#ive known for a while that everything in WoW is meant to be like. probably 1000x bigger than it is LMAO

[mbat]

sometimes i wish WoW would make a show that just kinda goes back to the beginning and tells the story in a way thats way more accessible than trying to navigate a game thats stuck in various capsules of time from the last 20 years (not to mention lore thats in completely other games or other mediums entirely)

and since theyd have so much to go over, they wouldnt exactly run into the issue of hitting the present unless they were spitting out the stories at a concerningly fast rate lol

and that idk every season or few seasons is the expansions or games or idfk like it would be a lot more to consider but like, actually giving the stories the time they would take to be told yknow. and it would kinda work since a lot of the stuff that happens is pretty interconnected anyway.

and it would also let them probably try to fix some story stuff people didnt like lol

obv it would be way more complicated than just 1:1 translating it over, cause telling a story made for a game is much different than telling a story in the form of a show

also since the player character is often meant to be part of the story, i wonder if theyd have to make a character(characters?) for it, or if theyd find a way around it since that would be, imo, a big topic to try to write in. like theres a lot more decisions there than just making a guy and plopping them into the narrative

also i would NOT want it to be live action or even realistic animation lol i would want it to be stylized animation ONLY. especially since they have a good art style going in the game, at least i think so. ive heard people say that it looks bad, but i really dont see how. if its expensive though, i can understand if that wasnt the route taken

idk i have a lot of thoughts, not to mention its not like shows based on games are seen as the worst thing ever anymore with things like the success of arcane, though theyre obviously very different games and would be very different shows

also they did try to make a movie. i never saw it, and i saw some pretty mixed reviews on it, but the point is that they did try to tell a story in that sortve way before, though they were waaay too expensive about it with the movie LOL. also again, a movie and a show are still very different ways of writing a story

[newtedison]

my thoughts on the crank palace

i touched about this a bit on twitter (@newtedison_) but i figured i would Try and touch on my points more here (spoilers obv) again, its sort of lengthy

1. im gonna start with talking about the ending because i need to get it out of the way. either i havent read the books in a while and i forgot some canon (which could very well be true, i literally forgot that Bliss was a thing) or this ending makes no sense and is (somehow) setting up for a tdc sequel? so first off, newt was shot in the Head with a Bullet and somehow didnt immediately die? i know that that can happen in real life but it just seems so unlikely that not only would he not die, but he would survive long enough for someone from WCKD to transport him back to their labs and try to revive him. and who the fuck was he talking to? did thomas get newt’s journal at some point and i just dont remember? like i said, either im forgetting stuff or this ending doesnt make sense and is setting up a sequel which...i’ll get to later

2. why was this written? like, what was the point? i understand that this wasnt going to be all sunshine and rainbows but i feel like i was reading torture porn. like, literally all that happens is newt gets tortured (which is described in detail) by WCKD soldiers, has bouts of insane-fueled rage where he KILLS MULTIPLE PEOPLE, and then he dies. ??? what did this contribute to the canon? what was this trying to accomplish? truthfully, i never really wanted a newt-POV...well, anything except for maybe those little nuggets he wrote some time ago. but even if i HAD wanted a newt-POV novella, this is not what i would have wanted. he KNOWS that newt is almost universally the most loved character in this franchise. you can tell because he constantly uses him as a way to get fans in his good graces again. so why on earth would he take that character that so many people love and write a novella where its torture porn and a descent into madness before death? i am not interested in that At All. i’ve read fics (and even written a drabble) where newt is a Crank, and those were more respectful and easier to read than tcp. the parts where newt is having bouts of the Flare were literally exhausting to read; it was described in such vivid and torturous detail that it made me sick reading it. and it didnt help that newt is a character i care a lot about. i didn’t need to know what becoming a Crank felt like. the way it was described in the other books (and even the movies) told me everything i needed to know. the way thomas and everyone found newt at the crank palace in tdc and hes described as obviously not well, but not knowing what exactly happened to him...thats good enough on its own. the mystery of what exactly newt had to endure is part of what gives his journey more emotional depth. not everything needs to be written out and explained. not every gap needs to be filled in. 

3. me saying “the characterization felt off” is going to make some people roll their eyes because ‘duh, sami, the characterization will be off because he’s going insane’ to which i say...exactly. we weren’t really reading a newt-POV novella, were we? even if he isn’t past the Gone in the beginning, hes clearly not the same person we knew him as. the whole novella felt like an uncanny valley situation; i knew i was supposed to be reading about newt, but it felt like i was reading about someone else who looked like him. and that is part of what made this such a disconnect and made me lose interest at parts. not only that, but the world building and lore is inconsistent. newt makes a comment about how it used to rain in the glade, and apparently (as ive been told) that is simply not true. keisha having somehow working cell phone that magically connects her to her family also doesnt make sense. how would they have each others’ numbers? what are the odds that they BOTH found working cell phones in an apocalypse? i get that its a novella but you cant just throw something that crazy in there as a plot convenience. actually work on your plot and world building in a cohesive way, please. and another thing that doesnt make sense...

4. ...is newt finding out that sonya is his sister. if there was anything i would have wanted from a newt-pov novella, it would have been this. him finding out that not only is sonya his sister, but he already knows her post-WCKD. something that would have made this novella actually captivating, contributing something worthwhile to the canon that i would actually want to read, is if newt found out while in the crank palace that sonya was his sister; the Flare would remove that part of the Slice in his brain, and he would realize it was her. then, knowing that he couldnt go past the Gone before seeing her, he would try to find a way to get back to her. he could learn this after thomas and everyone originally see him, so it could match up with the canon. and then, by the time 250 comes along, hes lost all hope of that actually happening, and lashes out to thomas in a fit of rage. the journey of him trying to find his ACTUAL sister would have meant more to me than the story of keisha and dante. trust me, i love a found family trope as much as the next girl. but this series is FULL of the found family trope. it pretty much is the backbone of the franchise. so to see a blood family dynamic would have been a refreshing change of pace that i actually would have been interested in reading. also, the way that newt DOES find out about sonya is...underwhelming. he just randomly says “you remind me of my sister, sonya” to keisha in the WCKD truck. first of all, sonya is not the name you would actually know her by. you would know her by her birth name (which is lizzy? elizabeth?). second, why does he act like he didnt already meet her in the series? when the WCKD doctor tells him sonya is his sister and is alive, hes so surprised. wouldn’t he have known that already? why is there not more emphasis on the fact he already met her? that would have been a really interesting dynamic to explore, and im sad they didnt

5. the pacing and dialogue of tcp is so dragged out. i remember specifically there was a section where newt goes to talk to keisha after she starts abandoning dante, and i swear to god there was a page and a half of text before anything ACTUALLY happened or anyone ACTUALLY said anything. dashner described a launcher at one point as “the energy dependent electric firing projectile device.” that’s SIX words to describe a stun gun. a fucking stun gun! we know what it is! why did you have to use six words??? it just felt like everything was dragged and stretched to the longest it could possibly be and it added to the exhaustion i felt while reading it

6. okay i cant end it without talking about newtmas. its very obvious by now that newtmas is a VERY large part of this fanbase. its clearly the most popular ship and what keeps a lot of people interested in this series. even the marketing team for the MOVIES used newtmas as a advertising tactic (i.e.; using thomas and newt standing face to face as a thumbnail for the trailer, emphasizing newtmas based questions in interviews, even making a fucking facebook memories video for them. yes that last one is real). not only does dashner use newt as a way to lure fans in; he also uses newtmas. the parts that were sprinkled into this were so obvious that it didnt feel authentic. i cant speak for the original trilogy; i dont know the culture around ships back then, and i dont know how much it influenced his writing at the time. but the scenes in those books felt more genuine than tcp. by genuine i mean; he wrote scenes without a relationship in mind, but the chemistry had noticeable subtext that, while unintentional, was largely agreed upon by the larger audience. the parts of newtmas he added into tcp felt artificial and forced, likely as a way for people to take snippets of and use as a free marketing tool for him. one example you might have already seen; “he had already gotten used to his post-thomas, post-WCKD life.” the fact that dashner SPECIFICALLY used the phrase “post-thomas” rather than “post-his friends” or something similar shows that he is using newtmas as a hook on purpose. not only that, but to make newt’s last thoughts as he died “tommy. tommy will understand...” is...wow. first of all, i never wanted to know what newt’s dying thoughts were, but thanks, i guess? and second, when we all initially thought newt died underneath thomas with a gun to his head, i was pretty much inferred that newts last thoughts would probably be about thomas; they would sort of have to be, given the circumstances. so adding that in gives me the same feeling that “i’m coming for you, newt” at the end of the fever code gave me. not as offensive, but written very much on purpose. and the ending is implying that there will somehow be a sequel where thomas gets newt’s journal from...someone. at this point, i can only think that this sequel will retroactively make newtmas canon somehow. now that newt has been confirmed as gay, it could happen. which brings me to my last point...

7. hearing dashner confirm newt is gay was already mind-boggling before. now that i’ve read the crank palace...im angry. im very angry. i think its safe to say that newt is the character that suffers the most in this series. you can argue with me but hes definitely high on the list, if not #1. so; you take this character. you give him a horribly sad arc in the original trilogy, then decide to expand upon it and tell us, your largely QUEER fanbase, exactly how painful and torturous his last days were, in detail. and then you tell us he’s gay. something that is never mentioned in the canon, only in an offhanded reply to a tweet of someone calling you out. on a base level, i can understand why people would be happy. representation (i guess), seeing themselves in the character, having their headcanons be confirmed. great. but what i see is you telling your largely queer fanbase “hey, you see the only confirmed gay character? im going to literally write torture porn about him before killing him off and offer it to you like im providing a service to your community.” how fucked up is that? “hey, kids, if youre gay, you WILL be violently tortured and become violent and a danger to the ones you love. then you will die and your love will never be reciprocated.” what a message! and if he DOES end up retroactively making newtmas “canon” in some weird sequel...i will start foaming at the mouth. THIS is an example of how not all queer representation is good or genuine.

i’ve definitely forgotten some points but this is long enough already. let me know if you agree or if theres anything else you want to add! im interested in what you guys think

(8. I JUST REMEMBERED!!! if WCKD needed to study newt so bad bc sonya is his sister and is immune while he isnt, why did they let him run around the crank palace in the first place??? you cant test his vitals or anything you’re literally just watching him. what is the point????)

[pikemoreno]

if you ever wanna be in love

Chapter IV: Plan B and Other Messes

a/n: this is my favorite so far, but it’s only gonna get better from here!

taglist is open if you’d like to be added. sorry if you asked and i missed it or forgot. please just ask again if you aren’t on there and would like to be. :’)

pairing: marcus pike x f!reader

word count: 2k

warnings: none, and i don’t expect there to really be any serious ones in upcoming chapters either. this is just fun.

If this plan was foolproof, you were all worse than fools.

It had started fine. It had been more than a week since the disastrous failure that was Plan A, and you spent the week doing some reconnaissance to keep Wendy’s brief interaction with Adrian on the top of her mind.

On Tuesday, you had asked her again about the elevator incident, stating: “Wow, that must’ve been scary. Did you have someone with you? I don’t think I remember.” She responded that there had been and that he was “nice.” 

On Wednesday, you had asked her if she had caught the name of the “mystery man” in the elevator. Did he work in the building? What department? Was he cute? She had said that she “Didn’t catch his name or his department, but… Yeah, he was alright, I guess.” Not a lot to work from, you lamented, but it was a start. You told her you’d see what you could find out and she groaned, telling you not to get into it, that she was fine. If only she knew how late she was on that sentiment.

On Thursday, you had taken the day off from bothering her about it. After all, you couldn’t make it seem like you found out everything about him in a day. Because that would have just been absurd. 

Today-- Friday-- you spilled all of your “research” to her: name, age, department, and the information that he’d been “asking about her too”-- ignoring the fact that that was only true because Marcus had been giving him the same treatment you were giving Wendy this week. Her eyes lit up a little at hearing she’d been asked about too, and you knew you had her hook, line, and sinker.

You met Marcus outside on your lunch break to debrief and discuss the finale of Plan B, sitting on a wooden-slatted bench with him underneath the slowly changing leaves of the trees in the courtyard. While an uncharacteristically cool breeze blew by, you were starting to decide that if you could just get Wendy and Adrian to this point right here, that would be enough to bring them together. It was a quiet and secluded place, a blessed change from the chaos of work on the other side of those glass double doors in the distance. There was something undeniably romantic about it all. 

With the right person to share it with, of course.

This wasn’t a romantic exchange. It was planning, organizing, talking about another’s romance, and never your own. There was absolutely nothing inherently romantic about this, certainly nothing in the way he smiled at you from the corner of his eye as you talked about how the week had gone with Wendy. There was nothing in the way you admired the light in his eyes when he grinned and how they crinkled when he laughed and nothing in the way you wanted to make sure he laughed every single day.

Oh no. Oh no no no no. 

This whole thing was about Wendy, not you. And certainly not Marcus. 

“So, what’s the plan for this evening?” His question brought you out of your daze.

“Umm,” you cleared your throat, re-gathering yourself as you poked at your lunch with your fork. “We’re gonna text them both separately to meet us at Copper Coin for coffee. We won’t be there when they arrive. We’ll be twenty minutes late and hope that they’ve decided to sit together in that time. If they haven’t, we’ll make sure they do,” you shrugged. 

“Right,” he nodded, and you returned it. Silence overtook the moment, but not in the serene way it had previously. This was decidedly more awkward. You were back in your head, doing the mental calculations of why and how there was nothing at all romantic about your friendship with Art Squad over here. That’s all it was; that’s all he was. You vaguely heard him call your name-- your real name.

“Hm?” you blinked, looking back to him.

“Where’d you go?” he murmured quizzically, his eyes searched your face in a way that undid all of the mental calculation you just went through.

“What? Nowhere. Anyway,” you stood quickly, gathering your stuff, “See you later.” You couldn’t ignore the feeling of his curious eyes still on you as you walked away.

This was not happening.

You’d be lying if you said that lunchtime exchange wasn’t at the forefront of your mind for the rest of the work day... And as you drove to the coffee shop… And now that you were sitting across from Marcus yet again, waiting on Wendy and Adrian, who still had yet to show up after the predetermined twenty minutes you were giving them before sitting inside the mahogany-saturated, hipster’s paradise yourselves. 

Plan B was most certainly not foolproof, and the four of you were the grandest of fools. Where could they be?

“They’re gonna walk in and think we’re the ones on a date,” Marcus quipped as he took a sip of his drink. You almost spit yours out from the surprise of the comment, but couldn’t help the huff of laughter.

“Oh, if Wendy walked in and thought I was on a date with a guy like you, she would probably cry tears of joy.”

“What does that mean?” You missed the warm pink take over the skin of his neck at what he was hoping was a compliment. 

A guy like him? 

How did you see him? 

“My recent track record is not great,” you stated, running a finger around the rim of your drink, “I would go on a couple of dates with someone. Never let it go anywhere. Decline any attempt to make it exclusive. Get the hell out of there. Rinse and repeat.”

“Why do you think that is?” 

You were making him nervous. It was pretty obvious to him now that he was starting to be interested in you beyond just being a work friend helping him with a “project”. But hearing your hesitance to commit in the past made his heart sink. He knew too well the feeling of being the one more invested in the relationship, of scaring someone off by going all in. He couldn’t let himself fall into that again with you. He’d have to force himself away, push down what was threatening to blossom.

“Afraid of getting hurt, I guess. I’ve seen a lot of committed relationships around me fail. People falling out of love. I don’t want that.” You shrugged.

“That’s a very reasonable fear.”

“Exactly. So I’m just… Waiting I guess. Wendy sees it as me just having commitment issues. I don’t have commitment issues per se. I just haven’t really found anyone worth committing to yet.”

“I’m afraid I have the opposite problem.” You tilted your head, questioning, and he continued, “I haven’t found anyone worth committing to, but I don’t realize it until it’s too late.” he sighed, “I was that one teenager who had one steady girlfriend from eighth grade all the way through high school and never looked at anyone else-- probably for the best, I was kind of a dork,” he laughed despite himself and you joined. It fizzled sadly, “But anyway. Everyone thought we were gonna be together forever. And I started to think so too after, you know, five years. I had it all planned out by the time we got to senior year. We wanted to go to the same college. We’d date through college, I’d propose on our graduation day... We didn’t make it past senior prom. She had disappeared for a while, and I found her in a supply closet with another guy.” You couldn’t help but gasp a little. He continued “Then I still got married pretty young, not long out of college,” he shook his head, seemingly to clear out the emotions that reared their ugly heads for what was obviously the first time in a while. You wanted him to know he didn’t have to explain himself to you. 

“Marcus, don’t--” you tried to stop him.

“I was ‘too much’ for her.” You froze at the admission. His mouth contorted into a frown that didn’t suit him at all. “I’m still not sure I know what she meant by that,” he laughed humorlessly, “Guess I cared too much? Who knows. She divorced me, and that was that.” You both looked down to find that you’d put your hand on his. There was a part of you-- maybe more than a part, really-- that decided that what he was saying sounded nice. That he would be a blessed change from relationships that never lasted longer than a month and whose conversations never reached the level of depth that you were already experiencing with Marcus after just the couple of weeks you’d known him. You breathed, letting your hand stay resting on his as you spoke truly.

“What you said was right. Neither of them were worth your commitment. I’ve seen your commitment to someone who’s just a work friend, and I can’t imagine anyone not wanting that in their life. They couldn’t have been worth your time.” His thumb reached up to brush against the side of your hand. “I would--” You stopped yourself mid-sentence upon looking at the cafe door to find Wendy finally walking in.

If only you knew that Marcus was holding his breath waiting for the end of the statement, hoping to hear you say that he might be worth that commitment. 

“There’s Wendy now.” Your hand left his as you got up to meet her, and Marcus found himself immediately missing the contact and entirely unsure of what just happened. 

“An hour late? Where have you been?” you laughed as Wendy met your eyes excitedly. 

“You’ll never guess what just happened,” she practically squealed in response, yet not answering your question.

“Probably not. Go for it.”

“I got my rebound!” You blinked.

“You-- What?”

“So right before you left the office, I received a tip on a case from the Elisabet Ney Museum. They had some priceless jewelry of hers on display. Only supposed to be up for a week. Family heirloom. It’s on display for two days before it turns up stolen. But get this: the bust of hers it was on was also stolen. Meaning this case also falls under the jurisdiction of the Art Squad. I figured ‘Hey, the more, the merrier,’ so I hopped on down to the 6th floor to talk to them about a team-up and guess who I ran into?” Your eyes widened, finally getting the point of the story.

“Adrian.”

“Adrian!” she nearly squealed again, talking a mile a minute. “So anyway, we’re gonna be teamed up on that next week.” You subconsciously shot a glance over to Marcus. Having to work a case with him? After the day you just had? “But the crazy part is that I started talking to Adrian and he’s so great, you know, now that I’m not freaking out in an elevator. Turns out he’s a recent dumpee too, and we’re gonna go out tomorrow night. Oh, and we might’ve made out in the supply closet.” The words of that last part all ran together as she tried to play it off nonchalantly. You let your mouth hang open in the flurry of words and admissions that came far too quickly for you to process fully. 

“Wow. That’ s-- That’s great! I told you he was worth looking into,” you smiled weakly, trying to get over the newest developments in this absolutely ridiculous story. “So, this case? Starting next week?”

“Monday morning, bright and early. Hey, didn’t you say you had a friend on Art Squad? The one who gave you a ride that one day? That’ll be fun, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, for sure.” You caught Marcus’s eye, and your face must have betrayed just how exasperated and confused-- and… relieved?--  you felt because the look he shot back to you was full of concern. Everything was somehow simplified and complicated in one fell swoop. 

Plan B: Success? You guess?

forever taglist: @acomplicatedprofession @hdlynn @makaela27 @space-floozy @catfishingmorales @ithinkhesgaybutwesavedmufasa @princessbatears @synystersilenceinblacknwhite @findhimfives @mistermiraclee

series taglist: @whiskeyslasso​ @ahopelessromanticwritersworld @dindjarindiaries​ @absurdthirst​ @roxypeanut​ @fioccodineveautunnale​ @dirty-dancefl00r5  @starryeyedstories​ @buckysalefty​ @wickedfrsgrl​ @the-feckless-wonder​

[justoneday-namjoonii]

color me moonlight | VI preview

☾ • I • II • III • IV • V • VI ☽

› Summary: Some flowers are not to be plucked, for their thorns are far too sharp for any hand to graze, yet, they were chosen. She shined, light radiating from the depths of her soul. She was radiant, powerful – she didn’t know it, but a creature as beautiful she could never be bad. However, he was made to consume the light. For her light was meant to dwell with darkness just as powerful, but far more dangerous.

› pairing: Taehyung x reader/OC › genre: angst | m | fluff | supernatural!au | fantasy!au | mutant!au | hybrid!au |

› release date: sometime this weekend, that’s what I’m aiming for *fingers crossed*

- Flashback -

June 10th, 1981

“Happy birthday Lenny!”

The giggly 6-year-old blew out her candles and smiled when her mother began to cut her a huge piece of cake—probably too big for her little self. The party was a nice change for the rigorous studying Jane has been doing for school. She had just proven her research case study and her senior biochemists and doctors have been wanting nothing more than to work with her in opening her own center.

Unfortunately, after getting her slice of cake and watching Lenny open her presents, she had to get on the computer to work on some things. Jane sits at the living room table while her family watches a movie with Lenny and at times like this, she wishes she was gifted with a mind that required so much work.

“Jane,” Lenny suddenly hops off the couch and runs up to Jane with her new flamingo stuffed animal, “what’re you doing?”

“I have to write this paper that explains a patients condition, I’m sorry I’m doing this on your birthday, my deadline is tonight and I procrastinated,” Jane sits back from her computer and Lenny takes a seat on one of the stools with her poofy purple tutu.

“It’s okay, you always say ‘a doctor has a big responsibility,’ so I get it,” She replies rather maturely with a sweet smile, “I’m not mad.”

“How are you enjoying your day? Did you like the canvas and paint set I bought you?”

“I love it!” She smiles brightly. “How did you know I wanted it?”

“I just knew.” Jane simpers.

“Oh! Oh! I made you something this morning, let me go get it!”

Jane furrows her brows and waits for Lenny to come out.

“Here,” She comes stumbling in with her sketchbook and sits back in her seat, “I saw him in my dreams.”

When Jane looks a the piece of paper, she is at a loss for words. It’s a drawing of a boy in a pond of wilted flowers, a murky looking forest surrounds him, and dead animals lay at his side. This is the darkest drawing Lenny has ever created and it makes Jane’s heart sink at what this dream might mean. “Wow, um...Are those dead animals?”

“Yes, he controls the air...and he takes the energy of living things, it kind of scares me a little bit...” That made Jane even more worried because Lenny’s dreams never scared her. “But just a little, he’s actually a good person. He likes flowers, trees, he especially likes the sunlight.” She smiles.

“So, um, who is he? Does he have a name?”

Lenny hesitates, eyes drifting from Jane to the photo before giggling. “Well, you should know,”

“How would I know?”

“he’s your son.”

He went to work to pick up a few things from his office, but rather than taking his usual means of transportation, he decides to take the subway. Knowing that’s what you used to get around, he hoped that just maybe he might pass you. For a moment he thought he might get recognized, but with a casual hoodie and jeans, he doubts anyone will even notice him.

The crowded subway comes to a sudden stop. People are getting on and some are getting off, he eyes the crowd especially hard, in hopes that he might see you. To his disdain, it’s just a bunch of strangers, no one interesting.

He looks around, watching the woman across from him typing on her phone. Her aura is so gold, it’s glowing transparently around her. That color could mean many different things; happiness, eagerness, jealousy, and even apprehension. It all deepened on the hue, the shade of the aura. Whenever he sees that color, his mind get’s a little foggy, and as soon as that happens, the color begins to fade and that person becomes blurred from his vision.

When he confided in is father about it, he told him to try not to look if it made him feel unwell. That’s when they discovered that his body was reacting to the aura, in what way? They never had the resources to further research it, Jane invented most of the practices that went into making him. Unfortunately, there were some things Taehyung went through physically that his father wouldn’t know where to start in trying to help.

When the subway halts at his stop, he gets off, maneuvering through the crowd so he could start his walk back to his dads place.

It’s so quiet. That’s what he first notices when he walks along the sidewalk. His eyes follow the people walking in all different directions, hoping you might be there. But he’s only fooling himself, if you were around, surely he’d feel your aura.

When he enters his dads home, he sees that he already left to start his work shift. Not enjoying the silence, he trudges over to the couch and turns the TV on. Of course, the news is on and they’re covering the same forecast for the third time today, probably. He turns a def ear to it and leans back, not feeling good enough to start working. The thought that you might have just decided to leave him, it crosses his mind. But you wouldn’t do that, would you? It seems he’s discovered more about his powers in the short time that he’s known you than he has in his entire life.

It might seem too early to say, but he feels like he needs you around. Every fiber in his body seems to crave your presence in your absence. He’s never had this type of draw to someone, not even of his loved ones, not even his father. It’s not a platonic need, not an emotional or physical need, he’s not sure what it is. But ever since you two somehow merged consciousness, he’s felt the need to go back to that part of his dreams. But he doesn't know if he can do it without you.

Selfishly, that’s one of the reason he wants to see you. He thinks that maybe, if you two can connect like that again, you’ll both gain some clarity about who you really are and what you’re capable of.

His eyes try to stay open, but he soon falls victim to sleep almost instantly.

Gasping for air, his lungs expel water and his body jerks forward. When he takes in his surroundings, he’s in what looks like a lake it’s as dark as night. Swimming to the edge, he hoists himself out of it and stands to his feet looking around for some type of familiarity. When he fully takes in the new environment, he’s in forest. Trees and plants arch up, branches and vines hanging on them, ropy and sharp edges on it. None of them bright and bushy with life like one would expect. The leaves are dark, not wilted but dull and heavy.

Cold. He’s ice cold. A sensation he’s never felt in his dreams before.

“What is this place...” He mumbles, arms hugged to his side to supply some warmth to himself. His bare feet drag on the forest floor, it feels so real, it’s hard to grasp that he’s in a dream. Curious to find out what this place is, he tries to turn back to the body of water he came from. Coughing due to the cold temperature, he runs back to the body of water and stops right in front of it.

The lake is frozen over.

“What is this?...” He gets on his knees and looks down at the now icy body of water. Rubbing some of the ice from the top of it, he looks closer and for a moment he sees a light. Something familiar, warm. When he tries to get a better look, the ice breaks under his weight, a sound that nearly shreds his eardrums before the cold abyss swallows him whole.

When he opens his eyes, he’s in a same darkness he had been in with you, and he’s completely dry, not a drop of water on him.

Warmth.

He looks around, affirming that this place looks similar, but the plants are thriving bright green, fruit is growing abundantly. Everything looks dewy, ripe—nothing he’s ever seen before.

Light. The farther he walks towards it, the more it calls him—draws him in. He’s running, he’s running towards it. The closer he gets, the better he can see a silhouette, it looks like your silhouette.

“Y/n?...” He whispers, eyes narrowing when he notices you grow further away from him when he tries to get closer. “Y/n!” Desperately, he calls your name.

Why aren’t you looking back at him, can’t you hear him?

When he manages to get close enough to the ambiance surrounding you, he can only see the form of your body, almost appearing bare. It’s obvious that he’s not making any progress trying to follow you, so he stops, that’s when you stop moving.

“Y/n...” He’s entranced in the intense glow emitting from your aura, just trying to make out your frame. Suddenly, you start to look around, head turning left to right, as if you weren’t sure where you were. All while you obliviously look around, he’s thrumming in desperation to get closer. Physically, his energy responds so strongly to you.

 He can’t take the distance anymore, he takes a step towards you and he cringes when you release a bloodcurdling screech.

Your body collapses and all he sees is darkness.

The warmth from your presence ceases, and he’s cold once again.

[girlwithshipsshitshow]

Part 11

Misaki: (Runs hands through his hair) Sorry Takahiro, I was going to call you, but i've been a little preoccupied with my fiance here..

Takahiro: I had to hear it from this guy (Taps Isaka's chest) Luckily he didn't sound worried so...

Takahiro, Isaka: Wait did you just say Fiance?

Misaki: Oh yeah, we got engaged saturday.

Isaka: (Walks over to Usagi, salps usagi on the shoulder who groans in pain) Congrats man, you finally asked him!

Usagi: (Raspy voice) Uh, actually Misaki asked me, and please don't hit me I just has surgery.

Takahiro: Are you okay Usagi-san?

Usagi: I'm fine

Takahiro: (Walks over to Misaki and Usagi) So, you guys are getting married?

Misaki: Yes, Yeah we are.

Takahiro: We'll congrats.

Misaki: Yeah, you don't seem so happy about it.

Takahiro: I haven't even gotten used to the idea of you guys dating and now you're engaged?

Misaki: Yeah, we'll my plan was to propose after we told you and before I graduated, so I don't really care if you've gotten used to it, we've been dating for years without you knowing and now that you know we can fully be happy, and if i'm sorry if you can't get on board.

Takahiro: I can, I just need time to processes all this.

Misaki: We'll right now, we need to focus on Usagi, so this conversation isn't happening right now.

Takahiro: (Nods walks over to the sofa and sits down beside Aikawa).

Isaka: Well I'm happy for you. (Smiles awkwardly, and goes to sit on the sofa).

(Nurse Rose walks in and smiles at Aikawa causing her to blush, she sits on the arm of the sofa causing her to blush more, her heart was beating out of her chest, hopefully no one could hear it.)

Nurse rose: Looks like we have a full house.

Misaki: Yeah, my brother Takahiro is beside Aikawa, and beside him is the senior manager at the publishing company where Usagi's work is published, his name is Isaka.

Takahiro, Isaka: Hello.

Nurse Rose: So how is everyone doing? Usagi the cafe is about to close so if you want anything to eat you should place and order now, otherwise I can get you some liquid broth and tea from up here.

Usagi: I'll just take whatever's up here.

Nurse Rose: Sure, the four of you should probably go grab some food.

Misaki: I want to stay here

Usagi: No, you need to eat.

Misaki: (Sighs)

Usagi: I'll be fine for an hour, I promise.

Isaka: (Stands up, walks over to Misaki, Placing a comforting hand on his shoulder), Come on Misaki, he'll be okay.

Misaki: (Stands up) Okay (Softly places hand on Usagi's cheek and and leans down to kiss him, he softly whispers "I love you" against his lips, before giving him another kiss.

Nurse Rose: Okay, so I can take you guys up to the cafe, (confused look) It's on the fivthteen floor for some reason, never understood that, shall we go everyone?

Misaki, Isaka, Takahiro, and Aikawa: (All follow Nurse rose out of the room, and onto the elevator).

Nurse Rose: Alright fun ride! I'm on my break before going into my night shift, do you guys mind if I eat with you?

Misaki: (gently nudges Aikawa)

Aikawa: (Slants eyebrows and mouths "what")

Misaki: (Nods at her)

Aikawa: Um, Nurse Rose?

Nurse Rose: (Smiles) I'm on break, you can just call me Rose.

Aikawa: (Blushes). Um you can join us for dinner.

Nurse Rose: Oh, that's cool! Thanks. I want to get to know you more.

Aikawa: (Clears throat) Uh, a- all- all of us.

(Elevator dings, they all get off following nurse rose to the cafe, They all get a large plate of shrimp tempura to share, and chicken broth, options were limited, since it was late and the cafe would be closing soon. Isaka, and Takahiro followed Nurse Rose to a table in the far corner of the restaurant, while Misaki and Aikawa trailed behind.

Aikawa: When she said she wants to get to know you, she meant all of us right?

Misaki: (Laughs) No, she wants to get to know YOU.

Aikawa: What does that mean?

Misaki: It means she likes you.

Aikawa: So you're engaged and suddenly you're the relationships expert? Isn't Usagi your first relationship?

Misaki: (Scuffs) And how many relationships have you been in?

(They approach the table, Nurse rose grins at Aikawa)

Misaki: See she's smiling at you.

Aikawa: No, she's Being friendly

Nurse Rose: Aikawa, I saved you a seat. (Pats the seat)

Misaki: See, (Walks over and sits beside Isaka.

Isaka: CHIBI!! (Throws arms around Misaki)

Misaki: What!?

Isaka: What's happening, how are you handling this?

Misaki: (Takes a bite of the shrimp). As well as I can be

Isaka: Good, so tell me , what's going on with those two?

(Across the table)

Rose: So how long have you known Akihiko?

Aikawa: Oh many years, he's a pain in the ass, but he's a good guys, he's like my brother.

Rose: So you've never had any sort of feelings for him?

Aikawa: (Snorts) Oh god no! He's never been into girls and the one person he's "loved" before Misaki didn't feel that way about him. Misaki's the love of his life.

Rose: (Touches Aikawa's hand) And what about you?

Aikawa: (Blushes) What about me?

Rose: (Chuckles) You ever been in love.

Aikawa: I'm in love with my Job.

Rose: Ah, one of those people.

Aikawa: One of what people?

Rose: Your life is your job and you never dedicate anytime to yourself, or anything else.

Aikawa: That-

Rose: Not true?

Aikwawa: (blushes) I need to make some time for myself?

Rose: How about tomorrow?

Aikawa: Tomorrow?

Rose: I get off at 5, we can get dinner?

Aikawa: I-

Isaka, Misaki: SAY YES!

Rose: (laughs)

Aikawa: Um, Yes!

Rose: Okay, cool. Um can I get your number?

Aikawa: Oh, um sure. (takes phone out of pocket, the two exchange numbers), Um you can call me Eri.

Isaka: Whoa! You never let anyone call you by your first name.

Aikawa: Isaka, hush.

Rose: (Laughs, we should probably head back, Im sure Akihiko is hungry, and it's almost seven so visiting hours are almost over, everyone has to head home. Except you Misaki, legally you can stay.

Isaka: What, why does he get to stay.

Rose: (Raises eyebrows),Misaki's his fiance.Don't worry the rest of you can come back at six am. Anyway we should get going, you have thirty minutes to say goodnight to your friend, and Misaki I can bring some sheets and a warm cover up so you can fix up the sofa, it pulls out into a bed.

Misaki: Thank you Nurse Rose.

(Misaki sat with his arms crossed and a foot up in the chair,he watched as Nurse rose fixed the sofa for him,she was smiling and humming, apparently she was happy about her date with Aikaw,it was around seven-thirty and everyone had already left, Usagi flipped through the tv channels and sipped on a third cup of tea, his seaced IV bag had been replaced when they came back upstairs and he had his second round of antibiotics, his vitals were still looking good, and he would have labs drawn around three in the morning, his bandages had been replaced and his surgery area looked good, other than the labs, and nurse rose checking on them throughout the night they should be good).

Misaki: You didn't have to make up the sofa, I could've done it by myself.

Nurse Rose: That's okay. It's my job.

Usagi: Misaki, relax let someone do something for you for once, plus don't you have an exam to study for? maybe do that for an hour huh?

Misaki: Fine. (Walks over to table near the window, grabs laptop, walks back over to Usagi and starts to work on study guide.

Usagi: Is this for German?

Misaki: Uh, Yeah.

Usagi: How do you feel about that?

Misaki: Good.

Usagi: Your grades are still passing?

Misaki: Ugh, yes Usagi, god you're in the hospital and you're still nagging me?

Usagi: (Reaches hand out) I just want you to graduate, you've worked so hard.

Misaki: (Smiles, takes his hand) I know, thank you.

Nurse rose: (Sits on the armchair of the sofa, she smiles at them). Do you Guys always banter like this?

Misaki: (Chuckles) Yeah kinda our thing.

Nurse Rose: So how long have you guys been together?

Usagi: (Moves bed up): Um, almost five years.

Nurse rose: How did you meet.

Misaki: He used to be my tutor, and was in love with my brother.

Nurse Rose: Really?

Usagi: Yeah, Kinda a long story.

Nurse Rose: And that doesn't make it weird.

Misaki: Um, there were times early in our relationship when I was worried he was still in love with him but-

Usagi: His brother means a lot to me, but Misaki's the love of my life, I love him so fucking much, I'll never love anyone as much as Misaki, he's my everything.

Nurse Rose: Wow, That's so sweet.

Misaki: (Sobbing) Usagi, stop saying stuff like that, I need to study.

Usagi: (Smirks) You already know that's how i feel about you, I say it to you all the time.

Misaki: Yeah, but i'm studyyinngggg.

Usagi: (Laughs). Get back to studying.

Misaki: You know i feel the same way about you right baby?

Usagi: Ahh, did you just call me baby? Do it again.

Misaki: Mmmhm, can't studying, watch tv or somthing.

Nurse Rose: Well (stands).If You need anything, you know how to get ahold of me.

Usagi: Yes, thank you.

Nurse Rose: (Exits).

(Misaki slams laptop and places it on the table in front of Usagi before pushing it out of the way, surprising him).

Usagi: Misaki, what are you doing? because we can't have sex if that's what you're trying to do. I mean I really want to, but we can't.

Misaki: No, I know that, but I have news.

Usagi: What news makes you act like THAT.

Misaki: Nurse Rose and Aikawa have a date tomorrow!

Usagi: Awe good for them.

Misaki: Why aren't you more Excited!

Usagi: I'll be more excited once you pass the test!

Misaki: (Grabs laptop) You're no fun.

Usagi: I-

Misaki: You just want me to graduate BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!

Usagi: Misaki

Misaki: I'm studying, I'm studying.

Misaki: Done, are you happy? (he looked beside him, it was ten, Usagi was out cold, he placed his laptop on the table, turned the lights off, and changed the channel to some dumb sitcom that would give him a good laugh and walked back over to Usagi, he softly ran his fingers through his soft grey hair, and leaned down softy giving him a kiss on the lips). Goodnight my love (He walked over the the sofa and sighed as he crawled under the covers, it felt weird not cuddling next to Usagi, they've been doing it a lot more recently and he knew he would have a hard time sleeping not wrapped in Usagi's arms, he drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

[honeyhan-123]

Say Thank You IV

Series Summary: Nearly five years have passed since Steve Rogers saves your life without so much as a thank you. When he sees you again by chance, he makes sure that he’ll never let you go and maybe teach you some manners in the process.

Series Warning: This will be a dark!Steve fic with stalking, kidnapping and manipulating as well as non-con and dub-con situations. Please don’t read it if you don’t like that sort of thing.

Chapter Warning: Kidnapping and drugging. 

Word Count: 1.9k

I. New York II. Madrid III. The Apartment

Series Masterlist

My Masterlist

IV. The Trip

‘So Stevie, where’d you disappear off to last night? I thought you said you were headed back to the hideout but you didn’t get back ‘till what? Two in the morning?’ Bucky looked to Nat as though asking her for confirmation about Steve’s night time practices over breakfast the next morning. 

‘Nah Buck, I reckon it was more like three when he finally came in.’ The red head locked eyes with Bucky over her coffee mug. ‘I mean, if I didn’t know better, I’d wanna say Steve was out at some booty call’s last night coming in at that time. I know I always like to get a fix after a mission.’ 

Steve could feel the blood start to rush to his face as he tried to remain passive in front of the two super spies. He wasn’t ready to tell them about her just yet, they would try to convince him to change his mind but it was too late. Preparations had already started. Instead he lied, despite knowing what a dangerous game it was to lie to highly trained spies, yet he thought he might be able to swing it.  ‘God Nat, I can’t believe you would even say that. I was just out at a little bar down the street, getting a drink.’ 

Steve thanked the powers at be as Nat’s phone started ringing, signalling their conversation had come to an end. 

‘Oh wow. Thanks for the invite Rogers.’ She rolled her eyes as her finger swiped across the screen and hit the speaker button, letting Sam’s voice fill the room. ‘Hey Bird Brain, how’s it going in Sokovia?’ 

‘Yeah we’re good here. Just calling to let you guys know that Chekhov is on the move, we think he’s headed up to a facility in the north, it seems to be pretty heavily guarded. Wouldn’t mind some assistance with this one, it looks kind of intense.’

‘Yeah sure, we’ll be there in the morning, we just finished up with Alejandro last night so we’re good to move out.’ 

‘Actually Nat, I think we should stay here for a little longer, or at least one of us. We want to make sure all of Alejandro’s men are gone.’ Steve’s eyes met Bucky’s as the latter spoke, and he knew he hadn’t even remotely fooled his best friend, Bucky clearly realised something was up with him but he also knew that Bucky wouldn’t push him, not if he wasn’t ready to share. 

‘Yeah I think that’s a good idea Buck, we really don’t want any of these guys hanging around. How ‘bout you and Nat catch a flight up to Sokovia tomorrow and I’ll meet you there or back in New York after I make sure it’s all clear down here.’ Steve was quick to set his plan in motion, grateful that the others pretty much always agreed to whatever plan he came up with, this way he would be able to easily extract y/n using the quinjet instead of picking her up from the airport in New York and have to deal with bystanders maybe getting in the way. 

‘Sounds good to me. Wanda and I probably don’t need all three of you anyway, I don’t think Chekhov will be too hard. I’ll probably just see you back in New York Cap. Stay safe guys and see you tomorrow.’ Sam signed off the call and Nat put her phone back in her pocket. 

‘Well Barnes, looks like we got some packing to do.’

+

The week passed far too slowly for Steve’s liking, every minute felt like hours and the hours felt like days. Anticipation flooded through him every time he caught sight of you, he just couldn’t wait to have you back at his house in New York, back at his mercy. 

The only upside of the week was he now had more time to watch you. In the mornings he would accompany you on your morning jogs, following slightly behind, appreciating the way your ass jiggled with every step and then sneak into your apartment while you were showering, learning everything he could about you from your living space. Then, he would head back to his hideout and have a shower of his own, his cock in his fist, dreaming about what would happen in mere days as he came, his seed spraying over the tiled walls of the shower, slowly sliding down before pooled at his feet as it disappeared down the drain, his breaths shallow and frequent as he came back after his orgasm. 

Post shower he would spend his days at the cantina, following you with his eyes as you served the customers. It seemed you were working more than normal and he figured it was probably to make up for your trip away, to cover your expenses as he had overheard a conversation between you and the elderly woman who owned the cantina. It was cute, watching your fret over finances while he knew that soon you wouldn’t have to worry about anything other than minding your manners around him. 

He tried to get your attention whenever he could, coming up with reasons to talk to you but due to the air conditioning and the promise of a refreshing drink the cantina was often packed, filled with tourists and locals alike, trying to refute the summer heat, meaning that you often had little time for him, once again filling Steve with memories of double dates with Bucky back in the forties. Of trying to get their attention which was always focussed on Bucky instead of scrawny little Steve. But soon enough, he promised himself, you would be all his. Real Soon.

+

The days passed slowly for you too, despite you being so busy with work and preparing everything for your trip but finally, at last, it was your last day working at the cantina - for the meantime at least. 

‘I’m sorry Señor, but we’re closing soon, can I get you anything before we stop taking orders?’ You asked the strange American who had been coming to the cantina everyday recently. You frequently wondered why he was in Madrid if all he was going to do was sit in the cantina but he tipped well and was nice enough to look at if you had a moment in between customers. 

‘Trust me Sweetheart, there’s a lot I want from you but for now I’ll just take another Americano thanks.’ A chill crept down your spine at his sinister smile, although he may be attractive there was something wrong about this man and you barely managed to smile back as you walked away, the hairs on your neck standing up. 

You avoided the American as best you could for the next half hour before the cantina closed, but being the only one still working made it hard as you still had to serve him. Thankfully, the clock hit ten and you managed to kick him out quite easily except for his promise to ‘come back soon’. You made sure to lock the door behind him, looking out into the night as he walked down the street. There was definitely something wrong about that man, but at least you wouldn’t have to worry about it for the next two weeks. 

You made your way to the back of the shop, most of the cleaning already done as you waited for the man to be finished with his coffee. Knocking on the door to Mariana’s office, you entered slowly, finding her simply reading some book. 

‘Mariana? I just wanted to come say goodbye before my flight tomorrow, it’s pretty early and I don’t think I’ll see you before I leave.’

She smiled and walked around her desk, wrapping her arms around you. ‘Querida, I’m so glad that you’re going through with this. I think it will be very good for you, going back to New York. I only ask that you send me a postcard, something touristy.’

You laughed into her shoulder, not wanting to break away from the biggest maternal figure you knew. ‘Anything for you Mariana.’ 

‘Be careful querida.’

‘Always am Mariana, don’t you worry about me.’ With one last smile you left her office, heading upstairs to your apartment. 

As you unlocked the door and made your way through the small loft, your mind was so busy running through a last minute checklist for everything you still had to do that you didn’t notice that the window you had locked that morning was now open, the curtains fluttering in the breeze. You also didn’t notice the figure waiting for you in your bedroom, hiding in the shadows until his arms were wrapped around you in a vice like grip, one hand covering your mouth as the other held something against your neck. There was a soft prick, and slowly you felt your eyes getting heavier, closing on their own and the whole room faded to blackness. 

+

You slept so peacefully on the quinjet as he flew you over the Atlantic that Steve almost never wanted you to wake up. He knew that it would be a while before you were this calm in his presence again but he could wait. He was a patient man after all. He landed the quinjet just outside of the city, somewhere hidden where it wouldn’t be found and gave you another shot of sedative before transferring you to Natasha’s car. If he had known that he would see you again in Madrid he wouldn’t have ridden his bike out to the landing pad. 

It was a real pain being on the run from every government, it meant doing their job was becoming increasingly hard but the team - or what remained of it - never complained, they each stood by their choice to help Steve against Tony. Ironically enough the best place for them to hide at the moment was actually in New York, one of the biggest cities in the world and the last place Ross would think to look for them, plus if he ever did, Tony always covered for them, claiming a fake sighting in another country, because while he was still hurt but Steve and the other and wasn’t quite ready to forgive them, they were still his family and he would never turn them over like that. 

When he finally made his way back through the city, back to his brownstone in Brooklyn, Steve was kind of shocked that he had actually managed it, he had actually gotten you, right where he wanted you. A smile came over his face as he carried you down to the basement, the modifications he had requested had been made perfectly while he was away. While the room had always been a guest bedroom, he had to make sure that you wouldn’t be able to escape and that he could always watch you, especially in the first few weeks. The new thick, metal door would be enough to keep even him trapped down here and if he didn’t know exactly where to look, the security cameras were almost undetectable. He lay you on the bed, tucking you in, under the soft light grey covers, and pressed a kiss to your forehead before walking away and locking the door behind him. As much as he wanted to stay and watch you all night, there was still a lot he had to do before you woke up.

+

Tags will be added in a reblog

V. The Basement 

Series Masterlist

My Masterlist

[foxyotomelady]

Another love, Chapter IV (JuminxReader)

Author’s notes:

Wow, that was a ride.

Be aware of: strong language, slightly angst, my poor grammar, ANGRY MC.

And again: THE DRAMA!

Chapter I | Chapter II | Chapter III | Chapter IV (You are here) | Chapter V | Chapter VI |  Chapter VII | Chapter VIII | Chapter IX | Chapter X | Chapter XI | Chapter XII | Chapter XIII | Chapter XIV |

Buy Me A Ko-Fi Have a nice reading!

[Y/N has entered the chat room] 

Jumin Han: Oh, you're here, Y/N 

You: Hello, Jumin... 

Jumin Han: Did you sleep well? 

You: Actually no... It was a bit difficult to sleep... eheheh ^^' 

Jumin Han: hmm, same here.

Jumin Han: That's probably because of what happened yesterday

Jumin Han: I must apologize once again

You: That's... Um... You don't have to.

You: You were very polite. You asked me and I agreed so there is no need to apologize.

You: Are you heading to work? 

Jumin Han: Yes, forgive me that I couldn’t say goodbye to you. I didn’t want to wake you up. 

You: It's okay. Actually, it's good that you didn’t wake me up. I really fell asleep late.

Jumin Han: It's an interesting feeling to be a reason for your sleeping problems. 

Jumin Han: I probably shouldn’t be happy about this fact. 

Jumin Han: But I am. 

Jumin Han: 

Jumin Han: And don't worry, as I said earlier, you're also giving me sleepless nights :3

You: staph

You: I'm embarrassed >///<

Jumin Han: cute

Jumin Han: but you don't have to be

Jumin Han: You're a beautiful woman so it's only natural that you appear in men's dreams.

You: My god, Jumin Han!

You: What did I just say?

You: staaaph >////<

Jumin Han: I'd like to talk to you more, but I must be going now.

Jumin Han: Have a pleasant day Y/N.

[Jumin Han has left the chat room]

[Y/N has left the chat room]

You breathed in and pressed the phone to your chest. The memory of yesterday's kiss came back to you and you felt that you're getting hot. Jumin was not the only one who let himself be carried away by the moment. But now that you were sitting in silence in this huge bedroom and you only heard purring Elizabeth curled up next to you… Other memories have begun to come back to you. Your head was aching. You didn't want these memories, but the rush of thoughts wouldn't stop. You still remembered Yuwoon's smile, his warm voice, his touch... Despite all that he did, and even though he revealed his true face to you... You still remembered how happy you were together. Such memories did not go away easily. Such feelings were not easy to forget about. You wanted to forget, you wanted to stop feeling this terrible pain. Pain after betrayal, pain after being deceived and manipulated. Was that how Jumin felt the whole time? You understood more and more why he wanted to keep you by his side. Two of his best friends turned out to be liars, and then he lost one of them in such a brutal way. No... He must have felt much worse than you.

You calmed your thoughts in the shower, you ate the breakfast that the chef prepared for you, and then you decided to leave. The bodyguard did not stop you - Jumin, therefore, fulfilled his promise, he tried to trust you. You took your laptop with you and left the building. You wanted to visit a well-known cafe where you were able to pay for snacks and drinks. You decided to study a little, sipping coffee and eating sweets. It's been several hours.

"Y/N!" You heard a familiar voice and looked up from the keyboard. You blinked in surprise.

"Zen? What are you doing here?" The white-haired man laughed nervously and went to your table, "May I join you, baby?" You nodded and Zen took the place in front of you. "If I say I'm here by accident, will you believe me?"

You raised your eyebrow meaningly.

"I thought so," Zen sighed, and then he winked at you. "I am here because I was worried about you."

"As you can see, I'm fine, have you been here for a long time in a hope that you will meet me accidentally?"

"Hmm..." Zen folded his hands under his chin, smiled flirtatiously at you. "Maybe I happened to be here day by day since you are at this jerk’s place."

You shut your laptop and you gave Zen a look that was colder than you intended, "Stop calling him that, he's really doing a lot for me, and you have no idea how many things he has to face."

Zen was taken aback, "This guy was born with a silver spoon, he has everything he wants, and it looks like he already got you in his hands too."

"I'm not a thing, Zen," You frowned.

"Not what I meant!" Zen raised his hands and shook his head. "Just... After V died... Jumin was not in good condition, and now suddenly..." He scratched his head. "He suddenly became so happy that it gives me goosebumps, I'm worried about this sudden change."

You crossed your arms and pierced Zen with your stare, "Your point?"

Zen began to look very embarrassed, "Something is happening between you two, am I right? It's not my business... But lately, Jumin seems to be a little... No, he always seemed unstable."

You took the laptop and got up from your place. You looked at Zen from above and took a breath to calm your anger, "You're right, Zen, it's NOT YOUR BUSINESS, I understand you are worried, I understand that you are all worried, but for fuck’s sake, stop acting like our babysitters!"

When you passed him, Zen jumped up, knocking over the chair.

"Wait, wait!" He called after you. You swallowed and somehow you overcame your fury. You turned to him, "I didn’t mean to make you angry "

"I know, Zen."

"So... How about a little hug?"

You rolled your eyes, "Fine."

Zen spread his arms, came to you and then put his arms around you, "Aww, aren't you cute?"  

You were pressing the laptop to your belly, not able to return the embrace, "Okay, that's enough, Zen." You couldn't help but laugh.

When Zen pulled away from you, he winked again, "You look cute when you're angry."

You rolled your eyes again. Then you said goodbye to each other and you returned to Jumin's apartment in a slightly better mood. Jumin should be back from work soon. You wanted to spend time with him, just like that. You wanted to talk with him while drinking wine, Elizabeth on your lap and his smile in front of you.

To overtake the boredom and not let the unwanted memories to come back again, you logged in to the messenger. You've unfortunately found an amused Seven there. Because of what he wrote, you concluded that he had to read your morning conversation with Jumin. 707: lololololol

707: What is happening with our Mr. Director?

707: when he became so smooth?

707: lolololol [Saeran has entered the chat room] 707: oh, brother, you're here!

Saeran: he's like that only to this girl

Saeran: so it's obvious what is happening 

707: you mean Y/N?

707: what did you do to him yesterday night Y/N??

707:

You: I did nothing

You: and it's not really your business -_-

707: ooooh >_<

707: something has happened

707: I'm sure lololol

707: I want to know the details

707: 

Saeran: gross 

You: I agree

You: You're gross Seven

707: 

707: how could you brother?!

707: you should be on my side!

You: btw, it's nice to see you here, Saeran ^^

You: You rarely log in

Saeran: It's because you're all gross

You: .... -_-' and why is that?

Saeran: they're all wagging their tails in front of you

Saeran: like a bunch of dogs

707: Saeran

You: what's that supposed to mean?

Saeran: what? Are you dense or something?

707: brother

You: what do you mean dense? If you have a problem with me at least be more specific

You: or is it too much for your small brain?

Saeran: Ha!

707: brother what did I tell you

Saeran: ok I'll be more specific if you wish

707: about making Y/N angry?

Saeran: it's so freaking obvious that all of these guys

707: stop

707: she's gonna eat you alive!

Saeran: are so into you

Saeran: you're stupid for not seeing this

You: You're delusional you little bitch

Saeran: oh and what was that "Saeran it's nice to see you here ^^"?

Saeran: you want me to be your dog too?

You: you wish!

You: I'm way out of your league.

You: You're not even worthy of being my dog

You: You're not even worthy of being my PIG

You: no actually

You: If I ever had a pig, I would call it Saeran

Saeran: I don't want anything to do with you

Saeran: At this point, you already have your own harem

707: WAIT!

707: Am I the part of this harem?

707:

You: I don't have a harem

You: It's a kindergarten full of children

You: and Saeran, you're that one kid who always pretend to be sooo bold

You: but in reality, he's crying in the corner

You: desperately calling for his brother

You: "Brother where are you?! I'm scared!"

You: "Nobody likes me! I'm trying to be mean to everyone so that no one can hurt me first!"

707: Umm... Y/N.... That's a little harsh...

Saeran: .....

You: but wait, you're actually nice to Jaehee

You: maybe you're into her HMMMM?

707: 

707: wait

707: that is

707: actually

707: a good point!

Saeran: I'm leaving, bye. [Saeran has left the chat room] 707: WOW

707: You're scary when you're angry, Y/N

707:

You: I was not even that angry 

You: just teaching him some manners

707: don't be such a meanie to my brother T-T

You: I won't be if he stops being a dick

707: lolololol

707: I warned him

707: but he never listens

707: BUT ACTUALLY

You: don't

707: I kinda agree with him

707: I don't know about Yoosung

707: but Zen is sooooo into you

707: as much as our Mr. CEO

You: it's such an absurd

You: Zen is not into me

You: he's flirtatious toward everybody

707: and what about Juju?

You: mind your own business

You: seriously Choi twins you’re more alike than I thought

707: you're not denying~ [Y/N has left the chat room]

Jumin’s POV

He was remembering the kiss over and over again. Her lips were so soft and sweet, her body so warm. He wanted to possess her completely... But it was too soon. Way too soon. It would frustrate him if it were not for the fact that the thought of her waiting for him at home smoothed the whole anxiety anchored in him. This girl... She awakened and brightened his darkest desires at the same time.

When he came into the apartment, she greeted him with a smile that he returned. They ate together and talked, she asked him about his day, about whether he is tired after work. Her warmth and care overwhelmed him. He wanted to enjoy it until the end of the day, he wanted to fall asleep with these feelings, calm that he finally has someone just for himself. Unfortunately, it was not given to him. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. They were both surprised - who could worry them at this hour?

Of course, the bodyguard appeared first, "Mr. Han, a man named Yuwoon insists on letting him in. He says he knows Ms. Y/N."

Jumin immediately felt a surge of icy anger. He wanted to instruct the bodyguard to immediately escort this idiot out of the building, but suddenly Y/N spoke:

"I want to face him," She stated, her face tense. "I want to talk to him."

Jumin's hand twitched, his fingers clenched into a fist, "For what purpose?"

"If I don't talk to him and don't deal with him for good, he will never give me peace," She explained, looking him straight in the eye. She was fierce, confident.

Jumin inhaled deeply into his lungs. He closed his eyes and pressed his fist to his forehead. Then he nodded reluctantly, "Yoon, let him in and get out of here. Leave us alone."

Yoon did not look convinced, "Sir, are you sure?"

"Yes."

"I'll be right outside the door."

As soon as Yuwoon came in, Jumin understood at once that everything would end badly. The idiot's face had a suspicious smile.

"What do you want, Yuwoon?" Y/N asked coldly.

Yuwoon looked around the apartment, greed flashed in his eyes, "I see you've done well, honey."

"What do you want?" She repeated.

"You see, you must have forgotten that we share a flat and someone has to pay the rent."

"I don’t live with you anymore, Yuwoon, you have to deal with it alone."

"I don't think so. You found yourself a rich boy, I'm sure he could give me enough money to pay a rent for a few years forward. And if he does, then I promise to leave you in peace."

Jumin swallowed loudly, it was hard for him to breathe, but he did not interfere. Not yet…

"Who am I to you?" Y/N asked angrily. "The thing you want to sell?"

Yuwoon looked at her with a hideous smile, "You're just a hole whom I used to fuck."

Her face went pale, her eyes wide, her confidence flew away, "No... That can't be true... We were..."

"What? In love? I just used you. You're so stupid."

"That's enough," Jumin said icily.

"Now he's fucking you, so why are you sad? Do not pretend! You quickly filled this hole of yours with another dick!"

Y/N suddenly jumped to Yuwoon and pushed him so hard that he stumbled on his feet, "How dare you come here, whine about money and acting like you're jealous after you cheated on me! Who are you?! With whom I was for these few months?! "

"And how dare you raise a hand on me?!" Yuwoon rushed suddenly at her, he was about to hit her.

Jumin, however, overtook him. He grabbed the man by his wrist and squeezed so hard that Yuwoon groaned in pain, "You don't want to know what unpleasant fate may face you if you continue this. If I ever see you near her again, you'll regret it really badly. I have good lawyers, so I'm sure I won't have to worry about the consequences." "You're insane, you-Arrgh!"

Jumin squeezed his arm even harder, then grabbed him by the shoulder and led him violently towards the door. After opening them, he pushed the idiot outside in such a manner that he fell on the ground.

"Take this man out of here, and tell others that he’s not allowed to approach my building ever again," He ordered the bodyguard.

"Yes, sir!" Yoon quickly dealt with the situation. He twisted Yuwoon's hands behind his back and, despite his protests, took him out of Jumin's sight.

Jumin felt himself shaking with anger and rage. He shut the door with a loud bang and turned to face Y/N, "I shouldn't allow it," He hissed furiously. "I shouldn't let him in here! Why did you want him here so much?"

He approached her and she stepped back to the point her back hit the wall. He leaned his trembling hand against it above her head, "Why you insisted on letting him in?! He doesn’t deserve to look at you! He could hurt you!" His other hand went to her cheek and cupped it.

Suddenly, she grabbed him by his shirt and drew him to herself. Their lips met violently. His lungs  burned for lack of breathing, but he immediately responded. He clung to her, put his hands on her waist. Her fingers were digging into his arms, she moaned in such a voice, that he completely lost his control. He slipped his knee between her thighs, and she arched her back, whimpering his name straight into his mouth. His hands began to wander over her body, move around every roundness, examine every piece of her exposed skin. Her shaking hands grabbed his tie, drew him even closer, deepened the kiss. Jumin growled and took her face in his hands again. Then he felt... tears on her cheeks. He froze, his heart ached painfully.

"J-Jumin ..?" Y/N murmured in a weak voice, her lips brushing against his own.

"You... Why are you crying...?" He panted and withdrawn his head.

"I... I don't know..." Even more tears flowed down her face, her lips trembling. "I just..." She released his tie and clenched her hands on his shirt.

"It hurts, Jumin... I believed him, all these months, I trusted him... I had feelings for him... How could I ever love him…? How could I be so blind...?” She rested her head on his chest. "This is the worst... The fact that I still remember how he was when I fell in love with him... I still remember his other side, the good one... And it's so hard to forget how he used to be back then."

Her words hammered into his heart like daggers. However, he closed his eyes and hugged her tightly. She still... she still loved that idiot in a way. Such feelings don’t disappear at once, not after a few days. 

"So you wanted me to make you forget about him...?" He whispered into her hair.

"I'm sorry... I don't want it to look like that, I'll understand if you want me to leave."

"Do not say such things," He sighed deeply. "I know how difficult it is, I was blind too... And because of my blindness, V is dead…"

"It's not your fault," Y/N calmed down, looked at his face. "Please, Jumin, do not blame yourself for that."

Jumin stroked her cheeks and wiped her tears in silence. They slowly moved away from each other, and Y/N looked around, "Where is Elizabeth? She must have been scared."

She was not in the main room. She was not in the bedroom. She was not in the kitchen. They even searched in the bathroom, they were calling her by her name, checked under, above and behind the furniture, searched every corner.

She was nowhere to be found.

[inkribbon796]

Candy Man Can-Do

Summary: It’s November 9, and the city gets a rather colorful reminder of how powerful Warfstache is.

Chapter 1:  A Rose-Colored Trap

Next

A.N: I had a separate idea for this birthday story but story but it refused to be written, and it was too long for fit into one chapter. Chapter 2 has way more Warsftache in it, I promise.Have fun.

____________________________________________________________

    It was the first official year the Sides had lived in Egoton when the month of November rolled around. They’d been coming and going from Egoton according to where the Dark Sides were, and now that Deceit and Dark has formed a truce, the Sides were practically here to stay.

    This meant getting used to cold spells that were twenty degrees colder than they were used to. The fact that Deceit and Anxiety tended not to do much, leaving the Duke to run amok. And the fact that Warfstache’s birthday was right at the start of the month.

    The first sign that there was something wrong was when Logan woke up. He hit his alarm at seven am and got out of bed, reaching for his glasses and heading to the shower. His glasses seemed like they had an odd film over them and Logan struggled to get it off, his shower being delayed by a whole ten minutes as he fought to fix his glasses and finally gave up in frustration, taking his shower and then storming out. Logan kept close enough to the wall, so that his poor eyesight wouldn’t strain too much trying while trying to step around stuff.

    Walking down into the apartment’s kitchen, Logan fished out a second pair of glasses only to find the same blurry film on them as well.

    “Patt,” Logan called back up into the apartment where Patton and Roman’s rooms were. “Did you and Roman do something with my glasses?”

    There was nothing. Frowning, Logan slowly made his way to the stairs, putting his glasses on and just dealing with the glossy, almost pink film over his glasses. Placing a hand on the railing, Logan realized there was something wrong immediately when his hand hit cotton candy. Recoiling his hand away, Logan looked to see his entire banister was made of cotton candy, but pulling his glasses off made it turn back to normal.

    “That is not good,” Logan looked at the film over it, peering as close as possible to the glasses as he could. Whatever was wrong with his glasses it wasn’t something on top of the lens. It was in the lens.

    “Roman!” Logan called out. “What did you do to my glasses?”

    An insistent pounding came at the front door, and after hesitating, Logan fumbled his way to the door and prayed it wasn’t Remus when he opened it blindly.

    “Logan,” Dr. Iplier’s voice came at him through the brighter outside light. “Please tell me you’re still you.”

    “Doctor?” Logan asked. “My glasses aren’t working.”

    “Yeah, that’s probably how it got Patton,” Dr. Iplier pushed him back into the apartment. “The Host told me to give you these. Don’t ask how he knows your prescription, it’s not the oddest thing he’s done.”

    Logan took the glasses he was passed, a perfect match for his actual glasses, and it didn’t have the film. “What happened, if you’ve already seen Patton I trust that he and Roman are not doing well.”

    “That’s the problem, I don’t know how it started because Anxiety pulled me out. He took some convincing to set Roman free put he pulled him and Patton out. Whatever happened between you all, I think you need to call a therapist.”

    “Anxiety pulled you out of what?” Logan asked.

    Iplier frowned and marched over to the window to pull up the binds to reveal what was, to Logan, a nauseating amount of pastels and the entire city seemed to be made out of candy or some other kind of sweet. “It’s discount Candy Land! I completely forgot you guys haven’t been in town on November 9. This happens every year. Sometimes it’s just A Street and Jay Burne, sometimes it’s the area over Dark’s warehouse. Once he targeted it over the base and nowhere else because he had a problem with me. Wilford kinda goes crazy on this day, and I didn’t even realize that you three weren’t in the base until I saw Patton.”

    “What happened?” Logan asked.

    “Oh, I took pictures, Wilford’s magic completely took them over, but I’ve got the Host and Anxiety waiting, and I’m pretty sure if I leave the two of them alone together the Host will start bleeding, and then Anxiety will probably run off.”

    “Right, let me get my costume,” Logan offered.

    “Don’t put the visor on, if Wilford was able to hook his magic onto your glasses, then I guarantee you, it got onto your visor. Bring your costume, and hopefully the Host and Anxiety can do something with it.”

    “Right, of course,” Logan answered and raced into his room to grab his duffle bag he kept all his gear in, and quickly raced out with Iplier. The entire city looked like it had been dipped in a late-60’s tinged candy nightmare. Almost everyone walking on the streets looked more like cartoon caricatures of themselves than actual people. Logan recognized some of his own neighbors, and didn’t like it. The walk was unnervingly slow. 

    “Why does Warfstache do this, if he has the power to take over the whole city, then why isn’t this the status quo every day?” Logan demanded as Iplier calmly led him into a side alley, where everything seemed a bit more normal.

    “Honestly, I think he forgets he can do this,” Iplier answered. “It’s been almost fifteen years since he’s taken the entire city. Wilford’s a force of nature, it’s why Dark works with him. They don’t work for each other, they work with each other. That’s the scary part about Wilford, he survives daily encounters with Dark and neither of them have killed each other yet.”

    “The Reporter and the Entity are incapable of killing each other,” Host announced his presence and Logan jumped in surprise.

    “Is Anxiety still here?” Dr. Iplier asked.

    “I’m shocked you think so poorly of me, Doc Obvious,” Anxiety called out from the first level of the fire escape.

    “Didn’t want to push my luck,” Iplier reminded. “Just cause you freed me, doesn’t mean you’ll help me take Wilford on.”

    “Dark’s already kicked us out,” Anxiety shrugged. “What’s one more thing on the list?”

    “I appreciate it,” Iplier told him.

    “Logic,” Host held out a coffee cup, looking his way. “This is for the hour.”

    “Oh, thank you,” Logan took the cup and after a sip found it was incredibly similar to how he usually took his coffee. “This will suffice until I can get real sustenance.”

    “Wow, you just took some random cup someone gave you,” Anxiety rolled his eyes, the action barely visible under his hood. “Real smart.”

    “The Host would never poison someone,” Host defended firmly, any hint of humor gone from his voice. “There are easier ways to inflict harm and the Host has no need to harm Logic nor any of his allies.”

    “I take it you were offered a coffee as well,” Logic took another sip, the caffeine greatly improving his mood. “Host is right, he would not poison anyone.”

    “If you can’t trust them, at least take my word for it,” Dr. Iplier took a step forward. “You don’t have to take the coffee, just trust we aren’t going to sell you out.”

    Anxiety was quiet for a little bit. “Don’t know if you haven’t noticed, Doc, trust isn’t usually something I’m given, and I certainly don’t give it out.”

    A thud shook all of them from the conversation, both Logan and Anxiety jumping and looked up to see King of the Squirrels on top of the fire escape, about five squirrels hanging off of him, scurrying around him and the fire escape.

    “Coast is clear, most of the villains are waiting the storm out,” King climbed down the outside of the fire escape, Anxiety pulled his hood farther down to hide his face and backing away from him.

    “How fortunate,” Host gasped as his narrations let him speak again. “I take it Dark’s enforcers are not roaming the streets.”

    “Well one of his Lieutenants was roaming around my park, so I had to hide over here,” King responded. “He’s got some new ones, or at least one new one. But if he got rid of Bargs, you can bet he got rid of Sierra too.”

    “That only means Darkiplier is moving through the timeline faster than the Host predicted,” Host responded in concern, confusing Logan because it was abundantly clear that King and the Host were speaking in some form of code he hadn’t known they shared.

    “So what are we supposed to do?” Anxiety said, keeping his hood drawn low, especially when King looked his way. Which intrigued Logan.

    “The Host advises the Sides and Egos stand back,” Host motioned and King jumped off the fire escape to give Host some more room.

    Iplier motioned for Anxiety to come down, and he did slowly, almost falling down to keep his hood covering his face. The Host held his hands up, as if he was shuffling through papers, and blood started leaking through the bandages. Anxiety looked like a cat about to bolt back into the candy cane lined streets behind them. Logic admittedly felt a little unnerved as well at the Host’s gift. His future sight tended to still get a rise out of him.

    “Hey, Doc, is that normal?” Anxiety whispered to Iplier, his unease loosening his grip on his hood, and King studied his face. Logan could see recognition in his eyes for a moment or two.

    “Unfortunately yes,” Dr. Iplier frowned, “I’ll have to take him back to the base after this.”

    “I can take him,” King offered, keeping his voice low as Host continued to look into the future. “I can grab any of the other heroes we need when I bring him back.”

    “As much as I’d like to, I need to change his bandages and he might need a saline IV,” Iplier reported. “King, you can take Logic and Anxiety to wherever the Host needs all of you.”

    Iplier slowly moved towards the Host as his hands stilled and his head tracked down something. “Doctor,” the Host warned and Iplier was quick to move it to support the seer and keep him upright.

    “Right, I’ll take you back to the base,” the doctor told him.

    “The good doctor should listen and listen well,” the Host warned. “Let the King of the Squirrels take the Host back to the base.”

    “I’m not going to let you bleed out,” Dr. Iplier spat at him, “I’m your doctor.”

    “King cannot be present when Wilford is confronted,” the Host struggled to stand on his own, but Iplier just helped lower him to the floor. “The Red Prince is located on 8th Street. Let Wilford interview him, and he will survive. Anyone else will not survive being shot. Let Henrik treat the Host until the good doctor returns, he will survive.”

    “You better not be pulling another—” Dr. Iplier spat.

    “The Host is not,” Host spat back, blood dripping from his thoroughly soaked bandages, it was getting so bad that it starting to slip down his face. “King.”

    “Right,” King moved in, trying to get Iplier to give him the Host. “Come on, Eddy, I got him.”

    “You better,” Dr. Iplier warned.

    “I’ll take the quick route,” King smiled. “Don’t want to wind up on your bad list.”

    King quickly left with the Host, the two of them retreating into the streets to head towards the base.

    “I hate it when they do that,” Iplier glared after them. “Let’s go.”

    “Right, don’t have to tell me twice,” Anxiety commented.

[sunnybugz]

only fools

chapter: iv

word count: 1968

authors note: this chapter has been finished for over a week, but i’ve been freaking out over whether or not it was good enough hhh. im still super anxious to post this, so please give me some feedback! i love y’all

11:05 AM, Gina Linetti’s car

Rosa had spent a while trying to figure out what to wear. Gina refused to tell her where they were going, so she eventually just decided on a pair of dark wash jeans, a long-sleeved black t-shirt, and her black Docs. She wore a little more makeup than usual, but nothing too elaborate. She worried that Gina would think she was too much, or not enough, but managed to not freak out before Gina showed up at her door. Luckily, she was 15 minutes late, giving Rosa enough time to fix her curly hair.

When Gina had shown up at Rosa’s house, Rosa got a pit caught up in gay panic. Gina looked absolutely gorgeous, wearing an olive-green sweater with the collar of her white button down sticking out and a pair of jeans, and her auburn hair was just down, curled at the ends. She had on minimal makeup, yet still looked absolutely beautiful. Rosa literally stood there frozen for a few seconds before Lillian shouted, “Bye Rosa!” from the couch.

“So, does Lillian know?” Gina asked her as the doors shut.

“Uh, yeah. She heard our phone call through the stupid thin wall between our room. It’s like she’s trying to spy on me sometimes!” Rosa says. Gina smiles at her and shakes her head, her cheeks flushing a slight pink. Gina blushing was probably the cutest thing Rosa had ever seen.

Now she was sitting in Gina’s car, listening to her sing along to some pop song on the radio that Rosa didn’t recognize. It was her new favourite though, not because of the actual piece, but because Gina was singing it, and anything that Gina did was Rosa’s favourite. The song ended, and Gina looked at Rosa with a smile. Rosa had a huge grin plastered on her face, and she felt amazing. She was in the car with her girlfriend, and she couldn’t be happier.

“So are you planning on telling me where we’re going?” Rosa asked. Gina had a mischievous grin on her face.

“Nope, you’ll see when we get there. How have I dealt with you being so impatient for the past five years?” Gina responds. Rosa smiles and gives a slight eye roll.

“The same way I’ve tolerated you breaking out into random dance numbers. You thought it was cute,” Rosa responds. It feels weird to flirt so lightheartedly. She’d never felt this way with Marcus, Adrian, Becky, Aubrey, or even Alicia. It was like she was floating.

“I feel so attacked,” Gina laughed. “I mean, you aren’t wrong, but jeez!”

The two of them drove and flirted for a few more minutes before Gina pulled into the marketplace parking lot. Rosa looked at her quizzically.

“You’re taking me to the market?” She asked. “Not that that’s a bad thing, any place with you is the best.”. She realizes she’s rambling and turns bright red.

“You’ll see,” Gina says. “And by the way, you’re adorable when you blush.”. This causes Rosa to turn an even deeper shade of red, and Gina laughs.

It turns out Gina was taking her to get gelato. They go to a smaller stall in the market, with more flavours than Rosa has ever tried in her life. Gina gets birthday cake, and Rosa gets coffee. The two of them walk back out to Gina’s car, because according to Gina, there’s still more places to go.

Their second destination is a small diner that Rosa has passed a hundred times but never gone to. “You’ve talked about this place like, a billion times,” Gina said. “I had to take you here on our first date”. Rosa’s cheeks flush pink at that D-word. She could barely believe she was on a real date with the girl she’s liked since eighth grade.

The two of them get a booth right by a window. Rosa orders a burger and Gina orders nachos. They get a strawberry milkshake to split. The two of them are sitting, waiting for their food to come, while Gina gossips about the girls in her dance class. Rosa just sits there, staring into Gina’s beautiful blue eyes. She could listen to that girl talk for hours. Even though Rosa doesn’t know who Natasha is or why she’s allegedly pregnant at 19, or even why Gina cares so much about exposing her for faking her pregnancy, but the one thing Rosa does know is she loves Gina. She loves how passionate she gets when she talks, she loves how her face scrunches up when she smiles, she loves how she knows she’s always the most beautiful girl in the room.

Rosa is laughing at a stupid joke Gina made when their food comes. Rosa tries to stop herself from inhaling hers, because even though she’s known Gina since the eighth grade, she’s still embarrassed about eating in front of her or anyone really. She eventually gives into the delicious burger in front of her, stopping to make silly quips during Gina’s story. They take turns sipping from the pink milkshake between the two of them, but after Gina finally finishes her story, the two of them lean in at the same time, and they almost kiss. Rosa turns beet red and hides her face in her hands, smiling behind them. Gina giggles. “C’mon, stop hiding, you’re cute when you’re embarrassed,” she says, but this just makes Rosa’s face burn red, and she’s pretty sure she’s blushing down to her neck. Somehow, she can make out with Gina in a dressing room and be perfectly fine, but putting her face close to Gina’s on a date nearly kills her? “Rosa, if you don’t move your hands in the next three seconds I’m eating your food.” Gina says. She starts counting down from three, and on one, Rosa finally takes her hands away from her face, and Gina smiles big. “See, I told you that you were cute.” She says, making Rosa smile.

“I am not cute,” Rosa says. Gina just rolls her eyes.

“Of course you are Rosie. You’re adorable and pretty and I know you’re a badass but badasses can still be cute.” She says in response to Rosa. Rosa feels her face heat up, but not in the good way this time.

“No, I’m not pretty or any of that stuff. I don’t look anything like those pretty girls in magazines and on TV,” Rosa says, her voice getting quieter as she looks down at the table. She doesn’t know why she’s getting so emotional in the middle of a diner. She’s always been insecure of how she looks, but she usually just hides it with her badass attitude and a stoic face. Only around Gina does she really feel like she can be open about how she feels.

Gina looks at Rosa with sad eyes, slightly shaking her head. How can she not see how perfect she is? Gina has literally never seen a more stunning person in her life, and no matter who she’s been with, she’s always wished it was Rosa. She scoots into the booth with Rosa, putting her arm around her girlfriend.

“Baby, you’re right. You don’t look like the girls on TV. You look better. You’re absolutely beautiful, and gorgeous, and stunning, and elegant, and every single synonym for those words in existence. You’re perfect,” Gina whispers, rocking her girlfriend slightly, kissing her hair. Rosa begins to cry, tears spilling over her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, I’m being so stupid-” She starts, but Gina cuts her off.

“Don’t say that. You’re the smartest person I know. You aren’t stupid,” Gina reassures her.

“Gina, we’re friends with Amy Santiago, you can’t say that.” Rosa laughs a little.

“No, you’re definitely smarter than her. Don’t tell her that I said that though, she’ll probably beat me to death with one of her binders.” Rosa actually laughs at this, wiping tears away from her face. She grabs Gina’s hand, who gives hers a squeeze, and they finish their meal like that, sitting in the same booth, holding hands. It feels safe, and Gina’s heart swells a little every time she sees Rosa sneak a peek at her. This girl was so beautiful, she really would be the death of her, Gina thought. She hadn’t felt this much for any person in her life, except for her mom and Jake, both of which were family love. She’s never truly been in love other than with Rosa, and it felt nice to be a little less alone.

When the bill comes, Rosa goes to pull out her wallet, but Gina grabs her wrist. “Nuh uh, I asked you out, I’m paying,” She says. Rosa rolls her eyes.

“You already paid for us to get ice cream!” Rosa says, but Gina just gives her that look, and Rosa knows there’s no arguing with her. “Fine, but I’m getting you next time.”

The waitress smiles at the two girls, wisps of blonde hair framing her face. “You two are cute together, I’m glad you’re able to be out at such a young age. I’m still not out to my parents, but I’m happy you girls are able to do it,” She says. Rosa’s stomach drops a bit when she says this, but she smiles anyways.

“Thanks,” she says to the pretty waitress. Gina looks at Rosa, and can tell something is off. Rosa shakes her head a bit, and Gina knows that means she doesn’t want to talk about it. Rosa isn’t in the mood to talk about more sad things at the moment, she’s already cried once. Luckily, Gina understands. The two of them have always understood each other like that, despite how different they are.

The two of them are walking back to Gina’s car, holding hands. Gina is swinging Rosa’s hand and Rosa is going along with it. God, if anyone from school saw them doing this, Rosa’s reputation would be completely different. However, she doesn’t really care all that much. She would give up everything if it meant she got to be with Gina. When they reach Gina’s car, Rosa holds the door open for her. “Wow, Rosa Diaz is a gentleman, who would’ve guessed?” Gina says. Rosa smiles and pecks her on the lips. Gina grins and looks at the ground for just a moment before getting into the car.

Gina and Rosa drive around for a while, just talking. They talk about school, and the play, and their friends, and all the while holding hands and making googly eyes at each other.

“Do you wanna go chill at my place?” Gina asks. Rosa smiles.

“Is this the intro to some cheesy porno?” She responds. This sends Gina into a fit of hysterics, and it’s lucky the two of them are stopped at a red light, because otherwise, Gina most definitely would have crashed the car.

“No, it’s you using up all my gas money bitch! Although…” she trails off. Rosa rolls her eyes and laughs.

“Sorry, I’ll pay you back for the gas. How long have we been driving anyways?” Rosa says, completely ignoring the last part of Gina’s sentence.

“An hour, and you don’t have to worry about paying me back babe, this is a date,” Gina says, and Rosa kisses her on the cheek.

“Best first date I’ve ever been on,” Rosa replies. Gina just smiles. “Also, you’ve got lipstick on your cheek.”

“Diaz, if you aren’t kidding I’m going to kill you,” jokes Gina. Rosa actually has no clue if Gina is joking or not, but hopes for the best.

“No you aren’t, because I’m pretty sure I owe you a second date,” Rosa flirts.

Gina shakes her head and smiles. “Oh, Rosie. if only you knew what you were getting yourself into.”

[magioftheseas]

Day 1 - Reserve

Written for @the-hinata-project 

Prompt: Reserve Course Student Hinata

Rating: G

Warnings: Lowkey manipulation and insecurity, but other than that, not much.

Notes: Alright, so I’m still in the middle of these, but like... Here’s the first one! They’re all going to be pretty short, around 2K but I’m gonna do my best to finish all of them so wish me luck...! And this first fic is gen. No ships. Next ones won’t be so gen. It’s also pre-HPA. Kind of.

***Alternate Ao3 Link***

Commission? Donate?

The last wish he made on New Year’s was a simple one.

I want to get into Hope’s Peak.

But of course that  would never happen.

“Can’t you dream more realistically, Hajime? Do you have any idea how expensive Hope’s Peak actually is? We can’t afford that.”

“I... I know that, but...”

“If you know then why are you burdening us with this? Please. Just think about other people besides yourself for once.”

“...sorry.”

His mother sighs, but ruffles his hair in a show of affection.

“You current high school isn’t so bad, right? You can make good friends here, and it’s a fine school.”

“I guess it’s...decent,” he mumbles.

“Just don’t even worry about Hope’s Peak anymore,” she tells him. “It’s impossible, and it can’t be helped. Keep your chin up. Okay?”

“...fine...”

Because he knew, after all, that she had a point. They couldn’t afford it. And he wasn’t talented. It was a pipe dream to attend. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Still...

--

For his birthday, he was given a new laptop to replace the old. It was a fairly recent model. Pretty expensive. Likely compensation. He can’t say he didn’t like it.

He wasn’t ungrateful. He doesn’t think so.

It’s just that I admire Hope’s Peak more than anything.

So much so that he finds himself on the forums first thing.

>Does anyone have any idea who’s going to be in the upcoming batch?

>They haven’t finished scouting, right? Oh, but I just saw on the news that an actual princess was accepted! Hope’s Peak really can get in anyone!

>Wow, actual royalty?!

>There’s this photographer I follow. She’s getting in, too, I’m pretty sure.

>I just saw Saionji Hiyoko-san’s performance last week. I’m positive she’s getting in.

>I’m more interested in the princess. Can you imagine how lucky it would be to meet an actual princess?

>>They’ll be running the lottery in a month or so. What I would give to have more of a chance...

>Wow, they’re doing that again?

>With how much getting into the reserve course costs, you probably have a better chance with the lottery...

>But if you win the lottery, you’re actually considered talented. Reserves are just...y’know, reserves.

>But you’ll get to meet the princess, potentially. I think the money’s worth it, even if all I can do is steal a glance!

>Still... Seems so lame that you can just pay your way in...

>But brand name recognition is pretty powerful...

>>I heard you can actually get into the main course from the reserve course if you do well enough.

>No way! That’s a pipe dream! Maybe if you paid like, twice as much!

>Must be nice to be rich, huh...

Hinata stares, wondering what to type, but also letting the thoughts swirl around in his head.

>>I would do anything to get into Hope’s Peak. But my family just can’t afford that.

>Yeah, mine neither. Who actually can?

>You’d be surprised... They’re getting a lot of enrollments.

>You can’t like...get a scholarship or anything? It’s not like you need to go to college after attending Hope’s Peak.

>Well the golden gates can’t open that wide, I suppose...

>It’s for the best. If just about anyone could get in, it wouldn’t be that special.

Hinata bites his lip, picking at the peeling skin with his teeth.

>>Still. I want to get in more than anything.

>If you aren’t talented, it can’t be helped.

>>I would give anything.

>Pffft. No kidding. I’d give an arm and a leg, probably.

>>I would give anything.

>A lot of people would.

>You’re like a super fan, huh. Well, I am, too, but still...

>>Getting into Hope’s Peak has always been my dream.

>Everyone wants to be special, man.

>But if everyone was special then no one would be special.

>It can’t be helped. You’re either born talented or you aren’t.

>Right?! I must have spent hours drawing but there was always that one person I could just never compare to. It’s hopeless!

>You shouldn’t say hopeless on the Hope’s Peak forums!

>Haha, sorry!

>>I’ve never been talented. There’s not one thing I’m particularly good at.

>Normie...

>>But I want to get into Hope’s Peak Academy... More than anything.

>Give it up. For your own good. Wishing for the impossible isn’t healthy.

>Hey, don’t tell him that! What if he ends up winning the lottery?

>Yeah, right!

>>I’m not particularly lucky, either.

>Luck’s not a talent anyway.

>Are you sure? I’ve known people who get ridiculously lucky while gambling...

>If they gamble too much, that luck’s bound to run out. And I bet they’re not that lucky, they just brag a lot.

>That might be true... Still it would be nice just to get into Hope’s Peak by chance...

>Whoever wins that lottery probably is ridiculously lucky considering how many people are participating. We’re talking like, every high school student in their first year in the country.

>Sucks to be other countries, huh.

>Maybe someday but for now, I like not having that much competition.

>Still a ridiculous amount competing...

>I bet it’ll be someone who can afford the reserve course if they haven’t already enrolled.

>No fair! That kind of thing should disqualify you immediately!

>>I just...want to get in...

>Yeah we all do. But it’s impossible.

>Impossible.

>Totally impossible.

>Pigs will fly first.

>I heard some Ultimates actually can make some crazy shit. We might see flying pigs pretty soon.

>That’s terrifying.

>>I just want to get in.

>You should get offline.

He should. He really, really should.

Is it really impossible?

“Of course it is,” he can practically hear them murmur. “Not only are you untalented, you can’t afford it! And you’re going to win the lottery, either!”

Hinata buries his face into his hands, shuddering.

I just... I just...

--

To his surprise, he later receives a DM. Shivering, he clicks it open.

>Would you really do anything for Hope’s Peak?

He doesn’t recognize the name of the sender but...it looks official.

>>Yes. Of course. Why?

>There actually is a program you can sign up for that will get you in without having to pay a coin.

Hinata blinked once. Twice.

It’s way too good to be true.

But he’s desperate. Beyond desperate.

>>What is this program? How can I sign up?

>Here’s the information.

--

What he’s about to do is how people get themselves abducted, he’s pretty sure. But right now, he’s desperate and... If it really was someone associated with Hope’s Peak, how bad can it be? What’s the worse than can happen?

I already have no chance getting in. I know that... But...

His heart was pounding as he took the train. He stared out the window, at HPA’s towering buildings in the distance, getting closer and closer, and he sucks in his breath.

It’s so shining that it hurts to look at.

Shining like a dream...

--

“Ah, Hinata-kun, you made it after all. So you have the necessary information?”

“Uh... Yes...” Truth be told, he didn’t understand most of it. There were a lot of words that were hard to read and pretty...advanced. “I just...well you said you couldn’t explain everything in just files, so...”

The other looked pretty professional. Sharply dressed and smiling in a way that at least seemed pretty welcoming. But...still pretty intimidating, considering the circumstances. Hinata ducked his head, feeling rather flustered.

“Yes, it’s meant to be kept very tightly under wraps, you see,” they laugh. “I need to assure confidentiality before explaining, Hinata-kun. Surely you understand.”

That’s...weird.

But it made his blood thrum with excitement to be a part of.

“I... Y-Yes, of course. Absolutely... Of course...”

“Sign this form, then, promising that.”

“O-Of course...!”

He scribbles down his signature without a second thought. The other smiled more, pleased. Hinata squirmed in his seat, and tried to keep his posture straight.

With that, the other sat across from him, polite and yet...expectant.

Ah... Hah...

“So you’re willing to do anything for this school,” they say, voice almost light but also dense with significance. “Might I ask why?”

“It’s...as I said on the forums,” Hinata mumbles, fiddling with his tie. Even dressed professionally for this would-be interview, he feels underdressed. “I’ve always admired this school. Always. It’s always been my dream to...to go there...”

The other nods, expression unchanged.

“And why do you wish so badly to go there, despite not having a talent that can be cultivated?”

Hinata flinched.

“T-That’s...! I...” He hesitates, but he soon finds the words just spilling out. “I just want to be someone I can be proud of. Someone who can stand tall. Be confident. Be significant. Isn’t that what I deserve?”

“Isn’t that what everyone deserves?”

Hinata’s nails dig into his palms.

“I admire Hope’s Peak...more than anyone. I will give whatever I can...and then more than that...if I have to.” His teeth grit. “Whatever it takes... W-Whatever it takes...!”

Even though I know it’s selfish and impossible, I just...!

He just wanted to be someone. Someone other than...this.

Unimportant. Unremarkable. A faceless, meaningless part of the mass. The idea of being consumed by mediocrity and insignificance for the rest of his life, never to matter, never to even be remembered, just to disappear, just like he never even existed—

“I’ll do...w-whatever...it takes...” He’s shaking, eyes wide and crazed. “Whatever it takes... Whatever I can...and then more than that...if I have to.”

“Ah. I see.” An easy smile. And yet, the atmosphere felt so heavy that it was near suffocating. “Very well then, Hinata-kun. That’s exactly the kind of attitude we’re looking for.”

Hinata lit up.

“R-Really?” He dares to let hope slip into his tone. “D-Do you really mean it?”

A nod.

“Hinata-kun... If you could be reborn from the faceless body of a miserable nobody into the world’s hope... Would you?”

“That...sounds too good to be true...” His heart really was racing, but he was flushed with excitement. “But... Y-Yeah... I... Of course...”

“Then, allow me to tell you about how that can be possible. If you agree, you’ll be accepted into the school, free of charge, no talent necessary. In fact, it’s even essential that you be talentless.”

I...don’t understand.

He doesn’t understand but it just sounds so incredible that he can’t help but be swayed.

“...tell me.”

“Very well.”

A folder of files is placed before him. They look too important to grasp. And the stamped out letters of CONFIDENTIAL stare back into his wide-eyed, shimmering gaze.

Fingers trembling, Hinata actually slices his finger open as he flips it open.

He doesn’t even feel the sting, as engrossed as he is in the text.

“I...”

The words swirl around in his head, over and over until he drowns in them.

“Do you need time to think about it?” the other asks him kindly. So kindly that Hinata is struck cold. “Tell you what... You can still get into the reserve course. You don’t have to say yes right away, and the deadline will be in a few months from now. You can attend classes here until then...and then make your decision on whether or not you’re willing to stay. Okay?”

“I... O-Okay.” Hinata swallows. “That’s... I’m okay with that.”

I said I’d do anything. And I do...want to do anything. But...

His hands are shaking while still gripping the files.

I can’t...let this chance slip by...even if it’s something like this. This is everything I ever wanted. Why am I even hesitating?

“It’s alright,” the other says reassuringly, taking the files away with ease. “Hinata-kun, I know you’ll make the best decision for yourself.”

For...myself. Myself...

“I...yes.”

“I’ll have them send in your acceptance letter and uniform.” His hand is shook, the grip warm and calloused. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Hinata-kun.”

“A-A pleasure... Yeah.”

Just like that, Hinata was stumbling out of Hope’s Peak, trembling and falling to pieces with every shaky step.

I have to do it, he can’t help but think. I have to do it, for...for myself...

This was going to be the year his life changed irreparably. He was sure of it.

[eleanor-writes-stuff]

a language that i never knew existed before - Day 12

For @dawninthemtn, who asked for a modern AU in which “Ben Solo keeps trying to cancel his Book-A-Month subscription service, but just can't seem to say no to the friendly customer service agent”.

This was so much fun to write, especially since it allowed me to sneak some epistolary storytelling into this collection. Thanks for the prompt, and I hope you enjoy the ficlet!

Reylo fam! ‘Tis the season for giving, so come get your very own holiday ficlet right here!

25 Days of Reylo Also available on AO3

JUNE

To: custservice@resistancebooks.com From: ben_solo@gmail.com Subject: Cancellation/refund

My friend used my credit card to sign me up for a one-year YA subscription as a prank. I didn’t realize until the first box arrived today. I’d like to cancel the subscription and just pay for the box I’ve already received, if that’s okay.

To: ben_solo@gmail.com From: r_niima.custservice@resistancebooks.com Subject: Re: Cancellation/refund

Hi, Ben! I’m so sorry to hear about your experience with our service.

Our refund policy allows you to change your mind anytime and get a full refund for boxes not yet received. But might I suggest changing boxes instead? At $29.99 per month for a box of three books with a combined retail value of up to $59.99, we’re the most affordable book service in the country! If YA isn’t your thing, we offer eleven other standard boxes, along with an option for customization.

If you’d like to give us a second chance, please take this quick quiz to determine the best box for you. The results will automatically be emailed to me upon completion, and I’d be happy to guide you through the selection process.

Best regards, Rey Niima, Customer service representative, Resistance Books.

JULY

To: ben_solo@gmail.com From: r_niima.custservice@resistancebooks.com Subject: First box!

Hi, Ben!

Your first sci-fi/fantasy box just shipped out today, and should reach you within three working days. I hope you enjoy the selection, and thank you again for choosing to stick with us!

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Best regards, Rey Niima, Customer service representative, Resistance Books.

To: r_niima.custservice@resistancebooks.com From: ben_solo@gmail.com Subject: Re: First box!

Hi, Rey.

Three working days, just like you said. Everything looks okay, thanks for your help.

Regards, Ben.

To: ben_solo@gmail.com From: r_niima.custservice@resistancebooks.com Subject: Re: Re: First box!

Hi, Ben!

I’m glad to hear the box arrived on time! If you don’t mind, please keep me informed on how you like the selection. I’ve got a few other suggestions for you based on your quiz results, and I’d be happy to switch your subscription if you’re not absolutely pleased with the sci-fi/fantasy box.

Best regards, Rey Niima, Customer service representative, Resistance Books.

To: r_niima.custservice@resistancebooks.com From: ben_solo@gmail.com Subject: Re: Re: Re: First box!

Hey, Rey.

I think that might be for the best. Sci-fi just isn’t what it used to be. Or maybe I’ve changed; it’s been a while since I last read anything in that genre.

Of course, if that’s too much trouble you can always just go ahead and process my refund. I’d hate to take up more of your time.

Regards, Ben.

To: ben_solo@gmail.com From: r_niima.custservice@resistancebooks.com Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: First box!

Hi, Ben!

It’s no trouble at all! I first joined Resistance back when it was an actual store, and I’ve always loved matching readers up with the right book. As long as you’re okay with it, I’d like to keep going until we find you the right match.

My next suggestion for you based on your quiz results is one of our non-fiction boxes, the history/anthropology combo. Please let me know by the 23rd of this month if you’re interested in that so that I can arrange for the switch and shipping.

Best regards, Rey Niima, Customer service representative, Resistance Books.

AUGUST

To: r_niima.custservice@resistancebooks.com From: ben_solo@gmail.com Subject: New box

Hi, Rey. The box just arrived today, and the selection is perfect.

So perfect that I already pre-ordered all three of them earlier this year.

I think it’s pretty obvious that this service and I just aren’t meant to be, as great as it is. I really do appreciate all of your help, especially you taking the time to discuss books with me off the clock, but it’s probably time to call it.

Unless you’ve got a third suggestion?

Sincerely, Ben.

To: ben_solo@gmail.com From: r_niima.custservice@resistancebooks.com Subject: Re: New box

What can I say? I’m good at my job – too good, in this case.

I’ve got at least three more suggestions for you, if you’d like to keep going. And your box should have come with a return ticket, if you’d like to send it back; I don’t see the point in you keeping the duplicates, unless you have a friend with the same unique taste in books? I’d be happy to process the return and credit it to your account. Same goes for your first two boxes; I’m sorry I forgot to mention it earlier.

I’ve actually really missed talking about books with someone, so really, thank you for humoring me. If you ever feel like debating the SWEU again, feel free to reach me at 555-3494. I like that things can get heated when we talk about those books, but it’s probably for the best if I don’t argue with a customer on my work email.

Best regards, Rey Niima, Customer service representative, Resistance Books.

SEPTEMBER

Rey: So technically we’re not supposed to tell anyone about this yet But Wait You still collect comics, right?

Ben: You make me sound like a teenage boy. I collect graphic novels, yes. Why?

Rey: You say potayto, I say potahto ANYWAY I know you’re not 100% happy with the customized box

Ben: They’re your picks for me, of course I’m happy with them.

Rey: Ben

Ben: I am! I’m just not happy with the fact that I barely get any time to read. And when I do get an hour to myself, my brain is too tired for anything intellectual.

Rey: You cutthroat lawyers and your ridiculous endless work Back to my point

Ben: You have one?

Rey: Very funny, Solo Okay so next month we’re announcing a special new box Limited time only And we’re only opening it up to 200 subscribers

Ben: Sounds like a big deal. What do we get, hand-bound manuscripts?

Rey: Even better Two trades and a hardcover, no extra charge

Ben: You’re kidding me.

Rey: Nope Completely serious You in?

Ben: Hey, Rey? No offence but that’s the stupidest question you’ve ever asked me.

Rey: Whatever, nerd I’ll sign you up

Ben: You’re my favorite person right now, thank you.

Rey: Careful, Solo Keep saying nice shit and I might actually start to like you

Ben: And we wouldn’t want that, of course.

Rey: Of course

OCTOBER

To: ben_solo@gmail.com From: custservice@resistancebooks.com Subject: Congratulations!

Hi there, Ben!

Your assigned customer service representative recently entered you for a chance to win one of our 200 limited-time-only comic box subscriptions.

We’re very pleased to let you know that you made the cut! As of next month, you’ll start receiving two trade paperbacks and a hardcover volume each month for the remaining duration of your subscription. We also noticed that you have seven months left with us, and as a sign of our appreciation we’d like to offer you the chance to add on another five months at the standard rate of $29.99 per month in order to receive a full year’s worth of comic boxes. If you’re interested, please contact your assigned customer service representative by the 31st of this month.

Congratulations again, and we hope you enjoy your boxes!

Best regards, Paige Tico, Head of customer service, Resistance Books.

.

Rey: Did you get the email???

Ben: Just read it. Can’t wait for the first box. Thanks, Rey. By the way, sign me up for the extension thing.

Rey: Can you believe how far we’ve come? It feels like just yesterday that you were trying to cancel your subscription at every turn

Ben: For what it’s worth, I’m glad I didn’t. So fucking glad. I wouldn’t have gotten to know you otherwise.

Rey: Stop, you’ll make me cry Ben? I’m happy we’re friends too

NOVEMBER

Rey: Is it there yet?

Ben: Rey. It’s been two hours. I haven’t even left the office yet.

Rey: Okay, NOW is it there yet?

Ben: Still at work. You’re the one who shipped it, can’t you track the package or something?

Rey: I could But I think I prefer it this way

Ben: Of course you do. You’re lucky I have no other friends.

Rey: As if you’d stop talking to me even if you had a hundred other friends I’m your favorite

Ben: Says who? Maybe Poe’s my favorite. I’ve known him since childhood, after all.

Rey: Poe is a prankster and you fucking hate him

Ben: I wouldn’t say hate.

Rey: Ben He stole your credit card and signed you up for a year’s worth of YA books

Ben: And if he hadn’t done that, you and I would never have met.

Rey: We haven’t Met, I mean Shit I don’t even know what you look like BRB, I’m gonna go stalk you on social

Ben: Honestly, I just assumed you already did.

Rey: Wow, I’m offended HOLY HELL, BEN

Ben: So you’ve found me. If this is about the ears no, I don’t know what the fuck’s going on there either. No one in my family does.

Rey: What ears? Your ears are FINE, silly I was talking about your hair Christ, do you shampoo with unicorn blood or something???

Ben: That would be very soulless lawyer of me, wouldn’t it?

Rey: Shut up, you’re not soulless Funless, maybe, but I’d like to think I’m helping with that

Ben: You are. In the interest of fairness, I’m going to stalk you too.

Rey: Not much to see, but go right ahead Ben? Wow did I scare you off already? And here I thought that was a decent picture

Ben: Shit, sorry. Got pulled into a meeting. It’s a great picture.

Rey: You don’t have to say that

Ben: Well, it is and I mean it. And… I hope this isn’t creepy but I love your smile.

Rey: Not creepy at all By the way I like your eyes

DECEMBER

To: ben_solo@gmail.com From: a_holdo@resistancebooks.com Subject: Come celebrate the holidays with us!

Hi, Ben!

Did you know that before Resistance Books went online and became the #1 book delivery service in the country, we were a tiny little indie store known as Gatalenta?

This holiday season, we’re returning to our roots – and we’d love for you to join us! Resistance Books will be participating in the annual Coruscant Christmas Market with our very own pop-up store from the 15th of December onwards!

This is a great time for you to come on by and check out the full range of our diverse offerings. And if something catches your eye, you’ll be able to bring it home with you for the same incredibly reasonable rate you know and love – pick any three books from our store for just $29.99!

We hope to see you there!

Warmest wishes, Amilyn Holdo, Founder and president, Resistance Books.

.

Rey: Hey, did you get the email about the pop-up store?

Ben: Yeah, I was just about to text you. I just realized your boss is a friend of my mom’s. Anyway, this is probably extremely unlikely but Will you be there?

Rey: Seriously?? That’s so weird And yes, actually I’ll be helping out 21st-25th, 11AM-8PM

Ben: You’re working on Christmas?

Rey: You know me Not like I’ve got anything else to do

Ben: Okay, feel free to say no but… What if I go on Christmas? We’d get to discuss books in person And maybe after your shift we could hang out? I haven’t been to the CCM in years, but Maz’s Cantina used to make the best hot chocolates.

Rey: Books, hot chocolate, and finally getting to meet my mysterious Internet stranger? Ben Solo, you’ve got yourself a date

Ben: Great! I mean Cool. I can’t wait. See you then.

Rey: See you!

Ben: Hey, so I just woke up and you’re not here Which is fine, it’s your choice to make And last night can be whatever you want it to be But… Rey, I know what I want it to be I know we moved fast, but yesterday meant a lot to me You mean a lot to me I just… I just want to make sure you know that before you make a decision And the decision’s yours to make, completely I’ll go along with whatever you want As long as we’re at least still friends Because I don’t think I could bear to lose you entirely, Rey Fuck, I don’t think I could bear to lose you at all Shit, sorry, that’s too much I’ll stop now Just… text me back, please?

Rey: Babe I’m in the kitchen Hurry up, breakfast is getting cold And Ben? You mean a lot to me too ❤

This is a little over two thousand words and stopped being about tsundoko about halfway through (if it even was in the first place), but it was such a fun idea to play with and I hope the format doesn’t get in the way of the story. I thought emails and texts would help me keep things short, but obviously that didn’t pan out.

Anyway, thanks for reading as always and I hope you liked it. Please don’t hesitate to like/reblog/comment!

[bald-tales]

Witness Protection at the Bears Den - part 8 and 9

Dan was now studying a case file marked: 359. The client, one Bret Williamson, witness for the District Attorney in the successful prosecution of Carl Gandifino, a high ranking mobster in a world-wide Drug syndicate.  Bret had been a drop-out from college and sought his riches by working for Carlo. He poised as a college student in order to infiltrate the college campuses, peddling his drugs. After being picked up by the police, they told him his only chance to escape a lengthy jail term was to tell them everything. Of course he knew his life was in danger – however he was promised money and complete re-location.  Dan was sitting at his desk at work, a company called; New Beginnings. He was having such a great day because it looked like he was going to head up the company’s’ witness protection program. His former boss, Jerrod O’Leary, had terminated his employment, effective immediately! Both he and his Barber mate, Ken had seen to it that the new Jerrod, now known as Jerry Hawk, write a resignation letter the night before. After Jerry’s transformation into punk biker, by Ken’s talented hands, he had no desire to return to his former life.  Now the company heads were unimpressed the ‘kid’ had left so quickly and mysteriously. They asked Dan to organise an investigation so as not to compromise there security. Dan couldn’t believe how easy it was to get rid of his boss, and with him now heading the investigation into Jerrod’s resignation, it was going to be even simpler to delete all information on Jerrod O’Leary. Dan already had an idea to link the recent security breach where a customer’s new identity had been discovered, and latter –  Kidnapped –to Jerrod.  Dan picked up the photo of Bret. A good-looking kid, well not a kid -he was 28, but he could pass for a 17 year-old. His hair was blonde and tied into a ponytail. He was clean shaven and seemed to be rather scrawny, like he needed a good feed. He probably was a user himself, Dan thought. Well he’d soon meet him in the flesh, the NCF (National Crime Force) were dropping him off in a hour or so.  Dan wasn’t going to waste anytime with ensuring Bret’s safety. He had arranged to take him straight to Ken’s Barbershop straight away – Ken was preparing for them!  It was important that Bret’s new identity begin as soon as possible.  MEANWHILE AT KEN”S BARBERSHOP  Ken had closed his shop for the afternoon in order to prepare for his new client, Dan was bringing round. He had been given no specific information about this guy – Dan thought it safer if Ken knew as little about him as possible.  “How yer getting on with the new hired help?” asked Ken when he saw his partner, Bart, enter the back door of the shop. Ken was referring to Jerry, the new improved Biker version of Jerrod, Dan’s ex-boss. They’d put him to work in their bar next door, ‘The Bears Den’, seeing he was staying with them in their upstairs apartment. He was popular with the customers alright, and at the end of a long hard day – he certainly was very eager to let Ken and Bart take turns fucking him – he just seemed to be so eager to satisfy. Ken realised that his programming techniques were better than he could have imagined. First with Luke who became Lucas, and now Jerrod. This could indeed become a very lucrative business given time, he thought to himself. Already he had some patrons asking about Lucas and whether he was for sale. Ken hadn’t thought about that originally, he was just having plain fun turning these Jocks into big macho Bears.  “Well his not the hardest worker behind the bar – he spends more time chatting up the customers or touching up his Mohawk”, Bart replied. “So what have you got planned for the new arrival?”  “Well I’ll know what to do when I see what he looks like, but according to Dan he thinks I should just keep doing what I’m doing already. Normally his company uses plastic surgeons to alter the witness appearance, but he thinks there are still risks in that. Once they have the new identity their finding it hard and often slip up, contacting friends or family from their previous lives. Dan said over the last 6 months they’ve lost 2 clients to hit men.”  “Wow!” Bart exclaimed,” So their safer in your hands of course.”  “Let’s hope so, “answered Ken. He hadn’t really thought about the dangers involved, but he knew this part of town was the last place anyone would come looking for a white middle class jock.  Suddenly, a knock at the front door startled both of them. “That’ll be the new client Bart, would you like to show him in,” asked Ken.  After the pleasantries were exchanged, Bret, Dan and Ken sat down on the waiting area chairs while Bart returned to the bar to check on Luke. Ken noticed that even though Bret was thin he certainly was a looker. He certainly looked a lot younger than his 28 years.  Dan hadn’t told his client what they had in store for him – only that his Barber friend was a genius a creating whole new looks. Bret seemed pretty relaxed , obviously unaware of the changes he would undergo.  “Okay then Bret, into the chair and let’s see what I can do”, said Ken with a distinct cheerfulness in his voice,  “I don’t want anything freaky, like shaving my head,” returned Bret, nodding at Dan’s and Ken’s hairless scalps.  Ken responded, “Trust me Bret, we have to make sure nobody finds you, and when I’m finished with you even your own mother wont recognise you.”  For the first time since entering the shop, Bret looked worried.  As Ken fastened the cape around Bret’s neck, he asked Dan to take a seat and enjoy the show. Soon the sound of vibrating clippers filled the room. As Ken drew them towards Bret’s hairline, Dan could feel his cock growing. Then the hungry teeth of the clippers made direct contact with Bret’s hairline – stripping the guy of his longish bangs.  “Hey!” Bret shouted, “What gives, I told you I didn’t want the same look as you Bozo’s have.”  Annoyed at this interruption and the Bozo reference, Ken switched off the clippers.  Bret continued his ranting, “I’ve got very use to my long blonde locks and I’m only going to let you trim the ends or maybe dye it.”  Bret didn’t see what Ken was doing behind him, but Ken touched a switch and two wrist clamps appeared from under the chair arms and locked in place around Bret’s wrists.  “Fuck man! What gives, you can’t do this to me….” And before Bret could react any further, Ken was strapping Bret’s feet to the chair, while he tossed another leather strap to Dan. “Would you mind old friend?”  “Be a pleasure,” replied Dan  “You fat fuck, you can’t do this – I’ll call my lawy……….ahhhh!” cried Bret as Dan slapped him hard across the face. “Now’s the time to start resembling some of your family, Bret.” Said Ken sounding almost sinister.  “Listen you weasel. You’re lucky to have Ken. Without his help, you would fall back into the hands of the mob. No lawyer is going to help you now, we’re all you got if you want to stay alive,” spat Dan as he grabbed Bret by the shirt collar.  “Yeah,” said Ken as he took something from a drawer. “We’re your new family now.”  And before Bret could say anything Ken shoved a rubber ball gag into his mouth – so big there was no need to fasten it. This gave Ken the freedom to work on the kid’s head.  Fear had replaced the arrogance. Bret knew these guy’s meant business – he hadn’t really thought the changes he would undergo would be too drastic. Just a haircut, a new name and a different city.  Part 9  Dan was surprised how different their new boy was looking already. Ken had been working solidly for the past hour whilst Bret, still strapped to the Barber’s Chair, just stared at the mirror in front of him – eyes red from all the tears he’d shed. He couldn’t believe what was happening to him and he was powerless to stop these maniacs!  His hair was almost history, just a light covering of stubble and because he was blonde, his head seemed shaved clean. The Barber working on him, had already applied some thick green goop to his face, he didn’t know what it was but it certainly tingled after a short time. The biggest thing that had frightened Brett was when he was hooked up to some IV bag on a stand. The Barber had inserted a needle in his forearm, and the bag had already emptied it’s contents and they replaced it with a new bag. Nothing made sense to Brett; why were these guys doing to him? Were they going to turn him into a fag like them? Shit! That’s shaving cream his using as the warmth of the lather brought him out of his tangled thoughts.  Ken had started removing Bret’s remaining hair. The straight razor, with some resistance at first, began to remove the remaining stubble. As more and more pink skin showed through the thick lather, the razor found less and less drag. Ken continued to run the razor over and over Bret’s head, ensuring no stubble remained. When satisfied with the smoothness, which he checked by running his tongue over the denuded scalp, he took a jar from the counter and applied this heavy white cream to the top of Bret’s newly shaved head, rubbing it in. He was careful to only apply it only where he didn’t want any hair to grow again. Bret could feel a slight tightening of his scalp then it started to sting.  “I think an mpb will make you look years older, especially with that baby-face”, smiled Ken in the mirror at Bret. He noticed tears welling up in Bret’s eyes, along with a muffled whimper. Dan couldn’t believe how different the college dropout looked with his long blonde hair gone. Because of the colour of his hair, his shaved head didn’t have a hint of shadow anywhere.  “I think a low dip in the back is the best style for you Bret,” Ken said as he continued to apply the depilatory cream to the back of Bret’s head. Bret was horrified to hear he’d never have his long, flowing hair anymore. Why were these fuckers doing this to him?  This wasn’t in the deal he’d made with the Feds. If only he’d known, it would have been easier to face his former Bosses’ goons.  “So this stuff really stops any hair growth?” Dan asked Ken?  “A recent invention on my part,” replied Ken, “I’m hoping to market it.”  “Maybe you can line me up with some of that stuff,” Dan smiled running a hand over the three day stubble that was on his head.  “Sure thing but you have to be shaved smooth first as it only works by acting on the hair root, the less hair in the way, the better exposed the root ball. In fact, why don’t we do you now? It’ll give us some time for Bret’s initial changes to take place.” Replied Ken, motioning Dan to the neighbouring Barbers Chair.  “Now your sure you want this?” asked Ken as he started up his lather machine.  “Positive, you know I get lazy with shaving my head.”  “Okay, one cue ball for life coming up,” and with that Ken began to lather up the stubble on Dan’s head. Bret couldn’t believe any of what he was seeing. He was starting to feel strange – was it the drugs they were putting into him?  Ken started to shave his friend’s scalp for the last time. He took long, deliberate strokes with the straight razor, finally saying, “your gonna miss this aren’t you Dan?”  “Yeah! It feels great, but this way I always have a smooth head, with not even a hint of shadow. So now I’ll always wake up with no stubble.” Smiled Dan.  After Ken had re-lathered Dan’s head, he carefully shaved against the grain, and as each stroke removed more and more white foam, smooth, clean skin glowed under the bright shop lights. After Ken wiped the scalp dry, he then took the thick paste and spread it all over Dan’s bald pate. “While we’re waiting for the cream to set, why don’t I tighten up that goat and tache of yours,” said Ken not waiting for a reply as he started to lather Dan’s face. Dan was enjoying himself and trusted Ken with all his grooming. It was Ken who had designed his present look.  Ken finished the tightening up of Dan’s goatee, trimming his moustache and blending the edges. Next he went back to the hair removal paste on Dan’s scalp; taking a damp towel, he carefully wiped away all the paste. “Now your scalp will feel a little raw for a while- I’ll apply some aloe lotion now and that should help.” Ken said.  When he’d finished rubbing the aloe on Dan’s head he held a mirror up so Dan could see the sides and back. “Smooth as!” smiled Dan as he took a hand and felt the new permanent smoothness of his head.  “Well, we’d better get back to our client” stated Ken, “I’m sure his been ‘basting’ long enough.”  Bret had been watching all this still secured to his chair with leather restraints and ball gag still in his mouth. He didn’t want to be here, he certainly didn’t want to look like these guy’s, but already they were turning him into a ‘ baldy’ like them.  Ken and Dan stood beside Bret looking at their captive client. Dan spoke first, “I can’t believe it Ken…I mean it’s only been a short time, and look at his face. That’s a pretty decent beard growth already.”  “It’s working better than expected, but then I did increase the stimulants in the Hair Growth formulae. When combined with the growth steroids we’re pumping into him, it’s working overtime,” Ken replied. “And speaking of the steroids we need to replace that bag.” Dan went to retrieve another IV bag, containing a mixture of potent steroids, hormones and chemicals all designed to alter Bret’s body shape as quickly as possible. The quicker the whole transformation process happened, the less chance of anyone finding Bret or indeed the Barbershop and Bar. Dan was well aware they hadn’t caught the culprit at work who’d been leaking information about certain clients. He needed to still be cautious, even here in this part of town.  Dan had every reason to be worried – at that very moment in the ‘Bears Den’, Bart had a guy he’d never seen before, enter the still quiet bar. 

[fluffynexu]

Sith Morphs

Marjay rushed into the classroom right before the door automatically closed behind her, nearly snagging the hem of her robe in the process. She huffed and tried to regain her breath. Some of the other acolytes stared her down while others didn’t even seem to notice or at least pretended not to.

Whatever. She weaved through the desks until coming upon a vacant seat fairly far back in the room. Marjay settled down in her desk with a couple of datapads. It was her third year at the academy and only now was she being allowed to take the Advanced Force Techniques I class. No thanks to Harkun… the jerk. Unlike other classes where the teacher was set, this class was unique in that it rotated through different instructors of various specialties.

The last couple of weeks have been taught by Lord Abaron who went over a condensed history of specialized techniques that came from the different ancient Sith civilizations. They were supposed to get a new instructor today. But the new instructor was… late?

Marjay looked around with some of her classmates. Before anyone could ask a question regarding their missing instructor the door opened and closed but no one came in.

“Aww! How cute!” Someone in the front row said.

It was then Marjay noticed a wrat had gotten into the classroom. The wrat was a black silken with its signature long, flowing coat and shiny red eyes. It hopped onto the top of the instructor’s desk with a lot more grace than one would expect from a creature of its stature. Pet wrats were fairly common among the Sith, and even some of Marjay’s other teachers brought theirs along to the academy. Which probably meant their new instructor would be arriving soon.

Except they still didn’t show. Instead the black wrat stared at the class, its tail swaying slowly as its nose twitched. Hopping back down from the desk it roamed between the rows of seated acolytes, taking the time to look up at each one. When it came around to Marjay its ears flattened and she could’ve sworn the wrat was frowning at her. Weird…

As cute as the wrat was, Marjay would much rather be taking a nap if their instructor wasn’t going to show. Before she could gather her things there was a collective gasp in the classroom. Marjay’s head swiveled back to the front of the class and she too let out a gasp with her wide eyes.

The wrat grew and morphed, its body changing shape until a middle-aged Sith woman stood before them.

“I don’t believe it,” said one acolyte.

“I thought Rinna was joking,” said another.

“Wow…” the student beside Marjay spoke with clear awe in his voice. “A real life Morph.”

The woman smiled, tucking a strand of greying black hair behind her ear. “Good evening class. I am Darth Taushar, your instructor for the next month or so… depending on how these lessons go.”

Marjay could feel the wonderment in the air and knew that everyone in the class wanted to talk to each other. But Sith discipline kept the class quiet and attention fully focused on the Darth.

“We’ll be going over the various techniques developed and perfected by the Wild Sages,” Taushar explained. “Pull up Knowledge of the Ancients, volume I. on your datapads… chapter five.”

The large holoscreen at the front of the room lit up as Darth Taushar stepped to the side. There was an abundance of words, numbers, and images shown on the screen with the header, Chapter Five: Use of the Force for Manipulation of Natural Entities.

Marjay prepped her two datapads as Taushar began the lecture. 

After a long day Marjay was finally able to get back to her apartment, go to her room, and sit on her bed. And as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t sleep right away. No.

Darth Taushar assigned an essay detailing the advantages and disadvantages of being a Sith Morph. (Not to mention the assignments from all her other classes.) So with a suppressed yawn, Marjay looked at her main datapad for what seemed like the millionth time for the day and read.

Morphs, or Morphers, are Sith who can transform into an animal at will and at any time while maintaining their mind and abilities of the Force. The first record of Morphers appear in ancient scrolls from the nation of Dikaanel on Korriban more than 45,000 years ago. This civilization was well known for some of their Kissai becoming “Wild Sages”. The sages were revered for their powers that combined a rudimentary knowledge of the Force with the surrounding wilderness. Many practices of these sages have been lost but enough of their texts survived for the process of becoming a Morpher to be studied and recreated.

The process begins with forming a strong bond. This bond must be forged between a Sith and their chosen animal for this will become the form of the Morpher. The bond cannot be forced and must be gained through trust, loyalty, and love. Once a bond is formed, the ritual can be prepared.

The animal companion must be fed parts of a “rival creature” for a whole (Korribani) month. A rival creature is simply an animal of a different species that either occupies the same niche or is a natural predator to the companion species. Most commonly used parts are the meat or bones, and sometimes blood, of the rival creature.

Some creativity may be needed if the companion beast in question is an herbivore. It is also important to note that the companion animal can and should eat its regular meals during this time since it needs to be in peak physical health. Therefore, one can simply offer small portions or sneak in pieces of the rival creature into the companion’s usual diet.

While the month of feeding is going on, the Sith must also brew a poison and its antidote. Recipes and directions for both mixtures can be found in A Guide to Potions and Powders, volume IV under the names Beastial Severance and Renewed Awakening. The potion and antidote must be ready by the end of the month of feeding.

When the month has ended the Sith and their companion must get to a sacrificial altar made of red Korribani marble. There should be a pyre on one side of the altar as six candles made from moriwax surrounding it. [The Imperial Database holds the locations of all known and intact sacrificial altars.]

Then a sacrificial blade made from sacred dzamukis steel is coated with the prepared poison. The Sith must drink the remainder of the poison before dispatching their companion either by stabbing it in the heart or slitting its throat. Right after the animal is dispatched, it is thrown into the fire.

This next step is crucial to the whole ritual. As the animal burns the Sith should hold the bowl of antidote beneath their face while, remaining still and enduring the pain from the poison. The Sith must cry tears of loss and remorse into the bowl of the antidote. Then they must wait until the verge of death to take it.

If everything went accordingly, it is at this moment that the essences of the animal should transfer into the Sith’s being, disintegrating what’s left of the corpse.

The Sith will lose consciousness for a few moments and awaken in the form of their beloved companion. From this point on, the Sith will be able to morph in and out of their newly acquired animal form at their will.

Should there be anything slightly wrong in any part of the whole ritual, the Sith will be turned into a monstrous abomination that’s cut off from the Force while living in constant agony.

The text continued but no more of it seemed to register with Marjay’s brain. Shaking her head in frustration she tossed aside her datapad and collapsed, face first, into her bed.

She’ll just have to start and finish the essay tomorrow in between the classes and training sessions.

[dauntless-dragayn]

YA BOOKS RECS

Okay -cracks knuckles- im gonna rec yall some YA books because there are so many ive found over the years

@windycube this is for u

First of all ofc I gotta put in a word for Rick Riordan, this man literally raised me He has a LOT of series but i recommend Magnus Chase and The Gods of Asgard the most, one because its meant for slightly older audiences (the mc Magnus is 16/17) and two because its wAY more diverse than his older stuff (which i still love, dearly) like Percy Jackson and the Olympians and better written than the follow up series to PJO, Heroes of Olympus MCGA is about a kid who finds out he’s the son of a Norse god and that those gods are still around and kickin, but the world is ending aaaand him and his new friends have to stop it. Sounds cheesy and super typical but, Magnus is pretty different from most protags of this kind of stuff. He’s a healer not a fighter, and his strongest traits are compassion and teamwork rather than brute strength and violence (tho there is a lot of that. Violence. Kind of par for the course. You’ll see)

NEXT is Michael Grant, who Windy already mentioned. I cannot stress enough, how much I worship Grant’s story writing capabilities. If you want dark shit, READ HIS WORK. What a lot of people don’t realize is that he helped KA Applegate write the Animorphs series and.. Thats some of the darkest kids fiction out there. Grant wrote the GONE series, which is about a town where all of the adults (over like, 15 I think? Sorry its been a while) disappear and a giant impenetrable barrier appears around a small beach town. Chaos and horrifying violence ensues. This series will depress you even as you can’t stop reading it. The characters are gold. The twists are even better. He also wrote BZRK which is a trilogy set in the future where war is fought on the nanotech level. Admittedly its been years so I dont remember much, but its also very solemn and very unique. I’d say 16+ (teen protags)

Maggie Stiefvater. Another personal hero of mine, her prose is just.. Beautiful. Poetic. Magical. She has a few series and some novels. My favorites are The Raven Cycle (series of 4), All The Crooked Saints (novel) I cant even.. Explain what theyre about. Magic surrealism, young love, the darkness of the human mind.. Theyve got everything. If you’re intrigued please please give them a shot. 16+

Alright alright now for some lesser known stuff.

If you’re into vampires.. Monster stories… surviving high school… please for the love of gods, read The Chronicles of Vladimir Todd. I seriously don’t understand how this series isnt more popular. Zac Brewer is wonderful, I love him and his work sm. Tho, I think since this series is old its still under his deadname (Heather Brewer) Basically it’s about Vlad, a half human half vampire kid, dealing with high school bs but also being hunted down for his hybrid status and.. gAH its so good. Plenty of blood. The end has casualties and still makes me cry. Pls read it im begging you

If you’re a furry and/or into badass well written female protags.. Read Cry of the Icemark. ;3 It’s got magic, warfare, and have I mentioned Thirren the mc is BADASS????? (and no, its not all furries. But there is a race of leopard people whom i love dearly) By Stuart Hill, its one of my alltime favorites. I need to reread it again

Another older one is Pendragon. It is fuckin LONG, at 10 books total, about a ‘normal’ kid named Bobby Pendragon who finds out there are other dimensions in danger and that if they fall into chaos, the entire universe will. So he and a few other ‘Travelers’ set out to fix them even as a demon Traveler tries to fuck up their progress. Starts with Bobby at 14 but sees him grow up. Again.. I know it sounds super typical but what I love is that Bobby grows bitter. He’s not a golden keep saving the day sort of protag. I wont spoil; just check it out. By DJ MacHale

I have a feeling yall dont want to hear about romance but im a hoe for it so. Legend is a trilogy by Marie Lu set in a dystopian world (which im also a hoe for) where America is divided into two warring nations. One protag is Day, a poor thief who steals to keep his family alive. The other is June, who’s the best up and start soldier the Republic has. She’s pretty rebellious tho, so she can’t be reigned in until she’s sent to track down a murderer.. Day. excepthedidntactuallydoit Star crossed lovers. Fucked up America. My kinda tea.

If you want more dystopia that doesnt suck (because bOY a lot of it does) I’ll put in a word for Divergent. You’ve probably heard of it. Oh That Hunger Games Bootleg except not. Also it’s a trilogy but who cares. The first one is my only love

Switching gears back to romance uwu Carry On by Rainbow Rowell is gAY AND MAGIC! There’s a reason why everyone raves about it; best written romance I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. And I’ve read a lot. Plus, it’s getting a sequel in a few years! She also wrote Fangirl, as well as Eleanor and Park, two adorable novels.

Switching gears completely, lemme talk about Leigh Bardugo. She wrote Six of Crows, which is this ABSOLUTELY AMAZING heist/crime/action duology. Very diverse cast. A few lgbtq+ kiddos. She also wrote the Grishaverse series but I have not yet gotten around to reading it. From what Ive heard tho its just as good - a lot more about magic and monsters tho (set in the same universe!)

Wow okay im gonna stop because this is getting long but

TLDR;

basically any of Rick Riordan’s series

GONE by Michael Grant

anything by Maggie Stiefvater

The Chronicles of Vladimir Todd by Zac Brewer (who used to be known as Heather Brewer)

Cry of the Icemark by Stuart Hill

Pendragon series by DJ MacHale

The Legend trilogy by Marie Lu

Divergent by Veronica Roth

anything by Rainbow Rowell

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

thank you for reading my book nerd ramblings holy shit

[ghostmartyr]

Fic: A Terrible Idea [7/?]

Fandom: Attack on Titan Title: A Terrible Idea Author: Immi Rating: PG-13 Summary: Ymir’s pursuit of the hot cheerleader was meant to stay strictly lustful. But it’s a high school AU with a ship tag, so you know, fuck that. Notes: Hey, so if you’re just seeing evidence of this fic now thanks to the Galliard ship tags, this is a yumikuri fic, but this chapter is in Galliard’s pov, and so his romantic woes are unavoidable and awkward. And hopefully entertaining. Obviously it’s not meant as a standalone, but it probably can be read as one for the sake of ship feels.

Segment summary: Porco is a bi disaster.

I II III IV V  VI

This wasn’t happening.

Mr. Smith had a standing policy. Help out cleaning his classroom at the end of the week, get extra credit as judged by the custodian. Porco did not need the extra credit, Ymir could fuck right off with that, but he wasn’t going to turn it down. Kenny’d had them fighting for Levi’s approval through chores since second grade. He knew how to clean a room.

For anyone who cared to know, that meant he was easy to find on Friday afternoons, scraping gum off desks with Connie and Sasha (who did need the extra credit).

Reiner Braun was not supposed to care.

He wasn’t supposed to be sitting on a desk Porco had just cleaned, pretending to be cool, while people who did care were prepping for practice like the coaching staff told them to. Good to know this was the work ethic that kept him off the team.

“Hi,” he’d said, smiling that toothpaste commercial grin Porco’s way, stepping into the history room like he belonged there.

He didn’t. He had history with Mr. Dok. Reiner had no reason at all to be sitting on a desk in Mr. Smith’s classroom, shooting finger guns at Connie and breathing so deeply that the buttons on his polo shirt were straining to keep his oversized muscles from bursting free.

That wasn’t some kind of accident.

Marcel joked that Reiner was too swol for things like clothes. Marcel, being a normal person, didn’t get it. Porco had survived a year of PE with Reiner before. Mr. Quarterback Superstar had a thing for flexing in front of mirrors. He would come to school shirtless every day if he could. Wearing clothes that barely fit, showing off the body that everyone fell over themselves to praise every time his team scored him a touchdown, was as close as he could get.

Ymir said he was too much of a square to use steroids. He was, but there was no natural reason for someone’s arms to be that big. Marcel was ten times the athlete Reiner was, and he still looked like a person, not a teenage bodybuilder.

“I was looking to hit you up, and Marcel said you’d be here,” Reiner had said, propping his sculpted ass on top of Porco’s hard work. Yeah sure, Levi wouldn’t notice that at all.

Now Reiner was looking at him like Porco had anything to do with this conversation. It wasn’t even a conversation. Reiner just decided to walk in and ruin his day, and since that couldn’t be enough, he was trying to turn it into a group project.

Did he somehow not remember what those went like? Those five weeks of third grade where they were paired in art were the longest of their short lives, Kenny getting called in three separate times—culminating in him being permanently barred from PTA thanks to Reiner’s mother (what was her problem)—and last Porco had stepped in that room, the air conditioning vent was still clogged with papier-mâché.

Not to mention last year’s English mess. It was like he lived to tear down Porco’s grade point average.

Cluing in a little in the stony silence, Reiner got to the point.

“Your sister’s friends with Historia Reiss, right?”

The point was that this was actually fucking happening.

“She is not my sister,” Porco said, sourly.

Reiner barely had eyebrows, but what was there knit together. “Ymir?” he said, like Porco couldn’t figure out who they were talking about on his own. “Marcel said you guys were family.”

There was something sick about Reiner using Marcel’s good nature as a weapon. Porco glowered at the concerned pouting thing his lips were doing. He hoped Reiner knew it made him look stupid.

Porco cleared his throat. The words weren’t showing up the first try. “She’s Ymir. What do you care?”

Reiner perked up. Like, his whole body bounced like a spring. “You know how homecoming’s next week?”

No, really? That thing the student council had thrown away their budget for to get banners covering every other hallway? That was happening? Who could have guessed.

Porco nodded obediently, jaw clenched. Ymir had dragged him into enough school plays for him to know when he was supposed to be following a script. Not that Reiner would care. He had his pep talk face on. Sunshine confidence was leaking out of his pores. He was impossible to talk to when he got like this. He was impossible most of the time anyway, but it was somehow worse when he had that sparkle in his eyes to go with his teeth.

“I,” Reiner announced, “want to ask Historia to the dance.”

Porco’s concept of a just and fair world crumbled.

“What.”

“Yeah,” Reiner said, somehow not hearing the blood-curdling scream resounding in Porco’s chest. “It seems like the thing to do, you know? Every school has a power couple. Doesn’t hurt that she’s some kind of saint. She raised more money for the cheerleaders’ fundraiser than they’ve had in years, and—”

And what, he didn’t get enough pretty blond when he looked in the mirror? Blood pumped loudly in Porco’s ears. Reiner’s visage blurred.

Perfect logic. No, let’s not date someone we know, and maybe like for reasons that aren’t total crap, let’s go with the person who matches some absurd popularity scale that neither one of us really deserves. Such sense. Much thought. Wow.

Where did he get off, anyway, thinking about asking someone out on such short notice? Asking someone out he clearly didn’t know anything about, and dragging Porco into it because he wouldn’t know tact if it bit him on his perfect ass, and holy fuck, Historia Reiss?

Really?

Connie and Sasha were scrubbing windows. The squeaking matched his grinding teeth.

Was taste just not a thing? Did he miss something? Was walking around like an alien abductee in now?

Reiner had never even talked to her, if he had he wouldn’t need a damn proxy to hold his behemoth hand.

He was talking to Porco just fine—he was still fucking talking, so clearly conversational skills gave him some kind of buzz—but sure, no, go for the opposite of that. Treating each other like equal human beings who didn’t need stilts to be at eye level was way too conventional and un-creepy for the undisputed lord of the school.

“—pretty, too—”

Porco saw red.

“Fuck off, she’s already dating my sister!”

…

…

The windows stopped squeaking.

Reiner’s mouth stayed open, without sound, and that was so damn preferable Porco was going to kill something, hopefully him. The pressure in his head let off, and a crisp twinge of satisfaction took its place.

For the five seconds of peace he had before his brain caught up.

“Oh,” Reiner said.

Connie and Sasha were both staring, looking like summer break had come back early.

Oh, Porco thought.

Oh no.

“I guess that doesn’t work, then.”

Reiner lifted himself off the desk, arms flexing for pure show. The creases in his ill-fitting shirt said his abs were doing all the work, and Porco didn’t know why that mattered, but he was in hell now, and some of that meant watching Reiner-the-human-specimen getting to his feet in slow motion while flames crept up Porco’s face.

This was not happening.

“They aren’t public about it,” Porco blurted. Dawning horror made his voice come out echoey. He made as much eye contact with Reiner as he could stand. “Don’t go—they aren’t… Don’t spread it around.”

Reiner’s face melted into compassionate understanding. Awful look for him. “No problem. I wouldn’t—hey,” his hand was on Porco’s shoulder and he wanted to bite it off, “I know how it can be.” What did that mean. “Don’t worry about a thing, man. I’ve got your back. And theirs.”

He was smiling. Why was he smiling. Porco needed him to stop.

“You should let Ymir know they’re a really cute couple.”

They weren’t, and there was no way Reiner had ever had that thought until five seconds ago.

He gave Porco’s shoulder an extra pat. “I’ll catch you at practice.”

The silence left in Reiner’s wake when he exited the classroom was how most horror movies started.

Porco looked at Connie.

Connie looked at Sasha.

Sasha looked delighted.

“Ymir finally has a girlfriend?”

Hell.

----

Staying in Mr. Smith’s room until every other human being in the school was gone was not going to work out. Ymir would find him and laugh at him. Then maybe never speak to him again. Marcel would find him and want to know what was wrong. Levi would find him, ignore him, and tell Kenny something was wrong.

Pieck would find him, and be so wonderful he’d want to tell her what was wrong.

Pieck did find him.

She stood in the doorway, leaning too heavily against it. Her arms hated going a full week with crutches. Ymir usually made good on playing pack mule for her backpack, but there was a limit to how much they could help. It sucked.

Pieck smiled through the shadows under her eyes. “It’s not like you to take so long with the cleaning, Pock.”

There were days when that smile was all Porco needed to love life. Today was one of them before Reiner showed up and got him to ruin everything. Porco stopped viciously scrubbing his desk with a paper towel. “Pieck,” he said, “have you ever done something really stupid.”

“No, never,” was the real answer to that. Pieck was the only person he had ever met who was immune to bad decisions. He’d known her since they were five. She was just gifted like that. Even Marcel had his screw-ups. Like being friends with quarterbacks.

Pieck rested her chin on top of her crutch. “Oh dear, what have you done?”

He frowned at his abused paper towel. Cleanser and force had torn a hole in it.

“Reiner wanted to ask Historia out to the homecoming dance.” And that was still the most fucking irritating thing to think, forget saying it out loud. If these people wanted a blonde, short, emotionless girl to rip their hearts out of their chests, they should hit up Annie. All the same stupid kinks, none of the delusion that there was something real there.

He’d told Ymir that and she told him to shut his whore mouth.

Pieck cocked her head. “He hasn’t heard? She’s not going.”

…

Well fuck that, too. Historia Reiss was some kind of cursed object designed to fuck with his life. Days after talking to Reiner weren’t supposed to get worse. Before Ymir and her stupid crush that he wasn’t allowed to call a crush without her whining, him alone in a room with Reiner was peak misery.

He sucked the injustice up and glowered at his desk. His stomach wouldn’t stop squirming. “I told Reiner Ymir’s dating Historia,” he said.

He could hear Pieck’s brain humming in the empty space of a thousand missing comments about how tactless and idiotic that combination of words was. And he’d said it in front of Connie. Sasha could remember when not to gossip. Her best friend knowing the gossip and giggling with her in study hall helped with that. Connie could not keep his mouth shut. That was how he kept losing the stashes of weed he tried to hide around school. He told people about them. Regularly.

Porco’s fingers flexed.

Ymir was never going to forgive him.

It was over her sex life—which she didn’t even have, it didn’t matter how many times she called it that—so what’d he care, but.

“Less accurate things have been said,” Pieck said. Her crutches thumped across Mr. Smith’s floor.

Porco moodily ripped his paper towel into smaller pieces. “Yeah, dating isn’t really what she’s after.”

“Isn’t it?”

Porco gave Pieck a look. It melted in the face of her smile. It was a lot closer than the doorway now, and proximity upped its powers to reincarnation levels of healing. He probably didn’t deserve that right now. Fucking Reiner. He murdered the butterflies and focused on the much easier target of Ymir being a horrible person. “You’ve had to listen to her just as much as I have. I don’t think she knows what romance is.”

And if she did, she definitely didn’t care about it. He knew enough about Historia now to feel like a pervert by association.

Pieck sat down on the desk next to his. She twirled one of her crutches. “And we all know that people never evade their feelings by telling themselves it’s something else.”

Porco snorted. “Are you kidding me? No one really does that.”

Especially not Ymir. He could almost say he liked that about her, when she wasn’t making her main mission in life having sex with a girl she barely knew. If Historia turned out to be a serial killer, she had the money and family lawyers to get away with it. They’d already sprung one family member out of jail. It wasn’t like he and Marcel and Kenny could back up the legal fees to bring someone like that to justice. He wouldn’t even get a chance to say I told you so.

“Well,” Pieck said, after a delayed pause, “you would know your sister best.”

“Not my sister.” His mouth got tired of saying that over and over again, and it was doubly annoying with people who knew what was up, but Pieck just smiled at him, sending rainbow cotton candy fluff to fuzz up his brain.

“She won’t hate you, Pock.”

Porco rolled his eyes. Mr. Smith needed to do something about his air conditioning. He was overheating.

“She won’t,” Pieck repeated. Her calloused hand stroked the back of his before cupping it warmly. “She knows how important Reiner is to you—”

“Pieck.”

She squeezed his hand. “And even if she didn’t,” Pieck continued, like she wasn’t leaving him scarred for life by making his heart swoop through the air and crash into a brick wall at the same time, “she will be delighted to have something to hold over your head. You are now the horrible person who started the rumor that she’s interested in feelings. You’re going to be doing her chores for weeks.”

Hurrah. He could hear all about how badly he was folding the sheets she planned to defile her not-girlfriend on. “Are you trying to make me feel worse?”

Pieck patted him compassionately on the head. “Never.”

Porco scoffed and looked out the window.

Stupid air conditioning.

Fucking Ymir.

Next

[inawickedlittletown]

Walking The Wire (57/?)

Summary: Tony Stark always knew about Peter Parker. He didn’t know that Peter was going to get superpowers and become Spider-Man, but he always knew about Peter because Peter was his son.

This will span from pre-Iron Man up through the rest of the MCU (eventually including Infinity War) and will be for the most part canon compliant except where I’ve taken some liberties and interpreted canon a certain way.

Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Tony/Steve (endgame), Tony/Mary (past)

A/N: If you want me to tag you when I post new chapters let me know. This fic is also on AO3

I used Collider’s MCU timeline to stay canon and the title of this fic is an Imagine Dragons song that is just so fitting for Peter and Tony

Masterpost

Chapter Fifty Six

Steve hadn’t known how T’Challa would feel about him bringing Sam, Wanda, and Natasha into Wakanda considering that he had just broken them out of The Raft, but he had promised Bucky that he would take him back to Wakanda, so he left the three of them in France with the promise to meet back up soon. Returning without Bucky wasn’t a prospect that he was looking forward to.

“I feel like I got you back just to lose you again,” Steve said as they flew away from them.

“You’re not losing me. I’ll be back out of the ice in no time and this time you know where I am. I won’t be running away from you. You have bigger things to worry about.”

“I guess I do,” Steve said. “I never thought I’d be on the run, though.”

“It’s not so bad,” Bucky said with a grin. “I just hope that you and Stark can mend things up. I don’t like that I was even a little responsible for breaking the two of you apart. Steve, you’ve never really had anyone like that. There was Peggy, of course, but you went in the ice and she moved on and you didn’t look at Peggy the way you look at Stark.”

Bucky would be the one to pick up on that. The thing of it was that Steve had been a different person back then and while he had loved Peggy, Steve had always felt a little bit undeserving of Peggy because Peggy had always seemed to be something greater. With Tony it was different — they weren’t similar necessarily, but certainly more equal. But Steve had gone and ruined that and discovered in the process that maybe he didn’t deserve Tony either.

“I love him,” Steve said.

Bucky smiled at him. “I know. And you know, I’m glad that I can go in the ice and know you aren’t alone. You have people that care about you.”

When they arrived in Wakanda they were greeted by T’Challa and Shuri.

“I hope the break out went well,” T’Challa said but Steve could tell that T’Challa already knew all about it. There was no doubt that someone had contacted him to let him know it occurred if nothing else. Tony probably also knew about it too.

“Yes, it did,” Steve said. “We really do appreciate all the help you have given us.”

The coronation still hadn’t taken place, Steve found out as they walked down to Shuri’s lab. T’Challa had only just gotten back, but it was all planned to occur soon.

“I’ve been working on a few things to help with your problem,” Shuri said to Bucky, “but I think it’s best if you’re in cryo.”

Steve had been avoiding saying goodbye to Bucky the entire flight to Wakanda, but he knew that he’d have to now and he didn’t really have the words. This was his oldest friend, the friend that Steve had thought he’d lost once for seemingly forever. Yet, he’d been found again even if it hadn’t been until recently that Steve had gotten to finally spend any length of time with him and this goodbye wasn’t going to be forever. They would see each other again.

Shuri had Bucky sitting on a table with an IV, down to his undershirt, and still without one arm. It was an odd look to him.

“Are you sure?” Steve asked.

“I don’t know my own mind,” Bucky said, saying it, Steve thought, almost because he needed Steve to see that and believe that. “So until they figure out how to get that stuff out of my head I think going back under is the best thing. For everybody.” He gave him a pointed look and Steve was sure that Bucky was thinking about Tony.

“Okay,” Steve said and he dropped a hand to Bucky’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze and Bucky smiled.

“It won’t be forever,” Bucky added as he stepped into the cryo chamber.

The process was quick after that. Shuri and her team began the freezing process and Steve watched. It seemed almost instantaneous.

“We’ll keep in contact, Captain,” Shuri said after it was all done. “I’ll let you know when he is well.”

“Thank you,” Steve said and she nodded at him.

He met with T’Challa before heading out and was glad to note that T’Challa felt some sort of duty to protect Bucky in some part because of how he had pursued him, but also because T’Challa was exactly what a King and leader should be. Steve didn’t think he would ever not respect him.

“You are welcome here anytime, Captain,” T’Challa said.

“Thank you,” Steve said and he was even more thankful when T’Challa let him keep the jet.

He flew back to meet up with the others at one of Natasha’s safe houses in a small village in France where they were trying to decide their next course of action. He had to park the jet a few miles away from the house, but because it was Wakandan it was easily shielded and hidden. No one would see it.

It was as he was walking back and trying to keep from being noticed, that Steve heard the phone ring and his breath caught. He fumbled with getting it out of his pocket. He had hoped -- of course he had hoped that Tony would call but he’d never expected it to happen this soon.

“Tony?” He asked.

“Hey, Cap,” Tony said.

“I guess you got my letter,” Steve said. “How -- how are you?”

He couldn’t believe he was getting to talk to Tony, that he was getting to hear his voice. It had been a few weeks, but Steve missed him desperately.

“I’m -- I guess I could be better. How are the others?”

“Happy to be out of there. Wanda was in a straight jacket, there was no reason for her to be--”

“I did try to prevent that,” Tony interjected, but then: “It was pretty horrible to see.”

“I know you did,” Steve said.

They were keeping their conversation light, off of them and all of that, and Steve didn’t even care because Tony had called him and that spoke volumes. It gave Steve room to hope.

“I hope you’re not in any trouble over all of this,” Steve said, “that’s why I didn’t try to get your help breaking them out.”

Tony laughed. “Who do you think made it possible? Sharon called me. And now I’m getting calls from Secretary Ross every other hour, but I warned him I was going to put him on hold. Anyway, he has his own problems to deal with. I wanted them out of there just as much as you did.”

“You didn’t have to--”

Steve stopped when he came upon a tree and leaned against it away from view.

“I wanted to. They’re my friends too, you know, and this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. It was never supposed to get to that point but that’s on Ross. I’m sure Clint’s still mad at me. I wouldn’t be surprised if Wanda was too.”

He heard resignation in Tony’s voice.

“I don’t think that will last, Tony. How’s Rhodes?”

“Learning to walk. He’s getting better.”

None of this was supposed to turn out this way with Rhodes injured and all of them split apart.

“Good. That’s good. And what about that kid -- he was pretty impressive. Where’d you find him?”

Tony let out a laugh. “Oh, you wouldn’t believe me.”

“I know he’s from Queens,” Steve said and remembered suddenly that Tony’s son also lived in Queens. “Like Peter.”

He heard Tony shift the phone. “Exactly like Peter,” he said.

“What does that--”

No. It couldn’t be.

“It was Peter,” Tony cut in.

Steve didn’t know what to say. Peter — as in Tony’s son Peter had been at the airport fight. Steve had thrown a truck at him! This was — Steve couldn’t believe it. He had thrown a truck at him! Oh, god, he had -- Tony’s son could have gotten hurt or worse but no, Steve had known even before he threw it that the kid wouldn’t be injured by it. It just changed things in his mind a little to think about it being Peter. Peter who Tony had finally met.

“I know, I know, I shouldn’t have brought him along but he was never supposed to be that involved in the fight and things just got away from us. He’s -- he’s perfectly okay. I think he’s as strong as you are and he can heal fast. He’s amazing, Steve, and I couldn’t not tell him not when secrets are--”

Steve felt the guilt of the secret he’d kept from Tony and it was hard to face even as he heard Tony cough which meant that he probably didn’t really want to talk about it either.

“He knows,” Steve breathed out. So much had happened and he hadn’t been there for any of it. He could only imagine how much Tony had been freaking out over it.

“Yeah,” Tony said. “He, um, I think he’s taking it well. I haven’t actually heard from him since I dropped him off at home but he’s probably just processing.”

“Wow,” Steve said. He really had not expected that. But he was glad. “I’m so happy you finally met him.”

“Me too,” Tony said. “I can’t wait for you to meet him properly. He’s -- you’d like him a lot.”

“I’m sure,” Steve said.

They spoke for a little longer. Steve told him about Bucky going back into the ice, and how Clint and Scott were in the US. He knew that the others probably wouldn’t like that Steve was just telling Tony everything, but Steve trusted him and he knew that Tony wanted the best for all of them. He also knew that it was probably better if Tony remained well informed.

Tony told him about the new division he was forming as SI to do with prosthetics and robotic exoskeletons. It was inspired by Rhodey but it was going to do the world a load of good.  

“I just -- Steve, I’m worried about him. Peter. He’s going to be Spider-Man no matter what I do. He’s just -- it’s not stubbornness. He thinks it’s his responsibility because he has those abilities and I can’t fault him for that.”

“Doesn’t stop you from worrying,” Steve said.

“I’m sort of starting to understand how Pepper felt about me being Iron Man, but I have to let him do this, you know?”

Steve could just chuckle. It was just that there was an irony to Tony having to deal with this. Still he felt for Tony because he knew how big Tony’s heart was and how much he cared about Peter.

“Just -- I guess you have to just watch from afar and be there when he gets in too deep. But he’s a smart kid, so I don’t think he’d go looking for trouble that he won’t be able to handle. He’s quite impressive.”

“Not too concerned about that. It’s the trouble that will come looking for him,” Tony said.

Steve smiled to himself. “I’m sure you’ll be there to fix that problem if it ever comes up. But don’t worry too much, Tony. He’ll be just fine.”

“I hope so,” Tony said.

They finished their conversation with promises to call each other soon and while Tony complained about how hard texting on that flip phone would be, Steve just smiled and knew that Tony would text him anyway.

As Steve continued his walk, he felt a little lighter. They may not have touched upon the bigger issues but things were going to be okay.

Chapter Fifty Eight