#it was a group project but my group did practically nothing and since i came up with everything im just going to keep it

[humblefryingpan]

I hate that if I want people to know my oc lore I have to write it out (except my 2 irl friends on here that I've infodumped to)

Like if I say "right where you left me" by Taylor Swift is really Sarah Maplestone coded, none of you will know who she is. And if I say Rosie and Denise are absolutely more than friends you guys don't know who they are 😭😭

[01zfan]

good luck charm | l. sh

basketball player!sohee x physical trainer!reader | 7.5k words

finally a happy sohee fic who cheered? anyways every since the we riize basketball episdoe i've been jonesing to write a basketball player sohee fic.

contains: fwb relationship, pining kinda, sex without a condom (don’t be like them)

You were trapped in another period of doom scrolling when you heard the whistle blown in the gym. Instantly you turned your phone off and got down from the table, throwing your backpack over your shoulder before heading to the door. You did a once over of the room, looking to make sure everything was in its place before turning off the lights and locking the door.

You heard the projected voice of the coach in the gym over the music in your earbuds, but you didn’t rush yourself to hear the ending notes of the practice. Each time it was the same—Get rest, Show up on time for the game tomorrow, Don’t embarrass our team—said to a group of sweating boys who wanted nothing more than to leave. 

You put the keys to the examination room in your pocket the same time you used your body to open up the door to the gym. The door never seemed to get lighter or quieter, the sound of it unlocking echoed off the walls. The team barely spared you a glance as you came in, hearing exactly what you thought you would. The janitors were already coming in to clean up the sweat off the floor and prepare for the game tomorrow. The coach insisted on talking even when the buffer machine came in, whirring and loud on the waxed floors of the court. The basketball team tried their best to focus, but you could see so clearly their minds were starting to wander as their bodies became restless. Some of them sat on the court and others stood, some of them still had their jerseys on and some of them were completely shirtless as they waited for their coach to finally be done.

“I’m surprised you’re still here.” 

Giselle, the student manager, whispered into your ear when you went to stand beside her. She was off to the side, putting away the rolling cart filled with basketballs into the supply room when you started making a beeline to her. Standing next to the coach was just asking for him to put you on the spot, telling you to instruct the team on how to properly take care of their bodies. Ever since that incident you settled for standing off to the side towards the bleachers, out of his line of sight and ear shot. 

“Someone has to stay.” You adjusted the strap on your backpack as you both sat down on the bottom row of the bleachers. “I was the only one left.”

“Doctor Kim left early?” Giselle turned to you and you nodded. She scoffed before leaning back to grab her duffle bag, putting it over her shoulder. She smoothed out her hair and continued looking forward, speaking to you quietly. “I can’t blame him. No one had been getting injured lately.” She said.

“It makes my job really boring.” You added honestly.

Sohee was pulled from another tirade from his coach when he heard Giselle’s laugh. A few members on their team faced the two of you on the bleachers before going back to the coach, but Sohee lingered on you. Honestly he never stopped giving you attention, the moment you walked into the gym he watched you in his peripheral, looking at his coach but focusing on you. It was harder to pull away from your face as you smiled proudly at making your friend laugh before telling her to quiet down. He felt himself smile just by looking at you. He absentmindedly played with the lace of his shoe, his coach’s words being banished to the furthest part of his mind.

“We have a game tomorrow, don’t forget to rub your good luck charms and pray to your God’s tonight.” He said.

Sohee’s attention was all focused on you that he noticed how quickly you snapped your head towards the coach. As if good luck charm was your name and he shouted it, your eyes were widen in attention for a split second before you relaxed. After your eyes found the coach it drifted to Sohee, as if you felt him already looking at you. The sudden eye contact caused you to look away and it caused Sohee to look down at the basketball court. He sat right on the half court line, his finger traced over the thick line before leaning back on his hands. 

“I’ll see you boys tomorrow.” The coach said.

Instantly the atmosphere of the gym changed. As if someone let out a pensive exhale everyone relaxed, someone even cheered that practice was finally over. Sohee stood up from the court and his teammates started going through the doors, filtering into the locker rooms to shower and head home. Sohee watched you and Giselle get up from the bleachers, talking to one another as you two headed straight for the exit. He barely moved from his spot on the court before you were out, pushing your body against the door and leaving it opened with one hand so Giselle could follow after you.

When Sohee made it to the locker room, people were already showering. Some of his teammates omitted the shower entirely, just throwing on their sweats before heading back to their dorms. Sohee couldn’t blame them, many of his teammates were actually going home to rest before the game. Sohee on the other hand didn’t have plans to sleep until way later into the night. He was technically only here in the showers buying time, waiting for you to get to your dorm so he could send you the infamous text.

Before pulling his change of clothes from his duffle bag he pulled out his phone, fingers sliding and tapping over the glass screen before pressing send.

Sohee: i have a game tomorrow.

Almost immediately, he saw you typing a response.

i know sohee

His teammate went to a locker beside him, opening it up before closing it loudly. Sohee was sure he said something to him in passing, but he only offered a head nod before going back to the conversation. He was biting his lip to hide his smile as he thought about you texting him while walking with your friend. He’s made tremendous progress, before you used to not bother texting him until you were completely alone. 

Sohee: you know

Sohee: you’re my good luck charm

Sohee: my biggest fan

Sohee: so i should come over

Sohee: so we can win tomorrow.

The trick was to send you a flurry of texts at once. He didn’t know if multiple messages loosened you up but it always worked in his favor. Sohee leaned against the open door of his locker seeing the text bubble appear at the bottom, already knowing what it was going to say. He already had the response locked and loaded, his finger resting over the send button. 

my place is a mess.

Sohee: that’s okay.

alright. 

knock when you get here.

Sohee was giddy as he closed the door to his locker and headed to the showers. He couldn’t get rid of the smile on his face as he showered, he grinned while shampoo ran down his face and smiled like an idiot when he was done. He went over your text messages a million times as he walked across campus. To anyone else the alright was ordinary, maybe even less than that. But to Sohee, being able to see your place in disarray or anything else than perfect was the highest honor.

In the beginning when you first started seeing Sohee, he remembered that you apologized profusely for any semblance of a mess. You apologized for a few dishes in your sink and unfolded hand towels. If you couldn’t drop a quarter on the taut sheets of your bed you equated your place to a pig sty. One time when he came over you forced him to wait outside as you cleaned your place. Sohee remembers waiting in the courtyard of your dormitory building, counting the minutes until you finally sent him the text that he was good to come in. You answered the door disheveled and breathing heavy, and when he tried opening your closet for a spare change of clothes you nearly screamed Wait! so the pile of things you couldn’t put away properly wouldn’t be revealed. 

Sohee couldn’t believe it took him three weeks to finally see a mess in your room. He also couldn’t believe how excited he was to see it. He would’ve never thought seeing clutter on your counter space for the first time would bring a smile to his face, that your unmade bed somehow seemed more comfortable than when the sheets were tucked in neatly at the corners. He liked seeing your open textbooks with your messy notes and a week’s worth of unfolded laundry pushed to the corner of your room. He enjoyed seeing your dirty dishes a little too much and seeing your shy face when you quickly bent over to pick up dirty laundry you forgot was there. 

He blames what Anton dubbed his “mess-kink” on the fact that he spent half of the season trying to see the inside of your room. You guys met in too open of a setting, shoulder to shoulder in the living room of a cramped house party one of his teammates threw. For some reason the team thought that the best way to start the season was to pack everyone like sardines into an off-campus apartment and supply everyone with shitty liquor. There were no snacks, no chasers, just extremely cheap vodka and loud music. It was a perfect storm and it pushed you right into Sohee, or made you fall into him. One second he was talking to his friends and the next he was turned away from them completely, holding onto your forearm to keep you upright.

“You good?” Sohee slurred.

Sohee turned quickly to his friends, but they didn’t notice his absence in the conversation. No one could’ve noticed anything. people were practically stacked on top of eachother in the tiny space, pushing one another as they rocked to the music. Sohee truthfully wasn’t all the way there either. He was never the drinker but he wanted to have a good season, even if it came at the cost of being sick at early morning practice the next day. He was already feeling the effects from the tiny amount he had, and he tried forcing moments of sobriety when he heard the syllables of his words drag. He didn’t know you were even further gone until you were upright but still kept your eyes on the side of his face instead of looking at him in the eyes.

“You good?” He repeated.

“Your moles are pretty.” You said.

Sohee couldn’t stop himself from smiling. Here you were, halfway to the floor but you found more important things on the side of his face, letting your eyes run up and down his cheeks like you were trying to map something. Sohee pulled on your arm but you seemed to be in a trance, only snapping out of it when he spoke to you again.

“Thank you.” Sohee said.

When he lightly pulled on your arm you finally stood up. Sohee looked at your lips, how you chewed on them when you finally started looking at the other parts of his face.

“Are you alright?” Sohee asked you again.

You nodded your head, but Sohee still wasn’t sure if you heard him or not. You had a far off look in your eye, bleary and glassy from all the alcohol. He was sure he matched you, the longer he looked at you the more tipsy he felt. His brief moment of sobriety came and went as you got closer to him, entirely too close for strangers.

“Your moles are really cute.” You said it again, this time right in his ear.

Sohee nodded, and leaned his head closer to yours so he could talk directly in your ear. He focused on the gold jewelry that dangled from your ear and moved each time a swaying body bumped into yours. 

“You told me that already.” He laughed.

You seemed to remember, because you giggled right into Sohee’s ear after a beat of silence. He didn’t know when his hand found the small of your back to hold you close or when your hands went to his shoulder to keep him in place. Both of you were giggling drunk messes, strangers with their cheeks touching in the middle of a house party that was going to get busted by cops any second. 

You pulled away from Sohee first. He didn’t know then that he was hooked on you and that his face felt cold without your warm cheek pressing against his. He felt the heat dust across his face when you looked at him. The same bleary eyes that stared at the side of his face was wide and alert now, staring right through him as you gripped his shoulder a little tighter. You brought another wave of sobriety, and he used his consciousness to let his hand splay even further across your skin. 

You said something, Sohee knew you did. Your bitten lips moved and then they stopped, and when you were done your eyes scanned his face waiting for an answer. He tried focusing his swaying vision on your lips, but he only found himself getting more distracted. Eventually he shook his head and brought his face close to yours again.

“I can’t hear you.” Sohee took his chance to press his cheek against yours more than he needed to. “The music is too loud.” He said gently.

He felt you nod against his head and suddenly the red solo cup that was in your hand was gone as you brought your newly freed hand to his face. You turned his head slightly and came even closer than before. Sohee could feel your lips against the shell of his ear as you spoke.

“I asked if this was your place.” You said.

Sohee felt one of your hands drift to the crook of his neck, resting there heavily as you spoke. In the midst of the party he was able to still focus on your words, even if they registered slowly. He shook his head against your face, and Sohee felt your warm breath fan his ear as you let out a breathy giggle.

“Do you know somewhere we can be alone?” You asked.

Sohee didn’t need anymore hints from you before he was pulling you through the packed crowd by your hand. He told himself he would just have to ask for forgiveness from Anton later when he opened his friends locked bedroom door. 

The door barely closed behind Sohee before you had your hands on him. Within seconds the back of Sohee’s legs bumped against the couch, and you used clumsy drunken force to push him down the rest of the way. The surprise nearly knocked the breath out of him, his hand instinctually went to the armrest of the couch for some stability. 

He watched you walk towards him from your place, something between a lion stalking its prey and a newborn deer taking its first steps. You giggled realizing the sway in your steps and Sohee did the same after readjusting himself in his seat.

He realized quickly that nothing was funny when you put your knees on either side of him to straddle his waist. He took in a breath when your hands clasped together behind his neck. He held you steady despite the thudding in his chest and the look in your eyes that became even more hungry. When you leaned further Sohee took the chance to snake his hand underneath the fabric of your tight shirt, feeling your soft skin the material clung to. 

When Sohee let his hand drift up further and you preened further into his touch he looked up at you fully. When his neck exposed you stared at his bobbing Adam’s apple before licking your lips. Your eyes went even lower, and he settled into the couch to get a better look at you. He held onto this wave of sobriety, trying to not fall back into the drunk haze he was drifting in and out of. But he couldn’t stop the dim light behind your head from swaying. You moved and the light casted a shadow behind you that looked like a crown; Sohee dug his hand deeper into your waist to try and ground himself as he tried remembering what it felt like to be sober. He felt your hand tug at his hair and he started gripping at whatever flesh he could grab.  

Both of you were smiling at eachother like drunk fools, neither of you making a move. When Sohee finally made it to your chest he palmed it, pressing deep over the padding of your bra. You reacted like there was nothing separating the two of you, leaning back so far that Sohee had to wrap his full arm around you to keep you from falling backwards. You leaned into his touch fully, coming so close that his face pressed into your stomach. Sohee placed an experimental sloppy kiss on the exposed skin, patting himself on the back when your breath hitched. You came close and pressed an equally sloppy kiss to his hairline, then to his cheek, then to a mole. You ended at his ear, your hot breath fanning the shell as you poked your tongue out. Sohee shivered underneath you and pulled you closer, widening his legs so you had more space to sit. He waited in anticipation when your face settled into the crook of his neck.

But he felt nothing.

Sohee thought that you were building up tension, or that you had another wave of sobriety that made you realize you were about to have a drunk hookup with an equally drunk basketball player in a not so secluded space at a house party. Sohee was getting ready to pull away from you and ask you if you were okay, but then he heard the unmistakable sound of snoring. Sohee laughed in disbelief on the couch with you snuggling deeper into him and even groaning that he was disturbing your sleep.

Your encounter that night ended then and there, with Sohee delicately taking you off his lap and going back into the crowded house party to find your friends and lead them to you.

He thought that he would never see you again, but he heard from you shortly after. Your first message to him was over Instagram direct messages, apologizing for how you behaved the night prior. After he accepted your apology, he came to the realizationg that you were going to be his teams trainer and he would be seeing you everyday of the season.

From the first day of practice, Sohee could tell you were so put together. Even when put on the spot by his coach you spoke evenly, inviting his team to come to you if they had any questions about keeping their body healthy. You were also so elusive, tucked away in the examination room everyday while practice was happening. The only time Sohee was actually able to see you was during parties when the two of you would sneak off together to secluded rooms.

For a long time Sohee believed that he was destined for a life of fucking you on sofas at crowded college parties. He didn’t know how many That doesn’t look like dried cum’s and No, it doesn’t smell like sex in here’s he had left in him. But as if the God’s shined down on him he got the unmistakable hey, are you up? text right when he needed you the most. Instead of sleeping Sohee threw on a pair of sweats and cleared the campus to get to your place embarrassingly fast. 

You let him in that night without actually letting him in. Sohee was only shown the sparkling bits of your personality, you two truthfully only really spoke when you were having sex. He found himself asking casual questions about your life in between moments of you two making out and grabbing at eachother.

He spent the season chiseling away at you through teasing to try and get you to be comfortable. So coming into your room and seeing the unfolded clothes was arguably more rewarding than a flawless basketball season. 

He had to fight the smile when he made it into your room, his hands running over and screwing with anything he could touch. He always picked up your keys from the dish beside your door and messed with the trinkets you had hanging down. He started locking and unlocking your door repeatedly, just to hear the metal bolt ring through your entryway. 

“The season is almost over.” Sohee walked past you, already putting his hands on your dresser. 

He ran his hands over the top, not caring that he bumped the items that rested in his path. He only turned back to you with a gloating smile. Sohee turned back to continue messing with your things. After he ran his hand over your dresser he went to your desk, passing by you as you stood in front of the door. He got to your desk and started pushed your pens, messing up their order and dragging your papers from one end of your desk to the other.

“I know Sohee.” You said as you started putting everything back in place behind him.

Each time Sohee’s finger pushed a pencil you put it back in its case and when he opened one of your textbooks to a random page you reached across his body to close it. He leaned into your pushes, he even played it up like his body was actually being knocked around by your gently bumping. 

Seeing how far he could push you was always a game to him, he only giggled when you smacked away his hand when he started fiddling with the straps of your backpack that hung off your office chair. 

“We’ve had a nearly perfect season.” He said.

“Congratulations.” You neatly stacked your textbooks back on top of eachother. “I told you that you’d do great this season. Alot of really talented athletes.” You said while fixing the straps of your backpack.

“You know why right?”

Sohee felt the corner of your desk poke into his leg as he leaned against it. He caught your eye for a second before you turned back to your desk, fixing the things he touched.

He was relaxed even from the dull pain of the wood, looking down at the furrow in your eyebrows while you carefully reorganized everything back to its place. He silently watched you go from your desk to the space surrounding your bed, moving things from one side of your room to the other. You had your unfolded clean clothes resting on top of your bed, and Sohee watched you gather the clothes in your arms before walking over to your office chair that he stood next to.

“If you say it’s because of me, I’m going to hit you.” You say.

Sohee eyed you with the large mass of clothes in your hands, the pile obstructing your line of sight. He put his hand on the armrest of your chair, getting ready to push it out of your way right before you dropped the clothes onto the seat. Before he could, he saw a pair of your underwear fall from the large pile of clothes. He took his hands away from the chair and grabbed it, balling it in his hands before showing you what he caught.

“Can I keep these?” When you put the clothes in the chair you narrowed your eyes at Sohee and reached for the pair he quickly pulled it out of your reach. “For good luck?” He added.

You let your pile of clothes fall onto the chair before grabbing your underwear out of Sohee’s hands. You put your underwear on top of the pile of clothes. When Sohee pouts at you you close the distance between the two of you. You don’t hesitate to put your hands on either side of his body, caging him between your desk and you. 

Sohee tries to be all talk. His teammates constantly comment on his attitude and habit of snarky comments. He always blames it on the fact that he is the youngest sibling out of sisters, he basically can’t help it. But when you get too close and are pressed up against him like this, he loses his train of thought. He doesn’t have a comeback when you look down at his lips and stay there, he doesn’t have anything to say when you fake pout before looking back up at him.

“I thought I was your good luck charm?” You say.

Sohee nods his head. You somehow find a way to get even closer to him, despite still feeling so far away. He sees the remnants of your lipstick, he feel the warmth coming off of you in waves. Sohee finds himself inching closer to you, then he feels you finally touch him. Your hands let go of the edges of your desk to go to his forearms, then slowly all the way up to his shoulders. All cockiness Sohee had dissipates from his body when he feels your hands travel the plane of his shoulders, ending right at the base of his neck. His hands instinctively go to your waist, and he fully leans against your desk to slot his leg between yours. Instantly, like Sohee’s thigh is a seat made just for you, you put your weight on his leg. Sohee sighs at the feeling of your warmth against him, and you sigh from the pressure.

You were still feeling Sohee up when you started dragging your hips against his. He wasn’t sure why watching you grind on his thigh was doing so much to him, but he was already feeling the ache. He felt you clutch at him, then he felt your hands leave his body to go back to gripping the edge of the desk. You were clumsy this time, your hands wrinkled papers underneath the pads of your fingers and your dragging thrusts on Sohee’s thigh disrupted the perfect order you had set on your desk. Pens and pencils and journals clattered over the sides and fell to your wooden floor, the wood creaked underneath your shared weight. Sohee watched you press your head into his shirt, he could feel your spit seep through the thin material and your tiny whines fill the air. Sohee was beginning to feel himself need more but you were becoming so reckless that he had to move his hand to grip the edge of your desk too. 

His palm hurt by the time your moans became too whiny. His other hand reached forward to still your hips, and you pulled your face from his chest to look at him. Your eyes were already so wet, your face was already getting the light glow caused by a thin layer of sweat.

“Slow down.” Sohee was just as overwhelmed, each look from you left his dick pressing against the fabric of his sweats. “You don’t wanna cum from just that.” He said.

“I want more.” You said.

Sohee didn’t have a chance to calm you down before your hand reached underneath the waistband of his sweats. He could barely wrap his hand around your wrist before the other was working his pants down his body. Any sounds of shock or teasing was swallowed up by your lips smashing against his again.

When your hands pushed his pants down to his thighs Sohee took the initiative to move them the rest of the way. He stood up from your desk and let you continue devouring his face as his hands greedily pushed down his pants the rest of the way.

He was admittedly wound up by you. Feeling you abandon your inhibitions in your messy room made him reckless. He almost fell when he tried stepping out of his sweats and his imbalance caused you two to stumble through the tiny space in your room. Sohee was only able to regain his balance when he leaned up against the edge of your desk again.

Unfortunately any attempt Sohee was trying to make to get you to slow down was futile. Him leaning against the desk gave you a slight height advantage on him, and you somehow found a way to kiss him even deeper. With your hands on his face moving him the way you wanted to while you were fully clothed and he was pant-less made him red in the face.

“There’s too much shit on my bed.” You said in between kisses.

That wasn’t the first time Sohee has heard those words fall from your lips. Sohee has fucked you on your couch when there were clothes piled from one end to another. He’s fucked you on your desk while you were in the middle of an assignment, papers stacked high and textbooks cracked open as he bent you over the wooden surface. He’s fucked you in the bathroom you shared with the people on the other side of your wall when your room was messy. At this point he was used to the chaos he was starting to think he preferred it. 

But before Sohee could tell you he didn’t care, he felt your hands pull him from the edge of your desk down to the ground. 

This was new. 

“You wanna do it here?” Sohee asked breathlessly.

You nodded in between the kisses your placed on his neck. He couldn’t argue even when the wood floors were already becoming a pain on his bent knee. Sohee couldn’t deny the sureness in your eyes or the way your hands went to the bottom of his shirt before pulling upwards.

By the time Sohee took his shirt off you were already undressing yourself, pants and underwear gone in one go before you took your own shirt off. Sohee took off his boxers and tossed his clothes on the same pile you made, right next to another pile of clothes he assumed to be dirty.

“Right here.” You answered.

When he was unsure what to do next you went ahead and pushed him by his shoulders, leading him down until his beck was flush with your cold hardwood floors. Sohee let out a shiver and a breath.

“You cold?” You asked.

Sohee nodded as you started straddling him. He could feel the warmth from your naked body, warming the areas of him that were cooling from the nervous sweats across his skin. 

Your smile when he nodded was almost sinister. Sohee still couldn’t stop himself from smiling back at you.

Sohee’s cold hands find your thighs as you bring your hips to rest on his. The sudden change in his body temperature causes him to shiver again, the feeling of his dick between your warm cunt causes more precum to leak onto his lower stomach. He doesn’t think he can handle you grinding on him, not if he wants to maintain the last bit of the composed demeanor he tries to present to you. He just grips your thighs harder, and his outstretched leg bumps into the edge of your desk.

He can see you trying to figure out what to do next. If you should draw out this torture or have mercy on him, if you should coo at him affectionately or taunt him some more. Sohee watches your eyes flicker to the top of your dresser, where there was always a pile of condoms stacked on top. Every week you’d snag a handful from the on campus clinic in between your classes. Stuffed in the depths of your backpack just to be carelesslt dumped on your dresser. Preparation for when you’d bless Sohee for his basketball games, preparation you were disregarding now.

For a moment you’re silent. Sohee is too, letting you decide how he gets it tonight. He won’t complain unless you want him too, he won’t beg unless he sees that glimmer in your eyes that eggs him on. Your hips slowly drag forward, and his eyes instantly screw shut. He can feel your slick coat him, and the wet sound causes Sohee’s dick to twitch.

“I’ll warm you up.” You say.

Sohee’s hips lift to follow yours when you raise them off his lap. His dick twitches upwards right into your soft hand. 

“Baby.” Your hand dragged the tip of his dick over your folds. He could feel how wet you were on his sensitive skin, causing his hand to dig deeper into your side. Sohee looked up from where you had your hand wrapped around him to the smile on your face. “You ready?” You purred.

Sohee can no longer speak. His mouth is too dry and his brain is too jumbled to form a coherent thought. He only nods slowly and grips your waist tighter, your skin peeking through the gaps of his fingers as you nod back to him. There's a stillness, where you are moving your body slightly forward to be directly above him. Then, holding intense eye contact, you slowly start sinking your hips down. Sohee can feel your walls wearing on his tip first, tight and constricting before you two let out twin sighs. Then, when you adjust yourself on your knees and place a hand over his you loosen up. The rest of Sohee's dick slips inside of you with ease, and when he is completely inside of you he can feel your walls close around him snug. Being inside of you is the same as a weight getting lifted off his chest, so soothing but titillating it causes him to let out another sigh of relief and cinch his eyebrows together. 

For a split second he lets go of you completely, all of his strength is focused in not embarrassing himself right there on the messy floor of your dorm. He rests his hand in a balled up fist over his thudding heart, eyes still screwed shut as he feels and hears you sink down lower. Your sigh was prolonged and ended with a cry when your hips meld with his. Sohee opens his eyes when he feels your hips grind, he watches you selfishly chase stimulation while he gets used to the raw feeling inside of you. He dares to look down where the two of you meet, and almost instantly the dizzying feeling is back.

“Keep going.” Sohee says in a daze.

You nod your head as you raise your hips again. The second time you sink down is louder than the first, and you lean forward to put your hands on Sohee’s chest to stabilize yourself. Your socks rub on the sides of Sohee’s thighs as you slowly find your rhythm, alternating between bouncing and grinding on his dick. 

After finding a rhythm you get lost in the speed. Sohee watches the momentum you have on your chest and your desperate attempt to keep them in place. When your arm spread across your chest fails to do the trick, Sohee finds himself regaining his sanity to come to your aid. Almost instantly his hand takes your place, holding a handful of your chest in each of his palms. He almost uses the hold to guide you up and down, following your body with each flick of your hip and each bounce.

“So soft.” Sohee says.

“Can you suck on them?” You ask.

With your hands moving to his shoulders and guiding him up it’s easy. Sohees’ core muscles are no longer sore from months of practice when he closes the distance between your chest and his mouth. Your nipple lays on his tongue perfectly, and the arch in your back is made just for his hands as you preen into his mouth.

“Feels good.” You sigh.

He can’t stop his dick from pathetically throbbing inside of you when the praise falls from your lips. He can’t stop himself from sucking harder when he feels your hand go to the top of his head to rub his scalp. Sohee knows that you’re far away from ever calling him your good boy, he’s knew you for the better half of a year before you let him see your inclination for disarray. But he hopes that fucking you raw on the floor of your messy room is helping bridge the gap. Maybe by the end of next season he could get you to say one of the things you so clearly wanted to say during sex. Maybe your room was always so dirty to compensate for the absolute filth you kept suppressed in the depths of your mind.

But that was all just speculation. What Sohee knew for certain was that when you slightly pulled at his hair was when you wanted him to switch sides. So he unlatched from one side of your chest with a soft wet sound to move to the other. He still gave the other side attention, rolling the wet bud between his thumb and index finger. Sohee felt himself lose his bearings when you continued to ride him. With your hands braced on his shoulders he bent forward to follow you, and when you clamped around him his teeth grazed your sensitive nipple. You seized around him again and your hand in his hair pulled at his roots. For a second the sudden pain almost made Sohee’s teeth latch onto you harder, but with his last shred of common sense he detached from your chest entirely. The sound he made the second time was alot less quiet, a lewd sound mixed with your moans and the slick sound of your cunt riding his dick.

He got the courage to look down at where you two met again, with one hand keeping himself propped up Sohee watched you take him again and again.

“My God.” He didn’t hide his amazement. His jaw was slack as you rode him with a vigor he has never seen before. “Keep going, baby. Just like that.” He said quietly.

Sohee watched you pull one of your hands that was shoulder move forward. Before you got the chance to rub tight circles on your clit Sohee reached first, bumping your hand out of his way in the process. Your heavy lidded eyes perked in amusement, right before they screwed shut from Sohee’s ministrations.

“I thought you were going to make me do all the work.” You whined.

The teasing edge to your voice was all the way gone as Sohee continued working his fingers. You missed him shaking his head, you missed him biting his bottom lip in concentration. 

You didn’t open your eyes until Sohee started flicking his hip upwards to meet your dropping hips. He was almost compelled to look away from how intensely you were staring at him. Despite being laid bare he felt naked underneath your gaze, like you stripped him of everything. Sohee suddenly had no other purpose besides fucking you, moving his fingers in a tight circle, and keeping his eyes on you. You abandoned your job of bouncing on him, instead only grinding on his dick and clutching his legs even tighter. 

“Close.” You moaned.

Sohee nodded and told himself a million times to not speed up his fingers. He kept the same pace despite wanting to bring you to the edge as fast as possible. He kept his eyes on you and your body, looking for the signs in your hips that were becoming more erratic and your fingernails that were digging into his skin. In your pursuit of pleasure your guard fell all the way down. You were naked for him too, your hopeless pout and unbounded sounds were winding him up beyond his control.

“I’m close too.” Sohee said quickly.

His fingers didn’t stop and neither did your hips. His mind went to the condoms on your dresser but your eyes stayed on him, big and glossy as his words registered. You licked your bitten lips, opened your mouth just to shut it and then opened it again.

"Inside. Please.” You said.

“Are you sure?” He asked.

Just the invitation made Sohee ready to burst. He spoke fast and in a haste, wanting to give himself enough time to lift you off of his dick in case you changed your mind. But your hips showed no signs of stopping and you lazily pitched your body forward to press your lips to his.

Sohee only felt a sloppy kiss on the corner of his mouth and his cupid’s bow before you cursed against his lips. He felt your hips freeze and your walls clench around him. He was no match for the sudden flood of wetness from your cunt and the hot pants of air in his open mouth. He felt himself spill inside of you less than a second later. His hands left your clit and inside wrapped around your waist, bringing your chest to his as his back went to the ground.

Both of you desperately rode out your highs chest to chest while Sohee’s back was to the floor. He felt garments of clothing underneath his back as he rutted into you, and your hand reached forward to grab onto the wooden frame of your bed. 

The time it took you two to ground yourselves was embarrassingly long. Your chests were practically glued together from sweat by the time your breath evened, and it happened all over again when you weakly lifted yourself off of Sohee’s dick. His shaking hand on your waist guided you to the ground next to him, and for a minute you two laid together in the mess Sohee was lucky enough to be invited into.

Both of you stared at the same place on the ceiling before Sohee turned to face you.

“You’re gonna be at the game tomorrow, right?” Sohee asks.

“Sohee, I am the trainer. I have to be there.” You answer.

Sohee watches you pull a new sweater back over your head, covering up your bare chest. The sweater has his basketball teams name, it’s the one he gifted you that has his number and name on the back. He can’t hide his smile as you lay back down next to him on the floor.

“Would you still go?” Sohee looks at your fallen pens and notebooks on the floor. “Even if you didn’t have to be there?” He asks.

You think about it for a moment. Sohee looks at the messy pile of clothes that fell from your chair at some point, the untidy stack of books that rest on your dresser. He doesn’t want to leave. He’s too comfortable here, too happy staring at you carefully think of an answer to his question that wouldn’t let him know what you’re thinking.

“I’d still go.” You uselessly kick towards some of your clean clothes that fell from your chair at some point. After you get a sock successfully back on the chair you turn to face him. “I’m your good luck charm. I think you’d lose without me.” You say.

Sohee will take it. He will gladly take him being the one and only person in your life that you bring good luck to. That is something akin to more than friends with benefits, or maybe it’s the purest form of whatever this arrangement is. Whatever the case may be it brings Sohee enough peace to sleep soundly, and he feels like he has enough luck to win the game all by himself. He leans forward to kiss you and you don’t turn away. You let the kiss be planted right on the tip of your nose before he faces the ceiling again, and Sohee ends up having to hide his smile behind his hands the same way you hide it by clearing your throat.

“Maybe if we win.” He goes to his tiptoes before going back to the balls of his feet. “Maybe if we win we could go out somewhere. Like watch a movie or something.” He says.

Instantly you shake your head, reaching to the side to playfully smack his shoulder. Sohee fakes like you hit him roughly, taking a step backwards with a faux pained expression on his face.

“Even if you lose. Which I doubt will happen.” You take a deep breath and turn your head away. “I’ll think about it.” You say quietly.

There is absolutely no way he’s losing his game tomorrow. 

[nicomoon69]

I’ve made up so much Bernard lore in my head so I’m just going to dump it here

so post Louis Grieve in my head Bernard transferred to an all boys boarding school his junior year (someone suggested Brentwood so I’m gonna go w that). his parents sent him there as a bit of a last ditch effort to straighten him out, get up his grades and push him out of his silly habits. this also included them making him buzz off his hair since they deemed his old hair unprofessional.

all of it was a huge blow to Bernard’s already fragile mental health and self esteem so at Brentwood he was kind of a mess. he wasn’t exactly a bad student but the people around him considered him even more of an outsider than he was before at Louis Grieve.

eventually Bernard did find himself with a small group of friends (might further develop them as ocs??) who were much like him outsiders. one of said friends also being the first time he fooled around with a guy, which led to several more though none of it was ever serious.

there was lots of denial at first but by the time his time at Brentwood ended Bernard had accepted himself as queer.

he applied for a few colleges, some outside of Gotham but he ended up settling for GU bc part of his couldnt handle leaving his city behind. he chose a double major because he thought that would make his parents most proud and bc biology and physics were the only subjects he enjoyed.

despite everything seemingly going well for Bernard he felt an emptiness that nothing could fix, that is until he found the Children of Dionysus. despite knowing the risks of joining a cult he did. he was in the cult for roughly eight months before he got kidnapped to get sacrificed.

that was a rough version of what happened in my head. I have some more details that I couldn’t fit smoothly into that word vomit so here’s some more

Bernard came out to his parents his first semester, which they took pretty badly and led him to getting kicked out and having to couch surf for a bit before landing on the apartment he was living in during TD:R.

to keep himself afloat with no support from his parents Bernard worked two jobs, one at a diner around the corner of his apartment and the other at a coffee shop closer to GU.

at Brentwood Bernard did a lot of experimental stuff with his appearance ranging from spiking his hair after it had grown out a bit to getting his ears pierced multiple times. a tongue piercing came along somewhere in his time at the cult and Bernard genuinely doesn’t remember getting it.

during junior and senior year Bernard joined the basketball team. he was surprisingly good considering he had never showed any interest in the sport and wasn’t particularly athletic before then. basketball somehow also led him to training himself in martial arts.

since I do hc the Children of Dionysus to have some more Dionysian practices I think Bernard developed both a distaste for wine and eating raw meat (omophagia).

Bernard has been refusing to get drastic hair cuts after the buzz cut and is unlikely to get one any time soon. he’s been taking kitchen scissors to his hair and freestyling it if he feels it needs more shape.

though he’s been out for a while Bernard hasn’t actually dated anyone long term before Tim. most people he’s been with were flings or were blocked after a few dates.

the way Bernard got into contact with the cult is through one of his high school classmates, who he’d seen talk about the ways that joining it had improved their life and how they were much more enlightened. he due to his circumstances was an easy victim after his initial skepticism

there’s just a lot of permanent scarring due to the cult, but Bernard doesn’t bother covering them up with make up or clothes. at least not post getting rescued.

Bernard actually goes to therapy after the cult and was also diagnosed with autism (let me project a teeny bit). it helped him make more sense of his life and gave him more direction.

his cooking passion came from his early childhood, being dimmed out in middle school and only returning after high school. he mostly enjoys writing his own recipes and experimenting with taste. there was ofc the added challenge of budget, but it was one of the few things that made him happy.

his conspiracy theorist side mostly calmed down until he was thrust back into it when he started dating Tim. this was due to odd behavior from Tim and until Bernard found out he was RR (which really didn’t take that long) he was balls deep on conspiracy blogs and threads. he didn’t really quite after putting the RR pieces together though, bc he enjoyed being able to subtly help Tim with his cases.

due to the two jobs and double major previously mentioned Bernard has a terrible sleeping schedule. he regularly stays up past three only to have a morning shift that starts at seven.

gonna quite rambling for now lol, might edit this post to add more in the morning but I’m sick of typing. sorry if it’s a lot, I just think abt him a lot……. yea..

[bad268]

Nurse Sammy (Sam Golbach X Skater! Reader)

Fandom: RPF/Sam and Colby & Co

Requested: Nope :) but requests are open for Sam now

Warnings: Blood (lots of it), broken bones, hospitals.

POV: Second Person (You/your/They/them)

W.C. 2439

Summary: Maybe skating in the rain isn't a good idea.

Join my 1K Celly

As always, my requests are OPEN

MASTERLIST // HITLIST

~~(Pinterest)

“It’s just a quick session to practice before the competition, Sam,” You argued as you were heading out the door with your board. You were preparing for the Olympics given that you were on Team USA and you competed there last time. You took home the bronze, but this year, you were dead set on getting the gold or at least silver. You only missed out on the silver by the slightest margin, so you were determined to be as close to perfect as humanly possible. Sam, your boyfriend, knew this, and he always supported you. However, today, it looked like it would rain soon, and he voiced his concerns as you were about to leave. “Sam, I’ll go to a different bowl if that’ll make you feel better. There’s this old skatepark just outside the city that’s practically abandoned I could go to.”

“If you promise to be back if it starts raining,” Sam sighs from his spot in the kitchen. Colby had just shown up, and they were going to be discussing their next string of videos. That’s the main reason you decided to go practice. They really needed to sort it out, and all of your projects were already done. Plus, there is no harm in overpreporation. “Just please promise to be careful. I know we’re in the middle of a desert, but when it rains, it pours.”

“Yeah, yeah, Mr. Weatherman, I hear you,” You teased as you walked up behind him to grab a water and a small snack from the fridge. Then, you leaned up to press a short kiss to his cheek before heading out of the kitchen, purposely bumping into Colby’s shoulder in the process. “Don’t have too much fun while I’m gone. I’ll text you when I’m on my way back.”

You jumped in your car, threw your stuff into the passenger side, and turned on the car. You set up the music, knowing it was going to take a while to get out to the skate park and you needed good tunes to be able to sit through the drive. 

Inside the house, your boyfriend and his best friend were joking about how you could not sit still for too long, and you always had to do something. They only needed to situate a few things before they were able to call it a day and just hang out. They decided to film a couple of reaction videos to get ahead of schedule since they were going on a trip soon.

The drive out to the park did not take nearly as long as you thought. Maybe it was because there was a noticeable lack of cars on the road and very grey-looking clouds in the sky. It looked almost nighttime with how dark the clouds were. From what you could remember, the park still had functional lights, so you hoped that was still the case.

Unfortunately, it was not, but it was times like this when you were happy you had a light in your truck. It was a portable light usually meant for camping, but it came in handy when the park was so dark.

The park was empty so that played to your advantage. The ground was slightly wet, so you knew that it had rained there earlier. There were not any puddles. There were just a couple of noticeable wet spots in the concrete. The bowl itself did not have any standing water, so you went ahead and set up the light and your phone to record your practice. You had your radio from your car playing music since you were alone, and it was one of the things you always did to seem like you were with a group.

You got on a roll, going straight from a few warm-up tricks before starting to go into the tricks for your routine. It started to lightly drizzle at one point, but it was not too bad. You love the rain, and you have skated in the rain before. There was nothing wrong.

You were in your element. The rain just added a nice ambiance, and it made you feel calm as you continued practicing. At one point, you were getting ready to drop into the bowl when you realized the ledge was a little too slippery, and instead of stepping back, you accidentally fell into the bowl. Your arm crashed against the ledge before you slid all the way down and stopped in the middle of a puddle.

You realized it had started raining harder now, and when you moved to get up, you noticed a slight red tint to the water. Like everything was in slow motion, you turned your head and saw your arm bent at a weird angle with a large gash along the side of it.

You cursed to yourself, not really feeling the pain yet, as you pushed yourself up with your other hand. You grabbed your board and threw it up out of the bowl as you tried to run up the side, barely landing at the edge.

You got a better look at your arm in the light, concluding it was definitely broken. As if it could not get any worse, it was your right arm, and your car was a manual. You could not drive yourself to the hospital, so you needed to call someone to get you. 

Thinking the obvious was Sam, but instead, you dialed Colby’s number and put it on speaker as you slowly wrapped everything up and took the light to your car first. He did not answer the first time, so you set your phone in your car as you finished grabbing your board and putting the light and board in the trunk before sitting in the driver’s seat. You did not plan on trying to drive, so you dialed his number one more time.

This time, he answered, “Hey, what’s up?”

“Do you think you could come pick me up?” You asked, not wanting to reveal why, but the tone of voice you used conveyed that you could not drive. You were starting to get lightheaded and the adrenaline was wearing off at a rapid rate.

“Yeah, any reason why I need to pick you up and not Sam?” He asked, and you could hear him grabbing his keys. What you did not hear was Colby gesturing for Sam to follow him as they both climbed into his car.

“I may have done something, and Sam gets squeamish around blood,” You chuckled halfheartedly as you leaned your head back and closed your eyes. 

“Blood?! What did you do?” Sam could not help himself from shouting as Colby got on the interstate, following the GPS to your location. 

“So much for not telling Sam,” You mumbled to yourself, but they heard it loud and clear, “Sam, I had a small fall. It happens, but it’s my right arm, and I can’t drive without my right arm.”

They both took note of how weak you sounded, glancing briefly at each other in concern. Finally, Sam asked, “Could we move this to FaceTime?” You did not have time to answer as a FaceTime call from Colby came in. You accepted it and propped your phone up on the dash weakly, making sure your arm was not in the shot. You leaned your head back but looked down as you waited for the phone to connect. It took a second, but when it did, you were met with Sam’s concerned face. “You look really pale. Are you sure it was a small injury?”

“I don’t think you want me to answer that, Sammy,” You said in a soft tone and a small smile, trying to play it off. You never called him ‘Sammy’ unless something was really wrong. The last time you called him ‘Sammy,’ it turned out you had appendicitis and needed to go in for emergency surgery. He immediately caught on as well.

“Can I see it?” Sam said, not wanting to push too hard, but also needing to see just how bad it was.

“Sammy, trust me,” You laughed as you lifted your head to look straight at the screen. “You don’t want to see it. If you really want to see it, which I’m telling you you don’t, you can see it when you get here.”

“Well, it’s my lucky day because we’re just about to pull into the parking lot,” Sam teased lightheartedly as you noticed the headlights of Colby’s car fill your view. That’s when you noticed how badly it was raining now. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to skate in the rain. You truly learned your lesson.

“Sam, you know it is not a good idea to go up to them if there is blood,” Colby reasoned as he stopped Sam from climbing out of the car. “The last thing they need is you freaking out if it is something bad. Let me go first, and I’ll bring you over if I think you can handle it.”

“I trust you,” Sam caved as he stayed in the car and hid his face in his hands while Colby walked over to your car. Sam was a nervous wreck, but you picked up on his anxiousness like a sponge. That would not help your situation if he started freaking out. 

Colby walked up to your driver’s side door, and he did not even need to open the door. You had the light on inside, and he could clearly see the amount of blood that had accumulated on your shirt and pants and the odd bend of your arm. Immediately, he turned back to Sam in his car and gestured for Sam to get in the driver’s seat. Sam did so without hesitation but rolled the passenger window down to ask what was going on.

“Sam, you’re gonna follow us, and you’re not gonna ask any questions,” Colby instructed, causing Sam to be even more worried as he turned the car back on. Colby went back to your car and helped you move into the passenger seat all while obstructing Sam’s view of you. Up close, it looked even worse.

The ride to the nearest hospital was not long, but to each of you, it felt like years. Your arm was pulsing so much, you thought there was a bass sound system in it. Colby was trying to focus on driving through the rain while keeping you awake. Sam was just numb. There was no way this was a small injury based purely on Colby’s reaction.

When you finally got to the hospital, Sam wasted no time in parking and running up you the passenger side. Colby jumped between him and the door, for obvious reasons, but Sam could not see it that way.

“Colby, please,” Sam pleaded trying to see inside. He was barely holding it together, and he did not even see the extent of the injury. He just knew it was base based on Colby and your reactions alone. “I need to see them.”

“Sammy, if you really want to see it, then help me out,” You sighed as you pushed the door open with your left arm. The door was a lot heavier because Colby was leaning on it, but when he felt the door start moving, he backed off. As soon as Sam’s eyes landed on the blood on your shirt, he immediately turned around. He did not even see your arm before retreating back to Colby’s car. “That’s what I thought. Now, Colby, can you help me, please?”

You have always hated hospitals. The smell, the doctors not taking you seriously, the silence, and the general lack of color. This was the emergency room, so there was more to look at honestly, and it was not pin-silent. If anything, it was loud and obnoxious. 

Thankfully, you were taken into one of the trauma bays quickly, so they could get the blood to stop. Colby went to get Sam, so they could wait in the waiting room for the all-clear. The blood took a minute to stop because the bone kept moving, causing it to not have the chance to clot. The doctors decided you needed to go into surgery to set the bone straight before going into a cast, so they updated Sam and Colby as they sent you off. 

You woke up in a hospital room the next day, at least you assumed as much. The sun was out, so you knew a considerable amount of time had passed since the storm. You looked down at your arm and found it already encased in a thick plaster. To the left side, Sam laid asleep with his head on the bed as he held your hand. You gently shook your arm to wake him up, but as it turns out, he was not asleep, just laying with his eyes closed. His eyes snapped open immediately to meet yours as he did a once over to make sure you were still okay.

“I think that’s the last time I try skating in the rain,” you tried to joke, still heavily drowsy. This made Sam smile as he pulled your entwined hand to his lips and kissed your knuckles. “And it looks like no Paris trip for us this Summer.”

“We’ll go some other time,” he sympathized as one of his hands moved up to fix your hair. It was flying in all different directions, and he just needed to be doing something with his hands. When he finished, he moved his hand to cup your face, causing you to lean into it and close your eyes. Honestly, you could fall back to sleep like this. He waited a few beats before whispering, “Are you feeling better?”

“Tired and probably on pain meds,” You whispered back, opening your eyes to look at him. “Nothing hurts if that’s what you're asking. I am hungry though, and I want to go home.”

“I’ll call the doctor in, and we can stop and get your favorite food on the way home,” He offered as he stood up, kissed your forehead, and moved to press the button. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“You say that like I didn't break my arm the first time we met,” You laughed as you waited for the doctor or nurse to come in. “I’m just accident-prone. You should know this by now.”

“Well, this time, I plan to be your personal nurse, so get ready because I’m not letting you out of my sights until this cast comes off.”

“Nurse Sammy to the rescue.”

~~~~~

© BAD268 2024. DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION.

[phantom-playdough]

Sun Wukong x GN!Reader: Overworked

Y/n was in class, listening to the lecture with a semi-bored expression. The professor was announcing a new group project and was going over all the ins and outs of the assignment, when Y/n was startled out of listening to the lecture from their phone buzzing like wild. It was clear that a certain someone was texting them at a rate so fast that Y/n's phone was vibrating at an almost constant rate.

They promptly excused themself from class and went into the bathroom to call their loving partner: Wukong.

"Hey, peaches! What are you doing right now?"

"I should be asking you that! I'm in class right now!" Y/n whisper-yelled into the phone.

"Then what are you doing on your phone?" Wukong asked teasingly. Y/n knew he was just pushing their buttons, but that didn't make it any less infuriating.

"I had to go to the bathroom just so I can answer my clingy boyfriend's messages. So, did you have something to actually say to me or are you just messing with me again?"

"Again?"

"Sun Wukong, I will hang up if you don't answer my question."

"UGH, fine! I was wondering if you wanted to come over to Flower Fruit Mountain after you get out of your boring class."

"It may be boring but it's also important. But to answer your question, I'm sorry but I can't. I just got a group project I have to start today."

Y/n didn't have the heart to hear his disappointed response, so they just hung up and turned text notifications off on their phone.

Once Y/n got home, it was already almost 10pm and they still had some homework to do before bed. The group assignment in one of their classes was already leaving a bad taste in their mouth because the group Y/n ended up in is filled with slackers and decision-dodgers. So, from the looks of things, Y/n was going to be the sole person doing any work in the group for that class assignment.

Eventually, the last paper was done for the night and Y/n crashed onto their bed. They were unable to sleep just yet because of the energy drinks and adrenaline of working so much, so Y/n just took their phone and checked to see if Wukong had texted them at all since their phone call prior in the day.

Nothing...

That did slightly concern Y/n. They glanced over at their calendar and knew that laying there speculating as to whether Wukong got busy himself or not would do nothing for them. So, Y/n instead decided to just fade to sleep.

The next few days practically were a blur to Y/n. Things were rather busy preparing for the group project being due the next week and tests and homework assignments thrown in for good measure to keep Y/n as busy as possible.

A couple times throughout the week, Wukong had reached out to Y/n to ask if they wanted to hang out. As much as they wanted to do just that, they told him that they just didn't have the time.

This unsettled Wukong a lot because he could tell they seemed tired in the few moments he got them on the phone. When Friday came along and they rebuffed him for what felt like the hundredth time, Wukong decided enough was enough.

Y/n was sitting at their computer desk, typing away at their group project that might as well have been called their project. But as they were finishing up the final report for it, they were snapped out of their thoughts by their phone ringing.

Y/n sighed as they checked both the time and the caller ID.

Sun Wukong, 1:58am

"Hello?"

"I knew it." Wukong said with disappointment clear in his voice.

"Knew what?"

"You're staying up late to finish your work, right?" He asked despite knowing the answer.

"No...?" Y/n kicked themself in the head mentally for that lame excuse of a reply.

Wukong sighed. "Alright, I'm coming over."

"Wait, what? But I-and you hung up..." Y/n said as they heard the call beep.

Sure enough, 20 minutes later, a knock at Y/n's window sounded throughout their apartment.

Y/n got up from their computer desk and let him in.

Wukong looked around, feeling unsettled by the mess of energy drinks and soda cans littering every surface, along with small snacks sitting at the computer desk.

Y/n began to walk past him to head back to said desk but Wukong knew where that would lead.

"No, no, no you don't." Wukong picked them up, ignoring their flailing.

"Wukong! Put me down! I'm almost done!!"

"Well, then if you're almost done, then you can finish your work tomorrow." He said, making a good point despite Y/n's efforts to think not.

"You've been working all week. I think your grades won't suffer that much if you take one night off." Wukong pointed out, placing them gently on their bed. When Y/n sat up, Wukong placed a hand on their shoulder, keeping them down. "Y/n. Get some sleep. It'll make you feel better than it would if you got a slightly better grade. I'll stay here with you if it helps."

Y/n knew they weren't getting out of this without sleeping. Plus, their eyes were starting to get heavy since the caffeine was wearing off. They let loose a small yawn. "Alright, Wukong. You win, now come over here and cuddle with me."

Wukong smiled sweetly. "Alright." He squeezed into bed with Y/n and the two of them cuddled till late into the next day.

[lavenderchqn]

𝑃𝑅𝑂𝐿𝑂𝐺𝑈𝐸 — BEVERAGE GANG

𝑅𝐸𝐷 𝐿𝐼𝑁𝐸𝑆 — lyney x f!reader smau

𝑆𝑌𝑁𝑂𝑃𝑆𝐼𝑆 —

Second year of university should've been everything you thought of it - more studying with human interaction sprinkled throught... What it definitely wasn't supposed to be was an investigation saga where one of your friends goes missing out of nowhere

There was something about group projects early into the semester that filled people with uncertainty — for one, your grade was dependent on others doing their part… as well as having to deal with the awkwardness that came with not knowing each other that well…

Lyney was now experiencing it first hand, being stuck with a partner that they simply knew due to sitting next to each other on “The History of Theatre”. Luckily for him, the lovely girl he ended up with was practically more knowledgeable on this topic than their lecturer. 

On the other hand, she was a disorganised mess… as he managed to observe so far. 

“I am so sorry…” Furina sighed, searching her bag for notes a classmate had asked for their shared project. “I must’ve left my folder at my desk this morning…” 

“Whoa, whoa. You don’t have to apologise.” Lyney — the classmate in question — was stuck trying to console her, finding the apologetic behaviour of hers unnecessary. “It happens to all of us!” He did his best to cheer the panicked girl up… which seemed to be working, at least partially. 

In the blink of an eye, she got an idea, taking her phone out and deciding to call someone. 

“Please, please, please pick up— Hiii!” Her call went through and thus began her explanation of the situation. She stopped in the middle of her monologue, having realised something crucial. “Wait, I forgot to ask! Are you still home?”

“I was almost out the door.” Lyney could hear a deeper voice on the other end. “You are the last person that would make a phone call, so I picked up in case it was an emergency.” 

Furina, reassured by this knowledge, soon resumed her pleas of getting the folder delivered by her roommate, which by the steadily rising voice tone seemed to be going well. 

“You’re going to be at Café Lutece? We can go get there and pick it up!”

And that’s how Lyney ended up here. Sitting at a lovely establishment with his project partner… and a guy, with who he had major beef ever since starting university. All due to a singular game of Valorant. 

While Lyney’s only interaction with him was their twitter banter turning into said one-on-one match in the game… According to Furina, he has been nothing short of being a lovely guy and an amazing friend. 

From what she mentioned, they had become friends thanks to a well-timed suggestion at a tea shop one time. Something about her favourite brand discontinuing one of the flavours… and her being deprived of her lovely peach and raspberry beverage. 

“Neuvi should be here in a minute, quite the luck you managed to get ahold of him in time, Furu.” Wriothesley said, taking a sip of his coffee. He has been stealing occasional glances at the two of them ever since they got to the café. 

During Lyney and Furina’s walk to the café, she mentioned how Wriothesley was a frequent visitor here on his breaks between work… and so-called ‘Neuvi’ was meeting here with him to give back something he borrowed a while back, whatever it was. 

“I know right�� He said something about me being the last person to make a call, and picking up in case it was serious” She executed her best Neuvillette voice, being surprisingly spot on. 

Wriothesley couldn’t help but chuckle at the girl’s impression of their friend. Even Lyney seemed to ease after witnessing it. 

“That’s quite a good impression, compared to what I heard on the phone call.” He said, grinning. “Are you sure that the seriousness in the tone isn’t a bit exaggerated, though?” Spoken like a true performance art major. 

Furina smirked, flipping her hair dramatically. “Someone has to keep things interesting around here.” 

Just then, the doors to Café Lutece swung open, and a tall and slender figure stepped in, scanning the room briefly before locking eyes with his childhood friend. Neuvillette with his calm demeanour soon approached the table, the missing folder in his hand. 

“Here you go.” He greeted her, handing her the file folder. “You ought to be more mindful of your things.” 

The girl accepted the folder with a grateful smile. “Thanks a bunch, Neuvi! You’re a lifesaver.” 

Neuvillette nodded, his gaze briefly shifting to Lyney, then to Wriothesley. An unreadable expression crossed his face before he returned his attention to the short male. “I don’t think we’ve ever met. I’m Neuvillette” He reached his hand out to shake Lyney’s. 

“Lyney.” He shook his hand. “Pleasure to meet you and huge thanks for coming through with the docs!” 

Neuvillette offered a polite nod. "It was no trouble. Good luck with your project."

As Furina and Lyney started to gather their things to leave, Wriothesley who had been listening in finally spoke up. “Why not join the two of us for coffee? Now that you have the notes, surely you could spare some time for the two of us.” 

At Wriothesley's suggestion, Lyney and Furina stared at each other, silently figuring out his proposal. 

“I can pay for your drink, as apologises.” Furina offered, looking the boy right in the eye. 

“I don't mind staying, as long as you stop being so apologetic, holy…” Lyney smiled awkwardly. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone apologise so much for such a silly thing.” 

“To be completely honest, it is her fault.” Neuvillette declared, getting a look from the group. 

“Neuvillette… you will get yourself kicked out of the house again if you don’t shut up right this second.” Wriothesley countered, being met with a confused look on Lyney’s face. “Their water bill is atrocious. Don't ask.” 

With that, Lyney and Furina retook their seats, and the group settled into an unexpected but somewhat pleasant camaraderie. The initial awkwardness began to melt away as the conversation turned to lighter topics, ranging from the topics of university projects to computer games. Even Lyney and Wriothesley managed to find common ground once the topic of favourite café items came around. 

The day may not have started exactly how Lyney would predict it, but it ended on the best note possible. Although nobody at the time voiced it, this was the day when the group of friends had expanded into its final form… thanks to bonding over beverages of all things. 

𝑃𝑅𝐸𝑉𝐼𝑂𝑈𝑆 — 𝑀𝐴𝑆𝑇𝐸𝑅𝐿𝐼𝑆𝑇 — 𝑁𝐸𝑋𝑇 𝐸��𝐼𝑆𝑂𝐷𝐸

date of posting — july 12th 2024

[theology101]

Okay listen, I have no art skill (and far too many projects to start a new one) BUT AHHH I CANT HELP MYSELF! With DnD, I can pretend by making worlds or different character sheet and I want to do the same with Warhammer 40 while lacking the skill to do so

Also, while I normally dislike OCs as a concept, a setting like 40k is kinda built around it, my OC can be absolutely pivotal to this major battle… also completely irrelevant cause the Imperium already lost like, thirty other planets cause some bureaucrat misfiled a form 3 centuries ago

Anyways! Meet my OC!

The Noble House of Bicarmion was one of a dozen Knightly houses of located on the planet of Caliban, although the family’s Knight had a few… quirks. Despite being in perfect combat condition, the Knight had two machine spirits installed on it. Initially, this was a deteiment as not only did a pilot need to fight to maintain control, there were two possible options for causing braindeath instead of one. While the Bicarmions were infamous for their much higher rate of failure when it came to Knight mastery, this did not always stay the same. As time went on, and the Gestalt conscious of the Knights grew and expanded with each dead pilot - creating a harder and harder Machine Spirit to master - Bicarmion’s unique mutation proved its worth.

Instead of having a singular Mind that would merge with the Pilot, there were two - with the Machine Spirits allowed to communicate, they began to differentiate themselves and, as more kinsmen were added to the Gestalt mind, the Pilot found themselves not being a Component slotted into the Machine Spirit inorder to give it will, but rather a more conversational bent. It was not a new Pilot coming to master a Machine Spirit who had nothing to do but fight (even its newest pilot psychically), it would be a bickering couple being forced to cooperate by the youngblood

By the time of Lion El’Johnson’s conquest - the Bicarmion’s a proud member of the Order for centuries (actually cause none of the other guilds wanted a family with such a high washout rate, and by the time that was fixed the animosity had built) - found themselves swept up in the fervor when the planet was unified and then the Emperor arrived in person.

Unwilling to abandon their oaths to the Lion, the Bicarmion’s joined the Imperium but, like the other houses of Caliban, insisted on staying with the Lion and his Dark Angels. By then, the two Machine Spirits had been affectionately named “Grandfather” and “Grandmother.” The Machine Spirits were a combination of their ancestors, and having their deadkinsmen - thousands of years of them at this point - were practically family.

They’ve stayed loyal since the Heresy and, due to the family occupying a very priveledged, if not powerful, position in the Imperium meant that many Bicarmions would go on to be Rogue Traders and Inquisitors… but they would always seek out the Knight of the House, to seek Wisdom from the revered Machine Spirits of the Knight, who all the family view as Kin. Since the Heresy and Lion El’Johnson leaving, the House has spent much more time around said groups sparking some concern of their loyalty to the Empire as they seemed to only be honoring themselves. On top of the Dark Angels already mysterious nature, the Bicarmions became more isolationist. However, with the return of the Primarchs, the house has been revitalized

Anyways im going to try to draw this knight at some point - but with different colors and some more aestehtic variations. Like for one, probably give it an axe and a chaingun, take off the Chaos branding with the family Coat of Arms, the despoiler is just my favorite. I’m thinking the standard grey but with much more color painted on with the family coat of Arms. After all, the Bicarmions have had the same coat of arms for centuries! They respect the Lion, but they’re not going to rebrand just for him!

Current pilot is Juilette Katrin Schtark-Feld of the Knightly House Bicarmion, she had been a pilot for about a year when Guiliman came back and is currently doing everything in her power, with grandma and grandpa yelling at her to go faster, to find El’Johnson and help atone

[pierrotwrites-hc]

soo... luca consistently refers to the lady in his pov chapters. his people's religion/spiritual beliefs/tendency towards human sacrifice seems to play a big part in branding them less than human by their enemies. i'm wondering whether luca somehow resisted being brainwashed out of the religion he grew up with, or did they just... introduce him to ganymene and called it a day, without bothering to figure out what exactly he might already believe in? it sticks out as very noteworthy considering how thoroughly most of his culture was taken from him. i always thought luca's little patchwork belief system was interesting (the lady as the true goddess in his mind who would not help him and ganymene as the guy painted on the wall of the training house who's probably more inclined to listen to his prayers... at least that's what it read like to me) and i wonder whether we'll get more insight into it. i've always assumed that he came to the conclusion that the lady abandoned him on his own, but maybe that's what he was told and it just... didn't stop him believing in her? then again, solasans don't seem to know about her to begin with and probably wouldn't care to. i've been thinking about this for a while, haha - have a nice day!

oh, I love this question.

so, the Solasan empire has no interest in religious conversion. there isn't even an official religious infrastructure within Solas, because Roland the Conqueror liquidated it in order to fund his wars abroad.

Toby and Tybalt discuss this in Part II Ch17:

“Well, my great-grandfather Roland got rid of all the priests, you see. And took their property and gave it to the Midland lords, and melted down all their gold and gave it to the lords of Lyonesse. And the priests had been around for positively ages. Much longer than three hundred years. But when Roland got rid of them the common people stood about amazed and said to each other, oh, what a thing, now we don’t need to give all our money to the temples, we can give it to the Crown instead.”

Tybalt looked like he was struggling with several responses to this. He settled on “Some commoners do still make offerings at the remaining temples, you know, even if there aren’t any priests to bless them for it.”

Toby waved this away.

“Silly peasant superstition. Anyway, my brothers say that people of quality don’t give the old rituals the least bit of consideration.

as usual, Toby doesn't get it quite right. the Midland lords were given property previously held by the temples in order to ensure their fealty and cooperation; ditto the lords of Lyonesse with the fungible assets. of course, a lot of that gold went into building up the army and navy and equipping and provisioning them during the takeover of Kel -- a massive one-time cash infusion that future kings would never be able to match (though they've tried by raising taxes at an ever-increasing rate, leading to a corresponding increase in poverty, debt slavery, and general resentment of the crown).

since priesthood as a caste was abolished, religion in Solas has become completely decentralized. the few temples which remain are run by the devout. belief in the gods remains widespread, however, particularly among the lower classes.

so that's Solas. let's talk about Kel. you're absolutely right that their zealous religiosity and practices like human sacrifice are perceived as primitive and even subhuman in Solas. at the same time, Solasans just don't care about converting the barbarians. it isn't part of their imperial project for the simple reason that they get nothing out of it. Solas isn't really interested in "civilizing" the barbarians, in part because they see the barbarians as inherently and irreparably uncivilized. they're just interested in exploiting barbarian land and labor. sure, the Solasan occupiers outlawed some traditional practices, but they aren't motivated by religious or humanitarian concerns. they just want to weaken group identity and, in the case of human sacrifice, prevent the deaths of potentially productive members of the workforce.

this is all to say that there has never been a concerted effort on the part of Luca's captors to stamp out his faith in the Lady. he can have whatever silly little beliefs he likes as long as they don't impede his usefulness.

at the same time, Luca's own experience of his faith has been shifted and reshaped by trauma. he believes in the Lady, but also thinks himself no longer worthy of her attention or protection. the Kel have a warrior culture; the Lady is a warrior goddess. Luca's entire existence in Solas is defined by conditions of defeat and subjugation. the Lady is still the goddess, but she can no longer be his goddess. Ganymene fills that gap. he's a more immediate, accessible divine presence, and having himself been mortal and victimized, he can understand Luca, accept him, and watch out for him. the Lady is all-powerful, but remote; Ganymene is local, amicable, and welcoming. Luca worships both because each offers something he badly needs (Ganymene, acceptance and hope in the present; the Lady, connection to his past and his people). it's a highly syncretic belief system that has helped keep him alive.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

My entire Spanish novel collection

I'm not a huge fan of George Orwell, but I read both Animal Farm and 1984 in high school so I know they're short and easy to read. They'll be good practice.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is by far my favorite series of all time. None of the four (yes, four. Not five, not six, but four) are favorites by themselves, but taken as a whole I have yet to find anything more entertaining.

Jurassic Park is fun but VERY dry (as is Crichton's style). He has a lot of "look at all the research I did" exposition dumps, which I liked as a teenager but don't much care for now. If nothing else, I'll learn plenty of scientific vocabulary from Parque Jurasico.

The Martian is one of my favorite books of all time, tied for first with two titles below. I've read it a dozen times, I know it forwards and backwards. El Marciano was the first Spanish book I ever bought back in 2021, and I couldn't parse more than one word in ten. My reading comprehension has improved tremendously since then, and now I can read almost the entire thing (if I don't understand a certain passage, I know from memory of the English version which part I'm at in the story and can limp along without getting frustrated or confused)

The Road is one of the few books that has made me cry. Let me leave it at that.

The Time Traveler's Wife is another favorite tied with The Martian. I read all the other books on this list in high school or college, but I didn't pick this one up until relatively recently. I am currently in the process of reading La Mujer del Viajero en el Tiempo for the first time, and like The Martian I am able to use my knowledge of the English version to cross the gaps I don't yet understand.

World War Z is the third of the three way tie for favorite. I wanna say I read it for the first time in 2011 or 2012. It was before the movie came out, and I remember taking it with me to read at church camp one summer (it was a long bus ride to North Carolina, and I had to hide it from the chaperones all week). Every time I reread it, I pick up on some new aspect I missed the first dozen times around, so I'm excited to see if I come to any revelations in Spanish.

Books I want to get

Artemis and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Devolution by Max Brooks

Redshirts by John Scalzi

A family friend of mine moved to the United States from Honduras in her late 20s and learned English in part by watching Sesame Street with her kids, so I want to get Spanish versions of the Hunger Games trilogy and the five Percy Jackson and the Olympians books because I figure YA novels might help me learn Spanish easier than adult fiction. Right now I'm looking for simple titles that I'm already familiar with, but eventually I want to start buying Spanish books I've never read in English so I can fly without a net. My background is in Latin American Spanish, specifically Cuban Spanish, but my copy of El Marciano is European, so it shouldn't make too much of a difference which translations I buy (just so long as I keep series grouped together in sets so they're all the same)

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for breaking up with my friend at a party he was hosting?

Basically, I've (F40s) been friends with this guy, F (M40s) for about twenty years. We met when we were in college (different schools but lived in the same apartment building) and he has been my absolute best friend pretty much ever since. For a very long time, until a couple of years ago, we were a group of three with my other best friend, C (M40s), but C and F had a large, public, and extremely dramatic falling out. Since then, I've managed to stay friends with both of them, but C and F haven't spoken since their fight.

One of the reasons C and F stopped being friends was the life choices that F made. F started out as an artist, an extremely talented and pretty successful and accomplished composer. C was his partner in writing (a genius playwright and lyricist), but got frustrated over years of watching F choose to chase success over creative satisfaction, leading to F often forgetting about the projects he was supposed to be working on with C. I understood where both of them were coming from; F wanted success and fame regardless of where it came from, while C wanted to make art for art's sake, and their different outlooks on why they were doing what they did led to their eventual split.

I never agreed with F's choices to chase fame and fortune, but ultimately, it was his choice to make. I never thought he was actually happy, but for the last years of our friendship, I was just hoping he'd realize that on his own. Over time, being friends with him became more stressful than it was fulfilling. I'll admit, I've always been a little bit in love with F, so it was even more painful for me to see him marry somebody else and be happy with her, which I was obviously sad about but happy for him, only to throw that relationship away by cheating with a woman who is terrible for him. After his divorce, he practically abandoned his son, which I also hated. His ex moved across the country, and even though F became extremely rich and successful, I still saw his son more than him. F didn't even go to his son's high school graduation, and I did. That was the breaking point for me.

I've stood by F for years despite the disastrous choices he's made. He abandoned his oldest and closest friend over different opinions, which is his choice but still seemed unnecessary to me, threw away all creative integrity he once had for the sake of making terrible movies that sold well but said nothing, abandoned his son, and even after marrying the woman that caused his divorce, cheated on her with a woman half his age and didn't even bother to keep it a secret. I was fed up.

F invited me to a huge party with his new Hollywood friends to celebrate the release of one of his movies. He paid for my flight out. I knew when I accepted that I was ready to end this friendship, which is where I think I might be the asshole. I was drunk before the party even started, a habit that began as a coping mechanism for the stress that F added to my life a while ago, because I knew I wouldn't be brave enough to go through with it without the alcohol. During the party, F brazenly flirted with and even kissed the young woman he's currently cheating on his wife with, and his other "friends" in the room either didn't care or treated it like fun gossip. I drank more. His wife, who has always hated me and known my feelings for F (unsure of if those two facts are connected, honestly), was cruel to me. His "friends" treated me like trash. Eventually, I spoke my mind. Yes, I was drunk, but I meant every word. Everybody in the room was fake and terrible, and F had turned into the kind of person who had earned their treatment of him. He isn't the man I met when I was 20 and fell in love with, not anymore. I never meant to break up the friendship as publically as I did, and I know doing it at the party and insulting his friends made it a much bigger deal than it had to be, but I couldn't wait to do it anymore. I needed it to be done.

So, AITA?

[rhaemaya-valwynn]

Warm my Soul- Naga!6Taro x Y/N Chapter-1

Hello everyone! I recently got inspired to write a Naga!6taro x Y/N fic and uhhh, spat out 5.8k fic (its a first chapter actually! I got way too inspired with it!)

CW!!- This fic contains sensitive topics like: the mishandling of animals (mostly reptiles), poor health, wounds needing medical care, anorexia, mentions of physical/sexual abuse of creatures that aren’t human (nothing is fully explained in detail) and a traumatized Y/N who saw something terrible (not explained and left for readers interpretation)

Please respect our reptile friends!

The Speedwagon Foundation was a beautiful, humane endeavor to breach cryptid and human life together. To provide care and a safe environment for their race to live and reproduce without hostile outside interference.

These 'hostiles' are also known as poachers and tamers. Poachers are those that kill and take till nothing is left. Harvesting off the creatures till many were extinct for bobbles and panaceas that genuinely did nothing. Tamers, though are a different breed of terrible altogether. They stole and sold live cryptids as pets or 'partners.' 

All of it made you sick when they taught it in school when you were much younger. Imagining your life taken away from you, to be someone's forced pet thing or...lover. You wouldn't stand for it. At first, you tried to become an investigator for cryptids to try and save those in dire immediate need... but that ended in disaster on your first project as a trainee under a higher, more learned individual.

You'll never forget what you saw until the end of your days.

Four years of college went into the garbage in one night. Thankfully the Speedwagon Foundation found you. Namely Caesar Zeppeli, who saw your aptitude for love and care and offered you a starting position as a caregiver for cryptids in their healthcare facility. You had to restart college, but the job came with the perk of paying the previous debt and giving you a clean slate. 

Caesar Zeppeli was sure one hell of a man of his word. He inherited the Speedwagon Foundation after the passing of Robert E. O. Speedwagon and was heavily involved in its continuation and improvement. That included ensuring his employees and staff were up to snuff and had the proper morals for the work needed.

It was five am, and you were clocking into work for the day. A triple shot espresso was practically fused to your lips as you lugged your book-laden backpack through the employee lounge. A second sealed coffee mug was hidden inside your book bag, designated for your friend, along with a small bag of Japanese goodies. Truthfully, being thirty-three and still in college was rough. Having to balance school life, homework, and a full-time job was killer. Normally you'd never bring school work to actual work, but it was Thursday, which meant a chance to kill two birds with one stone.

Every Thursday was your turn to handle the half snake-man Jotaro. 

Formally called a Naga, he was one of the oldest residents in the SPW Cryptid home, similar to a rehabilitation center for endangered Cryptids. Having been put in since he was twelve after being rescued from a group of tamers, the forty-year-old snake-man was the toughest one to care for in the entire facility. Aloof and distant, while significantly less violent than he was during his youth, Jotaro still kept his distance and was quite hostile to anyone he did not like.

Somehow, you had managed to warm him up to you. You honestly didn't know how, given that the first time you met him was an absolute disaster. It felt like almost yesterday and not a whole year and a half ago. You had forgotten to wash your uniform the previous night after it was trashed by a fae that had gotten annoyed with you refusing to give your name to it the previous day. Meaning all you had to work in was some clean sweatpants and an oversized T-Shirt from your ex-boyfriend.

But that didn't stop there. This was not to mention the fact that you had overslept and were bolting into work at the last minute like a ghoul in a graveyard. You had snuck in a few college books into work with you that day as several classes were to happen directly after you got off, and you were hoping to study on break or in between residents.

When you were greeted by Angela, the woman you were trainee under, you couldn't help but feel your mouth sour. She was dressed to the nines, all cleavage, and painted makeup like a model on a runway. Angela lifted an immaculate eyebrow at you. "You sure you wanna wear that, Y/N?" she asked in a confused and somewhat demeaning manner.

"Sorry, it's all I got today," you confessed, though irritated as she was not wearing the regulated uniform either. What is this? Why are you dressed like-

"Whatever, your funeral, kid. We're taking care of Jotaro today," She said with a heavy hint of, 'sorry, not sorry,' before tossing a binder at you that was thick like the bible. "Read up. We'll be going into his enclosure in fifteen. We're to encourage him to eat his breakfast. Though, uh, best to stay out of sight looking like that. He might lose his appetite." Wrinkling your nose at the word enclosure, which was considered a 'no-no' in the Cryptid world, you finally understood what was going on. Jotaro was the neighborhood hot Naga. Every female employee and some males gushed over him like a fangirl, talking about things that should have been well left alone. It was as if no one had self-control or somewhat decency that this was a living being with sentience and more to him than sex appeal, but most importantly, a person under their care for health reasons.

You hadn't met him yet, but you pitied the Naga. Miranda, another coworker with more experience and a better sane approach to the snake-man, had told you Jotaro has been a tough case. She wasn't allowed to go into detail due to HIPAA and you not being on his care team yet, but she had warned you to treat him with the utmost consideration and respect. "He really deserves our patience and delicate approach. The man just needs some peace and quiet too." Miranda mused quietly before leaving you to your thoughts.

As much as it irritated you, you weren't here to police rules and force people to act a certain way. You tried that before, and look how well that went. So you had kept yourself quiet during everyone's feral ramblings during your first few months.

But today seemed to be running you for your money's worth. Huffing angrily, you began to flip through the bible of patient history, reading up on Jotaro's basic needs and requirements as you tried to figure out a way to alert someone higher up about Angela's... Apparel. But you were stopped in your train of thought as you bit your lip at all the red markings on the front page, each indicating healthcare issues needing immediate addressing. 

Weight was a big one, as it looked like he had a history of not wanting to eat due to-

Ah, you stopped reading immediately and flipped the page, refusing to read his past as images of 'that incident' during your investigator years came to mind. The following pages were more reds, several on social interactions, showing that Jotaro had a high intelligence but poor social skill and an unwillingness to communicate or talk with anyone. Hygiene was another thing, not that he was filthy, but he was so large that he had difficulty washing all of himself in one go. Due to Naga's naturally cold-bloodedness, given that they are like snakes, they are inclined to be lethargic when not warmed up. A statement in the report said he refused to rest in the designated warming rocks or soak in the hot spring, meaning that Jotaro easily over-exerted himself due to his sheer size. Even though he is marked down as being half the weight he should be at.

There were several marked areas for sores from poor self-care needing tending, but that was to be done by a fully registered Cryptid nurse and not a caregiver. There was a big note saying to offer an aided shower and lotion whenever someone had the chance, even if the refusal marks neared the hundreds from the past month.

Another page skipped on the explanation of why.

You were halfway through the bible, skimming as fast as you could when Angela came back in. "Time's up. Let's go." she didn't even bother waiting for you, immediately leaving. Cursing yourself for losing track of time while reading and missing the opportunity to alert someone, you hurried to catch up. Pulling the bible to your chest, you raced after her, easily finding her by the click of her heels which made your eye twitch in aggravation. She sprayed a foul-smelling perfume and applied three layers of bright red lipstick as you trodded behind her.

Jotaro's home was a massive circular room within the facility, a mile long (1.6 kilometers) and 1.5 miles wide (2.4 kilometers), all made to replicate his natural habitat, the Amazon forest. One might wonder why the Speedwagon Foundation would put so much effort into maintaining one Cryptid, but given that Naga's were some of the most endangered species, you didn't find it problematic that the room was to be an exact imitation of a tropical rainforest. What was an issue was that this Angela would walk in with nine-inch heels into a fucking man-made nature preserve and try to woe an ill half-snake-man. You wanted to throttle the bitch so bad, but you needed this job, and violence was not in your nature.

You prayed someone would notice the both of you in the hallways, but it was as if she timed it just right to miss everyone. So you did the next best thing and wished karma on her. Something that was easily within the margins of acceptable action for you. 

Part of you wondered how Caesar let someone like this in, but you realized he was only one man and couldn't prevent all the bad, no matter how hard he tried. Grunting to yourself as your sneakers squeaked on the white tiled floor, you came to a stop near a double wood door marked, 'Jotaro Kujo.' A green tab had been pulled from the nameplate with the picture of a turkey on a plate, meaning that the chefs had already served Jotaro's food.

You hoped that someone was watching the cameras in his home, that someone would alert someone higher about what was to transpire. Every hallway and Cryptid room was filled with cameras, so if a caretaker got injured or something happened to upset the resident, someone could come and help before injury happened to either. 

Angela didn't hesitate or prep talks you through what was to happen, causing your eye to twitch again in anger as she pushed a button next to it, and the door pulled open. The thing was actually metal and not wood, being much thicker than you anticipated as it split open and pulled to either side. Immediately, you felt the humid heat of the imitation tropical rainforest hit you, along with the sound of exotic birds singing and soft rain pattering. Eyebrows shooting up, you barely had time to register that the forest had actual animals and weather simulation in it before noticing that Angela had left you. 

Shoving the patient records into your backpack for protection, you rushed after her, carefully maneuvering across the roots and overgrowth. Ferns and vines brushed against you as you tried to respect the man-made wonder. Thankfully it wasn't raining too much, the fake overhead sky a dull grey of rolling clouds and peeking sunshine. It seemed to be more misting than anything. The accumulated water dripped off the massive trees and down into the forest floor. Perhaps a way to try and aid recovery for Jotaro as the bible-patient file had stated his scales were dry and brittle and needed moisture badly. You stopped several times to stare in wonder at the colorful orchids that decorated several of the trees. You never imagined that the little orchid at your home in its pot from the store actually came from tropical rainforests, but here they were in their natural glory. It felt like an episode of 'how its made.' Just more nature in a semi-natural habitat than a twinkie being made.

You subtly notice several cameras along the way but note that no call was sounded, which concerned you. Did Angela leave her work phone in the employee lounge? With a shudder, you clench your hands into fists and turn to your trainer.

 Angela paid no heed to you, leaving you behind as she was set on her prize. Your worn sneakers, thankfully, had enough traction to keep you from slipping. That could not be said for her, as Angela was getting her stilettos stuck in the soft, wet dirt and nearly eating shit every two steps. 

Part of you wanted to openly laugh, but mostly you wished she would see how utterly ridiculous she looked. This was someone who was sick and needed help, and yet here was a forty-year-old woman about to flaunt herself at him like a hot dog in lingerie. Right as your anger got the best of you and you went to tell her off, you came to a standstill, mouth agape. Angela had pulled back a large fern to reveal a massive clearing with a large pile of flat rocks stacked on one another. Below the heap was a gargantuan burrow hole big enough to fit a truck through. 

It went down deep into the earth with a subtle steam rising from it as the heat from below mixed with the mist and made a stickier vapor. Lights dimly glowed along the pathway downward, highlighting the red brick walls and cream-colored tiled floor. This meant that the burrow wasn't just a mud hole in the ground, but a structure meant to replicate both human living and meet the needs of a half-snake man. Part of you was slightly relieved that you wouldn't be crawling into some dark, dank pit with a Naga that was about to become more agitated than a chihuahua in a plastic bag.

Angela went down, shaking her feet in an attempt to get the mud off while you tapped yours against the outside entrance and scrapped the bottoms off on a welcome mat, a sneer on your face at the mess she was leaving. The tunnel went down quite a ways, probably three meters, in a soft circular incline. Warmth and mist emanated from every crevice. It made your shirt slick against your back where your backpack rested. Lights once dim flickered to life and brightened when you neared the end, which was a massive green round door.

You almost snorted. It looked like a hobbit entrance for Bilbo or Frodo Baggins. Angela didn't even knock as she opened the door and cheerfully called out, "Jotaro! I'm here for breakfast!" There was no immediate response, but your ears pricked at the sound of something being set down harshly. Your stomach churned harshly as a deep voice muttered angrily from inside, much more baritone than any other voice you'd ever heard, including your father, and he was a wall of a man! 

Moving forward, you grabbed Angela by the arm, "Angela..." You went to tell her not to do this, but she had a sickening smile on her face, too sweet and creepy. 

"Do not ruin this for me. I worked too hard for it," Angela said as she pushed your hand off her and slipped past the door like an eel. You almost lost your breakfast at the anxiety. Looking around desperately, you spotted a camera and began to wave frantically at it, hoping someone was paying attention. 

Sadly, the camera did not move side to side to indicate being noticed and that help was on the way per the instructions during orientation. You heard a low growl from inside, and you practically bolted in to separate them despite whatever was happening. 

Only when you got two feet past the door, you came to a screeching halt as you saw the Naga for yourself. You'd never seen one before, and by God, you were probably looking at the biggest one known to society. You never imagined they could get this big, and reading that Jotaro was severely malnourished made your legs tremble. Jotaro was curled up on a pile of multicolored pillows on a raised platform that made you silently wish they sold to the public, being that they were gargantuan and stuffed enough to support his massive but frail body. His human half was propped up by his arms on his snake half. Being that of a large male in his late thirties, bulky and broad-chested, though sadly, he looked as if where rippling muscle should have been was thin and almost frail looking.

Almost.

Everything about his human half seemed hardened and sharp lines. Jotaro had messy raven locks that ran down his face and squared jaw, obscuring his dull aquamarine eyes that had narrowed in anger and disgust. His thick lips pulled back as a low hiss escaped him, his tongue not even flickering out. His pupils were slits, honed, and focused on Angela like an angry animal ready to strike. Jotaro wore a ragged old white trench coat almost the same shade as his human skin that went down to his low snake half, a black turtle neck with a golden pin with a hand symbol, and a white hat that mystically merged into his hair that also bore the same insignia. All wore clear signs of wear and tear, as the white was dull and faded, with the edges frayed and tattered.

The Naga half of him was enormous. At least nine meters long, the dull yellow scales with patches of darker shapes similar to Boa Constrictors. It started from where his hips were, like some Rapunzel fantasy but snake half instead of hair. Corded, the wall of muscle half a meter tall and half a meter wide, though, from your knowledge of snakes, severely underweight. While the spine was visible, Jotaro's snake half was more triangular than rounded, pronouncing his spine and ribs to the point they almost seemed to threaten to pierce the skin in several areas. You took keen notice of the dry and cracked scales along his body, and the wounds wrapped tightly in bandages that seeped medicine. Each scale is the size of your fist. Several spots showed the inflamed skin underneath. Jotaro was breathing heavily, clearly agitated as his tail and lower half continued to move and shift, even though he seemed so exhausted and tired.

"How are you doing, Jotaro?" Angela asked, not paying heed to his display of aggression as she stepped closer. To your surprise, he didn't say anything, merely watched in fury and loathing. Jotaro pulled back from her as she grabbed another plate of food from the dining tray, filled with cooked meats cut into small pieces and coated in something that smelled quite foul. Most likely a weight powder or some sort of vitamin, maybe both. Angela plopped down right next to him, leaning against his snake half and propping her breasts up for full display. 

It was official. Your jaw hit the floor. Standing there in horror, you realized you had to do something. Looking around wildly, you tried to find the call light, something to get someone's attention, even if it meant you had to race back to the office and drag a guard's sorry ass to this. Trying not to be obvious, you began to inch around the outskirts of the room as Jotaro glared so openly at her that you were surprised she hadn't spontaneously combusted. The room was circular in nature but devoid of most life of an average person, replaced with medical machinery and tables upon tables of medical supplies.

Scooting further, you spotted a group of cords and one that held a small knob to its end. Trying not to bolt for it, you carefully reached out as discreetly as possible as Angela tried to hand-feed Jotaro a slice of meat from her plate, making cooing noises as she tried to get him to eat. You almost gagged alongside Jotaro, who seemed to have lost even more color from his pale frame. Your hand finally touched the call light, fingers snatching the thing in a death grip as you pressed the button like you were trying to win a mash-it rhythm game.

A little red light turned on behind them, which made you blanch and hope they didn't notice.

"So, how are you doing, handsome?" Angela asked, pushing the slice of meat closer to his lips, the justices seeping down her fingers. "You seem tense today." Jotaro sneered and tried to shift away from her but couldn't due to his weakened state, his lower half keeping him pinned there due to its massive size. You clicked the call light twice more, praying for an intervention of some sort. An angelic invasion, hell, you'd take a demon bursting from the ground to save you from the agony of watching this unfold. You wish your legs weren't shaking so badly that you felt like nearly buckling under your weight.

If only you were braver. Maybe you could intervene and do something more. But the images of that scene kept playing in your mind, making your brain act on flight or fight reflexes and all it wanted to do was leave. Jotaro let out a low hiss as Angela cupped his face. Fist clenched, Jotaro tried to shove her but only managed to slightly push her away. Sweat began to roll down your back and face as Jotaro raised his hackles as Angela grabbed his face again and started to move in for a kiss. You trembled uncontrollably, desperately trying to will yourself forward, when the front door suddenly slammed open.

Five people were there, two you recognized immediately. There was Doctor Kyoshi, the security monitor Phil, and three unknown male Cryptid guards. You feared they were misinterpreting the situation for a moment, given that the guards were dressed entirely in black Cryptid riot gear with long silver taser polearms, but their attention was not on Jotaro. Doctor Kyoshi was a massive woman with long brown hair tied into a tightly knitted bun. She wore thick makeup that made her look fierce, and her Doctor's uniform was thick and laden with protective scales and medical tools. She looked ready for war, especially with her hate-filled gaze as she slid a scalpel into her front pocket. "Angela River Brown, just what in God's name are you doing?" Kyoshi growled so low that you jumped and dropped the call light.

Angela looked utterly shocked, eyes wide like a fox trapped in a bear trap. When they slowly turned to the noise of the call light hitting the floor, Angela's jaw fell open as she spotted it and jerked her head to stare at you with utter horror and fury. "Y-YOU!" 

Fear prickled all over you as adrenaline hit like a truck. The flight reaction was so strong that when she launched the plate from her lap at you with a howl, you dove behind Kyoshi, who slapped it away like a gnat as the guards charged in and grabbed Angela like a writhing fish. One kept his weapon pointed to Jotaro, ready to defend in case the Naga attacked, but it was held tentatively, hands loose on the metal. Angela cried out in pain as they dragged her across the floor, uncaring of the mess they made along the way.

The guards took her kicking and screaming, not stopping as they moved through the door, into the tunnel, and onward. Kyoshi huffed angrily, which caused Phil, a short, thin twig of a man with sandy hair, to jump, sweat rolling down his face as he saluted the Doctor as she stomped past him. "Mr.Kujo, " she rumbled, low but delicate in placing the words. Jotaro turned to her with a tired gaze and waited for her questions. "Did she-"

"No, nothing more than trying to kiss me." He said, slowly deflating as his own adrenaline left his body. 

"Mmm, how long has this been going on for?" Kyoshi asked, folding her arms when Jotaro refused to answer. Sighing, she turned to Phil and said, "Go alert Pam to send a psychiatrist in. We got to start the paperwork. What time is it?" she rumbled, sounding very irritated and tired all at once.

"Eight-forty-five in the morning, Ma'am." Phil stammered, looking at his watch like it would save him from being drilled further.

"Too early for this bullshit-" Kyoshi snarled, snatching the call light and walking it over to Jotaro. He refused to take it, but she set it within reach and turned away. Marching like a soldier going to war, she snapped her fingers at both you and Phil.

You knew immediately the 'we' she meant was all three of you reporting your 'findings.' Which meant recounting why the hot dog in lingerie had made it this far without someone saying something. You gulped loudly and stumbled after her, glancing back to notice that Jotaro had collapsed onto himself but was watching you with a stony look. "Y/N!" Kyoshi called, causing you to leap after her impatient form.

The walk back to Kyoshi's office was like being walked to your death sentence. The threat of being fired was written on the walls, especially with how Phil was wringing his hands and scrunched up like an armadillo, ready to hide in its shell.

Kyoshi opened the door, beckoning both of you into the small room before slamming the door shut and letting out the loudest bull snort you'd ever heard in your life. Inside looked like a typical doctor's office. A massive desk in the center with a laptop and endless paperwork piled around every surface like tissue paper. The walls were lined with thousands of awards and degrees of excellence from her forty years of experience. "Phil!" She snapped, causing the little man to prostrate himself on the ground. "Oh, for the love of God, get up!" Phil shakily got up, quaking so bad that she had to pull a chair up for him to sit down. 

"Ple-please don't fire me!" he sobbed, "I-I need this job-!"

Kyoshi stared like a banshee for a moment before narrowing her eyes, "You honestly think I'm here to get both of you fired?" she asked incrediously.

Phil looked to you, who was no better than him, your knees knocking against each other like two trees dancing in a windstorm. Kyoshi had the worst reputation in the entire building. A true brute, unwavering and uncompromising. She did the job to a T but wouldn't take anyone's bullshit or idle chatter. Kyoshi was aloof and brutal to her coworkers and patients. Both of you gazed briefly, interchanging a silent conversation before turning back and nodding solemnly. Both of you would not be the first she took out like a thorn in her side.

"Oh, for heaven's sake! NO! Did either of you dress like a hooker and try to seduce an ill patient that can't fight back?" Both of you shook your heads vigorously, and a quick 'no, Ma'am' chanted. "I am not going to let either of you lose your jobs over Angela's decision. Could you have stopped it sooner? Sure. But you're not paid to physically attack someone trying to seduce a Cryptid. The fact that you reported as soon as you could," she looked directly at you, "And conveyed your findings to the proper chain of command is the correct answer. Your jobs will not be threatened. I will see to that."

A massive sigh of relief came from both of you, Phil practically falling out of his chair as you slid down to sit on the floor. Kyoshi snorted again and walked around both of you, grabbing two cups and filling them with water from her personal water pitcher. Handing them out, she stood there like an omen, "Drink," she commanded. Obeying, you had never tasted such crisp cold water before in your life, nor how relieving it was to ingest it. "I want you both to write a report on what happened, what you saw, the time, and what you did. Only facts, no personal thoughts of ifs, ands, or buts. Just facts. Am I understood?" you both nodded and took the pen and paper she handed both of you. "Good, take your time. I need to start my own report and make a few phone calls. God, Caesar isn't going to be happy about this."

"Caesar is going to know about this?" you asked in disbelief.

Kyoshi nodded, "Old family friend of Jotaro's family. It would be unwise to not let him know some of the employees he hired to care for his best friend's grandson just tried to force themselves on him in his weakened state. Especially coming from someone who had a clean record and no prior instances.... tch." Kyoshi sat at her desk with a 'thump' and opened her laptop with a flourish. "Best to keep your heads down after this. There will be a hefty investigation into this, no doubt, and we will be monitored for further instances... God damn it all, I thought we were finally getting somewhere with him..." she sighed in pain, brown eyes suddenly looking distant for a moment before focusing again, and she began to type at incredible speeds.

You and Phil eyed each other before hunkering down and writing your life out through the pens provided, giving excruciating detail to what transpired. Phil finished his within an hour before giving it to Kyoshi, who nodded and informed him to report to the front desk and take the day off, and if anyone questioned it, it was per her instruction.

You continued to write away, but when your mind was in a million places at once, thinking about Jotaro and what he must be feeling. How awful he must be feeling, how distrustful of the world he would be after this. Just like-

A hand was on your shoulder, gently shaking you. "Y/N," Kyoshi called, towering over your form. "Breathe, child, breathe," she murmured, kneeling down to hand you a clump of tissues. "It's okay to cry."

"God-No, it's not. It's just, I had-" you tried to explain, only to be gently shushed by her.

"You don't need to explain to me. I read your records. I was the person who recommended Ceasar hire you." She tutted for a moment as you stared in shock. "Don't give me that look. I ain't all fire and brimstone. What you saw with that Garuda was the worst humanity has to offer. I highly doubt anyone in your position would have stayed around, let alone still take a job taking care of Cryptids." She took your glass and stood, walking over to refill it. "You did the best you could. No one can blame you for that. Yes, if you had gotten there sooner, it might have been better, but we can't look at things like that. You made it in time today. That's what matters. You spared Jotaro any more indignity than he's already suffered. For that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart."

You felt your jaw work as you tried to say something but only cried more as she placed another wad of tissues in one hand and the glass in the other. It took you several minutes to compose yourself, Kyoshi patiently waiting next to you before she encouraged you to quell the waterworks. "Enough tears for now. Let us finish this so we might begin our work of repairing the trust that was broken today."

Nodding, you wiped your eyes furiously and picked up your pen. It took another half an hour before you were done, hand aching and several pages filled to the brim. Kyoshi nodded as you handed it over, inspecting it while you waited. When she was done, you finally piped up, asking a question that was on your mind. "Why did you bring fully armored guards when you know Jotaro wasn't the threat?"

Kyoshi huffed in annoyance, but you realized it wasn't directed at you. "Politics," she stated darkly, "It was to prevent a lawsuit if someone tried to sue for assault. Easier to say they were dragging her from an aggressive Cryptid than say they were saving a Cryptid from a tiny human female. Even if she was dressed like that, lawyers find their way to spin everything, and just because it's evident to us what happened, most people don't give a damn about Cryptids. As disgusting as it is, I did what I could to protect Jotaro from further harm, physical and mental. The last thing he needs is to be dragged to court to explain that a fully-fledged nurse was trying to have sex with him." She sneered when you made a face, "Don't give me that look. You and I know damn well that's what she was after in the end. Perverted bitch." Kyoshi spat on the ground before glumly realizing she had to clean that up. "Hand over his file and head home for the day. If anyone asks where you're at, I'll deal with them."

Grunting in agreement, you pulled the bible from your backpack and handed it off as your body was ready for sleep and a period of not thinking. As you moved to leave, you stopped when Kyoshi called your name again, "Good job today, kid. Keep your head up. Things will get better."

You sighed and nodded solemnly before closing the door. The walk home was quiet, thankfully. No one knew what transpired today, going about their own business with urgency or latent laziness. It hurt knowing people didn't care like you, but that was life. Sometimes the few had to carry the many. Once home to your small apartment, you tossed everything on the ground and plopped onto the couch. Sprawling like a starfish, you stared up at the ceiling in dismay. "Will it always be like this?" you wondered aloud.

"Always like what?" came a voice.

Jolting in place, you realized you had lost yourself in a long memory of years past while your body autopiloted you to Jotaro's room. Kyoshi was in front of you, eyebrow raised. Stuttering for a moment, you sputtered, "So sorry, Ma'am. I was lost in thought about back when I first met Jotaro."

The other eyebrow joined its brother, and she tilted her head. "Is that all? Come now, there's no point in thinking of that. Keep your head in today. You know how much he hates waiting for you before eating breakfast." Nodding, you followed behind her into the now familiar and welcoming humid warmth of the man-made rainforest.

[writeious-hand]

Holding Out for a Hero: Part 2

Okay, so it seems people want more of this... I have ideas, but to be clear I am VERY BAD at updating and keeping up with a project. But I'll do my best. I have a job that is very demanding during the weekdays, so if there are updates they will be on the weekends.

No Beta, we die like men.

Xenk x Cleric!OC - angst, and mentions of a break-up/ghosting?

Alariel had almost forgotten what he looked like.

To any other, it would seem like he was unaffected by the passage of time. But she could see the barest touch of lines on his face, the slightest fade to the color of his hair. The age showed most in his eyes. He looked... tired.

Not like she should care.

Not like she didn't still care.

But she felt like all the progress she had made since he left went back down the drain as soon as their eyes met. Instead of being the mature eleth she had become, she was back to being the lovesick young girl who didn't know better. Who believed in the happily ever after once the knight and the princess go riding off into the sunset.

She allowed herself a moment. Just one before the walls she had been working on for so long came back up.

"Why are you here?" Her voice was as cold as steel.

"I have sworn to aid these people in getting rid of the threat of the Wizards of Thay. I didn't realize..." Xenk had started strong, but quickly lost his stoic confidence in seeing the moment of heartbreak lingering in her eyes. They continued staring, no words passing between them and the entire group felt tense.

Edgin started to speak but was almost immediately interrupted.

"Then I apologize, but I must be leaving. I am sure if you have him, you would not need help from a lowly knowledge cleric like myself." Alariel refused to speak his name again. It would be accepting that he was here, that he had returned to her and any memories she had of him were already working to the surface of her thoughts.

"But we need your help!" Edgin moved around to block her path away from them. "We need to kill these guys for good, and according to Xenk-" She practically flinched when Edgin said his name, "you are the only one that can do that type of magic."

"You need my help?" She responded to Edgin but was talking to Xenk.

"That's what he said." Hogla got elbowed by Kira.

"I just learned that there is some bad blood between you, but whatever this gentleman did I am sure was entirely a miscommunication. -"

"Oh yes, I'm sure breaking off our engagement and ending our courtship was just a miscommunication." Edgin took a step back from where he had almost reached out to grab her arm, realizing he had fucked up. "That leaving me behind with just a letter and his ring was just an honest mistake and telling me his love wasn't enough to make him stay was just an accident."

Even Doric hissed in pain at that one. Her words struck the paladin like crossbow bolts.

"No. While I understand the dangers the red wizards possess and wish you luck in your endeavors to put them to rest for good, I cannot... I will not put myself through the pain. I'm sorry, but I think it is high time I leave Loudwater. My mission here ended weeks ago. I will send a letter to my home temple in Cormyr, and ask them to grant you safety there, but I will promise nothing more."

Edgin let Alariel walk away after that.

She gathered her supplies and packed up her many journals and quills, the travel desk folding up along with her many quills and pens. Alariel was moving like she had been enchanted, it wasn't until she was shoving the fur blankets from her bedroll into her bag of holding that she realized she was even crying.

He had been distant the week before he left, at the same time closer than he normally allowed himself. Brushing the hair from her face, lingering hands after helping her onto her horse. But then she woke to a cold fire pit, and an empty chamber. Not that they had even shared a bed, the paladin took his vows much too seriously for that. But the other bed in the room didn't even look slept in.

She had found his ring on the dresser, and the letter tucked into her journal, in his pages.

Alariel,

By the time you are reading this, I will be far from you. That is assuming you sleep in to your normal hours. If you awake earlier, I ask you not to come after me.

It brings me no joy to write this letter, but I have realized something vital. This relationship is harmful to both of us and while I have enjoyed your company, I know my fate. So I leave you this ring, in hopes you will find someone who deserves it more than I do.

While I do not renounce my love for you, I do not wish to prolong your pain any further. It would be cruel of me. This was inevitable.

You have your mission and I have mine. We are pulled in opposite directions and it is my sincere wish that our paths will never cross again.

Xenk Yendar

And she had gone 100 years hearing nothing of her ex-fiance but rumors on the wind. She had heard he was around the Sword Coast but that had been decades ago and assumed he had moved on. She had tried to move on, but few respected her path and lifestyle, her journey of collecting the stories of the common folk and heroes alike. Those who did understand, their lives were fleeting compared to her own. It was inevitable heartbreak.

She wiped her tears. Now was not the time to fall apart. Alariel could be on the road by the evening, but she would at least take a day to say goodbye to the friends she would be leaving behind in Loudwater, like Zedroar and the children she taught the legends to. With any luck, she would never see Xenk Yendar again.

[avampyone]

Prompt #20: The Dreamers

Characters: Gabriel Devrau, Charlotte Avignon, Arazul De'fleur, mention of Ange B'londe and Alize Miller (@crimsonffxiv)

Synopsis: Gabriel continues to ignore the red flags concerning a new research group called 'The Dreamers'. After some investigating, Arazul attempts to talk some sense into him.

Setting: Labyrinthos, The Archeion.

Warning - Mentions of wounds and loss of limbs.

-----------------------

A weary sigh left Gabriel when he slung his leather book bag over his shoulder, not lifting a glance back to hear the greeting of new fellow members. It was always in the evenings that these congregations met, many pairing together to practice dueling with the clash of steel against steel endlessly. Even now, there were many left waiting with fencing swords, knives, claws, or what weapon of their choice at the ready to take on the next available opponents for the real tournament ahead.

With all this activity was a growing familiar pain of late, the dark-haired Wildwood lifted his hands to see the many new fresh cuts that had been left from constant practice and reached down to brush his fingers idly over the ornate hilt of the rapier he had been given.

Normally, he would have rushed home after classes to tinker around on his different projects, but this ache coupled with barely any time that he found himself working on his machinery a lot less – much less writing his letters.

Staring out seemingly into nothing in the distance of Mornveil Forest, there were times Gabriel felt like something out there was watching them? Pressing his red framed glasses further up the bridge of his nose, he found himself hesitant to take the familiar road back home. He rolled his eyes at his own paranoia .

To think he was invited to come down to Labyrinthos at all was an honor, “Still, there has been no sign of Cloche since the last duel either...” He mumbled low enough for no one else to hear. Cloche had been the last wounded in a duel with a deep gash in her hand clear to the bone. She’d been taken to the infirmary, but none had seen her since, nor had she attended any classes…

“Oh, there you are, Gabriel.” A sudden stern voice behind him gave cause for Gabriel to jump a little and seek a calming breath when he pressed a hand to his chest, “Best not to go sneaking up on people like that Professor Avignon with as many weapons as we keep around here. What do you want...?”

The silvered haired elezen woman was a new addition to the Studium and helped to run this little ‘Dreamers’ group held her steady green gaze upon him with a respectful bow of her head, “My apologies. You may take care not to keep your back turned to others too long. Anyway, I came to tell you that we collectively feel you have made the most progress of everyone. So strong and driven...The head of our program looks forward to seeing how well you do in the upcoming duels ahead.” With another bow, she turned on her heel to head away with her hands linked behind her back, looking over the pairs of researchers taking up arms to fight one another.

“Thank you! I fully intend on seeing this all through to the end.” Gabriel’s had begun to feel an uneasiness conflict in himself in finally finding a group that he could see eye to eye with – not feeling like social hierarchy or wealth painted every interaction he had with that sense of separation. Everyone felt on equal grounds here.

Finally heading off towards the gravel path cut through the forest to lead back to Sharlayan, he stopped only a few mere paces to see another with whom he absolutely never saw eye to eye with – Arazul.

Brow’s furrowing, Gabriel did not hesitate to trot up along the path to meet him with an apprehensive gaze and out of sight of any Dreamers that could be nearby. Some outsiders knew some of the particulars of what was going on with this tournament but not all, “Gabriel, we need to have a word right now.”

The seriousness of the blonde’s tone stopped him. Even more so than usual, he didn’t think he had ever seen him with a more troubled expression previously and with such intensity in his fair blue eyes, “Hey, what’s going on? It’s unusual to see your feathers all ruffled about something other than attendance~”

“Indeed, there is something very wrong going on here. I know about these extracurricular activities and strange disappearances. Have you given thought to who may be orchestrating all this...?” Peering more agitated than he had ever seen, Arazul quickly cut to the chase with a gloved hand beckoning him closer for him to lower his voices several octaves, “I thought it was odd that they never gave the name of who was truly running this group of yours. Professor Avignon – There is no record of her previous experience. It took quite a bit of digging, but apparently this benefactor’s name is Ange B’londe...”

Arazul’s gloved hand curled to press to his chin thoughtfully, glaring to the thought that they had all seemingly made their way into Sharlayan without any records, identifications or proof of birth, “There was only a file that he backed the funding to aid researchers on different projects, supposedly he owns a company that sells a type of magnifying lens. But there is nothing else on him. Like he does not exist at all.”

He threw his hands up in the air, “Then, there is Miss Cloche. Unfortunately, she would have been scheduled to have her hand amputated if she had not disappeared entirely. In fact, I believe this is the fifth person this month since this group began to gain recognition.”

Gabriel digested all this latest information with that growing sense of unease only deepening with his full lips pressing together in a grim line, “Look, I feel bad for them all...I really do. But, unless there’s evidence to suggest there was something foul going on, we have nothing. I have so much research I’ve poured into this. I appreciate the concern, but there’s no going back for me.” 

The blonde glared at him in complete frustration, reaching to grab a firm hold of his shoulder when he turned to continue home, “And what if you are the next one to disappear?? You would let Alize return to hear something bad came of you?! I…will join in the tournament. At least then, no one will be too badly hurt dueling against me and I can figure out if these disappearances are linked to the Dreamers...”

Gabriel’s eyes widened when Arazul decided this so suddenly, brushing the hand off his arm as he glared at him with vehemence, “This is ridiculous! You’re the best fencer in the city. No one would win against you...Look, I’m going to win this no matter what. I must...” He had not meant for his voice to sound so broken, but with his growing worry over his father’s well-being that It felt to spill out of him. There was nothing more to say or do than to head off back home, feeling far more compromised by emotion than he felt comfortable with.

The doctor could give nothing of a retort and could do little more than stare his back while he walked away- he knew well having tended to the elder man himself, but still...nothing about this whole situation sat well with him at all.

--

A little addition to go along with Prompt 5 - https://www.tumblr.com/avampyone/760849017227853824/prompt-5-letter-from-the-lost-days?source=share

[ina-nis]

Hi! I think you've mentioned you don't deal with anxiety or low self-worth in AvPD (sorry, if I'm misremembering). Could you describe what that experience is like? I'm working on those myself, but it's hard for me to imagine having AvPD without those. Thank you for your time.

That's right, yes. It might have to do with the fact that I've been in therapy for a long time (huge TL;DR [sorry!] in the last paragraph if you don't feel like reading all this).

I have always had low self-esteem caused by long-term trauma.

I used to be an extremely anxious, nervous person because I was under a lot of stress constantly. Of course, I also had really bad social anxiety, lost opportunities because I couldn't get a phone call, almost failed school because I wouldn't get into group projects or talk in front of the class. I spent several years just struggling that way since I was scared of going to therapy but eventually I had to do it because I was too suicidal.

I've been in therapy for years, doing different treatments and approaches, on and off.

I started treating depression. I had some exposure for social anxiety due to job-related things, I have done DBT and it has great coping skills for crisis, I came out as trans and that helped with my self-esteem, I left many stressors behind and moved elsewhere.

I still experience anxiety and social anxiety nowadays but mainly by dissociating. It feels like my brain is using a less "destructive" coping mechanism, because I'm not as nervous or stressed out as before, since I'm in a safer place.

I still experience self-esteem issues too, but I have learned to be more gentle with myself, to stop comparisons and just be more patient with me in general.

One part of the treatment is internal. I had to treat my other mental illnesses too, just dealing with anxiety didn't do much, it would just come back over and over. Everything is connected and treating one leads to another.

The other part is environmental/external, but that can be harder to tackle since it might require actual, physical changes: be it a place or your body.

On my journey to diagnose AvPD I did stumble upon anxieties and it was confusing at first, but I experience these disorders in completely different ways: AvPD is more about avoidance and self-isolation, and fear of rejection itself; while anxiety is more situational. My fear of being alone forever has nothing to do with anxiety, it feels much more visceral. Also, anxiety feels much more personal and "mine" while AvPD feels more interpersonal and "ours", I have "my" things but not "our" things between me and others.

Best of luck with dealing with these issues and if anything, time will help you tremendously! Even if it's not possible to get therapy or leave a bad situation, it's still possible to decrease your anxiety by using many different skills, takes time and patience. For your self-esteem and worth, you have to learn to like yourself. I'm afraid there's not many ways around it, enhance what you already enjoy and change what you dislike (but don't get too hung up on "dislikes", you can find many good things about yourself and spend your energy there instead).

TL;DR: your self-worth, anxiety and other things might be all linked together:

Get professional help if at all possible (it can be done on your own, just harder and slower);

Figure out where these feelings are coming from (usually stuff in your childhood);

Exposure does work. It's great for social anxiety (but if you don't have a sense of getting better, you might need to work on other areas of your life/mental health);

DBT skills (you can do that without therapy, they're great for anxiety crisis);

Figuring yourself out helps with self-esteem (who are you? Who do you want to be? What do you like? Basically become obsessed with yourself and find out how cool/smart/talented/beautiful/etc you are/can be);

Your self-worth starts when you start putting yourself first, be "selfish" and be bold, it takes practice but it can be done and you'll thank yourself later;

Comorbidity can make things harder but it's possible to address things separately and at whatever pace you can, you'll get where you need to be;

Environmental/external factors have a bigger impact than people think (you might need to literally move out of a bad situation or cut toxic/abusive people out of your life, among other things), it's probably one of the hardest things to pull off.

[talenlee]

The Increasing Presence of Anime On This Blog

The Increasing Presence of Anime On This Blog

Around early April, late March, I made a chart to check the distribution of material I was covering in Story Pile, and then the stuff I had planned to watch. I made this chart because I realised that there were anime I was looking to cover, but I already had covered an anime in that month. And then I realised that my initial idea to keep the distribution of content varied, which was to write anime articles starting in november and work towards the current now, had kinda hit a wall, because I had already watched more than twelve anime this year.

The anime had caught up with containment.

The anime had breached.

There was no plan to make this blog ‘about’ anime as a primary form of the story pile. The original plan was in an attempt to engage with anime (something I like) more, I would plan to watch at least one, a month, and write about it. This plan meant I grabbed a bunch of stuff that looked interesting, and then it started. I watched some anime dubbed at double speed to rip through it, to remind myself of specific points in specific shows.

Hey, did you know there’s a video sharing website like Youtube that’s primarily for Indonesian users? And that they put anime up there with dubs in their (sometimes very specific) languages? As far as fun group projects to do with your besties, ‘let’s all dub an anime together’ is pretty sweet, considering how likely you are to have your interests underserved anyway, and it’d teach you a lot about how to make things and do dubbing tracks.

It also reminded me that as much as anime is being made available for me in maximally convenient ways these days, there are still these uneven distributions. Funimation don’t subtitle the opening songs – which is a really weird thing since that’s a thing fansubbers have been doing for decades and their absence actually makes Funimation’s work look less professional. I want to know what the themes of the opening song to Kageki Shojo is, dammit!

But still, I wound up going: Hang on, this is becoming an anime blog.

It’s weird, though, because it’s not like I felt the need to defend the blog material when, thanks to a Netflix subscription, I was watching entire series of Star Trek at a time. Or that there were periods where the Story Pile featured a bunch of movies all in a row. What’s extra surprising to me, as I engage with this, is the way that I feel apologetic about this, like hey, I know you didn’t sign up to learn about anime, you came here for other stuff.

But nobody’s said that.

I have a friend who isn’t into anime. He rightly points out filler elements in it, and the ways that the genre does things like explicate things with dialogue that you wouldn’t see done in non-anime sources. Regardless of why things are this way, this doesn’t change the fact that anime observably has trends for storytelling and budget extension that works on different rules. A diet of nothing but anime builds a reference pool that is, mostly, other anime, and that kind of thing is what leads to heavy anime fans (in my experience) having a very basic vision of storytelling, because they’re too marinated in the experience of anime’s conventional structures.

It also means they’re probably way too okay with some of the things that anime does which we file, in general, under ‘Anime Bullshit.’ Things like weird age ranges or dubious consent communication, or even less obviously odious things like the way that these stories overwhelmingly are about finding a place to operate within a system, rather than doing things to destroy or replace those systems.

(Generally.)

(It’s getting better.)

The big reason I find myself watching anime lately, though, is a practice of sharing time with Fox away from our computers. I still have my phone on me – if people need me, I want to be able to talk to them! – but to watch anime together, we have to get away from the computer, sit on the couch together, and focus on the show. We can talk to one another, but there’s no other tasks that get done, no cooking or baking or cleaning — it really is just time spent, with one another, as we share in a media experience. Fox can do exercises for her wrists, I can take some time to rest my hands, and all of this while we get to watch a radio announcer lose her mind.

The subtitles really pin me in place – I can’t just ignore what’s going on in a show, and catch up from context clues in the same way to jog my memory of what I heard while I wasn’t focused.

This isn’t the only way I’m watching anime. I also have some anime I put on monitor 2 and watch while I’m doing more rote things on monitor 1. Minecraft or Pokemon are both great anime watching material, just grinding through some simple things that don’t need a lot of active attention. Digging through text for references and rewording things to make more sense? Easy to do while watching anime. I didn’t burn through a whole season of Jujutsu Kaisen in a day without a lot of fiddly word choices to pick through.

Which means that anime suits me right now. It doesn’t hurt things that anime of the past few years has been really good. The stories they’re being based on are developed more, there’s less filler and padding, and the stuff they choose to be about seem more focused? It wasn’t planned, but man, there’s so much cool anime happening right now and I’m really glad I’m getting to enjoy it, especially with Fox.

And that means that this blog is gunna be a bit of an anime blog for a while. Don’t worry, I am mixing it up! I’ve written about more books this year than I expected, because books are usually really hard to engage with with so much of my day to day involving reading these days.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Media #Meta #Anime

[187days]

Day Twenty-Eight

It was an early release day today, so every class was half the time it usually is, and, whew, they went fast! Freshmen put finishing touches on their Culture Project drafts and turned them in, seniors took a vocab quiz (and smashed it) and discussed some practice FRQs with me. And that's all we had time for! It worked, though, so I'm pretty happy about my planning skills, heh.

We got to enjoy a nice, long lunch break, which might be the best thing about early release days. Then the staff gathered in the auditorium for a bit of professional development on the Datawise Protocol, courtesy of Dean 1. After introducing the protocol, he broke us into small groups to practice looking at data sets- doing "I notice" and "I wonder." Now, I'm good at looking at data, but I also kind of hate it. This wasn't bad, though; I got to work with some colleagues I don't normally work with, we had some interesting discussions. One of the data sets we looked at was about per pupil expenditures in similar-sized districts here in the state, and our group got to wondering about per pupil expenditures nationwide- which, as APGOV teachers well know, is the subject of a practice FRQ question. In fact, it's one of the ones my students and I were discussing earlier, so I pulled it up right away.

Also, since I saw this push towards data-driven everything coming a mile away, I've been nagging my department to put their P/F data for the US Citizenship Test on this one spreadsheet. Mrs. C was the first to catch on to what I was up to, so she was grinning when I mentioned to Dean 1 that we'd have some important data to be looking at shortly, and that this protocol would guide our work.

LOOK AT ME DEPARTMENT HEADING WELL.

Because I was department heading, I missed the first half of a meeting of ninth grade teachers, but I'd told the Principal that was going to happen. I missed a discussion about all the challenges of the half block classes, but I've voiced my opinions on that, and had nothing really to add, so I don't think I really missed much. I came in at the end and tried to contribute to the conversation about short and long term solutions. I'm too quick to bat down things I don't like, and need to hear ideas out a bit more, so I tried to do that... I didn't always succeed, but I tried.

And that took us to the end of the day. I stayed a smidge late to get a few things in order, then went home, but ended up grabbing dinner with Mrs. T at this new restaurant in town. I'd already been once, but she hadn't, so she suggested going. We had a good, long chat about things other than work, but we did also talk about how we're finding everything this year. It's a growing year for both of us, you know?