#hhhh. i want the time to pass so i can know for sure but i also desperately dont wnat it to cause im so scared itll be bad news

[be-good-to-bugs]

maybe i WILL get to move back home

[getitfrenchship]

Hello, friends! Hope you're all doing well. In fact, I'd like to know what you're all up to so I can reconnect with friends again. What things are you watching/playing/doing now? Any new things in life you'd like to discuss?

Below the cut I'll say what I've been up to!

Just got back from my local con today and while I did spend a lot on game collecting + VA stuff, I'm glad I went. Thankfully I got paid Friday (though that means I'll have to wait to get paid again in 2 weeks) and my financial situation isn't dire. It's kinda like when you go to Disneyland and get caught up in the spectacle of things. Oh yeah, an IRL friend from high school helped me with a lot of the VA stuff since she had a VIP pass & could skip long lines. (On that note FUCK F//UNKO SCALPERS FOR HOGGING LINES AND MAKING ME WAIT 2 HOURS FOR ONE VA AAAAAAAAAA)

Thankfully, no insurance adjuster lady to drive me up the wall this past month at work. A few eh client encounters but overall it's been way more pleasant than it was a few months ago. ...Might still need to figure out vacation time just so I can take a longer break (and maybe find a government job if I'm able to find something so I have guaranteed holidays).

That being said, S//aimon's series is starting to see a spike of discourse and one of the servers I'm in keeps talking about it. It's making me feel bad as a result. Thankfully, none of the people in it are starting the discourse, but they tend to go "getaloadofthisguy" a lot. Along with usual self ship discourse that I see on my dash (that again thankfully neither friends nor I directly participate in), it kinda just drains me.

Seasonal anime I'm watching are Detergent (hopefully one of Shitsui's big scenes will happen next week; they took a break this week), Und//ead Mur//der Far//ce, Hel//ck (though I'm admittedly not really paying attention to this one), Happy Marriage, J J K season 2 (i am not ready for this arc AAAAAAAAA), and Z//om 100. When there isn't a seasonal anime for me to watch at work, there's Sai//ki K (I think watching Bla//ck Lag//oon kinda helped make me more bitter at work, but I'm feeling better now that I'm watching Sai//ki). Oh, I might check out OPLA since I hear it's an actual good adaptation. Aaaand F//ionna and C//ake too! God, I went "kindred spriits" with Simon's episode

Currently I'm playing Se//a of St//ars and I really like how it looks & plays so far! (Of course, I loved Chr//ono Trig//ger, so the gameplay feels right at home). I wooould continue Gh//ost Tri//ck, but I'm at a stealth section and like I expected, I'm looking up a lot of the puzzle solutions online instead of figuring it out for myself. Curse you, time limits!!! (And for Bom//b R//ush, I feel like I need to play with music, but I keep forgetting to bring my wired headphones. Bluetooth is for my phone mainly due to personal preference). I also watched the endings for OT2 and AUGH I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH!!!

Oh, a new manga I found called "Inv//isible Man & his soon to be bride" is cute so far.

someday i will find balam merch. somedaaaay

I might do a separate post showing my current ideas for S/I's/OCs, but hhhh I'm hesitant. Right now I just know for a P3 OC he takes inspiration from "The Stranger"

boy howdy i sure hope bluesky finally makes my account or i can get an invite because i really want tweetor to die. ...though i'd miss posting switch screenshots directly

[go-to-the-mirror]

March, 2023

I MEANT TO DRAW SOMETHING HHHH

Istg, if the only art I make for this whole relisten is for fatigue I'm gonna cry.

Anyway, 152 time!! I love 152, I love Jon and Helen, I love the parallels, I'm excited, ohhh this is so cool we're heading to like fantastic episode WAY TOO MANY NOTES ones really quickly (too quickly, i want to draw something for 160) and yeah! Yeah! Oh god it's almost season 5.

Below is a mixture of amazing words - mostly Jonny's /j (i have some as well) - and rambling. I love this statement so. much. now.

@a-mag-a-day!!!

I'm putting a content warning for I think it's unreality, cause I talk a bit about... not being able to trust yourself, and that could be... not grand for some people.

Statement of Hezekiah Wakely, regarding his career as a gravedigger. Compiled from a series of letters to Nathaniel Beale between 1837 and 1839. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, the Archivist.

Who's Nathaniel Beale? I feel like I've seen his name before. Unless, of course, it's another Michael situation. There's... Nathaniel Thorp and Nathaniel Lukas. Hmm.

I’ve been installed here some weeks now, and I’m finding myself well-contented, my sexton duties keeping my time employed such as I scarce have a chance to allow myself those dark thoughts that so concerned you when last we visited.

What thoughts, I wonder. It probably mentions it further along, but I haven't really paid attention to this statement enough to be sure. For a while I thought it was "A Gravedigger's Entry".

The Lord gave him that voice for a purpose, no doubt – but sometimes that purpose does feel like it might be providing me a few minutes of unearned slumber

Hehe

My troubled sleep, on the other hand, has not, of yet, resolved itself in any way to my satisfaction. I work myself to exhaustion, cleaning, polishing and looking after the church proper, and I tell you, when I lie abed I can scarce rise again for the weakness I leave myself in. And yet, sleep still eludes me.

Heh, real. I too cannot sleep.

I’ve never quite known a rest like it. Perhaps it is the harder, more physical aspect of the task, or perhaps the quiet rhythm of it. There’s no echo as there is in the church, just the sound of pick and shovel hitting dirt. And when it’s deep enough, when you stand at the bottom, the noise of the world just… fades away to nothing. It is the sort of quiet that makes you feel as though the commotion and hubbub of life were but a terrible dream, and in sleeping you were waking up to peace.

BLANKETS ARE NOT ENOUGH I NEED TO BE BURIED ALIVE

That just sounds so?? Nice??? HHhnhnmhn

There is such peace in the churchyard, you see: to walk atop the soil knowing that, deep below my feet, those blessed souls wait happy and silent in the cool, damp earth, counting the days until the Resurrection. It gives me such warmth to think of that I have taken to spending much of my unoccupied time wandering the graves, and, where the mood allows me, taking my sleep there.

That is creepy, but like... I mean... I can understand it? It's nice to be outside in nights that aren't too cold, it's nice to sleep under the stars, the creepy part is the fact that it's a graveyard, but that can be brushed aside.

But I do long for that rest. I tell myself I wake each day renewed, but I am never as truly satisfied as when I’m in my slumber, and insensible to the world.

This statement is making me want to go to sleep and/or be buried in the dirt.

I do find, however, that when I dig my graves, I have been going deeper. And at times, I worry I might dig so far as I can no longer get out with my meager ladder. Now, those moments – you must not cast judgment on me for this, Nathaniel, for it is simply a passing fancy – but I will often lie myself down on that soft earth, and I will sleep. And I swear to you that the sleep I find there is more blissful than any I have ever found.

A Gravedigger's Envy? He's getting the nice grave sleep, I want the nice grave sleep, how is Jonny making grave sleep sound so appealing?

At least until a few feet down. But by the end of it… oh, I tell you there was warmth in that grave. Whether by my own body or the heat of the soil, I couldn’t say, but it was as comfortable as the fireplace of a public house, and the wind could not reach me in the hole that I had made.

I want that, I really want the grave sleep, that sounds so nice.

I had a dream, then. I dreamt a rain had come. A terrible bitter rain that chilled my bones and turned the soil around me dark and sodden. The walls grew damp and slippery, their firm shape lost as they began to slip and crumble. And then all at once they collapsed, the grave filling in a moment with a wave of mud and wet dirt. In a single terrible moment of utter terror, it was atop and around me, covering my face and filling my lungs with its awful choking sod. And the strangest thing was that it was wonderful. I had never felt such safety as within the crushing weight of earth all around me, the pressing embrace of the buried. In that instant I knew what it was to be dead, and I ached with envy for them.

Ok, hi, I saw a post, and I was thinking about the post, and I'm going to make a vague rebuttal (friendly-like, because they had good points). Hezekiah was afraid before the walls crashed around him. He was not afraid of some other terror, he was afraid of being buried - in the dead way or the forever deep below creation way... I don't know. Seems to be both, fear soup, remember.

The dreamers that have no idea what Smirke's fourteen is, or the supernatural, still affect the dream. Hezekiah associates being buried with being dead, and therefore the fears affect him as if being buried and being dead were similar things. I'm guessing quite a lot of people fear destruction and associate that with their fear of fire. Spiders and control for the aesthetic and also little bug guys fear being trapped when they're in a spider's web. People fear judgement when they're being looked at. (Speaking of, I swear at the shops today everyone was looking at me, like I saw them look at me, I felt their eyes on me, I associated this with the fear of judgement, and was appropriately spooked. What is this, episode 188 of The Magnus Archives?)

Anyway, back to this, Hezekiah's fear transformed into what Hezekiah became. Similarly, Martin - he was afraid of being alone, abandoned, and afraid of being found out. He became an "avatar" of The Lonely and The Eye. Also, would Martin's fear of being alone and being judged overlap, or feel similar? Is this why he gets both?

Mike was afraid of the part of The Twisting Deceit (The Spiral) that chased him, but he also had encounters with The Vast before Ex Altiora, he was afraid of the unfathomable power of that which chased him, he said that the form it took belonged to The Vast, the way he describes the pain of being struck by lightning - how it is so painful that to try to measure it is impossible. That's all pretty Vast-y to me.

Jane... Jane was afraid of the Hive. She didn't want it, she was afraid, she went to it... sure, she was lonely, but looking at her statement, how much of it is the Hive - if we're separating the two - and how much is Lonely? She talks of picking at her skin, of worms that emerged from the ground after rain, of an itch that called her to the attic, to the wasp's nest.

Sure, something chased them to becoming an Avatar, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's "another fear" both because fear soup and because... a lot of their stories are about being repulsed and terrified by something, but getting so caught up in it that you forget that person who was scared, and you hurt others just how you've been hurt. Cycle of violence, babyyyy!

For an example, let's grab Peter and Martin. Peter's from the family of... basically a cult? Sure, he doesn't seem too bothered by it, but humans are social animals, and he was neglected for his whole childhood, that fucks people up @ the person who said yea Peter's childhood was actually fine. Then he becomes an avatar of the Forsaken and manipulates Martin into becoming an avatar of The Lonely in turn, who then - in the Eyepocolypse - hurts people in his domain. It's not one to one, but no analogies are.

I’ve been thinking, Nathaniel, of funerals and bodies. Souls that escape leaving this common clay to become one again with a truer clay. Were we not created from mud? And it seems more fitting to me that we should return forever to that mud, not pulled from it by some would-be Redeemer, or lifted to sing hosannas in his holy court. I’ve worked so long, so hard. Do I not deserve a rest in the mud from which I came? Commit my body to the earth and let it stay there. I’d do the same for you. For worship of the Most High - though it may be earned, perhaps, by He that made the heavens and the earth - well, to my mind, all that prayer still sounds a lot like work.

The difference between this and the beginning. Speedrunning his decent, as it were. The difference between envying the dead, and their rest before they go to Heaven, to wishing that when he leaves the world he stays in the ground. Hmmmm!!

But He is the son of God and we are merely sons of the dirt. We are not as strong as He is, and we deserve rest. We deserve to sleep.

The Buried oft represents being metaphorically under pressure, as Hezekiah is. He wishes to be Buried to finally rest from his work. That's interesting to me.

Also, feels sort of Flesh-y, but in a way where it's like... yes, soup, is not the fear of being one and the same as animals, as already being dead, as being from the earth and knowing one day you shall return all part of the same thing? Is that not a similar fear? Feels like one to me. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, that's about death, that's about the earth, are they not one and the same? We all come from the same earthen roots, people, animals, plants, everything, we are the same, and we will die the same.

I’ve been trying to sleep, but that bell kept ringing, the one over Jacob the baker’s grave. That nonsense safety valve the Reverend insisted on putting there, ringing and ringing, and disturbing the sleep of everyone in the churchyard. I’ve no doubt it disturbed Jacob as well, who worked so hard all his life and never thought to complain of his lot. He deserved to rest. So I cut the cord. And now he is quiet.

Oh, lord, he buried Jacob alive.

But I can see why he did it. He fears being away from the earth, he fears not being able to die, and so he sees it as saving Jacob and I understand that, I can understand that in his position, robbed of restful sleep, the grave being the only place where he can find his rest that he would do this.

I think this statement has just achieved the rank of "one of my favourites," because... that line. "He deserved to rest. So I cut the cord. And now he is quiet."

But worry not, Nathaniel. The love I bear you will not let me leave you ignorant. As I did with the Reverend, I will come and I will show you, once and forever, the true and glorious peace of the Buried.

Wow. Just... wow.

Nathaniel Beale is buried on the grounds of St. Peter’s Church in his hometown of Dunstable. And I am only the third person to know that in almost 200 years, after Nathaniel Beale himself, and Mr. Wakeley, the person who buried him.

Hey, we're still getting post-statement spookiness, but because everyone's just stopped doing work it's with Jon's eye spookiness.

I... wow.

I cannot tell how much of the change that comes over someone when they are taken by one of the Fears is a direct product of their influence, and how much is their own mind, desperately contorting itself to accept and justify the awful things they find themselves drawn to doing.

I have a really good quote that ties in with this, but it's only in the deluxe transcript of Hive (patreon exclusive transcripts that have Jon's notes and are canon, the Hive one is the most emotionally ruining of the ones out (1 - 33 as of 22/03/2023) so far), but I will say that his attitude towards them has changed significantly as he's... become one.

He called Jane Prentiss "the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss" and now... hm...

It's interesting how his understanding or conception of avatars and the like changing over the seasons, and although season 4 doesn't have a lot of other avatar interactions... Jon's whole humanity thing, it's enough to make it my favourite season when it comes to this stuff.

I have read many statements now by those who are changing, who are becoming – something else, and few if any of them seem… entirely rational. Entirely the people that they were before.

GIDDY LEG WIGGLE LIKE HHJNNHNHEHN!!! Humanity and identity and monsterhood and trauma!!! The THEMES of this podded cast, I'm love, I'm love!

But how can I tell, I suppose. My job is to view people at their lowest, their most fearful and unstable moments. Perhaps there is less change there than I imagine. Certainly, I don’t feel different. I have no desire for pseudo-religious philosophizing, or delighting in the suffering of those I harm. Then again, I suppose I’m hardly in the best position to judge. Perhaps to anyone listening to these tapes I sound remarkably similar to Hezekiah. Or to Manuela. Or to Jane.

So, I talked about this to my (middlest) sister because sometimes when you're this excited about things you just have to talk to people, like actually talk, and I had some pretty good thoughts about rationality, about if you can know if you're a monster. If you're slipping and you can't trust your mind anymore, how can you trust your mind enough to know that you can't trust your mind? It's just, how can you know you're so far gone, if you can't trust you, then you can't trust trusting you, therefore you can never truly trust yourself, can you? Everything is your perception, and you will never know if you can trust that. You will only know that you can't.

I just think that it's very neat, the whole... everything, all of this, it's just really cool, like how would Hezekiah know he's wrong to be responsible for the death of Jacob, for the Reverend, for Nathaniel? Does he? How does Jon know if he's just like Hezekiah, how can you truly know yourself - or understand yourself? Oh boy, this is such a cool statement and post statement.

HELEN Hello, John. Been a while since you’ve been down here. ARCHIVIST (Impatient noise) I didn’t come here to see you. HELEN Oh, come now! I’m sure I’m more interesting company than the late Jane Prentiss. ARCHIVIST It’s all that’s left of her now – apart from a jar of ashes in my desk. Just a circle of rotten stone on an otherwise-unremarkable wall.

Is the circle of stone a mirror? Is the jar of ashes as much a part of you as your rib? What was she trying to achieve, you wondered so long ago and now you have the answer and you still don't know why... why she listened to the song in her dreams, why she scratched the itch, but then again, why did you?

HELEN (Cont.) Ah… But that’s not why you’re here, is it? ARCHIVIST Yeah. I’ve been thinking a lot about Jane. She was the first, you know. The first I actually encountered like… like us. She seemed so… inhuman. Like everything she used to be was stripped away. HELEN And now…? ARCHIVIST I wonder how much of her was still in there. How much did she choose to be what she was? I read her statement, she was… (inhale, exhale) she was scared. I assumed she’d been possessed completely against her will, but now I’m not even sure that’s possible. HELEN It is astounding the sort of thing you’re willing to choose – given an unpleasant enough alternative – isn’t it? ARCHIVIST How much of willpower is just – safety? “Comfort” by another name. The option to choose and be fine.

THEMES OF CHOICE AND HOW MUCH YOU'RE AFFORDED!!! God, I love this so much! I love how Jane Prentiss, our and Jon's conception of Jane Prentiss changes from season 1 to season 4. How it starts with her as an inhuman enemy, no longer the person she was, and changes to be... what was she, why did she chose this, who was she, she's humanised as Jon becomes a monster, knows her. Understands her.

She was scared.

Good lord.

And then Jon's line, "How much of willpower is just - safety. Comfort by another name. The option to choose and be fine." and that choice isn't really afforded to them, it's always these hard choices with one option that's like "at least you don't die", or live in fear, or whatever. The option to choose and be fine.

Themes. So many themes, I love this bloody podcast.

HELEN Hungry, are we? ARCHIVIST (Angrily) That’s not – – I haven’t done anything – HELEN – yet. ARCHIVIST (Roughly) I feel like if I don’t… I might die. Fade away into nothing. HELEN … Do you… Know that? ARCHIVIST No. But I… (frustrated noise) I can’t die. They need me. HELEN Come on, Jon, no excuses. (The Archivist sighs.) HELEN (Cont.) They don’t need your protection.

I DONT KNOW WHAT TO SAY, JUST PODDED CAST!!

ARCHIVIST When does it stop? HELEN (Impatient) What? ARCHIVIST The guilt. The misery. All the others I’ve met, they’ve been – cold, cruel. They’ve enjoyed what they do. When does the Eye (inhale) make me monstrous? (Helen laughs.) HELEN What – why would it ever do that? ARCHIVIST I don’t… HELEN When has your guilt, or your sadness, or your handwringing ever actually stopped you from doing what it wants? ARCHIVIST (Stammering) I-I – I have not been taking statements – HELEN You’ve sworn of other people’s trauma for now because you’re caught. Because continuing would endanger you. But other than that, when has your discomfort ever actually stopped you walking the path of the Beholding? ARCHIVIST I… I don’t know… HELEN Even if it were capable of doing so, what possible reason would the Eye have to change how you feel, when it makes no difference to your actions? Helen was like you, at first. She felt such guilt over taking people. Until one day she realized she wasn’t going to stop doing it. So she chose to stop feeling guilty.

OK FIRST OF ALL SOMETHING I CAN DEAL WITH, SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JON AND HELEN! Helen went to Jon for help with the guilt, and Jon turned her away because he was scared of what he was becoming. Jon asks Helen when the Eye makes him monstrous and she says no, it's not the Eye that'll do that, it's you. You have to decide to stop feelings guilty about the monstrous things you're doing.

Secondly, *gestures* yeah fr fr! I don't even... I just need to listen to this over and over and have it burned into my mind please :3.

Yeah, well, wow! Yeah! For real for real, this is just like 111, I'm discovering a new love for this statement, I need to make a new "holy shit tma" playlist because. Wow. Wow! Mhm hm! WOw!!! Uhh, well, uhm.

Your most humble servant,

landscaping-your-mind

[fallen--leafs]

[Some early morning (UK time) texts ((because my sleep schedule is fucking up and I'm. Yea.))]

[Dec:] Baby

I'm scared

[Achilles:] Hm. And when you should be asleep no less... What's up?

The SI fucking worries me

Like it was fun when Bloem was the only one

But now there's more and.

[...]

Idk I guess the horrifying realisation that there's a whole organisation and not just One Sad Guy is doing it

Girl

Sorry

And... You are worried they will come after you?

I'm not

But they have ur picture

Well, kind of.

What do you mean?

When I-- ugh. When I thought.

Hhhh

When I was passed off at you. Not you-you but the concept of you. I made a CGI of u to spread around. Which, IS NOT SUPER ACCURATE BECAUSE IT ONLY DOES THIN PEOPLE but u know

[...]

Is this the file you were asking that SI girl about?

Yes

;^;

Declan-

[...]

I'll be fine. I'm sure I was on other watch lists before.

I will however ask for more security knowing this. So, thank you for informing me.

;^;

I'm sorry

[...]

You didn't know. It's... Perhaps not "okay", but no grave concern yet. I spend so little time in Paris; I can't imagine their jurisdiction extends that far. And when it comes to safe, international networking, I have more faith in the System than I do in these five torches.

;^; Promise?

Promise.

... 😔

There's. Another thing.

Oh?

I'm gonna--

Idk

My fam here hates you. I think.

Hm. That is unfortunate.

Even though they don't even know you.

I know right????

I'm just like. Tired. And lonely. Again.

I miss you.

The apartment is still too empty, even with furniture, and. Chez is with Val mostly. Henry needs to train baby hunters, even though we're still here. I haven't seen Jackie in almost 2 months. Nero won't see me. I'm just

I don't want to be alone.

...

[...]

I'm sorry baby, just met the next humies

Eugh

I'm sorry you feel alone. That is more than undeserved, and... I wish I could be there for you, naturally. Would you like to call? Or is this you saying you want to leave Wales again? You could always come along on a trip~ The kine this time even share your demographic to an extent, and if you can feigh excitement for this meet-and-greet, you could easily blend in with them

;^;

I would like that 😭 at least until Jackie comes back

But idk if leaving again will make the Reeves sus

And if it does - let that be my concern. I'm sure Mr. Shah can be amicable in discussion, and isn't freedom the whole selling point of Anarch free states?

Would you like to join us? Transportation can be arranged by tomorrow night, if you like!

I

;^;

Yes

I miss you

I miss you too, baby

I wish for a quick daysleep for you, and we shall meet again soon.

Can I get a tour shirt

Of course. 🤍

Are you feeling any better?

Yes ;^;

I will at least

That is good to hear baby 🤍

We will talk soon, okay? Until then, goodnight.

Goodnifht ;^;

[causenessus]

HI LOVELY!! good morning afternoon or evening to you! how’s your day been!! i hope you’ve eaten AND REMEMBER TO EAT DURING UR LONG SHIFTS OR I WILL APPEAR ON UR SCREEN !!! (lovingly) the way i gasped when i read your response because i was just like… YOU DIDNT EAT? :( i was so distraught but i hope whatever u had for dinner was good, but still !! always remember to eat and take care of yourself or the ghost of me will scold u (lovingly again) (nothing but love for you always)

today i had banh xeo for breakfast (tbh at this point i feel like you can guess what nationality i am LMAO) but OMG YOU LIKE VIET FOOD?? WE ARE SO SOULMATES !! TWIN FLAME !! AND OMG THATS SO CUTE I HAVE A VOICE IM HHHH that’s so cute i feel so very honoured but omg yesterday while i was like doing whatever right i had a realization that im literally like mystic messenger right now with the “make sure you eat!!” “how are you!!” like IM LITERALLY A CHARACTER IN MYSTIC MESSENGER RIGHT NOW THATS CRAZY (id be so embarrassed if you didn’t know what mystic messenger is but also would not blame you) ALSO YES WE CAN YAP TOGETHER I LOVE YAPPING BUT IM DEFINITELY YAPPING TOO MUCH LIKE I WANNA REPLY TO EVERYTHING YOU SAID SO IM LIKE HHH YAP YAP YAP me and ness are literally yapper and yapper like im trying to hold back but im here like omg among us??? omg whack dreams??? i wanna know what dreams??? omg school?? i’m school soon too!!

but but one more thing omg i’m so sorry LOL BUT I FEEL LIKE WE’RE IN THE SAME TIMEZONE?? BECAUSE EVERYTIME YOU MENTION THE TIME IN YOUR POSTS i check my time and im like huh.. silly… coincidence, but it’s 4pm for me rn !!maybe im crazy maybe im not but omg when it gets to school you can 100% rant about it because i will 100% do it too HAHA school has me like like genuinely tweaking like one small thing and im like OH MY GOD YOU WILL NOTTTT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED TODAY

omg sorry i need to wrap this up but yes try again is amazing don’t doubt yourself and u can always yap to me whenever whenever like i’ll literally make a burner account and dm you instead so we can yap without having to flood your blog or if you don’t mind i don’t mind but mango anon loves you very much and mango anon would want ness to take care of herself forever and always and HAVE A GOOD DAY !!! xoxoxo

AAAAA OMG I AM HERE LIKE 11 HOURS LATER <33 DO NOT WORRY I AM EATING AS WE SPEAK BEFORE MY LONG SHIFT tbh i felt like so nauseous about eating anything though today idk why (i have like two suspicions lmao i def know why) but since i'm working i was like "then i'll just pick something up on the way there!!" so i went to my groccery store to get a sandwhich BUT THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANY </333 so i'm having a blazing dragon poke bowl instead??? and it's okay 😔 like i don't know how i feel yet about groccery store sushi and stuff but i've had it before!! it's just a bunch of spicy imitation crab, cucumber, carrots, and rice and i'm mainly just there for the rice. AND OMG i walked around the store bc i was trying to see if they had liquid death (caffeinated tea i think. i don't like it but i really need caffeine today </3) and they didn't have any and i decided to go back to like their little food section to get bao (you can probably guess my ethnicity too 😭) and i almost got hit bc this man WHIPPED around when i tried to pass him like i literally ducked i was so scared he was about to hit me and that man was STILL not aware of me. ANYWAY SORRY RANDOM STORY YOU AND ME AND VIET FOOD!!! TWIN FLAMES!!

ALSO OMG MYSTIC MESSENGER 😭 BRO I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT 707 LIKE TWO DAYS AGO WHEN THAT WHOLE ANON APOCALYPSE HAPPENED I WAS LIKE "i'm going to go 707 on these people and find out where they live and haunt them /hj" PLEASE I FORGOT ALL ABOUT THEIR LITTLE "remember to eat" messages and everything but it's so cute <33 and YES we will yap together!! i went in to school today although it starts tomorrow to switch up my schedule and going there was HORRIBLE i saw so many disgusting people :/// BUT i have a pretty good schedule now so it has it's pros and cons!!! i just give people dirty looks and accidentally saw "ew" aloud all the time :))) AND IK THAT SOUNDS MEAN BUT LIKE YK HOW PEOPLE ARE and the people that live in my state are all rich privileged kids and it never changes 😭 i see them everywhere AND THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME AND ACT THE SAME AND ARE GROSS

and LMAO A BURNER ACCOUNT I WOULD TOTALLY TAKE IT THOUGH!!! i'd love to talk to you whenever please please please feel free to make one and dm whenever you'd like!! <3 I LOVE SEEING YOUR ASKS THOUGH I LITERALLY WILL BE HAPPY EITHER WAY AS LONG AS I GET TO TALK TO YOU <3 I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY TODAY ANON!!

[lady-lycany]

Gonna ramble a little bit, cuz I listened to 4hours of Distractible today, cuz this is the only thing that helps me to get through the backpain, cuz I literally am distracted enough to forget about it... And listening to the 3 dudes ramble, kinda made me wanna say something now too lol

Basically, they talked about life expectations and how it actually turned out for them, like... They tried so many different jobs and all 3 of em are 32 year old, when the episode was recorded and they still don't really know, what they wanna do with the rest of their life- which was very calming to hear, as well as that they think, that it's bullshit to ask a kid what it wants to be, when it grows up cuz- it's a kid. How would it know... same with teenagers ect... And while listening to them chat about it, I was like "hhhh yea, I also still have no clue what I want in life cuz... Becoming a shop assistant is probably the easiest thing to archive, but it's not really what I would want for the rest for my life... But what else could I do..." and felt a little dejected...

Until they brought up the scenario of "If we were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse... What would our roles be there" And at first I was like "huh... Idk... I wouldn't be good enough for anything..." But then it made klick again and I was like- "No hold on, I know what I'd love to do. My perfect role would be to take care of the group/village/whatever. Stabbing zombies down or alarming people... Basically just taking care of them like a security guard...

And this is also true for the- not zombie apocalypse life. I really think, that this is the thing, I wanna do. I won't archive this within the next years, that's obvious. But I can slowly but surely try to work myself up there in my free time. Cuz for now, I can't work more than 3 hours a day anyway. And now, I'm doing some physiotherapy to fix what I ruined over the last 5 years. And then at some point, I can go to the gym, when I earn enough money and try to find my way in some sort of martial arts...

That not impossible- technically. I mean, no one knows how life moves on... Maybe we all won't even make it to 2030 or whatever... And to be honest, even though I'm always good mooded and try to stay positive, my brain still is like "this is all unnecessary, what do I have from it, when I archive that goal when I'm 35 cuz then I have maybe 30 years more and then I'll be too old for anything anyway" and I hate that mindset that's only caused by my ADD brain, cuz time moves incredibly fast for me, so that it tricks me into thinking, that 30 years will pass within a second. So yea, while I try to encourage myself, my brain instantly does the exact opposite 🗿👍🏼 Oh well... life moves on anyway... It never stops... and I keep moving along... I'll see where it gets me... But I'm glad that I've found an actual goal, that would make it worth it for me to reach... That's better than to have nothing.

[castle-dominion]

5x13 recoil

OOH PLOT HEAVY

I love the editing in the clips here, we get the info we need, but also while I'm sure we all remember that some ppl were killed, like roy montgomery, we also get to see the dramatic clip of him getting shot & lockwood with blood on his face & these things are mostly for the drama, not the recap, really really well done bc we still get the recap.

I also like how she hits him immediately after he says he has the power.

Garbage can fire babey. gonna be a dead body. See? Plenty of people throw up when they see (& probs smell) a dead body burning!

RC: Well, I haven’t met him or approved of him yet, so it can’t be serious. All suitors must be met and intimidated by me personally before they can be considered for official boyfriend status. So true

Ew yucky

no dental records then... Ryan looks nice lol. & esposito's jacket is nice

Ryan pretty but meh. Esposito perfectly fine but meh Castle also pretty enough. Becks looks shiny shirt dc!? multiple times in just 20m? Might as well stay on the line.

Why would the boyf have an unlisted number? oh no ooof oof oof ooooooof she left a message hhhh

the phone falls & clatters... oof that is the best... except how would she end the recording? AFTER the phone clatters? the audio changes during "happens" like she moved to a different area, or passed a wall

Yeah smth falls & then like a ring hits the wall zippo? Or maybe he was ALREADY burning the body

Yeah lol u can't remember ppl when you are seeing a hundred a night, or more. unless she comes here often! She was a high end prostitute! BRACKEN? oh of course it was him, this is a plot heavy ep.

No wonder the phone call. & also dealt with OTHER people too! He did not just kill melanie & johanna & attempt beckett, & also raglan & montgomery & mccallister & possibly those other two lawyers or whoever beckett nice coat lol.

ESPOSITO NICE JACKET (& nice scarf on ryan) JE: You know, I was really hoping the next time I saw this guy would be down the barrel of my gun.

*fidgeting with his hand hanging by his legs* Met her there works for you non-paid consultant *stops* I know where I've seen you. I can't believe that he doesn't already have pics of beckett's close circles: friends, work, family,, gym

of COURSE he wouldn't do it himself! Ooh y'all got the fbi to do analysis? Nice! My grampa was able to tell what car, make model, year, idk, just by the sound of the engine.

Why do they need sirens on? They Ooh audio. Echo, loud, yells, I love it when ryan yells beckett's name. Why would they draw a diagram of the gun & do that sort of thing?

I thought beckett was ryan for a sec. That shiny suit jacket, I loved it, really shows off her waist. Then I realized ryan is amab he does not have a waist that small. Becks looks great tho & I like her with her hair back like that. Castle's red jacket & dark shirt are nice too & gates looks good with her red shirt adding colour from behind her black jacket/cardigan. Oh & ryan! light purple shirt with a square pattern (love that for ryan), dark thin tie (I'd call it black but it is not that dark) with multicoloured tiny equally sized polka dots, vest, ooh he's good. I grabbed a pic but idk if it is any good. at least I got a pic of beckett. Update from later in the episode: HIS WAISTCOAT HAS A SHINY SILVERY BACK PANEL SDLKFKSJFDLSKJF & it is tied in such a way that it hugs his hips man I'm such a lesbian fot him (both men) sounds like a disguise bright red shiny tie, really pops

this guy is assassinating him. that's why he insists that the senator goes. Gates my beloved Man has a jacket AND a coat. At least they are different colours

ugh the way she gestures for him to take a seat hhhhh so gooooood KB: Senator Bracken, do you have any enemies? Is there anyone you can think of that would like to kill you? cough cough WB: A man doesn’t get to my position without upsetting people along the way. Most of them aren’t crazy enough to want to kill me. (he gestures) Present company excluded.

JE: I’ll tell you something. If I’m her, I sit in there shuffling papers until whoever it is puts a bullet in Bracken’s head. KR: KR: No you wouldn’t. Because that would make you no better than he is. (well you are just not changing the trolley path. He's the one who tied people to it.) JE: The guy murdered Beckett’s mother. Captain Montgomery. Who knows who else?. ((exactly!)) Bracken’s got it coming to him. So I say let it come. KR: *uncomfy* I mean just two episodes ago esposito threatened to kill someone.

Nice pattern on esposito's shirt. Not an actual pattern, just the weave of it making it textured almost like heather. 24 hours exactly?

RC: Man, these people need to get a life. Most of these guys it seems like their only companionship is the space alien that talks to them through their microwave. *coincidentally finds the letter just as she says that* RC: No, I did actually. I liked the way you uh, dotted the ‘I’ in kill with a little heart. It was a nice touch. Oh yeah chinese food babey Man doesn't take his mug to the break room to wash it?? wait it was not the same writing my bad. it is all caps... In fact, it is the same letter, it was a rough draft.

Senator Bracken When you sleep at night do you dream of the blood dripping off your hands leaking into the ground filling up the valleys and the craters with new lakes and oceans lake hemoglobins the red ocean rivers of blood or do you drift away to some peaceful place unburdened by the endless bodies piling on your shoulders always more bodies never ending as you count the sheep dancing over fences but it isn't the sheep that calm your icy nerves it is their destination as they leap the fence toward the slaug//hter how their bleats and screams must fill that cavity in your chest where a heart should be with bostalgic joy for the suffering you have caused so many he was a boy a precious boy so filled with hope and aspirations and you took that in and you fed on him that boy my boy in the lion's den there is no way to avoid the night calls and the roats of the fearsome loathsome ((cut off)) ((Not going back to change typos; I touch typed this & my touch typing needs work))

Ooh the music also it is late she managed an appointment at this time of night? Are you sure that he is much worse? The one you can live with oof burning...

Coffee <3 Ryan looks nice, his clothes are dark which is less common. espt is wearing some kind of zip up hoodie like that's professional. Becks nice brown leather jacket with a good shape to it. "nothing significant"

Seeing gates with the half sister she kept the eltter phew

Why is castle Sitting at ryan's desk & then ryan leaning over castle pointing the stuff out to him? *interrupts* *looks at the letter while walking back & giving directions*

JE: I’m pretty sure we left Patterson five shops ago. *smacks the badge on the door* "How you doing?" McManus

Ryan looking like my hair lol

*sees him* Oh ooh ooh ooh it's him *shoots just a bit late*

No, castle. She did not miss. (tho it's kind of messed up that when they think that this fellow is an assassin you're allowed to shoot them...) you didn't & that's the good part. *hides her tears*

Not only do you know him but you also looked into him so you know about him. People say ryan is the touchy feely one in terms of emotions & yeah he himself acknowledged the cheesiness of the toast he was giving at the double date last season but esposito is the one to approach kate & talk to her.

She's good She's revealing that!? don't you remember what happened last time you revealed personal information without knowing who is behind the glass? gates is a cop tho, she was a detective, she does interrogations, she can see becks is truthing this room is so big & empty, DP did well. he DOES control everyone lol robert points to three people behind the glass lol, he can't see them blood on OUR hands. She's right, it is in hers bc she let him go! Except if she shot him he would not be available for questioning he might even be dead.

Oh thank goodness, we all thought gates was talking to her about That

What did you say that was right about her?

RC: Check this out. What better way to celebrate the end of a difficult case then with a bottle of – (he trails off when he sees her work) – what are you doing? YEAH NO IF HE'S OFF HIS MEDS THAT AIN'T GOOD KB: And what about Melanie’s body? He burned it and he knocked out her teeth to keep it unidentifiable. Me: Schiz often comes with paranoia, he wanted to be safe KB: And then he leaves a duffle bag in a stolen car for us to find? Me: ... That is not very meticulous of him......

I don't (usually) smoke & I still have a lighter & matchbook music hhh not ALL the evidence, remember? Right, people OFTEN believe that the psychoaffected people don't know what they're doing or are dangerous or planted the bomb, nobody would look further into it

If you're right then you have gained his trust back. 41319 is her badge # btw

secondary area search? man is upset. He lost his temper, this is not normal.

THE LIGHTER I play with em like that too lol WHAT IF THE LIGHTER IS A DETONATOR btw I was right! It IS the assistant person (no they are both just nondescript white guys)

He was BESIDE the car, even if beckett was NOT there he would have been fine

Castle just TACKLED that guy

Five years, long play. Or paid money lol CASTLE ADMITTING HE WOULD HAVE STOOD & WATCHED

Ryan nice light grey jacket, pink shirt, possibly striped, dark tie to contrast, ugh he's so good. Esposito just wearing the kind of "I'm at home today" clothes I wear "just like you would have done" WB: Someone who’s gotten rich making powerful people promises that I need to keep. ((PARDON ME?)) What does a kingmaker do when the king no longer follows orders?

WB: You saved my life. KB: (rolls her eyes) Yeah well, you can’t win ‘em all, can you? a friend? He's right when he says "If I said no, would you really believe me?"

Nice transition to watching tv at home Benjamin Moss? Ah kingmaker. "plane crash" or "car accident" better story. oof.

Wow I'm half an hour ahead of schedule! I started watching at 9.30, so I should have been done the day's first ep by 11 but I was 20m early, now I should have been done by 12.30 & it is only five after, I'm doing well!

[tiredsadpeach]

Tw possible animal death in tags

[clovers-garden-co]

Tokyo rev bf hcs 

A/N: I’m literally stuck in terms of writing so bear w me hmm random this time.. or is it bare? idk my IQ is just- whatever. 

Mikey 

*inhale* 

he’s a little shit. but in a cute way. yeah.. yeah hes a little shit 😨

this boy will not STAY OFF OF YOU LIKE DAMN 

when you wake up, hugs and kisses, when y’all are eating together : hugs and kisses, WHEN YALL ARE CUDDLING??? HUGS AND KISSES 

he really likes the feeling of you. so he wants to be close to you at all times. 

idk man.. wrote a letter to him once and the stuff he be saying is straight up down horrendous. not even a hi?? hello??.. afternoon? 

hes a real sweetheart though, and he means well. 

he always checks up on you from time to time, but please make sure you remind him to check on himself 

because… remember. 

if you’re dating him, remember that you’re his anchor.

"dont go dying on me, okay?"

Chifuyu 

excuse me while I praise my favorite child. 

hes really goofy. so I hope you have a decent sense of humor. 

he thinks that you’re really cool, like he realllly admires you. thinks you’re attractive and whatnot 

he loves, loves, loves, LOVES going on dates with you. doing anything with you really

you could be chillin and all of a sudden you get a message from him saying, "hey lets hang out <3"

where? dont ask me idk 🙄 kidding 🥰

he likes to take you to parks, maybe somewhere with lots of flowers.. possibly a forest(?) just- somewhere with lots of flowers. 

he’d make a flower crown for you, putting the stray flowers behind your ear, or using them for flower bracelets, rings… 

speaking of rings, he hopes to stay with you long enough to get you a real one. 

he makes sure to place a real pretty flower in the middle of the ring. 

“make sure you stick with me alright? wanna get you a real ring someday..”

Rindou

so bossy 🙄 but he’s hot ig so he gets a pass.

I feel like he’s very… uhm. possessive. 

not in a borderline toxic way, but you best be careful.

why tf you messing w the haitanis anyways? can never understand you ppl

he’s a protective boyfriend.. could see him doing simple things ranging from putting you on the sidewalk while he walks closer to the road to literally beating the shit out of anyone who poses a threat to you

don’t worry, he’s not gonna send a plucked eyeball to you <3 

he loves very strongly, and he’s very blunt with how he feels towards you. he’ll never "sugarcoat" anything with you.

he can be a little harsh sometimes, but he means well. …I think.

though I can’t shake the feeling he may or may not drop things with you because of his lifestyle. never because he’s unloyal. 

"eh? you want to stay? tch. well, don’t say i didn’t warn you."

Ran 

a hoe- LMAO IM SORRY HOLD ON

ahem, he’s very flirty ☺️ and let me just say, sometimes he’s just not flirting only with you

i personally and strongly believe he uses some sort of eyeliner because his eyes look pretty as fuck. he’s pretty as fuck. god hhhh- but I’m not interested though. 

he’s very affectionate, I see lots of forehead kisses (idc what your height is whether he gotta lean down or tippy toe you still get them), and he likes playing with your hands, swinging them around, pressing kisses to each individual finger… y’know. 

don’t think if you give him a stern talking to, girlboss your way into dominance or whatever he’s gonna stop flirting with other people.. he’s just gonna sneak.

either he does it to piss you off, or he doesn’t do it 24/7

come on, he’s not that much of a- okay.

"awh darling, you know you’re the only one for me. no? cmere ♡” 

[sebearie]

midnight study dates

✿ college! kuroo tetsurō x gn! reader

"you look cute," he said, resting his head on his arms, looking up at you as you glared at him.

your eye bags more prominent than ever. hair disheveled, aggressively ruffled after hours of intense frustration. you were pretty sure you could pass off as that trashcan puppet from elmo. "shut up kuroo, i look like absolute crap."

"never seen crap look so cute," he grinned, a glint of mischief in his eyes, pulling your glasses off your face.

"hey," you whined, as he held them up in front of his eyes, squinting, trying to see through them, "your eyesight sucks."

"kuroo, need those to see," you pouted, barely containing a smile as he tried on your glasses.

"hmmm, say please," he teased, pushing it up his nose bridge.

"m'not saying that," you crossed your arms, turning away from him in defiance.

"then i guess i'll just keep these," he said taking them off, eyes carefully trained on your expression as he slowly inched it towards his backpack. "fine fine, please," you rolled your eyes, finally giving in as he smirked.

"say it then."

"i just did kuroo," you sighed, resting your temple on your hand as you rubbed it.

"say 'kuroo, give me back my glasses..."'

"kuroo, give me back-."

"ah ah let me finish dummy, 'pretty please my dashing boyfriend,'" he chuckled as you glared at him. "and don't forget the puppy eyes yn, shh shh," he placed a finger on your lips as you tried to retort.

"...fine, kuroo, give me back my glasses," you paused as he looked down at you expectantly with a wide smile mouthing "puppy eyes." and that's the last straw for you as pulled him by the forearm towards you, his face inches away from yours, his eyes widening and cheeks flushing a little, cherishing the moment, you steal the glasses off his hand and smirk in victory.

"hey, that's cheating," he laughed, trying to snatch it back as you moved it around in the air trying to avoid him.

"i don't make the rules," you stuck your tongue out at him, stretching your arm out behind you, this time he moves towards you, your noses just barely missing each other. caught off guard you relax your grip on the glasses as he steals it back and kisses your nose.

"two can play at this game babe."

--

bonus! your first encounter:

"i can't believe i almost failed this one too! i can't understand anything, i'm gonna have to pull an all-nighter for tomorrow's test," you groaned into the call leaning against the vending machine. kuroo unintentionally eavesdropping when he gets a snack for himself.

a few hours later, kuroo's about to leave the library when he sees you, sleeping on your desk, mouth slightly agape, chuckling to himself at the sight. you swear you feel something cool press against your cheek even in the daze of your dreams, you wake up to see a canned drink with a sticky note stuck to the side written, "you can do it! i believe in you" with a little smiley face, and just like that your night feels a little less sucky.

seyeon's note ✿: first of a few reposts of my favourite drabbles/fics from my old acc, just because i want them all in one place! i read an amazing kuroo series yesterday and hhhh im so inspired to write stuff again ✨

interactions = free onigiri 🍙 (i know a guy ☺︎)

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Protector

Prompt: if prompts are still open: virgil as an adventurer who keeps accidentally befriending the monsters he’s supposed to be fighting (aka the other sides)? have a wonderful day! (and don’t feel any pressure to do this at all, and if your inbox is meant to be closed absolutely delete this ask)

Thanks for the prompt, babe!

Read on Ao3

Warnings: sympathetic remus & deceit, some ptsd flashbacks but nothing super explicit

Pairings: LAMP, DLAMP, DLAMPR, can be platonic or romantic but Virgil’s definitely got some gay panic in there

Word Count: 8153

 Virgil’s got a simple code when he’s not on a hunt. Don’t hurt whatever you don’t absolutely have to, and odds are, it won’t hurt you. Now and then there’s a bit of an, um, incident where that doesn’t quite work out as well as they’d hoped, but by and large they get by.

Or: 5 times Virgil helps a monster he was supposed to kill, and 1 time the monsters help him

He sighs as he walks outside, grabbing the pair of gloves from the rickety tray and tugging them over his weathered hands. The front garden isn’t nearly as overgrown as it was when he found this little cabin in the middle of nowhere, but it’s got a long way to go before he can walk through without tripping over at least one overgrown bramble.

 There’s a very persistent mint plant that’s slowly and surely trying to choke the flowers. Virgil bends down and starts to toil in the dirt.

 “Come on,” he mutters, because he’s allowed to talk to plants when no one else is listening, “let’s stop doing that, you don’t have to be literally everywhere…”

 The mint doesn’t protest verbally, because it’s a plant and plants can’t talk, but Virgil would swear it tries to hold onto the dirt as he pulls it up, holding his hand under the roots to catch the dirt.

 “Alright, come on out, then, let’s just…put you in here.”

 There’s a plot of dirt in a crate resting at his knee. He pats the soil. Fresh enough. The mint plant looks almost contrite as he tucks it into the corner.

 “Next time I go see the townspeople I’m sure you’ll make some tea-shop owner very happy.”

 The rest of the garden goes similarly. By the end, he’s filled the crate almost halfway when his hand catches something sharp.

  The blade gleams as it flashes through the air. The child screams. His eyes widen—

 “No,” he grits out, flattening his hands into the dirt, “no, it’s…it’s okay. We’re okay. It’s…hhhh.”

 As he exhales, his shoulders slump, head bowing almost to his chest. The sounds of blades swinging through the air fade as the breeze rustles the leaves surrounding the cabin. The faint smell of mint cleanses his nose of blood.

 Virgil opens his eyes and carefully moves his hand away from the rose.

 “When’d you get here,” he mutters, carefully lifting the leaves to examine the stem, “don’t remember seeing you.”

 The thorns snag on the little pieces of dirt hanging from his gloves. He glances around. There aren’t any other roses nearby, not that he can see. And it’s probably not very good for it to be growing in the middle of this choked soil patch.

 He stands and makes his way back for the sharper trowel.

 Something hisses.

 His grip on the trowel doesn’t waver but he turns his head casually to glance over his shoulder.

 Something crouches in the garden, just barely visible over the crate. A tuft of hair, not dark enough to be a bear cub, not light enough to be a squirrel. His arm relaxes against his side, trowel snug against his thigh.

 “Hello,” he calls, watching closely, “is someone there?”

 He blinks in surprise when a cat pokes its head over the crate.

 “Uh, hey, there,” he manages, “uh…what’re you doing all the way out here?”

 In response, the cat leaps elegantly over the crate. It’s a slim thing, but not underweight. Its fur is bluish-gray, almost like a stormcloud. As Virgil watches, the cat sneezes and its fur turns a dappled brown.

 Virgil sighs. “So you’re the mischievous sprite I’ve been told to get rid of.”

 The neighboring village has tried several times to make him seek and destroy the sprite’s nest. Apparently, it’s been causing all sorts of problems. Books going missing, glasses breaking in the middle of the night, jars of preserves broken into. Now, that’s not really what Virgil calls a punishable offense, but the villagers were insistent that he find it and fight it. He’s done one of those things.

 Well, technically, the sprite found him.

 “There’s not much here that would interest you,” Virgil says, gesturing at the unkempt garden, “but if you want to tell me what you do want, then—hey!”

 The sprite, of course, doesn’t wait for him to actually finish inviting it inside. Instead, the door creaks as the cat darts between his legs and vanishes.

 “Be careful,” he warns, “there are sharp things.”

 He pushes open the door to see the cat perched on a precariously high shelf, sniffing at the books. He sighs.

 “I can get those down if you want, it might be easier than doing whatever the hell it is you’re doing now.”

 The cat ignores him, pawing at the thick leather cover. He sighs and pulls off his gloves.

 “Alright, just—wait a damn minute.”

 Virgil grunts as he lifts the book of the shelf and carries it over to the table, opening it and waiting. The cat jumps up onto the table and sniffs at the pages. Its tongue laps at a word.

 “You want more about that? Okay, let’s just—“

 Yes, Virgil is talking to this sprite. He’s allowed to do that in his own home.

 He turns the pages until the cat chirps.

 “This? This what you want?”

 The sprite stares at the page. It goes unnaturally still.

 The hairs on the back of Virgil’s neck stand up.

 Then it breaks; the cat shakes itself off and jumps down.

 “That’s it? You done now?”

 The cat’s tail twitches gracefully as it struts back to the door. Virgil rolls his eyes and follows it out.

 “Well, I’m glad I could be of service,” he mutters as he closes the door.

 Something rough touches his hand. He looks down. The sprite looks back up at him and licks his hand again.

 “…you’re welcome.”

 The cat sneezes, its fur changing back into the deep bluish-gray. Without another look, it takes off, leaping effortlessly over the crate and disappearing into the woods.

 Well, stranger things have happened in Virgil’s life.

 Shaking his head, he gets back to his garden. He glances at the rose before deciding that, eh, what the hell, it can stay another day. He finishes filling the mint crate and sets it near the front door, ready for his trip to the village tomorrow.

 “Ah, thank you!” The tea shop owner beams as he hands it over. “I’m sure this’ll be plenty.”

 “I’ve got more than enough, I promise.”

 “Well, since that sprite disappeared, I won’t be running out nearly as often!”

 Virgil blinks. “Huh?”

 “Oh, the sprite you got rid of!” She smiles. “Thank you kindly for that, it was ever so pesky.”

 Virgil just nods.

 ————————————

Virgil opens his eyes and doesn’t quite reach for the dagger he keeps in the nightstand but it’s close.

 “There’s a dog in my bed,” he mutters, “standing on top of me, drooling on my face.”

 The dog just barks. And changes color.

 He sighs. “Are you the same one from last time? Was the book not enough for you?”

 The dog barks again, jumping off the bed and trotting to the kitchen, its nail clicking on the floor. Virgil lets his eyes close for a second before getting up and following it.

 “Alright, the book it—whoa.”

 The dog is, um. Not a sprite.

 A huge mastiff elemental sits in the middle of his kitchen. It looks up from when it was nosing at what remained of a chicken carcass and rumbles. Virgil raises his hands.

 “I’m not going to hurt you,” he says lowly, “even though you did break into my house and wake me up. What do you want?”

 The elemental turns and moves through the house, out toward the woods. Virgil stuffs his feet in his boots and follows, tucking a slingshot and his knife into his pockets as he goes. The elemental moves through the trees with an inhuman grace, the very edges of the leaves it passes smoldering. A thin tendril of smoke wafts past Virgil’s nose.

  “She’s still inside!” The guard shouts as Virgil wrenches his arm away. “I have to go get her!”

  “Sir, you’ll die!”

  “She’s still—“

  The top of the house crashes down as—

 Virgil closes his eyes and brings his kerchief up to his nose. He breathes deeply. Freshly baked bread. Honeysuckle. The slightly tacky smell of leather oil. Breathe in, breathe out.

 When he opens his eyes again, the elemental has paused, glancing back at him.

 “I’m coming,” he says quickly, “I’m coming. Keep going.”

 He shrugs the old ghosts off his shoulders and follows.

 The elemental leads him to a clearing. Underneath a large, dead white tree, there’s a small den of moss. Virgil’s breath catches in his throat.

 The villagers had sent him a warning about a curse in the area. Fires had been going out. It had been impossible to keep warmth in the houses over the long winter nights. They’d been seeing figures in the smoke, sightings of, well, a mastiff. They’d contacted him to try and get it to leave.

 Well, the mastiff elemental is here, under the tree, looking back and forth between Virgil and something he can’t see, buried in the moss.

 “Is there something you wanna show me,” he asks softly, coming a little further into the clearing, “in there?”

 The elemental whines. He walks forward until he catches sight of a stone in the middle of the bed of moss. It’s cracked in two.

 “Is this what you wanted to show me,” he calls, shifting into a crouch, “this stone?”

 The elemental huffs, nudging his hand. It reaches past him and tries to pick up the stone in its mouth, only for it to drop. It puts its nose down and whines.

 “…was this your favorite stone to play with?” The elemental butts its head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry it broke. How’d it happen?”

 The elemental points its nose toward a jagged boulder in the corner of the clearing.

 “Ah, I see.”

 And you know what? Yeah, Virgil gets it. He’s dropped shit where he shouldn’t have dropped it before and it broke. What does it matter that this elemental is so upset over accidentally breaking its favorite toy that its warmth is so low the nearby villagers think it’s a curse?

 “Hey,” Virgil murmurs, reaching out to cup the two halves of the rock in his hands, “it’s okay. This rock—good choice by the way, very good choice—it’s part of the Perse Mountains, right? So it’s susceptible to fire magic.”

 He reaches into his slingshot bag and pulls out two small rocks. Using one on either side, he sandwiches the two halves of the broken rock together and holds it out to the elemental.

 “Now breath on it.”

 The elemental exhales carefully, bathing the rock in a steady stream of fire. Sure enough, in a few moments, thanks to Virgil holding it steady, the rock glows a soft yellow and reforges.

 “That’s good.” He takes it carefully between the stones and rolls it around the moss, trying to cool it. “Okay. Try now.”

 The elemental takes the rock gingerly between its teeth and yips.

 Virgil chuckles. “I’m glad I could help.”

 The elemental spins in a circle before turning back into the dog and licking Virgil’s cheek, barking excitedly.

 “Okay, okay, you’re welcome, jeez.” He half-heartedly shoves the dog’s head away. “You’re getting slobber all over me!”

 The dog pulls away and takes the rock into its mouth again, snuffling happily. Virgil shakes his head and gets up.

 “If that’s all, then I’m gonna go home.” The dog licks his hand one more time. “Yeah, yeah, okay.”

 And if a fire is already burning when he gets back home, well, that’s just a surefire way to know there was never a curse for the villagers to worry about.

 Get it? Surefire?

 Shut up, he’s hilarious.

 ————————————

“Ah, Virgil!”

 Virgil turns. The blacksmith waves at him from the market stalls. Dodging fruit carts and weaving his way through passers-by, he stops in front of the man and gestures to the new wares.

 “Good season, Anbel?”

 “Oh, the best!” Anbel gestures to the coin chest behind him. “You know how it is, goes in and out of season.”

 Absentmindedly, Virgil rubs at the scars on his arms. “I know the feeling.”

 “Anyways, I got that dagger you gave me to repair.”

 Anbel reaches behind him and pulls the dagger out of a leather bag. He holds it up. The deep gouges in the blade are gone, the handle isn’t tarnished anymore, and it looks…good.

 “Thank you, Anbel,” he says, reaching for it, “so how much?”

 “No charge.”

 “Come on.”

 “No charge,” Anbel repeats, “not for you.”

 Unbidden, a flush rises to his cheeks as he tucks the dagger into his belt. “Anbel…”

 “Alright,” the blacksmith says, holding up his hands, “I’ve got a favor to ask.”

 Virgil sighs. “What’d you do?”

 “Why do you assume that I did something?”

 Virgil just gives him a look.

 “…alright but this time it wasn’t me.”

 “Uh-huh.”

 Anbel smacks his chest. “I’m serious, there’s something wrong in the woods outside of town.”

 Virgil sobers, taking a step closer. “What is it?”

 “Dunno. But my horses won’t go past a particular stretch of land and I need to be able to make the trip next moon.”

 Virgil chews on his lip, thinking. “Did they run away or just refuse to go near?”

 “Refused to go near.” Anbel shakes his head. “Don’t know what’s gotten into them. They’re good mares.”

 “Have any others reported anything?”

 “Cindi had trouble getting through too.”

 “Where is it?”

 “Just before the bend in the river. Near the trees.”

 Virgil sighs. “I’ll have a look.”

 That’s how he finds himself wandering down the main road on the next cloudy day. He glances around to make sure there aren’t any other villagers nearby before he starts looking around. There’s a small grove of trees near the riverbank, a mound of rocks next to the bend in the road, and a rapid system rushing just out of sight.

 Maybe the horses were scared of the rapids? They’ve been known to spook before. But no, Anbel makes this trip every season. If the horses were going to spook at the rapids, they’ve done it before.

 Virgil frowns, coming to a stop in the middle of the grass between the road and the river. What could they’ve been startled by? There’s not enough space to hide anything here. The rocks are on the wrong side of the road. The river isn’t close or loud. And the trees aren’t close enough together to hide anything between them.

 …between them.

 Virgil holds very, very still.

 Out of the corner of his eye, one of the trunks shifts.

 He doesn’t move quickly, doesn’t draw his dagger, just lowers his eyes to the grass and turns, facing the trees, and takes a step backward. Then another. Then another. When he’s over ten yards away, he looks up.

 “I mean you no harm,” he calls, “I have no wish to interfere. I was told that there was something that scared a few horses and wanted to make sure everything was alright.”

 The breeze rustles through the leaves.

 “I am happy to leave you here,” he continues, risking a step closer, “but I know that…this is probably not where you’d like to be. This isn’t an especially damp forest.”

 The trunk shifts again.

 “If there’s something I can do to help—“ he risks another step— “I’d be happy to.”

  There.

 The trunk shifts and seems to shrink inside as a jaculi unwinds itself from around its base. It blinks lazily at him with amber eyes, golden scales rippling in the faint light from the cloudy sky.

 “Hello,” Virgil waves, “can I—will you let me come closer?”

 The jaculi hisses and lays its head near the ground.

 “Thank you.” Virgil walks forward carefully, stopping a few feet away and crouching down. “Now, what brings you here? You look like you’re an awful long way from home.”

 The jaculi hisses again, its head swiveling toward the river. Virgil looks. Across the bank, he can see a much denser forest and what looks like a storm brewing.

 “You’ll be hurt,” he realizes, “if you try and stay here…”

 The jaculi coils tighter around the tree trunk.

 “How’d you get over here,” Virgil mutters, “you’d’ve needed to swim across…and that also won’t go well for you.”

 There’s a soft rustling as the jaculi buries its tail in a pile of leaves near the base of the tree. Virgil glances over to see it rubbing its face halfheartedly against the bark.

 His eyes widen.

 About a month ago there had been a terrible storm. His little cabin had barely held together. He’d heard reports from the tavern owner that it’d blown one of the old trees right over.

 “That’s how you got across,” he murmurs, mostly to himself, “you climbed across the tree. And now it’s gone and you’re stuck.”

 The jaculi blinks remorsefully at him.

 “Okay,” Virgil mutters, “okay, we can…we can figure this out.”

 They’ll have to do it at night. There’s no way the jaculi will feel safe enough to move while it’s still light out. There’s an old barn that never finished construction just over the ridge. One of those timber pieces is probably long enough to get over the river. And he can make a bridge wide enough to support the jaculi’s weight.

 He explains his plan to the jaculi, feeling a little ridiculous, but he’s allowed to explain what he’s doing to help someone, it’s fine, and says that he’ll be back. Promise.

 The landowner gives him a weird look when he asks to borrow the timber.

 “It’s too long for you to do anything with it,” he says, still helping Virgil load it onto a sled, “and much too tough for you to cut by yourself.”

 “It’s fine just the way it is,” Virgil says, “and thank you.”

 He waves Virgil off. “Keep it. You’re doing better than I am with it.”

 Virgil’s back at the river bend by sundown. He can’t see the jaculi anymore—it’s probably hidden itself for safety—but he calls out when he arrives.

 “I’m going to use these to make a bridge for you. It shouldn’t take me too long.”

 The pieces of timber are ungainly, to make a colossal understatement, but Virgil grits his teeth and slides them out of the sled. He wades a little into the river and—

  The water is so cold it burns. He has to keep going. It’s gaining on him. He’ll be safe in the water.

  The growls get closer and his foot slips—

 “No,” he mutters, “no, it’s not that. I’m fine. I’m standing, I’m not hurt, I’m not drowning.”

 He blinks down at his boots, the water swirling around his ankles. The timber in his hands shifts as he breathes. He’s fine. He’s fine.

 “Okay…okay.”

 He grits his teeth again and heaves, bringing the piece of timber with him. He wades further until it’s swirling around his waist. The piece of timber is just long enough to reach the other side. Onto the next one.

 He gets the five of them stretched across the river just as the last of the light vanishes. Panting, he struggles back up onto the side of the river bank and splays out onto his back, eyes closed.

 A low hiss sounds in his ear.

 He just manages to avoid a scream.

 “Hey,” he gasps instead, eyes flickering open to see the jaculi coiled up a few feet away, “uh…please don’t do that.”

 The jaculi just blinks at him.

“Uh…why don’t you, uh…” Virgil holds a hand to his chest, trying to get his breathing back under control. “…try out the bridge?”

 The jaculi slithers closer, flicking its tongue out against the timber. It looks back at Virgil.

 “Go on,” he encourages, “you can do it.”

 It slithers on, testing the boards against its weight.

 Virgil holds his breath until the jaculi vanishes into the trees across the river banks, slipping further and further into the darkness.

 Anbel leaves on his trip the next moon.

 ————————————

Honestly, when the kraken explodes out of Virgil’s well, he just sighs and fetches his bath so he can get the poor thing out.

 “Easy,” he grumbles when the kraken squirms so much he almost drops it, “you may be a young one but you’re still heavy.”

 Panting, he drops the tentacled beast into the full tub, his arms flying up to shield his face from the shower of sparkling drops. Judging by the happy trills and clicks, the kraken likes it in there. He shakes his head.

 “So that’s why I’ve been asked to fight a monster in the sewers,” he muses, watching the kraken’s tentacles writhe giddily in the metal tub, “just how did you end up so far inland?”

 The kraken, of course, does not deign to answer. Instead, the tentacles latch onto the side of the bath and threaten to tip the whole thing over.

 “No, you idiot,” Virgil shouts, grabbing onto the other side and weighing it down. He winces when more water spills onto him, drenching him head to toe. “Now look what you’ve done.”

 What the kraken has done, apparently, is get Virgil close enough so that its tentacles can haul Virgil into the tub.

 “Hey!”

 Virgil spits water out of his mouth, much to the kraken’s delight.

 “That was rude.”

 The kraken just chirps happily and wriggles around. Its tentacles stick to Virgil’s clothes and pull him through the water.

 Virgil’s chest tightens.

 One of the first things they teach you about krakens is never get in the water with them. The second thing they teach you about krakens is do not get in the water with them. The third thing they teach you about krakens is not to get too close to their tentacles so they don’t pull you into the water with them.

 And yeah, this is Virgil’s bathtub, not a river, a tide pool, or the open sea, but you can drown in an inch of water.

 Virgil presses his back up against the rim of the tub. The kraken seems to realize something’s wrong and settles, burbling softly.

 “Hey, bud,” Virgil says shakily, “I, uh, what’re you doing here?”

 The kraken twitches a few tentacles and more water slops over the edge.

 “Right…” Virgil shakes his head. “Okay, well, uh, I would rather not sit here and soak through all of my clothes, so I’m just going to—“

 As soon as he tries to move, the kraken wraps a tentacle around his leg and tugs.

 “Okay, okay, not leaving, not leaving, um—“ Virgil reaches down and takes a handful of the grass. Worst comes to worst, he can tip the tub and get the kraken back in the well.

 The kraken lets go as soon as he settles back in the water. Virgil looks at the creature carefully.

 There’s a mark on its head. Discoloration, probably, but still obvious. As he watches, the kraken burbles to itself and starts making little ripples in the surface of the water with its tentacles. After a moment, it starts gently pushing the water towards Virgil.

 The water laps at Virgil’s knees in little waves, not enough to wet him anymore—not that it would matter at this point—but enough to bounce back and make more patterns. The kraken trills softly and keeps doing it.

 Does it…want to play?

 Slowly, Virgil lifts his hands up and starts to push the water back. The kraken, realizing that Virgil is indeed committing to the idea that he is going to play with this kraken, trills louder and uses more of its tentacles to move the waves bigger.

 “Yeah? Is that how it works?” Virgil moves his hands. “Like that?”

 The kraken chirps.

 He’s not really sure how long they stay there, playing with the water, but it’s long enough for the sun to go down in the sky and Virgil to get more than a little chilly in the water.

 When the kraken notices that the water is rippling more around Virgil and he’s not moving his hands any faster, it wraps a tentacle around his ankle and tugs.

 “What? You tired?” The kraken leans its head against the side of the tub. “Okay. Well, I don’t know how long you can stay in here—“

 He cuts himself off when the kraken jabs a tentacle toward the well.

 “You wanna go back in there? It’s so small and cramped, and the sewers in town aren’t much better.”

 The kraken insists.

 Sure. Why not.

 Virgil grunts as he lifts the kraken back into the bucket, carefully lowering the creature down into the well. He hears one more trill before splashing sounds indicate that the creature is gone.

 Funnily enough, reports of the sewer beast vanish overnight.

 When Virgil wakes up panting from a nightmare of ropes around his neck, the glass of water on his bedside table is perfectly cold.

 ————————————

Virgil curses as the sole of his boot slips. He just manages to catch himself against the cliffside before splitting his knee on a harsh spire of rock. Gritting his teeth, he forces himself onward.

 The cliffs frown over him as he makes his way up the pass. The rocks crumble threateningly as his boots crunch, crunch, crunch. The sword on his hip feels too heavy. He curses, tugging his glove the rest of the way onto his hand.

 He never was one for dragon hunts.

 The message came in a week ago. Some poor terrified soul had come screaming into the town, ranting about dragons, missing people, curses, the whole lot. Virgil had taken up the call and set off, promising to get to the bottom of it.

 He never promised to hurt anything.

 Thunder rolls ominously in the distance and he bites back another curse. There’s a cave up ahead, he can see it just over the next ridge, he’ll rest there.

 In all honesty—and he can be honest, now there’s no one else around—he hates these kinds of missions. Finding something is one thing. Going to get something is one thing. Rescuing someone is one thing.

 This feels like something else.

 There’s something in his boot. There’s a wrinkle in the thinnest shirt he’s wearing. The sword belt is digging into his hip. The voices in his head won’t shut the fuck up.

 The cave is right there.

 He all but collapses to his knees as soon as he makes it inside, just as the first drops of rain land on the back of his armor. He breathes a sigh of relief, heading further into the cave, into the safety, out of the storm.

 It’s quiet here.

 He takes the knife out of its loop on his belt and sets about setting up a fire. There’s a reasonable stash of dry wood here, probably enough to keep him going throughout the night. He makes a small bundle and lights it, blowing on it until it catches and burns merrily.

 Shrugging off his pack, he leans it up against the wall and starts to dig out the dried meat. He tears off a long strip with his teeth and chews slowly, staring into the flames.

 There’s something nice about fire. Not all fire—he’s got the burns to prove that—but this fire. Controlled fire. He sits back on his hands, brushing aside the eggshells to lean against the cave wall.

 Controlled fire is…justified chaos. It’s strange, to think of chaos as being justified. But that’s what it is. A controlled burn. Snapping and sparking amidst a small mound of wood, warm. Safe. It’s strange to think of fire as safe, too.

 Virgil sits back, finishing off his meal and closing his eyes. The fire is very, very warm. Much warmer than he would expect for just a small campfire. And a little irregular, too. It comes in waves, pants, almost.

 …wood, eggshells…

 Okay, look.

 Look.

 Virgil’s tired, okay?

 It’s not like this is what normally happens to him on hunts.

 He knows what he’s doing.

 He does!

 It’s fine.

 This is fine.

 This is so utterly fine right now.

 But…okay, yeah, maybe Virgil’s not been paying as much attention as he should be. And maybe he’s fighting down a panic attack right now. And maybe he’s frozen in fear to the floor of this cave and not sure how he’s survived this long.

 Whatever.

 Virgil cracks an eye open.

 “…hey, there, dragon.”

 Surprisingly enough, his head does not get immediately bitten off. Instead, the dragon looks at him, nostrils puffing hot air into his face. The smell of dank cavern air mixes with what Virgil really hopes isn’t decomposing human.

 “Um…fancy seeing you here?”

 The dragon huffs louder, still staring into Virgil’s soul. He risks a glance over its shoulder to make sure that yes, this is the only dragon in this cave, there aren’t suddenly going to be five of them. He spies the scales trailing further into the darkness, muscular legs, long, powerful tail. The dragon growls, snapping his eyes back.

 “Hey, uh—didn’t mean to invade your cave.” Virgil scoots backward. “That was absolutely my fault. I can, uh—well, I can’t really promise to leave you alone, but I, uh…rain check?”

 As if on cue, thunder booms from outside.

  Shit.

 A lower growl sounds from the dragon as its mouth curls up. Wow, those teeth are long…

 “Can you, uh—so I know that this is a pretty big request, considering I just, you know, invaded your cave, but uh—maybe don’t eat me?”

 Judging by the growl, that’s a no.

 “Okay, I, uh—“ Virgil risks a glance around. His fire is still burning. Maybe he can at least get the dragon to back up before he—

 He pauses.

 Near the fire, the dragon’s leg looks…wet. Its scales are stained with a dark splotch coming from somewhere higher up. As he watches, the dragon shifts its weight and it gets wetter.

 “You’re hurt,” he says softly, “you’re—oh, god, you’re hurt.”

 He looks back up. The dragon’s snarl doesn’t quite soften, but its mouth relaxes a little.

 “I’ve got salve and bandages in my pack,” he says cautiously, “if you let me get them, I can—I can help?”

 Slowly, ever so slowly, he moves his hand to his pack, keeping the other one raised as he opens the flap and takes out the bottle and the bandages.

 “Can I have a look, please? I’m just gonna…”

 The dragon huffs cautiously as Virgil turns, moving around its body to crouch next to its injured leg. Now that he’s closer, he can see what’s happened.

 A shard of metal is lodged in the soft space between two of the scales. Every time the dragon moves, it shifts, spilling more and more blood. Judging by how loud the dragon is breathing, it must really hurt.

 “You poor thing,” he mutters, “how long has this been here?”

 No response.

 “We gotta get it out,” he says instead, looking for something he can use, “if we leave it in you might get infected, or…something else bad will happen.”

 He pulls a pair of pliers from his pack and the dragon snorts.

 “Easy, easy—“ the dragon’s eyes go wide at the glint of the flame off the metal— “hey, it’s okay, I’m gonna use these to get that metal outta you, yeah?”

 It seems an hour before the dragon calms, gingerly stretching out its leg so Virgil can see the shard. Taking a deep breath, he hooks the pliers around the edge of the metal.

 “Ready on three, okay?” He grits his teeth. “One…two…three!”

 He yanks.

 The dragon roars as the metal shard comes out in his hands, the side release almost sending him toppling back into the fire. Quickly, he discards the tools and reaches out to soothe the dragon, petting its scales and hushing it gently.

 “Shh, shh, it’s out now, it’s okay, it can’t hurt you anymore.” He runs a hand over the dragon’s heaving back. “I’m gonna help you, okay? I’m here to help.”

 It seems to calm the dragon, its breathing slowly but surely calming down as Virgil continues to speak softly to it. Honestly, if it were this easy to calm himself down, he would have a lot fewer problems.

 “I’ve got to clean it,” he says after a minute, “just to make sure you don’t get infected. Then I’ll be done, okay?”

 The dragon swivels its massive head around, looking at the wound, then back at Virgil. It heaves a great sigh and its chin comes to rest on the floor, staring at him. Guess that’s as close to permission as he’s gonna get.

 “Thank you. This, uh, this may sting a bit.”

 He barely gets a flinch as he starts cleaning the cut. Dragons. Once he’s wrapped the dragon’s leg as best he can, he turns to peer at the shard of metal he pulled out of the wound. He holds it up, examining it in the firelight.

 It looks…wrong.

 It’s too thick to be just something that happened to get in there, but too jagged to be something natural. It looks like it snapped off of something, but it’s not the right shape to be an arrowhead or a piece of a building. So what…?

 He turns when the dragon starts to move.

 It heaves itself to its feet, testing out its weight on all four legs. When the pain doesn’t shoot through, it lumbers off, further into the cave. Its head dips down, out of sight for a moment, before it turns and starts back toward the fire, dragging something in its mouth.

 Virgil’s eyes widen when another bag is dropped in front of him.

 “Is this…is this someone else’s?” He lays his fingers carefully on its surface. “Did…did you…did someone else come here before me?”

 The dragon huffs.

 With trembling fingers, he flips open the bag. There’s a good store of meat in here, a change of clothes, something for armor, it’s a provisions bag. One side has a little loop attached with nothing inside.

 “…someone tried to stab you,” he realizes in horror, looking back up at the dragon. “Someone tried to fight you but couldn’t. So they stabbed you in the leg.”

 His fists clench.

 “They hurt you.”

 Another huff. Then the dragon nudges the bag toward him again.

 “Is there something else in here?” Virgil starts sorting through the possessions. He lays the clothes to one side, the bottles to another. When he gets to the food, the dragon leans forward and snorts, blowing hot air into his face.

 “This? This is what you want me to get?” He looks at it. It’s just more dried meat. It, uh, it actually looks a little better than his. “Are you hungry?”

 The dragon snorts at Virgil’s pack, then at the food in his hands.

 “…are you…giving this to me because I’m still hungry?”

 Another huff, longer this time, and the dragon’s head comes to rest on the floor, eyes staring up at him.

 Virgil swallows around the sudden lump in his throat. “Well, that’s—thank you.”

 The dragon rumbles as he starts to eat, eyes blinking lazily. Virgil tries not to mind too much.

 And…honestly? It’s not that bad. He’s had worse audiences when he’s just trying to eat. The dragon switches its tail every now and then, huffing gently to keep the fire going. It’s…nice.

 Virgil finishes eating as much of the food as he wants and tucks the rest away. He takes a moment to just…look.

 “The other person,” he says eventually, “the one that hurt you…they—I think they wanted to kill you.”

 The dragon stares at him like he just said the sky is blue.

 “No, really, I—I don’t think they wanted anything else.” He shakes his head. “We’re not near enough to any villages for that to be the reason, there aren’t any traveling paths through here, there’s…there’s no other reason. I think they just wanted to kill you.”

 The cave falls quiet as the rain pours outside.

 “…I think they wanted me to kill you too.”

 Virgil’s chest aches. Something in his right hand tingles.

“Why do they always want me to kill you?”

 And he’s not just talking about the dragon now.

 It’s always the same.

 Fight this. Kill that. Rescue us from this. Save us from that.

 What if you’re not the ones that need to be saved?

 Virgil lets his chin drop to his chest and sighs. His sword hangs heavy at his hip. His hands tremble in the burning light of the fire.

 “I hate to impose,” he manages through a sluggish tongue, “but…may I stay? Just until the storm passes?”

 A low thud makes him look up. The dragon shifts, its tail curled in a half-circle around Virgil and the fire. It huffs softly.

 “Thank you.”

 ————————————

Sometimes he has sleepless nights. Drifts in blackness and emptiness until it’s time to get up. Or he’ll close his eyes for what feels like an instant before he wakes up the next day.

 Sometimes he has restless nights. Can’t sleep, can’t manage to get more than a few minutes of tense darkness before his eyes shoot open and he has to reassure himself that’s he can sleep.

 Sometimes he has good nights. Dreams of sunshine and warmth and the safety of a hot drink between his palms. Closing his eyes and just hearing the peaceful hum of his cabin.

 Most of the time he has nightmares. The good ones are just mixes of monsters he can’t see coming, kills he wishes he didn’t have to make. Losing someone he should’ve been able to save.

 This one’s a bad one.

  Jaws close down on his arm. The creature whips its head back and forth, shaking him like a rag doll. He grits his teeth and tries to—

  His eyes widen as the burning roof collapses on top of him. A heavy beam falls onto his chest and he can’t move, he’s going to—

  The cliff face collapses under him and he plummets, fingers scrabbling for a hold against the crumbling face. He can’t reach, he can’t reach—

 “….shut up, you’re gonna wake him up!”

 “If you stop shouting, then he won’t.”

 “Shh, the both of you.”

 “This is certainly working, I think we should all keep talking like this.”

 “Oh, don’t you start!”

 “Hey, hey, shh! He’s waking up!”

 Virgil is waking up, as a matter of fact, and he also has no idea where he is or what’s going on. He does know there are at least five people in this room with him though. That’s either a good thing or a really, really bad thing.

 He can feel rocks under his head. Is he still in the cave, then? How other people…here? Where’s the dragon?

 “Hey,” one of the voices says, “are you okay? You kinda, uh, well, you weren’t looking very good for a little bit there.”

 “Back up, you morons, you’re gonna scare him!”

 “We’re not scary, shut up.”

 “You’re scary.”

 “All of you be quiet,” the first voice says, before it softens again. “Hey, can you open your eyes?”

  Well, I’ve definitely made worse decisions.

 He wholeheartedly concurs with that thought when the first thing he sees is genuinely one of the most attractive people he’s ever had the pleasure of meeting face to face.

 “There you are,” the beautiful person says, “good morning. Is your head alright?”

 “Uh—“ not now gay panic— “uh?”

 “Back up, Logan,” another person says, “let me see.”

 Logan—great name, sure, why not—moves out of the way, and oh god there’s two of them.

 “Hi!” The other attractive person leans over Virgil and gods— “are you hurt? You looked a little upset while you were sleeping.”

 “You—“ Virgil does not squeak— “you watched me while I was sleeping?”

 “Well, you fell asleep and Roman got worried, so—“

 “I’m sorry,” Virgil interrupts, “who—who are you?”

 The person in front of him tilts his head. “Don’t you recognize us?”

  I would absolutely fucking remember meeting you, and I do not.

 “Patton,” Logan says, “he’s a mortal. He won’t—we are not as we were when he met us.”

 The butterflies in Virgil’s stomach ice.

 These…these are creatures. Is he—what supernatural force did he piss off?

 Logan smiles at him and winks. First off, rude, but—

 Virgil squints. One of the man’s eyes is a deep bluish-grey. The other one—the one he just winked with—is a dappled brown.

 Oh.

 “…you’re the sprite.”

 “I am,” he says, “my name is Logan.”

 Something nudges his shoulder. Virgil looks over to see Patton offering him a round stone.

 “…the mastiff elemental?”

 “Patton, actually.” Patton smiles and gestures over Virgil’s other shoulder.

  Why are there five of them and why are they all so pretty?

 “Can you guess who they are?”

 One of them rolls his eyes. “Yes, that sounds like a perfect use of time that isn’t at all a waste.”

 “Okay, so you’re the jaculi.”

 He smirks. “Janus.”

 The one near the entrance to the cave just cackles and bounces on the balls of his feet. Almost like…

 “You made me spill the bathtub over my whole yard!”

 He cackles louder. “Yes, I did!”

 Virgil rolls his eyes. He’s not fond. He’s not.

 “Remus,” Logan scolds, “you said you were just going into the well.”

 “He took me out!”

 “Yeah, because that thing is cramped as hell.”

 “Aww,” Patton coos, “how sweet.”

 “Well,” the last one says, smiling softly from one of the darker corners of the cave, “we knew that, didn’t we?”

 Virgil turns, looking hard into the darkness. The last person stands, walking over slowly, leaning most of his weight on one leg. As he moves into the light, he sits down on the log and reaches down. Virgil’s eyes widen as he gets handed the last of the dried meat.

 “You’re still hungry,” the person says softly, “I can tell.”

 Virgil cannot eat right now, thank you very much. Instead, his eyes are fixed on his bandage, still tied sloppily around the person’s leg.

 “You’re the dragon.”

 “I am. But you can call me Roman.”

 “…does it still hurt?”

 “Oh, this?” He smiles and moves his leg. “A little. But it’s almost better,” he finishes, reaching over to gently bump Virgil’s shoulder, “thanks to you.”

 Yes, hello? Virgil would like for someone to explain what’s going on, please.

 “I’m sure you’ve got questions,” Logan says, also sitting down, “and we can do our best to answer them. But first…are you alright?”

 Uh, no. “Why do you think I’m not?”

 “You’re breathing faster than most mortals do at rest, your face is more flushed than it was, and you were troubled while you slept.”

 …shhh…

 “I, um…I was having a nightmare.”

 “Ooh,” Remus says, plopping down on the floor with his chin propped up on his hands, “was it a bad one?”

 “…you could say that.”

 “Remus,” Patton chides, “don’t.”

 Remus pouts but hushes, reaching out to toy with a stick. Patton rolls the stone between his hands.

 “You did seem upset,” Janus says, “can we help?”

 “H-help?”

 Janus raises an eyebrow. “Yes, help. Or is that not a thing most mortals do?”

 Um. Well. Uh, hang on.

 “Are you just going to be mean to him,” Logan sighs, “or are we actually going to make an effort to be friendly with the person we have decided to befriend?”

 “Can one of you explain what’s going on?” Patton nods to Virgil. “Before he decides we’re all mad?”

 Roman sighs. “Virgil? Are you still hungry?”

 “Huh? No, no, I’m…I’m okay.”

 He smiles. “Good. This…this might sound a bit strange, but…try and keep up?”

 “As weird as it might sound, this isn’t the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

 Roman blinks in surprise, a small smile coming over his face. “Isn’t it?”

 “Well, you must have some idea of what I do for a living.”

 Roman’s smile only grows. “Yes, as a matter of fact, we do.”

 Logan clears his throat. Virgil turns, seeing the book from his cabin appear in Logan’s hands.

 “Did you—is that my—“

 “I can assure you,” Logan says softly, “that I did not steal your book from you. Rather, this is a copy, generated from the information I was able to learn.”

 “What did you want?”

 “We were cursed.” Logan closes the book with a snap. “Cursed to take on forms that were hated or feared or simply a nuisance.”

 Virgil’s stomach drops. Cursed?

 “I’m sorry,” he mumbles, “that sounds…awful.”

 “It was,” Janus mutters, “completely inconvenient and an utter waste of time.”

 “You say like it wasn’t your fault.”

 “Oh, right, it was absolutely only my fault.”

 “You two,” Patton huffs, “enough.”

 Virgil’s still trying to wrap his head around everything. “Wait, hang on, so—you were cursed? Were? Past tense?”

 “Well,” Janus gestures to himself, “I don’t exactly look like a snake anymore, do I?”

 He raises a finger when Virgil opens his mouth.

 “Careful, dear.”

 Virgil snaps his mouth shut.

 Roman rolls his eyes and places a hand on Virgil’s shoulder. “You broke the curse, my friend. Or at least…you helped us break it.”

 “But how? I didn’t—I didn’t do anything.”

 He raises an eyebrow and gestures to the bandage. “You don’t consider this doing anything?”

 “Or this?” Patton holds up the stone.

 Logan taps the cover of the book. “You helped us. When you had no reason to, past the goodness of your heart.”

 “We would’ve been hurt,” Janus says quietly, “or hunted without you. They certainly would’ve killed me.”

 “And me,” Remus says.

 Patton nods. “And me.”

 Roman simply taps his leg. Right. They already tried to kill him.

 Virgil blinks. “So…me helping broke the curse?”

 “You caring broke the curse,” Logan corrects gently, “and, well, when you...when you seemed to be in need, we wanted to care for you too.”

 Oh.

  Oh.

  Oh, fuck.

 “So,” Roman says, smiling up at Virgil, “how can we help?”

 “Help? With—with what?”

 “The nightmares.”

 “Oh,” Virgil mumbles, averting his eyes, “you, uh, can’t. Not really. They’re not a curse or magical or anything. They’re just nightmares.”

 “But there must be something we can do.”

 He shakes his head sadly. Believe him, if there were anything five unfairly attractive people could do, he’d tell them. But there isn’t. “They come with the job. There’s not—no one can do anything.”

 He can practically hear Patton frowning. “That’s not very fair. You do so much for others, don’t they—don’t they care?”

 Virgil shrugs. “Life isn’t fair.”

 “So take what it won’t give you.” Janus folds his arms. “They don’t care for you. Even though you care for them.”

 “They do care for me,” Virgil argues, “they’re kind. They help me.”

 “Not with this,” he shoots back, “not with what you really need.”

 “You protect everyone,” Roman says softly when Virgil opens his mouth to argue again, “who protects you?”

 Who protects the protector?

 “…no one.” Virgil shakes his head. “No one but me.”

 “Well, you’re right. That doesn’t seem fair at all.” Logan sets the book aside and it vanishes into the darkness of the cave. “Perhaps we should endeavor to fix that.”

 “F-fix it?” Virgil’s head jerks up. “How?”

 “Let us protect you.”

 “Protect me?”

 “Do keep up,” Janus sighs, but he’s pretty sure he can see him smiling over there, “at the very least, we have magic. That should offer you something.”

 “You don’t have to decide right now,” Roman says quickly, “but…thought we’d offer. Think it over.”

 …well, if ‘protection’ involves seeing them more often, Virgil can definitely work with that.

 “While I think it over, will you tell me how you got cursed?”

 “So it was entirely Janus’s fault—“

 “It was not!”

 “Yes, it was!”

 As Remus and Janus start arguing, Virgil smiles and leans back against the wall of the cave. Roman waves his hand and the cave wall warms, almost cradling Virgil. Logan settles on his other side, weight solid against his arm.

 Yeah, he could get used to this.

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[cinnamonest]

I feel like I’ve found my kin, I fell in love with Kakashi when I was like 8 LOL. Can I request some general yandere Zoro headcanons btw? I loved/still love him too 😶

Yes you may ahhh!!!! I love Zoro so much. I love writing for fandoms like this bc shounen anime are... Well, shounen, they're aimed at dudes, so they tend to not have as large of a female audience so there's not a lot of content out there. I love Luffy and there's like zero girl-targeted content for him. I swear I've spent so much time looking for wholesome, decent LuNa (my otp im sorry i just hhhh) doujins that aren't super male-oriented, and there's like... 2. For a 900+ episode anime. 2.

I also love the concept of a yandere in a situation where they CAN'T kidnap you, they're limited by their circumstances, so they have to kind of adjust or go insane. It's an interesting dynamic because it eliminates the norm for yanderes.

I think I mentioned this but I'm not 100% caught up with one piece (I mean, who is?), so I'm just keeping it simplistic and going with kinda basic Zoro and nothing with specific character developments or any spoilers other than his backstory

Yandere Roronoa Zoro (One Piece)

Tws: all the usuals -- yandere, noncon, kidnapping

He meets you while he's lost. I'm sorry I just. Zoro gets lost in the middle of some place they're docked, and you're just such a sweetheart, you see this guy clearly not knowing where he's going, and offer to help him. He's kind of taken aback by your softness and sweetness.

He's not easily made aware of his own feelings. He's a rough and tough sort of guy, and he has dedicated himself to swordsmanship so much that he's neglected to focus on himself and his interpersonal relationships, and he's not really self aware at all of his own feelings, very out of touch with his emotions.

Obviously, even if he tries to shove it down, Kuina weighs heavily on his mind in relation to you. He's another man that has known loss and it's dealt its damage on his psyche. He can't lose another person who's dear to him again.

This results in him becoming insanely protective, one of the most protective yans out there. He's easily one led into paranoia delusions regarding your safety. However, he's an honest and reasonable guy and can be level-headed when confronted. If someone (not yourself, as he thinks you're naive, but maybe another girl like Nami or Robin) tells him he's being overprotective and exaggerating about your safety, he may actually have a moment of self-realization and admit to it. He's capable of being reasonable enough to see it once it's pointed out to him. However... this doesn't stop him. He tries, really, he genuinely tells himself that he needs to stop. But his instincts just kind of take over. It's an impulse, to stop you from doing even the most slightly dangerous things.

Once you join the Straw Hat Crew, he just kinda... clings. It's a silent presence, but he's always there, constantly seems to show up wherever you are. Unfortunately, you can't really... get away from him per se. You're kinda limited to one ship, at least as long as you're out on the sea. Your only option for respite is going to your room or bathing, otherwise, he's gonna follow you, even if he's not saying anything and (very badly) trying to feign indifference, pretending you just happen to be going the same way all the time. He doesn't really know what to say, he's not good with these things, and often he's acting without really thinking too much about it. He won't usually strike up a conversation, he just... is there. Watches. May awkwardly ask a question or make a passing comment.

One scenario I imagine is you jokingly picking up one of his swords and wielding it around giggling and he just flips out, takes it from you and yells at you not to do that, are you an idiot? Do you want to trip and fall and have that impale you? Do you realize how easy it would be for you to slice your arm open by accident? It's startling to both you and anyone watching -- even for someone who gets yell-y as easily as him, it seems like an overreaction. He'll apologize but insist it's a safety thing, really.

And he really tries to hide his more... aggressive nature, because he thinks it will drive you away -- he's a blunt, tough guy with a short-fused temper, and he thinks that's definitely not something women like very much. He tries not to yell at you, not get mad so easy, keep his calm better around you, and might even be nicer to others so that you don't think he's mean. And for the most part, he can manage that. Except when it comes to a very specific, very problematic blonde crew member. His little conflicts with Sanji get worse, to even a point that he's snapping at him so frequently that even Sanji himself is a bit bewildered and caught off guard by it. The others notice they fight a lot more often... and Zoro always seems to instigate it, picking quarrels over the littlest things. In reality, he's afraid of the other's... sleazy nature. He can't have you falling for that bastard. He even starts to get jittery when you're in the presence of Franky, Usopp, hell even Luffy of all people. It's noticeable, and everyone kinda worries for him.

He kicks himself for it as soon as he does it, but he finds himself insulting you nonetheless. It's a terrible habit. He gets so awkward and flustered that it's second nature for him to say something snarky or even rude when you talk to him, and he immediately is just mentally screaming at himself for doing so. This will get a bit better with time, though, if you two talk more often.

Now, even if you can fight, you're never gonna really get the opportunity. In battle, he's clinging to you and protecting you at every moment, even if it costs the others some unnecessary wounds. It's highly uncharacteristic of him, and they notice. He won't leave your side, insisting that you're a weak fighter and that he has to take care of you. You just don't get it, you overestimate yourself, you underestimate your enemies, you're a girl. What, Nami and Robin? Well, they've been at this much longer than you, and they had rough upbringings. You're different. You're soft... fragile. You just can't see it. You're lucky he's here to protect your dumbass.

Due to your setup, well, he can't really kidnap you per se. He undoubtedly would if you two were somewhere else, in another life or another setting, but that's not really an option, and even as a yandere, he would never go so far as to kill or abandon his crew. So, he's stuck with just... slowly, slowly mentally deteriorating.

Now, he's not capable of kidnapping, he's not smart enough to really manipulate you into anything (although he WILL tell you that some of the other guys are out to use you), so, he's left to be the guard dog he inevitably becomes to you. If you avoid him, he'll just follow you. If you don't talk to him, that's ok. If you confront him, he'll just insist he has no idea what you're talking about, and you'll start to feel like maybe you're just paranoid. The others... don't really know what to do, to be honest. I can see Nami/Robin potentially confronting him, but in the end, they can't force him to change his behaviors, and they can't afford to lose him. This results in, gradually, everyone slowly kind of accepting your dynamic onboard. They feel bad for you, really, but... in the end, Zoro's just more valuable to the crew. Sorry. They're not gonna get rid of him, but they don't want to get rid of you either.

If you leave? It may just be one of the very very few things that could ever cause him to leave the Strawhats. It would tear him up, really, it goes against his dreams, his pride, his loyalty, but in the end... his loyalty is first and foremost to you. He'll follow you if you leave. It's a bad move on your part, because this gets rid of the only thing standing between you and kidnapping. Which, at that point, surely will happen. Like his other behaviors, he'll feel bad, he'll try and stop himself, tell himself it's wrong, but you'll end up bound in some dark basement nonetheless. He's one to take a very simple approach. Find you alone, sling you up and over his shoulder and carry you off before anyone can come.

Rejection doesn't faze him. No matter what, he'll remain by your side. Even if you never love him in return. It's just his nature, he's a guardian through and through.

In the end, he'll be right there by your side, scaring off any competitors, clinging to you like glue, ever in your presence like a shadow, forever. Whether you want him to or not. He's just an inescapable force, an unmovable object, and you're wasting your time trying to change your fate.

Now, he's very flustered with anything sexual. Highly embarrassed, lots of shame, and doesn't talk much about it. It just kind of happens. He doesn't talk much during, mostly grunts and the occasional fuck when you clamp down, occasionally asking you if you're ok, if it hurts, if it feels good. It's one of the only very soft sides of him. In the end, he really, truly loves you, and doesn't want to hurt you, he wants you to feel good and just love him. It's a very different side to him, one no one else has ever really seen, it's the most vulnerable he himself has ever been with another person.

He feels shame for it, but initially he'll definitely be one to steal your things, sit outside of your room at night, listening to you through the wall, try and get glimpses of you bathing or dressing. He really, really feels guilty, and he's one that will, once you're comfortably restrained and never going anywhere, just sit down and list out every nasty little thing he's ever done regarding you, just to get it off his chest. He understands if you react badly, and he'll apologize, which is a bit ironic considering how much worse kidnapping you is.

He'll apologize for that, too. He's actually one to do so a lot. He's normally a proud guy, but with this? He knows it's wrong, he knows it's fucked up. He knows he can't stop. And he'll be sorry to the moon and back. Just never sorry enough to stop.

He's actually a pretty vanilla guy. Hand-holding missionary type. And, despite being so embarrassed over it all, oddly romantic about it. It's one of the only things he's ever soft and gentle about, it's almost unbelievable to you that he's capable of being so gentle and slow with anything. But he'll kiss your forehead, really take his time with it all, make you cum on his fingers before ever actually fucking you. Hold your hand, look into your eyes. It would be honestly incredibly sweet if it weren't... you know, taking place in some dark sealed off room after dragging you there against your will.

If he's particularly mad, he can get rougher, but he'll apologize after. It's a lot of harsh grabbing, biting, it leaves bruises that he'll rub over softly, whispering an apology, even if a little part of him likes the way it looks on you.

[costellos]

❥ ┋ ❝ nanami & how he responds to flirting!

anonymous said: tease + nanami 💕

a/n: hhhh okay so this was supposed to be something quick and easy to write and... lordt. I played myself. again. enjoy flirting with Nanamin and his flirting with you back (because I have no self control!!!). also, for context, you and Nanami are not dating yet in this scenario.

tw: none.

ask game: 💌 15 valentine’s day questions (closed!)

disclaimer: I’m anime-only outside of the prequel, so apologies if my character interpretations aren’t accurate.

level 1 flirting: compliments.

he would’ve expected the bad pick up lines praise to come from Gojo, not you. but it’s not to say he’s not flattered. he is, or at least he will be, depending on your tone.

so for the sake of this imagine, let’s say you’re being serious. you compliment his tie. it’s a new one, bought from the men’s formal wear store in Ginza. you’d seen him eying it the last time you partnered together on a mission there. it’s a knit tie, navy blue and polished, paired with a grey button-down shirt. “it pulls your whole outfit together,” you say. “I like it.”

Nanami narrows his eyes. it’s an innocent enough observation. he knows not to get ahead of himself — surely you just meant it as a passing comment — though his heart does feel a little lighter. so he sighs, and while he doesn’t notice it, he subconsciously touches the accessory around his neck. you like it. he wasn’t trying to impress you but... he’ll take it. ↳ “thank you. frankly, it cost more than I was expecting, but the quality is nice.”

level 2 flirting: compliments & physical touch & acts of service.

it’s later in the day and his blazer finds itself tossed on a desk chair. his sleeves are rolled up — partly from the heat, partly because he’s so frustrated at how impossible this mission is. all of his leads are dead ends. nothing seems to be connecting.

you pop into the classroom Principal Yaga was so kind to lend him. “you look like you needed some,” you say, placing a cup of coffee in front of him. “also- totally unrelated, but you should pair your new tie with the rolled sleeves from now on. it suits you.”

then you touch the sleeve. it’s to make your point. it has to be. he’s not sure why else you would do it.

again, it’s an innocent observation. you’re just pointing out a way to improve himself. he doesn’t personally agree with it, but he appreciates your comment. and that’s all it is: a comment.

so then why does his breathing hitch when your fingertips brush against his arm? why does he have to cough to compose himself and figure out his train of throat? ↳ “...I’ll make note of it.”

level 3 flirting: explicit interest.

he brings you on this mission with him. although he finally has a decent lead, it’s becoming apparent how much more dangerous the task is turning out to be.

it has you both following a car salesman around Roppongi. the lead might be more than just some old man with a bad haircut and a worse attitude. hence, you’re watching as he walks through Tokyo’s nightlife, attention unfocused and head low. it comes to a point when he sneaks into an alley and knocks on a faded, red door. palm against the door, then with his fist twice, then palm again, and finally with his knuckles.

or at least that’s what you’re arguing.

Nanami completely disagrees. it’s palm, fist, palm, palm, knuckles, obviously.

you won’t give in. palm, fist, fist, palm, knuckles.

hm. alright. he can feel his patience thinning with every hushed protest you make against him. maybe it would’ve been better to go on this mission alone.

you’re about to make your point by going up to the door directly. although Nanami urges you to come back to him, you’re stubborn. too damn stubborn. he approaches you as you hold your palm out to the door, ready to give it a good slap and make your point. but then—

the door opens.

of course it opens.

and before either of you can think, you grab Nanami by his brand new, blue, knit tie and bring your lips to his.

admittedly, this isn’t how he wanted his first kiss with you to go. he imagined it’d be at your doorstep, romantic and typical, with your face in his hand. the temperature would be brisk enough where you’d want to come closer to him. maybe the bakery by your apartment would be wrapping up for the night, the smell of the day’s bread wafting as the owners lock the front doors.

instead, it’s hot, humid, and this alley reeks of piss.

you pull him against your figure, your back resting on the wall behind you. a quiet whimper escapes your lips, and he’s not sure if it’s because he’s kissing you so deeply — the way he’d thought of so many times before — or if you’re doing it to play the part. his hand is resting on the wall behind you, boxing in your figure from the stares of the passerbys.

Nanami is following your lead. his frame presses against you, and he can feel the softness of your body against his. it’s as soft as your lips. even with layers of clothes separating you from him, he can tell.

and jesus, is this what he’s been missing out on all this time? your lips against his, fingers tangled in his hair, another moan on your tongue? it’s intoxicating. he presses further into you.

this is... horribly unprofessional. but it helps that it’s to sell a scene.

speaking of which, it’s enough to fool the people exiting from the red door. they shake their heads, mumbling some choice words before walking away. being in Roppongi, Tokyo’s club hot spot, makes you two look like a couple of lovebirds escaping the bright lights for some much needed privacy. better that than a pair of idiots who almost had their covers blown.

they’re almost at the end of the alley when you pull away from Nanami. he’s already mentally clicking his tongue. done so soon? for as... unideal as the situation is, he wishes it had lasted just a second longer. for a brief moment, you were there. you were his.

he’s not going to let the moment slip past. oh no, it isn’t something you’re both going to conveniently forget.

so he doesn’t. he’s still boxing you in, his figure looming of yours. you’re so close. so damn close. and he tells you, in a voice that’s just above a whisper, gravelly and low: ↳ “we’re not done with this.”

like this piece? here are some similar works! 🌑 🌒 🌓

[malereader-inserts]

Finding You

Fandom: Haikyuu Pairing: Tobio Kageyama x Male!Reader Summary: You’ll always find each other, almost as if you’re destined to play together or against each other. Word Count: 1,015 Request: @crunchyhanie​ “I'd love it if you could write something about Kageyama x boyfriend!reader. If possible from the time when Kags got the King of the Court title until his first year in Karasuno. We all know how devastated Kags was when he tosses but no one is there to spike it – aaaaand this is where the reader came in and they became boyfriends I guess ?? hhhh I don't really have a specific plot for this, I just want some Kageyama fluffs for myself T_T” A/n: Sorry it’s not as fluffy

Kageyama remembers when he first met you, you had watched his match of devastation. You had met him in the hallway, there was a charming smile and you were in the same year as him. You were the ace of your junior school and the captain of it. Whilst Kageyama was scowling, almost unapproachable, you stopped to look at him.

“I’ll find you, Kageyama-kun!” You exclaimed when he looks at you, he knows your school, but he never got the chance to play you, “I’ll always be there to hit your sets!”

“(L/n)-senpai,” one of your kouhai’s tugged your volleyball jacket, “Coach wants us.”

You turned back to Kageyama and gave him the brightest smile he has ever seen. You had a lot of talks, just like Kageyama. Your school was Chidoriyama Junior High, it was already a powerhouse school with players moving on with their volleyball careers. You were the talk of the potentials of young aces, you weren’t really concerned in that title. 

But, when Kageyama saw that look in your face, he felt different. His sister says it was love at first sight, but he doesn’t believe it. He spent the rest of his junior year passing by, excited to cross paths. When he arrived on his first day at high school, he was busy getting annoyed with Hinata.

“Kageyama-kun!” The two of them stop to turn to look at the new person at the door, Kageyama’s heart swore it sore up high, “I found you!”

He was like you remembered, loud and ecstatic, especially when Nishinoya returned to the club.

“Noya-senpai!” The libero looked over and beamed.

“It’s my kouhai ace!” Noya jumped to give you a hug, seeming that everyone understood you went to the same junior school, “You’ve grown since I have last seen you!”

“And you haven’t.”

“Why you little-” Noya giving you a jab to the side whilst Tanaka and Sugawara were laughing, liking their addition to the team. 

As months passed, the team getting stronger, you and Kageyama fell in love. Whilst Kageyama and Hinata had amazing plays, when you were on the court, the way you two had synced up was unbelievable - a dangerous duo. You were efficient in creating, on the line, line shot and supercross shots. You had a high jumping reach and always there for Kageyama’s quick.

“You can always count on me, Kags.”

“I know.”

You were often switched out for Tanaka or Daichi, you were obviously Nishinoya’s pupil, so you were always a reliable receiver. Hinata was jealous at times, that you could always look at Kageyama and he understood what you mean. It was the main reason why you and Kageyama could be terrifying on the court with the fact nothing needs to be said and actions will be louder. 

Hinata saw you as a rival, with the fact that you were clearly high up on the list of the next ace after Tanaka. Yeah, you had a lot to learn, but you were ready. By your third year, you made it clear that you intend to sit on the first rank of aces where Sakusa sits at the moment. You and Kageyama got closed, the boys cheered when you two turned up to practice holding hands, Kageyama blushing and you smiling brightly. 

One day when you arrived at school, Kageyama was waiting with you at the front, you were a little out of breath because you got of bed late.

“Hey, I found you.”

“I’m not hard to spot,” Kageyama replied, as you shrugged your shoulders, taking the food out of his hand, taking a bite, “Hey! That’s mine.”

“It’s mine now, Kag-kun.”

The two of you walk together, knowing that later you have practice, you waved him goodbye to him as you meet your classmates as he meets up Hinata. Kageyama smiles to himself, thinking about you. He doesn’t know how it happens really, you were always by his side, from the Tokyo training camp to each match. 

You were there to defend him from Oikawa, even managed to shut him up when you had to serve whilst subbing in for Tanaka. Your jump serves could rival Kageyama’s. You walked home together, you messaged each other often. Sometimes, on weekends, you two would meet to play receives. 

Miwa teases him all time about you and him, that she was right about it being love at first sight. Miwa also loves you to bits, you were different from Tobio’s personality, but, sometimes Miwa can see her little brother revert back to his childlike self she has dearly missed after their grandfather had passed away.

“What about me?”

“Uh, sorry, Hinata, only Kageyama and (L/n) was invited to All-Japan.”

You two high-fived behind Hinata, always rare to see Kayegama do anything affectionate to team-mates, but you seem to bring it out of him naturally. Whilst you and he walked home together, you talked about the future.

“We’re not even third years, (Y/n)-san,” Kageyama said munching on a pork bun.

You shrugged your shoulders, “So? Look at us, we’re heading to the top, how can I not imagine our future? We’ll go to the Olympics! We’ll be in the professional teams.”

“We’ll be in different teams, most likely.”

You looked at your boyfriend, tilting your head, making you both stop your walking, “And? I’d love to play against you again.  We never did it last year, and I intend on blocking all your sets till your frustrated.”

“You’re annoying...” But, Kageyama laughs, he smiles so vibrantly, “Okay, we’ll play against each other, one day, I’ll find you.”

“Just like I found you?”

Kageyama smiles further, “I’ll crush you.”

“Sure, you will, Kag-Kun! Even if our teams are across the world, we’ll find each other, right?”

“I don’t intend on losing you.”

You chuckled, you grabbed his hand to continue walking, you lead the way home, your next words started something in Kageyama’s mind as if he locked it away for future references. You gave him a promise, straight from your heart.

“You won’t lose me.”

[bowiebond]

I’m spouting Sam ship dynamics now cause Bowie (Me, Myself and I) has poor impulse control:

SamSteve

Two streets, 1) the forever will they, won’t they? Or 2) the married couple who spend all their time together, no seriously guys, it’s becoming an issue, Steve you weren’t even invited to this party why are you dropping off brownies—?

SamBucky

The two guys who’s share a mutual friend who kind of hate each other, but then one day one them laughs at the others joke and they reluctantly have to become friends; only to later realise they are actually super compatible and able to call each other out of their bullshit without falling apart so they get married and raise pets together.

SamNat

The classic “this woman could kill me with her pinkie and I’m very into that” on Sam’s side mixed with a bit of “I see you’re struggling and reserved so I’m going to slide in there with my sunshiney-ness and make you smile everyday”, but Nat’s the side of the pairing that is just endeared constantly by him because how is he so kind and sweet and I know you can handle yourself but I will do everything in my power to make sure no harm comes to you, but I also trust you to save my ass when I do stupid shit.

SamRhodey

Begins with “I’m your biggest fan, you’re my biggest inspiration” but eventually turns to “I see that you are so much more than a hero, and I can relate to the man underneath the suit I respected so dearly, and I just want to give you to world and show you it will always be worth fighting for, and I want to do that together with you forever.”

SamTony

This dynamic is all about the long intellectual talks, the silly debates, the prying into each other’s soft spots in order to spring a leak in the bottle that’s been capped so tight for too long. It’s the long nights filled with nightmares and the morning apologises with coffee and tea. It’s the guy who runs early and the guy who scoffs at waking up that early when really they’re up at that time most days simply because they haven’t slept. It’s dysfunctionally functional meeting functionally dysfunctional pair and it seems like it shouldn’t work but with enough effort on both side it does.

SamThor

It’s the pair that people pass off as the two balls of sunshine, but are actually terribly and horribly sad inside most days. They cope with humour and burying emotions, until they can’t anymore. They’re the couple who talk for hours after one of them finally bursts. The ones that cuddles at night because the idea of being without Sam terrifies Thor after losing so much, and the idea of not having Thor within reach when he knows he’ll be gone for months again leaves Sam aching with loneliness that is yet to come. But they’re also the couple who go on dates every week, holding hands and pointing out things they didn’t notice last time at their favourite ice cream store or the fossil exhibit. They’re the couple that marvel at each other’s brilliance; Thor’s knowledge of space and Sam’s knowledge of people. They bond over war, over tragedy, but they also bond over family and home and silly humans, so petty. They’re a couple that come off one dimension and end up being layered beyond belief.

SamChalla

They’re the couple that seems super cool and suave but they’re both giant dorks and huge romantics at heart. They try to go on dates — beautiful waterfall viewings and picnics with exotic fruits and walking in the moonlight — but it always ends up in disaster — T’Challa falls into the water, Sam finds out he’s allergic to a fruit he can’t begin to describe the texture of, and they both end up getting caught making out in the garden under moonlight by Shuri and Bucky, which is embarrassing as all hell. TChalla shows off his kingdom and his people with pride and Sam shows off his hometown and his friends and even though it’s so wildly different in retrospect, it’s home and they love both places equal in time.

I Will Probably Make a Part Two cause I have a headache hhhh

[thotsforvillainrights]

I saw your recent matchups and I've been mustering up courage to ask for one too! :'v IF YOU'RE NOT MAKING THEM ANYMORE PLS IGNORE HHHH

I'm a 5'1 brown girl with short curly hair with a huge love for retro and traditional clothes mostly tophats and big skirts [cue sparkly eyes]) I'm on the chubby side but alas I have the strength of a wet noodle

I'm a amateur artist who daydreams a little too much. I adore lighthearted comedy and fantasy worlds

I think of myself as rather expressive (maybe with s bit of a temper), though I don't think I dont emote a lot because I also have a tendency of zoning out :'D but when my head is actually on my shoulders I wear my heart in my sleeve

I have a tendency to forget :(

A bunch of things I talk about will have side comments in parentheses (because everything comes with a extra chunk of thought)

I'm pretty shy so I don't have great conversation starters but I am very prone to rambling and I very might nerd out about things I like. And also I laugh a little too easy (the worst dad jokes make me giggle and it's pretty nice honestly)

I love video games, especially rhythm games and the ones where you can co-op (except shooters, I'm a disaster in battle)

and honestly I'm not the best writer so I'm ending this with a fun fact: Brazil nuts are 1000 times more radioactive than other foods but unless you're eating like 40 per day you're not likely to get poisoned

(Anon I mean this in the nicest way possible but I suspect something unhinged in the mist because how in the hell did you just have the brazil nut fact floating around in your mind like that???😂)

Match-Up #13

-I match you with Shuichi Iguchi-

headcanon|scenario|imagine|match-up

-You met him through a mutual friend: Toga! The two of you attended the same school together before the incident happened with her. Although you were in a much higher grade than her, you felt like she was a little sister to you. You hadn’t seen her in so long and the two of you were very close so it was rather saddening everything happened. You were worried down the line for a long time until you caught glimpse of her in the shadows of an alleyway one night. “Himiko?!” She wanted to run away but she knew she could trust you when she saw who it was. By now you must’ve known she was a villain right? You didn’t care (and I’m assuming you weren’t a snitch by any means). You were overjoyed to see your old best/friend again. A few people passed rather quickly when they glanced and saw two girls hugging and crying together in an alleyway. Lucky they didn’t notice Himiko Toga was right there. She had no time to do anything other than give you her cell phone number and vice versa. She quickly disappeared into the darkness of the night.

-The two of you connected like you’d seen each other everyday since then. She finally felt she could introduce you to the league members (against Shigaraki’s will). Some of them trusted you right away while some of the others were cautious of the complete stranger in the base. There was one that was completely head over heels for you. It was Spinner. The moment he locked eyes with you and you flashed him that sweet smile, he felt the room...haha...spinning! Whenever Toga would bring you over for girls night with Magne, and for some reason Twice, Spinner would hover around your group until they kicked him out of the room. You didn’t mind his company since he was usually quiet and nice around you. In fact, he was much nicer than Tomura, Dabi, and Muscular could be. Maybe a month later of knowing you and he finally gathered the courage to start talking to you, but he never managed to hold eye contact for long without blushing. He was often awkward when it was just the two of you talking. He fumbled with his words and scratched the back of his head a lot. You suspected he had a crush on you but you weren’t sure how to get him to admit it. Magne gave you her advice about playing the jealousy card to try and get it out of him. Your chosen victim would be compress! It wasn’t too hard to connect with Compress since you admired his Tophat and outfit honestly. It succeeded in making Spinner jealous but it didn’t succeed in making him admit his crush to you. However, now you had Compress thinking about fawning over you lol.

-Eventually Toga decided to take on the role as Cupid/the messenger and she spilled Spinner’s secret in front of his face to you. You had to pretend to be shocked. Spinner was frustrated and embarrassed to say the least. He stormed off into his room and this was your cue to go get him. He finally let you in on his secret and confirmed it was true. He was extremely worried about what you think of him but how lucky for him that you returned his feelings. Just like that, you two were an item (aw poor compress. Better luck next time haha). 

-Spinner was very protective of you. He knew that sometimes when you were brave enough to let that temper show that some of the guys there took it as a challenge. He also knows you couldn’t hold your own in a fight against any of them. He would jump to your defense in a heartbeat. You’re prone to teasing since your height is on the table and so is the face you make when you sone out too far from the conversation, but you don’t have to ever worry about it crossing the line into down right hatefulness since Dabi and the others communicate solely through sassy remarks with each other. Even so, Spinner still gets pissy when you get teased. 

-Spinner likes everything about you to be honest. He keeps getting called whipped and simp by the others but he doesn’t care. You could rip him to pieces and he’d still be in heaven just to be in your general vicinity. Lucky for him that you’d never do that! He admires your appearance and spends too much time trying to squish you under his affections. It might also be because he gets cold easily and you’re so warm when you’re with him. He loves the way you get when you lightly practice your art. He’d love to see you push it a little further someday but he knows art takes time and you sometimes get sidetracked when creating. Spinner simply adores when you geek out on him. He does the same thing with you! He especially does this when they drop a release date for a new game he wants to play. He goes over the lore and character back story with you. He explains the game mechanics and will even show you a line of the voice actors listed for it. If the soundtrack drops then expect to hear him gushing about that too! Speaking about games, he loves playing with you. I’m sure Tomura gets a little annoyed since Spinner is the only other person in the League that goes with him, but the man makes exceptions. This is especially true when it’s time to play a shooting game. You totally understand why you wouldn’t be invited to join the boys for that one haha. No need to worry if you ever feel left out. He’s going to always be back after the session to spend all the time in the world with his favorite person.