#like it’s fine; it’s liveable but i DON’T want it to get worse

[fingertipsmp3]

Also I have physio later. When will I be freeeee

[kass-storycorner]

Mentally I’m getting worse again (tho I try to do all the stuff I learned from two years in therapy to … prevent it from getting bad bad ), so I’ve only been thinking about how some of the Genshin characters would comfort me? So here have this, whatever this is, that I wrote at 2am on a night before I have 11am shift at work. Using you in all of this but honestly this is 100% self indulgent. I just want someone to cuddle with. Pretty sure most of this isn’t really in character and every point is vastly different from the others but hey, it is what it is. As long as I’m in my current mindset my stuff won’t be any better than this

Genre: fluff, a bit of angst I guess idk man, comfort i hope

Content warnings: depression (?) I don’t go too much into detail, don’t want to write out those negative thoughts HA but you know you are just not in a good spot in these, absolutely inconsistent writing, every character has to deal with a different stage of feeling depressed and yeah

Characters: Diluc, Childe, Albedo, Yoimiya

Fun fact: my app crashed while writing this so thank the tumblr admins that you can restore posts you wrote after the app crashes one of the few good features of the app

Diluc:

Would definitely notice the first small changes in your behaviour, but wouldn’t think much of it in the beginning.

Maybe you are just tired? And even if not Diluc knows best that no one can always be chipper.

Still he doesn’t know how to act around you when you are sad / heading towards a depressive episode.

He would offer you his help, you just need to say what you need and he’ll give it to you.

Ah, but Diluc didn’t really consider at first that you would be too afraid to ask, even when he offered it to you.

One day he will directly ask you in the privates of your home if you are okay. At first you would try to brush it off, not wanting to be a burden on Diluc. You know how much he’s been through and that he also has his emotional scars… would be a bit selfish to dump it all onto him, wouldn’t it?

But oh, you’ve been dying to talk with someone about your feelings, craving a warm hug and words of comfort… so when Diluc doesn’t drop the topic you just let it all out.

He will take you in his arms and hug you, cuddle you, as long as you want. He’ll stroke your hair, quietly listening to your words, only small “mmmhs” and “it’s okay” leaving him, to reassure you that it’s fine for sharing it all.

When none of you talks all you can hear is his steady breath and oh, it’s so soothing.

Maybe you end up crying, while sharing all of it with him. All he does is to pull you closer into his chest, saying that it’s okay and tell you to let it all out.

Diluc hides his softer side from the people of Mondstadt, always hiding behind the more grumpy image some of him have, but he knows that it’s not good to run away from your own feelings. What you need to do is to feel them, do not try to push them aside because you are uncomfortable with them.

Generally he would be soft, kind and understanding. At first he might give you too much room, afraid he might be overstepping a boundary when he keeps pushing you in the beginning. Ends up in you isolating yourself / pulling away more, but once Diluc sees the pattern he will be more attentive to your needs and learn to differentiate between you needing space and you isolating.

Though please communicate with him better, he’s busy and if him having less time for you causes you distress you need to tell him, he might only notice it after the feelings festered.

Childe:

Oh boy - he hasn’t seen you in a while, Fatui duties you know, so when he knocks on your door one day he notices immediately that you are not in a good place.

This man - he cooks, he cleans, we all joke about him being the perfect husband but seriously. He sees the state of you, the state of your apartment and immediately helps.

Having spend the last week or two in a depressive state caused you to neglect your housework - the dirty dishes are everywhere and laundry keeps piling up. Not to talk about how you look.

Childe will make you a bath and while you’re in it he cleans. An immense help!!! Taking away a good chunk of thinks that made you feel just so overwhelmed and helpless.

The whole time he wouldn’t breach the topic of why it has come to that point, but now after you finished the bath and the apartment looks liveable again he asks you what’s wrong.

Honestly you don’t know yourself, you’ve been just lacking more and more energy to do the basic tasks and suddenly everything was a mess.

Will wipe away your tears and tell you “don’t cry, I’m here”, taking you in a hug.

When he’s around more, will he notice it when it slowly gets worse? Mmh, yeah!! He definitely notice when you are feeling more down, seeing how your interactions change and how your laughs become more forced.

In the beginning he will just try to make you feel all the “positive” feelings, not wanting you to feel any “negative” emotions at all

this man definitely represses his own trauma a lot and has a horrible way of coping with it so I doubt he would be the most emotionally intellectual person to help you through it

Though when you show that you don’t feel like showing your sadness aside and you just want someone to share it with / need some comfort he will adjust to your needs

Albedo:

Boy as impeccable observation skills, he will notice immediately when something is off.

However - he somehow struggles to understand your feelings. Like. At all.

When he asks you what’s wrong and you tell him that there is not a reason for your feelings, you just feel a bit depressed that’s all, he will not get it.

How do you feel a certain emotions without something causing it? There must be a reason for it.

And honestly he’s right there is always a reason for a certain feeling to arise, but sometimes they aren’t easy to understand for yourself or to spot, sometimes it’s just that your inner child needs a hug and it takes you three weeks and a metal breakdown to understand that this is all you needed… plus a good cry

He’s gonna be so awkward at trying to comfort you, making you feel better, at first. Trying everything out to cheer you up, he really doesn’t want you to feel bad. Asks around for advice what helps others when they are sad.

Honestly? The things he does, the small presents he gifts you - they are nice and make you feel loved, but it doesn’t make the bad feelings go away. Even worse it somehow builts up this immense pressure for you to get better quick because look! Albedo does nice things, he tries to help. He tries to figure it out. Why can’t you give him the results he hopes to get???

Only when someone (Timadeus for sure) finally tells Albedo that it’s not a special dish or flower or even place that helps with sad feelings - it’s that they remind them of something that’s comforting. Klee told him Dodoco helps when she’s sad, because Dodoco reminds her how much her mum loves her. So when people told him about certain foods or flowers - it was more because those were valuable for those individuals, doesn’t mean it has value to you. Most importantly is that he’s just there for you.

With that new bits of information he will try to adjust to your needs more, to learn what you need and to understand it.

He will be so upfront about it too, coming into your room and telling you that he’s been trying to make you feel better the past couple of weeks and noticing how your mood has not improved at all. Finally asks you what you need opposed to him only having asked why you feel that way

Will definitely make you cry with how he approaches the topic. When he apologises for making you cry you cry even harder at how soft he says it.

Albedo will remember what he was told, that it’s important to just be there for someone, so he will stay at your side, his hand on your back rubbing it while you are just sobbing.

After the tears have calmed down you can just be honest with him, tell him that you sometimes don’t know yourself what will make it better, that sometimes you just have to life with the feelings and accept them - but that his attempts really didn’t help.

He will apologise for putting more pressure on you, asking if you need a hug (something a lot of people have told him helps them but he was just to shy to actually try it out). After saying yes you both stay for a long time in the hug, the first thing in a long time to make you feel better.

Yoimiya:

My love, the light of my life, my future main - she would be SO good at helping you through an episode.

Notices the way you act towards her changes and immediately confronts you about it, afraid that something in the relationship is amiss until you tell her the truth that you are a bit depressed.

Canonically the one with the best communication skills, if you were to put her, Diluc and Kaeya in a room I’m 1000% sure those two would leave it as brothers again.

That said she can sometimes be a bit too overwhelming - she can talk a lot, but she’s a good listener too, but in her attempt to fix the issue she goes a bit overboard.

She’ll want you to talk it all out which isn’t a bad thing per se, but sometimes you just don’t feel like talking or that talking would help.

However the way Yoimiya is it will make you communicate with her more about how you feel and what you need - she kinda just seems to be more approachable and the kind of person you can pour my heart out to after meeting her on the toilets of a bar.

Will cuddle you as long as you need.

And honestly? 100% sure she would even make you a firework to cheer you up that you both watch from her favourite spot on a blanket while doing so (the cuddling!)

or you know maybe it’s just what I would really want to do with her when I’m depressed aka RIGHT NOW MAN

[lizziethebibrid]

Please, Jed and Ben, 76 :D

ao3 link here

76. It could be worse. They could be dating. Wait? They are?!

and from another anon:

51. Can you two save the kissing for later?

The school was pretty quiet. Which was weird, considering it was swarming with people. Everyone was just tired and trying to help out somehow. Most of what used to be the Salvatore boarding school was in ruins and if they wanted it to be at least liveable, they had to start getting the rubble out of the way. Maybe the witches would find a spell to just fix everything in the blink of an eye.

In a weird way it was surprisingly peaceful. Ken was gone, they were all alive and in that weird aftermath phase where they weren’t exactly sure how to proceed. Do they just go back to their normal lives now? And how would they even begin to do that?

Maybe fixing up the school was a good start.

“You know, this is the second time the school entrance gets blown up,” Jed said, looking through the mess. “I’m optimistic.”

“The second time?” Ben questioned. “How do you blow up the school twice?”

“Long story. Not particularly happy. But we got through that too. I don’t think this school can ever completely go down. There’s way too much magic in the place,” he added wistfully.

Part of him hadn’t really expected they were all going to make it. He was glad to be proven wrong. And he was happy they’d pushed any and all self-sacrificing thoughts out of Ben’s head. He couldn’t bear losing him right when he’d gotten him back. Right after they’d worked things out. And now they could actually have a future together. Jed really wondered what that would look like.

He let his hearing wander for a second, checking up on how everyone else was doing. The pack was scattered all around school grounds, some of them helping, others not so much, but everyone seemed to be doing fine.

“I think the entrance got the worst hit out of everything,” he picked up on Finch’s voice through the crowd.

“I saw Jed and Ben over there a few minutes ago,” Landon said, newly come back from the dead and still not a hundred percent caught up on everything.

“Oh great,” Finch said with a huff. “I’m sure they’ll get tons of work done.” Jed just rolled his eyes, although was slightly smiling. He could be in love and fixing the school at the same time. It’s called multitasking.

“Well, it could be worse. They could be dating,” Landon said, oblivious to the fact that that was exactly what Finch was hinting at. The silence that followed was enough of an answer from her. “Wait? They are?!” he exclaimed, making Jed snort.

“We have so much to catch you up on,” Finch said.

“What is it?” Ben asked.

“Nothing.” Jed shook his head with a smile. “Just proving that I can be happy and helpful at the same time.”

Ben smiled back, not really asking for more, although Jed was sure he could pretty much guess.

“You think there’s an actual chance?” he asked instead. “To put the school back together the way it was before?”

“Have some faith in us,” Jed said. “We beat the gods you know. I think that means we can pretty much do anything,” he added with a smirk.

“You are joking, but I don’t think it gets bigger than that,” Ben said. 

“Well, that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Jed admitted. “Not that fearing for our lives and the world hasn’t been great all these years, but it might be nice to be able to just, I don’t know, relax for a second there. Have some free, undisturbed time and all…”

“Right, of course, and what pray tell would you do with all that free time?” Ben asked with a smile.

“Hm, probably spend it with people I care about,” Jed said, taking a few steps closer to him. “You wouldn’t happen to know if any of them are around…”

Ben chuckled slightly, closing the space between them. “I think I can help with that,” he said, leaning in to place a kiss on his lips.

It was a relief, that Jed was able to kiss him back. They’d gone up against gods knowing that something could easily go wrong and they might have not made it in the end. Ben had even wanted to put himself on the line to save everyone else, almost did it before they had knocked some sense into his head.

But now? Now they got to stand in the… partially ruined school and kiss each other because the danger was gone. They could actually have a life. A future.

“Can you two save the kissing for later?” they heard a voice and broke apart. “I’m all for you working things out, but we kind of need help clearing a way through the entrance,” Finch said, staring at them with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

“Can we have a minute before we throw ourselves back at work?” Jed asked with a sigh.

“Have you done any work?” Finch asked back with a raised eyebrow, although she seemed more amused than anything.

“Fair point,” Ben said.

“Whose side are you on?” Jed turned to give him a betrayed look.

“Yours, always,” he answered easily, pecking his lips before Jed could say anything more. It was kind of sweet actually.

“And that’s my cue to fade into the background,” Finch murmured before she disappeared, going to help the rest of the students, making Jed smile.

“She’s right though, you know,” Ben said. “The least I can do is help you fix your school my father tried to destroy.”

“I think actually helping us fight him was also a good start,” Jed added. “You know, if we’re keeping score.”

“Either way, I’d hate to take advantage of the situation and not actually do anything,” Ben insisted.

“Why does everyone think you can’t do two things at the same time?” Jed wondered out loud.

“Because we’re actually not, you can see that, right?” Ben answered, amused. “It’s okay. We have time.”

And for the first time in a while, that was true. They had time. They had all the time in the world.

[allthingsfangirl101]

Jealousy Wars Part 1–Teddy Sanders

Part 2

I thought I was away from that life. Until I saw the moving truck next door and the sign I never wanted to see again.

Delta Psi.

My heart dropped into my stomach when I saw him jumping out of the truck.

Teddy Sanders is the president of Delta Psi. He's everything you think when you think of fraternities. He sleeps around, he doesn't care about school, and he doesn't have any plans for after college.

Just one more thing: he's my ex-boyfriend.

When we first came to college, we met in class and instantly fell for each other. When he joined the fraternity sophomore year, he promised he wouldn't change. It took barely a month for him to go back on his promise.

We dated for another year after he joined the fraternity but I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't take his sudden attitude, his change in personality, his short temper, or his newfound language. Walking into the frat house during the end of junior year party and seeing a slut on his lap was the last straw. We broke up that night.

During the summer, I moved into a house with a married couple. They were sweet enough to rent out their basement to me. I spent the entire summer fixing the basement. Now it's a liveable loft with a kitchen, bathroom, a bedroom, and a spacious living room. Spending all summer fixing the basement loft helped me to forget about the heartbreak Teddy Sanders caused.

I quickly closed the drapes, hoping he didn't see me. The rest of the day, I hid in our house. The last thing I wanted was for him to realize that he moved his frat into the house next door to me.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" Kelly asked as she made Stella a bottle.

"I'm fine," I stuttered. I looked up to see her sending me a knowing look. "It's just. . . You know the frat that moved in next door?"

"Yeah," she chuckled. "I know them."

"Well, they're from my school and. . . I used to date the president," I finally got out.

"Wait," she said, finally putting the bottle down. "You used to date Teddy?"

"Yeah," I sighed as I closed my computer.

"Damn," she said under her breath as she glanced out the kitchen window. My heart jumped when I saw Teddy outside, teasing the pledges.

"I was in love with him," I mumbled.

"Really?" Kelly said, her voice changing. She hesitated before asking, "What happened between you two?"

"He joined that damn fraternity," I said through my teeth. "Every day he spent with those assholes, he became one of them. And every day he became more like them, I lost him."

Kelly walked over and wrapped her arms around me. "I'm sorry, honey. He doesn't deserve you."

She kissed the top of my head before grabbing Stella's bottle and headed upstairs to her nursery. I took a shaky breath before looking out the window.

My breath got stuck in my throat when I made eye contact with Pete, Teddy's best friend. He lifted his hand and tried to wave at me, but I didn't return it. Instead, I stood up, grabbed my computer, and instantly went downstairs.

                         * * * * *

I slowly grabbed my bag and took time as I slipped on my shoes. I have been needing to go to the store all day but didn't want to risk seeing Teddy. Or worse, him seeing me.

"Honey," Kelly sighed as she walked in holding Stella. "I know you don't want to see Teddy, but maybe you should."

"I can't," I stuttered.

"Here's what I think you should do,"' she said gently. "Walk out that door, your head held high, and make him be the one freaking out that he moved in next door. Walk out that door and show him what he's missing."

She gave my arm a reassuring squeeze before walking into the kitchen. I took a shaky breath as I threw my bag over my shoulder. Before I could talk myself out of it, I opened the door and headed out to my car.

I could hear the guys next door whispering about me as I got in my car. I forced myself not to look over as I sat down and closed the door. I took a shaky breath as I started the car and pulled out of the driveway.

As I drove away, I looked in the rearview mirror to see Pete and Teddy talking as they watched me drive away.

                         * * * * *

When I got back from the store, I noticed that most of the boys had gone inside. I parked my car and made sure not to look over at them as I got out and headed inside.

"Hey, Y/N!"

I turned around to see Pete jogging over. "Hi, Pete," I stuttered as I closed my door.

"How are you?" He asked as he shoved his hands into his front pockets.

I sighed as I turned towards him. "What are you doing over here, Pete?"

"I'm sorry about you and Teddy. I liked the two of you together."

I couldn't help but scoff. "He's not."

I tried to head inside but stopped when Pete called out to me. "What do you mean?"

"Pete," I sighed, my voice breaking. "I see him, okay? You've lived next to me for a week and I've already seen it all. I've seen every girl he's been with. He has a different girl on his arm every night. I can't. . ."

"He still has feelings for you," he blurted out.

"What?" I stuttered.

"He still has feelings for you, Y/N," Pete repeated. "In fact, he's never stopped loving you. When he gets drunk, he talks about how stupid he was for letting you go."

I looked over right as Teddy walked outside. We made eye contact, neither one of us breaking it as he grabbed the nearest girl and pulled her into his chest. My heart sank as he started making out with the random girl.

"Yeah," I scoffed, turning back towards Pete with tears in my eyes. "He looks real heartbroken over losing me."

                         * * * * *

Teddy's POV

I gasped when I was pulled away from the girl. I looked over to see Pete glaring at me.

"What's your problem?" I asked, pulling the girl back into my chest.

"You can go," Pete said to the girl. She sighed before turning on her heel and walking away.

"Seriously?" I sighed.

"What is wrong with you?!" Pete yelled.

"Me?" I scoffed.

"Yes, you," he said, rolling his eyes. "You're the one who intentionally grabbed that girl to make out with in front of Y/N."

"I wasn't. . ." I stuttered.

"You weren't thinking," Pete continued. "How long has it been since you've seen Y/N? A few months? However long, you haven't stopped talking about how much you miss her. You go on and on about how much you screwed up. Well, fate has put you right next to her. Stop being an ass, Teddy. Go talk to her. And pray she forgives you."

Pete glanced over at Y/N's house and sighed before walking inside. As much as I wish he wasn't, Pete was right. I've never stopped thinking about Y/N. I lost track of how many times I wanted to reach out to her and apologize.

Before we moved in here, I had no idea Y/N lived next door. The first time I saw her, she was walking around inside, helping make dinner. My heart jumped into my throat and I couldn't breathe as I watched her.

When Y/N and I broke up, it destroyed me. I tried to reach out to her after, but she didn't answer. I went to her apartment and begged her to open the door but she ignored me. Instead of continuing to bug her, I decided to give her the space she wanted.

Which was the dumbest thing I've ever done.

                         * * * * *

My heart jumped into my throat when I looked over and saw Y/N leaving the house, heading out to her car. I debated before jogging outside. When she looked up and saw me walking towards her, she froze.

"Teddy," she said, her voice getting stuck in her throat. "What are you. . ."

"How are you?" I asked, nervously putting my hands in my back pockets.

"Don't," she said as she looked away from me.

"Don't what?"

"I can't do this with you, Teddy. Don't pretend to. . ."

"Pretend to what?"

"To care about me!" She yelled. She looked over at me with tears in her eyes. "Don't pretend that you have given me one thought since I left."

"I have," I defended myself. "Y/N, I never stopped thinking about you."

"Don't," she said, her voice breaking. "Don't lie to me. . . I can't. . . I can't handle it."

She walked past her car and started to walk away from our houses, away from me. I ran my fingers through my hair, debating. Finally, I turned on my heel and chased after her.

"Y/N!" I called out to her. "Just talk to me. Please."

"Do you think this is easy for me?" She scoffed as she stopped walking. She turned around with angry tears continuing to stream down her cheeks.

I opened and closed my mouth, stuttering. Her angry look softened as she continued, "It's torture watching you make out and hook up with other girls, Teddy. It's too damn painful. The one thing I've learned since you moved in next door is that you haven't changed."

"Y/N," I stuttered. She waited for me to continue but I couldn't find the right words. She scoffed as she turned on her heel and started walking away from her house.

"Y/N, wait!" I called out. I looked down the road, my heart jumping into my throat when I saw a car speeding towards her.

"Y/N!" I tried to get her attention. "Get out of the road!"

Part 2

[butwhatifidothis]

Continued long rant about the competence of the Empire government from the same anon. Hope ya don’t mind:

I have always wanted to talk about this, but Adrestia is the literal worst country to live in among the three nations in Fodlan? This is a little analysis of which region in Fodlan is the most “liveable”:

1. Garreg Mach Monastery

Rhea is a good leader that cares about her people, the Church doesn’t discriminate based on social class, it is a meritocracy where you can climb the social ladder based on your skills and accomplishments, it has never been invaded (until Edelgard) and the land around it is apparently fertile enough to support a small army so you probably never have to starve living there. May or may not have free healthcare based on the incident that the Church goes to Remire to handle the plague there.

2. Riegan territory under Claude’s leadership (especially if you are a merchant)

Again, good leader that cares about people, burgeoning merchant class means you can rise to the middle class with your skills, has rarely been invaded and the land is reasonably fertile. Comes with the downside that it is very dangerous to travel around and there is some discrimination based on social rank as it has nobles as rulers who likely have much more leeway and privileges. Claude is also rather sheltered and ignorant when it comes to the plights of the common folk, so it is hard to judge the well-being of the citizens here, but since he is beloved by his people and believed to be a good leader, so I will give Riegan under Claude the second place. May be moved to the third place if travelling safely is very important to you.

3. Fhirdiad under Dimitri/King Lambert’s leadership (especially if you can use magic/is interested in it)

Two good leaders in succession who are shown to care about the people a lot (Dimitri literally has the idea that he lives to serve drained into him, not good for his personal health but hella nice for the commoners). One of them actively takes an anti-poverty stance by providing social welfare and works on creating a new form of government that allows commoner participation. Dimitri is better than Claude in this aspect as he is more “down-to-earth” in terms of being familiar with the plights of the common folk.

Apparently the rulers here were wise enough to see the value of education as they established the Royal Sorcery Academy in Fhirdiad and its tuition fee is low enough that Mercedes’ adoptive father who does give a shit about her and is only using her is willing to send her here and Constance, after her noble house is dissolved, is still able to afford the tuition. Annette also comes here because it is much cheaper than the Officers Academy. Therefore, we can surmise that the Sorcery Academy is relatively affordable for an education. Their King is also willing to give Cornelia a place in court because of her skills and accomplishments, so there is a lot social mobility if you are a magic user. Not so much if you aren’t (like Dedue who only has 10% magic growth)

Rarely has been invaded too, but comes with a significant drawback that the land surrounding the city is a barren, cold wasteland and there must be some discrimination based on social class too as they have a royal family and nobles.

4. the Edmund territory (if you are a merchant)

Competent leader who may or may not be morally good and may or may not care about the people. Rarely has been invaded. Has reasonably fertile land and a burgeoning merchant class too so there is social mobility. Still comes with class discrimination and it may be dangerous to travel around because there is a legendary demonic beast wandering in the territory.

5. Daphnel (and it’s the 4th if you aren’t a merchant)

Judith is a good leader and is morally good too. Rarely has been invaded. The land is reasonably fertile. Still a part if the Alliance so the burgeoning merchant class (middle class) exists here too which shows social mobility but relatively less than Riegan and Edmund. Still has discrimination based on social class. In fact, it likely exists all of the regions mentioned below so I am going to stop talking about it unless it is a particularly severe case.

6. Fraldarius

Good leader who cares about the people enough to go into battle himself with his heir to rescue the villagers from bandits. Rarely any invasion. Land is barren though.

7. pre-Duscur Gaspard

A leader kind enough to take a homeless thief into his household and raise them as his own children and is popular among the people that his citizens are willing to throw their lives away in a futile attempt to seek justice for his son. Rarely any invasion. The land may be barren wasteland but based on the geographical location and being so close to the apparently very fertile Garreg Mach lands, may not be that bad?

8. Goneril

Good leader. Land is reasonably fertile. Probably has a burgeoning middle class too as it is still in the Alliance. Constant invasions though so be careful about where you live and travel to. May have perks if you are a merchant willing to sneak into the Almyran territory for trade.

9. Dominic

A leader who cares enough that he surrenders to Cornelia just to protect the territory. Rarely invaded. No idea about the social mobility and it may be a barren wasteland too (but it’s in the southern part of the Kingdom so it may be an exception)

10. Charon

Not much is known about Charon, but based on Catherine, how he remains loyal to Dimitri and provides extra soldiers for his army I guess he is not THAT bad. Not sure about the land but it is close to Galatea so may be a barren wasteland again. Invasions are rare.

11. Galatea if you are rich

Good leader and rarely has been invaded. There is constant famine though but if you are a merchant who can import your own food from other territories, then you are fine.

12. All the other Alliance territories including Gloucester

These regions are likely more well-off than the others and provides good social mobility based on its large merchant class, but I wouldn’t bet on the morals of their leaders when they are willing to kill people just to stop them from trading with Riegan.

12. Galatea if you are poor/Gautier

If you can’t afford buying the food from elsewhere then you are screwed. Gautier is also a barren wasteland but based on Sylvain’s description it is probably more well-off than Galatea and it probably has a good leader too? Gautier, however, faces constant invasions to the point that the ruling house absolutely requires an heir with a crest just to scare them off. If you are a good fighter, you may have an easier chance rising in the social rank because they are constantly fighting Sreng and you may be able to distinguish yourself through military service, so there may be some social mobility. Still, be careful not to get caught up when the lord’s eldest wayward son decides he wants to take his anger on you by pillaging your villages and slaughtering your people.

13. All the other Kingdom territories

Not much is known about these regions, but they are likely worse than the Alliance since the lords here instigated the Western Rebellion and they don’t have the social mobility the Alliance has. They are also known as barren wasteland.

14. Aegir (would have been ranked the fifth place if it is under pre-timeskip Ferdinand’s leadership, and absolutely at the very least ranks the fourth if it’s post-SS/AM/VW Ferdinand)

Not much is known about Duke Aegir but he is shown to be taxing the hell out of the people in Hrym. However, his son and heir especially when he has spent five years living amongst the commoners will be the best leader you can find.

15. Bergliez

Very fertile land, but based on how its heir is described as morally bankrupt and how they deal with their thieves by executing them, probably not the best place to live even as a farmer.

16. Ordelia

Reasonably fertile land and would have ranked around the sixth place if it hadn’t been taken over by the Empire. They have morally good leaders who may be relatively competent and an heir who is hellbent on getting Ordelia back to its feet. There is a large middle class here too so good social mobility.

17. All the other Empire territories except Hrym and Arundel

Mentioned in the previous post and they have a future leader who is proud of the fact that she will throw their lives away for her goal.

18. Kleiman

19. Arundel

Horrible here because of their leadership and the high chance of getting kidnapped and turned into a biological weapon.

20. Hrym - absolute hellhole

This region has been taxed incredibly heavily for almost two decades and is likely piss poor because of it. The leadership here sucks and the Princess has let out a rabid mad dog on them as hunting grounds. Very likely to be kidnapped and turned into demonic beasts too. You are killed if you try to flee. People living here have a better chance at a decent life killing themselves and waiting for reincarnation somewhere else than staying here (since Fodlan believes in reincarnation)

I don’t mind at all!! As long as you don’t mind that I don’t have much to add lol, very interesting!

[vio1315]

Well it’s 5 am and I haven’t started Daily, so time to talk about personal thing idk if I ever mentioned here (maybe I did idk)

This was such awhiiiile ago, but certain reading reminded me of it so I’mma share why not

So

Basically like, I’m a shut in, I say that enough, not too surprising. But surprisingly there was a time where this actually got so much worse than normal.

Like sure I don’t leave the home and all, but that’s pretty liveable for me. Under normal circumstances I literally feel a lot healthier in this capacity vs certain other ones I have been in.

But hoo

I just hit this point of stress and stuff with some rl relationships

Where I legit wanted to stop existing to an extent.

Not the depression variant. I wanted to keep living and such. But I wanted to be totally and completely forgotten. I so actively desired it I was like plotting out what exactly I could say to a friend in honesty that would make her hate me enough to declare she wouldn’t speak to me again. And in the other situations I wouldn’t need to try as hard.

But I was planning it to such a degree though I knew it was wrong, I even spoke to my mom on it, because I had basically set out a date for it. She talked me out of it because I clarified a lot it wasn’t really that this friend had done anything wrong etc, and she was like ‘why not just tell her you need a break’ or whatever, because she’s smart this way.

But man

I did get over that stage

Purely because God just pulled me out

But

The memory of it is really wild to me

Because it was the most tangible kind of feeling I’ve ever had

Just this utter repulsion of anything and everything. I wanted to push out everything so much. For a very long time I’ve thought the concept of being forgotten was kind of nice in a wistful way.

(I’m a perfectionist in many ways, I just want to erase myself from everything so that all my mistakes will be forgotten and nothing can be held against me. And legacy doesn’t interest me a lot outside of my very closest relationships. Perhaps because they’re the only people who I consider as ones who would forgive me for so much as being wrong about something one time?)

But this was so much stronger than that.

I was so resentful about being seen in a sense. I kept thinking in terms of ‘when someone touches something hot, they learn to pull their hand away from the pain. What can be expected then when everything is painful to touch?’

Hated reaching out. Nothing had to go wrong, I just hated it. It hurt anyways. I could only perceive everything I did as causing annoyance and anger and gossip, and I hated having to be hypervigilent in the useless effort to make sure something went decently. Every single time it all felt wrong. Like it was all just mistake after mistake and I was only kept for convenience.

I am through to the other side of this. Ironically, though I resisted the temptation to burn all my bridges in all that, they kinda fell apart after anyways. For various reasons. I’m fine with that, it is what I had wanted after all. So it’s a lot less stressful for me. But at least I was able to not just burn it all as dramatically as I planned. Much more open this way, which I usually think is for the best.

The main point of sharing is just that this stuff is interesting to me. I don’t generally harbor tons of feelings about my past too much...? So it’s just interesting to me.

That said, I do see people push the perfectionist thing in certain ways and it’s like 

‘No, screw that’

People do not need that kind of thing in their life, I tell ye what.

Imagine. Imagine.

I don’t even have issues of /self worth/.

I actually am generally confident enough that even when people have actively tried tearing me down and insulting me and like negging me it just didn’t have much effect.  I literally laughed that stuff off because idk, I just don’t view myself as very poorly or anything. (But I don’t trust how good/bad I am to matter to people)

Like imagine if I had that kind of perfectionism on top of really bad self esteem?? Like??? Who could stand it?

So man, forget all that. Don’t drag people into that dumpster fire. Maybe like... idk have some understanding sometimes, y’know?

Not even @ any of my followers. Everyone’s chill, it’s just sort of a ramble from something nobody would even guess whdnwjcn

[tisthepoetl]

There are many stressors in a modern day lifestyle.

Usually these include the looming threat of death, the monotony of working for currency that stopped being useful years ago and deer.

There are so, so many stressed people. Made worse by the apocalypse that didn’t happen, the riots that most definitely happened, and the negotiations that have been “in progress” for the last few years.

The amount of rapid budget changes are stressing out some people. The amount of rapid cultural exchange is stressing people out. If you work in any field, any field at all, you are likely to be stressed as all hell.

Eventually, they have to pick someone on the ship to be shown as an expert negotiator. No one is prepared for this. Most of them are middle men, most of them don’t have a clue what they’re supposed to be doing, and all of them are panicking.

So they drew straws. The most important decision of all time is made by dumb luck, and honestly that’s a pretty good metaphor for everything happening right now.

Name someone on their haphazard crew and they will have a conflict of interest. Name one member and they will be grossly under qualified.

America has four ambassadors out of the eight chosen. Not because they’re the most presentable, or the most qualified, or the best possible choice, but because they overpaid for a privilege nobody wanted.

If all of this goes to hell they're getting the blame. And if they get the blame the only plan is to point at whoever was voluntold to be leader and pray for leniency.

Every part of this is a desperate attempt to stall before the actual powers back home have found a way to bullshit having any actual control of things.

It shows.

It really, really shows.

So, who was the unlucky scapegoat for the possible downfall of all of humanity?

If you guessed Samantha who wasn’t supposed to even be on this ship, you would be correct!!

Seriously, she was the back up for someone who was almost conceivably qualified. Sort of, if you squinted and ignored the fact they were only there via nepotism, only to be pulled out once everyone realized they were sacrificial lambs.

And then the replacement was also saved from this bullshit via bribery and blackmail and probably some other third sketchy thing she doesn’t know about.

So, here she is, Samantha who had planned on changing her name before realizing she wasn’t getting out of this. Samantha, the replacement for the replacement who was chosen by a lottery held only for the illusion of equal opportunity.

There are literally billions and billions of people whose lives will be affected by whatever she ends up doing. Countless children, parents, lovers and friends and siblings. All of whom would either die or live by whatever ends up happening.

Luckily, she has one coping mechanism which never fails: Repression!!

So she thinks about literally anything else. Thinks about her favorite song as the ship nears the giant towering shape of the Galactic Senate’s meeting place. Thinks about fluffy dogs as she is led by the hand through walls and portraits and treasures with descriptions she can’t read because there are no translators yet.

Thinks about her mother, thinks about her sibling, thinks about the fact everyone could literally die and it would be her fault, and wow she’s already here.

The meeting place has a mouthful name that she could only pronounce if she managed to dislocate her jaw, grow a new set of teeth, and get a proboscis. Everyone calls it the Meeting Place, because again, there are no working translators, they all have to rely on vague equivalents.

The Meeting Place is a moon sized ship, so incomprehensibly large that any species will be able to fit. It has a dock, and a large empty room with nothing in it except for alien leaders who could slaughter them all at a whim.

There are no chairs. The temperature is set to “Mildly unpleasant but liveable.” Unity and democracy means that everyone is equally uncomfortable, because this exact temperature is workable for most species.

Samantha feels a chill down her spine, both from the cold and the fact that so many of them are glaring at her. She is in the center, her crew is placed too far away to help her, and their borrowed ship is miles away from where they are now.

She prays to the gods she doesn’t believe in and hopes she can stall well enough for the clusterfuck back home to get their shit together.

“H…” she starts eloquently. She tries to refind where the rest of humanity’s first impression was stationed, but her view is blocked by the hundreds of giant aliens. “He..llo?” she finishes.

There’s a click, and she flinches back because what if that’s a weapon. A small cube clatters to the ground in front of her, before popping up and showing a hologram.

She would be visibly impressed, in awe, if it weren’t for the fact she’s half sure these diplomats could take any reaction as an insult.

She wouldn’t be able to explain herself either, it’s too early for any sort of translator to have been made, it’s too early for anything about human body language to be common knowledge.

The crowd surrounding her rustles, fins are raised and noises are made and colors are changed. It means something, probably, but she can’t tell what.

The hologram cube makes a loud, ear splitting sound, like a mix between a flatlining heart in a movie and a fire alarm going off. It snaps her out of her spiraling.

There are two large lines pointing at a screen that is pulsing with the most neon red she’s ever had the unfortunate luck of seeing. She stares at it, and realizes it’s a quiz.

Well, more like a shitty rushed powerpoint. Like something you would make in under an hour for the fun of it.

It says, “What Human Want [Ask],” and she has the sneaking suspicion that whoever made this wasn’t trying very hard. Underneath are barely recognizable butcherings of numbers, listing answers from one to three.

“1. Want hurt. Want no us. Lone want.”

“1nd. Want love. Want share. Want us help.”

“1rd. Want no meet us. Want late meet. Want lone.”

All of it is….confusing to say the least. At this point she doesn’t even know if this is a joke or not.

Then again this wasn’t supposed to be her job, she doesn’t understand them either, and maybe they were genuinely trying here. But then again there are so many of them, they probably have enough resources to make at least a dozen Earths and this meeting took multiple years to take place.

The red that flashed before flashes again, than flashes a disturbingly real fingerprint on top of the answers.

She presses the second one, and wills herself to not regret it immediately. Love, sharing, help, all of that sounds good.

Except what if the help is from humanity? What if their definition of help, share, love is killing everyone ever living and she just doomed it all?? What if it means—

“[Greeting] [Greeting Happy] [Greeting Love] [Greeting Happy Angry Bored] [Greeting (Deragotory)]” a voice drones through a translation of the crowd. Samantha wonders when this will be over, and if she’s going to die of anxiety before that happens.

“[Greeting Small Childish] [Greeting Sad Fear] [Greeting (Endeared)] [Greeting Pain Hurt] [Greeting Love Fear Pain]” it doesn’t stop, running through every risen scale and moving limb to translate some vague approximation.

The aliens have translators. The translators are awful. This is taking so much time, which is good for the mission of stalling and bad for Samantha’s sanity.

“[Species Name (Derogatory)] [Mother (Derogatory)] [Criminal (Deragot—]“ the whole crowd is making noise, some like barks and some like tweets and some like a monster out of hell.

And all of them seem to be arguing? Or insulting each other? Either way it continues on for a long stretch of time with nothing but noisy aliens and a robotic voice reciting nonsense that always ends in “(Derogatory.)”

“[Wrong: Too long.] [Wrong: Too fast.] [Wrong: No word Human.]” The sounds are longer, most of the crowd making them rising and puffing out to be bigger. “[Plea Slow.] [No Word for Our Word.] [New Local Child Pet Ally speak.] [No word for Our Word.]”

Samantha realizes once again, that she should’ve left when she had the chance. And never entered that stupid lottery.

“[I hate every single one of you.] [Stop! The Ally-New-Child-Local may hear.] [You are all stupid [Species Name]]” the noises transition into understandable sentences. “[The small Diplomat-Traveler will be confused. Stop.] [They are doing fine. They will not understand our words.] [When is that useless translator going to update, Myy-Rrr-Pl?]”

Humanity as a whole can only take so much. One human as a whole can only take so much. She is halfway to a mental breakdown, fully confused and honestly she just wants to go home. This is the kind of wonder she would love if she didn’t have to personally deal with the consequences.

So she goes the way of most unqualified, underpaid workers, and gives up. She isn’t going to scream or sabotage anything, but her ability to feel was already warring with the tempting concept of not giving a fuck.

She speaks, for the second time. “I can hear you. And I don’t much appreciate being called a child.”

“[.....]” the crowd is finally silent. She basks in the peace.

“[I told you to stop confusing the Ambassador.] [Shut up Myy-Rrr-Pl. You didn’t even get these made right, we had to make a presentation, that’s how awful you and your tech were.] [It's working now, okay?]” The peace was lovely while it lasted.

“Humanity wants, uh, to not be dead,” she says. “And to not be enslaved either. Or like used as food.”

“[Can you understand it?] [Of course I can, I’m the one who learned the language.] [You barely learned it. You put half that presentation into a free-use translator.]” they keep talking, keep barking, chirping, hissing over her. “[This is a disaster.] [It’s not that bad. My presentation went over well enough.] [Myy-Rrr-Pl shut your beak about that [intercourse (derogatory)] thing.]”

“CAN YOU BE QUIET FOR ONE SECOND??” Samantha shouts above the arguing ambassadors. There is only so much she can tolerate, the noise alone is irritating but the senseless, contextless bickering is unbearable

“This is ridiculous,” she continues. “I don’t even know what’s going on, none of you dropped us an explanation. Why can I suddenly understand you? Who the hell is Meer-er-pull? And what the fuck is going on?”

There is no more translation, and nothing to translate into constant robotic rambling. There is no peace in the silence, just an underlying tension as every alien in the room turns to stare her in the eyes.

She wonders if she’s fucked up, if she’s doomed literally all of humanity because she couldn’t tolerate it all and lashed out. There’s an apology on the tip of her tongue, but she can’t manage to push it out through the indignation and fear.

No one breaks the silence. None of them speak. Samantha’s momentary confidence wavers and she considers making a run for it before realizing there are more of those giant aliens stationed at every exit.

“[....Aumko, I think we may have [intercourse (deragotory)] this beyond fixing.] [Feces (Derogatory) Feces (Derogatory) Feces (Derogatory)—]” Luckily, it doesn’t sound like she’s going to be executed for this. Unluckily, the aliens are just as unprepared as they were, and it wasn’t going to get any less confusing, was it?

“[I told you [Anatomical Feature (Exapserated)] that we should’ve started with a smaller group of diplomats. Instead of a “proper” meeting with everyone involved, we should’ve picked one from each of the 3 species, then gone from there. That would’ve been—]”

“I’m not getting any less confused here!!” Samantha cuts off the alien. “I’m not getting any younger either, I’m sick of your childish bickering, get over it and give me an explanation. Please, for the love of god.”

There’s a moment of pause as the translator spits out a bunch of meaningful white noise. It takes a couple moments before one of the birds speaks up.

“[We should cancel this until another time,] the bird chirps. Which isn’t satisfying, which isn’t an explanation, but hey it does technically fulfill the mission of stalling. And honestly she’s taking any win she can get from this. “[We’ll meet up with one of their diplomats, in a less noisy location. They’ll meet with one ambassador from each of our species.]

“[That doesn’t make sense though!!] [How will we even choose?] [A smaller meeting would be a sign of disrespect, we must show that we don’t view the New-Ally as lesser.]” the noise starts up again immediately.

“[SHUT UP!!]” roars one of the giant bears in a show of irritation that she can relate to on a spiritual level. “[Myy-Rrr-Pl will serve as the [Error: No suitable translation]’s ambassador. I’ll be the second ambassador. The third will be Kss’ta.]

There are ruffled feathers, low growls, no outward arguments but no agreements either.

“[I will quite literally fight anyone who decides to waste my time any further.] the bear is...puffing up? The mane of fur around its neck is puffed up like the pelt of an angry cat. “[Myy-Rrr-Pl is the only one who can even half speak the language, and who has the most context. Even if her presentation was awful.]”

“[I’m going to be there personally to ensure this doesn’t happen a second time. And Kss’Ta is the only one of you [Species Name] [Intercourse (Derogatory)] who doesn’t argue around in circles.”

The crowd is unhappier than ever. The bear speaking sounds done with it all. Samantha is too exhausted to give a shit at this point, and just decides to be glad it’s finally over, for now.

“[Is everyone here agreed with me?”] it flares about the room, ears pinned flat to its head and mane big enough to engulf the whole of its neck. All of the crowd flinches back, no one argues too vehemently, though complaints are muttered.

The bear turns to Samantha. “[You have my apologies for my own behavior, and the behavior of these [Species Name (Derogatory)]. We’ll escort your ship back to your station.]”

Relief hits her in a mix of “it’s finally over,” and “thank fuck no one died.”

Everyone leaves, with the mission sort of accomplished, with the peace talk sort of working, and a compromise no one is happy with. Except for Samantha.

But then she learns she’s the ambassador for humanity again, and a piece of her dies at the revelation.

Humanity’s welcome to the galaxy was chaotic, idiotic, ill prepared, and an overall clusterfuck of literally galactic proportions.

At least no one died.

[eryiss]

Chapter Two - The Handyman

Summary: Freed and Laxus live incredibly different lives. Freed is a corporate lawyer in the capital city, and Laxus works as a handyman in a countryside hotel. Despite their differences, their lives collide when Freed inherits a house in Laxus’ village, and hires him to make the derelict building liveable. But the closer they get, the more they seem to offer each other. [Fraxus Multi-Chapter]

This was written as my admission for Fraxus Day 2020, hosted by @fuckyeahfraxus​. This is the second chapter, and from now on it’ll be updated weekly. Hope you enjoy it.

You can read this under the cut, on Fanfiction, or on Archive of Our Own. You can find the chapter masterpost here.

Chapter Two – The Handyman

"Fucks sake. Fucking bitch."

"That's not the way to talk to a lady, Laxus. Damn."

"I ain't talkin' to a lady, I'm talking to this piece of shit."

With an angered huff, Laxus slammed down the screwdriver and allowed it to clatter against the small tray of tools. On the table was the industrial toaster that Laxus had been attempting to fix for the better half of the morning, with an only slightly warm piece of bread resting pitifully on the wire rack, practically mocking Laxus with its lack of any toast-like qualities. It was the sixth time that year that the machine had decided to work, and Laxus had grown to have a vendetta against the fucking thing.

But he wasn't going to let it win. He had singlehandedly fixed practically every electric device in Fairy Tail since becoming the handyman, and he would be damned if the fucking toaster was his downfall. He'd conquered faulty boilers, crappy wiring and, on one condition, a disgusting issue with sewage backup over the past year alone. A toaster was nothing.

"Just make your grandad buy a new one," Cana laughed as she walked further into the hotel's breakroom. "It's like twenty years old, probably only makes the bread darker because of an oil leak."

"I ain't getting it replaced," Laxus snapped, glaring at the open circuitry of the machine with probably too much hatred for what the situation deserved. "If it gets it replaced, then the fucking things knows that it's won."

"It's a toaster dude," Cana deadpanned.

"Don't give a shit," Laxus groaned, leaning back in the chair so the forelegs left the floor, resting his arms behind his head. "You meant to be working today?"

"Yeah. Apparently there's some big group coming for lunch and they need extra wait staff, so Gramps called me. And I'm working the bar later," Cana shrugged, taking out a chair and straddling it; because of course she did. "You?"

"Room seven had a flickering light, needed fixing," Laxus sighed. "Thought I might as well work on this thing while I'm here."

The blonde looked around the small room, eyes flittering towards the clock and sighing. He'd been drinking the night before and had it not been for his grandfather's seven AM phone call worrying about the supposed 'lawsuit waiting to happen' he would probably only just be getting out of bed after nursing a light hangover. He'd been able to wrangle a free breakfast from Mirajane, at least, but he would trade that in for his covers at that moment. At least when he was planning to feel sorry for himself about his hangover, he had something to do. Now he just had a day of nothing.

His work was fine, but inconsistent. He did any repairs that was needed at his grandfather's hotel, be that plumbing, electric work, or just helping out when it was understaffed. But Makarov kept a tight ship, and had good relationships with his staff so absences only happened when needed. So, Laxus was often left with little to do.

It was a nice problem to have, but Laxus didn't intend to be impartial.

This was the issue in living in a small town for all of your life, being forced to either thrive there or break free from it. He liked Magnolia, the area was beautiful and his childhood there had been good, but he was limited by living there. A degree in electrical engineering wasn't worth much when the only relevant job available was at a mechanics shop where he'd once bashed in the teeth of the owner's son. The miserable old bastard should have forgiven him by now; it'd been six years.

Which was why he was grateful for his grandfather giving him the job. He got to put his degree to use, even if on crappy toasters, and made a living. But it was a boring existence, and the reason why Laxus found himself on job searchers websites at least twice a week.

"You gonna eat that?" Cana asked, going towards the warmed but not toasted bread.

"No," Laxus furrowed his brows. "Are you?"

"I'm poor, man," Cana laughed, picking up the bread and eating it.

"I've seen the cupboard where you keep your booze, you ain't 'stealing warm. crappy bread poor' yet," Laxus deadpanned, and Cana laughed as she ate her bread; she didn't even put fucking butter on it. "And you get twice the number of tips than me when we work the bar together. Where's it going?"

"Booze cupboard," Cana grinned.

"You'll fuck up your kidneys, you know."

"I'll get an operation and replace 'em," Cana laughed, swallowing a bite of bread. "Speaking of being split open and things going inside, you fucked anyone lately?"

"Fuckin hell!" Laxus exclaimed, wide eyes darting towards the woman who was now openly laughing.

This was something that his friend brought up often, and as such she had lost all tact about it. The two of them were some of the only openly gay people in Magnolia – at least to their knowledge – and therefore had some annoying kinship when it came to their relationships. It had started as them both feeling sorry for themselves, as they had nobody to date. Somehow, it had devolved into a friendship where Cana felt perfectly comfortable talking about what Laxus was planning on doing, or had done, in his bed.

Worse still, Laxus didn't have the same opportunity to make fun of her. Cana was openly besotted with Mirajane, and had long since lost any shame about it. Cana could joke about Laxus falling in love with any man he saw, but Laxus couldn't do the same because they both knew Mirajane was the only woman for her.

Selfish asshole.

"You're gonna fuck all of hell? You must have more time on your hands," Cana laughed, and Laxus stood up with a groan. "Aw, come on man, don't leave."

"I'm gonna go see if one of the toilets needs to be unblocked," Laxus grunted, walking towards the door of the breakroom. "Seems more pleasant than talking t' you."

"Oh how you wound me, I think I might cry," Cana spoke in possibly the most sarcastic voice possible.

"Go suck on yer crushes clit," Laxus muttered.

"Had a good few dreams about that, my man," Cana grinned, before adding in a less teasing tone. "And Lisanna said she wants to talk to you later, so find her once you're done scrubbing the shitter," A smirk formed on her features again. "Maybe she wants to set you up with her brother. You'd be a hot ass couple."

"Fuck yourself."

"Imagine the carnage though. The two of ya could break beds faster than an over eager lumberjack."

Laxus didn't respond, and lifted his middle finger to the woman as he left the room.

~~~

There had been no toilets in need of being cleaned, thankfully, but Laxus had been able to keep himself busy for the morning. It had been mainly small and inconsequential jobs, such as removing leaves from the guttering before a build-up formed and checking that supply of complimentary soap wasn't running low, before he ended up back in the break room and working on the toaster.

It wasn't going well, and the patrons would have to deal with the break rooms single slice toaster for at least another day, but at least Cana was working the restaurant for the lunch shift rather than being there to annoy him. He hoped that the table was full of obnoxious people who didn't know what they wanted and refused to tip.

He gulped down half a can of Red Bull, and groaned as he fought the urge to check toaster prices online.

After cracking his back, he stood up and ran a hand through his hair. He quickly checked himself out in the mirror to make sure he looked presentable before leaving the break room; he may not be part of the service-staff, but he still needed to look good to represent the hotel. Normally he wouldn't have to worry about this – his contact with guests was limited – but if he was going to speak to Lisanna, as Cana had claimed he should, then it was almost definite that he'd be in the public eye for a few minutes at least. He didn't look too bad for someone who'd nearly vomited over a plate of cheese fries the night before.

Lisanna was working at the office attached to the front desk, doing some kind of admin that Laxus didn't care enough about to understand. He walked in and, once she looked up from the monitor, she grinned at him. Laxus didn't frown, but the urge was there. The two of them weren't particularly close.

"Hi," She greeted, annoyingly cheerfully. "I didn't know if Cana had passed on the message."

"Well, here I am," Laxus shrugged.

"There you are," She said with a smile, then waved towards one of the other desk chairs populating the cramped room. Laxus took a seat. "So, I've got something I thought you could help with. A proposition I guess."

Laxus paused for a moment. She wasn't actually going to try and set him up with Elfman, was she? That would be weird, Elfman wasn't Laxus' type.

"There's this guest, you see, who checked in yesterday," She began, before stopping herself. "No, that's not important. Well it is, but not right now," Laxus stayed quiet. Lisanna was a talkative person, and could probably have an entire conversation with herself. "You know Albion house, the old cottage on the outskirts of town that's' all run down."

"Yeah," Laxus nodded, confused. "Think I made up some crap about it being haunted when I was a kid."

"That's the place- that was you! Mirajane told me when I was eight and I had nightmare for weeks, you asshole," Lisanna chastised, and Laxus didn't hide the smirk at the admission. "Whatever, we can talk about that later. Anyway, it recently got a new owner, you see. And I was talking to him last night and a bit during breakfast. So he doesn't know what to do because he can't knock it down and sell the land, and the house is kind of crappy so nobody's actually gonna wanna pay any real money for it, right. So he's kinda stuck; I think he needs the money for something, I didn't wanna ask."

Did she talk to the guests this much?

This was why Laxus always booked into big corporate hotels whenever he stayed away.

"Getting off topic, sorry," She shook her head. "So, I was talking to the new owner, and he thought maybe he could get it sold for more money if it was more functional. Not a total refurbishment or anything, just making sure the lights work and the floorboards won't crumble underfoot. And he's not from the area, so he doesn't know any builders or plumbers or anyone he'll need."

She then stopped talking, and began grinning at Laxus expectantly. "And?"

"Really conforming to the stereotype of strong men being dumb," She muttered, and Laxus found himself happy that his ghost story had apparently given her nightmares. "And I said that we've got a kickass handyman working here part time who could probably help you out. I told him about all the stuff you do around here, and he said he'd be interested in meeting with you!"

"You got me a job interview?" Laxus said, taken aback slightly.

"Well, I don't think it's that formal, but kinda," She grinned. "I heard you're looking for a project to work on, and he said he's willing to pay you for your time if you're any good."

Laxus leant back in the chair, closing his eyes slightly. He didn't have a reputation for reacting particularly well to surprises, and this was rather a big one. Because a woman he barely actually knew had done something pretty damn big for him.

Working on property was something Laxus had been curious about, and it had seemed to be plausible for him. It was essentially what he was doing in the hotel, just on a larger scale and possibly with more of a challenge, which Laxus liked the sound of. There had been a few months where he'd watched house renovation shows when he could, to see if he could get a better understanding on how the field worked. He very quickly learned that, to do what he wanted, he needed the money to buy some run down property to renovate. Money which he didn't have, given he was a handyman working part time in a hotel.

So to have an opportunity given to him out of nowhere was a little overwhelming.

Because it could really help him out. He was more than qualified to modernise a house's inner workings, and was willing to put the work in. And if it went well, he would at worst end up with more experience, some extra money and perhaps a good reference he could give to some other housing developers. It could actually be really good.

Of course, that meant Laxus was immediately distrustful of the offer. Because things didn't just happen.

"So this guy is just gonna trust some random stranger?"

"I think he's kind of desperate, really," Lisanna laughed, a pitying expression on her face. "I think he wants to get out of here as quickly as he can, he's a city boy. But that doesn't matter. He seems like a nice man, and it's not like you can't do the work he wants. You might as well talk to him, see if it works out," She shrugged. "He's in the restaurant I think. I said I'd bring him over if you were interested."

"Erm," Laxus mumbled. "Fuck it, why not?"

The majority of the walk towards the restaurant was spent with Laxus trying to rationalise exactly what had just happened. He glanced at his reflection whenever he could, because if this was as much an opportunity as Lisanna seemed to think that it was, Laxus needed to make a good first impression.

When they walked into the restaurant, Lisanna seemed to scan the room before spotting the person she was looking for. She started to walk again and Laxus followed, eyes eventually settling on the man sitting at the window table.

He wasn't what Laxus expected.

Having expected a stuffy old man, in his fifties and balding, Laxus felt wrongfooted. The man was almost certainly a few years younger than Laxus. He had long and green hair, tied high in a ponytail. He was wearing a sharp looking suit that Laxus didn't recognise the brand of. His facial features were sharp and well structured, no doubt the rest of his body just as maintained under his clothing. As Laxus got closer he could smell a mix of some sharp and cool cologne, and the floral scent left by the clothes' steamers put in every room. When he looked up to Laxus he had sharp and inviting blue eyes, and a somewhat enigmatic expression.

Laxus might be inclined to call him a pretty boy, had his expression been a little less intense.

Just his type. Aesthetically, anyway.

"Mr Justine," Lisanna said in greeting. "How'd your lunch?"

"Very pleasant," The man said, glancing for a second to the chicken salad he was eating and then back to Laxus.

"This is the man I told you about, our handyman," Lisanna explained, nudging Laxus. The blonde stepped forward and offered his hand to shake. The man did so, with a firm grasp.

"Laxus," The blonde said. "It's nice to meet you, sir."

"You too," The man replied, and Laxus couldn't help but notice how smooth his voice was. But it wasn't the time, so he retracted his hand as the other man spoke. "I'm Freed, as you've perhaps been told. I expect your colleague has explained why I wish to speak with you?"

"The Albion House, right?" Laxus asked. "You got lumbered with the place and need help with the electrics."

"Essentially, yes," Freed nodded. "The only thing that's actually remained intact is the building's structure. The wiring, the plumbing, the heating system, and I'm sure there's a lot more that I'm not aware of that has also been destroyed. I wish to get the building to a point where it's functioning so I can sell it. It doesn't need to be nice to look at, just work. Is that something you think you can do?"

"Well, I'm good with all that shit- stuff," Laxus winced, glancing at the table, and missing the amused expression on Freed's face. "I've done a lot of work here, and in some other houses when they need it. Unless there's some really unusual crap, I should be fine."

"Take a seat, Mr Dreyar."

At the sudden request, Laxus found himself doing what he was told. He sat opposite Freed, and waited a little awkwardly while Freed ordered another tea for himself. He thought about telling him that Lisanna wasn't actually part of the wait-staff, but she smiled and said it'll be right out before retreating to the kitchen. He frowned as she walked away, only to quickly turn back and give him two thumbs up and a large smile. He almost rolled his eyes at the stupid action, but looked back to the man who might soon employ him.

"I think it's best we be honest with one another," Freed continued, and Laxus nodded slightly. "I have no interest nor practical skill when it comes to homeownership and renovations. I can learn, and I'm not an impractical man in general, but a lot of the work will be done by you."

"I can do that," Laxus said with a nod. "How would that work with the, erm… payment, if that ain't too forward?"

"No, that's fair," Freed said, pulling out his phone from his breast pocket. "I haven't had long to look into it, but I plan to pay you by the hour; I don't know how long it will take, so I thought that made more sense than a single payment. I'll clarify how much you get each hour when I find out the average pay a skilled workman gets. Of course we can debate this if you don't think it's fair, but I expect it'll be a good wage"

Laxus probably looked a bit stupid for a moment. He was expecting either a vague answer or a simple 'I'll pay you a grand and expect it to be done by the end of the month.' Not a lot of… legal sounding crap.

"That sounds good," Laxus said after a moment, nodding. "How bad's the house, if y' know? The outside ain't great but I'd like to know what I'm getting into."

"The outside is the best part, I'm afraid," Freed chuckled a little bitterly, and Laxus glanced up at his face again. On his handsome features – and damn, up close they were pretty handsome – there were slight lines of worry beside his eyes. "I didn't take many pictures as I wasn't in the best of moods, but this is fairly reflective of the entire place."

Freed flicked on his phone a few times, and then showed his screen to Laxus. It took a few seconds for Laxus to actually understand what that was, and when he did he let out an almost impressed sigh and leant back in his chair.

"That's the circuit box?" He laughed, and Freed nodded. "It looks like…"

"It had a violent orgy with a jackhammer, baseball bat and a box of explosives?" Freed completed, and Laxus let out a short bark of laughter, shocking himself.

"Fuck, sorry. I shouldn't laugh," Laxus winced, though he was grinning. When he glanced towards Freed again, he openly saw him smirking at him. If nothing else, at least this proved his boss had a sense of humour. "I didn't expect it, sorry. It does look pretty bad though, if the rest of the house is like that then it's probably gonna take a while to get the place in a liveable state."

"I assumed as much," Freed said with a sigh. "I only intend to stay here for a week, I should clarify. My office may allow me to extend that for another week. I'm hoping that, by then, you'll have begun work and can do so without me. I'll keep in regular contact of course, but I won't be here in person often."

"That's okay. I can deal with that," Laxus nodded as he spoke. He liked working alone. "What do you do, if you don't mind me askin'?"

"I'm a lawyer," Freed waved his hand as he returned his phone to his jacket pocket.

"Fuck. That's pretty-" Hot. "Impressive."

"Thank you," Freed nodded a little. "I don't mean to be abrupt, but I've got to clear some details up with my office, so I'll have to leave you," He pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket. "Here's my card, call me in the evening. We'll discuss things further then. Good day, Laxus."

"Yeah," Laxus nodded. "Speak later."

Freed nodded, and left the restaurant. Laxus allowed his eyes to trail over his retreating figure, roaming over his broad shoulders to his taut waist, then, for a split-second, to his ass. He glanced away, only to see Cana watching him with a judgmental, shit-eating grin.

"I'm gonna fix the fucking toaster," Laxus muttered with a slight blush, standing abruptly. Cana kept smirking. "Fuck off."

[starwrite-er]

Kiiroibara - Tooru Oikawa x Reader (Hanahaki!AU)

AO3

Summary:

It’s bittersweet, seeing the guilt in his eyes.

I want him to love me the way I love him, and I know he would never wish this fate upon me. He’s a good friend, after all.

But my lungs are aching and I am dying, and a little part of me wishes he suffers the pain he’s caused me too.

❀

The sun is setting as I return home, and I find myself happy.

Bumping shoulders with one of my teammates - Hana Satou - we exchange gossip, the academic year still relatively new, offering fresh stories. It’s our last; we might as well spend it giggling.

The conversation flits from classes to classmates, from practice to rivals, from captain to captain.

“He’s pretty, but he’s so vain! Even if he’s good at what he does, I’m still surprised he landed captain,” Hana says. “You’re actually friends with him - you have to deal with his attitude all the time!”

“Nah, he’s kinda insufferable, but I love him really.” I laugh, punching my friend’s shoulder lightly. She snickers along with me, rolling her eyes.

I clear my throat. And then again. Hana glances at me, giving an odd look, so I make my final cough as dramatic as possible.

She laughs. I would too, but there’s something stuck to my tongue-

My blood runs cold.

“[Y/N]? You okay?”

My friend has stopped a few steps ahead of me, looking back with a concern-laced expression. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying desperately to keep myself from panicking.

I pluck the object from my mouth. I crack open my eyes. My bag thumps to the ground as I catch sight of the petal.

I follow soon after, falling hopelessly to my knees as I clutch the yellow petal, unable to tear my gaze away even as my vision blurs and I begin to hiccup. I’m vaguely aware of shoes pounding on the ground before arms wrap around me.

This makes no sense. I’ve never even considered that kind of attachment. How could this be happening?

I wail.

I don’t love him. I can’t love him. He’s one of my closest friends, I’ve never felt like that before. I can’t love him, I can’t-

“Shh, shh, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Hana stokes my hair, cooing empty reassurances to me as I cling to her, trying to drown out my inaudible ramblings with her own voice. There’s a tremor in her words. She’s crying too. She’s scared. “We can fix this. You’ll be okay.”

I acknowledge the hollow feeling in my chest, the nausea that claws its way up my throat.

“You’ll be okay.”

I almost want to laugh, hysterical.

“You’ll be okay.”

No, I won’t.

The yellow petal is crumpled in my grip, shadowy lines and creases marring its former beauty.

What the fuck it that supposed to symbolise anyway?

❀

I start to pick my words more carefully from that point onward. One petal was enough to send me spiralling, but maybe - just maybe - it was a fluke, a side-effect of me joking about loving him. If I refuse to believe I’ve been afflicted, maybe it won’t continue.

A voice in the back of my mind hisses at me, berating my naive hope. I ignore it.

It was right, though.

The second I lay eyes on that stupid mop of brown hair I feel a scratch in my throat. I try to stifle it, try to stuff the feeling away. It just makes it worse, and the petal comes spurting out my mouth anyway.

I conceal it before it’s noticed.

“You okay?” Iwaizumi raises a brow at me.

“Yeah, just think I’m coming down with a cold or something.”

A brief pause. “It’s late spring.”

I falter and shrug, playing the comment off. “Beats me. Must have allergies or something.”

That’s the end of the conversation.

❀

I feel Hana’s worried gaze burning holes in my blazer wherever I go.

I ignore her and the tickling in my throat. I don’t need her concern, I can handle myself. This isn’t a problem.

❀

It’s okay, I’ve decided. Uncomfortable, but okay. I really am fine. The initial breakdown when I realised what was happening to me was the worst part, the hardest hurdle to get over, but Hana was right. It is okay. I can handle a petal or two a day. This is liveable. I’ve adjusted over the past fortnight.

Yeah, I realise that’s a fucking lie when I see his stupid charming grin, playing the part for his admirers.

Smack.

I lose myself in the repetitive serve drills, tossing ball upon ball into the air and hitting them until my palm feels raw.

Smack.

They’re not the ones hacking up rose-filled lungs. Their infatuation means nothing. They haven’t truly been by his side over the years the way I have.

Smack.

God, then why does it hurt so much?

“[Y/N]-chan! I thought I heard someone in here-“

“Fuck off.” My words are so sharp, so cold, I myself am taken aback. I glance for a mere second at Oikawa in the doorway, finding him wearing an uncharacteristically surprised expression. I feel a seed of guilt needling at my conscious but don’t speak up.

The last volleyball bouncing to a still is the only sound in the gym as I take my leave.

❀

I stare at the petal caught between my fingers for a beat longer before shoving it away, out of sight and almost out of mind.

“Iwaizumi?”

“Yeah?”

“D’you know what yellow roses mean?”

He blinks at my strange question, a flicker of suspicion passing over his face. “No-“

“Why are you asking him? It’s not like he’s the one getting flowers.” I suck on my teeth at Oikawa’s interjection.

“Okay then, do you know what yellow roses mean?”

A pause. He shrugs nonchalantly. “Nope.”

I glare at him. How is he the reason I’m-

No, thinking like that is no help.

“Stop being a prick.” Iwaizumi says with a swift smack to the back of Oikawa’s head.

“Ow!” The setter pouts, rubbing the back of his skull and shooting his childhood friend a look before turning his attention. “Why the sudden interest in flowers anyway, [Y/N]-chan?” I don’t answer, progressively getting more flustered as he leans into my personal space. It feels as though the closer his proximity, the more the rosebush in my lungs grows. His sly smile and lidded eyes don’t help. “Is there something we should know? A secret admirer, perhaps?”

I swallow thickly. “Something like that.”

I feel a burning in my chest. I can’t tell if it’s humiliation, unrequited love, or both.

Iwaizumi drags him away from me before I’m forced to elaborate. “Stop being weird, shittykawa.”

I take advantage of Oikawa’s moment of indignant distraction to cough up the rosebud in my throat.

❀

Beads of sweat tickle as they drip down my face, my eyes wide and heart pounding as the rally keeps going. We just need this one more point to win, but it’s turned into a seemingly never-ending stream of hits and call-outs.

The tone of the ball colliding changes. Wood rather than skin.

A painstaking beat passes.

The whistle blows and the scoreboard changes.

The Aobajohsai crowd erupts while our team is dragged into a happy huddle, victory firmly within our grasp. Grins and laughter accompany the congratulatory slaps on each others’ backs.

I struggle to catch my breath, smiling despite my aching lungs.

I glance around the gymnasium, feeling a pang of pity for the opposing team but a rush of pride surges through my veins as I see my schoolmates in the stand waving, beaming at us.

Next to them is the Aobajohsai boys volleyball team, and amongst them is a far too recognisable figure.

Catching sight of him, it feels like the roots have woven through my ribs and suddenly constricted, winding me, forcing the corolla from my deteriorating lungs.

My ears ring as I splutter, knees hitting the floor painfully. I grab at my shirt as if it’ll provide me any relief, tears spilling over and mingling with sweat as I heave. I’m barely aware of the panic surrounding me, my teammates yelling for help as someone slams my back to try and help dislodge the floral arrangement in my throat.

A vaguely conscious voice in the back of my mind notes how terrible yellow and red look against white and blue.

...Red?

For the first time, the yellow rose petals scattered around me are flecked with blood, staining my pristine uniform where they touch.

It offers a vile, unwanted moment of clarity.

It’s almost too late.

As I gasp for air, lightheaded, I begin to sob, clinging to myself as all the eyes in the room watch me.

“I- I’m sorry- I didn’t mean to- it’s gross and-“

“How long?” The coach cuts me off. She sounds angry, but her eyes betray her fear.

“A few months-“

“Since the beginning of the academic year.” Hana cuts in. Tears mar her face. She clings to me, but I feel her hands trembling.

“And you didn’t tell anyone?” The coach sounds furious.

“How could I?” I cry out. “I- I’m dy- I’m-“ I swallow thickly, dropping that attempted sentence. My words sound meek, foul on my tongue. “I can’t be in lo- I can’t. I’m not-“

“Who is it?” I glance up at the firm voice. The tremble in it is almost unnoticeable, but Iwaizumi’s fists are clenched and I know he’s trying so hard to hold it together. Guilt needles at my heart for causing those closest to me such grief.

Beside him is the root of the problem, disbelief written across his face.

I feel the corners of my mouth curl downwards.

“It doesn’t matter.” Every syllable is bitter, laced with resentment.

“Yes, it does!” Oikawa snaps. “Stop acting like you’re above us and either talk to them or cut the flowers out-“

He shuts up at the sound of my dry, sardonic laugh.

“Don’t,” I say. “Just, don’t. I don’t want to hear it from you.”

More of my tears spill over, and for those that heard me, it seems to click.

Iwaizumi sighs, closing his eyes. Oikawa is frozen in place. Hana tugs my arm lightly, a weak attempt to pull me away from the staring contest I’ve initiated with the man I’m apparently in love with.

“That’s why you were asking about yellow roses a while back,” Iwaizumi mutters. “I should’ve known-“

“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” I interrupt his self-berating. A strange calm has come over me now that my secret is finally out for all to see, in the form of a bloodied flower on the floor nonetheless. “Seriously. It’s my problem, not yours.”

Nobody wants to accept that, but there’s a helpless second of silence. It’s hard to argue when there’s no clearcut solution.

“What did they mean?”

I blink.

“What?”

“The flowers,” Oikawa’s voice is quite, but his gaze is unwavering. “What did they mean?”

A new wave of tears spring to my eyes. I try to wipe them away nonchalantly, as if speaking to him isn’t causing me immense pain. “Depends. According to Japanese tradition, they mean jealousy, which... well, it’s not entirely inaccurate,” I shrug, feeling as though I’m confessing my sins. I always did wish I was as fine a setter as he is. “But in the west, yellow roses mean friendship and devotion.”

It’s bittersweet, seeing the guilt in his eyes.

I want him to love me the way I love him, and I know he would never wish this fate upon me. He’s a good friend, after all.

But my lungs are aching and I am dying, and a little part of me wishes he suffers the pain he’s caused me too.

❀

My condition accelerates after that unspoken rejection. Over the coming weeks I find everyone’s eyes seemingly following me wherever I go, hushed whispers of pity and fear accompanying their gaze. There’s always a bloody tissue in my pocket. There’s always thorns scratching at my throat.

I’m kept under near constant surveillance. Everyone begs me to have the plant removed.

Nothing changes. He still doesn’t love me, even if I’ve accepted I love him.

At first my denial kept me from taking that course of action, but now I think I just don’t care enough anymore.

It’s an interesting way to go, at least. A tragedy, of course, but still not the norm. I find a vague comfort in this.

People will remember me.

❀

I’m so, so tired of the pity I’m constantly presented with.

More than ever, I don’t want it now. Not when his silence speaks volumes.

He swallows thickly. “I’m-“ He inhales deeply, steeling his nerves I assume. It’s not like him to appear this... weak. “I’m sorry.”

I stare at him blankly. He stares back. If he’s expecting an answer - which he presumably is - he doesn’t show it.

I shrug.

“It’s not your fault.”

“But it is-“ There’s an edge to his voice and he catches himself. “If I just did something, you wouldn’t be-“

“You don’t love me, and that’s not your fault. It’s not your fault I love you, either. We can’t change it.” My interjection is soft-spoken, reassuring.

But my jaw is clenched. I shouldn’t be the one comforting him right now.

He swallows his words again, tears welling up and spilling over and I almost roll my eyes.

Then he gently takes my hands in his and squeezes them, and with a pang in my core I recognise his sincerity. Years of unconditional friendship doesn’t just vanish, and assuming he’s just trying to clear his conscious before I go is a stupid thought. I of all people should know his motives better than that. Guilt nestles itself amidst the thorn bush woven into my chest.

Ignoring it is easier though.

Acknowledging it just makes things hurt.

❀

I’m alone when it happens.

I cling to my poetic end when I realise this is where I coughed up the first petal. Unlike then, there is no one to comfort me, to assure me things will be okay. I pushed everyone away in a vain attempt to protect myself from the inevitable, and devotion only goes so far.

It’s better this way. Less traumatic. Nobody’s memory of me needs to be marred by the image of petals, blood, and bile spilling from my lips, my face fading from red to purple as I struggle to breath, eyes bloodshot and weeping. My knees and palms scrape against the concrete, nails clawing at my throat.

The acrid taste pervades my senses - stomach acid burning my mouth and the metallic tang of my own blood staining my tongue. It’s vile, it’s bitter, and it hurts, and it’s exactly how I feel about this situation, about my final moments. It’s not fair.

My vision is patchy, darkening, a vignette cast over a golden world.

The sun is setting as I struggle to recover, and I find myself resentful.

[solastia]

Say You Won’t Let Go | 4

Pairing: Jimin x Namjoon X Seokjin

Word Count: 3K

Notes: Shortish, but I decided to split up what I was working on since the smut I have planned is taking a while and I wanted to get something out to you guys. Anyway, I think it's pretty obvious where I'm taking this lmao. Lemme know what you think and oh yeah, we're still missing someone, huh? ;)

A gloomy cluster of clouds had settled over the small village, reflecting the moods of those who lived there. Jimin stared up at the sky, hoping the rains would hold off for a few days until after this crisis was past. The last thing he needed was the added worry of his mate trying to battle in the middle of a storm. Namjoon could handle himself in a fight just fine, but his beloved was surprisingly clumsy and him slipping to his death was a real possibility. 

They’d decided the best course of action was to set up a camp halfway between the village and where the possible hostile party was spotted. There the warriors would train day and night, as well as keep up a patrol of the surrounding areas so that no one could get past them to the village. Halfway was a two-day journey, so it had been a while since Jimin had gotten to see his mate. Three whole days without him. Two long and lonely nights. 

He sighs morosely and turns back to watch the villagers bustling back and forth as they prepare to evacuate. Everyone had been working day and night since they learned of the looming threat. The caves were now mostly liveable and the animals were sealed away. Those that couldn’t work - such as the elderly and young children - were already in them along with a few guards just in case. Their main concern at the moment was gathering and securing as much of their food supply as possible. Homes could be built quickly if they got destroyed, but the crops that took so long to grow and preserve were much more precious. 

Surprisingly enough, it was Seokjin that was his biggest help at the moment. Jimin supposed that without Namjoon around to be jealous over it was easier for him to make an effort to be kind and include the other omega, and so far it had proven to be a great decision. Seokjin threw himself into the work right alongside everyone else. He carried grain, herded animals, and best of all was amazingly good with numbers and actually liked making lists. He had lists of everything from livestock numbers down to every speck of seed they had. The moment he finished a task, he went right back to Jimin asking what else he could do to help him, as well as making sure that he’d taken time to eat. He was loath to admit it, but Jimin had a feeling this whole ordeal would have been much more difficult without Seokjin around. 

They were now all starting to gravitate towards the big bonfire in the middle of the village as many took the chance to prepare their suppers and fight off the crisp evening airs. Jimin observed quietly as Seokjin and Taehyung giggled together over something the elder omega had said, his ridiculous laugh enough to even make Jimin quirk a small smile in amusement. 

Seokjin was quickly winning the people over with his easygoing and good-humored personality. Even Taehyung, who was firmly on “Jimin’s Side,” couldn’t help being drawn in by the man who had taken to treating him like a younger brother. Seokjin was currently teaching Taehyung how to make the lamb that Jungkook went crazy over, so he’d be able to surprise his mate when the warriors all came back from their camp. 

Thinking of the warriors so far away makes Jimin shiver as he was wracked with more worried thoughts of his mate. He hoped Namjoon was eating and keeping warm. That he hadn’t stabbed himself or anyone else with a dagger yet. That Yoongi was able to talk him down when the burdens of his position got to be too much. 

He shivered again, drawing his fur wrap closer to himself. It was strange how he couldn’t stop shivering despite the fact that his body actually felt too hot. He supposed stress was making him get sick. Wouldn’t that just be perfect timing - to fall ill in the middle of a tribe war. Well, if there was anything he was good at it was making things worse. 

He clenched his teeth as he felt another chill, gripping his fur with a tight squeeze. The heat it added was making it worse, he was sure, but Namjoon’s scent was so strong on this one that he was unwilling to give up the comfort it brought him. 

But it was so hot. 

He missed his mate so much.

Had he already checked their healing supplies? 

He needed Namjoon. 

Head hurts so much. 

Did they stack enough wood for fires? 

“Here, drink this.” 

Jimin startled and looked up at Seokjin smiling down at him gently, holding a mug of something steaming. He took a quick sniff, scenting chamomile, ginger, and honey. 

Not that he needed the heat the drink would add, but as he’d studied with Healer Lily he knew the calming effects of Chamomile and accepted the cup eagerly. He would need extra assistance to get some sleep later. 

“Thank you,” he responded softly before taking a large sip. 

Seokjin settled into the spot next to him on the elaborately carved bench, sighing as he got comfortable. Jimin tried not to breathe in too deeply of the rich caramel scent, trying to focus on the more neutral calming ones from his tea instead. He supposed whatever was making him ill was affecting all of his senses, because he could barely stand anyone’s scent all day. Seokjin’s though...he smelled amazing. Like the sugary sweet sauce that his grandmother used on her baked apples. It was everything he could do not to nestle against the other omega and beg to be scented and cuddled. He didn’t want to freak him out, however. Seokjin wasn’t familiar yet with Jimin’s tendency to be overly touchy. 

Seokjin cracks his neck with a tired sigh, glancing down at Jimin with concern. 

“I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but you’ve been looking a little out of sorts today. Is there anything you need help with?” 

Jimin waves off his concern, sending him a friendly albeit strained smile. 

“No. Might be getting sick is all. I’ll get some herbs from Healer Lily later.” 

Seokjin nods in understanding. “A combination of stress and changing weather can do that. We’ll probably be dealing with lots of people falling ill soon.” 

He reaches out a hand to Jimin’s forehead, frowning at the temperature and light sheen of sweat building there. 

“You do feel really hot like you have a fever,” He observes Jimin thoughtfully, his eyes growing larger with concern. He leans in and sniffs Jimin’s neck. The omega shudders as Seokjin’s hot breath hit his throat, and the thought of baring it to the other wasn’t entirely unpleasant. 

Seokjin’s breathing hitches and he grasps Jimin’s shoulder. “I think you might be nearing your time.” 

Jimin growls, refusing to acknowledge the conclusion that even he himself had secretly come to. 

“That’s two months away. I’m fine. Just a little sick. I’ll go to sleep and it will be fine.” 

“Should I send a message to Namjoon, just in case?” 

Jimin shot up from the bench quickly, suddenly eager to run from Seokjin’s constant questioning. 

“No! He’s busy. We’re busy. Everything is fine.” 

And like a coward he ran away from him, escaping into the Healer’s hut. 

Lily was already in there, still packing away her supplies. She looks up when Jimin enters, her welcoming smile dimming as she takes in his scent. 

“Jimin…” 

“I know. Now is not the time, though. I have people counting on me to save them. Namjoon’s counting on me. I don’t have time for this.” 

“If it was anyone else I’d be able to give you a pouch of herbs and guarantee it would hold things off until you’re ready, but your body has often been a difficult one for me to figure out. I’ll give you the herbs, but I can’t promise they will even work the way they are supposed to.” 

Jimin growls in frustration, running his fingers through his hair. “So what am I supposed to do? Why is this even happening? I’m two months early!” 

“I imagine the stress affected your cycle. It’s very common, dear. I will give you the herbs and we can hope for the best.” She ruffled around in a large sack, pulling out a couple of smaller packages and handing them to him with a shrug. 

“If you want my honest opinion, I think you should just head to the caves and ride it out without them until your mate arrives. We have everything well in hand here and everything is prepared to be stored in the caves. You’ve done all you can, Jimin.” She grasps his shoulder softly to comfort him as he groans, planting his face in his palms. 

“Just stay close to your people, just in case.” 

He sighs in defeat and clutches the bags of herbs close to his chest, murmuring a distracted goodbye to the old healer. He hurries back to his nearly empty dwelling, glad that he’d at least had the foresight (or honestly, Seokjin had) to leave a few dishes behind. 

He sets a kettle of water to boil over the small contraption that Yoongi had made them last year when he’d started tinkering around with their blacksmith - a portable cooking surface that only needed a bit of tinder to get going. Jimin loved it because he didn’t have to deal with the firepit or go to the cooking lodge to make something. He could fire it up right there in his house and have a lovely cup of tea without worry. 

He shoved some twigs and birch bark into the opening and struck his fire-steel a few times in front of it, blowing when a spark finally took. The simple act of starting a fire was familiar and calming enough to get him out of his head for a moment. 

He hummed to himself as he grabbed his kettle and filled it with water he had collected from the cooking lodge earlier. He opens the leather bags and sniffs at the herbs, nodding as he recognizes them. He figures one cup will do for now and pinches about two spoonfuls of herbs into the water. He sets the kettle to boil and sits down at his little table, ignoring the twinge of longing when he spots his furs. He would love nothing more than to just wrap himself up in his nest and have Namjoon make love to him for the next few days. He’d feel safe and loved, nestled in those familiar strong arms. 

Instead, he was here, alone, trying to save their village. 

The wooden door opened as Seokjin shuffled inside, smiling when he spots Jimin. 

Perhaps not completely alone, he guesses. 

“You saw Lily?” 

Jimin nods, waving towards the kettle. “This should stop it. I at least need to make it long enough to get to the caves tomorrow. After that...I guess we’ll see.” 

“Well, if you need anything in the meantime just let me know. I’m here to help,” Seokjin says brightly, but Jimin can see he’s merely trying to cheer him up. He was so nice. 

“Why were you unmated so long?” 

He gasps and covers his mouth, but the damage has been done.

Thankfully, Seokjin just chuckles. “ You know, that’s been everyone else’s first question. I was starting to wonder when you would ask.” 

“I’m sorry, you don’t need to answer.” 

He shrugs and grabs a mug from a shelf, pouring Jimin’s now boiling tea. His eyebrows crinkle as though he’s lost in thought, even as he shuffles around and pulls out the small crock of honey and adds some to the mug. He pushes it towards Jimin with a flat smile. 

“I suppose if anyone around here deserves the full story, it’s you.” 

Jimin takes a sip, watching the other omega curiously. 

“To put it bluntly, I’ve never been attracted to alphas.”

Jimin nearly spits his mouthful of tea, swallowing it with a cough at the last moment instead. 

“What? But you...and he...you have…” he stutters, trying to understand. 

Seokjin nods, “Don’t get me wrong, as far as alphas go, Namjoon is very handsome. My body instinctively recognizes him as Pack Alpha and my bonded mate, allowing me to do...what we do. Perhaps in time, I can see that he could easily become one of my dearest friends and potentially a wonderful father for my pups.” 

“But…” Jimin prompts, leaning over his cup curiously. 

“But, “ Seokjin shrugs, “I just have never been romantically attracted to alphas.” 

“So, that means…”

Seokjin quirks an eyebrow in amusement. “That means I am romantically and sexually attracted to omegas, yes.” 

“Oh,” Jimin took another sip of his tea, staring at the quietly laughing Seokjin in shock. 

“Indeed. Don’t you have intersex couples here?” 

Jimin thought about it, shrugging. 

“If we do, I don’t really know. I’m not saying it bothers me, I just wasn’t expecting it.” 

Seokjin nods, leaning in his chair as he observes Jimin. 

“What about betas?” 

Seokjin shrugs, “Never really met anyone that intrigued me enough to wonder.” 

“Have you ever…” 

“Yes. That’s why I was unmated for such a long time.” 

“Oh, I see.” 

Seokjin sighs and props his chin in his hand, looking at the wall beyond Jimin. 

“His name was Jaehwan. We’ve known each other since we were kids, much like you and Namjoon. Things progressed over the years and I fell in love. I thought that was it. I was going to grow old with him, give up mating and pups. I was fine as long as I had him.” 

“So what happened?” Jimin asked, thoroughly enthralled in the story, his heart already hurting for the man since he knew the ending. 

“A neighboring small pack petitioned Jaehwan’s father, wanting to court him and make him Pack Omega. And Jae...he was thrilled. Said Hakyeon was beautiful and he was so happy that an alpha wanted to make him Pack Omega at his age. He couldn’t stop talking about pups and mates and…” 

Seokjin sniffled and Jimin flew into action, crawling around the table to stroke the omega’s arm in comfort. 

“He didn’t think anything was wrong with the way he was acting. When I finally got enough courage to ask what he was going to do about me he said that we both knew we couldn’t stay together forever because that’s not how omegas work.” 

“I hope he...falls into the ocean and gets eaten by a whale,” Jimin spits. 

Seokjin chuckles softly, wiping his eyes of the couple tears that had escaped. 

“So fierce for someone so small.” 

“Hey!” 

Seokjin truly laughed that time, loud and obnoxious like the ones he always shared with Taehyung. Jimin didn’t know why making him laugh like that made him feel proud. 

“He didn’t fall into the ocean. That was a few years ago now. I hear their pack is doing well and he already has a pup and another on the way. I’m...happy for him. I think I loved him too long to really hate him,” Seokjin sighs.

“Anyway, everyone in my pack knew of my...preferences, so no one pressured me to move on after that. When we heard of this packs need...I don’t know. I wasn’t trying to escape or anything. My father was perfectly fine with me staying there and being who I am. He already has a dozen grandkids from each of my siblings. I just...I heard Jungkook and Yoongi talking about the situation and I could see how their hearts were hurting even having to make such a request. They told everyone how much the two of you were in love and what a sacrifice you were making for your pack. I couldn’t stand by and let someone take advantage of what the two of you had. I really am here just to help. Not to hurt you or Namjoon or this pack.” 

“Thank you,” Jimin finally responded quietly after a few moments. 

Seokjin nods, leaning over to place his hand on his forehead. 

“Still feels hot, but not much worse than it was earlier. How long does the tea take to kick in?” 

“Depends on my body, which usually is the worst. Maybe an hour.” 

“Hm. It’s late anyway, let's go to bed and see how you feel in the morning.” 

Suddenly, the thought of sleeping alone yet again was more than he could bear. 

“Can you…nevermind. It’s stupid. Sorry.” 

Jimin flushed, cursing his pre-heat brain. He scrambled to his furs and crawled inside.

“What do you need, Jimin.” 

The way that Seokjin was hovering over his furs and speaking so forcefully had Jimin shivering with something he didn’t want to acknowledge. 

“I just...when I’m in heat I need...to cuddle. A lot. It’s really annoying and I���m sorry for even asking. It’s probably really awkward.” 

“I’d love to if it’s really alright. I sometimes get extra touchy during my heat too, so I understand.” 

“Really?” 

“Yeah, scoot over. Just don’t hog the furs, it’s fucking freezing out there.” 

Jimin laughs as Seokjin slides under the furs with him, hearing the ‘perfect’ omega cussing somehow extra funny to him. 

“Aren’t you from some place where it snows all the time?” 

“Doesn’t mean I liked it! Maybe that's the real reason I left. I was sick of having to set my dick out to thaw every spring.” 

Jimin curled up as laughter wracked his entire body until his belly hurt. Finally, Seokjin pat his head and yawned loudly. 

“Night, Jimin.” 

“Goodnight.” 

Jimin smiled to himself as he drifted off, warm and not alone for the first time in days. 

[anistarrose]

Dog is an Elf’s Best Friend (TAZ Graduation)

Summary: The summer before our series is set, two brothers search for the cure to a curse and are led to the Unknown Forest.

Word Count: 4100

Warnings: very brief eye horror

AO3: archiveofourown.org/works/21436063

I can’t be completely sure because I can’t read Travis’s mind and I don’t know what canon is going to do, but this is probably an AU. Some parts are based of a theory I think is pretty plausible, but other parts are bigger stretches.

***

Each year, when the hottest months arrive and the students leave their Wiggenstaff dorms to visit family or pursue summer employment, there are exactly four faculty members who remain on campus. One is Hernández, who stays to take care of the resident animals, and the second is of course Groundsy, whose true motivations remain an enigma to all but is ostensibly present to repair the tower and maintain the grounds as needed.

The third is Higglemas Wiggenstaff. They say you have a better chance of catching him outside of his office in the summer than you do during the school year, but it’s still a rare occurrence. Most rooms in Wiggenstaff’s, and in the Annex in particular, get so hot in the summer that they’re practically suffocating — but rumor has it that Higglemas can and will open a portal to the Plane of Air itself, if that’s what it takes to ventilate his office and keep it at a liveable temperature.

(Most students — especially the magic users themselves, who know just how much skill it requires to open such a portal — take this rumor with a grain of salt. Higglemas has been locking himself away like this for years, but has yet to emerge from his office with any grand innovation or discovery to show for it — how competent of a wizard can he really be?)

Unbeknownst to all but Higglemas himself, the fourth faculty member is Higglemas’s dog.

At first impression, and even second and third impression, nothing seems unusual about the collie that wanders the halls of the Annex — at least, nothing more unusual than what would be expected from a pet of Higglemas’s. He’s a well-trained dog, usually aloof but occasionally willing to accept bribes in the form of food, and he seems intelligent, but not uncannily so.

But this impression of mundanity, while incorrect, is a testament to the dog’s ability to keep a secret. And as luck would have it, this ability just so happens to run in the family.

***

Today, there are two deliveries for Higglemas waiting at the wrought-iron gate to the Annex. When the dog fetches them from the courier and brings them to his office, Higg immediately tears off the brown paper covering the larger of the two packages and begins leafing through the book in search of its section on polymorph spells. He hunches over the his desk, ignoring the second package, and presses his thumb to his middle finger to stem the flow of blood from a papercut he’s given himself in his haste.

“Hrm. Smoke from mahogany wood, that might be worth investigating…” he mutters, sloppily underlining a passage in the ancient tome with a ragged-looking quill pen. Then he cross-references his notes, and scowls. “No, what am I thinking? We’ve tried mahogany wood twice now!”

He slams the book closed. “We’ve tried every type of wood by now! We’ve tried every damn combination of components in all of Nua — and none of them have done a single thing!”

The dog whimpers, nudging the second package closer to Higg. It’s a small burlap sack, containing several loaves of bread and sugary pastries ordered from the bakery in Last Hope.

The dog cannot speak, but his message is clear: You’ll never find the right components if you forget to eat and collapse from starvation.

Higg reluctantly breaks off a tiny piece of crust from one of the loaves, popping it into his mouth as he pulls out another book. Unsatisfied, the dog leaps up onto the desk, trampling all over Higg’s notes and setting the bag of food down directly on top of the book, where Higg can’t possibly ignore it.

“Oh, fuck off, Hiero!” Higg snaps. “Do you want to be stuck like this forever?”

Hiero huffs and jumps down off the desk, storming off to disappear behind one of the office’s many bookshelves.

Higg sighs. “Okay, fine! I’ll eat — look!” He magically slices two pieces of bread off of the loaf and puts a piece of cheese between them, then takes a bite and makes exaggerated chewing motions. “See, there it goes! Down the pipe! You don’t need to get all sulky on me!”

Hiero doesn’t emerge from behind the bookshelf.

“I didn’t mean to snap at you like that, okay? I’m sorry.” Higg puts his head in his hands. “It’s just — it’s been five fucking years, and I haven’t come up with anything, Hiero. I don’t know how much longer I can do this. Someone’s bound to figure us out sooner or later…”

He swivels around in his chair, pulling open the curtains covering the office’s sole window and gazing outside towards the Unknown Forest with unfocused eyes.

“Everyone knows you would’ve saved me a long time ago, if I’d gotten cursed,” he whispers. “But I’ve tried every idea I can think of, every single spell component I know, and you’re still a dog…”

Hiero pokes his head out from his hiding place just in time to see his brother abruptly lean closer to the window, a smile suddenly spreading across his face.

“So that means the missing piece of the puzzle must be unknown to us, so to speak…” Higgs muses out loud.

Hiero barks so loud that it startles a bird flying by outside. You’d better not be planning what I think you’re planning! You’re just going to get yourself killed!

But Higg is already on his way to the door, throwing on a cloak and dusting off a longsword that hasn’t seen use in decades.

“Quit being such a worrywart, Hiero. I’m going to the Unknown Forest, I’m gonna burn some of the shit I find there, and then I’m going to get you back to normal.”

***

The smoke is the most vital component of a potent True Polymorph spell, on that much all sources agree. A cloud of smoke can change shape unlike any other substance, responding instantaneously to even the gentle guidance of a faint breeze. It represents impermanence and entropy, and the delicate act of channeling something fluid into a different, yet recognizable form.

But Higg has found all sorts of differing accounts on what type of smoke works best. Not all of them are contradictory — some recommend burnt driftwood specifically for a transformation into a sea creature, and others endorse candle smoke with a dash of copper sprinkled in for bats and other nocturnal creatures. Others still swear by a piece of parchment with writing on it, ideally a few words that evoke the creature one is trying to transform into.

But there is no recorded precedent, much less a scientific consensus, on how to reverse a curse and turn one’s brother from a dog back into an elf, so Higg has resorted to simply trying every possible combination of components he can think of. He still consults old texts from time to time, but neither research nor trial and error have resulted in even the faintest hint of a lead.

Hence his current plan: walking straight into the deadliest forest on Nua. Somewhere in between storming out of his office, and finding himself in the northeast corner of the campus green, he’s come to accept that it’s one of his worst plans ever — but it’s also the only plan he has left, and there’s no plan that’s worse than not trying anything.

He notices that Hiero is trotting after him, lagging behind by a few dozen feet. As much as Higg hates the idea of Hiero following him into the forest, his presence is oddly reassuring, because it tells Higg that even despite their earlier spat, his brother does still worry about him charging off to his death.

We really have flipped our old hero-sidekick dynamic on its head these past few years, haven’t we…

“You’re not heading to the Unknown Forest, are ya, Wiggs?”

Groundsy’s voice makes Higg jump — the groundskeeper, despite his impressive height and lumbering gait, always seems to appear out of nowhere even when Higg is completely expecting to run into him.

“I am heading in, but not so far that I lose sight of daylight. I’ll hurry back out at the first sign of trouble, I assure you.” Higg’s impression of Hiero’s voice is flawless, as is his disguise spell. (It has to be, in order for him to run the school in his brother’s place while he puzzles out the polymorph curse.)

“Well, what in the world for? You’re about to take quite a risk here, Wiggs — what reward are ya hoping to reap from this little expedition?”

Higg summons every ounce of elfin disdain he can muster as he replies: “Need I remind you, Groundsy, that you are in my employ — and so accordingly, I don’t have to justify myself to you? With my unmatched wisdom, I selected this particular site for my school out of nearly a hundred alternatives, and I have lived in the tower above this forest for over two centuries! If anyone knows what is or isn’t worth venturing into the Unknown Forest for, it would be me — the astute and frankly legendary Hieronymous Wiggenstaff! So put a bit more faith into your headmaster and let me go about my business uninterrupted, would you?”

Hiero’s ears twitch with a fair amount of elfin disdain of his own as he listens. This is no longer an “impression” of me. This is flat-out caricature.

Groundsy doesn’t seem too bothered by so-called-Hieronymous’s scathing rebuke. “Well, if ya find yourself in trouble, ya can always call for help!” he reminds Higg. “I won’t come in to rescue ya, but it’ll make the story more interesting when I tell everyone how the legendary Hieronymous Wiggenstaff met his match!”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Higg replies dryly. He puts his hand on the hilt of his sword, about to march into the forest, but Groundsy speaks up again:

“Oh, that’s a new sword, isn’t it?”

“My usual blade is out being resharpened by an expert smith,” Higg fibs. “I’m borrowing this one from Higglemas — since we have about the same build, and he certainly never uses it.”

“Borrowing his dog too, I see! Will you be using him to lead you through the forest by scent?”

“The dog goes where he pleases. I don’t have any say over it.” Higg turns around to give Hiero a glare. “Though I hope he has enough common sense not to follow me into the woods. He has no magic, no sword — he wouldn’t last a minute in there.”

“Oh, I’ll keep an eye on him for ya! Groundsy’s great with animals!” Groundsy kneels down to pet Hiero, who backs away and growls.

“Try and get along for just a few minutes, you two,” Higg tells them. “This shouldn’t take me very long.”

And if it does take longer than a minute or two, you’ll have more pressing concerns than each other’s company.

He casts Light on his sword as he steps closer to the woods, holding it out at arm’s length to illuminate the uneven terrain beneath his feet. He passes several jagged, half-buried boulders and treads across dead and gnarled old roots left behind by a long-gone tree, then warily comes to a halt a few feet away from the forest’s edge. Behind him, the sun is just as bright as one would expect from a cloudless summer day, but in front of him, it’s dark like midnight on the night of a new moon.

He hears Hiero whimper from a safe distance away, but he doesn’t turn back. There is a sapling at the edge of the tree line, bearing only a dozen or so leaves on each of its wiry branches, and he confidently strides towards it, gripping the thinnest-looking branch in a gloved hand and preparing to snap it off —

It doesn’t break. The branch is as rigid as steel, and feels deathly cold even through the insulation of his glove.

“Damn it, why didn’t I just bring a fucking axe?” Higg shivers, reluctantly raising his sword. He’d hate to damage it trying to chop down an unnaturally hardy tree, but collecting branches by hand wasn’t working, and he won’t let this perilous trip turn out to be for nothing.

Hiero barks as Higg swings his sword down, and Higg jumps, missing the sapling entirely.

“What the hell was that about? Don’t do that when I’m holding a bladed weapon —”

Hiero barks again, more urgently this time, and a realization dawns on Higg a second too late.

The tree roots he’d mistaken for dead have come very much alive — now they’re coiling around his feet, snaking up his boots, constricting his legs. As Hiero let’s out another frantic howl, they jerk violently, yanking Higgs off balance and dragging him backwards into the Unknown Forest.

“Fuck!” Higg swings his sword wildly, desperately trying to cut his feet loose, but it bounces straight off the bark of the roots. Its light dims as he’s carried further into the woods, and every other second he either gets a faceful of prickling branches or feels his head slam into the trunk of a tree, leaving his face bloodied and ears ringing.

Who’s going to save Hiero if I die in here? No one else even knows the truth —

He plunges his sword into the ground, miraculously finding a narrow chink between two immobile, iron-hard roots and piercing deep into the cold earth beneath them. The force at his feet keeps pulling, but his grip on the hilt of his weapon stays firm, and he doesn’t budge.

“Take that, you abducting arboreal bastards!” he spits, pulling his wand from his pocket and blindly aiming a freezing blast of wind towards his feet.

The roots immediately convulse, jerking upwards and hoisting Higg and his sword vertically out of the ground — only to stop moving a second later, leaving him suspended in the air. They glimmer in the light of his now-freed blade, and he realizes with a smile that he’s frozen every damn inch of them solid.

“Good riddance,” he growls, and strikes them once more with his sword — and this time, they shatter into thousands of icy crystals.

He feels less triumphant after tumbling to the ground and landing a bit less gracefully than he’d like — and what’s more, he realizes he’s somehow lost his grip on his wand.

“Shit, shit, shit…” He swings his sword in wide arcs, trying to illuminate as much of the surrounding forest as he can. None of the trees here seem to be as mobile as the roots that captured him, but he still flinches every time he feels something brush against his ankle. Once he finds his wand, though, he’ll be able to just levitate above the treetops and fly back to safety…

He glimpses a familiar polished marble rod atop a pile of ebony-dark leaves, but before he can pick it up, a chattering squirrel darts past and snatches it up beneath its teeth. Luckily, the creature doesn’t run far, instead opting to scamper up a tree and perch atop a low-hanging branch. It still holds the wand beneath its teeth as it stares at Higg with accusing eyes.

“I know I’m intruding on your territory, but I promise you, it wasn’t intentional,” Higg says softly, slowly stepping towards the squirrel and holding out an outstretched hand. “Now, I’d really appreciate it if you could just drop that wand you’re carrying…”

The squirrel’s tail erupts into purple flames and it snaps the solid stone wand between its teeth, chattering with delight as it stuffs the two halves into its mouth and gulps them down.

Higg hastily steps back, tightening his grip on his sword, but the squirrel darts away without another glance at him, and the forest falls eerily silent.

“Hiero?!” he shouts. “Groundsy? Can you hear me?!”

There’s no reply. And even worse, it dawns on him that he has no idea which way he came from — if he’d broken any branches or left any sort of trail while being dragged in, the plants have already regrown to cover it.

If he dies here and leaves Hiero stuck as a dog forever, all because he didn’t recognize Hiero’s own warnings in time, then… well, that sure would be an appropriate way to cap off his miserable, failure-wracked life, wouldn’t it? Really, he should’ve seen this result coming from the first moment the idea of entering the Unknown Forest popped into his head —

Think, Higglemas. Don’t give up, think. What would Hieronymous do to get his bearings?

He gazes up towards the blanket of pitch black leaves overhead, through which only a few tiny pinpricks of starlight reach through…

The stars, that’s it! Higg is no scholar of astronomy, but he does know the major constellations, as well as the approximate geographic layout of the Unknown Forest as a whole — with the stars in view, he can surely deduce the fastest route back to safety. Rather than sheathing his sword and blocking his only source of light, he ties it to his belt, and he selects a climbable looking tree — offering a sturdy trunk, ample branches for handholds and footholds, and most importantly, roots that don’t come alive even after giving them an experimental poke.

But almost as soon as he begins to scale the tree, things go wrong. The bark is unnaturally slick, and initially stable footholds melt away beneath his boots, sending him sliding back down the trunk to land on his rear in a pool of foul-smelling oil.

“Damn it!” Higg takes a running start at a different tree, leaping for the lowest-hanging branch, but it liquifies in his hand, and once again he tumbles to the ground.

So much for the stars saving me…

A bush a few feet away from him rustles, and Higg freezes.

But the forest goes quiet.

Concluding that his imagination had worked against him, Higg lets out a sigh of relief — then the bush rustles again.

(Is it the same bush? Or was the sound closer this time?)

He draws his ever-dimming sword, and from the bush there comes an eerie creak, like a footstep on a floorboard. But at least it isn’t advancing towards him anymore — he can work with this.

He’s about to take the first of what would hopefully be many slow steps backwards, away from the rustling creature, when he hears it. Somewhere behind the bush, a dog is barking, and though it’s distant and muffled, Higg recognizes it instantly.

“Hiero! I’m coming!!” he shouts, and charges towards the bushes.

Between the cover of the plants and the cover of darkness, the being that lurches forward to meet him is difficult to perceive, but Higg glimpses it in brief flashes as he swings his blade —

At least four spindly arms, probably more. Fingers whittled into points.

Ash-grey bark peeling away to reveal eyes, so many eyes. Pulsating black pupils, surrounded by spiderwebs of crimson veins.

A cavity between two forking branches, in which rows of fangs drip sickly-sweet sap.

Higg lets out a guttural roar and skewers the beast through its torso, casting its hollow body aside and sprinting onwards to the source of Hiero’s barks. But a stray vine trips him, and his heart skips a beat in his chest as he feels it ensnare his ankle in a familiar death grip —

Hiero springs out of the shadows, a terrifying bundle of momentum and determination in canine form, and barrels into the vine with so much force that even Higg gets jerked a few feet. The vine doesn’t release him, but it goes just limp enough for Higg to slip out of his trapped boot, and Hiero darts to his side as the two of them break into a run again without a single word exchanged.

If Higg didn’t know better, he would’ve sworn his brother had done this before. Hiero keeps his tail close to Higg’s legs and his nose close to the ground, barking and swinging his tail every few dozen feet to signal for Higg to turn. When they finally breach the tree line, they skid to a halt and whirl around to face the forest — Higg with his sword drawn, Hiero with haunches raised and teeth bared — and wait several terrifying seconds before finally collapsing to the ground, confident that no creatures will follow them out of the woods.

“Well, I’ll be a unicorn on the barn roof!” Groundsy begins to applaud, rushing to Higg’s side with a huge smile on his face. “Ya made it out in once piece, both you and your dog!”

“He’s my brother’s dog, not mine —” Higg begins, before looking down at his hands and clothes and realizing that his Disguise Self spell is, of course, long gone.

“Oh, don’t ya give me that schtick! Your secret is safe with me, Higgsy!” Groundsy tells him with a wink.

Higg breathes a temporary sigh of relief, mentally debating the ethics of looking into a memory-erasing spell later. Unless huts are involved, Groundsy’s secret-keeping abilities usually leave much to be desired.

“From the looks of things, ya almost did kick the bucket in there,” Groundsy goes on. “I hope ya at least got ahold of whatever it was ya went in for?”

Higg plucks a few pointed twigs from his cloak and pants, holding them gingerly and cupping his free hand beneath them to catch the oil that they drip.

“Well, not quite in the way I wanted to. But I’m thinking this’ll suit my purposes just fine.”

***

Hiero sits impatiently at the center of a room that has seen many explosive fires and failed rituals, waiting for Higg to finish his preparations. There are circles of chalk that must be drawn, dust from previous failures that must be swept up, and most importantly, oil from the Unknown Forest that must be burned.

Higg watches the flames turn an unnatural purple color, pointing a freshly obtained wand at the bowl of oil and concentrating on channeling the smoke. As he directs wisps of it past his face and towards Hiero, he’s somewhat put off by how normal it smells — it has a slightly more earthen scent than the usual flammable components he uses, but there’s nothing particularly otherworldly about it. Nothing to indicate that this might be the breakthrough he’s awaited for years.

“Ready?” he asks Hiero, pushing his doubts to the back of his mind, and Hiero nods, sitting up on his hind legs. They’ve always speculated that a bipedal posture might help reversing the polymorph — though of course, it’s not like they’ve had any success to show for it.

Hiero holds his breath as Higg surrounds him with a plume of smoke and begins to chant, carefully enunciating words in a long-dead language that even most elves don’t remember. The room quickly darkens in a way that it never has before, as the smoke absorbs the ambient light and begins to glow in an inconsistent shimmering pattern that evokes stars scattered across a deep indigo sky.

Higg, too, holds his breath as thin wisps of that smoke coil around Hiero one at a time, slowly blending together and changing in shape. The obscured silhouette of a collie transforms, snout shortening and legs elongating — and then it all disperses with a sudden clap of wind, leaving behind an elfin man who instantly collapses to the floor.

“Higglemas?” Hiero croaks, staring down at his trembling hands. “Did we —”

He coughs up a cloud of acrid red smog, convulsing and arching his back.

“NO! WAIT! Do something, Higg! I can’t —”

Higg dives after his brother, eyes stinging from the fumes as Hiero’s voice breaks and distorts back into a howl. Higg wraps his arms around a thrashing collie, and Hiero goes limp, red-tinged foam still dripping from his mouth as his younger brother whispers:

“We’re getting so close, Hiero. Don’t give up on me now, not when we’re so damn close.”

Hiero whimpers weakly, hanging his head.

“We have a lead now,” Higg continues, summoning all the optimism he can muster into his voice no matter how sick he felt watching Hiero revert. “And in just a few weeks, we’ll have a new class of students, too — odds are one of them will know their way around animals and shapeshifting.”

He gently pats Hiero on the back, running his hand over fur until he can feel that Hiero has stopped trembling. “We’ve got more to go on than ever before. We’re going to figure this out one way or another, I promise.”

Hiero’s eyes close as he rests his head on Higg’s knee. I hope so.

***

(End notes:

Thanks for reading, comments are always welcomed!

While I genuinely believe the Hiero Dog Theory as a whole has a lot of weight to it, certain parts of this are certainly going to get proven wrong sooner or later, but it was still extremely fun to write! I am historically a huge sucker for grumpy old men with hidden depths, so I got invested in Higglemas right away.)

[sircaterpillar1267]

(the pictures are from a website that hasn’t been updated recently about the fires. there are more and they have spread wider)

I don’t like to share much about myself on the internet but this needs to be said.

Hi, I am a fourteen-year-old girl with asthma issues and anxiety from Australia, more specifically, Canberra (the capital city of Australia, the political capital, and the bush capital.)

In just 2018 my home was voted as the worlds most liveable city, and very recently we have become the city with the worst air quality in the world. we didn’t get there from overpopulation, heavy traffic, or not enough trees (we are quite the opposite actually) we got there from the fact that we are literally surrounded by fire.

(like I said above, the map hasn’t been updated recently)

We aren’t supposed to leave the house without a gas mask. So many people have been evacuated from the fires, while many have been lost to them. We have lost so many homes, pets, and wildlife to the fires too.

There is a reason we are called the bush capital. the whole city is covered with trees, and since it’s summer here they are all incredibly dry and easy to burn.

And if my city does catch flames and we need to evacuate there are only two roads open leading out of here, so they will be packed with cars so we might not even get out of here!

It is very common knowledge that Australia is hot in the summer and that we have a lot of droughts and bushfires but not like this.

usually in the summer the fires and droughts are small and manageable, so everyone can just keep going with their lives under the summery blue sky.

we can’t do that this time. the whole sky where I live is grey and gloomy. it looks foggy and cold almost but it’s not. it’s boiling hot and you can’t breathe.

Just a few days ago I went down to my girlfriend’s grandparents farm for new years with their family and them. when we first left the fires around there were fine and it was completely safe. the car ride there was three hours and it was still safe when we got there. about an hour of just lounging around later we had dinner but quickly stopped because we had to pack up and leave or we would have been trapped there by the fires. the fire had quickly spread there and was creeping towards the main road out of there which is over a mountain (The Brown). It was supposed to be a three-day trip, but it was only nine hours.

Hey, here’s a couple more facts about my home and the fires right now.

OUR FUCKING PRIME MINISTER WAS ALL HAPPY ON VACATION WITH HIS FAMILY IN HAWAII!! The country is in crisis, what the fuck was he doing?! He was gone for ages and only came back on the twenty-first of December!!

Another fact that makes the last one look even worse: The fires started in August (our winter) and it’s now January. This is month six of my country burning away. IT HAS BEEN BURNING FOR ALMOST HALF A YEAR PEOPLE!! Our leader knew the country was in a crisis when he left! I saw him in person not long before he went on holiday! Before he left it was just as bad around Canberra too. Us school kids weren’t allowed outside during break times or during PE.

There is so much more I could say, but this is already really long.

So, I think you can get that I am fucking terrified, and extremely pissed off right now.

I’m scared guys. so fucking scared right now. I want my home to be safe. I want my family to be safe. I want my friends to be safe. I want my country to be safe.

[awed-frog]

It’s not that exciting, really - I just get irritable and disappointed when I witness something that’s weird enough not to be completely plausible and yet so boring that even if this should turn out to be a supernatural event, who the fuck cares, uh? Nobody, that’s who. Like, this one time I saw two ladies I’m pretty sure were shifters, but they weren’t really doing anything worth mentioning (I stood there and watched them for a while, but they just seemed lost and also there was a siren in my lizard brain going DANGER DANGER, so I finally drew the curtains tight and hid under the bed), and this other time a drunk werelady walked down my street but she just barked at some cars before disappearing?, and that’s almost worse than nothing happening at all. And as for Apricot Man - long story short, I hate working around people but this stupid heatwave has forced me from my house, and the closest liveable option around here is the Physics Library, so here I am, minding my own business and trying to ignore how I’m surrounded by smug, unfriendly books I have zero chances to ever read or understand, when this fucking guy walks right in and sits right next to me and why do people do that? Why? He’s got a whole fucking library, and it’s mostly fucking empty, because it’s August and normal people happily wandered off to any place that’s not this one, but nope - he’s got to come here and he’s got to sit here and this is the third day in a row he’s done that and seriously what the hell?

(My boyfriend pointed out it’s likely I’m the intruder - that poor Apricot Man always sits there and now he’s suddenly forced to share his living space with me - to which I answered that a) nice try, b) the common law in this country is to stay the fuck away from one another whenever possible and c) this desk is not the Magical Desk of Destiny carved out of the Blessèd Yggdrasil Itself or anything like that, so you literally lose nothing if you sit somewhere else and d) I got here first, anyway, because I’ve been here since ass o’clock in the morning and he normally comes in after six and also e) Apricot Man is clearly a cryptid, which means it’s his God-given duty to blend into the landscape and trying to pass as human so as to not alert hunters to the presence of a nest.)

So, yeah, here I am, minding my own business and doing honest, grown-up work when this guy rolls in - literally rolls in: he’s got these 90s skates I haven’t seen in twenty-fuck years (God, I’m ancient) and it’s just not practical, let me tell you that, questionable choice right there, because he’s almost seven feet tall and with those things, Jesus, every. single. time. he moves he’s got to duck or risk being beheaded by doors and shelves - but never mind that, he rolls in and sits down next to me disregarding the fact the library is basically a post zombie apocalypse wasteland of nothing at all and it’s just me and this desperate smol student two rooms down and that’s it, turns a computer on, and then proceeds to pile about three pounds of apricots in the empty space between us (and they’re not even in season anymore, so this is not some ‘his mom’s got a tree and what is he supposed to do, poor guy’ situation - this is a deliberate and expensive and horrifying choice on his part). And on top of everything else - I mean, we’re all allowed to do our own thing and yay for self-determination and the illusion of free will, but something else that’s just nope about him is that he’s got long, unkempt hair and it’s not clear what his deal is - if he’s got no running water at home, if he’s not washing it out of some political reason, if he’s actively going for some kind of mossy hay aesthetic, who knows - also I did a double take on the first day because he looks like he’s not wearing any pants? Which? What? And as it turns out, he is wearing pants, but he’s wearing something that’s two inches away from being a jeans thong, so when he’s rolling around his t-shirt covers it completely, you know?, and all you see if you’re sitting down is six feet of bony, hairy legs moving around seemingly on their bloody own and you’re lazily, vaguely wondering what’s missing until you realize you were fully expecting to see a swinging free-range penis doing its own thing there in the middle and swish swish swish and wheeee? But whatever, it’s hot and I’m fine with that, who cares - what I’m less fine with, to be honest, is that the entire time he’s here, the only reason he feels the need to sit at this precise desk for three hours every night is to check out mattresses on eBay? 

(Mattresses. On eBay.)

And he’ll do that, he’ll scroll down one page, then another, and then he’ll start on those fucking apricots - I’m seriously doing my best not to notice here because I’m polite like that, also I’m working and I’ve got two novels to finish and an urgent deadline and watching people is not really my thing, but fuck - you know those egg-eating snakes, how they open their jaws wide and just gobble up that white and shiny and juicy egg whole, shell and all, ‘cause they’re snakes, right, and that’s what they do and bless their little snouts? Well, this is how Apricot Man eats his apricots. Swear to God. Instead of halving them like any reasonable person would (if you don’t halve your apricots, don’t even try to defend or justify your poor life choices, idgaf), he pops them in his mouth, one after the other, and I’m pretty sure he swallows them whole, stones and all? It’s seriously disturbing how he does that, and how focused and relentless he is - like, I’m sitting here and adding yet another irregular verb to my list of doom and all I can hear is this gulping noise - glop, glop, glop - and after those three hours he’s been allotted out his magical cage are up, that’s it, all the apricots are gone, there’s no stones anywhere, maybe he’s bought a mattress, or two, or twenty, who even knows - he turns the computer off, tightens his skates, and off he rolls.

You see how that’s not normal? And yet so peculiarly uninteresting that yeah, maybe this guy is some kind of mage or a shifter or a gull stuck in a human body, but who cares? Who the fuck cares? This is not the kind of magic I signed up for. These are not the monsters I need in my life. 

(Jesus Christ - a fruit-swallowing mattress enthusiast? These are the cryptids we’re stuck with? Most cursed timeline indeed.)

So, anyway, the only difference today is that he rolled in carrying a melon and a tub of yoghurt that was easily the size of a paint bucket (and yeah, maybe it was paint, who even knows) and then proceeded to eat that entire thing with a teaspoon and I don’t even know where he bought it, okay, because I remember I once needed an insane amount of yoghurt for some Christmas recipe and as it turns out, shops just don’t sell buckets of the stuff because what we’ve built here is a normal and God-fearing and civilized society and also we’re fully human and fuck off.

But the melon - the melon is still there.

Fuck.

I was determined to pull an all-nighter if necessary, to sit here and force him to actually dislocate his jaw to swallow that thing whole so I can have irrefutable proof that people who’ve got no sense of personal space actually do belong to a different species, but sadly that’s not happening because - unlike him - I’m human and I have human things to do and I don’t care, in any case - I don’t want this, I demand better - dragons and selkies and morally ambiguous fae princes - I don’t care about this melon eating monstrosity - he can have his Very Special desk and I hope he’ll find a mattress long enough for his bug legs and soon he’ll be gone, anyway - there must be a migrating pattern for things like him, I’m sure of it, and maybe I can help him out - start a conversation and tell him South Africa is now growing avocadoes the size of a bloody coconut and watch his transparent eyes light up, poor guy.

(Imagine the stone inside those things.

The dream.)

[madstheghost]

I apologize in advance for this post, as it kind of cheers away from the types of subjects I generally prefer to flood my blog with. I just happen to be one of those people who feels infinitely better after they have typed out whatever is bothering them.

I am a disabled person, and due to earning less than 1k per month I have to rent. I know that one day I will be able to buy a house, but it just isn’t in the immediate future for me. The house I live in (the lease is up on June 26 and it is currently April 21) is owned by a property management. This means there is no sole landlord. Rather, it is overseen by a couple of office managers and the owner of the establishment. I have lived here since July of 2017 (it is 2019 now) and have yet to meet the actual owner of the property management, and at first this did not seem like an issue. During the initial viewing there did not appear to be an issue with the woman in charge of our property, we will call her Mila, and the property seemed to be in satisfactory condition.

Something you should know before progressing further in this story is that I was not a part of the initial viewing and I did not move in until weeks after my roommates did. They were both vulnerable a naive people, seeing as they were from overprotective families and had never lived away from home. However, their parents viewed the property and assured me all was well.

So I move in after they are already settled in and I start immediately noticing some issues. One of the windows had no screen, one of the glass panes on a window had a huge crack in it, and the front door did not appear to shut all the way, leaving a huge gap where you could easily break in. I brought this to Mia’s attention and she apologized and said she would sent maintenance right away. Well, a couple of months go by and nobody comes. The door issue had gotten worse, and on top of that half the electricity in the kitchen kept blinking off. It happened to be the half with the oven and the microwave, of course. Plus, when I tried to clean the stove the burners literally disintegrated in my hand. I called Mia again and asked for maintenance. They finally came, but were essentially useless. They would stay for about ten minutes while talking on their phones loudly, and leave when they felt like it, sometimes without even bothering to be sure their solution to our problems had worked.

By the end of our first six months of living here I had been forced to call for maintenance about ten times. It was at this point that a mass email to all tenants was sent, stating that the maintenance system was being “abused.” Well, I wouldn’t have had to “abuse” it if my house had been liveable.

This kind of nonsense became our normal and in February we were suddenly greeted by a document that stated we had to decide whether we would continue our lease or not. Our lease was not over until the end of June and they were going to increase our rent by quite a lot. We were essentially trapped there. Nothing was available nearby and all other landlords around us told us that nothing would open until the end of April or early May. So we had no way of knowing for sure whether we could find something or not. I have specific needs that need to be met in the house I live in, and my roommates could only live a certain distance from work or their benefits would be cut off.

We all decided that we were pretty stuck for another year, but that we would start searching for a new place the following spring. This is around the time everyone started voicing their upset about Mia.

I explained to them that I had been accused of abusing the maintenance system and that at another time I had brought it to her attention that the lease agreement clearly stated that if we wanted a dishwasher we could ask for one at the office and it would be delivered to us. We chose this house over another one because of this option. When I told Mia I was in need of one because my disability was making it too difficult to stand at the sink long enough, she told me it had been a “typo” and to just “go buy one” myself. I said I did not understand how an entire, clearly worded sentence, could be a typo and she never responded.

My roommates then informed me that she often used the same nasty tones in emails to them. Apparently she had also forced them to pay for bars to be put in the shower before I moved. Legally, she was not supposed to do this since it violated the ADA laws. She had also failed to ever conduct an inspection on the property. My roommates told me that she simply handed them a paper and told them to make a checklist of what was damaged before moving in. My roommates are not home owners and they were not aware of what kind of things they should be looking for. They said that in the photos of the property online the house looked nearly perfect, but when they actually moved there were dark urine stains on the wood floors and damaged windows. I told them that they should always complete a checklist before moving in and that they needed to bring this issue to the property management’s attention before they even put one piece of furniture inside. They told me they thought taking date stamped photos would be enough. I told them they share the blame for this one, but that Mia also took full advantage of their naivety.

The last straw that caused me to want to run out of here was in December. The hot water heater basically stopped working. I had maintenance come and one man came. Let’s call him Bill. Bill told me that he had a feeling something had been wrong with it because the downstairs neighbor had experienced multiple leaks through her ceiling. I asked why it was not looked into and Bill said Mia had said it must have been because I wasn’t paying enough attention to my washing machine. He had explained to her that the washing machine wasn’t even in the same room as the leak downstairs, but she brushed him off.

When Bill called Mia to ask where the hot water heater was he put her on speaker phone so he could hear while while he worked. Mia has a very nasty tone to her voice and repeatedly told him that I should know where it is and that she had no clue. She already sounded annoyed. It was not my responsibility to know where it was since I don’t own the house. He argued with her that she should have paperwork on the house as well as a layout to consult. In the end we had to find it ourselves. Once the hot water heater was located, Bill was horrified. He said that it was so incredibly rusted through and damaged that he didn’t know how it hadn’t bursted and hurt us yet. He immediately got back on the phone with Mia and the conversation went as follows.

Bill: Hey, I’m at the *bleep* residence and the hot water heater is in really bad shape. I need to go get a new one.

Mia: Well, go get one next week because those aren’t cheap.

Bill: I can’t wait, I have to go today, like right now. It’s a danger to the person here.

Mia: She must have done something to it then because I have no record of it being damaged.

Bill: She can’t have damaged it. This is at least ten year’s worth of damage and it’s going to burst. I need to get a new one now.

I didn’t catch the rest but Mia basically kept insisting that I must have damaged the hot water heater, even though the damage had obviously been caused by rust. Bill stormed off to buy a new one and installed it for me within an house. Bill informed me that this was not the first time Mia had spoken badly about me and that he thought it might be because I cost her a lot of money. I said I wouldn’t have cost her any money had she actually made sure the house was ready for new tenants, and Bill agreed.

Fast forward to recent days. We informed Mia that we all planned to leave the property as soon as our lease was over this year. As soon as she found out she started causing more problems than ever. She sent us a document that stated in large letters that we must only send the document back if one or more tenants planned to remain at the residence. She even sent all of us an email repeating this. About three weeks ago she planned a showing of our unit for a potential new tenant. I called and informed her that I had cats and that they were runners so I needed to know whether she wanted me to take them to my new house or lock them in one of the bedrooms. She told me in an email and again over the phone that it was perfectly acceptable to keep them in the spare room.

Long story short, she never showed up for that showing. I asked what happened and she tried to claim that no showing had been scheduled because she had no idea whether or not we planned to stay. I said that we did not and she told me that we needed to send back the document that stated we no longer planned to stay. I informed her that we never received such a document, and at that point she stopped responding.

About two days later she schedule another showing for 10:00am. I spent the whole night making sure the apartment was in satisfactory condition and at about 9:45 I locked the cats in the spare room. Well, 10:00 came and went and there was no sign of Mia. Then it got to 10:20, still no Mia, and by this point the potential tenant had been standing around in the yard for about fifteen minutes. It got all the way to almost 11:00 and my roommate said he had to get ready to go to work and to let him know if Mia showed up. Of course, as soon as he started getting dressed she arrived.

Mia knocked and before allowing her in I had a small conversation with her.

Me: Hi! I have the cats in the small bedroom. If you want I can show you photos I have of the room with or without furniture, and if they want to see it in person just let me go in first so I can hold the cats back.

Mia: Oh, that is no problem, don’t worry about it. We won’t need that.

Me: My roommate is also getting ready for work, but if you wait about two minutes you can see his room, too.

Mia: No, it’s fine.

She then rushed the potential tenant through the house in about two minutes before returning to me.

Me: Are you sure you don’t want to see those two rooms? I can really let you see the room the cats are in and my roommate is almost done.

Mia: No, it’s really fine. So when is your lease up?

Me: End of June.

Potential Tenant: *looking at Mia in surprise*

Mia: Oh.

She then left the house while announcing that there would likely be another showing later that week.

My roommate came out of his room and we had a conversation about how weird the showing had been. He suspected that she was rushing because she knew the house was not in good condition since she didn’t want to repair anything, and because she had likely told the potential tenant the wrong move in date.

Friday arrived and there was no word of another showing so I figured she was just off fixing her mistakes.

Nope.

We are suddenly bombarded by an aggressively worded email by the owner of the property management. He stated that Mia had informed him that the residence had a foul odor, that there were dirty dishes piled up all over the kitchen, and that we REFUSED to allow Mia entry into two of the bedrooms.

I subsequently had a panic attack before hitting the roof. I had cleaned the entire house from floor to ceiling myself, and every room had at least two Glade plugins. Sorry you hate the scent of clean so much. There were not piles of dishes in the kitchen. I had run out of dish soap unexpectedly (this type of thing happens when you live with other people) and I can’t drive since I have seizures. So the dishes from only the previous day were soaking in the sink. There were three plates, a couple of pans, and two cups all soaking in soapy water. And don’t even get me started on us not allowing her access to two of the rooms. My roommate even backed me up and said he heard me offer to allow them to see the rooms multiple times and that Mia had shot all of them down. Her lies have caused the owner to threaten us with early eviction. He is coming to view the property next Monday and if he does not think it is perfect he is kicking us out. Our greater fear is that she will have shown him the same years old photos that she showed my roommates before we moved in and that she will blame us for all the stains on the floors and busted stove top.

My roommates were at a loss, but I have a plan. I refuse to be bullied like this. I will allow the owner to view the property. If he has an issue with it, I plan to give him the list (with evidence) of everything Mia has done to us since we moved in. I will then explain that if they wish to continue to harass us we have no problem with taking them to court for repeatedly breaking their end of the lease.

Please learn from us and be kind with whatever you say. We are human being who make mistakes and are constantly learning new things every day. What May be common sense to one person may be brand new information to another. Just learn from everything we have been through and be safe out there.

[swanky-batman]

Captain Rogers and the Time Traveler Part 2/2

Steve Rogers x Reader

Warnings: violence, descriptions of shooting, swearing, etc.

Part 2! Thinking about doing a short fic at some point to tell a side tale. ;) Hope you guys enjoy.

Masterlist

Part 1

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

Parts of buildings were in ruin around you and the area looked to be for the abandoned and homeless- then when you looked out over some of the pieces you saw a city bright with lights and technology.

“I can’t tell you because I don’t know what specifics Bucky did while he was with Hydra but something he did or didn’t do changed a lot.” You sighed, thinking. “Wait a minute, didn’t he end up murdering Tony Stark’s mother and father?”

He nodded slightly, his jaw still ajar, “So you’re saying they’re still alive? That him not killing people caused this?”

You cleared your throat, “Look- it really doesn’t matter. I have to come up with a plan to distract our other selves so he goes back to his past.” You lowered your voice, “I know you wanted better for him but he’s interfered with too much. I have to put it back. The best you can do is help him heal afterwards.” You slapped him on the back, “It’s been a pleasure, Cap, really.” You turned to walk away.

“Wait, hang on.” He caught your arm. “I’m coming with you.”

You snorted, “No offense, Cap, but I think you’ve done enough.” You pulled free of his grasp.

“First off, it’s Steve.” His voice hitched in volume, “Second, I screwed up- I can admit that.”

“Screwed. Up.” You cut him off, raising yours again. “You changed history, probably killed others in the process-”

“How do we know this is worse?!” He cut you back off, looking around, “Sure, this doesn’t look great but how do you know other things haven’t happened?”

“Howard Stark sold his products in the war!” You were shouting now, grabbing his hand, “You wanna see what happened? Let’s see.” You stormed up the street and continued, trying to figure out where there was anyone who could offer information.

Something whizzed by your head, and then landed in front of you. It looked almost like Iron Man, “State your business.” It insisted.

“Tony, it’s me.” Steve spoke up, stepping forward.

It’s hand went up in defense, “State your business.” The voice was too mechanical.

Steve straightened, “I wish to speak with Tony Stark.”

“Not possible. State your business.”

You both looked at each other, “Why is it not possible?” You asked.

“Because Tony Stark died several years ago in a trip to Afghanistan. State your business.”

Steve bit his lip in confusion as you spoke again, “We wish to speak with Howard Stark.”

“On what demands?”

“He’ll want to talk to his old friend.” You swung a finger at Steve’s chest.

“Steve Rogers.” Steve spoke before the robot could ask.

The iron man look alike took a moment before putting down his weapon, “I will bring you there now.”

He grabbed you and Steve around the waist and heaved you up in the air without further warning. You think you shrieked coming off the ground. It flew you over everything and it looked worse from above. People were absent or looked to be absent from 80% of the city, the other 20% looking like Vegas 2.0 with billboards and ads from Stark Industries.

He set you down on the rooftop of the largest one and told you both to sit.

You wheezed slightly, trying to catch your breath. “What the crap was that?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like how it looks out there. Where are all the other people?”

“Ready for me to leave yet, Cap?” You asked with a little mockery in your voice.

“For us to leave.” He set his jaw.

“It really is you, Cap!” Howard Stark walked in, not looking his 100+ years at all.

Steve audibly gulped, “Howard- you look....”

“Pretty great, I know. And you! You’re looking… very alive.” He grinned. “I age well, what can I say?”

“What happened to Tony?” You asked.

He frowned a little, turning his attention to you, “Who is this?”

“A friend.” Steve spoke, cutting you off. “You haven’t aged- at all?”

He laughed, “That’s nice of you to say, Steve, but I have aged.” He beat on his chest and you both heard a little bit of a drum sound. “In case you’ve forgotten, anyone can live on now.”

“Robots?” You snorted.

He grinned back, “Just a metal case over a very real brain. Stark technology.”

Steve shook his head, “This isn’t right, you shouldn’t-”

“We shouldn’t live as long as you?” He gave a sad smile, tapping a button on his desk, “Pity, I think someone would like to hear that coming from you.”

A moment later there was a knock on the door to which Howard said, “Come in.”

A woman walked in, and she looked familiar.

“Peg?” Steve asked, out of it. “You’re-”

“Still alive.” She grinned, “And perfectly healthy.” Her eyes went over to your figure, “Who is she? Did you pick up a pet along the way?” She walked over to you and knocked on your chest, her eyes widening. “Well, then. Fragile little creature.”

“Peg, your mind-”

Her attention snapped back to him, “Is fine.”

Howard’s brow furrowed, “What would be wrong with her mind?”

Steve gulped, looking down. You could see the subconscious fight in him, he wanted to fix what he had done but this alternate universe gave him...her. In any case, you were going back to fix it. Who knows what else is screwy around here?

“Well, I helped you get back here,” You started, “I really should be heading back.” Steve’s gaze met yours and he looked a little hurt and confused.

“Back to where?” Howard snorted, “We found you in an- abandoned part of town.”

“I’m collecting data to see if it could become liveable again.” You answered without missing a step. Steve looked at you with the same surprised look they did.

“Nothing gets done without me knowing about it.” Howard stepped forward.

“I wasn’t going to bother you until I could collect data. Can’t bother the Howard Stark with a little nonsense.” You kept up the act. If you don’t debate on telling them something they believe it- unless it’s something that’s embarrassing.

He chuckled, “Tell me- where exactly did you pick up Mr. Red-White and Blue over there?”

You chuckled back, trying to look relaxed, “You wouldn’t want me to kiss and tell now, would you?”

Steve blushed, Peggy looked flustered and Howard Stark laughed out loud. “I like her, Cap.” He nodded to him before turning back to you, “You have spunk. Something I haven’t seen for quite some time around here.” He stepped closer to you.

Steve cleared his throat to draw attention back to him but Peggy stepped over to him.

Howard smirked, “You want a date with the richest man around, honey?”

“Sorry, you aren’t my type.” You purred in his direction, “I am flattered, though.”

“Pity.” He slightly frowned. You looked over to see Peggy all over Steve and- to your surprise- he looked uncomfortable.

“Am I really not allowed to look around out there? It would be a pity to let that whole area go to waste…” You tried to look like you needed his acceptance.

“I really wouldn’t bother.” He shook his head, backing up a step.

“What happened to your wife?” Steve spoke up again, trying to step away from his new best friend.

Howard frowned, “A lot has happened since I remember seeing you, Cap, but not that much. You’ve only been away for a couple of years…”

He gulped, “Right.”

“Look, I can see you three have a lot to catch up on so I’ll get going.” You spoke up with a smirk towards Steve. “I will leave you in the very capable hands of Peggy.” Howard cleared his throat, “Oh, and Howard.” To which he nodded.

“How’s Bucky?” Steve spoke up, ignoring your last comment.

Howard’s face lowered, “Really, Steve, did you get hit in the head? He’s been dead for decades.”

Your stomach dropped a bit for Steve before turning to leave. “Like I said, you have a lot to catch up on. It was very nice to meet the famous Howard Stark and the very lovely Peggy Carter.” You stepped towards the door and someone caught your hand.

“I’m coming with you.” Steve spoke up, his eyes roaming over you.

“Leaving already?” Peggy asked from behind him. Her eyes searched his face. Howard crossed his arms, unamused with both of his guests leaving.

“Peg, Howard, you both know I could never thank you enough for your help.” He turned back to you, “But I need to help her.”

Peggy frowned, looking hurt, “I could have guessed I wasn’t your number one anymore.” She turned on you angrily.

“Woah, woah, woah- don’t get your panties in a twist.” You held up a hand and she took it, twisting it behind your back. Steve pushed her off after he realized what just happened, “He can’t stop talking about you ya know.” You added, breathing, “I better be off before I cause a bigger wave than I intend to.” You gave a wink and opened the door. Walking down the hall, you had to rotate your shoulder a couple of times.

You heard running from behind you and Steve caught your hand, grabbing it with a small smile before dragging you with him.

“Jesus- what-” Then you heard heels from behind you, “What did you do?” You scowled towards him as you both picked up the pace.

“I took a page from your book and fibbed a little.”

You gasped and laughed, “Captain America lied?! Oh, my childhood- I can feel it draining away-” You dramatically threw your free hand over your brow.

He chuckled, “Cut it out. You know we could run faster if I carried you.”

“We could run faster if we stopped talking.” You winked, picking up your pace as an alarm set off in the building. You were both trying to follow the debris and remember exactly where you were. Flying robots in the form of men were searching the area and Steve pulled you along again faster.

“Where is it?” He panicked.

You laughed, setting off a beeper from your wrist, “I kept losing it so I put an alarm on it.”

He allowed a chuckle to escape before it was your turn to pull him towards your baby. You opened the door and pushed him inside, going to start her up.

“Hurry!” He said as something sounded like it landed close by.

“You’re not helping.” You raised your tone, getting ready. There was a slight crashing noise and a shake. You heard him groan and you laughed, “I’m working on it, dear.” A second later you were off. You set her down in a different area and a time in the 60’s to check the repairs you’d need. “Lovely! Only one part needs replaced and I think I have it.” You buzzed back inside and checked your spare parts boxes.

“Hey-” Steve leaned down, grinning and shaking his head, “After all of this, I can’t believe I don’t know your name.”

You laughed, digging through the next box, “Maybe that’s for the best, Cap. I mean, after all- you’ve gotten me chased and changed bloody history in the short amount of time I’ve known you.”

He looked at you with soft eyes, “I’m sorry for that.”

You shrugged, “I should have known better- my own fault.” You gave him a grin and stood up, finding the part needed.

He gave you another look and you sighed.

“Let me fix our first problem and then maybe- maybe I’ll letcha know.” You threw him a wink and fixed the problem within a half hour before traveling back.

“Should be easy to fix this. We just have to distract our other selves before they save him.” You set down a couple hundred yards away.”

He shook his head, “I don’t get any of this time travel stuff so I guess I’ll just take your word for it.”

You grinned and took out a gun.

“Woah, are you gonna kill me?”

You laughed, taking aim, “Just enough to scare us.” You took a shot and then another as the other Steve walked up to Bucky.

You threw an arm up and pushed Steve further back out of view.

A couple of minutes later you heard your other ship lift off.

“That was easier than I thought.” Steve mumbled.

“I usually bounce when I hit trouble- probably because half the time when I don’t see who it is I assume it’s me.” You laughed, nodding towards Roxie.

You brought him back right after you left. “I guess this is it, Cap.”

He nodded, “You sure I can’t mess up anymore things?”

“I think I’m good for the moment.” You grinned, “But you never know- maybe I’ll need to make a job harder sometime.”

He chuckled, “I would like that, ya know.” He met your eyes, “Promise you’ll take me out again?”

Laughing, you added, “I didn’t peg you for being needy.” You raised an eyebrow.

“I think I could get used to looking out for you, maybe even excited.” He grinned back, “So what do you say?”

“Hmmmm.” You stepped back, thinking for a minute, “I guess it would be alright to go back somewhere every now and again.”

He stepped closer, closing the gap between you. “It would be nice to know who I’m looking out for.” He leaned down towards you.

You grinned, tip toeing up to kiss him smack on the mouth. His surprised look and blush made you giggle, turning back around into the door of Roxie. “I think I’ll take you up on that offer, Cap. I like coffee and old movies and any food that isn’t healthy for me.” You winked, “See ya around- and if you order me a coffee I like cream and sugar- and Y/N on the cup.”

His face lit up a bit and grinned, “Deal.”

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

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[thecatladyknits]

More house stuff

Wow this shit is exhausting. We looked at 19 houses yesterday. Drove by, didn't have appointments to look inside, but to get a sense of the neighborhoods and such. Out of 19, there are 4 maybes and 1 we loved but was marked sold by the time we got home. The rest were too close to the neighbors, in trashy neighborhoods or looked much worse in person than online.

There is this one that is like half what everything else is but looks fine and in a nice neighborhood. Nothing fancy and needs some updates but totally looks liveable, the house is big and the lot is almost a half acre. So there's gotta be something weird going on to make it cheap. We asked the realtor to look into it.

I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm trying to learn but also take D's advice but he's so fucking surly all the time especially about realtors, from his previous experience years back when he was a landlord buying houses. Often his answers feel snappy and short, like he doesn't want to answer or thinks I'm stupid. But I need his help. He doesn't want to get screwed on fees and shit, but I don't even know where to look or how to know if we're getting screwed.

On a related note, he gets annoyed with me if I'm being overly anxious or self-doubting, like I'm being too "emotional" and he doesn't want to deal with me. But he will get SO angry and pissy over shit like the computer mouse crapping out or a website that doesn't give him exactly what he wants when he wants it. Talk about overly emotional. On Friday he was being snappy and cranky and short with me about visiting houses and I finally said to him, we're not doing this while you're so mad. Then I went to the gym and when I came back he seemed much more calm and reasonable. If he refuses to put up with me irrationally panicking, then I refuse to put up with him being irrationally angry. This process is stressful for anyone and it will only be worse if we're at each other's throats.