#i went to the library and picked up a couple books i’ve been wanting to read

[cetoddle-archive]

girl it’s storming !!

[sinnabarmoth]

Worthy of Devotion (5/9)

Pairing: Sea God|Rafayel x Worshipper|Reader (fem)

Summary: An encounter in the library leaves Reader and Rafayel reeling with emotions they don't know how to maneuver.

Content Warnings: Adult language.

Length: 2k

Chapters: (1) (2) (3) (4) (6) (7) (8) (9)

Read on AO3

~~~

“You really need to take better care of yourself.”

“For goodness sake, Raf, it was one bad fish. You’re acting like I intentionally poisoned myself.” You were back up and moving but still taking things slow since you still needed to replenish all the fluids you lost during your unfortunate vomit festival the other day.

“You might as well have. I thought you were smart enough to know when a fish was rotten.”

“It didn’t look rotten! It didn’t taste rotten. I thought it was fine. How many times do we have to go over this?”

“I just think that you should still be resting.”

“I’ve been resting for days. If I stay in bed any long I am going to go insane. Besides, you say you want me to rest but what I think you mean is you want to use me as a pillow so you can take a nap.” You were currently in the library reordering the books. The previous system these tomes and scrolls were categorized in was baffling. Did the previous followers just stuff them wherever they could find an open slot?

Rafayel was following behind you with a stack of books in his arms. “You have proven surprisingly comfortable.”

“I think you just like that I play with your hair.”

“That as well.” he handed you another book to put on the shelf. “So what do you say? Quick half an hour nap?”

“Maybe after we finish reshelving this section.”

“Ugh.” he dropped the books and plopped himself on the ground. “All you ever do is work. Do you hate fun or something?”

“If you’re going to be dramatic can you not take it out on the books? I had those already ordered.” you sighed and started picking them back up.

“Stop working.” he grabbed you by the arm and pulled you down onto the floor with him.

“At the rate you want me to go I’ll probably have this temple rebuilt and reorganized in a couple years instead of a couple months.”

“And what’s so wrong with that? A couple years away from the noise of civilization. Just the peace and the quiet.”

“Peace and quiet? Am I supposed to get that here because there is this very whiny god that keeps coming by to disturb me.” you gave a little flick to his nose.

“And what god could this be?”

“Well he’s tall, wears a lot of jewelry, pretty lazy, doesn’t like cats--”

“Ethereally handsome?”

“Actually I was going to say he can’t win a game of Jumping Shrimp to save his life.” you smirked at his annoyed expression.

“I think maybe this god is just letting you win at Jumping Shrimp.”

“No, he’s too competitive to hand me wins. Although, with how well he plays he might as well be.”

“Hmph,” Rafayel rolled over so his back was facing you.

“And he also loves to pout.” you poked the back of his head. “Raf, come on. I was just teasing.”

He scooched along the floor to put more space between you two. You rolled your eyes and scooted after him.

“Rafayel. Look at me. Please.” you poked him again. He didn’t turn.

“If you don’t look at me I’m gonna start being formal again. So turn around.” Again he didn’t move. “Rafayel. Your Radiance. Oh God of the Seas and bringer of storms. Will you please bless your devout follower with your gaze?”

Nothing.

“You big baby, will you look at me?” you pulled on his arm to get him to turn but he went rigid and pushed back so you couldn’t move him. “Oh how very mature. I’ll get you to look at me one way or another.”

You hovered over him trying to get a look at his face. He kept turning and turning until his face was flat against the floor. You groaned. “Rafayel! You’re just doing this to piss me off now.”

“Is it working?” he muttered into the stone floor.

“Yes!”

“Good.”

“You absolute--” A torrent of blasphemy waited on your tongue to be unsheathed so you could cut this childish god down to size.

You grabbed him and shoved him with all your might until he was flopped back on his back. “Ha!” He flopped back onto his side the second you got him on his back. “Oh no you don’t!”

You grabbed him again. The two of you began rolling around on the floor as you tried to get him to look at you. You had a leg hooked over him and was trying to get him under you so he would be forced to look at you.

“Raf, can you please just--ow!” you tugged your arm free of him. “Did you bite me?”

“Maybe.”

“You want to play dirty? Fine then.” You grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Let go!” he tried to pry your hands off.

“Not until you look at me!” You tugged his head back but he rolled again, like an alligator rending its prey. “Damn it, Rafayel! We are not doing this all day!”

With a final bout of strength you flipped him to his back, grabbed his wrists, and pinned them to the floor. You sat straddled across his waist, breathing heavily. Finally! You had him! You looked at his face but he had his eyes shut tight. You dropped your head. “Do you think you’re funny?”

“I don’t know. According to my “most devout follower” I’m a big lazy baby that can’t win a simple game of Jumping Shrimp. She said nothing about being funny.”

“It is a wonder that you are considered a god.” you muttered. “But fine, you win. Don’t look at me. Never look at me again. Who am I to deserve his fishy-ness’s holy gaze. That just means you don’t get to see me give you your apology. I was going to say I was sorry but since you won’t even look at me I don’t see the point. Oh well. I guess we are to be strangers from now on.” You let go of him.

It was then he decided to open his eyes. You turned your gaze away. Rafayel sighed.

“Hey,” he said. “Look at me.”

“No. If I am unworthy to be looked upon by you then I am surely not worthy to look upon you either.”

“Yet sitting on me doesn’t seem to be an issue.” he tried turning your face to him but you squeezed your eyes shut like he had.

You felt him shift as he sat up. You tried to move off his lap but his arms circled around you, keeping you in place. His hands had decided to settle on your hips. They burned through the thin material of your clothes as if you wore none at all. “Clownfish, look at me.” he crooned.

“No.” You weren’t looking at him for an entirely new reason now.

“My little human,” he said, his voice a gentle whisper. “I’d like it very much if you would open your eyes now.”

You shook your head. You prayed that he couldn’t hear how hard your heart was beating.

He grabbed your hand and crossed it over your chest to cover your heart. “I can’t hear a thing. I promise.”

Damn it! Stop praying!

“I’m sorry for angering you and for making you uncomfortable…and for biting.” You could hear a hint of humor in his voice. “That’s not the type of god you deserve.” You felt a gentle brush of his lips against your cheek.

You forced your eyes back open and found his intense gaze settled on you. “It’s alright…” you mumbled, “I’m sorry for teasing you and wrestling you and pulling your hair. You deserve a better follower than that.” He seemed to be waiting for something.

Your hands were still resting over your racing heart. You leaned forward, your eyes traitorously drifting to his lips for just a moment. When your gaze flicked back to his that blazing fire was back in his eyes. Your breath caught.

“Cor meum…” he murmured, his face so close you could feel his breath brush against your lips.

You turned your head and kissed his cheek before leaping off his lap and grabbing a random armful of scrolls off a nearby table. “I need to go shelve these before I lose the afternoon light!” you shouted over your shoulder and fled. Fled like a coward.

~~~

Rafayel was stuck to the floor, helplessly staring in the direction you ran away.

By the tides…what was he doing?

He touched a hand to his lips. The feel of your skin against them was burned into his memory now. So was the way your legs felt straddled across him. The way your hand gripped his hair, even if it did hurt. Then to feel your own lips press to his face…

He had thought for a moment that you had a different target in mind when he saw you leaning in. He didn’t miss the way your eyes flicked to his mouth. Had he been too eager? Had you seen something that frightened you? Maybe all of it frightened you. Maybe whatever this was becoming, these feelings that grew every day between you, they were all too much.

You hadn’t asked for any of this when you decided to leave the mainland. You hadn’t expected to actually meet him or to be stuck on this island for weeks. Closer to months now. He certainly hadn’t expected to keep returning. He could have sent a number of emissaries from Lemuria to deliver you food and clothes and other needed supplies. He didn’t need to stop by almost every day to see you, talk to you, play with you. He shouldn’t have been. There were duties in Lemuria he was shirking every time he came here.

Yet the days he stayed away were the loneliest yet. All he wanted was to return to the temple and find you. To be greeted by your smile and your cheerful voice. To lay next to you, his head in your lap as your hands ran through his hair, expelling all the worries that came with running a kingdom.

When you said that he was keeping you from working, that at the rate he kept you at you wouldn’t be done repairing the temple for years. He wanted it. He wanted to keep you here. The thought that in a short couple months you could just be gone, this temple empty once again, haunted by your presence…

Cor meum.

It had just slipped out. You were so warm in his hands, smelled so sweet, and he just wanted to keep you there forever. Cor meum. My heart.

[marlsswrites]

Books and Red Hair

Ice skating AU, part 6!!

August 6th - words: 1109

First part Previous part

James would quite like to think he was extra welcome at a library, but that’s just not true. He’s clumsy, he knocks books over and can’t whisper to save his life. He’s always either too quiet or loud enough to get himself kicked out. Last time he came to this specific library, the local one to his university, he played full volume music on his AirPods - blissfully unaware that everyone around him could hear.

So how someone managed to get him back in here was a mystery, but here he is anyway.

He trailed behind Lily like a lost puppy, keeping his hands firmly to himself and not the bookshelves.

“James you look petrified.” Lily laughed out in a hushed tone.

“I’ve been told multiple times that I am severely not wanted here.” He hissed.

Lily blinked at him a few times, raising an eyebrow and flashed him an awfully unimpressed look. “What did you do?”

“Me, Rem, pads and Pete might have started a small fire in here last year.” He bit his lip to stop the smug smile from forming on his face, clearly the look still flamed alight in his eyes.

“Don’t look so proud.” She swatted his arm. “I only brought you here because you promised me a coffee after work.”

He and Lily worked in the same little record store down the street, well it used to be just records, now there’s comics, posters, collectables, CDs, everything like that honey. They’ll normally pop into a cafe after, treating themselves to a coffee before going home, but today Lily needed to grab some studying materials from the library.

“Stay here.” She said as she started to walk away.

“I’m not a child!” James protested.

“Sure!” She flashed a sarcastic smile over her shoulder as he went, leaving James with a frown on his face as he wandered through the tables of people studying, taking a seat at one of them without paying attention to anyone around him.

-

After about five minutes, he started to pick up some of the hushed whispering around him as the sound of a few people sitting in front of him hit his ears. Now he fiddled with the pages of the random book he’d swiped from the shelf and - innocently - eavesdropped after he swore he heard a voice he knew.

“Reg can you help?” A hushed female voice sounded after a few flicks of a page.

“Yeah.” A familiar voice responded. “One second Cas.”

His head slowly lifted, a smirk appearing on his face as he realised who had sat next to him.

“Hi.” He propped his head on his hands and drummed his fingers against his cheek.

The girl only gave him a confused look, she had dark shining skin, adorned with a couple of dainty tattoos and stacked jewellery that reminded him of the stuff that Lily likes to wear. But she wasn’t the one James was looking at.

“What are you doing in a library?” Regulus gave a raise of his eyebrow.

“Okay ouch, and actually I’m just waiting for my friend to finish finding - uh - whatever she needs.” He shrugged.

“So that’s why you’re reading The Great Gatsby - but specifically the blank page at the front?”

His eyes flicked down to the book, where the only words written were ‘The Great Gatsby.’

“It has some writing on it.” He proclaimed.

Regulus just hummed, no sign of emotion on his pale, blank face, yet it seemed to hold the world. His eyes like once grey clouds drowning in water, his skin as milky and smooth as a white silk pillowcase, his hair curled perfectly and dark as it hung around his face like Medusas snakes danced.

“I’m sorry, how do you two know each other?” The girl - Cas he thinks - interrupted. “Because I could swear that Regulus here doesn’t talk to anyone.”

“I talk to you!” Regulus bickered. “And Barty, Evan and Pandora.” He counted on his fingers.

“Four whole people.” Cas gasped.

Stifling a laugh, James simply watched as the two went back and fourth, clearly playfully as they argued. Still, Regulus looked beautiful with a scowl, even better with a smile though. Even better while he skated, face stoic and wondrous, face on full display and body moving like a puppet controlled by the god of love herself.

“And me.” James smiled and battered his eyelashes, Regulus pointed and nodded.

“You never answered my question.” Cas pondered, looking between the two boys suspiciously.

Stuttering out an answer, James realises he didn’t actually have just one.

“Tried to buy a book, stalked me, stalked me again, and is apparently friends with my brother and my coach’s son.”

“Hey now, I didn’t stalk you. I-“ But he cut himself off when he saw the slightly smiling face of Regulus Black - covered slightly by his baggy sleeve - but still there. The end of his pen was placed between his teeth and a silver glint on his tongue catching the sun and shining like the star the paler boy is.

“I know.” He shook his head, still smirking slightly as he moved the pen to his page, scribbling slightly and leaving James to stare at the way a ring was slid onto every single pale finger, shining bright and jewelled - as he said - like the star he is.

-

Stretches of comfortable quiet later, he felt a hand tap his arm as the silence surrounded him. “I’m done.” Lily smiled and held up the books and couple of bookmarks up with a squeal. “You owe me a coffee, let’s go.”

“Right.” He looked between the redhead and the other two, Regulus’ head still in his book but the once cal, expression had been covered by one of tension and thorns sharp as daggers. “Bye!” He waved as he and Lily left.

“Yeah, bye.” He heard dully before he walked away, the sunlight splashing in on him as soon as he stepped outside, blinding his eyes and burning into his skin.

“I bought my girlfriend this,” Lily waved up a little flowery pin that she’d picked up from the library store she’d insisted on looking in seconds beforehand. “Isn’t it adorable.”

“The cutest.” James winked with a smile.

Yet he still couldn’t get the anguished expression of a star from his mind, burning holes into the once bright irises of his eyes, stabbing into his once radiating heart. Oh what he would do to wipe it away with one quick swipe of love, leave that smile on his face that he seems to feel the need to hide.

Someone like Regulus Black shouldn’t be hidden, he’s much too special for that.

Next part

[midmourn]

good 4 u

title good 4 u

pairing lee donghyuck x gender neutral!reader

characters lee donghyuck, mark lee [nct] yoo jimin/karina, uchinaga aeri/giselle [aespa], kim seungmin [stray kids], jeon heejin [artms, ex-loona],

summary it’s all thanks to you that haechan is doing so great.

warnings angst

word count 1640

a/n last fic to the sour series!! next is guts series ;) if you have a song in mind for a dream member, lmk!!

“Egoistical.”

“Jerk.”

“Fuckboy.”

“You really know how to pick ‘em, don’t you?” Seungmin hummed as he took a bite of his sandwich. You rolled your eyes, ignoring him and turning back to Giselle and Karina.

“Ignore him,” Giselle scoffed, side-eyeing him before saying, “OK. Continue. What else?”

Karina snapped her fingers, getting an idea, “Name his icks!”

“Oh, God,” you sighed, putting your head in your hands. “How he’s a fucking gamer. He would be on that game twenty-four-seven!”

“Immediate red flag,” Karina said, patting your shoulder as you groaned, slumping over the table. “Are you sure you're not colorblind, Y/N?”

“More like just dumb,” Seungmin pushed your bowl of salad closer to you, bumping it into your head. “Eat.”

“I don’t think I can,” you huffed, “I see him next period. I’m afraid I’ll throw up.”

“Ooh, throw up on him!” Giselle said excitedly with Karina nodding in agreement.

You threw a look at her, “I will not! No matter how funny it would be, I’d be so embarrassed.” Seungmin stiffened next to you, making you glance his way and see that he was glaring at something in the distance. You follow his gaze and feel your mouth dry, blinking as you stare at the scene in front of you.

Here was your ex-boyfriend, only being broken up for two weeks, throwing his arm over some girl you vaguely recognized from your English literature class. Heejin, you thought her name was. He looked good, way too good for someone just broke up with someone who they supposedly wanted to give the world to.

You thought for a split second, that maybe, just maybe, they were just friends. And then his head turned to plant a kiss right on her lips and every hope you had left shattered.

“Two-timer,” Karina added bitterly to your conversation from earlier. You swallowed roughly, tearing your eyes away from the scene. You briefly registered the feeling of Seungmin’s hand resting on your knee, squeezing once in comfort. You don’t know if your eyes teared up from the sight of Haechan and Heejin, or from the once-in-a-lifetime kindness from Seungmin.

“There’s no way he wasn’t,” Giselle gaped at the sight. “In a couple of weeks? Cheater.”

“Fuckboy,” Seungmin repeated, stressing the word. He stood up, shoving the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth and pulled you up with him. “C’mon, we’re skipping class. He better hope we don’t see each other off campus.”

Your head perked up slightly at the sound of a familiar voice, watching Haechan and Mark Lee walk around the corner, neither noticing you in your corner of the library. You were surrounded by your textbooks, studying for your upcoming test in literature.

“—But yeah, this therapist I’ve been seeing, I can totally hook you up with her,” Haechan was saying, patting Mark on the shoulder as they went to a bookshelf. “She’s great, helping me work on myself to be better. For Heejin.”

You were the one who got him in touch with the therapist. Your fists clenched.

“Cool. Wait, dude, what? I thought you couldn’t refer me,” Mark said in confusion, scanning through the titles of the books.

“No, Mark!” Haechan shook his head, adding an unnecessary whine to his voice, “I think that only applies when you’re the therapist, can’t have any patients with, like, personal ties.”

“Oh,” Mark dragged out the second letter, nodding his head and coming to a stop on a book. “Hey, found it. Let’s go check it out.”

“Ms. Jang loves you more than she loves me, you do it—”

“Because I don’t defile her sacred place with all your sins—”

“Sins! What else is the library meant for? Studying?”

“Definitely not making out and going to third base—”

Their loud voices faded away the further they got. Your pencil lead broke, making you blink in surprise and turn to it, seeing you had been gripping the pencil so hard onto your paper that it made a harsh mark on it and broke. You unclench your jaw and look back down at your paper as a drop of liquid hits it, staining it.

The feeling of wetness on your cheeks made you inhale and exhale unevenly, trying to calm your breathing. You blinked away an onset of tears, thinking back to last night when Seungmin finally left your dorm. As soon as you reassured him that you were OK, he reluctantly left and when you were sure he was gone, you burst into tears.

Instead of bothering your roommate with your crying, you hid in the bathroom for almost the entire night. Being pathetic, looking at your gallery full of Haechan and crying.

You swiftly wiped under your eyes as Giselle and Karina entered the back of the library, beelining to your corner. They didn’t need to know.

“Woah,” a classmate from Linguistics gaped as Haechan pulled into his parking spot, in his shiny, bright, new Tesla. “A Tesla! That shit’s crazy.” He turned to his friends to either talk shit about Haechan or praise him. You hoped it was the former.

“Where the hell did he get money for that?” You spat under your breath to Seungmin, who crossed his arms and shook his head in reply.

“I heard he got accepted at that internship,” Giselle crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the boy as he stepped out of the car. “That one he’s—”

The one that you helped him study for?

“He got money from that?” You scoffed, glaring even harder as Heejin stepped out of the passenger side. The two joined hands, walking off without even a glance your way. You were seething by now. You wanted to strangle him so bad. “No way. He’s gotta be, like, in the mafia.”

“He’d die in seconds because of that mouth of his,” Seungmin snickered.

“I hate him,” you huffed, storming off into the opposite direction. Your friends followed dutifully as you rambled on about your ex-boyfriend. “He doesn’t even look my way! It’s like we weren’t in a relationship for a whole fucking year! And I’m the reason he’s doing so better; that internship? I helped him with it! What the fuck?”

Haechan discarded you like he was bored of you, even after an entire year of dating. That was partly the reason why it hurt so much; did you really mean nothing to him?

His sweet words, touches that seemed to burn you everywhere. He left a mark on you like no other. You didn’t know if it would ever fade away.

You were back in your spot in the corner of the library, far away from the librarian, Ms. Jang. Your books were closed, put away. You just needed some space to think, and then it turned into a silent crying session after getting too far into your memories with Haechan. You were just lucky that no one had come to the back yet.

It was only a moment later that giggling filled your ears and you rolled your eyes so hard you thought they were going to fall out. Of course, you had to jinx yourself. There was no way you were staying to witness a happy couple make out in what they thought was an empty corner. Groaning under your breath, you go to collect your textbooks and folders, only to stop midway once you recognize one of the giggles.

Despite not wanting to, you slowly looked up to confirm your thoughts. Right in front of you was Haechan and Heejin, the boy peppering kisses all over her face with a lovestruck grin on his face.

There was a loud crack, but it seemed like you were the only one to hear it. Your heart clenched painfully in your chest, chest tightening as it got harder to breathe and see. Tears clouded your vision, but you could hear Haechan’s next words loud and clear.

“I swear, you’re like the only one that gets me,” he whispered seriously. He said that same fucking sentence to you.

Your eye twitched. That was the last straw. You stood up, chair screeching as it slid back against the marble floor and shoved your books in your bag clumsily. You could barely see, but you knew that they were looking at you.

You wiped under your eyes harshly, blinking back the tears as you sniffled. God, you hoped he couldn’t tell you were crying. That would be so embarrassing.

“Y/N,” Haechan said your name softly, almost in an apologetic way but you knew he wasn’t truly sorry. Instead of acknowledging him, you shoulder your bag and swiftly turn to walk past the couple quickly. Your hopes die as he grabbed your arm as you went to walk by him.

“Hey,” he said softly. “I—I didn’t know you were here or—”

You turned to him so swiftly it startled him, glaring straight at him and ignoring Heejin, “Oh, yes you did. You know that this is usually my spot. You came here on purpose to try and make me jealous. It’s pathetic, really. Having a new relationship yet here you are, basically chasing after your ex, trying to get my attention.” You turn to Heejin, who looks at you wide-eyed, and a bit of hurt at your words, “I truly do feel sorry for you, Heejin. He isn’t the boy,” you spat the word out, “—you think he is. He’s a liar, and I bet you he was talking to you when he was still dating me.” Your head turned to him slightly, “People don’t change. Especially people like him.”

“But, you know what,” you chuckled breathily, “Congratulations, Haechan. You seem to be getting everything you want. Good for you. But you should really be thanking me, because I’m the fucking reason you’re doing so well. Fuck you.”

sour masterlist. main masterlist.

[cassiecourtemanche]

This is the first thing i’ve ever written so tough criticism please! 🙏 I need to know if you enjoyed it and if i should continue it:)

DeanXReader (suffers with depression and anxiety) 18+

“dean?” you called out walking down the hallway of the bunker towards the library. As you approached the library there was still silence. “Hello??” You called out but still met with nothing. You reached into your pocket and grabbed your phone dialing deans number. No answer. You started pacing the hallways of the bunker wondering where he may be. The panic starting to rise in your chest, you kept trying to call him but still met with radio silence. “Where the fuck are you?” You mumbled to yourself still wracking your brain thinking if he had told you or not.

All of a sudden you heard the door open and slam and made you jump in your place. “Hey sweetheart.” Dean walked down the stairs and met with you in the library bags in hand. “Where have you been?” The panic evidently clear all over your face. “Grabbing supplies, I thought I told you last night i had to go out this morning.” He said placing the bags on the table and walking over to you. “I don’t know.. i guess i forgot.” You said clenching your jaw, you seemed to forget almost everything nowadays. “Hey I’m here now what’s going on?” Dean furrowed his brow slightly at the look of concern on your face. “Uh, nothing, it’s nothing.” You braced for his stubbornness to push but he didn’t. “What did you end up getting?” you said trying to change the subject not wanting to sound anxious. “Just grabbed some food, the usual.” Dean said as he shrugged his shoulders. “Oh okay.” you started to walk away but he wasn’t letting you get away that easy. You felt his hand grab your wrist “Y/N, what’s really going on?” He said softly as you turned to look at him. Damn him and those beautiful green eyes, why did he have to look at you like that? “I don’t know, i just didn’t remember you telling me.” you said as your face fell. “Hey,-“ he started his hand letting go of your wrist and bringing it under your chin so you’d look at him “It’s okay to forget sometimes sweetheart, is that all that’s bugging you?” He said his brows furrowed as the worry was evident on his face. “Yeah” You said with a fake smile “I’m just gonna go read for a bit.” As you walked off and into your room, dean stood there somewhat lost, not knowing if he should go after you or let you be. He decided to give you some space and stayed in the library, seeing if you’d come back out of your room. A couple hours went by and you still haven’t emerged.

“stupid stupid” you whispered to yourself as you sat on your bed with the book in your hand. It was more of a decoy than anything else, wanting a distraction from the anxiety rising in your chest more than anything. You couldn’t stop your mind from spiralling, as you sat on your bed it felt like the room was closing in on you. The weight of everything you’ve endured in your life just started to crush you. The thoughts, the urges, the self destruction, it was overwhelming. You took a few deep shaky breaths as you tried to calm your racing mind but it wasn’t helping. How dean had saved your life from an abusive ex, to sam being there for you when he’d be on hunts. You felt like such a burden to them but the thoughts where to much. You sat there frantically trying to get ahold of yourself but it was becoming to much, something just snapped inside you and you threw your book as hard as you could across the room. Dean had heard the loud thump from the library and instantly got up and ran to your room “Y/N? What’s going on sweetheart? Can you open the door?” He said as calm as he could, as he knocked. You couldn’t bring yourself to get up out of your bed everything was just too much, you started to sob and panic. “If you don’t open the door i’m gonna pick the damn lock!” He said starting to panic as he heard your sobs through the door. You had your knees up to your chest, your hands covering your ears trying to drown out the thoughts. Dean frantically searched through his jacket trying to find his lock picking kit, finally he found it and started “Sweetheart, just talk to me please” He said as he was fumbling with the tools and the lock. All you could hear was the muffles through your hands as you pushed tighter against your head, the sobbing and panicking just kept getting worse and worse. Dean finally got the door unlocked after what felt like an eternity, he opened the door and felt his heart shatter at seeing the state you were in. He rushed over to the bed and sat down beside you “Hey, hey it’s okay, just breathe Y/N” he tried pulling your hands away from your ears but you where to stubborn. “You need to breathe.” He said starting to get really worried now, this isn’t the first time deans had to deal with you and your panic attacks, and it broke his heart every time. “Please” He tried taking your hands away again and this time you let him, he held onto your wrists “Hey, just take a couple deep breaths for me.” You tried listening and taking a few deep breaths but they came out short and shaky still. “Come here sweetheart” He said scooting closer to you wrapping his arms around you. You just started to sob in his chest, “Just let it out, it’s okay” he said as one hand started running through your hair.

Eventually you started to calm down, and the room fell somewhat quiet besides your sniffles. “You wanna talk about it?” He said still holding onto you. You shook your head no against his chest. Dean let out a sigh “Well you know you can always talk to me. Me or sam whoever’s around, right?” He said in a somewhat comforting but stern voice. “I know..” You managed to let out quietly. He felt his body somewhat relax as you spoke, even if it was just two words. “You know we are always here for you right? No matter the day, or the time. You can come to us, with anything.” He said as he kept his hand running through your hair in a comforting way. “I know, dean.” You said as you nestled your face into him more. “Sweetheart… Can i ask you something?” He said with a stern but worried voice. “Of course.” You said muffled into his chest. “I need you to look at me.” He said with his hand going under your chin to tilt your face up to look at him, his heart ached, seeing your eyes red and puffy and your cheeks tear stained. “I need you to be honest with me.” He started, you just stared into his eyes. “Has it been getting bad again?” He asked like he didn’t want to hear the answer to that. All you could do was nod as it broke your heart that you’d worry dean. “Y/N, you need to speak to me so i can help you. You need to tell me how bad it’s getting, on a scale from 1-10, at least.” He said with worry written all over his face and in a stern tone. “You don’t wanna know.” you said quietly, letting your head fall back on his chest. “Sweetheart, yes i do. I’m worried about you.” He said running his hand through your hair again trying his best to comfort you. You took a deep breath and said “9ish” quietly. His hand stopped and it sounded like he stopped breathing “Y/N, it’s that bad?” He said trying not to sound to worried. You just nodded against his chest as he held you, his arms wrapping tighter around you. “I’m so sorry sweetheart, i’m here if you need to talk about it, and please, please for the love of god, don’t listen to any bad thoughts in that pretty head of yours. Please.” He sounded almost broken as his words sunk into your mind.

[mac-cheez]

My Guide to Surviving the Waynes

This has been sitting in my drafts for a while and I finally finished the ending!! Don't expect an update soon I have no idea when the fancy will strike again and the TMA brain rot is real rn.

Pt. 1 Pt. 2

---------------------------------------------------------

Dear Diary,

I was wrong. SO WRONG. You’d think rich people, especially adopted rich people, would be at least a little sane, but no, they’re not and I have no idea how to deal. It’s only been a couple days since my last entry and so much has happened. So here’s what I’ve learned:

Let’s start with the first incident that happened roughly 10 min after my last entry. I had just finished when Tim offered to meet me in the coffee shop outside of the library (he was picking me up from campus)(Alfred was busy). When I walked in I saw him about to order and walked to the side to wait. He looked at the menu for roughly 0.2 sec before looking the barista dead in the eye saying “I’ll have a Vanilla Cold Brew with seven shots of espresso.”

The barista laughed and joked “Damn you want some cocaine with that?” Then he just said, “Sure that too.” and fucking walked away? He didn’t even give his name he just paid and went straight to the pickup area. The most concerning part of that story is that they fucking did it! And he drank the whole goddamn thing without batting an eye! I was highly concerned for his well-being the entire drive home. (I really need to talk to Mr. Wayne about a rental)

What’s even weirder is when we walked into the manor Dick was just hanging from the chandelier. It was sans rope and more acrobatic, but still concerning considering how tall the ceiling was. I’m still not entirely sure how he got up there, but I just walked away hoping to find my sanity once again.

The rest of the day went relatively smoothly with the normal amount of yelling and death threats (still can’t believe this is reality). The next day something actually nice happened while I was off from college and heading to the kitchen for lunch. It was a Friday so most of the house was either at work or school, and it was pretty quiet (thank god). When I walked in one of the others was in there cooking already (Jason I think?). I decided on a sandwich since he was currently using the stove and it was going smoothly till I got to the pickle jar. For whatever reason that thing was tight as hell and was going nowhere. He looked at me and after my fifth try (and many curse words) he held out his hand. I handed the jar to him, and he opened it without trouble.

“I loosened it,” I said trying to hide my embarrassment.

“Uh-huh,” he said distractedly. We sat in awkward silence till I noticed one of the books from the library on the counter. It was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign Of The Four. I asked if he was reading it and he said yes. I asked him if he’s gotten to the twist yet and he looked at me puzzled.

“You’ve read The Sign Of The Four?”

“Yeah, not my favorite Sherlock Holmes Novel, but still good nonetheless,” I said not paying attention, “Are you reading unabridged or abridged?”

“Unabridged,” he said, “you into the classics?”

“Totally, I love a good Victorian mystery or gothic horror novel,” I replied.

“You?” I asked.

“More of a Jane Austen fan myself, but I can respect those choices,” he said thoughtfully.

“I’ve never read her works, but if I have a chance I wouldn’t mind trying,” I said. He looked up at me somewhere between excitement and bewilderment.

“Would you like some recommendations?” He said cautiously. I said sure, and he immediately went into a long speech about Jane Austen and her novels. By the time he was done my sandwich and his ramen were long gone. By the end, I had a list of books to read and a new reading buddy to rant about books to. We’ve hung out intermittently since then, and honestly, it was the sanest thing I did all week. However the sanity didn’t last long.

Many other incidents (too many to write) all culminated in this afternoon, when I finally caved and decided if this was my life, it might as well be documented for (at the very least) the enjoyment of others. It was fairly quiet (first clue) and my morning class had been canceled so I was just sitting in the living room doing some work. Everyone else was out and I was about to leave for my 2:30 class when suddenly someone smashed through the window and a smoke bomb was thrown. I honestly thought it was Tim or Jason being weird again, but then the smoke cleared and there was just a bunch of dudes in Green suits with question marks. They looked around and saw me pretty quickly and immediately pointed whatever weapons they had at me. Eventually, some other ones came in the room and said the house was empty and “Wayne is nowhere to be found.” They started arguing till they finally concluded that if none of the Wayne’s were here, I must be the next best thing. Honestly, I can’t even blame them, and at this point I just let it happen.

They put a bag over my head and put me over the strongest one’s shoulder. I was in a car for about an hour before I was potato sack’d again. Once I was placed down, the bag was taken off my head, and I saw that I was in an abandoned-looking warehouse. I saw some more of the brightly clothed men off to the side arguing, one looking even more ridiculous than the others. The extra ridiculous one finally gave up talking to the others(henchmen maybe?) and walked (more like strutted) over to address me.

“Hello guest of Wayne, may I ask your name?” He asked rhyming for some weird ass reason.

“Vic?”

“Ah yes but what is it’s whole, for a half shall not know?” He said lilting his voice… ‘whimsically’?

“What?”

“Your designation that all might know.”

I just continued looking at him with apparent confusion not knowing what the hell is going on. After a minute he hung his head and spoke normally.

“What is your full name?” He sighed.

“Oh! Victoria Blanc,” I said.

“Ah! And what is your relation to the name of Wayne?” He said trying again with the talking in circles bull.

“Look dude usually I could appreciate….. Whatever it is that's happening, but I’ve had one hell of a week so…….”

“Oh come now it couldn’t have been that bad.” He said dismissively.

“Alright bet! You might wanna sit down this is gonna take a minute.”

Once he sat I started explaining everything that had happened since I’d moved to Gotham. As I was explaining more and more of the “henchmen” started joining the crowd.

“He chased him through the manor with a sword?” Riddler asked (at least that's what one of the others called him).

“Yeah, and apparently this is a normal phenomenon,” I said exasperated.

“And here I thought I was crazy.”

“Oh, no this is probably the most sane thing that's happened to me all week,” I said hand waving (They untied me after a while)(I asked nicely).

I was about to continue when suddenly three figures jumped down and got into fighting positions.

“Let her go Riddler!” Said the one in Black and blue(and maybe a bird?)

“Oh, she was free to leave a while ago.” He said casually to the masked people.

“What?” said the one in red.

“Yeah, we even offered to get her away from that mad house,” said Bob.

“Mad House?”

“Yes, it's almost criminal how they act in that house, you bats should really get on that,” ‘Riddler’ said chidingly. 

I didn't really understand why he called them bats since they all looked bird-themed but I didn't bring it up because honestly, weirder things have happened at this point. They agreed to look into it, albeit very confused(and almost offended), and said they still needed to take me back.

“Fine,” ‘Riddler’ sighed heavily, “ but Vic, sweetie, if you need somewhere safe to stay in Gotham I have plenty of friends who will keep you safe while you finish your degree.”

“Yeah, kinda tempting, but I don't think my parents would like that very much, and they are paying for it so…….”

“Very well, offer stands in perpetuity, to Arkham yes?”

“You're not gonna ask a riddle or…..” said the one in red and black.

“Usually I would but honestly I’m far too concerned right now to care.”

After that, they handcuffed him and the other goons (kinda unfair but i guess they did kidnap me) and walked me out to one of the police cars so I could go back to the manor. They offered to drive me but I've seen enough motorcycle crash scene pictures to put the fear of God (thy name is friction) in me. When I got back Mr. Wayne was in the foyer with Alfred and immediately came over to make sure I was ok.

“Yeah, I'm fine Mr. Wayne, honestly I’m more worried about the class I missed than the kidnapping,” I explained.

He seemed concerned by that but had a phone call right after that he needed to take. Alfred walked me to my room (I think to make sure I wasn't concussed) and I just kinda went back to writing and here we are. Can't wait to see what fresh hell awaits me in the coming week……….. Maybe I should've taken Riddler up on that offer.

[ilovewhiteroses]

Teasing You (part of "Workplace Affair")

Pairing: The Corinthian x Librarian of The Dreaming Reader Genre: Smut (although there’s no explicit sex), humour Warnings: references to sex, some curse words Rating: +18 Notes: - In the original ’Workplace Affair’ series, Reader was written as Female, but I wanted to write this story as Gender Neutral, so everyone could enjoy it 💕 - This one is shorter than my usual fanfics, but I hope you will like it

You and The Corinthian spice up your already exciting love life...

You and Corinthian have been together for a while. You often slept at his place and at work, when he dropped in sometimes, you tried to make time for each other. Lucienne and Merv soon accepted you together and after some time, Morpheus also managed to accept the fact that you are a couple. In your relationship, Corinthian was the dominant one, which you didn't mind at all, but sometimes you also liked to take control, especially in the bedroom. One night you decided that the next day, when he visits you in the library, you are going to tease him. Considering that Corinthian is very sex positive and often thinks with his dick, you wondered how long he would be able to hold back…

In the morning you got up a little earlier than usual so you could leave before Corinthian gets up. An hour later he also woke up and was a little scared when he found your place empty, but when he saw a note with the inscription "I left earlier", he calmed down. He went down to the living room and noticed a paper folded in half on the coffee table. He picked it up and read it.

"Have a nice day honey! I can't wait to feel you inside me again..."

"Baby, my dick is already hard, what will happen to me later?" he said to himself, reading your sexy message. He sighed contentedly, then went to get ready for work.

 It was finally time for the coffee break you've been waiting for since morning. You walked into the cafeteria and saw the nightmare having a conversation with Merv. You went to the coffee machine to make yourself a drink while waiting for the janitor to leave. When Merv left, you and Corinthian were finally alone. He walked over to you and pulled you close with a firm movement.

"Come here, you naughty librarian!"

He wanted to kiss you, but you didn't let him and escaped from the grip of his arms. You took a few steps back and started to move your body in front of him, then you went back to him, but this time you turned away and started rubbing your bottom against his crotch. You heard Corinthian purring in satisfaction like a big cat while placing his hands on your hips.

"Uh, Y/N, if you knew what you're doing to me. I wish I could fuck you right here right now on the table, I've had an erection since your message this morning." he said with a sexy smile. You turned to face him and reached down to grab his "package".

"I know and I really enjoy it." you said and caressed his cock through his pants, giving him a suggestive look. He tilted his head back slightly and sighed softly, causing you to bite your lip. You loved the way he gave himself in to you. You caressed him like that a little more, then before his thoughts could wander too much, you stopped and planted a soft kiss on his lips.

"Oh, why did you stop?" Corinthian asked like a disappointed child. You deliberately didn't answer the question, you just said:

"See you later baby!" You winked at him then went back to the library.

 You collected the books on your table and walked to the shelves with them in a good mood. After you finished putting them up, you went back to your desk. You saw Corinthian again and this time he was talking with Lucienne. When you got a little closer to them, you heard your boyfriend ask the chief librarian about the rumours he heard from the other dreams. You waved to them and had a thought. Since Lucienne was standing with her back to you, you decided you would take advantage of the situation and provoke the hot nightmare a little...

You sat up on your desk so that Corinthian could see you clearly. You usually wore a skirt to work, but this time you wore pants so you could spread your legs more easily. You slowly started caressing your thigh, then reached between your legs and in the process, you gave your boyfriend a seductive look. He glanced over every now and then, but he tried to keep Lucienne from noticing, because even though you were teasing him, he was still enjoying the show you were putting on for him. You continued to ”touch” yourself and bite your lip, then threw your head back for a moment. Corinthian, even though he can't sweat, felt like he was flooded with heat and loosened his shirt a bit at the neck. He felt that he was starting to lose control over his thoughts and he heard Lucienne's words more and more quietly, he could only hear the beating of his heart in his ears. As you imitated masturbating, deep inside you prayed that Lucienne wouldn't look back or you'd end up in an extremely awkward situation, and Corinthian hoped she wouldn't notice his erection. He was trying his best to pay attention to the conversation, and in his head he was thinking that when he gets home, he is going to fuck you hard for being naughty all day.

 When you finished work, you went to his apartment and waited for him to come home. The nightmare hurried home as fast as he could. When he finally arrived and saw you, he walked towards you with the intention of ripping your clothes off.

"Hey big boy! What are you doing?” you asked him pretending to be surprised by what he was up to, laughing to yourself.

"Listen, I've been so horny all day because of your little games that I can’t take it anymore! I’m losing my mind, I want you so bad!" he said and pulled you close, but you got yourself out of his arms again.

"I know, I have been very, very bad! But, it's still not over." you told him mischievously, then picked up a strawberry from the plate on the coffee table. Corinthian frowned, but he was curious as to what you were up to.

First, you slowly ran the strawberry over your lips, then you started to lick it with the tip of your tongue, imagining that you were licking the head of his cock like that. Corinthian no longer frowned, but instead smiled and grunted in satisfaction. He loved it when you sucked his cock, because you were always enthusiastic and creative and he felt like the luckiest man in the world.

You then put the strawberry in your mouth and began to carefully suck it. While doing that, you moaned because you enjoyed the delicious taste of the fruit. You did all of this with your eyes closed, but at one point you opened them and saw Corinthian sitting on the couch, leaning back and looking at you. You were surprised that he didn't touch himself, although he usually never masturbated in front of others, he preferred his partner to do it in front of him, thus showing his dominant self. The way he was sitting there was so sexy to you that you felt yourself getting turned on. When you were sufficiently aroused, you bit into the strawberry and let the juice run down your chin as if it was the result of Corinthian's orgasm. The nightmare couldn't take it anymore, he went to you and kissed you passionately, then he took you in his arms and went up to the bedroom with you...😈

  Tags: @thecorilove86, @e-dubbc11, @harlekin6 @jessamydreams, 

@destiny-rahl, @merryandrewsworld @i-like-the-eyes, @drowningnikki, 

@mirandkimy,  @translat0r  

@delicateteenagerunaway, @imjustmessy, @zealoussaladsublime, 

@lilithsdreams, @cloudsofcondensation, @blondehotbrook, 

@enkelimoonstone, @bakerstreethound, @amidalasruby, @kittycat-kai, 

@hopeless-07,  @miss-wednesday98, @littlewierdalien, @littlefoxgirl-13, 

@dahlinq @dayleis, @idealai

@icytrickster17, @belladiaz, @smileymissbee

@foodlover123456789, @lazy-queen26, @yellowwithalisp, 

@onehundredyearsofyearning, @constantron, @violentviolet88, 

@strudelbug07​,  @underwater-garden

[hyuge]

Blade's Blade

🗡️BLADE'S BLADE🗡️

⚔️Nu: Carnival | BladeOli ⚔️Rated: M | 514 Words ⚔️For IdolOlivine for the @nucarnivalremix ⚔️Sex Negotiation | Kink Negotiation | Knife Play ⚔️Remix | Missing Scene | Sex Play Research ⚔️Inspired by: knife's edge by idololivine

Mutant rabbits were pesky creatures. They were easy enough to exterminate but their numbers posed a problem. Thanks to them, though, Blade now knew how absolutely fascinated Olivine was with his daggers. Blade worked hard to keep them pristine. An assassin couldn’t have sub-par blades. After a brief discussion and a lengthy cuddle session with several other clan members, Blade was now doing thorough research on the proper way to go about engaging in knife-play. Olivine expressed his interest in the subject, but said it was a matter for a different day.

Fortunately for Blade, Little Aster had a vast collection of books in his library. Many of them were dedicated to various sex acts. It only took him a couple of hours to find one that covered the dos and don’ts of engaging in intercourse with knives. Olivine would be proud of him to know how thoroughly he had studied. One of the chapters stated it was best to use dedicated knives for the act. That meant Blade couldn’t use the daggers that Olivine was so fascinated by. That was disappointing, but he wanted to be safe. Even though Blade cleaned them regularly, he didn’t want to infect their fair priest with some sort of unknown disease because of his carelessness.

When he finished reading and memorizing all seventy-two pages regarding sex with knives, Blade pulled Olivine aside to tell him all that he had learned. As expected, Olivine was disappointed to hear they couldn’t use his weapons.

Aster happened to overhear their conversation and pointed them in the right direction. “If you need knives, I know a blacksmith. He’s incredibly discrete and does amazing work. Every client I’ve ever pointed in his direction has been enthusiastically pleased with their requests.”

Olivine looked skeptical, but Blade was intrigued. They went to the smithery that Aster directed them to and placed their order. Three days later, a message was sent to the manor to let them know their order was ready to be picked up.

Blade’s eyes widened in delight when he saw how excited Olivine looked. The end result was a magnificent knife made of the finest steel Klein had to offer. It gleamed in the sunlight as they walked down the street, casting a rainbow on the ground as they stepped over a puddle. It was a sure sign that things would go well.

“You like it?” asked Blade, his head cocked to the side.

Olivine nodded. “It’s beautiful.”

“Just like O~~livine,” sang Blade. Olivine blushed.

With their new weapon in tow, Blade and Olivine sat down in the library with a sheet of parchment between them. Olivine began to jot down what they would and wouldn’t do, while Blade explained everything else that he had read in the book. They agreed that no blood would be drawn on their first attempt. They would save that for a later date. Blade’s chest fluttered with excitement over the prospects of them doing this more than once. He couldn’t wait to fill Olivine with all the pain and pleasure he so desperately desired.

[doll-collecting-aerialist]

AG Items and Dolls I’ve Found While Thrifting!!

I’ve been collecting for a couple years at this point, but my favorite finds are always the unexpected ones at local thrift stores!! Here are some of the things I’ve found (that I remember)

Dolls:

JLY #21 w/ Star hoodie meet

JLY #33 w/ Mia’s underwear

JLY #39 w/ Rebecca’s one piece PJS

Grace Thomas w/ meet shirt

Kira Bailey w/ accessories and meet

JLY #16 w/blue snowflake PJs (hair cut. fixed and gave away for a family friend’s birthday)

Joss Kendrick (when I worked at a thrift store- she was sold by the time I got off shift and went to buy her)

Multiple Julies (again, when I worked at a thrift store. I have two Julie dolls so I didn’t see a point in buying them.)

Lea Clark NIB (the store wanted $175 for her- no thank you)

Kendall (WW)

Willa (WW- I’ve seen and priced multiple when I worked at the thrift store. I’ve only bought one.)

Camille (WW- I don’t like her so I’ve never bought her. She looks like my elementary school bully and shares her name. Also one of the thrift stores wanted $40 for a one-legged Camille)

Large Items:

Samantha’s Bed (this came from what we called an “estate dump” at my old thrift job- ie. someone dying and their family dumping all their possessions to the thrift store. Samantha’s bedding had to be disposed of with all other soft items in this “dump” because of infestation. Since Samantha’s bed frame is metal, I scrubbed it and saved it.)

Julie’s Bed and Bedding

Floral Bed and Bedding

Kit’s Roll-Top Desk

Julie’s Egg Chair

Truly Me Chestnut Horse (For Felicity)

AG Hair Styling Caddy

Truly Me Grill (from a mid 2010s TM camping set)

Coconut

Kanani’s Dog (bought and gave to a friend)

Random AG Farm Fence Pieces and Food Items (honestly the weirdest lot of items. Fence pieces from a horse set, some of Molly’s multiplication cards, Truly Me meet boots, a doll sized AG waterbottle from a TM backpack set, etc)

AG Bubble Bath (bought and eventually re-donated. It wasn’t in the best condition and I want the dark blue bathtub JLY bathtub instead. I kept some of the bubbles.)

AG Electric Car (thrift store forgot to give me the controller and when I went back they said they sold said controller to someone else?? Eventually re-donated because these dolls are eight why are they driving?)

AG Hair Styling Chair (never seen one in good enough condition to buy)

Julie’s Bathroom Set (store wanted $75 with NO accessory items and water damage. No thank you, especially not for an item that I can only use for a couple photo ideas.)

AG Concession Stand (had no accessories. Couldn’t justify having such a large incomplete, poor condition item taking up space in my house.)

WW Magical Llamacorn and Carriage (I wanted it but where am I supposed to put it??)

Notable Paper Items and Books:

(Honestly my entire AG book collection comes from the thrift store, these are just the interesting items.)

An entire binder of AG trading cards and PC era pamphlets.

PC era stationary cards (thrift store had about 50 packs)

Kit’s Railway Adventure

Welcome To… World Books (multiple girls)

Addy’s Short Story Collection

Addy’s Theater Kit (x2- one well loved and one sealed)

Kit’s Stationary Set (sealed)

PC Story Collections for ALL the early girls (including Kit)

The American Girl Party Book

Hardcover library editions of all of the PC cookbooks

The American Girl Board Game

The American Girl Card Game

The American Girl Family Album

NIB STEM Craft Kit

AG Intermediate Fiction: A Sky Full of Stars, and Smoke Screen

What I Wish You Knew (a PC parenting book!! Gone before I could pick it up back when I worked at a thrift store)

Our New Baby (unfortunately it was moldy so I had to throw it away- this was at my thrift job)

Assorted History Mysteries and GOML

[2-lines-and-a-circle]

Always by your side~ Lilia ver.

A sudden project required you to research some past history from the Briar Valley, turning to your dorm leader for advice it quickly turned sour.

You: Leona! Do you know the best book to read for information on the Briar Valley? Leona: Oi! Puppy, why are you asking me?

  You: Because you’ve been here at the school for a long time so I thought you would know this place like the back of your hand. Was I wrong? Leona: There *points to a book* if you want to know so much read this. You: *picks up book* I knew it! You do have a book on the Birar Valley! Leona: When you’re done with it, make sure you return it to the library for me. I haven’t returned it since the first year I attended this place. You: Will do dorm leader Leona! *skips away happily*

Searching for a quiet place in the school to read this book proved to be more of a struggle than getting a book from Leona. Walking throughout the entire school, you somehow ended up in Diasomnia. Since you were Savanaclaw this was a doom flag for you. After all, the two were rival dorms in sports. Not to mention how loyal you were to Leona and followed his hatred towards Malleus. Though, the reason you disliked Malleus was mainly because he felt childish to you.

Lilia: Oya? What is a puppy like you doing here? You: I don’t know either… I was looking for a quiet place to read my book *waves it to him* Lilia: I remember when I made my report on the Briar Valley like you~ Ah youth~ You: How can I get out of this place? Do you know where the exit is? Lilia: Fufufu. I’ll show you. You: Ah, thank you! Lilia: After I talk to you about the Briar Valley that is. You: I’ve been played.

After what seemed like hours, Lilia finally came to a stop with his speech on how the Briar Valley is like. Of course, such an experience wasn’t pleasant at first, but it worked out in the end. Lilia grazed you with plenty of information to use on your project and guided you back to your dorm to prevent you getting lost again.

The hard work you put into your project didn’t fail either. Results came back with the best in your grade, even beating your classmate who was from the Briar Valley.

Sebek: How did you know so much about Briar Valley! You knew stuff even I didn’t know about! Almost as if you talked to a local of a hundred years *holds his head in disbelief* You: I guess you can say that I met someone like that… Sebek: Impossible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even Malleus didn’t want to talk to me about the things I didn’t know about Briar Valley! You: Umm… I’m gonna go now!

Rushing away from the steaming Sebek who was in despair was a smart choice. Receiving such a good grade was thanks to Lilia, so you went to Diasomnia to thank him for the information.

You: Sebek? Why are you blocking me from entering the dorm? Sebek: You can’t go in to get close to Malleus you little puppy! You: I’m sorry little fairy, but I’m here to see Lilia not Malleus. I just want to thank him for helping me. Sebek: *looks you up and down* Fine, but you have to stay close to me! You: Alright!

Taking you to Lilia you sat down in the lounge and thanked him for the information given.

Lilia: You didn’t have to go out of your way to thank me for such a thing. Fufufuf. But, these chocolates are very tasty~ You: That’s great to hear, I actually made them. Lilia: I didn’t know Savanaclaw’s puppy could cook. *eats a couple more* You: Yeah, I didn’t know either till I tried to make some earlier. It’s a miracle they came out so well! Ah, that’s right. Since you helped me with this project, put your trust in me! Lilia: What? You: I will be there when you need help, you can rely on me! Think of this as an appreciation for you helping me that day. I mean I received the best score of my life thanks to you! So I owe a lot to you! Lilia: Fufufu. I’ll make sure to take you up on that chance when it comes. You: Yes!

[slytherslyth]

The Task - OminisxMC

Third Chapter

"She's bubbling over," Sebastian said as he flipped through the pages of his book. Davina was glowering at a missing book on the library shelf. "She'll snap at any-"

"How hard is it to just have what I need?" She spat through gritted teeth.

Ominis leaned in and whispered, "I know she has been receiving an abundance of letters from her family. You didn't hear it from me."

Sebastian looked her up and down from the table. "Do you think they're like... well-like yours?"

"My father isn't particularly close to the Rosiers, so it's hard to say," Ominis said. "Marvolo was after her sister for years, though, while at Hogwarts. Apparently, she's a real piece of work—but I wouldn't trust anything that comes out of my family's mouths."

"You could start a gossip column in The Daily Prophet, you know."

"Shut up, Sebastian."

Davina had been stomping around all day. Ominis had noticed her sour mood first in Herbology when she'd left him to trim the Venomous Tentacula on his own.

"Oh, bloody hell!" She cursed from behind them. Ominis jumped at the sudden noise. He straightened the books he'd knocked with his elbow and continued with his Potions essay. Sebastian kept his head down, a smirk on his lips.

Just then, a large black owl appeared and dropped a letter right on the floor in front of Davina. She bent over and picked it up, scanned it quickly, and then threw it into the library fire. The flat paper floated from her hand to the fireplace, landing at the very corner but not quite catching. She hadn't noticed. She had already stormed off.

Sebastian grabbed the letter immediately.

"What are you doing?"

"Relax, Ominis," Sebastian said. "I'm just worried about our friend. You saw how high-strung she has been the past couple of days."

"That's her private correspondence, Sebastian. You can't." Ominis stood up and went to snatch the letter, but missed.

"I just want to know what's wrong. Then maybe we can help her or at least tread around the subject so we don't upset her further." Sebastian reasoned. Ominis sighed, as he often did when Sebastian had ideas.

"Fine. Read it."

Sebastian opened the letter.

Daughter,

It has been two entire days since I sent my last letter and you've yet to accomplish anything. Perhaps I was wrong to suspect you might finally make yourself useful. If I don't hear from you by the end of the week with good news, do not bother returning home for the holidays.

Signed,

Mother.

"That's awful," Ominis' voice was soft. It broke slightly as he recalled all the awful things his own mother had said to him.

"What do you suppose she is meant to be doing?" Sebastian asked.

"Coming from a Sacred Pureblood family, it can't be good."

Sebastian straightened up. "You have a lot of experience with this sort of thing."

"With Pureblood supremacy? Yes." Ominis rolled his eyes.

"What I mean is you can relate to her," Sebastian said. "Whatever is going on, I think you should be the one who talks to her about it. I don't want to press her, and I wouldn't understand what it's like, anyway."

Ominis couldn't disagree. She was clearly worked up, and her mother's letter was downright nasty. He closed his books and began putting them back in their places. He rolled up his homework parchment and placed it and in his bag with his quill and inkpot.

"I suppose I should find her sooner rather than later," Ominis started, "but if she isn't talking to us by supper, it's your fault."

.

It was in the Undercroft where he found her. She was sitting slumped against the stone wall, looking pathetic. Ominis could sense her despair. It filled the room and made the air feel heavy.

He allowed his wand to guide him toward her. She didn't look up, didn't acknowledge him. She just seemed finished. Ominis thought of all the letters he knew she'd received, likely from her mother. The poor girl was being hounded. Ominis crouched beside her.

"Davina," he started, "I've something to tell you."

She lulled her head up and to the side, staring at him blankly.

Ominis continued, "I owe you an apology. Sebastian does, too. We've been awfully worried about you over the past couple of days and we thought perhaps that letter you received might tell us why-"

"I burned my letter. I'm not telling you what was on it."

"The fire didn't quite catch. Sebastian grabbed it and-"

"You read my letter?!"

"Purely out of concern." She would calm down soon. He knew it. While her friendship with Sebastian was fiery, her friendship with Ominis was cool. She wouldn't escalate much further. In that, he was confident.

"I don't need your concern." She snapped. "I have enough concerns from-"

"From your family," Ominis interjected. "From your mother, in fact. I understand. I get it too from mine."

Davina took a deep breath, her shoulders shaking as she did so. "Our circumstances are entirely different."

"Perhaps," he said. "Perhaps not. I cannot know if you don't tell me."

"It's stupid," she mumbled. "You couldn't possibly relate."

"Try me." He sat beside her and pressed his back against the stone. She took another shuddery breath.

"My mother has decided I am to marry as soon as I graduate from Hogwarts."

Ominis sniggered through his nose. "We have more in common than I thought."

"What do you mean?" She looked at him now, properly.

"My eldest brother announced his engagement over the holidays. Of course, in true Gaunt fashion, he proposed to our cousin." He wrinkled his nose. "My father has decided if Marvolo is to take his position as heir, the rest of us need to marry up and get out. So I've been told to find a nice Pureblood girl-"

"To betroth yourself to," Davina finished. "One who fits whatever criteria they have given, one to bring pride to the family name..."

"Y-yes," Ominis faltered. Realization dawned on him. Perhaps he wouldn't need Anne's help after all.

"My family stopped liking me when I failed to get a Hogwarts letter," Davina opened up. "I wasn't invited to anything. I wasn't spoken about. I wasn't spoken to." Her voice broke. "I was told over the holidays that I need to find a good husband. One from a Sacred family so they can get rid of me while bringing pride to the family. I-"

"I can help you." He interrupted her. Her cheeks flushed a brilliant red.

"O-Ominis... I can't-"

"I'm not proposing marriage, Davina," he clarified quickly, his own blush spreading across his cheeks. "I'm proposing a scheme."

"You sound like Sebastian."

"Spending too much time with him does have that effect." His blush began to fade. "No, my idea was to pretend. We can both write to our parents and tell them we have paired up. I'm a Gaunt. You're a Rosier. They won't contest it."

Davina was no fool. She had thought of this idea from the moment the order had left her mother's mouth. But to hear him offer in earnest...

"I cannot ask this of you."

"You aren't asking anything of me. I'm offering." He said. "Besides, it's only a matter of time before my family turns up the pressure."

Davina thought of how he had spent the holidays with the Gaunts, much to his disgust. She could only imagine what he had to endure. "Okay," she said. "Let's do it."

See the rest of the story over on Wattpad. The Task by Slytherslyth here 

[camgoloud]

22-25 for the end of the year reading asks!

(In response to this ask game which I reblogged Several days ago lmao)

22. What's the longest book you read?

By page count it's pretty close to tied between Iron Gold (Pierce Brown) and The Will of the Many (James Islington)! Iron Gold is the fourth book in a sci-fi series that I read a while ago—since this summer I’ve been slowly rereading/listening to the audiobook versions of the first five books because I learned that the sixth one was being released in July after a several year wait and couldn’t remember enough about the plot to jump straight into it. Working my way through the fifth one right now which is even longer (34 hour audiobook!)... hopefully I'll finish it before the end of the year so I can finally start the new one. Meanwhile The Will of the Many is the recently-published first in a planned trilogy and it's all about Gary Stu's adventures in the fantasy Roman Empire with a magic system that's a somewhat-clunky, hilariously unsubtle satire of trickle-down economics. I had fun with it :)

23. What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

I think the full-length novel that I went through the fastest is probably Catherynne Valente’s Space Opera, which I read in a sub-24 hour period (picked it up at the library on a Friday afternoon and was done before Saturday evening). My feelings on that one are somewhat mixed—it’s a quick read (lmao) and a fun concept (2/3 ex-members of a washed-up English glam rock band get forcibly conscripted to represent Earth in its first inter-galactic Eurovision analogue after first contact with aliens; if they lose humanity is deemed unworthy of entering the cultural conversation and the planet gets destroyed) and months later I am still compelled by the relationships between the main two characters/their narrative-haunting dead best friend, and there are a few specific sentences I could quote word for word because I liked the prose so much—but also the prose is just So Fucking Much. My god. Valente read the Goodreads quote page for Hitchhiker’s Guide and said “I’m going to write a book where Every Single Sentence reads exactly like all of these” and by god she fucking did it! Kind of grated on me after a couple of chapters tbh and also I can’t decide whether I think the ending was strong or not... I'd recommend it though if you're a fan of Hitchhiker's and/or Eurovision and/or rock band drama!

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

I think the only things I got properly invested in (as in, read more than the first few pages) before setting aside for an extended period of time and don’t plan on finishing before the year ends are House of Leaves and The Crying of Lot 49 - and both of them especially House of Leaves are books that I actually would like to finish, but realized partway through that I absolutely did not have the bandwidth at that point of time to give them the time/attention they required. But one of these years I will actually sit down and read a Pynchon novel from cover to cover I swear… and I should be able to get to House of Leaves in 2024!

25. What reading goals do you have for next year?

I want to read more short stories! I got pretty into the speculative fiction short story scene this year—bits and pieces of various anthologies, finally subscribed to some magazines like Clarkesworld, etc.—and I’ve been having a really good time with it, so next year I’d like to keep that energy up. I’m also hoping to finish House of Leaves as previously mentioned!

[deepautumncolors]

Today was a bit rough. Yesterday I washed the towels and they were fine, but then I washed our clothes and they were still wet when I went to get them out of the dryer over an hour later. So I guess there’s something wrong with it and it was already here when my husband bought the house in 2014, so we’re going to order a new one. This morning we brought our clothes down the road to my mother-in-law’s house during our 15-minute break and put them in her dryer while she was at work. Oh and there was a water main break somewhere near our house, so we didn’t have any water for a couple hours. And then we had to watch a presentation about the new insurance plan during our lunch hour, so I didn’t get to watch Frasier and read my library book like I usually do. At least they gave us an hour of personal time to make up for it, though. And another good thing was that my supervisor helped me fix a problem I’ve been having for the past two weeks, so I’m really glad that’s taken care of. I figured we would go pick up our clothes at some point, but my mother-in-law dropped them off and she had even folded them for us!

I left at 4:00 (we got up early and worked at 7 again) and went to Cassie’s class because I wanted to do all our Halloween dances one last time until next year. I decided to wear my cat ears and pumpkin earrings with an orange outfit. Grace had on a Halloween outfit too, but we were the only ones. Actually, only two other women came besides us and one of them was the one who likes Taylor Swift. Cassie let me do LWYMMD, Walking on Air, Monster Mash, and Zombie Zoo again and I redeemed myself for the parts I messed up on Saturday. Oh, and she let me go up front and lead Disturbia too. It was really fun!

[oliviab-scstudyabroad]

Uruguay, Papá! (Part I)

Hey everyone! I apologize for the delay in blog posts; I’ve been sick this past week! Study abroad can really take a toll on you physically since you’re always on the go, so I took some time to reset and recover. That being said, I wanted to write about a road trip that I took a couple of weeks ago to visit the interior of Uruguay! The interior refers to all the departments (like the states in the U.S.) except Montevideo. The interior is rich with culture and nature, so I was glad I got to spend the long weekend there!

There were five of us that went (all international students studying abroad): one from France, two from two different parts in Mexico, and one from England but was born in Palestine! I loved that we were a mix of all different nationalities. On Thursday afternoon, we picked up our car rental and drove 3.5 hours to Minas, the capital of the department Lavalleja. We arrived late in the evening, so we went grocery shopping, arrived at the Airbnb, and cooked a delicious dinner of chorizo with homemade chimichurri, grilled potatoes, and Michelada, a traditional Mexican drink. We ate like kings and stayed up playing games and chatting.

The next morning, we made a breakfast of yogurt and fruit with honey and budin (sweet bread). We wanted to explore a little bit of Minas/Villa Serrana before heading to the department of Treinta y Tres, so we visited the Obelisco (Obelisk? It’s basically a tall skinny pyramid that most departments have). It was way smaller than we expected, but we had to laugh because we drove 15 minutes on bumpy roads in a stick-shift car to visit it. On the way, we also found a little free library where people could take and leave a book, write poetry, and give book suggestions! The books were in a refrigerator painted in all sorts of colors, so of course I had to take pics.

We then headed to the Salto del Penitente where we walked to a series of lagoons and waterfalls. I wanted to jump in, but it was impossible to get close enough to the lagoon without basically scaling the rocks/cliffs! We decided to play if safe and tan next to the waterfall. After soaking in the sun, we had a late lunch and tried croquettes (more like egg rolls) with jabaldi (warthog). It tasted just like regular pork, and I can say that that’s the most “exotic” thing I’ve ever tasted! We then decided to pack up and drive the three hours to Treinta y Tres. We passed by an olive orchard along the way, so we stopped and bought olive oil to cook with and fizzy wine in a can made from grapes grown in the area! There were also so many cats roaming around; we each wanted to steal one and take them back to Montevideo. When we were driving, we also drove past a fox that was sleeping on the side of the road! We slowed down and he sat up and just stared at us for a couple of minutes! He was clearly used to seeing humans because he just had this look of curiosity on his face. I wanted to steal him too but thought better of it 😉

Once we got to our Airbnb in Treinta y Tres, a few people went to the store while my friend Cleo and I started the fire! I was so proud of us that we got it going and that we could start cooking dinner right away. We had another delicious dinner of chorizo and grilled potatoes. The next day was Cleo’s birthday, so we stayed up to sing to her in Spanish, English, and Arabic! How neat is that?

Part two is on its way! Stay tuned!

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

2023 Goals

As with last year, most of my goals don’t have numbers attached to them, because I find that really stressful, and it turns my goals (and my reading) into a task to complete. Instead, I pick things I’d like to do more, to encourage me to consider them when putting things on hold at the library or buying something at a bookstore. With no further ado, my goals:

Read 100 books: I read almost twice this much last year, but I shall not count on anything during grad school.

Read more translated literature: Last year most of my translated works were manga, and while I really enjoyed them, I also want to make progress on my TBR of other kinds of translated literature!

Reduce my physical TBR: There’s still some stuff on my shelves I haven’t touched for years, and I’d like to get to them! This also includes books that were gifted to me or that I borrowed from people.

Read books at the top of my numbered TBR: A long time ago, I went through a couple of times and ordered my Goodreads TBR based on what I was really excited about! I may no longer be using Goodreads, but I still have 250 books that I dragged to the top of my list I haven’t gotten to, and I want to someday get through those - either remove them from my TBR because my tastes have changed or read them! Last year about 10% of the books I read were from this list - maybe I can beat that this year!

Read books in Spanish: I have put this damn goal on my list for two years running and read nothing. This year I vow to read at least one!!! Just one!!!

Read 40% Authors of Color: I’m still trying to get to this goal - I’m close, but not quite there, and I’m trying to pay attention to this to make sure that I’m not reading a narrow swath of literature!

Read more Discworld: I have 9 Discworld books left, and I’m getting really invested in some of these storylines so I’d like to read more soon. I’m currently reading Thief of Time, and then it’s time for Night Watch and Monstrous Regiment, two of the ones I’ve been really excited about for a while.

Finish series: I currently have 100 unfinished series on my TBR, 22 of which I’m caught up on. That still leaves 78 series I could be caught up on or finished with! I want to make progress! Hypothetically I liked these books and wanted to read their sequels! Realistically I think I’m going to have to re-read quite a few of these first installments to continue on in the series, and I may learn that I’m not as interested in them at this point in my life.

Read recommendations from the Storygraph: I’ve liked their recommendations in the past, and I’d like to continue using this as one of my discovery methods for interesting books!

Read indigenous authors: Still working on this, still not doing as well as I’d like. I need to be more proactive about putting them on hold at the library.

[wildereader]

April Wrap-Up!

This may not seem like a lot, but I REALLY focused on finishing up One Piece this month, which you will see. For right now, I’ll focus on these three books!

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden is my FAVORITE book I’ve read so far this year, which I was NOT expecting from a historical fantasy set during WWI!!! I loved Arden’s Winternight Trilogy, which I read last year, so I was so excited to read her new release. Her writing is so atmospheric and enthralling, and this story about war, grief, folklore, memory, and love was absolutely everything I love in fiction. ALSO I was not expecting a beautiful queer romance from this book at ALL, but Ms. Arden surprised me in the best way with it 🥹 When this book comes out in paperback, I will definitely be getting myself a copy!

The Curious Compendium of Wonderful Words was something I found at my library and picked up on a whim and have been slowly making my way through for a couple months now, even though it’s very short. It was funny and fascinating, and my only critique is that it didn’t go into much detail about anything—just a collection of interesting facts about certain words and phrases, which was fun enough to keep me entertained while I read it. This book isn’t something you’d pick up if you want in-depth info about etymology, but it is an easy read if you just want to learn a bunch of fun facts!

And after I finished One Piece, I went back to my manga roots—volume 1 of Ouran High School Host Club 🌸💞🌹 I rewatched the anime for the first time in YEARS earlier in April, and I absolutely fell back in love with this series. I’m excited to do my first reread of the manga, especially considering it has even more story that wasn’t adapted into the anime.

Speaking of manga, though… It’s Time To Talk About One Piece

I’ve been putting my OP volume roundups under cuts in my previous wrap-up posts, but I’m FUCKING PROUD OF MYSELF for catching up, so it’s going in the main post!!!! I always reserve most thoughts on a series until I’ve finished it, so I’ve been holding back my OP-inions (haha) for FIVE MONTHS….. but they’re nothing groundbreaking. I love this series. I totally understand why it makes people go so nuts, and I’m fully one of those people now. I have such withdrawal from this series since finishing it a couple weeks ago ;-; It is so wild to me how LONG this series is, how culturally impactful it’s been since its release twenty-five years ago, and how strong and unique and interesting it’s remained since it started. No, it’s not Perfect™️™️ by any means, but….. Damn. It’s good. It’s so good. And it definitely deserves all the hype it has.

Also, since it’s May 5th when I’m posting this… Happy Birthday to my Most Favorite Boy EVER MONKEY D. LUFFY!!!! ❤️❤️❤️

SOOOO I’ve definitely been putting some books off as I was focusing on finishing OP, but I’ll ease back into them as I feel like it (and as my library book due dates creep up on me). Here’s hoping May is another good reading month for me!!!