#if anyone's curious to see my in-game servants or any parts of my account just lemme know and i'd be happy to share

[medi-melancholy]

i realized that as of april 25th, it's officially been 5 whole years since i started playing fgo myself 🥳 it's bad but it's great, it's awful but it's special, it's hell but it's home. happy to be here, as always

these are some doodles i did while i was vending at a con just a couple months after i started playing!

[triptuckers]

Two Homes (part 1/7) - Nikolai Lantsov

Request: nope! Pairing:  Nikolai Lantsov x reader  Summary:  you live in Ketterdam, and your life is alright. things get excited however, when you receive royal mail Warnings: none Word count:  2K A/N: first time doing a (mini) series and I am ✨ nervous ✨ but this idea has been sitting in my drafts for too long and I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m planning on writing seven parts :) enjoy reading!  PREVIOUS PART | NEXT PART TAG LIST: @godsofwriting @im-constantly-fangirling add yourself to my tag lists here 

You would always be torn between leaving Ketterdam, and staying in the city. You have a good life, it’s comfortable. Given that your father is one of the wealthiest merchants of the city, you could basically get anything you wanted. You had more money than you could possibly spend in one lifetime.

But still, you weren’t happy. Your father may have a lot of kruge, he certainly didn’t have a heart of gold. All your life you’ve known him as a greedy, rude and unfair man. You’d give up all of your kruge in a blink of an eye if you could trade it for a different life. 

Your friends didn’t understand. They told you to be grateful. That many would kill to live in a mansion like you do, and to have the amounts of money your family has. But you had learned wealth doesn’t always mean happiness.

For years, you watched as your father treated people like garbage, simply because they didn’t have enough money in his eyes. He’d blackmail people, or worse. You couldn’t stand it.

Which is why you decided to join the Dregs a couple of years ago. In secret, of course. Your father doesn’t know. You took every precaution necessary to prevent him from finding out. You’d rather not find out all the things he’d be capable of. 

With the help of the Crows, you’d been stealing small bits of your father’s fortune. You either give it to the Dregs or transfer it to your own personal bank account, one your father didn’t have access to. 

To keep your identity a secret, only a few Dregs know your true identity. You use a fake name and whenever you’re at the Crow Club or the Slat, you wear your hood pulled down as low as possible, hiding your face from curious eyes. All precautions because you know all too well what gang members would do with a rich merchant’s daughter. 

You like hanging out at the Crow Club. Mostly because the Crows don’t treat you like a merchant’s daughter. They treat you like, well, Y/N. To them, you’re one of their own. And you’re glad they’re your friends. 

The Crow Club is also a place where you can relax. At home, you’re always on your toes, keeping a close eye on your father. He had the annoying habit of marching into your room unannounced. When you told him you wanted a lock on your door, he merely laughed it away. 

So, yes, you’d prefer the Crow Club full of thieves, gamblers and other criminals to the mansion you live in.

Of course, your father doesn’t know you spend most of your time at the Club. You take longer walks, you make sure you’re not followed, and conceal your face whenever you make your way to the Barrel. 

Once inside the Club, you walk to your usual table, and there’d always be someone around to join you.

Right now, you’re sitting at the table with Nina and Jesper. Enjoying a drink and a game of cards. You’re happy to be amongst your friends, laughing at their jokes and beating them at cards.

You look up when you see a familiar redhead approach your table.

‘Hi Wylan!’ you say as you enthusiastically wave at him. Wylan smiles at you as he sits down next to Jesper. Jesper raises his hand at the bartender to order another round of drinks as Wylan shrugs off his coat.

‘I’ve got something for you.’ says Wylan, while looking at you.

You raise your eyebrows in question as you finish your drink. ‘Watch out, Jesper, I might steal your boyfriend.’ you chuckle.

‘Oh, no, you won’t.’ says Jesper, reaching out and pulling Wylan's chair closer to his own, making Wylan blush.

‘He’s going to ask me out on a date, I can see it on his face.’ you say, failing to keep a straight face. 

‘What? No!’ says Wylan, looking from you to Jesper. ‘No, I’m not asking you out on a date, I’ve got a letter for you.’ 

You frown. ‘You’ve got a letter for me?’ you say. ‘Why wasn’t it just delivered to my house?’

‘I don’t know.’ says Wylan. ‘Someone stopped me in the street and told met to give it to you. They said it was urgent.’

‘How did they know you knew where to find me?’ you ask him as you take your new drink the bartender passes you.

Wylan shrugs. ‘I don’t know. She had a pretty heavy Ravkan accent, though. I tried to read the address to confirm it was yours, but I couldn't.’ he says. You notice a slight blush on his cheeks, but ignore it.

‘Is the letter from Ravka as well?’ you say.

‘I think so.’ says Wylan, finally pulling the letter out of his coat pocket. ‘I mean, it’s got a pretty distinctive seal on the back of it.’ 

Before you can ask him anything else, Jesper snatches the letter out of Wylan’s hand, looking at it. 

‘Why would a Ravkan send you a letter?’ he chuckles, flipping the envelope around in his hands. When his eyes fall on the seal, they widen. ‘Correction.’ says Jesper, while looking at you. ‘Why would a Lantsov send you a letter?’

Now your eyes widen as well. ‘What?’ you say. ‘That has to be some kind of joke.’

You lean over the table and take the envelope out of Jesper’s hands. You take another sip of your drink as you look at the seal on the back of it. Indeed, the Lantsov double eagle is on it. 

‘Nina.’ you say, turning to her next to you and handing her the envelope so she can look at it as well. ‘Do you have any idea as to why your king would send me a letter?’ 

Nina looks at the seal as well, running a finger over it. ‘I don’t know.’ she says. ‘But this looks like a legitimate seal, though. It’s on the ones I get as well. I don’t get a lot of them, but I do recognise that seal. This isn’t a fake.’

She hands it back to you and your flip it over in your hand. When you look up, you see all three of your friends looking at you. 

‘Why would he send me a letter, though?’ you wonder out loud. ‘And how does he even know I exist? Or where to find me?’

‘Well, after all, you are a merchant’s daughter.’ says Jesper.

‘Shh!’ you quickly say. ‘We’re still in the Crow Club, Jes!’

Jesper quickly apologises, looking around to see if anyone heard him. But the people around you are too caught up in their own drinks and games to have heard anything you were saying. 

‘But why would the king of Ravka keep track of Kerch merchants? He only approaches the merchant council for loans. And if he needs to contact them, he sends letters directly to the members of the council.’ you say. 

‘Well, you won’t know until you open it.’ says Nina. ‘Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? He doesn’t even know you.’

‘You’ve got a point.’ you say. ‘And I can’t deny I'm curious.’

Slowly, you open the envelope, pulling out a short letter. You’re well aware of all of their eyes on you as you read the message.

“Dear miss Y/F/N Y/L/N,

My name is Nikolai Lantsov (as you probably would have guessed upon seeing the wax seal on the envelope), I’ll spare the ink and not name all of my titles. Though my triumvirate would like me to. 

I am writing you to tell you I am hosting a ball, one week from now, at the Grand Palace in Os Alta, Ravka. You are hereby invited to attend said ball, at the end of which I will choose a bride.

I await your response, and I promise there will be good wine.

Yours sincerely,

King Nikolai Lantsov, of Ravka”

You read the letter over and over again, trying to get the words to sink in. Nikolai Lantsov himself wrote you an invitation. To a ball at the Grand Palace. And he’d choose a bride. Someone to be his queen.

You snort and throw the letter on the table.

‘Well, that was interesting to read.’ you say.

Jesper moves to pick up the letter, but Nina is faster. Wylan and Jesper lean in closer, and she softly reads the letter out loud. You see looks of surprise and confusion on their faces as Nina reads the letter.

When she’s done, they all look at you in confusion. You chuckle and take the letter from Nina’s hands, folding it and tucking it in your pocket. 

‘Do you think I could sell this to the highest bidder?’ you say. ‘It’s got an authentic Lantsov signature on it.’

‘Why on earth would you do that?’ says Jesper.

You look at him. ‘You don’t seriously think I’ll go?’ you say.

‘Duh!’ says Jesper. ‘Why not? Y/N, this is a king. And he’s inviting you to a ball. You could become queen!’

‘I have no intention of becoming queen.’ you say, finishing your drink. ‘Besides, I don’t want to leave Ketterdam.’

‘I bet Os Alta is a whole lot nicer than Ketterdam, though.’ says Wylan.

‘And have a servant do every little thing for me? Eat the finest food all day every month? Go to balls and war meetings? No thank you.’ you say.

‘Why do you talk about it as if it’s a bad thing?’ says Wylan.

‘Because I told you, I have no intention of going to a ball and becoming queen. If you’re asking me, I think writing that letter was a waste of ink and paper.’ you tell them. ‘Besides, if he’s smart, he’s going to marry a Fjerdan or Shu princess to establish an alliance. Even if I wanted to go, there’s no way he’d pick an ordinary Kerch merchant’s daughter to be his queen.’

‘A word of advice?’ says Nina. 

You look at her and motion for her to keep on talking. 

‘I’ve met Nikolai several times. He’s a good man. Would it really be that bad to even attend? You’re not agreeing to marrying him, you’re just going to a ball. Why not give him a chance?’ she says.

‘Because I think balls are a waste of time. And money. And simply because I don’t want to play dress up and act like a perfect daughter.’ you say, getting up and putting on your coat.

‘At least think about it?’ says Nina.

‘For your sake, I will.’ you say. ‘I’ll even pretend like I haven’t made my decision yet.’

‘It’ll be great for your reputation!’ says Jesper as you move through the crowd toward the door.

‘I’m not going to Os Alta!’ you yell at him over your shoulder. When you’re at the door, you wave goodbye at them and head outside. It’s a particular cold night, and you wrap your coat tighter around you and pull your hood further down.

Somehow the invitation feels like lead as it sits in your pocket. So Nikolai Lantsov himself invited you to the Grand Palace. Though you’re flattered, you’ve already made up your mind. 

You’re not going to Os Alta. After all, what could be waiting for you there that you couldn’t find in Ketterdam? You’ve got very good friends here, plenty of kruge, and you live in a mansion. 

Surely Os Alta couldn’t offer you more than that?

A/N: If you want to request something, make sure to read my house rules Here’s the list of characters I write for. Everything that I have written can be found on my masterlist. Please don’t repost my work, as I spend much time and effort on it!! Thank you for reading! Much love, Marit

[autumnslance]

Was it just me or is corran’s dragon for rathian looking?? Also how did you design Avengret in game?? Cause I see a bunch of people make screenshots for their stuff and I’m here going ‘???? How???’

Short answer: Patience and a little Crime.

Longer Answer: Go under the cut for explanations, like Avengret's body double, Corran's transformed model, and How Lyn (subjects you all to her) Screenshots.

The model I used for Avengret is simply a red dragon at Anyx Trine named Nehsk Fan, using careful Gpose angles, camera zoom, filters, lighting, time of day, and the same Gshade filter I've been using for these headers for consistency (Teddy Gpose for the curious). So actually fairly simple in the manner of "anyone can actually do this and get similar results" (aside from the Gshade).

Image is Aeryn at Anyx Trine with Nehsk Fan, using my simple default gameplay filter in Gshade.

For Corran's look in "Scale" I used CMTools, which takes in game assets and allows one to manipulate them, as well as time and weather. It's how one can use carbuncles, chocobos, and/or most housing retainers to take the form of NPCs, and create custom poses while dressing up in whatever existing clothing items one wants.

Which is how I got this shot with all 4 of my OCs in one room; one I am actually playing, another is a carbuncle, and 2 others are Dark's housing servants, after saving each of my ladies' appearances in the tool. This is also how I get so many shippy shots of Aeryn with Thancred; she's just hanging out somewhere with a carbuncle (while I curse how various joints work as I mess with sliders).

For "Scale" I actually went with the monster menu and stood Dark Autumn somewhere while overwriting her appearance with Rathalos. Anyone else wandering by just saw my femroe idling on a hill, as the change is only visible on my own screen. Then back to the game's Gpose, using zoom, angles, drop lighting, filters, to take multiple shots until I found one I was happy with; I have 7 others in this case that I took and edited but didn't use.

For post-work, I mostly use Picasa 3, a simple photo editor discontinued about 10 years ago but still can be found in places online. I don't do Photoshop, so a simple tool that lets me one click color corrections, lighting balance, and various filters and minor adjustments, as well as cropping, lettering, angling/straightening the pic, works for me.

Image below are just the examples of options I can play with in Picasa 3, many of them adjustable in various ways:

I mostly use Crop, Straighten, I'm Feeling Lucky, Auto Contrast, Auto Color, the Fill Lights/Highlights/Shadows/Color Temp menu, and play around with what filters seem to work for the shot I want. I use "Tint" with the default light blue to "cool down" many of Aeryn's screenshots so she's not super red, depending on what other lighting and colors are happening in the picture. Saturation is good for upping or lowering saturation, especially when using the Bright 4 filter in Gpose.

Knowing how to compose a picture using camera angles, lighting, color, etc, with the in game tools is the most important part; all the extra tools won't do a darn thing to make a good screenshot if you don't learn the basics. Basic photography/art rules apply! The extra tools just make some things easier. I don't think I'm that good at it (I have little sense of composition, lighting, or color; all my best stuff is happy accident!) and I still have a lot to learn, and it does take time and practice. As well as lots of patience and taking dozens of shots to only then end up posting 1 or 2.

My dear friend @healerstail is fantastic at taking screenshots (and photography in general) and has mostly only used basic Gpose and Gshade, only the occasional mod and just recently picked up CMTools. Mostly it's just knowing how to set up the default emotes, timing, and good angles. His composition is amazing. Likewise, @gunbun is very good at lighting and composition, and has been using the new posing tool, Anamnesis (CMT's successor) to excellent affect. She'll tell you to mind your drop lights and camera angles, too

Extra tools only work on PC, so console users have to use only Gpose and defaults, though some do post-work in Photoshop. An excellent example of detailed post-work is @kukurubean's edits.

NOTE: Remember that while Gshade is fine as it's just a filter overlay (and one can get the same results from most graphic card interfaces these days), mods are against the SquareEnix TOS so use your extra tools responsibly; remove the default watermark from screenshots, do not tag official accounts, do not talk about mods in game, put any lewds on locked/private/behind cuts. Do not tease or harass other players with either cosmetic or combat mods.

The FFXIV devs are willing to turn a blind eye and allow player creativity so long as extra tools are used responsibly, not to affect gameplay or bother other players. Yoshida flat out hates DPS meters as people don't tend to use them for personal growth; we have Sky Sea Stone and the metric is "did the boss die and everyone have fun?" Also he has gone on a PLL before and told people to stop lewding younger characters using game assets for legal reasons--right after talking about changing code to break a combat mod used during the TEA world first race (as well as changing how combat markers work in general), making the implications clear.

[lancermylove]

The Dark Side (HC)

Fandom: BSTS

Pairing: All x fem!Reader

Warning: N.SFW

Requested by: Anon

Prompt: Umm.. This might gonna sound a little bit weird but I can request hc for bsts boys, nsfw, but… them finding out that their s/o (fem) is into bdsm stuff? That sounds crazy but I’m also so curious.

A/N: It’s not crazy at all. I think I’ve included whether or not they would like bdsm for almost all the general n.sfw hcs. I’m not comfortable writing out a full-blown hc for the BDSM plays, so fingers crossed that’s not what you were hoping for. ><

———————————————

Kokuyou was a bit stunned that you enjoyed BSDM, “That’s unexpected.” 

He doesn’t mind as long as the plays are not too dark or too violent. Though he may be rough around the edges, he still doesn’t want to get too intense with you. 

His favorite plays are sub/dom with him being the dom and light bondage.

In the sub/dom, he likes to pull some of your strings and set a bunch of rules for which he can punish you if you break them. 

For bondage, he likes to tie your arms to the bed and tease you until you beg for him to take you. 

“Oh, someone likes to get very naughty,” he smirked when he learned that you are found of the darker arts of lovemaking. 

Though he’s pretty open to experimenting, Akira isn’t that comfortable with BDSM. He will try pegging once just to see how he likes it; if he does, he will gladly let you peg him, but if he doesn’t, he will never try it again.

He doesn’t mind plays like roleplaying as long as it doesn’t involve something like master/slave or too high of dominance in general, be it him dominating or you dominating him.

His favorite with roleplaying is idol/fan or any outfit that involves you looking cute, short-frilly skirts are his favorite. 

Taiga's cheeks glowed red when you told him that you were into BDSM as he never expected it. 

He isn't that comfortable with it, but he loves roleplaying. Roleplay any game character for him, and Taiga will be all over you, but he doesn't care for normal roleplaying, like doctor/nurse (unless you're an anime or game nurse).

A smirk danced on his lips when he learned that you like BDSM. "Then, what would you like to try first?"

If pain is your pleasure, then he will deliver to your needs. Tell him what you want, and this man will make even your darkest dreams come true. 

Takami's favorites are sensory deprivation and bondage. He likes testing your limits and will actively try to cross your limits, but not to the point where he puts you in the uncomfortable zone. 

He is also a fan of master/servant but will not push you into it. He will never force you, especially if you think of it as demeaning. He may have a dark side to him, but Takami has no intention of hurting you. 

"I see..." That all he says when he learns about your desires. 

Sin isn’t really fond of BDSM and prefers to stay away from it. He’s more of a romantic who will put on music and light candles to create the atmosphere. 

Though if you push him a little, he may try some of the lighter plays, but don't expect him to try anything deemed dark. 

“I am sorry...” Kei averted his eye and mumbled. 

He will never agree to do anything that will cause you pain or will require him to dominate or demean you, so no BDSM. Though, he may be willing to try the lightest BDSM plays - keyword: may. 

Kei cannot understand the world of BDSM and prefers to stay away, but he does ask you why you enjoy it and adds that he respects your choices. 

Sotetsu is pretty open to trying some of the BDSM plays but will refuse to give in to anything too dark, so when he learns you’re into it, he flashes one of his signature devilish smirks. 

He wouldn’t mind experiment with dom/sub (him being the dom), bondage, biting, hair pulling while taking you doggy style, ice play, and a light version of humiliation play. 

If you ask him to hit you with anything or strangle you or play with dangerous toys, then he will straight up refuse. 

“What is BDSM?” He asked, and when you explained, Gui felt uncomfortable. 

He refuses, especially if pain is your pleasure, so no BDSM. If he hurts you, he would never forgive himself. The concept of pain can bring pleasure eludes him.

Gui doesn’t understand roleplaying either, but you’re welcome to try to make him understand. 

“Uh...o-okay,” he whispered in a shaking voice, “I...c-can’t.” 

Ginsei will not agree to BDSM no matter what...even if it makes you happy. Just the thought of it makes him nervous. 

He will always apologize to you for not fulfilling all your desires and also thank you for understanding. 

"Is that so...," he asked with wide eyes, "um...then would you try out things I like?" 

Yoshino is big into age play, namely being called daddy, as it makes him feel powerful. 

He can also resort to dirty talk/name-calling when he gets rough, and his softer expressions are replaced by darker ones.

He doesn’t mind roleplaying and is rather fond of sub/dom. Whether he wants to be a sub or dom depends on his and your mood. 

Hidden behind his sweet face is another face that is only reserved for you when you're in the bedroom alone with him. 

"I don't...sorry." He touched the back of his head and flashed an apologetic smile.

Anything that could cause you pain or injuries or requires him to use or listen to demeaning language is a no.

His heart is too gentle to even consider taking the light plays into account. 

"What is...BDSM?" Sinju asked. 

This boy is too pure to even think about doing anything beyond vanilla. Actually, he even has a hard time thinking about doing anything intimate. 

"Interesting," Menou smiled and glanced at you with unreadable eyes.

Menou is a fan of roleplaying. He’s an actor, and acting is the most important thing in his life (next to you, of course). Roleplaying means getting to act, so he will be willing to roleplay as anyone.

But if you like anything darker, which doesn’t require Menou to put in too much effort, he will be a little less willing. Though, he does have a dark side, so he may turn all your dreams into reality.

"I see, but unfortunately, I am not interested, especially not in the heavier plays," he frowned slightly.

Maica is a picky man and would be very choosy about what he likes, especially with BDSM. He wouldn’t mind trying some of the lighter plays once, but nothing too heavy. 

He wouldn’t go out of his way to try anything BDSM-related though. If you like it, then he will think about trying out the less pain-giving plays. 

"You do?" His eyes widen for a second before he flashes a smile, "As do I." 

Yakou likes BDSM, namely restraints, temperature play, and sensory deprivation. 

His absolute favorite is eating you out with your hands cuffed to the bed and running an ice cube over your body. He's a bit wary of hot temperature play though, so he will choose to avoid that. 

Anything that involves torture, whips, choking, or causing too many injuries is a no for him. 

He stared at you for a while, wordlessly. "Good for you, but I dislike it." 

Mokuren isn't a fan of BDSM and would not be willing to try. If you try to force him, then he will take that as you don’t care about his feelings or opinion. 

“Hm? Is that so?” He raised an eyebrow and tapped his chin.

Hari prefers to stay away from BDSM and will not be willing to give into it even if you ask him to, especially if pain is your pleasure. 

That concept eludes Hari, but he will be interested to learn why you think that way.  

Rather than having s*x with him, you will be stuck trying to explain the way your mind works when it comes to BDSM. 

"B...DSM? Oh." Though he chuckled, there was something hidden behind his reaction.

Kasumi is intrigued with BDSM but would not be too willing to try it himself. If you push him a little, then he would open up to the lighter players that don’t require him to unleash his dark side.

“Sorry, my dear. I simply cannot...,” Qu sighed and touched your cheek, “I hope you can understand.” 

Qu is not a big fan of BDSM, especially if there is a high chance of leaving mark on the skin. Taking care of the skin is important to him, be it his skin or yours. 

He also is uncomfortable with trying out anything that could be considered demeaning, physically or verbally. 

A never-before-seen twisted smile appeared on his lips, "Then, we are the same." 

Zakuro loves BDSM, especially sub/dom play and discipline. If you're uncomfortable with this, he won't push you but will ask you to try it once.

He has a decent collection of BDSM toys and will want to try everything if you agree. Yes, he has a BDSM dungeon.

If you like the darker plays, no matter how painful they may be, Zakuro will consider accepting your requests.

"Huh? What's that?" Mizuki asked loudly, tilting his head.

He isn’t all too familiar with BDSM, but Mizuki is open-minded to trying almost anything at least once. If you like it, he will give it a try. 

Due to his past, he will refuse to do anything that involves hitting you with an item, drawing blood, or injuring you beyond giving bruises. 

His favorite is hair pulling, be it you pulling his hair or him pulling your hair. 

Kongou quickly averted his eyes and bit his lower lip, "Please don't ask me to do anything..." 

Anything BDSM is a big no. Kongou's main fear is that he may hurt you due to his size and strength.

Aside from that, he is too much of a gentle soul to consider taking part in the darker side of lovemaking. 

"Oh? Then let's try something you like!" Ran flashed his shark teeth and got an almost crazy look in his eyes. 

Ran doesn’t mind roleplaying, and his favorite is idol/fan roleplay. He likes being an idol while you act as the lustful fan, but he also enjoys you pretending to be an idol and performing for him.

Biting…he will not bite you unless you want him to draw blood. If you do like him drawing your blood, then he will gladly leave bite marks all over your body.

Anything darker, he will be curious to try out and will agree to it at least once. 

Due to his love for fire, he is interested in trying out hot temperature play. 

"I...see..." Heath mumbled and shook his head, indicating that he is not too willing. 

Like some of the other men, Heath will avoid anything BDSM-related, unless it’s something on the very light side, like temperature play with ice.

Even then, he is going to worry about possibly giving you ice burns. 

"Then what are we waiting for?" Rico whispered, twirling a few strands of your hair on his index finger, "Where would you like to go? My home or yours?" 

Rico enjoys BDSM quite a bit and will try anything to a limit, the super heavy stuffy he will avoid though. He needs to make sure his skin is in perfect condition, so he doesn’t want to get injured either.

His favorite is dom/sub, with him being the dom, and humiliation play.

Whether you want him to humiliate you verbally or not, he will end up using that language while he fcks you into the bed. 

"What is that?" He asked, looking perplexed. 

Just like Sinju, Unei is too pure to even think about BDSM. He doesn’t know what that is and would be permanently scarred if he looked it up. 

———————————————

➣ BSTS Masterlist

[my-soul-sings]

This Is Everything I Never Wanted: Chapter 1

Fandom: Wannabe Challenge Characters: Everyone! Mainly Taehee VS. Yooha (but not TaeheexYooha) because I’m here for the drama and tea  👀☕️ 

Summary: An alternative account of events in which Taehee was the one who summoned Yooha from the scroll instead of MC.

A/N: I live for Taehee and Yooha's brawling in the game. This idea popped into my head last night and I went ham on it, enjoy this crack-fic, I hope it makes you smile/laugh. :)

Now up on AO3!

***

It all started the day Biho came home with a scroll painting. Frankly, it looked weird. There was a man with long, silver hair on it, and Taehee didn’t like the weird aura coming from the scroll. Or maybe it was just the man’s face he didn’t like. Something about it pissed him off—probably that annoying, arrogant smirk on his face. 

But Taehee couldn’t object to Biho hanging it up on the wall in the living room, especially not when he looked so mesmerised by the picture of the sea in the background. The younger man had always been fascinated by the sea, so Taehee decided to leave it alone. MC also seemed to like it too, and if the house owner herself had no complaints, who was he to protest? 

On hindsight, he should have said something. Insisted on his way—something he rarely did and would probably be easily forgiven for.

At first, Taehee kept noticing the painting, unnerved by the feeling that the man’s eyes were following him, watching his every move. He swore it wasn’t his own imagination, and he felt goosebumps rise on his skin whenever he walked past it. He couldn’t ask Biho to put it in his own room though; the wall in their room already looked messy enough because of Hansol, who had a compulsive need to buy posters of his favourite musicians. 

With little options at his disposal, Taehee tried to brush it off. Ignore it, pretend it wasn’t there. 

It took a few days, but soon enough he practically forgot that the painting even existed, for the most part. And life went on, as per normal.

That is, until Cleaning Day.

It was his favourite day of the year, as excruciating as it could get at times. No matter how clear or detailed his instructions were, his housemates never seemed to understand how to clean properly. That, or they simply didn’t care, which Taehee didn’t understand. 

It was easy enough to be patient when it came to MC. After all, she was probably just tired. He could manage doing part of her share of the work.

But Biho and Hansol? Those two hardly ever performed up to par. Hansol would say that he had finished wiping the shelves, and Taehee would swipe a finger on the underside of the wood, and there would be a sheet of dust coating the pad of his finger.

Biho was no better. After making a towering stack of his books and simply leaving them in the corner of the room, he would find a place to sleep, even if it meant hiding under the bed to avoid Taehee’s attention. Or wrath. 

After a full three hours of back-breaking work that day, Taehee had neared his limit. The breaking point came when he just finished washing the toilets, and he arrived in the living room to the sight of all three of his housemates knocked out blissfully on the couch.

“You... haa...” He had no words. He was exhausted too, but the kitchen had yet to be touched. And yet the three of them were already resting as if they had accomplished a lot over the past three hours compared to him. 

In his mind, the list of chores still unfinished gnawed away at the remaining strands of his sanity. That wasn’t even including the things that he’d probably have to re-do, courtesy of his housemates’ terrible cleaning standards. 

The thought of the work left undone was enough to draw another long sigh from him as he deflated a little, a frown appearing on his face. Taking care of his house was a huge weight on his shoulders. In fact, it started getting a little too heavy for his shoulders to bear.

It took Taehee a hot minute to realise that the weight was no longer metaphorical.

“Ew. I’m finally out of the damn scroll after so long and the first thing I see is a guy’s sweaty back? What the hell?”

He heard a foreign voice in his ear. A man’s voice. And then he realised there were arms wrapped around him, as well as a pair of legs and unfamiliar shoes behind him.

Shoes. In the house. That he just mopped. Twice.

Taehee turned around, about to let loose a string of curses at whoever it was, when he realised just what exactly he was looking at. 

It was a man he didn’t know, dressed in some traditional cosplay, his curious grey eyes scanning the house around him. 

Instinctively he jumped back, confused and alarmed by the presence of a stranger whom he didn’t recall letting in. Where could he have come from? The doors had been locked and the windows were open but they certainly weren’t big enough for a man this size to crawl through easily.  

But wait... there was something familiar about him. Taehee couldn’t quite place his finger on it just yet, but he didn’t like the feeling of deja vu washing over him. Or the sense that this guy wasn’t just an ordinary man—if he was even human at all. 

“Hey.” Taehee’s attention snapped to the man who was now looking at him. He bristled, for some reason already disliking the guy and his narrow eyes. 

“Were you the one who summoned me?” the stranger questioned.

“What?” Taehee had to be dreaming. Or hallucinating. Or both. It was probably from being overworked, which he blamed his housemates wholeheartedly for (except for MC). 

"Do you not speak Korean?” the stranger prodded when Taehee went silent for a tad too long.

“O-Of course I do,” he replied, not sure why he felt the need to be polite with this intruder. 

Wait. He didn’t. 

“How did you get in the house? I can call the police on you, this is trespassing.” 

“You’re asking me?” the strange man sputtered, raising his hands. “You’re the one who summoned me! You called my name!” 

He could at least come up with a more reasonable-sounding excuse. Taehee didn’t know who he was, let alone his name, for goodness’ sake. 

“I didn’t call your name. I don’t know who the hell you are, but explain yourself. Who are you and how did you get in here? I’m not joking when I said I will call the police,” Taehee warned, holding up the used toilet brush in his hand as a makeshift weapon. Even if it didn’t do much physical damage it would at least disgust the guy enough to make him go far away.

“Hey, hey, I think there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding here. I, need you, to explain to me where the hell I am. What year is it anyway? You guys have some interesting clothes,” he said, his eyes trailing over to the three sleeping housemates. How they were sleeping through this was beyond Taehee, but he felt alarm bells go off in his head when he noticed the man’s gaze lingering on MC’s sleeping form.

Before he could attack with the toilet brush though, suddenly a blinding white light engulfed the man, and Taehee had to squeeze his eyes shit. 

When he opened them again, the light had vanished and the man now sported a shorter haircut, his silver wavy locks styled in a more modern way. His costume had also disappeared, now replaced by a blue silk shirt, a silver necklace hanging around his neck and a pair of long black slacks. Thankfully, the shoes were gone. 

“There. Much better.” He walked casually over to the television to check out his appearance reflected on the blank screen. “Not bad,” the narcissist muttered to himself.

“What did you just do?”

“Changed into something more appropriate. You sure your brain is alright?”

Taehee ignored the insult. “You still haven’t explained yourself properly.” 

“I told you. You summoned me here by calling my name.”

He was quite persistent with this ridiculous story. Deciding to play along in case he could get more information out of him, Taehee asked, “What’s your name?”

The stranger stared at him like he was stupid, but Taehee maintained his frown long enough that the intruder finally relented begrudgingly with a dragged-out sigh. “It’s Yooha.”

Yoo-ha. Yooha? Taehee didn’t know anyone by that weird name, much less said it out loud for no reason.

Unless...

“You... haa....” 

Could it be... it was all because of that resigned sigh that had escaped his lips when he stepped into the living room just now? 

The realisation struck Taehee like a bucket of ice cold water being poured no him. That counted? Seriously? 

“What’s your name?" Yooha asked. 

“Taehee,” he replied thoughtlessly, before biting down on his tongue. This was hardly the time for introductions. “Now tell me, what are you? Where did you come from?”

In response, Yooha gestured casually to the wall by the television. More specifically, the painting that Biho had bought the other day, except now it looked ostensibly different: 

The man in it was no longer there.

“I was trapped in that painting, but you called my name so I was finally released,” he explained, the nonchalance in his drawl grating on Taehee’s nerves. Was this a joke to him? 

But... the more Taehee thought about it, the more he realised there was no other way to make sense of this bizarre situation. Yooha’s explanation seemed to be the only logical one, even if impossible. Unless, of course, he was dreaming. But a quick pinch to his arm and the sting that followed indicated that he wasn’t, quite unfortunately.

There was a groan, and Taehee glanced in Yooha’s direction. “What.”

“It’s just...” he scratched his head, his face contorting with a perplexed expression. “I’m not happy about this... but since you’re the one who summoned me out of the scroll, I’m now bound to you as a servant.”

“Come again?” Taehee gawked, which earned him an exasperated sigh.

“Of all things, I had to be bound to a mere goblin...” he grumbled to himself. Then, raising his head, he gave Taehee a hard look. “You’re not very smart, are you?”

“I’m a doctor. And wait- are you by any chance... a seon-ho?”

“Finally saying something sensible, are we?” the man scoffed with an eye roll. Taehee had to purse his lips into a thin line to keep from making a sharp remark. There was no need to prove himself to this complete stranger who was now calling him his... servant? The hell?

“So what,” Taehee began, “I’m your... master now?”

“Ugh, it sucks when you say it out loud, but yes. That’s right.” Yooha plopped onto an empty chair, stretching his limbs and settling into a comfortable position. He sort of resembled a cat.

“And who are they?” Yooha jabbed a finger at the pile of sloths as well as MC on the couch, who were still asleep. 

“The people I live with,” Taehee replied, eyes narrowing at him. 

“Three guys and a girl? What’s up with that?” 

“None of your business.”

“Ooh. Master is feisty.” He paused, a devious smirk playing on his lips. “Is it because of the girl?” 

“Shut up,” Taehee snapped quite uncharacteristically. It had been less than fifteen minutes and already this guy was seriously wearing his patience thin. “And stop calling me ‘Master’. It’s gross.”

"Yeah, I will. I almost threw up after saying that.” 

A moment of silence passed, neither knowing what to say. This was a weird situation, to say the least, and Taehee wasn’t sure if he had fully processed it yet. A lot had happened today and he just wanted to take a nice, hot shower and go to bed. Screw dinner, he was too tired to cook. Maybe when he woke up, this would all go away, including this pesky nuisance, and everything would go back to normal. 

“So...” Yooha spoke up, unceremoniously interrupting Taehee’s attempt to comfort himself. “What now?”

Taehee shrugged, but before he could say anything, he heard a voice. 

“Taehee...” MC mumbled. Her sweet voice usually made his heart flutter, but right then, it made his entire body go rigid. 

“Who’s that?” 

[rpmemesbyarat]

RP Meme from Netflix's "A Series of Unfortunate Events: A Bad Beginning: Part One"

If you are interested in stories with happy endings, then you would be better off somewhere else.

In this story, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.

I'm sorry to tell you this, but that's how the story goes.

Aren't you going to the Festive Fun Fair, with all the jolly rides and games and snacks?

It's gray and cloudy.

Let's get to work!

Can you show me what the specific issues are?

That'd be disappointing, I made them myself.

Of course, we still need the right projectile.

Maybe it makes more sense in the original French.

Could you find a rock that's not sandstone?

I'm curious to see if I can skip the rock as far with my left as I can with my right.

I don't mean to criticize, but standard scientific method calls for stable systematics.

Who's that mysterious figure?

It only seems scary because of all the mist.

If you have ever lost somebody very important to you, then you already know how it feels.

Nobody asked you.

The front page! Some people wait a lifetime for that.

That's gonna make a wonderful headline.

I remember how I was when I was your age.

Although I don't know who I think I'm kidding, because I have no inventive or mechanical skill whatsoever.

How lucky am I to have such unusual children in my life?

Please, come in, and mind you wipe your feet on the mat so you don't track in any mud.

Actually, I'm about to be rather wealthy.

Well, welcome to my humble home.

It does seem to need a little work.

I hope you'll be happy here.

I'll still check in on you occasionally.

It looks like a list.

Did you help around the house?

This is the kitchen, where you may help yourselves to meals.

I expect you to keep everything gleamingly clean.

The stove is a bit like a servant. You have to whack it sometimes to get it to work.

This is where I do all my reading.

I don't use the ballroom at all.

You'll have to redo the floors.

It has all the usual amenities, though the management regrets to inform you that the shampoo is not tear-free. If anything, it encourages tears.

Rats bite.

Out of all the numerous bedrooms in this enormous mansion, I have chose this one for your safety and comfort.

There's only one bed.

As you can see, I have provided, at no cost to you, this complimentary pile of rocks. Thoughts?

First of all, first impressions are often wrong.

Your first impression of me may be that I am a terrible person.

A tattoo is just a decorative pigment on skin. It's not a sign of a wicked person.

It's a mistake. It'll get sorted out.

There's a village in the Pacific Islands suspended on ropes above an active volcano.

Stay here. And not a peep.

You've done something different to your hair?

May I come in?

Is this about the children?

I apologize for the noise.

I told them to cry using their inside voices.

I'm not supposed to talk about it, but I can tell you that it involved an illegal use of someone's credit card and a poisonous plant.

Let me tell you, those children are monsters.

I live alone.

Wait here, for your own safety.

You missed a spot.

I never wanna use a toothbrush again.

Why aren't you cleaning?

Plan the menu, purchase the ingredients, prepare the food, set the table, serve dinner, clean up afterward, and stay out of our way.

It's a little greasy.

Money. Hard-earned money. The most important substance on earth besides applause and lip balm.

That was dismaying.

I wasn't expecting to see you.

It's mostly law books, but there are sections on everything from Italian cuisine to the world's most threatening fungus.

Do you have a paper and pencil to take notes?

These books look promising.

All we have to do is sauté garlics and onions in a pot, and then add olives, capers, anchovies, diced parsley and tomatoes to simmer.

Looked broken, but I think I can fix it.

What do we have here?

Is there a supermarket nearby?

I had dreams of becoming an actress, you know.

Who else has such robust good looks in such a large amount?

I'm handsome and I'm talented and love your bank account!

Oh, my God, what a very handsome knave.

Unbelievable good looks and brains and heart!

I'm very very smart

And as anyone in the theater knows, after a grand entrance, the audience is supposed to applaud.

All of the artistic and financial aspects of my career are finally coming together like two pieces of a bread in the middle of a sandwich.

I don't have time to learn a second language besides whatever it is I'm speaking right now.

You know, every time she talks, it's like the tines of a fork are being jammed into my eye

You've seen them perform. Would you call them actors?

Better than nothing.

Wow, that was quick.

Where's the roast beef?

You didn't tell us you wanted roast beef.

You can't go easy on children. They need to be taught to obey their elders.

That's what happens with wealthy kids. Money is really a corrupting influence.

You're a pretty little one.

This table is a mess.

There's hardly a place to put down a baby.

There are many, many things that are better than nothing.

Trouble and strife can cover this world like the dark of night, or like smoke from a suspicious fire.

I'm worried about the children.

We need to get to them.

We need to get out of here first.

The rat is noisy.

[sebastianshaw]

@sammysdewysensitiveeyes- Fabian for “Vampire: The Masquerade” and “Werewolf: The Apocalypse”! Under a cut because SO MUCH, sorry, the World of Darkness setting as A LOT OF LORE and it’s REALLY COOL so I enjoy gushing about where my guys would fit and why!

FABIAN As a vampire, Fabian would be a Lasombra, Ventrue, or Setite, depending which game that I was playing. If it’s a Camarilla or Cam-Anarch game, Ventrue. Ventrue are one of the common Cam clans, and almost all Ventrue are Cam. High positions are most often held by Ventrue, and having a Ventrue be the Prince (Cam ruler of a city) is such a cliche that people will often remark positively if a Storyteller (the DM) chooses another clan for that seat. If it’s a Sabbat game, he’d be a Lasombra. While any clan can join the Sabbat, the Tzimisce and Lasombra are its founders, and almost exclusively found in it. You’d be hard-pressed to find any in the Cams or Anarchs, though they do exist. And if it were an Independent Alliance or Casablanca game (a game where all three sects co-exist in a city and you can be any), he’d be a Setite. The Independent Alliance (IA) was formed by the Giovanni and Setites, two formally independent clans whose members never (or seldom) joined any sect, into a sect of their own so that they could gain the political protections and benefits of such, without having to join up with anyone else. As a note for context, the Cam, the Anarchs, and the IA may all have power struggles, and the Anarchs and Cam in particuliar have beef, but they can and do all co-exist in the same cities, and members of each group may even socialize with each other as friends. The Sabbat do NOT co-exist with the others, at least not peacefully or happily. The Sabbat don’t just “have beef” with the Cam, they want to wipe them out and the IAs along with them, and the Cam is pretty happy to return the favor, as will the IAs and Anarchs too. The other three are like, different political parties basically, though their feuds CAN turn bloody too, but the Sabbat are the “bad guys” to the others. (And the Baali and Infernalists are bad guys to EVERYBODY, like basically they’re so evil most people consider them unplayable and all the other sects want to wipe them out for their crimes) So yeah, vampire politics are murder ;) But hey, that’s where Fabian THRIVES! So, the ones that fit most are the Lasombra. They hail primarily from Spain, and are master of the power of Obtenebration---the manipulation and creation of shadow and darkness. They are predatory, backstabbing, power-hungry and unapologetically arrogant. The Lasombra are proud elegant predators, social darwinists, cruel manipulators, and naturally seek positions of power and authority because many Lasombra have domineering and superior personalities that necessitates having someone beneath them. They will use any and all tools available to ensure loyalty, such as the Blood Bond, coercion, physical intimidation, and unapologetic use of Dominate (a power that lets you control others with verbal commands) so working for a Lasombra, is a demanding, difficult, and unrewarding experience at BEST.  Lasombra ghouls (ghoul = human enslaved to a vampire) fall into two broad categories. The first are the raft of accountants, lawyers, and bankers that the Lasombra need to keep the finances rolling in, and perhaps these are the luckier of the two groups – as long as the books balance at the end of the day, they will live to see another one. The second group cater to the Lasombra's difficulty with their own image. Some Lasombra keep an army of personal attendants – scores of ghouls to brush the mistress' hair, do her makeup, and dress her. Such attendants are punished severely for infractions. If the hair is not brushed with exactly one hundred strokes the ghoul might find themselves on the wrong side of the hairbrush, a Potence fuelled hand wielding it. Also due to the Lasombra's curse, ghouls of either stripe might have their faces reduced to identical spiderwebs of scar tissue, or be forced to wear featureless white masks. They have strong ties to the Catholic tradition, and have gotten their hooks deeply in the Church, enabling them to puppeteer much of its power in Europe, and that’s probably why a lot of the Sabbat---the vampire sect to which almost all Lasombra belong-- is based on a twisted version of Catholicism, with perverted rituals and rank titles like Priest and Bishop. There are many different camps of Lasombra, but the one I think Fabian would be in is called The Kings and Queens of Shadow. They take part in mortal institutions, exerting influence, gathering resources and in general keeping the mortal population unaware of the vampires among them. In this setting, there is something called diablerie. It’s when one vampire sucks out all the blood of another and their soul with it, killing that other vampire and taking all their power into themselves. The Camarilla forbids diablerie. But the Sabbat embraces it.  The Lasombra are a clan driven by ambition, and consequently they in particular accept diablerie as a necessary facet of their existence; from the Lasombra perspective, the only tragedy in diablerie is that such an unworthy vampire as the vessel was sired in the first place. Each clan has a curse, and for the Lasombra it’s that they cast no reflections. They cannot be seen in mirrors, bodies of water, reflective windows, polished metals, photographs and security cameras, etc. This curious anomaly even extends to the clothes they wear and objects they carry. Many other clans believe that the Lasombra have been cursed in this manner for their vanity. Additionally, due to their penchant for darkness, Lasombra take an extra level of damage from sunlight.  Lasombra pride themselves on doing things with style and elegance, have a fascination with chess, are often drawn to the sea, and have a notably sadistic Embrace--- when considering a candidate, the sire usually totally destroys the target's life and sees how the target reacts. If the candidate falls apart, then he was obviously unworthy of the Embrace. If he can continue to survive and even overcome the challenges, then these challenges tend to become more extreme, until the sire decides that the candidate has demonstrated enough merit and is Embraced. They’re a very...SHAW clan, in many ways. But also very Fabian. Fabian is obviously vain, manipulative, power-hungry, and would absolutely suck out someone’s soul to get stronger. He is absolutely backstabbing and it WOULD be a CURSE for him not see his own reflection. Fabian is also of Spanish origin, as most Lasombra are, and he’s got the Catholic theme going low-key----he preached about Magneto in a way that was literally just Christianity with Magneto as Jesus, and “Acolyte” is a rank in the Catholic church as well as just a generic word for a follower or servant. I can absolutely see him being proud and pseudo-pious, preaching the praises of Caine (the religious belief of the Sabbat, basically, which is very important to them) and going so hard on their Catholic-inspired ritual, while all the while just trying to wriggle into the most important positions possible and have the most vampires under his command, because Fabian just really likes controlling groups of people on a personal level. I play up Fabian’s silly side because it’s so much fun, but he can written as very dark just as easily, and this would be the place to do it. God help his Ghouls. Oh, and while most vampires think they’re superior to humans even if they don’t admit it, the Sabbat preaches vampires openly reigning over humans as chattel and cattle and doing away with the Masquerade entirely, so that goes pretty well with Fabian as the Acolytes leader too. In the Camarilla, which is the majority sect and the one most vampires will be a member of if they don’t really have any strong beliefs against it, he’d be a Ventrue. Ventrue are one of the “pillar clans” of the Cam, but in my opinion, they ARE the Clan. Other members can and do have positions in it, of course, but it’s the Ventrue who are really running things at the end of the day. The Ventrue are called the Blue Bloods, the Clan of Kings, the ones who wear the crown but also carry the responsibility of making vampire society work, and who bear the brunt of everyone else’s hatred for doing it---because everyone hates the boss, even though they need them. They’re seen as a snooty old boys club who only care about enforcing order for the sake of their own power, and that’s true, but they’re also necessary. A lot of people think of the Lasombra as “Sabbat Venture” or “Ventrue but religious” or “Ventrue but darker” and honestly, that’s not a bad summary. Ventrue are all about power. Ventrue know they are MEANT to rule, and are usually selected from people who are ALREADY rulers, whether it’s a merchant prince, a CEO, or a mafia don. Ventrue likewise are very selective about their Embrace, and you have a lot to live up to, a ton of training to go through, all these rules of etiquette and dignity and hierarchy to follow, they are quizzed and needled and will have a hard time, but it’s NOT on the level of the Lasombra. They have a strict pecking order among themselves and no matter what a big dog you were in life, you are still starting at the bottom. But you have literal eternity to work your way up. Ventrue are completely aware of the unsavory aspects of power, and while a Ventrue leader is just as likely to lead organized crime as he is a Fortune 500 company (the Ventrue really do not object to theft, so much as petty theft), he must always comport himself with dignity, with grace and with honor. At least publically. Ventrue take assaults on their stature very seriously. Spreading rumors, taking credit for another's work and insulting a Ventrue without just cause (publicly or privately) are just a few of the ways to make an enemy for life, and life is going to be a VERY long time for these guys. While the Lasombra are closely connected to religion, the Ventrue are all about politics and money. And unlike the Lasombra who are eager to turn on each other and weed out the week, the Ventrue, like a fraternity, do have a policy of  coming to each other's assistance in times of need, even if it is inconvenient to do so, and many Ventrue credit the clan’s success with this. Again, a Clan that Shaw could fit pretty well, and excel in, and that Fabian...would not be the BEST example, but would be the perfect example of the negative parts of the Ventrue, the stuck-up power-hungry yes-men who lick the boots of everyone above them and boss around everyone below them. The ones who will do anything to get ahead. The nastiest stereotypes of politicians and corrupt corporate executives. It’s very easy for me seeing him in a business suit---the most cliche attire for a Ventrue--sucking up to the Prince and then snapping at some fledgling. And being SO grumpy at having to come to the aid of his fellow patricians, but being the first to call on them for help. Finally, the Followers of Set, or Setites for short. While the dominant belief among vampires is that they are descended from the Biblical Caine, the first murderer, with an ‘e’ at the end of his name for extra edginess in this canon, the Setites claim a different lineage. They say they’re descended from the Egyptian god Set instead, and have an entire complex religion that is REALLY awesome but too intricate to go into. They’re associated with snakes, able to command them and even transform into them, and, like the Lasombra, are extra super duper sensitive to light even for vampires, to the point many have to wear sunglasses even at night to cope with the bright artificial lights of the city. The Setites are known as peddlers of vice, as tempters and corrupters, as the guys who can get you anything or anyone you want...but always at a price. No one smart EVER makes a deal with a Setite, and they HABITUALLY make people into addicts of one type or another (it’s part of their faith) and it’s for this reason they’re rightly looked at with tons of suspicion. But what everyone else doesn’t get is that they are not merely pimps and drug dealers and info-brokers, they are not just shadowy manipulators and sleazy silver-tongued liars, they are FANATICS. They are DEVOTED to their god and ideology, and everything they do is in service of him and his return, at least that’s how it’s supposed to be. As with real people, each Setite is an individual, and how each of them interprets their faith, and how devout they are, varies. Fabian, I think, is one of the Christians who sure doesn’t live like one, but believes God has his back, who will pray to God when he needs something but not any other time, and I think that’s how he’d be about Set as well----he believes in the guy, because of course it’s appealing to Fabian’s arrogance to see himself as the descendent of a god, but his devotion isn’t selfless at all as it can be with some Setites. His manipulation and power-mongerering and slithering in to whisper in your ear and living in hedonism, it’s not for Set, no matter how much he proclaims it. It’s for him. But he’ll preach Set in the Independent Alliance as hard as he’d preach Caine in the Sabbat. Also consider: Shaw also being a Lasombra and RAPIDLY getting fed up with Fabian’s shit. Fabian also could have been Embraced by a Toreador or Brujah, not because he actually fits them but because they THOUGHT he did. Like a Brujah could mistake his fake-activism for some cause as being the real thing, or a Toreador could just think he’s really good looking, that kind of deal. In the “Werewolf: The Apocalypse” setting, he’d either be a Silver Fang or a Shadow Lord. My personal pick is a Silver Fang who acts a lot more like a Shadow Lord. The Silver Fangs are the “Alpha Tribe” of the Garou Nation (Garou meaning werewolves), its traditional leaders and warlords. These proud aristocrats are divided into 13 Houses (though only 7 remain in modern times) based on their immaculately recorded lineages, and each House is ruled by a King or Queen, who answer only to the High King if there is one, and are served by Lords and stewards and so on down the line. Whatever their House, this tribe is known for their courage, honor, and physical beauty. Unfortunately, they’re also known for being stuck up and expecting other Garou to obey them, as they believe they have the divine mandate to rule their brethren ---something that many other werewolves react to with ridicule and scorn more and more in the current era. It gets worse than snobbery, though. They’re so obsessive about their pure perfect lineages, they arrange (read: control) the mating even of their Kinfolk (human and wolf relations of a Garou who are not Garou themselves, but whose children could be) to ensure blood purity. As with human royalty, this has resulted in inbreeding, causing the younger members to be born with... quirks - absent-mindedness, mild hallucinations, somnambulism - nothing overtly psychotic, but noticeable nevertheless. They need to start changing their ways soon before this problem gets worse, but most of them show NO signs of acknowledging that, let alone actually doing it. Just as the Lasombra are often described as the dark reflection of the Ventrue, so too are the Shadow Lords often seen as the dark counterpart to the Silver Fangs. Shadow Lords too have strict hierarchies, but while the Silver Lords openly attempt to rule other tribes, the Shadow Lords are politicians and manipulators who use their secretive ways to wrest as much power as they can. The Shadow Lords originated in the steppes of Eurasia, where they controlled human tribes by assuming an indispensable position within their societies that would exert no direct power, but whose word was heeded. And they’ve been playing that role ever since in the Garou Nation, serving the Silver Fangs as their viziers and their secret henchmen, doing those deeds that would harm their reputation. The Fangs used the Shadow Lords as scapegoats for their own dark deeds, and the Shadow Lords accepted this, seeing that it would benefit the Nation if the name of the Silver Fangs would remain “pure” in the eyes of others. At least, that’s how it used to be.  These days, they have a particular hatred for the Silver Fangs instead, seeing the them as an outdated dinosaur holding the rest back from achieving their full potential. The Shadow Lords would love to supplant the Fangs as the unquestioned leaders of the Garou, and will rarely pass up an opportunity to take their plans one step further. Shadow Lords are constantly behind the scenes of any group or faction they have been able to get their claws into, manipulating others like puppets and pawns to get what the tribe wants and needs. While most Shadow Lords believe their works are for the greater good, many other Garou see them as deceitful dogs who need to be kept in clear view.  The Shadow Lords are among the few tribes that are not only willing to sacrifice themselves for Gaia ( such is expected from every Garou), but also others in order to further their greater goal. Sacrifice plays an important role within the Tribe, and a Shadow Lord is expected to be willing to sacrifice anything in the cause of a given cause, himself and all of his allies included. This gives them their grim reputation among the Nation. No other tribe knows the nature of politics like the Shadow Lords, and they value brains over brawn, emphasizing cunning and manipulation over physical fights. You’d think then, that they would be small and weak, the Scar or Loki to the Silver Fang’s Mufasa and Thor. Not so. The wolf forms of Shadow Lords are HUGE muscular black beasts, looking more like giant pit bulls than wolves. They believe in POWER above all else, and that INCLUDES the physical.  There is no room in the Shadow Lords for showing weakness or mercy to an opponent, be it a battle of wits or of bodies. If you couldn’t guess, Shaw would ABSOLUTELY be a Shadow Lord werewolf. Fabian, I’m thinking, is a Silver Fang by birth, probably of the Ahroun (warrior) or perhaps a sly slimy Philodox (mediators, judges, interpreters of the law and settlers of disputes), a Homid (born in human form) but whose half-sister (Anne Marie) is a wolf kinfolk. Which, yes, means Anne Marie is a wolf in this verse. Not a werewolf, just a wolf. A very smart wolf that tags along INCESSANTLY after him. Any, Fabian is a Silver Fang, and he’s the WORST stereotype about it---arrogant, entitled, and thinks he can boss around every other werewolf because of it. Despite his apparent disgust for “lesser” tribes, he in fact actually PREFERS being around them, because he can’t pull this on other Silver Lords, especially those who outrank him. But even the highest-ranking member of another tribe is, to him, lesser than he is, so he can do this shit---though of course he frequently does not get away with it. Fabian wants to gain great power, rank, and renown in his tribe, but while he is a strong warrior, he is also a coward, and thus won’t go into a fight he knows he’ll lose, which keeps him from accomplishing anything truly great in battle. So he begins acting more like a Shadow Lord within his own tribe and outside it, wiggling into the position of advising and manipulating others into order to snag power and credit for himself, make others look bad by comparison, trick them into commiting errors he then swoops in and fixes, etc. All of which just serves to make his ego even more unbearable as he succeeds, though watching him toady and suck up is also hilarious. Also, while he scoffs at the “weakminded” products of his clan, feeling they were the RESULT of bad breeding rather than the attempts to avoid it, he in fact is one of them---his egomania is simply how his inbred madness manifests. Which is technically not his fault, but doesn’t make him any less insufferable for it. As a non-werewolf werebeast (the “Fera” or “Changing Breeds”) he’d be a Bastet (werecat) specifically a Simba, a werelion. As I said with Cateye, they are regal, proud, and powerful beyond compare...and also arrogant, domineering, and malicious, even under the best of circumstances. They aren’t villains, mind you, but magnificent slayers of demons. They just happen to think, like the Silver Fangs, that they were created to rule their brethren, something the normally antisocial Bastet almost universally reviled. They believe they are the ones to put things in order again, and also that humans should know their place as well. You can already see the Fabian appeal. It gets even better. As one of the most social tribes of the Bastet, the Simba adore their loved ones, and watch their Kinfolk very closely. The central organization of the Simba is the pride. Each pride has one “father”, or dominant male, and several “wives”  and “young hunters. Small prides defer to larger ones, and may owe allegiance to a “High King”. Every pride contains more females than males and is usually mixed with feline and/or human kin to ensure a healthy progeny. Simba have rites of initiation and rank; advancement in the pride is by combat, and only three adult males are allowed to remain in a pride. Most have only one. Females fight to be First Huntress and First Wife, though few can be both. Losers either die in combat or wander the plains in search of a new pride. So, lots of hierarchy, harems, and opportunity to force other people out so he can be top, both of the heap and the women. This is the shit Fabian LOVES and THRIVES in. They may not be big on manipulation, but physical combat isn’t a thing Fabian is a slouch in at all---he bested Psylocke before, after all, and he’s huge to boot. Speaking of that, the human forms are typically muscular, charismatic, and attractive. Their hair flows thick and rich; white Simba have cascading hair which blossoms into a mane during transformation, while African ones have thick afros or dreadlocks. So, tall, muscular, long luxuriant hair, that’s him! He’s probably a lone male currently seeking a Pride to take over, or has a small one that is other lone males he’s temporarily banded together with as their ‘leader’ until he can find a proper one. Or, god forbid, he’s actually the king of one his “wives” all claw him in the face when he tries anything As with his wolf version, I see him as a Homid, born a human, and of his Pyrio, I’d pick Night or Twilight, for his sneakiness. He seems open and direct like a Daylight Bastet, but for all his bragging and spotlight-hogging, his real work goes down in the shadows. (Daylight - open and direct, they tend to be diplomats, warriors, lawgivers, and protectors. Twilight - questioners and seekers, they tend to be detectives, lawyers, spies, or mystics Night - often withdrawn and reclusive, they tend to be assassins, scholars, scientists, and practitioners of dark magics.)

[kryptsune]

In this world, it is hunt or be hunted~ 

(I apologize for the pic quality so I will write what they are saying this was a response to the, What do you think about Fellswap question from before.) 

C: “I am sorry did you happen to mention us? But of course, she had a soft spot for us. We are Fells you know~”  G: “Kitten’s been workin on our debut, ya can call me Grimm.” 

C: “A pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Crimson~.” 

🌼Ok! Here we go! A few people asked me about Fellswap or SwapFell which understandably so I think by now everyone here knows my love for anything with Fell tacked onto the back of it. Secret discussion though that I adore Fellswap Papyrus and Sans so I had to make my own! As always I have rewritten the entire verse to have my own personal touch to it! I will just describe the main ideas and maybe some key character details in the process! Hope you all enjoy and if you would like to see more of these boys let me know! 

The Surface: 

I want to talk about the humans on the surface first to kind of set the stage for what this AU is going to be based upon. The surface has been overrun by corrupt leaders. It is very much the concept of big brother. If you are seen as a threat you will be immediately thrown into “prison” without a trial. They hold occasional public trials in the guise of being fair. Just as WTU claims, the very concept of magic is a threat to them so those that have it are quickly disposed of but leaders don’t always do the dirty work themselves. No. In fact, they use another source by means of execution...the monsters. 

More accurately it is very similar to the idea of throwing your enemies into a kind of gladiatorial arena. It is not technically considered an execution if circumstances lead to death. The humans are not stupid they know what is going on. Some believe in rebellion against the state and some wonder if the monsters could fix their corrupt world. Either way, the corruption continues and they are not above tossing innocents into “the pit” if it suits their agenda.  “The Pit” (aka the Underworld/Underground): 

The underworld is broken up into different factions by location. The only location without a faction or any type of ruler is The Ruins, because of its size and its isolation this is where humans try to reach for some form of Salvation. Asgore, the caretaker, has made it into an encampment for those that have fallen (the innocent ones). It is almost like a refugee camp only unfortunately very few make it to Asgore’s safe haven. He does his best. Poor goat dad. He is not like canon Toriel however as he will use violence if necessary as he knows that the humans are simply using them as tools to get rid of who they deem criminal. There are signs of old campfires, broken tents, and habitation. 

Before The Ruins is, of course, the main factions. I know a lot of creators tend to swap location names and since Snowdin is the beginning and my boy Crimson is one of the most powerful in the Underworld I am going to as well. Here is the list. Snowdin=Magmire, Waterfall=Windyspires, Hotland=Tundra. The Underworld is also backward to some extent. The humans end up trapped in The Capital instead and they have to make their way to The Ruins to escape. So it would go like this: The Capital -> Tundra ->Windyspires ->Magmire. The closer the faction to the capital the higher the rank in other words because both Grimm and Crimson live in Tundra and he is the lord of it he is one of the most notorious. 

“It’s Hunt or be Hunted”: 

The modo of this verse. Why? Well after so many centuries of humans being disposed of by monsters they become horribly bored. It also adds fuel to Queen Toriel’s fire that one of the humans that fell down the first time killed her son (;~; RIP my precious boy). That is when they realized that humans weren’t just falling into the Underworld they were not only throwing them down to them but also throwing the worst of the worst. 

At first, they just capture them hold them in the Capitals network of catacombs but then some began to escape causing damage across their “new home” Toriel wouldn’t allow it. Very much later it turns into a game of cat and mouse. The humans are detained and released and the monsters hunt them down. It used to be a protection thing but now it’s become a sick twisted death game. The forests of Tundra are littered with traps and deadly pitfalls along with the rest of the locations. 

Each faction has a lord or lady that rules over it. The ones loyal to Toriel’s (As a side note she is known as the ice queen) regime and their supposed way of life. This also means the closest ones receive the most benefits. Tundra is the one with the most prestige and of course other monsters are trying to stip that title from its current holder, The Crimson Lord. Due to Crimson’s loyalty, he is almost exempt from any wrongdoing in the Queens' eyes which means he can do pretty much anything he wants. Which is dangerous and I will explain why in a bit.

I have a faction ruler list sitting here so I am going to add that to this as well. They are as follows, of course, this does not account for potential power struggles during the story:  Tundra -> Lord: Crimson, Lady: N/A

Windyspires -> Lord? (I mean she wouldn’t want to be called a lady SHE IS TOO TOUGH FOR THAT!): Alphys, Lady: Undyne

Magmire->Lord: Grillby, Lady: Muffet

Some of the lords or ladies will keep humans as servants and things of that nature if they are able to be on their captor's good side. Some live good lives but others just become slaves essentially. It’s not a common occurrence in this I just wanted to make a note of it. 

The Brothers Grimm: 

Let’s get to the main event here. The two boys this post is showing. My Fellswap Sans and Paprus. Now I honestly was not planning to do them but I just. I love the puppy boi and I adore @cocofinny , @bis-cvit , @skesgo , @imjustalazycat and so many other interpretations of him. This... is mine. Sans name is Crimson, or the Crimson Lord and Papyrus is Grimm. I chose those names because originally I wanted a vampire and werewolf dynamic between the two and I think that still shines through. (I ain’t changin it~) Crim is the regal sophisticated seducer and Grimm is the wild possessive flirty type. 

Let’s talk about Grimm. Grimm is the wilder of the two brothers and is very much a predator type. His name is derived from the mythos of the Grimm or Black dog. I wanted to keep that dark omen symbology in both his name and design. He slinks around in the shadows so that the black dog aspect is not far off. He also loves watching from trees so if you see a shadow over you, whoops.  He enjoys the catching and hunting aspect of his job and even plays around with his “toys” (I know how that sounds) when he finds them. He will specifically call anyone “chew toy” in a mocking kind of way. That does not mean though that he will not spare you if he catches you. He is naturally curious by things. Fun fact he has a little skele tail too. Unlike his brother, Grimm doesn’t really have an ego he just finds his job fun. HE IS A GIANT PUPPY BOI WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?

He admires his brother but he is not bound to his brother. In other words no master, dog nonsense. He is, however, the more accepting of the two. If he is asked to do something he doesn’t like then he most likely won’t. Also just because he has the whole puppy thing going on doesn’t mean he isn’t smart and cunning. Again he likes to play around with those he finds sometimes not even dragging them back to his brother for a while. If you are a threat he will kill you but if you’re not you can probably get on his good side. If he thinks you are cute he will probably flirt with you too. He is not beyond that. He plays the part of the dog quite well though well all know that there is more to him then that as is any Sans archetype. 

Crimson is more sophisticated. He doesn’t go out on “hunts” himself often as he has a faction to rule over but those brought to him will see first hand that he is an insufferable flirt. He also has a bad habit of keeping mementos from those he deems worthy (what those are... you don’t want to know). He is stern with his brother and seems very outwardly cold to most unless he is playing up his charm. He is not someone you want to make angry as Toriel considers him to also be the Bloody Lord. His weapon of choice is a scythe so if that doesn’t give the executioner vibe then I have no idea what will. His drinks of choice are red wine and champagne specifically the pink kind. Have to keep up that pink/ red aesthetic. Crimson’s incisor teeth also have that vampire point to them. They are longer than the rest of them (You can’t see it here since I decided to edit this prior to writing this up). There is far more to Crimson than just this as their backstories dictate but I wanted to give a general feel for what they are both like. 

Is there a story? 

Yes, there is. I will make it relatively short since this post is already massive in size. In my version, there are two siblings that fall into this world both twins. One is Frisk and the other is Chara. Since this is a swap, Frisk is more aggressive of the two and highly protective of her sister. Chara is the sweet and kind one that will abstain from any violence at all. Now Frisk in this is not the usual Chara swap because I want them to find their place amongst the world. Frisk has no problem using violence as a means of protection and self-defense but she won’t actively look for a fight. 

Why are they here you ask? Well, sadly they have magic within their souls hence the soul traits. They both also have the same soul outwardly, Determination, however, there is one other trait that is housed within their soul that makes them very different. Frisk’s is perseverance and Chara’s is kindness. As usual, the leaders of the Ebott Empire are threatened by their potential for magical abilities and as such are sentenced to be executed. Thus they become part of the hunt. 

Guess who runs into them? Frisk is the first to be captured by none other than Crimson and Chara is found by Grimm. It is strange that Crimson is not his usual self in their circumstances as he can tell, unlike so many others that they have captured in the past, that they are very different. Grimm can’t bring himself to harm Chara due to her innocence and Crimson enjoys Frisks headstrong and sassy attitude. In other words *slaps hands on table* you get a two for one. One Papyrus X Chara and one Frisk X Sans. They are adults by the way. 

Eventually much to Crimson’s reluctance they decide to help them escape as unlike most of the AU the monsters have no problem staying this way. Not all of them agree but the Lords certainly love their titles and don’t want to give up that power...that is until Frisk mentions that all those horrible corrupted humans on the surface could be like one giant... hunt. In which case Crimson is alll for so is Grimm but he is not dying to get to the surface. 

They make it to Asgore (who has all the souls btw the barrier is in The Ruins) who tries to get them to stay instead of sacrificing one of them for their freedom. It’s obvious that the brothers actually don’t want either of them to die. 

As Crimson says: “What is another century or two? We have all the time in the world.”  

Frisk and Chara become integrated into the Underworld and though Grimm continues his hunting he doesn’t want Chara to witness it. Crimson just has Frisk as his little huntress. It is unclear if they will make it out of the Underworld in this AU. It really depends upon how I feel the story would make the most sense and I think having the two sisters happy with and accepted into their lives is all they really wanted. They were considered “monsters” on the surface so why return there? (unless to watch it burn... of course). 

I have a lot more for this AU so feel free to drop any questions you may have in my ask box! I know this is a huge post so I really appreciate you all sticking with me if you made it this far! I really have enjoyed making my own FS for what I am now tagging Friskys multiverse! Have a great Tuesday everyone! 

DO NOT REPOST MY WORK WITHOUT MY PERMISSION IT IS NOT FOR YOUR USE. IF YOU LIKE MY WORK PLEASE REBLOG INSTEAD! It helps me so much! It makes such a difference.💙

[babaleshy]

Time for me to rant. If anybody is morbidly curious about what it’s like to live with Trump supporter parents where one parent basically projects himself onto Trump, you can click the thingie. But the context of how this is different from other times I’ve bitched about my folks on my old account is we’re not starving for once. We actually have some money and are trying to get some shit together so we can take care of the urgent needs such as fucking house repairs and shit.

So... We live on a farm. I won’t say where, but right over the hill is a goddamn oil pad. My parents aren’t rich or anything from the oil rights, but I am reluctantly admitting that we are finally getting some money in to where we could repair our tub so we don’t have to risk blisters from pulling a DIY string to turn on the cold water through a ventilation duct because the faucet is fucked. We also got the train to our tub fixed so that way when we shower, we’re not standing in filthy-ass water that can’t drain properly no matter what we shove down the drain to fix it with. We had to replace the entire drainage system for both bathrooms.  Yes. Both bathrooms. The second one is just a toilet and a sink but that sink had the same clog problem due to YEARS of rust build-up because there’s so much goddamn iron in our well water, which my dad states is “actually water coming in from a flooded mineshaft,” and at this point, it would not surprise me if he was right for once.

We also finally got new working vehicles we don’t have to keep taking in for repairs we can’t afford in hopes we can make it to the grocery store or in hopes my mom and my husband can make it to work. Still 2 vehicles, but they are much newer than what we had before (I’m not car-smart, so I couldn’t tell you what years they are or whatever).

My mom also finally paid off all of the credit card debt we were drowning in. This includes both of mine we were forced to use and max out and never make payments on because we couldn't afford to eat several times. That’s about $3k in the hole if you include late fees and interest on TWO credit cards under MY NAME. Because we didn’t have money on us so we could fucking eat.

We are hoping that soon we can get all of our teeth fixed. My husband and I have wisdom teeth in dire need of removal. All of his are rotten, one of mine is rotten but all four are crowding my teeth, all four of us have cavities in our teeth we’re doing our best to keep from getting worse. So the next logical step is teeth. I’m trying to apply for Medicaid but now apparently you’re required to do that over the phone, now and I need a day during the week where my husband has off so I can get some help with this phone call (long story, I just have trouble with phone calls). We also really hope we can find a dentist and oral surgeon NOT IN THIS AREA. A BIG REASON WHY HALF MY TEETH ARE FUCKED IS BECAUSE OF PURPOSEFULLY BOTCHED JOBS BY AN ASSHOLE DENTIST SO YOU’D KEEP GOING IN AND HAVING YOUR FILLINGS RE-DONE.

But hey! We’re doing financially better, now. Especially since my mom plans to give me birthday money this year, and my parents don’t seem to have a problem with paying (if necessary) to help me get tested for dyslexia.

With all of this good news, you’d think my dad would be just tickled, right?

Nope.

He bitches about spending money. He has a mole hill of money he sees as a mountain and he wants to sit on it and never spend it. He bitches anytime spending has to take place. At all. He parrots any and all things Trump promotes and shit. My dad wants to be Trump. My dad is racist, thinks Mexicans are invading America to take our jobs and rape our women and murder Americans (same with any non-white refugee from anywhere), he thinks the military doesn’t get enough support of any sort, with his excuse being “we need to make sure we can show the world we can destroy it at any time we want to so the rest of the world respects us.” Btw, he equates fear with respect. There is no debating him. I’ve tried.

My dad says if he is somehow convinced his xtian god isn’t real, then what’s the point in being a good person? He’d start killing everybody just because there would be no god to judge him. THIS IS THE SIGN OF A MENTALLY UNHEALTHY, UNSTABLE, UNSAFE INDIVIDUAL. Luckily, my dad is actually all talk 99.9% of the time. My dad is lazy, and even states that his ideal life is to sit in an apartment without ever having to move, and he’d have servants at his beck and call. He actually tried several times to convince my mom to move into an impoverished part of the south intentionally because “we would live like kings with the money we’ve got coming in right now.” He’s full of shit because it actually isn’t that much money. It’s just that we can stop starving. (For context, my mom wants to move north ever since her mom/my grandma died because her sister is all she has left and she lives up north, and since Kent State is up there, I’m fine with that.)

My dad wants to sit around and be lazy and absorb any and all conspiracy theories on YouTube that appeals to his fucked up worldviews on a device he claims to hate and wishes never existed. He also bitches about having to drive my husband around, who “should have gotten his permit and license by now” despite the fact that he finally got new glasses after 10+ years of not being able to afford to upgrade his prescription and needs to get used to his new vision. My dad is convinced that because he willed himself through his own problems that literally everyone else can do the same. My dad is the most self-centered adult outside of celebrity-hood I’ve ever seen. My husband has anxiety because being behind the wheel of a machine that could easily kill people freaks him out, and he’s not sure if he can see a counselor for managing his anxiety on a regular basis is going to be possible right now.

My dad thinks my husband works at a retail video game store to support his hobby and nothing else “because of all the damn games and statues he keeps buying” when my dad likes to ignore the fact that employee discounts, clearance sales, trade-in credits, and special deals exist. 

My dad is a miserable old bastard, and because we’re in the same situation as him, he cannot stand how we enjoy ourselves to make the most of it. Misery loves company, and he can’t get past the fact that his life changed forever when he got hurt and permanently disabled at the steel mill back in ‘95. He has since then refused to accept what has happened to him, and would rather be a miserable piece of shit and take down anyone else nearby with him. Which could be why he bitches about having money he can spend, now.

And he does all of his venting at my husband. I know my dad is trying to goad my husband into saying or doing something stupid so my dad has a reason to either kick us out or be physically violent. My dad doesn’t like the fact that my husband isn’t a fucking idiot. My husband grew up with a family full of anger-filled assholes. He knows the ropes as much as I do. And the fact that my husband sticks up for me while I’m not around shows to my dad that my husband truly does love me, and wouldn’t only stick up for me while I’m around. He has called my dad on his shit quite a bit when I’m not around. My dad HATES that he can’t dangle the indirect message of “you’re all by yourself, no one else thinks you’re right” above my head. And ever since my husband started routinely calling my dad out on his shit, or defending me when my dad bitches about me over stupid shit, my dad has backed off me for the most part.

My dad wasn’t counting on me getting married to a good man. My dad previously equated good men with financial wealth. Turns out my dad was proven wrong, and he can’t stand it. That fucker is the whole reason why I have had so many self-image insecurities (and still do) and my dad can’t stand it that my husband isn’t joining him on mocking me. My husband tells him to fucking stop. My dad dares not do it in front of my mom, because she tells him to stop.

My parents aren’t in a very health marriage. There’s more footage of convincing evidence of Bigfoot than there are times my parents did something together because they love each other, and I’m not talking about anything expensive, either.

Mom sleeps on the couch because she told me she can’t stand his snoring. However, I remember my mom once telling me that my dad “doesn’t have an ‘off’ switch with his libido” so I’m guessing that’s another reason why.

Both of them sit in the same room on opposite sides of the room (mom on the couch, dad in the busted-ass armchair) on their devices (mom on her tablet and/or phone and dad on the computer that’s by/in front of his chair), only talking to each other about certain articles they read, and not much else. They’ll occasionally watch something on the TV together on Netflix or Hulu but that’s about it.

Mom wanted to live on a farm and raise horses ever since she was a little girl, and through manipulation and the excuse of 4-H projects through me and my brother, she finally got her wish. And my dad is against having any animals of any sort. All he does is bitch about them. He also bitches about how much country my mom listens to (and I can’t blame him there; my mom is the whole reason why country music is the bane of my fucking existence).

Aside from boinking to have 2 kids and mourning over the loss of one of them, my parents have very little in common. I have no idea how or why they got together other than my dad made my mom laugh and didn’t break her jaw like her ex-husband did, my dad had 3 exes and wanted to make the 4th one count, and my mom found out she was pregnant with me before dad proposed (I’m GUESSING knocking my mom up is what made them decide to marry, I dunno).

My mom has (VERY FEW) redeeming qualities, so I take advantage of her mama bear nature to ensure I’m safe under the same roof as my dad. I’m unintentionally appealing to her desire for a farmer-daughter by wanting to garden, though I made it very clear I will never be responsible for farm animals again. She also doesn’t mind the fact that she’ll never be a grandmother to human babies. I’m willing to bet it’s because she never wanted me and doesn’t blame me for not wanting kids of my own. She gets points for not being exactly like her own mother, but I could’ve used some meaningful and caring mother-daughter bonding instead of the distant I-see-you-as-a-burden-now-that-we-are-living-in-poverty treatment I got growing up.

I could point all of this out to my parents, and they would rather spend more time coming up with excuses or redirecting the blame instead of, you know, APOLOGIZING FIRST. And I say this because I have brushed on the topic before and they got SUPER defensive about it.

I was an accident, they got married probably so I wouldn’t be born out of wedlock and so their respective families wouldn’t look down upon them, they thought they had this and had a second kid, a year to two years later dad gets hurt at the mill and we’ve been impoverished ever since but because boys bring more promise of success than girls---especially girls who are different like I was and still am---my brother was automatically the favorite. And I was always screamed at.

Boy would I love to see a therapist instead of a one-hour visit with a counselor trying to figure out as much of why my brain is the way it is once a friggin’ week. Not blaming the counselor, because he’s awesome. But my counselor did say that he’s actually a bit surprised but glad I’ve figured out some way to live with this. It’s because I know how they act, how their minds work, how they would react if I said or did this or that. Having all of this free time and being alone with my thoughts because my husband works his ass off for pennies only for my dad to try and make him spend money on necessities instead of spending his own goddamn money has allowed me to think about and even analyze my own parents; how they act, why they act this way, why they’ve acted that way, etc.

I do consider myself lucky that they aren’t worse than this. My mom is actually much more understanding with me, now, and that’s probably because I’m the last child she has left. So I guess after living in a shit or unhappy marriage and working her ass off to raise two kids and then losing one, she tries to be the good xtian mother and be thankful for what she has now. It’s a guess, though. The whole thing could be a facade for all I fucking know.

Dad’s all talk, but because his tone is the same whether or not he makes his shitty, stupid jokes, or can’t keep certain thoughts to himself and feels the need to say them aloud (SUCH AS POINTING OUT I HAVE CLEAVAGE LIKE IT’S SOME “OMG WOW YOU HAVE BOOBIES NOW AFTER HIGH SCHOOL” IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN MY EARLY TWENTIES THANKS DAD THAT WAS CREEPY WHAT THE FUCK), it’s hard to tell whether or not he’s serious about some of the shit he says.

He projects himself onto Trump because he wants to BE Trump. Trump says if Ivanka wasn’t his daughter, he’d date her. I wouldn’t be surprised (I’d still be creeped out) if my dad said something similar. And he has tried to talk about my appearance and how I could make money with it such as a pin-up cosplay calendar because apparently I “look so attractive” while at the same time he shames me for having “skin so pale my legs blind him from reflecting so much light while I wear shorts.” And when I call him out on it, he genuinely thinks he’s done no wrong. My dad is pretty much Trump Lite, and it’s creepy.

But I know the fucker. I can play at his fucked up game, too. All I gotta do is talk about periods or vaginas, because suddenly when his daughter talks about, you know, being a human, suddenly it’s just too much for him.

And he hates I can play this fuck-ass game with him.

And I’m glad he hates it.

Because it’s evident he will never see himself in the wrong. He never has, never does, never will. Because he’s got one excuse or answer after another, and when he runs out, it’s time to drop the conversation before he gets pissed and ruins the night for everybody.

So I’m glad I’m good at playing this game back at him and being damn good at it. That’s what he gets for being a piece of shit.

[musical-miranda]

The Mysterious Miranda (Chapter 10) (Smut)

CLICK HERE FOR THE VERSION WITH NO SMUT

pairing: lin manuel miranda x reader, daveed diggs x reader

summary: Your cousin Anthony drags you along to one of his neighbor’s infamous parties with his girlfriend, keeping you from a night in. Mr. Miranda, the host, is a mysterious man, but that isn’t the part that gets to you.

warnings: smut, cheating, lil bit of angst, 1920s slang(??), my portrayal of a 1920s burn, lots of fluff

words: 6660 (im so sorry for so many reasons yall)

a/n: Alternatively titled: Poor Anthony™

hi guys i swear i still write stuff! it’s just been a crazy last month, but I’ve finally finished this part! I’m so sorry it took so long, I feel kinda bad about it, but I hope it was worth the wait! 

I figured out the only bright side to burning my arm this past week and treating it at home; firsthand research and experience for TMM! I learned more in 2 days than the 2 weeks I had spent researching the topic.

Thank you to @psychedemigod for keeping me company while I was writing a lot of this and helping out here and there, and thank you to @secretschuylersister for being so supportive and reading it over, leaving much-appreciated commentary.  

If you want to be tagged in the next parts, just shoot me an ask! I absolutely love to hear feedback from anybody and everybody, I can’t begin to express how much it means to me. 

tags: @isis278 @21phantasticromances @dvddggs @l-nmanuel@bluesnowyangel @hamrevolution @hell-yes-puns-and-ships @accidentally-impeccable @paintingpetrichors

part one part two part three part four part five part six part seven part eight part nine

SLANG TRANSLATIONS: 

Barneymugging — Lovemaking

Now you're on the trolley! — Now you've got it!

Slimp—Cheapskate or “one-way guy”.

“Her heart sank into her shoes as she realized at last how much she wanted him. No matter what his past was, no matter what he had done. Which was not to say that she would ever let him know, but only that he had moved her chemically more than anyone she had ever met, that all other men seemed pale beside him.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Daveed! Stay still!” You let out a soft laugh, tightening your grip on Daveed’s arm slightly to keep it in place as he moved it around, preventing you from dousing the burn in lavender oil.

It was your fifth day home from the hospital and the eighth day since the accident, and frankly, Daveed’s burn was not doing terribly well. He had developed a mild infection just a couple days after the fire so you were informed to treat it with the finest of essential oils.

Every morning, you poured enough oil on the injury to cover it, and it always had your husband writing in pain for a few moments. The pain seemed to subside only moments later, but it was enough to keep him dreadful of the treatment.

Once the oil had dried, you were to wrap the entire arm in a bandage wrap to keep it from outside toxins that could be harmful. However, Daveed was a bit irritable after the initial pain of the lavender, so he always argued the most trivial things.

“You aren’t doing it right!” He protested while trying to grab the bandage from your hand.

“I have been doing this two times a day for eight days, five of those days at home on my own. For the last time, I think I know how to change your bandages.”

“Mary taught me how to change the bandages as well, darling. It must be done left to right and bottom to top.”

“What are you talking about? I have been doing it top to bottom and right to left since the very first time.” You tied the end of the bandage once it was wrapped around his arm snugly. “I reckon it doesn’t much matter anyhow. Let’s continue to wrap it this way, alright dear?”

Although Daveed’s face scrunched up at your suggestion, he kept his arm relaxed in your hold. “If you insist.”

“I do.” You leaned in to press your lips to his cheek briefly and let out a laugh. “You can have your arm back now.”

He squirmed around for a second before turning some knobs on the radio nearby, tuning into the local station. “Have we got any plans for the day?”

After passing the extra bandages and bottle of oil over to a servant, you propped your legs on the ottoman by your couch, positioned to face Daveed. “Well, Anthony invited me to tea this afternoon, so I reckon Ferdie will drive me to his cottage in West Egg rather soon here.”

Daveed ran his long fingers up and down your arm absently as you spoke, a tactic he typically used to relieve you from stress, and it never ceased to do just that. “Just tea? No funny business?”

“No funny business, I’m hoping. Frankly, I’m growing tired of such games.” The smile you flashed your husband had nervous undertones that you hoped he wouldn’t notice. Not because you knew something he didn’t, but due to the simple fact that he now knew almost exactly as much as you did.

Anthony had asked you to come to tea alone, which did seem like a reasonable request to you, but if Daveed knew that information and that Anthony refused to divulge any details of your tea aside from time and place, he would insist on joining you, on account of something feeling just a bit off. The risk felt far too significant to let any details, or lack thereof, slip.

“You let me know if any of that craziness ensues and I’ll be sure--”

“Darling,” you interrupted. “I’ll be alright, trust me. It’s only tea with my cousin, I’ll be home before you even know I left.”

“I trust you both. I just worry about you, you know.”

“Don’t. If anyone should worry, it’s me for you. I haven’t yet left your side since you set yourself on fire. Will you be alright for a few hours?”

“I’ll be quite alright, dear. Truly, I don’t require as much care as you believe. All I’ve to do today is change the bandage before bed. Simple. I’ll even wrap it your way to keep you satisfied.”

You couldn’t help your soft chuckle at his words as you leaned into his gentle, assuring touches. “You should rest while I’m gone. Heaven knows you aren’t getting near enough.”

“It’s merely half past two!”

“Your sleep has been restless all week, Daveed. I expect you to be asleep when I arrive home.”

His grumbling protests only lasted a few seconds before your sharp glare cut them off and he sighed in submission. “I suppose.”

“Thank you. Now, I must get ready. Otherwise, I’ll be late for tea.”

“Well, go on, now, I don’t want to hold you back!”

You pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek before turning to walk towards your bedroom, calling back to him, “Well, don’t sound so anxious to get rid of me, deary!”

A subsequent laugh rang out from behind you, causing a smile to tug at your own lips as you shuffled through your large closet.

You shifted through several dresses of different styles and colors before settling on a salmon colored dress with matching faux rose petals hanging off as decoration. It had a halter neck, though it appeared strapless since the top half was a sheer chiffon that was hardly notable. The waist on it was a fitted ribbon that tied in the back, rather than your typical front-tie dress, and the skirt flared out slightly until it stopped right at your knee.

Mumbling various ideas to yourself, you found a few casual accessories to pair with the dress, then began changing from your beige colored day outfit. As you accessorized your outfit, you hung a brand new pair of rose-gold earrings from your ears and slipped a matching Cartier Trinity Ring onto your right ring finger. You also clipped a diamond studded headpiece into your hair to hold it out of your face all evening.

After looking through your ever-growing collection of bracelets, you decided on a four strand set of pearls for one wrist and a diamond cuff for the other, both of which rested atop your white, fishnetted gloves, each held in place with a ribbon tied in a bow.

Once you applied a light pink lipstick, pulled a white fur cardigan over your shoulders, and slipped on beige heels, you were finally ready to walk out the door. “Ferdie! Ferdie, I’m all ready to leave for Anthony’s house,” you called out across the mansion, hoping your driver would locate you quickly.

“You know, Daveed... If you rest now, you’ll hardly even notice I’m gone.” Your voice was a bit teasing as you spoke to him, but he responded with soft laughter, standing up to give you a quick good-bye kiss.

“I suppose we’ll just have to see, Y/N. Enjoy yourself. Tell Anthony I say hi, won’t you? I ought to take him to The Yale Club for lunch some time.”

You returned the peck to his lips. “Of course, dear. I’ll be sure to let him know.”

When you arrived at Anthony’s little cottage amongst the mansions just thirty minutes later, rain was pouring down as thunder roared in the distance, puddles forming on the ground where you would usually step out of the car. Thankfully, Ferdie had pulled right up to the stepping stones that brought you to your cousins front door, so that was the path you took with your driver's umbrella overhead.

Before you even got the chance to knock, Anthony was greeting you outside of the door in a green sweater vest and red striped bowtie. This immediately put a smile on your face. “Now, why did I have to come alone, my dearest one?” You raised a curious eyebrow at him.

“Send away your driver before I show you.” His expression was just as mysterious as your own, though his wide smile was a bit crooked.

“Ferdie! Come back in an hour!” You waved the driver off and immediately turned your attention back to the man leading you inside, a coy smile toying on your lips now. “What, are you in love with me, deary?”

Unfortunately for you, your cousin knew better than to play these games with you because they always seemed to land him in awkward situations. Your coy remark was just met with laughter and an eye roll.

“Well? Are we going to have tea, or will we just stand around here lamely?”

“I’ll make the tea and meet you in the sitting room, how’s that sound?”

“Splendid.” You flashed a grin then made your way to the sitting room where you were greeted by hundreds of flowers. Orchids, to be exact, which had always been your favorite, and they were in a variety of colors.

The largest of the bouquets were a combination of white and pale green orchids, and those displays occupied more than half of the entire room. However, a couple smaller bouquets consisted solely of light pink orchids with a yellow lip and creamy undertones.

Upon closer inspection, you saw an array of brightly colored macarons, two-inch strawberry cake squares, and a few other small desserts, sitting on the coffee table. This piqued your curiosity.

Anthony had never been one for making casual events extravagant, but maybe that had changed. Perhaps it was your birthday and you simply forgot. A whirlwind of ideas whipped through your mind.

“Oh, it’s absolutely beautiful! What's the occasion, my dearest?”

You grazed your fingers across the soft petals of several flowers as you explored the small room, again lost deep in thought by the time he had entered the room. You expected an answer to tear you from your thoughts but instead, it was Anthony brushing past you to look into his back yard.

His expression was bewildered, though probably not to the same degree as your own, but that wasn't the point. Quickly flicking his head over his shoulder, he rushed around the small room as if something important was missing. There most certainly was some funny business going on at this meet-up; not a single word had left his mouth since he wandered into the kitchen for tea.

Suddenly, the doorbell ring filled the entire cottage and Anthony rushed to answer it. As you examined the flower bouquets closely, you heard hushed arguing between two people in the next room. Their tones were rather rushed and frantic, but when you peered towards the doorway, the other frame was hidden.

You went back to admiring the flowers. They were extremely high-quality orchids, something only sold by the best florists in New York or grown in personal hothouses by the wealthy. However, Anthony didn’t have money like that at his disposal. Even though he came from a wealthy family, he lived in a shack at $80 a month and worked in the stock market business.

In fact, only one person stuck out in your mind, and that was… No, it couldn’t be. You twirled around on your feet to take another glance at the men in the doorway, but the answer you had been avoiding was standing four feet from you in a white suit.

None other than Lin-Manuel Miranda, the man who hadn’t reached out to you in over a week, not even to apologize for his behavior, stood before you. One hand was stuffed in the left pocket of his pant pocket, thumb hooked into the belt band as water dripped off of him slowly. He was frozen in place for a few moments before he straightened out his gold bowtie and powder blue vest, staring at the ground with his mouth agape.

Taking in a sharp breath, you finally found a few words to squeak out with two raised eyebrows. “Well? Are you going to speak?”

“I-I... Ho-How are you, darling?” The man stumbled on his words nervously, tapping his fingers against his leg, and he finally managed to turn his gaze to meet your eyes.

You quickly turned your eyes away and hesitantly moved to Anthony’s sofa, tucking your legs underneath your body as you sat. “My husband set himself on fire last week.”

Lin appeared quite taken aback by this, if the way his eyes went wide was anything to judge by, so you quickly deducted that the information hadn’t been relayed to him. “I’m-I’m sorry, what?”

“Not purposefully, no; he was making breakfast for me. The morning after he shared that he is in love with me.” You looked at him briefly before chuckling bitterly. “Why, that was the same evening you betrayed my trust.”

“I didn’t-” He was quick to defend himself, but realized just as quickly that it would get him nowhere.

“What are you here for, Lin?”

Once again, he was frozen. Your patience was wearing thin.

“I could just leave.”

“I-I’m sorry. I asked Anthony to set this up in order to apologize. I feel terrible for last week, darling, you must believe me. I treated you terribly.”

“Well, lucky for you, I made up with Daveed. As a matter of fact, this is the first I’ve been away from him since that night. You, on the other hand? You didn’t even call once, Lin.”

“I relayed a message through Anthony. I've been informed not to call your home, have I not?”

“That rule is of no use now that my husband knows we’ve been barney-mugging,” You pointed out blatantly, watching a blush flush across Lin’s face.

When no response came from him, you called out for Anthony. “My dearest, could you bring the tea here?”

His head immediately popped through the doorway, curls bouncing just a bit as he brought over a tray with a teapot, three teacups, lemon slices, and sugar cubes. “Sugar or lemon for either of you?” He filled up the teacups and passed one to you and Lin, dropping a sugar cube into his own.

“No.” Lin took a sip of his tea.

“I’m alright, but thank you, darling.”

Anthony just nodded once with an awkward, forced smile on his face, and he took the seat across from you.

“You never answered my question.” Lin was up and walking around while you sat on the edge of a stiff chair, gaze glued to the table before you. He found his way to the mantel which he leaned against, and if it weren’t for his trembling voice, you would think he was perfectly at ease. He was not.

You opened your mouth to speak but the mantelpiece clock he was leaning against tilted dangerously away from its proper location. Lin didn’t realize this until the clock was already falling, though he was able to reach up and fumble it around in the air to prevent it from shattering on the wood flooring. Luckily, he was able to grab hold of it with trembling fingers soon after, placing it back on the mantel where it belonged, jamming the top piece back in harshly until it fit.

Once Lin took a seat next to Anthony, he spoke again. “I’m sorry about the clock. I’ll send someone to fix it tomorrow morning.”

It seemed that Anthony didn’t expect the conversation to include him, so his expression was blank and cheeks red before he could manage proper words. “It’s an old clock.”

“Very lovely, though!” You chimed in, reaching to give his hand a gentle squeeze.

“Lovely, indeed.” Lin’s words lingered in the air for a few tense minutes.

Nobody else attempted to break the silence, so you decided to finally answer Lin’s question after the silence had become unbearable. “I have been very well, Lin. Worried. Not only for my husband but you as well.”

“Is that so?”

“Well, when you’ve not spoken to me in eight days, what else am I to do?”

Lin pursed his lips. “Look, dear, I'm very sorry. I made a terrible mistake, and I understand why you're displeased with me. I realize I should have consulted with you before saying anything unplanned, seeing as your entire marriage was on the line.”

You raised an eyebrow, unable to suppress the smirk teasing across your face. “Oh, now you're on the trolley! Go on now, Lin, I'd just love to hear more on your great mistake.”

“Of course you would,” he muttered under his breath and you could hear his eye roll without looking to the man. “I spoke in an unacceptable, unjustifiable manner. To make such personal remarks regarding a relationship I know nothing of? That makes me no better than an every day slimp.”

You tried your best to hide the amusement threatening to take over your expression, but let out a soft giggle when that become far too much effort. “Where did you learn the word slimp, darling?”

“I picked up a copy of Flapper at the newsstand just last week; it made me think of you. As I was flipping through the pages, I saw an article entitled A Flapper’s Dictionary. Well, it made me think of you, and I thought that…”

Although Lin trailed off as if he’d lost his train of thought, you had a strong feeling you knew what would have come next. He assumed knowing more words relevant to you would give him an edge on your fairly traditional husband.

That assumption would be correct, though you’d never admit it to his face.

“You picked up a magazine called Flapper on a streetcorner, on account of it reminding you of myself?”

“I-Well, yes. But! See, now I know just what flappers are all about! I feel as if I understand you much better now; the short skirts, shorter hair, rolled down socks, and by golly, your independence. It’s no wonder you’ve grown tired of your husband.”

“It seems maybe you should become a flapper as well,” you teased the man and laughed fondly as a deep pink color flushed his cheeks, his gaze dropping to the ground.

From the corner of your eye, you saw Anthony moving about in his seat anxiously, clearly no longer interested in his tea. He appeared about ready to burst from discomfort, but he was a fantastic host, not interrupting once and filling the tea cups as needed.

When he finally found a silent moment, Anthony rose from his seat and cleared his throat. “I should really get going now. I won't wander too far, should you happen to need me.”

Lin’s head whipped around at the words with a bit of worry in his eyes, looking at Anthony. “Where are you going?”

“I'm not exactly certain. I've got some errands to sort out, some gardening to work on, maybe even a book to read. I'll find something to do.” His voice was hurried, and it was evident that he desperately wanted to get out of the awkward situation. He so often found himself stuck in the worse scenarios without a real place in conversation and he was finally starting to take the initiative to avoid such events.

“Go on deary, and don't forget your coat. It may be warm, but you see that weather, now don't you?” Your eyes crinkled up at the corners in a smile when Anthony started scurrying away, making sure to grab his tan trench coat on the way out.

When Anthony had exited the house and left you and Lin alone, an awkward silence lingered in the air with tension you could slice with a knife. Lin’s fingers tapped on the table, giving him something to do, no matter how annoying it was to you. Though in his defense, he probably didn't realize it was annoying you in the first place.

You were the one to break the silence. “I've missed you,” you admitted softly with a quivering voice. “I know it's only been a week, but I desperately need you in my life. As much as possible.”

“I miss you every time we’re apart, darling. You’re my entire world. You should know that.” Lin’s voice was unwavering in the same way his love for you was unwavering and able to get through any rough patch. He was slow and cautious as his hand reached forward to rest on your own, gently entangling your fingers together, causing a more secure smile to tug at your lips.

“I know.” Your voice was but a whisper as his face moved gradually closer to yours, his cold hand reaching up to cup your cheek. “I love you far too much to stay mad at you. I truly do.”

The moment the final word of that phrase came out of your mouth, Lin’s lips were pressed to your lips in a kiss that had the butterflies in your stomach wrecking up a storm. You didn’t mind, though.

Nobody could stir up your emotions and the passion inside of you the way that Lin did, the way he always could, and there was no denying that. If you weren’t sure of it before, you were now. When he kissed you, all the stars aligned and you couldn’t be more certain that it was him. It had always been him. Not Daveed.

As your lips meshed together like two puzzle pieces, you made your way onto Lin’s lap and let your right hand grip the hair on the nape of his neck. Your lips didn’t break apart once, not even as his arms moved to wrap around your waist.

The first time the kiss broke was when Lin moved his lips down your jawline slowly, trailing down your neck in a timely fashion, and he spent just enough time on each spot to have you dying for more. It wasn’t teasing, per say, but he definitely wasn’t giving everything to you right away.

“Jesus,” you breathed out. One hand of his ran down your waist to your hip while the other rested on your arched back to keep you close to his body.

“Mm, not quite,” came his whisper in your ear. You felt the smirk as his lips brushed across your ear but ignoring his comment was easy with his hot breath just teasing against your sensitive neck.

Before too long, you were laid on your back on the small sofa with Lin’s legs on either side of you, his hands now roaming various places of your body. You only squirmed under his touch for a moment before relaxing and letting your head tilt back so his lips could wander wherever he pleased.

Lin grazed his teeth across the tender spot on your neck and sucked at it eagerly. You knew he would leave a mark or two and they wouldn’t go unnoticed by Daveed when you got home, but as you laid beneath the man, gasping at his touches and moaning his name breathily, you couldn’t bring yourself to care.

“We’re still at An-” You started to half heartedly remind your lover of your location when his touch ghosted along your inner thigh beneath your dress, eliciting a gasp from you and stopping your sentence in its tracks. Just seconds later, you had forgotten what you were going to say.

You were consumed by the feeling of his hands on your body, so much so that you hardly noticed a new pet name fall from his lips in a husky tone. “Shh… Don’t speak, baby. My house is just across the way if we must.”

“Jesus,” you moaned under your breath when his lips trailed up to your ear where his teeth nipped at your earlobe. “I don't want to get up.”

“You don’t have to, then,” Lin whispered in your ear, his dull nails digging into your thighs now, sending a shiver up your spine.

As you arched your back off the couch, you gripped a knitted blanket that sat across the back of the couch and pulled it underneath your body. It was easy to ignore the itchy fabric against your skin with Lin’s fingers trailing farther up your thigh. Instead, you were a writhing mess, melting into his touch.

Lin untied your dress and pulled it over your head in a swift movement, tossing it onto the ground beside the couch as if it wasn’t a brand new, comically expensive dress. His lips now moved down from your neck slowly, leaving no skin untouched until he reached your bra, where his lips couldn’t yet reach.

The look in his eyes as he reached back to unhook your bra was unmistakably lust, but his eyebrows furrowed in frustration when he couldn’t figure out the contraption. You tried your best to suppress your laughter but the longer he tugged at the band across your back, the harder it got.

“Need help, darling?” You giggled out after not long, reaching back to unhook your bra in one fluid motion, letting it fall to the ground. The slight look of defeat across Lin’s face didn’t last too long before he was going at the sensitive skin of your breast with his mouth.

You head fell back on the couch in a fit of soft moans, squirming beneath his touch as his hips rolled against yours. Your hands made quick work of his multi-layer suit, leaving him bare-chested on top of you a few short moments later.

While he left hickeys on your chest, you moved your hand down to palm at his bulge, giving him the friction he was desperately trying to find against you. “Y/N, you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on,” Lin whispered against your skin, making his way down your stomach until his lips were between your hips.

Lin was busy littering your skin with kisses when you decided to unzip and remove his dress pants, adding them to the pile of clothes on the ground that now included your panties. His boxers came down with the pants, unintentionally though you couldn’t complain, and before you could prepare, his tongue flicked over your clit gently.

Your back arched off of the sofa as you took in a sudden, sharp breath, digging your nails into his back. His tongue pressed briefly against your entrance before he pulled your clit between his lips, leaving you breathless.

“Lin...” You gasped, attempting to catch your breath, rolling your hips up towards him in time with his head movements.

Not too long later, his focus moved so his tongue dipped inside of you now and quickly found a pace to thrust, causing your nails to drag down his back. With his tongue movements, his nose occasionally rubbed against your clit. You knew there wasn’t a whole lot more you could handle.

You grabbed Lin by the hair on the back of his head and pulled him up into a feverish kiss, full of desperation and desire. It was messy, no doubt, and easily one of the most passionate kisses you’d ever shared.

“I wan--No, I need you, Lin.” You managed against his lips, your voice a whimper full of a sort of urgency. “Please. I need you.”

Without warning, he was pushing into you slowly, hands firmly holding your hips in place as you adjusted to his size. His lips moved down to your neck where you left a trail of kisses until he found a bit of sensitive skin to suck on harshly. When he pulled his lips away to breathe in, he bit down lightly on the skin.

His pace quickened over the next few thrusts, but he stayed gentle in his touch, keeping his gaze on you to make sure you were still alright. When he was certain you were fine and enjoying yourself, you felt his dull nails dig into your hips and he thrusted into you roughly, keeping his steady rhythm.

You sunk your teeth into your bottom lip to suppress the loud moans threatening to fall from your mouth, almost as if that would prevent anybody from walking in. This didn’t last very long because Lin whispered, lips pressed against your ear so you felt the hot breath, “I want to hear you.”

You immediately let your jaw fall open and allowed noises of pleasure to fill the air. “Oh, Lin..” The breathy moan almost resembled a whimper as he mumbled little words of praise in your ear.

As his thrusts grew more sloppy and less rhythmic, your moans grew louder and your breathing more shallow. Your nails dragged across his back slowly, back arched off the bed as you felt a familiar pit of warmth growing in your stomach.

His breath quickened significantly in the moments leading up to his release, and he pressed his lips to your sensitive neck, groaning against it as he rode out his high. The sound of his moans was what finally pushed you over the edge, your back arching off of the bed, his name the only word you could form in the midst of the overwhelming pleasure.

Half a minute later, Lin rolled onto his side on the sofa and pulled you into his arms.  “I love you,” you mumbled between your still shaky breaths. He nudged his nose against your cheek in response, causing you to chuckle just a bit.

“We can’t stay like this very long,” you pointed out, though made no attempt to move from his arms.

“Just another minute.” He kissed at your neck affectionately. “You’re too beautiful not to admire.”

You were engrossed in conversation when Anthony got back from his errands not terribly long later, so much so that you didn’t notice him banging pots and pans together in an attempt to grab your attention. It took him sitting on the ottoman a few feet away and practically shouting your name to tear your attention from Lin’s voice.

“Oh, hello, old sport!” Lin turned his gaze to Anthony, absolutely glowing with joy.

“It’s stopped raining,” the man pointed out, gesturing towards the windows across from him. Lin looked a bit shocked by the news at first, as were you, but one peek out the glass showed the sun coming out from behind the clouds. Parallel rays of sunlight beamed from the clouds towards the ground, giving the sky a sort of heavenly appearance. A rainbow had formed from one end of the sky to the other and it almost appeared to connect Anthony’s cottage to your mansion across the bay.

“Well, what do you think of that? It’s stopped raining!” He turned to you with nothing but love and fondness radiating from his brown eyes.

A smile tugged on your soft lips at his excitement. “I’m glad. Should we make something of it?”

“How about we go to my house? We can make use of my pool if you care to.”

“Oh, I would love that, but I haven’t got anything to wear swimming.” You stood from your seat on the stiff couch. “And Daveed would notice if I came home from tea smelling of saltwater.”

“Another time. Anthony, would you care to join us?”

Anthony raised his eyebrows as he looked over his shoulder, immediately shaking his head. “I’m quite alright, but thank you. Make sure you’re home at a reasonable time, Y/N. Your husband is still injured.”

“I know, deary, don’t worry!” You pressed a kiss to your cousin’s cheek. “You know where to find us if you need us.”

With that, Lin was grabbing your hand and pulling you out the front door. You took long and careful steps along stepping stones to avoid muddying your heels but just a few strides in, you were lifted into his arms so you didn’t have to walk.

Once he had reached the pavement leading up to his gates, you moved from Lin’s grasp onto the ground and gaped at the grand house you would never get used to seeing. For the first time since reuniting a couple months before, you actually took the time to admire the beauty of the mansion.

It was truthfully more like a castle than anything else, with neatly trimmed ivy growing across the front of the house and fountains surrounding the building. The detail work was all done in solid gold and the hedges were still impeccably well kept. The size of the building was so monumental that you weren’t even sure if Lin had seen every room in his own home, but that was a question for another day.

The sun was still out, so it wasn’t lit up like Coney Island, but you were in awe nonetheless. Rather than rushing inside, you made your way to a landmark you hadn’t seen before; a little gazebo close to the front fountain pool.

Apparently, you had gone over to it rather quickly because when you looked back for Lin, he was trailing by several yards. Even from that distance, you could see joy radiate from his eyes. “You couldn’t wait up for me, now could you?” He called out with a laugh.

You leaned against the white railing coolly, a smirk teasing across your lips, and smoothed your hair out with the palm of your hand. “It isn’t my fault you can’t keep up with me, now is it?”

Just with the way he laughed, you could tell he was absolutely enamored with you, and it was music to your ears. You were careful not to get caught up in his beauty, instead keeping your enticing facade on display as he strolled slowly closer to you through his marvelous greenery.

You walked in a circle around the gazebo with your fingertips trailing along the white rail, keeping your gaze on the sky. The sun was no longer behind the grey and white clouds even partially; rather, it was again a glowing white ball in the sky, surrounding itself in a halo of light. A second rainbow, more faded in color, had formed just above the one you took note of before and upon further inspection, you realized that the colors were flipped from the original rainbow. Purple was towards the top, and red sat at the bottom.

When Lin finally made it up to the gazebo, his arms wrapped around your waist from behind and his lips pressed against your ear, the hot breath sending an involuntary shiver down your spine. His hands moved to rest on your belly gently, even though a bump wouldn’t begin showing for a couple more months.

Opting not to say anything, you just enjoyed being in Lin’s arms while you could, knowing the moments were few but meaningful. Silence with him wasn’t uncomfortable like you’d experienced many times before. Words didn’t need to be said for you to know he was enjoying himself, to know that he cared for you; you could relax in the quiet.

That’s how you knew that everything would be okay when you were with him.

“Let’s dance,” Lin whispered in your ear and before you knew what was happening, you were in Lin’s arms being carried up a grand outdoor staircase to his mansion, passing by huge fountains that greeted you with a bit of a sprinkle.

As soon as you reached the extravagant front doors, you got to your feet and walked into the main room, something that could easily fit Anthony’s cottage two times over, decorated with floors of black marble and various flowers. The man clearly loved flowers. Perhaps he thought of them as a sign of his immense wealth.

“Klipspringer!” Lin called out loudly, his voice echoing throughout the expanse.

Within a minute, a skinny, disheveled man in a yellow sweater vest came scrambling down the stairway, looking to Lin with tired eyes. “You called for me?”

“I’d like you to play the piano.”

“What would you like me to play? I’m-I’m a bit out of practice!”

“Anything, old sport. I’d just like you to play.”

With that, the man called Klipspringer was running up the stairway to the piano room where he quickly began playing a piece that you didn’t recognize. Regardless, Lin pulled you closer suddenly and began to move around the room, leading you in a slow dance.

The wind was loud outside and it appeared that you’d just missed the weather worsening by a few moments. The faint growl of thunder reverberated along the Sound and rain started pouring down almost immediately after the thunder rolled. It struck the windows in torrents, adding a natural backbeat to the soft melody filling the room.

As you danced around the room with Lin, you could’ve sworn a flash of lightning passed through the house, though that didn’t even seem possible. The trees in Lin’s yard were blowing to the side, significantly more than they had been in the previous storm just an hour before, and the soft whisper of the wind whistled past your ears when the front door cracked open briefly.

When you turned your attention back to the man you were dancing with, you noticed his affectionate gaze focused on you and it appeared that he hadn’t looked away since you began dancing. A fond yet subtle smile was forming on his face with his eyes crinkled up at the corners in the slightest way and the corners of his mouth just barely turned upwards.

“I don’t want to go home,” you admitted in a whisper, laying your head against his chest. His fingers combed through your hair as he lead the dance effortlessly, his quiet breath another calming sound amongst all the others.

“Someday you won’t have to.” Lin’s voice could hardly be heard over a particularly loud roar of thunder. “I’ll be your home someday.”

The dance continued without words for a few more minutes, the two of you just appreciating the other’s presence, moving swiftly through the vast room without much effort. The sharp ringing of a telephone a couple rooms away pierced through the relaxing atmosphere, startling you a bit, so you instinctively looked around for the source of the sound.

The ringing was cut off just as abruptly as it had begun, instead replaced with brief chatter between a butler and the person on the other line. A minute later, the same butler who had answered the phone was approaching you and Lin. “A Mr. Ramos is on the other line, searching for Mrs. Diggs.”

You exchanged a confused look with Lin but followed the butler to the phone, bringing it up to your ear once you approached it. “Anthony dearest, what is it? Is everything quite alright?”

The greeting you received made it clear that everything was not alright. His voice was frantic and panicked, difficult to understand, so he had to repeat himself a few times before you could understand him.

Your husband’s infection had grown much worse than you had thought and the symptoms listed off by Anthony were painfully familiar; chills, cool legs and arms, high fever, mental confusion, and difficulty breathing.

A servant at your house had called Anthony to inform him of the situation, knowing you were with him for the afternoon, and assured your cousin that he was in the care of the doctors now. Your driver, Ferdie, was on his way to the cottage to pick you up.

Unsure of what else to say, you thanked him in a shaky voice before rushing back over to Lin. “I can’t stay. Daveed is back in the hospital and I fear he may be in septic shock.” Your voice was shaky and you were on the verge of tears. “It sounds exactly like how we lost Betty. I have to make sure he’s okay, I’m sorry.”

Lin’s eyes were wide as you spoke hurriedly in a worried way and he pulled you into a warm embrace before you had the chance to run off. “There’s no need to apologize. Keep me updated, alright dear?”

You gave him a quick nod and rushed off after he kissed your cheek, releasing a breath you didn’t realize you’d been holding when you saw Ferdie waiting for you.

[kingsterracerp-blog]

Thank you for applying, JUSTINE. You have been accepted as ELEANOR MATTHEWS. Just don’t forget to check out our CHECKLIST and send in your account within 24 HOURS. If you have any questions then let us know!

OUT OF CHARACTER.

NAME: justine. AGE: 18. TIMEZONE: gmt+1 ACTIVITY LEVEL: 8/10. Daily, I’m usually going to be around during the evenings, from around 5pm onwards, really. Weekends are obviously going to have more activity throughout the day. PRONOUNS: she/her SHIPS: chemistry. ANTI-SHIPS: /no chemistry. TRIGGERS: Removed. PASSWORD: Removed. ANYTHING ELSE: Removed.

IN CHARACTER.

DESIRED CHARACTER: Eleanor Louise Matthews. NICKNAMES: El/Ellie. AGE/BIRTH ORDER: 20, oldest. FACECLAIM: Nina Dobrev. GENDER IDENTITY/PRONOUNS: female, she/her. SEXUAL/ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: bi-curious. HOMETOWN: Manhattan, New York. OCCUPATION/EDUCATION: Eleanor goes to college at Harvard Medical School, funded by her parents. She has a part-time job at a local diner.

(MORE) IN CHARACTER.

POSITIVES: Hard-working, passionate, loyal. NEGATIVES: Stubborn, Impatient, Irritable.

@elmatthews: being late for work because some kids wanted to have a protest? so not worth the hassle. #gohome @elmatthews: if there’s anyone who can make 2 hours of sleep and a hangover look sexy, c'est moi @elmatthews: some days i feel like a brunette, medical version of elle woods without an obsession with boys and 10x smarter.

BIOGRAPHY.

It was by no means the perfect childhood, but Eleanor Matthews knew there could have been damn well worse. Being born into the Upper East Side of New York meant that Eleanor’s upbringing was surrounded by pretentious, high-class families and the reassurance that - “you, my darling, are one of the luckier girls” purely as a result of the amount of wealth her parents possessed. There was a certain emphasis on grace, morality and reputation; it was crucial to ensure the outside world saw you as unstoppable, almost like a force to be reckoned with. Weaknesses were non-existent and there was an expectation to make something of yourself - the family was dominated with businessmen, lawyers, bankers, so the pressure placed upon the children was large. Education was vital; hence why Eleanor spent her time at a private, confined, all-girls school, where she worked tirelessly in order to make her parents proud, finishing her studies with near-perfect grades and an outstanding report. Her parents, while their eyes glossed over the report, gave a stiff, small nod, one after the other - before telling Eleanor “make sure you get better next time”. There was soon the expectation to constantly achieve more, something Eleanor soon realized was easier said than done. Her parents were her own worst critics; often ignoring any positives of her work, and instead pointing out every single thing that went wrong.

It soon became like a game to Eleanor as she grew up; work yourself harder, and harder, until you finally grasp the attention of your parents and make them proud. Yet as the years passed, Eleanor’s grades rose, without a single utter of praise coming from either her Mother, or her Father - something she had grown to yearn after. She remained optimistic, focusing her attentions instead on sport - basketball, in particular. To the surprise of her family members, Eleanor joined the local basketball team in a desperate attempt to grab her parents attention - which, of course, failed, but it did allow Eleanor to surprise herself in her sudden love for the sport. She found herself warming to the teamwork involved within it; while the competitive side allowed her to channel her competitive streak and release her inner passion to win the match. It was almost as if by the time she was on the pitch, she was an entirely different person; playing the game purely to win. Who cared about the 2nd place, anyway?

By the time Eleanor had turned eighteen, she had already received her acceptance letter into Harvard Medical School, where her parents had not-so-subtly persuaded her to consider - as well as winning several Championships and being promoted to the Basketball Team Leader as a result. Her ruthlessness and passion combined led to her maintaining high levels of respect from her fellow teammates, especially as she packed up her bags for college and got begged to stay - with them claiming they were “nothing” without “her contribution not just to the team, but to us”. Boston was an entirely different world to New York.

Being exposed suddenly to Boston, without her parents or any family members nearby, was a sudden shock; and Eleanor found it difficult at first to fit in. She was snarky, bitchy - qualities she did, admittedly, have - but even more so under the nervousness of her new peers. Under the influence of alcohol, however, Eleanor found herself opening up a whole lot more; letting down the tough exterior she has for herself and allowing herself to form some friendships. She’s a social butterfly, both making friends and enemies as she dots between crowds of people; her brutal honesty and sharp wit irritating several people along her pathway.

Her ambition, ultimately, will always be her downfall. She’s constantly being accused of pushing people away, or shoving them to the side in attempt to broaden her opportunities or future goals. She’s the definition a Slytherin, but her heart has qualities of a Hufflepuff; she’s like a rose, surrounded by thorns, sharp and reading to hurt if you try and get close to what’s really underneath.

IN CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE.

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST STRENGTH? HOW DOES IT COME IN HANDY?

“A strength of mine? I mean, if we’re talking partying, I’m the total Queen of taking shots without being sick. Maybe it’s the amount of times I’ve practiced, but it definitely comes in handy when everyone else is puking their guts out over at the nearest Ladies Room and I’m still able to walk in a straight line. It’s advantageous."

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WEAKNESS? HOW DOES IT AFFECT YOUR DAY-TO-DAY LIFE?

"Weaknesses aren’t something I’m just going to just admit, you realize? Do you think I’m that idiotic? I’ll admit, grudgingly, one weakness - commitment isn’t my thing at all. The idea of settling down and giving yourself to one person entirely sounds boring. And a little lame. Why would you want to cross out all of the other opportunities for one person? It makes zero sense.”

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN TEN YEARS?

“Honestly, I’m hoping to become a General Practice Doctor in the long-term. It’s a career I’ve wanted to pursue ever since I began my degree in Medicine, so I figured it would make sense to have a career that links directly to that. Then again, I could just flunk ‘outta college and marry a rich old Sugar Daddy. The possibilities are endless."

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO KING’S TERRACE?

"Certainly not my parents. They suggested buying an apartment for my time at college would be the easier option, but I wanted to live somewhere normal for once. Being surrounded by servants, and waiters as a child is great, and anything, but it meant that I was really isolated growing up. This was a chance to finally broaden my social opportunities and meet some new people; which, thankfully, I did."

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME AND TELL YOUR YOUNGER SELF SOMETHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

” - Nothing? My younger self was an asset to her present-self. Sure, her haircut wasn’t all that great, and she sometimes spoke a little too much - but her attitude and spunk hasn’t changed at all. She knew what she wanted, and she achieved it; I’m proud of my younger self, in that respect. The ambition I had was almost admirable. I’m honestly jealous of how much energy I seemed to have. Maybe I should try and ask her for some tips on how to survive a three hour class after having zero hours of sleep.“

[musical-miranda]

The Mysterious Miranda (Chapter 10) (No Smut)

CLICK HERE FOR THE VERSION WITH SMUT

pairing: lin manuel miranda x reader, daveed diggs x reader

summary: Your cousin Anthony drags you along to one of his neighbor’s infamous parties with his girlfriend, keeping you from a night in. Mr. Miranda, the host, is a mysterious man, but that isn’t the part that gets to you.

warnings: cheating, lil bit of angst, 1920s slang(??), lots of fluff

words: 5560 (im so sorry for so many reasons yall)

a/n: Alternatively titled: Poor Anthony™

hi guys i swear i still write stuff! it’s just been a crazy last month, but I’ve finally finished this part! I’m so sorry it took so long, I feel kinda bad about it, but I hope it was worth the wait!

Thank you to @psychedemigod for keeping me company while I was writing a lot of this and helping out here and there, and thank you to @secretschuylersister for being so supportive and reading it over, leaving much-appreciated commentary.  

I figured out the only bright side to burning my arm this past week and treating it at home; firsthand research and experience for TMM! I learned more in 2 days than the 2 weeks I had spent researching the topic.

If you want to be tagged in the next parts, just shoot me an ask! I absolutely love to hear feedback from anybody and everybody, I can’t begin to express how much it means to me.

tags: @isis278 @21phantasticromances @dvddggs @l-nmanuel @bluesnowyangel @hamrevolution @hell-yes-puns-and-ships @accidentally-impeccable @paintingpetrichors

part one part two part three part four part five part six part seven part eight part nine

SLANG TRANSLATIONS:

Barneymugging — Lovemaking

Now you're on the trolley! — Now you've got it!

Slimp—Cheapskate or “one-way guy”.

“Her heart sank into her shoes as she realized at last how much she wanted him. No matter what his past was, no matter what he had done. Which was not to say that she would ever let him know, but only that he had moved her chemically more than anyone she had ever met, that all other men seemed pale beside him.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Daveed! Stay still!” You let out a soft laugh, tightening your grip on Daveed’s arm slightly to keep it in place as he moved it around, preventing you from dousing the burn in lavender oil.

It was your fifth day home from the hospital and the eighth day since the accident, and frankly, Daveed’s burn was not doing terribly well. He had developed a mild infection just a couple days after the fire so you were informed to treat it with the finest of essential oils.

Every morning, you poured enough oil on the injury to cover it, and it always had your husband writing in pain for a few moments. The pain seemed to subside only moments later, but it was enough to keep him dreadful of the treatment.

Once the oil had dried, you were to wrap the entire arm in a bandage wrap to keep it from outside toxins that could be harmful. However, Daveed was a bit irritable after the initial pain of the lavender, so he always argued the most trivial things.

“You aren’t doing it right!” He protested while trying to grab the bandage from your hand.

“I have been doing this two times a day for eight days, five of those days at home on my own. For the last time, I think I know how to change your bandages.”

“Mary taught me how to change the bandages as well, darling. It must be done left to right and bottom to top.”

“What are you talking about? I have been doing it top to bottom and right to left since the very first time.” You tied the end of the bandage once it was wrapped around his arm snugly. “I reckon it doesn’t much matter anyhow. Let’s continue to wrap it this way, alright dear?”

Although Daveed’s face scrunched up at your suggestion, he kept his arm relaxed in your hold. “If you insist.”

“I do.” You leaned in to press your lips to his cheek briefly and let out a laugh. “You can have your arm back now.”

He squirmed around for a second before turning some knobs on the radio nearby, tuning into the local station. “Have we got any plans for the day?”

After passing the extra bandages and bottle of oil over to a servant, you propped your legs on the ottoman by your couch, positioned to face Daveed. “Well, Anthony invited me to tea this afternoon, so I reckon Ferdie will drive me to his cottage in West Egg rather soon here.”

Daveed ran his long fingers up and down your arm absently as you spoke, a tactic he typically used to relieve you from stress, and it never ceased to do just that. “Just tea? No funny business?”

“No funny business, I’m hoping. Frankly, I’m growing tired of such games.” The smile you flashed your husband had nervous undertones that you hoped he wouldn’t notice. Not because you knew something he didn’t, but due to the simple fact that he now knew almost exactly as much as you did.

Anthony had asked you to come to tea alone, which did seem like a reasonable request to you, but if Daveed knew that information and that Anthony refused to divulge any details of your tea aside from time and place, he would insist on joining you, on account of something feeling just a bit off. The risk felt far too significant to let any details, or lack thereof, slip.

“You let me know if any of that craziness ensues and I’ll be sure--”

“Darling,” you interrupted. “I’ll be alright, trust me. It’s only tea with my cousin, I’ll be home before you even know I left.”

“I trust you both. I just worry about you, you know.”

“Don’t. If anyone should worry, it’s me for you. I haven’t yet left your side since you set yourself on fire. Will you be alright for a few hours?”

“I’ll be quite alright, dear. Truly, I don’t require as much care as you believe. All I’ve to do today is change the bandage before bed. Simple. I’ll even wrap it your way to keep you satisfied.”

You couldn’t help your soft chuckle at his words as you leaned into his gentle, assuring touches. “You should rest while I’m gone. Heaven knows you aren’t getting near enough.”

“It’s merely half past two!”

“Your sleep has been restless all week, Daveed. I expect you to be asleep when I arrive home.”

His grumbling protests only lasted a few seconds before your sharp glare cut them off and he sighed in submission. “I suppose.”

“Thank you. Now, I must get ready. Otherwise, I’ll be late for tea.”

“Well, go on, now, I don’t want to hold you back!”

You pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek before turning to walk towards your bedroom, calling back to him, “Well, don’t sound so anxious to get rid of me, deary!”

A subsequent laugh rang out from behind you, causing a smile to tug at your own lips as you shuffled through your large closet.

You shifted through several dresses of different styles and colors before settling on a salmon colored dress with matching faux rose petals hanging off as decoration. It had a halter neck, though it appeared strapless since the top half was a sheer chiffon that was hardly notable. The waist on it was a fitted ribbon that tied in the back, rather than your typical front-tie dress, and the skirt flared out slightly until it stopped right at your knee.

Mumbling various ideas to yourself, you found a few casual accessories to pair with the dress, then began changing from your beige colored day outfit. As you accessorized your outfit, you hung a brand new pair of rose-gold earrings from your ears and slipped a matching Cartier Trinity Ring onto your right ring finger. You also clipped a diamond studded headpiece into your hair to hold it out of your face all evening.

After looking through your ever-growing collection of bracelets, you decided on a four strand set of pearls for one wrist and a diamond cuff for the other, both of which rested atop your white, fishnetted gloves, each held in place with a ribbon tied in a bow.

Once you applied a light pink lipstick, pulled a white fur cardigan over your shoulders, and slipped on beige heels, you were finally ready to walk out the door. “Ferdie! Ferdie, I’m all ready to leave for Anthony’s house,” you called out across the mansion, hoping your driver would locate you quickly.

“You know, Daveed... If you rest now, you’ll hardly even notice I’m gone.” Your voice was a bit teasing as you spoke to him, but he responded with soft laughter, standing up to give you a quick good-bye kiss.

“I suppose we’ll just have to see, Y/N. Enjoy yourself. Tell Anthony I say hi, won’t you? I ought to take him to The Yale Club for lunch some time.”

You returned the peck to his lips. “Of course, dear. I’ll be sure to let him know.”

When you arrived at Anthony’s little cottage amongst the mansions just thirty minutes later, rain was pouring down as thunder roared in the distance, puddles forming on the ground where you would usually step out of the car. Thankfully, Ferdie had pulled right up to the stepping stones that brought you to your cousins front door, so that was the path you took with your driver's umbrella overhead.

Before you even got the chance to knock, Anthony was greeting you outside of the door in a green sweater vest and red striped bowtie. This immediately put a smile on your face. “Now, why did I have to come alone, my dearest one?” You raised a curious eyebrow at him.

“Send away your driver before I show you.” His expression was just as mysterious as your own, though his wide smile was a bit crooked.

“Ferdie! Come back in an hour!” You waved the driver off and immediately turned your attention back to the man leading you inside, a coy smile toying on your lips now. “What, are you in love with me, deary?”

Unfortunately for you, your cousin knew better than to play these games with you because they always seemed to land him in awkward situations. Your coy remark was just met with laughter and an eye roll.

“Well? Are we going to have tea, or will we just stand around here lamely?”

“I’ll make the tea and meet you in the sitting room, how’s that sound?”

“Splendid.” You flashed a grin then made your way to the sitting room where you were greeted by hundreds of flowers. Orchids, to be exact, which had always been your favorite, and they were in a variety of colors.

The largest of the bouquets were a combination of white and pale green orchids, and those displays occupied more than half of the entire room. However, a couple smaller bouquets consisted solely of light pink orchids with a yellow lip and creamy undertones.

Upon closer inspection, you saw an array of brightly colored macarons, two-inch strawberry cake squares, and a few other small desserts, sitting on the coffee table. This piqued your curiosity.

Anthony had never been one for making casual events extravagant, but maybe that had changed. Perhaps it was your birthday and you simply forgot. A whirlwind of ideas whipped through your mind.

“Oh, it’s absolutely beautiful! What's the occasion, my dearest?”

You grazed your fingers across the soft petals of several flowers as you explored the small room, again lost deep in thought by the time he had entered the room. You expected an answer to tear you from your thoughts but instead, it was Anthony brushing past you to look into his back yard.

His expression was bewildered, though probably not to the same degree as your own, but that wasn't the point. Quickly flicking his head over his shoulder, he rushed around the small room as if something important was missing. There most certainly was some funny business going on at this meet-up; not a single word had left his mouth since he wandered into the kitchen for tea.

Suddenly, the doorbell ring filled the entire cottage and Anthony rushed to answer it. As you examined the flower bouquets closely, you heard hushed arguing between two people in the next room. Their tones were rather rushed and frantic, but when you peered towards the doorway, the other frame was hidden.

You went back to admiring the flowers. They were extremely high-quality orchids, something only sold by the best florists in New York or grown in personal hothouses by the wealthy. However, Anthony didn’t have money like that at his disposal. Even though he came from a wealthy family, he lived in a shack at $80 a month and worked in the stock market business.

In fact, only one person stuck out in your mind, and that was… No, it couldn’t be. You twirled around on your feet to take another glance at the men in the doorway, but the answer you had been avoiding was standing four feet from you in a white suit.

None other than Lin-Manuel Miranda, the man who hadn’t reached out to you in over a week, not even to apologize for his behavior, stood before you. One hand was stuffed in the left pocket of his pant pocket, thumb hooked into the belt band as water dripped off of him slowly. He was frozen in place for a few moments before he straightened out his gold bowtie and powder blue vest, staring at the ground with his mouth agape.

Taking in a sharp breath, you finally found a few words to squeak out with two raised eyebrows. “Well? Are you going to speak?”

“I-I... Ho-How are you, darling?” The man stumbled on his words nervously, tapping his fingers against his leg, and he finally managed to turn his gaze to meet your eyes.

You quickly turned your eyes away and hesitantly moved to Anthony’s sofa, tucking your legs underneath your body as you sat. “My husband set himself on fire last week.”

Lin appeared quite taken aback by this, if the way his eyes went wide was anything to judge by, so you quickly deducted that the information hadn’t been relayed to him. “I’m-I’m sorry, what?”

“Not purposefully, no; he was making breakfast for me. The morning after he shared that he is in love with me.” You looked at him briefly before chuckling bitterly. “Why, that was the same evening you betrayed my trust.”

“I didn’t-” He was quick to defend himself, but realized just as quickly that it would get him nowhere.

“What are you here for, Lin?”

Once again, he was frozen. Your patience was wearing thin.

“I could just leave.”

“I-I’m sorry. I asked Anthony to set this up in order to apologize. I feel terrible for last week, darling, you must believe me. I treated you terribly.”

“Well, lucky for you, I made up with Daveed. As a matter of fact, this is the first I’ve been away from him since that night. You, on the other hand? You didn’t even call once, Lin.”

“I relayed a message through Anthony. I've been informed not to call your home, have I not?”

“That rule is of no use now that my husband knows we’ve been barney-mugging,” You pointed out blatantly, watching a blush flush across Lin’s face.

When no response came from him, you called out for Anthony. “My dearest, could you bring the tea here?”

His head immediately popped through the doorway, curls bouncing just a bit as he brought over a tray with a teapot, three teacups, lemon slices, and sugar cubes. “Sugar or lemon for either of you?” He filled up the teacups and passed one to you and Lin, dropping a sugar cube into his own.

“No.” Lin took a sip of his tea.

“I’m alright, but thank you, darling.”

Anthony just nodded once with an awkward, forced smile on his face, and he took the seat across from you.

“You never answered my question.” Lin was up and walking around while you sat on the edge of a stiff chair, gaze glued to the table before you. He found his way to the mantel which he leaned against, and if it weren’t for his trembling voice, you would think he was perfectly at ease. He was not.

You opened your mouth to speak but the mantelpiece clock he was leaning against tilted dangerously away from its proper location. Lin didn’t realize this until the clock was already falling, though he was able to reach up and fumble it around in the air to prevent it from shattering on the wood flooring. Luckily, he was able to grab hold of it with trembling fingers soon after, placing it back on the mantel where it belonged, jamming the top piece back in harshly until it fit.

Once Lin took a seat next to Anthony, he spoke again. “I’m sorry about the clock. I’ll send someone to fix it tomorrow morning.”

It seemed that Anthony didn’t expect the conversation to include him, so his expression was blank and cheeks red before he could manage proper words. “It’s an old clock.”

“Very lovely, though!” You chimed in, reaching to give his hand a gentle squeeze.

“Lovely, indeed.” Lin’s words lingered in the air for a few tense minutes.

Nobody else attempted to break the silence, so you decided to finally answer Lin’s question after the silence had become unbearable. “I have been very well, Lin. Worried. Not only for my husband but you as well.”

“Is that so?”

“Well, when you’ve not spoken to me in eight days, what else am I to do?”

Lin pursed his lips. “Look, dear, I'm very sorry. I made a terrible mistake, and I understand why you're displeased with me. I realize I should have consulted with you before saying anything unplanned, seeing as your entire marriage was on the line.”

You raised an eyebrow, unable to suppress the smirk teasing across your face. “Oh, now you're on the trolley! Go on now, Lin, I'd just love to hear more on your great mistake.”

“Of course you would,” he muttered under his breath and you could hear his eye roll without looking to the man. “I spoke in an unacceptable, unjustifiable manner. To make such personal remarks regarding a relationship I know nothing of? That makes me no better than an every day slimp.”

You tried your best to hide the amusement threatening to take over your expression, but let out a soft giggle when that become far too much effort. “Where did you learn the word slimp, darling?”

“I picked up a copy of Flapper at the newsstand just last week; it made me think of you. As I was flipping through the pages, I saw an article entitled A Flapper’s Dictionary. Well, it made me think of you, and I thought that…”

Although Lin trailed off as if he’d lost his train of thought, you had a strong feeling you knew what would have come next. He assumed knowing more words relevant to you would give him an edge on your fairly traditional husband.

That assumption would be correct, though you’d never admit it to his face.

“You picked up a magazine called Flapper on a street corner, on account of it reminding you of myself?”

“I-Well, yes. But! See, now I know just what flappers are all about! I feel as if I understand you much better now; the short skirts, shorter hair, rolled down socks, and by golly, your independence. It’s no wonder you’ve grown tired of your husband.”

“It seems maybe you should become a flapper as well,” you teased the man and laughed fondly as a deep pink color flushed his cheeks, his gaze dropping to the ground.

From the corner of your eye, you saw Anthony moving about in his seat anxiously, clearly no longer interested in his tea. He appeared about ready to burst from discomfort, but he was a fantastic host, not interrupting once and filling the tea cups as needed.

When he finally found a silent moment, Anthony rose from his seat and cleared his throat. “I should really get going now. I won't wander too far, should you happen to need me.”

Lin’s head whipped around at the words with a bit of worry in his eyes, looking at Anthony. “Where are you going?”

“I'm not exactly certain. I've got some errands to sort out, some gardening to work on, maybe even a book to read. I'll find something to do.” His voice was hurried, and it was evident that he desperately wanted to get out of the awkward situation. He so often found himself stuck in the worse scenarios without a real place in conversation and he was finally starting to take the initiative to avoid such events.

“Go on deary, and don't forget your coat. It may be warm, but you see that weather, now don't you?” Your eyes crinkled up at the corners in a smile when Anthony started scurrying away, making sure to grab his tan trench coat on the way out.

When Anthony had exited the house and left you and Lin alone, an awkward silence lingered in the air with tension you could slice with a knife. Lin’s fingers tapped on the table, giving him something to do, no matter how annoying it was to you. Though in his defense, he probably didn't realize it was annoying you in the first place.

You were the one to break the silence. “I've missed you,” you admitted softly with a quivering voice. “I know it's only been a week, but I desperately need you in my life. As much as possible.”

“I miss you every time we’re apart, darling. You’re my entire world. You should know that.” Lin’s voice was unwavering in the same way his love for you was unwavering and able to get through any rough patch. He was slow and cautious as his hand reached forward to rest on your own, gently entangling your fingers together, causing a more secure smile to tug at your lips.

“I know.” Your voice was but a whisper as his face moved gradually closer to yours, his cold hand reaching up to cup your cheek. “I love you far too much to stay mad at you. I truly do.”

The moment the final word of that phrase came out of your mouth, Lin’s lips were pressed to your lips in a kiss that had the butterflies in your stomach wrecking up a storm. You didn’t mind, though.

Nobody could stir up your emotions and the passion inside of you the way that Lin did, the way he always could, and there was no denying that. If you weren’t sure of it before, you were now. When he kissed you, all the stars aligned and you couldn’t be more certain that it was him. It had always been him. Not Daveed.

As your lips meshed together like two puzzle pieces, you made your way onto Lin’s lap and let your right hand grip the hair on the nape of his neck. Your lips didn’t break apart once, not even as his arms moved to wrap around your waist.

The first time the kiss broke was when Lin moved his lips down your jawline slowly, trailing down your neck in a timely fashion, and he spent just enough time on each spot to have you dying for more. It wasn’t teasing, per say, but he definitely wasn’t giving everything to you right away.

“Jesus,” you breathed out. One hand of his ran down your waist to your hip while the other rested on your arched back to keep you close to his body.

“Mm, not quite, baby,” came his whisper in your ear and the sound of a new nickname on his lips had a shiver running down your spine. You felt the smirk as his lips brushed across your ear but ignoring his comment was easy with his hot breath just teasing against your sensitive neck.

“Maybe not here-” You began to protest, but quickly resigned to not caring for your location with the feeling of his lips on your neck.

Lin grazed his teeth across the tender spot on your neck and sucked at it eagerly. You knew he would leave a mark or two and they wouldn’t go unnoticed by Daveed when you got home, but as you laid beneath the man, gasping at his touches and moaning his name breathily, you couldn’t bring yourself to care.

You were engrossed in conversation when Anthony got back from his errands not terribly long later, so much so that you didn’t notice him banging pots and pans together in an attempt to grab your attention. It took him sitting on the ottoman a few feet away and practically shouting your name to tear your attention from Lin’s voice.

“Oh, hello, old sport!” Lin turned his gaze to Anthony, absolutely glowing with joy.

“It’s stopped raining,” the man pointed out, gesturing towards the windows across from him. Lin looked a bit shocked by the news at first, as were you, but one peek out the glass showed the sun coming out from behind the clouds. Parallel rays of sunlight beamed from the clouds towards the ground, giving the sky a sort of heavenly appearance. A rainbow had formed from one end of the sky to the other and it almost appeared to connect Anthony’s cottage to your mansion across the bay.

“Well, what do you think of that? It’s stopped raining!” He turned to you with nothing but love and fondness radiating from his brown eyes.

A smile tugged on your soft lips at his excitement. “I’m glad. Should we make something of it?”

“How about we go to my house? We can make use of my pool if you care to.”

“Oh, I would love that, but I haven’t got anything to wear swimming.” You stood from your seat on the stiff couch. “And Daveed would notice if I came home from tea smelling of salt water.”

“Another time. Anthony, would you care to join us?”

Anthony raised his eyebrows as he looked over his shoulder, immediately shaking his head. “I’m quite alright, but thank you. Make sure you’re home at a reasonable time, Y/N. Your husband is still injured.”

“I know, deary, don’t worry!” You pressed a kiss to your cousin’s cheek. “You know where to find us if you need us.”

With that, Lin was grabbing your hand and pulling you out the front door. You took long and careful steps along stepping stones to avoid muddying your heels but just a few strides in, you were lifted into his arms so you didn’t have to walk.

Once he had reached the pavement leading up to his gates, you moved from Lin’s grasp onto the ground and gaped at the grand house you would never get used to seeing. For the first time since reuniting a couple months before, you actually took the time to admire the beauty of the mansion.

It was truthfully more like a castle than anything else, with neatly trimmed ivy growing across the front of the house and fountains surrounding the building. The detail work was all done in solid gold and the hedges were still impeccably well kept. The size of the building was so monumental that you weren’t even sure if Lin had seen every room in his own home, but that was a question for another day.

The sun was still out, so it wasn’t lit up like Coney Island, but you were in awe nonetheless. Rather than rushing inside, you made your way to a landmark you hadn’t seen before; a little gazebo close to the front fountain pool.

Apparently, you had gone over to it rather quickly because when you looked back for Lin, he was trailing by several yards. Even from that distance, you could see joy radiate from his eyes. “You couldn’t wait up for me, now could you?” He called out with a laugh.

You leaned against the white railing coolly, a smirk teasing across your lips, and smoothed your hair out with the palm of your hand. “It isn’t my fault you can’t keep up with me, now is it?”

Just with the way he laughed, you could tell he was absolutely enamored with you, and it was music to your ears. You were careful not to get caught up in his beauty, instead keeping your enticing facade on display as he strolled slowly closer to you through his marvelous greenery.

You walked in a circle around the gazebo with your fingertips trailing along the white rail, keeping your gaze on the sky. The sun was no longer behind the grey and white clouds even partially; rather, it was again a glowing white ball in the sky, surrounding itself in a halo of light. A second rainbow, more faded in color, had formed just above the one you took note of before and upon further inspection, you realized that the colors were flipped from the original rainbow. Purple was towards the top, and red sat at the bottom.

When Lin finally made it up to the gazebo, his arms wrapped around your waist from behind and his lips pressed against your ear, the hot breath sending an involuntary shiver down your spine. His hands moved to rest on your belly gently, even though a bump wouldn’t begin showing for a couple more months.

Opting not to say anything, you just enjoyed being in Lin’s arms while you could, knowing the moments were few but meaningful. Silence with him wasn’t uncomfortable like you’d experienced many times before. Words didn’t need to be said for you to know he was enjoying himself, to know that he cared for you; you could relax in the quiet.

That’s how you knew that everything would be okay when you were with him.

“Let’s dance,” Lin whispered in your ear and before you knew what was happening, you were in Lin’s arms being carried up a grand outdoor staircase to his mansion, passing by huge fountains that greeted you with a bit of a sprinkle.

As soon as you reached the extravagant front doors, you got to your feet and walked into the main room, something that could easily fit Anthony’s cottage two times over, decorated with floors of black marble and various flowers. The man clearly loved flowers. Perhaps he thought of them as a sign of his immense wealth.

“Klipspringer!” Lin called out loudly, his voice echoing throughout the expanse.

Within a minute, a skinny, disheveled man in a yellow sweater vest came scrambling down the stairway, looking to Lin with tired eyes. “You called for me?”

“I’d like you to play the piano.”

“What would you like me to play? I’m-I’m a bit out of practice!”

“Anything, old sport. I’d just like you to play.”

With that, the man called Klipspringer was running up the stairway to the piano room where he quickly began playing a piece that you didn’t recognize. Regardless, Lin pulled you closer suddenly and began to move around the room, leading you in a slow dance.

The wind was loud outside and it appeared that you’d just missed the weather worsening by a few moments. The faint growl of thunder reverberated along the Sound and rain started pouring down almost immediately after the thunder rolled. It struck the windows in torrents, adding a natural backbeat to the soft melody filling the room.

As you danced around the room with Lin, you could’ve sworn a flash of lightning passed through the house, though that didn’t even seem possible. The trees in Lin’s yard were blowing to the side, significantly more than they had been in the previous storm just an hour before, and the soft whisper of the wind whistled past your ears when the front door cracked open briefly.

When you turned your attention back to the man you were dancing with, you noticed his affectionate gaze focused on you and it appeared that he hadn’t looked away since you began dancing. A fond yet subtle smile was forming on his face with his eyes crinkled up at the corners in the slightest way and the corners of his mouth just barely turned upwards.

“I don’t want to go home,” you admitted in a whisper, laying your head against his chest. His fingers combed through your hair as he lead the dance effortlessly, his quiet breath another calming sound amongst all the others.

“Someday you won’t have to.” Lin’s voice could hardly be heard over a particularly loud roar of thunder. “I’ll be your home someday.”

The dance continued without words for a few more minutes, the two of you just appreciating the other’s presence, moving swiftly through the vast room without much effort. The sharp ringing of a telephone a couple rooms away pierced through the relaxing atmosphere, startling you a bit, so you instinctively looked around for the source of the sound.

The ringing was cut off just as abruptly as it had begun, instead replaced with brief chatter between a butler and the person on the other line. A minute later, the same butler who had answered the phone was approaching you and Lin. “A Mr. Ramos is on the other line, searching for Mrs. Diggs.”

You exchanged a confused look with Lin but followed the butler to the phone, bringing it up to your ear once you approached it. “Anthony dearest, what is it? Is everything quite alright?”

The greeting you received made it clear that everything was not alright. His voice was frantic and panicked, difficult to understand, so he had to repeat himself a few times before you could understand him.

Your husband’s infection had grown much worse than you had thought and the symptoms listed off by Anthony were painfully familiar; chills, cool legs and arms, high fever, mental confusion, and difficulty breathing.

A servant at your house had called Anthony to inform him of the situation, knowing you were with him for the afternoon, and assured your cousin that he was in the care of the doctors now. Your driver, Ferdie, was on his way to the cottage to pick you up.

Unsure of what else to say, you thanked him in a shaky voice before rushing back over to Lin. “I can’t stay. Daveed is back in the hospital and I fear he may be in septic shock.” Your voice was shaky and you were on the verge of tears. “It sounds exactly like how we lost Betty. I have to make sure he’s okay, I’m sorry.”

Lin’s eyes were wide as you spoke hurriedly in a worried way and he pulled you into a warm embrace before you had the chance to run off. “There’s no need to apologize. Keep me updated, alright dear?”

You gave him a quick nod and rushed off after he kissed your cheek, releasing a breath you didn’t realize you’d been holding when you saw Ferdie waiting for you.