#like you either have to commit to running 4 guards and no 4 and being ok with the lack of rebounding

[the-physicality]

.

[stonedcoldfoxtarot]

What was your crush thinking & feeling the last time they saw you?

Pile 1 -> Pile 2

Pile 3 -> Pile 4

Pile 1

AoP, 7oP, Moon, AoW, KnoC, 59oC, 10oS, Devil, 8oS (AoC)

Pile 1, your crush feels like you're their missing puzzle piece. For several years, they’ve felt incomplete or that something was missing from their life until they met you. For some, they’ve felt this way from the moment they laid eyes on you. As cliche as it sounds, this person feels that from the moment you walked into their life it’s as if the clouds parted and an angel descended from heaven into their world. Their desire for you runs deep, Pile 1, but they may be hiding their feelings for now. They don't want to scare you away or give the impression that all they desire is a physical relationship. Nonetheless, every time they see you, it requires a great deal of self-control to refrain from expressing how they truly feel.

The last time your crush saw you, they thought about asking you out but they chickened out and missed their chance. For some, they felt that the timing or location wasn't right and didn't want to risk scaring you away. This person might have a deep fear of rejection or think that you're so attractive and out of their league that if they made a move, you would probably reject them harshly or laugh in their face. They genuinely have feelings for you, so each time they try to psych themselves up but end up getting nervous. You might notice them engaging in small talk with you or making small gestures of affection or appreciation as an attempt to get closer to you. The last time this individual saw you, it hit them hard - they realized that they are head over heels in love with you.

Channelled Song: Cherish the Day by Sade

Pile 2

7oS, 10oW, 8oW, AoC, 5oC, Judgement, 9oW, 2oW (8oS)

The last time your crush laid eyes on you, Pile 2, they had this crazy urge to throw caution to the wind and run away with you. You made them feel like taking a leap of faith, whether it's just for one night or for a lifetime together. At that moment, all their problems seemed insignificant compared to the possibility of being with you. Your crush probably has a lot on their plate and often daydreams about a different life—one where it's just the two of you without any distractions or interference from others. Maybe they're already in another relationship or simply not ready for commitment right now. But despite all that, when they saw you last time, they couldn't help but entertain the thought of confessing their love for you anyway.

The last time they saw you, despite being excited they also felt a lot of disappointment and sadness about having to push down their true emotions and use their better judgment when it comes to this connection. Deep down, this person knows that you're the one for them, but they’ve decided to stay guarded against those feelings for now. Maybe they're waiting for things in their life to clear up before making a move towards you. But right now, they're choosing to just appreciate you from afar.

Channelled Song: Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith

Pile 3

8oP, 7oP, Fool (rev), 2oC, HP, 6oW (rev), 5oC, 8oW (Hermit)

Pile 3, you and your crush could work together or you may have met while either one or both of you were on the clock. When your crush last saw you, they kept things professional despite wanting to open up and speak or act further. They may have felt that it would have been foolish or unwise at the time due to others overhearing and making assumptions about your connection.

Pile 3, your crush deeply desires to start a relationship with you but they feel they would have to keep things between you two secret for now. Not because they want to sneak around or hide you - quite the opposite! They are afraid that once people know you two are together, they will try to turn you both against each other or find ways to sabotage the connection. They don’t want anything to come between this connection, so for now when they see you, especially at work, they play it cool and pretend to be focused on the tasks at hand. Despite this, they are ready to move things forward and come together publicly as a couple once the time is right.

Channelled Song: When I’m in Your Arms by Cleo Sol

Pile 4

7oS, 9oC, 5oS, HM, 10oC, Devil, 3oS, AoW, Judgement, Fool, 2oW, 6oP (KnoC)

Pile 4, it seems like your crush has mixed and conflicting thoughts and emotions about you. For some, this could have been a past sneaky link connection or someone who was “off limits” to you in some way. For others, they may see being with you as something forbidden or taboo, which only intensifies their desire.

You're the person of their dreams, Pile 4, not just in looks but also in personality and intelligence. In their eyes, you're the whole package. The moment they last laid eyes on you, they felt a sudden ache of longing to be with you. Unfortunately, this person might be sacrificing their own happiness to please others or conform to their family's expectations. It's sad because this has led them to become almost obsessed with you and it's slowly breaking their heart that they're not making a move towards you.

When they saw you last, all they could think about was how much they desire you and how desperately they dream about running away with you and starting a life together. However, reality quickly brought them back down to earth and most likely all they could offer at that time was kind words, a smile or maybe even an invitation for a casual hangout. Your crush genuinely likes you but in order for things to progress between the two of you, they need to stop caring so much about what others think and start living life on their own terms.

Channelled Song: If It Makes You Happy by Sheryl Crow

Thanks for reading🔮✨

© 2023 stonedcoldfoxtarot. All rights reserved. Please do not copy, translate, edit or redistribute.

[adickaboutspoons]

I object to the term "whim"

In episodes 4 and 5 of the second season, there's a lot of throwing around of the word "whim." Ed and Stede both argue that they were just a whim to the other, Stede concludes they they are both "whim-prone" and that whim-prone people shouldn't run off to China together, and Ed cites their "whim-prone"ness as a reason to take things slow as they start to rebuild their relationship.

And I know we all like to joke about U-Haul failboats in love, but they aren't whim-prone. That's not what's going on here.

The first time on the show that we hear the word "whim" is in s1e4, when Izzy says "For years, I've followed your every whim, I've managed your increasingly erratic moods, I've massaged this crew when they were worried about your judgment." But from what we see of Izzy's interactions with the crew, he's not a massager, he's a sledgehammer, and the crew respect Blackbeard a hell of a lot more than they respect Izzy. Ed's moods don't read as "erratic" at all if you pay attention to what he's responding to; he's an emotional guy, for sure, but mostly even-keeled until highly provoked. And as for "following [his] every whim," Izzy can barely follow orders as given - committing insubordination at least twice that we see; not telling Stede that it was Blackbeard that wanted to meet him in s1e3, and flat-out ignoring Ed's "we're not doing this" in s1e6 when he challenges Stede to the duel. So I don't see Izzy as a reliable narrator when he suggests Ed is "whim-prone" - it might look like that to him because he doesn't try to understand Ed on his own terms, but it is v. much a construction that Izzy is imposing on Ed; not an objective character trait Ed possesses. After all, you don't get a reputation for being "history's most brilliant tactician" if you're not, at the heart of it all, a planner.

Stede is also a planner. Mary accuses Stede of abandoning his family on a whim, but that's also inaccurate. Thanks to all the hard work @nicnacsnonsense did in her marvelous 1st season timeline video, we know that SIX MONTHS elapsed between Stede proposing with his model boat that they go to sea at the anniversary debacle and the night of Mary's apology when Stede had already committed to actually leaving. That's not a whim - that's plenty of time for serious deliberation. It LOOKED like a whim from the outside because of their disastrous communication failures, but that doesn't make it true. Unabandoning his family was not a whim either - Chauncy was the catalyst, but only because he created a high-pressure situation that validated all of the insecurities we'd seen Stede struggling with all season; guilt over abandoning his family, and his crater-bottom self-esteem that the people he loved were better off without him. Even in season 2, we see more of this long-game behavior, where Stede takes his drudge job in towels and elevates it by applying scent; a move that LOOKS whim-prone from the outside, but primes him for success when it comes time to escape, because it means he knows the guards are used to deeply inhaling the scent of the fresh towels he gives them, and is thus he is able to trick them into chloroforming themselves.

There are times in the 1st season where it might LOOK like they are being whim-prone, but for the most part, those things are mostly time-critical circumstances . The impulsive decision to go to the French Party Boat? The invitation was for that night, so it's not like another opportunity like that was just going to come along. Stede's impromptu Fuckery? He'd JUST been introduced to the concept that morning, and the ships on which he wanted to try it out were three days away. If you'll recall, Ed actually tries to talk him out of going through with it with such a short turn-around time, and likely would have succeeded if Izzy hadn't interveined to further his "Kill Stede Now" agenda. The Treasure hunt? Stede was anxiously scrabbling for ANYTHING to keep Ed's attention (AFTER he confirmed there were no oranges for sale, not even for ready money) because Ed said that his plans for the day included "planning for the next adventure" and leaving. Act of Grace? Signing away ten years of your life for a man you've known for a month IS a lot, but the alternative was letting Stede be executed. Running away together? I'll give you that China was quite the absurd swing, but they WERE in jail for all intents and purposes - no sense staying longer than absolutely necessary, and there theoretically could have been time for re-working the plan once they were just away had circumstances not arisen.

So while I think it's fair to call the boys whimsical with their love of dress-up and lovely perfumed things and theatrics and tasty sugary treats, I wouldn't say whim-prone is an accurate descriptor (and the fact that they are accepting that it is makes my heart crack wide open for them, because it's evidence that they're still both uncritically absorbing the labels applied to them by people who don't really understand them at all), nor the problem they need to address.

Their real problem is actually the exact opposite of flitting from whim to whim; that, once they've committed to something, they are all in, 100% ride-or-die. It's why Ed resigned himself to going down with the ship when it turned out he'd miscalculated the date instead of trying any evasive maneuvers with the fog to give them cover. It's why, when Stede didn't show at the docks, Ed went full pillow fort until Lucius was able to talk him around into life going on without Stede. It's why Stede threw himself into trying to be all the things he thought he'd failed to be as a husband and father when he came back to his family, and was committed to staying, even though it was making him miserable, until Mary tried to murder him.

Ultimately, the solution for both these conditions is the same - slowing down. But it's not a matter of making sure this is serious and not just a whim for either of them; it's a matter of taking the time to understand exactly what it is that you're committing to. So I object to the term "whim."

[buffinbonkers]

I’m so sick of veil guard defenders main rebuke to any critique being “tHeY dIdn’T eVeN pLaY tHe gAmE”.

Let’s say that’s true, and???? Let’s say they quit 8 hours in, 10 hours, 15, like how long do you require someone to not have a good time before they can say “yeah it was bad imo”. Like your main defense is honestly that they didn’t play long enough? As if it’s their fault? As if it’s the gamers responsibility to force themselves to play a game they’re not liking and not the producers to make an enjoyable game? Idk maybe apply that thinking to any other game and maybe you’ll realize the crazy and break free?

I wrote my review of not recommended at 8 hours in, and most of the reasons why I still agree at 60 hours.

Some of my reasons:

1. I played as a mage and I can only have three attacks, three spells at any given time. And the list of spells i can select from is pathetic it’s like 9 maybe? CONSOLE exclusive games give you more options with R2 and L2. It’s just bewilders me that this is the level of decision making I get.

2. You don’t really make decisions, not like in the past three games. I’m 60 hours in and I recall making two decisions, killing some guy - who to my knowledge doesn’t pop back up, and saving 1 of two cities. Which again to my knowledge hasn’t TRULEY affected anything really besides a grumpy companion and a missing faction. (I know the city was destroyed what I mean is either way - a city was destroyed)

3. Speaking of factions (which I hate but I’ll concede that’s maybe a more me thing) you have to run around to every shop to upgrade specific gear, like found gear, gear, which you can’t craft or dye, you just level it up, hope you find the obscure shop that sells the upgrade (there’s so many fucking shops) or google it I guess.

4. Companions (which you only have two of at a time now - again a personal thing prob) don’t have health, so every fight could hypothetically be cheesed by just running around (which is actually more effective then the terrible dodging system) while they kill the enemy.

THESE THINGS ARE BIZARRE? I think that’s what irks me the most, is that the things that are bad are unique, like they took a perfectly good way of doing things, and just threw it out the window for some reason. I’ve played so many games and I’ve just never seen a degradation from a prior game to a new one like this. And y’all can dislike inquisition all you want, but it won game of the year, and it won it for a reason, even if you personally didn’t like it.

The one thing that I was like okay it’s improved, is the dialogue, but even then there’s some problems:

1. Someone else pointed out that while there may be multiple options there’s too many instances where they all are nice placating. Not ACTUAL options in difference responses.

2. Personal but I hate that they went away with the like pick and choose what you talk about with this person. Like I’ve mentioned OPTIONS?

Another point someone made was that some backgrounds should be limited to race, no historical instance of quanari warden/non-mage dwarf in all mage mourn watch which I think is valid af.

Misc REALLY PERSONAL complaint that isn’t that important:

Most of the adamant defenders I see mention the improved like life like quality of the companions, but I would like to point out that, you can romance them right up to “do you commit” and then when you don’t it’s never mentioned again, they move on to whoever is matched with them. If you’re in the middle of romancing one and then commit to another it also just completely disappears. Doesn’t seem very life like to me - they had dialogue about it since origins. Even in inquisition at least if you decided last minute not to go with Dorian at least he wouldn’t ask you for gift advice for bull??? Again I know this is petty, but like I don’t want to help Lucanis woo neve just cus Emmerich wooed me. WHICH I COULD AVOID IF I COULD CHOOSE. IN A DRAGON AGE GAME?

Ofc I still will be finishing the game and reading the fanfics but that because I’m obsessed with the series it self. But I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who’s not a diehard fan, I’d just steer them toward inq, and then just watch the what happened after on YouTube.

[givemethesleep]

and 3, 4, 12, and 23 for Daz 💚

DARANAAAAAA my like. Sequel Earth Wizard. My DARLING. Lets GO.

3 - What is your OC's fatal flaw? Are they aware of this flaw?

I dunno if it's fatal, but Darana is so, so ridiculously obnoxious. They have friends, sure, but they take every joke too far. Which can, and sometimes does, wind up being hurtful to the people around them. They're vaguely aware of it, of why people find them mildly off putting if around them for long, but its easier to make jokes and dick around, playing up their personality, than playing it down and trying to be palatable.

4 - When scared, does your OC fight, flee, freeze or fawn?

Generally speaking, Darana is a flee type of guy. They know when to protect themselves, and even in non threatening situations, they're super jumpy and easy to catch off guard. The only exception to this is when Darana and their friend Brecken are attacked by Schismists. Rather than running away, Darana goes absolutely apeshit in an effort to save Brecken. They wind up killing one Schismist and severely injuring another. They're more concerned with this than the damage they sustained, and is WILDLY out of it for weeks after, mad with guilt. Needless to say, they stay the fleeing sort.

12 - Is your OC self-destructive? In what ways?

Kinda!! Nothing horrible, but again - refusal to take literally anything seriously. Maybe there's reason (they're good at conjuration, but don't care about grades because they are HORRIFICALLY dyslexic and don't want to suffer through it, they don't think too hard about their life on earth because anything heavier than a joke scares them, ect) But their lack of care for themself does make everything so much harder for them, and the people around them. Because committing to the bit is more important than like basic self care.

23 - What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express?

Can you see the running theme here? Grief is the biggest one here. This kid has not had it easy. Dead dad, MIA mother. Taken to a strange new world by a woman he met three months after coming home to find their grandfather dead. On top of being attacked on school grounds, nearly losing their best friend, trying to find a way to exist in the Spiral! And rather than like. Actually face and process loss after loss after loss, they just.... laugh it off. Go back to pestering their professors. Don't think about it too hard and either commit too hard to a shitty joke or start snapping when someone brings it up. There's a couple of instances where it all drops, but it not frequent. darana my unserious little bastard. get therapy.

[intuitively-her]

How do people view you in the bedroom? 18+

Pile 1-(Knight of swords, 9 of pentacles, 4 of pentacles, The High Priestess, The Devil, The Hanged Man rx, 2 of cups, 7 of cups, The Hierophant)

You like to get straight to the point. A lot of people feel like you're detached in the bedroom. You may be into random hookups or you like quickies with your sexual partner. You could like to dress up in lingerie or sexy outfits for roleplay. You could like to be spanked or you love pain in general. Some of you might like to dance for your partner as well. You could like to tease. People love the way you ride! Your ass is amazing. Sex with you feels so freeing. I heard "sweet release". You might like to try new things in the bedroom often. You could be into threesomes/group sex as well. People become obsessed with your sex! Your 🐱/🍆 makes people become possessive over you. You always know exactly what people want and where to touch. Your hands feel amazing. Many people consider a deeper commitment with you. Many wish that they could keep you. You awaken people's darkest fantasies.

*channeled song: sex with me by rihanna

Pile 2-(4 of swords, 9 of swords rx, 8 of wands rx, 5 of swords rx, 4 of cups, 6 of cups, Queen of swords rx, The Empress)

You like to let your partners take the lead. I heard "pillow princess". Sex with you feels so healing. You may be really into oral with your partners. You could like to seduce your partner before the act. You like to have slow sex or more meaningful sex. However, you also know how to let your hair down and have fun. You let your fantasies run wild! You really let your guard down in the bedroom, so this allows your partners to feel more comfortable with you. Overall, your partners view you as divine in the bedroom.

Pile 3-(Justice, 5 of pentacles rx, Knight of swords rx, Queen of swords rx, The Moon, 10 of swords rx)

Sex with you feels so liberating! People feel like they've accomplished something by having sex with you. Your sexual energy is very abundant. You could like to manifest through sex or masturbation. You attract a lot of stalkers. A lot of people feel like you're too good to be true. They feel like they're being led into a trap with you. I heard "siren". You're very visually appealing. People feel lucky to be able to get with you. You're unpredictable in bed! People wouldn't expect you to be such a freak, because your outward appearance looks so innocent. Your partners love watching you in the act. People love when you wrap your legs around them. You could like for people to watch you have sex or you like to do it in risky places. Overall, your sexual energy is very powerful and beneficial to others. So be mindful of who you give it to.

Pile 4-(The Devil, 8 of swords, Strength, Knight of cups rx, Queen of cups, 8 of cups rx, 8 of pentacles, King of swords rx)

You're very confident with your body and moves. You're dominating in the bedroom. You could either be a dominatrix or you're into heavy bdsm. You awaken kinks in people that they didn't know they had. You're very attentive in the bedroom. You hit all the right spots. You could like to play with your partners' balls. I heard "worship that dick" lol. You could like to do the 69 position. You could also like do do reverse cowgirl. People love your ass! You're very skilled at anything you do. People can't handle how detached you are after sex. You could ghost people after sex. Many people cling onto you and your energy, even if it was just a one night stand.

[dresden-syndrome]

@the-agency-archives

Hey! Always glad to see someone asking! I apologize, I couldn't manage to explain every question. Hope this will help!

First, i'm pissed at tumblr for disabling editing for asks. I've wrote it in draft a couple times just until I couldn't write in it anymore.

How offender class promotion and demotion works? First, it happens to class 1-3 only. Once class 4, forever class 4. Sometimes it does hide an inability to investigate a crime properly enough to rule out class 4 offences and grant an appropriate sentence but the main reason is keeping image for the public.

In the official guidance, the penalty for class 4 offenders is "maximum measure of social security"; translated to the general population of EESU as "death penalty. Aside from State Security personnel with needed clearance level to work with "class 4 biological material", everyone believes class 4 is death penalty. When a person gets arrested as class 4, it's annouced to the community they've either gone missing or been sentenced to death. When low-ranking newbie State Security workers see class 4 offenders in a black uniform dragged outside into a van or a train, they think the poor offenders are going deep into the forest to be executed by firing squad. By mid-1960s, even the democratic West has been talking of "thousands and thousands of people executed" there.

EESU might be the only country of that time who says it has death penalty when it actually doesn't. No unqualified person should get to know what "maximum measure of social security" actually means; therefore no class 4 subject should be brought into daylight to tell that.

The second reason is usefulness - there will always be a region with not enough lab rats for ASR, not enough punching bags for training or a massive top secret tech project with a big need for test dummies, waiting for new class 4 subjects to be designated to. There have been a few cases when people with a class 1-2 crime have been sorted as class 3 or 4 due to a rare health condition ASR was desperate to research on. Obviously, they were told they're political extremists, capitalist agitators or Western spies - it's not like they have a proof of the opposite anyway.

On the promotions and demotions of class 1-3:

Promotions at detention: when a more thorough investigation concludes the person didn't commit all the crimes they've been convicted of. Mostly happen to class 1 (with good odds of freeing from any charges) and class 2 with initially milder sentences. Very rarely used for class 3 due to offender's potential of more efficient use in a labor camp.

Promotions after sentencing: used as a reward for a convict's hard work combined with political loyalty, a way to sort a convict to an easier job/place they'll be more efficient on, or both. Mostly used for class 3 convicts near or after their release from a labor camp into a class 3 labor commune. Being locked in a tiny labor village for life is scary but rarely happening; most of the class 3 convicts get promoted to class 2 communes and then going free as class 2 (or even class 1 if worked really hard to turn into a good communist) ex-offenders.

Demotions in detention: happen from time to time if more crimes or aggravating circumstances found during investigation; despite it not being common, they're one of the most feared threats an officer can pull on an interrogated convict. Some people don't even need torture to confess - a couple of "we could move you to class 2/3/4 if you keep hiding it so much" and they're already asking for a pen and a confession form.

Demotions after sentencing: two ways to get demoted after - committing another political crime while sentenced or attempting escape. The second option is mainly for labor commune or camp escapes; class 1 community service or class 2 relocation evasions usually result in a bit higher sentence of the same class. For the eurogulag EESU labor camp guards the first rule is to maim a running prisoner but leave them alive and well - they may even treat them a bit before shipping off to a local detention prison, now as class 4. Labor communes aren't physically guarded much - most runaways are caught via bureaucracy: either by random ID checks, registration checks or government database searches.

Class 1 sentences:

Many class 1 detainees don't get a sentence at all - more like a stern warning about leaning away from ideologically approved behavior. In more serious cases, however, they get sentenced to a few months of community services - a boring low-pay job forced on them near the place they live in. If a convict is a Communist Party member, they may get a disciplinary note to the Party - or even get demoted from member to candidate. If they're in the military or government service - a bit of rank demotion guaranteed. Every class 1 convict must complete political literacy courses (basically an evening school when you listen to lectures about why EESU regime is good) after detention; after that, a person is labeled a law-abiding communist again.

Class 2 sentences:

In general, class 2 means moving time - to a boring remote town in milder cases or to a labor commune in more severe ones. Relocation includes some community services time within a new living place; both of them include political literacy courses at the end. Any class 2 conviction is a restriction to move: they're not allowed to register (read as "live somewhere for more than few days", since finding a place to live without permission from the gov is also punishable) in republic capital cities, important towns for government projects and most places near the border. In some cases they're forbidden from leaving their republic (region) as well. Ah, also they're very likely to be thrown away from the Communist Party. Class 2-3 also come with a lot of life restrictions but this post is already of unreadable length so I could talk on them later.

I really hope I provided enough answer without boring you to sleep - after all, you've been asking for lore dump more than once! I'm so happy to see you interested!!! 🥰

[roses-adventures]

Okay two things one In that first photo immediately I went to posture and facial expression etc. He's sitting rigid which implies he's got a vest, his feet are in a position to be able to move at any second, his cup wasn't held comfortably and even the way he's holding his phone shows he's recording. His face also says fuck I'm caught.

Now I actually am really good at reading people so is My boyfriend, as a kid/young adult I wanted to be an fbi profiler (until I realized thats a joke) or international spy (I'm disabled) or a lawyer (i have 4 years of political science and Hispanic studies degrees focused on law, prisons, Healthcare and immigration so thats still an option when i have money) and I find human psychology fascinating that was my first choice major but my disability prevented a psych degree, and my boyfriend worked military and then in the police department in the csi lab (both non US). It's also worth mentioning that certain times we have zero filter, so we just say things sometimes 🤣. we run a kik group together and this guy comes in the group, I own it so I verify the guy, get his age and location all that. Then he starts talking and something just seems ....off. now I also lived in the hood on and off for 12 years and I recognized the way he spoke. Literally the tone he texted in and the words he used, even his pfp just the photo of him screamed cop. finally after a couple hrs of him being there I was like, "are you a cop?" And he was like......radio silence.... my boyfriend whos on a call with me is dying laughing saying "babes you can't just ask people if they're cops 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣" I'm like "well I just did, if he's from the US directly asked they're legally required to tell us especially if he's trying to collect info" so we wait finally dude goes, "yeah..I am" I was like "I knew it" my boyfriend smokes weed legally and dude would manage to come on during the times he was, we messed with him for a bit too, nothing mean just talked as we normally do about me being a prison abolitionist and some of the other members would joke about committing low level crime or them being angels, our trauma, smexual experiences etc, all of which im sure was way more than this guy signed up for, a couple of the members like me and my boyfriend have bad experiences with cops (I was never arrested and never committed a crime i am very often, harrassed, stalked, made fun of and lied to by police that it makes it difficult to be comfortable with them) (my partner just has problems with authority), so we were more on guard. He left a few days later, either because we bore him or he found out we're all clean there legally speaking, and he couldn't buy drugs (though he did ask at one point whether joking or not thats sus).

Anyway, pigs love sheep clothing. Make sure you know how to spot them, your rights, local laws, basic federal laws and by all means DO NOT EXPECT THEY KNOW THE LAW, THEY DON'T. I've had more than 3 lie or blatantly not know the law and its always put me in a bad position. Remind them of the law, correct them, they hate it but it's entirely necessary.

I tend to also get harassed because I'm not light enough for them (I'm mixed race) so another tip a very very strange one at that. If you go out and are asking question or directions some place but you don't look like your only ancestors stepped off the mayflower but your friend does, have them ask the question or directions. I've tested it, they got rude with me acted like I was gonna steal cars and condescendingly said "maybe next time remember where you parked it" (it was 10pm in Seattle everything's dark we got there at 5pm when it was sunny of course we lost the car) anyway they turned to My friend who looks like a lighter version of the lucky charms mascot Character and kindly told him exactly how to get there.

Losing my mind remembering that pic chelsea manning posted of the extremely undercover and not at all obvious fbi agent who was tailing her after her release

[daveout]

Butterflyz- Alicia Keys

3:31 pm

4/14/24

Prison reform/being grateful.

In the last few weeks i've been listening to  Ian Bick at work (prison podcast) and listening to the prison stories of the people that have done 5-10 years has just reinstilled in me to stay out of trouble which I do anyway. I’ll be avoiding conflict as much as possible because besides a few, people don't go to prison on purpose, its always described as the lifestyle being lived leading to a pivotal moment, of split second actions causing them to go to prison and especially when not only your blood is pumping but a group or someone else's. The stories of how when someone has a life sentence, they're regard for committing more acts of harm is way less because they're already home, they have nowhere else to be, and the mentality that is needed to survive in a system that's run by the guards on paper and the inmates in reality. I'd rather not have to shower with dudes and learn prison politics such as on the west coast, they’re self segregated by race. You must bunk with your race, eat with them, and the system is enforced by people who have no other reasoning besides thats just how it is. The concept of respect is law and as someone just trying to do your time you can end up in situations where it's not just “let it go” its fight or have the rest of your time go slow because you've been socially emasculated and now you have people stealing your commissary or potentially looking to court you. 

I think it takes hearing a shitty story like someone whos become accustomed to that life because it really makes you, or in this case me, appreciate the little things like being able to go outside when i feel like it, or not have to work on a schedule dictated by either guards or other inmates with more social power than me. But it also is eye opening to hear the stories of stabbings, sexual malpractice (for lack of any other  appropriate word), and overall how the behavior of people sentenced to do the time for their crime are pretty much thrown into ironically the worst place possible for good habits to manifest besides working out and reading books. Daveout

[horrorchicxoxo]

Na’vi!Quaritch SFW Alphabet

Requested by @adharadotcom

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?):

Miles is very affectionate. He always has his arms wrapped around your tiny figure. He nuzzles his face into the side of your head and lays kisses against your temple. It is so adorable that you can’t help but blush anytime he does it.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?):

You first met Miles when you started working as a secretary for a member of the RDA. Whenever he would stop by, he would chat with you about various things. Over time, his visits became more frequent and a beautiful friendship started to form.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?):

He loves cuddling. He prefers to be the big spoon whenever you both lay down for bed. His warm, even breaths on the back of your neck are always very comforting; that’s how you always know he’ll protect you.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?):

He has had many thoughts about settling down. When it comes to cooking and cleaning, he is not always great it. But with a little help from you, he soon becomes a natural at it.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?):

If he had to break up with you, he would do so far away from anyone. He would reassure you that he would always love you, but he wants to keep you safe. If he must break your heart in order to keep you protected, he will do whatever it takes.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?):

When he first had Spider, he wasn’t too big on committing to a relationship due to his line of work. When he met you, that completely changed. Within a year, he is already ready to put a ring on your finger.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?):

He is incredibly gentle with you. Since you are smaller than he is, he takes into account how careful he must be when hugging or cuddling you. Emotionally, he is an absolute angel. You sometimes find tears rolling down your face due to his devotion and passion for you.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?):

He loves your hugs. Even though he has to crouch down to reach your height, he wouldn’t have it any other way. He hugs you quite often, sometimes when you least expect it. His hugs are gentle, warm, and full of his unending love for you.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?):

Around 3-4 months into your dating, he dropped the l-bomb. It took you completely off guard, but it didn’t deter you from him at all. The love you both shared only grew stronger from there.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?):

He doesn’t get jealous unless someone is obviously flirting with you. When he sees someone trying to flirt, he will show up right behind you. He’ll kneel, wrap his arms around your body, kiss the side of your head, and ask you if you are being bothered. The person will back off immediately afterwards.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?):

His kisses are very sweet and passionate. His lips tend to engulf yours because of your size, but that has never stopped you. He likes to kiss your neck and your hands more than anything. He likes to be kissed on his forehead and cheek whenever he isn’t feeling particularly happy.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?):

Around children, he is such a sweetheart. He’ll play games with them and pull all sorts of silly little faces in order to make them laugh. You begin to fantasize what your children would look like someday; a little mini you or Miles running around.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?):

The mornings are tender. He’ll wake up by either stroking your hair or placing kisses all round your face. When you wake up, he’ll place a kiss in your lips. Even though you complain you have morning breath, he doesn’t care.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?):

Nights spent with him are incredibly intimate. You’ll both cuddle facing each other, legs intertwined. He’ll rub your hips and thighs in a soothing manner while you both talk about your day. It’s these moments that keep you grounded.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?):

He would start revealing things to you around half a year into the relationship. He starts off slow as not to startle you with new information. This helped build your trust as your relationship grew.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?):

Miles is only easily angered if you are at risk of getting hurt or somebody is trying to put the moves on you. His protective side shows up and will stay the way until the person gets the message.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?):

He remembers a lot about things you have told him. Your favorite color, your favorite food or your favorite movie. He remembers the details of things like how you mentioned a promise ring. He would get you one, a temporary solution for a permanent ring later.

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?):

His favorite moment in the relationship was when he go sick. He seemed so vulnerable and small that you found adorable. Feeding him soup, running your fingers along his queue, you did whatever you could to make him feel better. He has cherished that memory ever since.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?):

He is very protective. He will hiss, bare his fangs, and whip his tail back and forth at anyone who tries to harm you. To protect him, you cover up what you can of his body with yours.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?):

He puts a lot of effort into the dates, gifts, etc. He always takes you flying on the back of his Ikran, enjoying the breeze brushing along your skin. Whenever you need help reaching something, he is always there to get it for you. The little things mean more to you than anything else.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?):

A bad habit of his would be the constant coffee drinking. You’ll taste it on his mouth sometimes and it is rather strong. It’s rather jarring and you have been showing him alternatives such as sweet tea.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?):

He always makes sure he looks as good as he can be for you. In the end, he knows you love him for him.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?):

He would definitely feel incomplete without you. You are his better half and he would be lost if you weren’t by his side.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them):

He loves when you lay your head on his stomach or his on yours. The slow breathing will often lull the both of you to sleep.

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?):

In a partner, he would not like if they had an ugly personality. If they were rude or mean in any way, that would be it.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?):

When he sleeps spooning you, you’ll feel a purring sensation against your back. Those purrs are nothing short of cute. He softly snores, warm puffs of air hitting your ear and neck, a soothing sensation which sends you immediately to sleep.

[wacknroll]

Ya like glitter glue?! PT 3

(Yandere Sun/Moon x reader)

Hello, here is the third chapter to this fanfic!

PT 1, PT 2, PT 4

AO3 link

Word count: 2554

Driving back to your workplace, you think to yourself that maybe going back to potentially confront the same robot that just manhandled you earlier today might not be the smartest of ideas. Especially since they’re malfunction. Hell, he might not even be responsible for the loss of your keys. For all you know, your dumbass dropped them in either the ball pit or even in the staff break room. But your gut told you that it was him, the only thing backing up that belief being that you swore your pant’s side pocket was buttoned up, meaning someone at some point had to have been close enough to unbutton and take them without your notice.

Before you knew it, you were already in front of the Pizzaplex, taking no real time to get there. The only benefit of living so close to a local attraction. You would have just paid for a night in a motel, but the prices were way too ridiculous, and your stubborn ass would prefer to be in the comfort of your own home if you had to choose. You sigh, deciding to commit to this half-baked plan. You exit the car and look at your phone. 11:15, it says, hopefully enough time to search before the place is properly locked up for the night.

Quickly entering the building, you make your way to the staff room first. Better check just in case, you thought to yourself.

---

Looking under the couch while on your hands and knees, you groan in frustration. The keys were nowhere in sight in the break room, meaning you had to look in the play area in the day-care now. You pick yourself up from the floor and head towards the door, only for it to be slammed opened and to have a light temporarily blind you.

“Y/n? What are you doing here?” The voice asks, the light now moved away from your face.

You shake your head and rub at your eyes, the white dots finally leaving your face just to be met with the gaze of the security guard, Vanessa.

“I, uh, forgot my keys somewhere,” you explain.

She cocks an eyebrow at that.

“And you didn’t bother to ring in and report your missing keys?” She questions.

“Yeah, I didn’t really give it much thought. I figured I could just try and find myself, seeing as I know what they look like,” you say sheepish.

“There’s another 30 minutes ‘til midnight. If you don’t find them in time, you’ll have to look tomorrow. Unless you want to spend the next 6 hours in here.”

“Uh, no.”

“Good. If I don’t hear from you after midnight, I’m going to just assume you left. If you’re still here after everything is locked up, just head to one of the security offices and radio me. I’m going to leave you to it now, I have other duties to attend to now.” With that, she walks out of the room and continues her patrol.

“Uh, thanks?” You say to her retreating form, leaning out of the room. Vanessa doesn’t give you a reply, as she either didn’t hear you or doesn’t care enough to say anything else.

One of those types of employees, you think. Walking out of the area, you make your way back to the main hall where the entrance to the day-care is. You would eat closer to the day-care, but you went to the other break room simply because it was your usual spot and where the employees you were more familiar with hanged out in. Besides, James would probably kick your ass if he had to walk all the way from the Arcade to the day-care just to talk to you. It was way easier when you were working in Monty Golf.

“I kind of miss that goofy alligator,” you say to yourself.

The day-care centre was still lit up, which you were grateful for as you’d rather your chances of running into Sun than with Moon. In fact, you actually haven’t seen Moon since your first day. Opening the door to the play area, you see that everything is there except for the animatronic himself. You reason that he’s probably in the basement for maintenance tomorrow.

Your keys appear to be no where on the surface of the front desk, so you decide to start looking through the cabinet drawers in search of the keys in hope that Tim might have found them and put them away. The drawer that usually contains small items found in the day-care don’t have any keys in them, meaning you’d have to check the ball pit next. You look over to the other side of the play area and then up at the entrance of Sun’s room, practically willing the animatronic to stay away. Walking at a fast pace, you make your way to the ball pit try to figure out where exactly you might’ve landed.

“Please be in here,” you say, begging whatever entity to make your keys magically appear. After looking for a moment, you decide that it’s best to give up looking in here for now and probably coming in tomorrow during the day to check. You check your phone to see that it’s now 11:50. Sighing, you decide to just give up for now and exit the ball pit, walking towards the large wooden doors of the play area. As you reach the doors, you notice a small box on the middle of the floor.

“What the...?” You look around you in hope of catching whatever might have left the box. Seeing that you were still alone, you slowly walk up to the box and gently open the top of the lid. The content within the box consists of a few pieces of paper and your keys, Freddy Fazbear keychain and all. This development both surprises and fills you with a sort of dread. Double checking your surrounds, you decide to just pick up the box and take it back with you to the car. Making your way out of the day-care, you quicken your pace towards the front entrance of the building, happy that your time spend here was basically boring.

Once you were in your car, you decided to drive straight home before looking through the box. As you turned the car around and away from the Pizzaplex, you swore you saw a tall lanky figure at the entrance doors.

---

Using your rediscovered keys to open the door to your flat, you enter, holding the box under one arm as you lock the door and sit at the kitchen table. Opening the box, you pick up one of the three pieces of paper within.

The first one you pick up is the finger painting that Sun shoved in your face on your first day in the day-care. The painting was different though, as it was obviously ripped apart and then sticky taped back together, as if someone tore it in anger and then quickly regretted their actions. Definitely not creepy in anyway that so ever, you think to yourself. You put the drawing to the side and proceed to pick up another one. This one was a letter, written in red crayon and having a smiling face at the top right corner.

“Sorry for taking your keys,” you read out loud. “I put some sunnydrops in the box just for you. Please don’t be mad, I just wanted to see you again but realised you might be angry with me about taking the keys. Yours truly, your super best friend, Sun.”

You give a small frown at this, unsure about if you’re still angry with the animatronic now. You look in the box and see that there is in fact a large hand full of sunnydrops at the bottom of it. There isn’t any point in eating them now though, seeing as you won’t be able to sleep tonight if you do. With this, you place Dun’s apology letter on top of his painting and reach for the last one left.

This one was in black crayon and written in all capital letters, only contain the word ‘LIAR’ over and over again. Flipping the page over, you see that it was written on both sides of the piece of paper. The letters were written so hard on the paper, that there was scratches and dents from the pressure of the crayon.

“What the fuck?” You say to yourself. This was definitely creeper than the torn-up painting. Was this about earlier when Sun asked you what Tim and you were talking about? Did he realise afterwards that you were lying or knew straight away? These questions kept running through your head until you realised something. How did Sun place that box in the day-care if he was supposed to be in maintenance?

These questions were left unanswered as you packed it all away back in the box and went to bed.

---

You slept in that night, seeing as you weren’t going to be working today anyways. When you finally got up, you decided that you should ring up Brenton about that maintenance report on Sun. Getting your phone and ringing up, the phone is quickly answered.

“This is the working manager at Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex. How may I help you?”

“Hi, Brenton. It’s Y/n, I was wondering if Sun’s maintenance report has come in yet?”

“No one filed a report to have him checked.”

This response wasn’t what you expected.

“What do you mean by that? Didn’t Tim hand one in yesterday?”

“Tim didn’t send in a maintenance request yesterday. What he did hand in was his resignation letter.”

“What do you mean he quit?” You ask, completely baffled from the news.

“He sent me an email with his reason last night,” Brenton replied.

“Just an email? Didn’t you see him at all?”

“Look, Y/n, I’m very busy. I don’t watch every employee that comes in and out of the premises. I’m actually still dealing with all the paperwork from when the day-care attendant snapped a child’s arm like a twig.”

“Well, didn’t you take him to maintenance for that at least?”

“Look, it’s just easier having naptimes taken off of the daily rooster than it is to fix the damn robot. Do you know how expensive it is to repair or replace an animatronic that can switch between two personas? Hell, he’s probably the most expensive robot we have, right behind Monty and that giant list of damage control that follows him!” Brenton’s voice becomes more heated as he speaks, making you wince a little at the growing volume.

You hear a long sigh on the other end of the phone.

“Sorry about that,” he finally says, calmer than before. “I just have a never-ending stack of Monty related incidents that gets bigger each time I look at it. But look, there isn’t much I can do, as I have bigger priorities at the moment.”

“Okay, but what about my shift for the rest of the week? Did you tell me that Tim was the only other qualified worker to take on afternoon shifts at the day-care? Who is going to work with me tomorrow?”

Another sigh comes from Brenton.

“I’ll have it sorted. I might even have to hire someone a step down from what we usually have working in there. It’ll be sorted beforehand, I assure you. I’ll be going now; I have a mandatory meeting to get to.”

Before you even have the chance to say goodbye, he hangs up.

“Goodbye to you too, then.” With that, you drop onto your couch and scroll through your phone. You decide that you should try to text Tim, seeing as he gave you his number in case you had any questions related to working in the day-care.

‘Hi, it’s Y/n. I just heard that you quit yesterday, what’s that all about?’ You type. Placing the screen onto your chest, you wait for a response text.

After a few minutes, your phone vibrates. You quickly lift the screen up and see that Tim replied.

‘Yeah, family related. Sorry.’

That’s a good enough as to why he quit, you reason. You then text back.

‘Sorry to hear, dude! Hopefully it’ll go well!” You then add a little smile emoji to the end of the text.

The second reply he sends is nearly instant this time.

‘Thanks. I got to go now. Busy. Bye!’

You send a bye back in response. Now a bit more at ease than before, you decide to get some stuff done in the house while you can. Cleaning your many work shirts, tidying the place, and then watching some movies. By the end of the day, you are exhausted and decide to go to bed a little earlier than normal.

---

Sun stares down at the phone in his hand, reading your messages over and over again. He was excited to finally have a way to talk to you outside of your working hours but was a little annoyed that he had to pretend to be someone else. Even though you and Tim were on the other end of the play area, his hearing could pick up everything the both of you heard as if he was right next to you. Maintenance? Why would he need maintenance? He didn’t even do anything wrong! You were perfectly fine when you landed in the ball pit, though a bit shaken up. The screen of the phone he holds cracks a bit, snapping him out of his thoughts. Sun quickly turns the phone back on to see if it is still functioning and is happy when it is.

When you left work, not even saying goodbye to Sun, Tim went back to dealing with the angry parents who calmed down once one of the managers showed up. By the time basically everyone but Tim was gone, Sun was practically livid. The fact that you went to Tim to get him to take Sun away made him furious by the second. The animatronic had never felt this way before and felt confused as to how to react. So, he did the only thing he could think to do in that moment. When Tim had his back to Sun, he turned off the lights.

Once the lights were back on, Sun was sitting in his room, no evidence of Tim anywhere to be found. All but the phone he now held. Not wanting to think about what he had done, you decided to put something together for you. Grabbing a box, he put in some sunnydrops and wrote an apology letter along with placing his finger painting of the both of you. Then he placed your keys on the top. He felt bad about taking your keys, even though he thought you would realise they were gone and come back straight away.

At some point, the lights go off again and Moon decides to also write his own letter to you, expressing his anger about what you did earlier in the only none physically violent way he could. Moon contemplates crushing your keys just to be petty but reframes from the action.

“No, no, no. We can punish Y/n for being a naughty little liar another day.”

[sunflowerhotline]

ASTRO OBSERVATIONS PT. 4

🪁gemini venus gets a lot of flack for having non-commital tendencies when really, they avoid committing to the wrong person. i’ve noticed that when they get into relationships they’re quite steady and remain with their partner for a long while, especially if their venus is aspected by saturn or pluto.

- i’ve also never met a non-committal aquarius venus. idk maybe y’all are just coming across the wrong people

🪁people with taurus moon, cancer moon and cancer/taurus/libra on 5th house cusp are very natural with children. children usually like these people

🪁composite saturn in 4th and 7th indicates a couple that stays together forever

🪁fire moons have a habit of falling in love with air venuses.

🪁scorpio and taurus moons tend to be very loyal and possessive in love, regardless of their venus sign/placement. they usually are committed to their partners and have a laser-focus on them and only them.

🪁leo and libra rising guys are the guys that everyone kinda just falls in love with because of their charm. they are usually so charming, clever and attractive that it’s hard for those around these guys not to be drawn in. leo rising men are usually just really handsome so they especially can just attract lots of female attention.

🪁depending on the signs, people with moon opposite venus can be either very clingy or very detached. i’ve never seen a middle ground with these people. their affection nature is so polarised.

🪁virgo venuses are soooo hard on themselves and usually look for (and find) a million reasons why they’re undeserving of love. they can really project their own low feelings about themselves onto others to almost try to convince themselves that others see them through the lens of meanness and criticism that they see themselves through.

🪁moon-uranus (hard aspect) people usually had a childhood/adolescent conflict involving their mother. they either had a problem with their mother or endured circumstantial hardships with their mother which challenged (uranus) their emotional security (moon). the house uranus is in will show the type of conflict.

EX: if you had your uranus in an earth house (2H, 6H, 10H), you could have endured financial hardship with your mom during your childhood/upbringing. she may not have been able to keep a stable job which was why you may have faced financial instability. in your childhood, you may have moved a lot for financial reasons or may have had to go without certain material comforts for the same reason.

🪁taurus moons usually wanna become parents and libra moons usually wanna get married at some point

🪁libra women and sagittarius men are so similar it’s actually crazy. they both also kinda...dislike each other usually??? yet they’re so ??? similar??? it’s pure comedy honestly

🪁people with cancer venus and cancer in 7th are usually attracted to people after they see them interact (lovingly or gently) with kids.

🪁 4th house ruler in 10th and 10th house ruler in 4th can indicate fame - the native can be a household (4th house) name.

EG: Billie Eilish - 4th house ruler (mercury) in her 10th house. she is known for (10th house) her songs (mercury).

🪁people with mars conjunct mercury have a tendency to talk over people

🪁people with venus-saturn aspects, capricorn venus and venus in 10th tend to fall in love with people who make them laugh. they love people who can make them feel young and free. in their relationships, they like to feel like they have a place or a person with whom they don’t have to be so heavy and responsible - someone they can just let their guard down with and just enjoy themselves.

🪁 “high cheekbones...defined bone structure....thin” etc are generally used to describe capricorn risings. HOWEVER lots of cap risings don’t fit that description because lots of (younger) cap risings have neptune and/or uranus in the 1st house. these planets change, distort and soften whatever they touch. if it comes into the 1st house of self, cap risings are likely to look different than their traditional interpretations. especially in the case of neptune being in the 1st, the natives may look younger and have rounder, softer features.

🪁no matter the venus sign, jupiter in 7th and uranus in 7th natives NEEEEEEEEDDD freedom in their relationships. these people are the types to not get [legally] married and might opt for other options like domestic partnerships or civil unions because they are the kinds of people who think “if you leave the door open, i’ll never walk out of it”. they want to feel like they have other options...this IS NOT ALWAYS A BAD THING!! don’t feel like these people can’t commit - they commit when they want, to who they want, when they want to...it has to be on their own terms though!

🪁cancer moons give the warmest, most tender hugs i’ve ever received.

🪁i’ve never met an aries mars who wasn’t competitive as fuck and hated losing. these people always wanna be the best at whatever they are doing and can take it to heart when they come in 2nd but they’re the types to dust themselves off and try again instead of stewing in the pain of their own failure forever

🪁people with moon-uranus hard aspects may like dating air venus people because air venus people could keep them entertained and give them the space they need. bonus points if the native has sag, aqua, cap or gemini placements.

🪁pisces venus people love love but tend to run away from it when it comes close

🪁mercury retrograde people are always so fucking late all the damn time

🪁for scorpio moon, scorpio venus, moon-pluto and venus-pluto people, heartbreak is literally the end of the world. we are not joking when we say it feels like death.

🪁sun opposite pluto people often try to fight their plutonic tendencies and have a particularly gnarly disdain for their father while other sun-pluto placements tend to accept their plutonic nature and allow themselves to overcome their father-related trauma.

🪁sun-pluto people (especially conjunction, opposition, square) tend to go through phases in life where they stop talking to their fathers.

🪁aquarius and pisces risings have an affinity for changing up their hair. they love wigs and dying their hair a different colour is like one of their favourite past times. they always make the different colours and styles look good though - they’re just blessed that way.

🪁saturn in 9th people don’t like going to church lol.

🪁saturn in 9th people may want to move to a different country but may have responsibilities in their hometown/home country that prevents them from doing so. they may also have a hard time trying to figure out what they want to study in college

🪁 2H uranus and 2H saturn people are very smart with money but the 2h uranus person is quicker to spend it than the 2h saturn person.

🪁 sagittarius moons 🤝 aquarius moons

being literal fucking soulmates

🪁ALL fixed venuses (taurus, leo, scorpio, aquarius) display the same level of devotion, commitment, loyalty and fixation on a chosen partner. it is literally in their venusian nature ... hence it being FIXED!! once they have their heart set on someone, it’s a done deal. they want that person forever which is why it takes them forever to move on from a former partner

🪁4th house synastry is so cute. my venus and mars falls into one of my closest friends 4th house and we always hang out at her house like literally every time we hang out, it’s at her house. we wear pajamas and eat a whole lotta food while watching animé in bed lol

🪁 cap venus 🤝 aqua venus

“i’m so in love with you, please go away though”

[drabbles-of-writing]

A Little Kindness: Chapter Eight

AO3 Explanation of AU

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11

Summary:  In which Raine meets Hunter years before canon, and decides that a kid like him could use all the help he could get with an uncle like Belos. Even if they couldn't go much, they could try something, couldn't they? Years down the line, Raine is exposed as a traitor to the Emperor's Coven, and they are bound by the brand on their own wrist. Hunter notices. And as to be expected, he has more than a few complaints. It's not a big surprise on who he goes to for help.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Hunter woke up with his face smooshed against the floor and a dozen or so puddles across his room, soaking into his bones. He swore sometimes the world got a kick out of inconveniencing him.

Were it not for that, or glyphs he still had, or the lingering ache in his back, he almost would’ve thought the whole thing had been a crazy dream. How he wished.

He sat up, ignored the flare of pain, grabbed his uniform, and was promptly put out with the guards without any fanfare. Like clockwork, he got to ordering them to search the streets, to send calls to stations outside of Bonesborough, in search of Lilith and the missing Head Bard. It was an overall rather typical day.

His body was sore, and he wanted nothing more than to sleep for a week. This was fairly normal, but considering how much work he’d gone through in the last few days, the lack of sleep he’d been getting was not helping his current state.

As much as he wanted to drop everything and run back to that shack in the woods, he knew he was on thin ice. Normally, Belos would leave him alone for a few days after he messed up as bad as this, to make him think about his actions, he supposed. But he was no fool, and he knew that Belos would be checking in with scouts and their captains if he was doing his work. He couldn’t leave. He had work to do.

It was easy, really, to throw himself into work and forget about everything else. He could almost pretend that he wasn’t committing multiple acts of treason for someone he’d barely had a conversation with. He’d gone this long without questioning himself on why he was so quick to risk everything for someone who'd only shown him kindness through notes and gifts, and he wasn’t about to now.

If he’s lucky, when all of this is over, he’d never have to think about any of it ever again. 

 ,

 So he didn’t visit for that first day, or the second, or the third. He waited, and worked.

They found one other hideout of the BATs, but all that was left in it were layouts of plans that had long since gone through and old, broken supplies. They had yet to find where Lilith had gone off to. Either she was better at hiding than they thought, or she’d found someone who knew what they were doing. Course, she could’ve left the cities altogether, but Hunter knew from personal experience that Lilith would rather keel over than rough it outside the main cities.

On the fourth day, patrols ended just an hour before dusk. Other preparations were being made for the Day of Unity, and the Golden Guard was dismissed from conversation. He would not be needed till morning. On any other day, this might have insulted him.

That night, he loosely wore his under armor, his back still somewhat stinging from the burns, and one of his dirtier cloaks without any shoulder armor. He kept his mask tucked tightly away, and debated on if he should bring his staff at all.

He settled on yes, just in case. He used that staff to fly out of his window in the dimming sky, keeping as low as he dared. The route to the Owl House could be entirely through the woods if you wanted, so that's what he decided on. It was good practice anyway, weaving between the trees and dodging stray branches. Relying on his teleportation was a bad habit to make.

When he did break free from the tree line, eyes immediately landing on the Owl House and forcing him to screech to a halt, he got the feeling it was all too late and much too soon.

He really didn’t want to deal with the door demon, but he figured they probably wouldn’t take too kindly to him breaking in through a window. So instead he squared his shoulders, shared a glance with his palisman atop his shoulder, and hopped off his staff and onto the ground at the edge of the clearing.

His and Belos’s staffs both had a mechanism that retrated the rod, making transport of them much easier, though he rarely used his. He tucked it away now, into the pocket lining of his cloak as he approached the house, ears pressed back.

“Alright, this won’t be that hard.” He reasoned, more to himself than anything. His palisman chirped from his shoulder all the same. “Just pop in, check on Raine, give them all some warnings, and leave. Simple four-step stuff. And if they want to make it more complicated, then--”

Something suddenly shot towards him out of the corner of his eye, and he whirled around with a growl and raised hands for barely half a second before he had something wrapped around his body, limbs pinned to his sides and constricting air out of him. It pressed against the burns across his back, causing him to hiss and try to wriggle away, but it only clung tighter.

“Oh. there you are!” A shrieky voice said.

Hunter glared towards the voice, already having figured it out pretty quickly from that alone. Hooty smiled down at him, cheery as ever, despite a fair portion of his weird worm body being wrapped around Hunter.

“Put me down.” He growled, baring fangs.

“Mmm, see that kind of depends,” Hooty said, turning his head this way and that, and in turn also shaking Hunter around like a bad rattle. “I know Eda let you in last time, but she also said not to let anyone from the Emperor’s Coven in, so!” Hooty then brought his face uncomfortably close to Hunter’s, and he jerked his head back with a low, warning growl. “Why are you here, then?”

“I’m here,” Hunter gritted out, aware of his palisman chittering madly somewhere, likely wrapped up elsewhere in the tangle. “To see Raine. Now put me down or I’ll bite that beak off!”

“Oooh, you’re mean.” Hooty said, almost sounding a little delighted, and definitely contemplative. “I think you’d get along with Amity. She’s mean, too. But Luz likes her and made her promise not to beat me up anymore. Oh, oh! I should introduce you!” Hooty perked up, and Hunter nearly went upside down. “Good friends do that, right? They introduce people they think would get along? I should ask Lilith about that.” He hummed thoughtfully.

“Did you say Lilith?” Hunter tilted his head, right before he heard the sound of the door opening.

“Hooty,” A tired voice said. “What did I say about yammering on to trespassers? You do it away from the house.”

Hunter tried to crane his head back towards the front door, only resulting in further scratching his back along Hooty’s long body and flinching with a drawn-out hiss.

“Oh, Eda, Eda!” Hooty said, turning his head around and, in turn, Hunter. “I found the sad, angsty kid!”

Hunter felt like his brain was rattled around for a moment from the sudden shift, shaking his head to clear it as the front door came into focus. Sure enough, the Owl Lady stood in the doorway, looking either like she had just woken up, or was about to go to sleep, either was entirely possible for this woman.

She blinked in surprise, one ear flicked up when she realized who Hooty had wrapped up.

“So, you did decide to turn up again.” Eda said, leaning on the doorway. “We were starting to think you ditched us halfway through.”

“I just might.” Hunter huffed, sending a glare towards Hooty. “Tell him to put me down or I’m putting a dent in him.”

“Good luck,” Eda raised a brow. “Hooty, put the kid down. Just let me know whenever he shows up before you let him in next time.”

Hooty promptly dropped Hunter, who landed face-first on the ground.

“I never should have come back.” He groaned into the dirt, feeling a familiar bird land by his arm and press at it.

“Well, we’re happy to hear you did, anyway.” Eda shrugged, waving off Hooty trying to add more to the conversation. “Hey, kids! Blondie made it back alive.” She called somewhere behind her, and Hunter looked up in time to see a familiar fluffy black tail disappear behind the doorway to the kitchen, and an offered hand in his face.

“Back burns wouldn’t have killed me.” Hunter said, eyeing the hand and then looking up to Eda’s face, who looked...well, very worn, but still smiling.

“No, but it sure looked like you were about to burst all your blood vessels.” Eda shrugged. “You gonna get up or what?”

Hunter looked over her hand for another moment, twitching his hand, then hesitantly reaching out to take it. Eda only smiled, pulling him to his feet as he brushed himself off before the dirt and grass could stain his attire.

“I think that’s just an occupational hazard of being around you people for too long.” He muttered, his cardinal fluttering up onto his uninjured shoulder, where the scabbing from Belos’s punishment was still fresh. He tugged his cloak closer around himself, tightly wound around him like a shield.

“You’ve got a terrible tolerance for people, you know that?” Eda hummed, stepping aside as Hunter pushed his way in.

And almost immediately, his eyes snapped to the couch. Sure enough, Raine was still there.

They were laid on their back, arms folded across their abdomen in a way that gave him a disturbing feeling of looking at a corpse.

He got the impression they’d ransacked another old BATs base, because what Raine was dressed in looked mildly similar to what they’d previously been wearing, but significantly cleaner, less torn.

Amber and Derwin were there, he realized only moments later. Amber was sitting on her knees by the arm of the couch where Raine’s head was, with Derwin stood by Raine’s side. Both looked a little startled, staring right at him with wildly contradicting expressions of distrust and curiosity, respectfully.

“Did you find anything?” Hunter asked, immediately gravitating towards them.

“Nothing of much use,” Derwin shrugged, taking a small step aside as Hunter approached. “Raine hasn’t responded to anything. We had some ideas but...we didn’t want to accidentally make anything worse if you knew something.” He admitted.

“If he knows anything.” Amber grumbled.

Hunter’s ears flicked down, and his palisman side eyed him. Alright, so maybe he should’ve waited an extra day to gather more intel. Should’ve asked more questions about Raine when his uncle wasn’t in such a sour mood. For once, his dedication to work and only work came back to bite him in the ass.

“Where’s Luz?” He asked instead, because he could at least rely on using her to change the conversation, should things start going south.

“Off at the library with her friends and Katya.” Eda said, leaning against the wall. “They were hoping to find anything on Raine there. For a second time.”

“Well, that was pointless,” Hunter snorted, eyes darting to the windows. Alright, no Luz, but he’d worked in trickier spots. “Belos has purged hundreds of books from those libraries he didn’t want the public knowing about.”

Eda gave him a bit of an odd look, a frown crossing her face before she pushed herself off the wall, expression turning to one of simply anxious concern, like nobody had seen what it’d previously been. He noted that down for later.

“Did you find anything, then?” Eda asked.

“I, well,” Hunter fumbled slightly, ears pressed down and sharing a glance with his palisman.

“I knew it, I told you he wouldn’t have anything.” Amber muttered, her ears falling back as Derwin gave her a glare.

“Hey, he had his back flayed off!” Derwin defended. “Give him a break.”

“And he couldn’t find anything in three days? But still find the time to come back here?” Amber gestured to a bristling Hunter. “He’s the Coven Head!”

“Alright, cool your jets, kid.” Eda said, stopping at the other end of the couch and giving her a slightly scolding look. “I’m worried, too. But him not having anything now doesn’t mean he won’t ever have anything.”

He chose not to focus on the way her hand was gripping the arm of the couch, nails near puncturing holes in it. Or Derwin’s worried hold on Raine’s arm. This is fine, he still had some useful information, they wouldn’t kick him out just yet.

“Well, are,” He started instead, because Titan-forbid an awkward silence. “Is Raine stabilized?”

“For now,” Derwin nodded, looking down at them. “They...I don’t know if Raine was fed at all, to be honest.”

Flashes of rib cages jutting through skin went through Hunter’s mind, and he was grateful then that it’d only been a week. Raine was always thin, but now he wondered if the bony knobs on their wrists and fingers were always there or not.

“Can’t get them to chew anything, either.” Eda added, gazing down worriedly at them. “So we’ve had to get by with soup. King ate your candy bar when we realized they couldn’t eat it.” She said, fixating a glare somewhere behind Hunter.

“Well, he wasn’t going to eat it!” 

Hunter looked back over his shoulder, spotting King in the doorway to the kitchen, currently cramming a cookie in his mouth, glaring right back at Eda.

“Whatever, I don’t care,” Hunter waved a hand. “The important part is that Raine is alive, and we can keep them that way.”

He felt a little bad when he saw Eda and the others tense at bit at his words, mood visibly souring. Right, tact, he had to work on his tact.

“And anyway,” He said, gazing down at Raine before deciding better of it. The sight of them was unnerving enough, and he already almost felt like he was at some shabby funeral. “I may not know much right now, but I know someone who might.”

That caught their attention fast, a sort of cautious hopefulness. It was an odd feeling, being looked at like that, and he raised a hand to draw it through his cardinal's feathers, aware of King hurrying in somewhere behind him.

“And, let me just preface this by saying,” He started slowly, giving Eda a wary look. “That I’m not happy about this option, either.”

“Is it Warden Wrath?” Amber grimaced, face scrunching up.

“Worse,” Hunter grumbled, beginning to hunch his shoulders before a dull pain spiked through it and he aborted the movement halfway through. He sighed then, turning fully to face Eda with a tired, resigned expression. “Do you, by chance, happen to know where Lilith is?”

Eda blinked at him for a moment. Then she raised a brow, glancing around like she thought this was some poor joke.

“Yeah? Why? How could Lily know any of this, if you don’t? She had the same job as you.”

“For far longer than me,” Hunter reminded. “While discussing Raine’s escape, Belos told me to send out guards to search for Lilith, or at the very least, dissuade her from showing her face or going anywhere near here. Which probably means she knows something.”

“The Covens hunting down Lily?” Eda exclaimed, suddenly standing bolt upright and startling the other.

“I wouldn’t say hunting down,” Hunter tried slowly, confusedly eyeing the witch. “More of…keeping an eye out. Honestly, considering how long it's taking to find her, I doubt we ever will.”

“And you think she can help?” Derwin reiterated as Eda hurriedly strode to the other side of the room, pulling out her scroll from her pocket.

“Not to ruin this, but,” King raised a paw, pulling himself onto the coffee table. “How do we know you're not just telling us this so we’ll find Lilith for you?” 

Eda paused then, not turning around, but one ear pricked up, listening. Hunter didn’t look at her out of politeness more than anything. These people had to work on their subtlety. 

“For one thing, if it weren’t for the attempted murder, I’d hate Lilith more than Kiki.” Hunter said calmly. “I’d happily sabotage search missions for her if it meant I never had to see her again, but I’m already on thin ice. For another, I’m not stupid enough to trick you all in this maner and expect to come out unscathed.”

“That implies you’re tricking us in other ways.” 

“Well aren’t you paranoid?” Hunter gave Amber a mildly annoyed glance. “Are we getting Lilith or not? I’m willing to make the sacrifice to interact with her again if it means she can help Raine.” He gestured with a hand towards the witch on the couch, who he still couldn’t really look in the face.

“We’ve got defense measures, anyway.” Eda said, still not turning around as she dialed a number on her scroll. “Kid can just sit tight till Lilith arrives.”

“You have her phone number?” Hunter raised a brow.

“Don’t tell Hooty, otherwise he’ll steal it.” Eda warned, waving a hand behind her as she brought the scroll to her ear. “And, again, why wouldn’t I?”

Hunter raised a brow, looking to King, who still seemed a little suspicious, but mostly unconcerned as he sat down on the coffee table, legs dangling off. He didn’t get why they just allowed demons on the table, but he figured this was the least of his problems.

“Don’t you hate her?” He squinted over at Eda.

“...is this about the curse thing?” Eda narrowed her eyes back at him.

“Yes?” Hunter glanced around, meeting Derwin’s eyes for a moment before he shrugged and turned away. “Practically the whole Emperor’s Coven saw your fight on the bridge, it was all the scouts talked about for weeks.”

Eda cringed a bit at that, turning her head slightly towards him as her scroll continued to ring.

“Yeah that was...a thing. We’re alright now, though.” Eda said, shrugging like it was the most normal thing in the word to still be in contact with your sister who cursed you.

Hunter gave the others incredulous looks, of which Amber and Derwin were no help and King just stared blankly back.

“How the hell are you--”

“Lily!” Eda suddenly said, far too cheerful to be normal, the call finally connecting through. “Hey, so, sorry to cut the bonding time with Mom short, but we need you to visit. No, it doesn’t involve Hooty.”

“Should I ask?” Hunter pointed with a thumb over to Eda as she spoke, keeping his voice quiet so as not to interrupt. 

“It’s a whole thing.” King said simply. “Which, actually, I’ve been meaning to ask,” King began swinging his legs over the edge of the table. “How come you and Lilith hate each other so much? She mentioned you once and got really mad that you were promoted.”

“I’m only sad that I missed it.” Hunter said, a small grin forming on his face, picturing the sight of Lilith seeing him on the posters, knowing that he’d taken her prized spot. “But, to answer your question, it’s more of a rivalry type thing. Lilith couldn’t stand someone threatening her rank, and she knew how close I was to Belos. Though, to be honest, I much rather preferred her passive-aggressive attempts to get under my skin than Kikimora’s murder attempts.” He shrugged.

“She’s tried to murder you before?” Derwin paled.

“What, are you like, Emperor Belos’ pet?” Amber said at the same time.

“Throughout basically my entire life, and no.” Hunter answered, sending a glare Amber’s way. “I was the prodigy of the Coven, and he greatly appreciated my work.” He said. Belos kept the fact he had a nephew well within the confines of the few in the Coven for a reason, thank you very much.

“Your parents gotta be rich off your Golden Guard job, huh?” Amber scoffed, raising a brow.

“No to the parents, and to the payment.” Hunter brushed off, leaning against the arm of the couch and ignoring the very surprised looks he received. “Anyway, on Lilith, it was mostly a rivalry on her part. She felt threatened by my general existence and would try to prove herself doubly hard if I was ever around. It was pathetic, really, but I got into the rivalry anyway. It was one of my biggest sources of entertainment.” He chuckled, only now looking over at them.

Derwin and Amber shared a look, and Derwin absently brushed Raine’s messy hair to the side. He noticed they were still wearing their earring, and was a little miffed they hadn’t taken that off. What if it got caught on something?

“Do you...live in the Coven?” Derwin asked slowly, giving him an odd look.

“Why are we circling back to this?” Hunter sighed, rolling his eyes. “Yes, I live in the Coven. It’s not a new concept, some witches live in the Coven as well. Easy commutes to work and less tax pay will do that to you.”

“You still have to pay taxes in the Coven?”

“I don’t,” Hunter corrected King. “The others do. Again, I’m not paid.”

“That...is that technically child labor if he’s not paid?” Amber asked Derwin, squinting.

“It’s not child labor--”

“Yeah, and hurry it up, will you?” Eda’s scroll conversation drifted back in as she wandered back towards the kids. “Heard that the Emperor’s Coven is looking for you. Don’t want you getting captured on your way over.”

There was a sudden spike in worry shouting through the scroll, but Eda only calmly moved it away from her ear and hung up, shoving it back into her pocket.

“Alright, she’ll show up sometime tonight. Think you’ll survive the wait?” Eda asked, one hand on her hip as she looked down.

“Unless Lilith lives five cities over, I think I will.” Hunter drawled. “I just need to be back before dawn.”

“Fantastic. Have you eaten?” Eda asked, clapping her hands together as she turned on her heel, off towards the kitchen.

“Why is that what we’re changing the topic to?” Hunter raised a brow.

“Because you’ve refused food before, and I plan to rectify that.” Eda said over her shoulder, already turning the corner into the kitchen. “It’s a yes or no question, blondie.”

“Don’t call me that,” He muttered, one ear flicking. “I don’t need your charity food.”

“I’m giving you chips.”

“I do not want your chips, they’re probably moldy.” Hunter scrunched up his face.

“You’ll live.”

“All the moldy ones are at the back, anyway.” Amber said breezily, and Hunter whirled his head to her.

“I–she actually has moldy–?”

Something soft hit him in the head, and Hunter jolted, his palisman squawking and fluttering down onto the coffee table as he fumbled for whatever hit him. He paused, lifting it up and realizing it was a small bag of chips.

“Feast,” Eda snarked from the doorway to the kitchen, a lazy smile on her face.

Hunter glared at her for a moment, then sighed, slowly sitting down on crossed legs and leaning against the couch. He figured that if they were moldy, he’d feed them to King. Or throw them back at Eda.

“We’ve tried a couple ideas while you were gone,” Derwin filled the silence as Hunter tore open the bag, pleased to see the chips were not, in fact, moldy. “We tried poking at the vines with some sharp objects to see if we could cut at them.”

“Are they impenetrable?” Hunter asked, not looking up as he hesitantly took a nibble of the chip, ignoring the judging look King was giving him.

“No, but they are pretty tough.” Derwin said. “And they bled when pierced.”

Hunter paused at that, halfway through shoving the chip in his mouth. He turned to Derwin, and his concern must’ve been evident, because Derwin only thinned his mouth.

“Yeah, we’re pretty sure they’re intertwined with Raine’s veins.” He said. “So we decided not to cut them out.”

“...good call,” Hunter said cautiously, deciding it was safe to eat the chip.

“They’re completely unresponsive,” Eda added, and Hunter looked up as she leaned on the wall beside the couch, just behind Amber, face pinched. “No matter what we try, not a twitch. Even the whole hitting the knee trick doesn’t cause them to react.”

“Definitely connected to the nervous system, then.” Hunter hummed thoughtfully. “Likely affecting the brain, too. Have we tried giving them any commands like Kikimora?” He asked, looking up.

“Haven’t done a thing,” Amber shook her head. 

“In that case,” Hunter said, popping another chip in his mouth. “I’m willing to bet that Kikimora is the only one who can give commands that Raine would obey. I’m not even sure if Emperor Belos would be able to, she’s not stupid enough to give up the one thing that makes her irreplaceable to the Coven.”

Eda visibly paled at that, ears pressed tightly against her head. Amber and Derwin didn’t look much too pleased either, Amber slowly settling a hand on Raine’s shoulder, leaning her head against the arm of the couch. He didn’t check to see what King’s reaction was.

He wondered if it was a good thing or not that his appetite didn’t falter, when he realized what this could imply for the future.

“So, basically,” Hunter said, glancing away. “Kikimora’s going to be pretty pissed off if she finds any of you guys. Regardless of the situation, she has the most power over Raine, and Raine was kidnapped under her watch. The Emperor was already displeased at the escape, I can only imagine what he’s done to her for her failure.”

“I should call Luz,” Eda said abruptly, pushing herself off the wall. 

“I’m sure they’re alright,” Derwin soothed, though his shoulders seemed a little tense. “She took on the Emperor and won, didn’t she?”

“You mean when Belos was trying to petrify Eda?” Hunter asked, one ear pricked. “She didn’t win against him, in fact, didn’t she lose? Isn’t that the entire reason she destroyed the portal?”

“What, were you there?” Amber huffed.

“Were you?” Hunter shot back.

“Luz says she kicked his ass,” King volunteered.

“Luz thinks she kicked my ass.” Hunter deadpanned, rolling his head to the side to give the demon a blank look. “She’s an unreliable narrator.”

“Mmm, no, I think she kicked your ass.” Amber said, flashing a sharp-toothed grin.

“Oh, now who wasn’t there?” Hunter hissed, giving her a seething glare. “When did she even tell you about that?”

“While you were off brooding at the castle.”

“I was not brooding–”

The front door opened.

Hunter jumped to his feet in barely a second, hand reaching inside his cloak for his staff. The others, meanwhile, simply turned their heads to the doorway.

“Thank you for helping, guys!” A familiar voice called, and Hunter saw Katya walk in a second later, though she wasn’t the one talking. “I’ll tell you if there’s an update.”

Hunter only noticed then he hadn’t paid attention to where Eda had moved off to. He saw her now, at the corner of his eye, scroll in hand, ready to dial. He saw her hastily put it away.

Luz walked in through the door a moment later, looking rather worn, kicking the door shut with her foot as Hooty started talking. The demon still kept talking, even with the door shut, though it was muffled, now.

“No luck,” Luz sighed as she walked in, stretching her back. “Please tell me you guys have good–Hunter!” She exclaimed, straightening with wide eyes the movement she spotted him.

“Took you long enough,” Hunter huffed, slowly letting himself untense, doing his best to not show his dismay when he realized he’d dropped his chips on the floor, half the contents spilling onto the most likely very filthy carpet.

“When did he get here?” Katya asked, brow raised as Luz hurried over, grinning.

“Just a bit ago, told us some things he knew.” Eda said, placing a hand on Katya’s shoulder, giving her a once-over before guiding her to where everyone was gathered at the couch. “Didn’t want to interrupt you guys in case you found anything important.”

“How's your back feeling?” Luz asked, plopping herself on the other side of the coffee table, arms resting on it.

“Oh, uh, fine,” Hunter said, glancing away as he sat down again, a bit less cautious. Good, now he had a middle-man to mediate things better. He was starting to grow anxious with all the eyes on him. “It’ll scar, but I’ve had worse.”

“That is…hm,” Luz frowned, eyeing him. “You know that's not a good thing, right?”

“Would you rather I say this is the worst injury I’ve had in my life?” Hunter raised a brow.

“Well, it’d be marginally less concerning than the other option.”

“Goldie says that Lily might know something about Raine’s condition.” Eda said, one hand resting on Luz’s head as she came up behind her, and Hunter twitched at the sight of crooked, sharp-nailed fingers on her scalp. “I invited her over while you were away. Kid also says that unless Kikimora issues a command, Raine might not…move at all.” She said, voice slowly becoming duller as she spoke.

“Oh,” Luz said, deflating a bit. “Do you know what kind of spell this is?” Luz asked him, turning her head back to him, and Eda removed her hand to lean against the other end of the couch, by Raine’s feet, seeing as Katya took residence by Raine’s head alongside Amber.

“I’m looking into it,” Hunter promised, thumb brushing over the back of his gloved hand under the table.

“But not in the last three days,” Amber said, before Derwin sharply elbowed her in the sides

“I kind of had appearances to keep up, you know.” Hunter grumbled. “I didn’t get this job by doing whatever I wanted.” He muttered, reaching for a chip on the floor to pick up, before King suddenly leaned off the coffee table and snatched it up, shoving it in his mouth. Hunter stared at him in open disgust for a moment before shaking his head and leaning back, letting King hop onto the floor and eat all that remained.

“Did you get good grades in school, then?” Katya teased, though more light-hearted.

“I was home-schooled.” Hunter said curtly, and it was technically the truth. 

“‘Was?’” Luz repeated, though she became momentarily distracted when his cardinal hopped onto the coffee table, cheeping up at her until she started scratching its head. 

“Why are we interrogating me again?” Hunter demanded, harshly turning his head to look over Raine, avoiding looking at all of them. The sight still made him uneasy. “If we’re going to just keep interrogating me, then we could just communicate through letters, it’d still be effective. Actually, you know what,” Hunter sat up, beginning to push himself to his feet. “Why didn’t I think of that? I should’ve just done that, I should go do that–”

“Sit down, you drama queen.” Amber puffed.

“Hunter, come on,” Luz sighed, though a tiny smile was on her face that Hunter could only muster a halfhearted glare at. He found he didn’t mean it as much as he thought he would.

“Hey, if we’re all going to be asking me questions, I ought to be doing the same.” He said, turning on his heel in the middle of the room, palms raised. “The list just keeps growing on you people. Especially you.” He added, side-ways glancing at Eda, who’s mouth thinned. “Which, now that we’re here, how exactly–”

“Lulu!”

Hunter paused, one ear pricked as he slowly looked towards the door, and heads turned that way, as well. Hooty’s shrieking voice was easily heard through the wood, plus a much quieter one. Hunter narrowed his eyes at the door for a moment, jumping when Eda breezed right by him, arm almost ghosting his side.

Eda opened the front door, just in time for Hunter, and everyone else inside, to see Hooty wrap his long tube body around a…weirdly cheerful Lilith Clawthorne.

“Hello, Hooty.” Lilith smiled, though her voice sounded a bit strained, patting the demon on his head as he chatted her ear off.

“Oh, I have so much to tell you!” Hooty was saying, probably constricting tighter if Lilith’s slightly pained expression was anything to go off of. “Did you get my last letter? The one about–”

“About the beetle in the puddle? Yes, I did.” Lilith said,. “I was just about to send you a reply until Eda called me.”

“Eda called you?” Hooty exclaimed, whirling his head towards the door, a bright smile on his face. “Aw, Eda, you shouldn’t have!”

“It’s for business, Hooty.” Eda said, and though her back was to him, Hunter could hear the smile in her voice. “Lily can talk to you after we’re done, alright?”

“Aww, but Eda!” Hooty whined, drawing out her name.

“No buts, Hooty.” Eda said, stepping aside. “Let Lily go, we’ve got some things to talk about.”

“I guess,” Hooty huffed, abruptly dropping Lilith, almost causing her to fall over as she took in a deep breath. “But I wanna hear, too.”

“You can stay by the window,” Eda relented, offering a hand as Lilith stumbled over, helping her inside, and Lilith flashed her a quick smile. Despite Eda insisting they were alright, Hunter still found the interaction familiar, a bit too much so, compared to what he’d seen on the bridge. “Thanks for coming.” Eda said as Lilith stepped in.

“Of course, I was already considering visiting from what you told me about Raine.” Lilith said, and her weary smile dropped as she said so. “I can’t imagine what–” She paused, gaze landing on Hunter, standing in the center of the room. Almost instantly, he glared right back at her.

She looked…different. Her attire had lost the formality it once had, instead taking on a homemade, lazy-day wear. She’d acquired a gray streak through her hair, and her right eye was an odd gray. It matched almost perfectly with Eda’s, he realized. The roots of her hair were turning a dark ginger, and he vaguely remembered once hearing guards placing bets on if she dyed her hair or not.

“I’m not gonna ask,” Lilith said, shaking her head with a sigh.

“Hi, Lilith!” Luz waved, and Lilith looked over then, a slight fondness to the smile she gave, also thoroughly confusing Hunter. Partially because he’d witnessed Lilith try to murder Luz not all that long ago, partially because the last thing he’d ever expect to see on the ex-Coven Leader’s face was fondness.

“Hello, Luz–is that Raine?” Lilith startled, eyes widening as they shifted to just behind Luz, to the couch.

“Ah,” Eda deflated a bit, ears flicking back as the three remaining BATs all gave tense smiles or waves, and Hunter felt a little better for not being the only one clearly out of depth. “Yeah, told you they were…in a bit of a rough shape.”

“This is more than rough shape, Eda!” Lilith exclaimed, hurrying to the couch, Derwin shuffling a bit as King climbed back up onto the coffee table. “Oh, Raine,” Lilith murmured, reaching out and brushing the tendrils curled around Raine’s forearm.

Hunter narrowed his eyes, taking a couple steps forward. Eda giving two shits about Raine’s wellbeing was one thing. Lilith apparently caring was a whole different matter. Since when, in all the time he’d been in the Emperor’s Coven, had Lilith known Raine? He’s pretty certain he would have picked up on it if Lilith was friendly with anyone in that place, considering she talked to all of zero people in a non-professional manner. 

Lilith was staring at him now, he realized, giving him an odd, guarded look. The others were staring at him, too.

Took him another second to notice the faint, grating growl emitting from his throat.

Fuck.

Hunter jerked his head back, swallowing the noise back. He turned his head to the side, but nothing more. His glare stayed fixed firmly on the wall over Lilith’s shoulder, above the couch.

“My apologies,” Lilith started, slowly standing back to her full height. “Are you one of the BATs Eda told me about?”

It was almost accusatory. He didn’t resist his eye roll, and was more than a little smug to see Luz give Lilith a reprimanding look. 

“To everyone’s relief, no.” He muttered, one ear flicking. It was odd to be facing Lilith without his mask. He was uncomfortably aware of every expression he made, something he’d been trying to work on schooling when in his uncle's presence.

Lilith’s eyes narrowed, contemplative. She opened her mouth, closed it, slowly raised her hand, pointing a finger at him.

“You sound familiar,” Lilith said cautiously. 

“He's got a rather distinctly annoying voice, doesn't he?” Eda teased, and Hunter barely resisted the urge to jump as she appeared at his side, and though her teasing grin was back, it seemed halfway forced, now. 

“My voice is fine,” Hunter near-snapped, one hand raising to his throat and rubbing a thumb over it. “Pick something better to complain about.” 

“Oh, don’t worry,” Eda chuckled, patting his shoulder, of which he did tense up, “I’ve got a list.”

“Of course you do,” Hunter grumbled, watching as Eda strode back to the little group that formed, shaking himself off from the touch.

“You…” Lilith stared, eyes still squinted, raking her gaze over him. He saw the moment the idea came to her, a twinge of horror flashing in her eyes. It made him grin, all sharpened teeth and taunting.

“Me,” He agreed, and he saw the realization hit, her face morphing into that of shock. “Been a while, huh?”

“You–” Lilith took a step back, the backs of her knees brushing the couch. “You’re a child.”

“Teenager,” Hunter corrected easily. “But that wouldn’t really make a difference to you, would it?” He taunted.

Lilith whirled to Eda, as though searching for answers. Eda only gave her a shrug, though he noted her expression was a little unreadable. Was it amused, or thoughtful?

“Are they gonna fight?” He heard King whisper to Luz.

“Why–” Lilith started, turning back to stare at him. “Why are you–you’re a child.”

“Teenager, and we established this.” Hunter said, the smugness fading, just a bit. “Have you lost that intelligence you never shut up about in your time on the run?”

“I need to sit down,” Lilith pressed a hand to her face, and Luz simply patted the space on the floor next to her, to which Lilith quickly migrated.

“Wait, does the Emperor’s Coven not know you’re a kid?” Katya asked, frowning.

“Why would they?” Hunter scoffed, pricking an ear. “It’d make it impossibly difficult to control any of them if they thought someone beneath them was their superior.”

“It’s true,” Luz piped up, King patting Lilith’s back in confusion. The witch in question had drawn her knees up to her chest and buried her face in her hands. “They all bullied him when he tried to tell them he was the Golden Guard.”

“They were confused,” Hunter hissed through gritted teeth.

“No, they seemed entirely confident that you were a troublesome teen.” Luz said matter-of-factly, irritatingly self-satisfied.

“Regardless,” Hunter sniped, “once Lilith gets over what I imagine is her fifth midlife crisis, we’ve got some questions to ask her.” He said, crossing his arms. “So, we best start writing it down.”

“He’s a child,” Lilith groaned into her hands.

“Can we move past that already?” Hunter muttered, a bit annoyed, now. “As much as I’d love to mock you, we have more important matters here.” 

“Aw, it’s okay, Lulu,” Hooty cooed, and Hunter had completely forgotten he was there, watching as the demon slithered in through the window to poke his face at her feet. “I didn’t tell Hunter any of the things you said about him.”

“She was still shit-talking me?” Hunter asked, and his smirk was back. “Yeesh, someone's got problems.”

“Hunter?” Lilith raised her head then, looking Hunter up and down. “Your name is Hunter?”

“Don’t go yelling it around,” Hunter muttered, though there was a warning laced within it. “There’s already far too many people that know it.”

“Titan, okay,” Lilith pinched the bridge of her nose, taking in a deep breath. “Give me a moment, I’m remembering a lot of things I deeply regret saying, now.”

“Hey, at least now we know you’re getting character development.” Eda said with a shrug. “Sure, you argued, fought, and tried to kill some teenagers, but at least you feel bad about it.” She teased, and Lilith gave a quiet hiss.

“Oh, she did far more than fight me.” Hunter said, lifting his hand and beginning to count off his fingers. “Threats, defamation, sabotage, indirect insubordination–”

“Please stop talking,” Lilith groaned, face falling back into her hands.

“What are you willing to do to ensure I will?” Hunter leveled back. “I’m not normally one to be bribed, but I’ll make an acception.”

“As amusing as this is,” Derwin spoke up. “We still have Raine here.”

“Right,” Hunter shook his head, snapping it out of the revenge-filled glee it was in. “Lilith, as much as I hate to admit it, we need your information from your time as Coven Leader.”

Lilith sighed, running her hands down her face before looking up, looking far more exhausted than she had before as she turned around, facing the couch that Raine was laying on. Even in her time away from the Coven, Hunter recognized the formal expression she slowly slipped on, the one she often wore when she was trying not to freak out on some guards.

“I take it it’s about the mind-control Raine is under?” Lilith sighed.

“So you know what it is, then?” Amber perked up, and the others' attention was instantly grabbed.

“Vaguely,” Lilith said, giving Raine a sad, defeated expression that looked far too out of place on her face, and Hunter looked away from it. “I’ve only ever seen it used once before, and even then, it was incredibly briefly. I’m afraid I don’t know much about it.”

“Well, we’ve got nothing, so we’ll take what we can get.” Eda said, jaw set. “What is it, Lilith?”

“It’s…” Lilith shook her head. “It’s a very, very old spell,” She said, “and an incredibly tricky one, at that. It’s one of the most effective, but also most dangerous, forms of mind-control, a blend of illusion, abomination, and plant magic. As you can imagine, it’s impossible to use unless you have the Emperor Coven’s ability to possess all forms of magic.

“Back in my early days in the Coven, one of the guard captains was revealed to be a traitor, and planned to stage an attack on the castle. Kikimora was eager to try out new spells she had learned, and I believe it was this kind. I only saw the guard captain once, when Emperor Belos wanted to make him to be an example, summoning much of the Coven to witness what they’d done. It certainly got me to look over my shoulder more often.” Lilith shuttered.

“The guard captain was later used in an ambush to capture the remaining witches and demons from his rebellion. After that, the guard captain was planned to have been kept around, to see what else they could do. I heard rumors that, after about a month, the spell had begun to take some sort of toll on Kikimora, so they decided to cut their losses and only use the spell in special situations.” She paused here, swallowing before her shoulders slumped. “The plan was to see if they could get any more information out of the guard captain on the off-chance they missed something but…there were complications. I don’t know what kind, I never asked, but they hadn’t been…the same.” She murmured. 

Hunter could practically feel the tension in the room shift, and he leaned forward, if only slightly. His cardinal wiggled free of Luz’s hand, fluttering over to his shoulder and pressing up against his neck. The weight was almost grounding.

“Everyone said different things. Some said that they had trouble grasping the concept of moving without being told, or that they could barely speak, or that their vision had been heavily impaired, and a million other things. I don’t know what they did with the guard captain afterwards, but I can only assume the usual. Never heard from him again, and any attempts for more information from them were deemed too much effort. That’s the last I ever heard of this kind of spell.”

A silence enveloped the room, Lilith not looking anyone in the eyes, and that formality on her face dropped when her gaze turned to Raine, a remorseful expression forming. Hunter slowly lifted a hand to his neck, pressing his hand against his cardinal, who warbled softly.

“Well, fuck.” Amber said, and Katya promptly smacked the back of her head.

Eda slumped against the wall, one hand pressed to her face, hiding her eyes. King and Luz shared horrified expressions, and Derwin ran his thumb over the thorns along Raine’s arm. Despite Katya’s previous reaction, she seemed visibly disturbed, crossing her arms.

“Shit, okay,” Hunter said, clearing his throat as he pushed himself to his feet. “Okay, that’s–I can work with that.”

“What do you mean you can work with it?” Amber echoed, aghast.

“I can ask questions, search records, find senior members of the Coven to talk to,” Hunter said, hands moving as he spoke. “You’ve been keeping Raine fed and hydrated, and they haven’t been under control all too long, so if we act fast, we can probably halt any permanent damages.”

“I imagine it would be a closely guarded secret,” Lilith warned, frowning. “Kikimora wouldn’t leave this kind of spell in the open, I’ve never heard of anyone else who knows it. How do you expect to find it before the month is up?”

“I’ll figure something out,” Hunter said, because what else could he say? “Belos trusts me, if he knows anything, I may be able to get it out of him. And if not, then we have every confiscated book in the Isles in our library,” He said, running a hand through his hair and resisting the urge to yank on it. “There’s no way Kikimora came across that spell on her own, so it has to be in there somewhere. Do you know the name of the spell?” He asked, and he was not begging, thank you.

“I don’t,” Lilith shook her head. “Believe me, I wish I did.”

“Great,” Hunter grumbled, and barely stopped himself short of kicking something. “Okay, that’s fine, I can still find it. It’s a big library, but it's sorted, I just–need to look for a few particular sections. Hardly anyone goes in there, anyway.”

“We could all sneak in,” Luz suggested, also standing. “We’d all cover more ground if we–”

“Absolutely not,” Hunter shut it down, already feeling a spike in his gut at the thought of them going back into the castle. “The guards have tripled since we rescued Raine, and we are not risking any of you getting captured while sorting through that library. I can handle it just fine on my own.”

“Katya?” Eda said, and he looked her way, then, and he could’ve sworn Eda had pinpricks on her arms, and she could’ve almost been shaking, though he didn’t focus enough on that to confirm it. She moved her hand down her face, covering the bottom half of her face, but her eyes were visible. He swore her scalera looked darker than normal. “Did any of you keep in contact with the wild witches you rescued?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Katya said, sparing a glance with Derwin and Amber. “Not all of them, but we know some of the villages we told them they could hide at.”

“Good, you’re gonna want to start making maps.” Eda said, pinching the bridge of her nose and taking in a deep breath, and Hunter could see a ‘don’t freak out right now’ expression from a mile away. It surprised him how similar it looked to Lilith’s, just with less sharp edges. “We can’t waste any opportunities in case they might know something.”

“Oh, Amber,” King raised a claw. “Do you remember where Luz’s pens–”

“On it,” Amber said, leaving Raine’s side for the first time since Hunter arrived, darting around the others and off to the stairs.

He saw Lilith’s eyes flicker to him at the mention of the wild witches, and he met her eyes, unwavering. Her gaze only narrowed, and she looked away, back to Eda. 

“We have a plan, then.” Hunter said, clasping his hands together. “I search the castle’s libraries and ask around, and you lot go talk to the wild witches. Should be simple enough.”

“Don’t jinx us,” Derwin mumbled.

“Shouldn’t we at least have a way to get into the Emperor Coven’s library in case something goes wrong, or you can’t get there?” Luz persisted. “You just said you had to keep up appearances, what if–”

“I know how to handle Emperor Belos,” Hunter gruffed, feeling a light nip to his ear from his cardinal and ignoring it. “And I know you’ll just use that information to break in during the worst possible times, anyway.”

“I have a little self control.” Luz muttered, crossing her arms.

“No, no you do not.” Hunter said, turning away. “What time is it?”

“Oh, oh, I know!” Hooty poked his head up from the floor, seemingly the only one who wasn’t put off. “The time is, uh,” Hooty drew out his humming, turning his head around in a circular rotation. “The one-hundred twenty degrees time! That was it, I remember.” He said cheerfully.

“What the hell does that even mean?” Hunter stared.

“He means it’s four.” King said, as if this was common knowledge that people just had, apparently.

“Titan, you people are weird–whatever, that means dawn will be here soon.” Hunter said, throwing up his hands. “And I have work to do. Unless someone wants to share some shattering information at this time, I’m going back to the castle to get at least a little bit of rest. My sleep schedule is bad enough as it is.”

“To be fair,” Luz said as others began standing, moving to grab papers, shuffling around the room. “From one look at you, I don’t think it can get worse.”

“Hilarious,” Hunter drawled, flicking her forehead before he could stop himself. “Don’t follow me.” He warned, adding more force to his voice.

“I was not going to follow you–”

“You were thinking about it.”

“I was not–”

“Don’t do anything stupid!” Katya called after him, a fanged grin on her face. “Or whatever it is you keep telling us.”

“Good thing I don’t make a habit of it.” Hunter snarked back.

“Debatable.”

Hunter gave Luz a tired, exasperated look. She only snickered, and he supposed it was nice that someone could still derive amusement from this situation. Could probably still find optimism when in the maw of a basilisk.

He almost smiled back, if only at his own thoughts.

Then he saw Luz’s eyes flicker slightly, just a little down from his face. 

“What happened to your neck?” She asked, a confused frown coming to her face, hand reaching out.

Hunter jerked away, clapping a hand over what he knew was showing through the faint dip in his cloak, no longer wound tightly around his frame, the nasty scabbing he chose not to bother bandaging anymore practically on display to anyone who looked. Luz startled a bit at his reaction, blinking a bit owlishly as he took another step back.

“Nothing,” He said, turning his head away, his injured side facing away from Luz. “It’s–there was just a re–accident, I’m fine.”

The word reminder sat on his tongue. It was true, he’d normally call it as such, but then they’d ask what the reminder was for. Luz would follow him back without hesitation if she knew Belos was suspicious of him, if any of them knew just how close he was to being caught. No way in hell would they trust him with more risky work like this, and then they’d all be doomed.

He could feel eyes on him. He didn’t look over to see who was watching them, now.

“...if you’re sure.” Luz said, cautiously.

“Course I am. I was there, wasn’t I?” Hunter scoffed, turning on his heel and towards the front door. “Don’t do anything overly reckless, yeah?” He called over his shoulder, grabbing the door handle.

“Same to you,” He heard Eda call after, a slight strain to her voice that hadn’t quite left.

“What do you think I am, new?” Hunter muttered, pushing open the door.

Hooty’s body startled with the movement, still somewhere in the house behind him. He silently ducked under Hooty’s body, withdrawing his staff. There was a chirping in his ear, and he ignored it in favor of extending his staff.

He didn’t look back at the eyes still searing holes into him as he shot into the sky. What a way to make an exit.

 ,

 The fly back to the castle was silent, which was a little odd, especially for his palisman. He was almost grateful for it as he slipped back in through his window, tossing his staff aside as he flopped down on his bed, face in his pillow. 

He’d have to write down a list, soon. Of hours he could sneak into the library, of guards that would’ve been around way back when Lilith was new, though he knew they would be few and far between. He’d have to write down a real possibility of the spell being somewhere in Kikimora’s room, and he’d have to consider finding a way to sneak in, and–

And his palisman was settling down by his head, and he was so tired. Of work, of people, of emotions, of all this running around, and just in general. If he keeps this up, he’s going to wind up passing out one day, and that’s just going to be all kinds of humiliating.

He sighed, moving his head to the side as he stared at the wall, one hand coming up to his palisman and petting a finger down its back as it chittered contently. He didn’t bother to try removing his under armor, or changing out of his old cloak. He'd ended the exact way he started. Sore, tired, and with a stinging sensation in his back.

If he was lucky, he’d wake up with memory loss. Couldn’t have ten different problems at once if you didn’t know what they were now, could you?

He blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, sunlight was streaming in through the window.

[sei-hoe]

manager pt. 5

hello all! as always thank you for your love on this story.  i hope you like this new chapter! leave me a comment, i love reading your thirsty thoughts! also i recently remembered that shiratorizawa is a dorm school lol, so from now on i will write it as such oopsie. also!! i got all official and made a banner for this series, im so official!

Fem Reader X Tendou Satori & Fem Reader x Ushijima Wakatoshi

CW: blowjob, angst, jealous themes, manipulative reader, language, implied sex, spit kink

WC: 2.6k

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Clingy. That was the word you would use to describe Tendou as of late.  During school he was walking with you in the hallways, during practice he was standing next to you, after practice he was walking you to your room.  It wasn’t necessarily annoying, just strange.  His change in behavior was sudden and unprompted, at least in your mind.  

You had been the Shiratorizawa volleyball club manager for about a month now and your outlook had changed drastically.  What used to feel awkward was now second nature.  You used to flinch at what now was commonplace.  Being “used” wasn’t what it used to be.  Now it was something you looked forward to at the end of practice and you had actually become...dare you say it...friends with these guys.  Friends with extreme benefits that is.

But still, Tendou was different.  You’d catch him staring at you in a way that was different from the other guys.  You’d catch him staring as Ushijima would carry you out of the gym on his back and straight to the locker room.  He’d have a look that you used to not be able to identify in his eyes, you knew now it was jealousy.  It was the same look that you’d found on Ushijima’s face about a month ago.  

From Tendou’s perspective, it seemed as though Ushijima was hogging you, whisking you away after practice day in and day out.  You would always walk out of the locker room with wet hair and another one of Ushijima’s shirts on.  It was infuriating and just wasn’t fair.  Tendou had barely been able to talk to you recently, hence his rather clingy behavior.  But you were in heaven.  You were in Ushijima’s presence daily and were able to care for him how he deserved.  However, he had made it very clear that you were not his girlfriend as he didn’t have the time for such a commitment.  Another price you were willing to pay.

  _____

Another grueling practice ended a little bit later than usual, you noted the dark sky through the windows towards the top of the gym walls.  You were working on a bit of homework when the final whistle was blown signifying the official end of practice.  You stood up and began packing up your bag as the team approached the bench for a meeting.  Tendou was the first to arrive by the bench, coming up behind you for a hug, wrapping his arms around your upper stomach and resting his chin on your head.  His chest felt hot and sweaty against your back, instantly raising your body temperature.  You giggled, knowing exactly which sweaty athlete this was.  You and Tendou had become quite close, despite spending less time with him sexually, at least, during the last month.  It seemed as though you were never really alone anymore and Tendou was always around you.  It was nice, he had become a great friend to you.  The two of you were always flirting back and forth and unlike Ushijima, it seemed as though Tendou really cared about you, both emotionally and physically.  He always made sure you came before him and that you were alright after one of your umm...managerial obligations, whereas Ushijima didn’t care if you came at all.  Long story short, you always enjoyed the time you spent with Tendou.  

A few words were said per the usual by the captain and practice was dismissed.  Tendou, still holding onto you from behind, moved his hand further down to your lower stomach, began rubbing gently, and craned his neck down to whisper in your ear, “ya wanna get outta here?”.  You could hear the smirk behind his words as his hot breath blew against your ear.

“Mhm”, you murmured eagerly, missing your time with Tendou.

“Good��, he hummed in response, “because there’s something I’d like to give ya,” He accentuated his dirty talk by moving his hand even lower, “right here.” To say you had butterflies was an understatement.  It was crazy what a couple of words could reduce you to, but here you were.  

You walked back over to the bench to pick up your bag, but was intercepted by Ushijima who had a proposition.  

“Come back with me to my room”, he offered, stepping close enough to make you crane your neck up.  You looked behind you at Tendou, he was laughing with Semi, unaware that you were about to ruin his night.  It’s not that you didn’t want to fuck Tendou, you did, very much actually.  That’s just how whipped you are for Ushijima.  

“But I already told Tendou that I’d-”, you started.

“Go make up some excuse and then wait for me outside of the locker room.” he interrupted while he started for the gym doors. Ushijima was hardly in the mood to share you tonight, or ever really.  You watched him leave while standing and staring, awkwardly contemplating what to say to Tendou.  You mustered up the courage to walk over to him, smiling and saying goodnight to Semi as you passed him on his way out.  

“Hey, umm, I just remembered that I’ve got a ton of homework that’s due tomorrow and I just think I should probably-”

“What did Ushijima just say to you?” he caught you off guard with his question, although you should have been expecting it.  

“Nothing, I just have a lot of homework.” you quickly replied.

Tendou rolled his eyes, “Come on, we’re closer than that, you don’t have to lie to me.” His hands were placed on his hips in an annoyed fashion.  

You remained silent, thinking of anything you could say to ease the tension.  

“Ok, I’ll say something then.  Are you dating Ushijima or something?”

You shook your head.

“Ok...so then last I checked you were still the team manager, would that be correct?  Meaning you’re not just Ushijima’s to play with? Cuz there are other guys on the team that are stressed out too, if that’s what we’re even calling it anymore.”

You blushed at this choice of words.  “You don’t understand, I-” you started again.

“I think I do understand actually.  And just so you know, he’s never going to give you what you want.  You think you’re the first girl to fall for him?” He scoffed.  “I mean, fuck,” he ran his taped up fingers through his sweat-soaked hair.  “It just gets old, ya know?” Tendou looked so hurt and angry.  He opened his mouth to speak but closed it promptly and turned on his heel to leave.  You reached to grab his arm before he could slip out of your grasp.

“Wait, Tendou...please.” you whispered into his sleeve, despite being the only two left in the vast gymnasium.  “I don’t want things to be like this either.  You,” you paused to collect your thoughts. “You’re my friend and I love all the time that we get to spend together.  I always have the best time with you. But I can’t help liking Ushijima.  So please don’t be mad at me,” you prayed into his arm, still gripping at his sleeve.  

He finally turned around to face you, taking a deep inhale, he looked down into your wide, pleading eyes while exhaling through his nose.  

“Fuck, don’t look at me like that.” he looked away from you.  

“Look at you, how?” You prodded, widening your eyes and moving closer to him.  

“You know exactly how.” he smirked, bringing his hands to rest at your sides, lightly rubbing his thumbs in soothing circular motions.  Beginning at the bottom of his abdomen you begin running your hands up his stomach, to his chest, shoulders, and finally around his neck.  Standing on your tippy toes you pull him down to your level.  

“Can I tell you a secret?” you breathed in his ear.  

“Please,” he replied, his hands making their way down to your ass.  

“You’re the one that I think about. It’s your hands that I imagine are touching me when I’m touching myself. You always make me feel so good, Tendou.”

“Ughh why are you doing this to me?” He whined, tipping his head back.  It was then that you noticed the prominent tent in his pants, poking you in the stomach.  

You’d never seen Tendou so flustered in the short time that you’d known him.  He was usually the one making you flustered, not the other way around.  It was a nice change of pace.   It was also refreshing to know you had a kind of power over him, the kind to make him lose his mind.  

“You sure you can’t bail on him?” He asked, hope gleaming in his red eyes.   It made you pause to think about your options, a wicked idea popped into your head.

“Come wait with me?” you began pulling his arm towards the gym doors.  He looked confused, but followed you anyway.  Maybe you needed to give Ushijima a little push, it’s only a bonus that you get to makeout with Tendou too.

_____

The concrete bricks felt cold against the backs of your legs as Tendou shoved you against the locker room corridor hallway, the entrance to the room just around the corner.   One of his hands cradled the back of your head, protecting it from the hard brick while the other pressed bruises into your waist.  His chapped lips scraped against yours in a heated kiss, tongues fighting for dominance, his eventually winning as you whined into his mouth.  He broke the kiss to stroke his own ego, his hands trailing down your sides to play with the waistband of your shorts.  

“So you really think about my hands touching you when you play with that cute little cunt?”

“Please Tendou”, you moaned in response.  

“I think you’ve had enough attention for today, fucking teasing me for the last fifteen minutes. Hell, the last couple weeks actually.  You fucking rile me up just to go fuck some other dude.  You like being a little slut? Hmm?”  

You were at a loss for words.  As much as his words were turning you on, you knew there was some truth behind them.  He was onto your antics and done with them.  

“You think I don’t know why we’re making out right by the locker rooms?  Are you trying to make Ushijima feel like he’s missing out or something?  Being all cute with me to show him how good of a girlfriend you’d be? Well fuck that shit. Get on your knees slut.”

He removed his hand from your waistband and brought them to your shoulders guiding you down to your knees. You couldn’t even rest on your calves, you had to stand up as tall as you could on your knees to be eye level with the imprint in his shorts.  

“Fuck, it doesn’t take much, does it?” He scoffed as he pulled his shorts down to reveal his hard, heavy cock.

“Aw you didn’t think we’d take it this far, didja?  Better make this quick if you don’t want your boyfriend to catch us!” Tendou tilted his head to the side, a smirk plastered on his face while he caressed the top of your head.  

You opened your mouth to lap up the precum on his tip, swirling your tongue along the soft skin on the head of his cock.  

“Nah, I don’t feel like being teased anymore today.” Tendou spoke as he readjusted his grip on your head, scooting you back until you were trapped between the painted brick wall and his body.  You didn’t have a moment to adjust before his cock was plugging up your throat, making you gag around him.  The pace started brutally, shoving in and out of your mouth.  It was all you could do to keep up, running your tongue against the engorged vein on the underside of his cock.  He never eased up until you tapped his thigh signifying you had enough.  

“Too much?” he condescended.  You looked back up at him with watery eyes, swallowing as many breaths as you could before it all started over again.  

“This would have been much nicer for both of us if you hadn’t ditched me,  I would’ve made you feel so good, baby.”  He paused to take in your appearance, you looked so pretty like this.  Your hair was a mess, eyes watery, lips so fucking swollen, drool dripping down the sides of your mouth, your chest heaving, and he had a great view down your shirt.  Is this what his captain got to see everyday?  The thought filled him with rage.  If he had known he’d come to feel this way about you, he would’ve just asked you out, not asked you to be the manager.  Ushijima wouldn’t have ever noticed you had it not been for him!  Fuck, that’s annoying.

“Ya ready for a little more?”

You smiled at him through bated breaths, nodding your head.  Things hadn’t gone exactly to plan, but you were still having a good time.  You opened your mouth, closed your eyes, and stuck out your tongue, ready for whatever he had to give you.  Tendou bent down into a squat until his mouth hovered just above yours.  You felt something warm and sticky hit your tongue, you opened your eyes only to find a thin line of spit connecting Tendou’s lips with the liquid pooling in your mouth. Did he just spit in your mouth?  Before you could say anything he was back on his feet, cock in his hand, rolling it in the spit laying on your tongue.  He inched his way back into your throat, watching your eyes water with every thrust of his hips.  

“Fuck you’re gonnna make me cum if you keep looking at me like that.” He continued thrusting, your throat convulsing around his cock.  

“You’re gonna leave here with a tummy full of cum, ok sweetie?” His breaths and thrusts were becoming stuttered, he was close.  

“You’re gonna fuck Ushijima with my cum swirling around in your stomach.”  He whimpered, talking himself into an orgasm. With his hips giving one final thrust, you felt the back of your throat flood with cum.  Tendou held his hips flush to your mouth for a few seconds, emptying himself completely into your stomach.  He hissed as he pulled your head off of his now oversensitive cock.  

“Lemme see.” he sighed.   You stuck out your tongue, displaying your empty mouth to him.  

“Mmm good girl.”  He offered you his hand to help you up off of your knees.  He tucked himself back into his pants as the locker room door creaked open.  

“That’s my queue!” Tendou pulled you in for one final kiss, moaning as the taste of his cum hit his tongue.  And with that, he shrugged his backpack onto his shoulders and took off walking down the hallway.  

_____

You walked face first into a warm chest when you rounded the corner leading to the locker room door, looking for Ushijima.  Looks like you had found him.  His hair was still damp from the shower, his body was warm and humid through his clothes.  

“Are you ready to go?” He asked.  

“Yea-” you cleared your throat.  “Yeah!” That’s better.  Your voice was horse and your throat was sore.  

Ushijima noted your appearance.  Your hair was messy and your makeup was smudged.  Your lips were bright red and your chin was glistening.  He took your hand in his to begin the quiet walk to his dorm room.  He heard footsteps in the opposite direction, only to turn around to see Tendou walking away from the two of you, a slight pep in his step and unknownst to Ushijima a smug look on his face.  

[dottiechan]

ICEBREAKER Pt. 1

Read on AO3 (link in bio)

Part 1 | Part 2&3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Pairing: Crosshair x Reader x Hunter; Tech x Reader (platonic)

Wordcount: 2389

Summary: Tech watches on helplessly as his brothers' affection for you threaten to ruin the squad.

Warnings: cursing, yearning

You’re just as cold on the inside as the ice is under your boots. It crunches with every step you take, and your heart seems to beat along with the fall of your boots, aching. You feel unsteady, almost enough to miss the tracks running in the snow right in front of you. You pause and crutch down, gloved fingers dipping into the indentations as you grumble to yourself. It’s not even your turn to scope out the area where you’re setting up camp, and besides, there is a literal tracking genius in your squad - it really shouldn’t be you who’s out here in the snow and ice, eyes straining against the blinding white of the planet, fingers freezing off as you set up perimeter alarms. And yet you just volunteered for the less than ideal task without explanation, not understanding your own decision either.

At least Tech offered to tag along, but you suspect he’s simply had enough of his brothers for a while. Not that you can blame him.

“Fascinating.”

You sigh, internally begging him to stop talking as you stand, abandoning the tracks after deciding they most likely belong to a lone whitefang. You have enough on your plate right now, with Hunter still being pissy and Crosshair avoiding you like the plague, and silence would be much more preferable right now to listening to one of Tech’s rambles.

“Did you know that this moon’s surface is almost entirely composed of water?”

“No.”

“Despite the subzero surface temperature, there are subsurface oceans underneath the ice that are warmed by the moon’s internal heat.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I wish we could stay long enough for me to study the subsurface flora and fauna. There might be plants underneath the ice that-”

“Tech.”

“-that use chemosynthesis-”

“Tech!”

“What?”

He has the decency to look flustered, one hand gripping the datapad tightly, the other flying up to adjust his goggles as he peers up at you. You didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but sometimes you just can’t help it. Sometimes, the confinement of the Marauder is enough to turn you into a ticking time bomb, irritated by the slightest seemingly innocent things. And you’ve had more than just mere sparks to flare your temper as of late.

...

His rifle is spotless, and yet he’s still scrubbing it as if his life depended on it.

Maybe it does, because if he jumps up and lowers his guard for a second, he’s out the ship and off to find you and Tech. Maybe you’re a fool sometimes, a god damn nuisance, a person he still couldn’t grow used to, but you belong with them now, you’re theirs, you’re his, and that means something to him. You frustrate him beyond reason, and he often grows callous and agitated because he refuses to allow himself to feel the emotions you elicit from him whenever you’re near him.

Even now, on an ice planet, the mere thought of you infects him with a sweet, sweet jungle fever that knocks him off his feet.

And he’s supposed to be angry now, Crosshair reminds himself. After all, you almost gotten yourself killed on Bracca, and almost broke him in the process.

“They’ve been gone for too long,” Hunter grumbles as he paces up and down like a caged nexu craving to run free. But lately Crosshair began to suspect that he craves something else, someone else, and the thought has his throat tightening in jealousy. He’s been watching, and he convinced himself that he’d misread the signs until he saw the same agitation reflect in his brother’s eyes that he himself has to wrestle with every day.

If it ever came down to your choice, he knows he wouldn’t be it, and he hates living with this knowledge.

Hunter has all the things you seem to like - unlimited kindness, longing looks, smirks that turn a little too soft when directed at you, broad shoulders he caught you staring at more times than he can count. Deep down, he’s still hoping it will never come to you having to choose, but it’s impossible not to wish to be in the centre of your attention. You drive him insane, but you also make him want to commit and stop fighting and lay down his weapons for once in his god damn life.

“Relax. They’re probably fine.”

The screen to their left lights up, and Hunter rushes across the ship in long strides before exhaling in relief. “The proximity alarms are online. They should be heading back soon.”

Crosshair sucks in a breath, worried about seeing his own emotions sitting behind Hunter’s eyes as well.

...

You were assigned to assist the Bad Batch for an unspecified period of time some months ago. You’re a versatile field agent, specialising in both stealth and combat casualty care, one of the few volunteers who were qualified enough to join the GAR. Oh, and you’re also clearly mistrusted by your new squad as they flip out the very moment you risk yourself in the line of duty. You’re not stupid, you weighed the risks carefully, and you trusted your abilities to see you through the job unharmed.

But ever since the incident on Bracca, you’re given the cold shoulder by most on the squad, and for once, the scenery matches your mood.

And yet Tech deserves better than to be cut off like that. He deserves to be listened to, and appreciated as the good man he is. You’re friends, but in moments like these, you think you don’t deserve his friendship.

“Look, I’m... I’m sorry, okay? But right now, I have too much on my mind to think about, umm, chemo...”

“Chemosynthesis?”

“Yeah, that.”

“I think I understand,” he nods, satisfied with your half-assed apology for the time being as he goes back to scanning the vast icy desert stretching as far as the eye can see. The Marauder’s lights blink in the background, orange against the dark blue of the growing darkness that surrounds you. It’s like a beacon, a sign that promises warmth, and you gaze at it longingly until you remember that you’ll have to go back to Crosshair’s scowl and Hunter’s disapproving frown and Wrecker’s awkward little smiles. Somehow, the ice is preferable once more, and the snow that just began to fall in soft flakes is little more than a mild annoyance.

“Well, aside from a few distant life forms-”

“Whitefangs.”

“Yes, most likely whitefangs - aside from those, we should be quite safe inside the ship for tonight.”

“Yeah,” you sigh. “You might be. I’m not the most popular with the squad right now, remember?”

“You are a valued addition,” Tech declares, and the certainty in his voice releases inside you the emotional equivalent of a sucker punch. All you can do is stand, and fight the sting of tears in your eyes. You’re confident, but you never in your wildest dreams imagined how difficult it would be to live up to the expectations of a special unit. You also know your worth, but it’s hard to keep on believing in yourself steadfastly when the rest of your squad doubts your every move. “Which is why the prospect of losing you elicits a rather severe emotional reaction in us. It is rare for regs to warm up to us as well as you have, let alone volunteers. Aside from the obvious tactical disadvantage losing you would mean, I believe it is a little more personal than that.”

...

Hunter knows something is off even before one of the alarms is triggered - whatever it is, it is within five clicks of the ship, making you and Tech plenty exposed before he could do anything. He was straining his ear simply to keep you all safe - so what if he accidentally heard your muffled voice, or the soft crunch of snow underneath your boots?

But now is not the time to be idle, and he knows it. He would never forgive himself if something happened to his squad. And to you, he corrects himself almost softly as he grabs his helmet and checks his weapons quickly. Despite the fact that he’s still angry about your previous carelessness, he cannot deny the forbidden yearning coiling in his stomach whenever you’re on his mind, making him just as nervous as hopeful. And to be fair, it happens more and more often as of late, which is both alarming and exciting as he never thought he’d ever have the luxury to feel this way about someone else. Sure, he knows love, he loves his brothers with all his heart even if he isn’t very vocal about it, but this is different. New, scary, exciting different, an effervescent and persevering tingling blinding all his senses.

Crosshair is beside him in less than a second, rifle in hand, silent, and they share a nod before lowering the ramp and rushing out into the freezing dusk.

When he picks up on your muffled voice, he seems to ignore everything as he breaks into a sprint towards you, hoping to reach you in time before you’re in danger. He almost misses the way Crosshair’s heartbeat picks up, the usually stoic man reeking with genuine worry as he looks through the scope of his rifle.

He can deal with this later, Hunter promises himself as he pushes down this uncomfortable feeling. But then he sees you and Tech, and he seems to forget about anything and everything - you have that unfortunate and awfully distracting effect on him.

...

“But Hunter yelled at me for being reckless for a solid hour. And Crosshair said he didn’t care if I wanted to get myself killed, but I should do it in a way that didn’t interfere with the mission. Seriously, what an asshole.”

“Nevermind what they actually say,” Tech waves his hand in mild annoyance. “Hunter was worried sick. Crosshair almost went after you. And they’re both too pigheaded to admit the real reason why they’re so worked up.”

“Which is?”

“Obviously they both view you as a potential romantic partner.”

There’s a moment of pause as you two stare back at one another before you snort and chuckle, shaking your head and crossing your arms over your chest as a futile attempt at staying warm. “Tech, you need to work on your sense of humour.”

“And you need to work on your observational skills and situational awareness.”

“My observational skills are exceptional,” you defend yourself, a finger held up in the air defiantly. “And my situational awareness is-”

“Lacking, as you didn’t seem to notice the whitefang return. I suggest we head back to the safety of the Marauder.”

Sure enough, the wild cat is there lurking amongst the ice dunes, its eyes glowing in the dark as they reflect the light of the ship. It shouldn’t pose a threat to you as it is alone, and relatively small, but you still consider wrestling with it instead of returning to the ship and facing the rest of the squad - somehow, even that feels like a fight more fair than the ones that await you upon your return. So you hold its gaze as it curiously inspects you, wishing to swap bodies and run away and avoid any more conflict. Before you can even think of returning to the ship, you hear quiet footsteps catching up to you.

“I thought I heard something.”

“It’s probably more curious than anything.”

Hunter unsheaths his vibroblade and twirls it in his hand so theatrically it makes you roll your eyes. He glances at you, shoulders all tense, ready to pounce at the slightest sign of danger, and even though his face is obscured by his helmet, you can almost see the disappointed frown sitting on his features. “You want to test that theory?”

“My money would be on the whitefang winning.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Tech.”

“Any time.”

“Relax.” The distorted rasp of your commlink is not enough to drown out the smugness of the sniper. The stand-off ends when a single well-placed shot right before the big cat sends it sprinting away into the darkness. You all turn to find Crosshair standing by the ship, his rifle still aimed at the retreating form of the whitefang.

“Well, there goes my opportunity to finally have an interesting patrol,” you mutter to yourself as you all make it back to the Marauder.

“Do all of your patrols end in you staring down carnivores?” Crosshair snorts, clearly unamused.

“Only the good ones,” you fire back, deciding not to wait for any of them as you head inside. Crosshair is hot on your heels, another string of mockery sitting on the tip of his tongue, because fuck, you’re stubborn, but he’s not going to cave in and tell you how it makes him feel to see you in danger. He can’t, however, put up with being away from you either.

Hunter lingers a little outside. He has to set himself straight, to contain all the things he wants to say you that have nothing to do with scolding you about Bracca, to kill all the feelings that suddenly demand to be felt so desperately. He clenches and unclenches his fists by his side, pretending to survey the surroundings of the Marauder. Tech moves in the periphery of his vision, but instead of following you and Crosshair, he steps closer to Hunter.

“I believe the threat’s been averted.”

“Yeah. Good job on setting up those alarms, Tech.”

“No problem. Is there anything else you need?”

“No. You should head back inside. The last thing I want is for you to keel over with hypothermia.”

“That’s not how hypothermia works,” Tech mutters, his voice trailing off, eyes uncertain behind his goggles. He suddenly places a gentle hand on Hunter’s shoulder, making the sergeant glance at him.

“Hunter, I’m only asking this because I care about you all, but... how long do you think this can go on before one of you gets hurt?”

Tech’s words echo in his mind long after he’s rejoined the squad on the ship. And Hunter just stands outside in the snowfall, watching the last rays of light disappear on the horizon, wondering which one of you he’ll have to hurt when the push comes to shove.

[therealvinelle]

I’ve read the post about who may die in the next books, and now have some suggestions. What if Meyer had the courage to do this:

1. Jacob sacrifices his life for Renesmee (if it’s in the first book, the next is up for the new love interest).

2. Renesmee loses one or both parents.

3. The Volturi are defeated, but Edward dies. Bella is offered to be the new Volturi, and she becomes one (she can’t commit suicide because of Renesmee but life is meaningless now so she runs into politics to never be reminded about her lost love again). So Renesmee is technically without both parents too.

4. The Volturi aren’t defeated and make a deal with Bella: they take her as their hostage forever so she won’t see her family again (and she’ll be in the guard and drink human blood and completely sacrifice her devotion to her husband and daughter), but in exchange the Cullens are safe from the Volturi till the end of the world. So Renesmee (and Edward) will never see Bella again.

What are your thoughts about this? Can this happen? Thank you.

My blog is ridiculous, so this one is actually already answered.

I don't think any of Meyer's beloved characters is going to die. Certainly not Jacob, Bella, or Edward. This woman goes out of her way, and then some, to avoid killing the characters she likes.

She's not going to make Bella lose Edward, either, that's just not her M.O. I can't see her ever doing that.

This all being said, I find the post-Breaking Dawn landscape to be unbearably bleak, plus the knowledge that it will feature Jacob/Renesmée, a sheltered being he has known since she was less than an hour old haunts me. I'm not so much going to speculate on potential endings for this one so much as brace myself.

Also, to my knowledge there has been no official confirmation that there will be two books. I've been told there's a lot of misinformation going around on the internet. Meyer has only spoken of one book.