#maybe i should put the kind of things i create on my pinned hmmm

[zhongrin]

me, posting oc content for a day and watching the followers numbers go shwoop 📉 like ebg period: 👁️

me, planning my 8k milestone event: .... man, yall are gonna hate this lol

[maxineswritingcenter]

You Saved Me - Derek Hale x fem!reader part 21

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

What the hell....

Blinking slowly, the wolfsbane finally leaving my system. And I was not where I had been before. I was back at the Hale house in Derek’s bed. I pushed up on my wobbly arms and slowly slid out of the bed, stumbling to the hall and trying to find whoever did this to me-

Heart beat. It was strong, but there was a slight skip, bad heart. It couldn’t have been the Argents or else they would have taken me to the Argent’s. I slowly walked to the stairs, looking over the landing and down into the living room. 

“Yes, sir, I have located Miss (Y/L/N).” That voice. That damn cocky voice. It was him. 

Michael. That sly son of a bitch was alive. Why was it that all the psychos in Beacon Hills were coming back to life?

“Uh... Good evening.” He was looking up at me with those grey eyes of his. I knew them well. I had seen them so many times before, through good times and bad. And these were the worst times, weren’t they? Those grey eyes widened when I shifted. I jumped down from the top of the stairs, landing on my feet. He backed up a few steps, a nervous smile on his face. 

“Ah... I see you’ve finally shifted. And you’re an alpha. Congrats.” He chuckled nervously, “I know you’re probably wondering ‘how is he alive? Right? Well it’s a very interesting story.” 

“I don’t care.” I growled. 

“L-Look, I can explain everything. Please.” He licked his lips, “Let’s talk.” If my heart wasn’t beating hard then it was now. All of my fear had turned to rage. He was here and alive. And he was a weak human man. And I’ll be damned if I let him get out of here alive. Not after what he’s done. 

My roar was loud and long, enough to make him cover his ears. His heart was beating rapidly and he smelled of fear. 

"Ok, um, how about we tussle a little, would that make you feel better?"

"I’m gonna rip your throat out with my teeth.” 

His eyes widened, "Ah, well, uh, we can't do that, ya see, I'm... I’m supposed to be taking you to Scotland.” He was my guide? To take me to the Lunar Circle? I don’t think so. 

I grabbed him by the collar and threw him against the wall. His back slammed against the wall, the same area that Peter had fallen through. He moaned in pain, struggling to sit up. I stalked closer, grabbing his shirt and roaring into his face. He was terrified and rightly so. I am a powerful werewolf alpha and I want him to be scared, to instill the fear he put in me by kidnapping me. The fear of death. 

"(Y/N), please, listen to me, this is all a misunderstanding!" He pleaded. I pinned him down to the ground.

"Misunderstanding?" I spat, "You murdered my family! You tried to kill me!” I opened my mouth wide, rearing my head back to strike.

"PETER! IT WAS PETER!" His words made me pause, my fangs grazing the skin of his jugular. I pulled away from his neck, causing him to breathe a little easier. 

“Start talking before I change my mind.” My grip tightened on his wrists that were pinned on either side of his head. 

“I’m a part of the Lunar Circle. My family were hunters but I wanted out. You parents got me involved. I was a double agent. Until.” He swallowed thickly, “Until, a few years ago when Peter started using his influence to get into my mind. He wanted me to use my connection to the hunters to bring Kate Argent out of hiding and... Your parents became collateral damage.”

“Why would Peter do that?” I growled. It did sound like something Peter would do, but I couldn’t trust his word. 

“Why wouldn’t Peter do that? He’s a total psychopath that wants mass hysteria.” He panted, “You believe that, don’t you?” Dammit, he’s right. I stood up, grabbing Michael by the collar and dragging him across the room. I shoved him to sit down in an empty chair. 

"You're going to tell me everything.”

“O-Okay. Well, uh where do you want me to start?”

“The Lunar Circle.” 

Michael let out a small laugh, probably in relief, “They, well, they’re a society based in Scotland meant to create a network of werewolves in communication. To keep families and clans protected from hunters and other things.” 

“Other things?” I crossed my arms over my chest. 

“I’ll get to those later. Anyway, I was assigned to your clan to keep them and, most importantly you, safe. Originally in two-thousand-four.” 

2004

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He grinned. I looked him up and down, shaking his hand with my thumb and pointer finger instead of my whole hand. 

After a long day of training with Talia and Laura, I walked through the front door. My parents were in the kitchen, talking seriously with someone, he looked around my age. He had dark hair and grey eyes. Average looking, seemingly ordinary. 

”What’s going on in here?” I dropped my gym bag on the counter. 

“This is Michael. He’s a representative from the Lunar Circle.” Dad said, patting the boy on the back. Michael stepped forward, holding his hand out. 

Mom shook her head and laughed a little, “Well, yes, but he’s going to go into your school and watch out for you there.” 

“Isn’t he a little young to be a representative?” I stepped around him, opening the fridge and grabbing a water bottle. 

“Why? Dad has an agreement with the Argents.” I said before taking several long gulps of water. 

“(Y/N), you can never be too careful.” Dad said seriously. His tone made her lower the bottle from her lips. 

“How come the Hales don’t have a representative?” 

“They didn’t want to join the circle. Talia thinks she can handle herself.” Her mother said, washing dishes in the sink. I raised an eyebrow at her. 

“She can handle herself. Even with werewolves,” I looked at Michael, “It’s a man’s world, and women fight tooth and nail to get to the top.” 

Dad smiled in a way that told me to straighten out my attitude, “Just humor me.” 

I closed my eyes, blinking away the vision. My memories were coming back. But how? Maybe because he was here, he knew everything, it was jogging my memory. 

“Tell me about the Hales.” 

“Well,” He leaned back in the chair, “I know that they had an agreement with your parents, a treaty if you will. But they had to give up their alpha status. Alphas bring attention, sometimes it’s the bad kind. They gave their alpha sparks to you, thinking you would never turn.” 

Tossing and turning, in and out of sleep. My parents had been on edge all day after a meeting with Talia. This would be a night that my parents told me I had dreamed about. They thought I had been asleep, but I was awake. 

“Don’t wake her. This is going to hurt her, I can’t look at her when I hurt her.” Mom’s voice quivered, “(Y/D/N), do we really have to do this? Maybe if we talk to Talia-”

“(Y/M/N), we are drawing too much attention as it is being a two alpha pack in a town where there is already a large clan.” He said, “My agreement with Chris is strictly with him. I can’t say the same for the rest of them. The Hales are a powerful ally. This needs to happen now.”

“But what if she turns?” 

“She won’t. We made sure that her change would be delayed.”

“Her dose a wolfsbane keeps going up. Her tolerance is going up. I don’t want to kill her by accident.” 

“Well... There’s always the Wolf Eclipse...”

“No.” Mom said hurriedly, “I don’t know how that would affect her memories. She would forget Derek, he’s her best friend.” 

“She has Stiles.”

“I love Stiles. you know that. But Talia would be furious.” 

Dad sighed, “I’m tired of running. I want to raise her here. We have a home, friends. Plus... with Stiles’ mother being sick... it’s only a matter of time before the pain we take from her gets to be too much. It would kill Noah and Stiles to take (Y/N) away too.” He grunted, “Now. On the count of three.” 

“One.... Two.... three.” A sharp pain stabbed into both my hips, pulling a shrill scream from my throat. 

I held my head, all the new memories were pushing at a barrier inside of my head. 

“What else?” I said, looking towards him as I paced back and forth in front of him. 

“They tried to arrange a marriage between you and Derek.” 

Derek and I couldn’t have been older than nine or ten, spying on our parents in another one of their serious meetings. They sat at the kitchen table, Talia with a devilish smile on her face. Her husband besides her, he was mostly a silent figure. 

“(Y/D/N), (Y/M/N), I’m sure you know what this is about.” 

“No, Talia.” Dad said, “Peter’s invitation was... vague.” 

Talia chuckled, “My brother does have a touch for the dramatic.” She hummed, “You and I both know that your clan has diminished with (Y/N) as your only heir.” We were a small clan but I never realized that we were all that was left. Derek looked at me out of the corner of his eye, putting a hand on my back. We continued to listen in. 

“We’re aware.” Dad said grimly. 

Talia leaned forward, “Then I would like to propose... A proposal.” She tapped her fingers on the table, “Your daughter to be arranged with my son. In the event that anything happens to my daughters, (Y/N) would become the matriarch.” She smiled fondly, “Derek and (Y/N) already share a bond, why delay the inevitable?” Derek and I shared a glance. Us? Get married? Gross. 

“No.” Dad shook his head, “Our daughter should choose her life partner.” 

“Her mate?” Talia asked. 

“An outdated term.” Mom chimed in. 

“Hmmm.” Is all Talia replied with.

“What. Else?” I said between gritted teeth, leaning my head against the wall. 

“Before the treaty, Talia tried to sneak you into their clan for you to train since your parents had no interest in training you to fight. She tried once when you were young, that’s when the treaty started.” 

I was six, sliding down the big green swirly slide at the playground, at the bottom was Peter Hale. He caught me in his arms. He was twenty then. 

“Well hello there.” He smiled. 

“Hi Peter!” I opened my mouth wide, “Look, I lost a tooth!” I pointed to the gap in my teeth where my canine had been. 

“Well, well, well, look at that. Making room for your big bad wolf teeth to come in.” He growled and snapped his teeth. I giggled and shook my head. 

“My mommy says that I should have turned by now, I think I’m a dud.” 

“Now I don’t think that’s true.” He set me down on my feet, “But I do know that a lost tooth means we have to celebrate.” He leaned down, “How about we go get some ice cream?” I looked around the playground, seeing my mother reading a book on a nearby bench. 

“But mommy says I can’t go in a car with anybody but Uncle Noah and Aunt Claudia.”

“Your mommy knows me. Besides, we’ll only be a minute. Trust me.” He held out his hand. As a small child, there are only a few things in life that make you disobey your parents: the promise of a new toy and ice cream. I took Peter’s hand and we walked towards the diner in town. 

Once at the diner, Peter sat me down in a tall booth at the bar. The man behind the counter looked us over. 

“What can I get for ya?” He asked gruffly. 

Peter looked down at me, “How about a hot fudge sundae with two cherries.” I squealed in my seat, swinging my legs wildly. My body couldn’t sit still at the thought of an ice cream sundae. 

Soon the sundae was placed in front of me with a large spoon. I gripped the spoon tightly, awkwardly getting a large scoop and placing it in my mouth.

“Did your mommy and daddy tell you that you were a dud?” Peter asked, grabbing a cherry off the sundae by its stem. 

“No, I overheard them talking with Miss Talia.” 

“Did you?” He hummed. 

I nodded, talking around another spoonful, “I’m not gonna turn.” I swallowed, “I would have shown signs by now.” 

“Well that doesn’t mean you can’t get the bite.” 

“Peter.” A deep voice made us both turn. Standing there was Chris Argent. Daddy and him had an agreement about something. It was adult stuff. 

“Argent.” Peter said back. 

Chris looked down at me, “Hi (Y/N).” 

“Hi Mister Argent!” I grinned, a ring of ice cream around my mouth. Chris smiled, reaching onto the counter and wiping my mouth with a napkin. 

“There you go. Your daddy called me to take you home.” 

“I’m taking her home.” Peter said with a strained smile. 

“Well, I’m already here.” Chris lifted me off the stool and took me by the hand. 

Chris brought me home to my parents who were incredibly worried. Maybe Peter wasn’t someone that her parents trusted. 

“After that your parents realized that Talia wasn’t going to take no for an answer when it came to training you.” Michael said, resting his arms on his legs. His feet was shaking. He was still holding something back. But I didn’t know if I could handle any more memories. My brain was already fried as it was. But how could I just stop remembering... One more memory... Then the dam would break. 

I rubbed my temples, “What else aren’t you telling me?”

“(Y/N), removing the block on your memories like this isn’t safe.” 

“I don’t care.” I snapped, flashing my eyes at him, “My whole life was taken from me. Now tell me!”

“Okay.” He sat up, holding his hands up in surrender, “Okay.” He lowered his arms slowly and sighed, “They put the Wolf Eclipse spell on you after the Hale house fire...” He looked up at me through his lashes, “Because you were there.” 

All of my pacing and other nervous movements stopped at this revelation. 

I licked my lips, “I was there?” 

“The night of the fire, you were there.” That’s what broke it, the dam in my brain. I shouted as searing heat spread through my head. Leaning against the wall for support, I squeezed my eyes shut.  

2006

I stormed through my house, stomping up the stairs to my room. My parents had picked me up from school instead of letting me stay after for Derek’s basketball game. I had plans with Laura and Derek to go to their house and train afterwards. But no such luck. My parents wanted me to stay home and they didn’t want me training with the Hales anymore. 

“This isn’t fair!” I shouted at the top of the stairs, looking down at my parents, “Talia says I have the right to train with them just like any other werewolf can!” 

“It’s too dangerous now to train with Laura and Derek, they don’t hold back.” Mom held her hands together, “Look what happened to your arm.” I looked down at my arm. There were thick bandages from Deaton that hid the wounds from Derek’s claws from the rest of the world. It had put me on the bench from lacrosse, but that’s what happened sometimes. 

“It was an accident.” I said, “Derek didn’t mean to hurt me.” 

“Yeah?” Dad put his hands on his hips, “Well, this’ll hurt. You’re grounded. You go to school, you go to practice, you do your homework and that’s it.” 

I scoffed, “You can’t do this! I have to train so I can defend myself for when I turn-” 

“You’re not going to turn, (Y/N)!” Dad shouted, his eyes were stern and dark, “You would have turned already and I refuse to continue this conversation. Go to your room. Now!” Tears burned at my eyes as I glared down at them. Letting out a little sob, I ran from the steps and into my room, slamming the door behind me. I leaned against the door, sliding down it as I cried. 

They knew how insecure and odd I felt about being the last of our clan and a human. It felt like I had failed my ancestors. I wouldn’t be able to carry on our legacy. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair how they treated Derek. Paige was dying and the only way to end her pain was killing her, it wasn’t his fault that this was deemed as killing an innocent person by the natural laws of lycanthropy. He was my friend, he had been through enough. 

The car starting made my head perk up. I ran to the window in time to see my mom and dad pulling out of the driveway. Probably a meeting with Michael about the stupid Lunar Circle. But since they’re gone....

I opened the window, carefully jumping to the roof that covered the first floor, then using the bushes to break my fall to get to the ground. Now it was just a matter of walking to school... Or I could meet Derek and Laura at their house after the game. That was better and less likely to cause me to pass out. 

-

I knocked on the door of the elaborate manor and waited. It was getting dark out. Hopefully, Derek’s game would end soon. Talia opened the door, a beautiful smile gracing her face. 

“Well, this is certainly unexpected. But not unwelcome.” 

“My parents grounded me from training.” I said, realizing I was very much going to be in trouble if they found out, “But I want to fight.” 

Talia nodded, “Of course.” She ushered me inside, closing the door behind us, “I’m happy you came, I was just on my way out to see you.” 

“You were?” I looked up at her as she led me through the house and into the kitchen. 

“I was. I wanted to discuss your future.” She opened the fridge and grabbed a pitcher of water. She motioned to it, I nodded, she poured a glass and handed it to me. 

“My future? Like... College?” 

“No, my dear.” She chuckled, “While education is important, I had something else in mind.” It was around the time I noticed Cora, sitting at the kitchen table, doing her homework. 

“You know that we love you, the whole family thinks of you as one of our own.” She came around the counter, “And I think you have the ability to become an amazing alpha someday. So my offer is this: I give you the bite and you join my pack. I know how you feel being the only human in your pack.” Getting the bite seemed like a no brainer. Maybe I just needed it to get my juices flowing. 

“What about my parents?” I asked, setting my water down on the counter. 

“They could join us too. One pack, all together.” 

I wasn’t sure how my parents would react to assimilating packs. The Lunar Circle certainly wouldn’t like it. 

“Could I have the day to think about it?” I said after a while. 

“Of course.” She smiled, “Take as long as you-” Glass breaking cut her off and the flames caused her to back away from the kitchen window. Talia grabbed the pitcher of water from the counter and threw it on the flames. But they only spread. More and more windows breaking, more and more flames. From the next room, Peter ran in through a cloud of smoke. 

“Talia, they’re setting the house on fire.” Peter said, coughing. Talia looked down at the basement. Flames spread rapidly through the house. The fire was already traveling down the stairs from above. 

“Get them out.” Talia shouted, running towards the basement. Peter led both of us towards the front door and opened it. A glass bottle was thrown at us, hitting Peter in the face. His skin was ignited by the Molotov cocktail. He screamed, trying to put out the fire but it only spread on his clothes. Cora and I screamed, taking off in separate directions. As I ran I heard her scream again. I should have gone back, but I was afraid. I just ran all the way home. And when I got there, the danger hadn’t ended. My parents were out in the lawn, seeing the smoke. 

“Mom! Dad!” I called, I stopped just short of them, panting heavily, “Hunters are attacking the Hale, you have to help them.” Evidently, they didn’t understand the urgency of the situation. I grabbed my mom’s hand and tugged, “Come on! They need our help!” The next thing I knew, the world went black. 

-

When I woke up I was on my bed, candles gave the room a warm glow. I saw my mom sitting in a chair beside my bed, my dad was putting what looked like hair into a glass bottle. My hair. 

“Hey... What is this?” I tried to sit up, but saw that my arms had been tied to my sides. I looked at my mom, eyes wide, “Mom?” Her lips were pressed tight together and trembling. She was crying. 

“We’re sorry, sweetie. But we had no other choice.” She whispered. I looked at my dad, seeing that he had a spell book in his hands. It was an old family book dating back a few hundred years. What spell could they be-

It hit me. The Wolf Eclipse spell. They were going to take away all of my memories. Once my dad sealed the jar and said the incantation, I would lose everything. I would lose Derek. I can’t. 

“No! NO!” I screamed as dad poured hot wax over the cork top of the glass bottle, “NO PLEASE! I promise I’ll never sneak out again!” Tears started pouring down my cheeks. Dad started the incantation. 

“DAD! DAD DON’T DO THIS!” I looked at my mom who was avoiding looking anywhere near me, “MOM!” I could feel it, like a drain of energy. I was losing memories already, precious moments where the Hale family that were gone forever. 

“NO!” I screamed, my fate sealed with the blowing out of a candle and a few words of Latin.

So, they were back, everything I forgot was back. And Michael was able to get me there. That dick. Everything still hurts though: my head, my body. 

Michael stood up slowly, closing the distance between us, “Hey are you alright?” He asked before the door was kicked open. Derek stood in the doorway, huffing. He was covered in blood and looked like he wanted to shed more. His eyes flashed to red when he saw Michael in the room. He roared loudly. 

Michael sighed, “Not again.” With inhuman speed, Derek pounced on Michael, his claws catching Michael’s cheek. Michael shouted. I ran over, grabbing Derek by the shoulders. 

“Derek, stop!” He looked back at me, angry and confused. 

“What?!”

I let out a shaky breath and cupped his hairy cheeks, “I remember.” I said softly. His werewolf features slowly morphed away, leaning the face I loved. He looked on in wonder, like seeing a meteor shower for the first time. 

“You remember?” He whispered. I nodded slowly, smiling so hard my cheeks hurt. He grinned, wrapping his arms around my waist and holding me tightly. I wrapped my arms around his neck, running my fingers through his hair.

-

The next day was made for decisions. Michael had gone to a hotel near the airport and probably to be as far away from Derek as possible. It took a while but eventually Derek understood. That night had been... eventful to keep it PG. We both needed it honestly. The night as we slept in his bed, loud howling woke us up. 

“What was that?” I said, very much awake. Derek sat up, looking towards the window. 

“They’re coming.” 

-

I parked at the high school after I saw Stiles’ Jeep parked there as I was driving towards the Stilinski’s. Derek said I needed to talk to Uncle Noah and I had to agree. Especially if I decided to go to Scotland. But I probably wouldn’t, not with the new threat of an alpha pack. He said he would meet with me tonight to talk. 

Scott and Stiles were on the field, Scott in goal while Stiles was shooting pearls. 

“Now, remember-- no wolf powers.” Stiles said, positioning himself. 

“Got it.”

“No, I meant it! No super-fast reflexes, no super-eyesight, no hearing-- none of that crap, okay?”

“Okay. Come on!”

“You promise?”

“Would you just take the shot already?” Scott shouted. Stiles took a few steps forward, shooting the pearl. Scott caught it with ease. 

“I said NO WOLF POWERS!” Stiles shouted. 

“You don’t need wolf powers to know that was a bad shot.” I smiled as I walked towards them. They both looked over at me. Scott seemed a little surprised, Stiles didn’t really meet my eyes. 

 “Hey, what happened to you last night?” Scott asked, coming out of the goal to meet me in the field.

“Long story. But Derek filled me in. Y’all fought the kanima, you killed Gerard, Jackson is a normal werewolf. Win win.” I looked over at Stiles, then Scott, “Can you give us a minute?” Needing a few seconds to figure out what I had said, Scott nodded. 

“Yeah, sure.” Scott walked over to where they left their lacrosse bags. I walked to stand in front of Stiles. 

“I was just kidding, by the way. That was a great shot.” I smiled. 

“You should have seen the game I played. I actually made us win.” He said with no emotion. He was pissed at me and so was I. I missed the first game he’s ever played and I should have been there. 

“I know, I should have seen it.” I tinkered with my locket, snapping it open and closed again, “I’m sorry.” 

“It was to protect him, wasn’t it?” 

“They were going to kill him, Stiles. If I had gone, they would have taken me to get to him. And odds are I would be in a shallow grave somewhere.” He didn’t seem to care much, “Come on, would you please look at me?” 

He looked up at her and sighed, “I understand. I know that you really care about him. And if things weren’t as crazy, you would be around more.” 

“I’ll make it up to you, I promise.” I glanced back at Scott, “I’m heading home right now. Gonna talk with your dad. I’ll see you for dinner?” 

A small smile, better than nothing, “Sounds good.” I softly punched his shoulder. 

“Go to his left side.” I whispered, “Make him work for it.” I winked, walking back to the car.  Now was the hard part, talking to Uncle Noah. 

 -------------------

Read part 22 here!

Please comment down below or message me to be added to the taglist. 

And there is the ended for season 2 in the canon and the end of the second “book” of the series. Will I get back to writing my other series soon? We’ll see. 

Likes, Comments, and Reblogs are appreciated! 

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[illfoandillfie]

DMs

Pairing: Ben Hardy x F!Reader

Summery: You run a nsfw snapchat account. Ben's horny.

Warnings: SMUT (18+), partially written as chat text, video chat sex, masturbation, fingering, sex toys, nipple play, voyeurism I guess, fuckboy ben

Words: 3774

A/N: Inspired by something El posted. I love Ben but he’s got them fuckboy/lad vibes and im positive he’d get down on some sc porn

Taglist:  @laedymoon​  @dtfrogertaylor​   @ezmina98​  @vee-ndetta​ @atomic-watermelon​ @kellypenac​ @labessieisallama​ @deakyclicks​ @jennyggggrrr​ @drowseoftaylor​  @hannafuckingsucks​  @i-cant-hangout-im-drumming​ @queenmylovely​

@veriloquently​

Your phone buzzed, the familiar noise distracting you from your book. Considering you’d just posted a new photo, partially hidden by emojis, to Instagram and updated your snapchat story with the uncensored version, it was hardly surprising you were getting messages.

YourNewDaddy: Mmm baby let me pound you

You clicked through to his profile. Absolutely nothing. The profile picture was some abs that could belong to anyone. No recent snaps, nothing. For a few seconds you considered replying with your payment details but decided against it. He wasn’t worth your time.  

The whole NSFW account thing had started a while ago on Tumblr and then Instagram. A way to kill time and get some attention that you weren’t receiving in the real world. But then the porn ban had happened which severely limited what you could post, so you’d mostly moved to Snapchat, using everything else to advertise. A few months after the move you started getting guys offering to pay you to do specific things. One had wanted an audio recording of you calling him Daddy and begging for his cock with a few moans thrown in. Another had wanted a video of you and a dildo, though he’d had to pay more. Since then you’d used your accounts to pick up a bit of extra cash here and there. Nowhere near enough to live off of, but it came in handy.

You clicked back out of the app, put down your phone and went back to your book, hoping someone entertaining would at least comment on the photo soon. Barely half a page later another ding pulled you away. This time Instagram.  

Benhardy: Just came over you

Quick and to the point. Fuckboy energy. You clicked onto his profile half expecting another faceless timewaster. No description or links to other sites but he had a profile picture. And some fifty odd photos. Not many posts considering his million followers but at least you knew he was a real person. You scrolled through his feed trying to put gather what info you could before you responded. Lots of photos of himself sometimes with friends. A few that were clearly modelling jobs or, more likely considering the movie trailers and saved story called Oscars 2019, promotional photoshoots for magazines. And he was a proud dog dad. Definitely attractive. You wondered briefly why someone so handsome was getting off to half dressed girls on Instagram but put it out of your mind as you opened his conversation up again. Who cared why as long as he was talking to you? After all, he was hot and willingly giving you attention. Plus, if he was an actor or whatever he probably wouldn’t mind paying for something special, once you’d given him a taste. The only question left was how to approach the conversation.  

You: Really? That’s so flattering!

You: Kind of wish you’d cum over me for real tho, bit bored

Benhardy: dirty girl

Benhardy: could probably think of some way to keep you busy

Benhardy: you’re fit

You: haha aww thank you! I post more often on snap if you wanna follow. don’t have to hide behind swimwear and emojis there. easier to chat too, unless you prefer kik or something

He didn’t reply. You frowned at your phone wondering if you’d shown your hand too soon. Perhaps you should have kept up the flattered damsel act a little longer, waited before mentioning Snapchat. Maybe he wasn’t looking for a chat, just genuinely wanted to compliment you, even if it was in a gross slightly derogatory way. Or maybe he just got cold feet. You sighed as you swiped back to check what other people had been sending you. A few more ignorable accounts, a couple messages you didn’t like enough to respond to straight away. And then another Snapchat notification.  

Ben Jones: had to create an account but I’m here

You: oh! you’ve changed your name

Ben Jones: Hardy’s the stage name lol

You: hmmm hardy… little bit of a pornstar name

You: or could be if you changed the ben part.

Ben Jones: that’s my backup plan in case actual acting doesn’t work out lol

Ben Jones: not too out of place right now tho

You: haha that because of me?

Ben Jones: maybe. loved the photos in your story you’ve got great tits

Ben Jones: kinda wanna see you pinch and pull on them

And so it began. You leaned forward to pull your shirt off and then settled back against the pillows, running your fingers around your nipple until it was hard. Angling the camera towards your chest you pinched your nipple between your thumb and forefinger, rolling it between them. The camera clicked as you took a photo and then clicked again as you tugged your nipple away from your body, hissing a little at the pain.

You: Like this?

Ben Jones: perfect

Ben Jones: really are lovely tits.

You: surprisingly don’t hear that much irl so ty

Ben Jones: u don’t? criminal

You: lmao yeah but that’s what I have you for

Ben Jones: happy to help

Ben Jones: What are you wearing?

You: Just a pair of knickers now

Ben Jones: sexy

Ben Jones: can I see?

You: just the knickers or the whole look?

Ben Jones: whole look first

Ben Jones: then just the knickers so I can see the wet spot you’re making

You wriggled against the pillows, shuffling further down the bed. Long ago you’d learnt which angles were the easiest to take photos in and which were the best to show off your body. A full body shot was easiest when you leaned your phone up against a stack of books or something at the foot of the bed and used the timer on the camera to get a few shots of you kneeling. It left your hands fee to squeeze your tits if that seemed appropriate or slip into your underwear, or to put behind your back in a pose that seemed innocent but actually pushed your hips and chest forward. For Ben though you felt something that appeared a little more casual would be appropriate. You lay back, head raised slightly on your pillows, feel flat against the mattress so your knees were in the air and pressed together. Carefully you positioned the camera, wrist twisted a little to get the angle just right. You brought your free hand up to your breasts, pulling your nipple again since Ben seemed to like it, and snapped a photo. The shot of your underwear was easier, legs spread, pushing your hips up slightly to get a clear shot of the wet patch that had been slowly growing since the start of the conversation, though a little added saliva to make it more obvious didn’t hurt. He wouldn’t be able to tell.  

Ben Jones: hot

Ben Jones: like got me so hard again hot

You: does that mean I get a picture in return?

Ben Jones: Only if you take your knickers off for me

Ben Jones: wouldn’t be fair otherwise since im not wearing underwear😉  

You took your time sending him a new photo and got one back almost straight away. You would have scoffed at his eagerness to show himself off but, with a body like his you couldn’t really blame him. You zoomed into the photo, trailing your eyes over every inch of it. Messy blonde hair, though whether it was intentionally messy or just like that from him grabbing it while he jerked off over your photo you weren’t sure. Gorgeous eyes, heavy lidded and a little fucked out. One arm behind his head as he lay on his bed. It looked carefree and spontaneous, like someone else had taken the photo at the very moment he looked at the camera, but it showed off the muscles in his arms too well to be coincidence. And speaking of muscles. The boy was a fucking Adonis. You were instantly struck by the desire to drag your nails down his chest and leave a trail of hickeys and bite marks all the way down to his toned stomach and tight waist. You clenched your thighs together at the thought as you slowly revealed the bottom half of the photo. He had his legs outstretched though one was more bent than the other, knee jutting out to the side. Almost too casual to be casual, especially with the way he had his hand wrapped around his cock, like the photo was taken mid stroke. You couldn’t help linger over that particular part of the photo. It was a lovely hand, big with noticeable veins, exactly the sort that could make you weak in the knees. And the same could be said for the dick it was holding. You wondered briefly where this Ben guy had come from and what you could possibly have done to catch his attention.  

Ben Jones: is that silence because you’re so impressed

The message made you roll your eyes. Hot he might be, but he was still just another desperate fuckboy looking for a naked girl to drool over and a quick orgasm.  

You: well I’m not not impressed

Ben Jones: no need to be shy. just say you’re imagining riding me and I'd understand

You: wasn’t before. Am now.

Ben Jones: what were you picturing before?

You: doggy

Ben Jones: be happy to let you try both and compare.

You: let me film it and watch the tapes back to study your game?

Ben Jones: wait this is dumb.

Your frowned at your phone. For such typical guy, the sort you’d dealt with so many times before, Ben sure was hard to pin down.  

You: what?

Ben Jones: you comfortable doing live chat?

Ohhhh

You: umm sure thing

Ben Jones: you don’t have to

You: i know that. you couldn’t force me to even if you wanted, beauty of doing this online. i just don’t do live very often. or I charge for it.

Ben Jones: that desperate for me?

You: you caught me in a good mood

You let the call ring for a bit, wanting to make sure Ben understood how in control you were and how much more he needed it than you. But eventually you picked up, settling back against your pillows. Ben seemed to be in a similar position, leaning against his headboard, the screen showing you his face and bare shoulders. “Hi,” “Hi,” his voice was deeper than you’d expected, thrown by how soft and, dare you say, feminine his features were, and yet it suited him perfectly. You could only imagine how that voice would sound growling out sexually charged complements, the thought appealing enough to have you pressing your thighs together. There was a moment of silence as you took each other in, not quite sure how to continue now that you’d switched from text.   “So you going to show me how wet you are?” Once again his demeanour had you wanting to roll your eyes though you refrained, “No.” “No?” His confusion was entertaining to say the least. So many of the men who contacted you assumed you were going to be outright submissive and meek, taking whatever photos they demanded and doing everything they told you to with a smile and a yes sir. So proving them wrong, defying them, taking control, that was fun. Almost an aphrodisiac in its own right. Sometimes you’d eventually submit, play the brat and then let them win, and if they were paying it was a different story. But Ben struck you as the kind of guy who could use a little more pushback. Probably used to getting his way, having his pick of the litter. Lord knows had he hit on you in real life you probably would have agreed to whatever he wanted just to feel his hands on you. But here, on your profile, you had the power. Plus, in the back of your mind you suspected that being a little more assertive might just make him more interested in seeing you submit and maybe a little more willing to pay for the pleasure.   “Not yet.” “Bit of a bold move considering I could just go find someone else to look at. There’re these things called porn sites, yeah?” “But they’re so impersonal. Isn’t this more fun?” He paused, eyeing you, and then let out a breath, “You got me there.” “Figured, since the video chat was your idea and all.” “Just got sick of typing one handed.” “Mmhmm, sure.” “So are you going to show me your cunt then?” “Eventually. But what’s the rush?” you stood up, making sure to let the camera dip just a little so Ben got a quick flash of your chest. “How about I’m hard as hell and want to get off?” “You’re not the only one who wants to get off so just hold your horses for a second while I get my toys.” “There are toys now?” You could see Ben’s shoulder move as he started to stroke himself again. “Told you to hold your horses. Stop touching yourself.” Ben’s arm stopped its movement though he seemed a little taken aback by his own obedience. “Good boy,” you watched for Ben’s reaction, not disappointed as he swallowed hard, his cheeks going pinker than they already were. That was interesting. “Yes there are toys, you wanna see?” “Do I get to pick which ones you use?” “Maybe,” “Go on, show me then,” You flipped the camera around as you opened your chest of draws. There wasn’t much in there, a couple different dildos and vibrators, a set of nipple suckers, mostly things you’d bought to fulfil requests guys were paying you for. You picked up the nipple suckers and held them up to the camera. “I assume you’d like to see me in these since you liked watching me play with my nipples.” “Mmhmm, absolutely. Also want to see you with a dildo. You got one with a suction base? Might tell you to ride it the way you’d ride me,” he seemed to be doubling down on the pull for control after you’d seen his reaction to being told what to do, determined to put you in your place or whatever. “Unfortunately, no. But this one will do,” you took hold of a silicon dildo, pulling it from the draw, “Don’t think it's as big as you but it does vibrate and that’s guaranteed to work.” “I’ll allow it, though I think we both know I’d be better.” “I’m going to ignore that,” you said as you turned the camera back towards you and headed back to your bed, settling against the pillows again. You propped the camera up against a pillow so Ben could watch as you placed the suckers over your nipples, whimpering at the sudden taught feeling. You picked the phone back up, giving Ben a closer view of your boobs. “They suit you. And you can ignore it all you like but when you start doing what I say and I let you fuck yourself into your third orgasm I’ll remind you. Maybe, if you’re lucky, I’ll tell you where you can meet me in real life and show you exactly how good I am.” “You’re a cocky one, aren’t you?”   “In every sense. If I remember correctly you were speechless at the sight.” “You’ve got a bad memory, Benny boy.” Slowly you let your fingers trail down to your pussy. You didn’t believe he was as good as he thought he was – you’d dealt with too many overconfident wankers, both in real life and online, to believe another one – but the game you’d fallen into, the back and forth teasing, not entirely sure who was in control at any one time, was arousing to say the least. It was certainly one of the less predictable conversations you’d had recently.   “If not speechless then certainly wet. Show me your pussy, wanna see you touching yourself.”” “Who said I’m touching myself?” you slipped a finger into your entrance, trying to keep your breathing even.” “You’re not as good at hiding it as you think you are. So show me.” “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” Ben gave you a fleeting look, eyebrow raised, before his camera flipped and you were once again looking at his hand wrapped around his cock, red and leaking precum. You turned your camera too, making sure he had a good view. “Add a second finger for me.” You did as he asked, “You been a good boy and not touched? Or do I have to tell you off for misbehaving?” “I didn’t but it wasn’t because of anything you said. Just didn’t want things to finish before I heard you beg me to cum.” He began to stroke himself, keeping in time with the slow pace you’d set as you pumped your fingers in and out of your pussy. “Sure,” you panted, adding a third finger, “so if I told you to stop now,” His hand halted. “Well aren’t you just so obedient,” You removed your fingers from yourself, reaching to grab the dildo, “you wanna see me fuck myself properly? Watch me cum all over this toy, pretend it’s your cock making me moan?”   “God yes,” his voice cracked a little, fingers twitching against himself as he briefly let the cocky, controlling persona fall away. It didn’t last long, “Show me how deep you can take that cock. C’mon, I know what a fucking slut you are, getting off on people watching you.” You didn’t bother arguing, sliding the dildo along your dripping folds before pressing it into yourself with a whine. “Wait, hang on a sec.” The was the sound of shuffling and the screen went black as Ben moved around but, eventually, he flipped the camera again and settled back on the bed. He’d propped his phone up somewhere in front of himself, letting you see every inch of him from his face to his hard, leaking cock, “better?” “Oh much, hang on I’ll do the same," you carefully pulled the dildo from yourself and sat up, leaning your phone against a stack of books on your bedside table and then adjusting your pillows in front of it, “we good?” “Yeah, take the nipple things off though, wanna see your tits properly.” You did as he asked, letting out a soft moan at the sensation. Ben chuckled, “God I can’t wait to hear how loud you moan imaging how hard I’d fuck you.” You slid the dildo back into your entrance, slowly pumping it in and out of yourself as you brought your other hand up to squeeze your breast, “mmm, you look so pretty when you’re all needy Benny.” It wasn’t a lie, between his lust blown eyes, flushed cheeks and soft pout, Ben looked incredible and it only turned you on more, “Want to show me how needy you can get? Want me make you beg?” “Faster. Harder,” he ignored your questions in favour of giving you another order but you were sure you’d heard his voice crack just a little. You sped up, whining with each thrust, Ben’s hand matching your pace as his slid his thumb over the tip and spread the precum over his length. “Fuck your wet, I can hear it. That all because of me?” “Maybe a-a bit. Also just like, fuck, being watched,” “Turn on the vibrator and rub your clit,” Ben’s voice was husky, impossibly deep and rough, “don’t stop until I say.” You moaned as the vibrations started, angling the dildo to rub against your g-spot on every pass.   “There you go, being a good little slut. Gonna cum how I tell you to.” “On-only if you cum how I tell you to.” You almost let the dildo fall from your grasp, so shocked were you by the whine Ben let out, “Like that idea? Want me to tell you what to do? If I told you to stop and watch me would you?” “No,” he said, steadfastly sticking to the game although his hand faltered and his voice had mostly lost the controlling edge he’d had before, all desperate, whiny need. “N-not sure I beli-eve you.” “Please don’t stop. Wanna cum so bad,” “I know y-ou do Benny.” “You close?” “Yes, fuck Ben, so close.” “Cum for me, come on, be a good slut and cum,” “Not. Yet. Play with your balls Benny, wanna see you cum first.” His gasped turned into a strangled cry as he ran his fingers over his testicles before lightly squeezing them “T-turn the vibrator higher,” Neither one of you were in control anymore, too caught up in getting yourselves and each other off, though you were both determinedly looking at the screen, watching each other. Ben’s lip was caught between his teeth, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he let out some of the prettiest moans you’d ever heard. It only served to push you closer to the edge, your own moans escaping as you bucked your hips rhythmically in time with the dildo moving in and out of your cunt. Ben finished a split second before you did, your eyes glued to the white now painting his stomach as you held the dildo in place, its vibrations making your toes curl.

The was a moment of quiet as you both collected yourselves, the only sounds his panted breaths and your soft whine as you removed the dildo from yourself, and then Ben spoke.   “Fuck that was hot.” “Yup,” “I thought your tits were good enough to wank over but Christ. That’s gonna keep me going for a bit.” You laughed, relaxing as your heart gradually fell back to its normal rhythm, “Well not too long I hope. You’re fun and I’d be happy to chat again sometime.” “Did I see in your bio that you take commissions?” “Yuuup,” “Huh, well, I’ll keep that in mind then.” “I look forward to it,” “Well, I should be off then, gotta clean up,” he gestured to the mess drying on his stomach. “Yeah, me too, maybe have a nap. That really was fun though so next time you’re bored or whatever hit me up. If you’re lucky I’ll let you boss me around. If you’re luckier I’ll do the bossing,” “I’d like to see you try,” “That whine you made says you’d enjoy it quite a lot,” “My whine? What about yours? Needy little brat.” Guess you’ll have to come back and settle this then.” “Guess I will. See you later.”

[lemonietrinket]

How Day6 would react to overhearing you admit your crush on him to one of the other members

AN: a request from anon. i feel ive treated this more seriously (and focused perhaps more on the confessions themselves, bc i interpreted ‘crush’ subconsciously as ‘having long-term-feelings for’) than you meant in your request but i hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

Sungjin

“hyuuun, i’m in love please make it stop.” “only way that’s going to happen is if you go tell him.” “...i hate you.”

sungjin... i picture is going to date to marry (or an equivalent if marriage is not for you, as though i get the vibe he’s quite traditional, for the right person he would be very easily convinced), so he takes crushes and confessions quite seriously

probably would feel bad for eavesdropping

then would feel happy that you felt the same way

but then more serious issue of now having to confess would take over

would spend a long time thinking of the best way to do it

would probably settle on a classic walk or cinema/theatre depending on what’s showing

would make damn sure he and you would be alone while confessing—so to save both parties from pressure and embarrassment should things go wrong 

also he’s quite a private guy and would want to let others know on his own and your terms

ngl probably wouldn’t admit he’d overheard you until like... a long time later

it would be under the initial reasoning that he would wait until you were stable so it wouldn’t have too big of an effect

but then he would forget

until it randomly came up in conversation 

like we may even be talking years here

maybe when you live in your own place, just the two of you, and you’re hanging out with him and younghyun who is just refusing to go home bc the food is too good at yours who brings it up 

“i don’t understand how it took so long for you two to get together, like even wonpil was starting to find yn’s pining sickening.”

and you would be salty, because “excuse me i hid my desperation very well!”

and sungjin would just immediately come to support you because he’s a loyal motherfucker and would begin, without thinking “she did, i didn’t know until i—”

that would be when he stops himself bc hes like oh shit i didn’t tell her and now two very curious sets of eyes are like staring at him and he’s 98% sure he can’t backtrack at all 

“when you what?”

and he would just sigh “when i overheard you telling younghyun that you liked me”

and there’d be a moment of silence, followed by laughter 

youngk would be confused, probably, having a surprisingly better recollection that you perhaps would “wait i remember that—how did it take you two months to work out what to do next?!”

and you end up just laughing harder, before noticing the the mix of emotions on sungjins face and reassure him “it doesn’t matter how long it took, we’re together now”

anyway overall sungjin is probably quite serious about it, but it will have a happy ending, you’ve just got to be patient lmao 

Jae

“dowoon, what do i do?” 

jae would be playful about it

after hearing you ask dowoon for advice since hes good friends with him he would be ecstatic, but would try and keep it lowkey

he’d hide out of sight of the doorway he’d passed by to have his little moment

and then he wouldn’t be able to stop smiling

his eyes would keep glancing to you for the rest of the day, even more than usual

but i think he would want to make things more official as soon as possible, as he doesn’t want to waste any time when he could do it sooner and be with you

and so he’d ask if you had a spare moment on the day or so, and take you some place quiet

not necessarily his room, more likely just outside the front door in the warm summer air

and ngl i think he would totally pull the “i think you know why i summoned you here today”

of course, yall have no idea, but you’re used to his occasional crackheadery—otherwise why would you crush on him so hard? “not a bit, but if its a trip to get snacks you don’t even have to ask, i’m in”

“well, that is a plan for later... depending on how this goes”

that’s the point where you would get confused and begin to wonder if something is up, but hel’l continue “i found out something really cool today yn.”

“really? was it the pin to brian’s credit card?”

he would laugh but shake his head, “nah even better” and that would give you the heads up that this was serious, and it would occur to you that he might have overheard something

but it becomes obvious when he follows with “a little bird... told me that someone, likes someone else, in our group. our friendship group.”

you briefly consider panicking, as the whole thing could still be construed as him not liking you back, but you put on a brave face and push through, “oh really? who?”

“that’s the problem, i don’t know, but i was wondering if you did.”

the chance was clear for anyone to see, and seeing the glimmer of hope, you seize it “well, i know someone who likes you... but i’m not sure if its mutual, so that might be why they haven’t said”

“if it’s who i think it is, then it definitely is... mutual” he would admit

and that would be the closest the two of you ever got to literally word-for-word confessing, because out of nerves neither of you would probably be able to admit it at the crux of the moment

however, like in all the movies idc if its cliche you would gravitate towards each other, and that would be the moment where you both recognised your feelings as well as shared your first kiss together

ok i’m going to stop before i combust 

anyway as for whether he’d admit he’d overheard you, he would probably be quite quick to the chase on that one too, probably right after the kiss and you’ve spoken about it a bit more, he’ll probably just say “i kind of accidentally overheard you telling dowoon, please don’t be mad at me”

but how could you be, you’d gotten what you wanted after all

in conclusion, jae is lighthearted about it and woudn’t waste any time

Younghyun

“wonpil did i tell you how much i love his eyes?” “hmmm... perhaps... but tell me again, to just to make sure.”

god bless wonpil his emotional support would be A+

right off the bat our youngk is a songwriter

he probably finds a lot of inspiration out of love

and so his feelings for you coalesce to create love songs that he may or may not use in the future

anyhow, it means that to cope with his feelings he’s probably half composed something small where he admits them 

with little intention of you probably ever hearing it at all

or at least, not without big chunks edited and names changed/cut

but when he overhears you rambling to wonpil who doesn’t mind the sappiness a characteristic you probably got off our brian anyway with his occasional borderline emo-ness

he’s grateful to his past-self for starting it, and realises that maybe its time to finish it

so it’ll take a week or so for him to finally confess

bc even though hes a bit of a flirt, i don’t see him wanting to tarnish love, since he owes it so much and its not fun to play with someone’s heart, especially not yours

so it might take him a little longer, and when he gets round to it, it’ll be perfect, just like you in his eyes

so prepare to be serenaded

yes, that sort of serenaded

in dim evening light, with the sun’s glow beginning to fade and make way for the stars, flickering like the candles laid out for you

again, that classical vibe won’t be missed on him

as for whether he’d tell you, probably only if you asked, but he would add that he’d been writing the song beforehand

he just may not admit to not planning on ever performing it

overall? when it comes to romantic flair, kang younghyun is king 

Wonpil

“sungjin, uh, do you know where wonpil is? i can’t—” “isn’t he at your hip?” “as much as i kind of wish he was, he kind of isn’t.”

wonpil, my lovely sweetheart

probably wouldn’t be able to stop himself from just

walking straight in when he accidentally overhears you to ask right there and then

like, you’re probably pestering talking to sungjin in the kitchen or another equally frequented place, so it was likely that someone was going to overhear anyway 

and maybe that was part of sungjins plan dont put it past him

but also it meant wonpil got further into the room the hunt for sustenance spurring him on, you know how it is before he caught onto what was being said, thus making it harder to back out

thus sungjin knew he’d overheard, but you with your back to the door were still clueless

and would’ve stayed that way had wonpil not continued and straight up asked or sungjin not said anything, which lets face it by this point he was really considering doing

he would be really excited about hearing that the feelings were mutual, and you were right there so what harm was really being done if he did just straight up waltz in?

as soon as you heard his small “you like me too?” you would whip around 

aaand that would be sungjin’s cue to leave

“do you mean that?”

“it only feels right when you’re by my side, pillie.”

the words you would exchange would be in a soft flurry of emotion tbh, out of disbelief but excitement for the future

most likely ending with you embracing, foreheads resting against one another’s

fluff hours only in the house of pil, ok?

Dowoon

“jae, do you think dowoon will be free tomorrow?” “yea why?” “i want to take him to the cat cafe—” “oh my god is it happening?! is it really happening? are you finally going to tell him? plan ILU is underway?” “keep it down!” “oh god everybody stay calm, stay fucking calm—!”

my bean

my lovely bean

would feel guilty over accidentally eavesdropping, and this would reflect in his shyness later

however, he decides to run with the silver lining of having the chance to be prepared for tomorrow

and so he would not say a word and try and act natural

especially when you ask him if he wants to go out somewhere with you the next day

he’s not sure how he did, he tried to hide his ears as best he could but he was also well aware you knew him too well

when the next morning rolls around, he’s up early, getting ready in nice clothes that he hopes aren’t suspiciously too nice

and then he waits, trying to calm is nerves, before realising that maybe ignorance is bliss

when the time comes and you make your way to the cafe, he finds it difficult to act surprised, but also to try and keep his breath steady

finally, near the end, after asking if he had a good time and wanted to come back, you confess you liked him and it’s as if a weight lifts off his shoulders

he would kiss your cheek soon after, without much warning, out of relief and joy and nerves and a whole lot of else

and you’d probably pull him in for a proper kiss by his collar as soon as you’re sure he’s ok with it

and then the fact he eavesdropped would be a secret that he would die with

~~~

Masterlist

[pinkysfaultorbrainsfault]

animaniacs - s5e8: the brain’s apprentice

this is the last patb short in animaniacs! as far as i know, anyway. if i’ve missed any with plans please let me know! there probably won’t be an update tomorrow because we’re going out with my boyfriend’s parents (in a covid conscious manner of course) but on friday (or thursday if i get time) i’ll get started on the spinoff. for now, enjoy mice. (:

episode summary: brain builds a machine that creates tiny robots programmed to take over the world. pinky helps. there is no dialogue in this short, because it’s supposed to be a parody of a short by some small inconsequential studio somewhere.

the rundown:

we open at acme labs!

there it is. it’s a very pretty building. i wonder if these shots were computer generated or, like, physically drawn. it’s kind of hard to tell, but they are impressively 3D looking.

“how to take over the world by building your own neato army. by alexander haig.”

hmmm. i am not american enough to get this joke, unfortunately, but i’m sure the animators had a good laugh putting it in there, so that’s all that matters!

as pinky watches a video about buying fish, brain walks past with a bunch of.... weirdly shaped paperclips. the box is taller than he is, at this point, and he was a baby exactly one season ago, so maybe pinky should be helping out? but needs must, i guess. he’s got fish to buy.

brain deposits whatever those are in a bigger bucket of whatever those are, and climbs down. i have decided that these are not, in fact, paperclips. i don’t know what they are, or how brain found them, and i especially do not know what they were doing in the paperclip box.

hmmm.

brain grabs his notebook and takes a look at his blueprints for whatever this big old machine is for.

i love how he just. ripped up a bin to make it. where will the employees of acme labs toss out their old crystal pepsi* cans now?

*i don’t know what people drank in 1995.

brain wiggles some buttons. pinky, meanwhile, gets bored of watching programs about why he should buy a fish, and goes to see what brain is doing.

he peep.

and out comes a lil robot. awww.

pinky is shooketh. he gotta see what’s going on with this!

in the process of doing so, he falls over. poor baby. :C but that’s definitely not important to the plot, or anything.

he wants to go say helo to the robot!

brain is less enthused by that idea, it seems.

because the robot needs activating before they can play with it! honestly, pinky.

huh.

brain tries turning it off and on again. he is not successful.

how problematic.

his solution is to take his notebook and go hide in the kitchen out of shame, i guess.

i don’t know either. never mind. pinky goes back to his fish.

but oh dear!

pinky tries to warn brain. brain gives no fucks. just let him go back to his loathing hole, pinky.

never mind. pinky is here to save the day!

the robot is on now.

it does a sassy little hands on hips thing.

ah.

so they end up doing a whole little dance together!

and it’s really cute.

bowling pin moments

until-- oh dear.

never mind. pinky and his new friend head off to the fridge.

hm.

the robot wiggled all the cheese out of the fridge, so now pinky is fat and satisfied. he likes his new robot friend, who procures cheeses for him.

but oh, fuck.

pinky attempts to stop the onslaught by pressing as many buttons as he can.

it has...probably the opposite of the intended effect.

the plug won’t come out, either.

maybe this lever will help!

i.... guess it did? but not in the way pinky intended. oh dear.

powerless to stop them, pinky watches as the robots wander off to their destiny. (he looks quite happy, there, actually. maybe things are okay after all!)

the first thing they do is steal a tank. (i’m not sure the cannon leads to the cockpit? i don’t know. i’d have to ask my dad.)

bomf.

this guy isn’t very good at his job, apparently.

(meanwhile, pinky attempts to hit the robot infestation with a fly swatter.)

mr The American President has recieved the calling card, apparently. honestly, this is a bit fashy, even by brain’s standards, but i guess after last episode he just got hit with a bout of desperation.

this man is very scared. he doesn’t want his brain poked out by pens.

pinky is also very scared, because the entire lab is just full of the bloody things. he clings to the chair and considers the direction his life is going in.

oh dear.

brain very calmly heads towards the machine in a way that is probably terrifying. i’m put off and i’m just sitting here.

pinky is banished back to the table for his many crimes. he is Grounded. he has been Put In The Corner.

i don’t. actually think i’ll be comfortable making jokes like that for a good few more episodes, actually, lol.

pinky trundles sadly off to watch more Fish TV, while brain rolls his eyes and does the sort of little head shake that my nan would do if my grandad gave us the wrong christmas presents or whatever.

some people may find it difficult to remember the voices of the dead, but my nan mumbling “stupid man” under her breath is eternal. rip nan. also i really, really like the faces in this episode.

is he wearing eyeliner? it looks good on him. maybe that’s what he was doing while he was moping, yknow. put on a bit of lottie london and listen to the black parade. it’s a good way to vent your emotions, i guess.

but oh, what’s this?

something completely unrelated is holding the president hostage!

huh.

conclusion:

obviously, this is something very important that brain needs to know about, so pinky goes off to get him.

does a cute little pouty face and everything.

brain doesn’t want to know, it seems. he tells pinky, presumably, to shush. he has a machine to deactivate!

bonk.

so obviously this causes the robots to go a bit haywire.

better sign that contract, mr president!

or not, i suppose.

and the reddit alien is dead. very sad. no more am i the asshole for anyone.

the president is upset. he liked posting judgemental things on r/pics whenever he saw a woman.

meanwhile, pinky is trying very hard to get brain’s attention.

oh dear. brain is so upset that he can’t even laugh at “wolf spritzer”, which is a silly name for anyone to have.

he’s gonna go off and cry. ):

good thing pinky knows what’ll make him feel better!

BONK.

i don’t know why he’s hitting pinky, quite frankly. yet again, if brain had listened to him from the beginning, their plan would have been a success. pinky figured out what was wrong with the machine, and activated it, and solved the problem. even as accidental as that was, brain could have like... yknow. taken a moment to assess the situation.

but this is the last episode of animaniacs (that they appear in, anyway) so i guess that proves that he’ll never learn.

brain: 4 ½ pinky: 5 ½ outside influence: 10

i have nothing more to say about this episode, but the guys from the preceding short look like the dover boys, which is funny, i guess.

[sarah--goff]

Their Dark Materials: Chapter Eleven: As the World Falls Down

Jareth draped himself on the window ledge, overlooking the kingdom stretched out before him, collecting each crystal from one hand and blowing them into delicate bubbles one by one, watching them float into the distance towards you.

_*_

You expected to clatter to the earth beneath you, but you landed in strong arms and a kind, familiar face peering down at you.

“You” you mumbled, becoming more aware of your surroundings. The man guided you to stand gently against him, you felt drowsy with sleep. You rubbed your eyes groggily, beginning to recognise him at the back of your mind.

Something told you that you felt like you should be angry with him, deeply, but you couldn’t think why as you held eye-contact. You blinked at him trying to remember…something. The feel of his hands on you were clouding your thoughts.

You glanced away briefly to see if you could work out who he was by where you were.

The room was illuminated by crystal white lighting. A grand ballroom, everything champagne, salmon pinks and ice coloured, silky gold streamers and chandeliers hung from the grand ceiling it was all so breathtakingly beautiful. The masses below twirled in pairs in perfect, creepy unison.

_*_

Beside him, you gasped, covering your hand over your mouth, clearly recognising this scene well. You were standing upright by yourself now, stronger.

You laughed loudly clutching his shoulder looking from the balcony to the dancers below. Jareth watched your delight fondly, the way your eyes lit up, your smile.

_*_

“My dream” you smiled brightly under the chandelier’s crystal light “I’m in my wonderful dream!” you laughed looking down at yourself and yes there it was the dress. Your dress. Your hands flew to your hair, feeling it pinned up in places, the annoying strays were back, framing your face delicately.

You could have been Cinderella herself.

The man who caught you had vanished from your side.

You looked around you but he was nowhere. Your stomach dropped, where was he? You wanted him to come back so badly. How could he leave?

“How do you like games?” a rich voice murmured, entering your mind

You frowned “I’ve never been a fan” you answered back in your head.

Your heels clicked with every footstep down the grand staircase. When you got to the end you swept to the crowd immediately. You knew what you were looking for, who you were looking for. You just let your feet wander pushing and squirming through the crowd. You felt like a magnet was pulling you in.

Collecting the silky puffy dress in your hands, you turned this way and that just searching, desperately searching. You pushed through the masses, feeling an invisible force graze your shoulders, navigating you towards something.

You flickered your eyes from figure to figure trying to spot his face in the crowd of bizarre masks, the laughing and leering around you seemed to get louder.

You felt a soft hand graze your forearm, tug at your hair, a fleeting graze on your waist, but when you swivelled around every teasing contact the force was nowhere to be seen. Was he playing with you?

You lowered your eyes to the floor feeling hopeless but then flicked them up to see him striding towards you, almost parting the crowd like the Red Sea. It wasn't hard to see why, he stood out from them, like a beacon of light held to the shadows. He breezed past the leers and outstretched hands, eyes focusing on you only, despite the hundreds in the room.

He was so gorgeous, so benevolent. More so than you'd ever seen.  

Your heart was stammering in your chest as he got closer, under the trained eyes.

“Goblin King” you murmured so only he could hear, standing directly in front of him.

_*_

Jareth waited for you to run away, to recoil or curse him.

You did none of these, but instead said stood plainly before him.

“Dance with me,” he commanded taking you by the hand “pretend that everything else doesn’t exist for a while”

-*-

You looked between his poker face and the gloved hand entwined with yours. You nodded with a smile, shyly at first but then as you were whirled into his arms you began to relax, the butterflies subsiding. You slid your arm up to cup his shoulder seemingly on auto-pilot.

This is exactly how you'd dreamt it, for what felt like the thousandth time, but this was sacred.  

You could feel his voice’s vibrations as the Goblin King sang with the music, quietly at first and then a few words that were by your ear making your skin tingle then to singing aloud.

“wasn’t too much fun at all, but I’ll be there for you…”

You rested your head against the crook of his shoulder not caring how he would react anymore. It just felt right. You briefly closed your eyes, lulled by his gentle hold, so at peace in this moment. There was that woozy scent emanating from him again, like you had inhaled from the cloak earlier.

His chin came to rest on the crown of your head.

“You remember now, don’t you?” the Goblin King murmured into your hair “remember this dream I created for you, how happy I made you”

You nodded, eyes still closed, resting against him, because you did. You remembered waking up every morning missing this exact moment, the one, it seemed, you were throwing away.

“You needn't run from me” Jareth murmured, holding you as close and snug as possible by his arm around your back as if you might suddenly vanish from him again. His sudden confident tone change put you on edge.  

“I don’t -want to” you forced out letting your fingers fiddle with the ruffles on his collar, your hold on his shoulder with the other hand loosened.

You tried to put the fragmented pieces together in your mind. Why were you running? Was it from him or something else? There was a reason. You just needed to remember.

“I just…something to do with a book, and my…life…”

_*_

It was apparent that you could sense something was wrong. He felt you tense up against him.

You lifted your head from his shoulder to look at him, withdrawing from the embrace slightly. Your large round eyes…they swelled with anguish, you looked hurt.

_*_

The Goblin King looked like he wanted to say something but the grand clock behind his ear chimed the 6th hour. With every toll the fabrication of this world began to waver.

The time! How had so much time passed!

You let go of him immediately as if he burnt you and rushed to the clock.

You had to wake up, wherever you were you had to leave.

You could see your reflection in one of the walls it curved like you were inside a bubble. Wake up, Sloane, wake up! You willed yourself.

Your eyes glanced for something to smash the bubble with and landed on a chair. You picked it up, your arms were beginning to feel heavy and drowsy and smashed it again and again at the reflection, willing the pieces to tumble down.

_*_

The spell was broken.

The Goblin King kept his eyes ahead where he had just been looking at you. He was frozen to the spot, hands still out where they had been embracing you a second ago. They lowered slowly, his tranquil expression crushed.

_*_

You lifted the chair to swing again, one more should do it.

Jareth was beside you, you saw in the cracked reflection. You veered your head only slightly, unable to come face to face with him properly.

It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real. You chanted in your head.

The Goblin King lowered the chair in your hands, momentarily begging you with his expression to look in his direction.

The realism of his touch began to fade as he brushed his gloved hand against your cheek.

You lifted the chair without looking at him and swung once more, hearing the glass burst .

You fell.

_*_

You were floating, your hair sticking out behind you as well as the cloak , which acted like a parachute. You dare not touch the bubble walls. You had your arms up covering your face, scared it would suddenly pop .

When nothing happened you let your arms drop cautiously.

The bubble slows until it stops, the light emitting from it allowed you to see a dusty ground beneath you, thank god. You lightly kicked the bubble, bracing yourself. It popped easily and you landed lightly on your feet.

“Oof”.

_*_

You woke with a start, lying against something uncomfortable digging into your back. You groggily peered down at yourself, checking for injuries. You were seemingly okay and back in your own clothes, thank god. You tried to sit up loudly wincing at the pain in your shoulders and back.

Your eyes fluttered open.

“What was I doing?” you clambered down from the heap of junk you had been stiffly lying against.  You tied the cloak around your neck further, like it would act as protection.

“Ah! Get off my back!”

You leapt off, seeing the mound you had stood on shift as an ancient scruffy old woman turned promptly revealing a worn and pinched face

“why don’t ya look where you’re going young woman! Hmmm?”

“I…was looking” you mumbled dazed neither to her or yourself.

“huh?  huh? and where are ya going hmm?” you climbed around various heaps of junk, rocking horses, bicycles, furniture. Was this where you were supposed to be? Perhaps...

“I don’t remember “

“Ya can’t look where ya going if ya don’t know where ya going”

“I was searching for something” maybe it was in here- the thing you were searching for.

“Well look here! Hmmm!” her grubby hand raised to show you what she was clasping.  You accepted the small circular porcelain box into your hands.

You flicked the clasp off, watching the lid rise and reveal two dancers inside, twirling around and around together to the tinned melody of a song you felt you knew.

You held it curiously, mulling over the thought that you should know this object somehow.

“thank you” you held it to your chest, relaxing

“that’s what you were looking for wasn’t it, my dear?”

“…yes. I forgot” you smiled down at the trinket closing the lid.

“now why don’t ya come in here and see if there’s anything else ya’d like” she ducked down under the hoard and chuckled.

You whipped back the tent curtain tailing behind her.

A bedroom.

Your bedroom?

You whirled around, looking up and around admiringly before flopping on the bed.

You lie back for a minute, clutching the music box to your chest . And then sit up promptly.

“It was just a dream!” you looked around propping yourself up by your elbows.

It… wasn’t real. The Goblin King wasn’t real.  You'd read the silly book and fallen asleep! What an intense dream!

“I dreamed it all, Moore” you said sadly to the bird who was no doubt home by now, sitting in his scarf nest as usual.

“But it was so real, I dreamed that you were a man and you…I felt…” you sighed. "better see if Kari and Brian are home now" you’d completely forgotten do to the things Kari had said. Did you have assignments due? You thought you did. Great. Another 2am marathon.

You left the music box on your bed. You cross the room to open your bedroom door. "Is anyone ho-"

The wind catches the door, throwing it open. The Junk Yard was still outside, the sky bleached orange and scratched with angry, black clouds.

It was still here! The Labyrinth!

The Junk lady burst through the door “Better to stay in here, dear, yes! There’s nothing ya want out there, no! oh-ho-ho-no!” she gave a coo "Ooh now what have we got here?”

You shut the door behind her thudding against it.

“Oh look! Ya paints! Ya love your pretty paints don’t ya! Yes, yes there you go! Oooh!”

You took the paints she shoved into your hands, your mouth gaping open but no sound coming out.

“now then what else have we got, let’s see!”

The Junky Lady twisted around so that her heavy load of items strung to her back brushed the ceiling. Her nimble fingers snatching something from your desk “Oooh your pencil box- got lots of pencils and oohh-“

You slumped onto your stool.

“Here’s your camera! Ya know how much you like your camera – you never wanted that far away did ya? There is it! Okay! Now then what else!”

The hunch-back admired your lipstick handing it to you “now go on make yourself up like the very grown up lady you are!”

Kari’s words echoed in your head “maybe- we need –a chat, about growing up – for one “

You were struggling to hold all of the items in your hands, barely able to see your reflection in the vanity mirror.

“There was something else I was looking for” you murmured to yourself

She scoffed at you “don’t talk nonsense – it’s all here! Everything in the world you’ve ever cared about is all right here! Look here-”

A rectangular red object catches your eye , you clumsily grab the book, flipping over the pages , remember dammit! Remember what you forgot! You scanned the pages.

“Dangers untold, hardships unnumbered…I’ve fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city…to take back…the freedom you have stolen…” you raised your head staring directly at yourself in the mirror.

The Junk Lady narrowed her eyes from behind you. “What’s the matter dear, don’t you like your things?”

You looked down at yourself, covered in your objects, “it’s all junk!”

“Huh, uh well, w- what about this !” the junk lady waved it “this is not junk!”

You accepted the rectangular object pushed into your hand.

You held the Walkman, turning it over in your hands so that the polished plastic shimmered under the light. You knew it wasn’t yours. Because yours had busted.

“yes it is!” you threw it at the mirror and it splintered , the walls and ceiling collapsed and crumbled around you “I have to get to the castle!” you yelled, pulling down the walls so you could climb out back to the junkyard.

You climbed out standing on the piles of junk. You could see the entrance to the Goblin City and began to scurry towards it but your foot was sinking into the piles like sinking sand.

“Augh! Help! Help!"

Shit. You ran your hand through your hair. You’d need a miracle to get through here now. You tried to cling onto the surface and pull yourself up “Hoggle! Help! Someone help!” you sank quicker. “Hoggle !”

_*_

He threw his hands up dismissively, signifying he had firmly washed them of you.

Huh! Humans! Girls! Human girls! He passed the stone mumbling curses to himself.

He stopped in his tracks at the sound of your cries. “Hang on Sloane, I’m coming!” he turned on his heel to rush back the way he had came.

The Goblin King appeared in front of him. Hoggle gulped.

“Well, if it isn’t you” The Goblin King leant against the stone in front of him, hands behind his back “And, uh, where- are you- going?” he leaned forward emphasising each word.

Hoggle spluttered “uh, um, well I gave the little lady the slip like you told me to- I was uh, just checkin’ she hadn’t followed me back or nuttin’ ”

The Goblin King pushed himself off the rock. He bobbed his head “I see”  looked around the isolated scene airily “for one moment I thought you were running to help her but, uh, no, not after my warnings, that would be stupid” he tilted his head at Hoggle pointedly .

Hoggle waved his hand “oh-ho you bet it would! Me? Help her after your warnings?” he doubled over with an over-the-top uproar of laughter turning around only to come face to face with the Goblin King who crouched in front of him cynically “ooh!”

“Oh dear, poor Hoghead-”

“Hoggle”

“I’ve just noticed your lovely jewels are missing” the Goblin King held his shoulder with false empathy.

“Uh…Oh yes, so they are, my lovely jewels…missing- ” Hoggle laughed nervously pretending to search himself for his bag “I’ll have to find them “

“That you will, but I’m not finished with you yet, Hogspew you see, I have one more plan in mind for you” the king grinned mischievously.

“Wh-what? This ain’t to do with the girl is it- I quit!”

“Oh Higgle, I sincerely doubt it-” the King seized his ear causing Hoggle to cry out. “you’ll do it or so help me gods, I’ll tip you straight in the bog!” he hissed to the dwarf.

Hoggle tried to swerve the King “but she’s- bright, she’ll never- listen t’ me!” he pointed out, squirming under the burning grasp.

Between the wincing, Hoggle thought he had seen something flash across the king’s face, something he did not recognise on him. “That she is, Hattle, that she is, but she is also fair of heart, she will trust again”

He leaned forward to Hoggle his voice dangerously light. “You’ll do exactly as I say...”

[justkending]

Used to Be Overlooked. Chapter 16.

Summary: After a rough mission, Steve likes to decompress with a walk around his home town when he can. But after saving a beautiful dame from a near death experience, he can’t seem to get her off his mind. Something about her was familiar. After some intensive research, he learns a truth about her that leaves him and some of his coworkers in a shock. Who is she? How does he know her? And was it even from this decade?

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader (Rosalyn Ember/ Y/N ?)

Word Count: 5400+

Warning: SLOW BURN. Soooo slow, but sooooo worth it...

A/N: This is it ladies and gentleman! I loved writing this chapter with all my heart! Getting ready for a gala, the fashion and hair, having Steve see her? It’s all happening;) Let me know what you think! Feed back is always welcomed and asked!!!

Series Masterlist

Chapter 16:

Thursday came, and you remembered Claire was going to need a dress as well if she was going to come. You emailed Pepper asking where you two should go to get her an affordable one, but still elegant enough for the event, since Claire was planning a wedding and needed to be able to still afford a wedding gown at the end of all this.

Pepper was nice enough to offer to pay for both of your dresses saying, “It’s on Tony since he waited until last minute to invite you.” You laughed about it, but told her that that wasn’t necessary and that you already had a dress. She insisted that she at least bought Claire’s, and after a little back and forth of, “Don’t worry about it,” and “Really, it’s what I want to do,” between her, Claire and you, she sent you money for Claire's dress.

Claire was like you and felt bad for taking the money, but was grateful nonetheless and accepted it. That evening after work, you both went dress shopping and surprisingly found a dress for her that wasn’t like all the basic prom dresses that you had found the couple of days before.

There were a few things that she wanted to tailor to help it fit the more fairytale theme, so you set up a date to meet at your house and design your dresses together. You only needed a few more modifications and were done pretty soon. You spent the rest of your time helping her add a bit of “Claire Flare” to her own dress.

Friday came faster than you expected, and the nerves were starting to build when Claire came to your house to get ready with you.

“I’m going to cinch this up a little at the waist for me before I get dressed,” Claire said holding the middle of her dress as she inspected it.

“Ok, I’m going to get started on my hair since you’re done with yours, and then I’ll come check on you when I’m done,” you smiled as you added the last bit of your makeup.

“Sounds good. I’ll be at the kitchen table sewing,” she smiled throwing her dress over her arm and walking past you on the stairs.

You got upstairs and looked in the mirror at yourself.

“Makeup is done. Now hair…” you said thinking through what you wanted to do. “Let’s try something different today. I always do the Hollywood curls, so maybe something tighter?” you asked yourself as you dug through your drawers to find a curling iron. “Something new it is,” you grinned as you found what you were looking for, and plugged in the iron.

After about an hour of doing your hair, you ruffled it out to give it a slight tousled look, and not so tight. You pulled it back in a center ponytail and started pulling on pieces on the top to create more volume, and then pulled curls out to frame your face. You brought your bangs down a little more to help with the framing.

You very rarely wear your hair up, so this was definitely something new. You gave yourself a once over to make sure your makeup was still where you wanted it and hair was pulled how you meant for it to be.

You smiled looking in the mirror proud of your hair and makeup (eyes a little more cherry red) job that worked perfect with your dress.

“Who knew you could look this good?” you said to your reflection while smiling.

“I knew,” you heard a voice say from the doorway. “ ‘bout ready to get dressed there princess?” Claire said when you turned around.

“Oh my gosh, Claire! You look absolutely stunning!” you said running to look at her now in her dress.

She was in a beautiful light pink off the shoulder dress. It had flowers flowing from the sleeves down past the center. She had a slim pink belt tied in a bow on her waist to show off her petite figure. Her makeup, that went with the millennial pink she was going for, was just bright enough to make her features soft and elegant. Her blonde hair was in tight ringlets that was completely different from the pin-straight hair she usually wore.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to do as well for my wedding,” she giggled as she blushed at your comment.

“Oh hush! Who says you can’t look this stunning at both. You’re going to blow Josh away,” you said grabbing her shoulders to reassure her.

“You sure? I don’t know if-”

“Well I do. You are a beautiful woman who any man would be lucky to have. And after stepping out looking like this tonight?” you said motioning to her outfit. “They are all going to want you. Josh especially.”

“Thanks Rose,” she said as you two had a moment and were on the brink of happy tears. “Ok, now stop making me want to cry. I just finished my makeup!” she laughed looking up trying to push the tears back.

“Ha ha! Sorry,” you said trying to push back your own.

“Ok, we leave in 10 minutes, and you still need to get your dress on,” She said getting bossy. “Now hurry and do that, and I’m going to run down stairs and double check my makeup before Josh comes. He said he was about 5 minutes out.”

“Perfect. I’ll meet you down there,” you nodded walking to your closet with your robe still on.

“Ok!” she said rushing down that stairs as fast as should could in her long gown.

You opened your closet and pulled out the black cover that was holding your completed dress.

“Ok, let’s do this,” you said taking a deep breath and unzipping it.

__

“Rose! Josh is here! I’m going to let him in ok?” Claire shouted from downstairs.

“Ok! I’ll be right down! I’m putting on my shoes!” you shouted back.

You walked up to your floor length mirror on the side of the room, and straightened out your dress and adjusted your earrings.

“Ok, this is as good as it’s going to get,” you sighed giving yourself a once over one more time before heading downstairs.

“She’ll be down in a second then we can head out,” you heard Claire informing Josh. “Rose are you about rea-” she started shouting again before she turned around and dropped her jaw. “Holy. Shit,” she spaced out.

You took the last step and folded your hands with your clutch in it in front of you. You smiled at her and then saw Josh with the same expression on his face. You looked down embarrassed now with how they were staring at you.

“What? Is something wrong?” you said smoothing the fabric out nervously. “It’s too much isn’t it? Maybe it doesn’t go with the theme so well? I knew-”

“ROSE!” she shouted cutting you off and rushing to grab your exposed shoulders. “Do not complete that sentence! You look- You look-” she couldn’t get the words out.

“Claire, you’re scaring me here,” you giggled. “Again...”

“Like a princess! I mean come on! I thought I looked good, but- this!” she motioned to you.

“Now don’t compare us two! You look stunning as well!” you said not wanting her to downgrade herself.

“Ok, but you are like sexy, hot, beautiful, stunning, and elegant all in one!” she said basically gawking at you.

“I appreciate that Claire, but you don’t have to say-”

“Josh, please tell Rosie here that she looks perfect,” Claire said turning to her husband.

“You look very beautiful Rose,” The tall chestnut colored hair, and toned man said. He definitely had the build of a fireman.

“Thank you Josh. You’re too kind,” you said shyly as you shifted in your spot. “Claire, I think we should head out. You don’t have to sit here complimenting me, or making your fiance compliment me just to make me feel better,” you laughed as she stared at you still.

“Right! Sorry!” she said moving back to her fiance. “Josh, you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” he laughed at her giddiness.

“I’ll second that,” you laughed coming up behind them.

As Josh opened the door for the both of you, you saw a nice white limo sitting out on your street. A man approached from the driver side and came around to the back doors ready to usher you in.

“Uh, did either of you two order a limo?” you asked raising your eyebrows.

“Not me,” Claire said stepping out in front of you to examine it from the distance better.

“That was definitely not there when I got here,” Josh said coming behind you two as he shut the door.

“Wait a second…” you squinted into the dark evening, and started to make out the figure that was waiting for you three. “Happy?” you smiled as it registered.

“Miss. Ember! Tony sent me, and told me to get you there right at 8. I think we should probably speed it up,” he shouted causing you to laugh.

“Sorry, Happy! We’re on our way!” you shouted back. “You two go. I’m going to lock up.”

The couple nodded and Josh went to escort Claire down the steps while you turned and locked the door, and placed the key back in your clutch.

When you turned back around, you saw Claire and Happy exchanging a few words before she ducked into the expensive ride with Josh right behind her.

“Mr. Hogan. It’s lovely to see you again,” you smiled at the man who returned it gladly.

“Great to see you too Miss. Ember, you look…” he paused taking your presence in. “Stunning as always, but times a hundred,” he smiled. “But I thought we talked about you calling me Happy?” he said sending you a raised eyebrow.

“Thank you. And yes, my bad,” you chuckled. “Then again, I thought we discussed you calling me Rose. Guess we both messed up.” you said sending him the eyebrow back.

“Touche,” he grinned. “Now shall we head to the party, or are you stalling?” he asked.

“Hmmm.” you hummed taking a step closer to the car. “Is it bad if I say I am stalling a little?” you whispered.

“Nervous?” he asked.

“Slightly.”

“Don’t be. If I know Tony he’ll make you feel extremely welcome. Plus, with you looking like that? He’ll make sure the whole room knows that they can associate you with him. The crew has been pretty excited to see you too. That’s all I hear out of them.”

“Really?” you said stopping in your step, and turning to him.

“Oh, yeah! I’ve never seen Steve so nervous. Barnes and Wilson have been by his side all day trying to calm him down. You would think for a super soldier, he would have some balls.”

“Happy, you know how to make a nervous wreck feel a lot better,” you giggled.

“Anything for you Rose. Now, shall we?” he motioned into the limo.

“I guess,” you exaggerated before sending him a smile.

“After you my lady,” he smiled back.

“Thank you, kind sir.”

He nodded as you crouched into the car, and he shut it gently behind you before making his way to the front. Seconds later, the car left from your curb and made its way to the tower.

___

Changing to 3rd Person writing. (this way we get a look at both of their feelings;))

“Bucky, I feel like this tie is suffocating me,” Steve said tugging at the red bow tie that Tony suggested he wore.

He would normally never wear anything like this, but Tony said that it was for the children, and he needed to look like he didn’t have a flag pole stuck up his ass if he wanted the kids to approach him. He was hesitant at first, but realized Stark was right. This night was for the kids, and he did want to talk to them. If that meant dressing in something less classic for this kind of evening, then so be it.

“That’s because you have it tied wrong,” Bucky sighed coming to his rescue. He undid it and started retying it loosely. “There. Better?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Steve huffed as he started straightening his jacket out. “You sure this isn’t too much? This doesn’t really feel like me.”

“You look fine punk,” Bucky laughed slapping his best friends shoulder as he turned to look in the mirror with him. “You still stroking out about Y/N?” he asked making eye contact with Steve in the mirror.

“Rose tonight, remember?” Steve warned.

“Right, sorry. Forgot the whole double life thing,” Bucky corrected going to sit on the bed to put his shoes on. “You know if you stroke out anymore, you’ll actually give yourself heart problems. You are on the brink of a 100. May want to take it easy with that old ticker of yours.”

Steve turned around giving Bucky a unamused look.

“An old joke. How very Tony Stark of you?” he fake laughed. “You do realize you’re only a year older than me right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t have to go and drag me down with you,” he waved him off tying his shoe. “Ok, how do I look?” he said standing and dramatically turning in his spot.

Bucky was wearing a silver suit and his hair had just been trimmed, but still longer. It was styled neatly. His look was more modern and less themed. He wasn’t really expecting the kids to pay attention to him, so he didn’t care to follow the theme for the night as much.

“You look fine Buck. As dashing as always,” Steve laughed turning back to adjust his buttons in the mirror.

Steve was wearing a blue suite with a dark red bow tie. He had the same colored blue colored vest under the sports jacket, and looked everything like a prince would in today's world. He was definitely fitting the Captain America fairytale look.

After a few minutes of him staring off like he was lost at the reflection, Bucky came back and grabbed his shoulders in a playful, but reassuring grasp.

“Man, calm down. I’m sure everything will go just fine. She is a sweet, smart, beautiful, old soul, terrifying at times, woman. There’s nothing to be freaked out about.”

“You’re right. She is all those things. That’s exactly why I am freaked out,” Steve groaned.

“Ok, but if you act nervous, you will only make the evening more uncomfortable. Just have fun. Loosen up a bit,” Bucky said pushing his thumbs in to Steve’s shoulders to ease the tension.

“Easy for you to say,” Steve said pushing away and walking to the edge of the bed to put on his own shoes. “You had the girls throwing themselves at your feet back in the day. I only had one girl who showed me any interest, and she-” he stopped himself looking down remembering Peggy. Then he remembered how much you reminded him of Peggy. You had the same spark, and flare. That’s what drew him to you the first time he saw you. All that did though, was bring those same butterflies back to his gut. “You just don’t get it.”

“You don’t think I was nervous back then? Hell, I was always scared that I would say the wrong thing and end up getting slapped upside the face, but I pushed those nerves down and just did it. I watched myself as best as I could, and I went for it,” Bucky said tucking his hands in his pocket as he looked at Steve. “Come on man, you just got to be confident. You’re freaking Captain America. There shouldn’t be that many things that you are scared of. You’ve fought nazis, villains, and aliens. This is just a girl.”

“Not just any girl.”

“True, but it’ll never go anywhere if you sit on your ass and mope around.” He paused waiting for a reaction, but saw his friend deep in thought. “Now, you going to man up and get America's ass out there, or am I going to have to kick it into shape? Cause there is a very beautiful women who is going to be waiting for you to escort her through this massive party in about 15 minutes. If you won’t do it, I will gladly take your place.”

After a second of thinking it through, Steve stood up and straightened his jacket.

“Fine. Let’s go,” Steve huffed standing up. Before he could get two feet from the door Bucky stopped him one more time.

“Take a deep breath Steve.”

“Bucky-”

“Do it.”

Steve rolled his eyes, and took a deep breath as instructed.

“Ok, now do it for real,” Bucky said not satisfied.

Steve gave him a death glare only getting one back in return and took an actual deep breath.

“Ok, you got this ya punk,” Bucky said slapping his back.

“I got this,” Steve mumbled walking out.

__

They stood at the entrance of the tower as people flooded in. It was basically a red carpet event with how well known the donors were, and who half the guest were. Tony said something about asking a lot of the ‘big money’ people to come and donate as much money as they could get out of them. The more they drank, and more publicity they got, meant the more money they tended to give away.

Bucky, Sam, and Steve tried staying behind the crowd not wanting to get roped into the flashes of the cameras, or the interviews with the reporters. They knew the one thing they were supposed to do was keep an eye out for a white limo that Tony said he sent to Y/N’s house. So, that���s what they did.

They were doing pretty well of not being caught so far. It was getting close to 8 and Steve’s nerves were working their way back up. He became less careful about being seen when he snuck out a little more into the crowd to see the cars approaching. Then Steve noticed a buzz in his pocket and quickly retrieved it to see he got a text from Happy saying they were running late due to traffic. What he didn’t notice, was Sam trying to warn him that a herd of reporters saw him, and all shot up at the chance to interview Captain America.

Next thing he knew, there was 4-5 reporters in his face rambling about something of the terrorist group they recently brought down, and then others talking about the foster kids they were honoring tonight. He was so flustered with the questions he sat there trying to listen to one reporter at a time to try and answer, but wasn’t able to make out any of the words with all the other sounds around him.

He saw Bucky and Sam trying to get to him, but unsuccessfully getting pushed aside by more camera men, and news reporters.

“Mr. Rogers, do you think there is another terrorist group working on finishing the job that was handled last week?” A reporter spouted.

“Captain, what are your thoughts on building this new home for the kids? Is it even worth it if half of them will be out of the system after the age of 18?”

“Steve Rogers, how do you feel about these types of events that Tony Stark host? Would you even be here, at this event, if it wasn’t for the kids?”

“Captain Rogers, the terrorist group that was destroying parts of our government. Were they part of an underlying group in our system? Should we worry about people working on the inside?” Another reporter interrupted.

“I-I-” Steve tried thinking, but it was all too much, and not his scene for a response.

As he looked to the last reporter whose back was to the car line, he noticed the white limo Tony talked about finally pull up.

“I’m sorry. If you’ll excuse me.” he said staring it down and quickly moving through the crowd to get to where she would soon arrive.

About 20 feet away, he felt the hand of Sam grab onto him and stop him.

“There you are. God, they are savages for a story,” he huffed looking back at the group of rabid reporters that were now trapped behind red ropes. “I think I lost Bucky in that mess, but I’m sure he’ll survive,” he laughed causing Steve to shake his head and laugh as well. “Is that them?” Sam asked nodding to the limo that Happy was walking out of now.

“Yeah,” Steve said never breaking eye contact from it, scared he would miss her coming out.

“Ok Cap. Go get your girl. I’ll be right here ready to fight off the wild animals when you need it,” he smirked.

“Thanks Sam,” Steve smiled at his friend.

As he started to slowly walk to the car, he saw a man come out first, and his heart dropped a little causing him to halt in his steps. Did she bring someone else with her? Shit. This was only making him more anxious. Then seconds later, a pretty blonde came out in a very nice pink dress. He recognized her as your assistant from the time he came in, and saw the look of love in her eyes when she took the man’s hand. Clearly they were together. That eased some of the thoughts he was thinking.

Once they were situated, they took a second to look around, and they were in awe at everything. Instantly, the cameras were on them, and people were shouting questions at them about who they were, and where their outfits were from. Steve rolled his eyes at the vultures, and started walking again to them.

“Steve!” the blonde shouted lighting up at a familiar face when they met halfway.

“Hi. You’re Rose’s assistant, right? Claire, was it?” he said thinking back not wanting to come off rude if he messed up her name.

“Yes!” she turned to the man she was linked arms with. “Captain America knows my name honey,” she whispered. Steve heard though and laughed.

The man laughed with him. “She’s a big fan if you can’t tell. I’m Josh, her fiance.” he said extending a hand as more flashes of the cameras went off.

“Nice to meet you Josh. I’m Steve Rogers. You both can just call me Steve though,” he nodded, and Claire giggled with a smile. “You guys wouldn’t happen to know where Rose is by chance?” he said looking back at the limo that was a good 10 feet behind them.

“Oh! She isn’t out yet?” Clair said turning to the car whose door was open, but no one was coming out. “She’s kinda nervous. This isn’t really her scene.”

“Mine either,” Steve mumbled.

“I’ll go get her. One second.” Claire picked up her dress, and hurried back to the car where Happy was waiting patiently outside of, which was very out of character for him. He really had a soft side for Rose. Steve picked up on it the first time she ever came by.

Claire bent over just a little to get a better look into the car, and the two men waiting for their dates and watched as Claire talked with her hands. Then she was shaking her head and looking out into the crowd saying something. She turned back looking in and nodding as a big smile crossed her face. She moved back, and then Steve saw the fabric of a cherry red dress slowly start to cascade out of the car.

Claire moved out of the way, and started making her way back to Josh. Steve never broke his concentration from the door as he waited to see all of her for the first time that evening.

The red started to shine in the flashes of the cameras as it came out of the limo more and more. She fully emerged from the door, and Happy went to close it as he offered his arm for her. Her dress was a classic red formal dress that fit her figure just right. It was sleeveless, ruffled on the side giving it the fluff, and volume all over that made the ball gown look even more fairytale like. It had subtly hints of gold threading throughout it that you could only spot if the light hit it right.

If he thought the cameras were going crazy before, he didn’t realize how many more were actually there after she stepped out. It was almost blinding how many lights were going off at once.

As he scanned up, he saw the Y/H/C that he came to know very well over the last few weeks. It was in an elegant and formal ponytail that framed her face just right.

He was frozen for a second until Claire cleared her throat.

“Yeah, I had the same reaction,” she laughed in his ear as she leaned over. “But uh- you may want to go save her from the paparazzi Prince Charming.”

“Right!” Steve said snapping out of it enough to rush over to her.

She was looking at Happy for security not really feeling all that confident with all the cameras on her, but when she saw Steve approach she lit up more.

“Hi,” she smiled.

Oh god, she was going to be the death of him. That smile. That dress. That-That everything.

“Hi,” he replied with the damn boyish grin that got her every time.

Happy looked between the obviously smitten two, and rolled his eyes.

“You going to escort your date to the ball, or am I going to have to do it for you?” Happy said in a grumpy voice. Y/N might as well been snow white with the seven dwarves with how many emotions Happy showed around her.

“Yes! Sorry, Happy,” Steve said snapping out of it once again. “Miss. Rose,” he smiled offering his arm.

“Mr. Rogers,” she replied taking it in a graceful manner.

He looked down at her and couldn’t keep the smile under control that she caused.

“You-You look…” he couldn’t find the word to actually describe her. There wasn’t one in the english dictionary that he knew of that could even come close to explaining the beauty that she was.

“You don’t look too bad either Cap.” she said smiling at him as they walked without looking away from each other.

They had completely tuned out the world around them. Chaos, cameras, and all. For all they knew. It was just the two of them.

“I don’t think you can compare me to you. Hell, I don’t think you can compare a greek goddess to you,” he said with a blush.

She blushed wildly as well at the compliment, and finally tucked her head away shocked at the compliment.

“Thank you, Steven,” She blushed as she looked down.

Steve, without hesitation, used his finger to lift her head up to look at him once more. The gold glitter from her eyes sparkle, and the red shadow made her eyes pop. He saw the red flush form on your cheeks and got this tightening feeling in his chest. The fact he was the one to put it on the most confident lady he knew meant he was doing something right.

“I mean it. You’re absolutely radiating,” he grinned.

“Well, you sure know how to make a girl feel special.” she said with her eyes searching his and her mouth slightly open showing off her perfect red colored lips.

He quickly looked down at them tempted to crash his into hers right in that moment, but restrained himself. What he didn't expect to see, was her looking down at his as well.

They were both brought out of their pining for each other, by a group of people clearing their throats.

They shot their heads toward the sound, and saw Sam, Bucky, Claire, and Josh all sending them knowing looks.

“Are we interrupting something?” Bucky asked with a smirk clear as day on his face.

“James Barnes”, Y/N said smiling, and trying to divert the attention from her.

“Rosalyn Ember,” he responded. He liked this little game they played. “You look as stunning as ever, but why am I surprised?” he said with a charming grin.

“Never thought I would see the day The Winter Soldier is in a suit. Got to say, you sure know how to pull it off,” you retorted.

“Coming from you? That means the world.”

“What do you say we move this party inside? I might have a seizure with all these flashed the red carpet is giving off,” Sam said making everyone look at him.

“I agree. I’m not one for all the attention, so lead the way,” Y/N laughed.

“I will gladly take some of that away from you if you would like,” Claire said posing as someone asked who created her dress.

Y/N laughed and shook her head at her friend in amusement as she watched her in her element. She was enjoying being in the spotlight, and who was Y/N to take it from her.

“We’ll meet you two inside then,” she said squeezing Claire’s arm as she passed. “Josh, think you can handle this?”

“If I can handle her, I should be fine,” he smiled.

“Smart man,” she winked turning back to watch her step. She looked up feeling eyes on her, and saw that Steve was still trying to take her presence in. “What are you grinning so widely at?” she giggled.

“First off, have you looked in a mirror tonight? You make it hard to look away,” he said making the red deepen on her cheeks. “Second off, that giggle you do? It’s going to be the end of me,” he whispered lowly in her ear making her whole body warm.

“I don’t giggle,” she said lightly smacking his arm only making him laugh himself.

“You do, and it’s adorable,” he said tilting an eyebrow at her, and making her knees give out a little.

“Well, you do this thing with your lip when you get flustered,” she said pointing out something she had noticed.

“What thing?” he said faking shock.

“That little pursed lip thing. I’ve seen it when you get annoyed by Bucky too,” she said smiling proud and looking forward almost in the building now.

“I do not!” he tried to defend.

“You do too, and it’s adorable,” she winked quickly at him and turned to look at Bucky and Sam’s back knowing Steve was sending her a look. She knew if she looked at it though, she would quite possible collapse right there, and melt into the ground.

“Touche, Miss. Ember,” he said lowly, and with a chuckle afterward.

“Ok, you two. Stark wants to see Rose immediately, and Pepper said she needs you,” Bucky's said turning quickly and pointing to Steve. “and bird boy here, to go do a meet-and-greet with some kids from the home.”

“But-” Steve started.

“Hey, I don’t make the rules, and besides, you’ll have Miss. Ember here all night. I’m sure you can spare her for 30 minutes with me,” he wiggled his eyebrows at Rose. “Longer if you allow it,” he winked.

“Bucky,” Steve said sternly showing hints of possession.

“It’s fine Steven. Go. That’s what this whole Gala is for. As soon as I’m done with Stark, I’ll have Bucky show me where you are,” she said sending him a reassuring squeeze on his bicep and a genuine sweet smile.

“You sure?” he said unsure himself.

“Positive. Now go.”

He smiled down at her, and quickly gave her a kiss on the cheek making his lips linger a little longer than expected, but she wasn’t going to complain about it.

“I’ll see you in 30 minutes tops,” he said pointing to her as he walked quickly by Sam.

“I’ll hold you to it. You better not ditch me,” she winked making sparks tingle through his chest.

“Miss. Ember?” Bucky asked extending his arm.

“Mr. Barnes, shall we?”

“Oh, we shall,” he winked.

Chapter 17

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If I tagged you and you aren’t normally on my tag list, I thought you would enjoy the story. Fair warning, it is a slow burn so we will get to the bottom of the issue later, but the burn is what makes it soooooo sweet. I’m really excited for this series, and would love your feedback:) Thank you!

If you want removed let me know. 

[aro-aizawa]

alright so i finished up playing all of pokemon shield including the post-game mini plot, so here’s a quick fire list of all the things i liked about it and disliked about it before i go on to explain it in more depth (also spoiler warning). here we go.

what i liked:

the graphics, a little weaker in handheld form but largely unnoticeable unless you were looking for it. GREAT graphics when playing on tv mode.

the new pokemon. they were all really cute, and i especially loved the alternate forms and new evolutions of older gen pokemon.

opal, she’s hands down one of my favourite gym leaders so far only shortly followed by bede.

bede is a nonbinary icon as proven by the fact that they didn’t use any pronouns to refer to them until after the fourth gym, and the fact that when they’re in their gym uniform its trans flag colour. it may not be canon, but its canon in my heart.

gym battles are treated as they should be -- huge spectacles that gets people amped the hell up.

dynamaxing. its so goddamn satisfying to finish off a gym battle with your best pokemon as a fucking giant behind you, no matter their actual size. tiny pyukumuku behind you? badass. huge ass wailord? bad. ass. an actual baby pokemon? bad. ASS.

the wild area. introducing camping was a good system, it definitely helped a lot when you couldn’t exactly jump back to a pokemon center so you cook your pokemon some curry to revive and heal them. i imagine they took some inspiration from breath of the wild, tho i haven’t played it to really confirm.

what i didn’t like:

they cut so many corners in the game, you can definitely tell it was made in a hurry.

a minor note here, but for me i have this annoying bug that makes it so some pokemon have the exact same cry. its a sort of whooshing noise that you’d expect for a flying type pokemon, but it frequently appeared instead of well known and familiar cries. i can’t pin down exactly what the cause of this is, or if i’m hearing things wrong, but it was infuriating.

the towns are empty and barely even give you flavor text anymore. you might as well not speak to any npcs except shop keepers and named characters.

there is exactly three cute outfits and three cute hairstyles and that’s about it. i know a lot of this point is mostly about personal taste but please nintendo, we had such a good range in the previous game. 

don’t explore. there is literally no point in looking in all the nooks and crannies of this game, because i guarantee that if the game doesn’t tell you to go there, then there’s nothing there.

it’s too easy. it’s....actually crazy that i’m even putting this as a point, because i’m a strict believer in making games playable for everyone. but it’s just....too much.

the cut down pokedex will forever inject salt right into my veins. especially when they had the audacity to include one of the first starter pokemon, but not the other two. charizard is an okay pokemon but its overrated, nintendo please accept that.

the plot didn’t exist until suddenly it did and then it made no sense. 

i hate the fact that the team in this game were just delegated to fans. i understand the whole “fake out” thing they might have been going for by getting the player to think that they’d turn out to be bad, but no. it just sucks. 

fucking. swordward and shieldbert. i???? literally. have no. words. (i do but they’re super long so hmmm down below)

a game worth about £20 ($25) less than i paid for it. its a decent quality game, but not nearly nintendo quality. 

wow this post is longer than i expected it to be already. but anyways, the rest is super long and under the cut further going into depth about the points i raised. 

to start with, i’ll talk about the good points because honestly?? i really wanted to love this game. i really really did. maybe it was just the fact that at first i didn’t like sun and moon because they changed the formula so much, but it turned out to become my favourite game in the series. or maybe it was just that i don’t like being hypercritical of things i spent fifty fucking pounds on. either way, i wanted to like the game, and overall i sort of did but i sort of didn’t. lots of mixed feelings. anyways. onto explaining the good stuff. (or you can skip to “now on w the bad junk” for the bad stuff)

1. the graphics, a little weaker in handheld form but largely unnoticeable unless you were looking for it. GREAT graphics when playing on tv mode.

one of my favourite things about the pokemon series in recent times is seeing the process from 2d undetailed sprites to 3d incredibly detailed models. the most ambitious thing about gen 5 was the way the camera moved with your movements as you crossed the bridge, and now i just sometimes sit back and thing “wow 13 year old me would FLIP if she could see how good they got”. bc i kept just....admiring all the graphics and the quality of them. 

2. the new pokemon. they were all really cute, and i especially loved the alternate forms and new evolutions of older gen pokemon.

definitely one of my favourite things about the game was seeing the new forms of pokemon we already knew and the alternate forms they’d take when dynamaxed. i love seeing pokemon with new types that completely flip the script, like darumaka becoming an ice type instead of a fire type. or the fact that they gave mr mime a galaran form and it actually doesn’t look bad. 

i really loved that some of the galaran forms had unique evolutions, such as linoone evolving into obstagoon. or meowth into perrserker. it makes sense and i’m always super happy to see new evolutions for old pokemon, it keeps things interesting when pokemon other than eevee get new evolutions.

(tho that being said, still disappointed there’s still not another eeveelution. still holding out hope for that ghost type.)

3. opal, she’s hands down one of my favourite gym leaders so far only shortly followed by bede.

i’m not super well versed in the pokemon universe besides from gen 1 and gen 5 onwards (if you couldn’t tell), but its really refreshing to have an old gym leader that’s visibly elderly rather that just grey haired maybe retiree man. her personality was also really fun, it sort of felt like she literally had the most personality of all the gym leaders, which kind of sucked but it made me really love her character. 

and bede i didn’t wholly expect to really like as much as i did? i mayhaps might have spoiled myself a little on their gym leader status by dipping into the swsh tag here on tumblr before i fully completed the game. but still, they seemed just generally really annoyingly stuck up? but something endeared me to the darl and i just think it mostly had to do w the fact that opal took one look at them and declared they was her grandchild now. 

4. bede is a nonbinary icon as proven by the fact that they didn’t use any pronouns to refer to them until after the fourth gym, and the fact that when they’re in their gym uniform its trans flag colour. it may not be canon, but its canon in my heart.

argue with me on this point all you like, but you can’t deny the fact that in CANON they literally did not use any pronouns to refer to bede until after the fourth gym. the only mention of pronouns before that was their trainer card, which i did not check because good character development should be shown not told through an impersonal medium such as character cards. 

5. gym battles are treated as they should be -- huge spectacles that gets people amped the hell up.

i’ve always loved the way the league is set up, because it makes sense. the pokemon formula works and its interesting, but in previous games most people only vaguely acknowledge it as something every kid tries but doesn’t really complete. it’s already set up people love pokemon battles, there just wasn’t a spectator sport about it unless in the anime or movies. they’re just a thing that happens that none of the npcs care about. 

finally its treated like the spectator sport that it should be. like,,, hell yeah,,, 

(also do you think that in the pokemon universe there’s various stories/tv shows about made up kids completing the league and becoming champions? because i definitely do.)

6. dynamaxing. its so goddamn satisfying to finish off a gym battle with your best pokemon as a fucking giant behind you, no matter their actual size. tiny pyukumuku behind you? badass. huge ass wailord? bad. ass. an actual baby pokemon? bad. ASS.

i p much summed up most of my thoughts in this point well. but i love when pokemon are so visibly powerful. like these creatures have powers that we’d equate to actual gods like summoning whole storms, creating giant waves, create earthquakes and so much more. pokemon are so powerful and to see them become giant and have so much weight and power? its so satisfying controlling that and bringing down other giant pokemon. 

7. the wild area. introducing camping was a good system, it definitely helped a lot when you couldn’t exactly jump back to a pokemon center so you cook your pokemon some curry to revive and heal them. i imagine they took some inspiration from breath of the wild, tho i haven’t played it to really confirm.

i really appreciated the change that started in pokemon let’s go with some pokemon being visible and easy to encounter wandering through the grass. it makes it so much easier to search for the one pokemon that you don’t have in your pokedex yet, or if you’re looking for a specific pokemon to join your team.

i love how large and expansive the wild area is, and with the camping system you can just explore and fill out your pokedex without ever leaving if you’re fully stocked up on supplies. it makes you really believe the whole “yep this kid isn’t just blasting through the whole thing in one day”. kids sleep in tents on their journey with their pokemon and cook curry for them all. adds a nice level of immersion and convenience. 

.

jesus fuck this is so long and i haven’t even gotten to my criticisms yet, is anybody actually reading this chunk of text??? well rip to you my friend and thank you. but now on w the bad junk.

1. they cut so many corners in the game, you can definitely tell it was made in a hurry.

they did a decent job considering it was in development for only two years w one only for the concept and the second actually making it. but they cut so many corners it doesn’t quite feel like a true installment into the pokemon universe. it feels like it was made by another dev studio rather than gamefreak. like how fallout new vegas and fallout 3 barely feel like the two installments in the same franchise. 

this point sort of leads into many different points that i raised, so i’ll explain those a little bit more in depth there. but to sum it up, the easiest way to see it is just how...flat things are. if you only pay attention to the things the game directs you to, then you will not miss a single thing. flavor text is less about adding depth to the world and more just...pointless. it adds. nothing.

and in the post game when sonia gets a new assistant, even though she plays a fairly important part in the post-game plot, she doesn’t get a name nor a unique character model. she get’s a generic doctor model yet it’s treated like we should feel betrayed that nameless npc 234 went behind sonia’s back and stole from her. 

OH! and i almost forgot!!!! but that one part where rose is trying to talk leon into something “mysterious”??? they straight up just used images!!!! like,,,, what???? you didn’t have time to program the minimal animations for that?? who’s fault is that for pushing the release!!! give your employees time to work at a decent pace and not crunch them to reach an impossible goal. game freak, you don’t have to release a game every november.

2. a minor note here, but for me i have this annoying bug that makes it so some pokemon have the exact same cry. its a sort of whooshing noise that you’d expect for a flying type pokemon, but it frequently appeared instead of well known and familiar cries. i can’t pin down exactly what the cause of this is, or if i’m hearing things wrong, but it was infuriating.

also p much just explain this in the point. BUT it happened all. the. time. the only pokemon i know for sure was effected by the bug was gyarados, because instead of the roaring cry i heard the whooshing sound that was probably meant to be another pokemon’s cry. it sounds wack when im saying it rn bc im not 100% convinced i wasn’t making this up, but it was the sole reason i turned the pokemon cries to get drowned out by the music and sound effects.

3. the towns are empty and barely even give you flavor text anymore. you might as well not speak to any npcs except shop keepers and named characters.

i touched on this previously in 1 but basically walking around a town and talking to npcs will not get you any interesting dialog. going into the houses/rooms, and you’ll only get one npc who’s all like “i’m brushing my hair!” and that’s about it. there aren’t any items tucked away in houses or corners of buildings for you to explore or battle people. when you acknowledge that there’s no flavor text from npcs all the towns feel practically empty whereas in the previous games it actually alive.

not to mention how little the diaglog changes? like it may just be my faulty memory at play but im pretty sure that the npcs in the previous games had more dynamic dialog in which they’d change what they said depending on your action in the town or for the plot. after a major event just happened, if you walked around and talked to everyone in that area they’d talk about it. but that happened like....once.

4. there is exactly three cute outfits and three cute hairstyles and that’s about it. i know a lot of this point is mostly about personal taste but please nintendo, we had such a good range in the previous game. 

one thing i loved about the series was the increasing freedom in customisation of trainers. fashion kept getting wider and with more variety, clothes that were still cute and i’d frequently have about 2k because i just kept buying them. by the end of my playthrough of swsh i had almost a million saved up because i didn’t like most of the clothing options. i found one outfit and hairstyle i liked a quarter of the way through the game and stuck with it until the end. they drastically cut down on the options, and that sucked. 

5. don’t explore. there is literally no point in looking in all the nooks and crannies of this game, because i guarantee that if the game doesn’t tell you to go there, then there’s nothing there.

again, already touched on this point but one example i know is this. when you go to the energy plant to battle rose, or go to the roof to battle eternus, i expected to go back to it when the event was over to see if something was left behind or because i’d been locked in a cutscene and unable to explore before, that meant there would be something now. but nope. don’t bother. even when you think you might be able to do something fun, don’t try until the game points you in that direction itself. if something interesting is going to happen in the game, i assure you they will point it out for you. 

6.  it’s too easy. it’s....actually crazy that i’m even putting this as a point, because i’m a strict believer in making games playable for everyone. but it’s just....too much.

hard games disinterest me. if a game is renowned for it’s difficulty, then i will avoid it. i don’t care if defeating dark souls is a badge of honor for your stubbornness or skill. i simply don’t enjoy playing a game that makes me want to quit in frustration because i am not good at video games. i appreciated how easy the games have been in recent years because it makes it a lot easier for me to actually complete them and enjoy them, it’s why i have trouble getting into the earlier gens of pokemon. 

but when it got to the point where after only about an hour or two of dynamax farming, by the time that i got round to the championships i was literally one shotting every single pokemon. even when i didn’t have super effective moves. i was almost 20 levels ahead of the competition, and blasted through the whole thing in a total of 10 minutes battle time and 30 minutes dialog and cutscene time, with a 20 minute pause for a phone call. 

i defeated leon with only very minimal struggle. i couldn’t one shot all his pokemon, i will admit. i two shotted them. i went into the championship fully stocked up on potions and revival items and left with all of them. none of my pokemon fainted or even sustained major damage. 

while satisfying feeling that you’re op enough to utterly annihilate your opponents, there comes a point where it’s just “why bother i know i’ll win” which kind of sucks. 

7. the cut down pokedex will forever inject salt right into my veins. especially when they had the audacity to include one of the first starter pokemon, but not the other two. charizard is an okay pokemon but its overrated, nintendo please accept that.

sorry to charizard fans, but please acknowledge that it’s overrated. its design is basic, and already has multiple different forms. the fact that they passed over the opportunity for the creativity that dynamax venusaur or blastoise could give, for another basic dragon design is so annoying. 

not to even mention the fact that they didn’t even bother to keep the rest of the starter pokemon either. i vaguely remember one time some nintendo employee or big shot saying that the best thing about it is that every pokemon is at least one person’s favourite. the underused or underloved pokemon will always be ONE person’s favourite, and that’s why you can get the whole pokedex. but y’know fuck that philosophy in the name of getting the game out on time. when they could have very easily pushed the release date back. i’m lucky that most of my faves got included but i know that a fair amount did not. and i’m pissed. 

8. the plot didn’t exist until suddenly it did and then it made no sense. 

9. i hate the fact that the team in this game were just delegated to fans. i understand the whole “fake out” thing they might have been going for by getting the player to think that they’d turn out to be bad, but no. it just sucks. 

these two go so hand in hand, that i’m taking the time to address them together considering in every single previous game so far the team has had some HEAVY influence on the plot in one way or another. they’re always linked to the legendary pokemon of the game and they’re always included in the overarching plot, either by driving the player to act or subtly there. 

i kept seeing team yell show up and trying to work out how they were going to join the plot. were they a cult doing Science Shit in the background trying to revive the legendaries? was marnie the leader of this cult and going through the league to distract people from her totally devious going-ons? or would it turn out that marnie though the team harmless but really it was a front for her relative’s secret cult? 

nope!!! they were annoying roadblocks who added literally nothing to the plot. 

and when i realised that, it was the seventh gym battle and so far the only plot i’d glimpsed at was the mysterious explosions in hammerlocke city and the overarching tale of the sword and shield that had been obvious since literally the first time sonia started to talk about it. there had been no plot. there was literally no plot other than the gym battles which sonia and leon specifically called out to “leave this to the grownups, you two just focus on the gym challenge”. 

and when i got my eighth badge and was completing the equivalent of the elite four, i was still confused as FUCK because where the hell was the plot???? and then the whole weird ass “we have to save leon” from a meeting with.....a chairman? how about you wait just an hour jfc it’s not that bad? he’s not being held against his will? the chairman wasn’t doing anything obviously evil or even hinted at? 

the whole thing was vague and rose’s motivation was just ??????? i don’t know???? i still don’t exactly know what the whole deal was. it came out of nowhere and made. no. sense. it had completely lost me. along with the fact that they were suddenly introducing dynamax raids like we hadn’t already been doing that so many times in the wild area????

which leads me to my next point.....sigh. 

10. fucking. swordward and shieldbert. i???? literally. have no. words. (i do but they’re super long so hmmm down below)

first things first, is that i hate everything about these characters. from their names, to their designs, to their motivations, to how they’re handled in canon. it was shitty and while i had fun playing with the whole “this is what a champion does after they beat the previous one” thing, it was just in general really bad. 

like, i cannot get over how shitty their designs were. their hair was literally a sword and a shield. i kept thinking “wow swordward has a penis head that wiggles when he moves” and couldn’t take a single thing he said seriously. i literally wanted to weep at the horrible character design. 

not to mention the suddenness of their whole schtick. “yeah we’re royalty and we’re “”””CELEBRITIES”””” even if none of you have heard of us”. like what????? the fuck????

it just sort of pisses me off to an astronomical degree that this low quality shit was jammed into a pokemon game when they were getting so good at storytelling. it felt like game freak were hammering me with a club while singing “YOU PAID 50 WHOLE POUNDS FOR THIS IN PARTICULAR!!!” like,,,, thanks. thank you. thank you for waiting until after i’d finished the game to really hammer home that point. 

which somewhat leads me to my last point that really just sums up the majority of my thoughts on the whole game:

11. a game worth about £20 ($25) less than i paid for it. its a decent quality game, but not nearly nintendo quality. 

if i knew what i knew about the game know, i wouldn’t pay fifty fucking pounds for it. it physically pains me to spend more than £30 in one sitting, that i actually winced while i was buying it even though i was being 100% optimistic that i was going to love it. at most i’d pay £30 for it, but only then. it’s a good game to really distract you and power through but other than that, i don’t see it as a game i’m going to come back to so i can complete the pokedex and i certainly am not going to buy the other game so i can play it again unlike how i’ve done in the past with my favourite installments. 

maybe i’m just picky, or i don’t buy games often enough, but i really would not classify this as a quality installment in the pokemon franchise. if you get a free copy, or just the opportunity to play it for a few hours then fine it’s a great game. but not quite something you should want to spend your money on. but don’t pirate it. that’s a fast way to get bugs.

to sum this whole mess of a post up: immediately after finishing the game i said to myself “now time to go play a REAL pokemon game” before booting up pokemon moon.

[freedom-shamrock]

Two are Better, But Three is Best - Chapter Three

Also on AO3

<<< Previous Chapter

The second part of this chapter includes some sexy talk and implies sexual intent, but there is no on screen sex. 

Please Stay

Marinette was a little surprised to hear voices from inside the apartment when she reached Luka's door.  He hadn't mentioned company, and it was a little disappointing because she kind of wanted to pounce on him for a nice heavy makeout before they went out dancing.  She knocked on the door.

"Come on in," Luka called.

She stepped across the threshold to find a scowly Adrien sitting on the couch next to her boyfriend.  "Hey Adrien." She kicked off her sandals and scampered over to give both young men a hug. "You okay?" she asked, surprised when he continued to look frustrated.  He was a people-pleaser, and it was in his nature to hide things rather than make people uncomfortable. That he wasn't concealing his feelings spoke volumes of how he felt here at Luka's or just how angry he was.

Adrien shrugged, slouching into the couch a bit. "My father's being a complete asshole."  He rolled his eyes. "Even more than usual. Like, take his usual dickwad behavior and turn it up to eleven."

She winced. His language alone was a good indicator of how bad things were with Gabriel. "I'm so sorry. You don't deserve that at all."  She gave him another hug, holding him a little longer this time. "Is there anything I can do?"

He shook his head, his messy blond hair flopping about. "I have to make some pretty extreme decisions on how I want to deal with this, and… really, it's all on me to do that at this point. I've put it off way too long already."  He looked at Luka. "Thanks for letting me vent, for listening. I really appreciate it."

"Anytime, Adrien," Luka promised with a slow nod. "And when you've decided what you want to do, let me know.  Let us know. We're here for you, okay?"

Adrien's smile was small and hesitant, but it was genuine.  "I will." He stood up. "Now I'll get out of your hair. I know better than to mess with date night."

Marinette giggled.  "A fiend having a crisis trumps date night."

"Definitely," Luka agreed.

"That's really nice to know, but I'm good for now," he promised.

"You're not going to go out drinking, are you?" She gave him a stern glare.  

Adrien shook his head.  "Still not a drinker, Mari. If my father couldn't drive me to it, I suspect it's just not my thing"  He sighed. "Oh, hey, I love the hair." He reached out and touched the strands of red she'd pulled up on the sides to create a colorful ponytail over the loose black hair.  "It really suits you. Fun, but on your terms."

"Thanks," Marinette said with a laugh.  The day they'd done her hair was a ton of fun.

"We did it last week," Luka added. "And it's been well received."

"I can see why."  He leaned in and gave each of them another hug and a quick bise. "Catch you later."

Marinette grinned when she realized she and Luka were both watching him walk away with the same degree of interest.  She waited for a few moments after the door closed before turning to her boyfriend. "He has an unfairly perfect butt."

Luka laughed and grabbed her in a hug that pulled her onto his lap. "Just one more thing we agree on. And those legs… hmmm."  He nuzzled her neck. "He's gonna come hang out with me Tuesday afternoon when you're working that shift at the bakery. I think we're going to figure out his plan of action, once he's picked a path. You should come over when you're done and we can make him dinner or something.  He needs supportive friends right now."

"Is his rebellion imminent?" she asked, leaning back to look at him.

Luka nodded.  "I really can't see any way for him to get out of his current situation otherwise. He's tried the sensible adult options. He's tried talking to his… father. Ugh, such a repulsive man." He kissed her cheek. "But enough about Adrien. It is date night, after all, and I'm really excited about this."

"Maybe scale your expectations back a bit," she suggested.  "I'm not that great a dancer. I love it, but…" She leaned into him to hold up her feet, her toes wiggling.  "Two left feet."

Dancing with Luka was somehow both better than just making out, yet also ten times more frustrating. Neither of them were big fans of public displays of affection, so any grabbing or touching had to be extra subtle or extra sneaky, so she was both literally sweaty and completely hot and bothered when they finally stumbled out of the crowded club onto the sidewalk.  They hadn't gone three meters when she stopped and grabbed him by the belt loops to pull him close. The only bad part of dating Luka was that he was so damn tall she couldn't kiss him without pulling him down, jumping, or literally climbing him, which she hadn't tried yet, though she was sorely tempted. Fortunately they were on the same page, and he bent to capture her lips with his.

His kiss seared through her, igniting the heat in her belly to explode throughout her entire body. She forgot about things like public decency or the lengthy walk home, focusing solely on the moment. When he broke the kiss, he didn't pull away. He rested his forehead against hers, his eyes still closed, as his hot breath caressed her face in sharp pants. It was nice that he was as affected as she was. She slipped one hand into his hair, and his eyes fluttered open.

"Stay with me tonight," he asked softly. "Please Nette."

She shivered in delight at the thought that he wanted her. They'd had at least three conversations about sex in the last few weeks, agreeing to let it happen naturally without rushing or overly scheduling it.

"We don't have to do anything you don't want to," he promised.

"What if I want to do… things ?" she asked, gently tugging at his hair. "What if I want to be the one to rock your world for a change?" She grinned when he gasped, closing his eyes. "Think you'd be up for that?"  Chat Noir would laugh his tail right off if he ever learned that she'd propositioned her boyfriend with puns.

"Very much so," he sighed. He loosened his hold and stepped back, catching her hand when she did the same. "Let's go." They still had several blocks and a subway to catch.  "And on the way, I think we should get creative to… sustain the mood."

She raised her eyebrows, looking at him in question as they walked faster than necessary down the sidewalk.

"Little things that aren't indecent, but… titillate," he suggested.  "I can go first."

"Please do." She wasn't sure what he was looking for, and she did not trust her ability to provide dirty talk.  At least not any that wouldn't result in laughter.

"That thing you did with my hair was super hot," he pointed out.

"Aaah. I've noticed that you like it when I play with your hair."

He nodded, pink washing over his cheeks.  "Yeah, but that grabbing a fist-full and pulling on it, just a little?  That's definitely a kink."

Ooh.  So that's what he meant. "Did you know about this one?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Nope. It's a new one for me, but I very much liked it and am happy to encourage a repeat later."

They slowed down a bit for the stairs to the subway. "I'll take that under advisement," she said. "Hey, did you know that you're like, ridiculously sexy when you dance?" She couldn't quite bring herself to try for special voice or anything, but her words alone were enough, and he stumbled a little on the last stair.

He was grinning stupidly, his lower lip trapped by his top teeth. "You think I'm sexy?" he asked.

She raised her eyebrows and gave him a look. "Obviously."  She stepped closer to him on the platform. "Adrien's not the only one with an unfairly perfect butt." She loved watching the pink fill in his cheeks as his eyes went wide. "When we were dancing, there were a couple of times I brushed up against it entirely on purpose." The station was deserted, so the worst that could happen was a security guard would catch her copping a feel on video.  She slid her hand up the outside of his thigh, before dragging her fingers around to grab his ass.

He let go of her hand to pull her close, his forehead resting on her shoulder.  "You're too good at this. I think I'm going to die before we get back to my place."

She giggled, basking in the warmth and affection of his embrace. "I've seen you in shorts and without a shirt, and I have to tell you, I really like what I've seen. I'm looking forward to peeling away all your clothes when we get back to your place."

"Yeah?" he asked.  "Then what?"

"I want to touch you everywhere, kiss you everywhere." She let out a startled squeak when his lips attached to the side of her neck. "Aah, you're not supposed to start that now, you know," she spoke in a soft breathy voice.

A gentle rumble warned them of the approaching train, and they stepped just enough apart to be decent.  Once they were seated, side by side in a mostly empty car, Marinette snuggled up to him. Stretching up to breathe across his ear, she whispered to him. "So what's on your wishlist for tonight, Rockstar?"

He closed his eyes and took a slow deep breath. "If you'll let me, I want to make love to you." His eyes fluttered open and focused on hers.  "I want to narrow your awareness to just me, worshiping your body. I want to make you lose all track of time and language as I tease and taste you, learning how you like to be touched to bring you to bring you over the edge."

She squirmed a bit, feeling uncomfortably aroused in the bright light of the subway. She was more than a little tempted to transform so she could get them back to his apartment right now. "I like your plan."  She shivered.

"Oh, I'm not done," he said with a sly smile.  "That's just the warm up, Nette."

"Oh my god," she whined. "If you don't knock it off, I'm going to pin you to the bed and fuck you stupid."

He chuckled. "I'm a fan of that idea, but not tonight.  Tonight isn't about fucking. It's about loving." He ran one thumb under her jawbone as he slid his hand to cup her cheek. "If that's all right with you."

"Since you asked so nicely, I guess we can do it your way," she agreed. She pulled her phone out of her purse and sent a quick text home.

"What are you doing?" he asked, peeking at her screen.

"Making sure my parents don't worry when I'm not there in the morning," she said.  They weren't still up, not with early bakery hours, and her message shouldn't wake them. And while they would probably suspect where she was, it was common courtesy to let them know.

"Is this going to make things weird with them?" he asked, sounding a little nervous.

"Hmmm?"  She tucked away her phone. "Why should it? I'm an adult. They know I've been sexually active, and they much prefer I engage in relationship sex than one night stands." It was something they'd discussed as part of her decision to live at home through university. "It also helps that they like you; they haven't been fully on board with everyone I've dated." When they'd talked about past relationships, she'd been surprised to find that Luka had been in two long term relationships and had done very little casual dating. Her own experience had been a bit more chaotic and varied.

"I like your parents," he said. "It's nice you have such a good relationship with them."

She kissed his cheek.  "I like your ma, too." She gave him a mischievous smile.  "Am I going to have to worry about what she thinks of me, going home with you like this?"

He chuckled. "You know my ma.  She's all about free love."

She felt the subway slow down.  "Oh look. It's our stop." She grabbed his hand and pulled him, laughing, to the door as they were pulling into the station.  "In the morning, I'm going to wear your clothes while I make breakfast."

He pulled her to his chest, leaning over her shoulder to breathe in her ear. "Do that, and I will interrupt you." He relaxed his hold on her as the doors slid open, then it was he who was urging her out of the train and to the steps.

She grinned at him as they walked swiftly, hand in hand. "I'll take that as a promise."

Check out Chapter Four  >>>

This took several days longer than intended. I've kind of over-committed myself on paying projects, which is a good thing when you're a freelancer, but it can put a damper on fun projects. I have some family vacation and spring break coming up next week and hope to get the next chapter in during that.

⁂

If you’re so inclined, feel free to support me over on Ko-Fi

[atopearth]

Ikemen Revolution Part 5 - Edgar Bright Route

Kindaaa feel like the guys who tried to steal the heroine’s stuff (she needs her original clothes etc to go back to London) were ordered by Edgar to do that, he sounds dodgy enough hahahahah. I mean, how very convenient that he was there to save her in that forest and her things still ended up missing hmmm. We’ll see~ She started living with the Red Army pretty fast, but I guess if she’ll find her stuff back easier here and the guys are willing to protect her, why not? Zero seems like such a nice guy though, so sweet and kind. Didn’t expect Edgar to be his instructor for sword fighting though.

LOL, the heroine was so cute when Edgar was teasing and flirting with her saying she smelt nice and sweet, and touched her hair saying it might be because of this, and then she gets all embarrassed and touches his hair and then says his hair is much softer and silkier before running away hahaha. I guess if Ray isn’t replying to her letters, then the first letter that was sent in his name to her, agreeing for her to stay here was probably fake~ I assumed so, but yeah, nice to know for sure~ Hmmm, interesting, never seen any of the guys’ families before, so to see Edgar’s uncle who is the former Jack of Hearts is amusing. I like how the heroine has started to go along with his teasing and tries to tease him too, it’s such a cute relationship.

I feel tired just seeing Edgar do all this work and actually bother to get the heroine to help him out when she’s clueless about all the things in this world and constantly needs to ask questions. Guess it’s considerate of him to give her a job to do and help her out when he’s so busy, but I guess he does it all with ease, so even though he’s busy, he’s not too stressed haha. However, if she picks things up fast, then she’ll be a great help to him in this month! So it’s worth it I guess haha. Lmao at Jonah catching Edgar touching her cheek in the room when they’re taking a break from work, it’s so cute how Jonah came because he wanted to have tea with the heroine tomorrow so he wanted to ask what flavour scones she would want hahaha. Lolol at them randomly having a drinking party. I guess because of his duty and burden as a member of the Bright family that cannot leave the king of hearts side, he has never really known freedom or done things that are outside the rules, so I guess meeting the heroine that is optimistic and acts so free reflects his his desires to an extent? Maybe he thinks that if he’s with her, he’ll know what it means to be free.

It was so funny when Edgar gave Lancelot some sweet gummies and they were hiding it from Jonah so they pretended to be innocent. It’s pretty funny how Lancelot just stays stoic so he doesn’t get caught with gummies hahaha. I think it’s pretty cute that Edgar only sincerely smiles when he’s with the heroine, and everyone else except him has noticed it. She’s gotten so close to his heart that he doesn’t even realise that he can’t hide his true feelings and emotions from her. It was pretty funny when the guys congratulated the heroine for being able to actually get Edgar angry, I guess it is quite an achievement lol! I’m happy to see more of Zero in this route, he’s quite a nice and thoughtful guy.

I guess Edgar was the one who gave the heroine the key so that she’ll find out that he’s been lying all along with the fake letter he initially gave her and not giving her the letters that the Black Army gave her. Or I guess it wasn’t him hahaha, since the pin was there and Edgar didn’t take her belongings apparently. I felt sorry for the heroine though, she really believed in Edgar and trusted everything he said, so seeing those letters and seeing how concerned the Black Army were of her without her knowing she was actually being “imprisoned” here must have been pretty crappy to know. Even though she ran away, at least she could still find out how concerned Edgar was over her by telling Luka (they’re school friends!) to go protect her knowing that he can’t go because she’ll just get scared since she doesn’t trust him now.

I don’t know what makes the heroine think Claudius (Edgar’s uncle) is trustworthy if he was the previous Jack of Hearts and raised Edgar and is in frequent contact with him. Like, she’s not even a bit suspicious??? Especially when he has her stolen belongings and Edgar has told her that even though he lied to her, he didn’t take them?? She’s spent much more time with Edgar than Claudius and she thinks the latter should be trustworthy even though they’re related??? I don’t know, heroine… Gotta agree with Claudius though, must be great that she’s so easy to trick hahahaha. I see, ever since a previous Jack of Hearts tried to overthrow the King and Queen of Hearts, the Jack has been tasked with/ punished to do the dirty jobs - behind the scenes scheming and assassinations .Although Lancelot and them have not requested that of Edgar, Claudius trained him to be a capable assassin etc since he was 13 and that’s caused his lack of emotion towards others until he met the heroine. I guess you can say meeting the heroine and spending time with her allowed him to understand what a normal life is.

Even if Edgar thinks that he doesn’t care about anything, the heroine is proof that he does even if he may not realise it. So I’m glad the heroine is trying to convince him that he’s hurting himself if he just listens to Claudius and betrays her and the Red Army. Oh Amon showed his face!! How does he hide all that hair in his hood lol. Glad that the heroine has found out that Edgar was honest and didn’t lie to her when he told her the things he did and didn’t do. It was pretty cool how the heroine threw her purse into the hole that would take her back to London, effectively preventing her from ever going back. She’s really steeled herself to stay in this world with Edgar and build a life together with him huh?

I think it’s reasonable for Edgar to have requested for himself to be put to trial just like Claudius and Amon since he wants to become a “clean” Edgar that is worthy of the heroine I guess. Even if he was forced to, he and his ancestors still killed many people, and also, by doing this trial, they can probably get rid of this tradition for the Jack of Hearts I guess. Considering how Claudius was, I see no reason why he would bother writing that letter saying he orchestrated everything, and technically even if he did, Edgar still killed many people regardless but whatever lol. As long as he’s free now I guess. The good thing though, is that Edgar is a truly remorseful guy that will really carry the burden of his sins for the rest of his life by atoning as the Jack of Hearts and helping to improve the country. That’s really the best way for him to prevent such traditions ever being done again and to positively create a better future where assassinations won’t be allowed anymore.

Ever since I found out Luka and Edgar were actually school mates, I’ve been curious about their relationship and kinda lamented that it was only used to make things more “convenient” for the story in a way, but it’s cool to see them hang out together (with Jonah there of course lol) in a cafe in the romantic ending☺️☺️ How considerate of Luka to bake them a cake in celebration, that was really sweet to see~ It was great to see Edgar so freely and sincerely smile with the heroine, and even play silly games like racing back to the Red Army with her hahaha. Seeing him being able to do light hearted things and not always looking like he’s carrying the burden of the world is certainly refreshing and nice. As the heroine says, even if they make more mistakes in the future, they’ll be there for each other to make up for them and atone for them together now, so Edgar won’t have to be alone anymore and can finally do what he wants to do.

Overall, I think I might have had too high expectations because I saw a lot of people praising this route hahaha, it was still good, but I don’t think it was that good. Mainly because I felt like their relationship was, I don’t know how to say it, inexplicable? Like, it was nice that it showed how peaceful and how normal Edgar’s life could be when the heroine was there, and I could see why he liked her but I guess I could never really get why she liked him? Hahaha, and yeah the heroine was rather meh in this route. Personally, I still think her relationship with Fenrir was the best. Sirius’ route is coming soon (EDIT: Out already and I’m done! :D) so I’m looking forward to that, but otherwise, my temporary ranking for the routes would be, Fenrir, Jonah, Ray, Edgar and then Lancelot! I’d say Ray and Edgar are tied for me, but I prefer Ray’s personality so..hahaha~ Really hope Blanc’s route will come out in the near future though, he’s my all time favourite guy🤣 Oh and Kyle too!

[agirlwhowritesfanfiction]

I was sitting in my room eating a slice of pizza when all of a sudden…

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Word Count: 5207

Warnings: Deceit, Near Death (nobody dies I’m not that mean lol), Falling, Kidnapping, Snakes, and uh I think that’s it

Who are you?! What is this?!: Hi! So this was a creative writing prompt for school and I just thought ‘hmmm, i’m new to tumblr what do I post to show what I can do...how about this one!’ I hope that this was the correct story to choose to introduce myself! <3 I’m kind of on a creative block right now, however, I’ll still post stories I have written in the past before. Hope you enjoy!

I was sitting in my room eating a slice of pizza when all of a sudden, a dizzy feeling hit me. It was slight a first, and I continued on eating, but soon it was full on nausea. I dropped the slice on my plate and put down my pencil as I gripped my forehead. I watched my pencil roll off my table and slowly travel across the floor of my bedroom. As it traveled, a figure entered my peripheral vision, and I quickly glanced upward as I felt myself fall to the floor. The figure smirked and waved at me as everything went dark.

"Patton, could you pass me a napkin?"

"Sure thing, kiddo!"

It was about 6:30 pm, and me, Virgil, and Patton were eating dinner. On the table were plates upon plates of pizza, garlic knots, and breadsticks. Usually, I did not partake in such unhealthy meals, but Patton had convinced me to join him and Virgil after we finished our most recent video. Roman had declined and traveled to his bedroom.

You see, me, Virgil, Patton, and Roman are not human. We are aspects of one human; Thomas Sanders. I am Logan; Thomas' logical side. I usually am the one who makes sure Thomas is up to date with information, and I keep him on task. Patton is Thomas' morality; he helps Thomas make the best choices in life, and he also is the Thomas' heart. He encompasses' all of Thomas' feelings. Roman is Thomas' creativity; he gives Thomas' new ideas on videos to make. He also is Thomas' self-esteem, and he frequently helps Thomas out with romance. Then there is Virgil; Thomas' anxiety, the fight-or-flight reflex. There is more of us, but I'd prefer not to mention them. Especially...

Anyway, all of us make up Thomas Sanders; famous Youtube and Vine star. After Vine 'died' (as Virgil said, but it doesn't make sense since a phone app cannot physically die), Thomas moved onto Youtube, where he compiled a following of approximately 2,800,000 subscribers.  After that, he introduced us in a series called "Sanders Sides" (per Roman), and his channel grew from there.

"I wish Roman ate with us more often! He's been so stressed out recently with all of the videos we’ve been doing..." Patton mumbled, pouring me another glass of water.

"That prep needs a rest," Virgil said as he picked at his pizza with a fork, "He's going to break soon if he doesn't stop."

"I agree. Perhaps we should check on him?" I asked. Normally, I wouldn't have tried to encourage such a task, but recently I had seen Roman's mental state deteriorating. He seemed more tired, his smiles seemed faker, and he lied much more often. He tried to pretend he wasn't, but it was very obvious.

Patton gasped, "We should! Oh, I feel bad for the poor kiddo! He has seemed so sad!" He leaped out of his seat and quickly started towards Roman's room. Virgil and I stood up and fled after him.

"Roman? Kiddo?"

Once Virgil and I got to Roman's room, Patton was already there, knocking on his door, "We just came to check on you! Hello?"

"Is he not responding?" I asked, walking up beside him. I cringed looking at Roman door. Ugh, so many Disney stickers. Who even needs that many?

"Yo, Romano! Open the door!" Virgil exclaimed, walking on the other side of Patton.

Nothing.

"That's... strange," I said, "Normally, he would have opened the door by now."

“This so isn’t fun to watch.”

The three of us jumped, and turned, “Deceit.”

“Oh, you know my name. Such an accomplishment.” He said, walking up to us. In the words of Roman, Deceit is a “snake.” He represents the part of Thomas that lies; he makes Thomas lie to himself. He first appeared in the “Sander Sides” series when he pretended to be Patton for the whole episode, and I feel ashamed to admit I didn’t realize it until the very end.

“What are you doing here?” Virgil snarled, his eyes glaring.

“I’m simply strolling by. Is there a problem?” Deceit said with a sly smirk as he leaned up against the wall.

“What did you do?!”

“Tisk tisk, Virgil, don’t always expect me to do something wrong. I’m not all bad.” Deceit said. Of course, that’s a lie; everything he says is a lie. I don’t even think he is physically unable to lie. I sighed, ignoring him. I quickly summoned a hair clip and put it into the keyhole. After a few moments, the lock clicked and the door swung open.

“When the heck did you learn how to pick a lock?” Virgil asked in wonder as I made my way into Roman’s bedroom; nobody.

“It seems like Roman is not here. This is odd…” I mused as I walked further into Roman’s room. I spotted the slice of pizza he took before he left for his room on his desk. I also saw a pencil in the middle of the floor. Patton, Virgil, and Deceit were still talking behind me, but I ignored them. Perhaps Roman is in the dreamscape, where all of Thomas’ dream take place? No, it’s only 7:00 pm, Thomas would not be in bed by now… Maybe he is with Thomas right now?

“What did you do with Roman?!” I turned around at the sudden shout to see Virgil pinning Deceit up against the hallway wall. Patton looked conflicted on what he should do.

“W-We can solve this without violence, kiddos!” Patton stuttered.

“What do you mean, ‘What did you do with Roman’? What did he say?” I asked, walking up to the two of them. Virgil turned to me.

“This disgusting piece of trash told me, ‘Oh, I didn’t do anything with Roman.’” He said with a grimace, and my eyes widened.

“I didn’t say that.” Deceit said, and I’m pretty sure Virgil would have punched him in the face if Patton hadn’t taken hold of Virgil’s hand. “Don’t be so aggressive, Virgil,” Deceit smirked, “I won’t tell you anything.”

Virgil glared, “Spit it.”

“I’m not the part of Thomas that makes him lie to himself. I’m not the one who lies to him and gives him negative thoughts. I don’t give Roman negative thoughts since he is not Thomas’ self-esteem. I didn’t decide to get rid of him altogether.” Patton gasped and Virgil strengthened his grip on Deceit, “What did you do to him?!”

“I didn’t trap him in the dreamscape.” Immediately, Patton and Virgil started running towards the direction of the dreamscape, and I blinked. As I started running after the two of them, I swear I heard a voice behind me say, “Bad luck.”

Usually, during the day, the dreamscape was empty. When Thomas is not currently dreaming, the dreamscape is simply an empty white void. However, once the three of us got there, it wasn’t an empty void. Instead, it was a lush forest; the latticework of branches creating a myriad of shadows on the leafy forest floor. A large castle loomed in the distance atop a dark hill. On one of the plethora of trees, a note was attached; ‘I didn’t tell Thomas to retire for the night early. You don’t have until the morning.’

“We have to save Roman in a world that looks it came out of a Disney movie with a cliche conflict that looks like it came out of a Disney movie. Great.” Virgil grumbled as he started along the gravel path that paved a section of the forest floor. Patton and I followed after him.

“How did Deceit even take Roman?” I asked after a while of silence (and the occasional, “Roman? Kiddo? Where are you?” from Patton) and the others looked at me. Suddenly, Patton gasped.

“What if it was the pizza?!” He worrying exclaimed, and I was tempted to roll my eyes before I stopped to think about it.

“It could be possible that Deceit somehow poisoned or drugged it,” I said, and Patton gasped, but Virgil just rolled his eyes.

“Seriously? How would he even do that?”

“He could have sprinkled some crushed up Flunitrazepam, an intermediate-acting benzodiazepine, onto his pizza, which may have caused him to grow weak and unable to move. You may also know Flunitrazepam as C16H12FN3O3, or the better-known slang term, ‘roofie’.”

“No!!” Patton said, covering his mouth.

“Stop scaring Patton!” Virgil said to me, and I raised an eyebrow. “I was simply supplying the information you asked for. Is there a problem?” I asked, and Virgil sighed, not saying anything. After a moment, he spoke,

“Even though Roman is a dramatic jerk, I still hope he’s okay.” Patton and I’s eyes widened in surprise. Normally, Virgil never said things like that, especially about Roman. Virgil turned around and glared, “Don’t you ever tell him I said that.” “Wouldn’t dream of it, kiddo!” Patton said happily, skipping ahead. After a while of us walking, I was starting to think nothing was going to happen, but then we came upon a chest of sorts.

“Oh! A box!” Patton exclaimed happily, running over to it. I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose.

“Wait! Don’t open it!” Virgil said, and the two of us made our way beside Patton. I took a better look at the chest and it looked like it needed a key.

“Seriously? We need to find a key? Where the heck will we find a key? Oh, let me guess, it’ll be on top of a magical rainbow guarded by unicorns-!” Virgil spoke, but before he could finish, I had already picked the lock and opened the chest. Virgil sighed and Patton jumped excitedly as we all looked to see a… bottle?

I confusedly took the bottle out of the crate and held it in my hands. It was clear, and inside was a blue liquid I could not identify. On the side of the bottle was the words ‘DRINK ME’ in bold letters.

“Seriously? Now we’re in Alice in Wonderland?” Virgil said as I took the cork out of the top. The liquid smelled strangely similar to blueberries.  

“...Should we drink it?” Patton asked.

“No!”

“Yes!”

Virgil and I looked at one another and he glared, “We’re not drinking it. It could be a trap.” He snatched the bottle out of my hands and put the cork back on the top, “How could you possibly think we should drink it?”

“It says ‘DRINK ME’ on it. Plus, we don’t know if it is a trap. It could possibly be something that could help us.”

“Why the heck would Deceit leave something to help us?”

“It could be that he assumed us to think it was a trap, so he assumed we would not drink it. For that reason, he could have made this drink good.”

“But Logan, we don’t know that!”

“Well, I think we should at least try it.”

“What if it’s a trick, and it does nothing?”

Virgil and I turned to look at Patton, “That… is actually a good suggestion, Patton. Thank you.”

Patton laughed, “No problem, kiddo! I just think we shouldn’t get worked up over it. Now come on, let’s go!” Then, he started skipping down the path, and Virgil and I followed.

“Ugh, how long have we been walking? We found that bottle like, ten hours ago!”

“It was two hours, forty-three minutes, and-”

“I didn’t mean it literally.”

“Oops. My apologies.”

“Roman?! Kiddo? Where are you?!”

By this point in our journey, I was growing tired, Virgil was beginning to become more stressed, and Patton was getting more anxious by the minute. There was still no sign of Roman anywhere, and we hadn’t even gotten to any major obstacles yet (besides a spider web which I quickly got rid of). Like before, I was starting to think nothing was going to happen.

That was until we heard a roar.

“What was that?” Virgil asked, and we all spun around, trying to find where the sound came from. I thought I would be able to recognize the sound, but unfortunately, I was unable to. I continued to glance around, trying to find the sound, when my eyes landed on the castle.

“U-Uh..” Patton and Virgil followed my gaze and their jaws dropped. There, perched on the topmost tower of the castle sat a dragon. A dragon. It’s purple scales glistened in the faint moonlight, it’s claws holding onto the tower in between its bricks. It’s glowing green eyes glanced around the forest, it’s wings adjusting to its position, trying to keep itself upright. The dragon also had a purple ‘witches’ hat on its head. After a moment more of the dragon looking around, it tilted its head, and it a flash, it was gone.

The three of us stood, shocked for a moment.

“Welp, that’s it, I’m done. Roman can save himself.”

“Virgil, no!” Patton grabbed Virgil’s arm before he could turn and walk away. I still stared at the castle, my mind reeling.

“Dragon witch...”

“What?” Patton and Virgil turned to me.

“It’s a dragon-witch. Roman spoke of it once before,” I looked at them, “It’s a combination of a dragon and a witch, to my understanding.” I sighed, looking at the castle again.

“And I think it’s guarding the castle.”

It was silent for another moment, “No!”

Virgil and I jumped, looking at Patton, “No! We’re not giving up! Just because some mean dragon is here doesn’t mean I’ll stop fighting! We’ll get Roman back! Now, come on!” Patton started forward again, and Virgil and I followed. There is no stopping Patton when he is determined.

The gravel and dirt shifted under our feet as we continued forward. It was nearing midnight, and I have to admit I was growing tired.

“Should we rest?” I asked the group.

“No. We need to get the Roman as fast as possible.”

“But, Virgil-” Before I could continue, we suddenly heard a… hissing? Suddenly, before we could react, a snake jumped from out of a bush near us, and Virgil barley missed being bitten. I immediately recognized it as a king cobra, the world's longest venomous snake. My eyes widened, and I took a step back. I spun around again as I heard more hissing behind me. We were surrounded.

“W-What do we do?!” Patton asked frantically.

“I-I am unsure. King cobras normally aren’t so aggressive.” Suddenly, one of the cobras started at us. Slowly, at first, but then it leaped right at me. I knew I didn’t have time to move, and I suddenly knew that would be the death of me. I’d die being bitten by a snake, and Thomas would never be logical ever again. I thought when people said your life flashed before your eyes, they were lying, but at the moment, all of my past memories flashed back to me. Of when I was first formed in Thomas’ mind, when Thomas graduated high school when Virgil first told us his name. I shut my eyes, and I heard Patton’s scream-

What?

I slowed opened my eyes when I realized I was, in fact, not dead and very much alive. I spotted Virgil in front of me, and in his hand was the uncorked bottle filled with the blue liquid. About a third of it was gone, and on the ground was a dead king cobra covered in blue. The other snakes quickly scurried off, seemingly afraid. I realized then that, whatever was in the bottle, was some kind of snake repellent. Virgil turned around to me, “Are you okay?”

“I-I’m s-satisfactory…” I said, still shocked by what happened. Patton seemed shocked as well, not having moved yet. Virgil nodded and turned around, and he continued walking.

“Why would Deceit give us a snake repellent?” I wondered, catching up to him.

Virgil shrugged, “Honestly, I have no idea. Stupid move if you ask me.”

“Maybe he was hoping we would drink it and die...” Patton mumbled. We were all silent for a moment,

“Now, should we rest?”

“I still think it’s a bad idea.”

“I don’t think we’ll even be able too…” Virgil and I tilted our heads and looked to where Patton was.

We had reached the castle.

The huge, wooden doors for the entrance looked old, the lock on them broken and nearly falling off. The grey bricks making up the castle held a multitude of scratches, and the tall towers at the top of the castle looked destroyed. I took a deep breath, and I opened the castle doors. It was a lot… quieter, then I was expecting. My footsteps echoed throughout the castle as I looked around. We seemed to be in some kind of lobby area, a staircase going off in two directions on the back wall and long hallways on the sides walls.

“You know, I was kind of expecting there to be a big dragon in here or something,”  Virgil said, and I nodded my head, agreeing.

“Should we split up?” Patton asked, and before I could say anything, Virgil shook his head.

“No. People who split up in horror movies always die. We have to stick together.” I found that reasoning quite silly, however, he still made a good point.

“I agree. We should explore the first floor first.” I said, and the other two nodded. The three of us turned to the left and traveled into the long hallway. When we got to the end of the hallway, we found ourselves in what looked liked to be a dining room. There was a long table, with maybe thirty or forty chairs, and on the back wall, there was a door with the word, “KITCHEN” on it. I suddenly had an idea and I quicked headed into the kitchen. When I entered, I saw the old pots and pans on an old probably not sturdy shelf. I saw some knives in a holder and I collected three. I turned around to see Virgil and Patton in front of me and I held out two knives to them, “Weapons. Even though the obstacles that we have faced up to the point have been absolutely ridiculous, that doesn’t mean Deceit is stupid. We need to be ready just in case something happens, and we also need to be wary of that dragon. There is probably an armory in here somewhere, but for the time being, take these.”

“Wow. Okay.” Virgil and Patton took the knives and we headed out of the kitchen and dining room.

I assumed correctly in thinking there would be an armory, so the three of us collected swords (for some reason there was no armor and exactly three swords). We explored the whole castle, and by the time we were in the last room, it was nearing 4 AM. I remembered Thomas told us that for the week he was going to wake up early to get more work done, so we only had around one hour left.

“Please be here, Roman…” Patton said under his breath as he opened the door.

And there he was.

“ROMAN!”

Roman spun around from inside of the locked cage he was in and his face brightened, “Oh thank goodness, you found me! Why did it take you three so long?”

“Wow, we save your life, and you’re asking why it took us so long. Thanks, Princey, We really appreciate the sentiment!” Virgil grumbled, but I could tell he was thankful we found him. I quickly rushed over to the cage and summoned another hairclip and I started to pick the lock.

“Wow, I didn’t know you could pick locks,” Roman said.

“How did you get captured?” I asked, ignoring what he said (I didn’t even know I could summon things until a few weeks ago, but here we are).

“Ugh, it was dreadful, I have to tell you!” Roman said as I opened the cell door and he stepped out, “That snake snuck into my bedroom and did something to my pizza! Pizza! Who would even do such a thing? Anyway, I collapsed and he brought me here. It’s so boring up here! I only have one window, and I can’t even open it! All I can do is look at these cell bars! It’s the worst! Anyway, how did you three find me?”

“Well, Logan nearly died, but overall it was pretty boring.”

“He what?”

I sighed, “What happened was the three of noticed your usual absence at dinner, so we went to your room. Deceit was there, and he told us he trapped you there. When we got there, we found a bottle that had the words, “DRINK ME” on it. Later, we encountered some venomous snakes, and one nearly bit me. Thankfully, Virgil threw some of the liquid from the bottle on it and it died, causing the others to scatter. We got to the castle, and then we found you.”

“Oh, that makes sense!”

Patton suddenly perked up, “Oh, Logan forget to tell you that we saw this really scary drago-”

RRRRRROOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!!!

“What was that?!” Roman frantically asked, and suddenly the roof of the room crashed down on us. We all ducked, and thankfully nothing hit us. After the roof fell, we all looked up. Now, I forgot to mention earlier that the room we were in was actually at the top of the castle in one of the towers. The very top. So, that’s how the dragon-witch flew down and tore the roof right off. It started back down at us, and we screamed. Patton, Virgil and I held up our swords while Roman cowered behind us, him not having his.

“RUN!” Virgil screamed, and Roman did not hesitate to run to the door and head down the stairs of the tower. The three of us started to run after him, but before we could, the dragon-witch flew in front of us, making us unable to leave. All of us didn’t really know what to do. Roman was the only one out of all of us who could fight with a sword, and we had just told him to flee.

“We’re going to die, aren’t we?” Virgil asked, and at that moment I couldn’t help but agree with him. Suddenly, Virgil's eyes widened, and he spun around and faced the window. I had completely forgotten about it. I followed him and we managed to bust the window open with our swords. We looked out of it, and we knew that if we jumped we would instantly die if we hit the bottom.

“HEY!” Virgil and I turned around and we gasped. Patton was still staring up at the dragon, his sword still tightly grasped in his hand, “I won’t let you hurt my family! If you try, you’ll have to get through me first!”

“Patton, no!” Virgil shouted, but Patton didn’t listen. The dragon witch looked down at him and stared for a moment.

Then, it attacked.

It swung its claw, and Patton managed to get away with only a small cut on his cheek. Instead, it’s claw swung and hit the wall, destroying the side of the tower. Patton quickly lunged forward again, and he stabbed it in the stomach. The dragon witch screamed and Patton dropped his sword and ran towards us. The dragon witch swung again, taking a step forward, and Virgil managed to nick it’s claw slightly. I looked around the dragon and I saw there was enough room for us to get to the door. Virgil and Patton noticed too, and we all made a run for it. Virgil and Patton raced through the door, and I ran after them-

But then the door slammed shut before I could get through.

I immediately panicked and pulled at the doorknob, but I couldn’t open the door. My eyes widened and I spun around. The dragon witch was staring at me, looking ready to attack.

“Having fun, Logan?”

I glanced behind the dragon-witch and see Deceit, casually sitting on the broken wall. I realized he must have been the one to shut the door; I don’t know how, but he did.

“Let me go, Deceit.” I snapped at him, and the dragon-witch growled. I took a step back, and I bumped against the door.

“Sure.” He said, and he hopped down from the wall and strode over to me. He smirked, and he raised up his hand. The dragon witch growled again, and I then realized that he must have control over it. I looked back at him.

“Deceit, please let me go. We can resolve this if you just opened the door and let me leave.” I said, trying to convince him, but to no avail. I thought I may have heard faint yelling of my name, but I couldn’t tell with how loudly I was breathing.

Deceit laughed, “I’ll totally let you go, Logan.” Then, he walked past me, and with the flick of his hand, the door opened. I stared for a moment, This has to be a trap. Deceit only lies.

“Come on, Logan. The door is open. Just walk through.” He said, and I stood for a moment before walking to the door.

I felt a force pushing into my side, and I felt myself fly for a moment.

A-Am I falling?

I blinked, and I saw the top of the tower slowly become farther and farther away.

Yes, I am indeed falling.

I wasn’t too surprised, really. Deceit always lied, and there was a big gap in the wall just a few feet away from me. I should have known I would have been pushed off. The situation felt sort of familiar, very much like when the king cobra almost bit me. This time, however, I had a few seconds before impact. Time seemed slow, one second felt like an hour. I tried to think of something to do, but I knew I couldn’t do anything. I could summon a hair clip, but barely, so I wouldn’t be able to do anything bigger than that. Roman could of since he is creativity, but he probably was too weak. I was done for. I heard screaming under me, probably the others. I knew I’d miss them. I shut my eyes, and suddenly, I saw a flash of bright white light.

After a moment, I opened my eyes. A-Am I dead?

“OH MY GOSH, LOGAN!”

I saw three figures above me. I couldn’t really tell since my vision was quite blurred. Wait… Roman? Patton? Virgil?

It suddenly came to me, and if I was standing, I would have stumbled back from the realization: Thomas woke up.

When Thomas woke up, the whole dreamscape reset, and our positions did, too.

“Oh my goodness, Logan! Are you okay!? Please tell me you’re okay!!”

“W-What?”

“Oh thank goodness!” I slowly sat up, Virgil and Roman helping me. I vision finally cleared, and I could see the three of them clearly. They all looked terrified.

“Heavens, Logan, you nearly died! It was horrible!” Roman exclaimed, and Virgil glared.

“I think he knew that, Sir-Sing-A-Lot.” Virgil spat.

“I’m satisfactory, ” I said, standing up. I was still in quite a state of shock, so I didn’t bother to say anything further. I turned my head, and I saw the door to exit the dreamscape. Deceit was nowhere in sight (I didn’t know if I should be thankful or not at this fact). Patton saw where I was looking, “Come on, kiddo. Let’s get going.”

“You feeling any better?” Patton asked, and I took another sip of my water. We were back at the dining table, the food long since becoming cold. Once we exited the dreamscape, Virgil sunk down to tell Thomas what happened and the three of us went back to the common room.

“I’m fine,” I said as Virgil rose back up.

“What did Thomas say?” Roman asked.

“To say the least, he kind of freaked out. Because we were in the dreamscape, Thomas saw everything that happened. He told me that his dream ended right as Logan fell. I told him you and Logan were okay. He wants to talk to us all later.”

“Okay. I feel so bad for him! He must have felt so powerless!” Patton exclaimed, and the rest of us nodded, Virgil taking a seat at the table.

I turned to Roman, “How are you doing?” Roman blinked in surprise, slightly shocked to be addressed.

“I’m fine, nerd! I’m not hurt! Don’t worry about me.” He said, smiling. I suddenly remembered what Deceit told us before we went to the dreamscape; “I don’t give Roman negative thoughts since he is not Thomas’ self-esteem.”

“Roman, are you okay?” I asked, and Roman snorted.

“I just said that I was!”

“No. Tell me honestly. Are you okay? Because Deceit told us earlier that he gives you negative thoughts.” I knew I had struck some kind of nerve since Roman flinched and looked down. I could tell by Virgil and Patton’s that they remembered what Deceit had said.

“I-I..” Roman stuttered, and he finally sighed, “No. No, I’m not.” The three of us waited for him to continue. He sighed again.

“Once we started making videos for “Sander Sides,” we had to do a lot more work. I had to plan out things for us to say, I had to help Thomas design props and filming a video every month or two is draining. I was feeling really bad about myself, and once Deceit came along, it just got worse. It was harder to pretend to be happy, and I even considered ducking out a few times like Virgil did when he thought we didn’t need him anymore. I really thought about just not being creativity and self-esteem anymore, because if I left,” He laughed, “Well, what difference would it have made?”

I nearly screamed when Patton leaped across the table and tackled Roman in a hug, sending them both to the floor, “Oh my goodness, kiddo! I never knew! I’m sorry I never noticed! We love you so much!!” Virgil and I stood up and we walked over to the two of them once we stood up.

“Yes, Roman. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, we care. We think your ideas are amazing, and you do so much for Thomas.” Roman smiled a real smile for what looked like the first time in ages and he looked and Virgil.

He sighed, “You’re good… I guess.” Roman shrugged.

“Well, that’s the best I’ll get.” He looked at all of us, “Thank you. It means so much to hear that.”

After that, we all finally went to bed. The next day, we talked to Thomas about what happened and made sure to cut down on the work for Roman's sake. Once we got to the mindscape, we saw Deceit again, and we tried to talk to him. He didn’t listen, but Patton said he would come around sometime. That’s where we are now, really. We’re all doing better, we’ve all recovered from the incident, and as cliche as it sounds….

We are happy, and for now, that’s the only thing that matters.

[kitstwistfellau]

Bucket List

This fic has two versions.

The first version, on AO3, contains triggering content. Link can be found HERE, but please mind yourself. 

The version under the cut is trigger-free. It is a nice, fluffy fic, and it shouldn’t give you any trouble. The listed tags and pairings are for the fic posted below. The AO3 version has its own tags and triggers posted.

Summary: There's so much to do once they reach the surface. And Twist wants to try everything.

Pairings: Very, very mild Cash/Twist and Twist/Slim.

Tags: Twist-centric, fluff, mild warning for brief skydiving. Background sads if you consider what a Bucket List is and why Twist has one.

-

Edge sighed, staring at the fourth attempt at a cake. He ran a hand down his face, while Twist just studied it, puzzled. “So…what’d I do wrong?”

“Well I think being born was likely your first mistake.”

“Hey! I was created in a lab, an’ I think ya know that.”

Edge sighed, rubbing the space between his sockets. “Are you quite certain you don’t just want to let me make the cake?”

“No!” Twist said, and Edge raised a brow-bone. Twist rubbed the back of his neck, looking away. “Sorry, darlin’. But, uh, this is import’nt, yeah?”

Edge sighed. “Fine. Let’s try this again. For the fifth time.”

Twist, infuriatingly, beamed at him.

-

“Hey, sweetheart, ya ever thought ‘bout goin’ skydivin’?”

“…you’re joking, right?”

“So tha’s a no?”

“twist. that’s an emphatic ‘no’ with a series of exclamation marks at the end of it.”

“…Oh. Well. Uh…so now that ya’ve thought ‘bout it, ya think maybe ya’d be in’erested? Hey. Hey! Rus? Where’re ya goin’?”

-

“Hey, darlin’? If ya could go anywhere in the world…where would ya go?”

Red blinked, taking a pull on his beer. “dunno. haven’ thought ‘bout it much, i guess.”

Staring up the ceiling, Twist said. “There’re so many places up ‘ere. So many things ta see, ya know? An’ not half ‘nough time ta see ‘em all.”

Red just grunted. “so where’d you go, then? if ya could go anywhere?”

“The moon,” Twist said, dead serious. Red chuckled and Twist cracked a grin. “Not sure. Ev’rest would be cool ta see. Fun ta climb, too.”

Red laughed. “you an’ me got different definitions ‘a ‘fun’.”

Twist glanced at him and winked, clinking his beer against Red’s. “Not always, sweetheart. Not always.” For a little while, he was quiet, then he asked, “If ya could fuck anyone in the world, who would it be?”

-

Twist sat beside Slim, watching his fingers move over the keys. “So…how d’ya do this, darlin’? Where do I put my fingers?”

Slim smiled serenely and stilled his hands. “here. like this.” Twist laid his hands overtop his and waited.

“Right. Now what?”

Slim chuckled. “we’ll start with something simple.” He slowly moved his fingers over the board, and Twist followed him doggedly, a hesitant rendition of ‘Hot Cross Buns’ sounding out. Slim pulled his hands away. “now do it on your own.”

Twist nodded and took a breath, fingers playing over the keys. “Like this?”

“yeah. like that. you’re doing really good.” Slim smiled softly, and Twist beamed, a rumbling purr rattling his bones.

“Thanks, sweetheart. Fer, ya know, teachin’ me. ‘preciate it.”

“of course. i’m…i’m happy to.” Slim blushed as he said it, and for a moment, they were both aware of how close they were sitting, aware of the warmth of the monster beside them. Then Twist cleared his throat and returned his attention to the piano.

“So…I jus’ keep doin’ this, or…?”

“oh. right. um. here. let me get the sheet music. you’ll, uh, you’ll need to know how to read it.”

-

“Hey, Pap. Got a question fer ya.”

“OH! HELLO, TWISTED ME. WHAT CAN I HELP YOU WITH?”

“Ya wanna go ta Washington with me? ‘pparently there’re monsters up ‘ere that never got driven Underground. They’re shy, though. Wanna see if I can draw ‘em out. Ya know. Make friends.”

“THAT’S AN EXCELLENT IDEA! AS AMBASSADOR, IT IS MY DUTY—NAY! MY PLEASURE TO FIND THESE MONSTERS AND REUNITE THEM WITH THEIR PEOPLE!”

“Sweet. Pack a bag. Plane leaves in…” He checked his watch. “Five hours.”

-

“Heya, darlin’!”

Cash just glared at him and went back to reading his newspaper. Twist scooted closer. Cash scooted away. Twist scooted closer again, and Cash was out of room on the couch. He didn’t say anything until Twist was close enough to put his chin on Cash’s shoulder and say, almost directly into his acoustic meatus, “Whatcha doin’?”

“trying not to lose my patience. what do you want?”

“You’re inta gamblin’ an’ shit, right? A real high roller?”

Cash’s interest was peaked, but he tried not to show it. “you could say that, yes.”

“…So would ya be in’erested in goin’ ta Vegas with me? Got tickets to a magic show.” Cash shook out the newspaper, turning the page. “But tha’s more my thing than yers, I bet. Reserved the penthouse suite at….” He tilted his head back. “The Bellagio? Yeah. That sounds right. Figured tha’s a lot a space fer little ol’ me. More’n enough room fer a friend.” Cash glanced at him, brow-bone raised.

“twist. i’ve seen your pay check. how the fuck did you—?”

Twist smiled slowly and raised a hand, holding up Cash’s wallet. “Right. Yeah. So. Might’ve misspoke b’fore. You reserved a room at the Bellagio. Rented a convertible too, fer the trip out that way. Pretty little thing. Real smooth ride. Should—“

“you little—!” Cash snatched his wallet back and glared at him. Twist just grinned, somehow managing to look innocent after committing actual theft. He flipped through his wallet to make sure he hadn’t stolen anything else. “you picked my pocket?! when?”

Twist shrugged. “Sorry, sweetheart. You c’n take the rat outta the gutter, but ya can’t take the gutter outta the rat, I guess.”

Cash shook his head…but he was eyeing Twist with calculation now. “…yeah. i bet. and i bet a gutter-rat like you has more than a few tricks up his sleeve.”

A slow smile spread across Twist’s face, and he indeed produced a coin from seemingly nowhere. “Yeah. Ya could say that, darlin’.”

Cash grunted, looking between Twist and his recovered wallet. It had been ages since someone had rolled him like that. He could put those talents to good use. Especially in a place like Vegas. With another calculated look, he declared, “fine. but you’re sleeping on the floor.”

“Aw, darlin’—“ But a particularly harsh glare silenced him. It didn’t wipe the smug grin off his face, though.

-

Blue looked between Twist and the long trench filled with hot coals. He could feel the heat radiating off of them. “I’m not so sure about this.”

“Aw, c’mon, darlin’. Ya ain’t havin’ second thoughts are ya?”

Blue took a breath. “Second thoughts, yes. And third thoughts. Maybe even fourth thoughts.”

Twist leaned down, planting his hands on Blue’s shoulders. “Ya remember what they said durin’ class, yeah? Jus’ keep walkin’ an’ stay calm. Don’ run. Don’ rush it, and don’ stop no matter what. Here. I’ll go first, if it’ll make ya feel better ‘bout it.”

Blue shook his head. “No. No. I can do it. Just. Give me a moment.” He took a deep breath, and started across, blocking out Twist’s encouraging shouts.

At the end of the trench, when his bare feet were back on cool grass, all his breath left him in a rush and a huge grin lit up his face. He ran to his brother—watching anxiously from the sidelines—and hugged him, chattering excitedly while they watched Twist walk across the coals himself. A huge smile lit his face, and he joined them soon enough, laughing as he lifted them both off the ground in a celebratory hug.

-

Red grinned as he opened the mailbox, pulling out the latest series of post cards. There was one with a picture of Mount Everest on the front. The others were all places he couldn’t recognize, the caption on the bottom of the card little more than gibberish to his uneducated sockets. The back of each card was filled with Twist’s shockingly neat writing, narrating his journey across Nepal and the Himalayas.

He brought the cards inside, reading the backs as he drank his morning cup of coffee. Smiling to himself, he pinned the fresh batch of post cards to the corkboard. There was already a collage of similar cards from all over the world pinned to it.

Maybe Twist was right. Maybe there wasn’t enough time to see everything, but damn if the crazy fucker wasn’t trying his best.

-

“how did you talk me into this?” Rus demanded, knees shaking as the door of the plane was thrown open.

“Same way I talked my way inta bed with Cash. Persistence.”

Rus blinked. “…what?”

But Twist was grinning as his jump partner strapped him into the tandem harness. The instructor was reminding Rus that he would be just fine. He didn’t have to do anything—just let his jump partner do all the work. His soul pounded, terrified. But Twist and his partner were already out the door, and now everyone was looking at him and—

They.

They were.

Falling!

Rus swore at the top of his voice all the way down, the wind whipping his words away until even he couldn’t hear what he was saying. His soul only settled marginally when the parachute deployed and—after the initial jerk against the harness—they started to drift down at a more leisurely pace. When they landed, though, his knees were shaking and, if not for his flight partner, he’d likely have allowed himself to slip bonelessly to the ground in gratitude.

Twist, infuriatingly, was laughing recklessly and swearing in pure, undiluted joy. “Fuck yeah! Yes! Fucking hell!” Manic grin in place, he looked back at Rus and said, “We’ve gotta do that again.”

Rus, speechless, gave him both middle fingers—dissatisfied when Twist’s only response was another joyous whoop.

-

“Next time, ya wanna try Jersey? Heard there’s a monster out that way with a real nasty reputation. Poor guy’s prob’ly jus’ lonely.”

“HMMM. I SUPPOSE.” Papyrus rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “BUT I THINK WE SHOULD DO MORE RESEARCH NEXT TIME. I’M NOT SURE THE LOCALS TOOK OUR QUEST VERY SERIOUSLY. AND I’M QUITE CERTAIN ‘BIGFOOT’ IS SOME KIND OF PEJORATIVE.”

Twist nodded seriously. “Yeah. Yer prob’ly right. Can’t say I’d be all that keen ta come say ‘hi’ if someone was yellin’ racial slurs at me either. Can’t really blame the poor guy.”

Papyrus patted him on the back. “I KNOW YOU’RE DISAPPOINTED, TWISTED-ME, BUT WE DID LEAVE THEM SOME BROCHURES! I’M CERTAIN THEY’LL CALL US ONCE THEY REALIZE OUR INTENTIONS ARE ONLY GOOD.”

He brightened at that. “Yeah. Yeah!” He knocked his shoulder against Papyrus’. “Thanks, darlin’. Ya always know jus’ what ta say.”

Papyrus beamed. “NOW…JERSEY, YOU SAY?”

-

Twist’s fingers played across the keys. He stumbled in a few places, and he hit a few wrong notes, but the melody was recognizable, and his playing was soft and sweet—at odds with the look of intense concentration on his face. The song came to an end and he sat back, features inscrutable.

“something wrong?” Slim asked.

“…This is hard, sweetheart. Harder’n I expected.”

Slim nodded sagely. “yeah.” He sat beside Twist and, nudging him to make room, set his hands on the keys. His fingers flowed over the board, smooth and easy. He relaxed into it, smiling softly. “it takes time.”

“Time,” Twist echoed. “Yeah.”

Slim eyed him. “twist?”

He shook his head, his smile returning—just as bright as always. “Show me how it goes again?”

For a moment, Slim hesitated, tempted to push him. Instead, he shook away his unease and set about showing Twist how the song was played once more.

-

Smiling proudly, Twist carried the cake out to the dining room, singing ‘Happy Birthday’ at the top of his voice. Never mind that neither of them actually knew what day they’d been ‘born’. It was the thought that mattered. Blackberry was smiling and kicking his feet, pleased to be the center of attention. The others stood around the table, singing as well. Carefully, Twist set the cake on the table, soul warming when Blackberry leaned over the table to blow out the candles as the song came to an end.

He studied the cake. “Oh, wow, Edge you really outdid yourself this time! This is beautiful!”

“I didn’t make it,” Edge said, a very slight smile softening his features almost imperceptibly.

Blackberry cocked his head. “Blue?” Blue shook his head too. “Um…did you…buy…it?” They all shook their heads. “Then…who…?” Twist smiled and winked at his brother, pretending not to be hurt when Blackberry’s face fell a little. “Papy? You…? Really?”

“Yep!” Twist said, chin lifted. “Wan’ed ta su’prise ya.”

Blackberry did a remarkable job of hiding his disappointment. “Oh, Papy—you didn’t have to do that!” he said, voice bright.

“I know but….” He scuffed a foot against the floor. “Was important ta me. Dunno why. Jus’. Wan’ed ta do it.”

Blackberry’s smile grew more genuine. “Aw. Papy….”

“would someone just cut the fucking cake?” Cash asked gruffly. “you two are making me sick.”

Edge calmly cuffed him, earning a glare and a rude gesture. “Blackberry? Would you care to do the honors?”

Nodding eagerly, Blackberry grabbed the knife and—leaning away from the cake—cut through the frosting and the sponge. The smell of chocolate wafted through the air, rich and heady. When the cake failed to explode, Blackberry leaned close and observed, “Oh, wow. It looks…it looks really good, Papy!” He didn’t quite manage to hide his surprise, but Twist couldn’t exactly blame him for that.

“Hopefully it tastes good, too,” Twist said, scratching at the back of his neck. After several long sessions with Edge, he’d finally managed to consistently produce a cake that wasn’t just edible but tasted good. Still, Edge hadn’t been there to help him out this time. He might have fucked it up without the other skeleton around to monitor his progress.

“I’M SURE IT’S DELICIOUS, TWISTED-ME.” No one really commented on that, but there were a few uneasy glances exchanged. Edge, however, just stared back at him coolly and…confidently? Somehow, that made Twist’s shoulders relax marginally.

“Well?” Edge said, “You’re the guest of honor, Blackberry. It only seems fair you get the first bite.”

Blackberry hesitated, but ultimately nodded. “Yes! You’re…You’re absolutely right! As the birthday boy I am obligated—honored to have the first piece!”

He beamed at his brother, but Twist could see the strain in his cheekbones and around his sockets. He cut a piece of cake—a small piece, given Blackberry’s usual opinion that more was better—and set it on a plate. Daintily, he used a fork to cut a small piece away. He lifted the fork, holding it in front of his face as if to study it before putting it in his mouth. Smiling uneasily, he eyed Twist and, with a nearly imperceptible fortifying breath, took a bite.

His sockets went wide and his pupils burst into stars. Still holding the fork, he asked, “Papy? You made this? Really?”

Soul pounding so hard he could nearly hear it echoing in his skull, Twist nodded eagerly, breathing still a little unsteady. “So it’s...it’s good?”

“Good?” Blackberry asked, “It’s incredible!”

Twist didn’t doubt his word. The hesitance and traces of uneasiness were all gone. He cheerfully cut the rest of the cake and split it amongst the other guests, making sure to give himself another—more generous—slice. And when Twist took the first bite, his bones went limp with relief. He wasn’t exactly a fan of chocolate, but he knew that this was what the cake was supposed to taste like—sweet but not cloying, rich and moist.

Soul still fluttering in a mix of relief and adrenaline, he looked up and caught Edge’s socket—and grinned fiercely when Edge offered him a nearly imperceptible nod of approval.

[voyages-extraordinaires]

C:R ~VE~ Chapter 17

Aouda is holding my hair back as I splash warm water on my face from the basin.

We’ve spent the afternoon talking together about everything, from my experience at the university to her literally being swept off her feet by Fogg.

“Our first adventure was, quite literally, a trip around the world,” she says. “She had made a wager with her fellow members of the Reform Club to travel around the world in eighty days... without the use of an airship.”

“Eighty days... I wager that didn’t give too much time for sightseeing,” I say before patting my face dry with a towel. My eyes are still a little red, but I look much better than I did before.

This innocent observation surprisingly makes Aouda blush, then she looks at me with a smile. “Philomena told me that I was the only thing she took the time to see on that trip. I was the only thing that she allowed to distract her. It sounds so simple, but if you know her--”

I nod. Fogg is, to put it bluntly, a walking clock.

Aouda brushes out my hair and sighs. “There, are you feeling better now?”

I nod again.

“So... what do you think will make you happy now?”

“I want to be with Nemo and Barbicane and the others. Even if I’m just sitting and reading, I want to feel their energy.”

I’m surprised to hear laughter bubble out of my mouth. “Observing is my job, after all! It’s what I do best!”

Aouda shakes her head. “Honestly, being around such large egos might do you some good. I had better prepare to make my return to Steel London, though. I assume that you will be there to see us off, won’t you?”

“Of course,” I say.

I walk over to the door to open it for her, but both of us jump when we hear something slam on the door.

“Owww.... ow ow ow owww...”

.....

Aouda and I look at each other.

“Huhhh? Why is the door locked...”

“Aouda, I do have a question for you,” I ask. “Has your cousin always been....”

I clear my throat, unsure of how to finish that sentence.

Aouda laughs sympathetically. “Not as blatantly, perhaps, but yes. He’s always been ‘eccentric’, to put it mildly.”

“Hmmm~? Aoooouda, have you been keeping the Professor all to yourself~? I’ve been waaaiiiting all afternoon!”

I quickly open the door for Nemo, who’s still rubbing his nose, a pitiful frown on his face.

Aouda shrugs and crosses her arms. “I told her about the engine, but I’m afraid we got wrapped up in our discussion. Sometimes, women just need to talk about things alone. Geez...” Aouda looks down at the doorknob and shakes her head. “I thought you would’ve learned to knock by now...”

Aouda moves past her cousin and begins walking away. “I’ll see you before we set off. Don’t keep us waiting, okay Da-- Nemo?”

“Mm-hmm~ ciao ciao, my cousin~” Nemo waves over his shoulder before looking back at me-- at my eyes, specifically.

Shit, they must still be red...

“The engine will still be there,” he says before closing the door behind him and walking towards me. When he’s about to step into me, I stumble back and trip into my vanity.

“Ahh-- hold still,” he says. He leans over me and tilts my chin up.

I wonder if he can hear my heartbeat. Certainly he can feel my skin heating up.

“Where did I puuuut thaaaat....”

Nemo roots around in his coat before pulling out a vial with a triumphant (and loud) ‘a-ha!’ He quickly takes off his gloves and sighs before quickly undoing the bandages on his fingertips.

“Ho~nest~ly~ Polly-chaaaan, you’re so much trouble... close your eyes.”

My eyes widen, and he just looks at me until I obey him.

My lips are aching, and I wish that it was those that he had touched! But instead I feel a cool sensation on one cheek, then the other.

....?

Is this lotion?

“Crying dries out your skin,” I hear Nemo say. The lotion grows warm with his touch as he gently rubs it into my cheeks. “There~ we~ gooo~ feel better?”

I open my eyes and put my fingertips to my cheeks. They do feel soft.

“Hehehe! It’s my own formula~! I am a chemist too, you knoooow!” 

“You... you make your own beauty products?” I really shouldn’t be surprised, but the eager smile that stretches out over his face makes it worth it.

“Mmm-hmm! ❤ Lotion, serums, and l-i-p-s-t-i-c-k-! Sweat-proof, water-proof, feather-proof, and ki~ss~proof!”

Kiss-proof, huh...

I feel my face heat up under my fingers, and I quickly put my hands to my sides.

“Of course, leaving a mark on a lover can be fun, but sometimes you just want your makeup to stay in place. Besiiiiides~” his teeth glint. “There are other ways to leave marks~”

Oh.

OH.

“L-Let’s be serious, Nemo...” I stutter, laughing nervously. “Ah, th-the engine, right? You were having problems because-- because fire consumed oxygen, which is--isn’t ideal for being under the water, s-so...”

Nemo leans over me again, putting his hands on the vanity behind me, effectively pinning me to it.

“S-So instead of using fire to boil water and create steam, chemical reactions would be used, a-and... it would be a... a chemical furnace and...”

He lowers his head, and soon I can feel his lips gently press against my neck. I can feel them against my pulse, quickening under his touch. They’re so soft and warm. Is this our first kiss? Does this count as a kiss?

Chemical... steam made by chemicals... oxygen not being consumed as a result... I... I could really use some oxygen, too....

“Well, how about it~?” I feel his breath hot on my skin when he opens his mouth. Then, there’s a light pressure as he grazes my skin with his teeth.

My voice, once occupied with technology, lets out a sigh that sounds so needy that I shudder in shame.

“Shall I show eeeeveryone that you’re miiiiiine~?”

I swallow, feeling the sensation of my throat move against his mouth.

I feel light-headed as I respond: “Y-Yes...”

He smiles, and I feel him open his mouth again “Ahhh~n~”

And then...

He blows a raspberry into my neck, making me jump.

“HAAAAAAAAA---- hahahahaaa!” He stands up and leans back, cackling loudly and pointing at me. “You should see the looooooooook on your faaaaaaaaaaace!!”

He was teasing me. That’s all it had been... teasing.

Maybe it was out of embarrassment, but after a moment of mortifying silence I begin to laugh, too. The situation had been so serious only a moment ago, and now here we are laughing like fools.

He takes my hand and leads me out of the bedroom, not even giving me time to pin my hair back up.

“You’re right, though,” Nemo explains as we walk towards the warehouse. “Impey Barbicane and I have finished constructing an engine that actually creates oxygen as a byproduct! With this, we won’t have to surface nearly as much! We took the concept that Narcís Monturiol designed and adjusted it so...”

Nemo is leading the way as he excitedly talks about the history of submersibles. Though his speech is still flamboyant, the langue that he’s using is easy for me to understand, so I’m able to get excited alongside him. 

I put my free hand to my neck where he had kissed me. It still feels warm.

When we make it to the warehouse, Nemo pulls out one of his arm bandages and orders for me to close my eyes again.

“Are you going to...?”

“Mn~?” Nemo tilts his head.

“N-Nevermind,” I quickly mutter.

Nemo sticks his tongue out impishly as he begins to cover my eyes.

“Okay, okay~ I’m going to be taking you inside the inner hull, so I’ll have to carry you.”

I nod silently before I feel him pick me up in his arms.

“I-- I’ve seen the blueprints before, so why are you being so secretive--?” I ask, yelping as I feel him kick open the warehouse door.

Of course, it’s for the drama of it all.

Still, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t enjoying this.

“Uhh...” I hear Barbicane express his confusion. “N-Nemo... isn’t it a little soon to be carrying Polly-chan across the threshold like that...?”

Nemo’s laugh is so loud that I have to cover my ears.

“Impeeeey Barbicaaaaane! Haven’t you realized by this point that my bride is SCIIEEENNCEEE?!”

“Y-Yeah, you’re saying that, but still... um.... your arms are shaking, do you need help...?”

“IMPEYBARBICANEIAMFINETHANKYOU.”

I have no idea what he just said.

“IWOULDGIVEYOUAPEACESIGNBUTIAMCARRYINGPOLLY-CHANSO...”

“P... Peace... sign...?”

“YESLIKETHATTHANKYOU.”

All of a sudden I feel Nemo running. He must have overexerted himself by kicking down the door and carrying me at the same time. Or maybe it has something to do with what Barbicane said...

But that’s probably just wishful thinking.

With the voices of the others dwindling, it feels safe for me to lean my head against Nemo’s shoulder. Even with the smell of chemicals and metal, it’s easy for me to think back fondly to that night on the airship. 

Nemo sets me down and mutters something about opening up the hatch.

I realize with a shiver that I’m likely standing next to the very submarine that will take me on my adventure.

I reach out my hand and grope in the air, only to hear a shriek. “STAAAAAAY PUUUUUT!”

I immediately freeze.

“Geeeeez....” I hear the sound of heavy movement, and I realize it’s probably the hatch being opened. Then there’s a thump and I hear Nemo walk over to me.

“What were you trying to do?” he asks.

“It’s kind of embarrassing to say it...” I mumble.

“Ufufufu....” Nemo’s giggle is haughty and wicked. “Don’t forget that you’re blindfolded, Professor. I can make you as embaaaaaaarrassed as I want~”

I may be blindfolded, but I hope that Nemo can see the glare that I’m giving him. It’s really not fair how easily he can tease me, but I guess it’s my own fault.

“So~?” he continues, and I can practically see his leer. “What were you trying to accomplish by grabbing around at a highly dangerous piece of machinery?”

I look away, hoping the bandages are hiding my blush. “I want... to touch it...”

“... Eh?”

“T-The submarine,” I quickly clarify. “Since I can’t see it yet, I want to touch it. I want to touch my dream. I suppose it will feel more concrete to me, then. Like it’s really happening.”

I hear Nemo take a few steps away and thump against something metallic.

“Nemo?”

I hear a sniff.

“Polly-chan.... that... that’s so....”

The air is suddenly squeezed out of me as Nemo hugs me tightly.

“THAT’S SO CUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!”

“Urk! Nemo, I’m still blindfolded!!”

But he doesn’t let go, spinning me around and sweeping me back up in his arms. I couldn’t even protest as I felt him nuzzle his cheek against mine.

“A woman in love with sciiiiiience-- can anything be so preeeciiouuusss?!”

He carries me in the direction he had been working on and sets me down on the ground. Then, he takes my hand in his.

I hear him inhale and feel soft strands of his hair touch my fingertips. Then, the warmth of his lips on my knuckles, slowly kissing each one in turn.

My knees feel weak.

Then he quietly laughs and says: “I told you I could embarrass you, didn’t I? Hmm~ what fun is making a threat without sometimes acting on it~?”

I feel my body heating up again, like it had back in the bedroom. It’s really terrible how a simple kiss can make my senses so muddled.

“You keep on teasing me,” I murmur. “Is it that fun?”

“It iiiiiis~!” he draws me close to him again. “And I will keep on teasing you until I’m certain that my cute professor will never reject me~ I’ll intoxicate you with my very being, the most sinful of experiments.”

I feel his warm hand cup my cheek, and feel his breath on my ear. “And when I know you’re mine, that you’ll never reject me... I will do everything in my power to make you happy.”

Then, he puts my hand against something cold. With an excited shiver I realize that I’m touching the hull of the submarine. He puts his hand over top of mine and threads our fingers together.

“Your dream,” he says, laughter in his voice. He sounds so unbelievably happy. After meeting Aouda, hearing the truth about everything, after I realized how my own insecurities were affecting me... that loud laughter of his was a wonderful sound.

-----

When the blindfold drops from my eyes, I look around in shock. Though the hulls aren’t complete and there’s a gaping hole, I’m clearly inside the submarine.

This room doesn’t look anything like an engine room, though.

Nemo’s grinning at me as he sprawls out on a velvet chaise lounge.

“I hooooope you don’t mind that I told a little~ white~ lie~! Of course, I’ll show you the engine room, but...” he looks up at me with a lopsided smile. “I thought you might enjoy this more.”

Though the room is somewhat small, it’s nothing short of luxurious. A sofa sits in front of the circle cut into the metal, leaving me to believe that it will eventually house a gargantuan porthole for undersea viewing. The entirety of one of the walls has been converted into a metal bookshelf already lined with volumes on science of all kinds.

As I step around, my eyes focus on...

“Is... is that a...?”

“Hrm?” Nemo tilts his head back and looks upside-down at the wall behind him. “Oh, yes.” He points at what I’m staring at. “She’s in progress right now, but she’s eveeeeeentually going to be a pipe organ. Isn’t she looooovely~?”

“A... a pipe organ?!”

It’s huge, taking up the entirety of the wall in a beautiful patchwork of metal.

“I mean, I figured you were a piano player, but...”

Nemo tilts his head to look at me. “How did you figure that out?”

I... I hadn’t meant for him to hear that. Oh, dear.

“I... uh...” Well, there was no way I was going to get out of this one. I might as well just suck it up and hope he’s somewhat merciful in his teasing-- though judging from today’s events, I doubt it. “I... noticed...”

I rub the back of my neck and take a breath.

“I observe these sorts of things. When you work, you tend to hold your hands out in a way that pianists would.”

I stretch out my fingers to demonstrate.

“Though, I shouldn’t be surprised that your instrument of choice is the pipe organ. The multiple ranks and manuals would provide more mental stimulation for someone like you compared to a singular keyboard.”

I inwardly curse at myself for going on like that.

Nemo looks surprised, but then his lips stretch out into another one of his grins.

“My, my.... how obseeeervant! It’s no wonder you excel in your field!” He swings his legs over the edge of the chaise lounge and props himself up. “I suppose your observant mind is ooooone of the reasons why I’m falling in love with you, Professor Aronnax.”

I can do nothing more than stare at him.

“Oh~ don’t look so surprised!” he waves a hand idly. “I told you already that I’m ex~pe~ri~men~ting~ on you. What fun would it be if my heart weren’t also in this test?”

He giggles as he tilts his head and looks out the hole in the wall. “Ahh, and speaking of love~”

I follow his gaze and see Barbicane and Cardia walking next to each other on the ground level.

“He’s been very entertaining,” Nemo continues. “Almost as entertaining as the submarine itself... honestly, having Cardia-chan be our assistant was a moment of geeeenius!”

Barbicane has an expression of embarrassment on his face. Seeing him look hesitant is a little strange.

“He’s inexperienced...” Nemo continues with his musings. “I’m not sure he even reeeeaalizes himself what he’s feeling! It’s cute...”

I clasp my hand over my mouth when I see Cardia reach up to touch Barbicane’s cheek. Barbicane looks just as shocked as I imagine I do.

Nemo just continues giggling. “First love~ there’s nothing quite like it.”

I hear him stand up and walk behind me. He quietly peers over my shoulder down at Barbicane and Cardia.

“She’s going back to London with her brother,” I say. “I wonder if they’re saying goodbye...”

I shake my head.

“We shouldn’t be watching this, Nemo.”

Nemo sighs and turns away. “I suppooooose we should be making our way to the airship.”

I swallow. “Do you really think they’ll manage to convince Queen Victoria? Or stop Aleister?”

I hear Nemo stop at the doorway.

“Don’t ask me questions like that, Polly-chaaaaan.... I may not look like it, but I really am quite a pessimist.”

I close my eyes. Right now, unfortunately, I feel that his pessimism might be right.

[itakesurveys]

Survey 299

What did you go to bed last night thinking about? i wen’t to bed thinking how i’m excited for what’s to come. i’m going to dive back into what makes me happy. i’m starting a website/blog that will showcase all forms of creativity. 

Is there anyone on your mind at the moment? nah, only thing on my mind is this weird stuffy head. 

Which type of music do you find most annoying? idk. screamo. 

Has anyone “made your day” today? nah. 

Do your lips get chapped often? no. but they are chapped now and it’s driving me crazy. 

Who/what was that last thing that you slept with? next to my boyfriend. 

Any plans for tonight? this. take a few surveys. maybe create a few rooms or homes on the sims4 and smoke. 

When was the last time you took a shower? when i woke up this morning. 

Are your fingernails painted? not my thing. i did for a little while. 

How about your toe nails? never. 

Do you always wear socks when you put your shoes on? yes. i wear socks 24/7.

What kind of perfume/cologne do you wear? Britney Spears believe, Paris Hilton, D&G light blue, Marc Jacobs Daisy, etc. 

Do you have the google toolbar? what? 

Internet Explore or Firefox? i’m using google chrome currently. but i would pick firefox. 

Do your parents do things that ‘embarrass’ you? not anymore. 

Who was the last person you e-mailed? a customer at work. 

Do you have a stuffed animal from when you were a baby that is still around? haha yes. i have too many stuffed animals. lol. 

Is your hair up or down right now? down, too short to wear up. 

What was the last gift you got from someone? hmmm.. let me think. 

What was the last concert you attended? SLAYYYYTERRRRRRR.

Do you like any Bon Jovi songs? i guess? 

Do you care if a boyfriend or girlfriend smokes? yes. 

How are you feeling today? i’m okay. kinda feel light headed though. 

Have you used the bathroom yet today? yes i have. it’s 4pm. 

What is the point of taking surveys? i always ask myself this question. i think it’s therapeutic. i think it keeps your mind busy off the bs that might be going on. 

When was the last time you threw up? hmm. last year? 

Are you excited for anything? i’m moving this month. so yes! 

Has anyone close to you ever passed away? many. 

What was the last vacation you were on? my best friend got married and spent a few days in Maine. 

What is one song that really inspires you? fast car - tracy chapman. 

Do you have a job? yes. i do. been there for 5 years. 

Are you over 18 or under? o v e r . 

What was the last thing you purchased? sushi. 

What IM service do you use the most? i miss AIM. text me or we don’t talk. that’s all. 

Have you ever seen a Broadway play? never been to NY. 

Do you have a pin up board in your room? no, but i should get one. 

What was the last thing to enter your mouth? water. 

Do you need to brush your teeth? already did twice but thanks. 

Have you ever put Christmas lights up in your room? nah, too much work. 

What was the last thing you watched on the TV? 90210.

What movie is out that you want to see that’s in the theaters? none. lol. 

Have you punched anyone recently/or felt like it? myself. 

What was the last song you listened to? the song playing right now is; katy perry - never really over.... ew.

Who was the last person you got in a fight with? boyfriend. i don’t fight with anyone else. if i fight with friends i don’t get to that level of angry. i’ll just ice them out. bye. 

Do you listen to a band a lot of people don’t seem to know about? nah. 

Who was the last person to IM you? next.