#however this also caused Notifications on her end

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

What an encouraging message to see :)

[kakashisbabymama218]

lol so this ended up being wayyy longer than i expected, just under 3k

Also, not edited so hopefully there aren’t many mistakes! If so I’ll fix it when I wake up cause ya girl is sleepy lol.

You can read part 1 here

you were barely halfway through your shift when you feel your phone vibrate in your pocket. you decide to ignore it for now, instead getting back to the task you were working on.

its ten minutes later when you're able to take your break, you head out towards the parking lot, seeing your car parked in the middle of the sea of cars and walk over towards it, unlocking the door and sitting down in the drivers seat.

you pull your phone out from your pocket and open it, noticing a new text message from katsuki. your fingers instantly click on the notification only to see its a video he sent.

you remember he said something about going to a party with eijirou and denki and figure its just a video of the three of them drunk off their ass and yelling into the camera or something like it usually is.

however, when you click play it doesn't take long for you to realize that this is not anything like the normal videos you receive. your eyes widen instantly and your head snaps up, looking back and forth and even behind you just to be safe, making sure no one else is in the parking lot before your eyes are dropping back down to your phone just in time to see katsuki pushing his pants down on his hips and his cock springing free.

your mouth waters at the sight, your legs squeezing together instinctively, eyes glued to the phone. you swallow as he takes his length into his hands, letting his hand drag up and down his dick and your ears perk up at the sound of him groaning softly in the background, hands instantly moving to turn the volume up all the way, wanting to hear each and every sounds that falls from his lips as he pleasures himself.

his thumb rubs at his tip, smearing the precum that dripped from his tip along the purplish tip and you can practically taste him on your tongue.

katsuki lets his dick go, and you watch , eyes moving along with it as if hypnotized, as it bounces up and down softly before settling. movement above catches your attention and you watch as katsuki begins racking his nails up and down his stomach, something you know he loves when you do it to him.

the hand that isn't holding your phone moves down to your legs, rubbing your thighs as you continue to watch katsuki touch himself.

you jump the first time he says something, not prepared for him to talk.

“fuckkk pretty girl—” and shit he already sounds so fucked out and he's barely even started.

your hand begins to slip inside the waistband of your pants, wanting nothing more than to give throbbing clit the attention its begging for when the quiet rumbling of an engine pulls your attention away from the video, your head raising as you see a car pull into the spot directly next to you and you immediately click out of the video, pulling up a random app you have on your phone as your cheeks heat up at the fact that you were really about to play with your pussy in the parking lot of you job.

after a minute or two you glance over at woman in the car next to you, wishing she'd hurry up and get out already so you can keep watching the video, but she's looking down at her phone and you can tell she's not going anywhere anytime soon. you let out a groan and look around the parking lot wishing she parked literally anywhere else.

your damp panties cling to you uncomfortably and you squeeze your legs together to get some sort of friction to your throbbing clit, silently reminding yourself that you are in fact in public so you cant actually make yourself cum.

the sound of a car door opening pulls you from the ache in your pants and you see the woman getting out of her car, closing the door behind herself and walking in the direction of your job.

alone again, you do another quick sweep of the parking lot, making sure there's no one around before your clicking back over to the video.

“wish it was you bouncing on this dick”

and fuck so do you, you wanna feel the fullness you feel everytime you sink down on katsuki's fat cock, the stinging stretch you feel no matter how many fingers katsuki uses to stretch you out or how long he preps you for. he's just so... thick, that it always brings a painful kind of pleasure.

 “don’t worry pretty girl, imma come stretch that pussy out when you get off”

at the reminder of your job your head raises. you take your bottom lip between your teeth, debating.

you leaving early wouldn't really be that bad, you guys were overstaffed for it to be such a slow night, and you have complete faith in your coworkers that they can handle the rest of the night without you.

it doesn't take you long to make you're decision, you're completely exiting off of the video and stuffing your phone back into your pocket, not bothering to finish the video, you'll be getting the real thing soon anyway.

you head back inside of your job, going towards your managers office and knocking. after telling her some shitty excuse about having a family emergency and how you have to go you grab your stuff, calling out a goodbye to your coworkers before you back outside and speed walking to your car.

you know katsuki is at his place because of the message he sent you after sending the video.

this party sucks. going back home, come over when you get off.

luckily his apartment wasn't too far from your job and in less than ten minutes you're pulling up to the familiar building. you park and hurry towards the door, using the key katsuki gave you to let yourself in.

you take the stairs up to the third floor, not bothering with the elevator until you're standing in front of katsuki's door. you fumble around with your keys a little before finding the right one and pushing it into the key hole, twisting it until it clicks. You walk inside, toeing your shoes off at the door.

its dark inside, the only light inside coming from the small space under katsuki's bedroom door. you hear him curse before he's calling someone a shitty extra and you figure he's playing his game.

you make your way to the door, pushing it open, flooding the dark hallway with light. katsuki's head turns at the sound of his door being opened and a surprised look crosses his face. he turns his headset off and sets it down before turning back towards you.

he glances up at the clock on the wall above your head and back down at you.

"what are you doing here so early? I thought you didn't get off for three more hours." he says but you don't respond, instead you're taking his controller in your hand and tossing it onto his bed before crawling into his lap.

your hands tangle in his blonde strands as you press your lips into his. katsuki's hands find your waist, pulling you closer as he kisses you back, his tongue swiping against your bottom lip. your lips part instantly and katsuki doesn't hesitate, pushing his tongue into your mouth and slotting it against yours.

he tastes like mint with the lingering taste of weed and you moan at the combination, tugging on his hair as you grind yourself down against his growing erection, groaning at the clothing barrier that separates the two of you.

you pull away to mess with the strands of his sweatpants, untying them before trying to push them down. katsuki lifts his hips off of the chair, helping you pull his pants down enough to free his cock.

"you didn't answer my question" he says, watching you spit in your hand before wrapping it around his length. "what are you doing here so early?"

you don't answer, too focused on pumping him fast, your grip tight as you stare down at his cock.

he takes your jaw between his hands, squeezing your cheeks together and forcing you to look up at him. the hand you have wrapped tightly around his cock pauses as you stare into his red eyes, darkened with arousal.

"don't tell me you left work early just to get some dick. fuckin cock slut."

the words are mean but they're completely true, you did leave work early to get fucked and you were a cock slut— his cock slut.

"i saw your video" you tell him, as you begin moving your hand again, slower this time but your grip still just as tight. katsuki smirks.

"yeah?" he questions, tilting his head to the side. you hear him suck in a breath when you begin thumbing at his tip, smearing his precum the same way you say him do in the video.

"yeah. got so turned on i was ready to finger myself right there in the parking lot. probably woulda if someone didn't park next to me"

katsuki's dick twitches in your hand at the mental image of your spread out in the backseat of your car, fingers pumping in and out of your tight pussy as you watch him jerk off for you.

you let out a surprised yelp when katsuki places his hands on your ass before lifting you both out of the chair, he walks the few steps over towards his bed. he tosses you onto the soft mattress before pulling his shirt over his head, tossing it somewhere in the room.

he crawls onto the bed, settling himself between your legs, his head directly in front of your clothed cunt. he drags his finger up and down your slit, feeling the warmth even through the layers of clothes you have.

in one swift motion, he has your legs pushed up with your knees by your head, pulling both your pants and panties down at the same time until they're pooling at your feet, you kick them off the rest of the way, letting the drop to the floor as katsuki takes his place between your legs once again.

the first lick against your sensitive clit was too much, after being ignored for so long the pleasure of finally being touched is almost enough to make you cum right then and there. your back arches off the bed, hands yanking at katsuki's hair.

his eyes are focused on your face, watching as your mouth falls open in a long moan when he takes your clit between his lips and starts to suck and slurp at the bundle of nerves.

"shit katsuki—fuck" you grind your hips up against his face, one of your hands coming to push your shirt and bra up over your chest, freeing your tits to the cool air circulating throughout the room, knowing katsuki likes the cold. your nipples harden even more when the cold air hits them and you take one of them between your fingers, pinching and rolling the nub as katsuki laps at your clit.

it doesn't take long— it never does, not when katsuki is sucking on your clit just right—for you to feel the familiar tightening in your tummy, your toes curling as you moan out a pathetic broken version of his name. two of katsuki's thick fingers plunge inside of you, he doesn't give you time to adjust as he curls his fingers upwards, looking for that spot that'll have you screaming out his name in seconds.

he knows he's found it when you're crying out and trying to close your legs around his head. he focuses his thrusts on the same spot, over and over again until your back is rising off the bed completely and your screaming out his name.

he continues lapping at your cunt, drinking down every drop of slick that gushes out of you as you cum on his tongue. his fingers slow down but never stop moving as he helps you ride out your orgasm. you're panting by the time he moves his head from between your legs, instead moving to lay next to you on the bed, his hand stroking his cock as he spreads his legs.

"cmon pretty girl, want you to ride me" he says, licking his lips and patting his lap.

you swing your leg over his, feeling his hard cock under your cunt and you grind back and forth, hissing and letting your head fall against his shoulder when it rubs against your overly sensitive clit.

you lift yourself up as katsuki lines himself up with your opening. you moan out in unison as you begin sinking down onto his cock. katsuki has to stop himself from wrapping his arms around you, pulling you flush against his chest and fucking up into you fast and hard.

he'll let you take the lead... for now that is.

your hands find his chest, feeling his muscles under your fingers and you barely have to think before you're dragging your fingers up and down his pecks, letting them slide down to the tiny red marks on his stomach from where he scratched himself earlier at the party.

you lift yourself up on shaky knees, before sinking right back down, still not taking the whole thing inside yet but slowly moving down inch by inch.

"fuck kats', your so big'" you whine out when you finally take him in to the hilt. you feel so full, your tight walls clenching tightly around him as you let yourself adjust to the stretch.

katsuki tisks, thrusting up into you—hard. "thought i told you to ride me" he says with hard slap to your ass. you whine out again at the sting but lift yourself up anyway. you begin properly riding him, sliding yourself up and down on his length, grinding your hips against his, moaning as your clit rubs against his pelvis.

katsuki lifts his head off of the pillow and pushes his face into your chest, taking his lips and wrapping them around you nipple, one of his hands coming up to toy with the other one.

he can tell you're getting tired when your movements become sloppy, so he takes that as his que.

"hold on tight" he murmurs against your chest.

you barely hear him, grabbing onto his shoulders at the last second before your breath is stolen right from your lungs.

katsuki wraps his arms around your middle and plants his feet on the bed below him. he holds onto you tightly as he pounds into you, the sounds of skin slapping against skin immediately bounces off the walls at the pace he fucks you.

"ka— kat-suk-iiii fuckkkkk" you cant even think straight, the feeling of katsuki's cock plunging in and out of you rapidly must have your brain all jumbled because the only thing you can think of is dick dick dick dick dick, the word repeating itself over and over again in your head as you claw at his shoulders hard enough to draw blood, but katsuki barely even notices, too busy using you as a human fleshlight to worry about something as trivial as a few drops of blood.

he's close, dick twitching deep inside of your walls and he can tell by the way your squeeze him so tightly that you're close too. he slows down, dragging himself out slowly, leaving nothing but his tip in before snapping his hips forwards, knocking the wind out of you with each thrust, trying to hang on just a little long so that the two of you can cum together.

he flips the two of you over, laying you flat against the mattress with your head resting on the pillow.

"play with your pussy" he tells you, pulling away from you just far enough to let your hand slip between your legs, fingers ghosting over your clit.

"i'm not gonna last much longer" you tell him as you apply pressure to your clit, moving your fingers in circular motions.

"me— shit, me either" he tells you, hips stuttering a bit as you clench down tightly around him, fingers speeding up the assault on your clit. "gonna cum with me pretty girl?" he asks against your neck, his lips leaving a trail of fire in their wake.

"mhmm... yeah fuck"

katsuki pulls back, angling his hips and hitting your gspot head on. thats all it takes for you to cum, body convulsing as your orgasm crashes into you, your toes curling as katsuki continues to fuck your through your orgasm.

it doesn't take long before you feel his warm seed shooting deep inside of you, pushing further inside of your walls as katsuki continues to thrust into you until he's positive he's emptied his heavy balls inside of your cunt.

you feel as it begins dripping out of your hole the second he pulls out, flopping down on the bed next to you, breathing hard and sweating. he looks over at you, a smirk pulling at the corners of his lips.

he leans down and pokes your cheek "i can't believe you really left work just to come get some dick"

[kitkatkitzune]

MUSE

Pairing: Klaus Mikaelson x Fem!witch!reader

Summary: Always the artist, never the muse… until now that is… sorta?

Warnings: A tiny bit of Angst, Death, Mentions of painting with blood, Inconsistencies in the tense it’s written in (whoopsie)

Notes: First post of the new year!

After a lot of consideration I have decided that I am not going to be making a tag list at this point in time. I am simply not organized enough for it, maybe sometime in the future but not now! I’m sorry! If you’d like to be notified when I post you can turn on notifications… sorry again!

Word Count: 1.5k

———————

You hum as you walk around the Mikaelson home, stopping every few moments to admire the paintings hung around the house. Some of the paintings were incredibly old and some were only made a few years ago, and all of them had been made by the hybrid.

There was at least one of each sibling, Elijah, Rebekah, Kol, and even Finn. Freya had also gotten a painting after her return. However, there was someone missing.

There was not a single one of Klaus hung around the home, he wasn’t even in the large family portrait at the end of the hallway. You come to a stop in front of it, tilting your head in confusion.

You don’t get long to ponder the thought as a familiar voice cuts through the silence, “Admiring the artwork, love?”

Turning, you face Klaus with a small smile, “Yes, everything is so beautiful… you’re incredibly talented.”

He hums, taking a step backwards, “Come, I’ll show you my studio.” he beckons you to follow, holding out his hand for you to take.

After a moment's hesitation, you take his hand, allowing him to whisk you away to the art room. The room was isolated, far away from the rest of the rooms in the house. You could tell that this is where Klaus goes to clear his head, when he needs a moment to himself. You couldn’t help but feel honored that he brought you here.

He smiles, “Take a look around…”

You begin to look around the room, admiring the different paintings and drawings all around. Every one was unique in its own way but they were all so Klaus.

There were even paintings in blood, you assumed that the blood used had come from one of Klaus’ many victims. You hover your hand near the canvas, it was of an angel. Ironic. There was something about the painting that you couldn’t shake though, it looked so familiar.

“An angel of death? Since it’s in blood?” you question, quietly.

“Sometimes,” Klaus murmurs in your ear, causing you to jump, you had been too distracted by the paintings to notice how close he had gotten, “inspiration strikes at the strangest times, even while I’m slaughtering my enemies.”

“It’s beautiful…” you smile softly, tilting your head to look at him.

“It’s yours,” he says instantly.

“Oh Klaus, I couldn’t…” you trail off, your eyes catching another painting behind him.

You quickly move to the other side of the room to get a closer look, it was of you.

You look back at Klaus, who, for once in his life, looks a bit nervous, “You weren’t intended to see that yet…”

“You painted me?” you ask in a whisper.

Klaus smiles, regaining his confidence, “Well, I paint you quite often,” he makes his way to you in a split second, “Your beauty is something I enjoy capturing… although, no painting will ever compare to the real thing.”

Your face heats up a bit at his words and you sputter trying to find a response, Klaus however grins, responding before you can, “I don’t know if you picked up on it… but the frame on this was is the same as the other ones displayed, I plan to hang this one in the hallway with the rest of the family portraits….”

Your brows furrow, letting out a small laugh, “I’m not a Mikaelson, Nik.”

“No, but you practically live here, practically family at this point.”

“I suppose that’s true.” you let out a little laugh before frowning, “but what about you?”

“What about me?”

You roll your eyes at his question, “All these paintings, Nik, and not a single one of you.”

He smiles but you swear you see a flicker of hurt pass his eyes, “I’m the artist.”

“And?”

Klaus sighs, “I’ve simply never had the urge to paint myself… I prefer to paint other things.”

You knew there was a deeper meaning to his words and reading between the lines you were quickly able to figure it out. Klaus painted beautiful things, even in his most chaotic works there was beauty, whether it was landscapes or a pretty girl— he painted things he liked, things he loved.

His whole life, Klaus had felt like an outsider in his family, he was the half-sibling, the hybrid, the bastard child. He felt that he did not deserve to be painted, to be hung on the wall with his siblings, and you would make it your mission to show him just how wrong he was.

As it turned out, painting was a lot harder than it looked. You had gone through at least ten canvases over the past week, all containing painted scribbles of the original hybrid and you were growing increasingly frustrated. Klaus always made it seem so simple but it was anything but.

After numerous attempts at recreating his face and failing miserably, you decided to cheat.

There were spells for death, aneurysms, memory, you name it— there was a spell for it. It took time but eventually, you found one for painting. It helped you create a spectacular painting of Klaus. You use the term ‘help’ when in reality, the spell did most of the work.

You were ecstatic to show him the painting, holding the canvas close to your chest as you reached the art room.

“Nik?” you call out quietly, entering the room.

He hums, setting down his paint brush, he was working on a landscape painting. He turns to you, raising a brow when he sees you’re carrying something.

“I’ve brought you something…”

“You’ve got my attention.” he stands up from his stool as you hand him the canvas.

He flips it over and reveals the painting of himself, a small smile appears on his face. Suddenly, his brows furrow, causing you to gulp.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s excellent, love, I just wasn’t aware that you painted.”

“Oh,” your face heats up, “I don’t, not really… it’s just, you deserve a painting too… just because you’re the tortured artist type doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be captured and immortalized in art…”

Klaus surprises you by pulling you against him in a tight hug, “Thankyou.” he mutters, pressing a kiss to your head.

You freeze in shock but, after a moment you relax, “Of course…”

When he finally pulls back, he stares down at the painting before finally looking at you, “I know that you did not paint this though.”

“I- What do you mean?“

He clicks his tongue, “Artist, remember? I assume you used a spell, little witch?”

You sigh, “Well yes, but I just wanted to paint you and I couldn’t do it! It’s incredibly difficult! I tried my best but everytime I just ended up with scribbles!”

“Scribbles?”

“Yes! Scribbles!” you grab his hand, dragging him to your room to show him the failed paintings.

As expected, Klaus cackles at your failed attempts making you pout, “I did try!”

His laughter quickly subsides at your protest, “I know you did, it’s just… I think we should hang this one up,“ he holds up one of the paintings, “although, people may think Hope painted it.”

“Don’t be mean…” you cross your arms, looking away from him.

Klaus frowns, setting the paintings down, he approaches you and places his hands on your arms, uncrossing your arms, “I’m only teasing, I think that it’s quite sweet.”

Finally, you turn back and look at him, trying to hold your angry expression but fail. The two of you stand there for a moment in silence, just staring at each other until finally, Klaus moves. He dips his head, connecting your lips in a sweet kiss that quickly turns heated, his hands find their way to your waist and he pulls you flush against him.

You tug on his hair and he groans at the feeling, sliding his hands to the back of your thighs. He picks you up with ease, pushing you against the nearest wall causing a few things to rattle, including the painting made in blood. It fell to the ground, making you both break apart at the sound.

“That painting…” you mumble, out of breath, “It’s still so familiar…”

Klaus smirks, setting you back on the ground, “I thought you’d have figured it out by now…” he brushes some of the hair from your face, “It’s you, you’re the angel… I made that the day we first met. When you were surrounded by those vampires… and with a flick of your wrist all of their heads exploded, coating you in their blood. I had never seen a sight so beautiful…”

“That is… so messed up…” you breathe out, “but so hot.”

And with that, you grab his face and slam your lips to his. You truly were his muse, and he was yours… sort of?

Bonus!

You sit at the dining room table, coloring with Hope and Klaus. Rebekah was braiding Hope’s hair and Elijah sat at the head of the table drinking his coffee while looking over the newspaper when Kol came waltzing into the room.

Kol smiles, “I saw your new painting Hope, it’s lovely.”

Hope tilts her head, “What painting?”

Elijah answers before Kol can, “The portrait of Niklaus in the hallway.”

Your eyes widen and you immediately look at Klaus who is smirking at you.

“You ass!” you take the crayon you were currently holding and throw it at him, causing him to cackle.

“I told you I’d hang it up!”

[hannieehaee]

Hello, i thought about a seventeen reaction to another member scrolling through their phone and finding a nude of their soulmate<33

18+ / mdi

a member finding your nudes - 95 line

95 line, 96 line, 97 line, maknae line

wc: 1073

masterlist

n/a: i kinda went overboard and wrote too much so i only did 95 line. pls lmk if u want 96, 97 and/or maknae line :3

seungcheol -

its funny. you and cheol had snuck away from the movie night you had arranged with a few of the members and their significant others, leaving behind your things in the living room in order to sneak into your bedroom for a few minutes under the very unconvincing excuse of 'oh, i just have to help her find something'. that is how jeonghan ended up picking up cheol's phone from the couch, thinking it was his since cheol had insisted on jeonghan getting him one of his classic phone cases due to the convenience of the pocket.

cheol had left his phone unlocked as he had left to follow after you in a hurry upon seeing the bedroom eyes you were giving him, leaving jeonghan with full free reign over his phone. jeonghan quickly realized that the phone in his hands was not his, but also knew his best friend was currently ditching his own guests to go fuck his girlfriend (you guys weren't slick), so he decided to see if he could find entertainment some other way. what he didnt expect, however, was to find a folder full of explicit pictures of cheol and his girlfriend. he didnt mean to, but his eyes were now glued to the screen, with no willpower to stop looking.

a few moments later, a very disheveled cheol came out of the room before you ('baby, wait two minutes before coming out or it'll be suspicious), almost immediately catching onto a very focused-looking jeonghan staring blankly at his phone. thinking he could maybe tease his friend about whatever he was looking at, he snuck behind him to scare him, but caught a glance at what was actually his phone, the screen showcasing a collage of photos of you in less than favorable circumstances.

"w-YAH WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!", cheol whisper-shouted at his friend as to not catch anyone's attention. he snatched the phone away and put it in his pocket.

for once, his usually slick-tongued friend was left without words, staring at him with wide eyes. with perfect timing, you came out with equally disheveled hair, tilting your head in confusion at the scene of your boyfriend and his friend in a very intense staring contest.

"what happened?"

jeonghan -

as roommates, it was quite common for jeonghan and seungkwan to pick up each other's phones for simple tasks such as checking the time or ordering food. which is why jeonghan didnt question it when he saw seungkwan pick up his phone to order take-out. what he hadnt expected, however, was for you to message him right at that moment.

being his well-mannered girl, he assumed it was just the quick 'how are u angel ☹️🫶' you'd usually send him every day around this time, but he couldnt have been more wrong.

"oh, hey you got a text from- OH!"

okay, that wasnt the usual reaction one would have to an innocent text from your roommate's girlfriend. he quickly snatched the phone from the younger's hands, curious as to what caused his reaction. upon inspecting the screen, he found his friend had not only seen, but had accidentally swiped up on an imessage notification detailing you half naked in bed, with 'miss uu angel <3 mwuah' attached to it.

jeonghan had no time to be turned on or even react to your message (which would usually be endless strings of heart eye emojis begging for more pics) and yelled at his friend, panicked.

"YAH! why'd you swipe up?!"

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT. NEVERMIND I DONT WANNA EAT WITH YOU ANYMORE!", his friend yelled back, flabbergasted and flustered at having seen his friend's seemingly sweet and innocent girlfriend's body in a way he never imagined.

although also kind of embarrassed, jeonghan felt a sense of pride at his friend's flustered state and ran to his room to text you back.

joshua -

always being on the go and surrounded by the total chaos of staff + his members, it wasnt unusual for joshua to occasionally misplace his phone. despite being an idol who liked to keep his privacy as hidden away as possible, misplacing his phone around his coworkers was not something that ever bothered him, thankfully having never dealt with leaks or anything of the sort.

today was no different. in the middle of shooting for the concept photos of their new album, joshua had forgotten to take his phone out of his pocket before his turn for solo pictures began and was suddenly nudged by mingyu, who had just finished his turn, to hand him his phone so he could hold it for him in the meantime. not thinking anything of it, joshua easily hands over his phone and signals to the photographer that he's ready to begin.

while joshua is busy posing for the camera, mingyu walks into the other room, joshua's phone now in hand. he decides to put it in his pocket before taking a seat in the waiting room and playing around with his own phone. that is until persistent vibrations coming from his back pocket suddenly distract him. thinking it might be some type of emergency coming from shua's friends or family (or else they wouldnt be as persistent), he decides to unlock shua's phone with the passcode he's seen his friend use before, not expecting to find notification's from shua's girlfriend, almost completely in the nude. and multiple ones at that!

flustered and slightly aroused, he quickly puts the phone away, shaking his head rapidly to get himself out of his trance. he feels terrible as soon as he realizes he just violated shua's and his girlfriend's privacy, but hey, it was an accident. he's going to keep this to himself, he decides, without realizing you and shua keep your read receipts on, and your messages would remain unresponded until joshua took a look himself.

hours later, now in the car on the way back to the company, joshua finally checks his phone again, noticing a few messages from you. oh. pictures. nice. wait. there's also you spamming him about leaving you on read. but when did he do that ? he knows he'd never pass up an opportunity to respond to you when you're needy and seeking his attention, specially when you send him pictures.

sitting across from him, mingyu watches worriedly as he sees all stages of realization hit his elder's face, waiting for him to realize.

"YAH! MINGYU, YOU-"

n/a: not proofread </3

[elitadream]

Hi guys~! ⛅👋

Long time no see! Much longer than I ever intended, in fact. Truth be told, I wanted to make a public post sooner, but I've had a lot to catch up on in terms of notifications and messages since logging back in a few days ago. I've also made some changes that I will address shortly, but first of all I wanted to thank those of you who have reached out with so much care and understanding during my absence. Adjusting has been a slow and fragile process for me -still is-, and I sadly haven't responded directly to everyone yet because of it, but I wanted to say how much I appreciate your patience and support nonetheless. 🥹 🙏

Long story short, I was gone for five months due to a huge burnout, then progressively found my spark again somewhere along the way and have since mostly recovered. It was my wonderful friend @drones-of-innocence who reached out to me outside of Tumblr, and her sense of initiative is largely the reason why I managed to make this post in a somewhat reasonable delay. 😅💖 With that said however, I must also mention that I've deleted a lot of stuff from my page and have removed most of my work from the public eye as well. This may seem quite drastic and frankly a little unsettling, but I assure you that it was a thoroughly considered and reasoned decision! The thing is that I was still getting lots of notes on these drawings everyday and… To put it simply, I didn't want that anymore. 🙇‍♀️ Experiencing popularity was very detrimental to me in the long run and I needed to put an end to it for the sake of my own wellbeing; at least for now.

Which brings me to my next point.

After mulling it over for a while, I've decided that I would not be returning as an active creator in the Mario community this time around. 👐 Making fanart for this franchise (with such a high and continuously maintained degree of involvement) had a lot to do with my health's decline and I've come to realize that I wanted to direct my focus elsewhere going forward. For that reason, there are things which I know will never be repeated again in the future, both in regards to my art and online presence in general, but that's alright. Things change, as they do and should. I'm looking forward to reuniting with folks and would be very happy to stay in touch with those of you who wish to message me privately. Like my lovely pal @istadris said, what matters most about any fandom are the friends you make in it. ☺️

And speaking of which-

@ody-and-fanatu That's so sweet of you, thank you! 💗 I'm glad you've enjoyed my contribution to the fandom. It was fun while it lasted! 💫 My visual ideas may be gone from my page, but most of my written posts and replies are still there for anyone who wants to revisit those at least, so there's that! And I'd also like to answer some of the asks I still have in my inbox at some point. Knowing that you hold my art in such high regard makes really happy! 🥰 Unfortunately, the other account that I have is reserved for my professional work and I prefer to keep them separate from one other, but the good thing is that I intend to go back to this blog occasionally. Hoping to see you around! Cheers! 🥂

@heiressofdoodles Thanks, I appreciate that! ✨ I'm honestly doing much better than I was earlier this Spring. Back then, I was running on empty and on the verge of crashing without even knowing it. Being in constant physical pain was one thing, but feeling mentally and emotionally drained on a daily basis was another entirely, and something had to be done. It took me a moment to really figure out what was wrong, but thankfully I realized very quickly what was causing it and applied the breaks with all my might. One of my main priorities now is to be more alert and respect my own boundaries to make sure that this never happens again. 🥲

@keakruiser Thank you. 🙏💐 I'm just glad to have found my footing again. Feels good to be able to create freely.^^ Hope you're doing well too!

Special thanks also to @pianokantzart, @jelly-fish-wishes, @katlyntheartist, @triniji and @wahooitsamee for their kind words. 🫂 Your graciousness and consideration means a lot to me. 💝

As for all the nice people who sent me anon comments and well wishes, I tried to summarize my thoughts as best I could in this update, but if there's anything else you'd like to say or know, don't hesitate to ask me anytime! Now that I feel like myself again, I think I'm gonna hang out on Tumblr for a little bit. I'll be excited to see what you guys have been up to in the meantime! 🤗 Wishing you all a very good day and pleasant Fall. 🍂

-elita 🌸

[maleyanderecafe]

A Double Sided Mirror (Visual Novel)

Created by: Glass Berry Studios

Genre: Horror/Romance

This r18 game is very well put together, especially in the quality of it's assets. This game is entirely voice acted, though in Spanish and it is a joy to play through. I think between the two "forms" I like Charlie a lot better than I like Charles since I really love softer and shyer boys. If you like this game you can check out more of them at @adoublesided

The story starts out with a call between Charlie and his sister, Lucy. Lucy seems to have had a nightmare while Charlie assures her that it's not her fault. Lucy seems to feel guilty that if she had not done what she did, Charlie wouldn't have to deal with such horrible things. Lucy apologizes for calling Charlie late at night, with Charlie mentioning that he has a date in the morning, causing Lucy to freak out a bit, stating that he's not ready to go on dates. A myserious voice explains that it's the reason why Charlie didn't tell her, with Lucy responding negatively.

We cut to the MC the next day wondering about their date. It seems that they have broken up at least fairly recently. They end up meeting up at the mall and wait for their date, however, after a while, it seems that he is never coming. Out of annoyance and anger, the MC ends up going to a cafe nearby and ordering something to drink. After waiting and talking to a scary barista named Cameron, she walks up to them and gives them cake, along with a note. It seems that the cake was bought by someone in the cafe, as Cameron ends up pointing at and it's the person that the MC was supposed to be on a date with, with the note apologizing for being too shy to talk to them.From there, the MC can either decide to talk to him or be creeped out.

If the MC decides to meet up with him, they'll huff about how late the date is and goes to talk to him. He is, first and foremost extremely nervous to see the MC, even telling them that he was trying to get the courage to apologize.

If the MC reassures him, he will start getting happily flustered before the MC starts eating the cake. The MC expresses their appreciation and offers to give some to him as well. He gets flustered as there's only one spoon and gets even more so when the MC feeds him suddenly. He basically gets so nervous he has to eat some drugs to calm down, though when the MC apologizes, he mentions that the drugs are for a condition he's had for a while. The MC wonders why he didn't tell them about his condition, with him stating that he didn't want to think that he was weak and not want to go out with him (which sidenote, that would make me want to go more out with him because bulliable and I like weakness in my men, anyways), which the MC reassures him about. He thanks them as no one has ever said that before, before the MC offers to go on another date with him. They also ended up eating all the cake much to their surprise. Before leaving, he has a big outburst wanting to exchange numbers. They also don't know each other's name as the app makes the two of them exchange nicknames for safety reasons (which seems weird but what do I know about dating apps), and the two introduce each other, with him introducing himself as Charlie. The MC rides the subway back, but while there sits next to someone who is very creepy. The MC feels extremely uncomfortable and panicked and leaves as soon as it hits their stop. When getting back, they are spooked by the sudden notification from Charlie before going to check the fridge, seeing that it's empty. After wishing that they had some more of that cake, the world seems to glitch before the MC notices that a cake did seem to be in the fridge the entire time. They end up eating it before bed and texting Charlie before going to sleep.

If they feel instead off about the situation, they'll talk more sternly to him, not even sure if he is the date at all. He will prove it by showing them their profile, but as they wonder about how they knew where they were after the date, he will then transform into a more confident version of himself. The MC seems to not remember what happened, but as he flirts with them, they realize they didn't tell him that they're not really interested in dating at the moment but rather just meeting new people. When they do tell him, he seems to be amused at the fact that they would think that's bad. When the MC does ask him on another date, he goes back to his shy version again. The story then continues as above.

If the MC is creeped out, they'll realize that it's very strange that he'd know where they were, considering that the cafe was pretty far away from their original meeting place. The MC becomes paranoid that he's been following them around and feels fear of what he could do. They end up throwing away the cake and confronting him, talking about how they waited for a long time and that a cake isn't enough to fix this issue. The guy starts shaking before the MC basically tells him that they never want to see him or interact with him again. The MC then leaves, becoming increasingly paranoid that he is following them and rushes into a nearby bookstore. Once there, someone mistaken them as a bookshop employee before coming back and asking if they are alright. The MC can then decide if they want to tell him or not.

If they decide not to, he will leave, leading to the MC bumping into someone else (who looks kind of like Charlie). He apologizes and notes the MC's behavior. To bring their mind off of their other date, he offers to buy them something near the food court. The MC seems to reject sweets at the moment as it reminds them of Charlie, so instead opts into eating something spicy. The guy ends up buying some spicy wings for them instead. After eating, the guy tells the MC that he actually did seem them in the bookstore and wanted to talk to them, but ended up bumping into them before actually figuring out a way to do that. He introduces himself as Charles and the MC asks for their number, to which he hesitantly says the he left his phone at home, asking for them to instead write down their number so that they can call them later. When getting back, they are trapped in a downpour, but Charles ends up bumping into them and offering them his umbrella for them to both be under. The two of them end up talking, with Charles mentioning that he was using this an excuse to not go to his family's gathering and to hang out with the MC. After some more light flirting, the MC ends up in their apartment, texting Charles before bed and going to sleep.

If they do tell him, the guy will help try to get them away from Charlie and even offers to walk them home. He introduces himself as Jeremy and promises to keep the MC safe. While doing so, we are interrupted by a not very happy creature (presumably Charlie) before going back to normal. As the two of them walk out of the mall, the MC and Jeremy hold hands (out of safety). The MC is able to arrive at their apartment safely and gets a text from Jeremy who asks if they are safe. After this, they notice that they've forgotten to buy food as the fridge is empty and goes to sleep hungry. Before falling asleep they notice that someone (Charlie) seems to be crawling up from the foot of their bed.

I just have to say first of all that this game is really well made for a demo, from the voice acting to the cameos in the backgrounds, to the UI and sprites, everything looks very polished. The more jump scary horror scenes are really good too, with the one where Charlie at the foot of the bed actually making me flinch because I wasn't expecting it. One of the more minor issues I do have is with the trigger warning screen and only because having to open up the game over and over again and having to wait a minute for the trigger warning to finish is pretty tiring. I would have liked it better if perhaps there was a way to skip it on second viewing by clicking on it. This is a pretty minor thing compared to the rest of the story going on.

In this game there are seemingly two yanderes, Charlie and Charles, who are the same person, but are able to change appearance and personality. From what I can tell, Charlie/Charles are closer to being an entity that is trying to become human that is attached onto Charlie. Charlie seems to be the dominant personality of the two as he's not only the first version we see in all routes but also the one we see calling Lucy in the beginning. From what I can tell, the personality/appearence tends to change into Charles when Charlie becomes majorly uncomfortable, as seen when he does turn into a more confident version of himself as well as when we end up seeing Charles after rejecting Charlie. It's likely related to the pulls that Charlie ends up eating in one of the routes after he starts shaking really badly. It does make me wonder if the Charles personality can suddenly appear if something happens, or if Charlie's personality would basically be gone for good. It would also explain the sudden change in his eye color and general appearance as his clothes also change pretty drastically (at least in terms of style, not so much clothing colors).

To no one's surprise, I like Charlie more than Charles because god he's so cute when he's shy. I actually streamed this game to @meo-eiru and we both agree that while he needs to get an outfit change he is way too adorable. The voice actor did a good job making him very shy and changing into Charles or when Charlie becomes a more confident person. From what we can tell Charlie seems to have stalked the MC for a while, even knowing that they went to cafe, but too shy to have actually talked to them, even knowing what kind of cake that they would like. He seems to have some sort of power as well that's shared with Charles, being able to change reality in some sort of way, either by changing his appearance/ personality, but also manifesting items as well, like when the MC wished to eat the cake that Charlie had gotten them only to find it glitched into their fridge. Like I said, Charlie seems to be the "base" personality of the character, likely affected heavily by whatever Lucy did to make him this way and seems to change under stress. So it could be possible that this is some sort of DID, however, it doesn't explain the glitches in reality that tends to happen in the game when it does happen. Most of the time though, we were both like go back to Charlie every time he became Charles. Stay Charlie, you're really cute.

Charles on the other hand is more closer to standard yandere love interests in these types of vns, being a lot more open and flirty with the player and confident. He does have his cuter side to him as well though like when he was spreading his arms excitedly when talking to the MC. Much like Charlie, we do know that Charles does follow the MC around as when he coincidentally was near their apartment when they go home in the rain as well as just bumping into them into the bookstore, though we don't know to what extent Charles and Charlie know of each other. He is at least aware enough that the MC does not want to see Charlie again, thus has to pretend that he's left his phone at home as to not let them know that they actually matched on the dating app. Apart from that, we don't really know too much of the extent of his yandere actions, at least not in the game, since we don't know exactly how much of it intersects with Charlie. We also learn from him that he's not on best terms with his family as he has been avoiding his family reunion, which does sort of make sense considering the interaction we see in the beginning where Lucy (from what I can tell) doesn't react too happily with Charles's response.

Conceptually in the game, there are a lot of mysteries that have been set up already, from Lucy and Charlie/Charles's relationship to who exactly Charlie and Charles are, to what's going on with all the glitches in the story to who if Cameron is going to get killed or not, so we'll have to see what will happen in the future. I do like the concept of yanderes that change depending on the player's actions (because I'm not biased at all as my game, Perfect Love, also does something similar) since that leads to a lot of possibilities. It's already pretty well made from what we see in the demo, so I'm sure it'll be something great to see whenever the full game is finished.

Overall, good game, with an intriguing mystery and well made. Charlie is the best boy and I hope I get an ending where I can kill him with my bare hands (lovingly or otherwise). I would recommend playing this game if you are interested in it.

As a bonus, have a meme that @meo-eir made after playing the game.

[jynxpsiche]

Not Tangerine already planning on fathering reader's baby as his won, cause hey, the baby also has blue eyes so he can totally pass of as their son.

Also imagine if the real dad ever shows up and tries come back into the baby's life and Tangerine is all conflicted cause he loves the kid as if it's his own son :/

OH MY GOD THANK U SO MUCH ANON FOR REQUESTING THIS! LITERALLY CHEF KISS! We love a jealous Tangerine <3

Unwanted texts

💌. Summary: unanswered texts from her, lead Tangerine to meet someone he already despised…

or

…Tangerine meets the baby’s biological father for the first time.

💌. Warning: SWEARING. LIKE A LOT! Jealous Tangerine, female reader, canon gore. English is not my first language! I don’t know many British slangs!

X

c’mon babe

I just wanna meet the baby

be there for them, y’know?

pls answer me

It’s been already a couple of days and sometimes, during different hours of the day and night, your phone would ding with notifications…from him.

Your ex boyfriend.

The biological father of your precious baby.

The whole situation pissed you off. Firstly, when he found out about your pregnancy, he decided to leave without an explanation and leave you alone. Then he had the nerve to message you after god knows how many years.

It was ridiculous. He was ridiculous.

But obviously you couldn’t ask for any type of help from Tangerine.

He was quite the protective type, especially if the main cause was a shitty ex-boyfriend.

Surely he would have gone feral if he found out about your ex’s sudden texts. That’s why you decided to keep the thing for yourself and just…ghost him.

But who would have known that you would end up calming down a rather irate Tangerine?

However, it’s important to start from the beginning.

It was a day off for Tan, which meant that he would have spent the entire day with you and his little one. But since it was still too early to get up, for now he simply drank in your warmth and cuddled your body closer to his, without waking you up.

The curly man was affectionate only with his girl and his baby, neither to his brother he showed this side of his. He wasn’t ashamed of it, he just had a reputation to defend.

His chin was placed on your head while you were all nuzzled in the crook of his neck. His strong and bulky arms were tightly wrapped around your waist, not allowing you to leave. Not that you wanted to.

Only your soft breaths echoed through the room. But the peaceful atmosphere was interrupted by the ping of a notification. The sound made him grimace, but not waking up from his slumber.

Then another ping, closely followed by another and another one.

Now Tangerine was fully awake, his half-closed eyes glaring at the device on your nightstand. When he noticed no more ding’s came from your phone, he softly pecked your forehead before trying to fall asleep again.

But then again. A new message.

Groaning softly, Tan lifted himself from the bed, before pecking your forehead again and assured that you didn’t wake up.

He was not standing on your side of the bed, the device on your nightstand calling for him to check what had interrupted his sleep.

With a furrowed and irritated expression, Tangerine unlocked your phone, noticing new messages unopened. They had been sent just a couple of minutes ago.

He quickly glanced at your sleeping figure, a strange feeling bubbling in his chest. His expression furrowed more when he saw the contact’s name. X.

Who the fuck was that?

But he surely was took by anger when he read the multiple messages he sent you.

He wasn’t only a dickhead, but he was also the biological father of his son.

His bloodshot eyes read every line and every word of every message he dared to sent you. His fingers gradually tightening their grip around the device.

The another ding. Another message.

X

I know ur reading the texts

ur online

u finally have the courage to read what I’ve been sending you

u stopped ghosting me huh?

God you’re such a bitch sometimes…

His vision darkened at the last text he sent, nostrils fuming with rage.

X

I want to see the kid

Meet me here

Xx xx xx, xx

“Tan? You good?” Your sleepy and raspy voice reached his ears and immediately he turned towards you, his furious expression never leaving his face.

You noticed, of course. Slowly you rose from your spot on the comfy bed and lazily dragged herself up to his tense figure, wrapping her delicate arms around his waist.

A soft kiss on his back.

“What is making you so tense?” You whispered against his skin, your hands gently rubbing his sides. Tan slightly crocked his head in your direction, his brows still furrowed. A sigh left his lips.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He instead asked with a low tone laced with rage. “Why did you hide it from me?” His tone showed how he strongly demanded an answer.

“I could have handle it. I simply didn’t answer his texts to show him how an insignificant being like him should be six feet under. To show him how he was a nobody to me anymore.” Your tone was flat, laced with venom, finally expressing all your suppressed rage.

His expression immediately softened at your words, his brows relaxing and the wrinkles on his forehead disappearing. The tails of his mouth slightly raised in an almost visible smile.

But you noticed it.

When he turned in your direction, his hands on your waist, his lips left a soft peck on your forehead. His face was calm and so close to yours.

“I’m goin’ to take care of him. Don’ worry.” He whispered, his soothing voice sending you in a sleepy mood. A light yawn left your mouth. He chuckled at your reaction.

“Now go to sleep love.”

After you fell into another peaceful but deep slumber, Tangerine got to work.

With Lem’s help (after calling him for twenty minuets straight, the poor man was sleeping) he managed to find the phone location and so the location of the fucker.

It was now 3:45 am and Tan was alone in a desert neighbourhood. Silence was his only company at the moment.

He stood still in front of an apartment complex, his eyes fixed on a specific window while the cigarette in his hand slowly burnt.

With a flick he tossed the small nicotine stick and put it out with a stomp of his foot. His lips were curled into an annoyed curl.

Silently, he climbed the fire escape with big steps and in a blink of an eye his shadow was printed in front of the covered window, blinds hiding the inside.

But a faint light from behind them immediately caught his attention, a sadistic grin creeping on his moustache.

His hand grabbed the gun from his pocket and he shot the window’s lock, allowing him to access to the apartment.

Frantic, disconnected noises echoed from inside. Tangerine knew the fucker heard him.

Only when he entered he was met with a younger, dull man, his face pale and his eyes wide from fear. “Who…who the fuck are you?!” He half shouted, his voice cracking a bit.

The man wanted to show his composure so bad, show him how collected and tough he was. But in reality, he was shitting in his pants.

With great strides, Tangerine approached the trembling man, his pistol clearly visible. “‘s not important, is it? Wha’ is important is why you fuckin’ harassing my love with your insipid messages.” He spat out in a hard tone, his rigid stare piercing the man’s soul.

The man’s eyes frantically wandered around, he is searching something to defend himself thought Tan. Quick pants from the man often broke the silence in the room.

He took a step back, his hands shaking uncontrollably. His body language was visibly betraying him. “Just…the fuck you want from me?!” He continued in a fake authoritative voice.

Tangerine held his face high, communicating how he was in control. Slowly his arm raised and he pointed the gun in the man’s forehead.

“I want you to delete her number, to forget about her and the baby and to never contact her again.” He stated with calm rage. His tone extremely sharp.

When the man was the pistol pointed at his head, his confident mask fell, his eyes filled with tears and his still standing posture crouched on himself. Shamelessly he nodded his head at every request, his voice dead in the back of his throat.

Suddenly, Tangerine shot the man in the leg and he stumbled back. A cry came out from his mouth.

“This’s your last warnin’.”

[lizzychanstuffss]

Remembrance: Love and Deepspace AU

Au premise: So, what if mc actually remembered everytime she's reincarnated, and what if she regrets the choices she's made in every single reincarnation and is finally using this timeline to try and fix it once she realizes this might be her only chance. But she is entirely unsure if the boys remember their past lives with her, so she must navigate all these feelings along with judging if they remember too. AN: I just really need to write this and get it out of my system cause it's been in my mind for months now. Also, I am gonna write routes for each guy so if you only want one you can just read that lol. Also consider this a apology if you were disappointed by Zayne's MS branch don't worry pookies I got you!!! Also some of this is my own lore to fill in the gaps! Not proof-read I just need this first part out to the world.

Zayne x mc | Zayne x Y/N | Angst | Like mc is hella depressed | mc has a breakdown | hopeful ending | Route: Zayne | Other Routes

Chapter 1: Zayne Prologue

The sun always seems to shine in Linkon, some clouds dotted the blue sky. Holding up a hand to your face to block the beating rays you took in the site of it for a moment before continuing on your way to the Hunter's Association. There was nothing all that special about your walk, there really never was in truth. Although there was a thought, maybe even a hope that you would come across one of their faces in the crowd. But even then, that wouldn't fix much of anything you knew that.

Eventually, your feet carried you to the building housing your work, the Hunter's Association wasn't anything special. But it was, comfortable you had just become a hunter nearly 3 months ago now and you were already settling into this mundane life of what would fit an office worker. But that's not what you are you're a hunter this should be more exciting, shouldn't it?

However, you didn't have long to ponder anything as Captain Jenna tapped on the corner of your glass desk a faint smile on her lips.

"Y/N, do you have a moment?" Jenna's voice carried an air of concern that wasn't uncommon for the woman but this time it seemed like that of a mother watching over her child. Moving yourself to better face her you replied.

"Yeah sure what do you need?"

"Well today I received a call from Akso Hosptial, from one Dr. Zayne himself, he asked me why you haven't been coming to appointments..." Her words ended in a sigh.

Before you could give an excuse she cut you off. "Nope I don't want to hear it, you're going to get your heart checked today I'm dismissing you for the rest of the day."

Your mouth started to open to respond but promptly closed knowing there was no use in arguing this or else you would have bigger things to worry about. "Fine" You kept your wording short before promptly standing to get your things ready.

As you gathered up your stuff a notification popped onto your phone, you paused knowing the ringtone you had set. Funny enough you set it so you know whose message to avoid if they texted you considering that you were about to see the man that this sound had been attached to you swallowed the dread and checked the message.

"Let me know when you get to the hospital I want to make sure to set aside enough to properly examine you"

A weak smile trailed across your lips 'Always the worrier' you let out a huff and then pocketed your phone to finish up packing the things you needed. You realized today might be a little less boring than others it seemed.

Eventually, you made it to the hospital and headed inside, stopping by the reception you checked in with the nurse.

"Ah Y/N? Please come with me Dr. Zayne asked me to bring you to his office once you arrived" She had the obvious hallmarks of a smile beneath her mask and you simply nodded to the woman as she guided you to the door of the chief cardiac surgeon, and also the man who happens to be your primary care physician.

Although not like those words mattered all that much to considering you've been avoiding him for nearly 6 months.

It hurt to see his face.

You thanked the nurse as she walked off. Hesitantly you knocked on the door and were met with a stotic-sounding "Come in"

"Hope I'm not intruding on anything?" Cautiously you opened the door bracing yourself to see a face that plagued your memories with it's haunting beauty.

"Not at all Miss Y/N..please take a seat and we can get started" He gestured to the chair in front of him as you closed the door behind you. Slowly your feet made their way over and you took a seat finally looking at him again.

He looked as beautiful now as he did then.

You adjusted yourself so you weren't just staring at him emptily "Sorry I didn't reply...I was busy getting things in order" Your words had a hollowness to them.

That was one thing you were glad for though, Zayne never pushed you to open up or even be closer to him than just a simple professional relationship. Which made these visits slightly easier all things considered, but even then it feels like someone is stabbing you in the heart when you look at his eyes and take in the reality of the situation you're in at the moment.

"No need, to apologize I assumed as much" You could tell he was lying, there was a hurt to his words that you had learned to read after all this time. Looking away from his face so you didn't have to dwell on painful thoughts for too long before you spoke again.

"No, I really should have said something....I really am sorry" You tried to let the words be, but even then there was something else they were tinged with. An undeniable sorrow, and underlying pain that you couldn't choke down this once. Zayne didn't get to his position for no reason you could tell he felt it the moment the words left your mouth.

He stayed quite a moment before speaking again. "Y/N...I think we should talk" He paused thinking over his words moment "And not as doctor and patient, but as childhood friends"

You hadn't noticed it until he was right in front of you, he had pulled up a chair to be beside you. Looking up at him your lip quivered.

No, he can't know, he can't make you break down like this, this isn't his to bear!

Your heart started to race as you realized he was rather close, that probably wasn't good for your porotcore syndrome but why did you care? Gently he places a hand on your shoulder giving it a reassuring squeeze.

It was true that you knew him as a child but that was before the memories started to truly connect. Before you knew what you had been experiencing. All the timelines and memories they were all you, you had done all these things and they had all done so much for you and yet you left them with the tragedy of your death or a scarce you could never even begin to repay.

Zayne was quiet, he could tell you were in your own head. Giving your shoulder another gentle squeeze before he reluctantly let go.

"I'm sorry....for everything" Was all you could manage to say to him, slowly you looked back at him. As expected he just gave you a confused look. Letting out a sigh you shook your head, as you simply accepted the man would have no clue what you meant. And maybe that would be okay in the moment. Even if deep down you wanted more, you wanted to take him into your arms and hug him tight. You wanted to cuddle and watch movies together.

"What are you apologizing for?" Was the next thing he asked, you then realized you were woefully unprepared for when one of them asked what it was you were sorry for. Scrambling for something to say you spoke without thinking.

"For being so distant as your friend! I-I'm sorry for everything In the sense that we've lost touch!" You managed to pull the worse excuse out of your ass. The one excuse that would make you face one of the people you've been avoiding head-on this entire time.

Zayne looked at you again his stoic expression held a subtle surprise "Well then, would you like me to drive you home in that case so we can talk?" He offered it.

You felt like you had no real choice in this, if you rejected you would look like a jerk, and considering growing distant is what you were apparently trying to avoid, even if it was just a lie to cover your true intentions. You couldn't exactly reject this.

"Sure that sounds great" You nodded a few times giving a weak smile.

Zayne nodded to you, a very subtle smile curving his lips as he then begun his examine on you.

And then suddenly in the first time in years now.

You felt that pain, that guilt subside for a moment.

[gayometer]

Hi! Sooo, I was browsing the # of snv/ror x reader and found your blog. - I loved! I was wondering if I could get some headcanons for Gods and Humans w/ a strong personality y/n? Like the idfg y/n, pls. Sorry for my bad english & kisses from Brazil! ^ - ^ [ btw, could you please tag me if you do? My Tumblr aren't showing me notifications those days T v T ]

Not tired, just doesn't care

Glad you like my blog! Your english is fine! Kisses from P.R. ❤

💚Ask💚

💚 @msnightmare777 💚

POSEIDON who tries his best to not show his frustration, how dare a mere human like you be so casual about him? It takes him a while to understand it's not disrespect it's friendship and you just have a strong personality, tough love if you will.

HADES who sees so many similarities between you two yet so many differences, you're not mean you can be pretty caring. But the way you so casually talk and even slap gods is amusing to him.

ADAMAS who tried to be all angry and grumpy with you but ended up being the biggest puppy. He comes to you when Hades isn't available, he doesn't know what it is but you kinda remind him of his big brother.

ZEUS who pokes fun at you just cause he knows you won't do anything, he doesn't try to "break" your facade and annoys you the same way he does Odin....by making you babysit him and essentially give him scary dog privileges.

APHRODITE who tries to get any reaction out of you, she isn't used to someone looking at her and not at least smiling.

HERMES who pokes you just for fun, he says it's to get a reaction out of you but we all know he does it for the funsies.

HERACLES who rants to you about anything that comes to his mind, he likes your strong personality and how you so casually talk to him, it's a breathe of fresh air.

ARES who started off with seeing you as a disrespecting mortal to then come to the conclusion that you're a glorified babysitter taking care of beings much older then yourself, including him.

LOKI who bugs you on a daily to try and get a reaction out of you, he obviously fails miserably but at least give him points for effort. He hasn't had this much trouble with a mortal since Jack bamboozled him about tea.

THOR who doesn't pay much attention to you, he doesn't mind your "attitude", high chance it's Forseti causing more noise about respect then Thor himself.

ODIN who much like Thor doesn't mind all that much about hoe indifferent you are however, unlike Thor he has limits. His crows are still the ones causing way too much noise about respect and shit, but if he does eventually get bothered by the "disrespect" he'll just get up and leave. He's not a child and can leave places if he feels like it, so shut up you two bird brains.

SHIVA who can and will make you join him and Rudra dance. He also tries to break your facade but that doesn't work. Shiva is pretty chill about most things but is still slightly irked that you have absolutely no reaction to being face to face with a god that uses the earth as his animal crossing island.

BUDDHA who just vibes under a tree with you, you both don't talk and just enjoy being close to each other.

ZERO who is basically your unofficial child, he's the only one who can make you break away from the tough love and "indifference" just by being himself.

BEELZEBUB who tries to keep his distance from you since he's afraid he'll get attached. He doesn't hate you, he just doesn't want to kill his new friend.

SASAKI who's normal cheery and laid-back attitude made you gravitate to him. His grandpa vibes give you more then enough comfort.

QIN who is adamant in making you his friend, no you can't escape him and the power of friendship shall be blasted upon thou.

ADAM who has the same nature and therefore doesn't mind, you're his child and that's that.

TESLA who took your silence as the greenlight to go on a rant about science and his latest inventions, you two have an odd friendship, he rants and you listen.

LU BU who normally wouldn't go out of his way to befriend some, but he hasn't had someone who doesn't run or worship him immediately in a while. Can you fight? Cause he wants to fight you.

RAIDEN who takes his time to stare at you, he yaps your ear off but he's also staring at you without blinking to make sure you don't "make a cute face" without him seeing....apparently it's not fair Thrud can see you crack a smile or giggle.

JACK who would normally stick to himself will try to socialize with you, he ended up enjoying you silent company and is one of the few who managed to get a smile and full sentence out of you.

[halfrican-heat]

Famous (E. Jaeger)

A/N: Yeah, I'm high. Hello. This is inspired by Halle and DDG as well as Rapper!Eren that I have been seeing on this hellsite. Keep 'em coming cause y'all bussin' that shit down. I think I was also, more specifically, inspired by some tweet collages made by SOMEONE on this side of AOT but Make it Black™ Tumblr. PLEASE tag them if you know who I am talking 'bout-- I think Eren's tag was "EJTHEDON" in the pictures...

Chile, anyway. Read this story lmao.

Warning(s): Angst; Cursing, Descriptions of flashing lights, Inspired by real events/Fictionalization of real events; Interactive fic with links

Disclaimer: All costumes and face claims are indicative of style and aesthetic not body type. I believe anyone can wear anything they are comfortable with!

Pairing: Rapper!Eren Jaeger x Actress!Reader

The flashing of cameras and rapidly clicking shutters helped ground you to the moment. You shifted, moving your long braids to one shoulder, and flashed a dazzling smile to your left. Paparazzi called to you, begging for your gaze to land on them. Interviewers shouted questions that you could barely hear. You had already done your red carpet interviews, so many of the questions being thrown your way now were for tabloids to pick up some kind of gossip fodder. 

You shifted again, opting for an over the shoulder glance to your right with a more demure gaze. Your floor length gown was elegant and aquatic, giving the illusion that you stepped out of the ocean and brought the water along with you. Despite your calculated poses, however, the excitement radiated off you in waves. This was it for you. The culmination of years of hard-work and planning and dreaming-- it all led you to this moment. 

The world premiere of your first feature-length film. 

You truly felt like you were riding a current and a part of you never wanted the feeling to end. You took a moment, stepping away from the carpet and the cameras, so you could catch your breath. Your manager, standing calmly to the side, handed you your phone and a bottle of water. She looked pensive as you grinned widely at her, but you chalked her cautious stare up to nerves. This was a big night. 

You scrolled through your notifications, swiping them off the screen as you looked for text messages from your loved ones. Your twitter was blowing up but you assumed it was about the premiere. You responded to a message from your aunt (she wanted to know how much longer you had on the carpet) and another from your best friend before receiving two texts, back to back, from your publicist. 

From: Shae Burgess (7:46pm) Eren’s song just dropped. Handling media coverage right now.  From: Shae Burgess (7:46pm) Don’t answer any questions about the song. 

You schooled your features, being sure to maintain an easy going facade so that no one with a wayward camera could catch you slipping. Obviously, there was something going on that you weren’t privy to. Now the potential for the paps to catch an off-guard image, and use it to fuel their tabloid bullshit, was higher than ever. You casually handed your bottle back to your manager, smiling though it didn’t quite reach your eyes. 

“Angela, what the fuck is Shae talking about?” You whispered, quirking an eyebrow. 

You showed her your phone, your features looking amused and humorous. She matched your energy, putting on a casual smirk as she leaned over to whisper to you. 

“Stay focused. Don’t answer any questions about Eren,” She said simply, her voice low. “We’ll talk before the showing. I’ll meet you on the other side of the carpet”

She gently ushered you back to the carpet, stepping aside as you posed for the camera. You felt comfortable under the flashing lights, ignoring the shouting from the paparazzi. You took your time, shifting as needed, and making sure your angles were right. This time, however, you weren’t super excited to be standing on the carpet alone. On the outside you looked calm and collected but on the inside? You felt vulnerable and uncomfortable. Still, you pushed through and gave the camera a seemingly effortless performance. 

From the corner of your eye, you saw your co-star walking to the carpet. 

Relief flooded you instantly. You crossed to Armin Artlert, smiling wide as you embraced him. He was your rock during the filming process, so seeing him at that moment felt like a saving grace. He met your eyes, his own colored with a silent question as he took in the apprehension in yours. You shook your head minutely, embarrassed that he could read you so easily. After months of filming, however, that was to be expected. So, he simply took your hand and talked quietly with you as the cameras captured images of the two of you. 

The paps and interviewers went feral at the sight of your hands linked together. Questions about the nature of your relationship were thrown left and right but the two of you ignored them like pros. Armin was a godsend during the filming process and helped you navigate the ins and outs of the film industry with ease. He advocated for you when you didn’t know how to and helped you find your own voice throughout the process. There were seldom few people who would support a black woman in such a way.

Armin Artlet was a true friend and you were thankful for him. 

You gave him another hug, preparing to part ways. He gave your shoulders a reassuring squeeze and you promised to save him a seat inside. An escort met you halfway across the carpet, guiding you through the flashing lights toward your manager. As you reached her, one pap’s question reached your ears over the others.

“Is your relationship with your co-star the inspiration behind Eren’s Jaeger’s latest diss track?”

The question made your eye twitch as you resisted the urge to ask him what the fuck he meant by that. Thankfully, Angela was a quick mover and a quicker thinker. She grabbed your arm gently, ushering you off the carpet as she popped off at the reporter.

“I hope you’re enjoying your evening,” She said, with a saccharine sweet smile. 

The reporter grinned, nodding excitedly. Surely, she believed she would get some special information.

 “Very much so! First red carpet event.”

Angela nodded kindly before her smile fell entirely, her eyes sharp and piercing. 

“Consider it your last,” She said icily. 

She caught a glimpse of the reporter’s name tag. 

“Have a good night Stacey.” Angela said firmly, hustling you into the event space.

She found a secluded corner, away from prying eyes and sneaky cameramen. You took a deep breath, rubbing at your temples. 

“Angela, tell me what in the hell that was about,” You demanded, glancing over her shoulder. 

You tried to control your features because anyone could be watching you from anywhere- trying to capture you in a vulnerable position. Clearly, there was something going on that you were unaware of. It was imperative no one caught you off-guard- thus feeding the damn rumor mill. That was the last thing you needed at the moment.

But apparently your boyfriend was really showing his ass this time. 

Your relationship with Eren had been the source for tabloid and media gossip since the beginning. Many people didn’t like the two of you together, not understanding what drew you to one another. They had an idealized image of you in their heads- a princess or a primadonna that shouldn’t be around the likes of him. The people who loved you, or thought they did, felt that Eren was beneath you. They claimed he was using you for relevance. Your self-proclaimed internet aunties didn’t like the company he kept and the girls closer to your age were either quietly jealous or outright haters. 

 No matter who they were, however, they didn’t know Eren like you did. So, you went out of your way to ignore the harsh spin they put on your relationship. At the 8 month mark, you had hoped the drama would die down. But today was proving you wrong in so many ways. Hopefully, it wasn’t a repeat of that time Eren’s homegirl Sasha tried to drag the two of you into her drama with her baby daddy, Connie- another friend of Eren’s.

You didn’t even want to think about that at the moment.

But maybe…the fans were onto something if Angela’s hesitation told you anything.

She sighed, her eyes filled with concern as she handed you her phone. It was opened to Twitter and you frowned seeing Eren’s handle, recognizing his latest album cover as his profile pic.

You clicked the link, confused as to why he would be releasing a song today. He didn’t mention it on the facetime call you had that morning. He seemed normal enough, albeit a bit distracted. Why wouldn’t he mention that he was dropping a single? In fact, you hadn’t heard from Eren since that call. He usually always sent you pictures of him watching the news coverage of public appearances he couldn’t attend or sweet messages to encourage you. You frowned, biting your lip.

 The spotify app opened, the song immediately beginning to play. You lowered the volume, holding the phone to your ear. Angela shielded you with her body subtly, trying to give you some privacy. 

The lyrics reached your ears, mortification settling into your veins. 

Hardest thing I ever did was fall in love with a famous bitch

The song filtered through the speaker, his words feeling like a punch in the gut. He detailed his feelings toward you, verse after verse. He outlined all his insecurities, placing the majority of the blame on you and your career. He questioned your love for him, asking if the men you work with turn you on. He cast doubt on your fidelity and your professionalism bar after bar. 

You took a shaky breath, your eyes stinging as the last lyrics rang in your ear.

Just because they filmin’ it, it don’t mean it ain’t wrong.

You handed Angela’s phone to her, closing your eyes as you bit back tears.

“You okay, sweetheart?” She asked, her voice soft. Motherly. 

It made you flinch. You didn’t need her pity or concern but fuck all if Eren’s song didn’t strike a nerve. When that bum ass pap mentioned a diss track, you never thought it would be about you. Still, it was not the time to fall apart. Not on a day you dreamt about for years.

So, you sucked those tears up and looked at her firmly. 

“I’m fine. That weak-ass shit is irrelevant. Today is about this film, this cast and crew and months of effort,” You said, your voice strong. “Let’s get the fuck back to work.”

You straightened your spine, heels clacking as you walked into the theater with your head high. You sat with your aunt, Angela and Armin as you tried to push Eren out of your mind. The day was about you. If Eren couldn’t respect that, if your job was too much for him, then…oh well. You took another breath, pushing the thought from your mind. He didn’t deserve your time or energy at the moment. Eren Jaeger was not going to steal this moment from you.

Still, as the lights went low and the screen came to life, you couldn’t help but send a quick tweet before putting your phone away for the rest of the night. The petty bitch in you deserved a moment to breathe, did she not?

After all, you weren’t the one to be fucked with. Eren would find out soon enough.

[dragonfirerogue-writes]

had a rough night yesterday so im basing it off that, hopefully you make its angsty and also fluffy

Wednesday x Reader

You and wednesday and other friends were hanging out, but suddenly you get a notification. you open up your phone to see someone that hasnt posted in a while, your Ex that has ghosted you for months and have never talked to again, hell you never even talked about breaking up as after a year of not responding to you, you assume that your relationship with them is over. Your previous expression drops as you feel despondent, you moved on but you were still hurt as they never even tried to contact you, never tried to talked it out with you.

and you can decide what Wednesday and the others reaction will be and how this will turn out, this is a personal turmoil of mine so i apologize on pushing this on to you and i hope you have fun writing this out

Better Days are Ahead

Wednesday x Reader

The day started out so well. It was a free day so you were out with friends. Wednesday was by your side, broody as ever. But among you and your friends, the aura around her was comparatively lighter. The others in your group were chattering away and you were content to just listen and bask in the company of good people.

A loud ping alerted you to a notification on your phone. You took a quick look, just to check what it was. The antics of your friends weren't to be missed and you wanted to witness tomfoolery. However, the name you saw turned a glance into a stare. Suddenly, everything changed.

Your ex's name. You had forgotten that you still had your phone set to receive notifications from them. It had been a year. A whole Gods forsaken year.

A year since they last spoke to you.

A year since they disappeared from your life.

A year since they ghosted you.

Your mind gets pulled back into the past. To happier, naive days when you and your then partner spent every moment together. In your eyes, you had it all. It was perfect. Nothing could pull you two apart.

Until one day, they were gone.

You had sent a text out, but never received a reply. Initially, you figured that they might've forgotten or got distracted. It happens so you weren't fussed. But more and more texts went unanswered. Calls were unreturned. Visits became nonexistent. Suddenly you're struck with the fact that they up and ghosted you. Left you alone without so much as a goodbye.

And it hurt.

The pain was near unbearable. Your friends witnessed it. The tears and sorrow that flowed out of you. The dark cloud that followed wherever you went. It was enough that even Wednesday was offering her services to dispatch your ex. You declined though. Having her near was enough. It took a long time, but you got better. You moved on with the help of Enid's positivity and Xavier's artistic distractions. Girls' Night began to involve you as Yoko and Divina gossiped your ear off. Ajax eased your nerves with his stash and his jokes.

And Wednesday? Her concern for you brought you back. As much as she didn't want to admit it, seeing you so down hurt her. It made her want to destroy the one who hurt you. She was willing to kill for you and it surprised her. When she mentioned it to you, you let out a soft laugh.

"It's like you like me or something. That's impossible though. I'm not worth it, apparently."

Suddenly you find yourself face to face with the goth.

"I will hunt down this cur to the ends of the earth for making you feel like this. You are worth more than one fool's opinion. You're worth even more than the opinions of your friends and you know they hold you in high regard. As do I."

That laid the foundation for your rise.

But now? The hurt returns. You can feel your eyes welling with tears. Your heart clenches in your chest. A frown pulls at your face and your energy drops dramatically. Even after all this time, they still affect you like this. The simple name before you caused this flood of emotions to overwhelm you.

Before you could succumb to the void, you feel a hand in yours. You look up and see Wednesday eyeing you with concern.

"Why are you in your head?" She asks. The question draws the attention of the others. With everyone's eyes on you, you just let out a sigh and show them the notification.

"My ex seems to be back. They just posted something. And, you know. Not a word to me."

The sudden uproar startles you. Xavier was standing, ready to storm off and fight someone. Enid growls and flexes her claws. Wednesday looks ready to release demonic energy. You take a moment to stare at everyone. They were all quick to defend you. Even the laid-back Ajax was fuming.

A smile blooms on your face.

The feeling of your friends and partner giving their support so readily made your heart swell. The pain of the past felt more bearable. It was still there, but you could ignore it now.

You feel a hand on your cheek and turn your head. Wednesday's eyes soften when they're on you, but there's still a danger in them.

"Cara mia, it will be nothing for us to hunt them down and force them to grovel to you. Just say the word."

You just lean in to give her a quick kiss and turn to the rest of your friends.

"They're not worth it. But if they ever show up..."

Almost everyone's grin turns sinister. It was a fascinating sight.

[akutasoda]

hello! may i request a dazai x fem! reader angst fic based on the song renegade by big red machine ft. taylor swift. this is currently one of my fav songs and as i listened, the lyrics somewhat reminded of dazai. particularly, dazai who was in a toxic relationship with reader, whereby reader feels burdened and emotionally drained because he has been consistently pushing her away when she wants to help him with his issues. over time, the 2 only become increasingly distant, eventually causing reader to break up with him, and only then does he realise how precious reader is to him because the thought of not having her by his side would only torment him in the long run. thus, he finally lets down the walls and facade he has always put up, showing his true self to reader who ultimately decides to stay with him.

also, i was the one who requested the ranpo x reserved! reader and i loved it so much! i've noticed that you like writing angst, so i hope you would like writing this too! i hope good days are ahead of you :)

do you know you're demolishing me?

synopsis - after shutting you out he realises he would be lost without you

includes - dazai

warnings - fem!reder(she/her pronouns), angst, slight comfort at the end, dazai's kind of scummy, wc - 933

a/n: im so glad you enjoyed! i do kind of like angst a but too much haha, i hope good days are ahead for you too! :)

sometimes when you're in love its hard to tell when to let it go. this could be for multiple reasons ranging from simply loving them too much or not knowing if they are willing to work through it with you. when you had first set about in your relationship with dazai you were close enough to tell that his normal attitude was just a facade. and a small part of you wished that he would eventually open up to you so you could help, you didn't want to push into the issue fearing that it may be extremely sensitive.

so you would simply hope that dazai had the reasoning to one day open up to you. but it had proved to be slightly more difficult than you imagined. sure you knew going into it that there would be some issues along the way but you were willing to get through them and make your bond stronger however it seemed it was one sided.

dazai brushed off every inconvenience hoping for it to go away and only acknowledge the highs of the relationship and not the lows. truth was he didn't know how to deal with them and he didn't want to let you down so he just tried to ignore them figuring that it would all work out, he would never come to tell you this. rightfully it bothered you, you were so determined to help him but he was constantly pushing you away and you didn't know how much longer you could do this.

dazai could see how his self-destructive behaviour was affecting you. he knew you were trying to help him genuinely from the bottom of your heart but he, for some reason, always made the decision to push you away. and it seemed to be hurting him more than he realised. eventually you started feeling burdened with not only your problems but dazai's aswell. and you realised it truly had become a one-sided relationship.

it started leaking over it your actual life not just in the relationship. you started becoming emotionally drained and your friends and coworkers started realising and asked constantly if everything was okay which you just brushed off with a strained smile. eventually the small gestures that contained any actual sign of a loving relationship faded and you began barely talking to him.

he noticed you had stopped talking to him and yet again brushed it off. you probably were having a bad day. but this new found loneliness of not seeing you as often and barely speaking to you felt weird. he constantly glanced at his phone hoping to see your name pop up in his notifications or he would write a message to you just to erase it and stare off into the distance. was it really his facade that pushed you away? or did he just let his problems damage you?

eventually he received the dreaded message. the happiness from seeing a message from you dissipated into fear as it read 'i think it would be better if we broke up'. he had done it again. another person he so deeply cared about left him. tears fell easily that night.

you however started perking up abit. you started feeling less burdened with your problems and more emotionally aware. the sting of the break lingered but you just thought it would go away. but you soon had realised it was loneliness. no it was just the last of your feelings getting out, you would get over him soon.

dazai wasn't fairing to well however. it was ironic really, now that you were gone he realised just how much you meant to him. he missed you dearly but his stupid facade had given you nothing but pain and pushed you away more than his words could. now that you weren't around he was simply lost. everything he would see that he would want to do with you or give to you drove in the fact that you weren't there.

his fellow agency members noticed his more distant attitude. very few actually knew of his (ex)girlfriend, so only they figured that the reason was to do with you. but the empty feeling within him that used to be occupied by you now felt like it was consuming him and he couldn't think of anything else but trying to get back with you.

he had alot to make up for, that he knew but he figured if anything he could start with was a long overdue heartfelt apology. he had managed to convince you to meet at your favourite café, you wouldn't tell him but you missed him slightly. it was fairly quite but he he only wanted to get out all his apologies. how he felt lost without you and not having you by his side made him feel terrible.

he had made a promise that day. one that he would rather die than break. that he would try his hardest to be honest with his feelings with you and not run away from conflicts with you if you gave him another chance to make things right. that he would be the boyfriend you deserved.

after a small moment of thinking you had decided to give him a second chance. but you made it very clear that if he reverted back to his old ways a third chance was not available. and eventually not long after he had let his facade slip around you and you helped him through all his hard times in the best way you knew how. how did he get so lucky?

[yuexias]

(˶˃ᆺ˂˶) for @xinxiins / continued from here

yawning for the n-th time as she sprawls over the hotel bed, lu mengran sighs before discarding her script book and pick up her ipad instead. the day's filming has gone well and smooth, sure it wouldn't be too much if she were to spend some time indulging in the fancy world of social media and the internet, right? the lines that she still hasn't fully memorized could wait just a little bit longer... just a little bit--

another yawn is interrupted when a livestream notification prompts on top of the screen. she swipes it away mindlessly, also accidentally refreshing her w.eibo home feed along, earning a little dissatisfied click of tongue. a few scrolls and then ren xinyu's scandalously half covered chest is on display-- in her defense, the screenshot has been zoomed in several times, and it's hard not to notice. curiosity doesn't kill the cat in this case, however it does kill her urge to sleep when another few more similar posts finally got her to click into the livestream room.

she's heard -- and seen -- enough interactions between ren xinyu and an jinyue to know that those two share a bond deeper than others, but it's not until she almost gets dizzy from all the comments flooding in that she realizes just how ridiculously close they are. the few comments that mengran manages to catch has her bewildered; good thing she is lucky enough to have her own room, or else someone would have to endure her screaming into her pillow. there are some friends that she has gotten close with during and after filming, and the luckiest -- or maybe not -- thing about that is no one cares enough about what they do, be it some wild, borderline inappropriate jokes or anything else in between.

it sure has been an eye-opening experience witnessing this firsthand, and before she knows it, the livestream is approaching its end. almost sad to see it end, her finger hovers over the 'send' button, a small little goodbye comment that's been typed out waiting to be sent when her name is mentioned.

and then her phone is blowing up with notifications that she could barely see or hear properly what's been said.

it's not until the livestream ends, and she's managed to watch a few 'ren xinyu talking about lu mengran in livestream' clips that she realizes how deep of a trouble she could be in. for a split second, she wants to strangle ren xinyu. but she can't cause any harm to someone who has given her such a heartwarming shoutout now, can she?

his messages come just in time as she's typing up a message that's hopefully respectful enough, and slightly dumbfounded, she stands up to pace around her bed as she deletes her initial unsent message:

[ to: 任老师 ]: rèn lǎo shī [ to: 任老师 ]: do you think she'll hate it? [ to: 任老师 ]: i mean, she's so nice and kindhearted but what if they take it the wrong way? [ to: 任老师 ]: [ sent an image ]

now, she'll hate it if her chance of networking with the gorgeous female lead has diminished significantly just because some netizens have decided to take things the wrong way somehow, like how things usually happen in this field.

[ to: 任老师 ]: suī rán wǒ yě méi zuò shén me... [ to: 任老师 ]: dàn shì hái shi hěn gǎn xiè nǐ de chēng zàn [ to: 任老师 ]: [ sent an image ] [ to: 任老师 ]: do you still feel sick?

[undertxkerr]

SO usually I just post my art (or at least that's what I keep telling myself to stick to) but I kind of HAD to write this one (how could you not??) and I also like the idea so 👏🏻 there, writing a fic about my own art work

INKED UP

It was a quiet morning, Hades had just woken up and was lazing around on the couch with a cup of tea while MC is in a meeting with the rest of the gods, one he surprisingly wasn't required to attend, a rare occurrence for them to not be together, especially during a top tier meeting, but after 6 years of marriage you find yourself embracing time spent alone.

He also finds himself wishing MC was there as the boredom sets in, so used to having her starting conversation when things get quiet, or...other activities.

Reluctantly he pulls out his phone, scrolling through the shopping app MC had asked (forced) him to download, he stops mindlessly scrolling when he spots something intriguing,

"a link for cheap tattoos? How stupid, I'd look like an idiot..." He finds himself muttering, however a distant memory of MC years ago mentioning how much she loves tattoos on people...

Well now that's hard to ignore, he books himself in for a few specific tattoos after a few hours of sitting on it and choosing the right designs, and as soon as he gets the notification that they are ready for him, he sets off on his own personal adventure.

Hours pass

It truly didn't hurt as bad as he was expecting, however for a god who's had every single Injury imaginable in his long life, his pain tolerance is hard to beat.

After showering, he stares at himself in the mirror for a while before picking up his phone again..the only reason he got this done in the first place...and an idea popped into his head

MC had no idea...

and what better way to suprise her than sending a picture while she's focused on this meeting?

He tries multiple different poses and angles before he settles on one flexing his muscles and showing off his new ink.

It takes moments for two blue ticks to tell him that she has seen the photo,

But no response,

He starts almost regretting it, not that he can really turn back now, but somehow the lack of reply is worse than an angry one,

He supposes now it's just a waiting game, there should only be around an hour left of this all-day meeting, so he decides to cover his ink back up and brew another tea, deciding this time to watch TV instead of scrolling through his phone which caused this whole decision in the first place.

It was two hours later when MC burst in the door, looking almost like she ran here from the meeting,

"Tell me your not joking?" She gasps out between pants, suddenly right in front of him.

"im-? Not joking?" He chuckles out nervously, holding out his hands in a placating manner.

Her small hands are immediately unbuttoning his shirt, anyone can edit photos surely! Even hades-

And then she sees them, at first (still in denial) she thinks they could be fakes, she's seen some seriously realistic fake tattoos before, but then she spots the red irritated skin and the slightly wet glisten from having the weeping tattoo under the wrap for so long,

"how- how did you manage to get these done today?" She whispers, so dead focused on tracing the designs with her finger she hadn't even noticed she plopped herself in his lap.

"I woke up early, I got bored.. saw something on my phone and they said they could book me in for early afternoon" he spoke, smiling down at his wife, "I also remembered when we was walking past that tattoo parlour a few years ago you had said you love tattoos on people..." He smiles bashfully.

"I love you so much, you know that?" She laughs and huggs him.

THE END BITCHES

(I'm sorry for calling you bitches ❤️)

I AM IM NO WAY A WRITER!! SO THIS ISN'T GOOD AND IT'S PROBABLY NOT WELL WRITTEN EITHER BUT AT LEAST I WROTE IT OKAY? 😭

[amaretigris]

Knock-down, Drag-out

Taglist: @hopeisrising @luna2034 @notagreekgal28 @mylittlemermaid221 @daydreamerwithnohobbies @freyagallileaevans @justagirlthatlovedtoread @jonahmermaid23

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Ch. 12 | 1.3k words | Angst

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Your phone screen lit up with a call from Jonah at 9:32 p.m. that night. You made no move to answer it. Instead, you watched the contact screen on your phone vibrate for a few pulses, and eventually vanish. About a minute later, your phone screen lit up again with a voicemail notification. You reluctantly picked up your phone, dialing voicemail, and held it to your ear. You held your breath waiting to hear his voice again.

Jonah cleared his throat.

"Erm, hi. I knew I had a good chance of going to voicemail. I just wanted to call and check in. I know that I said some really harsh things to you the other night, none of which you deserved. Please forgive me, (Y/N). I want you to know that these last few weeks with you have been the best I've had in years. I also want you to know that I don't blame you. I wouldn't let me off the hook so easily either; not after what I've done. I am truly sorry to have caused you pain. You deserve none of it. You came into my life, and took care of me in ways that I didn't even know I needed. However this ends, I want you to know that I'll look back on our brief time together with fondness. Please take care of yourself, (Y/N), if it's the last thing you do for me. Please."

Pulling your phone away from your ear, you hovered your finger over the delete button, but couldn't bring yourself to push it. Grunting in frustration, you locked your phone, and threw it under your pillow.

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The next two days went by as if you were in a dream state. You ran through the motions at work, just trying to get through the day. You picked at your food on your lunch break. You didn't talk to your friends or coworkers much at lunch or after your shift. You kept to yourself, going back to your old habits of reorganizing or counting things during your down time. Pulling into the hospital after lunch, you were surprised when the medical receptionist got your attention as you returned from wheeling a patient back.

"(Y/N)," she called, "over here."

The woman waved her hand excitedly. You internally groaned as you walked over.

"Yes?"

"Guess what? These are for you!"

She pulled a vase of flowers from beside her on her desk, presenting them to you.

"What? That can't be right," you scrunched your brow.

Picking up the little card attached, you quickly scanned it. Your stomach dropped.

I miss you.

♡ Jonah

Sighing and strumming your fingers on the vase, you examined the beautiful bouquet. It was a mix of pink and purple carnations and daisies.

"Well? Don't you love them?"

You shook your head, remembering that you weren't alone.

"What? Oh, sure. Thank you," you forced a smile as you grabbed the vase, and walked away from the desk.

The woman whose name tag said Linda stared after you curiously. What woman wouldn't be thrilled to get flowers?

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You had to get yourself together. It was Saturday, and you'd been dreading this all week, but you knew you had to go to the arena tonight. Even if you wanted to call and say that you couldn't make it, Sebastian had purposely let you know that there was no one else to cover tonight's fights. You had to suck it up if you wanted to keep your weekend gig. It wouldn't be a big deal anyway. Jonah would hardly glance your way. There was no reason to be dramatic. You kept trying to talk yourself down as the afternoon went on, but your stomach was in knots.

Sitting on a bench outside the hospital on your break, you were twirling your hair with one finger, and strumming the others on your pants leg. You had stared off into the distance, and with the people coming and going from the hospital, you didn't notice a form approaching until they plopped down on the bench beside you. Blinking and turning to see who had burst your thought bubble, you were met with Eleanor's smiling face.

"(Y/N), how good to see you again. I thought I might find you here," she chuckled.

"Oh, Eleanor. I'm so sorry, I've been meaning to check in with you. Are you doing well?"

Eleanor smiled again, but it didn't reach her eyes. She reached across to still your hand that was busy twirling your hair. You looked down at her hand, then back to her face.

"I'm doing just fine. You seem quite anxious dear," she sighed.

"I-I'm okay."

Damnit. You knew the stutter gave it away.

"Darling, you don't look like yourself. Have you been eating? Getting enough rest? Your eyes look sunken in," Eleanor frowned.

"Yes. I'm fine, really," you tried to brush it off.

"Please, (Y/N)," Eleanor urged.

"You can be honest with me. Are you really okay?"

You looked down at your hands in your lap.

Were you okay? No one had asked you. Well, people had asked, but they meant it in more of a 'don't be a downer' kind of way instead of genuinely caring about your welfare.

"I'm surviving. The past few days have been pretty dull," you shrugged.

You looked up at Eleanor with watery eyes.

"What can I say? I have to endure it. I don't have a choice."

Eleanor nodded, placing her hand over yours in your lap.

"You are a survivor, (Y/N). You're one of the strongest young women I've ever been fortunate enough to meet," she patted your hands with a smile.

"I know someone who's been just as miserable as you. I won't tell you that you need to go back to him. That is entirely up to you. I'll be your friend regardless of what you decide; but, I thought you should know that his life has been much more bleak without you."

You nodded your head, gulping down tears.

"I won't make excuses for him, but people tend to do stupid things when they're angry or scared. It's up to us to decide if we love them enough to forgive them or not."

Your breath caught in your throat. It was obviously too early in the relationship to be talking about love, but the potential was there. You could see yourself falling for Jonah- quite easily in fact. Would that be enough for you to forgive him? You want to, but you also want to steer clear of drama. You can barely keep your head above water as is. But, Eleanor was right. Jonah reacted that way because he was scared; scared of losing his mother who protected him from an abusive father. It's easy to see how he could adopt a sense of martyrdom when it came to her.

"He sent me flowers," you sniffled.

"No one ever sends me flowers. It was nice to be the one receiving them for a change," you smiled.

Eleanor nodded.

"Yes, he asked if I liked them before he sent them over. I told him they were perfect for you."

Your eyes welled with more tears.

"What should I do? I'm going to see him tonight. I don't know if I can look at him without crying," you admitted.

Eleanor huffed a breath at that.

"Now, sweetie, he's only a man. Don't shed too many tears over a man. It's easier said than done, I know. But think of it this way: you're the prize, and he lost you. If anyone cries, it should be him."

You laughed at her unexpected advice. Eleanor smiled at you again, and your laugh fell into a smile as well. The two of you sat in comfortable silence for a moment.

"Well, I'll leave you to your work. I only wanted to pop in and remind you that you're not alone, (Y/N). You are a ray of sunshine in our worlds. Remember that," Eleanor patted your hand once more before standing up from the bench.

You stood up to hug her.

"Thank you," you whispered.

Eleanor pulled back from the hug, placing her hand on your cheek.

"You're welcome. Make him work for it, dear," she winked.

[dalgursbate]

to forgive is human and failure is divine (1/?)

Summary: A divinity school dropout walks into the shittiest dive bar in the Lower City. The bartender asks, “What are you having?” The dropout responds, “An existential crisis.” *** Magical realism/Modern Faerûn AU where Shadowheart and Lae’zel run from their problems by causing new ones. Also, by punching each other. A lot.

Rating: M WC: ~4,500 Pairing: F/F, Shadowheart/Lae'zel

Shadowheart needs to find a job.

She can tell, because the emails from her student loan servicer have a lot more capital letters and exclamation points in them these days. She could probably apply for forbearance, but the thought of even opening those messages fills her with a deep-seated dread. Part of her is sort of hoping that if she just ignores them long enough, they’ll go away. Or, hey, maybe one day she’ll finally wake up, and it will turn out that this whole nightmare where she threw her entire life into the toilet was just that—a nightmare.

It's not that Shadowheart regrets dropping out of her program. Not really. It’s just that she had planned her whole life around her service to Lady Shar. Once upon a time, her greatest ambition had been to receive a Master of Divinity from Nightbringer University. The program is known across Faerûn for its prestige and exclusivity, the kind of degree that could take her anywhere in the Sharran church, and Shadowheart had somehow gotten in. At the time, it felt like a dream come true. She wanted nothing more than to devote herself to worship, to repay the church for everything it had given her. 

Ha. So much for that.

Though she may no longer serve a deity, Shadowheart nevertheless finds herself praying that today is the day where she wakes up and this horror show ends.

Unfortunately, however, when she opens her eyes her mattress remains on the floor of a shitty studio apartment. The carpet continues to smells like cat piss despite the fact that she doesn’t have a cat. And, according to the clock on her phone, Shadowheart yet again slept in until 4:37 p.m., effectively wasting another day.

It seems she’s still stuck with the reality where everything is wrong.

Oh well, she thinks, and dismisses the three new frantic notifications from her email.

Shadowheart goes through the motions of being a person even though she doesn’t really feel like one right now. She brushes her teeth, showers, forces herself to eat a piece of toast. She braids her hair and puts on a pair of jeans—black, so it’s harder to tell they need a wash. She drinks a glass of water.

Her apartment has a steadily growing pile of Important Things™ on the kitchen table that she’s supposed to attend to; exit paperwork from her program at Nightbringer, research on potential job prospects, and the list goes on and on and on. Even just looking at it is kind of overwhelming. Still, Shadowheart forces herself to sit down, pick the paperwork out from the stack of documents, and look it over in a vain hope that she might actually be able to get work done today. 

She starts scanning over the forms she needs to fill out, but it only takes a couple of minutes before she grows too restless to focus. Every time she sees the Nightbringer insignia, she can feel a nervous itch developing under her skin. It becomes impossible to sit still. Before long, her anxious foot tapping turns into anxious leg bouncing, which quickly grows so aggressive that her knee knocks into the bottom of the flimsy secondhand table and threatens to upend it. She only barely manages to grab hold of her laptop and the stack of papers before they're sent flying.

Shadowheart decides to take that as an omen against continuing to pull her own teeth.

Besides, she’ll be productive tomorrow, she promises herself. Because if she is being very honest, she does not think she can stand to be in this godforsaken apartment for a single minute longer. It’s too dirty and dingy and claustrophobic. She desperately craves a change of scenery, ideally to a locale that is less depressingly beige. However, being relatively new to this part of Baldur’s Gate, Shadowheart hasn’t exactly curated a long list of local haunts to patronize. But she’s pretty certain that if she just picks a direction and walks long enough, she’ll find somewhere loud and crowded that will help take her mind off of things.

She spares another glance around her dismal living quarters, before her eyes settle on the haphazard mess of papers once more. Yeah, a distraction sounds pretty good right about now.

So she gets dressed in something skimpy, smudges black around her eyes, and puts on the leather jacket that her ex left and that Shadowheart never bothered returning. She wishes desperately that she still had her divine magic and could cast a spell to clean her clothes, but she figures that a little bit of perfume will more or less do the job. Her whole wallet doesn’t fit in her back pocket, so she takes out her ID and credit card and shoves them loose into her jeans with her phone.

Off she goes, then, in search of something interesting.

The best she can find within a fifteen minute walk ends up being a little dive bar called The Grove.

It isn’t exactly what she’s looking for. Really, what she wants is to dance until she forgets, to maybe let someone take her home so she can spend a night outside of the awful nest she has built herself. But there’s something about it that intrigues her, something about it that catches her eye and pulls her in. It’s just one door in a line among many other stores and restaurants, tucked between a magic shop and what appears to be a laundromat. Truthfully, it doesn't really seem all that exceptional. It looks a little run down, and the storefront is covered in a thickety mess of ivy, twining around the entryway until the words on the sign are barely legible. Somewhat at odds with its naturopathesque exterior, though, is the violent punk music filtering onto the street from inside.

It piques Shadowheart's curiosity.

When she peers into the tiny window in the door, she can see that the interior looks rustic, cozy; there’s a massive hearth along the back wall, surrounded by couches that look rather comfy, if a little bit threadbare. And, despite how unassuming it is, The Grove is surprisingly populated. Inside are a lot of crunchy-looking humans, elves, and dwarves in natural fibers and open-toed sandals, which Shadowheart supposes she should���ve expected given the faint aura of druidic magic about the place. More interesting to her are the number of people dressed in trendier clothing, most of whom appear to be tieflings. There are a hodgepodge mix of patrons lingering all over the establishment, in fact—playing cards, chatting amiably, and headbanging along to the aggressive music.

She figures it warrants further investigation.

Shadowheart decides to enter, and she takes a seat at the end of the bar. She notices that, from inside the establishment, the music is just loud enough to vibe to without disturbing conversation, which is something she would appreciate more if she liked talking to people. The woman behind the bar is one of the aforementioned tieflings, and although Shadowheart can't detect any druidic magic on her, there is still something wild and animalistic about her. She's good to look at, too; tall and muscular, with cherry-red skin and the kind of side shave Shadowheart has always wanted to try but never had the daring too. One of her horns is conspicuously broken in half. Ut makes Shadowheart speculate about the various scrapes and mixups that could have resulted in such an injury, though she's too polite to ever ask. The woman's voice carries from across the bar, over the music, loud and brash in a way that matches the outfit she's wearing: a denim vest covered in colorful pins, with sayings on them like “Nobody knows I’m a lesbian” and “COMMIE DYKE.”

Eventually, the bartender takes notice of Shadowheart's arrival and bounds over to greet her like an excited golden retriever.

“What’ll it be, chief?” Her voice is chipper and bouncy in a way that manages to be inviting instead of irritating. Maybe it’s because there’s a genuine warmth to the way she smiles at Shadowheart, or maybe it’s because she looks like she is trying and failing not to dance enthusiastically to the music.

Normally, Shadowheart is more of a red wine type of a girl. Tonight, however: “Vodka soda, double.”

“We have pretty good cocktails, you know,” the bartender tells her with a wry grin.

“They cost more than a vodka soda?”

“Yep.”

“Vodka soda, double.”

“Aye, aye, cap’n.” The bartender salutes her in faux deference, and Shadowheart finds herself smiling a little, too. “Name’s Karlach, by the way, if you need me. Sometimes I get a little distracted back here.”

“Shadowheart.” Karlach quirks a brow at that, but blessedly says nothing. A minute later, she slides a vodka soda to Shadowheart and then goes back to making drinks for the other patrons.

There’s fast, angry guitar pounding in her ears, and the drink is strong when Shadowheart sips it. 

Her chest loosens, a little.

A few vodka sodas later and there is a pleasant haze around Shadowheart’s vision. The lights have halos, now, bright and glowy and almost holy. The edges of her world feel as though they have softened somewhat. The only people still sitting at the bar are her and a couple at the opposite end, a halfling and a drow who are too invested in each other to need any attention from the bartender. As such, Shadowheart has apparently been assigned the duty of entertaining Karlach.

And, wow, Karlach is nosy.

“You new to Baldur’s Gate?” Karlach asks, leaning over the bar and resting her chin on her palm. “Haven’t seen you around before.”

Shadowheart shakes her head. “I grew up in the Upper City. Went to school there, too.” She takes a long sip of her drink.

Karlach lets out a low whistle, expressing an emotion that Shadowheart is too intoxicated to interpret. “So what went wrong for you to end up here?”

“Who says I ended up here? Maybe I’m just visiting,” Shadowheart says with a single eyebrow raised. At least, she thinks she has a single eyebrow raised. Her face is a little tingly.

“Shady—I’m gonna call you Shady, by the way. Shady, you’re drinking the cheap drinks at a dive near the docks. By yourself. Doesn’t exactly suggest that things are going well right now.”

Shadowheart stares at her for a long moment, intent on stonewalling her. Soon, though, the earnestness in Karlach’s expression breaks her resolve. She sighs. “Got kicked out of school. Or left, I guess.”

“What happened?”

“That’s none of your business,” Shadowheart responds, tone acerbic, and then winces a little in regret; she likes Karlach. Karlach is nice. Shadowheart shouldn’t be mean to Karlach, even if Karlach is terrible at minding boundaries.

Karlach just shrugs it off good-naturedly, still grinning, and Shadowheart is relieved to not have ruined this, too. “Fair play, but you look like you need a confessional, bad. And who better to swoop in and lend an ear than the gorgeous-but-attentive bartender?”

Shadowheart barks a laugh at that, unexpectedly. “Confessional, right,” she says sarcastically. For a brief second, she worries at her bottom lip with her teeth as she contemplates actually telling Karlach the truth. Eventually, she thinks, fuck it. What does she really have to lose here? “That was a better joke than you probably even realize.”

“Oh?”

She nods. “I was a cleric, in divinity school to work within my church.” Shadowheart takes a deep breath and forces herself to say the next part: “I–I left the church, and they kicked me out of the school.”

“So maybe confessional’s the last thing you need, then, eh Shady?” Karlach’s voice is light, but she seems to be listening to Shadowheart pretty intently. “What made you leave?”

Unintentionally, Shadowheart’s eyes drop to the pins on Karlach’s shirt. Then, quietly, she answers: “It was the Sharran church.”

“Oh,” Karlach says softly, voice full of empathy and immediate understanding. It makes Shadowheart’s skin tingle uncomfortably, and she starts squirming in her seat. Karlach's kind stare is making her feel too exposed, now. She wishes that she hadn’t taken her jacket off; gooseflesh is beginning to dot her arms where she rubs them absentmindedly. Then, Karlach asks, “You like bourbon?”

Shadowheart blinks at her. “Yeah, why?”

“There’s a cocktail we got here you gotta try,” Karlach says. “It’s called the Oak Father’s Blessing, technically, but we all just call it the Oaky Smoky.” She turns, and begins mixing ingredients. “I think you’d really like it.”

“I–what?” 

“Don’t worry, it’s on the house,” Karlach grins back at her, before turning back to make the drink. 

Shadowheart is struck with the revolting sense that Karlach pities her.

Oh, Gods, she really hates that. This is why she doesn’t tell people this stuff, she remembers. This is why it is better for her to just deal with it by herself.

She wishes she weren’t tipsy, wishes she could think more clearly. As Karlach has her back turned, mixing the drink, Shadowheart tries to categorize the maelstrom of complicated emotions warring for attention inside of her. Her brain feels numb, hazy. There is a hot, sparkling rush churning unpleasantly in her belly, something like shame or anger or panic. But she thinks there is also, maybe, a tiny part of her that feels lighter for having told Karlach even a part of what happened. Like she’s let go of a breath she’d been holding for a long, long time.

It's as Shadowheart is busy introspecting that someone comes and sits two seats down from her at the bar. Unlike Shadowheart, this person seems oblivious to the complex array of emotions and contradictions swimming in Shadowheart's liquor-addled mind, a fact of which Shadowheart is eternally jealous. Also unlike Shadowheart, the person appears to be a githyanki, which is a strange enough occurrence to pull her out of her reverie for a moment and look over.

The woman must notice her surprise, because she greets Shadowheart with a menacing glare and a pronounced scowl before quickly looking over to Karlach.

“Be with you in a moment!” Karlach chirps at the newcomer cheerily, clearly oblivious to the woman's blatant and unwarranted hostility.

Despite her surliness, Shadowheart finds it strangely difficult to look away from her. Both because it is uncommon to find githyanki in Baldur's Gate, and because the woman is oddly...captivating. Emboldened by alcohol, Shadowheart attempts to discreetly eye the woman up from down the bar. She notices a few things immediately. First, the woman has absurdly large, babydoll-like eyes. Though, she notes, they are not particularly innocent looking. Rather, the adjectives that leap to Shadowheart's mind are “catlike” and “feral.” Something dangerous lurks there, she thinks to herself nonsensically. Dangerous or maybe just unhinged. Further cementing the image of a cat in Shadowheart's mind are the leopard spots that adorn the other woman's olive green skin. And, as Shadowheart tries to covertly drag her gaze down the woman's body, she sees how wiry and thin the woman's frame is. Almost delicate looking, she would think, if not for the fact that she suspects that the woman throws a killer right hook.

The other woman either does not notice Shadowheart's covert observation, or she simply elects to ignore it. Either way, it is quickly interrupted by Karlach's return, accompanied by a drink in either hand.

“Right, here ya are, Shady,” she says, passing one of them to Shadowheart and retaining the other for herself. When Shadowheart grabs hers, Karlach raises her glass toward Shadowheart’s for a toast. “Cheers, to abandoning the church! To choosing yourself, and to choosing better things!”

Somehow, despite herself, Shadowheart finds herself grinning at Karlach’s optimism. Silently, she clinks her tumbler against Karlach’s before taking a hesitant sip. The cocktail is warm and, as its nickname suggested, smoky. She can see why Karlach suggested it; it settles in Shadowheart’s belly like a pleased cat, curling around her comfortingly even in the face of all of her unease.

For a brief moment, Shadowheart almost feels okay again.

“Tchk. As if being a heretic is a thing to celebrate.” 

Well, it was nice while it lasted. But then, Shadowheart supposes, she never did get to keep nice things.

Still, the sheer audacity of the outburst takes her by surprise and ignites a righteous ire in her. She whips her head to the right to look at the strange woman, eyes shooting daggers at her even as the world stutters slightly from the booze. Words like acid jump to her tongue unbidden. “You’d do well to keep your thoughts to yourself, stranger.”

“And you’d do well to develop a higher tolerance, istik. Or do your kind simply not know how to enunciate?”

Oh for the love of—outraged, Shadowheart jumps out of her seat. Truthfully, she isn't really thinking about what her plan is once she’s standing, whether she's going to pick a fight or if she is going to storm off. She just knows she needs to move, needs to get up, needs to do something. She feels propelled as if by motor, like she has been shocked out of a stasis she didn't even realize she was in. Even as her ire turns to pure, unadulterated fury, there's something pleasant about the sensation; she hasn't been so motivated since...Well, since.

Karlach, damn her, sees where this is going and immediately steps in.

“Hey, hey, hey. Not in my bar, nuh-uh. Take it outside or act like adults,” she says exasperatedly, gesticulating wildly with a bar rag. Then, she stops. “Actually, you know what?” She points at the gith. “You leave. You can come back when you’ve learned some manners.”

“Tchk,” the rude woman says again, before she acquiesces and exits the bar.

Logically, that should be the end of it. If Shadowheart were smart, she'd let the matter drop there, content with the moral victory of the asshole getting dressed down and kicked out of the bar.

The thing is, though, that Shadowheart does not want to let the matter drop. What she wants is to follow the woman out of the bar and give her a pointed, colorful piece of Shadowheart's mind. Unfortunately, that is an idea that comes with at least a couple of problems. The first problem being that she hasn’t paid Karlach for her drinks yet, and the second problem being that a plan like that is likely to end in violence.

You know, the kind of violence where she fights another woman in an alley over a few stray comments.

Yes, Shadowheart thinks. That would be bad.

And it would be bad, of course. But. Somehow, the thought of punching a stranger—that stranger, specifically—in the face fills Shadowheart with a new emotion. An enticing emotion, and one that is difficult to entirely pin down. The best she can think to describe it is that it makes her feel like her blood has been replaced with something thinner and more fluid. That it makes her feel awake for the first time in too long. Or maybe just that it makes her feel, period.

She chooses not to examine that any further.

Instead, Shadowheart looks to Karlach, digging her credit card out from her jeans and hurriedly sliding it across the counter. “Can you settle me up please? I’ll be back.”

“Oh, Shady, no,” Karlach says, and she looks so disappointed. Shadowheart decides that she can’t really deal with that, not right now, so she just turns and follows the stranger out the door without another word.

The air when she steps outside is frigid; much colder than it was in the bar, and the goosebumps on her arms return with a wicked vengeance. She almost can't feel it, though; not with the way her blood is searing hot and vital in her veins. She searches the street frantically for the other woman, and it's only a brief second before she catches a glimpse of her turning into the alley next to the bar. Fighting the chorus of gogogo that is singing loudly in her mind, Shadowheart forces herself to pause and consider whether she really wants to do this.

The decision is disturbingly easy. Easier than any other she's made in the past several months.

“Hey!” Shadowheart shouts after the woman, rounding the corner into the alley to see her propped up against the wall. Even though it feels like it's only been a moment, the stranger is already smoking a cigarette. Infuriatingly, she looks like she was waiting for Shadowheart. “Just who the fuck do you think you are?”

The woman smiles nastily. “I’m Lae’zel of Crèche K’liir.” Shadowheart doesn't know where that is, so she assumes it must be in Alprisma. The woman drops her cigarette to the ground and stamps it out. “The real question is who you are, faithless.”

Oh, that bitch.

“You know nothing of my faith,” Shadowheart hisses back, fists balling at her sides. She walks forward into the woman's, Lae'zel's, space until they’re almost nose-to-nose. Absentmindedly, she notes that Lae’zel’s breath smells of a noxious mix of whiskey and tobacco, and she wonders how intoxicated the other woman is. She seems more sober than Shadowheart, at least, but she supposes that's not much of a feat.

“I know you betrayed it,” Lae’zel snarls back, poking a finger into Shadowheart’s chest. “I heard what that teeth-ling said,” and Shadowheart doesn’t even have time to process the mispronunciation before Lae’zel continues, “I know you chose to forsake your church, chose to be named h'sharlak. You're a disgrace.”

Shadowheart doesn't know what that word means, but she doesn't like the ugly way it curls around Lae'zel's tongue. She finds her eyes drawn to the movement of it, repulsion or rage or something else pooling in her gut at the sight. She doesn't know what, exactly. All she knows is that she doesn't want to talk anymore, doesn't want to think, so she punches Lae’zel in the face as hard as she can.

Lae’zel reels slightly, but to her credit she otherwise bears the hit well. She clearly anticipates it, rolling with it easily and recovering quickly enough to respond with one of her own to Shadowheart’s gut.

It turns out Shadowheart was right: Lae’zel can throw a punch. The sensation of it knocks the wind from her lungs in an instant, sending her stumbling back a step. Something about the way the pain blooms in her stomach is grounding, almost. Like Shadowheart is finally tethered to the earth beneath her again. More than that, she can feel the way the blow lights up her nervous system, her body flooded with chemical impulses that almost feel foreign after so long spent absent.

Shadowheart smiles. There's a split second of stillness where neither of them moves.

Then, Lae’zel turns her head, spits a frothy pink mix of saliva and blood onto the stone pavement beneath them. “Is that all you’ve got, istik?”

Involuntarily, as though compelled, Shadowheart feels a growl rip from her throat and she lunges at Lae’zel. Her fingers dig into the other woman's shoulders as she shoves her into the wall of the magic shop next door as hard as she can, hard enough that she can hear the crack of Lae'zel's skull against the brick. She can hear the bright sound of Lae'zel laughing, manic and fierce, as Shadowheart pins her there.

“You do not know who I am,” Shadowheart warns her, and isn't the thought of that exciting? That they don't know each other, not at all, and here they are. “You do not know what I’ve got.”

“Then show me, faithless,” Lae’zel spits out, and the sound of it is like music, like poetry, somehow. It's nasty and cruel in a way that burrows deep inside Shadowheart’s bones. Shadowheart hopes it makes a home there. “Or I will show you.”

And Lae’zel stomps down hard on Shadowheart’s foot, forcing her to wince and pull back enough that Lae'zel is able to flip their positions. The two of them are both breathing heavily, now. Shadowheart can feel Lae'zel's nails leaving marks in her bare skin.

Suddenly, Shadowheart wonders what passerby would think of the position they're in. Whether they would assume their passion was romantic rather than violent. The thought forces a shudder of disgust down her spine. Then, Lae'zel slams her backwards into the wall once, twice, three times. Shadowheart can feel the strength of her in each ruthless thrust, and the edges of her vision quickly become blurry—this time, from pain and adrenaline rather than alcohol.

She struggles vainly in Lae’zel’s grasp, but it immediately becomes apparent that the other woman is too powerful (or, perhaps, that Shadowheart is too drunk), and she knows she isn’t going to be able to budge her. It seems like she’ll have to fight dirty, then. Lae’zel’s stance is wider than Shadowheart’s, wide enough to provide an opening, so Shadowheart ratchets her knee up as quickly and brutally as she can into Lae’zel’s groin. Lae’zel grunts, clearly hurt, but her hold on Shadowheart lessens not at all.

In the instant where Shadowheart makes contact, though, she can feel the pulsing heat radiating off of Lae’zel’s crotch. She thinks Lae'zel must burn at a much higher temperature than she does. Or maybe, Shadowheart thinks absurdly, Lae’zel’s blood has simply all rushed to greet her. Whatever the cause, it makes Shadowheart keenly aware of all the places where their bodies touch. Every point of contact feels sharp and alive, her poor, abused flesh made so tender from Lae'zel's beating. The rough brick of the magic shop scrapes against the bare skin of Shadowheart's shoulders. Lae'zel's grasp on her arms is bruisingly savage. Shadowheart can almost feel the electric anticipation of touch in the space between them. Belatedly, she realizes her nipples are hard.

The fourth time Lae’zel rams her mercilessly against the brick, Shadowheart lets out a little gasp against her will.

It makes Lae’zel stop and stare at her. Shadowheart struggles to meet her gaze, less out of shame and more because of the way the world spins around her. She tries anyway. The other woman's eyes are bright and intent like a neon sign. She looks hungry. No, Shadowheart realizes. She looks starving.

“If I ever see you here again,” Lae’zel says, taking a step back and releasing her hold on Shadowheart, “I will have to remind you of your place once more.”

Shadowheart can't stop herself from asking, "And where's that?"

"Beneath me," Lae'zel sneers, and Shadowheart swallows. Because it’s a threat, of course. But she can read between the lines well enough to see the invitation there, too.

Without another word, Lae’zel walks away, leaving Shadowheart bloody and panting in the alleyway.

It’s not until later that night, after Shadowheart gets home and furiously rubs herself off with a hand inside her jeans, that she realizes she never retrieved her credit card and leather jacket from The Grove.

Well then, she thinks, a grin slowly growing on her face. I guess I’ll just have to go back.