#if people do actually like this i might be tempted to give it another go

[hyenafu]

I know this might seem like a bit of a random question, but what are some criticisms of Slightly Damned you can't stand, and what are some you think are at least somewhat valid? I only ask because I do have a few problems with the comic (not really gonna go into here because I don't want to come off as too critical obviously) but I feel like some of the more noteworthy ones have been too long established to just change it altogether, and the best one can do is make something better from its foundation (which I must say, you've done a really good job at ^^)

The complaints that I think are the most unfair are by bigots who think my comic is only getting more inclusive because I'm pandering to wokeness or whatever. These people are also the most likely to misgender me and have no idea what they're talking about. They just can't stand the bare minimum of gay and are often hypocritical, using fallacies as the basis of their arguments. It's tempting to want to argue back, but when has that ever worked on the internet? I think the most valid complaint is that the pacing of the comic is too slow. Sure. Not much I can do about that one. My comic alone doesn't pay all my bills. If I focus exclusively on work, I get depressed, so I have to goof off sometimes. I'm just one person. I don't have a team. I'm doing the best I can already. Another valid complaint is that people don't like my blend of humor and drama. Sometimes readers find it inappropriate or jarring. It's valid because I recognize it as a difference of opinion and understand why they feel that way. But I don't care. I like my weird mix of goofy faces and drama. I sometimes make jokes during periods of great stress in real life. I love all the wacky faces and over-the-top cartoon action among dire circumstances in comics like One Piece and Usagi Yojimbo. Like, it's just my style, man I don't seek out unsolicited advice about my comic. Some people may think that's snobbish of me, but the truth is, very little of what you find that way is actually valuable.

"And as to those critics, she said that she’s managed to do something that might make us all better off- she doesn’t read the comment sections. In perhaps the most roundabout poignant part of the talk, she likened receiving feedback about her work as being like consuming food. She would take a pie from someone she knew and trusted but compared taking unsolicited barbs from strangers as “licking a handle on the subway.” She used to pay very close attention to that kind of critique because she felt that it somehow would make her a better creator but ultimately decided that it was only toxic." - I HAVE SEEN OLIVIA JAIMES, THE CARTOONIST BEHIND THE NEW NANCY, by Rocko Jerome (2018)

Besides the outright hateful sentiments, a lot of unsolicited criticism can be categorized as "I don't like this story because it didn't do what I wanted it to do." Which is fine. I do the same thing when I try to process stories and talk to my friends about them.

But I don't get in the author's face to tell them I think they did a bad job. At the end of the day, no matter how crap I think someone's story might be, I'm not psychic. I don't really know if they did exactly what they set out to do. For example, people have never stopped giving me crap about the death of certain characters. But their whining has only made my convictions stronger. I don't like when other stories don't take deaths seriously, with a real sense of permanence and grief that is not easily solved. To someone else, seeing that character be alive might have solved all sorts of problems they had-- but that's not my story. I've had someone tell me that the focus on Buwaro and Kieri's mushy romance is too distracting to the main story. I don't think that person knew that a large part of why I started making this comic in the first place was as a vehicle for my OTP. I also want to make said vehicle entertaining and worthwhile. If I didn't succeed for that person, that's fine. But don't tell me that half the reason I made the comic is distracting from it. What do they know about what I want? What do you really know about what the author wanted to achieve? That isn't to say that my comic is immune to scrutiny. Of course it has problems; every story has problems, depending on your perspective and the basis by which it's getting judged. I've solicited and received thoughtful criticism and helpful advice from teachers, my advisor, my friends, and from reading/watching tutorials. Some I agreed with, others I chose to ignore. Sometimes it just took a while for me to come around. I hope I never stop learning and improving. Like you said, I have to keep working with the foundation I already set. But I don't feel trapped by it; my creativity is being challenged in new ways. I have a lot of playing pieces and now I get to see what kinds of connections I can make between them with my older, more experienced (both good and bad) mind. Since Slightly Damned is a story serialized over a long period of time, a certain amount of it is made up as I go along. I do have plans and goals, of course, but I'm also discovering this world alongside my readers.

[pucksandpower]

Changing Lanes

Charles Leclerc x Horner!Reader

Summary: Charles Leclerc always thought he would spend the rest of his career racing in red. But you make him see that he deserves better than false promises and unrequited love

“Took you long enough,” you say, lounging casually on the small leather couch in Charles’ driver’s room, your fingertips tracing intricate patterns on the cushion beside you.

Charles raises an eyebrow, letting out a dry laugh as he kicks off his shoes. “Every single time I see you, Y/N, you always have something to say.”

You linger on him. “Is it my fault you had to chat with the entire paddock before coming here?”

He smirks, crossing the room. “It’s called being polite. Something you could learn from.”

“Polite?” You scoff, feigning innocence. “Oh, like how Ferrari celebrated that P3 like it was a win? That kind of polite?”

Charles stiffens but he keeps his cool. “We take what we can get.”

You tilt your head, eyes narrowing. “Starting on pole and settling for P3? Charles, you deserve better.”

“I know,” he sighs, avoiding your gaze. “But this is racing. Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way.”

You lean in closer, your voice dropping an octave. “It could, though. If you were with a team that actually valued you, that gave you a car worthy of your talent.”

He looks up, meeting your gaze with a challenge. “You mean Red Bull?”

A coy smile plays on your lips. “It’s not a secret that Dad wants you. And imagine … you, in a competitive car, and me, right by your side as your race engineer.”

Charles’ eyes dart to your lips then back up to your eyes. “Tempting,” he murmurs, leaning in just a fraction closer. “But is this for the team or for you?”

“Can’t it be both?” You whisper back.

His breath hitches and he pulls back slightly. “This isn’t just about racing, is it?”

You hesitate. “I see how they treat you. How they let you down time and time again. But with us ... with me ... it would be different.”

He looks conflicted. “It’s not that simple.”

“Why not?” You press. “With Red Bull, you’d have support, a competitive car, and … me.”

Charles sighs, running a hand through his hair. “It’s not just about what happens on track. It’s about the politics, the contracts, the media ... it’s all complicated.”

“You make it sound like an impossible puzzle,” you say, tracing circles on his wrist. You gaze locks with his, trying to convey everything you feel.

“It might be.”

You lean in, lips just inches from his. “Then let’s solve it together.”

He hesitates, searching your eyes. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Y/N.”

You smirk, confidence oozing from every pore. “Isn’t that what racing’s all about?”

Charles chuckles softly, the tension in the room slowly melting away. “You always have an answer for everything.”

“It’s the Horner in me,” you retort with a smug smile. “Besides, aren’t you tired of being just another pawn in Ferrari’s game?”

“It’s not easy. To just switch teams, to give up on something you’ve worked for your entire life.”

You reach up, tucking a stray lock of hair behind his ear. “Who says you’re giving up? You’d be making a choice. A choice to be somewhere you’re valued. Somewhere you have a real shot at the championship. With people who truly care about you and actions that reflect that.”

He closes his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. “It’s not just about the racing. There are so many other factors.”

“Like what?”

He opens his eyes, meeting yours. “Like us.”

You blink, taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“If I come to Red Bull … if I work with you … it changes everything. Our relationship. Our dynamic. Everything.”

You take a moment, absorbing his words. “We can handle it. We’re strong enough.”

He gives you a sad smile. “I wish I had your confidence.”

You cup his cheek, your thumb stroking his skin. “You have me. Together, we can face anything.”

Charles looks at you for a long moment, his emotions raw and exposed. Finally, he speaks. “I’ll think about it. But whatever I decide … know that it’s not just about racing. I refuse to give you up.”

“Just promise me one thing.”

He raises an eyebrow. “What?”

You lean in, your lips brushing his ear. “Never settle for less than you deserve.”

He smiles, capturing your lips in a soft, lingering kiss. “Same goes for you, Y/N Horner.”

***

“I still can’t believe they forgot to remove the radiator blank,” you murmur, your fingers softly tracing patterns on Charles’ bare chest as he lies next to you in his São Paulo hotel. The dim light from the bedside lamp paints soft shadows on his face, emphasizing the frustration in his eyes.

Charles sighs heavily, turning his head to look at you. “Neither can I. Another race, another issue. I don’t even know why I’m surprised anymore.”

You lean in closer, lips brushing against his ear. “You don’t deserve this, Charles. You’re better than this. Better than them.”

He chuckles humorlessly, eyes closing. “It seems like it’s one thing after another.”

“Come to Red Bull,” you whisper, fingertips dancing down his arm. “You know it’s the right move.”

He opens his eyes, looking deep into yours. “Y/N, we talked about this.”

You press a gentle kiss on his jaw, speaking against his skin. “Hear me out. If McLaren overtakes Ferrari in the Constructors’ standings, you can activate your exit clause. You could leave them, Charles.”

Charles swallows hard, feeling the warmth of your breath on his neck. “And if they don’t?”

“Then we’ll buy you out,” you say confidently, trailing kisses down his collarbone. “Dad’s already spoken about it. We want you. I want you.”

Charles’ breath catches as your hands explore his torso but he tries to focus. “Equal status with Max?”

“Of course,” you assure him, pressing your body flush against his. “You and Max, racing side by side. Just think of the possibilities.”

He groans, both from your touch and the tempting offer. “A car designed by Adrian Newey ...”

You nod, “With plenty of oversteer, just how you like it. No more one-sided compromises.”

He laughs softly. “You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”

You smirk, lips hovering over his. “Always. And instead of Xavi, you’d hear my voice on the other end of the radio, guiding you, supporting you.”

Charles captures your lips with his, deepening the kiss before pulling back. “You’re making it very hard to think.”

“That’s the point,” you whisper with a playful grin, your hands tugging at his waistband.

He bites his lip, trying to resist your charms. “But Y/N ... it’s not just about the racing. It’s ... it’s us. What happens to us?”

You cup his cheek, gazing deep into his eyes. “We fight together, we win together. Every podium, every championship, we celebrate together.”

He closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. “You make it sound so perfect.”

“It can be,” you promise, pressing soft kisses on his eyelids. “With Red Bull, you’d have everything you’ve ever dreamed of. And me.”

Charles smiles, caressing your cheek. “You’re very persuasive, you know?”

You grin. “It’s one of my many talents.”

He chuckles, capturing your lips once more. “I’ll think about it.”

“Whatever you decide, I’ll still be by your side.”

He smiles, pulling you closer. “I know. And that’s what makes this decision so hard.”

***

“Absolutely unbelievable,” your father mutters, watching the replay of Ferrari’s disastrous double stack. “You would think they’ve never done a pit stop before.”

You nod, equally shocked. But your attention shifts as the familiar figure of your favorite Monegasque storms into the Red Bull garage, his helmet still on and visor obscuring his face. You can feel the fury emanating from him.

“Charles?” You question hesitantly.

He doesn’t respond to you but instead turns to your father, “Christian, can we talk? Now. Somewhere private.”

Christian looks taken aback by the intensity in Charles’ voice but nods. “Of course.”

Charles glances at you. “You too, Y/N. Please.”

You follow, the weight of the moment heavy on your shoulders. Once inside the small office, Charles finally removes his helmet, revealing eyes red from restrained tears. He takes a moment, collecting himself before he speaks.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Charles exhales. “Every single time I think they’ve hit rock bottom, they find a new low. Today was the last straw.”

You approach him, gently placing a hand on his arm. “Charles, I’m so sorry.”

Your father is equally sympathetic. “That was hard to watch. I can’t even imagine what it felt like.”

Charles closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. “It’s not just today. It’s everything. I gave them everything. I wanted to win with them. For my father. For Jules.”

You swallow hard, emotions swirling. “They would be so incredibly proud of you. No matter what.”

He blinks back tears, voice strained. “I wanted to drive that red car to the top for them. But I can’t keep sacrificing myself for a team that clearly does not value me in return.”

Your father speaks up, “Charles, if you’re thinking of a change ... Red Bull is ready to welcome you with open arms.”

Charles looks up, locking eyes with him. “I know. And as much as Ferrari has been my dream, my home, I can’t do this anymore. I want to be with a team that values me. I want to join Red Bull.”

You’re taken aback by his sudden declaration but the look in his eyes tells you that he’s made up his mind. “Charles,” you whisper, stepping closer. “Are you absolutely sure?”

“It’s hard,” he admits. “But this is where my heart is telling me to go.”

Your father gives the two of you a moment, leaving the office to give you privacy.

Charles takes a shaky breath, pulling you close. “I never imagined leaving Ferrari. But after everything, I know it’s the right decision.”

You wrap your arms around him, resting your forehead against his. “They will be so proud of you, Charles. No matter what colors you wear or what car you drive.”

He smiles weakly. “Thank you. I really needed to hear that.”

You pull back slightly, searching his eyes. “This is a big step. I don’t want you to regret anything. Are you still sure?”

He nods, determination in his gaze. “More than I’ve ever been.”

You smile, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. “Then welcome to Red Bull.”

***

“I have to tell Ferrari,” Charles straightens, determination evident in his eyes. “I just need to get it over with. Will you come with me?”

“Of course.“

Charles grabs your hand, pulling you towards his driver’s room. “Wait here,” he says, going in and returning moments later with his Ferrari jacket. He places it over your Red Bull team polo, attempting to keep your allegiance concealed for now. You both then proceed to the debrief room where the Ferrari team is waiting.

Fred Vasseur begins his speech the moment you both enter, “This wasn’t how we wanted to end the year but looking ahead to next season—”

Charles cuts him off, “Actually, there won’t be a next season. Not for me.”

The room falls into a tense silence, all eyes on the driver who has given them his heart and soul.

“What do you mean?”

Charles takes a deep breath, “I’ve decided to leave Ferrari.”

Gasps fill the room. Fred’s eyes land on you, finally noticing the Red Bull logo peeking out from under the jacket you’re borrowing. “And you bring her, of all people, here to tell us this?”

Charles squares his shoulders. “Y/N is here because I asked her to be. This decision is mine and mine alone.”

Xavi stands up, “After everything we’ve done for you! This is how you repay us?”

You can’t hold back any longer. “Everything you’ve done? You mean the countless strategy mistakes, the endless car issues, the complete lack of support?”

Another team member cuts in, “This is not your place, Y/N!”

“It is today,” you retort. “I’m here to support my new driver.”

Charles’ voice shakes but he speaks with conviction, “I gave everything for this team. I bled Ferrari red. But I can’t keep doing this. Not when it’s clear that my effort and commitment is not matched in return.”

Fred’s voice softens. “Charles, we’ve had our challenges but we can overcome them together.”

Charles shakes his head, tears threatening to spill. “I’ve made up my mind. I’m joining Red Bull. My manager will send over the necessary legal paperwork as soon as possible.”

The room is filled with murmurs, disbelief evident on every face. Charles takes one last look around, his eyes filled with pain, and turns to leave.

You follow closely, feeling the weight of every step as you exit the debrief room.

The second you’re around the corner, Charles breaks down. He rests his forehead against the wall, tears rolling down his face silently. “I didn’t ... I didn’t think it would hurt this much.”

You pull him close and try to find the right words. “It was never going to be easy. But you did what you had to. For yourself. For your future.”

He turns to look at you, eyes red-rimmed but determined. “I just wanted to make them proud.”

You cup his cheek, wiping away a tear with your thumb. “They would be proud of you. Not for the badge you wear or the car you drive but for the man you’ve become.”

Charles takes a shaky breath, pulling you into a tight embrace. The two of you stand there for a moment, finding solace in each other’s presence.

When he finally pulls away, he manages a weak smile. “Thank you. For standing by me.”

You squeeze his hand. “Always.”

***

***

***

Charles stands in front of the massive two-story trophy wall at the Red Bull Racing factory in Milton Keynes, eyes wide with wonder. “Ferrari would never do something so ... gaudy.”

You smirk, sidling up next to him. “And yet, you love it.”

“I do,” he laughs. “It’s … different.”

You lean in, whispering conspiratorially, “Well, Ferrari hasn’t had all that much to exhibit in the last two decades. Not for lack of trying from the drivers, of course.”

He playfully nudges you with his elbow, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Cheeky.”

The two of you walk further into the factory. “So,” Charles draws out, “I was wondering if you could recommend a good real estate agent in the area.”

You raise an eyebrow in confusion. “Why would you need an agent when I have a perfectly good apartment we can share?”

“Really? Are you sure? I just … I wasn’t sure if you would want that and I don’t want to pressure you.”

You roll your eyes affectionately. “Of course I do, Charles. It’s not even a question.”

He smiles, the weight of the decision to move seeming a little lighter now. “Thank you.”

You wink, taking his hand. “Come on, let me show you around.”

As you guide him through the factory, he’s like a kid in a candy store, eyes wide with wonder and curiosity. “This place is incredible,” he murmurs, running a hand along a piece of machinery.

You grin, pulling him towards the simulator room. “Wait until you see this.”

He steps inside, eyes immediately drawn to the impressive simulator setup. “Wow.”

You gesture for him to sit down, watching as he takes a seat, adjusting the settings. “Ready for your first sim run in the RB20?”

He nods eagerly, “Let’s do it.”

As he starts the simulation, you watch closely, monitoring the data and providing feedback. The two of you work seamlessly together, the connection between race engineer and driver already forming and growing.

After several runs, Charles steps out of the simulator, a huge grin on his face. “That was incredible! The car feels amazing.”

You smile. “I’m glad you think so. The team has put a lot of work into it.”

He pulls you into a hug, burying his face in your hair. “I can’t wait to get on track with you on the other side of the radio.”

You pull back, looking into his eyes. “Me too. We’re going to do great things together. I know it.”

He nods. “I know we will too.”

***

“I have to admit,” Charles says, eyes scanning the paddock, “I’m thankful that Mercedes and McLaren are between our motorhome and Ferrari’s. Makes things less ... awkward.”

You glance towards the distant red of the mobile Ferrari building, understanding the sentiment. “Must be weird being so close and yet so far.”

He nods, a hint of melancholy in his gaze as he looks at the place he called home for so long. “It’s bittersweet.”

Pulling him from his thoughts, you nudge him playfully. “Come on, Mr. Pole-Sitter. We have a race to prep for.”

Charles smirks, playfully rolling his eyes. “Always so professional, Miss Horner.”

You grin. “Only when it counts.”

The atmosphere in the Red Bull garage is electric. Mechanics and engineers hustle around, getting everything ready. The RB20 sits gleaming, waiting for its moment to shine.

Charles adjusts his gloves, taking a deep breath. “Feels different,” he admits, looking at you. “Being here, in this car, with this team. But a good kind of different.”

You lean in, placing a reassuring hand on his arm. “You’ve got this. It’s just another race.”

He smiles. “Easy for you to say. You’re not the one in the hot seat.”

“True, but I’ll be with you every step of the way. Just listen to my voice and trust me.”

“I always do.”

As he gets into the car, you lean in closer to his helmet, your lips touching it’s hard shell. “And Charles? Stay safe out there.”

He looks at you and winks. “I’ll come back to you.”

The race begins with a burst of energy. Charles takes off from pole, holding his position as the field jockeys for placement behind him.

“Good start,” you say through the radio, your voice calm and composed. “Keep it steady.”

“Copy.”

The race is intense, with Charles and Max battling for the lead, their cars dancing on the edge of perfection. The radio chatter between the two of you flows naturally, filled with technical details, strategy adjustments, and the occasional personal quip.

“Feeling the heat from Max?” You tease after a particularly close call between the two Red Bulls.

Charles laughs breathlessly. “Just keeping things interesting for the fans.”

The race continues at a blistering pace, with Charles and Max pushing each other to the limit. But through it all, Charles remains in the lead, with you guiding him from the pit wall.

“Final lap,” you inform. “Bring it home.”

He nods, pushing the car to its limit. The cheers of the crowd grow louder as he crosses the finish line, securing his first victory with Red Bull.

“Amazing job, Charles! I knew you could do it!”

He lets out a whoop of joy. “Yes! Thank you, team. Thank you, Y/N. I couldn’t have done it without you all.”

The two of you celebrate the victory, and as the rose water sprays and the cheers of the crowd fill the air, you know that this is just the beginning of an incredible journey together.

***

“You’re sure about the medium tyres, Y/N?” Charles asks nervously as he looks at the other cars lining up. “Everyone else is starting on softs.”

You nod confidently, tapping the race strategy on your clipboard. “Yes. The upside of using the mediums is it gives us flexibility. We can extend our first stint if needed, especially with possible rain on the forecast. While everyone else has to pit early for hards and then again for inters when the rain starts, we’ll only have to pit once. Trust me.”

He inhales deeply, trying to quell the unease bubbling inside. “I do trust you. It’s just ... Ferrari ... the strategies there ...”

“I know,” you interrupt softly, understanding the trauma and distrust years with Ferrari had instilled in him. “But this isn’t Ferrari. It’s Red Bull and we work differently. I’ve got your back.”

“Alright,” he looks into your eyes, finding assurance and conviction there, “let’s do this.”

The race begins, and Charles holds his ground well on the medium tyres, though the drivers running softs initially show quicker pace. But as predicted, the clouds soon darken and the threat of rain becomes increasingly evident.

“Stay focused,” you guide through the radio. “Remember the plan.”

He pushes on, expertly handling the streets of Monaco. The cars around him begin to lose grip and one by one they dive into the pits for hard tyres.

Charles keeps lapping. He moves up the order.

“You’re doing great,” you encourage. “Stick to the plan. We’re right on schedule.”

However, as the first raindrops begin to fall, panic sets in among the other teams on the grid. Those who just pitted for hard tyres are forced to pit again for intermediate tyres, losing precious time.

“Now,” you command, “Box this lap.”

He follows your instruction, driving into the pits, and with a flawless stop by his Red Bull crew, re-emerges in the lead.

The rain continues but Charles navigates the treacherous streets of Monaco expertly, maintaining his lead. When the chequered flag waves, it’s Charles who crosses the line first and finally claims victory at his home Grand Prix.

Tears of joy and relief pour from Charles’ eyes as he takes in the moment. “Thank you,” he says over the radio, voice choked with emotion. “I can’t believe it. We did it in Monaco!”

You smile, tears in your own eyes. “We did. I told you to trust me, didn’t I?”

He laughs, the sound full of pure joy. “You did. And I’m so glad I did. Thank you for everything.”

As he steps out of the car and jumps on its nose, arms spread wide, the crowd roars in approval, their prince finally crowned in his home race.

Then he rushes to the barriers and jumps into the cheering crowd of dark blue waiting for him. When his sweaty lips find yours surrounded by the celebrating Red Bull team, you take a moment to whisper a promise, “This is just the beginning. It will only get better from here.”

***

The season flies by in a blur of champagne showers. Heading into the Italian Grand Prix, Charles find himself leading the Drivers’ Championship with Max nipping at his heels.

“I’m not sure I can do this,” Charles confesses, staring out at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. “This was home. I don’t know how they will react now that I’m no longer wearing red.”

You rest a reassuring hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. “Many fans support the driver, not just the color he wears.”

He takes a deep breath and looks over the crowd. “The Tifosi are different. They bleed Ferrari red. I’m afraid they will see me only as a traitor.”

“You gave them your all,” you counter. “They’ve seen the struggles. They know why you left. They understand. Trust in them and in yourself.”

As the two of you make your way towards the paddock, the familiar chorus of cheers fills the air. But instead of the jeers and boos he feared, a chant begins to rise among the crowd of red: “Charles! Charles! Charles!”

Charles stops in his tracks. “They’re ... they’re cheering for me.”

You nod, a smile playing on your lips. “Told you.”

He’s soon swarmed by a group of fans, all clamoring for autographs, photos, and just a moment of his time. It’s clear that the bond between Charles and the Tifosi remains unbroken.

An older fan steps forward, his Ferrari cap worn with age. “You are still Il Predestinato. We wish it ended differently but we have eyes. We watched the races. We know why you left. No matter what team you drive for, you always have our hearts.”

Charles blinks back tears, deeply touched. “Grazie,” he whispers and claps the fan’s weathered hands in thanks.

Another fan, a young girl with a homemade sign that reads Once a Tifosi, Always a Tifosi, shyly approaches. “We still love you, Charles,” she says.

He kneels down to give her a gentle hug. “Thank you,” he murmurs, taking off his Red Bull cap and placing it on her head.

As the day goes on, the support from the Tifosi only grows. They cheer for him during practice, during qualifying, and every time he appears in front of the stands.

It’s clear that the bond between Charles and the Tifosi is as strong as ever.

That evening, as the two of you sit in the garage looking over data, Charles reflects on his day. “I was so afraid,” he admits. “Afraid of being rejected, of losing their love. But today ... today was incredible.”

You close the analytics. “The Tifosi love you. Not because of the car you drive or the colors you wear but because of who you are. Just like I do.”

He nods slowly. “It’s overwhelming. Monza has always been special to me. To feel this level of love and support ... it’s more than I ever expected.”

You lean closer, resting your head on his shoulder. “They see your passion. They see how much you give on and off the track. Anyone who does not love and respect you for that needs to reconsider.”

He exhales slowly, “I just ... I wanted to make them proud, to win for them in red and bring glory back to Maranello. But knowing they still support me no matter what ... it means everything.”

You look up into his eyes. “And they always will. Because they know you always gave and will continue to give your best. They love you because they are loved in return.”

He laughs, pulling you into a tight hug. “Thank you,” he murmurs into your hair. “For always being my rock, especially in moments like these.”

“Now let’s go out there tomorrow and win.”

***

“Vegas, baby!” Charles shouts, swinging an arm around your shoulders, both of you holding champagne glasses that have been refilled one too many times.

You giggle, distinctly feeling all of the alcohol you’ve consumed. “We won! We did it!”

Charles laughs, pulling you closer. “We did! And do you know what people do when they’re in love and win in Vegas?”

You think about it for a moment, a mischievous glint appearing in your eyes. “Get ... married?”

Charles nods enthusiastically. “Exactly! Y/N Horner, will you marry me tonight?”

You don’t hesitate, “Hell yes!”

The two of you, in your drunken stupor, begin your mission to find a wedding chapel. However, before you can get very far, Max spots you and quickly catches on to what you’re planning.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Max exclaims, grabbing Charles by the shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going with Y/N?”

Charles replies with a sloppy grin, “To make her Mrs. Leclerc!”

Max bursts into laughter, trying to play the voice of reason. “Mate, as much fun as that sounds, I think you might want to sleep on that idea.”

But you’re not having it. “No, Max! We’re in love and it’s Vegas. We’re doing it!”

Before the conversation can escalate further, your father joins the fray, looking both amused and concerned. “What on earth is going on here?”

Max chuckles, “Your daughter and Charles here have some ... ambitious plans for the evening.”

You pout and stumble slightly, “Daddy, we want to get married! Right now!”

Your father’s eyebrows shoot up. “Married? Tonight? Seriously?”

Charles nods with absolute seriousness, though his precarious swaying contradicts his tone. “Christian, I love your daughter. And we won. In Vegas. So ... wedding?”

Your father places a firm hand on his driver’s shoulder. “Listen, Charles, I have no doubt about your feelings for Y/N. But my baby girl deserves the world. When and if you ever decide to propose, I expect you to get down on one knee, stone-cold sober, and ask her properly.”

Charles blinks, processing the words. “But ... Vegas?”

You laugh and go to hug your father, almost falling over in the process. “He’s right. Let’s just enjoy tonight. And if we still feel like getting married in the morning, we can discuss it then.”

Max smirks, “Trust me, you’ll thank us in the morning. If you can even remember this conversation, that is.”

***

“Charles,” you begin, your voice echoing in his helmet, “The team has made the call. You and Max are free to race. No team orders.”

There’s a pause on the other end. “Understood. May the best man win.”

The tension in the garage skyrockets as soon as the lights go out. It’s evident that this is going to be an epic battle from the very first turn. Max and Charles swap places multiple times, pushing their cars to the very edge of their limits.

“Breathe,” you remind him calmly as the laps go by, “Don’t loose sight of the race as a whole. There’s a championship at stake.”

The entire race is a blur of overtakes, pit strategies, and nail-biting moments. The two Red Bull cars battle wheel-to-wheel lap after lap. One side of the garage against the other.

Coming into the final laps, Charles is right on Max’s tail — the championship hanging in the balance between them.

You know there’s not much you can do to guide him anymore … it’s all up to Charles.

“Last lap,” you try to sound composed despite the pounding of your heart. “You can do this.”

The cheers and gasps of the crowd are deafening as Charles makes his move, taking the inside line and overtaking Max on the penultimate turn.

“Push now! Just a few more corners.”

As Charles crosses the finish line, the enormity of the moment crashes over both of you.

“Charles Leclerc,” you scream over the radio as tears stream down your face, “you are the World Champion!”

“Yeeeesssss! Yes! Yes! I ... I can’t believe it. This is ... thank you, everyone. To the entire Red Bull team, you’ve given me the chance to chase and achieve my dreams. To my friends, my family, to every single person who’s been by my side, believed in me, and supported me … thank you. And Y/N, you’ve been my rock and my oxygen. Without you, this wouldn’t have been possible. Thank you! Thank you. Thank you so much!”

***

“Whew! That was a lot of rose water!” Charles laughs, wiping the bubbly liquid from his eyes.

You chuckle and try to wring out your hair. “You didn’t have to drench me, you know!”

Charles grins cheekily. “It’s a special occasion, after all. Both of us on this podium? It’s a dream!”

Then suddenly, he turns serious and signals to his brother in the crowd below, who throws him a small leather box. Charles catches it and promptly lowers himself down on one knee in front of you, making the crowd fall into a stunned silence.

“I tried this in Vegas,” he starts with a laugh, “But I might have been too drunk and missed a few pretty important steps.”

Charles takes a deep breath and his eyes lock onto yours, saying everything that words would never be sufficient to. “Y/N, being on this podium with you, winning the World Championship, it’s the pinnacle of my career. But what we have ... it’s the pinnacle of my life. I can’t imagine going on this journey with anyone else, facing the highs, the lows, the in-betweens. Will you marry me?”

Tears flow steadily down your cheeks and you nod with a fervor that would make bobbleheads jealous, “Yes! There’s no one else I’d want to spend forever with.”

The crowd erupts into cheers and applause, the deafening roar echoing around the Yas Marina Circuit. Max gives a loud whistle, his face lit up with a big grin next to you on the podium stage.

Charles rises to his feet and pulls you close, attacking your lips as the crowd goes wild.

“Promise me we won’t head to a chapel right after this race?” You joke, sniffling and giggling at the same time.

Charles laughs, looking slightly sheepish. “I promise, mainly because I’m too young to die and your father would definitely kill me if I even thought about pulling the stunt we tried in Vegas again. You deserve a fairytale wedding.”

You press your face against his chest, feeling the rhythm of his heartbeat as fireworks explode overhead. “All I need for my fairytale is you.”

[moonstruckme]

hiiii please could i request plus size shy reader being asked out on a date and getting anxious it’s a joke (it’s not). i would LOVE this with steve or james but i love everyone you write for so i don’t mind if you’d rather choose another character! have a lovely day/night! 🫶🏻

Thanks for requesting my love!

cw: implied insecurity around size

Steve Harrington x shy!plus size!reader ♡ 1.3k words

You can feel sweat on the insides of your thighs. Every step you take chafes. Between the heat and your nerves you think you probably look about as shiny as a glazed donut, and you worry that if you lift a hand in front of your face you’ll find it shaking. 

You don’t actually know what you’re doing here. 

When Steve asked you to meet him at the fair, your yes was automatic. He was all brown eyes and gentle features, the apple of his throat bobbing at the tail end of the question, and you hadn’t known any quicker way to get away from all that than simply agreeing and ducking into the kitchen to grab an imaginary order. Whether you actually wanted to go out with him was irrelevant, though of course you did. You still do, you think. 

But later, you’d remembered who he was. Not just Steve, who comes into your work and downs chocolate milkshakes like he’s in some sort of competition while tossing you sugary smiles that make it impossible for you to remember anyone’s orders, but Steve Harringon. King of the gum-popping populars when you’d all been in high school, who publicly degraded Nancy Wheeler just for breaking up with him and who has since been rumored to date a rotation of Hawkin’s most model-esque girls. He would know how to flirt with a girl like you. Might do it just for a laugh. Might even ask you on a phony date simply to humiliate you when you thought it was real. 

And now you’re here, looking sweat-glazed and lost in the middle of the crowd, feeling like a complete fucking loser. Well done, King Steve. 

“Hey!” 

You’re not sure if it’s worse to stay, and slowly reconcile with the fact that you’ve been duped, or leave and have to face him at work the next time he comes in. Quitting your job is starting to sound like a tempting option. 

“Hey!” 

You nearly jump out of your skin when a sure hand lands on your shoulder, and a second later Steve is rounding you with that half-quirked smile of his. His face is cast pink by the neon light of the sign you’re standing in front of. 

“Sorry,” he says, “I was gonna wait at the front, but the line for tickets was getting long so I figured I’d better get in there and grab ours.” He holds up a hand, fanning the two tickets out. 

“Oh.” The word comes out of you on a breath. Steve leans in to hear you better, not a flicker of pique in his expression for your soft voice in this loud atmosphere. “That’s smart.” 

His eyes crinkle as though you’ve said something funny, his hand dropping from your shoulder as he gives a one armed shrug. You’d forgotten it was there and yet you miss it instantly. “Well, thanks. Some people say I can be that, every now and then.” 

You feel your eyes go wide. “Oh, no, sorry, of course you’re smart,” you say in a rush. “I didn’t mean to sound surprised, I was just…” 

“I get it.” The pink light softens the teasing in Steve’s look into something even sweeter. You feel your face warm. “Do you wanna grab a funnel cake or something?” 

“Why…” You’re suddenly conscious again of your sweaty thighs, the way your sundress cuts into your middle and leaves the skin of your wide shoulders on display. “Why would I want that?” 

Steve looks confused, his smile lingering but faint. “I dunno, do you? I’m starving, I haven’t eaten since lunch. We could have whatever, though, if you’ve got something against funnel cake.” 

You blink, the flame of apprehension that had flared in your chest sputtering back down to an ember. “No, sorry,” you say, befuddled once again. What does he want with you? When and where will the other shoe drop? “I like funnel cake.” 

Steve pays for the both of you and you’re too dazed to stop him, still reeling from the hand he placed on your back to guide you through the crowd and seems in no hurry to remove. It rests just above the waistline of your dress, gentle but definitively there, radiating warmth through the fabric. When he does remove it, it’s to sit down beside you at the picnic table so you can eat, one form of contact replaced by another as his jeans press into your bare leg and you try not to spiral out. 

“These things are a disaster for me,” he says, breaking off another piece of funnel cake with his fingers. His chin and the front of his shirt are already covered in a light dusting of powdered sugar, which is somehow more endearing than offputting. You’re currently suppressing the mortifying urge to wipe it off and lick your finger. “I love fried food, and I go even crazier for sugar, so the combination is just—God.” He shakes his head, looking blissed out in the same way you recognize from when he’s half done with a milkshake. “If you don’t want to see me again after this, I’m gonna have a really hard time staying away from your work. I’ll be screwed.” 

You stare at him. Why would he be affected by how you feel about tonight? If anything, the need to avoid Steve Harrington should drive you out of town. Guys like him can do whatever they want. If he told everyone that he’d never even spoken to you and you were making this date nonsense up for attention, that would probably be more readily believed than what seems to be happening here. 

“Jesus Christ.” Steve has discovered the powdered sugar spillage down his front. He dusts off his shirt and does exactly what you’ve been wanting to, using his fingers to wipe his face and then sucking the sugar off them one by one. He looks almost sheepish when he meets your eyes, in a boyish, humorous way. “Sorry, Robin always says I eat like a fucking animal.”

“You’re good,” you assure him. “It’s kind of impossible to avoid with powdered sugar, right?” You actually had managed to avoid it, by leaning over the little paper tray as you ate, but that’s beside the point. “You think you might want to go out again?” 

It’s blunt, not like you, and if you’d taken more than two milliseconds to think it through you know you wouldn’t have asked. Your cheeks burn. 

Steve’s brows furrow with his thumb still in his mouth, and he tilts his head like a puppy. “That’s kind of the point of dates, right?” he asks, sounding halfway between confusion and amusement. “I mean, ideally, you usually want to go out more than once.” 

“Right.” Now you’ve managed to make yourself sound like an idiot. On top of being several sizes bigger and decibels quieter than most of the other girls Steve goes out with, now you’re an airhead as well. “That makes sense, sorry.” 

“You don’t need to keep saying you’re sorry.” Steve smiles lopsided and sweet, and you can’t find even a trace of the infamous King Steve in it. Maybe in the round apple of his cheek, or the easy way he leans on the table, but not in the warmth of the look he’s giving you. The ones he’s been giving you, unreciprocated and largely mistrusted, for weeks now. “Look, we don’t have to worry about that stuff tonight. You can figure out if you think I’m worth another shot after we’re done here, and if you decide to give me a lifetime ban from your work, I’ll get it. Let’s just have fun for now, right?” 

You bite the inside of your lip, considering the soft brown of his eyes, the tiny bit of powdered sugar he’s missed just by the corner of his lips. Let’s just have fun.

“Okay,” you say. Something new and light flickers in your chest at his answering grin. “Where do you wanna start?”

[pastafossa]

"Poor thing." (Matt Murdock x F!Reader, Fic) 🔥

So as promised, I'm taking part in the October Tuna-Tober prompt challenge! For Day One I had three prompts to choose from, and I wound up going for the kink prompt of somnophilia cause, well, I'd hinted at it in TRT as being something Matt liked, but never actually sat down and wrote anything out for it. You can see the rest of the prompts I've chosen here if you'd like to know what's coming this month from me, but for now, please enjoy Day One! This is not specifically written as any fem!Reader in particular, although any readers of TRT can choose to see this as TRT's reader!

As a reminder, if you'd like notifications when I post something, you can follow my sideblog @pastaxandria and set it for notifications!

Ship: Matt Murdock x F!Reader

Chapter Summary:

You’d had a long week. He remembered you telling him that the night before. You wouldn’t mind if he woke you up—you never did—but odds were good you needed your rest far more than you needed him dragging you up out of the haze of sleep for a sloppy, indulgent midnight fuck. But then… he didn’t have to wake you up, did he? 

Wordcount: 3.3k words

Warnings for this chapter, let's do this: consensual somnophilia (they talked about this being fine, don't worry), oral f-receiving, grinding, PiV sex, some dirty talk. 18 and up only please!

Oh and we're black suiting this cause fuck yeah.

Your arousal hit him the second he opened the rooftop door. 

The scent of it stopped him dead in his tracks, threads of heat winding through him as he drew in a long, slow inhale, savoring it. Another inhale, and he let out a low rumble of pleasure, his mouth already watering, cock stirring. 

Well, that was one way to be welcomed home.

Not that he was complaining. His night had gone well enough—the fights visceral and satisfying, with multiple people he’d ensured would make it home safely. But your skin against his, fucking his way lazily inside you while you moaned loudly into his ear, dragging your nails down his back, would only make a good night better. However, as he eagerly stepped through the door and closed it behind him, it quickly became clear that your body’s call to him wasn’t exactly intentional. 

He directed his senses down the stairs and into the bedroom, hunting through sensory information, through the fire of the world until he found you in bed. You were laying on your side and tucked under the blankets, one of your arms thrown over his pillow to hold it up against your chest. And despite the tempting scent of you in the air, you weren’t moving. Not really, anyway. At most, every now and then your fingers would twitch or curl, your heartbeat uneven and a little restless. 

Asleep. 

You were dreaming, then.

Maybe even dreaming of him. 

He slowly dragged his tongue over his lips, considering his options.

You’d had a long week. He remembered you telling him that the night before. You wouldn’t mind if he woke you up—you never did—but odds were good you needed your rest far more than you needed him dragging you up out of the haze of sleep for a sloppy, indulgent midnight fuck.

But then… he didn’t have to wake you up, did he? 

Just like that, he settled on a course of action.

He crept silently down the stairs, stripping out of his gloves and black mask as he went, tossing them aside without care for where they fell. The bottom step was carefully avoided, thanks to its tendency to creak and alert you to his presence. He stopped only long enough to kneel and quietly unlace his boots, tugging them and his socks off so that he could slip barefoot into the bedroom, weaving through the shadows, navigating around any floorboards that might give him away. He did it all without a sound, his senses so focused now he could hear the faint whisper of the dust motes in the air stirred by his passage, hear the tiniest shift of your skin against the sheets as you breathed, hear the blood flowing hot beneath your skin where you’d grown flushed and aroused. 

The scent of your arousal was even stronger here in the bedroom, more than enough to thicken the heat inside him, an instinctive little purr halted in his throat before it could stir the air with sound. His body knew just as well as he did what that scent meant, what always followed, and his nostrils flared as he got closer to you, taking in how your pheromones had mixed with his in bed. It stirred some possessive, lazy satisfaction in him to take in the way you’d curled up with his pillow, chasing his scent, and you were even wearing—

Oh. 

You were wearing his shirt. 

It was like you were begging for this, for him, for what he had planned. 

He crept up onto the bed on his hands and knees, each shift of the mattress followed by a pause, a confirmation from your heartbeat and breathing that you were still asleep. He had to be careful if he didn’t want to wake you. It wasn’t that you’d be angry, of course—you’d both agreed that this sort of thing was alright, though he’d had a far easier time making use of that agreement than you had thanks to his senses. No, this was about ensuring you still had a chance to rest. 

Though, if he were honest, the challenge of this was a thrill all its own. It was a delicate balancing act to give you the sensations you needed, allow himself access to your body, all without waking you. It was as if he were hunting you, gradually gaining ground from the shadows until at last he could take hold of his prize. Fortunately, this prize was one that would leave you both satisfied. 

The moment he found himself over your hips, he shifted to catch the blankets and slowly, ever so slowly began to edge them down. 

Gentle. 

Inch by inch, he bared your body to the air. You didn’t so much as stir, well and truly asleep, and presumably still caught up in your dream. Even so, he held his breath, listening closely to the beating of your heart and your shallow breathing. But he’d been careful enough, and besides, you were used to him climbing into bed in the middle of the night, shifting the blankets around as he crawled under them to join you. 

The scent of you that rose up as the blanket slid down was so much richer now that it wasn’t stifled and trapped by thick fabric. It made him shiver, his cock already so hard he could feel a damp spot growing on the silk of his boxers. He needed more of that scent, and to taste it, too, but the angle was all wrong with you on your side. So he gently traced one fingertip up the side of your thigh, applying the barest hint of pressure. You were normally fairly responsive to him even in sleep. 

“Roll over for me, sweetheart,” he whispered, leaning down to brush his lips, light as a feather, against your hip. “You smell so good. I need a taste.”

He wasn’t sure if it was his touch or his voice that made it past whatever dream you were lost in, but either way, some part of you heard him. You breathed out a soft sigh, twitching a little until he helped you roll slowly onto your back beneath him. You made a soft sound that might have been his name, and he couldn’t resist letting out a reassuring little croon as he pressed your slack thighs outwards, gradually parting your legs. There wasn’t so much as a hint of resistance as your legs fell open, baring the wet heat of your pussy to him. 

God, your scent. 

He quickly backed up a few inches before dropping to his hands and his knees, lowering his head just over your hips to quietly inhale the scent of your cunt. The rich, musky tang of your arousal—all pheromones and slick warmth—left him half mad, his eyes rolling back. His hips instinctively snapped forward against nothing but air, his body curving as if he were already fucking his way into you. 

It only got worse, got better when he let his head fall further, hungry for just a taste. He slipped his tongue out until he could use the tip for the barest little lick at the line of your slit where your arousal had gathered, your body twitching as he did. Even that small taste hit him like a drug, and he swallowed down a ragged moan, his chest hitching as he kept the sound from reaching the air. He’d told himself he’d just have a taste, just one, but one quickly became two became three, hungry, quickening laps at your slit until he finally whined softly in want and dropped the rest of his body down, burying his face desperately against your cunt. 

Your hips twitched, rocking against him just slightly, and you let out the softest little whimper as he grunted and slurped quietly at your slit, wetness smearing across his chin and mouth. Only once he’d thoroughly tasted what you’d made for him did he slide up to your clit, tongue extended to lap at it with little kitten licks, ones designed to encourage your body to give him more of your slick wetness, your body jerking with every pass. He tried to remind himself to be gentle, to take things soft and slow so you didn’t wake, but that was so hard when you whimpered again, whimpered as he pursed his lips to suck lightly at your clit, drawing it into his mouth to work with his tongue. Your fingers curled and released against the sheets, and you tasted so good that he found himself fucking against the mattress, humping mindlessly at the folds in the blankets like an animal.  

“M… Matt.”

His eyes fluttered lazily open, his gaze drifting up around the sensory shape of you. You were all flowing air currents and sounds and scents, twisting tongues of flame fed by the growing heat of both your bodies. Your heartbeat was still too slow to signal you’d woken up, but your breathing had picked up, your eyes fluttering more rapidly behind your eyelids. 

If you hadn’t been dreaming of him before, you were now. And if you were still dreaming, he was safe. 

He rumbled a low noise of satisfaction, using his fingers to part your folds before dipping down to your entrance. Once there, he began to lick firmly at you, pressing deeper and deeper until at last your body opened to him and he slipped inside. You let out a sleep little mewl, one of your legs shifting restlessly in your sleep, your head rolling on your pillow as he moaned quietly, curling his tongue inside you to drag against the silken heat of your clenching walls, his nose grinding gently against your clit. 

Did you know, somewhere deep down, what he was doing? That he’d spread you open like this and worked his tongue inside you? Or did all your dream self know was that you suddenly felt so, so good?

The very idea that you might not know, that you’d left yourself so vulnerable to him, had him dangerously close to coming, his motions growing just a hint more frantic. Wetness smeared across his face as he kissed sloppily at your slit, kissed at it like he might your mouth, snaking his tongue out to slide inside you with every pass of his lips. 

He listened carefully to the quickening pace of your heart, your breathing, taking in the faint sheen of sweat forming on your skin. Every time your heartrate rose too high, he’d slow just a little, or shift his mouth over to your folds or the inside of your thighs. It was there he left you a mark or two, sucking gently at thin, delicate skin. Even if he managed to do this without waking you, you’d know tomorrow what he’d done when you saw the little love bites and bruises between your thighs. The very idea made him purr warmly against you, and he quickly worked his hand down beneath himself until he could undo his pants, pushing the fabric down until he could pull his hard cock free. He took a moment to grind slowly, deliciously against the sheets, presing his mouth to the skin of your thigh to muffle his hitched moan. And that reminded him of what he’d planned on from the start, before he’d become distracted by the taste of you.

He was close, and he needed you. Fortunately, based on the way your body had begun to tighten in increasing waves, you were close, too. 

He let his head roll to the side to rest against your thigh as he panted, still grinding himself against the sheets. “Do you want my cock, sweetheart?” he whispered, his lips curling up into a delicious little smirk when your body clenched at the sound of his voice. “I think you do. Even when you’re asleep, you need me inside you, don’t you?” 

There was no verbal response, but the growing heat of your skin was enough for him. He rocked himself up as gently as he could, stopping just long enough to strip the rest of his clothes off before climbing slowly up your body. As he went, he caught the hem of your shirt, slowly dragging it up your body with him. He couldn’t take it off you—even he wouldn’t be able to mange something like that—but he had no desire to. The idea of fucking you while you were sleep, while you were wearing his shirt, was a fantasy he’d used more than once while taking himself in hand. He did, however, tug your shirt up just enough to bare your breasts to him. 

Obscene, something inside him whispered in delight, a wave of throbbing heat flooding through him. Here you were asleep, shirt pushed up over your breasts, your naked cunt practically dripping onto the sheets. He balanced his weight on one arm as he hovered over you, indulging himself as he palmed gently at one of your breasts, dragging his thumb slowly against your nipple. That won him another soft moan in your sleep, your cunt clenching, body tightening around nothing. Your next moan was even louder when he dropped his head to drag his tongue hotly against your other nipple, drawing it into his mouth to catch it gently between his teeth, sucking lazily until you let out an even louder moan, one of your hands curling as if to claw at the sheets before relaxing. “Poor thing,” he crooned quietly, reluctantly leaving your breasts to climb the rest of the way up your body. “Listen to you, so needy.”

And it would only be right to help with that, wouldn’t it? 

Once his hips were level with yours, he settled in, rocking and grinding his cock gently against your slit, slicking himself up with your warmth and the saliva he’d left behind. The sudden sensation of your burning heat against the underside of his cock made his mouth fall slack, and he started to pant at the little shocks of pleasure that washed over him every time he caught the head of his cock against your clit. You weren’t much better even asleep, whining as your hips jerked, eyes rolling frantically beneath your lids. It took everything in him to keep his motions gentle and slow, no matter how much his body demanded he grind and rut, fuck his way desperately inside you even if it woke you. No. No, not when he was so close, his cock now slick and ready for you. He let out a shaky breath, burying his face against your warm throat, huffing in the scent of you as he shifted the angle and began to slide inside you, centimeter by warm, delicious centimeter. 

“Fuck,” he whispered shakily, one of his hands fisting desperately in the sheets beside your head. “Fuck, sweetheart. You feel so good.”  

God, you were tight, so close to coming that you were already clenching tight around him. That tightness forced him to move gradually, his progress slowed to a sinfully dangerous crawl, one that allowed him to feel every last twitch and shift of your body around his cock. It seemed designed to make him lose his mind when he was already this worked up. In a blink, he’d caught the fabric of your shirt in his teeth, stifling his hoarse, shaky moan, your shallow, hitched breathing a tantalizing whisper of sensation in his ear. It felt like it took hours,  ages before he’d finally hilted himself inside you, buried in your slick heat. 

He forced himself to still there for a long moment, his chest heaving as he scanned over you with his senses again. 

Stuttered breathing, each breath hiding a faint moan. 

The fluttering clip of your heart, just slow enough to indicate you hadn’t woken. 

Your fingers clenching and releasing, spread thighs shifting in minute, restless movements against the sheets. 

It wouldn’t take much more for him to come, he knew that much—the taste of you still lingered on his tongue, filled his nose, and the drag of your skin against his with every breath only left him burning. But he wasn’t a selfish lover, even when you weren’t awake to beg and plead with him for release. No, he’d make sure you got what you needed, too: his sweetheart, so tender and soft and welcoming to the Devil even in sleep. 

He slowly, gradually settled his weight onto one arm, sliding his free hand down between your bodies. Even that much shifting around had him swallowing down a groan, and he couldn’t resist grinding just a little inside you. It made you twitch and whimper, hushed and breathless in his ear as he pressed his cock against that spot inside you. Once he was sure that hadn’t been enough to wake you, he quickly dragged two fingers through your folds, raking gently to gather up your wetness before he brought them back up to your clit. The rhythm he started was slow and easy, a gentle grind and loop over your clit that matched the rolling waves of his hips as he began to gently fuck you, barely retreating at all before sliding smoothly back to fill you once more. 

It took him no time at all to work your body up that final hill, your breathing growing shorter, your heart rate climbing as you began to tighten around him. It helped that he knew what you needed—each retreat was slow and gentle, and he never left you more than halfway before rolling lazily back forward, ensuring your warm cunt stayed achingly full as he brought you just up to the edge. This time it was your mouth that moved, not a word but a soft whisper of skin as you parted your lips, your head tipping back. And he knew that motion, even as slack and lazy as it was in your sleep. 

He purred quietly at the unconscious request that he fill you there, too, lifting his head to seek out your mouth. One soft lick against your lips and you parted them for him on pure instinct, allowing him to slide his tongue filthily into your slack mouth, dragging his tongue against yours, granting you what you’d asked for. You let out a soft sigh, your throat working beneath him as you sucked at the taste of him, of yourself, of you both. 

All it took from there was one more finger grinding against your clit, a gentle buck of his hips as he moaned into your mouth, and you crested, your body tightening and releasing around him in rippling waves. Your head rolled back in your sleep, a soft gasp shuddering up your throat as you twitched and shook, eyes rolling back beneath your lids. You let out what might have been a moan of his name, hot and sweet, a sound that seared its way across his mind like a brand. That was more than enough for him, and he let himself go. He groaned softly against your lips, snapping his hips gently against you as he spilled himself near-silently inside you, filling your cunt with a spreading heat that you wouldn’t notice until morning. He kissed you through it as gently as he could, rubbing lightly, quickly at your clit to drag your orgasm out along with his, pleasure rolling through him in gentle waves. Even once you both began to come down, he wasn’t quite done, rumbling a low, possessive growl as he ground himself inside you further, ensuring he’d coated every last inch of your warm cunt, his, you were his, even in sleep. He toyed with that overstimulation just long enough for his toes to curl, for his spent, softening cock to twitch inside you, spilling a few more drops, giving you everything he had as you drifted back down into a deep sleep. 

Satisfied with what he’d given you. 

He got one arm down and around your hip, gently, carefully rolling the both of you until you were both on your sides, his cock still buried deep inside you. He rumbled a low noise to reassure your sleeping mind, burying his nose in your hair as you sleepily curled into him, one arm draping itself over his waist. 

“Love you,” he murmured. “My good girl.” “Mm.”

[byoldervine]

Motivation For Writing

Getting Off Your Butt:

1. Aestheticise it. Let the light in through the curtains, turn on your fairy lights, lay a blanket over your lap, light some candles, whatever you need to do to feel like a writer. The right vibes can go a long way

2. Picture that one scene. There’s almost always a moment you’re super excited about that basically inspired the whole book. Picture it, play it out in your head in full cinematic fanfare, gush to yourself about how cool it is and how everyone will love it, picture a future fanbase going nuts for it. You might get excited enough to go back to writing

3. Set a word count goal. During NaNoWriMo this year I think I wrote more than I ever have in one go. The thing that kept me coming back was the desire to not fall behind. I ended up with ~45K words after some complications irl caused me to drop off in the final few days, and that’s all just because I was adding up the 1667 a day word count goal and realising where I needed to be at to keep up. I definitely can’t stay as rigid as I did with 1667 words every single day, but seeing that you’re only a few hundred words off of a goal is super motivating - just be sure to set realistic, easy to achieve parameters for just general use, like 1000-2000 words per week. I know 200 words per day is a popular one for people trying to establish a writing routine that can’t dedicate forever to the craft

Maintaining Motivation:

1. Writing sprints. Writing sprints are a godsend for me, I like to set myself up in the living room with Abbie Emmons’ writing sprint video on. The video lasts two hours and is broken up into two parts; 25 minutes to write and 5 minutes for breaks between writing, so four 30 minute sprints overall. Having the timer and countdown with peaceful music and an aesthetic background is both relaxing and encouraging, as well as giving me a specific time for how much longer I have to push through. It’s easier for me to say “Okay, only ten more minutes, then you can take a break” then it is to say “Just keep going, we’re not stopping until I say so” which is too arbitrary for my brain to accept

2. Give yourself a choice. If you’re struggling to keep your focus, come up with a finish line and tell yourself you don’t have to do any more work once you’ve reached that point. Finish the paragraph, go for another five or ten minutes, keep it up until your next scheduled break. Whatever sounds realistic and doable without being overwhelming. And once you’ve met this goal, ask yourself if you still want to stop. With any luck, you’ll have gotten back into the zone and will choose to keep going. Maybe you’ll want to take a quick break but you’ll come back later on. And maybe you’ll decide that now actually is a good stopping point. Just remember that, if you do still want to stop, don’t force yourself to keep going. You can’t strike deals with yourself if you know you won’t keep your word and all you’ll end up doing is burning yourself out, which will lead to even less writing getting done

3. Try a new angle. If you can’t be bothered to write anymore, is there anything else you can do for your book? Plotting, editing, worldbuilding, character sheets, one-shots all that sort of thing can still be productive for your book while still being different enough to give your brain a slight respite. It also means less work in that particular area later on

Afterwards:

1. Organise. Clean up your workspace and put everything away so it’s nice and neat for when you come back to it. Or if you don’t need to pack things out the way, set it up in an aesthetically pleasing way so it will tempt you back next time. Let it give you the writer vibe

2. Take care of yourself. Get a drink, have a snack, walk about, stretch your limbs, take a breath, cuddle your pet. Something that gets you away from straining your eyes looking at text for a bit. This is also a good time to reward yourself if positive reinforcement is something you use on yourself. If you always feel shitty after your writing sessions, you won’t want to go back to it

3. Positive reflection. Make sure to tell yourself you did good, even if you didn’t get as much done as you would’ve liked or it isn’t up to a standard of quality you’re aiming for. That can all be fixed later on, and you’re infinitely better off than you would’ve been if you didn’t do it. Be proud of yourself. Tell yourself you’re proud of your hard work and your dedication and your effort. Remind yourself that this is a fun thing you like to do. Marvel over how insane it is that you’ve gotten this far - not many people do - and that you’ve got all this tangible work to prove you’ve accomplished something so many people wish they could pull off. If this isn’t fun overall, there’s no point

[meanbossart]

Ask compilation: I'm Starting To Think That This Drow Guy Is Kind Of An Asshole Edition.

Probably a Ranger in the hunter subclass. I actually intended to multi-class him as fighter/ranger at some point and make that his official class, but I haven't had time/quite figured out the best build that would still suit him - Ranger makes a LOT of sense with his backstory, arguably more than fighter, but he's still supposed to be a magic-less brick-house with 19 strength who hasn't handled a bow and arrow in 10 years, so I'm not sure where that leaves us LOL

A lot of people have suggested that Berserk Barbarian would fit him well, but I think that implies a lot of other characteristics that do NOT suit him at all so 🤷

HE DIDN'T EVEN GO TO THE CRECHE, and honestly it made the game feel much more immersive to pick one path and stick to it like Halsin suggested, even if I did have to endure the shadow cursed lands without the shiny mace 😂

Probably for the best, it'd be a real shame if the story ended there just because he didn't like Vlaakith's attitude.

But yeah Lae'zel (who, for the record, I adore) never stood a chance in his playthrough. Sorry baby girl.

I'm either uninformed or we have different definitions of what constitutes a crush, but sure I'll play in this space LOL

He's both jealous but also kind of aloof when it comes to things like that. It's yet another symptom of his arrogance, where it seems unfathomable that anyone who has him would be genuinely tempted by someone else. He doesn't mind a normal amount of glance-stealing and flattery, even playful flirting to a degree, but if there's persistence or if his partner seems to seek another person out for things he thinks he should be providing, he feels threatened.

Also, he has a difficult time discerning that "deep emotional connection" does not equal "romantic interest". So, at least immediately after the events of the game, he's more likely to be made insecure by his partners forming deep bonds with others than any throwaway expression of physical desire or fleeting infatuation.

[MORE UNDER THE CUT]

Let me preface this with the (hopefully unnecessary) disclaimer that this murderous dark-elf's opinions are not my own, and that I very much purposefully made a bit of an asshole character because I find that entertaining.

And now that you're hopefully primed for what's coming - DU drow is pretty damn judgemental of people's looks save for the rare times when they give him a good impression right off the bat. He notes people's appearances and makes preemptive assumptions about them without even realizing it. He definitely does not equal beauty to value or prowess (in fact he will very much still mock of you if you seem too concerned with your appearance) but he does prescribe things based on looks.

I don't think he'd take issue with what you're describing, It sounds like a pretty average body, but he would assume that person is weaker and less fit to "keep up with him", basically. Which kind of diminishes interest.

As far as to what he finds immediately attractive, he definitely prefers people who seem physically fit (not more than himself though - gods forbid). But, the caveat to this whole tangent is that once you get past initial impressions, he could definitely come to be sexually attracted to pretty much any type of body attached to the person he's in love with.

Thank you! There was no main event, just the building up of resentment over time and the opportunity she saw opening up when the Chosen's plan came into motion. She definitely didn't always hate him though, they had a fairly close relationship until his obsessive behavior and arrogance became an issue.

Thank you!!!

They call him the/that drow, dark elf, or "big drow" if there's more than one present. In private they might facetiously call him Bhaalspawn if they get tired of referring to him by race.

I'll be honest, I forgot whether or not I found it in his playthrough LOL but if he did stumble across that would be VERY funny. He'd be like "look at these idiots and their fake murder god. What kind of dimwit would worship carnage as a religion. Hey Shadowheart get a load of this-"

HAPPY YOU ENJOY HIM! I think his unique situation overall with having been such a overwhelmingly horrid person and forgetting all about it is my favorite bit. That's kind of vague, I know, but I often think of dreams I've had where I committed a crime or did something horrible, and that immediate feeling of relief and disconnect that follows immediately after waking up. That's kind of what I imagine it's like for him - he knows of the things he did, but he doesn't really. In theory it's all true but that's a truth far too fantastical for anyone to conceptualize even if it's put right in front of your face.

That, tackling the guilt (or lack thereof) of something you genuinely don't feel like you've done and the intricacies of it, that's a fascinating state of mind to explore. I love how many directions you can take that.

For me, having a character who is not good, but is not necessarily pure unadulterated evil, makes for a lot of complex thought experiments and contradictory values. DU drow has a lot of those - things he believes and abides by absolutely except for this specific instance, being contradictory is a pillar of his character and it can be a little challenging to keep up with it - but I'd be lying if I said I don't deeply enjoy that aspect as well all the same.

THANK YOUUUU It took me so long to figure out how to draw Astarion in a way I liked, I'm so relieved that others enjoy it too 😂

Shockingly he did succeed it and was immediately put-off by it, lmao. They wouldn't really develop much of a relationship for a while after that, so at that point DU drow just figured he was trying to get something from him and wrote him off, much as he did with everyone else with the exception of Shadowheart.

He didn't meet her at the Tiefling grove! I didn't even know you could meet her before-hand for the longest time. But he did super, duper kill her at camp of course.

He managed to hide the body and everyone else was none the wiser, huge blood bhaal-sigil on the ground aside lmao. He was a little shocked but didn't feel all that bad about it, kind of resigning to that primal feeling of satisfaction at a job-well-done that overwhelmed him instead. He decided she was too weak to survive out there and he had just spared her the trouble.

[spoopdeedoop]

hi i have some disorganized thoughts/hcs abt the found family human doctor au

(one of the thoughts being i should really give it a better name. another being YES this is only the nuwho doctors atm bc that's the only series i've watched so far apologies. if i ever get around to watching classic who i will add them trust)

BEHOLD my random, not at all in-depth headcanons

nine is the only one with a car out of all of them. they all keep bugging him to drive/pick them up from places -- he has mixed feelings about being the assigned taxi driver

both twelve and eleven are teachers -- college professor and preschool teacher respectively. twelve's students love them because he will say the most stupid, hilarious shit with a straight face without even knowing and eleven's students love him because he is the only teacher at the school that will dance with them during musical chairs (he doesn't even play the game. he just dances)

i want to make one of them an actual doctor but i don't think any of them could handle it unfortunately

they all share an an apartment flat on the same level -- nine, twelve and fifteen live in one room, ten, eleven and thirteen live in the one across from them. of course there are other people in the building too but they're all used to the strange loud hyperactivity of that particular flat. i think i'm using the right terminology here. yall know what im talking about

(i'm so tempted to make some companions be their neighbors)

nine and ten are the most insomniac of all of them, so they're used to bumping each other in the dead of night on their way to raid each other's respective fridges or something. very rarely thirteen will join them and they're like "WELL FANCY SEEING YOU HERE"

twelve does sleep, but like. he's nocturnal

eleven and ten hate each other in a sibling kind of way (see: day of the doctor). they are constantly sending each other death threats or tripping each other over. everyone is sick of it

sometimes when they're out shopping you'll hear ten yell "GET OUT OF THE FROZEN FOOD YOU NUMPTY WE ARE NOT BUYING FISH FINGERS" over the aisles and you'll hear eleven whine "WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO MUCH" back

(if you're lucky you'll be able to catch fifteen mumble "why did we put them in the same apartment. are we asking for an eviction notice")

eventually eleven will pick a random stray cat off the side of the road, take her home, and name her bowtie, which is a stupid name, so everyone just defaults to calling her kitty

kitty's favourite person is twelve, to eleven's absolute despair

(my original idea for this was to initially have ten hate the idea of living with a cat, since he's stated full on in the show that he doesn't like cats, but apparently there is some very obscure doctor who comic run in which he falls into a depressive spiral and adopts a cat whom he names rose-the-cat, so he might actually like cats idk?)

anyway ten hates her until he doesn't lmao. he vents to her when there's no one else home and she will Stare at him back and it is a very nice friendship

kitty and nine watch shitty romcom together

they have a joint groupchat together -- half of it is just thirteen and fifteen assigning everyone outfits they find on pinterest and the other half is eleven asking where everyone went (he keeps getting lost when they go out)

nine doesn't know how to download pictures off the internet and so resorts to manually editing memes together to send to the groupchat and everyone's like "girl that's so much more effort........."

(yes he doesn't know how to press save image to camera roll but he knows how to use a photo editor flawlessly. such is the logic of the idiocy of the doctors)

eleven and thirteen get along very well i think. they're the only two of the group to play video games and so they bond over that. they also have ridiculously similar clothing taste

sometimes they'll succeed in getting fifteen to play pokemon with them and then they'll proceed to not see him until the next day when he comes out of his room and goes "you didn't tell me plusle couldn't evolve i've been levelling it up all fucking night"

friday is assigned movie night (it's always big hero 6)

eleven is the only one to actively seek out physical affection, usually really abruptly like clinging to thirteen's back as she passes him in the hall or bapping ten with the palm of his hand until he sighs and gives him a hug. he does expect a platonic kiss on the forehead from anyone before he goes to bed and will complain if he doesn't get one

anyway thats it i'm sick in the head and really sad. if this keeps up i may be forced to actually write a fic

[cirilla-fiona-riannon]

The Beast Wants to Tempt the Little Rabbit (Matias vs Clavis)

Translations may not always capture the exact nuances or tone of the original text. Expect grammatical errors and inaccuracies. Not proofread.

Part 2

Clavis: "This is rather unsatisfactory."

(!?)

Matias: "Is it? This is the first time I've been welcomed this warmly."

Clavis: "Haha, you should aim higher. After all, you should be welcomed by all the citizens."

Clavis: "But unfortunately, I've noticed some of them not paying attention. Therefore..."

Emma: "It's almost lunchtime!"

I grabbed Clavis' hand as he was about to put it inside his coat.

(I'm pretty sure he's going to come up with some kind of outrageous trap.)

Emma: "Prince Matias, are you hungry?"

Matias: "Now that you mention it, I do feel a bit hungry."

Emma: "In that case, let's have lunch!"

Emma: "Prince Clavis, your guest has a request. As your tour guide, I suggest we eat."

Clavis: "Hmm, you really know how to handle me."

(That's because I've made every mistake imaginable back when I was Belle.)

Clavis grasped my hand lightly with a pleased expression, his golden eyes gleaming seductively.

Clavis: "I've already made arrangements for lunch. Let's head there."

Emma: "Thank you, but what's with this hand?"

Clavis: "I'm just responding to your passion. You want to hold my hand, right?"

Emma: "I never said anything like that!"

Clavis: "Come on, don't be shy. Let's hold hands."

Emma: "I don't want to. Hey, your grip is too strong!"

Matias: "Are you two...?"

Emma: "No, absolutely not!"

Clavis: "Matias, stop asking such a bold question. You're making Emma embarrassed."

(This guy is trying to get back at me.)

Clavis gently held my hand and started walking, leaving me feeling embarrassed under the sympathetic gazes of the people around us.

(I tried to regain my composure and think about lunch, and yet...)

Clavis: "Now then, I will treat you to my homemade cooking."

Emma: "Why? Just why?"

I almost collapsed to my knees.

The place Clavis chose was one of the most famous restaurants in Rhodolite.

I thought that for entertaining a distinguished guest like Matias, he would have prepared dishes made by top-notch chefs, but for some reason, he declared that we were going to the kitchen.

Matias: "Miss Emma, you look pale. Are you alright?"

Emma: "Yes, I apologize for causing concern."

Emma: "I just remembered a lot of intense memories from the past."

(I've had Clavis' homemade cooking a few times before that's why I can say this with confidence: his homemade dishes are too unconventional to be served to a distinguished guest.)

(If by any chance someone got food poisoning and it turned into an international incident, then...)

For the royals, poison was the most important thing to take into consideration when it came to food.

(If I were to give up now, there would be no one to protect Matias.)

Clavis: "You should rest. When you're able to eat..."

Emma: "Prince Clavis, there's a dish that I really want Prince Matias to try."

Emma: "It's a classic Rhodolite home-cooked dish, but I thought there might not be another chance like this, so please, let me cook this time!"

When I said this in one breath, the two men widened their eyes, perhaps taken aback by the momentum of my words.

(My cooking isn't something that should be served to state guests, either, but I think it's better than risking an international incident with Clavis' unconventional cooking. Or at least, I want to believe so.)

Matias: "Home-cooked dish..."

(Hmm?)

Matias: "Clavis, I'm also interested in her cooking."

Again, I thought I heard him mutter something, but Matias' serious expression didn't change.

(I can't believe he's so interested.) 

Clavis: "I see. Come to think of it, you've always had a fascination with home cooking."

Clavis: "Very well. Emma, I appoint you as our tour guide and personal chef."

Emma: "Thank you! I'm honored!"

(Thank goodness, I managed to avert the worst-case scenario.)

Clavis: "I thought something like this might happen, so I actually had an apron prepared for you."

Clavis pulled out a white apron from the cupboard.

When he unfolded it, I noticed it had a bunch of frills.

Matias: "A frilly white apron, huh?"

(What's with the occasional sigh-like voice I've been hearing?)

Even when I glanced at Matias, his expression remained unchanged.

(Well, whatever. I have a feeling I shouldn't pry.)

Gathering my courage, I put on the apron I received.

I pushed aside the suspicious ingredients on the counter and picked up only the safe ones.

Matias & Clavis: ".........."

Matias & Clavis: ".........."

Emma: "Since this will take some time, would you two like to chat elsewhere?"

Matias: "No, if there's something I can help with, I'd like to assist. I'll stay here."

Clavis: "It'll be lonely here by yourself, so we'll stay and keep you company."

(It's awkward and nerve-wracking!)

Still, I couldn't exactly chase them out, so I worked while receiving their intense gaze.

Clavis: "By the way, was your queen also good at cooking?"

Matias: "Yeah, it all begins with watching my queen in the kitchen every morning."

Matias: "Cooking together, tasting each other's dishes to understand the flavors, and laughing together after waking up."

(So Matias is already married. He looks so in love, it makes me smile.)

Matias: "But you know, even if she's bad at cooking, it's still fine."

Matias: "It makes it more worthwhile to cook together, and it'd be nice for me to cook for her and serve her as well."

Clavis: "Isn't there a royal chef at Acroite?"

Matias: "Of course there is, but the idea of homemade cooking is just romantic."

Clavis: "Haha, you're really saying that?"

Clavis: "I'm relieved to see that you still have the same perverted qualities you had as a student, even more so than me and Jin."

Matias: “I'm not a pervert. I'm just a regular guy who is devoted to his ideals."

(What's that supposed to mean?)

Their conversation was so outlandish that I couldn't help but stop.

Emma: "Prince Matias, you're married, right?"

Matias: "No, not yet."

Emma: "But a queen?"

Matias: "I'm talking about my future queen."

Emma: "Ah..."

(I see.)

(I've always wondered why such a kind-hearted person would be friends with Clavis, but maybe it's because they both walk their own paths and understand each other.)

Realizing this, I resumed cooking as if nothing had happened.

Matias: "Miss Emma, you're an undeniable genius."

Clavis: "Right? She really is a genius."

(Though it's not much of a dish, being praised like this makes me feel a little embarrassed.)

The main course was a simple beef and vegetable stew cooked in cream, accompanied by mashed potatoes with butter. 

I also prepared a soup and salad consisting of tomatoes, and edible roses.

For dessert, I made simple madeleines.

It might seem lacking compared to the dishes the princes usually eat, but both Matias and Clavis were eating so happily that it made me feel happy.

Matias: "Rhodolite is a wonderful country. To be able to enjoy such gourmet food as home cooking is amazing."

Clavis: "Right? We should praise Emma even more."

Emma: "You've already praised me more than enough!"

Emma: "Anyway, Prince Matias, why did you come to Rhodolite?"

Feeling embarrassed, I quickly changed the subject, and Matias placed his cutlery on the table.

Matias: "I was invited as a legal advisor."

Emma: "Legal advisor?"

Matias: "Acroite is known as the country of snow and law, and I'm called the guardian of law."

Matias: "I'm well-versed in the laws of not only my own country but also those of the major nations, including Rhodolite."

(That's amazing.)

Matias: "I've heard that several new laws are being considered in Rhodolite this time."

Matias: "However, these new laws have few precedents. Setting them up requires the establishment of various systems."

Matias: "That's why they invited me. They seek the expertise of a legal specialist."

Clavis: "Originally, Jin and I were already good friends with Matias, so when I sent him a letter, he responded warmly."

(Ah, so that's why Clavis is personally putting so much effort into welcoming him.)

This was not a story that is irrelevant to me, either.

The law is a set of rules that everyone living in Rhodolite must follow.

Emma: "If you've come for the sake of Rhodolite, then we must put even more effort into welcoming you."

(We have to do our best this afternoon.)

Matias: "No, quite the opposite."

Emma: "The opposite?"

Matias: "I should be thanking you."

Matias: "This falls under the Asbrink family's 23rd precept, which states that one must always repay kindness received."

Matias: "So, could I have some of your time this afternoon? I want to repay your cooking."

Emma: "Please don't worry about it. Your sentiment alone makes me happy."

Clavis: "The Lelouch family also has a similar motto."

Emma: "Yours is just nonsense."

Clavis: "Haha! What are you saying? It's not nonsense. I just decided on it now."

(See? Nonsense.)

Clavis: "So, I also want to repay you for your cooking."

Emma: "Your gratitude is more than enough!"

Matias: "Clavis, I brought it up first."

Clavis: "Unfortunately, Rhodolite doesn't have a 'first come, first served' law."

Clavis: "We can't let a guest like you repay your gratitude."

Clavis: "So, let me express my gratitude to Emma on your behalf."

Matias: "Fair enough. But then it loses its meaning. Shouldn't you respect the will of your guest?"

Clavis: "Hmm."

Clavis: "Emma, what do you think?"

Emma: "What do I think?"

Clavis: "Between me and Matias, whose gratitude would you like to accept?"

(Huh? Is this what this is about!?)

Part 1 ╎ Part 2 ╎ Matias End ╎ Epilogue

[joocomics]

extra points

day 2 — collar w/ jungsu ⌞⌗ kinktober ⌝

𓂃⠀𓈒 rich boy!jungsu x fem!reader

genre: smut — mdni! wc: 1.9k

contains: college au, soft dom!jungsu, sub!reader, oral sex (m!rec), deepthroating, dirty talk, lots of pet names, praise kink, light bdsm play (usage of collar with a leash)

a/n: this may be a part of something bigger one day

[ kinktober masterlist | general masterlist ]

“So unfortunate, you’re missing just one more point.”

You take the exam paper from Jungsu’s hand and quickly skim through it - your name written at the top and your course work right below it, with Jungsu’s notes written at the bottom in the same red color he used to grade it.

At the moment you’re too frustrated with the condescending smile he’s staring at you with to ask any questions about your mistakes. His presence alone is annoying so you’re going to read everything once you’re home, and you’re going to text him if needed, so you don’t have to deal with his attitude in person.

“Thanks,” you sigh, reaching for his course work. “Here’s yours.”

You can’t wait for the semester to be over so you can get rid of this class and the professor who thinks making his students grade each other’s work is a good tool for improving skills. (Maybe it is, but it would have worked better for you if you weren’t paired up with Kim Jungsu.)

“Thanks, Y/N.” Another smile creeps up on his lips once he sees his excellent points. “You’re an angel.”

He smiles too much, you notice, and every time he does, for a second you wonder if there's a possibility that you might be wrong about him. Perhaps he’s so popular because of his perfect smile radiating joy, innocence and politeness, not because he’s a secret jerk.

“I’m not giving you extra points if that’s what you’re assuming.”

It seems your expression changes drastically, because Jungsu looks at you with surprise.

“Of course not,” he replies as he unzips his backpack. “Can’t I compliment a pretty girl when I see one?”

Your heart flutters for a short moment before you take a breath and answer.

“You can do whatever you want.”

Jungsu nods and his lips turn up - of course. But this time the effects of his smile remain with you throughout the whole day.

His idea is bad.

Really bad. Most of all - wrong. Illegal.

Cheating in any way is never the right thing to do. However, after hearing Jungsu out the idea gets stuck in your head and you can’t stop thinking about it; considering it. It sounds so easy and tempting.

You really don’t want to do poor on this class, any class. If you have the opportunity to fix this one small stupid mistake that’s keeping you from getting the good grade you deserve, why not take it? Although, the real question is another one. If you agree to this, are you really going to do it for your grade? Do your bottled up feelings for Jungsu have anything to do with this? The secret desire to be one of his toys like you’ve heard many people call the girls around him.

Without this extra point your grade is not that bad - it's not excellent, but it's still good. In the same vein - it's just a kiss.

“So…” your mouth is completely dry when you speak up. “We kiss and in return you change my grade.”

“Damn, angel,” Jungsu chuckles, leaning back into the sofa, “you sound so strict and professional.”

“I’ll rewrite everything tonight and when I send it to you, you’ll have it done by tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

Jungsu tilts his head meanwhile his one arm leans on the back of the sofa as if he’s signaling you to join him already.

You don’t want to show how much you actually want to kiss him so you stand up slowly. You sit next to him on your knees, feeling your body temperature rising.

You’ve never been so close before. You can feel his expensive cologne in the air and you’re ready to welcome it on your clothes… on your skin.

“You can come closer.”

And with these words of his all your hidden cravings open inside you. You’ve tried to bury them for so long, ignoring them by not paying Jungsu any attention. The idea of him, the son of one of the most powerful families in the city, showing interest in you sounded ridiculous anyway.

And yet here you are - not able to contain your moaning just from his thumbs circling your nipples. Maybe it’s embarrassing, maybe he thinks you’re overreacting, you don’t care.

You keep following his lead, kissing him hard and letting out little whines and groans when you feel the need to which is often. His hands are underneath your shirt; he tugged down your bra to feel your plush breasts, but he still hasn’t seen them bare. He continues to toy with your perked up nipples beneath the clothing as his tongue explores your mouth.

“How long can I kiss you for, angel?” He asks, and his voice after all this long kissing sounds still soft, but with a discreet raspiness that adds to your arousal.

At first you’re not sure what to respond, but then…

“I already told you… you can do whatever you want.”

Jungsu observes your face for a moment, trying to really figure you out. It was your beauty and your unbothered attitude towards him that sparked his idea to ask the professor to pair you up with him for the entire class, but now more and more things about you interest him.

Good thing he always gets what he wants.

“Looks like you really need that grade,” he jokes, and you only answer with a coy smile.

The intense eye contact breaks once his right hand withdraws from your chest to unbutton your pants and you feel the tip of his middle finger rubbing your clit.

“You’re sensitive everywhere,” he comments satisfied at the sounds he’s hearing; your pretty moans are like a hypnotising tune. Another thing that he likes is how you’re not ashamed to express your neediness; how you’re ready to give him all despite him asking only for a kiss. “And so needy to be touched.” His tongue traces your neck and in result your hips attempt to press you into his crotch harder.

Jungsu chuckles again and leans back to check you out, looking already dazed and so horny.

He walks you through his big living area, then to his huge minimalistic bedroom where there's a beautiful painting above the bed with navy blue sheets. With each step you remove more of your clothes and leave them on the floor until you're both naked with goosebumps across your skin.

There's only one thing we need, he says before opening his wardrobe.

His tall naked figure hovers over you and you can feel the discreet dominance radiating from his toned body. He doesn’t even need to say anything - one look and one touch is enough for you to obey and satisfy his wishes.

As he puts the black collar around your neck you gulp once or twice with your eyes roaming all over his chest. His arm muscles flex the more he moves around you, turning you on even with his scent.

“It suits you, angel.” He steps back while holding the leash from black leather in his hand. “Makes you even prettier.”

You switch positions and now he’s the one sat down on the edge of the bed, not letting you out of sight, and you’re the one standing in front of him, waiting to see where this will lead.

“Down, baby.”

You kneel silently between his legs as he’s manspreading without letting go of you.

It already feels like this is where you belong.

Jungsu stares down and catches your hands flinching a bit; so impatient to touch him, but not brave enough to do it. He’s enjoying the little show, and especially the seductive view of your parted lips and your pupils blown wide open, anticipating his next move while glowing with lust.

“The collar is already teaching you to behave, isn’t it? You need to learn to be more patient, angel.”

You lick over your lips when you notice him roll the leash around his hand and pull it down. You gasp as he directs your face lower; the warm breaths leaving your mouth envelop his erection.

Jungsu’s spare hand grips on the roots of your hair and you pout at the pain in your scalp as he yanks your head back. This forces you to look up from his cock just when your mouth began to water at the sight of his big tip, flushed and glistening with arousal.

“Please—“ you whisper as your hands glide over his thighs. “Let me.”

“So cute.”

You smile at the way his thumb caresses the corner of your mouth before leaning down into his crotch once you feel the pressure of the collar giving you permission.

His big size fills your mouth bit by bit after you lick it up and down. A surprised humm slips from your tongue as its heaviness settles on it; your puffy lips strech painfully to take as much as possible of him, and both of you hold your breaths, curious to see how much you’ll be able to handle. You’re already disappointed that you won’t be able to fit it all in.

“Fuck—“ Jungsu’s captivating voice moans above you from the pleasure entering his body.

You’re not able to see him anymore from the leash guiding you in the steady pace he likes.

You put all your attention and effort into breathing properly through your nose and bobbing your head up and down in the speed that makes him groan the most, but it’s becoming harder to keep it up as the seconds pass by. Your jaw starts to hurt too much making it difficult to swallow even half of his length now.

Jungsu retrieves you from his cock by tugging your hair back and you gasp for air, keeping your hands still behind your back the way he wants them to be.

“Good job, pretty angel.” He praises you and after giving you few seconds to breathe he guides you down again. “You’re talented.”

Your neck veins are emphasised beneath the leather as he keeps you between his thighs; your skin heats up as your chin drips with spit while his thick length glides towards your throat, causing lewd sounds to erupt from each move.

He’s so big and the pain is bittersweet. Every time you manage to invite him deeper while keeping your cheeks hollow, his voice turns shakier.

The wet sounds of your throat mix with his blissful groaning when he stops you from lifting your head up. The gag causes his toned figure to squirm, his hips to jump up and feel more. The way you struggle, slobbering at his throbbing erection has his hand pressing down harder against your skull.

“Holy shit—“ The grip around the leash tightens the moment his abs clench; the muscles of his legs tense as he bucks his hips up again. “Fuck, I knew you can take it.“

The next poking of his tip makes you choke which almost throws Jungsu over the edge.

He finally glances down when you start coughing, making an even bigger mess in his lap.

“Easy, baby,” he cups your face with comforting hands, “come here.”

Following the leash, you end up in the centre of the bed. As you sink down, amazed at how the feeling of him inside you already makes you melt, Jungsu still keeps an eye on the accessory around your neck.

The leash continues to occasionally move you in different angles and directions; to mark your skin with possessive red hues; to drag you closer for a kiss and pull you back to arch your spine like a cat when you switch positions.

Jungsu has had this collar for so long, and many girls have spent the night in this same bed, but you’re the first one to interest him enough to make him want to use it.

Maybe this wasn’t a bad idea after all.

! please do not repost, copy or translate my works

! please keep in mind english is not my first language. i apologise for any mistakes i’ve might missed

[wantonlywindswept]

adopted baby Guard Din idea that I am never going to write

because it would involve logistics and quiet moments and idle life which I am very down for reading but cannot for the LIFE of me actually sit down and write

So the war ends, Palps is outed as a Sith and an asshole and dies somehow, and the Senate eventually decides that the clones do count as people and thus are allowed to leave the GAR if they want. Give the bureaucrats another few years and they might even give out backpay and citizenship, so long as you stay in the service--wait what do you mean the entire Guard is resigning. What do you mean they've already left orbit?? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE ARE NOW MILLIONS OF FILES ON THE HOLONET ABOUT THE SENATE'S SHADY DEALINGS???

Guard, collectively: lol cya suckers

Fox is of course one of the last ones out, and since this was all planned on the down low, everyone's been split into groups so they can take commercial flights, since they're not about to be accused of stealing ships. (They also leave their weapons and their armor behind, in a giant macabre pile in the middle of Corrie HQ. Even their helmets, their faces, they discard: it's time for a rebirth.)

He and Thorn and a few other Corries have a stopover on some tiny station, waiting a week for a delayed transport to arrive, and in the meantime they're approached by some locals who just fled the planet below. Separatist remnants attacked their homes, forcing them to leave everything and everyone behind; can the big strong clones do anything about it?

The Big Strong Clones: Oh shit we finally get to kick some Seppie ass? Sign us the FUCK up.

The eager group does not include Fox, who could not care less about the Separatists and would very much like to finally catch up on his sleep. Unfortunately that means that the group that goes down to the planet is Unsupervised.

(Thorn does not count as supervision. Thorn, bereft of Senate oversight, has finally allowed his Inner Chaos Gremlin to fully emerge. Thorn needs more supervision than the shinies.)

Thorn, three days later, waking Fox from half-hearted sleep by dropping an entire natborn child on him: Hey boss, look what we found! None of the refugees claimed him, so we called dibs. Can we keep him? Fox, staring at the child: ...

Din, staring back: ...

Fox: ...no..?

Din: *sad but understanding big brown eyes*

Fox: Nevermind this is my child now.

Din has gone from two parents to one parent and hundreds of overprotective brothers.

Eventually his group makes it to their destination, Din in tow. I am uncertain of what the destination is but it is a planet that is as far away from Coruscant that the Corries could find. I am tempted for Tatooine not because I like Tatooine (I share Anakin's loathing of sand and deserts) but because Luke's description of Tatooine in ANH was 'if there's a bright center to the universe, this is the planet the furthest from'. 

Corries, hearing that: Fuck it sounds perfect. 

Anyway they make it to Tatooine, there is probably purchasing of some shitty land/buildings that nobody wants out in the wastes bc crime, scum, villainy, etc, but it's not like they have problems taking care of anything that tries to mess with them. 

Where did they get the funds?

Shh don't ask about it.

Stone takes up moisture farming. Thire takes up farming-farming. Thorn shoots gleefully at anything that shows up unannounced within a ten-mile radius. Literally everybody dotes on Din. There are a surprising amount of peaceful days.

Eventually some dumb shiny goes: Hey don't kids need friends? Shouldn't we set up some playdates for him or something?

The shiny is not called dumb for asking the question, but they are called dumb for thinking that the question would only ever be taken rhetorically. Fox disappears for two weeks and then comes back with a black eye and a yowling hissing Boba tucked under one arm, looking stupidly pleased with himself.

(Boba is also pleased to be back with people he knows will keep him safe. Boba will not admit to this under threat of death or dismemberment. Boba is a SERIOUS SCARY ADULT BOUNTY HUNTER.)

Boba also decides he will be Mortal Enemies with Din, which after about ten minutes of meeting him morphs into If Anyone Hurts Din I Will Kill Everyone In This Room And Then Myself because all clones be the same, really.

Din has gained another brother/bestie. (Or potential future boyfriend, whichever floats your boat.)

Somehow they still end up overthrowing the Hutts.

Officially the GAR knew and knows nothing about the Guard leaving Coruscant as soon as the metaphorical paint was dry on their sentient status.

Unofficially Fox's batch harangues him every single day for photos of his new kid(s). They eventually show up unannounced, demanding time with their nephew. (They are shot at by Thorn.)

Din gains five new uncles.

The batch proudly show pics and holos to their battalions. Din gains millions of new uncles.

Fox finally gets a full night's sleep.

[i-love-your-light]

too many thoughts on the new hbomberguy video not to put them anywhere so:

with every app trying to turn into the clock app these days by feeding you endless short form content, *how many* pieces of misinformation does the average person consume day to day?? thinking a lot about how tons of people on social media go largely unquestioned about the information they provide just because they speak confidently into the camera. if you're scrolling through hundreds of pieces of content a day, how many are you realistically going to have the time and will to check? i think there's an unfortunate subconscious bias in liberal and leftist spaces that misinformation is something that is done only by the right, but it's a bipartisan issue babey. everybody's got their own agendas, even if they're on "your side". *insert you are not immune to propaganda garfield meme*

and speaking of fact checking, can't help but think about how much the current state of search engines Sucks So Bad right now. not that this excuses ANY of the misinformation at all, but i think it provides further context as to why these things become so prevalent in creators who become quick-turnaround-content-farms and cut corners when it comes to researching. when i was in high school and learning how to research and cite sources, google was a whole different landscape that was relatively easy to navigate. nowadays a search might give you an ad, a fake news article, somebody's random blog, a quora question, and another ad before actually giving you a relevant verifiable source. i was googling a question about 1920s technology the other day (for a fanfiction im writing lmao) and the VERY FIRST RESULT google gave me was some random fifth grader's school assignment on the topic???? like?????? WHAT????? it just makes it even harder for people to fact-check misinformation too.

going off the point of cutting corners when it comes to creating content, i can't help but think about capitalism's looming influence over all of this too. again, not as an excuse at all but just as further environmental context (because i really believe the takeaway shouldn't be "wow look how bad this one individual guy is" but rather "wow this is one specific example of a much larger systemic issue that is more pervasive than we realize"). a natural consequence of the inhumanity of capitalism is that people feel as if they have to step on or over eachother to get to 'the top'. if everybody is on this individualistic american dream race to success, everyone else around you just looks like collateral. of course then you're going to take shortcuts, and you're going to swindle labor and intellectual property from others, because your primary motivation is accruing capital (financial or social) over ethics or actual labor.

i've been thinking about this in relation to AI as well, and the notion that some people want to Be Artists without Doing Art. they want to Have Done Art but not labor through the process. to present something shiny to the world and benefit off of it. they don't want to go through the actual process of creating, they just want a product. Easy money. Winning the game of capitalism.

i can't even fully fault this mentality- as someone who has been struggling making barely minimum wage from art in one of the most expensive cities in america for the past two years, i can't say that i haven't been tempted on really difficult occasions to act in ways that would be morally bad but would give me a reprieve from the constant stress cycle of "how am i going to pay for my own survival for another month". the difference is i don't give in to those impulses.

tl;dr i hope that people realize that instead of this just being a time to dogpile on one guy (or a few people), that it's actually about a larger systemic problem, and the perfect breeding grounds society has created for this kind of behavior to largely go unchecked!!!

[blackphanto]

Trying to overanalyze Lucifer's design

The Hazbin Hotel season 1 finale was fucking insane. I loved everything and especially Lucifer, whom I am dedicating this post to.

Let's begin with his "normal" form

Lucifer wears a ringleader costume bc Hell is one giant circus and he's the ringleader, but did you know that there's actually more to it?

A ringmaster, -mistress or -leader is like the opening act of a circus. They show you around, introduce the other acts and keep you hooked. They are essentially the glue that keeps the circus together. Another definition of a ringmaster, -mistress or -leader talks about an actual leader who leads a group of people, mostly through the act of doing illicit or unlawful activities. A role that would suit Lilith better than Lucifer. Sins could be seen as unlawful activities in Heaven's eyes and Lucifer is the cause of how evil found its way to earth, one could say that he was the one to lead the sinners in their sinful behavior in life. Yet, in death - if we go by Charlie's storybook - Lilith was the one leading the sinners to rise up against Heaven, another illicit activity that has led to their eventual doom.

Luci also wears a top hat with his crown on top of it. The hat gives him some extra height so I doubt that he wears it for any other reason. His crown is mostly covered with a snake and a red apple on the side. The snake can have 2 meanings: 1) how the word 'seraphim' in Hebrew can be translated to 'fiery serpent', due to his six wings, Lucifer is likely a seraph. 2) he was the serpent that tempted Eve, although never confirmed in any religious text, this idea of him being that snake is really popular in every reiteration of that story. This would also be why there's an apple motive following the Morningstars. Now let's move on to...

Angelic/demonic form

I don't think what we are seeing here is his full angelic/demonic form, but considering that the other Princes' forms aren't as scary either it is likely the case. The first thing that caught my attention were the horns and overall resemblance this form has to Charlie's, but let's focus on the differences.

In the first image, the snake and apple have turned into some sort of halo, a nod that his actual halo has disappeared when he fell and unlike Vaggie his wings probably didn't get ripped off, but I do believe they were different to how they were when he was behind the Pearly Gates. He has a tail and horns, classic demon imagery, there are 6 eyes at the end of his coat and there's one more on his bowtie, which makes a total of 8 eyes on Lucifer's design. The eyes are a common returning motive in Heaven and with angels.Luci also has a flame in-between his horns. This honestly reminded me of Baphomet, but they would likely be a Candle head from the Sloth ring. In the Bible, fire is often depicted as the presence of God, but I'm a firm believer that Hazbin has a deistic God view (see my other post), so I doubt that's the case here. The fire was likely chosen because Hell is associated with fire and he's the king of Hell so they thought it would make sense.

Like father, like daughter

As stated before, Lucifer and Charlie share a lot of similar elements. She's essentially him without wings and with longer hair. They both have a red sclera with a yellow iris. Their tail is pitch black with a heart cut out at the end and despite having white skin, Lucifer's arms are greyish. I always thought they were gloves, but no, man's face doesn't match his hands. I really like this shot of them right here, they look so badass!

Charlie also seems to be getting a new ability which has to do with her arm getting bigger and blocking Adam. This might be a callback to whatever was going on with her arm in her first design.

That was it thanks for reading <3

[teenandbeyond]

Hello! I was wondering if you would want to write for Beerus? I was thinking what a courtship would be like between him and a goddess of creation? :) hopefully you're doing well during the midst of everything that's going on in the real world! Best of wishes! -A

Beerus x Goddess of Creation. Reader

I like the alternative idea. Despite this, I plan to make the personality different! Edit: I'm doing okay, just busy with schoolwork. Best wishes to you, too! I hope everyone who reads this is doing well too, or if not, this can cheer you up a little!

Want more from me? Masterlist

☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆

🥢Création et Destruction🥢 (DBS or Dragon ball Super)

Warning(s): Fluff

Although destruction and creation contradict each other in meaning, one can not exist without the other...They must coexist to truly make the universe hold the beauty it possesses.

✨✨✨✨✨

You and Beerus are total opposites.

He destroys.

You create.

He is much more relaxed.

While your shoulders are stiff with responsibility and proper etiquette.

When you met, you hadn't expected him to flirt with you on the spot.

"Huh. My first time meeting the Goddess of Creation, can't believe I've been missing out on such a cute Goddess."

"I—That-that's very unprofessional..."

You didn't understand him. You were taught to always be polite and respectful, to always hold your tongue, to always be professional, and to hold your temper.

He hardly did any of those things.

And he could really test your temper.

He easily broke that elegant, put-together wall you had up.

And he enjoyed every minute of it.

"Why are you taking a nap when you have responsibilities?! That's so improper!...Ahem-"

And with time, he broke you down completely.

Noticing you were always tired and stiff and showing you what's it like to relax.

"Just because we have responsibilities doesn't mean we can't relax once in a while. We have to do this for millenniums, might as well catch a few Z's in between."

He is very protective over you when you do relent and catch a nap, he'd be very tempted to destroy the planet of whoever interrupts you.

And he learned you hadn't really explored planets and introduced you to Earth and its cuisine.

Which really excited you.

"Cute..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

He liked that your presence wasn't rough as his, the feeling of powerful serenity you gave off was attractive to him. You were polite and fluid in movement, yet your power and knowledge were undeniable.

He wanted you.

So he courted you.

And you saw another side of him.

"Flowers?"

"Bulma gave me an earful and said something about them..."

"Let me guess, you weren't really listening?"

"Well...I want to get this right, so, I tried to remember everything I could. She mentioned something called a 'date' that I'm supposed to take you on..."

He was soft and wasn't afraid to show it...to you...

He noticed your hair was always getting in your face, so he got you fancy hair clips to hold the stray hairs away.

When your shoulders got stiff from playing your role, he learned how you give you massages to make you feel better, but not without cracking jokes the whole time.

He attempted to learn how to cook for you...

Well, actually, he wasn't terrible at that. The dishes he could make were just limited.

You liked watching the process, his frustration was adorable.

Cooking for you? Telling you 'good morning' and 'good night'?

He was whipped.

Undoubtedly.

He even lets you pet him, which you'll do if he gets a little riled up.

You save his dignity and refrain from doing it in public (if it's not necessary) since he purrs a deep rumble.

You do things together, like cooking and of course your roles as Gods.

But Beerus's favorite activity to do with you is definitely napping...or maybe eating...both? That's a hard choice for him to make.

You were really good for each other.

He destroyed your walls and the false personality you upheld.

You created a warmth in his heart that he cherished.

People wondered how you worked out so well, you were opposites.

But being opposites brought you together.

So what if he destroys and you create?

Destruction and creation coexisting can make something truly beautiful

And you two love every minute of it

[aficionadoenthusiast]

(kind of a continuation of this post but this is the most notes one of my pjo posts has gotten without garnering some kind of discourse and i dont really wanna touch it but i need to say this)

thinking about annabeth, the toddler daughter of a phd student whose dad already barely has time for her to the point that she is pretty much responsible for herself

annabeth, five years old, watching from the sidelines as her dad married someone she sees as a monster, moving onto things bigger and better than her, replacing her with people and kids who get more attention from him individually than she ever got in their five years alone

annabeth, seven, deciding it's time for her to move on because she's not getting any more love out of that relationship than she's already squeezed out

annabeth sometime around here learning that it's not that her mother doesn't care about her, she just has more important things to do

annabeth, barely any older, contending with thalia's death, a girl who was both a friend and a caretaker for a brief but incredibly formative time

annabeth, again, barely older, watching luke get a quest and leave her behind, hoping and praying he makes it back home to her, and then when he does, realizing he didn't come back quite right and that now even he's moving on from her, once again leaving her for bigger and better things that he keeps saying she's too young to undestand

annabeth, ten, learning about the prophecy and being told she's gonna be a part of it and starting to form an idea of how one day she's gonna find her More Important Thing if she just works hard enough, because isn't that what happens to everyone?

annabeth, 12, meeting percy and actually demanding to be a part of his quest because even though he'll probably be dead by 16, she'll be damned if she lets her chance at the More Important Thing slip away and be left behind again, so she fights like hell for her dreams and her place in the world

12, and knowing she wasn't enough to keep luke from leaving

annabeth, 13, and having to rescue grover from his More Important Thing and then watching him continue on his More Important Thing

13 still and being tempted by the hunters because if it hasn't happened, maybe the mortal world won't give her her More Important Thing

(then getting kidnapped and forced to hold the sky, no idea if anyone is coming for her, scared that everyone is too busy with their More Important Things, and finding out percy never once thought of not going after her, and beginning to realize he doesn't have his More Important Thing yet either)

14, still raw from thalia joining the hunters, and watching percy with rachel, seeing him blast himself to ogygia, and being terrified he's going to realize his More Important Thing is another girl or saving the world or something equally as more important than annabeth

15, and still scared, except now his birthday is coming up, and he might just die before she can ever get her feelings out, and then why bother?

16 and watching him reject immortality for her to help the demigods, and knowing deep in her bones that there is no More Important Thing because that's just not who he is

16, and knowing for the first time in her life that she can trust another person with her heart

16, and being somebody else's More Important Thing, and maybe letting percy be hers too

that is all

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Forget-Me-Not 5

Warnings: non/dubcon, and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

Characters: Loki

Summary: You return to your childhood home to put the past to rest.

Part of the Backwoods AU

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging.

You walk out of the bank, tempted to have your lunch at The Horn. You're certain they'd serve it up nice and foamy in a pint. Never the matter, you were never a drinker. Sins of the mother and all that.

You get into the front seat and sit for a minute, contemplating what to do. If you leave the land as it is, burn that shitheap down, drive off into the sunset, well, who will care about what some dead crone owed the bank? That's not how it works. You might think little of shared blood but a name is a name to the powers that be.

You shove your key in the ignition and turn. Your engine cranks and sputters but doesn't roll over. You frown. You just had it serviced before you drove out here. Oils filled, everything was tiptop, so the mechanic said. No lights, no dinging. You try again, twisting harder, but it doesn't catch. You let go as the car quiets.

A slap on the roof makes you jump and you look out the window at the figure right outside. Thor Odinson bends, grinning at you through the glass as he gives a wink. You don't believe in coincidences, especially not in Hammer Ford. You ignore him and give it another go; third time is the charm.

Nothing. Just a puff of exhaust and rattle. Fuck!

"Ah, don't worry, sweetheart," Thor raises his voice so you can hear him through the glass, "I'll take you 'round Vol's--"

"Fuck off," you hit the switch, ensuring the locks are down.

He laughs, "you know, I don't think I ever heard you speak before."

You shake your head and scowl, peering around. Several people watch but quickly put their heads down and continue on their way. Just like it always was. Fucking cowards.

"I see why he likes you--"

"Piss off!" You flip two fingers up in his direction, "now!"

"What? I'm tryna help you out. Sounds like your transmission," he taunts, "or maybe... you got some gravel in the gas tank. Shit, you know, that'll ruin your lines--"

"God! Would you just leave me alone?" You roar as you hit the steering wheel, "you and your fucking family."

"My mother gave me this cheque..." he reaches in his pocket and unfolds a slip, "has your name on it... and would you look at that? She left the amount blank."

You ignore him and grit your teeth. They think you're that girl who could be sold for a sixer and a couple bills. They don't know anything. They don't know you.

You reach over to the glove box and pop it open. You reach inside and take out the bottle of glass cleaner you keep there. You flip the lock up and he steps back, a victorious hum as you open the door just a hair. You aim the nozzle up and spritz him in the eyes.

"Is that clear enough for you!?" You snap the door shut again and thump the lock down with your fist.

He cries out and wipes his eyes furiously. You sneer as you watch him growl and his. He pulls his shirt up to mop at his face and finally stands, blinking furiously. He sends his fist into the glass, shattering it as you yipe. You shield yourself, reading for the next one, but he merely stumbles away.

"You've done it now," he snarls, "just you fucking wait."

"I will be," you holler, "just you come around and see."

He staggers away, groaning as he continues to fuss with his eyes. You watch him in the rearview before you lean back and stare at the lifeless meters in the dashboard. Rest in peace, mom, you left me a whole lot of shit, didn't you?

🏚

You grab the tire iron and leave your car behind. You have no other choice but to make the long trek back to your mother's shack. You get a few looks from passerbys on the main strip, their eyes lingering on the heavy tool in your hand. You're not stupid or weak like them. You're ready to fight back.

You keep your eyes set ahead of you as you crest the first hill. You always hated how this village only ever seemed to be up. You weave around the country roads and turn off into the trees as the sun dips below the treelines. You're tired and sore but not done. You still have a ways to go.

As you come through the canopy that opens to your mother's house, you feel the coolness in the air tingling in your fingers. The chill in your spine is from more than the late cast of a spring afternoon. You grip the iron tight as you stare up at the open door.

You swing around at the kick of a pebble. The iron meets only air as you twirl all the way around. No one's there. You back up, searching the trees. No, someone is there.

A snicker rolls up through the forest. It's him. He's watching you. You won't back down, not this time. You squint into the shadows. Where is that snake?

"Oh my, are we scared?" Loki's hiss crawls up your spine.

You spin again to find another void.

"Don't you remember our game..." he taunts. "Perhaps this time, you might win..."

"Go away!"

"Ten..." He calls out, "nine..."

Your heart races as your eyes tinge. You remember that girl, lost in the trees, listening to him count down, to his pursuit rustling through the leaves behind her. You feel the crash of the ground against your chest and the river water flooding into your mouth. You can't breath as you're trapped beneath another, rutting and ramming, snarling as he snickers in your ear.

"three..." you come back to the present, "two..." you whip around, "one!" You spin the iron and jab it backwards around your side.

He grunts and staggers back as you stumble forward away from his grasp. Loki falters as he grasps his stomach, a clot of red blooming on the inside.

"Shit..." he spreads the fabric, showing the gash. Not deep enough. You hold the iron tighter and raise it again. He chuckles and shakes his head as he looks up at you, "oh darling, you should know by now..." he smirks, "I don't play fair."

Suddenly, you're taken off your feet from behind, a thick arm around your neck and another around your middle. You thrash with tire iron only to be thrown away from the body behind you, hitting a tree so hard you're left breathless. You drop the iron as Loki moves to sweep your feet from under you and Thor brings his foot down onto your chest. You cough as you stare up at the brothers.

Everything stays the same in Hammer Ford.

[screams-in-writing]

*launches Mr. Puzzles into the air then choke slams him into the ground*

One shot below, if you just want to read it here. Be advised, it’s near 10k now:

Summary:

A tattered, beaten-up Mr. Puzzles plush comes into your possession; it makes you wonder when you’ll get to see the real one again.

Tags from ao3:

- The day started off normally enough. 

There was the usual struggle upon waking to blink the bleariness out of your eyes. 

Finding clothing in the dark made extra difficult because you forgot that there’s a light switch in your room. Or, you know, actual sunlight, if you’d thought to open up the curtains. 

Rummaging around the kitchen for breakfast while continuing to struggle to wake and see through continued blurry eyes.

Taking so long with breakfast and finding clothing beforehand making you end up jogging to work with said breakfast down the sidewalk. The later unfortunate recollection that you’d left your lunch at home. 

A typical day, really.

But what wasn’t typical was being stopped by a coworker at the end of your shift to be given the saddest, most beaten-up pathetic excuse of a plush.

-

A coworker called out your name, causing you to turn back to see what was up.

”Here you go.” Your coworker said without preamble, thrusting a plushie out for you to presumably take. 

It was one of those long-limbed Mr. Puzzles plush.

“I found this in the dumpster behind the cafe while taking out the trash.” Your coworker was staring somewhere near your shoulder as she continued to speak in a hushed tone. “I felt like I was being watched, but no one was there. Still, I didn’t want to tempt fate, so I took the plush out, left the garbage bag, and decided I’d give the plush to you.” With a quick moment of eye contact, then away, she added. “Mr. Puzzles liked you, right? So he  probably wouldn’t take it as badly if he saw a plush of himself in such a terrible state if you had it. Instead of someone he thought might have vandalized the plush on purpose.”

Mr. Puzzles sure did seem to take offense to his likeness being destroyed or otherwise ridiculed.

“He hasn’t been to the cafe in years.” Your coworker said bluntly. She then paused, blinked, then awkwardly looked down when she caught a glimpse of the saddened expression on your face. “Sorry. I forgot he hasn’t visited and you...” Another pause. “I mean, I’m sure he’ll turn up again; everyone on the cafe and your podcast friends miss him too.” Another awkward pause as her own expression twisted into discomfort. “Sorry. We know you took him being gone out of the blue the hardest.” Off to the side. “Dammit, I’m shit at this.”

You accept the plush from your coworker as she abruptly thrusts it closer. Then, you watch your coworker randomly walk back into the cafe, but you don’t take it personally.

She tended to have trouble looking people in the eyes and spoke bluntly what she felt in the moment, but you always appreciated the honesty. 

Turning your attention to the plush in your hands with its ridiculous long limbs, you find that you do actually feel bad for this plush version of Mr. Puzzles. 

Your coworker had been correct; the real Mr. Puzzles hadn’t been around for some time. Years, in fact, since you haven’t even gotten to speak to him.

It wasn’t his fault or yours that the portal between your worlds had been destroyed. 

You hoped the smg’s would be willing to make another one, but there was no way for you to communicate with them, so all you could do was wait, and hope. 

…you missed Mr. Puzzles a lot. 

Smg4 and his friends too, but not as much as the tv headed man who’d begun to mean so much to you.

Stubbornly swiping a sleeve over your face, you head back home with the poor plush, planning to clean it free of any dirt. But you did have an aversion to putting it in the washing machine, or even in a laundry tub to do by hand, unless you didn’t submerge the plush’s head. 

This was because you remembered Mr. Puzzles couldn’t have his metal tv head submerged underwater. 

You knew this was a plush that you held, and that getting it wet wouldn’t do anything, but you couldn’t help but fall back into memories the longer you stared at the tattered Puzzles plush. You think you may even have another plush like this (one of many the man sneakily smuggled over to your world, and into this town, some of the people delighted by the silliness of his long-limbed plush).

As you got to cleaning, you take in more details of the incredibly poor condition of the plush. 

Its left arm was missing from the elbow down, some wires poking out of the cotton inside. Incredible attention to detail, you thought, compared to the other plushies of the same type. You turned the plush over and back to scrutinize the chest area. 

Why did the tarted fabric show material beneath that looked like the color of the grayish skin Mr. Puzzles had?

It was kind of in poor taste, considering whoever had this plush decided to slash the plush’s chest and torso with what appeared to be a knife. 

It unnerved you to see what looked like traces of dried blood on the areas of the ‘wounds’ with cotton poking out of the cuts too. 

You hoped it was just ketchup. 

…there was a lot of cotton poking out of the poor plushie. 

The color came off with some extra scrubbing, and once you deemed the Mr. Puzzles plush clean, you decided that you couldn’t leave the body torn open like that.

It just so happened that you had thread that matched the plush’s oddly Puzzles’ skin tone colored body, and set about sewing. You were careful to not leave much of the stitching visible, using the ladder stitch you’d learned to use some time ago. 

Once that was complete, you finally allowed yourself to focus on the worst of the damage apart from half a missing arm. 

The face of the plush. 

Usually, it had a mad grin on it along with the eyes that Mr. Puzzles tended to get when he was visibly agitated or feeling a particularly strong emotion. Aka when he was trying to tamp those emotions down instead of flying into a rage. 

This plushies ‘screen’?

Completely gone.

The plastic was missing. 

The face itself was cut beneath the eyes, and it looked like someone had peeled the top half of the screen face up and off to the side, cotton practically bursting out from the seams no longer there. Beneath, the was a long cut that tore deeply across the technicolor smile. 

You used some spare fabric to wrap around the upper half of the plush’s head to prevent the stuffing from coming out further (why you did that, you weren’t sure, but it felt right to do in the moment. 

Tomorrow, you’d sew up the mouth, so it didn’t tug at with side of the plush’s head. 

It was going to take a lot to fix the poor thing, but you decided to do just that. 

As you set the Puzzles plush up on the fireplace mantle and propped it up against a box you put behind it, you kind of just…stared at it for a moment. 

Just seeing its condition made you sad. 

You inwardly agreed with your coworker from earlier. 

The real Mr. Puzzles wouldn’t appreciate the sight of a plush in his image so shabby and beaten to. 

…you missed him.

So, so much.

It had been so long since you’d last seen Mr. Puzzles. 

Giving your head a little shake, to not fall down those spiraling thoughts, you decided to let the plush dry overnight. Then, you could see what you could do to piece the rest of it back together. 

Seeing the poor state the plush was still on, you wanted to do your best. It was unnerving that it looked like someone had been torturing Mr. Puzzles via the plush.

~

I was unable to move. 

It was dark. 

A darkness stretching out before me with no light in sight. 

I couldn’t see; there was only a darkness that stretched out before me. 

A murkiness, with any speck of light denied to me.

I was alone, suspended in this dark isolation that seemed unending. 

Not even my own mind was like this, even if I was alone, because I at least had the light of the numerous televisions all around me. 

Here?

I had nothing.

It had been a long time since I’d seen anyone.

Heard anyone.

So long since I’d last held you in my arms that I almost feel as if I’d forgotten the sensation, with how trapped I currently was. 

The fear and terror paralyzed me as surely as my currently useless body outside of this darkness was.

There was no way for me to even know how long I’d been in this state. 

It was a shame that whenever I was released from this terrifying prison that I wouldn’t even be able to put it to use in a show. 

I couldn’t even say why I thought that, but I presumed it had to do with how I ended up in this predicament in the first place. 

Now, would this be considered horror, or a thriller, I wondered. 

It wasn’t like I was being haunted by some ghost or being hunted by a creature. 

Something had caused me to become like this.

Suspense, I guess.

Fear of the unknown when there was a sense of something not quite right, only to be unaware until it was too late.

It certainly felt more horror-esque, considering I was aware and yet unaware to do anything about my current situation. 

Hm.

I might be able to make something after all.

A freezing chill flowed over me.

Or not.

This was quite unpleasant, and if I could have screamed, I would have done so, regardless of the possible ridicule that may have come from Smg4 or the others, should they happen to be anywhere nearby. 

The cold slowly dissipated.

I felt a little better, for some reason I couldn’t place. 

Warmer. 

Almost safer.

Then it was gone.

As I settled into a listless state of unfeeling immobility. there was only one thing on my mind, apart from escaping this place.

I hoped you would forgive me for being away from you for what seemed like such a very long time.

~

Today was your day off, which had now become ‘fix the Mr. Puzzles plush’ day. 

You gathered the materials that you thought you might need, including another Puzzles plush to replace what the damaged one was missing.

It seemed a shame to ruin a perfectly good plushie, but for whatever reason, you wanted to fix the Puzzles plush you’d placed to dry overnight on the fireplace mantle. 

Maybe it was because your coworker had found it in the dumpster, indicating that someone had decided the plushie wasn’t worth keeping and had thrown it away? The thought didn’t sit well with you, perhaps considering how isolated you’d leaned Mr. Puzzles had been once you’d gotten to know him better. The way the man worried for the longest time he’d be rejected by you, even though you, too, were concerned about the same in return. 

The whole ‘this other person couldn’t possibly want me, could they?’

How wrong the both of you had been in that regard.

A pant of sadness, as you went about getting the supplies spread out while reaching for the plush to lie in on the kitchen table, musing where to begin with the poor plush.

The fabric wrapped around the head was hiding the worst of the damage, so you decided to start there.

First, you carefully used as similar colored thread you could find to sew the damage across the technicolor smile. 

Next, you unwrapped the fabric around the upper half of the plush’s head to begin to push the cotton back inside, and, using gray thread, began to sew the edges of the television screen between the fabric peeled away that held the eyes and the teeth. Then, folding the fabric with the eyes on it back down, you slowly began to sew that back together, until the face of the plush was restored. 

It wasn’t perfect, but no one would be able to tell that the face had all but been torn open with cotton spilling out.

Carefully, you took the plastic screen part off of the other Puzzles plush, and arduously began to attach it to the initially damaged Mr. Puzzles long limbed plushie. 

With the face of the plush restored, the screen you’d just put over it a near perfect way, you realized that the previous damage to the face was more difficult to see through the somewhat reflective surface. 

“There, that’s better, isn’t it?” Smiling at the plush, you look over its ‘clothes’ and the half missing arm. “It’ll be even better when I finish fixing you up a bit more.” Your smile fell as you stared a the plush you’d picked up, holding it under its arms. “I hope I’ll be able to see the real Mr. Puzzles in person sooner rather than later.” Your voice became a hushed whisper as you hugged the plush to you. “I miss him so much. There’s so much I’d like to say to him.” 

You prop the plushie up on the table against a box of sewing supplies, and grasped its right hand.

The plush hand was oddly limp.

“But maybe I can just talk to you, silly as that is.” You flopped the small plush hand in your hand in a wave. “That way, when I do see him again, it will be easier for me to say some things to him. What do you say?”

Naturally, the plush Mr. Puzzles said nothing.

~

There was a jarring of this cold, lifeless place. 

It felt like I was on fire, but wherever I was couldn’t possibly be a real fire. I felt I would have somehow been able to know, but then again, how could I know that?

I knew nothing but the darkness and the silence, wherever I was. 

All at once, I regained my sense of feeling in my body, but with that came a variety of horrors that hit me one by one. 

I couldn’t rightly parse through all of these sensations and the creeping fear while I continued to immobile and therefore, completely helpless. This was only slightly made better by the fact that the darkness was slowly leaving my vision, allowing me my sight once more. But what I saw, I could almost not comprehend, and while my sight may have been restored, I found myself unable to speak, no matter what I did.

My body hurt with a deep, painful ache, but that was something I could handle because a massive relief washed over me upon seeing you.

I wasn’t alone anymore. 

Somehow, someway, you’d found me, but there was no chance that you had any idea what you’d found.

As you spoke to me, I yearned to reach out to you. I wanted to wipe away your tears while you talked to me. I so desperately wanted to hold you in my arms, but I wasn’t able to as was now.

Trapped. 

I was trapped and unable to do anything about it. 

Only watch, as you spoke your hopes and sorrows to me about us reuniting, while you continued to sew up the tears within this body.

When I was back to normal, I was not going to trouble you with just how painful each stitch was, nor how much I wanted to scream and writhe in agony as you sewed the forearm and hand you’d taken from the other plush and attached it to mine.

I had no idea how that would translate when I was restored back to my usual handsome self with my beautiful metal head.

I wouldn’t hold it against you, however, since you had no idea what it was um you held in your hands as anything other than a plushie.

That was a worry for when there was a plan to help me change back, and for that, I needed to get you to realize it was me.

To figure out how to have you understand what you held in your hands; that it wasn’t just any old Mr. Puzzles plush.

It was me.

The real Mr. Puzzles.

And the longer you spoke to me while putting the finishing touches to the plush’s (my) body, I realized that you had no idea that I wasn’t in my home world.

I was here with you, in your’s.

But for how long?

Was I in danger, or did being in my current state mean that I would be fine?

While you made little fixes to my (stupid) plush body’s clothing, I was rather flattered that you’d decided to put together a little ensemble different than the usual long-limbed plush’s of the me’s I’d brought here to your world. 

In fact.…the outfit was beginning to look like my suit tailcoat I’d worn to a party with you, complete with little puzzle-pieces and stars adorning it that you’d likely found at a local craft store.

I loved the care you put into it, even if you thought I was merely a lifeless plushie.

In a way, I was, unable to speak or move.

As the day progressed, you eventually were satisfied with my restoration, and set me back up on the mantle of the fireplace.

I desperately attempted to get your attention, and the only way to do this was to play with the trick of light on the ‘screen’ of the plush. I figured out that I could subtly change the expressions beneath the plastic 

So many times, I almost caught your attention, but whenever you turned to look at me, you obviously saw nothing out of the ordinary.

I wanted to screen in both frustration and despair.

This wasn’t fair.

We were together again, yet I couldn’t speak, was unable to move. 

Useless. 

This plush body was useless!

Please.

Just let me get your attention, for one moment.

Please see me.

Even if you yourself couldn’t fix this situation I found myself in, at least you would have been able to know it was me.

I couldn’t stand this; the watching and the waiting. 

The only time your hands were on me was when my stupid body ended up sliding one way or another on the mantle of the fireplace.

When it happened for the third time, not of my own volition, I was certain you’d have grown weary of it, and put me somewhere out not sight. 

Instead, you picked me up, and brought me to your bedroom for the night to hug me.

I dearly wanted to embrace you in return, but all I could do in this state was just lie there, useless, as you used my plush body to comfort yourself by holding it close to your chest. At the very least, it was nice to be good for something, despite being unable to speak to you. I couldn’t even to let you know that I was there with you. 

It was infuriating, if enlightening, to be motionless, hearing both your heartbeat and your voice as you spoke to me. 

Had I been able, my screen would have been lit up bright with a heartbeat covered blush and averted eyes. 

It took longer than I would have liked for there to finally be an opportunity to get you to see that I was right there next to you until finally, I had one. 

It was just unfortunate that the way I was able to let you know who I was ended up being distressing for both of us.

To think that my plush body could take actual damage that caused it to bleed made me wonder if I’d taken more damage right before and after I’d he’d been in that darkness from before. 

I couldn’t recall how I even ended up this way, and now all I could think of was the very real deep aching pain from my neck.

~

You could not believe that there was just a random dog who just so happened to be near your home’s front porch that snuck the Puzzles plush away from you to use as a chew toy.

And just a week after you’d finished restoring it!

There were so many branches in the yard, so why couldn’t the pooch have gone after those?

You chased the dog around to your backyard, the silly thing thinking it was a great game while it shook its head now and again, which furiously shook the Puzzles plush as well. The play bows the dog gave you when you got close were cute, as wee the snorts of breath from past the dog’s muzzle closed over the plushie. And when you got too close, the dog danced out of range to solidify its actions with the ‘play’ part.

It took some time trying to catch the dog before it could dart away, and when you finally got a hold of the plush, you got the weird sensation again that you needed to be careful. You almost immediately let go, however, when the dog thought you were changing the game to tug of war.

But this got the dog to follow you around, and even waited outside on your front porch as you dashed in and back out with a treat in a last ditch attempt to get the animal to galley go.

You weren’t so sure why you were so frantic to get the Puzzles plush away from the dog, but here you were.

“Here boy.” You paused, tilting your head at the dog. “Or girl. C’mere good doggy. Look what I got for you.” You held up a dog bone and waved it; you’d grabbed from inside the house to bribe the dog to let go. One of your roommates’ friends had given some dog bones to all three of you, as a joke, since that friend knew none of you had a pet dog. But hey, it was working out to have those on hand now.

The dog’s ears perked up upon seeing the treat. With a big, wagging tail, the dog dropped the Mr. Puzzles plushie near your feet and sat, intent on the dog bone.

”Good job.” You praises the dog, waving the treat, then tossing it off the porch. With a furiously wagging tail and happy barks, the dog picked up the treat and darted off.

Distantly, there was someone yelling for the dog over the pet having the gall had to somehow jump the fence to run away.

Sighing and shaking your head, you stoop and pick the plush up. You look the plush over after feeling it damp in some places from the dog’s mouth. Your grip shifted and became more firm on the plush when you noted, in alarm, that it was not only saliva making the plushie wet. There was something trickling down the plush’s neck.

It looked like blood.

Unnervingly enough, it was warm and tacky like blood while it sluggishly slid down along the plush’s neck to its upper body.

That was not normal.

Your mind wasn’t exactly sure what to make of this, but there was something telling you to help.

Sooner rather than later.

You head back into the house and wrapped the long-limber Puzzles plush up in a blanket, as if this would somehow help whatever was going on. Washing your hands free of dog saliva and blood (?) you picked up the blanket with the Mr. Puzzles plush tucked within. After locking up the house, you hurried down the sidewalk.

It wasn’t a very busy time a day, so no one saw you booking it down the sidewalk with a panicked look on your face.

You didn’t exactly have a plan, apart from maybe finding something useful in the house Mr. Puzzles used at the edge of town when he visited your world.

Why?

You weren’t sure.

It wasn’t like you were exactly thinking very clearly right now.

In no time at all, you reached the house.

Standing in the front entryway, you fret about what to do.

Really, what were you thinking? This was a plush you were carrying.

Why would it be bleeding?

Was it from the dog instead?

You were about to leave the house, feeling self-conscious about the overreaction, when you recalled you’d not checked on the portal for months. The house you were in just so happened to be where the portal between worlds was located, safely in the basement, behind a password locked door.

Might as well take a look before you leave. It really was a shame it wasn’t working.

Sighing, you walk over to the door to the basement, and, entering an passcode, entered then closed the door behind you.

One safety check passed.

You closed the door behind, and walked down the stairs after flicking on the light. Holding the blanket close, you made your way down the staircase, mind drifting with each step.

What was it you were expecting to find, other than to confirm whether or not the portal was back up and running.

Hope to see other friends again? 

Sadness that the portal may not be there after all?

You paused at the base of the staircase, blowing out a slow, slow breath as you steeled yourself for disappointment.

Just look.

Might as well get it over, and who knows?

Maybe things will be different this time-

You sucked in a sharp breath, looking first with confusion, then with slowly dawning hope.

There was a telltale light beneath the door on the other side of the spacious basement. 

It couldn’t be…could it?

Holding the blanket with the Puzzles plush tighter to your chest, you cautiously stepped forward and reached out to carefully enter the code to the door. Taking another breath, then  letting it out slowly, you shove the door open and step through it, before leaning back into the heavier door in order to it shut behind you to be resealed.

As soon as you heard the sound indicating the door was secure, you turned.

And stared.

Uncomprehendingly at first until slowly, a smile made its way onto your face as excitement grew.

The portal was back.

It was working again!

It looked stable, the glowing swirl that looked like a galaxy of blue and white.

The portal looked exactly like it was the first time it had been created. And to prove that it was working, the computer on the desk was on.

When you appraised, you were able to see that there was a note that was left open a document.

‘Sorry that it took so long to fix and stabilize the portal. I hope you’ve been doing okay. It’s hard to tell how much time passes between the two worlds, but since they’re parallel to one another, the time ought to be similar. 

Is Mr. Puzzles there with you? No one has seen him for about three years over here.

Is he all right? Tari was wondering, since she mentioned something about seeing him enter the portal, but said she doesn’t remember seeing Puzzles coming back through before the connection went down. Even if he did go through, he does have tools over there to keep up on maintenance. Tell him that he still has to fix one of the sheds here in the showgrounds that he put together and then left everything in limbo.

Everything should be good to go with the portal though, so feel free to visit!’

You figured the message was from Smg4, even if he (and 3) merely tolerated Mr. Puzzles’ presence for your sake. As did many of their friends and acquaintances. Smg3 and 4 were both well well aware that it made you happy to be with Mr. Puzzles, and the tv headed man just so happened to behave himself, for the most part, while around you.

Wait.

You reread the document note, and frowned worriedly.

Mr. Puzzles wasn’t in his home world?

For years?

That seemed rather specific, considering you’d not seen Mr. Puzzles for three years as well.

You gaze drops to the blanket and the plush there. 

There was no way.

You turned the blanket bundle to get a better look at the Puzzles plush.

But…could it be…?

“Mr. Puzzles?” You asked incredulously, as you tentatively checked the plush’s neck again. When you pulled your hand back, you came  away with what was undoubtedly blood, tacky between your fingers. You gripped the blanket near the plush’s head as you leaned over it. “Is that…is that really you? How in the world did you end up like this? Have you been like this for three years? How…when did…?”

Questions later.

Right now, you didn’t think about the craziness that was the possibility of Mr. Puzzles being turned into a plushie. All you thought was to get him somewhere he could get some help. This also meant that you didn’t care about whether or not the portal would remain stable when you use it. 

“If this is really you, we’ll figure out how to get you back to normal, don’t you worry.” You told the plush. Holding the blanket to your chest, you start up the portal, and barely wait for it to form before you step into it.

Once on the other side of the portal, you’re actually met not only by Smg4, but 1, 2, and 3 as well.

Convenient, that.

You hoped that one of them knew what the hell happened to Mr. Puzzles because you sure as heck didn’t. 

None of the Smg’s were able to speak or even greet you as you practically thrust the blanket wrapped around the long limbed Mr. Puzzles plush (possibly the real one too?) and spoke hastily. 

“I thought this was just some random plush thet my coworker found in the dumpster, but a dog just recently had it in its mouth, shaking it around. And now it looks like the plush is bleeding around its neck like what happens to Mr. Puzzles when he spends too long in my world for too long. Can you help him?”

At least, you believe this is what was going on, as you couldn’t think of any other explanation as to why there was honest to goodness blood on the neck of a plush toy filled with cotton.

Thankfully, no one asked questions, because the moment all of them saw the fresh blood sluggishly trailing down from the plush’s neck, all four of them took you seriously that you were serious, that this was actually urgent and you very much were not a joke.

~

There was a wave of relief when I was finally back in my home world, but I wasn’t especially keen on being around Smg4 and the others like this. 

Helpless, and unable to move in this stupid long limbed plush body. 

There was still the fear that someone would want to take further revenge against me for what I did in the past.   Even if things were better than before, even if I’d made some amends with a few of Smg4’s friends, I knew there was a long way for me to go. 

And that not everyone would forgive me.

I could live with that, when I had others I was able to rely on, including you.

It didn’t mean that fear didn’t rise when I saw not only Smg4 and 3 approach me, but also the ones I leaned were called Smg1 and Smg2. 

And when my vision was lost again, I was scared.

What were they doing to me?

I…

I couldn’t do anything to stop them, but you were there too, and I trusted you. Trusted you to make what you believed to be the right decision to figure out how to get him out of this predicament.

But it didn’t change how scared I was that something might go wrong.

I was nervous, in that darkness I was suspended within, while I waited for whatever it was the Smg’s were going to do to me. 

The longer the darkness continued, the worse what could happen began to filter through my mind.

Would they trap me in this plush, so I would never be able to escape or do anything ever again, to never be able to speak to you or anytime else? Were they actually going to be able to help me return to normal?

Time seemed to stretch out in an agonizingly slow manner. 

My hearing went next, leaving only silence within that darkness. 

I held onto the knowledge that you were in the room with the others, and that you would yank my pathetic plush body away should anything happen to go wrong.

The pain soon began, interrupting the usual numbness I had been within. The aches and burning agony began to trickle in, then a fire of sensation rippled across me like lightning.

The sensations like he was being stretched out soon followed. 

It was uncomfortable.

After being unable to move for so long, I couldn’t even begin to fight back against such a sensation. As much as I wanted to, I felt too weak to resist the feeling that was returning to my body.  Despite how unbearable it was becoming, I would withstand whatever was currently happening to me.

I trusted you.

There wasn’t any way you would let them hurt me. Not after everything we’d gone through to get to where we were now.

All at once, my hearing suddenly snapped back into existence. The voices around me slowly become clearer, until I heard someone saying my name.

Sensation came back to me, as I realized I could suddenly feel my own body. My own non-plush body, feeling utterly exhausted and in pure agony like I had stayed for too long in your world. 

…I likely had, if my neck was bleeding as a plush.

Someone said my name again, a hand patting my metal head incessantly.

My…my head.

My television head!

At another thump that rattled my handsome metal head, then my screen flickered on when someone turned the dial on the side of my face. 

I let out a simulated gasp while convulsing on what appeared to be a flat cot or gurney. My left arm felt significantly lighter than my right. In fact, my entire body felt very heavy, especially what was left of his human body. I felt like I’d run a marathon, or had been beaten up and tossed down a tall staircase. 

Unfortunately, you sewing part of the plush arm onto mine did not save my left arm now that I was no longer in that plush form.

It was missing from the elbow down.

But my metal arms and legs could be fixed now that I was home. I was certain that I had extra pieces in the house at the edge of the showgrounds to make the necessary repairs. 

Once I was more lucid and less like I was just staring off into space, I was able to see just how I was able to return back to normal, and they I had, in fact, been taken somewhere else than the place the portal was.

E. Gadd had been a part of the help, along with the Smg’s.

I must have been out of it longer than I’d realized, because as I lie there on what was, in fact, a gurney, I found slowly growing dread within my chest.

Three years, I heard someone say.

Had I really been trapped in that plush for so long?

Struggling to make sense of my rather unnerving experience, I had trouble listening in to all of the voices speaking around me.

I’d been away from you for three years.

And yet, you’d still held out the hope of seeing me again, when you’d believed that I was just on the other sides of the portal.

So much lost time…

I absently tuned back into the voices speaking around me to avoid the unnerving way that my time as a plush had ruined my sense of time for so long. And as I listened to the explanation provided to me, the whole situation was made worse in my mind.

From the gist of it, I had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A simple mistake, that had caused so much grief and uncertainty for you, and suffering as well as mental torture for me.

From the sound of it, someone had been aiming for Luigi, who’d been working in his flower shop.

I just so happened to be browsing the selection that was being offered. I’d likely been considering getting you something for one reason or another before everything had gone dark.

King Boo was a name brought up as a likely culprit, or someone working for him, and that Luigi was more than likely the target and I’d just unfortunately gotten got caught in the crossfire.

But it was neither here nor there, since I was back to normal. It wasn’t like I could tell anyone how I’d ended up in your world, anyway; unless someone had thought it a particularly funny idea to send more of my marketable plushies to your world, and I’d just so happened to be tossed in with a box of them.

I’d likely never know.

I would just have to be more aware of my surroundings, out and about, until I could confirm it was an isolated incident.

For right now?

I was just relieved to be in my own body once again, and not trapped within that of a plush’s.

I hummed noncommittally when I heard Smg4 say that he and the others were going to give me some space to get myself back under my own control. I suppose I was rather stiff and felt far more weighty than I ought to have been.

Oh, I was not looking forward to performing maintenance in myself when my motor control properly returned to me. But it was nice to be able to have some privacy to relax and adjust to being able to move again under my own power when before, I was helpless and unable to move at all unless someone moved me.

But the quiet was a double edged sword, as the situation slowly sunk in and the silence reminded too much of what I’d just escaped from.

It was just as well that I was left alone for a time, as emotions began to overflow, right before I broke down, overwhelmed as well as immensely grateful that I was myself again.

~

You waited (impatiently, really, really impatiently) outside of the laboratory room like professor E. Gadd, Smg4 and the others had asked you to. It took quite some time before you saw anyone, which made you a little nervous for Mr. Puzzles wellbeing.

Would something go wrong?

Would the tv headed man be all right?

Would there be any lasting impacts for Mr. Puzzles by being trapped in the form of a plushie (or was the plush itself)?

Either option had its own horrors that came with it, but with both, you were very concerned about just how aware Mr. Puzzles had been in that state.

Did he remember the whole time, only bits and pieces of it, or would Puzzles just think he’d taken a very long nap?

You weren’t sure if he would tell you, considering he’d likely not want to think about it long-term. He’d kept silent on his past actions with the Smg4 crew for a long time, so this could be something that he either touched on at a much later time, or not at all.

Again, it likely depended on how much Mr. Puzzles remembered his stint as an immobile plush.

The time couldn’t pass quickly enough.

It seemed like hours had gone by before you were finally allowed into the room where Mr. Puzzles was.

You do think a lot of time had passed, but for you, in this world, it was much harder to tell the time without seeing the sun or the moon. And not to mention the physics and such were distorted here for you. One benefit seemed to be not needing to eat as often, while on the other hand you needed a very long, good nights’s sleep to feel refreshed. 

The moment you were offered an open doorway into the lab room, you went immediately with quick murmurs of thanks that you’d be sure to voice better later on. Right now, you were just happy to be able to see Mr. Puzzles. You sure hoped that being shaken around like a dog toy didn’t cause him any lasting harm, but since no one told you anything to be concerned for, you hoped he really was fine.

The man was ridiculously durable for someone with a television for a head.

There was always lingering concern that Mr. Puzzles might eventually take too much damage for him to easily recover from. 

As you entered the lab, and slowly closed the door behind you, the telltale sound of Mr. Puzzles having a breakdown could be clearly heard. You located Puzzles quickly due to this, and found that he was on a small gurney in the corner of the room. You could see that the man was on his side, partially scrunched up in order to make his tall, lanky frame smaller. Mr. Puzzles’ hand, the only one he currently had, was pressed to his screen, the tear-stained expression of misery visible beneath it.

He hadn’t noticed that you were in the room yet.

Slowly, you approached the gurney, thinking it had to have been uncomfortable for him to lie on it all scrunched up like that.

In the same moment, Puzzles almost immediately curled in on himself further.

“Mr. Puzzles?” You softly called out, coming to a halt alongside the gurney so he could see you. 

The man’s left arm twitched at the elbow joint, metal showing with wires sticking out. There were also small cables twisted around one another that allowed for motion, which twitched in your direction. The gloved hand over Puzzles’ screen parted fingers to peek at you between them with a sorrowful digital eye. It was quick to switch to a softer expression, the ‘tears’ remaining as the screen was slowly revealed. A tremulous technicolor smile with digital eyes gave off the impression of immense relief.

Seeing the way his hand dropped self-consciously to his neck with an averted off to the side look, you locate some fabric nearby and offer it to him. You waited for Mr. Puzzles to wrap the fabric one-handed around his wire neck. Seeing him struggle, then pause with a slow tilt of his head, you held out your hands in quiet offer. You allowed Puzzles to gratefully guide your hands to help him secure the fabric around his neck, to help support what remained of his cervical spine. 

No words were spoken.

Not even when Mr. Puzzles curled his right hand over yours once you tied the fabric off. His hand slid to twine fingers with yours to give your hand a light squeeze, as if in silent thanks. Once Puzzles let go of you, he didn’t even have to ask you to join him, when the man’s body language was all but screaming for you to come closer. So you carefully crawled onto the gurney, surprised that it held your weight as well as Mr. Puzzles.

It was a different world than yours with its own set of rules, so maybe it held because it was just assumed it would if someone was on it?

That didn’t really matter right now.

You sank into Mr. Puzzles’ side and wrapped an arm just beneath what was left of his left arm. Your grasp tightened as you realized that Puzzles was really back; that he was really here with you.

Mr. Puzzles slid his right arm out from under you to wrap you in a snug embrace in return. He’d uncurled himself enough to let you join him, but had almost instantly curved his tall frame around you. He also held you to his chest in a tight, desperate squeeze of someone who feared the one they held might vanish from right in from of them.

You understood the feeling well as you cling back just as tightly.

Another long silence passed, as the two of you just clung to one another. 

“Thank you, for taking such good care of me.” Mr. Puzzles was the first to speak, murmuring softly. His hand pet down along your spine a few times before settling between your shoulder blades. “I’m sorry that you were alone for so long, without me being able to visit you or to speak to you.” There was a short pause, then.  “Your roommates and your ‘podcast buddies’. Thwy kept you company?”

It was a big thing for Mr. Puzzles to ask that, and without any of the usual derision or scorn. The man had been initially jealous of the time you spent out of his company, up until the two of you had had a serious heart to heart talk about that behavior when it had begun to go too out of control.

“You were all alone too. I’m sorry that you weren’t found sooner.” You pressed your face into Mr. Puzzles’ chest, listening to the heartbeat beneath.  “Being stuck as a plushie had to have been terrifying for you. I’m so glad my coworker found you and passed you on to me. I don’t know what would have happened if you’d remained in that dumpster.”

“…I don’t care to know. The very idea I ended up in one is worrying enough.” Mr. Puzzles murmured overhead, as he absently nuzzled the top of your head with the bottom of his casing. 

“Could you hear me talking?” You asked after a moment of enjoying the careful nuzzles.

“I…yes, I could, once you’d restored the plush I was trapped as.” Mr. Puzzles said quietly, after a pointed pause. “It was nice to be able to hear your voice again, even if I couldn’t move or speak in return.”

“I hope you know that I meant everything I said to you.” You told him. “And I very much don’t want to let go of you anytime soon.”

“Oh, my dear, you’ll find that won’t be a problem at all.” Mr. Puzzles’ voice, while exhausted, was quick to take on a low, sultry tone while he leaned closer, and drew you closer, in order to whisper alongside your head. “You see, I do not plan on letting go of you anytime either.” 

Your breath nearly left you as the tv headed man clung determinedly to you, even going so far as to hook a leg over yours at the ankles.

“I missed holding you in my arms.” Mr. Puzzles murmured, pressing his metal head in a nuzzle lightly alongside your head. He paused, then, chuckling. “Well, one of my arms, anyway.” A happy static sigh as his fingers pressed down along your back. “I don’t want to let go of you.”

“Then don’t.” You grip the fabric beneath your fingers. “Keep holding me.”

“I won’t let go then.” Mr. Puzzles let out a slightly hysterical laugh. “I am holding you.” He stated, as if in disbelief. The tv headed man curled around you as much as he was able, in order to hold you as closely as possible to him. “I most certainly am holding you.”  The nuzzling resumed. “I won’t be letting go. You’re trapped here with me.” Mr. Puzzles lightly teased as he traced fingers along your spine.

“Even if 3 and 4 try to kick us out?” You asked dryly, comfortably sagging into Puzzles while you hugged him around the waist just as fiercely, lest he somehow vanish from your sight. “Even Professor E. Gadd, since it’s his lab?”

“Even then.” Mr. Puzzles agreed, languidly stretching the leg over your ankles before settling it back. Then, Puzzles tucked the lower edge of his metal head’s casing over yours. After placing a quick spark of a kiss from his screen to the top of your head he spoke a low growl of a promise. “I won’t be parted from you so easily.”

The two of you didn’t anticipate Mario barging into the lab, though it ought to have been a possibility, considering where Mr. Puzzles and you now were.

Mario came to a halt while watching the close snuggling that was currently occurring on the gurney.

You froze.

Mr. Puzzles let out a static crackling noise.

“That’s-a so nice.” Mario raised a phone, a hint of a smile visible under that mustache even from a distance. “How about Mario help you out?”

A snap of the phone’s camera had Mr. Puzzles lunge up off the gurney, while holding you, and made right for the Italian like he was holding terrible blackmail. Mario no-clipped out of the lab without preamble, leaving Mr. Puzzles to let out a growl of frustration as he got to his feet, and immediately gave chase.

The tv man was unsteady on his feet, but he didn’t let that prevent him from stalking after Mario, or from letting go of you.

Yup.

That was right.

Mr. Puzzles was still holding on to you, and was currently actually carrying you in the crook of one arm. This would make it difficult to catch Mario while Puzzles’ left arm was partially missing, but it seemed that the tv headed man was taking the ‘not letting go of you any time soon’ very seriously.

Mario ‘helping’ turned out to be leading Mr. Puzzles on a merry chase until all three of you reached the showgrounds, and the irateness the Mr. Puzzles held began to dissipate conveniently right near the house you and Puzzles used while spending time with one another in this world. Mario winked at you, and, with a glance at Mr. Puzzles, the plumber continued on his way, whistling his theme song as he went.

You didn’t comprehend for a moment about not having to run to keep pace with Puzzles.

But then it clicked.

Not only did Mr. Puzzles carry you this entire way, but from his screen’s expression, he was considering whether or not to continue to his pursuit of Mario. You were allowed to slide out of the crook of Mr. Puzzles right arm, where he’d held you propped in the crook of his arm and against his chest (with your arm loosely around his neck to hang on).

“Puzzles?” Turning, you witness the way Mr. Puzzles had straightened up, his screen reflecting his annoyed right now. But you gave him a quick once over, and you were now paying more attention to the way the man’s chest rose and fell with false breaths, the tv headed man’s mechanical supported heart working overtime with false lungs.

Oh.

And Mr. Puzzles’ dress shirt had three buttons undone and the whole vest was unbuttoned, which gave you a very nice view of grayed skin around the collarbones.

You’d not noticed the bow tie missing until now, which allowed the sight in the first place.

Ah.

Now you knew what Mario was insinuating.

Giving Mr. Puzzles more one on one time with you, so that he could recover in a quieter location he was more familiar with.

Thoughtful.

But you believed you could get Puzzles to calm down and relax a little more if you happened to tease him.

Just a little. 

Reaching out before Mr. Puzzles could make a decision on what to do, you grasped him by the open top of the dress shirt. This did quite a lot in securing a rather intense look from Mr. Puzzles. You gave a tug while taking a step in the direction of the house. 

Mr. Puzzles was startlingly quick to follow you, and even kicked the door in, as if unlocking it was going to take much too long. The man did put the door back, sort of, by propping it in place when you’d let go of him.

By the time you reached the bedroom, Mr. Puzzles was already in the doorway.

You ended up with Mr. Puzzles practically plastered agaisnt you, his arm wrapped around you the moment you’d torn the top blanket off the bed in case of dust.

Puzzles chuckled low in his chest over your head, then he fell backward onto the bed with you, catching his metal head on some pillows. 

Only to make hacking noises as dust entered one of his vents.

Oops.

You’d not thought about those.

But the coughing gave you enough time to discover another, non-dusty, big blanket in the closet. By the time you got back onto the bed, Mr. Puzzles had recovered, despite his screen showing a sniffling expression. But it quickly flashed to an eager, soft smile when you cuddled into him again, this time on your right side so that Mr. Puzzles could lie on his left to wrap his right arm snugly around you. The blanket was swiftly settled over the two of you before Puzzles placed several lingering, tingly electrical sparks of kisses along your throat and neck. He ended the perusal with a lighter static against your lips before Mr. Puzzles leaned his screen to press to your forehead to for a time.

“I love you, my dear.” Hushed, nearly inaudible, as a heartbeat line with a flush over it appeared on Mr. Puzzles’ screen, digital eyes with hearts in them, and technicolor smile lovey-dovey. “I missed you so much.”

A comfortable silenced then a shy stuttering when Mr. Puzzles realized what he’d just said. 

“Love you too.” You cling to the man to prevent him from scrambling out of bed and he defeatedly sagged into you. “Is that a bad thing?”

“Of course not!” Mr. Puzzles’ screen was awash with a deep red heart rate, eyes and a self-conscious smile. “Everyone loves me!”

“I think Smg4 would prove you wrong with a few of his friends.” You playfully swat one of his shoulders.  “C’mere.”

Mr. Puzzles indulgently shifted beneath the blanket to allow you to pet either side of his metal head. The uncertainty was still there, but he pressed into your touch regardless.

“What I said before? About meaning everything I said to you when I thought I was just talking to a plushie?” You trailed your fingers down along the sides of the television set, before going to rest near the antenna with one hand, fingers gently rubbing the metal there, which drew out a shiver.

“Y…yes?” Mr. Puzzles groaned softly in response as his metal head leaned to one side to encourage you to keep petting his antenna.

“That also means that even if you don’t say ‘I love you’ out loud, I can still see it in your actions when you’re around me.” You scoot closer across the sheets to reach for the other antenna and Mr. Puzzles all but dropped his head to your shoulder as his right arm tightened around your waist. “You gift me things, you spend time with me, you listen to me when I get going on an idea for my podcast. You stay with me if I’m feeling under the weather, and you’ve gotten so much better at giving me the space to hang out with my other friends.” You pet the antenna lightly, before slowly tracing back down over the vents to rest at the back of Puzzles’ neck. “You trust me to help you when you need it.”

Mr. Puzzles lazily leaned his body into yours to carefully topple you over onto your back as he pressed his tall lanky body around you again. He didn’t say anything but he didn’t need to.

The joyful noises beneath the static and the man’s renewed interest in bestowing you gentle zaps of kisses was enough to have gotten him into a loving, affectionate mood again.

But Mr. Puzzles was clearly overwhelmed from both turning back to normal from a plushie, his own words, and yours, uncharacteristically quiet but for the wordless vocalizations as he gripped you in a firm embrace under the blanket.

The two of you would stay like that for hours, enjoying one another’s company, until it would become your turn to be given kind words of all you did for Mr. Puzzles once he’d gathered himself together. Sadly, being wooed by your boyfriend’s suddenly low, playful voice as he detailed your actions and gestures toward him would have to wait.

Screaming had begun outside, and from the sound of it, Mario and possibly Smg3 had done something to the carnival rides in the showgrounds that made them run loose all over the place. And one such thing was a bumper car that miraculously (somehow) managed to get into the bedroom of the house.

That was one quick, sure fire way to end the mood.

You did, however, prop yourself up on your elbows and held your head up with your palms to watch as Mr. Puzzles failed miserably in his attempt to shoo the bumper car out of the house.

Not only that, the tv headed man was somehow kidnapped by said bumper car.

Mr. Puzzles pitched forward, head first, into it with a high pitched scream, his legs sticking up annd out. Speechless you watched the bumper car zoom out of the hole in the wall. 

When Smg4 checked on you to be sure you’d not gotten hurt, you were laughing while peering out the window of the living room. 

Your poor boyfriend was taken for an impromptu, unpleasant joyride around the showgrounds in a runaway bumper car.

Once Mr. Puzzles finally escaped (with help from Tari and Saiko) the tv headed man hobbled back to the house to sulk. He’d even half draped himself dramatically over your lap on the sofa (you’d remained in the living room) while you pat his back consolingly. 

This was more like it.

You had missed the crazy antics of Smg4 and his crew, but you’d also missed just spending time with Mr. Puzzles like this.

And now, with the portal back in place, and Mr. Puzzles no longer trapped as a long-limbed plush, the two of you would be able to make up for lost time.