#look I am not trying to start arguments with anyone go do that somewhere else

[a-tear-in-the-veil]

The Dragon Age Q+A pissed me off so much. God. I am so disappointed in the dancing around questions and the cherry picking of what they answer regardless of the amount of upvotes. It feels like they admitted to destroying Southern Thedas (wiping world states) so that they could have a fresh start moving forward. The fact that they're not even entertaining the idea to fix the blatant holes in story content, and/or balance the content for the romances between the companions is so aggravating. Total sanitized corporate bullshit. I'm so mad.

[intimidating-fettuccine]

Yandere diaries. || Toby x reader. A new (possible) series I got the idea to do of the creeps doing diaries showing them gradually becoming yandere.

3k words. CW: Yandere, adult content (mentions of arousal and references to masturbation), descriptions of violence and gore, unhealthy relationships, severe abuse, delusions, Toby slipping into insanity and also being an unhonest/unreliable narrator with how awful he’s being.

4/26/22 -

I met someone new today! We bumped into each other at a park I like to go to on Earth. They were so kind to me. We ended up getting ice cream together and exchanging numbers. I hope I can see them again soon.

5/11/22 -

I’ve been able to see them a couple more times. We’ve been messaging regularly, and have also called a couple of times. I’ve never felt so connected to someone so quickly before. We have a lot in common, and they don’t even mind any of my tics or odd quirks. We have a plan to meet up this weekend and go to the movies together, I’m really looking forward to it. I hope we continue to be friends with each other for a long time!

5/14/22 -

I just got home. We had such a fun time at the movies! We saw one of the more recent horror films together. They got scared partway through and clung onto me to feel better, and it made me feel really happy and protective over them. I wouldn’t mind seeing more horror movies with them in the future if it means that they’d do that again. We haven’t known each other very long, but I feel so connected and interested in them, I feel sparks every time they touch me. Is this what falling in love feels like?

6/21/22 -

I haven’t been able to see them for a few weeks because of our schedule differences. I feel like I’ve been excessively sad because of that. I just feel like my life is so much dimmer without them. I wanna go to the park with them again, eat ice cream, and curl up under a tree with them. I wish I could be with them every day.

7/29/22 -

We haven’t known each other for a very long time, but I’m certain they’re the person I’m meant to be with for the rest of my life. They make me the happiest I’ve ever felt, they understand me like nobody has ever understood me before, I just feel so carefree and excited in their presence. I think they might feel the same way about me too. I need to try my best to build up some courage and ask them to be my partner before someone else can.

8/11/22 -

I asked them on a date and they said yes!! I’ve never felt more excited than I am right now!! We’re going on our first date in a few days. I need to make sure I have a nice outfit to wear because I want to take them somewhere nice to eat, and then we’re gonna go for a walk together and stargaze. My life truly feels so complete and wonderful right now, I feel like I’m finally on a path to keep getting better with them in my life!

11/24/22 -

I haven’t been dating them very long, but I convinced Slender to allow me to invite them to Thanksgiving dinner. Normally we have to date our partners for a year, but I just know our relationship is going to work out, so I don’t feel the need to wait that long. They had so much fun meeting everyone, and they were happy the whole time. I felt a bit jealous that they didn’t pay as much attention to me, but that’s okay because there were so many new people they had to meet. I’m sure next time I invite them over they won’t pay anyone else any attention. I’m looking forward to having them over here more often!

12/14/22 -

I got into an argument with Jeff today. I had them over to visit me, and I stepped away for a minute to get us some snacks and Jeff so rudely decided to try and steal their attention from me. It isn’t fair! He was trying to make them laugh and hang out with him instead of me!! I got really angry and I started yelling at him, and he yelled back at me, claiming he wasn’t doing anything wrong. He’s not allowed to just walk up to them and act like they’re buddy-buddy. They’re my partner, and they’re here for me. Nobody else has the right to their attention but me.

12/25/22 -

I got to celebrate my first Christmas with them today. We spent a little bit of time downstairs with the others, but then I wanted to bring them upstairs to my room so we could be together alone. I gave them a bracelet with our names on it so that everyone would know they belonged to someone, and they seemed to like it. However, I got a bit upset at them. They said they had to go home so they could celebrate with their friends and family too, but aren’t I good enough? Aren’t I their family now? It doesn’t make any sense to me why they couldn’t just stay at the mansion, but I let them go. I’ll have a talk with them about this later.

1/24/23 -

We had another argument again. They have this friend that keeps overstepping his boundaries and I don’t appreciate it. He’s been hogging their attention recently and hanging out with them more and it’s seriously fucking pissing me off. They wouldn’t stop talking to him so I had to lie to them about him to finally get them to back off from him a bit. I wouldn’t normally want to do that, but it’s for their own good. Nobody should be hogging them away from me that much. Their friends are lucky I even allow them to talk with my dove at all. I think that’s what I’ll start calling them, now that I think about it. My sweet, soaring Dove.

2/17/23 -

I ended up getting into a fight with one of Dove’s friends. I was trying to make sure I could spend Valentine’s with Dove, but this friend wanted to be able to see them that day since he’s going on a trip soon or some other stupid excuse. It pissed me off. IM their boyfriend, that day is for US. I confronted him to get him to back off but he had the nerve to stand his ground. I had to beat the shit out of him to get him to understand his place. It’s been three days, and apparently, he hasn’t contacted them since. Good. One less pest I have to worry about. Dove was a little suspicious when I came home with torn-up knuckles that day, but I just told them it happened during training and they believed me. They even took the time and care to bandage me up. They really are so special to me. Nobody else can have them.

3/18/23 -

I’ve never really thought much about blood before. When it’s on myself or my victims, I’ve never really cared about it, I’ve actually usually thought it was gross, but it was different today. Dove got this gash when we were out on a hike from tripping and slicing their arm on a sharp rock. Normally the blood wouldn’t have bothered me, but it was just so pretty. The red spreading across their skin was just so alluring. Of course, I got them cleaned off and patched up as soon as I could, but my heart is racing just remembering it. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I hope they get cut again soon. I have to confirm if this feeling inside me is real or just a one-off.

3/28/23 -

It wasn’t a one-off. We were cooking, and they were using one of our sharper knives. My curiosity got the better of me, and I “accidentally” bumped into them from behind. They ended up cutting themself, and their blood was just as alluring today, flowing freely out of their finger. I ended up putting their finger in my mouth to suck the blood off, and I’ve never tasted something so intoxicating before. They were a bit confused, but I just played it off and they let it go. Holy shit. I feel like I have to taste it again. I have to. The red on their skin, the metallic lingering taste in my mouth. It’s so addicting. It honestly made me a bit excited, I had to take a moment to myself so they wouldn’t notice.

4/16/23 -

I bit them. We were making out, and I just felt myself getting so worked up. I pinned them down on my mattress, and I started kissing down Dove’s neck. I couldn’t help it, my heart was beating so fast and I felt myself getting dizzy, and I bit them really hard. Their skin was so soft in my mouth, and blood started oozing out, running against my teeth and my tongue, and my lips, it was so warm and exciting, it felt like I was getting drunk. Dove didn’t like it though. They screamed and cried and begged me to stop, and I didn’t want to, but I did. I bandaged them up and apologized and feigned innocence. They said they wanted to go home early, so I took them to not get on their bad side anymore. I was so worked up though. I had to take care of myself when I got home, I was just so turned on. I have to do it again somehow. They won’t like it, but I have to. Nothing has ever felt so pleasing before.

4/29/23 -

I tried to bite them again, and they realized it wasn’t an accident this time. They yelled at me and hit me to get me off of them, and I hit them back much harder. They looked so broken and upset while they cried, but their tears and screams got me just as turned on as their blood did. The bruise that formed on their cheek was so beautiful. I held them close and apologized a whole bunch because I don’t want them to hate me. I cried a lot and I meant it. I promised I wouldn’t do it again, which I guess I didn’t mean. However, they can’t just disobey me like that. I need to try and be on my best behavior so they can be more relaxed around me. I can’t have them fighting back every time I want to do something to them.

5/09/23 -

I think my Dove needs to be caged. They’ve gotten so used to flying free that they need to be grounded and brought back to reality. I keep trying to limit their interactions with others because they keep poisoning my Dove against me, and Dove tried to fight me today. We got in a big yelling match, but I was able to calm myself down in the nick of time so that I didn’t make things worse. I got them to calm down, and we’re gonna have some space between us for a few weeks. I think I’m going to take this opportunity to my advantage.

5/30/23 -

While we haven’t been spending time together, I’ve been working hard. I found an old house in the Underworld for cheap, and I’ve been rebuilding it and fixing it up. I altered it to be able to hold Dove in without their escape, and I’m so excited about it. I’ve got a bedroom I’m setting up for them, and a nice kitchen because they’ve always liked cooking with me. I know Dove is going to love it so much when I bring them here in a few weeks. It’s going to be the best thing for us. Dove is too innocent about the world around them, and I have to be able to protect them. Nobody else can do a better job than I can.

6/08/23 -

[Parts of the entry have been torn. Words are smudged or crossed out and it is not completely legible, but some of it remains visible. *Full translation will be added at the end for those that use translators/text to speech.]

I CAN'T FU—— BELI— TH—!! DOVE WAS TRY— TO MOVE!! THEY W— TRYING TO LE—E ME!! THAT STU— BASTARD [Redacted] TRIED TO TA— THEM F—M ME! WHEN ALL IVE ———— IS PROTECT TH— AND THIS IS —— REPAY ME?!? I'VE NEVER BE— SO ANGRY!!!

Dove is FUCKING LU—Y I had the home re—y! If not, I wo—d’ve just thrown th— in the fucki— basement!!! [Redacted] got wh— they deser—. I be— the- so bad you —— —king recognize —. I’ll du— the bo— som—ere else.

7/06/23 -

Dove hasn’t been making things any easier. Since they last tried to move away things have been such a fucking pain in the ass. They were so scared when I locked them in here. I wanted it to be a warm welcome, where I’d bring them here voluntarily, but they had to go and ruin it because of [Redacted] sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. They tried to run away a few days ago, and I went to write about it but I was so fucking pissed I ripped the page to shreds. I had to break their ankles so that they wouldn’t be able to run again, least not for a long while. I’ve also been keeping them tied up more, but it’s easier now that they can’t walk. The bruises on their legs are just so beautiful. I think I might keep them like this, even though they cry every day from the pain and the circumstances, but their tears are beautiful as well. I have to get more painkillers soon for them.

10/18/23 -

It’s been a while since I’ve updated. Things have been going smoother lately. Every time Dove’s ankles start to heal, I’ve been breaking them again. I just can’t trust them because they tried to escape again. I’ve been enjoying myself a lot more. I can bite them and cut them and hit them whenever I want to. I can taste their blood and chew their skin and bruise their beautiful body however I like. Of course, sometimes it makes me sad when Dove gets so upset about it. I don’t know what to do. It gets me so turned on and riled up like nothing ever has before, but I also want them to love me. They haven’t been fighting back anymore, so I think they’re getting used to it. We’ll see.

12/25/23 -

It’s our second Christmas together. I got Dove a bunch of things they asked for since they’ve been so good. They seem to have given up hope of resisting me, and it’s made me so happy. They even made me a cake for Christmas, and it was so delicious. I’m so happy we can be together again like this, just a happy couple with no interruptions. It’s truly the best gift I could have received this year.

2/16/24 -

I’ve been letting Dove’s ankles and legs fully heal. They truly haven’t been trying anything, and they’ve been so devoted to being a good partner for me, I don’t think I need to break them anymore to teach them a lesson. They can nearly stand on their own now, and they seem so happy. They said it’s because they can hug me while standing, and that made me so happy to hear. We’ve started cooking together again. We’re becoming a happy family, and I’m so glad I was right that Dove is the one for me. They even let me bite them as much as I wanted today, and they let me scratch them too, they didn’t even cry out today. I could tell they were trying really hard, so it made me very happy.

4/25/24 -

Things have still been going well. Their legs have healed up perfectly. It’s been five months since I last broke them, and I think they’re so grateful for it. They don’t disobey me, they do everything I ask, they’re so affectionate and loving with me. It makes me so happy to know that they’re truly settling into life with me. I don’t think they mind how much I hurt them anymore. They don’t complain as much, but they still cry those same beautiful tears for me. I think they’re starting to enjoy it.

5/26/24 -

I have to go on an extended trip for a week soon because of work and I’m nervous. They said they’ll wait happily for me, but I’m still so, so nervous. However, earlier this month I was gone for a few days and they didn’t go anywhere. Dove actually welcomed me back happily. I think we’ll be okay. I think this is it, the true test. I know they’ll pass, but still, I can’t quiet the anxiety in my heart. I’ll have to spend as much time as possible with them and get out all my excitement before I have to leave. I’m going to miss the feeling of their skin beneath my fingers and teeth.

6/11/24 -

[This page has also been smeared and torn in anger. *Another fully corrected version will be at the bottom.]

I — FUCKING BE—VE THEY DI- TH— AG—!!! THEY R— AW—!! THE- STOL- SO MU— —IT FRO- ME!! THEY TO— THE MO—Y I HA- HIDDEN!!!! THE- TOOK FO— AN- CLO—— AN- LEFT!! I- SO FUCK—- ANGRY!!! I'LL K— THEM!!! I JUS- MIGH- FUCK— KIL- THEM!!! AT TH- VER- LEA— THEY— NEVE- WAL- AGAIN! WHEN I ———— NEVER ES— AGAIN! LOCKS, CA—S, CHA—S!! WHAT—— IT TAKES!!!!!!

Dove, you’d better pray to —y FUCKING DIETY in EXIST—— THAT I DON- FIN- —U!!! When I d-, you’re goin- to su——— much for do— th— to me.

--

6/08/23 -

I CANT FUCKING BELIEVE THIS!! DOVE WAS TRYING TO MOVE!! THEY WERE TRYING TO LEAVE ME!! THAT STUPID BASTARD [Redacted] TRIED TO TAKE THEM FROM ME! WHEN ALL IVE FUCKING DONE HERE IS PROTECT THEM AND THIS IS HOW THEY REPAY ME?!? I'VE NEVER BEEN SO ANGRY!!!

Dove is FUCKING LUCKY I had the home ready! If not, I would’ve just thrown them in the fucking basement!!! [Redacted] got what they deserved. I beat them so bad you can't even fucking recognize them. I’ll dump the body somewhere else.

6/11/24 -

I CAN'T FUCKING BELIEVE THEY DID THIS AGAIN!!! THEY RAN AWAY!! THEY STOLE SO MUCH SHIT FROM ME!! THEY TOOK THE MONEY I HAD HIDDEN!!!! THEY TOOK FOOD AND CLOTHES AND LEFT!! IM SO FUCKING ANGRY!!! I'LL KILL THEM!!! I JUST MIGHT FUCKING KILL THEM!!! AT THE VERY LEAST THEY'LL NEVER WALK AGAIN! WHEN I CATCH UP THEY WILL NEVER ESCAPE AGAIN! LOCKS, CAGES, CHAINS!! WHATEVER IT TAKES!!!!!!

Dove, you’d better pray to every FUCKING DIETY in EXISTENCE THAT I DON'T FIND YOU!!! When I do, you’re going to suffer so much for doing this to me.

[agaypanic]

Shut Your Mouth (Steven Hyde X Reader Smut)

Kinktober Masterlist | Main Masterlist | Request Something! | AO3

Kinktober Day 21: Hate Fucking

Summary: You and Steven can’t stand each other. It’s been that way since the beginning. Somehow, that makes the sex even hotter.

A/N: sorry for not posting.. Kinktober’s harder than i thought lmao

C/W: unprotected p in v sex (wrap it before you tap it!), rough sex, degrading, frenemies with benefits ig, couch sex (rip the basement couch), slight choking kink, clothed sex, slight dumbification

***

“Y/n, can’t you annoy people at your own house?”

“Steven, can’t you freeload somewhere other than Eric’s basement?”

The bickering had been going on for about an hour now. It wasn’t even sparked by something. You and Hyde just had a habit of throwing bitter remarks at each other for no reason whenever you were in the same room for too long. Your own friends couldn’t tell if you genuinely hated each other or if you just had some years-long strange dynamic going on.

But they were getting tired of it. “God!” Kelso yelled, jumping from his seat on the couch and looking at the two of you with annoyance. “Do you guys ever not fight?” Then he turned to Fez. “Come on, Fez. Let’s get outta here.”

The tall man opened the door that led out of the basement, waiting for his friend. Fez got up and was about to go through when he turned back to you and Hyde, a small frown on his face.

“I hate it when you two fight.” You resisted the urge to laugh at his upset tone.

Kelso watched Fez go up the stairs and scoffed. At first, you thought it was towards Fez, but then he looked at you and Hyde. “See what you did?” He asked. “Now I gotta buy the little guy a burger.”

Finally, the door slammed shut, and you were alone.

“See what you did, Y/n?” Unfortunately, you weren’t entirely alone. “Now Fez is gonna be whiny all day.”

You laughed unamused. “Well, you’re not Mr. Perfect, Steven.”

“Don’t call me that.” He groaned. He was only called by his first name by adults, usually when he was in some kind of trouble. Being called that versus Hyde always annoyed him.

Which was why you called him Steven. “Steven, Steven, Steven.”

“Shut up.” 

He tried to ignore you. He grabbed a comic book and started flipping through it, obviously just trying to distract himself rather than actually read it. You repeated his name over and over, scooting over so you were leaning against the arm of the couch closest to him.

“Steven, Steven, Steven.”

He stayed quiet, but you could see his jaw clench in frustration.

“Steven, Steven, Ste-”

“Are you gonna stop, or am I gonna have to make you?”

You laughed, leaning slightly closer. “I’d like to see you try… Steven.”

He threw down the comic book, and in a flash, you were lying on the couch with Hyde on top of you. He kissed you roughly with a hand on your neck, effectively muffling any noise you tried to make. After a few seconds, he pulled away.

“Got anything else to say?”

You smiled, trying to catch your breath. “Very interesting way to shut me up.” You said it as if this wasn’t the first time this had happened. After a few escalated arguments, you and Hyde realized that fighting with each other got you really riled up. So you had an agreement. If no one was around, you could fuck the tension out of each other and never tell anyone about it until the day you die. “But I don’t think it’s gonna work, Steve- ah!”

He squeezed your throat, restricting your airflow slightly and once again effectively cutting you off. From behind those dumb sunglasses of his, you could see his eyebrow raise, like he was egging you on to speak again. “What was that?” You kept your mouth shut this time. He smiled at your lack of response. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

But you never knew how to be quiet for long. “Oh, that’s what you thought, huh? I’m surprised you think-”

Not wanting to hear what kind of comeback you came up with, Hyde cut you off once again with a rough kiss, hand trailing down your body. It seemed he wanted to get right to the point, and you weren’t gonna complain. You helped him out by hiking the skirt of your dress up to your hips, showing off your panties. Hyde grabbed one of your ankles and lifted it so your leg was hooked on the back of the couch, allowing him to slot himself between your legs. 

The two of you became a clash of lips, hands, and moans. You had to keep telling yourself to stay quiet, because you had no idea if anyone was upstairs. But it was hard to concentrate when you were too busy being focused on undoing Hyde’s belt and pants while he pulled your panties to the side to play with your pussy. 

“Shut your mouth.” He muttered against your lips when a particularly loud whine escaped you. 

But then the hypocrite let out an equally loud groan as you pulled his dick out and started jerking him off at a painstakingly slow pace. “You were saying?”

“I said,” Hyde replaced your hand with his own by batting yours out of the way, stroking himself a few times before lining up with your entrance. Without warning, he slammed into you, squeezing your throat again to prevent any loud sounds from leaving your mouth. Slowly, he pulled out before speaking again, each word punctuated with a hard and deep thrust, “Shut. Your. Mouth.”

Hyde continued his brutal pace, the hand not on your throat digging into your hip so he could move you to match his thrusts. You quickly became limp like a ragdoll, allowing Hyde to fuck you roughly into the couch. 

Every so often, you tried to speak, but it came out like some kind of dumb babble. “Oh my- So good, so good, Ste… Stev-”

“Say it, and you’re not coming.”

You squealed in disapproval, quickly correcting yourself. “Hyde! Feels so good. So so good.”

He smirked, somehow fucking you harder and faster. “If this is how you’re gonna be, maybe I should fuck you more often.”

All you could do was nod along, too overwhelmed by the pleasure he was giving you. Figuring you were too cockdrunk to do it yourself, Hyde started rubbing at your clit, making you whine.

“Hate you so much.” He muttered, eyes rolling back as you squeezed his cock.

You laughed. “Hate you more.” The small smile on your lips dropped as you opened your mouth, a choked moan escaping you as you neared the edge. Sensing you were about to come, Hyde picked up the pace of his ministrations on your clit.

“Come on.” He urged. “Be the dumb slut you are, and come on my dick.”

And being the good but dumb slut you were, you did as told. Your body shook, and your eyes rolled back as your orgasm hit you. Hyde followed close behind, spilling into you with a sharp inhale.

You two lay on the couch for a while, trying to catch your breath. Hyde was the first to recover, slowly pulling out and readjusting your underwear and dress before he tugged himself back into his pants. He sat on the balls of his feet, waiting for you to sit up.

“So…” It was always a bit awkward after the sex because you didn’t feel like bickering as much, so you didn’t know what else to do. “Wanna get a burger?”

You nodded, slowly standing on your slightly shaky legs. “Sure, but you’re paying.”

Hyde groaned in slight annoyance but didn’t fight it. Instead, he opened the door and waited for you to go up the stairs to his car, him following close behind.

***

That 70s Show Taglist: @pink-hufflepuff

[jrow]

May Prompts (25)

Day 24 here. Start from the beginning here. Day 26 here.

Intuition

He may not be Sherlock Holmes, but he trusts his intuition.

In fact, right now his intuition is probably a hell of a lot more reliable than Sherlock’s. He’s seen what Sherlock will do when blinded by anger.

It’s time for Captain Watson to take control.

“Don’t look out the window,” he hisses through a smile. “Keep looking at me or Rosie. Look happy.”

“But John—“ Sherlock argues, gesticulating wildly.

“Sherlock. Trust me.” He knows his tone leaves no room for argument. Even from the great Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock freezes and then starts fidgeting slightly awkwardly. He seems almost … flustered. But then he gives a tiny nod and plasters on a fake smile while keeping his eyes firmly on Rosie.

“Good. Now, you are going to get up and go order two coffees. And I am going to call Mrs. Hudson and ask her to pick up Rosie from here.” He looks at his daughter who is happily scribbling with the crayons and blank paper they brought. He thinks maybe he can see some hearts among her chaos of lines. “We aren’t doing anything until we get Rosie out of here.”

That seems to get through to Sherlock. “Right. Of course. Coffees.”

They proceed with their tasks and soon are back at the table, pretending to have a normal conversation while they wait for their landlady. It’s excruciating.

“Who is he?” Sherlock asks, leaning back in his chair, the picture of relaxation.

“I don’t remember his name but he was on the scene at the … Smith abduction case maybe? Something around that time.” He takes a drink of coffee. “And the bastard has been one of the constables assigned to my room too. Changed his hair and shaved off his moustache but definitely the same guy.”

“Of course, I should have known. No man in their right mind would dye their hair that colour. He’s hoping you won’t make the connection,” Sherlock says, picking up one of the crayons and drawing a happy face beside Rosie’s scribbles. She giggles and snatches the crayon from his hand, having decided she needs the yellow at this very instant. “He seems to think he has a lot to lose. I have no doubt he’s planning an escape—somewhere in Europe most likely.”

To anyone else, he’s sure Sherlock sounds calm, but he hears the quiet fury lacing every word.

He doesn’t know what to say, so they sit in silence for a moment. He drinks his coffee and Sherlock and Rosie play a game of keep away with the crayons.

“I wonder how Larkin got mixed up in all this. Hate to say it, but I feel a bit sorry for the guy,” he finally says, mostly to pass the time.

“That’s easy,” Sherlock says, keeping his focus on Rosie. “Constable Needs-to-Die happened upon Mr. Larkin in the midst of some crime. Something serious that would come with significant jail time. The constable looked the other way in exchange for a major favour, which he called in when he decided he needed to get you out of the picture.” A pause. “Feel no sympathy. Robert Larkin got exactly what he deserved.”

That rather somber sentiment is quickly dissipated by Rosie’s squeals of delight and calls of “Nana” that announce Mrs. Hudson’s arrival. She’s trying to jump down from the booster even before Mrs. Hudson made her way through the door.

“What did you tell her?” Sherlock asks quietly, leaning close.

“Just that I … errr… just that I was hoping to have a little extra time alone with you,” he says, feeling the heat in his cheeks rise. It’s not that far from the truth, really, but feels like a confession of sorts.

Mrs. Hudson swoops in and hugs Rosie before Sherlock can respond. “There’s my little princess, let’s get you in your pushchair. We are going to have so much fun!” For a woman pushing 80, Mrs. Hudson is impressively spry. She quickly gets everything together (eschewing all help), including getting Rosie all buckled in without a fuss.

“Thank you, Mrs. Hudson,” Sherlock says, his voice neutral but his toe tapping rather aggressively.

“It’s my pleasure, boys. You two have fun,” Mrs. Hudson replies with a wink. “Don’t get into too much trouble.” Her words are light but there’s a look in her eye that makes him think she understands the urgency. In a flash, she and Rosie are gone.

He tries to pick up his coffee but his hands are shaking in anticipation of what’s to come. And relief that, whatever happens, Rosie is safe in Baker Street. Where she belongs.

It’s also relief that he is here with Sherlock, about to do … whatever it is they are about to do. Together. It’s where they belong.

“John,” Sherlock says, forcefully. “Rosie is safe. It’s time to do things my way now.”

Time to follow intuition once again.

“Dear god, yes.”

@keirgreeneyes @raina-at @totallysilvergirl @meetinginsamarra @jolieblack @phoenix27884 @friday411 @calaisreno @lisbeth-kk @safedistancefrombeingsmart @momma2boys @helloliriels @dapetty @quimerasyutopias

[dapg-otmebytheballs]

hi!!

i don’t feel right putting my opinion here as i am white and from the us so im not even close to the demographic of people you’re talking about, but i just wanted to say i like reading your posts!

now i don’t know everything that dan and/or phil has said, but i do think it’s important to realize the context

i really do wish they were going to other countries, as it does suck that they aren’t able to see everyone, but i’m also sure they have a valid reason for not, whatever that reason may be…i can’t see them deliberately avoiding other countries just cause there’s “better” options (not saying there are better options i just couldn’t think of another word hehe)

i feel very privileged to be in a place financially (barely) and geographically to see it

i don’t think it’s that outlandish to say that they’ll do something to attempt to make up to the people who couldn’t see it, but i know it won’t be as good as it should be, which isn’t fun

also, i will agree that i don’t like the arguments of other countries not accepting of gay rights, as there’s not much weight there. not only do gay people live there too, but they’ve been to japan three different times. they love it there, and while there’s other countries that are definitely worse when it comes to queer rights, gay marriage isn’t legal there and they obviously know that

jesus christ i yap so fucking much i apologize

tl;dr, i completely understand what your saying, and while calling them “racist” is a little harsh, i definitely understand that not going to other places is not ideal and wish they are able to be more inclusive to everyone

i know they’re touring cause they love it, especially dan, and that going everywhere is impossible, but that does not mean that people can’t complain about them not going over to where they live

i’m sorry this is so long, i just can not stop typing ffs

<3

Hey! So yeah again as I've said many times but feel the need to reiterate: what originally started the discussions from poc and particularly non western blogs was that they have made disparaging remarks particularly to do with tours like come to brazil type remarks and then not taken time to add on like, one line or anything somewhere about not touring in entire continents.

Also obviously we don't think they aren't visiting because they think we're lower to them or whatever, and I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find a post on my blog that says that. Seriously, try it, no implications of the sort have been made, we are just saying it's clear that they've never felt the need to makeup for past mistakes either, and then the phandom defends them each time and all of that together feels very alienating, especially when western fans talk down to us constantly and feel the need to tell us to chill out or whatever and make it out to be that the tour is the primary issue

It isn't! This isn't about the tour!!! The tour was the latest thing that sparked the discussions again because some people, especially LATAM fans who have microagressed So Often, were understandably thinking "seriously they aren't gonna say anything about it?"

And again, I will ask that you try because you'll be hard pressed to find a post on my blog where we day dnp "are racists". My previous ask to this also explains this but just because someone "isn't racist" doesn't mean that when they do racist things we don't call those things "racist behaviours". Racist microagressions are still racist even when coming from goody two shoes progressives. Please understand this and don't get defensive over the language, it's a humble request

And if I may for anyone else looking to talk with me about this in any way, please please stop bringing up the tour with me. I don't care about the tour, I promise you I do not care about the tour, you can talk with me about the other stuff but I've just said it in almost every post I've made: I Do Not Care About Them Not Touring Here, it's small fucking potatoes and it's more western fans' defensiveness and racist remarks while trying to defend them for no reason that are Far Far more of a problem racism (and orientalism) wise than DnP not talking about the tour yet, I don't carrrreee About that I care about what you all are directly saying to US which is more hurtful

I hope this clears stuff up for you and others, again, no hard feelings whatsoever, you were genuinely reaching out and I appreciate that ❤️

[cleo30300]

M.A.A.D CITY. CHAPTER FOUR! MONEY TREES.

warnings : mention of drugs (1), violence ( extremely minor ), cursing, arguments.

previous part. | next part.

Knock Knock.

Your knuckles hit the door in a rhythmic pattern, the door to the Morales’ home, that is. You would think that maybe you’d have a key by now since you visit so much, but Ms. Morales doesn’t like you that much, you guess.

There are a few beats of silence before you hear shuffling approach the door and the tired voice of your best friend.

“ Who is it? “, he grunts.

“ Me. “

Miles’ voice doesn’t reach your ears again for a few minutes before he’s sighing and unlocking the door.

The wood swings open to reveal him, Voltron pyjama pants and all. His hair is the same as when you last saw him, a little frizzy at the top, but neat braids brushing his collarbone. He needs a haircut.

“ What’s up? “, he says blankly.

“ You’re not gonna let me in? “

“ I don’t gotta let you in. You don’t live here. “, he stares at you like he can’t believe you just asked that question. Like you just asked for a brick of crack. “ What’s up? “

You’re starting to get a little irritated. Barely any communication for a week and when you show up to see what the deal is, you’re met with a grumpy teenage boy who looks like he’s about to break apart into glass shards.

“ I just wanted to see what you were up to, Miles. Don’t get so upset. “

“ ‘M not upset. I haven’t been up to anything, so you can go now. “

“ What’s wrong with you? “

“ Nothing’s wrong. You show up at my house and then you keep on asking me stupid questions like I don’t have anything else to do except talk to you. “, his eyes narrow. The once gold specks in the hazel colour are gone and replaced with anger. Your fist clenches, like he just punched you in the gut and you’re about to reel your own hand back and sock him with it.

“ What the hell is your problem? You barely even talk to me anymore and then when I try to be a good friend, you catch an attitude! “

“ I don’t have a problem! Estas Sordo? “ Miles moves his hand from the doorknob, reaching to grab your upper arm and push you back from the frame, not hard, but enough to get you to move out of his personal space. That you’ve hardly even invaded.

“ Go somewhere else. “, he spits.

“ Fine. “, your eyebrows are furrowed together. You’d been holding a sour expression for so long that your face was sore when you dropped it as soon as the door slammed in your face. Your feet automatically move to the exit of the building. A lump of guilt and anger welling up in your throat while you walk.

What the hell is his problem?

——

Miles swears he wants to choke you out. You’re so nosy. Can never mind your own business. He bounces his leg up and down, cracks his knuckles, drinks tons of water, tries to watch television, anything to get that conversation off his brain. So annoying. You should’ve never even come over. He wasn’t going tell you what was going on anyway, and you know that because you know him. Maybe you don’t know him, since anyone who knows him knows not to show up at his house uninvited.

Hard Headed. Cabeza Dura, whatever you want to be called. It doesn’t change the fact that you don’t listen, ever. It’s not like he ever told you not to come over, it was an unspoken rule!

I am avoiding you. Do not come over.

Easy as that.

You act like one dollar will turn into a million if you come over and act like the mediator between him and his thoughts.

But when he thinks about it, is it really as easy as that?

Of course, you’d come over.. but— not to argue with him. He didn’t want to argue with you, there was no point. He should’ve just said “ Okay. “ and left it at that. Maybe tell you the truth while he’s at it. The truth.

It’s Friday. The trip is next Sunday.

He hasn’t told you, he hasn’t told his mom, he hasn’t told Uncle Aaron and he certainly won’t be telling his school counsellor what the hell was going on in his very busy life. It’s eating him up on the inside. Tearing him apart and pulling out his hair. What will he do?

What would you do?

Tell the truth.

Shut up.

He has to tell his mom. Mama first, then everything else. She’s the only parent he has left. That makes his heart ache thinking about it. He should get over it, nothing is going to change the fact that he’s gone.

Why is every thought he’s ever had coming to the front of his mind right now when he’s about to tell his mom the craziest information? That he’s going on a trip 2244 Miles away from Brooklyn to Vegas of all places?

Right.

His fingers are shaking, he’s going to drop his phone or something. Just get it over with.

He messes up the passcode two times before getting it right, and then he mistypes, “ Mama “ in on the contact list once before he gets his shit together.

Do it.

The call button is right there.

Just do it.

Shut up.

translations:

Cabeza Dura. — hard headed.

Estas Sordo? — You’re deaf?

[zorilleerrant]

House Call

@flashfictionfridayofficial

“I'm sorry, I didn't know where else to go,” he says to me, covered in blood, as you do, and I stare at him in bewilderment. He continues to stand in the rain, on my balcony, looking at me pitifully with big sad eyes. Not that he's not severely injured, but still. He's just standing there.

“How do you know where I live?” I ask. Honestly, he's made no indication he even cares who I am, and I've tried reaching out. So the stalking is a new angle on the whole thing with him.

He glares at me. Now I'm wondering if I missed some vital piece of infosec somewhere in all this. “You know I'm a mirror, right? Like, not to say that anyone with a memetic power could find you, but yours isn't exactly subtle. I know who you are walking down the street and all.” Secret identities are hard.

“I feel like that's something you probably shouldn't share with superheroes. For like. Safety reasons,” I tell him. I still haven't invited him in.

I expect him to shove me aside, or else to ask for help again, but instead he just says, “the NSA already has a file on me as thick as your arm. You just didn't look it up.”

“I'm not allowed to look them up anymore,” I remind him. That, at least, everyone knows.

He scoffs at me. “Like they would stop you.” He peers around my shoulder, and I reflexively block his view, not that it matters. If I'm going to help him – and I should – he's going to find out Chaim's here, anyway.

“Does your boyfriend know about,” he gestures vaguely at the night sky, “all of this?”

“Yes,” I snap, because I may have gone independent, but I'm not about to let supervillains start dictating my personal life, “and stop assuming things about my relationships with other people.” He gives me the most withering look. What does he know? He's like twelve.

“Look, not to tell you how to be the responsible adult here, but generally you should've either let me in or told me to fuck off,” he reminds me. He's holding his arm like it's broken. I thought he had a healing factor. I guess that was borrowed, too.

“I'm not going to tell you to fuck off,” I tell him, even though I still don't let him in. He almost laughs.

“I know,” he says, and finally pushes past me, through the balcony doors and into the living room, where Chaim isn't, because he's watching around the doorway a little too obviously. We're going to have to work on that. “It's why I came here.”

“If you know my address, you know my name,” I say, in consternation, while Chaim debates between giving a normal introduction to an exam and saying absolutely nothing.

“I'm not going to use it,” the kid says, wincing patiently as Chaim tries to treat his injuries, as unsure as I am about the end goal of patching him up, anyway. “I wouldn't tell anyone, anyway.”

“Can you give me your arm?” Chaim asks, gloved hands reaching out and, at a quick shake of the head, gently taking hold of it, “this really isn't something we should be doing at home, with nothing but a first aid kit handy,” Chaim says, but sets the kid's arm before he even has a chance to formulate an argument.

“I'll be fine,” the kid says, tears streaming from his eyes, but maintaining a fairly stoic demeanor. All of us try to avoid staring at the scars across his arms and chest. “I just need somewhere to lie low for a couple hours without, you know, bleeding out. Once I get home I've got a healer.”

“I don't like this,” Chaim says.

“I don't like it, either, but I'm not in charge of him,” I say.

“What's your name, sweetheart?” Chaim says, taking a needle to torn flesh. He doesn't use an anesthetic. I don't know why. He always does with me. He's more careful than he is with me, either, trying to watch the kid's face even as he works.

“He knows my name,” the kid says, gesturing vaguely at me, and giving both of us looks like we're idiots.

“I'm not calling you that,” I tell him. To which he just rolls his eyes, again. Chaim raises a questioning eyebrow, and I add, defensively, “it's a stupid name. He picked a stupid name. He's going to regret it in a few years. You know he will.”

“It's still his name,” Chaim says, dabbing on antiseptic cream in whichever places he deems appropriate, “you might as well call him what he likes while he's using it.”

The kid sighs. “Corinth. Is that better? I go by Corinth with people who don't know me professionally.” Which, you know, I don't really have any idea what to say to.

“Okay, Corinth,” Chaim says, “I'm going to shine a light in your eyes. Please try not to bite me,” and I realize he probably spends more time treating kids than he'd like to. Corinth seems horrified by the suggestion.

“Well, I just think, if you're going to be dropping by for treatment at random,” I tell him, watching him submit to the exam with sullen cooperation, “we ought to know your name, at the very least.”

“I'm not going to be dropping by,” Corinth says, once Chaim releases his chin, “this is strictly a one time thing, when there's, like, a murderer chasing me?”

“There's a murderer chasing you?” I ask, which is what I get for not questioning why the hell he looked like that in the first place. You know, you tell yourself ‘oh it's regular supervillain stuff’ and you end up forgetting the sort of thing that lands supervillains in this kind of predicament in the first place.

[succubus-interactivefiction]

Final Girl Blurb

Trans MC x Devon Low A possible scene that can happen if the MC is trans and on decent terms with Devon.

“What do you mean I know you from highschool? We never met before this job!” You snap as you spin on your heel towards Low.

“Of course you know me you stupid prick! We dated for three years and you dumped me to go to college across the country!!” What? Wait, WHAT?! Your eyes immediately begin scanning Devon’s face.

“I never dated…wait, JASON!?” Your jaw drops and you notice a few of your co-workers edging closer to the heated argument between you and your ex.

“It’s Devon now” She growls, her fists clenching at her sides and you immediately recognize the gesture, she is so close to simply slugging you. “Let’s take this somewhere else" she mumbles as she eyes your nosy co-workers. Grabbing your arm she drags you into an empty office and slams the door behind the two of you. “Now, stop acting like this is something bigger than it is,” she bites her lip as she looks you up and down, “I’m not the only one who’s changed. Who’d have thought we were both trans.”

That snaps you out of your thoughts and you close your mouth, readjusting your posture to your usual professional self. “Yeah, who would have thought,” you hesitate for a moment before you and Devon try speaking at the same time.

“You owe me...”

“I should tell you…”

You both stop and each fidget in your own way. A full minute goes by before she motions to you, “Will you at least tell me why you felt the need to break up? I just woke up one morning and you were already gone. I tried talking to your parents but they refused to even look at me, and none of our friends knew why you had just vanished overnight.”

“Oh, yeah, that…” You sigh and run a hand through your hair, your posture immediately slumping again. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. I wanted you to come with me like we talked about and I was going to wait a year for you to graduate so we could go at the same time, but when dad found out…well he flipped. I was trying to explain that taking a year to decompress and evaluate life was a common way to go but at one point I accidently let slip that we were dating and that just made things worse…it took weeks for my black eye to heal.” Devon’s eyes widen and she takes a step closer. “He actually hit you? I never thought…”

“Yeah, turns out there was something that could tip him from always angry into rage. Turns out having a gay son was what did it, though, heh,” you shake your head as you chuckle, “Nope nevermind, guess I'm still gay. Anyway he gave me a warning, leave for college immediately without telling anyone and he and mom would still pay my way through school, or stay and become homeless with no job.” You slump against the desk behind you, picking up the nameplate and fiddling with it. “I took the coward's way out, and I regretted it for so long, still do in some ways  I guess. After I managed to shake off the fear I did try to call you but you had blocked me on everything and no one else would even talk to me or let you know what had happened.”

“Actually Kate did tell me that you had been trying to find me, but I was still SO pissed off. I still am if you couldn’t tell,” she leans against the desk next to you, “But at least now I understand. So thank you for that I guess. Hey, so can I ask when you realized…” she trails off.

“Realized I was a woman?” she nods, “Second year of college, I had just met my, uh,” you cough into your hand as you try to say ex to which Devon just rolls her eyes, “Smoooooth”

“Right, yeah so I had just met my ex and we were hanging out with some friends and one of her friends was trans and I started asking her some questions, you know just the usual cis curiosity questions, but her answers started to make more and more sense you know? I started to realize that a lot of her answers applied to me, to things I kept secret. It took months of research and talking to a few of the other transwomen around campus before it fully hit me. Took another year for me to accept it and tell anyone.”

“How’d your parents react? I can’t imagine it was good.” You can’t help but snicker.

“I never told them. I held out till graduation and as soon as it was all said and done I immediately cut them out of my life. No calls, no messages, I just changed my phone number, moved in with my ex, and changed my name. So I basically did to them what they forced me to do to you, I just cranked it up to eleven. Didn’t even bother to tell them about the graduation.”

“Wow, well they kinda deserved it huh?”

“Eeeeyup” You reply, popping the p at the end. “So when did you?”

“Another time Nancy, okay? We just dropped some major bombshells on each other and I need some time to absorb everything.” She stands back up and heads towards the door.

“Yeah, no problem Devon, another time.”

“For what it’s worth…it’s nice hearing you saying my name.”

“Ditto”

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for helping try and destroy the world (and also lying about it)

(I realize this is absolutely gonna put me on blast in some corners of the multiverse, but I don't think it matters anymore. Anyone who'd know who I am probably hates me already, which is fair.)

OK, so, there's this guy (adult M), we're gonna call him R. I (adult F) met R several years ago, when he got me out of a difficult situation, saving my life in the process. I didn't have anywhere to go and wanted to return the favor, so I decided to travel with him. He was out looking for his fiancee, "E" (adult F), because…I'm still not entirely sure how the whole thing went down, but his dad didn't approve of her, and he was a pretty big deal magically, so he...cursed her, or something like that? And R thought he could find where his dad sent E if he just kept looking for long enough.

Except, that didn't work out. Time passed, R just kept getting sadder and sadder, and I'm not the comforting type, I'm no good at stuff like that, I did my best to help him however I could but he needed E, not me.

There's this super-magical book of prophecies that generations of his family had been guarding, because it contained information on how all worlds were gonna inevitably be destroyed and could kinda kick-start that whole process. I think he thought he might be able to find her location written in there? But either way, he left one day, grabbed the book, and went completely AWOL, deciding that the worlds had no meaning and he was gonna fulfill the world-ending prophecy. I know that sounds bad, but I swear, it was the book that drove him insane, he never would've done anything like that normally! His whole personality changed! I could barely even recognize him! It wasn't his fault OK?!

…Anyway.

R was a magical powerhouse, especially with the book, but I'm more of a specialist. So, we recruited a few people the book mentioned into a small organization to help us. The elevator pitch was that R was gonna destroy the worlds and create better ones in their place, and these guys bought it. They got really excited and were absolutely willing to defend us and help kick the prophecy in gear (because apparently, multiversal annihilation has some weirdly specific prerequisites). R oversaw them, and I did admin work and some HR + recruitment on the side.

Thing is, I knew better the whole time, but I just sort of…let it all happen. I'm not gonna say I didn't do some other pretty nasty stuff, because I did, that's not in question here. But I let these people sincerely believe, with all the enthusiasm in the worlds, that this was for some kind of greater good and that they weren't just leading themselves to their own deaths. I think they even started to think of us all as friends, which I definitely wasn't planning on, but I kept perpetuating this lie and doing my job without saying a word against it, even after I started getting attached.

…Long story short, E wound up still being alive, R got together with her and they stopped the end of the world with the power of true love. Great, I guess, but the circumstances led to them both ending up…somewhere else and I don't think they're ever coming back. I haven't really spoken to my coworkers since then because I don't know how to, and I keep wondering if I could've prevented this whole mess and if he'd still be here if I'd tried a little harder. Should I have made a better argument? Been a better friend to him while he was hurting so he wouldn't have gone for the book? Should I have told the others the truth? Or, his magic is way stronger than mine, but maybe I could've at least tried to overpower him? I don't know. I did try to talk some sense into him once, after we realized E was still alive, but he got really intense about it and I just…caved, because I made a promise to help him and I wasn't about to back out of it.

So, yeah. TL;DR my closest friend went insane and tried to destroy the world, got some innocent people mixed up in it under false pretenses, and I helped/didn't try to stop it, AITA

(And you'd better not go around blaming him for this, OK?)

[bookishphysicsgirl]

Hello, I have a genuine question, especially for trans people since you are the most affected, regarding Harry Potter fan fiction.

I'll try to tag this appropriately so that anyone who doesn't wish to see any content regarding to this doesn't, but if it accidentally slipped through I'm sorry, just tell me what else to tag it as so it will be better blocked and I will.

Obviously Joanne is a delusional b**** and I will never be touching anything she writes or sells ever again, since it would be giving her funds to actively harm trans lives.

The only question I have is regarding fanfiction because I've been seeing many arguments about this and still can't quite make my mind up about what side is right, but the thing is none of the people I saw making statements about this were trans, so I would very much appreciate your opinion since I believe that your thoughts are the most valid in this situation.

The first argument is that HP fanfiction while not directly supporting J.K. and oftentimes going directly against her beliefs is still giving visibility to her work and ultimately attracting people to the world of HP that normally wouldn't have exactly because of the effort put in to fix the mistakes of the original text.

I think the way they put it was that she is "profiting off the free labor of the folk she despises".

I actually see how this can be true and it makes a lot of sense to me since, for example, when All The Young Dudes blew up on tik tok a lot of people who might otherwise not have done so started buying HP merch and getting it farther up in the trends, even though ATYD by itself is a very queer-positive work.

The second argument is that fanfiction is not directly supporting her and it is incredibly healing and supporting for many people struggling. Not only that it can be a platform to expose her wrongdoings and stop the fandom from becoming a home ground for hate groups.

The argument went somewhere along the lines of if a child receives the HP books from a relative unaware of all the issues and likes it and then goes looking for more content, if the fan content made by the queer community isn't there to receive them all they will be met with is people who reaffirm Joanne's toxic opinions and it could be extremely harmful to those children, especially if they are queer themselves and aren't aware yet.

I myself have gone to HP fanfiction when I was questioning my sexuality and when I was depressed and it helped me immensely to understand what was happening to me and that it was ok and normal.

Trans protagonists in HP fanfiction also helped me understand gender theory better and what might be going on in trans lives and how to be more respectful (disclaimer: I am a cis woman so I cannot speak for trans people, I am merely stating that it helped me understand).

Both of these arguments make a lot of sense to me, and I can't see which one would be more correct. On the one hand I think that stopping everyone from even interacting with fandom might be a bit extreme, on the other I can't help but worry whether that is just me creating an excuse to keep enjoying things I like.

I don't feel like I enjoy HP fanfiction for nostalgia, especially since I openly recognize that both the books and the movies were actually a bit boring and not that well written and haven't been able to re-read them since I was 12. I think it has a lot more to do with the healing factor of being able to disassociate to another world and see stories that reflect mine and see people feeling the same things I do. But I am more than willing to stop if it is in fact causing more harm than good, especially since the last thing I want is for Joanne to receive clout she does not deserve.

Either way, I just wanted to know your opinions in all of this, since as I mentioned before I've only ever seen cis people arguing about it (mostly on tik tok).

Thank you so much for reading all of this and thank you if you reply.

(note: I will not be tagging this with trans tags because I know that a lot of people can feel unsafe when met with content regarding Harry Potter)

[ghostalope]

getting used to living alone and not with my abuser has been kind of wild on reflection. Like I still get scared when I hear loud noises upstairs. Sometimes I feel like I’m anticipating hearing her footsteps and trying to workout where she is, waiting for her to leave so I can go outside.

(Rambling abt abuse under the cut)

I think about how she used to tell me all the basic things I couldn’t do - she made out that I always messed it up, I was too disabled to do my laundry, or shopping, or whatever. Basic shit I wasn’t allowed to do because she could use it to complain on Facebook about how hard her life was, because of me. I think about how easy it’s been. I could always do it - maybe I’m such half a person, but she made me out to be such a slither of a person. It’s strange to realise you are more alive than you thought.

I booked my first dental appointment in 9 years yesterday - It feels embarrassing. I used to beg her to take me to the dentist, but she wouldn’t let me. At first I understood, because it’s expensive, but then I find out we had the money. She had my money for my disabilities, and she kept it for her. I don’t think she would’ve ever taken me to the dentist unless my teeth actually started to fall out - she didn’t take me to the opticians for 3 years - until I caused such a big fuss she couldn’t Facebook-mum her way out of. My pain only existed to her if she could get money from it, or use it to look like more of a victim. It’s weird not having her kill my plants out of spite when we fought her. I had this one plant I grew for five years, when I stopped talking to her, she’d killed it within the next week. She killed all my plants. I had about 20? 30? When I moved out I had one left. She’d use anything I used to cope against me - I was 18 and I begged her to let me go horse riding. We went a few times to groom the horses first, it was the only social interaction she’d let me experience in 5 years. But then I had a panic attack at the stables and she took it away as punishment.

It’s so strange to not live with that. I wonder if I’m too hard on her? I get my BPD from somewhere and it’s not my dad. I know how hard it is to have BPD, and not know what’s wrong with you. But also, I think about how she tried to kill me, said my dad would be ‘better off’ without me, how she’d pin me in corners and grab me during arguments when I’d try to leave. She’d film my breakdowns, play them back to me as a form of humiliation. She’d tell random people that I had an ED, and that I SH’d, and then she’d grab my arms and roll up my sleeves to show them. One time I refused. But only the once.

I’ve done some bad things because of my BPD, because I was being abused and I didn’t know it, but I think maybe being emotional and clingy on the internet is different to trying to kill someone? I don’t know. Am I as bad as her? I feel like I have some things inside me that say I’m not - my mother never said sorry when we were ‘close’. Her trying to kill me was nothing to her. She still tries to get to me. She sent me letters because I refused to talk to her, and she’d say ‘sorry’, but I don’t believe she knew why she was saying it. I’d try to tell her why I was so upset, and she’d say it wasn’t that bad, she’d get annoyed, she’d ice me. She was my primary carer and if I tried to tell her she was hurting me, no matter how gently, she’d stop talking to me for the week. I didn’t have anyone else and she knew that.

I try to hope it was subconscious - did she know she was hurting me? But she did so much to me. There’s a part of me that wonders if she knows, somewhere, exactly what she was doing. And then then I think about how much energy I have given to this woman - to trying not to hate her unfairly, and I wonder - has she ever given me such an understanding? I feel like I was always just a bad seed to her. I was just Difficult. I think she thought that when I was born. I was always a naughty kid, but I can’t remember why. I just remember being shouted at, I just remember being recorded. I just remember being a problem.

So it’s difficult. Living alone, I realise now how bad things were. There’s so much I think about, everyday I remember more. Everyday, I feel like it gets harder to understand her. I hear about what she does to my brother, my dad, and it’s hard. I consider myself quite understanding, and I have tried to understand her. But I feel like I can’t anymore. I don’t think she wants to be understood.

Idk. It’s hard to move from. I never thought this would happen to me. You never think - Oh I was abused. It doesn’t happen to you. It happens to other people, right? But doesn’t everything?

It feels like she’s a ghost in my flat. I’m haunted by the memories of how I’d live with her. I think it’s dying, but it’s slow. I have so many ghosts inside me. I hope one day, I’ll live alone and it will just be me.

[summerwritesfics]

🏢I Wanna, I Wanna Stay ‘Til The End, Chapter 2 - However Long You Stay Is All That I Am

Pairing: Rain/Kuai Liang Length: 6361 Words Rating: Explicit 🔞 Warnings: Neighbours AU, Modern AU, Friends With Benefits, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Self-Esteem Issues, Medical Procedures, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Past Cheating, Cockblocking (especially relevant in this chapter LMFAO), Anxiety, Eventual Smut, Is it slowburn if the sex is fast but the emotions are slow, Minor Tanleena, 70% of this fic is me cockblocking Rain

I Wanna, I Wanna Stay ‘Til The End Masterlist

Notes: Hurray! Another chapter of another fic I havn’t updated in a while 😭 I’m doing it guys. Heads up, this chapter does have some discussion of past domestic abuse and past infidelity, but it’s kind of still tame atm. As a note before anyone leaves me a comment about it, I am aware that as of MK1 Rain has been given an actual name. I will however, still be referring to him as Ranjit for this story. I already started with that name and I don’t want to change it now. Chapter Title is from “All The Same” by Sick Puppies.

“Rule one of the getting laid guidebook, don't try to fuck someone who has something in the oven.” Mileena sat back in her chair, putting her feet up on the desk. “Rule two, don't have your phone with you, and if you do, don't answer it.”

Rain glared at her, head on the desk. The report had taken him far longer than he'd liked. He hoped to get it done quickly and then return to Kuai's apartment again. He was so close, Kuai was even fighting whatever anxieties he had and flirting back. But by the time he finished the report it was 3am, and somehow he doubted a booty call at that time would go down well, no matter how into it Kuai was.

“Hey, look at the bright side,” Tanya started and Rain aimed his scowl at her now, because what bright side? “You know he's gay, single and, for reasons I can't fathom, down to fuck you.”

Rain stuck his tongue out at her. She had a point though. Kuai was flustered by Rain coming on so strong, but seemed open to it. He flirted back. He looked genuinely disappointed when Rain had to leave. God fucking dammit a hot guy was going to fuck him and then the universe decided to cockblock him. That seemed fucking typical.

“Are you three actually working or are you just having a circle jerk?”

Rain sat up. His glare now on Reiko, standing in the doorway and looking at the three of them with disgust. Why the hell Shao Kahn continued to hire him, Rain had no idea, especially given what he did to Mileena while they were dating.

“Don't you have to be a douchebag somewhere else?” Tanya hissed, and it was obvious she was trying to resist the urge to walk over there and punch him. Rain wouldn't hold her back if she did.

“Don't you have work to be doing?” Reiko sneered back. Rain clenched his jaw as Reiko's gaze landed on him. “Sorry to hear your plans didn't go ahead last night.” Rain snorted, how long had Reiko been listening in to know the details? “Guy must be pretty desperate though if he considered fucking you.”

It was one thing for Tanya to tease him about something like that, but Reiko's tone made it clear this wasn't just friendly ribbing. This was malicious. It was quite frankly gross, how Reiko tried to tear him down for daring to side with Mileena after the breakup. Like Reiko wasn’t the cause of it in the first place.

“Sounds like you're jealous no one wants to touch you,” Tanya snapped back. He wanted to tell her that stooping to Reiko's level wasn't exactly the best idea.

“That's not what your girlfriend thought.” And that was why engaging seemed like a bad move. Mileena was shrinking into her seat, looking like she did not want to be here. Tanya looked like she was about to rip Reiko's head off.

“You know what, my personal life is none of your business,” Rain interrupted, hoping to god he could put an end to the argument before it really got ugly. The last thing they needed was being reprimanded for getting into a physical brawl in the office.

“Maybe you shouldn't talk about it so loudly then.” Okay being the bigger person really isn’t working. Of course it wouldn’t when the person you’re trying to put yourself above was such a condescending asshole. “I really don't want to know the details of some old guy you're going to swindle into having sex with you.”

“Then put your hands over your ears and walk away, no one's forcing you to listen.” Rain tried to ignore the weird twist of doubt now in his head. Swindle into having sex... Was he swindling Kuai into having sex with him? What did that even mean in this context?

“Whatever, I hope the guy figures you out before he gets himself hurt.”

Rain didn't get a chance to retort before Reiko disappeared, turning his back on them and leaving the room. He gave an annoyed sigh, shaking his head as he turned back to look at his friends. Tanya still looked ready to gut someone, while Mileena was staring down at her hands.

“You okay, Milly?” He asked, and Tanya's anger finally faded as she turned to her girlfriend.

Mileena looked up at them and gave a forced smile, “yeah. Let's just pretend that didn't happen.”

Rain wanted to agree except that nagging doubt was back. Mileena and Tanya were his best friends, but didn't coddle him. If he asked if they thought he was in some way tricking Kuai Liang, they would tell him their truthful opinion.

“Do... Do you guys think I'm 'swindling' Kuai to sleep with me?” He asked. He didn't particularly like the look the pair shared.

“I mean, you do seem a little preoccupied with sleeping with him, rather than getting to know him,” Mileena said, rubbing the back of her head.

“I can be interested in sleeping with him and getting to know him,” he argued. “Those two things aren't mutually exclusive.”

“I just think you need to talk to him first, see what he wants from this,” Tanya advised. “I mean he's what? A single 40 year old man? He's probably more interested in someone he can settle down with, rather than rampant sex.”

Rain hadn't really considered that. He'd been so distracted by the fact Kuai was hot and gay he hadn't really thought about what the other man could potentially be looking for in a relationship. Maybe he just wanted someone to fool around with too. But maybe it was like Tanya said and he'd want something serious. Rain wanted something casual, but that didn't mean everyone else did.

“Just be careful,” Mileena said, “he seemed really anxious, and if you aren't on the same page about this, it could really hurt him.”

Rain was a bit of a fuckboy, he openly admitted that, but he never really intended to hurt anyone. Maybe I need to slow it down a bit. 

“Alright, I'll see if I can talk to him.” He wasn't sure if he should do it before or after he had sex with him. He'd just see how things went the next time he saw him, he guessed.

“Good, until then though, we should probably get to work before someone who isn't dickface comes and yells at us,” Tanya said, picking up a pile of paper on her desk. “Did you want to go over the newest marketing pitch again before I send it off?”

“Yeah we should do that,” he agreed, although he knew that part of him would be thinking about the man living opposite to him, and how to figure out what he wants from a relationship.

Kuai hummed to himself walking down the street. It had been a good day. He'd managed to get a good chunk of the first draft done, spoken to Johnny about the scripting of the next book-turned-movie, and managed to get his bubble tea order in one take without stumbling over his words. It seemed a little silly to call that last one a win, but when you were used to always saying the wrong things, getting things right seemed like an accomplishment.

He had mostly been able to put the night before to the back of his mind too. He had thought about it though, while he sat in the park and drank his bubble tea. He really needed to figure out what Rain wanted.

Well, other than sex because that much was completely obvious.

It seemed like Rain wasn't looking for serious commitment. Just because that was how it appeared didn't mean that was what was really going on.

He'd been committed for 15 years, rushed into marriage at 20 and never really knew what it was like to not be in a long term relationship. And look what that had given him? Nothing but pain, emotional and physical. He was still healing from what had happened to him. He wouldn't rush into another serious relationship, he wouldn't let himself be hurt like that again.

He didn't think that Rain would do terrible things to him, but then he hadn't believed his husband would either. The possibility was terrifying to him.

If they could keep things casual in some way, he would appreciate it.

As he approached the apartment, he noticed the very man he needed to talk to was at the door. He looked like he was trying to figure out the trick with the door. The door clicked open and he gave a loud cheer as he did.

“I'm the best around! Nothings ever gonna keep me down!” He sang triumphantly, pumping his fist as he did. It was very endearing.

Kuai bit his knuckle to try and stop himself from laughing. Unfortunately, he snorted very loudly as a result, and Rain's head snapped around. He looked extremely embarrassed that Kuai had just seen that.

“Oh uh. You saw that, huh?” Rain sucked in a breath as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Don't worry, the secret of your dorky side is safe with me,” Kuai teased, trying not to grin. Rain gave a sheepish smile before holding the door open for him. Kuai thanked him as he slipped inside.

“So, I was actually hoping I'd catch you,” Rain finally said, following Kuai over to the elevator. “Given that I still owe you for the cakes, and I was thinking about ordering takeout tonight, I was wondering if you cared to join me?”

Huh. I wasn't expecting that. Maybe he had been wrong about Rain just wanting something casual. Or... was just having a meal together still considered casual? Kuai really didn't have enough experience with dating to be able to say.

Still, I can't really go wrong with free food, can I? 

“That does sound good,” Kuai answered with a smile, just as the elevator doors opened. “What did you have in mind?”

“Maybe a Chinese or pizza, whichever you prefer.” Rain lent against the wall of the elevator and the smile he wore made him look so handsome Kuai had to physically restrain himself from swooning.

“I could definitely go for a pizza right now,” Kuai replied, brushing his hair out of his eyes. He bit his lip. “I was hoping to talk to you, actually.”

“Huh, no kidding?” Rain hummed, pursing his lips. “There was something I was hoping to talk to you about too.” He grimaced slightly, “although it's a little personal, and we should probably wait until we're in my apartment.”

Strange. But Kuai smiled still and answered “ah, what I wanted to talk about may be better for a private place too then.”

Rain looked like he wanted to ask, but then the doors opened, and the subject was dropped and they exited as Rain asked “so, how was work today?”

“Pretty well, actually,” Kuai replied, “I made good progress on a couple of my current projects.”

Rain pursed his lips, “I don't think I've actually asked what you do for your job?”

He was right, now that Kuai thought about it. Between the questions they had asked each other and the growing sexual tension between them, the nature of their work life hadn't really come up.

“I'm a writer,” he explained, trying to figure out how in depth he wanted to go. He was well known, although not to the level of being stopped in the street like Johnny was. But at the same time, a few of his books had been made into blockbuster movies. ���Currently working on a first draft of my next novel, as well as helping a friend with scripting a movie based on one of my others.”

He maybe shouldn't have mentioned the last bit when he noticed how wide Rain's eyes had gone.

“Wait, one of your books is being turned into a movie?” Rain sounded completely astonished. Even as he got his key out and tried to put it in his lock he was still looking at Kuai.

“Technically it's the third to be adapted,” Kuai admitted sheepishly. He didn't usually talk much about the movies. Not because they were bad or for lack of involvement, they were actually fairly faithful and he was involved every step of the journey.

No, it was more because after learning just who was involved, people suddenly were a lot less interested in Kuai Liang and far more interested in using him to meet world famous actor Johnny Cage.

Johnny was understanding. The last thing he wanted was Kuai being hurt because someone had carelessly used him as a gateway into fame.

“Wow, holy shit, that's amazing,” Rain stated, finally looking away long enough to actually get his key in the lock. “My brother is an actor.” Kuai felt a little apprehensive. He'd heard “my family members an actor, can you get them a part” before. Kuai still followed Rain into his apartment regardless. “Well... He's been in movies... as an extra.” Rain sighed as he shut the door behind Kuai and threw his keys onto a little table beside the door. “Although the way my family talks about him, you'd think he was Johnny fucking Cage.”

Kuai laughed nervously, partially at the mention of his dear friend, and partially because Rain's tone sounded extremely bitter. I get the feeling things aren't good with his family relationships. Still at least Rain wasn't pushing to know more about the films, or if Kuai could get his brother a better role in future ones.

“So, you never told me what you do?” Kuai tried to divert the conversation as he looked around the room. Observing at Rain's furniture, he suddenly understood the comment about Kuai's matching. There was such a mismatch of different styles and patterns.

If he was completely honest it was all extremely hideous but he knew that was just his personal opinion and definitely not a welcome one.

“Oh. Uh, nothing as exciting as you, by the sounds of it,” Rain replied, walking over to a drawer in his living room, and rooting through it. “I'm a Sales and Marketing executive.” He pulled out a pizza takeaway menu. “I'm basically behind a bunch of adverts and selling our products to clients, y'know basically making sure people actually want to buy our stuff.”

“I don't know, I think that sounds extremely interesting,” Kuai said, accepting the menu when it was offered to him. He already knew what he wanted, but it didn't hurt to pretend to look. “The closest to a normal job I've ever had was when I was 16 and doing weekends at the gas station.”

“Huh, you must have lived the starving artist life for a while then?” Rain questioned, flopping down on the couch and patting the seat next to him.

“Ah, not really. I married my ex-husband at 20 and he was ridiculously rich.” Kuai absentmindedly sat down, eyes still on the menu, trying to make sure the pizza he wanted was still available. “I technically didn't have to work, but I got bored quickly, and began writing to keep myself entertained. Sent my first draft to a couple of publishers one day on a whim, lo and behold one of them loved it and the rest is history.”

“I- Oh. Your ex-husband?”

Kuai paused.

He hadn't even realised he'd mentioned his ex. Shit. It had been a slip up, not a major one mind, but enough to make him feel apprehensive. Because usually when he mentioned him, people immediately felt entitled to know why they split up. Kuai didn't enjoy talking about that with his therapist, let alone to people he barely knew.

“Yes I was married for 15 years,” he explained, “we divorced 5 years ago.”

“Oh, sorry to hear that,” Rain said sympathetically. “Why did you split?”

“We-“ Kuai stopped himself.

He was going to say they drifted apart but that just felt wrong to say. They didn't drift apart, Kuai just finally grew tired of the cycle. His husband berating and hurting him and then showering him with adoration and gifts. The promise that it would never happen again, only for a few days to go by and it to all start over. He would never forget the night he finally attempted to leave. He'd never forget hands on his chest, pushing at him and the sensation of falling down the stairs. He'd never forget waking up in the hospital to his husband swearing up and down Kuai had slipped and fell. He'd never forget the desperation he felt when he finally managed to slip the nurse a note that just read “he's lying, please help me”.

He took a deep breath, now was really not the time he wanted to talk about this.

“He just wasn't the man I thought I'd married,” he settled on.

Thankfully, Rain didn't seem to push for more info than that. Maybe it was clear the subject was too painful for small talk.

“Anyway,” he said with a cough, seemingly wanting to move on. “Did you decide what you want?”

“Vegi-surprise, please.” He passed the menu over to Rain, trying to smile and put the memories to the back of his mind.

“Vegetarian?” Rain questioned as he took the menu and got his phone out and started putting the number in.

“Ah, no, I just prefer vegetables on my pizza,” he explained, just before Rain put the phone to his ear.

He kept quiet as the order was made, wondering what the rest of the evening would bring.

“I can't believe you are partially behind that jingle,” Kuai exclaimed after swallowing a mouthful of pizza. Rain had been telling him about some of his previous advertising campaigns, and a very well known and annoying jingle for Outworld Superstores he'd had a part in creating. “It was stuck in my head for months!”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Rain said with a grin. He wasn't the person who performed or wrote the jingle, but he was the one who had suggested it and given it the green light. He had been repeatedly told it had ruined people's lives with its earworm nature.

It was weird. Rain didn't consider his job exciting at all. Not that he regretted it, just normally when he talked about the ins and outs beyond specific adverts, people tended to zone out. Kuai on the other hand seemed fascinated. And here was Rain thinking he'd be the one asking all the questions about Kuai's job.

Actually, Kuai had barely talked about his work, it was a little strange. He was accomplished enough to have movies made from his books. Surely that was something to brag about? Kuai was probably just more humble than Rain could ever be. Years of his accomplishments being completely ignored in favour of his brothers meant he felt the need to be bold and push them to the front.

Now that I put it like that, maybe that is more a me issue. 

He was sure Kuai would open up more as time went on. Both on his work and the mysterious ex-husband he mentioned. Rain wasn't an idiot, he could tell whatever caused them to split up was painful. He hadn't pushed, it wasn't his place. The only thing about it that bothered Rain was Tanya and Mileena's earlier warnings that Kuai might be looking for something more serious.

And 15 years sounded pretty fucking serious to Rain.

He turned to Kuai with the intention of finally bringing the subject up, only to stop when he saw the other man. He had a small amount of dip on the corner of his mouth.

“Ah, you uh- you've got a spot on you,” Rain informed him, tapping the corner of his mouth, as an opportunity came to his mind.

Kuai reached his hand and wiped his mouth, "is that better?"

Rain scooted forward, reaching a hand to Kuai's chin. "Here, let me~" he purred, before leaning in to kiss the other man.

So much for talking about things first. Kuai made a surprised huff, but it didn't take long for him to lean into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Rain's shoulders. Kuai opened his mouth and Rain took the chance to slip his tongue in. He was delighted to feel Kuai's tongue mingle with his own.

He began to shift, gently pushing Kuai back down against the couch. Rain's hands fumbled with Kuai's shirt, trying to undo the buttons. He released Kuai's lips, trailing kisses along his neck instead. Kuai moaned as Rain managed to brush aside Kuai's shirt. He pulled back slightly, just enough to observe the other man below him. Kuai was surprisingly fit, not too muscular, not too lean. His chest was covered in scars, some looked like they had potentially been from surgery, while the others he had no idea what could have caused them. Now was not the time to ask. He'd been so distracted by the scars, he'd barely registered that the other man's nipples were pierced.

Holy shit, how the hell does this man seem to fit every niche I’m into? 

“God, you're so fucking hot,” he muttered, before leaning down pressing his lips between the other mans pecs.

“R-Rain,” Kuai whimpered as Rain continued to kiss down Kuai's torso. He mostly followed one of the scars that seemed to go mostly down the middle. Kuai continued to make sweet little noises, even arching his back as if to push himself closer. He continued down, meeting Kuai's navel and slipping his tongue out and swirling it around the man's belly button.

Rain searched for the buttons on Kuai's jeans, undoing them before hooking his fingers in. He lightly tugged on the item of clothing and-

He jumped a mile when his door buzzer went off.

He sat up and stared at the intercom, before looking down to Kuai Liang. His face was bright red as he looked across at the thing that had interrupted them.

“S-should you get that?” Kuai asked, looking up at him while biting his lip.

“They can wait,” Rain decided, turning to settle back between Kuai's legs. He trailed his hands down Kuai's sides, leaning down about to kiss him. He stopped when the buzzer went off again. He grit his teeth, wanting to ignore it, until the buzzer started to rapidly go off, like someone was repeatedly pushing the button in quick succession. He gave an annoyed sigh as he pushed himself up. “Sorry, I'll just deal with this.”

God he was so fucking annoyed. As he got up and walked over to the intercom, he couldn't help but mentally berate whoever was on the other end.

He clicked the button and sharply answered with “Yes? What do you want?”

“Nice to talk to you too, Ranjit,” the familiar voice spoke back. Rain mentally groaned.

“What are you doing here Taven?” He reached a hand up to rub his temples. The last thing he needed was his brother coming over to pass judgement on how this place really wasn't up to scratch.

“I mean, I am your brother,” Taven replied. “But mostly I need to talk to you about something important.”

“Can't it wait? I'm kind of in the middle of something here.” He glanced over his shoulder. Kuai was sitting up on the couch, fiddling to redo his fly up. Shit shit shit. He wasn't going to let Taven ruin this for him. Not again. He thought he was done having family members walking in on him “accidentally”.

“No not really,” Taven said, sounding annoyed. Not as annoyed as I am. “The sooner you let me up there to talk, the sooner I'll be out of your hair.”

Rain made a frustrated hand movement, before dragging it down his face and finally biting out “fine, but you'd better be quick.” He hit the button that would let the door open, waiting to give Taven enough time to get through.

He turned back to find Kuai had already done up his shirt, although he was still sitting on the couch. He looked extremely embarrassed and Rain couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

“Should I leave?” Kuai asked quietly.

“No, no, it's okay. Hopefully this'll be a few minutes tops.” Rain held his hands up, hoping it might help calm Kuai down. There was a knock on his door, and he went to open it. He was rather thankful that it was just Taven on the other side.

“So, uh, this place is where you're hiding huh?” Taven said in greeting, looking around the place like he was expecting someone to jump out at him. Rain wanted to roll his eyes so badly. “Am I allowed in?”

Rain didn't want to let him in, but he supposed it would be rude not to. He reluctantly moved aside. Taven stepped in, looking around like he was trying to scope the place out. He did a bit of a double take when he spotted Kuai.

“Oh, uh, hello?” Taven sounded confused, and Kuai looked completely out of his depth.

“Hi?” Kuai squeaked out, looking desperately towards Rain for help.

“That's my neighbour, Kuai Liang, and this is my brother, Taven,” he introduced, gesturing to each of them as he spoke.

“Oh, you didn't say you had company,” Taven said, biting his lip.

“I did say I was in the middle of something,” Rain pointed out to him, trying to not just scream in frustration.

“Uh, would- would it be better if I left?” Kuai asked again, clearly getting nervous.

“Yeah, that might be for the best,” Taven said before Rain could open his mouth to reassure Kuai it was fine.

He watched as Kuai nodded in defeat, before pushing himself up and grabbing his bag. As he made his way towards the exit, he paused briefly to give Rain a small smile.

“I'll see you later,” he whispered, before turning and leaving, closing the door behind him.

Rain just glared at Taven as he growled, “well now you've cockblocked me, you might as well tell me what the fuck you want?”

Taven shook his head in shock as he muttered “coc- huh?” He blinked a few times, “oh, my god, Ranjit, you weren't actually going to have intercourse with your neighbour were you?”

“Why do you have to refer to it like that?” Rain groaned. Why can't he just call it fucking like everyone else? “Yes, I was going to fuck him, but seeing as you've kind of ruined that plan could you please tell me why you're here?”

Taven looked like he wanted to say more on the subject of Kuai Liang, but eventually settled against it when he said “Mom's birthday party is next Friday.”

“And?” Rain rolled his hand to try and get Taven to get to the fucking point already.

“Well, I've been texting you asking if you're coming, and you've just left me on read.” Much to Rain's annoyance, Taven walked over to his kitchen, and settled down on one of the stools at the breakfast bar.

“I don't know if you know this, Tav, but I've been rather busy lately,” he snarled, while flailing his arms to the apartment around him.

“So too busy to send me a one word text, but not to try and seduce your new neighbour,” Taven replied, crossing his arms. “Seriously, you've been here two days. You don't even know the guy.”

“I know he's hot and I want to fuck his brains out, the rest is none of your fucking business,” Rain argued, storming over to the kitchen counter. “As for the party, I don't know yet.”

“She's your Mom-“

“No. She's your Mom! I'm nothing to her! The only reason I'm around her is because Dad couldn't keep his cock in his pants!”

The outburst lingered in the air, thick and heavy. It was a button Rain hated being pressed, Taven knew it was and yet he still insisted on bringing it up. In Delia's defence, on some level she had tried to be a supportive step-mother to Rain. It was clear, however, that her priority lay with her biological children. He knew that on some level she resented him, the constant reminder of her husband's betrayal.

He supposed she had at least tried, unlike his father.

He closed his eyes in defeat as he mumbled out, “when is it?”

“Next Friday at 6.” Taven was still looking at his hands. “If it helps, you can bring a plus one.”

“Fine, I'll be there,” he whispered, still not closing his eyes. He had a feeling Mileena and Tanya were busy next Friday, he might have to hunt for another plus one. “And I'll be with someone.”

“Thank you.” Rain opened his eyes, and hated how genuinely grateful Taven looked. “I know she'll be happy to see you there.”

I doubt that. 

“Was there anything else?” Rain asked, rubbing his face with his hand.

“No, I guess I'll leave you be,” Taven jumped off the seat and began to walk towards the door. “But, promise me that you'll be careful with the neighbour thing?” Rain just furrowed his brow at him. “We've been here before Ranjit. You rush into things, it's great for a while and in the end everyone just gets burned because they want commitment you can't offer them.” Taven reached to place a hand on Rain's shoulder. “I know it doesn't feel like it sometimes, but I do care about you and I don't like seeing you get hurt.”

There were so many things Rain wanted to say about that, but just couldn't. He resigned himself and just said “I'll be careful.”

Taven just nodded, wishing him a final farewell and then he was thankfully gone. As he closed the door, Rain rested his forehead against the door, resisting the urge to slam his head against it repeatedly.

Kuai sat on his couch, staring silently at his TV, despite it being turned off. He was more watching himself in the reflection. He was rubbing his fingers across his lips repeatedly, trying to soothe his nerves.

Rain had seemed very upset to see his brother. He wasn't sure if he should have stayed as a mediator, or if he'd made the right call by leaving them to it. Either way, it seemed his talk with Rain was going to have to wait. Well, not that it seemed talking was where things had been going.

It had been 5 years since Kuai last had sex. He’d thought about it a few times, but never worked up the courage. The way Rain kissed him, touched his body. He couldn’t believe how good he felt. It wasn’t until he was in that moment that he realised how much he missed that kind of intimacy. Even when he was married, that softness was limited to his ex’s good days, that man was a very selfish lover.

He didn’t want to think about that, he wanted to think about how wonderful it had felt for Rain to touch him.

So much for talking about things though. He sighed, and rubbed at his face. All it took was a kiss and I was spreading my legs for the guy. It did rather indicate that Rain was more interested in something casual, or at least, more interested in the sex aspect. If that was indeed the case, Kuai could handle that.

He jumped a mile when he heard a knock on his door. He scrambled to get up and rushed over to it. As he expected, once he opened it, there was Rain, looking extremely apologetic.

“I am so sorry,” Rain immediately told him before Kuai could even begin to utter a word. Kuai simply smiled and stepped aside to let him in.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kuai tried to assure him, shutting the door as Rain entered the apartment. He felt a flutter in his chest, realising it was probably going to be now or never in regard to that talk. “Um… So, I think now would probably be a good time to have that conversation.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re probably right.” Shang Tsung reached up to rub his face with his hand. “Um. Shall I go first?” Kuai nodded in confirmation. Honestly even bringing it up first was a big step for him, he didn’t think he could handle going first as well. “What exactly do you want from… whatever this is?” Rain gestured towards the both of them as he spoke.

So, we wanted to talk about the same thing. Funny. 

“That is what I wanted to discuss with you too, actually.” Kuai began to rub at his wrist, swallowing as he tried to think of how to explain. “I’ll be honest, I was hoping for something… casual.”

“Casual?” Rain asked, tilting his head. He didn’t look put off though, more hopeful if Kuai was reading him right.

“I don’t think I’m really ready for anything extremely committed.” Kuai bit his lip, trying to ignore how hard his heart was beating. Even though Rain showed no sign of being upset by this, the little voice in Kuai’s head wouldn’t stop telling him the other man was going to leave and never talk to him again over this. “I’d like a companion but not a partner… I don’t know if that makes sense?”

“No, no, that makes perfect sense.” Rain stepped forward, taking Kuai’s hand in his. “That’s what I’m wanting too. Just someone to have fun with.”

“Oh.” Kuai chuckled awkwardly. “Well now I feel stupid for being worried.”

“Pth, don’t. My friends kinda got in my head about how you’d probably want something more serious.” Rain rubbed the back on his neck and gave a handsome smile. “So, uh, something like friends with benefits good for you?”

Kuai laughed. Aren’t I a little old to be having friends with benefits? Still, it did sound nice. He didn’t really get to have the awkward early adult phase, it’d be nice to experience a little of what that would have been like. Even if he was about 20 years too late.

“Friends with benefits sounds perfect to me.”

He was surprised when Rain suddenly took hold of his hips and pulled them close. Kuai giggled as their lips almost touched.

“Well then, with that out of the way, where were we?”

Kuai felt a little bold, confidence brought on by the previous conversation, bringing his arms up and around Rain’s neck. He felt Rain pushing him backwards until his back hit the wall. How he resisted the urge to grind against him he had no idea. Rain’s lips were on his, and he opened them hoping for their tongues to meet again. He quite enjoyed that the first time.

It really should not have surprised Kuai when a ringtone started to sound from Rain’s pocket.

Rain pulled away, and grimaced. “I cannot believe this.”

“I’d have thought after yesterday, you’d have learnt to leave your phone behind,” Kuai teased a little, snorting when Rain pouted at him.

“You would have thought I'd have learnt my lesson, wouldn’t you?” He sighed and reached into his pocket, frowning at his phone. “I have to take this.”

Kuai nodded as Rain stepped back and answered the phone. He just stood and watched as the other man got more and more exacerbated. There was a part of Kuai that felt sorry for him, being interrupted yet again, but the other part of him that felt a little bitter that he hadn’t done the obvious of leaving the stupid device behind this time.

By the time Rain was done with the conversation, it was clear he was more than a little annoyed by it.

“Work?” Kuai gently asked, and Rain gave him an apologetic look.

“Unfortunately.” He grimaced and shook his head. “The universe really does not want me to fuck you.”

Kuai laughed despite the situation. It really seemed that tonight was not going to be the night again. But there would always be more opportunities.

“It’s okay, I understand.” Kuai pushed himself away from the wall, stepping forward and giving Rain a quick kiss on the cheek. “I promise I will still be here tomorrow.”

Rain nodded, not hiding the somewhat goofy smile on his face from Kuai’s display of affection.

“I will see you tomorrow,” Rain assured him, patting his arm slightly. All Kuai could do was sigh as Rain made his way back to the door.

As soon as it shut behind him, Kuai flopped backwards against the wall, letting himself slide down it and staring at the ceiling. Honestly, if he were a little more superstitious, he’d genuinely think the constant interruptions were the doing of Bi-Han’s ghost. Big brother always was very protective, and a little too distrustful of just about anyone who found Kuai attractive.

It was a shame he wasn’t there to stop Kuai from getting married. He was certain if Bi-Han were still alive, none of the terrible things that happened would have. He’d have beat the shit out of his ex the second he suspected so much as a finger had been laid on Kuai’s body.

But Bi-Han hadn’t been there, and he wasn’t here now. Kuai just had to believe that all of this wasn’t some kind of bad omen. Like the universe was trying to stop it from happening to protect him.

Not like the universe protected me before. 

He was due to see Johnny again tomorrow, and work together on the next script. He was generally pretty decent at relationship advice. Maybe I should ask him tomorrow? At least get some idea on what to expect and how to maintain the boundaries to keep them both safe.

Until then, well, the whole experience was starting to give him creative inspiration. He finally stood up, and rushed over to where his laptop was, determined to write some notes before he forgot everything he’d just experienced and felt.

⋞ Previous Chapter ≛❀≛ Next Chapter ⋟

[asymmetricallyanxious]

Hey! I’m gonna talk about neopronouns, xenopronouns, and nounself pronouns for a second!

Before I get started, this is not an invitation for bad faith arguments. I will be deleting bad faith comments and blocking the user who comments them. This is specifically for people who use neopronouns and people who support them/genuinely want to learn more. Anyone who wants to argue can go somewhere else with their punching down shit.

Disclaimer #2: I am a trans masc, I identify as some type of masc, I use he/him pronouns and I’ve never personally used any of the types of pronouns I’m going to be talking about. So! I am not an expert and if anyone has a genuine question or correction I’ll do my best to respond.

Now! Onto the post lol

So I’ve been seeing some things recently surrounding the use of neopronouns, xenopronouns and nounself pronouns that has made me a little upset and uncomfortable. For those who may not know neopronouns are defined as any pronouns which are not traditionally used (for English would be he/she/they/one/it) so any pronouns that is not typically used and usually it’ll be a word that was made specifically as a pronoun or a word that is not typically used as a pronoun that a person may use as a pronoun for themself. Xenopronouns are a little different and the definition is not as clear but from what I understand (lmk if I’m way off base) is a pronoun that is not usually linked to a gender identity but is more linked to the identity of a person without regard to their gender. (IE. DID alters, otherkin, etc.) and nounself pronouns are quite literally a noun used as a pronoun (star/starself, bug/bugself, fae/faeself) and can be linked to gender identity or not usually used by neurodivergent (particularly autistic people) as a more comfortable pronoun to be referred to.

Now with the basic info out of the way, I wanted to talk about the rise in punching down I’ve seen among trans people. Listen, as a trans person I understand the fear running rampant in the world right now. I understand that life feels unstable right now and many of us are holding tight to whatever we feel might help us. I also understand that my identity comes with a lot of privilege as a white skinny transmasc. That being said, that is not a valid reason to tell other people how they can or cannot be.

It breaks my heart to hear people in my community being the loudest bullies against people that are also in my community. Let me make one thing very clear: transphobes will never tolerate trans people. We make them uncomfortable, scared, and irrationally angry at every conceivable level. There is no amount of “socially acceptable” that will keep a transphobe from hurting a trans person. There just isn’t. The reason the trans community is facing so much hatred and suppression right now is BECAUSE OF TRANSPHOBES!!! There is not a single trans person in the world who was so trans they cause someone else to be transphobic. That’s not how it works. And looking more “acceptable” as a community will not change irrational hate. Ever.

People who use neopronouns/xenopronouns/nounself pronouns are doing so because it makes them more comfortable. The same way that he/him pronouns can make binary transmasc people more comfortable. The same way that she/her pronouns can make binary trans fem people more comfortable. They are pronouns. They are a language tool. They are not hurting anyone, least of all the trans community. Can it be confusing to people who refuse to try and understand? Yes! Is it uncomfy for some people? Sure! Is that a dogshit reason to look down on another human! Absolutely!

I am so fucking tired of people who should be the ones who understand continually hurting others. We cannot dictate to others who they are any more than others can dictate to us who we are. The trans community should be the first to recognize that. The transphobes WANT us to fight each other. If we fight each other and hurt each other we are making their jobs easier!

No one is forcing anyone else to befriend someone who uses “different” pronouns. No one is forcing anyone to USE these pronouns. Please for our communities’ sake stop hurting each other. Stop hurting my family. This is despicable and dangerous behavior and is actively killing people. “Stopping neopronouns” will not make them “take us seriously”. Neopronouns are not “the reason we’re losing our rights”. That is the kind of infighting that a transphobe loves to hear about, and it’s heartbreaking.

Do not do the work for transphobes. Please. For your own sake shut the hell up instead of screaming your insecurities at other people. Please, ask yourself who you’re really scared of. Please, listen to the people who are hurting just as much as you. The world is scary. And it hurts. And it kills. Please don’t make it worse.

And to all of the people out there who use neopronouns/xenopronouns/nounself pronouns, I love you. You are beautiful and worthy of respect. You are real and amazing and I wish I could take all the garbage out of the world, but instead all I have is a virtual hug and an assurance that you deserve better. Please know that the loudest voices are often the ones that are the most afraid. You are not the enemy, you are not the problem, and you will never be evil or ugly or stupid for the words you surround yourself with. You are the curator of your own breathtaking story and you do not owe yourself to anyone. Please take care of yourselves and remember you are valuable.

[o5-10]

Unfortunately, I went through all of that effort, and then immediately remembered how Gamma Captain Bobby Liu tried to bargain with Six, insisting he had to surrender himself to fulfill the Engine's prediction and save his men. He was, according to Six, decently persuasive. I am not interested in speculating on how much of what he said to Six was genuine versus not.

How he then started messaging Newport, once he knew what he would be doing. I do not know what he said to her, but I know she was in distress.

How I told him to sto, leading to a very, very infuriating conversation. He tried to bargain with me, the same as he did with Six, though I assume he used different tactics. He tried to appeal to my empathy, and I admit that my handling was not the way I would have preferred to refuse him, as my psychological degradation was very obvious at the time. He tried to get me to call off the wrath of my allies to no avail.

And then he told me he was en route before starting messaging Newport again, and I, again, demanded he stop. He gave me an ultimatum that I was to take Newport "somewhere far away" offsite, or he would hurt her. This argument lasted far longer than it should have and did not go anywhere, but then I tore into him in a way I do not believe I have torn into anyone else in memory. I told him that I truly wanted him to burn, that I felt no conflict over wishing for his demise, that I was glad Six would serve as judge, jury, and executioner for his miserable life, and I meant it.

Then he tried to pry what I might speculate about Six's next moves, which I was not stupid enough to rise to. He followed this up with another round of trying to convince me to leave the site with Newport, which he finally succeeded at.

I wished him unbearable pain shortly before he arrived.

He is still alive. He isn't able to reach us from where he is, but he is believed to be alive and active in his pocket dimension. I wish he wasn't.

While most of the conversion is not something I am interested in sharing, I am very tempted to share the part where I read him the riot act. I am actually fairly pleased with my performance there, and I don't care how bad it may make me look. If I'm lucky, maybe entities who I have been moderately rude towards will see it and realize I have been holding back quite a bit. I am unsure if it would be worth it to share, however. It is a difficult decision.

I am much calmer about his existence now than I was in the moment, but I stand by everything I said being warranted.

I'm not actually angry as I remember this, it is a purely neutral thing, but I am most certainly remembering.

[captainmaplesblog]

Life of Lea Volume 3 Chapter 17: Seeing Red

Within the blink of an eye, King Chuck and Michaelis got into a fast reaction as they swiftly moved them out of the way as they both picked up and held Queen Charlotte & Mai in their arms. 

“Really now!? You dare try to kill my wife, my chef, and his beloved Sous Chef as payback!? You dare to pull this at my son’s birthday to get back at us!?” King Chuck says furiously as Alphonse had also managed to dispel the black hole before anyone or anything could get sucked in.

Penelope laughs a bit at his reaction as the sound of a ticking sound starts to sparkle and echo down hallways.  

“Aw how sweet & naive and yet so stupid, you think killing is the only thing I am capable of doing for revenge? You should never underestimate a Vendetta” Penelope says with a wide evil smile as the sound of the ticking starts to echo louder in the castle.

“You...what are you-” King Chuck starts to say before remembering the box he was told about earlier.

“A proper birthday gift for a surprise party, most definitely, have fun with that, your majesty,” Clive says as he doesn’t even look at his brother as he makes his way to stand beside Penelope and pick her up before they escape through a blue hole before anyone could get to them in time.

“Everyone evacuate! Immediately!” Lea says as she opened a portal for everyone to escape into, Lady Gwendolyn created an ice shield-like dome around the entire dining room as she doesn’t know where the bomb was located.

As everyone evacuated, the bomb went off shaking the castle as the emergency wing was destroyed, Mom stayed by Alyssa as she cast a wing-flying spell to cover her and Lea with her Monarch Butterfly Wings as Dad cast a Bull Horn-made shield over Mom. Lea’s intuition gut or alarm was going off again as another bomb went off in the dining hall as she launched a Rose vine dome under the ice shield dome before the pieces of the dining hall roof came falling. Once everyone got in and out of the portal as they were evacuated to the front gates of the Aamodt Castle, King Chuck went around with King Jupiter went around to do a headcount to see if everyone was here and accounted for as Doctor Emmet and Doctor Brie went around checking to see if anyone was hurt in any way. Even with everyone evacuated, a third bomb went off on the roof North of the dining hall. 

 “Our rooms...our eating area...our dance floor... it's rubble...” Princess Mary mutters before she starts to cry.

“My porn...” Prince Robert thought to himself before gently rubbing Princess Mary’s back to comfort her.  

“Well, it’s a good thing we keep our original special and precious family items, somewhere else...” Princess Charlotte says as Prince Matthew hugs her from behind to comfort her. 

“True but I am just glad that everyone is safe, on the other hand, they got away again...and now that they know that we know where the HQ is...they could have teleported anywhere” Prince Kevin exclaims as he tries to stay rational. 

“Mrs. Ramptin, I think it’s time for your family to get to work as well,” King Chuck says as he looks at the Ramptins.

“Got it, your majesty,” Randy replies before looking at her husband and teenage daughter.

“ Jamael and Arielle reported for duty,” Jamael said with a smile as his 16-year-old daughter groaned.

Jamael takes out his clam phone as he contacts the other nearest bodyguards, Lea watches the Ramptins curiously as she wonders what the Royal librarian and her family could do in this situation. Randy did a second head count as she gave out her business card. 

“Here sugar in case of emergency for your mental well-being,” Randy says as she gives Lea her business card.   

“You're a therapist and a librarian? Do they not pay you enough?” Lea replies curiously as she raises an eyebrow. 

“I get paid to protect the library's books and help in crisis as well as listening to arguments and helping them sort it out too,” Randy says with a smile.

“Ah makes sense, but what can your husband and daughter do to help this situation?” Lea replies with another question.

“Jamael is the General of the Aamodt Kingdom while Arielle is training under her for experience and to get into a good college,” Randy says as she shows her 3 photos of Jamael in his uniform and Arielle on stage in a play. 

“And where is that college?” Lea asks as she stares at the picture of Jamael in his uniform.

“In the most creative dimension that you have yet to visit,” Randy says as she puts her photos away.

“What’s that dimension called?” Lea replies curiously.

“Pinaka Malikhain dimension,” Randy says before going to her husband.

Mom chuckles a bit, “Well that’s a bit on the nose” she exclaims.

“What do you mean? What does it mean?” Lea asks curiously.

“It’s Tagalog for Most Creative” Mom replies with a smile.

“Ah ok makes sense why you laughed,” Lea says as she puts Randy’s card in her dress pockets.

“What do we do now? It’s late” Alyssa asks before she yawns. 

“Well the guests are leaving for their safe well-being, we’ll have to stay somewhere else” Prince Kevin replies as he was getting tired too. 

“How about our place?” Dad suggests as he gently puts his hand on Mom’s back and looks at her then at Lea and Alyssa with worry.

“Mary can bunk with Alyssa and Princess Charlotte, Prince Robert and Prince Kevin on the couches, and the Queen and King on the foldable bed” Mom exclaims.

“Sounds wonderful, thank you” Queen Charlotte replies as she was ready to let her hair down and clean her face.

“And to find the Bad Apples will be a bad headache to find,” King Chuck says with a sigh.

“Well it’s a good thing, I helped him with fixing his collar when I went to get my dessert,” Lea says with a smug smile.

Sergean chuckles as he adjusts his tie to loosen it a bit, “The invisible tracker spell, you remembered it from our training in the Ice Region, bravo princess” Sergean says with a smile.

“Yes, this is all good and dandy until he decides to change his shirt let alone, Penelope picking up your scent on his shirt, let’s be quick and find them, they will not get away with destroying the emergency wing and ruining my baby boy’s birthday” Queen Charlotte exclaims as she tries to stay calm despite how angry she was. 

“I understand your frustration, your majesty, but she made sure to put it under the same spot where he splashes his perfume on himself, right, Lea?” Sergean replies as he turns to look at Lea.

“Obviously, plus putting it on his collar is better than on his wrists,” Lea says with a slightly annoyed look. 

“For now let’s get some sleep, Clive won’t change his shirt away, especially if it has the smell of his crush on it” Michaelis replies as he lets his hair down.

“Makes sense to me, now where will you and your employees stay?” Lea asks curiously.

“At our homes in the Triarius Kingdom,” Mai replies tiredly as she leaned against Michaelis.

“Ah ok, well see you later then,” Lea said as she was getting tired too.

Sergean nods in agreement before opening portals for everyone to go home for the night. 

“I would go home but someone looks like they are about to pass out from adrenaline,” Momo says before gently picking up Lea, he carried Lea bridal style as well as making sure to keep his left hand on her right arm and his right hand under her thighs.

“Make it 3” King Chuck replies as he is carrying a drowsy Queen Charlotte as Dad was carrying Mom before they went into their portals.

“I’ll help with setting up, Mr. Guerrero,” Sergean says as they exited the portal once they arrived at the Guerrero Household as their clones merged back with the Guerrero family, Vanessa, Rocky, and Snowball.   

Sergean closes the portal as Momo looks around the house for Lea’s room before Cloud leads him after turning into his dog form. He looks around curiously before gently putting her down on her bed.

“Lea, do I have your consent to help with your hair and makeup removal?” Momo asks as he stands by her.

“Yes...please...brush and my makeup remover wipes are in the bathroom by the sink” Lea replies with a yawn.

Momo nods as he walks over to the bathroom and starts to look around for her brush and makeup wipes. Cloud barks at him as he points to the cupboard under the sink. Momo nods as he takes out her black brush and her blue makeup wipes as well as the silver hand mirror before returning to Lea.

“ Ready for some skin care before falling asleep?” Momo says before kneeling in front of her.

“Please...” Lea replies tiredly as she dips in and out of consciousness. 

Momo nods before he opens the wipes and cleans her face before gently going behind her as he takes her ponytail down and reaches into a small portal before getting out a facial mask. He then gently puts it on her face before brushing her hair.

“This facial mask will harden and once removed all your blackheads will be removed then I will remove it then put on another mask to moisturize your pores,” Momo says happily. 

“You do this with your mom?” Lea replies before yawning.

“Yes, and with my dad, my family, as he gently removes the hardened mask and gets the other facial mask out of a small summoning portal. 

“So you were a spa worker for everyone around you?” Lea replies as he puts the facial mask on her.

“Of course, I don’t have just one skill, I got hired for many skills,” Momo said as he threw away the hardened mask in the bathroom trash.

“Momo, where are you going to sleep?” Lea asks curiously.

“Oh well um...your house is already all full, I can come back tomorrow, ok?” Momo replies he removes the mask off her before throwing it away.

“Promise?” Lea says as she lifts her pinky.

Momo shakes his head before gently ruffling her hair, “Good night, Lea, see you tomorrow” he says before leaving in a portal.

The next morning, Lea woke up drained from the craziness that was last night. She looked around her room slowly to see what the clones had changed. Lea got quiet as she remembered what the clones did in their places. 

“That damn bastard...He tried fooling me with a  new account...I know how he talks and writes...6 times now with him trying to get back into my life since I escaped him back in early December” Lea mutters to herself.

Cloud glances at her as he lies on the white tile floor of the hallway in his dog form. 

“Yea, Bruton tried it again...” Lea says softly to him.

Cloud then turns into his human form as he was in his pajamas but his hair is getting longer as well as growing some facial hair. Lea blinks a bit before rubbing her eyes and looking at him again. 

“You need to be groomed, Cloud, or in this case get a haircut and a shave because you look older with facial hair” Lea exclaims. 

“Huh...” Cloud replies confused before going to look in the mirror in the bathroom as he had some stubs on his chin and upper lip before running towards Dad, “Dad I got hair on my face like you now” he exclaims as he came into the kitchen as Dad was pouring his coffee. 

Dad puts up his index finger before taking a long sip of coffee, Cloud knew the dog training signal as he pauses in his tracks and waits for Dad’s signal. 

“Let’s eat first before we clean up for the day, ok?” Dad says as he glances at Cloud before sitting at the table.

“Ok that’s fine, Dad, sorry I got excited, we now have more in common to share” Cloud replies with a wide smile before sitting beside him. 

“Not wrong, I have always wanted to teach someone how to shave off facial hair instead of body hair, to be honest,” Dad says before taking another sip of his coffee.

“I second that feeling” King Chuck implies as he raises his hand to Dad for a high five. 

Prince Kevin nods as he opens a portal that was storing his gifts that were saved from the chaos as they came pouring out onto the floor. 

“Wait...how are your gifts in tack?” Lea asks Prince Kevin curiously.

“We also have every precious item like gifts in a protective bubble so no precious memory can be destroyed,” Prince Kevin says as he sorts out the gifts before the bubbles release all the birthday gifts in a nice pile.

“Makes sense to me, Is there a reason why that is a rule?” Lea replies as she pours some milk into her purple mug.  

“Well making copies of the items can only do so much but it’s been a rule for the longest time” King Chuck exclaims as he remembered his parents telling him about that rule as a child and throughout his life to be passed on to his wife and kids as well as their grandkids and so on.

“Makes sense, never hurts to be careful” Mom adds as she serves the eggs, hash browns, bread, and bacon with Sergean’s help.

Prince Kevin then goes to sit by Lea before serving himself breakfast.

“Out of curiosity, how will Lea know that the tracker is gone or has been found?” Cloud asks Sergean. 

“Her finger will stop glowing if the tracker is gone but if the tracker is found, a second thumb or fingerprint will appear next to Lea’s” Sergean as he poured himself orange juice after sitting beside Lea on her left side. 

“Oh, did your grandpa come up with that spell?” Cloud asks curiously before drinking his cup of milk that Mom had poured for him.

“Oh...um...no his Great Grandpa Marcus the first” Sergean replies awkwardly.

“Oh? Is there a Marcus 3?” Cloud asked before eating his first piece of bacon.

“Yea, there is...my dad” Sergean replies as he focused on cutting up his egg. 

“I thought his name was Alphonse?” Cloud says confused. 

“My dad’s full name is Marcus Alphonse Phillips-Herrera the 3rd” Sergean replies before eating his egg.

“Huh??” Cloud says even more confused. 

“Alphonse is his middle name, Cloud” Mom adds as she gives him a napkin.

“Oh! Like how mine is Leon?” Cloud replies before cleaning his mouth.

 “Yes, just like that,” Mom says before eating her hashbrowns.

“Then why-” Cloud starts to say before being cut off.

“Please continue the conversation some other time  but what is our next course of action?” Queen Charlotte says as she is grouchy. 

“Well, what is Vendetta trying to accomplish with all the great lengths she has been going to?” Lea replies curiously. 

“Ah that is a good question...do you have any clues from her first attempt?” Mom asks. 

“From what we know she is searching for something and she is willing to break things for it” King Chuck replies as he brings out a book from a portal.

“The castle, Mimi’s parents, the missing beings, the attack on my mom, Vanessa, Momo, and I weren’t the first casualties of what lengths she would go to, am I right?” Lea says as she moves her hair behind her ear.

  “You catch on quick, Lea” King Chuck replies as he hands her the book, Alyssa looked like she wanted to laugh because the notion of Lea catching on quickly didn’t happen too often at least to her knowledge. 

“Let us know what your perspective is, it never hurts to have a new point of view on the situation” King Chuck exclaims before he went back to eating as the portal he opened closed automatically after summoning the big record book. 

As everyone continued to eat and then clean up afterward, Lea read through the record book carefully.

“First searching for a way to get rid of her nightmares thinking magic was the cause of it only for her home life to be examined and about them being claimed, Rosetta leaving after an argument as the last straw info collected by Fei Lay, Perla Lay, Marcus jr. Herrera, Felixberto Ozena, and David Orerreu” Lea said in her mind as she read to herself quietly.

As Lea read, she quietly went over to the bathroom, closed the door, and put the book on the counter before curiously looking at the scale. Lea then steps on the scale hoping she was still at 117 pounds, but when she looked down at the scale to see she was at 127 pounds, she grew quiet. Once she finished in the bathroom, she went back to her room with the book before sitting on her bed. Cloud had noticed her sad expression as Prince Kevin did as well since Cloud was showing him the bathroom. Lea was close to crying as her emotions were still catching up from when the clones came back to them. 

“Are you ok, Lea?” Cloud asked in a concerned tone as they sat beside her.

“I mean our clones went through a lot just to merge back with us and well...” Lea replies as she gently rubs her face as tried to not cry in front of them. 

“Ah...your body and mind are overwhelmed from not merging sooner, in a sense, an info overload,” Prince Kevin says as he rubs her back. 

“What was I supposed to do then?” Lea asks as she tries to collect her emotions. 

“You could have followed the instructions, I gave your family, you said you were following them each time I asked” Sergean replies annoyed.

“I did...I was told everything that happened so I wouldn’t be left out of the loop” Lea replied as she showed him her phone after opening her diary entries.

“Hm...according to the first paragraph of the entries, you weren’t sure what I said so you just winged it...Lea, you could have asked me to clarify, let alone repeat myself, why didn’t you just talk to me?” Sergean asks as he gave her phone back before crossing his arms.

“Because I was trying to see if you hated repeating yourself like my dad and sister but you never expressed it so I just forgot about it and just decided to observe from a healthy distance” Lea replies awkwardly.

Sergean looked at her flabbergasted at what she said as he was leaning next to her closet door.

“In her defense, she is used to being treated like she is dumb and annoying when she doesn’t understand or remember everything even though Dad has said that he doesn’t want Lea and Alyssa to get called stupid or talked down on like he was” Cloud implies.

“And yet even without saying the word, history still repeated, Lea it’s ok to process things at different speeds than others” Prince Kevin exclaims. 

“You don’t have to lie, anyways my ADHD aside with ADD, the book mentioned people who have similar names to my grandpas’ what’s up with that?” Lea asks as she tuned out their reactions with her brain and body finally caught up now. 

“She’ll come to her senses eventually... can’t rush an egg if not ready to hatch,” Prince Kevin thought to himself as he sighed.

“Do you remember mentioning the Orerreu and Ozena’s?” Sergean asks her as he was quietly concerned for Lea.

“Yea, both Mimi & Daisy both did act like they knew my mom and they knew my mom and they have been throughout the journey, I don’t know why they acted like that when we just met them as she has been under hypnosis or something but I don’t think so because my mom remembers everything” Lea replies confused as she remembers some of the questions she has had the past 4 months. 

“Plus did we ever check who wrote the books that got fixed & translated by the Phan’s?” Prince Kevin exclaims as he realized that they didn’t ask his mom about that.

“Ah...well...no” Sergean replies before checking through his hardcover red notebook after taking it out of his left pocket.

“You own a diary, Serg? I didn’t know that” Lea teased with a smirk.

“Diaries & journals owning is normal besides why would any of you want to invade my personal space” Sergean replied embarrassed. 

“Aw, you trust us this much? How sweet of you” Prince Kevin says with a smile.

“Obviously, why else would I take out my journal without hesitation in front of you all” Sergean replies before closing his journal. 

“So did your journal confirm an answer to our question?” Lea asks as she turns to look at him.

“Yea...we didn’t check who the author was...but also why did your mom agree to be an Orerreu to  both Mimi and Daisy?” Sergean asked curiously.

“Ah um...probably to be polite, I don’t know” Lea replies confused.

“Maybe we should ask about that to confirm that then” Prince Kevin implies as he didn’t want to miss any more details. 

“Sounds good, let’s go do so” Cloud replies as he starts to make his way to the living room with them.

Mom was organizing Prince Kevin’s birthday gift so everyone could walk through the living room. King Chuck helped as he wrote down the names on a piece of paper so they knew who to thank. 

“Um, may we ask some questions?” Cloud proclaims as he goes over to Mom and Queen Charlotte.

“What’s on your mind?” Queen Charlotte asks as she hands Prince Kevin his first gift to open up.

“Do you remember who were the authors of the books we had translated by the Phans?” Lea replies as she gets her notes out on her phone.

“Yes, I remember who wrote those books, it was Deliah Ruton, Aaron Ruton & Felixberto Ozena” Queen Charlotte exclaims as she noticed that Mom was hiding something. 

“Anyway, we need to get on the search for the Bad Apples” King Chuck replies as he brushes his hair. 

Lea thinks for a moment before taking Sergean’s spellbook and locking herself as she comes up with an idea.

“Lea? What the-” Sergean starts to say before he gets cut off by Mom’s don’t you dare say fuck glare. 

“Let her finish, she comes with surprisingly really good ideas” Mom replies with a sincere smile.

Lea flips through the pages as she looks at the tracker spell and then at the trail of glowing feathers. She then goes back to Sergean with his book. 

“I have a way to find them, we switch steps with flight so it’ll be like the line on the map you follow on a treasure map,” Lea says happily. 

“And with the trail of glowing feathers, only we could see that line” Sergean replied impressed.

“Yea, see I told you I would do better if you let me look at your book, Serg” Lea exclaims boastfully for once. 

“Ah yes after only mentioning it 3 times in March & early April” Sergean replied as he put his book back in his leg holder.

“Not my fault that you made the magic copies of your book incomplete just so you could test us during those 3 months,” Lea says annoyed.

“Anyways let’s not argue and start going now,” Mom says as she casts the spell as Dad opens the portal for them.

They then make their way into the portal as Kitty & Sparrow show up with Nami, Oliver, and Momo. They then make their way as they make their way to Triton’s Trench.

“This is in the Triarius’s Kingdom” Momo exclaimed as they continued to follow the line.

They followed the path til they got to a weird-looking area of Triton’s Trench.

“Looks like a magic barrier,” Lea says as she puts her hand into the barrier before showing herself to prove it was safe to come through.

“Right on, let’s go” Cloud exclaims as he charges in as the others come in with him.

They then follow the feathered line around the sea prism made dungeon shaped castle. Eventually, they get to the back of it as the feathered line leads them to a locked basement door.

“Do you still have access to this Momo?” Mom asked as she wasn’t looking forward to fighting in general even with her current physical state.

“Nope, but I’m sure my cousin does” Momo replies as he texts Derwin.

“Adam & Eric?” Cloud exclaims confusedly.

“No, Derwin, his mom was adopted by my dad’s parents” Momo replies as he signals to them to turn invisible as Derwin was coming. 

They all nod before turning invisible as Derwin comes out.

“Finally, here to get the rest of your stuff, what has kept you from doing this?” Derwin asked. 

“I was sad for a while after getting then helping my parents with an event that they are getting done, happen, so I thought it was time to get my stuff now” Momo replies with an honest grin. 

“Ah…makes sense” Derwin exclaims as he lets him as the others had snuck in during their conversation. 

“They followed the line as it got them to a big pair of dark birch-made doors. As they turned to look at each other for an idea on how to get in but then everyone became visible as the doors swing upon as a big gust of wind pushed them in. As Lea looked up to see a familiar pair of fins.

“Well...well look who we have here? Do you think we wouldn’t know what you lot were up to? You think we wouldn’t be ready for the next move all of you would take after the shit you pulled on us more than one time?” Coco proclaims as she stood in front of them before she began to lift her hands upward. “Well then you all are a bunch of fucking idiots” Penelope adds as she takes over. “I mean out of all the people to bring here and work with Noemi Ozena Orerreu, Michael Orerreum, and their offspring” Annie adds as she switched over.      

 “Why are you doing this big sister? Are you that desperate to get Mom to tell you that everything will be ok? I mean I remember everything you told me when you came back home after you had run away but even so, I will still support you, big sister, just please talk to us, I am sure everything can be sorted out you don’t have to keep putting yourself through so much pressure, let me help you, please!” Oliver says with concern in his kind olive eyes.

“You really think that’s all to what motivates us? Oliver, did you ever wonder why Dad wasn’t ever home or why Mom didn’t tell us anything about him?” Annie exclaims before she snaps her fingers to retrain them with rocks. 

“So you did all of this to break a warrior’s promise? How incredibly-” Nami starts to say before she gets cut off by a magic black ribbon wrapped around her mouth.

  “So I’m the Villain in this huh? Don’t even finish that sentence, Mother, because why is it so wrong to want answers let, alone validation, and to be taken seriously? I just wanted to know the whole story...I AM NOT THE SELFISH ONE HERE, MOTHER!! YOU ARE!!” Rosetta exclaims as she is crying before pulling out a rolled-up piece of paper from her pocket as it was the first time she had taken control in front of this amount of people before.

Nami stammers a bit as she is taken back as she recognizes the rolled-up piece of paper.

“Where did you find that? You aren’t supposed to have that” Nami asks as she grows pale. 

Before Rosetta could respond, Lea in her mind said, “Light as a feather the piece of paper will come to me” The paper was then transported into her right hand.

“How dare you!? Give it back!” Rosetta exclaims in an angry tone as she then charges at Lea as she summons her rotten red apple whip from her choker necklace.

“There’s gotta be a reason why she wasn’t telling you about him? Did it ever occur to you that it might be hard for her to open up about it? Not everyone can open up that easily! You couldn’t have just let your mom do it on her own?!” Lea replies as she quickly put the paper in her jean pocket before she created a thorny rose shield to block Rosetta’s whip attack.

“Like you have any room to talk!? You got to have both of your parents in your life! You didn’t have to raise your younger sibling as a child yourself! You had a wonderful life compared to mine...so stay out of my damn business!!” Rosetta exclaims as she continues to cry and attack Lea with her whip.

“Listen, Rosetta, I know where you are coming from trust me I grew up just like you despite having my parents in my life they spoiled my little brother while I got nothing from them, but attacking and hurting others is not going to solve your problems” Vanessa added as she created lava made shield.

“But we aren’t the same! You didn’t have magic play a part in your life as I did” Rosetta replies as she charges at Vanessa next.

“Even with that, that doesn’t mean you should harm others let alone kill just to get what you want… in the long run that just makes you worse than them” Vanessa exclaims as she keeps her lava-made shield in front of herself to block Rosetta’s attacks.

“I-I wasn’t-” Rosetta starts to say before Coco takes control to cut her off, “Whatever seems necessary when you are surrounded by a bunch of liars your whole life,” Coco says as she summons her slime monsters as they appear from black portals.

The slime monsters then launch at everyone as they try to swallow them whole. In that instance, everyone who learned from Sergean earlier this year, cast a circular motioned fire whip and the fire cut the monsters in half as they made them smaller. Lea then tried to get away with the piece of paper in her pocket but the biggest slime monster was still chasing her. 

“Come back here with my lunch money!” the slime monster proclaims as they make a big launch at her. 

She swam away as fast as she could as she tried to think of where she could teleport too. At the end of the hallway that they had snuck through earlier, there was a big gelatine block road with guards behind it, causing Lea to halt in her tracks. 

“Mine! The slime monster exclaims as it swallows Lea whole before taking her back to Rosetta.

“Thank you, babies, for helping me,” Coco says with glee as she takes the piece of paper out of Lea’s frozen back pocket. 

“Rosetta stops with your foolishness, you do not need to continue going to such lengths, we can talk this out, please” Nami exclaims as she tries to swim toward her there was only one slime monster left as the other slime monsters were defeated.          

“You think after all the lengths you had to take to hide this that I wouldn’t use that same level of energy to find it? You are what you make, and you are the villain in this” Rosetta replies as tears roll down her face as she tears the paper as a big shift in the air, the ground trembles as a red ring of magic moves around them as a gust of magic hits everyone like a strong gust of wind as the Warrior Promise made between Nami and ____ Vendetta was broken.

[THE END?]

[narcissusneverknewme]

I don't know if you're actually looking for advice here so please ignore me if you're not, but here are a few relevant thoughts and some options for phrasing.

it is totally possible to be respectful and firm.

Talk to your parent first, if possible (I'll leave that entirely to your judgement). The conversation with the parent should start with a simple explanation of your boundaries and hopefully end with a quick 'I appreciate your support on this.' Returning to the SO:

Often it is best to bring the topic up rather than wait for it to become relevant, as telling someone they have overstepped after the fact can make them uncomfortable.

I would absolutely recommend trying to have that conversation before the SO moves in.

Most people respond to discomfort with defensiveness (very unhelpful, puts you on opposite sides). Saying "hey, I know you're thinking about moving in. There is something we should talk about first." or something similar can establish a setting for well-handled disagreement and, ultimately, compromise (helpful, positions you as working together rather than against one another).

saying things like "you're not my parent" or "you have no right to order me around" should be avoided until it is unambiguously (to your judgement) necessary. This happens when more sophisticated expression has failed. — By sophisticated I do not mean fancier. You are not fighting an enemy until lines are crossed that make you enemies. Rather than "you have no right to order me around" explain "(I respect you as a person but) do not recognize you as someone with any authority over me."

When it does become necessary to lay down a hard-line, do so calmly and firmly. Mean it, and focus on facts. Do not make threats and DEFINITELY do not bluff.

We never take low blows or cheap shots at people we hope to have a positive working relationship with in the future.

Discussing how you will react to violations of your autonomy is not necessarily a threat, and neither is clarifying the effect it will have on your relationship. Keep your own intentions fair, and forefront in your mind even when you start feeling emotional, frustrated, or emotionally injured

Never, ever say something you want heard while driven by the desire to hurt, punish, retaliate, etc. If you yell and scream, for example, it is human nature to remember only the intensity of your address and forget most or all of the content.

Honesty is important. Choose words that are not hurtful but which are honest. If you want your dad's relationship to succeed it would be nice to say something to that effect, but if you actually hope it will crash and burn say something else that is Nice But True.

Ex. "I'm happy for you and [parent], and I think its great that you want to take the next step. "

with regards to finding words to express the limits of her authority, you have a few options. Since you may have to change course with the flow of conversation or explain it more than once, try writing a few down ahead of time. Understand that the more visibly you protect her interests/have her back, the more likely you are to get somewhere

Some ideas:

"If we're going to live together it's important to me that you understand you have no authority over me. You can expect the same politeness and respect I expect from you, but you cannot expect obedience or deference."

"I need you to show the same respect for me and my autonomy that I show you. I am under no obligation to you. I want us to get along and I believe you do too, so I hope we can show one another that respect."

if she tries to argue with you and insist that she does have right to tell you what to do, be willing to get more direct and to express your real opinions. Prepare statements for this also. These might include arguments like:

"I don't work for you"

"I would prefer for us to be allies/a team. Please do not make that impossible by trying to control me or give me orders."

"I understand some people believe that you owe anyone older than yourself obedience and deference, but I completely disagree. That is not compatible with my values and how I live my life." (something in this vein explains that she won't be able to change your mind. It frames it as non-negotiable and something you are willing to insist on. Again, avoid lying or manipulating.)

"You aren't related to me."

avoid being petty, make only statements and arguments that are meaningful rather than just calculated to win

Don't say things you aren't willing to stand by, and be prepared to end this discussion without everything being solved forever. It may take multiple conversations for her to understand that you are setting a boundary, not attacking or "starting drama." The trick is to always stay FIRM and as non-combative as the situation allows. Be less combative than your opponent and move towards de-escalation whenever possible.

I genuinely recommend doing a little bit of research into mediation practices before hand. a couple of hours of reading and preparation might make a lot of difference in your ability to navigate this conversation with her, and could make your life significantly better in the long term as well

hmmmmmmmmm how does one politely explain to their parent's SO that they have no authority over you and if they were to move in their status would scarcely more than a roommate