#i'll steal your first born either way

[inklore]

sweet serial killer

premise: it doesn’t matter if he’s killing you or you're killing someone else. you’re putty in his hands right now, and you’re both fucked. 

pairing: ethan landry x (f)reader

word count: 1.7k

contents: piv, more psychotic feelings than anything, choking, mentions of knife and blood play, murders, dirty talk, stalking, au since this is not in correlation with the film, pain kink.

note: this is my first time writing for this little fucked up curly q even though i have drafts upon drafts of ideas for him, which i'll gladly write if ya'll want more.

haunted hoedown day three.

You should be surprised. 

You should be pissed. 

Scared. 

Running for your life.

Something. Anything.

Other than standing in front of a murderer, your knuckles curling around the edge of the dresser your ass is pushed against. Your excelled heart rate pounding in your ears the closer he steps to you, leaving no room for you to breathe without touching him. Without smelling him. Stealing each other's air. 

Your eyes should be mapping out a quick exit. Coming up with a plan to get the hell out of here. Not looking into his. Not seeing the deep hue of nothingness that is abnormal to see in a sane person's eyes. The dilation of pupils letting you know that he’s got a plan either way. No matter how you take what he just told you.

“I’m ghostface.” 

The darkness in his eyes tells you you can run, but you won’t get far. You can tell someone, but we both know you won’t because I see you.

It’s why you haven’t moved. Why an escape is the last thing on your mind. Because your eyes are casting that same darkness right back at him. 

“You don’t have to pretend with me.” 

His words are like a fire engulfing you, more dangerous than the performance of normality you constantly put on. The sweet, rich girl whose parents gave her a free ride to college, who dote on her like a prized show pony because she’s the perfect child—the perfect daughter. 

The one thing in their lives they didn’t screw up. 

Being born screwed up and hiding it well, no fault of their own.

Known psychopaths rarely get what they want. They might, for a little while. But the lavishes never last. There's always more you need, more you want. And there are only so many people in this world who will give you what you want out of fear. 

Fear leads to trouble. Fear leads to getting caught. Turned in. Turned upon.

Hidden psychopaths, however, have an advantage. A perfected way of being that makes them seem like the nicest people you’ve ever met. The person you can run to. Trust. Count on. The person you wish you could be. 

That’s how you get what you want. 

That’s how you make the high of deceiving, hurting, and killing last. 

And if rich parents who like to hire nannies have taught you anything, it's that it is very easy to pretend. To perfect this little act. To be perceived as loving and being able to love when really all you want to do is gouge the person next to you’s eyes out. 

You have a system. A routine. You never let your crown slip. You never let anyone see you for what you truly are. You’d lose everything. Lavishes gone. That control you have gone. 

You didn’t care about being loved or feared. 

Feelings meant nothing to you. 

But watching the emotions of pain enacted on someone's face when you caused it? Nothing compared to it.

Besides, maybe the way Ethan is looking at you right now. 

The look someone gets when they look into a mirror and like the monster they see looking back at them. 

Part of you should have known. Should have seen this coming with the way his eyes were always already on yours when you looked his way in class. Or that night you caught him following you around campus, but you pretended you didn’t see him—much like the night he caught you red handed, literally, with blood staining your nails, and your pre-rehearsed explanation only making his eyes grow wider and fill with darkness, he quickly smiled away. 

And the nail that should have been pounded into the coffin when your roommate got attacked and all Ghostface did was wave his shiny little knife in your face, a gloved hand around your throat, and then disappeared down the fire escape. And the next day, when everyone was making your skin crawl from sympathy hugs and the fake tears that were glossing your eyes, Ethan had only given you dark looks from across the courtyard. 

Brows low and casting a shadow over his eyes in class. 

You should have known then. 

You’re usually so much better at reading people, trying to understand their normality to copy it. Use it against them.

But Ethan wasn’t normal. That much was clear. 

“I didn’t think you had it in you,” he chuckles under his breath as he shrugs, “this perfect little daddies girl, the girl everyone wants to sleep with, is crazy.” A slow smile lifts the corner of his mouth, “so many nights I’ve followed you, and you’ve kept your facade going. Even when no one was watching. Until the night I ran into you in the hall, the night I knew. I could see it written all over your face.” 

He leans in closer, his curls ghosting over your forehead. His voice a whisper, “but you’re not very good at hiding your messes, so I did it for you. I saved us both the trouble. You getting caught and me—well, Ghostface—taking credit for a kill so messy. And when I gave you my little present, that pesky roommate of yours gone, I could see it in your eyes. That trust. That you would have been happy with me either killing you or fucking you.” 

Your breath halts in your lungs, burning the back of your throat from the noise you let out when Ethan grabs it. Squeezing just enough to make it hard to swallow and to make that growing hunger move past your belly and throb between your legs. 

“Which is it now? Do you want to be fucked or killed?” 

Your lips try to form words, but the hand around your throat mingled with that perfected crown falling and shattering to the ground has your darkness making itself known more than just in the fire that’s so clearly burning in your eyes—the gasps that sound like weak whimpers, the warmth of your body against Ethan’s, the way your insides feel like molten lava when you consider both objectives—your mind is clouded with a pleasure you’ve only ever felt when you’ve watched the agony of pain fade out someone's light completely, your nails smelling of copper for days after.

If Ethan pulled out his knife right now and put it to your throat, you’d come before he made the first cut.

And as he says, “if I went downstairs and grabbed one of your fans and brought them up here and slit their throat for you, would you like that? Would you prefer that instead?” 

Your body shivers from his words, from the free hand that's running down your hip to the apex of your inner thigh—your sorry excuse for a skirt giving him more than enough access to press his thumb to the growing wet patch on the outside of your underwear. The pad of his finger pressing in and adding just the right amount of pressure to your aching clit to make your eyes flutter. 

“Or is it your insides you want me to see?” 

The involuntary whimper of his name, the motion of your hips trying to rub yourself against the miniscule touch between your legs, his last words, and the accuracy of it all are the finality for both of you. 

The thing that finally lets you both know that it doesn’t matter if he’s killing you, or you’re killing someone else, or blood is spilt for you, you’re putty in his hands right now, and you’re both fucked. 

So when his lips come down on yours, it’s hard and rough and lacking any sort of passion. 

Any sort of fake pleasure you’ve always had to give to past lovers. 

There's nothing fake about the heat inside of you. The sauna of depravity that Ethan is pulling out of you—devouring it with bloody teeth that match your own hunger. Your own fucked up way of getting off. Of feeling something. 

When Ethan starts to descend to his knees, leaving a trail of bites along your neck that feel too hard and imprinting to not be a personal vendetta of anger, of want, of a need to make you feel pain, to want it from him—you stop him. 

Yanking his curls so hard, he’s hissing against your mouth. Your fingers move in a flash of pushed away fabric, buttons, and zippers to free him and wrap a hand around his cock. Giving it a couple pumps. Watching the way his mouth parts and his lips curl in pleasure when you tighten and twist around the head. 

Wordlessly telling him what you want when you turn away, pushing your ass out for him as you bend yourself over the dresser. 

If you didn’t have him inside of you one way or another, you know you’d lose your patience. Know that darkness would simmer away into something worse, something that would leave the both of you in more agony than pleasure. 

You needed him. 

And by the sound Ethan makes when he thrusts into you—hard, without warning—you know he needs you too. Know that he’s probably gotten off to the thought of you bloodied and underneath him, his knife pressed to your throat, threatening to make you bleed if you didn’t let him come inside of you. If you didn’t let him lick the wounds he wants to create against your flesh. 

The pace he sets is rough. 

Harsh against your body that rubs against the rigid edge of the dresser. His nails dig into your hips as he pulls you back onto him, as he grabs the back of your neck, digging his fingers into your skull. 

The palm that snakes around to your neck pulls you up and against his front, putting your body at a new angle that has your muscles stretching in pain and making your eyes roll back. The noises of pleasure and pain like a fucked up hymn. 

“That night I was in your apartment, your life in my hands, do you know how much self control I had to have to not slice this pretty throat?” His teeth graze against the skin below your ear, his own groans and hitches of breath making you feel lightheaded. “To not make you bleed and spread it against my cock and make you jerk it off. Make you use your mouth to lick me clean.”

It’s those words and the lack of air his palm is allowing your lungs to intake that make you come. That has the gasp falling from your mouth sounding like something dying, something begging for life. 

Portraying the opposite of his words. Of why you’re coming. Of why the rush has you going lax against him and smiling. 

[spaceorphan18]

The Rogue and Gambit Project: Previously On X-Men... Gambit

It's time to talk about Gambit! The nice thing about Gambit is that he was, at the time, a relatively new character, having only been around in the comics for about a year. Which means there is way less to cover! Boy, are we going to have to deal with some questionable art, though.

The Basics:

Name: Remy Etienne* LeBeau

*Okay, so, this is the funny thing about the name Etienne. Apparently, it started out as fanlore, and - as so many things that happen in fandom - gained popularity as fanon from a particularly well known piece of fanfiction from way back when. I believe it's actually been used in canon at this point. It is on Marvel.com - which is the official site. I'll keep a look out for it to show up.

Also, in case you didn't know (and I'm sure you did), Le Beau is French for The Beautiful.

Backstory: Just like Rogue, Gambit's backstory is shrouded in mystery. He's a thief. He's from New Orleans. He's Cajun. That's all your getting for now. Don't worry, we'll peel back the layers. ;)

Power Set (via uncannyxmen.net):  interkinetic power allows him to produce bio-kinetic energy within his body and use it to convert any inorganic object's potential energy into kinetic energy on contact, making the object highly volatile and explosive on contact, internal energy also grants him heightened agility and creates static interference that shields his mind from detection

I should also give the obligatory comment of - these powers are toned down from his full abilities because of /reasons/ which we'll get to eventually. He had Mr. Sinister give him a lobotomy and, we've all been suffering the consequences sense.

Alright, let's dig into Gambit's pre-Rogue run...

Uncanny X-Men 266-267

Uncanny X-Men #266

I have to start by appreciating the fact that Gambit is a thief who wears bright pink and metal boots. It's a bold look.

Anyway, the funny thing about Gambit is that the character he turned out to be ended up being a lot different from creator Chris Claremont's initial ideas. Apparently, he was supposed to be, ultimately, a villain and, while he was supposed to be a love interest for one of our characters, it wasn't Rogue, it was... Kitty Pryde. He was also supposed to be a Mr. Sinister creation and a third summers brother. Yeah, I'm kind of glad Claremont left before any of this stuff really came to fruition.

Also, I once read that Claremont claim that original artist Mike Collins made Gambit too pretty. Which is funny, because ngl, I really am not a fan of the look in his debut, and it will be a while before he really earns his name.

Uncanny X-Men #266

I also want to note that Gambit's powers were a little different back then. He didn't have playing cards yet, and instead used metal spikes as throwing devices. The powers were designated in green. And were charged from his eyes. Also, interesting to note - his eyes aren't red on black yet, either.

There's also 'hypnotic charm' thing that was kinda used in the early appearances. He does use it in his first appearance to tame some of the Shadow King's Hounds.

Uncanny X-Men #266

He's gonna be calling her 'Stormy' for years. She's gonna love it. ;) (Btw - he calls her Stormy 4 times in this issue alone.)

Okay, so... Gambit shows up, crossing paths with Storm at a mansion of some rich person. Storm is de-aged (for... reasons) and is running from the Shadow King and his minions. He's busy stealing art from the rich dude (who apparently is not home and has no security, lol).

And thus, one of my favorite comic book friendships is born. And really, this first appearance is a lot of fun as Gambit and Storm play off each other's strengths to get away from the Shadow King.

Uncanny X-Men 267

Jim Lee is going to add some of Gambit's more iconic features -- such as throwing playing cards (Gambit's Ace of Spades shows up in this next issue) and using some kind of staff (hilariously, it's a broom in this issue).

Storm and Gambit's adventures continue. He takes her to New Orleans for a while so she can recover from the Shadow King. They go thieving -- playing Robin Hood -- stealing from rich people because they can. And then the Orphan Maker comes along, who makes Storm a teenager? (Idk - the whole thing is weird - she'll become her real age again in the next story arc.)

Uncanny X-Men #267

And then Storm is like, hey, I have a crazy idea....

Uncanny X-Men Annual #14

Fun fact: Because of release dates and such, Uncanny X-Men #266 wasn't the first comic released to have Gambit in it. The Annual technically came out first, though it clearly takes place after Uncanny 266-267. But this is the first time we see Gambit among the X-Men team. Not that he does anything remotely interesting during this whole thing. He doesn't even speak, kind of hides awkwardly in the background.

X-Tinction Agenda (Uncanny X-Men #270-272; X-Factor & New Mutants)

Uncanny X-Men #270

Welcome to the X-Men, Gambit! Hope you survive the experience!

He's in the credit roll now, must be official. ;)

Gambit joins the team just as the mega X-tinction Agenda crossover starts. (Uncanny X-Men joins New Mutants and X-Factor for this one) And, I'll be honest, this isn't one of my favorite crossovers. The whole thing revolves around the nation of Genosha, how they're using mutants for slaves, and how all the teams come together to change the status quo. And of course, mutants get capture and tortured and a few killed. Fwiw X-Men: The Animated Series did do this storyline.

Uncanny X-Men #270

Gambit and Cable don't (won't) get to cross paths very often, so I found this an interesting panel. Anyway... Gambit really has very little to do during this crossover. When Storm gets captured, he is really concerned for her (as he considers her his partner at the moment) but he's not really vibe-ing the whole team dynamic yet.

Uncanny X-Men #272

This is arguably the coolest thing Gambit's done as of yet. Dude pulls a spike out of his leg to use as a lockpick and gets himself rescued. I'm glad they give him this, because, again, for the most part he's just kinda hanging around in the background not doing much.

I will say - he and Jubilee get to cross paths, which is going to be a source of fun in the next arc.

Space Shenanigans (Uncanny X-Men 273-277)

Uncanny X-Men 273

Some of my favorite issues are when the team is regrouping. Post- X-Tinction Agenda, it's clear that things in the X-Office were changing. Claremont is at this point sort of being pushed out, while Jim Lee and Co are becoming more the driving force behind the books. On panel, the teams are kind of merging. X-Factor's first era is drawing to a close, and the X-Men are resolidifying after being in flux for so long.

We're about to get a Space Soap Opera, as Claremont so dearly loves, but this issue is a bit of a breather between the arcs. And we get this bit of tension between Storm and Gambit - where Gambit is ready to move on, but Storm is back on solid footing again. They don't explicitly state why Gambit sticks around, but he definitely does...

Uncanny X-Men 273

I swear, this is Chris Claremont's favorite joke. He's used it before this moment, and he'll do it again. It's impactful the first time, but it does get old the more Claremont does it. However, we get the first highlight of the dynamic between Gambit and Wolverine -- which will be antagonistic for a while, but is fascinating.

Uncanny X-Men #274

Doesn't Gambit look sexy in his yellow team uniform?? ;)

Btw - as I mentioned earlier, this is the first issue Gambit and Rogue appear in together. Though they be miles and miles and miles apart.

Uncanny X-Men #275

The whole crux of this arc, that I've been kind of ignoring, involves Xavier being brainwashed in space (or something) and of course the X-Men get involved in space politics (again). Honestly, space stories are Claremont's favorite trope, so it doesn't surprise me that the end of his run are filled with a couple of them.

Anyway -- if there's one person impervious to Gambit's charms - it's Jubilee. They get to hang out a lot during this arc, and it's really delightful since they team up to kind of figure out what is going on with Xavier acting weird and all the odd space kool-aide people are drinking.

Uncanny X-Men #277

I actually really like this cover. Gambit's got a sword and a spear! Plus, he looks like his 90s cool self now. The blue and yellow uniform doesn't suit him AT. ALL. But we don't have to deal with it too much longer...

Uncanny X-Men #277

See... I told you Claremont was gonna do this again, lol.

Uncanny X-Men #277

The nice thing about this whole space arc is that Gambit really gets to come into his own. He now looks cool (note the red eyes are here!). He's doing fun stuff. He's taking on Wolverine and holding his own. He's being smart and tactical and an asset. They've paired him with some great X-Men to start off with, and it's paying off.

Meanwhile, we don't really know much about him. As many of the other characters state, his background is shrouded in mystery... (whether you like what it actually is can be debated as we get to it). But for now, he's intriguing as a new comer.

And this is where we're at as two story lines come crashing together and our two romantic leads get to meet for the first time.... off panel.

But I'll get more into that next time when I discuss... The Muir Island Saga!

[olderthannetfic]

I would never defend them - at least not the ones who actually harass people - but I do wonder if there's some antis out there who genuinely come from good intentions.

Super serious and genuinely shameful confession: I'm an ex-radfem. I went into those circles in the first place bc I liked some of Dworkin's works. And while I obviously do not recommend anyone ever get into radical feminism, I will say this: If haven’t been down that very specific rabbit hole of ideology yourself - especially in online settings - you cannot even begin to imagine how fucking INSANELY pervasive the ideas are. Even if you've been a victim of radfem hate, if you haven't been a radfem yourself, I'm truly inclined to think you have no idea what those spaces are actually like. Sorta like how if you've been a victim of fundie hate, that is awful and it fucking sucks, but if you haven't been raised fundie yourself, you really don't know what it's like to be IN those circles, just a VICTIM of those circles.

I hate to throw around words like “hivemind” or “groupthink” but it is that. I went into radfem spaces thinking that I was above believing certain things that they believed but I clearly wasnt, it is so fucking toxic and that’s why i’ll never believe that “TIRF” (trans inclusionary radfem - something I tried and failed to be) can be a real thing. And then these same people have the audacity to call trans rights a cult, but you know, it's whatever.

Obviously terfs are more serious in the "real world" than antis are, but there are some parallels in the way that both groups feel about kink/porn discourse. (No, I'm not saying that antis "believe TERF ideology" or anything, but I do think in the specific context of sex stuff, there ARE alot of parallels.)

I am not defending radfems either, but I will say that I got into it because I was genuinely worried about things such as: PH and how they just steal content from sex workers, the abuse going on in the sex work industry, the phenomenon of young girls who are waiting to turn 18 so they can start an OF account, romance novels that were not marketed as dark but should've been considering they straight up romanticized abuse and rape.

I really do think that most antis are of a similar mindset -- people, typically young traumatized people (not trying to pull the neurodivergent minor card, it's just that statistically speaking, that label CAN describe most antis) who are truly worried that, like, idk, some young girl is gonna watch Twilight or read Reylo fic and think that an overly possessive bf is #goals. Again, I'm NOT trying to defend this ideology or line of thinking at all, I'm just saying that i DO think most of them really don't realize the harm that they're doing, and actually think they're doing good.

I actually kinda feel bad for them, but like my earlier comparisons, I feel bad for them in the same way I feel bad for fundies or evangelicals. I feel bad that they hold such an awful ideology while thinking they're doing good things, but I stop feeling bad once they start ACTUALLY hurting people and I'll always feel worse for the people who they harass and harm.

And like I'd never want to be a radfem again and I hate that I was one once but, between myself and your ~10k (ballpark estimate lol) followers, I think that my time spend in that belief system gave me some really good insight to cult mindsets, which was something I didn't understand before or have much sympathy towards, and I've emerged with a lot of empathy for people who ARE stuck in bad ideologies. I could've been born into a hate group. I could've been preyed on by alt-right people and sucked in that way. Instead, it was reading radblr during quarantine that got me. Before I fell into it, I just mindlessly hated everyone in that group, and now I just feel sorry for them (still without justifying any of their actions).

It's honestly a really, really, complicated thing to try to grapple with. Anyone, yes including you reading this, can be brainwashed into hate. The second you think you're too good for that, you've lost.

This was more of a vent than a discourse ask. I guess my tl;dr is: I hate antis, terfs, fundamentalists, etc, as much as the next guy, but I also recognize that some of those people truly truly do think they're on the right side of history, and some of those people have been sucked into an ideology they never would've believed otherwise if not for xyz factors. While hate groups will never deserve pity, there are some vulnerable people in hate groups who for some reason believe they're doing good, and I wish I could help all of those people.

--

Yeah, I assume many antis are perfectly sincere in their desire to protect people. They're just wrong about what will work.

[nekoannie-chan]

Last sacrifice

Last sacrifice

Title: Last sacrifice.

Fandom: Marvel, Captain America.

Ship: Steve Rogers X Reader.

Word count: 732 words.

Rating: Teen.

Summary: Steve and you go to Vormir.

Major Tags: Angst, sacrifice, death of a character.

Links: Wattpad, Ao3, Spanish version.

@saiyanprincessswanie

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English if you notice any mistakes, please let me know and I will correct them.

I don’t give any permission for my fics to be posted on other platforms or languages (I translate my work myself) or the use of my graphics (my dividers are included in this), I did them exclusively for my fics, please respect my work and don't steal it. There are some people here who make dividers that anyone can use, mine is not this type, please look for the other people. The only exception is the ones I gifted 'cuz now belong to someone else. Please let me know if you find any of my works on a different platform and are not one of my accounts. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Marvel's characters (unfortunately), except for the original characters and the story.

Add yourself to my taglist here.

My other media where I publish:  Ao3, Wattpad, ffnet, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. 

If you like it, please vote, comment, and give me feedback to improve my skills and reblog.

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The ship was hurtling through space in an eerie silence, as you and Steve, sitting side by side, watched the space, neither of you had dared to utter a word since you had boarded the ship that would take you to Vormir. You had been fortunate, neither you, Steve, nor his little daughter Sarah had disappeared with the Snap.

Steve turned his head to look at you, reached out a hand and rested it on yours, which rested in your lap.

“I know this is all...too much,” he said although his voice sounded a little shaky.

“I know, Steve. But we're in this together. We have been from the beginning.”

Steve closed his eyes briefly, remembering all the moments they had shared. From the first time they met to the day Sarah was born.

“I remember when I first held Sarah,” he murmured, sketching a wistful smile. “She was so tiny, so perfect. And now...I can't imagine life without her, or you.”

“I can't imagine it either,” you said, your voice cracking slightly. “But we know we must do this. For her, for everyone.”

The ship began to descend as they reached Vormir. You walked beside Steve, both of you silently, but holding hands.

When you finally reached the top, the guardian of the stone appeared.

“To possess the Soul Stone, you must offer a sacrifice. One soul for another. One person you love.”

Steve looked up at you, his eyes filled with horror and pain as he understood what it meant.

 “No,” he said immediately, shaking his head. “There must be another way. I can't lose you.”

“Steve, we knew this wouldn't be easy. And now, we've always known there's a price for everything.”

“No. I can't let you do this,” he insisted, his hands gripping your shoulders.

“Listen to me,” you asked softly, lifting a hand to cup her face. “You have to go back to Sarah. She needs you. She needs her daddy.”

“What if she needs you?” he asked desperately, trying to control a sob.

“I'll always be in her heart. But you're her hero.”

“I can't do this, I can't lose you!”, Steve yelled.

“Steve, look around you,” you said, pointing to the cliff. “There's no other choice. And if one of us has to do it, I want you to be the one to go home. I want you to take care of Sarah, to tell her every day how much I love her. I want you to be the father she needs, to make her feel safe and loved.”

Tears began to slide down your face. Steve knelt before you, his hands wrapped around you.

“I can't live without you,” he sobbed. “I need you.”

You broke free and knelt in front of him, taking his face in your hands and forcing him to look into your eyes.

“And I need you, more than you can imagine. But Sarah needs you more. Promise me you'll take care of her, that you'll be strong for her, for us.”

You leaned your forehead against hers, Steve shook his head.

“I love you, Steve Rogers,” you whispered. “I will always love you. Tell Sarah I love her, and I'll always take care of her.”

You knew Steve wouldn't take it the easy way so you used your powers to force him to stay still, you knew it wouldn't last long, so you had to hurry. You took one last deep breath, then stood up, looking at the precipice that stretched out before you. You ran toward the edge, not looking back, but as you reached it, you stopped at the edge, turning one last time to look at it. “Goodbye, my love,” you said, before letting yourself fall.

Steve cried out your name, his voice wracked with pain and despair, but it was too late. He watched you disappear into that abyss, and dropped to his knees.

Then everything went dark, he opened his eyes in what looked like a lake, he slowly stood up, his body trembling, and he squeezed the stone hard.

“I love you, with all my being. I promise,” she said in a broken voice. “I promise I will take care of her, that I will love her with all my heart.”

He walked back to the ship, each step heavier than the last and the walk endless, tears kept falling down his cheeks.

[shenrickyz]

ARE YOU READY SPACE CADET  𖤐 ᵎ

setting 1 2 3 🪐 ─── WELCOME SPACE CADET to your new intergalactic journey! now i know it might all seem intimidating at first glance but i swear you'll get the hang of it! are you ready to save the neighboring galaxies from impending doom? .. okay.. maybe i overdid it, i'll take it easy on you, newbie things and all. you will be joining the intergalactic space team STARLIGHT CRUSH! cute name right? now don't worry about the members or if they look like they wanna kill you or if they try to punch each other in the face, it's their way of showing off their affection! woo.. okay, enough of my talking, you are now . . . CADET #094

time to blast off 🚀 ! ─── STARLIGHT CRUSH! ( スターライトクラッシュ) is a currently inactive japanese girl group debuted in 2002 by KANNEZAWA NANAMI as apart of record label gekkō collective! consisted of four very dedicated space cadets, the group rose to prominence in the early to mid 2000s for their unique concept. fighting off alien invasions and saving neighboring galaxies with their catchy tunes. the quartet, consisting of: HIMENO EIMI, NOSAKA YUINA, ASAO RYŌKA, and MAEDA HIMIKO dominated their time as a group. they carried presences that completely destroyed everyone around them, they all might seem intimidating at first glance, but they can all be harmless, just don't steal their accessories or they'll make sure it turns physical.

the group made their formal debut on march 22 2002 with the mini album ‘THE FIRST LAUNCH!’ and the single ‘LOVE REVOLUTION!’, making quite the name for themselves the moment they stepped into that studio. the girls knew what they had to do, and they did it effortlessly. having no sign of a graduation system or even signs of a contract ending in the next decade, they continued their years long journey of success, saving the neighboring galaxies with their irresistible dance tunes, wielding the stars in their palms. over the course of almost two decades, the group held their spot on the oricon charts, just up until their announced hiatus in 2021, just a year before their 20th anniversary.

now let's meet your fellow space cadets! you're going to be stuck with them in the endless void of space either way!!! am i making this better? i definitely do think i am, this is how i introduce all the newbies! so anyway CADET 094! do you think you're ready to take the challenge? will you chicken out? i can only wish you the best of luck!

WELCOME CADET 078 !

IF you know EIMI in real life, you probably either hate her or can't even comprehend that someone with such a thought process can exist. it's a well known fact that she isn't exactly the easiest to get along with, there's no single strand of hair on her head unturned, no part of her face wrinkled, not one piece of cloth left unironed, but of course, not everyone is perfect.

It was a breezy evening in November 1981 when Himeno Eimi was born to your regular working class family in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture. Life wasn't exactly terrible, it wasn't bad. Dad and mom kept smiles up enough that everything seemed fine, her younger siblings were annoying and insanely nitpicky, but she didn't exactly mind. She focused on school, trying to find her calling, trying to be something more. It wasn't fame that immediately appealed to her, it was more of.. being something. Her mother was unhappy with her life, she'd always wanted to be something more, so maybe she could be that something for her.

The idol life was never meant to be it, but as said by one of her teachers, she seemed to ‘have a face for fame’. Eimi really had no idea what she was doing when she took the long train ride from her hometown to Tokyo in May 1998, but she was given an opportunity, one she couldn't waste. Did you think this was the idol audition? So soon? Oh no! She auditioned for this cute little show named LOVE+ that totally stayed a cute little show (it actually became a national sensation), and in the blink of an eye, she was a national superstar. Apparently, she indeed did ‘have the face for fame’ as she suddenly was plastered everywhere, billboards, magazine covers, lotion bottles, you really couldn't escape her face.

Eimi played the ‘innocent actress’ role terrifically, guess she did get the job done. She charmed everyone, her male costars, interviewers, the people of Japan, even people outside of Japan themselves. She was a cultural phenomenon, even if she felt a bit undeserving of the iconography. She didn't know how to talk to anyone after the persona shut off, when she went back home after a long days worth of plastic smiles, she had no idea what to do. She still felt as if something was missing, even with the added fame.

The fame would come in the form of idolatry. You see, after she starred in the musical A Summers Rain in 2000, people learned she could sing, but only the right people decided to take advantage of a certain fact. She would be reached out to by Gekkō collective! and asked to audition for their upcoming group. She decided that it would be better to change up the scenery a bit, so she turned down upcoming acting jobs to audition for this 'weird group'. Well, you know how the story goes, she passed with flying colors! She was then placed in a dormitory with three other strangers until her eventual debut in 2002.

Now if you were to ask Eimi, she doesn't prefer either idoling over acting and vice versa, but if you know Eimi, she's also a huge liar. It was clear that, between singing and dancing on stage, in comparison to acting in cheesy romantic comedies, there was one she was particularly passionate for. It isn't to say her time in the group was perfect, because.. well, what would we be talking about if it was? We're here to talk about these girls weird lives!

Having been chosen as leader, Eimi was pretty condescending towards her members for her time in the group. She was probably over confident, she fought with everyone over stupid things such as curling irons, misplaced clothes, and stolen accessories. She was hard to get to on an emotional level if it didn't include her being drunk, she wasn't exactly the biggest partier of the group, but it didn't mean she wasn't getting up to things with other people, even if she's only ever harbored feelings for one certain person.

Eimi never really liked her fellow male idols, she was once called out by an interviewer for her ‘strange friendships with her fellow female idols’ and it really made her overthink everything about herself. Under the idol spotlight, the only way she got to explore her sexuality was barely under the watchful eye of crazy people. She could play the part on screen, but in real life? Oh she really had no idea if she liked men at all. She only survived through her whole sexuality crisis was.. and you better believe me, having a borderline relationship full of hate sex with her groupmate. She swears she doesn't like Yuina like that, no, she never liked her that. They fought about literally everything, they only liked each other for sex, there was never anything more there.

..but you should probably take those words with a grain of salt, because she still believes her feelings are unrequited. She never talks about it, and don't ask her about it, she has fists, she'll throw a fucking punch. All that aside, Eimi is a boss, so maybe don't cross her, and remember, don't stare for too long! The beauty will cause for your brain to melt!

 ｡。the profile !

BIRTH NAME HIMENO EIMI ( 姫野えいみ )

DATE OF BIRTH NOVEMBER 29, 1981

PLACE OF BIRTH MORIOKA, IWATE, JAPAN

NATIONALITY JAPANESE

ETHNICITY JAPANESE

HEIGHT 165 CM ( 5'5 )

BLOOD TYPE B

PORTRAYED BY NAKAMA YUKIE

WELCOME CADET 029 !

YOU can easily describe YUINA as a partier, but she is also so much more than that. she's a listener, she remembers everyone, she's always there as a readily available shoulder, she'll be a voice for you if you can't find your own. though on most cases she's hard to get through, in times of vulnerability, she's always there.

With snow decorating the ground a pure, clean white, Nosaka Yuina was born in February 1982 in a broken home nestled in Utsunomiya. Luck was never really on her side it seemed, and it seems that luck never shows up when it's meant to. Dad and mom never liked each other enough to get married, they only liked each other because they both had something they wanted from the other, it was never meant to be children, but then they forgot to wear protection once.. hence, Yuina. Unfortunately this dynamic would come to foreshadow most of her future relationships, but we really aren't there yet.

Dad left and never looked back, so ultimately, her mom was all she had left, but it wasn't exactly the best thing in the world. Her mother was suffering with a terrible alcohol addiction, an addiction that shaped most of Yuina's childhood. Her mother wasn't around, not in a present sense anyway, she got used to the mundane days where she would be passed out on the couch, she got used to staying at school until five in the afternoon because her mother forgot she even had her. She got used to do doing things herself, she got used to making excuses for her mother when she knew all too well what was happening with her.

The desire to be an idol came from the desire to be seen. She had gotten into music after her music teacher had let her borrow a guitar, performing was the only thing she could think of which would make it all better. She found comfort in her many anime posters and Akina Nakamori songs, music was her coping mechanism when her mother stayed passed out on the couch late into the night. Yuina let the music comfort her until she would find herself old enough to cop a shot in the music industry.

Yuina would be the first member of the group to audition at Gekkō collective! in 1998. She hopped on the train with her mom knowing absolutely nothing of it, not that her mind was even in the right, she probably lost her memory at that point. She auditioned with one of her favorite songs ever “Haru No Arashi” by Taeko Onuki, and passed with flying colors. Out of her mother's house and all the way in Tokyo, her life got a little better. She spent her days in school, then her evenings endlessly in the studio. She mostly got along with her two other members, but then there was Eimi, they could just never find common ground.

The debut in 2002 brought the desire to be known, she easily outweighed her members in terms of popularity, and the whole time, her mother remained oblivious. There were times when, even with the added fame, she couldn't help but want her attention in comparison to everyone else's. Getting ignored by her own mother, the one person who shouldn't have been ignoring her at all, really put a stain on everything in her life that should've been perfect. Her mother still had a larger attachment to the alcohol than she did to her.

So Yuina began slowly picking up her habits. Spending nights endlessly drinking at parties with people who loved her. People loved her. It made up for her mother's lack of love or attention (it really didn't, she just pretended it did). She was the life of the party, everybody loved her. She could get through to anyone if there was enough drinking involved, the bonds she made while drunk seemed much more real than the ones she was forced to make when sober.

The consistent drinking didn't stay the norm for long, but the sex did.. well, with only one person anyway. Yuina could never describe what it was that caused for her and Eimi's relationship to become what it was, maybe she still feels something for her, but it'll all probably come to nothing anyway. They would either fight till one of them lost their voice, or one of them would shout so loud the other would cry. When they had their soft moments, they had their soft moments, but those were incredibly rare. They don't talk about what they are, Yuina definitely strays away when conversation comes up.

Yuina is one of the more understanding members. She can seem scary to approach, but she will genuinely try when it comes to anyone. The members (though Eimi is still a strange case) can always go to her for something, and even with their extended inactivity, she's around if they need her. She has questionable feelings about the idol industry, but for now, she's content in her place.

 ｡。the profile !

BIRTH NAME NOSAKA YUINA ( 野坂ゆいな )

DATE OF BIRTH FEBRUARY 19, 1982

PLACE OF BIRTH UTSUNOMIYA, TOCHIGI, JAPAN

NATIONALITY JAPANESE

ETHNICITY JAPANESE

HEIGHT 169 CM ( 5'6 )

BLOOD TYPE AB

PORTRAYED BY AMURO NAMIE

WELCOME CADET 041 !

IT'S pretty clear that the only reason the group has lasted so long is because RYŌKA kept their reputation from bursting into flames. she holds the moral high ground in comparison to the rest of the members, she could even be considered the actual leader of the group. she's clearly the easiest one to talk to, a rule follower through and through.

Born to clearly leave a mark on the world, Asao Ryōka was born in July 1983 in the busy Shibuya City. She was the heart of her family, at the center of it all, she was their golden child. From a young age she had a passion for dance, eager to pursue the types of dancing her older brothers found themselves interested in. She begged for her parents to let her get the same lessons, but she wasn't allowed to do hip hop like them.. it put her in a terrible place growing up, she thought she didn't have the potential to excel like they did.

But she could do something else with her time.. ballet! Yeah, not exactly the most exciting thing in the world. Ryōka wasn't as into ballet as her parents wanted her to be, but pressure has it's way of getting to people. She joined this crazy ballet academy that totally fucked her up for the rest of her life, though she found ballet enjoyable in certain aspects, she struggled.. a lot. She had terrible teachers, classmates, and developed an eating disorder barely four years into the dance.

Ryōka stayed in ballet for a good five years, but then she was pulled out of it by her older brothers when they noticed her deteriorating mental health. She thanks them for that every single day, she probably would've taken her own life if they didn't go against their parents wishes and take her out of ballet. Though she was out of ballet, she didn't stop with her love of dance. She still wouldn't be able to enroll into the dance lessons her brother was doing, but she could get into music. She mastered the piano, then when she was done with that she mastered the violin, then the guitar, then before she knew it, there were a ton of instruments up her sleeve.

She never thought being an idol was possible with the way her parents monitored her life, they didn't even let her practice dance styles they didn't seem "feminine", how was she going to convince them to let her sing and dance on a stage? They wouldn't even think she was worth such a thing, they never directly said it, but it's obvious they never expected for her to be the most successful of all three of their kids.

Despite having said to possess no potential, Ryōka wouldn't exactly give up so easily. She began taking vocal classes without her parents' knowledge, then she began taking dance classes without their knowledge, it's not like she was preparing for her future idol life, she simply just found herself interested in the whole thing. There was no way she was going to become an idol without her parents knowing, so she just let the dream fester at the back of her mind. She pretended she didn't dream of the big stages as her parents continued their utterances about her getting into medical school.

But of course, you know how the story goes. In 1999, without her parents knowing, Ryōka decided to enter a singing competition held by this company called Gekkō collective!, which was being held in Shinjuku City. With her parents assuming she was at one of her many extracurriculars, she placed second in the competition, right behind one of her future members. She was then offered the opportunity to join Gekkō collective!, and by proxy, the opportunity to debut in their upcoming group.

And again, she kept it all under wraps. Her parents knew absolutely nothing of her 'new' extracurricular activity. Considering she lived in Tokyo, it was easy to go to the label every day without suspicion. Life was barely steady, as having to keep up appearances with her parents, then also manage school, then also continuously training to become an idol, the stress almost completely got to her, but she managed. She managed for the next three years until her debut, still somehow able to keep it from his parents.

Her parents only found out in 2002.. the year of her debut, and they weren't exactly happy. They completely ridiculed her after her debut stage, embarrassing her in front of her fellow members and leaving her in tears. She would slowly cease communication with her parents over the years, but she pretended it all didn't matter, she simply put on smiles and went on.

Her debut with STARLIGHT CRUSH! brought her responsibility she didn't exactly expect, keeping all of the members out of trouble. You could call her the actual leader of the group, she was the one making sure the other three kept their hair out of the news. Eimi and Yuina would spend nights partying or were caught out at shitty motels, and Himiko was found smoking so many times there more concern for her lungs than there was outrage. Ryōka quite literally became the only member without scandal, she was their saving grace, the groups moral high ground, their real leader. She accepted the awards, remembered every one of their slogans, and gave all the important speeches.

But even with that, Ryōka still had her fair share of issues. She was just too nice, it was another dating rumor every week because she was simply magnetic. She could be friends with anyone, which got her a lot of flack because of her barrage of male idol friends. She pretended she didn't mind, but it all really got to her head. She worked hard as an idol, she got many endorsements because, in her managers words, her face was ‘to die for’. There wasn't a day before 2021 that she didn't work 24/7, it was simply idoling all day for Ryōka, she would have to be forced into breaks by her fellow members or her managers because she just couldn't stop herself, she felt she needed to prove she deserved the fame to everyone, if not her own parents.

She then sunk back into an unhealthy eating habits, her body image slowly becoming more and more distorted as time went on. Ryōka pretty much became a shadow of her former self as time went on, she didn't exactly like how she looked, and it all circled back into her feeling insecure over her weight. People always commented on her body, and it got to the point that she began skipping meals much more frequently, feigning ignorance to her members.

Again, she never gave herself a proper break until she was forced to. Up until the groups ‘long hiatus’, she was the most consistent member in terms of activity. She finally stopped her lifelong working obsession and sat back to do absolutely nothing. Ever since the group initially went inactive in 2021, Ryōka has been seen less and less by people of the public. She went from being the most active member, to being the member who people can barely even find. She's since gotten therapy, and she's considering leaving the idol industry altogether, but for now, it's all up in the air.

 ｡。the profile !

BIRTH NAME ASAO RYŌKA ( 浅尾リョカ )

DATE OF BIRTH JULY 17, 1983

PLACE OF BIRTH SHIBUYA CITY, TOKYO, JAPAN

NATIONALITY JAPANESE

ETHNICITY JAPANESE

HEIGHT 171 CM ( 5'7 )

BLOOD TYPE A

PORTRAYED BY IIDA KAORI

WELCOME CADET 015 !

THE lengths at which one has to go to get through to HIMIKO are a challenge, and it's even an enigma as to how she managed in the group when she could've easily gone solo as she desired. there's a lot she could say, but she keeps it in the recesses of her mind as to not cause conflict, the last time that happened.. well the group almost fell apart.

With fate practically carving a path out for her, Maeda Himiko was born in August 1983 in a small town named Inuyama. From the beginning it was difficult, there was no sight of a father figure, and though her mother tried her best, she could never just take care of her on her own income. She again moved in with her parents and had them raise her as she spent her days working several odd jobs to provide for her daughter. The first thing Himiko ever noted about her mother was that she was.. struggling, whether physical or mental, there was always something there making sure she didn't succeed.

Growing up alongside her grandparents in her mother’s childhood home, Himiko learned of her first real passion, music. Before she met that pathetic excuse of a man, before adulthood settled and responsibilities gripped her by the throat, she wanted to be a musician. Singing, singing brought her joy, singing brought her a sense of solace nothing else really could, and naturally, like mother like daughter. Himiko took up her passion as if it was passed down to her, busying herself rereading the song lyrics her mother had scribbled into her old middle school journals, then rewriting them and bringing them to life with her guitar.

She learned how to teach herself her own endeavors, beginning with covers of citypop songs, which then became her own voice over original instrumentals. She became infatuated with her mother's former passion, pretty much obsessed with the idea of becoming a singer, to be the one who would be able to live out her dream. She felt guilty in a way.. it was her fault her mother couldn't become a singer, so she felt she had to become one for her.

The efforts would be strained for a while, mostly because her mother was afraid of what she would face if she tried to enter the music industry. Himiko didn't want to be held back, though, she would persevere with her dream of becoming a musician and she would make her mother proud (she had already done that with her perseverance, she just had no idea). She had no idea how she was going to do it, she just knew she was going to do it. Maybe if music didn't work out, she would simply give it and get on with something else, but until she knew, she wouldn't give up.

The time would eventually come, when, in 1999, Himiko entered a singing competition being held by Gekkō collective!. In a feat that wasn't completely planned, she placed first, even if her sixteen year old jitteriness made her seem a bit off in comparison to the rest of her much more exuberant competitors. After winning a cash prize, she was offered an exclusive opportunity, one that would make all of her dreams come true. She could become a solo artist in the following year, she could make her mother proud.

..but for some reason, Himiko felt as if something else was up. She used the excuse of wanting to finish her studies as use to wait for a few more years, being an idol whilst also trying to manage high school would be hell, so she decided to wait until she finished to attempt her break in the music industry. Again, she wasn't exactly sure if she wanted to be alone in that break, even if it meant being stuck with three other strangers.

So when her debut finally rolled around in 2002, it also rolled around with some terrible news. Only two months prior her mother had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, which put her in a tough spot for beginning promotions, it also put her in a tough spot with her members. She was the least introverted of everyone, she preferred her alone time, Ryōka and Yuina tried to reach out, even Eimi tried to reach out on occasions! But she kept most of everything to herself. She spent her time with her headphones on, volume blasting, jotting down lyrics in her journal.

Her mother had passed away the following year, and it sent Himiko down a spiral she doesn't know if she'll ever truly recover from. The fast paced idol life paired with the complications of grief were a terrible mix, so smoking came into everything. Originally, it became a habit she developed during exam season, away from the prying eyes of her mother or her professors, but it became much more regular as late night partying became much more regular. She never liked alcohol, but she loved cigarettes. The over exaggerated caricature people made of her wasn't as fake as she pretended it was. She had no idea how to cope, so she destroyed her body, she slowly let her life slip away as she couldn't even go a day without smoking a pack.

She never got the whole 'love' thing, there was this girl once, she was apart of another group at the time, but she never worked up the courage to tell her anything, their friendship fell apart after their first kiss. She kept herself busy pouring her creativity into lyrics and production, her lungs suffering, but her façade particularly strong. She was one of the more popular members because of her ‘honesty’, but even then it was merely a front. She was there to tell jokes when the time was right, then retreat back into herself when the cameras shut off.

For at least three years, none of the members knew much about Himiko, it wasn't until she began participating more in outings that they realized she was so much more than the rude character she posed as. Though her honesty was usually needed, it was also a pretty deadly weapon, seeing as how some of her words worked up Eimi and Yuina so much that the two went without talking to each other for a whole month, their lack of cooperation putting promotions behind for a good few weeks. It only made her sink back into herself more, as she felt that she was to blame for everything going wrong.

She began getting close to Ryōka after a specific while, but it was more the other doing the talking whilst Himiko laughed at her off sounding jokes. It was easy to get through to Yuina too, she became the older sister she didn't know she needed in life. Her problems with smoking continued, but she was mostly able to keep it under wraps as she.. tried to form some kind of friendship with Eimi. Again, she was pretty difficult to find common ground with, but they had their moments, occasionally, it'd seem like they had been friends for years, but the eldest has always been a wild card. She knew to never push her buttons, remembering the whole fiasco that happened last time.

The life as a musician she envisioned turned out to be less of a dream than it was a nightmare. Sometimes, she cusses at herself for even making this decision, but then she would think back to her mother, and she'd simply continue, all of it to fulfill a dream she died much too early to fully witness. Himiko was never loud, but actions speak louder than words, she practically crafted the groups music from her own imagination, she's basically their musical genius. Maybe she wasn't exactly all about the idol life, but she cared deeply about her group and her members, even if she didn't really show it.

BIRTH NAME MAEDA HIMIKO ( 前田卑弥子 )

DATE OF BIRTH AUGUST 22, 1983

PLACE OF BIRTH INUYAMA, AICHI, JAPAN

NATIONALITY JAPANESE

ETHNICITY JAPANESE

HEIGHT 174 CM ( 5'8 )

BLOOD TYPE O

PORTRAYED BY NAKASHIMA MIKA

THE success of STARLIGHT CRUSH! was the kind of success unseen in.. well, forever really. strange japanese pop groups aside, the group also had a knack for producing music videos that were pretty much feature length films in their own right. the concept of ‘saving the world from alien threats with catchy dance pop songs’ was one that wasn't exactly unique, but it didn't mean it wasn't a serve for interest. zooming past the galaxies in a spaceship aptly named ‘THE LUMINARY 76’, the imagery of their concept, paired with the members complete magnetism made for a great group that made a hefty amount of profit for their home label.

it was a pretty lucky case, ‘LOVE REVOLUTION!’ was an immediate hit the day of it's release in march of 2002. the storyline of the music video (which was watched on tv channels at the time), paired with the members irresistible acting, it was a smash success. the group stole the oricon singles chart, keeping the number one spot for seven consecutive weeks, they were practically taking over the world. to this day, their debut album, ‘THE FIRST LAUNCH!’, holds the spot for the fourth best selling album ever on the oricon album charts, selling 4,603,009 sales in total. even from the beginning they knew exactly what their goal was, to save the coming universes and snatch up all the awards there were to snatch up.

the quartet dominated their decades long journey across the many galaxies, and they captured the hearts of the public. they pretty much had everything. figurines, tshirts, blankets, sweaters, yeah.. they had a fashion line. hey! don't laugh! those exclusive blankets are rare! they sell for practically $7000 today! if you can even find it with how many people decide to gatekeep.. along with all of that, the group also had their manga series, which eventually became an anime series after a couple of years of backed up progress.

first it was the manga series ‘ACROSS THE UNIVERSE WITH SC!’ released in 2005 that spanned ten volumes. the series was put together by three fans who had heard of RYŌKA's love for old manga series, she once said herself that she hoped for the group to get their own one day, as she believed their concept was a good idea for one. the story sold exponentially, with characters that "briefly" imitated that of the members, it was a huge success, but you could honestly throw their name on anything and it would became a huge success, so this wasn't exactly a surprise.

then, the anime came around a few years later. though it was originally supposed to be released in 2008, there were a few production issues in the beginning. directly taken from the manga series, the members participated in voice acting the characters for the two seasons the show ran. it was, pretty unsurprisingly, a smash hit, taking from the stories in their music videos, you would shoot across the galaxy along with the intergalactic space team STARLIGHT CRUSH!, and maybe the anime got much too realistic at times (portraying EIMI and YUINA's real life arguments to a t). though only lasting for two seasons, it became one of the most watched anime's of the year, clearly, everything the group touched turned into gold.

STARLIGHT CRUSH! had a good nineteen year run, eventually going into inactivity right before they were able to celebrate their twentieth debut anniversary. the members haven't all disappeared, but being an idol for almost two decades straight with minimal breaks will do wonders to a person. currently, the group is inactive, not disbanded, simply inactive for the time being. EIMI has again been active in the acting industry, where she originally made her name, both YUINA and HIMIKO have participated in the production of their own solo music, making sure to keep up updates semi regularly. RYŌKA is the member whose been the most silent since their immediate inactivity, barely updating her social media and barely even seen anymore. she keeps in contact with her members, though, who all continue to stress that she's doing fine, she just needed a long break.

their group bond can definitely be described as.. strange. though there's only four of them, there is a lot we could say about all of their relationship dynamics. they all love each other some (YUINA & RYŌKA) more obvious than others (EIMI & HIMIKO). it'd be a lie to say that they all hate each other, but it would also be a lie to say that they always get along. though they know when to keep it civil, sometimes they can't help themselves. STARLIGHT CRUSH! have often been described as ‘a strange phenomenon’, but one thing we can all agree with, is that they won't ever lose.

[somegirlontheinternet135]

To set something straight, I've been making theories about this guy the second I heard his backstory (big spoilers ahead!)

At first, hearing about how Capsaicin Cookie was born from a lava lake, instantly gave me the idea that his birth was the result of an experiment gone wrong. And when "Legend Of The Red Dragon" came out within an update later, my gears only turned even more, later theorizing that Capsaicin Cookie was likely the result of the first attempt in making the puppet dragon

I would go on to soon drop due to not having enough information to properly cover it, but thanks to the beast yeast, like a phoenix, theories were born from the ashes anew! But not just theories my friends, a full blown prediction!

Now this was said a few times already, but I'll say here for good measure: Capsaicin Cookie is, in some way, connected to the beasts in some, more specifically, Burning Spice Cookie

I mean, c'mon! The evidence is right in front us!

They have similar character designs

They have similar color schemes

Both have something to do with spice

They're in the same frickin pose

And the fact that Capsaicin used to rely so much on him "holding back," and Burning Spice being notorious for destruction is just too perfect

Ok with all the information out of the way, I've narrowed it down to three regarding Capsaicin's creatio. It's either:

A. Capsaicin was the original "empty" vessel for Burning Spice, but something happened, causing in his birth

B. Burning Spice could be a great ancestor of Capsaicin, which would explain why his was locked away in the first place, maybe whoever locked him up knew of the beasts and saw him as a threat

C. Burning Spice could be a part of Capsaicin in some way(TLDR: pulling a Steven Universe)

At the point l, you might be wondering, "Sure, these are possible theories, but what about the prediction?" Well friends, may I direct you to our second key player, Golden Cheese Cookie. Now, knowing that everyone in her kingdom is basically in a coma, and seeing her friends forming armies for the war, it's pretty logical that she'll have to find other cookies to volunteer to fight in the war, but has every reason not to. Mostly due to what last time, the main reason is that she gets attached way too fast, way too easily. Fortunately, other ancients are very understanding of this, but do try to convince GC into doing the right thing, and eventually through one way or another, she ends recruiting Capsaicin for the war

Their relationship is very slow burn, with GC showing Capsaicin nothing but tough love as to not get attached to him(think Toph from ATLA) but ends not working for her, and slowly and surely, the two get close, like mother and son. . . At some point in the story, it isn't long for a certain someone to find out about their relationship

Now tell me, what sounds more metal. . ?

Learning about your past, and being forced to kill your mother figure due to her "stealing what's ours!"

Or Getting closure after loosing so much, just be forced to harm your adopted son after finding out his origins

[nowoyas]

Koi no Yokan 2: notes on nishinoya yuu (Nishinoya Yuu/Reader)

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Summary: Your suitor orbits around you like the sun. How can you help but to observe him?

Warnings and tags: none in particular for this chapter!

Word count: 4400+

Nishinoya Yuu, character trait #1: does not do anything halfway.

You knew this even before you managed to pry his name from him, of course: aside from first-meeting marriage proposals, he practices to the fullest, moves fluidly in a way that's sort of enchanting. It's a little scary watching him, the way he throws his entire body into preventing the ball from hitting the floor. His recruitment efforts are the same: full-bodied and enthusiastic.

It follows that he'd double down immediately following your official introduction. His recruitment tactics appear to be tied directly into his determination to get you to marry him. Until yesterday, you'd come to expect being immediately greeted and complimented upon your arrival in the gym, so it's hardly surprising to hear a shout of your name as you fuss with the tongue of your shoe this morning.

"Good morning, [name]-san! Please agree to marry me today!"

A startled laugh bubbles out of you. You look up to greet him as he approaches. "Morning, Nishinoya-senpai. Do you, like, mine that energy from somewhere? I could use some."

He laughs, shakes his head. "No, sorry, it's all naturally made right here." He thumps his chest. "You'll have to plug me in if you wanna steal any."

"Fine, fine, you can keep your secrets, but you're still gonna have to ask me nine-hundred and ninety-six more times."

He huffs, helps you to your feet. "I'll get there in no time, just you wait!"

"Uh-huh, sure." You roll your eyes.

"So what are you thinking so far?"

"Thinking?"

"About joining as our manager! We'll look really cool with three managers, you know. And I gotta keep you close so I can convince you to marry me!"

"Right." You snort. "One, I'm pretty sure Yachi-san hasn't agreed yet, either, which means you might still end up with just two even if I agree, but—two—I've been so caught up with just trying to figure out what to call everyone and make half a sense of what's going on when you guys play that I've got no brain space left to figure out if I actually wanna do this, sorry. No decisions yet."

"Do you have plans for lunch, then? I can teach you, so you know how awesome we are when you watch our practice match later."

Right, the club adviser had told all of you yesterday that he'd accepted a last-minute practice match. "No plans, no."

"Great! You were in 1-5, right? I'll come kidnap you."

You're not sure saying you're free necessarily counts as agreeing, but, shit, you do need the help. "Fine, fine, go warm up or whatever. I'm pretty sure you're not here to flirt with me."

"Excuse you, I was born to flirt with you!"

"Senpai," you say, firm yet playful. "Go practice."

Yachi is staring at you in awe when you greet her. "How do you have the strength of heart to actually flirt? I think my heart would explode if I even tried!"

"Flirting?" You tilt your head. "I mean, he was probably flirting. I was just—bantering or something. I dunno."

"Is… is there a difference? Ah! Not that I'm trying to argue with you or anything, just—"

You laugh, shake your head. "You're fine. I'm just giving him some time to figure himself out, and then I'm sure he'll forget I even exist. In the meantime, might as well have fun with it, right?"

~

Nishinoya Yuu, character trait #2: surprisingly helpful.

You very nearly forgot, over the course of the morning, that you had agreed to eat lunch with your suitor. (Note to self: get used to thinking of him by name before you accidentally call him "my suitor" where someone can hear you.) He's happy to remind you, chiefly by showing up at the door to your classroom and scaring you shitless by shouting your name. Between the way you visibly startle and the part where you've been sought out by name twice in the past few weeks, he's really risking letting your classmates know you're a real person and not just part of the background.

Blessedly, he does not greet you with his usual. The last thing you need right now is for your classmates to think about the two of you. Thinking about you at all is annoying enough.

You grab your lunch and meet him at the door, already sighing with a smile. "Someone didn't forget, I see."

He mocks offense as you fall into step beside him. "What did I do to make you think I could ever forget you?"

"Hm, I think it's just your general vibe?"

He huffs, crosses his arms. "I'll have to set you straight, then!"

"Looking forward to it. Where, exactly, are we going, by the way?"

"The roof! It's nice out today."

"And if I'm afraid of heights?"

"You're not, but I'll protect you, anyway!"

You laugh, let him lead you to a secluded corner of the rooftop. "You're so confident. I really could be, you know."

"You probably wouldn't bring it up like that if you were. And most people scared of heights don't spend their lunch staring out of the third floor window."

"Point taken." You settle in, spread out your bento box as he produces his own.

"Your lunch looks so good," he says. "Did you make it yourself?"

He's edging dangerously close to a raw wound, and this here is why you're so adamant on remaining detached. "Uh, yeah. Didn't feel like cooking much last night."

He notices the shift in your tone. Nods. Before he can decide to do something stupid and pry into your personal life, you redirect.

"Alright, Senpai, let's get started. I seem to recall someone was going to help me figure out what's happening in volleyball so I'm not totally lost this afternoon?"

He brightens up in an instant. "Right! I hope you brought your notebook, this one's gonna be on the test."

He laughs when you do actually pull a small notebook out of your pocket, along with a pen. "Ready."

"Perfect! Okay, so..."

To his credit, he clearly knows what he's talking about. You'd hope so, given that he's, you know, a volleyball player, but even so, he explains the sport to you in simple, easy terms. He's surprisingly patient, pauses to let you take notes as he goes over the different positions. Swells with pride as he explains his own position—libero, apparently—and takes extra time to explain it in detail. The fact that he's a libero seems to be the reason you never see him spiking in practice like everyone else—he's not allowed to when it comes to matches.

More than his explanations, you can't help but notice the way he talks about volleyball: eyes lit up, somehow even more animated than usual. Like it's something he loves, instead of just something he does.

…you can't remember the last time you felt that way about something.

"So what I'm getting from this, thanks to my very detailed notes and your very useful explanations…" You make a show of reviewing your notes before you continue. "PVP 'Don't Let the Ball Touch the Floor'. That's it."

He tosses his head back with laughter. "Please marry me."

"Give me a rundown of everyone's names so I don't have to ask and make it awkward, ask another nine hundred and ninety-five times, and sure."

He does just that—rough description, full name, year, and, just for your benefit, he lists what positions they play, too.

"Honestly, the best way to learn is gonna be to watch specific players during a match instead of just watching the ball. You'll figure it out pretty quick just by seeing how each position actually acts on the court."

You nod. "Alright, I can do that. And, uh, thanks for all your help today. I really do appreciate it."

He flashes a grin your way. "You can thank me by starting with watching the libero today. I'll play better if I know your eyes are on me."

You roll your eyes as you start packing up your lunch. "Right. I'll watch someone today, at least."

He walks you back to your classroom, waves you off with a too-loud "see you at practice later!". Leaves you standing in the hall next to your classroom door with a lingering smile on your lips.

~

Nishinoya Yuu, character trait #3: horrible for your image.

Lunch left you with a buzzy sort of anticipation for the afternoon. Shimizu has given you the rundown on what you need to do today. You and Yachi will be scorekeeping during the practice match while she keeps stats. Easy enough.

Before that, though, Shimizu asks one of you to help carry and set out the jerseys. You volunteer immediately, mostly because you feel like you'll be less likely to get inundated with guys asking you if they can help you carry things if they're not there. Yachi stays back to set out chairs.

This is how, just after the team from the other school arrives, you finish stacking jerseys on a chair and are immediately assaulted—or maybe graced?—by the sight of twelve shirtless athletes.

This is how, cheeks burning too hot, you find yourself with your face in your hands, eyes peeking through your fingers, unable to tear them away from lean, muscular torsos in every direction.

This is how Nishinoya finds an opening to laugh at you, the bastard, like you're just supposed to know where to look right now. He waggles his eyebrows, grins smugly at you.

"See anything you like, [name]-san?"

"Oh shut up," you reply, voice pitching into an embarrassing whine in reply.

He leans in close, grin widening. "I think that's a yes. You know, if you just married me, you wouldn't need to be shy about it—"

Before you can hit him, you find that one of the other guys has already beat you to the (in this case, literal) punch. Another second year, you're pretty sure—if you remember your notes from lunch correctly, the name Ennoshita comes to mind. "How many times do we have to tell you not to scare the new managers off? Quit trying to flirt and put your shirt on."

"I'm not scaring her off!" he protests even as he grabs his jersey. "Right?"

You try your best not to come across too embarrassed when you lift your head from your hands. "I dunno, you might be," you tease. "Nine hundred and ninety-four, by the way."

He pulls his shirt on at last, saving you from having to think too hard about his bare chest. Ennoshita gives him a purposeful look, and he pouts and rushes off to playfully bully a third year. (Per Nishinoya: Azumane, but everyone calls him Asahi; be harsh with him, he needs to strengthen his heart. You will not be doing that.) Before he launches into whatever he has to say to Azumane, you swear you catch him casting a worried look back you-ways.

It feels so out of place on him that you're sure you imagined it.

~

Nishinoya Yuu, character trait #4: serious (only when playing volleyball?).

The guys have a sort of aura that washes over them the moment they step onto the court. One moment: bickering, (jokingly?) threatening one another, at least three visibly anxious to the point where even you (just learned their names sort of, still checking your notes whenever you can get away with it) can tell they're anxious about the practice match. The next: silent, determined looks, a sort of dignity that leaves both you and Yachi stunned.

When the time comes, you and Yachi sit by the scoreboard with Shimizu, who sits off to the side with a notebook and pencil in hand. Your task is simple enough: if the ref signals a point for Karasuno, you flip the number up one. If he signals a point for Ougi Nishi, that's Yachi's job. The signals were not clarified to either of you so far, but Shimizu assures you that those two, at least, will be obvious, and you'll have time to pick the others up as you go.

Kageyama starts the match off the way you've traditionally assumed volleyball to be: tall guy hit ball real hard. The difference is, outside of the practices you've seen so hard, the sheer impact leaves the gym silent.

The ref raises an arm towards Karasuno's side of the court. Yeah, okay, that signal's obvious enough. You flip the score as the guys cheer. Ougi Nishi looks utterly stunned, and oh—maybe that serve was amazing even to people who are actually experienced in volleyball. Nishinoya did mention that Kageyama is pretty well-known as a good player.

Oh, right. He also told you to watch specific players to learn a bit more about the positions.

For now, you keep your eyes on Kageyama for a few points. He's a… setter, you think it was? He'll be the only one on Karasuno's side of the court playing that position if he doesn't get switched out, so it seems like a good place to start.

"E-everything's so fast," Yachi breathes. "How do you even keep track of that?"

You nod, lean over a bit. "Nishinoya-senpai suggested watching specific players at a time to get a good sense for what they're actually doing, instead of just watching the ball."

"Ohh. Then… I'll watch Hinata. Who're you watching?"

"Kageyama-san. It seemed like the easiest—"

The ball that had just left Kageyama's hands hit the ground in an instant. At some point, Hinata had entered the equation.

"…what was that? Wasn't that way faster than the other spikes?"

Shimizu laughs softly beside you. "Those two are the only ones who can pull that quick off. It's a big part of Karasuno's offense."

"It's amazing," Yachi says.

You nod in silence. Flip the score as another point comes.

"If you're even one step behind him, you can't catch up," Shimizu says. "And if you focus on him…"

Three of Ougi Nishi move to block Hinata. The one with the shaved head—Tanaka, close with Nishinoya, part of Shimizu's fan club—spikes in turn, unbothered by anyone at all.

"…then someone else on the court will punish you for it."

You glance back at her. At the smile on her lips—a little prideful, understated and overly pretty. No wonder Nishinoya and Tanaka are obsessed with her.

Karasuno takes the first set, leading by several points. For the second set, you switch targets. You did sort of promise you'd watch Nishinoya for a little bit, and it's not like that different-colored jersey doesn't make your eyes naturally draw his way anyway. For some reason, he's in an orange version of what everyone else is wearing. You're pretty sure anyone with even slightly less confidence wouldn't be able to pull it off.

"Hey, Shimizu-senpai?"

"Mm?"

"Why does Nishinoya-senpai wear a different-colored jersey, anyway?"

"Oh, that's because he's the libero. Liberos have to follow a bunch of different rules that don't apply to the other players, so he wears a different color to make it easy for the referee to catch it if he violates one of these rules."

You wince. "Ouch. So it's literally to force eyes on him?"

"Basically."

"I think I'd hate that," Yachi says.

"Kinda suits him, though."

You settle into watching and score-keeping, your eyes tracking Nishinoya as he plays. He's fluid, confident. Moves for the ball almost before you recognize that he would even need to. More than once, he's in exactly the right spot on the court, like he knew he'd need to be there. You'd noticed the bruises on his arms, correctly assumed they came from volleyball after some time watching him play, but now you fully understand exactly where they come from—the force of the spikes he picks up, the way he throws himself onto the floor with reckless abandon just to get the ball up. Every now and then, you catch sight of his expression—pure focus on nothing but the ball, nothing but the game. It's enough to make you shiver.

He's entrancing.

When the match is over, Karasuno winning two to zero, you help where you can (which isn't much—apparently, the guys are supposed to handle all the cleaning and you're supposed to sit there and look pretty) and listen to Yachi gush to Hinata. They're… slightly incomprehensible.

"That was so—so—it was like—"

"Like a feeling of whoosh, right!?"

"Exactly!"

From behind you, in a tired voice: "Am I the only one who can't understand half of anything he says?"

You stifle a laugh. This one would be Tsukishima, then. The overly tall one. He's sarcastic and kind of an asshole. He's not rude all the time, though. He's probably more your type of person than most people here. "I think it's one of those things where you just have to let the feeling carry you instead of trying to understand."

"Yeah, that's great if you can feel anything. I just feel confused. Or maybe annoyed."

"Hey, it's a feeling. That's something."

Yachi catches your eye by bowing to Hinata. "It's just that you guys are so amazing, and I'm—I mean, a townsperson B like me joining such amazing people is—"

…yeah, you get that.

"Now that you mention it, I played that role, too!"

"Eh? Y-you did?"

Kageyama snickers behind Hinata, and whatever moment Yachi had been having has already passed as the boys dissolve into their usual bickering. You guess she's just… hung up on low self-esteem? Is that all this is?

You change out with Yachi, mind wandering as you get into your school uniform. It's not like you need friends. There's a reason you're at the end of the first term and still—mostly—eating lunches alone. You don't care about all that stuff. You've got more important things to worry about. But…

She's skittish, and you kind of want to protect her like the little sister you never had. That's it.

"Hey, Yachi-san?"

She squeaks, head snapping to you like you've caught her doing something wrong. "S-sorry!"

You blink. "…for what?"

It's sort of amazing how clearly you can see her train of thought careening as she panics, trying to figure out what, exactly, you expect her to apologize for right now. She stammers something, and you laugh.

"I just wanted to ask if you wanted to walk home together. If we both decide to do this, it'll be good to actually be friends, right?"

…not that you think you'll do this.

"Oh! U-um, sure, I just think—I mean, are you okay with being friends with someone like me?"

"You realize you're just, like, a normal girl, right?" She flinches at the words, giving you a wounded look. You sigh. "That… came out wrong. I mean you're not uniquely bad or something. You're not any worse than anyone else at this school."

"Oh… I'm sorry. I guess I just…"

"Get caught up in your head, right?" You smile, tilt your head as you finish adjusting your bow. "Me too. I think my 'caught up in my head' is just a little lower-energy than yours, that's all."

"R-really? You always seem so cool!"

You laugh, slipping your bag onto your shoulder as she does the same. "Thanks. Trust me, I'm very careful to do that on purpose. I don't want people approaching me just because they feel bad, you know?"

"I mean, you do always look a little lonely at lunch and stuff, but—oh my god I'm so sorry that felt bad to say—"

"Oi. If you keep apologizing, I'm literally going to tell you not to apologize to me. Then you're going to apologize for apologizing, and I'm gonna tell you to stop apologizing, and then you're going to apologize for apologizing again, and we're going to get caught in an endless feedback loop and die in a vicious cycle of unnecessary apologies. Is that what you want?"

She pauses. Laughs. "No, I guess not."

"As for looking lonely… I didn't realize people could see that, I guess. But I'm the one to blame. I'd probably have more friends if I really tried, but, you know. Didn't feel like it, I guess."

"Is that why you agreed to try out managing?"

You shrug. "Kind of? It was more just that it's something to do. Keeps me out of the house and all that."

"Do you think you'll stay on?"

"Well…" You trail off. "I don't have a strong reason not to. I'm just not sure I have a strong reason to stick with it. Y'know?"

She nods.

"What about you? I overheard you talking with Hinata a little bit earlier. You didn't sound too convinced. Impressed, maybe, but not convinced."

She rubs the back of her neck. "I… I want to, I just…" A sigh. "I don't know if I should? Everyone's so passionate, and I'm just… here. I guess it'd be rude."

"I think it's fine to do it just because you want to."

"Do you not want to?"

"I don't not want to." And that's the issue, isn't it? "I guess that's my hangup. Too lukewarm. It's something to do, and they're kinda fun, and it's cool to watch. Is that enough reason to say yes?"

She watches the sky as she responds. "Earlier, before you got to the changing room, Shimizu-senpai was saying that she didn't really know anything about volleyball or being a manager when she joined. She said it's enough to be a little curious at the start, and the rest can come with time."

You walk the rest of the way in silence. At your turn, you stop and offer her a smile. "This is me. Thanks for walking back with me. I'll think about managing if you do."

She smiles. "Sure! It's a deal!"

~

Nishinoya Yuu, character trait #5: oddly considerate.

The shout of your name comes not long after leaving the house in the morning. You'd spent the night the usual way—cook, clean, finish homework, play video games until you can't justify waiting up any longer— so you're nice and groggy when a certain someone chases you down.

"I thought that looked like you! Have you always lived on this street?"

You raise an eyebrow. "Good morning. You're starting to graduate to stalker, you know."

He winces. "I swear I'm not. Look, I live right there. That girl leaving the house right now is my older sister." He waves at the girl in question—she's definitely way older than the both of you, dressed in work clothes instead of school clothes as she leaves a nearby house. Long, dark hair. From this distance, probably taller than Nishinoya. "Nee-san! Kaede!"

She jolts, looks up at the shouting. "It's too early in the morning for this! What do you want?"

"I'm trying to prove I'm not a stalker!"

She looks at you. Looks back at Nishinoya. Laughs. "He's totally a stalker. Please get him arrested before his six-in-the-morning shouting bothers the neighbors. Again."

…thinking back, you do recall more than one study session being interrupted by loud neighbors over the course of your life. "Oh my god you're actually my neighbor. I think you've actually woken me up before."

The thought is… honestly? A bit unsettling. What are the chances he's up-to-date on neighborhood gossip from two years ago?

He grins sheepishly. "Sorry?"

"You'd better be," you grumble. "Let me guess, this proves we're soulmates?"

"Hey, you're the one who brought up soulmates, not me. I'm sort of glad I caught you, though." He rubs the back of his neck, looks actually worried as he mulls over something. "Are you like, really okay with the whole 'marry me' thing and all that?"

You blink in surprise. "…I'm sort of surprised you're even asking, actually."

"Well, yeah, of course I'm asking. Chikara joked about it yesterday, but I don't actually want to scare you off or make you uncomfortable. I'll stop and not chase you down on the way to school and all that if you want."

…huh. Okay. Interesting. Way more thoughtful than he looks.

Not that he doesn't look thoughtful. Or that he looks un-thoughtful. Thoughtless. Just… you know what? I'm losing the thread here. Whatever. He's thoughtful, okay?

Still, you smile. Tilt your head. "I'm not uncomfortable, Senpai. Weirdly, even less uncomfortable knowing that you care enough to check."

"Of course! No real man's gonna make a lady uncomfortable if he can avoid it!"

You snort. "Somehow, I feel like that's the reverse of the usual thought process, but, sure. I'll take it."

He breaks off into a yawn before he can reply. Oddly, he's kind of cute when he—stop that.

The urge to tease him, however, is too strong to resist. "Aren't you normally the hyperactive one in the mornings? What, couldn't sleep last night? Stay up playing video games or something?"

He glares playfully. "For your information, I was studying."

"Ooh, studying. Definitely not cramming everything last-minute before final exams because you're worried about the Tokyo games, right?"

He does not reply. Got it in one.

"You realize how much less it'd suck for you if you actually studied the rest of the time?"

"How do you know I don't study the rest of the time?"

You arch a brow. "I'll be nice and say it was just because I said 'cramming' for finals. People who study the material all semester don't cram."

"I bet you don't have any trouble with studying at all," he grumbles. "My brain's been melting. It just rolls right off."

You huff. "Do you want some study tips? It's not like I can teach you the actual material, being your underclassman and all, but, like, I'm willing to bet actual money you're just rereading your notes all the times and then feeling like you're barely understanding anything. I can probably point you to a more effective approach."

His jaw drops. "What are you, psychic? I'll buy you a popsicle after practice today."

"That one's also because you're cramming last minute. Most people who study the whole time figure out all the tricks that make studying actually useful." You roll your eyes. "And you don't have to buy me anything. It's fine."

He stares at you a long, long moment. "I sort of feel like you might be judging me, but I don't care. Marry me."

"Is that a yes to the study tips, or like what?"

"Yes. Please."

You laugh. "Alright, then. If you actually listen to what I tell you and ask another nine hundred ninety-three times, I'll think about marrying you."

Tags: @deeplightgarden @idonthaveanameideayet @dusstory

[practicingsmut]

I Swear to God the Devil Made Me Do It

devil!jeonghan x human!reader, 5.7k words, I'm not sure if there's anything in here that I need to warn for but if there is just let me know and I'll edit the post, I did not mean for this to be my longest fic to date by far but here we are, also I wrote this over the course of three days and did not go back to reread what I had written previously so if there are weird transitions that's why

There was a door to Hell in the back of your closet. While something you were used to now, it was quite the shock when you had first learned about it. The house had sat vacant for months, something that confused you immensely when you were shown the property. The owners before you had been renting it out, but with tenants not lasting more than a few weeks at a time, there was no money coming in from it and therefore they had decided to rent it. You fell in love with the quaint little house the moment you set your eyes on it, and it felt like a steal for how cheaply the previous owners had been asking.

All that to say, there was a nagging voice in the back of your mind that had you thinking that things might have been too good to be true. You hadn’t expected the truth of too good to be true to come to light with an actual Devil walking into your room from your closet the day after you had officially moved into the place.

To say you were scared would be an understatement, and the Devil wasn’t exactly thrilled about the situation either. Your fight or flight response kicked in and well, long story short, if he hadn’t been born with supernatural strength and speed, the knife you had been using to pop open your packed boxes would have gone straight through his sternum. Though you were CPR certified, being stabbed like that was not something a normal human would have been able to come back from.

That was months ago, and now you and the Devil had actually become quite good friends. After the both of you had calmed down enough to talk, he introduced himself as Jeonghan, and he made it very clear that he was just a Devil, not the Devil. You still hadn’t quite grasped the nuances of the hierarchies of Hell, but it didn’t really matter.

He explained why he was so shocked that you could actually see him when he exited the portal - which, by the way, connected directly back to his home in Hell - and that was because he had made a contract with the original owners of the house who knew how long ago. Only those whose name was on the deed could see through any illusions or invisibility charms he put on himself. He had no idea that the house had been sold, so even if any renters had been home when he needed to make his way into the human world, they wouldn’t have been able to see him.

Once it became clear that the two of you didn’t actually care to harm each other, you developed a system where he’d call out to you through the portal before coming through just to make sure it was okay. You could hear him from anywhere in the house, or even outside of it as long as you were still on the property. A yes was a yes and a no was a no, and not hearing from you after asking three times meant that you weren’t home to answer and he was welcome to use the portal as long as he made his way out into the wide world quickly; as comfortable as the two of you had gotten, you weren’t fond of the thought of someone being in your home without you there, even though you trusted him.

The system had served you well, working for both of your needs every time it was used. Most of the time Jeonghan had business in the human world to attend to, but sometimes he just wanted your company - something you didn’t mind indulging in. It was a lovely arrangement the two of you had, but you should have realized that eventually the system would fail you, and that failure happened the first time you brought someone home with you.

The man - you couldn’t even remember his name, though you were pretty sure he had whispered it in your ear while you were dancing together at the club - could barely keep his hands off of you as the two of you practically fell through your front door. You made it to the bed eventually, having stopped every few feet to kiss and grope each other some more.

There you were, reclining on your bed, the man’s tongue in your mouth and a very obvious erection pressing against you, when suddenly he pulled away. You pouted, which only made him laugh.

“Don’t worry, I’m just putting on some mood music,” he assured you as he scrolled through his phone for a moment.

Once the music was chosen and blasting through his phone’s speakers, his mouth and hands were on you again. He rolled his hips against yours, eliciting a moan that he quickly swallowed up with a kiss. The hand gripping your waist slid slowly down your leg until it hit the bare skin of your thigh, only to then slide slowly back up and under the hem of your dress. You let out a shaky sigh as tingles erupted in the pit of your stomach with the anticipation of things to come.

“Well, I hope I’m not interrupting anything too important,” a voice called out just loud enough to be heard over the music.

The man you had brought home bit your lip in surprise before jumping backwards, revealing Jeonghan in all his devilish glory - spiraling horns, leathery wings, and spade-tipped tail. Something seemed different about the way he looked, though it wasn’t just the bored expression on his face that barely concealed a myriad of emotions swirling beneath the surface.

“What the fuck are you?” the man called out, voice betraying equal parts fear and confusion. So that’s what was different about Jeonghan - he didn’t have the lingering glitter of an illusion or invisibility charm that you sometimes caught even though you could see through them. So he wanted the man to see what he really looked like.

Jeonghan didn’t even glance at the man, his eyes staying locked on your own. You couldn’t help but feel a little self-conscious under his scrutiny as he took in your flushed face and the dress scrunched dangerously high on your legs.

“What are you doing here?” you questioned, more than a little upset at his sudden intrusion.

“I called for you,” he stated. “Three times. You didn’t answer. Now I see why.”

Without breaking eye contact Jeonghan picked up the man’s phone and shut off the music. The sudden silence made your ears ring. He tossed it to the man who fumbled to catch it. Only then did Jeonghan finally acknowledge him.

“What are you still doing here? Go,” he said impatiently. The man did not need to be told twice. He was out the door without a single glance back, leaving you to stare daggers at Jeonghan who still stood in the doorway of your closet.

“What the fuck, Jeonghan? Why would you do that?” you spat, crossing your arms across your chest in a defiant gesture. Jeonghan advanced further into the room, causing you to skitter backwards what little distance you could as he sat down on the edge of your bed.

“I told you, I called for you three times, and when you didn’t answer I figured that meant I was free to come through. I hadn’t expected to find you here with… well, to find you as I had,” he explained. It made sense, but you weren’t done being mad at him.

“And when you did find me here you thought it would be alright to cockblock me and send my date screaming into the night? Just head off on whatever business you’ve got in this world and leave me alone.” You turned your head to face away from him like a pouting child, but a moment later his hand came to caress your jaw and gently turn you back in his direction.

“Ah, I think my business can wait. I’d rather stay here and help you out,” he replied. His voice had dropped a bit, both in volume and tone, and the combined effect forced a shiver down your spine that you had to work to suppress.

You realized you were staring at his lips just a beat too long after he spoke, and when you looked up to meet his eyes you saw a hint of amusement in them. If you hadn’t already been blushing, you certainly would have been at that point.

“Help me with what?” Your voice had involuntarily gotten quieter to match his.

Jeonghan leaned in slightly and you caught a whiff of his scent. You could never quite pin down what he smelled like, but whatever the otherworldly scent was, it felt comforting. Inviting.

“What was it you accused me of doing? Cockblocking you? Well, after being so rude with that I wouldn’t want to leave you frustrated and alone.” A smirk graced his lips.

Your eyes widened in shock for the briefest of moments before you narrowed them in a glare. He had caught you off guard but you refused to let him have the last word on this.

“And what makes you think I’d want your help with my… frustrations?” you countered.

Jeonghan leaned even closer, tilting his head and stopping just shy of his lips meeting yours. His breath ghosted over your mouth and this time you couldn’t suppress the shiver it caused, though you managed to keep yourself from surging forward and kissing him.

“I’ve heard the way you’ve called out my name as you touched yourself in the middle of the night. I bet it’d sound even sweeter hearing it up close.” Jeonghan’s voice was barely above a whisper, and yet it did things to you that you could have never expected. You subconsciously drew your knees together to hide the wetness that bloomed across your panties in the split second before the embarrassment hit you.

“You could hear me?”

“Every sigh and moan, as long as my name was attached,” he answered.

“Why did you never say anything?”

“I figured if you wanted me bad enough you’d ask rather than using that little black toy you have. But I guess I figured wrong, seeing as you went to some stranger rather than asking me to help. I am sorry for that, by the way. I really didn’t know that you’d be here.”

You shook your head, ready to tell him that you weren’t upset with him for chasing what’s-his-name away, when something else from his statement clicked in your head. You leaned back out of Jeonghan’s reach, his hand that had been cradling your jaw falling to his lap.

“You went snooping around in my stuff when I wasn’t here,” you accused, but he was already shaking his head.

“You left your toy on the nightstand, once. It had been cleaned and everything, but you must have just forgotten to put it completely away.”

“Oh. right.” You remembered that day - coming home late and realizing it had been out in the open all day. You had just assumed that Jeonghan hadn’t come by, since he never mentioned it to you.

“You can tell me to go if you don’t want me here. Just say the word and I’ll leave. But if by chance you want me to stay… well, you could say that as well.”

There was half a second you paused before speaking where you made your decision.

“Jeonghan?”

“Hmm?”

“I want you to fuck me.”

A moment later his lips were on yours. You would have smacked the back of your head into the headboard if not for his left hand coming around to cradle it. His right came to rest on your side, fingers gripping your ribs while his thumb grazed the underside of your breast through the fabric of your dress. Your hands, meanwhile, reached out to grip the fabric of his shirt tightly in your fists. You were probably stretching the fabric, might even rip it, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care.

“Promise me you’ll tell me if I do something that you don’t like,” Jeonghan said.

“Of course,” you whispered against his mouth before kissing him again, though in the moment you couldn’t think of a single thing you wouldn’t let him do to you.

Jeonghan’s tongue came out of his mouth and caressed your bottom lip. You had asked him once if he had a forked tongue, and he had laughed as if it were so outrageous picture on a being with horns, wings, and a tail. He had a normal tongue, and you winced as it caught on a slight abrasion.

Jeonghan pulled back slightly, only as far as your grip on his shirt would allow, and slid his hand from the back of your head to cup your cheek instead. His thumb pulled gently on your bottom lip to see what the issue was.

“That bastard made you bleed,” he growled.

You hadn’t thought the man had bit you that hard when Jeonghan had made his surprise entrance, but clearly you were wrong. You smoothed out your hands on his chest in an attempt to calm his sudden agitation.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” you assured him. Your words came out the slightest bit wrong due to the slight pressure he had on your lip. “Besides, A little pain isn't necessarily a bad thing.” Something sparked in Jeonghan’s eyes as his pupils dilated.

“Is that so?” He seemed to take your words almost as a challenge, but still waited for you to make the next move.

Figuring this might be your only chance to really surprise him that night, you steeled whatever strength you had and pushed against his chest. Of course if he had seen it coming he wouldn’t have budged against your efforts, but as things were you managed to knock him flat on his back, wings unfurling to avoid being squished. You had to untangle your legs, but a moment later you were straddling his waist and leaning down to catch his mouth in a kiss again. His hands gripped your hips tightly through your scrunched up dress.

Pressed together the way you were, it was hard not to focus on his hard length pressed up against you. It was definitely a lot bigger than the toy you used on yourself and as intimidating as that was, it was also exhilarating. You moaned just at the thought of what he’d feel like inside of you.

“Darling,” Jeonghan drawled. You pulled back slightly to give him room to talk. “As much as I’d love to spend hours on end kissing you, I think we’re both a little too impatient for that. I need to taste you.”

You held back a groan of anticipation. He’d barely even touched you and already your pussy was clenching tight, all from the sound of his voice. All those wasted nights he stayed in Hell listening to you calling out his name as you fucked yourself on a dumb little toy… he should have let himself in. You should have invited him to join you.

The first thing you did was shuck off all your clothes - you didn’t want anything getting in the way. It took a fair bit of maneuvering to get yourself positioned over his waiting face while keeping your feet away from his wings and knees away from his horns, but eventually you got there. Not a second later, Jeonghan’s hands were wrapped around your thighs and pulling you down onto him.

Jeonghan may not have had a forked tongue, but it was most definitely longer than any that had gone down on you before. He moved slowly, teasing you by working the tip up your folds, circling it once or twice around your clit, before trailing back down to play with your entrance.

“So much for being impatient,” you muttered. You could feel Jeonghan smirk against you, the movement making you squirm as it tickled you.

“Am I moving too slow for you, my sweet?”

Before you could even think of answering Jeonghan dove back in to eating you out. His hands held you down so close you were sure he would suffocate, but if he didn’t think that was an issue then who were you to worry about it? Your mind had better things to focus on, like the way his tongue fucked in and out of you at such a rapid pace, the tip of it flicking against your g-spot with every thrust and making you shake. With the distance between your cunt and his face being what it was - that is to say, not very much - his nose bumped against your clit repeatedly. You’d think it was a strange situation, if your brain could come up with any thoughts at all. You were too far gone for that, every fiber of your being focusing on your impending orgasm.

Suddenly the bedsheets weren’t enough for you to hold onto, you needed something sturdier. Your shaking legs made you feel like you’d fall over if you moved even an inch, but somehow you managed to get your hands gripped around Jeonghan’s horns right at the base of each one. They provided the support you had wanted and seemed to be working in Jeonghan’s favor as well. He moaned against you as your hands wrapped around them, the feeling against your cunt being just what you needed to send you over the edge.

You think you called out Jeonghan’s name in your ecstasy, but you couldn’t be sure. His grip on your thighs and your grip on his horns was all that kept you upright as your orgasm ripped through you.

With shaking legs and a heaving chest, Jeonghan had to do most of the work to get you off of him. He tucked you under one arm so that your head was laying on his chest and his hand could run comforting lines up and down your back.

“Holy shit,” you breathed out.

Jeonghan’s chest rumbled beneath you as he chuckled. “That good, huh?”

“I think you’ve masturbating for me, and I’ve given myself some real good orgasms,” you joked.

“And to think, that was just my mouth. You haven’t even experienced what my hands feel like, or my dick.”

“Oh believe me, I’m well aware of that. You’re not going anywhere until I have,” you asserted, earning another chuckle from Jeonghan. “Just… just give me a minute.” Though you ached to feel every part of Jeonghan’s body, you knew moving too fast and too soon would only lead to pain - and not the good kind.

“Take all the time you need,” Jeonghan reassured you, pressing a kiss to the top of your head.

You could have fallen asleep there in the comfort of his arms if not for the brushing of his shirt against your breasts each time you breathed in. You couldn’t believe that he still had a shirt on - not to mention his pants, which you could see out of the corner of your eye were still highly tented. You had to remedy the situation. The instant your hand began to slide across his chest Jeonghan’s eyes opened to watch you.

“What are you doing?” he asked, a playful and curious lilt to his voice.

“You’re wearing too much clothing,” you answered resolutely.

Your hand had made it to the top button of his shirt; it was hard to pop open with just one hand and at the angle you were grabbing from, but you were more than determined. Jeonghan was amused by the whole situation and let you carry on with your plan until his chest and abdomen were fully exposed. It was then that Jeonghan took over, gently placing you down before standing up to pull off all of his clothing.

Everything about him seemed perfectly made to entice you from the slim and sculpted V of his hips framing a neat happy trail to his deliciously thick thighs, and in between them…

“My eyes are up here, sweetheart,” Jeonghan said with a chuckle.

Your eyes snapped immediately up to his own, face burning with embarrassment. Before you could move to sit up, Jeonghan settled back onto the bed to kneel between your legs. You had to spread them to accommodate his size and as soon as you did his hands came down to rest on the soft flesh of your inner thighs.

When he leaned over to kiss you his cock nestled itself against your core, stretching out over your stomach to show you just how far into you it would reach. Even without seeing it in that moment, you could feel just how unlike a human penis it was. As Jeonghan’s tongue tangled with your own you reached a hand in between the two of you to grab his member, wanting to run your fingertips over the ridges that flared out under the head.

Jeonghan sucked in harshly and bucked against your hand. Feeling encouraged, you stroked with a firmer grip, thumb catching the bead of sticky precum that spilled out. Your other hand tangled in Jeonghan’s hair and pushed his head into the crook of your neck. His hot breath fanned out over your throat before his mouth got to work kissing and biting, presumably leaving marks. You could feel him getting more and more worked up with each passing moment and you felt smug about having such an affect on him. Then all too soon he was pulling away, a shiver working its way through your whole body as the lack of his left you open to the air.

“Fuck, I need to be in you.” His words came out breathy and desperate, the sound of which had you clenching around nothing. Still, you could feel how big he was in your hand and had at least a little bit of common sense.

“I- I don’t think you’re going to fit,” you said with a nervous chuckle.

Jeonghan laced the fingers of one of his hands with your free one while wrapping his other one around the hand you had on his cock. He guided it to pump up and down a few more times before pulling it away.

“You can hold on here,” he said quietly, placing your hands on his shoulders, “and let me know if I need to stop or slow down or anything like that.”

You nodded. He pressed a light kiss to the tip of your nose before finishing his work to get you into the position he wanted you in. Your knees were hooked over the crooks of his elbows and one hand maintained a firm grip on your waist while the other slid across your stomach to make its way to your core. His thumb circled your clit two or three times before he pushed it through your slick folds to tease your hole.

“Is this alright?” he whispered. You let out a whine and nodded, shifting your hips to try and get him to touch you more.

Then his thumb was inside of you, pushing slowly all the way to the hilt only to rest there for a moment before pulling back out and repeating the process. You moaned, the sound making Jeonghan’s cock twitch where it sat on your stomach. He picked up speed, seeming to know exactly the right moment to flex his thumb in order to press against your g-spot every time he could.

“Jeonghan,” you groaned.

“What is it, my darling?” he asked, his voice sweet. It was almost as if he wasn’t teasing you into oblivion, and by extent teasing himself based on how much precum was leaking onto your stomach.

“I want more of you, please,” you begged.

Jeonghan didn’t answer you, but instead just slipped his thumb out, leaving you empty. You were about to complain when suddenly you were being stuffed with two of his fingers, his thumb that was slick with your arousal finding your clit a second later.

“Is that better?”

You nodded, not trusting yourself to be able to answer in coherent words. Your hands gripped his shoulders tightly and you were sure you’d leave little crescent marks from where your fingernails dug into his skin, but he didn’t seem to mind. All the while your orgasm was building more and more, a tight ball in the pit of your abdomen.

When Jeonghan bent forward, you thought it was to kiss you, but instead he angled his head down in order to bite at your breast. He sucked a few dark red hickeys into your flesh before flicking his tongue against your hardened nipple. One of your hands slid up his neck to tangle in his hair, which he took as encouragement to carry on. A third finger entered your cunt, stretching you out and massaging your g-spot while his thumb continued its diligent work against your clit.

All of a sudden it was too much and you came on his hand with a loud cry. He worked you through your orgasm until the shaking in your legs subsided and only then did he pry himself away from his body. His fingers made their way into his mouth in turn so he could lick your juices off of them one by one.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to kill me,” you said.

Jeonghan let out a bright and clear laugh. “Yeah? Death by orgasm?”

“I can’t think of a better way to go.”

Jeonghan leaned down to kiss you, propping his body up on one forearm so as not to completely crush you. With his free hand he pumped his cock a few times, not that he needed any extra stimulation - he was still hard as a rock. Sufficiently satisfied with your lips he then leaned back so he was sitting on his heels once more before shifting your legs to be over his shoulders instead of his arms. The head of his cock teased your hole, barely poking in and out. Even having been stretched by three of his fingers you knew it would be a tight fit. You’d never wanted anything more in your life.

“Are you sure you want this? I don’t want to make you feel like you have to do anything you’ll regret,” Jeonghan asked. As much as you loved how concerned he was for you, at this moment it was just wearing down your already thin patience.

“Right now the only thing I’ll regret is ever letting you into my bed unless you fuck me right now, Jeonghan,” you insisted. Sure, he’d already given you two mind-shattering orgasms and ordinarily that would be more than enough, but you knew that you could not go to bed that night feeling happy with how your day went until you had felt his thick cock in your cunt.

“Well, my sweet, if that’s how you feel then who am I to deny you what you want?”

With a hand on either side of your head to hold himself up, you could see almost every inch of the man - the Devil - before you, except of course the parts of his chest that were covered by your legs. His wings flared out behind him, blocking much of the light in the room, and you could feel his tail wrap itself around one of your thighs. It wasn’t tight enough to hurt, but it put just enough pressure that you were aware of its presence.

He rolled his hips hesitantly, pushing into you. Instinctively you clenched every muscle you could and Jeonghan let out a groan in response.

“Darling, you have to relax. Let yourself get used to my size first,” Jeonghan said through clenched teeth. Trying to hold back was clearly a tremendous effort on his part.

You nodded and took a few deep breaths, willing your body to loosen up. Once Jeonghan deemed you ready, he resumed his efforts. He would slide his cock in an inch or so, then pull back so that only the tip stayed inside, then repeat the process. He made it a little bit further each time and built up a rhythm that your body got used to quickly, even if it took a little bit longer to adjust to how thick and long he was.

Snaking a hand in between your bodies, you pressed a finger to your clit, rubbing it just enough to provide a distraction from the uncomfortable stretch your cunt was dealing with. That helped more than you thought it would as the wetter you got the easier it was for Jeonghan to continue his movements. After several minutes of this Jeonghan suddenly stopped. You opened your eyes to find that he had sheathed himself fully without you noticing. Your hand left your clit and instead traced its way up your abdomen along the swollen bulge where his cock filled you up.

“I know you want me to get on with the fucking, but I just have to check in with you one more time. How are you doing?”

You leaned up as far as you could in order to kiss Jeonghan’s plush lips, barely managing to hold back a moan as the action caused him to shift ever so slightly inside of you.

“I’m being doted upon by the most handsome being I’ve ever laid my eyes on and whose cock is currently filling me to the brim. How could I be doing anything less than amazing?” you teased, all to see that beautiful smile of his again. You kissed him one more time before laying back and telling Jeonghan to continue on.

It hurt at first. Quite a lot, actually. The extra ridges that lined his cock caught at your walls and while you were sure that would feel wonderful in a little while, for the moment it was a bit too much when added onto the sheer size of him. Seeing your discomfort, Jeonghan began to talk to you, whispering sweet nothings and encouraging words in between his breathy moans of pleasure. You couldn’t quite catch most of what he said, but it was comforting to you nonetheless. He shifted his hands so that he was holding yours against the bed.

And then suddenly the pleasure became more than the pain and you found yourself in the throes of passion once more. Jeonghan picked up speed which increased the friction of his cock against your walls. He was no longer pulling all the way out to the tip and then moving all the way back in - that would take far too much time and hip control. At the speed he was thrusting it was easiest to move just a few inches at a time, and the inches he settled with had the hard ridges of his cock pressing hard against your g-spot with every movement.

It was hard to hold back your impending third orgasm of the night, but you managed to do it. You knew that once you gave yourself over to it you would be too sensitive to do anything else, and you wanted Jeonghan to be able to use you for his own pleasure just a little bit longer. He had made you feel incredible already, so it was only fair that you return the favor.

“Sweetheart, I’m not going to last much longer,” Jeonghan gasped. His eyes were closed tight with the effort of holding back, almost as if he were attempting the same thing you were. “Please, Jeonghan, I want you to cum inside me,” you pleaded.

As if he were waiting for your express permission he did just that. After a few more thrusts he pulled out so that just the tip of his cock remained inside you. You could feel him painting your walls white, the sensation finally loosening you up enough to send you spiraling into your third orgasm. Once he was done, Jeonghan surprised you by pushing his entire length back until he was snug inside you once more. Then he collapsed on top of you, knocking the wind out of your lungs before rolling over so that he was on his back and you were on his chest.

“Why did it take so long for us to do that?” he asked before pressing a kiss to your temple.

“Maybe because you’re an idiot who heard me moaning out his name on several occasions and decided not to make a move,” you countered, though the tone was light and not meant to seriously insult him.

“Darling, you could have invited me to join you at any point.”

“Yes, but I didn’t have the confirmation that you were into me, but you knew the opposite was true.”

“Hmm, I suppose so.”

“Besides, if I’d have asked you outright then I wouldn’t have gotten to see your jealous side which, let’s face it, is very hot.”

Jeonghan’s arms tightened around your body. You looked up to find him staring down at you.

“You’re not planning to invite anyone else into your bed just to see me jealous again, are you?” he asked, eyes narrowed.

You let out a laugh and pressed a few reassuring kisses along his jawline.

“Of course not, Jeonghan. Even in my thoughts I don’t think anyone else would compare to what you could do to me. Now that I know how well you’ll treat me in bed, I won’t hesitate to call for you through the portal before I start touching myself.” Your words put a self-satisfied grin on Jeonghan’s face.

“You know, it’s not just in bed that I’ll treat you well. I’d give you the world if you’d ask it of me,” he whispered.

“Oh yeah? And how exactly would a Devil-human relationship work? Sounds a little complicated to me,” you answered. You didn’t intend to be contrary, in fact you liked the idea of being more than just fuck buddies with Jeonghan very much, but sometimes there was more to consider than just your feelings when making a decision.

“Complicated, sure, but nothing I wouldn’t mind figuring out if it meant being with you,” he admitted.

You snuggled closer to Jeonghan’s chest, feeling his heartbeat beneath you.

“No, I wouldn’t mind that either.”

[kazumiwrites-fanfiction]

A Letter For You

SUMMARY: Azul writes a letter to you. WORD COUNT: 500+

WARNINGS: Book 3 spoilers (just adding this in case), Azul hating his old self/being fatphobic, Azul overthinking, basically if you know Azul's backstory it talks about that A/N: Okay so I wrote this in three different languages, I did this one last, and since it's translated from the original (which I wrote in Japanese, the language I'm struggling in most with writing (somehow even though it's my mother language wtf)) it looks so formal and blocky and Idk- I'm proud of myself for writing it in three languages but when I say I hate translating- (My summaries gradually starting to suck more and more-) Also yes of course I wrote about Azul he's my favorite <3 English (this one!) - Japanese - Spanish

© kazumiwrites - All rights reserved; please do not steal, edit, copy, repost (etc) my work without my express permission.

Dear kantokusei-san,

I always had a lot of struggles.

Every day, voices in my head would tell me that I was ugly. That I was just a dumb, hideous octopus.

I can't do anything.

"I want to smile always." "I want to live happily with Floyd and Jade."

But voices are always running around in my head, making me overthink.

Are you really my friend?

Even if you saw me as a kid, would you still be able to say that I'm different from him?

You wouldn't be able to, would you.

Because no matter how you look at it, I'm just a stupid mer that wants to be human.

I'm a horrible person who can't even accept himself.

"I can't be a human."

This is the truth. No one can change it.

I thought that I had accepted these words, and yet… I couldn't.

"I don't want to be a mer again."

"I want to stay as a human forever."

"I don't want to return to being that fat, ugly octopus that I was before."

And I also wanted legs. Human legs - /real/ human legs. Legs that I could have without drinking a potion or creating a contract. Legs that I could walk, run, play and dance with. Legs that I could do anything with.

Why? Why was I born as a mer, and an octopus mer at that?

I had been living like that my whole life.

Until you arrived, that is. That was when everything changed.

The first time I met you, I wasn't sure what to make of you.

"A different world? That can't possibly be true. Are you joking around?"

That was what I thought, and I was wary of you.

However… Even after the Overblot incident, you were nice to me for a reason I couldn't explain.

How could you be so nice to a person like me? I almost killed you, didn't I? Are you insane?

I told you this thousands of times. yet you still spent time with me.

Floyd and Jade teased me a lot for it, but you always defended me against them. Do you remember doing that?

That honestly made me really happy.

"You aren't such a bad person."

And before I knew it… I was in love with you.

I was surprised at first, you know? That I could feel this way.

What made me even more surprised was the time when you told me that you felt the same way.

If you say things like that, it'll only make me fall for you more, since I'm not used to words like that.

You are such an important person to me. I wouldn't want to live in a world that you're not in.

So… Would you like to stay in this world, with me?

I know that you most likely have ambitions, a family, a good life in your previous world. But if you could leave all of that behind to stay with me… I would be overjoyed.

I'll understand if you don't want to stay here; it's not your world, after all. However, I still wanted to ask this of you. Maybe I'm too greedy, asking you for this.

Either choice you make, I'll love you, forever and always.

With love, Azul Ashengrotto

As always, reblogs and comments are always appreciated! ♡ Send your thoughts grr

Feel free to send requests! Check out this post for info ^^

[unablethethird]

once again

Same with you skip the weird ones

1: Name Robert [rob]

2: Age 14

3: 3 Fears 1- Friends dying/getting hurt 2-Going back to the last place i lived 3-Not being able to help/be there

4: 3 things I love 1-My frens 2-Laptop 3-headphones

7: My best friend You and yaya [irl]

8: Sexual orientation AroAce [fictoromantic/fictosexual, and kinda orchidromantic]

10: How tall am I 166cm [for now]

11: What do I miss

cant think of anything rn

12: What time were I born 4am

13: Favorite color red, orange, purple, black

15: Favorite quote "Light a man a fire and he'll be warm for the night, light a man *on* fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life"

16: Favorite place Arcade

17: Favorite food Imjaderah [rice+yoghurt+beans]

18: Do I use sarcasm sometimes, not rlly tho

19: What am I listening to right now

20: First thing I notice in new person Not sure, maybe symptoms???? but not on purpose

21: Shoe size No idea

22: Eye color dark brown [almost black]

23: Hair color black

24: Favorite style of clothing 1920s men atire

25: Ever done a prank call? Not that i can remember

27: Meaning behind my URL I mean this is the 3rd acc

28: Favorite movie THE LORAX!!!!

29: Favorite song right now it's

30: Favorite band FamilyJules? LemonDemon? Will wood? Chonny jash?

31: How I feel right now My body's scared but im chilling

32: Someone I love You /p

33: My current relationship status AroAce, platonically married

34: My relationship with my parents lol

35: Favorite holiday Eid al adha, free money

36: Tattoos and piercing i have Ear

37: Tattoos and piercing i want Sleeve tattoo when i transition

38: The reason I joined Tumblr Needed to continue a fic/comic that was on tumblr

39: Do I and my last ex hate each other? idk

40: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts? thank you fren /gen

41: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted? my dad? maybe when i was really young

42: When did I last hold hands? My little sister, i didnt want her to get run over when crossing the road

43: How long does it take me to get ready in the morning? As long as i have, if u give me an hour i'll take an hour, if you give me 30 seconds i'll take 30 seconds

44: Have You shaved your legs in the past three days? Nope, i get gender dysphoria from shaving my legs/arms

45: Where am I right now? Bed

47: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level? LOUD

48: Do I live with my Mom and Dad? Mum, not dad

49: Am I excited for anything? Turning 18 and going uni and being a human person with a human life

50: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to? Im an oversharer

51: How often do I wear a fake smile? Im autistic so not in a deppressed way

52: When was the last time I hugged someone? Cant remember

54: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not? H [irl]

55: What is something I disliked about today? My sister stealing money from my mum, i was this close to having smoke outta my ears, she should know better

56: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? God, im going to beat the shit out of him

57: What do I think about most? Cringe memories i guess?

58: What’s my strangest talent? I can bird whistle

59: Do I have any strange phobias? Touch might be strange?

60: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? Behind fs

61: What was the last lie I told? "I don't know who they were talking about" [i didn't want to hurt her feelings]

62: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? voice, video is a nightmare

63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens? Yea because either i've seen them or im delusional [im delusional]. aliens are a given, even a bacteria could be one

64: Do I believe in magic? Kinda? idrk, maybe

65: Do I believe in luck? yea

66: What’s the weather like right now? cloudy n cold

67: What was the last book I’ve read? DnD rulebook

68: Do I like the smell of gasoline? LVORE IT LOIF LVOE LOVE IT

69: Do I have any nicknames? I get called by my last name a lot

70: What was the worst injury I’ve ever had? not sure

71: Do I spend money or save it? Save

72: Can I touch my nose with a tongue? Unfortunatly no

73: Is there anything pink in 10 feet from me? My sisters deoderant

74: Favorite animal?

FOXES!!!!!!

75: What was I doing last night at 12 AM? calming myself down

76: What do I think is Satan’s last name is? I dont think he has one, idk im not religious

77: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it? Corny/cringe as hell but Honeypie by JAWNY

78: How can you win my heart? havent thought about it

79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone?

I TOLD YOU MY FOOT WAS KILLING ME

80: What is my favorite word? supercalifragilisticexpialadocious

81: My top 5 blogs on tumblr Moots

82: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say? your god is the right one [chaos]

83: Do I have any relatives in jail? Not currently, but my dad and some uncles were

84: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power? Time manipulation

85: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on? i dont think questions are scary

86: What is my current desktop picture? basic

90: Failed a class? classes

94: Had job? I have one now, dont always get paid though

95: Left the house without my wallet? Dont have a wallet

96: Bullied someone on the internet? no

98: Played on a sports team?

Unless school sport team counts

103: Am I a vegetarian/vegan? no

104: Been overweight? No

105: Been underweight? yea

106: Been to a wedding? ye

107: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight? Duh

108: Watched TV for 5 hours straight? maybe i dont remember

109: Been outside my home country? Technically im from iran, and i live in australia, so, yeah

110: Gotten my heart broken? i guess

111: Been to a professional sports game? no

112: Broken a bone? no

113: Cut myself? yeah Im stopping though

114: Been to prom? we dont have that

115: Been in airplane?

Yeah

116: Fly by helicopter? no

117: What concerts have I been to? none

118: Had a crush on someone of the same sex? kinda

119: Learned another language? I know arabic and english

120: Wore make up? Forced to when i was younger but not anymore

123: Dyed my hair? Part of it purple, but its gone now

124: Voted in a presidential election? Cant vote, eitherway all of em suck

125: Rode in an ambulance? Yep

126: Had a surgery? not sure, memory bad

127: Met someone famous? Not that i know of

128: Stalked someone on a social network? mutuals tumblrs

129: Peed outside? Yea

130: Been fishing? nope

131: Helped with charity? yep

132: Been rejected by a crush? nope

133: Broken a mirror? Yep

134: What do I want for birthday? Wouldn't ever happen because it's expensive as fuck but a pump it up machine

i usually get a slice of cake tho

[shiroi---kumo]

In connection to ( 1) | (2) | (3)

⋯✧・♪♫♪・✧⋯ The sound of her voice filling his ears is the fastest way to ruin his perfect day. His absolutely perfect day. He thought it couldn't be ruined. He thought there was no way to make this day awful. He just had mid day meal with Sydän, Terälehti, Valo, Aamunkoitto and Aqua and on his way back to his classroom he was brave enough to lean in and steal a quick kiss.

They'd had a date last week. They were moving into first names. Aqua was staying over more often. Giving him more of his attention outside of working hours. They had an hour sat aside just for napping and purring. He had friends. He had a bond and if he was lucky Aqua would say yes when he asked him to Mix Mist with him but he needed to find the time to ask.

His parents not him. Not yet. He had Terälehti's permission. He needed to ask Sydän next and then somehow he would figure out how to meet with Aqua's parents to ask for their permission to mix mist with their son.

He wanted it more than anything, so the sound of Syksy's voice in his ears was like nails on a chalkboard as she exploded.

"I can't believe you!! Did you seriously think you'd get away with that?! You're doing exactly what you were told not to, Sitriini."

And he doesn't think he can groan loud enough as he lets his eyes roll to the back of his head and then back again as he makes sure he is plenty aware of where Liekki is in the room. Syksy is perched at his desk again in his fucking chair and he really wishes she would keep her slimy ass self OFF of the furniture.

"Do you want me to do it again? Did you not get a good enough look, stalker?"

He watches with pleasure as pink eyes narrow at him and he is careful to listen as Liekki takes a step forward from his position at the middle of the room.

"Do not test me, Sinfonia. You won't like what happens if you keep pushing back like this. You're being unreasonable. I tell you to keep them away from Usva and now you're making friends with them, and going on dates and kissing that pest."

And he can't say he knows what comes over him in that moment but instead of his usual apprehension and fear that would fill him. Instead of his usual all consuming dread his lips are tugging out into a knife like smirk behind his mask and citrine eyes shine back at her with a wild look in his gaze.

"Oh. Oh I see the problem. It makes sense now. You didn't need to tell me that and I think that's kinda private but if voyeurism is your fucking kink who am I to judge? Is that why you've been stalking my ass all these years? Did it at least get you there? You've been watching me for so many years I'd fucking hope we at least accomplished something by now. You want me to kiss him again? Isn't going to bother me but I think it's kinda rude to watch."

"Why I NEVER! How DARE you?!"

"How DARE I? How dare YOU! You came into my house, Syksy. Don't forget that. I don't care if you are co-binds. I was born here, you two clowns are just guests. "

"You can't talk to me like this!"

"Why? You're in my classroom, sitting in my chair, at my desk all while wasting my fucking time. I'm not in the mood for your bullshit today so either get the fuck out or make your fucking move."

Her eyes narrow at him as she growls, looking back to her companion.

"Do something." She urges the other man in the room as the musician turns to face with the same wild look in his eyes and raises his fists.

The look the other man makes is largely unimpressed.

"I told you once, I'll tell you again. I'm not afraid of getting physical with you Liekki."

"You could hardly defend yourself when Sielu broke your nose and we both know how these interactions normally end."

"Normally, so let me make myself perfectly clear, asshole. You get one free shot, make it count."

And the elder swings, clearly missing as the musician does the one thing he's never done in any of these interactions before and he dodges to the side with a grace and speed he shouldn't possess... should he?

His right arm winds up swinging back and forward all in one blinding motion striking the elder so hard in his jaw it makes the man of toxins recoil and stagger backwards.

"Never mind I lied. Put your fists up, Doc. I'm done playing with you."

And the two of them turn into a mess of hands and fists flying towards each other. Both missing and landing blows until the doctor manages to get musician by the neck only to slam his back against the bookcase spanning the wall to the ceiling. There's a jerk and a cough at the impact and he can feel the way that massive grip is wrapping around his neck threatening to choke him out if he doesn't do something. Liekki's already taken him to the floor and he needs to think -

So he's reeling back his right leg and kicking his attacker in the stomach hard. He coughs, jerks, releases his hold on the musician's neck as he's forcibly sent flying backwards and into the coffee table in front of his couch.

"GET OFF ME!!"

His hand is his neck as he coughs and his opponent starts to scrape himself off the floor just as well. He knows he doesn't have the time for this and his chest hurts but he doesn't have the luxury of saying "enough". He won't stop until either he lays him out or the asshole has put the musician on the floor, so he's swaying as he stands. He's swaying as he drags himself back up from the ground, but it's all he can do as that asshole is coming at him again and he has to focus.

He has to focus no matter how much pain he's in and he has to remember. He's done this a thousand times, and he's letting memory take over as he hears Tuulta explaining the motion to him in his head as if it's the first time he's been asked to this.

He was fourteen and Taivas and Tuulta wanted to give him more ways to defend himself when he was unarmed. What to do if an opponent is bigger than you and they had Helakan volunteer as tribute for such a lesson. They were only three years apart but his brother was already so much bigger than him so it served as the perfect lesson.

Let your opponent throw a punch, square your hips, in step, turn your body and use the motion to throw them straight to their back.

He's sure he practiced the motion with his brother a thousand times and it taught them both. It taught him how to protect himself and it taught Helakan how to fall.

So even as Liekki swings, he's going over the steps in his mind. Square your hips, evade the blow, in step, turn his body, and both his hands are raising to take the larger man by his arm only to flip him over his body and slam him down straight into the floor.

He can see the dazed look in his eyes as he lays there and it's then that the musician takes a moment to look around his classroom. Books all over the floor, shelves broken, coffee table busted and a picture frame full of broken glass barely hanging from a nail in the wall.

Still he's raising his hands back up with fists balled tight as his whole body falls to tremors. His chest is screaming and he can't take much more of this. His face feels hot and his hair feels sticky. He won't lie and say that one eye isn't burring in and out but they don't need to know that.

Liekki is dragging himself back up from the ground as Syksy finally fucking does something as she's up and rushing to her companion's side to help him up and help him fly out of the balcony to the right of the room.

His knees buckle as soon as they're gone and he's collapsing to the floor. His whole classroom is a disaster and it's now that he can see the blood on the knuckles of his right hand from when he punched that bastard in the mask. His hand went numb as soon as he did it, so he couldn't feel how much that was going to hurt later.

He doesn't have the strength to deal with this, so he's digging his phone out of his pocket. He needs to - he just needs - he's so dizzy. Telling his hands to do anything is hard when they're numb. He just needs to say something. Anything at all....

( phone text: "help" )

His phone falls out of his hand when he hits the floor. His chest hurts too much and he's so dizzy - he thinks maybe he'll ... take .. a .. little nap.

[arlemangel7]

Once lost

Gambit x Black fem mutant reader

Cw: death, imprisonment, blame for death, self guilt, angst,

You had just moved to the Xavier institute weeks after your father had been killed it was an accident that only you could have caused you thought to yourself he succumbed to the burns that you caused in your sleep. Unable to control you powers it was either the institute or a lab they were more fascinated with the reverse cremation and the government wanted to use your power as war weapons they tried to make you believe it was for the greater good of the humanity or whatever they said

And like a fool who blamed yourself you went into to there custody believing what your mother once said you are a monster and were born to be nothing more then a weapon. For seventeen long years they experimented on you day in and day out taking everything from bone marrow to skin samples making you out to be a broke human pin cushion. You would've stayed there initially wasn't for gambit and his thieving ways he was hired to steal some research from the facility and in the cross hairs of a mission gone sour he discovered you in one of the rooms in the basement. A soul prisoner he thought you were either useful in helping him escape this mutant sink hole and you also might need a hand out of there.

So he approached you with the offer you had been praying for, but you were hesitant to believe him because "what if my mom is right I'm a monster and I deserve to be a weapon" you said "aye yo look cher I don't know you but from the look on ya face you don't want to believe what you say is true so, I'll only ask once more are you want out or not?" Still a touch unsure you nod anyway and take his hand "great now how do we get out of here?" He questioned running in a direction with you in tow. "There is a stair case that they take me up it goes to the lab but but I'm always on the verge of passing out when they take me back here" "come on is there anything you remember sounds lights a vehicle perhaps?" "I do hear boats coming from underneath my room I've always heard stairs before the engine turns on" with time not on his side he draws a circle on the ground with his finger and it opens up a hole that drops right down Into a boat.

He jumps down first you follow suit into his catch, as soon as your safely on the floor her starts the boat and guns it for open waters. Freeing you from your prison. He advised you to hide until you were at least outside of "company waters" he put it, with the hum of the boat and the sound of the waves this made you drift to sleep real sleep for the first time in a while.

[gayalienwilde]

I could write an infinite amount of essays about the possible meanings of the alien gay sex pin in Velvet Goldmine, but I'll just write a couple, feel free to add your own theories/analyses I would absolutely love to read them!!!

Everything's under here because otherwise this post is too long to scroll by, nonetheless enjoy <3

First an observation, the fact that the pin has a lifetime of its own in the movie: Oscar Wilde has it since birth, Jack discovers it in his childhood, Brian steals it in his early 20s, Curt gets it around his mid 20s and Arthur in his late 20s/early 30s, this is connected to both the theories I'm gonna talk about so keep that in mind.

The first theory I want to discuss is that of the pin as a metaphor for queer identity and it's connection with art, all the people that own the pin in the movie are queer and almost all of them are artists, it's easy then to see the pin as a physical manifestation of how queerness inspires art and artists, it's not shown since the movie ends but it would make sense then for Arthur to also get inspired after receiving the pin and start focusing more on his passion, whatever that might be. As a viewer it's also very inspiring and validating to see people connect to their identities and passions no matter their age, so don't worry too much about "lost" time, your moment with the alien gay sex pin will come :^)

The second possible meaning for the pin I want to analyse is that of queer connection and community. Just like the green carnation, the pin as a symbol for gay community is "born" with Oscar Wilde, and it's alien powers are manifested in the way it always appears when it's needed the most, this also connects to the way the pin changes ownership throughout the movie. After Wilde the pin (read as community) is found by Jack at his lowest, and it gives him hope, all of this is clearly stated by the voiceover that talks about his unhappy childhood that changes "one mysterious day, when Jack would discover that somewhere there were others quite like him", maybe he doesn't meet other queer people immediately, but he probably discovers he's not alone through learning about Wilde (at school or maybe thanks to the pin), it's even more obvious later seeing Jack being fully confident and comfortable in his identity that he'd been sure of who he is from a pretty young age. Then the pin is stolen by Brian. We're shown Brian as a newcomer to the Sombrero, so Brian knows where to find community, and he's not doing bad like Jack was when he finds it, so it makes sense for him to be the only person that has to steal the pin, he doesn't find it and it's not gifted to him either, he greedily takes it even if he's already got everything it could offer. Alongside the pin Jack's entourage is also "stolen" and they begin to work with Brian, but it's not just them, we see Brian use people, fashion and ideas from the queer community for his own gains, Mandy, Cecil and even Curt become stepping stones for him to reach mainstream popularity. At his most confident, he gives the pin to Curt, and we go back to the pin's usual modus operandi. After the breakup with Brian he's left sad and alone in a foreign city where he can't find community on his own, that's when he connects with Jack, so the pin either predicted that he was gonna need someone or as soon as Brian gave it up it took its revenge for being stolen by causing Brian's downfall, as seen by basically everyone abandoning him and the community of fans turning on him. The pin reaches its final owner when it's given to Arthur by Curt. Even if young Arthur's story in the movie is all about him finding his community after leaving his house, we see that in the 80s he's all alone. In the movie Arthur says that "money, the future and a serious life" made him forget his past, but we can guess that having moved to a different country and the 80s being horrible is also something that probably caused him to lose his connection with other queer people. Arthur has clearly lost all hope until he starts doing his research and meets Curt again, he is no longer alone. To him Curt is both a connection to his past and queerness, but since in the 80s gay people need to hide once more they have to use symbols again to communicate with eachother, so Curt gives the pin to Arthur, to let him know that he recognizes him and also to give him something that will help him find his community of "unspeakables of the Oscar Wilde sort" again. So the pin is very important because connecting with an understanding community is very important, not just for gay people but for everyone, since it's easy to read the pin also a symbol of being a fan of something and finding other fans through wearing pins and merchandise of your favourite show/band etc... and of course many other symbols used by different communities to recognise each other. Funnily enough, even in real life the pin is the symbol of a community, our fandom of alien gay sex lovers <3

[violetnerves]

The Rise and Fall of Jenny Hopkins, aged 15 - Chapter 4, Part 1: Under Pressure.

Well this is embarrassing. It's been awhile, life happened and I also procrastinated. But I've got it done so here you go!

A bit of a slow chapter, it's mainly set up for part 2 besides the introduction to some of the original female characters meant to expand the female cast since there were very few girls at the Academy in the original game.

Word Count: 8,284

Some Content warnings that may apply:

-Jenny's got a bit of a case of internalized misogyny. I sorta hinted at it in earlier chapters but I tried to make it apparent here.

-Some foul language. I think I might've been too frivolous with it here, though considering the first chapter had the c-word in it I guess that's to be expected at this point.

I'll admit, I had a pretty nice day with Gary yesterday. Yeah, I didn't think I'd admit that to myself either, but I really did. Since I'm basically talking to myself, it's fine if I do. Not like anybody else is ever gonna read this.

Well… unless my dream of becoming a successful rockstar ends up panning out, and I decide to publish this diary, claiming it as my autobiography that I totally didn't just put out as an easy money grab. That isn't like me at all, I don't even like money that much!

Anyway, enough lying off my ass, I'm sure you're wondering what Gary and I got up to.

After we left Burgers right after Gary called me… pretty… he talked me into stealing a bike with him, and we rode through Old Bullworth Vale, specifically the neighborhood where all the Preps lived. It was some weirdly laid out cul-de-sac, rather than some kind of gated community like I would've expected. Many of the houses did have a large metal fence and gate surrounding them though, with Tad Spencer's even having an extra fence just to enclose the garage.

Gary pointed out Derby, Tad's and Pinky's house, as well as Petey's house since he apparently lived in the area too. For some reason he felt the need to point out how Petey's house was only one story, and how the only reason they lived there was because Pete's mom is an obese whale who'd fall through the floor of any building higher than ground level. I had to wonder what that kid even did to Gary to make him feel the need to insult him all the time, even when he wasn't around, and if Pete was even aware of the reason.

“So, where's your house then?” I asked out of curiosity, just casually peddling beside Gary on the side of the road as we made our way to Bullworth Town. “I noticed you didn't point it out, do you live out of town or are you from a different state and just familiar with the area from attending the Academy for so long?”

Gary didn't answer my question immediately, despite staring at me the entire time. 

It was really starting to annoy me. It was bad enough that he felt the need to call me pretty (If he hadn't bought me lunch, I probably would've slugged him in the face right after he'd said it.) but now with the staring? 

“Gary, could you quit staring at me like that? It's weirding me out.”

The guy looked like he'd been caught red-handed committing a crime, his eyes widening as we stopped by the entrance to the park not too far from the fast food place we'd eaten at earlier. He tried to give a response, eyes darting around as he clearly didn't have a good explanation, and only managed to blurt out:

“I wasn't staring at you.”

I rolled my eyes, instead changing the subject back to asking where he lived.

“So? Where do you actually live?” I asked once more, my tone a bit bitchier than I intended it to come out. Understandable given his behavior.

Just… God, why did he have to call me pretty? That's the last thing I ever wanted to be. I didn't want to look attractive to anyone, that would make me more of a target than I already was just for being born a girl at all.

I bet ugly guys don't have to deal with bullcrap like this. Dammit, why couldn't I have just been born a dude! 

Then again, I guess it could be worse. He could've said something stupid like, oh I don't know, I love you or something. I didn't trust anyone except my mother to say that to me… even though I really couldn't remember the last time my mother had told me she loved me…

Whatever. 

If Gary really had said that to me, I would've ditched him at Burgers and probably ditched school altogether.

I knew I could never, ever trust a man to say he loved me and actually mean it without some kind of catch.

It wasn't completely impossible for me to avoid going back to the Academy anyway, I'd once ran away from home for about a month and a half about two years ago in a really really dumb attempt to find my biological father. During that time, I'd taught myself how to drive, drank my first beer, and even realized that I was a little bit of a dyke. Good times.

Gary's demeanor flipped like a switch, and suddenly that nervousness from earlier was gone. He'd gone back to his usual confident self, it was almost like he hadn't been nervous at all.

How the hell did he even do that? First Gary's angry then chill the next second, then he's nervous and now he seems like he has everything under control? Man, I wish I could do that, maybe I'd be considered less of a bitch.

“Oh, me? My place is out of town and pretty isolated, it's about 30 miles North of Bullworth. Not really walking or biking distance. It's a manor, way bigger than Derby's mansion too… You know, I could invite you over sometime…” Gary said, leaning on his (stolen) bike in what I can only describe as… seductive… yet weirdly pitiful. Like he was trying to charm me, except he didn't seem confident about it. It kind of reminded me of Pete a little, though only the latter part. Pete was only charming in a pitiful way, like a kitten with a cold.

“I'm good, thanks,” I replied.

I expected Gary to try and push the topic, but he thankfully took the hint. Instead we headed into this place called “Old Bullworth Gardens” for a bit. It was just some park, there wasn't even any sort of garden around at all. Why even call it a garden if there wasn't anything besides trees around?

Gary got the idea of practicing my aim more with the slingshot by hiding in a tree and slinging pebbles at random passerby. I went through with it, because the idea sounded funny. 

And you know what? It was.

He’d point out someone, and I'd aim at them and shoot. Didn’t matter if it was some old lady or a guy wearing shorts 2 sizes too small for him going out on a late mid-day run: either way, they got the gift of a pebble getting launched at their head. I tried to avoid hitting anyone in the eyes, but that was about it. It's not like a little pebble could kill anyone after all… It's a bit stupid to die from getting hit by a pebble.

…

Gary stood behind the tree I was in, letting out a quiet chuckle with every hit I managed to get. 

Now that I think about it, describing his laughter as a chuckle didn't seem right, it was more comparable to a giggle. It was boyish and sweet, and it caught me off guard hearing it come out of the mouth of a guy like Gary. Especially since all I was doing was beaming people in the head with small pebbles. Maybe I was missing something, could it be something else that was causing it?

Maybe not, Gary was a bit of a weirdo. I knew that from the first time I'd ever spoken to him.

I wasn't exaggerating when I said Gary's weird giggling caught me off guard. A guy with crutches and a cast on his leg wobbled by, and, to my surprise, I accidentally released the slingshot’s flimsy rubber band. Instead of hitting the guy with the crutches, it hit a nearby wasp nest in a tree about a few feet away from the one I was in. The nest fell, and unfortunately for the couple having a picnic right underneath that same tree, it landed right between the two of them.

Gary's giggling turned into full on hysterical laughter as the couple screamed in terror and fled the gardens, trailed by a swarm of angry wasps.

Unfortunately, Gary's loud ass laugh got the attention of a nearby cop.

“Hey! What are you two doing out of school?! Don't think for a second about acting stupid, I see those uniforms!”

Gary seemingly didn't think twice about making a run for it without helping me out of the tree, but truthfully? I hardly blamed him.

I would've done the same thing really. A dick move, sure, but not one that I wouldn’t have done.

I scrambled down the tree and barely avoided the officer grabbing me as I sprinted off in the same direction as Gary, the cop still on my ass. As I shoved my slingshot back in my bag, I was stumped on how to get this guy off me… until I remembered something.

Behind the junk bus, just before I smashed its windows in, I spotted a plastic bag of marbles and shoved them in my purse as a keepsake. I wasn't sure why they were there, maybe some other student had dropped the bag or just stashed them there for who knows what reason.

I undid the tie on the bag and tossed it behind me without looking back, hearing the contents rattle out on the gravel crosswalk loudly. Next thing I heard was the even louder sound of a body hitting concrete, followed by a string of agonized curses. I didn't look back, but I still ended up barely holding back a laugh.

Just my luck, I actually ended up losing track of Gary. I briefly wondered if he and Davis were in the same Track team or something as I decided to run down toward the beach as the sun began to set on the horizon, turning the ocean from its natural blue color to a warm, saturated orange.

Looking at the water, I almost felt the temptation to dive in for some reason. It was stupid, I mean, it was October, and it was the beginning of Fall, the water was freezing… besides, I didn't even like swimming that much. 

…Didn't help that one-piece swimsuits typically made for girls my size tended to be pretty ugly… and there was no way I was ever swimming in a bikini…

I stood at the top of the steps at the entrance to the beach, and as I made my way down to the sandbank below, I felt an odd sense of apprehension come over me. I looked around, but besides some of the townsfolk walking around town clearly minding their own business, there wasn't anything or anyone around that could've been the cause of the weird feeling.

Shaking my head, I stepped onto the beach and walked right, my gaze fixated on the light house.

I’d… never seen one of those so close up before. It seemed to be abandoned, the light at the very top unlit and the mechanism that made it spin wasn’t on either. Underneath it was a small building, connected to the main pier with a ramp leading up to what I assumed was the entrance to the place.

I’ll admit, I got a bit curious. Before I could actually satiate that curiosity however, I felt a pair of hands grab me from behind. One hand was on my mouth, while the other had a firm grip on my right shoulder.

I didn't waste any time reacting, slamming my elbow into whoever was grabbing me. He grunted, I could tell it was a guy from how deep the sound of it was. Before he could do anything I whipped around and grabbed his throat.

I didn't apply any pressure though… because I realized it was Gary. Even though my hands were wrapped firmly around his throat, the motherfucker was grinning. He let out this throaty, mild and short chuckle as he stared at me with his head lifted up. 

My hands left his throat and I stared at him completely baffled. What the fuck was wrong with this guy?

Scratch that, I should've been asking a different question, something along the lines of what wasn't wrong with this guy. That would've been easier to answer…

…Like… I dunno, his tooth gap was kind of cute? I guess?

…

…Maybe seeing the school counselor wasn’t such a bad idea from Crabblesnitch after all. Seriously Jenny-girl, what the fuck is wrong with you? What the actual fuck? First you date a guy 5 years older than you back in 7th grade that ended up stabbing his aunt with a sharpened candy cane on the 4th of July, and now this shit?

You seriously need to get better taste in men.

Gary let out that weird giggle again, and I switched from being baffled to being pissed off.

“What’s so funny you moron? What were you thinking?!”

He kept chuckling, and I seriously considered actually strangling him when he finally spoke. What he said next only reinforced the thought.

“Awww… Did I scare you Jane? I was just trying to be funny, didn't think you'd try to strangle me like that. A bit of a psychotic response don't you think?” he spoke, smirking briefly with a short ‘heh’ before continuing, “Anyway… you wanna watch the sunset with me? I saw you looking at it beforehand so…”

What the hell was-

…

…Oh what the Hell, I was just repeating myself at this point. 

It's like his constant weird behavior was tiring me out. Just one thing right after the other. None of it was enough to make me leave, instead, I found myself tolerating it.

For what reason? I didn't know, still don't.

So what did I do?

“...Sure Gary…”

I watched the sunset with him. Yes, seriously. It was pretty nice actually, he didn't even do anything weird for the rest of the day afterwards… Thankfully.

Aside from a comment he made about the sunset reminding him of my eyes. I rolled my eyes at that, giving him a firm and final “whatever.”

By the time we were ready to go, it was past curfew, so Gary and I headed back to the school. The Prefects that were patrolling around the school grounds for curfew dodgers were hardly an issue, not noticing as we slipped through a huge hole in the outer fence wall… 

…Which we could've gone through earlier rather than hopping the fence…

Why didn’t we go through there earlier? I didn’t think to ask at the time since… well I was tired as hell at that point from all the action and Gary in general and just didn’t think about it at the time. I figure I should ask Gary about it later, but knowing me, I'll probably forget to do it. It's not like it's that much of a big deal anyways.

I did learn something new from Gary before we split up to go back to our respective Dorms for the night. The front doors of the dorms were locked up after curfew, so entering from there wasn't an option. Instead, there was a window that led straight into the attic of the girl's dorm, which for whatever reason was never closed. Aside from having to climb a lattice wall covered in overgrown vines just to get up to the window, I didn't have any issue sneaking back into the dorm, and back into my room.

No, I don't know why Gary knows about that entrance. Again… I was too tired to ask. To be honest, I don’t remember much else from that night, safe to say I was pretty checked out by that point. Weirdly, the last thing I remember that night before passing out was the sound of somebody puking their guts out, coming from the area where the bathroom was. Not sure what was up with that.

I woke up still wearing my school uniform. I even still had that origami flower Gary tied to my hair, which I'd figured would have fallen out with how loose I'd tied it, but apparently not.

Trisha was the one who woke me up by the way, not because she wanted to be annoying, but because if she hadn’t, I would’ve been late for class otherwise. Pretty cool of her, but I still ended up giving her shit for it anyway because I'm an absolute bitch with a capital b in the morning. Next chance I get I should probably apologize… If I remember to do it.

Didn't help that she asked about the flower, wondering where I'd gotten it and why I was wearing it in my hair. I practically ripped it out and shoved it into my section of the closet.

Despite all that, I think I was starting to tolerate Trisha at this point. It helps that she’s only mildly annoying, and not on purpose. Trisha's just… like that. Trisha doesn't go out of her way to be a dick, unlike pretty much everybody in this God forsaken school. Namely this one brunette - Mandy I think her name was? - who tripped Trisha on her way out of the Dormitory. I helped the fallen girl up and yelled at the girl in the cheerleader outfit, but Mandy just laughed and walked off. What a friggin bitch.

Trisha thanked me and we parted ways, and that was that.

I barely made it in time for Biology. It was… normal I guess? I already knew the teacher's name was Dr. Slaughter, and boy did his personality certainly match his name. He complimented me on my delicate knife work, but instead of feeling pretty good about the praise, it just weirded me out. I feel like he and that creepy janitor I've seen around campus who mumbles a lot hide dead bodies together after school. 

I just so happened to be partnered up with Eunice for the whole thing, but she wasn't much help. She was pretty sensitive about seeing the frog's innards, and the most I could get her to do was pass the tools I needed and label the drawings of the organs on the sheet we were given. We did chat for a bit, mainly about the other girls at the school. Turns out Eunice was a bit of a gossip with a little bit of nudging.

I did get some info on the more prominent girls around the campus, since Gary neglected to actually fill me in on any of them earlier.

First of all, there was Marian Abbott, the Head Girl. Her family was British, but she was born in America so that meant pretty much nothing really. She's basically an American. She was in her senior year and admitted that she was aiming to go to Harvard, which Eunice thought was pretty believable given how seriously she took her studies… along with the fact that her dad was a billionaire who could easily afford the tuition. She didn't go out of her way to talk to people, but that didn't matter since people would go out of their way to talk to her. She was also technically a part of the Jocks clique since she was Head of the swim team, but there was another girl in the clique who was far more important than her.

Mandy Wyles, the head cheerleader. Why was she so important? Besides the fact that she was the head cheerleader? It was because her boyfriend, Ted Thompson, was the Captain of Bullworth's football team. Yeah, her popularity was solely because of a man, a boy really. That was what gave her status. She was otherwise a vapid bully, and constantly had her eyes on the Greasers clique leader rather than her actual boyfriend. She ruled the Girl's dorm with an iron fist, since she pretty much had Mrs. Peabody wrapped around her perfectly manicured finger. If a girl did something she personally didn't approve of or inconvenienced her in some way, she'd go crying to Peabody about it and the old hag would go out of her way to find something to punish the offending girl for.

Hearing that, I thought back to what Dr. Lamb said about Mrs. Peabody looking after the girls. Was she lying about that or delusional? I'd believe that second one, seems like a lot of people in this place have their heads up their asses or something, it'd explain everybody's crappy mood.

Heh.

Oh, and she apparently has an eating disorder or something like that, and she hid it by throwing up in either the Girl’s Dorms or gym bathrooms late at night or whenever there wasn’t anyone around. I guess that explained the puking I'd heard from the night before. Personally, I don’t think it could’ve happened to a nicer girl.

I’m sure if I said that aloud, you’d be able to hear the condescension in my tone.

Then there was Lola Lombardi, the top girl of the Greasers. Two guesses as to why that is. 

That's right, It's because she's dating the leader of the Greasers, Johnny Vincent. Granted, she does have a bit of a girl posse going on with some of the other Greaser's girlfriends. Their little sub-group is pretty identical to their male counterparts, but a lot more subtle when it comes to their harassment, mainly because of Mrs. Peabody. Apparently Lola really, really hated any girl that admitted to wanting to hook up with her boyfriend. It probably would've been understandable, if it wasn't for the fact that Lola herself was a serial cheater. Every year since they'd first gotten together, Lola would cheat on Johnny with multiple guys, and her little gang would try to cover it up and make sure Johnny didn't find out about it. Except they must've been pretty bad at doing it, since Johnny would always end up finding out about his girlfriend playing hot potato with her and another dude's lips at least once, and it'd end pretty badly for whatever guy was smoochin’ Lola. Last year, one of those stupid and unlucky boys even ended up in a 3 month coma, but when the cops tried asking him how it happened and who did it, the kid couldn't even remember who had beaten him up to begin with, so Johnny and his boys got off scott free.

Oh, and despite the Greasers and Preps being rivals with one another, Lola has issues with Mandy Wyles rather than the main Prep girl, Pinky Gauthier. Mandy's been pretty upfront with wanting to get together with Johnny for a long time, but because of how close she is with Mrs. Peabody, Lola and her crew basically can't touch her, nevermind breathe the same air.

Speaking of Pinky, she's the main Prep girl. She's… pretty unremarkable. According to Eunice, she's not even mean to anyone, at least in comparison to the others at the Academy; At worst, she complains a lot and loudly about her ridiculously young step-mother, either because the other womans been borrowing her clothes or makeup or whatever without asking; apparently the last complaint was about the step-mom taking her limited edition Nintendogs metallic rose colored Nintendo DS. Initially, it seemed like she was pretty inoffensive, I thought I could’ve found some common ground with her by complaining about the annoying things my mom does… then I remembered she was dating her cousin, Derby Harrington. I dunno if I'd even want to associate with somebody like that.

While Pinky was the most prominent and popular girl of the Preps, there was another significant girl to be aware of. 

Annette Caldwell.

Annette, as far as what Eunice has told me, is a ticking time bomb. She acts like she's all calm and collected, but if you were to wrong her in some way you'd never hear the end of it, at least these days. In the past, she used to be just kind of two-faced, speaking kindly of people only to talk shit about them behind their back; A coward basically.

But then her family started getting into financial trouble, the kind you couldn't easily get out of. Recently she's been trying to get Derby to date her, in what Eunice assumed was a way to get her family some financial security. Not that Annette getting with Derby was any better than him dating his cousin, because Annette was also his cousin; The rich of Bullworth seemed to be real connected with each other, which made me wonder why the Harrington's weren't already helping the Caldwell's out of their financial woes.

By the day, it seemed like she's been getting worse and worse, and I'm pretty sure it was her I'd heard yelling at the top of her lungs at someone from halfway across the main school building yesterday.

Could've just been some random girl, but the voice sounded like it belonged to some high-class snooty teenage girl that was having a mental breakdown, so I just assumed.

At the very bottom of relevancy was Beatrice Trudeau, main girl of the Nerds. I was sort of familiar with her… though, mainly her smell. I'm pretty sure I'd hurried past her on my way to Biology this morning, and that was enough to make me dislike her immediately. Seriously, has that girl ever heard of deodorant?

She was probably one of the few Nerds that actually seemed to care about her future beyond swearing that they'll be their bullies boss someday. She could often be found in the library after school like the rest of the nerds, but rather than playing Grottos and Gremlins, she'd have her face shoved in some kind of book along with a few of the other Nerd girls she got along with.

Even though I probably didn't really need the info, I ended up asking Eunice about Trisha and what her whole deal was. Mainly how she was even in the Bullies clique in the first place. Sure, Trent was her brother and that probably answered my question, but it still seemed strange that somebody like Russell would just allow her in given her… quirks... 

Well, I was sort of right, but it was a bit more complicated.

See, Trisha Northwick considered herself… a witch. Seriously, she was 100% convinced she was some kind of magic girl in some book she liked, though she was pretty inconsistent about how her magic worked. Last year she got in trouble for taking all the salt from the cafeteria kitchen along with a shit ton of glitter from the art room and spreading it in a ring around the Boy's Dorm at 3 in the morning. When she got caught, she claimed that she was trying to cleanse the demons and evil spirits out of the Dorm, only to be told by Crabblesnitch that there weren't any demons in the Dorm, only the male students. She then tried arguing that the demons were obviously separate beings from the students that lived there, but that the salt circle would probably do them some good anyway by cleansing their souls and making them act nicer. 

I kinda figured Trisha had a few screws loose, but this was something else. At least it seemed like her delusions were meant to be helpful, if still bafflingly ridiculous.

As for the whole Russell thing? Well, he was convinced of her whole witch delusion, and the only reason she was in his clique was because Trent told him that if he didn't let her join, Trisha would get upset and put a curse on him. It was kind of screwed up actually, Russell was obviously “slow”, and you could probably make the argument that the two were taking advantage of that.

Not that I cared really. That huge idiot gave me a bloody nose on my first day here, could've broken it too with how hard he'd hit me, so why should I be concerned with a nutcase and her bully of a brother taking advantage of his retardation?

Yeah, that's right. It's none of my damn business.

Plus, actually trying to do something to make the students around here act less like assholes, even if it is utterly delusional and wouldn't have actually worked, isn't a completely terrible idea. Obviously, though, there were… better ways to go about it.

Did I know of any specific one? Not really, but I assumed there was. Best I could think of doing was smacking anybody harassing me for something stupid. Gary probably had some ideas though.

After biology was lunch, but rather than stop by the lunchroom to get a whiff of whatever unholy dish that ogre was cooking up, I instead went straight towards the school counselor's office. I was told I could either visit during lunch or after the second class was over, and since I really just wanted to get this over with I decided lunch would be fine.

As of now, I’m sitting by Dr. Lamb’s office door with this dumb diary in hand, more or less stalling; My pen rolling in between my fingers as I press the tip to the paper, jotting down one last sentence.

Just get it over with Jen. 

***

I shut the diary loudly and stuffed it back into my purse along with my pen. Usually I would've kept the holy grail of all my secrets and insecurities and secret insecurities somewhere more private than my purse, like burying it in the closet, but I didn't fully trust Trisha not to snoop around and find it. It was nothing personal, truthfully I'd do the same thing with pretty much any girl in this school. I’ve gotten my diary stolen before back at the third school I'd attended, the one in San Andreas.

Admittedly, the only reason it even happened was because I'd brought it to school in the first place, but since just leaving it at home wasn't an option here, keeping it in my purse was arguably safer; Especially since nowadays I could just beat up anybody stupid enough to run off with my bag.

My hand met the stainless steel door handle into Dr. Lamb's office and opened it, peeking inside to see her typing at her computer. She noticed me and waved with a warm smile.

“Oh! Hello Jane, nice of you to drop by!” Dr. Lamb said, her voice a bit weary. It didn't match her appearance, which was noticeably better than yesterday. I swear, it was like she'd gotten done having some kind of mental breakdown right before catching Gary and I jumping the fence. I'd ask, but I figured she'd ignore me or change the topic. It's what my mom would do, well, actually, mom tended to get mad more often than the other two, but Dr. Lamb didn't seem like that type of person.

I scanned the room itself. It was pretty boring, the only sense of Dr. Lamb’s touch seemed to be mostly restricted to her desk.

“Yeah, I kinda just wanted to get this over with. Gives me an excuse to skip lunch too,” I said, sitting in one of the office chairs set not too far from the front of her desk. I let my purse dangle on one of the chairs’ arms. I Continued with, “So, how are ya doing?”

Dr. Lamb gave me a look of concern.

“You mean you haven't eaten anything today? Did you at least eat something for breakfast?”

“Nothing besides a Beam cola. I'm not really interested in getting food poisoning on my first week of school.”

She sighed, in a way that sounded like she understood the terrible state of the food in the cafeteria but was still disappointed that I'd choose going hungry over just risking it and eating whatever looked the most edible thing on the menu.

“Well I can't just let you go hungry. Hold on, let me just get this out,” before I could tell her it was fine and that I was used to going hungry, she was already rummaging through her desk.

Dr. Lamb ducked down in her chair and I heard a drawer from behind her desk being opened up. As she rummaged through from wherever, I noticed the photo frames on her desk. She had a good number of photos but one stood out to me for whatever reason.

It was Dr. Lamb with a butch looking woman and a young girl, probably kindergarten age. The three were at some kind of beach, and the butch woman and Lamb were building a sandcastle with the girl, who I could guess was probably Dr. Lamb's daughter with how similar they looked.

My focus left the pictures and went back to Dr. Lamb, who set a fairly large black canvas lunch bag on her desk. She unzipped the top, and it turned out to have several baggies full of what appeared to be sandwiches wrapped up in napkins. 

“I've noticed that a lot of the students around here seem to avoid eating the food in the cafeteria, so I figured I'd get permission to have the students in my afternoon Home Economics class make these sandwiches as a warmup while I get their assignment ready and hand them out. They're basically just PB and J sandwiches with banana slices in them, though I did make sure to include a few that's just jelly and banana, for the students that have a peanut allergy. Feel free to take one!”

My gaze shifted from the bag back to Dr. Lamb, and for some reason I couldn't help but to think back to what Gary had said about her.

"I mean, Lamb just seems like she's hiding something to me. She's a new hire, and I feel like she's just putting on this act of being all sweet and kind until she reveals who she really is…”

It's not like I hadn't been screwed over by a “nice” teacher before. I was still going to be careful, but I was kind of hungry, so…

“Thanks ma'am,” I replied, taking one of the bags and unwrapping the sandwich inside of it. Sure enough, it was just a plain, white bread PBJ, one of the banana slices peeking out between the two bread slices. Not like I was expecting anything spectacular, “It's better than nothing.”

Dr. Lamb smiled and zipped the bag up, putting it back where she'd pulled it out.

“Yes, it's far better than skipping a meal. Listen Jenny, that’s not the kind of habit you want to repeat, it could lead to an eating disorder. Teen girls around your age are particularly susceptible to developing them.”

“So I've heard,” I said. It's not like I was at risk of it. I just needed to cut back on the Beam colas, which I could do at any time. Y'know, if I ever felt like it.

Which wasn't anytime soon I don't think. Didn't mean I had a problem though obviously.

“I'm serious Jane,” Dr. Lamb replied, her tone sounding more like a stern parent than her usual soft spoken way of talking. Which didn't seem too out of place oddly enough, “Just try and eat the most edible thing on the menu, at least until after Halloween when they finally let you students roam the town.”

I groaned. I wasn't gonna be too mean, but I knew I had to be blunt.

“Listen, Lamb, there's nothin’ edible comin’ out of that lunchroom. It's like the food's being made by a lunch lady that's deliberately tryin’ to poison people. And given the amount of kids I've seen runnin’ out of the lunchroom just to puke their guts out in the garbage cans out in the hallway cause the ones in the lunchroom are occupied? She's doin’ a great job. Seriously, I think that Edna woman needs to be fired. Her cooking could probably be considered a war crime.”

Dr. Lamb gave me a look that outright said, ‘You're right, but you shouldn't say it,’ which meant she was definitely gonna get on my case about saying it in the first place.

Except she didn't. She changed the topic instead, and somehow that ended up being worse than her reprimanding me for just being honest.

“So I'd like to talk about what happened yesterday…”

“What the fight or Gary and I skipping school?”

“About - Waitaminute w-what fight?”

Shit, did I just tell on myself? I guess that explains why I hadn’t gotten called in for it. I guess getting beat up for the second time in a row by the new girl on her second day left them too embarrassed to say anything about it. Since I've already blabbed and it could get that asshole Davis into trouble, I decided to just tell her. It’d whittle their number down a bit more… Or I could get in trouble again…

“Uh, yeah. That Davis White kid shot a pebble at me and lured me into the Shop class area where the rest of his buddies were, and so I had to beat the crap out of them again. They did it cause they were mad about Trent and Russell getting in trouble.”

“Oh for fu-BUCK’S sake.”

I kinda just stared at the blonde woman as Lamb held her head in her hands, pressing her thin hands into her face. She mumbled up a storm and the few bits I could make out among the jumbled mess of words were: “Second day” “2 months” and “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph”. I wondered briefly if I should interrupt but figured that, with how run ragged she seemed to be yesterday, this school's craziness was starting to get to her. Gary had said she was new, and that was pretty obvious when compared to the other faculty who were either just another part of the school's madness or completely numb to it.

It'd be terrible to see that kind of thing happen to her, even if what Gary said about her was true.

The blonde woman grumbled a bit more before scratching her head and glancing at me again.

“I-it's fine… Though I will have to inform Dr. Crabblesnitch of this… But what I actually meant to talk about was the other incident. Concerning you and Gary hopping the main gate.” 

I already figured that one was coming.

“Yes ma'am? What about it? I thought it was kinda weird how I didn’t get called into the office for it, figured you would've told Crabblesnitch by now. I wouldn't even really blame you for doing it, protocol and all that nonsense,” I said, finally opening up the bagged PBJ I'd been offered to dig into. 

“I did, at least as soon as I could do it. I actually did it this morning.”

I raised an eyebrow at that.

“This morning?” I said, the surprise in my tone apparent, “You mean you didn’t do it right after you caught us?”

She shook her head.

“No, I'd planned on it but I kept running into distractions throughout the day. It was my turn to patrol the school grounds along with Mr. Galloway, but unfortunately he seemed to be preoccupied with… something else… so it was just me and one of the Prefects at the time. It's why I was out there to see you two climbing the gate. It was just one thing after another; I needed to attend my afternoon Home Economics class. One boy shoved a firecracker down another boy's pants during shop class and it triggered the shop class teacher's PTSD. A fight broke out in front of the Boy's Dorm…” The blonde’s eyes unconsciously landed on me, and I had to hold back an eye roll so she wouldn't notice. “Again…” Lamb just kept going and going with all the stuff that went down while Gary and I were out on the town yesterday, and I briefly wondered if stuff like this happened on the regular. Did the school board or whoever was in charge of monitoring schools know about any of it? 

Eventually Dr. Lamb got to the point, “I did catch you two going back to the school grounds later on in the day on my way home, but I still made sure to inform Dr. Crabblesnitch of the incident this morning...”

“Wait, if you told him then how come I wasn't called up to the office for it?” I replied with a mouthful of PBJ.

“Because he had already been informed of the incident by Gary.”

I blinked, swallowing the bit of sandwich I had so I could ask clearly. But I found it a bit hard to speak. Gary had said something? He'd admitted it? I mean, I guess he'd have to since we'd been caught but I hadn't taken him for being such a casual snitch.

Given we seemingly hadn't gotten in trouble for it though… maybe he'd had the right idea.

“Gary admitted it?” I asked, as if for some reason I needed to confirm what Dr. Lamb just told me barely a second ago, “What exactly did he tell Dr. Crabblesnitch then besides that? Because, well, I don't take the Headmaster as somebody who would let something as serious as leaving campus without telling anybody very lightly…”

“Oh he took it quite well actually. Gary had approached him earlier in the morning right as he left his car. Gary’s reasoning for it was because he got a little impatient and since you were new, he'd wanted to just show you around town before they finally opened up the gates after Halloween. I'd assume since Gary is the current Head Boy and meant well enough, Dr. Crabblesnitch decided to let it go, especially since there hadn't been any incidents reported by the police as a result of you two. He told me he let Gary off with a warning and wanted me to tell you the same.”

I guess that means I'm off the hook and that the cop I'd tripped up with marbles hadn’t bothered to report us either… Or he’d hit his head hard enough on the pavement to forget about it entirely. Either way, it meant I wasn't gonna get in trouble for once, so I was fine with brushing it off entirely and keeping my mouth shut about that.

“Alright then. I actually wasn’t fully ok with the idea of leaving campus to be honest. I only went along with it cause I didn’t want to eat lunch in the cafeteria.”

Dr. Lamb smiled and responded with:

“Ok, just don't do it again. If you really do get hungry, then please don't hesitate to just ask me for a sandwich. At the end of the day I usually end up having extras anyway.”

“Yeah… Sure, I'll remember to ask,” I replied. My eyes shifted over to the wall clock, but unfortunately I still had about 15 minutes before the bell rang and I could finally get outta here. Why can't the hours fly by when you want them to?

“Jenny?”

My attention focused back on Dr. Lamb.

“Yes ma'am?”

“I'd like to just ask something. On your first day, when Trent and his friends were trying to take money from you, you know you could've-”

Ugh, here we go.

“Could've what? Run off to find faculty or a prefect instead of hitting Trent? I ran to the office right after anyway, the Bullies decided to escalate things, not me. I actually gave him a warning before I actually got physical too! He decided to ignore it,” I knew exactly where Lamb had been going with her sentence because I'd heard the same thing a million times, from men and women of all kinds. From the people that were supposed to stop this kind of crap before it happened. It's bullshit, it's always been grade A bullshit. I didn't want to think Gary was right about her, but this definitely wasn't helping.

Hey God! If you're real, why do you keep pulling this stuff on me? Give me a friggin’ break! What the hell did I ever do to you anyway?

Lamb frowned, and her response felt the same as my rant about the lunchroom from earlier, except this time I was the one who decided to change the topic. 

My thoughts went back to the framed photo on her desk, and curiosity got a hold of me.

“Who's that woman in the photo with you and your daughter? Is that a family friend or something?”

She looked at the photo as well.

“Oh her? That’s my girl-” Dr.Lamb suddenly stammered a bit, seemingly correcting herself, “R-roommate! She’s my roommate. W-we co-parent.”

A few awkward minutes passed before I nodded and said:

“Whatever you say ma'am,” I told her with a bored tone in my voice. 

I figured that was the only way to sort of brush off the fact that I actually knew what she meant. It was clearly a secret she wanted to keep to herself, I guess to keep her job, which was a reason I could understand. Not sure why she even wanted to work at Bullworth though, given its reputation. Maybe it was the only work she could get?

But even if she was a jerk, I don’t think I'd tell anybody about it, even out of spite.

Mercifully, the bell finally rang and with only a wave I left the room.

Not exactly polite, but I wasn’t in the mood to stay around.

As I made my way out into the hallway of the second floor, a familiar voice called out.

“Hey, Jenny!” 

I turned my head in the direction of the voice, and it turned out to be Pete, walking over to me with what looked like a book bag slung over his shoulder. As he got a bit closer I noticed his hair was slightly damp, like he’d taken a shower recently. Either that, or he’d been on the receiving end of a swirly. Gary mentioned that happening to Pete a lot.

“Hey Pete, what up?” I replied back as he stopped in front of me, barely looking eye-to-eye - I was a bit shorter than him, which certainly said something about my height since Pete barely stood taller than some of the younger kids around here - as he picked at his right ear. Must've been a bit waterlogged.

“Gary wanted me to tell you that after the next class is over, he wants you to go to the library and meet up with Algie. Apparently he needs to get to his locker in order to return some library books.”

“He can't do it himself? Also, why did Gary send you off to tell me, couldn't he have told me this himself?” 

OK, right after saying that, I realized it sounded a bit rude, like I would've preferred talking to Gary instead of Pete. But instead of mulling over it I just waited for Pete to answer.

Pete sighed before explaining.

“Algie is terrified of going into the main school building after dinner is over. The Prefects start patrolling the school grounds since that’s where everybody else is while the rest of the faculty either hang out in the Teacher’s lounge, stay in their classrooms to work on whatever or they leave campus for the day. It basically means the Bullies have free reign of the building until about 8 PM when the janitor locks the building up.”

“Ok, yeah that makes sense, but why couldn't he just tell me this? I mean, he did tell me about Algie needing help when we were in town the other day…” Granted, I could only vaguely remember that. It's a good idea that I'd been reminded at all. But again, why couldn't Gary do it?

Pete looked at me in confusion.

“Y-you guys went into town? Did… anyone else tag along with you two or..?”

“Uh, no. It was just me and him, why?” Pete looked at me weirdly, and suddenly I realized where his thoughts were going, “Get your head out of the gutter Pete.”

Pete put his hands up defensively.

“Hold up, I didn't mean to imply you guys were doing anything like that, I just thought- Oh forget it,” he went to the back of his head, only to suddenly jerk his hand away with a look of disgust. 

Ah, ok it definitely was a swirly then. Poor guy.

…Hopefully he remembers to flush his ears out, toilet water induced ear infections weren't pleasant to deal with…

…So I've heard anyway, typically from the people whose heads I'd shoved in the toilet. Not without reason, of course.

Pete continued talking, changing the topic and giving me the answer to my question. 

“Anyway… the reason Gary couldn't just tell you in person is because the school elections are finishing up, so he's a bit busy with that. Head Boy responsibilities basically.”

I shrugged. I suppose that made sense. He certainly hadn't shut up about how he was the Head Boy and all that jazz during the tour around the school. In my opinion, it was one of those dumb school titles that people overstated the importance of.

…I guess it did have the benefit of avoiding serious repercussions for playing hooky, though. Especially if you were already brown-nosing the Headmaster beforehand.

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Anyway, I gotta get to class, see you around,” I turned to leave, already checked out of all the noise going on around me.

I thought I could hear Pete say something else, like he was trying to get my attention again. 

But to me? He might as well not have been there at all.

[sweettoothvn]

For those who are interested in making Sweet Tooth OCs, here is some basic knowledge on the magic of Sweet Tooth.

First off, you are a college student attending an academy of magic (i'll have a name soon enough- no its not hogwarts dear god no)

Witches:

Witches are basically more in tune with their magic as they grew up with natural teachings, that or they were born in the countryside and their family taught them instead of a school. Although their magic is powerful it can be difficult to control. 

Wizards:

Wizards are cityfolk and more familiar with the basics and advanced techniques. They don't experiment with their magic as much as witches. Their abilities are very linear but powerful.

Warlocks:

Warlocks are able to have 2 abilities relating to their district or 2 separate districts. Mastery over both powers is nearly impossible. Warlocks are extremely rare as well.

Clergy:

Clergy master their craft, however they have stricter rules about them and are very religious to the ruler of their district. Mistakes are punished severely. Perfection is everything.

Corpus oriented:

Your abilities play off of other people's bodies along with your own. Either you are a healer and can control blood clotting and immune systems at your body's expense. OR you are more combat oriented and control other people's bodies to do damage. Either way, in order to deal with the side effects of your powers, you have to consume blood or flesh. If you do not satiate these needs, you will grow feral and attack anyone in sight and eat them alive. If you are from Corpus, the main color is Green.

Seikatsu oriented:

Your abilities are in relation to nature. Maybe that be plants or animals. If you're more in tune with the animal aspects you are able to communicate with other animals of all types. Whichever habitat your abilities belong to are where you thrive the most. Your anatomy will be based on the animal type your family is associated with, or a combination based on your parents. If you're plant oriented then you're able to speak to plants and control them like weapons or have them serve you. In some cases, you might be a plant yourself. If you're animal oriented, the side effects of your abilities will cause you to be feral and difficult to control. Based on what you are, you will need to eat either flesh or a specific herb to calm down your nature. Then, you will need to rest.  If you’re plant oriented, the side effects of your abilities cause you to feel fatigue and sluggish. You will need to consume water or sugar to regenerate along with a long rest. If you are from Seikatsu, the main color is Blue.

Kumumea oriented:

Your abilities are of these elements: Water, Fire, Earth, or Air. There are sub-districts and border districts between the main districts of Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. For example, the border district between Fire and Water is the district of Steam. The sub-districts of Water are about the different bodies of water (ponds, lakes, rivers, oceans, etc) along with Ice. Your abilities, depending on the district, will impact your body. For example, if you have Ice powers, the side effect of over usage would be frostbite. In extreme cases, your body freezes from the inside out. If you are from Kumumea, the main color is Red.

Bhaavana oriented:

Your abilities tie into your emotions along with others. You lack emotions and have to take pills to get them OR steal them from other people. The other possibility is you have too many emotions and take pills for them OR push them onto other people. Regardless of what you are, you can change the emotional state of other people, allowing manipulation to be easier if you’re charismatic enough and know how to use people’s emotions against them. If you’re the type that lacks emotions the side effects of over usage is dangerous. It is wise to put yourself in the hands of someone you trust as you will begin to feel emotions you’ve never felt before naturally. The common response to this is either insanity or harming yourself or others around you. If you’re the type that has too much emotion, the side effects of over usage aren’t as bad but not great either. It is possible to end up in a coma if someone you trust does not help you in time. When faced with over usage of your abilities, your emotions will intensify and your mind begins to shut down. You pass out and retreat into your ‘Mind Palace’ where you will live in your desired fantasies until your body calms down, or someone with Rasum abilities manages to pull you out of the delusions. If your body doesn't calm down or you refuse to leave the Mind Palace, you will be trapped in a coma. If you are from Bhaavana, the main color is Purple.

Rasum oriented:

Your abilities relate to the mind. You are able to control other people’s minds either via mind control or hallucinations. You are also able to swap minds with other people. Other abilities include being able to look at your memories from the past, manipulate other people’s memories, control dreams, control other people’s morality, and change other people’s personalities entirely. Side effects of over usage include horrible migraines that might cause you to vomit, pass out, or have nose bleeds. In order to get rid of these side effects, it is wise to drink hot liquids, such as tea. Meditation also helps when you begin to feel the side effects take place. If you are from Rasum, the main color is Yellow/Gold.

Zaman oriented:

Your abilities control time. You aren’t able to travel back in time or control the time of the planet you are on, that is reserved for those who are higher standings and have been around for thousands of years as they have more experience. However, it is possible to create time loops within communities you are in. You can also speed up, slow down, pause, or reverse time on objects, animals, and people. For example, if your food isnt cooking fast enough, you can speed up the time so it’s perfect. You are able to pause people in case of attacks or anything else unfortunate. Side effects include a loss of control over your body movements or not being able to move at all. In extreme cases it's years of your life. If you are from Zaman, the main color is Orange.

[fandomworld9728]

Lucifer's Magic Outing Him Chapter 2 - Vaggie (Moth):

"Thanks for helping me with grocery shopping. Charlie had a meeting today and if I'm not the one to go do it, they end up getting a bunch of junk food or some really... disturbing... choices for food."

"It's no problem! I love being able to help in any way I can. I see you and Charlie coming back from your shopping trips with so many bags so I know doing it all on your own would be a nightmare. Even with the use of the car. I don't know why you two didn't ask before to barrow it. Should I make you your own set of keys?" 

"O-oh that's uh... really nice of you. But Angel would most definitely steal them so he and his friend could tear up the town or something."

".... That actually sounds like fun."

"Wha- Sir!"

"What?! I used to be a real wild card back before Charlie was born. I used to get together with Asmodeus and Beelzebub for the craziest parties Hell has ever seen." Helping her put away everything they bought at the store, Lucifer caught his reflection in the toaster and proceeded to drop whatever was in his hands to grab the appliance and get a closer look at himself.

"Sir? What's wrong?"

"Uh... my- my hair... it's darker at the bottom. Kind of like yours- oh fuck."

~

"Charlie I'm serious. I'm worried about your dad. He ran from the kitchen and has been avoiding me since then." It had been a week since the king had fled in a panic and every time Vaggie tries to talk to him he either runs or teleports away from her.

"Vaggie, I promise that everything is fine." Charlie reassured her girlfriend while getting ready for the day. She had seen her dad's hair and his freakout about it and thought it was cute. it had been a while since the princess had last saw her dad's magic manifest someone's traits onto himself. "I'll tell you what's going on if you promise not to let him know I told you. He gets all weird about it when it first happens."

"Alright. I promise." Anything to finally figure out what the hell was going on. 

"When my dad gets close to and cares about people, his magic will reflect that by taking on their traits." What? Really? Lucifer, King of Hell, her girlfriend's weird father cares that much about her? That was... really sweet. "Wait until he makes any excuse to be around you like he does with me. He probably sees you as his daughter already."

~

Vaggie did feel better after her talk with Charlie, but now how did she handle this new information? She knew that she promised to not let Lucifer know she didn't know, however, she kept finding him peaking at her from around corners. It was strange and freaking out the other residents in the hotel out. Luckily, she didn't need to bring it up herself. Standing in the king's room she had been summoned to, she took in the pair of Morningstars sitting in front of her on the way too big bed.

"So... Mag- uh Vaggie! Sorry, I keep messing up your name. I do that with just about everyone. Uh, I was wondering if you would... like to groom my wings? They changed shape and Charlie said that they're similar to yours. You could do mine and Charlie could do yours?"

"Kind of similar to how the three of us took care of me and dad's hooves before."

With a sigh and an amused smile, the fallen angel settled herself on the bed with her family and chuckled when the two were now hugging her tightly but lovingly. "Alright. But you have to stop staring at me from around corners. It's freaking everyone out."

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