed with writings and drawings he had which you made sure to praise him on for how well drawn it all was.

Later you eventually met Mei, who you quickly bonded with after complimenting her which she did back to you tenfold and snapping a bunch of pics together. When MK was out working she would drag you to the arcade and play for hours, and you would eat out together when you weren’t hungry for noodles (you would always fight over whos paying, with both of you wanting to treat the other). Having so many new friends made you feel content, but something was still in the back of your mind.

As the days passed by, you constantly looked through your mail, your phone, and any other form of communication to see if you would finally get news about how to progress on your supposed task. Being set in a new place with absolutely no direction of what your so-called destiny was going to be set you off a little as your patience started to thin. It wasn’t until you fully settled into your new life that a knock on the door came with a sealed envelope slipped through the crack under. Hurriedly you rushed to tear the paper open, only to reveal a small card enveloped in a lavender smell with gold writing reading:

You’re on the right track.

“HUH??” You burst out, slapping the papers onto the floor with a huff. “ONE WHOLE MONTH. And that's what you give me??” You grumbled curses as you slipped on your shoes to get away from the apartment. Although you did not want to get so mad as your living situation was being fully reimbursed by your relative, they surely weren’t assisting you in anything else. The sour mood you were in was unfortunately noticed by MK once you slipped into the store, so he placed the orders prepared back on the table to check on you.

“You alright there? Did something happen to you?” He questioned, gingerly placing a hand on your shoulder. You furrow your brows, not wanting to worry him but not wanting to lie to him either.

“I just got some bad news that's all. Nothing too serious though, I was just really annoyed by it.” You picked up the orders that he was previously carrying, turning to go out of the door. “I think driving around will clear my mind. Let's get going MK!” Satisfied with the response, he followed to start with the deliveries for the day.

“MK, are you sure that someone ordered noodles down there..?” The delivery truck stopped in front of an abandoned construction site as your friend whistled happily with noodles in hand.

“Don’t worry, I’ve delivered to much weirder places!” He pulled you to the elevator and turned on the lever, slowly descending down. You still felt a little off, sticking close to MK as he casually danced through the debris and old equipment. 

“It feels like I’ve waited an eternity for this moment.” A deep feminine voice echoed through the area, causing you and MK to stop in your tracks. You look to see a woman standing with her back towards you, along with a young man with bright red hair. Surrounding them were a large number of figures that sported robotic bullheads on top of their torsos. The two unique bodies exchanged words about preparations as you hurriedly dragged MK out from eyesight. You tried to tug him back to the elevator, but he grabbed your hand and signaled a shushing noise, pointing to what everyone else seemed to be looking at.  On the mound of earth illuminated by the sunlight that cracked through the openings from the ceiling, a large pole encrusted in red and gold stood upon the top, giving off a heavenly glow. Your eyes widen.

“Is that…”

“Monkey King’s staff!!!!”  MK whispers in awe, his pupils shine in excitement. He grabs your hand to haul you up onto the poles in the ceiling despite your silent struggles to get away from whatever was going on. With the two of you draped over uncomfortably up top, you managed to get a better view of the ordeal in front of you. One of the bull men walked up to the staff and struggled to pull it out, snapping its electric arms out in the process. He was then sneered at by the red dude, who haughtily monologues about his in preparations he took to get the job done.

“Only those who are deemed worthy can wield it. But I, Red Son, have designed this gauntlet to bend it to my will!” He summoned a large metal contraption to his hands with a burst of flames and walked over to the staff himself. You stared in shock as he grunted angrily, and exploded into a fit of fire as he struggled to lift the staff.  The ground below it finally cracked, and the staff was tightly grasped between the iron hand. 

“YES! I DID IT!” Red Son, assuming that was his title finally yelled in victory. There was a pause. “WHAT? Why isn’t anything happening??!” He turned to the woman and squabbled something about being the wrong mountain and bickered before the entire room started to shake. You grasped tightly to the pole in terror when suddenly the ground below where the staff once was exploded into a sickly green glow. Arising from beneath the surface appeared an anthropomorphic bull, larger than the bullbots that flew around from the explosions. He growled menacingly, his size towering over everyone else.

“Flesh. Bone. I have returned to the realm of the living!” The bull spoke, flexing his hands. 

It was a terrifying display, and the sound of MK struggling to keep his hold on the poles made your head spin. There was no way you wanted to be caught by the crowd at the bottom.

“Demon Bull King! How I’ve missed you.” The lady smirked. Oh, you remembered that name. It was one of the demons that Tang stated Monkey King once defeated. That didn’t sound good.

“Princess Iron Fan. The years have been kind.” Another demon that you learned from the stories. You couldn’t believe it. The legends were true?

A bird perched on the pole chirped your attention away, as it started pecking at MK’s hands while he tried to shoo it away. It squawked, aggressively pecking more until MK’s grip slipped. In a fit of panic, you reached to grab him only to realize that doing so made your balance falter as well. Gravity pulled you down. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!” With a crash, you toppled over MK and Red Son who was right under both of your hiding spots. You groan in pain as you placed your hands to steady yourself. You felt the eyes of everyone latching onto you, freezing your movement. 

“Heh heh-.. Someone ordered some noodles?” 

“GET OFF YOU IDIOT!!!!!!!!” MK was launched off of Red Son back to you, forcing you to catch him before he would slam into the floor again.  

“Did you know what you just did? THE BOTH OF YOU RUINED MY MOMENT!!” He erupted into flames. You cover MK protectively as the DBK towered over the both of you, smugly grunting at the display.

“Some little eavesdroppers have fallen into our midst. It seems a waste to crush something so insignificant as my first act as ruler of this new world, but so be it.” He lifts his foot ready to squash. 

“Wait, father!” Red Son cleared his throat. “Waste not your energy on these... Peasants. Please allow me to show you how powerful I have become in your absence!” 

“I think we should go..” You inch away from the demons but are stopped again as they turn back to talk to you. Red Son continued to boast about his family while MK stumbled over the staff that was abandoned back on the ground. “ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME? I, Red Son, will NOT be disrespected! You’re HISTORY!” He lunged to attack. MK’s body jerked into a panic as he reach for anything to protect you and him. A sickeningly hollow sound erupted into your ear while a wave of smoke smothered your eyesight. You coughed and rubbed your eyes hurriedly to behold the sight next to you. MK was holding Monkey King's staff, to the shock of everyone.

“QUICK! Let's get out of here!” MK used the confusion to grab your arm and start running. The staff jerked to life in his palm, growing long and bouncing off the floors and walls while you clung onto MK for dear life. It smashed through the elevator and to the top, and you wasted no time rushing to the cart and start driving. It didn’t take long for an even bigger vehicle to rise and destroy the already deteriorated construction site, its engines revving and bursting to drive into your cart.

“How did you do that MK??” You ask while he weaved through the traffic in the street with Red Son close behind. 

“I don’t know, but we need to get away from them NOW.” He grabs one of the orders in the back and threw it at Red Son’s car window.

“MK! MK THE WHEEL!” You reached over to steady the driving while it screeched into a turn. The staff seemed to have a mind of its own as it enlarged itself again to launch the vehicle out of the street. Both of you screamed, not quite sure how you both were still alive. You smashed onto the rooftop, the poor noodle cart hobbling down with Red Son furiously pursuing on the side. With a final crash, you swerved into an apartment building and burst out on the side of the road. “Are- are we safe??” MK laughs triumphantly. “I think we lost him!” He gently tries to lodge off your iron grip on his torso, which you were unconsciously doing throughout the chase. The cart sputtered and coughed from the turmoil it was put in. It squeaked to a stop and collapsed down. MK stared at you in shock.

“Come on come on you got this!” He kicked and smacked at the machine, but it did not respond. “Oooohhhh Pigsys gonna kill me…”

“Not if that red guy kills us first! Come on MK!!” You both duck into an alleyway, searching for a new way to get back to the noodle shop. MK spots a hoverboard being used by some teens and quickly snatches it to ride. In due time as well, with Red Son finally back to chase you. “WE’RE SORRY!” You yelled out to the disgruntled teenagers, practically choking MK with your hold. “Y-ourre-. Suffocating-mme!!!” MK struggled to keep the hoverboard steady. 

“I'm sorry I'm sorry but if I let go I’ll die!!!!!” After some backflips and almost falling off, you manage to lose Red Son for another moment. MK swerves around to another path, only for the demon to arrive in a smaller vehicle. If it weren’t such a dire situation you would have rolled your eyes at his persistence. He pulls the racecar upwards into the air and recklessly tries to squash you both. He’s able to destroy the hoverboard, forcing you to fly over the top of the car, with it speeding towards a dead-end road. You and MK yell for your lives.

Bodies in the air. Your vision spinning and the air whipping your face. MK’s teary face screaming next to you. Was this truly how you would die? No. It can’t be. You don’t want it to end like this! Why is everything glowing? Your hand reaches out for something, for anything. You see something forming at your fingertips. It stops for a second, only for a gloved hand to grab you instead. Greenlight crackled through the air. You already knew who it was. “Mei!!” You quickly stretched your arm to MK, zipping past Red Son and back onto solid ground. The motorcycle she rode zipped through the city instantly and back to Pigsy’s Noodles. MK lost your arm and tumbled over the floor, but Mei still kept her hold on you before steadying you back to stand. “Nailed it!!” She fishes out her phone to snap a few pics. A relieved MK walks over to her, and he terribly tries to explain the situation at hand. You stood in the back still shaky from the entire ordeal. 

“MK!!!” Out came Pigsy, his nose flaring as he yelled at him for the missing orders. You jump when he glares at you but stops after seeing your poor state.

“Huh? Did something happen? Why are you all frazzled?” You pause. The realization of the past events you went through float through your head. You were scared and you had no idea what you and MK just got into. Your eyes water slightly, but you try to keep your composure to prevent worrying Pigsy.

“Hey hey it's alright, I didn’t mean to scare ya. You were always good at keeping MK in check, so truth be told I was worried when I saw that the deliveries weren’t happening. I thought you got hurt or something.  Let's get you inside ok?” He allows you to lean on him as you wobbled in with Mei in tow. MK already rushed inside, overloading the whole adventure onto Tang. 

“Kid, relax.” Tang pushes MK back with his chopsticks. “Besides, you’re being delusional. It’s just a story.”

“It's not though! I know it sounds crazy, but we saw it! And MK has the staff too!” The group turns to you, brows raised. “Cmon MK show them, you have it right?” 

On cue, he pulls out the staff, which grows longer, and smashes a table clean in half. That was more than enough to convince them. Tang drops his mature act and freaks out over the staff. You sigh in defeat.

“Ok, I’ll bite. If the staffs here, wheres that demon guy then?” Pigsy crossed his arms annoyed.

“The shoe store!” Mei sticks her phone into your face, scrolling past the multiple posts of people complaining about the Bull King’s lack of common courtesy in line. 

“What should we do about it then? MK’s got the staff and we got no Monkey King.” Mei shrugs. MK looks distraught.

“Well, we can GET the Monkey King! Or try at least.” Tang straightened himself, a shine in his glasses as he pulled up MKs book of drawings.

“We need to get to flower fruit mountain.”

[heyiwrotesomethings]

Hey , love your work. Could I request a oneshot of mary and a very dense she/her reader, so mary has to go above and beyond and break past her tsundere wall to confess to the reader. Mary would probably be like "This god damn idiot."

Do I Have to Spell it Out for You?

Mary Saotome x She/Her Reader

A/N: Hey, Reader may be dense but Mary doesn’t exactly make it easy with that tsundere attitude. Hope you enjoy! Word Count: 1,593

“Hey.” Mary greeted (Y/n) curtly, slapping a fat stack of yen on the girl’s desk. “Here’s your cut from the gamble yesterday.”

“Thanks Mary! …Hm?” (Y/n) tilted her head to the side. Surely she hadn’t earned that much money on the gamble. “Isn’t this too much?”

“What? You think I can count cards but I can’t count yen?” Mary groused. “I gave you what you deserved. You figured out the cheat, you get a bit more of the cut. Don’t overthink it.”

“Sure. If it’s really alright with you, thanks Mary!”

“Yeah, whatever, you already said that, idiot.” Mary walked stiffly over to her desk and made a show of opening her textbook and looking busy. Meanwhile her heart was pounding. If (Y/n) gave her that stupid smile one my time, she would perish on the spot.

She had been dealing with (suffering with) her feelings for (Y/n) for months. She kept dropping hints that she was interested in her, but the idiot didn’t suspect a thing. How much more obvious could she be! Extra yen, picking her over Yumeko and Ririka for gambles, treating her to lunches off campus to be among normal people for a change. What wasn’t clicking?

She shot (Y/n) a side-eye glance as the teacher came into the room. To anyone else she would have appeared to have been staring daggers at the girl when really she was appreciating how the sun streaming through the windows backlit her, giving her an outline like gold.

(Y/n) felt eyes on her and looked up from her note taking and met Mary’s eye, making the blonde flinch in her seat and blush at being caught. (Y/n) simply smiled at her and gave her a little wave before facing front again.

Mary bore down on her pencil so hard, the tip snapped. How dare this girl have so much power of her and not even notice! She tossed her pencil into her desk and pulled out a pen instead and began writing notes furiously, earning a couple sideways glances from the classmates around her with her loud scrapes.

Yumeko giggled into her hand, having watched the whole interaction and Ryota sat in his seat looking as lost as always. He met Mary’s eye for only a millisecond before turning away, but he still felt like he had been electrocuted.

***

After classes were over, Mary walked over to (Y/n)’s desk before the girl even finished packing up her belongings.

“Hey. I’m leaving this fucked up school to go to see a movie and eat dinner. If you want to come with I won’t stop you. I don’t care.”

“That does sound fun… you really won’t mind if I tag along?” (Y/n) asked.

“That’s what I said, wasn’t it? Hurry up before I leave you behind.” Mary grit her teeth as familiar arms wrapped around her shoulders. She elbowed the person behind her, unsatisfied by the obviously fake yelp of pain.

“Ow, Mary-chan, so mean!” Yumeko pouted, rubbing her ribs. She quickly returned to her usual chipper self, however. “What are you two up to, hm?”

“None of your—!”

“Mary said she’s going to a movie and then dinner. She said I could come, maybe you guys could come too?”

“That does sound fun!” Yumeko grinned, looping arms with (Y/n). “Don’t you think Ryota?”

“Uh, yeah, I think—“

“You two aren’t coming! God, can’t you guys do anything without me?” Mary griped. She snatched (Y/n) out of Yumeko’s grasp, snapped up her school bag and dragged her out of the door.

“We will meet you there then!” Yumeko waved.

“You better not!” Mary shouted over her shoulder.

“I don’t know Mary. Wouldn’t it be fun if more of our friends tagged along?”

“No!”

“Why not?”

Mary was about to have an aneurysm.

“I was doing you a favor just extending the invitation to you. Don’t test my patience with those other degenerates.”

“Okay.” (Y/n) shrugged and let Mary pull her whatever way she wanted. Mary only slowed when they were well off of the school grounds.

***

Mary thought she was doing everything right. She let (Y/n) pick the movie, paid for both their tickets and snacks… she tried to hold her hand but (Y/n) just thought she wanted popcorn. Then they went to dinner and (Y/n) insisted to pay for that, to pay back for the movie she said. Mary accepted begrudgingly. She tried to offer (Y/n) a bite of her food, her chopsticks hanging in the air, but (Y/n) took some directly from her plate before pushing her own towards Mary and offering her some of her food.

Did she really not know how hard this was for Mary, to be vulnerable like this? She was thwarting her at every turn. Couldn’t she tell what all of this was about?

“Thanks for letting me come with you tonight.” (Y/n) said as they rode the transit back to the school grounds.

“Yeah, sure.” Mary grumbled, she bit the inside of her lip out of aggravation. “We… we should do it again sometime.” She gritted out.

“Sure! I enjoy spending time with you.”

Yes!

“You’re one of my best friends, Mary.”

No! Yes, but no!

Mary couldn’t take it anymore. She really didn’t want to have to resort to this but she left her with no choice.

“(Y/n)!” She yelled, startling some of the other people on the bus.

“Yeah?” (Y/n) perked up.

She was staring at Mary so intently that it almost made her want to leap out of the moving bus.

“(Y/n), you— I, damn it!” She pulled at her hair then dug in pocket of her shirt and pulled out a pen. “Do I really have to spell it out for you?!” She tore a notebook from her bag and flipped it to a random blank page and scribbled, loudly cursing when the movement of the bus jostled her arm.

When she was finished, she ripped out the page and pushed it into (Y/n)’s chest. (Y/n) took the note in one hand and rubbed at collarbone with the other as she read, her face grew shocked as she read the note twice, thrice…

“Mary, you wanted this to be a date? You really mean it? You like me?”

Mary was blushing so hard she could hear the blood rushing through her ears. Her throat strained to answer, test out a few nonsense noises. Damn it, Mary, it was one word! Finally, she snatched the paper back to scratch it down. (Y/n) barely managed to catch the paper before she could be smacked in the chest again.

“Yes? Yes!” (Y/n) hugged Mary hard and though she struggled against the hug, (Y/n) did not ease up. “I’m sorry Mary, I didn’t know.”

“I think I made it perfectly clear!” Mary fumed, “You are just dense! Incredibly dense! I don’t know how this school hasn’t eaten you alive already!”

“Mary, you have to admit you didn’t make it easy for me. You are very flippant in the way you speak.”

“No way! I was clear! You are dense!” Mary refused to backdown, but (Y/n) still smiled as she rolled her eyes. She leaned her weight against Mary, making her blush even more prominent.

“Alright, I’m dense and you very clear with your intentions when they are matters of the heart.”

Mary’s eyes narrowed in an accusatory manner. Yet she couldn’t help but to lean back into (Y/n) as well. “Why did that sound sarcastic?”

“I don’t know what you mean…”

“Quit it.”

“Hey, what do you want to do for the rest of the weekend?”

“Why are you asking me all of the sudden?!” Mary asked defensively, immediately noticing her error.”

“Because you’re my girlfriend now… or did I read that wrong? It’s so hard to know for sure when you talk to me like that.”

“…I picked today. You pick tomorrow?” She asked, watching her feet tap against the floor with a face that reminded (Y/n) of a grumpy puppy.

“Okay, sounds good.” (Y/n) kissed Mary on the cheek and then directed her attention to the front of the bus. “Our stop is here.”

Mary missed (Y/n)’s contact immediately and almost had to jog after her when she left the bus.

“H-hey! Why are you walking so fast?”

“It’s chilly out, isn’t it?” (Y/n) smiled.

“Sure, but you just… and I want to…” Mary stuttered.

“What do you want Mary?” (Y/n) teased.

“You know what I want!”

“Maybe, but I think it would be a good idea if you practiced saying what you mean and what you want rather than thinking I can read your mind. In other words, speak your heart, and you will be rewarded.”

Mary pursed her lips. (Y/n) made a good point. Maybe she was dense, but she wasn’t a fool. She was a decent gambler, a very smart girl. It wouldn’t kill Mary to actually try to meet her half way.

“I want… I want to kiss you too. On the cheek.”

“On the cheek. Alright.” (Y/n) smiled, presenting her cheek to Mary. She was there and gone so fast (Y/n) didn’t know for sure if she had done it. But it was a big step for Mary so she wouldn’t tease her about it. “Would you like to hold my hand while we walk to the dorms?”

“Why would…! Mhm.. I’d.. like.. that.”

(Y/n) took Mary’s hand and silently marveled at its warmth. As they walked back, she wondered if Mary was always that warm, or if it because of how much she was blushing.

[ynscrazylife]

PLEASE MAMA NAT <3

where its just a day in the life of being the adopted daughter of the BLACK WIDOW her picking us up and training us, trying to bonb with us

love your stories ♥️

Being Natasha’s Adopted Daughter Would Include . . .

Request to be on a taglist (or multiple) here! (Taglists are at the end of the fic)

MCU Masterlist #1 | MCU Masterlist #2 |  Main Masterlist

PSA: Do NOT copy, steal, translate, plagiarize, republish, etc any of my works on Tumblr or any other platform. Also, do NOT claim any of my works as your own. All of these works are either requests I’ve gotten that people have wanted me to write or original ideas I’ve had for works. If you happen to take inspiration from anything I’ve written and want to write something inspired by that, please a) ask me first and b) IF I say yes, credit me as inspo in your post by tagging me and link whatever work of mine that inspired you. Thanks.

header c @/piratanjo

Natasha met you post-Black Widow. She was helping out Yelena with freeing the Widows’ when she came across you.

You were a teen at the time - but still brainwashed. Thankfully because of your age you hadn’t been brainwashed into doing anything too bad yet, but you were almost finished with your training.

Something struck Natasha when she saw you. Looking back on it, she assumes it was the fact that like her and Yelena, you had been put into the Red Room at a young age, and you were the first teen they saw while on these various missions.

While she was okay with fighting the other Widows’, it was hard for Natasha to fight you. At the time, she brushed it off as not wanting to hurt a kid, but she knew that she was taking a liking to you.

Which was why, when Yelena managed to free you, and you told them that you had nowhere to go, Natasha felt the need to do something about it. Unlike the other Widows’ who were adults, you couldn’t go out into the world alone and, after talking with Yelena, Natasha decided to take you along with her.

It wasn’t adoption per say, at least at first, but it was close enough.

You jumped at the opportunity to tag along with Natasha and while Yelena continued the Widows’ mission, Natasha took you back to Melina’s house., where you met Melina and Alexei.

You were wary around them at first, clinging to Natasha, but you warmed up.

However, it wasn’t long before Natasha had to go on the run again. She offered you the chance to stay there with Melina and Alexei but you had grown very close to Natasha and wanted to come with her.

So, you did.

It was difficult, escaping authority and having to constantly be moving, but it in a way it strengthened yours and Natasha’s bond. You guys got closer and learned to work together — as fighting partners as well as mother/daughter.

Which was why, not having known your biological parents or where they were, the word ‘mom’ easily fell off her lips.

It happened when you guys were eating take-out in your latest house. Natasha had passed you the water pitcher and “thanks, mom” just came so naturally.

For a second, you didn’t realize what you had said, until you looked up to see Natasha staring at you with wide eyes.

Then, it hit you. Holy shit my god. Had you just said that?? What just happened?

You got scared that Natasha would react badly, but it was the opposite. A huge grin broke out on her face and even happy tears of pure joy.

When you asked her what was going on, she said: “I’ve never been a mother.”

That’s when you smiled and hugged her and you officially agreed on becoming mother and daughter.

Natasha was worried on being a mother at first, scared that she messed it up, but after reassurance from Melina via a phone call, she fell into the role naturally.

She became much more protective.

Not that you minded.

This went on until the Avengers called upon Natasha to fight Thanos.

She brought you along with her and the team was thoroughly stunned.

“wHO ArE yOU???”

“NATASHAAAA”

Yeah, it was chaotic.

You weren’t fazed though and quickly befriended Wanda and attempted to befriend Vision.

Steve and Sam also became like uncles.

Tony was a bit more difficult because you initially blamed him for you and Natasha on the run, so you were distant at first.

You were also kinda disappointed that Clint wasn’t there. You had wanted to meet him (and Natasha wanted you to meet him) after the stories you heard.

Nonetheless, you went to Wakanda and that’s where you met Bucky. It wasn’t long before he became another uncle.

You absolutely loved fighting alongside Okoye and meeting Shuri. You were fascinated by her technology.

You also kicked ass on the battlefield.

But then . . . You lost.

You watched Bucky disappear and even though you hadn’t known him for nearly as long as Natasha and Steve did, you still felt great pain.

Then you learned to that Sam and Wanda had gotten snapped and it got worse.

The days leading after were some of the most difficult days ever.

It was the first time you had to be strong for your mom, seeing as she had lost her friends too, and you panicked at first.

But you had been her daughter for awhile now and you knew what to do. You hugged Natasha and was there for her.

In the months coming, you helped the reminding heroes rebuild the world and you eventually joined the Avengers under your mother’s lead.

You also met Clint but it wasn’t a happy meeting, really, since he had lost his family.

You continued on as an Avenger with Natasha by your side. You met Carol and she was like an aunt and was amazing.

Things started to turn on the bright side when one day Natasha walked in with a genuine smile and held papers.

You could only guess what they were for at first, but quickly was shown and freaked out (a happy freak out) after.

Adoption papers.

You jumped and yelled and screamed and cheered, unbelievably happy that this was becoming official official.

You were Natasha’s daughter.

While the past few years had been difficult, this made it all worth it. You didn’t know where you’d be without Natasha and she was always with you.

Eventually, the team had a plan to defeat Thanos.

Which felt liked a miracle.

Natasha lives because I say so.

You and her got to tag-team Thanos’ enemies.

Literally the best team since Clint and Nat.

(Clint was jealous)

Then, you got everyone back!

You were SO happy to see Bucky, Sam, and Wanda again, and so was Natasha.

After you all reunited and the world went back to semi-normal, you and Natasha visited Yelena, Alexei, and Melina who were beyond happy to see you both.

Things started to turn up again and you were so grateful to have Nat at your side.

She was the best mom EVER.

Always looking out for you and protecting you

If any of the other Avengers made the slightest of snide comments, she was on them like a bloodhound

She always reminded you to hydrate and was always asking you how you were doing

It was hard to believe that she hadn’t had any experience with children before

Well, she had, with Clint’s kids, but still

Speaking of Clint’s kids, they all looked to you like an older cousin

But getting back to Natasha

She insisted that only she would train with you, not trusting the team to not injure you (besides, she knew you best)

You loved training with Natasha too

She always made it fun, putting on music and stuff

It helped you had similar music tastes

She also would always gush to anyone but really Clint, Sam, or Bucky on how cute and adorable you were

And they definitely agreed

One time during movie night you fell asleep with your head on Nat’s shoulder

She was so happy

Made Bucky take a picture

But she did feel a little bad because you must be tired

So she carried you to your room and put you to bed, kissing you goodnight

You had missed out on a childhood so it was nice for your mom to bring you to bed

All in all Natasha was the best thing to happen to you

Despite it being tough, you were thankful for every second of it

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