#ive got ideas for how my OC's are doing in this AU too

[puppyeared]

doodles of my fav sillies

anton belongs to @poicyss

[marinerainbow]

I'm so happy you like this AU so much!!! ^^ and I absolutely love your take on how a toon can turn into an inky. Exposed to lights? That would mean that there's extra fear because lights are everywhere. From the sun, to lights in the studio (unless you meant a specific kind of light). So a toon could turn at any point! I can imagine that no one was aware that could happen, so that would make this even more of a shock to everyone. And it's so mundane(?) of a start, that no one would think to theorize that exposure to light was what caused this.

Oh! Idk if you saw, byt I headcannon that there are different subspecies of toons for different genres. Comedy, horror, adulterous, and generic toons are the main ones. Imagine if the different genres had special traits as inkies too! Like... Maybe the comedy inkies are more like the dumb, easy to fool zombies? Or horror inkies are the most dangerous kind of inky? What do you think?

As for how the other characters are doing? Tbh I haven't gotten that far with the others 😅 this AU is still new. I was thinking that even though Eddie would still hold a grudge against toons at this time, he wasn't really paying attention to what was going on. But he still didn't want this to happen. I'm not sure if he'd try to ignore it or if it would push him to try to help Acme. Or maybe Acme seeks Eddie out since he's the one human with the most hands-on experience woth toons?

Jessica and Roger are definitely the power couple of the apocalypse. They look out for each other, but they are also kind-hearted enough to help others. Jessica is more suspicious of other survivors, but Roger is a good judge of character so she trusts him ^^ I can also see them teaming up with Baby Herman and Benny. I mean, they are Roger's friends after all. And Herman is rich, so he's probably got plenty of food and good shelter.

The weasels, like I said, they're kind of like a necessary evil. You can make deals with them to trade or even ask for protection for a short while, but you better follow their rules since they have no problem with using you as bait. They're kinda roughed up since they scavenge around more inky invested areas (Wheezy might be missing an eye, Stupid's belly is covered in scratches and bit marks since it's the biggest area to target on him, etc). But they're thriving here. In the movie, they had to put up the front of 'law-abiding' policemen. Here though? Who's gonna stop them from being scumbags?

Judge Doom, I'm not quite sure what to do with him. I initially was thinking maybe somehow he was behind the virus, though I scrapped that when I couldn't figure out how. He could also be thriving in this collapsed society, too. Who knows?

Don't be afraid to share your thoughts! I'd love to discuss this AU more and I love brainstorming with people ^^ and thank you again! ^^

Alright, it's Halloween peeps (everyone knows that Halloween lasts the whole month). And @wheezystan inspired me with their zombie weasels to post about something that's been brewing in my head for a while.

The Rotten Ink AU

Warning for... Well, zombies. And the horror and angst that comes with it. And isolation, and the insanity that that comes with as well. What have I done to our favorite toons?

Note that this AU is still being developed. I apologize if it doesn't look so cohesive 😅

~Story~

Set two years before the events of the film, in 1945. No one knows what happened. Not the humans, not the toons, not even the animators responsible for breathing life into ink and paint. Though things have started to go terribly wrong in Toontown.

It's hard to pinpoint when it started, though the first sign was when toons started to feel pain. Instead of a hand comically turning red and blowing up in size when smashed or punching a brick wall, the skin started to actually rip- and in worse cases, the bones would break just like a human. The second horrible sign was that, unlike a human, these wounds wouldn't heal. No matter how many bandages were applied and stitches were sewn. And the ink that made their person would ooze from the seams.

It wasn't just the sentient toons that were changing. The living architecture of Toontown started to rot away, coughing up coagulated ink onto the street and becoming more brittle. The chirping blue birds lost their song and would fall from the sky. Even the smiling sun and moon that used to shine brightly in the animated sky bled out, and their remains rained down onto the once bright and colorful town. Of course, this caused a panic among everyone. Though the humans assured the toons to remain calm, as they were already looking into what was happening. So, filled with dread, the toons attempted to continue life as normal.

However, it was only after an infected toon went deranged in a studio, causing so much damage to the other toons and people, did the humans decide on a drastic choice. It was taking too long to find an answer to what was happening to their beloved characters, and they saw no other choice but to cut them off from the rest of Los Angeles. The tunnel was closed off, with policemen guarding the entrance with orders to shoot on sight if any toons attempted to reach the outside world.

So now, the residents are stuck in the dying town. As time went by, neighbors were forced to fight each other as the infection grew worse and worse, turning each other into what everyone refer to as 'inkies'; toons that are husks of their former selves, with a seemingly insatiable urge to rip anyone they see apart for more ink. Toons have had to learn how to be cautious for their own lives, and as resources and shelter become more scarce, even those who have not completely fallen under the infection are now potential threats.

How did this all get started? Will there ever be a cure? Will everyone be turned to normal again? No one knows. But for now, all one can do is survive.

~

~Tid-Bits~

I was mainly inspired by The Walking Dead, and not just in the title. The infection in this AU works similarly to the virus in TWD (at least the Telltale game that I played). In that everyone is infected, and you not being bit doesn't mean you won't turn once you die. In fact, for the toons, as long as they don't get themselves killed, being bit will not turn them. The disease is already doing that job. It's mostly only a matter of time before someone is turned into an inky.

As such, there are plenty of toons that have bite marks, and even parts of themselves missing, yet they are completely safe to be around. As long as they aren't willing to hurt others to survive.

Since this is before the events of the movie, that does mean that Marvin Acme is still alive. In fact, he's the one leading the cause for finding a cure for toons. So he plays quite a big role in this AU.

That also means that the weasels are alive, too. And thriving. In this AU, they're the kind of group of survivors that the others find themselves depending on, as they are the ones who are willing to raid any inky infested area for supplies, but people are still afraid of them since they still act as a gang. They're kind of like a necessary evil in this town. Though as long as you don't get on their bad side, you'll be fine.

Since toons are based on emotion, having been made to make people laugh or cry, inkies are only permanently killed when you shoot them in the heart. Much like a vampire, yes.

I'm still debating it, but I'm thinking that, like the zombies in Shaun of the Dead, the inkies retain some semblance of their past life. For example, a cowboy inky may keep holding onto their revolver or stick by their horse despite them serving no purprise to it anymore.

That's all I've got for now. And it may change in the future. Wheezystan, as a fellow zombie lover, I hope you in particular enjoy this! ^^

And to everyone else, I apologize once more for doing this to our favorite cartoon characters.

[jojo-schmo]

hi jojo! im just wondering but ive been wanting to make a comic for a little while but im not too sure where to start 😅. i really love your style of art and your forgotten land roleswap, and i was wondering if you had any tips for beginners?

Hello, hello! Thank you for enjoying my Forgotten Land Roleswap comic, it means a lot! <3

I'm very honored that people have been asking me for tips and advice. All of this is coming from a hobbyist who draws these comics purely for fun outside of my regular day job. Some of my methods would probably deal psychic damage to a professional, LOL. But I'm more than happy to share some things I've personally learned! :)

First of all, the book, "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud ROCKS. It literally gave me a new dimension to understand the medium of comics and how it presents ideas and emotions to readers! And I haven't even had the chance to finish it all the way! I'm very happy I own a copy and I recommend having one of your own if you can, but it's archived here if you want to read it :D

I also like analyzing other comics and thinking about how they get information across to me as a reader. It's helped me learn more effective ways to visually tell a story, like what to include in a frame, how zooming in or out affects the feeling from the panel, maybe building a scene by focusing on other stuff if someone is talking a lot... etc.

ANYWAYS-! Some other tips I've learned through my personal experience-

I had to overcome a lot of negative self-talk in order to tackle a huge comic project like this and stay committed. I was a pretty severe self-deprecator for most of my life so far, and getting help has allowed me to catch myself when I'm slipping back into those habits, look in the mirror, and go, "NO, JOJO! You pour your heart into what you make and that is a wonderful thing! You are appreciated and loved and you deserve to have fun making something you are passionate about!!" Some examples of the negative self-talk I catch myself in....

"I'm a noob at writing and making a story interesting... What's the point of even trying?"

When it comes to starting a project, whether it's 2 pages or 2000 pages, is to just jump in and start! It's okay to be a little insecure or nervous about your technical art skills, writing skills, etc... But writing a "bad" scene is better than no scene- because you can always edit a "bad" scene down the line, but what can you do with nothing? Nothing!! I also put "bad" in quotation marks because I am trying to use that term less, and instead call them "early drafts." or "works in progress."

The first Roleswap scene I fleshed-out was the first Bandee boss fight, in May 2022. I made this drawing on an impulse, getting my ideas down on the page without thinking about the technical stuff like comic panel borders. I consider it like a "pilot episode" almost, haha. The final project is going to be very different from how things play out here. But it got me interested in the concept and excited to see where I could take it, and I made the decision to commit to an entire game plot's worth of AU comics!!

Also, what's the point in trying you ask? The point is to have fun! Making a fan comic in my free time means I don't have restrictions like deadlines, nobody's telling me what I can and can't write, and I can make the story as long or as short as I want! I have full control, which means the world I'm writing is all mine to create! Yes, with a fan comic there is a pre-established world with existing characters. But a universe like Kirby has enough open-ended concepts for people to take basic concepts in the world and take them to whole new levels! I think that's why there are so many amazing fan interpretations of Kirby characters and OCs. The rules are so vague, you can just make up your own a lot of the time!! And it's a wonderful exercise to learn skills for someday building an original world with all original characters from scratch! Magical!!!

"I'm not good enough to make a comic. I don't understand perspective or color and other stuff. Anything I make will look bad.

I once read a two panel comic on here. I can't find it anymore but I remember most of it. First panel showed the artist looking at what they're drawing on their tablet, looking defeated and sad. "Man, I don't even know how to draw this....."The next panel was like them smiling and shrugging, I think rainbows and sparkles were coming out of their tablet, ".....I GUESS I'LL JUST HAVE TO DRAW IT SHITTY!! :D "

IF ANYONE KNOWS THIS COMIC I'M REFERENCING, PLEASE TELL ME AND I'LL LINK IT!!! Because it permanently and positively changed my brain chemistry.

No kidding, making the decision to just do my best even if it's not perfect, helped me a LOT. I was always waiting to "reach a certain level" to tackle a huge project because I felt like I'd never do it justice at my current state. Except I had been telling myself that kind of stuff for years and I still didn't start any projects!!

So the day I said, "Oh well! If I draw backgrounds shitty, then it is what it is! I'll learn from it and draw the next background a little better," Was the day I could commit fully to the project. I'll keep studying how to draw them better for my own benefit, but I won't let my skill issues stop me from even trying!

And for my limited confidence in full-color art, I solved that by making the comic in black and white with no-to-minimal shading lolol. Because I can only address one skill issue at a time before it takes me 25 years to finish this HAHAHA.

It saves a BUNCH of time to work with skill issues rather than against them! Because at least experience is gained in other ways, and who knows, maybe that new knowledge will help address the skill issues someday! So identifying your personal skill issues and deciding which one to try to grow stronger, and which one to work around, could help with big projects!

"Nobody will read this. I'm going to put months or years of my life into a dumb little thing nobody will even care about."

Learning how to draw for my own enjoyment instead of somebody else's was one of the biggest breakthroughs I ever made. Enjoying the feeling of being challenged artistically and just doing my best, even if it's not technically perfect, is the reason why I was even able to start this!

And just because someone doesn't directly like, comment or whatever on a post doesn't mean nobody saw it! I used to get really down on myself for the lack of engagement on my art on other websites.

I was a lurker for pretty much my entire teenage years and never posted my own stuff or commented much. But that didn't take away the fact that I really enjoyed the things I saw online. Those positive feelings were real to me, even when I didn't know how to articulate it in words. Granted, I grew up into a Words of Affirmation main, and I use words to tell people the positive things I think about them as much as I can! But I know not everyone prefers words to express themselves. So I think about the people that I don't know enjoy my work- that just because I don't see it doesn't mean I didn't make a positive impact on someone by sharing my stories.

THIS IS GETTING LONG-- UHHH, STORY TIPS!!

If you work best on technology, start building the story in a Notes app, or a Google Doc! If you work best with pen and paper, start a notebook and rearrange stuff as you need to!

Or if you're chaotic like me, a mix of tech and paper!! I bought a notebook with ring binding so I can remove and rearrange pages of drafts as much as I wanted to! Like here's two very rough concept pages of one Chapter 1 scene made months apart.

I'd say planning out the biggest basic plot points and then filling in between as I went was most helpful! I also have separate notes for character motivations, important story-changing events, etc... So I can have my own reference when I'm writing new scenes!

Okay this was a lot, sorry about the yapping! Hopefully it helps even a tiny bit. If you have any specific questions I'm happy to talk about my experience in the creation process! Or elaborate on anything I said above.

And finally, because I'm not a professional there are probably plenty of other tactics that could work better for some people. My ADHD probably doesn't help with the chaos of my process either, HAHA. But thank you for reading this far and enjoying the peek into the rainbow glitter and soap bubbles that inhabit the right side of my brain, heehee.

[kookslastbutton]

Too Late to Dream ༓ jjk (m)┃ch. V

✑ Summary: You did it. You married your college professor. You even bought a house together. Against all odds, everything had fallen into place. But after two years of marriage, you begin feeling something was missing. You want a baby but your husband can’t say the same.

Pairing: economics professor!jungkook x fem!artist!reader

AU/Genre: angst, smut, fluff, marriage au, age gap, series

Rating: M, 18+

Word Count: 3,342

Warnings: 8-year age gap, mentions of professor-student relationship (oc was a Masters student), jk has milk obsession, oc injured, both lonely :(, mommy issues, lots of family drama/in-laws, fighting, pent-up issues/desires, jk has daddy issues, jk being good hubby to oc

Now Playing: Make It Right, Tryna Be, Infinity, It Will Rain, Heaven+

A/N: I've heard the requests and I think it's time to fulfill them–how did they get together?! Yes, it's here and I'm excited to finally share! Also, yes this took up whole chapter so a tiny break from present-day stuff but we'll be back at it next chapter. 💞

<< ch. IV ༓ ch. Vl >> | series masterlist

Before marrying you, Jungkook had the same routine. He got up, showered, brushed his teeth, put work clothes on, grabbed breakfast, and ran out the door with twenty minutes to spare. Trying to find a parking spot at 7 a.m. at the university was no joke and he had to leave early or some college kid would take the last spot and not think twice.

His night routine was similar. Jungkook finished the day between 5 and 6 pm, slowly regretting he ever agreed to teach evening classes. He’d kick off his shoes, eat dinner, grade some of his student’s papers if needed, brush his teeth again, and went to bed.

It was a constant cycle and with no one around, not even a pet, Jungkook’s life was fairly quiet and systematic. Sometimes his buddies would come over on the weekend for a couple of hours and that surely rocked his world.

But that wouldn’t happen often during the school season due to his ridiculously packed teaching schedule. The most recent person he’d hang around during those months was Taehyung and if he wasn’t free, Jungkook would spend his time at the grocery store–stocking up on milk.

4 years ago

“That was two weeks ago man,” Jungkook says, pushing a cart with five-gallon jugs of milk to his car. He’s on the phone with Taehyung who's reminiscing about the grand opening of the new art exhibit and how “lovely” it was to meet you there.

Jungkook doesn’t need reminding though.

He clearly remembers seeing you there and Taehyung happily making a complete fool of him once he found out who you were. Thankfully you hadn’t seemed to mind too much since you and Taehyung soon moved on to discuss various art theories, masterpieces, and underrepresented artists.

“You didn't have to stay y'know.” If Jungkook didn't know any better he'd think Taehyung was salty. "You could've left at 8 pm like you planned. __ and I would have been fine."

Jungkook winces hearing the man's argument. He did think about going home at 8, but it unsettled him to leave you alone with Taehyung. His colleague was enjoying himself a little too much that night and there’s no telling what he’d do or say when he’s overly comfortable.

Jungkook had to stay until you left.

"Are you kidding me? Leaving you unsupervised would've been the worst idea after all your endless blubbering." Jungkook pops the trunk of his car, stuffing the jugs of milk inside. "God knows what you'd scar __ with."

On the other line, Taehyung smirks through the speaker. "No, that's not it......you weren't going to leave me alone with a woman, an attractive one at that."

Jungkook grabs the last jug of milk, slamming it on the floorboard. "Student, and stop talking about her like that. She's my stu—"

"Say student one more time and I'm going to take all your milk and give it to Yoongi hyung's cats."

"I swear to god, Taehyung, if you touch my milk I'm never going to another art museum or wine tasting with you again." Jungkook is very protective of his dairy products.

"That's okay. I don't need you when __ says she'll be happy to go with me sometime." Smug bastard, Jungkook thinks. There's no way you said that.

"That's bull Taehy—"

"Look she's in her masters and is literally eight years younger than you. It's not that serious so stop acting like she's fresh out of high school. Besides, you said it yourself, she's not a child."

Jungkook grunts, shoving the cart into the others. "She's a young lady who happens to be enrolled in the school. As faculty, we have no business thinking or talking about her outside those terms."

"For fucksake, Kook. You always make things so complicated!" Taehyung's baritone voice cracks through the speaker. "I'm just trying to get you to admit that you're into her some way or another. How many other students have I stayed to talk to and you couldn't give a—"

Just then a loud, high-pitch screech interrupts the call. Jungkook whips his head around immediately. He doesn't spot anything at first but a string of profanities remains audible in the distance.

"Jungkook, are you okay?"

"Yeah, but someones screaming and I can't tell where it's coming from." Jungkook walks around the grocery parking lot, eyes darting left and right. "Oh shit!"

There, near the bus stop, you lay on your side with your right leg stretched out and blood running from your temple. You try getting up but you fall right back down, cursing sharply.

"Taehyung I gotta go, it's __. I don't know what happened but she's laying by the bus stop and I think she needs help!" Jungkook shuts his phone and races to where you lay. He kneels next to you with sheer horror on his face. "__, what happened? What can I do?"

"Damn college boys, Dr. Jeon," you spit, dragging your leg up as far as you can. You reach for your bag which had flung about a foot away when you crashed. "So fucking eager to get off the bus and—oh damn that hurts like a bitch!"

"What hurts?" Jungkook lunges forward to catch your torso from slamming on the hard concrete. "Stay still okay? We need to get you to the hospital."

"I'm all set, but thanks. It'll likely heal in a day."

Jungkook shakes his head and wraps an arm under your back and legs. "Can you put your arms around my neck?"

"Dr. Jeon, I appreciate what you're doing but I don't want to go to the hospital. Please."

You're serious. No trace of bluffing or even simply trying to act tough. You really don't want to go.

"You need to be checked by a doctor sweetheart," Jungkook insists. "Whatever happened has made it so you can't walk. C'mon, my car is nearby and I'll drive you over."

"No, wait!" He feels you push against his chest.

"__. I'm not leaving you without making sure you didn't break a bone or something. I don't want to make things worse but you don't look so hot right now. So please, let me take you." Jungkook lifts you up when you give a barely consenting yes.

"You sprained your ankle pretty bad hun." Dr. Kim Seokjin draws your attention to the X-ray scan. "Second degree." He points to the visual of your partially torn ligament. "There's going to be a lot of swelling so you're gonna need to stay off your foot for at least 4 weeks."

"Do I have to stay here?" is your first question.

"For the first couple of weeks, we strongly advise—yes." Dr. Kim moves on to the next X-ray scan. "You also cracked a rib which will also take about 4 weeks to heal, or more. Of course you're head has suffered a mild concussion as well but it's very mild thankfully." Dr. Kim catches sight of Jungkook next to you, staring at the scans. "You're wife's going to be okay," he says mid-diagnoses.

"We're not—" you start to say but Dr. Kim continues talking.

"Wife, girlfriend, lover, what have you. The point is, much of what we have here will recover with a month of rest, ice, and elevation." He takes a pen from his pocket and starts jotting down something on paper. "I recommend two weeks here for moderation purposes. If things look good, you finish the healing at home. Still, be careful though, no funny business."

The blank looks on both your faces tell Dr. Kim he wasn't clear enough. "Yah, my filters going to die with you two doe-eyed deer. No funny business means no sex!"

"Oh god!" You outburst, mortified by the thought. Jungkook whips his head to your slack-jawed expression. "Dr. Kim, it's not like that between us."

The older man suddenly zeros in on your professor, eyes narrowing slightly. "What's the matter son? Having trouble getting it up?"

Jungkook jolts in his seat, startled by the crass response. "I—no, what? There's nothing wrong with my—"

"We're not together!" You shout before Jungkook's sentence finishes. "We're friends." Saying that your professor brought you here sounded a little odd for some reason, especially when Dr. Kim was already convinced you two were a thing.

"Mhm sure, heard the same thing from my wife before we went off and eloped." Dr. Kim treads to the door. If he has a dime for how many times he's heard that "we're friends" bs he'd be...well, he's already rich so never mind. "Let's move on to something more productive now, like getting __ settled in a room. The sooner she starts the healing process, the sooner she can be good as new again."

"Thank you Dr. Kim," Jungkook says, slowly standing up to stroll you and your wheelchair out of the room. You didn't like it but the nurses insisted you be in one to keep pressure off your muscles.

"Yeah yeah." Dr. Kim waves him off. "Just remember what I said, no funny business. Especially here at the hospital. You don't know how many times I've heard the nurses catching their patients on top of one another at 2 am in the morning. That better not be you two, whoever you are to each other."

"Yes, doctor." You both reply, thankful of the fact that neither of you are in any position to be looking at each other.

"Is there any way I can be here for less than two weeks?" Jungkook watches as you plead with the nurse. It worries him that you're still anxious to avoid medical attention.

"I'm afraid not," the nurse says simply. "If you need anything, press the call button and I'll be in as soon as I can."

Once the nurse leaves, Jungkook pulls up a chair next to your bed. "Stupid question but how are you feeling?"

"I'm in an ankle brace, my rib burns, and my head is still dizzy. I'm trapped in the hospital for two weeks and all because a bunch of nineteen-year-old boys couldn't wait to hit up some frat party," you groan, not bearing in mind your tongue. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this Dr. Jeon."

"You didn't drag me into anything __. I'm glad I was there when this happened and I'm even more glad that you're here, getting help." Jungkook clears his throat before continuing. "Even if it isn't ideal for you."

You ignore the subtle pry for information. "Please, Dr. Jeon. You don't have to stay any longer. It's the weekend and I'm sure you have plans."

Jungkook gives a faint smile. "So, you're saying this is none of my business?"

"No, not—not at all. I mean if you want to stay then I guess you can but I don't want you to feel obligated or anything."

"I want to be here," Jungkook says simply. "But you know that's not what I meant. I'd like to know why it bothers you when anyone tries to help you...if I may."

"Just habit," you mumble quickly, averting eye-contact. It's not your professor's job to bear the weight of your problems.

Jungkook nods in reply, pretending you gave a satisfactory explanation. He wishes you'd tell him but if you didn't want to share more then that was your choice —he wasn't going to force you. "I understand." He grabs his phone from his pocket and rests his elbows on his knees. "Are you hungry?"

"Huh?" You look back at him, his question going right over your head.

"I asked if you're hungry. It's about dinner time so I can get you something if you want. I also have a bunch of milk in my trunk that needs to get to a fridge. But I can place the order now and pick it up in my way back here."

"Milk in your trunk?" Is the only words you repeat, dumbfounded. "Like chocolate milk or...?"

"Nah, Whole Milk." Jungkook grins at your scrunched up face. You try to hide it but not very well. "Don't look so disgusted. Milk is good for you."

"Yeah when you're ten years old."

"On the contrary!" You flinch when his voice rises, along with his eyebrows. "Milk has a lot of health benefits as adults. It has thirteen essential nutrients and helps maintain muscle and bone strength. I drink at least two full glasses a day, if not more."

"I'm sorry but that's nasty." You shudder at the thought of drinking milk in your twenties let alone your thirties. "You really enjoy it? The taste?"

"Yup, always have since a baby! Loved it so much that my mother-" You raise an eyebrow to which he abruptly switches topics. "Anyway, do you want me to pick you up something or no?"

You giggle, a little uncomfortable with whatever he was about to disclose to you.

"That's okay, no thanks."

"You sure? Otherwise I'm gonna be eating in front of you." Jungkook knows how this sounds — he's trying to force you to eat. But the truth is, he just doesn't want to eat by himself tonight. He also doesn't want to leave you alone this early, especially when you obviously detest being here, for whatever reason.

"I'm sure," you say. "But...if you want to come back you can. Not like I have anything to do anyway."

"Good then." Pleased, Jungkook opens up his phone contacts. "Give me you're number in case you change your mind while I'm out."

Over the next couple of weeks, Jungkook continues to stay by your side. He leaves to teach his classes of course and to go home late at night, but he stops by every day—hours at a time.

You keep insisting that he not come so much but he always makes the same excuses. "I just brought food" or "You're on my way home from the university". Sometimes he brings in class notes too.

Due to your current predicament, you're missing a lot of content so Jungkook thinks it best to go over key principles with you and takeaways from his lectures. He says it's his duty as a professor–never minding the fact that many of his other students are in a predicament of their own yet he’s not bothering to do jack for them.

"Look Dr. Jeon, I appreciate what you're doing but you really don't have to. I'll be perfectly alright to catch myself up from the textbook and study guides. You don't have to keep stopping by." You try again but Jungkook keeps his wall just as strong as yours.

"I know I don't have to __. I know that I could leave right now, take all these lecture notes home with me, and not feel guilty about a thing. But I told you I was going to be here and I'm going to keep to that no matter how many times you urge me to leave. I also want you to call me Jungkook outside class but have you allowed for any of those to happen?" Jungkook tosses the folder of notes in his sachel, a loud thump following. "A simple thank you would suffice."

"I am grateful, I really am. But I never asked to be given so much of your time. I feel bad because maybe you're just one of those overly nice people who feel it's their duty to stick around or what not when someone's in trouble. I don't need to be pitied over! Also, you said I could keep calling you the usual, so Dr. Jeon it will remain!" Why you're raising your voice, you don't know but it's happening either way.

"Yeah I did," Jungkook quips, matching your tone. "But after the last, nearly two weeks I think we ought to be on a first-name basis! And I'm in no way pitying you okay? I'm here because I care dammit! I don't want you to be alone and I don't want you to be behind in getting your Masters. So I' try to be be here every day for at least fifteen minutes if not more!"

You don't fully process what he says so you reply to what you remember most. "Why? Why can't I call you Dr. Jeon? It's been that way from the start, twice every week. So why do I need to call you Jungkook all a sudden?!"

"Because it makes me feel younger, you insulted my milk after I first took you to the hospital, we've been eating dinner almost every night since your injury, you told me about your childhood cat named Mr. Muttonbottom, and you just called me by my first name so there are no take backs! Now, if you're done making a fit, do you want bibimbap or jajangmyeon for dinner tonight?!"

What the actual hell? You cease your arguing at once, hearing your professor, or excuse you, Jungkook, all fluffed up. Obviously, you're not the only one high-strung over being stuck in the same routine day in, day out.

"Jajangmyeon...please," you mutter.

"Thank fuck," he swears. Yeah that's new too.

"Sorry for getting mad earlier." You mumble the words as soon as Jungkook returns with the food. "It just feels odd that you've been here all the time...you're my professor."

Jungkook mauls over your choice of words, stiffening ever so slightly. "Well, I'd like to think we're sorta friends now but alright. Does this actually bother you __? I don't mean to make you uncomfortable, you know that." He places the bag of take-out on the small desk near your bed.

"No, it's doesn't bother me." you just don't know how to react or what to say besides a measly thank you. More so, you don't want to make someone feel responsible for you...you should take care of your own shit without bringing others with you. It's not the best mindset, you're aware, but its the one you have.

"Okay good because to be completely transparent, I'm sorta here for me too. I live my myself, eat by myself, talk to myself....I do most things alone so it's nice having someone else to be around." He's not sure where to set his eyes, so he looks downward, fumbling with the napkins in front of him. "I'm making this awkward, sorry."

Feeling the strange need to offer comfort, you stretch a hand over Jungkook's arm. "I get it. It's nice having someone around too."

You and Jungkook hold each other's gaze for a few seconds more, letting the brief silence do the rest of the talking. Maybe you've been looking at this a little too one-sided.

"How are you feeling today? Any better?" Jungkook cracks open the bowl of Jajangmyeon, handing it to you with a pair of chopsticks.

You take the steamy food and gesture to your ankle which has swollen down a good amount. "Still more healing to be done but it's better."

Jungkook hums in approval. "That's comforting to hear. Dr. Kim going to discharge you soon?"

"Yeah, I think so. A few more days and he said I should be able to rest up at home."

"Really?" He chews on his bottom lip. "Well great, uhm , do you have stuff going on when you get back?"

You think a moment, trying to recollect if you made plans with Na-Rae. "Maybe some but not much. I don't have a ton of people around me right now either...down here I mean."

"Well, do you wanna go out to dinner then?" Jungkook pops the question more causal than expected. It's almost like he planned this or at least has been thinking about it for a bit. "We've been eating together for a while now and I think it might be a nice celebratory thing."

"Are you asking me on a date...Jungkook?" Because it defiantly sounds like he is, as indirect as it may be.

His reply is barely audible but you hear it and for the first time, your professor sounds truly timid. "Uh, well...let's go with "hang out", like friends do."

A/N: so yeah, thats how they got together 👀😅 anyone surprised? Thinking about a drabble for thier first date now haha. Anyway, next chapter we get back to present day stuff where more drama goes down. Also, adding a chapter bc this flashback took the whole chapter lol. Lmk your thoughts 💞

Masterlist

Taglist:

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no reposting, copying, or translating my work– © kookslastbutton

[klm-zoflorr]

Fanon Lukas family tree!! Well, it's for my AU, but I'm sure we can make it work for canon as well ahah

& dark mode... it looks cool okay

I've been working on it for a month lowkey, ever since I started on that Evan/Naomi wip, just... Slowly building up lore and a story and characters and rough estimates of ages and tidbits of brainstorming and a timeline and daddy issues and coming up with names and in this case, well, superpowers too because that's what the AU is about. But anyways, I'm super excited to dig in further, because YES all of these characters pretty much have some amount of personality and interesting details about them so far. Woohoo!! It's also interesting for the same reasons Gerry is interesting; because powers pass down genetically!! Yeehaw!! I get to give them all slightly different versions of the same powers and see how it informs their relationships!

You can see here what was basically my very first version of it. How underdeveloped! It grew a lot, damn. Also some minor changes I made along the way, as for the reasons why... Well they're pretty interesting if I do say so myself, I'll talk about those later. Have fun spotting the differences if you'd like lol

Still, a few general notes so far:

I believe the only Lukases mentionned in canon are Peter, Mordechai (in the 1800's), Nathaniel (owner of their cargo company so presumably some sort of patriarch), Conrad (the guy who talked to the astronauts before shooting them into space) and Evan Lukas. To that I added Virginia, an OC but like come on we need some women represent around here. I've always interpreted Nathaniel as being Peter's uncle, so i put him there. Nathaniel should be the one in charge in my mind too, so I made him the grandfather of the main line/evan's line (because evan is sort of the main character here). I also wanted to keep peter away from the main branch because... Well i don't know. I just didn't want him to be Evan's dad I guess. Or else, you've got that specific branch of the family that gets all the spotlight and important canon characters, and everybody else kinda sucks. It's not ideal!

I originally planned on leaving Peter's branch of the family pretty blank to be honest just because I wasn't super invested into him. I thought he had a sibling and a few nephews and that was it. But then I relistened to mag159, realised he had 5 (wait, 4? Oh shit, did i fuck up. Uhhhhhh) A FEW siblings and that two of them were named, Judith and Aaron. So that was interesting!

Mostly the beginning of it was just figuring out the ages to get an idea of how they should behave and how it all fit in and how far down the line they should be, and then building around it.

Oh, yeah, and based on the few canon names we got, I tried to find names that fit in. The style was... Well. The lukases' names sound to me like they're very basic. Kinda trendy, kinda... What I thought about was "cute" actually. So i tried to keep the same vibe for the rest of my made up guys. Wee-woo. Annnnd ive been rambling again.

Oh, oh right, wait no don't leave yet there were still thing I had to talk about. Few important details I knew about at the beginning stages:

-Evan's mother is a Lukas, and she's very opinionated but kind

-I wanted Nathaniel's eldest son, the one who became Graham (no, not notebook eating graham) to have a son who resents him very much. So i did that

-Adeline! She's old as balls. And very nice. Iwant her to be my grandmawmaw

-oh, right, Mordechai 2!!! For him I thought of the power first, basically he can show you things that happened in the past without having witnessed them. It's a pretty great ability imo.

-Oh, yeah, uh, every Lukas passes down their family name no matter their gender lol.

[kyuummie]

read about my sons NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!’!

recently ive taken it upon myself to turn glitterduo (argbur and incelbur/simpbur) into my ocs, allen (he him) and salem (he she they) after realizing how much i was attached to them and might go as far as reclaiming even more relevant burs

theyre kind of like a gag anime with a broad plot that has only 50% to do with the actual episode youre watching. They just kind of exist and go through day to day things together because theyre buds. maybe you will like them too if you liked bur sonas…i just wanted to share something that gave me joy. theyre like if triple baka was double baka mesmerizer if it was awesome

who should be the third baka or the yellow one that wasnt in mesmerizer vote down below /hj

more random stuff about them under the cut

no salem is not an incel. Thought i should preface that LMFAO (i still think its crazy how much the fandom (using that term lightly cause of how fan driven the concept of burs were) “woobified” incelbur/simpbur seeing how much of a creep he apparently is. its ok i was a part of it and i never do anything wrong ^_^)

i originally had a really hard time trying to figure out a plotline for these two, my first draft “salmon alley” was about them being platonic soulmates and having to figure out how to live together. one, i didnt like the name cause it sounded to much like salmonella. Second, i didnt really know where to go with the soulmate thing and i didnt even know if i wanted to have a story for them

then, i wanted to go the unconventional route and make them little magical girls (“1-chance duet”) with the point of them being tied together as two magical girls who were destined to save, well, mentally unstable people 😭, before they could save themselves, and i gave salem a bunny hood which is where his current hat comes from

i might use some of this as au ideas or their general “plot”. but i kind of like them just being there and only serving as comfort and a source of joy? these two just Happened to both be my faves and also be created by some douche. so, if you were also a bur sona liker, youre like a sleeper agent 🕵️ maybe theyll go ghost hunting and find blue (gb). Travel back in time to find an old timey president at a bar (lmanbr). go a couple months forward to find him depressed, and deceased the next day (pogbr). maybe theyll be taken by the mad scientist who sent them back in time(malpractice). maybe theyll meet god himself (100p??). Hey allen why do all these guys look vaguely like us and all have brown shoulder length hair

i remember i had my designs for og glitterduo memorized like muscle memory, i have no idea how i got over them so quickly but when i was reminded of them i couldnt keep the demons inside…i drew arg all the time in class and i love edgy characters so he was my perfect little guy. i might still refer to them (especially allen) as arg/incel/simp. Maybe this is another 2 week phase but i love them

also, i dont know what to call their “series”. i have two in mind: amygdala’s resonance/just amygdala, or hatena (as in question mark) but i think amygdala seems way too dark and edgy for what im thinking

[ruthlesslistener]

do you have any headcanons for anything you've been holding onto, but haven't had a good chance to post about? I love your fics and I wanna peer into your mind palace

Shhdhchs EXCELLENT bc ive had a lot of thoughts but this quarter + anxiety in general has been killin me

-Okay so I'm still hyperfixated on Destiny 2 bc of a DnDestiny game I'm in, but since Hollow Knight is a special interest and I read a couple of frankly stunning crossover fics (one with the Inheritance Cycle, one with Transformers, both are outstanding and I will recc them wholeheartedly if you ask- the TF one especially blew my tits clean off which is saying something bc I have zero TF knowledge, also its 500k words but I'm rambling), my brain has been essentially locked into the concept of a crossover AU where a couple of my D2 OCs get slingshot into the HK world via a fucked-up warpgate through wish-dragon magic, and it's now got me kind of obsessed with the idea of the world of Hollow Knight taking place on an alien planet that had some convergent evolution re: general insect body plans, but went off the fuckin' rails with everything else. So here's some worldbuilding thoughts on that:

-Their planet would be far from Earth and the origin place of the Ahamkara and precursor race to the Worm Gods, who are distant relatives to each other that took to the stars to opportunistically feed off of rifts in reality. They are in turn sister taxa to the Wyrms and Higher Beings from Hollow Knight, who also feed off of the wants, desires, and gulf between what-is-desired-and-what-is-true, but unlike the worms and wish-dragons, the Higher Beings are essentially 'settled' species. They're the farming civilization to the hunter-gatherers of their Destiny-based kindred, and yes, both branches of the family tree fucking despise each other and look down scornfully on the other's lifestyle. The Higher Beings view the Worms and Ahamkara as little more than scavengers, while the Worms and Ahamkara see the Higher Beings as glorified slavedrivers with sticks up their asses- though it should be noted that since the Ahamkara's whole deal so far has been malignant trickery as a hunting style, this doesn't neccessarily carry the same negative connotations that it would in our society. I also don't know enough about the proto-Worms to say how their race would react, but the Worm Gods as they are now certainly are something that Wyrms would look down on

-(Yes that means I have thought extensively about the Pale King's ghost bristling aggressively at a baby ahamkara barely a few hours old. In my defense, it's funny, and also I almost never remember to write him as the cold, prickly, arrogant ass that he is bc his kids make him Big Sad)

-The planet would likely be smaller than Earth with lighter gravity, though how much smaller I can't say because I'm not a fuckin' physicist. I just want an excuse for making fuckoff-huge animals a thing even beyond the inherent space magic thing going on

-Oh, and most life is underground because the atmosphere is thinner than Earth and so the upper surface gets bombarded with deadly amounts of radiation, which causes the mind-wiping effects of the Wastes (where the angle towards their sun is the greatest and thus the strongest). Ngl I did briefly think about potential magnetic field fluxes also being the cause of that effect but like, I cannot overstate how little I know of things outside biology

-HK being set on an alien planet lets me do wack shit with the species there too bc I'm no longer bound by comparing them to Earthbound species. For example, I can make Quirrel an isopod with cricket legs. Who's going to stop me, God? He doesn't exist here

-That also means I can stop being bothered by Herrah's dubious leg placement bc it would kill me forever otherwise

-Also, them being on an alien planet gives me even more of an excuse to never put traditional vertebrate species in there, which is great. I've said it before, but putting Earth vertebrates in the HK setting totally ruins all the fun for me because I love the concept of all the species diversity being made up of invertebrates, and that the 'advanced' bugs we see have filled the niche that vertebrates would have otherwise taken over. Like the carboniferous period but on steroids

General HK thoughts too:

-been toying with the idea of wyrms having a set of evertable inner jaws like polychaete worms, which would be used for keeping dirt out of the mouth and biting off chunks to eat, while the outer jaws (the ones we see) are used for killing, digging, and sparring with other wyrms. The idea is that the outer ring of mandibles bites big circular chunks out of the substrate, which then breaks off into tiny pieces they filter out in between gaps in their mandibles and pack down into tunnel walls as they move forward

-I've also been toying with the idea of them secreting some kind of mucus as they dig that's almost a calcifying substance, but now that I think about it, I can probs just put those glands in their frontal mouth so if they need to reinforce a tunnel (like, say, one burrowed in sand instead of rock), they can mix their saliva in with the substrate to chemically solidify the tunnel walls

-Which btw is a major thing for ecosystems bc the tunnels are used for lots of different things by lots of different species. Wyrms are terraformers baybee!! Kinda the same way wildfires are, but still

-I've also been thinking about maybe making it so that the row of plates I like to draw on their backs act as a secondary pair of belly scutes, which means that wyrms can slither just as easily upside down as they can on their undersides, which helps underground. It's not as efficient as the super-smooth scales on a blind snake, but that's the tradeoff they get for needing to be so heavily armoured

-I'm also leaning towards making marine/freshwater variants that are just straight-up bobbit worms on even more steroids, but since I already have fuckoff huge marine alien bobbit worms in a scifi setting of mine, I'd need to figure out a way to make them unique

-I learned that there's internalized folds of exoskeleton for muscle attatchment in my invertebrate biology course and got really excited about that being a potential basis for the formation of skeletal elements in the world of Hollow Knight- like, maybe bug bones started off as those lil folds (i forgot their technical name which is embaressing bc i literally just took the final this night) becoming stronger and deeper-set into the body to better support the weight of larger and larger bugs, and then it spiraled into a skeleton analogue from there. Being derived from the exoskeleton probably means that it would be less strong than our bones, but it would likely also be lighter

Misc:

-God I really need to write Hornet in Silksong so bad. Fuck. I need need need to write this mildly autistic unsocialized princess running amok in a civilization that isn't ready for her. Also my interpretation of Lace is basically an oc at this point but I don't want to do anything with her just yet bc that shits a lot of work, I just need to write everything down for her so far (and tbh Lurien probs also counts at this point but thats more filling a niche that TC left unfufilled)

-I've also got gijinka thoughts in that I'm leaning towards making Lurien a trans guy who didn't have any gender-affirming surgeries bc a.) I love love love making a variety of trans characters and b.) Hallownest isn't a society where the concept of being transgender is an issue, so there's no need to do it to pass, only to prioritize your own comfort. And since Lurien never expected to be seen in anything but his formalware, he never saw the point of bothering

-(The aformentioned point also applies to normal bug Lurien but this is more of a personal thing here)

-Need to focus more on how the latent magic of the god of a realm changes your eye colour, with the more intense the shade = the more involved you are with their magic. Using Lurien as an example again: his eyes were brown naturally, but after he became Watcher, they slowly shifted to shades of paler and paler blue. I also like the idea of Quirrel's eyes getting more blue the more memories of Hallownest he unlocks, until they're the same shade as the Blue Lake in his final scene

-This can also happen in reverse; for example, my Lace gijinka starts off with gold eyes to signify the church of Pharloom's hold over her, but then slowly revert back to brown as Hornet gives her more and more hope that the institution can be toppled, until they're eventually their natural deep brown with just the faintest flecks of silver in them (signifying Hornet's importance in her life)

-It just occurred to me the other day when I was at work that Striga and Morgana from Castlevania S3 are almost exactly how I imagined my Vespa and Herrah gijinkas to be and now I can't stop thinking about it. The main difference is that my Herrah is a fat spider-orc with tats and Vespa is a fae queen with bee features shimmering through her human veil, but still. Its uncanny

[missmiseryguts]

Hello!! This is the first time sending you something but you’ve probably seen my asks that ashfluffys has responded to

Just wanted to say I love your Swap AU and the art you make, also a funny little thing

I have an ahit oc named Hood and originally I was going to make them like a Hood inspired alien kid (similar to yours). My previous two (now cut) AFIT kids [Those being Nyakuza/Metro kid and Mafia kid] were actually a lot like your Hood kid.

I do wanna say, you did it a lot better than my old concepts and I like how Hood kid is a really unique character and doesn’t just feel like justice inspired Hat kid that most other swap au versions try to do.

Anyways- enough ranting. Love your stuff!!

AWAWAWAWAAAAAAAA???? THANK TOU SO MUCH THAT MEANS SO MUCHHH 😭😭😭😭 I LOVE RHAT PEOPLE LIKE MY STUFF MAN ITS LIKE. SO REWARDINGDSJHFSHCS YALL ARE THE REASON I CONTINUED TO MAKE THIS AU AND GOT SO MANY IDEAS AND OMGJFNFSNKD THANK YOUUU... MEANS RHE WORLD 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💕💕💕✨✨

YOUR STUFF IS SUPER COOL TOO!!! LIKE IVE SEEN A FEW TIDBITS OF IT AND THEY ALL LOOK SUPER EPIC ✨🫶 EE...

[cauli-flawa]

Ok, I'm curious about your infection AU... What happened to characters like DDD, MK or the others?? Any of your OCs are part of the AU too...? And... How is Marx doing!? I mean, he's infected, right!? Susie has Marx as a subject to see if she can create a cure with his help or...?

Ok, maybe that... Was too much...

THANK YOU FOR THE ASK!!! IVE BEEN WAITING FOR ONE!!!!! And you’re perfectly ok don’t worry!!

The Star Allies were forced to disband when the infection got worse. They have not been able to get together since. Susie and another surviving Ally are trying to reconnect with the surviving members.

That other ally is Meta Knight. He hasn’t forgiven Susie, but he is surprisingly willing to put aside their issues in the face of an emergency.

As for Dedede…

There’s a reason why no one is allowed near the castle anymore.

And Marx! Yeah he’s technically infected. He’s alive, but no one knows it, except for a certain two people.

Susie and Bandee both take care of Marx from within the shelter.

Susie is certain that she has a cure for all of this, but that cure is controversial to say the least.

Metal isn't affected by the infection, but no one wants another Planet Robobot.

And my ocs? I’ve had some ideas about adding some of them in the AU!

Floating somewhere in space is an infested laboratory, owned by a once-infamous corporation. While it looks dead on the outside and inside, there is in fact one survivor. A lone scientist who now runs the entire station.

He’s continuing what that corporation started.

[emerald-cloud23]

eugh, ive got this one very vague au idea from a year ago that wont leave me be.

its evil lloyd & morro in the role of the green ninja. morro is still the master of wind, lloyd is still the master of energy (the energy meant for the green ninja). everyone (the ninja at least) is 17-19 years old and morro and lloyd live at the same time. lloyd is actually doing really good at darkleys in terms of his grades and stuff and as a result some people prefer to hang around him because they hope theyll be safe near the kid of the worst man alive (ppl like brad tudabone and gene). lloyd is absolutely ruthless and a total menace to society. during the events of s1 lloyd and his little group unleashed the hypnobrai without being spotted/found by the ninja but theyll encounter each other when the fangpyre are at ed n ednas junkyard. wu obviously didnt bother telling his students about the fact that his brother had a wife and kid and, even worse, none of them (including wu) knew he also had elemental powers.

but like thats all i have for it :( i cant come up with more because as much as i looove the idea of lloyd being evil (i got another au where hes evil but its against his will (mind controlled)) i just suck at actually making him bad. i tend to fall back into my oc aus and the fluffy cute stuff he has with them :(( tho one of those three aus has lloyd and an oc (criminal) not getting along at first and theyre just yelling at each other and fighting every single encounter but thats the most i can do for that one nfngnngngkgk im sorryyy (to myself) hes just such a baby that i want to protect from more harm..

okay okay, i do have another au but its during dotd where morro (ghost) sticks around and lloyd gets so angered by pythor that he turns into an oni and cant turn back.. yeah thats about it for that one too hdnfnf its an idea i got while listening to sleep token last year im sorry (no im not sorry) and at the end of the song he finally breaks out of it (but also mildly injures himself in the process)

how do you do evil lloyd aus without feeling bad about it, i dont want to feel like this, i wanna make an au where hes the batshit insane one for once

[patti-mayonnaise]

🌻 !!

yaeey ok so ive been meaning to finish my miinions/despicable mii au (basically an au that includes the members of miiblr but as despicable me characters just for funsies since i thought that making an au featuring my community would be kewl) and like. if we're talking abt the miinions au, then id think that the official miiblr mascots would deffo work perfectly as kevin stuart and bob. cuz like. kevin=squibbles, tootsie=bob and stuart=cupcake DO YOU SEE MY VISION?????? and i was thinking abt giving otto's role to older bro madie (shout out to you big bro ilysm/p) since like idk abt yall. but otto's personality fits perfectly with them!! (ohg ye this is @wii-no-ma im talking abt rn wheee) and THE VICISOUS SIX OHOHOHH IVE GOT A COUPLE IDEAS IN MIND. my buddy @faitherr has this one oc named "poptart" AND OMGGG while i was working on the au thinking of whos mii would be a perfect belle bottom., and the first one i thought of,, was poptart!! :D she also gave me sm funky vibes too!!/vpos,, sadly i didnt think abt whod be wild knuckles or stronghold buuut ive got @thiings-with-wings' mii, vern as nun-chuck, @box-the-box as svengence (did i spell that right?? oghh), and @four-raccoons-in-a-trenchcoat as jean clawed !! there wasnt rlly an in-depht reason as to why i chose the other 3 but :b and moving on to like. THE FIRST MINIONS MOVIE where like kevin stuart and bob find their evil master,, and like, need i say more about why @bluerangehearts' acha and darklord stan would be A PERFECT HERB AND SCARLET OVERKILL???? love me some oc x canon ships/vpos,, plus im just gonna say that the cpu miis are all the rest of the minions lol. MOVING ONTO THE DESPICABLE MII AU,, NO ONE OTHER THAN MR @miiblr HIMSELF SHOULD BE GRU!!! cuz think abt it. guy who created the lovely miiblr brand and his little miiblr mascots. THINK ABOUT IT. and vector,, ogh boy i was thinking abt isaacthemii being vector for fun until he showed us how much of a complete piece of shit he really was, so it just makes it much more deserved. bonus points that he literally gets sent to the moon at the end. now for the girls, this was a hard part. i wasnt completely sure whod be the girls,, but @domizaurr would work well as a margo,, as far as im looking at the mii pfp (IM SOOOOO SORRY @domizaurur I MEAN NO OFFENSE),,, plus this was extremelyyyy last minute but @cherriiblossomii would deffo be an agnes !! sadly no idea whod dr nefario, lucy, el macho or balthazar bratt be,, but yeahg!!

so yeah!! other than tryna make a life-sized wsr george cardboard cutout, ive been workimg on that!! im obv not done working on this au but its just a sneakpeak of one of my upcoming projects,,,/vpos!!! feel free to give me some ideas in the tags,,!!/nf obv its just that im the only one working on this but i must stay on that grind :*)

[princessofxianle]

You mentioned/implied in one of your posts that Shen Liang once tried to kill Feng Xin…I have a few questions!

1. I’m really curious as to how Shen Wangxi would react if she knew the full extent as to how Shen Liang’s treated Feng Xin, from the starvation to the beatings and the literal attempted MURDER (that’s dark 😭), which is even sadder because Shen Liang once swore to protect Feng Xin. Shen Wangxi thought he would grow up safe and cared for by his sister, but he didn’t, because his sister was the main threat to him for his entire childhood. How does Shen Wangxi feel about that?

2. How do Mu Qing, Xie Lian, and Xie Lian’s family feel about Feng Xin’s childhood? Does Feng Xin have a better understanding of Mu Qing when he leaves to take care of his mother?

3. Why didn’t Feng Xin’s father ever try to get Shen Liang therapy or any sort of counseling, and what did he do after Shen Liang injured/tried to kill Feng Xin?

This isn’t a question but tbh I kinda hope that Feng Xin never truly forgives Shen Liang for what she did to him. It sounds like she went above and beyond terrorizing him, and all for something that Feng Xin had no choice in…this is a good AU because it makes me feel things lol

Oooooooh look at all these juicy fkn questions, THANK YOU anon! I woke up to this the other day and got very excited to answer these ehe lets gooo...

for reference: meet the OC's (Feng Xin's family)

*alex from the future here, I wrote A LOT I hope you don’t mind… just a warning lol* CARRY ON…

1. How Would Shen Wangxi react to finding out what her daughter did to her son?

Needless to say, I think she would be incredibly disappointed in her daughter, Shen Liang. Regardless, Shen Wangxi is a better woman than I will ever be, and has an insane capability of understanding that is emphasized in her capacity for unconditional love. I haven’t yet talked a lot about Shen Wangxi aside from just being the siblings’ mother, but her entire life has been full of changes that she has taken in stride.

She wanted to cultivate. But instead had a daughter.

She fully intended to raise her on her own, then she met and fell in love with her now husband, Feng Yang, and eventually gave her life for her son.

She has always chased her dreams, but her strength comes from her ability to pursue a new dream without regret or the idea that she “wasted time” in her life, and that’s because she believes that all of her decisions have led her to her next one, and she would not have lived the life she did without doing exactly that and in that specific order.

As I gave a sneak peek earlier, Shen Wangxi will learn about Feng Xin’s childhood when he finds her ghost flame. But more developments to come later (I don’t wanna spoil too many of my reveals lol)

One thing I would like to clarify is that Shen Liang never actually attempts to flat out murder Feng Xin. She is INDEED a bully, physically abusive, even more verbally abusive, and an intelligent pain in the ass one at that. She’s headstrong, resilient, but uncontainable. (And she may or may not possess an incomplete form of teachings from her mothers cultivation days… but it’s 'unknown' to what extent ehe)

(also in a recent idea ive had, Shen Liang is the one who kills Feng Xin’s brand new puppy, but idk if I wanna do that to him… we’ll see…)

2. Xianle Trio Opinions on Feng Xin's childhood?

Feng Xin does not talk about his childhood all that often. Most of the physical abuse he undergoes from Shen Liang happens when he’s very young. The rest he learns to live with as his life is not in danger as he slowly grows older, more independent, and able to fully take care of himself (and later, Xie Lian).

With that said, Feng Xin takes his oaths seriously. He has essentially forfeited any of his inheritance to the Feng Family and is now, in a way, owned by the crown... by Xie Lian.

His past does not matter. Therefore there is no point to bring it up.

Feng Xin does not react any differently to Mu Qing when he decides to depart from the trio in book 4. I mean, Feng Xin can't really empathize with Mu Qing even if he wanted to. He never really had a mother of his own.

Also my babie boi bodyguard (loml) is the king at compartmentalization. He takes his oaths so seriously that he does not understand how someone who “cares” has the capacity to leave. To Feng Xin, at this point in his life, the world is black and white. Right and wrong. Good and bad. Perfect or broken.

Xie Lian, to him, is perfect, and he believes in him with his whole heart.

To Feng Xin, there is still no acceptable excuse to abandon his highness.

There is no need to bring a perfect being down with the cracks on him from his past. His past means nothing now. He is the bodyguard of Taizi Dianxia. No more, no less, and thats exactly how Feng Xin wants it to be… for now.

3. Why didn't Feng Yang get his daughter help?

Short answer? He tried.

But there’s only so much you can do with a sly and capable teenager that has lost her entire world. Her past-self died with her mother, in a sense. She takes it out on the thing closest to her.

Her didi :(

Feng Yang has zero tolerance for this. And that fits given the Feng family longstanding custom of “a man's worth is defined by his ability to protect the things he loves.” A phrase beaten into the heads of every single man to be born with the surname. And no one really knows where the tradition started.

He comes from a historically long line of royal bodyguards (himself included, as he himself used to be a bodyguard for the king, XL’s dad, when he was still a crown prince) so he does discipline her, harshly, in fact, and addresses the issues at hand. He protects his son to the absolute best of his ability. However, she’s still her own young woman. Immature, for sure. But, like her mother, set in her ways. Although said “ways” between them differ.

Feng Yang is a large reason why a lot of the physical abuse Feng Xin endured stopped and never returned. Shen Liang is good at covering her tracks (and it doesn’t help Feng Xin loves her too much to tattle) but Feng Yang is a sharp one as well. He’s an established general for goodness sakes. Minds games, and dispute management is literally his thing. And he’s good at it (the king can attest to that… professionally… ofc)

Additional remarks...

hi again, anon! I feel like this is an odd thing for me to say (but this is also my first round of OCs so I’m still getting used to this) but to me it’s a huge compliment that you have such strong feelings against Shen Liang. Personally, she is one of my favorite literary creations I’ve ever put together and from a writing standpoint I’m really proud of that.

Additionally, my goal is now to make you see her how I see her (I have a lot of character development for her that I haven’t talked about yet bc im not sure how to go about actually presenting this AU thing… like if I want to do this in little posts on tumblr or post in one BIG fic or large collection of fics idk yet). But...

Shen Liang is very much her mother’s daughter. Feng Xin is his father's son. And they both may have more in common than Shen Liang thinks.

Lastly, I’ll leave this little note from my planning notes since these were the concepts that drive the majority of this story.

And I do love me some good parallels...

OKAY im shutting up now, if you made it this far (I love you) thank you for reading! I think about this AU in my free time, its LITERALLY my fav hobby now…

'til next time

[cerealmonster15]

scuse me i gotta go be embarrassing under the cut brb 🚶

@cosmiccoincidence @felix-the-lemon-king well FUCK ok hi lol 👋

so like images from the engtwst translation that altered my brain forever:

so like. 🧍🙈 URGHGHHHG lol. felix u may have heard some of or all of this tangent before in the dms LOL but

my attempt at long story short: friend and i were into twst well before engtwst came out, so when we saw the official translation translated cater's "leona-kun" to "leona, sweetheart," we were like 🤨sweetheart?🤨🤨🤨 jkslajKLDJL like ik it's a casual thing meant here but. however. you see LOL

longer details: me being how i am as a person™, i let this fester in the back of my brain and it gradually grew out of control. i dont like. theyre not a pair i think of when i think of My Cater Ships. HOWEVER as i do with most leona potential ships(???) they read as exes to me here JSDLFG like. me with my soap opera lenses on [they are never off. sorry.] has me running wild w/this like leona/cater having A Thing of some undefined nature like maybe last year. tapping into cater's implied vibes of not always letting people get super close / used to kinda keeping things surface level and making the most of Being In The Moment and less concerned about making lasting ties bc hes used to stuff not lasting from his moving around etc etc whatever. like cater and leona starting off w/ a bond of just quietly being in each others space [i mean caters a chatterbox LOL im thinkin those rare moments where hes like mask off kinda lethargic or something. caycays such an interesting character w/a lotta mystery in that regard but i do NOT have time to get into that so just!!! bear with me LOL JFKLSDJF]

anyway i feel like i recycle the same plotlines with characters/ocs forever but thats just too bad: cater+ leona bonding somehow dont worry about it. idk leonas a spelldrive star and caters really good at flying so They Could Bond -> somehow falling into like a Casual Lowkey Relationship where theyre like 'we arent DATING dating, no labels and mostly just hang out when no one's around but Something Undefined is happening here. they kiss or whatever lol -> they emphasize w/e they have is strictly casual and 'doesnt mean anything' -> perhaps cater emphasized the 'doesnt mean anything' part more idk -> some forbidden feelings kinda spark anyway but one or both of em are just kinda. ignoring/denying it lol -> ive had a specific image in my brain for a Long Time of like. cater kissing lion boy. then being like ✌️its ok, its just for fun dont worry doesnt mean anything ✌️ -> and like its a mutual neutral feeling At First but like eventually i think their Situation falls apart for one reason or another and theres Tension

^i said takes place the year before the game starts but i think i also had it in my mind toying w/the idea of it as like a SUMMER FLING/ROMANCE(?) that ended RIGHT BEFORE school started. or idk maybe it ended right before they got out for break. WHATEVER.

point is those screenshots are from book 2 which is still pretty early on in the school year so ive got the vibe of like "oh things are still awkward between them, the 'breakup' is still relatively fresh, and leona feels bitter about it and is playing extra hardball with these guys and also harshly teasing them about it bc caters there and hes Emotional but taking it out sports style" lol. and supplementing that Specific Image In My Head^ i imagine in that convo in the screenshots w/cay being like 😔leona sweetheart plz chill😔 leona would just be like 😒well. it 'Doesnt Mean Anything' so whats the problem here 😌 😒

anyway. you maybe didnt really ask for the extra headcanon au lore whatever details but i gave them to you anyway LOL my LeoCay Messy Breakup AU. but i ALSO just like drawing them together bc cay is my fave and fun to draw, and leona is Also fun to draw 😔 my fave character cay + character i have been dragged kicking and screaming to kind of respect over time KLJFSDKLJFL every time leona says or does something that makes me think hes cool or smart i get SO MAD about it. seething at book 6 LOL SJDKLFJD twst with their damn complex characters making me Think Deeply 😒 and then i steal their deep blorbos and put them in my funny little barbie dreamhouse soap opera recycled romance drama plotline loop forever and ever and ev

ahem. so yea on the surface. pair that probs would never ever work out HOWEVER it's MY mind palace and i can make up whatever silly rules i want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nocturnal-phantoms-fandoms]

Fic Writer Questions

Tagged by @squintclover - thank you so much!! Loved your response!!

🍓 How did you get into writing fanfiction?

By loving the story so much I wanted to be in it, lol. My first few attempts at writing ff were with self-insert OCs, but that was in my native language and mostly unpublished. Im trying to recycle some of those ideas, but Im not sure how will it go.

As for fics written in english and without OCs - like everyone else, by reading other fics.

🍇How many fandoms have you written in?

If we count the first few attempts - I took a look at my docs and counted 7 fandoms. Some parts of those were published somewhere on the web but I genuinely forgot about their existence.

If we count fics published recently on tumblr/ao3 - only HP.

🍈 How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Technically? A decade. But idk if that counts if it wasnt published and probably never will be and had self insert OCs.

I started writing my first fics in english after I got into that one fandom which was during the pandemic, so that would be around 3-4 years - but posting since… December 2023.

🍎 Do you read or write more fanfiction?

Definitely read.

🍌 What is one way you've improved as a writer?

Im not making the characters as OOC as before? I hope

🍑 Do you have any bad habits as a writer?

Trying to fit too many things into one project that do not fit bc they are too self indulgent or just bad writing bc require sacrificing either plot or characterization. Being too ambitious, having too much plot that needs too much effort to make it make sense, and will not pay off bc nobody will read it (bc idk if i will ever finish it. and if i do it will not be written in english).

🍍 What's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Just one? There are so many weird things Ive been researching or googling.

Did they have 3-in-1 shampoos in 1979. Language of flowers. What the ancient roman beds looked like. Names and their meanings. Ancient roman’s attitude towards (homo)sexuality. Phosphorus and phosphorescence (this was literally to check if this one sentence in canon is factually correct). Did ancient romans have pets. Different gems’ looks, usage and meanings. Ancient Roman dog names. Different astronomical events / discoveries in years 1975-1980 and in year 1957. Layout of certain types of houses.

🍉What's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

Any comment is a nice comment <3 tho I like to be let known the person felt something while reading bc its still so abstract and bizzare for me that it happens 😅

🍐What's the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

As you can see from the research question I have an ancient roman au wip. I was genuinely surprised there were only a few ancient roman aus in the marauders fandom.

This one published wip is about a surprise pregnancy that isnt immediately regarded as great news and celebrated (which i think isnt a common way of approaching the topic.) I also wanted to write sth about abortion and miscarriage but i dont know if I will get around to actually writing those.

And Im trying to recycle my old OC-focused long fic which also is deeply unpopular (i understand why but also i feel like im fighting in the trenches)

🥭What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

Thats about something. Has a deeper meaning and everyone in the comments talk about how deeply they were moved by it. Or how clever the plot was. Or how the deeply and insightfully the characters are analysed. Or how beautiful the language is. Or. Like. Is written and finished and publishable.

🍏What is the easiest type?

All I know is funny dialogue, self indulgent fluff and this one type of hurt/comfort that is also super self indulgent. Also putting all the effort into fitting in as many references / easter eggs as you can that i know nobody will notice.

🍑Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

On my laptop, usually sitting at my desk, or on the balcony if the weather permits, whenever I feel like ignoring the things im supposed to be doing instead, I guess.

So far I’ve been using google docs but I’ll be probably moving on from them in the nearest future. For organizing ideas/wips and short fics I use Notion - its good for organizing but not that good as a writing program.

🍋What is something you've been too nervous/ intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

Smut, lol. Also more taboo topics like abortion and miscarriage mentioned above.

🍇What made you choose your username?

I translated my first ever username to English. ok, no, my first ever username was Leila Moonlight and i still think its pretty but now i also think its cringe. Tho I was - what? - 11? 12? So maybe I can be forgiven that it looks like a HP character. Nocturnal Phantom - the username actually use now - is still a bit cringe, I picked it bc I was a night owl (lol) and tried to lean into this nighttime-spooky aesthetic, but also its tumblr so im embracing it. I recently picked a nickname Nyx for my mutuals' convenience - and that is the greek goddess of the night. I commit to the bit.

No pressure tagging: @polaroidcats, @hiddenmoonbeam, @soloorganaas

[darsynia]

Modern Mythology | Ch2

(Tony Stark/OC; soulmate AU pre-Ultron, in 3 parts)

image from peakpx.com | gif from @marveladdicts

Summary: Abigail Carson takes a chance on a second job as a courier in the hopes that it’ll help her find her soulmate, whose words on her skin imply that he’s signing for a package she delivers. When she hears the words spoken by Tony Stark, though, Abbi has second thoughts. She’s practically a nobody!

Length: 4,678

MY MASTERLIST | PREVIOUS CHAPTER | NEXT CHAPTER

Taglist: @starryeyes2000 @raith-way @arrthurpendragon, @starksbf

Excerpt:

Abbi wrote, ‘Waiting???’ and held it up.

Stark’s expression sobered. “Fair point. I fought it first too, you might say. I liked what I had, but it wasn’t right, you know? You know.”

She did know, and his arguments were persuasive. They were also frightening. The whole idea of entering this man’s world was intimidating. Overcome, Abbi turned toward the high counter of the receptionist’s welcome area, crossed her arms on the surface, and dropped her head onto them.

Stark took the pen out of her hand before she could stop him. She let out a frustrated noise.

“You’re acting like I’m going to drag you up to the penthouse and turn it into a sex dungeon when you finally do say something to me. That’s not how it works, you know that, right? You say them, we get to know each other.” Abbi felt a gentle nudge on her shoulder and lifted her head to see that he was leaning beside her, less than an inch away. “I wouldn’t say no to the sex dungeon, mind you.”

Chapter Two: Seeds of Doubt and Hope

Abbi got another summons to Courier and Ives the following day. She was tempted not to go, certain that Stark was summoning her back like a liege lord whose chattel had not performed according to expectations. Somewhere deep down, though, she knew that assessment was unfair.

Soulmates were a fixture of human romantic life. Countless songs, movies, and television shows revolved around the drama of discovering one’s soulmate, sometimes resisting one’s soulmate, but finally, always, capitulating to fate. She had always really loved those kinds of stories, never realizing she’d be living one. The problem for Abbi was whether or not the words she’d heard were coincidentally the same as her soulmark or not. There were shows about that, too.

After dithering all morning about whether she ought to show up at the courier office, Abbi finally decided to go anyway. Her compromise was that she absolutely would not mention soulmates unless it came up because Stark did.

Mrs. Walsingham’s attitude was expansive and coy. “Your delivery was a hit, yesterday! You’ve got another package to drop off for Stark personally, and another box of illegal cigars-- I mean, excuse me,” the older woman coughed as if she’d swallowed a frog for ten whole seconds. “Another box of exotic tea for Mr. Michaels in the building across the street from the tower.”

“Is there a chance you would give these to Minthe?” Abbi asked with genuine hope in her voice.

“Young lady, the son of Howard Godblesshim Stark phoned me up personally, described you in very admiring terms, asked what your name was, and requested you and only you to deliver this item. If you don’t go I may have to exercise my ‘damaging the business’ clause in our contract!” The poor woman’s face was nearly as purple in the face as her favorite color, which today was streaked through her blouse and matching skirt as well as the jewelry.

“Yes ma’am,” Abbi said resignedly. “Can I have a second clipboard? Mine was… mislaid.”

“He said them, didn’t he?” Mrs. Walsingham asked shrewdly.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Abbi told her, and fled as soon as she was given the replacement clipboard. One of the packages was moderately heavy, almost flat, and rectangular, and the other was lightweight and square.

The woman at the front desk did not let her leave the package, but directed her to the penthouse. Abbi flatly refused, saying it was inappropriate. She was directed to wait in the lobby.

Guessing that she might be waylaid, she pulled out her phone and called in to her paralegal job, notifying them that she might be back late. She had plenty of PTO hours, and both her boss and grand-boss knew about the side job (the magic of soulmarks, again). Something told her that Stark was going to try to wait her out, but he would be sorely mistaken if he thought she couldn’t sit quietly. After ten minutes of Abbi doing just that, her hands on top of the two packages in her lap, she saw that the front desk person was looking her way and speaking on the phone.

Two minutes later, she heard a now-familiar voice. “You really want to do this here, in front of witnesses?”

It was a shame she hadn’t opted for an elective procedure to wire her jaw shut, just to see the look on the man’s face, Abbi thought. She didn’t say that, though. She just stood up and held out the square package, sitting on the clipboard, on which she’d already written a note.

‘You don’t know me. I don’t know you. Sign the page, and we’ll both get on with our lives.’

Stark was wearing a suit today. He looked fantastic. Abbi resented herself for even thinking it, because liking him in any way was just going to make the whole situation harder. He held up the clipboard, facing her.

“I’m not the one preventing us from getting on with our lives. Our collective life.”

She snatched the clipboard away with a swift move he clearly hadn’t anticipated, backed away directly beside two tourists who were staring at both of them with wide eyes, and wrote out a new message under the first one.

‘Prove I’m your soulmate, then. Before I say anything.’

Abbi held up the clipboard for him to read. To her consternation, the words she’d written made Stark smile with an expression of absolute delight.

“You’re on,” he said. “One moment.”

He stepped away to use his phone, and Abbi frowned. She still had a second delivery! In frustration, she went back to her chair, where she’d left the second package, the ‘tea’ she had to deliver across the street. If Stark thought he could keep her waiting while he held a phone conversation, he was wrong. He might be a handsome billionaire, but she had to work for a living.

Her conscience pointed out that he’d probably designed enough patents to live off of the proceeds for the rest of his life, regardless of inheritance of business proceeds. Then her mother-conscience added that it seemed like Abbi was just scared of change. She agreed with both assessments.

Just as Abbi was about to grab the second package, though, Happy Hogan walked up from just a few feet away and blocked her movement.

“Fancy seeing you again,” he said with an easy grin.

“Your boss likes to throw his influence around to get what he wants, and I’m the low woman on the totem pole,” she said in irritation.

“Turns out that’s part of your job description. The promotional materials for Courier and Ives encourages clients to bond with their courier.”

“It says bond?” Abbi asked in surprise.

“It actually does, look,” Hogan said, holding up his phone. She walked closer to read what it said, and saw him look over her shoulder, nod, and then refocus on her.

“What was--” Abbi turned around and saw that Stark was standing there, off the phone, finally. He was holding the package she needed.

“Sorry to keep you,” he said. The words sounded sincere, but Abbi felt like there was absolutely something suspicious between the two men. With no proof, though, she was happy to get on her way. Pointedly turning her back on Stark, she spoke to Hogan.

“Mr. Hogan, it was nice to meet you twice. Have a lovely life.”

“I’ll wish you the very same thing,” Hogan said with a broad smile. There was an obvious double meaning to it, but she decided to let that slide now that she could be on her way.

She’d have to quit the courier job, but that was just the way it had to go. Even if it was just a bit tempting to wonder what a life as someone like Stark’s soulmate would be. He had clearly lived a full life without one, and with his wealth, he’d be able to do so again. In her mind, Abbi went over all of the reasons why inserting herself into Tony Stark’s life would be a bad idea. It was a long list, full of things like ‘mom would be pretty stressed out,’ ‘Stark’s well known for liking flashy, experienced women, which I am absolutely not,’ and one of the most important ones, ‘I hate the idea of acquiescing to ‘fate’ as if I didn’t have any choice in the matter!’

Her second delivery went as normal. The executive it was meant for accepted it graciously, his anticipation clear. She could hear him ripping open the white paper it was wrapped in even before her hand touched the doorknob of his office.

“Young lady?”

Abbi turned. “Yes, sir?”

“I’m sorry to say, this is not mine.” The executive held up a silk tie emblazoned with the Iron Man helmet.

“That absolute sneaky bastard!” she exclaimed. The next second, she was mortified . “Oh, Lord, I’m so sorry!”

“You came here after Stark? I tell you what, I’ll keep them. Go get the real one, tell him he can bill me for these.”

Abbi’s heart rate was still going strong. She knew her face had to be beet red. “Are you sure? This is the height of unprofessional, I--”

“I have a feeling it was on purpose. Not your fault he’s got a bit of the imp in him.”

Abbi’s feet hurt from how much force she’d put in every step by the time she walked back into the lobby of Stark’s building. Sure enough, he and Hogan were waiting in the pair of chairs she’d been seated at. The rest of the lobby was cleared of people, which also didn’t seem much of a coincidence.

“Hogan!” Abbi called out. She wanted to lay into Stark, but there was some part of her that was afraid of marking him with words she might regret. “You’ve been conscripted. A Mr. Michaels would very much like his box, please.”

Hogan held it up, and she glared at him. “For a good cause! I’ll head over.”

“Didn’t think that through, Abbi,” Stark said. His use of her name made her stop short and lay a hand on the nearest piece of furniture to steady herself. She saw him coming toward her, both hands casually resting in his pants pockets. “There’s no one else in here to address your comments to. You don’t happen to know ASL, do you? Now that would be an interesting soulmark.”

There was something so gentle in his eyes. It sparked a flurry of excitement in her chest, as if something inside her recognized it was Tony Stark fighting for their possible future. The problem was it was such an impossible future that she couldn’t understand how he couldn’t see that.

He’d also forgotten something. Abbi pulled the clipboard out of her inner jacket pocket and held it up. She wrote something on it so quickly that he didn’t get the chance to take it from her, even though he’d started walking over the second he saw it.

‘What will happen when I DO say something and they aren’t your words?’

“Not possible,” Stark said, confidence personified.

Abbi rolled her eyes and started to write something else, but Stark snatched the clipboard out of her hands and tucked it into his back pocket.

“Say them.”

She shook her head.

“Abigail Carson. Daughter of Demaria and Atticus Carson. Ambitious, fun-loving mother, practical, dutiful father. Honors student in high school, attended NYU for a pre-law degree, one year of law school Syracuse University before putting education on hold to care for your mother after the one-two punch of a cancer diagnosis and losing your father to a heart attack. Started work at a law firm in the interim, and moved in with your mother when the cancer recurred,” he recited, pacing in a tight circle in front of her. “Hardworking, dedicated, impulsive to a point, needs to let loose.” At this, he spread his arms out as if to suggest that a relationship with him might help with that.

Abbi wanted to ask what the point was of reciting some personal information he snooped around to find, but she wasn’t going to say something to him without thinking it through first, no matter how much he goaded her to do so.

“Anthony Stark. Son of Howard and Maria Stark. Ambitious, fun-loving father, practical, dutiful mother. Honors student in high school, multiple doctorates from MIT by his late teens, before I put more education on hold to care for my company at age 21, when my parents were killed in a car accident. Impulsive, dedicated, hardworking to a point, needs someone to ground him. That’s you,” he said, pointing at Abbi. “You wanted me to prove you’re my soulmate before you say anything? Who else would fight it this much?” He gestured to the lobby windows, where there was a small crowd speaking to the receptionist Abbi had seen earlier. “There are any number of women who would be desperate for this chance, not that I’m interested in any of them.”

He’d been walking in wider and wider circles, coming closer and closer to her. She took off her shoes, and when he turned to circle back around after saying that, Abbi pulled the clipboard free of his back pocket and ran to the other side of the free-standing arc of the receptionist’s welcome area in the lobby so she could write out another message.

“You little sneak! I love it,” Stark said, chasing after her.

All Abbi managed to write before he snatched it back was, ‘It’s been one whole day, chill.’

“When you’ve been waiting over ten years for someone, a whole day is a long time,” he said after reading it. He tucked the clipboard into his pants this time, waggling his eyebrows at her.

The pen worked on her hand, so Abbi wrote, ‘Waiting???’ and held it up.

Stark’s expression sobered. “Fair point. I fought it first too, you might say. I liked what I had, but it wasn’t right, you know? You know.”

She did know, and his arguments were persuasive. They were also frightening. The whole idea of entering this man’s world was intimidating. Overcome, Abbi turned toward the high counter of the receptionist’s welcome area, crossed her arms on the surface, and dropped her head onto them.

Stark took the pen out of her hand before she could stop him. She let out a frustrated noise.

“You’re acting like I’m going to drag you up to the penthouse and turn it into a sex dungeon when you finally do say something to me. That’s not how it works, you know that, right? You say them, we get to know each other.” Abbi felt a gentle nudge on her shoulder and lifted her head to see that he was leaning beside her, less than an inch away. “I wouldn’t say no to the sex dungeon, mind you.”

She tried to glare at him, but his personal magnetism seemed to be perfectly attuned to attract her, and she smiled begrudgingly, shaking her head ‘no.’

“Worth a shot.” He pulled something out of his pocket and set it on the counter beside her arm. She had to shift positions to see what it was.

When she looked, Abbi glanced quickly up at Stark.

“I have a whole package of these, I didn’t, like, get some loose out of a vending machine and let them collect pocket lint before offering them to you,” he assured her, holding up a plastic package with the Runts logo on them. Stark pulled out a banana one and popped it in his mouth, crunching down on it immediately.

He’d made the same mistake with the pen as he had with the clipboard, and Abbi grabbed it from his breast pocket, writing ‘Chewing???? HEATHEN’ on an unmarked part of her hand.

This just made him grin at her, sticking a second banana one in his mouth and capturing it in his teeth to wag it at her a bit. They were standing so close that she could smell the banana flavoring on his breath. The intimacy of that was a bit stunning for Abbi. Was this really her life? Standing in a lobby that should be teeming with people, desperately resisting making a move that would change her life forever, while this man who should have no vested interest in her whatsoever gently coaxed her into doing it?

Was it working? She felt less certain about her convictions now than she had when she’d walked in there.

“Uh oh, you’re thinking again. Quick, eat one.”

Because she still had the pen, Abbi wrote on the back of her hand, near her thumb.

‘You called me Iris, not Persephone.’

Stark rolled his eyes in mock ecstasy and leaned over, his spicy aftershave and banana breath taking over her senses, stand-ins for the reasons to speak and the reasons to stay silent. Being his soulmate would be bananas. “Smart women are so hot. Eat them and say it, Abbi. Come down to hell with me, help keep me warm.”

It would serve this infuriating, ridiculous man if she said what she was thinking right now. Wasn’t hell already warm? She wouldn’t put it past him to say something like that just to get her to correct him, but he had said earlier that he wasn’t interested in being marked with Greek mythology soulmark words.

Just to show him that she wasn’t afraid to compare him with Hades, Abbi grabbed the three Runts (none of them were banana, her favorite, but she suspected they were his favorite too. They were everyone’s favorite) and popped them in her mouth.

“Tell you what. I don’t want to wait another day,” Stark said enigmatically. “Here. Write one more thing. Final argument.” He handed her back the clipboard, which was warm from his body heat. His rich brown eyes challenged her, and Abbi felt like it really was her last chance to persuade him and herself. She could feel the tingles of excitement that spread every time their eyes met, could sense that she was giving in.

‘A fish may love a bird, but where would they live? You deserve someone from your world.’

When Abbi held up the clipboard, the slow, triumphant smile that grew on Tony Stark’s face made her fall for him just a little. It was just so confident, the exact opposite of what she had expected, that she was completely helpless to defend against him.

“Do you know how many women try to catch my eye? And here you are, fighting fate with all your might. I don’t remember the last time I was faced with the idea of having to woo someone. It’s a truly unique experience. Thank you for that.” He leaned his elbow on the counter, plopped his head onto his hand, and asked, “So, do you like flowers? Chocolates? A robot of your very own?”

She picked up the pen to scrawl out that he had completely missed her point, but before she could write anything, he took the clipboard again.

Abbi was so frustrated she said everything she was thinking.

“Look, I was just trying to do my job, but then you stole my cab, you stole my next delivery, you stole my pen, and you stole my clipboard four separate times, all so I’d HAVE to speak to you, so fine, I give up, here are the words you’re so desperate for!”

“Yes!” he said, and before Abbi could process that she’d said that all out loud, Stark had leaned over and kissed her very lightly and gently, pulling back to gauge her reaction.

“What--” she said, her lips tingling from the contact. A warm feeling of anticipation and pleasure had flared up in her gut. His reaction confirmed her fear and perhaps secret hope: she was definitely Tony Stark’s soulmate.

“Your words were a schematic to follow. I was probably supposed to let that happen over the course of a couple of weeks, but I’m me,” he said, grinning.

“But that was a whole paragraph!” Abbi said, aghast.

“I did goad you,” he said.

“Stark--”

“Tony,” he corrected. “Nothing has to change right away, Persephone.”

“I only ate three, she ate six, it’s a flawed comparison,” Abbi said distractedly. “Do you really have that whole thing written on your body somewhere? Why on Earth would you try to get me to say that?”

“Oh yes, it’s the number of seeds in dispute, not the idea that I’m the God of the underworld,” Tony said with deep sarcasm. Abbi’s face flared with a blush as she recognized exactly how much she found that unexpectedly attractive. “And, are you kidding? I just had to follow your instructions and be myself. Your words were very helpful that way.”

Abbi looked at him and saw that the vulnerability she’d seen before was still present. She wondered if he thought she’d still reject him. It happened-- there were people whose soulmates were too deep into addiction or destructive behavior, and they’d left, rather than watch their other half tear themselves into smaller pieces that couldn’t be repaired. Pepper Potts had left Tony Stark for much the same reason, and she’d been with him in various capacities for over ten years. The fact that she wasn’t his actual soulmate probably hadn’t made their break-up any less excruciating.

Something at the back of her mind was pinging for her attention, and as Tony’s phone rang and he answered it, she tried to find out what it was. When she realized, Abbi gasped.

“What?”

“You let me hand you things! You let me hand you multiple things! You don’t even know me!”

“Yes, you can open it back up. We’re going to. Yeah,” Tony said on the phone. He took her hand, rested it on his arm, and led her over to the elevator. “I need to open my building back up.” She let him lead her inside a car, still focused on the thing she’d realized.

“You don’t like being handed things. It’s in all the articles.” Abbi couldn’t let it go.

“Would it make more sense if I told you that Violet Walsingham is a family friend?” Tony asked. He took off his suit jacket and draped it over his arm, and started to pull his dress shirt out from where it was tucked into his trousers.

She backed away from him up against the elevator wall, suddenly frightened. What if this was how he picked up women nowadays? Getting her boss to tell him what to tell each courier! “Did she tell you my soulmark? What are you doing?”

“My soulmark is on my back. Violet did not tell me yours.” He turned his back on her and pulled the shirt up. “You’ll have to tug it up, it’s a bit tight.”

“Whose fault is that,” she couldn’t help but say, but Abbi reached out and lifted the shirt, only because she could see the final few words. They were in her handwriting. The whole paragraph was there. She wanted to touch them. She wanted to run away and never come back. She wanted to figure out what to do. As excited as she was about finding her soulmate, and finding out it was someone like Tony, it was intimidating as hell.

The elevator opened, and Abbi dropped the shirt like it was on fire. Tony chuckled and ushered her out. It was a living room, but the outside walls were windows, with an amazing view of New York.

“Wow,” she breathed.

“Violet found out I hadn’t discovered who my soulmate was, and once she got it out of me how specific my soulmark was, she decided to ‘help,’” Tony told her, gesturing for her to move farther into the room so she could see the view from up close. “She incorporated clipboards, only hired young, beautiful women from good backgrounds.”

“That’s sneaky. I shouldn’t reward either of you for that,” Abbi said, spinning around to look at him. He was unbuttoning his dress shirt, which made her widen her eyes even more, but she was mollified when he held up a t-shirt, implying he was just going to switch them.

“So how many employees of Courier and Ives have you met, then?” she asked, biting her lip.

“Thirty? Forty?” He shrugged.

“What?”

The elevator dinged, and Abbi looked over from Tony’s honest, direct expression to see that Happy Hogan was walking toward her, carrying her shoes.

“He let me hand him things,” she told Hogan.

“Yeah. He knew. So did I.”

“Your confidence is intimidating,” she griped, taking her shoes.

“That’s what makes you charming,” Hogan quipped, waving before heading back into the elevator.

Abbi noticed she was standing near a couch and let herself fall into it. “I don’t--”

“You want to go back to work? I can drive you,” Tony said. He came over and sat a respectful distance away. He looked less intimidating wearing the Iron Maiden shirt he’d changed into while she was talking to his buddy, but she was still barely coping. “As long as you come back.”

Then, another thought struck her. “Did you pay her?”

“Violet? No.” He scooted closer to her. “She got a successful, reputable business out of all of this. I doubt she’ll close up just because I found you.”

“You know all of this is insane, right?”

“So make it sane for me, Abigail,” Tony said. “What would do that?”

“Your phone number? A date, maybe? A primer on the uber rich?” she laughed. “I-- I think I could like you. I’m attracted. I don’t know if I feel some instant, powerful connection, but I don’t know how it’s supposed to work.”

“I can work with attracted,” Tony said warmly. “I can get you a phone--”

“Aht!” Abbi said, closing her fingers in on her thumb in a ‘stop’ gesture. “I have a phone. I want your number. I won’t share it with anyone.”

“Yes, Miss Granger,” Tony rolled his eyes. He put his phone number into her phone, and when she got it back, his contact was named ‘Soulron Man’ with emoji hearts surrounding the words.

“Does that mean I get to put myself into your phone?” she asked, wishing she could get used to the feeling that she was walking along a knife-edge ridge high in the Himalayas. At any moment something she said, did, or thought to herself could push her tumbling over into one valley or another.

“That’s a big step, honeybuns, are you sure you’re ready for it?” His eyes were practically begging her to object to the nickname.

“I-- can I go home? I took PTO for the rest of the day,” Abbi asked cautiously.

“Absolutely. Can I drive you?”

“To show off your restraint or your fancy cars?”

“Yes.”

The fancy car was a convertible, and Tony kept his hands to himself the entire ride. Abbi found herself relaxing just a bit around him, which was both a welcome relief and a trigger for more anxiety. Their conversation revolved around their parents, oddly enough, but when he pulled up to her apartment complex, he turned toward her with a serious expression on his face.

“Look, I’m a mess. It’s well documented. If you’re going to be a mess too, we’re going to have to work out some sort of custody arrangement.”

Despite herself, Abbi laughed. “Ironically, my mess is probably the polar opposite of yours? I feel deeply inadequate.”

“Having a paragraph of frustration etched into my back in your handwriting doesn’t encourage you even a little bit?” he asked. Abbi frowned. “No, wait--” he said, reaching out and grabbing her hand to squeeze it. “That made you feel anxious about what it says, didn’t it?”

She nodded.

“This is irony, that’s what this is. I have no experience with inadequacy.”

Abbi couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. “Maybe we’re supposed to even each other out?”

“That… might actually make sense. So, dinner tomorrow? I pick you up here?” His thumb brushed across the top of her hand. It felt like a gentle knock on the door of her heart, and for the first time since she’d heard his first words to her, Abbi felt like she might be up for answering it.

Tony kissed her hand before she went inside. The sizzle of his lips against her skin made Abbi wonder how long their physical compromises would survive the tension that was starting to grow between them.

Her mother was asleep for an afternoon nap when she got inside. As carefully as she could, Abbi snuck into her room and spent the rest of the day completely unable to focus on anything. Taking PTO had been a really good idea.

She went to sleep that night with her heart full of possibilities and only a few concerns. They were big concerns, but they might not be as insurmountable as she’d initially thought.

Next chapter, Abbi goes on the most momentous first date anyone could possibly have, and the two of them bond through shared trauma.

[findroleplay]

Hello! Im 20+ looking for others 20+ please!

Ive been in the mood lately for a plot based on the classic Pirate x Royalty trope!! I have a very loose idea in mind and would love to be able to plot out details about it all with you. Im mainly looking for FxF or MxM for this! Id prefer to have the royalty role BUT if youd prefer to play as the royalty, definitely let me know and we can absolutely talk about it and work something out!

The outline of an idea I had for the plot would be Your Character kidnaps mine either as revenge against the king and the kingdom for ransom (we can discuss details of why in DMs) or maybe simply for another reason entirely. My OC, while displeased about having been kidnapped, is weirdly relieved due to your OC doing so as it maybe has saved them from an arranged marriage they didnt want to be apart of, or maybe they simply just didnt enjoy the life of royalty and wanted a way out and your OC gave them that even if in a questionable and unintended way. Whether or not my OC stays relieved depends entirely on your OC and how you want them to treat mine! While I'd prefer a slow-burn sort of thing between our characters, possibly a mix of enemies to lovers and strangers to lovers, Im not dead set on it and don't mind if things go in a different direction entirely. Im absolutely open to other ideas as well so feel free to toss some my way too! Id love to hear any ideas youve got as well.

Another possible idea I had alongside this one is something with a Pirate x Pirate trope instead, maybe one of our OC's ships crashed in a storm and the other finds them and takes them aboard their own ship to help them? Maybe they have an enemies/rivals thing going on with one of them has something the other wants, so when one of them finds the other in the ruins of their ship, they hold them and what remains of their crew (if any) hostage until they give them what they want? Id also lean towards this one being a slow burn enemies to lovers sort of thing but just like with the previous idea, I dont mind if the idea goes a different route!

I know both of those ideas are pretty bare bones and simple right now but Id absolutely love to flesh out either idea with you, or even use a new idea entirely whether its an idea you may already have or if its a new idea we create together, Id love to hear any and all your thoughts and ideas!! Im also open to mixing AU's with these tropes too, so hit me with some if you have any youd want to use!!

Im honestly not looking for any NSFW right now so Id prefer to keep this SFW, so please keep this in mind!

That being said, I dont mind potential dark themes popping up considering some aspects of the plot all I ask is that we discuss everything beforehand first.

My writing style tends to be very lengthy by default but I will always try to match my partner to the best of my abilities! Please no one liners though, give me soemthing to work with! My availability fluctuates often so bare with me, I will always try my best to let you know beforehand if I wont be available for any given time.

I think thats it!! If you're interested, like this post and I will reach out!

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