#if you do be shouting vine references

[whatarethooseshuri]

… so yesterday my sibling blew me up and I think I’m a demon now.

that’s ok, as long as you don’t destroy the world:)

[littlejuicebox]

Camping for beginners.

Written to sort of kill two birds with one stone. @coyote-mint this isn't Astarion soothing a baby, but it is Astarion giving Tav a break as she goes on a little, well-deserved vacation! @davenswitcher I also worked your storybook prompt in! Hope you two both like it; thanks for prompts! Special thanks to @chickywickers for helping me name the twins. :)

Summary: Tav/You are out of town and Astarion is full-time daddy duty without the nanny. In an effort to keep three children entertained, he decides upon camping in the backyard.

Tags/Warnings: all fluff, parenthood, children, dadstarion, the mildest reference to sexual encounters, mildest reference to bg3 events and trauma

Word Count: 2.5K

*

Astarion is pitching a tent in the ground, cursing to himself every few moments as he goes about the task. Once upon a time, he’d had Tav or Karlach… or perhaps even an unenthusiastic Lae’zel or an overenthusiastic Wyll to assist him.

But now, it’s him and three little boys in the midsummer heat. Tav won’t be back until tomorrow morning, after a week away visiting Shadowheart and Lae’zel in the Dalelands. It’s a sunny Sunday, and Winifred, the nanny, has weekends off.

So it’s all up to papa for a day longer. He’s sweaty, tired, and pulling from deeply hidden reserves of patience he didn’t know he had until now.

Astarion thinks he has never missed his wife more in all their time together. One more day. He can do it, right?

“Gale, hold this for me,” The frustrated father directs, guiding his ever-obedient and sometimes now shockingly stoic six year old to one of the tent poles.

Gale nods and follows his father’s instructions as his little brothers scream and run around the orchard with toy swords, wreaking havoc as usual. The younger Ancunins are a tornado of scraped knees and sticky fingers at any given time. Their parents consider it a win if the twins make it an entire day without breaking something.

Evander and Finnick are naturally more wild and unruly than their older brother ever was. Astarion is painfully aware that the streak of disobedience in the duo comes entirely from him. The twins test his patience far more than Gale ever had, and in the absence of their mother, the two have become almost completely unhinged.

Tav is the twin wrangler; they are softer with her – but then, she’s always had a way with the more surly, roguish types. Her unique charm somehow soothes them into compliance. Astarion lacks the same skills and is, unfortunately, paying for it this weekend.

The younger boys are straying too far away for Astarion’s liking, and as he hammers a stake into the orchard’s fertile earth, he shouts at the twins, “Evan and Finn, you two had better get your little behinds back—“

He stops and sighs; the twins are too interested in their make-believe and paying absolutely no mind to their father and his chastisement. Astarion resumes his task and without even looking back up at his eldest asks, “Gale, will you please contain them for a moment until we finish this?”

A lazy wave of Gale’s hand, reminiscent of Astarion’s own flippant movements when he speaks, and vines spring from the earth. The tendrils wrap around Evander and Finnick, holding each of them by the torso. A second tendril springs to life from the soil and wraps around the brothers, pulling them into its embrace just as the first tendril recedes. This process continues in a domino effect until the twins are but a few feet from their father, struggling against the vines and expressing their displeasure with grunts and screams.

Astarion lifts his head from the stake and watches the scene in a mixture of amusement and amazement, and when the boys are sufficiently contained he turns to smile at his eldest, “You really are exceptionally talented, you know that, don’t you?”

Gale smiles and nods before he looks down at the ground, unable to meet his father’s proud gaze as he says, “I know, Papa.”

The eldest Ancunin boy struggled in school all last year. His fragile confidence took a huge tumble, which his parents were working to restore to the best of their ability. Gale always required softer hands in comparison to his brothers; Astarion was still learning how to navigate this difference.

“Let go!” The twins shout in unison, short limbs flailing against the vines gently containing their three year old bodies.

They look like mirror images of one another, down to the dark wavy hair parted in opposite directions and vitiligo patches splattered across opposing green eyes. Evander’s is on his left eye, Finnick’s is on his right. Together, they look like a Rorschach Test.

Astarion’s patience is gone; part of him considers leaving the duo trapped in the vines until Tav returns. He narrows his eyes at the youngest Ancunins, pointing accusingly at them with the hammer, “You two asked to camp outside, and after very insistent pleas, I agreed. So if you don’t want daddy to pack up this entire thing and take you both back into the house, you are to stand there. Quietly.”

Finnick, the younger of the twins by a few minutes, wrinkles his nose in displeasure at his father, “Mean, daddy.”

A slow, long exhale escapes Astarion as he stares at the surly three year old with furrowed brows.

“My child, you have no idea how mean I can be, now hush so that your brother and I can finish this,” Astarion instructs, and then returns to work pitching the tent, ignoring the frustrated whines and protests from the twins all the while.

*

Around the small campfire, the Ancunin boys roast marshmallows on sticks as Astarion reads a tale from one of their story books. Apple is, as almost always, curled up next to Gale. The eldest Ancunin boy sneaks the dog marshmallows and his father pretends not to notice.

If that’s the most rebellious Gale ever is, so be it. The twins are a different challenge, entirely.

The story is all about slaying dragons, knights in shining armor, damsels in distress… the usual. The topic is exceptionally boring to the father of three, given all he’s experienced, but he’s gotten used to pretending this ridiculous droll is highly entertaining and throwing his voice for his kids amusement. 

And, plus, if the twins are entertained, they aren’t causing mayhem, which is all Astarion can ask for tonight. Tav will be back in less than twelve hours, he reminds himself.

All hail his wife, Lady Ancunin, the Hero of Baldur’s Gate, and the hero of this household. 

This weekend has Astarion regretting any moment he might have taken her for granted or not shown enough appreciation for her.

While the father of three continues to read, a sudden rustling at the edge of the orchard catches everyone’s attention. The three-year-old twins instantly cling to one another in fear and Apple’s head snaps up to peer towards the possible threat.

“Werewolf!” Evander shouts.

“Vampire!” Finnick continues.

Gale giggles and shakes his head, “No… it’s a raccoon. I can hear her. She smells the food.” 

Astarion’s nose wrinkles in distaste as his silver-haired son takes his plate of leftovers and meanders toward the edge of the property, but he chooses to remain silent and let his son feed the vile creature. With Gale around, it’s a wonder they aren’t overrun with vermin and rodents galore. Though, the feral cat colony the little boy single-handedly created is likely keeping the other animal population at bay.

Gale places the plate down, whispers something to the raccoon, and returns back to the campfire, nestling his head into Apple’s side as he settles back into the dirt.

“Papa… there aren’t really vampires and werewolves out in the woods… right?” Gale questions, his eyebrows shooting up into his forehead in concern as he thinks.

��Perhaps not in the woods right here…” Astarion responds, trying to figure out how to be honest with his children without frightening them entirely, “But they do exist… I’ve killed a vampire before.” 

At this the two younger Ancunins gasp and Gale shoots back up to sitting, his green eyes widened in shock as he asks, “You’ve killed a vampire before?” 

Astarion chuckles. Sometimes he forgets how little his children truly know of his past. He shuts the storybook in his lap closed and nods, a small smile crossing his face, “I have. Your mother helped me. Would you three like to hear about it?”

“Yes!” The boys all shout in unison, all coming as close to their father as they possibly can.

“Very well,” Astarion agrees with a grin, and then he launches into the tale of fighting Cazador, mindful to keep everything as child-friendly as a gorey battle can possibly be and leaving his enslavement entirely out of the picture. The children will learn about that later, he thinks, but now is not the time.

The boys are wholly captivated by their father’s tale until the twins begin to drift off, slumped against one another. Gale is the only one still awake when his father finishes the story. There is a moment of quiet at the end as his eldest reflects upon all that was revealed to him.

“Were you scared, Papa?” He finally asks, his fingers threading into the curled fur on Apple’s back.

Astarion nods in response, “Of course, Gale. But… I think you cannot be brave if you don’t feel a bit scared, first.”

The eldest Ancunin boy sighs. He has feelings about this that he has not yet been able to put into words. Gale’s general kindness and gentleness is such a stark contrast to many of the kids at school; he’d gotten himself into more than one scuffle. He was perceived as an easy target, because he knew better than to use his powers on the other children. As a result, Gale often simply let the other children attack him, not ever wanting to hurt anyone, even if it was in his defense.

Astarion had, more than once this year, gone to the school and threatened to retract their donations if the issue was not resolved. One of the child’s parents had been hit with a lawsuit after Gale returned home with a black eye. But come the start of next term, there was a strong chance this behavior would continue.

He and Tav had both lost countless hours of sleep over this very topic.

“How do you know…” Gale starts, and then stops with another sigh, staring up at the stars as he tries to find his words, “How do you know when it’s time to fight back?”

There is a moment of silence as the older elf considers this question. How do you know?

“If someone doesn’t listen when you ask them to stop, that is how you know, Gale,” Astarion responds, finally, his hand coming to ruffle the curls upon his eldest’s head, “And if someone is hurting you or someone you care about, and they refuse to stop when you ask them the first time, that is all the permission you need. Your mother and I will always agree with you if you are protecting yourself or your brothers in defense, little prince.” 

The silver-haired six year old nods with a yawn, his fingers still curled in Apple’s fur.

“Now come on, let’s get you and your brothers inside the tent for the night,” Astarion directs, picking up one of the twins and holding the flap open for Gale. He gets the two boys settled before returning to retrieve the remaining one and calling for Apple to join all four Ancunins. 

The fire is left glowing its final embers as the men all drift off to sleep.

*

You find the tent in the orchard after returning to a house filled with only your regular employees. Winifred, the nanny, and Pascal, the steward, are both clueless as to where your children and husband are this morning. When you enter the backyard, a snuffed fire and Apple keeping guard outside the tent not more than ten feet from the manor signal you’ve found your family.

You crouch and open the tent flap, only to be greeted by an adorable image. Astarion is on his back, one twin clinging to each leg and Gale nestled into the crook of his arm. All four of the Ancunins are still sleeping, seemingly exhausted from the night before. 

“Good morning, my little loves,” You greet in a soft murmur.

Astarion is the first to open his eyes and smile at you as he sits up, expertly maneuvering himself around three sets of other limbs.

“Welcome back home, Tav. We missed you. I think that perhaps I missed you the most.” Astarion greets, leaning forward to press an affectionate kiss upon your cheek and grabbing your hand to give it a squeeze.

“No, me!” Evander protests through a yawn as he scrambles to wrap his arm around your arm.

“No, me!” Finnick echos, sitting up and pushing a cluster of curls from his face to grin at you.

“I think it was me, mama.” Gale calls softly, his head still resting upon the pillow, eyes still shut.

You chuckle in response to this ridiculous argument before standing and lifting the tent flap entirely, “I missed you all, too. Alright everyone, let’s get inside for breakfast. I’m making pancakes.” 

A clamor of excitement from the Ancunin boys fills the orchard as your children exit the tent and begin the short journey back toward the house. Apple is running after them, her tail wagging excitedly because she knows she will get whatever leftovers the boys cannot finish.

As the children disappear into the house, Astarion grabs your hand with a mischievous grin, insistently pulling you into the tent with him.

“My love, the boys–” You begin to protest, but your husband cuts you off with a kiss pressed against your lips as his nimble fingers quickly shut the tent behind you.

“It’s Monday, surely Winifred is already in, hm?” Astarion questions, his mouth already trailing kisses along your neck, “She can handle the trio for… oh, twenty minutes?”

You gasp as the elf’s fingers slowly trail under your dress and up your thighs to grip at the flesh around your hips. And then you turn to meet your husband’s face as he pulls you into a kiss. Being in the tent reminds you of old times out on the road, all those years ago, and you quickly fall under the Astarion’s spell, just as you had back then.

Your husband breaks away from the kiss and begins to pull your dress over your head. He grins and roams his eyes over your body when you’re left in nothing but your underclothes, “And… not that it’s a competition, little love. But I maintain I missed you the most.” 

He doesn’t leave room for response as he pounces upon you, eager to show you just how much he missed you this past week. 

Less than twenty minutes later, the twins are back outside the tent, screaming impatiently for pancakes as an apologetic Winifred calls after them from the porch. Astarion groans and is forced to throw his trousers back on with a whispered, “We’ll finish this later tonight, hm?”

And then he’s climbing out of the tent, corralling the two younger Ancunin’s back into the house and buying you a moment to throw your dress back on before exiting yourself. 

When you enter the kitchen, Astarion has thrown his crumpled shirt back on and is already starting the pancake batter among a chatter of excited storytelling from the boys. Winifred is forcing the twins to wash their hands as they speak about the raccoon they thought was a monster and Gale asks you to confirm the two of you really killed a vampire.

At this last part you shoot Astarion a questioning look and he shrugs while flashing you an apologetic smile. He looks like the twins when they’ve been caught breaking something. You know you’ll have to follow up later, but for now, all you want to do is focus on your little loves.

They all missed you, and you missed them just as much. Perhaps more.

But it’s not a competition.

[atsucry]

Beyond the Thorn Vines

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝐈𝐈𝐈

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝐈𝐈

Malleus Draconia x gn!reader

warnings: Incredibly boring. Actually this chap is jst like PURELY info dump so like if ch. 4 is out you can like siim over this and move on. COUGH COUGH this was made on a deadline.

content warning: none

3:12 pm, Royal Sword Academy. Dorm room

"Could you stop it with that?!" You reprimanded your friend, balling your fist and slamming it down on the bed by the side of your lap. As you read, Che'nya has been swishing his tail back and forth nonstop over the book and flipping the pages.

He laid floating above your canopy bed, enjoying the elevation over ground. And when he bent backwards to face you; it was an uncanny sight.

"You've been analysing that for a while now, don't tell me you have trouble with comprehending the material!" The cat snickered.

"Ya know…you could ask for my help," he suggested. "If you want!"

You slouched back into your pillow, holding the book open over your stomach. "Oh please, you'd word it as more complicated than it already is." You hadn’t noticed, but your eyebrow started slightly twitching.

Taking a double look at the page, you found that you still hadn't understood it, not one bit! It had messed with your head all morning, that or it was just Che'nya's interruptions.

The feline flipped over on his stomach and looked at you with owlish eyes, resting his head in folded arms. "Hm, Tomorrow's Magi-shift against NRC. You comin' to watch or are ya just gonna watch from the sidelines?"

"Ugh," you let your head drop to the side. "but the headaches…" You grumbled in displeasure. It was one of those headaches that would feel like knives that stabbed into your cranium. An awful one Indeed. You swear that one of these days you would pass out from the severity, though, hopefully not sooner or later.

"I'll get ya headphones if the whole stadium is too loud—!"

"It's not the noise!" You shouted in a whisper. Somehow you could never watch past anything near the championship round, so you never really saw who the winners were. Though you were certain that it was always RSA. NRC hasn't won against you all for 99 years.

Your friend grinned from ear to ear, a bemused noise left him and nodded his head from side to side akin to a bobble-head figure. "By-the-bye," he interrupted. "If you want to get rid of that 'awful headache' as you say…" Che'nya had always been the type of friend who you could never anticipate what action they might pull off next. But you could always tell If it leaned on more mischief or genuine goodwill.

"You should try seeking someone."

What he said was so stupidly blatant that it might've been a bigger, mind crushing headache than the ones you got occasionally.

"I've already tried that! I mean—of course I'd go to a doctor for migraines that won't go away. Who wouldn't—"

"That's not what I was referring to, silly," He chuckled, pressing his fingertips against his lips to…attempt to conceal the mockery. "But take it as ya will."

You raised your brow, He looked at you knowingly. His intentions weren't quite clear to you, but you could only hope for it to be rational, but what were you kidding?

"...Are you withholding information from me? Or what?"

"Aha! no no! not at all! I'm only suggesting, as any good friend does," He said with a dismissive hand wave, ascending down slowly at the foot of your bed to lay down, stretching his arms before flipping to face you.

"...You sure do love messing with me, don't you?" Your friend only responded in an amused shrug. "Well, I'll be off. Knowing you, this conversation won't go ANYWHERE till you turn over every rock. Buh-bye!" Che'nya's laugh resonated throughout him, trembling. He disappeared starting from his tail, his body followed. His legs were next and then his head—leaving behind a grin before it poofed away too. He frequently crashed at the Heartslabyul dorm to meet up with his childhood friends, his ability to turn invisible helped him stay low.

"Oh..that cat…" You wondered if Che'nya's teasing had a grain of truth to it—was there something more to what you were seeking, something you hadn't yet realised? The idea nagged at you, even as you tried to push it aside.

You managed to push yourself off the bed, tidying the sheets and led yourself to the front of your door, turning the knob to head for somewhere, anywhere. Though, no clear intention really presented itself to you. 'What to do with myself…I suppose a change of scenery could do me some good. For once. Not that I had anything else to do.' You thought to yourself.

After a few minutes well into aimlessly wandering, you stood at the threshold before walking inside, the mouth of the library engulfing you and its doors magically closing on their own—crashing in with a loud thud. The smell of old parchment welcomed you.

It seemed to only be you here. And the librarian.

You made a beeline for the literature section, the bookshelf was curtained in dust. Most thought of old things as borish, so it's to no one's wonder that it hadn't been touched.

You pulled out a book from the fourth shelf using a ladder, a book of turquoise leather binding and a golden spine. The cover had an engravement of a simple rose, peculiarly, its centre spiralled inwards and sometimes shone at you. You read the title: 'The whispers from no end, the collection.' It was a small thing. No bigger than your hands by 2 inches. The cover was still intact and wasn't actively rotting away in your hand…deducting that you were its first reader in ages. Atleast that's how you thought it worked.

Its charming cover attracted you, almost as if handing itself over to you. you slid down the ladder to make your way to one of the desks as you already began flipping through the pages.

You settled for a random page and began reading.

And when shadows swirled

around a solitary candlelight,

aware that it was seen

only by virtue of its glow.

At an opportunity to take leave

it scampered toward the exit,

yet with every step,

a cold breeze pushed it back.

In a moment of realisation,

it retreated into the depths

of the desolate manor,

unfurnished and shrouded in darkness.

You murmured the lines to yourself, jotting down notes for dissecting later. The notes didn't necessarily have to be done neatly, but just legible enough for you to understand.

From the right of you, you heard a sudden crack. Your eyelids burst open as you picked up the sound of glass shattering, but the windows in front of you seemed intact—The mystery of it confounded you.

Your eyes landed on the book you had just picked up, bringing it up close to your face once more to inspect it. It shone yet again in your eye, forcing you to jar your head and avoid the ray. At once, you picked up on a glass bead at the centre of the spiralled rose.

A crack ran along the delicate glass, atypically managing to break itself with no external force, that's what you thought, anyhow.

Your attention was engaged to the peculiar object, it almost lured you in. "...What could've possibly happened to you?" despite being something inanimate, you spoke to it as if you were referring to something that was animate. People would wonder why they'd always catch you doing this.

Your fingers ran along the fissure, untill it cut the tip of it. Pulling your hand back to your body, pinching the fingertip and swiping away the droplet of blood. Your blood seeped into the glass. Dropping the book and leaving it open.

It was that awful jabbing headache again. You've had almost enough of this tantalizing torture. But there was little to nothing you could do. "And if I had sought medical help, I'd have to down another useless pill."

Knowing that practically every item in here was laced with magic, you knew that you must have managed to involuntarily trigger something. And with such an anomalous appearing cover nonetheless.

"Agh…No, wait! Ack! I already have a curse on me—! I don't need another!"

With the senses that you had left, you managed to clasp the book shut with a loud slam—the pressure and force could've compressed the pages back into its former crisp and straight state. And by luck, your troubles were gone—and it only puzzled you even more so than answering anything.

Even the library seemed to hold its breath, anticipating another sudden outburst to happen. But nothing came after. And this became your telltale sign that it was time to leave.

Cautiously picking the book back up, you checked to see if it would come back alive, which it didn't—fortunately. You didn't bother to ask the librarian if you could borrow it—not wanting to show that you have…broken it.

By then, the hallways were painted in orange hues that reflected off of the pristine marble pillars and floors, your heels clicked against the tiles and echoed throughout. You eventually made it to the grand staircase that led up into the dorm rooms, though quite a hassle to walk up—since by every stop you'd have to catch your breath—it was gorgeous nonetheless.

You stumbled a bit on the way, but you ultimately made it back to your room safe and sound, removing your shoes— lugging the book onto your desk and crashing into your bed—Allowing yourself to melt into the sheets. Inward and outwardly exhausted.

"I can't exactly sit here and do nothing…can I…? Haha…" You chuckled to yourself. picking yourself up and sitting down at the edge of the bed, swinging one leg over the other. "'Go seek someone' He says! I've already gone to a doctor before, and if it did work, I wouldn't be complaining now!" You sighed into the palm of your hand.

“Every time I think I’m getting somewhere, it’s like I hit a wall. What am I even missing?”

“Well, at least the day's winding down,” you said, shifting uncomfortably on the bed. “Maybe a break will do me some good. It’s not like I’m making any progress here.” With a resigned sigh, you pushed the thoughts aside, resolved to get some rest. You lay back on your bed, letting the soft mattress calm you.

As you closed your eyes, the room fell silent, save for the faint echoes of your own thoughts drifting into the night.

Note: HEYEYEY srry for the lobg update i was dealinf with problems, my bad gng🙏 APOLOGIES FOR ANY WRITING ERRORS😊

[ellies-little-thing]

STAPP I COULD'VE DROP MY CROISSANT! (e.w.)

My masterlist <3

pairing: ellie williams x fem!reader

Warnings: Roommate Ellie ,Modern Ellie; swearing; fluf; arguing; Ellie is mean;  smut; reader is referred as she/her; reader has a vagina; drinking; violence (a punch or two) Kind of proofread, English is not my first language.

Author's notes: I love mean Ellie. I dont know if this is very good, i tried my very best and had fun with it. Enjoy! I hope you like it! Likes, reblogs, comments and feedback are always welcome! <3 (sorry, i have vines living in my head rent free)

NSFW MINORS AND MEN DNI

w/c: 23k

You are in your second year of university and your roommate, Ellie, is the worst roommate anyone could ever have, really. Whether it’s pestering you while studying, not doing the dishes, the TV being too loud or yelling at the people she’s playing video games with, at 3 AM.. it’s always SOMETHING. Tonight, just like always, she didn’t do the dishes and the TV volume was set too high to the point where you couldn’t concentrate on studying. You took the TV remote and muted the volume. You can't handle it anymore. She's been doing this for months and feels no remorse. You're tired of this and decide to do something about it and confront her.

“Hey! What was that for, you asshole?!” Ellie yelled, taking the remote back from you.

“I'm trying to study!” You say clearly annoyed.

"Then put some noise-canceling headphones on and stop stealing the TV. It’s a school night, remember?” Ellie rolled her eyes, putting the volume back up and pausing whatever you were watching. "Can't you go study in the library?" She asked, taking a snack out of the fridge.

“You put on the fucking headphones, and stop being so loud and annoying!” You shout at her.

"Nah, you go study somewhere else!" Ellie pointed towards the door, holding up a bag of snacks and opening it loudly. "Besides, I'm just gonna eat, it'll only be about 5 minutes." She takes out a tiny chocolate croissant and eats it.

“You're impossible...” You pinch the bridge of your nose.

"Nah, but you are with all your studying. I mean, we're in college! This is supposed to be the funnest time of our lives! When else are we going to get to stay up, eat junk food, and watch movies as much as we want?!" Ellie turned up the TV, which was the main cause of your annoyance with her.

“Yeah, we’re in college to get a degree that isn't exactly cheap!” You threw a pillow at her to lower the volume.

“Hey, stop! I could've droped my croissant!” Ellie ducked to avoid the pillow, picking it up and throwing it at you in retaliation.

“Oh, so you want to throw stuff! Fine!” You catch it and throw it at her hitting her square in the face. Ellie put the TV on full volume. “I can play this game better than you can! Can’t study now, can you?”

“I'll unplug it!” You threaten her.

"Try it." Ellie said, leaning back against the couch, eating her snacks, and waiting for you to try something. You get up and walk to the plug. Ellie’s eyes follow you as you walk over to it, but doesn’t say anything, just eating her snack. You unplug the TV. “You’re so lame.” Ellie says under her breath, finishing her snack. You unplugged it without saying one word and went back to your books. Ellie rolls her eyes and plugs the TV back up, pressing the on button and turning it up even louder than previously.

“Fuck you Ellie!” You say angrily.

"You know you love me." Ellie says smugly, laying back and stretching her arms over her head, eating her snacks, seemingly content now that the drama has started.

“If only you could be that lucky.” You respond, happy with your comeback.

“What was that?” Ellie turns her head towards you, taking the last bite of a chip before reaching for another bag and speaking with her mouth full. You take the remote from her and mute the tv. Ellie reaches for the remote, batting your hands away and unmuting it again. "You're being really rude, you know?" Ellie says in between bites from a few more chips.

“You are the one being unbearable!” You shout at her.

“Unbearable? Oh, you are SO adorable! I’m just trying to eat my snack and watch TV! It’s not my fault you’re the one here with the stick up your ass!” Ellie says, her tone and language being increasingly foul with each sentence.

“I swear Ellie, I'll punch you one of these days…” You are very seriously debating it.

“Oh, big scary Y/N is going to punch me because I’m too much fun to be around! Whatever shall I do!” Ellie sarcastically says, throwing her hands up in dramatic fashion before rolling her eyes. You take the remote muting the tv and putting it in your pocket before going back to studying. “Hey! Give that back!” Ellie says, quickly jumping up from the couch and trying to grab the remote in your pocket.

“No!” You yell.

"Give it back right now or else!" Ellie says, trying to dig her hand into your pocket to retrieve the remote.

“Or else what?” You look at her with a challenging look in your eyes.

“Or else you’re gonna have a fight on your hands!” Ellie says, her tone and demeanor shifting from playful and annoying to something more aggressive and serious. “So. Give. It. Back!” Ellie says, pushing her hand further into your pocket. You secure the remote so she isn't able to take it from you. “Hit me then.” You challenge her.

“Oh, I would love to!” Ellie says, stepping forward and slapping your face, though clearly not putting 100% effort into the slap, but still enough to sting. You were actually a little surprised she had the balls to slap you, so you slap back her as hard as you can, and bolt into your room still having the remote with you and lock the door. Ellie's head whips back from the impact of your slap, before her expression filled with rage. She runs up to your locked door, banging on it incessantly, yelling at you to give the remote back. You cry in silence so she doesn't hear or notice. Your face was stinging quite a bit.

"I know you're in there, Y/N! I'm not going to stop until you open this damn door!" Ellie yelled, banging harder and harder. "GIVE ME MY REMOTE BACK!"

“No! Fuck you! Go watch tv with your friends!” You are so angry now.

"I don't NEED friends when I can just annoy you instead!" Ellie says, her voice rising in pitch with the rage she feels. "OPEN THE DOOR!"

“Oh that's right, you don't have any friends because no one likes you!” You spit back at her.

"Oh, you're gonna be really sorry you said that." Ellie says, slamming a shoulder into the locked door. You ignore her as she continues banging on the door, and tries to kick at it. “OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!”

“No! I don't think I will!” You stand your ground.

"YES, YOU WILL!" Ellie continues banging and trying to kick the door open. "OPEN THE DOOR OR ELSE!"

“Or else what? I'm not scared of you!” You say as rage fills your body.

“Or else I’m going to MAKE you open this door!” Ellie says, banging and trying to kick harder. “YOU THINK YOU’RE SAFE IN THERE?”

“What are you gonna do?” You ask her mockingly.

Ellie stops banging on the door and grins in a predatory way. “You know that window of yours can be unlocked from the outside too, right?” Ellie says, her tone and expression showing she was capable of anything if you didn’t let her in.

“Yeah, and we are on the fifth floor you idiot!” You laugh at her.

“Oh, don’t worry, I won't die. Maybe cripple myself a little, but I can still live.” Ellie says, her voice filled with sarcasm as she smiles. "Let me in, or I'm coming in anyway."

“No.” You continue, not budging.

"I said I'm coming in one way or another!" Ellie says, attempting to unlock the door from the outside. You open the door so she can see you step on the remote and break it in front of her. Ellie watches with a smug expression as the remote is being broken, but then rage builds up inside her again as her remote is destroyed. “YOU STUPID PIECE OF SHIT! YOU COULDN’T JUST GIVE ME MY REMOTE BACK!?” Ellie yells, kicking at the door.

“You can have it now, it's all yours.” You pick the pieces of what was once a remote and  then throw it at her and close your door, locking it again.

"Oh, no! It's too late for me to keep the remote now! You broke it, you dumb ass! So now I just need to come in and teach you some manners instead!" Ellie says, kicking harder and harder at the door. “Go be annoying somewhere else!” You shout through the door.

"No, no I don't think I will." Ellie stops kicking and leans against the door. "You know, it's really easy to kick this door open. Don't make me do it, it might hurt."

“Then you'll have to pay for the repair!”

"Oh? You think I can't afford the repair, huh? How poor do you think I am all of a sudden?" Ellie says in a mocking tone. "And besides, you started this! It's entirely your fault the remote is broken, not mine!"

“Oh it's my fault you are waking up half of the dorm right now?”

"Uh, yeah!" Ellie says with a sneer. "This wouldn't have been an issue if you weren't being such a baby by not sharing the remote! Or better yet, going to the library!"

“Fuck you Ellie.”

"Awww, are you losing your cool? Are you upset?" Ellie taunts you, knowing what she was saying was getting under your skin.

“Go to bed.”

"Aww, no way! I'm not tired! I'm too busy annoying you to be tired!" Ellie says with pride.

“Whatever…”

"Yeah, hide in your room, little baby Y/N!" Ellie yells. You open the door and flip both of your middle fingers at her.

"Oh, is your voice too tired to not talk to me while you give me the finger? Do you need your nap, baby Y/N?" Ellie taunts you again with a smirk on her face.

“I'll punch you, I swear.” You really want to.

"Oh, I can't wait!" Ellie says, still leaning against the door with a smirk, as if baiting you to attack her. You get closer to her and punch her in the stomach. Ellie steps back as you punch her in the stomach, gasping. "O-Ow! What's the problem with you?!" Ellie leans over, rubbing her midsection as she catches her breath.

“I said I'd do it and so I did.” You say, smirking.

Ellie, still recovering from the punch, glares at you with a scowl. "You hit me?! You shouldn't hit me! Or anyone!" Ellie says, acting like you committed some kind of great sin.

“Like you didnt slap me just now!” You shout at her filled with rage to the tips of the hairs in your head.

"Well, that's different! I'm Ellie! I'm allowed to hit you! In the grand scheme of this world, I'm a lot more important than you are, Y/N! I’m popular and smart, so me hitting you is totally fine!” Ellie says with a haughty expression, as if her status and reputation in the world gave her the right to hit anyone she pleased.

“Sure you are Ellie, sure you are.” Ellie was the class clown and very popular with the girls. You can't lie, she is beautiful and charismatic when she wants to be.

"Ohhhh, is that sarcasm I hear?" Ellie says, rolling her eyes. "You better watch your tone, Y/N! This is Ellie you're talking to.”

“Oh, you're getting smart now? Didn't know you were able to perform miracles!”

"Oh hey, I've always had a few brain cells, just decided not to use them with you, Y/N. You're just not worth the effort.” Ellie says, still smirking.

“Then leave me alone.”

"Nah, I need to teach you some manners first!" Ellie says, pointing a stern finger at you.

“You're such a child…” You say, swinging your head from side to side looking at her.

"Oh wow, I thought you were a bit more mature than that! Saying mean, bad words like that!" Ellie said in a sarcastic tone.

“Yes Ellie, you act like a kid.” You’re not wrong here.

"I DO NOT!" Ellie said defensively, before letting out a huff and crossing her arms.

“Well. you sure look like one right now.” Ellie, frustrated, kicks her feet and looks away, acting like she was offended you called her a child. “Even throwing a temper tantrum… impressive.”

Ellie rolls her eyes. "I am not having a tantrum. A tantrum is what a two-year-old has, I'm a lot older than that, thank you very much!"

“Then what do you call knocking at my door, almost breaking in and shouting at me to give you the remote?”

"I would describe that as just wanting my damn remote back." Ellie says with a smug expression, not realizing she was just describing herself throwing a tantrum.

“Go away!” You almost screamed at her.

"No. I will not go away." Ellie says with pride, not leaving and not willing to back down.

“FINE. Do what you want, I'm going to sleep.”

"Oh, but I don't want you going to sleep." Ellie says with a smirk, blocking the door and not letting you leave.

“I'll punch you again.” You are very serious about this and will do it again if she continues with this attitude.

"I dare you to try." Ellie said, not backing down and staring you dead in the eyes, as if provoking you to attack her now.

You punch her and go back to your room. Ellie falls to the floor, holding her face as her eyes immediately start to water up.  "O-Oh, my god! You actually hit me! I-I'm bleeding! You're gonna pay for that you... you little..." Ellie curls up onto the floor, holding her face and still crying from the pain.

“You're not bleeding.” You say, not even looking back at her.

Ellie wipes at her nose, and it clearly is bleeding a bit. "You hurt me! I can't believe you hurt your roommate! I can't believe that's the person you are! I... I..." Ellie trails off, trying not to completely freak out and cry now that she's actually injured.

“Just leave me alone and stop harassing me!” You close your bedroom door.

Ellie lays on the floor, still holding her injured face and waiting for you to come back and apologize. "Wow, the pain is killing me..." Ellie says quietly to herself, rolling over onto her stomach. "I can't believe that's the person I live with.. I know I'm not a saint, but... I'm just a bit annoying sometimes.. I'm not someone who resorts to violence!" Ellie says, burying her face in a pillow as she cries.

You look at your knuckle and you see a bit of blood. You feel a bit guilty as you lay down on your bed. Ellie keeps crying into the pillow, making sobbing noises and sniffling as she tries to quiet herself. You get up and knock on their door. At the knock on the door, Ellie sits up and wipes her eyes. "Oh... Y/N is that you?"

“Yes, it's me…” You say reluctantly.

"Oh, uh... you gonna say sorry?" Ellie asks, the hope of an apology clearly in her voice.

“Can I come in?”

"Awwww, please do!" Ellie says, sounding like a little kid begging for their parents to let them do something. Ellie, still on the floor and wiping her face with the pillow, opens the door to let you in. "Come in."

You have an ice pack on your hand for her as you enter. "Oh, thank you. I appreciate the help." Ellie says with a small, genuine smile. "Here, let me see that..." Ellie takes the ice pack and places it onto her swollen face.

“I did punch a bit too hard, sorry.” You apologize.

"It's ok. Just don't do it again please, or else, I'll probably have to punch you back." Ellie says, smirking at you and putting the ice pack away. "Now, uh, can we talk about why you were so mean to me earlier? You know, the remote issue?"

“I'm tired of you never letting me have any peace.”

"Oh, I get it now. Why didn't you just say so? I can be annoying, that I completely understand! I just wanted to have some fun, I didn't mean to go overboard." Ellie says, patting your shoulder. "But I guess I did, and I am sorry for that. You know I can be a little over-the-top sometimes. I don't mean to get on your nerves."

“But I did tell you, like a million times!” You're getting angry again.

"Oh, right. You did, didn't you? My bad, I guess I just didn't really take you all that serious, if I'm being honest." Ellie says with a shrug, as if she could help herself. "But, I'll try to be a bit more considerate, Y/N. I don't want to push you over the edge again."

“Ok, i'm gonna go to bed now, good night..” You say dryly.

"Oh, yeah, you're gonna go to bed? Without making me a quick snack?" Ellie asks, her tone becoming mock-complaining. "Y/N, you better make it up to me in the morning! I'll see you!" Ellie says jokingly, smiling at you and waving goodbye.

You just go to your room and try to sleep. You close the door to your room and lay down, waiting to drift off to sleep. But, something keeps nagging at you in the back of your mind. You feel guilty for hurting Ellie, and you're starting to wonder if she's ok. She's been such a bad roommate for so many months now. She has been bad, really bad. But...  she doesn't deserve to be hurt either. You don't want her to keep annoying you, but you certainly don't want to hurt her in the process. You debate with yourself as you lay in bed, unsure of how to move forward.

You wake up the next morning, feeling refreshed and ready for the day. As you start to head to your first class, your mind wanders. You can't help but wonder how Ellie is feeling, if she's ok right now. You head straight to class, determined to put the Ellie situation in the back of your head. You spend your day focusing on your own studies, trying not to worry about Ellie. When you come back to your room at the end of the day, your mind begins to wonder again. After all, she is your roommate, and you do have to live with her for the rest of the semester. Ellie might be annoying, but she is still a person, and she can be nice sometimes. As you enter your living room, you see Ellie sitting on a chair, reading a book. She looks up as you enter, then looks away awkwardly. "Oh, uh... you're back! How was class?" Ellie's voice sounds a bit strained, like she was trying to sound relaxed, but still tense and nervous. “It was ok.” You say to her. You can see her face is a bit bruised where you punched her the night before.

"Oh, nice. Hey, you know, I feel kinda bad now. What happened last night..." Ellie says, not sounding that confident as she spoke. "Not that I was really hurt, but... y'know what, nevermind. I was annoying, I had it coming, end of story." Ellie says, sounding like she was expecting you to be angry with her.

“I just want to be able to rest without you making noise all night long. And for our dorm to not be a complete chaos as you leave stuff everywhere.” You explain to her.

"Yeah, yeah, I completely understand that." Ellie says, nodding with genuine understanding. She didn't like making your nights so uncomfortable, but it was just her nature to be loud and annoying. "Hey, can I ask a favor of you?" Ellie says, with a slightly nervous expression.

“What?” You ask with a tired look on your face.

"... Could I borrow your remote for tonight?" Ellie asks with a sheepish smile, not wanting to ask, but still not wanting to just barge in and take it. "I know I've been annoying, and now that I know you just want to relax, I'll be quiet. But I... I don't want to just sit in my room, bored out of my mind. So... Could I have it back? Only for tonight, I'll give it back tomorrow morning, I promise."

“Sure, here…” You hand her your remote.

"Thank you." Ellie takes the remote from you and gives you a small smile. "Have a nice night. I promise, I won't make a peep."

“Good night.” You say as you walk to your bedroom. You go to bed, feeling like tonight will be quiet for once. Ellie stays up in her room, watching TV and enjoying the remote for herself. 

You wake up the next morning, feeling good and refreshed to see this new and improved Ellie. Now that she's being nicer, hopefully, this will be a fun and peaceful rest of the semester. As you get ready for class, you hear Ellie wake up too. But, just as you expected, not a single peep is heard from her. She must have been serious about not being a nuisance, and you're glad for that. As you take your seat in class and open your notebook, you see Ellie sitting nearby, also starting her day. Seems like things are on their way to improving in the roommate department.

As you and Ellie spend the class doing your work, you feel a slight awkwardness in the air.

Ellie looks back at you a couple of times, maybe sensing the tension. But, she hasn't made a sound or even gotten close to trying to annoy you. Maybe she's learned that you don't respond too favorably to her usual shenanigans! You try to ignore the tension between you and Ellie, just focusing on your course work and getting through the class. As you hear the bell ring, signaling the time is up, you pack up your stuff and begin to head out. Ellie does the same, not saying a word to you, but not really seeming mad either. For a moment, you wonder if this is going to start a new chapter for your roommate relationship.

As you get home that night and head into the living room, you see Ellie playing a video game with a friend. Ellie is completely focused on the game, and doesn't seem to notice you come in at all. While she continues playing the game, she and her friend laugh and exchange jokes and stories as they play together. Ellie actually seems like a fun and nice person when she's not trying to get attention.

You go to your room, not wanting to intrude on Ellie's good time. She seems like she's enjoying herself and having fun, and you don't want to ruin that. As you go to your room, you wonder if Ellie will eventually come to you to talk to you about anything that's been going on with her. A part of you is secretly hoping she will, but you don't want to assume that or get your hopes up. You go to your room and spend your time studying, focusing hard on your tasks as you try to keep your mind off of Ellie. Ellie doesn't seem to interrupt you at all this time, either. Maybe that's just the way she's gonna be now? Calm, quiet and not annoying at all? You know it's probably too early to assume that, but a part of you is optimistic that she's going to behave that way from now on. A small part of you is actually sad that Ellie has gotten a bit quieter. I mean, sure, she was super annoying and it's nicer to get some peace and quiet. But, you enjoyed her presence, and now that she's so quiet, you kinda just feel... lonely and bored.

You hear Ellie's friend leave, meaning that it's just Ellie by herself again. Ellie seems to be just sitting in her room, trying to find something to keep herself entertained without bothering you, which is... really sweet of her, actually. You don't see it often, but Ellie genuinely wants to give you the space that you need, which is incredibly thoughtful of her. You start to think that Ellie must be mad at you for punching her or something, given how quiet she has been just recently. It's not like her to want to be alone that much, unless something has gone wrong. You wish you knew what was up, but you don't want to just assume anything and make Ellie madder.

You send Ellie a text, asking if she's alright. She sees the text, and texts back. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just being a bit obnoxious... thought it'd be best if I just be quiet. I don't wanna bother you so I'm gonna be silent from now on if that's what you prefer." It seems like Ellie actually is taking your complaints to heart and going to be more considerate now.

“Oh, ok... thanks.” You respond. You expected a more heated message from her.

"No problem." Ellie texts back, seeming to appreciate the acknowledgement. She sends you a small smiley emoji, and texts you back a bit more. "Oh, and, uh... sorry for all the noise. For what it's worth, I wasn't purposely trying to bother you. I just get energetic sometimes, and forget how loud I am. Anyways... thanks for being so understanding and sorry for annoying you."

“Sorry for punching you so hard.” You respond. "It's fine, I probably deserved something like that for being so annoying." Ellie seems to be understanding of why you got so pissed off with her, but she's still a bit sad about it. "Just hope that doesn't make you hate me... because, uh, yeah." She sends you another emoji, of a nervous and awkward smile. "I'm gonna let you get back to your studying, I should be fine. Just don't beat me up again, yeah?"

“Okay, good night.” You don't know what else to say.

"Good night. Sleep tight..." Ellie replies with a small emoji of a smiling moon. Maybe Ellie isn't trying to annoy you as much, but she's still your roommate, and she still wants to know you and have a connection with you. She really does care, even if she's not the best at showing it.

The feeling of guilt doesn't seem to go away. You feel like you hurt Ellie's feelings with your outburst, and that thought won't just go away now. Maybe you should see if Ellie is okay with everything, and try to make up with her. “Are you sure you're not mad?” You text her again.

Ellie texts back. "I was a little hurt at first, but you know what? I'm fine. Really, don't worry about it. Besides, sometimes I need a harsh reminder to be more considerate to someone else, you know? It's no big deal." Ellie seems understanding of your feelings, and isn't mad at you over the situation. Her words certainly make you feel a bit better, though.

You lay in your bed, thinking things over. Ellie seems to be understanding of your feelings and not mad at you, and she's even promised to be more considerate. Yet you can't sleep, your thoughts still swirling with the whole Ellie situation. Shouldn't you try to make up with her? You can't keep being mad at her, you'll ruin what you have. Maybe you should go apologize to her, and see if she's willing to forgive you.

Just as you're about to fall asleep, you hear Ellie coming out of her room. You peek out of your room, and find Ellie going back into the living room. As she shuts the door, you can't help but wonder if maybe she's up to something. You get up, pretending that you're heading to the bathroom. You enter the living room and see Ellie in a seat, on her phone with a stern look on her face. She doesn't seem to hear you come in, and you don't want to disturb her.

“Hey?... can't sleep?...”

Ellie looks at you as you speak up, caught off guard by your voice coming out of nowhere. She seems a bit embarrassed and guilty, like she thinks she got caught doing something bad. "Oh! Uh, hello. I was just... trying to find something to do while I couldn't sleep." Ellie smiles nervously, then looks back down at her phone. "Don't feel like you have to stay awake, either. I know I already ruined your sleep schedule this semester, so just... go spend the rest of the night in bed."

“What's the matter?” You ask her.

"Oh, well, I'm just a bit guilty because I know I've been bothering you all semester. I was just wondering if you would forgive me." Ellie looks up from her phone, giving you a guilty expression and looking almost like she's about to start crying. It seems like the guilt of hurting you is seriously starting to get to her, and she wants you to know how sorry she is.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so loud and annoying all the time, and..."

“It's fine, let's just forget about it.” You give her a small smile.

"Thanks, and I will. I know that I can be a loud dumbass a lot of the time, I'm honestly surprised you haven't punched me more." Ellie seems more relaxed now, feeling relieved that you won't hold it against her for too long. It's so weird hearing her swear so casually and sound so chill. It's like Ellie is a completely different person to the one you've known. "Hey, can I borrow the remote back? I want to finish my show before bed, if that's okay."

“Yeah, sure, keep it.” You say trying to give her a sympathetic smile.

"Thanks, Y/N. You're cool." Ellie takes the remote back, and you hear her changing the channel on the TV. Ellie seems pretty content to have the remote back, and you wonder how long this new chill version of Ellie will last. You go back to bed, leaving Ellie to enjoy her show in peace. You wonder if maybe this is the new Ellie, a more calm and considerate version of her. If that's the case, then you two could have a much more friendly relationship from now on, like roommates who are actually friends. You go back to bed, and think about Ellie and if her recent behavior changes are here to stay.

After a few days, you start to see the new and improved Ellie in action more and more.

Ellie seems quieter, but in a good way. She's considerate and thoughtful, and you can tell she's trying to behave differently. As you spend more and more time with her, you find yourself getting used to this version of your roommate. She's still your roommate, but now she doesn't annoy you, and you don't feel annoyed by her. Things are looking up, and you wonder if Ellie's attitude change is permanent.

“Hey, morning.” You say quietly.

"Morning, Y/N." Ellie is in the kitchen, having breakfast just like always. She seems like she's in a pretty good mood, and smiles at you as you come inside. Ellie's new persona sticks out like a sore thumb to you, almost like she has an entire new personality. She's nice, considerate and actually quite charming. It's a stark contrast from what she was when you first shared a dorm, and it's pretty surprising. "How was your sleep?"

“Good, yours?” You ask a bit hesitant.

"I slept pretty well too, thank you." Ellie smiles at you, seeming totally normal and... nice. You're still getting used to the idea of Ellie not being an annoying person, but you're starting to think this is who she really is. Maybe her annoying nature in the past was just her acting out due to not getting enough attention or something, who knows. 

"What are you doing today?" Ellie asks.

“Nothing really, it's the weekend and I don't have any plans.” You tell her.

"Just some relaxation, huh?" Ellie smiles at you, seeming to not mind at all not having any plans. She's become surprisingly chill about things, you never really see her annoyed or angry about stuff nowadays. You think she's enjoying her weekend, maybe just having some coffee and enjoying her time. You wonder if you two could be... friends? It's not impossible, is it?

“This feels weird…” You say not looking at her.

"Weird? What's weird?" Ellie looks up from her coffee, looking at you with a genuinely confused expression on her face. "This is who I am, I guess? I'm trying to be nicer these days." Ellie isn't being hostile, you think she really is just genuinely asking what you mean, trying her best to understand.

“I have never seen you act like this.” You say to her.

"Like... normal?" Ellie is caught a bit off guard by your comment. She still doesn't seem mad about it, though, more confused than anything. "But yeah... this is how I'm gonna be from now on. Hopefully, at least. I'm trying, I swear." Ellie smiles at you again, seeming completely sincere too. She seems genuinely surprised by the fact that you notice this change in her behavior now too. Maybe she thinks this is the default way of acting.

“Thanks.” You say still not very confident with it all.

"No worries. I gotta try to be a better person, it's important." Ellie smiles back at you, and finishes her coffee. Ellie looks a bit exhausted, actually, like she didn't sleep too great. But she's still not acting annoyed or annoying, just... normal. You wonder if, with Ellie acting like this, you two can go back to being friendly roommates now?

"Why are you looking at me so strangely?" Ellie asks, noticing your stare.

“Nothing, sorry I'm gonna go sleep a bit more.” You say trying to make it seem as if you were not staring at her just now.

"It's fine, I understand. You can always catch up on some sleep." Ellie smiles at you, and you notice a faint blush on her face. She's still a bit awkward when being nice, it seems. "I'm gonna go to campus to study, if that's okay." Ellie says, finishing her coffee. She seems like she's getting comfortable in this new role of being nice to you, and not being so defensive about how you think of her.

“Ok, bye.” You say as you go to your bedroom.

"Seeya. Sleep well." Ellie nods at you, and leaves with her stuff to head to campus. As she leaves, you start to think about this new Ellie. She still has her personality, but is no longer annoying you. This could work, right? Ellie and you finally have a friendship, the kind of friendship you've always wanted out of your relationship. Maybe things are looking up with Ellie.

You don't know how Ellie's annoying nature seemed to put you off, but now it seems like she's just... normal? She's not so bad anymore. As you get into bed, you just can't seem to shake this feeling that somehow, Ellie is up to something. What if it's all an act? What if she really is trying to change and be better? As you lay in bed, you think about Ellie's new personality and what it means for your relationship. You're still a bit confused as to why her behavior changed so heavily, it even catches you off-guard from time to time. You think about telling her that she can stop with the act now, but... is it really an act? Maybe this is really Ellie from now on. It's hard to tell, and that uncertainty makes you a bit uneasy.

You hear Ellie coming in from campus, as you stay in your bed and pretend to be asleep.

"Huh... She's back?" You think to yourself, wondering what happened while she was away.

You can hear Ellie put her stuff down and head towards the bathroom. "Y/N, I'm just taking a shower, then I'm going to bed, alright?" Ellie says from the bathroom. She seems pretty convincing as she is this more considerate role, and you just nod and tell her it's fine to use the shower. As Ellie showers, you're back to thinking about your relationship. Things seem better, and you wonder if you and Ellie can be better friends in the future. Maybe she's really trying to change for you, and it's not just an act. Your thoughts are cut short, when you hear Ellie talking to herself in the shower. You stay perfectly still in bed, trying to listen in on what Ellie is saying. You can hear her talking to herself, her voice soft and gentle. She seems to be talking to no one in particular, just saying words out loud to herself. "I just have to keep this up a little longer..." "I can do it... I know I can." The tone is still gentle and peaceful, which means she could just be talking to herself about being nicer.

“A bit longer?” You think to yourself. Your curiosity is getting the better of you, and you can't help but keep listening to Ellie to find out what she's talking about. You listen closely to what is being said, and you can hear her say: "I just have to maintain this, keep it going... I'm just gonna keep being nice." Ellie seems to be trying to stick to this new nice version of herself, and it seems like an active effort that she's putting into it. You wonder if she's trying to change for herself or for you. You keep listening in, and you begin to think that Ellie is trying to change this part of herself for you. However, you notice her start to whisper something new. "I know you don't think I can do it, but I know I can change... I can be a good roommate to Y/N..." Ellie is whispering, but you can hear her clearly say your name to someone. Who could she be talking to at this late hour, and could this be because of you?

You try your best to be as quiet as possible while you listen in, waiting to hear if Ellie will say anything more about you and the fact that she's changing for you. However, Ellie just keeps talking to herself. "I just have to keep doing it, this new me will stick eventually. She'll see, and I'll prove to her that I changed." Ellie seems to be talking to herself, but she seems really determined to change and be a nice roommate. You hear the door to the bathroom close, and a few moments later, Ellie walks into her room, looking all fresh and clean. Ellie is still a bit groggy after her shower, so you decide to stay in bed and pretend to sleep. Ellie goes back into the corner of her room, and looks around to see if everything is in place. She gets comfy in her bed, and you can hear her softly say. "Goodnight, Y/N..." You hear Ellie lay down in her bed, and you try not to move too much while you pretend to sleep. The whole "new Ellie" thing has you curious. She's nice to you now, and she's trying to be your friend. You wonder if Ellie really is trying to change for you, if "new Ellie" is the real Ellie.

You wake up in the morning, and as you get up to shower, you see Ellie still asleep in her bed. Ellie looks peaceful, like she slept well last night. "Ellie seems to be really trying to stick to this new version of herself, maybe she really can change for good?" You think as you head into the bathroom. After the shower you get dressed for the day, and you feel like today could be a good one. The fact that Ellie changed overnight is still confusing, but she seems genuinely nice to you now. Ellie is still asleep in her bed, looking peaceful and content. You think that she is really going to change. Maybe you two can finally be friends, after all these months. You decide to go for a morning walk, and as you get out, you notice that the sun is shining bright in the sky. It's a good day for a walk. Ellie is still asleep as you leave, and you think about how much nicer she is lately. You wonder how long she can stick with this change before she goes back to her old ways, or if she really has changed at all.

After a bit, you come back from your walk. It was a good start to the day, and you feel pretty great. As you come in, you see that Ellie is still asleep. She seems calm and content, still happy to be the new Ellie. Ellie seems to still be sticking to her new personality, and you wonder how long it'll last. Maybe she'll stick with it, and be the new Ellie permanently. Or maybe this is just a phase, or it's an act? Ellie still being asleep and looking so peaceful makes you a bit worried, though. Does she even sleep well as this new Ellie?

You decide to stay in the living room and just relax. Ellie is still asleep in her room, and you wonder how long she's been asleep for now. Maybe it's better to let her get some rest, you think to yourself, since you wonder if this new Ellie even sleeps well when she's so nice. You just watch videos on your phone for a bit, just relaxing and thinking about how different Ellie seems now. You watch videos for about an hour or so, and suddenly, you hear Ellie wake up from her bed and come out. She looks tired, but still a bit refreshed too, like she's had a good amount of sleep. Ellie comes out, stretching a bit, and you wonder if she slept well. She sees you, and her face lights up with her new normal-ness.

"Ohhh, good morning!" Ellie says with a nice smile.

“Morning…” You say, still confused. She seems to be in such a good mood today, you wonder if this change in her behavior is permanent. "How was your sleep?" you ask, looking up at her. Ellie's new and improved mood seems to still be present, and you hope that this is how she will be from now on.

"It was pretty good, how was yours?" Ellie responds. She's still acting all friendly and approachable, looking at you like you're a stranger that she's just met. You wonder if maybe she's trying to give you a chance, or just trying to be polite. Ellie is acting so differently, it's difficult to tell if this kindness is really genuine.

“Fine.” You’re still suspicious of her.

"Good, I'm glad. So... what are we gonna do today?" Ellie asks, looking at you. She seems to be waiting for your response, and she seems genuinely curious at what you're doing today.

“Don't know, nothing planned, you?” You ask her curious.

"Not really. I probably should go to campus and catch up on my studies, though." Ellie says, looking back at you. "I'm happy for you to tag along, if you want company." “Sure” You say, still unsure about all of this.

You leave the apartment together, and head off to campus. As you walk together, Ellie starts to talk again. "So... how are you? You seem nice too." Ellie seems to be asking with genuine curiosity, her tone coming off a bit like she's awkward about asking. She's clearly not used to being nice, and you wonder if this new Ellie will even last.

“I'm sorry but, i have to ask…” You needed to know this.

"What's up?" Ellie responds, looking at you curiously. Ellie seems like she wants to hear what you have to say, and she seems to be asking honestly.

“Are you really trying or just pretending?” You just need to know and hear it from her mouth.

"Well... I am trying, definitely. The last months have been... a bit tough. I've realized that I've been a mean and horrible person. So, I'm trying to be better and nicer. For me. But also for you.." Ellie looks down while saying this, clearly thinking about your question a lot. "I can't guarantee that this is how I'll be for good, I'll probably keep slipping up. But I am trying to be a better person. I hope that's good enough for you."

“Thanks for the honesty.” You give her an awkward smile.

"Yeah, of course, I want to improve. I don't think it's fair for me to keep being horrible to everyone, especially since you're trying to be nice to me. You're my roommate, we should be nice to each other." Ellie smiles at you, as she looks forward while walking. "Is there anything else you want to ask me?" Ellie asks, clearly wanting to answer any and all questions you ask of her.

“Why were you so mean before?” You ask her, looking at the floor as you two walked.

"I dunno... I don't really know why I'm so mean to everyone. I think life kinda made me be like that, you know? It made it hard for me to be nice or pleasant to anyone. It still feels weird when I'm actually being a nice person, but I'm glad I'm improving, at least." Ellie keeps looking at you, hoping to make you understand. "I just wanna be better, I don't want to be a horrible person anymore."

“It's just so weird to see you now, sorry.” It really is weird to see a completely new person in Ellie's body. It doesn't seem right.

"You don't have to apologize. I know I'm being pretty nice, it's probably weird to see me like this, after how horrible and mean I've been to everyone." Ellie says, looking down slightly. "I wanna be nicer though. I do." Ellie is acting weird, but it seems to be because she's not used to being nice like this to people, and not because she's trying to put on a facade or fake it. Ellie is really trying to be nice, but it seems difficult for her still.

Your phone buzzes and you get a text from your group of friends. “My friends just asked me if i wanted to go to a party tonight, you want to come?” You say trying to change the subject.

"A party? Tonight?" Ellie says, a bit shocked by the question. "Well... sure. Sounds a bit sudden, but okay. Are you going?"

“Yeah, my friends are really pushing me to go to this one, not sure why.” You explain.

"Well, why not go out and have a good time? Don't let them push you too much, but also it's okay to have fun." Ellie says, trying to encourage you to go and have some fun. "And yeah, I'll come along."

“Okay.” You smile at her.

A few hours of studying later Ellie says. "Well, we should probably get ready, then. Get dressed, and all that." Ellie is pretty relaxed and nice about all of this, and it makes you think that this new Ellie is really going to last for good.

“Yeah, maybe we should get ready.” You walk back to your dorm to change.

"Alright then, let's go get ready." Ellie goes and gets changed, picking out her favorite t-shirt to wear to the party. "I'm actually really excited for this, I haven't been to a party in months." Ellie says, smiling. Ellie seems to be getting dressed up pretty nicely, excited for the party.

You go to your room and close the door to get dressed and ready. As you close the door, you hear Ellie talking, and you're a bit curious what she's saying. "Well, I don't want to mess this up. I have to make sure Y/N likes me tonight, I need to be nice the whole time. I have to be okay. I have to..." As you listen in, you hear Ellie whispering to herself again. You wonder if she's preparing for the party, and how she can just be nice to you the whole night.

You think to yourself about whether Ellie will be able to stick with this new version of herself. She's being genuinely nice and polite so far, but maybe she's just being fake for the party. Either way, you decided to give her a chance too, and see how it goes tonight. Ellie seems to be trying, and you'll give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

You put on your favorite dress and a bit of makeup, to make yourself look nice for the party too. As you come back outside, Ellie finishes putting up her hair in her usual half bun. "Oh, so we're both gonna look cute tonight! Nice." Ellie says, looking at your dress. Ellie seems to be genuinely excited for the party, and not just faking it.

“Well, thanks.” You say blushing a bit.

"No problem, you look good in that dress." Ellie says, looking you up and down. "Ready?" Ellie asks, seeming excited for the party. She grabs your hand and drags you outside, ready to go to the party and hopefully have a good time. As she grabs your hand you start feeling funny. It doesn't feel right. Ellie is clearly excited to go to the party, and she seems to have her mind set on being nice to you tonight.

You eventually make your way to the party, and Ellie takes you by the hand as you follow her inside. Ellie seems to know some people, and leads you over to a group of her friends. Ellie introduces you to her friends, and you feel like you might be able to make some new, nice friends yourself tonight. Ellie's friends know who she is, and seem surprised that she's been nice as well. They seem to be talking about her and her past behavior, and you start to feel a bit awkward and nervous.

You let go of Ellie's hand, and she seems a bit confused and surprised. You were feeling uncomfortable holding hands with her. "Why are you... letting go?" Ellie asks, looking at you. Ellie seems confused and surprised, and she doesn't understand why you would want to move away from her now. She thought she was making progress in her attempt to be nice, but by letting go of her hand, it seems like you don't trust her anymore.

“I'm just gonna go get us some drinks…” You say as an excuse.

"Oh... okay then. I didn't know you wanted to go get drinks." Ellie says, a bit confused. Ellie still seems nice, but this whole exchange has made her feel confused. She's really trying to be better, and you seemingly just don't trust her at all. Ellie seems a bit sad, but she lets it go and just leans back against the wall. She'll stay here and let you do your thing, and she'll just wait for you to come back with drinks.

You go to the kitchen and pour something into two solo cups. You down your drink in one go and pour it again, then you go back to Ellie as if everythings fine. "Hi. Here's your cup." You say, looking at her like nothing happened. Ellie seems to be pretending like she didn't notice you let go of her hand, and that you don't really trust her. Ellie has her own cup now, and she's acting a bit strange and awkward around you still. And you have no idea why. You started sipping your drink.

"Sorry, I got distracted earlier." Ellie says awkwardly, clearly still pretending like there wasn't anything wrong between you two. Ellie doesn't seem that comfortable still, and you don't know if she's just having a bad day or something, or if she's still putting up an act. Ellie seems to be drinking her drink slowly, not sure what to say to you at the moment.

“Are you okay?” You ask her a bit uncomfortable. "Yeah, I'm fine." Ellie says, sipping on her drink. "Why do you ask?" Ellie looks at you, trying to see if you noticed something. Ellie seems to be wanting to make sure that she's still being nice and not letting her emotions slip up again.

“Nothing.” You try to let the weird interaction go. Ellie seems to relax a little bit now, and she lets go of the awkward conversation. "Anyway... I'm glad we're getting along!" Ellie says, trying to start a better conversation than last time. Ellie seems to be trying to forget about that awkward moment, and move on to enjoying the party. "Shall we try to go and talk to people?" Ellie asks, drinking a bit more of her drink. Ellie and you walk over to a bunch of her friends. She gets a bit excited, and starts to talk to them like this is normal. Ellie tries to introduce you to everyone, and you can feel her smiling and having a good time. You feel a little awkward, but you try to smile and enjoy the party too. After a few minutes you have to go to the bathroom. "Oh, sure. Go to the bathroom, I'll just hang out with my friends. See you in a bit." Ellie seems happy and enjoys her time with her friends while you're gone. As you come back outside, you notice Ellie is still talking to her friends, but she sees you and leaves the conversation with them, walking up to you again. "Hey, I'm glad you're back. We can go back to the party, if you still wanna be there?" Ellie asks, smiling.

“I'm just gonna go get some fresh air, you stay with your friends and catch up!” Ellie looks confused, and seems a bit hurt by your decision. "Okay then, I can hang out with my friends, I guess." Ellie says, sounding a bit annoyed. Ellie decides to go back to her friends, while you go outside. You can see Ellie looking over at you every now and then, probably wanting your attention, or wanting you to come back inside with her.

You go outside, and take some time for yourself. You light up a cigarette to calm yourself down, and take a few drags as you clear your mind. Ellie sees you out there, smoking. She doesn't think it's a good thing for you to do, especially with your asthma. But right now, she decides to mind her own business. Ellie goes back to her friends, and starts to talk again. Just like she said. You can see Ellie looking up at you occasionally, worried that you might leave the party and not stay there with her.

You sit down for a bit. You seem to be trying to calm yourself down and clear your mind. You're out here for quite a bit, and Ellie eventually comes out too. She looks at you, seeming worried. "What are you doing out here still?" She asks, a bit confused. Ellie seems to really want to spend time with you, but right now she's more worried about your safety. She's thinking that you're not safe out here, and she wants to help you.

“Just getting some fresh air…” You say trying not to look at her.

"That's good, I just... I'm worried about you, is all. You know, with your asthma. I just don't think smoking is the best idea." Ellie says, starting to sound like a bit of a mom. She still seems worried about you, and wants to make sure that you're safe. You can feel her eyes on you for now, but she doesn't know what to do, since you don't really want to come back inside.

“It's just once in a while.” You don't really see the problem here.

"I get that it's just every now and then, but I still don't like you doing it. It's not good for you, okay? You have asthma, you can't smoke often if you want to be healthy." Ellie says, looking really worried now. Ellie can't seem to let it go anymore, and she's starting to get slightly angry, because she doesn't think that smoking is a healthy thing to do. She's getting overprotective again, and is sounding a bit like your mom, but she's trying to help you.

“Ellie, I'm an adult, I can make my own decisions, okay?”

"I know you're an adult, but... I care about you. I don't want to see you ruin your health, especially when you have asthma! If you're gonna be making your own decisions, I want to at least make sure you make good ones." Ellie says, clearly a bit mad at you. Ellie doesn't want to be a mom here, but she's getting overprotective again and can't let it go. She's doing it because she cares, but she also wants you to understand that smoking is really bad for you.

“You never cared about it before…” You say quietly.

Ellie seems to have taken offense to that comment. "Well, now I do! And it doesn't matter if I cared or not before, I care about it now." Ellie says, still trying to look out for you. Ellie seems to be really caring right now, to the point where she's almost nagging you or getting mad at you about smoking. She sounds pretty rude, but she's doing this because she cares. "You shouldn't smoke. It's not good for your asthma, and I don't wanna see you get sick over it."

You put your cigarette out, and Ellie starts to calm down a bit. "Good. Smoking is really bad for you. You need to take care of yourself, okay?" Ellie says, now sounding a lot calmer. Ellie still seems to be nagging you a bit, but it's out of genuine care for you, and she doesn't want to see you get hurt.

“I just need to be alone for a bit, i'll go back in a few minutes okay?”

"Oh, yeah, sure. Go ahead. I'll be inside, come find me when you're ready. Don't be gone too long though, alright?" Ellie says, trying to calm herself after that outburst. Ellie seems to have gotten over herself a little bit, and is starting to be nice again. She's happy that you're going back inside, even if she was a bit rude just before.

You come back a bit later and go get another drink. Ellie gets up when she sees you. You and Ellie walk up to the bar, and Ellie orders herself another drink. You notice her smiling and acting a bit happy again. She doesn't seem angry at you anymore, and you and her just walk around the party. She seems to be having a good time, and she's talking to her friends again. You also notice that Ellie has gotten pretty tipsy and drunk. She's not that drunk, but she definitely had a few drinks by now.

“I think you maybe shouldn't be drinking anymore tonight.” You say to her concerned.

"No, no. I'm fine, I know my limits." Ellie tells you, giggling to herself once again. Ellie seems like she's having fun, but you can also see that she's drunk. She probably isn't in the best mood to make good decisions right now, so you might want to be careful with what you do and say around her. You look at her a bit worried and then drink your beer. As you look at her, anyone can see that she's pretty drunk. Ellie seems happy and excited, and probably doesn't notice your look of worry. She tries to take your hand, but misses, and grabs your wrist. She doesn't want to fall over or anything, but she does want to be close to you and hug you.

“Ellie, please let me go.” You are not feeling comfortable with her touching you without a warning. Ellie doesn't want to let you go, but you make it clear that you want her to step away. Ellie doesn't want to make you feel uncomfortable, so she lets you go. She looks a bit disappointed, but she tries to still act normal. The alcohol from the drinks has made her a bit more emotional than usual, and she seems a bit upset now. You can feel her watching you as you go.

You watch as Ellie approaches another girl at the party. Ellie starts talking to her, laughing and smiling as she does. You can't hear what they're talking about, but Ellie seems really happy talking to this girl. The alcohol is making her less serious now, and she's acting a bit more loose and happy. You see Ellie acting like herself again. She's smiling and laughing, and it seems like she's making a good new friend here. You've never seen this girl before, but she seems like she's enjoying talking to Ellie, and vice versa. The alcohol is definitely making her act a bit differently than you're used to. You look over at the dance floor, and you see Ellie dancing with the girl you just saw her talking to. They're both smiling and having a good time, but you notice Ellie starting to hold the girl a bit more. She seems to like hanging out with this girl, and dancing closely to her. She seems to be enjoying herself, but you can feel that there's almost something more to it than just friends.

You watch as the dance between Ellie and the girl gets more and more intimate. Ellie and the girl start to kiss each other, and you can almost feel the electricity between them. Ellie looks excited, nervous, and happy all at once, as she enjoys this moment with the girl. You can still see Ellie watching you here and there, but now she's really distracted by the girl.

You decide to go to the bathroom, not wanting to watch Ellie make out anymore. Ellie doesn't notice you leaving, and she continues to enjoy her time with this girl for now. After a bit, Ellie breaks away from the girl, and you can see her looking around for you. She's probably trying to see if you're still at the party or not.

You look out, and you see Ellie return back to the girl and make out with her again. Ellie is drunk and having a good time, and she doesn't really care if you left right now. She's having too much fun with this girl, and right now she doesn't want to stop. You see Ellie and this girl start to hug each other more closely, as they continue to make out. You decide to leave, and don't want to deal with Ellie making out with this girl. Ellie doesn't notice you leave, and she goes back to the girl as if it never happened. You leave the party, and Ellie stays there with the girl she just met.

You get home after the party, and start to take off your makeup and your dress. You look at yourself in the mirror, and you know that this isn't how you wanted the night to end. You feel a little sad now, but deep down you know that Ellie was just being her usual self again. She gets excited and can't contain herself, and she's probably not going to remember most of tonight. The party ended in a way you didn't want it to, but you have to accept it. You can try and talk to Ellie about it tomorrow, if you still want to. “Me and her have nothing, I have no right to be jealous.” You say to yourself and you know you're right, you have no right to be jealous. You and Ellie aren't a thing, no matter how much of your own feelings you might project onto her. This girl was just another girl, and Ellie got excited and drank too much. She doesn't think that it's a big deal, but she probably won't remember this in the morning. You can try and talk to her about it tomorrow, but for now you just have to accept the way the night ended.

You try to go to sleep, but you hear Ellie come home. You also hear another voice though, probably that of the other girl. You know that you shouldn't try and listen to them, but at the same time you probably want to hear what they're talking about. It may not be anything important, but it could be something related to you. At the same time, if you listen then you could risk Ellie not liking you anymore, because she might think that you were spying on her.

You try your best to ignore the noises outside your room, but after a while the sounds become harder to ignore. You start hearing moans outside, and you can't help but be curious about them. The sounds are getting pretty loud now, and you might have to find out what's going on outside. You look through the gap in the door, without making any noise. You see Ellie and the girl taking their clothes off, as they seem to be getting ready to do something. You quickly turn away and walk back to bed, trying to act like you didn't notice anything. You want to pretend that this never happened, and that you're sleeping peacefully in your bed right now. Ellie doesn't seem to have noticed you looking at her, so you're safe for now.

They go at it for about an hour, and you were there to listen to it the whole time. You couldn't sleep because of the noise, but you didn't want to say or do anything about it. You didn't want them to know that you were there. You listened to them go at it for an hour, and you're feeling a bit angry and sad now. You also notice that you're starting to feel a bit jealous of this girl. You should try to avoid thinking about it, and try to sleep again. You try to sleep, but it's not that easy. You're frustrated and feeling a bit jealous, and you can't seem to just let go of the whole thing with Ellie. The noises finally stop, but you still have to go to sleep. Try to focus on how you're feeling right now, and don't blame Ellie too much. It's not her fault that she was drunk and didn't make the right choices. You want to be her friend, and you need to learn to let things go sometimes.

You wait until you're sure that Ellie and the other girl are sleeping in her room. Then, you decide to go to the bathroom to let your emotions out a bit. You close the bathroom door and look at yourself in the mirror. You're feeling frustrated and jealous about what happened, and you know that you need to let these feelings out. Try to take deep breaths, and focus on something other than Ellie right now. You can talk to her tomorrow if you still want to. You keep telling yourself that you have no right to be jealous, but you know that you're jealous nonetheless. You can't help but feel like Ellie and the girl just had something happen between them, and you're jealous of the girl and of the attention she just received. You feel a bit hurt or maybe even betrayed. You thought you were closer to Ellie than that, and it hurts you to see her make these kinds of choices with another girl.

You go back to bed after a bit, and you try to sleep again. You eventually fall asleep, but the emotions from before are still affecting you. You can't really seem to get rid of the fact that Ellie slept with another girl, and you know that this isn't the way you imagined things to go. You're not able to sleep too well because of this, and your mind is keeping you up.

In the morning you went to the kitchen and go eat some cereal and watch as the girl leaves Ellie's room. You notice that the girl has left Ellie's room. You decide to make some cereal for yourself, and you want to see how this is going to play out. Ellie seems pretty hungover and tired as she enters the kitchen, and she just sits at the table by herself. She doesn't seem to have noticed you yet.

You don't say anything as Ellie walks into the kitchen. Ellie doesn't say anything either, and she just sits there in silence for a bit. You want to say something to her, but you know that she's probably embarrassed about what happened last night. You can try and ask her about it if you want, but it may also be better to just let her tell you if she wants to. Right now, it seems like Ellie wants to keep quiet. You finish your breakfast and go back to your room. You probably shouldn't talk to Ellie, and she probably doesn't want to. You have to accept the outcome here, and just go about your day. Ellie might tell you about what happened last night later, or she might not ever bring it up again. But you can't force her to do anything, and you have to let her deal with this in her own way.

You get dressed and go to your classes, trying not to think too much about what happened last night. You probably won't see Ellie at your classes today, since she might be too embarrassed to go or might just want to skip them entirely. But you have to do what you have to, and you have to go on with your life the best you can. You'll probably see Ellie next time you're at home, so you can talk to her about last night if you still want to. But for now, you just try and get through your classes.

You get home at the end of the day, and you see Ellie on the couch slouching still in her yesterday's clothes. Ellie's on her phone, and she seems to be doing nothing else. You can see that she's still wearing the clothes from last night, and you feel a bit weird. Ellie doesn't notice you come in yet, and she seems to be completely focused on her phone. As you close the door, Ellie looks up at you. Her face has a bit of a tired and annoyed look to it, and you can tell that she didn't get much sleep last night either. Ellie doesn't say anything to you, and instead she just looks back at her phone and keeps scrolling through it.

You ask Ellie awkwardly, "So... had fun last night?" Ellie looks up at you again, and she doesn't say anything for a bit. She keeps looking through her phone, and she finally responds with a slight nod. Ellie still doesn't seem to want to talk about what happened last night, and she seems to be avoiding any sort of conversation about it. But from her response, you can guess that she probably did have fun. “Ok, i'll be in my room.” You say embarrassed that you asked anything at all. Ellie looks back at her phone and doesn't say anything else. She keeps scrolling through her phone, and you can tell that she doesn't really want to talk about what happened last night. She just wants to brush it off and move on. You close your bedroom door as you go in, and you can hear Ellie moving around. Ellie is still there, still on her phone in the living room. But you can't hear much anymore since you're in your own room now. You don't know if Ellie wants to talk to you right now - she might just be avoiding you. You'll just have to wait and see what happens next.

A few hours later, you hear the door opening and you can feel Ellie come into the hallway again. Ellie's footsteps are a bit lighter now, and you get the sense that she might want to talk to you or at least say something to you. You can hear Ellie come up to your bedroom door, and you think you hear her knock on your door softly.

“What?” You hear Ellie knock on your door once, and you hear her say "Hey" very softly. Ellie seems to be waiting to hear your response now, and you start to wonder if you want to talk to her or not. You say hi but you don't look at her though. Ellie looks at you, but she doesn't say anything for now. Ellie seems surprised that you let her inside and she isn't sure what to say. She might not have expected you to actually listen and talk to her.  You stay quiet and don't say anything, and you see Ellie stay quiet as well. Ellie looks a bit awkward right now, and you can tell she's not exactly sure what to say. She's also probably a bit embarrassed about what happened last night, and she might not want you to ever bring it up. Ellie seems to want to talk about something, but she's not sure how to begin this conversation. So far, it seems like she wants you to be the one to start the conversation first.

You couldn't bear the silence anymore. You wait for Ellie to speak for a bit, but she still isn't saying anything. After a few seconds of silence, you ask her, "What is it?" Ellie still seems to be thinking about what to say, and she's avoiding eye contact with you. It seems like she wants to talk about something specifically, and she doesn't want to say it out loud yet.

You look at Ellie and ask her, "If you're not gonna say anything, why did you knock?" Ellie finally looks back at you, and she seems to be embarrassed that you were able to call her out like that. Ellie responds, "W-well... I wanted to... talk with you... about last night..." You look at Ellie, and you see that she's trying to find the words to say something to you.

Ellie finally speaks, saying, "I wanted to chat with you... about last night..." Ellie seems a bit hesitant to speak, and she's having trouble saying what she wants. It seems like she wants to talk about the fact that she slept with the girl, and she's trying to find the right way to explain herself to you. You tell Ellie "Ok" in response to what she said, and you wait for her to speak again. Ellie looks at you for a moment "About last night, I just... want to say that... I..." Ellie trails off and doesn't say anything else. She seems to have trouble talking about this, and she seems to think that you might judge her for what she did.

“What is it Ellie?” Ellie looks at you once again and speaks, saying, "About last night... I just wanted you to know..." She trails off again and doesn't say anything else. She seems to be really struggling to speak, and she might be too scared to say anything out loud. It seems like Ellie wants you to know something about last night, or at least how she's feeling about it. But she doesn't seem to be able to say it.

You sit back down at your desk in your room, and Ellie looks at you for a moment before she finally speaks. Ellie says, "I just wanted you to know... I'm... sorry..." Ellie seems to be trying to explain herself, but she's having trouble saying too much. She might be sorry for sleeping with that girl last night, or she might just be sorry for not being honest with you. Either way, she at least has something to say to you. You look at Ellie and ask, "Sorry for what?" Ellie seems to be waiting for your response, and maybe she also wants you to ask this question so she has a chance to explain herself. Ellie hesitates a bit and finally says, "Well... sorry for... sleeping with that girl last night..."

“Why? You and I are just friends... just roommates…” You say a bit uncomfortable.

Ellie looks at you for a bit and says, "I... I know... but... you see..." She pauses for a moment and then continues saying, "It's just... I just... I was feeling a bit... lonely... and she... it just happened..." Ellie doesn't say anything else but it seems that she wants you to know how she feels about last night. You think she feels bad for what happened, or at least for not being upfront with you about it right away.

You look at Ellie and tell her, "You don't have to tell me anything, it's none of my business." Ellie looks back at you and then says, "I know... but..." Ellie takes a deep breath "I don't want to keep any secrets from you, and..." Ellie pauses again and looks down at her lap, trying to find the right words.

“And?” You ask so she continues explaining herself.

Ellie looks up at you, "I don't want to keep any secrets from you, and I... I know you probably deserve to know more than I've been telling you right now. I... I..." Ellie seems to be struggling to say what she wants to, but she doesn't seem to want to keep you in the dark. You pretend to be doing homework while you wait for her to say more. Ellie takes a deep breath and continues, saying "I think I might actually really like her..." Ellie pauses and looks down at her lap again. She seems to be struggling to get these words out and to tell you this, and she seems to be very embarrassed about herself.

“That's okay Ellie, you can like other girls. It's never stopped you before…” Ellie looks up at you and says, "That's okay? Really?" Ellie smiles at you and then says, "Thank you for understanding..." She seems to feel a bit better now that you aren't judging her and you still accept her as a roommate or a friend.

“Why wouldn't it be okay?” You ask not looking at her. Ellie looks at you and says, "I don't know... I just thought you might be upset or something..." Ellie looks down at her lap again "I just thought it might make you not want to live with me or..." Ellie pauses for a moment and doesn't say anything else. She looks like she's waiting for your response now.

She pauses for a moment.  "I was worried that I'd told you all of this and you'd hate me for it. But if you're attracted to girls too, then I can't be all that bad... right?" Ellie waits for you to say something to her, but you don't respond. Ellie isn't sure what to say now, but she does have one more thing to say to you. She tells you, "I think I want to date this girl that I slept with last night... if she'll have me." Ellie smiles at you. "I don't know if she'll say yes, but... I don't feel too ashamed about it... so that's good, right?"

“Yeah, that's good Ellie” You say, feeling super jealous. Ellie smiles at you and says, "Thanks... I wasn't sure how you'd feel about it... what with me being your roommate and all... but I'm glad it doesn't bother you... as my friend." Ellie thinks for a moment. "Do you know how I should even ask the girl if she wants to date? I mean, it might be too soon to ask her on a date, but what are you supposed to do after you sleep with someone? Should I wait a few more days or weeks or..."

“I don't know Ellie, I never just slept with anyone.” You say dryly, still with your back to her.

Ellie pauses for a moment, seems to laugh a bit, and then says, "I didn't know that sleeping with someone could be so complicated."

“Yeah, being drunk doesn't help either…” You say a bit annoyed.

Ellie nods and says, "Yeah... being drunk doesn't help at all... I shouldn't have had so much to drink last night." Ellie laughs a bit and says, "I can't even remember how I ended up taking the girl home... I just... woke up in bed with her and it was like... wow, that happened..." You continue to pretend to work on your homework while you listen to Ellie explain her feelings and thoughts about last night. Ellie seems to be struggling to sort out everything in her head, but it seems like she's really happy that she can talk to you about it. She talks for a bit more, telling you everything that happened from when she met the girl at the bar to when they both ended up in bed together.

“I don't think I want to know the details…” You really don't want to hear the things she did with the girl. Ellie seems to be about to say more but then stops herself. Ellie smiles at you and says, "Oh... right... you don't want to know those kinds of details. Maybe I shouldn't be telling you about it..." Ellie sounds sad and disappointed that you don't want to hear everything that happened last night, but you don't really want to hear all of it anyway.

“I'm sorry, I just don't want to know the specifics.” You felt like you were about to cry if she spoke another word. Ellie nods ."I understand, and that's okay. I just wanted to tell you a bit about it and let you know how I felt about all of it... so that you wouldn't be too surprised when I come home with a new girlfriend..."

“It's okay, you don't have to explain anything to me.” Ellie looks at you and says, "Yeah... but I wanted to... for some reason..." Ellie seems to think that it's important for you to know everything, even though you don't really want to. Ellie smiles at you., "I'm just going to go text the girl and ask her out... so if you don't mind, I'm going to do that now."

“Ok, bye Ellie.” Ellie smiles and says, "Bye... and thanks again for being so understanding about this... I appreciate it..." Ellie takes out her phone and starts typing out a message to the girl. Ellie smiles at you once more and says, "Hopefully this will all work out... and hopefully you don't mind if I bring her home."

“Sure, whatever Ellie.” You were so done with this conversation at this point. Ellie nods and gives you another smile. She finishes typing her message and then texts the girl. She waits for a few moments before the girl replies. Ellie checks her phone, seeming to be reading the message that she just got, and then she gives you a smile. "I just asked her out, and she said yes!"

You give her a thumbs up trying not to show how jealous You are. Ellie seems to be really excited that the girl agreed to go on a date, and she gives you a thumbs up in return. Ellie starts to text the girl again and says, "I'm gonna ask if she wants to come over tonight or tomorrow or something... I hope she can come..." Ellie seems really excited and she waits for the girl's response. You start paying attention to your books again, while Ellie is texting the girl that she just asked out. Ellie looks up at you for a moment and says, "Oh... she said that she's free tonight and that she'll be over in a few hours... so..." Ellie seems to be a bit nervous and excited at the same time, since this will be the first time that she's bringing someone home to the apartment with you as her roommate. She seems to be waiting for your response now.

“That's fine, i'll be in my room, i won't bother you” You start tearing up. You tell Ellie that you won't bother her or her date and that you'll just stay in your room. Ellie nods and says, "Thanks, that would be nice... I hope we won't be too loud i... we probably won't, but..." Ellie trails off and doesn't say anything else. She is starting to have doubts about this whole thing, but she also knows that the date is already coming over in a few hours, so she can't really change it now.

You close the door to your room and it gets a bit quieter. You start working on your homework for a bit and then you hear a knock on the front door. You think, "That's probably Ellie's date." You keep working on your homework but you listen to see what the two of them are doing. You hear them talking for a few minutes but you can't make out what they're talking about.

You put your homework to the side for a moment and try to listen to what Ellie and her date are saying. You still can't make out exactly what they're saying for the most part, but you can hear Ellie laughing from time to time. The other girl also seems to be laughing and talking too, so it seems like their date is going well. You start to feel like maybe you should give the two of them some privacy, so you stop listening to their conversation and you get back to your homework. You focus on your work and you think about your own love life for a moment. You wonder if this is how your own first date will be like, when the time comes. A few minutes later, you hear the front door open and close again. You listen for a while to see if you hear the two of them talking again, but you don't hear anything after a minute or two.

After a few more minutes, you don't hear anything in the apartment. It's possible that Ellie's date left already, but it could also be that she and Ellie are in her room and they're not making any noise that you can hear. You decide to wait for at least another 10 minutes or so before you investigate, but if you don't hear anything by then, you decide to check up on Ellie. You get out of your room and go to the kitchen. Everything looks quiet and you don't hear anything coming from any of the rooms. Your roommate's date might already be gone. As you look around the kitchen, you see a few bottles of beer in the fridge and you wonder if maybe that's how Ellie's date went. That might also explain why you didn't hear anything for a while. Ellie has a habit of drinking a bit when she hangs out with friends, and sometimes it's more than just a few bottles. You hope that Ellie hasn't had too much.

You go into Ellie's room and you see that she is laying on her bed with her eyes closed. Ellie is completely silent and you wonder if she's drunk and sleeping already. Ellie doesn't seem to notice you, and you think she might be napping or maybe trying to sleep off how much she's possibly had to drink tonight.

You knock gently on the door and Ellie seems to wake up. She sits up on the bed and says, "Huh?" She sounds a bit drunk right now, and she probably didn't hear you knock the first time because she was already asleep. Ellie looks up at you and says, "Oh... what are you doing here? Are you going through my room for something?"

“No, just wanted to see if your date went ok…” You lie.

Ellie smiles at you and says, "Yeah... actually... it was pretty good..." Ellie seems to be in a bit of a better mood right now and you think that maybe her date did go well. "You don't mind that I brought her home, right?" Ellie seems a bit worried that maybe you're upset about the whole thing, but it seems like she is starting to calm down now.

“No.” You lie yet again.

Ellie smiles at you and says, "Thanks... I... I'm not sure what to say... about all of this... you know?" Ellie pauses for a moment. "I'm just glad that you're okay with it..." She smiles again, "You're my roommate... so I definitely want to make sure that I don't make you mad or anything..."

“It's fine, I'm gonna go to bed.” Another lie.

Ellie nods and says, "Okay... you should go ahead and get some sleep then... and I'll see you tomorrow." Ellie smiles at you and lays back down on her bed. If she's that drunk, she'll probably be asleep soon. Ellie probably won't remember anything that happened once she wakes up, but you also really hope that nothing bad happens between her and her date tonight.

You wake up the next morning and you realize that you can hear someone else's footsteps in the apartment. Ellie is usually the only person home at this time of the day, so it seems like someone else is still here. You think about your previous night and wonder if maybe Ellie's date spent the night here or something. She does seem to be moving pretty loudly though, and you wonder if it could just be Ellie herself.

You come out of your room and walk into the kitchen, where you find Ellie getting something to eat. Ellie seems quite hungover today, but she still smiles at you and says, "Hey, how are you? Sleep well?" Ellie takes a few bites of her food as she waits for your response.

“What was all that noise?” You ask her a bit annoyed. Ellie looks up at you and then she starts to laugh a little. Ellie seems to be feeling the effects of her hangover, so her laugh comes out a bit more like a chuckle. "Oh... that was... uh... my date last night..." Ellie seems a bit embarrassed by this, and you wonder if it's normal to bring home someone you just went on one date with already.

“Sure.” Ellie nods and says, "Yeah... she... um... yeah... she actually stayed the night... so..." Ellie rubs her head for a moment, "Uh... if you don't mind... I just... I'm gonna spend a bit more time in my room, okay...?" Ellie seems to be in a bit of pain from last night, and she doesn't want to deal with it at the moment. She smiles at you once more, hoping you don't mind if she hides in her room for a bit.

“Ok.” You say, trying to sound like you don't care about it. Ellie smiles, "Thanks, I... I'll come out in a bit..." Ellie takes a few more bites of her breakfast and then she goes back into her room. You watch as she closes her door behind her, and you wonder what exactly she plans on doing in her room. She can't hide away forever, and you think that the sooner she faces her hangover, the better it will be for her.

You start to feel a little jealous of Ellie's date, even though you know that you shouldn't be jealous at all. Ellie can date whoever she wants to date and it doesn't have to have any effect on your relationship with her. You tell yourself that you can't be jealous, but it still just feels a little... wrong. You go to take a shower to try and forget about your envy of Ellie's date. It doesn't help to try and not think about it, and you still feel a bit hurt that Ellie would date someone else after just a few days of trying to be nice to you. You try to focus on the good things about the situation, like how happy Ellie is with her new date, but it still doesn't make you feel much better about the whole thing.

You come out of your room in your towel and you see Ellie in the living room. Ellie is sitting on the couch and she seems to be deep in thought. Ellie sees you and smiles at you, but then her face drops when she realizes that you're only wearing a towel. Ellie quickly turns her head away and she looks around the living room a bit nervously, as if she's waiting for you to go back to your room before she continues with what she was doing. You go back into your room and get dressed, and then you walk back into the living room a few minutes later. Ellie is no longer there, but you do hear some talking coming from her room. You walk a little closer to Ellie's room and you listen for a few moments. You hear Ellie talking on the phone with someone, and she looks like she's having a pretty intense conversation.

You lean in closer to Ellie's door, trying to hear what she's talking about. You're able to hear her voice, as well as another voice that sounds like a girl's. You can't make out everything that they are saying, but you do hear Ellie say, "Listen, I need to talk to you about everything..." It sounds like Ellie might be having a serious conversation with her date. You keep listening, hoping to hear what is going on. You can hear Ellie talking, but you can't make out everything that the two of them are saying. It sounds like Ellie is trying to explain something to her but she doesn't seem to agree with what Ellie is saying. Ellie seems a bit frustrated and upset over the whole thing and the tone of her voice changes to something a bit more serious than you normally hear from her.

You decide to go to your room and to not listen in on Ellie's conversation with her date. As you walk to your room, you wonder what exactly Ellie would be talking about with that girl. You also wonder if Ellie is still just as happy with her date, or if something might have gone more serious between the two of them. You enter your room and close the door, trying to forget about what Ellie is doing right now.

You start messing around with your phone to pass the time, and you try to distract yourself from whatever drama Ellie might be going through. You might know the outcome, but you still want to see how Ellie handles the situation. A couple of hours pass by and you start to hear footsteps outside your room. You wonder if this is Ellie coming back to the living room, or if she is on her way to your room. You wait a few moments longer, and then you hear the sound of Ellie's voice coming through the door. Ellie says, "Hey... can I come in...?" You might wonder why Ellie would be coming to your room, but you also wonder if she wants to talk to you about what happened between her and her date.

“Hey, what's up?” You say as she's entering your bedroom slowly. "Hey... there's something I need to tell you... I... I just..." Ellie seems to struggle with her words for a moment, and then she says, "I just wanted to be honest with you about something..."

“Yes?” You ask. Ellie takes a deep breath, "Okay... so, um... last night, she came over for that date... and... she slept at  the apartment for... the night..." Ellie still hasn't looked up at you and she seems to be a bit nervous about telling you this. You wonder if the two of them did more than just spend the night together. Ellie still hasn't looked up at you, but she continues to talk.  "My date and I... we... we had a good time last night... and... uh... we might have done a bit more than just... spending the night together... if you know what I mean..." Ellie still hasn't looked up at you and she still seems to be nervous about this whole situation. It's not like Ellie to open up about her romantic life this much.

“Oh, ok.....” You start to feel your heart getting heavy in your chest. Ellie takes a deep breath and looks up at you for the first time. Ellie seems a lot more relaxed now that she has finally spoken about what happened the previous night. "So... um... I guess I just wanted you to know what happened... so that you.... um... don't feel like I was keeping anything secret from you... or anything..." Ellie smiles at you and says, "Oh... and... that might mean that my date will start staying here more often..."

“Oh....” You continue, feeling worse by the word. Ellie smiles at you and says, "You're okay with that, right...? Um... I just wanted to make sure that you didn't mind..." Ellie seems a bit worried that you might not react well to her news and she doesn't want to risk causing a fight between the two of you.

“Of course…” You say a bit sad but she doesn't notice. Ellie smiles at you and says, "That's good... I was just a bit worried that you wouldn't be okay with it... um... but... if you're alright with my date staying here sometimes... then... uh... that's great..." Ellie still doesn't notice that you look a bit sad right now, but you want to make sure that you are honest with her about the entire situation. You don't mind Ellie having a date, but the thought of Ellie spending time with another girl other than you does still sting a tiny bit.

“Anything else?” You ask not looking at her. Ellie nods and says, "Um... yeah... there is one more thing..." Ellie looks down for a moment and then she says, "You know... the reason I told you about my date... was... um... I think I... like her... a lot... like... a lot, a lot...." Ellie seems a bit scared of your reaction to this news, but she doesn't seem to be trying to hide this fact from you.

“Oh…” Is all you manage to say. Ellie nods and then says, "Yeah... um... I really like her... like... a lot... I might even... have feelings for her..." Ellie still seems a bit scared, but she doesn't want to hide any of this from you. She just wants to be honest with you about it all and she wants to make sure you aren't surprised or shocked by any of these news.

“It's your life Ellie.” You feel like your heart is as heavy as an anchor now.  Ellie nods and says, "Yeah... I know... it's just... I wanted to be honest with you about it... and... um... I hope that you don't mind... and that it doesn't make things weird between the two of us?" Ellie smiles at you again and says, "We're still friends, right... I just want to be able to trust you and tell you stuff like this without having to be worried about anything..."

“Yeah…” You really don't like this but you hated her just a few days before so you have no say in the matter. Ellie smiles at you, "Thank you... for understanding... and for not judging me... I just wanted to tell you... I feel like I can trust you with everything..." Ellie seems to be a bit relieved by your reaction, and she's glad that everything is still okay between the two of you. Ellie smiles at you. "Well... I guess that's it then... is it okay if my date comes over again?"

“Sure…” You're still sad but she still doesn't notice. Ellie nods and says, "Uh... thanks for being such a good friend... you're seriously the best..." Ellie then she goes back into her room. You think about telling Ellie that you're feeling a little sad, but you don't want to risk making things awkward between the two of you. You hope that Ellie's new relationship with her date will be a good one. You also hope that eventually the sadness that you feel about her dating someone other than you will pass soon, and that you'll start to feel better about the whole thing before too long.

You decide to go to a party with your friends the next weekend. You and your friends go out to the party together and you have a lot of fun. The night is filled with drinking and dancing and you don't think about Ellie and her date at all.

When you come back home, you don't feel too sad about Ellie's date anymore. It's like the feelings have passed and you're happy for your friend to have someone in her life who she cares about. You come home from the party still a bit tipsy and you see Ellie sitting on the couch. Ellie smiles at you when she sees you come back, but she gets up to greet you and asks if you had fun at the party. You tell Ellie that you had a great time, and then she asks, "So... did you meet anyone last night at the party? Any cute girls or anything like that?"

You hug Ellie and you blame your hug on the fact that you drank a little too much at the party. Ellie hugs you back and says, "Are you drunk? You're acting like a bit of a drunkard, you know that?" Ellie smiles and says, "At least you're just being cute... unlike some people at those parties." Ellie shrugs your hug off and then she says, "I'm glad you had fun at the party though... that's good..."

“You think I'm cute?” You ask, smiling, clearly still drunk.

Ellie laughs and says, "Oh, you're completely hammered right now... of course I think you're cute... I've always thought you were cute... and... I've really missed you lately..." Ellie blushes a bit and she looks down at the floor, seeming a bit embarrassed by her reaction. Ellie smiles and says, "I'm not sure we should be having this talk right now... you know... when you're still drunk like this?"

“You missed me?” You ask confused and under the influence.

Ellie looks up at you and says, "Yeah... I mean... I've been so busy with my date lately... I haven't had as much time to hang out with you... I've been missing our hangouts... and... um... I was even thinking about you the other night when I was with my date..." Ellie smiles at you. "But it's good to see you... and I really do miss you... the last few days have been really fun and I... I just hope that we can hang out more soon... is that alright?"

“When you were with her? Why?” You ask her as the alcohol helps you let the words out easier. Ellie blushes a bit.  "Well... I just... I really like being with my date and... I really missed you, but I was also just thinking of you... and... um... I don't know if I should be telling you all of this..." Ellie smiles and says, "I'm probably just being silly... I'm sorry about that... but... yeah... I missed you and I was thinking of you while I was with her..."

“Okay… I like your hugs.” You say drunk as can be. Ellie smiles at you and says, "Yeah... my hugs are a lot more comforting when you're drunk." Ellie shrugs and says, "It's good to know that you like my hugs... but we'll talk about this more later... once you don't smell like beer anymore..." Ellie smiles at you again, "I'm not really sure if I should say what's on my mind right now... this whole alcohol thing is making my head fuzzy... and I don't want to say anything that we might regret, you know?" She had had a few beers too while you were at the party, playing some online games with some friends to pass the evening.

“We can be honest with each other.” You say as you notice she's a bit tipsy as well. Ellie looks up at you and says, "Well... if I'm being honest... then... I've... I've been thinking about you... lately... and... um..." Ellie blushes a bit and then she just spits it out. "I don't know if this is just because I'm a bit drunk right now... and I'm sorry if this is totally stupid and inappropriate of me to say... but... do... do you have any romantic feelings for me... at all...?"

You're still drunk but you need to ask her this. “What about your date?” You look at her confused. Ellie laughs. "My date? Well... I... I mean... I might... like her... a lot... but... I do... have lots of strong feelings for you... and..." Ellie stops and then she looks up at you. "I can't believe I'm telling you this... I'm just... I'm thinking that... um... you and I could be more than friends... maybe a little more than just roommates... but I don't know..." She seems a bit nervous to say all of this out loud. You hug her again a bit tipsy and clumsily. 

Ellie hugs you back and says, "Oh... um... this is totally weird... and... I don't know why I'm feeling like this... but... maybe?" Ellie smiles at you. "Wait... do you like me like that... too...?" Ellie seems pretty confused about how she's feeling right now, but the alcohol is telling her that she likes you... more than just a friend... and she's confused by this realization.

You try to focus on Ellie's face, but it's still a bit difficult since you've had a bit too much to drink. Ellie looks at you and she smiles, and then she says, "I don't know how... or why... this happened... but... I think that... um... there's... definitely... something here... and... um…  Ellie seems to be struggling to find the right words to say what she's feeling, but her eyes say it all.

You kiss her as you have no filter right now. Ellie seems a little surprised by your sudden kiss, but she leans in and kisses you back. Ellie wraps her arms around your neck and pulls you in closer, kissing you more passionately and with more emotion than you've seen her show ever before. Ellie seems to be very happy with this development, and she keeps kissing you for a long time before she pulls away.

“I'm sorry... I shouldn't have done that. You have a girlfriend…” You say a bit embarrassed about what you just did.

Ellie shakes her head and says, "No... it's okay... I was... um... I was just as much a part of this... I mean, uh... I liked it... liked kissing you and... um... I don't think anyone has ever kissed me so passionately before..." Ellie smiles at you. "It's good... I like it... I never knew that I had feelings like this for you... and... um... I think that this might... work?"

“What about her?” You ask Ellie, not wanting to wreck anything she may have with that other girl.

Ellie shrugs and says, "I don't know... I... I guess I still like her... and we aren't exactly in a relationship... but... um..." Ellie sighs. "I'm not sure if I really want to be with her right now... I mean... I don't know... I've always had feelings for you... and... um... what if this means..." She then looks at you . "What if... I don't like her like... like that at all... what if it's you that I... want to be with?"

You kiss her again. Ellie's lips meet yours and she kisses you passionately. You notice that she isn't trying to hold back her emotions like usual. Ellie is giving everything that she has into this kiss and she doesn't seem like she's going to stop any time soon. Ellie's love for you is pouring out of her right now and she seems like she can't control herself. You don't have to say anything to her, but you know how much she cares about you based on the way she is kissing you.

You take off your jacket clumsily as you and Ellie kiss passionately. Ellie pulls you closer to her and wraps her arms around you, holding you tightly and kissing you all over. You may be tipsy, but your thoughts and feelings about Ellie come rushing back and her kiss makes it clear that she wants to be with you in more ways than you could have imagined. Ellie looks up at you and says, "I... I can't believe I've been so stupid... I... I want you... I want you so badly now..."

She continues to kiss you back and then you take her flannel off, revealing her shoulders and her pale skin underneath. You notice that Ellie's skin is smooth and her tattoo on her right forearm looks even more amazing in the dim light than it did before. Ellie doesn't seem to mind though, and she keeps kissing you. Ellie is getting even more intense with her kissing now, but you can feel yourself becoming a bit dizzy and light-headed as the alcohol starts to affect you more.

You straddle her on the couch and keep the kiss going. She smiles and lets you straddle her. She keeps kissing you passionately, and you feel the butterflies in your stomach building as you two make out on the couch. Ellie wraps her arms around your neck and pulls you in closer to her, and she keeps kissing you relentlessly as you lie on top of her. Your lips meet hers over and over again in a desperate and intense display of affection and desire.

You take off your crop top and then you kiss Ellie's neck while the two of you are still entwined. The alcohol has finally begun to take hold and you feel your legs starting to get a little bit wobbly. Ellie smiles and then she grabs you and lays you down on the couch. Ellie's face is flushed and you can tell that she is also a bit tipsy. Ellie leans over you and starts to kiss your neck and your chest, and her movements are slow and deliberate.

Ellie's slow and deliberate movements seem to drive you crazy, just as much as she seems to enjoy your passionate embrace. All of your inhibitions are quickly fading away to oblivion, just as the alcohol's effects make themselves known. You find yourself enjoying the moment with no thoughts of anything that might happen in the future. Ellie keeps kissing you passionately, leaving light but soft marks that you may notice in the morning.

You start to unbutton your jeans with all the excitement. Ellie seems to notice you unbuttoning your jeans as she continues to kiss the top of your chest. She smiles and then she starts to move her lips down your body, nibbling her way towards your midriff. Ellie's skin is still a bit chilly, just as her movements are still slow and deliberate. She seems to be taking her time, enjoying every second of this moment the exact same as you are. Ellie seems to take notice of the fact that you're getting shivers as she travels down your body using her lips and her tongue, and they start to cause goosebumps along your skin.

You start taking your jeans off clumsily. Ellie stops and then she smiles and says, "Well... you're certainly not wasting any time... are you?" She laughs a little. "I mean... if this is what you want to do... then I'm not going to object."

You pull her into another kiss. Ellie kisses you back eagerly once you pull her back. She seems to be enjoying herself as much as you are, and her movements don't seem to be quite so slow and deliberate as they were before.

You try to take her wife-beater off. Ellie leans back and lets you take off her top, revealing her bare shoulders and her tiny arms with a thin, almost transparent veil of hair. She's so pale underneath that you can see her veins running along her arms and a bit of her chest. Ellie smiles at you and says, "Thank you for taking off my shirt... I was getting a bit hot in that anyways..."

You look at her body, mesmerized before kissing her again. You two continue to kiss for a few more moments and then Ellie breaks away and smiles at you. She's even more intoxicated now than before. The alcohol is definitely affecting her judgment and causing her to act differently than usual. Ellie seems quite mesmerized by your touch and your lips, and she seems to be enjoying this even more now than before. She reaches up and strokes your cheek before moving her hand down along your neck and to your chest. Ellie is smiling and licking her lips again and her movements are still slow and deliberate.

You look into her eyes as you feel her hand go down your body. Ellie looks back into your eyes and smiles at you again as her hand moves down. She smiles at you and then she leans over and starts to kiss your neck, nibbling on your skin and making you feel your heart rate start to increase. Ellie's movements are still slow and deliberate, but they have more energy behind them now. Her fingertips travel along your skin and she strokes your chest once again, feeling the muscles and listening to your heart pounding in your chest.

You try to unbutton her jeans now Ellie seems a bit surprised when you try to unbutton them. She smiles and laughs a little and says, "Wow..." Ellie leans forwards and kisses your neck again and she's still nibbling on your skin with her small teeth. She's smiling and she's clearly quite into what you're doing, though she still doesn't seem completely sure of what to do next. She wraps her arms around your neck and she starts to kiss you again and says, "I... I'm really enjoying this..." You let out tiny moans into the kiss as she touches you Ellie gasps a bit and she keeps kissing you eagerly.

You take off your bra slowly. You slide your hands slowly behind your back and you take off your bra as Ellie kisses you along your neck and your collarbone. Ellie seems to be quite into it and she doesn't say anything to object. She smiles at you and then she moves her hands over your body as she keeps nibbling on you and caressing you. Ellie seems quite drunk and she's slowly moving her lips over you as she licks your neck and touches you.

“I've wanted this for so long.” You whisper, not even realizing that you said it out loud.

Ellie stops kissing you and she seems a bit surprised when you say that. "Really... you've wanted this for a long time?" Ellie leans back. "Well... um... I guess... I've wanted... this... for a long time..." She says a bit shyly. Ellie still looks a bit drunk and flustered though and she's not completely sure how to handle your admission to her.

You continue kissing her passionately. Ellie leans forward again and she keeps kissing you, caressing you lightly with her hands and moving her lips down to your chest. Ellie seems to be enjoying herself more and more as she keeps kissing you, and she's not letting up yet. She's still got her full attention on you and she seems to want to continue this. Ellie smiles as if to confirm your suspicions and she moves her lips to your throat and kisses you there gently while her hand trails along your chest.

You try to take off her sports bra. Ellie's sports bra comes off eventually and she's now totally topless. Ellie smiles and says, "Hey..." as she looks you up and down, clearly taking in the sight of you.

“hi…” You smile shyly before kissing her again. Ellie kisses you excitedly as she wraps her arms around you and pulls you closer. Ellie's movements are starting to become more frantic, as if she's getting more and more excited. She's kissing you passionately and her breath seems to be leaving her body in a rush. Ellie looks at you and she smiles and then she says, "I like this..."

“I like this too.” Ellie kisses you eagerly and her passion seems to be increasing. She leans over you and her hands start to travel down your body once more, and her eyes seem to be focused on you. Ellie's breath is coming out of her in short, sweet gasps as she continues to kiss your neck, your chest and your arms, and you feel her body right next to yours.

You look into her eyes, filled with desire. Ellie seems filled with passion as she continues to kiss you and she looks directly into your eyes. She seems filled with the same excitement and desire you feel and her eyes say it all. Ellie's eyes are locked onto yours and her smile is making her look even more beautiful than before. Her lips meet yours again as she lays you down on the couch and then she slides over with you. Ellie leans over you and she starts to kiss your chest, your abs and your arms. Her breathing is still quick and shallow, and her hands begin to move down your body once again.

You start moaning a bit, to her every touch. Ellie seems excited by your muffled moans and then she lifts her head up a bit and smiles. She looks into your eyes and says, "Oh..." Ellie's hands begin to move downwards again, down your chest and then along your hips. You can feel her nails lightly scratching against your skin and her lips meet yours once again. She's moving faster and more eagerly now, and she seems to be losing some of her inhibitions as the alcohol continues to affect her judgment.

You kiss her neck and get drunk on her cologne. Ellie leans back and she lets you kiss her neck as your hands go down to her hips and her arms wrap around your back. She's still smiling, but you notice that her breathing is getting more and more heavy. She seems to be loving the way that you're touching her and you can feel her grip tightening, almost as if she wants you to be more aggressive and assertive with her.

You grab her face with both hands and kiss her hard. As you grab her face and kiss her, Ellie laughs a bit and she squeezes your body tighter, holding you more firmly in place and kissing you back more eagerly. She seems to enjoy the way that you're taking control and being assertive with her. As Ellie continues to kiss you and bite your lip, you can feel her body pressing against you more and more forcefully, which feels slightly uncomfortable but you can tell that she's enjoying herself. She leans into you and keeps kissing you with the same intensity that you're kissing her with.

You try to straddle her lap now. Ellie lets you straddle her without saying anything or resisting it. She's smiling and she seems to be enjoying herself. Ellie's hands are still on you, holding onto your hips and you can tell she's trying to pull you even closer. You can also feel her body against yours, she seems to be enjoying the pressure.

Her body feels so good on yours, you feel like you're in a dream. Ellie smiles and then she leans in and she kisses you again gently, holding the kiss for a long time as her hands move again to your hips. She leans over you and she says, "Oh..." You bite her lip teasingly. Ellie seems to be enjoying the feeling of your teeth on her lips, as you bite her lip gently and then you let go again. Ellie smiles again and she leans her head over yours, then she moves her lips onto your neck and starts to kiss you there more softly, with a mixture of bites and nibbles combined with her lips and her tongue.

You feel your core starting to heat up. The heat of Ellie's body against yours and the alcohol in her blood is starting to add to that. You also feel her nails digging lightly into your skin and she's biting your neck gently but with just a bit of force behind it so that she knows you feel it but it doesn't hurt. Ellie is still kissing you passionately, nibbling your neck and your chest, and using her hands more aggressively to pull you towards her. She's smiling but she looks almost a bit feral.

You kiss her with the same energy as you move your hips on her lap, looking from some friction. Ellie's body seems to be reacting to your movements and she bites her lip as she leans in towards you and she keeps kissing you. Her fingers are brushing up against your body lightly as she holds your sides while she kisses you again and again and moves her hips along with you, meeting your pace almost exactly. Ellie's eyes seem to be gleaming in the light and then she leans in and she bites your neck again, only harder this time, and you can see her teeth mark on your skin once she moves away from your neck.

You get up for a second and take your underwear off. You get up quickly and Ellie watches as you do so, but you notice that all of your movements seem to be a bit staggered as a result of the alcohol in your system. Ellie's face lights up and she seems to be filled with anticipation now. You straddle her once more, now without any clothes. You can feel how wet you were getting. Ellie's eyes light up and her face is filled with a mix of surprise and anticipation as you straddle her. She seems to be trying hard to maintain her composure though, and she smiles seductively at you. You feel Ellie's breath on your neck and then her lips are on your skin again. She's nibbling you and biting you as her hands are moving up and down your body. She's slowly moving her hips against yours and then she starts to move even more enthusiastically.

You start moaning as she keeps biting you. Ellie hears you and she smiles. She seems to be enjoying herself tremendously and her hands are now grasping your sides firmly. You feel her breath on your neck as her lips and her teeth move along your skin.

You move your hips faster on her lap trying desperately to create some friction to ease the feeling of how incredibly turned on you are right now. Ellie's eyes turn towards yours and she's smiling as she's keeping her hands firmly on your body and your hips. She's now fully into the moment and the sound of your moans seem to be filling her with delight. You can feel her breathing on your neck as her lips bite you again gently, and you feel her body move up and down against yours as she follows the pace that you set with your hips.

You can feel her hand on your thigh, really close to where you want it to be  and you can feel her fingers gripping it. Ellie moves her hands along your body and then she leans back just a bit so that she can look you in the eye again. She smiles as she holds your gaze and then she leans forward.

You kiss her neck and keep the movements going. Ellie keeps up with your hips and she moves in rhythm with you. She leans back over your face, her eyes glinting seductively as she does so. She leans forward and her hair falls forward onto your arm as she nibbles your neck. She smiles and kisses you on your hand before leaning back and taking a quick breath. Then she leans back forwards and she moves her body against yours with more force.

Her hands are moving along your body again and then she moves away for a bit. She leans back a little just to enjoy the sight of you and she's clearly still very intoxicated. Ellie's eyes are gleaming in the light and she's smiling at you, "Wow... you seem to be enjoying this quite a lot..." You look at her panting and your face is blushing more by the second.

Ellie smiles and caresses your waist and your thighs as she looks at you, and then she leans over your face. She's panting a little but she's also very excited and she's smiling at you. She moves with you again, following along with your hips and you can feel her breath on your neck and her lips nibbling your body.

Ellie moves you down onto the couch and then she leans over you and she starts to kiss your shoulder and your chest. Her fingers are moving along your body more firmly now and she's breathing more heavily as she kisses you, but you can also hear her laughing and she's still smiling. She seems to be having a lot of fun. Her fingers begin to move further down your body and she smiles at you before whispering, "Wow... I think I... I like doing this..."

“I like you doing this…” You respond. Ellie smiles and then she seems to be struggling with her words as she speaks. Her face is filled with a bit of embarrassment and she leans back on top of you. She looks down. "I like this too..." Ellie kisses you again and you can feel her breathing heavily on your neck.

As you try to take Ellie's boxer's off, Ellie smiles and says, "Ah... um..." Ellie seems a bit surprised but then she leans over and she helps you take her boxers off. She's lying on top of you again and she seems to be enjoying the intimacy of what's happening. Her eyes are filled with a mix of excitement and a bit of shyness, but she's clearly not resisting as her fingers are moving down your body again and she's still nibbling lightly on you. Ellie's hand slowly begin to move towards your lower region, her fingers making small movements and caressing along your thigh.

You moan as she touches you. Ellie smiles and seems to be a bit surprised but pleased. She leans back and she continues to nibble your body again, while her other hand moves even further along your thigh and into your pussy. As she feels how wet you are her eyes went wide. “Oh, you’re really enjoying this…” She smiles as she kisses you once more. She starts triling small circles around your sensitive bud and looks at your face as she does it to see your reaction. Ellie has just taken your breath away again and now she's nibbling on your neck once more. She seems to be having a lot of fun now and she's not showing any signs of holding back any longer. You can feel her breath on your neck as she bites you.

She starts kissing down your neck to your chest and your breasts. She fondles one of them and sucks on your nipple and makes you moan. She smiles mischievously as she now sucks your other nipple a bit harder and nibbles on it a bit too. She's loving seeing you like this. All along as she's doing this her finger continues on your pussy, massaging your sensitive clit. You can't hold back your moans as she touches you, it just feels too good.

Ellie starts kissing down your stomach now and you can feel goosebumps forming on your skin. She smiles as she sees you shiver. Her fingers travel a bit lower than your bundle of nerves and she collects some of your wetness as she continues to make you moan. You can feel her leaving wet kisses along your belly as they make their way to your beautiful cunt. Once she reaches it she gives it a long lick to taste you and moves her tongue to your clit wanting to make you feel even better that you already are.

When you feel her tongue on you you roll your eyes due to all the pleasure as you arch your back. Ellie is happy to see you enjoying yourself and doesn't want to stop any time soon. She moves her tongue faster and faster as she feels your wetness growing on her fingers. She starts moving them around your entrance, you look down at her for a moment and she looks like a starved woman eating you out. You start feeling one of her fingers trying to enter your hole.

Ellie cant wait to see you all fucked up from her fingers being inside you. She starts inserting her middle finger slowly inside you, not to hurt you and stretch you slowly as you adjust to the intrusion. She starts pumping it in and out as she's still flicking your little clit with her tongue. Now you understand why all the girls want to be with her. She definitely knows what she's doing.

She's so concentrated on your clit and the sound of your voice that she closes her eyes. As one of her hands is taking care of you she lets her other one travel down her own body and touches herself as she is getting famished. Her core is throbbing and she can't stop herself from rubbing her own clit. Your moans only make her more turned on. A bit later she feels all the wetness she's producing and starts fingering herself, moaning into your pussy. You've never seen Ellie so eager and you're loving it. The vibrations of her moans into your cunt just make things feel even better. You put your hand on her head and tug at her auburn hair so she doesnt stop what she's doing.

She then starts prodding at your entrance with a second finger and inserts it without warning, making you gasp. She looks up at you as she does it and laughs to herself once she sees your reaction. She starts moving her fingers again “You like that?...” She smirks. All you can do is nod. “I knew you liked me all along, you just didn't want to admit it…” She moves faster now making you moan even more. She sucks your clit one last time before coming back up and kissing you passionately. She muffles your moans with her lips and you kiss her back letting your tongues intertwine. She is kissing you hungrily and doesn't want to stop. As the kiss quickens, so do her fingers, making you get closer to your release.  She looks you in the eyes as she inserts a third finger inside you. You frown your eyebrows as she does it trying not to look away from her green eyes. She smiles as she sees your whiny face. “Fuck… You feel so good baby.. I'm gonna make you cum, yeah?” As she says this she starts going faster and hitting the spot that makes you go crazy, making you moan louder than before and roll your eyes to the back of your head. She bites her bottom lip as she watches your reaction to her three fingers inside your tight hole. She keeps her pace going as she watches you reach higher and higher  closer to your peak. 

Your mind is starting to go blanck as the pleasure she's giving you makes you feel better than ever before. When you feel like your orgasm is about to wash over you you look back at her in the eyes. “Fuck… Ellie i’m… I'm gonna….” Before you could finish your sentence You feel your orgasm starting. Ellie cant take her eyes off of you, she's completely intoxicated. “That's it, cum for me… cum on my fingers…” You feel your body reacting to her words and you can't hold it back anymore. You cum as she's fingering you with all her skill.  “That's it… give it all to me…” She says looking down at your cunt filled with her fingers. her eyes shine as she sees all your cum. 

She slowly helps you come out of your high as she kisses you and starts moving her fingers slower until she eventually stops. She takes her fingers out of your cunt slowly, mesmerized by all of your cum. She then brings them to her mouth and sucks every last drop of your juices. She moans as she tastes you, it's like she's been starving for weeks. After, she kisses you so you can taste yourself on her tongue and lips. She smiles while she kisses you and caresses your face and hair. She gets up for a second and comes back from the bathroom with a wet warm towel to clean you up. She then lays beside you on the couch and holds you in her arms as you two cuddle for a bit. You hug her back tightly and don't want to let her go ever again. Her body feels so warm and soft against your skin. Both of your breaths start to slow down as you hold each other.

Ellie looks at you, her eyes are shining, she never felt so linked with anyone like she does with you in this very moment. You look back at her with love. You never knew you could feel the way you do about her ever. She is the most important thing to you at the moment, just like you are hers. A few minutes into the cuddle she says quietly in your ear. “I think I might love you…” Your heart starts beating harder now as you hear her words. You hug her tight and nuzzle your head into her neck. “I think I have loved you since the start…” You whisper to her. She holds you tighter and kisses your forehead. She covers you both with a fuzzy blanket and you both fall asleep holding one another. Maybe you never hated each other after all.

[vampirevatican]

Haven’t finish shark bait and haven’t yet been plagued with thoughts BUT consider the shiver with a chronically online sacrifice. Always quoting some vine or TikTok or tumblr or so on. Like imagine about to be sliced and their finally words are “this might as well happen. Adult life is already so weird” and then they survive only to say “mother trucker dude that hurt like a buttcheek on a stick”

bestie, i've been thinking about this and the first thing on my mind was me recently making a habit of saying "my tummy is doing the 23 skiddo". anyway without further ado,

tiggy

he finds it extremely funny and i promise you he joins in

which causes you to do a crash course on human pop culture

and now he's reciting niche internet memes, vines, tiktoks, and youtubers

much to gw's annoyance at times, to lee's fascination so you also teach him, and rhin at best finds it endearing but other times he may agree with gw

my favorite. as posted, "i dont fight for my respect, bitch, i fight for dick." but also, "baby girl im finna rock yo shit!" and he'd be grinning while saying it, we know this

as for vines... "what up im tiggy, im 25, and i can't read" or "that was legitness"

gw

i feel like he'd look on in disbelief, awe, and then burst out laughing

like, wow.. pretty ballsy for a human, or shit- do we have another tiggy on our hands?

we all know he loves tigs, so when the sacrifice is just as calmy unhinged it interests him a bit

when you get tiggy in on it to tho he surely mutters about how you shouldn't have been posideon blessed... we know he doesn't mean it tho

all that to say there's a chance he can join in on the mess too, but it's very subtle and it's like an inside joke with you three

for the gw folks, "so no head?" and he just breaks some shit in his room or storms off to the barracks

"don choked me today, so im starting a fundraiser to kill the sea witch. the benefits of killing her is i'd get chokeheld way less."

NO WAIT SHOW HIM "my main glow is to blow up" AND HE IS LOOSING HIS SHIT, so is tiggy but i swear that's his favorite

rhin

hit him with the "im 27" when he celebrates yall's 1 year anniversary and i promise you he is caught between laughing and sighing

he's already the mom friend, the calm collected amidst the chaos, so meeting a human like this def doesn't put him off but he defo grows into finding it endearing

favorite, if he joins in, is him and gw arguing and he just yells "THAT'S MY OPINION"

because him and gw are foils in my mind, him shouting that mid fight is something that a. is already unexpected and b. is enough to make gw nearly laugh and settle down the argument into a conversation

he sees you do anything? "...wow"

another fave fitting him, "but imagine how tired we are. imagine how tired we are of it." and i swear he uses it in meetings.

lee

you have to teach him the references he will not shut up about them

unlike tiggy he doesn't use them at random but picks out favorites to memorize and starts from there.

as someone who like leeneb, he totally tells neb about it and they start making references together and you couldn't be more proud

teching lee and the first thing you say together "do i give a fuck. no, not one. how many fucks do i give. zero. exactly, so therefore your comment is both of you snap your fingers irrelevant."

building his confidence in bdsm and him being on at least speaking terms with the doctor but also teasing him for not being fit for bdsm truly, "im sorry, not everybody fits in the bad bitch genre… its a genre… not everybody fits on the roster."

[via-l0ve]

Hi I want to request Spn boys dating someone who is a few years younger than them (They almost have to be in crowley and castiels case) and they sometimes use slang that they don't get at all. I loved the way your wrote Gabriel in latest work so could you add him.

I understood that reference! (SPN pref!) 🩷

A/n: hi anon! i love this idea!! i hope you enjoy :)

warnings: swearing, modern vine/tiktok references

Dean:

“no, y/n!! you don’t understand! this is important, you could’ve died back there!! you need to be more careful! i’m tired of-“

“no need to shout. no need to yell. shut your eyes, take a deep breath.”

“…”

“aww look! you’ve gone all quiet.”

“what the fuck was that?”

you take it to your advantage when he’s arguing and just slip in some vine references (idk if anyone understands that one but i love it.)

“y/n, you want avocados on your toast like a heathen?”

“it’s an avocado! yayyy!”

“are you having a stroke? it’s just an avocado.”

one time a demon came through and a fight broke out and the table broke

“the tables broken. i’ll have to go out and get a new one in the morn-“

“oh no!! our table! it’s broken!!”

“…i just said that.”

the poor man is SO confused

Sam:

side. eye.

he’s flabbergasted

let’s say he’s mad about something okay?

he’s ranting and ranting and then he turns to you

“woah. calm down there jamahl. don’t pull out the nine!”

he’s giggling tho

he thinks it’s entertaining how you just say things for fun and it confuses everyone in the room

also also also

he tells you the most depressing news about the world and you go

“oh. slay.”

“slay? i just told you 20 people died y/n are you okay? are you high?”

“i wish i was.”

“what.”

lmfao i’m sorry but imagine in the middle of a hunt you get punched in the face by a demon or something and he turns to you and

“you okay?”

“oh! oh! call an ambulance! call an ambulance! but not for me!!!”

and then you kill it.

he falls in love even more.

Castiel:

poor baby is so confused

“where are you going, y/n?”

“wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy.”

“w-what? weather boy? i’m an angel of the lord-“

it’s not even vine. if you use slang he is so confused

“she thought she ate that up.”

“ate what up? what was she eating y/n?”

“no… no she wasn’t eat-“

you do it just to mess with him lol

“cas, you’re such a snack.”

“huh?”

your humor makes him so confused

“cas! look at this video of a gerbil running up to the camera and it freezes right on his dumb face.”

“y/n you concern me.”

“i was laughing for ten minutes.”

crowley:

he is so confused

he thinks your dying

but he also just goes along with it

any vine references he giggles a little bit ngl

he thinks you’re so funny even if he dosent get it too much LMFAOO

he gives you the look every time you reference something.

“was that a vine thing?”

he says meme like sebastian stan

“mee-me.”

“was that a mee-me?”

“meme, crowley.”

“oh. meeh-me.”

“no🩷.”

i’m cackling

i feel like he sucks at texting bro.

“hey bestie how was ur day?” - you

“good bestie i am not your bestie i am crowley your lover”

“use punctuation.”

he dosent understand your new language but he tries to keep up.

[clevercatchphrase]

Cheers to a decade

My blog is 10 years old today. I have some thoughts.

On Januray 22nd, 2015, I made this tumblr blog. I remember it being my second semester of my senior year in college and feeling lost and depressed in my dorm room. Despite being in the class of 2015, I had technically graduated the winter prior, having come in to college with enough AP credits from high school to be ahead a semester. I remember not being ready to become an "official" adult yet. Despite having a degree, I didn't feel like I had enough choices in my future, so I stayed an extra year (3 semesters) and got a second degree before finally just being too sick of college life to stay there any longer.

I made this blog to practice art, but in truth, I think it was to distract myself from existential dread of being bottle necked into an occupation I didn't want with little to no choice of upward movement. I can't remember my exact thoughts, but I have a strong feeling it was along the lines of "if I can't get a job I like with my entomology degree, then I will practice art and try my luck as a freelance artist!" Not that freelance is any easier than an hourly paid 9 to 5, but at least it let me feel like I had more options.

It's so surreal scrolling back to that very first year. I posted a lot more frequently and did a lot more doodles and sketches and figure drawings back then. I didn't care about scheduling or queuing posts. I saw a cool tutorial? Neat, I'm reblogging this right now. just pumped out a 2 minute doodle of an animal, and it's going up on the blog immediately. I did more art challenges. Heck, I made a 50 day art challenge for homestuck and DID it! I made my very first long form song comic less than a month after creating this blog. It was for kingdom hearts set to the song "king" by Lauren Aquilina (which was almost certainly inspired by the LoZ song comic made by caffeineandcarpaltunnel set to the same song 2 years prior. (and I don't even play loz, I just liked the song)). I can't help but question myself; "where did all this motivation go?" "Where did all that passion go?" "Now I only post one piece of art a week and queue all the other stuff in november only." (Well, I didn't start doing that last thing until 2022, so I guess I can always revert my neurotic habits). But then I have to remember that until the summer of 2016, I didn't have a job. I didn't have bills. I lived in dorm rooms and off of college loans that funded my meal plan. Any time I wasn't studying or hanging out with other Cepheids (shout out to the 3 of you who know what that means) I was undoubtedly on the internet, enjoying what the 2010's web had to offer.

Can you believe youtube hadn't officially been around for 10 years at that point? musical.ly hadn't merged with TikTok yet because TikTok hadn't even been created in 2015. Vine still existed. This blog is even older than Undertale's official release.

I can't help but think of my life in "chunks" or "eras", some based on where I lived at the time, some based on the state of the world at the time, but a majority of it based on the media I was obsessed with at that time. (For example, 1998 to 2002 I refer to as the "hawaii era" because my family was military and we were stationed in Hawaii.) Shorter eras can also exist within bigger eras, like 2016 to 2020 is my zoo era, because I was a part time zookeeper, but it exists within my undertale era, which is still ongoing (this hyperfixation has a choke hold on me). So whenever I am given a date, I cross-reference it with what era of my life it occurred in, comparing it to my mental state and what was happening with my life. This blog started in my homestuck era (which went from early 2011 to late 2015) and it fucking showsssssss.

Another example; some of the earliest art on this blog was for Kingdom Hearts, because I am a KH fan. KH3 released in 2019. My blog had just turned 4 years old THREE days prior in 2019. KH3 will be SIX years old three days from today. 2019 was before the pandemic. I was still at my zoo job. Ghost switch wasn't even 1 year old yet. It's this kind of mental math that I am constantly doing for everything all the time whenever I have a date to compare to. Why do I do this? I have no clue. To measure up progress or advancements? To contrast what I've accomplished in that same amount of time versus what others have achieved? I don't know, but I've always done it and I will never stop. The endless forward march of time bewitches me so in this way.

Looking at the years and dates, remembering how it overlapped with my time in college and the memes of the early 2010s, which reminds me of my college era (fall 2011 to spring 2016) which brings up a whole well of other memories, like the world ending in 2012, the let's players I'd watch because I didn't have a gaming console or tv in my dorm, the basketball concessions I'd volunteer at to pay for my ticket to go to the student-run convention in the spring, the libraries and computer labs and dining halls, and shitty dorm room thermostats in winter and it's blaring fire alarms that would go off at 3 am because people microwaved popcorn wrong, and the time it rained so hard on campus that the basement hangout zone flooded.

Man... this whole thing got melancholic. I thought it would be nostalgic, but now it feels like I'm doing an elephant walk for my own blog (again, shout out to the three of you who knows what that even means). I don't know if my past self would recognize or approve of who I am now. And yet, I also can't say i've changed all that much. I still live at home with my family because I can't afford a house of my own. I still keep up with the youtube channels I subscribed to in 2013. I still check in on the webcomics that went on indefinite hiatus in 2010. I still use the same deviantart account I made in 2007. I still log on to my neopets account that I made in 2004.

This blog has been with me through a third of my life.

I don't know what I'll do when I finish Ghost Switch. (which will still take me 6 more years to finish, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere soon). Maybe i'll go back to posting shitty little doodles that I drew quickly in 2 minutes to practice figure drawing. Maybe I'll finally learn to code and make that visual novel I've been brainstorming since 2017. Maybe I'll make more (shorter) webcomics with my own OCs. Maybe I'll sit down and actually seriously think about professionally editing and querying a few of those novel drafts I wrote for nanowrimo, which I've also done for 10 years now, too. Maybe I'll come out of the closet and finally embrace the fact that I am a furry and draw nothing but anthro wolves and dogs.

Last year, I pulled out 10 old composition notebooks that I used as diaries for the years 2005 to 2010. This covered the beginning of seventh grade for me, to the end of 11th grade. Rereading these journals was simultaneously the most hysterical things I've ever written as well as the most depressing shit I've ever written, but that's just middle and high school for ya, babe. Still, I bring it up because when I look back on the past, I never know what I will think or feel about the past in hindsight. Seeing so many informative and hilarious posts from those early years fills me with great joy and also great sorrow, because those times are gone now. The internet landscape has changed so much, tumblr included. I do wish I could go back, sometimes. To go back to being so care-free, to relive those highs fandoms gave me when everything was new and exciting and happening Right Now, to be less stressed out about the state of the world, to laugh at stupid nonsensical rage comic memes.

But I also want to stay right here. To be proud of how far I've come, to appreciate what I've accomplished so far, and to remind myself that Today is good, too. I don't want to waste all my time wishing to go back to the past, because in 10 years from now, I'm going to wish I could come back to Now.

Do I even think tumblr will still be around in 2035? Probably. We're kinda like a roach like that, and also i've got some posts queued for 2033 that i need to see go live for The Bit.

Anyway, to end this reflection on a more positive note, thanks for hanging around for so long. We're all stuck on this glue trap together, but I'm glad I'm with you. These last 10 years have been interesting and wild, both on and off the internet, and I hope the thrills don't stop anytime soon.

[hurtfortea]

Was doing some writing exercises and...

So, I decided to use a three random word generator to get, well, three random words to create scenes from. Strangely, they all turned out kind of whumpy! Perhaps this is just a sign that I am a very dark minded person, but hey-

Figured I'd share.

Prompt #1: bulb, offender, proposal

"Stop! You have nowhere left to run. Put your hands on your head!" She shouts, coming to a stop a couple paces behind him. He freezes at the end of the hall, slowly lifting his hands. They link together behind his head as he stares at the concrete wall in front of him. "Get down on your knees!" She demands. He turns to face her instead, looking strangely relaxed, despite having a gun pointed at him. "I said get down!"

He sighs. "I want to make you an offer."

"You don't have anything I want." She snaps, eyes narrowing.

"Oh yeah? How about your life? Look down."

Inexplicably, her throat tightens, and her eyes slowly trail from him to the ground around her feet. She keeps her gun pointed ahead, though. There are vines all over the floor, some sprouting strange little buds. One, with its stem crushed under her foot, is pointed up at her, its little pedals parted slightly. There's a bit of, barely visible, green gas seeping from it. Slowly, she lowers her gun.

"What's your offer?"

Prompt #2: error, whisper, analysis

"No, no, no," she says, watching the monitor freeze, an error warning popping up at the center.

"It was never going to work," a voice whispers in her ear, and she whips around, but there's no one there. Slowly, she turns back to the computer, running her fingers through her greasy, unkempt hair.

"I'll figure it out. I have to."

Prompt #3: refer, urgency, steep

"My doctor told me to come to you, please, you're the only one who can help us!"

The man frowns, his wrinkles accentuated by the expression. "The operation won't be easy. I'll need proper payment."

"I'll give you anything you want! Anything!"

He leans closer, his eyes lighting up a sickly yellow. "Even yourself?"

Prompt #4: compensation, pain, poll

He curls further in on himself, clutching his broken body.

"We need to decide on what to do with him." One of the men standing over him say.

"Ah, we seen dis shit before. No one ever gets away with the cover up. The secret will come out eventually, ya?" Another asks.

"You've been watching too many movies, Lonnie."

"Nah, he's got a point. How 'bout we take this guy to the nearest hospital, and he can agree to keep his trap shut. Eh? Right, buddy?" The man prods him with a foot, and he groans, nodding slightly. Anything, if they'll just get him some medical attention.

"Pah, if you haven't fucking noticed, there's a reason we're driving on the back roads! If we go out to town, someone's gonna notice none of us are fuckin sober!" At this point, he can hardly tell which of them is speaking.

"Alright, you've got a point. How about we just call someone then?"

"What's to say he doesn't talk?"

"Screw it, how about we just pay him? What do ya say, kid? Wanna make some cash?" They nudge him again, and he releases a low whine.

"Let's vote on it, ey, lads? Everyone for doin nothin?"

It's an excruciating couple of minutes before they come to a decision, and he flinches when something drops on his face. It feels like paper. His eyes open to see bills. Dollar bills.

"Dere ya go, bud, that should cheer ya up."

"Good luck, pal!"

"Don't go yapping."

With that, they leave him. He listens to the sound of their car as it starts and then speeds away. The crickets sound loudly in the forest around him, the sky near black. He wonders if they called anyone.

[eravicis]

Solo Leveling // Legends Never Die

Title: Chapter 10 - Grind Series: Solo Leveling ( I Alone Level Up ) Pairing: Sung Jin-woo/Original Female Character Rating: Mature Chapters: 10/? Word Count: ~6304 A/N: It only took… three years… haha… did you miss me? ;; It's been so long that I wonder if people will like this chapter… hope you like it! ><;

Again, I will tag the appropriate tags at the beginning of each chapter to avoid general spoilers.

*agasshi (아가씨) - miss *halmeoni - granny/grandmother *eomma - a casual reference to mother/mom

I tried adding some introspection, but I think that's hard to do in that situation.

Summary: Jinwoo is faced with an ultimatum, and Yoona stumbles her way into an "easy" way of grinding through the system.

—  x  —

AO3

Lizards.

It's a slang term that refers to the people who betray other party members, saving their own skin and leaving them behind. It's not the same as the situation with Jinwoo or Yoona in the Double Dungeon since they had volunteered to be left behind so as not to drag down the party in their escape. These people, however, save themselves for their own personal gain.

Jinwoo recollects a conversation he had with another Hunter named Oh. He clarifies that because being a Hunter is dangerous, it's expected that risk and injuries come with the job. However, the problem with the job is that their current electrical technology loses its functions once it enters the Gate. Or rather, it's more like there is no technology that's able to connect to the other side of the gate. Thus, people cannot watch what's happening inside the Gate from the outside. (It's been said that humans and hunters have yet to develop the necessary tech to withstand the transport through the portal due to the high mana density.)

This makes it very difficult to prove a crime has been committed inside the dungeon. Without the security of technology to monitor inside the dungeons, there is no way to stop a hunter from committing any sort of crime. So the weaker someone is, the more expendable they become. However, if someone is strong, people seek that strength and will cling to them.

But, if a hunter says that they're useless or even get in the way, then, like a lizard leaving its tail behind, a person can end up being cut in more than one way.

And it's this specific warning that repeats itself in Jinwoo's mind as Jinho panics, watching their exit disappear. Even if they tried to stop them from trapping them within the boss room, the attack force was ready to strike them down if anything changed.

Paying attention to details wasn't needed, hm? Jinwoo suddenly understands what Hwang Dongsuk means. 

Dropping the bags onto the ground, he muses that this giant spider monster, the boss, is nothing like his traumatizing experience in the Double Dungeon. In fact, there's a feeling that perhaps this is fate that he gets this opportunity to test his current abilities on a C-Rank dungeon boss.

"That's mine," he says, his dagger summoned to his hand as he prepares for combat.

And for the first time, he smiles with confidence.

—  x  —

The destruction where the Gate opened is disastrous.

There's shouting in the distance, but what remains of the park is gone and, instead, is littered with debris and wounds on the earth from the blasts in the ensuing battle. What people could be saved are pulled off the field and the only people left are some Hunters trying to fend off the boss.

Yoona runs as fast as she is able to get closer. But from a distance, she could only watch who she could assume to be the healer dropping to the ground from mana exhaustion. The only person left standing appears to be a tank, holding his shield up. In front of him is a plant-like creature, tall and massive, that stands easily four stories tall, wood and vines making up its form between its bark. It stands in front of the blue portal, wavering and threatening to allow more creatures to escape the dungeon. Its build is very similar to that of a stocky golem, a four-legged creature with a tree trunk for its face. Glowing green eyes gleam from between its bark as its front arm lifts and quickly drops it.

But the back of the head of the tank bracing for impact is familiar, someone she didn't expect to see so soon on the frontlines.

"Adrien!"

His head doesn't turn, bringing up his shield to block an incoming attack from the large plant-like golem.

Yoona doesn't want to assume, but it looks like she has caught them between waves. This also means that they don't have much time for Adrien to catch her up on what's happened thus far. This creature looks like they're the last one of the group that's managed to escape the dungeon's gate.

The healer passed out, exhausted, with her health low to the point that it's in danger. Yoona sees both of their health bars above their heads, like a video game, and the corners of her mouth twitch. Honestly, how much is the System making her see this as a video game instead of a life-or-death situation?

Clearly, someone has a terrible sense of humor.

She doesn't even think when she utters a healing spell with the wave of her hand, the sparkling glow that comes from her fingers shimmering over Adrien, who's about to take another blow to his shield. He manages to brace it in time as he is enveloped in the healing glow of her healing magic. He sinks into the earth under its forceful weight, cracking and breaking the earth around him, a grunt before he changes it into a yell to shove the creature off his shield.

Yoona slides into place beside the healer, looking over the healer's condition. She's weak, dripping in cold sweat, and exhausted from mana exhaustion, on top of the low health. She waves a hand over her face and utters a heal to watch most of their injuries disappear and finally breathe without the distress.

The creature shudders, stumbling back from how Adrien threw it off-balance.

He spares her a glance back with a small grin. "Much thanks for the assist."

"Of course," she responds with a grin, happy to see her friend again. But this isn't the time to play catch-up.

The creature slams its large hoof-like feet down on Adrien's shield again and he gets shoved deeper into the earth.

"Need help?"

"A little," he grunts and shoves the creature with more strength again once Yoona has finished healing him to full.

Huh, finished healing him. Is there something he should be aware of? Above all else, healed him to full? This is Yoona that came to his aid, right? But, she has… white hair?

The idle thoughts disappear when the golem drops its foot back down on the shield in a rushing force that Adrien gets pummeled, disappearing into the earth under his buckler like a hammer hammering a nail into the ground.

Setting the healer away from the battle, Yoona pulls her staff out from her inventory in a shimmer of electrical golden light and it swirls around her in anticipation of what's to come. With a grin, Yoona twirls the staff in her hand. No longer does she feel intimidated by such a daunting and seemingly overwhelming creature from the Gate, but Yoona is excited to test out just how powerful this new staff of hers is.

—————  x  —————

(!) 𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 [POISON] is ineffective against TREE GOLEM!

—————  x  —————

A pity, Yoona thinks. But it confirms that it's a golem rather than a living creature. She had a feeling that the area-of-effect poison would be ineffective against it. Idly, if she was a fire mage, she could probably do some really intense damage. Well, if this were a video game that's based off of elemental properties like a certain little pocket monster series.

Still, she casts a buff spell on herself, which buffs all of her physical and defensive stats temporarily, and takes off running.

The golem notices her and turns in her direction.

It's too slow to respond when Yoona runs until she's just in front of it, and then jumps straight up. With more strength than she realizes she has when she becomes level with its face, Yoona takes this opportunity to stab the golem in its eyes with her spear.

With a roar, it pulls its head away from the offending weapon.

With the strength she now has, thanks to her recent level gain, she pulls back and her staff-turned-spear cleaves clean the head of the golem off of its trunk body. And in nanoseconds, Yoona watches as its vines move swiftly to grab for its head. 

In the same momentum, Yoona doesn't give it a chance to recover, and she twirls in mid-air, grabs an ax from her inventory, and drops its blade down into the center of the trunk where its head once was. With how much force she applies to the ax, she continues the motion with several strikes from her left to her right and back again before the ax breaks from fighting against the golem's trunk.

As it shatters, it disappears into the air in a fit of blue light and sparkles when she releases it.

With its trunk cleanly cut open from her ax, it exposes its center, the core. Different from the monster's magic cores that drop from a monster's defeat, this one is what controls this creature. From somewhere else, its monster magical core will appear.

Dropping down onto the staggering headless body, Yoona lifts her spear and points the sharp blade at the core. Without pause, she brings it down and breaks the jewel-like blue orb, breaking it into near halves.

With a broken groan of wood grinding, it stumbles and drops to its knees, shaking the earth.

—————  x  —————

(!) 𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 You have leveled up!

—————  x  —————

She blinks at the notification. Really? How easy is it really to level up like this? Still, she's not going to complain if it means she's leveling up. However, she wishes with every level up, she has something more than that to allot more points into her stats.

Maybe she's going about this wrong. Idly, she makes a mental note to look over the interface again later.

Canceling the effect of her buff spell, Yoona jumps down to the ground where Adrien is busy digging himself out of the hole. He blinks when he realizes the golem is down. His head swivels, blinking repeatedly when his gaze lands on Yoona.

She twirls the staff and replaces it back inside her inventory in a flash of light, making her way over to him. Her gaze subtly narrows when the hairs on the back of her neck lift and she tries to resist the urge to look around, aware that she's being watched. Yoona needs to feign ignorance or else, it's possible that those watching would figure out she's been Reawakened.

"Need a hand?" she asks again. It's amusing considering he's about halfway out of the hole and is still waist-deep inside it.

"Yeah," he says, holding his hand up from the hole. She braces his wrist and pulls him out with surprising ease.

Yoona lets him go as Adrien blinks, looking her over and dusting himself off while she looks at her hand and flexes her fingers. How curious; normally, Adrien is considerably heavier than he looks because he's muscular. Plus, equipped with the gear, he's a size that someone of her frame would have trouble moving. 

"Yoona?"

The incredulous tone comes when comprehension dawns on him.

She turns her head to face him, giving him a small smile.

"No, wait," he says, shaking his head in disbelief and lifting a hand to her and the other to his head, "you can't be her—last I checked, she had black hair and her healing spells literally couldn't heal me to half health, let alone to full." He drops his hand and crosses his arms across his chest with a scrutinizing stare.

"Who are you?"

"Haha." Yoona averts her gaze and nervously forces a laugh, wondering how she's going to explain to Adrien that she experienced a Reawakening and is capable of getting stronger? Hell, she wonders if he would even believe her. Much less believe her about her ability to see now an interface that she calls her own personal video game. Even if the consequences of said video game mean the end of people's lives.

Adrien arches a brow.

"A-ny-way, we should head inside the gate and kill the boss before any more of those creatures respawn," Yoona says, holding her hand to her eyes to peer at their surroundings when there seem to be no more creatures around that have otherwise escaped. However, in doing so, she can't seem to see who it is that's watching her, but she can sense that there are two B-Rank Hunters nearby. They weren't there earlier when she took down the golem, but definitely after.

Maybe if she really tried, she could probably throw a dagger in the direction just to scare the living daylights out of them.

He squints and then stares at her for a moment longer before hefting a heavy sigh. "Alright, I'll let it slide this time but—!"

"—… But what?" She looks hesitantly in his direction. Honestly, lying has never been her forte.

"You owe me some kind of explanation other than what I can only assume is… whatever I think it is."

This time, Yoona's wariness drops and she's left surprised. Taken aback by his vague wording, her brows quickly furrow when her thoughts start running. Assumptions like he's on the radio with the UK Hunters Association or perhaps, the people that she senses that are nearby might have something to do with it.

There's a sharp look in his eye that warns her to leave it at that and radios that all is clear and that he's heading into the Gate.

He gestures with his head for them to head inside and with one final cursory glance around, Yoona follows.

Inside the Gate, a forest with high temple walls greets her with tall trees and high underbrush. They stand in a clearing in the middle of a forest where its canopy shrouds the floor of the forest in shifting shadows. The temple walls make it feel like a maze and the canopy of the trees is the ceiling.

"Damn," Adrien swears.

Yoona has seen her fair share of Gates and sometimes there are new ones to explore. This one is a meld of the typical forest dungeons often found through a Red Gate—a dungeon that locks its Hunters inside until all of the hunters have died or it's cleared—and a typical dungeon. Generally, each one specifically has limitations, much like typical dungeons where there is a direct or a maze-like path to be explored upon entry.

"What? This dungeon isn't to your liking?" Yoona asks, somewhat amused.

"It's fine," he shrugs weakly. "But, I just realized, how are we going to clear the dungeon and beat the dungeon boss by ourselves? We're not exactly high-ranking Hunters."

Yoona feels it's probably safe now to tell him about her recent changes.

"But!" Adrien takes a few steps forward, casting a glance in Yoona's direction with an arched brow. "Something tells me that something happened to you after we left that hell of a place." He steps close to her, relieved and with bright eyes.

Placing a hand on her shoulder, he gives her a watery smile. "You made it and—" he squeezes her shoulder, "—I'm really glad you did."

Yoona smiles, nodding, and placing a hand on his to give him a reassuring squeeze. "Yeah," she says, feeling a strange lump forming in her throat. "A lot happened."

Adrien quirks a crooked smile, pulling Yoona in for a tight hug. Yoona forces the lump down her throat, appreciative of his genuine care for her welfare. It's been far and few between since people often wanted something from her or found her more of an inconvenience. But Adrien has always been a friend first and foremost, even after they found out their ranks as Hunters.

So when he pulls away, he clears his throat and straightens, giving her another look over.

"Hm."

He glances around the dungeon. Scratching his head, he crosses his arms across his chest and arches a brow. He returns his attention back to Yoona.

"So," he begins, giving her an expectant look.

Nervously, Yoona laughs and averts her gaze.

"You took down that golem with no problem—you wanna share something with the class? Or namely, I don't know, me? Cause I feel like I need to know something before we die trying to clear this dungeon." And then he arches a brow. "And weren't you… hm, I dunno, shorter?"

He makes a gesture hovering over her head and to where she comes up to his shoulder.

Lifting her gaze up to the taller, Yoona clears her throat and places a hand on her hip. She tries not to think about how her height correlates to Adrien. (But, she was definitely up to his chest before, no, wait, smaller? And now, she comes to his shoulder?) "Well, remember the double dungeon?"

The sound of the forest rustles in the back and the humidity is palpable that Yoona wipes at her brow. Even Adrien adjusts the armor he wears as he readies his equipment, sensing the change in the atmosphere. Again, Yoona pulls out her staff with a shimmer of light.

He twirls his sword in his hand before raising his buckler, moving ahead of her as they start venturing into the dungeon. "Is this a rhetorical question?"

Ah, right, stupid question but she honestly blames nerves. She isn't sure how he'd take the news, but she feels like she owes him that much, having been one of the few people who experienced the double dungeon. Adrien is one of the few people that's stuck with her since she started working as a Hunter.

"Wait." He turns his head to give her another look over and looks dumbfounded. "Did you get a Reawakening?"

"Focus, Adrien!" 

He shakes his head. "Talk and cover for me—surely, you can do that, can't you?"

Yoona makes a face but moves after him, positioned behind him for any attacks that would come from the front. She supposes old habits die hard and follows as she sighs, finding she isn't nervous about the dungeon, but rather how he'd react to her news. After all, she hasn't even told Jinwoo about it yet. Maybe it's just easier to tell Adrien since he was there—at least, he was there before she "died."

"There's not much to tell you except I might've Reawakened."

She resists the urge to grimace and slap herself on the forehead.

"'Might've? Might've? ' So you're telling me that your white hair has nothing to do with your highly probable Reawakening?"

Ah, she really can't fool him, can she? Foolishly, Yoona thought she could back out of telling him the truth, but she's come this far. The guilt that Adrien knows before Jinwoo manifests itself in her chest, clawing at her, but at the very least, she owes Adrien. He was there and it's not fair of her to keep this from him when it's all too obvious that he can see the changes.

She scratches her head and sighs. "Alright, so I—sort of, yeah—had a Reawakening, but when I got tested by the Monitoring Division, there was no change in my evaluation."

This is the truth, despite Adrien sparing her an scrutinizing look, opting in lieu of investigating around the corner of the dungeon. Somehow, she has a feeling he doesn't believe her. This is proven true when they clear a couple of floors of the dungeon, most of it emptied when the Gate opened earlier and let them roam outside in their world, and all Adrien does is sigh in the most exaggerated manner.

Dramatic, really.

"I'm serious!" Yoona decides to emphasize. "I was evaluated to still be an E-Rank when they came to the same conclusion you did. They were there when I woke up."

Adrien, again, remains skeptical, but decides after a moment more that he seems to believe her.

Their investigation through the dungeon is anti-climatic, finding that most of the monsters have already left the gate, leaving only the boss deep inside the dungeon. However, there's an odd tingle down her spine at the feeling when she approaches it. Nerves? Anxiety? No, it's probably something like excitement? Oh, yes, that's it.

It's been awhile since she got to test out the limits of her newfound abilities that she's excited about fighting this dungeon boss.

The boss, in the end, is at a higher level than the previous bosses she's fought before.

No, she's wrong.

There's more than one boss at the end, and she's positively giddy.

"But, something did happen while I was down there, and I don't know if you'll believe me," Yoona starts, wondering if this is okay. Telling Adrien before she's telling Jinwoo feels somehow wrong and her grip tightens on her staff before she relaxes again.

But Jinwoo wasn't there.

Would he understand?

"You won't know until you try and tell me, right?" Adrien shrugs. He relaxes now that they've cleared the dungeon. It seems the Gate has already released every creature from the dungeon out into the world. He sheathes his blade and continues to navigate the maze. "And at this point, I can almost believe anything can happen. If we can stumble upon a rare double dungeon that has S-Gate monsters inside it, then anything is possible."

"You think there's more than that out there?" Yoona blinks, incredulous. "And do you think our luck is really that bad?"

"Why not? These Gates only started showing up ten years ago and we still don't know everything about them or why they started showing up. Plus," Adrien pauses briefly to give her another glance, "anything's possible now. I really hope that we're really not that—" he grimaces, "—'lucky' to encounter another one of those dungeons."

Yoona presses her lips into a thin line, furrowing her brows. It's like a conspiracy theory, one that seems common on the internet. She can only imagine why they would come to this conclusion.

Especially when their theory holds true: at the end of this dungeon are two large creatures that she could guess as two boss monsters.

She senses it before she sees it in the next room over. They enter a cavernous room with large trees encompassing the sides and their long branches filling the ceiling and covering the sky. Large tiles and building pieces of an ancient civilization are littered into pieces on the sides, giving the impression the ceiling caved in and its debris is left in the middle of the room.

Movement in the corner catches their attention that Adrien barely lifts his shield in time to brace for impact.

"Adrien!"

It's an explosion of energy and debris that shoves Adrien from where he once stood, his feet sliding along the ground as he explodes into the wall of the temple. Smoke covers him that Yoona can't see whether or not—

Another movement on her other side that she barely lifts her staff in time to brace for impact and she's sent flying into the other wall in her own explosion of debris.

She coughs out, surprised, and barely moves in time when another movement in the smoke catches her off guard that she drops, crouches, and then lunges with her staff.

It barely nicks whatever is attacking her, taking advantage of the brief smoke to hide itself from her view.

But it's strong, sturdy, and she knows she hit it.

It takes a moment more that she dodges the next impact, jumping forward to duck into a roll that takes her a few steps closer back to the center of the boss room.

"Adrien! You doing okay?!"

"Oh, never better! Ugh," he groans as he manages to pull himself from being pummeled by whatever it is that is attacking them.

What on earth is this boss?

No, Yoona sensed two earlier—

The smoke finally clears as she hears the growling, low and deep, that she makes the connection that it's what she had speculated—two bosses.

Well, she speculated one mini-boss and the actual boss but watching as the two jaguar-like creatures circle them told her otherwise. One is slightly smaller than the other with both sporting inky black coats and four large black wings along their back. While they don't have paws, they have talons, moving with surprising dexterity and quiet that Yoona swears they probably also had some kind of paw pad.

And they're both triple her height.

They circle her now as Adrien comes to the center of the arena. Yoona couldn't help the small smile she makes, an excitement she didn't know she could have in the face of danger manifesting in the face of a new challenge. Her grip on her staff tightens and then relaxes again, ready to move in the next moment she's ready.

Now, it'll be a little odd working with Adrien since she's Reawakened, but it can't be helped.

"Adrien, we're going to work together to take them down, right?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm the only one here that can help, so yeah!"

Even though she's not looking at him as they have their backs to one another, she can practically hear his eyes roll at her rhetorical question.

But she doesn't get to explain her plan when both of the jaguar-like creatures lunge and it takes all of what strength she has to take the weight of its force against the staff. It's heavy and she barely manages to brace for it. But feline creatures move just as fast as she's able to manage and the second paw comes that she barely manages to angle the staff just enough to block the paw.

However, she isn't quite right and its claws manage to just cut through her clothes that it draws blood.

Yoona winces and thinks of the buff skill that shrouds herself in a brief aura of red.

—————  x  —————

[SPELL: 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 has been activated.]

[Your SPEED and STRENGTH have increased by 30%.]

—————  x  —————

It's a little soon but she wants to take care of this quickly and before her [Fatigue] becomes a problem.

—————  x  —————

[EFFECT: "𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐙𝐄": The opponent will be paralyzed at a certain rate.]

[EFFECT: "𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍": Whenever a spell is cast, foes within 25 ft. of the caster will lose 1% of their health per second.]

—————  x  —————

She pushes back, sending the creature back that it's surprised, unable to find ground at the accelerated speed that comes from [Burn Booster.] The tip of the spear slices through one of its front legs that it cries when it's sent flying into the wall. And in one fluid motion, Yoona turns on her heel with the ease of a dancer to skewer the other that's digging its claws into Adrien's shield, right into its chest.

It reels back with a screech, realizing that this one is the mini-boss when she pulls her spear free to find that there's a red jewel adorning its neck.

"Cover me!"

Adrien tries to read what Yoona commands when she ducks, the other one coming forward from behind her once more with another lunge. He grunts from exertion at the weighted momentum when his shield barely manages to connect with the attacking Alpha. And while he's distracted, Yoona turns to spear the boss creature right into its breast. But it misses the mark of its heart and she braces herself.

Just like its partner did, it rears back with another screech and she pulls her spear back.

—————  x  —————

[EFFECT: 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐙𝐄 has been activated.] [EFFECT: 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍 has been activated.]

[The foe's resistance was too high. The effect(s) was canceled.]

[Fatigue: 39]

—————  x  —————

Damnit!

Yoona watches as Adrien falters, thinking victory is at hand when the other jaguar creature manifests and pounces. He barely manages to raise his shield in time as he's sent to the ground, barely able to withstand fang and claw as he's pummeled. His health bar rapidly falls when Yoona utters another [Heal].

—————  x  —————

[EFFECT: 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍 has been activated.]

[The foes' resistance was too high. The effect(s) was canceled.]

—————  x  —————

This immediately draws both of the jaguar creatures attention to her.

Damnit!

Sparing a glance back at Adrien, she finds him knocked out, but alive and breathing with his health in the clear. With his shield resting on his chest, at least, he's mostly protected for the moment that she diverts her attention back to the prowling jaguars.

How did Adrien get knocked out when she healed him to full? What's more, wasn't he just fine moments ago?

Yoona backs away from the two approaching prowling predators as both of their wings shimmer. The hairs on the back of her neck tell her that they're only going to get faster. There's no way that their only attacks as boss creatures are fangs and lunging claws.

She twirls the staff in her hands, making sure they both can see it, but she's vastly outnumbered. 

Just as she guessed, their wings shimmer and they both seem to take turns lunging as they begin to bounce off the walls. They become faster and faster and she's not able to block each of their attacks. Each one becomes heavier and heavier that she has a hard time keeping up until she's getting hurt. She can hear her health plummeting.

—————  x  —————

[EFFECT: 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐙𝐄 has been activated.]

[The foes' resistance was too high. The effect(s) was canceled.]

[Fatigue: 58]

—————  x  —————

Yoona isn't built to directly take hit after hit like this. And she's getting incredibly tired taking such heavy blows that she can tell if she tried taking any more of a beating, she won't make it. Why are they so fast and somehow, hitting her so goddamn hard ?!

And then, she sees it: her opportunity to break through.

—————  x  —————

[SKILL: 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐄𝐃 has been activated.]

[Your SPEED has increased by 30%.]

—————  x  —————

They both jump at the same time and she jumps up higher the moment they cross over one another. With one flick of her wrist, she swings the spear clear across the backs of their neck to the bone of where their spine connects their skulls. Instead, she meets resistance as she slices through the fanciful accessories adorning their necks.

But, it's deep enough to cause serious damage that their cries are enough to make her wince. She lands with another flick of the staff-turned-spear and braces herself, not wanting to give the jaguars any room to breathe. Yoona lunges, going after the jaguar on the right as it falters.

"Heal!"

—————  x  —————

[EFFECT: 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐙𝐄 has been activated.]

[𝐃𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐍 𝐁𝐎𝐒𝐒(𝐄𝐒) are paralyzed.]

[EFFECT: 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍 has been activated.]

[The opponent will lose 1% health per second.]

—————  x  —————

Rejuvenation floods her, relieving her of the built up fatigue as she begins to flick through her weapons repertoire to slice through the first winged jaguar. She summons forth an ax and slices through the tendons of their legs; summons a sword to finish the job as she cleanly beheads it; and, summons a claymore to double tap as she downward slices through its heart.

Taking that same claymore, she swings with a force the other winged jaguar isn't prepared for. It isn't able to move as it takes the blade straight through its heart. She sheathes the blade back into her inventory and summons the sword once more to behead the jaguar.

She drops to a knee, dropping the sword down to the ground as she hears pings going off once more.

Finally taking a breath, Yoona returns to standing as she swings her braid back and wipes her brow. She picks up the sword and returns it back into her inventory to draw out a dagger. Yoona is going to earn some money for all of her efforts, otherwise; there's no point in being a hunter. And plus, no one else is here, right?

Well, except Adrien and she pauses before going to the corpses of the creatures.

She makes her way over to Adrien, kneeling beside him to check both his pulse and his breathing. Thankfully, her initial glance at both the health bar and mana bar seem fine and he's not in any danger. But she does feel a small bump at the back of his head that matches the small little icon next to his health bar. Ah, did he fall in a bad way that either conveniently or inconveniently knocked him out?

Yoona isn't sure whether or not she's lucky or not that he didn't see how she took out the dungeon's boss. With a sigh, she decides to leave him be for the moment so she can go ahead and extract the mana crystals. The faster she does this, the sooner they can leave.

Using the knife with the precision and training Yoona gained from med school, she cuts out the crystals and stows them in her inventory. As she does so, all she can think about is how this will finally pay for her schooling and finally, start to get herself out of the negatives. Maybe if there's any extra, she can send some to Jinwoo…

At the thought, she hopes he's doing okay, lifting her gaze up at the sky as though her thoughts would reach him.

—  x  —

"Of course you'd betray me; I'm weak."

Jinwoo expects this, but color him surprised when Jinho decides to take his side. It didn't take very long for the words he knew were coming from Dongsuk. Is this really how these people are going to do this?

"Have you… ever killed someone before?" Their eyes gleam menacingly as they stalk toward Jinwoo and Jinho.

Jinwoo doesn't even get the chance to properly think of a reaction when the System seems to do it for him as it pings.

—————  x  —————

[An urgent quest has arrived.]

—————  x  —————

He flinches, at first, thinking the System is simply acting up, but then he gets blasted into the wall behind him.

That's not what really hurts, but rather the reminder of the anger and disappointment he felt back in the Double Dungeon. The Quest Info screen fizzles, like it's losing signal in comparison to where his mind has gone. Disappointment claws at him, irritated that he forgot. Anger burns inside of him until he feels like yelling at the world.

How?

Somehow, he remembers what Yoona told him before.

" To stay angry? I think you can stay as angry as long as you want ."

" Look, anger is okay, grief is okay, spite is okay ."

How? How? How? How?

HOW? 

HOW?

The simple question buries him, enraging him that he's this foolish, this weak STILL to think that he had any kind of trust in another person. He wants to scream, wants to yell, seething in the frustration and helplessness he once had. After all, at the end of all of this, he's at fault.

How could he have…

Forgotten what kind of place this is?

That this place is governed by the strongest, by the "Survival of the Fittest" principle?

His hand grasps hold of the stones next to him, slowly pulling himself out of the rubble as a cool fury washes over him. Jinwoo hasn't been thinking clearly until just now, but he's clear now. After all, time and time again, in all of these dungeons, he's overcome death that he could almost consider it a friend. And yet, he's recovered each time. Going back in despite the possible dangers, he's mistaken that these places were safe.

He was wrong.

The System is telling him, forcing him to commit murder.

They're a THREAT.

Steel steadies his hands when he found that the answer was easy, almost surprised at himself at just how easily he accepted what he's about to do. It's asking him to either kill them or die. Why would it give such an ultimatum if it didn't have something else in store for him? Or perhaps, the system would become complicated if he were to die because he refused to take a life.

This is neither a coincidence nor an act of goodwill and it's obvious now: the System needs him. And what it needs is for him to become strong, to steel himself against all possible foes that he may face in the future. It needs him to be strong.

Jinwoo lifts himself out of the rubble despite the blood covering part of his vision. A cursory glance at his health tells him that they took out just a little under half damage of his total health. That's plenty for what he's going to do now.

Ultimately, the System isn't trying to make him stronger, but rather, he can tell that it simply wants a more powerful version of himself.

Ah, now that he knows what it wants… if the System is going to use him, then he's going to use the System.

He stands and begins walking over toward the murderers.

"Since you guys are playing around with people's lives, I'm assuming that you're also prepared to face the consequences." Jinwoo cracks his knuckles at his sides, energy sparking across his frame in his silent fury. The System is forcing him to quickly accept the fact that these people aren't worth his time, worth the effort of keeping them alive.

"What is this idiot going on about?" asks the one Hunter with a buzzcut.

"Since you call yourselves hunters, I'm asking if you're prepared to become the hunted."

"Dongsuk, I'll take care of him," says a brown haired hunter that has his hair pulled into a ponytail. He approaches Jinwoo with a confident swagger that he even has the nerve of putting his arm around Jinwoo's shoulders.

"Look, man, it seems like you still don't fully understand the situation at hand."

In Jinwoo's right hand, electrical blue lightning flickers as he resummons his dagger.

For one single moment, he thinks of Yoona. Jinwoo thinks of Yoona, a healer, who tries her best to save lives . Yoona, who's becoming a doctor.

And Jinwoo takes his first life with a single flick of his hand.

[hugemilkshake]

Yet this is a part 3 to my developing story about my Parton OCs and the powdered basil torment officially starts now so have fun!

The Watchful Witch

-Platonic-

Part 1, part 2, part 4, part 5, part 6

“Powdered Basil, and Travelers you should all meet the witch! Or well the witches little helper and their helper! Oh Powdered Basil your going to love Y/N Cookies assistant!” Bubbling Oil Cookie took Powdered Basils hand and started to drag him along. The group followed suit afterwards

The street had cookies of various kinds wondering around, some were normal, some were faeries and then others looked like something the group had never seen before.

After a minute two cookies came into view, one was taller with a big witch hat on and the shorter cookie with a puffy jacket on.

Bubbling Oil practically dashed over, dragging poor Powdered Basil along. “Y/N Cookieee!” Bubbling Oil cheered.

Y/N Cookie turned around and greeted them, the cookie next to them also turned around. “I see you dragged the wolf back in” “Well the only reason why the wolf is even here is because we have travelers!” “Can you not call me a wolf-”Powdered Basil was cut off by Y/N Cookie

“Well greetings travelers, I am Y/N Cookie, and this is my helper Adele Penguin Cookie” Adele Penguin grinned before rummaging through a pocket and pulling out a pretty dull rock. Before walking over to Powdered Basil and Giving it to him.

“It’s very nice to meet you Mr Basil! I’ve heard a lot about you!” Adele Penguin smiled. Powdered Basil took the rock and he looked… confused…?

“What.. is this?” “It’s a rock! Its a sign of respect” “…I… see…” Powdered Basil sounded a little… put off. A bird soon flew down and landed on his shoulder chirping a few things.

“I’m terribly sorry to cut this meeting short but there’s something going on with the woodland critters” Everyone looks at him “Awwww your leaving so soon? Oh well… I guess you have to do your duties… well it was nice to see you again” Bubbling Oil pouted

Powdered Basil soon walked away in a hurry leaving the group with the three other cookies. “Well travelers, you should follow me, you should meet the other patrons. They are quite lovely to be around” Y/N Cookie spoke. The group soon walked down, closer to the town center.

Wizard Cookie soon asked a question “Y/N Cookie, I heard you were a witch… is that true?” “In some form, yes it is. I was baked by a witch to watch over the patrons and make sure their souls don’t become tainted by darkness.” Everyone collectively nodded. Soon put group of cookies started to ask questions about the patrons and the kingdom itself as they started to approach the town center

Here’s an Adele Penguin reference for you :3

……

…..

….

…

..

.

Woodland critters scattered about as Powdered Basil walked through some vines that hid a little clearing of Little trinkets

“…why… why did he give me this…? I’m… I’m Not supposed to get things… but… the others get things when they help people…” Powdered Basil looked at the rock in his hand

“…it… it… IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!” He shouted as he threw the rock at a glass vase, shattering it instantly.

[cookieeks-art]

Here’s a little project I worked on last year, but kinda, forgot to post? It’s a fake Red shoes art book spread for Edda! The composition, and art styles used, is mainly based on Snow White first page, and Arthur's second page from the actual art book, including of course the artist featured in them (aka Jeon Mi-jin (전미진) who drew the art that the art on the first page and the drawing to the top right on the second page is based on, Kim Sang-jin (김상진) aka Jin Kim who drew the art that the first drawing and the four lower drawings in the second page are based on, and Choi Minjeong (최민정) who drew the the art that the top middle drawing on the second page is based on.) (I had to use Google translate to get the names in the Latin alphabet, so I apologise if there’s any mistakes, I tried to keep the Korean name order for all the names, with the exception of Jin Kim.) [EDIT: I took a closer look Arthur’s first page today and realised that it served as a bigger inspiration for the first page that I drew then I remembered when first posting this, so shout out to that page as well which have two drawings made by Jeon Mi-jin and Choi Minjeong respectively.]

If you’ve been around for a bit you might also notice that two of the drawings on the second page are redraws of older sketches, which I mostly did as a fun treat for myself, since I find redrawing old art pretty fun. I also took this opportunity to give Harriet’s clothes a small makeover, taking some inspiration from Snow herself, a bit from the shapes of Drottning Kristinas gowns (like the drape around her shoulders and how puffy their arms are, and the general shape of the collar), and most likely from looking at details of other dresses I can’t recall at the moment (I do specifically remember looking up images of historical lace collars to get an idea of how they could look, but I don’t remember if I looked at a specific site or what sites I could have looked at in that case). I tried to keep it relatively simple with some spots for details, but looking at it now I’m not entirely sure how well it would fit the movies vine fashion wise (both Regina’s and Snow’s dresses both feel pretty modern to my amateur eyes looking at the cuts and shapes), then again I guess I can always say that the fashion is different kingdom to kingdom I suppose.

Also small shout out to Kay @the-moonlightknight who was someone who helped years ago to actually put words to Eddas personality back when I had to make a reference sheet for a discords event, which is the reference I went back to and used small parts of when writing the text for the first page.

(ID in alt and under the cut)

[ID:

Two fake Red shoes art-book pages depicting my oc Edda and Harriet (A pale chubby woman, with deep eyebags, brown hair and grey eyes).

The first shows Harriet, dressed in a blue dress with lace and snowflake themed embroidery, wearing a crown and matching necklace, with her hair up in a ponytail, is looking forlornly at the viewer, her hands held before her. Edda, dressed in her casual while fluffy shirt, dark muddy red skirt and bodice, and brown leather boots, is looking to the side with a lopsided smile and holding out her knife. Cookieek is written under both of them. Behind them is a wavy dark red graphic with a pattern of thin leaves. In the bottom right corner is two patterns running side by side, one of simple tight stitches, and a more detailed snowflake inspired embroidery pattern. To the upper right of the page is a block of text titled “Edda & Harriet”, and reading: “Edda is a wise woman in the woods that Arthur stumbles upon after entering Frode kingdom to search for it’s missing princess. Edda is also the identity taken on by said missing Princess Harriet after she was able to leave the castle behind. Her life as a mistreated princess has left her jaded and with a distain for nobility and royalty, but her escape has given her hope for a better life. In leaving the identity as Harriet Edda has made a big change in her way of dress, as well as letting the mask she’d been forced into as a royal slip. She’s determined, eccentric, and considerate, with a hunger for magic knowledge. At first she doesn’t realise she’s falling for Arthur, taken in by his ridiculous yet sensitive personality and his way of smiling, but when she does she’s sure she can’t tell him at risk of making things uncomfortable between them. She doesn’t realise that a lot of the ridiculous things Arthur has done has been to show love for her, and that they are both just as willing to sacrifice themselves for the other.”

The second is a page with drawings of Edda and Harriet. The first is a grey scale drawing Harriet looking mentally exhausted, with a thousand yard stare in a profile view. Second is a head shot of Harriet crying in a blue frilly nightgown as pale hands with long nails grip the sides of her face, tips of light brown hair hovering above her. Third is a drawing of Edda sitting and talking to someone while smiling as if she’s about to laugh. Fourth is a collection of greyscale drawings of Edda making a few expressions, such as: 1, looking intrigued while grinning sinisterly with a shadow over her eyes as she holds her chin, 2, looking in awe of something with shine in her eyes, her hands hovering in front of her, 3, looking embarrassed and startled, a blush across her face and her fist held to her chest, 4, scowling deeply with a dark shadow over her eyes. Cookieek is written under all of the images.

End of ID]

[penumbramewtwos]

Short story around the time of Unova's capture, and of Okita's origins.

PLEASE READ THE TW TAGS BEFORE READING!!!

Hearing nothing but echoing corridors, Gary Oak was sure he was done for after his trip into an infamous Aunuran desert Trapinch hole. With his head bound, he knew he wasn't out of the woods just yet. He hears a familiar craggy voice address him as he's pushed onto a chair and bound in an unknown room.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Said the unknown voice, Gary's ears piped up as the man continued.

"Just as nosy as your grandfather in the pursuit of knowledge, rest assured your nosiness ends here."

After the statement from the unknown man, Gary's head covering had been lifted off, revealing a dark room with a spotlight upon himself. He knows this man… Not only from the Kanto region, but as the head of Rocket industries in Aunura, Giovanni.

"tch, well well, I knew that old man stink was bound to be you. This whole place smells of retirement home and failed yakuza." Gary quipped.

Giovanni, looking the same as he did back in the mid 2000's aside from the hair dye running down his face, leaned in from his wheelchair towards Gary to offer a deal out of this place alive. "I know what you've been digging up… Our team has taken the liberty of confiscating your 'findings'. Rest assured, you won't be publishing any of them; in fact, you'll do as I say or you'll end up more dismembered than that arm you collected."

Giovanni leaned back in his wheelchair, with a large grin on his face creasing his crows feet even more. Gary was unphased by the threat and smirked back at the acquaintance as he spoke back in a nonchalant manner, "I heard on the grape-vine you're getting back into the genetics commissioning game, and had to check it out for myself! Seems like whichever geneticist you hired this time can't even get one of those creatures to form properl-"

"Enough talk!" shouted Giovanni. "There's one more thing, seeing as you're so interested in our development"

Giovanni leant forward once more with a stern look on his face, as Gary remained stonewalled. "Your skills will be needed here one day, 'Professor Oak', I know you've been collecting and studying Arceus plates for medical research for some time now."

Gary's eyes shuddered in anger, "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I W-"

"You despise the thought of pokemon in pain, and I'm giving you an opportunity to t-"

"Yeah yeah… So you'll put them in pain so I can take them out of it… Sounds completely ethical to do that to an innocent creature, Artificial or not…"

Giovanni paused and smirked as he leant back in his wheelchair. "So you know of the pokemon Mewtwo, and it's origins"

Gary Squirmed within his bound state in a fit of fury, "Why are you making so many!??! Some of them are still alive out there! The ones your disgusting cronies buried and chopped!"

"It doesn't matter, those ones are merely unable to form, as you put it yourself, Gary… We're nearly there, and I will have one obey my commands if it's the last thing I do on this Earth!" Givovanni coughed loud and hoarsely at the end of his statement. No one would tell if it was just his talking or the musty dark room that caused it.

Just as Gary was squirming around in his bindings, he'd been slowly able to get a pokeball to finally drop from his pants pocket, unleashing his Arcanine. "Grrrrwaarrh!!!"

In what felt like a flash, Arcanine chomped it's way through Gary's bindings and shoved Giovanni backwards into the wall with it's hind legs with no hesitation. Gary grabbed a hold of his Arcanine before using a teleportation device he refers to as 'Escape rope'.

Two Team rocket grunts charge into the room to assist the frail Giovanni as his phone rang, "Sir you need to see the medic! You shouldn't take thuds like tha-"

"I'M NOT AS DECREPID AS YOU ALL THINK!? Nghhh…"

Groaning from the incident, Giovanni reaches into his inner jacket pocket and pulls out a black rotom phone, answering it in a huff. "This better be good news! Have you found more DNA from the Unovan experiment, Drake!?"

Through the video call is a bright, curly haired woman with a piercingly defiant voice. Some of the team rocket grunts refer to her as 'the clown', as a smile has barely ever wiped off her face. Except for those few who tell tales of a grim reality behind the mask… "It's always good news! You just don't know how to take progress, ahahaha!!!"

Giovanni stared blankly into the phone's camera as she cackled, before continuing, "ahah… Well, not only did we get the rest of the samples, but we got the main cretin themselves here! Well, we let it go after we t-"

"YOU LET IT GO!?!?!? THAT WAS OUR CHANCE TO CLONE HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS OF THEM, YOU FUCKING IMBI- what!?" As Giovanni began to unleash his tirade, the clown, known formally as Professor Kana Drake, showed him a fogged up glass and metal chamber with what appeared to be a nearly complete foetus of a mewtwo.

"I hope you're read to listen or you wont get your kitty cats!" She widely grinned and giggled through her words.

"We let her go, as we still don't know how she even got pregnant in the first place"

"P-Pregnant!?" Giovanni spluttered, "They're pokemon? They are meant to have"

"Yes, Eggs! Ahahaha! We thought it best to let her go and hope that she is found again with another baby just for us, Gio!"

She laughed more and more maniacally before continuing "This one will be a sure thing, fuse it with a docile psychic pokemon or psychically gifted human and it'll be too indecisive to think for itself!"

Giovanni grumbled with reluctance, putting more faith in the eccentric genetisist. "Drake… Once you bring it back here, I'll take care of the other component…"

"Hahahaha!! Of course sir! I knew you'd understa-"

Giovanni had hung up before she even had a chance to finish. He leans forward again, almost lost in thought. A grunt goes to ask about his condition before they're cut off by Giovanni. "Have the Gym leaders of Symphony come to their senses yet?"

The grunt blankly stares at him before checking his watch in a hurry "a-ahh! sorry sir, right away! … … Their last email reads… uh…'Get fucked, we own the gym by law, no 'protection' money will be paid… Sincerely, Ai and Amare Spes… P S … How do you plan on forcing it from us? Your pokemon are undertrained and undervalued'."

Giovanni must have been infected with the clown's disposition as his smile widened, wrinkling his elderly face as he looked at an email on his rotom phone.

"Well, how about that… According to my intelligence division, they've frozen an embryo in recent days… How lucky for us".

[strawbubbysugar]

I don't know how to explain it but your Y/N gives me vine energy

Like I'm waiting for them to start quoting the Burger King Foot Lettuce vine from memory(yes that is a thing I do too so I can judge-)

They wouldve been a teenager right around the time of vine so they can absolutely quote almost every single popular vine from heart

They force the daycare attendant to watch a full hour long compilation so that their references make sense

Now Sun won’t stop coming up behind you and shouting “TECHNOLOGY”

[afreakingdork]

Above Table

RotTMNT Donatello x Reader One-Shot

Warnings/Tags: General Audience Rating, Secret Crush, Love, Love Confessions, Confessions, Characters Play Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons References

Synopsis:  Donnie always took the game too seriously. That's why when his sorcerer is fatally injured, you come to find that he he's been harboring something that far exceeds the game.

Also avaliable on Ao3

Huge shout out to @kathaynesart 's Dungeons and Drama pitch and my darling DM for always inspiring me with incredible content! 💞

The dice clattered and rolled across the table as a collective breath was held.

As it stopped, Donnie scrambled through his various stacks of notes. The flustered rush caused them to cascade across the table. Each found purchase by the other players, but no one of them moved to help return them.

“I can-!” Donnie choked on the idea as his spell sheet crumpled underhand.   

Unable to see the dice from behind his screen, Mikey had to stand before he sullenly slunk back down to record the roll. “That’s a two…” 

April moved next and offered a weakened smile. “At least you still have one more to go, right?”

You couldn’t take in Donnie’s response as you stared down at your own worn character sheet. The egregious zero you had doodled out after marking out the last of your healing HP glared back. You sent a meek look towards the perpetrator.

“Yeah, yeah, Donald rolls on his next turn.” Leo hadn’t noticed you or anyone else. He simply waved off the doomed aura of the table with his eyes glued to his phone.

“Leo!” Raph scolded.

“Pay attention, fool! That was his second death-saving throw! If he fails the next one, aka the last one, then he’s dead dead!” April shot to her feet and used the momentum to slap Leo’s phone straight down onto the table.

The indignity at the action caused the words to click in the slider’s mind. “Wait what?”

 “There’s… nothing we can do?” Raph turned to Mikey.

From behind his DM partition, the box turtle grimaced. “Uh… so you and Leo are too far after the cliff situation. April’s attacks missed and she closed out her turn by moving towards you guys. Y/N had the healing juices once, but… again, cliff.”

It wasn’t intentional on anyone’s part, but you took it as a painful reminder of your failings.

“So this is happening all because you had to swing from that vine!?” Raph turned his worries into vengeance and zeroed it in on Leo.

“I thought I could jump on the dude’s back!” Leo folded his arms as if he couldn’t be swayed on the matter. 

You knew how reckless Leo’s bard was. It was you who used all the HP from your pool instead of reserving some for a case like this.

Raph tried to match it with a glare, but Leo’s stubbornness won out. “Potions… Potions! W-we had potions, didn’t we guys?” In an attempt to snatch up his inventory sheet, Raph knocked his dice clean off the table.

From where he was once a boiling pit of nervous lava, Donnie had shifted to a chasm of ice. “I won’t allow retroactive moves.”

April rolled her eyes away from the soft shell to watch the way the snapper bumped the table as he tried to gather his bobbles back up. “It doesn’t matter anyway; Leo used his eating that green sludge in the cave. Raph, I think you used yours when we fought the Cloakers on the sky ship and I… didn’t pick any up from the merchant because I didn’t trust the way that fool sang. Y/N whatcya got?”

“I gave my last one to that raccoon when it got injured during the communion with the deity.” You sighed, slinking further down into your seat of failures.

Set back once again, Raph’s little mumbles were the only sound.

“I just thought…” Mikey murmured under the pressure of silence and tried to sneak a glance at Donnie.

“Thought what?” Donnie gave an chilled hiss. “That you would destroy your established enemy curve on a whim? How very on brand.”

Mikey jolted with a bitterness stinging his eyes. “Well, excuse me! I was just trying to make sure you were having fun since it seemed too easy for you!”  

“I was having fun because I was winning!” Donnie growled and slapped his spell sheet back to the table. “And now…”

“Got ‘em!” Raph popped up and took in the air. “Oh…”  

It also seemed cruel that none of them seemed to acknowledge that this stemmed from you. It was your whole paladin’s identity to help the team in any way possible. You were supposed to be the shield and the failsafe. Now, there was an ever growing chance that you’d never see Donnie’s sorcerer again.

From where you were wringing your hands in your lap, you squeezed your fingers until they stung from the force.

April gave a sigh. “Let’s just...” She gave a long once over the group and the brothers settled indignantly into their seats. “Priorities! The real issue is The Reaper is about to go.”

“… And he’s still targeting Donnie.” You mumbled nervously. You tried to reason that it was totally normal and not biased that you knew that since April had mostly kept track of potions.

“How’s that work again?” Leo held up a hand as if he were whispering to April though he used his regular voice.  

She placed a fingertip to the appendage and gently pushed it until it squashed back into the slider’s face. “I’m banning phones if this keeps up!”

“You have no authority!” Leo threw a finger out at Mikey in demonstration.

The box turtle opened his mouth to respond.

“But you can’t because that’s where my sheet is!” Leo sang the phrase out and scooped up his phone to snuggle preciously to his chest.  

April rolled her eyes. “This is the last time I’m catching you up! Donnie’s the only one that’s managed to hit the guy and he’s been agroing him ever since.”

There wasn’t enough room for hope to bloom in your chest, but if April caught that then your observation was absolutely in the clear. You squirmed in your seat as you tried to deal with the concurrent thoughts you had on the matter. It had to be nothing but the usual intrigue and guilt that was making you obsess over the soft shell.

“But isn’t he like… bleeding out or something? Why’s he want to beat a dead horse?” Leo twisted out of one display for another that mimicked a dying blow and subsequent collapse. He side eyed Donnie the whole way down to the table.  

Donnie bared his teeth, but before he could say anything, Mikey spoke.

“Actually…” Mikey stamped a sticky note with a halo on it right to his forehead. “Y/N goes next.”

Still wriggling, you halted as the attention rounded on you. You winced with a question on your lips; Donnie despised how you verbally talked out your plans. “Uh… Okay… I was… how far from whoever?”

“Let’s see!” Mikey chirped and ducked out of sight.

You felt a sense of déjà vu.

More sessions ago than you could count, April had invited you to join a this very D&D. After meeting her at a pro-mutant rights rally on campus, you’d chatted over coffee afterwards and shared your other mutual interests. She’d been playing far longer than you and you bemoaned your lack of experience. She’d had an odd look on her face before she softly mentioned how she’d be helping out a newbie DM start a new campaign. You tried to temper your excitement as she explained how accessible the affair would be for what was essentially a first time player such as yourself.

You’d followed April down some old subway entrance that next week with immediate wariness. The space transformed from dreary to homey in an odd shift that felt like entering another world. She had stopped at a large wooden table where a set green heads in colored bandanas were parked. In quick succession, you were introduced to the brothers with Donatello being last. It was a moment that stuck out to you with a painful prick. You weren’t sure what you had done, but he took one surprised look at you before coldly introducing himself by his sorcerer ’s name. April smacked the back of his head and explained that he took the role-playing aspect a bit too seriously.   

She then sat you across from him and ever since it had become your assigned seat. With each session, the lot of you strengthened your bond as you fought back corruption and greater evil. That was, all except the soft shell who seemed to be glaring at you at any given moment. He harshly judged every creative strategy you tried to employ. His sorcerer was constantly either using you as bait or a test subject for unknown items that he picked up. You carried on, both because of your paladin’s shining disposition and because he was extremely good at the game.

Despite his attitude, you often found yourself in awe of how easily he could recall the intricacies of every single person’s spells, attacks, and bonus actions. He was theatrical to a fault and his monologues easily hypnotized you when he was given a chance to shine. Though he often interfered with the rest of the party to ensure he’d make the killing blow, the loop holes he’d exploit made it so watching him was like being in the presence of a master craftsmen. It made complete sense why he’d been banned from DMing, but it was also something you wished you could go back in time to see. It was unfortunate he loved getting in his own way so much.

Your eyes lit up.

Mikey reappeared before you could voice what was forming in your head. “Alright, so Leo and Raph are like 200 ft. away from you. April is 150. The Reaper is still airborne, but has been coming down so let’s say 60 with Donnie’s wounded body at 50 because you’ve been heading towards him since he collapsed.”

Donnie clicked his tongue.

You gave him a tepid scowl. He was so infuriatingly petty. “I get it! Despite how much your character hates mine, my paladin is compelled to help whoever is hurt!” You weren’t sure why you felt the need to defend your character’s actions, but across from you Donnie refused your gaze to instead bore holes into Mikey’s screen. “I’m going to Donnie’s sorcerer and I want to do a medicine check.”  

There was a collective hiss as almost everyone sucked a sharp whiff of air through their teeth.

“Uh…” Raph anxiously reached out before retracting his fingers.

Leo leaned into the snapper with a crazed face and a harsh whisper. “Do you still want to complain about my vine swing?!”

“Y/N…” April was barely able to mask her wince with a broke smile. “That won’t…”

Donnie moved to collect his papers.

“I have to. It’s all I can do.” You turned to Mikey and gave him a nod to go ahead.

Mikey gave a sympathetic look and gestured for you to roll.

With a clack, you double checked your sheet. “21.”

Mikey made a note and then gave a grave look. “You run to the sorcerer’s fallen form as The Reaper looms overhead. Blackened wing flaps echo as he draws closer and closer. You drop to your knees and put your hand to the sorcerer’s chest. His clothes are singed away and you feel nothing from his cold form. You know his wound is magical in origin and, even though you reach as deep as you can, there just isn’t any magic left within you…”

“Y/N, you’re in The Reaper’s attack line…” April gave you a small reminder.

Looking at the abysmal amount of HP you had left, you used a chip bag to cover the number up. “I want to stand over his body and shield him.”

Donnie smacked his gathered stack of notes harshly against the table to align them.

Mikey sunk down, defeated. “The Reaper lands with a billowing gust of wind and a scythe of bone slowly protrudes from his arm. Swinging it around to attention, black ichor spatters the area from where it oozes off the weapon. He then rears back to strike…”

Within two moves your HP drops to zero and the table ignited. The sound barely reached your ear as you numbly brushed the snacks away to note that. You heard April’s turn happen and her desperately shouting something. The commotion was confusing static and you lifted your eye to look across from you. You assumed Donnie would still be giving you his icy shoulder, but instead you found him staring at you evenly. It didn’t shake you out of your funk, but you surfaced long enough to part your lips to translate a silent question. He took it in with a flick of his eyes, but chose to watch you until something brought his eye to the head of the table.

“Alright, Donnie! You got this!” Mikey was on his feet.

The lair rushed back to you and you realized everyone else had gotten to theirs as well.

Palming his dice, Donnie took a deep breath before letting it cascade off his palm and down his fingers. It rolled against the baited breath and rocked as it landed.

Leo gave a pained screech.

You tried to remind yourself that you did all you could to rectify your wrong.

“You find yourself floating in a broken land…” Mikey addressed Donnie with energy waning within each word. “You know this to be the Astral Plane…” 

Leo draped himself over April and gave a synthetic sob. “I’m writing an ode to him as we speak! It should have been me!”

“Come on, dude…” Raph huffed.

“Literally didn’t even realize he was dying two seconds ago.” April pinched Leo’s forearm.

“You know you are not long for this world either. Do you want to reach out to your gods or ask the questions you’ve always sought?” Mikey continued on as if unaware.

“I reach against the veil to the paladin.” Donnie responded without hesitation.

You snapped to attention and wildly searched him.

He ignored you to wait for Mikey’s response.

Following his gaze, you moved to catch the last moments of surprise pass over the box turtle’s face before he gave a sad, but understanding smile.

“Y/N.” Mikey turned to you.

“Yeah?” You whispered and came to realize that the other conversations had halted in favor of watching the exchange.

“Everything is dark and you are somewhere in-between. You haven’t felt anything since The Reaper’s blade pierced you, but now you sense a familiar presence ghosting over you.”

“What…?” You searched your tablemates to find all but Donnie just as confused as you.

“Roll a D20 for me.” Mikey gave you a reassuring bob. You didn’t miss the mischievous air to it.

Your hands felt heavy against the small bobble as you gave it a little shake before casting it out. “18.”

Mikey nodded, his eyes down to whatever pages he had behind his partition. “You know it to be the sorcerer who has been by your side for many moons. You cannot see or hear him, but your eyes widen as some of his knowledge enters your mind.”

A piece of paper slid across the table.

The fingers on the edge of it trailed back to Donnie who wore a troubled frown and refused your eye.

You leaned forward to look and he gave it a shove. The page then delicately floated until it landed perfectly in front of you.

“Read paragraph 3 to yourself.” His voice had a calculated stillness to it.

Still lost, you gave him one last look.

He continued to deny it, but you caught how his expression had shifted with a tinge of pain.

Looking down at the paper, you immediately identified it as Donnie’s backstory. He’d touted its length but hid its direct content many times since the game started. The gazes on you heated up in a way that said you’d be the first to see it. You swallowed hard as you picked up the page. Counting down as instructed, you started at the third indentation:

“He never imagined much past his plans for global conquest. Knowing knowledge would be the key, he planned his whole life based on this pursuit. He would think very little of the paladin that he’d be forced to party with. They were too selfless and had sworn an oath that he would make a mockery of. All that changed, when they smiled and introduced themselves. The emotion he’d felt in that moment would pain him and he didn’t know then what it meant. He’d secretly tried to dispel any sorcery, thinking something was cast. As time went on, he’d try to remind himself that the paladin was everything he hated; the exact opposite of his type. They were dumb and easily fell for the most ridiculous schemes. They were too happy and smiled even under the worst circumstances. They were kind to a fault and  haplessly threw themselves in harm’s way to protect the other members of what he begrudgingly considered his family. He had a goal, a larger purpose. He didn’t have time to give in to petty things like feelings. Still, they wormed their way in. With a heavy heart, the day he acknowledged his love for the paladin was also the day he decided it would be best to carry that emotion secretly until his dying breath. He would not believe himself worthy of their love.”

The paper felt both too heavy and too light. You worried if you moved at all that it would simply cease to exist. Scouring back over the paragraph, you tried to figure out when he had written this. There was no way he could have known this from the get go. He’d come to session zero with his stack already transcribed.

Eyes watering from disuse, you attempted to blink.

The writing was typed out which meant Donnie must have updated it. He had clearly been adding the contents from each consecutive meeting. It was just vague enough, but a reel of actions outside the game cycled through your mind and seemed to parallel the text.

You remembered the shame that burned in your cheeks the day Leo had gotten you by saying the word gullible was written on the ceiling. It had only been matched by the humiliation you’d felt when your paladin had been obviously duped into buying a cursed piece of armor.  

You recalled the day you’d arrived to a session having plastered a smile after being present during a bodega robbery. It clipped with the time your paladin had been hit with Moan, but maintained a grin for the party’s sake.

You hadn’t forgotten the day you’d mistakenly stumbled upon the brothers mid-battle and had thrown yourself in Raph’s defense after he’d been struck. It easily contrasted the any number of times you’d used Interception in player combat.

It all felt so surreal. The sea of coincidences barely tipped the scales from where you thought you it was just your imagination. In a crawl, your gaze lifted from the page to the soft shell that had passed it to you. His eye was still shoved to the side, but he now wore guarded expression that screamed a preparation for rejection.

Shifting away from a dazed watering, your vision now blurred with further realization.

He was the stupid one.

He was the one that got swept up in his excitement.

He was the one trying to be self-sacrificial.  

The first fat tear formed in your left eye and threatened its plummet. You put the paper back down on the table and as soon as you did, you heard Donnie’s voice.

“I let go.”

Mikey began to talk, but your chair clattered to the ground as you shot up.

“You can’t!” It wasn’t a single droplet, but a dozen that flooded your cheeks in a stream.

Someone gasped.

“I’ve done all I’ve ever wanted.” Though his voice was even and you could barely see him, you could tell Donnie’s expression was wounded. He’d accepted a multitude of fates.  

“No!” You were already rounding the table.

In a counter move, Donnie flew to his feet, ready to sprint.

“Stop!” Mikey commanded, a sharp spark of orange energy crackled through the air.

You both complied.

“Y/N, roll your last two saving throws. Now.” Mikey tossed a D20 at you instead of letting you walk back to your spot.

“But-” Leo choked on the syllable as a chain wrapped around his mouth.

“Now? Mikey, it’s not my-” You tried to reason but the zip of golden hue around Mikey’s pupil throttled your voice. You stared down at the table helplessly and rolled. “6… and 3…”

In stark contrast to his previous tone, Mikey’s watery voice reached your ears. “You find yourself floating in a broken land…”

It was like hearing a starting signal and you shot around the table. Donnie flinched as you stalked up to him. You stopped just short and he stared back at you with impossibly wide eyes.

“Did you mean it?”

“I play the game as it is meant to be played; a full immersion of oneself.”

“No!” You snapped and he shuddered again. “Above table! Did you mean it?”

His cheek hollowed out as he took a sharp breath and he forced his mouth into a tight line. For a moment, he tried to look everywhere but you before the reality of the situation seemed to sink in. His body language said he was still put out and he spoke out the corner of his mouth. “In my zeal, there is a chance I committed to the part a little too well.”

“Idiot.”

“Hey-!” The insult died on his lips as he saw a new river of tears rushing down your cheeks.

“Stupid! Dummy! Jerk!” You reached up as if you were going to swing, but he caught your wrists.

He leaned in close and dropped his voice for only you to hear. “Fine. Yes, you’re right, and, as much as it pains me to say this, we are not actually alone in the astral plane right now.”

“You’re dead…” You hiccupped and he released you.

“I am…” He mumbled in a way that spoke to the many volumes that simple phrase had before stepping forward. It just barely allowed your head to touch the pointed edge at the breast of his plastron. You resisted the urge to collapse into him and shook slightly as the last of the tears were ripped from you. One of his arms slung around your back and the tense muscles you felt said he was holding back more than he let on. He cleared his throat and you felt him straighten. “The… game, yeah that’s it, the game was quite a lot for Y/N. I’m going to take them to the kitchen to make some tea.”

You wormed an arm out of view and pinched him.

He put on a smile to hide the wince.

“You got it!” Mikey gave a chipper wink and then clapped his hands to gather attention. “Alright, we’re still in initiative people!” 

“Are you kidding me right now!? I’m just gonna swing my lute at a literal death god after watching whatever that was!?” Leo gaped.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Mikey shrugged as if that were obvious and rolled his dice.

Fading  counter murmurs argued as Donnie’s arm tightened the further away you got.

💜Don't forget there's always behind the scenes notes and WIPs going up on the membership side of my ko-fi!💜 

[spacemagicandlaserswords]

The Clone Wars 4.07 ‘Darkness on Umbara’ Reaction Take 2

I’m doing this post and the rest of these second watch reaction posts to the Umbara arc in the more live-blogging style reaction posts I’ve done for other episodes like 1x5 ‘Rookies’, 2x10 ‘The Deserter’ and 4x5 'Mercy Mission'. So much happens in these episodes and I feel like I missed a lot of it in my first reaction posts because I was going through all the emotions.

“Just like old times, Rex” WHY AM I SAD ALREADY

That is some very cool looking nose cone art on the 501st LAAT/i behind Fives. Can’t quite tell what it is but it certainly looks cool.

More Anakin and Obi Wan snark. Excellent. Business as usual then.

Well that’s not ominous at all

Naw, Rex checking in on Tup. I read somewhere that Tup was a shiny on Umbara but I can’t remember if this is canon or fanon.

The clone piloting the LAAT/i is named Hawk! Or at least he is according to the captions. Hey Hawk! More named clones! :D 

“Time to lock and load” CACKLING

The walkers just leap backwards out the back of the low flying LAAT/i’s? How is this a good idea? 

BOING. Yeet the walker.

I think this is the first time we actually hear what the clones are saying on a battlefield. Usually it’s just dialogue between the main characters but now there’s so many of them shouting and cheering and screaming and dying.

Rip the poor clone that jumped out of the LAAT/i and didn’t even make it onto the ground before being shot.

“The enemy could have the whole place rigged with traps.” Dammit Anakin you jinxed it.

“I can’t even see the enemy” Oh that’s going to come back and bite everyone in the arse really badly.

“It’s just a vine” Oh dear.

It’s the Umbaran sarlacc!

Fives being a badass and taking out the monster like it’s nothing. That was quite clever thinking in terrifying circumstances for him to keep his head and figure out he needs to get the monster to eat the explosive.

That shot of the trenches definitely reminds me of WWI and II. They’ve even got the troopers leaning against the sides with their blasters poking above the top.

“Maybe… back in the day” Dayum Rex, there a lot of feeling in that one. 

Surely an ambush and skittering assassin bugs would be something that Anakin would sense in the Force?

Lmao @ Hardcase trying to take out the bug with the blaster equivalent of a rotary canon. That’s like taking a flamethrower to a spider.

Fives have you been gargling gravel or something?

Well at least Anakin got rid of the assassin bug. Again.

That shot of the bombers and Odd Ball bombing the ridge and the ensuing explosion definitely felt like a reference to the Vietnam war.

Ah great, fuck face has arrived. Fuck off Krell.

Lol the ominous music at Krell’s arrival was definitely not foreboding at aaaaaaaaall.

“You won’t find a finer or more loyal trooper anywhere.” DAMN STRAIGHT

How dare you impune Rex’s honour. How dare.

Cackling at Fives look at Rex immediately after Krell buggered off. He is so unimpressed.

Something about Fives’ voice is very… husky. 

“The men don’t need rest” ah fuck off

Oh you did not just address Rex by his fucking number

Is this where Rex got his dramatic flair for disappearing into the fog like he did in ‘Battle Scars’ in The Bad Batch?

I just had a heartbreaking thought. Is Fives here because Echo is gone and he doesn’t have an ARC partner (and twin) anymore? So Rex is doubling as his ARC partner for now until Jesse ends up as the other ARC in Torrent and the 501st? Do ARCs have partners and come in pairs? More angst for this already angst riddled arc (in more ways than one). Yay.

Is this Phase 2 clone armour? I think it is.

Poor Rex is trying to be diplomatic and balance dealing with Krell while also showing his men that he understands their concerns as well. I do like Fives’ view on this. He’s very ‘wear your heart on your sleeve’. I also loved that little exchange, you can really tell all of their different personalities just from that conversation. Hardcase is so gung ho, bless him.

“It’s too quiet out there.” Tup you precious anxious little bean

Rip Oz and Ringo

“You wanna piece of this” Hardcase living his best ‘blast everything’ life 

“I think Hardcase made ‘em mad.” CACKLING

Damn, Tup just taking out that Umbaran with a flip and a point blank blaster rifle shot to the face

“Make ‘em eat heat!” Hardcase is definitely in same vein as an 80s action hero

Rex just casually dual wielding with a horizontal grip like it’s nothing. Sir, you are showing off.

I would let Fives flip me over his shoulder and pound me into the ground. And then thank him for it. I have watched that part multiple times and it does not stop being hot. And the way he just casually stands up all cool and deadly and puts multiple blaster shots into the Umbaran. Sir, please contain your badassery. @nobie also has a fantastic gifset of this moment

Rex’s little flippy roll straight after this made me realise that he and Fives are fighting together. Oh Echo.

It’s almost jarring how noticeable it is that there isn’t a Jedi fighting alongside the clones. I couldn’t quite pick what felt off the first time until someone (Fives, I think?) mentions it later but it’s so obvious now. 

“Ha, ha, ha! Where ya goin’?” Hardcase is having the time of his life atm

Did Krell just shoulder check Fives?!

You can't jab Captain Rex in the shoulder like that!

Fives saying what everyone is thinking there. Also, what kind of Jedi threatens a clone with a lightsaber? Oh that’s right, a Sith.

Rex being an absolute badass

“I think he almost complimented you.” CACKLING

Fives and Rex just casually snarking while in the middle of a battlefield

[finn-m-corvex]

Jaya Week 2023 Day 5: Dance

So guess what guys, we're now two days behind! Yippee! Gonna do my best to get caught up today, but we'll see what happens. This one was hard at first because I didn't have an idea, and then it hit me, and once I started I couldn't really stop. It was great! Although it did turn out a little spicier than I intended, but I guess that's just what I was in the mood to write today. Oh well! COLE AND VANIA ARE PLATONIC IN THIS BY THE WAY DO NOT TAG AS CONIA OR I WILL COMMIT UNSPEAKABLE ACTS!

Words: 2.3k

TWs: POSSIBLE underage alcohol consumption (I personally headcanon them to be around 21 by Master of the Mountain but just in case), alcohol mention, sex reference (NOTHING explicit but implied), making out, Jay in a suit and Nya in a dress appreciation

[REUPLOAD]

Jay shuffled from his spot in the corner of the large ballroom, watching as dozens of dancers paired up on the floor to perform a gracious waltz. The citizens of Shintaro were more graceful than most of the people he had seen in Ninjago, their alabaster skin shining in the lights of the grand chandelier hanging over their heads. It was the night after they had defeated the Skull Sorceror; Vania’s coronation would be the next morning.

The ballroom itself was beyond gorgeous, just like the rest of the Ivory City. Gold trim wrapped itself in intricate patterns across the walls, creeping up the pillars in the room like glimmering vines. Marble statues stood solemnly at attention in all four corners, each depicting an ancient war hero from Shintaro’s past. Vania had promised Cole to have a statue of his mother commissioned to sit in the grand hall. The floor had been freshly polished, and Jay knew that he would’ve been upset to see the dress shoes scuffing it up if he were one of the workers.

He swirled a glass of punch in his hands; he had promised Nya that he wouldn’t drink until later, not that Jay had been planning on getting wasted. Scanning the room with a careful eye, Jay quickly realized that he and Zane were the only team members in the room at the moment.

Where was everyone else?

Cole jumpscared him from behind, making Jay shout and almost spill his drink all over an older man. The blue ninja apologized profusely before glaring at his best friend.

“Was that really necessary?” Jay grumbled, putting his drink down on the table next to him.

“You know the answer to that,” Cole snickered, and Jay had to remind himself that he was in public. He couldn’t just tackle Cole and start an all-out brawl.

Jay sighed, turning to fully face the earth ninja. “Where did you run off to?”

Shrugging, Cole snatched up Jay’s discarded glass and took a swig. “Vania needed some help with something, why?”

“I haven’t seen Nya in a while,” Jay admitted, taking the glass back after Cole complained about the lack of alcohol. “I’m starting to get worried.”

“Oh, there’s no need to worry about her. She’s getting ready with Lloyd and Kai,” Cole explained kindly, bumping Jay’s shoulder. “Nya’ll be out soon. Here, come and mingle with me, you always like meeting new people.”

That was a lie, and Jay saw the distraction for what it was, but it wasn’t like he had anything better to do. Hoping he wouldn’t regret it, Jay allowed Cole to whisk him away from his spot against the wall and into the well-dressed crowd.

Almost immediately, he regretted it.

Sticking as close to Cole’s side as a burr, Jay dutifully did his best to fend off the Shintaroans’ advances. More than a few of the single women on the floor approached him with flirtatious winks and tantilizing grins, all of them asking him in the sweetest tones to dance with them for the night. No one approached Cole, because everyone knew that as soon as Vania was ready and amongst the crowd he would be her dance partner, and no one wanted to upset the new queen.

Jay grimaced when yet another lady tried to attach herself to his arm. “I’m sorry, but I’m really not interested.”

Huffing, the lady turned away, muttering something about how pretty boys like him shouldn’t be on the floor if they didn’t want to dance. It made Jay’s blood start to boil, and he said something to Cole as the man walked from group to group to exchange pleasantries.

“I just need Nya to get out here, already.” Jay was saying, giving a hard stare to any women who looked his way for too long. Younger him would’ve been ecstatic at all of the attention he was garnering without really considering the implications, but older him was much wiser. And engaged.

“And yet we both know that she’ll have your head if you try to rush her,” Cole said, grabbing up a glass of actual wine and taking a small sip. He must’ve been getting nervous too, Jay noted. Usually he was the best of the human team members at holding off on the liquor. 

“True.” Jay conceded, readjusting his tie around his neck. His blue suit was starting to feel suffocating, and Jay really came to realize that he and Cole were sticking out like sore thumbs with their darker suits in the sea of light creams and beiges, with many of the older folks wearing snow-white. Hopefully they weren’t violating some ancient dress code of Shintaro by not wearing anything in white.

Cole held the glass out to him, and Jay hesitated to take it. “Maybe you just need to loosen up a bit-”

You’re not the one who's taken, Jay thought sourly, but he noticed that Cole’s gaze wasn’t on him anymore. Instead, his onyx eyes were fixated on the other side of the room, unblinking. Jay could see the fondness in his face, and he turned to see what all of the commotion was about.

Vania had made her first appearance of the night, dressed in a flowing white dress with a train long enough to cover the entirety of Jay’s parents’ trailer. Golden thread was weaved throughout, nice complimenting the jewelry she was wearing and the large placeholder crown on her head. Her kind face was caked in makeup, but Jay could only really tell because he did makeup himself. She was breathtaking as she came strolling down the stairs that led to her chambers; maybe not Jay’s kind of breathtaking, but beautiful nonetheless.

“That’s my cue, buddy,” Cole said, looking slightly apologetic, “but hey, there’s a spot over by the punch table if you don’t want anyone to bother you.”

“Of course, because I love the punch table,” Jay griped, but he kinew he was only being difficult because it was just him again. His heart sank a little when Cole walked away, even if Jay knew that being Vania’s dance partner was a much more prestigious position than being with his best friend.  The table wasn’t far, and Jay quickly reclaimed his post on the closest pillar, sipping actual wine this time to try and soothe his nerves.

Watching the people clear the dance floor for the future queen, Jay marvelled at how gracefully his best friend moved; for being the master of arguably the most rigid of their elements, Cole had some of the most fluid movement on the team. The only ones who could truly best him were Jay himself and Nya, but that was mostly because lightning and water granted them natural flow that couldn’t really be bested. Cole also didn’t have the build to take advantage of his flexible movement, having inherited the classic earth elemental body and not the lithe and poise that Lou possessed.

He and Vania made a good pair, Jay had decided as he watched them dance. Their styles complimented each other well, and Cole looked like he was having the time of his life. Jay knew that Cole wasn’t attracted to her and never would be, but he was glad to see the ravenette enjoying himself regardless. It would be good for Cole to finally have some friends outside of the Ninja group.

Suddenly, it felt like the world had stopped spinning. Everyone in the room turned to watch the new figure descending down the stairs, and Jay could feel his already unsteady heartbeat speed up upon seeing her.

“Nya!” Vania exclaimed, leaving Cole on the dance floor and rushing to the foot of the stairs to greet the water ninja.

Jay wanted to follow, but his jaw had dropped onto the floor with his feet frozen on the ground. His Yang looked absolutely gorgeous, dressed in what must’ve been the only blue dress in Vania’s wardrobe. It was a light and shimmering aqua, the light refracting off of the fabric and making Nya look like she was shining. Her gray heels clicked on the floor when she landed at the bottom of the steps, her hands covered with silken gloves that stretched to her elbows. Her hair was flowing down her back like a waterfall in large ringlets; it was a sight that Jay didn’t get to see very often, but he cherished it every time he did.

Looking past Vania’s shoulder, Nya locked eyes with him, and his heart stuttered from the small smile that graced her lips. Vania noticed, giving Nya a slight smirk as they parted ways, Nya walking towards her Yin and Vania taking Cole’s arm to rejoin him on the dance floor.

Fixing up his tie and putting his hair back into place, Jay suddenly felt very underdressed. He had thought his simple three-piece suit would be enough (it’s not like he had many options anyway), but if Nya was going to start showing him up like that then he might have to up his game.

Walking out to meet her felt like Jay was in a fairytale, the Prince Charming finally meeting Cinderella for the first time. Ignoring the stares of all the ladies who had been hitting on him, Jay stopped in front of Nya, whose heels propped her up to only an inch or so below his line of sight.

He took her outstretched hand and gave it a kiss with a bow. “May I have this dance, my lady?”

Nya pretended to contemplate the question. “I suppose you may, my lovely gentleman.”

“Only yours,” Jay said happily, taking her hand and spinning her around as the music started back up. They were finally going to get to dance!

Playing Dancey Pants had been a great decision, Jay decided as they twirled around the room, mostly because he knew there was no way in the Cursed Realm he would’ve been able to keep up with everyone else otherwise. He vaguely registered Kai and Lloyd coming down the stairs and joining the celebration, in a red and green suit respectively. Kai had made a beeline for Zane on the other side of the room, offering to dance with him so the nindroid wouldn’t have to keep standing off to the side. Lloyd had joined Cole and Vania, switching off with the earth ninja in an odd three-way dance that made Jay’s head spin if he stared at it for too long.

A kiss was pressed to his lips and Jay startled. Oh, right. He was dancing too.

Thankfully his Yang only giggled, quickly compensating for his misstep and keeping their rhythm. “You with me, Jay?”

“I am,” he answered smoothly. He pressed his own kiss to Nya’s lips, deeper this time, letting his hand slide down her waist. She made a small noise, letting her own hand cup the back of his neck and mess with the baby hairs on his nape. There was a suspicious sparkle in her when they parted, and Jay was very suddenly reminded of the fact that he had been drinking. Nya had probably tasted the fruitiness of the alcohol on his breath.

“Did you start drinking without me?” Nya was actually pouting, and Jay had to restrain his belly laugh to a hearty chuckle, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“My nerves were getting to me,” he admitted, “and I didn’t want that to ruin our night. I hope you don’t mind.”

“As long as you get me something, I don’t care,” Nya said with a wink, and Jay already knew that some very promiscuous things were going to go down tonight.

He was quick to snatch a wine glass off of a passing tray, holding it out to Nya with one of his signature grins like an offering. Nya took it with a smile of her own, chugging it and gracefully putting it on the table next to them. Jay hadn’t realized that she was directing them to the far side of the room where the least people were located, including the rest of their group.

Nya slid her hand down to his waist, hooking one of her thumbs in his belt loop and letting the rest of her fingers drum against his thigh. Her other hand rested on Jay’s cheek, and he shuddered when she ran her thumb  across his jaw. She was a little red in the face, and Jay was suddenly a little suspicious of how much she may have had to drink.

“Did you drink before you got down here?” he asked quietly, his own hand coming to rest on her shoulder, brushing against her collarbone.

She hummed. “A little. Kai got me a shot of whiskey from the kitchen, or that’s what I hope it was. They’ve got some strong stuff in Shintaro.”

“They gotta deal with the isolation somehow,” Jay quipped, and his heart soared when Nya chuckled. “You sure you should be drinking any more, then? We still have to leave tomorrow.”

“All the more reason to let loose tonight and have a little fun,” without warning, she shot forward and caught his lips with hers, and Jay was more than happy to let himself get lost in the current that was his Yang. They swayed with the music, and he felt Nya’s body press closer to his like two puzzle pieces. Her hand buried itself in his hair, pulling when he ran his tongue across her lower lip. With one hand on her hip and the other on her back, Jay forced himself to pull away, ignoring the way his mouth tingled from his element in favor of staring at Nya in all of her half-drunken and quite eager glory.

“We need some privacy for this part,” he whispered, starting to pull her away to where their quarters were located. He ignored Lloyd and Zane’s questioning looks, Kai’s face of unbridled disgust and Cole’s enthusiastic thumbs-up in favor of pulling Nya along beside him. “I have a different kind of dance in mind.”