#its like the universe decided that since this week was so weird and uncomfortable i deserved little a treat
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
wabblebees · 1 year ago
Text
never never never in my life gonna be able to beat the weirdo theatre nerd allegations. its midnight and for the last few hours ive been (voluntarily of my own free will At No-One's Behest) doing some character research for the show we're working on (which at a certain level is Absolutely Necessary!! but at *this* level is Absolutely Not. lmfao)(and so... ik for a fact if i mention this in rehearsal tomorrow im gonna get a whole lotta blank stares ((or TERRIFIED looks from the freshmen wondering if they should be doing this much work lmao))
but anyway so about 10 minutes ago i found a fucking essay (just 9 pages out of this philological collection from the 60s) that just the idea behind the Very Simple title made me so excited i had to stand up at my desk to start reading it and fully forgot to sit back down until i realized i wanted to start TAKING NOTES..... WHICH I GENERALLY HATE DOING WHILE READING........ BUT IM TOO EXCITED AND DONT WANNA FORGET ANY OF IT.................. SO IM TAKING FUCKING NOTES
but anyway beyond tHAT the thing that actually made me pause to start typing this post though is the fact that just now, four pages in, this essay finally put something into place that ive been puzzling over in my head since i very first read the play which... made me happystim so hard i almost knocked myself out of my fucking chair. hdkdgsjfkfhdgskdgwrdjfk.
so yeah. never beating the nerd allegations. lmao
4 notes · View notes
authormars · 9 months ago
Text
Molting
Since people liked my last headcanon, here's another one. What happens when it's molting season?
I want to make one thing clear and that is that I did no research for this so if how they molt isn’t accurate to the animal they resemble, sorry, but I am stubborn and refuse to do research right now.
Tumblr media
Lucifer
Absolute bitch. His feathers hurt, his body hurts, he is shedding everywhere, fuck you.
There's a reason the brothers and Diavolo call it his "Angelic Period"
The first day, he's just slightly uncomfortable because his feathers are crowded, but whatever. He'd just preen them tonight.
Every day after that for a literal week, he is uncomfortable and wants to fight everyone. He has threatened to punch Diavolo multiple times.
After that week, don't ask him about it, he'll pretend it didn't happen.
His lasts a week and is pretty bad, probably one of the worse ones out of everyone, and consistently happens every other month.
Tumblr media
Leviathan
His skin either comes off in little amounts or all at once. There's a reason Mammon has a full Levi skin in the corner of his room.
The second least uncomfortable brother when he's molting, due to it mainly just being he has to take off old skin and scales.
His is over in maybe three days and isn't as consistent as Lucifer's.
Tumblr media
Satan
Real quick, I have to clarify. In my headcanon, my universe, whatever you want to call it, Satan isn’t a unicorn. Based on his demon form in game, I’ve decided he’s a basilisk lizard — which is the Jesus lizard by the way — so he does legitimately shed.
His skin doesn’t normally come off all in one day. He has to take it off himself.
He isn’t bitchy like Lucifer because it’s not painful, but he is a bit more irritable because it is slightly uncomfortable. Like tight clothes, but for your skin.
His molting lasts three to four days and happens around once every four months or so
Tumblr media
Asmodeus
Asmo’s molting is few and far between. Maybe once every year. He normally just stays in his room for the three to five days it lasts to take care of himself.
It doesn’t hurt, that same tight clothes feel, but he takes it as an opportunity to be rude because he has an excuse.
Tumblr media
Belphegor
He doesn’t mold like his lizard brothers, but sheds like Lucifer. Everywhere. You walk into a room while he’s shedding and its covered in fur and hair.
His occurs every spring, since he has to shed his winter coat for summer. The least uncomfortable brother due to it just being fur coming off, but the most inconvenient because it gets everywhere.
Lasts a week or two and then nothing until the next year
Tumblr media
Mammon and Beel don’t shed/molt since Mammon’s feathers burned off in the fall, leaving the weird bony wings he has now and Beel is a beetle so he doesn’t molt.
Tumblr media
I finished this surprisingly quickly, but I'm also procrastinating on my Valentine's Day fic that I have to finish so...
Also, thank you to everyone who commented on the last post I made, you are all so sweet and make my day so much better <3
180 notes · View notes
sxamykevinxs · 13 days ago
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Goober sp oc with goober ref sheet HEHEHRHSNDNN
I hate myself for this/j
ALSO PLEASE LEMME RAMBLE ABOUT THEIR LORE SO PEOPLE DONT ATTACK ME FOR JUST BEING AN OC X CANON SHIPPER
Basics:
Full name: Zora Owrell
Pronouns: she/they/xem
Sexuality: Trans (M to F) omnisexual (no preference though)
Age: 20
Job: Mail Man
Relationship status: "what." (Taken)
Lore life:
Zora grew up in a normal household as an only child. The only problem was a gem on her head. She wasn't a normal human, more likely a mystical angel. Which is strange since both of her parents are human. Over the years that Zora grew up. They became uncomfortable with their body by the age of 15, deciding to grow their hair out and wear more makeup. Which turned out they were trans that year, but still wearing less makeup than before. Throughout the years, her parents still supported her and never gave up on her, even after the amount of times Zora has messed up and failed.
Into adult hood, Zora got into skating like skateboarding. More likely for an easier transportation for mailing
Onto the relationship part (which can I say can get extremely cheesy and corny 💀 I can't do this shit anymore)
Zora normally just puts the mail in the mailbox or just leaves packages near by the front door step. One day, leaving the package near by the door, someone opened the door, aka Young Neil, which potentially Zora stuttered over because of how nice he was being to her randomly (only because she gave him the package a day early) so day after day Zoras mind was always fuzzy with weird feelings. So sometimes they'll sneak her own mail to Neil in the normal mail, but neil never noticed it. It's not like he didn't care, just too stupid to realize. So it took him weeks to realize who was sending love mail to him
Zoras mystical powers:
Zoras powers developed when they grew up, basically just think of Steven Universe, he grew his powers overtime when he grew up so its like Zora with her Angelic powers.
her weapon choice is a angel spear with the three wings she has on each side if her body (4 eyes is overrated guys, it's 6 winged now/j)
Not much to actually explain about her powers, she has the ability to fly now, she can summon (not like Matrhew, she can't summon hot demon hipster chicks out of the blue)
So mainly, she's just overall strong in her own way, even without her powers.
1 note · View note
jellyluchi · 10 months ago
Text
since no one asked here's the uni/college AU
Tumblr media
Rose is a painting/fine arts major in uni and befriends Meg and Jammes in her first year during general education for liberal arts courses she's now in her third year and completing several paintings a week which means she has to sign up to use the painting studio provided by the university
enter the music department's ghost!!!
usually she would use it at random but after a couple times using it at late night and hearing beautiful music from the piano room next door she starts to use the same painting schedule thinking it's any other student practicing and tells her friends Meg and Jammes that the best thing the university did was putting the painting studios next to the music rooms because she gets a free concert while doing her work the music plays every tuesday and thursday like clockwork ! but Meg and Jammes know someone in the music department (wink wink!) who says that it's the music department's ghost playing at night and rose doesn't believe any of it
"be so for real right now a ghost???"
so when Rose goes back to the same schedule for painting in the borrowed studio she slowly walks up to the piano room door when it was playing open it and finds... no one there !!! it spooks her so bad she ignores it and decides to finish up and leave the next time she's with her friends she recalls the incident and Meg who is especially supersticious and believes in this stuff is extremely adamant that yes this is a ghost! but she's still not convinced Rose still is deathly afraid of actual supernatural forces and she has to believe its not a ghost for her own sanity and the next time she's there she pleads to the ghost
"please miss maam.. mr... mx person ghost don't haunt me!"
she really speaks to the ghost like any person asking them to not haunt her and that she loves their playing KJBAJKSBD she obviously gets no responses but then later she starts hearing weird noises and the piano music has stopped what's worse she gets the eerie feeling of being watched and rose is soo fucking spooked she couldn't take it anymore! one last noise in the dark corner hallway fucks her up when she was cleaning up her painting stuff and she lets out a scream and runs down the hallway breaking a couple of her brushes in the process
but the next time she's there someone left her repaired brushes!
Rose was so ready to believe it's a real ghost haunting the entire art department but ghosts definitely do not leave free gifts with a strange red hardwriting of her name even so she asks Meg and Jammes if it were either of them and obviously they're like wtf no girl you're being haunted and Rose is so exasperated like !!! I specifically asked him not to haunt me !!! they go talk to the friend in the music department Christine and she confirms it is indeed the music department's ghost but she is quite uncomfortable when talking about it...it's a bit weird !!
and then Meg and Jammes want to bring a ouija board...l
It's so stupid when Rose is painting they just barge into her studio without warning when the music was playing next door and hauls the board into it and Rose is like fuck no!!! but whoever the ghost is thinks it's quite amusing that a couple young girls is messing with him kind of... the music stops the sounds intensify and the "ghost" messes with them however he pleases only stopping when Rose is clearly upset and bids her friends goodbye she just wants the strange happenings to stop that is until the next time she is painting she thinks its time to face her fears and go see for herself who this ghost really is and opens the piano room door to see a black shadow in the darkened room hitting the piano's notes... there's only two yellow stars that stare at her from where the head of the body should be..
"you! You're the ghost!"
1 note · View note
Text
housekeeping, AI, and naming systems
Hello friends! ᕱ__ᕱ
I suppose I should start with a quick forewarning: this past week has not brought a whole lot of progress in regards to my creative writing and the story I am crafting. I was very busy with school assignments during the beginning of the week and very busy being ill at the end of the week. (Just a common cold and/or my allergies acting up thankfully but regardless being ill always makes my brain feel weird and often messes with my vision, hearing, and sense of balance which is a joy to deal with… not).
Tumblr media
However I will update you with some thoughts that I had this week. 
Housekeeping
Firstly, some housekeeping. I have decided to change the name of my blog. I am a very private person. I always hesitate to give out my name on the internet. I didn’t have any social media until I was 18, and even now that I do have some social media accounts, none of them have my full name or face attached. This is just how I feel comfortable existing on the internet. I have also always toyed with the idea of writing under a penname. (These two things connect, I promise). Firstly because pennames are cool, but also because of privacy reasons. 
When I decided to create this blog, I was unsure about naming it. I eventually decided to choose something close(ish) to my real name because I had the tagline “dot your j’s and cross your t’s” thought up for years before I decided to commit and actually start a blog, and the penname I had picked out for myself did not have a “J” in it. However, recently I have come to the realization that middle names do exist. Also, plenty of authors use their middle initials. All this to say, the penname plan is back in business babes!! ᕱ__ᕱ 
So, if anyone was confused as to the name change, that is why.
AI
This is a bit of an abrupt shift in topics, but this week I was required to use AI for a couple different assignments in my classes and it got me thinking about it. I know AI is a bit of a hot button topic right now, especially in creative spaces, so since I was thinking about it a lot this week, I figured I’d put my two cents out there. 
I do think AI has the potential to be really helpful in making people’s lives easier (that's what progress is all about, right?). However, I disagree with the usage of AI in creative, professional, and educational spaces until the moral and ethical problems it brings up are addressed. And there are a lot of moral and ethical problems that come with AI. 
Plagiarism of other people's ideas and creations is the issue that I’ve been thinking about most often. We are constantly told in academia to “cite our sources” and most universities even have policies that can lead to students who plagiarize being kicked out. Yet, many people don’t see a problem with using works created with AI. All AI is, is an amalgamation of other people’s ideas and content that’s either been mined from the internet or fed to it specifically. So every piece of work AI spits out is a cut and pasted collage of other people’s stuff. And its sources are never cited. 
I am most certainly not a techie kind of person so I couldn’t tell you how to fix this issue, or any of the others AI brings up, in a way that I’m sure is plausible. All I can say is that the use of AI without addressing the moral and ethical concerns makes me mighty uncomfortable. 
Names
Finally, I can give you at least a little information on my story. I have always been the most obsessive about naming my characters. A 5 minute writing exercise? Eh, it’s whatever. Just use any names that come to mind. But give me any type of fiction writing that’s meant to be workshopped and it’s over for me. I’ll spend 3 hours searching for an appropriate name for the background character that’s going to be in 1 scene tops and never seen again. I get it from my dad, I think. He was always insistent that me and my siblings had names with good meanings. At least, that’s what my mom tells me. I’m like that with my characters.
Now, I have nowhere near as good of a grasp on linguistics and linguistic patterns to create my own language or a naming system from scratch. I’m not Tolkien. However, when I am writing a larger work, or at least a work with some worldbuilding/lore, I like to come up with systems for things like names. This past week, I started to create a naming system for the story I’m currently working on (Ailidh’s story btw if that wasn’t clear). What I have so far is that the type of fae folk Ailidh, Ruslan, and their people will have names pulled from Celtic, Russian/Slavic, Germanic, and French origins. Don’t ask why I chose those languages. I couldn’t tell you. 
*~*~*
That’s pretty much all I got done creative writing wise this week. I know it’s not much, but at least it’s not nothing, right? ᕱ__ᕱ Sorry for being so scattered in this post but as I am currently still ill, everything is a little fuzzy. I hope you all have a lovely week and hopefully by next week’s post, I’ll have gotten some more things done within my story. 
Remember, dot your j’s and cross your t’s!!
~Clementine J Quincey🪷
1 note · View note
baeseungcheolie · 2 years ago
Text
Part 1. 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 - 𝑱𝒂𝒚, 𝑱𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒏
Word Count : 2.3k
Genre : Roomates AU, Smut
Warnings : mentions on polygamy (there's going to be some or a lot in all chapters) Nothing else rn ;)
𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐧 𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐝𝐨𝐥(𝐬) 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞. 𝐃𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.
Previous | Masterlist | Next
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
You look up fighting against the bright sun at the apartment complex Heeseung had driven you to in Brisbane. This was the first time you had been here and it had been an okay experience. Besides the bunch of Mayflies you thought were chasing after Heeseung's car, everything was okay.
You don't know why you decided on getting your degree in a foreign country at 19. Maybe it was an act of rebelling against your parents, especially your mother who was hell bent on keeping you with her in your sheltered house just so she could marry you off to a rich man you'd meet a month before your wedding at 21 so you could have comfortable but definitely unhappy post marital life.
At last, they gave in and convinced you to let them pay your rent and give you pocket money because at the end of the day, they were caring parents and no good parents wanted their child to have hardships in a different environment.
At last, they gave in and convinced you to let them pay your rent and give you pocket money because at the end of the day, they were caring parents and no good parents wanted their child to have hardships in a different environment.
Though you didn't know who you were staying with until 2 weeks before, Heeseung said he had chosen the best apartment for you. Hee was your neighbour and senior since middle school and was one of the closest friends you had. Though there wasn't a romantic relationship between the two of you, people most of the times perceived so and had saved you both from various awkward and uncomfortable situations.
He said you were rooming with 3 other people, all of your age, from the same University too. He had moved to Darwin, a year before soon after graduating hight school. He knew these people and said that they would take care of you as he wouldn't be able to be with you all the time. You thought he was overreacting because you had previously survived a year before him and how hard would it be for someone like you (you perceived yourself to be a very adaptable person) to survive college?
Making your way to the apartment, you knocked on the door while Heeseung shuffled behind with your luggage. The door opened revealing a pretty boy around your age, who looks at you with confusion and another weird look in his eyes. Then his eyes land on Heeseung and he lets out a low sound of exclamation.
"Hyung! Oh my god it's been so long! How are you?" He says
Heeseung just lets out a short laugh and makes way to hug him. "I've been good Jay, and yes. It has been long since i saw you three. You've grown so much," He says the last sentence in a teasing voice.
The boy, Jay just grumbles and pushes his hair back. He's hot, tall build with wide shoulders. He then throws you a smile and asks Heeseung,"Is this your friend who is supposed to be rooming with us?" He says trying to be respectful and not eye your figure up and down. "Please come in!"
Heeseung walks in front and you follow behind. The apartment is cute, it's big but still has a homely vibe to it. You were happy you shared the little rent with 3 other people. That made housing one less problem for you.
You were surprised to see another boy with honey blonde hair sitting on the dining table. He looks up and you fight the urge to coo at his puppy like face. He smiles at you and Heeseung and makes way towards the both of you.
"Hyung! Hi! How are you?" He asks excitedly, making Heeseung laugh.
"I'm alright Jake how are you?"
"I'm alright, you must be _____. It's nice to finally meet you, Hyung has told us a lot about you." He says, thick Australian accent makes its way out as he speaks making it known that he was probably born here.
You smile brightly at him too, "It's nice to meet you to, although Heeseung hasn't told me anything about the 2 of you, i thought i was rooming with all girls,"
"Ahh i might have forgotten to mention it before," Heeseung mutters sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
"Ah don't worry about that, Hoonie will be home soon," Jay says in a teasing manner making Jake and Heeseung chuckle. Heeseung turns to you, reminding you to call him and your parents as he leaves.
Jake looks at you and leads you to your room by holding your hand. He takes you to the right of the hallway and stands in front of a mahogany painted door. He opens it and you smile at the interior. It was a cozy room. There was a bid bed and a desk area for your work. It looked freshly clean which you were glad for.
You place your things on the floor for now, falling face first onto your bed. So tired, you couldn't really be bothered to take care of that shit right now. Sleep was the only thing on your mind.
Until Jake knocked on your door. You groaned slowly. Standing up, you're met with the boy who has an apologetic look on his face. You smile at him, not wanting him to feel bad.
"Hoonie is here," he say and pulls you to the living room. There's a new voice, smooth but still a strong sound. A boy is standing with his back facing you, shirtless. You can't help but let your eyes run over his lean back. And he certainly is an attractive dude.
"Meet Hoonie," Jake says with a mischievous chuckle. Hoonie (who you were convinced was a girl but guess not) turns around. He's so pretty, you don't think describing his features would do his looks justice.
He smirks as he continues staring at you, eyebrows slightly raised. He quickly puts on the top that you guessed he discarded on the sofa and walks towards you.
"I'm Sunghoon," he says with a dashing smile, water bottle fiddling between his fingers. "And you are... Our new roommate I'm assuming?"
"You assumed correct," mentally thanking God for not letting his presence affect your voice, you tell him your name. "I'm sorry, I assumed you were a girl. Or atleast that's what Heeseung and these two implied."
He rolls his eyes playfully and tosses the waterbottle in his hand to Jay, who catches it snickering. "These two are absolute idiots, and Heeseung hyung loves making fun of me. Don't worry about it."
The four of you make way towards the dining space. You, Jay and Jake sit down, though Sunghoon goes back to the kitchen and comes back quickly with a glass of water and notebook. He hands the notebook to Jay who looks at you expectantly.
"So... We don't want to hold you up here for too long. You look tired so I'll get straight to the point. The important thing about living witha group of people is doing your chores on time."
He continues explaining the who'd do which chore. Jake will do the cleaning, Jay does all the cooking, you do the laundry and Sunghoon buys all the groceries.
"Uh won't all the groceries be a little too much for Sunghoon?" You ask uncertainty. Jake laughes, "Don't worry about it, he's rich." He says jokingly.
Sunghoon gasps, "Are you using me for my money Jaeyun? But jokes aside, don't worry about that, I'm more than happy to take care of it. Plus Jay gets cranky if you don't shop properly."
Jay grumbles at Sunghoon and sighs. "That's pretty much it. Hope we all can live in a civil manner and see how this year ends."
You all agree.
Really wishing this year ends well.
⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘
A loud pterodactyl-like scream rang through the house while jay and you sat on the dining table making you wince in your seat. Jay just rolled his eyes, continuing reading his accountancy reference book and motioned you to keep completing your psychology paper.
Jake comes in running through the door with Sunghoon hot on his heels. Jay lazily throws them a questioning look.
"Sunghoon attacked me! He said he was running less on cranberry juice but  i told him we ran out. He automatically assumed I drank it and hit me!"
Jay smirks,"Why Hoonie? Is your period near?" This makes the three of you snicker. Sunghoon grabs the chair Jake was going to sit on and glares at him.
"Jake is the only juice thief here, if not you then who else bitch boy?" Sunghoon asks mockingly.
Jay looks at you amused. He knew you drank it last week but decides to say nothing, waiting for you to fess up. You reluctantly break eye contact and raise your hand up.
Sunghoon looks at you, eyes wide. Jake just looks offended about having to take one of Sunghoon's slaps for something that was your fault.
"In my defence, I was for real on my period," you say apologetically.
They didn't really want to say anything to that. You felt guilty so you suggested the worst thing you could suggest to three dirty minded boys.
"How about I owe you a favor Hoonie?" You asked expectantly
"What about me? I got hit because of you" Jake grumbled.
"Fine you big baby, you too. What would you want me to do? Do you want me to buy you something?" You asked, returning back to your laptop.
Sunghoon was awfully quiet. Jay and Jake noticed it before you could. They had discussed this previously. But they weren't sure how you'd take what they were going to ask you.
"Will you let me eat you out?" Your eyes widened at his question. Where did that come from? You looked at Jay who had a calm expression on his face and then at Jake who was itching in his seat. You turned to him.
"What's your favour Jake?" You asked gulping, avoiding to look at Sunghoon who's eyes did not leave your face. Jake gave you the same look the other two boys had on.
"Will you let me eat you out?"
Your mouth opens and closes like a fish. You close your laptop and stand up hurriedly. Making your way to the kitchen you say "Please pick something else."
Jake looks at Jay and Sunghoon perplexed, but Jay just motions him to calm down. Sunghoon also stands up, following behind you.
"Why not?" He asks calmly. You look at him surprised. "Sunghoon. What are you guys talking about. We're roommates and you two are saying you want to have sex with me?"
"All three of us," Jay says with a sigh, now standing next to Sunghoon. Jake followed suit. You look at the three men eyes wide. "No! Three guys and one girl? How is that normal? Are you out of your minds?" You say opening the fridge, popping an ice cube in your mouth and chewing it harshly.
"You said you wanted to peg Jake the last time we drank together." Sunghoon says raising an eyebrow. Jake's eyes light up at that and he looks at you expectantly. You shake your head again.
"I must have been drunk or something. Plus pegging isn't even that bad. Polygamy is just so taboo?? What if Heeseung or my parents find out and make me come back home?"
Jay takes your hand and guides you to the couch. He rubs your knuckles comfortingly and you sigh. "Your parents won't find out darling. See, we're not going to force you to do anything with us. We just want to to give us a chance. If you like it, we can decide what happens later and if you don't, we'll stop at once. It won't be weird or awkward and we'll try our best to make you feel comfortable."
You knew it originally was not their idea. You had come up with it. First you said it when you were drunk, but the next day you had suggested it for a short moment. Jay being the most observing, never really forgot about this. All of them always found you attractive and had developed feelings for you the first month you moved in. They did not want to fight and ruin their friendship over you because they valued both a lot.
"So, will you give us a chance?" Jake asked, eyes filled with lust.
You gulped again, not believing what you were about to say.
"When?"
Tumblr media
First Chapter! I feel like it's shit but next chapter will be smut and im excited for that hehe
☼ Taglist ☼
@deobitifull @abdiitcryy @idkmaybeimgay @axartia @astra-line
©BAEHAECHANNIE please do not repost or translate
Taglist open, send an ask or comment on this post ( ◜‿◝ )♡
373 notes · View notes
wh6res · 4 years ago
Text
three's a crowd | nomin
Tumblr media
synopsis. picking favorites is impossible when you like neither of them.
warning. read at your own risk. abuse, bullying, poly relationship, yandere themes, manipulation, nonconsensual touching, noncon, degradation, smut threesome oop
disclaimer. i do not condone whatever tf i wrote in this nor does it reflect my beliefs or values or morals and such. it is all pure fiction and i also dont think jaemin or jeno would act like this in real life.
note. this was meant to be a new year's gift lmao i obviously got a lil carried away 👀 anyway a late happy new year to you all! we survived 2020, let's start living in 2021, yeah? lmao if covid lets us grr mwah!
Tumblr media
the relationship you had with the two of them was a weird one, bordering on taboo, but it wasn't as if you willfully chose to be who they wanted you to be and it took jaemin's unwanted pining and jeno's intimidating demeanor for you to fall right into their arms.
it was a joint effort on their part, you couldn't've possibly stood a chance.
"this many?" the cashier asked. "are you sure?"
stepping back and studying the whole situation, you figured you only had your addiction to caffeine and procrastination to blame. it was a chain reaction you didn't even know will lead up to your inevitable doom.
if you hadn't been slacking off during your first semester of junior year college, you wouldn't be forced to overwork yourself trying to catch up to the looming deadlines, but to be able to 'work yourself to the bone' you need your boost of energy… and that was when you met one of them.
"uhm," you scratch the back of your head sheepishly as you eye the six glass bottles of iced coffee. sure, it looks bad and you kinda appreciate the look of concern the cashier throws your way but it was none of his business.
"yes. now could you, like, you know… hurry up? i'm in a little bit of a time crunch right now."
screw it. although you hardly snap like that with other people on a daily basis, it'll be a whole different conversation if you were under a significant amount of stress and today, unfortunately, is one of those days.
now can he just fucking stop asking questions and give you your six bottles of death drink to keep your fucking brain going so you can pass an eight-page essay tomorrow? thank you very much!
the guy snickered, the beeping sound of a barcode being read sounding a thousand times more annoying than it usually sounds as he keeps his hand busy by punching your items out.
you fail to notice how he studies you through the gaps of his lashes, finding you interesting rather than threatening as you stood before him with your messy hair and oversized hoodie.
"haven't seen you around university grounds 'till today," he tries striking another conversation with you. "you new? i'm jaemin."
this was your first mistake, you shouldn't have been so… downright rude when you met him. if you were granted the miracle of meeting him a 2nd time, you would've acted more nice, throwing yourself at his feet even to blend in with the rest of his fangirls you didn't even know about at the time. you would've done anything to make sure he never gives you a second glance, to never pique his interest.
jaemin is the pep squad captain. flying over colored blue mats and doing tumblings in the air with no ounce of fear. he was the best in his team, that much was evident when your friend dragged you into watching a pep rally practice. his landings were clean, balanced, and executed to the best he can at all times.
no wonder he was popular, his talent is outstanding and his looks are a bonus. his killer combo of a smile and wink after pulling off a tough flip is enough to send them squealing in their seats.
he spotted you that day and since then, he snuck the quickest glances at the bench during practices. recognizing you as the coffee girl he met during his convenience store shift. jaemin tries not to let his disappointment show too much when he doesn't see you, but of course, a pair of cold calculating eyes could see right through him.
"i saw that," his boyfriend said, hand darting forward to hold jaemin's gym bag for him. "you kept looking at the crowd. do you want to see her that much?"
"but she reminds me so much of you, jeno!" he retorts, pouting at the slight grumpy tone the other boy used. "i can't help it. she doesn't seem to give a fuck around me so she's quite interesting. maybe she can even be a great addition to our relationship!"
"well," jeno replies after a beat of silence, plastering a small smirk on his face before slinging an arm around jaemin's shoulder.
"convince me?"
Tumblr media
you don't like jaemin's attention. not in the slightest. and it seems that was enough reason for the reign of terror his little fanclub has subjected you too.
it wasn't the petty elementary forms of bullying like pulling at your hair or calling you names. they pale in comparison to the other things they do to you—beating you up, messing with your homework, "accidentally" dumping their food trays on you.
and you weren't stupid.
you knew exactly who was behind it, knew how jaemin spectates the whole thing from afar so that he can swoop in at the end to play your knight in shining armor.
"oh, you poor thing. do you need help?"
the first time you accepted his "help" you ended up in a supply closet near the gym during your free period, cornered and weak as your cries for help drowns under the squeaking of shoes and the booming sounds of rubber balls hitting the floor.
if it weren't for jeno appearing out of thin air and prying the boy off of you, you would've been painted blue and red from the death grip he had on your wrist, neck, and waist.
you can still remember feeling the soreness of your scalp from when he pulled your hair too hard. remembered feeling his teeth gnawing at your lips as if he wanted to tear them off.
that time hadn't been the first time you saw jeno. you've shared a few classes with him and it strikes you how polar opposites they are with one another.
while jaemin likes to bask in his professor and classmates' recognition by confidently reciting his answers, jeno would rather keep to himself. liked sitting at the last row, near the window, so he'd be the first to go once the professor ends their lecture. while jaemin loved the attention of his fangirls, jeno preferred solitude. while jaemin is impulsive and wild, jeno liked to think things through.
it was within these reasons that you decided to do what you did. but your judgement of character has never been more wrong.
you approached jeno one day in the library, tried to make yourself appear as stoic and confident as possible. but your constant slouching and averting eyes was a dead giveaway.
you came to talk to him about what jaemin has been doing, hoping there's one person left in this entire school that isn't under the cheer captain's trance. the one reasonable person that has already saved you once and (hopefully) is willing enough to save you again. the only one that probably has a certain level of control over jaemin, if the supply closet incident is anything to go by.
but you've overestimated lee jeno.
"you should've just given jaemin what he wanted."
"but—but aren't you two lovers? isn't it bothering you?"
you try baiting him, only for an uncomfortable shiver to start crawling down your spine when he chuckled humorlessly, pushing his school materials to the side while pinning you with an unreadable stare.
how can a person make someone feel so small just by a gaze alone? it was nothing like you've felt with jaemin. this is way worse.
"the only thing that's bothering me is why you're not ours yet."
you feel cold fingers creeping their way under your shirt, going higher and higher until it brushes against your bra. and when your eyes meet, the look on his face was unmistakable—what are you going to do about it, huh?
you stood up in lightning speed, the chair you've been sitting on scraping loudly against the floor.
you've never ran out as fast as you did.
and jeno swears it'll be the last.
Tumblr media
you tried everything in your power to ignore them for the next following weeks but it soon became useless when the two boys took it upon themselves to give you your space.
although judging by the pinpricks you feel on your back, and the constant weight of a stare you feel on your shoulders, you knew they weren't done with you yet. far from it. and for some reason, you just knew they wanted to lull you into a false sense of security first before striking again.
and while they continued to ogle at you from afar like a hawk circling its prey in a desert, you took it upon yourself to return the favor. not because you were the slightest bit interested in those creeps but maybe, just maybe, if you look hard enough you'll find a way out, a weakness.
but what you realized made your insides churn in great discomfort—although it may seem that jeno holds the reins in the relationship since his reserved nature fits the role, it's actually the other way around.
jaemin might appear too self-centered, too focused on himself to give a fuck about his surroundings but in actuality, he has quite a knack for reading people. even more so than jeno. and it was scary how he used it to his advantage, and paired up with his devoted fangirls? it was hell on earth.
you found it alarming how the two seem to magically appear wherever you are.
although you weren't in the least bit surprised. for some reason, you can't take your eyes away when jaemin's devotees flock around him (and jeno) in a circle.
it almost reminds you of a shoal of piranhas, waiting for their meal to drop into the water before ripping it to shreds with their teeth. only their "meal" isn't actual flesh but the carefully crafted words jaemin says that drive them into a sick frenzy.
one that has them doing everything in their power to satisfy him like the loyal dogs they are.
so this was how he got them to bully you?
"oh, that? don't worry! yangyang just ran into me during cheer rehearsal. no biggie. my cheek stung a little bit, though…" is what he said but really he's telling them "scruff him up a bit for me, why don't ya?"
"of course, i can't be the best all the time. haechan is just too good, maybe even better than me…" is what he said but really he's telling them "can you remind him where his place should be?"
all the while jeno did nothing to hold him back.
no matter how wrong jaemin is, how much of an asshole he is, jeno will stick by his side through and through. so as much as jaemin is a puppeteer that gets a kick for controlling people, jeno is as much at fault for looking the other way.
because in jeno's perspective, why the fuck would he do shit when he can just get off from the entertainment that comes with jaemin's sweet little mind games?
Tumblr media
we lost :(
you had been busy sorting through paperwork for one of your professors in the faculty when your friend texted you the results of the intercollegiate cheer dance competition. a frown paints your face, heart feeling heavy at the bad news.
in all honesty, you still supported the pep squad—you just hated the captain and his boyfriend. they've been practicing non-stop for this and prior to the weeks of the competition, jeno looked a lot more tense and jaemin less smiley than usual. you swore you even saw the latter snap at one of his fangirls.
not to mention, they paid less attention to you, too, and it was the best three weeks of your life.
tension starts rising in your shoulders, fingers absentmindedly running through the edge of the papers you had been sorting until you became immersed with your thoughts.
jaemin must be in the worst mood yet.
and jeno too, probably. if anything, that guy gets triggered the most when something bad happens to jaemin or when he catches snippets of people talking shit about his oh so "perfect" boyfriend.
jeno is a lot scarier when jaemin is in one of his mood swings, you noticed. he steps up in the relationship to offer comfort to the other boy and for outsiders? it isn't a great experience to go through—being on the receiving end of jeno's ice cold stare is a position you don't want to find yourself in after that time in the library.
he is still as much a threat to your peaceful life like his lover.
you snap out of it when the blinding headlights of a vehicle seep through the closed blinds. you hear the gentle hum of an engine switching off as the headlights vanished as quick as they had appeared. that must be the cheer squad's bus.
as you look around the empty faculty room, something in your gut tells you to ditch file sorting duty for professor kim tonight and fucking get the hell out of campus grounds as quick as you can.
after haphazardly throwing the unsorted papers back into the cabinet, you groan aloud when the keys to the office drop out of your skirt’s pocket.
the indoor gym where the cheering squad practices is right across the hallway. you sure as hell don't want to bump into jaemin. or jeno, too, if he had decided to ride along the cheer squad's bus on the way home.
you kept looking for the keys underneath the cubicles, cursing aloud when you heard the telltale squeaks of shoes rubbing against linoleum. you almost hit your head against a table when you quickly got back up your feet, darting forward to shut the lights for the faculty room.
they can't know you're here. alone. and if it meant sitting in the dark for a few hours 'till they leave, meant going back home a little later than usual is what you have to do then so be it.
you try not to react so violently when the door you're leaning on jolts when someone from outside slams their back against it.
"it's not like we didn't do our best, right guys? i don't have regrets. it might sound fucking cheesy and although i'm sad myself, atleast we did what we can."
it's jaemin. his voice clear as day.
you try peaking, craning your neck up from your place on the floor. only to see the back of his head leaning against the glass section of the door. someone else joins in on the conversation, followed by coach park himself, and you slowly tune out whatever they're saying as you stealthily start scanning the faculty room.
you curse under your breath. is there no other exit other than this door? jesus christ! even classrooms in this university had two doors—
"what are you doing here?"
the switch flickers on, basking the once dark room with light. only when you hear an echo of your name being called, did you snap out of it and quickly picked yourself up from the floor.
"i said, what are you doing here?"
their coach asks, drilling the question as he looks at you skeptically with his arms crossed. you try not to look at the people behind him.
particularly, not at his cheer captain standing on his right.
particularly, not at jeno, who stands out like a sore thumb with his blue hair, a protective arm snaked around jaemin’s shoulders.
this isn't your lucky day, too, you guess.
"i was…" you cursed yourself for stuttering. "i was, uhm, i was file sorting for prof—professor kim, sir."
coach park looked like he didn't believe you as he narrowed his eyes in scrutiny. your nerves are going haywire and you can feel the sharp pins of their stare with how close they are.
you kept juggling your weight with the balls of your feet, hands fisting and unfisting behind your back. you want to leave. you have to leave.
"file sorting… in the dark?" he asked incredulously.
fuck this.
"uhm, you can ask professor kim himself tomorrow, coach. for now, uh, i'll be going now. i'm sorry you guys lost…"
originally, the exit is on the right side, at the end of the hallway. but no, you are not going to pass by those two while on your way out so you ducked behind a random student standing on the coach's left instead and practically ran away from the scene.
everyone had been too busy. too busy looking at your retreating form to even notice jaemin and jeno exchanging glances, too busy to notice the latter untangling himself from their captain to slip away unnoticed, his hurried steps filled with a burning purpose.
Tumblr media
you didn't know why you ran, but you did. your shoes practically booming against the floor as you sped away through darkened hallways. you're sweating profusely, heart hammering in your chest. you can worry about professor kim tomorrow but right now you just had to—
"why are you in such a rush, pet?"
crashing into jeno felt like crashing into a wall. if it hadn't been for his arm quickly wrapping around your waist, then you would've landed on your butt before him.
with the small distance between the two of you, jeno could see as clear as day through your eyes.
jaemin was right.
it was addicting to stare into them.
especially when he can see every single one of your thoughts flying through your pretty little head. but hey, it wasn't their fault you were so easy to read.
jeno barely conceals the wicked smirk on his lips when your hands come up to his chest, trying to push him away but to no avail.
he can see your eyes shifting from shock, to confusion, until it finally settles on fear—to which it's slowly becoming a favorite emotion of his to see on your face.
"you know, jaemin is in a really shitty mood right now. and we were wondering, maybe you can cheer us up?"
no. this can't be happening.
"jeno, please." your dilated eyes and disheveled hair made his blood run south. "let me go. you don't want me. you don't need a third party in your relationship."
you yelp when he lets you go, literally shoving you against a wall—which you found out is actually a door, as it swings open as soon as your body crashes against it.
with jeno looming unforgivingly before you in his full height, the tears stung extra hard but you won't let them fall.
if he wanted to bask in the image of your weakness then it'll be something you'll deprive from him for as long as you can.
"i don't need a stupid bitch like you to tell me what i feel." he scoffs. "don't fucking kid yourself, you little whore—i don't want you. i'm not jaemin."
the echo of the classroom door shutting closed surged through you like a wake up call.
this is really happening.
you've always led a decent life, had done nothing too questionable and you've always thought maybe life will spare you if you lived quietly enough. but the feel of jeno's freezing hands crawling against your skin felt like life itself had spat at you in the eye and left you to rot in a ditch.
"i've always liked how you wore skirts," he comments. playing with the ruffled hem of the soft fabric as he purposely grazed his knuckles against your supple thighs. "gives me easy access, don't you agree?"
you scream when he flips your skirt up to reveal the innocent pink of your cotton panties. it was as if a switch had flipped inside of you and the will to fight started coursing through your veins.
"stop! jeno! i don't want this!"
his brows furrow, grunting as he struggles to push the waistline of your skirt up higher with how much you're thrashing underneath him. you buck your hips, tried curling in on yourself, anything to prolong what he wants to do to you.
with your legs trapped underneath his, you blindly reach forward, relying on your upper body instead to push and scratch whatever your palms and nails reached.
you continue screaming like a banshee until he shoved two fingers into your wet cavern.
"stop fighting me," he sounded strained, as if he's holding himself back. you feel him fisting the fabric of your skirt and you fear he's simply going to rip it apart.
you tried responding to him, only the sound had been muffled, gurgled by the flat of his fingers pushing down against your tongue mercilessly. when you reach forward to push him away, your hands land on the apple of his cheeks, nails digging through skin.
until it slips and—
you lie rigid when red scratch marks in the size of your fingernails slowly appear on jeno's skin, his head turned to the side as he paused. your actions slowly start sinking in to him as he shuts his eyes and bit his lip 'till it looked like it was about to bleed.
oh no.
"jeno—"
the slap he planted on your cheek left your ears ringing. all those hard earned muscles of his put to good use—if the tears hadn't fallen for the last few minutes, then it definitely started falling now.
the hit had been so strong, a few of your hair flew astray, the buzzing feeling of your skin tempting you to reach a hand up to soothe your abused cheek.
until jeno let out a low growl and your hand immediately drops limp against your body, afraid of whatever else he can do to you other than a slap.
"that's more like it," he whispers under his breath. you let out the tiniest of whimpers when his hand darts forward to fist your hair. "do you know what happens to bad girls? they fucking get busted up. do you understand me?"
his patience is nonexistent.
jeno slams your head against the floor when you don't answer because you thought his question had been rhetorical. it felt like your skull had been split in two as you wail in pain.
"are you fucking deaf—i asked you a fucking question!"
the hand that cups your jaw is painful as he squeezed your cheek with his blunt nails. your hand shoots up to wrap around his wrist, silently pleading for him to let up as you sobbed out loud. you started nodding as best as you can despite his firm grip on your face.
your reply was nothing short of pathetic. with lips forcefully pursed and the steady stream of your tears and snot rolling down your face, your response is gargled and hardly incoherent and jeno seemed to thoroughly enjoy your anguish if the condescending curl on his lips is anything to go by.
"look at you," he whispers, his face coming close to yours as he holds you down. there was something in the way jeno stared so intently that it made your skin crawl.
"i think you're prettiest when ruined like this."
with his nose touching yours, he felt too close, bordering on intimate as you felt his hand creep back up your thighs, trailing up with feather-like touches that made goosebumps appear on your skin.
you tried wiggling your legs underneath him but one sharp look from jeno is enough to make you stop.
the hand holding your face moves. coming down from gripping your face to encircling his hand around your neck.
"do you like it when i touch you? freaky bitch."
his hands trail further up, up, up until you felt him slotting a finger underneath your panties.
jeno didn't like how frozen you were underneath him as he pulls at the hem before letting go. the elastic snapping back against your skin.
the action evokes a strong feeling through the young male, promising to have you writhing and screaming and begging because by the end of all this, you'll be so needy and frustrated that you will have no choice but to give in to what your body wanted.
"jeno, didn't i tell you to play nice?"
someone stands by the door, the minimal light from the hallway creating a silhouette with his form but you knew who he was. that deep voice, with the same annoying flippant tone, is a dead giveaway.
you didn't know why you even hoped in the beginning. as if there'll be someone who can save you from these two.
you thought the flash of hurt in your eyes was quick to disappear but jeno noticed it quicker.
in a span of seconds, he pulled you up from your position from the ground and tugged you towards his lap. you haven't even gotten the time to settle on your new position when he already smashed his lips against yours.
it was messy. too much saliva. too much teeth. no tenderness to it at all.
the fabric of his jeans felt rough, not to mention the ice cold belt buckle made you severely uncomfortable as it seeps through the thin fabric of your skirt.
when you attempt to hover over his lap, jeno grunts as he snakes an arm around your waist, pulling you back down without your lips breaking away from each other. you didn't know why he let out a whine, but you understood the moment you fully sat down on his lap and you felt a tent on his jeans hitting your clothed entrance perfectly.
in a normal circumstance, you would've found everything hot and might've actually gotten off from it but not when it's him who’s doing this to you and you didn’t consent to any of this.
you start squirming again. palms lying flat against jeno's chest as you attempt to push him away and jaemin sees this as the opportune moment to slot himself behind you, caging you in between them.
“i want my turn,” he hisses and without an ounce of hesitation, jeno stops to do what he's told.
jaemin doesn't waste any second to grab your face, awkwardly craning your neck up to meet his lips in the same feverish kiss.
while jeno had been all teeth and aggression, practically forcing you to open your mouth and kiss him back, jaemin on the other hand is more soft, more romantic, you daresay. he seemed to like taking his sweet time by clutching your face, kissing you like he actually meant it.
he pulls away slightly, resting his forehead against yours as he murmurs something incoherent under his breath and then he's kissing you again.
you think you heard something along the lines of, "finally."
you've been too distracted by jaemin to notice jeno's nimble fingers quickly fumbling with the buttons of your blouse. it was only when you feel the sensation of his tongue laving against the swell of your breast did you turn away from jaemin, jerking backward in surprise.
"no—!"
your scream is cut off by a hand cupping your mouth. jaemin pulls your back towards his chest, molding your body against his as jeno licked and suckled all he wanted, thankful to have the other boy there to not worry about restraining you and keeping you quiet while he has his fun.
"ah, ah, ah," jaemin teases, going hard over the pleading and teary look you sent his way. it looked pathetic, he wasn't going to lie, but it doesn't mean he didn't love it. "just keep still and appreciate jeno's efforts to take care of you, alright baby?"
you don't like how he talked as if this was all a mutual thing, how he talked slowly like you were some toddler who didn't understand anything.
it's cruel how jaemin giggled and basked in your vulnerable state as he kept his eyes pinned on you while undoing the zipper of your skirt. your muffled cries of his name only serving to egg him on.
the way he stared was similar to jeno, too intently and intrusive, like he wants to burn your image of despair in the back of his head.
you whined involuntarily when jeno got bored of all the licking and thus decided to start biting and nipping at your chest instead. he was hypnotised by how responsive you were, how every little bite and nibble made you shudder.
it was a shame that jaemin had to cover your mouth. he didn't get to hear your pretty mewls but it wasn't as if he'd let the night end without hearing them loud and clear.
jaemin is fast in undressing you, feeling slightly betrayed by how quick your skirt and blouse fell under his hands.
you know what he wants, what he's going to do, and the tears fall harder when you can't dodge away from him. forced to endure and accept whatever they give you.
"you act like you don't like it but look how fucking wet you are," you bit your lip hard when jaemin starts circling the pads of his fingers against your clit, fascinated by how more juices streamed down your thighs.
"jeno, do you see this? fuck."
you can only blink in defeat, staring off to the side as you force down any noise bubbling up your throat, forcing yourself to think of anything else other than what's happening right now.
you try not to think about how they managed to tear all of your clothes off while they're left completely dressed. tried not to think about the fingers lazily drawing up and down your slit to collect your essence.
if they're doing this as a way to further humiliate you, it's working.
"slut," jeno mocked, a wicked curl on his lips when he wraps his fingers around your throat. the moment he dives down to claim your lips again is the same time jaemin pushes two fingers inside you.
"look at how wet you are because of me," jaemin whispers hot against your ear and you feel a sick churn in your stomach when you feel his smile against your skin.
he purposely drives his fingers in and out quicker, settjng a brutal pace, wanting you to hear the lewd squelching sounds. "hear that? do you hear that, darling? that's because of me—"
"don't go talking big now, jaem," jeno retorts, pulling away from your lips to start nibbling on the back of your ear. "i was here first. did you see how she fucking reacted when i sucked on her tits?"
you're quick to catch how jeno particularly loved degrading you. but how he talks about you as if you're literally not in front of him naked made you hit a new all-time low.
you felt… filthy.
his hands find purchase on your butt—only because jaemin has already claimed the front. for now.
you close your eyes tight when he painfully squeezes the flesh of your ass. you swear, his blunt nails will paint your skin black and blue.
"i'm the favorite!"
"i'm the favorite!"
as someone who's part of a varsity team, you already knew a competitive nature runs through jaemin's veins. but never had you thought jeno would share the same sentiment. once again they prove that they're cut from the same cloth.
all of a sudden it wasn't all about claiming you as theirs anymore rather it was all about who can make you moan the loudest, who can make you cum the most, who can make you feel the dirtiest you can be.
you're absolutely terrified for the hours to come.
thankfully, they have yet to ask for your verbal opinion or validation. they let your body do all the talking—every repressed shudder and sharp gasp is enough.
but it's game over once they pop the million dollar question.
"who do you like best?"
you don't want to find out the consequences if you actually answered their question because you didn't know what could be worse.
jaemin's manipulation or jeno's aggression?
but it was all normal. trial and error is inevitable in order to build and mold you into the ideal lover for the both of them.
because adding someone new to the mix has never been easy—after all, three's a crowd.
1K notes · View notes
timelesslords · 3 years ago
Note
Can u pls write a percabeth fic where Percy and Rachel are dating and percabeth are best friends and they end up spending the night together and it's been a week and they don't know how to tell Rachel and Rachel being bitter ?? Pls
This was kind of out of my comfort zone in terms of what I usually write lol but I tried my best!! I imagine this as like a mortal college AU :)
send me a prompt!
“Beth, you can’t walk home like this,” Percy said, exasperated.
“I’m fine! I’m hardly even drunk,” Annabeth said, trying (and failing) to quash the butterflies in her stomach when he called her Beth. Percy, having been her best friend for almost a decade, was the only person in the whole world who was allowed to call her that. He only pulled it out in rare situations, and every time he did Annabeth would swear her heart skipped five consecutive beats.
Not that he could ever know that, of course. Now felt like a more precarious situation than most-- she’d come over to his dorm so they could watch a movie together, and had ended up curled up together on his bed around his laptop. In fairness, his dorm was tiny and there was nowhere else to sit besides his bed, but if Annabeth imagined really hard she could pretend that it had all been completely intentional, and he was sitting this close to her because he wanted to.
“Hardly?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. And, fine. Annabeth had had… an amount to drink. A non-zero amount, some might say. More than Percy, and she had a way lower tolerance than him. She was buzzed, sure, but not buzzed enough to walk back across campus to her own dorm.
“I’m fine. It’s barely twenty minutes,” Annabeth protested. She started to stand up, but Percy gently tugged her back into the bed. She should have put up more resistance than she did, but, well. Who could blame her.
“It’s also three in the morning and you’re drunk,” Percy said, “Come on, just stay the night.”
“Stay where? Grover’s bed?” Annabeth asked, repressing giggles at the thought. It wasn’t really that funny a thought, but, well, she was tipsy.
Percy’s roommate was gone for the night to visit his girlfriend, leaving his bed empty. Grover was a cool guy, but he also had a weird tendency to leave soda cans just about everywhere, including in his bed.
Percy just rolled his eyes. “No, here.”
It took Annabeth a few seconds to realize exactly what he was saying.
“In your bed?” Annabeth asked, hesitantly.
“We’ve been sitting on it together all night,” Percy pointed out.
“Yeah, but…” Annabeth trailed off.
It was different. She knew it was different. And frankly, any other time she’d be absolutely delighted that Percy was offering that difference, but there was also the issue of Percy’s girlfriend. Percy’s girlfriend, who he’d met their freshman year and hit it off with despite the fact that Annabeth had been in love with him since she knew what love was. Percy’s girlfriend, who was in another dorm on campus not ten minutes away, not here but also not not here.
“But what?” Percy asked. There was the tiniest bit of a smirk on his face, and Annabeth shoved his shoulder, rolling her eyes.
“You know what,” she said. Maybe it came off a little more seriously than she’d meant, but he didn’t seem to care.
“It’s not like we’d be doing anything,” Percy said. Annabeth tried not to feel hurt at how foreign the concept of “doing anything” seemed to him in relation to him and her. But she didn’t have any right to feel any type of way about that, because she and Percy were just friends and Percy had a girlfriend who was not going to be happy about Annabeth spending the night in his bed, regardless of which activities did or did not take place there.
“Yeah, I know, but its just… I don’t know, don’t you think Rachel will be mad?”
“You’re staying here because you need a place to crash. She can’t be mad about that.”
“I’m pretty sure she could find something to be mad about,” Annabeth muttered, mostly to herself. Percy heard her though. They were sitting so close their shoulders were touching, so it would have been a miracle if he didn’t.
“Fine, I’ll sleep on the floor. She can’t be mad about that,” Percy said, actually making to get up like he was about to lie down right there and then. It was Annabeth’s turn to pull him back onto the mattress.
“Don’t be stupid, you’re not sleeping on the floor in your own dorm room,” Annabeth said, “Besides, she’d just say I kicked you off your bed.”
Maybe Annabeth should’ve kept that last bit to herself, but she’d never been very good at hiding her feelings about Rachel. Percy sighed, knowing she was right but not wanting to admit it.
“Well I’m not letting you sleep on the floor,” he said stubbornly, despite the fact that Annabeth hadn’t even suggested it. She had to bite back a laugh at the indignant look on his face.
“Percy, I was never going to sleep on your floor. I was going to go home,” she reminded him.
“Well I’m not letting you do that either,” he said, “So I guess you’re stuck in bed with me, unless you want me to spend the night on concrete.”
“You’re so goddamn annoying,” Annabeth grumbled.
“Does that mean you’re staying?” he asked. His expression brightened considerably at the prospect, and Annabeth had to physically force herself to calm her heart rate down.
“Well apparently I don’t have a choice,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes, praying to every god in the universe that she wasn’t blushing.
“Right,” Percy said, putting on some exaggerated confidence, “Obviously. So am I taking the floor or the bed?”
Annabeth knew he would sleep on the floor in a heartbeat. If she told him that she was uncomfortable being in his bed with him, he would gladly spend the night on cold concrete in the middle of winter in a dorm that had, frankly, terrible heating.
But she wasn’t about to make him do that. And if she was honest with herself, being in bed with him was the opposite of uncomfortable.
“The bed,” she sighed. Percy grinned triumphantly.
“I knew you wouldn’t make me sleep on the floor,” he said, and Annabeth finally let herself laugh.
“Yeah, because I told you so twice.”
“I think it’s because I know you so well, actually,” he said, finally closing his laptop that had been playing the movie earlier, and setting it on his bedside table. They’d turned the lights off earlier, and without the soft glow of the computer screen the only lights in the room were the faint street lights outside.
The bed was just a regular old twin, with not much space for either of them. That was why they were touching so much, Annabeth reminded herself. Just that. No other reason. He just put his arm around her shoulders because it was more comfortable that way, that was all.
It was late, and Annabeth was drunk, so falling asleep was easy. But she’d be lying if she said Percy didn’t help with that too.
***
It’d been a week since Annabeth had spent the night at Percy’s dorm, and they hadn’t talked about it at all.
She’d woken up the next morning completely hungover, and also with her and Percy’s limbs completely tangled together. The bed they’d shared was small, but it wasn’t that small.
Percy, of course, had acted like it was nothing. He’d teased her about her bed head and she’d half-heartedly teased him back about his morning breath, and then she’d packed her stuff from the night before and made her walk of shame back to her dorm. Except it wasn’t even a proper walk of shame, because they hadn’t actually done anything.
He hadn’t brought it up since, like it had been no big deal at all. Annabeth wished she could be so lowkey about it, but it was the only thing she’d been thinking about that entire week.
They’d already planned to meet up at the end of the week again, only this time in a group setting. A group setting meant Rachel was going to be there, and Percy might think their little sleepover hadn’t been a big deal, but Rachel was definitely not going to share that opinion. Annabeth was honestly dreading facing her so much that she considered bailing at least ten times. In the end, she decided that she had to just suck it up— she was going to have to face Rachel at some point, it might as well have been now.
All that to say Annabeth was a little surprised when she showed up at the party, only to find Rachel acting completely normal towards her. She was irritated towards Annabeth, but that wasn’t unusual. Rachel was always irritated towards Annabeth, and Annabeth was always irritated towards Rachel. But Rachel wasn’t pissed at her like Annabeth expected her to be. She wasn’t even not pissed, she was downright cordial.
All it took was one look at Percy for Annabeth to confirm what she already knew. He hadn’t told her.
“I need to talk to you,” she said, grabbing Percy’s arm and pulling him down the hallway. Rachel was going to be pissed at her for that, but Annabeth didn’t care. Percy followed along without complaint, not even bothering to shoot Rachel an apologetic look.
The hallway was empty, or as empty as a hallway at a college party could be. The music was loud enough to cover up their conversation, anyway.
“Did you not tell her?” Annabeth asked, keeping her voice barely above a whisper. Percy immediately looked guilty.
“You don’t know that,” he said, as if everything about both of their demeanors hadn’t given it away instantly.
“Of course I do, she wasn’t absolutely furious with me,” Annabeth hissed. Percy looked, if possible, more guilty than before.
“Okay, fine, I didn’t,” he admitted, “But what’s the big deal? It’s not like we did anything.”
And there it was again, those two little words and the way he said them, as if anything happening between the two of them was an impossibility. It felt like a dagger straight to the heart, but Annabeth ignored it.
“I dunno,” Annabeth said, “I mean if I was your girlfriend, I think I would want to know.”
Percy had choked on his drink halfway through her statement, and was already coughing before she could finish it.
“Are you okay?” Annabeth asked, alarmed. Percy just shook his head.
“Fine,” Percy managed to choke out, “I’m fine.”
“Am I going to have to heimlich you again?”
“Hey, you promised you would never bring that up again,” Percy said, pointing an accusing finger at her as he coughed again, clearing his throat a few times for good measure, “Besides, I don’t think it works for soda.”
“Fair. But don’t change the subject.”
“You changed the subject first,” Percy accused, in a not subtle attempt to change the subject once again.
“Because I thought you were choking, dumbass. You have to tell her.”
“Why?” Percy practically whined.
“Because the fact that you don’t want to means you know she’s going to be mad about it,” Annabeth said.
Percy groaned, letting his head fall back against the wall.
“Why are you so smart?” he asked. It sounded like a complaint, even though she knew he didn’t mean it that way. It sure felt that way, though.
“‘Cause one of us has to be,” Annabeth sighed.
If Annabeth were smarter, she would’ve never agreed to spend the night to begin with. But it was way too late for that now.
They went back and joined the group, but Annabeth knew Rachel was staring (bordering on glaring) at her the entire rest of the night. She couldn’t even really blame her. She was going to be a hell of a lot more mad at Annabeth once she found out the reason Annabeth had pulled Percy away to begin with.
The very next day Annabeth was in her dorm room, trying to finish a project for her architecture class. It was due on Monday, but she’d been so distracted the entire week that she’d barely even made a dent in it at all. It wasn’t coming together the way she wanted to and Annabeth was three seconds away from snapping her pencil in half and throwing the whole draft away. Before she could, there was a sharp knock at the door.
Annabeth glanced down at her phone, but she didn’t see any texts. Maybe it was the RA doing an inspection, or maybe Piper had forgotten her key again.
But when Annabeth opened the door, she found Percy standing in the doorway. He spoke before Annabeth could even open her mouth.
“So, I told her,” Percy said, with absolutely no context. He knew she didn’t need it. Annabeth found herself gripping the door so tightly she thought her fingers might break.
“You did? What happened?” Annabeth asked, trying not to sound frantic. Why was he here? Why didn’t he just call her? What if Rachel had made him swear to never talk to her again and he was just here to say goodb--
“She asked me to tell her with 100% certainty that I didn’t have feelings for you,” Percy said, impossibly calm.
If Rachel had asked him that, why was he standing in Annabeth’s doorway?
“And?” Annabeth said, voice small. Her heart was practically pounding out of her chest, but Percy just shrugged.
“And, I couldn’t.”
“You couldn’t?” Annabeth repeated, just to make sure she had heard him correctly.
“Nope,” he said, easily, too easily, “To be honest, I couldn’t even give her like, 1% certainty, but that would’ve felt a little rude to say.”
“So…” Annabeth trailed off. She couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. It didn’t make sense in her brain. Percy had feelings for her. And he’d broken up with Rachel, which meant— which meant—
“I think now is the part where you tell me if you like me back,” Percy said, interrupting her thoughts. He was smiling though, like he already knew the answer.
Annabeth did not currently have the mental wherewithal to form words. Thankfully her feet did the thinking for her, closing the already small distance between them and kissing him like she’d wanted to do for years.
“So I take it that’s a yes?” he said with a grin, when they finally broke apart. Annabeth was pleased to see he was a little breathless, at least.
“Shut up,” she laughed.
“Gladly,” he said, leaning down to kiss her again.
107 notes · View notes
thestarrynightslover · 4 years ago
Text
The One He Got Right
Pairing: Jay Halstead x Reader
Word count: 2,700
Warnings: None. Just a crazy amount of fluff.
Summary: Jay and (y/n) have been dating for several months now, so, when his birthday comes up, the reader wants to throw him a surprise party.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the One Chicago shows, or its characters, also not associated with it in any way or know anyone involved with it.
A/N: Fluffy happy jay is my religion, that's all I'm gonna say. Also, I feel like the One Chicago universe could have a lot of surprise parties, so, if they won't give it to us, let's just indulge ourselves, right? 
As always, I hope it doesn’t suck too bad and, please, feel free to give me feedback!
(y/n) = (your name) (y/l/n) = (your last name) (y/n/n) = (your nickname)
| masterlist |
Tumblr media
“You know, babe, I was hoping you’d be able to get the Thursday off so that we could go out and have some fun, or just stay in and cuddle. You can choose.” Jay said whilst caressing your feet in his lap.
“While that does sound good, I’m not sure I can convince my boss to give me the time off on such short notice, Jay.” You confessed with a tired sigh. “But what’s so special about Thursday for Voight to give you a day off anyway? You didn’t mention any big cases lately…” You asked your boyfriend, not missing how he started to uncomfortably shift his position on the couch.
“Uh, he said I should take the day to myself because it’s my birthday. That’s why I was hoping-”
“What???” You asked him, sitting up straight, already buzzing with excitement. “It’s your birthday in four days and you didn’t tell me???” Jay just looked at you like you were crazy.
“Well, I’m telling you now. Besides, it’s not that big of a deal. I just figured that since I’m getting a rare day off, I’d spend it with the person I love…” He tried to sound nonchalant, but you knew what game he was playing. And, honestly, you didn’t really care, because you’d always loved birthdays and holidays in general. So, if you had a chance at being with Jay throughout his, you’d take it.
“Not that big of a deal? Who are you? The Grinch? Of course, it’s a big deal, babe!” Your excitement was almost tangible. “So, tell me, what is it you want us to do, hum? Is there gonna be a party? Wait a second, have you been party-planning without me this whole time?” Your boyfriend couldn’t understand how went from too grinny to too offended in two seconds like that.
“What? Party? No! No! Not at all, baby! I really just thought we could spend some quality time together, you know, without the possibility of me getting called in at any minute…" He told you and, all of the sudden, he looked exhausted, making you feel stupid for bombarding him with your craziness like that.
"Oh, okay… Look, I'm sorry I freaked out, babe. It's just that you're such an amazing boyfriend – and everything else, really –, so, when you said it's your birthday… Let me do something?" You asked, with what you considered to be your sweetest smile. At that, Jay started chuckling lightly.
"Well, I could let you do something, but your company is already gonna be much more than just something. And that's all I could possibly want from you, princess." How could you even try to resist that man?
"Okay. Then, uh, I'll get the day off, no matter what, but… I'm still doing something!" You said with a wicked smile.
"Oh, God. Fine, just don't exaggerate, okay?" Hearing that, you gave him a look.
"Right, right. Note to self: don't exaggerate." At that point, Jay decided to just give in, which was the best he could do, since your plan was already shaping up in your head. It was going to be a long four days…
The next morning, after leaving Jay’s place, you started calling people while walking to work. The first on your list was Herrmann because there was no party without a venue. And what better venue for your boyfriend’s birthday celebration than the very place where he liked to spend so much time?
“Hi, (y/n/n)! How you doing?” Christopher asked with his usual excited voice.
“Hey, Chirs! I’m great, how are you? And how are Cindy and the kids?” First things first: to convince the petty man to let you use his bar like that, you were gonna need to be your most charming self.
“Ah, we’re all good too, thanks for asking, kid! Listen, uh, how’s everything between you and Halstead? He hasn’t shown up at Molly’s in a while…” Normally that would have gotten you worried, but this time you knew that it was because of the demanding case his unit had closed last week and then because of how he was trying to spend most of his crazy free hours with you.
“Everything’s fine, really. The thing is that he’d been a little too busy with Intelligence’s latest case and then he was a bit tired in his free time, so we’d just spend the nights in… But thank you for the concern, Chris!” By that point of your relationship with Jay, you’d met pretty much everyone who hung out at the first responders’ bar (at least everyone who was friends with your boyfriend), and it was fair to say that they all had a lot of appreciation for you. Herrmann, for example, was always trying to look after you. Treating you like a daughter. And, as sweet as that was, you were about to use it to get him to give up Molly’s for the party. “So, um, you mentioned that we haven’t been to Molly’s much lately… How’s the business going?”
“Ah, (y/n/n), look at you! Always worrying about other people! The business is going well! But you know how these things are… Could always be better.” He told you, in that very Herrmann way, always thinking ahead and making growth plans.
“Yeah… Well, you know, Jay always tells me about how much he loves it there… How much that place and the people in it, especially you, mean to him…” You threw your bait. It wasn’t exactly true, but it wasn’t exactly a lie either. You knew how much all of that meant to Jay, he never even had to tell you about it.
“Really?” You could practically hear Herrmann’s grin through the phone. “I hope he knows that we all at 51, hell, at Molly’s, see him as family too! He’s such a good kid... ” Perfect. It was now or never.
“Speaking of him knowing how much he means to us, as you know that his birthday is coming up on Thursday, I was-”
“What??? His birthday? I, I, I, ah, I didn’t know that…” Another perfect strike for you.
“Well, then I guess that makes it a bit weird for me to ask you what I was about to…” God, it was moments like this that made you think that you could've been an actress.
“No! What?! Not at all, what was it?”
“I was wondering if you could give Molly’s up for a surprise party I wanna throw for him...” You said, ripping the band-aid off, with your fingers crossed that the guilt-trip you tried to put him on would work its magic.
“Oh!” If only you could see him now! Split between wanting to show Jay how much he cared and the projections of how much he’d lose giving Molly’s up like that. “You know what? To the hell with it! Jay was one of our first regular customers and got us rid of that scumbag Arthur, so yeah! We’re doing that for him!” You wanted to scream at how perfectly your plan had worked out, but you stopped yourself as Herrmann said (for no one’s surprise): “But I’m not giving any free drinks to anyone!”
“Okay, okay, Chris.” You said laughing. “What you’re doing is enough help already! Thank you so much!”
“Nah, don’t worry about it! Just wish everyone would appreciate my gestures as much as you do, instead of complaining that I should be doing more…” At that point, you were laughing your ass off, as you couldn’t keep it inside any longer.
“Okay, then I’ll let you know when and who’s gonna need the keys to set up the decoration and stuff.” You said whilst brushing the tears away from your eyes.
“Alright, (y/n/n), I gotta go now, but I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Yeah, talk soon. Bye.” One down, some more to go.
And that's how you spent your morning: completely ignoring your work, in between calls to put Jay's surprise party in motion. You put Stella, Severide, and whoever else wanted to help them in charge of the drinks. Sylvie and Chloe were on the cake. Adam and Kevin were taking care of the food, duly supervised by Kim and Hailey, as you knew they couldn't be trusted to not eat anything before the time. You let Maggie and Ethan in charge of the decoration, along with any more help they could get at Med. And Will and Platt were going to contact Jay's other friends. You were on the tricky assignment of keeping your boyfriend in the dark about all of that until it was Thursday night. While, also, overseeing everyone's work, because, well, you were the organizer! 
To say that there were many bumps along the short period of time you had until the party was stating the obvious. Several times during those three days you got calls from Will, panicking over the fact that, every time he saw his brother, he felt an urge to scream 'Surprise!!!'. Seriously, after this party, Jay Halstead just couldn't let you out of his life, because the amount of energy it took to keep yourself from murdering his older brother... It was a clear show of love.
Still, everything went well and there were no murders. The Thursday morning came as quickly as you knew it would and, thankfully, everyone had their parts of the plan pretty much done. Which meant it was your time to shine: operation keep-the-detective-from-detecting had begun!
“So, today’s the day. Are you gonna tell me what is it that we’re doing?” Jay asked you with a soft smile on his lips.
“Yes, of course, detective. But only after we get you a proper birthday breakfast!” You told Jay while pulling him out of the apartment to go to this diner you knew he loved. When you got there, the orders were already waiting for you at your favorite table, and, being the silly bean he is, your boyfriend got pretty impressed by it.
“But, what?! How did you get them to do this? I thought they never took orders over the phone!”
“And they never do!” You confirmed with a wink, trying to hold back the laughter. Not that you could keep it inside any longer when his eyes landed on the personalized birthday wishes written on the pancakes. As much as he liked to act like a tough guy most of the time, at that moment he couldn’t help but let out his inner excited little boy.
“Oh my God! This is amazing! It’s so cute!” He beamed brightly.
“I know, I know. Now eat your breakfast, birthday boy!” You ordered with a fake look of annoyance on your face. But instead of just digging in on the food, like you’d told him to, he leaned in from across the table to press a sweet kiss to your lips.
“The day barely even started and I already know that this is gonna be one of the best birthdays of my life!” He told you, as a genuinely happy smile took over his features.
“Well, then I’m glad I can be of service.” You said, and, like that, the day passed by. You wandered, hand-in-hand, the streets of a rare sunny Chicago, had lunch by the Riverwalk, went to the movie theater, and, finally, back to his place.
“Okay, today was amazing! But, I gotta admit, I’m a bit tired… So what do you say we open a bottle of wine, order some Italian, and cuddle our way into the night, hum?” Jay asked, already sitting on the couch with his phone in hand.
“I say a big colossal no!” Hearing that, he looked at you super confused. “Because I already told Will that we were gonna meet him for a couple of beers at Molly’s.” Instead of just sighing and standing up like you thought he’d do, your boyfriend narrowed his eyes to you, in a way that showed he got suspicious of something. “What?”
“We’re gonna meet Will at Molly’s? On my birthday?”
“Yeah, why?”
“No, nothing. It’s just that, coming from you and Will on my birthday,” shit! He emphasized the birthday part again, “that doesn’t sound like just a meetup for beers at Molly’s, that’s all.” Damn it, a thousand times damn it! Why did he have to be so good? And that stupid cocky smile he had on right now was still gonna be the death of you. Before you even said anything, you knew it wasn’t gonna be very convincing, given how useless your brain seemed to be at the moment. So you could only hope that he’d turn a blind eye and just go along with it when you said:
“Well, it is just a meetup at Molly’s. And, if you must know, I only agreed to it because Will spent all day blowing up my phone with texts, saying that I stole his baby brother from him on a date that you two should always spend together.” You lied, trying to put up an annoyed façade.
“Ah, well, if that’s the case, then let’s just stay here and ignore our phones.” Jay suggested with a shrug. He knew you were lying, damn it!
“No!” You answered a bit too quickly. “We, uh, we can’t do that! Because, first of all, it would be very douchy and, second, Will would be mad at me forever, and that can’t happen if I have any hopes of ever becoming a Halstead.” You didn’t even realize what you’d just said, until after it came out, but then it was too late to go back. He glued his eyes on you immediately, while you tried to hide your blushing face with your hands. “I can’t believe that I really just said that out loud.” You sorta-whispered shyly, never uncovering your face.
“Me neither…” He confessed with a huge grin, also going to remove your hands off your face with his. “Baby, I know I don’t say this much, because, as you know, words aren’t really my strongest suit, but I love you. And I, too, have real high hopes that you’ll become a Halstead someday.” He told you, making your eyes tear up.
“I love you too, babe.” You barely let it out before he pulled you in for a warm loving kiss.
“So, you say that a lot in your head, hum?” He asked with a smug smirk on his lips.
“Shut up, let���s just go.” You grunted, trying hard not to blush again.
“Do we really have to, though? You know Will doesn’t get to decide anything between us.” Jay tried to reason with you, apparently forgetting about his suspicions.
“I know, but we’re not bailing on him like this, Jay.” At that, he gave you an annoyed pouting look but eventually gave it up and headed to the bar with you.
Before you got out of the cab, you managed to, discretely, shoot Will a quick text, to let everyone know that you’d arrived. That way, as soon as Jay opened the door, letting you in first as usual, the mini crowd of guests shouted:
“Surprise!!!!!” You couldn’t help but break up in laughter when your boyfriend almost jumped back outside after the scare. Jay Halstead, the man who was always prepared for anything, got completely caught by surprise this time.
“Oh my God, guys, what the hell?” He asked with a shocked expression that just made everyone in the bar laugh hard, as they started reaching out to hug him and say their birthday wishes. 
In the midst of all that, Jay saw you smiling shyly on a corner and immediately knew who was the mastermind behind it all. That made him think of how, when you came into his life, you were like a sunshine ray that never darkened, making his hardest days easier and better. And you were even more now. 
Jay Halstead had definitely made a lot of wrong, shitty, decisions throughout his life. On both personal and professional levels, they’d gotten him a lot of heartache. But dating you was for sure the one he got right.
297 notes · View notes
fandom-monium · 4 years ago
Text
For the Holidays - Part 2
Summary: In which Spencer doesn’t want to go to his high school reunion, but you tagging along changes things. “It’ll be nice... having a friend there.”
WC: 1.8k
Tags/Warnings: Spencer Reid x GN!Reader, fake-dating trope, pining (so much pining), insecure and in-denial Spencer, light cursing, (tbh with all the shit that happens in CM they should be cussing way more)
Tumblr media
Spencer doesn’t text you. But he’s tried.
First thing he got home, he tossed his bag aside and ripped off his blazer before he threw himself on the couch, digging through his pockets for his phone. Screw reading, taxes, dinner. There are more important things at stake here.
But he’s been sitting there for an hour, glaring at the empty text box with disdain, willing for words to appear.
No such luck.
Spencer writes essays and academic journals in an hour but formulating a simple text? He curses the universe for only making him academically gifted.
He runs a hand through his hair. Maybe he should call? No, you said text. And he doesn’t trust himself enough to have a verbal conversation with you. He will get tongue-tied.
Shit, what does he even say?
It’s not entirely his fault, alright? He’s never been put in a position like this before, except when he goes undercover. And even then everything is planned for him with little contribution on his part⎼he makes small edits to better fit the profiles but that’s about it. All he has to do is scan the file once and in seconds he has his fake identity, his fake backstory, and whatever fake details make up his fake life.
But this. This is different. He has to be brave because it’s you, and he has to chill out because this is supposed to be fake, he reminds himself. Both are tasks within themselves. And yeah, he’s a genius but as Albert Einstein once said, knowledge has its limits.
Shit, his thoughts are so jumbled he can’t even quote properly. This is all your fault.
You.
He still has to text you.
Spencer groans and flops on the couch, the phone clattering to the floor. He doesn’t bother, laying there until there’s an imprint of his butt in the cushions. He stares at the ceiling.
He remembers that you were the one to say yes. He hadn’t directly asked you but you agreed anyway, which means you are willing to spend time with him. Which means you like him (enough). Which means you are friends, and friends help friends out when they are in trouble.
Like needing a fake date.
He rolls onto his stomach, lips pursed as he stares over the edge of the couch. His phone glints in the lamp light.
Just friends helping each other out. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Spencer takes a deep breath and picks up the phone.
He can do this.
He can’t do this.
“I’m so excited,” Next to Spencer, you nestle into the seat and adjust the fuzzy blanket over your lap, eyes gleaming. “It’ll be nice to see where you grew up.”
Spencer only offers you a tight smile. His eyes dart about as the other passengers settle in, switching seats and fiddling luggage into the overhead compartments. Some of them already requesting for airplane food. Who in their right mind actually wants airplane food?
Spencer really wants to be as excited as you, and he is; he finally gets to spend some time with you outside of work, without the rest of the team hovering (waiting for one of you to make a damn move). It’s almost nice.
If only he can enjoy himself.
His knee bounces nonstop. Against the armrest his fingers tap a rhythm matching the thrum of his heart. And his hair is even more wild having run his hands through it repeatedly before meeting up with you.
He isn’t used to this, being alone with you. Sure, you partner up at work, in cases⎼hell, you've even accompanied each other to a few events. But those were as friends.
Technically, you’re his date. His romantic partner.
Spencer’s never let himself delve deep into his fantasies; he’s imagined (more times than he’d like to admit) taking you on dates to your favorite places, you in his arms, him in your arms⎼you know, minus the imminent danger. All the sweet things that couples do. But they always seemed out of reach. So he’d cut them off, squash the ideas before they went any further. False hope only hurts if you give in.
But now you’re on a plane, rocking in your seat as you hum to yourself, genuinely thrilled at the prospect of seeing his hometown.
This is more than he’s ever imagined. He feels like his heart’s about to burst.
Someone needs to call the bomb squad, real quick.
“Reid.”
"Hm?"
"Are you alright?" You're looking at him, voice drenched in so much concern his stomach twists. He made you worry. He feels guilty.
Tumblr media
“Yeah-uh-” He clears his throat, attempting a smile. It’s a sad parody of the real thing. ”I'm fine.“
You raise an eyebrow and scoff, "Okay, I think I know why you're being weird. At least, weirder than usual."
Spencer’s heart drops. He leans back as you lean across your shared armrest, catching the sympathy in your eyes. He stiffens, bracing himself for the rejection. He should have known sooner or later you’d notice his not-so-friendly affections towards you. Of course you did, he isn’t exactly subtle; all the lunches, the museum tours, the stars in his eyes when you wrestle down unsubs⎼
"You’re nervous about seeing your old classmates again."
⎼Or, he’s much better at hiding it than he thought.
Spencer can only watch in awe as you continue, “And it’s totally natural. I mean, I haven’t been to a reunion, but I’d feel weird too if I got to see my classmates after all these years. But have no fear, (Your Name) is here.” You cringe, suddenly abashed. “Unless I’m completely off the mark and now you regret bringing me along. Oh no, that’s it, isn’t? You’re uncomfortable with the whole couples act.”
Spencer shakes his head, and for the first time since take off, he chuckles, “What? No, I’m happy that you’re here. And I couldn't think of anyone better to play my partner.” A relieved smile from you and he shrugs, feigning nonchalance. He fiddles with his sleeve. “But yeah, you got me. I am nervous.”
Which isn’t exactly a lie. You're here, next to him. That's more than enough reason to be.
If he had to be honest, between you and organizing the trip, he almost forgot about the reunion. Then again, he never liked reflecting on his high school years. For obvious reasons.
But your perception is a bucket of ice water over his head. Now he’s wide awake.
You’re doing this because you’re friends. You just want to help.
Friendship never hurt so much.
“I didn’t mention it before, but I’m sure you’re aware I wasn’t exactly the most popular kid in school, being 6 years younger and all,” Spencer swallows the ache. You nod in understanding.
Bright, brown eyes meet yours. He bites his lip. “So, I appreciate you coming with me. It’ll be nice... having a friend there.”
A split second.
Spencer glances away as he says 'friend'. The word leaves such a bittersweet taste he has to hold back a grimace, look anywhere else but you. The word just doesn’t sit right with him.
If he hadn’t looked away, he would have caught the way your smile dropped.
You nearly forgot, though you’re on holiday, this is a mission of sorts. This isn’t about you or how you feel. This is about Spencer. You berate yourself, remembering you're not a teenager anymore; you're a fucking adult and mature adults don't squee at their coworkers.
No matter how cute and adorable they are.
“Of course,” You plaster on a smile and finger the edge of your blanket, unintentionally mirroring him. "Your welcome."
Spencer gives you that white-person smile you love so much. You have to bite back a laugh.
To distract yourself, you pull out your phone and open the Chess app, holding it out to him. "Now, how about that rematch?"
Spencer's face lights up like a Christmas tree.
And as you immerse yourselves into another close match, you feel your confidence grow with every move, chuckling as Reid grumbles about you cheating (you’re not, he’s just a sore loser). You’re an FBI agent, for fuck’s sake. You played spouse and romantic partners for weeks, months. A weekend is nothing.
You can manage playing pretend with a coworker. Just operate like this is any other undercover assignment.
You can pretend you’re in love with Spencer Reid. You can handle it.
You can handle it.
You can’t handle it.
As one would expect, it’s hard to not fall in love with Spencer Reid. Just as it’s hard not to show it.
It feels like only yesterday the lanky man quite literally stumbled his way into your world and you decided, ‘Him. I will protect him with my life.’ And while you’d totally do that for anyone on the team, with Reid, it hits different.
After you landed in Las Vegas, you had a couple hours to kill before the reunion started, and as the good friend and partner you are, you suggested he show you all the places he frequented when he was little. For research, of course. After all, you’re playing his partner, so the more you know the better.
It’s definitely not because you’re invested in his life. Because that would be unprofessional.
(The way he beamed at you was totally worth it though.)
Then one step in the direction of his favorite eatery and he slipped on a patch of ice. You caught him in time, but the way he looked at you, brown eyes wide and filled with awe, made you feel things you shouldn't feel for a coworker.
It only snowballed from there. Everything about him is just so… endearing.
But you’re at your limit.
Love and affection threatens to spill out of you. Your hands flex in your coat pockets, itching to grab Spencer’s pretty face. Even your chest aches from your heart having swollen twice its size. You feel like you’re about to explode.
This might be the most difficult mission you’ve ever worked.
But this is it, you realize as you stand in front of the closed auditorium doors. This is the final lap. Where everything you’ve practiced really matters. You just have to keep up the charade for a few hours, then you won’t have to struggle to fight back the hearts in your eyes.
Although, your clothes fit tighter than you remember and you’re trembling. Why the fuck are you trembling?
Next to you Spencer eyes the double doors, almost like he’s daunted by them.
Multi-colored lights filter into the dark hallway, silhouettes flickering and shifting from the crack under the door as cheery holiday music faintly streams from behind them, accompanied by shouts and laughter. From his old classmates. Who are most likely making jokes at his expense.
Spencer already wants to go home.
“Ready, Doc?” As if sensing his hesitation, you offer a smile and an arm to him. Your eyes gleam with resolve. It’s more than enough for the both of you.
You can do this.
A deep breath, he slips his arm into yours. “Yep.”
He can do this.
Together, you open the doors.
AN: 2/4?? 
note: don’t expect part 3 to come out as quick. it’ll contain panic/anxiety descriptions and id like to take my time to write it best :))) i hope you enjoyed the last bit of happiness for a while :))))
also i apologize that i havent gotten to all the requests!! the ones posted on my masterlist are the ones currently being dealt with, but i’ll get through them eventually thx for the patience :D
i remember seeing a post ab Hotch x Prentiss and I didn’t get it but watching CM over again 
i get it i so get it. when theyve both gone to each other’s homes? *tears up*
and my hate for seaver has been reinforced :)))))
254 notes · View notes
renaroo · 3 years ago
Text
Other History? More Like Other MYSTERY
as in it’s a MYSTERY how the hell this got past an editor the week before Pride Month are you fucking kidding me?
I was kind of hoping for more than like... a week of being back on tumblr before I breathed fire and ripped a comic book to shreds. But we all know why I’m here.
There are so many preemptive things to get out of the way before I rip into this thing...
John Ridley as a writer in other forms of media has been incredibly accomplished and an important additional voice to entertainment industries. I do not wish to take away from that or to minimize the impact of voices like his.
But, you know, he’s a voice in media. Not the end-all, be-all to all marginalized people worldwide who can substitute his perspective for any nonwhite straight male voice. And I don’t think that has ever been more apparent than the continued spiral down the drain that has been every issue of The Other History of the DC Universe since the first. 
DC’s “new” approach to everything being canon and everything mattering is dumb and filled to the brim with ways it’s going to backfire and reveal itself to be the eye sore of publications that it’s aiming for, but I was curious to see how they would try to incorporate these characters’ long and contentious histories in the comics with the real world issues they often were billed to tackle, and try to fit it into the current pop culture landscape. That was the whole reason I had my eye on this comic to begin with.
By the second issue we were getting some stark warning signs because as much as I appreciated hearing an authentic perspective on how the Teen Titans brand carried on while neglecting its landmark Black teen heroes (Mal Duncan and Karen Beecher), there was a note of cruelty added to the issue that felt otherwise misplaced and uncharacteristic of the tone being set. 
There was no reason to have a significant portion of that issue dedicated to Mal and Karen’s monologues taking some aggressive words out on Roy Harper specifically for being an addict. 
Perhaps it was a quirk of writing from a flawed perspective or a show of how righteous upset and anger could be turned outward to other people suffering in a vy for your own empowerment. 
I’m now pretty sure that wasn’t it at all. I’m pretty sure because it kept getting worse every issue and it’s culminated in today’s issue where the retelling of Renee Montoya’s story managed to be petty, cruel, shockingly pro-police brutality int its adulation of Jim Gordon and especially Harvey Bullock, and managed to make a well-rounded and very beloved Latina lesbian and just retrofit every stereotype she never had before to her without regard for what it did to her story or to the stories of people around her. 
Honestly, lapsed faith and a poke at the damage that Catholic guilt can have on especially queer believers is kind of my jam, so it’s not that I wouldn’t be down for a story with that perspective. I could even understand exploring that with Renee. But not at the expense of her established history.
Which is a question all of its own. Here we have the skeletal structure of Renee’s life events that we have read before (in much better stories), but they are surprisingly out of order and also shockingly twisted in a way to make EVERYONE as unpleasant as possible. 
And in a way that has convinced me that either John Ridley has never read comics featuring Renee, or that he was mandated to change things that had no business being changed.
According to this issue Renee hated Batman and other superheroes? Which, ah, I don’t even know where that could come from. Ever since the animated series where she got started, Renee’s whole bag has been “the acolyte of Jim Gordon, only other cop who supports Batman”. Like I don’t even know how you get around that.
But according to Ridley she’s hated them all along as an extension of her internalized homophobia and self-loathing. Great.
What follows out of that is that apparently? Renee and Batman specifically butted heads over wanting to rehabilitate Harvey Dent? As in Renee wanted to help him and BATMAN was the one flipping out and saying Harvey was a sociopath and couldn’t be helped.
Like. I’m starting to question if Ridley has read Batman comics before. I don’t know where that interpretation could possibly come from? Bruce and Harvey were friends? Bruce has always held out hope for saving Harvey from his psychosis? It’s like. THE storyline for Two-Face.
The cop stuff... I don’t really know how to talk about the cop stuff to be completely honest. If you mention the LA Riots on one page and a few pages later try to frame it so that over policing and methods of brutality weren’t a thing until 9/11... I don’t know what to say to you. 
I’d say maybe I was being ungenerous here except there were two characters who got entire full page spreads about what good cops they were. And one of them was goddamn Harvey Bullock with the explicit commentary that Renee USED to be uncomfortable with his torture methods and general brutality but figured it was “okay” because he knew how “innocent people screamed different” and that he “never collared someone and it didn’t stick” because. Y’know. Police violence and falsifying evidence never go hand in hand. what the actual fuck ever right?
The timeline for Renee and Kate’s relationship is also completely changed which means that we get to add a trope I just LOVE as a lesbian personally, which is that lesbians can’t keep relationships and can’t keep from cheating on their loving partners. Especially when they are butch. 
And I’m not talking about Renee cheating on Kate. Oh, no. Ridley decided Kate was the Other Woman during Renee’s relationship with Daria. 
And just.. the cruel commentary that Renee had about both Kate and Daria throughout. It made my skin crawl. The way she talked about other women in general made my skin crawl. “Uncomplicated women” “Broken souls” “Can’t be with someone better than yourself”
So I actually planned to go into a full rage post about just the queer content because 1. my lane and 2. it honestly affected me so bad I was shaking and tearing up in anger a bit. Every single friend I know who loves Kate and Renee, see themselves in Kate and Renee, have been the same kind of mess I am after this.
The NASTINESS of the internal monologue. I don’t know how to explain it more than this is how poorly men think of flf and to have one use a character so meaningful to the community to spout this hatefulness has revolted me in a way I... haven’t had happen to me for a while.
I was going to talk about the weirdness of just... randomly deciding to retcon Renee’s parents into being undocumented when that’s never been a thing before and just doing NOTHING with it the whole while after. Or how it’s pretty questionable how Renee suddenly became so adherently Catholic when it’s never been portrayed like that before (that’s Hel B’s bag, JPV if you squint) but it’s entwined with any of her commentary on her ethnicity p sus too but I don’t have the nuance for that discussion right now.
Rena Rants are back and what a fucking JOKE this comic was. 
I didn’t pay for it and neither should you.
P.S. bringing back Tim Fox and calling him “Jace” is dumb as fuck too
78 notes · View notes
wizkiddx · 4 years ago
Text
...surprise
um okay so here I am trying angst again. this is kind of intended to be open ended bcos might have a part two at some point. im also lazy and has a few time jumps. also if someone could pls explain if you just get pics for the top of these off internet or credit on like gifs or something that’d be appreciated.
Summary: Tom comes home and everything is most definitely not the way he left, nor is it healthy
Warnings: please read with caution esp relationship with food / weightloss, but just generally a person in a bad bad head space, lots of self blame - then next parts will carry different warnings too
************************
Tom had been away for months. Months and months away from his girlfriend, separated entirely by his filming locations in Europe and America; while you were busy slowly and steadily climbing the ranks of your law firm. Being an intense period for the pair, you hadn’t managed to see each other in 2 and a half months.  Of course, both go you were used to this - 3 years deep into a relationship between an actor and a wanna-be lawyer- this was the name of the game.
But honestly? You both just kept falling deeper and deeper, making the separation harder to deal with - rather than getting used to it as one might hope.
That's why Tom felt such an incredibly overwhelming wave of relief as he dumped his bags just outside his front door. Even though he was exhausted from the travelling, just the mere act of finally phishing out his housekeys brought a massive grin to his face - caused particularly by the sight of his tacky little keyring from a Moroccan market that you’d bought him. That had been your first holiday. There’s that old saying that before you move in with someone go on holiday first - Tom understood it to mean you supposedly see all the bad and ugly stuff people can hide from each other, a prewiring before committing to living in the same space. However that holiday all he’d learned was incredible you are to him. To his dying day, Tom will never forget the moment he looked over to his left when the two of you were on this night time stargaze in the depth of the Moroccan desert. Y/n had never seen stars like it, the skies so incredibly clear and lit up with an array of magical blues and purples and whites on its sark background. The sight, for no unexplainable reason, had you completely opening up to Tom about things she’d never told a single soul. And in that moment he’d had this sort of realisation. Not about how much he loved her - because that is just the cliche thing everyone says… and also just wasn’t true.
In that moment he’d rather realised the potential. The sort of ‘I’m not there yet but I know you could become the centre of my universe’. The sort of ‘I’m not ready to say this yet, but I want to spend my life with you’. The sort of ‘at some point in my life I’m not sure my heart will be able to beat without yours’.
He still hadn’t quite got to explicitly saying all that yet, by asking you for the ultimate commitment. But he planned to now he was coming back to you.
Even with the chill of the early evening winter air, Tom was almost ecstatic as he unlocked the door and let himself in. He hadn’t told you that he was coming home, you thought he had another two weeks on the job, but Tom was a bit of an old romantic - he loved seeing your eyes fill with wonder as he surprised you in whatever way. Sometimes it was as simple as a note on the fridge, or a small bouquet from behind his back or as fancy as a surprise holiday.
However, this time, though it was only 6 in the evening, all the lights of their house were off making Tom raise an eyebrow as he quietly slipped off his shoes - not wanting to scare Y/n just in case.
Tom had sworn when he’d been on the phone with you the previous day, you didn’t have any plans tonight but perhaps maybe a spontaneous pub trip and been offered with work colleagues. The house felt a little cold as he padded through it, poking his head into every room just to check Y/n wasn’t there. His last port of call was the bedroom.
By this point, Tom was pretty resigned on the fact you were out and he’d maybe cook a meal for when you got back or hide about the house or something. But instead, when he poked his head around this door, he sighed in delight at the sight of a still mound under the plush white sheets. For a brief moment, Tom paused, before tiptoeing steadily round to her bedside. The light was still off but the hallway light illuminated the room enough so he could make out your soft features and the messy ball of hair that had been haphazardly thrown in a bun. Furthermore, he could also notice in the light the packet of painkillers and migraine tablets lying opened on the bedside - which made him freeze. Y/n didn’t get migraines often at all, but when she did Tom knew just how bad they could be. That explained the fact you were spark out at six o’clock, making Tom give a sympathetic smile. He crept back out the room with a little spring in his step, deciding that since he had had a long day travelling he'd grab a snack and join you. Unfortunately though, when he enthusiastically yanked the fridge open the sight was a rather depressing one. He didn’t really know what he was craving but the fridge contents were of almost no use to anyone. The place was bloody baron, apart from a tub of butter and of course his special beers that Y/n would never dare touch. With a small huff though, Tom resigned himself to some bread and butter, before getting ready for bed.
It was probably an hour later when Tom was carefully crawling under the duvet to settle in beside Y/n after the disappointing snack and maybe a solitary ‘welcome home beer’ - it would be rude not to. God was he excited to just have his girlfriend in his arms again though. So, Tom naturally reached over and powerfully yet gently pulled you back towards him - making your back flush with his as you mumbled something incoherent. Chuckling slightly at your apparent annoyance of being disturbed, Tom pressed a kiss to her temple before settling down momentarily.
But something wasn’t quite right, making Tom shuffle about a bit - ever adjusting huis grasp on your waist as he attempted to get comfy. With the migraine medications forcing you into a deep deep sleep you barely stirred and that just made the unease increase for Tom. Because you didn’t feel right. This didn’t feel right. Ever so slowly Tom started to peel back the duvet from your body from his now sitting upright position. Typically, Y/n was wearing one of his hoodies, however more concerningly it seemed to pool and collect around your frame more than normal.
Now, Y/n was never the most petite person in the world - by no means overweight, instead of beautiful curves and muscle. To Tom now though, it was as if someone had literally shrunk you - like a picture on a word document you needed to make narrower to fit the margins. Even in the dim light of the bedroom he know realised you looked pale. Honestly, Tom didn’t know how long he just sat there staring at you, until you sighed a little and pulled the duvet back up to just under your chin.
He didn’t know what to think or do. All he knew was you didn’t look well and that you hadn’t said a thing to him. Feeling so very uncomfortable within himself, Tom climbed out the bed and simultaneously grabbed his phone. He knew he had to call someone, to check that you hadn’t been ill - but then who to call? Someone that wouldn’t judge or instantly worry- your mum was completely off the cards. Also, he hadn’t even given you the chance to explain yet, so really he knew there was only a couple of options who were close enough to him too.
“Hey what’s up?” “Um nothing much, back in the UK though so-“ “Oh shit really! Kept that one quite bro” “Yeh well came back to surprise Y/n” “Oh you're soooo whipped” “Fuck off Haz, have you um… have you seen her recently anyway?” “You're asking me if I’ve seen your girl while you’ve been away?” “I’m being serious. You’re pretty much brother and sister and I’m -I’m a bit worried.” “What? You know she wouldn’t cheat especially with me” Haz’s tone turned less serious, using a goofy accent “ I know too much.” Haz still attempted to lighten the mood, this conversation very unexpected and making him grow more and more concerned himself. “Haz quit it. I’m worried she’s been ill. I’ve come in and she’s asleep with a migraine but there’s no food in the fridge and she’s skinny as hell.” “Fuck er sorry I didn’t realise. But um no she’s been cancelling on us for the past like two weeks cos like…I don’t know said she was just snowed under at the firm so” “But before then?” “No yeh she was fine. Went to the pub a couple times and she always drove so didn’t drink but nothing weird - think she wanted to keep a clear head. What are you thinking?” “I don’t know to be honest mate. She seemed fine on the phone but I swear to god she looks half the size  of what she was when I left.” “Just talk to her in the morning? She probably is just stressed if work has been mad busy.” Tom hummed in agreement, half trying to convince himself too. “Yeh yeh, sorry for bothering you.” “Oh shut up mate - I’ll see you both at your parents for the roast tomorrow? Sams got some new recipe I think, he’s been wittering on about it for days.” “Yeh we’ll be there, see you then mate.” 
After signing off to Haz, Tom placed his phone on the little table on the upstairs hallway and sighed. He knew he was being over-protective but he couldn’t help it. Y/n was always the one to care for him, in fact to care for everybody int he room and then some.
He’d get to the bottom of whatever this was tomorrow, and so the rest of the evening Tom spent rather unhappily get ready before bed yet again before climbing back in next to you.
///////////////////////////
Tom woke before you, a combination of jet lag and the worry in the pit of his stomach meaning he stirred awake first. Instinctively he pulled you closer and nuzzled his nose into the side of your neck as he slowly began to wake up properly - shrugging off the grogginess. Tom was still really excited for you to realise he was back, predicting you  to excitedly hug him ever so tight and then spend the morning between the sheets. He knew you found the distance tough, especially when all your closest friends were coupled off, it meant you just didn’t have ‘your person’. It was almost as if you were single again and instead of pining over an ex, hopelessly and completely in love with someone across the globe. But that just made your time together even more invaluable and precious.
So even with his slight unease at your slimmer silhouette, Tom didn't have any control over the loopy grin that came to his face as you started to stir and mumble something incoherent, all the while (and subconsciously) inching closer towards him. By the slight fluttering under your eyelid, Tom knew you were waking up and so took the moment to tuck your frizzy bed hair behind your ear. Sighing contently Y/n’s eyes fluttered completely open and Tom met your gaze with the most gently of smiles.
However, he then watched moment by moment as your expression morphed for one of peacefulness and content, through confusion, and ending at pure terror. He had barely thought of asking you why, before you yelped, throwing yourself up into a sitting position and backing as far away on the bed as you could from Tom. “TOM... I-you can’t be here! YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!” “Y/n hey what’s wrong-“ “GET OUT! G-GET THE FUCK OUT! YOU CAN’T BE HERE” you  yanked the bedsheets to completely cover your huddled up body, as if trying to protect yourself. At this point, tears were streaming down your face and what truly terrified Tom was the expression of horror in your eyes. He threw his hands in the air and unsteadily stumbled to his feet. “O-okay I’m-“ “GET OUT!!! YOU CAN'T SEE ME GET OUT!” Completely bemused and shocked, Tom just nodded jerkily -already halfway out the door and accidentally slamming it in haste.
He had absolutely zero clue what that was about. But what he knew for a fact? He’d never ever seen you like that… you looked so completely terrified… of him? Tom couldn’t for the life of him work out what the hell was going on, as he paced from the shut door to the hallway wall and back again, running his hand through his hair throughout. He could hear you sobbing and whisper yelling - presumably at yourself. It felt as though his heart was being torn out, seeing you that upset and it appearing as his fault? He was acting on pure instinct and adrenalin because your pain hurt him too. He had no control of the physiological response in his body, making his hands shake and breathing increase in speed as it inversely got shallower too.
And so he took a short inhalation, biting his bottom lip as he knocked on the door. “Y/n?….” He got no response after waiting a couple of seconds so tried again - because he could hear you trying to stifle your sobs. After another two failed attempts he opted for a different approach. “Y/n… I’m worried about you… look, I know your upset right now but I need you to let me know your okay… or I’ll have to come in and…and I don’t want to spook you” “Don’t come in.” It was a sharp reply, with a voice that was cracked and clearly trying to keep It together. “Okay… I-I’m sorry if my surprise of coming home was a dumb idea…I-I’ve missed you.” Tom tried speaking softly, as he knelt down and sat with this back against the wall while nervously fiddling with his watch strap that he’d forgot to take off last night. Again he waited for a response but got nothing, again having to warn you he needed to know you were okay. He heard movements from the other side of the door, making him turn his head to the left, pressing his ear on the cool gloss paint. “I-I’m sorry” You barely were whispering, but Tom could sense you were now sitting in a position mirroring his “You don’t meed to apologise love” Returning her tone, Tom sighed at the end - trying to get his brain to process what was going on.
Y/n wasn’t one to overreact and Tom could count on one hand the number of serious fights they’d had in the three year romance. And even then, he was the one to raise his voice - when she argued it was more reasoned, slow and controlled. Actually it was one of the things that in those moments infuriated him even more - you were just so level headed and sensible. Scratch that, sensible purely in this context - everywhere else you were just as loopy as him. So this situation felt so very alien. He didn’t know how to help you and he bloody hated feeling useless.
After a few moments, you replied to apologise once again, for shouting specifically,  and Tom nodded - not that you could see. But that was one of the things Y/n had taught him, sometimes you just have accept things - no matter the context. Accept he wasn’t actually a superhero and couldn’t do everything, accept that sometimes he could be a dick and out of line or accept an apology.
“Can you.. can you try and tell me why your upset? I want to help.” He was trying to be gentle, non-confrontational. But he knew something was so wrong. He needed to know so he could try and help out. “I…”Y/n began, but quickly trailed off, as if trying to formulate the words properly. “I’ve just been ill and” again another pause “and I haven’t been looking after myself very well. I just planned to be umm- to be better when you got back.”
It wasn’t a lie. It wasn’t really the truth either, at least not the whole truth. But it wasn’t a lie.
“I’m not sure I understand why your so worried about what I think though?” Tom inquired, as he started to fiddle with the door handle in his left hand - as if easing the idea of coming into his girlfriend without scaring you. In reply, you sighed again trying to put the words together without explicitly spelling it out to him. “I don’t- I thought you’d just be disappointed or-or think I’m reliant on you. I’m not and I can handle myself I just…. I don’t know.” “I love you, you idiot.”Tom chuckled at that, while standing up. “Can I come in now please? I promise I’m not disappointed just want to help you feel better.”
The door opened and no sooner could Tom take a step forward than Y/n ran into his chest, wrapping herself tightly around him in apology. He knew that he didn’t have the full story but really didn’t want to push her, more preferring to just love her. So that’s what they spent the rest of the morning doing, in their pyjamas and watching TV. Quite obviously, she wasn’t really making a lot of conversation, Tom filled some gaps with talking about filming - to which she’d hum in agreement or chuckle along. But for the most part Y/n was concentrating on something else.
The all-consuming guilt. That was what was eating away at her.
part 2?
272 notes · View notes
laventae · 4 years ago
Text
Serendipity
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Summary: You accidentally bump into Suna once, then a second time, then a third time.... before it starts seeming like fate has already decided its course for the both of you.
Pairings: Suna Rintaro x F!reader
Genre: Mostly fluff, College/Uni au
Word count: 3.4k words
Part: 1 , (2) , (3) , (TBC)
(A/N: I suck at writing summaries but anyways. This is/was supposed to be part of my [HQ Boys - Pretending to be your boyfriend] series, but I really wanted to make this slightly longer than my usual one-shots. Also, this story will probably have every cheesy trope you know, so, proceed with caution and I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself.)
Tumblr media
THUD
THUD
THUD
THUD
‘Okay, what the fuck is going on?’ you think as you slowly try to open your eyes. 
Looking at your bedside table, you reach for your phone and check the time
7:35 A.M
‘Ugh... it’s too early for this shit...’ you think as you yawn.
You remember your shift at work starts at about 9 a.m., so you decide to sleep for a bit longer.
You place your phone back down on your bedside table, and turn in bed, covering your face with a pillow.
THUD
“Goddammit, what’s going on outside?!” you exclaim, getting out of your bed and heading for the front door.
You open the door hastily, and find your landlord standing in the hallway of your apartment building, then notice multiple moving boxes scattered around, and movers talking some of the boxes into the apartment opposite yours.
You’re both startled when you open the door, but she softens as soon as she notices it was you.
“Good morning, Mrs. Saito. What’s going on?” you ask her sleepily.
“Goodness, I’m sorry they woke you up as well, sweetheart. The new tenant told me they were moving in today but I didn’t know the movers were coming this early and causing this much of a ruckus!” she exclaims, looking like she was just as annoyed by the noise as you were.
“Well, the new tenant certainly didn’t make a good first impression, huh?” you say, trying to lighten the mood.
She chuckles softly, “I guess not. They’re not even here yet, so I’m just going to have to stay here until the movers are done” she sighs.
“Want me to make you a cup of coffee?”
“Oh, that’s alright, sweetheart, you should go back in and try to get some more sleep” she says, waving you back into your apartment.
You try to insist, but you feel too tired. Instead, you just nod and go back in, closing the door behind you.
Sighing, you head to your bedroom again; you figure you should try to get a bit more sleep in before you actually start getting ready for work.
-~-~-
After tossing and turning in bed for a couple of minutes, the noise wouldn’t get any quieter, so you thought you might as well get out of bed and head to your part-time job a bit earlier than usual.
You start getting ready, and make a quick cup of coffee to give Mrs. Saito on your way out. She thanks you and you go on your way.
When you first moved into your apartment about 2 years ago, you were able to find a pretty decent part-time job working as a barista at coffee shop nearby. It was only about two blocks away from where you lived, so it was super convenient; and a plus point, you were never late.
Checking your phone again, you notice the time
8:35 A.M
“It’s still so early...” you yawn as you take out your headphones and play some music to listen to while you walk to the coffee shop, talking your time.
After about 15 minutes of enjoying your morning walk, and window shopping on the stores along the way, you reach your destination and open the front door.
“Goodmorning, y/n!” you hear your boss call out to you as soon as you enter, “Early as usual, I see”
You chuckle as you head in his direction, “Oh, you know me, always excited to get to work!” you joke.
He laughs, “Yesterday was your last day of your second Uni semester, wasn’t it?” he asks you.
“Yeah, made it out in one piece thankfully”
He laughs again, “I’m sure you did well, I've seen how stressed out you’ve been about it but I also know how hard you’ve been studying, don’t worry” he assures you as he points to the chairs in the shop, silently asking you to help him out with setting them up.
“How do you know that?” you sigh, grabbing a few chairs and setting them down.
He stops what he’s doing and looks at you, “You think I didn’t notice the dark circles you kept coming in with, during every shift, for the past couple of weeks?”
“Was it that obvious?” your eyes widen.
“Definitely” he answers and you both laugh.
After setting up the last few chairs, your boss speaks up again, “Alright, why don’t you head in and get ready, I’ll just be out here setting up the register before we open in a couple of minutes”.
You nod and walk back to the staff locker area.
-~-~-
The day goes by slowly, as usual, and after a few hours, you take your break and head to the staff room locker area to relax and have a (late) breakfast.
‘I really need this right now’ you sigh as you take a sip of your coffee, feeling more tired than usual, and blame it on having to wake up super early that morning.
You check your phone and notice a text message.
1 NEW MESSAGE
You open it.
FROM ‘Wifeyy <3’: “Heyy! Call me when you're on your break!”
You smile and shake your head, dialing up her number.
It rings a couple of times before your best friend picks up.
“Hey y/n!!” she yells excitedly
“Hey Hina,” you laugh, “What’s up?”
“Just wanted to remind you that we are going out tonight to celebrate my birthday, you still remember, right?”
“Oh, was that today?” you joke
“Y/N!!!”
“I’m kidding, I'm kidding, you know I'll be there” you shake your head
“Good! I'll also be inviting some of my friends from Uni, but I want us to hangout still. It’s been a while since we’ve actually caught up. And I'm finally gonna be able to come to your city!”
The both of you actually met during your first year in University through mutual friends. Even though you both were in different majors, you hit it off right away. And after that, the both of you always tried to make time to hang out, whether it was between classes, during lunch breaks, or whenever the both of you had the time.
However, it was sometimes hard to meet up during weekends, since she lived in the city next to yours, so whenever she had the chance to come to your city, or you were able to go to hers, you guys would always spend it together.
“Yeah, I guess with exams and all it was hard for us to actually see each other”
“Exactly, anyways I’m excited for tonight!”
“Yeah, me too..!”
“Hey, do you sound more tired than usual, or is it just me?” she asks you, sounding worried.
“Oh, it’s nothing, I just woke up super early today, not willingly though” you sigh, “don't even ask, I'll tell you about it later”
“Alright... if you say so”
“Anyways, I gotta get back to work now, so, I’ll see you tonight, okay?”
“Alright! Dress sexy, okay? You promised we would dress up!”
“Yeah, yeah, I'll try my best” you both laugh before hanging up.
-~-~-
It was about 5 p.m when you finally reach your house, after leaving your part-time job, and finishing up some outdoor chores you had for the day.
You sigh as you get off the elevator to your floor.
You notice the empty hallway as you walk to your apartment; you suppose that the movers were already done and have left at this point.
You glance over to the door opposite yours at the end of the floor’s hallway.
‘I wonder if they're home yet...’ you think before you unlock the door of your apartment and go in.
You sigh as you place your groceries and bag on your kitchen island and start putting everything away.
You were supposed to meet Hina later tonight, at around 7 p.m, to celebrate her birthday. That meant you had a couple more hours to spend at home, so you decide to make some lunch/dinner and watch a movie on Netflix.
-~-~-
“Hey Hina, I’ll just go outside and answer this call real quick alright?” you try to call out to your friend as you get out of your chair, but she looks at you confused, the music playing loudly in the pub and the bustling of the people inside made it hard for her to hear your voice from across the table.
You point to your phone, and as realization hits her, she nods.
You attempt to make your way out of the pub, trying to worm between the people inside and make your way to the door. However, you suddenly run into someone before you reach the door, and accidentally drop their drink.
“I’m so sorry!” you tell them, looking up and noticing it was an old man, long white hair settling over his shoulders.
He looks annoyed at first but then his face relaxes when he sees you.
“I can pay for the drink!” you tell him apologetically.
“Oh, that’s alright, gorgeous, it was just a mistake” he answers you, smiling.
‘Okay...’ you think as you get a weird feeling in your gut.
“Would you like me to buy you-”
“Okay, Bye” you cut him off, smiling awkwardly, feeling uncomfortable with the way he was looking at you; you reach for the door and leave the pub.
It suddenly gets much quieter, and you feel yourself relax, finally being able to breathe.  
Honestly, you didn’t really get a call from anyone, you were just feeling tired, and wanted to take a break from all the noise.
You check the time on your phone,
11:54 P.M
You sigh, ‘I wanna go back home...’
It’s not that you weren’t having fun with Hina and her friends, but you were frankly not that close with them, and even though they are all very nice, having to be social for a long time takes a toll on your mental and physical strength sometimes.
Startled, you turn around when you hear the door of the pub open again behind you.
“Hey,” you hear Hina say as she approaches you, “is everything okay?”
“Yeah sorry, that was just my mom checking up on me” you lie to her, putting your phone back in your bag.
She nods, but you know she's slightly suspicious of your answer as she eyes you carefully
“You tired?” she asks you.
You chuckle nervously, ‘well, that didn’t take long’.
“Yeah, I'm really sorry, it’s getting late and it’s kind of been a long day”
She chuckles, “It’s okay, I thought your battery might have run out by now”
You couldn’t help but chuckle as well. Then you look at her apologetically.
“Yeah, I think I might head home for the night, is that alright with you?” you ask her, feeling bad you couldn’t stay longer.
She laughs and goes in to hug you goodbye, “You know it’s fine, I’m just glad I got to see you today! But, promise me we would hangout together again soon?”
You sigh, relieved, “you know I'd cancel any plans I have, just to see you” you shake your head as you hug her back.
“And promise me you’ll think about that date I wanna set you up on” she giggles as you both let go.
“Yeah, yeah, I'll think about it” you reply, used to her trying to set you up on these blind dates that you don’t necessarily really want to go to.
“Alright. You want me to call you a cab or walk you home?” she asks as you turn around and start leaving.
“No! It’s fine, my house is literally a couple of blocks away, go back! Have fun!” you say assuring her, and waving her to go back and hangout with her friends.
“Are you sure, y/n?”
“Yess! Go!” you tell her, and turn back around, walking away again.
-~-~-
After walking for a few minutes, you notice how quiet it was outside, except for the few open pubs you passed by earlier. I mean, it wasn’t really a huge surprise, it was getting pretty late, and almost all stores in the area were closed at that point. But, because you weren’t usually out that late at night all alone, it somehow made it feel even emptier and quieter.
You look up at the sky as you walk on the sidewalk and notice a few stars scattered along the night sky. It makes you smile and you close your eyes and take a deep breath.
‘I wonder how many of those are actually just satellites...’ you think to yourself as you open your eyes, and you can’t help but let out a small chuckle.
You feel your phone vibrate and notice you got a text message.
1 NEW MESSAGE
You open it.
FROM ‘Wifeyy <3’: “Heyy! Text me when you get home safe!”
You smile as you read the message, but then feel a sudden chill down your spine.
‘Weird...’
You put your phone down and suddenly start hearing faint footsteps behind you.
‘Alright, that’s fine... it’s just someone walking home as well’ you try to assure yourself but can’t help but still feel anxious.
After a few minutes, you still hear the foot steps behind you, slowly getting closer. That, somehow, making you feel more anxious.
‘I’m just overthinking this right?’
You try to increase your pace, to check if they really were following you. Even if they weren’t, you hope to try and lose them all together. It didn’t help that the way to your apartment would be to keep walking straight, and the alleys around the buildings on the way were blocked off at the ends, not making it any safer for you to try and find a way around.
But then you hear the person behind you increase their pace as well.
‘Fuck’ you think, feeling scared and panicked, ‘they're definitely following me, aren’t they?’
You panic as you think of what to do next, then decide to take out your phone and call someone.
‘Who the fuck do I call? Hina? The police? I-’
Your thoughts are interrupted when you hear someone yell something from the sidewalk on the other side of the street you were walking on.
Your head snaps to where the voice came from and you notice a guy running up to you, “Babe?”
You try to back away before the boy reaches you, but, “I’ve been waiting for you, what took you so long?” he asks, pulling you in for a hug.
“I don’t know yo-!”
“Someone’s following you” he whispers in your ear before letting you complete your sentence.
Your heart stops when you hear him say that and you begin to feel your eyes tear up.
He pulls away, looking at you, and you suddenly notice you stopped hearing the footsteps coming from behind you.
You look back and see a man standing in the middle of the street, your eyes widen when you notice his long white hair.
‘That’s the fucking creepy old guy from the pub, I knew he seemed off!’
“My name is Suna. I was just in that supermarket over there, on the other side of the street, when I noticed him following you” he tells you quietly, as he subtly points at a store behind him. You look over his shoulder and notice a small, old looking supermarket, with an ‘Open 24/7′ neon light flickering over it. “Do you want me to walk you back home?” the boy asks you, and your eyes snap back to him.
You’re then able to see him much clearer, his pale, yellow eyes looking into yours. He had a blank expression on his face but you could hear a hint of worry in his voice.
You feel a tear roll down your cheek and you hesitantly nod at him.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, I'm here” you hear him say as he puts an arm around you, pulling you closer, and walks with you in the direction you were originally going in.
After a few moments, you hear the footsteps behind you, again, but this time they started to sound more distant, as if the creepy, old guy was walking away.
Your heart starts calming down a bit as you both walk silently for a few minutes.
You then feel the boy remove his arm from around you and you slightly stumble.
‘Was he supporting me this whole time..?’ you think to yourself as you try to steady yourself back on your own feet.
He turns around, “I’m sure he’s gone by now” he tells you, looking back at you.
You turn around to check as well, and feel yourself finally be able to breathe again when you don’t see anyone behind you. You look back at the boy and nod.
“You live around here?” he asks you and you finally notice where you were.  
Realizing you were only about a block away from your house, you stop.
“What?” the boy asks as he turns around to face you, when he realizes you weren't walking next to him anymore.
“This is me” you answer quickly, pointing to a random building you were standing in front of.
He was nice enough to help you back there, so, it's not that you weren’t thankful, but you were still feeling a bit anxious, and you didn’t want to take any chances.
“Oh,” the boy says, looking up at the building you pointed to, then looks back to you, “I'll watch you go in” he continues, putting his hands in his pockets.
“Oh, uhm, okay..” you nervously say, turning to the building.
‘Shit... I hope the entrance door isn’t locked...’
You reach for the door and push it.
‘Oh, thank god...’ you sigh, relieved.
You quickly turn back to look at him again, and notice his eyes following you.
“Thank you”
He just nods at you, a blank expression still on his face.
You get inside the building and the door closes behind you. You weren’t sure if he was looking so you make your way to the elevators. You pretend you pressed a button, hoping he stopped looking at you through the glass door at that point.
You look behind you and notice he wasn’t there anymore, so you run slowly towards the door and see him walking away.
You place a hand on your heart, and sigh again. You close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.
‘Why does it feel like it’s been a really long night...?’
You decide to wait for a few minutes, making sure he wouldn’t still be around the area when you try to run to where you actually lived. It was probably a couple of buildings away so, if you make a quick run for it, you think, you would definitely make it.
You open the glass door slowly and take a quick peak around the street.
‘Nobody’s here...’
You take a quick breath before you make a run for it.
As you thought, it easily took you a minute or two to get to your building. You quickly push the entrance door and run to elevators.  
As soon as it arrives, you get in and press the floor you lived on.
A few moments pass before the elevator doors open and you can't help but breathe a sigh of relief as you’re welcomed with your usual empty, but now comforting hallway.
You step out and head for your apartment when you notice someone standing at the door opposite yours at the end of that hallway, trying to unlock it.
‘Oh, it’s probably the new tenant...’ you think as you walk to your door.
It was pretty silent so you decide to at least welcome them, hoping it would make the awkward silence less... awkward.
“Hey,” you say turning to face them when you get to your door, “You’re the new tenant, righ-” but you quickly stop and your eyes widen when the person turns around to face you.
‘Wait, isn’t he the guy that just walked me back ‘home’??’
He still carried a blank expression on his face, but you notice his eyes slightly widen when he notices who you were as well.
‘Fuck, Fuck, Fuck... What do I say?’ you panic as you both stand there, looking at each other.
“Oh, you live here?” he breaks the silence, sounding pretty calm.
“Oh, yeah,” you say turning around and quickly unlock your door and go in, “Goodnight!” you yell, panicked. 
You accidentally make eye contact with him one last time before you swiftly close the front door, leaving him there, looking blankly at your apartment door instead.
‘He’s my new neighbor??’
Tumblr media
(HQ Masterlist)
116 notes · View notes
coffeeandcalligraphy · 4 years ago
Text
A chatty writing update | novels, short fiction, etc!
Hi folks!
It’s been a while since I last wrote an update on this blog! I thought it’d be fun to go back to basics, and just talk about writing. This post chats about: new plans for Feeding Habits, my newest novel, my short story goals & growing collection, along with process reflections.
Tumblr media
(image description: a photo of green leaves with the text “writing update” in a white font written on top. /end image description)
Post starts under the cut!
General taglist (please ask to be added or removed)
@if-one-of-us-falls, @qatarcookie, @chloeswords, @alicewestwater, @laughtracksonata, @shylawrites, @ev–writes, @jaydewritesfiction, @jennawritesstories @eowynandfaramir, @august-iswriting, @aetherwrites, @avakrahn, @maisulli
What have I been up to?
For starters, I finished my second year of my Writing undergrad last week and got two of my final grades back today (A+ baby)! For anyone who has taken online university, y’all already KNOW, but this year was so difficult. Would not recommend! Really proud of myself to have gotten through this absolute rollercoaster of a school term and am excited to get into some writing. That leads us to:
What have I been up to (writing edition)?
2021 started off so fast. By the time January hit, I was so consumed in my new semester that I did not have time to write Feeding Habits (my novel). In the first few days of the term, I managed to write between class, until I could no longer keep up! Essentially, I did not write any of that novel until exam season (last week), where I did manage to get in about 3k words in ~4 days.
Feeding Habits
I’m currently drafting what I believe will be the last chapter of this book (chapter 10: Swan Song). This chapter is so bizarre for a few reasons. It begins the book’s third part and also marks the shift back into Lonan’s head from Harrison’s. I originally thought this part would be much, much longer, with at least another five chapters to go, but quickly realized the book’s content was nearly completed. In my 4 day 3k palooza, I hit 50k in the book (the word count goal), and couldn’t see myself extending past 60k. Since then, I’ve made the loose decision to write this final chapter as a ~novella. Here are a few reasons why:
1. This chapter is structurally very strange.
I unashamedly shift from present to past to present to past past, and so much more every 12 words. I mapped out the timeline on a sheet of paper, and there were over 20 shifts in scenes (the chapter is only about 4400 words at the moment). The fictive past is incredibly important to this chapter, more important than the present, and I thought it would make more sense to not break randomly for a chapter so I could upkeep the consistent inconsistency of the chapter.
2. The chapter is very abstract
This stems from the structural changes, but there are paragraphs in this chapter of the fictive present that are loosely based in reality. They’re more poems than they are factual paragraphs, and keeping them all contained in one place (so a mega chapter/ novella) would reduce the most confusion!
3. There’s not much left to cover
Like I said above, Feeding Habits is on its last leg, lol! I know exactly where the book needs to end up, which is very, very soon from where I’m currently at on the timeline. Swan Song should cover what 2-4 chapters would cover in terms of arcs.
Feeding Habits and I have a really weird relationship, tbh! When I realized a few weeks ago that it’d been over a year since I started the book, I realized I just needed to finish it. Not that I want to rush (because I’ve taken longer than a year to write a book in the past), but that in order to move onto another project, I’d like to put this one behind first. This book has been the hardest thing I’ve ever written, and has reminded me there’s always a time to let go. This sort of scrounges up a conversation about letting this entire series go, which is certainly something I’ve been contemplating doing soon(ish). If this spinoff series gets a third book, that may or may not be the last Fostered book for a very long time (or ever)! There are many complex reasons to move on, but the main one is that I have other projects I’d like to focus on. This is not a definitive decision, but something I’ve certainly been thinking about!
Here are a few excerpts I wrote recently:
(TW: death, gore)
Dying feels like being a trout dangled out of water. Clinging to a hook. Mouth open. Scales iridescent in a final death cry. It’s like blood spurting up the knuckles, drowning out the flesh. It’s that moment on the long fall down when the clouds cup the body. Easy drifting. The sound a skull makes when it cracks is really just the afterthought.
(TW: death, gore)
Kill shot. Death blow. Coup de grace. Right in the heart. He feels it. The blood swelling, slicking his palms. He can do it. Reach into the cavity. Feel for the ribs. Part each bone. Then cup the humming heart. Stay there. Right. It’s never been easier.
Look at this PURE moment of Lonan holding a baby I CANNOT:
The grocery store was a fifteen-minute walk away. With Olivia clinging to his shoulder, Lonan was acutely aware that she could feel his heartbeat. Open valve. Close. Repeat. Hers pulsed right above his, a miniature drumming. The sky had bruised purple, misted with clouds. The evening air nipped his cheeks, so he made sure Olivia was securely fastened between him and his jacket. With wide eyes, she absorbed the drowsy suburbia, all its family cars pulling into driveways, all its couples heading back home after a sunset walk. When Lonan passed a young boy walking two golden retrievers, Olivia giggled, and didn’t stop, even after he’d spent fifty dollars on groceries and nearly the rest on a red Corolla marked with a MUST GO NOW sign outside a convenience store.
Let’s move on!
Mandy and Cora
I said I wouldn’t talk too much about this project, but I just love it so much?? I wanted to share my SUPER early thoughts on drafting a novel, especially one that is SO different from what I’ve been writing recently. I talked about this before in THIS post, but the summary about this project is that it’s a YA contemporary novel! Can’t believe I’m writing YA again, it’s been so long, but I also think it’s going so well. Everything I’ve learned as a literary fiction writer has been a fantastic primer for transferring back to the genre. Admittedly, I have not written much, but I’m having a lot of fun diving back into a lighter project. This is the summary:
Cora and Mandy are identical twins who’ve always done everything together. But when Mandy decides to go to university out of province after graduation and Cora doesn’t, Cora takes this as an opportunity to “test run” life apart from her sister for the first time by spending the summer at her aunt’s house across the country.
I have come up with a few ~things since I last talked about this project, mostly how I’d like to structure it. As of now, I’d like the book to be structured super loosely. I’m really pulling on a lot of inspo from “We Are Okay” by Nina LaCour (which is SO good), particularly how “nothing happens-y” that book is. This project (which I still need a title for!!) will be structured in short chapters that cover something Cora does on her own for the first time (without Mandy). For example, a few ideas are “Flight”, “Lunch”, and “Groceries”. “Flight” is the first “chapter” (they’re really kind of vignettes) where Cora flies to her aunt’s house. I still can’t determine if this book will take place in Canada. On one hand, I feel like there will be a wider audience if it takes place in the US (is that just an assumption??? maybe?? someone let me know!), but also: don’t really care too much about an audience at the moment! It could also take place in Canada (So Ontario and British Columbia). But if it does take place in the US, I think it may take place in NYC and San Francisco. The problem is: I really don’t like researching lol, and while I’ve been to NYC many times, I will definitely write it wrong! Does this really matter on a first draft?? absolutely not lol, but of course I am already overthinking!
But back to structure: I am looking forward to seeing what this looser structure will do. This is a story that is solely around one half of a set of twins learning to be her own person (and ultimately that she doesn’t have to completely forget her sister in order to do that), and as a twin who KNOWS this feeling, I think this structure of her doing things for the first time is SUPER relatable.
I was worried it might sound silly/worrying to others who are not twins that Cora hadn’t done things like “lunch” or “groceries” on her own, but I feel this so much as an identical twin myself! Not that she hasn’t done anything at all by herself, but as a twin, when you do something without your twin for the first few times, at least in my experience, you notice. If any twins are reading this--weigh in!
This story is the most personal thing I’ve ever written. It definitely is an OwnVoices book! Usually, I avoid details that are remotely similar to me because they make me uncomfortable haha, but with this book, it’s all me, lol! The characters are all Guyanese, which is SO fun because I’ve been planning what they eat (my fellow Caribbean peeps know: the FOOD!), which is so fun (yes they have pumpkin and shrimp, yes they have roti, yes they have pera, yes they have mithai). Every time I’ve gone to dabble at this book, or even think about it, I get incredibly emotional for this reason? I don’t exactly know why. I think this is a story I just so want to tell, with the culture I love SO much that I definitely struggled to love as a child. This is reclamation bitchessss!
Not going to lie tho: the prospect of writing ~a book~ is kind of freaky! I’m going to make the minimum word count for this book pretty short (50k) and see where it goes from there. I think I will focus on this project this summer! Originally I was going to write a literary novel this summer, but I think this one’s calling my name!
Here’s a pretty rough excerpt:
Try. I remind myself that’s what I’m doing after the flight attendant fills me a disposable cup of Coca Cola and all I can think of is Mandy and I shoving Mentos into a bottle of the stuff when we were twelve. Just me, wedged in the middle seat between an exchange student heading out for summer break and a middle-aged woman sipping a cocktail, thinking of Mandy and I bursting whole oranges in a blender when we were bored one Winter break as the plane dips through a wave of turbulence. Mandy and I dying our hair neon green with highlighters (didn’t work—our hair is too dark) as the plane lands on the tarmac. Mandy and I arguing so loud last month, we both lost our voices as I lug my carry-on out of the overhead compartment and shuffle off the plane and through the airport, searching for Aunt Vel.
Short Fiction
I’ve written so much short fiction this year! I have a goal to write a short story a month (they can range in length, as long as 1 is “complete”), so my short story brain has seriously been soaking it all up lately. Let’s chat my month to month breakdown so far:
January:
I wrote four stories in January! The first is a flash fiction piece called “Shark Swimming” that follows a young woman who attends a shark swimming class after breaking up with her girlfriend. I wrote this story for a “test” workshop for my fiction class, and it was based off the prompt “think about something you’re afraid to do and make the character do that thing”. I’m not particularly afraid of sharks, but had been wanting to use the title “Shark Swimming” for AGES (literally since 2018).
This story is one of my favourites. It’s only about 900 words, but I think there’s something profound in how mundanely specific it is. The entire story doesn’t even see the narrator swim with sharks once; it actually takes place fully in the sanctuary’s lobby. But I really love this narrator. This is the first story I’ve written in second person in a while, though I felt really connected to the unnamed narrator. She struggles with accepting that she truly is a “boring” person, and there’s something about the final image that really gets me!
I’ve been submitting this around, though it’s been rejected a handful of times. Hoping I can secure it at a magazine one day because I really love it!
The second story is “Joanne, I’ll Pray for You” which is actually a rewrite of one of my very first short stories (the first story I did not write for a class haha), “NYC in Your Apartment”. I LOVE this rewrite a lot, and also learned the original is not a very good short story! Revising this story taught me just how much I’ve learned in the 2 years I’ve been writing short fiction. Seeing the 2019 version versus the 2021 version side by side is fascinating because I essentially “gutted’ the 2019 version of its beginning and end until all that was left was the middle of the story (aka the actual story). AKA: this is the only story I’ve ever written with a hopeful ending and I cut out all the happy bits lol I am SO sorry (that arc is more for a novel or novella). That’s how this went from a 5k word story to an 1800 word story (my Submittable thanks me for this lol). A lot of details and scenes I included were more pertinent to a 3 act structure/novel, which of course short stories don’t often have because of their brevity. I love rambling about writing theory, and seeing that actually pay off is so fascinating!
(TW: trauma)
Like the original, this story follows Joanne, a woman in her early twenties, who spontaneously breaks up with her boyfriend. She claims the poltergeist haunting her drove her to this decision. The original draft focused a lot more on the traumatic events Joanne survives, but this draft really loosens them up. It focuses less so on the events themselves, and more on how Joanne’s life is affected. I found the details of these events were less important, and even sort of contradicted Joanne’s insistence she is being haunted. Instead, the poltergeist really takes more precedence in the new draft as a force Joanne doesn’t understand. That ambiguity, I think, is what the story truly needed.
I also centralized Joanne’s relationship with her boyfriend, Julian, here. Now don’t get me wrong, I really didn’t add anything to this draft. It was a matter of trimming the fat around it to leave the lean “meat” in the centre. But by removing that fat, I was able to emphasize what was most important here, and that was her relationship. Julian always played a really big role in the original draft, but I feel like his role as both a friend and partner to Joanne is much more emphasized since this draft literally is only two scenes now. Because there is less, there is more room for Joanne to reflect, which I’m happy about!
A final change I made was the setting and therefore the title. The original, which was “NYC in Your Apartment,” I couldn’t keep because I shifted the setting to Toronto (this is how I originally saw it, but in 2019 I just?? couldn’t?? write?? canlit??), and “Toronto in Your Apartment” sounded sort of gross LOL. The new title comes from a line in the story which I think is more relevant to the themes!
The next short story I wrote in January was “How to Spell Alpaca.” This one is super fun because I wrote it SO fast (in about 15 minutes or so). THIS is the writing update if you’re interested in learning more. I talked extensively about this one in that update, but some developments are that I dove into an edit a few weeks ago to really understand the core of the story. I’m still not quite there (this is just an intuitive feeling; I know not everything has “clicked), but I am really intrigued by the two mothers in the story, the narrator, and her newfound acquaintance, Violet. Both really struggle to understand their place as mothers (the narrator even declares she isn’t a mother anymore). The narrator, who is in her 50s, sees herself in Violet, who is much younger (~20s), and so she views Violet’s relationship with her daughter in a cautionary, yet mournful way, like she can see it will end up like her own relationship with her daughter, despite wanting the opposite. This is a really subtle story. I feel like if you blink, you’ll miss the message. But I think it’s compelling for that reason. It’s really a portrait of parenting and how to grapple with mistakes you may make that inevitably affect your children. Wow just unlocked the theme writing this lol.
The final story I wrote in January is “The Party,” which may be in my top 3 faves I’ve ever written. This story follows Aida, a recent divorcee in her ~40s. The day her divorce turns official, she moves into a new house and receives a party invitation addressed to the previous homeowner, yet RSVP’s anyway. At this party, she’s hoping to find some sense of noticeability, having struggled with being nondescript her whole life. Things seem quite normal at the party, until it gets bizarre.
I LOVE this story, y’all. Like “How to Spell Alpaca” it really delves into motherhood. Aida, our narrator, is incredibly hurt after her divorce. She now lives farther from her children she struggled to feel connected to in the first place, and doesn’t really know how to reignite her life. This party is a means to do that. This is the first story I’ve written that contains a “twist” which is strange because I really prefer stories that give us as much info as possible upfront, but yes, this one sort of twists.
February
I wrote one story in February, and that was “Protect the Young.” This title is SO changing when I think of a new one because it’s thematically incorrect, haha, but this story follows a woman in her late 40s whose daughter, Lindy, announces she is married the same day all their backyard chickens turn up dead. The discovery of dead chickens prompts our narrator to recall her ex-husband’s murder and the role her daughter may have played in his death.
I love this story so much! I think this would make a great closing for my short story collection. It just has that vibe! I wrote this for my second fiction workshop. I thought I had to hand in the story a week earlier than I had to, so I panicked and wrote this in one sitting! Little did I know, I did not need to do that lol but I’m very happy because this story is so fun. We get to learn more about Arnold (her ex), his relationship with Lindy, and how that translates to Lindy’s relationship with her new husband, Malcolm. I LOVE true crime (I listen to about 3-4 hours of case coverage daily), and this is my first “true crime” story. Because of that, I’m very sus of a few details that probably wouldn’t slide in actual investigatory work, so I’ll also be working on that in a revision. My professor also gave me a great suggestion that may alter the story’s structure a bit, though I look forward to toggling with it in the future.
March
In March, I was really on a Criminal Minds kick lol. I’ve been watching this show since I was seven (oops), and dove into a rewatch since it hit Disney+! This story, “Where to Run When the Lamb Roars,” is very clearly Rachel watching 5 episodes of CM a day. Oops! We follow 14-year-old Astrid as she and her older half brother kidnap a young girl to sacrifice for their yearly ritual.
I knew a few things going into this story, but the main thing was that I did NOT want to show any details of a potential murder (if one even occurs). I really wanted to keep all of those elements off the page because this story is not about those events, but about Astrid’s relationship with her brother. They are a murderous duo, with Astrid actually being the dominant partner. I wanted to explore that. I knew her brother, Fox, was more of a submissive partner in their team, even when he used to do this same thing with his father when he was much younger (chilling!), and so it was a task to explore how this young girl’s desire for violence works. The end actually comes right before the story starts, one could say, but I like it for this reason. It really made me contemplate the story by the time I finished it, and helped me examine what it really was about versus what it appeared to be about.
April
(TW: sexual content, non explicit)
I was so busy this month! Who knows if I’ll write a story last minute, but I did write one story this month called “Five Times Fast.” I wrote this during a “writing sprint” that was being hosted at a flash fiction workshop I recently took with one of my favourite writers ever, K-Ming Chang. I learned so much from this class, and am so happy I came out of it with a draft! This story is just over 300 words, so the shortest flash I’ve ever written, but I’m really happy with it. It was based off the prompt “describe the last time you or your character was naked.” In this case, the narrator has a “friends with benefits” relationship with Ricky who works at a laundromat. This story highlights a moment in this relationship (and also Ricky’s goofy personality lol). I really like it! Hopefully I’ll submit it to some magazines soon.
My short story collection
Very briefly I wanted to touch on my short story collection which I’ve titled “She is Also Dead.” I’ve been meaning to make a blog post on this, so look out for that in the coming months, but this collection is already at around 35k words (about 14 stories so far). The collection also surprisingly has a solid amount of flash fiction which is kind of fun! There’s definitely a range here, which is what I personally love in short story collections.
I feel very professional now that I have a ~collection chart. This is her:
Tumblr media
(image description: A chart with the title “She is Also Dead.” It is broken into four columns: Story, Status, Word Count, and Published. Entry 1 - Story: Slaughter the Animal. Status: Revisions, Word Count, 3982, Published: N/A. Entry 2 - Story: Joanne, I’ll Pray for You, Status: Polished, Word Count: 1809, Published: N/A. Entry 3 - Story: Primary Organs, Status: Published, Word Count: 2342, Published: The Malahat Review. Entry 4 - Story: Faberge, Status, Polished, Word Count: 619, Published: N/A. Entry 5 - Story: The Wolf-Antelope Will Not Come for Us, Status, Polished, Word Count: 1556, Published: filling Station (forthcoming). Entry 6 - Story: How to Spell Alpaca, Status: revisions, Word Count: 1327, Published: N/A. Entry 7 - Story: Blink Twice for Final Judgement, Status: Polished, Word Count: 6572, Published: N/A. Entry 8 - Story: The Species is Dead, Status: Published, Word Count: 1208, Published: Minola Review. Entry 9 - Story: Shark Swimming, Status: Polished, Word Count: 907, Published: N/A. Entry 10 - Story: The Party, Status, Polished, Word Count 2339, Published: N/A. Entry 11 - Story: Fig, Status: Polished, Word Counter: 947, Published: N/A. Entry 12 - Story: Protect the Young, Status: Revisions, Word Count: 4128, Published: N/A. Entry 13 - Story: Where to Run When the Lamb Roars, Status: Revisions, Word Count: 2174, Published: N/A. Entry 14 - Story: Phantom Limbs, Status: Revisions, Word Count: 4844, Published: N/A.) /end image description.
This order is DEFINITELY not permanent (at this point whenever I write a story, I just fit it randomly into this chart lol), and some of the info is outdated (for example, Slaughter the Animal is now polished!!! thank god!!!). But just an idea of what I’m thinking of including.
This is the summary so far:
In SHE IS ALSO DEAD, characters are pushed to act on their gravest impulses. A small town turns murderous when their local invasive species, the Janices, begin dying. A child struggles to understand her mother’s suicide. A college dropout who insists she’s being haunted by a poltergeist unexpectedly breaks up with her boyfriend. A mother acknowledges her daughter’s murderous tendencies after her backyard chickens mysteriously die. A young girl caters the funeral of a girl rumored to be killed by a wolf-antelope. A newly-divorced mother RSVP’s to a bizarre party she was not invited to, and a murderous brother and sister upkeep their yearly tradition of abducting a young girl. These stories follow characters who navigate death, violent desires, womanhood, and loss, both self-imposed and otherwise.
This is also so subject to change as I may pull and add stories to the collection!
I think I’m going to leave this update here for now! I’ve written TONS of poetry too, but I honestly ~hate my poetry right now lol, so! Hope you enjoyed this chill rambly update. Hope writing has going well for you all! All the best!
--Rachel
57 notes · View notes
stories-by-rie · 3 years ago
Text
Chapter 2 - Heart of Silver
Four years before Evelyn gets herself cursed, she meets Ariel for the first time; and a second time, featuring a stinky Mare.
words: 2665 || masterlist
Tumblr media
It had all started in a club. It was a tiny one, close to the university, with mostly students working and partying there. For many, it was both a good way to earn a bit on the side, and to get the mind off nearing exams. The music was mostly pop, with some nichey songs in between, mixed in a way where no one could really complain.
    For Evelyn, it simply was too loud. She could feel the bass in her heart. The room’s air was hot and heavy, and smelled like alcohol and sweat. People were screaming over the music, laughing, possibly also being aggressive. 
    Her phone buzzed in her hand.
    Mareike wrote, just leave, come over to mine instead, we’re having chocolate cake and watching old horror movies.
    With a sigh, Evelyn typed her answer, I promised Kyla, I should at least stay a full hour. She held onto her first beer, but people pushed from all sides, so she slipped up anyway and felt the grip on her bottle lessen. Really, in such situations one had to set priorities, so she focused on the bottle, stumbled over someone else’s foot, and saw her phone fall to the ground. Over the loud noise, she didn’t hear it hit the ground, but she flinched nonetheless.
    “Very sorry!” she yelled to whoever she had run into without even looking up, eyes on the ground. As she reached out to it, she saw her hand shaking slightly. Too much noise and too many people.
    Her phone buzzed on the ground, the blue light showing her just where to reach.
    “Broken?” A voice asked and when Evelyn looked at her phone, it indeed had a thin line running through the display.
    “Just the display, I hope. Sorry, again.”
    “No problem. You should have stuck with simple mobile phones, they don’t break that easily.”
    Evelyn finally looked at the person who held a flip-phone in one of their hands, an alarmingly blue cocktail in the other that was only overshadowed by the bright blue of their hair.
    “That’s so 2009,” was all Evelyn could say which was not a good thing for small-talk, but she blamed it on her anxiety or the alcohol.
    “You don’t look like you want to be here,” the person said, tilting their head in a way that made the colourful lights reflect in their glasses for a moment.
    “I really, really don’t want to be here.”
    “Then why are you?”
    “My… my friends are somewhere-” she pointed in the general direction of the dance floor where it was impossible to single out any familiar faces in the mass of dancing people.
    “Ah,” was all the other said. For some reason, Evelyn was certain she was understood despite her stammering.
    “I’m Evelyn,” she mumbled, ignoring the buzzing in her hand again. She wasn’t sure if she would meet the other again, if in any way exchanging names would matter. But she felt compelled to.
    “Ariel. I use they/them pronouns, if you were wondering.”
    Evelyn replied with a smile. She had been wondering.
    “That’s a nice name.”
    “Thanks, I chose it myself.” Ariel grinned and drank a bit of their cocktail.
    And -- really, this could only be blamed on Evelyn’s anxious state paired with the alcohol -- she blurted out, “Ariel as in the Little Mermaid?”
    Ariel nearly choked on their drink and shook their head. “Curses, no!” Even if they looked a bit amused and somewhat quieter, though enough to be heard, they added, “Ariel as in the Sylph in The Tempest by Shakespeare.”
    Evelyn smiled and put the phone in her jeans pocket, held onto the bottle in her hand instead.
    “Why are you here?” she then asked, even if it was probably a dumb question. Most people did come to party after all, but Ariel seemed to have come on their own and at least that was a bit unusual. 
    “I am glad you asked. I heard there’s a Mare living in the air vent in the restrooms. I came to kick it out.”
    “By yourself?” Evelyn nearly dropped her beer again.
    “Well, I hoped I would run into someone who is better with those creature thingies than me, but if this turns out to be fruitless, I am willing to drag the Mare out with my own hands.”
    “Don’t do that! A Mare is much stronger than you and would cling to you instead! You would not even notice, just feel the pressure on your chest and suffer tremendously from bad dreams every night- that’s- that’s really not how you’re supposed to handle Mares!” Evelyn had spoked too fast, stumbled over her own tongue in haste to keep Ariel from making a mistake, and only now that she saw their -- victorious? -- grin, did she notice what she said. It felt as if she had walked straight into a trap.
    “Sounds a bit like you know your fair share.” The way Ariel said it, they did not sound in the least surprised.
    “You knew.”
    “What are you in for again?”
    “Psychology.” Evelyn took a step back, clutching her beer tighter.
    Ariel followed her, narrowing their eyes. “Liar.”
    “I studied Mythology and Mystical Practices before, but I didn’t graduate, so it doesn’t mean anything.”
    “You still have the knowledge, though.” Ariel looked smug, sipping on their cocktail and Evelyn knew that they wouldn’t relent. But it really was not in her place to help.
    “If there is a Mare in the vent, you should notify the building’s janitor, so that they can then call a company that specialises in this. The insurance might not cover the victims’ therapy if the whole situation isn’t handled following the book, so. Please, really, don’t mess with it. Sometimes it’s better to just leave these things alone.”
    Nausea spread in her stomach. It was time to go. She really had indulged her friends for long enough, wherever they might be amusing themselves. Her heart beat in an unsteady rhythm, calling for sleep or distractions. She turned around, looking at the green exit sign, but Ariel kept talking. 
    “I already did notify the janitor, but he didn’t take me seriously. So I then contacted the owner, but he would not even talk to me. That’s why I decided to take the matter into my own hands and you will help me.”
    “I absolutely will not.” The thought alone made her skin itchy, made the air in the club even harder to breathe. She looked down at her phone, several messages demanding to be read. She quickly unlocked it and opened the group chat.
    I’ll head home, hope you still have some fun! Had a nice evening ^^
    To Mareike’s messages of, r u home yet? just send an emoji that ur fine, she replied with a sparkles emoji.
    “I’ll go,” she said, looking up to Ariel, but they were already gone. A hint of guilt crept into her bones – maybe she had been too harsh? But her heart beat so fast it made her cheeks feel hot, so she really needed fresh air. She put down her beer on a nearby table and fought her way through the sweaty bodies until she saw the night sky above her. The summer heat was not much better.
    The second time she met Ariel was roughly two weeks after their first encounter, on campus during lunch time. Ariel was sitting – lounging – on a bench under some birches. The small leaves were barely enough to provide shelter from the staggering sun. Evelyn really just noticed them because their iced coffee fell right out of their hand, rolling all the way down to her feet.
    “You lost something,” Evelyn said and held out the cup to them. She felt more than uncomfortable the longer she stood there, but she had started it now, maybe feeling still a bit guilty for the last time. The lid had kept most of the coffee inside but some of the cold and slightly sticky beverage still dripped down her fingers. Ariel pushed up their heart-shaped sunglasses, their own glasses underneath, and looked at the cup quizzically. Since they had last met, Ariel had gotten deep shadows under their red-rimmed eyes.
    “You look awful,” Evelyn said, forgetting about the existence of her verbal filter.
    “Thanks, it’s the exams.”
    “What do you-”
    “Doing my Masters in Curses.”
    “That’s a thing?”
    Ariel froze a bit and then mumbled, “I am sort of making it a thing?”
    They finally took the iced coffee out of Evelyn’s hand, took off the lid, chugged it all at once and threw it into the bin next to the bench.
    “Sounds very cool. And useful,” Evelyn mumbled and nearly missed how Ariel’s eyes shut again, only for them to flinch back awake. “You seem incredibly tired, though.”
    “It’s the stress, don’t worry. It’s giving me bad dreams, is all.”
    They looked each other in the eyes, communicating silently that they both knew that the other knew. It was Evelyn who finally broke it.
    “You can’t be serious. You really went into that vent to get the Mare alone? You can’t just do that.”
    Ariel just shrugged and let the sunglasses drop down again. “Well, actually I could. It wasn’t even hard. I just climbed from the toilet seat to the air vent – which is much smaller than it looks in movies, by the way – and crawled through it following the snoring sounds. Then I saw the Mare – which was the ugliest thing I laid sight upon so far, by the way – and hunted it through the maze. Just that I kinda lost it after ten seconds or so. I swear I could still hear it, but it was just too dark and I didn’t really think to bring a flash-light. Damn, it really scared the shit out of me, because I kept turning around? But there was nothing.”
    “That’s because the Mare climbed onto your back and stuck to you then. I told you that would happen, but you didn’t listen. So of course you are tired now, you’re haunted by it.”
    “Ah, right. You did say that.” Ariel rested their head on their hand and pouted. “That’s the bad dreams then.”
    “Yeah. Mares eat good dreams, so you only have the bad ones, and more of them to fill the blanks.” Evelyn sat down next to them, a little helpless.
    “I never have good dreams, though. Just weird ones. The kind where a giant slug comes and eats my master thesis and I give it strawberries as a thank. I miss the slug, I used to call it Bob.”
    Evelyn raised an eyebrow at them, uncertain if they were being serious, joking, or if it was the lack of sleep.
    “Well, maybe you will get lucky and the Mare will lose its sanity and leave you alone soon.”
    “That can happen?”
    “No.”
    Ariel groaned and stretched, only to slump down again. “What do I do now?”
    “Hire a company to get rid of it. Just know that no insurance company is gonna cover it, because you dragged the Mare into your bedroom yourself. You basically asked it to come inside.”
    Ariel pulled a face and sighed heavily. “I can’t afford that. Can’t you come?”
    “If you study curses, haven’t you covered mythological practices in your bachelor's too?”
    “Not really. Just in theory. In more practical terms, I already only focused on curses back then. I want to be a curse-broker, so I never bothered with anything beyond ghosts. You seem to be able to, though. You never once mentioned that you wouldn’t be able to help me, just that you didn’t want to.”
    Evelyn didn’t answer. They were right, of course. She had learnt everything she needed to know long before she had entered uni for the first time, growing up as the daughter of the owners of a company specializing on mythological creatures. Studying that at uni was supposed to only give her the licence to work in the field, she hadn’t gained new knowledge at any point.
    “Have you ever considered that I might really suck at dealing with creatures? I might make the situation worse for you,” she then mumbled, staring at the blue sky behind the birch leaves. She said it barely loud enough to be understood.
    “Do you?” Ariel worked through their bag and pulled out two lollies, offering one to Evelyn.
    “No,” she replied truthfully. “I am really bad with curses, though.” She unwrapped the lolly and put it into her mouth. “Curses are more my sister’s expertise.”
    Something in her voice must have betrayed her feelings. The hurt, the anger, the resentment. It was all she had to say to be understood. Ariel stayed silent for a long time as they sat on that bench, letting the lollies turn their tongues green. When lunch break was over, students walked over the campus to different buildings, but they stayed seated. 
    “She’s not dead, tho, is she? Wait! Did a Mare kill her?” Ariel then suddenly asked, their voice a bit shrill that it made Evelyn giggle.
    “Nah, don’t worry. Mares aren’t high class enough to kill you. Maybe the after effect of the insomnia would in due time, but I don’t know many cases in which it went that far,” Evelyn explained and bit on the lolly stick after the sugar had dissolved inside her mouth. “My sister’s fine. She went abroad.” Evelyn then frowned as the trees’ shadows moved with the sun, the bright light blinding her now. They had sat there for a while. “To the USA. I haven’t seen her in a while, it’s been one and a half years.”
    “You were close?” Ariel asked softly. Evelyn heard how they were more serious now.
    “Yeah. I mean. I am pretty sure that I am always closer to people than they are to me. But we got along well. We were a good team. She got this really good research opportunity in Philadelphia though. It’s good she went.”
    “But you still miss her.” Ariel handed her a new lolly with a grin and she accepted.
    “Yeah, I do. Of course, I do.”
    “Hm.” Ariel unwrapped their second lolly as well, eyes still droopy from their accidental nap. “Is she the reason you don’t go in the field anymore?”
    “More or less,” Evelyn started, and the fear of oversharing hit her. But Ariel had asked, in some way at least. “After she left, I tried to make up for the gap she left behind. It did not work out well. I messed up this one job and no one got hurt, but it just reminded me that I was kinda raised into it all and it felt wrong so I left.”
    “Huh. So you dumped your whole study subject?”
    “Yeah. I worked without a license. My parents covered it all up, which just felt even more wrong. I should have had to face the consequences, or at least my parents. I should have gotten banned from field work anyway, so leaving was the only choice to make.”
    “Do you miss it?”
    “Sometimes. A bit.”
    “I have just  the thing. Back at home there’s a Mare that I can’t afford to kick out professionally. It’s kinda stealing my sleep.”
    Without Evelyn noticing, they had come closer, a slightly mischievous grin on their lips. There really was no way to say no to them now. At some point she must have said something close to a yes, because Ariel was dragging her down the stairs towards the town and their apartment where the Mare occupied their bed. Evelyn wondered every now and then if all that conversation had been some detailed plan to lead her into that trap until she followed Ariel home to help them with the creature. But then again, she somehow had also followed Ariel into that new, quite weird friendship between them, so she did not actually mind that much.
----
previous chapter || WIP intro || masterlist || next chapter
19 notes · View notes
charsfx · 3 years ago
Text
Lance’s long lost daughter headcanon - Adeleide Danuluk
This was supposed to come out in December 2020, but instead, it’s coming out in May 2021. Before you get into the headcanon, I’ll give a refresher because its been so long. Another OC of mine is Adeleide who is Lance’s daughter that he had no prior knowledge of. She was introduced in a comic called “Cynthia and the Indigo Plateau” last year, but I gave up on the comic, because a 10 page comic would have turned into a 50 page comic and I don’t do any comics past 25 pages anymore. So like Ross and Bertha, I’m introducing her through a headcanon. She did make an appearance in Lance’s 41st birthday, just to remind you that she exists. There will also be pictures in here that some of you have seen in the comic before. So without further ado, here is her headcanon. I’m not much of a lengthy writer, so sorry if there are grammatical errors.
Tumblr media
ADELEIDE PAST:
Adeleide was born in Blackthorn City, Johto in 2002. She is the daughter and love child of Lance Blackthorn (father) and Amelia Danuluk (mother). Her mother and father were in a casual relationship for a year back in 2001; but unfortunately, her parents broke up, and Adeleide was born without her father’s knowledge. She continued living in Blackthorn under her mother’s maiden name. Her mother also made the decision to stay as a single parent for the rest of her life.
Like everyone else in Blackthorn, Adeleide had a love for dragon Pokemon; and after years of taking the family Altaria to the Pokevet so often, the girl wanted to be a Pokevet.
Adeleide enjoyed (and still does) watching Pokemon battles on the television. She was (and still is) a big fan of Lance Blackthorn and wished to watch him battle live and meet him one day. She liked the man, because not only was he from Blackthorn, but he was a dragon specialist. She owned some of his merchandise, and wanted the same Pokemon as him too.
At the age of fourteen, Adeleide was starting to notice the littlest of the things. Every time Lance appeared on the TV screen, her mother always gave a bitter look. She then began to wonder if her mother had some sort of past with the dragon master. Obsessed with her mother’s reactions towards Lance, Adeleide started looking at the man a little closer, and could see physical resemblances. She told herself that it could just be a coincidence, but she had to be sure.  She then approached her mother about her suspicions, but was immediately told never to bring the subject up again until she was eighteen.
Tumblr media
On the day Adeleide turned eighteen, she approached her mother again on the Lance issue, and as promised, her mother spilled everything. Of course Adeleide was upset; she could’ve had a father in her life somehow, but that was taken away from her. Her mother - however - gave the excuse that Lance had a future and she didn’t want to burden him with a baby, as he was rising through the ranks towards success and fame at that time.
Shortly after she was told the truth, Adeleide was able to get Lance’s phone number from her mother. After what Lance thought was a weird fan interaction, Adeleide told Lance who she really was. Of course there was scepticism on Lance’s end, but her mother immediately talked to him and confirmed that Adeleide’s words were true and that he’d fathered a child when they were both 22; she even offered that if he was still unsure that he could take a paternity test.
ADELEIDE AND LANCE’S WEEK TOGETHER IN JULY 2020:
Lance and Adeleide talked a few more times on the phone before Adeleide finally found the courage to ask the champion if she could meet him in person. Unfortunately, she knew through the hesitation in his voice, that he didn’t want the same, but knowing how to get what she wanted, Lance eventually gave in and they agreed on spending a week together in Blackthorn. After their week, they would both decide on whether or not they should pursue a father-daughter relationship, or go their separate ways and pretend that nothing had ever happened.
Before Adeleide met her biological father, she studied hard on what father’s are and what their responsibilities were when it came to their children; however, she took a lot of her research too literally.
Day 1:
Lance had met up with Adeleide right off the train in Blackthorn and told her immediately that if she blamed him for his absence that he would leave, but she assured him that she had known the truth for a while and thought nothing of that sort.
They went shopping later and Lance’s wallet paid the price. According to Adeleide, “Father’s are supposed to pay for everything,” so he bought her new clothes, shoes and makeup. That’s when he found out that she was a manipulative, spoiled brat. In her life, she had gotten everything she ever wanted, and expected the same from everyone else; and what Adeleide wanted now was to have a father in her life, and she was going to do everything in her power to get that.
Day 2:
On their second day together, Adeleide and Lance decided to bake all day together. Adeleide was having the time of her life, but she soon noticed that Lance looked like he wasn’t having any fun at all. She tried to create some fun by beginning a food fight, but Lance was having none of it. After subtly displaying her disappointment, Lance felt bad and he had his revenge by resuming the food fight.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
After their food fight, they sort of bonded by telling each other who they were and their likes and dislikes. Adeleide then got a stomach ache later from all of the cookie dough she had eaten and went home to rest for the remainder of the day.
Day 3:
On day three, Lance and Adeleide went out for ice cream. Seeing that Lance had that uncomfortable look on his face again, Adeleide asked him if he wanted to go back to the Indigo Plateau. He was obviously uncertain and uncomfortable talking to her and being in her presence, so why should she force him to stay? Fortunately for her, Lance insisted on staying and trying to be a good dad. He opened up and said that he was only uncomfortable because he couldn’t find a connection between them. There was nothing they could really bond about. He was trying to be a dad to an adult; a person who could already take care of themselves and make their own decisions. It would be a lot easier if she were a small child.
After hearing that, Adeleide then tried finding that connection through their love of dragon pokemon. She proudly displayed her dragonite and swablu, and Lance was speechless. She then demanded a battle, and he obliged without hesitation.
Lance won with ease; he thought he’d teach her a little bit of humility.
Day 4,5 and 6
On those days they mostly talked. They would get a coffee, walk around town and maybe see a movie, but for the most part, they just talked. They talked about their pasts, their personalities, their pokemon, their careers and their futures. He even gave her a tour around Blackthorn estate and took her to her grandparent’s graves, where he would tell endless stories about them.
It wasn’t until Day 6 when Lance and Adeleide finally found that connection, and began having deep conversations that they would keep to themselves.
Day 7
On their last day, they discussed how they wanted to move forwards. Should they part ways and never see each other again? Or should they pursue a father-daughter relationship that needed a lot of work. After some thorough discussion, and confirming that Adeleide wanted nothing to do with the Blackthorn name, they decided to pursue the relationship by writing to each other often and seeing each other when each of them had some spare time. They knew that they wouldn’t be close, but it would get better. Afterwords, they said their temporary goodbyes and parted ways.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
ADELEIDE PRESENT:
Currently, Adeleide is nineteen years of age, is still a spoiled brat, and is attending university in Sinnoh where she is studying to become a Pokevet that specialises in dragon Pokemon.
Her and Lance still write to each other and visit when they can. They're not particularly close, but they know they’ll get there eventually.
She has a fiance now and often makes the joke with Lance that she’ll be giving him a grandchild for him to babysit sometime this year. She also stans her father together with Cynthia and hopes he gives her a brother or sister one day.
That’s it! Sorry her headcanon came out so late!! Currently in my AU Lance and Adeleide had kept in contact since last July, so this headcanon was just put to the side for so long and I had to get this out before father’s day haha.
28 notes · View notes