#hoping to post updates for this MWF

[aparticularbandit]

Just A Jump To The Left (I)

Summary: When Haruhi grabs the collar of her shirt and tugs her backward, Junko expects it. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t still hurt when the back of her head bangs against the edge of Haruhi’s desk, doesn’t mean she doesn’t still wince with the pain of it. She glances up, blinking, and meets Haruhi’s golden honey eyes with a grin. “We’re gonna start a club,” she whispers, mouth moving a fragment of a second before Haruhi’s, so it sounds almost like an echo but not quite.

“We’re gonna start a—” For a moment, Haruhi’s enthusiasm, her excitement, falters. Her brow furrows again. “What did you say?”

OR: Kyon's role is sabotaged by none other than one (1) Junko Enoshima. This...probably won't end well.

Brought to you by a discussion @tobiasdrake and I had about what it would look like if Junko and Haruhi ever met.

Chapter Rating: T. Fic Rating: T.

AO3

next chapter

Ryoko hasn’t done anything with her hair yet.

Chunks of it still hold its natural blood red sheen, but streaks of it from her scalp all the way through to their tips have transformed to a pearlescent white.  She can’t say exactly when it happened; somewhere between the moment she fled her sister’s massacre of assassins (at her sister’s insistence) and the moment she found Yasuke in the little apartment where he’d been holed up since transferring to his new middle school (to intern at the nearby hospital, despite his age) – somewhere in that space of time, it had happened.  Yasuke didn’t comment on it the first moment he saw her, but he did shortly after, and she’d run her fingers through it, all grease-spattered and dirty, and wondered how he’d seen the white underneath all of its grime in the first place.

Eventually, she’ll have to decide what to do with it; whether she’ll return it to its blood red or bleach it all white or play around with something that is neither at all, she’ll need to do something.

(Not the red.  If not for the white streaks, it would look just like the blood she’d seen around the—)

((When she remembers all of that, she heaves, vomits.  She told Yasuke once – just once – and they’ve never discussed it since. Even then, she didn’t give him any specifics, just enough for him to understand why she is here.  Why she can’t go back.))

She hasn’t started attending middle school yet, not while she’s still recovering from everything, not when she doesn’t even have hair with one consistent color yet; she’d be bullied ceaselessly for that, and she’s in no condition to be bullied (she’ll snap, she’ll hurt someone the way that Mukie—), and Yasuke is so busy during the day with middle school and his hospital internship that the only time they can spend together is after dark.  He bikes to school, bikes to the hospital, because that means he loses less time to sleep (because that means he loses less time with her), but every now and again, as she slowly but surely gets better, she walks to the hospital to see him – to walk back with him, if she doesn’t sit on the back of the bike as he takes them back.  Sometimes they walk the streets, silent, and it’s clear that bothers him.  She’s always been the talkative one.  She just doesn’t have the words anymore.

Ryoko walks through the streets in a white gown, barefoot, with her hair streaked red and white, and people avoid her.

They probably think she’s a ghost.  That’s fine.

Yasuke bikes them back, and people avoid both of them.  That’s fine, too.

Ryoko holds onto both sides of the rack Yasuke’s tied to the back of his bike and leans her head back and looks at the stars.  They seem to stay in place as he bikes them back, and she reaches one hand up and out, as though she could almost—

The bike hits a pebble, something so infinitesimally small Yasuke couldn’t have known to avoid it, and the bike jumps, and Yasuke stays on, and Ryoko, with only one hand loose on the rack, tumbles off.  Her knee stings, as does the palm of the hand she’d pushed out to break her fall.  The skin of both has been scraped clean off.  She’s bleeding.  The same color as her hair.  The same color as—

To the left of her, something metallic jangles.

Ryoko breathes (had she not been breathing before?  maybe not) and looks up to see a girl of roughly her age with long brown hair and a ribbon holding it back trying to climb over some sort of metal entry gate.  She blinks twice – makes sure she isn’t seeing anything, and she isn’t because the girl is still there – and shouts out, “H-hey!”

The girl glares at her.  “Hey what.”

It’s not a question.  It should be a question, probably, but it’s not.

“What are you….”  Ryoko struggles with words.  She’s never struggled with words before.  “What are you doing?”

“What are you doing?” the girl calls back, still glaring at her, pert nose upturned.

Ryoko glances at the sidewalk around her, then slowly pushes herself up as Yasuke’s bike skids to a stop behind her.  “I fell,” she says.  She brushes the dirt and rocks from her skin, sees the blood bubbling and ebbing up through her broken skin, and her eyes begin to glaze over.

“Well, I’m going to break into the school!” the girl halfway over the gate says.  “And you’re going to help me!”

This has nothing to do with me.

The breeze lifts the edge of Ryoko’s white gown and sends it pushing back and forth against her ankles.  Yasuke’s saying something – barking it out at the girl whose name she still doesn’t know – and Ryoko’s just seeing the spot at her knee where the white gown is growing stained with her blood.

This has nothing to do with me.

Ryoko shivers as the breeze brushes cold against her bare arms, and she starts towards the gate, to the girl halfway over it.  Yasuke grabs her wrist, but she shakes his hand off.  “What are we doing?”

The other girl beams.

“You’ll see when we get to the other side!”

~

Ryoko doesn’t exactly collapse on the other side of the gate, but she hits her bloody knee when she lands and then can only hobble where the girl wants her to run.

The girl gives her a sour expression, lips a downturned V, and then glares up at Yasuke as he jumps over the gate with them.  “Fine,” the girl says, “you’ll do it then.”

“Do what?”

Which is how Ryoko ends up sitting on the bleachers with her arms resting on her knees, her hand wrapped in a fresh bandage, her right knee wrapped in another one, while the girl shouts out directions to a Yasuke who keeps glaring at her and then looking over at Ryoko, who is too tired to tell him to stop.

Tired.

That’s a funny word, honestly.

Tired.  Exhausted.  Weary.  Consumed.

If she’s honest, Ryoko hasn’t felt like herself since Mukie abandoned her, since Mukie told her to run.  She feels like something else – like someone else – like she’s in the middle of some great and terrible becoming.  Eventually, the girl sits down next to her, still barking directions at Yasuke occasionally, and without a second thought, Ryoko leans her head against the girl’s shoulder.

The girl flinches.  “What are you doing?”

“What are you doing?” Ryoko quips back, voice soft with excessive weariness, as she glances up with big red eyes to meet the girl’s golden brown ones.

The girl gestures with one hand to Yasuke and whatever he’s writing with the chalk along the ground.  “Can’t you tell?”

Ryoko sighs.  She doesn’t have the dataset for this.  She doesn’t want to look for this.  But the girl asks, and so she does.  “You’re writing a message,” she says, voice growing monotone, “to anyone who can see it and understand what it says.  You’re saying, I’m here.  To aliens, to time-travelers, to espers, to sliders, to Santa Claus himself, if he’s out and about on a holiday that isn’t his.”  She doesn’t blink.  “As if that sort of thing would draw any of them to you.”

“You can read that?”  The girl’s eyes narrow, and her face gets super close to Ryoko’s.  She smells a bit.  Sweat, mostly.  Probably hasn’t brushed her teeth.  “Are you an alien?”

“No,” Ryoko says calmly.  “I’m a ghost.”

The girl presses the flat of her hand against Ryoko’s bandaged knee and scowls when Ryoko winces.  “Ghosts don’t bleed.”  Then she crosses her arms and slumps back down, glaring out at Yasuke.  She shouts another direction at him – Ryoko doesn’t care, so no matter how loud the girl gets, she doesn’t pay her any attention – and then gives Ryoko another suspicious look.  “How do you know that won’t work?”

Ryoko rolls her eyes.

(This isn’t like her.  She cares, usually.  She listens.  Even when Mukie used to go off on all of her soldier mercenary military assassin research and interests.  Even when Mukie spent hours correcting her posture because she was holding her stick sword wrong.  But this….

This has nothing to do with her.  Even if she’s sitting right here.  Even if she decided to break into the school with this stranger.  It still has nothing to do with her.

So why is she here?)

“If all those creatures are here and in hiding, a message like that isn’t going to get them out.”

“But it’s in their own language and everything!”

“Are you sure?” Ryoko asks, glancing out over the incomplete message, its chalk inscription trying to gleam in the moonlight and failing.  “Or did you just decide it was their language without any real proof?”  She leans against the other girl again.  It’s overly familiar, sure, but it’s comfortable.  And she’s so tired.  “If I were an alien, I wouldn’t tell you anyway.”

The girl frowns.  “Even if I guessed?”

“Even if you guessed.”

The girl barks out another instruction at Yasuke, but it’s not as enthusiastic as it was before.  Half-hearted.  “You really don’t think this will work?”

Ryoko shrugs.  “It might.  There are probably stupid aliens just like there are stupid people.”  (She is not like this.  She doesn’t call people stupid!)  She leans a little more heavily against her.  She’s warm, which really just means that Ryoko is cold.  “But do you really want a stupid alien?  Or do you want a smart one?”

“Any alien!” the girl proclaims, loud, enthusiastic, all that energy coming back all at once.  It’s endless, maybe, her enthusiasm for this.

It makes Ryoko feel even more tired.

(She was like this once.)

“People are all just boring and normal,” the girl continues without hesitation, "and aliens, time travelers, espers, sliders – all of them are infinitely better than people!”  She flashes Ryoko a grin.  “That means you, too, Ghost Girl.”

Ryoko blinks twice and then looks away.  (She’s too bright, this girl.  She’ll blind her with that warmth.)  “At least you’re looking for them,” she murmurs.  “You can’t find one if you aren’t looking.”  She runs her forefinger along the inseam of her thumb.  “Maybe I should write a message for them.”

The girl shoves her.  “Don’t steal my idea!”

“I won’t.”  Ryoko chuckles – small, broken – as she holds up her bandaged hand, used again to catch herself, twinging with pain.  “I’d have to break into another school first, and that….”  She sighs and stares out over the now quite marked up field in front of them.  “I’m too tired.  But you’ll let me know if yours succeeds, right?  Make all the papers?”

The girl just grins at her.

~

It’s as they’re leaving the school, as Ryoko carefully situates herself on the back of Yasuke’s bike, that the other girl pauses in her brisk walk in the opposite direction.  Then she turns, hands propped on her hips, and yells, “What’s your name?”

Yasuke doesn’t even turn back, answering before Ryoko has a chance to do so, “What do you need that for?”

“So I can tell you if they contact me!  Obviously.”

Ryoko hops off the back of Yasuke’s bike.  The action causes her knee to twinge again, but she doesn’t wince as she hobbles over to the other girl.  “Mitsuki,” she says, voice gentle.  Standing next to her, she realizes that she’s nearly the same height as the other girl.  How odd.  Someone so bright seemed like she would be huge.  Huh.  Still, she meets the girl’s honey brown eyes as she repeats, “Matsuda Mitsuki.”

The girl looks her over, and then instead of offering her own name, she asks, “What middle school are you at?”

This time, Ryoko doesn’t have a lie ready.  Even if she did, something tells her it would be far better to keep that information to herself.  There are people she doesn’t want to find her right now, after all, and while it isn’t likely this girl has contacts with any of them, it isn’t an impossibility.  So instead, she takes one of the girl’s hands in her bandaged one and holds it up until they’re flat against each other.  “Have you heard of the red string of fate?”

“Ew,” the girl says, lips pursing, but she doesn’t take her hand away.  “Why’re you bringing that up?”

“Well, think of it like this.  If I don’t tell you and we see each other again, then it’s fate, right?”  This time, when she meets the girl’s eyes, Ryoko almost feels taller than her, but not by much.  She’s growing, finally.  Maybe she’ll be as tall as Mukie the next time she sees her.  If she ever sees her again.  “Like the cosmos says we’re supposed to be friends, or something like that.  And if not—”  She winks.  “Well, we’ll find those time travelers, and we’ll fix it, won’t we?”

The girl holds her hand still, flat against Ryoko’s.  “If I find a time traveler, I’m not going to waste my time finding you.”

“Fate, then.”  Ryoko tucks her thumb around the other girl’s hand.  “Like a good story with a clandestine meeting.”

“Hm.”

But despite the noncommittal sound, the girl tucks her thumb around Ryoko’s hand just the same.

There are no red strings when they leave.

That’s probably for the best. Ryoko hates red, anyway.

[purrincess-chat]

Fashion Faux Paw CH1

It’s time! I wrote this story for @mlbigbang this year against all odds. I haven’t written anything for MariChat in a long time, so I wanted to do something light-hearted and fun. It’s set in s3 between the episodes Reflekdoll and Ladybug and is just a cute little story with the two of them (and Alya) that’s silly and fun, so I hope you guys enjoy it! 

I worked with my ride or die @avrilmaria who has put up with far too much of my shit over the years, so thank you for betaing bby! I also worked with two artists Boots and Megan/Shellie whose pieces I will be sharing when those chapters come out. Thank you both for your incredible work! 

I plan to update this fic every MWF until it’s finished. Chapter 2 will be posted later this evening, and the final chapter (chapter 6) will post Monday, January 23. Please show support not only for me, but for everyone who participated in the event as well. There are a lot of great stories and art in the collection to enjoy, so please show your love for the other participants and the mods for keeping everything organized! Now, I’m going to shut up and let you all enjoy!

Summary:  When Marinette’s fashion blog has a slow start, she finds publicity in an unexpected place, but will her friendly feline’s ego get in the way of her success?

Read on AO3

Chapter 1

“Alya, I need your advice.” Marinette hugged her arms to her chest.

The locker room bustled with students transitioning between classes, the casual chatter a hum of noise just loud enough to keep their conversation between the two of them. Her bff quirked a brow as she exchanged textbooks in her locker, red curls pulled into a high ponytail skimming her shoulders as she turned to Marinette.

“What’s up?” she asked.

Marinette shifted her weight, chewing her cheek. “Well, you helped me set up my fashion blog a few weeks ago, and all of our friends leave nice comments on my posts, but I’m still not getting any new followers. You’re a blog expert. How do I get more people to notice me?”

Alya shut her locker with a smile, and they headed up the aisle toward the door to the courtyard.

“Building a following takes time. Keep posting, and I’m sure more people will trickle in. Your designs are really good, M,” Alya said.

Marinette threw her head back with a moan. “But your blog got like a billion followers overnight.”

“The Ladyblog took off overnight because everyone wants to hear about superheroes. It’s a hot topic, but not all of my blogs are that popular.” Alya put a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “Look, you’re not very well known yet, so making a name for yourself is going to take time. Just be patient and keep working, you’ll get there.”

“I guess.” Marinette sighed.

Alya pursed her lips, flicking her gaze around the courtyard. A sly smile curled on her lips, a look Marinette knew all too well — her scheming face.

“I know an easy way to get more followers and spice up your love life.” Alya turned her around, pointing to where Adrien and Nino were standing across the courtyard. “It would totally help your follower count to have a handsome and already famous friend model your designs.”

Marinette’s cheeks burned, and she spun back around with a squeak. “No, no, no! I can’t ask Adrien! You know I can barely get two sentences out around him. Besides, he already models for his dad, so it’s probably illegal or something.”

Alya cocked a hip and gave her a stern look. “Come on, Marinette. Just think about it. You can help him with his outfit at the shoot and spend a lot of time with him. Plus, you’ll have brand new pictures to put on your wall.”

New pictures of Adrien were enticing, especially because she’d have the only copies. Plus, it wouldn’t be weird because it was for her fashion blog. Ugh, no! What was she thinking? She couldn’t ask Adrien! Knowing her, she’d probably lean in to fix the stitching on his jacket and stab him with her sewing needle, then he’d think she’s unprofessional and a terrible designer. News would spread about her incompetence, and her career would be over before it began!

“You’re spiraling, aren’t you?” Alya sighed. “Okay, fine. He doesn’t have to model for you, but he could at least give you a shout out. You two are friends, ya know, and friends support friends.”

“Yeah, but I can’t ask him to do that.” Marinette hid her face in her hands.

“I can.” Alya grinned, grabbing Marinette’s wrist and tugging her over to the boys. She stretched to kiss Nino’s cheek, wrapping an arm around his waist and turning to Adrien. “Have you two checked out Marinette’s blog yet? She posted some really dope designs last night.”

Marinette’s cheeks burned when Adrien turned to her with a smile, and she offered a tiny wave.

“I didn’t know you started a blog, Marinette,” he said.

“Oh, uh, yeah. It’s got fashion and designs that I came up with and posted myself. It’s no big deal.” She winced. At least it was a full sentence.

“That’s awesome. I’ll check it out tonight,” Adrien said.

“Ya know, it would be really awesome if you gave Marinette a shoutout on your Instagram. It would help bring traffic to her blog and be a big help to a friend.” Alya shot Marinette a knowing look that made her cheeks burn hotter.

“I could probably-”

“Adrikins!” Chloe materialized at his side and latched onto his neck, planting kisses on his cheeks. She leaned her head back, looking down her nose at Marinette. “Do my ears deceive me? Don’t tell me you’re trying to get Adrien’s endorsement on your pathetic little blog. There’s a reason no one’s sharing it. Your designs belong in the trash just like you.”

“Chloe!” Adrien chided, gently pushing her off. “Marinette is my friend. I’m more than happy to-”

Chloe pressed a finger to his lips. “Don’t be modest, Adrikins. You don’t owe these losers any charity.” She turned back to Marinette and cocked a hip. “Don’t waste Adrien’s time with your cheap scraps. He has much better taste.”

“Oh, really? Is that why you stole Marinette’s designs to try and impress Gabriel Agreste?” Alya shot back.

“Technically, Sabrina stole them, and I just wanted to get Dupain-Cheng kicked out of the competition for cheating.” Chloe flipped her ponytail over one shoulder.

“Chloe, that’s enough.” Adrien sighed. “Look, I’d love to help out in any way that I can, but-”

“It’s fine,” Marinette said. “Thanks anyway, Adrien.”

Alya’s eyebrows knitted together when Marinette smiled and dragged her off. When they were safely in the locker room, her best friend gestured toward the courtyard in bewilderment.

“What was that? Adrien was willing to help. Don’t let Chloe running her mouth talk you out of it,” Alya said.

Marinette fell onto a bench with a sigh. “Something in me just doesn’t feel right using Adrien like that. If I use him to boost my popularity, then I’m no better than Chloe.”

Alya sobered, shifting her weight. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it that way.”

“Like you said, it’ll take time to build up an audience. I’ll just keep working,” Marinette said.

“Aww, girl.” Alya sat beside her, pulling her in for a hug. “I’ll do whatever I can to help. I’ll promote you on the Ladyblog, help you do research, and I’ll even help you craft posts that are sure to get attention.”

Marinette squeezed her shoulders. “Thanks, Alya. You’re the best.”            

***

Adrien stared up at his ceiling that evening, twisting back and forth in his computer chair. Marinette’s pink blog glowed on the screen, a picture of a stylish jacket with a cute message in the caption pulled up. Of course, he wanted to help, but his father was strict about that sort of stuff. The last thing he wanted was to invoke his father’s wrath upon Marinette and get her blog shut down. Her designs were really good, and they deserved to be seen by everyone.

“You’re looking more glum than usual. Did you eat some bad cheese at dinner?” Plagg floated down, cradling a wedge of Camembert.

“No.” Adrien rolled his eyes. “It’s Marinette. Did she seem sad earlier today when she left? I’m worried she’s disappointed I didn’t help with her blog.”

“Maybe she’d get more traffic if she put out a cheese-themed line,” Plagg said.

“Somehow I doubt that.” Adrien smirked, scratching between his kwami’s ears.

Plagg shoved his cheese down his gullet and crossed his arms over his chest. “If only us kwamis could be photographed. One shot of my handsome physique, and the followers would come pouring in.”

“Plagg, you’re a genius!” Adrien shot up.

“I am?”

“Adrien may not be able to help Marinette out, but there’s an even bigger celebrity who can.” He grinned.

Plagg slumped over with a sigh. “Why do I feel like I’m going to be involved in this plan?”

“Plagg! Transform me!”

***

Marinette adjusted her newest hat on the mannequin head, trying to salvage the last bit of natural daylight peeking over Notre Dame for a quick photoshoot, but none of her photos were coming out right. With a frustrated sigh, she deleted another failed attempt and shifted the mannequin again.

“Good evening, Marinette!”

She jumped, nearly knocking the hat over the edge of her balcony. Securing it back in place, she turned to meet two mischievous cat eyes perched on the chimney. Her spine stiffened, but there were no obvious signs of screaming or distress.

“Chat Noir? Is there an akuma nearby?” she asked.

“No.” He hopped down to her balcony railing, balancing perfectly on his hands and feet like a real cat.

“Oh.” Marinette relaxed. “So, what are you doing here then?”

“I was just stretching my legs when I saw you out here. I wanted to come over and compliment you on your new blog. I really like it,” he said.

Chat Noir followed her blog? She didn’t know whether to be flattered or mortified that he paid attention to her civilian side. What if she let something slip that gave away her identity? Argh! Why couldn’t he just ignore her?

“Wow! The hero of Paris follows my blog? I’m so honored!” Marinette cupped her hands to her face with a gasp. Ugh, he was never going to let her live this down if he ever found out who she was.

Chat Noir grinned, no doubt soaking up every bit of her excitement. Boys and their egos. He’d probably brag about all the ladies fawning over him on their next patrol in an attempt to make Ladybug jealous.

“You’re really talented, Marinette, but I think your blog might get more traffic if you have a live model,” he said.

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” she grumbled.

“What was that?”

“Uhh, I said I’d love to have a live model, but I don’t really know anyone who could.” She shifted her weight. “All of my friends are busy, and the one friend that’s really good at it is… unavailable.”

“Well, if you want, I could model for you. I’m sure having one of Paris’s superheroes wearing your stuff would attract a lot of attention,” Chat Noir said.

She cupped a hand over her mouth to catch her laugh. Undeterred, he picked up her hat and rested it on his head, striking a pose. His eyes hooded into a picture-perfect model pout to rival even Adrien.

Marinette’s eyebrows raised. “Wait, you’re for real?”

“Yeah, I’ve got time. Besides, we’re friends, so I’m happy to help.” He pointed to her phone. “Take them from this angle — it’s my good side — and it will capture the light without washing out the colors on the hat.”

Marinette blinked, biting back a smile when Chat struck another pose. He was surprisingly knowledgeable about photography, and even more surprisingly, an excellent model. She’d always known Chat Noir to be dramatic, but she never would have guessed he could use that to his advantage. What did he do in his normal life?

Ugh, no! She couldn’t think about that. His civilian identity was his business, and she definitely didn’t need to speculate. Speculating would lead to theorizing, which would lead to looking for evidence, which would lead to her finding out who he really was. It was out of the question! Still, he did take good photos. Maybe dealing with press as a superhero taught him a thing or two — it certainly taught her a lot.

“That should be good, don’t you think?” He plopped the hat on her head with a wink. “If this works out well for you, I’d be happy to come back and be your meowdle any time.”

“Thank you so much, Chat Noir! You’re the best.” She threw her arms around his neck. It was mostly for show, but she did appreciate his help. Her kitty could be really sweet when he wanted to be.

“Any time, Marinette.” He retrieved his staff from his belt. “I’ll keep an eye on your blog for those photos.”

Marinette waved as he vaulted off, shaking her head the moment he disappeared over the rooftops. What was that crazy cat thinking? Even still, his photos were way better than any of the ones she took earlier. Plus, he did volunteer to help…

Why not? She’d upload them and hope for the best. Chat Noir was extremely popular on the internet between the catsuit and his boyish charm. His help could be the break she needed to get her designs out into the world.

[observer-zenith]

"Mankind is dead, but the Voyagers will continue to live on, carrying the memories of a world that is no more."

"Tartarus was not always the barren wasteland that it is now. Years prior to the departure of humans, they created a 'token' of their existence; a more primitive, synthetic lifeform that could last an eternity, as a reminder of what once was a prosperous world. Named after their forefathers which served a similar purpose, Rovers were made to observe and maintain the lowest layer of their world."

hey there! welcome to the OZ tumblr blog that i will update once in a blue moon . i also kinda needed a place to archive art with tags so umm uhhh hiii . i hope you enjoy your stay here! there will be 4 mods here; Teo, Rosie, Carl, and Schoko — i (Teo) mostly work on the art related stuff so ill be the one posting frequently here!

fair warning that while i do try to keep things lighthearted here, take note that there will often be depictions of mainly violence and mechanical gore, discussions about trauma, death and the like, and a lot of religious themes. (the last one is one of the main driving plot point, to be fair...) posts will be tagged with content warnings if neccessary of course!

while youre at it why not check out @the-blackhole-discord ? hosts the most active mwf discord that i know with lots of awesome people and equally awesome activities ! see you there !!

there will be content under the cut here soon

[mythgirlimagines]

July Schedule

BLOG RULES/FANDOMS

Fic Updates:

If the Supernatural were Natural, sporadic updates (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)

Till You Drop, every MWF (masterlist here)

How About We All Just Live Together?!, 7/6 (PJSK oneshot)

Can't Make It All Make Sense, 7/20 (PJSK oneshot)

Requests/Ask Box:

Open!

Queue is running (80+)

Posts of Note:

My Ao3

DVHS chapter one

Viridian chapter one

BTHB masterlist (completed)

Other Notes:

Because of the AI scraping going on on Ao3, I’ve decided to lock my works to registered users only. This was a bit of a hard decision to come to, since I know there are a lot of guest users who enjoy my fics, but I absolutely do not want to risk AI scraping. I hope I get to turn this off someday, but in the meantime, I feel like requesting an invitation to Ao3 is the way to go

[icouldntfindquiet]

I finished writing REM. It’s strange to think I’ve been working on this for the past 10 months. It feels good to be done but I’m also sad. 😭

Thank you so much for reading it! There is an end in sight. 89 chapters. This is the longest story I’ve ever written and it feels like two stories in a way. I hope you enjoy it.

Since it’s finished, I can update faster if you’d like. I can do 3X a week (MWF) starting tomorrow or we can keep the current schedule? Just let me know. Thanks again. ❤️

EDIT: I’ll post M-F until I run out of updates so the last part will be posted Tuesday, 8 November. If it’s too fast, you can always save them for later! I’m just catering to the people who want faster updates. 😂🙈

[sakurawolfcat]

Toward the end of June, I deleted my Tumblr due to harassment. I should have just taken a break or deactivated it since I chose to come back. Shocking, considering my feelings toward this place. I was upset because one of the people who has issues with me over things I said/did/believed four years ago, came up with the wild accusation that I was lying about my mom and brother's place catching on fire. I was less hurt that anyone would believe that and more upset that...Wow. There are actually people in this world who would lie about such things?

Here's an update on that, though. It was mostly me doing all the cleanup. My mom and brother work most of the time, though she tries to help on her days off. Dad couldn't be around the smoke smell due to his weakened lungs from cancer treatments. He also couldn't do much because of the heat. Temps over 85F/29C take a toll on him. But I managed to get their portion of the house thrown away. It took about seven four-foot dumpsters and fourteen small trash cans.

The next step is to knock down the roof on that side of the house, and then we get to focus on the other side. Yeah, all of that time and energy for one half. Well, plus cleaning out the basement. Everything down there had water damage from the firefighters putting it out.

I've been hyper-fixated on Diablo IV this season. I got Tormented Grigorie down half last night (in two minutes, lol), so I've got a bit of a way to go, but I'm almost there! I also FINALLY beat the Raiden Training in Genshin, so I can move on in the storyline. And I've got 5200 Primos saved up so far for Mavuika!

Twitch Studio on my PC stopped working, so I had to find something else. I'm now using Prism Live, which lets me stream on up to six sites for free. So now you can find me on Kick, Twitch, and YouTube as SakuraWolf23!

I did, in fact, switch my Facebook gaming page over to also include crocheting and drawing, as I'm going to let SakuraWolf23 be the name I'm recognized by in those communities as well. Not much crocheting has been posted yet, but there will be as soon as I have more free time and energy to return to it.

I'm still streaming on Mon/Fri nights at 5.30 PST, but I hope to return to my MWF schedule soon or add a fourth day! Maybe even an every-two-day thing or something. I just enjoy it a lot and want to do it more.

Currently working on the next chapter of my Guardians of Sanctuary fanfic. You can still find me as SamanthaNBishop on Archive of our Own and Wattpad, but I decided to reactivate my Quotev, so I'm there as well now. I let go of Reedsy after reading more into their terms and conditions. But I'll still use the prompts there to get ideas.

While away from here, I polished up four short stories. I still have about ten more to revise and ten or so to write, and then I'll be looking to publish my first short story collection!

I'll also restart my thing, where I share my opinions about books, movies, games, etc. Interesting parts, life lessons, or scenes that evoke a strong emotion in me. Thinking of calling it Magical New World or something similar just to have the acronym MNW.

At the moment, I can't think of anything else I need to update on or speak about. So I guess that's it. Sorry for the long post!

[erikaskblog]

EdouardVampiresimpFollows you🐕🐕‍🦺Dogs are life I love them.🐩🦮 Background by https://www.quotev.com/AuroraDawn https://www.quotev.com/groups/1615875833 https://i.postimg.cc/5NCnP0qD/a7caf40f04176bb9c58e19a9af88ff07.jpg One of my alts https://www.quotev.com/draculaslover https://www.quotev.com/Mordoz2/journal/9061085/Rp-rules-again ,https://i.pinimg.com/564x/99/9f/e1/999fe112cb7df0ebe7fd8b58be163ba0.jpg If you ever tried s3lf h@rm, cr!ed yourself to sleep bc u thought you weren't g00d en0ugh or tried t@king your own l!fe copy this to your about, let's see how many of us are there. https://www.quotev.com/story/15090915/Stop-wildlife-crime-and-animal-abuse https://i.postimg.cc/3xX50mGS/Tumblr-l-6394755294226.png ⚔️ 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐲 ⚔️Castlevania nocturne, United StatesJoined July 30, 2021 Active 37 minutes ago ((Pine)))Hello I'm Louis but the admin is called Pine,my pronouns are she/them ,I hope you enjoy my lovely page Credit. Byf. Dni. Friends. Extra.PublishedPiggy Warrior cats Marvel x reader Marvel ocs Marvel as animals Marvel Warriors and marvel and other things Ocs Reveals Doctor strange An dog's purpose What ifs Polls for shit Gifts Headcanons Animal adoption centers Stuff irl not q related The shades of blood Free response surveys Warrior cat quizzes Google translated Warrior novellas Animal rps Doctor strange 2 Random rps Voice headcanons Wings of fire Fusions Request My art Warriors fanfics outside of the arc I'm writing Art collabs Lion King Blood river My dog Stuff I like Marvel animal rp Bloodclan Crossover Warrior cat aus Shops Stuff Just warrior cat rps Pride month Cheethz au quizzes Animals About me Doctor strange 3 Mwf Fnaf Wakanda forever Merchandise Abandoned places Cats and dogs I survived Survivors Call of duty black ops Cold war Rewrites from original account The one and only Ivan Eh idk stuff Castlevania Empire of the vampire Pigeon forge trip Washington DC trip Spotify Pets Local museum Orlox strange Commissions Abandoned Interview with the vampire Duolingo Sims Call of dutyBleeding Moonlight: Joyeux's backstory2 pages 3 weeks ago Castlevania Castlevania Nocturne |Joyeux oc |FanfictionThe backstory of my Castlevania nocturne oc Joyeux♥ 1 Discussion 4 8 reads · 4 readersBlood and fire evil Gabriel de Leōn au1 page 6 weeks ago Empire of the vampire Empire Of The Vampire Empire Of The Dammed |Gabriel De Leōn |FanfictionIdk yet♥ 2 29 reads · 18 readersYou have viewed thisNew Ways through the multiverse3 pages 8 weeks ago Doctor strange 2 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Doctor Strange Ways through The Multiverse |Sinster Strange CleaFanfictionCover was made by @lethalvenom An doctor strange fan fiction,spoilers for doctor strange 2 and spoilers for doctor strange 1♥ 4 Discussion 38 111 reads · 29 readersSee allLibraryAdded Recently viewedTherian art vent book!1 page 9 hours ago Skyestorm says Im leaving ThunderClan FanfictionTell me if you want me to make some art of your theriotypes!Art book1 page 1 day ago PlushieN Art. Some is fanart, some is not. The watermark saying 'JustClover11@ is my old usernameMy new doggo reveal ️ ️1 page 1 day ago Gσld ღ is a bit busy rn NonfictionShould I reveal my new puppy? He's so cute! EEEEEEE!look at my bnuuy1 page 3 months ago Fiona Fanfictionshadowwwwww!!!See allJanuary 1, 2024New face claim for Guillaume de PompadourArt is bywww.reddit.com/u/AbasedEidolon/s/vpECq9uLLi 7 days ago CommentSee allEdouardNew muse post and pinnedPlease interact pleaseOld pinnedwww.quotev.com/Vampiresimp/activity/843507232Edouard was singing at a opera theater,before the young man glanced at you3 ♥ Edouard updated Rating warrior cat ships!!♥Edouard updated South American sanctum information♥Edouard updated Marvel Oc's♥Edouard updated Australia sanctum decorations♥Edouard updated South American sanctum information1 ♥See allY

Charge phone more snacks and more money

[wraithlafitte]

massive content update lol

ok hoes 😮‍💨 i know i said i would post last weekend but the semester has been kicking my ass and it’s been less than a week 😭 i will prob end up posting fics mostly on thursday and saturday for at least the next month. not every thursday and saturday tho bc who has time for that (not me i have 9am-9pm classes MWF sob)

i am halfway done w the soulless!sam smut fic. will prob post in a few days. i have a vday prompt lined up. bitchin pt 2 is on the back burner for now 💔 im hoping i will get to it this month but i might not (i have 2 big papers this month). what is more likely is that i will hammer out shorter pieces for my bingos 😋

ok that is all my loyal customers

[atlafan]

My Everything - Part Two

A Take it Slow Sequel

What happens with Harry and Y/N after he proposes? How will the two navigate the engaged life while also continuing to juggle their jobs, friends, and families? Let’s find out.

Warnings: Fluff and Smut.

a/n: not proofread fam, I didn’t have the strength. 

Masterpost

It took Harry nearly an hour to get you to calm down after you said goodbye to your grandmother at the airport. You cried the entire car ride home, and you cried for a while at home. He chalked some of it up to your hormones, but he also knew it was just hard for you to say goodbye to her.

“It really was a nice visit. I’m glad she got to stay with us.” You say to him as you lay on top of him on the sofa.

“Me too, she’s a hoot.” He rubs your back up and down. He was happy you weren’t crying anymore. “She’ll be back soon enough. She wants to go dress shoppin’ with yeh remember?”

“I know, but I don’t want her spending the money coming up for every little thing. Like if she comes up for that, she probably won’t come for the bridal shower…” You sigh.

“You both will just have to decide what’s most important.”

“I’ll definitely need her for the dress shopping. It’ll be bad enough with my mom and sisters judging every little thing I might like. Rachel’s the best at picking things out. I’d rather just go with the girls and Nannie.”

“So you should do that. Listen, this is supposed to be fun for us. Don’t worry about other people, do things the way you want to do them.”

“I suppose with Erica doing it all before me, there are things my mom can get out of her system. We’re going dress shopping with her next month. I feel like I’m about to get really busy. El said she wants her bridal party to pick out their dresses soon. And I have class…”

“Take a deep breath. You’ll get overwhelmed if you think about too much at once.”

“You’re right, sorry.”

“S’okay, I know it can be easy to get stressed out. At least we have the whole day off together today. What do you feel like doin’?”

“I’d like to have sex, but my period is really bad…”

“We could-“

“Harry, I don’t think a shower could even help right now.” You groan. “I could suck you off.”

“It’s only fun if I get to reciprocate.”

“Not true.” You scooch down his body. “Now I kinda really want it anyways.”

“Oh you do?”

“Mhm.”

You get between his legs and unzip his shorts. You kiss on his lower stomach as you palm him through his boxers. He runs a hand through your hair, as you continue. You tug everything down just enough to get his hard dick out. You spit into your right hand to stroke him for a bit, running your thumb across his tip. Harry’s breath hitches and his head rolls back. You continue to pump him while your lips wrap around his tip.

“Ugh, fuck me.” He groans, and you can’t help but smirk when you look up at him. “Wipe that look off your face, now.”

Your mouth falls open and he pushes your head down further on him. You take the hint and swirl your tongue around him. His hips thrust up and you feel him hit the back of your throat. You choke on him for a moment and you feel tears prick at your eyes. But you work through it, and swallow.

“Shit, ngh.”

You loved hearing home moan like this, it only made you want to work harder for him. You bob your head up and down, really making a mess of it. You look back up at him, trying to give him innocent eyes as you spit trailed down your chin.

“Y/N.” He breathes as he looks at you.

You pop off him just for a moment to pump him. Your other hand rests on his hip and you give it a squeeze. Your mouth goes back down on him, and you both groan.

“That’s it, baby, that’s so good, fuck.”

You cradle his balls as you suck on him, and he comes into your mouth. You continue to suck until you’ve gotten every last drop into your mouth. You sit up and wipe the corners of your mouth and tuck him back into his pants. He watches as you get up to go to the kitchen. He knew you were going to rinse your mouth out like you always did. You come back to him, and lay in your spot on top of him like you were.

“You’re so fuckin’ good at that, thank you.” He kisses your forehead and you practically purr in his arms. There was nothing like a forehead kiss.

“My pleasure, babe.”

“Wanna go out to dinner tonight? You and I haven’t been able to celebrate just the two of us yet.”

“Yeah, I’d like that a lot actually. Can we get Italian?”

“We can get whatever you want, my angel.” You nuzzle further into his chest and enjoy the smell of his cologne.

//

After falling asleep on top of him, you wake up to the feeling of being carried to your bedroom.

“Harry?” You mumble.

“Sorry, I needed a wee, and so I thought I’d just set you down in here.”

“That’s okay.” You yawn as he puts you down on the bed. “Probably shouldn’t sleep the day away.”

He uses the toilet and comes back to sit next to you.

“But being lazy once in a while is nice, isn’t it? I feel like we had this crazy busy summer, it’s nice to just relax.”

“How do you see things at the studio now that all the kids are back in school?”

“Everyone and their brother wants a fall photoshoot. The leaves are going to peak soon, so everyone wants these like harvest style pictures. Plus, we’re already starting on holiday photos. Mariah suggested doing Santa Sessions, so we’re gonna get those booked out soon.”

“Are you going to have Santa there?”

“No, it’s more like decorations, the backdrop would look like his workshop, stuff like that. I don’t know, it’s her project.” He shrugs. “Either way, we’re stayin’ busy, and that’s the most important thing.” You nod.

“I think I’m gonna take a shower before we go out later. I need to wake up.”

“How come you’re so tired, baby?” He rubs your back.

“Think it’s just my period, makes me exhausted sometimes.”

“I’m gonna take Buster out for a walk then.”

“Alright.”

You get into the shower and stand there for a few minutes. You shave your legs and anywhere else you feel like you need to, and get out. You blow dry your hair and throw some curls in. You walk out into the living room in your towel, with your underwear on of course. Harry wasn’t back yet, and it was raining outside.

You grab your phone and call him. He doesn’t answer.

“What the…”

You race back to the bedroom and throw some sweats on. You slip on your sneakers and grab an umbrella and out the door you go. You’re not sure where to go at first, but you walk the usual route you and Harry always take Buster. It was absolutely pouring. You were starting to get nervous. You squint as you see a figure walking towards you.

“Harry!” You gasp and run down the street to cover him with the umbrella, not that it mattered now. His eyes were puffy and red and his head was hanging. “Wh…where’s Buster?”

“I don’t know.” You both turn to walk towards the parking garage. “He heard some thunder and slipped away from me. I ran after him and called for him, but…he just got away from me.”

“Oh no! Well, we have to find him!”

“I know!”

“Don’t yell at me!”

“I’m not!”

You both get into his car, and start driving around.

“Jesus, it’s gonna get dark soon. My poor baby.” You start tearing up.

“He never runs away. The one time I have a slightly loose grip on the leash-“

“You can’t blame yourself, it was an accident. We just need to find him before it gets dark. I’m going to text Niall to see if he’ll wait outside our building. Maybe he’ll come back.”

“Good idea.”

“Harry, drive towards the park near the studio, it’s not that far from here and he’s used to going there.”

“Okay.”

Your entire body was shaking. You didn’t know what you would do if your little boy was lost forever.

“Y/N! There by that tree! Think that’s him?!”

“It could be! Let me get out.”

You basically jump out of the moving car and run towards the large tree in the park.

“Buster!”

He looks up at you, but doesn’t come towards you. He’s whimpering where he sits, frightened by the cold and the thunder.

“Baby, it’s me! It’s mumma! Don’t be scared.” You slowly approach him and stick your hand out. Harry runs toward you both after parking the car. “See, it’s daddy too! Nothing to be scared of.”

“I think his leg is hurt…”

“Oh my god, I think you’re right!”

Harry approaches him and picks him. He’s soaked, but right now it didn’t matter.

“Babe, sit in the back with him, I have a blanket in the trunk we can wrap around him.”

“Okay.”

Harry gets him in the car while you grab the blanket. You wrap it around him and try to comfort him.

“I’m gonna drive to the vet.” You hum your response as you continue to try to calm Buster down.

“Do you think a car hit him?”

“I have no idea…maybe he slipped? Can a dog roll its ankle?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

Harry gets you all to the vet, and carries Buster inside. You check him in and they’re able to take him right away due to the emergency. You’re told to wait in the waiting room. Harry keeps pacing back and forth, his nerves were shot.

“Mr. and Mrs. Styles?” A nurse comes out. You think to correct her, but now isn’t the time.

“Yes?” You say standing up. Harry also notices you don’t correct her, and for a second he feels a little better.

“Come on back with me.” She smiles.

You take Harry’s hand and follow her to where Buster was. You hear him yip, it was like he was good as new.

“We had to put a brace on his back left leg. He has a slight sprain. We’re not entirely sure how. It didn’t look like he was hit by anything, he could have slipped and fell the wrong way. We gave him a shot to numb the pain as well.”

“Oh, thank you.” You throw your arms around him and he licks your cheek. “Mumma was so scared.” You kiss him a ton. Harry pats his back and gives him kisses too. “Don’t you ever run away from your daddy again, do you under stand me?”

“Miss…he’s a dog…not a small child.” She says with a blank expression. You turn to look at her slowly. Before you can say anything, Harry does.

“Listen, I’m sure you have to deal with stupid people all day, but this dog is our child at the moment, so if my fiancé wants to give him a stern talkin’ to for running away from me, then she will, and you can just keep your mouth shut, yeah?”

“Right.” She coughs nervously. “So, here’s his prescription, and some details on how to help his leg. You can check out up front, we’ll want to see him for a follow up.”

Harry takes the papers from her, and sets him down on the floor. He has a slight limp, but he’s able to walk. You practically white knuckle his leash as you lead him back to the lobby. They give you the medicine Buster will need, and out the door you go. You sit in the back with him again.

“Thanks for the backup in there.”

“Don’t mention it, I wouldn’t let some stranger disrespect you like that. I don’t care how silly she thought it was. He was bad runnin’ from me, even if he was scared, and he should know it.”

“We should stay in with him tonight, we have plenty of leftovers we can have for dinner.”

“I was thinkin’ the same thing. We need to get his leg on a pillow.”

You had texted Niall earlier to let him know Buster was found and safe. Harry gets Buster up to the apartment. You drag his dog bed over near the sofa and put some extra pillows in there.

“I need to go change, my clothes are still soaked.”

You nod at him as he walks down the hall. If the situation wasn’t so serious you might have joked about how sexy he looked, but maybe you were save that for some pillow talk later. He comes back out a few minutes later and looks at you.

“Do you even feel like eating?” He asks.

“No, I’m sick to my stomach.”

“Me too.”

You both sit on the sofa and sigh.

“I’m very upset with him.” You say. “But I’m glad we found him before it got dark out.”

“I just feel so stupid for letiin’ him get away in the first place.”

“Harry, it’s not your fault. Accidents happen. He knows not to run away, we trained him right.”

“It was like everything happened in slow motion too. As soon as I heard the thunder we looked at each other and I knew he was gonna do somethin’.” Buster looks up at Harry. “Yeah, I’m talkin’ about you, bub.” Harry leans down and pats his head.

“I’m gonna go make us a little food.”

“Thought you were sick to your stomach.” He smirks.

“I’ve calmed down a bit. He’s here with us now, that’s all that matters.”

“Alright, well in that case, I’d love some kugel please.”

“You got it.” You stand up and kiss his forehead.

You go into the kitchen and make up a couple of plates. Harry thanks you when you come back out.

“Do you feel like watching a movie?” You ask him.

“Sure! What did you have in mind?”

“You should pick, we always watch what I wanna watch.”

Harry smiles and flips through the different options of movies on the various platforms you both paid for.

“Oh! How about When Harry Met Sally?”

“Yeah! You know I’ve never seen it, but I’ve always wanted to.” Harry’s jaw drops. “What?”

“The Film Studies minor slash Film Club president has never seen When Harry Met Sally?”

“Romantic Comedies isn’t exactly a genre you study extensively, although, I know this film set a precedent.”

“I wish more were like it, to be honest. So do you feel like watchin’ it?”

“Definitely, now’s a good a time as any.”

“This is one of my all-time favorites, Y/N, I hope you like it.”

“I’m sure I will. I love Billy Crystal.”

He starts the movie as you both continue to eat. When you’re both done he sets the plates on the side table, and puts his arm around your shoulders, pulling you in close to him. Both of you put your feet up on the ottoman.

“It’s like we’re on a little date, isn’t it?” He asks you.

“Mhm.” You smile and snuggle in closer.

“Now that my weekends are freeing up, I wanna make more time for dates. I wanna take you to the movies, and go out for drinks.”

“So you essentially want to establish a date night?”

“That sounds so…boring when you say it like that, but yeah. We both always have so much going on, I just want to make sure we make time for this.”

“Me too, Harry. We can definitely have a date night.” You squint at the TV. “Wait, so what’s happening, why are they driving together?”

“So, they both just graduated from college, and he’s dating Sally’s friend. They both needed to go to New York, so she told Harry to drive with Sally.”

“Ah, okay. And that’s how they met.”

“They meet multiple times, they keep findin’ each other over the years.”

“Aww, that’s so cute!”

You both enjoy the rest of the movie. You tear up a bit when they fight and then hug it out. You can’t help but laugh a little towards the end when Sally tells Harry how much she hates him, and then they kiss. It reminded you a little of 10 Things I Hate About You.

“What did you think?” Harry asks yawning as the credits roll.

“I really liked it! I can see where a lot of other films took things from. It had a really good pace too, like I never felt bored.”

“I’m so glad to hear you say that.” He says with relief. “I feel like I kept watchin’ you to see your reactions.”

“I know you were.” You both laugh. “Do you think we should let him sleep with us tonight? If he whines in the middle of the night for his medicine I wanna be able to hear him.”

“Good idea, yeah, he can come in with us.”

Harry picks Buster up and carried him to your room. You do your nightly routine and get into bed. Buster lays at the both of your feet and falls asleep quickly. He must be exhausted from the entire ordeal. You knew you and Harry both were.

“Who’s he goin’ to work with tomorrow?” He asks he climbs into bed with you. “I’d take him, but somethin’ tells me he’s gonna want his mum.”

“I was thinking the same thing. I don’t have many meetings, so he’ll be fine with me.”

You both kiss goodnight, and snuggle up to fall asleep.

//

Buster was able to walk, but not for long period of time, so Harry makes sure to help get him into your car. You didn’t carpool on Tuesdays because you saw Dr. Mara right after work. Once you get Buster up to your office, you give him some medicine.

“Mornin’, here’s your…aww poor thing, look at him.” He hands you your coffee.

“I know, he scared us so bad. I’m just glad we found him and he’s safe. It’s only a sprain, so if we do everything right he should be back to normal in a few weeks.”

“Well that’s good at least. Why’d he run from Harry again?”

“The thunder from the storm yesterday scared him. I think it was too loud for him.” Niall nods.

“So, I’ve just been told we have a meeting this morning, like now, in the conference room.”

“Are you serious?” You groan. “I haven’t even gotten settled.”

“I think it’s quick, Sharon said we don’t even need our laptops.”

“Okay.” You sigh. “C’mon, Buster.”

He gets up slowly and follows you and Niall down to the conference room.

“Congratulations!”

“Oh my gosh!”

Everyone from your division was there smiling at you, and there were bagels and doughnuts out on the table.

“What is all this?”

“Niall told us all yesterday that you got engaged so we wanted to celebrate with you!” Trish says.

“This is so sweet! Thank you all so much.” You look at Niall. “You’re too good to me, thank you.” You both hug.

“And I got that lox you like too.” He points to it.

“What a treat! I’m glad I had a really light breakfast this morning.”

Niall splits a bagel with you, and put some lox and cream cheese on it. You show everyone your ring, tell them how Harry proposed and showed off a few pictures. They each give Buster a little loving as well, and he soaked it up.

Eventually you go to your office, after thanking everyone for the millionth time, and get some work done. You had a ton of emails to catch up on, and a couple of projects that needed to get started. You weren’t even hungry when lunch rolled around, so you just hung out with Buster in Niall’s office.

“Our new intern starts tomorrow.” He tells you.

“Oh? And what’s their specialty?”

“Once again, we have a social media/video editor. His name is Zach, and he’s a senior. He actually goes to where you went.”

“Oh, really? Well that’ll be fun. Maybe I could be like a mentor or something.” You shrug.

“We having a meeting with him tomorrow morning. I guess we have him all day on Mondays and Wednesdays.”

“Didn’t the school year already start? Why is he just coming to us now?”

“That was on our end, HR took forever to get everything processed.”

“Awesome.” You scoff. “Well, at least he’ll actually be able to get work done being here for full days.”

“Yeah, definitely. Hopefully this one won’t have a crush on you.” He laughs.

“Stop it.” You groan. “I never want to think about Matt ever again. You know I ran into him months ago at the bar? It was when we went out for Sarah’s birthday.”

“Oh you mean the night none of you wore bras and you got that bartender’s number?”

“Yup.” You sigh. “And it wasn’t like I asked for the guy’s number.”

“I know, I’m just givin’ yeh a tough time.” He chuckles.

//

You period ended Wednesday morning, which meant you could finally surprise Harry with something he had wanted for a long time, but you had to wait the entire work day to give it to him. Around 9AM you had your meeting with Niall and Zach. Buster was being very needy with you, and at on the floor between your legs with his head in your lap.

“He really is just like his father, huh?”

“Niall!” You burst out laughing and nudge his arm. “You can’t say stuff like that. What if the intern was here?”

“He’s not here yet.” He laughs.

“Buster’s just not liking the medicine he has to take. I feel so bad, he only wants me. I think Harry feels like a bad father.”

“Don’t all kids want their mum when they don’t feel well?”

“Hi, I’m so sorry I’m late, it took me forever to find parking, and then I had to get all the way up here.”

A young man with short black hair and blue eyes walks in. He looked to be just under six feet. He was wearing a blue button up tucked into some khakis. He looked nice enough. Niall stands up to shake his hand, you do the same. He’s startled when he hears Buster yip.

“S’no problem, Zach. Please have a seat.” Niall says to him.

“Is there a dog in here?” He sits down adjacent to you.

“Yeah, sorry, this is Buster. I bring him to work with me most days, I hope that’s alright.”

“Oh, sure! I love dogs, just didn’t see him.”

“Well, I’m Niall and this is Y/N. We’ll be supervising you this semester. This is basically an intake meeting. We wanna make sure we’re putting you on projects that make sense, and all that.”

“You also go to my alma mater.” You smile.

“Seriously? That’s great! And yeah, I brought my laptop with me, I thought I could show you some of the things I’ve done, if that’s cool.”

“That would be great!” Niall says.

//

After an hour with Zach, you and Niall show him where he’ll be working, and Niall gets him started on a few things. You liked him so far. He seemed smart and down to business, which is exactly what you were hoping for. Towards the end of the day he knocks on the outside of your door.

“Come on in, Zach.” You smile and he walks in. “Have a seat.” He does so and smiles at you.

“Um, so, I just wanted to say your name sounded a little familiar, and I realized that you founded the very film club that I’m in.”

“Oh my goodness, really?! I’m so happy to hear it still has members.”

“Tons! I also work in our alumni office on campus, and I think it would be really cool if you came to campus and spoke with the current members. Sort of show them that being in a fun club can also help lead to bigger opportunities. We could do an alumni spotlight on you for the magazine.”

“Do you really think that I’m worthy of the alumni magazine?” You scoff. “I get sent that thing in the mail all the time, and it’s always these stories about old people.

“Or random dudes. I think they should feature more women. The director of alumni relations would love this, I think. He’s really nice. Could I at least give him your email?”

“Sure.” You smile. “At any rate, I’d love to come to a film club meeting some time. I could show you all the projects we used to make together.”

“That would be amazing!” He beams. “I can’t wait to tell them. We meet on Thursday nights. This week would be too soon, I assume, but maybe next week you could come?”

“I’d love to.”

He gets up and thanks you for your time before leaving. He was a sweet boy.

//

You got home before Harry on Wednesdays, which was perfect for what you wanted to put together for him. You get Buster fed and settled before heading into your bedroom. You put on some black lace lingerie and then grab your navy pencil skirt to put on over it. After that you put on the blazer that goes with it, and button it up. You slide your feet into your nude pumps. You go into the bathroom and pin your hair up into a more formal bun. All you’d have to do is take one pin out and it would fall into your waves. You touch up your makeup, and make your way up to the loft.

Harry gets home and kicks his shoes off. Buster carefully trots over to him and Harry lets him lick his hand.

“Hey buddy, where’s mumma?”

“Harry, is that you?”

He looks up towards the loft.

“Yeah!”

“Could come here for a minute please?”

“Sure thing, one second!” He uses the bathroom quick and then heads up to the loft. His eyes grow wide when he sees you. “Did you have, like, an important meeting today or somethin’?”

“I always do.”

“Wait, you weren’t wearin’ that before you left this mornin’…”

“I always dress like this, I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” You wink at him and his eyebrows raise. His lips curl into a grin.

“Is…are we doin’ this?” You nod yes. “Okay, okay.” He takes a deep breath. “Go on.”

“So, um, right, we need to work late tonight…got a big presentation tomorrow.” You try to look as serious as possible.

Harry circles around you and stands right behind you. He dips his head down so his lips are at your ear.

“And what can I do to assist you?” You turn around to face him.

“You know, standing so close to me like that isn’t exactly professional.” You smirk. “I’m your boss after all.”

“Right.” He leans against his desk. “Wouldn’t want anyone to think you play favorites with or anything.” He smirks. “Although, they already think that since I’m the only one you’re nice to.”

“That’s because you’re the only competent person here.”

“You know what I think the real problem is?”

“What’s that?”

“You can come off as uptight.”

“Well…I’m just always stressed.” You shrug. “It’s not easy being the CEO of a large company, you know?”

“I do know. That’s why you hired me, remember? To help make you less stressed, but in all honesty…I don’t think you’re using me to my fullest potential.” He grins.

Harry was amazing you. He had clearly wanted to do this for a while, and you were happy to finally be doing this for him.

“You think so, huh?” You cross your arms. “Enlighten me then, how could I be using you?”

He takes a step forward and uncrosses your arms. He takes one of the buttons on your blazer and twists it between his thumb and index finger.

“You walk around with so much tension in your shoulders. I could rub them for you, but you’d have to take this off…”

“I suppose that would be alright, but I’ll warn you, I don’t have much on underneath.”

“Doesn’t bother me if it doesn’t bother you.”

You nod and unbutton the blazer. Harry pushes it off your shoulders, and he gasps when he sees the black strappy bra that you’re wearing. You fold the blazer and lay it on your desk chair.

“This alright?” You smile.

“When did you get this, it’s really pretty.” You suck your teeth and look at him. “Shit, sorry.” You clears his throat. “Yeah, perfectly fine.”

You turn around and he starts to rub your shoulders. His thumbs knead into the back of your neck and you let out a soft moan.

“Good thing everyone else is gone for the day, or else they might get the wrong idea with noises you’re makin’.”

“Can’t help it, your hands just feel too good. Who knew you had such a gentle touch?”

One of Harry’s hands slides around to the front of your throat.

“And what if I wasn’t so gentle?” Your eyes grow wide, not that he can see. An ache starts to grow between your legs. “Got an answer for me, boss?”

You weren’t sure how to respond. You wanted him to really grip you, make it so you almost couldn’t breathe, but you were slightly scared that if you both got too caught up, you could have a flash. Although, you were almost positive Harry wouldn’t let that happen, so you decide to roll with it.

“I think…I could use a different way to de-stress.” You turn to face him. You put a hand over his and slide it down to the top of one of your breasts.

“I could get fired if HR finds out.”

“Who do you think signs their checks? I decide who gets fired around here, and it certainly isn’t going to be you.”

“Then I’d be happy to give you what you need.”

“And what exactly is that?”

That shit eating grin of his forms, the one where you can really see his dimples. His other arm snakes around your waist and pulls you close to him, so your hips are touching him. He removes his hand that’s on top of your breast to the back of your neck and pulls you to kiss him. You moan as his tongue enters your mouth. He was getting a pretty good taste of you. He lets go of you, and waits for your response.

“Ah.”

“Need a little more?”

“A lot more.”

You reach for the pin that’s holding your bun together and take it out. Your hair falls and you shake it out. Harry grabs you by your hips, and bends you over his desk. He hikes your skirt up and he groans when he sees the thong you’re wearing.

“You know, I think it’s a little…naughty of you to have been wearing this underneath your clothes.” You look at him over your shoulder. You give him a look that says, not too hard, and he nods in understanding.

You feel a smack, not necessarily on your ass, but more so right near your center. You mouth oh my god to yourself. You had zero idea he really wanted to do things like this with you. But then again, you weren’t really you and he wasn’t really him. Harry grabs your hips and places a hand on one of your cheeks so he can see his target better. You feel another smack and you gasp. He leans down so he can speak into your ear.

“See, you’re this really strong woman, and I think that’s great. But I think it’s time you’ve been taken down a notch, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

You hear him undo his pants, and then you feel him move your thong to the side. He grabs you by the back of your neck and pulls you up. He taps your bottom lip with his index and middle fingers. You take the hint and open up for him, sucking them into your mouth. You swirl your tongue around them and really make a show of it for him. He tracts them and the next thing you know he’s knuckle deep inside you. You loved it when he’d finger you from behind. There was something about the angle he was getting that always felt so good.

“You like that, boss?”

“Yes, please keep doing it.” You groan.

He pumps in and out of you, and you cry out when you feel him under you, lips wrapped around your clit. You claw at his desk as your legs start to shake. All of a sudden he stops and you look at him.

“Didn’t think I was gonna let you come so easily did you?” He raises an eyebrow at you. “You’re always so in control, but not tonight.”

He pushes you back down against the desk so your chest was flush with it. He removes your thong all the way and leaves it around your ankles. He bunches your skirt up around your hips and spreads you apart with his thumbs. He slowly inserts himself into you. As much as he just wanted to be careless and rough, he didn’t want to send you into a frenzy.

“Fuck, you feel so good.” He groans once he’s full inside. “So wet for me.” He pulls out and then slams all the way back in.

“Do that again.”

Harry happily obliges and fucks you like that for a few minutes. It was how you had wanted him to fuck you for a long time, and you were happy to be in a place where he could. He was starting to hit you g-spot and it was overwhelming.

“Shit, right there, that’s it!”

He could tell you were close, but he didn’t want you to think you could come yet. He grips the back of your neck with one hand, and squeezes your hip with the other.

“Are you close?”

“Yes!”

“You have to ask me if you can come.” He slows down his pace and rocks in and out of you.

“What?!”

“Ask me if you can come.”

“Can I come?!”

“What’s the magic word?”

“Please!”

Harry grins and picks up the pace again. Your moans and groans mixed with the sound of his skin slapping against yours. You come hard around him. He pulls out and comes on your ass. You groan when you feel the heat from it. You hear him zip his pants back up so you stand up and turn to face him. You weren’t sure if the role play was over or not. When you see his features soften and his reassuring smile form on his lips, you know it is.

“C’mere.” He holds his arms out for you, and you nearly trip into him since your panties were still around your ankles. “Whoops, sorry ‘bout that, baby.”

“S’okay.” You giggle as he kisses the top of your head.

“Let’s get you downstairs.” He picks you up bridal styles and carefully brings you down the spiral staircase. “So, to what do I owe this amazing surprise?” He carries you down to the bathroom and sets you down on your feet. He runs a rag under some warm water to clean up where he came on you.

“I just wanted to do something special for you since you proposed, but I couldn’t exactly do this for you while I was on my period…” You wince slightly when he cleans up near your center.

“Sorry…did I slap you too hard?”

“It didn’t feel like it while you were doing it.” You get out of your pencil skirt and Harry helps you get out of your strappy bra. You throw on some of his sweats and go into the kitchen with him. “We should probably take Buster out soon…”

“We can start cookin’ and then take him out. Right buddy?” He yips at Harry and he chuckles. “So…it was okay, all of it?”

“For doing in a role play, yes.” You rub the back of your neck. “But that’s the only scenario I want you talking to me like that, okay?”

“Fair enough.” He shrugs and wraps his arms around you. “Thank you.”

“Did it live up to the fantasy?”

“God, yes. Even more so. That was really cool of you, Y/N.” He kisses you quick. “So, what do you want for dinner? I’ll make whatever you want.”

“I think we have stuff for tacos, I picked up those meatless meat crumbles…”

“Tacos it is then.” He smiles.

“Come on Buster, mummy take you out quick while daddy cooks.” He tries to hide his smirk. “You wanted me to call you that earlier, didn’t you?” You say, crossing your arms.

“What would make you think that?” He asks facetiously and you roll your eyes. “All part of the fantasy, love.”

“What is it with guys and wanting to be called daddy, I really don’t get it. Why would you want me to fuck my father? Or have me picture my father?” You laugh.

“S’not what it’s about…it’s more of just like…a dominance thing. Like I said, it’s just part of the fantasy, I don’t actually want you callin’ me that unless it’s in reference to Buster.”

“Good, because that’s the only way I’m calling you that.” You smirk, and put Buster’s leash on. Harry gets to work on the tacos.

//

“Wow, Harry! This looks great!”

He had set everything up on the island like a little buffet so you could add all the fixings you wanted. You each eat three soft shell tacos and clean up when you’re done. You were stuffed. You both flop onto the sofa and relax.

“So…Glee?” He says to you.

“You read my mind.”

[mangohub]

hello friends, I hope everyone is doing well. those of you in the red zone, please stay safe today. as promised, I’m going to be poking through my project lists for both blogs & doing some reading in between things for work. I may pop onto @affcgato & do a few small things, so catch me there or on discord, loves!

updates (posted to @createshope yesterday)

next week I’m going to invert my usual schedule, so I’ll be on Clary MWF to get her schedule out a few weeks, & get some momentum on her.

I’ll be taking T/Th to do my weekend things since I haven’t had weekends to do them & I feel extremely behind & overwhelmed.

if & only if I feel in a good place while I’m working on those things, I might pop into the multi & get some of my shorter stuff queued up, but I’m not holding myself to that.

I will be largely off the grid this Saturday through Monday morning. We got approved for in-home respite, & I’m taking it so I can lovingly bully my mother into helping with projects at my place like sand a floor, pick out paint, & find a vanity/sink to make at least one bathroom functional. I have the internet cut off there, & there’s shit for cell signal, so I won’t be as quick to respond on discord.

I’m still looking at options for other jobs, especially after they told my mom, & I quote, “so how long do you think you’ll need to be over everything? Because we’re really hoping to have you back within a week” when she gave them the heads up she may have to take bereavement leave before the end of the year. so that’s fun & exciting.

spirit's rubber duck✨#4636

[slytherinbarnes]

Sub Rosa [37]

viii. terms and conditions

Pairing: Bellamy Blake x reader

Word Count: 8.5k

Warnings: blood, death, violence, nausea, fighting, guards doing the most, Pike being an asshole, headbutting bitches that deserve it (and breaking their nose, so like, descriptions of that). 

Summary: tensions in Arkadia reach a head, and chaos ensues.

a/n: TODAY WE BEGIN THREE DAY A WEEK UPDATES!!! the new schedule is MWF, so be looking out for the next update on Friday! also i said this in a post at like 5 a.m. but I really just want to thank all of you for the love and support you’ve given to me and sub rosa! it means the absolute world to me!!! the taglist for this series is open! I hope you enjoy, please let me know what you think!!!

previous chapter // season masterlist // series masterlist

You and Bellamy are at Pike’s office bright and early the next morning, ready to discuss what to do next. But before you can even lift your hand to knock, the door swings open, revealing Pike. “Good, you’re both here. Hannah called and asked us to meet her at the lookout tower.”

You both nod, following him as he leads you through the camp and to the tower, climbing the ladder quickly, you and Bellamy right behind him. As you all step onto the platform, Pike comes to a stop beside Hannah, who is standing in the tower, looking worried. “Hannah?”

“Sir, we lost contact with one of our recon teams. Three teams departed Arkadia at 0800 on routine patrol. Each of them reported Grounder contact less than a mile outside of camp.” She points at three spots on the map, and you all step closer to get a better look. “As per your orders, two teams retreated and made it safely back inside the walls.”

“The third?”

“Was forced to engage. I believe they were attempting to secure a defensive position when-” She cuts herself off, taking a deep breath. “They ceased transmissions.”

You and Bellamy exchange a look, before you turn to look out at the land surrounding camp. Pike muses, “The Grounders are close.”

“Gathering from the North and West. It appears they're establishing a blockade. There's no way through it.”

Pike shakes his head. “Something's changed.”

You think about Lexa’s message, and what Bellamy said to Pike before sending you to the Grounder village. Blood must not have blood, but that doesn’t mean we can start taking over villages. You shake your head, wondering how you’re going to sneak away and update Kane, when the guard tasked with watching the perimeter turns to your group. “Sir? You need to see this.”

Two Grounders break through the trees, riding towards the camp on horseback. Pike asks, “What do they want?”

Bellamy looks at them, and then to you. “They brought a message. We've seen this before.”

You glance at Pike. “Finn. Before the alliance.”

Bellamy doesn’t wait another second, he turns and descends the ladder quickly, making a beeline for the gate, and you and Pike hurry after him. The guards pull the gate open, revealing the two men on horseback, now right outside the wall. Bellamy demands, “Talk.”

“We seek the one you call Pike.”

“Why?”

“An army has fallen. Blood soaking the earth where he took their lives, one by one. Life was taken. We demand life in return.”

Pike walks closer to the two men, now outside the walls beside you and Bellamy. “My life? What are your terms?”

Bellamy starts to argue, “Sir-”

Pike cuts him off with a wave of his hand, and the Grounder says, “Come with us, and we walk away.”

“Walk away? From what?”

“By order of the Commander, you have been surrounded by an army of the twelve clans. In every direction, warriors wait to kill anyone who attempts to cross the blockade. To greet them, as we greeted those we caught outside your walls today.”

He reaches behind him and pulls out a sack, throwing it to the ground at your feet, blood soaked guard armor spilling out. You feel a wave of nausea as you look at it, and you can hear murmuring in the crowd behind you. Bellamy tenses up beside you. 

“We left the bodies for the animals.”

Bellamy grinds out, “That's enough.”

Pike reaches out, grabbing Bellamy’s arm. “Let's go.”

“They won't leave. I have seen this before.”

The Grounder raises his voice, loud enough that the crowd behind you can hear him. “The men who wore those uniforms took a long time to die.”

Pike mutters, “Fall back. That's an order.”

Pike steps backwards, towards the gate, and you start to follow, hesitating in place when you see that Bellamy isn’t doing the same. The Grounder yells, “If you do not give up your leader, you will all take a long time to die.”

You reach out for Bellamy, grabbing his arm, but he shrugs you off. “Bellamy!”

The Grounder turns his attention to him. “Choose the side that's best for your people.”

“I do that every day.” Before you can stop him, he pulls out his gun, and shoots the two Grounders quickly, one after the next. You watch in shock as they slump, and Bellamy mutters, “So far, nothing has changed my mind.” 

He turns and stalks back into camp, and you step inside behind him, exchanging a look with Pike, who seems shocked that Bellamy took a page out of his Murder the Grounders Book. You let out a quiet sigh, aware that Monroe’s death is affecting him more than he’d like to admit. Her death has done nothing more than push Bellamy closer to Pike, a move that scares you more than you’d like to admit. Just when you start to think he’s coming around, something happens that sends him right back to Pike. 

You turn and look towards Bellamy’s retreating figure, watching as he disappears from sight, heading in the direction of Pike’s office. Pike motions for you to follow. “Guess we’ll have that meeting now.”

He grabs Hannah and Monty on the way back to his office, and when you reach it, Bellamy is standing at the door already. Pike lets you all inside, and Bellamy heads over to the map, waiting for everyone to come inside. When you do, Bellamy points at the ridge around camp. “I radioed the lookouts on the way over here, and they confirm another three encampments just over that ridge.”

“Well, they're not hiding from us. That's for sure.” Pike turns to Hannah. “How many days can we keep our population fed without being able to send out hunting parties?”

“Food and water stores were already at less than sixty percent. Now it’s maybe a week before we go critical? Two, if we start rationing immediately.”

“Immediately it is.”

Hannah nods, then eyes the line on the map that Bellamy is drawing, indicating the blockade. “What about breaking the blockade?”

You scoff at her, “We don’t have the manpower or the bullets to fight all twelve clans.” 

Pike adds, “And after Bellamy's theatrics this morning, they'll expect that anyways. Regardless, we can't engage the Grounders until we've got our own people under control, and that starts with Kane.”

He turns and looks between you and Bellamy. “I need you to suspend access to the prisoners. No contact with anyone in camp. For all we know, they've been providing intel on Grounder villages to Kane.”

“Yes, sir.”

He points to Monty. “And I want you to take over coordination of camp surveillance. We'll need new security protocols at all camp entrances.”

Pike offers Monty a radio, which he takes, and he offers his first suggestion. “Maybe, uh, changing critical passwords every twelve hours.”

“Good. Coordinate with your mom, but keep the circle tight.” Pike turns to look at all of you, one by one. “Then there's the matter of camp-wide surveillance.”

“You want us to spy on our people?”

He turns to Monty and nods. “We can't do what's needed to defend this camp, if every order I give is leaked before it can be executed. It's an old saying, but it's true. The walls have ears.”

You resist the urge to look at the bug underneath his desk. You have no idea. “We can't afford any more assumptions about who's a friend and who isn't, not your oldest acquaintance. Not your husband, wife, or lover. We're fighting two wars now, and the more dangerous one is here, inside this camp. We can't prove it yet, but Kane and his accomplices passed information to Octavia. I know none of you signed up to investigate your neighbors, but Monroe died because the traitors in this camp sold them out to the Grounders. Whoever did that will be hunted down and exposed for what they did to their own, for what they did to us. Now you get whatever resources, whatever personnel you need to make that happen.”

He looks at each of you, waiting for each nod that you understand, and you feel sick to your stomach as you think of what this means for Kane, what this means for you. A traitor and a spy. Add that to your growling list of nicknames.  

“Dismissed.”

Everyone turns to leave, but you linger, wanting to talk to Pike alone. Bellamy nods at you when you glance at him, encouraging your decision, before he closes the door behind him, leaving you with Pike.

He glances at you, expectant. “What can I do for you, Miss Griffin?”

“I wanted to talk to you about the offer you made me the other day. I’ve made up my mind.”

“And?”

“And I’d be honored to lead a team.”

He smiles, already reaching for things on his desk. “Good. That’s what I like to hear.”

He grabs a few rolled up maps, and stacks of paper, holding them out to you, which you take. “This is all the data we had from the last village, along with a few guesses on the next few villages to test. You’ll need to run your plan and who you choose for your team by me first before we send you out there. But if everything looks right, we can start looking in the next few days.”

“What about the blockade?”

“Don’t worry about the blockade. We’ll figure it out. In the meantime, you have a lot of work ahead of you, you might want to get started.”

You nod. “Thank you, sir.”

You turn and slip out the door, nearly running into Bellamy, who is just outside, waiting. “So? How’d it go?”

You hold up the stacks of paper. “You’re looking at the newest team leader.”

He smiles at you, the first genuine one you’ve seen in a while. “I’m proud of you.”

“Really?'' The words, paired with his smile, make butterflies break free in your stomach, reminding you of the boy you fell in love with. But the butterflies turn to lead when you remember what you signed up to lead and who you agreed to do it for.

“Of course.” Bellamy leans down to kiss you, slow and sweet, and you can almost convince yourself that everything is okay, that you’re not a spy hidden in the ranks of a facist Chancellor. Almost. 

He pulls away, and you both look at each other for a minute before you hold up your stacks of work. “Pike wants me to get started right away, so I should probably go do that.”

Bellamy nods, “I’m gonna get started on the campwide surveillance, come up with a few ideas with Monty, so we can run them by Pike later.”

“Okay. I think I’m gonna work outside, enjoy the sun a little.”

“If you sit under the ring, you get the best view of the camp and you’re in the best spot for the sun.”

“Thanks for the tip.”

You start to walk away, but he calls out to you, “I’ll come find you later, and update you on everything!”

You turn towards him, now walking backwards, a smile on your face. “Only if you bring a snack with you!”

He laughs and you smile back at him, before turning and heading outside, towards the ring, like Bellamy suggested. You work there for a while, pouring over the maps and data, trying to figure out how you can do this job, and still save the Grounder’s lives. 

You take a break around noon, standing and stretching, before you decide to take a walk around the perimeter of the camp to stretch your legs and take your mind off things. You roll up your maps and papers, tucking them into your back pocket as you head towards the wall, and start to walk along it. You people watch as you go, smiling at the kids playing soccer and the friends talking together underneath the afternoon sun.

As you reach the back part of camp, the crowds thin out, this part of Arkadia not as popular to spend time in, and as you start to get lost in your head, you’re surprised to hear hushed whispers coming from nearby. You slow as you hear them approach you, and something inside of you, an instinct, tells you to duck between two buildings, and use the darkness to hide you. The whispers grow closer, and though you can’t make out what they’re saying, you know it’s important from the tone they’re using. 

Seconds later, Pike, Hannah, and Bellamy walk past your hiding spot, unaware of your presence. They’re all pressed tightly together, still whispering, and every few seconds one of them looks around, suspicious. You know something is up as soon as you see them, and you wait a few seconds before slipping from your spot and following them at a distance. They walk from the back of the camp to the front, stopping their discussion as soon as they reach a populated area, all of them pulling apart slightly to blend with the crowd. 

Their suspicious glances continue though, and don’t stop as they duck inside, walking quickly down the halls, heading straight for the Chancellor’s office. You follow them until you’re sure that’s where they’re going, and then you turn and run the opposite direction, making a beeline for the hidden alcove that Kane uses to hide the radio connected to the listening device. As you reach the alcove, you slow down, not wanting to raise any suspicions, and you look around a few times before you slip through the plastic curtain and into the space on the other side. 

Kane, Harper, and Miller are all standing there, turned towards you, looking surprised. As you move closer to them, Kane whispers, “What’re you doing here?”

You ignore him, instead turning to Harper, who sits with the radio and headphones in her hand. You hold your hand out for it. “Give me the radio.”

She passes it to you, looking confused, and you turn the radio on, checking to make sure it’s on the right station before you unplug the headphones so the others can hear. “Results of this morning's mission inventory were sobering. In no way do we currently have the ammo for an extended series of firefights. Not even close.”

You hear Bellamy’s voice ask, “So what's Plan B?”

“Our lookouts say the largest Grounder encampment is in this valley. So, we deploy an assault team in Rover One, and we do as much damage as we can with automatic weapons.”

You and Kane exchange a worried look, another Grounder slaughter on your hands. Hannah’s voice crackles through, “They'll just fall back and make a run for reinforcements.”

“I'm counting on that. The only way there and back is over this ridge. We can bottleneck their warriors and pick them off.”

Bellamy asks, “We got the firepower for that?”

“We won't need it. We have a dozen concussive anti personnel devices in our armory. I've already got a weapons man rigging them with a remote trigger. We load the APDs into the rover, and mine the field before we attack. After we strike, we lure their reinforcements onto the ridge. And once we have enough Grounders in the killing box-”

Bellamy finishes for him, “We detonate. It'll buy us some time, but-”

Pike concludes, “Time's what we need. We move at dawn.”

You lower the radio, their conversation now finished, while you and Kane share a look. “All right. We need to disable that rover. If they take it out, it doesn't matter how many Grounders they kill. Ten times that number will descend on Arkadia, and no one'll survive.”

You shake your head, holding up a hand to stop him, a nagging feeling sitting heavy in your chest. “Wait. Something’s not right.”

“Of course something’s not right. Pike’s talking about starting a war.”

You cut your eyes at Miller, and he rolls his back at you. “Pike sent ten people to kill an army of 300. He had a plan, a good one. One that consisted of taking no prisoners or wounded. He was worried about retaliation.”

You turn and look at Kane. “But this plan? This is stupid. It’ll take most of the ammo we have left, and all of the APD’s, which is one of the best weapons in our arsenal. It’ll leave us defenseless against another attack or any retaliation.”

“Maybe Pike isn’t expecting another attack. I talked to him earlier, and tried to get him to give himself up, but he refused. He said the best way to handle things was to crush the Grounders so badly, they never move against us again. Maybe this is his plan to crush them.”

You shake your head, ignoring Kane’s words. “No, you don’t get it. Pike is smarter than that. I hate to admit it, but he is.”

Something about the plan pulls at a memory, something locked deep inside your brain. You let out a huff, trying to chase the lead, but lose it. “Mine the field, the only way out, then attack from the front using everything we’ve got. The Grounders retreat, into the killing box, then boom, take them out.”

You rack your brain, repeating the plan quietly to yourself again and again, and Miller, Kane, and Harper watch on in confusion. And then the memory hits you like a train, and you almost laugh at your stupidity. “It’s a Lasker trap, of course!”

“A what?”

Three confused faces watch as you roll your eyes. “It’s a chess move. Offer an unprotected pawn, which your opponent takes, thinking it gives them the advantage. But the unprotected pawn is a decoy, a trap. It distracts your opponent from the real threat, which you put into place while they’re focused on the other pieces on the board. Then you force them into the poisoned square, the disadvantageous position, and take out their King.”

Harper tries to make sense of your ramblings. “So, the attack is set up as a Lasker trap? So what?”

You shake your head. “No, no, no. The attack is the unprotected pawn. It doesn’t make enough sense on its own to be legitimate, which is why I think it’s a decoy meant to distract us. If we take the bait and sabotage the attack, he has us. We’re done.”

Kane looks at you in alarm. “So he knows we’re listening?”

“He must have found the bug. Monty is head of security now, I’m sure the first thing he did was sweep the office.”

“So what do we do?”

Miller glances at Harper, answering her question.“We do nothing, right? If what she says is right, and we sabotage the rover to stop the attack, then they’ll know we’re listening.”

“And we’ll be stuck in camp, behind a blockade, with a facist leader still in charge.”

You look at Kane, getting an idea. “What if we do fall for it?”

“What?”

“You said you tried talking to Pike to turn him over, despite knowing what they'll do to him.”

He squirms a little, and you know he’s thinking of Gustus, and the cut from every hand in the village, finished off by Lexa. “Yes, but if it’s what’s best for-”

You cut him off, “You don’t have to explain why. I get it. But Pike won’t give himself up to the Grounders, even if they guaranteed it would end things. He likes the power too much. Which is why we have to turn him in ourselves, set a decoy of our own.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“At any given time, Pike is surrounded by a handful of guards and strong supporters, like Hannah, Gillmer, and Bellamy. If you want minimal casualties, on both sides, then you need to get him alone. Best way to do that is a big distraction.”

And finally, Kane catches onto your line of thinking. “The prisoners.”

“No one can visit them, and it’s too risky to send one of us over there because Pike thinks they’re giving you information, so they’re gonna be watching anyone who gets close. But if someone gets locked up…”

Kane finishes, “They can deliver a message.”

“Start a riot, security goes on high alert, Pike is now alone. Shocklash him, deliver him to the Grounders, no more blockade.”

“I’ll talk to Sinclair, get him involved. We do this today. Our people shouldn’t have to suffer anymore than they already have.” He looks at you, “Stick by Bellamy’s side today, make sure he’s suspicious about the rover.”

“I want to be there when you deliver Pike.”

“Meet me at the rover at sundown. We’ll take care of the rest.”

You nod, passing Harper the radio. “I have to get back, Bellamy’s supposed to meet me soon.”

“Be safe.”

“See you tonight.”

You slip out from the hidden alcove and heab back to the arch, jogging quickly though the halls to reach it before anyone realizes that you’re gone. As you step out into the sun, and move back to your spot, you see that Bellamy is already there, waiting, hands on his hips, eyes searching for you. You slow your approach, telling yourself to be casual, and smile as you near him. “Did you bring my snack?”

He turns towards you, eyes narrowed in suspicion as he answers, “No. Where have you been?”

“Looking for you actually. I need help picking the guards for my team. You know a lot of them better than I do, and I don’t want to take anyone that you and Monty might need for security.”

He loosens up, “Oh. I can help you with that, but it has to be later. We have more important things to do now.”

“What’s going on?”

“Not here.”

He grabs your arm, leading you through the camp and inside, down a few hallways, until he pulls open a door, revealing a small room with a row of lockers along the wall, and a large radio set up on the wall opposite of you. He closes the door, and turns to you with a serious look. “Pike found a bug in his office.”

You feel the satisfaction of being right, and the relief from already warning Kane, which makes it easy for you to feign surprise. “What? Where?”

“Underneath his desk.”

“So Kane’s been listening all along.”

He nods, “Looks like it. But Pike has a plan. We pretended to plan an attack, and we talked about it openly in front of the bug. We’re gonna watch Kane, and the others that we suspect, and see if they try to sabotage the attack. If they do, we have our proof.”

“I’m a little hurt you conspired without me, but I’ll let it slide since this might solve the Kane problem once and for all.”

“There wasn’t enough time. I wanted to come get you, but Pike’s eager to get this handled.”

Something about his explanation is too similar to the one he gave you weeks ago when they tried to attack the army. You get a sneaking suspicion that these aren’t Bellamy’s words, but Pike’s, fed to Bellamy to create a sense of urgency so that he won’t have enough time to contemplate what Pike is asking of him. “I get it.”

“Good.”

He walks towards the radio, pulling out a chair, and motioning for you to sit. You do and he pulls out the other chair, plopping into it, before reaching forward and turning on the radio. “Monty, come in.”

“I’m here.”

“Anything yet?”

“Not yet. He’s just sitting outside and reading.”

“Let us know if anything changes.”

“Copy that.”

He leans back and you look at him, “What now?”

“Now, we wait.”

-

It takes a few hours before you hear from Monty again, and you and Bellamy spend the time talking about the details of Pike’s fake plan to capture the traitors. You pretend to act impressed and surprised, despite knowing all of it already. When you finally hear from Monty, he sounds excited. “Bellamy, you were right. I've got eyes on Kane.”

Bellamy turns to you, keeping eye contact as he lifts the radio and asks, “Anything suspicious?”

“Yeah, he's got something going. And I think Sinclair's part of it.”

“Copy that. We'll stay on Sinclair.”

As time passes, you feel your nerves building, becoming more aware of how much hinges on Sinclair getting arrested in time. You turn to Bellamy, prepared to make him suspicious. “You said the plan hinges on the rover, right?”

He nods, so you continue, “Well Sinclair’s an engineer, what if he’s going to sabotage it? He’d know exactly what to do.”

You see the realization pass over his face and he lifts the radio again. “Monty, what’s Sinclair doing now?”

“Heading into the hangar bay.”

“The one with rover one?”

“Yes.”

“He’s going to sabotage it! We’re heading that way.”

You and Bellamy run out of the room, heading towards the rover. As you hurry there, Bellamy grabs a handful of guards, and when you’re just outside the room, he turns to them. “Go inside, act casual. On my command, we’ll take Sinclair in.”

The guards all walk inside and spread out in the room, some talking to other guards inside, some just standing there. You and Bellamy walk inside, going straight for the rover, and as you come around the corner, you can see a pair of feet just underneath the vehicle. 

Bellamy nudges you, motioning across the room, where Kane sits, reading a book. You give Bellamy a nod, playing along, before turning to the rover and asking, “Sinclair, what are you up to?”

He slides out from underneath the vehicle and looks up at you and Bellamy. “Raven said the solenoid’s acting up, so I thought I'd swap it out.”

Bellamy gives him a doubtful look. “You got a work order for that?”

Sinclair stands, nodding, “Sure... I think it's on my desk.”

He stands there for a second, looking between you two, before he abruptly takes off running, trying to escape. Bellamy nods towards him, commanding the guards, “Go.”

They descend on him quickly, cornering him until two of them can take him down and cuff him. You and Bellamy walk towards Sinclair, and Bellamy keeps his eyes locked on the man. “There is no work order and there is nothing wrong with the rover, though if you had another ten minutes, I'm sure there would be.”

You sense movement and you glance up, meeting Kane’s eyes, who gives you the smallest of nods. He stands and slips out of the room, as Bellamy charges Sinclar. “You're under arrest. Charge is treason.”

Bellamy walks out of the room, and the guards follow, dragging Sinclair with them. He leads your group through the Ark, towards an abandoned room used for small meetings, and motions to the guards to take Sinclair inside. He looks at you, expression unreadable, “You should go get Pike, I’ll see if I can get anything out of him in the meantime.”

“Be right back.”

You turn and walk towards the Chancellor's office, confident that you won’t miss anything, because Sinclair won’t say a word. When you reach the office, the door is open and Pike is inside, pouring over maps in front of him. You knock and he looks up, waving you inside. “Ready to tell me about your team?”

“Yes, but that’s not why I’m here.”

“Later then. Why are you here?”

“We arrested Sinclair.”

Pike stands, already reaching for his jacket so he can follow you. As he steps towards you, you add, “Bellamy took him to a room to question him, but we caught him trying to sabotage the rover.”

“I should have known Sinclair would be with Kane.”

He follows you from the room as you lead him back to Bellamy and the others, and when you step inside, you see that Hannah is now there, standing near Sinclair. Bellamy is leaned against the wall by the door, arms crossed, and Pike walks right to him. “Anything?”

“Not a word.”

Pike walks over to Sinclair, and you and Bellamy follow him, stopping to stand at his right, while Hannah comes around to his left. Pike reaches into his pocket and pulls out the bug from his office, placing it on the table in front of Sinclair. “Perhaps you'd like to talk about that.”

He leans forward, inspecting it closely, before leaning back again. He shrugs, “Never seen it before.”

“Really? I thought you engineers like to take credit for your work.” He turns to Bellamy, holding out his hand. “Give me your gun.”

You and Bellamy exchange a look, both thinking the same thing. He’s about to shoot Sinclair. You shake your head slightly, urging him not to. Whether it exposes you as a spy or not, you don’t care, because you’re not about to watch Pike kill Sinclair for something he didn’t even do.

But Bellamy pulls out his gun anyway and passes it to Pike. You drop your hand to the knife that stays strapped to your thigh, ready to grab it if Pike aims the gun at Sinclair. Instead, he turns it around, using the end of it to smash the listening device into pieces. You let out a quiet sigh of relief, moving your hand away from your weapon, trying to fall into a relaxed stance again. 

You feel Bellamy sag with relief, before turning to Pike. “He'll talk eventually, let's put him in lock up.”

Hannah steps forward, glaring. “He's a traitor. On the Ark-”

You turn towards her, looking at her in shock, trying to figure out if she’s suggesting what you think she is. Pike confirms it when he finishes, “We would have floated him. But we're not on the Ark. Lock him up.”

The guards pull Sinclair to his feet and drag him from the room, straight to the prisoners. Straight to Lincoln. You feel relief flow through you when you realize that the plan is on track. Pike turns to you and Bellamy, “See if you can get me more. I want Kane. I want this handled.”

You and Bellamy reply in unison, “Yes, sir.”

You turn and leave first, eager to get away from Hannah, who seems a little too excited at the prospect of killing her own people, treason or not. Bellamy is right behind you, jogging to catch up. You decide to push the boundaries with him for a second day in a row, too bothered to stop yourself. “Was Hannah serious in there? Float him? Are we really going to kill our own people?”

Bellamy gives you a confused look, brows pulling together. “Of course not. You heard Pike, we’re not on the Ark anymore.”

You nod, but say nothing, still unconvinced. You sense that Bellamy is about to say something up, when a guard comes around the corner up ahead, smiling when he sees you. “Kane’s looking for the two of you. He’s by the bar.”

“Thanks.”

You glance at Bellamy before you continue down the hall, muttering, “Wonder what this is about?”

“Not sure. But maybe he’ll turn himself in.”

You nod, “Yeah, maybe.”

As you walk into the room, your eyes immediately find Kane, standing in the place you last saw him in. He’s staring at the unsabotaged rover, expression blank, and he doesn’t turn when you stop beside him. Bellamy turns to him, shaking his head. “It wasn't much of a plan, sabotaging the rover. Keeping an eye on Sinclair was an easy call.”

Kane turns to him, shocked. “Was it? Spying on your friend, that was easy?”

“People here in camp are losing focus. There's a threat outside these walls-”

Kane cuts him off, “The threat's inside the walls! Can't you see that? Pike's turning us against each other.”

“He's the Chancellor. Have you forgotten that?”

“No. No, I haven't.”

“Then do the right thing.”

“That's the problem. No matter how I look at it, I am.”

“Really? Because the way I see it, Monroe died because of you.”

You shake your head when he says it, still disagreeing, watching as the two men go back and forth.

“And now Pike's locked up Sinclair. You don't think he'll be the next to die?”

Bellamy gives Kane the same confused face he gave you, genuinely convinced that killing his own people isn’t something Pike would do. “Of course not.”

“Think about where this ends. Half the camp behind bars while the other half starves. People won't stand for it. They'll turn against Pike. But by then it'll be too late.”

“Pike has a plan.”

Kane shakes his head, “Pike's always got a plan, and it's always the same one. Take the fight to the Grounders. That's what got Monroe killed.”

Bellamy sneers, “You're crossing a line, Kane.”

“No. No, I crossed it. I asked you here because I hoped you'd both join me. It's still not too late to choose the right side.”

Bellamy sets his jaw, the muscle in it clenching, giving away his feelings even though the rest of his face is blank. “That's exactly what we came here to tell you.”

Kane shakes his head, turning on you. “You think Mount Weather affected you? The guilt from pulling the lever, the despair you felt when you couldn’t stop the assassin. That’ll be nothing compared to the guilt and despair you’ll feel after you help Pike lock up and kill your own people. You think you’re doing what’s best for us, but you’re killing us. All of us.”

The words hit you hard, the truth in them a little too powerful. But that truth is the same reason you agreed to be a spy in the first place, and it’s the same reason you’ve stayed on Kane’s side the entire time. Still, Bellamy doesn’t know that, and he doesn’t know that you’ve been a traitor to the cause from day one, so he steps between you and Kane in your defense. “You don’t get to say stuff like that to her. She helped keep us alive when you were the one that sent us down here. She runs straight into danger if it means keeping our people safe. She’s made the hard decisions for our people when you couldn’t, something that you don’t seem to understand.”

“Don’t I? Why do you think I’m trying so hard to get through to you? I’m trying to keep you from making the same mistakes I did! Floating our people, your mother and her father among them, sending all 100 of you down here, the Culling, those were all hard decisions that I made for our people, and I hate that I made every one of them.”

Bellamy lets out a harsh laugh, disbelieving, before he turns and abruptly walks away. You watch him leave, unsure what to do. Kane whispers, “It’s almost time. If he won’t help us, you have to find a way to get away.”

You jog after Bellamy, catching up with him quickly as he stalks down the hall, pissed. You reach out and grab him, pulling him to a stop. “Bellamy, wait.”

He spins, letting out a scoff. “Can you believe him?”

“What if he has a point?”

“What?”

“Hannah says we have enough food stores for two weeks, and that’s with rationing. How exactly are we going to get through a blockade, especially one that’s being enforced by 12 different clans? We’ll starve.”

“Pike said he’s working on it.”

“Is he? Because to me, it looks like he’s working on locking up our own people.”

“They’re breaking the law! Going against our Chancellor.”

“Funny, I’m pretty sure we did the same thing on more than one occasion.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“Because we were doing it for our people.”

“Right.” You shake your head, tired of arguing. “I’m gonna go get some air.”

You see Bellamy’s face fall, aware that you’re starting to slip away. Little does he realize these are the very things you’ve wanted to say for weeks, but couldn’t. You hate arguing with him, but it’s the only thing that will give you enough time to steal a shock baton and meet up with Kane. It’s the only thing that will give you enough time to fix this. 

His voice is soft, almost pleading. “We'll be in that room I took you to earlier, the one with the radio? Bryan is gonna meet us there, said he had some news about the security of the camp. You should meet us there.”

“Okay.”

You turn away from him, mind already distracted from the fight, and now on your next task: Pike. But before you make it down the hall, Bellamy calls your name. You turn to look back at him and he whispers, “I love you.”

You feel your heart constrict, and you try to ignore the hurt expression on his face. Maybe you’d never agree on Pike, and Bellamy would always believe in what he was doing for him. Which is exactly why you needed to deliver Pike to the Grounders, and save him from himself. “I love you more than the stars.”

You see relief on his face when you say it back, and you have to force yourself to turn away and continue on your earlier path, instead of running back to him and trying to fix things. Because you know that getting rid of Pike is the best way to do that.

As soon as Bellamy can no longer see you, you run through the halls, tearing through the building and out into the evening air. You check for the position of the sun, realizing that it’s nearly time, and you run to the armory and slip inside to grab a shock baton. You attach it to your belt and head back towards Kane, stepping inside just in time. “Pike is almost here, hide behind the rover.”

You do as he says, stepping into the shadow of the rover and peeking through the windows to watch as Pike comes inside the room with a handful of guards that spread out and block the exits. He comes to a stop right in front of Kane. “Marcus. I hope you're ready to negotiate the terms and conditions of your surrender.”

Kane ignores the jab, and starts, “On the Ark, you taught your students about the promise of our future. About the responsibility our descendants would bear when they finally set foot on the ground.”

“We didn't start this war. But you can be damn sure I intend to finish it.”

“What happened to you, Charles?”

Pike gives Kane an incredulous look. “You committed treason! You acted against your own people! Don't stand there and try and take the high road with me, it's demeaning.”

“I did nothing wrong.”

“Nothing that I can prove yet. Sinclair will give you up, it's only a matter of time. It's over, Marcus.”

“Is it?”

Right on time, the alarm sounds, ringing loud in the space, repeating, “All available guards to lock up.”

Pike looks at Kane in surprise, turning to yell to the guards, “Go!”

You watch as they all run from the room, leaving Pike alone. You pull out the shock baton, holding it by your side as you creep around the rover towards the two men. “I don't suppose you know anything about this?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.” 

Kane nods and you light up the baton, the sound loud enough that Pike turns to face you. He starts to lunge towards you but you press the baton into his side, holding it there as he cries out in pain and drops to his knees. He looks up at you, surprised to see you, and before Kane knocks him out, he mutters, “You left us no choice.”

As soon as he hits the ground, you pull open the back of the rover, and Kane helps you load Pike inside. He zip ties him to a pole in the back, as Harper’s voice comes through the radio at Kane’s side. “It worked. We're clear. The guards have their hands full.”

You check the ties as Kane grabs his radio and asks, “Is the gate open?”

“Waiting on you. Cargo locked and loaded?”

You look at Kane and nod, and as you close the back, he answers, “Affirmative. On the move.”

You run to the driver’s side and Kane takes the passenger's seat, both of you sliding inside as quickly as possible. You start the rover and fly out of the building, cutting across the camp in the shortest path possible, even if it means you aren’t following the roads. As you reach the final stretch of road that leads to the gate, feet left between you and the outside of the walls, a row of guards jumps into your path, right in front of the gate. Kane yells, “Stop!”

You’re about to run them over, acceptable losses, when you realize the guard right in front of you is none other than Bellamy. You slam on the brakes, stopping feet from him, both of you staring at each other as he points his gun at you. You can see the surprise on his face, but you ignore it and yell, “Get the hell out of the way, Bellamy!”

But he doesn’t move, just stands staring at you. You watch a look pass over his face, one you can’t identify, and he starts to lower his gun, but it’s too late. The guards have caught up now and they yank the doors open, pulling you and Kane from the seats and slamming you into the side of the vehicle. You push back against them, pissed at their aggression, pissed that you failed.

They press into you harder, pinning you against the vehicle, leaving you no room to move. You turn and lock eyes with Bellamy, your gaze never leaving his as they pull your knife from your holster and drop it onto the hood beside the shock baton. They start to cuff your hands together and you fight them, until you feel more guards join the mix and hold you in place.

As soon as they have you restrained, they pull you away from the vehicle and lead you back towards the building. As you pass the back of the rover, Pike stands and watches, now free from his restraints. He smirks, “Should've killed me yourself.”

His smirk and his amusement at your failure make your blood boil, and weeks of anger, hidden deep so it wouldn’t betray you, bursts free. You let out a scream of rage and run towards him, slipping out of the two guards' grip as they reach for you. Even with your hands cuffed behind your back, you want nothing more than to hit him, so you put your head down and run towards him, hitting Pike in the stomach with your shoulder, knocking you both to the ground.

Somewhere nearby you can hear Kane and Bellamy yelling at you to stop, but you ignore them, only focusing on your rage. You scramble to your feet and pull your leg back to kick Pike, but before you can, you are tossed to the ground by one of the guards. With your arms behind your back, you can’t catch yourself, and you hit the ground hard, rolling along it. The guards descend on you and when you try to fight them off, they fight back, hitting every inch of you that they can reach. All you can do is curl in on yourself and try to protect your middle. 

You hear Bellamy yelling, seconds before the guards all stop. Two of them yank you to your feet as Bellamy moves into your line of sight, concern written in the lines of his face. “Are you okay?”

You turn and spit blood, the metallic taste thick in your mouth. “Fantastic.”

Before he can check on you further, you are pulled away, dragged through the camp as you continue to fight back, kicking and dragging your feet, giving the guards a hard time the entire way to the interrogation room. When you reach it, you can see that Knae is already inside, and the guards pull you to a stop at the door, each standing beside you and making sure you don’t go anywhere. 

Pike, Bellamy, and Hannah walk by a few minutes later, none of them looking your way, but you can see that Bellamy is struggling with this, his expression distressed, his shoulders sagging with the weight of the world. 

You don’t know how long you wait outside, unable to hear anything going on in the room, but when the doors finally open and Kane is led out, his head is held high, but you can see the sag of his shoulders, like a weight is bearing down on him. He turns as he is led past you, and whispers, “Don’t fight it.”

And something about the defeat in his voice makes you sick. His guards yank him away, muttering, “Quiet.”

You are led inside, and your eyes scan the room, looking for Bellamy. He is standing near Pike, but half hidden in the shadows of the room, and you can see the shock on his face. You feel fear build inside of you at the uncertainty of your fate, but you set your jaw and lift your head high, letting your anger carry you.

You are shoved down into the seat, and the room is so silent it’s deafening, as Pike just stands there, looking at you. For the first time, you can see emotions on his face, something other than the blank, unreadable expression he normally wears. You still can’t tell what it is, but it seems like two emotions are warring for dominance. Finally, he steps forward, pressing his palms into the table, one of the emotions now victorious. “How did you know? How did you know the plan was a trap?”

You realize that he looks bothered, bothered at the idea that you outsmarted him, even if you did fail. He adds, “You weren’t in the room when we laid it out, and Bellamy says you were by his side all day, and that there’s no way you could have told Kane after he told you.”

“You’re not the only person who played chess with my dad.”

He lets out a short laugh. “Of course. The one time I beat Jake was with a Lasker Trap. I should have known he would teach you.” 

You say nothing, your eyes looking back to find Bellamy’s, whose gaze is locked on his feet. “What would your father say about you now?”

Your gaze snaps towards Pike, the cooled anger boiling to life again. “My father got floated for doing what was best for his people! He knew what it would cost him, and still he did it.”

You give him a look of disgust. “Though I do wonder, what would he think of you? A man whose only interest is feeding his own ego and saving his own skin.”

“Everything I have done has been for the people in this camp!'' His voice echoes in the room, and you see Bellamy jump slightly at the volume. 

“If that was true then you would have walked out of camp this morning with those riders and ended this blockade.”

“Like when you gave up that boy Finn?”

“Finn gave himself up to save his people. He knew that his death would give us peace with the Grounders.”

“Until their Commander left you in Mount Weather.”

“You still don’t get it. Lexa made a deal to save her people, and broke our alliance, but she still upheld our treaty for peace. Everyone of us inside Mount Weather could have died, but the people left behind in Arkadia would have been safe from the Grounders. We had peace for months before you came along! You ruined everything, and you manipulated Bellamy to do it. Used his pain to blind him to anything other than revenge, and then used his influence to get yourself elected. You think you’re better than the Grounders, but you're not. You’re worse.”

“Enough.” He glares at you, clearly bothered by your words, and you lean back in your chair, as he continues, “The terms of martial law and of the Exodus Charter give me both latitude and ultimate authority in determining your punishment. Miss Griffin, for the crimes of treason, kidnapping, and attempted murder, I hereby sentence you to death.”

You hear ringing in your ears as soon as he says the words death, but you’re careful to keep your head high and your expression blank. Bellamy steps forward now, into the light, his expression one of anguish as he tries to argue, “Sir.”

Pike holds up a hand, stopping him, before glancing at the guards behind you. “Take her.”

You look towards Bellamy, and he meets your gaze for the first time since you entered the room. Any anger you had for him dissipates, now nothing more than disappointment. Because despite everything, you know that Pike used him, and even if Bellamy never realizes that, you tried. You tried to tell him, you tried to save him. As the guards pull you to your feet, you whisper, “How will you carry this, Atlas?”

You see his face fall, and he lifts a hand to hide the tears that start to fall from his eyes. You allow yourself to be led from the room, through the halls and straight to lock up. Kane, Lincoln, and Sinclair stand as they see you coming, watching your approach. You are pulled to a stop outside the door as the guards work to release your restraints, and Gillmer stands at the door, smirking at you. “I always knew we couldn’t trust you. Being a traitor runs in your blood.”

You don’t think, don’t process what you’re doing as you pull your head back and slam it forward, smashing it into Gillmer’s nose. He immediately pulls an arm back and punches you, fist smashing into your eye, pain exploding in your vision. You hear Kane and Lincoln yelling in protest, but their cries go ignored as the guards pull the door open and shove you inside, the force of it knocking you to the ground. You turn and look as Gillmer glares at you, clutching his nose as blood rushes between his fingers, and you return his earlier smirk with one of your own, “Need a bandaid?”

He launches towards the door, ready to pull it open and drag you out, but the other guards pull him back, yelling, “Let it go, Gillmer!”

He shrugs them off and storms away, and you watch on in amusement, letting the moment distract you from the fact that in less than 24 hours, you’re going to be executed.

-

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BTHB masterlist (completed)

Other Notes:

Because of the AI scraping going on on Ao3, I’ve decided to lock my works to registered users only. This was a bit of a hard decision to come to, since I know there are a lot of guest users who enjoy my fics, but I absolutely do not want to risk AI scraping. I hope I get to turn this off someday, but in the meantime, I feel like requesting an invitation to Ao3 is the way to go

[coreastories]

hi just a random question but how often do you post HAHAHAH cuz it seems that you post nearly everyday and for the quality of your work that's really cool

I was stunned when I realized I wrote 11 Corea News/Corea Fiction over 7 days since the finale. I mean wtf. 🤣 That was the most prolific I've ever been in my entire life.

I think I posted Monday and Wednesday this week. And today I haven't posted anything, so am I going into a MWF pattern?

It depends on the current fandom news and what I've got. I mean even if I posted MW so far, I posted several times on those days, right. 😆

It also depends on whether I've procrastinated enough on my work and I'm up to my eyeballs in deadlines.

Check everyday! Check the pinned post for updates. 😊 I hope that's ok. I can't do a fixed schedule. 😅

[blazehedgehog]

Favorite web comics?

I feel like I’m slowly falling off reading webcomics, namely because all the ones I used to read are either getting long in the tooth (read: bad) or were retired.

Like, for example, I started reading Power Nap because the art was a cut above every other webcomic I was reading at the time, but that was 8 years ago, and in that 8 years Power Nap has only gotten more confusing and harder to follow. Some of that is because the comic deals with dreams and dream logic, which almost never makes sense, but there have been things out there that did the dream logic stuff without being too confusing (Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland). Power Nap is one of those things where I never feel like I know what’s going on, even when the creators try to explain it, and those explanations feel more like cleanup than clarification.

My favorite right now is Gunnerkrigg Court, which probably needs no introduction. The pitch for Gunnerkrigg has always been “it’s sort of like Harry Potter” but there’s so, so, so much more to it than that, to the point where it’s hard to sum up everything that’s gone on in a single sentence.

The best way to describe it would be to say it’s a coming-of-age story at a magical school, where magic is almost treated as incidental. In a way, it’s more about teaching the science behind magic, and the battle between the two. This then feeds in to more than one huge conspiracy about the nature of the school itself. Every new page has left me on the edge of my seat for months now.

I read a (sometimes NSFW) comic called Flipside that’s… alright. It’s sort of a guilty pleasure for me in the sense that I’m never quite sure if it’s THAT good or not. I’ve probably been reading it for close to a decade at this point and it definitely has a lot of high points and good moments, but there are long stretches between those moments that feel a little slow. It’s coming off an absolutely huge story arc right now where the main cast of characters has been split up in to three groups for, like, 15 chapters (six years of story!) and to be honest it kind of lost me at some point because it spread everything out a little too much. I’ll probably keep reading it out of habit if nothing else. 

It follows an odd character named Maytag in her adventures through a magical world. It’s very anime. It’s been slowly building up to what may be the final climax of the story, which is a confrontation with a villain (?) called “The Thin Man” and the fact he uses magic to mutate people. Given it’s run for like 15 years, that’s about the best summary I can give, because it’s gone a lot of places (horror, romance, action, fantasy, etc.).

I also read Oglaf, which is extremely NSFW. It’s just an oddball sex comedy webcomic usually set in the medieval times. That’s the long and short of it.

I liked Johnny Wander for their autobiographical comics, but in the last few years, they’ve been posting a variety of different stories instead. All of them are great, but not all of them are connected. This isn’t edge-of-your-seat drama and action like Gunnerkrigg, but it’s usually a fun slice of life thing, even if that slice of life thing involves black magic or whatever.

Cucumber Quest is great, even if I can’t always tell where it’s going. I like my stories to have a point, like, to say something and I don’t know if Cucumber Quest does that. It’s sort of a riff on the cutesy JRPG plot, but done in such a way as to nullify a lot of the stakes. The villain secretly isn’t a villain, and the good guys are just kind of meandering around beating all of his lackies… and for what? I don’t really feel any stakes, or any progression towards a point to it all. But the characters are fantastic, the art is fantastic, and Gigi (the author) has done other really good stories, so I’m sure it’ll go somewhere in the end, even if I can’t see it right now.

I very nearly swore Prequel off after it spent over two years developing a single update, but things have started moving again. It’s essentially a Homestuck-like comic where users enter “commands”, except this time it’s following a Khajit from the Elder Scrolls universe. It can be a little hit and miss, and like I said, some of these hiatuseses are ridiculous, but it’s enjoyable enough, and it just finished a major story arc.

Whomp! is a comic that comes and goes for me. By that I mean it keeps a pretty consistent update schedule, but the content can be a little too depressing for me. It’s kind of meant to be dark that way, but sometimes you catch things around the fringes that kind of makes me worry for the author. He had a long string of comics last year about being out of ideas and needing help and then it went on hiatus for a while. I hope he’s okay.

Finally would be Kill Six Billion Demons. I only read this comic in a very specific way, though. It’s written like a traditional comic, which means the MWF format ends up being kind of confusing for me to follow. There’s a certain kind of density to the dialog sometimes, and when you read just one page every other day, it’s easy to lose the big picture of what’s being said (this might also explain my problems with Power Nap and Cucumber Quest, which may be improved by reading them all in one big chunk).

So when I read Kill Six Billion Demons, generally I’ll read it in chunks. I binge-read the story up to the most recent chapter, and then sat on it for like three years, waiting for more pages to fill out. Last year, I read up to the most recent chapter, and now I’m waiting for more pages to fill out again. And it kills me, because Kill Six Billion Demons is amazing.

Heaven has become corrupt and is locked in a power struggle; God appears to a sorority girl and is meant to transfer his power to her boyfriend as his heir, but she ends up with God’s power instead and gets tangled up in a war for the afterlife and all of the strange celestial beings involved. The art is incredible, the story is intensely interesting, it’s just all around one of the best webcomics out there right now.

[thesebrokenboys]

Told the Professor of my Tuesday/Thursday class i would dress up for his class every day of October. Only reason i’m not doing the full month is i work MWF before classes, and can’t wear a costume except actual Halloween. Today’s Closet Costober costume is: Jughead Jones from Riverdale. Hope you guys like it!! I’ll update pictures every week leading up to Halloween when i’ll post my final picture!!!

[haydenstudiesblog-blog]

My first official notes post! Okay, so my plan was to use OneNote this year for my notes, then copy them down by hand. However, I've discovered that all but one of my classes really allows me to use my laptop in class. I'm a little upset about it, because honestly this is the first time I've been in this situation (I've always hand-written notes and when I FINALLY decide to jump on the laptop-bandwagon, of course this happens!). However, I have a solution. I've decided to embrace hand-writing my notes in my classes. The BLUE notes are the ones I take in class during lectures. The BLACK are notes I took from the book. I chose to do it this way because it's easy for me to get bored during class so I use fun colors to keep myself engaged. I enjoy reading and all of my required readings this semester are relatively interesting and engaging, so a normal black pen works fine. So. I have 2 3-subject notebooks, both the same color (green was all they had). I chose this method because I have a total of 6 classes. I have 3 classes on MWF so one notebook is dedicated to them. I have one night class every Monday and then I have 2 classes on TTH so the other notebook is for those 3 classes. Each class has a different colored pen dedicated to it, and I indicate that in my new planner in the front. I also use those colors to write down assignments, due dates, tests, etc. I use a plain black pen to take notes on readings. I write them in my notebooks. Then, during the next class, we usually discuss those readings/get a lecture on them, SO I use my colored pens to take my lecture notes directly after the reading notes, so they're all still together. I'm hoping this will make studying easier, but obviously I have yet to test out this theory (classes have only been going for a week). Also I want to add that one of my classes uses PowerPoint presentations, so I am printing those out with 3-4 slides on a page to leave room for note-taking. I'll probably get a folder to keep all of them in. Then, once we move on to the next chapter, I'll either rip out my notes on that chapter's reading and staple them all together with the PowerPoints OR just leave them in my notebook and put tabs for each chapter so they're easy to find. Sorry for the long ramble, I just thought it'd be fun to update on my note-taking.