#he is so colorful and fun and I love his spooky blank eyes

[avalondesigns]

Biskit’s renovated home 🍊🐶

[drowzyscatterbrain]

literally heaven and hell in one night, damn.

(cw death & suicide)

I was getting married to him.

The dream started with the wedding already at the vowing part.

Both of us dressed in white, the sun was shining through the window, illuminating him and making him looks absolutely breathtaking.

I could pass out from how happy I was, couldn't stop smiling and probably blushing like crazy.

Gazing lovingly into one another while the priest says the vows, touching foreheads after kissing, dancing with wedding guests and just having fun, holding the cake knife together and cutting into the cake.

As the wedding event goes on, my heart was soaring, feeling all warm and fuzzy inside...

Then suddenly, I was standing on a seaside cliff, facing the horizen.

The sky grey as ash, with wind wailing and messing up my hair.

The waves underneath raging and unforgiving.

After a few moments of confusion, I heard footsteps going past me.

It was him, but he was not fine.

Not at all.

Muttering things I could not hear and stumbling like he isn't all there.

As he walked closer to the cliff, I went up and gripped his shoulder to stop him.

At least. I tried to.

I phased right through him.

And he just kept walking, didn't even realize I was there.

When I turn around, he was already standing right at the edge and watching the waves.

He whispered again, the exact words were lost, but this time, I could roughly understand what it meant.

'without you, i just cannot go on anymore.'

Then he was falling, straight into the ocean below.

My mind went blank.

All thoughts cut short, I felt numb, possibly in shock.

As I went up the edge and fell on my knees, my insides ripped itself apart when I saw his hand reaching for the sky one last time, before the sea swallowed him whole.

What is this.

Why.

Why is this happening.

We were so happy, what happened.

I managed to snap out of it and tried to go find help.

Emphasis 'tried'.

Something made contact with my back when I turned halfway, hard.

An explosion? Or a harsh shove?

Did someone push me?

Doesn't matter now, as I plummeted towards the sea after him.

Vision spinning, limbs flailing, after failing to see if anyone was on the cliff, I could only brace myself for the impact.

Pain exploded in my arms when I fell in, sea water assaulted my eyes before everything went black.

Some time after, sunlight shined through the surface, clearing and calming the dark and raging water.

Feeling it on my face, I opened my eyes.

With the dancing sunlight and the now gentle current around me, I realized:

I was already dead.

A long time after the wedding, I died.

Although I could not recall how.

With schools of colorful fishes swam by, it also came to me that he lived on even longer before coming to this cliff.

'maybe he really has waited long enough...'

I pondered while floating peacefully, eventually closing my eyes once more.

...

Someone was approaching.

Opened my eyes to see him swimming towards me, next thing I know he tackled me and sent us spinning through the water for several meters.

He was so happy to see me again.

His tears floated up towards the surface like air bubbles, and mine joined in soon after.

Lots of tears and laughter happened, with many kisses exchanged.

Eventually we calmed down, and explored the ocean holding hands until nightfall.

The dream ends when we decided to take advantage of our spookiness, and go spook people at a nearby town.

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

...or I thought it did.

As I sat up in my bed half awake, my brain had a vision of asking him why did he jump.

His replied right away, with no hesitation:

Something along the line of 'i've lived long enough'. Making me wake up for real this time.

guh.

...SIR.

Hon I love you sm but

PLEASE don't die on me, my heart can't take it-

[indigoelfinspirit]

Hadrian’s Perfect Fit

Hadrian is ready to look for love again after having his heart broken on Ada's Bachelorette. The 33 year old stylist admits that the Bachelorette was not his finest moment, and has come to accept that he wasn’t being true to himself. Our newest bachelor is bringing a twist to the traditional challenge - Hadrian is bi with a preference for masc partners. So there may be fewer glamorous dresses this season, but Hadrian assures us there will be plenty of romance. The Bachelor and contestants will spend quite a bit of time traveling to exotic locales as Hadrian is looking for someone to go on adventures with.

The show is currently searching for contestants, and will be accepting applications until June 22nd. 

More information below the cut & link to Hadrian’s full biography

Hadrian Cerestes

Age 33

Bi (leans pan but generally prefers masc or nonbinary partners)

Hometown: Henford on Bagley 

Current Residence: Hadrian splits his time between Del Sol Valley and San Myshuno

Career: Celebrity Stylist

Interests: Fashion, travel, spending time with his niece and nephew, good food, and spa days

Fun Facts: He’s retained his posh Britsim accent. Spends the first weekend of every winter break at Mouseland with his niblings for Winterfest, and has a secret collection of Mouse wear explicitly for those trips.

Hadrian’s Full Biography can be found here

If you want to see what happened in Ada’s BC go here

                                                            ...

Submission Guidelines

YA preferred (for the purpose of this BC that means under 40), Adult submissions will be considered and entered at Hadrian’s discretion

Gay/Bi/Pan/Queer men, nonbinary individuals, and trans masc sims accepted. 

Please fill free to give them careers and skills (and cheat them a reasonable amount - don’t max everything). No romantic or unfairly traits please.

Your sim will need an entry introduction and a backstory/profile that gives me more information to go off of. Please feel free to dm me more information if you want there to be surprises or if you just think of something. Sims eliminated from other bcs will be allowed as long as their bio addresses what happened.

This BC is a bit of storytelling and gameplay so decisions will not be made purely from results. Eliminated sims may be used as side characters in potential post bc story (but if you want them back feel free to let me know). Also please let me know on the form if your sim is okay with getting pregnant or getting others pregnant (or neither or both) since mpreg is an option in my saves. I will do my best to properly interpret your sim’s personality, but this is going to be my best guess based on what you give me.

Please provide at least 1 outfit for each category preferably 2-3 for everyday and formal

Maxis Match CC allowed within limits (hair below 7mbs, skin details, tattoos welcome) CC can if be used for the first everyday outfit, but not the rest unless it is repeated (ex. Cc glasses or jewelry from the first outfit can be added to the other outfits since it’s not adding additional files). I have default replacement eyes and about a half dozen Sorbet Remix, Academia, and Jewl eyes so I will be using ones I already have, but I will try to get close if you specify a color. No Alpha cc, sliders, or custom traits (they will show up blank and I will fill them in based on their story).

No occults, vanilla sims preferred.

Pack info: All current EPs and GPS, no kits, and some SPs (Tiny, backyard, kitchen, tots, kids, movie, knitting, Moschino, laundry, and spooky)

All submitted sims will be accepted at my discretion up to 20 sims.

                                                           ...

Send your gays here (google form does not collect emails)

Also post and tag me and use hashtag #HadrianBC or #Hadrian’s Perfect Fit I will reblog as I see the notifications. If I haven’t reblogged it within a couple days DM me the link. 

[ladykissingfish]

Amusement Park/Carnivals with the Akatsuki

Hidan

Hidan won’t ever admit this, but most amusement park rides scare him to death. He doesn’t feel comfortable on any machine that he can’t control, and he’s been plagued with a profound fear of heights since he was a child. He covers up this fear and avoids rides by continuously saying how “boring” everything is; although he CAN handle on-the-ground things like bumper cars or lazy water-rafting rides. One time Kisame goaded him into riding The Giant Drop, and afterwards Hidan’s hands had to be forcibly pried off of the bar by three different people. Like Deidara, he’s a fan of the games and will avidly compete with the others (and sometimes strangers) to win the biggest prize/achieve the highest score. Also totally into anything horror-based (like a “haunted house” or “spooky maze”); not because he finds them scary but because he thinks it’s hilarious what they try to pass off as scary. Sometimes will hide behind things within these attractions and jump out to scare people himself, until he’s caught and made to leave by the workers. Ridiculously huge fan of popcorn and will have multiple bags throughout the course of the day.

Deidara

This guy LOVES rollercoasters. The more loops and twists the better, the faster the more awesome. He’ll stand in line as long as necessary to ride these speed demons over and over, grinning and shouting like a madman the whole time. He can be persuaded to go on the slower, tamer rides by his fellow Akatsuki members (like a Tilt-A-Whirl) but will groan and loudly complain about how lame they are. A big fan of the park fare, in particular anything on a stick and/or covered with melted cheese. Has to be reminded to time his snacking correctly and let his food digest so that he doesn’t end up puking during a coaster’s upside-down loop. Not really a fan of water-based rides because they mess up his Perfectly Straight™️ hair. Also likes to compete against Itachi and Hidan in games; Konan will always go home loaded down with stuffed animals because the three will go overboard trying to outdo each other. Deidara also has somewhat of a mean sense of humor; when boarding roller coasters, he always seeks out the ones who look like they’re about to crap their pants in fear. He’ll manage to put a low-grade explosive underneath their car, not strong enough to blow a hole on it but loud enough to make a noise as though something is very wrong with the coaster. The person will, of course, go into a full-blown panic; and Deidara will laugh himself silly over his “harmless” prank.

Kakuzu

Thinks that things like this are a horrible scam and waste of money ... as a customer. However, as with any possible business opportunity, he’s ready with the capital and the ideas for him to turn a buck. Likely he’ll keep it simple and open up a souvenir stand within the grounds; for some reason people are always willing to spend a ridiculous amount of money on poorly-made trinkets when they’re surrounded by smiling idiots and happy music. He’s willing to cut one or two of his fellow Akatsuki comrades into his action as cheap labor, but nobody wants to leave their fun to help the old grinch con people. At the end of the day, when his shop or stand or whatever he has is sold out of its wares/closed, he can possibly POSSIBLY be persuaded to go on one of the tamer rides (Konan will push for them all going on the Ferris wheel after dark because the lights make it look pretty).

Kisame

Has to be persuaded to go to things like this; he really isn’t comfortable in crowds because everybody (strangers) always stare at him. Once he finally breaks down and goes, however, he has such a good time that he doesn’t want to leave. Rides are a bit of a complication for him (because of his long legs) but he manages to make it work. He especially likes anything that goes out on a man-made river or water path. Kisame’s food of choice is seafood, which is quite hard to find at amusement parks; but sometimes he’ll luck out and find a stand that sells fish tacos. Used to like playing the games but was put off of them after one time when he did the ring-the-bell with the hammer thing, and ended up breaking the hammer. And the bell. And the stand that both things were on.

Tobi

Tobi is always down for spending a fun afternoon with the group, and he thinks amusement parks are great ... except for one teeny tiny thing: Tobi is absolutely terrified of “characters”. The people who walk around in colorful costumes scare the bejesus out of Tobi, which is pretty damn ironic, considering he wears a mask himself. In fact his own face gear has caused him trouble at places like this ... some characters see him walking around and assume he’s one of them, but when they approach him to see why he’s goofing off — Tobi runs in the other direction, screaming. Deidara usually has to chase him (and calm him) down, and placate the scaredy-cat by going on the kiddie rides with him. Yes, the kiddie-rides. Two grown men being shut into the Teacups or the Flying Dumbo ride or picking out horses on the carousel is always an amusing sight for all, none more so than Hidan who will conveniently show up in time to take pictures and use it as blackmail over Deidara’s head for the rest of his natural life. Tobi also really likes the sweetness of the food, and if no one’s keeping an eye on him, there’s a good chance he’ll OD on a mix of funnel cakes, churros and cotton candy.

Zetsu

Sadly for the carnivorous plant-man, nobody ever tells him when everybody is going to a place like this. It’s not because they don’t enjoy spending time with Zetsu, and it’s not because they’re trying to be mean, but — Zetsu has a problem with self-control. Like Tobi, if Zetsu sees something he wants to eat, then he has to have it, at all costs. Park days are supposed to be stress-free, and nobody feels like having to keep watch on Zetsu to make sure he isn’t getting ready to snatch a baby out of a stroller or lure a delicious-looking child away from his mother.

Sasori

As with most things in life that are fun, Sasori is simply not interested. However, he’ll be persuaded to join the others through the constant pushing ((whining)) of his younger partner Deidara, or the childlike Tobi. It’s hard to tell what Sasori finds enjoyable, because his expression NEVER CHANGES. The same calm, blank look stays on his face whether on 360 degree roller coaster or being jumped at by a blood-drenched ghoul in a haunted house. The only time anyone sees him crack a smile is when a kid runs past him, trips on his shoelaces and lands face-first on his own ice cream cone. Although it’s not immediately obvious, Sasori DOES really enjoy people-watching, and places such as these provide the ideal, eclectic set of humans for him to sit and observe.

Itachi

When it comes to amusement parks or carnivals, Itachi isn’t really much one for the rides. Or the people. What he IS into, is being with the others. Watching his teammates faces light up on the rides, hearing their delighted shrieks, or shoving decadent treats into their mouths like giddy children. It’s a feeling of normalcy, of blending into the crowd with no stress, no combat, no blood or death or destruction; just fun. Itachi IS very much into what passes for games at these places. As with most things he finds everything to be ridiculously easy, and enjoys teasing Deidara and Hidan about his wins. Something else he enjoys is going on the water-rides with Kisame, as the guy gets really, REALLY happy anytime he’s around water. However he also has to keep a close eye on him to make sure that he stays seated/buckled in to whatever contraption they’re on; there’s been quite a few times when the entire group has come close to being kicked out because Kisame can’t help jumping in the water and swimming, which is against the rules (AND a scary sight to the children who believe they’re being stalked by a giant shark). Like Tobi, Itachi is a fan of sweets (although far less compulsive about it) and will consume more candy-apples than is probably healthy.

Konan/Pein

As a God, Pein won’t deign to visit such a lowly attraction as an ‘amusement’ park. What’s amusing about a bunch of mortals spending their hard-earned money to ride poorly put together machines and eat unhealthy foods? However, he will send Konan in his stead, to keep an eye on the other members. Konan enjoys being out and walking around the fresh air and sunshine. Her favorite attraction by far is the fun house; she loves the moving floors, the trippy optical illusions, the odd music. The distorted mirrors especially tickle her fancy, and she’ll spend a long time moving back and forth and looking at the different shapes the mirror makes her body. No matter what anyone else is doing, if Konan announces she’s going to the fun house, literally everybody will drop their plans and go with her. Konan is somebody who projects an air of seriousness and maturity almost all the time, so the other Akatsuki members relish any situation where they can hear the beautiful, almost child-like sound of her laughter. Those who play games will also compete to win her the biggest stuffed animal, and she’s the only one who won’t get her hand slapped away if she reaches for one of the snacks the others buy for themselves.

[disneytva]

‘The Owl House’: It’s a Hoot!

You would never think that the dark art of 15th century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch would serve as the inspiration for a children’s cartoon. Well, thanks to Dana Terrace and her wild imagination, the strange creatures conjured by the European painter have found their way in the new Disney Channel series The Owl House. The show, which debuts in January, and is already in production of its second season, follows the adventures of a young teenage girl named Luz who decides to pursue her dreams of becoming a witch after she stumbles into a strange realm, inhabited by feisty witch Eda and her tiny warrior friend King.

Terrace, a former director on DuckTales and storyboard artist on Gravity Falls, recalls starting to collect her notes and images and putting together her pitch for the story back in 2015. Then, she finally began pitching her story about a young girl who becomes a witch’s apprentice only a few months after she started directing DuckTales.

“Many of the characters have barely changed since then,” recalls Terrace. “I knew I wanted an older witch mentor figure and a young optimistic girl who was the main character, who learns and grows throughout the show. There’s also this trickster little jerk character named King (voiced by Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch).”

The setting for The Owl House changed a little bit since its early days. Terrace says for a brief time, she was toying with the idea of the whole show being set after the young character dies, so that the Owl House is all set in the afterlife. What really had a clear impact on her work is the work of artists such as Bosch, John Bauer, Remedios Varos and the puppetry of Jim Henson.

Real-Life Models

In addition to the crazy creatures of Bosch and religious illuminated manuscripts, Terrace found inspiration in some of the familiar elements in her life as well. “I have always wanted to tell a story about a rough-around-the-edges mother figure, based off of my aunt, nana and mother who raised me,” she recalls.

Terrace says the show’s central character Luz evolved from late-night conversations she used to have with her former roommate roommate and close college friend. “We were both dorks together,” she recalls. “We tried to cut our own hair and it never worked out. We didn’t have many friends. So, in a way, Luz bubbled out of our conversations. When I told her that I was going to base the main character on her, she said, ‘Yes , but you’ll have to make her Dominican.’ So that’s what happened. Luz now also works on the show as a storyboard artist and consultant, and I get to work with my best friend every day.”

As a young girl, Terrace used sneak into the living room to watch cartoons and copy what she liked in her flip books. Her love for shows such as The Simpsons, Pokémon, The PowerPuff Girls and Studio Ghibli movies finally lead her to study animation at School of Visual Arts in New York and make her way out to L.A. to pursue a career in the animation business. Her first big break happened when someone discovered her art blog and sent her a storyboarding test, which led to her landing a job at Gravity Falls and opened other doors as well.

During her big pitch to Disney, Terrace says she was a bit worried to mention Bosch and his odd, evil creatures, but to her surprise, one of the executive’s response was, “Heck, yeah!” “They have been nothing more than enthusiastic and helpful from day one,” she notes.

After spending a good year writing and making the pilot, Terrace began building her production team in 2018. Art director Ricky Cometa and supervising producer Stephen Sandoval also joined the Disney TV Animation production. At capacity, the show has about 50 staffers as part of its pre-production crew, and an overall count of 120 including the overseas teams at Sunwoo, Rough Draft and Sugarcube in Korea. We’ve been very fortunate to work with all of them,” says Terrace. “They’ve made the show really, really spark.” 

The Owl House has attracted a top-notch list of vocal talent as well, including Wendie Malick as Eda, Hirsch as King and Sarah-Nicole Robles as Luz. Among the guest star lineup for the show’s first season are Matthew Rhys, Isabella Rossellini, Tati Gabrielle, Issac Ryan Brown, Mae Whitman, Bumper Robinson and Parvesh Cheena. Terrace points out that having a sterling class led by Malick has been a real treat. “Our witch could have been a very hard character to cast, because we wanted to have sass and energy, and Wendie was absolutely perfect. She came in with all her talent and experience, and my first instinct was ‘You don’t need any direction. Do whatever you want to do because you are amazing!”

She also mentions that she knew Alex Hirsch was going to end up playing the little sidekick King. “I used to hear him pitch when I worked on Gravity Falls. I knew that he can bring a lot to the characters he plays. He would also give me some helpful advice about running his own show and working at Disney.”

Art director Ricky Cometa (Steven Universe, Costume Quest) says he was swept away by Terrace’s wild ideas and spectacular imagery, things that were not usually seen in children’s animation. “The second she came in and said, ‘I want you to read this show bible. The first thing that caught my eye was ‘Bosch and the demon world?’ I very much needed help to figure out what this world looks like. We had this blank canvas and there was a lot of religious iconography. I knew we were going to push the boundaries. I mean we are doing the demon realm on the Disney Channel? You bet I’m in!” 

Cometa points out that it was clear that they needed to balance the darker aspects of the witch’s world with the more light-hearted and fun components of Luz’s comical adventures. “At first, I wasn’t sure how dark we could have made the world this world that Luz jumps into initially. We had to make clear decisions about when the story needed to be scary— when do we highlight the darker moments versus when the story is lighthearted and welcoming. It was all about finding that right balance of warmth and spookiness.”

Terrace agrees. “If we made everything super scary and spooky — which is something I’m not afraid of, scaring my audience — but if we made everything the same color, then the scary parts and the day-to-day light-hearted parts wouldn’t have popped. We needed that contrast for writing purposes.”

Amazingly enough, Terrace is only the fourth woman to solely create and run an animated series for Disney — following in the footsteps of Sue Rose (Pepper Ann), Chris Nee (Doc McStuffins) and Daron Nefcy (Star vs. The Forces of Evil). She says one of her biggest challenges on the show was going through the learning process to run a writer’s room, which includes four other writers and a writer’s assistant. “Before this show I had always written and drawn my own comics and cartoons, but this was the first time I had written scripts professionally. Learning the process of writing scripts and learning to run a writers’ room was probably the biggest challenge for me. Luckily, I was with a team of talented writers, and we all kind of learned together. Most of that team has carried on to the second season, and we’re very excited to keep writing together.

As the show begins its run on Disney Channel, Terrace says that ultimately she hopes audiences will be entertained by Luz’s world and her off-the-wall adventures. “There are so many different kinds of animated shows out there and so many traditional and streaming services, that I don’t think it’s possible to have a gigantic blowout hit anymore. At the end of the day, no matter how much stuff is out there, stories with interesting core characters and relatable, understandable stories will shine through.”

Art director Ricky Cometa (Steven Universe, Costume Quest) says he was swept away by Terrace’s wild ideas and spectacular imagery, things that were not usually seen in children’s animation. “The second she came in and said, ‘I want you to read this show bible. The first thing that caught my eye was ‘Bosch and the demon world?’ I very much needed help to figure out what this world looks like. We had this blank canvas and there was a lot of religious iconography. I knew we were going to push the boundaries. I mean we are doing the demon realm on the Disney Channel? You bet I’m in!”

[catzula]

Hi❤️❤️ I'd like to request Shoto whose friendly s/o is really into Halloween and wants to do matching outfits together. Idk it's spooky season and I'd love to see todobb living it ☺️☺️ thank u for ur work ❤️❤️����💕

A/N: ahh- this was really nice! Thank you for your request, I consulted my best friend for the costume ideas and we had the time of our lives trying to come up with them

So, umm, I really hope you guys like it, this is the second time I ever wrote for Todoroki, so I probably should work on it a bit more, but I think it turned out well!

Warnings: I think there’s none but I can’t be sure since Bakugou is here heh

Word count: 4k cuz I have no self control

Genre: fluff!

A cursed kiss-

"Aizawa sensei gave us green light!" Mina exclaimed as she entered the class, visibly skipping. Kaminari punched the air with victory. These were the words that caused everyone to jump in their seats in excitement.

"He did?" Ochako didn't lose a second and ran towards her to get details, the rest of the class wasn't any better, either. Even Bakugou was up on his feet, trying to look as uninterested as he could.

The social butterfly that she is, Mina obviously had no problems with having a crowd around her. "He said he would kill us if he caught any of us with alcohol." She muttered, and Kaminari visibly deflated. "Oh, man, there goes the chance to get lightweight Bakugou drunk!"

"Hagh, who you calling lightweight?! You were the one who got drunk with a beer! One Beer!" He shot back, the class erupting with laughter at the memory of Kaminari. Even Shouto snickered quietly.

"Whats going on?" You finally stood up, pulling your hand out from the warm hands of your boyfriends. When he pouted at the sudden lack of contact and locked his eyes on his hand that just had your hand in it, you sent an apologetic smile his way. "I'll just learn whats up and will be right back, 'kay?"

You walked towards the big crowd, Mina being the first to spot you. "I see you could finally get separated from your boyfriend." She commented with a grin, her words causing your face to warm up and your friends to giggle.

"I wanted a front seat of Kaminari getting burned." You answered, making the said boy frown. "Hey, that's mean!" He exclaimed, but his protests just seemed to fuel the fun Kirishima and Sero were having.

"So, what's really happening?" You asked, ignoring the pout Kaminari was sending your way.

"We're throwing a Halloween party!" Yaoyorozu answered, and the boys cheered with excitement.

"We are? How did you even convince Aizawa sensei?" You asked in disbelief, causing Mina to chuckle mysteriously. "I have my ways." She told you smugly, though you were aware it was just another way of saying 'I didn't give him any rest until he said yes.'

"Ooh, this is gonna be great! Right, Baku?" Kirishima muttered, nudging Bakugou slightly and earning a glare. "I don't care about a stupid party, what are you, five?"

Even if he had a scoff on his lips, you all knew better and were aware that he was as excited as the rest of you were.

"I have a really original costume idea, you know." Kaminari told the group with a proud smile on his face, though instead of getting the curious attention he expected, he just heard snickers.

"How much do you wanna bet on him coming as Pikachu?" Kirishima whispered to Sero, both giggling uncontrollably when Kaminari's eyes widened with shock. "How did you know?!"

▪︎▪︎▪︎

Tapping the pencil that was in your hands to the paper that laid in front of you, you sighed, feeling the steam coming out of your ears, even though you couldn't even finish the first question.

"Babe, what should we do for Halloween?" You looked at Shouto, who was sitting on his desk, focused on the math homework in front of him, having no problems with it, unlike you. You bit your lip, it sometimes amazed you how handsome he was.

"What do you mean, isn't there a party?" He asked, laying his pencil down and looking at you with a confused look on his face that you just found adorable.

You giggled -suppressing the urge to pinch his cheeks.- "Yeah, baby, I meant as what costume we should do." You had to admit, this was one of the many reasons you couldn't focus on the paper in front of you, since the second you heard about the party, it was the only thing that swarmed in your mind.

"Oh." He said softly. "Do we have to wear costumes?"

"Of course we do!" You told him, shocked. "And- we should do a couples costume, too!" He tilted his head slightly to the left, something you often saw him doing.

"We can do that?"

The question had you waiting to kiss him and/or bang your head to the wall. "Not only can, but we also have to do it." When his confused expression didn't change, you sighed. "I love Halloween and wearing costumes, and it's really fun! And since this is our first Halloween... I thought it would be cute if we went wearing matching costumes."

You stood up in need to be closer to him, and as always, he greeted you with open arms. Even though he wasn't big on showing affection in public, and usually just held your hand, he was just a big baby when you were alone. But then again, you had no complaints, whatsoever.

"I see you're very excited about this." He mumbled into your hair, and you smiled. "I am, baby, and you should be too! It's my favorite season, and all my best memories were on Halloween! Oh, come on, didn't you have any amazing or really scary adventures as a kid in Halloween?" You exclaimed, threading your fingers through his two-colored locks.

"Actually- don't answer that." You corrected yourself when he sent a blank look your way.

"But still, I think you're gonna love it, too! Okay, enough talk of how amazing Halloween is, let's think. Any suggestions?"

"Can you give me an example?" He asked after staying silent for a second or so. "Oh, umm, something like Batman and Catwoman, but let's not do that." You added before he agreed to it.

"Oh, that's not scary, though, is it?" He muttered and smiled when you giggled. "It doesn't have to be scary, it's really just an excuse to wear costumes." When he nodded but didn't say anything you raised your brows. "Any ideas?"

"Umm... Matching costumes." He muttered, scratching his head. "Like- sun and moon?"

"Sun and moon?" You repeated, and the image of you wearing round costumes making you grimace a little. The smallest smile tugged on his lips as his eyes examined your expression. "Cause you're my sunshine."

Even though it was cheesy as hell, it was worth seeing the shocked look on your face that melted into an embarrassed, cute smile, he thought.

"Okay," you muttered, hiding your flushed face from him. "I added that to the list."

"I can't think of anything, let's look at Pinterest." You stood up and laid on the bed, and it didn't take long for him to follow you. He laid right next to you, arms wrapping around you and his head dropping to your shoulder, his two-colored eyes on your phone screen, looking at your Pinterest feed that was full of costume ideas.

"That looks nice." He pointed at the angel-devil costumed couple. He loved to see how your lip rolled in, nose crinkling with thought. "I thought it was really nice, too. Added to the list, but let's keep looking- OH MY GOD, SHOU!" You suddenly exclaimed with the idea that suddenly popped into your head, excitedly pulling yourself up into a sitting position, making his arms that were around you to fall back on the bed.

"I have the best costume idea for you!" You told him, and even though he had no idea what it was that got you so excited, he couldn't stop smiling either.

"How about- How about going as Zuko?!" He stood silent for a few seconds, his brows furrowing slightly in thought. "Zuko? I'm not sure if I can pull it off, though."

Your eyes widened in disbelief. "Shouto, you guys are practically the same people. It's one of the many reasons I agreed to date you, you know." You teased, but you should have known better.

"It is?" He asked, his hand going to his scar almost immediately. His lips turned down into a frown, he looked so hurt it made your heart ache. "B-baby, I was just kidding." You told him and got closer to him, but frowned when he pulled away.

"Shou?" You called out, cupping the scarred side of his face and leaned in to press a soft kiss on his cheek when his frown didn't go away. His eyes were avoiding yours, the feeling of him hurt making your heart ache, "Baby, I really didn't mean it!" You repeated, wrapping your arms around his neck and pressing one more kiss to his cheek.

You searched for his eyes, and even though his frown wasn't gone, your eyes met his two-colored eyes that were bright with a mischievous glint.

"I think I'm gonna need more than that." He muttered, the frown turning to a smirk, and his face leaned forward, reaching for your lips. You gasped, finally understanding he was teasing you the whole time.

"Shouto," You protested. "I really thought I hurt you!"

"Ah, but you did." He told you, the smirk only growing when he felt your irritated gaze. "You broke my heart." His words caused you to narrow your eyes, and you frowned.

"You will pay for that, you know." You told him, and just as his lips ghosted on yours, you pulled back with a playful smile. His smile dropped almost instantly when he couldn't kiss you, a pout forming on his lips.

"What do you think about the Zuko costume?" You asked, ignoring the pout of your needy boyfriend. His eyes stared at you for a few seconds, probably expecting you to finally kiss him, but when you didn't he sighed.

"Let's try it." He answered, and you squealed with excitement. "Okay, let's do his best lines. Say- 'I'm never happy.' But with a frown, 'kay?"

His brows furrowed slightly, but he obliged anyway. "Like this?" He asked with a small smile after doing the part flawlessly but pouted when he noticed you weren't even looking at him, but instead looking at your phone screen and hiding your face from him.

His brows furrowed when he couldn't meet your eyes. "Did I do it- wait, are you blushing?" His blunt question didn't help either. "I'm not- I'm not blushing! Just keep doing it." You protested. "Can you say, 'The scar is not on the wrong side!'' He was about to do it when you stopped him, and he noticed how the fangirl in you suddenly took control.

"No, no, actually, can you say 'Hello, Zuko here.' Oh, and- and-" He raised his brows when you suddenly stopped talking -you were choking on your words-, now visibly blushing.

"And?" He pressed, amused by the deer caught in the headlights look you were giving him.

"Could you say... Umm... could you say 'You're so beautiful when you hate the world'?" Your voice was so low that Shouto was sure he couldn't have heard you if he wasn't listening very closely.

"You're so beautiful when you hate the world." He repeated in a low voice that sent goosebumps down your spine. Your eyes widened, feeling like your heart was going to stop in any second.

"Oh my god, Shou." You gulped, hiding your face in his neck since you could feel your cheeks burning, and you just couldn't face him. "I'm starting to think that you weren't joking when you told me you were dating me because I'm so similar to Zuko." He teased with a laugh.

"Don't tease me!" You protested, "Zuko is my first crush."

"That's rough, buddy." He muttered in your hair, just for the sake of hearing you squirming like this.

"I say no to you going as Zuko." You muttered, still hiding your face in his chest.

▪︎▪︎▪︎

"Are you sure you don't want me to go as Zuko?" He asked, apparently never going to stop teasing you about it. Just replaying the memory in your head caused your cheeks to burn, and he was well aware of that, too.

You had finally agreed on the devil-angel costume. As cliche as it was, it was still a really cute idea. Shouto had worn a simple black shirt and a burgundy jacket, and no matter how simple he was wearing, he still looked too handsome. He had plastic red devil horns located between his different colored messy locks, and he held a long, red trident. You shuddered as his eyes roamed over your body, eyes darkening a shade.

"You know, maybe you should wear this more often." He whispered as you walked towards the party. "What, this?" You raised your brows. You hadn't worn anything special either, just a white summer dress -you would have frozen to death if it wasn't for your boyfriends really practical quirk- and angel wings you had found for 5 dollars.

"Y-yeah." He muttered, turning his face away from you. Huh, you thought, look how the tables have turned. "You like my dress, baby?" You asked, and he bit his lip nervously, looking away.

"It looks nice." He fixed his horns and cleared his throat, well aware of how you stopped mid-track and how your face was getting closer to his inch by inch. "Yeah?" You whispered, and just as he was about to kiss you-

"Oh, get a room, you two!" You heard someone call out, making you jump in your place and ruining the moment. It was Sero wearing a spiderman costume, and Mina- she wore an oddly realistic Sailor Moon costume- and was snickering right behind the Spiderman.

"You look devilishly handsome, Todo-kun." She told him, making you roll your eyes.

"Where are the others?" You asked, and she pointed to the room that opened to the living room. "They already started. I can't tell you how hard it was to convince Bakugou to wear something other than his hero costume. He told us he was coming as the future number one hero." She rolled her eyes.

"What did he wear instead?" You asked as you opened the door, but your question was inaudible because of the banging music and chattering that left you dumbfounded for a second or so. The room smelled heavy, and the low lighting took a second for you to get used to it. There were pumpkins everywhere, toilet papers, ghosts, and fake spiders hung from the ceiling.

"Did Momo do all this?" You asked, amazed. "Yeah," Mina answered, shouting. "She's right there." She pointed at the couch that had a Shego from Kim possible, and she looked exhausted. "Oh, poor Momo, she did all the work." You muttered, but before you could go near her and thank her, a wild Pikachu appeared.

"Damn, Y/N, you look godsent!" Kaminari exclaimed when he saw you, his eyes widening, cheeks red with what you suspected to be the effects of alcohol. "What's with everyone and their bad puns today?" You muttered as you felt Shouto's arms pulling you a little closer to him. This caused you to send a quick glance at him, only to find him glaring at Kaminari. The Pikachu, who was oblivious to the cold glare he was receiving from your boyfriend, had two glasses in his hands -the glasses looked like pumpkins, and you noted in your head to go and thank Momo- "Here, drinks for the couple!" Kaminari exclaimed, slipping the cups into your hands, his wide grin causing your eyes to narrow in suspicion.

"What's in it?"

"Eh, don't worry about it and just- finish it in one go!" He told you, tapping your shoulder in a comforting concerning way. You only needed one sniff to know what it was, the strong alcohol scent causing you to grimace.

"Yeah, no." You answered, giving back the cups, which he gladly accepted. "Well then, that just means more alcohol for me!" He cheered, chugging both of the cups. Probably already forgot your existence, he walked towards the small crowd that was dancing, jamming to the music and grinning stupidly.

There was a huge pumpkin in the middle of the room, smoke coming out of it's carved eyes and mouth. People were dancing thoughtlessly around it, making it look like some twisted ritual.

Your eyes found the Sailor Moon that was dancing with Count Dracula -Tokoyami- and Spiderman, who was shooting web all around the place, the sight making you giggle.

You glanced back at your boyfriend, surprised to find him looking at you too, a soft smile on his lips. He lifted his hand without letting go of yours and pressed his lips softly on it, and he miraculously heard your little squeal of shock, despite the loud music that was shaking the decorations.

"Do you want to dance?" He muttered in your ear, leaning forward slightly and the familiar scent radiating from him making you sigh happily. "Yeah." You answered, letting him pull you to the middle of the room. His hand holding yours strongly, pulling you through the crowd, you finally found a place you could dance comfortably.

It was then when the loud music changed, a soft one replacing it instead. The sudden change caused you to look at the DJ -Shoji was supposed to be the Dj, but you locked eyes with a proud looking Ochako, instead. You noticed Shoji standing right next to her, a baffled look on his face- You sent a grateful look her way, and she answered with a bright smile.

"The song changed." Shouto commented, making you giggle.

He pulled you by your hand, causing you to lose your balance and fall towards him, he had a rare smug smile as one of his arms wrapped your waist and pulled you even closer to him.

"Gotta be careful." He muttered, his lips so close to your ear, it made you shiver, and you were sure by the smug smile that was slowly turning into a grin, that he could feel it, too.

"I'm falling for you, Shou." You teased, not expecting his cheeks to tinge pink. He leaned in, and you knew he was going to kiss you by the familiar look that was in his eyes. You had no complaints either, slightly moving on your tippy-toes, you reached towards him.

"I see the lovers are having fun." You heard someone say, the sound causing you to move away from your boyfriend, noting the way his eyes glaring coldly at the intruder. "You know, as a citizen of the most romantic city on earth, I can tell you that-"

"Go away." Shouto told the attention freak who had an emperor costume -Aoyama- without even letting him finish his sentence.

"But I was just telling you-"

"No." Shouto interrupted once again, not letting him finish his sentence. "Can you- can we talk later, Aoyama-Kun?" You told him when he looked like he was about to cry. "You see, we're dancing, and I don't think Shouto's in the mood to have a conversation."

"I'd love to listen to your adventures, though. Maybe you could tell all about it tomorrow?" You added to at least boost his ego a bit. He tried to look uninterested, but Aoyama would've died right then and there. "Yeah, if I have time, of course." He answered, fixing the plastic crown that was on his head and walked away to find a victim worthy of his time.

"Nice, see you later!" You called out and turned back to your grumpy boyfriend.

"Rude." You told him with a teasing poke to his cheek. "He was the one interrupting us. I just told him to go away." He defended himself. "You broke his heart. There's a difference!"

"He should've gone away the first time I told him. I would've talked to him if I wanted to, so why does he need to bother us?" He muttered, well aware the moment was -the second time tonight- ruined. You sighed when more people came your way, making small talk with you, more like Shouto telling them to kindly go away and you fixing the broken hearts. You loved them all, but the heavy air in the room, the smell of alcohol, sweat, perfumes, and many other things, the crowd and the people, all started to be a little too much for you. Though, you still did your best to hide it.

"Let's go." You heard Shouto's soft voice, a whisper that was so close to your ear, it made you shiver. Ignoring the group of people that were trying to talk with you two, he started leading you in a direction, and although you weren't sure where exactly, you trusted him fully and followed him.

You noticed the heavy, suffocating air had started to fade, and as you followed your boyfriend, the air had started to be at least a bit more breathable. You finally saw where he was taking you to, and you couldn't suppress your smile at how well he knew you.

"How did you know?" You asked him, only a meter between you and the balcony that opened to the fresh air and the slightly chilly night.

You just needed a second from all this music, the overly excited and drunk people, and the crowd altogether. And the fact that he had noticed this even before you yourself had just made you want to pull him into a kiss. And judging by the way he was looking at you, you weren't the only one.

"I think I-" He started to talk, but before he could even finish what he was saying, someone broke in between you. Again. "Oh- shit- sorry." A drunk Kirishima sent you both an apologetic grin and tried to find his balance. Shouto held him by his arm and steadied him, not even trying to hide how annoyed he was.

Kirishima's hair had red and orange streaks in it, his face also painted in various shades of red. "Hey, Kiri." You muttered, deciding that the balcony had to wait a while. "And, what are you supposed to be?" You asked him, trying to understand just how drunk he was.

"Oh, you can't tell?! I'm Calcifer, and that's my Howl!" He roared into your ear, pulling his arm free from Shouto, losing his balance once again.

You looked at where he was pointing, only to find the said ashy blonde sulking in the corner of the room, his hair still crazy as ever, though you had to admit the Howl costume looked really good on him.

You must've looked a little too long since you noticed how your boyfriend started to move once again, pulling you out to the balcony before anyone could stop him once again.

The fresh, cold air hit both your faces, making you sigh happily. It was times like this you noticed how nice it was to be able to breathe. There were only one or two people out in the balcony with you, most out here to smoke.

"Finally." He breathed, probably not even aware of the other people out there with you. He still hadn't let go of your hand, his thumb caressing your hand slightly, the small act of affection making your heart go feral.

Expecting him to pull you closer to him, you glanced his way when he didn't do anything, only to find his lips turned down in a frown. "Baby?" You asked. "Is there something wrong?"

"You seemed to like the Howl costume quite a lot." He mumbled under his breath, the tone, and the way he said it making you giggle. He was jealous. He saw the smile on your lips and pouted even more.

"I like you much much better."

"Of course, I'm the one who looks like Zuko, after all." He answered grumpily, but you noticed how his frown had melted into a soft smile, his hands now playing with the ruffles of your wings.

"I love you, Y/N." He whispered, his hands moving up from your wings to your cheek. His face getting closer to yours inch by inch, your hand automatically found it's way to his nape, unconsciously pulling him towards you.

"I love you, too, Shou."

As his warm lips touched yours, you felt so content and safe between his arms, you couldn't help but think that this was the best Halloween you ever had.

[nsk96]

(anon thing) I would love to get to know ya more tbh cause ya seem really sweet

Also ya give me vibes that ya'd give good hugs, idk why you just do

Aw thank you💙 I’m told that I do give good hugs, although because of the pandemic, my hugging ability may be rusty so have this virtual hug:

Some things about me:

Favorite color is blue

Favorite foods are pizza and chicken tikka masala with naan bread.

I have an odd affinity for sad music. I don’t know why but I have moments where I just wanna listen to sad music and cry for a little bit

I like to imagine music videos in my head when I listen to music, especially music videos of stories I’m writing (currently listening to “Unsullied” guqin song while imagining Kaiya and Bonbon’s story👀)

I love anime but I’m a little behind so recommendations are always welcome

I’m really nervous about social interaction even through text. Sometimes I just go blank and have no clue what to say

I have an older brother who lives far away. We used to be very close almost best friends even, but he changed a lot as time passed. I still care about him though

My family is pretty messed up on both sides. I just try not to get involved because I don’t do conflict unless absolutely necessary 👀💅

My mom is my biggest role model. I love her to bits and would do anything to protect her

I have a confession but ya probably already know: I gotta thing for “bad boys” like...I’ve had a crush on Bondarev since May of last year. I don’t simp for him though. Fashionista Bondarev’s creation was kinda centered around that crush, but was both a prank and an attempt to make him a fun character because the original dude had no personality. I actually tend to simp for the guys who emit bad boy vibes but is a sweetheart underneath...for example Chime Gen. I’ll never forget when we met him for the first time. Oh the chills his voice gave me and the sorrow that were in his eyes and how he was so spooky yet graceful and how his kabuki mask shone in the night, like you’d think you’re in danger but he would actually have your back and cherish you 🤩(until Ruri decides to pop in). I’m rambling on now lol.

I pour cereal before the milk. That’s the best way. Anyone who does the opposite is chaos incarnate💙

[shibalen]

Hi! I’d like a match up for Kuro please!~ I’m bisexual, non-binary (leaning a little more towards the masculine side most of the time), and my height is 5’9. My zodiac sign is leo and I’m INTP if I remember correctly. I love to write, draw, and read more than anything, though I’m also trying to make my own video game in my spare time, and I absolutely love anything horror related or really dark/gothic. Outside of that, my interests and tastes tend to vary so I’m pretty flexible. (1/2)

My fashion sense is sort of all over the place too, but I usually dress really edgy, mostly just in black or other dark colors. I’m not bilingual (yet~) but I’m trying to learn languages like French, Latin, and German. I have no self control when it comes to desserts or any sort of candy. I also own five dogs! I’d prefer a romantic match, but platonic is okay too if that’s easier. ^^ (2/2)

♡︎ matchup for @blank-envy

hello! i assume you meant Kuroshitsuji? if not, please correct me. thank you for waiting so long, i've finished your match!

and five dOgS?! god i wish that were me

|| kuroshitsuji: i match you with . . .

joker

• Joker is an aries (one of the best matches for leo) and an entp (one of the best e's for intp, imo)

• you two are a quite a pair! you're both easy-going but have a flame of passion in your hearts that strives to make a change. this dynamic immediately makes you click with each other.

• your views on the world are quite similar too, and your conversations can take a lot of interesting turns, seeing as both of you prefer meaningful discussions over small-talk.

• Joker is more extroverted than you though, but no need to worry about that. he cares for you deeply and respects your boundaries. at the same time, he's an effective communicator and knows how to minimise any misunderstandings you two might have.

• you guys met a high-class costume party (let's say for Halloween, it's spooky season). the moment you spotted Joker in the crowd you were amazed by his skeleton arm (oﾟ▽ﾟ)o

• of course, you first assumed it as a part of his outfit, and it was a bit embarrassing when you went to compliment him on it and he just laughed . . .

• after giving you a quick explanation, Joker expected you to be weirded out, but knowing he actually had a prosthetic arm made it all the more facinating in your eyes. it was creepy but in a cool way!

• not only was Joker thrilled and amused but also entranced. he knew right there and then he wanted to learn more about you.

• he was drawn to your creative side from the very beginning. he too is an artist, and an entertainer, so it was thrilling to meet someone who understood him so well.

• soon he came to trust you enough to introduce you to his family. everyone was so happy for you! Beast was kinda jelly at first but even she saw how well you fit together, like two puzzle pieces.

• your fashion senses are on the opposite side of the scale, but that's what makes it exciting! he jokes that you could use some colour in your wardrobe.

• shopping with you two is a real rollercoaster. you search for clothes representing your tastes but have a blast having the other try out the clothes of your choice.

• pssst Joker is slowly converting you into the same style as him so you can wear matching items🤡

• thankfully your interests are flexible because Joker will want to try out new hobbies with you. anything that looks mildly fascinating draws his attention. you'll have a fun learning about so many new things.

• he's especially into anything he can make a show out of in the circus, so next time you're meeting up with friends you'll have a few party tricks up your sleeve. Joker proudly grinning in the background

• but honestly? he loves the feeling of you braiding his hair before a show. he insists you do it for him because it's his good luck charm ♡︎

• after another successful performance he treats everybody to a big dinner. for you there will be a row of desserts. the twinkle in your eye when you see all thise sweets is irreplaceable to him.

• the only condition is that you have to feed him some as well, tehe

• now, when it comes to romance, Joker is a natural, hands down.

• acts of service, physical touch, words of affirmation—he has so many love languages you'll feel loved 24/7

• he's a huge tease though. can and will pull the cheesiest of lines and actions in public and still wear that innocent grin. personally, he sees them as fun more than anything. if you get embarrassed, that's just more in it for him.

• his favourite tricks are making flowers pop out from his hand and gifting them to you, as well as the "coin behind your ear" trick because he loves leaning in close to you and making you flushed.

• "oh, what's this? the coin was here all along!"

• "you know, you've done this same trick a hundred times already."

• "and i'll do a hundred more for you, my sugar cube."

• he's so smooth it should be illegal, but as i said, he lives for your reactions.

• coming up with all those sickly sweet petnames for you is also right up his alley. he takes inspiration from desserts and languages because those are some things that remind him of you.

• a few of his personal favorites to call you by: honeybee, sugar plum, ma fraise (my strawberry), and honigkusse, (honey kiss) + a classic when all else fails: my love

• compliments, compliments, compliments! expect them from Joker every other sentence. he never runs out of them, as he always sees the good in you ♡︎

• you two are seriously such a fun couple! the type to appear chaotic at first but also the one that share the deepest bonds. Joker loves you (and your five dogs) very much.

runner up: Grell Sutcliff

i had fun with this one since he's one of my faves! i hope you enjoyed it too, have a great day (◍>ᴗ<)ﾉｼ

if anyone hasn't noticed i make the matchup a bit longer if you only request one fandom ♡︎

[lazy-cat-corner]

Tag Meme

I was tagged by @iamanartichoke, but credit for this Tag Meme goes to @thewaythatwerust This one looked so fun to do, but probably would take me some time to think about. ^_^ THANKS!

Fill in the blanks (include little behind-the-scenes tidbits as to why if you feel like it). Which of your fics… Did you think would get a bigger reaction/audience than it got: Got a better reaction than you expected: Is your funniest: Is your darkest/angstiest: Is your absolute favourite: Is your least favourite: Was the easiest to write: Was the hardest to write: Has your favourite line/exchange/paragraph (share it): Have you re-read the most: Would you recommend to someone reading your work for the first time: Are you most proud of:

❤️❤️❤️

Which of your fics…

Did you think would get a bigger reaction/audience than it got: Hmm, this one’s tough. Most fics I’ve written I go in with the expectation that nobody will read them, though I do find my Crimson Peak fics get really slow engagement.  

Got a better reaction than you expected: Ooooh! This is a good one. There are two I can name. My Secret Friend By Morgan Stark and A Trick of the Light. Both of them were short little stories I wrote on a whim and I got more hits and people asking for a followup than I thought I would. IDK, the people want what the people want. 🤷‍♀    

Is your funniest: I’m not the best at comedy. Wish I was. But I do remember giggling while writing The Only Witness. It’s basically the second act of Thor: Ragnarok from the POV of one of Valkyrie’s neighbors. I wrote it wayyyy back so I would probably make a lot of changes, but I still had a good time!  Is your darkest/angstiest: Oh, one Halloween I wrote a pretty spooky fic, I Think There’s Something Wrong. It’s a fic from Thor’s POV where Loki is back and Thor comments on all the strange things that has happened since he’s returned. I was surprised I managed to make it as chilling as it was. I don’t know if it was a fluke or something, but I hope one day I can top it!

Is your absolute favourite: Any of my little Frigga AU fics. ^_^

Never Grow Up, This Might Be Sweeter Than the Candy, From Now on You’re Troubles Will be Out of Sight

It started off as someone asking me if I ever imagined an AU where Valki have a post-Endgame kid and it somehow manifested into my wholesome, emotional support canon-divergent OC. It’s like one of those things where you tell yourself “I don’t think I’m good enough to write an OC. That’s intimidating and a lot of pressure.” and the next thing you know, you’re knee deep in headcanons and mini-fics and thinking to yourself, “well, fuck!”  So, here we are...and already outlining a sequel to this never ending story. >.<   

Is your least favourite: This is a tough question because I always try to find something I love about each of my fics. They serve as a sort of memory about the time and place I wrote it and how I felt while I was writing. And this one might surprise those who have stuck with my work, but my No Hard Feelings? series is probably something I would say I wish I could do over again. I think I’ve learned Loki and Valkyrie’s characterization a bit more since then, so I’d probably change some wording around and maybe add more scenes.  

Was the easiest to write: Any of my Valki Week Fics. Valki Week 2018 or Valki Week 2019. Those prompts let me just write and not care if I like it or anybody likes it or if anyone will read it.

Was the hardest to write: Booze Talk. Without question! The final two chapters will be posted soon, but this fic has been a project of mine for a good year and a half (maybe two years, I don’t remember) and it’s my first long fic. Most of the delay is writers block and doubt that my fic is even worth finishing or something people cared about, but then I remembered my whole purpose for starting an AO3 account and I’m trying to put myself back in that headspace so I can let this story be finished with. Has your favourite line/exchange/paragraph (share it):

Here’s an entry from my latest chapter from Booze Talk. I had a good laugh writing this part. XD

“I changed my mind. I’m staying.”

“Really?” Thor catches a movement behind the door and carefully perks his head up and scans the room above Valkyrie’s head. The room is a bigger mess than normal. There’s broken glass on the floor and a pool of dried blood by her dresser that Thor can’t help but wonder how long it’s been sitting there. A coffee table is turned over and some clothes (that aren’t in Valkyrie’s usual choice of colors) are hanging over a chair.    

But what catches his attention and makes his lips turn up in a wide grin is when he spots Loki stretched out on the bed, buried under blankets and glaring daggers his way.

“That’s wonderful,” his voice cracks.

Valkyrie rolls her eyes and leans back to shut the door. Thor can’t help himself but bark out a laugh.

“So, what changed your-

“Bye.” She waves before she shuts the door in his face.

Have you re-read the most:

I’m Not Tired. A Lady Loki/Valkyrie AU. I read this one when I need some cutesy wholesomeness.

Would you recommend to someone reading your work for the first time:

According to my stats, people really liked My Secret Friend by Morgan Stark. If you are looking for Valki content, try out Light Me Up. The sequel to No Hard Feelings? that one has a bit of a number of kudos.   

Are you most proud of:

Booze Talk! It’s the hardest I’ve ever worked on a fic and I know it’s just my first step into the long fic realm. I’m sure years from now I will look back at it like “What was I thinking?” XD.

I’m tagging @skiplo-wave @existentialmalaises @disparatepeace @xdawnofthestarsx@gaslightgallows @not-rude-ginger @worstloki and any other writers who want to try this out! Hope you all have fun with this like I did.

[agustdomain]

October Ink | #2

Sicheng was different, but you didn’t care. You were never supposed to know.  

It’s been long since I’ve last visited. I know, Y/N, but please trust me. Meet me at the cemetery tonight. Our spot. 1 am. 

Love, 

D. Sicheng

Tearing the note off of your bedroom window, you already knew who it was and what it would probably entail. You read the note over and over. The bitterness filled your brain, as harsh as vodka. Sighing, you tucked it into your pocket.

                                                             ~

Violet River. A small town of 3,057 inhabitants. Known for its Halloween spirit, it was a tourist hotspot from September to November.

You hadn’t had friends growing up- well, that’s what you got used to telling people these days. The truth was, you had exactly one. 

There was no meaningful memory of your life, none in your mind that didn’t have Dong Sicheng. Growing up, you never considered how weird that was, how every single staple in your memory, he was there. 

He first acknowledged you when you were both nine years old. 

The road you both lived on stretched wide, the acres between your home and his felt like a country- at first. You yearned to be his friend, always smiling and waving when he and his father drove past your house. When he was with his father, he always gave you the same blank look. 

One day, when you went out too far in the woods and got lost, he appeared. He was there to lead you home. 

You were alone, and then you weren’t.

Your friendship was a secret for a long time. You’d meet in the woods, and whenever you tried to spook him he’d get mad. Not because you succeeded… it was because he told you not to mess with monsters. 

You knew he was different when you were 14. 

By that age, you’d taken to creepier settings, finding the perfect little getaway in an old cemetery. In the far back was a mausoleum, the creaky old gate too rusted to hold. There, the two of you read books and shared your dreams of leaving this dead town. 

At that age, no one could convince you to not be his friend. Your mother, who pursed her lips whenever she saw you with him, tried but gave up when she knew you wouldn’t stop. The other kids who whispered about him, the occasional few bold enough to say something to his face. 

Most people, though, were terrified of Sicheng’s father. You? You were proud your best friend was a legend. 

That fateful day, had to be around October, you had decided to make the journey to your cemetery getaway early. You wanted to surprise him with a picnic, so you lugged a big basket and blanket with you as you trekked the usual shortcut through the forest. 

About halfway there, you heard a woman’s cry. There was no other sound like it, hairs standing on end as your body went rigid. You held your breath, wondering where all that bravery you claimed to have disappeared. 

Now, you wonder if you’d somehow sensed what you were about to stumble upon in the woods. 

You let the sounds of her crying draw you closer, moving silent like Sicheng once taught you. Holding your breath, you peeked around a tree.

The basket thumped to the forest floor, birds somewhere nearby croaking as their wings shot them to the sky. 

Sicheng’s head shot up from her neck, blood coating his mouth and chin. His fingernails were black and elongated, holding her in place. His pupils, the color of an endless well. The woman was fading in and out of consciousness, one of her hands shakily reaching out to you. 

“Help,” She whimpered. 

To this day, you wondered why you ran. Why? You knew in your heart you weren’t scared, so why did you run away?

He came to you the same night, eyes watery with tears as he begged you not to leave him. You were hurt at first, tugging him to sit next to you on the bed. Then, you were angry, offended he’d even think you’d run. 

“You’re still you. This doesn’t change anything.”

“Oh, Y/N. But it changes everything.”

You held him that night, the stir in your heart more intimate than you’d ever realized. When he turned to face you in bed, his fingertips brushed at your cheek, his eyes the brown you knew so well. Was what you saw in the woods also him? Yes, it was.

You were too weak to care. 

Even now, you weren’t sure who leaned forward first. The kiss left you dizzy, his hands puzzle pieces sliding into place as he pulled you closer, his lips soft with their appraisal. 

“I love you. I was made to protect you,” He whispered into the night. 

He’d answer your questions, you knew he would. For now, you’d just needed to reassure him that you’d never leave. 

You didn’t know that’d be the last time you’d see him for five years.

                                                            ~

The town had tales of night guardians, beings created to protect the oasis that was Violet River. Crimes didn’t happen here. And if they did, they were taken care of with little explanation. 

On the flip side, there were those who weren’t so keen on night guardians. They called them impure, unnatural, wanted them to disappear. The town’s sheriff? More like a certified Guardian hunter.

It didn’t take long for things to click, why Sicheng and his father were on the outs with everyone else. 

You didn’t know why Sicheng up and left you, but he made sure to leave you with a wound so deep, you vowed he’d feel it himself if he ever returned. 

                                                            ~

He was there when you arrived that night at the cemetery, just like the note said. 

Older now, face more refined and handsome than you were prepared for- was he an angel… or something much darker?

“Why now?”

His expression broke as he approached, hands cupping your face. You turned away, the bitterness prominent on your tongue. His forehead touched yours, and when he opened his eyes, they were the black that haunted your dreams.

“I had to protect you.”

“I guess the whole leaving thing was only for me, right?”

“My people. They kill whoever has proof of us. You saw me that day, saw me with that woman.”

You broke away, finger jabbing his chest. “I didn’t care. You are what matters to me. Sicheng, I-” You almost said it, but you didn’t know who this was. There were five years between the two of you. The boy you loved then wasn’t the guy before you now. 

Stepping back, you shook your head. He followed your tracks, but you held up a hand to stop him.

“I don’t care what you are. I still don’t. But I’m not going to let you hurt me again.”

“I would never hurt-”

“You already did. You left me. Before this goes any further, I’m going to walk away.”

“Please. You need to hear me. It’s important that I-”

“Goodbye, Sicheng.”

You spun on your heels, booking it out of the cemetery. You came to the crossroads, either taking the shortcut from the woods or the long way home. You took the long way. 

Your first deep breath found you at the sight of your house. The sting in your eyes... Was it relief or disappointment that he didn’t stop you?

Stepping into the foyer, your gut twisted and let you know something was very wrong. The lights were all off, silent save for the sound of slow dripping from the kitchen. 

“Mom?”

The ceiling creaked overhead, the sound of someone moving around upstairs telling you weren’t alone. Your mom would’ve answered. Fumbling for the handle behind you, you heard a small splatter as you stepped backward. Eyes trailing down, you strained to see the puddle you were stepping in. It was too dark to make anything out, so you slowly pulled out your phone. With shaky fingers, you turned the flashlight on and directed it to the floor. 

It was the color of candy apple red, the puddle almost as big as the entirety of the living room. Following the trail, nausea knocked you back into the door at the sight of your mom’s lifeless body, eyes dead as she stared right back at you. 

You didn’t scream, didn’t move. Stared at the claw marks deep in her chest, the gashes likely the cause of her death. 

“My son should’ve never come back.”

Your brain was muddled, heart numb as your gaze trailed to Sicheng’s father. His boots creaked with every step he took down the stairs. He was tall, rugged, as terrifying as people made him out to be in their horror stories. 

His pupils were already black.

“Why now?” You asked him the same question that you’d asked Sicheng. 

He tilted his head. “The answer’s simple, darling. He convinced me to leave, to spare you. On the promise that he’d never return. He went back on his word.”

Why? What had he been trying to tell you? Why did you walk away like an idiot? Why did he come back?

He moved inhumanly fast, hand closing around your neck and lifting you off your feet like you were a doll. Clawing at his hand, you gasped for air, eyes going to your mom. 

At least you’d see her soon. 

“Think of my son in these moments. I’ll make sure to tell him you begged for him.” As your vision faded, he brought your body closer, his mouth morphing as his teeth elongated like his nails. 

There was a scream, a figure darting toward the two of you. Then, you were gone.

You awoke to excruciating pain, knives pricking every inch of your body. It hurt to breathe, to move. It was someone pulling the skin off of your body, sewing it back on, then peeling it off once more.

“Y/N! Hang on. I’m here. Focus on my voice! Focus on my…”

~

Violet River. 3,055 residents. 

You and Sicheng come to visit during the tourist season. The sheriff purses his lips, but doesn’t argue. After all, only tourists are the issue when it comes to crime in this sacred town. 

You lure them into the woods, promising them nights of their lives. 

You take to blood like you took to Sicheng- naturally and loyally. 

There’s only one thing you’d kill Sicheng for: if he ever stood in the way between you and a kill. After all, he made you what you are. 

Every day, you hoped it would never come to that.

A/N: A second drabble back to back? Who am I? Haha. I truly couldn’t figure out who to use for this one. In the end, I think Sicheng fits the role well. If there’s a certain someone you’d like to see in these drabbles, drop an ask! If there’s a certain fall scenario you want to read, feel free to request it! These are fun. I promise they all won’t be spooky. 

~Angelo

Check out my drabble list here. It’s still small, but it will get bigger with time! (:

[agentmarymargaretskitz]

Vlogger Gary, annoyance at first sight.

Happy birthday! I know I’m very badly late but I still hope you enjoy this a little!

For the rest of you, consider an AU where Zari wasn’t the only one whose timeline got changed by Heyworld.

Ao3

“John!”

Someone grabbed his am, and he spun around as Gary called his name again. The other man looked stressed out and panicked, even more so than he usually did.

“What, Gary?” he snapped. Neron and Tabitha were gone, Nate was back, and the world was safe. There was no reason for him to be this anxious.

“The timeline’s changing,” Gary babbled as everyone continued to celebrate and cheer around them. “And because of that, my timeline is changing. Rip recruited me from the future. I’m a kid right now, somewhere out in that crowd, and I’m about to disappear and I’m scared.”

It was a lot to process in a short amount of time, but John shook his head.

“You’re not gonna disappear,” he promised, grabbing Gary into a tight hug. “You’re gonna be fine, you hear? You’re going to be fine.”

“Of course, I’m fine!”

              John frowned as he was pulled back from the hug. For a moment, he drew a blank on the man in front of him. Then he remembered exactly who he was. Jeffery Green, but JJ to anyone he ever met. He worked at a museum in the future and had been picked up with the Tarazi siblings when Kuasa was after their totem.  An obscure mixture of brains and chaotic energy that had saved everyone’s lives time and time again, not to mention a close friend to John.

“You saved Nate, man!” JJ cheered, slapping him on the back.

John grinned, but still felt like something had been lost in all this.

~~~~

“I can’t believe you talked me into going on this with you,” John grumbled as he walked down the hallway with Behrad. “You could have gotten anyone else- Ava, Nate, JJ?”

“Dealing with the team, my sister’s ex, and refused to go as soon as I mentioned the word influencers. You’re my only available hope of sanity tonight.”

“You wanted to come to this, Behrad,” Zari reminded him from the front. “You always keep asking what the big deal with these is all about. Now I get to show you around my life and people can hear how my little brother is an awesome superhero.”

Behrad glared. “You’re not telling anyone about that.”

“Are you sure? Because people would love to-”

“I don’t want to be on display, Zari. You know this. That’s why we went on the ship-”

              John tuned out the sibling bickering as the sound of muffled music grew louder. They had been fighting a lot more since Heyworld had reignited Zari’s desire to be in the spotlight. The attention and the documentary crew that had been on the ship gave her a taste for it again. She’d been off the ship more often now to film videos or attend events like this one. JJ was even struggling to keep her aboard, and he was always the one with ideas that made her want to stay on the ship.

              Things had been different since Heyworld somehow. It wasn’t the attention or the documentary crew or Ava moving in and Mona leaving. Something had changed and John couldn’t figure out what it was. It felt as though someone was missing, but no one else seemed to notice it. Although Gideon did have a problem with some phantom data, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary besides the feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

“And here we are,” Zari waved at two doormen. “This is going to be fun.”

              The doors were opened up to the trio, who entered behind Zari. The whole room was lit up in purple and music pulsed around them. Huge banners advertising eyeshadow or something were on every wall along with a massive one from the ceiling. So many people filled the room, all standing out in some way. It nearly overwhelming just standing there without engaging.

Zari, however, was unaffected. This was her world, after all. “Come on, go mingle. I’ll find you when it’s time to go.”

“Is there a bar here?” John shouted to her over the music.

“Yeah, over there, I think.”

“Great, bye.”

              John followed in the direction that Zari had gestured, squeezing through the throngs of people clustered together or dancing. When he finally got there and asked for whiskey, the bartender looked almost relieved. Probably pleased he didn’t have to make some fancy ass drink like the ones he’d seen some people with. Who the hell needed a color-changing cocktail with a glow stick in it?

“Haven’t seen you before,” someone said as he accepted the whiskey.

              John turned and nearly rolled his eyes at the man taking a seat next to him. Clearly, he was one of these influencers JJ had been so desperate to avoid. He was wearing a turquoise suit over a gold shirt and had two studs piercing his right eyebrow. Behind the glasses with frames matching his suit, dark brown eyes loaded with eyeliner looked him up and down. This wasn’t just an appreciate glance, but one that seemed to be trying to profile him.

Something tugged in John’s gut, but he wasn’t sure what it was. Probably disgust of being cornered by an influencer or celebrity or whatever the hell this guy was. “First time. Came with a friend.”

“Anyone I might know?” the man pried as he accepted a glass of something that smelled like lavender and was the color of daffodils.

Now John rolled his eyes. “Zari Tarazi.”

“The Dragon Girl?” the man gasped. “Is she finally coming back into the spotlight? I’ve missed seeing her around. She always adds such class with events like this. And you said you were a friend? Lucky!”

John shrugged as he took a drink. He guessed they counted as friends. “I just came for the moral support. I take it you must be part of some circus with that suit?”

The man snickered. “Cute. I’m in the entertainment business too. I’m Gary. Maybe you’ve heard of my videos? Probably more of the spooky ones than the makeup tutorials. You know Beyond Our World? Exploring unsolved mysteries and other otherworldly events.”

“Definitely not,” John shook his head. “You cater to the conspiracy theorists, huh? Good for you.”

“Actually, the ‘Green Beans’, which my fans love to call themselves, have all kind of viewpoints when it comes to conspiracies,” Gary told him. “It’s the interest that brings people in, not their beliefs. Interest is what always brings people in to see the videos.”

“So how much in your videos is fake?” John asked. “You make up evidence to get people to believe in the things that go bump in the night, huh?”

Gary scowled at him. “How dare you, when you haven’t even seen anything I’ve-”

“I don’t need to see a thing,” John snapped, getting out of the seat and facing the man. “And you know why?”

Gary sat there, no emotion showing on his face.

“I know because I’ve seen it all. Ghosts, demons, villains raised from hell. I’ve walked in the shadows. They’re real, but no one ever believes in it. If they did, they’d all be panicking. There wouldn’t be a party. So I don’t need your content. You have nothing.”

Now Gary stood up. He had only an inch on John, but John was struggling to look him in the eyes when he noticed the hideous lime green loafers.

“I have enough,” Gary told him. “I don’t need you to bring me down. Sorry, Zari’s friend.”

He walked away into the crowd. John watched him go and finished the rest of the whiskey. The funny feeling he’d had before was back.

“Now is not the time for you to be standing around like some hapless idiot!”

              John clenched his head as the words, his words echoed in his ears. Something flashed in his head. Trying to hold Neron off with magic and shouting at someone. It was Gary, except looking more like he was with the government. He looked hurt and distraught.

That wasn’t right though. He’d called JJ an idiot and the other man had taken a swing that knocked him out. They’d buried the hatchet about it and moved on. But now that…didn’t feel right at all.

“Hey,” a hand slapped him on the shoulder as Behrad came up beside him. “We’re leaving.”

“Yes,” John exhaled and turned to face the other man. “Please, get me out of here. Where’s Zari?”

Behrad pointed to where his older sister was heading for the door. “She’s got a head start.”

“Then we better catch up.”

They started off in the direction Zari was headed, unaware that they had a tail.

~~~~

“You okay, man?”

John glanced over to see JJ entering the library. As he did, he flickered for a brief second, appearing as the normal version of that Gary guy. He recoiled in confusion and JJ frowned at him.

“Definitely going to take that as a not okay. Was it that influencer party?”

“Yeah, something happened there. Picked an argument with someone. At least it was an open bar.”

“Exactly why I avoid those things,” JJ snapped his fingers at John just as Zari walked by. “Not even for you, my dearest Zari!”

“You’re worse than Behrad,” Zari stuck her tongue out as she joined them. “So you got into a fight? Spill!”

“It wasn’t a fight. I just disagreed with him peddling lies and exciting conspiracy theorists.”

JJ got a funny look on his face as Zari leaned forward. “What did he look like? Did you get his name? Real or screenname, I can clap him on CatChat.”

“It’s not worth it. I just felt funny around him.”

“Ooooo,” JJ hopped up to squat on his chair. “Was he a demon? An Encore? An alien?”

Zari smirked. “Or did you have a crush on him?”

“But monsters, Zari! Look at all the fugitives we’ve met in the past year!”

“But feelings, JJ. Even John has them.”

Thunk!

              All three of them went quiet at the sound above them. John held a finger to his lips and started looking at the ceiling. JJ climbed out of his chair quietly and started examining the ceiling as well. Zari also was helping and had decided to start recording. Everything was silent, until there was a series of thumps that went across the ceiling and out the door. The trio looked at each other and then ran after the noise.

              They made their way down the halls of the ship, following the sounds into Mick’s room. He wasn’t there, which was probably a good thing. John looked around the room for anything that they could use, but JJ had already found a crowbar and was prying off the cover. As soon as it fell onto the ground, John climbed on Mick’s chair and peering into the open airduct. There was nothing one way, so he turned in other direction.

              He only saw the bottom of the shoe a moment before it smacked him in the face. John dropped out of the airduct and lost his footing on the chair. He felt himself crash downward and another body come tumbling out to land on him. It was gone after two seconds and JJ was helping him onto his feet while Zari screamed about a stowaway.

              John stumbled out the room and saw a flash of green disappear around a corner. He hurried after it until he caught sight of a familiar lime green. When he turned the corner, John stopped to see Mick holding that influencer Gary tightly as he tried to squirm away. He must have followed them back to the Waverider from the party.

“This is all real!” Gary was screaming, his hand still flailing about with a phone in it. “I found proof of…something. If I die, tell my cats I love them!”

John strode forward and grabbed the phone away from him. “This is all fake, just like him.”

Gary glared at John. “It’s not enough to insult my work to my face, but now you do it on my videos?”

“Shut up!” Mick ordered them. “Who are you?”

“Wow, really? Maybe you two are aliens if you don’t know Beyond Our World?”

“If you’re as annoying on it as you are right now, then I’m glad I’ve never heard of it, Larry,” John smirked.

“It’s Gary! Gary Green, you asshole!”

A shrill scream came from down the hallway before Zari ran up to join the crowd. “You don’t know Gary Green?!”

Gary looked up. “Zari Tarazi?”

“Mick, you can let him go,” Zari told him. “Guys, Gary Green is one of the biggest vloggers. He does the most amazing videos for true crime and supernatural stuff, plus a few make-up ones. We did a collab once. It was awesome”

“Zari?” JJ called out. “Is everything okay?”

“It’s fantastic!” Zari squealed as JJ came around the corner. “JJ, you have to see this. It’s Gary Green!”

JJ froze once he got a glimpse of the man Mick was now letting go. “Gary?”

Gary gaped up at him, his mouth opening and closing for a few moments before he finally was able to speak. “JJ?”

John turned to him. “Do you know him?”

“Nope!” JJ turned around, but Behrad had come up to join them and he ran into him. “Oh, come on!”

“What’s going on?” Behrad asked. “JJ? Zari? John?”

“He snuck on the ship,” John pointed to Gary. “He’s some celebrity or whatever.”

“I have a very successful brand and channel!” Gary pouted.

“He’s the male version of Zari,” Behrad muttered.

“I know you meant that as rude, but it’s true,” Zari nodded. “But how does he know you, JJ?”

JJ mumbled something.

“What’s that?” John asked.

“I said he’s my brother,” JJ repeated. “This is my brother, Gary.”

Everyone was silent, taking in the information. No one was really sure how to react to the new information connecting JJ to their stowaway.

Zari deciding to snap a selfie with a confused Gary was probably not the most appropriate though.

[leggomylino]

Dark Rising☽✮☾Act Two

☽✮☾ Dark Rising Masterlist ☽✮☾

Genre: Horror/Thriller, Drama, Romance, Comedy

Pairing: NCT’s Johnny Suh x fem!reader (x ???)

Word count: 9.3k (we’re covering a lot of ground in this one! :D)

Warning(s): mentions of blood, yandere-esqe themes, cuts/injuries, soul stealing and kidnapping. Possibly more in the future depending on what the original authors decide. They write for ot9 and so do I.

A/N: Main Masterlist in BIO! | This is a spinoff series to the SKZ fanfiction Twisted Karnival, by @gaiyofanfiction​. It can be read alone, but you are encouraged to read the original story first. At the authors’ request, I will take this down if asked to do so. I do not own Twisted Karnival or Stray Kids, or Johnny Suh, or any characters used in this. All credit goes where credit is due. The events that happen in this story are not canon in the original story, this is simply a work of fandom and appreciation, and thus will tie into canon events as closely as possible in respect to the original works. All that being said… Thank you. <3

~  ☽✮☾ ~

It was two in the afternoon. After complaining to Johnny that there was no way you were staying overnight in some spooky, definitely-haunted, no-fun funhouse little-shop-of-horrors, he ended up grumbling about how useless you were already proving to be and walking you all the way home. You, useless! When he was the one that came to you for help!! The nerve of that guy!!!

“I have an order for...y/n?” a waiter asked, stopping just at the corner of your table. You smiled gleefully while bobbing your head, smacking the already dish-packed tablespace, pastry crumbs and croissant flakes flitting about the area. “Yeah! Set ‘er right here, please!”

“Hn.” Johnny scoffed, watching disdainfully as you shoveled a double order of German chocolate cake down your throat and washed it down with a caramel milkshake. “Do you ever stop eating? I swear you’ve inhaled the entire dessert menu in less than an hour.”

You kept onto that milkshake until the last drop was gone, eyes peering up boldly to meet his. “...I thought you didn’t swear,” you asked, setting the glass down and going for the cherry that awaited you in its cream-stained contents. C’mere, you! <3

Johnny looked away, albeit for just a moment. He began crunching commands into his phone. “I don’t, but—”

“Then buttout.”

He gave an annoyed sigh. Outside the Urban Grind Cafe, life went on as normal, despite the fact that hundreds of people had gone missing just last night. Whispers filled the streets and alleyways, about sons and daughters who never came home, mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles that never called, never left a message of any possible sudden work meetings or last-minute plans; but no one had the gall to actually say anything out loud. It was as if they were afraid to, defaulting to cling onto false hope: Oh, it’s okay. They probably stayed out so late they decided to crash at a nearby inn. Maybe there was an all-nighter event. ...Who, so-and-so? (S)he’s a party animal, probably went to (friend name)’s house.

“...ou listening to me? Hello? Johnny?”

You’d pushed yourself up to wave the blank cherry stem in his face, lightly poking his nose with it. Johnny flinched a bit, swatting your hand away while you chuckled and fell back into your booth seat.

He groaned. “Y’know, most guys don’t care much for girls that--”

“What? Eat a lot? Talk back? Interrupt your call to the Mothership?” 

“...Yes. All of those.”

It was your turn to scoff. “Bite me.” ...Then you had to smirk, pausing a moment as you crossed a spoonful of pudding from bowl to blissful heaven. “...Are you by chance trying to say that--”

“No. Definitely not.” He gave you a serious glare that stopped any giggling rising in your throat. “Enough chit-chat. You can keep stuffing your face if you want, but I need you to listen to me.”

You wanted to throw your spoon at him, but the risk was greater than the reward of seeing him with vanilla pudding all over his face and a black eye. So instead you grunted, shoveling another spoonful of whip cream. “Yeah, alright, I’m listening. But I still have questions for you too. Like, how come—”

“Please don’t talk with your mouth full. No one wants to see that.”

“...”

Now you really were going to throw that spoon. Or you would have, if the same waiter from before hadn't shown up with a helping of creme brulee. Yum! 😍

“......” Johnny folded his hands before his face, leaning in with elbows on the table. “...I’ll start from the beginning. As I told you before, I’m—”

“An angel, yes, I know.”

“...Right. And it’s my mission, along with the other messengers, to combat the evils of this world and defend mankind. However, we can’t always act alone, because we’re not allowed to corrupt freewill...and that’s where matters can get really complicated.”

You continued inhaling creme brulee, eyes flitting back and forth between Johnny and the dessert before you.

“A long time ago...a long time ago, there was a period of peace on this earth. It didn’t last long, but time flows differently in the realm above this one.” He steadily exhaled, and abruptly his face scrunched up in distaste, seeming to decide on something. “...I lied, this is going to take too long, and you don’t need to know everything; at least, not yet. All you need to know is that there was a short period of prosperity, and then...something serious happened, and one of our own was cast out to be…” 

He cleared his throat. You paused again, setting your spoon down to listen more intently.

“...She was…” He swallowed. “...She was sent down to earth. But only because of the sacrifice that many of us made on her behalf.”

Your head tilted, drawing a blank. “...Sacrifice?”

“Yes. She was tricked by demons and did some things she shouldn’t have. Her punishment was to be cast out to the other side, but many of the others stood up for her and offered to take her punishment in her stead.”

“Wow...she must have been a true saint.”

The look in Johnny’s eyes was soft and distant. “...She was. She was beautiful, and had the purest heart imaginable. But she failed to guard that heart, and she was deceived into a great sin.”

“So...sort of like, Eve and the Tree of Knowledge?”

He nodded. “In a sense, that’s an accurate comparison. It’s not the same per say, but loosely speaking, yes. That day…” ...His voice grew quiet. “That day, everything changed. The sky grew dark, and everything sort of lost its color, if not just for a single moment. There was a cackle of laughter that echoed from down below, but we could all feel it, with our own intuition. We knew she was gone.” A painful sadness filled his eyes. “And there was nothing we could do. There was nothing...I could do…”

“But...wait,” you said. “I thought you said you all made a great sacrifice for her? And then something about her being on earth?”

He rested his arms down on the table. “We did, and there was. After many trials and God’s grace, she was still stripped of her wings, but rather than being sent to the underworld, she was reborn a human.”

“...That’s...a punishment?”

Johnny scowled. “Think about it. Use that big head of yours.”

“Hey! ...Urk, well, okay…” You frowned, steadily losing your appetite as you shuffled the remaining three bites of creme brulee around. “I guess that makes sense. Life does kinda suck from time to time, and heaven is supposed to be pure bliss.”

“It is,” Johnny assured, the corners of his mouth raising just slightly. “It’s wonderful. And life on earth is no picnic, but it’s much better than an eternity below. Trust me.”

You nodded. “Yeah, I get it…” Paused again. “...Hey, so, what was her name? Can you tell me?”

“Yeah…” He of course, paused for effect. The suspense was practically suffocating, the way his features seemed to sharpen, the hollow silence that filled the small space around the booth the two of you shared.

What if...What if it’s… —Am I…? Could I be—

“Her name is Evangeline.”

...Oof. You mentally shunned yourself for being so conceited as to have thought it could possibly have been you. But then...

An image of a girl with silky smooth hair and bright, passionate eyes filled a blank space in the center of your mind. Quickly, you swallowed down your most recent mouthful you’d forced in too soon, coughing a minute before leaning over a tower of empty dishes, a cup of tea nearly spilling over given how hard you slammed the table. “That...That girl from before.” There’s anxiety rising in your chest, though you’re not sure why. “Was it her?”

Johnny’s eyes widened in slight surprise, almost seeming to have trouble focusing on your own. “Yeah. Good guess.” 

Not really. Somehow, you just...knew.

“Whoa...so then…” You slowly descended back into your seat...then jumped back up with more fervor than before, startling a few nearby customers. This time, you did end up spilling that cup of tea. “Those demons have her! They have your one true love! We have to save her!!” 

“Uuuu—“ Johnny was leaning back, glaring at you again with even wider eyes. “Whoa, okay, I never said we were in love. And if you can find it in that pea-sized brain of yours to settle and keep your voice down, I’ll agree that you’re right and it is a main aspect of the mission.”

“Wha?!” You did glue your bum to your seat, but as for lowering your voice? Quite the opposite. “Just a second ago you were saying I have a big head, and now I have a small brain?!”

He huffed, crossing his arms. “Isn’t that how it always goes with brazen girls?”

“Brazen?!” You rolled up your sleeves. “Oh, I’ll show you brazen—!”

“E-Excuse me…” Your waiter had partially hidden himself behind an empty tray he was holding. “I’m sorry but, I’ve been getting a few complaints about the volume of noise over here and um...we don’t allow violence in our cafe. If you don’t calm down, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

Oop— well, it certainly wasn’t your fault!

“Tell that to him!” You roared, pointing an accusatory finger at...no one.

Johnny was gone, a closing door and the faint scent of aftershave the only trace that he’d ever been.

Something heavy and full of numbers was set down timidly beside you. It carried a hefty burden on your nearly-empty coin purse, causing it (and any excitement you’d had left) to shrivel up and die.

“Your bill, miss. You can pay at the register over there.”

………… 

The wails of a heartbroken young woman filled the chattering silence.

~ ☽✮☾ ~

“I can’t believe you just LEFT me!! What kind of a gentleman does that?! Huh?!?”

The two of you were wandering the back alleys of town, taking some sort of shortcut somewhere, you had to assume. All you knew was that you were lucky you had a decent sense of direction when it came to navigating the city and not many people were incredibly tall and wore an old trench coat in the middle of Spring.

Johnny glanced back at you from over his shoulder, at the angry expression on your face where puffs of animated smoke arose, and your hands rubbed raw from having to wash dishes. He smirked. “I never said I was a gentleman.”

You faltered, feeling like a ton of bricks had fallen on your head. 

AAARGH! You seriously wanted to pound him into a poundcake for this! You’d only know him for like, what, a day? Maybe two? And he was already unbearable to be with! Did you seriously have to work with this guy…?

“You were supposed to treat me! That was your apology for scaring me half to death and getting me involved in all this! Y’know, a real man would have— oof!”

You bumped right into his frozen backside. After quickly retreating two steps and rubbing your nose, you placed aggravated hands on your hips like some sassy middle school student.

“Oh, what is it now?! Wait, don’t tell me…” You turned one palm to gesture upward. “There’s a demon! Oh NOOOO, what will we— mmph!”

Johnny secured one hand over your mouth, the other balled and ready for action. His voice was tight and laced with concern. “Be quiet, and start walking back, slowly. Get to a populated area as soon as possible. Don’t make a sound you can help, understand?”

What-

“I just don’t understand,” a gruff voice said. “I’m always careful about counting tickets. Jeongin and I sealed the chamber after everyone was accounted for. I know.”

“Well obviously, you miscounted this time.” a second said. The hairs on your neck were beginning to stand. “It’s fine, it’s just one human. That’s nothing compared to the hull we got this time; and anyway, it’s not like they were special or anything. You were probably too distracted by my new sub— I mean, our new plaything, to be paying very good attention.”

The first voice let out an ominous growl.

They were talking about you; you didn’t need the proof of seeing them with your own eyes. Seeing wasn’t always believing. Their voices alone dripped with malice lying secret beneath succulent temptation, the most dangerous of siren songs. 

A song...didn’t Johnny mention something about that before?

...Hey, wait a sec. Did those guys just say you weren’t special? 💢 How rude!!

Something pushed you scant but roughly away, towards the faint rays of sunshine feebly reaching out from the nearest shopping district. “Get going. Move.”

You furrowed your brow at the man separating you and danger lurking up ahead. “Okay, okay!” you hissed. “No need to be so rough…”

You’d taken about three nimble steps back the way you came at a cat burglars’ waltz before the mutters up ahead once more caught your attention. When you turned around to look, Johnny had vanished, and you found yourself whipping in every direction before nervously taking shelter behind some pipes jutting out the back of the nearest building.

“Sigh. This is stupid. I could be spending time with our precious doll but instead I’m stuck out here looking for a heap of rubbish.”

The second devil’s eyes grew menacing and serious, a soft purple hue sweeping over the surface. You shuddered at the sudden temperature drop. “My creations are not rubbish. It was just a misfiring of signals caused by the pressure of the oncoming storm. I can ensure that it doesn’t happen again when we get back, now quit whining about your screwup and help me look.”

“...A…” The first demon paused, frowning concern at his partner. “...Not to sound like Jisung, but is that even possible?”

The other snorted, bending down to shuffle through a pile of old broken pipes and other junk. “Han wouldn’t have even known what I’m talking about. But yes, it is possible...ah! Here she is~” 

He smiled while pulling out a small toy robot, the hair and paint job looking...rather real. The first demonic being, who you could now see had hair the color of a Halloween sunset and a face full of stars, made a slightly grotesque expression, being sure to hide it stoically the moment his comrade looked back. “Great for you, now can we get back?”

“......” The latter looked sideways, almost seeming to be looking right at you. Your breath hitched, squeezing the pipe in front of you so hard it may well have burst. He closed his eyes with a smile. “...Yeah, sure. But first, there’s something I wanted to get off my chest as well.”

Freckles looked puzzled. “Wha? Right now? To me?” He furrowed his brow with a slightly annoyed pout. “Why? What is it?”

“Well…”

His voice dropped slightly. You leaned forward in a feeble attempt to listen. 

“...Do you remember what Chan was saying? About the concern for lack of performers?”

“Huh? When did Chan say— OW! Why did you step on me?!”

The robot man frowned, glaring. “Do you remember what he said now?”

“...Ah…” Freckles glanced around. He suddenly seemed to catch wind of something, smirking the next moment. “...Yes, I do recall hearing something about that. I was, uh...busy...before.”

Mr. Robot rolled his eyes. “...Right...you were at that...thing. Anyway,” he announced loudly, “I don’t know what I’m going to do! He asked me to hire more performers, so I’ve decided to hold tryouts for new talent tonight at 8 pm.”

“Oh? Tonight at 8 pm??”

“Yes,” he repeated rather...automatedly. “Tonight at 8 pm sharp.”

“...” 

Freckles abruptly leaned forward, whispering something. Robo-boy heaved a sigh, muttering back, then announced once more, “Oh, fine! We can hold it at 9 pm if that’s what you really want.”

“Hey, I’m just trying to— mm?!” A piece of duct tape was slapped over his mouth from the other’s toolbelt. He began pulling him promptly farther down into the alley, toy doll secured in the other arm.

“Great, so 9 pm sharp then! We better hurry or we won’t be ready for all the star talent!” ...And then they were gone.

You wasted no time scrambling around to find Johnny, wheezing out his name into the dim-lit area: “Johnny! Johnny?! Johnny!! Where are you?”

A flourish of feathers rushed past you from an offbeat breeze, fading into silver dust that vanished in the dank air. Something landed beside you, a bored expression on its face.

“...Don’t tell me you actually believed all that.”

You blinked at him. “What?”

He nodded to where the demons had once been gossiping. “That. Over there. If you couldn’t tell that was a trick to lure you back there, then we have a lot more work to do than I was hoping for.”

Your cheeks inflated to represent a pouting Jigglypuff. “It’s not like that! Don’t be so suspicious, they don’t even know I’m a Sailor Guardian chosen by the Moon!”

“A...A what?”

You grabbed both his hands. “We’ll never know unless we try! This could be our chance to save your one and only true love!!”

“Urk—“ He winced. “...I told you, she’s not my true anything! Quit putting words in my mouth!”

You took a step back. “But—!”

“No.” He groaned. “...I thought you hated being involved in this whole spectacle, anyway. Since when do you want to march into a demon-infested funhouse and pick a fight?”

...You had to think about that a moment. He did have you there; but being a hypocrite was sort of your thing. And what about Evangeline?! “...Since...Since…!” Urgh! “Since I have this! And this!!”

You held up the necklace and whistle proudly, both of which had been resting in your pocket. For some reason, Johnny stared at them in contempt and rising anger. “I told you, these are not toys! And do you mean to tell me you weren’t wearing the necklace this whole time?!”

You’d been cackling proudly until...this point. “...Uh...y-yeah—“

“Idiot!”

“Whaa!” You fell on your bum, the weight of his words sending you flying. Johnny just glared like he had every right to throw you into the nearby dumpsters and trash piles where that toy robot had been. “You’re so naive and dense! I told you, you need to be wearing that necklace at all times! DO NOT take it off, ever, for anything!” 

He snatched the whistle out of your hand, leaving marks of anger in his wake. A small hiss of pain left your lips, and you held your breath, gripping the injury in pain. When you let go a second later, a stain of blood greeted your eyes. 

You’d opened your mouth to say something back, but he silenced you real quick, waving the silver whistle inches away from your face. “And this is not a toy! You can’t use it whenever you feel like it, or put your full reliance on it! It’s only for a serious emergency when I’m not around, or you get separated from me and need immediate help! It’s strictly for dangerous situations only, as a backup plan! It can’t be your only means of fighting, because I can’t fight all your battles for you! I TOLD you this, I’m not allowed to intervene in the laws of freewill! Why can’t you open your ears and listen to me?!”

“...I-”

“What? You what?” He tsked. “Are you just too stupid and incompetent to do that too? Good grief, you really are useless…hey, wait…” His eyes shifted down, to your hand now nestled in the sleeve of your trendy store-bought Letterman jacket. You were shaking and breaking out in goosebumps all over. “...What’s wrong with your hand?”

You refused to answer him, the silence blaring far and wide. The heated haze gently lifted from over his eyes, awakening him from his rampage; but it was too late.

“...Y/n…” He kneeled down. You let out a hiccup, followed by a sniffle. Guilt quickly took him over. “...Y/n, I’m—“

Your head shot up like a volcano erupting, red-faced and teary-eyed. The atmosphere was yours to command, anger rising over everything. “SAVE IT!” You roared, snatching the whistle back. You ran with all your might down the alley, made a swift turn into civilization, and kept running until you were exhausted and could run no farther, and had to result to power-walking, even after Johnny had called for you to stop, to slow down, to wait, to come back.

You ran all the way home, glaring heatedly at the dumb slender whistle in your hands before tossing it into the blender, and slamming the on button. But for some reason, it refused to start. When you took it out and tested the power, it worked just fine. When you tossed the whistle back in, it wouldn’t start at all.

Letting out another frustrated scream, you instead marched upstairs, throwing open the balcony doors and tossing it as hard as you could into the forest behind your house. You hoped a rabid squirrel or a bobcat would find it and carry it far, far away...maybe swallow it or something.

With a defeated huff you collapsed to your knees, resting your arms and head on the balcony railing. Seriously, why did Johnny have to be like that?! It wasn’t your fault this was all happening so quickly, and there was a lot to take in— forty eight hours ago, you’d been a normal girl just doing your job, minding your own business, living your life. And now you’d been scouted out of nowhere by some tall wack-job claiming to be an angel, when you hadn’t even seen his wings...just a few feathers, and an impulse to believe…

Why? Why were you so gullible? Why would you just believe him without knowing for sure? Even if he did have the strange power to calm you… well, now he’d also hurt you.

Your cellphone buzzed, but you ignored it. The home phone rang, but you let it go to voicemail.

“Y/n, it’s me. Pick up. We need to talk.”

What the heck...how did he get your phone number? How did he…?

Hng. You were starting to learn not to question Johnny, save for the matter of his true identity, in the scheme of how fast things were going. He may be an angel, and he may not be. But he was basically out of your league in terms of being crafty and resourceful.

A notification bell chimed from your computer, the screen coming to life. You could have sworn you turned it off before leaving the house, though…

You sat down at your desk and searched for a notification to respond to, but there was nothing. Strange. Wait...what was this?

There was a window minimized on standby. You opened it, finding a digital flyer for the Twisted Karnival. 

The words spoken by the two demons before resonated in your mind: tryouts for new talent. 9 pm sharp.

Your fingers tightened around the necklace still in one hand, and as much as you wanted to hurl it off the balcony as well, you threw it over your head instead, burying the pendant beneath your shirt. You were still mad, but if you were going to do this, you weren’t going to be stupid about it. You’d march right over there and blend in perfectly; you’d put on a disguise so good, no one would be able to recognize you, not demons, not even Johnny! And this necklace would provide you with protection, just like he said! ...That was what he said, right…? ...Whatever. You’d make this work no matter what! Even if it was a trap! You’d just have to turn it around and bust that trap! Then he’d really see who was useless!!

“Who’s resourceful now?” You’d say. “Huh?!”

A sharp sting pierced your right hand, and you winced, shutting down your computer and running across the hall to wash the wound. It really wasn’t that bad of a scratch, so you had no idea why it was stinging so much…

Sigh. There were a lot of things you didn’t know as of late. Instead, glaring back at your reflection in the bathroom mirror, you decided to focus on things that you did know.

And one of those things was that you were about to prove Johnny very wrong.

~ ☽✮☾ ~

After taking a nap to be in tip-top shape for kicking demon ass, fueled by rage and determination to prove a point, you awoke just shy of eight to find you’d gained a bit of common sense...in other words, you were starting to have doubts. 

According to plan, you were to march into uncharted enemy territory that had a 50% chance of being (...okay, 99.9%...) a trap, without Johnny, without anyone, to fight supernatural beings that possessed freaky powers you likely didn’t stand a chance against. You had no strategy, no combat experience, and no weapon save for the silver cross that was supposed to keep you safe somehow; but you couldn’t even remember exactly what it did. Something about making you invisible, maybe…? ...There was just so much information… 

Perhaps you needed to think this through a bit more carefully, now that the previous flames of anger had died down to a subtle wisp of ember. With the smoke clearing, you were now able to see the real danger that lied up ahead; it was like you were standing there all over again, on carnival grounds, watching that girl’s life being sucked away…

No, not sucked away. It’d been corrupted. She’d been put under some sort of spell, and supposedly, you were the only one...or at least, the one chosen...to stop it. Johnny has chosen you for this. There was something he said...there was a reason you were chosen for this. Again, too much information in too little time… 

...What if that was you? What if you rushed in there, full of spirit but no power to back it up, and ended up just like her?

...Even if that were to be the case, and you were wrong, and Johnny did turn out to be crazy, you couldn’t just abandon the thought of someone in need. Not when you’d seen her suffering with your own eyes, waiting to be saved.

You still didn’t know why it had to be you, but time was running out, your alarm clock reading 8:15. You’d made up your mind. You’d just have to find out along the way. If you died trying, well, hey— at least you died trying. You wouldn’t turn your back on someone in danger. 

And even if I did call the police,what are they gonna do? Heck, the demons would probably brainwash them and have ME arrested instead. 🗿💧 There’s no way I’d be able to afford a bail fee on my school salary!!

Okay, y/n, it was time to get ready! Game on!! —Hey, hold on.

After jumping out of bed with a fiery new spirit, you looked down to your hand before you. The injury Johnny had given you…

...was completely gone.

~ ~ ~

Standing outside the carnival gates was like standing at the gates of a cemetery. As creepy and unfavorable as one could imagine, it was ten times worse. 

You hadn’t known what to wear exactly in regards to the demon-slaying-attire department, but you also needed a good disguise, so you’d opted for your one-piece swimsuit from middle school that you miraculously found lying in your closet and just as miraculously still fit your matured body. A solid navy blue, you paired it with some stretchy ballet flats and a trench coat similar to Johnny’s belonging to your roommate, Jisung...more on him later. Basically you’d probably be owing him a new one after this, which may or may not have been more expensive than a brainwashed-officer’s bail fee...since it was…

Givenchy?! 😱 S-Son of a—

“Oh! There you are!”

AHH!

The appearance of Cherry Boy nearly made you jump out of your skin. He was so close, his face smiling sweetly to you from the other side of the twisted black fence, the thickening fog washing out his pale features (other than that blindingly bright red mop on his head). You pulled your Jisung’s jacket like a hug.

“Uhm...y-yes! Hahah, heeere I am~”

A strangely excited glint filled the young boy’s eye. Oddly enough, he didn’t move to unlock the gate for you or anything; in fact, he did the opposite, stepping back into the dense miasma as the gate just...opened itself… “You almost didn’t make it! Good thing you got here on time! Auditions are about to start!”

Your jaw was about to drop, but you did good to snap it shut, not wanting to show any forward emotion that may tip him off. You were an unsuspecting young girl, just trying her luck at auditioning to perform in the risingly-famous Twisted Karnival. No big— ...

Hold on. Cherry Boy had seen you. He’d gotten dangerously close to you and looked right in your eyes and spoken directly to you. But…

Weakly, but with fever, you patted your chest. Checked your pockets.

Johnny’s necklace was gone.

“Are you coming~? No need to be shy! Come on in! Oh, what’s your name?”

You stared horrifically into the blank atmosphere filled with mist. You couldn’t see Cherry Boy anywhere. “...Y/n...I mean!” Shit. “That’s what I wish my name would have been! But it’s really, uh...uh...S-Samantha!”

You could no longer see the demonic redhead anymore, but you could feel his presence twice as strong. His voice sounded as if he were right in front of you. “Samantha…? Hm. You sure don’t look like that name suits you at all. No offense or anything, it’s still such a lovely name for a lovely young lady~”

And then he was right behind you. His breath tickling your ear.

“Say, since you like the name y/n so much, how about we call you that instead? What do you think about that?”

...You thought you were this close to whopping this guy in his cute face and making a break for the shelter you passed two left turns ago. But alas, he was gently walking you forward, escorting you to your doom awaiting you in one of the many striped tents hidden in the mist. No turning back now. 

The moment you crossed the gate’s threshold, something instantly didn’t feel right.

“So what will you be auditioning for today?” he asked in a bright, cheerful voice. It stood out like a sore thumb given the dank depressing carnival air. “Oh, I’m not one of the judges or anything, I’m simply curious to know.”

Okay, this was it. You’d decided on the way over that you would be auditioning in some form of acrobatics, since you’d also had minor experience in gymnastics as a kid and well...that’s really all you had to go on… 

You sunk your head farther down into Jisung’s thousand-dollar jacket. Man. This plan is already proving to have way too many holes. What should I do?

You had to give him some kind of answer. “Um...yeah, sure! I’m...auditioning for…” You gulped. Felt his eyes glued to you, like a bullet to the back of the head. “...Uh, it’s a surprise! No spoilers!”

You’d jumped forward and spun around, making an X with your hands. Cherry Boy blinked. 

“...Oh, I see! Yes, of course...wouldn’t want to ruin the fun!”

“Right?!” Phew.

“Yes, of course~” He stepped around you, pulling open the side-flap of a smaller tent to your left. “Well, here we are!”

“Oh, but…” You examined the size of the tent. No we ain’t. “This isn’t the main tent?”

“...No, it isn’t.” Cherry Boy confessed. He pointed somewhere North, maybe toward the center of the carnival. It was too hard to tell with all this blasted fog in the way. “The Main Tent is that way. I’ll be escorting you there once you finish getting ready! We have a professional makeup artist on standby, so hurry and get changed, and we may be able to make it on time!”

A wha??

“H-Hold on— I already have a costume—!” …

There was no holding on. He’d already pushed and closed you inside. 

The tent was small and dim-lit by candlelight, barely big enough for four people. It held a trunk, a narrow wardrobe, and a compact vanity with a box of tissues and makeup supplies. A smiling young woman was waiting for you, one leg crossed over the other in her tight pencil skirt and bright pink lipstick. She looked...a little pale and...out of place. Like she didn’t belong in a circus, or a carnival, or whatever.

The woman didn’t say anything, not even when you slightly waved and muttered a less-than-confident hello. She stood up, gestured for you to sit down, and started mechanically slapping random compacts of powders and shadows to your face. The oddest scent of burnt rubber filled the air the more she awkwardly jerked and moved… 

“Um...are you okay…?” You frowned. “Ma’am, you’re kind of...well, your movements are—”

She dropped the blush she was holding and paced over to the other side of the tent, jerkily, where the wardrobe was. Something snapped as she took a step halfway there, and she suddenly dipped, but before you could finish gasping at her expense and leap across the space to steady her she’d righted herself like nothing happened. Uncomfortable with all of it, you stared strangely at the blush that simply rested on the floor. 

“Hey, Miss? Are you sure you should be working right now? I think that maybe you oughta go home...also, I’m sorry but, I don’t know the policy here...is makeup supposed to be left on the floor?”

She, again, didn’t answer. Something clicked and sparked while she rummaged the closet, though, and next thing you knew she was wrestling you into a new outfit.

“Hey, hold on, stop it! I don’t need a costume, I brought my own! I’m wearing it! Please— ack!”

Your face smacked into plastic, floor-abandoned foundation shoved up your nose.

After managing to shove her off and sneezing/coughing a few times, you were yanked before a mirror that...definitely wasn’t there before. Spooky…oh, but…!

The girl that greeted you back actually wasn’t that bad. Her makeup was kind of sloppy, but the idea behind it was pretty classy and kinda sexy. The outfit you now wore— a pure white leotard with an open back and a flashy, glittering pink trail (y’know, those skirts that are open in the front, like a cape for your waist), and pristine, matching white gloves— altogether, the ensemble was...dare you admit...actually pretty dang cute. 

This woman may have had too much caffeine or been drunk off her ass, but she knew what she was doing in the scheme of things. “Say, this is actually really cute! Thanks!”

She bowed. Very unnaturally. It was way too low, like you were royalty or something, and you could have sworn there was a spark next to her hip. Weird. When she didn’t get back up and you could hear Cherry Boy calling, asking if you were ready, you snatched your Jisung’s coat and skipped out of there, muttering another awkward thanks.

Outside the tent Cherry Boy was grinning at you from ear to ear, a disgustingly adorable rosy tone to his cheeks that counteracted to your false one. Curse him. “Wow, look at you!” He padded closer to stroke your cheek, an action you didn’t call for to occur. It left you stiff and frozen solid, color fleeing where his skin met yours. “...That outfit certainly is stunning...to make a last debut in.”

Those last words didn’t quite make sense to you, but you were more concerned with the way he was examining you, scanning his eyes up and down the length of your body like you were an exhibit on display, and he was an aspiring artist, trying to take in everything that he could…and the fact that he still had his hand on you…

You felt like a corpse. But also, for some unnamed reason, you felt almost angry...

“Jeongin! Hurry up— oh!”

Both you and Cherry Boy— Jeongin, you guessed— pivoted your heads in the direction a new player called from the main stage. After only seeing a silhouette for the longest two seconds of your life, at last, Mr. Robot himself came into view. 

Nervously, you gripped the sides of your sparkly half-skirt, shivering from both the chill of settling mist and the heavy negative vibes ascending in the air. When Jeongin released you, you stumbled back a step and a half, gripping the gaping hole swelling in your gut. Your mind clouded with backlash thicker than this impenetrable fog: how stupid this was, how dumb you were, that you should have never come— 

You came to a death trap empty handed with no survival skills or redeeming known qualities except that you were somehow “the one.” ...Were you insane?!

Just like Johnny’s outburst, it was too late to escape. You were already too far in. Two of them now knew you were here, and you couldn’t even run if you’d wanted to; fear held you down like a magnet, and the hole in your stomach was beginning to fester.

Yet, beneath that, in the pit of your stomach, in the center of that swirling vortex, there was also something...stirring…

...Maybe you just need to throw up again. “You must be the last audition we’ve been waiting for! Everyone else has already gone, we’re just waiting for you!” Robo-boy smiled like a kid that knew he’d won before the game was over. “Are you ready?”

You dragged your foot a step back, then another, clinging to your coat for dear life. It was a miracle you even found your voice at all. “H-How did you know I was going to audition? How did you know I’d come here?” 

...What? The jig was basically up anyway.

“Hmm…” He thought. Or pretended to. “I suppose you could say we had...a hunch.”

And then you aren’t sure what happened, because the next second his eyes were glowing that purple hue you saw in the alleyway, only it was stronger now...brighter...and you were left with nothing but a will to follow him. 

Though you could no longer control your movements, you still had an awareness that was all your own. Jeongin and Robot Guy snickered the whole way they led you to the Main Tent, joking about how they wished they’d had more time to play and experiment before it was time for you “to go.” They laughed at the expense of how smoothly you’d just waltzed right into their plan, and Robo Boy in particular stated something along the lines of hoping one “Chan” would allow him to use your body as a spare part (or spare parts) for some side project he was working on...whatever the heck that was supposed to be. It didn’t sound good.

You jerked and jimmied on the inside, pulling back with all your might, but it proved fruitless on the out. Like you weren’t even struggling at all.

Dang it, dammit all! I can’t move!! 

Struggle and pull as you might, it was completely useless...just like Johnny had called you. Useless. You really were useless…

The two demons (well one, really) marched you through the back entrance of the mothership, down a dark passageway, and directly to the stage...only to make an unannounced sharper-than-a-knife right turn and up a tall ladder hidden behind some dull velvet curtains. Every step and reach was intensified, like your senses had become twice as strong; you were more than aware of what was happening, being forced to lock in on the current moment. 

When you reached the top, you were standing on a thin white platform...with nothing but a thin, fraying rope that led to the other side. To a matching platform some three hundred, four hundred feet away.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Robot Boy called from below. “But I riffled through your brain and found a coherent thought about wanting to try your luck at a game of balance? It should prove to be quite...interesting.”

He let you look downward, only for a moment. If allowed to show expression, your jaw would have hit the floor...er, platform. The main tent was HUGE— way more massive within that it looked outside. It was like a freakin’ coliseum made to look more festive and carnival-istic, though gothic-ly so. There had to be at least a thousand seats, probably more...and all sorts of strange equipment and contraptions littered the stage. Canons, various raised platforms, hoops, some large...vacuum...thing?

The demonic population had grown. Instead of two, there were now seven of them...and after you’d closed and opened your eyes, a whole room full. Every seat had been filled: with a demonic creature, a shadowy blob, or some kind of horrific mortification of the two…

You wanted to scream, but you couldn’t. Tilting your head to face forward again, two of the seven original monsters had teleported themselves to be waiting on the platform opposite to you, one sitting, the other standing. The standing one flashed you a smile that would have been priceless were it not tainted by brutality and fear; the other one, a short but muscular man sitting down, was holding a ball of fire in one hand. He rolled it gently onto the twine connecting the distance between, and the whole thing engulfed in a line of fire. You whimpered, but still couldn’t move.

The Givenchy coat caught onto the flames, or perhaps the flames caught onto it— regardless, it burned away and crumbled to ash, but amazingly the fire didn’t touch your body...or at least, you didn’t feel anything. You were now standing vacantly in the borrowed outfit that was most likely your funeral gown. Nothing but a hollowed version of your former self.

The standing demon that had a killer smile to boot flashed you his pearly whites in the most graceful way possible, and carefully but with little effort he walked into the flames, though he remained completely unscathed. He padded and strolled across the wire with the gracefulness of a swan, pausing when he reached the center. He did not waver, didn’t lose his balance or second guess himself, for an instant, never taking his eyes off of you rather than where he was walking. He extended a graceful hand out to you.

“Come to me...my angel.”

His eyes glowed green, the color of emeralds in a sea of fire. It was beautiful, mesmerizing…

Slowly, you raised you right slipper, taking a placid step forward—

“Y/N!!!”

Huh…? Who—

A blindingly white light pierced the skies, washing out everything around it.

“Release!!!” Someone yelled.

One of the demons cursed, and whatever spell that had been holding you vanished, your heart turning you towards the source. Could it be…? Was it really…?

It was. You smiled.

“Johnny!”

...And then feeling something hot and burning dangerously close, stared into the pits of hell you’d almost walked and fell into. “AAAAAH!!”

Something swooped by and grabbed you, like an eagle catching and carrying off its prey. Fearfully, you tilted your head back to see…

“Johnny!!” :D

“Yes, you already announced that,” he smirked. But wait…

Curiously, you focused blurry eyes on what had been supporting the weight of you both behind him. It was soft and feathery, a mix of brown and white, glowing faintly with a yellow-golden aura…

It was Johnny’s wings. He really was an angel...for real this time.

“Don’t worry,” he said, zigzagging slightly to avoid incoming fireballs and flying daggers. “You’re safe now, I promise. But you have to—“

“WHAAAAAA!!!”

“W-Why are you still crying?! I just told you you were safe!”

“That’s not iiiiiit!” You sobbed. “I...I thought bad of you before. I still didn’t believe what you were saying, but...you were telling the truth all along. ...And…” You looked up to him with teary eyes. “J-Jisung’s jacket...I’ll never be able to pay it off! I’m gonna be poor forever!! Whaaaa…!!!”

“What—?” 💧

“Grrr…” one of the demons growled. “Quit MOVING!!”

A flaming kunai came hurling after the two of you at blinding speed compared to the previous attacks, and at last your luck had run out...or maybe not. Fortunately, though Johnny went down with a hurt wing, the two of you managed to crashland on the nearest platform, and he flicked the knife away like it’d only barely punctured him.

“Goodbye, BLTs…” you sobbed, still too hung up on broke-life. “Goodbye, kpop album collection—“

Johnny gave you the 🗿💧 face. “You can cry about being broke later! Right now, I need you to focus on becoming Sailor Moon and stopping these guys!”

“What?! But why can’t you— aah!”

You both ducked for cover as a flaming frisbee-contraption nearly cut both your heads clean off, slicing through the pole behind you. Gulp.

Johnny scowled, his temper rising again. “I TOLD you already! Don’t make me have this argument with you again, I— ...hnn,” he groaned. “I’m sorry...for the way I treated you before. I should have found a better way of introducing all this to you. I should have known better and I shouldn’t have lost my temper…” His eyes sparked with a fire as he turned to you, determination leaking from every part of him. “But right now I need you to set all that aside and focus on the mission! Please! You can do it, Sailor Y/n!”

“B-But…” You faltered still. “I-I don’t know how! What am I supposed to do?!”

“For starters,” he squinted his eyes, tossing something over your head. “Wear this. And don’t lose it next time!”

“Ahh!” You smiled gleefully, relief washing over your nervous system. “The necklace! You found it!”

“Enough talk!” A new demon you had yet to meet, with smooth parted hair and a tiger at each side of him, smiled up at you from the center stage. “I have orders from Chan. We are to eliminate this girl and the angel immediately.”

Uh-oh. You worriedly took a few steps back, as his eyes glowed a yellow hue that only got brighter. The beast beside him growled and hissed, positioning themselves to pounce and attack.

“All of you stand back. I’ll finish her myself.”

“What? No fair, you and Felix and Seungmin always have all the fun, with your dumb tinkering and running around selling tickets.”

“...That’s Felix and Jeongin, Han.” Robot Demon said.

Han rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. Minho and everyone else gets to have just as much fun. I haven’t even gotten to do anything yet!”

“Would you shut up?!” Green-eyes yelled from above. “All you do is ride that dumb bike of yours all over camp! It’s annoying and you’re constantly running into stuff and scaring away potential victims!”

Han’s eyes glowed pink. “Oh-ho! Looks like someone remembered to take his bitchy pill this morning, huh Hyunjin~? PMS still got you down?”

Green-eyes...threw his shoe at him.

Freckles— Felix— sighed, scowling almost as much as Robot Guy (Seungmin?) and the others were. He placed his hands on his hips in a familiar sassy-middle school student pose. “Can we maybe not fight right now? If you haven’t noticed, we have company.”

Hyunjin blinked, shifting his attention to the star-faced boy. “Woah, hey, was Felix actually sensible just now?”

“ENOUGH!” Minho barked. Everyone else snapped to attention. He sighed. “All of you stay out of this and go strengthen the barrier or something. Let me handle these two, I’m more than enough of a match.”

“For a little girl and an old man?” Han scoffed. “I’d hope so.”

“Go.”

“Hmph.” Han swung around over a bike behind him, probably the one Hyunjin had been complaining about. “Fine. I’m out of here.” He smirked. “I’m gonna go cut in line to play with my doll~”

Hyunjin stared at the retreating dust incredulously as he zoomed away. “WHAT?! Oh no you’re not! I have her next!”

He flipped off the tightrope with ease, landing just as gracefully as before and retrieving his missing shoe. He then hightailed it after him.

“......” The man who’d quietly been sitting on the platform (besides trying to kill you with flaming balls of fire) sighed once they left, jumping down the long distance and landing like it was nothing as well. “I better go make sure they don’t kill each other again. You got this, Minho?”

Minho growled. “I told you, I did. Get out of here.”

He held his hands up, rolling his eyes a bit. “Okay, okay. See you later.” 

He met your eyes before vanishing, the orbs glowing orange. You “eep”-ed and covered yours, and you heard a distant chuckling as he vanished from sight.

When you opened them, a small fire burned at your feet.

“AHHH! Hot, hot, HOT!!”

You danced and jumped into Johnny’s arms, the remaining demons chuckling at your expense.

“Awww, did Changbin’s fire burn you? It’ll be okay, if you come down here and let my babies eat you, I’ll make sure it’s a swift and painless death.”

“Hey, wait,” Seungmin frowned. “Leave her body in one piece. I may be able to use it for my latest side project.”

Minho frowned more. “You sure as hell didn’t say anything when Changbin and Felix were throwing flaming daggers.”

“That’s because I knew they’d miss. You actually have a chance of mauling her.”

In the background, Felix twitched. “Hey! I did so land a hit!”

“Yeah, one. That did little to no damage.”

“Shut up!!”

They just kept going back and forth like this. Back and forth, back and forth. As they bickered, you followed Johnny’s gaze to one of the far side entrances, where the ones called Han and Hyunjin had disappeared through. 

You thought. And pondered. And puzzled. Until…

“Oh!” You declared, landing a fist in your palm. “That must be where they’re keeping your one true love!”

“Huh?!”

The remaining three demons all turned to look at you. Wait, you could have sworn there’d been four, though…? “Hm? Coming up with a strategy to escape?” Minho chuckled, crouching down. “I can’t allow that.”

Now it was your turn to scowl, a new confidence suddenly swirling within you like a vortex. Really, you were just tired of being here, and getting kind of hungry. 

You pointed an accusatory finger at Minho, mimicking your best Sailor Moon pose. “Augh, enough already! I’m sick of being here and I wanna go home!” You flashed a few more poses, giving your best fighting stance. “Alright demons, listen up! In the name of the Moon™, I’m shutting this carnival down! Get ready!”

“U-Uh…” Behind you, Johnny began to sweat.

Minho laughed again, the other two standing their ground with a smirk. “Are you now?” He ran a hand down the back of one of his beasts, the creature both purring and growling lowly. “And just how do you plan on doing that? Hm?”

…Well once again, the supernatural had gotten you there. “Uh...I’ll…” You wracked your brain for an suitable answer that wouldn’t make you sound too dumb or inexperienced. “...report you to the BBB! I’ll make sure to leave a bad review, too! No stars!”

Johnny facepalmed.

“......” Minho turned over his shoulder. “...What is she talking about? What’s a BBB?”

Felix shrugged, appearing just as lost. “No idea. Let’s just take her soul and give it to this guy. It’s gonna be my turn to play with our doll soon. ♥ ”

Like beetle juice, Hyunjin reappeared in the doorway, arms stretched wide in prehistoric rage like a certain popular internet meme. His hair and clothes were a mess from the previous battle with Han. “Wha?! No way, Chan said I could have her next!”

Minho began groaning and growling all over again. “Quit fooling around! We have to fight already!”

Felix gave him a skeptical glare. “What? But you told us to—“

“Be quiet!” His eyes shone brighter. “Go get her!”

“Grrrrwar!”

The tigers both pounced in unison, landing halfway up the pole and making an unnaturally powerful climb toward you. You shrieked, latching back onto Johnny and demanding he take you as far and high into the clouds as he could go.

But he didn’t. Instead, he pushed you off (gently...ish), squaring your shoulders to face him as death quickly crawled up from below. “Listen! I’m only going to say this once! You can and will do this! Believe in yourself!”

“WHAT?!” It was an understatement to say you were panicking; you were downright having a nervous breakdown. “WHAT THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?! I LIED, I CAN’T SHUT ANYTHING DOWN!! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO—“

And then he just...floated away from you.

Your jaw dropped. “JOHNNY!!!”

“Grwar!!”

“AAAA!!!”

You braced yourself as one of the tigers pounced, knocking you back. When someone (Johnny) broke your fall but you still managed to land with a thud, you wasted no time hopping to your feet and making a beeline for the exit, tossing as many obstacles as you could behind you in an attempt to give yourself time.

“Stay away! Leave me alone!! EEP!!!”

You tripped as the other tiger came out of nowhere, tackling you down. Because Johnny intervened and held it back for a fraction of a second, you instead skidded forward, faceplanting a far wall.

“Ow…! Dang it…” You looked back over your shoulder, as Minho and the two beasts were closing in, twistedly stalking closer. Spinning and pressing yourself as hard against the wall as you could, your eyes frantically scanned the area for Johnny, but he was too busy distracting the other two...really three...from ganging up on you, even if Minho had insisted for them not to.

“It’s over…” He mused, splaying an open hand toward you. “Finish her.”

“GrwaAAAAR!!”

“AAAA—!!!”

...This was it. You held your breath. Shielded your face. Closed your eyes. Waited for it to be over…

…But, then…

Time came to a stop. Your stomach churned, swirling, the vortex growing stronger. Stronger, stronger, and stronger, until…

You heard Johnny gasp, the chaos of battle coming to a halt. “Y/n…!!”

“Ahhh...aAAAAAAH!!!”

Something dark and vibrant exploded throughout the room, the source coming from your stomach. The fabric over the area burned away, leaving a sizzling hole, rays of ultraviolet light beaming forth. It sent the creatures fixing to murder you flying the other way, soaring past Minho, who cringed and squinted his eyes, shielding them with one arm. The sudden windstorm caused his hair and clothes to whip around him, all of it like a scene out of a movie… 

“What...What the hell…?! ...Nngh, ahh!”

Then he went flying as well. But not from the wind as you’d momentarily thought. When the light faded and the air settled down, a dark shadow landed before you, having attacked Minho. The shadows dripped and slithered into a pool beneath it’s center, revealing…

A boy. A man with purple hair.

From somewhere far off, you heard Johnny say something, remaining as still as the waters of a cysteine chapel: 

“...Oh, shit…”

...Guess he did swear after all.

~ ☽✮☾ ~ 

A/N: Hi, everyone! c: Thank you for reading the Dark Rising series thus far, it’s been a blast to write! If you liked this story, please do me favor and give it a like and reblog! And be sure to leave me your thoughts in the tags or my inbox, it means a lot and I’d greatly appreciate it! Thank you so much for reading; I’ll see you in Act Three!! <3

[golbrocklovely]

only the lonely survive // colby brock - chapter six: don’t forget to take a breath

A/N: haven’t updated in a couple days, sorry about that. while i was away, I actually started writing a new fanfiction ;) nothing like this one. a little more thrillery and spooky. i’ll post more about it later. nonetheless, please enjoy this chapter and lmk what you think. if you want to join the taglist, hmu :) <3

description of the story

taglist: @ajosieface , @localsleeper , @julyrubyrose

trigger warning: swearing, talks of rejection

word count: 1729

DAY 3/14

"Do you actually like Beetlejuice?" Colby asked, stuffing a bunch of fries into his mouth.

"Yes! It is one of my favorite movies. Hands down the best Tim Burton movie to me." I replied, taking a bite out of my McChicken sandwich.

"What about Corpse Bride, or Nightmare Before Christmas?" He questioned.

I shrugged, "Irrelevant."

He rolled his eyes jokingly and took a sip from his drink.

Colby and I sat in the parking lot of McDonalds eating our food in Colby's car, barely lit up by the sign of the golden M and the tiny overhead light. I sat crisscrossed, facing Colby. He had his body turned towards me.

"You know, I could have paid for my meal." I insisted, looking up at him.

He swatted his hand towards me, "It's no big deal. Your meal was like under five bucks."

"Well, thanks again. But I'm paying next time." I stated.

"There's gonna be a next time?" He smirked.

I sighed, "Why do you insist on teasing me?"

"Because you look cute annoyed." He said, biting his burger.

I blushed lightly. I'm happy the car is too dark for him to see.

"Anyway," I continued. "What's your favorite movie?"

"I like Scott Pilgrim Versus the World." He nodded.

I nodded back, "Good choice."

He dipped his fries into ketchup, "What's your favorite song at the moment? Or is it the one that you sang today?"

I thought for a moment. "I do love that song, but it's not my favorite right now. I think my favorite at the moment is an old song... Stars by Switchfoot."

"Never heard of it." He replied, wiping his hands on a napkin.

I gasped, "My dude, it is so good. Seriously, I think you would like it."

He giggled, smiling lightly. "Okay, I'll have to listen to it. Do you have a favorite band?"

"I do. You won't believe what band it is." I smirked, taking another bite of my sandwich.

"Um... yeah, I have no idea. Is it a weird band?" He asked, twisting his face.

"It is. You may or may not have heard of them. I mean, you do have a cardboard cut out of one of their members." I hinted, only glancing at Colby for a moment.

He raised his eyebrows, surprised, "Your favorite band is the Jonas Brothers?"

I nodded enthusiastically. "You have no idea how much I love them!"

"Is your favorite song by them Burning Up?" He teased, grabbing the last of his fries and shoveling them into his mouth.

I sighed, immediately annoyed. "Fuck no. That song is good, don't get me wrong, but only locals like that song."

"Locals?" He questioned.

"I don't know, it's what twitter stans use to basically call someone a fake fan. Nonetheless, my favorite song from them is called Take A Breath." I said, putting my trash into the leftover McDonalds bag.

"Play it for me." He replied, handing me his phone that was connected to the aux chord.

"Really? You want to listen to the Jonas Brothers with me?" I asked, almost whispering.

"Sure. Play the other songs you mentioned too. I want to get to know your music taste." He informed, starting the car and putting his seatbelt on.

I repeated his actions, and then opened Spotify on his phone, I made a small playlist of a couple songs I had mentioned to him. The first one being Take A Breath.

The whole ride to his house, I tried not to be too loud of a singer - just kind of mumbling through each song. It was late and I didn't really feel like belting out at 1:47 in the morning.

After a couple songs played, we arrived at his house. Pulling up to the gate, he clicked a button on his key ring, and the gate opened. He drove forward, parking the car and turning it off.

The Trap House looked a bit eerie, all the lights being off except for the light outside. We got out of his car and walked to the front door. He unlocked and opened it for me. I walked in to only the hallway light on.

"Everyone's asleep so we have to be a bit quiet." He stated quietly, while we walked up the stairs.

We went to his room, the door already opened. A redish glow light illuminated the room. I looked around his room. It was so weird to see it in person. It was a bit messy, but not too bad. A pile of clothes laid on his couch. A few post-it notes on the floor, most likely fallen from the walls covered in them.

"Ignore the clothes on the couch. They're clean, I just haven't put them away yet." He admitted, taking his shoes off and shutting the door lightly.

I sat down next to the clothes pile on the couch. He walked over to his desk and emptied his pockets. He then sat down on his bed. It was quiet for a moment.

Oh my God Skye, say something!

"So... what do you want to talk about?" I asked, look over at Colby.

"I-uh don't really know, to be honest." He replied, shrugging his shoulders lightly.

"We could always play twenty-one questions, just to get to know each other better." I stated.

He smiled. "Do people actually play that game or is that just in the movies?"

"Is that your first question?" I sassed.

He snickered. "Of course not."

"Well ask me something. Anything you like to know. I'm an open book." I said, stretching out my body and throwing my hands behind my head.

Colby shrugged. "Okay then, um... what is your favorite animal?"

"Ooh Corgis! Or like a baby hippo. I just connect with those animals on a spiritual level." I laughed.

He chuckled, "Why?"

"Because I'm stubby like a corgi and big like a baby hippo." I smiled.

Colby nodded his head, "Corgis are really stubby."

"It's honestly a shame for them. Should I ask you a question now?" I cocked my head to the side.

"Yeah, go ahead." He replied.

"Uh... chocolate or vanilla?" I asked.

He stretched out a bit, getting comfortable, "Chocolate. 100%. Favorite holiday?"

"Halloween. Favorite color?"

"Blue. Beach or woods?"

I sighed, pursing my lips, "I like both, if I'm honest. I would choose a forest, but bugs are a thing and I despise bugs, so I guess a beach."

"I'm more of a beach person." He stated.

"I've haven't been to the beach since I was like five." I admitted.

He sat up, "What? How? You live on the east coast."

"So? I live a couple hours away from the shore. It's not worth travelling through New Jersey to get to a beach that's always crowded." I complained.

"I guess so. But you must go to the beach while you're out here though." He insisted, grabbing a water bottle off his desk and taking a sip.

"I'll try. I can't make any promises." I answered.

"I haven't been to the beach in a while. Maybe a bunch of us can go together." He shrugged, smiling.

I smiled back, "That sounds fun."

We kept talking, learning all the little things about each other. It felt like we had asked all the basic questions. I wanted to take the next step, ask something deeper than favorite color and fast food places.

"Ask me a crazy question. Like, seriously anything. Something you probably wouldn't ask a stranger, but I'm giving you free range to do so." I insisted, standing up and going over to a section of post it notes on his wall. Some had random messages and little doodles, some were blank.

"Okay then. What's your biggest regret in life?" He turned his body towards me, his one leg dangling off the bed.

I hummed. "I don't have too many regrets. Maybe just one though."

"What is it then?"

I turned around to him. "There was this boy in high school. I met him my freshman year, became friends with him, and loved him until the day we graduated. I never told him how I felt."

"Why?" He whispered.

I chuckled sadly. "Because rejection is a bitch and I was too scared to admit it to him. Plus, he always had a girlfriend or if he didn't have one, he was chasing after my best friend at the time."

Colby scoffed. "Wow, he seems like a catch."

"Well, he didn't exactly know I loved him. I kept my feelings pretty hidden." I slowly moved towards the bed.

"Do you wish you guys dated?" He replied.

"Yes and no." I sat down, crossing my legs, "I wanted to be with him so badly, but I realized our senior year that we were never meant to be. Like, it was a real gut feeling that came to me randomly. Like, even if I would have admitted my feelings for him, it wouldn't have changed our relationship, I don't think. We just weren't meant to be together at that time."

His eyes met mine. "Do you still have feelings for him?"

I shook my head, "No. I haven't thought about him in years honestly. I don't really regret what I did and didn't do with him. I'm just more curious as to what our outcome would have been if I would have said something."

Colby looked at me and nodded his head lightly.

"Can I ask you something and you have to be honest with me?" I mumbled.

He squinted his eyes at me, smiling, "Yes?"

"Tell me about your first serious girlfriend. You don't have to say her name, or how old you were, just tell me about her." I stated.

He sighed, lightly playing with the rings on his fingers. "I don't know..."

Shit Skye, you fucked it up.

"If you don't feel comfortable, you don't have to tell me. I'm sorr-" I started.

He cut me off, "No, don't apologize." He paused for a moment, "I'll tell you. But I have to ask you something beforehand."

"Okay." I uttered.

He grabbed a pillow and pulled it into his lap, hugging it slightly. "Do you think it's weird... that I've only ever had one serious girlfriend? Be honest."

I glanced up, looking into his eyes, "Of course not. I've only ever had one boyfriend."

He nodded. "Okay then."

 << CHAPTER 5 || CHAPTER 7 >>

[elfinarchive]

Hadrian’s Perfect Fit

Hadrian is ready to look for love again after having his heart broken on Ada's Bachelorette. The 33 year old stylist admits that the Bachelorette was not his finest moment, and has come to accept that he wasn’t being true to himself. Our newest bachelor is bringing a twist to the traditional challenge - Hadrian is bi with a preference for masc partners. So there may be fewer glamorous dresses this season, but Hadrian assures us there will be plenty of romance. The Bachelor and contestants will spend quite a bit of time traveling to exotic locales as Hadrian is looking for someone to go on adventures with.

The show is currently searching for contestants, and will be accepting applications until June 22nd.

More information below the cut & link to Hadrian’s full biography

Hadrian Cerestes

Age 33

Bi (leans pan but generally prefers masc or nonbinary partners)

Hometown: Henford on Bagley

Current Residence: Hadrian splits his time between Del Sol Valley and San Myshuno

Career: Celebrity Stylist

Interests: Fashion, travel, spending time with his niece and nephew, good food, and spa days

Fun Facts: He’s retained his posh Britsim accent. Spends the first weekend of every winter break at Mouseland with his niblings for Winterfest, and has a secret collection of Mouse wear explicitly for those trips.

Hadrian’s Full Biography can be found here

If you want to see what happened in Ada’s BC go here

                                                           ...

Submission Guidelines

YA preferred (for the purpose of this BC that means under 40), Adult submissions will be considered and entered at Hadrian’s discretion

Gay/Bi/Pan/Queer men, nonbinary individuals, and trans masc sims accepted.

Please fill free to give them careers and skills (and cheat them a reasonable amount - don’t max everything). No romantic or unfairly traits please.

Your sim will need an entry introduction and a backstory/profile that gives me more information to go off of. Please feel free to dm me more information if you want there to be surprises or if you just think of something. Sims eliminated from other bcs will be allowed as long as their bio addresses what happened.

This BC is a bit of storytelling and gameplay so decisions will not be made purely from results. Eliminated sims may be used as side characters in potential post bc story (but if you want them back feel free to let me know). Also please let me know on the form if your sim is okay with getting pregnant or getting others pregnant (or neither or both) since mpreg is an option in my saves. I will do my best to properly interpret your sim’s personality, but this is going to be my best guess based on what you give me.

Please provide at least 1 outfit for each category preferably 2-3 for everyday and formal

Maxis Match CC allowed within limits (hair below 7mbs, skin details, tattoos welcome) CC can if be used for the first everyday outfit, but not the rest unless it is repeated (ex. Cc glasses or jewelry from the first outfit can be added to the other outfits since it’s not adding additional files). I have default replacement eyes and about a half dozen Sorbet Remix, Academia, and Jewl eyes so I will be using ones I already have, but I will try to get close if you specify a color. No Alpha cc, sliders, or custom traits (they will show up blank and I will fill them in based on their story).

No occults, vanilla sims preferred.

Pack info: All current EPs and GPS, no kits, and some SPs (Tiny, backyard, kitchen, tots, kids, movie, knitting, Moschino, laundry, and spooky)

All submitted sims will be accepted at my discretion up to 20 sims.

                                                          ...

Send your gays here (google form does not collect emails)

Also post and tag me and use hashtag #HadrianBC or #Hadrian’s Perfect Fit I will reblog as I see the notifications. If I haven’t reblogged it within a couple days DM me the link.

[mister-maiden]

Layers of Fear: I Wish I Could Paint Like That...

You've walked through countless hallways of revolting images that were simply unexplainable to describe. As you walk through the next door, you come across yet another room, this time with a painting easel and blank portrait in the center. Windows line the right wall as well as beautiful decor of aristocratic color. Closed cabinets lay in the back right corner while several drawers lay dormant in the far center. To your left lay beautiful portraits of women and children...all smiling with the most haunting of guises, their eyes following every movement. You make your way to the front of the easel and notice the paper now had small blots of red paint in the center, a brush with crimson dripping off the bristles lay on the table to your left. Without thinking, you take your instrument, and begin your downwards spiral into madness as you paint your magnum opus of insanity while the room slowly fades to nothingness.This is Layers of Fear. Developed by Bloober Team.

You step in the shoes of an unnamed painter only known as The Artist. You are renowned as an amazing artist who has stolen the heart of a beautiful musician. Together, you began a family and had a little girl. With an enormous fortune, you purchased an incredible mansion and you lived as a happy family. Of course, happiness never lasts, and the darkness slowly consumes all as misfortune falls upon the house. Without spoiling anything, The Artist dives deep into his sub-conscious as he works on his magnum opus in his painting room. The story takes place within the shattered mind of The Artist as he works his way through reality bending horrors. It's the player's job to find and piece together everything that has happened within the time span between marrying The Musician and now. The question lingers of what has happened to force The Artist to see and hear such horror terrors of schizophrenia?

The visuals are amazing. Absolutely incredible. As a game that focuses entirely on the visuals and story, I can say without a doubt the images are by far what you play the game for. Horrific paintings can be seen lining the walls of every hallway. Blood seeps down from the ceiling as the sound of screams fill your ears. Everything simply becomes horrific because of the past trauma that follows The Artist through his life. Ups become downs, apples become rats that scurry at the touch, and more...Though this is also its downfall.

With only being able to rely on visuals, the game loses out on game play, sound, and story. Placing a boundary between what the player knows vs what has happen creates a strange parallel that makes me think no matter what I do, the trauma has already happened. What's the point of traveling through a broken mindscape and looking at what has happened vs looking at what I could possibly do? Horror is all about the illusion of choice, or facing something that is nigh unstoppable. It's the illusion of choice that forces us to realize something is coming and there's nothing we can do to stop it. For example, Alien Isolation has you run through a ship and attempt to escape an unstoppable alien with several obstacles...but what's the point if everything has happened already and there are no obstacles to go through? Which brings me to my next gripe.

The game isn't fun. It simply isn't. In Amnesia you have puzzles and running from a creature to occupy you. Even in Deadly Premonition you have story obstacles, objectives, and more. The game feels empty. All you do is walk. It's like a press W simulator and click to go through doors and check notes at times. I like games that give me a choice, or at least the illusion of choice. If I have no choices, what's the point of trying? I go into one room, wait for something to happen, go into the next room, repeat. It's a bleak outlook, but it consistently happens in every room which really draws its potential back. The ending changes based on what you looked at in regards of notes and doors, but since there is no real way to know that without looking at a wiki, it feels like it's fake. Visual wise, the game is absolutely beautiful. Game play? Not so much.

The story is pretty good and definitely something to have PTSD about. As you travel through the hallways of the broken home in your mind, you find notes and newspaper clippings scattered across the foundations that describe in pieces what has happened. To be honest, it can be a bit confusing since you can possibly miss a few notes here and there and miss out on what has happened; but, if you're persistent and constantly looking for the notes, you'll find that the story is laid rich with dreadful accidents and abuse.

I can't discuss most of this game in the beginning segment of my review because I try to wait discussing the story and spoilers until my discussion and experience section. Since this game is mostly story, it's impossible to talk about it without spoiling. If you wish to know more about the game, check out the discussion section.

7/10 Paintings. The visuals and story are absolutely stunning. You will be incredibly immersed and very enthralled by what happens on screen, but you may feel bored constantly being scared and having nothing else to do but press W to walk forward and press the mouse button. Since there was no actual game play but looking around, I give it a 6 out of 10. If the game had offered some other form of interaction with the surroundings, I would have absolutely loved the game, but I felt tired just walking through halls and seeing something that scared me. Sure it was spooky, but it was boring.

----------------------------------------------------Spoilers--------------------------------------------

My Experience/Discussion: I got this game for free since I owned Twitch Prime and it was given out as a gift. I didn't know what to expect as I made my way through the abandoned hallways and was half expectingly waiting for some form of evil to come at me which never happened. There was no physical manifestation of The Artist's feelings other than how twisted the world around him became. I went in completely blind and felt myself become bored in a few hours because of how lacking the game was in keeping my attention. The only thing I could hope for was getting a new type of scare as I opened each wooden door. I wasn't disappointed in the scares, but boy did I get tired and have to take breaks.

The story basically is about the loving couple and their child coming upon turmoil. The husband begins to become stressed from his work of constantly having to produce brand new paintings and having critics breathe down his neck. He spends more and more time in his painting room attempting to make even more beauty...but can only find himself creating crafts of blood and gore as his mind slowly begins to break from the stress. He begins to go on and on about rats and places them in his paintings. He calls exterminators constantly about the rats in his home but they can't find a single one after their first few visits, so I believe the rats are in his head and are the first sign of his breaking psyche. As time goes on, it appears he has been very negligent to his child and wife and bought them a dog. As all dogs seem to have it rough in horror, the dog is neglected and muzzled after bothering The Artist one too many times. It is unknown if the dog survived...but I like to believe it's just in a better place than that hellhole of a house.

The Musician destroys the paintings of The Artist because she feels he is putting too much time into his art and no time into their family which only feeds into The Artist's breaking mind. With depression and schizophrenia forming, he begins drinking and finally abuses his wife and daughter. Both leave him...but a horrible accident occurs. Fire sparks embers which create chaos. The Musician is left scarred and burned from the fire and lay wheel-chair ridden. Her hands nearly unusable for music. I believe this fire is simply a ways of an end for her love. Her love was always within the music, but with this fire, she is left unable to play the melodies she so loved. The fire also left The Artist unable to truly love the Musician as her deformities prove too much for his shattered mind. He constantly says he loves her through small audio clips and notes, but it is obvious he is never going to be able to see her in the same light...And as the abuse became worse and worse from The Artist trying to deny his own feelings...The Musician committed suicide by cutting her wrists, thus concreting The Artist's descent into insanity. You then later learn he began using her body parts for the paint of the magnum opus. The child is taken by child services, and you're left alone.

You learn the entire story through the notes and items strewn about your nightmare, and remnants of events are presented through the images on the walls and the house's shapes. It seems that notes being left around is becoming a strange staple in horror games. Personally, I have never met someone who writes notes and puts them in random places, but perhaps I'm looking too much into it.

Most areas are unique other than hallways that seem to repetitively appear. That's the one thing that I can remember clearly. When I entered a door, I was disappointed to be met with more normal halls when my senses were assaulted in the last room I was just in. I'm not saying level design was boring because there were many areas that were unique. I think I may just be complaining about the amount of times I went into a normal hallway just to go into another hallway and repeat the action. The areas themselves gives you hints at what has happened. Entering a white bathroom, you can see a knife with blood thrown in the sink, or you can see the affect of fire along the walls.

I think the game definitely nailed what they were going for. Showing the effects of schizophrenia and PTSD in a visual form of entertainment is very difficult and Bloober Team did an excellent job. I'm just disappointed at the lack of things to do. I don't want to just look through memories. I want to experience them! Make them my own. There should be a mixture of what I should know and what I don't, not simply going through what has already happened and not being able to change what happened.

At the end, you are met with your magnum opus which has three different forms.The bad ending: You reveal your grand painting and see it as your beautiful wife. Her gorgeous smile and eyes stare at you, and you let out a sigh of content...only to be shocked in horror as her beauty melts away into a face of burned deformity. You cringe in rage as you grab your painting and leave your room. Your beautiful mansion is torn to pieces, the lights extinguished, the floorboards coming apart. It seems you have been in your painting room for longer than anticipated. You rush to a room and shove your painting inside and see The Artist has been doing this for a long time. The room is completely filled with the exact same picture of his burned wife. He simply can't get over it. He goes back to the room, and begin once more, marveling in his madness.

Middle ending: The same as before, but you also include your daughter in the picture. As you drop the painting in the room with the rest, you light a match and start a fire, burning the portraits along with the home and yourself.

Good ending...?: You have drawn yourself! It seems you have finally broken out of your obsession with your wife and now shall be focused on your work! The camera pans out on the same portrait of yourself and we end with that...Yeah. I mean out of all three endings, this is probably the best one. Sure he's still an abuser, but at least he will be focused on his work?

The game did a fantastic job by showing the slow and gradual deformation of his mind as time goes on. It begins with a small haunting here, and ends with the entire screen going absolutely bonkers. I loved my experience with the game, but I feel as though it could have been different in SOME way.

[mister-maiden]

Layers Of Fear: I Wish I could Paint like that

Rating: 5/10                    Genre: Adventure/Horror                       Difficulty: Easy

TIME SPENT COMPLETING: 3-4 hours

You've walked through countless hallways of revolting images that were simply unexplainable to describe. As you walk through the next door, you come across yet another room, this time with a painting easel and blank portrait in the center. Windows line the right wall as well as beautiful decor of aristocratic color. Closed cabinets lay in the back right corner while several drawers lay dormant in the far center. To your left lay beautiful portraits of women and children...all smiling with the most haunting of guises, their eyes following every movement. You make your way to the front of the easel and notice the paper now had small blots of red paint in the center, a brush with crimson dripping off the bristles lay on the table to your left. Without thinking, you take your instrument, and begin your downwards spiral into madness as you paint your magnum opus of insanity while the room slowly fades to nothingness.

This is Layers of Fear. Developed by Bloober Team.

You step in the shoes of an unnamed painter only known as The Artist. You are renowned as an amazing artist who has stolen the heart of a beautiful musician. Together, you began a family and had a little girl. With an enormous fortune, you purchased an incredible mansion and you lived as a happy family. Of course, happiness never lasts, and the darkness slowly consumes all as misfortune falls upon the house. Without spoiling anything, The Artist dives deep into his sub-conscious as he works on his magnum opus in his painting room. The story takes place within the shattered mind of The Artist as he works his way through reality bending horrors. It's the player's job to find and piece together everything that has happened within the time span between marrying The Musician and now. The question lingers of what has happened to force The Artist to see and hear such horror terrors of schizophrenia?

The visuals are amazing. Absolutely incredible. As a game that focuses entirely on the visuals and story, I can say without a doubt the images are by far what you play the game for. Horrific paintings can be seen lining the walls of every hallway. Blood seeps down from the ceiling as the sound of screams fill your ears. Everything simply becomes horrific because of the past trauma that follows The Artist through his life. Ups become downs, apples become rats that scurry at the touch, and more...Though this is also its downfall.

With only being able to rely on visuals, the game loses out on game play, sound, and story. Placing a boundary between what the player knows vs what has happen creates a strange parallel that makes me think no matter what I do, the trauma has already happened. What's the point of traveling through a broken mindscape and looking at what has happened vs looking at what I could possibly do? Horror is all about the illusion of choice, or facing something that is nigh unstoppable. It's the illusion of choice that forces us to realize something is coming and there's nothing we can do to stop it. For example, Alien Isolation has you run through a ship and attempt to escape an unstoppable alien with several obstacles...but what's the point if everything has happened already and there are no obstacles to go through? Which brings me to my next gripe.

The game isn't fun. It simply isn't. In Amnesia you have puzzles and running from a creature to occupy you. Even in Deadly Premonition you have story obstacles, objectives, and more. The game feels empty. All you do is walk. It's like a press W simulator and click to go through doors and check notes at times. I like games that give me a choice, or at least the illusion of choice. If I have no choices, what's the point of trying? I go into one room, wait for something to happen, go into the next room, repeat. It's a bleak outlook, but it consistently happens in every room which really draws its potential back. The ending changes based on what you looked at in regards of notes and doors, but since there is no real way to know that without looking at a wiki, it feels like it's fake. Visual wise, the game is absolutely beautiful. Game play? Not so much.

The story is pretty good and definitely something to have PTSD about. As you travel through the hallways of the broken home in your mind, you find notes and newspaper clippings scattered across the foundations that describe in pieces what has happened. To be honest, it can be a bit confusing since you can possibly miss a few notes here and there and miss out on what has happened; but, if you're persistent and constantly looking for the notes, you'll find that the story is laid rich with dreadful accidents and abuse.

I can't discuss most of this game in the beginning segment of my review because I try to wait discussing the story and spoilers until my discussion and experience section. Since this game is mostly story, it's impossible to talk about it without spoiling. If you wish to know more about the game, check out the discussion section.

5/10 Paintings. The visuals and story are absolutely stunning. You will be incredibly immersed and very enthralled by what happens on screen, but you may feel bored constantly being scared and having nothing else to do but press W to walk forward and press the mouse button. Since there was no actual game play but looking around, I give it a 5 out of 10. If the game had offered some other form of interaction with the surroundings, I would have absolutely loved the game, but I felt tired just walking through halls and seeing something that scared me. Sure it was spooky, but it was boring. There has to be some way to engage me rather than throw random crazy visuals at my face. 

Now you may say “Cultist, that IS what horror games are!” True. It is a horror game..but I just didn’t have fun with this one. Even writing this now, I can only remember how mind numbing it was to walk around a room until something happened and the door unlocked. There should have been moments of silence. Those moments of bliss where the scares and stimuli stopped...but this one just continually tossed it in your face, and I don’t enjoy that. Studio did an excellent job in visuals though!

----------------------------------------------------Spoilers-------------------------------------

My Experience/Discussion: I got this game for free since I owned Twitch Prime and it was given out as a gift. I didn't know what to expect as I made my way through the abandoned hallways and was half expectingly waiting for some form of evil to come at me which never happened. There was no physical manifestation of The Artist's feelings other than how twisted the world around him became. I went in completely blind and felt myself become bored in a few hours because of how lacking the game was in keeping my attention. The only thing I could hope for was getting a new type of scare as I opened each wooden door. I wasn't disappointed in the scares, but boy did I get tired and have to take breaks.

The story basically is about the loving couple and their child coming upon turmoil. The husband begins to become stressed from his work of constantly having to produce brand new paintings and having critics breathe down his neck. He spends more and more time in his painting room attempting to make even more beauty...but can only find himself creating crafts of blood and gore as his mind slowly begins to break from the stress. He begins to go on and on about rats and places them in his paintings. He calls exterminators constantly about the rats in his home but they can't find a single one after their first few visits, so I believe the rats are in his head and are the first sign of his breaking psyche. As time goes on, it appears he has been very negligent to his child and wife and bought them a dog. As all dogs seem to have it rough in horror, the dog is neglected and muzzled after bothering The Artist one too many times. It is unknown if the dog survived...but I like to believe it's just in a better place than that hellhole of a house.

The Musician destroys the paintings of The Artist because she feels he is putting too much time into his art and no time into their family which only feeds into The Artist's breaking mind. With depression and schizophrenia forming, he begins drinking and finally abuses his wife and daughter. Both leave him...but a horrible accident occurs. Fire sparks embers which create chaos. The Musician is left scarred and burned from the fire and lay wheel-chair ridden. Her hands nearly unusable for music. I believe this fire is simply a ways of an end for her love. Her love was always within the music, but with this fire, she is left unable to play the melodies she so loved. The fire also left The Artist unable to truly love the Musician as her deformities prove too much for his shattered mind. He constantly says he loves her through small audio clips and notes, but it is obvious he is never going to be able to see her in the same light...And as the abuse became worse and worse from The Artist trying to deny his own feelings...The Musician committed suicide by cutting her wrists, thus concreting The Artist's descent into insanity. You then later learn he began using her body parts for the paint of the magnum opus. The child is taken by child services, and you're left alone.

You learn the entire story through the notes and items strewn about your nightmare, and remnants of events are presented through the images on the walls and the house's shapes. It seems that notes being left around is becoming a strange staple in horror games. Personally, I have never met someone who writes notes and puts them in random places, but perhaps I'm looking too much into it.

Most areas are unique other than hallways that seem to repetitively appear. That's the one thing that I can remember clearly. When I entered a door, I was disappointed to be met with more normal halls when my senses were assaulted in the last room I was just in. I'm not saying level design was boring because there were many areas that were unique. I think I may just be complaining about the amount of times I went into a normal hallway just to go into another hallway and repeat the action. The areas themselves gives you hints at what has happened. Entering a white bathroom, you can see a knife with blood thrown in the sink, or you can see the affect of fire along the walls.

I think the game definitely nailed what they were going for. Showing the effects of schizophrenia and PTSD in a visual form of entertainment is very difficult and Bloober Team did an excellent job. I'm just disappointed at the lack of things to do. I don't want to just look through memories. I want to experience them! Make them my own. There should be a mixture of what I should know and what I don't, not simply going through what has already happened and not being able to change what happened.

At the end, you are met with your magnum opus which has three different forms.

The bad ending: You reveal your grand painting and see it as your beautiful wife. Her gorgeous smile and eyes stare at you, and you let out a sigh of content...only to be shocked in horror as her beauty melts away into a face of burned deformity. You cringe in rage as you grab your painting and leave your room. Your beautiful mansion is torn to pieces, the lights extinguished, the floorboards coming apart. It seems you have been in your painting room for longer than anticipated. You rush to a room and shove your painting inside and see The Artist has been doing this for a long time. The room is completely filled with the exact same picture of his burned wife. He simply can't get over it. He goes back to the room, and begin once more, marveling in his madness.

Middle ending: The same as before, but you also include your daughter in the picture. As you drop the painting in the room with the rest, you light a match and start a fire, burning the portraits along with the home and yourself.

Good ending...?: You have drawn yourself! It seems you have finally broken out of your obsession with your wife and now shall be focused on your work! The camera pans out on the same portrait of yourself and we end with that...Yeah. I mean out of all three endings, this is probably the best one. Sure he's still an abuser, but at least he will be focused on his work?

The game did a fantastic job by showing the slow and gradual deformation of his mind as time goes on. It begins with a small haunting here, and ends with the entire screen going absolutely bonkers. I loved my experience with the game, but I feel as though it could have been different in SOME way.

VERDICT: Buy on a sale. The game goes on sale often at a very low price. It’s good for what it is.