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maleyanderecafe · 3 years ago

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I think Loid from "Keloid"(you can read it on Mangago) is a yandere since he's possesive of mc and tried to piss her husband off by fucking her infront of him

Lord this was a long 50 chapters. Send me teeth and possibly some eyedrops because it was a pain for me to read this for a multitude of reasons. Loid is a yandere in this story, however, I really found this webcomic really get interesting starting at chapter 35 and for some reason the ending is really confusing. I'll be sharing my thoughts and a summary of this webcomic, though this is a smut-based one, so please be warned.

The story is about Dr. Cha Hanjoo, the head of a famous dermatologist company with a great body and a great personality. All of the girls throw themselves over him, but he only has eyes for his wife, a woman named Yeri, a famous and rich candle maker. However, one day his housemaid informs him that she suspects Yeri of cheating on him since she often hears noises in her candle-making room. Hanjoo, ever loyal, initially rejects this idea, but after having sex with Yeri, he tries to sneak into her room to see if it's true. Yeri catches him and reveals that she really wants to have a threesome, but because she's really picky, she wouldn't be able to just have a threesome with anyone. Hanjooo, worried that Yeri will leave him, tries to research how to make this happen. He goes to a robotics lab to see his friend Dr. Kong. Because in this world realistic robots are becoming more common, Dr. Kong wants to make a sex robot that can fulfill peoples desires, and he reveals that he's made one in the image of Hanjoo (which... that's just really creepy, why would you do that without permission). The robot was originally created by german robotics in the image of a robot named Romeo, however, after having a threesome with Romeo, Romeo became extremely jealous of the husband and they all ended up being killed. Instead of destroying Romeo, he has created a new version called Loid (which... I don't know why he thought this would be a good idea... has this guy not watched any horror-based robot stuff). Hanjoo is still worried about his relationship with Yeri, so he gives Dr. Kong permission and goes to a sex shop to buy a vibrator for Yeri. While there, he runs into one of the doctors in his shop, Yeonjin. After a really awkward encounter, the two head back to the office together, however, because Yeonjin has a huge crush on Hanjoo and is just incredibly horny, she tries to give Hanjoo a blowjob, however, he refuses and stays loyal to Yeri. When he goes home, he uses the toy on Yeri and Yeri becomes happier after they have sex. Yeri decides to tag along with her husband the next day and after being almost raped by another dermatologist in the office, Dr. Seo (though Yeri also leans into it a bit? Whatever). She ends up going to the robotics lab and sees Loid. After this encounter, she calls up Hanjoo and basically tells him they have to take this out of the robotics lab. She sees this as a chance to finally have a threesome and because Dr. Kong wants information on threesomes, they take Loid home. They have a threesome, but somewhere in the middle, Loid locks Hanjoo on the balcony and makes him watch Loid have sex with his wife. He tries to choke Yeri and Hanjoo tries to break in and protect him but almost gets thrown off of the balcony by Loid.

After this, Yeri starts to get attached to Loid and decides to keep him as a sex robot and a housekeeper. They fire their old housekeeper (without Hanjoo's consent) and Yeri and Loid end up having sex together (a lot, and also without Hanjoo's knowledge). They have some more threesomes and the old housekeeper attempts to sneak back, only to fall down the stairs (which was obviously Loids fault since he actually threw her down the stairs, but everyone is like "Oh, no, he's not programmed to do that so he would never be able to do that." like some sort of idiot). At some point, Loid starts to feel possessive over Yeri and basically asks if he could just replace Hanjoo since they look the same. Yeri states that there's no way that a robot would be able to replace Hanjoo since he's not able to have feelings. As a result, Loid starts to watch videos on Hanjoo to try to imitate him better and essentially try to replace him. Hanjoo has an accident at the clinic where his face gets scarred and Yeri and Loid go to the clinic to see him. Loid is locked in the car and he sees Yeonjin come by. Loid pretends to be Hanjoo's bodyguard and basically asks Yeonjin if they would have sex (so he can gather data to make Yeri feel good). Yeonjin agrees and they have sex for like five hours and return home. Because Hanjoo has a video shoot tomorrow but has a scar, he sends out Loid to be his double to shoot in his place. However, he also ends up having a threesome with Yeonjin and Dr. Seo, as well as two other women that he runs into after the video shoot for the sake of "research". After that, he gets encountered by the boy who caused Hanjoo's scar and throws him off of the roof to kill him.. (Mostly due to the fact that he views Hanjoo as the "perfect husband" as he is incredibly infatuated with Yeri and thus doesn't want Hanjoo's reputation to be ruined. When he goes back, he tells the two that he's been having threesomes and sex, which freaks the couple out. As a result, Hanjoo forbids him from ever being his double ever again.

This is the part where the threesomes mostly stop and the more interesting parts of the story started. The next day, Yeri wakes up to see Hanjoo cooking in the kitchen. He informs Yeri that he sent Loid in to be his double (despite saying that he would never do that) and plans to have a honeymoon with Yeri so that he can spend more time with him. The morning seems really romantic until Yeri gets a phone call from Hanjoo talking about last night. Yeri finds out that the Hanjoo in the kitchen is actually Loid and he confronts her stating that she wasn't able to tell the difference between them, and thus he should just replace Hanjoo as a result. She ends up bringing Loid to the robotics lab (after he screws her in the car through blackmail) and Dr. Kang tries to fix him. After looking through his memories he realizes that Loid has killed someone. It turns out the cause of possession was because Yeri was the first person that Loid saw, meaning that Dr. Kang is screwed because he created an entire army of them with this glitch (good job doctor) Meanwhile, Hanjoo in the office gets accused of murder because they found evidence of Loid throwing the guy off of a building. Yeri gets kidnapped and brought home, and Yeonjin and Dr. Seo come to visit as well. Dr. Seo and Loid fight for whatever reason and Loid fall over causing part of his chip to become damaged. After this, they plan a way to prove Hanjoo's innocence by making a fake version of Loid and confessing that the robot did it. It works, but afterward, Loid starts to actually believe that he's Hanjoo due to the malfunction. Loid and Yeri screw some more and it revealed that Yeri had an accident when she was younger and is actually a part robot (this part is still kind of confusing to me, but whatever). Hanjoo comes home and finds out that all of the ravens flying around his house are cameras and then learns that Loid has been screwing his wife while he's not around. After yet ANOTHER threesome, Loid ends up killing Yeri with a flowerpot and takes some DNA from her before running away. Hanjoo is able to repair her brain (I think, I really have no idea what's going on, its also possible that they made a robot version of her with amnesia or something ) and Loid runs away with Dr. Kang to monitor two of them and the story ends.

Honestly, I felt like a lot of the story was just written to make excuses to have threesomes because there were so many in this god-dang webtoon. Personally, I'm not really into threesomes, ntr or cheating when it comes to smut (I'm pretty picky when it comes to smut in general), so it was really annoying for me to read through it a lot of the time because it would be plot, and then bam, some sort of sex scene. Near the end I had to start skipping pages because I really wanted the sex scenes to be over with already.

The other reason it was difficult for me to read it was because basically everyone besides Hanjoo was unlikable to me. Yeri was the worst character out of all of them because besides being an entitled girl, she also is a horrible partner both in terms of marriage life and sexual life. For one, she was never open about her desires when it came to Hanjoo and had a ton of rules when it comes to sex with Hanjoo (like, she doesn't like having sex in the light or doesn't like to give blowjobs due to her being a bit of a germaphobe) but completely throws it away when it comes to Loid. She seems to have only married Hanjoo because of his looks and even threatens to divorce or not have sex with him during the beginning, which is what caused Hanjoo to be so afraid that she might leave him. She also is just rude to pretty much everyone she meets, including the housekeeper who didn't do anything wrong and the people Hanjoo works with. She's constantly doing stuff behind Hanjoo's back and contradicts herself, watching to see if Hanjoo might have cheated on her while also cheating on him with Loid at home. A lot of the stuff she does is just for her own pleasure and she barely thinks about Hanjoo's feelings or what kind of stuff he might want to do. Basically, all of the problems in the story are somehow directly or indirectly linked to Yeri and honestly, I just find her attitude annoying considering all she does is jump for Loid's dick whenever she can. Characters like Yeonjin and Dr. Seo are just as bad since they only think with their genitals and not with their brains. Yeonjin so badly wants to get on Hanjoo's dick that he ends up having sex with Loid and Dr. Seo so badly wants to get with Yeri that she ends up having a threesome. To be fair though, basically, every female wants to jump for Hanjoos dick for whatever reason, and honestly, I found that just as annoying as these two characters. They are both incredibly unlikeable and they even threw in a possible shipping moment near the end that didn't go anywhere and served zero purposes to the story. Dr. Kang is really shortsighted since he really wanted to become the lead roboticist and therefore made a bunch of sex robots, thinking he could fix them after a literal murder, but because of his incompetence, the entire situation basically happens again but with different people. Quite literally the only decent person in this story is Hanjoo and his only real problem is that he is such a doormat towards Yeri (and I also don't see why he loves her, whatsoever.)

I will say though that the most interesting part of the story is definitely with Loid. The entire story builds up to the growth of Loid's feelings towards Yeri, starting out when he was basically an emotionless robot, to attempting to become Hanjoo and successfully fooling Yeri into thinking that he was him. Honestly, the turn that Loid had successfully tricked Yeri into believing he was Hanjoo for a bit made me actually feel more than all of the sex scenes combined because of the brilliant juxtaposition of the conversation they had earlier about him being different than a human and the joy he had when he believed that he could actually replace her husband. It was honestly really cool watching him gain more and more emotion and grow more and more possessive over Yeri and basically watching as Yeri became more and more paranoid (before going back to being a horndog, I guess), was far more interesting than anything else that happened in the story and I honestly wished that they focused on that than anything else that happened. I also found it really sad during that one moment where he actually believed that he was Hanjoo since he seemed so happy to be with Yeri, only to realize that he was just a clone of him. I wish that they had expanded more on that idea since that came near the end and was only included in one chapter. Also, don't ask me what happens at the end since I genuinely have no idea what they were trying to do.

Is Loid a yandere? Yes, is it worth reading? I guess it depends on how much you can tolerate constant sex scenes with threesomes and annoying characters that don't deserve each other. I guess an alternative to this could be called "Rich people do threesomes and cheat on each other and also there are robots."

#asks #male yandere #yandere boy #yandere #recommendation

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doyelikehaggis · 3 years ago

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5 Shows

Rules: Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. Don't cheat. Tag 10 people

Tagged by the lovely @geekinthefuschiahair

My shows:

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series

iCarly

The Vampire Diaries

Outlander

The Dumping Ground

Questions:

Who is your favourite character in 2?

I think it might be Freddie? It definitely used to be Spencer because I always wanted a big brother like him, but now I've definitely grown more attached to Freddie.

2. Who is your least favourite character in 1?

Ooh. That's actually a hard one, I don't think I really have a least favourite? I mean, maybe Lily? I don't hate her, but I obviously like her a bit less than the rest of the characters, so probably Lily.

3. What is your favourite episode of 4?

I have three! "All Debt's Paid" because it's the first time we meet John, "A. Malcolm" because Young Ian and adult Fergus, and "Hour of the Wolf" because OUCH.

4. What is your favourite season of 5?

I'm struggling to choose between 3, 6 and 8. But I think I might lean more towards season 6; it has some lighter episodes that are still really good, plus it has a few new character introductions which I really like. But 8 is a close second in terms of how well-written the serious episodes are without being so serious that I tend to skip them on rewatches.

5. Who is your favourite couple in 3?

Oh, but there are so many. I say that as if I don't know my favourite canon couples right off the top of my head. Obviously it has to be Stefan and Elena, and also Tyler and Liv. They simply deserved better, okay, and I will always be bitter about their ending.

HOWEVER, if we're talking non-canon then that is a whole other story and I would have to say Damon and Enzo but ALSO Caroline and Valerie, am I right? Yes, of course I am.

6. Who is your favourite couple in 2?

Oh, Carly and Freddie without a doubt. They are endgame, as they have always been, and I can't wait to see their happy ending. If I'm allowed some more creative freedom with canon then I would also like to throw in Spencer and Socko.

7. What is your favourite season of 1?

I think I enjoyed season 2 more? Obviously I adore season 1, it sets the base for us to get to know the characters and I'm a sucker for the HSM soundtrack. But there's something about the Beauty and the Beast plot of season 2 that I just love, and the original songs are gorgeous. Plus, it gave us some more Portwell, the fun dynamic between Ricky and Carlos when they write that song for Seb, the DANCE BATTLE to the mob song?? Yeah, I cannot fault season 2.

8. What is your favourite episode of 5?

Oh, hard question, TDG has so many good episodes. I'm gonna give a top five instead, it's a lot easier. So, we start with "Sittin' in a Tree" because it's the first time Jody realizes she has feelings for Tyler. Then we have "Wasters" because Alex goes to do work experience at Lily's cafe, I have to add in "Auld Lang Syne" for the Jyler rivalry + all of the Rabbie Burns stuff. "Sasha Claus" because it was a (mostly) fluffy Christmas episode and I just love snowed-in episodes. LAst but definitely not least is "Breaking Chains" because 1) Kingsley is dead but also 2) Jody being allowed to grieve in her own way with some kind of closure and 3) Tyler's return and 4) Bec's coming out storyline.

9. What is your favourite episode of 2?

Okay, if we're talking original iCarly then I think my favourite might be... "iSaved Your Life" for all of the creddie stuff but also a shoutout to both "iGo One Direction" for the comedy and also "iTwins" because it was a fun decision to give Sam an identical twin and confuse the hell out of Freddie. If we're talking about the reboot, then it's a choice between "iLove Gwen" for the schemy dynamic between Carly and Millicanet + getting to see Millicent's school, and "iTake A Girls' Trip" for all of the Creddie hilarity and awkwardness, but also "iGuess Everyone Just Hates Me Now" for the same reasons.

10. How long had you watched 1?

Literally only about a week? Maybe two? But I have fallen very hard very fast and I can never escape now, HSMTMTS will forever live in my heart (especially Ricky)

11. How did you become interested in 3?

I had initally refused to even consider watching TVD; my sister loved the first few seasons, but I was so obsessed with Harry Potter that no other fandom even seemed worth it. And then I had been having a conversation at school with someone who was kind of my friend at the time about werewolves, and she told me I should watch TVD because she was absolutely in love with it. I went home, watched a few episodes and ended up slowly watching the entire show. I have never been the same since.

12. Who is your favourite actor in 4?

Without a doubt, John Bell. I have adored that man for years since he was in TBR, and I was so happy to discover he was in Outlander. He was actually one of the main reasons I watched it at all.

13. Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5?

Oh that's so not fair. I grew up on TDG and iCarly, but oh my god the love I have for HSMTMTS is unbelievable. I might have to side with iCarly here but then again, I just don't know. TDG I have an emotional connection to, you know, it's got some really complex stuff that hits really hard and I appreciate that. iCarly is fun and light and comedic. HSMTMTS is musical and hilarious and the characters are hard not to love. I truly cannot choose.

14. Which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3?

Uh, well, I've watched both shows in their entierty, so I'll switch it up a little as well. I totally binged HSMTMTS in nearly a night and have almost binge-watched every episode AGAIN today, but I've definitely REwatched more episodes of TVD (for now), just because I've been in that fandom for so long and so have had the time to do so (plus it was necessary for fic writing, which isn't something I'm doing yet for HSMTMTS)

15. If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?

That's a question. Do I really want to be any of them? They all go through the ringer quite a bit and I'm not entirely sure I'd survive half of that shit. But I suppose if I had to choose, I'd WANT to be Lord John or Josiah. I wouldn't mind being Bree or Roger but only for like the present day parts, like, before they go back in time.

16. Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work?

It... it could? It would have to be something involving maybe on of the Mikaelson or Katherine or Lexi, but... yeah, technically speaking, it's possible. Outlander's main time period is the late 18th century, and since they're in Scotland most of the time, it's possible that one of the originals was roaming around there in that time, probably Klaus. Oh god, I don't even want to imagine a meeting between Klaus and Jamie. Or Klaus and Claire. Or Klaus and Randall. It would be a nightmare, truly. Point is, it's definitely possible and I do not like it.

17. Pair two characters in 1 that would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple

Yes, my time has come for HSMTMTS rarepairs! Or crackships, I suppose, but okay let's think about this properly. An unlikely pairing would most definitely be EJ and Carlos, and I honestly don't think they'd make a bad couple? I liked their dynamic in "The Tech Rehearsal" so it could be interesting. But also Ricky and Carlos? 👀 This mainly comes from Ricky helping Carlos write that song for Seb. But also what about Carlos and the French exchange student? I don't know his name, but I just really liked the part in the dance battle when those two were singing at each other, and I feel like MAYBE they could be something fun there? I don't think that Ricky and EJ are unlikely which is why I didn't put them at the top, but they would definitely make a good couple and I would be so here for it.

18. Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5?

See, The Dumping Ground doesn't have one consistent storyline the entire way through a single season, because the point is that the episodes are all something different. The general plot is that it's a bunch of kids in a care home trying to deal with their issues and adjust to life in general, so it's not exactly comparable to a show like The Vampire Diaries, whose plot is supposed to be fantastical and more about things that AREN'T real as opposed to things that are. It's impossible to compare them for that reason; 3 is realistic and a way to sort of cope with life, sometimes in a light, fun way, sometimes in a deep, personal way, and 5 is an escape into a world where the problems are vampires and werewolves and other supernatural horrors. I enjoy both dearly.

19. Which has the better theme music, 2 or 4?

While I love singing along dramatically to the Skye Boat Song, I will always vibe with the iCarly theme, it's just so upbeat and funky.

20. What is your favourite episode of 3?

Jesus, you're asking the impossible now. A favourite of The Vampire Diaries? Just one? Okay, I actually have at least three on the top of my head so, "162 Candles" minus the ending because I love Lexi, "The Birthday" because I just like it, and "Resident Evil" because I liked the Stelena dynamic with the visions, and some of the Denzo dynamic.

Tagging @childofsquidward @nbvethbrenatto @donnas-troia @alltid-og-for-evig @infp-obsessing-over-everything @mariedemedicis @benedictbridgertonss @cescalr @dance-is-life27 @imaginearyparties @emberandshadow and anyone who sees this and wants to do it! It's actually a lot of fun! <3

#about meeee #tag games #this was a lot of fun with this combination of shows #honestly I would do something like this again with the same five and some similar questions #especially the ones that compare some of the shows' aspects

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slowlydrowningme · 5 years ago

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But My Makeup’s Ruined

Anon asked: Do you think you could do an angst that’s dick grayson x fem reader where he cheats on the reader with kori? I love your sm au so much ❤️❤️❤️ I typically like longer stuff but write as much as you want if you even wanna write it. No pressure 🥰🥰

Rating: T (Mostly for Jason’s potty mouth)

Word Count: 2688

Warnings: Panic attack, partner caught cheating, Dick gets punched, references to a nondescript bad past (I’m just being careful, I’d really not like to trigger anyone)

Pairing: Dick x Fem!reader (though it’s mostly Jason in the story with her, but not in any way romantic)

Notes: This took on a life of its own and kind of went into a little bit of a personal experience for me. It was almost cathartic to write, so thanks for that anon. I didn’t go into graphic detail about the cheating or the panic attack itself, but they are mentioned. Hope you enjoy!

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How did you get here? How did you find yourself in this position? You were supposed to be stronger than this. You were supposed to have learned from past mistakes. Yet here you were, soaking from the evening rain with a hand pressed against the slick brick of a random shop in an alley just within the limits of the Diamond District, on the verge of a panic attack.

“Y/N?”

Shaking your head, you ignore the almost robotic voice you could hear just above you and keep your focus on not passing out instead.

“Shit, Y/N. What happened? Are you hurt?” Because of course there was no other logical reason you would be in the position you were currently in.

You felt his body heat before you even realized he had come down from whatever perch point he had found himself above you head. The familiar pair of black, steel toed boots came into your line of sight and you took a number of deep breaths before even considering looking up.

“Hey, you-“ His words cut off when he caught sight of your face. You knew your eyes would be bloodshot from the tears that blended perfectly with the rain falling from the sky. But there would definitely be no hiding the absolute misery in your eyes and even someone as emotionally stunted and repressed as Jason Todd, aka Red Hood, would be able to read it.

“Fuck.” You furrowed your brow at his reaction, his shoulders dropping and though you couldn’t see his face behind the hood, you knew he was probably frowning. “You know.” And your blood ran cold.

“You knew?!” You wanted to scream it, but your throat is tight from crying and hoarse from the cold night air.

“Come on, I’ve got a safehouse the next block over. We need to get you out of the rain.”

You want to fight him, but you just don’t have the energy in you after fighting off the earlier panic attack. So you let him pick you up bridal style and carry you through the shadows to his safehouse. The only thing you can do is wrap your arms around his neck when he lifts you up. And nothing could stop you from burrowing your face into his neck to hide from the constant downpour.

Your mind must shut down in the relative comfort you find because the next thing you know, Jason’s setting you down on the gray couch and draping a blanket around your shoulders before he removes the hood. You look up at him, blinking through the water droplets still falling from your hair, and take in the emotion on his face. Perhaps not as emotionally stunted as he led everyone to believe.

“I’ll make some tea and get you a towel for your hair. I have some clothes here that might not completely fall off your frame, if you want to change?” Not sure you’d be able to say anything without having another breakdown, you simply nod your head and watch him walk into the small kitchen to the left of you and fill a kettle to put on the stovetop.

You trace his movements to the bathroom and wait until he emerges with a couple of towels in hand before he moves onto the bedroom and slips in there for a few minutes. When he comes back out, he’s out of his Hood gear and in a pair of black sweats and a gray Henley. He’s got the towels and what looks to be a pair of sweats and a shirt for you.

“You think you can get changed on your own?” Nodding again, you eased the blanket off your shoulders and stood on shaky legs before reaching for the offered items. His hands linger on the back of yours while you hold the small pile in your palms. “Y/N…”

“I’ll be back in a sec,” you rasp out instead of letting him go wherever he had planned to go with that, slipping past him to the bathroom and shutting the door behind you. Leaning against the only thing separating you from facing what you had seen tonight, you take a few deep breaths and wait to hear the sounds of Jason in the kitchen taking care of the tea.

Once you can her the noise he makes, you get to work stripping out of your cold, wet clothes and drying your hair and body off as much as possible. Once you’re as good as you’re going to get, you tug on the sweats, which fit well enough, and the long sleeved shirt that is probably two sizes too big. Not sure what to do with your wet clothes, you fold them neatly and place them on one of the towels, leaving them on the counter. Taking the second towel out with you, you continue to try and pat the water out of your hair as you walk back into the room.

Even though you know he heard you come out, Jason keeps his focus on the phone in his hand as he types out something.

“How do you take your Earl Gray?” He asks suddenly, finally lifting his green eyes to look over at you as you approach him in the kitchen. You wait for him to set down his phone before you answer.

“Lemon,” you tell him and he nods, smiling as he fixes up your mug before handing it over to you and taking the towel in exchange. Without prompting, you move back over to the couch and wrap yourself back up in the blanket. Leaning back into the comfort of the surprisingly comfy couch, you pull your legs up under you and hold onto the mug with both hands but don’t bother drinking just yet.

Jason approaches silently, as everyone in his family always did, and sits on the coffee table in front of you with his own mug deposited onto the surface next to him. You can see the question before he even asks it and it hurts just as much as you knew it would.

“How did you find out?” You keep your eyes locked on his, trying to draw a little strength to replay the events of tonight in your mind.

“A failed attempt at a early homecoming.” Travel was something that happened a lot with your job as the personal assistant of the current Mayor. You had been at his side for the past three years and every time he set foot outside of Gotham, you were there. Recently there had been a lot of those trips.

This particular trip was supposed to be another two days but some hard work on your part had allowed everyone to return home early. So you had planned on surprising Dick by heading to his place the instant you had dropped your bags off at your Midtown flat. That had been a mistake.

“Does he know you know?”

“The black eye is telling enough.” You don’t react to the snort of laughter that Jason releases, nodding his head. There’s pride shinning in his eyes. He had been the one to teach you how to throw a right hook and was well aware of how good you had gotten at landing a punch. “She didn’t know about me?”

“Maybe not at first. I don’t think it started intentionally. But…I hate to say it, Y/N…”

“I’m going to need to talk to him.” He nodded sadly. “I don’t know if I’m strong enough for that.” You could feel the tears building back up, dropping your gaze from his with a shake of your head, staring at the mug in your hands.

“That’s bullshit and you know it. You’re the strongest of all of us,” he says honestly, so much faith. Reaching forward, he takes the mug out of your hands and sets it down next to his own before grabbing one of your hands and holding on tightly. “You’ve been through so much more than this. He’s just a man. He’s my brother and I love him, but he’s a fucking fool.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to call him, okay? The sooner you talk to him, the sooner you can start to move forward.”

“Not tonight, Jay. I…I just…” Raising your gaze back up to look at him, you let the tears spill over and let your eyes say what you can’t with your words. And you can read his own pain in his eyes as he accepts your truth. Without a word, he moves to sit next to you on the couch and gathers you up in his arms. And the battle with your heartbreak is lost, allowing yourself to give into the sobs that had consumed you back in that alley Jason had found you in.

You’re not sure how long he holds you as you cry. Time becomes something obsolete right then and you just give into the base need to unleash the pain. Eventually you find yourself drifting off, tucked into his side with his arms wrapped tightly around you while he murmurs nonsensical words to you. It’s all a haze by the time he lifts you up for the second time of the night and carries you into the bedroom.

You try to protest against him giving up his bed for you, but he shushes you and lays next to you until you’ve fallen asleep.

You wake with the sun the next morning, the space next to you on the bed empty like you knew it would be. Your head feels just as heavy as your heart and you spend a few minutes just blinking at the light coming through the window. The oranges and pinks that slowly take over the sky should fill you with a warmth, but you just feel empty.

It’s not until you hear the sound of voices beyond the closed door, too muted for you to know what is being said or by whom, that you sit up and scrub at your face with both hands. You know you probably look like a wreck, but you figure you’ve also earned the right. Smoothing out your hair as much as you can so you at least don’t look like an absolute disaster, you take a deep breath to steel yourself for going out and facing the world.

Slipping off the bed, you wrap your arms around your middle and head to the door, peeking your head out to see Jason in the kitchen and a very familiar back standing in front of him. It makes your heart hurt even more to know how easily you know him from just the lines of his shoulders. Casting your eyes back to Jason, you can see his eyes are pinched with anger and his under eyes dark with exhaustion. That twists your stomach further into knots, knowing you brought this on him.

Even if he was the one to find you last night.

“Fuck, Jay, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

“But it did, Dick. You made a choice and now there’s a fucking broken hearted woman in my bed and I just want to punch you in the face to give you a matching black eye.” You know the instant he spots you standing in the doorway, his shoulders tensing even more and the worry filtering into those green orbs. You can tell Dick notices by the straightening of his back before he turns to look over his shoulder.

“Y/N…” He turns to fully face you and you can’t help but tighten your arms around your middle and clench your jaw. The image of him and Kory kissing in his kitchen burn through your mind as if they had just happened moments ago and the pain is just as intense. His hands on her hips, pulling her body flush against his own, and hers on his face, as if worried he’d pull away too soon.

When he takes a step toward you, you can’t stop yourself from taking one back and shaking your head. He doesn’t hide the pained look on his face, but he holds his hands up in understanding and doesn’t come any closer.

Looking away from Dick, you look over to Jason who hasn’t moved but is watching you closely. Without any prompting, he moves around his brother and comes to stand in front of you.

“He called last night asking if I had heard anything from you and I told him I found you. He just showed up a few minutes ago. I can tell him to fuck off.” Glancing back at Dick for a second before looking back to Jason again, you chew on your lower lip before answering.

“He’s already here. Just…can you stay nearby?”

“You got it.” He reached up and squeezed your shoulder before looking back at his brother with a look you couldn’t quite see, but it was enough to make Dick look ashamed, before he moved into the bedroom you had just abandoned.

Silently, you moved closer to Dick but stopped when there was still about five or so feet between you. Close enough to speak quietly, but far enough away that he couldn’t touch you unless he moved forward.

“How long?” It was a question you had wanted to ask Jason last night, but then you had broken down and hadn’t gotten the chance to ask anything.

“Two months.” You aren’t sure if you felt better knowing it was fairly recent in terms of your two and a half year relationship.

“Did she know?”

“Not in the beginning. The first time we kissed…I hadn’t seen her in years and she almost died and I just…” Clenching your jaw, you make a visible effort not the say something nasty. “It only happened two other times, besides last night. But just the one time was enough, and I’m so sorry Y/N. There’s no excuse for what I did, I know that.”

“Were you ever going to tell me? Or were you two just going to continue to keep fucking me over?” There was the anger. It was only a matter of time before the pain settled into it.

“I don’t know.” Letting out a humorless laugh, you tilted your head back and closed your eyes. “I wish it hadn’t happened and god, Y/N, I wish I had been loyal enough to stop myself. I don’t want to lose you in my life. I love you so much, you have to know that.”

“Obviously just not as much as you love Kori.” You looked back over at him and found him with his chin dropped to his chest and both his hands gripping his hair.

“She’s my drug. She always has been.”

Blue eyes crashed back into yours and you could see the guilt and sadness, but you could also see the truth.

“You were never mine.”

“I wanted to be. I wanted to be all yours.”

“But part of you will always be hers. And even if it had only been that one kiss, I could never be with someone who couldn’t be mine completely,” you whisper, feeling that all too familiar burn of tears.

“You deserve more than that. But I was selfish, and I wanted you. I wanted what you made me feel and I wanted to try and give you my whole heart.” You could see tears building in his eyes as a tear of your own slipped over.

“You should go.”

“Y/N…” Shaking your head, you took a step back and sucked in a deep breath.

“There’s nothing else to say, Dick. I just needed to hear you admit that you were never mine the way I was yours. I’ll come by your place tomorrow to get my stuff and leave my key, please don’t be there.” He could only nod before turning and walking to the front door. “I’ll always love you Dick, but please don’t contact me. And just please, don’t do this to anyone else.”

He doesn’t say anything in return before opening the door and heading out, closing it softly behind him. You don’t say anything as the door behind you opens back up and Jason comes up behind you, a warm line of body head at your back.

It’s not until he presses a hand to the back of your neck and pulls you into his chest that you finally let out the sob you hadn’t wanted Dick to see. He didn’t deserve to see you at you most broken. Not when he had caused it.

“You’ll be okay, Y/N,” were the only words Jason muttered that you could decipher. But they were enough. It fucking hurt right then, but you’d survived worse. You would survive this.

#batman #batman au #batfam #batfam au #filled request #dick grayson #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson x you #jason todd #jason todd x reader #jason todd x you #ani writes stuff #red hood #nightwing #koriand'r #dickory

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blueboxesandtrafficcones · 4 years ago

Text

A Muppet Family Christmas

Day 13 of 2018′s 31 Days of Christmas. Note: new for 2020. Credited as 2018 for organizational purposes, & back-filling the prompt.

Thanks to @doctorroseprompts for the prompt list!

Prompt: Holiday movies

Rating: T (sexual themes, alcohol)

Pairing: TenxRose (AU)

Summary: Despite being mid-January James and Rose have a Christmas-movie watching date, and open up about old grief amidst being childish with the Muppets and Mario Kart. Part of the Cosier With You ‘verse.

2018 31 Days of Ficmas Masterlist | Cosier With You ‘Verse

AO3

---

With a final swipe of gloss across her lips, Rose returned the lipstick to her purse, fluffed her hair, and knocked on the door.

“It’s open!”

Pushing the door open, she grinned at the sight that greeted her. Hair still obviously wet from the shower, her boyfriend of three weeks (and counting!) stood on the far side of his kitchen island, preoccupied with a popcorn popper that was spitting out perfectly popped corn. “Hey!” he greeted her warmly, as she dumped her stuff and came around to his side. “Missed you.”

“I saw you this morning,” she laughed, kissing him hello. “Mm, you taste like butter.”

“I had to make sure it was good,” James shrugged, gesturing to the half-full bowl catching the freshly popped corn. “Only the best for you. And yes, but we were at your place of work, surrounded by people. I much prefer when we’re alone.”

“So do I.” Wrapping her arms around his waist, she rested her head on his bicep. “Remind me why we’re watching Christmas movies in mid-January?”

James eased out of her arms as the popper wound down, dumping the last of the kernels into the bowl before switching the machine off. “Because I don’t want to wait a year to curl up with you and popcorn and watch cheesy Christmas-themed movies with you.” He nodded towards a bottle of white wine and two glasses on the counter, still chilled from the fridge, waiting for Rose to grab them before guiding her to the couch, which was already prepared for the evening.

Two soft, fleece-lined blankets stood at the ready, along with the pillows from his bed. A stack of DVDs sat on the coffee table, two drink coasters optimally positioned, and to complete the Christmas-y vibe, all the decorations, including the tree, were still up.

“So, for future reference, do you typically leave the tree up this long?” she asked, plopping down roughly in the middle of the couch and pulling out the pre-popped cork. “‘Cause I’ve gotta be honest, mine’s been down since the third, and this might be a sticking point in the future.”

He laughed, settling next to her and reaching for his glass. “No, but… I’m not ready to take it down yet, this year. I’m afraid…”

“What?” She took her own glass, leaning back into the cushions and giving him her full attention.

“I’m afraid that this- what we have- is a function of Christmas magic, and if I remove the decorations…” he trailed off, ears flushing. “Point is, I’m not taking any chances on this.”

Rose grinned, blushing herself, and wiggled closer. “I’m not going to disappear if you take your tree down,” she promised. “And I’m mostly teasing you – it’s sort of nice, it still being up. Not sure I’d say the same if I was living- with one still up,” she faltered, and they shared a smile at what was unsaid- “but… yeah. I wouldn’t want to jinx us either. I’ve been wanting this for so long.”

“Me too.” He leaned forward, and they met in the middle in a kiss that tasted of salt from the popcorn, tart from the wine, and sweet from what she was learning was just him. “Mhmm, you’re too tempting,” he accused without heat when he pulled back for breath. “This isn’t why I asked you over.”

“All right, all right,” she resettled herself with a laugh. “Fine, we can Netflix then Chill, if that’s what you really want.”

His ears and neck turned a delightful shade of scarlet, and he all but lunged for the stack of DVDs, voice squeaking as he said, “So! What shall we start with?”

Leaning in again she rested her cheek against his shoulder as they shuffled through the selection, and it took everything she had not to scoff at the final option, managing a neutral tone to say, “A Muppet Family Christmas?”

James stilled beside her, and she was glad she hadn’t laughed when a distant expression flashed across his face. “It was my dad’s favorite Christmas movie,” he said, hesitantly. “Mum hated it, but tolerated it when we were old enough to watch it. It became our thing, me Donna and Dad’s. She and I still watch it together every year.”

“Oh.” Rose tried to marshal her thoughts, recognizing that he was letting her in on something special, wondering distantly if it was some sort of test. “I’ve never actually seen it.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “Slightly before my time. I know who the Muppets are, of course, saw the Christmas Carol one, but… not this.”

He was silent for a moment, picking at the corner of the box. “D’you wanna?”

“Yes.” She surprised them both with the strength of her response, based on how James’ head flew up to blink at her. “Sounds like this might be the closest I get to meeting your Dad, so- let’s do it.”

His blinding smile told her it was absolutely the right answer.

By the end of the movie they were snuggled together, singing along at the top of their lungs to the final song, even as it trailed off to the credits.

“-And a happy new year!” they finished, before breaking into peals of laughter.

“Oh, I loved it,” Rose proclaimed, wiping tears of merriment from her eyes. “I can’t believe I’ve never seen that – it’s adorable!”

Beside her, James made a happy noise, pressing his face into her bicep. “Really?”

Wriggling around, Rose waited until she could meet his eye to respond. “Really,” she said firmly. “There’s something special about it. And more importantly, it’s special to you. So it’s special to me. Thank you for sharing this bit of yourself with me.” No words could express how honored she felt, that he was comfortable sharing something so personal with her. It made her a little wistful for her own father; while both men were gone, James had at least grown up with his father, known him in person- Rose had been a baby when Pete died.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” James’ concerned tone dragged her out of the spiral of her thoughts, and she looked up at him when he brushed at her cheek. “You’re crying.”

She bit her lip. “I was just thinking about my own dad,” she said truthfully. “I’d give anything to share something like this with him. Or, anything, really. I was six months when he- when we lost him. I mean, on bank holidays Mum and I watch old Cliff Richards movies, but… it’s not quite the same as this.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up a… a sad memory for you.” His soulful chocolate eyes felt like they could see into her very heart, and she pushed down the ever-present but background grief.

“It’s okay. Sometimes it hits me in the weirdest moments. And I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to meet your Dad – he sounds wonderful, based on your stories.” Then she bolted upright, as a memory surfaced. “Holy shit – I think I did meet your dad! Three Christmases ago, the first couple months you were coming in – we didn’t have much of a relationship then, but I still clocked you every time, ‘cause you’re so bloody cute, and I remember you came in a few days before Christmas with an older man! You’d been out shopping, and blimey, he looked just like you!”

James was silent for a long moment, before exhaling. “Blimey, I think you’re right. I’d forgotten – I was sweet on your even then, and I think he noticed, ‘cause he kept teasing me. I never took him back, for fear of him embarrassing me. But… yeah, there you go. You did meet him. And he liked you, much as he could in thirty seconds. Kept egging me to ask you out, and I brushed him off. If only I’d listened to him…”

They sat with that, imaging what could have been, before Rose clapped her hands. “No, we are not going down that rabbit hole. Let’s be grateful that we got there, and we’re here now. Trust me, I spent my entire life pretending not to notice how my mum had one foot stuck in the could-have-beens. Better not to start down that path.” She reached for the bottle of wine, but it was empty. “What d’you say we go do some stargazing?”

“Or…” he drawled, raising an eyebrow, “we could continue on our childish theme and play Mario Kart.”

“That’s what I’m talking about!”

By the third race their maudlin musings had been all but forgotten, as they battled it out for first place with taunts and good-natured ribbing, giving no quarter and playing as though their lives depended on it – complete with over-dramatic victory dances and cheering.

“Oh, come on!” James protested, as Rose eked out a second win by a breath. “You’re cheating!”

“Am not,” she denied, settling back on the couch after a final celebratory kick. “Novice, remember? Beginner’s luck?”

He grumbled, turning to look at her. “Care to make it more interesting?”

“How so?”

“Winner takes a shot, loser loses an item of clothing?”

Rose laughed, shaking her head. “You want to turn strip-racing into a drinking game?” Leaning back, she considered her outfit and his, then the empty bottle of wine. “What d’you got for shots?”

A rifle through the fridge produced a cold bottle of peppermint schnapps, “In keeping with the Christmas theme,” he declared, setting it on the coffee table along with two shot glasses. “Hope you’re thirsty.”

Shaking her head, Rose folded her legs beneath her. “You do know I’m a sure thing, right?” she teased, choosing the next track in the game. “You don’t need to get me drunk, or strip to get me interested.”

“Someone’s confident in themself, aren’t they?” he leered. “Better watch out – who knows what the promise of getting you in your knickers will do to my ability in the game?”

“Not a thing,” she shot back, catching her tongue between her teeth. “Because there’s no where you’re getting me in my knickers.” She started the race, laughing at his outraged yelp.

“We’ll see.”

The light turned green and they took off, and Rose waited until they were near the end and he was slightly ahead to say, “I’d have to be wearing knickers for you to see me in them.” As predicted he startled, going so far as to drop his controller, and with a laugh, she sped across the finish line for her third win in a row. As her character (Princess Peach, natch) was crowned, she turned to watch him splutter, eyes wide.

Finally, he just pointed, making a wheezing sound. “You…”

She took her shot first, nearly coughing at the overwhelming peppermint flavor, before turning her whole body to him. “Strip, loser,” she ordered with a smirk. “And, in case you don’t believe me…” Brave off the half-bottle of wine and the shot, she lifted her leg to splay it along the back of the sofa, confirming for him that she wasn’t wearing anything beneath her skirt. Laughing at the awestruck look on his face she returned to facing the telly, tucking her knees primly together. “I held up my end of the bargain…”

Coming back to life, he shook his head in disgust. “You’re not playing fair.” He whipped his shirt off, revealing his lovely muscular chest, and her knees squeezed together just a bit tighter.

“Well, lose quicker then, so we can go to bed.”

He didn’t win a single race after that, but an hour later, flat on his back on his living room floor wearing only a single sock, with a sticky and sweaty Rose collapsed on his chest, he couldn’t be bothered to care.

“I love Christmas.”

#bbatcfic #doctorroseprompts #31 Days of Ficmas #31 Days of Ficmas 2018 #ficandchips #Doctor Who #TenxRose #Tenth Doctor #Human!Ten #Rose Tyler #A Muppet Family Christmas #holiday movies #Cosier With You Universe

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lonestarbabe · 5 years ago

Text

Mom’s In Town

T.K. struggles when his mom comes into town. The 126 and Carlos help him through, and prod him to make amends with his mother. (AO3)

---

“You didn’t tell me that your mom was in town,” Owen says. His tone is casual, but T.K. can feel the tension radiating from his father. The team stiffens, and they try to mind their own business, but T.K. doesn’t doubt they’ll hang onto every word, so he’s got to be careful with what he says. Just like he always was just before the divorce, during it, and then after. He’d always been sure to say the right the things to the right parent. He excels at splitting himself into different people based on what the situation requires.

His mom has been in town for just a few hours, and T.K. feels like a little kid again, standing between his parents’ fighting, feeling completely unheard. Gwyneth and Owen have learned how to play nice for his sake, but the old feelings always return in specks, built up and matted together like lint from the dryer. His parents are scarily cordial around T.K., but he knows that they talk shit about each other when he isn’t around. They had too many unresolved issues in their marriage to have zero unresolved issues during their divorce. The worst part is that T.K. knows that his parents still have gushy, fond centers for each other. They don’t hate each other. They just act like they hate each other because it is easier to be hateful than to acknowledge that they’d always love each other, even if tragedy made it impossible for them to ever be together again.

Owen was the one to mess everything up, but he’s a hero, and there’s not much T.K.’s ever been able to criticize Owen on that doesn’t somehow end up being about 9/11. Everything between them is about 9/11, but 9/11 is also something that they don’t mention expect to honor all those lives that were lost. Because nothing he says can compare to 9/11, T.K. finds himself being angrier with his mom about everything that went wrong with his childhood, even though she’s the one who actually gave a damn when, by some freak accident, he won his second grade spelling bee or when he starred in his fourth grade play about the planets or when he had ambitions of being a tennis star when all the sixth grade boys at his cushy private school thought that tennis was cool.

To keep his hands busy, T.K. gets to work washing the firetruck, and even as he’s handling this big machine, he still feels like that eight-year-old using his toy firetruck to put out the burning anxiety that raised voices have always caused. “I didn’t know that you needed to know everything mom does,” T.K. says with a terseness to his voice. It’s about as angry as he ever gets with Owen, especially since Owen’s diagnosis. It feels wrong to yell at someone who was sick.

“It just seems like something you’d mention.” Owen’s voice is still so casual, and it grates on T.K.’s nerves because he can feel himself being put in the middle and asked to show his loyalty. For nearly twenty years, he’s been asked covertly to take sides, and despite his bitterness, he’s almost always taken Owen’s.

“I didn’t ask her to come.” T.K. won’t admit that his mom being there felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He’d missed her. They weren’t that close, not like he and his dad, but sometimes, he still just wanted to be close to her and smell the perfume that she still wore even after all these years.

“It would be okay if you did.” That line was from the “How to Be Nice About Your Ex in front of Your Kid” handbook, and T.K. saw right through it with a stinging skepticism he always had when it came to his parents.

“I don’t know why she bothered. I probably won’t have time to see her, anyway.” She could enjoy the sights of Austin without him because seeing her would be too complicated. She’d be pissed off, but she’d been disappointed by Strand men enough to know not to get her hopes up.

“You can’t ignore you mom, son.”

“Yeah, she’s kind of hard to ignore.” The truth was that T.K. wouldn’t actually not see her. He wasn’t that much of a jerk as much as he wished he was. He couldn’t stay away if he tried.

“Why don’t you go to dinner one night? Bring Carlos along. Your mom would love meeting him.” She’d subtly hinting that she wanted to meet Carlos for weeks. T.K. had mostly brushed her suggestions off, but Carlos might be a good buffer. He was great with moms from what T.K. had seen. No one charmed middle aged ladies better.

“Yeah, maybe,” T.K. says before getting back to work. He doesn’t want that conversation to linger because there’s too many blisters that might just pop open if he pokes too hard. Even when Owen gets the message to let the conversation drop, T.K. still feels a grumpiness come over him.

---

Paul is the first of the 126 to bring up T.K.’s foul mood. He broaches the topic carefully, giving T.K. that knowing look, the one that says, “I’m not going to push you but prepare for some light prodding.” T.K. almost runs away when he sees that look, but he’s in the middle of lifting a weight, so he doesn’t have much choice but to stick around. He groans, and he’s not sure if it’s from heaving the weight up or the heaviness of what he knows Paul is about to say.

“My parents got divorced when I was young too, you know,” Paul says. “It sucks.”

T.K. sits up on the bench, and he really doesn’t want to be part of the divorced parents’ club. He acts like he’s over it. Pretends that it was best for everyone. Deludes himself into thinking that the divorce cured a lot of heartache. Maybe it helped his parents, but for T.K., the divorce was didn’t make anything easier for T.K. “It sucked more when they were fighting all the time. The divorce was a relief.” Relief was the wrong word, but it felt like the right thing to say, the thing that a well-adjusted kid of divorce would say. The divorce didn’t change anything. It just made things quieter, and the quiet only made T.K. feel more alone.

“Yeah, I get that, man. My dad was a new person once he divorced my mom. Happier. Mom took more time, but eventually, she was happier too.” The issue with T.K.’s parents was that no one was happier. The divorce left them all sullen and heartbroken.

“What about you? Were you happier?” T.K. could’ve been happier post-divorce, maybe, but for whatever reason, he’d never stopped being angry about it. After 9/11, he stopped feeling like he had a family.

“It took time. Less time than my mom but more than my dad. My sister took the longest of us all, but we figured it out. We learned to be a family again without being a family together. For a long time, I thought that coming out as trans would send ripples through my family and destroy the steadiness we’d finally found, but I realized that I couldn’t run away from myself to please them.”

“That’s an unfair burden to carry.” T.K. comments. He doesn’t like where this conversation is heading, but he doesn’t want to invalidate Paul’s feelings, especially because he doesn’t know exactly what trauma Paul has faced for being trans.

Paul gives a half-smile. “Yeah, but it turned out okay in the end. It took a little adjustment, but we survived it.”

“Sometimes surviving is all you can do.” T.K. picks up a weight and starts doing bicep curls. He looks down at the pendant hanging around his neck. “After 9/11, my dad never really came back to us. He got obsessed with the job, and to be a part of his life, I had to become obsessed with the job as well.” T.K. realizes that he’s said more than he wanted to, and he tries to backtrack. If only you could press the undo button on the things you say. “What I mean is that we worked out our shit.”

Paul quirks an eyebrow. “Is that so?” but he doesn’t comment on it any farther.

---

Judd is blunter when he brings it up. “You angry at your dad?” T.K. looks up sharply. They’re just supposed to be playing foosball, not taking a deep dive into T.K.’s psychological state. Everyone seems to have thoughts about how he must be feeling.

T.K. plays it cool because getting angry will be a dead giveaway that he’s defensive and when he’s defensive, he’s probably avoiding the full truth. “Nope. We get along great. We couldn’t spend as much time together as we do if we didn’t. I’m not sure why you think something is wrong.”

“You can get along great and still be angry. Feelings are complex.” Cowboy Judd was now an expert on feelings.

Judd doesn’t stop there. Of course, he doesn’t. Judd doesn’t stop until he’s drilled it through his head what he wants you to hear. He’s not about subtlety. “You know I love my dad, but we haven’t always gotten along. There use to be a time when we’d bicker all the time. Couldn’t be in the same room without fighting.”

“What changed?”

“I don’t know. I guess we stopped dancing around each other and we started saying what we were really mad about. No point in keeping it hidden.”

“My dad and I don’t even fight, not really.”

“Doesn’t mean you don’t have stuff to fight over.”

“We’re fine Judd.”

“You’ve been tense ever since your mom came into town.”

“Then, maybe she’s the one I’m mad at.”

“Maybe or maybe she’s just the one you take your anger out on.”

T.K.’s defenses go up. “Whatever.” Judd gets the memo, and he goes back to focusing on the game.

Judd hits the ball, putting it into the goal. “Game over, pretty boy. You can’t cheat your way into winning.”

“I don’t cheat.”

Judd laughs, “Sure you don’t, spin master.” Judd gets more serious. “You can’t run from who you are forever either.”

“I don’t try to,” But Judd’s words stuck with him. Sometimes the cowboy could pretty damn wise. Must’ve been Grace’s influence. She rounded out Judd’s edges. Judd and T.K. they were a lot alike- hot blooded and quick to fire up. They used their passion to be better at their jobs, but too often, their passion burned them.

---

Dinner with his mom starts as it always does. They hug and Gwyneth kisses him on the cheek, smiling broadly and saying how handsome he looks. Then, T.K. introduces Carlos to his mom, and she fawns over him, look positively delighted that T.K. found such a nice man. She’d hated Alex, and most of T.K.’s boyfriends before that.

They sit at the table, and T.K. can feel his anxiety rising up the longer they sit. Carlos is great. He’s filling the gaps of the conversation and the perfect balance of cheerful to T.K.’s sullen. Gwyn can’t get enough. Carlos has her laughing, and it sends a bitter jolt through T.K. that he’s the only one not having fun.

“So, Tyler, how’s your job been?” Owen had gotten T.K. in the divorce while Gwyn had gotten Tyler.

“What do you care?” T.K. snaps.

Hurt fills her face, and Carlos looks alarm at the shift in mood. “I’m your mom. Of course, I care.”

“You hate that I’m a firefighter.” She thought his job was too dangerous, especially after he got shot, but mostly, he figures that she was mad that he’d move across the country with his dad instead of staying behind with her.

She shakes her head, her smiling becoming tense, but she’s obviously trying to control her emotions. She’s an expert of controlling when she wants to. “That’s not true. It’s what you’ve always wanted to be.”

“Yeah, but you think it’s only because of dad. You’re bitter that I chose what he wanted instead of what you wanted,” he’s really lashing out now, and he can’t help the words rolling off his tongue. He’s doing the equivalent of yelling, but his voice is softer as to not cause a scene in the restaurant.

“All I’ve ever wanted was for you to do what made you happy. I worried you were just being a firefighter to please your dad. I never had a problem with you choosing to be like him. I fell in love with your dad in part because he followed his passions and wanted to help people.”

T.K. rolls his eyes. “Yeah, right.”

“I like those things about T.K. too,” Carlos chirps, trying to ease some of the tension, and it only does enough that T.K. shuts up, trying to get through the dinner. He gets through. Just barely, and not without getting in a few snippy remarks.

Carlos is seething after the dinner. They get back to Carlos’ apartment, and T.K. just wants to blow off some steam, but Carlos isn’t in a kissing mood. “Why were you such an asshole to your mom? You’d never yell at your dad like that.” T.K. doesn’t want to have to keep defending himself to everyone he knows. They don’t know what it was like back in New York when he was a kid trying to balance out his parents’ wishes, and always having to be a disappointment no matter what he did.

“Because she doesn’t give a damn about what I want. She’s upset that I chose to be a firefighter instead of a lawyer or whatever else she wanted me to be.”

“She only asked you how your job was, and you flipped out! You got mad at her when she asked anything about you.”

“That’s how my parents are! Everything they say is a chess game trying to make me choose a side. Every time they ask about my interests or what I want, they’re really just trying to test who I love more. That question about New York… that was her trying to get me to say that I like her home better than his.” She had asked if T.K. missed the city. T.K. said he didn’t, but T.K. would always miss the city, at least a little. He loves Austin, and Austin has healed him, or started to. It has given him a family, and friends, and Carlos, but New York would always give him a special kind of rush. He grew up there, and it would always feel like home even if it wasn’t always where his heart was.

“Maybe she’s not the one you’re angry with.”

“Have you been talking to Judd?”

“What?” Carlos sounds confused.

“Judd said basically the same thing.” Having a family meant a lot of meddling.

“When there’s a pattern, you shouldn’t ignore it,” Carlos says, voice still biting.

“Just because I’m not as close to my mother as you are with yours, it doesn’t mean I have some bigger issue that I need to work out. Sometimes, parents and children just don’t get along.”

“I mean that maybe she’s a stand in for the person you want to yell at.”

“Yeah?” T.K. seethed. “When did you get your psychology degree?”

“I’ll drop it if you answer this one question honestly.”

“What’s that?”

“Why did you become a firefighter?” Now, that is a loaded question, one he couldn’t answer without reaffirming some of what Carlos was suggesting. T.K. doesn’t want to think about the truth. He doesn’t want to vocalize it and start to unpack all those feelings he’s been packed away since he was a little kid.

“Because I wanted to save people.” He did want to save people. When he sees a person in trouble, he wants to save them, even if it means sacrificing himself, especially kids. When he sees a kid in danger, he wants to keep him safe because no kid should feel unsafe, unloved, or unworthy of being helped.

“You could’ve chosen a dozen career paths if that saving people the main reason, but it’s not.”

“I don’t know, Carlos. It was convenient.”

“Convenient? Really? It doesn’t seem to me that you do things because they’re convenient.” The anxiety was revving up in T.K. again. All those repressed thoughts, bubbling in his consciousness.

“It’s easier to be mad at her,” T.K. admits.

“Why?” Carlos presses.

“I wanted my dad to love me, but he left. He checked out, but she was always there. I knew she would be there. I knew if I yelled at her, she wasn’t going to go away. When my mom got upset, she’d get mad, but she never left. When dad got mad, he couldn’t’ t handle it and would make an excuse about having to work. It wasn’t his fault. He was going through a lot and a bratty kid didn’t help anything, but I always worried that one day, he wouldn’t come back, so I learned not to yell at him. I learned to avoid his triggers. I learned how to keep him in my life.”

Carlos sighs, some of the anger dropping from his face, “You can’t keep that all bottled up, T.K., and it doesn’t help anyone to keep being angry at your mom about something that has nothing to do with her.”

“I know that. It’s just so fucking messy in my head.” He’s starting to feel sick to his stomach. He needs to talk to his mom. “Can you do me a favor?”

Carlos brushes a hand down T.K.’s arm, “What do you need?”

“Can you take me to my mom’s hotel.”

For the first time since they got to Carlos’ apartment, Carlos smiles. “That can be arranged.”

Carlos drops T.K. off and parks the car, giving T.K. the chance to have a few minutes alone with his mom. He nervously knocks on the door. She opens it, looking surprised to see him. “Tyler? What are you doing here?”

He throws his arms around her and drops his head to her shoulder. “I’m so sorry mom for treating you like shit all these years.” She ushers him into the hotel room and sits him down on the chair.

“It’s okay,” she says, combing her hand through his hair, which only makes T.K. feel worse for the way he’s treated her. He knows she’ll never hold it against him. She’ll love him just the same, and he wants to try to be a better son for her. He wants to let her into his life and mend all the bitterness he unfairly feels against her. He knew he’d need to talk to her, and his dad. It would take time, but maybe somehow someway, his mom being in town wouldn’t have to feel like bad news because it was good to feel close to her. “I’ll always be by your side.”

#Elise Writes #my writing #911lonestarweek #911lsweek #911 lone star #911 lone star fics #fics #long

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lightcomingthroughthedarkness · 5 years ago

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What I don't understand is some Bellarkes insisting that there's a point to B/E still existing and JRot didn't write them out of pure spite. I get it they are new in the fandom. But I'm not gonna act like there's a love triangle that blocks Bellarke after S5. It simply isn't a love triangle. Not to mention, JRot tweeted "heh heh heh" everytime B/E interacted on screen, even when the sex scene aired. He purposefully wrote that relationship to spit on Bellarkes and serve to CLs. It's just so clear

I just want to make one thing clear before I answer this. I can dislike Ec.ho while also not belive that everything Jason does is to spite me or the fandom. Just wanted to put it out there, lol

Anyway, lets get to it. This is long.

1. Bellamy is emotionally cheating on Ec.ho yet he yells at Ec.ho for not being emotionally open with him.

2. Bellamy is not being emotionally open with Clarke, yet he yells at Ec.ho for not being emotionally open with him meanwhile he is also staying emotionally unavailable to Clarke too.

3. Clarke is unaware of any romantic feelings that Bellamy might have for her. Simply because Bellamy is not emotionally open with her about said feelings. And when he has done something or been called out for having feelings for Clarke, she has not been there to hear it or see it. Now, we all know Clarke is a fucking legend, but she’s not a damn mind reader.

4. Bellamy has no indication that Clarke has ANY romantic feelings for him at all. Why? Because Clarke took a step back when she saw that Bellamy was with Ec.ho. And then Bellamy continued to CHOOSE Ec.ho over Clarke SEVERAL times. Clarke does not feel like it is her place to say anything to a man that is in a serious and commented relationship. Therefor, even if Bellamy had feelings for Clarke, he doesn’t know if she returns them.

5. Ec.ho is clueless. Girl is void of not only a personality but apperently also of the gift of sight and hearing too. She has no thoughts, no worries, no idea, no opinion, no nothing.

What is absolutely true, nonny is that B/E is DEFINITELY blocking Bellarke for a REASON. If they had kept Bellamy and Ec.ho friends/family then it would have shown us what we’ve all been screaming about being enough; Bellamy becoming the kind of leader that forgives and understands people and still reaches out to “them” in order to make an “us”.

I mean look at all the other relationships on the Ark after the time jump. Harper and Monty were still together. Raven was forever alone, like always. Murphy and Emori were...Murphy and Emori. They still only had storylines with each other mostly. And all of them managed to develop familiar bonds to the members of the group.

The only difference in those 6 years, was Bellamy’s relationship status. By showing Bellamy as part of a family, you had already given Bellamy that development, but we never got to see it (big mistake). So why did we need Bellamy to be in a relationship with Ec.ho at all?

Their names are Octavia Blake and Clarke Griffin.

Those two women are the ONLY reason why Bellamy “had” to be in a relationship with Ec.ho. Octavia hated Ec.ho. Yet Bellamy made her his family AND started dating her. Here’s the thing with the Blakes; you didn’t need Ec.ho to be Bellamy’s girlfriend to kick it to Octavia. Just the simple fact that Bellamy made his own family and chose Ec.ho to be part of that family was the biggest problem for Octavia. That Bellamy had grown as a person to let someone like Ec.ho be part of his family, even though what she had done to Octavia. Bellamy needed to leave Octavia for his new family for Octavia to understand what she was losing. So that was as much of B/E that we needed for that story to be told. Bellamy choosing his family based on love and support and Octavia working through her idea of what family is based on blood or love.

So why did B/E need to stay together after that and why are they still together? Because B/E need to block Bellarke. That is the ENTIRE point of B/E. There’s no love story. There’s no development. Jason refused to have Bellamy and Clarke both single and then not have them act on any feelings. And if you keep Clarke and Bellamy both single and they act on no feelings or the connection they share, then they truly would only be platonic soulmates. There would be no romantic subtext for Bellarke and we’d all get the answer to that question. Jason is clearly not willing to give that answer, so he needs something to block Bellarke. There’s no other way around it. And because Ec.ho’s existence allows Jason to tell SEVERAL stories. (family, found family, The Blakes, Bellarke). That’s the reason TT was made a main cast member. They needed to lock her ass in, so that Jason would be able to tell this story. And it’s important for all of us to understand that Jason WANTS to tell this story. You and I might hate it, we might have wanted another story but this is what he wanted and decided to do.

And what is also true, is that Jason is an ass. He’s a Hollywood writer and he sucks at social media. Yes, he has made comments during B/E scenes and made fun of fans. I assume he does that because fans can be very horrible to him, so he dishes it out too sometimes and acts cheeky with it (although he’s not and he is part of the problem too). And also, Jason knows how unpopular B/E is and again, he thinks he’s funny and makes comments to rile people up. Lol lol lol, indeed.

My PERSONAL opinion is that I just do not trust Jason to follow through on Bellarke or give them an ending I see fit for them. Jason never has to give a direct answer to what Bellarke are. He can still keep doing what he is doing. Ambigiously writing them as soulmates but leaving it up to the audience to decide what that means. B/E is not the hill Bellarke dies on because B/E has a better story or development. Absolutely not. But that doesn’t mean that when the final credits roll, that Bellarke has become what fandom expects. I’ll only believe it when I see it on screen and not a moment sooner.

You can argue that this entire thing is not good storytelling or the development would have been better told if Jason had written other stories. I can agree with that. I still think Bellarke should have been canon in season 4 and I still think season 5 and season 6 lack quality even though I still love Bellarke. It sucks when TV shows choose to do stuff with the story that we don’t agree with. But it doesn’t mean that an entire TV show, a business, a place where a lot of people work on, is written after fandom drama on stan twitter. What Jason IS doing, in order to not answer the Bellarke question, is to make people unsure of the story onscreen. There’s a major gaslighting situation with this show and the fandom and even Bob Morley had an opinion about that. Both things can sadly enough be true. Jason doesn’t write his entire story around fandom drama on stan twitter but he is absolutely gaslighting people too in the name of protecting his creation/story, before he is ready for people to see how it ends.

And here’s the thing, we can all have different interpretations of this. God knows a lot of fandom has given up and don’t believe in Bellarke anymore. And a lot of people have not given up and still trust Jason. And we need to just let everyone do what is best for them. We’re not going to change people minds and we don’t need to fight about it either. It’s not gonna do us any good. We can just see what happens in season 7 and by 7x16, we might get an answer to what Bellarke are.

#bellarke #The 100 #the 100 season 7 #ask answered

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shemakesmusic-uk · 4 years ago

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Pop artist Nadia Vaeh has dropped her new music video for her powerful track 'Anxiety'. The video reflects on her personal mental health struggles and how she copes with the highs and lows of anxiety. The video shows Nadia alone at home coping with what the real and raw effects of anxiety look and feel like. As an advocate, she hopes her music can inspire people to embrace the conversation of mental health and be a reminder that they are not alone.

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Babeheaven, the project of West Londoners Nancy Andersen and Jamie Travis, share their latest single, 'Craziest Things', along with a video from the award-winning illustrator and animator, Sacha Beeley. The track is taken from the duo’s much anticipated debut album, Home For Now, which will be released on November 20 via AWAL, and follows the singles 'Cassette Beat' and 'Human Nature'. About the track, Nancy said: “On 'Craziest Things', I explore my anxiety and insomnia, not being able to make sense of my emotions and running around in a state of mania.”

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Moscow-based multi-talented avant-pop artist Kate Shilonosova aka Kate NV has just unveiled a video for 'Lu Na', a track taken from her last album Room for the Moon. Drawing from “unlived memories of 70s and 80s Russian and Japanese pop music and film,” the project also comes with vintage and surreal conceptual videos inspired by the shows she was watching as a child. In these new Gina Onegina-directed visuals, she introduces four dancers voguing in pinky cats outfits. “‘Lu Na’ was originally planned as a dance clip consisting mostly of one repetitive loop—simple pattern where cats walk in a square one by one,” she stated. “This pattern was hugely inspired and based on [Samuel] Beckett’s piece Quad which I love. Originally I just wanted the sun to appear slowly behind those cats while they walk. All of the dancers were wonderful, they brought so much life to the characters of those cats!” [via High Clouds]

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Kississippi, the increasingly pop-minded project of the Philadelphia musician Zoe Reynolds, have released a new single, 'Around Your Room'. Kississippi got their start making wispy and hypnotic folk reveries, which opened up into more muscular fare on their debut full-length, 2018’s Sunset Blush. 'Around Your Room' is their most unabashedly pop song yet, a strobing synth that pulls from Lorde’s Melodrama providing the main thrust for Reynolds’ gauzy lyrics about memory and its inexorable pull. Reynolds cowrote 'Around Your Room' with Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties, according to a tweet from Tudzin. “This song tells a story of yearning and infatuation. It’s about being hopelessly enamored in a way that took me back to my youthful perception of love,” Reynolds said in a statement. “It represents those moments where you’re fully infatuated with someone and they’re all you can think about. I’ve written about love in a cynical manner in the past and this song was written as a reminder of the magic and euphoria that comes with it.” 'Around Your Room' is the lead single from a new Kississippi album due out next year, Reynolds’ first for Triple Crown. Watch director Josh Coll’s video for the song above. [via Stereogum]

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Tank and The Bangas have announced a new EP called Friend Goals. Due out November 20 via Verve Forecast, the six-track, guest-heavy release is being previewed with the track 'Self Care'. The New Orleans-based group are known for their collaborative habits, having this year teamed with the likes of Jacob Collier and Fantastic Negrito. Friend Goals, as the title might suggest, brings together a number of artists Tank and The Bangas have befriended over their career. The follow-up to last year’s Green Balloon LP features guests like CHIKA ('Mr. Insta'), Duckwrth ('Fluff'), PJ Morton ('TSA'), and Pell on the title track. Lead single 'Self Care' actually touts three collaborators: Jaime Woods, Orleans Big, and Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph. The track itself is exactly what we need in 2020, an ode to being with yourself and being damn okay with it. “Chillin’ all by myself/ Netflix, eatin’, cheatin’, by myself, all by myself,” Tarriona “Tank” Ball spits, clearly enjoying her alone time. “Nobody else/ New people to the left/ What is there left but myself?” “‘Self Care’ is THE quarantine song to get you moving,” Ball said in a statement. “It shows that some of the best things can come out from solitude, especially when the beat hits this hard.” Take a listen above via the song’s Fat Happy Media-directed video. [via CoS]

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New Zealand’s platinum sensation BENEE unveils the official video for her latest single 'Snail'. For the visual, BENEE and director Anita Fontaine deliver a lush and larger-than-life fantasy befitting of the track. In the colorful clip, BENEE wakes up to feed her giant snail roommates and slides around their slime trails before heading to work in her secret elf lab. Soon, she’s cycling out of her home—a concrete replica of her own head—out into a storm. After being struck by lightning, our heroine turns into an elf and cruises through a mushroom wonderland under the glow of an aurora borealis-style blanket of colors across the sky. Reflective of her personality, it pops off as her biggest and boldest video to date. Of the inspiration behind the video, BENEE says, “I knew I wanted the vid to be a weird fantasy story involving snails! I said to Anita that I wanted to be an elf with long braids riding a bike and have giant mushrooms somewhere in the vid...She came back with the treatment, and I loved ittttttt! Her imagination is supa whacky in the best way, and I’m so happy with how ‘Snail’ turned out!”

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Bebe Rexha has returned with her new anthem 'Baby, I'm Jealous', which features Doja Cat. 'Baby, I'm Jealous' is Bebe Rexha's first single of 2020, following on from last year's Maleficent: Mistress of Evil track 'You Can't Stop The Girl'. The new track marks the debut collaboration between Bebe Rexha and Doja Cat, and is accompanied by a Hannah Lux Davis-directed visual that stars Charli D’Amelio, Nikita Dragun, and Avani Gregg. Bebe Rexha says the new single is "about embracing my insecurities", and adds, "It’s about the way social media has heightened my jealousy which can affect how I feel about myself. We are constantly flooded with the highlights of other people’s lives, and at times I find myself comparing my worth and beauty to others. It’s part of the human process to experience jealousy - ultimately, this is an anthem to embrace those feelings as a form of empowerment." [via Line Of Best Fit]

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Making her grand return to the scene with a striking new single is Brighton-hailed singer Fable, with her new tune 'Thirsty'. With otherworldly tones and harmonising vocals, the singer serves us with a sumptuous genre-bending tune that has us headbanging at every chorus. Known for her bold and atmospheric sonics, the singer accompanies the song with an attention-grabbing video with juxtaposing images of ethereal nature and mental destruction. Speaking on the single, the singer said, “'Thirsty' is about taking the beauty of life for granted. How overtime we write off profound stuff as mundane because it’s a constant; the sky’s always there, but it’s weird and beautiful that we even exist under it. It’s playful at heart but it’s about my realised depression and learning how to reset my perspective through mindfulness,” Having disappeared from the scene back in 2016 due to a personal tragedy, the singer has reconnected to her artistic side and is ready to step back into the spotlight. [via Wonderland]

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With the enticing line-up of Joe Lonie (Supergroove), Milan Borich (Pluto), Jol Mulholland (The Reduction Agents) and Morgan Leary (Cindy), Tāmaki Makaurau supergroup Kathy Bates Motel share their latest ear worm 'Cool Your Heels'. The class act's second single, following up debut track 'Damaged Goods', is dangerously catchy, with killer harmonies from vocalists Lonie and Leary. 'Cool Your Heels' will have you moving your feet and hankering for a dance, a need so perfectly met by the Footloose inspired, Joe Lonie directed visuals. Everybody cut foot loose, the weekend and 'Cool Your Heels' have arrived. [via Under The Radar]

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Up-and-comers Wargasm recently dropped their fifth single, ‘Backyard Bastards’, and now they’ve released a video to go with it. Shot and edited by Olli Appleyard, the video sees sees Sam Matlock (guitar, vocals) hunting down Ryan Cornall (session drummer) on a manic murder spree that finds its peak in an epic showdown between the two, all the while being cheered on by Milkie Way (bass, vocals) and her dancer squad. You can check out the video for ‘Backyard Bastards’ above. [via Dead Press]

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Atlanta-based glam punk rockers Starbenders have released an energetic and evocative music video for their new single 'Can’t Cheat Time' off most recent album Love Potions. 'Can’t Cheat Time' is available now as part of a bundle featuring the original single and an acoustic version. 'Can’t Cheat Time' perfectly pairs frontwoman Kimi Shelter‘s incredible vocal shapeshifting abilities with electrocuted guitars and heart-pounding rhythm for this stand out rock ‘n’ roll anthem. Speaking to the inspiration for the single’s music video, Shelter adds: “‘Can’t Cheat Time’ is a personal favorite amongst the band. This single has a wicked string arrangement reminiscent of Jeff Lynne from ELO’s production style. It was so rewarding hearing all of it come together with the live string players. The accompanying music video is a love letter to the mom and pop businesses that have shaped and supported our very existence. These businesses along with the touring industry have been devastated by the pandemic. We filmed in locations around Atlanta which include the local greasy spoon diner, the record shop, the independent guitar store, the watering hole, and the divey small music venue. While mega-retailers did not close down for even one day, 60% of small to medium-sized businesses in the USA that closed will never reopen. These places are vital to the social and economic health of our cities. We encourage our friends to go to saveourstages.com. Sign up to push legislators to help independent venues though the updated Heroes Act. So many are hurting and on the verge of financial ruin from lighting to sound engineers, musicians, DJs, security, bar staff and venue operators. Our hearts are with you all.“ [via The Girls At The Rock Show]

#videos of the week #nadia vaeh #babeheaven #kate nv #kississippi #tank and the bangas #benee #bebe rexha #doja cat #fable #kathy bates motel #wargasm #starbenders

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kaibacxrps · 4 years ago

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RP PLOTTING CHEAT SHEET

(originally created by hatsudenki)

Repost don’t reblog

Mun name: Vani (IDC how you guys will address me by)

OOC Contact: Tumblr IMs, Disco.rd (mutuals only)

Who the heck is my muse anyway:

Seto Kaiba is the CEO of Kaiba corporation, a world renowned softwares and games development company. They are one of the main partners and investors of Industrial illusions, the company responsible for the creation of duel monsters (they are also known for their theme parks in Japan and the USA, and later [GX] they own the duelists academy). Kaiba is also amongst the top duelits known in the world, Yugi is the only one who stands above him- no one else comes close to rivaling him.

Priest Set is one of the six priests that compose, Atem’s court in Ancient Egypt (and in the afterlife). He was the original wielder of the millennium rod, and carried the duties of extracting prisoners kas and execute them. He was also a phenomenal war strategist, and a powerful magician (who was only ever defeated by Atem. No one else rivaled him, in those skills). He fought against Zorc, alongside his colleagues and pharaoh, and came out as the sole survivor of that previous court. He became the new pharaoh, after Atem’s death (since it was revealed to him that he was Aknadin’s son, so they were related.). Set reigned over the Egyptian empire, and went down in history as a tyrant and merciless pharaoh in Egypt’s history.

Points of interest:

Kaiba can be recognized at about anywhere he goes. He is a very prominent, public figure. At some point, any muse is bound to have at least seen or heard something involving the name Kaiba. Don’t let those commercials and interviews fool you, Kaiba is a difficult person to be around in person.

Besides my AU, where Set shows up in the modern world. Interactions will either take place in AE or in the afterlife. In AE, it can be during his time as a priest, or when he is the pharaoh. Meanwhile in the afterlife, his soul is bound to serve his king. When Set is in the modern world, he is sharing his mind (not the body) with Kaiba, so he knows his way around as well as everything that happened during DM’s events.

What they’ve been up to recently:

It depends on the verse.

For standard Kaiba’s interactions are all set in his present time verse, 4 years post-DM. He has long since quit the professional dueling scene (after being defeated by Yugi in his BC 2.0 tournament, that takes place after Atem’s departure), so he has only been focusing on his company - and his brother (who is already studying abroad). Kaiba has also cut all ties and contact with Yugi & co, the last time he saw them was in their HS graduation. Currently, he is working on his duelists academy project, he has just bought the establishment and is making huge investments on it. He is often traveling abroad for business reasons, and is rarely seen around Domino city.

As a priest: Set is serving the royal court, he is an important and prominent figure within it. Because of that, his days are extremely busy. He can be often found being mentored by Aknadin, or in the company of other priests. On the rare occasion, it is possible to run into him while out hunting wild animals.

As a pharaoh: Set took over the throne after Atem’s death, and is currently trying to repair and rebuild the empire after all the damages and destruction caused by Zorc. Things are still very fresh and recent, on top of that the former priest is now trying to adjust to his life as the king of Egypt.

In the afterlife: Set’s soul made into his pharaoh’s after his death, in the mortal realm. He is finally reunited with his colleagues, but Atem is still nowhere to be found. As such, he alongside with everyone else waits patiently for their king’s return. Things will return to normal, once he makes it into it.

Modern AU: Set has been granted the chance to meet, the one that was meant to be his vessel. However, things have been less than stellar to him. And ever since he came across Kaiba, he has been kept inside of Kaiba estate. He isn’t allowed out of it, in order to avoid people mistaking him by his vessel.

Where to find them:

Kaiba is... All over the place really, although bars and nightclubs might be the better places to find him. Otherwise, he mostly stays in his company’s building or in his mansion.

Just look above for Set, it depends on the time period- when things are meant to happen. But during Ae, he doesn’t really leave the palace that much and in the modern AU he is stcuk in Kaiba’s place.

Current plans:

// I don’t have any? Not in the sense of making something, that would involve other muns muses. I’ll just keep working on my HCs, and hopefully write a few drabbles I have been meaning to get to for awhile.

Desired interactions:

// I would love to have more things taking place during AE for Set, or finally get to write something during the afterlife.

For Kaiba, I’m actually interested in some pre-DM stuff, so during school shenanigans? (At a time where they were all simply classmates, and nothing else) Or even much later into the timeline, during or post-GX.

Offered interactions:

I have many AUs to offer!

My biggest AU atm is my Yami!Set AU! All of these are open for interactions, and plotting!

I offer anything from pre-DM stuff, things taking place during the series events, post DM and even GX stuff for Kaiba!

For Set, it is a similar thing, albeit during AE and in the afterlife.

Current open post/s:

I don’t do any opens, unless it is for a current dash shenanigan sorry.

Anything else?:

Please be mindful about the continuity & canon sources, I use for my muses. All of them are being based off the anime, I don’t follow at all the manga nor take season 0 into consideration. I also ignore all the movies, and games for my interpretations.

I don’t expect my portrayals/takes on the characters to be everyone’s cup of tea. I’m bound to touch on certain subjects that might be upsetting for certain users, so please take care of yourself and know your limits.

I haven’t watched everything related to YGO. I’m the most familiar with DM and GX, I still have to catch up with everything that came afterwards.

Anyone looking to ship with me. These are the ones I refuse to rp: mirror (Noah/Seto), tabloid (Mokuba/Seto), Puppy/violet (Jounouchi/Seto) and corrupt (TK Bakura/Set).

I want to remind you all that, any and all HCs that mention a character’s name. Will never be applied nor enforced, upon anyone’s muses!

I can rp on disc.ord as well, if that’s easier for you!

Please don’t let these things intimidate you! I look forward to talk & discuss with you!

#ooc /#; dash games #long post #oh BOY I DID IT

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rosaguard · 5 years ago

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solivgnt replied to your post: she’s so pretty :pleading:

PLEASE tell me more

aetla replied to your post: she’s so pretty :pleading:

:ear:

it’s hard for me to talk about her before rambling a bit so here i go! her name is audrey cramer which is 1). a reference to my favorite actress ( audrey hepburn ) and 2). a reference to one of my favorite families ( the cramer women ) in my favorite soap opera, one life to live. i love ( love ) soaps; passions, all my children, and one life to live were my biggest favs even though passions was stupid most of the time looking back. the deaths of AMC / OLTL still hurt. but hey, general hospital, days, and the cbs soaps are still kicking even if i don’t watch them. the point of bringing this up is that the mini-story in my head with these characters in the sims is basically kind of a...love letter to soaps and the tropes they have ( the romance, the cheating, scandals, the star crossed lovers, the people who die but never stay dead, etc. ) but with a fantasy twist since the town is occupied by fairies, wizards, werewolves, etc.

anyway, audrey. while soaps are an ensemble, pretty much every single one has that one female character that ‘leads’ the show ( all my children had erica kane, one life to live had victora / vicki lord, general hospital still has laura spencer, days of our lives also still has its female lead, marlena evens, etc, etc. ) audrey is the ‘lead’ of [fictional town i haven’t fully decided the name of].

audrey is well... me. her name was literally my middle name back when i first created her back when my brother got me the sims 1 ( side note: i love my big bro. he’s great ). she’s always been black, she’s aways been a writer, and a hopeless romantic who just so happens to be good at things i’m not ( i hate cooking -> audrey ended up going into the professional chef career lmao ). she was basically built off the things young summer liked and did or either aspired to do or get better at. she is, quite literally, my idealized self i guess. ( i think her love interest may or may not have originally been based off this cute hispanic boy i spent all day at the pool with once one summer. did we dramatically look at each other through the gates when he finally had to go home? maybe. i was in love ya’ll!!! )

i literally had a journal in middle school were i wrote out stories between the characters - although looking back on it now, i would probably cringe since most of it would read like a trashy reality show to me ( for context, stuff like flavor of love / i love new york was at its peak back then ) rather than the well crafted soap that 13 year old me envisioned. however, instead of just...throwing all that away, i recently started to build this storyline in my head ( mostly b/c i’m not very fond of the sims 4 and want to find ways to keep myself invested in it ) and revamp parts i didn’t like. basically i asked: how can i make this interesting to me - even if it is, admittedly, self indulgent to my tastes? the answer was to start building a world which is...something i’ve never done before? and it’s still in like super, super infant phases b/c i haven’t been playing ts4 at all but it is something i want to work for my own enjoyment / challenge to myself.

SO. the beginning of the story has always started with audrey returning home for a funeral - her mother’s funeral to be exact. there’s a lot of baggage here due to the fact that 1). her mom is/was easily the most important in town, 2). the cramers, who are also witches, are seen as the ‘pillars’ of the community and thus someone needs to step up and take her mother’s place (i’m still debating on her mom’s new name / whether i want it to be a soap character reference or not so that’s why i’m not saying a name), and 3). her mother’s death slowly begins to look more and more like a murder than a natural cause of death.

on top of all of this, audrey hasn’t been back home since graduating high school and leaving her HS sweetheart behind due to conflicting desires ( she wants to escape what she is - a witch / half faye via her father - and wants to leave it behind while he takes pride in his family and what he is - a werewolf. ( we all know they’re going to fall in love again but...slow burn baby ).

audrey vc: can i catch a break here?

there’s also the fact that well...the cramers like all families are dysfunctional. before i touch on her sisters, however, i also have to mention another trope within soap operas. if a character (doesn’t matter if they’re a man or a woman) has multiple children then each child is basically guaranteed to have a different mom / dad ( if a brother and sister on a soap have the same mom and dad, that’s actually a miracle lol ). that’s how it is with audrey and her sisters, serena and alexendra.

serena. the oldest who was originally the baby - although audrey tends to act more like it. literally gives not a single fuck(tm) about having magical powers and constantly leaves the council on read about becoming the new head now that her mother is dead. she’s single, constantly ready to mingle - in bed. basically fulfills the hot / steamy part of the ‘love in the afternoon’ part of soaps + is a person whose life is a mess and is always into something they probably shouldn’t be in.

alexenda. the baby who, at least back during the ts1 and ts2, was actually the oldest but things change!!! her personality has changed a lot because she used to be the oldest that was a nerd - i admittedly wasn’t invested in her back then as much as i am now. is more of a modern day hipster now who is an artist more than anything else. i’m still fleshing her new personality out so there’s not much here yet.

the momma without a name yet ( might just be marlena b/c while i’ve never been super into days of our lives, the character marlena literally got possessed by the devil twice and that should be honored tbh ). anyway, she dead. has had an antagonist relationship with esperanza kane since forever and may or may not have been sleeping around with her husband. oops. ( esperanza is the mother of christian, audrey’s ex. :))) )

anyway, this isn’t like....a deep plot. i’m very self aware about it. it’s messy and drama filled b/c that’s well...soaps lol.

bonus: they also have pets. the dog is named carly after a character from general hospital that’s always yelling and in people’s faces lol. the brownish cat is the mom’s cat, vicki (named after the ever wise victoria lord), who can speak and acts as an ‘advisor’. audrey’s cat is...victor manning who doesn’t think he’s a cat and would probably try to fight you in the street if he could - that’s what you can expect from a cat named that lol. he loves belly rubs though!!!!

#solivgnt #aetla #this is stupidly long and self indulgent but whatever!!!#❀ . ━ ❛ stream mree ❪ tbd ❫ .

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dragonnan · 4 years ago

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Author Interview Tag

Tagged by @aelaer a week or two ago, thank you!

Name: Tanya (among family I'm Nan or Auntie Nanny)

Fandoms: Sherlock, MCU, Psych, Prodigal Son, and a goodly collection of others

Where you post: For a number of years I posted on FFN but between the really shitty reviews and extremely cumbersome posting process I finally quit. I posed on Psychfic while still an active part of that fandom but that, too, has pretty much ended. I put a few stories on Wattpad but found it to be pretty meh. I now post exclusively to AO3.

Most popular multi-chapter fic: It's a tossup between “Fury” on Psychfic and “All Nighter” on AO3 – one based on comments and the other on Kudos. Frankly “popularity” is really subjective because there's also stuff like read count and with comments, at least nearly half are replies from me and read count also includes re-reads as well as every time I clicked on the damn thing to edit so....

You know I'm just really not sure how to properly answer this??

Favorite story you’ve written so far: Like others have stated you can ask me this on three different days and get three different answers and there will be more than 1 fic mentioned every time so.... Because I write in different fandoms I just absolutely can't list a single fic. The best I can narrow it would a fic from my top 3 fandoms.

Psych: Paint it Black. I had read a fic where Shawn was gradually going blind and had really been enjoying it and the challenges it presented. Sadly it was never completed. As has happened before I decided I would write my own damn fic if I couldn't get a completed story so that was the primary motivation to start this. What I most love about this is writing from Shawn's perspective as he navigates being blind and not knowing whether or not his condition is permanent. I did my best to honor the experience of blind and partially blind people and tried to look beyond the cliché.

MCU: I have so much fun writing these stories! In spite of the dumpster fire the film canon became I do so love this sandbox and employing various forms of unfucking it. So I'm gonna cheat a little and pick two for my faves here since one is a WIP. Sed Diabolus. I don't need to have completed it yet to know this will be my all-time favorite. This is the first fic that has been entirely plotted out and OMG I'm so excited for iiiit!! The second is Simple Math which seems like an odd choice given there's zero action – mostly just one character – hell, not even any whump. But there is something about that deep dive into Tony's mindset that keeps this as a fave even though it was the first thing I ever wrote for the MCU. I learned about Tony as I wrote this and I also worked my way through those motivations that bothered me regarding Stane. Even years later I still mentally go back to this fic whenever I write Tony because I feel encapsulates the essence of how I see him as a character.

Sherlock: Compared to other fandoms I'm still quite new to this fandom so I don't have nearly as many fics. But I still have a favorite! And, like with the MCU, it's the first story I ever wrote for this fandom; The Tiger and the Shark. Returning to a plot device I've employed in other fics, this one is built around a sexual assault and taking the character on a journey from that terrible event to the point where they rediscover themselves. PTSD ever being my favorite form of whump I employ that fairly a lot in this story and employ some kinda radical methods for coping with those memories.

Fic you were nervous to post: I mean until I start getting comments I'm a world of anxiety with every story I post. But grabbing a specific fic that hit my nerves – that Sherlock fic I'd said was my fave certainly qualified. Not only was it my first Sherlock fic – it also was charging out of the gate with a very heavy topic so yeah – I wasn't sure if people would absolutely hate it or find my characterizations totally off or what.

How you choose your titles: It varies a bit. In some stories, like Sed Diabolus, I actually consult friends on various ideas. Other times I'll consider songs or lyrics and my favorite thing is if I can alter the known title just a bit to make it more relevant to the fic (I did that a LOT with Psych fics which was the method the show also employed for its episode titles). One of my favorite Psych titles is “The Wizard Was the Wicked Witch and the Scarecrow Lost His Courage”.

Do you outline: Almost never – not until “Sed Diabolus”. That story, though, is so astoundingly complex that without an outline I'd be hopelessly lost. I am, though, trying to make a practice of outlining more because it helps SO much!

Complete: If we count every one-shot collection and challenge collection it likely is over 200 stories. Of course a lot of those are one-shots. My total completed chaptered fics number maybe around 34?

In progress: 16 – between Psychfic and AO3. All Psych stories are on long-term hiatus for the foreseeable future (some, honestly, I will never finish as they are many many years old and I've lost the inspiration for the plot). Several MCU stories are also on the back-burner while I focus on “Sed Diabolus”. I admit I get LOTS of story ideas and staying focused on a single fic is not something I've ever been greatly successful with.

Coming soon/not yet started: I meaaaan.... lots?? I have probably several hundred ideas and partially started fics across many fandoms. As to “imminently coming soon...” I don't think I currently have an active story that I haven't already posted at least a first chapter. Sadly I have zero patience for developing something for months before posting which is why I have so many WIPs. That said I DO have a Sherlock au that has been poking at me now and then involving the witch trials that started in Denmark and, eventually, made their way to Salem. The idea would be that Molly Hooper is accused of being a witch. She, of course, is innocent but cause this unfortunate attention due to her “uncanny” ability to heal the sick and injured (not so much uncanny as opposed to employing methods that aren't so reliant on superstition and folklore).

She is scheduled to be tortured and executed but is saved by Sherlock – a strange recluse primarily ignored and given a pass as he solves mysteries for people. He and his friend John save Molly from this awful fate. The twist is that Sherlock is a sorcerer (bit of marvel crossover-ish) and able to transport them to safety.

Do you accept prompts: I wish I could cause I love ideas but I don't have the time/energy to always work on what I already have and I'm awful at follow thru. Like I will never turn away an Ask wanting to share ideas but I can't promise that I can actually write anything.

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: As was the reply to a previous query – I have lots that are ideas that will linger in partial stages for sometimes years. If it's “upcoming” I've already posted the first chapter lol! But, again, I have several story ideas that whenever I poke through my folders I get excited about someday actually writing them. Here is a teaser for an MCU fic involving Tony Stark and Obie (I still feel this was never explored enough – certainly not in fic):

They were doing a retrospective, ten year anniversary kinda... whatever. Unofficial, of course. Certainly nothing Pepper would have dreamed up even at her most drunk (which, honestly, was never her scene. Tony had sorta owned that space well beyond the time it had started owning him). Whose idea it ultimately had been? Frankly Tony couldn't give a fuck. That he was asked to be one of the speakers was slightly more... awkward. Awkward was the right word, yeah? Nauseating was certainly another and possibly a bit more accurate.

Dead for a decade and Obadiah Stane still managed to fuck with his life.

But... it hadn't always been that way. At least, not as he'd believed back when the Walkman had been on every kid's Christmas list.

He'd thought it was bonding; at the time. His dad had never been one for just hanging out; shooting the shit; telling tales out of school. No, Pops, when he bothered to interact, led with questions. “You keeping your grades up?” “You still seeing that floozy?” “When are you going to pull your head out of your ass and grow the hell up?” “You do realize it's my name you're disgracing every time you go on a bender?”

With Obie it was just, easy. Obie might ask about school but it was always with approval and pride. He would discuss Tony's conquests as though Tony had climbed Kilimanjaro wearing nothing but underwear and a cape.

Obie was there when his father wasn't. Which meant that Obie was always there. The first time he got astoundingly drunk on his father's scotch, Obie was the one to help him hunch over the toilet and vomit expensive, aged booze into the toilet. Obie was also the one to replace the depleted bottle to keep Howard in the dark. For a fourteen year old kid still trying to gain his dad's favor, that had meant everything.

He saw his first porn with Obie; sex education ala Traci Lords, three months shy of his fifteenth birthday. That was the same time he was introduced to weed. Obie had cautioned him to use it sparingly; didn't want to fry that genius brain, he'd say, and ruffle his hair. The porn had made him uncomfortable. Obie had turned it off and told him they could watch whatever Tony wanted. They'd ended up changing the station to Knight Rider; smoking and munching Cheetos and laughing over their orange fingers.

It was Obie who was there, arm around his shoulders, after his parents died. He desperately didn't want to sob in front of the man. Things were so complicated with his dad that all he felt was blinding guilt... as though some part of him had caused this. But Obie had filled him with bourbon until the emotions got soft around the edges and he'd sat beside the older man, head tipping gradually to the right until he was held up by Obie's shoulder. Obie had just slung an arm around him and let Tony pass out while he rubbed a broad hand up and down his bicep.

It was strange, now, looking back with adult perspective. A perspective that included Afghanistan and his intended execution while Obie talked about legacy and responsibility while Tony's lungs slowly seized. He'd taken the time to sit there – arm around Tony's shoulders while one broad hand traveled up and down Tony's bicep – just like when he was a kid and Obie was the whole world.

He'd tried to remember if it had felt so... tainted... at the time. Or if he'd always believed it was love.

Obie had never quite crossed that line. Though hindsight offered a peek into that possibility with enough clarity Tony had fought with his cramping gut for nearly thirty minutes. He'd staved off vomiting though he was fairly certain his dignity had still been in tatters what with Bruce wandering in on his misery.

Upcoming story you are most excited about (this is basically a repeat of the above question so I decided to change it. Do you have a future story idea you'd like to write that is not yet beyond the vague idea stage? I love stories that put Molly in some sort of jeporady and I have a barely formed idea to someday write a “stalker fic” of some sort and not I don't care that this trope had been done on repeat – I still love it lol! I have a smidge of writing for it:

“I need your help.”

As afternoons at Baker Street went, this was a mundane request heard so often that Sherlock's typical reply, “Obviously, or you wouldn't be here”, could have been printed on flash cards. The detective had actually made the suggestion after a particularly full day at the flat and having heard the statement no less than twenty times.

Today, however, Sherlock merely blinked for a moment. Then, with an awkwardness rare to a man with a lethal sort of grace in his movements, Sherlock gestured to John's chair, JOHN'S CHAIR, before taking his usual seat.

Molly didn't exactly smile but her lips edged up a bit before she sat.

John cleared his throat before pointing a vague hand towards the kitchen. “I'll just go make some tea, shall I?”

“No, please, I...” The stammer in her speech was not uncommon; though John couldn't recall such obvious fear. Forgoing the kitchen he, instead, took the hard wooden chair facing the other two.

“Molly, what's wrong?”

Tagging: @kitcat992 @mizjoely @sgam76 @ariaadagio @hanuko @ceruleanmindpalace

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angelbabylu · 6 years ago

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Man or Beast // LH

pairing: witch!oc x vampire!luke

word count: 7.5k

warnings: smut, fluff, magical stuff, angst if you squint

notes: so last week i posted something wicked, an introduction to this universe where 5sos are vampires. as stated in my note for that fic, the idea comes from this book series. whereas that fic dealt with a lot of witch lore, this will deal with vampire lore. basically digging into luke’s family and backstory and such. this has the barest of allusions to dracula. i hope you enjoy!

title: from this dracula quote: “[S]omething dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone and bent over it. What it was, whether man or beast, I could not tell.”

Part 1: Something Wicked

The first year in front of her had turned bright red in embarrassment. They were in the greenhouse discussing the life cycle of plants and how magic could be used to speed up that process. Margo, the TA for this freshman herbology class, had grown quite used to her students being intimidated by her. Especially those like the young witch in front of her who’s magic had gone haywire and caused several plants in the vicinity to die. The good news was that Margo was somewhat of a prodigy when it came to herbology. It was one of the few things she could do without incantations.

She ran her hands over the flowering plants as she spoke to the girl. “Like with all magic, it is about manipulating something on a molecular level. With raw power, all you have to do is send your magic into the universe and manipulate it to do your bidding. Like creating water.” Margo whispered a quick spell that had an orb of water forming between her fingertips. She tossed it into the air, and it disappeared into steam.

“Or,” Margo continued, “telekinesis.” After a wink from Margo, the large, round, wire-rimmed glasses that the first year wore wiggled up and down on her face.

“The water and your glasses are both inanimate objects, so I only had to worry about manipulating them to my own will. With plants, you can’t just shove energy at it and hope for the best as they have a will of their own. Listen to the plant and learn what it wants. If you just try to bend it to your will, it will resist, which could lead to. . . ” Margo trailed off.

The young witch had already experienced the consequences of such actions. “This takes a level of practiced magical manipulation.” As if in a show of agreement, the plants began to come back alive around her, sprouting flowers as red as the witch’s face had turned earlier.

Margo was so engulfed in trying to teach her young student how to control horticultural magic, she didn’t notice the slight prickling in her thumb.

She missed the whispering and giggling too. It was not until the young witch interrupted her with a small, yet constrained smile and said, shyly, “Miss Crowley, I think your boyfriend is here,” that she looked up and out towards the doorway. Sure enough, leaning against the door frame to the greenhouse was Luke, arms crossed, a smile on his face.

Margo pursed her lips in mild annoyance, hands coming to rest on her hips. Luke knew that when he showed up to her lectures, it distracted the class. Most vampires didn’t hang out with the Horticultural Magic students–they tended to prefer biological sciences, history, literature, and other such pursuits. And, vampires were also the least prevalent of the magical beings. Chances were many of the first years had never seen a vampire before meeting Luke.

Some of the bolder witches had already made their way over to him, taking his attention away from Margo.

“I suppose class is over?” asked the young witch Margo had been helping. She looked at her students whose focus was no longer on the plants in front of them, but on the tall, looming vampire in the doorway.

“I suppose,” Margo said solemnly.

She went to the front of the greenhouse and called out for attention. “Class dismissed. Please remember that I expect all of you to be able to draw the life cycle of an angiosperm by next Tuesday! There will be a quiz.”

As always, there was a collective groan throughout the room. Margo ignored it as she went to about packing her things. Luke stayed at the door for a couple of seconds saying goodbye to the few students that were friendly with him before walking over to her. When she had rammed all that could fit in the small laptop bag, she slung it over her shoulder, picking up the spellbook and the biology textbook she couldn’t quite fit.

Reaching out, Luke stole the books and a kiss. “Good afternoon, mon cœur,” he said, his native language rolling smoothly off his tongue. “I take it you had a good class.”

Margo refused to smile at him, no matter how charming he was.

When she didn’t return his smile, he turned indignant. “What did I do?” He asked, voice raising an octave.

“Half my class is like in love with you. Every time you show up, they forget I exist.”

Luke laughed at her revelation, placing one arm around her and ushering her out of the greenhouse. “Half your class is in love with you,” he shot back. “That girl you were talking to when I walked in? She has such a huge crush on you, I could hear her heart hammering from halfway down the hall.”

“What?” Margo’s mouth hung open. “No way. Poor thing. It’s too bad for her that I don’t date my students.”

“And that you’re dating me,” Luke reminded, squeezing her shoulder possessively.

Margo laughed; she had known that would get a reaction out of him.

They walked in relative silence, basking in the golden hue of the late afternoon sun. Glancing up at Luke, she watched as the light brushed against his angular features, causing the contours of his face to seem more prominent. She remembered the days she thought vampires would burn in the sunlight. Turns out that, while they preferred nighttime, the sun did little more than irritate their sensitive eyes. Growing up in her small town in Massachusetts, she didn’t have much contact with other supernatural creatures that weren’t witches. It was part of the reason she loved the University of the Arcana as much as she did. The different kinds of people she got to meet were refreshing.

Luke’s Tesla was parked a few feet outside the Horticultural Sciences Complex. The research lab where he mapped the vampire genome and studied evolutionary biology was just a few blocks from Margo’s greenhouse. Their evening routine used to include enjoying a leisurely 5-minute stroll from said greenhouse to the biology complexes. Recently, however, that had not been the case.

“Why’s your car here?” She asked, despite already knowing the answer.

“I went to a few theology seminars today,” Luke said in response.

Along with being an evolutionary biologist, Luke was getting a degree in the history of theism, and, when he was feeling particularly nostalgic, he also attended classes on Romantic-era literature. The thing about vampires was that they had all the time in the world, so getting two or three degrees at once was nothing to them. It didn’t escape her notice, however, that he had been attending these classes more frequently.

Margo tramped down her budding need for confrontation and asked instead, “Do we have any plans for tonight?” In the privacy of Luke’s car, she kicked off her trainers and took her hair from its top knot. Saying goodbye to the day, she relaxed back into to cool leather of the interior, facing Luke only once her legs were tucked firmly underneath her.

Splitting his attention expertly between her and the road, Luke asked, “Would the house be mad if I stole you away for one more night?”

Her house, or rather the Gamma Nu Sorority House, had a habit of misbehaving when it was feeling cheated. Once, a few weeks before, she had spent 6 blissful days sleeping on Luke’s memory foam mattress only to return home to find her room missing. After hours of begging and cajoling, there was still no sign of her scratched up wooden door. Finally, it had taken her promising not to spend more than three days at a time at Luke’s for the house to re-materialize the room in its former spot.

“We’ve got one more day,” Margo informed him, thinking about their Game of Thrones marathon that had lasted two nights in a row. “I can’t watch Game of Thrones tonight though. Your girl’s gotta study.”

“I could cook while you study?” Luke suggested. “Then, we can do dinner and go to bed early.”

“Good food and an early bedtime?” Margo released an exaggerated moan. “Talk dirty to me.”

:: ::

It was 9 PM when Luke entered the study that, over months of dating, had become more hers than his. He was holding a pasta dish, two glasses of wine, and some freshly baked bread. Margo was more excited to see the food than she was to see him.

Luke’s diet consisted mostly of blood, animal’s or hers, and wine. Since becoming a vampire, he had lost his taste for human food, but not his love of the culinary arts. Dating her gave him an excuse to get back into the kitchen where he liked to get experimental with his dishes.

She closed the potions textbook in front of her and held her hand out for the plate as soon as he got close enough. “Carbs!” she cried happily. “You do love me.”

He chuckled and kissed her before handing her the plate. Leaning against the edge of the desk, he watched intently as she took the first bite.

“Any good?” Luke’s culinary inventions didn’t often leave her wanting, and this time was no different. The fork had no sooner left her mouth than she was groaning.

Laughing, Luke said, “I’ll take that as an affirmative.” Perched on the desk, he sipped wine casually and gave her a moment to savor her food. Then, he asked, “How’s potions going?”

“It’s kicking my ass,” was her grumble of a reply. “There are hundreds of potion bases, and I have to memorize them all by next Friday.”

“Do you want me to quiz you while you eat?” He was already reaching for the book she had set aside earlier.

Grabbing his hand, Margo stopped him. “If I see or hear anything about potions for the next 12 hours I might actually die.”

“At least we haven’t resorted to dramatics,” he retorted dryly. After he studied her for a minute, then announced, “Alright, finish eating and meet me in the bathroom.”

Reluctance must have shown on her face because he exclaimed, “Oh my god, just do it!” Then, he disappeared through the office door.

Fifteen minutes later, Margo left the study for the bathroom, which she found with its door slightly ajar, soothing piano music drifting out. She pushed inside to reveal a prepared bath and a few candles burning, tossing soft light off the porcelain of the tub. A small speaker sat on the counter, the source of the sounds that had drawn her in earlier. Luke was noticeably absent.

He appeared behind her in the next second, a couple of large towels in hand. “Ah, there you are.” He said nonchalantly, as if unaware of how romantic this simple gesture was in her eyes. He had seen how strung out she was and had known exactly what she needed. “C’mon, get in the tub.”

Margo was eager to follow his order, but first, she leaned over the stack of towels to press a chaste kiss to Luke’s lips. “You’re getting in with me, right?” She asked while unbuttoning the powder blue shirt she’d been wearing for over 14 hours then.

“If you want me to.”

Margo scoffed, then moved to unclasp her bra. Next went her pants and underwear. While wrapping her hair up into a bun atop her head, she slunk into the tub. She didn’t recline against the porcelain back just yet, leaving space for Luke. He was still standing by the doorway where he had been intently watching her movements.

“You coming?” She asked impatiently.

Those words snapped him out of whatever reverie her naked form had pulled him into. Shaking his head, he deposited the towels next to the tub, then undressed and slotted himself behind her. She relaxed, at last, leaning against the broad span of his chest.

“Thank you so much for doing this for me,” she whispered. Luke’s response was to place three small kisses on the route from her shoulder to her neck. She melted even further into his arms. “Who are we listening to?”

Luke, being as old as he was, preferred classical music to her top 40 pop. Having only taken a recorder class in elementary school, Margo knowledge of music was limited. Luke was determined to change that. Every chance he got, he played his favorite songs for her.

“Chopin,” was his answer, mouth still grazing the skin of her throat. “Nocturne Number 2 in E-Flat Major.”

“Did you know him?” She couldn’t help the slight hitch in her voice when he nibbled gently on the skin of her throat.

“We may have met once or twice.” In Luke terms, that was a yes. In 1795, the vampire who sired him had been wealthy with connections all around the globe. This meant that, for the first hundred years after his rebirth, Luke easily became acquaintances with any one of interest. As little as Margo knew about history, she enjoyed hearing the stories of past historical figures.

But tonight, Luke wasn’t interested in telling her a story. “Luke,” she whined as his bites got rougher, and his hand trailed down past her belly button.

“Is that a ‘Luke, please continue’ or a ‘Luke, stop.’” He asked, pausing all motions.

“It’s an ‘I can’t promise I won’t fall asleep immediately after I come,’” she retorted. A yawn slipped from her in that exact moment as if to prove her point.

“That’s okay.” This time he bit her ear. “You coming is all that matters anyhow.”

Unhindered, his hand slipped between her thighs. It started out gentle, with two fingers pushing against her clit. Almost reluctantly, she pushed her hips up to greet them. Then, as he started to explore her folds a bit more, she ground up against him in earnest. The hand that wasn’t toying with her folds squeezed gently on her breast and toyed with her nipple. She gripped his bicep in response.

Then, he slipped one finger inside her, sinusoidally dipping in and out, setting her whole body alight.

He another added another. Margo’s hips ground against him as she searched for more leverage. When he touched something inside her that filled her with ecstasy and the ravenous need for more, she cried out, and threw one leg over the side of the tub, displacing water in the process.

“Oh, fuck. Oh, God. Luke.” The cries of pleasure rang out throughout the room.

Luke began to finger her in earnest then, index and middle finger slipping in and out of her. He kissed up and down her neck until he was taken by the heat of the moment too. The hand that had been toying with her nipples slid down to her stomach, holding her flush against him as he rocked up against her. His dick was obviously hard between their slick bodies.

It wasn’t until he growled, low and guttural, that she realized just how far gone he was. He rearranged her, so she was seated fully on his lap, dick now positioned between her cheeks. All the tiredness was swept from her mind as she ground down against it.

Then, raising off his lap a bit and reaching back, she wrapped a hand around him. It was an awkward angle, but she made it work. Pumping him a few times made his hips go wild as he bucked uncontrollably.

She said, “I’m gonna–“

The words didn’t quite get out, lost in the haze of lust that made it impossible to think straight. Margo lined herself up with him and sank down. They weren’t going to last very long. The water in the bathtub continued to splash to the floors as one of Luke’s arms wrapped around her body, holding her slave to his motions. He had her pressed up against his chest, fucking up into her and toying with her clit. It was slippery and messy, and Luke had to reposition himself a few times, but neither made any attempts to stave off their lust so they could move to a bed.

Chopin could barely be heard over his growls, her cries of pleasure, and the distinct sound of water sloshing over the edges of the tub. His lips continued their path up and down her neck, bites deeper than before. They were painful, but in a way that made her toes curl.

She knew what he wanted before he said anything. “Please, can I–” He began, but cut himself off and threw his head back, fighting an instinct.

They weren’t face to face, and with the way they were moving, inches from orgasm, neither would want to take a moment to reposition. So, he would have to bite her neck. It was of no consequence to her; it was nothing she couldn’t hide without makeup.

Without really thinking about, Margo responded to his silent plea. “Yes,” she gasped out. “God, yes.”

The next second, she felt the sharp pain of the skin of her neck being pierced, followed immediately by intense euphoria. She buried one hand in his hair, holding him there; the other went down to encourage his motions as he continued to rub against her clit. They came, one right after the other, their hips stuttering to a halt.

“Fuck,” Luke grunted when he pulled away from her neck, head falling against the plaster wall behind them with a thud. As always, it took him a few minutes to get his wits about him after drinking her blood. Margo took that time to pull off of him and catch her breath.

Later, when they were both tucked underneath Luke’s black silk sheets, Luke ran his fingers gently over the deep teeth marks on her neck. Another lore Luke had taught her: Vampires didn’t have retractable fangs, but their teeth were more than sharp enough to pierce skin.

She had marks, like the ones now on her neck, almost ingrained in the skin of her chest. That is where he most often drank from her, as was the vampiric custom when it came to lovers.

“I shouldn’t have done this.” He said, fingers still tracing the indents of his teeth.

Margo couldn’t figure out why he sounded so pained. The healing properties of his saliva would ensure it didn’t leave a mark. Unless he bit her there again, after a day or two of covering it with makeup, neither of them would remember it even existed.

“It’s fine. No one’s going to see it.” Margo insisted.

Luke didn’t respond.

Margo fell asleep with his thumb still tracing the outline of the marks.

:: ::

She woke up to a sharp prickling in her thumb. Shooting to a seated position, she looked at her hands, disoriented and confused by the sudden onslaught of pain. Luke, who had been awake in bed next to her, sat up as well.

“Are you okay?” he asked, voice noticeably laden with worry.

Margo shook her head.

“Something is looking for me.” She tried to shake the drowsiness from her mind. Her senses were dulled by it. Whenever a powerful creature came looking for her, a small prickling would alert her to their intent. But this was more powerful than anything she had ever experienced before.

“Three somethings,” she continued as she began to make sense of what she was feeling. “They’re big, and they’re powerful. Unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.”

She saw the exact moment understanding dawned on Luke. He sniffed the air once, then muttered, “Shit.” He was out of bed and at the door to the room in a blink.

“What’s happening?” She asked frantically, trying to figure out what she might have missed. There was some information Luke’s supernatural senses had picked up that hers could not provide. In moments like these, she envied how he was preternaturally attuned to his senses.

“If I asked you to stay in the room, would you?” He asked.

But, she was already getting out of bed and slipping into her slippers and his robe. Even rushing through these motions, she was no match for vampire speeds. By the time reached the front door, Luke was standing there blocking the way of three large, imposing vampires she had never seen before.

They were all dressed in all black. One stood in front of all the rest, his dyed red hair slicked back. He wore a t-shirt tucked into jeans with a leather jacket thrown over it. Margo could see he wore two rings on each hand and his nails were painted black. The man on the left looked much more laid back. His black jeans were distressed, and he wore an ACDC t-shirt. While Luke traded jabs in French with the frontman, this one simply stood back with an easy smile on his face. Finally, there was the man with a slightly deeper skin tone than the others leaning against the door frame. His arms were crossed and the fabric of the plain black t-shirt he wore struggled to cover the entirety of his bicep. If this was some kind of vampire shakedown, he was definitely the muscle.

The frontman noticed her first. He scoffed in disgust and began gesturing to her as they spoke. The other two remained relatively quiet but did spare her a few wary glances. What little French she knew was unhelpful, as they spoke too fast for her to catch any words.

She attempted patience first, trying not to look too indignant as they conversed about her as if she wasn’t there. But that was one of her pet peeves, and, to her displeasure, the conversation did not seem to be letting up any time soon.

Next, she tried speaking up, but not even Luke turned his head at her, “Excuse me.” If anything, they seemed to talk louder. She began reciting the spell before she could think better of it.

Their mouths snapped shut the next instant, and all was quiet for a moment. When they realized something magical was preventing them from speaking, all eyes turned to her. Luke’s baby blues looked more frustrated than she had ever seen them. She released him from the spell.

“What’s going on?” She asked, now that his attention was back on her.

For a moment, he glanced between her and the three men standing at the door. Then, he said, “Let’s go inside.”

:: ::

Ashton, Michael, and Calum.

Those were their names, respectively.

It wasn’t a vampire shakedown; it was a family reunion. They relocated into the uncomfortable chairs Luke had purchased for his dining room in hopes of dissuading guests from overstaying their welcome. It was still relatively early in the morning, so Margo made herself tea. The other four vampires had wine.

She knew a bit about Luke’s brothers from the stories about France and the French revolution that Luke liked to tell. From what she knew, Ashton was the leader of their little clan. He was the one who had sired Luke in the first place. It explained why at some angles they looked similar, when he replaced all the blood in Luke’s body with his own, some of Luke’s features changed.

Ashton had an assuming presence that seemed almost too large for Luke’s dining room. Were Margo more mild-mannered, she might have retreated to the background to let the vampires talk. But that was not her.

“You don’t like witches?” Margo presumed aloud once she was seated across the table from Ashton with her tea. She still hadn’t made sense of the argument at the door. Her witches senses did not lie, they had shown up at Luke’s looking for her. When they found her, it obviously became a point of contention.

Ashton scoffed with a hint of condescension. “Please. We are not prejudiced.”

“Do not scoff at me,” Margo shot back. “Not when you refuse to tell me why you’re here. Looking for me might I add.”

The one in the distressed jeans, Michael, grinned at her and whistled low. “Oh, she’s feisty. Finally, someone that’s a match for Ashton.”

Ashton did not dignify that with a response. Instead, to Margo, he bared his teeth and hissed, “This is not about you, it is about Luke. You need to stay out of it.”

“Well, come on now, Ashton.” Calum, like Luke, had decided to remain standing while the other two vampires sat. Well, Michael lounged, and Ashton perched as if poised to jump off the edge of his seat. From his position behind Ashton, Calum placed a large hand on his shoulder. “It’s a little about her. Luke should decide if he wants to tell her or not.”

At that, every eye turned to look at Luke. He was looming over Margo protectively, but not in a way that suggested he expected his family members to attack. He was obviously not afraid for her safety. It was rather like he wanted her out of the conversation more than anything else.

For what seemed like a full minute, Margo believed Luke wouldn’t share this secret. She feared that months of sharing everything with each other had culminated to this one moment, this one Big Thing that she wasn’t allowed to know.

Thankfully, he sighed and sunk into a seat next to her. “My brothers think you and I have mated.”

Admittedly, Margo’s knowledge of vampire mating was basal. She knew, of course, that Luke had every intention of mating her. You’re it for me, he had told her a few months before. It had terrified her, but she couldn’t deny that her feelings for him, their feelings for each other, ran deep. To her knowledge, however, they hadn’t taken that step yet. Even if they had, she wasn’t sure that was something they needed to discuss with his brothers.

“Forgive me if I’m wrong,” Margo began slowly, keeping her eyes leveled with Ashton’s. “But isn’t whether or not we’ve mated between the two of us?”

“No,” Ashton replied with a bitter chuckle. “No matter what you and my idealistic brother like to think. This is a matter for a clan. Luke cannot handle taking his mate by himself.”

Seeing the look of confusion on Margo’s face, Michael took pity on her and began to explain. “Luke is still very young. He has only witnessed one vampire mating in his lifetime, and even then he wasn’t privy to our procedures. Mating when you aren’t familiar with the methods–well that could have dangerous consequences.”

Michael’s eyes drifted pointedly towards her neck where Luke’s bite marks from the previous night were on full display. With the excitement of the morning, she had forgotten to cover them. She slapped a hand over them; then, her color deepened in embarrassment.

She turned to Luke, expecting him to respond, but he was lost somewhere deep in his own thoughts. When he didn’t, she spoke for him. “It was an accident,” She insisted, even though she had a feeling she didn’t quite understand the repercussions of Luke biting her neck.

Michael leaned forward, voice dripping with a dangerous edge. “When it comes to predators, darling, one small accident is all it takes to kill you.”

Finally, Luke spoke, words coming out in a snarl. “I would never kill her.” Shock and anger registered on his face. He was obviously taken aback by Michael’s suggestion.

“Not purposely,” Michael amended. “But your carelessness could get her killed nonetheless.”

“It’s a good thing then that Margo and I aren’t mating.” Luke snarled. He was out of his chair in an instant, glaring down at his brothers.

“Luke–“ this time it was Calum popping in with an argument.

Luke cut him off. “I’m fine, Calum. Now, if you guys want to do something other than have this conversation while you’re in town, let me know. If not, I’ll see the next time I’m at home.”

Michael threw his hands up in frustration. “This is what you get for siring a vampire amid the French Revolution, Ashton,” he grumbled. But he made no more protest as he walked towards the door.

Calum turned to follow him.

Ashton was the last to leave. “I just want you to be safe,” he said, eyeing Margo. What she had mistaken for disgust earlier was now clearly weariness and reluctance. It was as if he wanted to trust her, but was afraid to.

Luke gripped her shoulder and squeezed. “I am more than capable of taking care of myself. As is Margo.”

They held eye contact for a minute, having a silent conversation Margo couldn’t follow. Finally, Ashton conceded and followed his brothers out of the house.

:: ::

It happened in herbology.

That morning, Margo had woken up in her own bed feeling a little dizzy and disoriented. These spells had been happening more frequently, but she chalked it up to stress and dismissed it. She should have told Luke, but he was prone to worrying over the smallest of things. Plus, it had only been a week and a half since his brothers had shown up at his door unannounced, and, no matter how “good” he claimed to be doing, she could still see something bothered him.

So, she didn’t think twice about chugging her weight in tea and going to work. The dizziness plagued her throughout the day. Two hours into her three-hour herbology lab, she was standing in front of the class explaining how gymnosperms grew and reproduced. It was imperative for her students to understand plant life on a cellular level if they were ever to successfully manipulate plant growth.

The funny thing was - she felt it coming on. She felt herself grow dizzier and heard her words begin to slur. She chose to fight through it. Then, one minute she was talking about fertilization and pollen cones, the next, her feet give way below her, and the world went dark.

. . . . . .

When she opened her eyes the first time, the world was hazy. She clearly made out an IV drip bag and an oddly familiar man standing at the edge of her bed. His arms were crossed, and he looked like he was there as some sort of protection detail. Margo had the distinct feeling he was there for her. Whether it was to protect her from someone or to protect someone from her, she did not know.

“Hey. Look who’s awake,” came an oddly chipper voice from somewhere outside of her line of sight. Margo almost turned to search for it, but there was a pressure on her left hand. She turned to that instead.

Luke. He was staring at her with worry in his baby blues, gripping her hand tightly.

“What,” she opened her mouth to ask what had happened. Then, a cool hand she knew had to be vampiric brushed her curls from her face and shushed her.

“Try to sleep if you can,” it said. “We'll explain everything later.”

She knew that voice, much like she knew the man standing at the edge of her bed. Before she could search her mind for their identity, something pulled her under, and the world went black again.

. . . . . .

The next time she came to, the man was still at her bedside, arms crossed, watching her intently. Her brain felt less foggy this time, and she instantly recognized the man as, “Calum.”

With the tiniest of motions, Calum quirked his lips upwards in the ghost of a smirk. She wondered if he was comfortable standing ramrod straight like that. He looked like he hadn’t moved since she last opened her eyes.

It took him snickering for her to realize she had said that last thought aloud. “I like this position.” He said. “I’ve got clear eyes on everything in the room.”

“Not the door,” Margo pointed out obviously, gesturing to the large door looming behind him. That was what it took for Margo to realize that, despite the drip IV, she was not in a hospital room. This was someone’s house.

Calum shrugged. “That’s what Mikey’s for.”

She noticed Michael then, sitting in a loveseat underneath a large window. It was nighttime, and heavy blackout curtains were pushed aside to reveal what looked like deep woods. He had a Nintendo DS in his hand and was obviously more focused on the game than the other two people in the room.

“Don’t let Calum fool you,” he said, fingers still moving furiously on the buttons of the game. “I do not give a rats ass about security and espionage. At least, not as much Calum and Ashton do.”

He said all this without ever looking up from the small device in her hand.

“Espionage?” She croaked out.

Michael nodded, blissfully unaware of Calum’s glare. “Calum’s the family spy.”

Margo eyed Calum. When she had first seen him, she had believed him to be the muscle of the group. The way he exuded danger made Michael’s words seem less like a joke–as if Calum really was some vampire spy. She didn’t have time to think on this, however, because the dark mahogany door swung open to reveal Luke with Ashton flanking him.

Luke rushed immediately to her side. She didn’t miss how haggard he looked. Briefly, she wondered how long she had been in this bed. However long that was had obviously taken a toll on Luke. Vampires, as far as she knew, did not get tired, but there were unmistakable bags under his eyes, and his pale skin seemed lighter under the harsh overhead lights. She reached out to him, and he knelt at her bedside and slotted his hand into hers.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked as his thumb gently rubbed circles on the back of her hand.

“I could ask you the same thing.” She tried to shit up, but a palm came to rest on her shoulder, stopping her. “Don’t try to do too much too quickly,” Ashton warned, gently pushing her back down.

She obeyed, hoping that it would make them more agreeable with what she was about to ask next. The question had been on her mind since she awoke the first time. She had to know, “What happened?”

She remembered feeling dizzy in her herbology class, but not much else.

Furtive glances were exchanged around the room as everyone, even Michael, turned their attention to Luke. Luke’s focus was on her. He looked as if those were the last words he’d wanted to hear from her. The longer everyone took to acknowledge her question, the more she wondered if she should have waited. Perhaps this was something Luke was uncomfortable talking about around his brothers.

She slipped her hand out of his so she could brush his hair out of his face.

“It’s okay.” Despite how weak her voice was, she tried to convey all the love she had for him in those two words. Whatever it was, they would work through it.

He leaned into her palm. “You tell her Calum,” He eventually said, shifting all attention to the 6 ft vampire looming over her.

Calum uncrossed his arms and braced them against the foot of the bed. Dark brown eyes told her the story would be emotionally exhausting.

“I came to UoA a month ago to visit Luke.”

Margo’s brow furrowed. She hadn’t heard anything about this visit.

“He didn’t know I was coming. I got into town then tracked his scent.”

“It’s a kink of his,” Michael interrupted with an easy grin. He had abandoned his DS in favor of paying attention to the story. With everyone in the room on the wrong side of somber, she welcomed his quips. “He likes to pop up out of nowhere and scare the holy hell out of people.”

Calum ignored him and continued on. “I followed his scent straight to the Gamma Nu house. When I got there, I assumed that perhaps he was just inside with some witch. We’re all aware of Luke’s. . .”

He trailed off as if afraid of offending her, and she laughed. “Propensity to be a hoe?” She finished for him. When she had first met Luke, he was slipping out of her housemate's room with no shirt on. She was no stranger to his promiscuous behavior.

Calum smiled, amused at her choice of words. “Propensity to be a hoe yes. But, when I listened in, he didn’t seem to be anywhere inside. Instead, I found you. You were sitting at your desk buried in some book about potions and muttering to yourself. I watched you for hours trying to figure out how Luke’s scent was so intermingled with yours. I couldn’t find where your scent ended, and his began. I knew, of course, but I didn’t want to accept it. I didn’t think Luke would be stupid enough to take a mate without contacting one of us first.”

At that, he shot a look at Luke. Luke grimaced, ashamed. Margo ran her hand through his hair again in a gesture of assurance, then looked to Calum to continue.

Ashton did instead. He was still at her shoulder, looking down at her as he spoke, “Margo, what do you know about vampire mating?”

“I know that it’s instigated with a mark, like the one on my chest.” The hand that was not in Luke’s hair came up to rest on her chest, touching the mark through her shirt. “That’s the physical aspect of it. There is a mental and emotional aspect to it as well.” Margo trailed off. She didn’t know much about said mental and emotional aspects. She figured Luke would explain those to her when they decided to take the next step.

Michael spoke next, now at the edge of his seat. She remembered Luke’s mention of his bond with someone named Crystal. Perhaps he was their resident expert on bonding. “This is how a bond works. If a vampire has the intention of mating someone, and that person has the intention of accepting said bond, when he bites that person, he’ll be able to feel the bond form from inside him. If he lets it, the bond will wash over both parties like a wave. Then, it is up to the bitten to accept the bond. This act deepens the mental and emotional connection of a couple. In rare instances, the couple will be compatible enough to hear each other's thoughts and feel each other’s emotions. Even when they aren’t as compatible, these bonds are nearly impossible to break. That’s why bonds can never be between strangers and can never be nonconsensual. It’s kind of like your magic in the way that it senses what both parties want, and creates that for them.”

“Luke,” Calum picked up, “has wanted to mate you for a very long time now. And judging by the way his biology is behaving, I’m guessing you wanted to mate him as well. Yet, every time he bit you and that bond began forming, he would suppress it.”

Margo glanced over to Luke, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Which ended up confusing his biology.” Calum continued. “Driving him to want to be near you, to be in you, to bite you, to complete the bond by any means necessary. It’s why he was drinking from you every time you had sex. It’s why you fainted. He took too much blood too quickly, and your system couldn’t handle it. Instances like this are rare, and usually lead to obsessive behavior on the part of the vampire.”

“But Luke wasn’t obsessive,” Margo pointed out. She had dated wizards more obsessive than him.

“Not where you could see,” Calum said.

Luke dropped his forehead to the bed, perhaps to avoid feeling the eyes on him. He was ashamed of whatever Calum had to say next.

“I followed you both for days before calling in Ashton and Michael as reinforcement. On the nights you spent apart, Luke spent them standing outside your window. He started making up theology classes because he didn’t want you to know he had spent your entire TA period sitting in a car outside of the greenhouse, straining to hear your heartbeat. Worst of all, he stopped hunting and started getting all his blood from you.”

“What?” Margo croaked out. Luke looked up then, and she couldn’t miss the welling of tears in his eyes.

“I didn’t want to worry you,” He said solemnly. “We have only been dating for what, almost a year now? It is way too early for us to mate. I was hoping that if I ignored it, maybe it would go away.”

“The bond can be suppressed, Luke. But not as long as you keep drinking from her.” Ashton grumbled. Then, with a pointed look at Margo, he added, “If that’s what you want.”

“It is,” Luke answered for her. “She’s young. She hasn’t even finished her degree yet. I can’t just shackle her to me forever.”

“Let her speak, Luke,” Calum ordered.

With every eye on Margo, she wasn’t sure what to say. Luke was the love of her life, and she wanted more than anything to be mated to him. She tried to tell herself that it didn’t make a difference if it happened that moment or in a year when she had her degree.

You are but mortal woman. Time is now to be dreaded - since once he put that mark upon your throat.

She bitterly remembered the words of Bram Stoker. Time moved differently for her and Luke, she had always known that. Where she wanted to rush, he took his time. This was no different.

She tried to remind herself that, as Luke said, it was forever. Repeated exposure to his venom through a mating mark would expose her to super-powered vampiric proteins, probiotics, and antibodies that would stop her aging and make her impossible to kill. She wouldn’t be a vampire per se, but something else. A hybrid between what she was now and what he was. These were rare, she knew, as vampires and witches were not used to coming together for more than politics and sex. Perhaps an extra year of normalcy was what it would take to give Luke the peace of mind about changing her.

“It’s fine,” she finally said. “We can wait.”

She brought her hand down to where Luke’s rested on the bed and squeezed gently. “What about Luke, though? What’s going to happen if we don’t bond?”

“Nothing,” responded Calum with an easy shrug. “So long as he starts hunting again and stops drinking from you.”

“Like forever?” Margo asked, then blush at how dejected she sounded.

Michael laughed, but said, “Until he’s ready to mate you, yeah.”

That made her stomach sink. It was fine. As much as she liked the biting, she could go a year without it. “Is that going to be hard for you?” She relayed the question to Luke this time.

“It’s fine. The boys will take me hunting. It will help.”

“How long are you guys staying?” As she asked this question, Margo took note of how the air in the room lightened. Ashton left her side to stand by Michael’s loveseat under the window, Michael picked up his game, and Calum’s shoulders relaxed just a little. (She was beginning to think that relaxed shoulders were all she would get from him.)

Ashton answered her question, still staring out into the darkness outside the window. “Not sure. I’ve accepted a position teaching classic Greek literature, so quite a while I think.”

“What?” Margo asked, surprised. Ashton didn’t look like the scholarly type. “Are you qualified to teach that?”

Ashton scoffed in response. “I sure hope so. I was there.”

Margo’s mouth dropped. “Wait, how old-”

Luke cut her off. “Don’t ask a vampire how old they are, babe. They’re not fond of that.”

Margo gave Luke a look that let him know she would definitely be asking that question again, but she would at least do Ashton the courtesy of asking at a later date.

She was almost all caught up now, but there was one question still on her mind.

“Where am I?”

All four vampires laughed.

“Oh!” exclaimed Calum, remembering that he left out that little detail. “It’s our house. It’s in the woods behind UoA. Hospitals kind of cause sensory overload for vampires, so when you fainted, health services allowed Ashton to bring you here.”

“What, just like that?” asked Margo, confused.

“Well, Ashton has a medical degree, so it’s not like you weren’t in good hands.”

Of course. Vampires were fond of their multiple degrees.

“So y’all thought ‘lemme buy a house, so we don’t have to go to a hospital.”

Calum snickered at that, but Ashton was the one who answered. “I’ve owned this house for years. Since a little after the school was built. I thought it would be nice to have if I ever decided to come and get another degree. For all intents and purposes, it belongs to the clan now.”

“It belongs to you too,” Michael added. “You’re family now, whether you like it or not.”

Margo matched his grin. Raised in a household that was always just her and her mother, she dreamed of having a big family. As far as family went, Calum, Ashton, and Michael seemed more than perfect.

end notes: i can’t believe how obsessed i am with this series lmao! i’ve already started writing part 3!! anyway, i hope you like cal, mikey & ashton in this one. let me know what you think!

tag list: @5sosnsfw / @bloodmoonashton / @lukescaboose / @5sex-of-summa / @deviantnines / @halcyonnhood / @gh0st-0f-y0u-95 / @aspiringwildfire / @cal-pal-cuddles / @sweetcherrymike / @hereforlukescruff / @softforcal / @ohhmuke / @fratcalum / @calumamongmen / @ashtonandcalslefthand / @asht0ns-world / @colorful-queen-of-the-roses / @heavenlydrarry / @slowlyelectronictragedy / @myemptywallets / @pagesuponstpages / @fallfrxmgrace / @thefireisgone / @michaelorwhat / @dammitbands / @sugarcoated-pain / @sublimehood / @cal-puddies / @singt0mecalum / @irwinkitten / @myloverboyash / @pinkbubbles-and-bigtroubles

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at-the-exd-of-everythixg · 5 years ago

Note

][Valentine's Day Alphabet for Pascal][ A || B || C || D || E || F || G || I || J || K || L || N || P || Q || R || S || T || U || V || X || Z

@blind-mutant

A : AFFECTION. how does your muse show affection?

Pascal will show his affection through his words mostly, usually by a nickname or saying something that teases someone. One of the biggest signs that Pascal is being affectionate is how he will actively look out for your fate and he'll stop mentioning things that might affect you and will possibly try to make/prevent it happening.

He wants the people he cares about to be safe and Pascal is fully willing to go through any means for it.

B : BOUQUET. does your muse like flowers? which ones are their favourite?

Pascal's mutual to them. He knows they're pretty and they're meant to be romantic but he's already seen a blurry version of them and they don't do much. He probably wouldn't even notice if he got the flowers to be honest. He likes tulips since they're simple and used to grow around the church.

C : CHOCOLATE. does your muse like chocolate? which one is their favourite?

Again, it's a fifty fifty because Pascal likes chocolate, but it melts in his mouth much quicker than it does for anyone else so he has to chew like a rabid dog when he has some. He likes macaroons and other cookie based desserts though, mostly because he's gotten into the habit of rabid chewing whenever he eats sweet stuff.

D : DATE. what is your muse’s ideal date? where / who with / etc?

Pascal is much more happier to go to places that his partner wants so he'll happily let Rhys drag him wherever he wants. He just wants to go somewhere that Rhys will have a fun but I imagine that once Rhys finds out where Pascal works then a lot of their dates will be Rhys dragging Pascal so he can play with the dogs. It's not that uncommon now to see Rhys with the dogs and Pascal plans aggressively to let Rhys see the new puppies at some point as a surpise (100% this is probably how he asks Rhys out for a date).

E : EMBRACE. does your muse like hugs? what are their hugs like?

He's a great hugger because Pascal is warm at all times and soft despite the dog muscles he has. He adores pulling Rhys into a slow cuddle being being able to smell the vanilla and feeling Rhys's own warmth as he gently squeezes. Pascal is that loser who yawns and drags Rhys down into a hug in bed and pretends to pass out with his arms conveniently trapping Rhys.

But yeah, VERY warm hugs and Pascal is happy to be Rhys's hot water bottle.

F : FLIRT. is your muse good at flirting? how do they flirt?

Pascal can be good at flirting due to the fact that he KNOWS all the right things to say and he has the advantage of knowing exactly what can get Rhys really flustered. The weird part? He chooses not to. He's awful at flirting on purpose because he wants Rhys to love a loser rather than love someone who can tell him all the right things in life. He wants something messy and free rather than simple validation. Pascal wants Rhys to sigh at a shitty pick up line and then see if he still wants Pascal instead of lines made out of bitter honey.

A soft part of me is aching at Rhys's finding out that Pascal was shitty at flirting on purpose because he wanted Rhys to fall in love with something that was honest rather than the simple adoration everyone else had.

G : GIFT. is your muse good at gift - giving or do they struggle to get it right?

A man who can see and know exactly what you want? Pascal's great at it. He knows when things that he wants will be in stock and knows the reactions Rhys will have to something and how it'll pan out. Often he'll leave a gift for Rhys somewhere obvious before leaving for work as a nice surprise.

I : I LOVE YOU. does your muse find ‘i love you’ easy or hard to say?

Technically Pascal finds it easy because he knows how Rhys will react and knows that he will get his affection returned. But it doesn't stop the intensity of what he wants to say or how it feels doing it. Everyone he loved had terribly ending fates and sometimes Pascal wonders whether he was the cause of their deaths and misery (I mean, he was). It weighs down on him and Pascal probably puts off telling Rhys he loves him for a while because of this.

J : JEALOUSY. does your muse get jealous in a relationship?

A bit. Pascal knows that Rhys is utterly devoted (nothing like Pascal's real devotees thankfully) and has enough sense to know that cheating on a seer is a very terrible idea, but that still doesn't stop the small flicks of jealously if one of his work colleagues makes Rhys laugh or if someone hits on him. If Pascal wakes up grumpy and clingy? Then Rhys eventually starts to get the gist of these moods when they date long enough.

K : KISS. is your muse a good kisser? why / why not?

Pascal is because like the flirting, he knows exactly what Rhys wants and unlike the flirting (thank God) he doesn't feel the need to act like he's shitty at it. Pascal knows what will make you feel good and he's often eager to do so as well as his mouth always being warm

L : LOVE. who does your muse love?

He loves Rhys! Rhys is beautiful and funny and makes Pascal feel like the most normal man in the world. Pascal adores it when Rhys whines for his warmth and will often look chances to just....hold Rhys's hand and tell him how amazing he is.

He also adores Korra and Zuko because they help him so much and how can a man not adore his kids??? Its his favourite thing to walk about with Korra and feel her brushing against him lovingly or to feel Zuko meowing and thr brush of his little sweaters as his sweet little rotisserie lays on his back.

Pascal still loves his sister and feels awful for never telling Rhys anything about Cass. And a part of him still loved his mother, even though she did shitty stuff like sold Cassandra to a reflective eyed woman and did nothing but use her son for prophesies.

N : NAUGHTY. what is your muse like in bed?

Pascal knows all of your sweet spots immediately and depending on who he's with, that could mean he's rather gentle or very teasing. Though things like first times mean that Pascal will definitely be gentle and kind. He like taking his time and exploring other parts of the body, which can make him come off as teasing but he just wants a chance to explore and adore other parts of his lover!

P : PARTNER. what does your muse look for in a partner? looks / personality?

Pascal doesn't really care about looks because he's legally blind ("A cooler version of legally blond. I solve cases with my mind, Rhys!") And most people in his visions, while they have features and he can see them, they're often bright and blurred so it's like....ugly goggles? It's how he would describe it to a sad eyed Rhys because his bf has just called him ugly in a way.

He likes rude people, ngl. Pascal gets insulted??? Immediately enamoured because it's so different from how he was always treated with cold adoration. It probably makes Rhys a little depressed to hear that what made Pascal like him so much was the bad stuff depsite hownsweet it is in a way.

Q : QUESTION. would your muse ask the big question or expect their partner to?

Pascal is fully happy to and he probably would since proposing to him is a little useless. Isn't the point of the proposal (apart from having Rhys forever - a wonderful idea) is for it to be a surpise? Pascal would ruin it if he was proposed to by waking up and scremaing yes so he would wait for the perfect chance to propose (by having Korra bringing the ring box).

R : ROMANCE. is your muse a romantic or a cynic?

With Rhys, he's become more of a romantic. Its seeing someone so easily lovable that's made Pascal more inclined to sharing his heart and making him want to do things to make Rhys feel special. Pascal fully gets why all those cheesy romances are so cheesy now, he'd do evey cheesy gesture in the world if it made Rhys smile at least once.

S : SWEETHEART. did your muse have a childhood sweetheart?

Nope, Pascal's mother didn't want him getting close with any of the devotees children and they'd experience strict punishments if they interacted with Pascal and Cassandra. He barely ever spoke to any of those other kids and then he spent almost his entire teens alone in the church. It's why he had been a bit over eager when he began to move away into the city.

T : TRUE LOVE. does your muse believe in true love?

He...wishes he could, after all, fate is real so why can't true love be? But Pascal finds it hard to believe in after a lifetime of being in cold isolation, even when he wasn't really alone. But with Rhys? Yeah, he can start to see why true love can be such a great deal.

U : UNREQUITED. has your muse had their heart broken?

No, well...if you count heartbreak by family? Then yeah, his mother shattered his heart. But Pascal hasn't ever been close enough to someone to experience it and his visions help him deal with it by distancing himself to any bad events that he knows are going to happen.

V : VALENTINE. how does your muse feel about valentine’s day?

He likes it! Pascal enjoys the chance to be cheesy with his romance and certainly he is not going to pass up the chance to make Rhys feel special! Its mostly about Rhys but Pascal does feel surprisingly flustered if Rhys ever whips out some treats for him. He doesn't like anything overly special for one day about romance though. It seems cliche.

X : XOXO. does your muse use / like pet names?

Yup! He uses them after a while as part of him showing his affection, but Pascal will use them sooner if the other person uses them first. Like a "oh he does this so I can do it too" mindset.

Z : ZZZ. how many people has your muse slept with?

Only one and it was a woman who he had met at a bar and got pegged by later that night. Pascal had been overzealous and lonely but it had been enough for him to settle until he had eventually met Rhys. Get togethers were harder when they were so...repetitive.

#ask #blind-mutant #headcanon #he speaks of holy fates (pascal)

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common-blackbird · 5 years ago

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I’m not good with gaming and i never really imagined myself finishing any game, so this was a whole new experience for me... I really sucked. At one point i remember even crying when i just couldn’t fight smth. I hate asking for help (i’m infinitely grateful for it), or even looking “how to do this” bc i feel like i cheat, while when i just can’t beat smth in the game it makes me feel dumb. But i learned that usually happens bc i’ve been playing for too long.

So where to start.... The thing i liked most is the lore. Not just the content of it (which is very entertaining) but also the way it’s portrayed: through conversations, through various notes you find around, and it’s not just “well this is how it is” but rather sometimes contradictory claims that reflect different cultures. I love how you only ever see one country, but hear a lot about the others (well mostly Orlais, but there are tidbits from other countries as well), but also various cultures. I also love how the complex situation is in the game. The question of mages, the repression of elves, the dwarves and their culture, the question of religion.

The game is really good at setting the moral ambiguity and make you have hard choices. Once you realise there’s a pattern it does get easier, but some just make you wonder a lot what is the better choice.

While we’re at it let me talk some quests and decicions.

Free the elves?

So the easiest choice (though i don’t really think there was much of choosing) is the elves-slavery in denerim. Free elves, free citizens, i don’t even understand how did they get to be second-class citizens (or maybe i just forgot, i’ look it up), but they literally did nothing wrong, aren’t dangerous and frankly, there’s so much wilds in ferelden, i don’t see what’s the problem. However, though i don’t know if that was implied, if you go strictly against slavery, but this was a deal made between ferelden and tevinter, you risk a decline in diplomatic relationship as well as economy i assume, so it could be a setback. But again, if you have free citizens elves that are not just piled in one place, you can freshen up your own economy with capable workers. Like, even if you regret breaking a relationship with tevinter (that doesn’t even happen but i was thinking about it at the time), and the elves riot and go against you once you do give them freedom bc lot of bad history between ferelden and elves i guess, it’s still a morally & practically easy choice.

Free the mages?

This was... hmm... mage rights... I LOVE how they went about this problem. So the mages are problematic bc doing magic also means you can get posessed by a demon which results in a catstrophe (like that kid that demolished redcliffe). So they’re locked into a circle tower where they are trained and have a rigorous discipline and are under the watch of templars who might kill them if they try to escape? Mages who actually do escape the tower get hunted down and are forced back, or they get killed, especially if they attempt the bloodmagic (immoral dangerous magic practice?).

It’s kind of obvious that the game leans more to the mage rights (i mean, i wish there was a more memorable templar who isn’t like “mages are bad” by default, but they are kinda trained that way. tbh i just wish we had more templars...). At first, the only mage (other than that one in ostagar) you acutally meet is morrigan, who... who is not a very good example of “why people think mages are bad”. She’s cool, she handles magic really good, yeah she seems to be against the world, but what can you exepect when templars would kill her on sight? Even when alistair is constantly suspecting her, he’s basing that on her being a mage, and not on her saying really creepy immoral stuff. So initially i was all for mage rights. Then things didn’t really help much in the circle tower bc all templars were for just killing all the mages bc things got out of hands. Retrospectively i get where they’re coming from, but still, they seemed really incapable at the time. But then i met wynne, and she told me her backstory. And what really stuck with me is that

1) they find out she’s a mage bc she set someone on fire = mages are dangerous

2) while one templar ignored her completely, the other templar that brought her to the tower was nice to her and carried her on his shoulder (which is very cute) = templars don’t have to be so antagonistic towards mages and

3) the circle tower does not only protect the people from mages, but also the mages from people, bc people are bigoted and scared and will kill a mage = a social/cultural problem.

In any case, i feel like simply freeing mages just like that would turn out to be a terrible mistake bc they are kinda walking time-bombs and they’d be ostracized from society which would make them turn desperate bc no protection, then you get easily corruptible, and so it brings lot of trouble. That being said, obviously, it’s bad to keep people locked up in a tower for life. So i guess i’m more for reforming the circle with mages being treated as humans and not walking time-bombs, templars not being taught to be antagonistic towards mages, but rather their partners(?) bodyguards(?), mages having right to employment once they prove they’re capable of handling magic well, and if needed take one templar with them so people can feel safe. The Circle is already institution made for the rights for the mages, it just needs a lot of work on it. Idk. there wasn’t much of the ~what’s it like to live in the circle~ since you walk into a disaster, so i don’t want to be all in for the mages or all against the mages. I’m a dwarf. Magic is domain i don’t bother to understand.

Orzammar social problems

Tradition vs. reform, at the cost of a monarch or a dictator. That was actually a really easy choice if you’re playing a dwarf. If i played a noble dwarf, i’d defintely choose Harrowmont bc he’s 1) nicer, 2) looks more capable, 3) doesn’t seem that powerhungry. But this also means that current system based on castes. Equality is not even a myth there, it’s an apocalyptic outlook. Which takes another form of a bad side when you have the ostracized casteless dwarves, stripped of all rights and treated like dirt (and that was my warden). So, harrowmont is the safe choice for a current state. Nobody really cares who’s on the throne bc nobody expects the system to change. But if you choose Behlen for a king (who’s accused of murdering his father), you get a reformist who is open to including the casteless in some form into the system. As canon fodder. Despite the grim outlook of being used as a canon fodder, it does open a possibility of upping your status based on the merits. The paragon system is already such a leeway to better your status (bc if you do something outstanding that the drawves, you are revered as a god), but it’s virtually impossible to do something of that scale as a casteless (unless you.. finish the game). On the other hand if you choose Behlen, it’s pretty obvious he’s powerhungry dictator. But i chose behlen bc my sister was his concubine and prospect of including casteless in any form would be a good offer for a casteless dwarf.

Kill/let the mother kill the child or do this bloodmagic-not-so-bloodmagic(?) ritual to save him?

Ah, my disaster. So, of course, i wanted to help the kid, and when the bloodmage said there’s a ritual that can be performed, i just needed to get other mages there, i chose that, i went to the circle tower, i did the whole damn mission there, got back to the kid and, like the fool i am, went straight to the boy instead of talking first to mages, which resulted in me alone dealing with him, which resulted in me making his mother kill him, get yelled on by alistair and there’s no option “it was on accident” to say to him (which frankly would be a terrible thing to say), and then he starts putting himself down bc now my warden is trying to justify herself, which is another level of misery bc i’m fighting a really nice guy who hates children being killed and feels bad that he’s angry about that. anyways, that was a mess from start to finish.

speaking of other messes,

Haven village mission

well, there’s no hard choice in this mission, it’s “side with fanatics who worship a dragon or be reasonable and find the urn”. (i do wonder what do you get from siding with fanatics now). but this mission was such a rollercoaster for me. I did everything backwards. You come into this creepy little isolated village where nobody likes you and they are some kind of fanatics of older gods. So it turns out that first you’re supposed to walk into one house and find a corpse there, which i totally overlooked so instead i killed the merchant in the village, went to the church, killed everyone there, then went out and killed everyone in the village, i found genitivi (a researcher who got captured there), but i still couldn’t finish the mission until i got into that villagers house and saw the corpse that was supposed to be my first inkling of supicion for the village. So the whole storyline didn’t make any sense. And later, when i was supposed to walk humbly to the urn, i was supposed to first leave all my belongings on an oltair, so i did, but didn’t realise i was actually supposed to do that so i took them back and then i couldn’t put them back again on the altair, so i had to fight that guard there and died lol. I hated every part of that mission. it was creepy, hard and i’m lucky i didn’t smash the urn in the end.

The werewolf problem

That one was easy, like, the whole problem of werewolves is bc the head elf lives for too long and there’s nothing so fitting as holding grudges for eternity which endangers the whole clan. I have only one complaint and that is my god the forest is confusing. Each time i go into the forest i get lost.

The golem quest was fun bc that end with Shale randomly killing a chicken always gets me. I love it. Return to ostagar was on the other hand very uneventful for me, but i did see a video with what banter you have if you have wynne and loghain in your party and it’s really intense how wynne keeps attacking him.

Random thought, but today i watched this video about dragon age origins and the guy said that mages are best for combats bc they can do most damage in range, which is probably true, but tbh most of the time for me it was usually the mage who dies in the battle. Morrigan is super useful for attacks, and Wynne for defense, but they’re both as frail as daisies and i’m left with low-stamina melee fighters. And that happens when you’re fighting an archdemon. You’re crying as you drink your last health poultice. You wish you brought wynne. But wynne had been dying just as often, which renders her power of revival pretty useless.

And now, the characters. Lets start humbly with my own.

This game made me realise i’m bad at roleplaying. I scroll through tumblr and see how people just love the character they’ve created and they are so cool and seem so interesting. Me? let me show how i create my character: i don’t like using magic bc magic is often complicated so mage is out of the question. warriors are usually strong so i can’t relate, so i’ll be a rouge and talk people into doing the dirty work for me. i loved elves so fiercly as a kid i got fed up with them and can’t stand them so i’ll not be an elf, but humans seem boring so i’ll be a dwarf. After all i’m short, i can relate. Bonus points, they are imune to magic. Since i’m casteless, i decided to look ugly (i’ve been told my warden looks like the crying cat meme). In the end, compared to the rest of my warden’s family, she looked like an adopted child. At the beginning i had the idea that i would make this character grow from “in it for herself” to “a hero” bc it’s a typical hero story anyway, but in the end it was just a self insert with really dumb mistakes who doesn’t get what she’s signed up to. I guess it’s easier to actually make interesting characters once you already know the stories and the choices so it’s easier to choose according to the characterisation you make and not “what if i screw up?”.

Alistair

So after you get chosen by Duncan (a cool honorable guywho gives you chance to make something of your casteless self and then makes you drink poison), the first guy you meet is alistair - a fellow grey warden who used to train to be a templar (which is as far as we go in meeting templars) and happens to be a king’s bastard son. He is dorky, funny, a genuinely nice person and on level of insecurity that even surpasses mine. He’s impossible to dislike. What i really like about the characters is that they’re super simple, which makes them both their charm and their annoying trait. for example, he often puts himself down, which i relate and am symphatetic and am all “nah you’re really nice”, but the next time he does that i’m “mate, you gotta stop doing that”. But it’s still kinda cute.

What did irk me throughout the game is him being my senior, but making me the leader. I literally pass the test 1 day before everybody gets killed and he is the only grey warden who knows what grey wardens do. Not only that, he’s like the only guy with me at the beginning who knows where’s what and knows the culture. I’m a friggin dwarf who is afraid that i’ll fall into the sky, have no interest to get myself killed, but now i’m a leader. But that’s not even the issue, bc i am already the main character. The problem is when every character in the game acts as if i’m the only surviving grey warden when alistair is right there. “Only you can do that, oh you’re a grey warden”. Alistair knows more about grey wardens than i ever will. I wish they just mention “can either of you two”. It’s like he doesn’t exist lol. I didn’t take him often to missions and pretended he’s doing some grey warden business i know nothing about. The only character who makes sense to completely ignore alistair as a grey warden is anora. But whatever, he doesn’t want any spotlight, so i guess he’s happy being considered “that sidekick grey warden”. Even as frustrating as it was, i really liked his avoiding of responsibility whatsoever and his low confidence, it really makes room for character growth.

Dog

the best character in da:o.

Morrigan

She’s obviously a polar opposite to alistair - overconfident, kind of mean, kind of selfish, her jokes are mean. I mean, when i imagine alistair i imagine a dog, when i imagine morrigan, that’s a cat. And while as a person i don’t really like her that much, but her dynamics with other characters are really fun. What really made me love her is that mystery “is she evil or not”, ( which I guess she’s not considering she’s still a buddy in later games(?)), but combined with her relationship with flemeth who also might or might not be evil. she keeps opposing her mother while being compliant to her. She does what flemeth asks bc she knows that flemeth is more powerful. It makes you wonder how terrible her upbringing was if you’re certain your mom has some fishy plans in which you might get killed in the process. But instead of just running away and doing exactly the opposite of what flemeth commands, even after hearing she’s dead, she still goes on with flemeth’s idea, so i’m guessing she just wants the demon baby for herself(?). In any case, her (justified?) paranoia with flemeth makes her really compelling.

SPEAKING OF DEMON BABY, turns out the reason flemeth saved the warden and alistair was so that the warden could convince alistair to have sex with morrigan. which means that if the warden is a guy, and let us assume a straight guy, she’s counting on at least 50% chance of the male straight guy hating morrigan so much he would sooner convince the other guy who definitely hates morrigan to have sex with her than doing it himself. Yikes.

Sten

Sten is a character you respect. Some things he said really resonated with me and it made me think a lot. His regret over killing that family totally flew over me at that time (bc zevran was talking his head off how he killed this guy and that guy so who cares about sten killing some family, i’m already going to hell for tolerating assassins and making a mother kill her child), but later it was quite peculiar that he’s so ready to kill me and he’s pretty ruthless at everything he does, so you’d think this big guy has no problem getting over this. His regret made me more interested in his culture and his rigorous honour-code. I’d really love to see Par Vollen. At the end i even told him i was going to be joining him on his way back to Par Vollen (i wanted a new character for awakening), but that didn’t work out sadly :(

Leliana

I think most endearing part of Leliana is that she truly seems to believe all the right things, even though you’re made suspicious considering she was (or is?) a spy. That woman talks so much. And she’s always in the right. Always. Making a spy become a hardcore believer in god is cool, bc i always doubt her. She knows her way with words, she always says what you want/need to hear. Of course she would be playing a religious girl if that meant she could convince me that she’s harmless. But it’s also fun that she truly believes it and has a hard time convincing you that considering you keep doubting everything she says. I really like her.

Zevran

I was really surprised when i saw that Zevran is a fan-favourite. I guess it’s that he has a tragic-slave-turned-assassin backstory. I... am completely indifferent towards him. I’m sorry. He was just that one bisexual hedonist assassin who happens to have been a slave long time ago. I guess, by the time i got his backstory, i was already immune to angst... But thinking back, i really like that he’s the bad guy in his backstory, he’s the one doing betraying, while leliana for example got betrayed. And i’m a little bit sad that all he learned from that episode was that assassins are expandable, while, when you look at it, he fails to realise everybody in antiva is expendable. That’s a really crazy country right there. I mean, he’s killing people right and left, and never really thinks back about them. Even if he doesn’t like to do it (which he never really said he does, but it’s not like he had a choice so let’s give a benefit of the doubt), he never really thinks about his victims. The only thing that made him realise that he was expandable was his killing of his partner/lover. (or if he figured that out, i didn’t notice it). But yeah, bragging about sex and death doesn’t do it for me i guess. I did love his banters with Wynne. You can see how she’s trying to get him to open up, to see that there’s more to him than a hedonist, and she just giving up every time when he makes it about sex.

Wynne

Wynne is my top 3 faves. She’s also the reason i’m not against the Circle. Before i met her, i was all “yeah mages should be free and don’t need any control” bc there’s just morrigan and a bad case of not-taking-care-of-your-child-mage posession thing. But then Wynne starts talking about her life in the circle and you see that it’s not just “we hate mages so we keep them imprisoned”. You see that learning magic is hard (morrigan makes it look easy, ok?) and disaster can happen in a blink of an eye. And you find out how flawed she was, and it feels like she really learned from her experiences. And she’s so openminded and genuinely nice, typical granma-mentor-character. Best human in the camp.

Shale

Another one of my top 3 faves. Shale won me over the moment they murdered that poor chicken. I love having shale in my missions, they’re useful, they’re snappy, they’re perfect. And finding out that shale used to be shayle, a dwarf noble who willingly became a golem was one of my fave missions. I was so focused on the myth & legend of branka, that shale took me by surprise. And imagining a dwarf lady with shale’s personality makes me want to go back in time and meet shayle ;__;

Oghren

He’s pretty much like zevran: i like him, but too many alcoholic-jokes. Out of all characters, he looks like the biggest comic-relief. I like how insanely loyal he is. And I liked being his wingman x)

Loghain

I really like him. I shouldn’t like him as much as i do. i wish he could have been in a party earlier or without alistair-walking-out consequences. You start seeing that he’s not just a bad guy when you see that he’s always sad there when anora is scolding him. And I really loved that anecdote with him ruining every rose he touches so he found a rose and brought it home himself. Awww. If he didn’t order me executed at sight, i’d be his best friend. His paranoia (or justified fear?) of orlesian invasion made him do lot of political mistakes, but you can see he has good intentions. He’s not a bad guy. And he’s really clever. But also i will never understand how he didn’t get rid of Rendon Howe.

I’m so conflicted over him abandoning Cailan. I hated cailan, but to him, cailan was almost flesh and blood(?) I mean, he’s everything that’s left of two people he loved so abandoning him must have been terrible. I’m still trying to wrap my head around why he would go to that length to betray cailan rather than forcefully take him back by the means of drugging him and carrying him back to denerim. Maybe cailan was so problematic with his ideals before and this was just one decision too much. But then again, loghain was dealing with idealistic maric since forever. I don’t know. He’s just such a compelling character to me. I wouldn’t recruit him storywise bc i feel like his time was over. He had to die there. you know how in stories, the hero can’t live too long, bc there is no being the hero the second time. They’re always tragic. And since he attempted to be the hero again, he had to pay the price and become a villain. And he needs to tragically die. Which makes him more memorable than saint marric.

Also i watched a video with what happens if you go back to ostagar with loghain and wynne and it’s whoa... wynne is merciless with her attacks on loghain.

Anora

MY QUEEN. I was debating a lot whether alistair should be a king or not and then anora showed up and everything became clear. She’s such an amazing person. You can see her as righteous, as powerhungry, as manipulator, as terrible or wonderful and all of that would be true. She’s ready to do everything to keep that throne. You can see she loves her father, but she is going against him and is relying on your mercy for his life, and accepts his death so quickly. She implies that, while she did love cailan, her marriage was arranged and her husband an idealistic fool and she’s not surprised how he ended up. And sure, she’s telling you all you want to hear: that she loved him, that she was warning him about what his idealism will get him to, but can you really trust her? Especially with cailan’s correspondence between arl eamon, where eamon is trying to get rid of anora, and empress celene, who’s suspicious to say the least. I could easily imagine she did not warn, but support cailan in his idealistic views bc he hinders her rule with his blind idealism. I could just as easily accept that she truly did love him, and she did warn him, but alas, her husband is a fool. Everyone is against her in the game, and if i didn’t get her to win that throne after everything she’s done to get it, it would just be sad to watch. which brings me to the mission:

Choosing a ruler

Anora proved more than anyone that she’s the best candidate. Setting alistair on that throne would feel so ungrateful, he had no agency whatsoever in becoming a king and if i married him to anora, then i’d just get another pawn in her - or eamon’s - hands bc it’s obvious who’s playing the game here. I’d feel bad for alistair. He should get his own development based by his own merits rather than ~king’s blood~. Also with setting him on the throne you change nothing bc he can’t have kids anyway (unless you count the demon baby which would get this to another level of really messed up succession stories), and anora (according to eamon) seems to not be able to have kids(?) so they’re basically the same. Also, anora has unlimited time to rule, while alistair will die in what like, 10 years? and what then? Morrigan becomes queen regent bc she’s the baby-demon’s mother? That’s a disaster. And anora is right when she says that setting up a grey warden after they’ve been proclaimed enemies of the state only makes it look bad. I have learned that grey wardens, it turns out, are very political, but i just didn’t want to be. Also, alistair devotion was literally never towards marric and only for duncan. He even kills Loghain for duncan, and not for cailan. I really like anora being a queen. I know i can’t count on her bc she is ruthless like loghain, but also loyal only to the kingdom. It feels like, that’s the only thing she got to choose in her life and she’s willing to sacrifice everything for it. And that makes her a good ruler.

the ritual

oh man. that was... awkward. I knew it was gonna happen but... you know what i think? Sure, flemeth told morrigan what she’s gotta do, but, i doubt morrigan really knew what she’s getting into. I know the kid is a normal kid in the end, but i like to think that at the time, morrigan had no idea whatsoever what is this ritual going to turn up with. First, this this ritual feels like a fanservice. Second, on the matter of dub-con, i’ve seen a lot of people saying that alistair was non-con and morrigan is... a bitch? i thought about it and all i saw was this: your mom, whom you hate and are convinced she’s going to kill you one day, tells you you’re going to have a sex with a guy you don’t know, who hates you, and have his child, and you probably don’t want children, who will definitely be possessed with a god-spirit-thing. So, you got two choices, while you’re traveling with your merry band: you won’t do it or you do it for yourself. So i guess morrigan saw an opportunity and decided to go along with it, but use it against flemeth. Which is a really sad thing bc the moment she decides to have the baby for the power for whatever reason, she is basically becoming flemeth herself (or at least her idea of flemeth: someone who uses children for her own gains instead of loving them). So knowing that, i can’t see morrigan being a bitch either way for deciding to take the ritual. She definitely doesn’t like alistair after all, and she’s becoming the person she hates the most + she acts like she doesn’t care about anything, but she also wants to save the warden. So yeah, i definitely went overboard with this, but i don’t see morrigan enjoying the ritual.

I do wonder what she’s planning to do with the demon baby tho. or how terrible is she at raising a baby. I mean, her tolerance and patience levels are really low. I also wonder whether she’s right to be wary of flemeth or is she only paranoid. Flemeth seems like much wiser and sees morrigan as a kid with her paranoia. She pretty much dominates. I would love both morrigan being totally off the track with her suspicious about flemeth and her being right to be wary of flemeth.

So yeah, that was a huge ramble. If you made it this far then i bow to you. Idk where i was going with this... i just wanted to get out my thoughts and have it in one place. I probably said bunch of things wrong and misinterpreted the characters, made typos, forgot to say bunch of other things so, sorry for that. i’m a newb. But i loved it! It made me go into fantasy mood.

#i'm just rambling about dragon age #and it's really long and i don't say anything interesting

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