#i’ve made like four more since her lmaoo

[scumbagg]

[softspiderling]

illicit affairs - part four | r.c

summary:

“All done?” You asked, stretching your hand a little to make sure the bandage wasn’t restricting anything.

“Yup,” Rafe replied, shutting the kit. “Or is there anything else?”

“I thought you were going to kiss it better,” you said teasingly.

OR; You reminisce about the day you realized you had fallen in love with your best friend

pairing: rafe cameron x reader

warnings: mention of blood (small cut!)

word count: 2,9k

author's note: a little later than usual, but i hope you don't mind! new precious + rafe lore unlocked. this part explores rafe's and precious' friendship more and is slightly angsty (what a 180 from the last part lmaoo). pls pls pls let me know what you thought. happy reading!!! <3

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pt. four: "you taught me a secret language"

Throughout your life, Rafe had always been your best friend. Granted, the title became longer the older you got: Rafe, your best friend in the whole world; Rafe your best friend who you had a crush on; Rafe your best friend who you were undoubtedly in love with; and now? Rafe, your best friend who you had sex with.

You sometimes wished you could turn back the time to before you were in love with Rafe.

Or rather, before you admitted you were in love with him.

Deep inside, you knew that there was never a before. You’d always been in love with Rafe. You just refused to admit it, even to yourself, until it pretty much stared you right in the face.

It was right around the time of your senior year at the academy, which admittedly, you didn’t like looking back at all that much since it was probably the most stressful times of your life, with all the exams, finals and college apps you were doing; it didn’t help that your parents were on your ass most of the times, despite you doing fairly well in school. However it all came to a boiling point around the end of the first term of your senior year. You had just come home from studying at the library with the boys - with Rafe just bumming around because he had graduated two years earlier - when your mother greeted you at the door with a letter in her hand, her face red.

“What’s this?”

You sighed internally, turning around to shut the door behind you slowly, using that time to exhale deeply. It had been a long day and the last thing you needed was your mother screaming at you as soon as you stepped over the threshold.

“I don’t know ma,” you replied, squinting your eyes at the letter. Your vision was a little blurry from all the studying you’ve done, but you recognized the crest of the academy on the left corner. “The invitation for the graduation ceremony?”

Your mother scoffed. “Try again. It’s a letter from the principal. You failed a math test.”

“What?”

You snatched the letter out of your mother’s hands scanning the content before sighing, dropping your hands.

“Mom, I didn’t fail the test, I got a 82.”

“That’s basically a fail,” you mother huffed, shaking her head. “How do you want to keep your 4.0 GPA up with grades like this?”

“It’s a test.”

“Stop with the attitude young lady, this is your future we’re talking about?”

“Mom, I know! But it’s just a test, it’s not like it’s gonna affect my grades that much.”

Your mother made a noise of disapproval, throwing her hands up in frustration. “Just a test? Everything counts, you know that! Especially in your senior year, where every single grade you get can decide between an acceptance or being waitlisted.”

“Oh my god,” you groaned, running your hand through your hair. “I can’t listen to this right now. I’ve been in the library the whole day and the second I get back you’re on my ass about a fucking 82.”

You shoved your backpack on the counter and turned right back around, opening the door forcefully. Your mother was right behind you, appalled at your tone.

“This conversation isn’t over! Where are you going?!”

“OUT!”

You slammed the door behind you, rushing to your car and tossing your backpack on the passenger seat as you drove off. Brimming with anger, you didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now, so you headed straight to the beach, to the one spot you knew you would be left alone.

In less than five minutes after parking, you had put on your bathing suit and unstrapped your surf board from the trunk and were in the water. After catching your first wave, you were still fuming. After the fourth, you started to feel the sun on your face, and the anger slowly seeping away. You lost yourself in the water, becoming one with the ocean, starting to get bold and one tiny misstep on your board made you lose your balance, falling into the wave you were trying to catch. The brute strength of it knocked you around underwater like a rag doll, arm getting caught on some reef, and you were gasping for air as you finally resurfaced, clinging onto your board. With a groan, you heaved yourself back on top of the board, trying to catch your breath as the water lapped around you in smal waves.

“Shit,” you muttered, lifting your wrist to inspect the cut on your wrist, squinting your eyes against the sun. You let out a hiss as the salt water dripped from your fingers onto the cut.

“You tryna kill yourself?”

You jumped, not having expected anyone out there with you. Shaking out your wrist, you lifted your head to see Rafe paddling towards you, a frown on his face.

“What are you doing here, Rafe?”

His hair was still dry, board shorts clinging to his legs when he came to a stop next to you, waves softly lapping against his board.

“I swung by your place. Wanted to see if you wanted to get pizza and instead I find your mom all pissed, said you stormed off,” he explained, “and since I didn’t run into on my way to your house, I figured you’d be out here.”

You let out a sigh, staring out at the sea, ignoring how Rafe was holding his hand out, undoubtedly to get a look at your wrist. With an eye roll, you stretched out your wrist in his direction, and he curled his fingers around it, pulling you closer. Your cheeks heated as your leg pressed against his, added with the feeling of his hot breath on your skin, you breathed out softly.

“Y’know this could’ve ended real badly, precious,” Rafe muttered, brushing his thumb over your skin, before he looked up at you, his eyebrows creased.

“I’m fine.”

“Clearly, you’re not,” Rafe scoffed. “What happened?”

“My mom got all over me because of a “failed math test””, you said, air-quoting. “I’m just sick of it. It’s not like I’ve slacking off or anything, I’m working my ass off and they’re never happy with whatever I do, because in their eyes, I always have room to grow.” You let out a frustrated sigh, glancing at Rafe when you noticed he was sporting a look on his face that told you he understood exactly what you meant.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” Rafe chuckled, shaking his head. “Our parents should be doing better than setting expectations for their kids instead of loving them despite their achievements.”

You gave him a wry smile and he only let out a small huff, squeezing your wrist gently. “Are you all done or do you want to keep trying to drown yourself some more?”

Huffing out a laugh, you rolled your eyes at him.

“I’m done.”

The two of you paddled back to the beach, drying off and while Rafe helped you securing your board to your trunk, he glanced over at you, hair falling into his eyes.

“Let me get your cut cleaned off first before we leave. I have a first aid kit in my truck.”

“Kay.”

You took a seat at the edge of his trunk, while Rafe went to fetch the first aid kit from the glove compartment. The sun was starting to set, and with that, the temperature was sinking, your damp hair laying cold on your back. The car door shut, before Rafe turned around the corner of the truck, first aid kit in his hand and sweater slung around his shoulder.

“Put this on,” he said absentmindedly, dropping the sweater in your lap and the first aid kit in the trunk. Rolling your eyes, you slipped into the sweater and it was oddly comforting to be surrounded by his scent, but you didn’t let yourself dwell on that, because it was such a weird thing to think, right? Instead, you watched as Rafe rummaged through the first aid kit, picking out some bandages, gauze and a disinfectant spray.

“Roll up your sleeve.”

“Yes, nurse Cameron.”

Rafe gave you a look, but you only snickered as you rolled up the sleeve, before holding out your wrist to him. He muttered something under his breath as he cleaned your cut and dressed it, without much complaints from your side, even though the disinfectant stung a little. Rafe taped the end of the bandage snugly to your wrist, tossing the rest of the material back into the kit.

“All done?” You asked, stretching your hand a little to make sure the bandage wasn’t restricting anything.

“Yup,” Rafe replied, shutting the kit. “Or is there anything else?”

“I thought you were going to kiss it better,” you said teasingly. Rafe raised an eyebrow at you, before he reached for your hand, lifting it to his mouth to place a kiss on the bandage. You flushed, not expecting him to actually do it.

“You’re an idiot,” you said hotly, shoving him away but he only laughed, running his hand through his hair. The grin on his face was infectious, and you couldn’t help but laugh, rolling your eyes at him.

“There she is,” Rafe said, cupping your chin to lift it, forcing you to look into his eyes. Suddenly, your hands grew clammy and swallowed nervously as he smiled at you, blue eyes sparkling. For a split second, you thought he was gonna kiss you and for some reason, you weren’t opposed. Actually, you kind of really wished he’d kiss you.

Wait, what?

That was not a normal thing to want from your best friend. Suddenly, your heart started racing and you let out a deep breath, hoping it would calm yourself down.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just my mom,” you lied, wringing your hands in your lap. “I just stormed off. She’s gonna be super pissed and I’ll probably be grounded until I’m thirty.”

“Nah, come on. I bet she completely forgot about it already.”

You gave him a look and Rafe winced. “Okay, maybe not. But if we give her some time, we can hope for the best? Come on.”

He tugged you off of the trunk, closing up the front panel.

“Let’s go get some pizza. My treat.”

“I don’t know,” you whinged, “Maybe I should just go home. Get it over with.”

You weren’t sure if it was the best idea to spend more time with Rafe right now considering how weird you were feeling. Worst case, you’d do blurt something out and make things weird between the two of you, that was the last thing you needed. But Rafe wrapped an arm around your shoulder, pulling you close.

“Trust me, whether you go home now or in three hours won’t change anything. If anything, it’ll give you an even clearer head after having some food, huh?”

As if on cue, your stomach grumbled loudly and Rafe raised an eyebrow at you, the corners of his mouth twitching up.

“Fine,” you relented, rolling your eyes at him. “Gino’s?”

“Yup, meet you there.”

While Rafe got into his truck, you got into your jeep, rubbing your hand over your face, frustrated.

“Fuck,” you muttered with a small sigh. You couldn’t actually like Rafe more than a friend, right? That’d be crazy. You’d known each other for so long, had been friends for so long, there was no way. It was probably just a crush. There was no denying that Rafe was attractive, and it was normal to want to kiss attractive people, right?

I’m just emotional because of the fight with mom, you thought to yourself, rolling your shoulders, forcing yourself to calm down. I am not in love with Rafe. He’s my best friend. With a deep exhale, you put your key in the ignition, pulling out of the parking spot and driving towards Gino’s.

When you got there, Rafe was already entering the restaurant, the door swinging shut behind him. You turned your car off, and got out, grabbing a blanket from your backseat and opening the front panel of the trunk of Rafe’s truck, laying down the blanket. By the time you had made yourself yourself comfortable, Rafe returned with two pizza cartons, balancing two cans of soda on top. You reached for the cans, setting them down next to you so Rafe could settle down across from you, laying down the pizza cartons. Wordlessly, Rafe opened both of them, waiting for you to reach for a slice before he got one himself, biting into it.

Silence settled over you as you ate, with you handing Rafe his soda when he finished his slice, knowing he liked to wash his crust down with a drink, and him handing you a napkin. You and Rafe had never needed words to communicate before, understanding each other without having to say anything and as you sat there, glancing at Rafe as you chewed on your pizza, you came to the terrifying realization that you loved him

You were in love with him.

Suddenly, your mind was racing, coming up with 10 thousand different scenarios where you’d ruin your friendship because you had fallen in love with your best friend, as you started to think back to the past, realizing how obvious it was that you had feelings for him. Had it always been like this?

Lost in thought, you didn’t even notice that all that was left of the pizzas were crumbs, as Rafe shut the cartons, stacking them together. Drinking the rest of your soda, you crushed the can in your hand like it was your feelings, bringing the empty cans and cartons to the nearest trashcan as Rafe cleaned up the trunk. You let yourself stare at the back of his head for a while, inhaling deeply before you cleared your throat. He glanced back over his shoulder, attention on you.

“Thanks,” you said, trying not to be awkward as you fiddled with the sleeves of his sweater. Rafe gave you a look.

Despite the fact that you were sitting in silence as you ate, his presence had comforted, brought your nerves down and made your anger disappear the way no one really could. Rafe wrapped his arm around your shoulder and you leaned into him, head on his chest. You didn’t revel in his arms for too long, as the two of you separated as Rafe closed his trunk. He dusted his hands off before turning around, his attention wholly on you.

“Do you want me to come home with you? Create a buffer for your mom?”

“No,” you replied, crossing your arms. “It’s fine, don’t worry.”

Rafe eyed you sceptically for a second before he nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “A’ight then. Text me if you need anything, okay?”

You smiled at him, giving a quick nod before you got into your car, waving at him as you drove off, a pit in your stomach. The drive home didn’t take long, but the sun had already set as you pulled up on your estate. The house was illuminated in the headlights of your car, quickly returning to darkness as you turned your engine off. There were no lights on as you entered the house; you were hoping that it meant that your parents had gone out, and you’d avoid another confrontation with your mother.

Picking up your bookbag from the floor, you paused as you saw your mother sit in the living room, a book in her lap. The two of you looked at each other for a second, neither saying a word.

“Hey mom,” you greeted her, breaking the silence. Your mother took off her reading glasses, shutting the book.

“Where were you?”

“Surfing.”

Your mother slid the book on the table, setting the glasses on top. “Did you eat?”

“Yeah,” you replied, shifting on your feet. “I got some pizza with Rafe.”

She nodded slowly, easing into the cushions behind her. You waited, wondering if she was gonna apologize but your mother didn’t say anything; maybe she was waiting for you to apologize.

“… I’ll be upstairs.”

Your mother didn’t stop you as you retreated upstairs into your bedroom, shutting the door behind you. Setting the book bag on your desk, you laid down on your bed with a sigh, reaching for your phone.

Rafe [03/21/19: 7:44 pm]: everything good?

Precious [03/21/19: 7:49 pm]: as well as expected

Precious [03/21/19: 7:49 pm]: thanks for being there for me

Rafe [03/21/19: 7:51 pm]: always, precious

Ever since that day, you knew you loved Rafe, and sometimes, you indulged yourself and let yourself imagine what it would be like to be more than Rafe’s best friend. But as he was lying in the bed next to you, his chest slowly rising and falling while you were unable to sleep, you never would have expected that it would be like this.

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author's note: thoughts???👀

[mockerycrow]

CROWWWW YOUR OC'S SOUND SO COOL!!!!

Macbeth is my personal favorite so far (I'm biased cause I'm Slavic hehe) he just sounds so complex!!! And from what you wrote, I can very much tell you put time into researching the mentality of Slavic men, and that friend of yours seems to know what they're talking about. Finally, Slavic representation is more than just Russian terrorists or Balkan gang leaders. You've got no idea how much I appreciate being able to see my culture in art and writing. So far, Macbeth reminds me of my father a little bit <3 Slavic culture is iften very overlooked when it comes to representation and we see things about us that are inaccurate, offensive, or just plain rude. Glad to see we're finally getting a bit more respect within other communities, especially in books and fanfiction!

Thank you so much for this Crow, you don't know how much it made my day. I feel so seen.

Share some more random little facts about your OC's if you'd like! I'd love to hear the niche little details, like who of the characters is a night owl and who's an early bird, I'd love to know who bickers the most often, who's the tallest and the shortest, what are the deeper dynamics in the group like etc etc. I wanna hear it all!!!!

Love you Crow!! And I'm so excited for the next Undercover installment too (no pressure to hurry up, I'm just fangirling lmaoo) <33

-🌓

I’M GONNA CRY!! I really appreciate your love for Macbeth (as well as my Undercover series!!) and I’m very excited to introduce all three of my ocs. My friend who has helped me with Macbeth is Ukrainian themself and I wanted to do them right with Macbeth. (love u pookie) One of the reasons why I created Macbeth is because I was doing research on my family lineage for my father!

As for heights, Macbeth is actually the tallest! He stands at 5’10” (177.8 cm), although Hamlet is only half an inch behind him. He’s 5’9.5” (176.5 cm). Mantis is a few inches shorter at 5’6” (167 cm).

I would like to think that Mantis is a night owl. She thrives in a private setting; don’t get me wrong, she works well with other people and is a key person in her team! But she prefers being alone or with one other person. She likes the silence as there’s no chaos. Though at times, the silence does spook her if she’s just come back from a mission. Remaining adrenaline gets her jumpy.

Macbeth is an Early Bird unwillingly. He’s always been an early bird since childhood, not exactly something he could help. He will wake up at 0430 on the dot without an alarm. If he does not want to be up early, expect him to take some sleep medication 💀 Macbeth isn’t exactly mad about this as it’s typical to wake up early in the military. He also gets a few mundane tasks done before his day officially starts. Macbeth enjoys being able to watch the sun rise whilst smoking a cigarette.

Hamlet.. he’s neither. He is the definition of “soldiers sleeping anywhere”. He does not like getting up in the slightest, so don’t be surprised when you wake him up to take next watch, he complains under his breath. If he had to pick his favorite time of day though, definitely sunset or just right after it due to how beautiful the sky looks!

Mantis knows four languages like I’ve mentioned, and she’s currently learning Ukrainian. She knows English (Native speaker), Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. Macbeth sits her down and helps her practice a bit, and he can’t help but chuckle under his breath when Mantis’ lips refuse to move the correct way and she speaks Ukrainian with a butchered accent. It’s much better than a lot of other American’s attempts but again, Ukrainian is an entirely different language than her native language, so she sounds a bit ridiculous. Hamlet knows English (native speaker), Mandarin, and Arabic! Macbeth grew up in Mykolaiv, Ukraine until he was fourteen, so he knows Ukrainian (native speaker), Russian, Belarusian, and English. The order of their languages are the order of which they’ve been learned!

Their dynamics? Hmm… Hamlet is definitely a loyal guard dog type. You’ll see this throughout the tempest series. Hamlet bickers. Doesn’t matter who it is. He’s always bickering. It’s often Mantis and Hamlet getting into it with Macbeth having to intervene, or it’s Hamlet and Macbeth bickering and Mantis wanting both of them to shut the fuck up 😭

i’m really bad at sharing things about ocs without direct questions so i’m accepting any questions!!

[chthonicgodling]

(April’s)Huevember - Day 16!

featuring: Fjöer (top left); Rane (top right); Nari (bottom left); Vali (bottom right)

[in which I’ve made my very own #Huevember wheel this year (that you can use too! Pls tag me I’d LOVE to see!) - unabridged version continues, including a wide array of Elysium’verse characters across the rainbow!]

pile o’ Lokikids for today thanks to Rane’s powder blue vibe - PHEW! Loki’s got a lot of kids and almost all of them are showing up this month fgfkfkgk,, NOTES!

Fjöer, the crazy looking bird thing up there, is Loki and Laphi’s son - Laphi of course being part owl himself + Loki’s weirdo genetics = …Fjöer. He was actually Loki’s first kid in Elysium! he’s oh my god about,, 15 or 16 now but he is Owl so he’s smol ish forever. being a supportive big bro right now

Rane and her stupid top hat is Loki’s second Elysium kid, currently undergoing some minor OoC renovations but that’s not important 🤪 she’s currently about 10 or 11! What is important is that Rane, despite absolutely having Loki’s own actual magical abilities, has for years stubbornly refused to take ANY interest in learning real magic…. She prefers silly little mortal magic tricks and refuses to ever take the top hat off 🥺

this is exceptionally funny because other than this one quirk Rane is among the most uptight prim and proper of all of Loki’s kids, she’s VERY uppity except for when it comes to pulling scarves out of a hat. Loki…,,, tries very hard to be a supportive parent but this of course makes him TWITCH lmfao oh my fodddd he cANN TEACH HER REALL MAGICCCC—

and of course, Nari and Vali - older in passage of time than both Rane & Fjöer, but ghosts of eternal 10 years old since their untimely deaths on Asgard many years ago 😬 - they’re FINE now and very happily ghosts don’t worry!

all the Lokikids have a cult-like sibling bond amongst each other and are ride or die for the most part but Rane’s ridiculous magic trick thing drives Nari crazy the exact same way it does Loki except Nari is Rane’s 10 year old big brother and he does NOT have the wherewithal to NOT complain at her???

esp since Nari when he was alive WAS learning real sorcery and now watching Rane be like 😠Father NooOo That’s Boring - Pick A Card😠drives himmM UP A WALL LMAOO JUST SUMMON ONE MILLION CARDS WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!! Loki (and Vali, easily entertained) lately constantly breaking up squabbles

BUT big happy blended family overall anywayyyyy more Lokikids I’m sure to come in these future days hmhmmmm.,,,

these four belong to me & click the link up above to see the whole Huevember wheel - feel free to use the tag AceprilHuevember if u want to play too - and my tag this year can be found here!!

[arleniansdoodles]

Your gow fic has genuinely been a joy to watch evolve. I'm not even really in the fandom atm but i still come back here every so often to either see how its going or to read back through all the posts. Hope you aren't suffering burnout too badly but i am genuinely so so so excited for this!

Hope you have a wonderful day♡

Awww thank you so much, anon! It really made my day to read your comment <333 Rest assured I'm not too burnt out yet, I just need to get back in the flow of writing for GoW ^^;; Everything was so much easier back in the day when Atreus and Calliope were gallivanting across Greece and Rome! lmaoo

I hope you have a wonderful day too, anon! Here, let me share a snippet from the Rome arc with y'all; it's nothing too fancy, just a slice-of-life section of Atreus and Calliope getting cleaned up in a public bathhouse XDD Hope you enjoy! :DDD

(For context, Aelia is a bathhouse servant tasked to guide them around since this is Atreus' first time in a place like this)

After a few moments, Aelia took them through the large doors on the right of the tepidarium. They were immediately met with a gust of hot, steamy air. A large, circular bath filled the centre of the hall, sunk down into the floor, with citizens already lounging inside it. There were other smaller baths in the four corners of the hall. There were two small doorways to the left and right, and by the look of the steam escaping from under those doors, they likely led to hot-air baths.

“Hoc est caldarium,” Aelia announced.

“The hot room?” Atreus repeated in Greek, startled. A delighted grin spread over Calliope’s face.

“Vis frigidarium?” Aelia asked Atreus.

He turned to Calliope. “What kind of baths did you have in Sparta?”

“Hot air!” she said immediately. “They are very steamy and warm.” She pointed excitedly to the side doors. “Are those hot-air baths? Can we go there first?”

Atreus looked like he didn’t know whether to freeze or flee, but he nodded and turned to Aelia with the question. Aelia gestured for them to follow and moved to the left, passing by the hot pools and entering one of the side rooms.

It was empty, thank goodness. Steam rose up from a coal fire built into the centre of the floor, in turn heating the basin of water on top, releasing steam. Calliope hurried over to the stone benches that lined the walls, and sat down, swinging her feet. “Sit, Atreus!”

He sat down beside her. Aelia inclined her head to them and said something. Atreus replied, “Gratias tibi,” and Aelia departed from the room.

“She’ll be back in a quarter hour,” he said to Calliope. “We’re supposed to wait until we start sweating before going out to the water baths.”

“Yes,” Calliope agreed. “Then we can cool down after.”

Atreus leaned back against the frescoed wall. His skin was already starting to flush pink, and not from his earlier embarrassment. He reached up to undo his braid. “So … this is a hot-air bath, huh?”

“Do you like it?” Calliope asked eagerly. “Mother brought me to these all the time. It is very common in Sparta. Father told me he would go with his soldiers to the hot-air baths.”

“Really?” Atreus said, surprised. “All of them together?”

“Yes!” Calliope peered closer at Atreus’ red face. She giggled. “Are you shy?”

“What? No! It’s just, um, not what I’m used to. It’s pretty hot here, too.”

“Do you use hot water in your homeland?”

“Yeah. We have to heat it manually, since it’s usually cold to start with. But it’s never this hot, I think. Y’know, I’ve also taken some very cold baths.”

“How cold?”

“Like getting into a frozen lake.”

“No!”

“Yep! Felt like knives all over me. Father just stood on the banks and grunted.”

Calliope shivered at the thought despite the heat of the room. “Aelia mentioned a cold room,” she remembered. “Maybe you will like those more?”

Atreus laughed lightly. “I mean, I don’t like being too cold or too hot. It’s just something I had to do when we didn’t have time to heat up the water.”

[m1ckeyb3rry]

HAHAHAH imagine the first chapter of pursuit starts with “I wanna be the very best that no one ever was, to rizz then is my real test, to date them is my causeeeee” LMFAOO

LMAOO you forgetting but you also being the one to make his team sends me (i would so do this) ASH AND CHARIZARD I love that dynamic that would be so funny imagine it’s just lazy on lazy hate crimes like “no bitch you move and do it” “no im sleeping”

Even before remembering the setting I thought Charles matched the YIPPEE vibe well LOL WAIT RINS IS FUNNY HAHSAHAHAH “yippee.” NAGIS EGO LEAVING HIM LIKE HIS SOUL IS ASCENDING TO ANOTHER PLANE HE LOOKED ETHEREAL

LMAOOO Karasu has beef with her now yes whenever you have doodles do show!! Obv no pressure to make any LOL I just love seeing the crumbs

Wait lowk Barou yayoi spinoff this angst…/hj barous and karasus>>> on that note I had to remember that reader doesn’t inherit the Barou last name because when I looked at the funeral graphic I was like wait do we need to distinguish which one and then I remembered the whole cousin thing and also how cousins don’t always share the same last name but anyways NOOOSHSJS IM CRYING JN MY FEELS “my ex sending my brother the love he could never give me” goodbye (lowk the move from romantic to platonic love makes this even deeper bruh I wasn’t planning on sobbing rn)

DAYCARE WORKWR KARASU WAITTTT esp if his talonflsme has flame body (if I get pokemon teams wrong do correct me because I think the team listing got buried somewhere and I have bad memory as we’ve established) lowk I like this idea too it’s like he’s proving himself to yayoi but not limiting himself to just the gym leader like breaking the mold yk…..just makes him more extraordinary (in his terms LMAO) like proving himself without needing to be gym leader…..im ngl I jumped to far and read “he cooks eggs” and I was like he does WHAT but anyways

OH LMFAOAO I somehow thought there was a specific meme so I looked it up to no avail but REAL and LMAOOOO DOOFENSHMIRTZ(spelling??? Idk man)

HAHAH no it’s ok they can take the slander (i always find it really funny how even Nagi himself is like this shorty…in ref to Isagi HAHA and ig by implication Reo since he doesn’t really disagree when Nagi calls Isagi that) THE BIG HANDS imagine they do that thing where you measure hand sizes oh god but also one slap from them and you’re stepping into your grave LMFAO (they would never but ykwim)

STOP MIRAVERSE MUKTIVERSE (im abbreviating this to MVMV/MMV) actually goes too hard it all fits too well within the pokemon au SHSHSH white butterfly Hiori and reader him waiting at the safari zone in the house she described raising the pokemon she listed from her childhood dreams bye…now instead of white butterflies white butterfree/beautifly (I can’t lie im a beautifly enthusiast so id pick that over butterfree but wtv floats your boast yk just needs to be a butterfly)

IM GONNA SHIT MYSELF THE TABIEITA ONE IS TOO FUNNY but IVE SEEN THE SAE ONE LMAOAOA finally accurate rep of him omg wait I’m gonna go stalk this artist more I didn’t realize they drew tabieita

LMAOO me rn thinking I’ve said one too many LMAOs and tossing in LOL and HAHAHA (I lowk hate hahaha because it HAS to be in caps or else it looks passive aggressive unless I do like four “ha”s or more but that looks excessive ughhhhhh) in too deep we’re entering my LMAO keyboard smash zone now (I’ve sometimes sandwiched sentences with LMAO too) but enough about my LMAOs

LMFAOAOOOOOOOOO IM DEADDDDD imagine we’ve been talking about peregrine this entire time and I’m just like “WOW she knows all the details about the whole plot does she know the author??” Isagis life is too boring he needs angst to spice it up fr wait I love how Isagi kinda projects Barou into reader and struggles with his loss/disappearance you made him like 10x more interesting in like two seconds damn….QHESTIONING IF THE WRONG ONE GOT TO LIVE omg that goes HARD I love complex feelings like this go off!!! Barou’s death fr doing numbers on everyone like talk about catastrophe of a lifetime (wait side note but this almost kinda parallels MLP and how the mane six get their cutie marks like one event tied them together forever and ig in this case it’s Barou’s death?? SHSHSHS don’t ask me why I made this connection)

Karasu bfb about to be the household Karasu fic trust but no fr there’s no way I’d be able to tell from reading the request prompted fics like if we weren’t talking I would’ve just thought you liked a bunch of characters LMAOO

WAIT WHAT I HAVENT STUDJED YET I paused writing this and scrambled to check ok thank god it’s not up quite yet I need to type faster omfg but RAGGHHH POKEMON THEME LETS GOOO wait on that note would you prefer to write something for a fav or not or are there any characters you aren’t as inclined to write for atm because if so I’ll keep it in mind while deciding because I’m indecisive so (imagine I say Isagi /j I wouldn’t prefer that anyways) good thing I’m in my chronically online hours rn and saw this

- KARASU ANON that wasn’t supposed to be all caps but I’m too lazy to fix it now oops

HELPPPP THE NOT THE THEME SONG (AIKU'S VERSION) SDLKFJHSLDKJ i'm crying omg there needs to be an aiku spinoff that's just him and his arbok spreading rizz and pokémon knowledge HAHAHA

LMAOO besides arcanine whimsicott and reuniclus i feel like nagi's team is kinda irrelevant in terms of our discussions...goodra does get mentions every now and again plus it's SO nagi that i remember that one but rip clefable and snorlax forever second place HAHA that's the exact vibe i was imagining or like reader throws out her gyarados in a battle so nagi whips out snorlax for some reason and snorlax is just sleeping meanwhile nagi's like "BRO IT'S Y/N WE HAVE TO LOCK IN" but snorlax does NOT gaf FKLJHKLSF

all of the foreign/professional players knowing one another is so fun tbh reader in that au definitely would team up with charles to bully kaiser when they play bm so he def fits!! or imagine rin has to get internet culture lessons from shidou and charles so he can keep up with reader's references but he's so unenthusiastic about it so he brings zero energy to the table (his first choice in tutors was karasu but he can't ask karasu for help because karasu's his biggest opp since reader likes him/is friends with him)

KARASU HAS INSANE BEEF WITH EVERYONE IN THE CORE FOUR i actually can't decide why he'd have beef with tullia because she's...not unproblematic necessarily but too focused on bullying otoya to do anything to karasu HAHAH maybe he has beef with her because she beat him in a battle when they first met (four baby birds vs a fully grown lanturn is not a great combo) and he never gets over it (it's mostly like a joke grudge he holds ofc but he would be the one)

no because i've been thinking about barou x yayoi (baroi?? shoyoi?? i'd say barasu but that could get confusing as a ship name because of tabito)...they kind of give mrs l/n x toji vibes from pomegranate ink but opposite!! okay but yk how we have reader and co and it's reader + tullia + karasu + otoya well imagine barou's group was himself, yayoi (who had to do on field training before her parents gave her the gym), isagi, and then aiku occasionally dropping in (aiku serving more of a manshine trio vibe than anything tbh) KLSJFDS the angst there goes INSANE okay wait lowkey isagi and yayoi reunion could go crazy maybe they haven't spoken since barou left because they don't know what to say to each other and isagi's avoiding her because barou told him about his illness but not yayoi and the guilt of that is crushing to isagi (love triangle dare i say?? yayosagi canon because barou's gone??????)

yess he has a talonflame w flame body that's actually where i got the idea of him and the birds looking after (NOT cooking) the eggs!! honestly i think it would be cute too like after beating yayoi and getting her badge as well as being at reader's side when she takes down team x he realizes he doesn't NEED to prove anything to anyone ykwim?? like as long as he's happy it's okay if people consider his existence "mediocre" (because i'm sure people would find it crazy that he goes to be a daycare worker/owner when he could very easily be a league official) because nothing lese really matters...character growth/development we love to see it

HAHAH no there's no specific meme unfortunately but the doofenshmirtz cracked me up so ofc i had to share (lowkey i can imagine otoya in that fit SDJFHSDL)

no because reo calls bachira a banged freak those two are BOTH evil reo is just more outwardly nice so nobody knows what insults he has brewing in him LMAOOO omg isagi is like one of the shortest in bllk besides kurona and kiyora so ig calling him shorty isn't necessarily off the mark (chigiri's a little taller than him but that one low quality panel of the manshine trio where chigiri looks tiny next to reo and nagi cracks me up HAHA)...nah because if i ever got to compare hand sizes with karasu or barou i would BUST i feel like barou wouldn't even understand what it so he's just like "uh ok" if you ask but you KNOW karasu is 100% aware of it he'd be so smug too LMAOOO once again in the words of isagi "this guy...is a villain!" or wtvr he said

MIRAVERSE MULTIVERSE IS REAL wait kalos doesn't have beautifly (they have butterfree) imagine the beautifly when they were kids was just one of yayoi's many gym pokémon that happened to be out and about BUT once he gets the safari zone hiori puts in a special request to have beautifly placed there because of that specific meeting SLDFKJD too many possibilities fr

THE SAE ONE HAD ME CACKLING THE WAY HE PASSES CHIGIRI TOO truly the sae the world needs...the tabieita one was so silly but so them HAHA sadly i am typing this from my laptop (hence the zero emojis too) so no tik tok this time around but next time trust i will lock in (call me nagi battling reader fr) and send smth!!

PLS i always throw in either an LMAOO or a HAHAH or a key smash to break up my trains of thought or the classic...or the !! and ?? because i feel like normal punctuation makes it feel sm more formal like a business professional email or smth when we're literally just besties giggling and chatting yk

I'M CRYING THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT i was like didn't i show you the drafts of earlier chapters did you think i just pulled those out of my ass??? haven't you seen my masterlist before?? but anyways i get what you were saying now HAHA

no because i have this vivid vision of isagi snapping and going full on-field on reader and she gets upset/starts crying (bonus points if karasu pulls up to comfort her #notthestepbrotherbutthebrotherthatsteppedup) and he immediately feels so bad that he starts apologizing but he just knows barou wouldn't have lost his temper in that situation (barou especially pursuit barou strikes me as someone who gets irritated super quickly but rarely if ever GENUINELY angry) and he already has a complex because he could never beat noel noa hence why he's an elite four candidate whereas barou was supposed to be the next champion so he's basically isagi but better (throw in some yayoi picking barou over him [not that isagi ever confessed he just assumed yayoi would want barou so he didn't say anything and surprise she ended up going for barou]) and yet isagi's the one who's left and barou's gone

PLS not the main six that's literally reader and co + manshine trio (otoya is spike the dragon) truly though barou's death/disappearance leads to so so much happening like it's insane how that one event changed the entire government...mr mikage and the government would've gotten away with their nonsense for much longer if barou literally just didn't leave for his journey or told his family he was ill and came home for his final days SLKDFJLSH ofc they still would've been exposed by the mutiny plot that the gym leaders and elite four members made but considering that plan wasn't meant to be executed for a WHILE who knows if it actually would've been effective or if they would've just murked noel noa and threatened the others into submission

KARASU BFB TAKE OVER REAL AND TRUE and okayy that's good HAHA sometimes i end up liking a character after i write for them too which is another can of worms (like kiyora i barely cared about him besides acknowledging that he was pretty pre-wicked game but now i fw him!! he's not a top top fav but he's cool)

LMAOO BRO YOU CAN'T STUDY YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHICH TYPES ARE WHICH TROPE YET HAHAHAHA and no i don't really have a preference for any character!! whatever strikes your fancy...almost hoping someone requests isagi so i can redeem myself and actually write something long for him /hj...i'm limiting the slots to twelve (two full teams) this time because i want to have time to be able to write pursuit and the oaeu and the other requests i still have to do (EEK) but i have no idea who if anyone will actually join so don't stress too much about getting in on time i'll make sure you get a spot (imagine that one drake audio that's like "don't worry...daddy's home") just make sure to send the request in a separate ask so i can respond to it w just the story hehe...anyways i fell asleep instead of posting the completed event so i will be finishing up the post and getting it out now hopefully!!

[illicitlimerence-writes]

a conversation stuck in your throat | m. verstappen

pairing: max verstappen x singer!actress!reader word count: 8.3k words request: yes, by anons: “hii! i absolutely love looove looooooooove the soft!boyfriend!max fic you posted! could you do one where him and y/n went from friends to lovers and it's y/n's first time (so their first time together as well) and max makes sure it's as sensual and loving as possible (he just wants to spoil her and show her how much he loves her)? basically lots of fluff (and smut I guess lol) 💕💕💕” & “hii hope you’re doing good! can I request a jealous max please? maybe he gets possessive and protective and it ends fluffly? idk I’m not too good at this lmaoo. thank youu <33” & “desperate making out w max v in a club? reader and him are together/best friends” & “I have a desperate need for a blurb with sick!reader and soft max taking care of her/them 🥺” & “hi babes 💗 i hope its okay to request this. i have an idea for a max v fic, inspired by dress by taylor swift? maybe they started off as best friends and then they started dating but they didn't announce it to the public so everyone just thinks they are best friends still? and maybe the golden tattoo he left on her as a mark is a tattoo reader got for him? either 'max' or '33' in golden ink? idk if this exists in real life lol. and reader is a singer and actress? this fic could maybe be little moments between them? like with time jumps but this is just an idea feel free to make it yours 💗” those were a lot of reqs wow. i hope you all like it!!!!!!!!!!! warnings: smut (18+ only, minors dni), language, christi*n h*rner (only for a tiiiny bit tho), (legal) drinking, i'm sure there's more that i missed lolol. a/n: this is one of my favorite pairings i’ve ever written. i swear. i already want to write more for these two. as always thank you to my cousin @ireallydontknowdudee for helping me proofread<3

my masterlist / / click here to read part one ‘superheroes and flat caps’ (you have to read that one first, otherwise this one won’t make much sense lolol) / / click here to listen to the playlist i made for these fics

june 30th, 2021. spielberg, austria.

the club was dark and the music was loud. there were bodies pressed together, people grinding on each other. the alcohol was present and common sense was long gone.

she had been a little apprehensive at first, she wasn’t too sure about the decision to drive to the club a few miles away from their hotel, but max had convinced her. and she’d do pretty much anything if it made max happy.

it was their first time clubbing together, and she was curious to see what type of drunk max was. since they still had to drive back, and she had to be up and presentable early the next day, they had agreed to not get too drunk. but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t have fun and enjoy the night celebrating her and her achievements.

“another one?” max’s breath on her ear made her skin get goosebumps, since the music was deafeningly loud, he had to lean incredibly close to her so she could hear him. she turned around and acted as if it didn’t affect her.

“i want tequila,” she replied, standing on her tiptoes to reach his ear. she leaned back and watched a smirk appearing on his lips. since they’d arrived max had been asking her to do tequila shots with him, since he claimed he knew a perfect method for it. she’d refused, sticking to drinks that weren’t so strong. but she wanted to please him this one time. 

“i knew you’d change your mind, come on,” he was quick to grab her hand and lead her away from the crowd of people dancing. they reached the bar and max asked for four tequila shots to be sent their way. they walked to their private booth, where they’d left their coats and her bag. the security guard that looked after that section let them in without too much trouble, they were the only vips of the night.

she sat down first, sliding on the seat until she was pressed between the wall and max’s body. she laughed at his actions, he was behaving like an excited, hyperactive kid. he leaned in to kiss her cheek, something he always did when they were alone. since the beginning of their friendship she started noticing that there were certain things that max only did with her. touching, or showing any type of physical affection was one of them. 

she didn’t find it weird or anything, she was familiar with the different types of love language, she just figured that touching was max’s. plus, she wasn’t complaining. she liked feeling loved, and that was how max made her feel. despite the short amount of time that they’d known each other, they’d grown to call each other ‘best friends’ rather quickly.

“so, what’s this great new method you were bragging about?” she leaned close to his ear.

“ah, impatient, much?” he grinned, she rolled her eyes, nudging his ribs with her elbow. “there’s really not much of a difference. it’s salt, shot, lime,”

“you do your shots with salt and lime?” she teased, raising her eyebrows, “pussy.”

“what?” max asked, taken aback.

“the best part of tequila is the burn. the ache that makes you want more, that feels so great once it’s gone, but is what keeps you going.” she spoke about tequila like one would talk about a lover, she made it feel intimate. “but fine, we’ll try your way,”

“well now my way sounds like bullshit,” max laughed, and she chuckled, leaning her forehead against his shoulder. 

“we’ll do both,” she declared, watching the bartender drop off the tray with the hard liquor. “you go first,” she encouraged him. max nodded, grabbing the salt and a slice of lime. 

“your hair,” he said, she frowned, “move your hair out of the way,” she did, throwing her hair over the other shoulder. “lean back,” he told her, holding her chin and tilting her head back, exposing her neck. 

“what are you doing?” she asked.

“do you trust me?”

“of course.”

in the dark of the club, max held the sour lime between his fingers, then ran it up and down her neck, twice. she gasped, and max could feel her breath hitching as he touched her. next, he grabbed the salt. he poured some over the line of lime juice he’d just drawn.

she turned her face lightly to see him. his eyebrows were drawn together in concentration, she could tell, just by the way he was pinching his lips together, that a million thoughts were running through his head. 

“don’t chicken out on me now,” she said, and max let out a breath of relief, he thought maybe he’d crossed a line. yes, they were close, but they’d never done something like this. 

he did it. he leaned forward, licked a stripe up her neck, felt her quickening heartbeat beneath his touch. he brought the liquor up to his lips, downing it all in one go. her soft hands grabbed the lime from his hold and lifted it up to his mouth. he sucked on it, opening his eyes after wincing as he tasted three different things in a really short time, one after the other. 

she was breathing hard, staring at him, the skin of her throat was tingling, she got lost in the blue of his eyes, which under the neon lights and combined with the darkness of the room, looked crystal clear. 

“you’re up,” max said, she smiled, and just like that, they were back to normal. 

they stumbled into her hotel floor, max was holding her waist, keeping her stable, her legs were like jello, so she kept her back pressed against max’s chest.

“i told you…” she paused to giggle, “i couldn’t drink too much,” she smiled, slapping max’s chest lightly. he was grinning, too, he had one arm around her middle, pushing her against his front as his other hand slid inside the pocket of his jeans to grab the key to her room.

“and i told you to quit after shot number three,” he raised an eyebrow as she rolled her eyes.

“boo, you whore,” she moved her head to the side so he could see her, and stuck her tongue out, max just laughed as he shook his head. he unlocked the door, opening it and letting her in first. he turned on the light, and watched her flinch and cover her eyes with her hands, “nooo, it hurts,”

“what hurts?” he asked, furrowing his eyebrows at the thought of her in any sort of distress.

“my eyes, turn it off,” she peeked between her fingers, and was suddenly engulfed by darkness as he obliged, “thank youuu,” she sang, stretching the last word. “you’re the best. you, maximilian verstappen, are the best friend anyone could ever ask for.”

“thanks, right back atcha. but, you got my name wrong,” he approached her. there was light coming from the city outside, which helped guide him to her.

“what?” she frowned, tilting her head to the side.

“it’s not maximilian, it’s max emilian.” he said, slowly, and watched as her eyes flickered down to his lips, “two words,”

“hmm…” she narrowed her eyes, “i like it. emilian. it’s cute.”

“well, thank you,” he smiled. and she smiled. “now, come on, let’s get you to bed, you’ve got a big day tomorrow,” he placed his hand on her shoulder, she sighed and started walking, holding her arms out in front of her to prevent stumbling into something.

“can you come with me?”

“to bed?” he asked, chuckling. she rolled her eyes.

“to atlanta,” she sat on the bed, crossing her legs beneath her. “i’m going to be all alone over there, i’ll have no one and i need my best friend,”

“well…i don’t think i can make the trip to and from in time,” even in the dark, he could see the way her face fell, “but i can drive you to the airport, would that be okay?”

“i guess…”

“hey, you’ll be fine. i have more i’d like to say but we’re both too drunk, so i’ll tell you in the morning… okay?”

“okay. in the morning.”

“yeah,” he smiled, then took a step back, “i’ll pick you up tomorrow, then,”

“no,” she said, and extended her arm, “stay.”

“well, i don’t really want to sleep on a couch, but…”

“no, dumbass,” she laughed, dropping her back down against the soft pillows and mattress, “here, the bed is big enough,” she patted the spot next to her. she was right, this bed was one of the biggest he’d ever seen.

“but you- i-”

“it’s fine. i don’t mind. as long as you don’t snore,”

“you’re lucky, then.” he gave in, climbing into bed next to her. 

-

september 1st, 2021.zandvoort, netherlands.

“why is three your favorite number?”

“what kind of question is that?” he asked. lifting his head from the arm of the couch.

they were in zandvoort, just in time for the dutch grand prix, max’s home race. it was the first time he was racing there, and he needed a good result. she’d been with him since last week, the italian grand prix, one that she hadn’t gotten to enjoy as much as she wanted to, given max’s sad result. she knew that it had gotten in his mind, he was at a critical stage of the championship, and every point counted. hence, why they were now in his hotel room, enjoying the last day of peace and quiet before the chaos that came with a new grand prix weekend. 

“i’m just preparing you for the weekend,” she responded, a smirk on her face as he rolled his eyes. she liked this, the teasing back and forth, the jokes. the trust they had on each other. 

“i swear, if i have to answer ‘what do you expect from this weekend?’ one more time i’m gonna…” he didn’t finish, just shook his head as he huffed.

“they’re just doing their jobs,” she reminded him.

“i know that. but why can they come up with new questions, actually interesting ones?”

“i don’t know dude, i haven’t done interviews in a long time,”

“lucky you,” he sighed. “it gets old, answering the same thing over and over again. and there are some people that- the way they ask, they want to get a reaction out of you. and of course i’m not going to give them the satisfaction.”

“but you’re not going to let them treat you that way,”

“yeah.”

“that’s why i like you. you have so much pressure on yourself right now, i know you feel it so don’t even try to deny it. but you’re capable of pushing it aside, that’s a great skill to have being who you are,”

“who we are,” he corrected her, “don’t forget you’re famous too, my friend,”

“yeah, whatever, but people don’t stop me for pictures as much as you.”

“give it a few months,”

“no thanks,” she laughed. “i like my life just the way it is,”

“really? you wouldn’t change anything?”

“no, i don’t think so,” she shook her head.

“nothing?” he smirked, she frowned, watching as he raised his eyebrows. “not even your… condition?”

“condition?” she asked, “i’m not sick or anything…”

“no, but you are a…” he raised his fist to his mouth, covering it, “virgin,” he coughed as he said the word.

“oh my god,” she rolled her eyes, grabbing a pillow and throwing it his way. he could’ve moved, could’ve dodged it, but he let it hit his face, he grabbed it and put it on his lap. “emilian, shut the fuck up,”

“i just can’t believe you-”

“so i haven’t met the right guy, so what? it’s not that big of a deal,”

“if it’s not that big of a deal why haven’t you-”

“because it doesn’t matter! the concept of ‘virginity’ is such bullshit anyway. men and society have ruined sex for many of us, it’s gotta be more than just physical desire. and i’m not saying there’s nothing wrong with that, you do you, do whatever the hell you want to with your body and partner, or partners, as long as it’s consensual,” she ranted, the words were leaving her lips quickly, he didn’t know this was a sensitive or important topic for her, since he found out about her lack of sexual experience one time when they were joking, as they usually did. “i'm just not like that, i want it to mean something, not just because it's my first time, that's bullshit, but because the other person loves me and cares for me enough to know how to treat me and cherish me the way i deserve."

"you want the whole… flower petals on the bed? lit candles thing?" 

"shut up," she groaned, "i just want to find the right person. and once i do that, i'm sure everything will just… fall into place," max felt bad, he didn't mean to upset her at all, she'd told him that not a lot of people knew about her lack of experience, and some of the people that knew told her she was being overdramatic.

"well… i think it's nice that you're waiting for the right person. just make sure they're clean, though,"

"don't worry," she laughed, "i will."

“you'll have new material for songs after that." be pointed out, she smiled. "how’s the album going, by the way?” he asked, sitting up, with his back against the arm of the couch.

“meh, it’s going…” she dropped her head down, looking up at the ceiling. “inspiration’s not hitting me right now,”

“well… what do you usually do to get out of this…” 

“writer’s block,” she finished for him, then sighed, “i don’t know. i’ve never experienced this before. words always just seemed to… come to me when i needed them. but now it’s… they’re gone,”

he raised his eyebrows, he could tell that this was something new to her, he saw the way her left leg was shaking, something she did when she wasn’t comfortable.

“i’m sure you’ll figure something out,” he smiled, she lifted her head from the pillows to smile at him, too. 

“you didn’t answer the question,” she reminded him. “why is 3 your favorite number?”

“i… i don’t know. i’ve always liked it. i like the fact that if you complete the circles it becomes an 8.”

“oh, you’re right,” she nodded. “next question…” she said, turning on her side, “would you ever get a tattoo?” 

“hmm… maybe?” he looked up at the ceiling, “i think it depends on what it is. you?”

“same. i saw online something about golden ink, not yellow, gold. with sparkles.”

“you like sparkles?” max smiled teasingly.

“i love sparkles,” she chuckled.

his phone buzzed, and he unlocked it, seeing a text from one of the media guys, who’d sent him a link to a youtube video. he tapped it, and the app loaded, he read the title and a big grin spread across his face. 

“look at this,” he stood up, walking to the bed and sitting down on it, they were sitting shoulder to shoulder now. 

“it’s up?” she asked as she read the title. 

"uh-huh," he projected it onto the tv in front of them, their smiling faces plastered on the flat screen.

june 24th, 2021.spielberg, austria.

they arrived at the track, the red bull ring. he’d made her drive, of course, to get her used to being behind the wheel, as he’d claimed.

“are you ready?”

“no.” she rolled her eyes, opening the door and stepping out. max followed her, a grin on his face as he threw an arm around her shoulders.

“come on, it’s just going to be us,”

“yeah, and everybody else working here, fans waiting outside the track, everyone will see me crash that car and you,” she slid his arm off her, “are going to pay for it,”

“you’re not going to crash. it’s not that difficult,”

“yeah, you drive cars at ridiculously high speed, you don’t get to tell me what is or isn’t difficult.”

“noted,” he said, his arm finding her shoulder again. she left it there this time, she needed the comfort. they reached the red bull hospitality, dropped their stuff in his room and walked downstairs. “i have to go do the conference thing… won’t be more than thirty minutes,” he said, she nodded, giving him a tight-lipped smile.

“i know, we’ve been through this before, max,” she told him, “i’ll be fine, i’ll look some videos up to refresh my memory,”

“okay. don’t be nervous, it’s just gonna be us, remember?”

“yeah, i know. just us.”

-

they were approached by the red bull team principal, she immediately took a step to the side, she didn’t like him that much.

“car’s ready, cameras are ready,”

“cameras?” she asked, looking at max.

“why cameras?” he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“marketing thought it’d be great for publicity, your friendship has a great presence on social media.”

“i told you this was a bad idea,” she told max, taking a step away from him.

“well, i didn’t know they were going to turn this into a media thing. but it’ll be fine, i promise,”

“yeah, now the entire world will watch me destroy a car,”

“i’d appreciate if you didn’t-” horner interrupted. 

“oh, don’t worry, your golden boy will be paying for it,”

“and i told you you’re not going to crash, you have enough space to drive safely here.” he reassured her, sliding his arm around her shoulder, squeezing her against him, “but if you feel more comfortable without the cameras i’m sure we can figure something out,”

“it’s gonna get out anyway,” she sighed. “fine, let’s do this,”

“look at your face!” max laughed as he pointed at the tv. she cackled, too, watching her past self holding tightly to whatever surface was near her when max sped up as he followed the curves, instead of slowing down.

“my heart was pounding so hard,” she rested her head against max’s shoulder, “and my stomach was down to my ass,” she continued laughing. 

“yeah, i wasn’t helping either,” he admitted, and she rolled her eyes. “you had fun, though,”

“i did. i did, it was fun. but we’re not doing it again,”

-

november 23rd, 2021.monte-carlo, monaco.

she could barely keep her eyes open as she walked to the door, the sound of the doorbell ringing made her head pound.

“i waited for you for like half an hour wha- whoa, you’re sick,” max said as she opened the door.

“oh, god. i forgot about the… i’m sorry-”

“no, no, it’s fine. are you okay?” he asked, lifting the back of his hand and pressing it against her forehead to check her temperature.

“fine, just… a cold,” she said as she wrapped the blanket tighter around her. “you should��� probably leave now, i don’t want to get you sick,” she brought the inside of her elbow up to her mouth, covering it as she coughed into it.

“that’s not a cold,” his eyes widened, and he put his hands on her shoulders, pushing her back inside her house.

“wh- what are you doing? you have to leave, you’ll get sick too!”

“yeah, well too bad, i’m already in.” he shrugged his shoulder as he dropped his hand to his sides, he extended one arm, touching her hand. “and i’m taking care of you today,” he stated. it wasn’t a question, and he didn’t leave her room for complaints. “because i’m your friend, and that’s what friends do.” she smiled, holding back a cough, “and you look like hell. i want to get material for blackmail,” he raised his phone quickly, snapping a picture of her.

“stop it!” she cackled, hitting his shoulder. her laughs were interrupted when she started coughing, “i hate you.” she leaned forward, resting her forehead on his shoulder. he wrapped his arms around her, rubbing up and down her back with one hand. “thanks,”

“anytime.”

“i’ll pay you back when you get sick,”

“i never get sick,” max said, raising an eyebrow confidently.

“we’ll see about that,” she said, coughing into his shoulder.

“fuck you,” he laughed.

“thank you.”

“have you gone to the doctor?” he asked her after a few seconds.

“i facetimed my friend. ordered the meds. shit, that reminds me, i have to take my meds at 6,” she thought out loud.

“okay, that’s good. now, let’s go sit, you need to rest.”

-

“that’s dumb,”

“you’re dumb.”

“you’re being aggressive.”

“i’m allowed to be aggressive.”

“why? cause you’re sick?”

“exactly.”

“it’s still dumb.”

“he loves her,” she explains.

“then why doesn’t he say it?” he asked, frowning at the characters in the movie they were watching.

“cause he’s nervous! and he doesn’t want to risk their friendship by telling her.”

“but she clearly loves him too. why doesn’t he see it?”

“because boys are… dumb,” she gave in, agreeing with max. “they don’t see what’s good even if it’s right in front of them.” she said, shaking her head.

“that sounded personal… you alright?”

“fuck off,” she laughed, then broke into a fit of coughs. “i think you’re making me more harm than good,” she said once she recovered. she heard max chuckling under his breath, saw him leaning forward to grab a glass of water that was on the coffee table in front of them. he handed it to her, “thanks,” she whispered as she drank from it, taking a deep breath after she was done. 

“nurse max at your orders,” he said, leaning back against her soft couch, “i love this thing,” he said, running his hand over the back of it.

“what?”

“your couch,”

“it is my proudest purchase,” she smiled. her eyes drifted back to the tv, seeing the girl on the other side of the screen watching the love of her life walk away. she rolled her eyes, her head drifting to the side, she leaned it against max’s shoulder.

“you tired?” he asked, not daring to move, as it would disturb her.

“a little.” she answered, being interrupted by a yawn.

“go ahead, i’m not going anywhere,” he said, she smiled.

“good.”

-

loud blaring woke her up, she sat up, looking around as she tried to locate the sound. she turned to her left, seeing max rubbing his eyes. he’d fallen asleep as well. 

“what’s that?” she asked.

“sorry, i fell asleep. it’s the alarm,” he grabbed his phone from the coffee table turning the alarm off. “come on,” max got up, extending his hand out to her.

“why?” she grunted, grabbing his hand and letting him help her up, they walked to her kitchen. max grabbed a new glass and filled it with water.

“it’s six. time for your meds,” he said, sliding the cup her way. she frowned.

“you set up an alarm… to remind me to take my meds?” she said, slowly, the words sinking in as she spoke.

“yeah, he shrugged, like it was nothing, “i want you to get better soon, and you need your meds for that,”

“aw, you care about me,” she teased, popping the pill in her mouth and downing the glass of water. 

“duh,” he rolled his eyes, walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her.

she held back a grin, biting the inside of her cheeks. she thought back to atlanta, when max surprised her not once, but twice. he’d done so much for her in the time they’d known each other, he knew her better than anyone else, better than she knew herself even.

max verstappen had turned her world upside down the moment he walked in.

or, she’d changed his the moment she stumbled into him.

maybe that’s why the shift from being friends to lovers was so smooth.

-

december 12th, 2021.abu dhabi, uae.

she held the bottle of vodka in her hand, she tried to keep her hands steady, but she was laughing too much, which made her shake. 

“just go for it!” max said. she nodded, and max leaned his head back, opening his mouth, waiting for her. she tilted the bottle down, and the hard liquor started pouring down, into max’s mouth. his friends around them watched expectantly, waiting for him to declare when it was enough. she waited to feel the squeeze on her hip, but it never came. so she stopped. “that’s enough for now,” she said, max leaned forward.

“more,” he said. she shook her head, smiling.

“let’s do tequila shots instead,” her words caught his attention, and max’s eyes seemed to shine brighter than they did when he jumped out of his car earlier that night.

he grabbed her hand, walked to the bar and asked for a bottle of tequila, limes and salt. she hung onto his arm, wrapping her free arm around it as she leaned her forehead against his shoulder.

“come on, let’s go upstairs,” he told her, placing a kiss on the top of her head. she leaned back, a small smile on her face as she looked up at him.

“i’m so proud of you,” she said, letting go of him, lifting her hands and placing them on his cheeks. “you deserve this championship.”

“thank you,” he moved his head to kiss the palm of her hand. she chuckled, taking her hands off to help him with the bottle of liquor. “let’s get wasted.”

she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t been waiting for this moment since the first time back in austria. sometimes, if she closed her eyes and thought back to that night, she swore she could still feel his hot breath against her neck, his wet tongue gathering the salt, his lips barely on hers as he collected the lime. she wanted to feel that again. she wanted it every day.

they slipped away unnoticed, everyone was way too drunk to notice their absence, which was odd since they were all there to celebrate max. but they didn’t care, this wasn’t something they wanted everyone else to see. max sat down on a stool, a table by his side. he placed a plate with limes and the salt shaker on it, and watched her place the bottle there too. she stood in front of him, and he put his hands on her waist, pulling her close to him.

“sit,” he said. she raised an eyebrow. she placed her hands on his knees, pushing his legs together. then, she climbed on his lap.

“better?” she asked, her voice breathy.

“better,” he confirmed. she smiled, and everything she could see was blue. the blue of his eyes that never left her face. they stared deep into her, as if he was meeting her for the first time, as if she were the only thing that existed at that moment. she watched his eyes move slowly, they inspected her, memorizing every inch of her. she saw as a corner of his mouth twitched, her eyes went to his lips.

she loved his lips. she’d never told him that, but she liked that they were full and thick, and fit him perfectly. he took a deep breath as he noticed her eyes drifting down, his lips parted, and she felt his breath hit her chin, since she was on top of him, she had to look down to see him. she wanted to taste his lips, she decided at that moment. 

she placed her hands on his shoulders, leaning forward. the hands on her hips gripped tighter, and max straightened his back, it was almost an automatic response when he felt nervous, and it brought him closer to her faster than either of them expected.

“m-max,” she whispered, her eyes on his. she saw as his eyes drifted down to her lips, “can i-”

she couldn’t finish her question, she was cut off by that pair of lips that she’d been dreaming of since they met, they were on hers, kissing her hard. a whimper escaped her throat, being swallowed by him as he tilted his head to the side and leaned forward, pushing her head back. one of his hands left her waist, he placed it on the back of her head, keeping her there. her hands were on his face now, and she felt him shudder beneath her touch.

later, as she found herself unable to sleep, she’ll think about this. how max basically melted under the touch of her fingertips against his face. she held him gently, compared to the rough battle their lips had at that moment. 

max swore he was tasting a piece of heaven. when he was younger, he’d had to convince himself that he was in love with his partners. but the truth was, no one could make him feel the way she did. his feelings for her were strong and true and real. he didn’t have to convince himself this time. he knew it. and it scared him. 

the kiss was growing desperate, one of her hands slid down to his neck, and she could feel his rapid heartbeat beneath the layers of skin. he leaned back, looking up at her through his long lashes, his lips parted as he breathed in. she felt goosebumps running down her back as she saw him in that state. his hands slid down to her waist again, and this time, she grabbed him by his perfect ashy brown hair and brough his lips to hers. 

she wanted him. that was a fact that she’d tried to fight since it first came to mind. she wanted to blame the alcohol in their systems, but she knew it just gave her the courage to do it. these actions were all hers.

she broke the kiss, her hands on his chest, feeling his heart beating quickly beneath her touch. she leaned her forehead against his, closing her eyes as she tried to catch her breath. these actions were all hers. and that scared her.

“i can’t- i-” she panted, her chest heaving as she breathed in and out. she was afraid to open her eyes. what if-

“(y/n)...” his voice was breathy as he said her name. she felt chills, she felt time stopping as he called her name. but she could feel fear creeping up her back.

“no, max- we- we’re friends…” she opened her eyes, looking down. his hand went up to her chin, he leaned back but kept her in place, “we can’t-”

“cause we’re friends. i know,” he said, she saw him blinking twice, he swallowed a lump in his throat. she was right, they were just friends, and their friendship was too valuable to risk it.

she closed her eyes, swallowing the words, the conversation stuck in her throat.

-

december 13th, 2021.abu dhabi, uae.

she woke up with max by her side. he was warm, she liked that he was warm. she smiled as she placed her head on his chest, throwing an arm over his stomach as she snuggled against him. somewhere between the hours of 1 and 3am, they’d thrown all cautions out the window.

‘i love you, and not like a best friend. i don’t want you like a best friend.’

she was in love with max verstappen. and somehow, he was in love with her, too.

“do you not sleep?” she was startled as she heard his voice. it was deep and rough and raspy, and she wanted to hear more of it.

“did i wake you?” she whispered, looking up at him.

“well considering the fact that you’re squeezing me to death, letting me unable to breathe, i’ll say that was a great factor to me waking up,” he dropped his head down on the pillow as she chuckled, holding onto him tightly. 

“can you blame me?” she asked, daring to place a kiss on his chest.

“no, i can’t blame you,” he smiled, sliding an arm beneath her, he moved her so she was now sitting on top of him. she raised an eyebrow.

“you like me being on top, don’t you?” she teased, leaning down, her lace covered breasts touching his chest, her lips hovered over his.

“it’s the greatest view,” he leaned in, pressing his lips against hers. she breathed in deeply, her hands going up to his face. she loved the feeling of his lips on hers.

“so much pining, anticipation…” she said as she breathed, diving back in, “desperately waiting.” her lips went down to his neck, where the evidence of the night before was littering his skin. they hadn’t had sex, max knew that had to be her choice, and he sure as hell didn’t want their first time together to be like that. “you know i woke up late… that day we met,” she said, her nails running up and down his stomach, where she could feel his muscles tensing, “or maybe… i woke up just in time to stumble into you.”

she sat up, looking for his hands. he laced their fingers together, keeping them by her sides as he sat up as well, coming face to face with her.

“and now… i get to wake up by your side.”

“my hands shake,” he said, “i’ve noticed that… whenever i know that i’m going to see you, my hands start shaking. and since last saturday, they never stopped shaking, because i didn’t know when i would see you again.”

“and now you know,” she said, bringing his hands up to her lips, between them, “you know that i’m never leaving your side.”

“good.”

“you’ve changed my life. i didn’t know i could connect with someone, so deeply and real, and i’ve loved being your friend, but now… i want more.”

“i used to be lucky enough to call my best friend, way back before you were my everything,” he said, making her breath hitch, he leaned in, letting go of one of her hands to move her hair away, his lips touched her neck. “now i’m sucking your neck,”

“you did that before, though,” she said, sighing at the feeling, “with tequila,”

“it’s different now,” he continued, “now, i just want to lay back, and watch you pin me to the bed,” he confessed, “and we’ll get as far as you want to.”

“give it time,” she said, kissing his cheek as she obeyed, she pushed him back against the bed, one of her hands slid up to his throat. “is this what you imagined?”

“this is much better,” he smiled, “and no pressure. you’re the boss here.”

he waited. she waited. they waited until she was sure she couldn’t fall more in love with him, but she realized that day would never come since max found a way, each day, to make her feel like the only girl in the world. 

so she tried.

-

february 14th, 2022.monte-carlo, monaco.

she sat on top of max, with her knees on either side of him. she held his face with one hand, the other was curled around his soft strands of hair. their lips were tangled together, and even with that certainty that they were as close as possible, she could still feel max’s hands shaking on top of her hips.

“i want-” she started, breaking the kiss to speak, she pressed her forehead against his, “i’m ready.” she said. “i’m ready. i want you,” 

“wh- you-” max started, but was cut off by her lips on his again.

“please. it’s valentine’s day, and- and i bought this new dress, that i know i look hot in,”

“so hot,” he said, kissing his way down to her neck.

“and i bought it… just so you could take it off. so, max emilian verstappen,” she pulled him by his hair, making him look at her, “take this dress off, and fuck me like you love me.”

she was breathing hard, and she could feel the way her words were affecting him. she’d gotten used to teasing him, learning what he liked, what made him sigh and beg for more. she wanted him to be the one begging, but if things went well that night, she’d hopefully be hearing that soon.

“i love you, deeply and true. it’s real and intense, and passionate. it’s full of desire and complete love. i don’t think there’s another word to describe it other than… love. so, no, i won’t fuck you like i love you… i’ll worship,” he kissed her neck, “i’ll cherish,” he nipped at the skin, making her sigh, her hips moved forward involuntarily, “i’ll love you that way.”

max took his time with her. her mind had gone blank, she let herself just feel.

he continued biting, sucking her neck. he could feel the way she was breathing fast, he lifted his hand and wrapped it around her throat, his lips met hers as he flipped both of them over, setting her over the covers softly. the red dress she wore made her look like a goddess. a goddess of seduction, temptation. her hair framed her face, in a way that made him want her more. her eyes looked brighter, her skin was glowing, her lips were full, swollen.

desire turned her into a whole different woman. 

no, desire brought out the goddess hiding inside the woman.

“come,” max said, grabbing her hands. he helped her up, they stood in front of the other, max brought his hands up to her face, holding her gently. “i love you. i’ve loved you since the first moment. let me love you how you deserve to be loved.”

“please,” she whispered. he leaned closer, and they kissed, slow, deep. he slipped the straps of her dress down her shoulders, his hands moved to the back, finding the zipper. “take it off,” she sighed.

“patience,” he said, pecking her lips.

“i’m done being patient. i’ve already waited long enough to have you,” she said, max wanted to smirk, wanted to keep the game going, but this wasn’t the time. 

he started pulling the dress down, and as the fabric abandoned her body, he made sure to cover it with kisses. his lips met every inch of skin that was available to him. he paid extra attention to her breasts, played with them and relished in every sigh, whimper and praise that left her lips. that made max work harder. he didn’t want to stop hearing those words coming from her.

minutes later, max couldn’t wipe the grin off his face as he climbed on top of her, his lips were glistening, and she was biting her lips as she watched him. she held his face and pressed their lips together, tasting herself as well. she was still coming from the highs of her orgasm when she felt his fingers on her core again.

“max, please,” she whispered. his fingers were replaced by his cock, and she bit her lip, hissing. 

“no turning back now,”

“i’m not even going to try,” she smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck. 

adrenaline, lust, love was rushing through their veins. this feeling was inescapable, not that either of them wanted to be somewhere else, feel something else. this was better than anything they’d ever felt, experienced before. 

when they met, not even a year ago, they didn’t imagine that they’d be there at that moment.

“i love you,” she said, feeling another orgasm approaching as max gently moved his hips.

“you’ll love this,” he said, grabbing her hips and flipping them over, so she was on top.

“oh,” she whimpered, this new position gave her all the control, it let her feel everything. "oh, wow,"

“it's your turn now," max smiled, feeling her nails clawing at his chest, "what was it that you said? fuck me like you love me."

“fuck yes,” she whimpered, feeling max burying his hands on her hips as she started moving back and forth, getting used to this new sensation. “fuck, that feels amazing,” she threw her head back as she placed her hands on max’s chest, when she was ready, she raised her hips, then sank back down.

“god, you are amazing,” he grunted, helping her fuck herself on his cock. he laid back against the pillows, in awe of the beauty that was her. her, wrapped up in the bliss and pleasure that she was getting from using him.

“so, so good,” she whispered, furrowing her eyebrows as she leaned forward, pressing her lips against max’s, their sweaty foreheads colliding as she sped up her movements.

“i can feel you…” he paused, grunting, “your walls tightening around me, fuck,” his voice was deep and rough, she shuddered as she heard him, unaware that she’d been doing it.

“that’s… good?” she asked between sighs, max had planted his feet on the mattress, raising his hips to meet her thrusts.

“it’s great, so great,” he panted, her movements were becoming uneven, she was getting close to another sweet release. “i got you,” max said, taking charge of the thrusts. 

her fingers were wrapped around his hair, since he didn’t have that many public outings at that moment, he’d let his hair grow freely, she loved it. she loved all of him, every piece, every imperfection, everything. 

he loved that he’d let her learn what she wanted, what she liked, to make this moment, one that he knew meant a lot to her, the best and most perfect experience. 

-

june 12th, 2022.baku, azerbaijan.

“shit, shit, shit,” she muttered as she almost ran to the garage. it was fifty minutes before the race, and she was late. so, so late. max had been texting her every five minutes, texts she’d received about thirty minutes ago, when her plane landed.

perks of being famous and rich, a helicopter ride solved most of her problems.

she made her way through the people, fans, and other random vip guests that crowded the paddock. once she was inside the red bull garage she leaned against a wall to catch her breath.

“finally! he’s been driving all of us crazy,” she heard someone talking to her, and she sighed as she saw max’s race engineer, gianpiero with an exhausted look on his face.

“i know,” she breathed, “i know, but my flight got delayed, and then the-” her words were cut off when suddenly a body almost jumped on top of her. she wrapped her arms around max, “hey, i’m so sorry i’m late.”

“it’s fine,” his words came out muffled, he had his face hidden in her neck.

“were you terrorising everyone without me?” she snickered.

“can you blame me? you were supposed to be here yesterday, i was bored.”

“oh, so i’m just something for your entertainment?” she laughed, max leaned back.

“maybe…” he smiled sheepishly, she rolled her eyes and grabbed his face, leading his lips to hers. 

“i want to show you something,” she said once he leaned back, letting her see his eyes for the first time in three weeks.

“max, come on, time to head out,” someone said, and she groaned internally.

“i’m sorry, i-”

“go, go, i’ll be right here, okay?” she smiled, pressing her lips against max’s one more time. “good luck, champ. this win is yours,”

“hopefully.” he chuckled.

“i’m sure of it, and i’m never wrong,” she raised an eyebrow.

“whoa,” he laughed, “i can count at least fifteen times you’ve said that in the past six months and… surprise, surprise, you were wrong,” she laughed, slapping his arm.

“go. before i leave you unable to drive that stupid car,” he grabbed her hips and brought her close, connecting their lips again. 

-

the feeling of being right is one that she loved. she liked being smug for once, to look someone in the eye and say ‘i told you so’.

she was prepared to do that, but then she saw max wink at her from the podium, and she was fine with it.

she made her way back to the paddock, but someone sliding their arm around her shoulders made her stop.

“it’s been a while,” she looked to the side, smiling as she saw charles. 

“hey! it’s good to see you,” she hugged him. “how are you feeling?” she asked, this race hadn’t been the kindest to him. 

“i just… wish this bad luck could stop now,” she nodded, understanding his frustration.

“i know. i’m sure you’ll figure something out soon,”

“yeah, hopefully,” he sighed, shaking his head. “so, where has max been keeping you captive? you basically disappeared after miami,”

“shut up,” she laughed, elbowing his ribs, “i have a job, too.” 

“i know, i know,” he laughed, “i’m just joking. don’t forget about your friends, though. you can’t abandon us just because you have a pretty new boyfriend now,” she narrowed her eyes.

“did you just call max ‘pretty’?” she laughed, and charles groaned, realizing he’d probably used the wrong word, “and don’t worry, i know how to balance my time with the people i care about.”

“well, why don’t we go out for drinks or something?” he said.

“sure, next week?” she lifted her brows.

“sounds like a plan,” charles smiled.

“what plan?” max asked, materializing in front of them.

“hey, champ!” she grinned, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and kissing his cheek. “you did amazing out there.”

“thank you,” his cheeks blushed under her stare. “what were you two planning?” max asked, and she could feel his hands holding her tighter against him, could see the way his eyes changed when his eyes drifted from her, to charles.

“oh, just going out for drinks next week,” charles said, and his voice sounded small, like he was intimidated. good, max thought. 

“great, we’ll see you there,” max smiled, a forced smile that she knew all too well, the one reserved for interviews.

charles gave them a tight-lipped smile, nodding.

“there’s this place with a… uh- rooftop and-” charles said, blushing.

“that sounds great, she loves rooftops, don’t you, darling?” max grinned, and she pinched his side in return.

“uh, i guess i’ll- see you there,” charles smiled before making his way to his own motorhome.

“couldn’t you be a bit nicer? he’s been struggling non-stop these weeks,” she bit back a smile, knowing that max was jealous, even though he had nothing to worry about.

“i know, i already talked to him in the media pen,” max rolled his eyes, “why did you talk to him before you talked to me?” he almost pouted.

“ah, because everyone wanted to talk to the winner, the championship leader and current world champion,” she placed her hands on his face, squishing his cheeks together, “i could wait,”

“well, i’m not making you wait anymore. come on,” he grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together, he walked her to the red bull motorhome.

-

hours later, they sat on max’s jet, the seats were incredibly comfortable, perfect for the long journey ahead. since the time difference would be quite significant, they decided to head to canada as soon as possible to get used to jet lag. 

“hey, you were going to tell me something,” max remembered, “what was it?” he asked.

“oh,” she felt nervous, all of a sudden, “yeah, show you something, actually,”

“okay, what is it?” he asked, reaching for her hand.

“don’t freak out,” she started, biting her lip. “i did something,”

“o-kayy,” he frowned, “tell me now because i’m starting to worry,”

“you know how… i told you about the sparkly ink?” she started, and continued when max nodded, “i got a tattoo,”

“what?” max asked, reaching for her hands with his, pulling her to his lap.

“yeah, it’s… something small, but, you know, it’s important cause… it was my first,” her voice was small, shy.

“where did you get it? can you show me or…” he leaned close to her ear, “is it somewhere private?” she could feel his breath on her skin, it made her laugh, it helped dissipate the nerves. 

“it’s here,” she pointed to her wrist, that was decorated with bracelets. max’s eyes went down to her hand, he held her arm running the pads of his fingers over it.

“can i?” he asked, holding one of the bracelets. she nodded and turned her wrist, so he couldn’t see the tattoo just yet. he removed them all, sliding them one by one and placing them on her other arm. 

“before you see it i… i just want to say that even though it’s soon, i already love you more than i’ve ever loved anyone, anything. and i don’t… want to think too much about the future, but- even if we don’t end up together in the future,” she said, and felt max’s hand holding hers tighter, clearly not comfortable or too happy with the idea of them being apart, that made her heart beat faster, “i will always have love for you, you’ve marked me, inside and out. you’ve changed me completely, and i’ll never be the same person i was before i met you. you’ve brought out the best of me, and that’s why…” she cleared her throat, “i have this, to remember you, anywhere, anytime.”

she turned her wrist, there, right in the middle, a golden number 3.

she was watching him expectantly, waiting to see a reaction, but all max did was blink.

“and- and the good thing is, like you said- that- the three can turn into an 8. and if you turn it around the- the 8 can become an infinite. you- you know, the symbol for-” she rambled, but was cut off by max’s lips on hers. he held her face with both of his hands, and kissed her with such force, in a way that let her know that he wasn’t upset.

“there’s no need. no need for you to change it. i love it, and i love you. and you have nothing to worry about, cause you and i-” he pressed his forehead against hers, “we’re forever.”

-

@lovingroscoee

[laladellakang]

If Della had a child with each member (like you said), what would it be like with them?

oooooooh let’s go! i took a nap to like.. see what ideas played in my head soo;

btw i think i went to far.. whoops..

—they (even the ones who aren’t religious) prayed HARD so that there will be no twins/triplets. thankfully, there aren’t any

—assuming that they have a shit ton of money, they probably have four homes; in korea, japan, australia and the US

oldest - youngest

psh - pjs - sjy - nrk - ksn - yjw - lhs

—i really feel like 02z will fight over who gets the first child lmaoo, pocketz would let riki have the older kid, and heeseung would want to have the youngest

—02z tried for a kid at the same time so they didn’t know who would be the first dad until after the kid was born imagine how ecstatic hoon was lmao especially knowing that it’s a boy

—they waited two years between jayhoon’s but they quickly got the hang of it (and grew more excited) so the others are only a year apart

—della was… surprisingly okay. hoon’s, jay’s and sunoo’s were the most painful but everyone else’s were ‘della’s standard of bearable’

gender

boys: psh, pjs, ksn, yjw

girls: sjy, nrk, lhs

—i’ve mentioned before but hee, jay, sunoo & niki wanted a girl, jake wanted a boy and hoon & won had no preferences

❅◦❆◦❅◦❆◦❅◦❆◦❅◦❆

appearance

more like their mother: yjw, ksn, lhs

more like their father: psh, pjs, sjy, nrk

—one things is apparent: della’s long legs and thick lips genes are sooo strong. all her kids have them, even when they’re not as tall as their other siblings

—jay’s, niki’s, sunoo’s, and hee’s kids all got their mom’s RBF

—dimple line’s kids have dimples

❅◦❆◦❅◦❆◦❅◦❆◦❅◦❆

personality

isfp: psh

entp: pjs, ksn

infj: sjy, lhs

enfj: nrk

esfj: yjw

—the extroverts’ kids are also extroverts 😌

❅◦❆◦❅◦❆◦❅◦❆◦❅◦❆

what they refer their dads as

jungwon: appa

heeseung: papa

jay: dad

jake: dada / pops

sunghoon: abeoji (lmao)

sunoo: appaji

niki: otouchan / otousan

❅◦❆◦❅◦❆◦❅◦❆◦❅◦❆

how it went

—the kids are all equally close with their fathers since della taught them about the importance of being fair and not playing favourites (she knows it best, after all 😁)

—the kids all grew up with konglish as their first language and eventually integrated japanese. similar to their mom, they became fluent in no time

baby park:

was the hardest to adjust to since it’s their first kid but hey… he has 8 parents. it was easier than they thought. he doesn’t cry or whine much

sunghoon is soo soft with him, but the kid is just naturally a really strong/tough person so it’s always cute and funny seeing the two interact

quiet but isn’t shy at all. he’s very confident

a major momma’s boy. he loves playing around with his fathers but he adores his mom

baby paRk:

they were a bit more ready after baby park so everything went smoothly with him. though baby park was a bit jealous of him since his dad (jay) looks at him like he’s the latter’s everything. but jay made it clear that he loves his kids equally

jay became extra clingy with della and extra soft towards the other boys. he turned to a big softie

the most talkative and extroverted kid. he’s such a charmer and a hopeless romantic

most comfortable speaking in english and talks in konglish most of the time

baby sim:

the first girl so baby park and paRk were so excited. she cried a lot as a newborn but calms down quick

jake was in awe. he always talks about his kids but his eyes shine when he mentions her

loves sports and is curious about EVERYTHING. eventually becomes the encyclopedia for the kids

the most fluent in the languages and doesn’t have a preferred one. she can speak all of them separately without mixing different languages

baby nishimura:

the calmest newborn. even if she cries, it isn’t that loud

niki’s the most gentle he’s ever been, she was like a porcelain doll to him when he’s usually like the ‘cool father’ do the other kids mind? not at all. they get super cool otouchan when baby nishimura doesn’t

major daydreamer and lags a lot- she’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed (it’s okay though, her parents are like that) is interested in more creative stuff

least fluent in english (but still very fluent) because she tried to focus on japanese more after understanding that her otouchan is japanese

baby kim:

probably the most painful birth. della was so close to getting a c-section since the labor took so long. cried the loudest as a baby

sunoo was a bit lost at first. he had training from four kids but he was frozen when he saw his biological one so he was soo gentle

the most calm and ‘tsundere-like’ child. he’s quiet so people think he’s an introvert but he loves meeting new people and being in crowds

also another major momma’s boy. as a child, if he’s not playing around with his fathers or siblings, he’s always with his mom

baby yang:

the happiest baby. he was always laughing and giggling

being a leader, won’s the father that is naturally good at containing his kids when it might be difficult for the others

the most diligent, organised and eventually academically gifted child. and definitely the most blunt and savage

the youngest boy so his older siblings constantly use their hyung and noona privileges on him but they absolutely adore him, they baby him a lot

baby lee:

the youngest so EVERYONE was whipped (even baby yang) she cries the most but at this point, they all know what to do

hee as a papa loves to spoil his kids. not really materially but more like an ‘i’ll do anything and everything for you’ and spoils baby lee a teenie bit more than the rest

deemed as the most elegant child. looks like the most high maintenance but really isn’t. she just knows how to appear like it

really family oriented. she’s happiest when she’s with them and so grateful that she was born into a huge family

let me know which fic is your favourite! it means a lot to me 💫

taglist! @afiaaaa19 @1-800-enhypennabi @one16core @ilyxion @toriluvsfics @i90snoo @danyxthirstae01 @seulgifted @clar-iii @hiqhkey @nichmeddar @jiwlys [@studioreader @sarang-wonie @fairydosii @hoonstrology @jaetint]

[lilmissquackson]

The Brighter The Sun

Pairings: Cedric Diggory x Fem! Reader (First pov)

Warnings: Mentions of death, tears, it’s all just sad and depressing. (The ending is very bittersweet tho)

Summary: Cedric Diggory has always been a sunshine. When he left, Y/N was left with only gloom.

Author’s note: I don’t have a map as I write this, so I apologize in advance lmaoo

~~~~~

The sun has never felt darker. Day after day, the sun stared at me with such sorrow like mine.

It felt surreal. When I saw him in Harry’s arms, it was like I was dreaming. My mind couldn’t take the fact that he was gone. That my Cedric was gone. I was in denial. Frozen in time. But when Amos’ screams came, it was an awakening.

Cedric left only a few months ago, and never did I go out ever since his funeral. I couldn’t. My bed was always left unmade, his sweater was filled with dry tears, food was always brought up to my door because I didn’t have the energy to go down to eat. Sometimes, the silence would be unbearable, and I would just imagine him beside me, hugging me tightly, so that I didn’t feel alone. He always did that.

But whenever I open my eyes, and realize he’s not there, my eyes would always flood with tears, the cut reopening like I’ve just got it.

It hurt that we once made memories, and now we couldn’t make any more. All I can do is look back at them over and over again. It hurt to think there was no next chapter for the two of us, and that he left me with a cliff hanger.

I remember what he always said: “The brighter the sun, the happier we are.”

He said the weather was always in out favour. What we felt, earth would always radiate. I never really paid attention to those. Not until he left me, that I paid attention to everything he said, and did. Even if it was just from my memory.

The summer of nineteen ninety four was sunny, and so was Cedric and I. My parents allowed me to stay with the Diggorys for a week before school, and it was the best week I’ve had my whole life.

Waking up beside Cedric, and him showering me immediately with kisses once my eyes open. He was as bright as the sun.

“Good morning, my love!” Were his words every morning, his smile as big as ever.

And my lips would always spread in delight of seeing him under the morning light, “Good morning, Ced,” my soft words were just for the two of us to hear, “You’re so pretty under this light,” I told him, cupping his face.

He gave me a grin, “They don’t call me the golden boy for nothing,” he said, giving me a peck on the lips— oh how much I missed them, “And a golden boy isn’t complete without his golden girl.”

I wasn’t. But I was, apparently, for him.

But was a golden girl complete without her golden boy?

It was unfair. I wanted to be mad, I wanted to shout, to yell bad things, to have someone to blame. But even if I did, I knew Cedric wouldn’t be happy about it. He’s always wanted peace. To not have to fight with people.

He was such a sunshine.

“You look absolutely beautiful.”

The Yule Ball truly was a great night to remember. Cedric and I received plenty of compliments, some with hints of jealousy, but most were genuine.

When people started to party in the middle of the dance floor, Cedric and I decided it was the perfect time to slip away. We ran through the hallways of Hogwarts, me leading, and him not far behind.

Our laughs bounced off the walls, until we made it out into the Courtyard.

The moon was so beautifully round, so bright. Not as bright as the sun, but it’s almost just as beautiful.

I stared up at the sky, the stars sparkling down at me, making me smile. For a moment, I was just silent, not even noticing Cedric come nearer to put his blazer on my shoulders, “Thanks,” I kissed him on his cheek.

“You missed,” he rolled his eyes, then pointed at his lips. I laughed, and kissed him on the lips, “That’s more like it,” he had said.

With a small chuckle, I wrapped my arms around him, cuddling to his side as snow softly fell on our heads, “It’s so pretty out here,” I told him, “I want stars in my room,” a pout made its way to my lips.

But Cedric laughed at me, “You’re adorable,” he said, pulling me closer by wrapping me in his arms, “We can put stars in your room— glow in the dark ones, maybe.”

My eyes made its way up my ceiling. They were filled with stars, but even they didn’t light up anymore, as if we put them on a very long time ago.

I looked out my window instead, not being able to stare at the stars any longer.

But I immediately stood up when I realized that the sun was no longer dark.

It was bright, with only a hint of gloom from a far.

Cedric is happy. And I was the one with gloom.

Before I knew it, I had my shoes on, and my wand in hand. I didn’t even told my parents I was going to leave, but I apparated before anyone noticed.

June twenty fourth, nineteen ninety five.

This was the last time I saw him smile. The day it all ended. The day the sun suddenly felt much darker.

He hugged me tightly before going into the maze, “I’m bringing the cup back for you,” he whispered in my ear, giving me a peck on the lips, “Wish me luck?”

I smiled at him, proud of how far he’d gone, “I wish you the best of luck,” I told him, to which he responded with a kiss on the hand, “I love you, Cedric.”

The love of my life kissed me on my temple, “I love you too, darling.”

He went into the maze. He went in without knowing he won’t ever come back to me alive.

Cedric’s tombstone was always clean. Shiny, and bright as ever. Just like him.

I sat on the grass, lifting my hand to hold his tombstone like how I would’ve held his cheek in my hand.

“Cedric,” my voice was soft, my eyes clouding with tears. But I blinked them away, not wanting him to see me so sad, “I miss you, my love,” I told him.

The breeze hit my face, the trees swaying.

I could be imagining things, but I truly felt his presence. Maybe he was just waiting for me.

“For the past months— It’s been hard for me, Ced,” I told him quietly, “It’s so hard to live without you. All my days were full of darkness. The sun was never bright for me. Remember what you said? The brighter the sun, the happier we are,” I laughed, a tear rolling down my cheek, “Guess what, love. Today, the sun was bright.”

To say I didn’t know how to continue was an under statement. But I had to.

“I know you’re happy now, at peace. And I should be, too. I shouldn’t get in the way of the sun. I shouldn’t fill my heart with gloom, because that’s what you would’ve wanted,” I sniffled, wiping my tears with the sleeve of his sweater, “I’m still not okay, of course. It will take time for me to heal this wound in my heart you’ve cut. But it will heal. Maybe not now, but it will soon.”

The wind sent yet, another breeze.

With a bitter smile, and tear stained cheek, I stood up from the grass, “Until then, Cedric,” I said, “Keep the sun bright, alright? I love you, and even if you can’t say it back— I can still feel it.”

And so I bid my goodbyes. I walked away from him, my chest felt lighter, and the sun seemed brighter. The breeze felt like spring, as if welcoming me to a new book.

Maybe Cedric and I’s story was over, but it will always be my favourite.

The sun was brighter with him. And I’ll go back to read those pages to remember the light.

But never the gloom.

~~~~~

Cedric Diggory taglist: @thehalfbloodedwitch @pottahishotasf @blackthunder137 @kazscrow

𝖌𝖔 𝖇𝖆𝖈𝖐 𝖙𝖔 𝖓𝖆𝖛𝖎𝖌𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓?

[thebigqueer]

A while back you mentioned something about the Apollo kids parents meeting up every one in a while and Apollo running into them during one of those times. Do you think you could write a lil fic about that?

ahhh yes that’s one of my favorite headcanons!!

thanks for the prompt, and i hope you like this! and, as always: i do little to no editing on these fic prompts, so don’t be too judgmental as you read through them. they’re definitely not my best work but i just can’t ever be bothered to look back aslkdjslfkd

this will be in first person because idk i really loved apollo’s pov in first person so i hope i do his character justice lmaoo

also as i was writing this i’m not gonna lie i felt really bad for apollo all he wanted was to have some time with his children 😭

also!!! we are!!! so starved!!! for dad!apollo moments!!!! bro can we just!!! see more dad!apollo moments!!!! come ON rick!!!! i didn’t realize how much i wanted them until i wrote this halskjfaslkjf 

I will say, I wasn’t quite sure what to be expecting when I came down to the mortal world today. It definitely was not to find out all of my exes regroup annually to mock me. 

Since becoming a god again, I’ve made it a personal promise to come down every once in a while. I’ve grown quite attached to these mortals, especially to my demigod children. After all, my own descendants are the best of all living beings; it’s only fair that I come and talk to them every once in a while. And, believe it or not, being around mortals helps me, too. It makes me find comfort in a world where lives may be short but lives are lived; as a god, I only ever exist. 

When I was human, though, I truly lived. It was exhilarating. Now that I am a deity again, there’s a hollowness that resides in me.

Sometimes coming down to this mortal world helps me simulate that experience of being human again. It helps me feel less lonely up in my world of immortality and timelessness. 

The sun blazes overhead as I traipse along to my cabin after just meeting with Dionysus. The insufferable bastard beat me once again at pinochle and would not stop gloating, so I decided to storm away from the wine god before he could start beating my ass in Uno.

However, as I approach my cabin, my rage ebbs away. My demigod children stand around the entrance, talking in hushed voices, and my heart bursts with warmth. It has only been a few weeks since I’ve last seen them, but each time I do, I feel only a flush of pride looking at them.

“My children!” I exclaim. “I’m here once again!” 

They all jump as if I’ve scared them. For a moment, no one says anything. Then they break apart and each of them offer me a shaky smile of their own. 

“Hey, Dad,” Will says, his voice a bit higher than I remember.

I step forward, happiness flooding over me. It hasn’t been too long since I’ve seen them but it certainly feels like it’s been millennia. “How are you all?”

Kayla pushes a pack over her shoulder. “We’re... good. How are you?”

Her words carry a bit of hesitation as if she’s nervous. Suspicion crawls over me. I cross my arms and respond, “I’m good too. Why do you have that bag over your shoulder?”

Austin, Will, and Kayla all turn to each other, sharing a look of panic. A shiver runs through me as I realize they’re up to something. I smile. “Ohhh, are you planning something? A prank, perhaps?” I rub my hands in anticipation. “Can I get in on it?”

Austin raises a hand and scratches his head. “Um, not quite. We’re actually... going somewhere.” 

Panic seizes my heart and I rush forward. “Going somewhere? Where? Like, a quest?” I reach out to my children and hug them, feeling each of their bodies in my arms. “Why did no one tell me? Oh, gods, what if I never see you again?” Tears well up in my throat. I’ve only just come down to the mortal world, and they’re already leaving for doom?

“No, no, no!” Kayla exclaims, pushing against my arms. “Not like that, Dad! Not a quest. We’re just going out to the city. No need to worry.” 

Relief washes over me and I laugh, taking my arms away from them. “Oh, that’s great! Are you going somewhere fun? Can I come?”

Before any of them can answer, a familiar demigod steps out of the Apollo cabin. They step towards Will and hand him a pack of ambrosia. It takes me for a moment to remember that it’s Nico di Angelo. He opens his mouth to speak to Will, then stops when they notice me. “Oh no,” they mutter. 

“What do you mean, oh no?” I ask, the claws of suspicion creeping over my skin once more. “What are you three up to? Is Nico coming with you?”

Nico whispers to the three, “You haven’t told him?”

“Not a good time,” Kayla hisses.

“Well, I guess now is a better time than never,” Nico says. They turn to me and state blatantly, “They’re going to meet their parents in New York City.” 

Kayla and Austin smack their faces and Will sighs. “You could have let us say it,” the blond mutters.

“Better to know from a child that isn’t his,” the child of Hades reasons, shrugging.

I blank. I was not quite expecting that response, and definitely not so casually. I stare at the four demigods quizzically. “Oh? I suppose that’s fair. But all three of you? All your parents know each other?”

“Um, well... they’re kind of friends,” Austin admits. “They... communicate often.”

A wave of humility washes over me. I will admit, it’s a little bit embarrassing knowing that the three people you’ve had children with all know each other and actively communicate. I would have suspected they’d feel a bit awkward with each other, but I didn’t quite expect they would be actual friends.

I tip my head in a sad nod. “I see. Well, I hope all three of you have fun today!” I’m trying not to sound too upset, but it’s a little bit hard when you’ve come down to the mortal world just to find out your children are going to be going into the city far away from you.

“Hey, Dad, we can hang out later!” Will suggests, a kind smile balancing over his lips. But he’s only saying that out of pity. He feels bad for me. This makes me crawl in further into myself.

“Yes, that sound alright,” I promise, feigning a smile. "But, really, don’t feel bad.” My shoulders rise and fall in a shrug. “The last time I met your parents their careers were becoming quite busy. I suppose you don’t see them as often as you’d like, is that correct? And at this point, you’ve been seeing me even more often than your own mortal parents. It’s only fair that you have some private time with them.”

A tense silence tightens the air around us. Austin shifts on his feet. After a moment, Kayla says, “Well, we better go. We’ll see you later, though!”

A cold fist seizes my heart.

Will winces. He reaches over and squeezes my shoulder. “We’re sorry to leave you like this, but we didn’t expect you to come by today. We can definitely do something later, though. The three of us will be back by six. Nico’s going to do ghost stories tonight, too, so maybe you’ll want to hear those.”

I wave my hand dismissively and try on a smile that doesn’t quite fit right. “No, really, don’t feel too bad. I’ll come by later and we can do a movie night together after Nico’s ghost stories. I’ll see you later! And have fun!”

They all glance at each other hesitantly, then seem to come to a collective agreement. “Thanks, Dad,” Austin says, pulling me in for a hug. The other two do the same, then all three demigods wander out into the sun, aiming for the exit out of camp.

Nico stares at me, eyebrows raised. “So, what are you going to do now?” Picking at their jeans, they add, “You’re Apollo, so I’m expecting that you will be doing something stupid.”

I frown. “Those are brave words for a demigod to say to a powerful deity.”

“You’re too mushy at this point to pulverize me. They’ve made you soft.” He means it as an insult but their eyes glimmer. A smile laces his mouth.

I offer them a smile back. “Well, I suppose you are correct. I shall see you for your god-tier ghost stories.” 

Nico shakes his head and turns to leave. “Please never reference modern things ever again.”

~

A little bit later, I’m balancing on a chair at a pizza shop in New York City. I’ve chosen the disguise of a businessman, mostly copying the image of a fairly attractive man I met on the way. Perhaps I will go and look for him after I’m done stalking my children. 

The scent of pizzas swirl around me, contaminating my nose. The excited chatter of families and friends surround me. Some afternoon sun pours in through the open windows, offering the entire pizza place a relaxed look.

Somewhere to my left, a large group eats and talks, laughter echoing from their table. All my children are sitting to one side of the booth, while the adults loom over them on the other. Will’s bright blond hair gleams blindingly as the sun washes over his locks. 

I wasn’t quite sure of what I was expecting from all three of my exes. Perhaps more gray hair, some wrinkles over their faces. No doubt all three of them have those, but they each look at peace, happy with life. There’s a brightness in their eyes as they gaze at their children. 

I understand that look. I feel the same pride when I see all three of them. 

Envy roils inside me. I’m not sure why, considering that I see the three demigods more often than they see their own mortal parents. Perhaps I’m just nervous that they adore their mortal parents more than they care for me. 

But I wouldn’t blame them if they did either. I’ve spent too long only caring about myself. A coil of embarrassment wraps around me.

But I’m changing that now, aren’t I? I wasn’t the best parent, but I can only hope my children are seeing that I’m here for them. I only want what’s best for them.

Another burst of laughter erupts from the booth, and I turn my head, straining my ears to listen. Naomi’s silky voice echoes over them: “...and just as he got up he tripped over himself and fell on the ground. Honestly, I have no idea how he could have been a god, but he sure was dumb.” Naomi sighs. “Maybe that’s why I thought he was so adorable. People just constantly try to impress me. He did, too, but at least he was failing. He may have been a god, but he seemed almost human the night I met him.”

With a shiver, I realize that she’s discussing the moment she met me. Red hot embarrassment spreads over my face. Gods of Olympus, that was a terrible evening for me. I was just so awestruck by her performance. She literally made me come down just to see her perform. I could barely contain my excitement when the show was over!

Will’s sunny voice stands out, amusement lacing his voice. “Speaking of dating, tell us about your new girlfriend. I don’t remember you telling me about her too much at our last Iris message.” 

My eyes widen. Girlfriend? I wasn’t aware Naomi was queer! A pang of guilt stabs me in the heart. What else don’t I know about my loved ones? I know I haven’t quite kept up with her, but shouldn’t I at least know this about her? 

Shouldn’t I know anything about the three of my exes?

The chatter continues for a bit longer. The adults discuss some more dating history, especially surrounding their humiliating encounters with me. I cower behind my newspaper, feeling only the heat of embarrassment under my skin. Why must I be such an idiot?

Perhaps this is why my children don’t seem to like to me too much. Because I only ever do things to embarrass them. Maybe I’m just a loser of a father.

As I wallow in my own pity, the conversation turns another direction. My ears strain a little more. This time Latricia is speaking, a whisper of nostalgia brushing through her words: “He sure was something. But I think that we can all agree on something: I’m glad he came into my life. Without him...” Her lips quirk into a smile and she brushes her fingers over Austin’s. “Well, without him, I don’t think we’d have each of you. He really brought light into our lives.” She sighs. “He may not have stuck along too much, but you three make it sound like he’s getting better. I’m just glad that... that you’re getting to talk with him again. It seems like he really is starting to care about his children.” Latricia’s eyes rove over all three children, eyes glimmering with satisfaction. “I’m glad he’s seeing you three in the same light as we do.”

My ears turn hot and a red blush coats my cheeks. She’s right; I do appreciate them. Without my children, I don’t know how I could have managed to get through everything I did. Even now, after all that’s happened, it feels as though I have nothing better to look forward to than knowing how amazing they are. Tears stab my eyes. 

And I almost jump out of my seat when someone calls, “You can stop hiding behind that newspaper, Apollo. We know it’s you.”

The voice surprises me so much I pop right back into my typical godly form, chiton and all. I’m already so embarrassed that I barely even realize that I’m half naked in public now. Grimacing, I stand and offer an awkward wave. “Ah, hello.”

Darren Knowles smiles at me, a knowing sparkle in his eyes. “You thought you were being stealthy, didn’t you?”

It’s been a while since I’ve really seen Darren, and the years have certainly aged him. Yet there’s still a flutter in my chest as I look at him. He doesn’t look so bad; he’s probably in his thirties or forties. I smile. “Well, I thought my godly powers would help disguise me.”

“Not as well as you thought,” Latricia remarks, smirking at me.

“How long have you known I was here?”

This time, Kayla speaks up. “Dad, we literally knew you were here the moment you got here.”

I blink. “And you didn’t call me out?”

Will shakes his head. “We wanted to see what you’d do. Gotta say, I’m surprised you didn’t do anything too spontaneous. Good job.” 

He’s teasing me, but even then I feel a brush of humility come over me. “Well, I have to say that I didn’t quite know you three only come together to make fun of me.”

Naomi waves her hand in a dismissive manner. “Only to make sure our children know how lucky we are to have them.” Her eyes rove over me, almost as if judging how much I’ve changed. “I haven’t seen you in a while," she notes.

The three adults share a look, carrying a silent conversation with each other. Will, Austin, and Kayla watch me as if they expected me to do exactly this. Austin laughs. “You really don’t take no for an answer, do you?”

I shrug. “I just... I don’t know. I know I already see you three often enough, but I suppose I just wanted to see how things were going. Especially with your parents.” I glance at them, my cheeks blooming red. “I haven’t exactly been the best parent in the past. I just want to apologize. And let you know that your children... Well, they’re some of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever met. You’ve raised them better than I could ever have.”

Silence lingers in the air, waiting for someone to make the next move. Then Darren gestures to the food before them. “Why don’t you sit? I suppose we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

[reynie-muldoons]

'The Art of Conveyance and Round-Trippery' Liveblog!

Sorry this is a few days late!! I moved across the country this weekend, we drove like 13 hours within 2 days and we did a lot of heavy lifting. I'm exhausted, but the boxes are slowly emptying and I've been wanting to watch this episode so gd bad, so LESGO

Over halfway through the season!!!! That's absolutely surreal

1:11 oooh they're getting their royal fitting

1:22 LMAOO WTF 😂😂 Princess Diaries vibes

1:42 ✨CONFIDENCE✨

1:52 Alfonse is a perfect name for that guy HAHA

2:05 Nathaniel, my guy, you've made some points

2:11 "do you feel your power?" POWER RANGERS, GO

2:24 no no hesitation just prolly thinkin bout how he was caught cheatin

2:39 "can you not allow yourselves luxury?" okay fr I feel that I get Nice Things Guilt(tm) too easily

2:52 dayummmm let's talk about Sticky being a hat stall between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, mans is brave as fuck under extreme pressure and loyal to the point of putting himself on the line

3:15 bro Sticky getting some recognition. Love to see it, he deserves it

3:19 "is that a coincidence? Or written in the stars?" IS DR. CURTAIN CATCHING ON THAT THEY KNEW EACH OTHER BEFORE OR LIKEEEE

3:49 WHAT WORD AROUND CAMPUS 😭😭😭 MY BOYS ARE NOT A MISTAKE HOW DARE YOU

4:09 why doess the action of Dr. Curtain putting the sash on them seem so nefarious

4:36 I dont really understand the whole pastel yellow, blue, and pink palette of the school but the boys both look pretty okay in their vest-sash getup

4:42 THE OPENINGGGGG. This shit slaps.

5:41 Kate and Constance look so fucking cute in that shot, dont ask me why but hnnggggg

5:54 sash rope 😂😭 kate, honey, that's a reach

6:09 it might feel buttery, but, my guy, it also looks buttery. It's literally the color of butter. Get yourself some crisco

6:24 I find it kinda interesting that they made up new riddles for the show, I'm almost positive that that one wasn't in the book. Correct me if I'm wrong though

7:03 "I'm not gonna apologize for knowing things" the sass. the ✨confidence✨. living for it

7:03 If they build on that it sets Sticky up really nicely for the arc in the second book where he starts to show off a little

7:15 tiny Constance who is constantly dressed in pink with cute little braids is the perfect medium for the most morbid comments 😂😂

7:55 Martina's hot in her uniform. Can't prove me wrong.

8:15 why does that make me sad 🥺 eat with your friendssss. iirc they only talked about eating at the Messenger table in the books

8:26 dipshits forgot their lunches. Seems Constance is holding the communal braincell atm

8:50 anyone have Guiness on speed dial? Reynie and Sticky have a submission for them

9:25 oh hello this was alluded to in the preview!!! Morse code is compromised, rip

10:05 so are Jackson and Jillson stuck with night guard duty all the time?? They've been outside at night a lot

10:18 ahhhhhh the little blinkie light, stopppp

10:25 MILLIGANNNNN!!!

10:25 so is this the point where he starts staying on the island with them????

10:39 so are they just like "fuck it we'll do it right before sundown" ???? Like Jackson and Jillson are still gonna be on the lookout, they aren't gonna chill just because it's not fully dark

10:50 did the kids.....just not tell them that Mr. Bloom was on the island 😂 nice oversight guys

11:05 MADGE TIME MADGE TIME

11:05 remind me to tell you guys a story about Madge, I may or may not have done something irl a few years ago that would make y'all proud 😂😂😂

11:16 idk why but it makes me so happy that they kept Madge as a peregrine falcon

11:37 Rhonda, my love, you have my heart in your hands

11:46 roll credits

12:05 THE HEAD SHAKE HAHAHAH

12:06 Awww man, I was so excited for Milligan to be on the island .-. He must have been scoping out the inlet

12:07 "they're quite regal" A. I read the subtitles as "legal" the first time and that's somehow really in character for him, and B. IS MILLIGAN GOING TO NAME HER???!? HER MAJESTY???? PLEASE I WOULD LOVE THAT SO MUCH

12:15 his grimace KILLS ME

12:17 the hard cut from Nicholas in a brown setting and brown suit to Nathaniel in a blue setting and blue suit was lowkey striking

12:36 are they looking up Morse code 😳 can you imagine if they wrote down the message and are now decoding it

12:41 omfg all that for a HAT 🙃 I feel stupid

12:51 two things: 1. Those walls are atrocious, and 2. Yeah, talk about Morse code in a louder voice Connie girl, you're just in a public hallway

13:03 I'm sorry but those orange pillar things are not the vibe

13:03 the golden gate bridge called, they want their arches back

13:10 please let Kate climb the tower before the end of season 1. please.

13:22 y'all are about to be flying something else 😎

13:33 cleansing breaths

13:47 OH HELLO MESSENGER DUTY ALREADY??

14:06 what the heck is that teal pole for 😭😭

14:12 blindfold timeeee

I'm so sorry but I'm exhausted, it's 11:30 pm on Sunday night right now, I'll finish this episode tomorrow morning after I get some sleepies

~~

Good morningggg lesgetatit

14:50 "vomit of metal" ashhdjdjd

15:16 a wild Martina appears!

15:36 and if you folks look to your left, you'll see a wild Constance being the voice of reason once again

15:57 "lose the bucket" "I'm not gonna do that" HELL YEAH KATE

16:07 I get not having the bucket on the court lolol, I thought Martina was telling Kate to lose the bucket in general. Like, yeah, good luck convincing her to so that

16:35 show!Kate is much angrier than book!Kate and I'm still deciding how I feel about that. The Kate we've known from the books is a sunshine baby with looots of repressed trauma.

17:03 ......what is that. why is that.

17:11 WAIT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE REYNIE AHEHDJDJD

17:15 HI MADGE

17:41 the grand swell in the music makes me think it's going to go comically wrong

17:51 she's majestic because she's a queen 🥺

18:03 LMAO CALLED IT

18:14 Rhonda and Number Two getting at each other is such a sisterly thing to do 😂😂😂

18:37 ohhhhh? Someone's approaching? Miss Perumal perhaps????

18:45 YEAHHHHH BABY

18:50 PROTECTIVE MOM COMIN IN HOT!!!

19:22 THEYRE SO PRECIOUS 😭😭😭😭 I feel like I've been subconsciously starved for her and Mr. Benedict's interactions

19:36 died at that line in the one trailer

20:00 so Miss Perumal pulled a Sherlock Holmes. Love that for her

20:20 Cheri Tupintown??? Of all the aliases they could pick, Cheri Tupintown???

20:33 "Power in Truth Inc" that HAS to be something Rhonda came up with

21:01 you can literally watch Mr. Benedict realize that this is a woman not to be fucked with and he is CORRECT

21:23 "he's fine. Perfectly fine." At this, Mr. Benedict's pants caught aflame.

21:52 something about Constance sitting in on practice!!! It scratches an itch!!!!

22:19 "incorporate the helix. Live in the helix." Lord Helix is pleased with this offering.

22:26 so what I'm hearing is Kate is going to blow up on Constance for messing with the bucket

23:13 unrelated but Jillson'a shoes are cute

23:29 why does this room give off Johnny Depp's willy wonka vibes

24:13 that looks like a chair from a doctor's office waiting room 😭

25:29 they do be egg heads tho

26:02 baby girl, I have no idea why you're crying at weird art but let me dry your tears 🥺🥺

26:50 SHE FOUND ITTTT

27:27 okay Indiana Jones, go off

27:46 why did that kinda sound like Miss Perumal

28:43 the return of everyone's favorite, "enjoyable"

29:05 not that I'm not loving the ice breaker questions and the one-sided conversation, but I'm not loving it

29:22 oh so we're getting right into it aren't we

29:54 his eyes being open again makes this infinitely creepier

30:36 "where's your proof?" Miss Perumal doesnt fuck around!!!

31:29 you're telling me Constance has been there all day?? And Kate went to find her???? 🥺

31:58 oh so we're getting right to it then?? Kate addressing her independence and trust issues arc????

33:29 NEWS!!!!

33:49 CONSTANCE RIDING PIGGYBACK!!!!!!

34:04 okay, so they opened the murder hole, what are they gonna do now

34:59 Italian? 🤨 m'sir that is so fancy

34:59 fun story I learned Italian diction in college, so I know a little bit

35:16 "take your time" the whisperer says, immediately repeating the prompt to get the answer sooner

35:31 theeeeere it is

35:46 SOMETHING ABOUT THE WHISPERER SAYING "YOU ARE HOME" 😭😭😭 the show really played up the cult shit!!

36:02 Kate being protective of Constance 🥺

36:20 ohhh shit is it time for Connie girl to have double Reynie? Double Sticky?

36:36 STICKY

36:52 "what kind of nonsense?" HAVE THEY NOT ASKED THAT BEFORE THIS?????

37:14 "and your tiny brain can somehow pick it up!!" KATE STOP 😂😂😂

37:16 "I knew you had to be special in some way." WE DONT HAVE TIME TO UNPACK ALL OF THAT

37:51 she's right, this is disregard for their safety. The show made Mr. Benedict and his team a lot more back-alley and dishonest, and Miss Perumal has every reason to be pissed

38:30 oh good they finally remembered he has narcolepsy

39:38 and the best mom award goes to:

40:38 I was gonna say that this hallway is how I imagined the KEEP in riddle of ages but then I remembered that (spoilers) the Institute is the KEEP

40:46 oh, hello propoganda

41:10 that's the other person Rhonda couldn't contact, along with Mr. Bloom. This has to be the brainsweeping process

41:22 yeppppp

41:44 this dark doctor's office theme gives me horror movie vibes

42:22 ohhhh, so that's how they replaced that scene where the four of them jump in a crate to hide and Sticky drops his glasses in the open

42:47 and so we've come to the part of the story where Sticky and Reynie become infinitely more conflicted

42:47 and since we've reached that point..... can we have the white knight scene? Pretty please? Please Disney I'm begging you-

43:12 so Reynie just figured that out without Constance? :/

44:03 love the manipulation

44:31 I'm sorry, the farm?

44:35 farm and forest????

45:16 "the Emergency has served its purpose" 😳 well okay then murder man

45:39 "one thought, one purpose" the hive mind rises once more

45:48 LOVE THE MANIPULATION

46:07 "what have you done to earn anyone's trust?" VALID

46:26 "please do!" WHY AM I EMOTIONAL

47:06 "we still have the falcon" that you do 😂

47:19 AYYY HERE WE GO!!! Time for Milligan to stay on the island??

47:49 ohhhh Constance, casual telepath strikes again

48:16 "stop it, Kate!" OOOOHHHHH

48:53 that line ("it would be nice to be unburdened") would be funny as shit if not for the fact that Constance is a telepath unbeknownst to herself and can both subconsciously perceive people's thoughts and hear the subliminal messages

49:20 HI MRS. PERUMAL!!!

49:25 wow, she's really going through with it 😳 not that I doubted her, but still, that's dedication

49:39 OH SHIT

50:17 oh, so he's an asshole to SQ too. Got it. Torches and pitchforks? Ready to kick his ass?

50:40 "for the moment, anyway" FUCKIN WHAT

This episode was really good!!! They covered a LOT. I hope Miss Perumal comes back to the group and talks about her findings, I hope Milligan goes to get the kids and they tell him no, and I hope they get that classic 4-person Society brainstorming and binding time that hits that sweet spot

[twoidiotwriters1]

Written In The Stars XCVII (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: THE SEMESTER IS OVER

P.S. I’m thinking of posting the last few chapters all at once next week bc they don’t feel exactly christmas-like lmaoo would you guys like that or should I keep the normal schedule? -Danny

Words: 3,623

Series’ Masterlist

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Listen to: White Stripes -by Hayley Gene Penner

Chapter Thirty-Two: Palpable Memoirs.

Once in front of the Gargoyle, they realized they still had no idea of what the password was.

"Uh- Sherbet lemon?" Harry tried.

The gargoyle stayed in place.

"Okay," said Harry, "Pear Drop. Er — Licorice Wand. Fizzing Whizbee. Drooble's Best Blowing Gum. Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans... oh no, he doesn't like them, does he?" She shook her head. "Oh just open, can't you? We really need to see him, it's urgent!"

Harry kicked it, which she considered stupid since it was made of stone.

"Chocolate Frog!" He grunted, holding his leg to lessen the pain. "Sugar Quill! Cockroach Cluster!"

Suddenly the gargoyle turned.

"Cockroach Cluster?" He widened his eyes. "I was only joking..."

Mel laughed. "It's your bloody luck, Glasses."

They hurried up the stairs, Harry reached the door and was about to open it when Mel pulled him back, asking him to listen.

"Dumbledore, I'm afraid I don't see the connection, don't see it at all!" Cornelius Fudge exclaimed. "Ludo says Bertha's perfectly capable of getting herself lost. I agree we would have expected to have found her by now, but all the same, we've no evidence of foul play, Dumbledore, none at all. As for her disappearance being linked with Barty Crouch's!"

"And what do you think happened to Barty Crouch, Minister?" That one was certainly Moody.

"I see two possibilities, Alastor. Either Crouch has finally cracked — more than likely, I'm sure you'll agree, given his personal history — lost his mind, and gone wandering off some- where —"

"He wandered extremely quickly, if that is the case, Cornelius," said Dumbledore.

"Or else — well... Well, I'll reserve judgment until after I've seen the place where he was found, but you say it was just past the Beauxbatons carriage? Dumbledore, you know what that woman is?"

"I consider her to be a very able headmistress — and an excellent dancer," said Dumbledore quietly.

"Dumbledore, come! Don't you think you might be prejudiced in her favour because of Hagrid? They don't all turn out harmless — if, indeed, you can call Hagrid harmless, with that monster fixation he's got —"

"I no more suspect Madame Maxime than Hagrid. I think it possible that it is you who are prejudiced, Cornelius."

"Should we wait till dinner?" Mel asked anxiously.

Harry was about to reply when Moody spoke up.

"Can we wrap up this discussion?"

"Yes, yes, let's go down to the grounds, then..."

"No, it's not that. It's just that Potter and Miss Dumbledore want a word with you. They're outside the door," The door of the office opened abruptly, Mel jumped away. "Hello," said Moody politely. "Come in, then."

Mel wanted to hide behind Harry, but since she figured it would've looked stupid. She walked directly to the middle of the room.

"Harry!" said Fudge. "Mel! How are you?"

"Fine," Harry said shortly.

"We were just talking about the night when Mr Crouch turned up on the grounds," Fudge continued carefully. "It was you who found him, was it not?"

"Yes," said Harry. "I didn't see Madame Maxime anywhere, though, and she'd have a job hiding, wouldn't she?" He added quickly.

Mel and Dumbledore smiled at Harry. Sometimes she felt amazed at his courage.

"Yes, well," said Fudge, blushing a bit, "we're about to go for a short walk on the grounds if you'll excuse us... perhaps if you just go back to your class —"

"I wanted to talk to you, Professor," Harry said quickly.

Dumbledore looked at both, Mel, although feeling a bit stupid, kept eye contact with the Headmaster and tried to focus her mind on the memory of Harry on the ground, holding his forehead, just to see if her theory of Dumbledore being able to read minds was right.

"Wait here for me," Dumbledore said. "Our examination of the grounds will not take long."

Once the sound of steps was gone and they were alone, Mel sat on one of the chairs in front of the desk.

"Hello, Fawkes," Harry said, smiling at the Phoenix behind the Headmaster's chair. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Hey, don't you want to try the chair?"

"What?" Mel snorted. "I don't have a deathwish, no..."

"But it's not to mock," Harry said in confusion. "I meant to see how you feel, wasn't that what you saw in the mirror when we were in first year? You have a chance to see how it feels!"

"Oh," Mel turned scarlet, "er, maybe later... We should sit down."

The girl guided Harry to the chairs facing the Headmaster's desk and sat down next to him. He stared at her with a curious yet polite expression. It was his soft gaze what gave Mel the sudden urge to offer the world to the boy. The thought scared her, she had no idea how it felt to actually give everything up just to save someone. Her father had done it, yes. Her grandmother did it, her uncle did it as well... but she couldn't promise something like that so lightly! She was too young to give her life away like that, even if it was for her best friend.

She realized that confessing what she'd really seen in the mirror was too much, it would've surely put pressure upon the boy, to know he'd been the thing she'd wished for the most all those years. Instead, she blurted out something else.

"Kiss me."

Harry's eyes widened.

"What?"

Mel cleared her throat, feeling her blush reach her neck.

"I– I'm sorry, that was bold. Didn't mean to make you uncomfort–"

Harry cupped one side of her face so she'd look at him.

"I'll do it," He gave her a small smile. "You just took me by surprise... I'll do it."

He leaned closer, and just as they were about to kiss, something caught his eye.

"What's that?" Harry stood up.

Mel let out the faintest whimper, she quickly looked over her shoulder to follow his gaze.

"What thing?"

"That," He pointed to what looked like a small cabinet, he hesitated for a moment, not knowing what it was inside.

A shallow stone basin lay there, with odd carvings around the edge: runes and symbols that Harry did not recognize. The silvery light was coming from the basin's contents, which were like nothing Harry had ever seen before. He could not tell whether the substance was liquid or gas. It was a bright, whitish silver, and it was moving ceaselessly; the surface of it became ruffled like water beneath wind, and then, like clouds, separated and swirled smoothly. It looked like light made liquid — or like wind made solid — Harry couldn't make up his mind.

He wanted to touch it, to find out what it felt like, but nearly four years' experience of the magical world told him that sticking his hand into a bowl full of some unknown substance was a very stupid thing to do. He therefore pulled his wand out of the inside of his robes, cast a nervous look around the office, looked back at the contents of the basin, and prodded them.

The surface of the silvery stuff inside the basin began to swirl very fast.

"What?" Mel got up as well, standing next to him. "What's..?"

"Dunno," Harry squinted, bending closer to the surface. "There's something..."

"Be careful," Mel put a hand on his shoulder, but this only seemed to encourage him to go forward.

With a final push, Harry held onto the edge of the basin and stayed firmly in place. Mel could see something over his shoulder, but she decided not to get any closer, whatever Harry was doing, it couldn't be all that dangerous, he looked fine, even if he was holding a little tightly to the edge.

She waited a few seconds and suddenly Harry spoke, but it sounded muffled like he was in another room.

"Harry?" Mel reached out to pull him out.

"What are you doing?" A voice came from above.

Mel jumped and looked around frantically.

"What do you think you're doing?"

She finally located the voice: A man in one of the portraits, looking awfully grumpy.

"Sorry. We're just... curious?"

"Curiosity burned the witch, young lady," He retorted sharply.

"I know that," Mel frowned. "But we're not doing anything wrong..."

"You should pull back that boy before he ends up with nightmares."

"What?"

"That thing he's using, that's a Pensieve. Dumbledore was using it before Fudge came in with his weeping, but I assure you, nothing in there will make your friend's life any more pleasant, so you should bring him back."

"What does a Pensieve do?"

"If you don't know that's your problem, just do what I tell you!"

"A Pensieve works to show memories and examine them," A woman said from the portrait on the right. "Your Headmaster pulls a memory out of his mind and then pours it in, to take another look at it, paying more attention to the details."

"I didn't know such thing could be done," Mel said in amazement. "How-?"

"That's none of your business!" The man exclaimed. "Eupraxia, please be kind enough to not go around telling the Headmaster's secrets to a child!"

"That child is a Dumbledore," The woman replied sternly. "She's allowed to ask questions. You're free to ignore her, Phineas, but I certainly won't."

"If anyone cares," a third voice spoke up from Phineas' right. "A Pensieve is not a thing only Headmasters have, anyone can have them, they're hard to find, but–"

"Shut it, Brutus!" Phineas snapped.

The door opened then, and Dumbledore stopped at the scene.

"Dumbledore!" Phineas exclaimed. "Put order here! That boy over there is lurking around, getting his nose where is not–"

"I see, Phineas," Dumbledore interrupted, walking up to Harry. "Don't worry..."

Mel wanted to say something in Harry's defence, but Dumbledore raised a hand to ease her mind.

"Give me a moment," He told her, bending into the Pensieve as well.

She heard him speak just like Harry had done minutes before, then watched as the man grabbed the boy by the arm and gently pulled back as he straightened up. Harry gasped, blinking rapidly.

"Professor– I know I shouldn't've — I didn't mean — the cabinet door was sort of open and —"

"I quite understand," Dumbledore grabbed the basin and carried it over to his desk, the children followed him and sat on the two opposite chairs.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"This? It is called a Pensieve," said Dumbledore. "I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind."

"Er," Harry stammered.

"At these times," Dumbledore nodded, "I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one's mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one's leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand when they are in this form."

"You mean... that stuff's your thoughts?" Harry stared at the liquid looking material.

"Certainly," Dumbledore confirmed. "Let me show you."

Dumbledore drew his wand out of the inside of his robes and placed the tip into his own silvery hair, near his temple. When he took the wand away, hair seemed to be clinging to it — but then Harry saw that it was in fact a glistening strand of the same strange silvery-white substance that filled the Pensieve. Dumbledore added this fresh thought to the basin, and Harry, astonished, saw his own face swimming around the surface of the bowl. Dumbledore placed his long hands on either side of the Pensieve and swirled it, rather as a gold prospector would pan for fragments of gold... and Harry saw his own face change smoothly into Snape's, who opened his mouth and spoke to the ceiling, his voice echoing slightly.

"It's coming back... Karkaroff's too... stronger and clearer than ever..."

"A connection I could have made without assistance," Dumbledore put it away, "but never mind. I was using the Pensieve when Mr Fudge arrived for our meeting and put it away rather hastily. Undoubtedly I did not fasten the cabinet door properly. Naturally, it would have attracted your attention."

"I'm sorry," Harry grumbled.

"Curiosity is not a sin," He said, looking intently at Phineas. "But we should exercise caution with our curiosity... yes, indeed..." He swirled the tip of his wand inside, a figure rose out of it, it was a girl.

"He put a hex on me, Professor Dumbledore," She was saying. "And I was only teasing him, sir. I only said I'd seen him kissing Florence behind the greenhouses last Thursday..."

"But why, Bertha," said Dumbledore sadly, "why did you have to follow him in the first place?"

"Bertha?" Harry and Mel asked at the same time.

"Is that — was that Bertha Jorkins?"

"Yes... That was Bertha as I remember her at school."

"Wonderful," Mel peered down at it with excitement, she realized what she'd said and leaned back, clearing her throat. "I- er, meant the Pensieve, you know..."

"So, kids," Dumbledore continued calmly. "Before you got lost in my thoughts, you wanted to tell me something."

"Yes," said Harry. "Professor — I was in Divination just now, and — er — I fell asleep."

"Quite understandable. Continue."

"Well, I had a dream," said Harry. "A dream about Lord Voldemort. He was torturing Wormtail... you know who Wormtail —"

"I do know," said Dumbledore. "Please continue."

"Voldemort got a letter from an owl. He said something like, Wormtail's blunder had been repaired. He said someone was dead. Then he said, Wormtail wouldn't be fed to the snake — there was a snake beside his chair. He said — he said he'd be feeding me to it, instead. Then he did the Cruciatus Curse on Wormtail — and my scar hurt... It woke me up, it hurt so badly... Er — that's all," said Harry clumsily.

"I see... I see. Now, has your scar hurt at any other time this year, excepting the time it woke you up over the summer?"

"No, I — how did you know it woke me up over the summer?" said Harry.

"You are not Sirius's only correspondent," said Dumbledore. "I have also been in contact with him ever since he left Hogwarts last year. It was I who suggested the mountainside cave as the safest place for him to stay," He looked at Mel. "As well as the one who recommended him not to take your mother's offer, it's too dangerous to have him at plain sight."

Dumbledore got up. He kept adding thoughts into the basin from time to time, while Mel kept revolving in her own thoughts.

Snape seemed to be informing Dumbledore about what Karkaroff was telling him so that had to be the reason why Snape wasn't one of Dumbledore's worries, Bertha disappeared at the start of the summer, and Harry kept having dreams about Voldemort assuring others Harry'd be dead soon... it didn't make sense at all, but still... she had to be missing something... she had to be overlooking at something important, something maybe Harry had forgotten to mention...

"Professor?" Harry asked, bringing both Dumbledores back from their heads.

"My apologies," The older said quietly, sitting back.

"D'you — d'you know why my scar's hurting me?"

"I have a theory, no more than that..." He started carefully. Mel noticed he was speaking with the same hesitant tone he used when telling her about Ariana. "It is my belief that your scar hurts both when Lord Voldemort is near you, and when he is feeling a particularly strong surge of hatred."

"But... why?"

"Because you and he are connected by the curse that failed," said Dumbledore. "That is no ordinary scar."

"So you think... that dream... did it really happen?"

"It is possible. I would say — probable. Harry — did you see Voldemort?"

"No. Just the back of his chair. But — there wouldn't have been anything to see, would there? I mean, he hasn't got a body, has he? But... but then how could he have held the wand?" Harry wondered out loud.

"How indeed?" muttered Dumbledore.

"How indeed..." Mel repeated, lost in thought.

For some reason, Erick's words came back to her stronger than ever.

'I know you want nothing more but to live in a fairytale, but all we got is this...'

Was it? A world in which people like Voldemort could go back to life and people like her father had no second chances? If that was truly the case, she didn't think she'd be stepping out of her soft and gentle point of view any time soon.

"Professor," Harry said, "do you think he's getting stronger?"

"Voldemort?" Dumbledore looked intently at the boy. "Once again, Harry, I can only give you my suspicions. The years of Voldemort's ascent to power were marked with disappearances. Bertha Jorkins has vanished without a trace in the place where Voldemort was certainly known to be last. Mr Crouch too has disappeared... within these very grounds. And there was a third disappearance, one which the Ministry, I regret to say, do not consider of any importance, for it concerns a Muggle. His name was Frank Bryce, he lived in the village where Voldemort's father grew up, and he has not been seen since last August. You see, I read the Muggle newspapers, unlike most of my Ministry friends. These disappearances seem to me to be linked. The Ministry disagrees — as you may have heard, while waiting outside my office."

So there it was, at least that part was cleared. She felt a sudden frustration when thinking of all the things she didn't know, either because she was too young or she hadn't asked the right questions, either way, she couldn't do anything with so many holes in her story, and she would do anything to fix that.

"Professor?" Harry spoke again.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Er... could I ask you about... that court thing I was in... in the Pensieve?"

"You could. I attended it many times, but some trials come back to me more clearly than others... particularly now..."

"You know — you know the trial you found me in? The one with Crouch's son? Well... were they talking about Neville's parents?"

"What?" Mel asked abruptly. Dumbledore stared at both of them grimly.

"Has Neville never told you why he has been brought up by his grandmother?"

"No," Harry turned to her. "Mel mentioned it once, about how odd it was, how he'd never mentioned his parents... she said it after the first lesson we had with Moody when he showed us..."

"When he showed us the Unforgivable Curses," Mel finished.

"Yes, they were talking about Neville's parents," said Dumbledore. "His father, Frank, was an Auror just like Professor Moody, and much like your own father, Mel. He and his wife were tortured for information about Voldemort's whereabouts after he lost his powers, as you heard."

"So they're dead?"

"No," Dumbledore's voice grew bitter. "They are insane. They are both in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I believe Neville visits them, with his grandmother, during the holidays. They do not recognize him."

Something in her stomach dropped and knocked the wind out of her lungs. Tortured, surely the same way Moody had shown them with that spider...

"The Longbottoms were very popular," Dumbledore explained. "The attacks on them came after Voldemort's fall from power, just when everyone thought they were safe. Those attacks caused a wave of fury such as I have never known. The Ministry was under great pressure to catch those who had done it. Unfortunately, the Longbottoms' evidence was — given their condition — none too reliable."

"Then Mr Crouch's son might not have been involved?" Harry asked in horror.

"As to that, I have no idea," Dumbledore replied sadly.

"Er, Mr Bagman..."

"...has never been accused of any Dark activity since," said Dumbledore calmly.

"Right... And... er..." The children were both staring at the Pensieve, which was showing Snape's face on its surface.

"No more has Professor Snape," he said.

"What made you think he'd really stopped supporting Voldemort, Professor?" Harry blurted out.

Dumbledore and Harry locked eyes for a few seconds, it felt weird to stay seated in the middle of it, quietly observing. "That, Harry, is a matter between Professor Snape and myself."

Harry stood up, Mel did as well.

"Children," both of them stopped at the door. "Please do not speak about Neville's parents to anybody else. He has the right to let people know when he is ready."

"Yes, Professor," they said in unison.

"And —" The light of the Pensieve gave Dumbledore a much more ghostly look. "Good luck with the third task."

Harry nodded, walking out of the office. Mel stayed in her place, thinking about her dad and Neville's and how they probably knew each other, and how Emily probably heard about their attacks. She thought of this until Dumbledore shook his head.

"When you look at all together it becomes unbearable," He sighed tiredly. "That's when a Pensieve's useful, so you can keep a hopeful standpoint, even in the middle of a poorly lit view."

"How did you..?"

"I believe you are under the impression that I'd be able to see, without words, what you were trying to communicate... Was I wrong?"

She blushed. "I was trying to see..."

"If I was able to see your thoughts," Dumbledore smiled. "It's quite more complicated than that, but certainly that's the easiest way to put it –and yes," He added when he saw her expression. "With a little effort, you can learn that too."

"Will you teach me?" She asked.

Dumbledore's eyes shone knowingly.

"Patience, dear girl."

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@dee123ksha​ @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland @bloodorangemoonlight @omiwashere​ @t-rexs-world

[imlostinsantacarla]

@beaming-ben:  hey! i just wanted to say i’m enjoying your lost boys posts :) was wondering if i was able to make a request with Y/N (so others can enjoy it) x Marko? it would be where the reader is new to santa carla and they are at the boardwalk looking at the stores and stuff. Marko notices them who turns out to be his mate and he starts talking to them. the reader would be quite shy in this but eventually opens up and Marko would be really sweet to them. Thanks for your time :) x

(a/n: heya love, sorry that this took so long for me to get around to! i hope you enjoy what i’ve come up with, i really tried my best! thanks for your request as well. - admin kat 🌙❣)

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Title: You Don’t Talk Much Do You? (Marko x Reader)

Summary: Moving out to the Murder Capitol of the World and into the home of your eccentric grandfather after a divorce between your parents has you longing for a night of fun. When your two brothers accompany you onto the infamous Boardwalk for the night, their teasing ways get under your skin and you feel the need to break away and cool off. Doing this means that you run into a particular blonde-haired boy that isn’t just trying to chat you up to win you over for the night, but for eternity.

Word Count: 2,269 (lmaoo 69)

Warnings: mentions of parents divorcing, angsty teenager stuff?, nothing else really.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Being new to Santa Carla had an overwhelming pressure as nighttime rolled around and the Boardwalk was filled with the static buzz of teenagers having a blast of a time whilst the flashing lights of the fair rides busily illuminated the night air. There was a charge of excitement in the atmosphere which had you practically bouncing on your heels, a grin spread wide across your face. It seemed as though it had been an eternity since you had even stared fun straight in the face.

Currently you were situated between your two brothers, Michael and Sam, whom were bickering like school children over the topic of Sam needing and not needing babysitters to accompany him.

“I’m not a kid any more, Mikey! I can find my own way around here no problem.” Sam sassed with an exasperated tone, total offense clouding his countenance as he looked up at his older brother indignantly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Michael rolled his eyes, giving a hasty shake of his head, “tell that to mom after you get lost for the fifth time today.”

“Hey! The first time was my fault but the other four were your terrible sense of direction. Right, y/n?” Sam blabbered enthusiastically, though his face was heating up due to embarrassment.

“Huh?” You hummed, eyes averting from the roller coaster and landing on Sam who seemed even more offended that you hadn’t exactly been paying any mind to his side of the argument, never mind Michael’s point. “Sorry, what did you two losers say?” You inquired with a quick scratch to the back of your neck.

Michael grinned silly at you before staring down at Sam. “Jesus, and I thought mom was bad.” to which Sam laughed at, their brotherly bickering having become a thing of the past and your fleeting attention span now the main focus.

“You’ve seen plenty of rides before, I don’t see what the big deal is, y/n!” Sam stated matter-of-factly, his bright eyes illuminated with mischief.

“Yeah, I know. But when was the last time us three got to have fun instead of being stuck between mom and dad arguing?” You sassed, a tint spreading across your cheeks. Your statement was nothing more than sincere. Being in between two parents going through a divorce was messy and heartbreaking for everyone involved, but it seemed to have taken it’s toll on you the most. You’d assumed the role of keeping what was left of your family intact, like human glue, and it was the most exhausting job you’d slid into for awhile now.

“Jeez you make it sound like you’re the one going through the divorce yourself.” Michael scoffed mockingly, no doubt attempting to get under your skin as he usually did.

“YoU mAkE iT sOuNd LiKe YoU’rE tHe OnE GoInG ThRoUgH tHe DiVoRcE yOuRsElF.” you did a pretty bad imitation of his voice, throwing your hands up in the air as you did so. “You sound like you don’t give a shit.” you spat, pushing past your older brother.

“Great! Now she’s gonna go tell mom you were an ass to her and probably blame me too!” You heard Sam practically shriek behind you. You didn’t care, you just felt like you needed to get away from them, they were practically suffocating you.

___

Parting from your brothers had lead you to only dig yourself deeper into your own thoughts. You went from store to store that littered the Boardwalk and scanned the shelves of them absentmindedly with a lot weighing down the theme of your train of thought. Moving away from Phoenix had been challenging for you, especially parting from your friends, and your parents going through their divorce was hard, - even if your mother had managed to do it with little mess -. The change of moving to another state made you almost weak with nausea. When summer was over you’d be going to a new school with new people and the thought alone made you want to spew. Making friends back in Phoenix had been challenging enough as it was...

You missed your friends desperately, you knew you were gonna miss your old school even once summer was over here. Everything here was daunting and weird. I mean, your Gramps didn’t even own a TV! He had Taxidermy swarming around his whole house. The thought of that beaver he’d given Sam sent shivers down your spine as though The Angel of Death were tickling it. You were genuinely living with a crazy old man and your somewhat dysfunctional family. The odds of enjoying your time here didn’t look so hot. I mean, you were living in the Murder Capital of the World.

The exhaustion you felt seemed to morph into sore legs from having walked around the pier several times. You’d even walked past your brothers ten times, ignoring them whenever they’d called on you. They knew that when you were in a bad mood to just let you walk it off in order to cool down. Besides, they were the ones who’d agitated you in the first place. The least they could do was give you time.

The whole intention of coming to the Boardwalk was to have fun, engage in excitement: You’d wanted to go on every ride you saw, eat till you were so full you’d spew and watch the live bands play. You hadn’t bagged on miserably idling around a comic book store until the two kids behind the register eyed you all funny till you left.

Now you were at one set of stairs that lead down to the actual sand of Santa Carla’s beach. Your eyes scanning the scene before you with dull eyes of envy. The moon was strikingly pale against the velvety black night sky, tiny specs of stars dancing to the music of the local teenagers guffawing and fooling around on the sand beneath. The waves of the ocean were a velvety black, the moon casting an eerie silvery glow onto it, it’s reflection warbled as the salty water lapped onto the sand and retreated. There wasn’t just total darkness, on the sand, where there were teenagers, there were also oil drums glowing orange with dancing flames in the center of the group, providing warmth and light to their shenanigans. There were hundreds of oil drums littered all over the beach, like small beacons of light attempting to break through the darkness of night.

A sense of desperation to join them left your stomach jumping and twisting apprehensively, making you miss Phoenix all the more. You’d do almost anything to get out of the funk you’d sunk into, even if that meant doing something stupid and getting yourself grounded for all eternity by your mother. You weren’t astray to rebelling against her in the past. She knew that plain as day, which is probably why she had told your brothers to head out with you.

You climbed halfway down the stairs until you sunk down onto them, deciding you didn’t have enough courage to just throw yourself into any one of the orange circles that scattered the beach. Anyone of those groups could be filled with nutters and weirdos. You weren’t looking to get yourself into anything you couldn’t get yourself out of. But you observed the people your age, maybe even a little older than you, dancing and singing, - clearly both drunk and/or high on something -, with curiosity.

“You just gonna watch all the action go down from here?” You heard a voice clear as day in your ear, causing you to jump straight out of your skin, a yelp being pulled from your throat. You whipped around to find a boy your age with the dumbest grin plastered straight on his face, like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. “Whoa! Easy.” His voice came out husky as he placed his hands up by his head, partially gloved, palms facing you.

You were stunned for what felt like seconds but stretched on for well over a couple of minutes. The guy was stunning, blond and wore the most peculiar jacket of gold and red that possessed patterns, faces, pictures... You weren’t even aware that you’d been staring till he chuckled again. “You know, you might wanna close your mouth before you drool everywhere.” He teased, his nimble and icy fingertips coming under your chin and forcing your mouth closed with a soft tap. He had his head tilted to the side, blue orbs penetrating yours like he was staring straight through your soul.

“O-Oh, s-sorry.” You cleared your throat, tearing your face away from him and looking out over the beach once more. You were grateful that it was dark where you were, so the blush that consumed your face now was well hidden, - at least you thought it was -.

“Nah, it’s all good. I’m not complaining.” You heard the grin forming on his face as he spoke. Suddenly the space on the step beside you was occupied and you could feel his gaze on your face now. “You new here? I haven’t seen you around before.” He inquired, leaning closer to you in a non-intrusive way. There was curiosity in his eyes as you met them.

“Yeah.” You hummed, nipping your bottom lip between your teeth. This felt odd, no guy, - especially this attractive -, had ever really spoken to you. You always thought it was because you weren’t attractive, but you knew the biggest part of it was because your older brother Michael (by one year) wouldn’t let any guy get within twenty feet of you. So the fact that this guy was sat here chatting to you made you wonder where in the hell Michael was at.

“Cool. Where’re you from?”

“Ph-Phoenix.” You muttered softly, eyes dipping down as you spoke. The way that he was looking at you made you feel a little unsettled.

“Cool, cool.” He mumbled, pulling out a pack of cigarettes, plucking a smoke out and placing it between his lips before lighting it. The flame from his lighter made it possible for you to fully see his face, which almost made your jaw slack open once again. He was definitely attractive. He laughed again. “What? You want one?” He offered the opened carton to you, to which you declined and he chuckled once more. “Alright. You’re not much of a talker are you?” He quipped humorously to which you felt your ears redden and you shook your head.

“I’m Marko, by the way.” He mumbled around his cigarette, puffing smoke in your direction.

“y/n” you smiled softly, tucking a loose strand of hair behind your ear as you watched him.

“Michael’s sister?” Marko inquired with a quirked brow.

“How’d you know that?” You were baffled and slightly terrified to say the least.

“Me and my buddies met your brother, we’re friends. He told us about you.” Marko clarified with a puff of smoke flowing from his lips as he spoke.

“That’s funny, he never mentioned you...” You hummed thoughtfully, “Oh God, what’d he tell you about me? That I’m a Monster Bitch from Hell?” You rolled your eyes indignantly.

“Somethin’ like that.” He simpered, eyes skimming up and down your body with interest as he spoke. “With the way he was describing you, I thought you’d look like a Demon of something.”

“I’m so gonna flatten him when I get home.” You muttered under your breath to which he laughed at. You turned to look at him once more with creased brows. “Then what do I look like to you?”

“Hot.” You laughed when he said that, shaking your head as you tipped it backwards. “I mean that in a non-demon kinda way.” He added.

“Well, that’s good I suppose.”

“You think so?” Boy he was a flirt, you could already tell. He was definitely funny also, which you liked. Funny guys were always more interesting to you. They were better than the hotheaded types, at least in your opinion they were.

“I dunno, would you prefer that I looked like one?”

“Nah, not really! I think you look great as you are.” He flashed his pearly whites at you with a confidence you’d never seen before and it spurred the pair of you into a conversation filled with flirtatious comments. You swore you’d never spoken to someone this much in your life - even with your very own family -.

Speaking with Marko seemed to flow naturally between the pair of you, which made your heart gallop a million miles per hour. However, even though he was nice to talk to, there was something about him that caused a spark of suspicion in you, like danger lurked around the corner if you continued to converse with him. But there was something else that was pulling you towards him, something you couldn’t quite put your finger on because you’d never felt this before. It was like a rope was tied across your midsection and Marko felt it too. The more either one of you resisted the tighter the pull felt, forcing you in his vicinity. 

And sure, you’d talked to cute guys in the past before your brother intervened, and there was always a sense of giddiness in your gut as you did so. Yet it didn’t compare to the warmth that seemed to spread through your muscles as he inched closer and closer to you with each question and answer that flowed from both of your mouths. Something about this seemed natural and destined, like nothing could get in the way of or break it apart.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

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requests: open!

[dorksmithery]

1, 2, 6, 10, 15, 17, 23, 34, 41, 44, 45, and 50? :O

1: How long have you been in the fandom?

I’ve been a huge fan of the show since childhood but I’ve only really started interacting with the fandom as a whole for a year give or take

2: Favorite character?

Gee I wonder who it could possibly be lmaoo

6: OTP?

If you know anything about me, its that im mutishipping trash and OTP to me means One Tremendously long list of Parings If I had to pick one though, I’ll die for Poly!Marina and Aiacos/Shion/Dohko/Kagaho Oh look even when I’m supposed to pick one I can’t decide lmao

10: Favorite God/Goddess? (Hades - Athena - Poseidon- Odin-ETC)

Let’s go through all of them shall we? (I’m an indecisive bitch so this is the best you’re getting)

Odin – I don’t know shit about him outside of the train wreak that was SoG. Pretty dope god, eventually found a female host which. HELL YEAH, YOU GO GIRL. His odin cloth thing is pretty boring, I don’t like the design, but he’s probably the god who did the least war crimes. Pretty chill dude

Poseidon – sea thot. Must I say more? 10000000/10 bless his foppish host. Boring though and doesn’t do much in the story other than want to go back to sleep which, yknow, mood.

Athena – I…. I don’t like her. Saori and Sasha I like but Athena, not so much. I don’t hate her, but I don’t like her. She did some really questionable things, she continues to do very questionable things, and she doesn’t fit the bill of a benevolent goddess. Also. Why are you just throwing your saints into battle mindlessly?! Aren’t you the goddess of strategy led warfare?! Make a fucking plan for once in your reincarnated life

Hades – Idk what to make of him. I think he’s chill enough that I can’t blame him for sticking a sword into seiya’s chest. I would’ve done that 100 chapters earlier. Hes not bad, he obviously cares for his spectres and he has a giant dog. But at the same time, I don’t know enough about him to make a concrete decision on where he stands on my like list

15: Why did you join the fandom?

I don’t know to be honest. I usually don’t have a reason why I join a particular fandom, I just do because I like the media. But for StS it’s a little weird since I knew about it since I was young. I guess I just wanted to push out some artwork that it did for the show and slowly got swallowed into the fandom ahaha

17: Saddest character death?

This is hard ahaha I usually don’t get sad over character death

Uhhhh I guess Io, especially since the scene leading up to his death was really well done. I was genuinely sad to see him go because you knew he was willing to sacrifice his life to protect what he believed in. it was just really unfortunate to see that his final sacrifice was a desperate attempt to push a camel through the eye of a needle

23: Moment that made you cry?

Shion’s second death. The anime expanded on that scene so beautifully. The music especially during that scene tugged on my heartstrings slightly. I didn’t actually shed tears, its very rare that any piece of work can get me to shed genuine tears, but this one really punched me in the gut

34: If you could bring a character back to life, who would it be?

Ooooh I don’t know. I felt like all the characters died for a reason so I wouldn’t really bring anyone back

BUT, I do want to know more about the silver saints, Lacerta Misty in particular so I’d bring him back just so he can brag about how beautiful he is

41: Character you would give more Screen Time?

I’m cheating here and I know it but my very very predictable answer is The Marina. More specifically, Kasa, Io, Baian, and Krishna. God I wish those four would have gotten more screen time, it would have been amazing. I want to see the Marina as a family too. We get to see the Saints as a family, the Spectres as a family, even the Asgardians as a family, but the Marina are scattered all over the place during their arc and never really interact with each other. That’s such a waste of potential right there when you could have gotten so much good interaction out of these stupid idiots

44: More wasted character?

LYUMANDAS KASA

His tactics and his ability were so cool and was so effective. He took out all the bronze saints damn it. He had so much potential to wreak havoc and destruction. He was probably intelligent enough to probably catch onto Kanon’s plan to betray the Marina and that was such a waste of potential. His design is also really unique, in a cast of pretty boys you have someone who isn’t conventionally beautiful but still kicks ass. I love his character to death honestly and I wish we could have seen and explored more of his character

45: NOTP?

I’m very flexible about shipping. I don’t mind age difference ships like Aiolos/Shura, I do enjoy some incest ships (Thanks pale for writing That One plant twins fic), and enemies to lovers trope is my lifeblood now so spectre/saint ships is something that I really like. I guess the one ship that I’m kinda iffy about is Kiki/Mu, but to those who ship it, more power to you.

50: After Saga’s death… who would you nominate to be the New Pope?

I knew you’d ask this lmao

I like to think that the pope seat stays vacant until the events of Omega, but if I had to choose someone to take the seat, I’d like Marin to done on that ridiculous robe. She’s proven to be righteous and follows faithfully under Athena while making her own decisions that sometimes challenges the boys to step out of their comfort zone. She’s taught people before, although how well is debatable, and she wouldn’t separate the future gemini saints since she’s already experienced what it feels like to be taken away from a sibling so no gemini drama for that generation. Also a female pope, hell yeah

Ask game questions can be found here

[elijahalvcrsen]

💀  * [ herman tommeraas + cis male + he/him ] —— have you met elijah halvorsen? they are a twenty two year old senior currently studying pre-law political science. they live on farrow house, and word around campus is that this pisces is jovial + empathetic, as well as spoiled + impulsive. i wonder if they’ll make it out alive. owning more than one gym bag and using them far too often, the pricey scotch you got for your twenty first in a red solo cup, sweatpants and a shit eating grin. —— [ ooc: sam. 23. she/her & aest. ]

STATS.

full name: elijah xavier halvorsen

nickname(s): eli, lijah, whatever he’s not fussed

age: twenty two

gender: cis male

pronouns: he/him

hometown: weston, massachusetts

date of birth: mar 19th ( pisces )

occupation: student ( pre-law political science, senior )

relationship status: single

drink / smoke / drugs: yes / no / yes

faceclaim: herman tommeraas

positive traits: jovial, empathetic, intuitive, adventurous, protective, gallant 

negative traits: spoiled, impulsive, overly trusting, narcissistic, reckless, boisterous

if he was in a hogwarts house: gryffindor

MORE INFO.

youngest of four boys ( fully realising i’ve made two youngest brothers from two all boys families ...... anyways ) + a legacy = its been a while since holloway hasn’t had at least one halvorsen

the absolute baby of the family, completely coddled and massive mama’s boy 

decided to aim for law school in a bid to stand out from his brothers, and according to google, political science is one of the most popular pre law majors so thats what he did. he likes it, but it’s definitely been something he’s had to learn to like. the dream of law school is the big driver as well as his parents pride and encouragement obv

definitely a bit of a dickhead when he’s with The Boys(TM) but at his core he’s a good boy, a good egg. he’s very loving and very caring but would be hard to believe if u met him when he’s with his boys – big frat boy energy which is tragic

hella fuck boy vibes but like don’t see him actually fucking around that much ??? hella making out with girls at parties, hella flirting, but drinks his respects women juice daily and kinda would rather be in a relationship before doing anything much further

that being said: would absolutely send a “dont kill urself ur so sexy aha” snapchat un-ironically if given the opportunity

in terms of the merders: he’s more concerned about looking after people he cares about and people he’s close to than like thinking he’ll be a target dskjfhszl he’s far, far too narcissistic to think he can be killed lmaoo

summary: short king and big himbo, pure of heart dumb of ass

PINTEREST

[chrono-the-babe]

Ok so! As you may know, I’ve been doing a LOT of writing for ChronoTale as of late. (I currently have enough written to where the party has made to Mettaton’s battle!) So, I’m at a point where I just wanted...to kinda give an idea to where the story is currently headed n’ perhaps answer some questions if anyone had any? (Won’t try to spoil too much!) And perhaps address a couple things.

OK SO FIRST OFF I WANNA ADDRESS THIS SINCE IT JUST KINDA HAPPENED WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION-

In the chapter “Fight On, Undyne!” Lucca mentions that they met a robot that Marle named “Tangent” (as well as Robo). I simply added this character (she’s honestly an old OC I haven’t touched since like 2016 that I decided to bring back for this) to satisfy the whole “four or more people can’t enter a time gate at once” thing since I couldn’t figure out a good way to rewrite the plot so that Frog stuck around, so quickly scrapped that and I thought it’d be inefficient if I rewrote it to be that more than two people couldn’t enter a time gate at a time. So! My only other option was to simply add another character that they met in 2300AD. So! That’s why Tangent exists lmao. I should draw her sometime to show what she looks like.

So! Another thing I wanna address. Back when the monsters still roamed the Earth, they co-existed with the humans and the mystics (in fact, in this universe, the mystics are sort of a “sub-species” of monster. They’re very similar to the monsters, but they’re also kind of their own thing? Like, they’re mostly made up of magic very much like monsters and they can use magic as well, obviously. Hence why they’re a “sub-species” of monster.) since the beginning of the Zeal era, and possibly even before that. It may make sense why the Human vs Monster war even happened when you take into consideration that Queen Zeal was ruling over Zeal (by herself) when she declared war on monster kind. The “seven magicians” that sealed the monsters underground (below even the village of the Earthbound in the winter wastelands beneath Zeal) were Queen Zeal, Schala (against her will), Dalton, Melchior, Gaspar, Belthasar, and some other seventh NPC that I could give a random name to but I haven’t dwelled too much on that lmaoo but anyway. This also explains why the monsters have more advanced technology in present day. They were around when Zeal was a thing (since Zeal in canon Chrono Trigger had WAY more advanced technology than present day Guardia) and since they were deep below the surface when Queen Zeal and all summoned Lavos in the Ocean Palace which ultimately resulted in Lavos decimating the entirety Zeal, the monsters were not effected. (Since he was physically summoned by using magic and the power of the Mammon Machine, it was almost as if he was “teleported” there, so to speak. Then he returned via the Mammon Machine, so he didn’t have to go through the underground, though they did feel some shaking, almost in an Earthquake-type fashion). I also think it’s important to note that before the kingdom sealed the monsters below the surface, Janus tended to gravitate more towards the monsters than his fellow humans. The only human he felt comfortable around was, of course, Schala. So when they all banished the monsters underground, he was more or less more lonely since Zeal always had Schala occupied with the Ocrean Palace. So really at that point he pretty much only had Alfador. Fast forward several hundred years, now! Medieval Guardia times. Chara’s time. The year they fell down MT.Ebott was roughly around 590-ish. Before Glenn was transformed into Frog and before Cyrus died. Chara personally knew Glenn and often hung around him since they knew how he felt when everyone was mean to him. (Since they were also bullied and had a rough home life.) Glenn and Cyrus were the only humans Chara trusted and liked. Glenn and Cyrus even went far enough as to train Chara in sword fighting, despite them just being around 10 or 11 at the time. Chara considered the both of them to be more parental figures than their actual parents. Of course though, even with both of their support and encouragement, it unfortunately was not enough for Chara as they did attempt to take their own life by falling down MT.Ebott. Of course though, that didn’t work as they were found by Asriel and taken in by Asgore and Toriel. They did miss Glenn and Cyrus and felt bad they kinda abandoned the both of them but they did feel more safe with the Dreemurrs and around the other monsters than on the surface. (To the point that they would come up with the plan to consume buttercups and poison themselves so Asriel could absorb their SOUL and cross the barrier to take 6 other human’s souls to break the barrier and free monster kind with Asriel). It was shortly after Chara fell into MT.Ebott that Glenn and Cyrus went up against Magus. Think about that, Glenn, Cyrus and Chara all went missing roughly around the same time. Maybe a few days-ish apart. Even several years later, Glenn still doesn’t know what happened to Chara. They never told anyone what they were gonna do so neither Glenn or Cyrus knew what happened to them.

Chara does ultimately die when they consume the buttercups for their and Asirel’s plan and then dies for good when the humans on the surface kill the fusion between them and Asriel. What wakes Chara from death, however, is Crono’s determination when he falls into the underground. Through his determination is also the reason why they’re forced to be with him and can’t go farther than a certain distance away from him and because they’re bond to him and his determination is the reason why only he can see and interact with them. However, Napstablook and Mad Dummy can also see and interact with them because they’re ghosts themselves. (Mad Dummy, tho possessing a dummy, can see and interact with them because they aren’t fully corporal, hence why Mettaton can’t see or interact with them himself because he’s fully corporal with his robot body). Chara can also see the SAVE points because Crono is able to see them.

So, now that the sort of “backstory” is established, let’s move on to Lavos and touch a bit on him! First I wanna say that I took the liberty and sort of gave him a personality and made him more sentient than he’s implied to be in Chrono Trigger. His goal is no different than it is in Chrono Trigger: to devour the Earth for his own personal gain and then send his spawn out to other planets to repeat the process. One could argue that he isn’t really so much of a “bad guy” since he’s just doing what he needs to in order to survive, but what makes Lavos undoubtly lean more so towards an antagonist in this universe is his motives and the way he’s going about doing what he needs. He’s cocky, manipulative, he knows what he wants and he’s determined to get it done no matter what or else he could die. (One could still argue that perhaps he isn’t aware that what he’s doing is bad, per se. He just knows he has to feed off the Earth or else he’ll die). The reason Lavos is awoken while Crono and Lucca are in the underground is kind of similar to how Chara is awoken. Lavos was awoken once Crono entered the CORE. Crono’s determination is what awoken Lavos. He began to stir about and then by the time the party makes it to Mettaton and starts battling him, he breaks through the ground and enters the underground, which happens to be in the back of Asgore’s castle, by the barrier. He immediately recognizes the human SOULs for what they are and realizes that he can absorb said SOULs to become God-like and speed up his planet-devouring by a lot. Lavos does have a SOUL himself. He has an alien SOUL, which is dark purple in color. Alphys actually did resource on alien souls back when she was studying human/monster souls in the True Lab. When she thought her work with the fallen monsters and golden flower she injected with Determination was a failure, she found old research and notes on a creature living beneath the Earth left behind by the previous Royal Scientist (Gaster) and she read those and thought maybe perhaps if she can’t get monster souls to last, maybe she could somehow acesss this creature and try with its soul. She knew it was risky and could potentially end badly but she was desperate since she knew everyone was counting on her. So she went through Gaster’s old notes and research several times. What actually prevented her from even trying to summon Lavos to her lab to expirement on his SOUL was that the fallen monsters she had injected with Determination had woken up. So she turned her attention to them again. But of course, anyone who knows the story of the True Lab knows how that ends. But! The reason I brought this up is that once Lavos broke into the underground, Alphys knew almost immediately what was going on due to all the research she read and did herself. She retreated to her true lab to try and find a way to stop him before he broke out of the underground, or worse.

Lavos taking the human souls means he’s now the most powerful and determined being in the underground, therefore taking Crono’s ability to SAVE, LOAD, and RESET, which means if he dies in the underground....he dies for good unless Lavos decides to reload a SAVE file to before he gets killed.

(However, the SAVE, LOAD, and RESET functions do not work out of the underground unless a monster, or alien in Lavos’ case, were to absorb several human souls then they would have enough power to use those features out of the underground. Crono, being a human, cannot absorb other human souls, so therefore cannot ever be able to use these functions out of the underground.)

Even when Lavos leaves the underground via using his and the stolen human souls to shatter the barrier, Crono still doesn’t regain his ability to SAVE, LOAD and RESET since Lavos is considered the most powerful being. (In other words, only one being may posses this power at a time).

Lavos has three forms, just like in Chrono Trigger. Lavos breaks into the underground in his first form, AKA the one you see throughout most of Chrono Trigger. Once he absorbs the human souls, however, he takes the form of the humanoid creature you see and fight at the very end of the game, except with many obvious differences.

With pods n’ all, he is able to escape the underground and start doomsday early.

And because the barrier is now destroyed monsters like Undyne, Alphys and Mettaton (and others) agree to help Crono, Lucca and the others to stop and defeat Lavos or else all life on Earth could come to an end.

So anyways I think that’s all I wanted to address at the moment, lmao. I kinda info dumped the HELL out of this but I think everything else beyond this point could either be considered a spoiler or has yet to be determined (lol no pun intended).

Anyway yeah! That’s it for now. Lmaooo hsgsbfdjsbdn I’ll probably make another submission once I work more ahead and figure more stuff out.