#i only have 6 plays and at least 3 of them i plan to read in a copy other than the riverside
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Okay, but what if Riddle attempts to fight Malleus alone to buy Idia some time?
Like, we know Riddle is both reckless and confident in his power, also, if timed correctly, Off With Your Head can be make a difference in a fight, and even Leona was having trouble with it (granted it was normal not-overblotted Leona and this is Malleus we're talking about).
It can also play with the reveal that Riddle thinks everyone hates him, so he convinces himself that the least he could do is make sure Idia stays safe, both for the mission and Ortho (and maybe he's feeling guilty because last he checked Ortho required urgent repairs and it's his fault). Or maybe Riddle just feels like his lack of understanding of technomancy is not being helpful enough andhe is eager to actually do something right (he doesn't understand the situation and, as far as he can tell, everything went wrong after his dream).
And then Idia has to stop his doomed typing with a side of panicked ramblings to take a deep breath and tell the 17-year-old kid to "Calm Down. We're not dead yet, and I'm not letting you go on a suicide mission."
And before Riddle can make a counter-argument, Idia is already following up with some extra points:
1) "Yeah we're both housewardens and troublemaking SSRs. I'm also older so I'm supposed to be the responsible one here."
2) "Technomancy is my domain, so if I say you're doing okay, you're doing okay. It's natural for veteran players to carry the noobs when they're just starting out!"
3) "You're a powerful DPS, but you're also a glass canon. Meta dictates that good DPS units need great supports, and I'm trying to summon them with negative gacha pulls and a dream here!!!!"
4) "If we open the door to let you fight Malleus, then the door will have been opened anyway, and that guy can multitask like a PRO..."
5) "You know chess right? Great. We're currently in check, with the only thing between total anihilation being a Rook (A.K.A. my precious door) and the Queen (A.K.A. you). The lil' pawns may have metamorphosized into a murderous army, but there's still a whole board between us, so we have to hold on!!!"
6) "And before you get the chess analogy wrong, I am NOT keeping you around just because of your magical power. You're a TEENAGER not a weapon, for crying out loud. Did you really think I'd be that stupid?? Ortho is literally my brother and I'd rather DIE than treat him like a weapon!"
7) "Is it really that hard to understand that I don't actually hate you? Sure, you have zero E.Q. and is in my "Top 5 Most annoying Students in NRC", but I don't want you dead! Who would drag me to dormhead meetings then? Vil and Ortho need a buddy who's not afraid to break the doo- NOT NOW MALLEUS"
8) "I actually like being alive and don't want Trey and Cater to kill me, and neither that freaky cat friend of yours. Or Floyd, Kalim, Sebek, Silver, Vil..."
Idia: And that would be all! Thank you for coming to my TED Talk! Now, I know the Final Boss is right outside that door, but why don't you read a manga or two to pass the time? You've already helped me A LOT, so why don't you rest a bit?
Malleus, from the other side: You should listen to Shroud, Rosehearts. I will even refrain from tearing the door down while you read, rest assured!
Malleus: Also, who gave you the idea that everyone hates you? I just want to have a pleasant chat with them! Lillia taught me the importance of understanding the point of view of others! :)
Meanwhile the others are trying to use Meet Me in a Dream while driving a gigantic Blastcycle so they can speedrun the dream hopping and get back to Idia's dream so they can make sure Idia is okay (Ortho), complete the final stage of the plan (the others) and locate Riddle (Heartslabyul and Equestrian Club mostly, but everyone's at least worried that he's MIA). Also Silver is resting while Ace uses his UM and Deuce drives.
Leona got what he wanted (a better mean of transportation between dreams) but at what cost (two freshmen at the wheel, and they're not the competent robot kid).
#twst#twst spoilers#riddle rosehearts#idia shroud#malleus draconia#leona kingscholar#riddle realize people care about you challenge#idia is now in older brother/ MMORPG party leader mode#I can't replicate Idia's dialogue that well#so just assume he's trying to avoid too many gaming references so as to get his point across#malleus wants to be invited. even if it's just a conversation about how riddle shouldn't fight him#riddle didn't want to rest. until idia mentioned a crossword collection. now he's having fun#malleus is taking a detour and giving nightmares to a few students#ace trappola#deuce spade#ortho shroud#something something idia (who also thinks everyone hates him) trying to cheer riddle up
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I have to be so honest and vulnerable with you for a second. I keep thinking of getting another complete works of Shakespeare
#tales from diana#my riverside 1973 is still my beloved baby but she's really worse for the wear these days#i didn't start thinking about it till i got one for my friend like 6 months ago for his bday#and i kept looking at it and being like oh wow. his doesn't have all the scratches and rips mine does#mine is still BETTER obviously bc it's MINE. it's in worse condition objectively but it's MINE#making it the best copy in existence. to me#and it was my aunt's textbook at boston college. my grandmother let me have it. i think of it as a family heirloom#and the coating on the front cover side of the spine has been slowly tearing off :(#like there's one long vulnerable rip almost all the way down. idk how to prevent it from breaking further#other than just by not using it. and idk how to fix it wo making it potentially worse#i didn't know how to take care of old gigantic books when i got it at 19. i never considered it#i hadn't had one before. but now im more experienced#and im also just curious about what's inside other editions. especially newer ones#i only have 6 plays and at least 3 of them i plan to read in a copy other than the riverside#like my 23 plays and sonnets (1953) edited by t. m. parrot has 2 and another play im gonna borrow from library lending#and id definitely wanna get rid of a lottttt of books i have right now before getting a new one#im already planning on which books to donate when i declutter#and i need to declutter my books DESPERATELY. so so desperately#it'd just be nice to have another complete works in my collection. for a number of reasons.#that way i also suppose ill have two big books of shakespeare for auntie diana to pass down someday#i don't plan on getting one soon im just in the contemplative phase. but boy am i tempted
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sorry for not posting much on tumblr lately I've been trying this thing called "having a life" have any of u guys heard of it idk it's kind of niche....
#went out to a boardgame bar w the climbing gays after work yayyy#and yesterday i was at the gym..... after just getting back from visiting another friend this whole weekend. my social slay#it was lush hes sooo sweet + such a good host + lives in such a gorgeous place.. spent our time between the beach n playing dark souls <333#nothing planned tmr tho i need to go to lidl after work n play elden ring for a few hours.. but the rest of my week is booked#work training stuff has been soooo boring but at least its a 15 min walk from my flat so i dont have to wake up at 6:30 <3#have had some wobbles but tbh im tired of oversharing on here every time i have a breakdown. i only do it cuz im imagining someone ik-#reading it so i dont have to directly communicate w them. but i need to either start communicating w ppl directly or just drop it tbh#or journal i guess... many options. i say this but if i have decent internet connection next time ill prolly forget n ventpost anyway sdjdf#but i wanna at least try n break bad habits yknow....... ahhh#anyway hope everyones doing gooood.. i gotta go shower n check my personal email n maybe ill play a little elden ring before bed#byebyebye#.diaries
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So my home ttrpg group is between longform games right now, and I have been planning to bring a bunch of games to them this weekend as options for what we might play next. However, I have been trying to figure out how to talk about the games in a way that doesn't rely as much on me explaining the vibes to them.
I know that people have a bunch of qualitative categories for how they explain games, but I find the idea of saying things like Dark Fantasy OSR, or Lesbian Goofball PBTA less helpful when talking about how games actually play, especially when two games in the same category are like, wildly different in the way they use their frameworks.
So I invented a 6 axis, 1 to 5 star rating scale for TTRPGs that you are free to borrow when talking to groups, or whatever.
TTRPG 5 Star Rating Matrix
Width
What is the scope of this game? Is it narrowly about one thing or does it encompass many types of play? (Credit to friend of the blog @ostermad-blog for this one, they came up with it from my draft)
Weight
How much cognitive load does the player need to bear? Do rules often need to be referenced verbatim? Can those rules fit on a handout?
Wargame
Is the player expected to apply tactical acumen? Is movement tracked tightly or loosely? Does a bad build punish a player?
Writers Room
How much are players expected to make narrative choices and drive the story without the rules scaffolding them? Does this game fall apart without excellent improvisational storytellers?
(Prep)Work
Does this game require a lot of pre-planning by the facilitator? Are there intricate systems to attend to outside of table play? Can I put in the same amount of time as other players and still have everyone leave happy?
Whimsy
Expected tone of the game. Does this game have difficult thematic elements baked in? Is the core subject or role in the game high or low risk?
Here are some games I know well and how I calibrated them:
I have breakdowns of what each star rating means below the cut if you're curious. Happy Gaming!
Width
⭐ - As written, the game has basically one mode of play, or one thematic core that it meditates on. May have phases, but textural difference is minimal.
⭐⭐ - As written, there are at least two modes of play, but the scope of that play is highly thematically focused or highly dependent on using the game’s own lore. Might have only one kind of character (e.g. Mech Pilot) that it supports. Has limited tools outside of the primary mode of play.
⭐⭐⭐ - Has a variety of modes of play, but may be rigid in their execution. Might encompass multiple kinds of characters (e.g. Doctor, Lawyer, fighter) or character options. The narratives that this game tells within its setting are narrowed, a three word description tells you what kind of stories it can tell with consistency.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Loose framework, but with some kind of thematic grounding. Describing the framework in 3 words doesn���t tell you the kind of stories that the game tells (e.g. Dark Fantasy, Star Wars Romp).
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- As written, this game is designed in such a way that it doesn’t put specific limits on what sorts of stories that it is meant to tell. It might ask players to define abilities or stats for themselves. The Facilitator is going to pitch a thematic grounding on top of the rules set.
One Star Examples: For the Queen, Dialect, Honey Heist Five Star Examples: Fate Core, Savage Worlds, GURPS
Weight
⭐ - It is reasonable for a player to be able to recite the rules from memory. The game may be prompt based, or driven by a flow of rules that are read aloud as played.
⭐⭐ - Players can hold most of the most important information about the game in their heads, with a page or less of rules reference needed to play smoothly. This reference could all fit neatly on the character sheet if one is present.
⭐⭐⭐ - Everything a player needs to know about the game is visible on less than 3 sheets of reference. Players are more or less expected to know exactly how their own abilities work in precise detail, and are unlikely to make a mistake in executing them.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Players make extensive use of multiple reference sheets to keep rules moving smoothly. No external tools are needed, but players memorizing the details of all of their abilities is taxing.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- Players and facilitators will prefer to make extensive use of external tools or reference to keep play moving smoothly. Expecting a player to have the exact details of their abilities memorized is not reasonable.
One Star Examples: For the Queen, Stewpot, Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands Five Star Examples: Dungeons and Dragons 3-5e, Lancer, Edge of the Empire
Wargame
⭐ - As written, this game does not treat combat as mechanically different from any other aspect of play, or does not include narrative violence at all.
⭐⭐ - While players may engage in combat, it is minimally different from regular play. There may be tools or abilities for players to use to conduct a fight, but the texture of those fights is thematic, not mechanical. Narrative and consequence drive the action, not hit points.
⭐⭐⭐ - As written, combat has its own set of rules. This game may have some elements of buildcrafting, but either it is difficult to build something that doesn’t work, or the player may meaningfully invest in other modes of play and still find a commensurate level of satisfaction. If combat occurs, spacing is kept in mind, but is tracked in relative terms (range bands) or highly simplified (zone based combat).
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This game has buildcrafting that is somewhat mandatory if players wish to survive a fight, but there is still a meaningful choice in choosing a non-combat role. It may use a grid or a spacing system to help players visualize the combat. Fights are driven by mechanics, not by narrative.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- To enjoy this game, players must spend time buildcrafting. If a player’s build is suboptimal, there may be significant parts of the intended experience that will either feel tedious, or that the player will not have meaningful access to. This game is played on a grid.
One Star Examples: Wanderhome, Dialect, Belonging Outside Belonging Five Star Examples: Lancer, Dungeons and Dragons 3-5e, Valor
Writers Room
⭐ - Players in this game are not expected to provide much in the way of narrative substance. Story is something that is driven by external input or tools, and players are there to imagine and react. The player need not separate the self from the character they play in any meaningful way.
⭐⭐ - The mechanics of this game drive most of the narrative, or else the narrative is set for the players by an external source or player. Players are encouraged to play optimally rather than dramatically, but do have room for expressing the identity of their character within the game’s mechanical frameworks.
⭐⭐⭐ - While the game does provide strong scaffolding to tell a story, the players present are expected to drive the story within those frameworks. The game’s systems create and resolve conflict on their own, but works best when the players are willing to choose the dramatically interesting option even if it mechanically non-optimal.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - The game provides some mechanical tools that create and resolve drama, but there is a significant expectation that the players are buying into and driving the game’s thematic concepts. Players are the ones deciding what the scenes should be and when to end them, but mechanics still help determine outcomes.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- The players are expected to drive the narrative at all times. Tools for deciding what scenes to do and when to end them are limited, optional, or vague. There is no meaningful scaffolding that creates conflict or resolution, it is incumbent on those present to manifest those things.
One Star Examples: Alice is Missing, Ribbon Drive, For the Queen Five Star Examples: Wanderhome, Systemless RP
(Prep)Work
⭐ - Facilitators are not expected to do work outside the time at the table. All rules can be read while the game is played. No memorization is needed.
⭐⭐ - This game expects the facilitator to have read the rules in advance, but the rules are so few that they can be run from a single reference sheet. At times, the facilitator must think about and potentially advance and adjust the narrative of the game behind the scenes. Prep is qualitative; answering questions about where the narrative is going to go, who will be there etc. The game can be run smoothly predominantly as improv.
⭐⭐⭐ - This game expects the facilitator to not only know the rules, but to imagine scenarios where the group must play. However, the scope of the scenario design is limited and qualitative. It takes a bit of pondering and perhaps a sketch and a few words of notes. Alternatively, the facilitator must design simple foes or track a simple background system. The work is trivial, and can be done with a bit of time before session.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - The facilitator of this game is expected to have run systems between games, or created usable maps or scenarios. Generally, games at this level have some reduced wargaming component. The facilitator might need to engage in enemy design, but the work is limited or imminently reusable. The work is non-trivial, and failing to do it will somewhat impact the quality of play.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- The facilitator of this game puts in significant time between sessions engaging in game design activities. They are expected to plan narratives, write NPCs, draw maps, run significant background systems, and design enemies and combat encounters. The work is significant outside of play, and failing to do it beforehand will result in a worse table experience.
One Star Examples: For the Queen, Alley-Oop, Lasers and Feelings Five Star Examples: Lancer, D&D 3-5e, Stars Without Number, Edge of the Empire
Whimsy
⭐ - This game’s thematic core is considered dark, taboo, or difficult, and separating the game’s mechanical features from this subject matter is next to impossible. Games with horror elements almost certainly fit within this category. These games encourage extensive pre-play safety talks.
⭐⭐ - This game is designed to look at dark subject matter, but doesn’t expect the player to spend all of their time there. Players explore difficult topics, but may get to choose what topics to explore, or when to explore them. Games with political messaging/commentary tend to fit this category. These games encourage pre-play safety talks.
⭐⭐⭐ - This game may have dark aesthetics, but doesn’t enforce them mechanically. Alternatively, there are mechanics that address difficult topics in broad strokes, but players are given leeway in the rules with how any difficult topics are approached. These games may encourage safety talks.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This game may have the option to explore dark topics, but none of the mechanics are tied to such topics. This game may have violence in its aesthetics, but players may choose to adjust the aesthetics at the table to suit their comfort. These games tend not to talk about safety in their text.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- This game is designed to focus on thematic material that is considered to be relatively safe. The game is unlikely to tread into violence or trauma without effort.
One Star Examples: Trophy Dark, Dungeon Bitches, Vampire the Masquerade Five Star Examples: Honey Heist, Princess World, Beach Episode
The system here isn't about what's good or bad, to be clear. I think there are good and bad games at every level of these categories, but when I think about what my game group is good at and comfy with, I don't think we go in for things at like the 5 end of the Writers Room scale. It's too much work, and most of them aren't pro improvisers.
Similarly, if we play another game that is a 4 or 5 on the PrepWork category, I don't have time to run it these days. So this helps me make practical choices about our next game.
#ttrpg#indie ttrpg#game design#dnd#ttrpgs#ttrpg design#d&d#lancer rpg#steal this#safety tools#five star ttrpg matrix
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Congratulations!!! 🎉🎊 How about #5? 🫣
thank you, love! tagging also @tsunderelover07; thank you for playing <3
(this is lightseoul's 2k milestone event ft. bakugou katsuki! to play, view the numbered list of prompts here, then simply send an ask with your chosen number and i'll whip something up!)
warnings. includes themes concerning depression; negative affect in general. read at your own risk.
5. "I'M NOT LEAVING SO GET USED TO ME." (1.3k)
ever since who-knows-when, the goal has always been simple.
pain alleviation.
at least, in theory, it sounds simple. when you think about it, it’s nothing like the seemingly insurmountable task of getting a master’s degree, neither is it as grandiose as finally finding a partner and settling down.
but for someone like you?
well, it’s the best you can muster on most if not all, days, really.
and today’s a textbook example of that.
you squint at the small text displayed on your phone screen, the blue light hurting your eyes in the darkness that’s enveloping the entirety of your studio unit. the clock reads 6:08 PM, but the lack of light cannot be credited to the sun’s waning presence—your black-out curtains have been drawn since, what… yesterday?
the past few days have gone by in a complete blur, you’ve lost track of which day it is.
you’re about to put your phone down in favor of stewing in your bed and debating whether or not you have the energy to order yourself some dinner when your phone chimes its familiar ringtone, indicating a text message.
picking it up, you recognize the id right away.
(6:09 PM) katsuki💥: Omw. Want me to pick anything up by the store?
shit.
now you know it’s a friday.
mustering the little strength you have left, you type out a reply as quickly as you can. before you can think twice about what you just wrote down, you hit send.
(6:10 PM) you: actually, can i take a rain check? i don’t think i’m the best company rn.
sighing, you finally place your device beside you, opting to stare at the off-white ceiling.
you hope bakugou actually listens to you for once and doesn’t press like he usually does. when you first met him in the same agency you both interned for three years ago, you instantly caught wind of how mind-bogglingly stubborn the guy is. but it wasn’t until you became great friends, strangely enough, that you realized the extent of his tenacity. you never thought you’d end up being best friends with the budding hero you found yourself disliking since day—
your train of thought is rudely interrupted by your stomach growling, and you decide then and there that the one thing you can do to alleviate your pain for today is to feed yourself.
you repress the urge to groan in pain as you slowly sit up and move to shimmy your feet into your slippers.
but you don’t even get to reach your kitchen when the telltale sound of your lock clicking echoes through your foyer, almost instantly followed by the door bursting wide open.
you know you should be alarmed, but there’s only one person who can and has the audacity to use your sole spare key without your explicit permission.
still, you don’t fight the frown that takes over your face as you haul yourself to the doorway, watching the man closely as he toes off his trainers and puts them neatly beside your everyday sandals, nonchalant as ever.
“i thought i told you i’m taking a rain check,” you immediately cringe at how rough your voice sounds from unuse.
bakugou stands upright, placing what looks like a bag of groceries on top of your kitchen counter before rounding you and approaching the windows like he owns the place.
“you asked me if you can,” he shoots back as he opens your curtains. “the answer is no.”
a familiar surge of anger pulses through your body. you clench your fists in an attempt to ground yourself—you know from experience that mouthing off on your best friend would do nothing to lessen your pain even if it seems oh-so appealing at the moment.
“…well, don’t expect me to host you. i actually had other plans tonight.”
“is that so?” comes his signature snarky reply, the man turning to regard you. “does your plan include starving yourself ‘til you fall asleep?”
your frown deepens. “i was just about to order dinner before you showed up.” you debate for a second whether you should say the next thing, ultimately deciding fuck it. “now i don’t have an appetite anymore.”
that was a blatant lie. you’re famished, but he doesn’t need to know that. you just needed to be alone right now.
bakugou’s face hardens at your retort. his jaw clenches ever so slightly, in a way that tells you he’s trying to be patient but is getting frustrated.
when he doesn’t say anything, you shuffle back to your bed and sit on the edge of it, ready to wait him out on his exit.
but bakugou katsuki isn’t anything if not stubborn.
“i heard from mina you called in sick again today,” comes his gruff voice.
damn your closest girl friend turned co-worker and her running mouth.
“so?”
bakugou sighs from where he’s now standing in front of and looking at you. “how many leaves do you have left?”
at the mention of it, your stomach drops in dread. an all-too-familiar pulse of anxiety also shoots through your veins. “…two.”
two sick leaves left, and it’s only motherfucking july.
silence befalls the two of you, but it’s not the comfortable kind that usually lulls you both whenever you’re alone in each other’s presence. no, this quiet is borderline irritating, and you can practically hear the gears turning in the man’s head as he processes the fact you’ve been trying to grapple with yourself for the last few weeks now.
the fact that you’re absolutely fucked.
before he can comment on your situation or say anything uselessly placating, you pipe up. “but don’t worry about me. i know you have a lot on your plate right now.”
at that, bakugou scoffs, and your features instinctively contort in annoyance at the sound.
you’re trying to be nice, for god’s sake. something that takes so much of you lately when it used to come naturally your whole life.
you purse your lips in a tight line. “look, if you’re just gonna keep on being an asshole, it’s better if you just leave.”
instead of turning a 180 and giving you your solitude, however, bakugou crouches down on his knees until you’re face to face.
you suddenly become acutely aware of the fact that you haven’t washed your face nor brushed your teeth since yesterday. despite your exasperation with the guy, you hope he doesn’t notice.
if he is noticing, though, he doesn’t mention it. instead, he reaches out and uncharacteristically gently brushes out a strand of hair from your face, tucking it behind your ear.
“i’m not leaving, so get used to me.”
with that, he moves to stand up and maybe make his way to the kitchen to cook you dinner, but your reflexes work fast enough for you to grab his wrist before he's out of reach.
bakugou freezes in his tracks, eyes drifting from the grip you have on him to your face, a confused expression etched on his features.
“…just leave, kats,” you barely manage to get out, unable to meet his gaze. “i’m really not the best company right now.”
you brace yourself for another scoff over which you were absolutely going to smack him, but it doesn’t come. instead, bakugou merely coaxes his wrist from your hold before clasping your hands together.
you look up at your best friend, stunned at the rare gesture.
his face is solemn and grip firm when he replies. “don’t i get to be the judge of that?”
#we gotta mix it up a lil bit ya know#we can't all be just fluff 24/7#biodiversity is important etc etc#anw this was relatively easy to write bc i'm knee-deep in my depression lmao#bakugou x reader#bakugou x y/n#bakugou katsuki x reader#bakugou imagines#mha imagines#bnha imagines#mha scenarios#bnha scenarios#bnha x reader#mha x reader#bakugou x you#bakugou imagine#bakugou drabble#bakugo x reader#bakugo x y/n#bkg#2k milestone drabble
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SEPFEMBER 2024 PROMPTS LIST
HERE WE ARE! AT LONG LAST! THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN (HOPEFULLY) WAITING FOR! GIRL MONTH!
I honestly can't believe this is actually happening. This event was a shower thought a few months ago.
Here's a recap of the event: to participate, make at least one fanwork of any variety during September that features a woman or women from the Zelda franchise as the main character/s. All Linksmeets are welcome in this challenge, as well as general LoZ fans!
Before I drop the prompts list for those who are looking for a little direction, I'd like to mention that I have made an AO3 COLLECTION FOR THIS EVENT. It's open and unmoderated so you can add your works to it freely. And if you post on tumblr, please tag #sepfember !! I'll be scrolling through the tag every day looking for things to reblog and gush about 👀
If you have any questions at all about this event, or you want to chat about it, my askbox is open! I will also respond to comments and reblogs of this post.
Now, onto the prompts. Disclaimer: you DON'T have to use all/any of these prompts, or only create things for certain characters on their featured day. This list is just a GUIDE for those who want it. If you have other plans, go with your heart!
At the end of the day, this is a celebration, and all that matters is that you have fun. I hope some of you will join me next month in giving our girls some time in the spotlight, but if you can't, that's okay! There's no pressure! This is just a passion project of mine, really, and I am overjoyed that people are interested 💛💛💛
(apologies in advance for the terrible quality of these pics and the equally terrible commentary. i thought it would be funny. also, i've never had to come up with a prompts list before and it shows.)
DAY 1: SKYWARD SWORD ZELDA + PURPOSE
(we start at the beginning of course 💛)
DAY 2: MARIN + WASH
(it was SO hard to find a screenshot of her that didn't have link in it. they're both cute but this ain't about him.)
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DAY 3: MEDLI + GIFT
(i didn't know she played the harp until i saw this screenshot! i obviously have a lot to learn.)
DAY 4: TWILIGHT PRINCESS ZELDA + FREEZE
(how creepy does she look here?! so awesome)
DAY 5: HILDA + GHOST
(SUCH a good character for real. she has depth!!!! she has a thematic purpose!!!)
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DAY 6: URBOSA + LOSE
(two words: LIGHTNING POWERS ⚡⚡⚡)
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DAY 7: SPIRIT TRACKS ZELDA + MISTAKE
(babygirl you are 2 entire pixels.)
DAY 8: FI + ORDER
(oh she is everything to me)
DAY 9: MIDNA + SWORD
(she looks so soulful right now)
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DAY 10: HYRULE WARRIORS ZELDA + SUMMON
(what a FIRE camera angle??? her armour is so impractically attached but SHE HAS A SWORD‼️)
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DAY 11: GODDESSES OF HYRULE + EYES
(hylia, din, nayru, farore, the list goes on...)
DAY 12: ZORA PRINCESSES + TRUST
(mipha, ruto... poor suckers... it can't be fun, falling for link...)
DAY 13: OCARINA OF TIME ZELDA | SHEIK + FATE
(note: I personally hc this character as a trans man, but since this isn't explicitly confirmed in-game and might not be shared with everyone, I've given them a celebration day anyway. you are free to do what you wish.)
DAY 14: MALON + GUARD
(she is adorable. look at her)
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DAY 15: IMPA + BOUND
(HOTTEST MOST SEXY MOST BADASS WOMAN IN THE FRANCHISE ‼️‼️‼️ I LOVE YOU IMPA YOU ARE PERFECT. SHUT UP I DEFINITELY DON'T PLAY FAVOURITES—)
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DAY 16: FOUR SWORDS ADVENTURES ZELDA + PORTAL
(i loved her in the fsa manga. she's barely in it but STILL. go read it.)
DAY 17: FAIRIES + TIRED
(the great fairies, navi, ciela, tatl, proxi...)
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DAY 18: TETRA + LEGACY
(isn't she KICKASS?!)
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DAY 19: EPONA + BONE
(our lovely loyal girl 🥰)
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DAY 20: A LINK BETWEEN WORLDS ZELDA + HOME
(SHE IS SUCH A GOOD PARALLEL TO HILDA PLEASSSSSE)
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DAY 21: SARIA + WISH
(a classic character! isn't this picture so peaceful)
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DAY 22: BOTW/AOC/TOTK ZELDA + PEACE
(SHE IS EVERYTHING TO ME. SCREAMING CLAWING CRYING. MY DARLING, YOUR FANARTISTS WERE THE ONES TO DRAW ME INTO THE ZELDA FANDOM. I HOPE I CAN RETURN THE FAVOUR ONE DAY)
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DAY 23: CIA + LANA + STUDY
(technically, she's one person. between the two of them they certainly only wear enough clothes for one person... )
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DAY 24: ARYLL + HUG
(sister to the hero! but what's her story?)
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DAY 25: ECHOES OF WISDOM ZELDA + ARREST
(YEAHHHHHHHHH GIRL MONTH GIRL DAY GIRL GAME!!!)
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DAY 26: CD-i ZELDA + HOLIDAY
(hehheehehehe. i bet you weren't expecting her. neither was i tbh)
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DAY 27: PURAH + FIRE
(SHE'S CLEVER! I LOVE CLEVER WOMEN!)
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DAY 28: ILIA + ERUNE + MEND
(listen. i know erune is a very niche character - she literally only exists in the four swords manga - but consider. i love her)
DAY 29: ALTTP/OOS/OOA/LA ZELDA + MISSING
(she has no canon personality. you know what that means. get the building equipment out fellas)
DAY 30: LINKLE + FAREWELL
(and here we are - LAST DAY!)
THE END! YAY! I CAN'T WAIT FOR SEPTEMBER - CAN YOU?
#sepfember#SEPFEMBER PROMPTS LIST 2024#IM SO OVERTIRED PLS LET ME KNOW IF I MADE ANY MISTAKES#THANK YOU. GOODNIGHT#I LOVE YOU ALL#linked universe#FORGOT TO TAG THE FANDOM LMAO#linked universe event#fandom event
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🍺🖤This Hell We Create
Sebastian x F!Muggle!Reader with eventual smut, minor Garrinis [E-Rated, 5.6k words]
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"Just... be careful." He takes your hand, bowing to kiss the fingers like delicate embers in a breeze. "Now, bar girl," he murmurs, "where's the fun in that?"
Harlow prepares to take his revenge. Sebastian has a plan to protect you.
[MASTERLIST][FIRST][PREV][LAST] [read on AO3, read on Wattpad]
TW: coarse language, blood/ injury, gendered language, explicit smut MDNI (dom!Seb, dirty talk, wall sex, porn with feelings, public sex, cunnilingus, very slight breeding kink), and one threat of sexual assault (not made by Sebastian or the bar girl). This occurs in Harlow's paragraph of dialogue shortly after he is reintroduced, which you can skip over if you'd prefer. Please take care. <3
6. worth the risk
Sebastian's urges never seem fully satiated, but you're happy to try. Minutes may pass, or hours. You indulge the time making love, passionately, raggedly, between bouts of uncontrollable laughter or breathless, all-consuming kisses. His smell becomes part of the place, part of you. Sometimes you sleep for a little while only to wake and start all over again, with hands that already know the right places to tease.
It must be three o'clock when you next stir. In the indigo bloom of darkness, Sebastian is limned by the hazy moon rays that wander through the curtain parting. Light makes his back muscles cleave sharply down his body, burnished with ink. Even obscured, he is beautiful. You pull up slightly, rousing him – he half-turns, clasping your hairbrush.
"What are you doing with that?"
He puts it down. "Thought I'd comb my hair a little."
"I like it mussed."
"Especially when you muss it?" He lets out a low chuckle. "Sleep, love."
"Only if you join me."
Sebastian doesn't care that your breath smells bad and there's crust in your eyes. He slips in beside you, enveloping you with that broad, strong warmth that draws you into his protection. It's safe here. Nothing can hurt you. He kisses your brow, and it feels like music, heart beating a slow, steady rhythm that lulls you to sleep as easy as the clouds drift lazily across the sky.
"Shall I tell you a secret?" he asks when you're next awake.
You smirk and roll into him. "Go on, then."
"You know Ominis is my best friend? His last name's not actually Gaunt." His eyes twinkle. "It's Weasley."
"That's your secret? That he's married to Garreth's sister?" you scoff. "Bit odd for a man to take his wife's surname, but hardly worth hiding, is it?"
"He's not married to Garreth's sister."
"Oh? He's adopted?"
"Wrong again. Ominis and Garreth, they're..."
"... Work partners."
"No... it's just the two of them living together, so they're..."
"Best friends? And without you. Must be a blow to your ego."
"God, bar girl." He laughs. "They're fucking."
You jerk backwards. "What?"
"More precisely they're married, but I guess that also means they're fucking."
You don't know how to react. "Two men, married?"
"That's a better secret, isn't it?" He winks. "Keep an open mind."
You're not really sure what to do with this information, but the pieces rearrange in your head. That explains their relationship a little better, not of boss and underling, but of lovers hiding beneath a veil of secrets. At least you can relate to that.
"Should I be worried they'll try to poach you from me?"
"Ominis would rather eat rocks," Sebastian says, laughing. "Garreth... wouldn't surprise me if he tried. I'm very desirable, after all."
You snort. "Tell me something about you, then. Something no one else knows."
"Now that's a tougher order." His hands settle in your hair and he plays with it gently, sending sparks down your scalp. "How mysterious do you think I am?"
"If you could bury your secrets at the bottom of the ocean, you would."
"Touché." He draws his fingers up, massaging your head. "All right, I will confess something... I bite my nails."
"That's why they look so bad."
"And I have a terrible addiction to looking at myself in the mirror."
"Sebastian."
"It's painful to be this handsome, bar girl."
"You're certainly a pain." You drag your fingers down his chest, letting each bristle of hair be the spark that keeps you alight. "I'm serious. Or do you really think you're an open book?"
"Not at all." His voice comes out gravelled but meek. "Are my secrets worth knowing?"
"You are worth knowing. Every piece of you."
You snuggle into him to emphasise this truth. I am safe, the motion says. I will guard your heart as you have guarded mine. After a moment, he slowly traces each vertebrae of your spine, one by one by one like a bead of liquid silver trickling down a stairwell. On a cold winter's night, it couldn't be any more comforting a touch. Perfect.
"I regret what I did for the wrong reason."
By the small of your back, he pauses and meets your eye, waiting, urging for a sign to continue. This path is fretful and dangerous, another way it could upend your perception of him. But very little could, and you place a kiss on his chin in solidarity.
"It's the worst part of me." He continues it quietly, like distant rain. "Every day in prison I thought about my uncle. How would I do it differently? How could I help my sister without dooming us all? The truth is... that fifteen year old boy didn't know any better. He didn't have a support network. He didn't feel like he could trust the teachers. His best friends were against his ideas from the start. You know that feeling that makes your entire body recoil? When your disgust is so resonant you feel it in your bones, and you'll do mental somersaults to think of anything else? I thought it was remorse.
"But I realised after confronting it... I didn't regret his death. I regretted what it did to my soul. I regretted the decisions that led me to her death, and drinking. I regretted hurting her and my friends."
"You regret getting caught."
"Yes." He's barely audible now. "It took a long time for Anne to come to terms with not only what I did, but why. I killed him for her."
You cup his cheek, steadying the demons that manifest like embers in ash.
"And look how far you've come since then. You got through prison. You're getting better. You've made new, lasting connections. She's looking down on you with a smile."
Instead he smirks. "Hope not. That means she's seen my dick." But there's sadness there, and worry and hesitation and pleading and all the things that remind you of the man behind the façade. "I felt relief, not regret, that he was dead. That I gave her a chance to live. Does that... am I a selfish monster?"
You wrap your arms around him.
"Selfish, yes, but that doesn't make you a monster, Sebastian," you say, listening to his heartbeat with ease. "That makes you human."
By sunrise he hasn't thought of a plan, but when his cock thrusts into you, and your face thrusts into the pillow, you can't bring yourself to worry. He empties over your bed several times and takes measures to make sure you're equally pleasured too, that by the time you clean yourselves up for the morning you're already tired.
You make it in time to intercept your mother from tottering right over the bannister.
"It's all right," you say to him, when you eventually coax her to the armchair. "If you need to be somewhere else—"
"No," he says, with that half-smile that is yours. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be."
A natural charmer and entertainer, he helps clean, feed and move your parents to the sun room. By some miracle they actually recognise him too, the man who vanishes in the fireplace – you want to ask more about that but suspect Sebastian will give answers so cryptic they couldn't solve a fiendish crossword – and with his help you finish the morning's work in half the time. Ada arrives to watch them and says nothing of Sebastian's presence, agreeing without words to keep one more secret sealed on her lips.
The pub opens for the breakfast rush without any issue out of the ordinary. You swab countertops. Serve customers. Take coin in your pocket and snags on the chin. Sebastian remains through it all, the fallen guardian angel ever present and watchful, and though he resists as long as he can, it's not even twelve before he's halfway into a stout, foam coating his lips in a golden froth. You're tempted to lick it off.
The day is almost perfectly normal. Almost.
Because there is one thought that keeps you twitchy and addled. One thing that makes your hair stand on end, hyper-vigilant of every noise and new face. Harlow's retaliation may not be immediate. It may not even be next week. But he will come – and you have no idea when.
So each night, Sebastian stays to protect you.
It becomes as easy as breathing to fall asleep in his arms, sometimes after riotous love-making or kisses that leave you breathless, sometimes after enjoying one another's company in the small ways, words as loud as ghosts and touches as searing as the moon in the cloudless sky. You refuse to relax at the start, and try to remember what could happen the moment you let your guard down, but with Sebastian lulling you to sleep with a story, a crooked grin or the simple safety of his embrace, the promise is a difficult one to keep.
It was only a week ago, but Harlow becomes as distant a memory as a decade.
And that comfort is dangerous.
You're in the beer cellar below, hunting for the rye whisky, when Sebastian wanders down to find you. Without the peek of natural sunlight you could fool yourself into thinking it's night, the thicket of kegs set gently aglow by gas lamps on the wall.
"Thought you might want my help." His brow dances. "Or my muscle. Whichever suits."
"I'm just debating whether it's worth bringing up another rye. We're low and Old Dodder could neck it solo." You turn to him fully. "You haven't heard anything?"
"No."
"It's been a week. No one's heard from him even once?" You tap your nails on the keg's rim. "Why? What's he doing?"
"How'd you know there hasn't been hundreds of attacks I've valiantly fought off?" You fix him a look, which only broadens his smile. "We're keeping an eye out, I promise. Don't stress."
"In this line of work that's impossible. There's about ten different things I have to manage, and that's without a criminal gang out for my head."
His smile turns a little smug, and he prowls closer, a distinctive glimmer in his eye. "Then let me help?"
"Oh yeah? Sebastian Sallow, bar boy? I'd fancy watching you hold a tray of beers without spilling a drop. Or taking a cheeky sip."
"I was thinking more the stress, love."
He tucks you between a cluster of kegs and himself. Much taller and broader, Sebastian's scent overwhelms all others, richly dark musk, leather, sweat, oak, stout. His thumbs find the small of your waist, pressing you inwards, trapping you.
"What did you have in mind?" you ask demurely.
His kiss captures you mid-breath, and you sink into him, taken by his strength and dominance. You've kissed him tens, hundreds of times now, and it never feels any less euphoric. He tastes of malt and gold, caramel and power, and with his lips meandering across your cheeks and down your jaw, then enthusiastically across your throat with enough bite to sting pleasantly, it's hard not to demand he fuck you then and there.
"Sebastian—"
"Sssshhh." He caresses your lips. "No more stress."
The kisses set fire to your core as he trails down the front of your apron, down to your tapered waist and the volume of your skirts until he's on his knees before you. Anticipation makes your sex throb, and when his hands slip under the layers, drawing it above his head, you let out a little bleat of surprise.
"T-This is a cellar!"
"Then you'd better keep quiet, love."
Without warning he buries his face between your legs, and you're embarrassed, secretly pleased, to realise how wet the bloomers cling to you with excitement. He tugs on the string holding them in place to reach your entrance, swollen after a pathetically minimal amount of stimulation. Sebastian just has that way – a few words, a touch, a smile, and you unravel. His nose caresses your clit, and you let out a gasp.
"You smell delicious," he murmurs into the folds, flowering open at the vibration. "Spread yourself for me."
A wet, warm tongue slides across you, and you grab the keg to anchor yourself, so turned on you widen your stance and roll your hips forward to give him better access. He chuckles, another vibration, and continues to lick the ache, slow, leisurely, each lap so discreet in reality but loud and slick to you.
"Wider," he demands softly. "Let me taste more of you."
Propriety crumbling, you inch your legs outwards, allowing Sebastian easier access.
"T-This is too risky—"
The trap door flies open, filling the cellar with sunlight. You yank your arms to your sides at once. Sebastian freezes, tongue suspended on your clit – but not retreating.
"There you are!" Bonny heads down a few steps – she tilts her head. "What you doin' in there, miss?"
Thank God there's a bunch of barrels in the way. "S-Stock count."
"Cook did that this morning?"
Shit. "I know, I'm just—"
His tongue grazes deeper over your entrance. You almost moan. Bastard. Instead, you physically wrench your facial muscles back into place.
"Bein' thorough?" offers Bonny.
Another lash of his tongue, this time playing with the rim.
"Very," he whispers.
You knee him gently but he just licks again. Fuck. It's harder and harder to look calm, harder to control the urge to sink your fingers into the curls and ride his fucking face.
"T-Thorough, yes," you manage. "I'll be out in a min."
She makes to step forwards. "Want any help?"
"No! I mean, no, thank you." You can't focus. Bonny's there but in your mind's eye you can only see Sebastian between your legs, working you to climax. "Promise I won't be long."
His pace quickens, sliding back forth back forth. You nudge him again, which only makes his tongue more eager. The world teeters.
"Aw'right, well," says Bonny, "I'll tell the bloke with the walking stick to wait at the bar then? He's looking for your man but I can't seem to find him."
Sebastian coils his arms around your thighs, adjusting the position as his tongue slips easily inside you.
"Yes!" you cry, then cough. "Yes, that would— be— great."
Bonny makes a face but shrugs and swings the door shut behind her, leaving you in dusky silence again.
"You arsehole—"
He doesn't let you finish, using his whole mouth now to stimulate your clit and entrance in tandem. Burying in and out, across and up, kissing and sucking. Your head cranes backwards, your hands fist your skirt to channel the frustration, the desire. Fuck, it feels amazing. A guttural moan escapes your mouth but doesn't even sound like your own, so lost in the thrill – and when Sebastian licks and licks and licks without stopping, you're quickly arcing your back and bucking against his mouth until the release comes swift and fast, pulsing sloppily over his face.
It takes a few seconds to regain some measure of poise. Sebastian drops the skirt and reveals himself grinning widely and sticky with cum.
"You're incorrigible."
"And you're welcome."
"We could've been caught."
He thumbs his face and licks it off, without taking his eyes off you. "You enjoy the risk."
"I'm at risk of being caught and destroying my reputation. You're hiding under my skirts."
He stands and slips your chin into his grasp, tilting it up to ghost his lips.
"Careful, love. I might like to show you how brazen I can be."
One step closer pins you between the wall and him. His breath susurrates as he dips down to your ear.
"I'd fuck you on that counter if you'd let me."
The image of you sprawled out for all to see, naked and begging and at the mercy of his pleasure, sends heat up unspooling through your core again, and a coy glance downwards shows that same desire reflected in his physical form.
"Ominis is waiting for you."
"Hm." He grasps your arse tightly and hoists you to the wall, pressing his bulge between your legs. "Let him wait."
With two firm tugs you undo his breeches, and Sebastian claims your mouth, tongue still salty and sweet with your juices. He roughly grinds forwards, pulsing a new wave of pleasure down your navel, satisfying of the feel of his hard, eager cock. One stroke elicits a mid-kiss groan down your throat, and when you reach to grasp him, please him, the wetness that quickly blooms from the head drives your wants mad.
The nights are tender and loving, but today, with the pub hall only upstairs, Sebastian buries the tip, then the entirety of him, inside you in a quick, flush motion. You feel full yet famished still. Legs curled around him and arms steady, you become a vessel for his pleasure as he ruts into you so hard the floorboards groan. Someone could hear you – you're sure of it. If Bonny or anyone had another question or thought to check on their boss, they would get treated to a sight of Sebastian's cock between your legs, yet you take each thrust willingly and frantically, rocking to his rhythm in desperation to find a new release. He's right, you enjoy the risk. You enjoy him. Clinging to his back, you relish his hard muscles bearing your weight, and dig your nails into his shirt and flesh beneath.
He peels free as he adjusts position, gripping your thighs like vice, and his mouth finds the swell between your neck and collarbone. The sensations tip you closer and closer. Your body doesn't just want to orgasm, it needs to. You have to let go. A rasping moan bleats from your lips, broken by ragged pants.
"Keep quiet, love," he commands. "Only I get to hear you cum."
Your spine hits the wall with each thrust. The fire builds until its pleading, beseeching for release, and with one final desperate movement you clench around his cock and freely orgasm, biting your lip to curb the scream that surges up your throat. Divine pleasure wracks every bone.
"S-Sebastian..."
His name blurted like that makes his grip tighten. He pants raggedly, pumps with no rhythm, eyes fluttering upwards and nails biting, and when he finally pulls out to twist away before his release spurts, his face contorts with pleasure, almost pain, that he can't cum inside you, leave you dripping and marked as his as you work.
Knees too week to stand, you slump to the floor, spent.
"You really... are incorrigible..."
He lets out a low chuckle and runs a hand through his sweaty curls.
"But you love it."
You do.
He leans over and slips a hand around your waist, pulling you up to his chest. For a long moment, as your hearts climb down from the high together, neither of you say anything. Despite his past, his secrets, his vices, Sebastian has become the one place where you can truly be yourself. There are no worries or impossible expectations, no societal burdens, no weight nor responsibility. No stress. He is the safety net, the impenetrable monument, the sun that whispers to the sprout to thrive, and if Heaven exists, it's this beautiful connection, the golden threads that bind you together with something far greater than love.
Adventure, freedom, the new and unexpected but never unwelcome. Sebastian is all those things and more.
"I don't want to see what the brute wants," he murmurs. "I'd rather stay here with you forever."
Your focus tugs back to those brilliant coffee eyes.
"Just for now will be enough."
To divert suspicions, you go back to the main hall first.
Tidying yourself up is harder than it sounds, with the flush of sex fresh on your face. With a final kiss, Sebastian promises to clean up as you head up out the stock room and into the hall. Ominis is distinctive immediately by his unfittingly taut posture, state of overdress and cane slotted tightly into his palm, but he lifts his chin as you approach, like he can scent you coming.
Hopefully not. He might mistake you for his friend.
"Good afternoon, madam," he greets cordially, setting his teacup down. "Sebastian is close by, I presume."
Sebastian saunters out next, and it seems to take all his willpower not to touch you. His easy smile capsizes from post-coital bliss to pre-disaster despair.
"Please tell me you're here to buy me a drink and nothing else?"
"I have news," he says. "On Harlow."
"Then out with it," you demand. "What do you know?"
"It's best I discuss the matter with Sebastian privately."
"Why? They're going to come here, ain't they?"
He makes to retort, but Sebastian cuts in. "She's right, Ominis. Let's both hear it."
Ominis purses his lips in hesitation, but stands. "Very well. I have... informants who have received word that he intends to strike the premises with a dozen of his men tonight."
Your heart leaps into your throat. "What? Tonight? Then why are you here? Go stop him!"
Ominis is unrelentingly stoic. "Intent is not a crime, and unfortunately Harlow has a large enough following that means we must catch him in the act to arrest him. Any premature move could give away the element of surprise. He underestimated you last time, so I imagine he will bring full..." he rolls his lips, "firepower tonight."
"I have a plan, don't worry," Sebastian adds at your horror. "Been cooking it some time."
"And you didn't think to share it with me?" you snap.
"It's no longer safe for you here," Ominis says coolly. "You'll need to make accommodations elsewhere for the time being."
"And what about my pub?"
"Let us handle it."
"I'm hearing a lot of don't worry about it and not enough telling me what you plan to do."
"That's all I can share. Sebastian," he says abruptly, "we'll discuss more later, once I have logistics in place."
He glides away like he hasn't just upended your entire world. It's one thing to target you, another entirely to target this place. You live here, work here, grew up here, met Sebastian here. It can't all end in ruin.
"Just for tonight, lay low at my place." Sebastian fishes in his pocket and places a warm metal key into your palms. "Garreth will be more than happy to watch your parents, he has a spare room, he's very discreet and he adores old people."
You don't even have the brain power to fathom how Sebastian could organise that in one afternoon. "I won't cower."
"Not cowering. All you have to do—"
"No." You thrust the key back into his hand. "This time you tell me what's going on. It's not a pig-headed customer or a carriage to the seaside, Sebastian. This place is my life."
"I know, and I would never do anything to jeopardise it."
"So why can't you tell me your plan?"
"Because I don't want you to worry about me, more than you already will." He steps closer, gets quieter. "Everything will work out, but for that to happen, I need to know you're safe and far away. I can't... I can't risk you getting hurt. I can't work to protect this place knowing you're in danger."
"You're on leave," you whisper. "I don't want you getting hurt."
"I won't." He puts the key back and cups your hands over it. "I know it's hard for you, but—"
"Trust you?"
"Now you're getting it." His hands slip away – you miss the warmth keenly. "It'll be over by morning, I promise."
This side of him, confident and self-assured and doubtless everything will be okay, draws you in like seduction. This isn't the first time you've put your faith in his hands, but now it kindles a feeling of helplessness in your belly. He's never let you down before and has no reason to now – but still, you can't help feel pushed over your limit.
There's more at stake this time. Your life and your parents' lives are more important, yes, but it feels... wrong, to abandon your home when it needs you most.
"All right," you back down, uneasy but left without options. "Just... be careful."
He takes your hand, bowing to kiss the fingers like delicate embers in a breeze.
"Now, bar girl," he murmurs, "where's the fun in that?"
The door opens before the third swing of the knocker.
"Brilliant timing!" Garreth greets, ushering you inside. "Just tucked your parents into bed!"
It took a forty minute walk to reach the Weasley townhouse on the west side of the city. You've forgone wondering the hows and whys of Sebastian's machinations, so it doesn't surprise you to find your parents in the spare bedroom, sitting up and nattering about green flames. The place is surprisingly plain, with a sparse number of portrait photographs on an empty oak shelf, a navy armchair that clashes with red wallpaper and a cuckoo clock, except instead of chiming on the hour, it chimes at seven minutes past.
"Cup of tea?" asks Garreth. "It'll be good for the nerves, and not to brag, but I'm very good at hand-brewing."
"No, thank you. Is Mr Gaunt here?"
"Why would he be here?" he blurts. "He doesn't live here, or anything. He's just my colleague. At work. Working. Yeah. He and Sebastian are already on the case."
You stew on it as you ensure your parents are settled and comfortable. It's already past nine and the pub closed early, and if Ominis' intel is correct, Harlow's gang will be storming the place in a few hours. He wouldn't hesitate to deliver a killing blow; Sebastian would, despite his blood-stained past. What if, in granting mercy, he gets badly hurt or killed?
"What about Kath?" you ask, and Garreth stiffens. "Does she know?"
"Errrrr." He laughs nervously. "Don't be mad..."
"What, Garreth?"
"They're not exactly doing this... by the book..." He holds up his hands. "They won't be able to stop Harlow any other way. And trust me, even when Seb's off his tits he's too competent to let shit go awry."
"So it's just him and Ominis? Against Harlow's entire gang?" You glare at him. "What exactly is this plan?"
Garreth goes a little pale. "They're going to use bait to lure him into a trap they've set. That's all."
"Bait?" you snap. "What bait?"
"It'll be fine, I promise! Over by one, Seb told me. He's that confident."
Time seems to distend. Sebastian was right – you are worrying, so much it gnaws your insides. They're outnumbered and outmanned and assuming Harlow will be idiot enough to fall into whatever this trap is they've set, presumably at your pub's expense.
"Where's that handsome, tattooed young man, hmm?"
You spin to your father, wrenched from the conversation. "What?"
"Oh, if I were fifty years younger, sweetheart," your mother chimes, relaxing next to him, "I'd be all over him!"
You don't know whether to laugh or cry. Of course they remember him, out of everyone they've ever met. "He's busy right now."
"Not without another woman, I hope?"
"No, Mama."
"What a lucky chap he is to have you at his side. Not everyone gets that, you know." Your mother turns to face your father with a smile. "The adventures we had... they were always worth the risk."
Adventure, and freedom, and the new and unexpected but never unwelcome... a painful ache goes through you. Wasn't that something you learnt when you were with Sebastian? Living, rather than surviving? Taking the risk rather than hiding away?
Downstairs, you grab your things as Garreth opens the front door.
"You can stay, if you want," he says, leaning against the doorway. "It'll be a tight squeeze, but I can whip up a bed for you in the living room."
Sleep will be hard enough at Sebastian's place. "Thanks, but I'll be all right. You'll call if there's any issues?"
"Don't worry, I'm used to entertaining old people. If they can't sleep I can show them some magic! Er, by that I mean coin tricks and pulling my thumb off, of course." He laughs awkwardly. "Keep out of trouble tonight?"
You don't make that promise.
It's lonely in Sebastian's place without him.
To busy yourself, you tidy. Charming as the owner is, he's a terrible mess, and his attempts to clean since you were last here only mean the floor is free of empty bottles. You scrub the kitchen countertop, hoping each stain that peels away will relieve the anxiety storming through your gut.
It doesn't.
Even when you wash and dress and climb into his bed, breathing his familiar scent, your feet feel like they're filled with lightning, charged and restless and twitchy and taut. The clock ticks on Sebastian's wall. The pendulum swings. It passes midnight, then one, and you hear no sign, nothing that relieves you of this nightmarish cycle of waiting, hoping, praying, pleading.
Wait. Hope. Pray. Plead.
The later it gets, the worse your thoughts become. Harlow's grin. The place is flames. Sebastian struck down. Sebastian unmoving...
Everything you love is there. The building, the memories... him. If things go wrong, not only will you lose the place, but the person, too. He said to trust him – and you do, so much your soul aches at the thought of lying here, doing nothing, while he risks his life for you.
Maybe it's time to risk your life for him. Just this once. Just for love.
Without another breath, you're out of bed, dressing and snatching your coat and shoving your feet into boots. Fuck it. The most harm you can do is swing a punch with whatever muscle you've developed moving furniture and pouring beer, but if Sebastian's in trouble and there's any way you can help, even if it means acting as bait yourself, you'll seize it.
Outside, it doesn't take long to grasp your bearings, as the river cuts seamlessly through the city centre, but it's a bit of a walk, and the dark is no place for a lone woman. You keep to brightly lit areas and skirt strangers in wide arcs, channelling that fear into a determined pace.
When you near Ye Olde Hen House, a sharpness tickles the air.
It's not strong at first, but as you get closer the smell thickens and dries your tongue. Smoke. It tastes like Guy Fawkes' Night, fireworks and bonfires and effigies charred to cinders. You jog, then sprint, the last two streets until you can see the plume rising from the source.
In another life, the sight would be biblically divine. Devour the old to make way for the new. Sometimes you wished it, when the pipes burst or the carpet wore away or the damp crept through a leak in the ceiling, but watching the old building now, with its windows shattered and the great orange tongues churning through the wood like claws through flesh and bone, shoots an intense pang of grief up your chest. The place may be old, tired and decrepit, but it's yours.
This is dangerous. You shouldn't go further. But the thought of Sebastian burning within compels you to race forwards, faster than your limbs have ever taken you before. There's nothing you can do to save the place now, but if he dies as you stand here and watch, there wouldn't be a lifetime long enough to atone.
"Sebastian!" you screech. "Sebastian!"
Just as you come upon the entrance, the flames recede. You skid to a halt. Someone is inside. Him? Or Harlow? You hit the great double-door, expecting resistance – but the wood is soggy and you burst into the main hall, still aflame and wrecked so completely it's almost unrecognisable.
Harlow has his back to you, and the grief doesn't have time to bloom.
His clothes are singed, he's leaning heavily to one side and thick blood weeps from numerous injuries, including an enormous gash down the length of his back. Trembling and red with rage, he stands opposite a figure too obscured by both cloak and smoke to make out clearly.
"And after you're dead, I'll come for your whore. Tie her up, make her scream. Maybe find out what you find so sweet about her Muggle cunt." He bellows a hysterical laugh and raises something wooden in his hand. "Save a seat in hell for me."
No. You seize the first thing you can find: the cast-iron pan hanging on the rack. The handle makes your skin sizzle, but you clamp down on the agony – and jab the curve right into Harlow's exposed wound.
The screech he lets out could curdle blood, and he drops to his knees. You reel back. He only just turns around – eyes going wide – before you whack it against his head, and his body thumps to the ground, unconscious. Maybe dead. You drop the pan, palms red and raw and quivering with pain, and look over.
The figure steps back – but it's not Sebastian.
You snatch the details between the smoke. Familiarly curved, with fingers that sing of hardship, hair escaping its loose bundle and shoulders like the physical weight of responsibility has sheared them down to a perpetual slant, it's a body you know both intimately and don't understand, and love or despise depending on moods as errant as the wind. The person darts across the floor to the stock room for the back entrance, flicking the barest second of attention your way.
With eyes matching your own.
It's impossible. Impossible. How could someone wear every flaw on your skin, every follicle and pore, every old scar and callous like a garment to be discarded when they saw fit? The lookalike scampers away, and your feet jerk you forwards in chase, through the ruined doorway to the back alley.
You have to know. You have to.
"Wait!" you choke out. "Who are—?"
But when you turn the corner, the doppelgänger is gone.
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Hey, sorry, I have a question about mononoke, and, well. You seem to know a lot about it so perhaps you could find the time to answer?
I was wondering, is there any more media connected to the medicine sellers beside the bakeneko arc in Ayakashi, the Mononoke series from 2007 and the recent movie?
Because I saw people talking about another three movies too, and I was already quite confused by the two series and the movie and the internet wasn't really helpful ^^'
I have so far only watched Ayakashi and the series, but the new movie is next (and I am excited)! I really enjoy the memes and interpretations and other stuff on your blog, it's really funny, although I can't read some of it yet due to spoilers.
I hope you have a wonderful day!
Happy to help!
At the moment, there's no animated media for Mononoke other than the Ayakashi "Bakeneko" arc, the series, and the movie Karakasa (Chinese Umbrella), which has the alternate title Phantom in the Rain. However, there are two movies planned as sequels to Karakasa. Those three movies will be a trilogy, and that's probably what you've seen people talking about.
We don't yet know the name of the third movie. The second one will be called Hinezumi (Fire Rat), and has also been given the alternate title Ashes of Rage.
As for non-animated media, there are...
Manga adaptations for every arc of the series. I think all have been translated into English. I haven't tried to hunt them down, but I'm guessing they wouldn't be too difficult to find.
Two manga adaptations of Ayakashi "Bakeneko." They're both by the artist who also adapted the other arcs, but one version is more recent. At least one has been translated—I think both—but I haven't looked for them either.
A manga adaptation of Karakasa, created by the movie's character designer. As far as I know, only the first six chapters are available, and they've been translated into English by @naonoholics [1-2] [3-4] [5-6]
A light novel adaptation of Karakasa. I don't know if it's available in English anywhere.
Stage plays of Ayakashi "Bakeneko" and "Zashiki Warashi." I think the "Zashiki Warashi" play is or was available on DVD/Bluray, but only from Japan and in Japanese. I'm not sure if there's a recording of "Bakeneko," or if any other stories were adapted this way.
Spinoff light novels called Mononoke Shu and Mononoke Oni. @the-mononoke-facade has translated all of the stories from Shu and the first story from Oni.
I think that's it for official media. Pretty much everything is an adaptation of one kind or another, except for the spinoff novels.
There is a bunch of backstory connected to the Medicine Sellers, which isn't discussed in the media at all except for a brief mention in Karakasa. The creator flung it at us quite unceremoniously this past summer. If you're not familiar with it, the posts linked here cover most of what we know.
I'm glad you enjoy this blog, and I hope this was helpful! It's probably a ton more info than you were looking for, but you now know everything I know about the available Mononoke media. 😛
#mononoke#karakasa#yes as if having mononoke broken up into ayakashi and the series and three movies weren't confusing enough#they've also given each movie two titles—three if you count the english translations of the original ones#it's not the ghibli mononoke#it's the 2006 ayakashi samurai horror tales anthology but just the last three episodes...#... 2007 five-arc miniseries...#... 2024-202? movies karakasa/chinese umbrella/phantom in the rain...#...hinezumi/fire rat/ashes of rage...#...whatever the three titles of the third movie will be mononoke!#and the creator dropped all the world lore in random special youtube segments that had to be translated by fans#not confusing at all really
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Hi! Can I ask for Damon Salvatore and the female reader where Damon follows the female reader because he is jealous like about Elena in episode 7 of season 6 in Withmore Medical Center Fundraiser
Thank you for the request, sorry for the wait I’ve had a lot of these to get through, I hope you enjoy the read <3!!
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She’s mine she just doesn’t know it yet
Series: The vampire diaries
Pairing: Damon Salvatore x Female Reader
Summary: Request ❤️
Warnings: kissing, little bit of fighting, erm drinking?
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Ring Ring
I walked over to my bed in my towel as I twisted my hair up in another. Damon was ringing. My forehead wrinkled wondering what he wanted, so I reached over and picked it up.
“Hello?” I answered taking a seat now on the bed.
“Ello ello, you alright?” Damon answered, the sounds in the background of his call made it obvious he was driving his car. I laughed at how he’d answered the phone.
“I’m fine, how are you?” I answered back shaking my head a little while smiling too myself.
“I’ll be great in about twenty minutes when I come and pick you up”. He responded without a question in sight. My brows knitted together.
“Damon- I can’t, I’m busy tonight” I told him as I felt my forehead sweat a little. I probably would have preferred hanging out with Damon.
“Busy? Doing what?” He questioned, his tone changing completely.
“I uh- I’ve been invited to a dance outside of town- it’s nothing major just a charity thing” I told him trying to play it down a little.
“A dance? Out of town? By who?” He asked all very quickly. I sighed deeply taking a long breath in.
“A boy i met recently, his name is Liam” I admitted, though I didn’t want to. I didn’t want Damon to get the wrong end of the stick, Liam was lovely but he wasn’t Damon. I just didn’t want him to think it was a date, I didn’t want either of them to think it was a date.
“So you’re going on a date?” He quizzed sounding a little taken back.
“No- I- I don’t know what it is, I’m just going out with a friend for the night” I told him, unsure of how he was going to take it.
“Alright” he eventually said after a few moments of silence.
“I have to go… I have to finish getting ready” I told him with a smile he obviously couldn’t see.
“I’ll see you later, enjoy your night” he told me a little plainly. Anyone could have seen through that.
“Thanks- goodbye” I replied sounding a little defeated myself.
I didn’t want him to find out what I was doing this evening. Especially not like this. He had plans for us, I could only imagine what we were going to get up to. I put my phone back on charge and carried on getting dressed. And tried not to think too much about Damon.
Not so long after, Liam was knocking at my door coming to pick me up. He was in a suit and had a wide smile across his face. “You look- outstanding” he blinked gazing upon me as if I was a god.
“Not too bad you’re self” I giggled coming out of the door and locking it. “I’m excited to spend this time with you” he put his arm out even though we were just going to his car. I gave him a warm smile and took hold of his bicep. “It’ll be fun, plus I love a dance, and for a great cause” I shrugged. Liam chucked and opened my car door for me.
The ride to the dance was quite a long journey, it was at least half an hour forty minutes away. At times the silence was a little awkward but we managed to fill it with laughter. But I think it was mainly my fault. I was only half in the car, the other half of me was still sat on that bed talking to Damon.
When we arrived Liam again put his arm out and we entered the building. The decorations were amazing, there were lights everywhere, a huge display of champagne glasses all stacked up on each other, chandeliers drooping from the ceiling. “It’s gorgeous in here” I gazing completely amazed by all the work put in.
“It gets bigger every year as more people recognise it” Liam told me, but he wasn’t looking at all the details, he was staring at me. I blushed under his eyes and he chucked. “You do look incredible tonight” he told me taking my hand in his. “Such polysyllabic words tonight” I raised an eyebrow trying to brush the compliment under the rug. “What can I say, straight A student” he brush off imagine dust off his shoulder making me laugh.
“Would you like to come meet my parents, they’re over there” he subtly nodding to the side of the room. But when I looked closer I realised that they weren’t alone, they were talking to another man. And that man was none other than Damon Salvatore. What the hell was he doing here- and how he look so handsome in a suit. I was going to need a drink for this.
“Why don’t you grab us some drinks first and then we can head over” I tilted my head pleading him with my eyes so that he couldn’t say no. “Now you’re getting the hang of it” he chucked rubbing my arm before heading off. As I turned around, Damon was standing in front of me. I jumped slightly, my eyes widening. “what the hell are you doing here” I hissed while pitching my eyebrows together.
“Coming to support- childline?” Damon looked around for any signs of what the charity was for. “It’s a disability charity” I shook my head trying to contain my laugh. “How’d you even get in, you weren’t on the list” “I’m a vampire y/n, I don’t need a list” he looked at me like I was stupid and to be fair it was a stupid question. “Well how did you know where I was?” I put my hands on my hips.
“Oh that part was pretty mundane I just tracked your phone” he shrugged his shoulders. I sighed taking a deep breath in not knowing what to do in this situation. “Oh look your dates coming back” his eyes gleamed at the new material as Liam came holding two drinks.
“Hello, I don’t believe I’ve seen you here you must be a new member” Liam smiled completely oblivious to the fact that Damon was about to eat him alive. He passed me my drink of white wine, to which I held my tongue for. “Damon Salvatore, newest member of- the charity” he looked at me side ways and raised his eyes “disability really is hard” “yes, it can make the simplest so difficult, that’s why we work to raise money to help fund an easier life for those who suffer with disability” Liam nodded, he seemed really proud of what he did.
I smelt the white wine as they were talking but decided against taking a sip. Damon saw what was doing and tutted. “You do know, y/n doesn’t like white wine right?” He shook his head condescendingly. “Damon” I whispered in horror. “Oh- I didn’t know- have you two already met?” “Oh me and y/n go way back, don’t we” he smiled a little psychotically.
“We have- mutual friends” I smiled awkwardly at Liam who looked like he wanted to melt into the floor. “Oh come on it’s more than that” Damon rolled his eyes really enjoying this. “What are you doing” I hissed at him dangerously. “So uh did you two come together?” Damon asked Liam turning back to him. “Yeah, y/n is my date” he nodded. I almost choked on the air.
I coughed into my hand as they both stared at me. “We didn’t actually clarify w…” but Damon cut me off. “That’s amazing im so happy for you both, it’s nice to know y/n is with a man who can’t even get her drink right” Damon patted Liam on the chest. “Is there a problem?” Liam stepped a little close to Damon, with a serious face slapped across his own. “You tell me?” Damon chuckled turning to me after “confident this one huh” he wriggled his eyebrows.
“Damon” I whispered begging him not to cause any problems. “You need to leave us alone, or there will be a problem” Liam gritted his teeth together. He put his drink on a near by table as if he was getting ready for a fight. I didn’t know what to do. “You know… Im just not convinced you’re right for her you know? I feel like I’m a good judge of character and- you’re just not cutting it” Damon told him, again being overly condescending.
“Who says you have a right to decide that?” Liam laughed, but I watched as that just pissed Damon off more. “I do” he shoved Liam, not too hard but he still stumbled back a little. With that Liams whole face changed and he swung for Damon. He ducked it not even having to think about it and shoved him again. Just making him more and more angry. Liam tried to punch him again but Damon blocked it and push him a little harder making him fall onto the floor.
“Stop it!” I called out noticing everyone was watching. “Damon outside now!” I pointed to the doors. Liam stood up from the floor and slipped his arm around my waist. Damon scowled at us both before turning around and leaving through the doors. “What a prick” Liam exclaimed once Damon was gone. “I’m gonna go talk to him” I weaved my way out of his arm. “Why? Just let him be he’s gone now” “because I lied- we’re friends- we’re more than that liam we’re close- I need to find out what his problem is”.
Liams eyes looked sad, as if he knew he’d already lost. “Okay” he finally answered taking a step back from me. I gave him a small sympathetic smile, because when it came to Damon I knew Liam always lost too. I fluttered out of the doors and into the cold night. I saw Damon sitting on one of the fences looking up at the night. I wondered over to him coming in front and resting my arms on his knees. “Damon” “I’m sorry” he told me automatically before he even looked at me. He was now. I could see he was sorry.
It was written all over his face. “I am” “I can see that…” I sighed getting a little closer to him. “Why are you sorry” “for coming, I should have just let you enjoy your date and if you picked him then..” he shrugged his shoulders looking back up to the moon. “What- do you mean if I picked him?” I stuttered feeling my throat go dry. “Hm, I suppose that is confusing, I would have had to make myself an option for you to pick him”.
I blinked in disbelief. Is he saying he came here to pick a fight with Liam- because he was jealous? “If you were an option Damon, i wouldn’t be here..” I replied in a small voice. His head turned to mine at the speed of light. “I am an option- maybe not a very good one- I’m a jealous, headstrong, stupid option but- I am one”. I chuckled to myself brushing my thumbs over his knees. “You’re the only option I want” I whispered looking down at the floor.
Damon jumped down from sitting on the fence, yet still towered over me. He lifted my head up with his pointy finger so I was looking into his eyes. “All this time I was jealous of these boys looking at you, talking to you, dating you- and all this time, really you liked me?”. I nodded my head as goosebumps traveled all up my skin under his touch. “Hmm- well we’ve wasted a lot of time then” Damon told me making my laugh.
“We can make up for it” I brushed my hands up his arms feeling his biceps, which were much bigger than Liams. “Might as well start now then” Damon smiled pulling me in for a kiss.
Finally, heaven.
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Wing Man Part 6
Fic Summary: Steve 'the Hair' Harrington is your best friend, and is constantly striking out. Sick of this, you two make a deal; you'll wing man for each other. Hooking Steve up with dates is easy, but he finds himself struggling to find you a date. At least, until Dustin starts talking about his new cool friend Eddie. (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)
Chapter Summary: What DID he mean by five? The second meeting.
5.1k words
A/N: How are we feeling in a post-"Flight of Icarus" world, y'all? I knew from the beginning that I'd want to add some of the lore in and let me tell you, I LOVE Ronnie Ecker. For those of you who did not read the book, or haven't had a chance to, Ronnie is Eddie's best friend who ended up with a full scholarship to NYU. They're siblings, your honor.
Also if anyone can show me on this map where the plot is going, I'd really appreciate it.
This late at night, the only sounds in the trailer park came from the occasional dog barking and the echoes of Eddie’s tapes blasting as he pulled up to Wayne’s trailer. His uncle was working tonight as usual, which would normally allow Eddie time to hog the tv before passing out for a few precious hours before he had to get up for school.
Tonight however, his mind was buzzing with what had just happened less than an hour ago. He liked you, he wasn’t sure how much yet but he did. You were sharp and knew your stuff about metal. It helped that you were cute. Really cute.
He liked seeing you in the passenger seat of his car, matching wits with his friends and ranting about Ozzy. He liked seeing you laughing and the way you watched him play. He really liked the way you had fiddled with the pick he’d thrown at you at the end of the set.
Eddie had never done that before. He’d wanted to, but never had anyone’s attention like that before- no. That wasn’t true. There had been one other person who’d listened to him play like that, two years ago.
Was he always gonna fold to the site of a pretty girl actually paying attention to his music?
“Of course you are.” Ronnie’s voice echoed on the phone. “And I’m gonna laugh every time you do.”
Eddie groaned, holding the receiver to his ear as his forehead pressed against the front of the fridge. He hadn’t planned on running to her with this, but he was nowhere near able to wind down. He hadn’t even expected Ronnie to pick up the phone this late at night with the time zone difference and the fact that it was a school night. He’d have to push his stash a bit harder to pay Wayne back for the long distance call.
The past two years had been a slow crawl of building back trust up with Veronica Ecker. The two had gone almost a whole summer without talking before Eddie had basically groveled for forgiveness outside of Granny Ecker’s trailer before Ronnie left for New York. She had forgiven him enough to let him give her a ride to the airport.
“Last time?” He’d asked.
“Last time.” She’d repeated.
“So why didn’t you shack up with her tonight?” Ronnie asked. “You got her into your van, and you dropped her off like a gentleman.”
“I don’t know, I panicked.” Eddie sighed, bonking his head against the fridge a few times. “She was right there, and she was leaning in and all I saw was Paige leaning in-”
“You know not every girl who shares your taste in music is Paige, right?” Eddie could practically see Ronnie rolling her eyes on the other end of the line.
“Any girl that shares my taste in music ends up fucking off to the opposite end of the country.”
This made Ronnie laugh. “You’re an idiot. Paige fucked off back to her job and I fucked off to college.”
“Fucking off is fucking off.”
“Maybe you need to fuck off.”
“I tried, remember?”
She remembered. Both of them remembered.
“Look, stop being a dipshit.” Ronnie said after a moment of awkward silence. “You’re graduating this year, right?”
“Uhhh...”
“Eddie.”
“Yeah, yeah I’m working on it. I just need those last stupid two classes and then I’m home free.” Eddie confirmed.
“You can’t stay in high school forever.” Ronnie said. “And you’re gonna realize that there’s life outside of Hawkins. Have you even talked to Paige since then?”
He hadn’t, and they both knew it. Eddie gave up two months after she’d bailed him out of jail. Two months of dead air silence. He got the hint.
“No.”
“Then stop worrying about one girl from over two years ago!” Eddie could feel the phantom pain of Ronnie punching him in the arm like she always used to. “Get laid and graduate, Munson. You earned it.”
Eddie snorted, sliding down the fridge to sit on the cool floor. “Is that the only advice you got for me, Ecker?”
“It’s the only advice you need. Did you pass that test last week?” Ronnie asked.
“By the skin of my teeth.” Eddie sighed, leaning his head back against the fridge.
“Your new girl graduated, maybe she can help you study.”
“She’s not my girl. She’s a girl that I’ve met a handful of times-”
“That’s turning your brain to mush.”
“She doesn’t even know who I am, Ronnie.” He fiddled with the chord in his hand, watching the spiral wind and unwind around his fingers. It was already stretched out pretty bad, with a few spirals already tangled beyond repair like his old slinky from when he was a kid.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Ronnie asked. “She doesn’t know you, that means she doesn’t feed into the bullshit of the rumor mill.”
Ronnie had a point and he hated it, but that’s why he called her to begin with. Ronnie was the only person who could cut through his Munson bullshit and give it to him straight. He missed it. As much as he enjoyed the power he had to protect his little lost sheepies, they were all too intimidated to actually stand up to him and call him out the way that Ronnie would.
“Yeah, you’re right. As usual.” Eddie could hear her snort and he couldn’t stop himself from grinning. “So why the hell are you even awake right now? Up til 2 am on a school night, Ecker?”
“It’s barely past midnight, the time zone isn’t that off. I was studying for a test, but hearing you complain about your love life is a far more productive use of my time.”
“You’re using me to slack off, aren’t you?”
“If I have to look at my flashcards one more time tonight my eyes are gonna go square. How’s Granny doing?”
“She’s an empty nester and is determined to turn me into her replacement grandson until you visit again.” Eddie shook his head. “She threatened to give me a haircut the last time she dropped off a plate for Wayne.”
Ronnie had come back to visit a grand total of five times since she’d left, returning for holidays and summers to visit Granny Ecker and by extension Eddie. Each time she’d come back with stories of law school and how different New York is.
It seemed impossible, everything that Ronnie had told him about going to college and about life outside their small town. She was playing Dungeons and Dragons still, having found a group that would play with her. According to her, being a rules lawyer for the game at a law school hit way different than it had their small Hellfire group in high school. No one even cared that they played outside of a few students who had better things to do than enact violence against a few nerds.
Then again, in law school everyone was some sort of nerd. Eddie wondered if even a freak would be accepted there. Well, socially at least. He wasn’t delusional enough to think he’d be able to be accepted into law school with his grades. Ronnie had invited him up to visit a few times, but there was never time or money to do it.
The two continued talking for another hour, catching up until Ronnie was scolding him for staying up so late on a school night.
“Yeah? And what’s your excuse?” Eddie said. “It’s almost 4:20 am there.”
“Ha. Ha. Again, ha.” Ronnie said. “Still not how timezones work. And my first class doesn’t start until noon.”
Right. In college you didn’t have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn every day.
“Night, Ecker.”
“Night, Munson. Graduate and get laid.”
“Does it matter the order?”
“Good night, Eddie.”
Talking to Ronnie had eased his nerves, but there was still something inside that wouldn’t let him lay down and go to sleep. It was late now, way later than he intended to stay up tonight. The night he played at the Hideout always had him up late, and his teacher already considered him more useless than usual on Wednesdays. It’s not like anyone would care if he slept in class, unless they were in a particularly foul mood.
He made his way to a stack of books in his room rummaging through a pile or two until he found what he was looking for. Eddie’s copy of Lord of the RIngs was well loved at best, and completely trashed at worst. The cover of the paperback was nearly torn off, taped back together haphazardly over the years. Pages were dogeared, the spine was cracked, notes were scribbled in the margins, and his name was scribbled in messy cursive on the front page declaring that this book belonged to Eddie Munson and that he was in third grade.
Eddie stripped out of most of his clothes, tossing his jewelry on his nightstand, and hopped into bed. He turned on a small lamp and opened the book. He could probably recite the first chapter from memory if he tried, the words on the page a comfortable lullabye for his wound up mind. But tonight he flipped to a page near the end where his bookmark was. The flower made out of blue construction paper wasn’t nearly as old as the book, and only in better shape because it never left the safe pages of Tolkein’s writing.
His eyes glanced at his arm again, your phone number a temporary tattoo on his skin until it washed off. Shit, it was going to wash off eventually. Eddie grabbed a pen from under his bed and added another scribble to the inside of the book before copying your number carefully onto the paper flower. At least this way he’d always know where it was.
With that aside, Eddie didn’t make it through three pages of his book before he passed out with the light still on.
Fall Semester, 1984
The PrinciPAL’s office was just as interesting and inviting as it always was, which is to say not at all. Eddie was slumped back on a chair, watching as Janice sorted through paperwork, pretending to look busy so that she could avoid any small talk with ‘that Munson boy’. He had been waiting for Higgin’s to show up for almost fifteen minutes now, because why shouldn’t he waste Eddie’s time at this point? The worst that was going to happen today is that they’d do their little song and dance, Eddie would plead his case that the flyers were absolutely serious and that Chris Morrison had every intent to run for student council, and that it was all of the club that had made the posters, Higgins would shake his head and not believe Eddie for a second (which to be fair, this would be the first time that Eddie would admit privately that it was his fault), they’d go back and forth until Eddie got some form of detention or Saturday school.
Honestly, the worst part would be rescheduling Hellfire if he wound up in detention.
Eddie had counted out 13 paper clips that Janice had used in her papershifting before the door to the front office opened up again. He looked up, expecting to see Higgins walk in, ignore him for another five minutes, before Janice would let Eddie go in.
He didn’t expect to see you, pale and shaken, clutching a teacher’s note in your hand. Eddie watched as you handed the note over to Janice who read it, shook her head, and pointed at the chair next to himself. Your eyes never left the floor as you sat next to him, staring at the cheap carpet as if you could somehow burn a hole in it and disappear.
Trouble was no stranger to Eddie, and Eddie was no stranger to trouble. In Hawkins the name ‘Munson’ might as well be in the thesaurus next to the word. This wasn’t his first rodeo, and it would be far from his last as long as Higgins stayed the princiPAL. He’d walk away with a lecture and a sigh and then it would be business as normal.
The look on your face though, that was far from the mild annoyance he felt. You look downright traumatized at the idea of having been sent here. Eddie glanced up at Janice who deigned to make eye contact with him now. Her eyes flicked between the two of you, a disapproving look behind her purple frames as if this was somehow Eddie’s fault that you had ended up here as well. But then, as far as any of the faculty from the office was concerned, even him being enrolled at this school was a death sentence to the rest of the poor student body. Eddie was a disease that they would try to contain until they had the cure to remove him.
The shaking of your knee made your chair (and his chair by proxy) rattle slightly. The quiet of the office and the mundane shuffling of Janice’s papers only added to the tension that was radiating off you.
“Janice, is Higgin’s gonna be long?” Eddie finally asked, and your bouncing knee stopped for just a moment before going back to its nervous movement.
“He’s in a very important meeting.” Came the reply over a stack of papers, still not looking at Eddie.
He sighed again and looked over at you, trying to place where he knew your face. Your eyes were a bit red, and you looked like you were on the verge of crying. Shit, he needed to do something before he had to ask Janice for the tissue box.
“First time?” Eddie asked, and when you didn’t respond he nudged your knee with his.
You jumped slightly, head snapping up. It was a wonder you didn’t give yourself whiplash and it would have been almost funny to Eddie had you not looked like a deer in the headlights looking at him.
“I... Huh?” your voice cracked slightly.
“What are ya in for?” Eddie did his best to give you a smile which he was sure made him look more like a serial killer than a comfort. It was rare he wished that he had his dad’s smile, but in cases like this he’d make an exception.
You looked at the paper in your hand and swallowed. “Uh... skipped.”
“Skipped school or just class?” Eddie prompted, trying to get you to talk more. If you were talking, then you weren’t crying. That’s what he hoped at least.
“Class.” He didn’t think you’d say anymore but you surprised him. “US History.” Eddie caught the way your eyes darted to Janice again as if to make sure she wasn’t listening in, but Janice had better things to do than to eavesdrop on two delinquents. “I wasn’t... I had a bad day. I'm having a bad day. I felt like I was going to explode and I went to the library.”
Eddie nodded, wondering what had happened today that made you need to duck out. It wasn’t his business, and frankly Higgin’s was going to grill you enough as it was.
“Rookie mistake.” He said instead.
“Rookie...?”
Eddie kept his voice low and leaned in closer to you as if telling you a secret. “If you’re gonna skip, you can’t go to the library. You might as well have walked into the teacher’s lounge and announced that you were cutting class.”
You let out a sharp breath that he swore counted for a laugh. “Thanks for the heads up, can you tell me that a few hours ago?”
There was color returning to your face now and Eddie kept going. His brown eyes scanned your face, trying to place where he knew you from. Hawkins was a small town, and there was nothing about you that screamed ‘I’m new!’.
He liked your sarcasm though, and his ‘comforting’ grin shifted into a genuine smile. “If you’re gonna ditch, you need to go to the bathroom or go outside.” He said. “Especially for last period. Go hide outside in the woods and you can slip into the parking lot seamlessly without anyone noticing. By the end of the day the teachers are barely taking attendance anyway.”
“Have you been in the girls rooms here?” you asked, shaking your head. “I think I’d rather take my chances here than stay in there longer than I’d have to.” Eddie wasn’t sure if you were trying to make a joke or if you were serious.
“Would you rather hide in the boys room?” he asked. “I swear it only smells like piss almost all of the time and you’d end up in the splash zone even if you were in a stall.”
That got a laugh out of you, a genuine one. Your shoulders were relaxing and you looked down at the paper again and took a deep breath that you exhaled with a sigh.
“I’ve never been in trouble before.” you said, your hands starting to bend and fold the paper on your lap absently. “I’m not good at being in trouble.”
“Well, lucky for you I’m here.” Eddie nudged your knee again with his. “Being in trouble is kind of my job here at Hawkin’s High. I’m a professional, you know. If I wasn’t here taking up all of Principal Higgin’s time he might have to actually do his job.”
That last part was louder, as he directed it to Janice who refused to take the bait and only reached for her lilac stapler instead.
A small smack on his arm drew his attention back to you, you were smiling at him looking astonished. “You’re gonna get us in trouble!” you whispered at him.
“We’re already in trouble.” Eddie reminded you, his smile never fading. “Look, you’ve never been in trouble before, right? You’re gonna be fine. Just give him a good sob story about being overwhelmed with school, or about a sick pet. If you can squeeze out some tears that’s even better. The worst that he’s gonna do is give you a slap on the wrist and maybe detention if he’s in a shit mood”
You take in his words, listening to him carefully and taking in every word he was saying as if this was life or death. Eddie admittedly, had purposefully slipped into his Dungeon Master voice. It was a skill that normally only worked on his little sheepies in his club, and that was after semesters of training his players to listen and pay attention to his words or else it would be life or death for their characters.
Having someone else listen to him like that? It felt really good.
Your mouth started to open to say something but then the office door opened again and Higgin’s stepped in, nodding to Janice and then looking at the two of you. There was an accusatory look in his eyes as he made eye contact with Eddie again, and it was clear what that look said. Leave her alone, don’t make things worse for her than they already are.
“Munson.” Higgins said and it took everything in him to stay still and not flinch at his last name. He was used to the weight that came with his name, but he hadn’t wanted you to know who he was. Not after he just remembered where he knew you from, glancing down at the note that you had folded into a flower in a fit of nerves.
“I heard you missed me, Sir.” Eddie forced his eyes to meet Higgin’s. “You really should just start saying hi in the hallways instead of inviting me to these little chats every week. You’re taking away valuable learning time from me, you know.”
If the two of them had been alone, Higgins would have snapped back at Eddie about being a smartass. But you were there, and the color had drained from your face again, and there was a shine to your eyes that was threatening to spill over your waterline. Higgins looked at you and motioned for you to follow him into his office.
Eddie wished that you would turn and look at him before disappearing into the PrincePAL’s office. He could imagine you turning to look at him for comfort, he’d give you a smile that would put you at ease and a thumbs up. You’d give him another smile and walk in feeling brave.
Instead it was like you forgot he was there as your figure disappeared behind the heavy wood door that shut with a heavy click.
Of course Higgins had you come in first, even though Eddie had already been sitting here since the beginning of the period when he’d been called in.
He was tempted to go over to the door and press his ear up against it to listen in on what he was saying to you but even Janice would scold him for that. So there Eddie sat for another ten minutes as he waited for you to step out again.
Higgin’s was the one to open the door and let you out of the office, as if he were some gentleman instead of Eddie’s own personal warden five days a week. You walked out and to Eddie’s surprise you gave him a nod and mouthed thank you as you slipped back out the door and into the hallway.
Eddie’s eyes followed you until he couldn’t see you anymore and it took Higgin’s standing in front of him with folded arms and saying his full government name for Eddie to snap back to reality.
“Munson. A word about your little flyers?”
“Well, I’d say a picture is worth a thousand words-”
“In my office.”
Eddie didn’t remember much else about that talk, only remembering the white paper flower that had been carelessly tossed into the trash next to Higgin’s desk.
“He still hasn’t called you?” Steve asked as you, him, and Robin continued your closing routine. The day had been busy, with almost everyone in Hawkins coming to rent a movie for the weekend. Robin was stocking the candy while you wiped down the sticky counter where children had been touching all day. Who’s idea was it to leave out free suckers on the counter anyway?
Oh right, that was your idea because you loved Halloween.
“Nope.” you said, your voice a little tense. It had been almost two weeks since that night at the Hideout. You hadn’t returned to the dive bar, hoping that Eddie would call you and make the next move. Each passing day you had stayed as close to the phone as possible when you were home and you’d checked your voicemail every day when you got home for any sign that he’d attempted to reach out.
Nothing.
You shouldn’t feel this rejected but you did. It was far too early to tell if you had any feelings beyond initial attraction to the guy, but... you’d felt something. An enjoyment of bantering with him and an ease that came as naturally as your friendship with Robin and Steve.
Plus, you had to admit it, he was really fucking hot. Seeing him play guitar two weeks ago had haunted your dreams and slipped into a few of your fantasies when you were alone.
You kept that part to yourself though, that was the last thing that Steve or Robin needed to hear. Besides, that was Steve’s job to go far too into detail about his sex life. Steve had tried ribbing you about going home with Eddie but you’d told him that you were a complete gentleman with him.
That night had left you feeling electrified, almost high as you danced around your room as you got ready for bed. Even as his odd parting rattled around your brain, you couldn’t help but to feel excited at the idea of seeing him again.
Then a few days went by. Then a week. And now two weeks later you hadn’t heard from him. The kids hadn’t stopped by either so you couldn’t hassle them about Eddie either. Even if they had, you weren’t sure if you could ask about him, you didn’t want to come across as desperate.
“Did you ever figure out what he meant by ‘five times?’” Robin asked, opening up a squished package of Reese's Cups. “Like, didn’t you say you didn’t know him?”
You threw your hands up before tossing the paper towels you were using to clean in the trash can.
“I have no idea.” you said. “Either I’m bad at math, he’s bad at math, or maybe we’re both stupid.”
“He did get held back a few times.” Steve muttered to himself.
“There’s a chance that you two have met before though.” said Robin, “I mean think about it, you’re both weirdos who went to the same school. Shouldn’t you both have bumped into each other before?”
“You’d think so, but my group kind of kept to ourselves.” you said with a sigh. “We were private weirdos. When I DID try and make other friends-”
“Yeah, yeah, Chris Morrison shot you down.” Steve said, waving his hand.
“Oh, you heard that story?” you laughed. “I didn’t think I mentioned it to you before.”
Steve gave you a blank stare that only made you laugh more. “I swear you keep talking about that guy more than Eddie. Maybe I should track him down and set you up on a blind date with him instead.”
“Don’t you dare!”
“Hey, that could be fun!” Robin added. “We’ll dress you up super hot, set you up with Chris, and then you can turn him down instead!”
“Excuse you, Robin. I am always super hot.” you declared, straightening out your unflattering Family Video vest. “Who wouldn’t want a piece of this?”
You hadn’t done laundry in a week, and your hair had seen better days. The green polyester vest was wrinkled and if Keith saw you looking sloppy he’d probably have words about it. Not big words or even intimidating words, but words nonetheless. It was night and day compared to how you’d looked at the Hideout and the arcade earlier in the month. But it wasn’t like you had anyone to impress while you were at work anyway.
“Hey, nerdy chicks can be hot.” Steve said. “I mean, Nancy’s an academic nerd and I was crazy about her.”
You hummed thoughtfully and turned to Robin. “How about we get married instead?” you asked. “You, me, a fuck ton of cats, and a tax break. What do you say?”
Robin laughed and shook her head. “You aren’t my type.” Her eyes darted nervously to Steve for a split second and you sighed dramatically.
“Guess it’s just me and the cats I’ll eventually adopt.” you said. “Not even a tax break.”
“You know, Keith thinks you’re cute-”
“I am going to pretend that you did not just say that, Harrington.” you said firmly. “Nope, not happening. Uh-uh. Absolutely not.”
“He’s not... that bad?” Robin said, but you could hear the pain in her voice through the laughter. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”
“The lady is trying not to think actually.” you laugh. “We’re closed, I’m actually done thinking. I just wanna finish cleaning up and go home. What’s left?”
“Rewinding the returns,-”
“Ugh.”
“Cleaning up the kids movies,-”
“Ugh.”
“And cleaning the bathroom.”
“UGHHHHHH.”
“Would you rather clean up the porn room?” asked Robin.
“Yes actually, I would.” You said. “Whatever they think about doing in that room is what they do end up doing in the bathroom.”
“Gross.”
Steve sighed “Okay, I’ll be the hero and save you ladies from cleaning the bathroom. Robin, you fix the kids section, and you can rewind the tapes.”
“I thought I was in charge here.” You crossed your arms.
“Okay, did you have a better way to divide and conquer?”
“...No.”
“Then let’s hurry up and-”
Ding!
“Who didn’t lock the door?!” you asked.
“It was Steve’s job to-” Robin started.
“Oh, shit. Hi.” Steve was staring at the person who had just walked in. You turned around and your heart jumped in your chest and your stomach dropped.
“Cursing in front of customers, Harrington?” Eddie said. “Now that’s not very professional of you.”
Robin’s eyes were darting so fast between you and Eddie that you were surprised she wasn’t giving herself vertigo. You tried to give her a pointed glare but your friend either didn’t get the hint or refused to.
“Well, we’re closed. You can’t be a customer if you can’t pay.” Steve said, putting his hands on his hips.
Eddie looked away from Steve and made eye contact with you. It had been two weeks since you’d seen him, and you glazed at his arm for a second, trying to see if the faded remains of your phone number were still stamped on his arm. Unfortunately for you he was wearing a heavy leather jacket and you had not yet developed x ray vision. Perhaps in another genre.
“Do you want to get out of here?” Eddie asked and you, ignoring Steve who looked mildly offended.
You stood there in shock for a second before Robin nudged you in the rib.
“I- uh. I have to finish closing.” you said, snapping out of it.
“Steve and I can handle the rest of closing!” Robin grabbed Steve and shook his shoulder.
“Guys, I’m literally in charge of you both. I can’t leave before you.” You said, already reaching for your bag under the counter.
“We can handle it!” Steve said.
“And I can handle Steve!” Robin added. “We close without you and Keith all the time, remember?”
You could trust Robin, and as long as Steve didn’t knock down any displays then it wouldn’t take them more than another ten minutes to finish up. You were so tempted to turn them down, make Eddie wait as you had waited for him for the past two weeks.
But you were already stepping behind the counter towards Eddie and tossing the keys to lock up to Robin. Keith would murder you and write you up (in that order) if he knew what you were doing but looking up at the roundest pair of brown eyes you’d ever seen had you in the mood to make questionable choices.
You shrugged off your vest and tossed it at Steve, in an attempt to make yourself look like you hadn’t spent the whole day dealing with unruly customers and screaming kids. Part of you almost wished that you had agreed to bathroom duty, if only to give you an excuse to look in a mirror and straighten yourself out.
“Thanks, guys.” you gave them a quick nod, catching sight of Robin’s knowing smirk and Steve shaking his head before walking out the door that Eddie was holding open for you.
The last thing you heard was the scrambling of the entrance to Family Video being locked.
Part 7
Dividers by @strangergraphics
Please comment and reblog <3
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Himbull Summer 2024
(Long post ahead but worth the read)
I was intending to do something like this again this year but a previous ask really started the gears turning into motion. I really consider last year’s Jockbull summer experiment to be one of the most impactful changes I've made in a lot of ways. I’m still feeling some of the impacts and changes in my life on a permanent basis. I’ve got new friends I made through the process, new appreciation of style and whole new skillsets that I wouldn't have developed otherwise. Which is why I'm super excited to do this again but with a few adjustments to refine the concept and hopefully reap even deeper rewards for my own growth. I will be running this from Nov 15th 2024 - Feb 15th 2025.
I’ll explain some of the adjustments very briefly before I explain the plan and how you all will be able to interact with it.
We’ve cut down from 15 tasks over 3 plans to just 8 over 2.
This year by popular demand the archetype’s I’ll work on growing and encapsulating will be Himbo and Bull. This was voted on by the lovely paid Patreon supporters. With the final votes looking like this
I will only be doing 1 plan with a partner this year. That partner is Abgsado as we did last year and you all can keep track of his progress on discord in his own dedicated channel.
The plans
As I noted above this year rather than 3 plans of 5 tasks we only have 2 plans of 4. 15 tasks was way too much as evidenced by the fact that I would regularly only get a fraction done.
PLAN A
This is the more Bull-centric side of the Himbull summer, focused not just on taking the most of this current bulking period, but also on expanding and centering my mind to possibilities for growth. This is the plan Abg and I developed together using a structure of 1 personal task, 1 task granted by the other, 1 task we compete at, and 1 task where we took some inspiration from the discord community.
Task 1 is my personal task and will involve a stronger supplementation regime with the goal of increasing anabolism, libido, strength and focus over the coming months. What that entails on a practical basis is cycling 2 new supplements into my routine every month. Recording notable changes or improvements from baseline. And keeping consistent dosing schedules.
Task 2 was granted by Abg and focuses on playing around with atypical perspectives and archetypes for growth and change outside of my usual 5/6. I intend to do that by creating some more improvisational mini trances exploring some new growth/corruption-adjacent ideals. These will also be on a biweekly schedule and depending on how I feel released at different levels of exclusivity.
Task 3 is the competitive task for both Abg and I. We both want to expand our fitness socials on sites like Instagram and shift ourselves more into the muscle lifestyle sphere of influence.
Task 4 is the task synthesized from suggestions from discord. We’re gonna fuse the Himbo and Bull gym loops together and dedicate ourselves to listening to it on 2 training days per week. Let ourselves really get mindfucked by the muscle chaos.
PLAN B
This is the more himbo coded plan. No specific structure however for this set 1 is a personal task and 3 were given by some of my top-tier himbo advisors. So big thanks to them, including @thejockout. Task 1 is the personal task. Similar to last year’s task regarding disposing of certain clothes, this year is going to be about purchasing things that I think are gonna draw more attention my way. I’m gonna aim for a new Himbo Aesthetic component every 2 weeks. And I’m going to force myself to wear each component at least twice in public, not just at the gym.
Task 2 is about making semi-permanent changes to my look in some form or fashion, beyond just clothes. These are gonna be fairly big so i think i might do them on a Monthly or maybe tri-weekly basis so i get 3-4 Big changes out of the process. Bit scared for this one.
Task 3 is gonna be interesting. It’s about putting myself forward to be used as a muscular physical being more often. Lifting, pushing, carrying. Doing the physical aspects of work. Very golden retriever farm boy himbo. “I can get that for you, ma’am. Not a problem”. Part of this summer I’ll be doing an internship at a lab. So in addition to being an academic weapon I’ve also gotta make sure this muscle is both functional and for show.
Task 4 focuses on being a bit more of a slut when I'm in public or around my friends. Putting a bit more sauce on my normal speaking voice, being a tiny bit more touchy feely with people who I know it's safe and kosher to do so with, flirting a bit more liberally.
Engagement
Like last year, I want you all to watch me and interact with this journey. But we’re changing it up a little this year. You’ll be able to get 4 different sources for this journey, all of varying intensity and completeness.
The standard base will be a monthly update released on tumblr synthesizing the whole month of activity with some notable events and reflections on them. These will be free and also probably either cross-posted or linked on Patreon. The next level will be more granular fortnightly updates available to all paid patrons, these will include some sticking points, things I’m struggling with. And I might even ask for suggestions for how to tackle tasks I have problems with. I will also like last year be doing fortnightly voice diaries which will likely be similar to the two above but maybe with some extra impromptu thoughts thrown in, again at the paid patreon tier.
And finally, in twitter’s dying gasp(not even gonna link it but you know how to find me) and a begrudging attempt to strike while the iron is hot on bluesky, I’ll also be doing a lot more frequent if less thought through crossposts on those two sites.
If you by any chance want to help me in any of these tasks and have a personal hand in molding me as I’ve molded you then I can provide two options for support. 1st, as always, consider subscribing to my Patreon at any paid tier, but the $5 level is imo the best value for money. 2nd, I have opened up a Throne account(wishtender 2.0) with specific wishlist items geared toward different HBS tasks(namely A1, A 3, and B1). It’d be really hot for everyone to have some of those get ticked off during the summer. And folks who help out in this way will get a shout out in the relevant update.
I really hope this is an amazingly fun experience for you all and an absolutely transformative one for me. At the end of this I’ll be going into my final Bachelor’s year in this country. I want to be the hottest, buffest, and best I've ever been for these super low stakes classes. Let's make it happen folks!
(Models for this Himbull Summer are Kieran Yawson and Trkennet)
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Upon request, today we have a rec list of bottom Louis fics that feature badass Louis. If you enjoy our rec lists and want them to continue, please be sure to like and reblog this post to help spread the word. Happy reading!
1) Bite | Mature | 10,980 words
Louis is a vampire hunter, and Harry is too happy being his prey.
2) Don't Call Me Angel | Mature | 16,648 words
Manhattan is a dangerous playground for the rich and entitled Alphas of New York. Those same wealthy Alphas are robbed after spending one night in the presence of a blue-eyed Omega and Officer Styles is assigned to the case.
3) Friendly Neighborhood Spideypool | Explicit | 18,705 words
“Don’t fuck with me, I’m not in the mood.” Louis’ got the urge to punch him in the face, but he knows deep down that if anything it’ll just add fuel to Harry's innuendo fire. “You know I only fuck you, not with you. There’s a difference. It’s slight but still there.” He’s joking, but it’s sincere in a way that only Deadpool could make it. It gives Louis a strange mix of emotions, his body doesn’t know whether to fill with butterflies or to knee Deadpool in the balls again for insinuating them fucking.
4) Death Wish | Explicit | 22,067 words
Louis hates vampires, he lives his life trying to kill as many as he can, night after night, year after year. He hates them. Then why the fuck is he kissing one? Again. “I mean it, Harry.” Louis says, into his mouth this time. “You need to get the fuck away from me.”
5) The Games We Play | Explicit | 23,488 words
Louis is a political lobbyist who chose his career over his personal life a long time ago and has never regretted it. Then he met Harry.
6) The Voice Of Range And Ruin | Explicit | 25,470 words
It seemed as if the freshly formed Omega Uprising had always been a step or two ahead of the Commandant and the rest of the reigning Alphanian officials. The idea had been floated that there must be someone working with them from the inside, reporting back to them on the government’s plans so that they could be prepared. That person had yet to be discovered, and the Commandant and his surrounding forces had finally had enough of this game of cat and mouse. Harry understood. He agreed. It needed to come to an end, one way or another. “Your job is to navigate their landscape and gain entry into their forces. You will pretend to be one of them and gain reliable intel for us. It’s clear that no one else has been capable of doing it, and you at least have some semblance of experience in this field. This has gone on for too long, Harry. Enough is enough.” He made direct eye contact with his son, holding it. “I’m counting on you.”
7) Now Is The Winter Of Our Discontent | Explicit | 28,832 words
Where Harry is leading an army to overthrow the king of Cheshire and Louis is one of the volunteers who joins them along the way.
8) You Fill My Lungs With Sweetness (Can I Be Close to You?) | Explicit | 29,884 words
Busy picturing Harry’s stupid face on the stupid dummy, Louis goes through a series of kicks before returning to a low guard and cycling through punches. Harry’s still talking, gesturing with his hands as he rounds Louis, standing to his back. “You do a few butt-shaping exercises, tighten this up a little bit,” he smacks Louis’ arse and the omega freezes while Harry cheerfully continues, “you could pull this off.” “You know what?” Louis snaps, lifting on his tiptoes to get the leverage so he can wrap his arm around the alpha’s neck, forcing him to bend in half while Louis locks him in a chokehold. “Pull this off,” he snarls. They stagger over a few steps, Louis gritting his teeth as Harry tries to break free. “Is it because Payne hates me?” he complains, voice edging on an annoyed whine, “Or is it, like, an omega thing?” Too late, Louis realizes that Harry has got a grip on his leg and this time as he pulls against Louis’ hold, it loosens, the alpha lifting him in the air before slamming his back into the mat, breaking Louis’ grip completely. Harry kneels on the mat, hovering over him with a sneer, “Don’t kid yourself. Nobody thinks of you that way.”
9) Just Let Me Adore You | Not Rated | 34,913 words
The one where Louis and Harry shouldn't make sense. Where Louis' past and Harry's present intermingle and no one is thinking straight.
10) Not Everything is So Primitive (Oh, but I’m Giving In) | Explicit | 35,809 words
“Okay, hold your bloody horses, I’m coming,” Niall rips open the door, freezing at the sight of Harry, bloody and disgruntled, standing on his doorstep, “What the hell happened to you?” “My husband,” Harry grumbles, pushing past Niall and walking into his entryway, “He tried to kill me,” Harry pauses, turning to Niall and grabbing his shoulders, “He tried to kill me with his fucking car.”
11) Burning Soul | Explicit | 39,513 words
Louis is a rogue Omega wolf, all he wants is a new start. Will he allow himself to fully embrace what awaits him, or will he run again, too damaged by past hurt?
12) Soaked In The Blood Of Angels | Explicit | 40,867 words
The boy looks drugged, caught between a man who’s almost twice his size and a girl who looks like she wouldn’t even break a sweat snapping him in half despite her small stature, eyes closed and mouth open as he pants, arching up between them almost as if he’s trying to escape. Normally, Harry would ignore it and continue on his search for someone to drink from, someone who wouldn’t mind his sharp teeth and rough hands. He’s seen plenty of boys like this one, ones who picked the wrong playmates, and if he stopped to rescue every single one of them he would have died from thirst a long time ago. This one, though. There’s something about this one, the sheen of his bright blue eyes as he blinks slowly, looks around as though he doesn’t know where he is, the weakness of his hands as he tries to push the girl off of him and make his escape.
13) No Easy Choice, But You're Mine | Explicit | 45,603 words
Louis is an omega hitman with one last job that goes a little sideways. Harry is the alpha bartender that looks a little too closely and cares a little too much.
14) Falling Without Caution | Explicit | 50,350 words
Louis Tomlinson, a wanted criminal, was captured by the FBI after years of chasing. Instead of being locked up in a high-security prison, he was offered a deal. What was supposed to be the end of a decade long chase turned into a morally grey circumstance for Agent Styles.
15) Let Your Damage, Damage Me | Explicit | 57077 words
A low and dangerous growl was ripped from the future King’s chest. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” the alpha snarled, eyes dark and nostrils flared. Even as anger rushed through him at the alpha’s brutish display, Louis felt breathless at the intense gaze of the man that was going to be his future mate. ‘Tomorrow I’m going to be under all that. He will be inside me, all muscles and rage.’ Louis felt his cheeks heat again, but refused to be cowed. So he put his best smirk on display, the one alphas despised to see, the one that assured them all he had the upper hand. “Thought you were expecting me, dear husband. I’m your future mate.”
16) Men of Steel, Men of Power | Explicit | 58,849 words
“You’ve been watching me,” Styles said. Louis swallowed around nothing. He tried for light. “You’re the newest addition, people are bound to be curious,” he said. “Sure,” said Styles, in a somewhat condescending tone. “I’m not that daft, I do notice the curiosity regarding my clothes. That’s not what you’re doing though, hm?” Styles’ gaze was intense, and Louis could feel it burn on the side of his face, but kept his eyes stubbornly on the coffee cup. “I,” he said, licked his lips. Took a deep breath, tried to look open, confident, dominant. Alpha.
17) Somethin' Bout You | Explicit | 59,855 words
Of all the government agents in the world, Louis had to go and land the most charming one.
18) The Face Of Love's Rage | Explicit | 67,421 words
“What if I tell you,” the princess said slowly, “I can get you five kingdoms and a lover?” Harry’s brows rose. “Only five?” he said mockingly. “And a lover. Don’t forget the lover.” “I have a lover.” “Do you?” the omega tilted her head, smiling, “I think right now, you have a consort, two friends, and a hostage. If you marry Julien, you will lose a friend and gain another hostage. Do you want him as a hostage or as a friend?” Harry’s temper was about to snap and break all hell loose. His hands itched to do something with the wild creature in front of him, with her untamed spirit that seemed to mock his authority and challenge his very presence. Abigail Tomlinson, with all her secrets and sins, defied not only his status, but everyone who dared to get in her way. Always making everyone aware that the only reason she was still there wasn’t because Harry let her, but because she wanted to be. Seven kingdoms, two sinners and one big secret.
19) Through Struggles, To The Stars | Explicit | 80,582 words
Louis is a Starfleet captain trying to find his place in the universe. Harry is a prince just trying to do what's right.
20) The Rose Of Whitechapel | Mature | 100,182 words
Jack the Ripper au - Detective Constable Harry Styles and his partner, DC Liam Payne, lead the case on the Whitechapel murders. Louis Tomlinson, the Rose of Whitechapel, is harbouring secrets of his own, along with a dark and sordid past. When their paths cross, truths are revealed, and perhaps hearts are mended... A darkness is brewing, and it's finally come to collect on the promise it was made.
21) Gloria Regali | Not Rated | 100,985 words
"I am very proud of you," Louis admitted, his eyes displaying his conviction, "you are very brave and ridiculously determined." Harry looked at him, as he shook his head, reaching out to his hand, he held it, "Trust me, it is not enough." "What makes you say that?" "Because if it was, you would have been married to me."
22) The Galaxy's Edge | Explicit | 113,921 words
In which Louis is a bounty hunter with a messed up past. Harry is a prince who just wants to prove himself. Niall and Zayn have too many things to figure out together. And Liam just wants to take care of his family. Things never quite go as they are planned during a simple rescue job.
23) Run Like the Devil | Explicit | 139,152 words
Note: This fic has mentions of BH.
Harry stops pouting, but his frown is still fixed in place. “Are you sure?” he asks. “You know it’s your soul you’re signing away.” He sounds…sad? No, that’s not right, but there’s something. Christ. This is the most incompetent demon Louis’ ever met. If he hadn’t seen the red of his eyes he wouldn’t believe he was a demon at all. How’d he get this job if he isn’t trying to convince Louis to deal? Or is it just another trick? A ploy for sympathy? “I’m sure,” Louis says. “Come over here and kiss me.”
24) Only You Can Be My Alpha | Mature | 212,387 words
In a world where one was either an Alpha or an Omega wolf, Louis found himself in a body that could be neither. Born an Omega without the expected characteristics of one, he felt broken, choosing to live as Alpha a lifestyle as he could. Harboring a serious lack of respect for Alphas and their authority complexes, Louis managed to get himself banished from his home, forced to wander the unforgiving woods for years, facing the elements and fighting enemy rogues each time they arose. Unbeknownst to Louis, in a tribe to the southwest of his home, there lived a dysfunctional Alpha, the orphaned pack leader Harry, who had never felt satisfied enough with anyone to settle down and continue his royal line. Living their lives apart thus far, the both of them assumed that they might be alone forever, making the best of things despite this even though it hurt. Chance, luck, or maybe fate brings Louis to this tribe when he’d least expected to receive kindness and shelter from a stranger, and when he arrives, something in his soul pulls him to Harry like a raging river current. The two don’t get off to a good start, but everyone around them can sense the chemistry—and in time they do too.
Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.
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If parasites used to be eliotropes, now it's iops!)
Well, the release of Bestiale is just around the corner, and as a person who was waiting for it and was very upset with how this project looks now, I am going to express my opinion. I apologize in advance if my language is rude - I only have complaints and do not want to offend anyone. Also, in this post, not only the Bestiale series will be mentioned, but also other works by ankama, including animated series, games and comics.
Unfortunately, I do not have the opportunity to get acquainted with many of them now due to studies and health problems, so feel free to point out errors that may be in the text - I will be very grateful. And now - let's go!
Narrative plan:
🥇🥈🥉1) W12 races and favoritism among them;
🥊2) Iops characters;
❗3) What's the problem
🌊4) Bestiale;
🐉5) "Year of Osamodas";
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🥇🥈🥉1) Races of the World of Twelve And favoritism among them;
The World of Twelve is a planet, a fantasy world where the events of all (with rare exceptions) stories of the krosmoz universe take place. This world is inhabited by people of many races/classes, which are revealed to varying degrees. Despite how Tot has recently abandoned the old canon and is having fun with fanfiction, I still suggest using marks that will indicate the degree to which we know about a particular race. (Important: the table is quite subjective and was compiled by me as an average consumer of content, so it does not claim to be absolutely accurate. I only write what I see.)
Marks: ❤️ = good, 💚 = not bad; 🩵 = little information, 🖤 = unknown / very little information;
Races:
1) Sadida ❤️;
2) Feca🖤;
3) Cra🩵;
4) Eniripsa🖤;
5) Osamodas🖤;
6) Sacrier 🖤;
7) Pandawa🖤;
8) Ecaflip💚;
9) Ouginak🖤;
10) Xelor🖤;
11) Iop🩵;
12) Enutrof🖤;
13) Zobal/Masqueraider🖤;
14) Foggernaut🩵;
15) Huppermage💚;
16) Rogue🖤;
17) Sram🖤;
18) Forgelance🩵;
19) Eliatropes and Eliotropes (formerly) ❤️;
20) Classless Humans 🖤;
21) Monsters and Others 🖤;
Even though we don't know much about Iop culture, they're literally everywhere because for some unknown reason Ankama loves them almost as much as Elia(o)tropes (Eliotropes were a waste of time and resources - are you ready for this conversation or not). Almost every project in the krosmoz universe has at least one Iop, and they look REALLY bad. I'll explain why I don't like them later, but first I'll give you a list of characters to back it up.
🥊2) Iop Characters;
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When I say Iops are literally everywhere, I mean it. I want to point out that I haven't read the Dofus manga or the Ogrest manga, so I might be wrong in some places. I apologize in advance. Here's a list of Iop characters and roles, I think that's it:
1) Tristepin. Wakfu series (main characters), Wakfu manga (main characters), OVA (main characters), Waven (main characters). Also appears in other works as Iop God;
2) Goultard. Wakfu series (minor character), Waven (minor character), OVA (background character), Dofus Magna ( main characters), the protagonist of his own short film;
3) Eleley. Wakfu series (minor character), OVA (minor character), Wakfu manga (minor character), Waven* series (main character);
4) Pin. Wakfu series (minor character), Waven* series (main character);
5) Iop God . Wakfu (past incarnation of one of the main characters), Ogrest manga (minor character), Savara* (minor character or npc);
6) Khan. Dofus: Julith (minor character), Dofus mmorpg (npc), Welsh and Shedar* (minor character);
7) Bist. Lance Dur series (minor character), Lance Dur webtoon (minor character);
8) Karn. Bestiale* (main characters), Savara* (npc);
9) Savara. Savara* (main character);
*The featured animation/game product has not yet been released at the time of writing or has been abandoned;
As you can see, there are quite a few iops in important roles.
❗3) What's the problem
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In short: iops are CtrlC+CtrlV dummies that the creators of the universe play with instead of developing the universe (the same goes for eliatropes/eliopropes).
With rare exceptions, all iops look something like this: proud, very strong, sometimes not particularly smart, fight well and love to do it. Of course, each of them will have some individual traits, but they all remain a set of the above qualities (with rare exceptions). I won't even talk about the design - it's decadence and boredom (especially hairstyles - most often they are LITERALLY THE SAME).
Iops, as a rule, are needed to please the viewer with their image and it works, but apart from their charm (I still don't understand why they are loved so much) they bring nothing else. No lore, no interesting information, which will tell us something new (besides the character itmself). I can forgive mistakes in creating a story, but I don't forgive monotony.
And it would seem: if so, then you can create a character of another race and start revealing other peoples. Give content for fans of another class that are part of your own audience too. Even if it was never the main goal of the show, it would be cool to have some variety even in small amounts, right? NO! Every time we get a red-headed goof created for crowd entertainment. What about the other races? I'm not interested in watching iops - I want to understand what the world of twelve is, we barely know anything about it! Have you even seen the official map of the world of twelve? There are a HUGE number of regions and places that you can ONLY learn something about if you play Dofus/Wakfu/ect.! Moreover, Ankama still creates new classes, but they do not get enough attention, only the basic minimum. What about the old ones? How much, for example, do we know about srams or zobals?
This universe has been around for ten years for sure, and I want to know more about it, about the others, not read another Tot fanfic about some silly-billy! Ankama. What. Is. This.
And don't get me wrong - I don't hate Iops, I actually like some of them. But they get TOO MUCH attention and because they bring so little new to the table, it's very hard to take Iops seriously. You just see wasted potential and every new character starts to irritate you.
Okay, I'm starting to get too angry, so let's move on. Sorry for the bombing.
🌊4) Bestiale;
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Ugh, there will be a lot of complaining here too.
In fact, I didn't have any strong complaints about Karn's character until he was announced as the second main character. I don't mind him having having lots of fans' attention at all - let people enjoy what they like. But the creators of the show already give preference to him - he got the status of the main character, he is in the trailers, has some kind of biography, appears in the game and it is him, and not Yrehn, that we see in the videos advertising the series. Although there was no need for this. At all.
The main character herself appears only in the trailer and apart from the notes from the designer, we know nothing about her at all (well, she also has a special connection with Ilanthe, you could guess about it from the trailer, thanks). Are you serious?? I was expecting a cartoon about this girl saving her friend from a poacher, but it looks like they're making a cartoon about a POACHER guy who gets in the way of a teenage girl. I don't have any expectations for Bestiale, but as an osamodas fan, I was really looking forward to this series specifically because of Yrehn - and now she's being overshadowed by someone who used to only appear in an early poster. And I don't care if he's cool, a good father(yes, fatherhood doesn't mean anything, it's a cheap trick), and can cook - now I'm not going to like this character, even though his type's one of my favorites.
It would have been so much cooler if he stayed a villain (hello, i am a villain enjoyer) - but apparently Ankama lacks guts i guess. Plus, he would have been fresher and more interesting if he was a sacrier or a sram instead of the typical Iop. Remember the sacrier fight scenes? I think those two would have had so much more potential!
Anyway, I just hope Yrehn's arc doesn't get overshadowed. I'm really upset
🐉5) "Year of Osamodas";
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And as a conclusion, I will add that this year Tot declared the year of Osamodas, deciding to start with a series where Yrehn (osamodas) shares the place of the main character with an iop, who is given so much attention that there is no budget left for the animation of the FIRST PROTAGONIST's tail. Oh, and there is also a whole game about iops coming out, where the main character is Karn's daughter, also an iop, obviously (but she also could be any other race since she's adopted) .Perhaps Yrehn will appear there. Happy year of Osamodas, thanks for your attention!))
(Sorry if it's too emotional or too many mistakes ,my English is not so good)
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The anon who sent the malleus ask. While there are some characters in twst cast that I tolerate there is just the Octavinelle trio that I dislike significantly. There actions during book 3 just made my blood boil. Vil was also on that list but he managed to redeem himself somewhat in book 6. At least he apologised. Can't say the same for merfolk trio. I'm curious though. Despite what they were doing to everyone (especially yuu) they are still very popular within the fandom. Your thoughts?
… Which Malleus ask?? I have several in my inbox and queue 💦
I think it's important to first establish that people do not always base whether they like/dislike a character based on the morality of the actions that character made in-universe. TWST is a game with a wide variety of characters, and a game which centers on both the good and the evil that they are capable of. Some characters apologize for their actions (Riddle with his apology tart, Vil at the start of book 6, Idia mumbles a sorry at the end of book 6), others don't or may have apologized off-screen (Jamil, Leona, Azul). We shouldn't expect them all to react to their issues in the same way, and nor does lack of a formal apology mean they do not feel remorse or aren't addressing their issues on their own way. For example, while we may not see Azul utter a "sorry" to anyone, we do see him and the twins changing up the business model at the Mostro Lounge after his OB, both in terms of food/drink sales and in terms of how to get one of his well-sought-after consultations. Many of the students, the OB boys in particular, do dubious things and that was a huge part of the advertising and marketing for TWST (and still is to this day); the franchise largely pulls fans who are interested in these types of narratives.
This brings me to Octavinelle. Was what they did scummy? Yeah. Do people have a right to judge them and dislike because of what they did? Also yes. But they remain popular anyway because the wrongs they committed are not the only things defining them. You have Azul's backstory, the complex friendship-business partnership deal between the trio, the very cohesive mermaid mafia theme--and, despite all the bad they've done, you can't also help but respect and admire them for the intelligence and planning it takes to carry out the operations that they do (+ using that asset when they return to help in book 4). Running a restaurant on their own AND Azul's... other business... while also being students and participating in clubs is nothing to sneeze at. They have redeeming qualities that fans love outside of being upset at them or holding them accountable for book 3.
I think what also helps to offset the evil of their actions in book 3 is the fact that it can be argued the 225 students they suckered "opted in" (and Yuu "opted in" too, it’s not like Azul forced them to sign). They came to Azul of their own free will seeking help, and Azul provided that help. He laid out the conditions and made them VERY clear, and it was the students who agreed to his terms and signed on the dotted line. Technically Azul did nothing "legally wrong" and played by the rules (respecting client confidentiality, taking advantage of loopholes), which is why Crowley cannot intervene. And, as Leona states later in book 3, anyone who falls for Azul's schemes is dumb and only has themselves to blame for thinking there is such an easy way out to their woes. Yes, it was dirty for Azul and the twins to interfere and/or set up the conditions in their favor, but there's also a degree of responsibility on the signers to read the terms and consider where the contracts may be deficient.
My point is, people will like what they like and it doesn’t solely come down to the righteousness (or lack thereof) of the characters’ behavior. I’d also say that behaviors themselves don’t always fall into “good” or “bad” categories. Azul’s contracts themselves are technically neutral. Other times, it depends on perspective. For examples, Malleus deems his actions in book 7 "good" but to everyone else it's "bad"--and the players, looking on, have to grapple with the dual nature of it. That's a discussion for another time though, I don't want to go too out of the scope of this ask.
#twst#twisted wonderland#Azul Ashengrotto#Tweels#Octavinelle#Floyd Leech#Jade Leech#disney twisted wonderland#disney twst#book 3 spoilers#Dire Crowley#Idia Shroud#Leona Kingscholar#Riddle Rosehearts#Jamil Viper#Vil Schoenheit#Malleus Draconia
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you mentioned in the tags of that burnout post that its been 6 years and you still havent gotten to everything you wanted to in laoft, just out of curiosity are there any fics youve had in mind since the beginning/early on that youre still planning on writing but havent yet?
mostly prequels ive referenced but never gotten around to actually writing
the time as young teens/middle schoolers roman fell out of tree, hit his head and lost consciousness and logan had a week-long catastrophic meltdown about it (this is titled 'logan and the terrible horrible no good very bad week' in my documents)
a fic about very early LAMP dealing with/talking out romans habit of agreeing to or initiating things he doesnt actually want to do in order to protect himself from anything he perceives as them being mad at him
midquel during what you choose to put in the ground, were patton and logan discuss roman the day after meeting him and whether or not theyre going to try and be his friend
Virgil misunderstanding a human cultural thing because of movies/tv and assuming its like, Legally Required Of Him to ask permission of LMPs parents to marry them, so he goes to shelley first sweating bullets and shelleys like 'oh sweetheart' and we get a little bonding moment for them
more companions to Wit where i show all of the lamp combos moment of Realization when they fall in love
silly tea leaf reading fic that been languishing 3 sentences long for like 5 years
may and night!roman the first time she teaches him magic
logans flower shop opening
death threat jar.... TWO
gc goes camping
may and roman visiting abby's grave when he's a kid (9-10) and him feeling conflicted about it because he doesnt remember her/worrying he doesnt love her 'enough'
a more bittersweet companion to Requiem with Linda and Remus and their families
i really want to do more guidebook entries but i got a new computer and lost my copy of clipstudio and cant figure out how to get it back XD so i have to wait until i figure that out or buy a new copy
May + virgil hurt/comfort reminiscing about Greta and Trudi.
Dot and Larry romance fic featuring alternating cheerleader and heckler abby
analogical word association games (analogical because logan has a ginormous vocabulay and virgil is hundreds of years old, so the goal winds up being trying to say a word the other doesnt know or doesnt know enough words to play off of)
We've had badass protective LAM but i have one for Patton thats languishing as well
Virgil stumbling up on the Gage's hunting blind, which used to be Greta and Toby's house and is now derelict
fae specific idioms vs wickhills specific idioms
fire poker drama with roman and dot - he finds out about it and is uuuuuh. unhappy, to say the least
roman doing knot/weaving/braiding magic like his mom on his and linda's hair
a day in the life of dr. emile picani the only psychotherapist in a town full of magically traumatized people only he is qualified to treat (AKA So Much Pressure)
Dot and Larry with a very young Logan realizing that they have a child who physically can't lie and that it would therefore be extremely easy for them to violate his boundaries and privacy without even meaning to, and them talking about how to handle that
theres other stuff in the someday file, but these are the once ive had from or almost from the start
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Blue Words (One Love 8)
Hi guys!
Some of you asked for it, so this is the new chapter for One Love.
Please be aware that this chapter isn't the happiest of all I wrote for this series, but I tried to add some fluff in it.
Also the Title is from a french song called "Les mots bleus" and this is the only song with the world "blue" i could find, with Lucy going to Chelsea. (Still hating it)
Thanks again for reading me ♥
TW : Angst, Sadness.
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7)
London has always been a city who was foreign for Ona. Even when she was living in England, she was in Manchester and all the teams here were just opponent. Unless Laia Codina who came there in 2023 and Mariona who will be here now, she doesn’t have friends here. There are Laia and Leila in Manchester still, but she didn’t have any reason to come back in England since she left for Barcelona.
Well, it was before.
Because now, Lucy is going in fucking Chelsea, a team she hated all her life. It would have been better in her eyes if Lucy went in Arsenal, at least she will be with Mariona. But no, she’s wearing blue and Ona can’t get used to it.
When Lucy received another call from the Barcelona’s staff, they were both in Cuba, their day just finish after strolling in the city during the afternoon. They were enjoying the swimming pool of the hotel, Ona inside water while Lucy was happily drinking a Piña Colada, sitting on the swimming pool with her feet in it. Ona understood very quickly that the conversation isn’t going the way Lucy hopped.
Because the English woman really wanted to stay in Barcelona. She loves the city, the people, the team, the league, the wins… And she loves Ona, of course. She never decided anything in football while thinking about her love life, but this time she wanted to do it. Life chose to be different though.
Lucy didn’t take a decision without talking to Ona before. Lucy wanted to play as much as possible, she’s not young anymore and she knows that her months are counted. She’s not stupid. But Barcelona couldn’t promise her that, now that everyone came back from the respective injuries. Lucy could have accepted less money if she was still able to play as much as she wants. But it wasn’t Barça’s plans. So, after a long discussion with Ona, she didn’t accept Barcelona’s offer, with sadness.
Only one day later Chelsea came to knock at her door, and after some adjustments, she said yes. It wasn’t ideal to be that far from Ona, but it’s better than Mexico or the USA who wanted her too.
Between their trip in Cuba and Ona’s training for the Olympics, Ona managed to find some days to come with Lucy in London to look for a flat.
They managed to find a duplex on the last ground of a building near a park, for when Lucy will have to walk Narla. It seems pretty good to be honest, but Ona has trouble to imagine Lucy here. She always has known her in Barcelona, in a sunny home. Not a rainy and grey one. It makes her sad, without any reason.
Ona putted a brave smile on her face during all her trip with Lucy, not wanting to damage any memories they could have here. Their time is counted after all.
She met some of the Chelsea players and she doesn’t really like them. She doesn’t like the way Millie Bright seems to find normal for Lucy to be here. She doesn’t like how some of the other girls are all flushed when they see Lucy. She talked a little bit with Julia Bartel who was playing in Barcelona while Lucy was talking with some of her teammates from England, but it was hard to keep smiling.
The day after, they went to Ikea to buy some furniture for Lucy’s flat, she already made come what she will need here with a boat. She bought a lot of candles from their favorite shop in Barcelona to have a little piece of Barcelona in London.
She took advantage of Ona getting a shower to put the last details of her decoration, before they have to leave to go to a party organized by Niamh Charles with a lot of Chelsea’s players. Lucy asked her if she wanted to go, and Ona returned her the question. When she saw Lucy hesitated, Ona mumbled something about creating a bond with her teammates and they decided to go.
But Ona would rather have time with Lucy only. Once again, she chooses to put Lucy’s feelings before hers.
She has the same false smile on her face all night, talking from time to time with some of Lucy’s new teammates, working on herself not to stick with her girlfriend all night. She knows how the English are different from the Spain about touching and everything.
“She will be great in Chelsea Ona, you will see. We’ll take good care of her.” Millie Bright told her with a big smile at some point in the evening.
Ona just smiled, asking herself what the blonde meant by that. She knows that Millie is straight or at least engaged with someone, but it’s still sound strange in her ears. She talked the most with Aggie Beever-Jones and Jess Carter, munching some vinegar crisps.
Lucy went to check on her several times during the night, but Ona always told her that she was fine, with the best smile she could give her. But Lucy isn’t fooled by Ona. She knows very well when her girlfriend is pretending, and it breaks her heart every time that Ona assures her she was fine and that they can stay a little bit more.
But at some point, Ona just feels overwhelmed. She’s not angry, or sadder than before. There is just too many feelings for her at that point and with the noise, the music and people blasting it’s just too much. She just has to cross Lucy’s eyes for the English woman to understand that it was time to go home.
“Come on” Lucy just says, reaching her hand for Ona to take.
The Spaniard oblige, following Lucy who pretends to be tired with the move and everything.
“Hope to see you soon again, Ona” Niamh smiles at the Catalan when they went to her to say goodbye.
“It will be hard but I definitively want her wagging in London for me” Lucy smirks, grabbing Ona by her hips to kiss her temple.
“Alexia will kill me if I wear a Chelsea jersey” Ona points with a small smile.
Lucy snorts and they say their goodbyes to the last people before leaving the heath of the flat. It feels good to breath fresh air, Ona closes her eyes two seconds while breathing intensely before turning in Lucy’s direction.
“Uber or walk?” Lucy asks.
“Walk? If you don’t mind.”
“Of course not”
Lucy smiles at her and Ona smiles back. Her smiles grow bigger when she feels Lucy passing her arm around her shoulders, and she let herself go against the bigger frame of her girlfriend.
“Better that way” Ona whispers, grabbing Lucy’s fingers with her hand.
Lucy hums, her lips stroking Ona’s hair softly. She can feel the younger girl’s trouble, but she doesn’t want to push her buttons and forced her to talk to her. But she feels like Ona might explode at some point, and it’s not in her habits to shut down her feelings like that.
She choses not to insist to much with Ona, using a small talk during their trip to her flat. They know Mariona is getting her things done during those days too, except that her girlfriend was already in London to find her a good flat. Even if it will be at St-Albans, Ona is glad to know that there is at least some people Lucy knows already.
She’s happy to find back Lucy’s flat, even if it doesn’t quite feel home, at least it’s Lucy’s.
“Are you tired or do you want to watch something with a last drink?”
“As you wish Corazon” Ona shrugs.
Lucy looks at her several seconds before deciding for a movie and a drink. She makes some tea while Ona is looking at something they can watch, grumbling when she realizes that a lot of the series they are watching in Barcelona aren’t watchable here.
“What did you make a choice?” Lucy asks with two fuming cups of tea. “Careful, it’s hot.”
“Friend’s” Ona grumble, before throwing herself in Lucy’s front when she sits next to her.
Clingy Ona isn’t really new, but Grumpy Ona is, Lucy thinks. She play with her girlfriend’s long hair for several minutes, watching television with an absent-minded air.
“Are you ok?” Lucy finally asks.
“Sí, porque?”
“Because I don’t have the feeling that you are. You’re grumpy like an old man.”
“No, I’m not” Ona pouts.
Her face is so cute that Lucy can’t help but laugh a little. She hopes that it won’t make Ona even more grumpy, so to avoid that she starts tickling her.
“Yes, you are!” Lucy smirks while tickling her girlfriend.
Ona tries to resist the urge to laugh, but Lucy knows how and where she’s ticklish. It doesn’t take her more than ten seconds to have a laughy mess writhing under her.
“Stop, Lucy please” Ona manages to pronounce between two laughs.
Lucy finally stops and she looks attentively at Ona while the younger calm her laughters. She lets her take her breath, stroking softly and lovingly her cheeks. She lets five other seconds pass, during which she looks deep in Ona’s eyes.
“Come on, Bonita, talk to me. What’s going on?”
Ona sighs and look away, making Lucy frowns. She’s usually the one who is struggling to let her feelings and struggle out, not Ona. Ona talks to her, explain to her her thoughts without any fear to be judge or mocked.
“Hey” she adds after some times, turning delicately Ona’s face in her direction. “Come on, it’s me. You can tell me everything, you used to do that. Don’t shut yourself from me, please.”
Ona blinks several times, biting her lip, before finally deciding to open her mouth. She can’t refuse anything to Lucy when she talks to her this way.
“It’s just… I don’t know” she frowns in turn. “I knew what will happen, but this weekend is like the concretization of all of this. And I know that I push you to accept this offer, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to let you go.”
Lucy wants to talk, but she realizes soon that now that Ona has started to talk, she needs to get everything out.
“It’s hard to know that you will be here after everything we had in Barcelona. I hate coming home to have a reminder that you’re gone, I hate to see Coco looking for Narla, I hate not to find the toothpaste tube open with its plug next to it. I know it’s not your fault, but I miss you and it hasn’t even started.”
She really wanted not to cry, but she can’t help the tears rolling on her cheeks. Of course she knew, it doesn’t mean that it’s an easy moment to live. They were so delighted when Ona signed her contract in Barcelona, so far away to think that they will be in this situation again several months later.
“And this weekend, I really wanted to help you settle down and make your flat cozy and comfortable and lovely, but it’s like that damn sadness couldn’t leave me alone. It’s your flat, not ours. It feels so strange.”
Her voice breaks at the end of her sentence, when she wipes harshly her tears with the sleeve of her sweater. Lucy needs to swallow the lump in her throat before talking, so she wipes herself Ona’s tears, way more softly than her, to have a distraction.
“I miss you too” Lucy mumbles before sitting, because she was still half lying on Ona. “It��s hard to imagine my daily life without your mess in it, but I swear on everything I have that I will come in Barcelona as soon as I have a day off, Ona. And I know you will come too.”
She stays silence for several seconds, during which Ona nods at Lucy’s words. Of course, she will come. Even if it’s mean catching a cold every weekend while freezing in the stand.
“And for the flat… Come on” she says suddenly, standing and grabbing Ona’s hand.
The Spaniard doesn’t have any other choice than following her to her bedroom. She frowns when she sees that Lucy has installed other frames, probably while she was showering before leaving for the party.
“This is the jerseys we swapped after the World Cup, but I thought it will be better to frame them together”
Lucy looks Ona when she gets closer to the jerseys while she’s talking. No one knows that they swapped their jersey that night and if someone just take a look at the frame, it won’t be easy to understand. But they both know and it’s enough.
“This one is a mix of the pictures we took when we won all our cups last year” she points another frame.
Ona gets closer of this one too, just to see a mix of official pictures of both of them, but unofficial pictures too. There is for example no way in the world that they posted picture of them kissing with the Supercopa cup, Lucy grabbing Ona’s waist while the younger has a bottle of beer in hand.
“And those are what I wanted to hang on other rooms too” Lucy adds while rummaging in one cupboard before taking out several other frames, of different sizes. “This one is for my nightstand (she shows a picture of them in Cuba), those are for my living room (there is a picture of Coco and Narla playing in the snow, one of them in Stani’s wedding, a selfie taking at Minorca and another one when Lucy’s family came to Barcelona to met the Battle) and I wanted to put that on my fridge (four photobooth pictures taking at Manchester, the first time Lucy came after they got together). Oh and this one is for the bedroom too (a picture of Ona with Lucy’s niece and nephew, playing on the beach).”
Lucy looks thoughtfully at the pictures before raising her eyes on Ona, almost shyly. Ona is still crying, (or again), she doesn’t even know. But this time, she’s smiling softly.
“You are not living here, but you are still part of that place Ona. No matter where I am, you are still with me. Forever.”
Ona almost crashes in her arms when she went for a hug and Lucy seriously think about writing to Jonatan because damn, those arms sessions for Ona worked maybe a little too much.
“I love you, so much” Lucy says again, Ona’s face in her neck. “I’m leaving Barcelona but I’m not leaving you. It doesn’t change the plans we made. I still want to marry you, we will have those little Ona running around in the house and everything we talked about”
“I want a little Lucia too” Ona objects weekly.
“My brother would probably say that it’s a terrible choice, but everything you want Bonita.”
Taking a big breath making her shivers, Ona finally leaves Lucy’s neck. She’s not crying anymore, and Lucy kisses her face almost ten times before talking again.
“I need you to talk to me when you are struggling like that. Can you promise me you will do?”
“Only if you promise too” Ona answers, looking at her expectantly.
Lucy rolls her eyes, which makes Ona smiles softly. They both know who will need to work the most between the two for that.
“Promised” Lucy finally says.
“Promised back”
Lucy kisses her on the lips that time, savoring Ona’s taste and Ona’s body against her. They didn’t talk about it, but Lucy will miss the lazy mornings in bed and having Ona around her like an octopus with messy hair. Ona stilling her clothes too. Talking about that…
“And I will leave half of the dressing for your clothes too, for when you will come to see me”
Ona smirks.
“I was hoping to leave every time with some of your clothes”
Lucy laughs this time and grab Ona’s face with both of her hands to kiss her one more time.
“Time to go to bed? I’m kind of exhausted.”
“Yes please” Ona mumbles.
They take turn in the bathroom, Lucy going to turn off the TV and the lamps in the living room before going in her bed. Ona follows her soon after, crawling under the sheets to snuggle against Lucy.
“We will be alright Ona, I swear” Lucy whispers in the dark.
“I know. I trust us” Ona whispers back.
She left her loving position to be able to kiss her.
“I’m going to miss the fan’s speculations about us being together after every game though” Ona smirks.
“Oh, don’t worry. I have an idea for that.”
Ona raises an eyebrow, questioning Lucy that way but the English woman just shake her head with a devilish smile before kissing Ona again. She managed to make her forget about what she just said, but the O. Battle jersey from Spain is definitively coming this week for her to wear during Spain’s first game in the Olympics.
#woso imagine#woso fanfics#ona batlle#ona batlle imagine#lucy bronze#lucy and ona#lucy bronze x ona batlle#ona batlle x lucy bronze#lucy bronze imagine
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