#i have such a habit of leaving things open to look at later bc if i put it in bookmarks i'll also just forget bc i can't see it

[mildmayfoxe]

also re: that how many tabs do you have open from this morning i just counted my tabs on my desktop & i have 87. but i have two windows minimized that i didn't count

[itneverendshere]

thinking of how rafe wouldn’t want you to work while pregnant

that man would be so stressed, since day one!! and bartender!reader would noooot give him a break, still covering bartending shifts even tho she was the manager bc she simply enjoyed doing it every once in a while. and he's like ?????? will you sit your ass down PLEASE. but you're not listening, if there's ONE thing the pregnancy hormones gave you was extra attitude. somethin' along these lines:

rafe could feel his jaw clenching as he watched you across the room, rolling your eyes for the third time in the past five minutes. you were doing it on purpose now, deliberately ignoring him while standing behind the bar, mixing drinks like you weren’t six months pregnant.

the bartender had called in sick, and you, the manager, jumped in and covered for him. rafe crossed his arms, leaning against the counter, and tried not to look too annoyed, but fuck if it wasn’t hard.

you still had that spark in you, that independence that drew him in from the start, but now? now it just made him worry.

worry like he never thought he could.

“you’re really gonna give me a heart attack, y’know that?” he called out, his voice carrying over the chatter around the country club.

most people were too busy with their drinks and golf gossip to notice you two bickering, but anyone paying attention could see that familiar dynamic. you doing whatever you damn well pleased, him trying to keep his cool, which he never really could when it came to you putting yourself at risk.

you glanced at him over your shoulder, hands moving like second nature as you garnished a drink. “’m fine, baby” you told him, voice just as breezy as ever, like the huge bump pressing against your shirt was nothing more than an accessory. “it’s just a couple hours.”

there was that old habit of yours—acting like everything was fine when you clearly weren’t. or maybe you were, but that wasn’t the point.

the point was, you shouldn’t have to be there.

“you say that, but i know you’re gonna be hurting later,” he muttered, pushing off the counter and walking around to your side of the bar.

his hand landed gently on your waist, thumb brushing the small of your back like he always did when he wanted to get you to stop for just a second.

“c’mon, baby. just take a break, you don’t need to be on your feet like this.”

it wasn’t that you didn’t want help—you’d worked through that over the past couple years—but that stubborn streak was still there.

“’m not some porcelain doll,” you reminded him, rolling your eyes again, “’m not gonna drop dead because i’m pregnant.”

he felt his stomach drop when those words left your mouth. "jesus christ, woman," he muttered, his eyes widening in exasperation. "don’t say that shit.”

“alright, my bad,” you gave in, “didn’t mean it like that.”

rafe sighed, his hand still resting on you. he hated when you talked like that, like you had to remind him how capable you were. of course he knew. 

"promise me you're taking a leave starting tomorrow," he practically begged you despite attempting to sound firm, but that undertone of worry had been his constant companion ever since you'd found out you were pregnant. 

"next week," you sang back, not even looking up from the drink you were finishing. 

you were still in work mode, determined to keep things running smoothly despite the fact you should’ve been at home, resting.

"tomorrow," he insisted, leaning in closer, his voice softening but no less serious.

you turned to face him, eyes narrowing. "next week, or you’re not getting sex for the next three months. now get outta my bar.”

rafe blinked, his jaw going slack as he stared at you, completely blindsided. 

“what—"

“go on,” you gestured toward the other side of the counter with a flick of your hand, “out.”

his mouth opened and closed a couple of times, like a fish. he was processing, but slowly.

"but… baby," he whined, his voice dipping into a tone that could only be described as kicked puppy. “just—wanna make sure you’re okay. that you’re safe, and you’re not overdoing it. you can’t kick me out, i need to be around you.”

you gave him that look, the one that told him he was pushing his luck. "rafe, i swear to god—”

he let out a long, dramatic sigh, but started to back off, lifting his hands in surrender.

"alright, alright, ‘m going," he grunted, dragging his feet toward the exit like a kid being told to go to bed. but before he did go, he turned back one more time, his eyes pleading. "i’ll be outside if you need me."

"of course you will," you muttered, shaking your head with a half-smile. you knew he wasn’t going far, probably just far enough to hover and peek through the windows, pretending to give you space but unable to help himself.

"i love you, stop spiraling," you called out after him.

he paused, turning back to look at you, his expression softening.  

“love you too.”

[aphroditesswan]

i’ll never smile again

until i smile at you.

honkai star rail men x gn!reader

warnings : implied age gap implied in welt’s bc i <3 older men (daddy issues.) but not much other than that?? 

summary : the hsr me accidentally send you a message that you weren’t supposed to see 

genre : fluff, crack 

notes : for my fav requester <33 also THIS WAS SO FUN TO WRITE i’ll do the women later bc duh but 🙏🙏 also pt 2 will have luocha, luka, jing yuan and sampo

Caelus

*seen* 

oh fuck. fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK. this is bad. this is absolutely terrible. what was he supposed to do?? he just confessed his feelings for you through text on accident and you SAW IT. he’s screwed. he immediately starts typing, completely focused on his phone 

(that wasn’t for you. sorry.)

fuck. that’s even worse. he felt someone yank him back by his collar, looking up from his phone to see Dan Heng pulling up from slamming face first into a pole as they walked through a mystery planet while you were still on the train. 

little did he know you were giggling on the other end of the screen at the video March had just sent you of the Trailblazer himself. 

Dan Heng 

he finalized his message, just a small, very corny and cheesy prompt for everything he wished to tell you. out of habit he pressed send. wait… HE PRESSED SEND?? oh no. oh nonononono. he was positively doomed. you weren’t supposed to see that. you weren’t supposed to know yet. he rose from his seat on the floor, pacing around his room anxiously. you hadn’t seen it yet, and for once he thanked whatever god was watching over him for march’s distractive nature. 

(i’m sorry, that wasn’t meant to be sent.) he didn’t think that was enough. it couldn’t have been enough. 

(if you’d like, i could revise it and tell you in person. whenever you’re ready, of course.) 

and sent. now he just hopes he’ll have enough bravery in him to get the words out. 

Welt 

he wasn’t one to type things out. or to text in the first place. you were much better with new technology than him, you grew up around it. he sadly did not. although the knew how to type, and maybe sending something sweet through the tech you were so familiar with, he’d have a better chance of impressing you. enough to win your heart, he was hopeful. just a small, maybe rather large, message declaring his feelings for you. you’d think it was nothing too special since you’re so young and pretty, you’re bound to attract the attention of so many people. and well, out of habit, he sent it. he kept his calm, slightly panicking but deciding to play it off. 

(i apologize if this came on a bit too strong.) 

he was embarrassed, yes, but whatever happens shall happen. the only thing he can do now is hope for the best outcome. oh, and plan a first date. 

Blade 

he had been typing away on his phone for quite some time now, turning away from you and kafka any and every time either of you tried to take a small peek. sadly, neither of you were able to see and silver wolf had bigger fish to fry (aka beating a boss on a new game she got). you decided to give up, ultimately planning to seem uninterested and bored so that he’d let his guard down and kafka or you could take a peek at what he was so focused on. however, that time never came. you got a small ding on your phone right before a choked up grunt from blade. you shoot him a weird look before slowly turning your head toward your pocket and looking at your phone. a message from blade? how odd. just as you were about to open the message, he snatched your phone right out of your hands with a glare. “hey! what gives? asshole.” you exclaim turns into a mutter as he taps quickly on your phone, throwing it back to you as he turned it off swiftly. “there.” he muttered and turned away, leaving you confused as ever. he’s most certainly not ready yet, and kafka who’s been smirking in the corner knows that better than anyone as she “tsk” at blade.

[lovingseventeen]

hi! i just discovered your writing and you are so so talented. if possible, can you write how the members would react to finding out their s/o is sick? maybe with them trying to hide it, or the members are so busy and their partner didn’t want to tell them :)

svt when they find out their s/o is sick *��✩‧₊˚

a/n: we are here for soft svt feels. also this got hella long because i have no chill LOL. also things may seem a little redundant bc the reader is always at home BUT you SHOULD be staying home if you're not feeling well !!

ALSO ALSO THANK YOU all for 700 followers! i hope this is a good present ♡

seungcheol:

❥ you knew he tended to have a lot on his plate as a leader of one of the most successful groups

❥ so you figured you didn't have to tell him you weren't feeling great. it's just a little cold after all

❥ you decide to take a nap, maybe sleep will lighten how you feel

❥ meanwhile, seungcheol sends you a little text, just his usual habit of checking up on you when he can, when you don't respond

❥ they're probably busy, he thinks, though it's a little out of character when 2 hours later, you haven't even opened his message

❥ somehow he gets out of practice early that day, so he decides to surprise you, bringing over some pastries from a bakery near the company building

❥ he's shocked to see a very fatigued you open your door

❥ "cheol?"

❥ immediately, his body fills with so much worry he almost doesn't know where to start

❥ "y/n? are you okay- wait, actually lets get you to sit first" he rambles, heart breaking when he sees you walk so slowly to your couch

❥ "what brought you over here? don't you usually have dance practice today?" you asked, voice quieter than usual

❥ "we got out early, but that doesn't matter, you're sick? why didn't you tell me?"

❥ "it's not that bad and you have so many things to worry about-" you try, only to be interrupted by your very concerned boyfriend

❥ "forget about all those other things!" he says with a slight pout, "i can't believe you've been alone when you're like this, that's it, i'm cancelling my day tomorrow"

❥ "you don't need to do that!" you protest, but he's already shooting someone -his manager probably- a text

❥ he partially wants to scold you for not telling him sooner but he can't argue with you in this state. his eyes look at you softly, noticing that you're leaning your head on the couch as you sit up, concluding that your head probably hurts too

❥ "y/n, i want to take care of you, okay? it hurts to see you like this, so just let me, okay?"

❥ definitely starts researching on home remedies and what medicine to buy as you lay your head on his lap

jeonghan:

❥ he was looking forward to your date at the end of the week, up until you sent him a text saying that you didn't think you could still make it

❥ hannie something came up so i don't think i can still go out on friday :(

❥ oh? are you alright at least? he replies

❥ yeah yeah i am, just work things :((

❥ he still wants to see you that day though, so he decides to try to surprise you by picking you up at your job with a little bouquet of flowers

❥ little does he know, you haven't been to work for a couple days, taking your sick leave

❥ um i'm here outside, can it at least drive you home? he sends

❥ at the sight of this text, you're calling him

❥ "hi baby" he says, and you can already tell he's smiling on the other end of the line

❥ "hi" you replied softly, "um, i'm not at work"

❥ this catches his off guard, "you're not?"

❥ "i've been home all week because i haven't been feeling well, but i also didn't want to worry you.." you explain, feeling awful over him being outside of your job

❥ "you're sick?" he asks, getting back into his car to continue the call

❥ "a bit, but it's not that bad!" you try to tell him

❥ "i'll come over" he tells you, but not before stopping by at a restaurant to bring you some hearty soup

❥ you greet him at your door with a mask on and even then he can tell that your eyes are tired. "sorry you went all the way over there"

❥ "that's okay i just wanted to see you, but you know it's my job to worry about you, right?" as he says this he holds out the bag of noodle soup towards you.

❥ "you should eat up so you get better" he urges, motioning for you to walk into your house

joshua:

❥ you guys have gotten into the habit of sending each other occasional pictures of what you're up to

❥ this particular day, he was recording and he sent you a cute little selfie from the recording booth. he even took a picture of the boys watching him record too, and of course, they all posed for the picture LOL

❥ you send him back an innocent selfie from home, but you weren't slick enough to hide the box of tissues and the bottle of medicine form the background

❥ he's calling you after his session is done (with a thumbs up from woozi). "hey darling, are you feeling alright? i noticed the medicine in the back of your photo?"

❥ "oh it's nothing," you assure him, "just a cold, not a big deal"

❥ "that's not nothing" he says softly, "do you need anything? have you eaten yet? are you drinking enough water?"

❥ after you answer yes to all of his questions, telling him not to worry, he concedes partially, but he still thinks about you throughout the day

❥ he checks up on you throughout the day, occasionally sending you random life hacks and home remedies to make you feel better

❥ you have to text him that no, you are not putting garlic in your socks or ears

❥ josh i really really appreciate the concern but it's really not that serious

❥ but if this works! you could feel better by tomorrow! <33

❥ he unfortunately can't come over because his schedule is a bit swamped, but he tells you not to cook anything tonight and orders food for you so you can take it easy

jun:

❥ when he surprises you on one of his days off, he winds up very surprised too

❥ when you open your door you raise your eyebrows as he takes in the sight of you. frankly, he can tell you might've not gotten enough sleep and that your nose is a little red (probably because it's runny?)

❥ "you're sick? why didn't you tell me?"

❥ he's ushering you to your bed and tucking you in

❥ he sits on the floor, facing you as he slightly tilts his head to the side and places a hand to your cheek

❥ "does your head hurt?" a weak nod. "throat too?" another nod. "do you want me to make you some tea?" you nod again, "okay baby"

❥ he's walking out of your room to go brew some tea and eventually he comes back with a mug and places it on your nightstand, "it's still really hot so maybe give it a couple minutes"

❥ as he's walking out of your room he pauses, "hey, call me if you need anything okay? you should probably rest up for now, i won't bother you, but i'll just be in your living room" he tells you, pulling your blanket up a little higher

❥ "thank you junnie" you say, voice barely above a whisper

❥ "of course"

❥ a couple hours later, he practically tip toes into your room just to retrieve the empty cup of tea from your nightstand, careful not to wake you

❥ you were falling in and out of sleep anyways, so you woke up to see his figure so carefully lifting the mug

❥ when he catches you watching him he goes, "oh shit, did i make a noise or something?" and you're shaking your head

❥ "is it okay you're spending your day off like this?" you asked, feeling bad knowing that he didn't have a lot of free time

❥ "like what?"

❥ "you know, cooped up inside with someone who's been sleeping all day"

❥ he crouches down to run a hand through your hair. "baby it's not your fault you're sick, it's really okay. if anything, it's a rest day for me too and i get to catch up on some shows" he assures

hoshi:

❥ you know he's been busy creating choreography recently, so you haven't seen him in about two weeks

❥ (you also don't tell him because you know he'll try to kiss you without regards to himself getting sick)

❥ but when you say no to him coming over your entire plan of getting better by yourself goes out the window

❥ "baby! i'll come over after practice today, i think we'll wrap up early!" he says when he calls. this causes you to rack your brain for excuses for him not to

❥ "oh that's okay you don't have to, aren't you tired, baby?"

❥ "never too tired to come see my baby" he gushes and your heart aches because you can hear the smile in his voice

❥ "but don't you have to be up tomorrow too?" you try

❥ his voice turns a little less excited. "do you not want me to come over? what's wrong?"

❥ "no! no, it's not that, it's just i don't want you to be too tired" you're really fighting for your life here

❥ "i'm not too tired, i'll see you later today" he tells you, but you can't miss the change in his voice

❥ as he's driving over he's thinking over how you were speaking. why didn't you seem excited about him coming over? usually you were.. were you tired of him? was there someone else? he tried to fight his racing thoughts and the little hurt in his heart

❥ when you open your door he misses the mask that you were wearing, as he makes his way inside

❥ "where is he?" he asks and suddenly you can see the tears welling in his eyes

❥ "soonyoung, where's who?" you ask frantically

❥ "someone's here, aren't they? does he make you happier?" and there's a heartbreaking crack in his voice

❥ "what? no!" you grasp onto his arm, "what are you talking about?"

❥ "it's why you didn't want me to come over right?" he asks, eyes searching yours, when he finally sees the mask, "why are you wearing that at home?"

❥ "baby i'm sick, no one's here. there's no one else at all" you explain, closing your eyes for a moment because this is the most you've walked all day and your head is pounding

❥ he softens at the sight, "oh i'm so sorry" and he's immediately helping you walk to your couch, "i'm so stupid"

❥ "just didn't want to get you sick too" you explained, gently pushing away from his chest because he's pulling you into him, "probably shouldn't get too close to me"

❥ "i don't care" he dismisses, "let me hold you"

❥ you're too weak to escape his hugs on a regular day, much less now, so you give in

❥ you lightly smack his arm as your head is against his chest, "did you really think i was cheating"

❥ a gentle squeeze. "no, but the thought really scared me"

❥ "well, you shouldn't ever be scared of that. where else are you gonna find a horanghae supporter as loyal as me?"

❥ finally, the two of you are laughing

wonwoo:

❥ i don't think he'd be the type to get super upset at you not telling him sooner, but he does make every effort to make your life easier as soon as he knows

❥ why potentially argue with his love when they're already sick? he figures

❥ when he comes over to see you walking around with a blanket wrapped around you he already knows

❥ the two of you spend the day on the couch not doing much, he's just keeping you company, giving your leg some random rhythmic pats as you just lay there

❥ but as soon as you're starting to sit up, he's on alert

❥ "what is it? do you need something?"

❥ "just gonna get water" you reply, but he's getting up already, patting your leg again

❥ "i got it, just stay here"

❥ and it's a series of small things that day, water, tea, your medicine, he'll get all of it so you can rest and recover

❥ almost helps you get up to walk when you laugh and tell him you have enough energy to walk yourself to the bathroom

❥ though he doesn't scold you for not telling him sooner, he does remind you at some point, "i'm always here for you, for anything"

woozi:

❥ a tad bit whiny when he has to find out that you're sick through your story

❥ you get a text that says you know you're supposed to tell me these things y/n

❥ what things? you asked, brain working a little bit slower than usual as you were indeed feeling a little bit clouded

❥ that you're sick >:( and not being taken care of >:((

❥ i can handle it, it's okay

❥ then you receive a simple no, followed by a it's not okay

❥ will search up a good shake to make for sick people and drop it off at your house before he has to go back to the studio

❥ gives you a disappointed look for not telling him sooner but this facade breaks before he leaves you. he still asks, "but really, y/n, are you okay? because i can probably tell the company i have an emergency-"

❥ you wave off the offer, "jihoon, go make your music," you chuckled, "frankly i think the worst of it has passed, i'm okay, really"

❥ he nods, but still looks at you a little skeptically, "are you sure?"

❥ "yes, yes"

❥ "okay, so i'll head out for now, but i'll try to come by again when i'm done," he says, starting to walk down the hall towards the elevator, "i'll text you first and if you don't reply i'll assume you're sleeping and i'll just come back tomorrow, okay?"

❥ "okay, that works" you agree, chuckling as he keeps turning back as he walks away

❥ "you're still sure?"

❥ "i'm sure" you confirm

❥ "are you really? i can call right now" he says, keeping the elevator open for one last question

❥ "go to work, jihoon!" you say, both of you chuckling as you both wave goodbye

dokyeom:

❥ feels like the worst boyfriend ever to not have known, as if by dating a telepathic connection would automatically be formed between the two of you

❥ doesn't even complain about how you didn't tell him in the first place

❥ somehow he finds out through your best friend, who sent him a text asking if they could drop off your medicine at hybe since they were supposed to stop by your place but then couldn't

❥ (your friend knew you didn't want to worry him amidst his approaching comeback, but they had an emergency)

❥ when you open your door, you're very surprised to not only see your boyfriend, but to see your boyfriend on his knees, holding the bag of medicine

❥ "baby i'm so sorry" he looks so genuine in his apology too HELP

❥ "for what- wait, get up first" you stutter, helping him back to his feet

❥ "you're sick! i should've been taking care of you" he says with a pout, holding onto your forearms

❥ "but you have your comeback to worry about-" you try but he's already shaking his head, he checks your temperature by placing the back of his hand on your forehead before cupping your cheek

❥ "we're perfectly on schedule for that, i could've taken care of you regardless. c'mon baby, let me make it up to you" (when he literally has nothing to make up for)

❥ will baby you and there's no stopping it until you're fully back to regular health

❥ almost insists on feeding you, keeps track of when you should take your medicine, and also routinely checks if you're staying hydrated

❥ even when he has to leave your apartment (which you have to convince him that you can survive on your own) he checks up on you through texts

mingyu:

❥ appalled that you didn't tell him as soon as you were starting to feel under the weather

❥ he discovers that you're sick when he calls you and you try to answer, only to start coughing. the smile that he always has when he calls you is soon wiped away

❥ "you're not feeling good? since when, baby?"

❥ "uh, i don't know 'gyu, maybe monday?" it was thursday, so you've been feeling sick for a couple days now?? it's definitely news to him

❥ "i'm gonna make you something to feel better," he promises, telling you that he'll be over soon before you could protest

❥ when he arrives you see that he has a bag of groceries in one hand and he's automatically moving towards your kitchen

❥ "'gyu you really didn't have to," you say trailing behind him, "besides, what if you get sick? then you can't practice and perform..."

❥ "company? hybe, who?" he asks, and for a moment you almost believe the fake confused look he's giving you (they're really getting better with acting on that don't lie series)

❥ "i only have one job right now" he deadpans, "and it's to feed you well today"

❥ you sit in the kitchen as you watch him work, resting your head on your table because it feels too heavy to lift it

❥ mingyu occasionally glances towards you too, heart aching over your lack of usual energy

❥ when he finishes cooking, he scoops out your portion and lightly garnishes it before setting your bowl down in front of you (you managed to lift your head for this)

❥ frankly, the entire kitchen was starting to smell good, but the bowl being directly on front of you smelled even better

❥ "thank you for this, i love you, you know," you say before scooping some of the hot soup and blowing on your spoon to cool it

❥ he doesn't even serve himself yet, he just watches you as you take your first bite, smiling when you excitedly prepare your second, then your third

❥ "this is really good 'gyu"

❥ he smiles even wider, "yeah?"

❥ "i love it, and you" you repeat

❥ "i love you too," he says, "and i'll always make you something so you can feel better"

minghao:

❥ i think by the time he finds out he's giving you a scolding while simultaneously walking around your house and adjusting things better for you

❥ he makes you sit down and rest your head back as he puts a wet cloth on your forehead

❥ "you, sit. the sick person shouldn't argue" he tells you, but not without running a hand down the side of your head

❥ you close your eyes for a moment, hearing minghao things shuffle around. you wonder what he's up to but you actually end up falling asleep

❥ when you wake up, the wet cloth is gone from your forehead and the living room seems a little neater. then when you walk around, you see that he's already gone out and bought some medicine and organized them on your table

❥ on your fridge there's a note that says what medicine you should take when, a reminder to drink water, and a reminder to call him if you need anything

❥ he's coming out of your room when you see him, "oh you're up? i just made your bed" (in fact, he tidied your entire room)

❥ "do you want to have a bath?" he asks, and if you do, he WILL wash your hair for you and give you one of the most soothing massages. you can literally just sit in the tub and not have to lift a finger

❥ will pat you down with your towel and get you into new pajamas (that he threw into the drier right before so they're extra toasty)

❥ detangles and blow dries your hair after, and this whole pampering session does somewhat lift how you feel

❥ makes you eat some dinner, but not too much so your stomach can handle it

❥ "thank you for all of this, hao" you tell him as you sip your soup

❥ "you don't have to thank me, it's my job to make you feel better" he tells you, "you don't ever have to hide not feeling well from me, okay?"

❥ will indeed tuck you into bed that day before he leaves too

seungkwan:

❥ unfortunately he's on tour when you get sick, so you really don't want to add to his stress

❥ but your boo is the kind that gets fussy even when you get a papercut

❥ he's the kind to insist on being the person to wrap your finger up with a bandaid

❥ so when he hears your groggy voice on your daily phone call it immediately catches his attention

❥ "somethings up" he concurs

❥ "what's up?" you ask

❥ "you're voice" he notes, "it's different than usual"

❥ "no it's not" you say, attempting to sound as normal as possible with your throat so scratchy

❥ "y/n, are you sick?"

❥ "no this is just my voice"

❥ a deep sigh. "you should really tell me when you're not feeling well..." and the lecture on why you need to keep yourself healthy ensues

❥ really, within this lecture you can tell he isn't mad, as his voice is really laced with concern and you have to tell him multiple times that it's just a cold and no he should not abandon the rest of his tour

❥ on top of the lecture, he asks you about your symptoms like he's a doctor while also making you promise to go see a doctor the next day (with a virtual pinky promise)

❥ he's still a bit pouty as you end your call but of course he still tells you, "you know i'm not actually mad and that i love you but i will be if you get sick again and don't tell me when i'm actually around" >:(

vernon:

❥ i feel like i write vernon as a confused person a lot but here it is again, he's confused

❥ why would you not tell him?

❥ obviously, he's also concerned when he comes over and you're coughing like crazy

❥ he's rubbing up and down your back as he asks, "why wouldn't you tell me about this?"

❥ "didn't want you to worry about something small"

❥ "well clearly, this is not something small" he says somewhat matter-of-factly, and after a moment he asks "are we not dating?"

❥ he's speaking so casually and without a single trace of annoyance

❥ "of course we're dating"

❥ "then you tell me," he says softly, "it's part of my boyfriend duties. it's like one of the immediate ones"

❥ this made you giggle, "you're disappointed you couldn't fulfill your boyfriend duties?"

❥ he scoffs but softens when you cough again, "well, yeah"

dino:

❥ "how could you not tell me! y/n" he exclaims when he comes over and sees your coffee table scattered with tissues and with you wrapped up in your duvet like a cocoon

❥ "didn't want to worry you, you have that comeback soon, right?"

❥ "that doesn't matter!" he partially whines, "not when you're home like this!"

❥ "i can't dance when i know my baby is sick!" he continues, dropping his body weight on the couch next to you

❥ "i'm fine i can handle myself-" you try with a voice already muffled by your runny nose, only to be interrupted by your own body needing to sneeze

❥ "but you're not fine! that sneeze made your whole house shake!"

❥ "chan you're making my head hurt more with your dramatic ass!" you whined, wincing at the volume of your own voice too

❥ this makes him calm down lmao, reaching over to you wrapped like a burrito to pull you close, "okay okay, i'll stop yelling, i'm sorry" he chuckles, "but can you promise to let me know next time so i can take care of you? please?"

❥ you rolled your eyes jokingly, but agreed

[skribbyposts]

HELLO AGAIN!!1111!!!! based off of @bidisastersanji's post about Sanji not being able to sit like a normal person (its cause hes a homo). i kind of took the hc and ran w it but thats okay hee hee

Also from Law's pov bc i love him so much and i wanted to try!! hope yall enjoy!!!!!!!!&!%@^#&^(!*#^$W yeah

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Law prides himself on being a very observant person.

It seems he wasn't looking hard enough when he made the mistakes that led him here, sulking under an umbrella on the deck of Luffy's ship.

After Dressrosa, Law was never supposed to see his crew again. That plan was thrown out the window by a certain straw-hatted pirate, and now he's hitching a ride to Zou with this absolute circus that is Luffy's crew.

It's been a week since Law came aboard, and the more he looks, things get weirder and weirder. Specifically, their chef.

The first time they met, the man was well-mannered, minus his attitude towards women and cigarette habit. However, Law finds him ever more strange after every interaction they have on the Sunny.

------

The first time Law notices something off is when he happens on Sanji in the galley. He understands being awake in the wee hours of the night, but not like this.

Law finds the man still fully dressed in his three-piece at three in the morning, sitting - no, crouching - on his chair and poring over a cookbook. His cigarette dangles loosely from his mouth as he mutters something unintelligible to himself and brings his knees together to rest his chin on top of them.

What the fuck, Law thinks, and as if the chef heard his internal monologue, a blonde head whips around to face him standing at the door.

Sanji's wide-eyed, slightly disheveled face stares back at him, and his neck is uncomfortably craned so he can look directly at Law. The pair look at each other awkwardly, and after a moment of silence he just...closes the door.

This is not Law's ship. It is none of his business, and he will go back to the men's quarters to sleep.

-----

This keeps happening the longer Law stays on Luffy's ship, and every day he notices how rarely the Sunny's resident cook takes a break. In addition to that, he also can't help but notice exactly how Sanji chooses to rest.

Whether he's chatting with Robin in the library the lawn or napping with the swordsman on the lawn, it's always with one leg up on the seat, both slung over the back of a chair, or contorted into a position that shouldn't be humanly possible.

Law finds it mildly concerning, but no one else on the crew seems to mind when Sanji stops bustling for half a second and decides to perch himself somewhere (not unlike a gargoyle, Law thinks), so he leaves it alone.

---

Once, he spots the chef sleeping on deck with Zoro, but... upside down. As in, the swordsman is leaning on the mast and Sanji is resting his feet on Zoro's shoulders while his back is on the ground. It looks extremely uncomfortable. He also spots Zoro crack open his eye to peer down at the man, before closing it with a very resigned expression on his face and a light dusting of pink on his cheeks.

Again, this is not his ship and Law most certainly does not want to open that can of worms right now. He leaves the two in peace and hopes they figure it out by themselves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ik its not the best but this has been in my drafts for like a week and if i dont post it now im gonna forget about it for like three months so... you guys can have it yeah !! i didn't proofread this either so please lmk if there are mistakes

ANYWAYS Spawned a brand new hc that bc Sanji was locked up for like 5 years he had to teach himself stuff and develops the muscle memory for it wrong and just self-corrects in front of other ppl after learning the right way to do it. i might explore that in a longer fic at a later date, we'll see.

ALSO!!!! by popular demand(read: one person) im gonna start posting on my ao3 soon. you can find it here and all my zosan ficlets will be compiled into a series soon! watch out for that yall

[pumpkinsy0]

Curly??? Pony??? Being goofy guys??? Hcs?? Silly??? = Happy??? Please??? Silly???

curly and pony???? being goofy goobers????? aw yea,,,i can do that,,,,

•i just know the slapbox each other, its not AS violent as those boys in the bathroom whos slaps u can hear 5 classes down, but they def do slapbox, u can never tell who won

•they could def get the other to do something they wanted if they just say their name 3 times, this more so works on pony, curly would do anything pony asked bc 1) why not 2) worst case scenario he gets a cool story to tell and a scar to prove it, curly whips out that “pony” chant and pony iustbrolls his eyes and goes “fineee”

•they both do this thing where if theres soda in the fridge, to prank the other they shake up one of the cans and leave it for the other person to open, and when they do and the soda just goes everywhere u can hear laughter from another room

•once they were having a water balloon fight but curly ran out of water balloons to throw and he was too lazy to refill, so he went into the kitchen and theres this thing in haiti called ti karol???somethin like that, and he left it out earlier bc him and pony was gonna eat it later as a cold treat, but he just took those and chucked them at pony (they were melted already dw ponys fine)

•sometimes curly sneaks into angelas room w pony and ponys just shitting his pants and wants to leave but curlys like “stop being such a wuss man shes not here rn🙎🏿” and keeps on snoopin

•pony and curly would absolutely spend their time on the shepards family computer, im calling it rn

•if u look on ponys classwork u would find huge ass scribble marks erased bc pony scribbled ONE THING on curlys paper and curly always takes it too far and scribbled that paper from top to bottom in retaliation

•curly has a habit of literally biting pony when they kiss and once he literally gave pony a cur on his lip doin that bc and pony was NOT happy w him for a while, but he got over it pretty quick

•curly ALSO has a habit of randomly picking pony up to then proceed and slam him down somewhere (like a couch or somethin) and to get back, pony CANT do that BUT he can shove curly against one of those chain link fences and laugh at curly trying to get his balance before he falls

•they blow smoke in each others faces a LOT, wouldnt b surprised if they joke around and pretend to b like dragons or somethin while doin it too, bonus points if they also blow smoke out their nose

[verfound]

FIC: "Of Found Things and Mme. Stones" (MLB; Lukanette; LBSC Lukanette Month 2024)

@lovebugs-and-snakecharmers is doing a Lukanette Month for September 2024, and we all just kinda tossed some prompts in the disco to compile a list?  We ended up with 71 prompts, so I decided I’d roll some dice to pick a prompt, do a twenty minute (ish, bc we all know sometimes they run away from me) sprint, and try to get some short fics out this month?

...who gave these fics the right to be a series? (They probably would have worked fine as chapters, but too late now. 😂)

Read on Ao3

Prompt 07: Street/Craft Fair

The Ring

Marinette gently, quietly closed the door behind her, turning back for one last look at Luka before she went.  She doubted the sound of the door closing would wake him: he had fallen asleep before they’d even made it up the stairs to their flat, and she’d had to hoist him over her shoulder and haul his lanky ass up four flights before reaching their front door.  That would have been fine, except Carlos – their older neighbor who lived across the hall, who still hadn’t fully warmed up to Luka thanks to his dyed hair and tattoos – had been leaving his own flat, and he had barked out a laugh at the sight.  Marinette had offered him a sheepish smile and tried to explain that it had been a really long couple of days, but Carlos just shook his head, patted Luka’s ass, and chuckled “Bienvenidos, mijo” on his way past.

Her idiot boy…fiancé had slept through the whole thing, which was a shame: it was the closest to approval he’d probably ever get from the old man.

(Carlos did adore him – about as much as his wife Manuela – but he still loved to give Luka grief about his appearance and being a rock star.  She supposed it was fine: Luka loved to give him grief about the amount of pizza he loved to eat.)

She had maneuvered Luka to their room as soon as she’d had their door open, and she’d dropped him on the mattress as gently as she could.  Still, he had groaned and mumbled something incoherent before reaching for her, and she had almost slipped into the bed with him – except she did still have some work that needed done, and he needed his rest.

Neither would get accomplished if she crawled in after him, she thought as she closed the door.  He was sprawled out in the center of their bed, her pillow hugged to his chest with his face buried in the damn thing, and that was exactly where he was going to stay until he actually slept.

…she could always wear him out again later.

. : .

Of course, as she would later learn, it had been a really long forty-eight hours leading up to the nine-hour flight from hell, and it was well into the next day before Luka actually stirred.

He had wandered his way out towards dinner time, but that had really only been to shuffle into the bathroom.  He’d found her before heading back to bed – just long enough to bend her back over the (thankfully off) stove with a deep kiss – but that hardly counted.  She still wasn’t sure he had actually been awake, no matter how thoroughly he’d kissed her.

He’d mumbled something incoherent when she’d climbed into bed that night, and she had barely had time to crawl under the covers before he’d wrapped himself around her.  He hadn’t woken, though, and he still wasn’t awake when she slipped back out of bed the next morning.

If she hadn’t been dealing with Couffaine sleeping habits for almost ten years now (first at sleepovers with Juleka and later with him), she might have worried.  But as long as he was still breathing, she figured he was fine and let him sleep.

Penny showed up at their front door early the next morning.  Marinette was still wearing her dressing gown when she knocked, her first cup of coffee still in hand.

“Guess what wasn’t actually in Barcelona,” Penny said by way of greeting when Marinette opened the door.  Her eyes widened as Penny patted the suitcase beside her.  “It was mislabeled and about to head to Hong Kong, but you’d be surprised how effective a crocodile can be in tracking down misplaced luggage.”

“Liar,” Marinette laughed, pulling her into a hug.  “More like how effective Jagged Stone’s irate wife can be in getting anything done.”

“Well, that, too,” Penny laughed, patting her back.  “But years of dealing with Fang doesn’t hurt.  Has he calmed down yet?”

“He’s still sleeping,” Marinette said, and Penny’s eyebrows lifted.  Marinette waved her in and wheeled the suitcase over to the dining area.  She lifted it onto the table and opened it, rooting through the front pockets until she found…she grinned when her fingers brushed against a small box.  “He was already exhausted, and losing this didn’t help.”

“Shouldn’t you let him find it first?” Penny asked, an eyebrow lifting as Marinette pulled the ring out and slipped it onto her finger.  She held her hand up, her smile growing as she finally saw it.  The pink opal burned just as brightly as it did in her memory.  “I’m fairly certain he’s supposed to ask you before you start wearing it.

“Oh, he’s not getting this off my finger any time soon,” Marinette laughed, grinning at her.  “If he wanted to surprise me, he shouldn’t have told me he lost it in the first place.”

“He was exhausted, Marinette,” Penny said, frowning.  “He didn’t know what he was saying.  You should give him this.  Let him do this properly.”

She gave her a pointed look, and Marinette sighed as she looked back at her hand.  She knew Penny was right, but…she really didn’t want to take it off.  She liked how it looked – how it felt – there.  Like it belonged.

…like she was always supposed to be Marinette Couffaine.

“Just for a little bit?” she asked, looking back at Penny.  “I’ll put it back before he wakes up.”

Penny shook her head, but she was smiling as she laid an arm across Marinette’s shoulders and puled her into a half hug.  She looked back at her hand, her smile warming as she studied the ring.

“It’s a lovely ring, Marinette,” she said.  “Very…you.”

“Lay off,” Marinette giggled, nudging her side.  She glanced down at Penny’s own hand, which sported a stone in the shape of a heart and the color of Penny’s hair.  It was ringed by black stones on a gunmetal band – not at all traditional, but very rock-n-roll and very ‘Rolling-Stone’, if Jagged did say so himself.  “Your ring is so much worse, and this is a family heirloom.”

“Really?” Penny asked, surprised.  “I knew Gina gave it to him – she met us in Rome – but he didn’t tell me the story.  I figured she had found it at some street fair or something.  Some…sorry, but it really does look like cheap costume jewelry.”

“I’m not offended, but only because your ring does, too,” Marinette giggled, sticking her tongue out at her.  She looked back at her nonna’s old ring, her smile softening.  “I promise you it’s one hundred percent genuine.  It was Nonna’s mother’s.  Nonna was just a baby when the war started – barely a year old – and her family had to flee Italy before things got really bad.  They didn’t make it back until Nonna was almost ten.  This ring was the only thing of value her mother was able to bring with them.”

“It’s a beautiful ring, Marinette,” Penny said softly, and Marinette nodded.  It was.  A round, pink opal sat in the center of the ring, ringed by tiny diamonds and flanked on either side by flowers made of pink quartz.  They were generic looking enough, but she had always liked to imagine they were cherry blossoms.  The whole thing sat on a gold band, and it had captivated Marinette since she was a little girl.

“Nonna always called me her Little Fairy, but I always thought she was the fairy,” she confessed.  “I didn’t understand how opals worked back then – I always thought it was fairy magic that made the stone burn like that, not opal fire.  She never bothered correcting me, either.”

Penny laughed, shaking her head.

“It’s very you,” she said.  “Luka was really excited when Gina offered.  He went through all the trouble of getting Tom and Sabine’s blessing – Jagged was pouting for weeks after that, by the way.  He couldn’t understand why Luka didn’t ask for his blessing, too.”

Marinette laughed at that, not surprised at all.

“Of course he was,” she said.  “What, do I need to ask him for Luka’s hand first, too?”

“It probably wouldn’t hurt,” Penny snickered.  “But you know how Luka is.  He’s not a planner.  I think part of him honestly didn’t think Tom would even say yes.”

“Dummy,” Marinette said, shaking her head.  “Like Papa would ever say no to him.”

“That boy is crazy for you, Marinette,” Penny said, squeezing her shoulders.  “He’s not above being completely irrational when it comes to you.  I’ve seen him put up with a lot on the road, between his father and the rest of the band, and sometimes I honestly think the only thing that truly scares him is the thought of losing you.  Even if he knows it will never happen…I don’t know.  It’s like…I don’t know if he saw something.  During an akuma attack, back in the day.  Maybe that breakup you two had when you were younger.  But he says things sometimes, like he’s all too aware of how things could be.  How fragile life really is.  I think it makes him hold on a bit tighter to how they are.”

Marinette bit her lip.  She wondered if Penny realized just how right she actually was.

“I gave him up once, Penny,” she said, brushing her thumb over the opal.  “I have no intention of doing so again.  He’s stuck with me.”  She looked back up at her, her grin coming back.  “And he’s going to have to pry this ring off my cold, dead finger.”

Penny laughed and leaned in to smack a kiss against her temple.

“And don’t you let him forget it,” she said.  She winked at her.  “After you let him get the proposal out, all right?  You know he had something big and romantic planned.”

“Luka?  Plan?” Marinette gasped, her eyes wide.  “How dare you accuse him of such a thing!  That’s my future husband you’re slandering, Mme. Stone!”

“Only because I have entirely too much experience wrangling his family, Mme. Stone,” Penny said with a roll of her eyes, but Marinette was too busy grinning at being called Mme. Stone to pick up on her tone.  Penny just smiled and shook her head, waving her off.  She told her to tell Luka to call her – she wanted him to rest up, but they still had work to do in the studio – and headed towards the door.  When Marinette was alone again, she turned back to her ring with a soft smile.

…street fair costume jewelry.  Tch.

(…she wasn’t going to think about it.  If not for the fact that Tom had known her great-grandmother and could confirm the truth…she wouldn’t put it past Gina Dupain to embellish a tale about smuggled wartime jewels just to entertain her little fairy.)

[where-are-the-spooky-gays-2]

I actually have discovered I lack the motivation for a new fic so here's various blurbs for Punk Remus corrupting Christian Virgil that I like. Insert Blasphemy and Sacrilegious Activities tags here. And there are a few suggestive ones because it's Remus I don't know how else to form it. Basically I'm sorry in advance :3

- Virgil got that purity culture BS from his parents about like being a virgin before marriage. So like. Extra virgin. Remus changes these things. No details because I want to still be welcomed on this blog 🙏

- They actually meet in a church bathroom (it's really awkward Virgil walks out of a stall to wash his hands and Remus is just sitting in the window smoking) (he doesn't want to be there) (went with his parents and then ditched) (this is only like 50% of the time of me thinking about it tho) (didn't go outside bc they thought it was funny to smoke in church) (made a holy shit joke to Virgil. That was his first sentence. If you shit in a church is it holy shit) (somehow it fucking works) (romance is not dead, fellas, its hidden in the shit jokes)

- the first not Christian song Virgil years is Welcome To The Black Parade by MCR. That's why it's really special to him. Inspired the emo.

- I feel like no matter what Remus' bedroom is covered wall to wall in just. Whatever he wants. Pride flags, tapestries, posters, signs he's stolen, random shit he's thumb-tacked onto the wall, LEDs and fairy lights and lamps. There is no open wall space. This is all a bit overwhelming for Virgil at first (remember: sad beige baby) but he comes to love it and all the things he can look at

- every hickey Virgil gets pre-moving in with Remus is hidden underneath a shirt. Remus leaves ONE above his collarbones and Virgil literally has to tell his parents it was a bruise from how he slept. Remus gets HELLA scolded for that

- Virgil does smoke a cigarette with Remus. He does not like it. They also shotgun a cigarette. He has mixed feelings on that. Virgil does the devil's lettuce with Remus. He enjoys this. A lot.

- Virgil's first time drunk on something other than communion wine (half joking) is with Remus. They skip town thrice over in order to go to a bar where Virgil won't be known and tattled on. Remus is surprisingly very protective and good to him. Takes him home, takes off his shoes and coat, tucks him in, puts a trash can next to him for tomorrow.

- A lot of late night drives through the parks. I mean, it's late, Virgil doesn't have a curfew. They drive through the parks and find a cozy corner to talk where nobody will see or hear them. Maybe they smooch a little. A lot.

- SO many religious conversations. So many. Just. So many. Remus wants the communion wine and the little crackers. Virgil has to explain he cannot have the wine and crackers. Remus calls him wine and a cracker. Then asks if eating the wine and cracker is cannibalism. Then talks about cannibalism.

- my favorite one: Virgil asks Remus to come with him to church one time. Just once. Maybe Virgil is having a hard time (not religiously like externally) and wants to go for comfort but can't stand the thought of leaving Remus. So this like total punk walks into a church and sits with Virgil and... knows all of it? The prayers, the statements, the right times for everything. Virgils shocked. They leave the church later and he's like ???. Remus answers "what? Didn't think I was a church kid? Don't I look like a pastor's kid?" Haha yeah plot twist I love this.

- virgils parents want to meet his "new little friend." Remus can't hide all of the punkness but it tries. Virgil is surprised when he shows up with a clean mouth (swearing + brushed his teeth), long sleeves to hide the tattoos, plastic (mostly invisible) piercings to try and hide the ones he can, hair tied back in a respectable position (is a mullet ever respectable? /j /lh) It doesn't make them 100% like him but he tries and he may succeed a little.

There are definitely more but I also have a habit of sending in asks at 1am and it is 12:52 am and I need eep. I looooooove corruption fics where it's totally cool. Like yeah there's some concern but still that's the good shit. Also hi 🐸 anon (or anyone else) if you read this and any of these inspire you, take em :3

— 👑

V A L I D but I fucking L O V E A L L of this!!! Ree W O U L D make a holy shit joke in a church and of course it works on Vee manz is dorksexual XD /light hearted Poor Ree has to get scolded by his boyf for the hickey wear turtlenecks then Emo XD I seriously L O V E their bond and how carefree they are with each other and the fact that the chaotic Punk at least tries to put an effort to look presentable around Vee's parents to make a good impression is really sweet <3 (Also I'm O B S E S S E D with that plot twist of course Ree would know the church like the back of his hand but Vee's confusion makes it more hilarious XD)

[vauxxy]

my camp half blood oc ^_^

YALL SHES ADORABLE

her name is odette van schmidt and she’s a child of dionysus 😇

her story is actually rlly funny tbh. makes me crack up a bit. so here it is

basically dionysus met her mum (a rich socialite) at a party she was throwing for the opening of an art gallery, and it was getting late so everyone was going home. odettes mum looked over at dionysus and was like ‘omfg these old geezers r soooo boring. wanna hit the club?’ and dionysus was like ‘have my baby’ SO SHE DID.

9 months later she gave birth to odette van schmidt: the lying, unstable (possible future addict), drama queen JOY of dionysus.

by the time odette turned 14, her mum was like ‘right. this girl needs to get her ass to boarding school’ bc she could not stop CAUSING A RUCKUS. she was a menace during important parties and events- not because she wasn’t good at parties; but because they weren’t fun. while her mum agreed with her, she had grown out of her party girl phase and had to settle down.

well, odette didn’t fight her mums decision to send her to boarding school. after all, that’s where the craziest shit happens, doesn’t it? especially in new york.

so imagine this: odette van schmidt, the pretty girl with weird eyes and designer clothes CHOWING DOWN ON SPECIAL BROWNIES WITH HER ROOMMATE WHO LOOKS LIKE HOMELESS MAN IN A PRETTY GIRLS BODY.

odette could NOT stop getting into trouble. always sneaking off with her friends, partying her weekends away. by the age of 15 she had developed a pretty bad habit of taking a shot of vodka every sunday morning to get through the preachy ass mandatory services.

odettes mum had enough when she found out her daughter wasn’t taking her meds everyday at 8:00, and was instead lighting up at 4:20.

odettes mum had to call her baby daddy and tell him to pick her up for the summer. odette heard this call, and jumped to the conclusion she was getting sent to REHAB. so she ran.

she ran fast and fast and fast and fast. all the way from manhattan to queens.

ofc odette always saw weird shit. but she just always chalked it up to sleep deprivation, adhd, maladaptive daydreaming, and later in her teens: drug induced hallucinations.

after walking around new york aimlessly for 3 hours to escape rehab, her mum gave her a call.

“hey odette… can you come back home? bc ur lowkey a demigod and I WONT SEND YOU TO REHAB BABY IM SORRY I WONT ITS FINE YOU WERE ONLY SMOKING WEED ITS OKAY BABY-”

BOOM. hellhound right in the middle of the dingiest 7/11 in all of queens.

odette booked it- already terrified by what her mum said, and even more so by this terrifying dog thing.

she ran down at alleyway, hoping to escape the gross mangy dog, but she wasn’t fast or sharp enough to lose it or outsmart it. the hellhound attacked her from behind, ripping through the back of her shirt and leaving a scar that ran across the length of her back.

like that shit was BIG. like, from her neck down to her hipbone.

odette was vengeful thoguh. she was more angry than she was in pain, so she took out her pocketknife and started stabbing and punching that thing away. LIKE. HOW WOULD THAT EVEN PROTECT HER FROM A HELLHOUND??? but then the mutt started chasing its tail and howling like crazy, making it easier to put it down like an old dog.

and poof.

into thin air.

“alright what the fuck”

so there she lay- sitting and panting and wheezing in an alleyway, bleeding out. so she decided to pray,

“god i’m sorry for drinking on sundays! i’m sorry for using bible pages to roll! i’ll do anything to make it up to you!”

“girl, it’s fine.”

all of a sudden, there was this middle aged guy in front of her with the same eyes as her and the worst fashion sense she’d ever seen.

“i didn’t know jesus shopped at h&m…”

“jeez, you sound like ur mother.”

after 10 awkward seconds of silence, odette passed the fuck out. bc her back is a war zone. obviously.

when she woke up the next day, she was at the most rank hospital she’d ever been to. but all the doctors were cute. they were all blonde and spoke like poets and had such gentle hands. but they were wearing the most atrocious orange shirts.

good thing I’VE got STY-

odette looked down at herself. “are you fucking kidding me.”

orange was not her colour. it was purple.

after she got all healed up, two blonde 13 year olds who looked just like her arrived at the infirmary. “hiiiiii welcome to rehabbbbbbb”

“oh my god i’m actually going to kill myself”

castor and pollux eventually cleared up mostly everything about camp (after fucking around with their new older sister a bit more, of course), and proceeded to take her to get some food in her tall ass stomach.

she ate. and then she ate a bit more. and then she complained. and then she asked if her mum has her ‘crazy meds’. and then she asked for new clothes. and then she called her mummy and asked her for new clothes or perfume or anything. and then she walked over to the big house to complain about something again.

and as soon as she walked through the doors, screaming about how she can’t party with a torn up back- she was claimed.

“oh my gods odette. we have your stuff. its fine. it’s cool. you’re my daughter btw. and no drinking at camp.”

“… why would my mum fuck a guy who shops at h&m?”

“I DO NOT SHOP AT H&M, I AM A GOD-“

odette blanked. she wasnt really good at faces. much better with names. that’s what u get for being a history buff who can’t make eye contact i guess.

“… which one, sorry?”

“… dionysus?”

“oh. that checks out.”

[dairy-farmer]

The infidelity AU where Tim has a bunch of babies that may or may not be Jason's is living in my head rent free rn omg

Bc I have to imagine that Tim is humiliated or ashamed when he finds out he's pregnant that first time, bc it's not even his bf's baby, it's his bf's DAD'S baby! That makes him a slut, doesn't it? Tim doesn't want to be a slut! But he decides that it was just a single mistake that won't happen again, and Jason doesn't have to know and get his heartbroken

The intention is that Tim will never sleep with anyone who isn't Jason again. But then they tell Bruce about the baby and Tim sneaks away later to speak with the man privately. Not even a minute later and Tim is moaning and opening his legs like a whore and he's so ashamed of himself but so turned on. He tries to tell Bruce to pull out, bc he doesn't want to get into any bad habits, but Bruce keeps going and grunts to Tim about how he's already pregnant, they might as well take advantage of that, and Tim doesn't say anything more about it, so weak willed in the face of such pleasure

He tries not to go back to Bruce, wanting to be loyal to Jason, but he finds himself in Bruce's arms (and on his cock) more and more frequently as the pregnancy develops and Jason's schedule gets busier. Then Dick comes to visit and Tim sees him stare at Tim's tits and round belly, and he isn't sure what possesses him to do it, but between one blink and the next, Tim suddenly has Dick's cock in his mouth, lathering it up to make the push into his wet pussy easier

So Tim is hooked, but he figures it's the hormones, and by the time the baby is born he'll be able to resist Bruce and Dick. He is wrong, especially when he's being fucked postpartum by them both and begs for them to pull out, bc he's fertile and could get pregnant again. But they both start to talk dirty, Bruce whispering that Tim is such a good little slut that he'll let Bruce and Dick do whatever they want to him, and Dick moans about how good Tim will look all swollen with a baby again, and Tim gives in and gets knocked up, no idea who this baby's father is

He tries to resist over the years, but by the time he learns he's carrying his own father's baby, he throws any hesitance out the window and eagerly falls into his role of eager slut, playing up his and Jason's "misfortune/luck" with fertility and birth control. In reality, he's just an easy cum-addicted slut who loves getting pregnant and not knowing who his baby's daddy is, and he's on his sixth kid by 22 years old

(I like imagining Tim getting a bit riskier over the years, too, maybe fucking some people who won't guarantee a baby with Jason's coloring, but Tim plans on explaining it away as genes skipping generations and stuff and Jason falls hook line and sinker, not that he questioned it in the first place. His first risk with fucking someone he wouldn't normally is when he's three months postpartum with baby 8 and desperate to get knocked up. Bruce and Dick are gone tho and Jason is about to leave for a few weeks, so Tim sleeps with him right before he leaves ((making Jason pull out ofc)) and then seduces Alfred, getting pounded all over the Manor until his pregnancy test comes back positive. He sends a pic to Jason like "it really just takes once, huh?" and Jason is ecstatic. Tim is too, mostly bc letting their elderly butler fuck him pregnant is one of the hottest things he's gotten to do, and he still has two weeks before any of the other three men of the house return, so he and Alfred celebrate properly by marathon fucking around the Manor)

I just keep thinking about Tim's progression, and like his opinion on all of this from the start and how heavily it contrasts with his slutty bx years and years later 🤤🤤🤤

!!!!!! tim being so ashamed in the beginning and trying so hard to be loyal to jason but it feeling too good being with others and even if he loves jason, jason's not always there and bruce and dick are! tim giving in to being a slut and having as many different babies as he can because in the end he likes it and jason is happy so who is it really hurting??😍😍

[quendiviner]

Hiiiiii I have a question about long haired Toby!!! What are the differences (in as much or as little detail as you'd like) between Baltimore Toby and Miami Toby 🤔

JEJFBFBJFJF THANK YOU SM

tw: this has mentions of overworking, mental health problems, unhealthy habits and substance use 🤧

Baltimore Toby is back when it was working on the first project/getting its phd (Baltimore bc I think the university the program belonged to was Johns Hopkins or something. haha. obviously we're talking about 2260's here though.) meanwhile Miami Toby is when Aleena & co. asked him to join the skincare start up as a co founder and head of comms.

Side tracking/additional info that's not so important: Okay so funniest thing is that i was like. basically thinking at first that hey i'm sure toby had lots of free time during the project as well. Then I saw a post abt my uni being on top 100's again in Shanghai ranking and went "hm what r the top universities" which then led me to google tuition fees in different places. I went to see john hopkins tuitions and kind of went 👁️👁️ when I saw that students would basically spend around 100k$ a year during phd (indirect fees included) so i was like. hm!

ANYWAY! While I did mention that in Cynosure worldbuilding most universities are free and all, there are still some private ones some parents like to send their children to and with which some corporations like to do collabs). Now, while Tobias did in fact probably get some scholarships and Mackie was like "oh if you keep working for us we'll pay all of ur uni debt" and Toby, 17 years old, naive and just wanting to show what it can do to help people, went "oh ofc that sounds great!". poor guy.

While he did think he would stay there after the project too, Toby's also "a bit" anxious and like, finds it hard to trust promises like that, so it goes on and does extra work like ta:ing and volunteering and all stuff like that. Which led it to basically have no free time at all hahaha. :/. It did attend a book club and get a game console to play its favorite video games at home but like, that's kinda it. It also liked to do work at home btw. Jack would literally come by sometimes and its just sitting looking through some data or something. lmao.

This also led to the fact that Toby basically had no other human contacts except for, well, it's coworkers, some people from university, the book club and Jack (who is also in the coworker section).

ANYWAY! After it left the project it was basically like, "hm what do i do now," especially after looking at its bank accounts and seeing a debt that would be like, almost one million dollars in our modern currency (bc he also hasn't paid for his bachelor's in MIT either. his mom sent him there. he didn't want to go there). Plus he's "just a bit burnt out" (Toby's words) and, well, trying to ignore all its thoughts and feelings re: Jack.

Week later after leaving Mackie Tobias opens its email and sees Aleena's message asking it to call her or meet up with her. So he goes there and she's like "hey so remember our project at that one cosmetics chemistry course? we were thinking abt turning it into a start up and i was wondering if you'd like to join," to which Toby's all like "uh. yeah. sure." not like it has anything else going on. Aleena makes it the head of communications bc Tobias loves public speaking, presentations and stuff like that. And so he moves to Miami.

NOW, despite having a title like that, it's surprisingly easy and has very little work tasks especially since it has a comms team. Toby has no idea what to do with all that free time. It's the first time in its life when it has so much free time (not counting age 1-5).

So it asks Aleena what she tends to do during her free time bc it kinda finds it hard and she's like "well i go to clubs sometimes. and meet with people. and do some other stuff hmm..." and toby, in its brain, basically went "oh so i gotta go to a club."

Well. He did. Many times. Maybe like five times a week or something. It doesn't drink alcohol but picked up some Other Substances to use and, well, basically got a bit too much into things like one night stands or quickies bc 1) its people pleaser brain somehow thought that would be fun and 2) it needed someone to care about it at least in some way and 3) it helped to not think about Jack. Then Frank also showed up so... 😬.

THAT SAID it's not that he only spent time there, Toby also liked to going to museums and got into playing basketball with Aleena. AAAAND it also started spending lots of time at home doing stuff. Or staring at the wall while being bored.

SO UM. How do I conclude this. Both were very bad to its mental health in different ways and the biggest difference is that Baltimore Toby had no free time and Miami Toby had too much. Another difference is that Baltimore Toby tended to limit its substance use to stimulants only, Miami Toby tended to, well, it was high almost all the time. :/

After it got done with everything it basically sold all of its shares for super cheap, which was enough to pay off most of its debt and have some savings, and then it just Left (tm) and went to start things over. Good for it.

[pagesfromthevoid]

Can you do a drabble where the reader and Din Djarin are ex-lovers reunited and angst ensues bc they still have feelings for each other? lol

Like Old Times | d.d.

Word Count: 1.3k

Warnings: Some angst. Canon violence

Author's Note: Hope this is angsty enough lol

Celebrate 2.6k with me!

She stepped off the transport shuttle and looked around the bustling spaceport. She was here for a job –an actual job, too. Not a con that she was trying to pull; not a heist. She had long given up that life after what happened in Nevarro so long ago. She felt a pang of guilt as the memory of it flooded her mind. It was the job that had gone wrong, the one that had led to their separation. She had taken it too far, and she had paid the price for it. In the end, she was forced to make a choice and that choice hurt more than just her.

But now, years later, she found herself back in the same city, on the same planet, taking on a job that would lead her right back to her past. She had promised herself she wouldn't fall back into that life, but the pull of the familiar was strong. And when Greef Karga called on her personally –well, she couldn’t resist.

As she made her way through the bustling crowd, which surprised her since the last time she was here, Nevarro was not a trading post, she kept a close eye on the people around her. It was a habit from before, when she would run cons and pick up enemies instead of friends. However, as she rounded the corner for the address Karga had given her –she froze in her tracks.

Standing outside a new building –labeled as a school, of all places –was an all too familiar visor and cape. The shine of the beskar could have given him away too, but she recognized the helmet more than anything else on him. After all, she had spent plenty of time staring it down, trying to piece together anything behind it. For a moment, she considered simply turning and hightailing it out of there. Nothing Karga had for her was worth the awkwardness that was seeing someone she wronged –someone she loved, and put at risk.

But she wasn’t quick enough, and their gazes met as Karga stepped out of the school in his ornate robes. He followed Din’s gaze and smiled brightly, opening his arms to her as he called out her name.

“Karga,” she greeted with a small grin, reaching out to take his hand. Her eyes flicked to Din, giving him a simple nod in greeting. “Mando.”

He said her name –hidden behind the modulator –and for a moment, she wondered if he hated her. She wouldn’t blame him if he did. When things went south, she left him with a mess to clean up and a shitty note that said she was sorry. If he hated her, it was her own fault.

“It’s good to see you again,” Din offered carefully as she drew her hand back from Karga. 

She always knew where to look to hold his gaze. It took practice, and a lot of guessing, but she had a feeling she was always meeting his eyes when she looked up at him. So when she turned and looked at him, she knew she was looking right into his eyes. Her heart leaped in her chest, threatening to come out of her throat, and for a moment, she felt an inkling of hope.

“I’ll leave you two to catch up; I need to handle something for a moment,” Karga announced, slipping away from the two. It seemingly fell on deaf ears, as she remained focused on the Mandalorian in front of her.

“I…,” What was she going to say? I’m sorry I left you stranded in space? Sorry I let pirates almost kill you while I made my great escape? “I’m here for a job. Karga called on me.”

He didn’t say anything in response, instead looking towards the citadel which sat higher than the rest of the buildings. It must be where Karga ran the planet. “He called on me too. Said he needed all hands on deck.”

She nodded once, crossing her arms over her chest as she followed his gaze to the government building. 

“I still have your blaster,” he said suddenly, though his attention remained anywhere but her.

“What?” 

“Your gun,” he reminded her, as if she didn’t actually hear him. “I kept it. It’s on the Crest.”

For several moments, her eyes remained stuck on the Citadel, staring it down. If she stared any harder, it would burn to the ground. 

“Why?” She finally asked, chancing a glance at him.

He was looking at her, attention turned fully on her. “I thought you were going to come back.”

Something in her broke at his admission. Din was never one for giving up his emotions; he was terrible at it. And he was even more terrible to read. But him admitting that he kept her blaster, hoping that she would return, ripped something inside of her apart.

Her heart sank as she realized the extent of his feelings for her. She had always known that Din cared for her deeply, but this revelation made her see him in a whole new light. He had been holding onto a piece of her, hoping for her return, and she couldn't bear the thought of him waiting for her in vain. The weight of her own emotions hit her like a ton of bricks, and she struggled to keep her composure in front of him. She knew that she had to find a way to make things right, to ease the pain that she had caused him.

“Din, I –,”

As she opened her mouth to respond, blaster fire erupted from outside the building. Din immediately sprang into action, grabbing his pulse rifle from his side and taking cover. She followed closely behind, heart racing with adrenaline as she pushed a vendor stand over and ducked behind it, drawing her own blaster. Peering over the edge, a band of pirates –the same men that she had left Din at the mercy of all those years ago.

Din slid into the space she was occupying, resting his rifle on the edge and taking his aim. She took her aim as well, shooting at the pirates that tried to come from their blindspots. They worked together like no time had passed; like this was something they did every chance they had. It was a strange reminder of how well they fit together. 

“Feels like old times,” she commented as she took down the last pirate that was attacking. The rest had begun to retreat, refusing to lose any more of their men.

“At least you didn’t leave this time,” he offered, a biting tone clipping under the modulator.

She rested her back against the stall, holding her blaster against her chest for a moment. “I never should have –,”

“You shouldn’t have, you’re right,” he finished, standing up.

However, even with the bite in his voice, he held his hand out to her. She took it after a moment of hesitation, wondering briefly what the gesture meant. As he pulled her from the ground, she looked up at him with a furrowed brow.

“Din, I’m sorry, I –,”

“Come get your things,” he ordered, replacing his rifle once more. “I…I can’t keep them on the ship if you’re not coming back.”

“What if I did?”

Din hesitated for a moment, and she could feel his gaze looking her over. They couldn't ignore the past, but she also couldn't ignore the fact that she was standing right in front of him, and she still loved him. 

He took a deep breath before answering. "If you did, we would have to start over. I can't promise that things will be the same. I won’t promise they’ll be the same, because they won’t be.”

She nodded, understanding the weight of his words. "I…I understand.”

[aesteraceae]

Boiling Over

Pairing: Minho/Chan, Minho & Chan

Rating: Gen

Summary: Chan has a nasty habit of throwing his health to the wind, and when his mind finally cracks under the pressure, Minho is there to help him through it.

Word count: 4.1k

Tags under the cut!

Tags: SFW, Age regression, hurt/comfort, stress relief, Chan is overworking himself as usual, Minho has Things To Say about that, angst, little Bang Chan, Caregiver Lee Minho, stim toys, panic attacks, crying, autistic Bang Chan

Also posted on ao3 here.

Notes: This will be part of a series of Chan age regressing because I am contractually obligated to project on Chan whenever I can. This is also for his birthday. No I'm not 2 weeks late shut UP.

Also, this fic isn't explicitly romantic in any sense beyond Chan calling Minho pretty like once, I wrote it with the implication that they like eachother (bc I'm a minchan truther at heart) but you can 1000% read this fic as platonic with no trouble at all.

Tags: @simpracha @sunnyville36 @toastyseungmo @sstarryyoong @decaffedthoughts @bunnypig18 @xcookiemonsteer

This is not going well.

Chan forces himself not to slam the studio door behind him, slumping down into his desk chair and shoving his hands into his hair.

His entire morning was spent talking with department executives and marketing managers and other producers, all asking him the same question; when will the next title track be ready.

And Chan has had to tell every single one of them, multiple times, that no it isn't finished and yes he's working on it and no he doesn't need any help.

It's almost finished, is the thing. He has the guide, tentative lyrics, he's even shown it to the other members, but he doesn't like it.

He's been doing this a very long time, he knows what a good song sounds like, knows what he's capable of making, and this is so far from his best he's terrified to show it to anyone.

The other members said they liked it, of course, but Chan knows better than to take their words at face value. He doesn't think they'd lie out of malice, of course, but they can all see the way Chan has been... Strung a little tighter than usual, lately.

He wouldn't put it past them to just say the song is good to not anger him or stress him out further. And he can't even blame them, really— if anyone said anything about the song to him right now, positive or otherwise, he doesn't know what he'll do.

Break something, probably. Or cry.

He wants to do both right now, but he shoves the urges away and opens up the editing software. He grabs his headphones a bit too hard and knocks over their stand, and he just watches it clatter to the floor, loudly.

He leaves it there.

Maybe kicks it a little, just for good measure.

It's probably not good to let this anger simmer underneath the surface like this, especially if one of the others comes to check on him, but he doesn't have time to go blow off steam in the gym.

Instead, he puts his headphones on and opens the file, shoving his anger into a box to be dealt with later.

· · ────────── ·𖥸· ────────── · ·

Chan's anger never lingers, at least not when it's because of stress.

By that night, nearing 2 in the morning, all of his anger has fizzled out into bone-deep exhaustion.

His ears ache under the headphones, but he left his earbuds in the dorms so he ignores the pain. Similarly, something in his back keeps sending sharp pains throughout his body every time he shifts wrong, and it's unpleasant, but it fades after a moment so he doesn't bother worrying about it.

He's listening to a new version of the track when he feels the anger starting to bubble up again, except it's decided to show itself in tears this time rather than violence.

He will not cry over a song, he won't.

But it's horrible. It feels like every change he makes somehow makes the song worse, even the tricks he's relied on in the past. He's searched for inspiration, looked at old songs, even rewritten entire sections but it's still wrong.

He claws the headphones off and presses his hands into his eyes until bright colors flash behind them, forcing the tears back. The burn of it forces his brain to reconnect with his body, and he realizes that he hurts all over.

How long has he been sitting here?

Shakily, he reaches for his phone.

There's a few messages in the group chat, an email from the project designer that he swiftly ignores, and 3 missed calls from Minho.

Fuck.

He's trying to calculate the math of how long he's been in here and how he missed his ringtone 3 times in a row when someone knocks on the door.

Chan considers not answering, pretending the room is empty. He can't let anyone else see him in this state, he cant. tears are clinging to his lashes, he's in pain, and he doesn't even remember the last time he slept.

There's a moment when he thinks it will work, if he stays very still, but then the door clicks open.

Minho pushes into the room, placing his key card neatly back into his bag.

He looks like he just got out of the shower, hair still damp and fluffy, cheeks still a bit flushed from the heat. He's pretty, because Minho always is, and Chan almost says so before he gets a hold of himself.

"Minho!" He says, instead, running hands through his hair both to tame the rat's nest it must be and to hide how wet his eyes are.

Fuck, his back hurts. When did just moving his arms over his head start to hurt this badly?

"Chan. It's like 2 in the morning, why are you still working?"

Minho has that disapproving look in his eyes, dark and unquestionable. He must be here to drag Chan back to the dorms, but he can't go back yet, not with the song like this.

"Oh, you know how it is. I, uh, got in the zone, I guess."

Minho shoots him an unimpressed look and reaches into his bag, pulling out a bottle of water.

He must have grabbed it from the breakroom downstairs, and the tiniest sliver of affection breaks through the panic buzzing through his veins.

He doesn't wait for Chan to take the bottle, just uncaps it and forces it into his hand. Chan knows better than to fight when Minho gets like this, so he drinks.

And... Fuck.

The water feels like heaven in his mouth, cool and refreshing and perfect. His head relents in its pounding, and he slumps down into the chair.

Minho passes him another bottle and takes the empty one, and Chan doesn't have to look at him to see his disapproving look.

"How long have you been working in here?" Minho asks, picking up his headphone stand from across the room. Huh, he'd almost forgotten about that.

"Couple hours," He lies, trying and failing to figure out the real answer. For some reason he can't wrap his brain around the numbers, the passage of time — he isn't sure when he even got here, just that it was daytime... Maybe morning? Noon?

"Bullshit. None of us have even seen you today, and you missed dinner. What's going on?"

Chan ducks under the anger in Minho's voice, trying to hide the tremor in his hands.

"Nothing's going on," He tries, "I promise I'm fine. I grabbed something from downstairs a little while ago." It's a flimsy lie, and he knows it doesn't land the moment he finishes speaking.

Minho just clicks his tongue and walks over to the trashcan in the corner, perfectly empty. The studio is immaculate, no trace of a wrapper or package.

Minho is silent for a long moment, only speaking when Chan starts to squirm, practically burning alive with the awkwardness and disapproval. He doesn't know why it's bothering him so much, but Minho looks upset, upset with Chan, and it almost hurts worse than his back.

"I thought we agreed not to lie to eachother, Chan." Minho finally says, and there's a hint of pain, there, under the anger.

Chan honest to God whines, trying to curl in on himself and stopping with a wince. He doesn't want to lie, especially not to Minho. He doesn't want to be a disappointment, doesn't want to be bad.

Minho doesn't like being lied to, he hates it, they've had so many arguments over little white lies that Chan or the others didn't think we're important but hurt Minho deeply. Chan knows Minho hates being lied to, but here he is doing it, without a second thought.

He's horrible.

"M' sorry," He mumbles, twisting his fingers into his jeans. He's being bad, and Minho is disappointed in him, and he has every right to be.

Part of Chan is screaming to correct the issue, but a far stronger part wants to sit in this discomfort, squirm under Minho's pained and angry gaze. He deserves it, Chan thinks. It's a fitting enough punishment, this gnawing ache in his chest that begs for praise forced to receive the opposite.

It hurts, but Chan deserves it for being bad, for hurting Minho.

... Wait.

Chan blinks, vision refocusing on a spot on the wall. Being bad?

No. No no no no no-

"I'm really okay," He says, a little bit frantic, heart rate picking up, because this cannot be happening.

The only reason he'd be thinking like that, thinking he deserves punishment or that he was being bad is if he was slipping, and that cannot happen with Minho in here.

"I'll be back home in an hour, okay?" He says, spinning in the chair so he doesn't have to look at Minho. Something about him being here is making Chan slip, hard, And maybe looking away would solve the issue. He just has to get Minho to leave, then he can handle this on his own and everything will be fine.

"No, you've been here long enough. I'm taking you home."

No.

"Min, I'm not-"

Minho just holds up a hand, pulling Chan's chair away from the desk and back to face him.

"This isn't a discussion. I won't let you weasel your way out of it, either— you've been in here for at least nine hours, that's enough. You need food and sleep."

"I'm fine. I'll grab something from downstairs, alright? But I really need to get this finished."

Minho doesn't answer— he just reaches over the desk to save the file. Chan doesn't realize what he's doing until his hand shifts to the power button, clicking off his laptop.

"Minho!" Chan snaps, trying to swat his hands away, but Minho just closes the laptop and shoves it into his bag, zipping it up tight.

"Are you seriously— Minho, give that back!"

Minho ignores him, grasping his arm and pulling. Chan stumbles out of the chair, and any other day it would be perfectly fine, but his back immediately protests at the movement.

He collapses down to his knees, trying to breathe through the pain and keep himself from crying. He will not cry in front of Minho, he won't.

"Chan? Hey, what's wrong?" Minho is crouched in front of him, anger entirely forgotten in favor of worry.

And Chan tries, he really does, but his back hurts and he knows he's already crying, and he can feel his grip on everything sensible slipping away.

"Leave," He begs, even though he knows it's futile. Minho won't leave him like this because he's a good friend, and he cares, and right now that care is going to burn Chan alive.

"I'm not going anywhere, Chan. I'm right here. You're safe, I've got you."

Chan whines against his will, listing forward, further into Minho's arms. He takes him easily, sitting completely on the floor to pull Chan into his lap. And Chan goes, because Minho feels so much bigger than him right now. He doesn't stand a chance at resisting, and he wants to sit in Minho's lap, wants to cry into his shoulder and know that the world won't end once he's done.

"Min..." He mumbles, wet and pathetic and sad, and Minho makes a noise like a wounded animal.

"Come here, Chan." He urges, even as Chan tucks his head into Minho's neck.

He puts a hand on Chan's neck, gently playing with the hair curling there, and the other slips underneath his shirt to rub massaging circles into the small of his back.

Chan doesn't even stand a chance— he drops so hard and so fast that he has to blink his vision back into focus.

His eyes slip right back closed, though, because Minho is still massaging him, both his neck and back, steadily loosening the knots and aches there.

It's good, it's blissful, and Chan lets his mind go entirely blank.

· · ────────── ·𖥸· ────────── · ·

The thing with Chan is that he never knows when to quit.

Well, that's not quite true. Most of the time, he's perfectly happy to quit, when necessary; scrapping a song or going back to the foundations of a dance, but sometimes, like now, he gets so caught up in finishing something that he can't even fathom the idea of stopping.

Minho knew Chan was spiraling, he’s known since this morning when Chan refused breakfast and left the dorms in a hurry for a meeting. He knew when he didn’t respond in the group chat, he knew when Chan missed three of his calls in a row.

Guilt settles deep in Minho's stomach as he holds Chan, shuddering and shaking and hurting. He talked himself out of dragging Chan back for dinner because he thought he was worrying too much, but now he cant help but think that he didn’t worry enough. There are headphone marks around his ears, for god's sake.

“You’re okay, I’ve got you. Just relax, Chan, I’ve got you.” And god, Minho didn’t think it was possible to feel fondness and fear at the same time, but here he is. Chan nuzzles further into his neck, trembling all over, and Minho has absolutely no idea what to do. Chan rarely cries in front of them, and even if he does the very last thing he wants is to be comforted.

It makes Minho’s chest hurt, sometimes, how insanely solitary Chan gets when he’s upset, but this is almost worse. He’s so far gone that Chan cant help but cling to him. Minho blinks tears back.

“Let’s get you to the couch, yeah? Come on, Channie, it’ll be more comfy there.” Chan whines, unwilling to move, so Minho does something a bit stupid.

He shifts Chan just enough that he can loop his arm underneath his legs, settling the other around his back.

Chan is heavy, but not too heavy for Minho to carry a few feet. He settles them back onto the couch, lying down so Chan can stretch his back a bit. The new position seems to switch something in Chan, and his sobs quiet, somewhat. He slips one of his arms up to cup Minho’s neck, like he’s… Oh. Like he’s feeling his heartbeat. His ear is pressed right over his heart, as well.

God, Minho is going to explode from all of this sympathy one day.

“That’s it,” He soothes, “I'm here. Feel my heartbeat? Try and breathe with me, okay? Can you do that for me?” The words come easy — Years of helping the other members through panic and anxiety attacks make things like this nearly second nature. In any other scenario Minho might feel awkward about speaking to Chan like this — not condescending, exactly, but something akin to it — but right now, anything else feels like a cardinal sin. Chan needs softness, right now; he needs a gentle voice to guide him, to remind him that its okay for him to relax.

It takes him a while, maybe 10 minutes, to completely match Minho’s breathing, but he’s so determined that it's almost cute. His voice hiccups every now and then and Minho can see the frustration on his face, but he just tries again with the same determination.

Minho is besotted. He knows it, and he doesn't really try to hide the love in his eyes as he looks down at Chan, whispering sweet encouragements into his ear as his breathing steadily evens out.

“Good job, Chan,” he whispers, when the last of the tension drains out of his shoulders. Chan hums and shifts to look up at him, eyes wide and glossy and vulnerable, and Minho forgets how to breathe.

“I was good?” He whispers, voice rough from crying but still somehow higher than normal, so sweet that Minho has to take a long, deep breath before he can respond. “So good. Look, you’re breathing smooth again, right?”

Chan nods, settling his head back against Minho’s chest, and Minho almost feels bad for being relieved, but Christ. That look, his eyes, so trusting and soft and loving, its—

It’s a lot.

It’s good.

“Breathing with Hyung,” Chan says, sweet, almost sing-song, and Minho…

Hm.

Minho starts to pet Chan's hair again, smiling when he melts against his chest, and takes advantage of it to think.

Minho knows a lot of things. He’s researched a lot of things, either for Jisung or Felix or Jeongin, ways to deal with stress or handle panic attacks or sensory overloads, anything he might need to make sure he knew what to do if one of the members needed him.

This… Minho thinks he knows what this is.

It would make sense, really. Chan joined the company at 13, barely a teenager and still very much a child, put into a stress-filled environment in a new country alone. It would make perfect sense for Chan to cope with that stress by regressing into a younger age, where he wouldn't have to think about training or producing.

That guilt pokes at him again — Chan has been stressing over this song for ages, and Minho knew, but he thought Chan could handle it, or at least that Chan would ask Jisung or Changbin for help.

None of that mattered now, though. Now Chan needs him, and they can talk about asking for help later.

“Hyung?”

Minho has to bite his lip to keep from cooing at how cute Chan sounds, schooling his expression into something calm and attentive.

"Yeah, baby?"

Chan takes a moment to preen at the nickname, but takes a deep breath and sobers. Minho can't help but frown— the serious expression, while familiar, doesn't seem to suit Chan, right now.

"I'm sorry for lying. 'was mean. I know you don' like it, but I was scared. Sorry."

Minho's heart breaks.

A million microscopic pieces, each and every one sucked into Chan's eyes, big and just the slightest bit teary.

"Oh, Darling. It's okay, I understand. It's okay to be scared." He bites his lip before continuing, but... well. It did hurt, and Minho would only feel worse about it if he didn't even express it.

"But, baby, in the future, you can just tell me what's wrong. I promise, I won't judge or be angry with you for telling the truth, okay?"

Chan nods, crawling up slightly to tuck his head underneath Minho's chin.

"I will, promise."

Minho can't help himself, he presses a soft kiss against Chan's hair. "Thank you for apologizing, baby. You're very sweet."

Chan is silent for a moment, and then—

"Chan?" Minho yelps, gasping a little, because Chan is... sucking on his collarbone?

He jerks back, already babbling out apologies, but Minho pets his cheek to soothe him. "It's okay, it's okay, I was just startled, baby, that's all."

Chan quiets, staring down at his hands in his lap, and there's something in his eyes, a hint of awareness, and... well. Maybe it's a bit selfish, but Minho doesn't want Chan to come out of this headspace just yet. He seems relaxed, less worn down by racing thoughts, more willing to be honest and ask for what he needs.

And Minho wants to provide. He wants to keep helping Chan like this, and maybe it does make him selfish, but Chan needs this, and Minho won't deny him.

"Here, can you hop off of me for a moment, little one?" The nickname does the trick— Chan whines a little and backs up so Minho can move, leaning against the couch like he can't sit up on his own. It's adorable, and Minho moves quickly so he can hold Chan again.

He brought his bag up here because he suspected that Chan would need some things— water, earbuds, painkillers— but there's also a little pocket full of stuff for Seungmin. Noise-canceling headphones, a few stim toys, and what Minho's after now, chewable toys.

Headphones are probably a bad idea now so he leaves those, but he takes out everything else and spreads them out in his hands.

The chewable toys are brand new— they're in the bag for emergencies, but Seungmin is just as overly prepared as he is so they're hardly ever needed — so he opens one of the bags and offers it to Chan.

"You can bite and suck on this for now, okay?"

Chan takes it tenderly, looking awestruck. "But... this is yours?"

Minho puts the other toys on the side table and sits beside him again, suppressing a smile when Chan immediately burrows back into his side.

"They're for whoever needs them, and I think you need them right now. I can... get you something else later, once we've talked about it, but if you just want something to do with your mouth, that should help."

Minho adds a few more things to his list of Things To Talk to Chan About When He's Big Again. Pacifiers, maybe, and Minho specifically caring for him, definitely.

Chan eyes the toy warily for a moment, like he doesn't believe that he can actually have it, but eventually he bites down on it.

His eyes light up.

He doesn't really chew it so much as he sucks on it, but his eyes droop a little and his shoulders slump.

Maybe Minho doesn't entirely suck at this, at least.

"There we go. Is that better?"

Chan nods, eyes slipping fully closed.

"Good. Come on, I'll put on some music, how about that?"

Chan perks up at that, slipping the toy out of his mouth to babble, "Can you sing? Please, Hyung? I'll be good!"

Minho blinks, "You don't have to be good." It comes out without his permission, but he doesn't backtrack. "I don't want you to worry about being good or not disobeying. You're perfect, Chan."

Chan stares at him for a beat, and then he breaks. He whines, high in the back of his throat, and tears flood over his cheeks in waves.

"Whoa, baby, baby, it's okay," Minho is on him in an instant, pulling Chan into his arms and rocking them like he did before.

"M' not, not perfect, not-" He cuts himself off with a painful-sounding hiccup, and Minho's heart aches.

"Shh, little one, it's okay." He says, growing frantic, because it isn't working. Chan is trembling, and instead of hugging Minho back he's covering his face, sobbing into his hands instead of Minho's chest. This is different, this is new, and Minho needs a different approach.

So. He sings.

It starts out shaky, because he's on the verge of tears himself and hasn't sung at all today, but he settles into it easily.

It's a song Chan wrote for him months ago, unreleased because he hasn't had the time to record it. It's short, unfinished, and Minho prays that it'll work.

He's on the second chorus before he notices any change, and it feels like the first sip of water in a desert. Chan shudders, cries quieting, finally tucking his head into Minho's neck.

He tightens his grip, remembering that Chan liked tight hugs, and he breathes.

He sings through the end of the song and Chan finally stops sobbing, just tiny little whimpers against Minho's chest, and he leans them back against the couch.

"I've got you," He murmurs, thinking of the first lines to Chan's favorite song, "I've got you, baby."

· · ────────── ·𖥸· ────────── · ·

Chan wakes up a few hours later, cheeks itchy with dried tears and more relaxed than he's felt in years.

He's... hm. He's lying on Minho's chest.

Minho is asleep, long eyelashes fluttering as his eyelids shift, and Chan can't help but settle back against his chest.

Minho hums, readjusting his hand to hold Chan a little more securely.

"Go back to sleep, little one," He murmurs, voice thick with sleep and fondness.

Jesus. He hasn't slipped up like that in front of someone since he was a trainee.

Chan flushes pink, hazy memories flooding back. He remembers crying, a lot, calling Minho hyung...

Chan can feel mortification creeping up on him, but Minho must notice that he isn't relaxing, because he tightens his grip. One of his hands comes up to hold the back of Chan's head, guiding his ear over Minho's chest.

The steady thump-thump thump-thump of Minho's heartbeat makes Chan melt, against all his better wishes.

"...thank you, hyung."

[iamnotawomanimagod]

Okay so bc I’m lazy i just decided not to keep watching the house of jay z so pls could you spoil the entire show for me? 🥺🤭

"House of Jay Z" lmfao Nins you're so fucking funny

Okay, here we go! Also I'm sorry this is SO long, I tried to keep it short, but a lot happens!

Just to refresh your memory - the first episode sets up a few storylines.

One is the trial against Fortunado, with prosecutor Auguste Dupin leading the charge. During the trial's opening remarks, he indicates that there is an informant among the Usher family. This immediately causes a lot of paranoia and distrust, which impacts a lot of the decisions the characters make.

Another storyline with Auggie and Roderick takes place after the deaths of all of Roderick's children. That's where the two men are talking in Roderick's broken down childhood home.

Third, we've got Roderick's "miracle drug" - Lidogone. It's meant to be a non-habit forming pain reliever and he's made his fortune primarily from its sale. Big shocker - Ligodone is absolutely addictive, and Roderick knows that all along.

Another key to understanding what happens is Carla Gugino's character, aka Verna. She is present and/or involved with all the deaths of all of the Usher children. She's basically a sort of devil/karma collector/god of death. Also, Verna is an anagram of Raven, which is a reference to Poe's "The Raven."

So all the Usher kids die in different horrible ways, which is revealed in the first episode, right? And Verna is there to give each of them an out - but only if they take it, which none of them do.

1 - Perry/"Prospero"

The youngest of Roderick's children (he's 25) dies in an abandoned warehouse party/orgy he's throwing, because he hooks the sprinkler system up to some tanks on the roof, not realizing those tanks are full of illegally stored acidic waste. (The building is owned by Fortunado, Roderick's pharma company, so it's kind of Roderick's fault too.) He wants water to fall on everyone to make the orgy sexier, and plans to turn it on right at midnight.

Before midnight, Verna appears (looking a lot like Red Coat from PLL lmao) and tries to tell Perry that he can end the party early (implying he doesn't have to die in such a horrible way.) But he doesn't really understand her, blows her off, and goes back to the party.

Verna tells all of the waiters/bartenders etc to leave before the acid rain falls. She also tells Roderick's wife, Morrie, who is there in secret because Perry invited her, but Morrie doesn't go. As a result, Morrie is also burned horribly by the acid, but she's the only survivor of the party and is rescued and sent to the hospital. Keep that in mind for later.

Perry dies horribly with all of his friends/lovers, everyone getting burned by the acid together into a big gross pile. He was a bit of a shit, as he was recording the whole party and intended to blackmail everyone there with the footage, so it's not a big loss. One down, five to go!

2 - Camille

She dies because she's snooping on Victorine's work, trying to prove that Victorine is the informant for the prosecution. She gets mauled to death by one of the chimps Victorine is testing her medical device on - a heart monitor thing that will not only assist with keeping heart rate steady, but can also map arteries and capillaries, making it possible to catch things like clots and strokes earlier.

Camille is a PR person, and is often the one who spins the family's scandals and losses as positive things. She also "knows everything" about everyone, but seems to resent Victorine for reasons no one else really gets.

Camille goes to Victorine's lab and discovers that Victorine has faked all the results of her miraculous heart device, and she pumps the chimps full of adrenaline to make it seem like it's working.

Verna, pretending to be a security guard, tries to warn Camille away, and tell her to leave, but Camille doesn't go. Verna corners her in the room with all the chimps, and gives a big speech about how horrible animal testing is. Then basically "becomes" the chimp that mauls Camille to death. Another one bites the dust!

3 - Napoleon

He dies because he goes insane, and starts hallucinating a demon cat in his home. He is the most emotionally distraught at the deaths of Perry and especially Camille, as he was closest to them. He wakes up one morning after they've died, and finds his boyfriend's cat (named Pluto) completely butchered, and Leo has blood on his hands.

So Leo convinces his boyfriend that the cat must've just gotten out, and he goes out and adopts a cat that looks *exactly* like Pluto, and tries to pass it off as his boyfriend's cat.

He adopts the cat from a shelter worker - but it's Verna. She does give him the same opportunity to die a less gruesome death, as she attempts to get him to adopt a different cat (but not one that looks like Pluto.) This would've meant coming clean to his boyfriend about killing the cat, though, so Leo doesn't listen.

Throughout the episode, no one else ever sees the cat Leo adopted. It turns out that it's just Verna, basically baiting Leo into destroying his own apartment and eventually, himself.

He ends up throwing himself off his balcony in an attempt to catch the cat - who is just a figment of his madness.

It's also revealed at the end that the real Pluto is totally fine, was never killed by Leo (he just accidentally got let out of the apartment,) and all of the violence against the cat in this episode was in Leo's head.

4 - Victorine

This storyline is based on "The Telltale Heart" by Poe, and is probably one of my favorites in terms of the stories Flanagan adapted for this miniseries.

Victorine is approached by a woman with a type of heart failure that is very hard to treat. This woman is actually Verna, of course.

Victorine thinks this woman is a perfect candidate for human trials for her heart device, even though Victorine knows that the device doesn't actually work. The woman is very vulnerable and uncertain about the procedure, but Victorine insists it's all good. (That was Verna attempting to give Victorine an out, and a less painful death.)

She still moves forward with setting up the procedure, even going so far as to forge her partner's signature (who is a talented heart surgeon) on the pre-surgery documents. When her partner finds out about this, she is super pissed and breaks up with Victorine. She says she's going to expose everything Victorine has done.

In a fit of rage, Victorine throws a little decorative sculpture thing at her partner and her partner gets hit in the head and dies. Victorine doesn't remember this, however, and spends the rest of the episode trying to call her partner and get her to do the surgery.

All the while, whenever there is silence, Victorine keeps hearing the little chirp of the heart device. She starts listening to very loud music to drown it out.

Roderick (her dad) eventually goes to her to talk to her about human trials on her device (he's dying of a brain disease and wants the device for himself.)

But when she turns the music off, he can hear the chirping too.

They go to the next room and find Victorine's partner with her chest cut wide open and the device wrapped around her dead heart. Victorine realizes what she's done and stabs herself with a scalpel. (But don't worry, Roderick makes sure to do surgery on her partner himself to get the device out so the cops don't take it. This family sucks.) Four down, two to go!

The remaining Usher children are from Roderick's first marriage to a woman called Annabel Lee.

5 - Tamerlane

Tammy is having a very hard time sleeping, and in fact hasn't slept in weeks. She is also certain her influencer fitness bro husband is cheating on her. That's because Verna keeps appearing in the background of her husband's videos to make Tamerlane paranoid.

Tamerlane fires/breaks up with him, and tries to do the big launch of her Goldbug luxury subscription packages herself. She hallucinates that Verna is there in the front row of the crowd, thinks she's the "other woman" that her husband is cheating on her with, and throws a microphone stand at her.

It turns out to actually be Juno, Roderick's very young wife, who was there to support Tammy, because Juno is a sweetheart and is way too good for the Ushers.

Tammy returns home after the disastrous launch, but starts seeing Verna in all of her mirrors. Verna keeps telling her to go to sleep, to get some rest, to stop being so paranoid and looking for enemies everywhere (her way of trying to give Tammy a peaceful death.)

Tammy starts smashing her mirrors in an attempt to get Verna to stop taunting her. This leads her to her bedroom, where she has a mirror on the ceiling and as her headboard. She smashes the ceiling mirror and the falling shards of glass kill her.

Just one last Usher child remains...

6 - Frederick

Freddie is the eldest child of Roderick Usher, and the final one to die. He's the worst, and imo he could've died a lot more painfully.

When he finds out that his wife Morrie was at the party where Perry died, he goes full asshole abuser mode, in the worst possible way. He removes Morrie from the hospital early and makes a sickbed for her at home. He tells his daughter Lenore (the only grandchild of Roderick) that he's going to get doctors and other help for Morrie, but Lenore never sees anyone coming in or out of the house.

That's because Frederick is essentially keeping Morrie captive and denying her medical treatment. He's using a paralytic to keep her immobilized and unable to speak, but completely aware. So she's just suffering and in horrible pain from the full-body acid burns, and he's using that to punish her for going to the party and presumably cheating on him.

He eventually prints out a million pictures of them on their wedding day and puts them all over the walls in her sickroom. He makes a speech about having to "put his house in order" and about how much he loved her smile when they met.

Then he rips all of her teeth out with some pliers. (This isn't shown, thank god.)

Lenore is growing more and more suspicious of her father and his treatment of her mother. He starts telling her that Morrie is too unwell for visits. When Lenore confronts him about it, he forbids her from checking on Morrie and then leaves the house.

Lenore breaks into her mother's sickroom, finds her being held captive there there, and calls the police. Morrie is rescued and returned to the hospital. We'll talk about what happens with Lenore later.

Frederick left the house to go oversee the demolition of the warehouse where Perry died. It's happening at night, under the table, without any proper permits. He decides he wants to go in and take a piss on the spot Perry died.

It's important to note that he's been doing a shitton of coke for several days now. Earlier, after ripping Morrie's teeth out, when he was getting ready to leave, he was scooping some more coke into a little baggie. We later see that Verna was behind him, urging him to take "more." It turns out that the "more" in question was actually some of the paralytic powder that Frederick was using on Morrie. So he does a bump of his "coke," unzips his fly to pee, then goes rigid and collapses to the floor, paralyzed.

Verna appears, impersonating a construction worker, and explains what's happening to him. She was going to give him an out, just like she did with his siblings, until he ripped Morrie's teeth out. Verna decides then that Frederick will not get the chance for a peaceful death. So she makes sure that he's got the paralytic instead of the coke, waits for him to be alone in the warehouse, then mimics his voice on the radio and calls for the demolition to begin.

Frederick dies paralyzed on the floor, with his dick out (embarrassing,) as the building collapses around him. A big metal piece of the rafters breaks free, swinging like a pendulum, and slowly cuts him in half. Still too good for him, if you ask me.

So now all of Roderick's children are dead! But we're not done, we've still got the terrible twins to contend with.

7 - How Madeline and Roderick fucked over Auggie Dupin

Back in the late '70s, Dupin used to be an investigator for Medicare fraud. He uncovered a conspiracy where higher-ups at Fortunado were forging the signatures of their lower-level employees (like Roderick, at the time,) and their patients, making it seem like the patients had signed off on agreeing to medication trials. They took advantage of a lot of sick, elderly, and mentally unwell people to do so.

For months, Roderick acts like he's going along with Dupin's investigation and plan to ruin Fortunado. He agrees to be a whistleblower and testify that Fortunado forged his signature and lied to their patients.

When the trial finally happens, Roderick lies under oath, says he did sign those papers, and insinuates that Auggie has been harassing him and his family into helping bring down Fortunado. Roderick is very briefly arrested, but quickly set free by Fortunado lawyers. Auggie is left with no case against Fortunado at all, because his key witness and whistleblower betrayed him.

When Roderick's very good, sweet first wife (named Annabel Lee, after the Poe poem) finds out about this, and that Roderick planned to turn on Auggie all along, she is devastated and angry. She leaves Roderick.

It's later revealed that Roderick basically bought their children (Tamerlane and Frederick) away from her by showing them a lavish lifestyle that she couldn't compete with, and Annabel Lee eventually kills herself from the loneliness.

(In the present-day timeline, Auggie admits that the only reason he trusted Roderick was because of Annabel Lee being a genuinely moral, kind person.)

8 - The Deal with Verna

Back in the late 70s, once word gets out that Roderick lied to save the company from litigation, Roderick is considered set for life at Fortunado. His horrible boss, Rufus, keeps talking him up at this big New Year's Eve party, telling him how everyone knows that Roderick is Rufus's number one man.

Later on at this party, Madeline lures Rufus into the basement. She and Roderick then brick him into a wall that's under construction, Cask of Amontillado style. They also poisoned him with cyanide for good measure.

Because Rufus talked up Roderick so much, it's almost guaranteed that Roderick will inherit Rufus's position/title when Rufus turns up missing.

Madeline and Roderick leave the Fortunado party to establish an alibi elsewhere. They find a small, relatively uncrowded bar. It's here that they meet Verna.

Important to note - Madeline was the mastermind behind all of this. She convinced Roderick to betray Auggie. She came up with the plan of trapping and killing Rufus, letting Roddie take his job. She is absolutely the smarter of the two, and is basically always pulling Roderick's strings in the background.

Everything that Roderick is, he owes to Madeline's ruthlessness, cleverness, and total disregard for everyone else but herself and her twin brother.

And to one other thing...

The terrible twins are the last people at the bar, and are talking about their ambitions and dreams while they drink with Verna. As the conversation goes on, Verna reveals that she knows what the twins did to Rufus just hours before, which should be impossible.

She then gives them an offer, and makes it clear that it's not a hypothetical, but a deal that she wants to make with them.

If they accept, their family will never again be able to be convicted of any crime, including the murder the twins literally just committed. No legal charges will ever stick. They'll achieve anything they can imagine, and have a lifetime of money, luxury, and comfort.

But the trade-off is their entire bloodline. When Roderick and Madeline reach the age where they would've naturally died anyway, all of their offspring will die before them.

Obviously, they took the deal. Madeline never has children. Roderick pops them out left and right. And one of his children has a child, too - Lenore. And the trade-off is the entire bloodline.

9 - Lenore

Roderick loves Lenore very much. He considers her the best of the Ushers and has faith that she will be a good person. And the narrative makes it clear that this is true, as Lenore is shown constantly questioning the older members of her family about what's right and wrong, and why they're doing the things they do.

After the joint funeral of Tamerlane, Frederick, and Victorine, Roderick's brain disease makes him collapse on the street. Lenore stays with him that night to keep an eye on him, because Roderick's very young wife, Juno, has left him. (We'll get into that later, as Juno is a key part of the ending.)

The night Lenore stays with Roderick, Verna appears to her and tells her a story about Morrie. Because Lenore intervened, Morrie will make a full recovery. Then she'll go on to start a non-profit foundation for victims of domestic violence. That foundation will go on to help millions and millions of people. Morrie calls it "The Lenore Foundation."

Verna apologizes to Lenore, says she doesn't want to do this part of her job, and then gently touches Lenore's forehead.

Lenore basically goes to sleep, dying peacefully, but she's also not even 18 yet so it's a big bummer. (One of the implications of this is that all of Roderick's children could have died this way, too, but they were assholes so their deaths were gruesome and painful.)

Roderick is obviously very distraught by this. He goes to his childhood home and asks Auggie Dupin to meet him there.

10 - The Deaths of the Terrible Twins

As he finishes telling him the whole story, the question of whether or not Madeline and Roderick really believed that the deal with Verna was real or not comes up. Roderick admits that he believed it, and that he knew that he would "climb to the top on a pile of corpses" and that he didn't care. He chose to do it all anyway, knowing how many people would be killed by his drug.

All throughout their conversation, Auggie keeps hearing some clunking noises in the basement. Roderick tells him "it's just Madeline."

We then find out that Roderick brought Madeline to their childhood home and shares a drink with her. He actually poisons her. After she dies, he takes her eyes out and replaces them with blue stones, mimicking the burial of Egyptian pharaohs.

Madeline, either back from the dead or having never really died, comes up from the basement wailing, her eyes gone and replaced with stones. She runs straight for Roderick and begins strangling him. At that point, the storm that's been brewing all night reaches a frenzy, lightning strikes the crumbling house, and it starts collapsing.

Auggie flees the house just before it completely falls. Madeline and Roderick are buried beneath the rubble. And so, all the Ushers are finally dead.

Epilogue - Juno

Some background - Roderick met Juno in a hospital. She was there after suffering a serious heroin overdose, which including losing her leg. (The actress playing Juno is a real amputee, so that's a fun bit of representation.) She's in a coma when Roderick hears about her - a young woman who suffers from a terrible heroin addiction and has no family, prospects, or assets of her own. Juno is given the highest dosage of Ligodone that anyone has ever received. She wakes up in no pain. She and Roderick fall in love and get married, and she continues taking the highest dosage possible, at Roderick's insistence.

Juno believes their love is real. As the show goes on, she starts expressing interest in weening herself off Ligodone. Roderick forbids her from doing so, asking her how it would look in the midst of Fortunado being on trial. When she insists, saying it should be easy since it's non-addictive, Roderick reveals that it's VERY addictive and that recovery will be a slow, painful, years-long process. He also admits that the reason he loves her is because her body is so good at processing Ligodone, and she's taking so much, that she "basically is Lidgodone." He even compares himself to Dr. Frankenstein and her to his monster. This is when she leaves him, telling him that she'll endure three years of pain and discomfort over a lifetime with him.

And then, with everyone else being dead, Juno is the only person left in the will.

She completely dissolves Fortunado and gives most of the money away. She also manages to overcome her addiction to Ligodone, slowly and painfully, but on her own terms. The heroin addict - "junkie slut" as his kids so often called her - wins it all, dismantles the horrible pharma company, and gets to live her life without the Ushers.

Auggie's final scene is him standing at the graves of the Usher family. He says: "Goodbye, Roderick. I'm going home to my husband and our kids and their kids. I'm the richest man in the world, you know?" SO on the nose and cheesy, lmao. One of the criticisms that I do have of this show is that it's pretty heavy-handed and can be very preachy at times. But putting that aside, I really enjoyed it!

Anyway - in the final scene, we see Verna placing objects of importance on each of the headstones for all of the deceased Ushers: the mask Perry was wearing the night of his death; Camille's phone (for her PR job); Pluto's collar for Napoleon; Victorine's heart device; Tamberlane's "Goldbug" pendant; Frederick's baggie of coke (lmao); the blue stones that became her eyes for Madeline; and a whiskey glass for Roderick. Lenore gets a beautiful raven's feather, wrapped in a white ribbon.

As she places these items, Verna speaks in voice over and recites the Poe poem "Spirits of the Dead."

There ya go! That's the basic meat of the story and as many details as I could include. I honestly skipped over SO much and left out some characters entirely, but I think this'll give you a good idea of what happens plot-wise.

Love you, Nins <3

[rosenallies]

would love some a phone sex prompt for: its my fault isn't it? i ruin everything i touch

This is kind of a continuation of this lil storyline bc I forgot I wanted to write more of it so <3

——

Denali sighed, phone pressed to her ear as she looked at Rosé sleeping soundly on the couch, cocooned in soft pink blankets.

“I don’t know what to do, Mik,” she said quietly, not wanting to leave the room in case Rosé woke up and needed her, “I’m so scared I don’t know how to help her.”

Rosé had been discharged from the hospital after just one night so they could observe her, but even a full day after, she still seemed so out of it and tired like she’d been there for a week. Since she’d come home, Denali had not let her lift a single finger, taking care of meals and chores herself.

“You love her, shouldn’t that come naturally?”

Denali huffed. “I mean, I know what to do, I just don’t know if I’m good at it. She’s always the one taking care of me, and I just,” she paused, sniffling a bit, “it’s my fault isn’t it? I ruin everything I touch.”

“Nali, how would it be your fault? It’s not your fault she’s a people pleaser.”

“Maybe if I wasn’t so-“

“Denali,” her friend stopped her gently, “she wouldn’t want you saying those things about yourself. You just need to be there for her and listen to her, but you know that.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but Rosé began to stir, catching her attention. “Yeah, thanks, Mik. I’ll talk to you later, okay? She’s about to wake up I think.”

She hung up the phone and pulled herself off the floor and made her way to the couch. “Babe?” She whispered gently, sitting beside Rosé and petting back hair that had fallen into her face while she slept.

Rosé blinked her eyes open, bleary eyes becoming clearer as they focused. “Nali,” she smiled, reaching for her.

“How are you feeling? Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, I’m okay, darling. What did you want me to get for dinner? I was gonna head to the store after my nap.”

“What? No, Rosie, you can’t go to the store. You need to stay here and rest.”

Rosé smiled softly, but Denali noticed how it didn’t reach her eyes all the way. “Come on, baby, I’m fine. The doctors said it wasn’t anything to worry about.”

“Yet! You left out the ‘yet’! They said if you continue to do too much and worry so much that it could start to affect your heart.”

“It won’t because I’m fine,” Rosé argued.

Denali sighed again, staring down at her lap. “How many times have you I had conversations like this but with the roles reversed?”

“What? Denali, I-“

“I can’t even tell you how many times,” Denali laughed bitterly, shaking her head, “you always say I’m never really fine when I’m doing everything in my power to convince others that I’m fine. It’s the same for you.”

“But-“

“Just, please, Rosé,” Denali looked at her, tears shining in her gentle brown eyes, “I didn’t even know you were struggling this bad and I-I didn’t help until something bad happened.”

Eyes downcast, Rosé fiddled with the tassel on one of her blankets, weaving tiny braids with the strands just to keep her hands too busy to shake. “You didn’t know because I hid it.”

“But now I know. I know and I refuse to just let you suffer. I wasn’t kidding when I said I didn’t want you even lifting a finger for a while. And I’m pretty sure your sisters would have me killed if I let you just fall back into old habits so easily.”

Rosé laughed softly. “Nah, I’m pretty sure they love you more than they love me,” she said, a joke but there was a hint of insecurity there that Denali noticed.

“That’s not true and it’s not even the same type of love. The love they have for you, their big sister that took care of them, is far greater than the type of love they have for me,” she paused to cup Rosé’s cheek, gently lifting her gaze, “you’ve taken care of everyone for years, now let me do the same, okay?”

Tears shone in her eyes and anxiety churned in her belly but she nodded. “Okay.”

Denali wrapped her up in a cuddle. “You might be agreeing with me now but I know you’ll still resist at times, but don’t worry I still won’t allow it.”

She was right, Rosé knew herself. Anxiety at being rendered useless and needy raged inside her, but a soft comfort also washed over her at knowing she was being taken care of. She had never craved that so badly.

Resting her head on Denali’s shoulder, Rosé let herself relax again. “I love you.”

“I love you too, we’ll get through this, promise.”

Rosé didn’t know if that was true, but for the sake of herself she let herself believe the words, even if only for a moment or two.

[spicyicymeloncat]

It’s 4am it’s angst o’clock so here’s ninja attachment issues:

I feel like everyone has attachment issues but like Zane in particular sticks to people like a sad puppy. After wu finally grew up again after s9, Zane would not let him leave the house alone and because incredibly over protective (hence him jumping in front wu every time anything happens ever). Especially after s11, Zane does not like to be left alone, he’ll start to disassociate. Whenever someone leaves he’ll try not to look sad but he will be, and whenever he does any solo missions, he does so out of necessity and so tries to put on a brave face. He’s still kinda in denial about it all but everyone else kinda knows and always have a buddy system, and get worried if Zane is alone.

Kai also does not like being left alone but unfortunately his response to anything is isolating himself. No one is allowed to leave him but he will storm off when he’s upset, only for a few minutes later he’ll realise that he actually did not want to be alone. He’s caught between trying to do things alone because he had to in his childhood but also feeling very scared of reliving said lonely childhood. Whenever Kai feels bad about himself he basically punishes himself by isolating himself but he’s trying to break that habit. So yeah he likes company and will often drive with someone on the phone (Pixal usually just because they are driving phone call buddies).

Jay is more of an introvert and definitely needs his alone time but he also requires validation every five minutes and can be really clingy and overwhelming when he is around people (which in turn is the reason why his social battery is so low, he’s draining even to himself). He definitely didn’t have that many friends before the ninja and so he’s kinda insecure and tries really hard to be around people bc insecurities. Jay’s just one of those types who assumes everyone’s default opinion of him is bad so he’s always trying to prove himself. And he thinks if people don’t want to spend every moment with him then he’s doing something wrong, and also if he doesn’t spend all the time with them then he’s conveying that he doesn’t like them. It stresses him out and leads him to try and over plan dates and occasions because it has to be perfect. Again like Kai, he’s trying to change that mindset and learn self love, and take space for himself and valuing quality time over quantity.

Cole was someone who tries to leave before he got attached, he’s family trauma making him hesitant when opening up. He’s also more on the introverted side and especially in times of hardship he just wants to be alone because people are pressure yknow. He finds it hard to rely on others and would and could disappear into the mountains for months if he thought he should. He often won’t speak his mind due to a low self esteem and he does go off on his own because he doesn’t want to bother anyone else with his problems. However, he also tries his best to accommodate for everyone else meaning he ends up internalising his own needs to stay with them. Also he’s acts really friendly unintentionally so even when he does run off he can’t help but make other friends, because usually they’re in a similar position to him (the rule of the socially awkward: make socialise best with other awkward people). He needs his space but Cole also needs to be reminded to not take on too much all on his own.

Nya is also someone who would totally isolate herself. Like Kai, being alone isn’t ideal but instead of just hating it, Nya just got used to it, and doesn’t have very high expectations for commitment. That’s why she was initially uncomfortable with the level of attention Jay gives her, or why her response to the group disbanding in s3/4 was to chug on and build a boat. Nya kinda just expects people to leave and doesn’t put in a lot of effort because of that. Like someone who used to be very clingy but then the worst case scenario came true and she no longer cares. But as time went on, she’s slowly beginning to trust and depend on the group more and is slowly healing. She’s still in the process of it all especially demonstrated in Seabound where she still couldn’t trust her mother enough to fully spend time with her.

Lloyd literally hyperfixates on every interaction ever. He tries so hard to please every single person he meets because he feels the pressure of being the green ninja, and he’s overly trusting - firstly about the nature of the people he meets and secondly, about his ability to help them. He’s kinda got an “I can fix them” complex since what happened with pre s8 Garmadon. When he first started living with the ninja, he didn’t exactly feel at home and so was a lot less sociable with them but at the same time was incredibly lonely. Although from seasons 3-7 he definitely got more emotionally dependant on others since getting kidnapped by the overlord, the group split up, his dad dying, and being possessed, but after s7 he regained confidence to start working solo. I also hc that s8 was when he physically turned 18 so by then he was kinda wanting more independence (especially because the ninja are a lot more smothering and the household is never quiet) and took on more solo missions. Lloyd is still incredible awkward talking to people outside the family especially since he didn’t have a lot of time to socialise tho. I guess all in all he’s on the more nonsocial side.

Gotta put wu, elemental master of having no friends sticking around, in here as well. Wu has seen many people come and go and usually they just leave him and he’s come to expect it. However he usually takes it as a failure on his part and will spend the rest of time being sad about it and would not continue to try and meet other people since Garmadon left. The only thing driving him to not become a complete hermit was the green ninja prophecy, and he accidentally let himself get attached to all his students. That’s another thing, Wu gets really easily attached, he’s pretty desperate to prove himself (which is why it hurts when they leave). But his attachment to the people around him, is also what causes him to push them away, because he felt he’s failed too many times and also because he wants to keep them safe.