#i start off every post of this manner with some sort of apology but i dont know why i dont have the energy to do anything here

[mt-oe]

Am curious,,, Mizu and a yandere/possessive reader 🫡 but like Mizu is also lowkey into it though

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

Hey dears!

I apologize for not being active for so long. My mental health has been absolute shit. Admittedly, I have been wanting to put out a fic for quite some time now but I didn't want to put out a half-assed fic since none of you deserve that.

Got inspired by @pinksugarberry, specifically this work. A lot of us got our own OCs in our head that we can't quite put out into art so I hope this somehow grants you the opportunity to play in and maybe be the 5th secret route.

Hope you enjoy! Mwa mwa :*

warning/s: not proofread, she/her for mizu, panty shots, voyeurism (mdni), implied afab reader

Mizu was rarely fazed by anything.

With her characteristically stoic expression, she traversed the fields of her college program smoothly. Athletic, smart, and coupled with the calm of a deep river, she overcame the adversities brought by professors who clearly don't give a shit if you learn or not, an absurdly unfair grading system, and the stress of deadlines and exams.

She was cool, calm, and collected. Someone who never faltered, who's knees never buckled.

However, this was something different.

Something that she wasn't even sure she could ever prepare for.

.

.

"Is it this one?" your voice asked softly, reaching a book down to her as your smaller figure stood on the ladder, a few feet above her.

A library assistant. A cute fuckin' library assistant.

Upon hearing your words, her blue eyes looked up briefly to check if you've gotten the right book before widening a fraction and immediately looking elsewhere. Her cheeks heated up as the image of something—something cute and baby pink—plagues her mind, hand tightening its grip on the ladder until her knuckles turned white.

The library had always been her go-to place to study. It was quiet, usually cold, and the vibe brought by other students trying to study had also added to the ambience. There were lots of sockets and was open until the late hours. It was the perfect place to lock in.

However, her concerns started rising when she felt some sort of presence watching her intently. At first she brushed it off as the usual stranger's curiosity over her appearance. After all, her appearance was quite unique. But as the days passed by, she soon realized that the stare, it wasn't going away.

Someone was watching her.

Her senses were then on high alert every time she went to the library. She even tried not going just to see if she could lose the stare, but she realized that whoever was staring at her would only stare harder when she came back if she did. It was like she had eyes on her everywhere, watching every move.

With her wits and observant nature, it didn't take long for her to catch whoever was watching her. But to her surprise, it was you. The library assistant.

The two of you barely had interactions and she found you pretty timid. Always keeping to yourself, organizing papers, and barely interacting unless needed. The only times she'd ever talk to you was to ask for information or help. Even then, you were pretty shy. You were so harmless. Like a cute little rabbit.

With her recent discovery, she found herself intrigued by you and slowly became hyperaware of your presence. Your mannerisms, the slight intonations of your hushed voice, and even the times you went out of post to reorganize the returned books. But those weren't what intrigued her the most...

"Then what about this one?" you asked in a shy voice, holding out another book. She didn't even have to look up to know that it was the wrong book again.

Shaking her head, she pretended to clear her throat, eyes darting around. Anything to avoid looking up again. "No...It's the one beside that," she mumbled, trying her best to hide the unexplainable nervousness in her voice.

A soft, barely audible sigh left your lips at her response. "Please look at it properly," you whispered, waving the book to catch her attention.

At this point, Mizu was almost a hundred percent sure you were doing this on purpose.

Everyday, Mizu went to the library, and everyday she went to the library, she coincidentally had to ask for your assistance in finding some sort of resource. That wouldn't have been a problem. That shouldn't be a problem.

But it was.

It was because every time she did, she'd have to look up and see what was under your skirt.

She didn't want to seem like a pervert, but goddamnit...

You were doing this on purpose, weren't you?

Mizu wasn't stupid. She knew you wanted her to peek up your skirt, to see what color your panties were today, to see the cute prints it had, to admire the plushness of your ass. She'd notice how purposefully got on top of the ladder and get her attention before pulling on the fabric of your panties whenever you got a slight wedgie. She's seen the way you spread your legs when you sat in front of her, even going as far as to lift your skirt up a bit. She noticed the slight pout on your lips when she refused to look.

You've been at it ever since she remembered. Initially, she thought that you were just naturally unaware, maybe even a little bit clumsy. Maybe you just had this natural innocent lewdness? But continuing to observe you, she began realizing how you only acted like this with her.

You never watched the other people who studied in the library. You never asked anyone to look up when you fetched a book for them. You kept your legs crossed whenever talking to someone. And most of all, you never got upset when someone didn't look at you.

She knew she should be disturbed, possibly even upset. But somehow, Mizu found herself amused.

Intrigued.

Interested.

Deciding to indulge you, she turned her head to look up. Her eyes looked up your skirt, admiring the slight camel toe peeking, before looking into your eyes while pretending to be subtle. Her lips almost twitched into an amused smirk as she saw the slight shiver that went up your spine.

"Is this it?" you asked again, hiding your excitement upon feeling her gaze. She looked at the book, and sure enough, it was the wrong one again. Sighing, she shook her head.

Her eyes observed the barely-visible quiver of your lips as you tried to force an excited smile down and replace it with a disappointed frown. "O-Oh...um..let me see," you whispered before turning to look at the shelf.

A little bit of shuffling later, you decided that that was enough excitement and got the correct book this time. Handing it to her, you went down the ladder with a faux apologetic smile. "Sorry it took a while."

Mizu shook her head and let out a small huff of amusement. God, you were so cute when you acted dumb.

"No, no. It's fine," she said reassuringly, spoiling you a bit and patting your head softly before she went back to her seat, book in hand. Her eyes looking over your face for a moment, studying the slight blush that dusted over your cheeks as you took a seat again.

As she got back to her work, she could feel your eyes staring at her, watching her with unwavering interest. Your gaze was so intense it was becoming difficult to ignore. Almost as difficult as ignoring the way you were subtly spreading your legs, letting your skirt ride up a bit as you watched her.

No. At this point, you were waiting for her.

Waiting for her to look.

A few moments later, Mizu finally looked up. Her sharp blue eyes looking into yours deeply before looking down, staring at the baby pink panties you had on today. She tilted her head slightly to get a better look, admiring the way your thighs trembled in excitement, and the slight throb of your cunt.

Her gaze was so intense it almost made you want to shrink in your seat. The excitement was making your throat tighten, your hand going up to your lips to try and hide your smile.

︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶

[gotham-daydreams]

Hi! I love your gothan platonic batfam series, but every time I read it I can't help but wonder what Duke's reaction to all this would be. He's one of my fave batfam characters, do you have any plans to add him in later chapters?

Just curious, no pressure. Hopefully I didn't come off as pushy. (sorry if i did)

Have a good day! <3

Hello! And you didn't come off as pushy, no worries :]

I'll be honest and admit that I have thought of adding Duke to the series- but if I was going to do that in a more organic manner, and just generally in a way that makes sense- that would've been in Chapter 2 or 3. Though trust me I am still debating... and the only reason I'm hesitating is because I don't think I'd be able to capture his personality, or really just him as a person very well.

Granted, I do inherently view yandere versions of characters as OOC for... various reasons (some of which are obvious, especially when it comes to the Batfam and DC characters in general), but I do try to keep very close to the character (or my general understanding and interpretation of them for things like DC, who have multiple canons and such) and write them in a way that does still compliment or adhere to parts of their personality or overall mindset... if only generally. Like Bruce and his closeness to those around them yet the distance he so desperately tries to keep - not for himself, but rather those around him. His strive for justice and to do good to make up for a sin, a fault that isn't his to forgive or one he hardly had anything to do with and so on. How that makes him inherently protective if only at a distance and in silence. How he tries to keep himself away from others, if only to protect them, and yet finds himself surrounded anyway. Etcetera etcetera.

Case and point- I don't have a really good graps of Duke's general character and aren't confident enough to write him into the Not Series at the moment- and by the time I do, it may feel shoehorned in and just not as great as it could be (even if a line I wrote in Chapter 1 was meant to be him..). Though I am learning more about him! And if anyone would like to share what they know and their interpretations of his character they have and such while I still have asks open, I'd love to read and see them :]

In future series', oneshots, and just general things I plan to post and share on this blog, Duke will very much make an appearance and we'll reach 10 yanderes for the Batfam instead of just 9. (Some series' which will definitely be longer than the Not Series.)

On that note, I have thought of how Duke would feel (and some others earlier on have asked a bit as well), and from the little I know of him, this is how I think at the moment he would generally react/feel (though it may be inaccurate and such because of what I mentioned previously 😅):

I think he would start out as one of the many others that actually live in the manor or just so happened to be there at the time — and that being he feels guilt first (unlike the only person in that house who doesn't/didn't) and just... wouldn't know what to do. The time passed and everything the reader has done sort of leaves him stumped, and just stuck processing until everyone's rushing out and around to find you and before he knows it- he's following out with them to do the exact same thing.

I think he leaves before everyone else, and considering that he does daytime patrol, it isn't as odd to see him out and about anyway. Though the frantic-ness of his movements and actions are weird, and for once, more outwardly, Duke panics.

He feels bad, of course he does, and more similarly to Cass- he can only wish that he could do things with out. That he wants to be in the room when you got your awards or had been there through the hardships he knows you undoubtedly faced without even having to see the medkit like Bruce does in Chapter 2. So he goes out to look for you, but not so much for your safety and more so to just... apologize. To say every little thing he can in hopes to make things better, to lessen the damage.

And of course, just to see you.

More than anything Duke wants to make it up to you right away, but has half a mind to know he'll have to take things slow. He's still sensible to some degree, if not only partially of half-insane just like the rest of the fam (minus a certain blonde and red head who are only a sliver of the way there), he knows it'll take time, that you probably won't forgive him right away. But that's okay! He can live with that, he understands that, but he just needs to see you. Just once- if only to see who you are now and the person you've become. If only to say an apology that might fall too flat or feel too empty considering the little he knows about you.

Just once. No matter how awkward it is or how much he regrets it later. Just once.

Though, despite that he is divided on bringing you home. It would be nice, sure, but by the time that discussion comes up he isn't sure that's the best idea. Even less so with how those that do want you home seem to want to go about it, and just generally the kind of people they are. Impulsive. Strong. Threatening- they'll scare you and do more damage then help ease tensions, and he doesn't want that to happen. You don't deserve that- even if he barely knows you. Duke can feel it, you don't. Even then, they help people out, not hurt them, not like they did with you.

Duke wants to spend time with you, but he's willing to do that outside of the manor if it means making you more comfortable and warm up to him a little more. As long as he sees you he can't complain...

So when Dick messes up, he's upset. Like everyone else besides Cassandra he doesn't know what happened but knows that something absolutely went wrong. Dick usually wasn't so obvious about things like that either, but with how hurt and just... broken he looks, they could all tell. Duke could tell.

Granted, he's not upset enough to change his mind, and if anything it definitely makes him more adamant about not bringing you home yet, but he can’t find it in himself to be fully against the idea, even then.

The one thing he wants to do after that, if anything, is more determined to make things right.

If Dick of all people couldn't make it up to you, then hell, maybe Duke can.

[piningpercussionist]

"I need some air. The stupidity in here is making me feel faint."

Kim Pine RP and general Scott Pilgrim fandom blog; Asks always open (unless they get flooded, I suppose)

["Current" Event: GAME OVER! RESTART...?]

(Currently answering asks outside of the event and at a staggered rate; apologies for delays.)

Blog should be running on central time, I think, but I sleep at weird hours anyway.

Generally asking that you just be decent people, or make your asks exaggerated/obviously part of the bit you're building if you're going a certain direction. If I catch even a whiff of genuine bigotry, though, you're out pal.

NSFW asks tentatively allowed (until someone is a freak about it) [I need to clarify now that I mean this within the rp context: I will field nonRP NSFW asks without complaint. Stop. Bothering. The. Minors.]

Generally fine running separate continuities for Kim, you just need to specify, otherwise I'm working with my current amalgam of canon Kim stuff + blog canon (like anon shenanigans and stuff) (Bonus points if you can name our tag for me)

Theoretical fine with ship interactions, especially gay ones, but DO NOT ENGAGE ME IN THIS MANNER IF YOU ARE A MINOR! Thank you!

Characters I'm not interested in fielding ship content for: Lucas Lee, Hollie Hawkes*, Jason Kim*, basically any evil ex (aside from Roxie,,, maybe Patel,,,) Julie (...?)

Probably more but I don't expect it to be an issue, really- I don't think I've seen blogs for many of these or other characters

*nothing beyond acknowledging canon for Jason, theoretical cool with Hollie actually, it'd just need to be in a specific font, like some of the ones I am fine with but haven't specified- notably, with an understanding that as I write Kim, she could have feelings for Hollie, but after Jason has no interest in pursuing that (so for SPTO or pre-Jason stuff, specify and I'll consider!)

Reserved Anons/Sign-Offs:

✨️ Sparkles Anon

🐢 Turtle Anon

🐇 Bunny Anon

Crush Guy

⭐️ Anon

Doc

Minion King

🧸 Anon

🧠🪱 Anon

💠 Anon

🥚 Anon

🛼 Ramona ["super cool girl anon"] (Flowerspowers)

💥🎶🥁 Noel Welsh (drummer-boywelsh)

In Character tag(s):

Pine.txt

OOC

Hi, welcome to the blog! When addressing me, just call me Pine; if you want to call me Pine in a RP ask, just note that somehow so I understand. I am 24, so please keep this in mind when interacting! My ooc tags are ooc, txt, and art (which I post my art under, obviously, so it may feature RP stuff.) OOC is sort of the catch-all?

I have an AO3 where you can see what fics I'm working on/have written.

Here's various versions of the media and how Hinged I am about them (answer: not very)

Movie: Least favorite Scott/iteration in general; fuck does it have some good lines though. Damnit. (I really do like a lot of aspects of it, but it IS my least favorite.)

Comics: 2 rereads down, favorite version; currently collecting panels for those with requests or questions relative to them (Starting 6 soon)

Show: Watched twice in full, halfway through a third run! (And set to collect Kim screencaps from episode 3!) Contender for favorite version, but has a lot of flaws, I will admit. (Also, begging for a "They Dated" extended cut from someone, please- I'd draw something for you maybe--)

Game: Very fun actually! Didn't know I could be good at this type of game; I have notes on most of the item stats for anyone that needs them- gonna start labeling every instance of the named NPCs eventually

[noodlecupcakes]

OC Smash or Pass

I was tagged by @simplegenius042 in this super fun game. Thank you <3. It was that fun I decided to do all my OC's but they are all in seperate posts. Apologizes to those I tag in every single one, not tryna spam, just wanna show off my babies!

RULES: pretty self explanatory. include physical descriptions or pics, and propaganda. the “other” label can be used for “sexuality misalignment” (ie: oc is femme and you’re gay, vice versa or you aren’t into smashing but a specific thing you wanna do with them like perhaps hug or study them under a microscope idc).

Tabitha Murphy (Face claim: Teresa Palmer) - Far Cry 5

QUICK FACTS:

Height: 5’4

Age: 23

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Straight

PROS:

Tabitha is a talented cook but more so a talented baker. There will always be some sort of baked good in the house, ranging from bread to home made fudge or cake.

Considering Tabitha was training to become a nurse, if you get sick, she knows exactly what to do to take care of you, has a great bedside manner.

Great listener

Remembers all the little things

Will do anything you ask within reason

Very family orientated and great with children

CONS:

Very clingy

Struggles to stand up for herself

Backs down in arguments very easily

Let’s people walk all over her and is easily manipulated

She cries very easily. And not in a good way. If someone raises their voice at her during an argument she’s likely to start crying

I tag: @josephseedismyfather, @g0dspeeed, @3llisarts, @la-grosse-patate and @cassietrn

[cfcreative]

Hello, do you like infodumps on other people’s Tavs? THEN BOY HOWDY HAVE I GOT A POST FOR YOU.

(Mostly I wanted to get this out of the way so maybe I can word vomit some more fun stuff for her here.)

NOTE: D&D is a game about imagination so I’m a little loose with Dragonborn “clan” stuff, and my characterization of Kory’s druidic philosophies don’t track with “lore”/canon ones. If you don’t enjoy that I apologize, but I’m not changing anything unless the change appeals to me.

Now that that’s out of the way…

KORYDASS FAYENCRUX (aka KORY)

OG!Korydass

1. Originally a character from a home game in a homebrew setting where Dragonborn were extraordinarily rare and Dragons basically old myths/almost old gods. Kory’s father was a full dragon named Fayencrux, she hadn’t seen or spoken to him in… a long, long time, not due to any strain on their relationship—they just had very long lifespans and Fayencrux was… somewhere else. Probably.

2. OG!Kory was a Guardian of a place called the Thornlore Woods (which she referred to as her Homewood). She would go into long periods of hibernation, and wake up when the wood was potentially threatened by world events. She’d been awake for long enough to meet the other PCs but wasn’t sure why she had been woken up.

3. A serene, thoughtful, and gentle soul, absolutely turning into a fangirl over exciting nature things. Easily adjusted to keep her cool during wild situations. A calm attitude kept her grounded!

Korydass in Faerún (BG3)

1. Korydass’s Clan was formed when her Grandsire, the Bronze Dragon Fayencrux, married a human woman (unnamed right now, just referred to as Grandam). (The clan uses Grandsire and Grandam, but you have to imagine a number of “greats” before that).

2. For reasons I will get into at another time, Korydass was named and raised by her Grandsire, and later left his company. As a young Dragonborn who had never really had dealings with “Society” and honestly was in the middle of nowhere on her own for the first time, she sort of just plopped down in what she now calls her “Homewood” and started learning Druidic magic in earnest.

3. While she outwardly appears serene like OG!Kory, Korydass in Faerún is an absolute fucking mess around people internally. She is keenly aware that she learned her manners from books and a dragon who has not left his sea cave for centuries. She appears quiet because she takes an extraordinary amount of time to craft her responses, keeping them short because, again, she doesn’t really know how to act around other humanoids. However, she is still an absolute fangirl over neat nature things, and for sure attempted to adopt every animal presented to her in BG3.

4. Her face is hard to read, but her tail gives her away all the time. She’s picked up far too many mannerisms (and odd habits) from the animals she surrounded herself with. You’re far better off learning her whole body language than trying to get a gauge on her feelings via her expression.

GENERAL STATS:

Bronze Dragonborn

Green eyes

7 Feet Tall

Generally lean body, but not overly muscular

No notable scars/piercings/tattoos

She has a lot of particular patina patterns that make her easily identifiable… I’ll put up some art that features it soon.

[theluckyr]

New Routine pt. 2

My bad for leaving you all starving.

Neon

She wear rubber gloves when she first met you.

At first she’s always kept her distance from you because she afraid to made bad first impression or hurt you.

But with a little reassureance and encouraging words along the way, She opens up right away.

Sometimes she’s mesmerized just sat beside you, to be in a same room with you is unimaginable.

Would be on cloud 9 if you have a plushie that you carry around as well.

“No way you actually have a plushies as well”

She got your back since day one, so no one and i mean no one mess with (y/n).

“Hoy, bobo! You messed with the wrong person!”

“It’s okay, Neon. Let's just go”

“No, I am not letting this one slide (y/n). I got this”

She likes loves whenever you play with her hair.

Even if it just a simple space buns, she love it.

Because of your kind genuine heart, she made some filipino snacks for you.

Kay/o

Ik some of you has a crush on this hunk of metal, don’t lie to yourself

Well, most of the time, he’s pretty much just training all day every day, and you pretty much just watch him in the background.

So, whenever he has the opportunity to speak with you, he would do so.

But being the robot he is, he has difficulty starting the conversation in a much more casual tone.

Despite that, he makes sure that all of his lineups that you have practiced on are still in his memory log.

One of the few words you gave that still stuck on him was about the reason why you practice his lineups. Including the post plan lineups as well.

“I know i can’t do a lot, but the least thing i can do is buying time for my team”

He really respects you for that, you’re not the best when it comes to aim, utilities, or even simple gaming sense. But you always have another way to support your teammates.

“Also Kay/o, can i tell you something?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Well…I just want to say that I think the squeaky noise from your joints is adorable”

“ Should I ask KillJoy to check on it?"

"Hahahahahaha, no! I meant it as a compliment”

It didn’t took long to made his fan whirring louder.

Omen

Very nervous when he first met you. So nervous that after he shook your hands he teleport to somewhere.

Later he apologize about that which you replied.

"No worries, I thought I did something wrong that made you leave. By the way, thank you so much for the welcoming. I really appreciate it"

When you said that, he felt alive and more…human.

He enjoys the warmth from your skin ,so it's no surprise that he would ask you for help to change his bandages very often.

The more you spend your time with him, the easier it is for you to see what he's feeling on that day.

You, (Y/n) are the only one who can do all sorts of things on him without him ever getting mad at you.

Put a bunny ear, be the kuromi to your melody, put a bunch of stickers on his hood, even put a colorful necklace on him, he is fine with that. Why? Because he gets to spend his time with you.

Be prepared to have a bunch of knitted goods in your room.

Brimstone

Just like Killjoy, you're now his kiddo.

With you around organizing stacks of papers on his office really made his work more efficient.

You really surprised him when you actually can collect everyone's report faster (Thanks official Valorant account for making some of the few details canon)

"Awwwww come on, (y/n) just give me some time. Pretty please"

"I'm sorry Jett, today is today or I'm telling everyone that you also want to buy the same sneakers Phoenix want"

"Okay! Okay! I'll give it today! Just don't tell anyone!!"

"I won't! So write it!"

"Okay…."

"Why hello, (y/n). Seems like you have your way for everyone to do some paperwork but I'm afraid that you have nothing to use it against me"

"You're right, Cypher but you will watching me making your mint tea in very wrong manner just to piss you off" you said while ripped out the tea bag and pour the tea leafs in a champagne glass

".....when is it due?"

"11.59 PM"

"Fine"

Because of that, he gives you some extra money. Just don't tell anyone that he also gives you more leniency than others.

"How come they get their own bathroom inside their room? That's not fair!"

"If you can do the same amount of work as (y/n), then we’ll talk"

“Ok, nevermind. They’ve earned it”

He enjoys ruffling your hair, it's his way of showing affection.

When he saw you sleeping in his office instead of waking you up, he just gently placed a blanket on you.

He will laugh the hardest if you actually made dad jokes that made everyone just roll their eyes in shame.

"You know, that reminds me when I was traveling to France"

"Why what happened while you're in there?"

"Eiffel.."

"Hahahahahaha!! Classic!"

Skye

She adores you from the very first time she met you.

Even her hawko and tasmanian tiger agree as well.

If you don’t any allergies with her animals, be prepared for the hawko or the tasmanian tiger asking for some pets.

If you’re a morning person, you will partake her 4 AM run.

So basically you’re doing a huge favor for neon because now Skye has a running buddy.

She will make sure that you have eat 3 meals a day.

When she found out that you haven’t eat since morning, she will make sure that you stopped whatever you doing and wait for her in the kitchen.

“Skye, You don’t have to worry about it. I’ll just grab some snacks from the cabinets and i’ll…”

“No! You will eat what i’m cooking, No buts, point blank period”

“Okay then…..”

“Seriously, Are you out of your mind, Friend?!?! You ran with me at 4 AM then you had your morning coffee after that you work and didn't even bother to get your body some energy "

"I'm sorry about that "

"You should be, so get yourself some food yeah?" She gently held your cheek before she handed you a plate of food

To thank her, you would take care of her garden. You even take notes on which plant that needs extra attention.

Overall, she's the best support system.

Cypher

Because of his line of work, you’re not surprised that he ran “background” check on you.

And the background check includes your preference as well.

But just because he can have all kinds of information about you at his fingertips, he still wants you to tell it yourself.

Just like Viper, he’s more of a listener in the conversation. Mostly taking mental notes about you.

Very observant when it comes to your mannerism, so when you show signs of discomfort, he’ll gladly help you out of that situation.

He even gave you a spare keycard to his workshops.

Sometimes he wonder if you know his secret as well until one day you left him a small bouquet of white jasmine flower on a his workshops desk with a small note that says

"I know you never tell a soul about her, But please remember that you always have my condolences - (y/n) "

Cypher's blood ran cold when he read the note and from that moment he now sees you in a different light, a whole new perspective that he never thought before.

If you ever need a place to unwind or simply avoid the others, his workshops are always open for you.

[moki-dokie]

god i was just about to make a post about this very sort of thing last night and just didn't have the spoons to get into it. but now that the foundation is there...

i'm not sure what it is specifically about us millennials and younger, but there's been a MASSIVE change in the way we interact with our fellow humans that is just... not fucking healthy. for anyone involved. and you know where i see the most blatant example of this? when anyone asks someone else a question. most commonly here where we have askboxes but i see it everywhere. threads on twitter, forum posts, texts, facebook chains, you name it. and it goes a little something like this:

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I was wanting to know X."

Look, i know we're suffering some unprecedented amounts of untreated trauma, abuse, neglect, and conditioning from practically every direction but this isn't an excuse to slot every single person you interact with into a trauma-warped role. you have control over how you speak and how you treat other humans (generally speaking. obviously there are some exceptions. and if you legitimately fall into that exception this obviously isn't for you) and WAY too many of you are using your mental illness as a shield and excuse to not take responsibility, to not put in the hard work into self-help, to not treat your fellow person with basic decency.

to start off a conversation with self-deprecating assumptions is so incredibly unhealthy for your already struggling mental health and entirely unfair and just mean to the person you're trying to talk to. there's so many more examples of shit like this that is alarmingly common in our casual daily speech, almost exclusively to the 35 and under agegroup. yeah, i see it here and there with some 40-somethings, but beyond that you'll almost never see or hear that manner of speech. because it's 1. presumptuous as all fuck 2. projecting and announcing insecurities very loudly and 3. just plain Not Polite. it's not funny, it's not cute, it's not how healthy conversations work. probably has a lot to do with how most of us in the age bracket grew up with more digital conversations than face to face. idk.

As someone who works in a chat-based customer support day in and out, i see it too much. perhaps even more in my job than out in the wild.

"I'm sorry for wasting your time, but could you tell me... "I can't figure this out, sorry I'm just really stupid..." "Sorry to be a pain about this, I'm checking on the status of..." "sorry if this has been asked before..."

stop apologizing for a made up wrong you've assumed to have committed before the other person has even had a chance to speak. stop making other people carry your insecurities. have some accountability for your own actions. you don't get a free pass to act a fool just because you've got issues.

remove apologies entirely from your speech unless someone is specifically stating you have done something to wrong them or you know beyond a shadow of a doubt something you said is deserving of one. obviously there are cultural exceptions to this *coughcanadians* *coughirish* and there are instances it can actually be used in a polite way (such as you didn't hear what someone says and respond with "oh sorry i didn't catch that, could you repeat it?" like there is a big difference there) or when it can be used sarcastically and ironically and i know yall have the critical thinking skills to know the difference.

All of those examples can be said without the self-loathing included and with more thought and engagement towards the person you're speaking with: "Hi! If you have the time, could you please tell me about X?" "Hey, I'm just having a tough time getting my head around this problem, would you be able to help?" "Hello there! I'd like to check in on the status of this ticket, please! I really appreciate the help." "Hiya! If this has been asked before, maybe you can point me in that direction, but if not, [question here]"

when people say be kinder to yourself, it starts with stuff like this. you don't need to apologize for just talking, for just existing. nor do you need to continually berate yourself in front of other people and assume they think the same. the sooner you start removing this kind of language from your conversations, the better off you'll be. if you want to have better conversations, want to keep people around, want to have people WANT to talk to you, then start evaluating the way you're speaking. start making little changes so you aren't handing the other person a whip they don't want. until there isn't even a whip present.

i don't wanna hear the bullshit excuse of bUt iT's NoT tHaT eAsY!!!! either. fucking duh. change isn't easy. self help isn't easy. nobody in the history of ever has said it's easy. this is why you seek professional help if you have the ability and lean on friends/family/loved ones for support and assistance. and none of this "but i don't have anyone :(((((((" bullshit either. yes you do. if you are reading this you have the entire internet at your fingertips. find someone. ask people. join communities dedicated to helping. becoming a better conversationist and taking better care of yourself both require you taking initiative and putting in the effort for it. and yes, it's hard. yes, you will slip up and backslide sometimes. that's okay though. because eventually it won't be hard anymore. eventually you won't even think about it anymore and you might just find yourself having the kind of deep, meaningful, engaging, fun conversations that were out of reach before.

a good conversation tip is that when you initiate a conversation or a topic within a conversation, you are implicitly Casting the other person in a role–they’ll have had or observed similar interactions in the past and understand this even if not consciously. like the simplest example of this is that if you say ‘knock knock’, the other person knows they’re meant to say ‘who’s there?’. this is why intense self-deprecation is a shitty social move, because you are casting your conversational partner in one of two roles: Guy Who Argues With You, which is inherently a tiring role to be put in, especially on the regular, or worse, Guy Who Agrees That You Suck Because They’ve Always Secretly Hated You, which nobody wants to be. verbally self-flagellating isn’t bad social form because it’s wrong to express symptoms of mental illness, it’s bad because unless you are careful you end up implicitly offering the people youre talking to a whip they dont want

[crimenight-a]

[izakiisdead]

Requested by : ME.

Genre: (Not really sure tbh, maybe fluff) (SFW)

Headcanons : Denki Kaminari x Idol!Male Reader !!

Fem/Fem aligned DNI

You and Denki has been together since you guys were in second year of high school. The both of you started off as friends but decided to take the next step after knowing the feelings were mutual.

If you were happy, imagine how happy and giddy he feels when he knew that you liked him as much as he likes you. He was screaming into his pillows when he found out and Bakugou would 100% beat him up for being too loud.

I mean of course he would feel giddy, it’s literally you. Everyone admired you because you’re a famous idol ! Even before you became an idol and was still a student, you were always loved by everyone especially with how kind and thoughtful you are and how charismatic you are! Of course there’s some times that you would be all shy but that’s normal !

Despite having many fans since high school till now, your gaze has never left that one energetic blonde.

You personally liked him because in some sort of way he’s kind of likeable. Every time when yours and his class would have periods together you always caught yourself staring at him with glistening eyes.

The both of you would sometimes help eachother when you guys partner up back in high school.

Now that you’re a famous and a shining idol, life was different. It started from the majority of the school liking you to almost everyone around the globe liking you which means Denki has some competition but of course, he knows better than to fight with your fans… (i think..) but overall if anybody dares to call themselves ’your biggest fan’ he would shut them up and tell them why he’s your biggest fan. It never fails to get a laugh out of you.

Despite him picking ‘fights’ with your fans, your fans still loves him because he’s your boyfriend and he makes you happy. Plus, its funny to see him 'fight' with a fan on Twitter about ‘who's your biggest fan’.

He honestly loves drawing and making art of you and he never fails to amaze you with his artistic skills, you make room to keep his art whether its on your walls or on the shelves bit theres sometimes moments where he would draw nsfw and when you saw it you jokingly pouted and said ”I dont wanna be friends with you anymore” in a joking manner. He felt his heart ache and tried apologizing to you while you were laughing, he knew you were just playing but it doesn’t hurt to play along right?

Even if its nsfw work you just kept it because he took his time to draw it for you but deep down you know that he’s just messing with you by making you nsfw art, c’mon guys- it’s literally Denki he can be a little pervert sometimes— (LMAO)

He obviously would religiously attend you concerts, in fact he’s always the first one to be there because he came with you and he has the pleasure of going backstage to meet you. Of course there’s moments that he couldn’t come to your concerts because it clashed with his hero work but whenever there’s free time and you’re having a concert, you bet your ass he’s there. Even if he has hero work he can just comeback home after a long day and listen to you sing a song for him to help him sleep, that itself is already a concert for him and only him.

He would obviously compliment how pretty and handsome you are in the outfits you have to wear and would literally beg to match with you because he wants to look good with you :))

He would purposely take selfies of you and him going on a date and post it online to piss off your fans while you just laugh at their responses to the post.

You yourself would post pictures of you and him going on dates or just enjoying each other’s company while the comments are filled with “me n who ?” or “gay.”

He most definitely did a better job at protecting you from your fans compared to the security guards, lets not forget that despite you and him are dating, he’s still a pro hero, working hard for world peace so he knows what he’s doing.

He definitely enjoys calling you petnames like pretty boy, cutie, baby and other petnames whenever the two are you in an interview on TV just to tease you because the expressions you’re making is too cute.

He would sometimes attend to your practices, whether its dance or singing. He only sometimes attend because he knows that you prefer to work alone and he respects that.

He only comes when you said he can.

thats what he said

Hai !! Izaki here, its been a while since I wrote anything here so I decided a denki x reader would be nice bcz i just love him so muchhh aaaaaa—-

I’ll see you guys laterrr bye byeee !!

[aita-deaddoe]

oh hi i didn't think this'd be actually posted since there wasn't really any person-to-person conflict/sort of a nonissue. mostly sent this ask cause i was just bored one night and wanted something to submit but good to know i was in fact overthinking this dilemma

one thing that makes me second guess myself though is a few days ago i did actually run into someone who took issue with it. i don't know if i should put this in a new submission since theres more nuance that might skew the votes but since it's concerning the same topic i'll just add it as an update.

i was in a discord server (for the fandom) that i'm not very active in and someone was asking for headcanons in the headcanons channel so i sent '[character] is trans and his deadname was [dead sister's name]' which in hindsight makes me cringe bc. maybe sort of uncalled for in a server w people you don't know. but i was having late night fic brainrot and just wanted to talk to some new people about trans interpretations of his canon backstory, and that was the most concise way i could put it.

that was very much a bad idea though!!!! one person said 'the deadname is CRAZY' and after i sort of neutrally said thank you they decided to further elaborate that their msg was not a compliment. so okay. another person just said oH MY GOD which is basically my reaction every time i think about it too so thats fine. last person though decided to express to me clearly that my headcanon gave him the ick (complete with 🤢 emoji) and told me that headcanoning deadnames was cringe. i probably should've apologized to him but i did say he had a good point, yet sort of passive aggressively asked him why he needed to tell this to me instead of just blocking me? since i feel like 'dont ask dont read' should apply to headcanons especially in a dedicated headcanon channel? but he just sarcastically apologized to me and didnt really give me any more info after that, just sort of started parroting my server nickname at me (ours were both along the lines of 'babygirl [random male character]') which would have admittedly been very funny if i didnt feel like throwing up out of stress at that point.

anyways i ended up leaving the server several hours after everything fizzled out bc even if i was the one in the wrong, everyones mannerisms made me realize the general server demographic was teenage tiktok users (distinct age group from teenage tumblr users) and i probably didn't have much to do there anyway. a different member of the server actually reached out to me in dms making sure i was okay, that they liked my headcanon & understood what i meant with it, and telling me they were gonna add more rules to make sure disagreements didnt get to that point in the future. which i thought was really really kind but i do feel bad that i apparently shook up the way the whole server was run and then promptly left. i also showed the whole conversation to some other friends of mine and they said i definitely did nothing wrong so thats something i guess. sidenote i've shared my headcanon/au with them and other friends in the past and they were all very enthusiastic about it which i guess is why i was caught so off guard in the other server.

i do think that the guy who was beefing with me could've (and should've) just ignored my headcanon and blocked me if he didn't like it. but i probably should've been more careful about sharing such a weird headcanon, or at least worded it better. idk. AITA now?

AITA for headcanoning deadnames for trans characters for symbolism purposes?

im a trans guy (minor if it matters) who's been a fan of this one show for a little over a year. none of the characters are canonically trans, but there's a lot of trans allegories to be drawn from the material if you're me or my mutuals at least. the two main characters are both male and i ended up developing an au where they're both explicitly transmasc as a way for me to just explore trans themes in an alternate narrative. i haven't begun writing it yet but definitely plan to once i feel like it's solidly locked in my brain, and i've been sharing snippets & concepts every so often.

part of this was thinking of how they would've chosen their current names, and name symbolism got me considering what they would've changed them away from as well. one character i thought could've initially been named after his mother so i can draw contrasts between the two, and the name i decided on for her has a meaning that highlights her relationship with her father (and the character's relationship with his father in turn); it's also the name of the character's daughter figure in the show. a lot of the other main character's backstory kind of revolves around his dead sister, so i thought by making his deadname that sister's name then i could turn that into an allegory about transness and childhood and sibling death (and sororicide but we don't have time to unpack all that). i don't plan on ever explicitly referring to the characters by their deadname in the narration, except maybe in an ironic tone, but i think it would be cool to sort of sprinkle in references as subtext to just give the readers something more to chew on.

the thing is i've seen posts around talking about how nice it is to make trans characters/headcanons without once considering their deadnames, or how weird it is for people to consider them, and i definitely agree with the sentiment; one of the biggest goals for many trans people is for their past selves to be completely irrelevant, and i feel a bit guilty for perpetuating something so painful for the general community.

but i still don't think i'm an asshole in any way since these are literally just characters and obviously i'm not going around talking about real people's deadnames or anything. i just don't want to make people uncomfortable/trigger dysphoria if they find someone talking about deadnames for a trans charactsr they're attached to (i've definitely had that happen myself when reading trans fics, enough that i had to stop reading, and i don't know how you'd even tag for something like that). if the general gut reaction to this ask is negative then i'll probably consider just not talking about the deadnames unless someone asks about it, since they're not crucial to the plot at all, just some uhh not so fun tidbits.

anyway sorry this is so long for something i feel like might be a non-issue that i'm overthinking. if you somehow guessed the fandom have a chocolate 🫀 if you're one of my few mutuals who knows who i am from the details of the au then um pretend you didnt see this post.

What are these acronyms?

[mochamamii]

yandere!nct dream: being bratty.

▹ a/n: hello everyone, it feels good to be posting again, please forgive the lack of posts as of late, also thank you so much @kp0p10v3r2​ for the request, sorry this took me so long, I hope this is close to what you were expecting!

▹ triggers: yandere!au, unhealthy/toxic relationships

▹ pairing: nct dream x reader

Mark isn’t the type of yandere that this will work on. He’s not amused by your sudden bratty behavior at all and truthfully it’s somewhat of a turn off for him. He sees it as childish and unnecessary, if there’s something you need or want you can just talk to him rather than lash out and break the rules. Mark will intentionally ignore or avoid you as a result because he doesn’t want to encourage your bad behavior further. He needs you to know this act won’t work in the way you had initially planned.

“Get some manners and then maybe I’ll start talking to you again, if you need something more from me then you’d better learn how to ask for it like a grown adult rather than throw a tantrum like a toddler, only one will get you the results you’re looking for.

Renjun is the last type of yandere that this sort of trick will work on. He’s super perceptive and will instantly see right through you, if it’s attention you want, it’ll be the last thing you get behaving the way that you are. Renjun will lock you up for a while to give you some alone time to think, he’s more than willing to give his darling some attention but you’ll have to learn to ask properly first.

“Good girls get rewarded, not bad girls. Some time locked away in your closet will give you all the time you need to come up with a decent apology, don’t you think?”

Jeno is unamused by your new bad behavior. He hates when you defy him in anyway, it’s more of a bore or a nuisance rather an obstacle. It takes so little effort for him to over power your or beat you at your own mind games, quickly destroying any sign of resistance or fire within you. Occasionally, when you start behaving like this he’ll let your behavior go unchecked just to see how far you’re willing to go before putting a stop to it.

“Sweetheart..don’t you get tired of this? I know I do. When will you realize just how weak you are compared to me? Stop your bratty act now before I give you a reminder of just how easy it would be for me to destroy you.”

Haechan unlike Jeno…is very amused. A little too amused for your liking. Haechan’s eyes light up and his heart beat quickens whenever you begin behaving like this. Taming you, just happens to be his favorite game. Haechan loves when you give him the chance to make you his prey. Any glimmer of strength or courage you had before is overshadowed by Haechan’s zeal. He’ll be so excited and eager to win whatever twisted “game” he thought the two of you were playing that he’d even be encouraging your bad behavior.

“Baby? Are you trying to sneak out of the window? Well…don’t let me stop you! Let’s see how far you can get before I catch you! If I win, I get to have you any way I want, if you win- well we both know that won’t happen. Start running, I’ll even give you a head start.”

Jaemin will be somewhat inconsistent in his reaction. A part of him likes to see you act this way because he can see straight through your scheme, he knows his attention is what you truly want and that makes him feel good, being wanted by you. But he also wishes you’d just ask him outright rather than make trouble for him, he has rules in place to protect you but he can’t do that if you’re constantly wandering about places breaking them.

“Princess, how about you stop with the act? You’ll catch far more flies with honey rather than vinegar, use your words and be a good girl and I’ll have no problem fulfilling your every request.”

Chenle can’t let your behavior go on without his interference. The minute you start to show signs of defiance he’s quick to nip it in the bud, stopping you before your little tirade can go further. The more you resist the more overbearing he becomes so in a way I guess you got your wish. Chenle might not catch on immediately that you’re acting out for attention but the minute he does he’ll change his approach.

“Had you not tried to sneak off without saying a word I might’ve let you go and see your friends this weekend, but now I guess you’re trapped here inside with me instead…Are you smiling?”

Jisung will be at a lost for what to do, especially if you suddenly begin acting bratty out of nowhere. Rather than use brute force to intimidate you he’ll want to talk it out, and honestly see why you’re so upset. When it comes to you Jisung is a gentle giant. You’re too precious for him to ever be irrationally angry or upset with you. He wants the two of you to always get along and never fight so if it’s as simple as you just needing a little more attention he has no problem providing that for you.

“Babe, how about you unlock the door and come out so we can talk? I’m not sure why you’re so upset but whatever it is we can fix it, ok?”

[bitsandbobsofwriting]

A new servant desperately struggles to understand what exactly Merlin is:

A cryptid? Arthur's boyfriend? Simply a dude? The court jester? Something else entirely? Who knows, certainly not the new guy.

The first time the new kitchen-hand, Tristan, saw The King’s dark-haired servant sprinting down the corridor, he couldn’t tell if the man was laughing or crying.

He was fast, faster than Tristan thought possible for someone whose arms were so full of laundry, but he politely steps out of the way, coming to the conclusion that he must’ve been late for something. At least... he did think that, until he turns the next corner to see three of The king’s most trusted knights peering out of windows and into random doors. Tristan freezes in the corridor, he’d heard that servants were treated extremely well here, but he’d only been employed for a few days and he didn’t want to risk anything by pushing past or addressing his betters.

One of the knights, Sir Leon, his brain helpfully supplies, spots him stood there, and his annoyed frown quickly morphs into a friendly smile:

“Pardon me, sorry, I don’t suppose you’ve seen Merlin around anywhere, have you?”

Tristan’s eyes go wide and the grip he has on his tray tightens, but he forces himself to take a breath and answer, trying his best to keep his voice even:

“Merlin is... The King’s manservant? Tall, with dark hair?”

Another knight pushes forward, he looks to be the oldest, with dark hair falling in an almost deliberately tousled way around his bearded jawline. His charming grin seems just a little too wide to be genuine, but Tristan isn’t quite sure if that’s because he’s about to take pleasure in punishing someone, or if he’s just being polite to a stranger:

“Yeah, yeah that’s him, seen him? Arsehole turned our shirts pink in the wash, and something tells me it was deliberate.”

Tristan gulps at the accusation and he takes a shaky step back, but before he can even think of defending the stranger that he now thinks must’ve been crying, the last of the three knights, a giant, if Tristan believed in such things, steps forward:

“Don’t worry, we won’t beat him too much.” 

He says it with a grin and a quirk of his eyebrows, but once again the kitchen-hand can’t tell if it was cruel or genuine, if he was being sarcastic or not.

“Uh... yeah, he turned left at the end of this corridor, but I didn’t see where he went after that, I apologise.”

Sir Leon waves away his apology with a smile, looking to the long-haired knight with a raised eyebrow:

“The stables?”

The man grins widely, nodding his agreement as he turns his grin to the giant. Sir Leon offers Tristan another soft smile, murmuring his thanks before moving past him, elbowing the other two to prompt them in to thanking him as well. The three of them march down the corridor with almost vindictive smiles on their faces, and Tristan prepares himself to see a vacancy note, or possibly a funeral invite, posted on the notice board by the next morning.

When he passes a window that evening to see the King’s manservant being carried on the giant’s shoulders as five other knights pelt them with gloves, a grin on every face, he decides that... well... it’s probably best to just not to ask.

~

The next time he sees Merlin, a few days later, The King is also there.

This is the first time Tristan has been in Arthur Pendragon’s presence, and though the other servant’s all rave on about how awkwardly kind he is, he’s a bundle of nerves. Not even Cook’s stories about how often she whacks The King’s knuckles with a wooden spoon when she catches him about to pilfer something stops Tristan’s heart from racing. 

The King was overseeing a few of the servants decorate the main hall for a feast, and whilst Tristan is certain that that’s not something The King normally does, he doesn’t question it, just thinks that maybe the other servants had been telling the truth, and he was a genuinely nice, but normal man. 

Merlin stands at his side, and though Tristan can’t hear their conversation, the two of them are clearly bickering over something. The servant can’t help his curiosity, wanting desperately to move closer to find out what sort of things The King allows his servant to bicker with him about; luckily, the table right next to them has yet to be laid, so he moves towards it quickly. He doesn’t even glance at them, terrified of being caught out, but perhaps Merlin surviving the knights non-wrath the other day is encouraging him, and his steps don’t falter. Their words come in to focus, and he has to stop the confused, and slightly horrified, frown from spreading across his face:

“Arthur, I swear to the Gods, if you make me wear that hat again, I’ll piss in your wine and serve it to you in front of a crowd.”

The King scoffs just as Tristan shakily begins laying down the cutlery:

“That’s treason, Merlin.”

“Do I look like I care? Not only will I piss in your wine, I will not hesitate to push you over a balcony at the first opportunity. This hall is high up and it’s a long way down to the gardens. He drank toxic wine and turned loopy and tipped himself off a balcony and went splat! That’s what people will say. I’m not wearing the Godamn hat.”

Tristan has to focus extra carefully to stop himself from gasping; Merlin just threatened to kill The King... that’s got to be a death sentence. Pissing off some knights that he’s obviously friendly with is one thing, but threatening to kill The-

“Ha ha. Very funny. If you can’t tell, Merlin, I’m being sarcastic, I know you struggle with complex concepts like that.”

Merlin just rolls his eyes, crossing his arms as he says with no hesitation:

“My mind is more than capable of coping, My Lord, it’s your belt I worry about being able to cope nowadays.”

Tristan bites his tongue to stop himself from yelping and turns away so neither of them can see his horrified face. The King just makes an outraged noise in the back of his throat, and Tristan can hear Merlin snort in laughter at whatever expression Arthur was wearing to match such a noise:

“Go to the stocks. I want you there for three hours.”

Tristan lets out a confused breath; Merlin threatens to kill The King, and gets playful sarcasm, but he implies The King might be a tad overweight, and gets sent to the stocks for three hours? How is that-

“Yeah... no. Not happening. The feast starts in less than two hours and I still have to help Guinevere organise some stuff in the courtyard, do Gaius’ rounds for him, then put an extra hole in your belt and help you get dressed because, despite being a grown man, you’re still an idiot who’s incapable of putting clothes on in any sort of decent manner.”

Tristan finds himself relaxing a little. This seems to be the norm for them, but surely... surely The King had a line somewhere, and a servant just flat out refusing to be disciplined must be where it lies?

Arthur just scoffs, and Tristan angles his head in such a way that he can see him roll his eyes:

“Fuck off.”

Merlin grins, seeming to cast a suspicious gaze over the room to make sure no one was watching and somehow completely missing Tristan stood just there, before saying quietly:

“You love me really, you prat.”

With that, Merlin reaches up to yank at a lock of The King’s hair before hurrying off in the direction of the courtyard before Arthur can react. The King jumps slightly, clearly caught by surprise as an annoyed flush rises on his face, but Tristan just frowns in confusion when his shock gives way to a softly amused smile.

Huh.

~

The next few times Tristan saw Merlin made him fear for the servant’s safety. He was being taken on hunts by The King and his knights, that’s meant to be for squires, to learn the ropes and gain experience in tracking and riding. 

He supposes it isn’t entirely unheard of for a servant to follow their master on a hunt, but with the way Merlin complains without pause, and The King in turn complains about his complaining, he thinks it would better for everyone if Merlin just... didn’t go. When he brings it up to another servant, a lovely woman named Guinevere who had helped him get unlost at least three times in his first week, she just laughs and smiles at him pityingly:

“I wouldn’t worry, those two have been like that forever, they’re practically inseparable.”

Tristan responds with a rather intelligent sounding:

“...What?”

Gwen laughs softly again, shaking her head and patting his shoulder consolingly:

“You’ll get used to it, they’re just... like that.”

She gives him one more smile before turning to wave the boys out of the gates and walking back to the castle as if this were the most normal thing in the world. Tristan supposes that it probably is.

The next time Tristan sees Merlin leave the city gates with the knights, Sir Elyan, Sir Mordred, and Sir Lancelot this time, it’s distinctly worse. Because he’d caught sight of the patrol rota last time he ran food down to the training ground, and he was certain that those three had a city patrol right about now.

Before he even has time to gape in shock, he hears Merlin’s pleading voice as he trails Sir Elyan like a lost puppy:

“Please, El, I promise to stay out of the way, I will do anything, but I swear to the Gods if I have to spend one more minute around that prat, I’ll hurl myself from the battlements.”

Swearing to the Gods and threating to hurl various people, including himself, from significant heights seems to be some sort of theme for The King’s manservant. Before Tristan can consider the implications of that, Sir Elyan turns to Merlin with a wide, teasing grin on his face:

“You know, I would’ve let you tag along for free, Merlin, but now that you’ve promised me something I feel the need to take advantage.”

Tristan tenses at that, a shot of ice spiking down his spine. He has keen eyes and sharp ears, he knows that Sir Elyan is the lovely Gwen’s brother, Sir Mordred seems to have an... odd worship for the servant, and he’s definitely picked up on the close bond between Merlin and Sir Lancelot, but is this where Camelot’s image comes crashing down in Tristan’s head? He knew that it was better here for servant’s than other Kingdoms, but there are always people who’ll take advantage of their position, no matter where you are. Merlin’s shoulders just drop and he asks in a sulking voice:

“What do you want?”

Tristan grits his teeth, moving his gaze so no one would catch him glaring at the knight as he tries to figure out a way to help, a way to get this virtual stranger out of being... abused, in such a manner. If he’d carried on glaring, he would’ve noticed Elyan’s soft smile and amused raised eyebrow:

“Next time you gather herbs for Gaius, bring back some more of those flowers that you got for Gwen. She said they added vibrancy to the house, whatever that means, but they make her happy, so...-”

Merlin just giggles and nods and Tristan relaxes, looking back to them with a confused smile on his face. That was... actually kind of sweet, he can definitely see the resemblance between the knight and his sister:

“-AND I want whatever Arthur’s having for dinner tonight, his food always looks way nicer than ours.”

Merlin lets out a faux annoyed groan, but then rolls his eyes and grins, nodding:

“Consider it done. Can we go now? I really don’t want to risk him seeing me and giving me some stupid chore to do.”

Elyan laughs and nods, and the four of them begin making their way out of the courtyard and into the city. Sir Lancelot finally joins the conversation, clearly amused as he says:

“You know it’s literally your job to do chores, right?”

Merlin turns to glare at him as Sir Mordred and Sir Elyan laugh, and Tristan only just hears his reply as the castle gates shut behind them:

“Fuck off.”

Tristan decides it would be pointless to bring this up to anyone again, he figures he’ll probably just get the same answer as last time.

~

The next confusing incident happens only a few days later. But Tristan supposes that at this point... it really shouldn’t be confusing. Gwen was right, he did just... get used to it.

He heard the steps pounding down the corridor before he saw him, but they were coming fast and hard, so he presses himself against the wall, holding the tray to his side to protect it as best he could as Merlin comes skidding round the corner. 

He stops just long enough for Tristan to calm himself by spying the wide grin on his face, but he’s quickly sprinting down the hall again, laughing as he waves whatever it is he’s got clutched in his hands. The second set of loud, rapid footsteps stops Tristan from stepping away from the wall quite yet. Just a moment later, Sir Gwaine follows Merlin’s skidded path around the corner, though the heavier man overshoots slightly and he runs into the wall opposite Tristan with a crash and a deep groan.

The rebellious knight gives a wide-eyed Tristan an awkward nod before pushing himself off the wall and following Merlin’s blazing trail, screaming down the corridor:

“I warned you Merlin!! Don’t come between a man and his ale, now give that back you bastard!”

Tristan hears Merlin’s laughter grow louder, even from the two corridors away that the other servant had managed to race to.

He shrugs to himself, waiting for a moment to see if anyone else was going to come barrelling around the corner before sighing, and continuing his journey up to the visiting Lord’s chambers.

It was unusual, he thought, how quickly he’d come to terms with the fact that a servant was sassing The King and pranking the knights and inviting himself on various hunts and patrols that he really had no business on. Unusual indeed.

~

He’d learnt to ignore it. Or at least brush it off.

In the two weeks since Merlin had (presumably) stolen Sir Gwaine’s skin of ale, he’d seen the servant call The King a long list of imaginative insults (what the hell is a dollop head?), walk around with Sir Leon’s cloak on because he was a little chilly, accuse someone of treason (and somehow been right about it), and threaten to kill at least seven people; including, but not limited to: The King himself, The King’s already dead father, some stuck up Noble (though that was under his breath, Tristan just happened to be stood next to him), and Sir Percival.

And Gwen was... absolutely right. He's just... like that. He's Merlin, and that’s what Merlin does.

So when he turns a corner in a rarely used to corridor to see him pressing The King against a wall, snogging the life out of him, Tristan simply turns around and walks back the other way. Both of them look fairly happy with the arrangement, and they’d probably chosen this corridor for the exact same reason Tristan had: it was out of everyone’s way, and was unlikely to be inhabited.

He thinks it’s odd, how... un-odd he finds it. He absent-mindedly thinks that, with the way they acted around each other, he really should’ve seen this coming. A sudden thought occurs to him, and he ducks into a storage cupboard, laying his tray down carefully as he rummages through the boxes. He lets out a quiet “Yay” when he finds what he’s looking for, carefully picking up his tray with only one hand and nudging the door open again with his hip. 

He walks back towards the corner he had just turned (and turned again) making a conscious effort to keep his steps quiet; he places the danger sign, usually used where walls had collapsed or windows had been smashed, in the middle of the corridor, a clear indication of “Do Not Enter”.

He nods smugly at his quick thinking and easy handy work before mentally planning the quickest route to the kitchens and following it hurriedly.

He casually wonders if he has time to circle around to the other end of the corridor so he could put another sign down before Cook gets angry at him for being late. Probably not. At least, not before they... finish up and move on. Hmm. He suddenly panics about the thought of them seeing the sign and knowing that someone had spotted them but... well. Hopefully they would just appreciate it and move on.

Yet again, he decides not to bring this up to anyone. He may or may not have overheard a few of the knights making some sort of bet, and he may or may not want to watch on with amusement as they fail to realise that all of them have already lost.

Tristan smiles to himself; working here had turned out to be rather entertaining, in the end.

~

THE END

I know it’s short, but I really didn’t know what else to add without it sounding like I was just repeating myself over and over😅

I hope y’all enjoyed it!!

[pippytmi]

Roommates au, enemies to lovers, “you confuse me.” Supercorp obvs

“You’re a fucking liar.”

This is—objectively speaking—not the worst greeting Kara has ever received from her roommate, and so she takes it in stride. “Uh, hello to you…too,” Kara says slowly, silently running through a list of everything she could have done wrong to warrant such strong words.

But Lena does not offer any explanation; in fact, when she spots Kara in the doorway, she sends her a nasty glare as if Kara has said something wrong. “Don’t pretend you’re a saint in this matter, Lex,” Lena hisses, and only then does Kara notice the cell phone in Lena’s hands. “If I have to go and clean up your mess again…”

So it’s one of those days. Kara wisely shuts the door quietly behind her, and sneaks into the kitchen as Lena takes her argument into her room.

There is a list of chores pinned to the fridge—four black X’s cross out Lena’s, and Kara’s are underlined twice. They have a code, so as to avoid speaking to each other; X’s mean done, underlined means Kara you're a slob and a pain in the ass to live with. (All verbatim, by the way.)

The dishes, however, are not on Kara’s agenda at the moment. She instead takes the expensive whiskey hidden under the sink (that belongs to Alex, not that she has noticed it’s missing), and pours it into a glass with some ice. Then she whips out the ingredients for a stir fry, complete with every vegetable she had been saving for the potluck at work this weekend.

It is an unspoken rule that Lena will shut herself off into her room after this phone call is over. She does that every time her brother calls (and on occasion her mother), and Kara has picked up enough information about her roommate to know Lena will appreciate a hard drink and some food. She hasn’t said so or anything, but every time Kara knocks three times on the door and leaves a plate outside, it will re-emerge an hour later completely empty.

Lena’s voice grows louder despite the distance, and Kara turns on the stereo out of respect for her roommate's privacy. Lena hates the stereo and all it stands for; she argues it is outdated, and they have numerous pieces of technology that are less bulky and fully able to connect to radio stations. But Kara keeps it around anyway, because she still likes buying CD’s (and maybe to bother Lena, which is a bonus).

Blink-182 is playing on that alternative station Alex likes. Kara cranks it up as she cooks, singing under her breath as she sautes bell peppers and onions, ignoring the rumble of her stomach and the tight belt of her work pants still digging into her hips. “Say it ain’t so, I will not go,” she practically yells, poking her head into the fridge for the tofu that Lena always keeps. Kara personally won’t touch the stuff, but Lena is trying to eat less meat. It cuts up easily enough, even though Kara isn’t sure what the proper technique is.

She leaves the finished plate and drink outside after it’s done, rapping on Lena’s door in tune with The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” and then finally has some dinner herself. Since the tofu is unappetizing, Kara stores the rest of the stir fry in a container for Lena to take for lunch, and opts for a sandwich. She eats while scrolling through her notifications (she owes Nia twenty bucks, and so far Nia has been clogging up her phone with Venmo requests all well over $500), and keeps the radio on just for background noise.

That’s probably why she doesn’t even notice when Lena approaches; Kara has barely begun to type a text to Nia swearing to bring some cash next time she visits when a sharp voice declares,

“You confuse me.”

Which. Is not at all what Kara expected from her usually empty kitchen. And, caught exceptionally off guard, she nearly falls off her chair. “What the—Lena,” she sputters, righting herself. Unfortunately, the crust of her sandwich is a casualty of the surprise, and she watches as it crumples devastatingly on the floor.

Lena is not half as concerned about the fate of her dinner, and she stalks forward to jab a finger at Kara’s chest. “You confuse me,” she repeats.

Kara blinks. Then blinks again. “Um, okay,” she says. “…why?”

A strange, strangled noise rises from Lena’s mouth, and she appears angrier than Kara has ever seen. (Well, except for that one time that Kara did laundry and flooded the apartment laundromat, which had other pissed off tenants leaving mean messages for two weeks straight). “Because,” angrier-than-usual Lena says, “you do shit like cook food for me and don’t even say anything.”

“What do you want me to say?” Kara frowns, not sure where this conversation is going. “If you want I can start saying ‘Hey Lena, I made dinner’ every time.”

“You and I don’t do dinner,” Lena says, and it sounds like an accusation. “Every time I get off the phone, you decide to leave food outside my door. Why? What on Earth compels you to do that?”

“Because you’re always upset afterwards,” Kara says slowly. “And I thought you could use some cheering up, or at least a drink.”

“Whiskey,” Lena notes. “It’s always whiskey. And it’s never a cheap brand.”

“Well, yeah,” Kara says, gesturing pointedly to Lena’s designer work clothes (that she never seems to be without; Kara’s not sure Lena even owns pajamas). “You would probably accuse me of poisoning you if I gave you anything less.”

Lena narrows her eyes. “You don’t owe me anything,” she says. “So whatever this is, you can stop it.”

“What do you mean, ‘whatever this is’?” Kara repeats incredulously. “I’m just being nice!”

“I never asked you to be ‘nice’!”

Kara exhales, and reminds herself that it is illegal to strangle people. Especially since she is Lena’s roommate, and will therefore be suspect #1. Kara has never been a violent person, but her roommate just manages to test her limits.

“Look,” Kara says patiently, “I give you my sister’s whiskey, and she doesn’t care because she is trying to give up drinking. And I’m not a frequent cook or anything, but I can still throw together a plate because I know you don’t cook at all. That’s it! I don’t have a hidden agenda, or some secret plot here. I’m just being friendly.”

“We are not friends, Kara Danvers,” Lena says. “And I know exactly what this is, even if you refuse to acknowledge it.”

God, what an insufferable—“Okay, know-it-all,” Kara says, instead of the ruder words echoing through her head. “What am I doing?”

Lena’s jaw clenches noticeably. “You pity me,” she accuses. “You look down at my relationship with my family, and—and I don’t want your sympathy, or your stupid food, anymore.”

“If you wanted me to back off, that’s fine,” Kara says, holding her hands up in mock surrender. “But I don’t pity you, or feel sorry for you. Heck, with your track record, I’d feel more sympathy for your family. They seem to be on the other end of some nasty phone calls.”

Lena’s expression darkens. “You don’t know my family.”

“I don’t know you very well, either,” Kara retorts, and she turns back to her phone where three new Venmo requests are waiting (two of them well in the thousands range; Nia must think she’s hilarious). “Message received, okay? I’ll leave you alone.”

At first, Kara assumes that's the end of it—assumes that Lena is going to stalk off, and leave a strongly worded post-it on the fridge later that night for Kara to wake up to. That has always been how their relationship works; they fight, reiterate how much they hate living together, and go right back to ignoring each other.

But Lena doesn't walk away. Instead she sighs, and at that unexpected sound Kara looks up just in time to catch Lena frowning. “I—” Lena begins, and then she pauses uncomfortably before getting the words out. “I'm...sorry. I have been having the worst day, and it’s—it’s rude of me to take it out on you.”

“Okay,” says Kara dumbly, because she’s not sure what to respond. Lena never apologizes. Ever. It’s about as rare as, well, Kara actually doing her chores on time. “Thanks?”

Lena bites her lip, glances away. “You’re welcome,” she says stiffly. And this time she leaves—leaves, and abandons the plate of food Kara left her on the edge of the table.

Kara looks down at her phone. There are ten texts waiting from Nia, and about double that of Venmo requests. But she can’t shake the feeling that she is forgetting something, and it’s more than a twenty dollar bill. “Wait,” she blurts out, “Lena. What—what does that mean? You were an asshole to me, and I was an asshole right back, so why are you apologizing?”

“Well, you are more than welcome to apologize too,” Lena says, pausing in the kitchen doorway. She has a quizzical expression on her face, a kind of raw confusion that Kara has never seen before. Without the sharp clenched jaw and the angry eyes, she’s…just a girl. A girl, with a nervous tic of wringing her fingers together. A girl, despite her guarded nature, who is gazing right back at Kara as if she has no right to.

“Do you want me to apologize to you?”

A beat. “Not really,” Lena says. “I don’t—want that. You’re right, you don’t know me. Or my family. We’re nothing to each other, and I can’t expect you to know how complicated my relationship with them is.”

“Still,” Kara says, and she scratches the back of her neck absentmindedly at the sudden flush of guilt that overtakes her. “I am sorry. It was rude of me to, um, say that. Like if your family is a bunch of serial killers, who am I to say you’re worse than that?”

Lena scrunches her nose in a manner that is sort of cute. “Serial killers? Really?”

Kara shrugs—aiming for casual—and really that just looks like attempting nonchalance when suddenly she’s consumed with thoughts about how pretty her roommate is. “Like you said,” she says, “I don’t know your family.”

And, surprisingly, all Lena does is smile. A real smile, the kind that Kara has never witnessed, barely soft and just kind enough. “They’re not,” she says, and unnecessarily clarifies, “serial killers.”

“That you know of,” Kara points out, and Lena’s cautious smile becomes something fuller. That is the only thing that gives Kara the courage to add, “So, now that we have covered the whole you’re not your family thing, are you really not going to have dinner? I cooked tofu for you and everything!”

“You didn’t have to,” Lena argues, because she is defensive to a fault. But she falters immediately after, and sighs again, albeit in a more mellowed tone. “What I meant to say is, I really don’t need you to keep cooking for me. I’m fine.”

“Well what if I want to cook for you?” Kara says, and that is her own fault: she is ready to argue to protect her (noble) intentions. “We don’t have to be friends, if it terrifies you that much—”

“It does not terrify me—”

“—but we can be friendly,” Kara offers, and it’s a testament to her newfound appreciation for her roommate that she manages to even make a sentence. “If you want.”

Lena tilts her head, considering, and this time when she smiles it is curious. “If you knew what I wanted, Kara Danvers,” she says, “your delicate sensibilities would blush to their roots.” And with that odd goodbye, she eventually takes her leave; however, she does take the plate of stir fry with her, so Kara guesses that means they’re on their way to being friendly, if anything.

[snelbz]

I'll Be Seeing You {2}

Nesta x Cassian, 1940′s AU

Collaboration with @tacmc​

Summary: After Cassian gets injured in the war, he’s taken to a war camp to be cared for until he gains enough strength to return to his battalion. While he’s there, he falls for a nurse that couldn’t care less about his title and doesn’t put up with his bullshit. Once he’s healed and the years pass by, he finds that there’s only one thing he wants to remember from the war, and she’s only a letter away.

Trigger Warnings: war

A/N: Enjoy a surprise chapter a couple days early, we’re just too excited for y’all to read this story.

Chapters will be posted every Monday.

Word Count: 2336

IBSY Masterlist

Shelby’s Masterlist

Tara’s Masterlist 

Nesta was making her rounds as the sun set outside of their desolate war camp.

It had been a long day, one filled with losses. After the ambush two days prior, their tent had become full. Now, there were far too many empty beds.

It never became easier.

With every soul that she attempted to heal that passed from this world to the next, she felt like a failure, even though it was impossible to save every soldier that had been injured in the heart of battle.

There were victories, though.

Those who were left in the tent were improving.

The ambush had brought in nearly fifty injured soldiers, and just over twenty of them remained.

Including Corporal Cassian Nazari, who she was walking up to now, a glass of water in hand.

He blinked a few times against the light of the guttering candle on the table, but after a moment his eyes settled on her. Settled, but still glazed with pain.

“Nurse Nesta,” he said, voice rasping from sleep, attempting to resituate himself in the uncomfortable bed, with one good arm. “Is it time for my sponge bath already?”

She sighed through her nose and closed her eyes, resisting the urge to rub her temples.

Most men in the infirmary were polite, respectful, grateful to be taken care of, especially knowing what befell their fellow soldiers who hadn’t been quite as lucky as they were. The first day she’d attended to the corporal, she’d assumed his inappropriate comment about foreplay had been some sort of unintended joke, something he hadn’t been able to control as he awoke.

But as Cassian slowly healed, Nesta learned those little comments were quite regular for him. And when he learned that they made her blush, or even snap at him occasionally, it only made him say them more frequently.

“I’ll give you a bucket and a sponge and you may help yourself,” she quipped. “Does that interest you?”

He laughed, quietly, but winced as it seemed the simple shaking of his shoulders brought a bout of pain. “You’re in a good mood today.”

“Why do you think that?” she asked.

“You joke with me,” Cassian said, shrugging a shoulder. “You joke when you’re in a good mood.”

“I don’t joke,” she replied. “I only give back what is given to me, even though I do it in a far more appropriate way.”

“There are worse things than being inappropriate,” Cassian promised her.

Nesta simply shook her head. “Here.”

He took the pill from her palm and took it, swallowing it with the glass of water she gave him. For a moment, his eyes closed and he sighed, deeply.

“How are you feeling today?” She asked, sitting down in the chair next to the table. He opened his eyes and she reached out to feel his head. He had been feverish the night before, and she was worried about infection setting in.

He was just as clammy as he’d been, if not more so. There was a slight sheen of sweat on his brow, but before she said anything, she wanted to hear it from him. Even if she was fairly sure it would be a lie laced with male bravado.

“Fine,” he replied, though he attempted to sit up with one arm again and winced. “Like I could get back on the battlefields right now.”

Rolling her eyes, she stood. “Too bad that won’t be happening yet.”

She strode for the medicine cabinet in the center of the tent, aiming for an antibiotic strong enough to stave off the infection. His own inability to keep still had led she and Madja to band his fractured arm to his side, but this kept the bullet wounds on his back from airing out. It was about choosing the lesser of two evils with this man it seemed.

Last night, they’d elected to set his arm. Tonight, it seemed he’d go back in the sling and she’d see what needed tending to on his back.

“Are you allergic to penicillin, Corporal?” Nesta asked, coming back to his cot.

“Not that I’m aware of, but I have a feeling that we’re about to find out for certain,” he noted, chuckling, then breaking into a cough fit.

“Alright,” she sighed, and pulled him fully into sitting position. “It seems you still have a fever. I’m going to give you this penicillin. Then, I’m going to take off your bandages and clean your wounds.”

“And then?” he asked.

Nesta blinked, hesitating as she a needle with the drug. “Pardon?”

“After you clean my wounds, what will you do?” Cassian asked, that sly smile remaining. “Because I have a few ideas-.”

“Corporal,” Nesta interrupted. “I am here to heal you, and nothing more.”

Cassian lifted a brow. “First of all, it’s Major, actually. It’s been years since I was a corporal. Secondly, I thought we could play a card game. What was it you were thinking?” Nesta’s cheeks heated and she ignored his pointed question. “My apologies, but Private Hale said—.”

“He knows nothing, which is why he’s only a private.”

She cleared her throat and held out her hand, letting him take the two pills in her palm. He did so, without any commentary, which Nesta took as a blessed relief.

She retrieved the sling his arm had previously been in, as well as fresh bandages, an ewer of fresh water and a bottle of antiseptic.

And a bit to put between his teeth in case the pin became too unbearable.

With a few tugs on the knots tying them together, Nesta unwrapped his arm from his body, not taking a full look at his back yet.

Almost immediately, Cassian tried to stretch out his arm, which earned him a chastising look from Nesta. “It’s tight,” he defended.

“If you move it too much before it’s had time to set and heal, tight will be the least of your worries, Major,” she replied, carefully tying the two ends of the fabric sling around his neck. “Not to mention your shoulder is still too weak as well. Do you want to dislocate it again?”

He grumbled something that sounded similar to No, ma’am, and sat still while Nesta settled his arm into place.

Once she tended to his arm, she prepared herself to examine his back again.

“This isn’t going to feel good,” she warned, taking in the angry, red skin puckering the edges of the wounds. They’d been able to retrieve the bullets while he was unconscious, but they weren’t in the most ideal and clean conditions for a healing to take place. Gently pressing her fingers around the mildest looking one earned a hiss and sudden jerk from Cassian. As well as puss, far more puss than Nesta was expecting. “I’m going to have to clean these out.”

“Can’t you give me more of that stuff that put me under and do what you need to do?”

His words weren’t unkind, but the tone… Nesta knew he was in pain.

She could, of course, but the powdered pain killer was much stronger than what she’d already administered. Not to mention is much, much shorter supply. It was reserved for surgeries, mostly, or life-threatening injuries.

An injury like the major had been brought in with at the time.

Not for a standard, but nasty, infection, unfortunately.

War was unfair, Nesta decided then. She’d known it for quite a while, watching good men die for their lands, but it was evident in that moment as she looked at the man’s ravaged back before her.

“Unfortunately, no,” she said, at last. “But I promise to work quickly.”

He gave her a curt nod and braced himself.

The alcohol burned, she knew that, she knew that it had to feel like fire was being lit to the surface of the skin, but as she poured the alcohol over the wound and began to clean it, the only sense of pain that Cassian showed was his rigid posture.

“Bear with me,” Nesta muttered, beginning to rebandage the wound.

“Got any whiskey?” he asked.

Despite herself, Nesta snorted. “No, I don’t. Is that your drink of choice, major?”

She was trying to distract him, trying to make the time go by just a little bit quicker as she worked.

“Usually,” he said, and huffed. “Every now and then I like to order a simple lager.”

“Lager,” she repeated. “What a luxury.”

“It has been a while,” he agreed.

She worked in silence for a few minutes, having to go so far as to scrape out the bits of skin that were too far gone and only likely to slow down the healing process. But when his breathing became ragged as she started on the worst of the wounds, the one right near his spine, she asked, “What’s the first meal you’re going to have when you get home? What have you been dreaming of since you enlisted?”

Mindless chatter, she reminded herself, was just as effective as a painkiller.

He was quiet for a moment, only hissing as she pressed the alcohol-soaked rag to his back. She had accepted he wasn’t going to answer when he softly asked, “Don’t you mean if?”

She was suddenly very thankful that she was working on his back and was unable to see his face. Playing dumb, she kept him talking. “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

“Don’t you mean if I get home?” He asked. His voice was hollow, lacking the warmth it usually did when he spoke. It was unlike what she’d started to grow accustomed to. “This is a war we’re in the middle of, ma’am.”

She cleared her throat, continuing to work. “I think you ought to change your manner of speech, major, or you’ll be more likely to conscribe yourself to believe the worst.” Pressing a clean bandage to his skin to staunch the bleeding, she asked, “Now about that meal, sir?”

Surprising her, he laughed, quietly. “I guess I haven’t thought about it too much. My mother used to make a mean pork roast. With carrots and potatoes. That would hit the spot right about now.”

Nesta couldn’t help but lick her lips at the thought of a nice, hot, homemade dinner. “How about dinner rolls?”

Cassian hummed. “My mom used to make the fluffiest dinner rolls. She used to make me roll the dough. I hated it, until it was time to eat them.”

She smiled to herself. “My sister Elain loves to bake. She makes this pear crumble…” Shaking her head, she sighed. “It’s the best. Especially when she whips cream to put on top.”

“I don’t remember the last time I had a warm dessert,” he admitted, wincing as she applied antibacterial cream to the wounds. Turning to glance at her, he amended, “Actually, I don’t remember the last time I had a hot meal.”

The words hurt Nesta’s heart. The food they had in the med camps weren’t great, but she was sure they were better than rations the soldiers were issued.

“Tell me more about your sister,” he breathed, clearly needing the distraction while she worked.

Nesta sighed. “Which one?”

“How many do you have?” he asked.

“Two,” Nesta said. “Couldn’t be more opposite of one another. Feyre, the youngest, would rather spend her time painting, or outdoors in the woods behind our house, while Elain prefers to spend her time baking, or in her garden.”

Cassian nodded, thoughtfully. “And you?”

“What of me?” she asked, beginning to rebandage his wounds.

“What do you prefer to do with your time?” he pushed.

Nesta’s hands slowed. She wished she had more time to fill as of late. “I enjoy reading, I suppose.”

“You suppose?” he asked, then chuckled.

“What’s so funny about that?” Nesta asked, eyes narrowed at the back of his head.

“You either do or you don’t,” he said, shrugging, and wincing from the simple motion. “But, you suppose.”

Nesta scoffed. “Fine. I enjoy reading.”

“What manner of books?”

She hesitated for a moment. “Romance.”

He snorted. “Of course. Let me guess, a knight in shining armor, coming to rescue a damsel in distress?”

Nesta’s cheeks heated as his guess was nearly spot on of the plot of one of the tattered, well-loved books she kept in the small bag she brought with her from home. “And what’s so wrong with a knight saving a lady who needs help?”

“Nothing,” he replied, trying to shift his hurt arm. She adjusted the sling to hold him tighter. “I just think it’s a silly ideal to hold. Not everyone is going to have someone come save them.”

She was suddenly very aware of the fact that they were in a med camp in the middle of war.

“I guess you’re right,” she mused. “But I don’t see why that should stop anyone from dreaming.”

Cassian huffed and said nothing more.

When Nesta was finished, she asked, “How does that feel?”

“As good as it can,” he answered, in grumpy sincerity. “Although, I still wouldn’t mind that sponge bath.”

“Has anyone ever told you how ridiculously impossible you are?” she asked, the words flying out of her mouth before she could think better of it.

Cassian’s smile only grew. “If only you knew.”

Nesta’s chin rose as she tried to make sense of his remark, but she asked, “Can I get you anything else for the time being?” Cassian opened his mouth, but Nesta interrupted with, “Nothing that has to do with sponges.”

He laughed, quietly. “A cure for boredom?”

Just as Nesta was getting ready to reply, a cry came from just outside the tent, and her body was tensing, preparing itself. Madja’s eyes connected with hers, and Nesta’s feet were immediately in motion.

Another body coming in, caught in warfare.

It seemed he would have to entertain himself, as Nesta was once again vividly reminded that no one may ever come to save her.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t save someone else.

[peakyblindersxx]

whiskey business - john shelby x reader (part 8 of ?)

gif by @thesoldiersminute can i send you a cake or something cause fuCk!!!!!!!!!!! he's beautiful

a/n: to everyone still reading this fic, my sweet angels, ily!! this fic is so near and dear to my heart and @stxdyblr-2k has just done such an amazing job with it i can't even thank her enough. as per the last part, this one is also mostly her, just me editing but i hope you guys love it as much as i did!!! don't worry, there's gonna be a lot more :) and i apologize for being not as active, i'm gonna try to get a couple of requests up that i'm really excited about this week tysm for being patient with me <3

love, abi xxx

read part one two three four five six seven | my masterlist

prompt: ada has some talking to do, and you're not about to deny her.

warnings: fluff, semi-angst, tommy being the cocky mf he is (let's be real, it's only acceptable cause he's so damn fine), john being cute and in love and jesus i am head over heels

tagging: @datewithgianni, @mayaslifeinabox, @deepdonutkid, @springsoulofengland, @lilymurphy03, @operation-spot

You had planned to go to Ada's after work, but she obviously had other ideas. She didn't even bother walking in and asking to speak to you; instead, choosing to bang on the window closest to your desk and yelling at you to "fucking hurry up!" Your boss opened the door for you expectantly, not offering you any protection; he was firmly in the Shelby's ever growing pocket and as long as he could go home to his children, his sickly wife and their six bed in the country, with a full time nurse and nanny, he had no interest in crossing Thomas.

"Ada, I was coming to see you after work, I swear."

"I know. I was going to let you but..." She trailed off. "We need to talk. I don't know what the fuck is going on with you. John said he'd seen you last night and you asked after me."

John had indeed seen you last night. It was strange waking up with him, used to leaving almost immediately after he was finished with you. Your small bed could barely comfortably fit you both, having to intertwine your limbs with John's to not fall off the edge. You had awoken to John pressing a kiss to your forehead before lazily trailing his fingers between your legs, waiting for you to open your eyes before settling between your thighs, tongue swirling around your clit, making you cum before sunrise.

"Do we have to do this in the street?" You practically begged, the shouting having attracted onlookers.

"I wanted to talk to you before anyone else in the family gets to you because I need you to be honest."

"Ada-"

"No, I'm doing you a favour here, so you fucking listen. Right now, between you and I, no bullshit. No tactics. No white lies. You have to tell me exactly what we're dealing with." She looked frantic, scared for some reason.

You nodded, walking her down the side street, careful not to link arms with her. You knew she was doing you a favour; this wasn't about forgiveness or friendship, much more was at stake here.

"To what extent was Thomas involved?"

That took you off guard. Ada read the confusion on your face and sighed impatiently, her subtle plea for you to keep up.

Shit. You remembered your conversation with John, how she thought this was her brother's way of pushing her out of the company.

"Don't spare my feelings. What did my brother say to you?"

"He said it was in our mutual interest that you didn't find out. He didn't care who John slept with but cared who you trusted so I had to trust him. He said there was no point in upsetting you over one of John's conquests who he'd tire of in a month."

"That all?"

"Pretty much, I didn't know Arthur knew. He never talked to me about it, did laugh at Thomas' digs now that I think on it-"

"Did you know Isaiah and Michael knew?"

"I thought they were aware but no one ever talked to me about it."

"Of course they wouldn't." She hissed, frustration causing a nerve on her neck to jump.

Ada and you had spoken for years about the rampant misogyny of her brothers and any men you two came into contact with. Although you were both far more reserved than you used to be as rebellious and adventurous thirteen year olds, you'd both grew increasingly angry at how you were treated. She'd long written off her brothers as womanisers, who saw women as purely sexual and entertaining, objectifying them. You both long despised how they dehumanised women. She was amazed that Thomas had attempted to settle down and managed a somewhat loving marriage, but resented him for his carelessness and need for power which inevitably killed his wife.

"Ada, I just want to say..." You licked your lip nervously, unsure of how to continue.

"You need to talk, Y/N. No bollocks."

"Before last night, he'd never been to mine or called. I always went to him."

The muscle in her jaw tensed.

"You slept with him last night then?" You met her question with silence and she rolled her eyes. "The second he said he saw you I knew you had, he wanted to tell me that he was going to continue seeing you and that he hoped I'd be able to accept it one day."

"We never intended to hurt you. It was meant to be fun at first, but now..." You cut yourself off with a sigh, unable to admit you'd fallen for her brother.

"Isn't fun for me. It's fucking embarrassing." She paused, lighting a cigarette, nervous to offer you one, conflicted within herself. She raised her eyebrow, prompting you to continue, the mannerism so similar to her brother’s.

"It should never have happened. I am never going to be able to fix this, I'm so fucking ashamed for doing this to you, Ada."

She sulked, silently drinking in your words.

"Obviously it's not going to be the same, yeah? I'm really fucking upset. I'm so fucked off with you but Poll's really worried about a coup. She thinks you're being used as blackmail against John to keep him on side with Tommy while he expands."

"Makes sense."

"You're part of a much bigger game, you know?"

You nodded. "Yeah, and I knew I would lose from the start. Fucking tragic, Ada."

"My brothers keep pushing, keep growing the business. They keep chasing this prize but I don't think it even exists."

"If it does, it isn't worth it if this shit is the cost. I didn't mean to play into his hands."

"You couldn't have known." She said with a shrug, " 'Siah thinks John loves you."

"He told me last night." Several times, this morning also. You would never tire of hearing him moan those words into your neck or being yelled from your front door as he left for the office.

"You love him, don't you?" She said bluntly, a statement more than a question, your face suddenly hot with embarrassment.

Everything you'd suppressed for months, everything that you'd hidden, every time you lied smiling, every knowing glance from a stranger, every degrading comment from under Thomas' breath.

"I do, an awful lot."

She pauses, relighting her cigarette, "The worst thing about the entire situation is it could've been fine if someone told me. I wouldn't have loved it, obviously, but-" Ada sighed, rubbing her temple with her free fingers.

"I thought you'd hate me."

"How could I? I'd be more angry that you'd drop your standards for my brother. Seriously? Him? Mate…."

"Come off it, I've always thought he was charming. He's funny, smart-"

"Don't gush over my brother, it's grim. I'm just so fucked off you all lied to me." She peered at you through her cigarette smoke. "If you love him and he loves you..." she pressed her lips together as she tensed her jaw, "I could get over it. If it'd make you both happy. But that's going to take a long time. A long time."

"Ada-"

"Look I have meetings and shit to sort, I have to run." She interjected, checking her wristwatch, adjusting the cap which sat atop her trendy short haircut. You caught her arm before she could turn away.

"Thank you. For understanding."

She shrugged you off, "I don't get it, I'd never do that to you. But you also don't get to choose who you're attracted to. I'm really hurt, but I do love you and John a lot. He mentioned that after last night you helped him, got him cleaned up. I have to believe that you both do love each other. So I have to believe that this is a good idea for you both and not stand in your way."

"I love you, Ada. Can we hang out soon, just us two?"

She shook her head. "I need some time, I'll be in touch, yeah?"

You nod, stretching out your pinky finger. She sighed and linked it with hers, as you'd done since you were children, a silent signal to each other after a fight that you still had the other's back.

"Right, I've got to get back to this meeting, Tom is getting done by Polly for nearly getting John killed. I need to be there in case one of the lads needs patching up."

"Your aunt has a nasty left hook, I'll give her that."

"She'll be pleased you think so, she wanted Tommy to slice you to bits for crossing me."

"Fuck’s sake, thanks for the warning, I'll keep my head down. Good luck with the meeting."

Ada nodded and you watched her walk away, a Blinder suddenly appearing by her side seemingly from nowhere. This city was crawling with them. They clambered into Ada's car as you watched the car disappear into the distance before walking back to work. Thankfully, with your head still attached to your shoulders.

*******

Ada arrived at Thomas' estate, following the swell of shouting voices to his exquisite library. It was eye roll worthy and typical Tommy to choose the location of his post-fuckup debrief to be where he had the best view of the gardens, river and rolling hills. She could bet he'd sit in a corner and stare at the view, zoning out their aunt's lecture.

An armed blinder she vaguely recognised opened the door. Thomas was making a statement today with the armed guards, she noted. Her brothers really were fucked up. Arthur was an alcoholic killer who couldn't understand that Thomas would betray them all eventually, Finn was letting the tokyo and the razor chasers that circled him distract him from keeping the family together, John was apparently in love with her best friend, and finally, Thomas nearly got Arthur and John murdered last night with his foolishness. At this point only herself and Polly were holding everyone together, keeping everything silently moving along.

The door opened, and she was the last to arrive, Polly glaring as she murmured an apology, standing next to Finn. His eyes were bloodshot, grey-purple smudges under his eyes, he'd obviously had a heavy night. The last thing the poor lad needed was Polly's shrill yelling and the blinding sun streaming through the large immaculately crafted windows, which he'd tried to block with the brim of his cap. John caught her eye, acknowledging his sister with a nod, which she returned with a small tight smile.

Ada couldn't bear to think about the reasoning behind her brother's smug interjections in between Polly's rant to Thomas who was listening wordlessly, smoking.

Y/N and John? It didn't make sense. They had a similar sense of humour, sure, but she was far too intelligent for him. He also had a swarm of children, while Y/N preferred a wild night out only staggering home at daybreak.

It made far more sense for Y/N to end up with Michael, or if it had to be a brother, Finn. They were younger, so had less responsibilities and commitments so they could keep up with her. But John? Of course she knew he was believed to be the Casanova of her brothers, he was kind, he was an excellent father, yet he could never keep anyone around long, usually John was chasing someone new after a month or so. That's why the revelation that John had been involved with her best friend for almost half a year had taken her completely by surprise. Maybe that was why she was open to them being together. That had to be it. This relationship was completely out of character for John; she needed to believe that he was serious about his feelings towards Y/N and wasn't going to fuck her over. Because if he did, John would be a dead man.

"I don't know why you're all bleating at me. Yeah, I overlooked some details in the planning of last night's meeting-"

"Such as warning us that they were really fucked off because you'd helped bomb their warehouse." John pointed out.

"What do you want me to do? Apologise? Grow up, John." Tommy snapped back.

"They had loaded guns against their heads, they deserve an apology." Ada interjected, John giving her an appreciative flash of smile. She did love her big brother. Despite the fact that she'd pretty much only been yelling at him for the past month, John never dismissed her feelings and only apologised. It was confusing to admit to herself, but when Isaiah told her that he was confident John loved Y/N, she felt a wave of relief. At least he cared about her; it was the bare minimum but the Shelbys were notorious for not even meeting the bare minimum for acceptable social interactions.

"They didn't fuckin’ get shot." Thomas stated, his voice matter of fact and condescending.

"Do you ever hear yourself speak?" Polly spit back at him. "They didn't get shot this time. But it was too fucking close."

"It won't happen again, Polly." Tommy sighed. "What else can I say? Sorry lads, take the weekend off?"

"It's a good start." Arthur countered, "You're also paying for the extension on my house and my wedding."

"Fuck’s sake Arthur I was joking. But fine. Sure."

"You can't buy your family off." Polly scoffed at him.

"Think of it as compensation, a settlement." Thomas coolly corrected his aunt. "What do you want, John? A fucking farm?"

John hesitates while Finn whispered suggestions to him, Ada meeting his stare, John raising a brow to her in question. She sighed and nodded her approval.

"You can pay off my mortgage Tom, give me the kids' birthdays off-"

"So you'd never come into work then?" Finn cut in, Ada elbowing him in the ribs. She usually enjoyed Finn's remarks but she knew where John was heading; she could barely breathe.

"Tom, you're also to leave Y/N completely alone. If you have a problem with her, you come to me about it." He said firmly.

Arthur and Tommy traded knowing looks, obviously more aware of the ins and outs of his relationship than Ada was.

"Also if you're paying for Arthur's wedding I want the equivalent in cash." He adds.

Tommy shrugged. "Whatever. As long as we can move past last night and focus on today's order of business."

John nodded, satisfied. He knew Tom wouldn't care, but just saying out loud that he was involved with Y/N and having his family aware was a relief. He hadn't realised until he finally admitted how stressful keeping his relationship a secret was. Now, he could stop worrying about Tommy interfering.

Polly rolled her eyes, lecturing the brothers on their lack of moral backbone to allow themselves to be bought off, but dismissed them. She caught Ada's arm in hers on their way out, pulling her far from earshot.

"So Y/N and John are together now?" She asked, her face firm and scowling.

"Polls, I talked with her, she's aware of what she's done. She apologised and meant it. What more can I ask for?"

"Her not to have fucked him in the first place."

"She said that. Look, Polls, they're happy right? John seems happy-"

"He always is when he gets a leg over."

"You know she looked after him last night? Fixed him up after the meeting."

"Meeting? It was a fucking set up." Polly hissed but her face had softened. "She cleaned him up?"

"Antiseptic, bandages and all."

Polly looked subtly impressed, although she'd never admit it. "He went to hers? Not yours?"

"He wanted to talk to her." Ada shrugs, "I saw her this morning and-"

"What do you mean? You bumped into her?"

"I went to her work." Ada admitted, her aunt shooting her an exasperated glare.

"Why do I bother? Nobody listens to me."

"I had to talk to her, I'm glad I did. She reckons she loves him, he told her last night that he loves her, so..."

"We are talking about John? Our John?"

"I know Polls, I'm as amazed as you."

Her aunt huffed, unimpressed. "Are you okay with it though?"

"I guess, I just want them to be happy. I've told them to give me time with it."

"She was a good friend growing up, but people change, sometimes for the better, often for the worse."

"Poll, it's Y/N; she's my best friend. At the end of the day, we'd do anything for each other."

"Sweet Ada, you're going to be so miserable if you keep letting people walk all over you." Polly said wisely, kissing her goodbye affectionately. "I hope you're right. If she makes you cry again I'll kill her myself."

"Thanks, Polls."

She knew her aunt wasn't joking.

[twstinstardust]

Hello! Might I be so bold as to assume I have the honor of being the first to request? 😳👉👈 probably not since your rules were posted yesterday

May I request some headcanons for the Octavinelle trio (separate) having a crush on a shy fem. mc? Mc is usually the type that stutters over everything she says, and have this ‘permanent’ initimidated/nervous look on her face. Then one day, while the guy was trying to get closer to her, by first trying just to find out how to make her comfortable around him, he accidentally brought up one of her favorite topics (he didn’t knew about it). And he sees her eyes widen a bit with a new shine to them, before she passionately started to rant about the topic with a smile. Still shy but stuttered way less, until she realized she was ranting and then quickly shrunk back into her shell. How’d the boys react in your opinion?

Hope this request was somewhat interesting, if not, feel free to ignore 😅

Have a great day 😊

It's all good anon! Glad to answer this first request for the blog! Hope you enjoy and that I have written the trio well! 。^‿^｡ I hope you also have a wonderful day! 

Azul Ashengrotto 

• Well this is surely a surprise to witness, but not an unwelcome one. Azul had at first seen your nervous and stuttering behavior as a reminder of who he was back in his younger years, but soon came to become enamored with it. Still, he wanted to know what you were like under that shell of yours, but of course wouldn't force you out too abruptly. Azul will take things slow and try out different methods. He's a patient man, but feels disappointed in himself with the dead ends he hits on the way. Yet he doesn't stray from his goal, determined. I feel he'd be aware that his presence is somewhat intimidating (not as much as the Leech twins), not because he's scary in appearance or anything, but more in what is said about him. Azul is quite well-known, so it's natural to be nervous around someone with this sort of status around the school. But fear not, Azul approaches you in a friendly manner. There's no need to feel tense around him. 

• Finally, you actually open up to him and it's when he least expects it. He wasn't even trying for a moment as he just brought up something that immediately caused the gears in your head to start turning. When your rambling began, Azul couldn't help but stare in shock/awe before composing himself, listening in amusement. Ah, so this got her to open up? I wonder what else she's interested in. He then sees you pause and apologize for going off a tangent, getting ready to withdraw back to your form of security but he stops you. Azul chuckles and points out how informed you are on the topic and you should continue if you'd like. 

Jade Leech 

• Jade is certainly amused by those turn of events. Ah, so that's what gets her to come out of hiding? Interesting. He honestly won't leave this alone now that he's found a way to get you to express yourself more without being intimidated, since, of course he's highly aware that he could come off as that. Especially with what he does and that calm but chilling demeanor he holds up. That smile as well can be a reassurance but also an edge to dealing with pests, so it's like a double edged sword in some sense. However, he is more levelheaded and has been approaching you with careful and well thought out steps. And now, it has come to be worth it as you go on about a subject he brought up during one of those times of getting you to be more open with him. He just needs to keep you from shying away. 

• He actually is quite charmed by how your face lights up when a topic you're enthusiastic about is brought up. Jade can honestly relate with his enjoyment for mushrooms, along with the club he runs. Still, you won't get off easy from some light teasing here and there, but that doesn't mean he wants you to stop talking, no no. In fact, he encourages it. The first time you showed off this side of you, it took you a bit before noticing him since Jade was listening intently without interrupting. Oh? Why'd you stop? It was getting interesting. 

Floyd Leech 

• Ah! Little Shrimp is not all scared now! Huh? Why is she hiding again? Floyd showed excitement when you expressed such passion for a topic he randomly brought up at one point; squeezing you in a hug mid rant. Of course, this startles you, making you retreat to the nervous exterior you had before. This bummed Floyd out as he tried to coax you into talking like that again. He's tried soooo hard to have you show something besides the cute spooked expressions you made when he came by. Sure, it was fun, but he wanted to see something different for a change and tried some ways to see those results. So far it was just the same as usual and he grew impatient with every failed attempt. He wants you to come out now! Or he'll eventually pull you out of your shell. 

• Good thing he blurted out this one thing you were so invested in, because that's what got you to actually talk more than you normally would. I feel like Floyd would understand the feeling of knowing so much about a certain topic since he himself is capable of remembering anything he's seen or read if it doesn't bore him, that is. So now he's dragging you around to see what else you're interested in, just to hear you talk more. He's gotten this far so he is not letting this sort of thing get away. It'll be non stop poking at you to see how'd you react to whatever topics he can bring up. Be sure to prepare yourself once he comes running to you. Little Shrimp~ Come on! Let's talk some more! It'll be fun. So don't hide away.