#just imagine thinking someone was dead for 10+ years

[average-mako-enjoyer]

Thinking about Kaidan Alenko, a 6-month-old boy. All big eyes and dimples on cheeks. You'd never think there is something wrong with him by looking at him, but there is.

Thinking about Kaidan Alenko, a 2-year-old sitting with his mother in yet another waiting room. This is his second checkup this year. He already knows what a tumor is. He knows that tumors start in your head and kill you. That is why his mom is always so scared for him. He doesn't want her to be scared.

Thinking about Kaidan Alenko, a 3-year-old. Somehow still alive.

Thinking about Kaidan Alenko, a 4-year-old. His mom saw him move a toy just by looking at it. Now there's a different kind of fear in her eyes.

Thinking about Kaidan Alenko, a 5-year-old. His mom tells him, "Only mama and papa can know, Kaidan. No one else. Not even other children. Or bad people will come and take you away from us."

Think of Kaidan Alenko, a 10-year-old who's already terrified of losing control.

Thinking about Kaidan Alenko listening as his parents talk to some people in suits downstairs. His mother's voice getting louder and higher. He knows exactly what it means.

Thinking of Kaidan Alenko, shivering. This is his first surgery. "I don't want this," he says, and the nurse replies, "Start counting from ten."

Thinking about Kaidan Alenko, curled up in a ball, finally knowing what it must feel like to have a tumor in your head.

Thinking about Kaidan Alenko. Thinking about the moment when what he has just done hits him. Not because of the dead body at his feet, but because of the animal fear in someone else's eyes.

Thinking about Kaidan Alenko. An old soldier. A man who has rebuilt himself from the ground up more times than you can imagine. A man who knows the score. A man who still falls in love like a young boy. A man who will fight like hell for the chance to hold the person he loves in his arms again. A man who still gets left behind.

[tanglepelt]

Dc x dp idea 76

Both worlds are different dimensions.

Danny has always had a mark one that was a clear (shape/animal/hero symbol/whatever) on his wrist. Since the day he was born. His parents always just told him it made him even more special.

The nasty burger explosion happens.

He can’t go to vlad so he hides in the realm. Only to fall through a natural portal.

It’s then the mark gains colors.

Danny realizes the marks are soul-marks in this dimension. I prefer parental marks so that’s what the rest of my idea is for but it could be romantic/platonic as well.

Danny who just lost his entire family and feels completely at fault just says nope. he won’t risk it being a thing. It’s not even his home dimension anyways. So like it won’t match anybody anyways. Right?

So he hides the mark and just goes about life as a homeless teen with superpowers.

He’s not out looking to be a vigilante but if something is happening infringe of him and no one else is acting he will.

One day he gets caught in a bad fight. Ends up injured probably helping someone else not get hurt.

It’s then the soul mark is revealed to be for *insert dc character name here*

For some angst. Danny was original born in the dc. When a mark blackens it means the other person is dead. Or in this case separated by different dimensions. So for a year or two the other person had there marked colored only. Then Danny “died”.

The other person thought he was dead.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

i think it would be funny if people occasionally arose from the dead. like if that was a real-life one-in-a-million but well-documented Thing That Sometimes Happens, and the entire legal system around death (laws on inheritance & marriage & murder etc) had to include caveats for the unlikely-but-scientifically-possible event that the dead person in question might spontaneously self-resurrect, even years or decades after death. it would raise so many inconvenient and absurd possibilities

[hello-eden]

Someone mentioned trans! Talia and it has given me ideas. I might write this in the future but here are just my ideas. This is a sub Au of my Danny! Talia. So it is not at all Canon but if you were wondering Danny is more gender fluid in my og au, though I have not brought it up. 

I like the idea that Damien still calls Danny mom. The term in my brain is not gendered for me.

no one to really talk about Talia around Damien at the beginning. In less he brings his mom up, so no one really realizes that Damian uses he/him pronouns for Thalia.

Danny more uses Talia as an alias as a way to dissociate that as a dead name.

ras is probably not super Progressive so this would be definitely kept more Under Wraps so Bruce has no idea.  Bruce left before Danny could say anything.

Danny has binders and has definitely cut their hair but uses extensions or wigs when they're around Ras and maybe even Bruce.

Jason definitely met Talia while they were going around as Danny. Talia uses Danny as a way to surveil Jason's Missions with the league with him not knowing.

Damian has definitely gone around Gotham with Danny in Plainview of the bat family but they have no idea because they have no idea to look out for that.

Someone makes a joke about Bruce having tension with some of his female villains and Damian mentions that he has some tension with the male ones too. Damian obviously means their mother but no one has any idea of that so everyone is trying to figure out what Damian means. I think Damien would say it in a sort of tone that makes it seem like it was obvious and then just walk away so no one really gets any answers.

 Damien would have no idea that it's something not widely known because Danny never really concealed it. In my AU for Danny! Talia I have Sam and Tucker running around as Danny's right hand man. Damian mostly being raised with people that Danny knows won't betray them so they never really had to censor their words. I also Imagine That Damian doesn't really understand gender as a concept until later as a result of this. I don't mean it in a bad way because he always asks what pronouns people use and then just continues on. The bat family has no idea what causes this in the beginning.

I'm just imagining a little 10-year-old Damien going up to Tim asking his pronouns and then  threatening him but using the proper pronouns.

[feefivefoe]

Something I think about when it comes to the batfam is what if they remember reader after a long long time? I’m talking 10+ years after leaving the family. Like what would that be like? Reader wouldn’t be a young adult but someone who’s established themselves in a career and most likely moved out of Gotham, got themselves a somewhat better apartment or maybe a small house, maybe gone through therapy and has decided that they are indifferent about the families existence, to the point that reader forgets about them sometimes. Except Jason reader would probably light a candle every birthday and holiday for him

I feel like the angst potential would be like an aged wine. Bruce Wayne forgot about his first born child their entire life, plus 10 years. Maybe the only reason they remember is a Gotham exclusive on the family, a “where are they now?” type story and half the family (Steph, Cas, Damian, Duke) discover reader existed and the other half is reminded of the forgot part of their family. Oh the angst for Jason! His favorite sibling, his friend from before his death, how could he forget them?? How could Bruce forget them??? And oh god it’s been such a long time where are they?? The story said that they couldn’t find a record in Gotham anymore, are they dead? He let them be forgotten, something he couldn’t stand happening to him, and now here he is, perpetuating it. The fight this would cause!! I feel like the fam would turn on Bruce demanding answers that he doesn’t have. Jason goes to readers room and finds nothing. Maybe reader wanted to cover their tracks? Maybe they didn’t want any trace of them in a manor that never cared for them in the first place? Who knows, all the fam knows is that this building feels so much colder now with this revelation.

Meanwhile reader is getting dinner with friends and work colleagues, having a good and fulfilling life, one outside Gotham, outside of the depressing influence of the Wayne’s, rogues, and owls of Gotham (sorry for making this so long!! Hope you’re having a great day!! Love your work!)

No bc how dare you come into my askbox and drop the most beautiful ask I've seen while I'm sick and brain fogged /affectionate

No hate to anybody else who has sent asks, ily all, but this one HIT MY BRAIN SPASMS AKDMELAK-

BECAUSE YOU'RE SO RIGHT???

The longer it goes on, the worse the inevitable realization is for EVERYONE. Including reader. Because while there's no record of them legally, that's just because they're doing too poorly to have records.

Once you leave Gotham and start settling, you have legal documentation that you just need, you know, for life. Your ssn, birth certificate, etc. Documents that Bruce thought he had somewhere, only to find out you had requested them from Alfred when you left home.

Alfred, being the enabler he is and always hoping you'd reconnect with them one day, just gave you legal copies. Or illegal copies that are good enough to pass, idk how that stuff works.

Point is, they can find you.

BUT.

That's after they get past the emotional turmoil that the discovery puts them through. Imagine if one of them is watching the special for laughs, members of the family snickering at how fake and put together they all are on camera, elbowing each other at how prim and proper some of them are.

Then, near the ending, it cuts to a city far away from theirs. Not Bludhaven, which confuses them. The rest of them stayed, at least relatively close. So where-?

"Y/N L/N, formerly known as Y/N Wayne, has not been seen in the public eye for over a decade. While our reporters were unable to make contact, some still can't help but wonder on where this mysterious member of the beloved family-"

*Snap*

That's Jason, snapping the remote in half while staring at the screen.

Where...when...?

Half of them are confused. Three of them are starting to get a dawning realization.

Jason is having probably the biggest traumatic breakdown he's had since coming to terms with his death and resurrection.

Which town was that? Was that their actual home? Is that just stock footage? Did the reporter lie, did they find you? No, they would have shown that. Fucking vultures wouldn't keep the drama to themselves if they had the chance.

Those are thoughts that don't hit until later, honestly. He's too fucking furious to think coherently for a while.

He wants to scream at Bruce, and hit him, and Dick, and Tim, and fuck it, Alfred too a little. (Unfortunately, they probably have lost Alfred by now. The man was already old.)

He wants to both trash and treasure what's left of your room, small enough to make him feel cramped. It's the size of his old apartment bedroom! Fucking moneybags couldn't give his second ever child a better room than this???

There's no diary left behind, or anything that would bring any sense of closure. Actually, the only thing of note is a scattering of ancient newspaper articles badly taped up on the wall, mostly peeling or on the floor by now.

"BATMAN BESTS POLICE ONCE MORE- RIDDLER IN CUSTODY"

"WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE BOY WONDER"

"NO MORE JOKES - CLOWN IN CUSTODY"

"BATMAN'S NEWEST SIDEKICK? ROBIN REPLACED!"

"A NEW HERO? NIGHTWING DEBUTS!"

Them. It's articles about all of them. Their hero exploits, at least. None of them past his...expiration date. It looks like his death is what made you stop idolizing your family so much. Honestly, the paper is old enough to make it hard to read anything but the headlines.

There are a few sticky notes amidst the papers. Clumsy, childlike handwriting.

03/16/XXXX

Richard and Mister Wayne saved people from a bank! Bad guys almost blew em up. That's why they had to miss the concert!

07/30/XXXX

Jason couldn't have dinner because the Joker broke out, and they had to stop him again. Stay in jail! My brother is hungry!!!! >:(

XX/XX/XXXX

I hoped Richard was in town because of my birthday...I guess it was superhero stuff. But Jay remembers! Next year?

XX/XX/XXXX

Not next year :( I made a cake with Alfred instead. Gave some to Jay after he patrolled. Not as good as Alfred's yet, but he still ate it!

Notes you wrote to yourself. To hang up, to show you that even if they aren't there for you, your 'family' is full of good people. That they're doing important stuff, and that's why they can't be there for you.

As a child, you hung up a wall to show yourself why you weren't important. Why you didn't matter.

And Jason breaks.

[thoughtsonkm]

Mimi-san & Kookoo-san

This photo really fulfills my need for aesthetic shots

This episode (and probably the whole trip) is like the biggest, warmest, lingering hug someone could give you. Not letting go for a long time, until after it's over you're left with a full heart, teary eyes and a sense of unprecedented calmness.

~

So no Tokyo for us (as expected). That city really is theirs and theirs ONLY. (I read that ppl saw them with a camera in that ramen shop in Tokyo, so now everyone's thinking of a possible GCF #2 but that would be INSANE)

~

Jimin stop ruining the romantic moments JK creates, challenge failed! (he really does live up to the "conceal, don't feel" idea)

~

This ritual of Jimin singing Kook's new singles on each trip, is very very cute.

~

THE BABIEST OF THEM ALL another bean here⬆️

Did they lowkey have a gentle monster sponsorship? Way to go Jikook 👏🏻👏🏻

I know it's always been Jimin's go to brand for glasses so it feels kinda full circle. He should be some kind of brand ambassador for them.

Oh hello mister 'I can eat yo fingers but not yo potato peel' (I get it tho)

This is the single softest Jikook moment ever!! Period. End of discussion.

Sharing earphones, romantic music, beautiful scenery, calm setting, head on shoulder. - Who says romance is dead? 😭

Not even the background animation can ruin this for me. (ingenious idea nonetheless)

I CANNOT deal with the sweetness of this daughter talk. DO THEY KNOW WE'RE INSANE??

My guy starts talking about a family. The other guy he's gripping tight is already discombobulated, gulping, eyes going left and right lol

Jokes aside he really would be the most gentle, bestest, most caring dad ever 😭 (I promised myself to not get emo during this episode, I'm saving the waterworks for the inevitable last ep.)

~

I do remember they (especially Jimin) used to be pretty fluent in japanese so I'm guessing since they haven't done Japan promo since 2021, they forgot a little bit..

~

Imagine Jimin in a jazz bar with a 10 year old whiskey in hand, flirting with his bf.. Improv kings!

Happiness looks so good on them.

~

I love that from time to time they almost forgot they had a show to shoot. A DAMN JOB to do 😂

~

I present you a compilation of Jungkook saying how happy he is, how much he loves it and how good it is, during this episode.

~

LOL at them doing the english meme thing. Just two simple guys with ONE BRAINCELL. Looks like one of those random af videos they would watch while learning english.

~

Oh yes, we do indeed enjoy y'all gradually getting raggedy and fat 😂😂 He's hilarious, he's on a roll ladies and gents.

Jungkook half wishing they were the same age so they could "twin" even more (I'm sure that would be so convenient for you Jk 👀) as if it's possible for them to be even more on the same wavelength than they already are.

I do feel like in the distant future it would be such a good option for them to transfer and live in Japan cause it does seem like their favourite place in the whole world and the one place they feel themselves the most.

Sapporo in their 40es would be like a little hidden paradise for them to be somewhat free..

(let me dream)

[r0se1111]

On the same returning-from-portal note: how do you think Ford would react to his s/o already having a family(or at least s/o) and moving on with their life? Would he be heartbroken? Understanding?

/this is an angst prompt

Hoo boy starting off with some angst </3 (ty for ur request!)

I definitely think he would have... planned for this scenario? I feel after the first 10-15 years or so of being gone he wouldn't expect his s/o to wait for him when for all they know he's dead. I do think he would have hope though. That his s/o and the possibility of having a life with them would be his light in the dark. Even imagining what they might've done together if he hadn't been taken away from them :'( But overall expecting when he gets back that you could very well have a "normal" life with a s/o, kids, etc.

Expecting isn't the same as experiencing though. If Ford's s/o had moved on with their life, I'm not sure they'd even be in Gravity Falls, def not at the portal when it opened. I can imagine him settling in after the whole portal fiasco and just searching for any evidence of you. Until he either contacts you himself, looks you up, or someone tells him the grim reality. That you weren't his anymore.

God actually seeing you after all this time and feeling the formality of your handshake, as well as the press of your wedding band along his palm.... man. Your s/o is amazing, your family is beautiful, you have everything he wanted to have with you. But, he thinks of course you have all this, and so much love in your life. You're the most wonderful person he's ever met. In conversation with you and your family he's cordial, if not a bit quiet. In private though...

He looks through old photos of you two, yellowing polaroids of when you graduated together, that one fishing trip you went on, you standing at the counter making pancakes unaware of Ford's camera flash until it was too late and this moment of domestic bliss had been captured eternally. There is a bit of self resentment in his brooding as well. Even if he stayed, would you have ended up as happy as you were now? Or -a dangerous thought he tried not to linger on- would you be happier?

He resigns himself to keeping contact with you from a distance, not wanting to burden you with 30 years of desperate fantasies of a life with you. I don't think he would confront you about your past relationship, you might have to bring that up yourself. When you do, he brushes it off as understandable, almost as if you two only shared a silly childhood crush and not the love story of his life. You were it for him, and I can't see him moving on to loving anyone else they way he'd loved you.

[jaysdoodlehell]

Starscream Prompt of the Week: Family

Some thoughts on TFP Starscream:

Even tho Starscream seems egotistical, and rude to those around him, he is not a total aft. I genuinely think he cared about his family... and who I even talk about here? His Seekers of course. He is proud, when he gets to mention he was the Commander of the Energon Seekers (and as people may just say, he likes to brag, I won't agree with them 100%). He also doesn't want to have the dead spare hand of, likely, one of his Seekers, when Optimus shots off his own (he's probably forced to it later, as he has no choice, cause his hand is probably lost forever in the shadowzone, but KO did a great job with making it exactly the same, so kudos to him). Let's not forget, that Seekers comes in trines, and he probably really hates being alone (even tho in aligned novels, he is responsible for the death of at least Skywarp), but look at him thrive with a glimple of his old life, when he gets his small armada, and even Megatron tries to treat him better at the end of season 2. And it's so easy to look at my points, and be like "Jay... that doesn't have sense at all!", but it is exacktly like that with Starscream.

He is not a black-or-white character, and to properly analyse him, you have to sit down, and look at what prolonged, unidentified trauma does with ones brain... You have to look at the context of the situation, what happened to him already, what other characters around him did. What he thinks they did. All of this matters when looking at Starscream. And all of that gets harder, as he is a character that backstabs himself because he overthinks everything too much... as if, he didn't have his two trusty advisors anymore to help... But I got lost in my interpretations, when the prompt is so clear...

So what do I think family is was for Starscream? It was his pride, his power, his confidence. He was respected, and he got his back covered. I think he mourns the lose of them. Lack of safety, lack of respect, it twists him up, and people tend to forget about that sometimes... especially when often all he needs to be better is someones attention, and respect. Not only plain power hunger drives him, as many would say at the first glance. Because maybe that power hunger now, has it's core not in him being egocentric, but in the real want of having a glimpse of his old life, craving for safety, and normal treatment, that he doesn't have anymore. He probably doesn't even recognise where his wishes of being a leader come from, as it is often the case with traumatised people, but all his wishes are actually to be liked, and respected again, to be safe again, and to be treated as someone... again.

Because honestly... imagine TFP with all of Starscream's Seekers, loyal to him. He would be unstoppable (if not for the plot... making him loose, because Hasbro said so... of course, but that's a topic for another time).

Thank you @starscreamweek for doing this events. I wasn't sure if Starscream's fandom is alive anymore, and I'm positively surprised. It's good to be back after 10 years...

[ilovejeongintoo]

𝔾𝕒𝕫𝕖 𝕆𝕗 𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕖

!WARNING NSFW Content ahead! !MDNI!

Genre: Fantasy, Gorgon Hongjoong x Reader, Magic Academy Au Warnings: sex p in v, bruising(don't worry), venom/aphrodisiac, a little of blood(bite), begging, teasing kinda? Wordcount: 5029 Not proofread

Serpent Hybrid Honjoong would actually be so hot, I can't breathe. Also inspired by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Summary: The magic school you go to has many secrets and students start disappearing again, but when you're friend also suddenly turns into thin air, you decide to find her yourself, one of the secrets is closer than you could have ever imagined.

"Did you hear?, it happened again."

"This is the third student this month."

"Aren't the teachers gonna do anything."

No, they won't, they never have. In all the years that you've been training to be a wizard, no one did anything against the mysterious disappearances happening in this school. And you doubt anyone ever will.

Every year, when the snow started to build a thick layer onto the gras outside and the days started becoming shorter, at night students went missing, one by one. And every time, not a single teacher would investigate further, you doubt that they even told the parents about the fate that their children would suffer.

It wasn't like they'd disappear forever, they would return one day, out of the blue. But not the same, they had a blank expression, as if the life was sucked out of them. And they would mutter about strange, unintelligible things.

This was seriously getting out of hand, you'd never know who would be next, maybe it was that nerdy girl in potions class, or that stupid jock that sat way too close with his sweaty self.

Or maybe you.

You closed your locker in frustration, swiftly heading off to your next class. You were not in the mood to listen to any of this nonsense anymore, the upcoming exams had you on your feet already, there wasn't any need for more stress on your end.

You were sat at your desk, patiently waiting for your friend to show up. But she wouldn't show, not even when the teacher arrived, or 10 minutes into the lesson. Maybe she just forgot to tell you that she wouldn't be coming.

You tried focusing on your lessons, a weird feeling stirring in your gut. As you were packing your books, the runes teacher called out to you, a small old woman.

You quickly headed over to her, your bag over your shoulder. Your brows furrowed at the serious and kind of dim expression that her wrinkly face was painted in.

"Have you heard anything from your friend, Adeline?" "No, I haven't, why?" It wasn't rare for her to miss a class, especially not this one. Why was she so concerned?

"She wasn't at her after school studies, or any of the club activities." Now those she definitely never misses, as she actually likes those. That feeling in your stomach started feeling heavier and a clump in your throat started forming at the all the possibilities of where she was, or what could have happened.

"Her roommates also noticed her missing." How could you be the only person to not have noticed anything, you, you were her best friend for god’s sake. You broke out in a cool sweat; she couldn't be far. Hopefully.

You thanked the teacher for informing you, telling her you'd tell her if you find out anything about her whereabouts. This cannot be happening. Not to her, your mind kept making pictures of all the times at the academy, how you'd spend any moment with her.

The third student this month. It must be her. She was now one of the missing students, that were going to turn up again like brain dead zombies. No way you'd let that happen. Your steps began quickening, you stopped in front of a few students to ask them if they'd seen her. Never getting a positive answer or even a clue. You kept asking people around the school until someone said something that struck you.

"Oh yeah, the little one, saw her yesterday with…who was it?" They stopped to think, you were restless and grabbed them by the collar.

"Who? With whom was she?"

You looked like you'd start killing the poor student if they didn't tell you, pupils small and eyes wide. You needed to find her, as soon as possible. Your hold didn't let up until they got the answer out with a trembling stutter.

"Kim- Kim Hongjoong"

You let the go, the person catching their breath a little and hurrying off.

Kim Hongjoong, you weren't unfamiliar with the student. He was also going to be a graduate, you had never spoken with him before, but you sure as hell would now.

He was a little popular with his looks and charms. But right now, he might be one of the names that would land on your "to kill" list. If he had anything to do with your besties disappearance. You knew where to find him rather quickly, with asking the next person in your line of vision, a lot nicer than before, as to where he would be. His charms class was just about to end, and luckily for you the classroom was just a few halls down situated.

As soon as your eyes were sat on a familiar blonde hair you grabbed said person by the tie and slammed them into the next wall, fuck being patient, your friend was missing. The dude was definitely taken aback by the shocked expression and silver rimmed glasses that fell down his nose a little.

You got in his face, trying to intimidate him even if he was quite a bit taller.

"Where is she?" "Who?" He seemed genuinely confused, as if, he must be playing dumb on purpose.

"Adeline fucking Winters, where is she?" You gripped him tighter, not aware of the stares some student threw your guys' way. You were sure you must be choking this dude with the way you were holding him.

"Woah calm down- he tried prying your hands from his shirt-"I don't know what you mean." "You were the last person to seen with her, so, where.is.she?

Fed up with your pulling, he roughly yanked himself out of your grip, face now an angry expression at your accusing tone. "I got nothing to do with her vanishing if that's what you're insinuating."

"Fancy words from a kidnapper-" You stepped up to him again, wanting to close the distance again. "-or worse a murderer, huh, what did you do to her." You jabbed an accusing finger into his chest, not believing that he didn't know anything at all.

Before he could come up with what you were sure, was going to be another excuse, a teacher interrupted. She pulled you away at the aggressive look and most definitely clenched fists, trying to deescalate the situation.

You would not let that man rest, he knew something, he has to. So, you shouted, hoping that he would hear:" I'll find out what you're hiding!"

After an hour-long lecture from the principle for your behavior you were finally let off with a warning. They still wouldn't do anything to help you find your friend though, making some lame excuse that she might have just gone and needed some time alone. They clearly just wanted this subject off the table.

You wouldn't give up though. And you had a plan, one that would start with operation: "Observe Kim Hongjoong". You came to realize that the dude was as boring as the next one though, he just went to his classes, hung out with his weird group of friends and would then retire in his room. Nothing out of the ordinary. He must be playing it safe. As to not get found out. So that would mean, you needed to switch to the next phase of your plan: "Confront Kim Hongjoong". That step was a lot easier than you were thinking, as he himself paid you a visit in your potions class, snagging the seat next to you.

Making himself a little too comfortable in the seat, same uniform as any student here wore. A tie, dark coat and slacks matched with dress shoes and a white pristine shirt.

As the lesson began, he began whispering to you. "Look I don't know what happened to your friend." He had a sympathetic look to his face; you'd almost believe him.

Almost.

"I know that you have something to do with this." It was more of a feeling than anything, he was either lying or just not telling you the whole truth, you were guessing it's more likely the first option. You turned to him, laying your fountain pen down and stared him down. Right in those deep eyes of his.

"And when I find out what you're hiding, everyone will know." Just then the bell rung, which made you snatch the book and supplies of yours into your arms and speed walking away from him. Being near him made it almost hard to breathe, he was a lot more imposing than you first realized.

You didn't even put away your books, heading straight to the library. Because maybe you hadn't found out where your friend was now, but you did manage to catch something.

His eyes. The moment you looked into them, for a split second, so fast that anyone could miss it, they changed. Yes, maybe you were actually going crazy…but if not, this could help find Adeline, Addy, your friend. You started missing her more and more over the passing days, praying that she was okay at the least.

For what reason would Hongjoong need someone to disappear? To kill them? To sacrifice them? God, he just a kid like you though. But those eyes weren't, they looked cold, like pure ice that sank into the depths of a deep-frozen lake.

You decided just looking at all the books in the library would take way too long, the room was practically the size of a mansion. You started looking through a few ritual books, nothing. Looking into some records of the school, nothing. No missing people, no records at all, even though this was a phenomenon that had been going on since your first year here. Someone must be covering this whole thing up, or something.

The tag for the forbidden section caught your eye, looking back to see if the librarian had their eyes on you, you slipped through the wooden door. It was left unlocked, well not willingly as some students broke the lock and the school decided the cost wasn't worth fixing. It was pretty dark in here, as you choose to keep the lights off. Noone needed to know you were in here, or the next lecture with the principal wouldn’t just end with a warning.

You looked through a few books, they were sometimes in a language you couldn't read or barely understood. A dark cover in the corner caught your eye, you reached for it and blew the dust on the top off it a bit. It uncovered the title "Legendarum Magicus". That almost sounded like a childrens book for magic legends. You flipped it open nonetheless, it didn't have an author and the writing, it wasn't printed, it seemed to be handwritten, each page of it.

And all the texts, they were all about this school. Hidden stories about the weird creaking in the abandoned girl’s bathroom. The hidden cellar in the school, which was supposedly home to mysterious caged creatures. What made your hand stop turning pages was when the book spoke about the missing students, or more importantly, the cause of it.

As you read through it with your phone as a light. Each paragraph you read, made your hand tighten and shake against the book until you closed it with a slam. A noise way too loud for anyone not to hear. As soon as you heard the familiar squeak of the librarian chair you ran out, slipping the book into your bag and hiding behind a pillar as to not get caught. When the coast was clear you headed to the stairs you just wanted to go to your room now, too exhausted and tensed with all the new things you learned from the book. And about the infamous Kim Honjoong.

Your eyes closed your eyes trying to keep the headache you managed to sport away. And at last made you fall asleep, bag still clutched to your body.

The next day phase three your plan would step into action: "Confronting Hongjoong and getting Adeline back". You had no idea how you'd do that but just in case of something happening, you packed a special little object with you.

Hongjoong must have some kind of unnatural for feeling when you needed to talk to him because he came up to you again, just before class was going to start.

"Hey, I just wanted to make sure, that you know I-" He gestured to himself, and you cut him off, not planning on listening to more of his lies.

"I know your secret Hongjoong." That sure got him to be quiet quick. He looked calm from the outside, but once again, those eyes said more than anything on that pretty face. The Frames didn't hide the icy expression, his eyes seemed to get deeper now you felt like you were drowning in that cold, frozen over lake. That same restricting feeling on your chest.

You managed to get it out though, in a barely there voice.

"I know what you are."

At that he abruptly grabbed your hand and began pulling you away from the classroom, not planning on partaking in the lesson. Your and his steps were the only things that could be heard in the empty hallway. Would he take you to where the others were now? You didn't feel that good about going there alone, wherever "there" was. His steps were quick and long and the rooms that you passed were a big, connected blur.

You stepped down several stairways, they all went further and further down. And then he stepped through doors until you were in the common bath, he pulled you in and then let go.

He stepped around the huge bath going for where the multiple faucets that were used for it were. He turned a few, seemingly in a specific order and when he stepped back from them a buzz rang through the room. An opening in the wall opened, the wall sliding from it former place like a normal door, yet this was anything but normal.

He walked through the hole, stopping and turning to you. "If you wanna know where your little friend is now, you ought to follow me."

Was this smart? Absolutely not. Were you going to do it regardless?

Yes.

You knew what this path led to, his lair. Where he trapped his victims. His eyes seemed to glow a green in the dark of the tunnel and he continued walking ahead, knowing that you'd follow.

When the tunnel opened up again it was into a big room. Water pouring from a lot of places in the ceiling and disappearing into nothingness. Big stone pathways were decorated with big statues on each side making it look like a big ominous walkway, headed straight to a statue in the front. All depicted the same animal, a serpent. That made your heart beat a little faster, your hands tremble a little more and you turned your bag a little more to you, for easier access. Hongjoong took off his coat, throwing it off into a corner. He loosened his tie and popped a few buttons open, before turning back to you.

"You know, your first one to figure it out." He said all friendliness and the desperate attempts of convincing you of his innocence were gone. Now before you stood the real Kim Hongjoong.

"You humans are usually so stupid and naive, quite easy to fool. But now, you show up, trying to play hero." He took slow steps to you, and you reached into your bag at the same tempo. Your heart began racing.

"Most of the times I just get a little bit of the energy of the magicians here, letting them walk away in a little daze and making them come back again if I’m in need of a little snack again." He continued on, explaining, not that you'd understand his situation.

"I think I'll make an exception for you though." He closed in on you just as you had done the first day you confronted him. You pulled out the round object that you took with you, a mirror. You looked away as well, not wanting to be affected with whatever he was trying to pull on you.

If the book was correct, what stood before you wasn't a human. It was the embodiment of medusa, the curse holder of the gaze of stone, a gorgon. He was a living myth, inhabiting the dark underground of this Academy. Feasting on his prey. He turned away with a yell, stopped by the reflective surface in your hand.

"Smart little thing, aren't you?" You heard him speak, not willing to give him an ounce of your eyesight. He wouldn't be able to catch you with his gaze.

"Yeah, that's right- you stood from your cowering position; mirror still held tightly in hand. "-so give me back my best friend and nothing will happen." You started looking for her in the room, not seeing anyone besides the two of you.

"Oh, but it will, now that you know, you don't expect to just walk away? Do you?"

"Oh, sweet thing, but she isn't even here." You felt a grip in your hand, making you turn your head regardless in shock. He turned your mirror away from him, gripping your wrist tighter until you let go and it shattered on the stone floor. You choose to just tightly close your eyes.

He stepped closer into your personal space, he dragged his one hand to your jaw, turning your head to him. "Look at me." It was a demand, a command to do as told or you'd suffer some serious repercussions.

You refused to give in, you wouldn't, for your friend. You felt his warm breath brush your face and then you felt a soft feeling against your lips, nonetheless, making you open your eyes. Which in turn made you gaze into his-now grey-eyes. You felt like you were afloat, in a daze, completely relaxed. Like you were on a high, it felt like when you used to make potions to fall asleep.

His blonde fluffy hair was starting to go out of focus a bit, your eyesight blurry. A hand cupped your cheek, now tilting your head to properly get you to look at him.

"Now Now, don't fall asleep, we're just getting started."

You didn't really hear his words, too out of it. The thing that you could focus on the most were those lips, that were now curved in a pretty smile. Your throat dried up a little at the notion of getting to feel those lips again, you leaned into him a little. You kissed up your cheek, in a motion way too sweet given the situation. You kept your eyes open now, intent on capturing all of his movements in your memories. You felt a little prick of him biting into your lower lip and right after you felt even more floaty, incredibly warm as well. As if you were coming down with a fever, Hongjoong's lips felt so cool in contrast now, which made you more the desperate to reconnect your lips each time. With each smack it seemed to cool you off, but your body began burning more.

You pulled him more into you, feeling the exposed part of his chest, just as cooling as the rest of him. You unbuttoned it more. "Eager, aren't we?" His voice seemed far away, but his touch wasn't as he got rid of your cloak and shirt just as fast.

His touch was soft but demanding not rushing at all, you however couldn't get enough fast enough. You pressed messy kisses along his neck, down his collar bone and chest, your hands finding their place on his pecs. You explored the expanse of his body, keeping your lips on his torso. You slipped your one hand down further his abdomen, now noticing a few scales scattered over the sides of his torso. You delicately traced his abs, being stopping by your head, when a hand pulled your head back by your hair. It forced you to make eye contact with the heavenly looking creature in front of you. "That's only for good ones, have you been good?"

You nodded, whatever would get you to feel more of him and satiate that ache deep inside you. To make the burning stop. Instead of letting you continue on, he completely pulled away.

The suddenness made you sink onto the cold stone floor. A whine escaped you in response, which, in any other situation would have embarrassed you. You couldn't pick your body off the ground, way too weak, your bones felt like they were made out of pudding. "Now tell me, who else might know that I'm the reason for the incidents happening on these grounds? Any friends you like to gossip to?" He tapped your chin to get you to look at him, noticing how it sunk at the relaxed feelings of your body.

You couldn't even understand him, the question hadn't registered at all in your mushed up brain. So, he repeated himself now sounding a lot more serious though.

You tried thinking back, no one, you hadn't told anyone about this escapade of yours, or even that you had the slightest idea of who could be behind the kidnapped students. That shook you awake a little, you were here for someone, for your best friend.

You didn't know which answer would make you come out of this alive, so you stuck with the truth. Instantly a a big smile formed on his face, eyes crinkling a bit and fangs showing. Fangs that you managed to only notice now.

"What do you want with them? You don't eat them, so what do you do to them?" Your weakened voice questioned. Hongjoongs one eyebrow raised in surprise at the fact that your head was starting to clear up again. That wasn't part of his plan in bringing you here. He supposed he could tell you, not that you'd remember any of this after, just like the others.

"But that's where you're wrong, I do eat them, partially. I take away that delicious spiritual energy, it doesn't kill you. But can you really call that living? You saw, they're empty husks after."

He enjoyed the wide-eyed look on your face, now just realizing what real danger you were facing. It was crazy how nonchalant he was about all of this. He kept his non-threatening facade for now, and then when you would least expect it, he'd wrap himself around you, just like a viper.

"No, please-uh not my friend please." Aww how cute, you were really worried about someone else right now?

You really were naïve.

Following him down here, trusting his words of giving up your mortal friend. He enjoyed seeing you beg, especially on your knees on the floor. It gave him even more of a power trip than he was already having.

The tears in your eyes, the disheveled state of your clothes and hair and God, the pink blush that was still left on your cheeks from before. He was barely keeping himself under control. Maybe he could make an exception, just this once.

"Alright, I’ll let your friend go, hell I'll even stop taking students, for a price of course."

Okay, this was your only chance to save her. You'd do whatever it took to know that she was alive and still the one that you spent all this time with, in all those years.

You were still looking up at him with those big eyes, in hope. That he would keep his words. "If I can’t feed on those friends of yours, you'll just have to quench my hunger."

Die? Was he really asking you to die? To sacrifice yourself? You were shaking, you were going to be one of those lifeless husks, roaming the halls until you graduated. Only God knows how your life would continue after.

You supposed you didn't have any other choice, if this was really the only way, there’s no way you could walk away and live with the guilt. If Hongjoong would even let you leave.

"Alright, I'll do it, but you have to let them go." He moved towards you at that, with each step your shoulders shook more in fear of what was about to happen to you. You were praying for it to at least not be painful. You closed your eyes in preparation of his next move.

Directly in front of you again he ran his fingers down, along your cheek. Going down and over your neck, feeling your pulse and staying there. The smell of your fear was already feeding him more than you'd ever know, but he wouldn't just stop without having an actual taste of you.

He leaned in, those same plush lips brushed over your neck and then slightly exposed shoulder. Your shirt had ridden down quite a bit, some buttons opened. You could feel his long tongue occasionally trace a few lines along the expanse of your shoulder, but he bit in, just slightly.

Your taste was heavenly, reminding him of his favorite pastry. He needed to keep you alive so that his now favorite snack would never leave him.

That made you wince; this would be it. His tongue went over the small holes that were left behind in a soothing touch. You started feeling dazed even more, more than before. His venom that must have been it before as well. Now that it was more and deeper it worked so much stronger. The heat was actually unbearable now, you began taking your top clothes off in a fruitless attempt to feel cooler.

Searching for some coolness your hands met Hongjoongs skin again wrapping yourself around him to get your naked upper body flush against him. His went around to hold your waist, quickly slipping down to push your skirt and panties off in one move. If your blood tasted that good, in between your legs would actually make him ascend to heaven. Usually, he wouldn't drain his victims like this, not at all.

He pushed you to lay on the floor, on your back. He followed right behind, settling himself between your legs. Eyes going for the space in between your legs, which was a sight for sore fucking eyes. So wet, from just a little kissing and his venom. And those tits, that he hadn't appreciated until now, he really should have. Everything about you was screaming to be consumed, he wonders if he was the one lured and not you.

He wasn't any better than you though, his dick leaking pre-cum and coating his underwear maybe even his slacks. He made quick work of both, just as impatient as you. Your hands kept going over him, caressing any space you could find. His hands found the back of your thighs folding them up to have you spread out even more for him, the position had him licking his lips. He lined himself up against your pulsing hole, that was clearly eager to be filled.

No foreplay at all he pushed in slowly to not hurt you anymore than necessary to get himself sheathed inside of you. He rubbed your clit to alleviate some of the pain that followed with his push. You barely even registered the pain, grabbing him by the nape and pulling him down into a kiss.

The moment he moved his hips back and forth you were seeing stars, your senses seemed so dimmed but your touch receptor and nerves were heightened. The pleasure was ten fold, the slide got wetter and wetter with each passing thrust. The groaning and moaning from each of you growing louder and rawer. You pulled back to catch a breath from the kiss, your head was thrown back at a particular deep and calculated thrust.

You looked down to see where you two were connected, the sight straight out of a porn, your wetness leaking all over Honjoong and yourself. And you could clearly see some sticky precum pulling strands and connecting the skin.

It was so hot, so sensual and dirty. The wetness provided the right slide for when your clit would make contact with Honjoongs pubic bone, grinding against it. Your climax was approaching way faster than any time before in your life, faster than when your favorite toy was hitting all those spots inside you, deeper than your fingers ever hoped to reach. The pleasure felt unreal.

The same was for him, he was so out of breath. The squelching from your pussy and your wet and warm walls made such a deadly combination. It felt as if no time at all passed, you hit your highs that fast, with Hongjoong curling over your body and pushing your legs a little further up. And you gripping onto his back for dear life, your body working overtime with all the sensations and pleasure coursing through you. Little lightning bolts making you flinch a little in sensitivity.

The only thing heard in the big room was the harsh breathing that escaped the both of you, having you stay in position for quite a while, until he separated the two of you.

His cock leaving you empty but that heat also slowly dissipating. You stayed laying on the floor until you felt some fabric being placed around you, like a blanket. Opening your eyes, it was Honjoongs coat your body disconnected from the uncomfortable floor and was lifted into his strong arms.

He didn't walk in the direction of the exit, he walked further in, it kept getting darker and darker making sleepier. His grip tightened in realization of you starting to doze off. In spite of the clear danger holding you, you felt yourself surrendering to the sweet sensation of sleep. He felt himself smile a little at the adorable sight and now he would have more than enough times to enjoy that over and over again.

A deal is a deal after all.

[igotanidea]

Voices: Jason Todd x reader

Dreaming was good.

Dreaming was nothing less of a perfect when she could feel his warm body next to her. The strong, protective embrace of his arms wrapped around her.

Or even if they got into a fight and were angry at each other - it was calming knowing that Jason was right beside, just a touch away. Even if he flinched and scoffed at the gentle move of her fingers on his back or shoulders. sooner or later he always relented and they worked through whatever shit was going on.

Together.

But dreaming was not always good.

Not when she woke up in the middle of the night, brutally torn from the very vivid and very real nightmare of Jason's dead, lifeless body in her arms. His blood on her hands and face. His empty, cold eyes. His emotionless face.

NO!!

The jolt was so sudden that even her cat, sleeping peacefully in the foot of the bed run away form her, leaving poor girl completly alone.

alone.

Going to bed alone. Every night.

Waking up alone. Every morning.

Deprived of his touch, his kisses, his love and affection.

Any affection.

And maybe she was acting like a whiny baby, but she needed him with her. Not out there. Not fighting crime lords or whatever villain might have shown his face at Gotham.

3 am....

Please come back home....

4 am,

5 am.....

Was he injured? Was he bleeding, hurt, scared? Maybe he took off running? Maybe he got back together with one of his exes? Artemis? Kori? Rose?

Maybe she wasn;t good enough for him? Maybe he realised he actually wanted some badass vigilante chick with toned muscles, sharp tongue, fiery attitude? Maybe he wanted someone hot?

She wasn't hot.

She was a wimp, shuddering in the cold, empy bed desperately craving her boyfriend presence. Be it bruised or in bad mood, but please --

Please come home.

I'll be better, I'll do better, I'll improve.

I'll be what you want me to be, just please don't leave me.

So far from what a modern woman should be, right? Codependent, fragile, weak, vulnerable, pathetic.

Or maybe just in love with a vigilante.

How did it happen that she got from worrying about him to questioning her whole lonely exsistence in 10 minutes?

He doesn;t want you.

You're ugly.

You're fat.

You're unnatractive.

You really thought he would stay with you? did you already imagine the real-life play-pretend with him? White dress? Picket white fence? Familiy?

You stupid little girl.

He doesn;t want you, he never wanted you, he won't ever want you.

"SHUT UP!!!" she cried out in frustration, tears rolling down her face as her demons started to prey on her like on a Goya painting "Shut up! shut up! shut up!" she shook violently.

"Are you talking to me now?" a familiar voice and the sound of discarded red helmet echoed in her head "Damn Y/N! If there's anything you learned during those years it's definitely developing a good hearing-- Baby?" Jason became alarmed the second he took in her state. "Baby? Y/N? What happened? WHO HURT YOU?!"

It was impossible for Jason to keep his cool when he saw her crying. The first thought popping into his head being someone did something to her. Someone caused this. And the fact that it was 5 a.m. and most people were sleeping and that there was no one but them in their apartment slipped his mind, clouded by the incoming wave of rage

"Give me the name baby.' he took a few step forwards, kneeling on the floor next to bed and cupping her chin forcing her eyes on him "tell me who did this to you."

"You did!" she sobbed

"I--" holy fuck! In his blinding fury and the sudden need for revenge he didn't realise she could be sheding those crocodlie tears because of him.

"Why are you leaving me?" she sobbed

"Why am I --?" Y/N was not making any sense right now "I'm not--"

"Liar!" the girl yelled with surprising strength given her fragile state "You think she's hot, don't you?"

"Who?"

"Your ex!"

"My ex? Y/N, princess, why don't you calm down and--"

"I AM COMPLETLY CALM!" now Jason was almost sure that the neighbours were already up, ready to impale them both on pitchforks and uncovering his secret identity.

"Ok, ok, baby..." he raised his hands in surrender, observing her every move and slightest change in face expression.

This was new. This was something he wasn;t entirely sure of how to proceed with. Out of all the opponents he had to fight never in his mind would he thought that his girlfiriend would be the most challenging.

Was this an attack of hysteria? A panic attack? An anxiety fit?

Jason was way too familiar with all that.

What if it was him? What would she do if he woke up in the middle of the night, jittery for no particular reason? What could possibly be helpful?

And then it dawned on him.

And it all happened at once.

Bed dipping, his weight on her, his hands on her body, his breath on her face and the all-encompasing smell of blood, gunpowder and cigatettes.

Soft caress of her hair.

Gentle peck on her nose.

Developing too fast to give her any time to object, not that she wanted to.

"I got you." he whispered pulling her closer to his chest, not caring about the bruise that was already forming on his right side and that cut on his forearm. She was more important now. "I got you, baby, I got you..." he kissd her forehead warming and calming her by the mass of muscles and bythe rapid but steady beating of his heart.

she was still shaking but the firm yet gentle grip on her refused to let go untill it all subsided. Steading her, anchoring her in reality. Helping her realise that whatever her traitorous mind suggested had nothing to do with actuallity. Even if it took days, weeks, years, Jason was not going to move, keeping her pinned to his chest until being full certain she was back to him, having her full attention.

"Do you think I'm ugly....?" she muttered causing him to laugh, the movement of his body causing vibrations.

"I think you should get some proper rest. Otherwise the next thing you're going to ask me is going to be that "if i was a worm..." question."

"Bbut if I was a worm would you--?"

"Hush, woman!" he cut her off with the cheesiest smile "I had a rough night and need to sleep. Which means you are stuck with me for as long as I please."

"are you--?"

"I said, hush woman." he tightened the hold on her, preventing her from squirming and moving too far. "you're my body pillow now, accept your fate."

"are you hurt?" she whispered

"I'm perfect." he whispered back, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.

Making all the hateful voices in her head shut up. Bringing in the silence and peace.

But the talk he was going to give her in the morning would be a capital letter one.

Ugly.

Huh. She had no idea what measures he was going to resort to proving her wrong...

[strniohoeee]

Cutting Dead

Pairing: Chris Sturniolo X Female Reader, cute imagine could be suggestive at parts😚

Synopsis: Y/N was getting ready for a date when some unexpected things decided to happen👤

Warnings⚠️: None really if I’m being honest, could be suggestive at parts, but nothing crazy☺️

Song for the imagine: Heartbreaker- Justin Bieber

I had stood over the triplets house last night because I had been asked out on a date by a guy I really liked. I haven’t been in the dating scene for the last year because I was constantly being disappointed by every single guy. But when I put myself out there again I ran into Chance. He was so sweet and funny and not a creep, Nick saw how head over heels I was for this guy, and wanted me to spend the night so I could get ready, and express my excitement with him.

“Y/N I’m so fucking happy for you! You deserve a good guy” Nick said jumping on the bed next to me

“Nick I’m so fucking happy like hes so nice to me, and he was the one who asked me on the date, and planned it all” I said smiling and blushing like a schoolgirl

“A guy who actually took initiative?? This we love!! Oh my god we have to make you look even more hot than you do tomorrow”Nick said clapping his hands together

“I brought so many outfit options! Like this guy is really making me think about my appearance” I told Nick

“Finally! You were starting to give Adam Sandler core I was getting scared” He said laughing at me

“Oh you fucking dick! Shut up” I said throwing my pillow at him

That night we stood up pretty late just laughing and talking about how excited I was. We went to bed at 3am, and we woke up at 9 because my date was at 12, and Chance was coming to pick me up.

I decided to start getting ready at 10, I showered and washed my hair. After stepping out I did my skincare, put lotion on, and put pajamas on so I could do my hair.

I decided on a blowout, and once that was done I started my makeup. I loved a full beat of makeup. It made me feel even more powerful with my thick lashes, and my brown lip liner.

As I was doing my makeup and hair Nick was chatting with me asking me all types of questions

“Do you think he’s a catfish?” He asked laughing

“Nick we’ve FaceTimed before…OBVIOUSLY NOT” I told him laughing

“Mmm true! Do you think he’s actually 6 foot” he also asked

“Uhhh…I actually never gave that a thought” I said as I applied my blush and highlighter

“Ouuu are you gonna kiss him” he asked wiggling his brows

“Weirdo….maybe if the vibes right” I said as I set my makeup with some spray

“Omgggg yall gonna fuck on the first date?” He asked me, and both Chris and Matt had walked into the room the same time as he was asking this question

“Who we fuckin” Matt said laughing as he went to sit on Nicks bed

“Nobody. And no Nick I’m def not fucking on a first date” I said as i was putting glue on my lashes

“Why not? It’s fun” Nick said as he pushed Chris out the way of laying in his spot

“Ummm because I’m looking for someone who doesn’t just want to fuck. I want real love” I told him as I started to stick my lashes on

“That Jada and Will love” Chris said laughing

“Given the fact that they hate each other I’m not too sure, but uhh something along those lines” I said laughing

“Ouuu that Morticia and Gomez love” Matt said nodding his head

“Oh yes!” I said looking at him through the mirror

I had finished applying my lip liner and gloss, and was ready to put on my outfit

“Okay guys I need opinions on the outfit let me go change” I said as i ran into nicks bathroom and put my outfit on

I was wearing medium/dark wash mid rise jeans that were flared at the bottom, and hugged me in all the right places. Actually hugged me a little too tight as I gained some weight and now they were extra tight on my ass and thighs. Then I put on my fitted hot pink shirt that said I Love Men, but the N was scratched out so basically I love me. And then for shoes I decided on these cute felt hot pink wedge sandals. The whole vibes was giving Bratz doll, and to top it off I put clear Y2K glasses on my head. I felt hot and powerful.

I stepped out of the bathroom.

“Sooo what do we think” I said as I gave them a spin

“You look sooo hot” Nick said snapping his fingers

“You look great” Matt said giving me a thumbs up

“Spin one more time” Chris said rubbing his chin like he was wondering

So I did another spin for them

“Your ass looks fat asf, he’ll def be drooling” Chris said nonchalantly

“Chris don’t be weird” Matt said smacking his younger brother

“I appreciate it…even though that is weird. I’ll take it” I said giving him a weird stare

“WHAT I’m stating the obvious” Chris said putting his hand up in defense

“Okay even though Chris is a creep your ass is fat” Nick said

“Okay enough about my ass” I said laughing and going to grab my phone. The time read 11:58am

“Omggg guys it’s almost timeeee” I said in a sing song way

“Has he texted you?” Nick asked

“Mm not since 11:30” I said grabbing my purse and putting my lipliner and lipgloss in it

“I figured he’s driving” I said as I sprayed myself with perfume, and getting ready to walk down to the living room to wait for Chance

We had all gone downstairs, and Chris decided to go shower while Matt and Nick sat on the couch with me as we chatted. I hadn’t realized how long we were chatting for until I looked down at my phone, and saw the time said 12:15pm…..hm weird

I decided to shoot Chance a text

-heyyy! Hope traffic isn’t too bad. What’s your ETA?☺️

5 minutes had gone by with no response

“Did he answer?” Matt asked

“No, but he was working the 5AM shift, and sometimes they don’t get off till 12:30-1, so maybe he’ll text me” I told them, and to this they nodded their head

By now it was 12:55pm and I still haven't gotten a response. I was slightly worried that he was standing me up, or he might’ve gotten into an accident, so I decided to call him. No answer

“I’m not sure why he isn’t picking up. At 11:30 he literally said he couldn’t wait to see me soon” I told Nick and Matt

“Call him again” Nick said

So I called two more times, and no response. In fact , it went straight to voicemail. I was really starting to think he stood me up, when all of a sudden my phone pinged with a text message

Chance🦕

I’m sorry, but I can’t do this any more. I didn’t mean to lead you on. You’re a cool girl, and I really like you, but I was really hoping our relationship was just friends with benefits. I’m not looking to commit to anyone right now :)

My jaw fucking dropped, and at this point Chris came into the living room

“What’s going on?” He asked as he sat down on the couch

“Uhhh he stood me up” I said still blinking down at my phone in utter shock

“He did what?” Nick asked

“Yeah… he said I’m sorry, but I can’t do this any more. I didn’t mean to lead you on. You’re a cool girl, and I really like you, but I was really hoping our relationship was just friends with benefits. I’m not looking to commit to anyone right now” I told them as I was reading the message out loud

“Are you joking right now” Nick said grabbing my phone to read the message himself

“After a year of not seeing anyone. I finally find a guy who I thought was so sweet and kind, and it turns out he’s just like the rest” I said taking a deep breath and rolling my eyes

“Oh what a fucking dick” Nick said handing my phone back to me, and I grabbed it closing out the message. Not even bothering to respond to him

“I got all dolled up for a fucking loser” I said taking my shoes off

“Hey! You don’t need him. There’s plenty of other guys out there who would kill to be with you” Matt said, giving me a reassuring smile.

“Yeah I know, but I was really starting to like the kid” I said rolling my eyes

“Y/N fuck himmm you’re so hot! You could literally have anyone you want. Literally go out right now, and watch all the guys drop to their knees begging for you” Nick said, and I smiled at this

“Ehh it’s fine I’m going to wash my face and change my clothes. So I can eat my feelings and bask in my self pity” I said standing up

“No. Let me take you out” Chris said as he stood up

“Take me out?” I said looking at him as I put my shoes back down

“Yeah, let's go out on the town, maybe the mall, and whatnot. You look too nice not to go out come on” he said grabbing the keys

“Oh okay” I said as I put my shoes back on and grabbed my purse

“Have funnnnn” Nick said as he gave a small smirk to Matt

I had driven us to the mall to go walk around and shop. As we were walking around I was getting nothing but stares from every guy I passed.

“See! Too pretty to not go out. Every guy is staring at you” Chris said as we walked into another store

“Thanks Chris. You’re making me feel better about getting stood up” I said laughing a little bit

“Ehh fuck that loser we can have more fun together” he said giving my arm a nudge

After we left the mall, we decided on grabbing some dinner, and then he took me to the pier to walk the boardwalk and look at the night sky and the waves crashing on the shore.

While on the boardwalk Chris and I stopped for ice cream, and decided to sit down to eat them

“I really appreciate you doing this for me. I haven’t thought of chance since we left the house” I said looking over at him

“I’m glad. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to put a smile on your face” he said looking up at me

I just smiled, and he turned to continue eating his ice cream. I was looking at him in admiration. And only then did it hit me that I might’ve liked Chris. I mean he was always there for me, my biggest hype man, and we were inseparable when we were together. I was so scared of coming to realization with this, because I felt that he wouldn’t like me, and I struggled with rejection. So I pushed all those feelings to the back of my mind, but they never truly went away. Every guy I ever spoke and went on dates with had all reminded me of Chris, but they weren’t him. I either broke things off with them, or they ghosted me, and I was hurt, but I think I was more hurt at the fact I couldn’t come to terms with my adoration for Chris. It hurt that every guy I dated just wasn’t him.

I broke away from staring at him, and began to speak

“We should take some photos” I said, and as he was finishing his ice cream he agreed

Chris was my biggest hype man. Every photo he took always came with a comment “oh yes!” “Oh my god you ass looks so good like that, hold it!” “Eating these bitches uppp” he said and that made me laugh, as I laughed he snapped another photo.

“Ew Chris I hate my smile, why would you take that” I said walking over to him to look at the photo

“No Y/N, you look beautiful just standing there laughing, and in raw emotions. This is my favorite photo of you” he said as he looked at the photo with a smile on his face

“Whatever you say” I said blushing and trying to not sound excited

“Okay your turn” I said to him as I grabbed my phone from him and pushed him away

Chris was posing like a model. “Okayyyy fucking it up” I said as I took more photos. “It’s giving bad bitchhh” I said and he gave me the middle finger the same time I snapped the photo

“Oh Chris this might be the hottest photo of you” I told him as I showed him

“Ouuu you think I’m hot?” He said smirking at me

“Yeah…who doesn’t” I said rolling my eyes

He just stared at me and laughed. After a few more photos we decided to head back to the car, and chat some more.

“You know something” Chris said looking at me, and I looked back giving him a puzzled face

“I really fucking like you” he said looking into my eyes. This made me really nervous, and I just looked down and started to blush

“I have liked you for so long, and the fact that I didn’t come clean sooner is killing me” he said

“Chris…I like you too, and I’m upset I didn’t come to you sooner either. I looked for you in every guy I dated, and it hurt that they just weren’t you” I told him

“Nobodies like me” he said looking down at my lips

“Yeah I’ve realized that now” I said laughing a little bit

“Kiss me” he said, licking his lip, and so I did. I leaned in and smashed our lips together. We had a small makeout session before we both pulled away

“Omg Chris I got lipgloss all over you” I said laughing and covering my mouth

“That’s hot” he said looking into the mirror

I just smacked his chest and blushed

“How about we take a picture for that loser and send it to him” Chris said smirking at me, and to this I agreed

He took my phone and leaned into me as I leaned into him for yet another kiss, and he snapped the photo.

“Oh he’s gonna be maddd” Chris said laughing

I leaned over to see what he was doing, and he snaked his hand around me grabbing my ass and giving it a firm grab

“I meant it when I said your ass is so fat in these” he said biting his lip

“Chrissss stop” I said whining

“Keep wearing jeans like this, and I swear I’ll cum in my pants” he said licking his lips, and I looked at him before giving him another kiss and moving down to his neck

He moaned lightly, and then stopped me

“We have plenty of time for that, but for now let’s send these pics to him” He said giving me a quick peck on the lips

Chris opened up the message app and clicked on Chance name before sending him the photo

-fuck you :)

Chris typed, and then sent another photo. It was the photo of him with his middle finger up

“Omgg Chris he’s going to be sooo mad” I said laughing

“Yeah fuck him, but for now I get to kiss up on and love my beautiful girl” he said as he kissed me once more

After that we drove back to the house, and as we were walking into the house he kept grabbing and smacking my ass. Even as I walked up the stairs in front of him

“Chris stop” I said in a whisper as we both laughed

“I see you two had fun” Nick said as him and Matt were still on the couch

“Yeah we did” I said to them as I put my purse down and slipped my shoes off

“Oh Chris for sure had fun” Matt said laughing at him, and it was only then I realized my lip gloss and lip liner was still all over his face

“Fuck yeah I did, I was all up in there” he said

“CHRIS STOP IT” I said smacking him

“Don’t tell me…” Nick said with wide eyes

“No we didn’t fuck” I said laughing

“Omg okay I was going to say please don’t say anything I dont want to throw up” he responded

We all just laughed, and as I went to walk to the kitchen Chris smacked my ass again

“CHRIS PLEASE” I said as I turned around blushing

“Yall please don’t be gettin it on infront of us” Nick said covering his eyes

“Never” Chris said as he grabbed a handful of my ass, and started to lead me down to his room

“We’ll see yall tomorrow” Chris said as we walked downstairs

“PLEASE NO FUCKING” Nick and Matt yelled in disgust

“SHUT UPP” we both yelled back and laughed

Chris and I spent the rest of the night laughing and watching videos together. Occasionally making out, but other than that we called it a night at 11, and fell asleep snuggled into one another.

Tehee hope you guys liked this one😚😚

-J💅🏽

[theheroheart]

Rogue got delivered a day early.

Gonna put a whole bunch of quotes and observations and things under the cut, very Rogue focused.

SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY.

Also I will say, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE buy this book, it absolutely deserves it, I adored it. It was wonderful and gave us SO MUCH.

Rogue's former partner is a he, and he's Rogue's boyfriend. His name is Art, which is indeed short for Artificer (reference to D&D). And Art is confirmed dead at this point, and has been for 5 years. Rogue and Art were together for 10 years.

Rogue jumps off a building at some point, knowing Art will save him.

Art was tall with shoulder-length curly hair and wore a sleek purple tunic, rolled up at the sleeves. On top of this was a metallic chest-piece that crackled with electrical energy. On his head he wore a pair of steampunk goggles that complemented his hazel eyes. As he pulled on the net, a long grey scar could be seen on his arm, a memory from a battle lost years before. As the net neared the ship, Rogue smiled up apologetically at Art. But judging by the icy look he got back, well - he couldn't smile his way out of this one.

Rogue doesn't like parties. Partly because he prefers "a good night in". (Though Rogue cannot cook, lmao.) And partly because while "watching the wealthy gorge themselves" he knew "most of the population was living in abject poverty." Rogue says eat the rich.

It was an odd feeling to think that nights like that wouldn't be on the cards for Rogue and hadn't been in fact for a long time. It's strange, the shape time takes when you lose someone. One morning they are next to you, on their pillow, and the next morning you realise they haven't been sleeping there for nearly five years. The five years had gone by slowly and quickly, all at once, Rogue's bounties all blending into one another. It wasn't that Rogue hadn't continued to live, or even to love a little bit. But when you felt you'd lived through the main event of your life, everything else - that extra bit of life you found yourself wandering through - was a bit like an epilogue. Rogue would walk the ship, each night, inspecting every weathered part. A fading heartbeat of a life once lived. He could no longer think about that day. That time. He felt more ghost than man at this point. That was why it was so surprising when Rogue gazed down at the ballroom below and suddenly found himself transfixed. There was a man in the middle of that dancefloor. A gorgeous man. But this wasn't just shallow attraction. There was an energy to the man. An unfiltered joy. Something Rogue instantly knew he wanted to be close to.

There's minor dialogue changes, as there usually are.

'You know, I can help you,' the man went on. 'Trouble, I am good at.' It was then that Rogue emotionally left his body and starting panicking a good 50 feet above the scene playout out below. Was this man handsome? Yes. Was there a bit of chemistry here? Yes. Did the man smell surprisingly nice for someone from 1813? Absolutely.

Instead of going outside, Rogue and the Doctor get punch and actually chat together.

Rogue recognised her as the woman the Doctor had been spinning joyfully across the dancefloor. "You okay?" the Doctor said, concerned. "Yeah. Just, avoiding engagement." She noticed Rogue. "So you found a scandal, then?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her as if to say - you behave! - but she just laughed and rushed off down a corridor. Rogue watched it all play out, intrigued. So his dance partner does know him then. But how well? The Doctor turned back and looked into Rogue's eyes, apparently noticing his puzzled expression. "Don't trouble yourself, love; she won't need me till there's screaming, or smoke, or both. Or Goblins. Right now, I'm all yours." Rogue nodded. Okay, Goblins - interesting - but the Doctor could just be a fan of fairytales.

Rogue imagines conversations with Art sometimes, and in this case, Art is encouraging Rogue to flirt with the Doctor. "The fantastical joy of dead boyfriend imagination theatre."

Usually, the imaginary conversations Rogue had with him were when he was alone in the ship but in moments of crisis sometimes, he would imagine him, a life raft in a sea of social interaction nightmares. "Would you let go, for a second. Flirt back. Ask him about his favourite paintings, the wonders of the universe." Rogue looked at Art. "He's from 1813." Art laughed. "Okay, well ask him about the wonders of lawn bowls then, who cares." Rogue sighed. "It was always so easy with you. Why can't it be easy with anyone else?" Art gave him a knowing smile. "You gotta be willing to let it be easy." He gestured back to the Doctor. "Now, come on, you can't just bat your pretty eyes at him." Rogue looked at Art and batted his eyes. "Oh, I absolutely can." "What are you blinking at?" the Doctor asked, intrigued, and Rogue found himself snapped out of his daydream and back into reality. Rogue apologised. "Sorry. A ghost."

The Doctor continued to sip. "You know, I think it's kiwi. No, they aren't here for another century. So what are the green bits?" Immediately, Rogue let go of his fleeting feelings of enjoyment and replaced them with cold resolve. How could the Doctor know something like that? He talked about the present and future like they were all the same to him. No, Rogue had found his bounty and it was time to get back to work. The manor was too busy, too full of guests. He needed a safer place to capture him. Somewhere he could get him alone. "Why don't we continue this conversation in the garden?" Rogue said, a flicker of mischievousness in his eyes. The Doctor laughed. "Fast mover, let's go."

The dialogue confirms again and again that they are SO FUCKING THIRSTY FOR EACH OTHER THE ENTIRE TIME. Besties, please.

He looked back at Rogue, walking, brooding (of course), and had to remind himself that this was an interrogation, not a date. "I love these old skies. Ripe with constellations being found and named." He gestured above, pointing out his favourite constellations. "The bear, the ram ... the poop-deck." "The romance of the night sky," Rogue replied sardonically as he gave the Doctor an oh really look. That stare of his. The Doctor laughed. "Don't blame me! De Lacaille chose them! Great astronomer, bad with names." Then he smiled cheekily. "But if it's romance you're after? He also named those stars there the pump, the chisel, and Norma." Okay, he was flirting now. Ruby would be furious with him if this silly side quest was what got him killed. "Not what I'm after," replied Rogue, his tone back to matter-of-fact but his face blushing a little.

Rogue made the gun himself!

"Keep moving," Rogue replied languidly. Another day at the office for this guy. The Doctor turned his head back to check on the glowing chamber of the blaster. "Is that a glo-stick?" He knew he had said something good because he got the biggest reaction from Rogue yet, hearing him grunt then look immediately offended. "Glo-stick? I made this!" Rogue bit back. Okay, we have an ego here and apparently an inventor, thought the Doctor. That's- "Cute," he said, which only spurred on Rogue. "It's not cute, it's a disseminator. It's very complicated." "Like its owner." The Doctor grinned. He figured if he was going to get killed, he might as well enjoy himself.

Their ship is named the Yossarian.

You can tell a lot about a person by the ship they fly in, thought the Doctor. It's home away from home. Which explained why he was shaken by what he say. Granted, he had made some assumptions about Rogue, but this dimly lit and cluttered space was not what he had expected. It was an absolute mishmash of tech, half-made projects, tools and strange-looking things in piles or cages. It looked and smelt like a mechanic's workshop. In the corner was a cockpit for flying, pretty much hidden behind a stack of metal toolboxes and a hammock slung in the corner, he assumed for sleeping but perhaps eating as well? Oh, Rogue, he thought. What happened, love?

The mess aside, the make of the ship did not surprise. It was an old asteroid hawk from the 50-56, often sold on the cheap in many star systems. In anyone's ship was a shed, this was the one. He looked across the console, trying to see if there might be anything useful to help him escape or at the very least steer the conversation towards suggesting Rogue should get a broom. [...] On the console was an Ood translation sphere, plugged into the ship's controls. It would allow Rogue to understand the local languages wherever he travelled, but the Doctor's attention was taken more by the can of unfinished Gurgle balanced dangerously on top. It was a dusty can. Left there a long time ago.

The spaceship scene is very similar, just tiny differences. Although it confirmed that the Doctor has played D&D, specifically with the Paternoster gang, and that Strax played a bard with a beautiful singing voice.

The Doctor also thinks about Fourteen, thinking that he likes him and hopes he's living his best life right now.

Different past selves of the Doctor, different genders and ages, all projected on top of his current form. Right now, standing in the middle of the Yossarian, he was revealing his true heart. His power. His strength. His undeniable wonder. The Doctor looked from the scan back at Rogue, right in the eye. "I am not a Chuldur. I am something much older and far more powerful. I am a Lord of Time from the lost and fallen planet of Gallifrey." He took a deep breath. "Now, let me go, Bounty Hunter. We have work to do." Rogue just started in awe, taking in the Doctor, all of them. "You're beautiful," he said.

And then you get a long lovely flashback to Art and Rogue having a romantic dinner. (And I would just like to say that I 100% called the Artificer thing.)

"You are so stubborn!" Art said, lowering his spoon. "I told you not to put more chilli powder in, yet here we are." Rogue laughed. "Look, I tried really hard to make us this terrible meal." "Now, hold the phone, I did not say this was terrible, I just said you deliberately ignored my advice." "Unwanted advice," Rogue replied. As he took another mouthful, a tear started to form in his eye. The stew was too hot, but he was never going to let Art know that. "I can see you crying," Art said. "There's a literal tear, rolling down your face." Rogue looked at him, faux dramatic. "I'm just feeling really emotional about my chair over there, that you still haven't fixed. Art laughed. "Oh it's your chair now, is it?" Rogue smiled and wiped away the tear he had pretended was not there with his sleeve. He continued to look around the ship, at the home he and Art had made together. Art had built everything on the Yossarian and nearly every gadget Rogue used on the missions. The emphasis on 'nearly' was because Rogue had foolishly attempted to build a few of his own. It was a learning curve for him. A steep one. Where Rogue had charm in spades, Art had a talent for turning a kitchen spoon into a deadly laser ray. He could do anything. The name Art had also come from Dungeons & Dragons, a shared pastime and passion between them both. Art was short for Artificer; this was a class in the game known for their invention and incredible ability to see the full potential in objects, and it suited Art to a tee. Rogue could never pin down exactly when the nicknames had started. Like so many things when you've been with someone for a very long time, it had begun as a cute reference, but then the nicknames just became everyday for them until, eventually, the old names just didn't fit any more. They were just Rogue and Art to each other. And that suited them both fine.

"You know, I could go undercover next time," Art said. "Oh yeah," Rogue said playfully. "Last time we tried that, you gave someone our actual contact details." "We got on! An alias shouldn't prevent an actual friendship." Rogue nodded. He got up, went round the console and put his arms around Art, nuzzling into his shoulder. "I guess it's how I met you," he said, and the pair of them laughed. Art smelt like a warm fire. He was taller than Rogue, only by a bit, but it meant he looked up to him slightly, which was a bit of a novelty for Rogue, who was usually the tallest in the room. He took in Art's face: every line, pore, the stubble, the striking, hazel eyes. Art looked back down at Rogue, and it looked as if he was about to say something deeply profound or romantic. "So, is this your apology for dinner?" Rogue leant in closer. "Oh, never," he murmured.

Oh also, Rogue hadn't meant to give the Doctor that name.

"Does 'not a Lord' have a name?" "Rogue." Immediately, Rogue panicked. It wasn't his actual name - Rogue was the name that Art had given him - but it would do fine. For now. [.....] "You ready for this, Rogue?" It was funny hearing someone else call him that, but his name sounded good being said by the Doctor. Rogue liked it. It fitted.

Also Rogue "immediately recalled a quite complicated winter with Houdini". Apparently him and the Doctor has an ex in common.

They explain what happened to the gun.

"Now, trap, please." Rogue handed it over but immediately regretted doing this so willingly. Sure, this man's ship was brilliant. But the trap, that was his. "And your disseminator?" "Only if you handle it carefully," said Rogue, keeping his eyes locked on the Doctor, worried what the plan could be for his precious creation. The Doctor took it calmly. Then he snapped the disseminator in half. "Hey!" Rogue shouted. "Do you want to save everyone or not? Look, watch me." And Rogue did, as the Doctor moved some parts from the disseminator into Rogue's trap, then attached it to the TARDIS, using cables. Rogue found himself fighting not to remember the hours of work that building the disseminator had taken. He had to let this go. "Okay, past me the hyperdyne link," said the Doctor. "Blue wire, under the switch, there." Rogue did as he was told, eager to see exactly what new monstrosity the Doctor had turned his favourite gadget into. The Doctor grabbed the cable and plugged it into the newly upgraded trap. It sizzled slightly. "I can't believe you broke my stuff!" Rogue complained. The Doctor stopped what he was doing and looked at him, dead serious. "Whatever the Chuldur have done, I can't let you kill them. I also can't let them kill others. So, instead, we'll send them to a random, barren dimension. No one to hurt there and no way back." "Random? So I can't trace them," Rogue protested. The Doctor just nodded as the trap continued to whirr behind them. "Don't pout too much. When we're not trying to kill each other, we're a good team."

"You know, you don't have to stay a bounty hunter. You could travel with me. Oh the worlds I could show you, Rogue." "And what if I like what I do?" Rogue got the feeling that when people met the Doctor, they would often uproot everything for him. Why should that always be the case? Rogue had just as much to offer in adventure.

"I'd like that." Rogue felt that swell in his chest, that nervous energy as he took another step towards him. He was very aware that their faces were almost touching. It would only take one of them to lean in a bit closer, and they were already so close, so close that they could almost-- Ping! The console in the TARDIS chimed. "The trap is ready," the Doctor said, and the moment was gone. He moved back to the console as Rogue stood there, recovering. He could hear the Doctor speaking down at the console, but he barely registered what he was saying. He just nodded, lost. What was he getting himself into?

And then I went ahead and typed up the entire chapter 19, because the whole thing is an imaginary letter from Art to Rogue.

Chapter 19 A Letter to Rogue Dear Rogue It feels silly, writing you this letter, but I hope it finds you. So we're clear too, I don't want this as a Please don't mourn for me or some other such nonsense. Honestly, I am quite irritated that it wasn't you that died... Would I say that? I suppose. Whatever helps your imagination. I know you've likely dreamt up and read this letter many times. I fully understand why; I was good chat. However, if only for your negotiation skills, I hope you've made at least one friend since my passing. Imaginary letters from dead boyfriends can't be your only form of communication. Of course, if the person reading this is his only friend then I gleefully warn you: Rogue is stubborn. He says he will clean that particular corner of the ship, but I promise you he won't. I spent ten years asking and I could have put that time into something actually productive. I could have learned at least five more languages in the time I would have saved. So take my advice. Give in to this reality. Admit defeat. It will never happen. A few other things to note: his snoring can and will wake up the most dangerous animals, and for some reason - despite eating pretty much everything - bread with any kind of seeds or olives in is an absolute no. I agree, it's a real failing on his part. Apart from this, however, what you will find is a great man who I loved with every part of my soul. Please give him a hug from me and do not name a child or dog in my memory when you move in together. A cactus is fine, though. And Rogue, if it is you reading this letter, don't let me worry about you. I did enough of that when I was around and oh, the time I wasted. Don't hide. And please don't go fixing up our ship for ever. I was the mechanic anyway. Live. Talk with everyone. Laugh. Dare to ask someone, 'Is this seat taken?' And, most importantly, don't forget to dance. That's the best part. Yours, Art

So anyway, after that heartbreak, it's back to more action.

"Should we be telling humans?" Rogue asked cautiously, leaning in behind him. The Doctor noticed Ruby's curious expression. "Oh! Ruby 2024 and Emily 1813, this is Rogue, he's a bounty hunter and almost incinerated me." "A mistake he said he was letting go of." Rogue held out his hand to Ruby and Emily, who both went for it at the same time and ended up shaking it together.

"But what does it all mean?" Emily gasped. "Are we all going to die?" The Doctor and Ruby exchanged a look: Who is going to take this? To their surprise, Rogue stepped up. "There's a creature from another planet at this party," he said. "Highly dangerous, it can look like anyone it's killed and if it gets you ---" He looked at her, dead serious. "It'll drain your life in a second." Emily's eyes widened and she hurriedly began to fan herself, presumably as an alternative to fainting. "We need to work on your people skills," the Doctor said as Ruby put her arm around Emily, trying to calm her. "Now, let's find our Duchess!" He looked over at Rogue, exhilarated. This was one hell of a first date.

The Doctor could already feel people starting to turn and whisper but his focus wasn't on that. All he was thinking about was Rogue. Rogue's hand on his shoulder, his chest. Rogue's eyes locked with his as the pair of them turned and twirled across the floor.

"We need to have a big fight so I can storm off alone and draw her to us," the Doctor said, spinning Rogue away from him. "Can't I storm off alone?" said Rogue. "I would rather not talk in front of this many people." "Oh, come on, Rogue," said the Doctor. "I'm sure you talk to lots of people. Your bounties for a start." He gave his hand a little squeeze and whispered, "I believe in you." "Doctor, please!" Rogue protested. He was too late. The Doctor pulled away from him and gasped. "How dare you, my Lord!" he shouted. He was incredibly pleased to hear the music stop immediately, the crowd turning to stare. It was so deliciously dramatic. "You would ask me to give up my title, my fortune -" he chewed up every word, really hamming it up - "but what future can you promise me?" Rogue didn't say a word back. He just looked at him pleadingly and stuttered slightly. "Say anything," the Doctor whispered, then raised his voice again. "Tell me what your heart wants, or I shall turn my back on you for ever." By way of illustration, he literally did turn his back on Rogue. He looked at the crowd, hearing nothing but silence behind him. Then a gasp. The Doctor turned and faced Rogue again, who was now down on one knee. He had pulled off a ring from his finger and was holding it up to him. Rogue was proposing. Fast mover indeed. The Doctor knew this was a moment of fun, for the drama. Despite that, he couldn't stop a jolt of panic. "Sorry... I can't," the Doctor said. He raced out of the ballroom, and Rogue chased after him.

The worlds I could show you. That's what the Doctor had said to him in the TARDIS. A phrase that was playing over and over in his head. Rogue looked over and saw the Doctor, waiting for him, hidden behind a hedge. He felt a rush of excitement as he tried to focus. He'd not been asking the Doctor for marriage, but for some simple commitment. A sign he could stay longer than this one adventure. To see those worlds he'd promised. At least for a little while. Now he couldn't stop wondering how much of their connection was real and how much had been for show.

To escape the Chuldur, Rogue and the Doctor dive into the lake, where Rogue finds the body of the real Lord Barton. He almost panics and has to go back up, but the Doctor takes his hand and calms him down, so they can stay hidden long enough.

They get out of the lake soaking wet, and the Doctor makes a comment about "Ruby was right, this is a bit Mr. Darcy."

Then there's a wonderful additional scene, where Rogue is initially refusing to help because it's too dangerous, and he's too scared after having lost Art.

He had expected one Chuldur, that was the contract. Not a family. He'd counted at least five. These were very bad odds. "I'm not being paid enough for this." "Paid or not, people have died." The Doctor had his sonic screwdriver out and he was fiddling with the waterlogged trap while they walked. Rogue thought he was as focused on fixing machines as Art had been. Annoyingly, both of them had the ability to do that and argue at the same time. "We go back there, we'll die," Rogue insisted. "So you'll just walk away?" Rogue stopped.

Rogue had read about family of Chuldur. One that had destroyed every place it visited, leaving no survivors. In the past, he would have dived headlong into this kind of danger without batting an eyelid. He loved the rush of adrenalin and he had that stubborn will to reach his target, whatever it took. Then he had suffered the cost. The Doctor was wrong. He wouldn't just walk away from all this. He'd run. "There's too many. It's not my problem." Rogue quickened his pace away from the manor and towards the Yossarian. This time, the Doctor did not follow him. He had stopped still, determined not to take another step. Rogue reluctantly stopped too and turned back to face him. "If it's not our problem, whose is it?" The Doctor's voice was cold, angry. "Who do you think will help these people if we don't? You're here. You've seen what they're doing. You are choosing not to care." In the dark garden, Rogue stood defiantly across from the Doctor, his breath shallow and fast. He'd hit a nerve. Rogue had had years of practice at not caring and didn't want to change now. The Doctor was calm in comparison, determined and immovable. Rogue knew that if he chose to walk away now, he would be walking away alone.

Rogue agrees to help, but is still scared and trying to convince the Doctor to leave with him, and WEEHH GUYS.

The Doctor was about to clamber through when Rogue reached for his hand. "Are you sure?" Rogue asked, his voice soft. They were facing beings that had destroyed cities, taken countless lives. How could the two of them stop such creatures? And with one shot? He felt a deep ache in his chest; he couldn't lose someone else. Rogue looked pleadingly at the Doctor. If he gave himself enough time and distance, he could learn to forget his troubles and bury his guilt. He could stop himself from caring. Rogue had done it before. He could do it again. He could show the Doctor how. "We could go anywhere," he said. "I'm going in here," replied the Doctor. Not a waver in his voice, not a second of doubt. Rogue looked into the Doctor's eyes and knew that he would never stop caring. Could never stop wanting to help, to fight, to go on. That was who he was. The Doctor let go of Rogue's hand and climbed in through the window, and Rogue did what he knew he would do for ever. Follow him.

Absolutely unhinged content, thanks Kate and Briony. Rogue wanting to leave makes his ultimate sacrifice SO MUCH MORE INTENSE.

When the Doctor finds out about Ruby, he almost lunges himself at the Chuldur, and Rogue has to pull him back so they can remain hidden.

And then, absolutely heartbreakingly, as the Doctor tries to find some other solution for maybe bringing Ruby back:

He was desperate, and Rogue's silence gave him every answer he didn't want. Rogue slowly opened his arms, and the Doctor fell into them and sobbed. "I'm sorry," Rogue said over and over.

The Doctor absolutely hams his speech up, and there's a minor change as Rogue is there to help him set up the triform trap. (Emily, like a fool, just accidentally walks straight into the trap!)

And then we reach the final sacrifice.

Seven… Rogue didn't want to push him, but they were running out of time. "They'll kill us, then everyone here. They'll destroy this world.' Six… Rogue was next to the Doctor now. He could hear him breathing hard. "And you know that, you absolutely know that." All that torment was wrapped so tight around his chest that Rogue could feel his heaviness, his dread. "So, can you do it? Can you lose your friend to save the world?" Five… The Doctor started to cry. "No." "I know." Rogue smiled at the kind, brilliant, amazing man in front of him. Four… Then he stepped forward and wrapped the Doctor in his arms and kissed him. It was a soft, passionate kiss, full of promise. The moment was tender. Romantic. It was theirs. Three… Rogue stepped back and gave the Doctor one last smile, revealing he had taken the trigger device from him. Then he turned quickly and ran full pelt into the trap. Two… It flicked on and off as the Chuldur tried to scramble to the edges. Emily moved a step towards Ruby, grabbing at her as Rogue barrelled in. He knocked Emily to the trap floor, causing Ruby to be thrown free. Only one shoe left behind. One… Rogue looked down at his feet inside the glowing triangle and back up to the Doctor. He was now trapped with the Chuldur, but he was not afraid. Rogue could not have let the Doctor say goodbye to the person he was closest to. He knew that pain too well to let the Doctor hold it, even for a second. And so he'd known the decision he had to make. He couldn't lose anyone else. But he was ready to be the one who was lost. Zero. "Find me," Rogue said as he pressed send. The patch of triangular floor turned jet black, as the Chuldur started to scream and fall. Rogue caught a last glimpse of the Doctor before he dropped down into the darkness of the Transport Gate. As he fell, his mind had one, clear thought. Worth every second.

The rest goes about as it does in the episode. We don't get the Doctor's immediate reaction to the loss. But as Ruby hugs him, "The Doctor leant into it and let himself feel what he had buried for a moment. Not all of it but just enough to carry on with the day."

And then of course he discovers the ring in his pocket and he puts it on. "A little piece of Rogue to go with him."

And you'd think that would be the end, but there is ONE MORE CHAPTER, which I'm just gonna quote in its entirety, because it's insane, you guys.

Chapter 33 The Forgotten Place A howl in the darkness. The wind growled ferociously around a barren and abandoned planet, far out in the forgotten reaches of space. Giant grey rocks covered the surface. As the wind hit them, charcoal-sand blasted up, creating sandstorms wherever it hit. This was the only movement on the surface and, at first glance, it would have seemed the only sign of life. But if you looked more closely, there was a light. From the mouth of a cave, the bright glow of a campfire burned through the grey. Inside, sat a man. Rogue. He was trying to keep warm. Rogue had been there for what felt like months. The cave had been a saviour, sheltering him from the environment but also from the enemies sent here with him. He had lost them, at least for now. As time passed in the cave, any concept of a day had folded in on itself. Rogue kept his mind busy with the simple tasks of staying alive: build the fire, watch the fire, build the fire again. Rinse, repeat. Thankfully, there was some food to be found on this planet - mainly winged dalnats and other small cave-dwelling creatures. But they were not enough. Rogue knew that if the cold didn't get him, starvation would. What this planet didn't know, however, was that Rogue could not be broken so easily. He had made a promise to himself. He had agreed that he wasn't going to be lost any more. Because Rogue had realised he was worth finding. As the fire began to die, Rogue thought of the man he had come here for. The magnificent being who was beyond any comprehension of existence. The one known to most as the Doctor. Of all the timelines they could both have inhabited, Rogue was grateful that their eyes had met on this one. What a great surprise that had been from the universe. Yes, right now, he was lonely, but time wasn't linear, and this was his favourite thing about it. Rogue was sitting in this cave, but he was also walking with the Doctor in the garden, he was laughing with Art in the Yossarian, he was falling from a building, he was running from one memory of his life to another. All at once. Rogue was in the Doctor's arms, spinning around and around, for ever.

So there it is. Absolutely gorgeous book.

There's a bunch of stuff I didn't include, a bunch of extra stuff about the Chuldur. But also the first adventure with Art, and a bunch of extra minor stuff.

So please please do get the book if you can!

[radicalcircuit]

I'm sure someone has made a design for Metal in SATBK before during the last 10+ years since its release. I just haven't been actively looking for them. So I saw the potential in making one myself, as well as making a short comic to go along side it (which I took way too long to draw).

I would imagine this will take place as a post main-game stuff, where which Sonic will have to take up the mantle of being king for a while before going home.

So there's an actual sword made from a scythe called a scythe sword, and given that Metal was drawn as the Grimm Reaper at some point I say it was an easy pass when designing one for him.

It would make sense and true to the game's themeing to have him stay dead after the battle, but making him Sonic's successor sounds like a good redemption arc in contrast to regular Metal.

Yeah I did not decide what to name Metal's counterpart, given that I am horrible with names, and I'm not too caught up with Arthurian legend either. But Black Knight itself is following the surface level of it and doing their own thing so I shouldn't care too much on being too accurate with it.

Actually, I've been day dreaming Black Knight being remade into an RPG and I think it would work well as one. Shoving in Galahad and Lamorak into a new game plus story is a great way to have them in it without needing to place them in mini-games.

Version without the smoke is under cut.

Also endure my suffering.

[nimrochan]

I don’t think that my few handfuls of followers on various social media accounts realize that I’m an American-Israeli. I’ve been watching things unfold and staying silent for the most part. I know it’s very easy to have an opinion from the comfort and safety of my home, but too many people are also echoing online opinions without enough information or thought behind them. Although it’s fair to say that I’m biased, I think it’s important to view conflicts from multiple perspectives. Including and especially from someone from the actual region/culture that everyone outside of it suddenly has an opinion on. And I think I’m ready to say what I wanted to say:

Why aren’t people more angry with Hamas?

I’ve spent some childhood years in Israel. Every week on the news was another incident - a bus b*mbing, a car b*mbing, a s*icide b*mber… I remember being terrified of getting on buses, or going to public places. I remember soldiers standing at the entrance of every mall, and I remember hearing how one soldier died while stopping a s*icide b*mber at a mall entrance - both were women in their early 20’s. Until today my father tells me to avoid crowded places, and to always stand in a corner with my back on the wall to observe my surroundings.

When I moved to America I had moved on from these memories and didn’t really think about them. But the attacks never stopped. For DECADES. And over the last few years I did notice that very few non-Jewish Americans were aware of what life is like in Israel - having a barrage of rockets rain on you every once in a while. Having alerts to warn you to head to the nearest shelter. Israel has the protection of the Iron Dome. But it’s not perfect, and some rockets do hit their targets. Also, you know, maybe people shouldn’t be firing rockets unprovoked into another country?? (Don’t even get me started on Hezbollah, too.) No one bats an eye if other countries randomly shoot rockets into Israel, but as soon as Israel retaliates to try destroying the area where rockets come from, everyone comes out of the woodwork to condemn them.

Some of my American family members have an app that dings every time rockets are fired into Israel. I could never bring myself to download it. The number of dings drives me crazy.

In fact, if you ever wanted to buy a piece of jewelry or sculpture made of Hamas rockets, there are businesses upcycling them.

If you’re not from Israel, I just want you to imagine the number of rockets that regularly have to come into your country for any rockets-to-products businesses to even exist. For reasons beyond my comprehension, a lot of political parties in America want to defund the Iron Dome, a system designed solely for defense. But I digress.

Gazans never had an Iron Dome and yet Hamas gives no regard to the lives of their own people when they fire openly from homes, schools, hospitals. When they hide hostages and weapons in heavily populated areas.

I remember frantically texting and calling people on 10/07 to see if any of my family members were harmed or killed in the attack. All while anti-Zionists already rallied on social media to offer no sympathy and blame the attack on the Jews on, the Jews. Right. Luckily, whatever close family I had in the area was far away enough from the attack that they were spared, and they soon evacuated. My second cousin and her kids were only spared because they happened to be away, but their home was in ashes and their friends and neighbors were dead.

Israel is a small and close-knit country. I don't have words to describe how we grieved. 1200 innocent civilians sl*ughtered for no reason. That number is just a little under half of the number of deaths on 9/11, and it was done without the help of airplanes, just men running around killing people. The youngest one was 14 hours old. This is the largest m*rder of Jews since the Holocaust. I won’t even go into detail about how some of their bodies were mutilated because it’s too horrific for me to want to type it out. In fact I left the most disturbing footage out of this post. I had been avoiding seeing the footage of Shani Louk, but it was shown at the exhibit too and I’ll never be able to forget it for as long as I live. It made me sick to my stomach.

Look at the pictures. Look at all those shoes. The last time I felt such powerful emotion staring at shoes was at a Holocaust museum. A lot of item displays included their owners’ smart phones showing their final videos on a loop. The people who attend the Nova festival tend to be laid-back, free spirits. They show up covered in glitter and wearing fairy-wings, waving rainbow flags. They lived next to Gaza because they felt safe there, and they often supported Palestinians. Listen to the unhindered joy in the voice of the man calling his father to tell him he had m*rdered ten Jews. One of the most disgusting parts of this is the fact that people protested outside this exhibit as well.

When I brought myself to browse social media again, over and over I saw posts about how “they deserved it” and “they had it coming.” The same people, the same self-proclaimed “feminists” who would shared the #MeToo and #YesAllWomen hashtags, people with immensely large followings, were now having no sympathy for the Israeli women who were r*ped, basically saying “she asked for it.” People defending and excusing Hamas because they “weren’t created in a vacuum.” When did we start excusing r*pe and t*rrorism for ANY reason? On that note, don’t you think Israel’s aggressive defense of itself also stems from a historical reason, shaped by outside forces?

And then there are many voices still expressing plain denial! This was the most well-documented t*rrorist attack in history, because the attackers filmed it with pride, and yet over and over I also saw people posting about how “it never happened,” “they would never do that,” and how these t*rrorists were just “resistance fighters” with propaganda crafted to “make them look bad.”

In my home state of New York, I saw people marching wearing same types of scarves that these “resistance fighters” wore to commit crimes against humanity so recently, tearing down posters of Israeli hostages instead of hanging their own posters on innocent killed Gazans and sharing in the grief.

I see people over and over calling Israelis “white colonists,” when in fact MOST OF THEM ARE BROWN, dark-skinned just like their neighbors (if I showed you photos of my family in Israel, you'd be surprised to learn they aren't Arabic). We are an ethnic minority on this planet and in every country except Israel, but antisemites love to flip the script and paint us as majority white colonizer oppressors. When the majority of Americans calling for the abolishment of Israel are themselves actually living on colonized land (I mean, really?) When most of North Africa has been colonized by Arab populations, yet everyone seems to conveniently forget that. Most alarmingly, I see people marching the streets and praising Hamas and the actual 10/07 attacks.

These same people probably could never spot Gaza on a map before 10/07. Where were they for the Chinese Uyghurs? Where were they for the mass murdered Syrians? For Afghans left at the mercy of the Taliban? For Iraqis killed after 9/11? For Darfur? Because no news unless Jews, right? How can you say you care about Muslims and then praise Hamas? How can you be Pro-Palestine and Pro-Hamas at the same time?! There is a huge, sick problem in America when college students here are applauded by overseas t*rrorist leaders on goddamn Twitter.

And these “Queers for Palestine”- where is the support for the gayest, most feminist, and most liberal country in the Middle East? (Go ahead and look up which country in the Middle East holds annual Pride Parades.) Where is the support for the millions of Arab-Israelis and other non-Jews who call Israel their home? Where is the support for the Arabs and non-Jews also killed on 10/07? Where are the feminists using their voices to demand Hamas return the hostages that are very likely being r*ped as I type this?

I feel like I’m going crazy telling people that there is a lot of fake news and propaganda being spread by Hamas and eaten up by the West. I am not the kind of person to use the phrase “fake news.” But when I see some extreme footage allegedly showing the IDF doing something especially horrible, I count the hours or days before the news is silently retracted because it turned out to be incorrect. Propaganda against Jews has seeped so far into gentile culture over the decades that people don't even realize it. It’s become sickeningly casual and normalized in all kinds of circles. Hell, I don’t even know who to vote for or who secretly wants me dead - the left side with the pro-Hamas crowd or the right side with their white supermacists .

No, I am not denying that a lot of innocent Gazans are dying horrific deaths. When I see footage of injured Palestinian children, I don’t look away and pretend it doesn’t happen, because it does. But what about Hamas dressing up as civilians, firing weapons among civilians, and continuing to hide the hostages??? What about the 15-17 year old brainwashed children marching with guns? When is enough enough? You know which army doesn’t hide in civilian clothing, or recruit children, or parade naked dead women around after they’ve killed them?? Take a guess.

War is fucking awful. And I'm not trying to justify it, just trying to articulate why this is such a clusterfuck of a situation. Someone please name any other country that wouldn’t retaliate and demand their hostages back after such an ugly, unprovoked attack. Someone please explain to me why the hatred is so intense and out of proportion. Again, DECADES of attacks. Someone please tell me what should be done - because if you do nothing, then 10/07 happens over and over and over again. Israelis are all living, breathing people with families just like Gazan civilians are. Stop dehumanizing us.

Why is it that after the Ukraine-Russia war started, when most westerners were on Ukraine’s side (including myself so don’t jump down my throat), that individual Russians living in western countries did not feel threatened the way individual Jews are being threatened? That war actually seems a way more black-and-white situation to me. Why did the Israeli singer for Eurovision need presidential-level protection from the mob gathered outside her hotel? Why did the other contestants continually insult her? You think every single Jew on the planet has a say in what happens in Israel?

Why am I going on social media to dumb down, only to see posts like “Reblog to increase IDF soldier s*icides” and “Like to # CeaseFire” and “From the river to the sea” (that expression basically means to promote the killing of all Israelis, I don’t care how you look at it). Why are you trying to call a cease fire with t*rrorists who are known to constantly break ceasefire, then make a surprised Pikachu face when they do it again?

Anti-Zionism is a clever cover for anti-semitism. The very definition of Zionism is the pursuit of an independent Jewish state (of which there is currently only ONE - for comparison, there are 57 Muslim countries). A lot of people don’t even know what Zionism is when they call themselves Anti-Zionist. And if you do? Most Jews are Zionist. You can’t separate semitism from Zionism to make yourself feel better. Israel is such a tiny country, it takes 6 hours to drive end-to-end across the longest part. While all over the world, synagogues are being threatened, Jewish graveyards are being vandalized, and Jews are being attacked, you are absolutely telling me and my people that we don’t deserve a safe space. And yes, Jews are indigenous to the Middle East just like Arabs are.

How do people rally against discrimination, but in the same breath act like discrimination towards Jews doesn’t count? You can’t reason your way out of it. You do not get to tell me what is and isn’t antisemitic.

Hamas does NOT give a damn about the actual land that Jews are living on. Hamas’s ultimate goal is to kill all Jews (it's LITERALLY spelled out in their government charter), is that what people want?? And even if you deny it, you think you could theoretically move all 8 million Jews out of Israel to where exactly?

You think other countries want to welcome a mass migration of 8 million Jews? (Remember why Jews left in the first place?) You want literal t*rrorists to have a stronger foothold in the Middle East?

Why do the surrounding countries condemn Israel, yet not step up to help Gazans either? Why won’t they open up their borders?

I’m sick and tired of people who have zero stake in the Middle East and very little knowledge just jumping on the bandwagon and virtue-signaling like it’s some clear black-and-white situation when it’s not. And then having the nerve to lecture ME. I’m angry and I’m frustrated.

Bring them the fuck home.

[shadow4-1]

You're Not My Boyfriend! - Crazy!Soap x Reader Imagine (SFW)

[I just found out that my best friend of 10 years thinks we're dating (even tho he knows I'm married and have only ever referred to him as a friend - albeit my best friend). Idk what mental hoops he had to jump through to get to this point. Instead of dwelling on this interpersonal fact, I'm going to distract myself with a imagine on why Soap would most certainly act with the same kind of crazy.]

The two of you crossed paths for the first time because you're someone who works a support role for the 141 (ie. the medical/technical fields). You're not in the 141, in fact, you rarely see them because you're too busy with your own duties behind the scenes. You know they're important/a big deal because your superiors tell you so, but it's not like you really care. You don't deal with them enough to.

When you finally crossed paths with Soap, you find all of the team a bit brutish. You don't really like talking to them, and if you have to, you keep it curt. Soap is the one who actually tries to chat you up. You still keep up the same behavior because no thanks. He smiles too wide, and he doesn't blink enough. You're 95% sure all of these men are psychopaths.

A few weeks go by, and you completely forget about him. It isn't until flowers and chocolates and teddy bears with your name on it start showing up. The same note is always inside: Can't wait to see you again. Your stomach flips because you haven't been on a date in a couple years. All of your coworkers think you finally have a new significant other. They coo over the gifts and talk behind your back about how someone like you doesn't deserve the effort. You don't have it in yourself to speak up nor would it really matter.

You throw yourself into your work to distract yourself from the gossip. You tear through assignments like it's no one's business. Eventually, your productivity is noticed by Laswell. Unbeknownst to you, she does a background check on you. She finds out you've already been noticed by the 141 and have been receiving gifts from a particular member. She's half tempted to tell you but decides against it. She knows this won't end well either way. Laswell decides to leave you be, but manages to pull some strings to get you a well-deserved promotion.

The gifts stop for a few months but start up again sporadically. Rumors start about how the timing of the gifts matches up with the 141 deployments. Someone on the team has taken a liking to you. You roll your eyes at them, and you don't want to believe them. Those meatheads from the 141? One of them likes you when they've got dozens of other pretty young things working in their peripherals? Ha, likely story. The person actually sending you the gifts is probably the old janitor. After all, chivalry is so dead nowadays.

The gifts keep coming even as you enjoy your new promotion. The notes start to change, but they continue to remain anonymous. You start to accept that your favorite flowers are being sent from a 141 member. You have to see them more often, thanks to your new post. It doesn't take you long to figure out which man has been trying to capture your attention. God, why does it always have to be the creepy ones?

He's too touchy and too insensitive, and he's loud and makes you feel small. You want him to leave every time you have to be in the room with the team. Why couldn't it have been the Captain or the maniac in black? Why does it have to be the Scottish one who won't shut up?

You learn (against your will) that his name is John "Johnny/Soap" MacTavish, he's single and ready to mingle, he loves his mum and his sisters and he thinks you're "bangin" (whatever that means). It's so obvious he's got a crush on you, but you desperately try to play it off. He's a puppy, and all you have to do is wait for him to grow up and realize it's never going to happen.

One night, you decide to head out with your coworkers for drinks. And lo and behold, guess who dragged his whole team out to the same bar? You're understandably pissed off, but you can't bear to tell Soap off in front of everyone. It's probably the biggest mistake of your life.

He physically sweeps you off your feet and refers to you as his "bestest girl". Despite how annoying he is, his good mood seems to run off on everyone...including you. He buys you drinks, and you keep him at a respectable arms length. Despite how much you really don't like him that way, you have to start admitting he's got a weird charm to him.

You make him repeat it back to you. He seems all too happy to agree with you.

Later on in the night, you take him off to the side. You explain to him clearly that the two of you are friends. Only friends. You'll never be more than that. But, he's a good guy, and if he needs someone to talk to, you're down to be friends.

"Yes, Bonnie. We're only friends."

With a sigh, you slap his shoulder and tell him to buy you another drink.

Weeks drag on. The romantic gifts stop, but the gifts keep coming. At first, it's nothing you'd really bat an eye over from a good friend. It's Scottish hot chocolate tablets that he swears you have to try. It's CDs of his favorite bands because your taste in music should be broadened! It's books and bags and stupid little trinkets to personalize your desk.

You can't believe you find yourself humoring him, but you do. After all, it seemed like his crush on you disappeared. You get him weird snacks and make him mixtapes for his longer missions. Always under the guise as a treat from the rest of the staff, you send care packages if you can. Johnny calls you out on it but you feign ignorance. He's your friend. You'd actually hate to know he's slogging around in mud, hungry and alone.

That sounds like pure hell.

"Y' git used to it, Bonnie."

Eventually, he suggests spending time outside of work. He mentions he'd gotten a new gaming console you'd been dying to have yourself. That night, the two of you sit comfortably side by side, trying to kick each other's asses at a video game. When he wims, he leans back and laces his arms beneath his head, grinning and laughing. He looks so proud of himself. A part of you whispers that it's because he'd weaseled his way into your good graces, but you were in too good of a mood to listen to that part of your brain.

Just as you were about to get ready to leave, Johnny stops you. It was late. You should take his bed and get some rest. He'd take you to work in the morning. Despite yourself, you agree. It was late, and you were tired, and the drive back home would be too long. You take off your pants, crawl into his huge bed and pass out.

The next morning was normal. You had an extra uniform in your locker, so you got changed at work. You had gotten a great night's sleep, so you didn't think about your appearance. But apparently, everyone else did.

The gossip began at full force. Someone saw you changing despite the fact you always came into work in uniform. Johnny looked terrible. It was obvious he hadn't gotten great sleep last night. You looked well rested. In fact, you were even glowing! And Johnny had dropped you off, too?

Oh no.

You wanted to address the new rumors, but that's all they were. And even if you did, you were sure it would just backfire. You tried to keep your head down, but one of your best friends (a fellow coworker) came by your desk. Apparently, Johnny was bragging that his bestest friend spent the night over.

You were so mad you tracked him down and pulled him to the side. You whispered angrily at him, chastising him for making it seem like the two of you were an item. You were only friends!

"Yeah, you're m' bestest girl." He shrugged, grinning happily. "N' m' you're bestest boy. We love each other."

The deranged pieces were starting to come together. The way he brushed off the advances of the other girls. The way all of your prospective partners disappeared after getting into it with him. The knowing, almost pitying glances of the 141.

"W-we're friends!" You squeaked. "You're not my boyfriend!"

"Boy friend. Boyfriend. What's th' difference?" Johnny laughed hard, doubling over. "We're together."

After that, you blocked his number and tried to ignore him. Of course, it didn't work. Johnny was relentless. He got new phone numbers to text you. He started sending gifts (this time a mix between the romantic and the mundane). He sent letters of all kinds during deployment. He even sent pictures you were sure would get him in trouble.

You tried so hard to ignore it all until one night, he messaged you on social media.

He was out on a mission again, but he just had to say how he felt:

I can't wait to get home and see you again. I miss you so much. You're one of the only people I can talk to and laugh with. I'm sorry if I made you upset. We should talk about it over dinner. My treat, Bonnie.

You knew better. God, you knew better. But that part of your heart that wanted to trust and love won over. You agreed to talk when he returned, but you made it very clear that it would be a meeting between coworkers, not even friends.

The day eventually came, and the two of you sat across from each other at a too fancy restaurant. There was a dress code, so you had on a nice dress. You were mad from the jump, you couldn't believe you'd let him talk you into this.

He was dressed nicely in a suit, with a bushel of flowers and a medium-sized gift box. He apologized for making you feel uncomfortable. He'd never meant to make you feel that way. He really did see you as his best friend. In his eyes, you were the only person who truly understood him. He let his physical attraction blind him, and for that, he was sorry.

"I'll admit, I did a few bad things against y'." He offered you the box. "I wanna give it all back, wipe the slate clean, love."

Love?

You shakily opened the box and felt bile rise up in the back of your throat. It was pairs of your old panties, missing chapsticks, nail polish, scrunchies, and even a dirty uniform shirt you thought you had lost. The contents of the box had a slightly musky scent that no longer resembled yours. He'd stolen these things and had kept them for a long, long time. Perhaps even before the two of you had become "friends".

You covered your hand with a mouth as you felt like you were getting sick. What the fuck?

"We'll, now tha' everything's been laid bare..."

You watched in shock as a few classical musicians with their instruments came around the table. They encircled you and began playing a romantic piece with sweet vibratos. The guests at other tables started to gasp and point at you. You tried to stand, but John put a hand on your shoulder to keep you sitting. With a voice loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear he began to talk.

"These last couple years you've been my bestest friend, m' bestest girl." He sighed dreamily before getting down onto one knee.

You were mortified. You tried to pull your feet away from him, but he placed a firm hand on your knee. He pulled out a shiny box from his suit pocket. The music hit a peak that made you start to cry from overstimulation. No, no, this couldn't be happening. He's crazy!

"Please, be m' bestest girl forever." He practically pleaded, opening the box to show off a much too large diamond ring. Women at the tables behind you gasped. The music began to stop, but the whine of the violins hurt your head. Tears began to spill down your face.

"Marry me, love."

The entire restaurant went silent.

You could feel dozens upon dozens of eyes on you.

The pressure was too much for you to outright say no.

But you couldn't say yes, either.

You began to sob loudly. You covered your face and tried to hide away from the gaze of the strangers. John shushed you and cooed and pulled you into his arms. You wanted to fight him but his large body shielded you from the petriying public gaze. He rubbed at your back and whispered encouraging words to you. Eventually, he got you to stop blubbering and pulled away from you just enough to look down into your face.

"I love you. N' 've always loved you." He smiled.

You squeaked at the feeling of ice-cold metal being slipped down your middle finger.

You looked down at the ring in shock.

The entire restaurant erupted into claps and whistles and congratulatory whoops.

"N' now we'll be bestest friends forever, love."

[burningvelvet]

more rambling thoughts about wuthering heights now that i've finished my re-read

1 wuthering heights is basically the looney tunes if the looney tunes were goth. 90% of the novel is people arguing, dying, and running around threatening to kill each other, and often all three of those at once.

2 love how it's filled with dark humor. "he's such a cobweb, a pinch would annihilate him" is such a camp thing to say about the terminally ill child you abhor and who you spend weeks trying to set up on dates with your dead lover's child so you can steal her property when your son finally dies. heathcliff lecturing his son on Seduction 101 right in front of cathy 2.0, trying ridiculously to play cupid and compel them to fall in love with each other before giving up and just kidnapping her instead... surely he's the most insane brontë man?

3 i can't remember what i had for dinner last night but nelly dean can remember what the weather was like on any given friday twenty years ago (love her and her snarky comments)

4 love how after nelly finishes telling the story to lockwood she's like "any way. so you know cathy 2.0 is single right ;)))" and then cathy 2.0 shows zero interest in him. so then he's like "oh i just remembered i have somewhere to be :/" then fucks off to london for nearly a year then when he comes back nelly is like "nvm as it turns out cathy and hareton are actually soulmates lol who knew! gee, it's a good thing she didn't like you!" and he's just silently suffering. emily was just fucking around here. hindley was the only linton/earnshaw/heathcliff who was wild enough to marry someone who didn't share either his gene pool or his neighborhood.

5 i imagine joseph to look like smeagol from the lotr films but taller

6 [heathcliff, after stabbing his alcoholic arch nemesis and then pushing his servant into the puddle of the blood] "Wash that stuff away; and mind the sparks of your candle—it is more than half brandy!” LMAO

7 this opinion list is just turning out to be a list of the most insane heathcliff moments but truly the novel should've just been called "heathcliff"

8 heathcliff's weird paternal feelings for hareton, saving hareton's life, him saying he would truly love him if only he wasn't hindley's child, basically giving hareton his blessing to love cathy 2.0 toward the end... so oddly endearing

9 heathcliff walking out just before the "i am heathcliff" part of her speech. why WHY

10 hindley protecting isabella from heathcliff before she flees was nice and i wish we saw more of their dynamic around the heights. honestly aside from the child neglect (which is par for the course in wuthering heights) hindley is a pretty sympathetic character; his rivalry with heathcliff was fueled by both sides and truly the fault of their father for pitting them against each other by letting heathcliff usurp hindley's place of favoritism as a boy. hindley's gambling and drinking, his general dissipation and failure to secure his son's future, are all tragic.

11 i think hindley/edgar/heathcliff are all interesting foils for each other; they each lose the women they love and are left to be single fathers, and each responds to the task totally differently. if we include mr. earnshaw, all the fathers in the story essentially fail their children after all the mothers die. hindley and heathcliff have a special parallel through their lifelong brotherly competition, the women they love both dying in childbirth, and in their own deaths. hindley slowly kills himself while ignoring everyone around him; heathcliff also kills himself, but only after trying to systematically ruin the lives of everyone around him. they also say that they want to kill each other but fail when they try; heathcliff nearly kills hindley but ends up saving his life at the last minute.

12 heathcliff jr. is so terrified of heathcliff sr. and so traumatized and petrified by fear and he doesn't deserve the hate he gets for being annoying. he's been sheltered his whole life, his mother just died, he was sent to his uncle/cousin only to be immediately torn away from them to be abused by a stranger who treats him horribly, he's terminally ill, he's still a kid, he's threatened into marrying someone he barely knows, etc.

13 if any of you have seen the british comedy show "the young ones" that's literally hindley's household in wuthering heights when joseph/hareton/hindley/heathcliff/isabella all live together. the filth, the slop for dinner, the petty games, the violence, the fierce hatred yet weird loyalty to each other, etc.

14 i really wonder how cathy would have reacted to heathcliff's treatment of everyone else if only she had known the full details (ie his harsh abuse of isabella, his son, cathy 2.0, etc.)

15 heights was my first brontë novel but i think i like jane eyre and tenant better now that i've read them all back to back! next on the list is likely agnes gray. anne, my underrated queen!