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sourrpatched · 7 months ago

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𓉸ྀི l.mk LIKE A VIRGIN

Pairing > Yandere!Lee Mark x Fem!Reader

Genre > Horror (slasher type), Murder Mystery, College frat AU, smut (MDNI), loosely based in late 90s (there may be minor inconsistencies)

Sypnosis > As the fifth year anniversary of what the public coined the 'Vestal Murders' approaches, strange occurrences begin to happen. Leaving the public frightened there may be a copycat killer on the loose, and you worried that he might be there to finish the job.

Warnings > Cursing, drinking, smoking, death, Major character death (but also not really?), SMUT (MDNI), Dry humping, oral sex (f recieving), protected sex (wrap it up yall come on), stalking, Mark is actually crazy just an FYI

Word Count > 13.6k

A/N > This is the first to a series i’m working on for halloween so i hope if u enjoy this you enjoy the others! This is also my first time writing such a long fic and smut so bear with me please.

playlist > Like a Virgin- Madonna, Oblivion- Grimes, Somebody’s watching me- Rockwell

Lucville, October 12th

October was a fun month for most people. There was the official start of fall and of course halloween season. There was no one happier than your friends, you on the other hand were not a fan.

Something about Halloween just gave you the creeps. Which, yes may be its exact purpose, but that didn’t mean you had to like it. Besides, you preferred Spring anyway.

You sat on your desk chair next to your bed, head hanging back as your body laid limp on the seat. Your friend, Yuqi, was sorting through your closet. Well what was left of the clothes in your closet. She had thrown half of your wardrobe onto the floor, searching for the perfect outfit for tonight.

“Do I have to go?” You groaned, “Like really?”

It wasn’t like you to want to go out and party and your friends knew that, which is why tonight was a special occasion.

“Your parents aren’t going to let you stay home alone, considering recent events.”

“I’d say five years ago is hardly recent.”

There was a series of disappearances that led up to Halloween when you were in your early years of high school. It was three different people who happened to live within your town, some even attended the same school as you. It was a small town, yet you wouldn’t have considered yourself close to any of the students, except for one.

Jihoon was one of your older brother, Inhyuk’s longest and closest friends. You remember how they’d always hang out at your house after school playing video games. Jihoon was always so sweet to you, inviting you into their hangouts so you wouldn’t be alone. Even with the four year age gap you couldn’t help but develop a puppy crush on him.

A week had passed since his disappearance, everyone expected that the kids were playing a senior prank and would return shortly, your brother knew differently. He grew more distressed as the days passed. You remember how annoying it was that he wouldn’t allow you to go anywhere without him right by your side.

That protectiveness only got worse when the bodies had been discovered. The TV was playing a re run of IT in honor of Halloween when an emergency news broadcast appeared.

“It appears the bodies of multiple missing persons have been discovered after police received an anonymous report leading to an investigation of Velvet Lake.”

Chills ran down your spine as the names of the kids appeared on screen, Jihoon being one of the three. Your brother had taken it badly, he couldn’t leave his room for months. That’s why as soon as he graduated he took a scholarship across the globe and never came back.

It only made the house emptier. Your father was always traveling abroad on business so he was hardly ever around, and your mother who was a surgeon at S.E.S, the towns local hospital, was working overtime. That left you alone most of the time when you weren’t with your friends.

“I’m not talking about that Virgin killer, i’m talking about those people who were mauled by a bear or something in Melody.”

Melody was the neighboring town to yours closer to the city, and as far as you knew, there wasn’t much wildlife there.

“A bear? How would a bear even be there?”

“How would I know. My dad just said what he saw on today’s paper.” She shrugged pulling a shirt from your closet and bringing it up to your chest.

“It’s not Virgin Killer by the way, it’s Vestal.”

“Same difference. I think this is it by the way.” She motioned her head to the mirror behind you. It was a green and brown tube top with a turtleneck she had chosen for you to wear. It was cropped, exposing your waist down. You’d argue it wasn’t exactly appropriate for the weather but Yuqi never took that into account.

“Perfect.” She smiled and headed back to your closet. “Now we gotta find matching pants.”

“Isn’t it kind of stupid that they’re hosting a party already. Halloween isn’t even til three weeks from now.”

“Y/N you should know already they will throw a party for any reason.” Her voice comes out muffled. You roll your eyes knowing she’s searching the deep depths of your closet.

“What’s the point in that, aren’t parties supposed to be special?”

“Y/N, college parties are an excuse for us to get drunk and have fun. What’s more special than that?”

You trace out the words ‘HELP ME’ on the desk with your finger, whining. “Nothing for me, so do I have to go?”

You’re suddenly hit on the side of your head. You look down at a the floor where a juniper maxi skirt lays on the floor.

“You play this same game every time and end up dragged to the party anyway,” Yuqi bursts, “We’re going. So put those on and stop your bitching.”

You sigh in defeat, grabbing the skirt and beginning to change into the clothes before the sound of the doorbell goes off.

Yuqi lets a breath out. “That’s probably Minnie I’ll go get her. Stay here and don’t try and get away.” She pleads with emphases on ‘ don’t ‘ before leaving your room.

You change into your clothes, staring at yourself in the mirror. The amount of skin showing makes you a bit uncomfortable so you reach for a black leather jacket on the floor from Yuqi’s assault on your closet. You put it on feeling much more content hearing the approaching voices of your friends.

“You should really learn to stop popping up out of nowhere and call before you’re coming over.”

“I paged you guys.” Minnie spoke evidently.

You snicker, “You still carrying yours around?“

She rolls her eyes, “Okay you’re just lucky your mom and dad can afford to get you a cell.”

You shrug.

“It’s getting late, we should get going.” Yuqi says putting her own jacket on. You grab onto her before she can slip out the door.

“And this mess?”

The entire room looked as if it was part of the titanic wreckage. You could hardly see the floor with the piles of clothing covering it. She looks around then at you with an innocent smile. “I’ll help later.”

You take a breath knowing that was a lie, but following your friends out of the house nonetheless.

This better be worth it.

The frat house is about as messy as you would’ve expected. Red solo cups are left on every surface of the house, and you were sure not a single one of them was filled with water. There was a crowd in the living room surrounding a game of foosball between two guys you were sure were on the football team.

At some point your group separated to go meet up with other people. This was exactly why you hated coming to parties. Within a minute of walking through the front door, Yuqi would met up with her drama club friends and Minnie left with some group of stoners. You walked around hoping to find something to drink to pass time.

You walked into the kitchen finding a small trio of familiar faces hovering around the fridge. Two of the three idiots were taunting the youngest while he stood confused. You slowly sneak up and approach them startling them at the sound of your voice.

“You guys some sort of watch dogs for the drinks or?”

“Jesus fuck when did you get here?”

You shrug, gesturing your hands for them to move from the fridge. “Like twenty minutes ago.” You grab a coke out of the fridge and crack it open taking a sip.

“You came alone little fox, or in your usual set?”

You cringed at the nickname used. Johnny, the eldest of the frat, loved to call you that because of how sneaky you were. It wasn’t ever purposely, you just happened to ‘pop up out of nowhere’ sometimes according to others.

“Yuqi and Minnie went to go find their own cliques.”

“And left you to fend for yourself? That’s not good manners.” Yuta was the second eldest although he acted far from it. He and Johnny had been underclass men to your brother when they were in high school so you guys were pretty close.

“Stealing one of Kun’s cokes isn’t well mannered either.” Johnny teased.

“He’ll live.” You say taking another sip.

“You really shouldn’t be wandering around all by yourself y/n, it’s not very safe.” Mark, the youngest chimes in. Mark was in a grade higher than you, you had never been very close with him until a year ago though, seeing as he began to spend time more with your friend group.

He was a quiet type, kept to himself a lot of the time, and was usually the victim of a joke. He was very sweet though. Minnie pointed out that the last frat party you couldn’t attend, he wouldn’t stop asking her about you.

When she told him you were sick he seemed concerned and gave her shit for just leaving you behind. You felt a blush creeping in at the thought of him carrying so much about you.

“Awww why do you care so much about y/n?” Yuta says squeezing the younger’s cheeks. He slaps his hand off of him and Yuta only bursts out laughing.

“He’s right little fox,” Johnny says directed to you. He was always trying to sound wise. “I mean didn’t you notice the way Sungchan has been eyeing you all night?”

You didn’t. Sungchan had hit on you at the last frat party your friends attended in which you respectfully declined. The way the guys were talking though was as if he was some stalker, your skin crawled at the thought.

“You’re just saying that.”

“It’s true. His attention is always on you, even when you’re not paying attention.”

“Let’s face it, she’s never paying attention.” Yuta adds.

“And that’s exactly why you gotta be careful. College men can’t be trusted.”

You scoff, “You do realize you are included in that generalization. College man.”

Yuta pokes Johnny, putting him on the spot. “She got you there.” The eldest only rolls his eyes. Yuta might seem drunk to most people, and maybe he was, but you and your friends knew he was just the playful type.

“I think Johnny is right, especially around this season. You never know what could happen.” Mark’s sentence trails off.

“Oh chills,” Yuta says raising his arm, “You gave me chills Mark. You’re talking about that Virgin taker right?”

Johnny’s eyebrows furrow, “I don’t think that’s the name.”

“Whatever you know what I mean. He slaughtered all those puritans didn’t he?”

“A little insensitive don’t you think?”

“What? You mad he couldn’t take yours too?” He replies with a wink and sip of his beer. You take it back, he was definitely drunk.

This time you let out a giggle, it was always fun being around these idiots. “Vestal. Can’t believe i’ve had to correct two people on that today.” You shake your head.

“Who was the first?” Mark asks curiously.

“Yuqi, speaking of, I should probably start looking for her. I’m ready to bounce.”

“I thought I saw she left out earlier with some girl with short hair?”

“Great. So she left me and Minnie to get laid.” You say sarcastically.

Johnny clicks his tongue. “You must’ve broken a mirror, little fox. Minnie left out with the boys to go get some food. Munchies, you know.”

You groan, sinking your head into your hand. “They drag me here for no reason. Okay i’m leaving now, i’ll see you guys when I do.”

“You walking alone?” Mark‘s voice comes out full of concern.

You shrug. “Seems like it.”

“I can walk you home if you don’t mind?” He suggests.

“Thank you, but really It’s okay.” You’re already heading towards the door, throwing your empty can in the trash when you hear Yuta’s voice.

“Careful Y/N, don’t let the virgin killer get ya.”

You keep your sight forward, flicking him off as you leave.

You walk through your front door, sliding the locks on instantly. Your shoulders drop, the stress leaving your body. Walking home alone was what you did regularly, only this time it felt different. It felt like someone was accompanying you, even if it was only you walking your regular route home.

The fifteen minutes felt longer than usual but that could’ve rang true since you stopped a few times to look around swearing you could feel eyes on you. That’s why as soon as you got home you turned on all of the lights in your home.

Stupid Yuta. He was always saying something to put you on edge.

You turn on the TV and are shocked to find that the news is still on.

“Due to a power outage the following locations have been left with no power over sixty percent of people are left with no clue on when it will be repaired. Schools and Universities have decided to postpone classes for the time being. People are outraged, some believing this upcoming blood moon could be the reasoning for the power outages.”

The list of cities and towns comes up. Melody, Lucville, Graze town , and 0 mile.

Lucville. That couldn’t be right, you had power right now. The phone rings loudly from the kitchen, pulling you from your thoughts. You get up to check, walking to the counter and pulling the phone to your ear.

“Hell–”

“Did you hear??? The campus closed down cause of some weird power thing, it’s not coming back til November.” Yuqi’s voice cuts yours off.

“I did yeah but that doesn’t make any sense,” You object, “my power’s working.”

“Yeah it’s only effecting places like the police stations and schools, some hospitals too. Don’t read too much into it just be happy we have no classes.”

“Yeah I guess you’re right.”

“I gotta go now, my bed calls me. I only called to make sure you got home. Minnie told me you left alone.”

“The bed or the person in it,” You hear her squeak like she’d been caught. “Don’t forget you owe me a clean room.”

“I’ll get to it tomorrow, promise.”

“Whatever.” You hang up.

At that moment you hear a knock at the front door. You check the time. 1:40am. Weird, your mom was held up at work and your father was still out of town. You walk over to the front door checking the peep hole and seeing nothing.

That’s strange.

You unlock the door and open it, looking around the area. It was just an empty street, not a single light was on from any house. You close the door guessing it could’ve been from the TV, when the phone rings again.

You walk over to the kitchen grabbing the phone. “Hello?”

You’re met with silence.

You scoff, “Yuta? If this is your idea of a prank you should really move on. Everyone’s seen Scream by now.” You hang up.

Even though you were very sure it was just Yuta who was prank calling, you can’t help but feel a shiver run down your spine. You reach up over the counter opening the cabinet to grab a glass when the phone rings again.

You jump, the glass dropping from your finger tips and crashing into the ground. You groan, carefully crossing the glass without stepping in it and reaching for the phone.

“Yuta I swear to god the next time I see you, you better have a jockstrap on!” You shout before being cut off.

“Woah y/n are you okay?”

You sigh in relief. “Mark?”

“Yeah, I was calling to make sure you got home safe. Is something wrong?”

“It’s nothing, just got a bit spooked with a call earlier.”

“I’m guessing Yuta?”

“Ding Ding Ding. Guess i’m victim to his little halloween pranks.”

“I’ll talk to him about it.”

“Don’t bother, I can handle him.”

“I’m sure you can,” He chuckles, “Jockstrap?”

“It’s a clear warning in case he does want kids in the future.”

You can hear his smile through the phone, it helps ease your mind. “Assuming he doesn’t already have some running around?”

You let out a chuckle. “You’re right. He’ll be fine without any more.”

The laugh he lets out is contagious. “I gotta clean up a bit here, i’m glad you called though.” You meant it.

“Of course, wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. Who else would keep the guys in check?”

You can’t help the blush that fills your cheeks. “Bye, Mark.”

“I’ll see you later y/n.” The call ends.

You quickly clean up the mess before heading back into your brother’s old room to sleep. It was completely empty save for the TV left on a counter and a loan poster of Madonna on the wall.

You turn off the lights hoping to god you will make tomorrow’s morning shift at the diner.

It was about thirty minutes left of your shift before you were finally free. You rubbed your face to keep yourself awake. It was Monday morning shift and usually they weren’t that busy, but since classes were all canceled for the next week, you noticed a lot more students came to the diner.

You worked at Salty & Sweet Diner for over a year already. It gave you something to do when you weren’t at school so you wouldn’t have to spend all your time at home by yourself. It also gave you money you could use to go out with friends instead of depending on your parents.

“Looking terrible y/n.” The man who is next in line looks up at you with a mocking smile.

“As do you, What can I get for you today YangYang? Same as usual?”

He nodded, “Extra whipped cream don’t forget it.”

You write down his order on a notepad. “And you?”

“Are you on the menu?” Jaehyun jokes.

“Limited time only and you just missed it.”

Jaehyun and YangYang were usually in the frat basement getting high when they weren’t attending classes, so their presence today was surprising.

“The guys should be getting here soon.” Jaehyun comments, “Something about it being your shift so we should come over to annoy you?”

“I thought I mentioned if i see any of you in here i’ll have my manager ban you guys.”

“Nice try, Your manager was busy last night getting high with us.” YangYang points his finger at Minnie, who’s counting the register behind you.

The diner was owned by Minnie’s parents which is how you landed the job in the first place. You were great full most times, but not now. At that moment the door rings signaling another customer coming. You can spot the idiot from miles away.

“Y/N, how are you did you miss me?” He says enthusiastically. You roll your eyes.

“I wouldn’t even miss you if you died.”

“Ouch.” He grabs at his chest dramatically. Before you can berate him you’re cut off by the familiar, comforting voice.

“Hey y/n, how’s your shift going?” Mark says, his attention fixed onto you.

“It’s fine. What are you doing here?” You respond shyly.

“The guys wanted to annoy you but I only came to make sure you were alright.”

“I’m okay.” You could feel the awkwardness radiating off of your body.

“That’s good,” He clears his throat. “So, the guys were actually going to host another party this weekend. I was wondering if It’ll be okay if i keep my hopes up to see you.”

You wait a second before responding. “I can’t confirm whether you will be disappointed or not.” He nods at your answer when a voice cuts into your conversation.

“You won’t be. She will be there.” Minnie’s voice rings out.

You look at her, eyes wide. She only gives a tight smile. It’s her signature ‘Don’t even try it’ look.

Yuta speaks this time, “Great, so i’m guessing you will all three be there?”

“You guessed correctly.” She grins, “I’ll let Yuqi know about it. Y/N you can go now.”

“My shift isn’t over?”

“Yeah well I’m sure Hyungseo has no problem covering your shift for you.”

“Who‘s Hyungseo?” Yuta asks teasingly.

“The chef who can’t keep his eyes off of our little Y/N here,” Minnie winks at you. “Go on now Y/n, you can go.”

You give her a look before heading to the back to change out of your apron. Before you’re completely out of sight you can hear the group tease the youngest.

“You’re as red as Minnie’s old wash cloth right now.”

“Hey man knock it off.” Minnie replies.

Mark can only turn away, “I’m heading to the restroom.”

On your way out, a voice stops you in your tracks. Sungchan sits in his seat, a milkshake in front of him.

“Sungchan, i’m off the clock if you needed something I could let Minnie know.”

“Huh?” He turns his head to his drink realizing what it looks like to you, “No actually I just wanted to ask you.” He trails off his sentence. You stand there confused waiting for him to continue. “You’re going to be at Yuta’s party right?”

“I don’t really have a choice.”

His laughter is strained, “Well I was wondering if I see you there, would you want to–“

His voice is cut off by the yelling coming from where your group of friends stand. You see that two of the boys have decided to try and race to see who can finish their milkshake first, glad you clocked out before having to deal with that.

“Yeah i’ll see you there,” You say to Sungchan, leaving him to his drink. “I gotta go, enjoy your food.”

He nods giving you a small smile, “Bye Y/N.”

Once you’re home you can’t wait but head straight to the shower. You set the water to warm before stripping and standing directly under the stream of water. The warmth hits you and you let out a sigh, letting the water run down your body and soak into your hair.

Minutes pass of silence, the only sound being the running water. Your eyes are closed as you begin rinsing the remaining shampoo in your hair. You hear the faintest tap of the door, opening your eyes in an instant.

You turn the facet off stepping out of the shower and grabbing your towel, only now realizing your clothes weren’t there.

I swear I brought clothes?

Your heart drops as you begin to hear muffled voices coming from your house. You stand frozen in front of the bathroom door. You can hear your heart thumping as if it’s directly in your ears.

After moments of contemplating you choose to open the door. You follow the voices that are coming from the living room. The TV is on.

“Parents stand here today at the memorial sight with flowers and candles to honor the upcoming five year anniversary of the Vestal Murderer’s victims. The victims–“

You turn off the TV, deciding to ignore it and head back into your room to change into a pajama set.

October 19th

This party is boring. You had chosen to stick by Minnie’s side after experiencing the weirdest phenomenons for the past week. You had about three other times items had been misplaced in your home. You were slowly growing more agitated than anything, so when Minnie suggested you join them in their smoke session you didn’t decline.

You sat in between Minnie and YangYang, opting out of smoking after a single rotation. You weren’t a smoker so three puffs and one coughing fit later you were done for the night.

Your friends sat in a circle, recounting stories to one another. You couldn’t really focus on anything but keeping your eyes open though.

There’s a knock at the door, pulling your attention from the cup in your hands and towards the sound. Jaehyun gets up to get the door, speaking to the man on the other side with a hushed voice. It’s only when you lean to the side that you notice it’s Mark.

You turn over to Minnie by your side, tapping her shoulder to get her attention.

“I want to go get another drink.” Minnie nods her head, letting YangYang know she’s gonna be right back. You both sit up heading towards the door where Jaehyun looks annoyed.

“Is something wrong?” Minnie asks, inserting herself into their conversation.

“Just Johnny stealing our room for the night. He needs some ‘privacy’ for that girl he brought over.” He says rolling his eyes.

You couldn’t help but let out a giggle, it was funny that he was so bothered by something you knew for a fact he was very guilty of.

“You mad you couldn’t book it first?” Minnie jokes.

“Y/N, I thought you left?” Mark questions.

“No, well I was but then Minnie invited me up so,” You let out a breath motioning your hands to the room. “I’m here.”

You can hear laughter from Jaehyun and Minnie who find your current condition hilarious. It only makes you join their cackling. Mark stays watching the three of you very confused.

“Right,” He says slowly. “You guys are leaving now?”

“Just getting a refill.” Minnie brings her cup up showing the emptiness of it.

“You guys getting more drinks? Get me a–“

“Get it yourself.” You knock down Jaehyun before he can finish his sentence. He frowns. “Come on Minnie.” She follows you out the door, leaving the two boys to their own conversation.

You and Minnie stand in the kitchen, well Minnie stands. You’re sat on the counter as she searches the cabinets for more booze. You look over to the living room where you see a mix of unfamiliar and familiar faces engage in a game of Cup Pong.

“Here,” Minnie grabs your attention, handing your cup back to you. You grab it and take a sip, frowning at the taste. “It’s water. God knows you need it.”

You take another sip, setting it down on the counter afterwards. “Thanks.”

“You heard earlier right?” She says, taking a drink out of her own. You cock your head to the side, not picking up what she’s saying. “Siwon was asking what I was doing later tonight and if i wanted to ‘hang’.” She adds quotation marks with her fingers.

If you had the water in your hands you were very sure it would’ve spilled everywhere. “You’re kidding.”

“I wish I was.” Her face full of disgust.

“I too, wish you were.” Yuqi adds from behind you. You jump at her sudden appearance. “When did you get here?”

“Just now. Which reminds me,” She brings herself up onto the counter leaning in to the two of you. “You know that high school kid I told you guys about who joined our club, Minjae?” You both nodded. “He tried putting moves on me.”

Minnie chokes on her drink. Yuqi immediately hitting her back to help her catch her breath. “What the hell is wrong with you.”

“Right now?” You question in disbelief.

“While you two were busy getting stoned.”

Minnie lets out one last cough, “What did you say?”

“Of course not. That’s a kid, I want nothing to do with that.” Yuqi says almost offended that Minnie even had to ask.

“You were a high schooler when you hit on Soyeon.”

“Well yeah, but that’s different. Me and Soyeon were only a year apart. He’s like two years younger.”

Minnie shrugs, “You’re just scared he’s going to get attached if you take his V-Card like you did with Soyeon.”

“Hey,” She hits Minnie’s shoulder, “Next time i’ll let you choke.”

“You remember how you were, puppy eyes always following her around.” Minnie says bringing fists to her cheeks. “You were so cute before you chose to become a heartbreaker.”

Yuqi hits Minnie’s hands off of her. “Do you have a death wish?”

“Ah you’re so mean now.” Minnie whines, “Y/N, when you finally get to bed don’t become like Yuqi.”

“As if that would happen any time soon, guys aren’t exactly all over me. Besides, I want it to be special.” You say bringing your arms to your chest.

Yuqi makes a face at Minnie. The girls sharing a glance you aren’t able to understand.

“What?” You press.

“Don’t worry about guys not being interested in you, worry about the guard dog of yours keeping them from approaching.” Minnie speaks as if it’s an obvious answer.

“What do you mean?”

Before you can press any further a figure approaches your circle. “You guys okay?”

“Never better.” Yuqi smiles, hopping off of the counter.

You face where mark stands. You weren’t able to really take in his appearance earlier but now that he was leaning on the counter, you were able to dissect him as if he were a test subject on a science lab table.

You thought the water was helping sober you up but apparently not enough with the way your brain was making up horrible comparisons.

You couldn’t help the blush on your face as you noticed the outline of muscles on the man’s forearms. He wasn’t even flexing and they were still apparent.

His plain white tee didn’t stop your brain from what your friends would call ‘eye fucking’ the man in front of you. It fit him like a glove, capturing his broad shoulders and his chest the way you wish you could.

“You okay y/n?” He spoke, pulling you out of your trance.

“Uhh, yeah.” You turn to where your friends are smirking at you, reading you easily. “What were we talking about?”

“How it’s pretty late and you should get home soon.”

“And how Mark should probably take you back home.” Minnie adds smoothly.

“Would you be okay with that?” Mark looks over to you.

There’s a brief silence as everyone waits for your answer. You give a tight smile, “Sure.”

“Great, well we have to go.” Yuqi says pulling Minnie with her out of the kitchen, “See you tomorrow Y/N!”

You were lucky the man in front of you was so oblivious to your friend’s actions. You put your arms down to help get you off of the counter the way Yuqi did earlier. A pair of hands find their way around your waist before you can.

“Here let me help you.” Mark pulls you off the counter with no struggle. You can’t help the warmth creeping in your stomach from his grip around you.

“Thanks.” You say, his hands leaving your waist as you stand steady on your own feet. You hope he doesn’t notice the way you can’t look him in the eye. “Let’s go.”

The cool autumn air was enough to sober you up if only by a little. Mark walked silently beside you noticing the way you wrapped your arms around yourself trying to keep warm. You’re too busy thinking about how much longer this walk will be when you feel hands wrapping around your shoulder.

“You were shivering.” He says leaving his jacket on you.

“Thanks.” You mumble, feeling instant relief from the cool air.

You can smell a hint of vanilla on it, his signature cologne. You smile silently to yourself bringing your hands to your mouth to warm them, and to keep him from noticing the faint pink in your cheeks.

“I’m glad I can walk you home, I was a bit worried last time you answered the call sounding panicked.”

You recall the memory. He did sound a bit startled through the phone. “I’m okay, i’m glad you get to walk me home anyway.”

There’s another round of silence. You notice your street in the distance, trying to come up with what to say. He speaks before you’re able to utter a word.

“You look really pretty tonight by the way.”

Your eyebrows shoot up. He realizes how his sentence came off, backtracking his earlier statement. “You always look pretty I mean. I just– You really suit my jacket.”

“I don’t know if I should thank you for the jacket or the compliment.”

“You don’t have to thank me at all, i’m only stating the obvious.”

You look up smiling at him which feels so easy to do whenever he’s around. You notice the beauty marks all over his face and neck, wishing you could analyze them closer.

“That’s my place over there.” You break the silence pointing over to your house. He looks to you, “I’m glad you have arrived safely.”

“I’m glad you could bring me.”

You both are standing face to face for a moment, observing each other and waiting for someone to make the first move. He speaks first.

“I don’t want to hold you in the cold for any longer.”

You reach to take off his jacket, “Oh, here’s your–“

“No need,” he cuts you off. “You pull it off better than I ever have.”

“I beg to differ.” You’re hoping he can take a hint. “But I guess once I wear another clothing item of yours we can see who pulls off your clothes better.”

“Feel free to invite yourself over anytime for access to my wardrobe.”

“Or I can pull this one off you now?” You joke, pulling him closer by his shirt. You’re unsure where your sudden boldness is coming from, perhaps you weren’t completely sober after all.

He leans in closer, staring into your eyes and shifting his gaze to your lips. He was definitely not as dense as you thought. You lean in closer, his fingers grazing your lips.

A sudden noise pulls you guys apart from each other. You look to the ground, embarrassed by how brazen you came off. He reaches into his pocket, grabbing his pager and reading off a message.

“Do you need to go already?”

He lets out heavy sigh as if he was disappointed in the distraction, “Yeah, that was Yuta he wants for me to stay over the night.”

You’re shocked, always having assumed he had stayed with the rest of the frat members. “Oh, I thought you lived there?”

“No, My parents actually got me a place here for my studies so it’s just me.”

“I see, it’s the same for me.” You point again at your home. “Thank you for walking me, please make sure you get back safely.”

“My pleasure, have a nice night Y/N.” He waves his hand as you begin walking towards your home.

“Ditto.” You shout out loud enough for him to hear you as you walk up to your home pulling your key out.

“What did you do!” You let out a gut wrenching scream. The entire floor was painted red, you look down and notice your hands full of blood.

You jump out of your nightmare, sweat lining your body. The house is silent, your alarm clock emitting a red gleam. It reads 4:26am.

You sit in bed rubbing the last of the tiredness in your eyes deciding it’d better to keep yourself awake for a while longer. You get up heading towards your kitchen to grab a glass of water.

As you reach the kitchen you decide to turn the TV on to calm your nerves for the time being. The news is on again. You take a sip out of your water paying half a mind to what is being reported.

“It’s been 48 hours since the disappearance of Jung Sungchan, his parents report he was last seen on October 17.”

Sungchan? He had said he would go to the party when you last saw him just a few days ago. You think back realizing you hadn’t seen him at all tonight. You feel your heart sink, placing your glass down and running to your house phone.

“Hello?” Minnie’s voice comes out hoarse. You can tell you’d just woken her from her sleep but you’re too startled to apologize.

“Sungchan is missing.”

“Huh?”

“He’s gone I just saw on the news they said it’s been days. I’m freaking out I just talked to him on Monday this has to be a joke right?”

“Y/N–“ You can barely hear her over your panicked thoughts.

“This is happening all over again, they’re saying it’s him again.”

You feel your eyes begin to water, “There’s been weird things happening, I hear knocks and my TV turns on all the time for no reason.” “Y/N.”

“Minnie, He was so close before,” You take a breath, “What if I’m next?”

“Y/N!” She yells out causing you to jump. “Relax, you’re okay. Nothing is going to happen.”

You don’t say anything so she continues, “I’m pretty sure I saw Sungchan after you left with Mark okay? Also, those knocks are probably just neighborhood kids. Remember when you said they’d always egg your neighbors around halloween?”

You let out a breath, “Yeah, you’re right.”

“See so there’s nothing to worry about, it’s all in your head cause Yuta kept saying shit. You’re okay and nothing going to happen.”

You realize how stupid you might’ve sounded now. Minnie was right, nothing was wrong until Yuta put all of that into your head. You’re just overthinking it.

“Thank you.” You let out softly.

She gives a sound of acknowledgment, “You know if you ever feel scared, my house is always open to you.”

“It’s fine I think I was just paranoid but i’m okay now.”

“Well just letting you know. Do you want to stay on the phone?”

“No it’s okay, i’ll let you get back to sleep.”

“Make sure you’re getting some sleep too alright?” She yawns. “God knows we need it for tomorrow.”

“Oh crap.” You had forgotten about the annual fundraiser held at the frat house. It was meant to raise money for the victims families of the Vestal Murders. You and your friends had promised to be there. “It totally slipped my mind.”

“If you can’t go don’t sweat it, you have a lot on your plate anyway.”

“No, i’ll be there.”

“Okay well I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight Y/N.”

“Night.”

October 20th

After a day of setting up different games for the fundraiser you were able to sit and relax. Yuqi, who’s sitting beside you passes a bottle of coke to you.

“Thanks.” You reply, taking a sip of the drink and setting it down.

“Can’t believe we had to help set up, i just want to go home.”

You give a wry smile, “Yeah i’m pretty exhausted, had a tough time sleeping.” She’s about to respond when someone calls her from the distance. “I’m going!” She turns to face you, “Go, we’re done here anyway.”

She walks away meeting with YangYang at the steps of the house. You close your eyes lying back against the couch you’re on. You can hear voices around you but don’t try enough to make out what they’re all talking about. Footsteps approach you, you open your eyes to see who it is.

“The games haven’t even began and you’re tired already?”

Mark is standing above you, you take in the fitted black shirt he has on. You admire the turtleneck he has on, it really fits him even though it covered his neck moles you loved to stare at.

“I’m only resting, it’s been a long day.”

He hums, taking a seat beside you. “Then i’ll join you, you can use me as a pillow if you’d like.”

You take his offer, lying your head on his shoulder which is much more comfortable than the couch if you were being honest. You close your eyes and feel his hand start to play with your hair, purring at the feeling.

“Yo, you guys gonna just sit there or you wanna join?” Johnny shouts to you and Mark.

You look up at him, still resting your head on him. His face is so close you pull away and get up. “We’re going.” He follows behind you.

You can see a few of your friends lined up to play apple bobbing. You remember how you played once when you were younger, you freaked out and inhaled the water. Inhyuk had to pull you out to stop you from choking.

“You wanna play?” Yuta says, smirking at the two of you.

“Uh I’m good.” You say, looking up at Mark.

“Come on, show them how you use that mouth of yours.” Minnie winks at you from in line.

You shove into her with your forearm, she laughs it off. “Really I’m okay, Mark?”

“Actually mind if I show you something instead?”

“Ohhh, he’s going to show you what his mouth can do.” Yuta mocks, this time he earns a shove from Mark.

You give her a scornful look, “Sure let’s go.”

He holds your hand pulling you from behind him, leading the way. You guys walk past the crowds of people, making your way through the house. You realize he’s taking you to the basement so you speak up.

“Didn’t know you were a smoker, Lee.”

He chuckles, “Not quite.” You both are still hand in hand when he takes you to a corner room in the basement that you hadn’t noticed before.

“What’s this?”

“You’ll see,” He opens the door revealing a room filled with Halloween candy and a blanket on the floor. You look around noticing the TV in the room with VHS tapes of different movies laid out on the floor. “Do you like it?”

You look up at Mark seeing how he’s awaiting your answer. You pull him in for a hug, squealing in delight.

“This is so sweet.”

“Minnie told me you had been having a rough time, thought this might cheer you up.” He smiles, “Did it work?”

“It did more than work. Mark, thank you.” You look up at him, holding his gaze for a moment. You’re both only an inch from each other, you look at his lips wondering how soft they’d feel on yours.

His voice comes out rough, “We should watch a movie, yeah?” though he makes no effort to step away from you.

You take a look at him, his eyes won’t leave your mouth so you move in closer. “We can always watch later.”

He lets out a chuckle before pulling you in for a kiss. His lips feel so soft on yours, it’s everything and more than you had imagined. It’s rough and possessive, stealing your breath right from your mouth.

He bites onto your lip earning a moan from your lips, you pull away embarrassed by the noise you’d let out. “I’m sorry I don’t know why I did that.”

He lets out a breathless laugh, “Don’t apologize, I love those sounds from you.” He pulls you in again, the kiss becoming even heavier than before.

You can feel his tongue trace the bottom of your lips asking permission to deepen the kiss. You accept, beginning to explore his own mouth. You bite his lip, earning a groan from him, you thought that might be the sexiest noise you’d ever heard before.

He grabs onto your cheek with one hand and your waist with the other. “Fuck, Y/N. You’re so perfect you know that?” You can barely respond before he begins to pull you in once more.

“Mark,” You plead breathlessly, pulling away from him. “I need to tell you something.”

He hums, beginning to kiss down your neck. You squirm at the feeling. “I haven’t– Fuck. I’ve never done this before.”

He slowly pulls away from you, confusion evident on his face. “Oh.” He can tell how embarrassed you feel admitting it so he adds promptly. “We don’t have to do anything. I’m not going to force you to do anything I just thought a movie would be nice.”

You find his distressed state amusing, “I– yeah that’s fine.”

He smiles, about to put a movie in when you hear a knock from the door.

“Y/N, we gotta go. Yuqi’s parents want her home already.” Minnie appears at the door.

You nod remembering the plans you guys had made to hang out after the fundraiser. Fuck, you wished you could stay with Mark for longer, especially considering how much effort he’d put into spending time with you.

“Yeah, okay i’ll be right there.” You say a little breathlessly, hoping she doesn’t notice it. She gives you an all knowing smile as she closes the door, “Be quick.”

You frown at the fact that you have to leave early, Mark quickly comes to your defense. “Hey it’s okay, we can save it for next time.” He puts his hands on your shoulder pulling you for a hug.

“I wish I didn’t have to leave.” You pout.

He laughs, finding you adorable. “I wish you didn’t have to go either, but we have plenty of time together, right?”

You nod, “Right. I’ll see you next time okay?”

“Get home safely y/n.” You head for the door before stopping in your tracks and turning around. Mark looks confused until you pull him in once more for a short and sweet kiss.

“Goodbye Mark.” You say pulling away and leaving out the door.

“Naughty naughty girl, y/n.” Minnie tsks, tapping her finger over your head.

You push her hand away. “Shut up, let’s go.”

She laughs following you close behind.

“I still don’t know why my parents felt the need to be party poopers, they could’ve asked the neighbor to feed that damn dog.” Yuqi complains.

Minnie gasps, “I love Haku!”

“Whatever, Oh there it is!” Yuqi, says pointing down at Phantom Halloween Store.

Your friends race down to get there first, you choose to continue walking instead. There’s a TV store to the right showing a news report.

“There’s been yet another disappearance reported since a body was discovered earlier today. Police have not made a comment on the identity of the individual or what another disappearance could mean for the town of Lucville. The public demands answers. Could it be possible that the Vestal Murderer is back for another halloween or a copy cat killer has taken his place?”

“Y/N!” Yuqi’s voice calls after you from ahead. “You coming?”

You choose to ignore the rest of the report, “Im going!”

“I think this would look great on you.”

“Cat Woman?” Minnie raises her eyebrow.

“You’d look really sexy, that’s what halloweens all about, right y/n!”

“Exactly, come on Minnie, you gonna finally try and get the attention of Yuta?”

She scowls at the both of you, snatching the suit out of Yuqi’s hands. “I’m trying it on, that’s all. No promises.”

“Yesh right, you’ll rock it anyway.” You both tease her as she steps into the dressing room.

“So y/n, what are you dressing as?” Yuqi asks.

“I don’t know i’ll probably just dress as is.”

She looks as if you ate her dog, “It’s halloween. A costume is a must. No ifs or buts!”

“You think rhyming is going to help me change my mind?” You raise an eyebrow at her, minding your business looking through the masks.

“What about Mark,” You stop in your tracks, feigning a cough. “What about him?”

“Don’t you wanna do more than just make out in the basement of a frat house?”

You roll your eyes, “Minnie told you.”

“Yeah well i’m offended you didn’t!” She retorts. “If you want to impress him then you have got to dress up.”

You sigh, halloween costumes weren’t really your thing, but you didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb being the only one not dressed up.

Yuqi smirks knowing she’s got to you. “Who knows,” she shrugs, “Maybe he will end up killing your virginity.”

Your ears go red, “Yuqi!” Her eyes go wide, stepping away from you. “Why are you so loud! Do you know how embarrassing you are?”

“Please spare me okay!” She yelps as you grab onto her shirt.

“Wow y/n I didn’t take you for a bully.” Johnny’s deep voice sounds from behind you both. You let go of Yuqi, allowing for her to fix her shirt.

“You make it a habit of stalking us?”

“Ah yes, cause we came here purely to track your group of friends down.” Yuta remarks sarcastically, “A halloween store, when it’s is less than a week away.”

“We came here to look for some last minute decorations.” Mark comments before you and Yuta can begin your bickering.

“We’re here for costumes, Y/N here has got the perfect one planned.” Yuqi states, her arm sneaking around your shoulder.

“Really? What is it?” Mark looks to you.

“It’s a surprise!” Yuqi squeaks out. You’re thankful for it because you wouldn’t have known what to say at all.

“Good, you should show us at the Halloween party we’re throwing this weekend.” Johnny utters, reaching into his pocket. He pulls an invitation flier to the party, passing it to you. “It’s a costume party so make sure you’re all there.”

“All of you.” Yuta adds, “Speaking of, where’s your third?”

At that moment Minnie walks out of the dressing room. The latex suit wraps around her body hugging her figure, the mask is on too bringing out her natural cat eyes, and in her hand she grips a whip as a signature weapon.

“So do you guys think–“ the words die on her tongue. She freezes looking at the group in front of her, one of them being Yuta.

“You wanna be my dominatrix Minnie?” Yuta jests.

She turns red at his comment and closes the dressing room door, hiding behind it.

“We’ll be there.” You say.

October 30th

It felt like Halloween had came early, there were piles of candies and treats left all over the kitchen counter as well as a punch bowl you were eighty percent sure was spiked. The blood moon stood bright in the night and true its name, painting the dark sky red.

You had just arrived no longer than ten minutes ago and your friends had already happened to disappear out of sight. You made your way to the counter grabbing a red solo cup to serve yourself the blood colored punch.

“You actually want to drink that?” Mark’s voice startles you, causing you to drop the ladle back into the punch.

“Well I guess not.”

“Sorry, I didn’t think you’d get scared.” He says, his hands going up in defense.

“It’s fine, i’ll just take a beer.” You reach for the refrigerator.

“You look beautiful,” He states, “Carrie right?”

You look down at the silk champagne colored dress you have on. “Yeah, did the crown give it away?”

“More so the blood on the costume but the crown too.”

You let out a giggle, “And you, Michael Myers?” You say almost as a question.

“Ding Ding Ding! I had my mask earlier but Yuta insisted on letting him borrow it for the time being, something about prancing the neighborhood kids?”

“Wow, he really is a menace. Is it bad i’m glad i’m not the target of his pranks though?”

He laughs, “I mean it is trick or treat right? The kids shouldn’t be that mad.”

You smile at him, he was always so playful with his words. You felt as if he understood you in ways not any other person could. You couldn’t stop your mind from remembering the kiss you both shared not too long ago.

He opened his mouth but no words came out. You felt a surge of boldness in the moment so you decided to speak for him.

“So Mark Myers, you wanna head back to the basement and finish what we started?”

You never could get used to the way he kissed you. He was always so quiet it was shocking to see this side of him. The one that was almost starving for your lips.

You sat on his lap, legs wrapped around his waist, his hands gripping your hips on him. You pulled away to take a breath, his lips attaching themselves to your throat.

“Fuck– Mark.” You groan, his mouth beginning to sprinkle bruises all over your neck. He kisses behind your ear, causing you to involuntarily grind your hips down.

He gasps at the sudden contact, “You’re driving me crazy.”

You let out a moan, continuing to grind your hips down.

You whine, the fabric in between you both making it hard for you to feel relief.

“Y/N baby,” He stops your movements with his hands on your hips. “ I don’t want to push you to do anything but you’re really making it hard.”

“You’re not pushing anything. I want this, I want you.”

“Fuck– I can’t hold you back.”

“Then don’t.” You say, pulling him in for another deep kiss. He kisses into your mouth, his tongue exploring you. You moan into the kiss beginning to build up the pace of your hips, his bulge growing as you continue to work yourself onto him.

“I feel so close.” You let out eagerly.

“Come on baby, come for me.” He begins to force your hips down, building more friction to your heat.

You can feel your high approaching rapidly, gripping onto his shoulders tight, your nails digging into his skin. He hisses at the feeling, you let out a weak apology.

“It’s okay, just be a good girl and finish, yeah?”

His words are enough to bring you to the edge. You feel your legs shake as your orgasm takes over your entire body. You bite down on his shoulder, trying to keep from screaming at the euphoric sensation.

He helps you ride out your orgasm until your body begins shaking with aftershocks. He lifts your face to look at him, his features soft. “How are you feeling?”

You can’t help but pull him in for another kiss, he’s shocked but returns it. You pull away looking up at him, pupils dilated and your voice coming out shy, “I want more.”

“Are you sure?” He asks slowly.

You nod your head, “Please.”

He hums, lifting you off of him so he can get up to check his counter for protection. You sit on the mattress waiting for him to find it, growing shyer as the seconds pass.

“I’ll go check upstairs for one, I’m sure Yuta’s got some lying around.” He states, “I’ll be back quickly okay?”

You nod your head, he steps out of the room to go look. You lift the blanket to cover your face, realization of the events hitting you. You were glad nobody was in the room so you could have time to blush over how good you felt.

You heard foot steps approach the door, assuming Mark had found Yuta’s pack of condoms. “Come in!”

Mark opens the door, looking tense. “We gotta go, police showed up crashing the party. Everyone has to leave.”

You both make it to your front door, out of breath for semi running the entire trip home. His hand never left yours throughout the trip and it doesn’t leave yours now. You can’t help but fidget with his fingers that you’ve only now noticed are so much bigger than yours.

“I wonder what tipped them off.” You say referring to the way the police had shut down the party.

“Something about a curfew, no parties for the time being.” He shrugs. “Listen y/n.”

Your fingers don’t stop tracing his palm as you await his sentence. “How about we hang out soon like a date?”

“Oh!” Your hands stop, taken aback by his unabashed state.

He continues, linking his hand into your own. “I’m more than just interested in you, and i’d like to show you that.”

You offer a measly smile. “I’d really like that.”

His answer’s coy. “Great, I’ll see you next time then yeah?”

You nod, he releases your hand beginning to walk away. “Bye Mark.”

“Goodnight Y/N.”

You ran into your home closing the door behind you hoping he didn’t notice your bashfulness as you bid him farewell. You bite your lip to calm yourself down, letting out a squeal of excitement.

A ring coming from the kitchen pulls you out of your cheerful state. You head towards the phone picking it up as it’s on the last ring.

“Yuqi? Minnie? DId you guys get home safe?”

The line is silent until you make out a strangled scream through the phone. You instantly drop it, beginning to panic. You hear muffled wheezing through the phone, choosing to pick it up again.

“Who the fuck is this? Is this the same number as before?” Your voice comes out horror-struck. “What the fuck do you want.”

The voice comes out restrained, “You.”

The line goes dead. You hear a knock on the door, grabbing a knife from the counter top and hugging it to your chest. The knocking gets louder, the doorknob twisting.

“Please just leave me alone!” You cry out.

“Y/N, it’s me. Please just open the door.” Marks voice rings out.

You run towards the door unlocking it and letting him in. He picks the knife out of your hands tossing it to the side and pulling you into his arms. You aren’t sure when you began hysterically crying but his embrace helped soothe you.

“What happened baby, talk to me.” You take in a breath, looking over to the phone.

“They won’t stop calling. I don’t know who it is or what they want from me.” You struggle to speak.

“Hey hey it’s okay.” He holds onto you tighter, “I’m here okay?”

Your sobs dwindle, your breathing becoming more steady.

“Do you want me to stay?” He asks.

You shake your head, “I don’t want to be here, not right now.”

He contemplates for a moment, “Would you want to stay at my place for tonight then?”

You nod your head, wiping your tears from your face.

“Please.”

You take in the place, it’s empty besides the couch and TV in the living room and a few plants scattered around. The house smells oddly clean, which wasn’t something you expected from a college man but you weren’t going to complain.

“You can take a seat i’ll get you a water.” He says pointing at the velvet couch in the corner of the living room.

“Thank you.” You smile, taking a seat. It’s pretty comfortable for being a living room couch, you decide you can stick to sleeping there tonight. Leaving early tomorrow so you won’t cause any disturbance.

You look to the wall, a clock hangs on it reading 2:30am. You wonder if Yuqi or Minnie made it home earlier, hoping that none of them ended up in a jail cell tonight.

Mark appears in front of you, a glass of water in his hand. “Here you go,” He offers. You accept the glass taking it out of his hands.

He takes a seat next to you, offering some distance so you can sit comfortably. You chug down half of the water, setting it down beside you onto the floor.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” He asks with a soft tone as if to not scare you.

“It’s everything I said before, I just feel very paranoid these days.” You shake your head, “I keep getting this weird feeling, I feel like someone’s been stalking me.”

His eyes go wide, “Do you know who?”

You let out a sigh, “I haven’t seen anyone, I just feel in my gut like something bad is going to happen if it hasn’t already.” He remains silent allowing you space to explain.

“I never told anyone this, but I keep having like a weird sense of deja vu. I remember so clearly that around this time five years back there was always this same feeling, like I was being followed or watched in every corner.”

You release a shaky breath, “I don’t know why but I think this person whoever he is. I feel like he wants me next.”

Mark breaks his silence, “The Vestal killer?”

“I think so.”

“That can’t be the case right? The police said he must’ve disappeared when he could after the murders right?”

You shrug, “I don’t know if that’s true. All I know is someone has been using me as a pawn in their game for the past weeks.”

“You’re right,” He responds. “Do you want to talk to Yuqi or Minnie maybe? Maybe they might have had the same feeling?”

You nod in agreement, “Yeah okay, can I borrow your phone please?”

“Of course, it’s in my room first door to your left.” You thank him before heading through the hallway into his room.

You pick up the phone beginning to dial in Yuqi’s number, there’s no answer. You try giving another attempt this time to Minnie’s number, she doesn’t pick up. You opt for sending a message to Minnie’s pager, glad you happened to remember to carry yours with you tonight.

911.

You hear Mark’s footsteps approaching, opening the door to check on you.

“None of them picked up, i’m hoping they’re not in jail or something.”

Mark chuckles, “I doubt it, I got a call from Yuta. He ran out with Minnie before the cops showed up.”

“Wow, glad to know they were having fun while shit hit the fan.” You reply sarcastically.

“They wouldn’t be the only ones.” Mark teases, referring to the events that took place between the two of you moments before the party was crashed.

You blush at the memory. “I don’t believe I recall, mind reminding me?”

He offers a coy smile, approaching you slowly. “You sure you don’t remember?” He closes the distance between you two, his arms locking you in between him and the counter.

Like muscle memory, you wrap your legs around his waist, pulling him closer. “Not at all, You going to try and jog my memory?”

He contemplates for a moment, “I’ll make sure you don’t forget again.” He says before leaning in for a brutal kiss.

His mouth tastes sweet, youd guess it’s from the halloween candy you noticed on his counter earlier. You grip his arms pulling him closer to lick and taste all over his mouth.

His arms find their way around your waist pulling you even closer to him if that’s possible. You begin to feel the growing bulge against you, disconnecting yourself from the kiss to suck on his neck instead.

He lets out a gasp, feeling your hands find their way down to his bulge and palming it through his pants.

“Fuck– I thought you said you’d never done this before.”

“I haven’t.”

He pulls in closer to your neck, whispering directly into your ear. “Then how is it that you’re already so perfect for me.”

You suck in a breath, your neck sensitive to his touch. He takes advantage of your position, biting down into your neck. It’s not enough to draw blood but enough to get you to release a moan.

He pulls your dress from off of you, your body shivering from the exposed air. “You’re beautiful.” He says, pulling you in for another kiss.

Your body feels on fire, the pleasure is only building up making you want more. You undo his belt, your hand pushing into his pants to grab onto his dick.

He lets out a groan, pulling you up from the counter and onto his bed instead. He pulls away, lying you down on the flat surface. “Tell me now if you don’t want to go any further.”

There’s no way in hell you were going to stop anytime soon. “Let’s finish what we started.”

He took his shirt off, and you took in a breath. His body was toned, his chest and collarbones looked perfect to leave bruises and bites all over.

“Take them off.” He growled. You began to unclasp your bra, your chest falling free. He falls to his knees, tugging your legs closer to him. His head in between your thighs.

You can feel his breath on your cunt, “Fuck baby your pussy is soaking already.”

You gasp, feeling his knuckle begin to trace your slit. “Markie please.” You plead for him to touch.

“Please what baby? Use your words.”

“Please touch me.”

The second the words leave your lips, you feel his mouth on you. You yelp, his mouth connecting straight to your clit, sucking onto it roughly. He eats you out with the same harshness he kisses you with. You can’t complain though, not when his mouth makes you feel like you’ve reached the gates of heaven.

The wet sound of him eating you out only adds to your arousal. You can’t help but squirm, his arms keep you from moving too much though. “Careful baby, i’m trying to feed here.”

His tongue begins fuck into your pussy, pulling a loud moan from you. You cover your mouth to muffle the sounds as much as possible. He pulls away, you whine at the loss of contact.

“Don’t hide your noises, I want to hear how loud you get when I make you cum.” You uncover your mouth as he gets back to work, this time focusing on sucking your clit. Your hips roll feeling your orgasm fast approaching.

“Markie please don’t stop” You beg.

You feel two fingers slide into your pussy, the stretch feels so good. You roll your hips chasing your climax. The stimulation from his fingers penetrating you leave you breathless. You repeat his name over and over like a mantra.

“Markie please I want to cum. Please let me cum.”

With one last thrust of his fingers and a suck on your clit you reach your high, your eyes seeing white. He draws out your orgasm, stopping only when you hiss at the overstimulation.

You let out a breath, looking him in his eyes as he begins to undresses himself. He grabs the condom from the drawer and pulls his cock out of his boxers.

You can’t help but stare right at him, your mouth watering at the sight of his long and thick cock. There was a large vein that ran through it, his tip glowing red. You weren’t experienced but you’d seen films before, and his looked like one straight out of a porno.

He gives it a few pumps before tearing open the packaging and wrapping it around his shaft. “We’re not done yet.”

You feel him lay over you, lining his cock with your entrance. He looks to you before pushing inside, “Are you ready?” You nod. “Yes.”

He pushes himself into you, taking breaks in between to help you catch your breath. “Relax baby, god you’re so fucking tight.”

His dick looked big, but it felt even larger. You felt a slight pain as he slowly pushed himself fully in. “Fuck– Mark you’re so big.”

“It’s okay baby, it’s almost fully inside.” You nod your head, your eyes closing wishing for him to just get on with it.

His dick pushes inside you once again pulling a gasp from you. You swear you can feel it in your stomach.

“That’s it baby.” You open your eye to look down and see his hips connecting to yours, he’s bottomed out. He tests a small thrust and you let out a moan.

“Markie, you can fuck me already.” Your words are enough to snap him back into his lustful self. He starts a slow and steady pace, thrusting into you.

You let out a few noises, tears beginning to line your eyes. He notices, wiping your face with his hand. “Please kiss me.” He leans into you, kissing you gently.

You close your eyes into the kiss, feeling his lips suck your own. You pull away, a moan escaping your lips once he hits your sweet spot. “There– right there.”

He quickens his pace, pistoling his cock attacking your g-spot. Your legs wrapping around his waist, to keep him from pulling any further away from you.

“I’m close–“ You let out, his thrusts getting quicker and stronger.

“Me too.” He groans. His fingers slipping to your sensitive bud, rubbing circles making you scream in pleasure. With the next few thrusts you feel your body convulse, clenching down on him. Your nails scratch down his arms, he hisses at the sting. You reach your second climax of the night, your legs shaking from the aftershocks.

He lets out growl, the feeling of your climax triggering his own. With one last thrust, he’s finishing into the condom. He pulls out of you, you let out a whine at the feeling.

He disposes of the condom, pulling a blanket over the both of you and wrapping his arms around your body.

“I don’t think I can work my legs anymore.” You joke, closing your eyes and catching your breath.

He laughs and pulls you in closer, “That’s okay, you’re all mine now so you have no use for them anyway.”

You let out an awkward laugh. His joke coming out a bit empty. You have no time to comment on it before you feel your eyes begin to shut on their own.

You wake up the next morning bed empty. You remember the events of last night, pulling the covers over your head to hide your embarrassment. The shower is running from what sounds like the room over.

Mark is showering, I should probably go join him.

You smile to yourself and try getting up from the bed, your legs wobbly.

Oh fuck.

You slowly and carefully try walking out of the room, finding the TV on from the living room.

“After days of searching, two bodies have been found early this morning by Velvet lake. No suspects have been identified as of now, though police have said a mask was found at the crime scene.” You inhale sharply at the mask on the TV.

No, it can’t be.

“Halloween festivities have began despite police efforts to ensure proper curfew. The mask found, one of Michael Myers, will be hard to trace back, as the costume happens to be a popular one.”

You stand frozen, hearing the words repeat in your head.

There’s no way it was Mark, he was here the whole time last night.

“This just in, the bodies are presumed to be missing persons Jung Sungchan and Choi Minjae. They were discovered only an hour ago, police reporting it’s possible they could’ve just missed the killer.”

Your breath catches in your throat. Mark woke earlier than you, is it possible he’s showering now to get rid of the evidence. You begin to slowly make your way towards the bedroom to make a phone call.

You dial Minnie, praying to any god that she picks up. There’s no answer. You let out a frustrated sigh, redialing to try and see if it’ll work this time.

Come on Minnie, pick up.

The shower stops. You panic, leaving the phone on the counter and slowly stepping out of the room to leave the house. It’s as you turn the corner that you hear a click from another room.

You turn to the room on the right, finding the door slightly ajar and squeezing through it. You hear another sound of clicking coming from below the steps.

You tiptoe down the steps, finding the room filled with field tools and rope scattered everywhere. It isn’t until you turn the corner that your eyes are filled with horror.

You spot a familiar figure tied to a chair, repeatedly hitting his watch against the seat making a clicking noise. You let out a gasp, his eyes finding your own in pure terror.

Hyungseo? What the fuck was he doing here tied up.

You head over to him pulling the rope from his mouth. “Y/N you have to leave now.”

“What are you talking about.” You whisper, beginning to untie his hands.

“He is insane. You have to leave now it’s not safe.”

“I’m not going to leave you here for yourself.” You dismiss his words. “Come on we’re going.”

His hands are tied with a rope, you lean down to try and undo the knot, not finding success in tugging. “Y/N?” You hear from upstairs. Your eyes go wide at his voice calling you.

You stand, putting a finger over your mouth gesturing for Hyungseo to keep silent. In the corner of your eye you notice the wall of tools again, grabbing a sickle from off of it.

You can hear Mark’s footsteps closely approaching. You cover your mouth and hold in your breath hoping he doesn’t notice you. The door closes from up the stairs. You take in a breath before standing from your hiding place.

“There you are.” His voice comes out from behind you. You jump walking backwards as he steps forward. “Was looking all over for you little fox.”

You can barely let out any words, “What the fuck is this. Why is Hyungseo here.”

He looks genuinely appalled at your question, “What do you mean what is this? It’s all for you.”

“What?” You speak in a whisper.

“I did this for you.” He says stepping closer. “These guys are nothing compared to you, their perverted minds thinking they could ever please you the way you need.”

You hit the wall, sucking in a breath as his hand cups your face. “You’re so pure y/n I had to make sure they wouldn’t get in the way of that.”

His thumb traces your lips, you turn your face away. “That’s not what I want. You’re hurting innocent people.”

“It’s what you need y/n. It’s a shame you can’t see that.”

He pulls away, grabbing onto your wrist that’s holding the sickle. He takes it from your grip throwing it off to the side. “Was that for me? You think i’d let that happen?”

“Leave me alone,” You feel a tear roll down your cheek. “Please.”

“Hey,” He wipes your face. “I’m not going to hurt you baby. I’m protecting you.”

He walks over to where Hyungseo sits, “From him.” He pulls a knife from his pocket, “These fuckers.”

“Don’t hurt him please. Come on let’s talk about this.” You step to the side, closer to the tools on the wall.

“There’s nothing to talk about y/n. He doesn’t deserve to even breathe your air.” He drags the knife against Hyungseo’s throat. You hear the man cry out from fear.

“These men surround themselves around you hoping for a chance to take you for themselves.” He punctures his arm, Hyungseo screaming from the injury.

“Mark stop.” You grab a screwdriver from the wall, hiding it behind your back. “Please just let him go, I’ll stay with you just don’t hurt anyone else.”

He stops, looking into your eye. “I’m not asking for you to stay with me forever, that’d be unfair to you.” He frowns stepping closer to you, “I love you y/n. I’m doing this for your own good.”

You shake your head, “You’re doing this because you’re fucking insane.” He lets out a cold laugh, “If that’s what you think so be it, but I know what you need.”

“You don’t know shit.” You say, grabbing the screwdriver from your pocket and shoving it through his abdomen.

“Fuck–“ He grips his side, you push him away running to where Hyungseo sits, cutting him free from the rope. “You want to play it like this? Really babe.”

“Fuck you, i’m not your babe.” He grabs onto your hair pulling you closer to him with one hand. “I already did.”

You knock your elbow into his wound, escaping from his hold as soon as his hand lets you go. “Hurry.” Hyungseo says from up the stairs, grabbing onto your hand and helping you run up further.

You both run through the hallway, Mark close behind. “You have to go. I’ll call for help.”

“I’m not going to leave you here.”

“Go,” You warn him sternly, “I’ll hold him back.”

“I’ll look for help.” He says before running out of the door. You pick up the phone from his room dialing 911. The phone line is dead.

“You really think i’m that stupid to leave the phone connected?” You jolt from his sudden appearance. “Just leave it alone y/n if we leave now we will catch him in time. His leg is pretty bruised he won’t be able to make it so far.”

“Don’t do this please.”

“I think i’ve told you already, I’m doing this for your own good.”

His hands smoother your face, the blood left on them transferring to your face. “That’s exactly why I got rid of Sungchan, he strayed too close. He knew you were mine and yet he couldn’t hold himself back so I had to take him out.”

“No.” You cry.

“And Jihoon, he was all you ever looked at. You were falling right into his trap, into his temptations.”

“Then what about Minjae, huh?” You yell out, “He never wanted me he wanted Yuqi.”

His smile was deranged, “Honestly he was just fucking annoying.”

You shake your head, tears streaming down your face. Your body shaking in fear. “You’re evil.”

“I’m your executioner.” He looks into your eyes. There’s no more of that sweet Mark you knew before. His entire being is unhinged. He hears a sound coming from the front door, becoming distracted for a second.

You take that moment to reach for the lamp on the desk and breaking it on his head, setting yourself free from his hold. He’s stunned for a moment as you run towards the kitchen grabbing a knife from the counter.

“Get away from me!” You scream out, he stands in front of you, his head bleeding from the hit he took. “Put the knife down.”

You shake your head, “I said get away!” He puts his hands up. “Y/n you’re acting crazy, put the knife down.”

“I’m crazy?” You scream, “You’ve killed people.”

He ignores you, stepping closer. “Which is exactly why I know, you don’t have it in you. So just drop the knife.”

You pause for a moment, frozen in fear. He takes that chance to reach for your hand and grab the knife out of it. What he doesn’t realize is that you are quicker than you seem, you dodge his movement stabbing the knife through his back.

He turns slowly, blood dripping from his mouth. “Fuck, you always were smarter than anyone ever took you for.” He drops to the floor, unconscious giving you the time to run out of the house.

You’re running with blood all over your clothes. The knife is still in your hand, piercing through your palms but even the sting isn’t enough to shake off the adrenaline in your body. You can hear voices calling out to you but you can’t stop running.

It isn’t til you feel a pair of hands grabbing onto you that you stop running. “Y/N.” You break out of your thoughts, your brother’s voice stopping you in your tracks.

“Inhyuk,” You let out a shaky breath. “What are you doing here.”

“I came here as soon as I heard, you need to calm down okay? We’re here to help you.”

You look around noticing the police and paramedics parked outside of the house. Some making their way towards you already. You look at your brother finally caving into his hold and sobbing into his shoulder.

“It’s okay, I’m here.”

“Did he mention any other victims?” You shake your head, the officer had been asking you questions for the past fifteen minutes but you could barely answer. You sat on the back of the ambulance, the paramedics checking you to make sure you had no major injuries.

Hyungseo was rushed to the hospital already, they said his injuries could be fatal if not treated quickly. You had a feeling he was going to be okay though.

There was no word on the state of Mark, and you weren’t sure if you even wanted to know. It was hard enough to face the officer right now. “Can you give her a moment, she can always head to the station if she had any more details.” You hear your brother’s voice interject the officer.

“Oh yes, of course.” He steps away from the two of you walking over to where the sheriff stands. You were thankful for Inhyuk’s help, the last thing you needed was to be reminded of the amount of victims Mark had killed all for you.

“Mom just got here, i’m going to go talk to her okay?” You nod, “I’ll be right back.” He says, still very worried about your condition.

“You’re okay. You might experience some soreness and pain but your blood pressure is fine.” The paramedic says while removing the cuff around your arm. “I’ll give you a moment to yourself.”

He walks always leaving you alone. Your breaths become less frantic, you look up from your hands and into the house in front of you. You remember the way you’d fought Mark off, the police wondering how it was that you’d been able to escape with little to no injuries.

You didn’t have it in you to explain everything. Not the way he had told you that you were his motive for killing, or the way you’d had to stab him multiple times before running out successfully.

There’d be a time for when you’d come clean about everything, and you were fine with that. Except for one.

You had felt a rush the moment you stabbed him with the screwdriver. It was different from any adrenaline rush, no this was a rush of excitement. Then the second time, when you saw him drop to the floor, his eyes rolling into his head unconscious, you’d felt it again.

You enjoyed the way his warm blood dripped down your hands, the way he let in a sharp inhale the second you punctured his back. You loved the way it felt to see him half dead on the ground, and that was something you’d be taking to the grave.

343 notes · View notes

sicksadgames · 6 months ago

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As the Sun Forever Sets - Terror in the time of the Telegraph

It’s nuts I’ve been working on this game for over 4 years at this point. As the Sun Forever Sets is for sure my biggest and most capital G Game. It even has a publisher and everything. It’s also my first game! Wow! It's been tough, though. We'll get into it!

Britain, 1899

As the Sun Forever Sets is a survival horror sandbox based on the War of the Worlds, utilises the Forged in the Dark ruleset, and is about ordinary people surviving a Martian invasion of Victorian era Britain. We play to find out how they rise to meet the storm of destruction, the ways in which it shapes them, and if they survive to see a new world emerge, or die amidst the rubble of the old.

In the last years of Queen Victoria’s reign, the British Empire stretches across a quarter of the globe, and under the guise of genteel progress and civilisation, it commits theft and murder on a global scale. Britain itself is on the verge of the modern era, the Second Industrial Revolution pushing people into the cities to drive the factories and forges owned by the greedy industrialist class. But beyond the common causes of humanity and unbeknownst to the men who impose their rule over it, vast wheels have begun their inexorable turning. Across 40 million miles of void, the Martian invasion hurtles Earthward. Screaming across the stars, instruments of annihilation unlike anything believed possible lie ready for assembly, alongside the Martians themselves. They are truly inscrutable beings, but their intent is as clear as it is terrible – they will suck the literal and figurative blood from the Earth, and nothing less than the complete and utter subjugation of humanity will be enough.

If this sounds cool to you... well, you gotta wait, it’s not done yet. Sorry! But you can come and hang out in the Sick Sad Games discord, where I post excerpts and occasionally organise playtests.

The Hard Times of (Old) England

Be warned, this is a long one - over 4000 words (if you don't have a Tumblr account, you won't get to the end before it starts bugging you to register one, so go read this on Medium instead.) It turns out when you work on a game for a long time, you have a lot to say about it. Strap in, grab your gin and laudanum, and let’s destroy an evil empire just by existing.

Thanks to the wonderful @hendrik-ten-napel for taking a look over my disorganised thoughts.

(Potential) Spoilers for: The Bear, The War of the Worlds, The Last of Us, Children of Men, Threads, When the Wind Blows, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, The Thing.

Roleplay in the Pre-Post-Apocalypse

TTRPGs love a good post apocalypse. It's understandable - gas up and ride glorious on the legally distinct fury road, run a commune of like minded weirdos in the ashes of the old world, go digging through retro-futuristic ruins to find retro-futuristic treasures. Who wouldn't want to do any of these? But As the Sun Forever Sets is about an apocalypse as it begins, not after it’s over.

There's a lot of crossover, of course. There’s a focus on similar things - disaster and spectacle, relationships and trust, scavenging and survival. But the bonus of the world not yet being over, is that we get to roleplay out dealing with that terrible, inexorable reality.

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HG Wells wrote a book about blowing up all the places he used to live, and it's a banger. I was surprised to find there wasn't a TTRPG based on the War of the Worlds, being the tantalisingly public domain ur-alien invasion story it is. As the Sun Forever Sets is very explicitly an adaption of it, to the point that before I came up with the name it almost got released as The War of the Worlds: The Roleplaying Game (lol). I'm glad I didn't, doing my own thing has meant both me and the people playing are way more free to fuck around without the expectation that it must adhere to a canon.

The book is good, strikingly modern feeling in parts, and obviously massively influential - so much science fiction can be traced back to our nameless Narrators tormentuous trek across the south of England. But Wells’ prose is typical Victorian - overly wordy and florid (any book that contains the word “ejaculating” meaning “to shout” might be difficult for readers who aren’t used to the style), so when it comes to recommending an actual adaptation, there’s only one true king. Whenever I bring up Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds, the usual reaction from anyone outside of the UK is to say "... they made a what?"

My mom was very keen to get me into musicals, but nothing really stuck until she tried this, the secret best War of the Worlds adaption (sorry Steven Spielberg, but you were doomed from the start.) It's the bombast and drama you'd expect from a disaster film, the horror and pathos of Wells’ classic, all expressed through vivid narration and sick nasty prog rock - wailing guitar and crunchy 70's synths operating at full effect. It's not completely faithful to the book, it doesn't matter. It’s the best.

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Ah yes, the film bro's favourite mid 2000's film. Did you see that sick oner? That’s six minutes without a cut, that means the film’s good right? Children of Men is a slow burn apocalypse, dressed up like a world that’s already ended. Plenty has been written about all the little ways the film is prescient about the state of the UK - the slow belly-crawl into facism and nationalist fervour, the particularly British decay and class divide exacerbated by the desperate times, even the willful ignorance and the explicit sense that everyone’s just given up, it’s all here.

All that thematic stuff seems like it’d be really relevant to As the Sun Forever Sets, right?

Unfortunately, we are in fact here to talk about the long takes. The unbroken moment-to-moment action scenes evoke The War of the Worlds to a tee. Theo navigates danger with the same fraught tactical tension as War of the World's Narrator - dashing between doorways, groping for an axe handle in the darkness, desperately trying to start a car as assailants sprint towards him. What’s the best way out of this situation? How do I get from here to where I need to be? He lives his life in rolling, fleeting 5 second intervals, because he’s forgotten what it means to think in the long term - about the future, and what it might hold.

I was always fascinated and terrified by the idea of nuclear war. I guess it comes from watching a lot of 90’s disaster movies, but those are often ultimately fun romps where the day gets saved at the end, or at least the main characters find themselves alive and well at the end of the saga of destruction. Instead, As the Sun Forever Sets asks you to reflect on the horror and sadness present at the end of the world. Things are going to change forever, and change is always hard.

There’s not many clips of Threads and When the Wind Blows online, so it’s a little hard to demonstrate their particular nuclear inflected pitch black darkness. They’re grim - Grave of the Fireflies grim - differing in focus but united in their horrible impact.

When the Wind Blows is a story of an elderly couple living in rural England when the bombs drop, based on the comic by Raymond Briggs. Yes, The Snowman’s Raymond Briggs made a film about 2 lovely grandparents dying of acute radiation poisoning. Jim and Hilda are completely unprepared for what’s to come, their only reference is the Blitz - terrible in its own way, but not a patch on the scale of death they’re about to experience.

They survive the blast and wait for the good old British Government to arrive to save them, as it did in the 40’s. Slowly liquifying in the nuclear fallout, they hold onto each other and keep their spirits up, eventually making the decision to clamber into the paper sacks they mistakenly believed might protect them from the blast. Clutching their medical cards and birth certificates (for the ambulance, sure to be along any minute now), Jim mumbles painfully through a final prayer that morphs into a misremembered Charge of the Light Brigade, and they slip into a perpetual slumber together.

The most tragic part is Jim and Hilda’s unshakeable faith that their government is there for them - ready to catch them when they fall - borne out of Britain’s post WW2 renewal but absent in the 1980’s of the film’s plot, and the Britain of today. It’s a masterful film, shockingly sad, but the shock is the point.

Instead of aiming for your heart, Threads aims for the head. It’s a drama that aims to be as accurate as possible to government research into what a nuclear war might look like, plainly and forensically setting it out without any thought of softening these hard facts for its audience. Rather than focusing on a personal story, Threads flits around several groups of characters - minor government figures and ordinary families. Like Jim and Hilda, they too are woefully unprepared for the end of the world, and those in charge know there’s no way the UK could ever be ready for such a thing.

As mundane life is quietly intruded upon by news updates detailing far off geopolitics and the subsequent escalation that leads to war, the tension rises subtly then suddenly, like a spacecraft on the launchpad. People we’ve seen pottering about their normal lives are maimed and evaporated in the subsequent shocking nuclear exchange, whilst stark statistics flash on the screen - the hundreds of thousands instantly killed, how long the millions more fatally irradiated have left to live, the woefully inadequate tonnage of stockpiled food to feed those who survive. Each zero hits like a gutpunch.

And when you think the film must nearly be over, it keeps going. 1 week later. 1 year later. Threads grinds to an excruciating halt 13 years after the bombs fall, after year upon year of failed harvests from a destroyed earth barely able to support a population level equivalent to medieval Britain. At one point, mute children watch a warped and scratchy VHS of classic kids educational programme Words and Pictures on a TV powered by a steam generator.

The friendly presenter spells out the word “cat” through the thick veil of static, accompanied by a picture of one - an animal the children watching will likely never see. As they watch with blank, emotionless faces, the image of the cat fades to one of its skeletal form. “A cat’s skeleton” the presenter enthusiastically intones. The unrelenting bleakness might feel like a punishment, but Threads doesn’t mean it to be. This is just what would happen, after all.

Love in the time of the Heat-ray

In fact, someone in a Reddit thread said As the Sun Forever Sets “wasn’t just endless misery” and I’m glad that comes across. I wanted there to be moments of tenderness, quiet joy, anger, frustration, love and loss to punctuate the action and the horror.

People are messy and complicated even at the best of times. Under pressure, this is amplified a thousandfold - a little crush becomes a whirlwind romance, small disagreements become full blown fights, and not fully understanding someone might transform them into an enemy in your head.

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The little town Bill conspires to be left alone in ends up comparatively untouched by the horrors going on elsewhere, as untouched as anywhere can be in The Last of Us. He hated the world anyways - so he isolates himself as he prepares for it to end, and it makes sense that his life only really begins as the show does. When Frank arrives, Bill is forced not to just engage with the broader world outside of his little enclave, but in the act of truly living in it.

There’s no prepper’s guide to romance. A human heart can’t be field stripped for maintenance. By choosing to exist as a vulnerable, emotional being, Bill opens himself up to a different kind of apocalypse. Frank becomes the flowering vines that slowly crack the flat concrete wall of a world that Bill created, and when those vines die, the wall can only crumble. It’s so fraught and lovely, delicately yet absolutely gut wrenching. At least their apocalypse was one they decided to have together.

“I’m old. I’m satisfied. And you… were my purpose.” - "Long Long Time”, The Last of Us

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While several of my TTRPG writing friends were gushing about how great The Bear is, Em Acosta, author of the wonderfully inspirational Exile pointed out something super interesting - a lot of the show is about how you deal with people you’ve found yourself stuck with. No matter how much they piss you off, or whatever they do wrong, there’s something that means you can’t ever let them truly exit your life. They’re there, like it or not, until the bitter end.

Turns out this is very similar to how As the Sun Forever Sets handles Player Character relationships. In both it and The Bear, nothing’s ever truly resolved between characters - every relationship is like a cooking pot perpetually simmering. You might’ve apologised, made a truce, or just ignored your issues for so long that they seem to disappear, but no matter what, you’ve got to keep your eye on that pot.

Because suddenly a crisis will hit, and someone says something, or a diceroll comes up bad and all of a sudden the pot boils over and things are once again fucked. You storm out, start screaming, throw a fork. Even in the worst case scenario where a Character leaves because they’re absolutely sick of the rest of the group, they might show up at the end of the game for one last scene. Who knows how you’ll all feel at the end - nothing is ever truly fixed, and only the dead are truly broken.

“I quit, chef, is what’s going on. You are an excellent chef. You are also a piece of shit. This isn’t on me. Goodbye." - “The Review”, The Bear

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I’ve talked about The Thing a little before, John Carpenters sweaty, paranoid antarctic masterpiece. Along with the incredible effects and the (mostly) restrained use of action and bombast, the thing that makes... The Thing work is that the staff of the stricken research base lack any and all emotional intelligence.

It’s sort of the ultimate reverse Dudes Rock movie. Nobody knows anything about each other, so when their bodies and minds are colonised by the titular chameleon from outer space, they’re just another stranger to the rest of the crew. I’d ask you a question only you would know the answer to, but uh.. I don’t know anything about you. Whoops!

Over the course of the film, the whole operation falls apart as they try their best to work together to deal with the alien interloper, but their complete lack of ability to trust or relate to each other - present even before the crisis they find themselves in - is their ultimate downfall.

That final excellent shot of MacReady and Childs sat in the snow at the end of the film as their compound burns around them is the subject of a lot of unnecessary theorycrafting youtube videos, which kind of misses the point. Each suspects the other, but ultimately it doesn’t matter if one of them’s a Thing. One stranger is the same as another. Why bother getting to know each other now?

“Well...What do we do?” “Why don't we just... wait here for a little while? See what happens.” - Childs and Macready, The Thing

Science Fiction Revenge Fantasy

I’m not a historian, but the parallels between 1899 and now are pretty plain to see. Increasing class disparity, a lack of political will to help those in need, rampant cronyism and profiteering. As long as you’re in the place for it, roleplaying in a fictionalised version of the past to air out the issues of the present can be super fun and cathartic. You’re not expected to get a degree in British history to make it work, either.

The title is a play on the phrase “The Sun Never Set on the British Empire”, and it’s plainly stated in the book that Britains Empire acted as a mechanism of genocidal oppression, and that the Martians are here to end it - intentionally or not. It’s appealing as a premise on the face of it, but it goes a little deeper. Memories of Empire echo across time in Britain like the ringing of a malevolent bell, a cause celebre for braying Tories and fascistic right wing cunts (two very close circles in the venn diagram.)

We used to be a great country before this woke nonsense. Things were better back in the old days. The DEI contingent is trying to destroy our noble past. Yada yada yada, fuck offff. I’m sure someone somewhere will accuse me of “wokewashing” the past for including explicitly trans and queer characters as part of the book, along with the historical facts around how we fit into the oppressive Victorian conception of sex and gender. Unfortunately for them, we’ve always been here.

To be a little pretentious about it, every game of As the Sun Forever Sets reaches back into the past and cuts the myth of a glorious and benevolent Empire, and the good old days enjoyed within it off at the neck, purely in the act of beginning one. That sparks a little joy for me. Destroying a racists dream is fun, even if it’s only in the abstract.

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A horror game about the most literalist Victorian industrialist imaginable hearing the phrase “Eat the rich” and getting right on that. I’ve not played Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs despite fond (??) memories of playing The Dark Descent in a room full of jumpy friends, and seeing Dear Esther played live on stage, with a live orchestra and narrator - an exquisite way to experience that game.

The mechanical chops of Frictional Games mixed with the narrative verve of The Chinese Room, how could this game be anything less than incredible?

After The Dark Descent I fell off’ve the “scary guy chases you around” genre of game until Alien: Isolation revitalised it, and the reviews of A Machine for Pigs were mixed - kind of boring, middling gameplay, too dark - so I never went back. I was planning on writing a little about its vibe - dark, gothic Victoriana that rhymes nicely with As the Sun Forever Sets - but after a bit of research, Mandus’ quest for his missing sons strikes an unexpectedly resonant and terrible chord.

The writing and voice acting is phenomenal, Mandus’ split consciousness - the self you play and the other half of him that’s seen the horrors of the forthcoming 20th Century and is compelled to act, imbued into the myopic machine he built - is extremely compelling. He feels compassion for the poor and wants to save them, but they fill him with fear and disgust. He knows the industrialist class is killing the world, but feels a deep shame in the fact that he counts himself amongst them. So his machine grinds the rich into meat for the poor, who it distorts into grotesque pig homunculi and forces them to operate the machine’s inscrutable workings.

It’s Mandus’ twisted way of saving the world - kill the rich for their crimes, enslave the poor for their own good, all hail the new machine/god/manager of the 20th century. It’s a neat reflection of the way modern politicians contort themselves to the whims of big business and AI snake oil salesmen to avoid doing the simple and obvious things that’d better the world. It’s a nightmarish refutation of Victorian Liberalism, that only the upper class know how to fix the problems of the lower class. It’s brilliant, and we should play it.

"Do you hear me Mandus? This is what you planned! This world is a machine! A Machine for Pigs! Fit only for the slaughtering of pigs! Whores, beggars, orphans, filthy degenerates. Pigs all. But I will purify the streets, cleanse this city, set the great industry free. I will clean the world, make it pure." - The Machine, A Machine for Pigs

Song of the Year, of the Century

Not long after I came out as trans, I was asked what (in an ideal world) would make transition easier. I replied - never having to leave the house. One day I'd shut the front door as a man and another day, months or years later, I'd open it again as a woman, neatly sidestepping the terror of being perceived in a notoriously transphobic Britain.

In 2020 I shut that door and didn't open it for 4 months. At work, I remember calling the nearby shelter to donate our excess hand sanitizer and toilet roll, figuring out at the last second how support workers could take calls from their already isolated clients via their mobile phones, and fixating on the steady stream of scared coworkers leaving early. Tearfully, I felt the urge to hug those that remained as we locked up, before we remembered we probably shouldn't.

I've never been more aware of the minutia of moving through a space on the way home - How many people had their hands on this handrail? Have I touched my mouth or eyes without realising? Is anyone in the office already sick? Or on this train? How many more people are going to die? - My heart was in my chest, I heard the blood whoosh through my head to the beat of my steps on the pavement. At home, I realised my boyfriend had to go into work the next day. After he went to sleep, terrified he might die, I cried.

"I remember I felt an extraordinary persuasion that I was being played with, that presently, when I was upon the very verge of safety, this mysterious death—as swift as the passage of light—would leap after me from the pit about the cylinder, and strike me down." - "The Heat Ray", The War of the Worlds

Writing As the Sun Forever Sets was my way of coping with the disconnect with the world I felt, the fear of both Covid and the rising transphobia kept me inside even as the lockdowns eased. That feeling of throbbing death creeping at the window took a long time to wrestle under control, and getting deeply obsessed with a big project became part of that process. It seems incredibly maudlin to make a TTRPG dealing with darkness and death during a pandemic that killed (and continues to kill) millions of people, but I suppose I’m kind of a maudlin person.

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“I haven't written a song in a month, So I'm playing the same chords again. I know I need to get lost in the moment, But I get lost before it begins. Fingers stretching out into space. Reaching as a thought slips away.”

It also burnt me the fuck out. After years of constant work and testing (beginning long before Evil Hat picked up the game), I ran out of steam. I spent the months after Evil Hat’s public playtest ended not really able to write anything ATSFS related at all. The game kind of froze - I knew what I wanted to change or fix or add, but the moment the google doc opened I couldn’t make myself start typing. It was incredibly frustrating to have the switch flip from endless obsessive writing to constant nothing, and I don’t think I truly recognised the burnout I was feeling until recently. It turns out spending years staying up past midnight writing is bad, who know!

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A lot of Forged in the Dark games don’t get finished (or more accurately, get stuck in perpetual development), something that the excellent and dearly missed +1 Forward podcast recognised in their episode collecting their thoughts on the FITD games they looked at back in 2021. I think that’s because, at least to me, writing a Forged in the Dark game is like trying to hold a plate of spaghetti without the plate. It’s deceptively simple at its heart, but the system squirms when you poke at it - write one thing and it affects 3 other things. Tug one piece of pasta out and you lose a meatball without realising it.

When I listened to that episode, I took it as a challenge. Part of me now wonders if it was a curse. I'm being hyperbolic, of course. But a little part of me did think it might be better to give the game up.

That’s not going to be As the Sun Forever Sets' fate, thankfully. Evil Hat has been there to support me when I’ve felt guilty about shifting another deadline or replying to a check-in email with another late “Not much progress this month, sorry!” The frozen writers block is thawing, and I’m so tantalisingly close to finishing the final text. This blog is part of that process, another chip in the icy dam.

The wheels of dread Martian terror turn once again, and it feels good. Part of that is down to not beating myself up about a lack of progress. The more important part came when I realised I felt able to return to the world again - living in it, not hiding from it. Staying connected to it, even when there's times I'm not able to inhabit it physically. Covid, Britains particular brand of transphobic brainworms, and the shadow of Empire all continue to exist, and so do I - a weird maudlin transsexual woman - in spite of them all.

“The day seemed, by contrast with my recent confinement, dazzlingly bright, the sky a glowing blue. A gentle breeze kept the red weed that covered every scrap of unoccupied ground gently swaying. And oh! the sweetness of the air!” - “The Stillness”, The War of the Worlds

You made it!

Thanks for sticking with my messy thoughts. If what I talked about here sounds cool to you, please stop by the Discord, we'd love to have you. Look forward to seeing As the Sun Forever Sets come to a crowdfunding platform of Evil Hat's choice (I assume backerkit) at some point in the future ♥.

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #forged in the dark #horror #war of the worlds #ttrpg design #science fiction #incredible self indulgence #as the sun forever sets

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mostlysignssomeportents · 6 months ago

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Every internet fight is a speech fight

THIS WEEKEND (November 8-10), I'll be in TUCSON, AZ: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

My latest Locus Magazine column is "Hard (Sovereignty) Cases Make Bad (Internet) Law," an attempt to cut through the knots we tie ourselves in when speech and national sovereignty collide online:

https://locusmag.com/2024/11/cory-doctorow-hard-sovereignty-cases-make-bad-internet-law/

This happens all the time. Indeed, the precipitating incident for my writing this column was someone commenting on the short-lived Brazilian court order blocking Twitter, opining that this was purely a matter of national sovereignty, with no speech dimension.

This is just profoundly wrong. Of course any rules about blocking a communications medium will have a free-speech dimension – how could it not? And of course any dispute relating to globe-spanning medium will have a national sovereignty dimension.

How could it not?

So if every internet fight is a speech fight and a sovereignty fight, which side should we root for? Here's my proposal: we should root for human rights.

In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the US government was illegally wiretapping the whole world. They were able to do this because the world is dominated by US-based tech giants and they shipped all their data stateside for processing. These tech giants secretly colluded with the NSA to help them effect this illegal surveillance (the "Prism" program) – and then the NSA stabbed them in the back by running another program ("Upstream") where they spied on the tech giants without their knowledge.

After the Snowden revelations, countries around the world enacted "data localization" rules that required any company doing business within their borders to keep their residents' data on domestic servers. Obviously, this has a human rights dimension: keeping your people's data out of the hands of US spy agencies is an important way to defend their privacy rights. which are crucial to their speech rights (you can't speak freely if you're being spied on).

So when the EU, a largely democratic bloc, enacted data localization rules, they were harnessing national soveriegnty in service to human rights.

But the EU isn't the only place that enacted data-localization rules. Russia did the same thing. Once again, there's a strong national sovereignty case for doing this. Even in the 2010s, the US and Russia were hostile toward one another, and that hostility has only ramped up since. Russia didn't want its data stored on NSA-accessible servers for the same reason the USA wouldn't want all its' people's data stored in GRU-accessible servers.

But Russia has a significantly poorer human rights record than either the EU or the USA (note that none of these are paragons of respect for human rights). Russia's data-localization policy was motivated by a combination of legitimate national sovereignty concerns and the illegitimate desire to conduct domestic surveillance in order to identify and harass, jail, torture and murder dissidents.

When you put it this way, it's obvious that national sovereignty is important, but not as important as human rights, and when they come into conflict, we should side with human rights over sovereignty.

Some more examples: Thailand's lesse majeste rules prohibit criticism of their corrupt monarchy. Foreigners who help Thai people circumvent blocks on reportage of royal corruption are violating Thailand's national sovereignty, but they're upholding human rights:

https://www.vox.com/2020/1/24/21075149/king-thailand-maha-vajiralongkorn-facebook-video-tattoos

Saudi law prohibits criticism of the royal family; when foreigners help Saudi women's rights activists evade these prohibitions, we violate Saudi sovereignty, but uphold human rights:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-55467414

In other words, "sovereignty, yes; but human rights even moreso."

Which brings me back to the precipitating incidents for the Locus column: the arrest of billionaire Telegram owner Pavel Durov in France, and the blocking of billionaire Elon Musk's Twitter in Brazil.

How do we make sense of these? Let's start with Durov. We still don't know exactly why the French government arrested him (legal systems descended from the Napoleonic Code are weird). But the arrest was at least partially motivated by a demand that Telegram conform with a French law requiring businesses to have a domestic agent to receive and act on takedown demands.

Not every takedown demand is good. When a lawyer for the Sackler family demanded that I take down criticism of his mass-murdering clients, that was illegitimate. But there is such a thing as a legitimate takedown: leaked financial information, child sex abuse material, nonconsensual pornography, true threats, etc, are all legitimate targets for takedown orders. Of course, it's not that simple. Even if we broadly agree that this stuff shouldn't be online, we don't necessarily agree whether something fits into one of these categories.

This is true even in categories with the brightest lines, like child sex abuse material:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/09/facebook-reinstates-napalm-girl-photo

And the other categories are far blurrier, like doxing:

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trump-camp-worked-with-musks-x-to

But just because not every takedown is a just one, it doesn't follow that every takedown is unjust. The idea that companies should have domestic agents in the countries where they operate isn't necessarily oppressive. If people who sell hamburgers from a street-corner have to register a designated contact with a regulator, why not someone who operates a telecoms network with 900m global users?

Of course, requirements to have a domestic contact can also be used as a prelude to human rights abuses. Countries that insist on a domestic rep are also implicitly demanding that the company place one of its employees or agents within reach of its police-force.

Just as data localization can be a way to improve human rights (by keeping data out of the hands of another country's lawless spy agencies) or to erode them (by keeping data within reach of your own country's lawless spy agencies), so can a requirement for a local agent be a way to preserve the rule of law (by establishing a conduit for legitimate takedowns) or a way to subvert it (by giving the government hostages they can use as leverage against companies who stick up for their users' rights).

In the case of Durov and Telegram, these issues are especially muddy. Telegram bills itself as an encrypted messaging app, but that's only sort of true. Telegram does not encrypt its group-chats, and even the encryption in its person-to-person messaging facility is hard to use and of dubious quality.

This is relevant because France – among many other governments – has waged a decades-long war against encrypted messaging, which is a wholly illegitimate goal. There is no way to make an encrypted messaging tool that works against bad guys (identity thieves, stalkers, corporate and foreign spies) but not against good guys (cops with legitimate warrants). Any effort to weaken end-to-end encrypted messaging creates broad, significant danger for every user of the affected service, all over the world. What's more, bans on end-to-end encrypted messaging tools can't stand on their own – they also have to include blocks of much of the useful internet, mandatory spyware on computers and mobile devices, and even more app-store-like control over which software you can install:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/05/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography/

So when the French state seizes Durov's person and demands that he establish the (pretty reasonable) minimum national presence needed to coordinate takedown requests, it can seem like this is a case where national sovereignty and human rights are broadly in accord.

But when you consider that Durov operates a (nominally) encrypted messaging tool that bears some resemblance to the kinds of messaging tools the French state has been trying to sabotage for decades, and continues to rail against, the human rights picture gets rather dim.

That is only slightly mitigated by the fact that Telegram's encryption is suspect, difficult to use, and not applied to the vast majority of the communications it serves. So where do we net out on this? In the Locus column, I sum things up this way:

Telegram should have a mechanism to comply with lawful takedown orders; and

those orders should respect human rights and the rule of law; and

Telegram should not backdoor its encryption, even if

the sovereign French state orders it to do so.

Sovereignty, sure, but human rights even moreso.

What about Musk? As with Durov in France, the Brazilian government demanded that Musk appoint a Brazilian representative to handle official takedown requests. Despite a recent bout of democratic backsliding under the previous regime, Brazil's current government is broadly favorable to human rights. There's no indication that Brazil would use an in-country representative as a hostage, and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with requiring foreign firms doing business in your country to have domestic representatives.

Musk's response was typical: a lawless, arrogant attack on the judge who issued the blocking order, including thinly veiled incitements to violence.

The Brazilian state's response was multi-pronged. There was a national blocking order, and a threat to penalize Brazilians who used VPNs to circumvent the block. Both measures have obvious human rights implications. For one thing, the vast majority of Brazilians who use Twitter are engaged in the legitimate exercise of speech, and they were collateral damage in the dispute between Musk and Brazil.

More serious is the prohibition on VPNs, which represents a broad attack on privacy-enhancing technology with implications far beyond the Twitter matter. Worse still, a VPN ban can only be enforced with extremely invasive network surveillance and blocking orders to app stores and ISPs to restrict access to VPN tools. This is wholly disproportionate and illegitimate.

But that wasn't the only tactic the Brazilian state used. Brazilian corporate law is markedly different from US law, with fewer protections for limited liability for business owners. The Brazilian state claimed the right to fine Musk's other companies for Twitter's failure to comply with orders to nominate a domestic representative. Faced with fines against Spacex and Tesla, Musk caved.

In other words, Brazil had a legitimate national sovereignty interest in ordering Twitter to nominate a domestic agent, and they used a mix of somewhat illegitimate tactics (blocking orders), extremely illegitimate tactics (threats against VPN users) and totally legitimate tactics (fining Musk's other companies) to achieve these goals.

As I put it in the column:

Twitter should have a mechanism to comply with lawful takedown orders; and

those orders should respect human rights and the rule of law; and

banning Twitter is bad for the free speech rights of Twitter users in Brazil; and

banning VPNs is bad for all Brazilian internet users; and

it’s hard to see how a Twitter ban will be effective without bans on VPNs.

There's no such thing as an internet policy fight that isn't about national sovereignty and speech, and when the two collide, we should side with human rights over sovereignty. Sovereignty isn't a good unto itself – it's only a good to the extent that is used to promote human rights.

In other words: "Sovereignty, sure, but human rights even moreso."

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/06/brazilian-blowout/#sovereignty-sure-but-human-rights-even-moreso

Image: © Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Border_Wall_at_Tijuana_and_San_Diego_Border.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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inevitably-johnlocked · 3 months ago

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Five Fics Friday: January 31/25

Happy Friday everyone! I hope your January was alright, and that you're going into the weekend ready to check out some awesome fics! Enjoy!

JOHNLOCK FIC CLUB SELECTION (Feb 2)

A Quiet Life by DiscordantWo rds (M, 25,176 w., 6 Ch. || Retirement, Family Dynamics, Established Relationship, Minor Character Death, Questionable Parenting Choices, Non-Linear Narrative) – There had been three days of silence and a funeral. Sherlock had the terrible feeling that whatever happened next would depend, entirely, on him.

RECENT MFLs

Sherlock in Oz by ChrisCalledMeSweetie (T, 7,207 w., 8 Ch. || Mystrade and Johnlock, Post-S1, Illustrated, Friends to Lovers, Tornado, Humour, Lucid Dreaming, Bed Sharing, Friends to Lovers) –When Sherlock and John travel to Kansas to help Mrs. Hudson’s niece, the motel has only one room left — with a double bed. So far, everything is predictable. But not for long… Part 1 of No Place Like Home

Your Visible Ghost by anactoria (M, 22,142 w., 1 Ch. || Sherlock/OMC & Johnlock || Rape/Non-Con, Rape Recovery, Gang Rape, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Awkward Conversations) – During an investigation, Sherlock runs off alone without telling anybody where he’s going. Nothing unusual there, and nobody bats an eyelid. But then John receives a video message that tells him things have gone very wrong indeed.

Unbreakable by Nymeria578 (E, 111,687 w., 18 Ch. || Omegaverse AU || Post-HLV, Omega Sherlock, Alpha John, Gender Issues, Bonding, Knotting, Mildly Dubious Consent, Slow Burn, Crime Scenes, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Homophobic Prejudices, Romance, References to Murder-Suicide) – Sherlock lives in a changed world where Omegas has been declared extinct. Twenty years ago a deadly virus ravaged the globe, but only the rare gender was affected and, over the course of years, the world lost its most precious treasures. Only a few survived, living hidden and keeping the governments in the dark about their existence. Too many died in the hands of scientists in search of a cure, and their faith has been shattered. Sherlock is one of them, always looking out to not reveal his true gender when suddenly ghosts of his past catch up with him.

MYSTRADE FIC REC

Soul Mate by Mottlemoth (T, 4,068 w., 1 Ch. || Mystrade Soulmate AU || Fluff, Romance, True Love, Virgin Mycroft, First Meeting, First Kiss, Vulnerable Mycroft, Happy Ending) – The words appeared on Mycroft's arm aged fourteen, foretelling the first thing his soul mate would ever say to him—and horrifying his respectable parents. He's now lived with the unfortunate words all his life, not certain that he even wishes to meet his soul mate if that's how the man talks. But when Sherlock befriends a Scotland Yard inspector named Lestrade, Mycroft might just change his mind.

#johnlock fic recs #five fics friday #mystrade fic recs #my fic recs

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bullet-prooflove · 4 months ago

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The Good Book: Tim Gutterson x Reader

Tagging: @kmc1989 @fallmoreinloveeveryday @elenavampire21 @floralfloyd @lamaudite

Companion piece to:

Lucky - Tim's assignment doesn't go to plan.

Stars - Tim's not like other men.

You make good on that gift basket. Tim finds it sitting on the welcome mat outside his apartment one day when he arrives home from the gym. There’s a couple of IPAs in there, classy chips and chocolate, that special brand of coffee he’d become obsessed with when in Indonesia, one he knows costs a fortunate to import to the US. And then there’s the book, the one you were telling him about that night underneath the stars.

It’s a Brandon Sanderson novel, The Way of Kings. He’s not much into fantasy. Magic and shit ain’t really his thing. He much prefers the darker writings of Stephen King and James Herbert, he thinks those fellas get the human condition in a way most people don’t. However he’d promised you he’d give it a go, so he does.

He spends the night devouring it, poring over the pages until the sun comes up and even then he doesn’t stop. He reads it on the treadmill at the gym, in the line at the coffee shop, even on the john because he has to find out what happens next.

After he’s finished that one, he finds himself at Barnes and Noble buying the rest of the series, along with a few others.

“It’s like a gateway drug.” He tells you over on the phone that night as he lies on his couch, book open on his chest. “What have you gotten me into?”

“Something much healthier than killer clowns and men who try to murder their wives in hotel rooms.” You tell him over a crackly line because you’re still deployed out there in buttfuck, nowhere. Tim’s shipping out again in a few days’ time because there’s a shortage of snipers and his services are required.

“Admit it, you were worried about me.” He drawls as he recalls the conversation the two of you had that night. “You think I was starting to fade into the darkness.”

Truthfully you were a little concerned about Tim. His job isn’t like yours, it’s dedicated to killing and it’s something he’s exceptionally good at. His kill count is already well above what it should be for a man of his age and rank. Your country, they’ll just keep using him, utilising him like a tool until he breaks and the thing is Tim will never see it coming, because no one ever does.

That’s what the books are about, a method of escaping the madness, of immersing himself in a world that still has hope because you don’t see much of it out there in Afghanistan, not with a job that deals in death.

“Yea.” You say honestly because Tim is the one person you will never lie to. “You started to get a little quiet there towards the end. I’ve seen it before…”

You trail off then and Tim, he picks up on what you’re not saying. You’ve lost someone, someone in the service. Probably by their own hand. You don’t want to see that happen to him.

“Lucky…” He murmurs into the receiver. “I promise you, you’ll never have to worry about that with me. I’ll get out long before it happens.”

“I hope that’s true.” You say softly and he can tell you don’t believe him. He doesn’t blame you, he’s sure the man before him said the same thing too.

“What are you reading right now?” He asks you changing the subject because he hates the idea of you out there all alone in the desert, feeling sad because of him.

“Cowboy romance.” You reveal and he huffs out a laugh, his palm running over his weary features.

“Is this because I told you I spent summers working on my Uncle’s ranch back in Indiana?” He asks you and he can hear your smile over the phone as he cradles it under his chin.

“Tim, the idea of you walking around in flannel shirts and a tight fitting pair of jeans, it does a little something to a woman.” You tell him and he groans in response to your words because it gets him off knowing that you’re thinking of him when you’re almost half way across the globe.

“I wish you were here right now.” He tells you, his voice turning a little rough as he thinks about that night, his mouth ghosting over your skin, those pretty little sounds you made as he sunk inside of you. It was only once but once was enough to make a man fall in love.

“Me too.” You whisper as you stare up at a starry sky in Afghanistan. “Christ Tim. You have no fucking idea just how much I miss you.”

Love Tim? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

Before you join the taglist make sure to read the rules here as you otherwise you won't be added.

Interested in supporting me? Join my Patreon for Bonus Content!

Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

#tim gutterson #tim gutterson x reader #justified

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mothwingwritings · 2 years ago

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Idk if you’re into omega verse but omg I just thought of it being applied to Yujiro and poor omega reader goddamn 😭 (I think I may have gone a little bit too far on this one ngl, also I’m half asleep so sorry for any issues..)

Nasty nasty Alpha Yujiro who takes advantage of poor little you. Who would have thought he’d ever encounter such a rare beauty? Omegas were practically extinct in the baki universe, the world full of hardened alphas made no room for the sweet soft omegas. And yet here you were against all odds.

From the moment he met you, he’d made the promise that he would never spread his seed through out the world.

Nay, he was going to hammer in his children into your fertile womb as you cried out in overstimulation. You would carry all of his offspring for the rest of your life. That was a promise.

While many of his past devoted lovers would have been flattered by his devotion, you were anything but.

Sure Yujiro would disappear on some days but no longer than a week.

But on the days he were in your house. It’d be a constant running away and fighting off the lustful touches of Yujiro.

The dreadful “Honey~ I’m home!~” had you cringing so hard as thick muscular arms surrounded your waist.

Having to take showers with the Ogre that always ended with you pressed up against the glass mirror as Yujiro crowded you against it.

Having your favorite clothes torn to shreds as he tried to make “love to you”.

Waking up in the middle of the night to see the humongous man deep in your guts as he ruthlessly pounded into you.

And when you went in heat…oh boy.

You’re horny 24/7 and you won’t fight back at all? Just lil ol you whimpering about how much it hurts and that you need something inside? You’d let the older man kiss you and cling onto him needily. His poor little omega!

Yeah, Yujiro loves your heats.

This man keeps a track record of when your heats are around the corner. It doesn’t matter if he’s in another country or across the globe the globe away from you. If he sees you have started your heat, he’s running like a madman with the nastiest smirk that has people running away screaming. They all thought he was out to murder someone (ya ur lil meow meow)

Out of spite you decide to hook up with some random beta when your heat starts up. Which immediately back fires when Yujiro has said man tied up as he watches you get plowed down by your real alpha.

“My little omega, have I neglected you so much that you seeked out some limp dick beta to satisfy you? I guess I’ll have to you more attention to keep you satisfied, huh?”

You know Yujiro is going to show you off. I mean, who wouldn’t?

He’s pulling up to the tournaments with you sitting on his shoulder clad in a thin bikini. Your looking away from the many lustful looks directed at you, all while Yujiro basks in the jealous looks he receives.

They all look so angry at him, but yet…too intimidated to muster the courage to say anything to him. Yes this was a fine idea.

He’s got you wearing a pretty diamond collar with the letters “Property of Ogre.”

Every time you both return from such fights, it didn’t matter if he came back angry or happy both were valid reasons to fuck you in the entrance your home. After that he would ravage you on any surface in the house.

He was going to get so many babies out of you.

Me reading this ask loool

You must have read my mind anon, I was just musing the other day on how I want to some day take a stab at writing an ABO fic and the Bakiverse would be perfect fodder for it. 😌

But God... Yujiro would be the worst fucking Alpha. That man could track you down from miles away, knowing where you are at all times should he need you. And he has such intricate knowledge on basically every aspect of you and your life that it goes beyond concerning, it's downright invasive. It takes no time at all for him to claim fuck you, giving you no time to really sus him out or get to know him before you've become irrevocably his. He's now your bonded partner, and you are not at all thrilled with that.

When yujiro comes to claim you he attacks you with such a bestial, feral intensity that you are afraid one day your body won't be able to take the abuse he inflicts on it, giving you serious concerns over whether you will survive the mating process. You got lucky the first time, but what about in the future? How many pups does he plan to pump inside of you? The thought keeps you up at night. You don't even want to parent his offspring, let alone be demoted to his breeding stock to be fucked full again and again and again. You would have chosen ANY alpha other than Yujiro, but now this was your lot in life-forced to not only be his mate, but bear his children, creating new versions of this monster to roam the planet. Would they grow up to be like their father, or would you have any hope of raising them to be decent, loving people?

Also, I feel like your body will just constantly be marked up everywhere. His mating bites don't stop at the scent glands, and you usually end up looking like you just left a 12 round boxing match on the losing side instead of a mating session with your alpha. :(

And when you are in heat its the absolute fucking worst. Lusting after Yurjiro, your entire body aching for him to desecrate and destroy you, your insides burning white hot for his touch. Only your alpha can cure you of this all consuming sickness that plagues you, and you turn into a whiny blubbery mess when Yujiro is around, pleading and begging for him to claim you. It's absolutely dreadful how much you yearn for such a barbaric man, and each and every time you are disgusted with how easily you give in to him. You just roll over and become his docile little fuck mate, turned into a wanton, lusting mess from just catching his scent alone. You loath him as much as you need him, and words cannot describe the amount of hate you hold in your heart for the man that turned you into this pathetic shell of who you once were.

#this is some of that good shit #thank you for indulging me anon love you mwah #abo verse #abo baki #yujiro hanma x reader #yujiro x reader #yujiro hanma x y/n #mothresponse #alpha yujiro

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trxstiezz · 6 months ago

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*not edited*

This is my first time writing abt an anime characterr ahh so im sorry if i dont get rodys character right! Or if i mess up some things up, i had so much fun writing this! I apologize for how long it is, but i hope everyone enjoy it!

Readers quirk! (got this off tt) : Crystals - You can make crystals from your hands, or by touching the ground to make them, you can also shoot crystals like bullets and color/shape them into whatever you want, initially using them as a shield or weapons. (Similar to shotos ice quirk)

As everyone was sent to different locations across the globe you were taken with the heroes of the Endeavor Agency as you were doing your work study there, although you totally didnt expect things to go south so fast and to also fall in love during this mission..

“God one second im out running errands and the next thing i know im hiding from the police because im being framed for mass murder!” You said clearly frustrated, “hey, I am too you know! But i just cant seem to wrap my mind around as to why we are being framed for this.” Izuku says with a slight frown as he fixes his hat, thinking.

“It doesnt matter, we just have to lay low for now and keep this stupid briefcase safe.” You say with an annoyed tone, readjusting your new clothes the best you could as you sit on top of the bus.

You look at izuku staring at his phone whispering a small “come on..” in hopes of shoto being able to understand his coded message, you bite your lip worried so you decided to glance over at the boy you met a while ago instead.

He had a worried expression on his face as he stared at a picture in a necklace of two little kids, “those yours? Not gonna lie you do look really young for being a dad of two.” You say chuckling softly.

He looked up at you and shook his head slowly, “No, those are my little siblings, Lala and Roro.” He said, looking back down at the small picture of them.

You give him a small nod, not wanting to push any further.. you all decided on getting down since the place looked empty, you sighed in relief using your quirk to make a big crystal, sliding down it safely then shrinking it. Izuku using black whip to get him and rody down aswell.

Izuku and rody talked before seeing him walk over to the phone. You stayed behind with izuku, stretching your arms and legs, you looked over at him seeing the worried expression he had plastered onto his face, “im sure they understood the code ‘zuku, shotos pretty smart id be surprised if he didn’t understand it.” You said, placing a hand on his shoulder hoping to make him less worried.

“Yeah, you’re right! Im sure by now they are fixing this mess…” he says, a little bit unsure but still keeping a smile on his face. You nod and place your head on his shoulder, “i hope so too..” you mumbled, closing your eyes.

We heard a loud bang paired with a “damn it!” so you both walked over to where rody was at, “hey is everything okay?” You heard izuku say softly, you nodded looking at him a bit worried.

He turned around and scoffed a little, “Oh yeah, life couldnt be any better.” He said sarcastically. You looked at one another before deciding to start moving again.

Hours later, the sky was dark and you all had decided to take a break in an old farmhouse to get some rest and figure out everything that had happened tomorrow.

You were beside izuku reading the same map he had of Otheon before speaking out, “thats not great, doesnt look like anythings crossing the border from here.. we’ll have to borrow some sort of vehicle tomorrow, otherwise we’ll be stuck walking..” he said continuing to read the map.

You let out a loud groan, “walking? You’re crazy! Did you forget how heavy this thing is??” You heard the boy say as he sat up looking in your direction, shocked and annoyed.

“If you get tired i can just carry you on my back, thats what strength is for right? To help people when they are in trouble!” Izuku said smiling while flexing his muscles in a playful way. You and rody both give him a look before you rolled over to your side, “beats me, wake me up when you find a vehicle alright?” You said, yawning and closing your eyes.

You hear rody let out a scoff, “maybe fix our current situation rather than treating me like a backpack.” He says, then hearing izuku agree saying we will, you were gonna respond back to the boys somewhat snarky comment but decided to just close your eyes instead.

After a while you had fallen asleep to the quietness that surrounded you, then waking up to a small bird chirping frantically in your face. You sat up and rubbed your eyes, “huh?..”

“Hey whats going on?” You said before seeing how frantic the bird was getting, urging you to look over at the empty space. “Ah shit. The boys gone!” You said, getting up and shaking izuku awake, “hey zu! Wake up, hes gone!” You said, shaking him even more.

“Huh whats going on?” He said getting up quickly, “no, he wouldnt..” he said panicking, “god the briefcase is gone too!” You said, also feeling panicked as you noticed the briefcase wasnt anywhere in sight. The bird then rushes outside so you both run after it, following the small pink bird.

You werent running for long before sighting a helicopter and a big man towering over the boy, “over there!” You say, then using your quirk to shoot crystals at the man, only distracting him for a bit so izuku can get closer and go over towards them, using his quirk. You run over to the boy that was on the ground, “idiot! are you okay?” You yell, helping him up.

Out of no where you both get pushed out of the way by izuku, you look over and see a lady with arrows, the same one that had attacked you guys before, shooting one at izuku before he uses his quirk again.

The boy goes over to izuku worried, “why did you do that?..” he says shocked, “no time! I need you to hold onto me tightly,” izuku says, kneeling a bit, “zuku! You’re injured, i can take him dont worry, ill follow you!” You say as you grabbed onto him, blushing a little at how close you were.

You take a deep breath in and start shooting out big crystals to run on, following izuku in the dark not daring to look back.

After stopping somewhere izuku had pulled out the arrow, drops of blood gushing out. You looked at his injury as you crouched down next to him, disgusted at the sight.

“Wait here, ill find a doctor or something!” The boy said a bit panicked as he looked around for help, “it wasnt that deep in, ill be fine dont worry..it destroyed my phone though.” Izuku said, breathing heavily.

“Turn around, i think we packed a first aid kit.” You said remembering, but feeling a bit guilty. As a hero in training you shouldve looked out, being ready for anything, you got lost in your own head as izuku kept on talking, drowing out the noise of them talking and searched for the kit, grabbing it and removing the shirt that he had on, patching him up as best as you could.

Once you were finished you walked around for a bit, finding a small cave to hide out in. For the most part the way there was silent, and it was also silent while building a small fire inside the cave to stay warm.

While izuku was reading his map again the boy and you sat in silence for a while around the fire, you were a bit surprised when he spoke up, “why did you take the arrow back there?” You and izuku both looked up, “what are you asking?” Izuku said, confused.

He inhales a bit frustrated, getting up, “i betrayed you guys, i took the briefcase while you were sleeping.. instead of worrying about me you couldve grabbed it and ran away...” He said staring out into the dark night sky.

“Uhh why would we do something like that?” Izuku says, still confused. “I was the one with stolen jewels earlier, im one of those bad guys you heroes hate and want to throw in jail.” He says shrugging, still not looking over.

“Well we cant ignore when someones in trouble. Hero or not you’re still a person, so we want to do everything we can to help” You say standing up. He turns around and looks at you slightly shocked, then looking over at izuku.

“But why would a criminal like me be worth getting hurt over?” He said still not believing it, “its always worth it if im able to help someone, no matter who it is!” izuku says with a happy genuine smile on his face.

“I do not get you both..” he says shaking his head, stepping back to sit down on one of the big rocks in the cave.

You sit back down aswell, “ha, you and me couldnt be any more different.” He said chuckling, “huh?” You say looking up at him, although he already had his head turned as he looked up at the sky, seeing the night stars.

“My futures pretty much set in stone, i dont have the luxuries of saying some nonsense like, ‘i wanna be a pilot.’ All i can do is provide for my younger siblings..” the boy said, still not making any eye contact with either of you.

You looked at him a bit shocked, feeling a bit bad for him.

“Well maybe-” izuku said getting up, the boy snapped his head back finally making some eye contact, “dont say a word, i dont want your pity!” He said a bit loud.

Izuku stayed quiet and sat back down, you bit your lip at the awkward and quiet moment before rody spoke up again, “i always thought heroes just wanted fame and money, you see the pros never come to where i live, they wouldnt make a buck there..” he said getting quiet for a second before speaking up again, “but.. i guess there are heroes around like you two.” He said now looking at the floor.

You look at him with wide eyes, cheeks a little pink. “The more i sit around and know more about you two the more i wonder about what im doing with my own life.” He says with closed eyes, smirking a bit, “truth is im pretty lame.” He says with a small chuckle, shaking his head.

You chuckle at what he says, you listen to how izuku thought he was weak, and how he still wants to be a hero with a smile on his face everytime he helps someone, “if im being honest myself most times i feel very weak..but thats why i push myself, im determined to be the best hero i can be!” you said with a big smile, “ and zu, you’re pretty inspirational, i can totally see you being the number one hero.” You say chuckling a bit.

“Look, everyone has their doubts about themselves, but if you dont push yourself and work for the future you want, it wont happen. Things are tough, and i definitely know how life isnt fair, but i say try your best to reach for your goals however you can! Step by step.” You say flashing him a smile, he looks at both you and izuku in awe for a while then smirking a little, getting up and walking closer.

The little pink bird appearing on top of izukus head, “oh yeah, thats pino.” He says with a small chuckle as pino starts chirping and flying above yours and izukus heads. “Hey pino.” You said with a smile as the bird kept chirping happily.

“Oh and by the way the names Rody Soul, we sort of skipped intros earlier.” He said with a small chuckle. Izuku stood up with a smile on his face, “and my names Izuku midoriya but call me my hero name, deku!” He said with another big and bright smile, “deku.. thats easy to remember.” Rody said with a smile as he placed his hands on his hips.

You stood up, “my names y/n l/n, but you can just call me by my hero name, Gem! Or both, doesnt matter to me.” You say smiling, letting out a small laugh.

“Gem.. well y/n you have a beautiful name, guess ill just have to switch around both yeah?” He said giving you a small smirk.

You nodded staying quiet as your face turned a bit red.

“Well lets get some sleep rody, y/n.” Izuku said looking at you both sending you a knowing look, you ignored it and nodded.

“Yeah sounds good to me deku,” rody said with a smile. He nodded and found a spot to lay down in, placing his hat over his face.

You layed down aswell and tried your best to sleep, you thoughts flooding your mind. After a while you could hear soft snores coming from izuku as you also heard a small whisper, “hey… y/n you asleep?” You looked over at rody and sat up a little, “yeah.. cant sleep, just keep thinking about this big mess we got into.”

You said grabbing your knees, “yeahh.. me too…” he said quietly, you pressed your lips together for a moment before speaking, “want to talk about it?” You said with a small smile.

He looked at you for a while before nodding slowly, you scooted over closer as you looked at him. “Alright.. whats keeping you up then?” you said, staring at him.

“Well.. i guess im just worried about my siblings.. i mean i guess i just wonder if they’re okay. Their still kids so i dont want to leave them by themselves..” he said huffing and placing his hand on his cheek.

You nod, “i understand, im sure their okay! So dont worry too much alright? We’ll fix this mess soon so you can go home and see them!” You said looking at izuku sleeping.

He looks at you and nods, “yeah.. by the way, are you both..?” He said hinting at you and izuku. Your eyes open wide and you shake your head, “oh nono! we’re just friends!” You say chuckling nervously as your face immediately turned red.

“You sure?..” he says chuckling, enjoying the way your face turned red, “i mean i love izuku but hes just a good friend to me! Like a brother, we’ve been friends for a while now and im sure you can tell by the way hes so positive hes a pretty good friend.” You say chuckling softly, looking at rody.

He nods, “yeah he seems like a good guy huh, dont worry i was just teasing ya, glad you’re not together though, gives me a chance to tell you how beautiful i think you are.” He said looking back and sending you a small wink.

You blush and turn your face away again, “ah well thank you!” You said quickly, not really knowing how to answer him.

He flashes you a smirk and a nod, “well we should go to bed, im sure youll need the energy for tomorrow.” He said, putting his head on his hands as he moved his knees closer to his chest.

“Yeah.. goodnight rody.” You say with a smile, admiring how good he looked with the moonlight shining down on him.

“Goodnight y/n..” he said, with a small smile now, closing his eyes. You felt a sudden warm feeling in your chest and closed your eyes, trying to ignore the feeling.

You woke up the next morning to a loud sound of a truck running, you opened your eyes and looked around seeing izuku and rody both gone. You had a confused expression on your face and stood up, deciding to follow the noise.

To your surprise you saw both izuku and rody talking, “hey, whats this?..” you said, rubbing your eyes.

“Sorry did i wake you?” Rody said looking at you as he walked a bit closer, you yawned and shook your head, “its fine, i shouldve been up by now anyway.” You said stretching your arms a little.

“Hey y/n, i just woke up too seems like we have a ride now, im going to get the suitcase really quick, be right back!” Izuku said as he goes back to get the suitcase.

Rody opened the car door and stepped to the side, “ladies first.” He said, with a playful smirk that you chuckle at before climbing into the car.

He smiles and gets in himself as you both see izuku running up and getting in, he starts the car, squishing you as you sit in between them both.

You groan and blush a little when you turn your head seeing how close you were to rody, you close your mouth and look straight as to not make a big deal out of it.

You ended up falling asleep in the car ride as rody and izuku talked, still feeling a bit tired from the previous day, you didnt even realize your head on rodys shoulder until you woke up later on.

“Finally awake huh?” Rody said giving you a quick smile, going back to pay attention to the road. You straightened up and nodded, “yeah sorry, i mustve moved alot.” You said flustered at the thought of how you had slept on him, he didnt seem to mind though.

“Its okay, you look cute while sleeping so ill let it pass.” He says teasingly, you nodded slowly, freaking out on the inside, only hearing izukus small laughs.

You give him a quick look that shuts him up but sneakily snickers once you turn your head straight again.

The next few days were full of some tiny accidents but mostly just hanging out with eachother and talking, even almost getting recognized by a gas station worker, thankfully rody distracted the guy in time to not notice.

During these days you had managed to learn alot about rody, getting closer to the sweet charming boy. He was cute alright, but you didnt think anything would work out since his priorities were strictly on his siblings, but for now you thought this little crush wasnt so bad to keep to yourself.

One night rody was helping deku patch up his injuries again as you helped with the small fire, you were really focused until you heard izuku say something that had interested you aswell, “what about you? Do you have a quirk? Ive been wondering.” He said with another smile.

“Yeah do you? Ive also been pretty curious about that.” You said, finally getting the fire up, you jumped excitedly and sat down next to it to warm your hands up.

Rody made a face while finishing up “I dont wanna talk about it.” He said hiding his face, embarrassed, “oh, sorry!..” izuku said turning back around, you looked at the boy curious as to why he would be embarrassed to say if he had one or not, but you didnt say anything as to not push him, understanding that not everyone likes to talk about quirks.

“You guys wont laugh right?..” he said, izuku turned around quickly, “i promise!” Rody then glanced at you, “Really?” You shook your head, “id never laugh at that!” You said with a serious look, “we swear!”

Rody sighs, his cheeks a little pink, “okay.. its kind of weird..” he says, giving in, “you may think im joking but its pino..” he said as the small pink bird started chirping appearing on top of his head, then turning around hiding her face clearly embarrassed. “Her actions show my true intentions..” he said looking up at pino.

“Really?” Izuku said looking at pino fascinated, he was always like that with everyone quirk so you smiled at this, knowing how excited he always was to learn about somebodys quirk. “No matter how good i am at lying, pino always gives away my true feelings..” he says blushing again, “honestly its not much of a quirk..” he said again holding pino in his hands.

“Dont say that! I think your quirk is cool, and pinos pretty adorable too!” You say smiling as you scooted closer, trying to pet pino instead seeing her curled up in rodys hands, shy.

You chuckle at this and shake your head, smiling. “I think its a wonderful quirk too! I find everyones quirks to be super cool since their all pretty unique!” izuku says smiling.

Rody nods, still a bit shy, “thanks guys..” he says chuckling. You smile at him and nod, “we should get to bed, im sure that by tomorrow we’ll make it by the border.” You said, wrapping your arms around yourself to be warm.

- *lil skip*

Once you had made it to the border izuku checked it out, noticing how heavily guarded it was, “seems we wont make it past the guards without a fight, looks like we’ll have to go up.” You nod, agreeing as izuku tells rody to get on his back.

“Deku take this.” Rody says as he hands over the suitcase, you and izuku looked at him with confused expressions on eachothers face, “whats the deal?” izuku said, “you wont be able to carry me with that injury from the arrow, this is where i say goodbye.” He said looking at the both of you with a smile on his face, “hold on, the trucks out of gas! We cant leave you alone at a place likes this?!” You said concerned, also feeling a bit disappointed, you didnt want to go your seperate ways so soon.

The small crush you had on rody was only supposed to stay like that, but after hanging out with him and getting to know him for a couple of days you had started realizing that the feelings you had for him were more than just a small school girl crush.

“Guys come on you know how fast i can run at a pinch, ill scrounge up some food and ill wait for you both.” He said with a slight smirk, shrugging. “Go figure out whats up with this case, thats what we’re here for after all.” He said handing it to you.

“But rody..” you said staring at him a bit sad, izuku also looking at him a bit upset, “Im counting on you heroes.” He said, izuku nodding firmly and walked over to him going to take the suitcase from rodys hands while you stood there a bit shocked.

The loud sound of a helicopter coming close took your attention away as you looked up at the sky staring at it. You spot the same lady ready to shoot an arrow with a man standing behind her, your eyes open wide but it seems as though izuku noticed she shot the arrow, using his quirk to move you both out of the way again.

You gasp as you used your own quirk to make big crystals to block the arrows from hitting you. You let out an annoyed groan noticing that she started shooting something that turned into big boulders, causing you to lose balance.

“Oh damnit their going to flatten us!” You heard rody say, you pressed your lips together trying to creat a bigger crystal to provide some shield but it was no use as she just kept dropping more, not giving you enough time.

You see izuku use his quirk again kicking the helicopter away, causing the force to push it back, crashing it but also pushing you, izuku and rody back.

You hit the ground, groaning as you got up, “god that hurt!” You said wiping the rocks and dirt off of you, looking around seeing izuku standing up as well, “rody are you okay?” You heard him yell back.

“Yeah maybe.. oh no the case!” He said looking around, trying to spot it. Once he does he bolts towards it, hearing another yell shortly after, “Rody look out!” izuku says as some big boulders crash close to him, “rody!” you yell out with wide eyes as you see them knock him away.

He manages to grab the suitcase but you dont see him anywhere in sight, “ah shit, rody!” You say worriedly, running over to find him.

“Deku catch it!” He says throwing the suitcase over as izuku ran over to catch it but getting close to being hit by an arrow, you see rody fall as you let out a yell, “Oh my god Rody!” You say running towards him, tears filling the brim of your eyes as you try to shoot out a big crystal only for it to not work.

You see a bunch of ice wrap around the big man, then circling back to get rody back up, “that ice..” izuku says, “its todoroki!” You yell out, then seeing him run out of the way, bakugo also using his quirk, aiming it at the helicopter.

It went by quick but you decide to instead see if rody was okay, you run up and embrace him into a big hug, “are you okay?!” You say worried, checking him for any injuries. He looks shocked at the scene and just nods slowly not really taking your words in.

“I was so wor-“ your words got cut off at the big crash of the helicopter then seeing the woman falling, you were in disbelief yourself so you didn’t expect rody to be any better.

Izuku ran over to you both, making sure everyone was alright, “yeah but im not sure how..” rody said looking at the ground, gasping and looking around, “where is it?!” He said, then hearing shoto come up with the briefcase.

“thanks todoroki, but how did you find us?” Izuku said, “well thanks to their flashy attacks we spotted you from the train, is he the one you were talking about on the phone?” He said with a calm demeanor, “yeah, his name is rody soul, they’re also calling him a criminal just like us.” You said trying to keep yourself calm.

“Yeah thanks for the assist!” Rody said with a flashy smile, before jumping at bakugos unexpected yelling that you have all gotten used to by now.

You noticed izuku staring at the bottom of the briefcase, seeing a small compartment open up, “hey look!” He said grabbing it. You looked around and decided it would be better to be protected incase of another attack.

You stood up moving a bit closer and crouched down, placing your hands down onto the ground building a large crystal with a color similar to the rocks, shielding you all from any possible attacks.

You grunted at the feeling it left behind in your palms, wiping them on your shirt to get rid of it then standing up and walking back over to see them trying to figure out a little puzzle that was supposedly in the little compartment.

“Hand it over, ill blow it up!” You heard bakugo say, frustrated already with the small puzzle. You rolled your eyes smacking the back of his head, “you cant do that idiot! Its a puzzle for a reason, there must be something important inside.” You said huffing, ignoring whatever he was yelling at in response to you.

You see rody handling the puzzle then somehow being able to solve it, “rody thats amazing! Howd you do that?” You said looking at him in awe as shoto and izuku figure out what the little pieces inside are.

“I did a puzzle like this before when i was a kid.” He said, flashing you a big smile and oh how you loved it.

You blushed nodding, “thats cool! I dont think id be able to wrap my head around a difficult puzzle like that.” You said, walking a bit closer to him, “its simple once you learn its tricks..” he said in a soft tone, inspecting the small puzzle carefully.

Once everyone was in the air and gearing up you glanced over at rody that was focused on flying, you put on the last set of your support gadgets that you had gotten for your suit and waited, admiring how helpful rody was being. Also the fact that pino was chirping happily showed you that he was pretty excited but also nervous about flying, you were just happy that he finally got to live out his dream even if it wasnt in the best situation.

“Thats it the base, going in for a landing, brace yourselves!” Rody said turning his head a little to look at everyone.

“No Rody you turn back.” Izuku said pressing the button to open the door, “Extras like you should stay out of the way.” Bakugo said following right behind him, “He has a point.” Todoroki said agreeing, you rolled your eyes and gave rody a frown, “Sorry rody but this is very dangerous, please get back safe alright?” You said, getting ready to go aswell.

You didnt wait for his response as everyone had already jumped down, you took a deep breath in and jumped aswell, making sure to stay straight as you shot out big crystals, shielding yourself from the attacks of the Humarise soldiers.

You shot out many big and sharp crystals taking down a couple of soldiers before landing down, making another crystal in the shape of a slide to keep you from injuring yourself at the landing. (Sorry if it doesnt make sense guys, use ur imagination the best u can 😣)

You got swooped up by todoroki as he was also holding deku with him, you let out a small gasp since you didnt expect it but you didnt complain, wanting to help in any way you could.

Todoroki used his ice to go over some of the soldiers but you all soon got hit by some lasers that broke the ice, causing you to fall on izuku, “sorry!” you said, a little hurt from the fall, but helping each other up “Todoroki!” Izuku yelled out, calling for him.

“You guys go on ahead as fast as you can!” He said, shooting out some fire, aiming it at the soldiers that were all rushing in quick.

You nodded, following behind izuku, using your quirk to get some of the soldiers out of the way as did izuku.

He knocked down the door and walked in, you peeked a little before following behind him, “seems empty.. something doesnt feel right zuku..” you mumbled, getting an uneasy feeling in your stomach.

He looked around and noticed a door, “the trigger bomb controls should be around there, lets go!” he said running, you were about to go until a laser shot at his feet, “how dare you, this is not a place where someone so diseased should step foot.” A man said, slowly walking out.

You glared at the man, “this must be the leader..” you thought as you stood ready in case of anything.

The man was still talking but you were completely focused on the fact that the room was starting to board up. You let out a small gasp, turning around to see the whole room boarded up before hearing, “Ill stop your trigger bomb if its the last thing i do!” you turned around quickly seeing izuku lunge forward, towards the man.

“Deku wait!” you yelled out, then seeing him getting thrown back, you raised your hands shooting a couple of crystals at him, only to see them shoot back at you.

Your eyes opened wide as you dodged some, only getting scraped a little by a couple on your arm. “What the?..” you said, in shock.

The man went on to speak about have the ‘disease’ himself, saying that his quirk reflects everything he comes in contact with, which helped you figure out why your crystals bounced back at you.

You see izuku keep on attacking, only to get his attacks reflected back onto him, “deku!” You said running over to him, helping him up.

“His quirk, every punch or kick or whatever you try will only reflect back at you!” You said helping him wipe off some of the dust and rocks.

“We’ll run, avoid him completely!” Izuku said, as you nodded and both started running to the door, the time starting to run out.

Out of no where many lasers had started to appear, one badly injuring your left side and arm. You groaned out in pain, using your right to hold your side, you then hear a yelp from izuku alerting you that he had also been injured.

You try moving but end up falling onto the ground clutching your arm and side, “i have to keep going.. i.. cant let rody down, my friends and family...” You thought as tears pricked your eyes, you had realized how important his siblings were to him and they were in the area of a bomb, you didnt want anything bad to happen to him either.

You noticed the blue man distracted so you used your left hand to shoot out some crystals, hoping that the angle you were shooting them from would work, although you ducked your head as you saw them reflecting back towards you. Hitting your body as you let out some screams.

You looked over at izuku and saw all the blood pooling next to him, he stood up looking in your direction, “y/n!” He said worriedly, you gave him a thumbs up, not wanting him to worry about you right now, he turned back after giving you a small nod to look at the man.

You couldnt quite hear anything the man was saying, nor deku, just the screaming in pain was all that you could hear and It terrified you.

You knew you had to do something so with all the strength you had in you, you tried using your right arm to lift you up, only to fall back down, you let out a groan and tried your best to move across the room, only being able to push yourself slowly.

You glance to your side seeing rody holding deku as blood gushed out, “r-rody?” You said with wide eyes, confused and worried. He looked at you for a second, then giving you a genuine smile, “its fine now y/n, deku. Dont you worry.” You tried to move again but only winced in pain, “you.. have to run.” Izuku said in a low voice.

“I will, once i hand this over to the blue guy.” He said, holding the deactivation key, you look at him in disbelief, then laying izuku down softly, “know that i am sorry, but they said they’d stop the Otheon explosion if i helped them out.”

“N-No…” you mumbled, trying to push yourself closer to rody leaving a trail of your blood on the ground, “Dont do this, if we work together we can stop him and help everyone, please!” Izuku said trying to get up, groaning in pain.

“How are we going to stop him if you’re both all messed up? Times almost up, the bombs are going to explode its game over..” rody said shrugging, “No!” You shout out, he looks a little bit over his shoulder with a blank face.

“Atleast im going to protect my family.. i can do that much.” He said, starting to walk up. You couldnt believe your eyes, as they started clouding up with tears. You heard rody speak but everything was looking and sounding foggy.

Was this how it ended? Your heart was starting to hurt more than any of the injuries you currently had, feeling betrayed by the boy you had started to grow big and real feelings for.

“Sorry heroes but this is how it all ends.” You hear rody say with a calm voice, you looked up wincing again in pain, “thats life, people get betrayed, if its any condolence it happened to me too.” He said turning his head back to the blue man, “nothing to cry about.” He said, going to hand the key over.

You and izuku both look at him in disbelief, “rody no..” you said, until you saw that little pink bird in his hoodie shaking her head, it took you by surprise but you used up all the strength in you to stand up.

You looked to your side seeing izuku up aswell, you saw rody flip up the key, then running out of the way, izuku kicking the blue man in the face. “Y/n!” Rody said as he ran over to you, pino grabbing the key quickly as she had it in her mouth.

“Seems like the plans working huh pino!” He said happily before you hear the man yell angrily and you see the lasers again, you pushed rody out of the way quickly, “Run! Ill cover myself, go!” You said shooting some crystals at the lasers to break them, izuku doing the same.

As you shot most of them one suddenly turned back on hitting rody on his right side, “No!” Izuku said, rushing over to use his quirk on the man, you stared at rody as he was spread out on the floor, you yelled out, running up the stairs and over to him, “rody!” You said kneeling down to his side, trying your best to help him up.

You both look over and see izuku getting pushed into the ground, “oh shit.. deku! Dont you dare die you kick his ass!” Rody said as you both held onto eachother, “ ill stop the bombs, you- you take him down hero!” He said holding the key up.

“You got this rody!” you said, and he nodded giving you a quick hug, he winced a little, leaning on the wall, “i wont hold you back, i believe in you rody!” you said, “be safe y/n, you really are a gem. You got this hero!” He said giving you one last smile, starting to walk towards the room.

You smiled at his words, nodding and grabbing your side making your way down next to izuku. As he threw a punch you lifted your right hand getting ready to try and block the reflection only for it to come back so quickly, knocking both you and izuku down.

He stood back up, ready for another but you fell onto your knees gasping for air, panicking as you saw the room starting to go dark and fuzzy. “You got this deku, beat him!” You said before mumbling a curse word hoping that rody makes it in time, “i cant give up.. not now..” you thought, trying to stay awake but instead getting knocked out cold.

You opened your eyes to find yourself in a bright room, you blinked a couple times before realizing you had made it to the hospital. Your eyes filled with happy tears seeing that rody did it, he saved everyone.

You tried to sit up but winced a little, “y/n! You’re awake!” Deku said, going over to you, “how are you feeling?” He said with a worried expression, you chuckled and shook your head, “im fine izuku feels like i barely got a scratch, wheres rody?” You said jokingly but glancing around the room, he pointed at the bed on the other side and sure enough there he was with his arms wrapped around two little kids.

“Im assuming that roro and lala?” you said chuckling, smiling and staring at the cute sight in front of you, you moved your legs to the side getting off and walking over to the boys bed.

“Hey hero.” You said smiling at him, getting a bit closer to the bed, “gem!” He said excitedly, “im so glad you’re awake.” He said, sitting up more to hug you.

You moved forward and accepted his hug sighing in relief, once you pulled back you noticed the little kids staring at you, youre face turning red in embarrassment, “im so sorry for not introducing myself! My name is Y/n L/n! Or you could call me gem if thats easier!” you said, giving the two kids a nervous smile, chuckling.

Rody looked at his sibling and nodded at them, “this is my friend, you can say hello..” he said telling them that it was okay.

Your heart dropped a little at the word friend but you shook it off, knowing that you werent really anything, reminding yourself that he was a good friend, that you maybe had feelings for…

You talked with his siblings getting along pretty easily with them, you could totally see why rody loved them, they were adorable!

After a while you had sat on the edge of rodys bed making small crystals in fun shapes for the kids. Your moment got cut short when izuku interrupted with some bad news, “Hey y/n, i meant to tell you but we’re supposed to be leaving tomorrow, your stuffs all packed and everything ready to go.” He said, and you nodded before he walked away.

“Well.. ill let you rest.” You said to rody, standing up from the bed, he looked at you like he was gonna say something but instead he just mumbled out a “Yeah okay.. thanks for being so nice to my siblinga and well…. to me.” He said with a genuine smile, a faint blush spread across cheeks.

You chuckled, nodding “of course, dont worry rody their good kids, and very adorable. Goodnight now.” You said giving him a smile as you returned to your bed.

You let out a sigh once you got in bed, closing your eyes to rest.

You were at the airport already on your way to board the plane with the rest of the heroes as you walked talking with izuku, a small frown on your face as you told him how you didnt want to leave already.

He chuckled and teased you knowing about your crush on rody since you werent really good at hiding it, you were about to respond until you heard a little chirp.

You turned around seeing pino and rody, waving. Your face lit up in shock but also feeling extremely happy that youd see him one last time before going home.

“Rody!” You and izuku said, walking over to him, “we didnt think youd be out so soon!” Izuku said smiling, “eh they said i was good to head back home.” Rody said with a shrug and a smirk.

“Glad to hear it.” You said giving him a smile,”althoughh.. if i had died stopping those bombs i would have become a total legend!” He said jokingly, “thats a morbid thing to say!” Izuku said before you all heard a loud “HA!” coming from bakugo.

You all bursted out laughing before letting izuku have his final chat with him, meanwhile you remembered something and grabbed a small piece of paper, scribbling your number on it and then stuffing it back into your pocket.

Once you had seen that they were finished talking you walked back over and looked at izuku before he chuckled and waved goodbye, walking away to give you space.

You took a deep breath in and smiled at rody, “ill miss you alot…” you said, your smile turning a bit sad. He shook his head and embraced you into another big hug, “yeah i will too but do me a solid and stick to Japan okay? Nothing good seems to happen when you heroes are here.” He said, calmly. You stepped back and looked at pino, seeing how her eyes were all teary and sad.

“Ill come back for sure then. I swear..” you said smiling, “theres something i also have to tell you.” You both said at the same time, you blushed and looked to the side before giggling, “you go first.” He said with a chuckle, “well.. meeting you was probably the best thing that has ever happened to me rody, i mean it. I hope this doesnt cross any boundaries but if im being honest these past few days i caught really enjoying your company, so i guess what id like to say is.. well, i like you!…” you said looking down, your face now completely red, “thought id get it out now instead of holding that in.” You said letting out a sigh.

He grabbed your cheeks and pushed your head up to look at him, “I do too y/n.. look im not the type of guy to really care for people but i have definitely gotten really close to you, and well even liking you too.” He said, also a bit shy now.

You chuckled, hearing the intercom call out the name of your flight, you sighed and reached in your pocket, “here, my number incase you ever want to get a hold of me.” You say handing it to him, he takes it and gives you a smile placing it in his pocket.

You quickly take your right hand and make a small pink crystal in the shape of a heart, “andd maybe a little something… so you dont forget me alright?” You said chuckling, feeling the heat in your cheeks spread out onto your whole face.

He took the crystal placing that into his pocket too before looking into your eyes and leaning in closer to you, your heart stopped a little as you leaned in placing your lips onto his. The moment felt unreal, you had definitely felt sparks and you were so ready to tell the girls back at UA about this.

The kiss was short but sweet and filled with a lot of emotion but you had broken it, hearing the last call for your plane, “i should really get going now.” You said biting your lip.

He nodded and gave you one last hug, “ill see you soon gem.” He said with a sad smile, you nodded and pet pinos head, “dont miss me too much mkay?” You said smiling at him, “ill try.” He said with a playful smirk giving you one last kiss.

You definitely didnt expect to fall in love on this mission but you also dont regret it. Youd be back to visit the boy from Otheon the soonest you could, maybe even bring a couple of gifts for him and his siblings too. Doesnt matter, all you know is that you’ll be waiting for the day that youll be in his arms again.

#rody soul x reader #rody soul #my hero academia #mha #mha fluff #world heroes mission #mha rody #angst?#my hero academia x reader #boku no hero academia #bnha #My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission

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fireolin · 2 months ago

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The Wishing Hunt 𝕏𝕏 Ch 31 𝕏𝕏

In Killua's Care

This chapter: Marigold confronts Killua. Killua takes charge of Gon.

Without warning, daylight flooded the alcove. Gon gripped Killua and squinted as his eyes adjusted, swallowing a curse so as not to give Marigold the satisfaction of knowing they’d startled him. He presumed the blinding light was their doing, since it emanated from several globes floating above like miniature suns.... Read on

About: Prince Gon Freecss and his reluctant bodyguard, Killua Zoldyck, embark on a fake relationship to save them from predatory fae advances as they travel into the realm of Aiai. Gon has no idea Killua is only pretending to be human and is actually on the run from his fae family. Neither of them understand why Gon (who, despite being gifted, is definitely human) develops a mysterious knack for fae magic along the way. A group of magically talented murderers are travelling in the same direction and will kill them on sight. Even if Killua and Gon survive, they must eventually part, so falling in love is out of the question. Or so they both say, at the start.

Slow burn. Unconfessed love. Jealousy and possessiveness. Deepening friendship and desire. Chapter 1 on Ao3

#hxh #killugon #aged up characters #killua zoldyck #gon freecss #my current fic #have dislocated my elbow but chapter was already written #hope you enjoy it

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chesnat · 5 months ago

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Did Che kill gays?

There is this popular notion of Che killing people who were part of LGBTQ+ community. So to debunk Che executed LGBTQ+ people we need to talk about the source of this misconception fabricated by western medias.

Was Che Guevara homophobic? We have no evidence to confirm or deny, since the only thing of significance Che Guevara ever said about gay people, from The Motorcycle Diaries at age 24:

He was an introvert and was probably gay, too. The poor man was drunk and desperate because they hadn’t invited him to the party. He began to yell and insult people until some of them beat him up and gave him a black eye. This episode bothered us, because apart from him being a sexual pervert and a bore, we liked him.

Some edition of The Motorcycle Diaries might even just translated the description of the man as "sexual pervert." I can't speak Spanish and I have no copy of the book in the original language but what I have is an example of the other translation:

From Isaac Wess on Quora:

Che Guevara was probably homophobic to same extent that heterosexual men of his time were. He never wrote or spoke extensively about homosexuality or homosexual people and nothing exists to say he was an exceptional homophobe. He certainly did not call for the killing of homosexuals. Anyone telling you otherwise is simply misinformed or dishonest.

People often talk about how Guevara murdered gays and put them in camps and everything. Time for a history lesson.

The camps people are referring to are called UMAPs — Military Units to Aid Production. These were labor camps run by the Cuban government between November 1965 and July 1968 for people who did not want to or could not serve in the military. Openly homosexual people were barred from military service at this time and so were conscripted into camps where they suffered frequent abuse. Other people deemed a “counterrevolutionary” to the new Cuban regime were also present in the UMAP camps, such as religious folk, political enemies, and conscientious objectors. It is generally understood that the Cuban government was unaware of the injustices taking place, closing the UMAP system as soon as they were aware. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Cuba by 1979. The Cuban government continues to present the UMAP system as a mistake.

During the years of the UMAP system, Che Guevara held no public office in the Cuban government. His farewell letter to Fidel Castro months before the opening of any UMAP camps, in April 1965:

formally reject my positions in the leadership of the party, my post as minister, my rank of commander, and my Cuban citizenship. Nothing legal binds me to Cuba. The only ties are of another nature — those that cannot be broken as can appointments to posts.

Before the UMAP system even existed, Che had resigned from Cuban affairs, even leaving the nation for a stretch of time. He would ultimately make several appearances throughout the globe before his summary execution in Bolivia in 1967. No evidence exists to say Che Guevara was aware of the existence of the UMAP camps, meaning he could not be aware of its practices. He did not execute gays, or really anyone unjustifiably.

In conclusion:

Che Guevara was probably a homophobic since at the time he was alive (1928-1967) people who identified themselves as homosexuals were constantly prejudiced and abused.

It's a fact that gays were sent to camps (UMAPs) but before UMAPs even existed Che had already resigned from Cuban affairs.

The misleading informations were proven to be fabricated to diminish Che Guevara's image by the western media who were threatened by Che Guevara's presence.

Source:

#che guevara #fidel castro #marxism #communism #marxism leninism #communist #the motorcycle diaries

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after-the-end-times · 2 months ago

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The Gentleman's Lord

Rating: G 💘Words: 4.2k⚔️Tags: Love at First Sight, Regency Romance, No Period Typical Homophobia, First Meetings, Good Uncle Wayne @steddiebingo prompts: Love at First Sight 💘 and Regency AU ⚔️ Read on Ao3

Mr. Eddie Munson was visiting his uncle in the charming town of Hawkins, found in the sleepy country side, a two hour's ride from London. Eddie's uncle, Mr. Wayne Munson, had money from trade and thus would never be amiably welcomed in town, but he had found friends and comfort in the residents of Hawkins.

Eddie rode to his uncle's front gate and jumped off his horse, tossing the reigns to the waiting footman, and strode in the front door, all dramatic, spinning his riding cloak off to hand to Wayne’s butler.

"Uncle Wayne!"

He ran to his uncle who was coming out of his study, wrapping him up in a hug.

Wayne chuckled at Eddie's antics, he'd never truly taken to the upper crust’s ways of suppressing their emotions and gaiety, which both relieved and worried Wayne. In his private moments, he worried about his nephew being shunned by the snobs of London, for being loud and dramatic, for not being landowning, for joining society later in life. But out here, in the country side, he’d never try to damper Eddie’s enthusiasms.

"Eddie! It's good to see you! Come in. How was the trip? Safe travels I hope?"

"Not a single ruffian to be found, sadly." Eddie said, walking into the study and dropping into one of the overstuffed leather chairs that sat in front of a large desk covered in papers.

"Oh yeah,” Wayne replied dryly. “I’m so terribly sad I don’t have to ride out there and pick your stabbed body off the side of the road."

"No! But that's the thing! I took up fencing with some buddies in town after your last letters! Your stories of bodies being found in the lake made it sound like this quiet little sleepy town was over run with bandits! And yet, nary a one? How disappointing.” Eddie sent his uncle a grin to show that he wasn’t truly upset, just being melodramatic.

For while it was true, that Eddie had taken up fencing, he had failed to mention he hardly ever actually landed a jab on any of his friends. Though, to his continuing surprise, they also hardly ever landed a strike on him. So, should he have actually been stopped, his only hope was that the bandit would just give up and walk away after getting bored, which, unfortunately, was highly unlikely.

Thus, it was probably best that whatever had plagued his uncle’s village was gone now.

“Yes, I hadn’t gotten to writing an updated letter to you, but it does seem that someone dealt with it. Confoundingly, there’s been nothing satisfactory in the local gossip to explain who the perpetrator was or who handled it. We just had the final funeral this last Sunday and it seems most are ready to put this last summer behind us.”

“What do you mean? Did the Crown not send someone to investigate?”

“No, they deemed it a local issue. Told the vicar to send for the neighboring village’s constabulary.”

“And yet local gossip says they didn’t solve it?”

Wayne barks out an incredulous laugh. “Oh no, they rode in one afternoon, spoke to the families, decided it was someone just passing through, and left that evening. Just one of the joys of country living. I’d actually thought of hiring a private detective if it had continued.”

“You? Don’t you have local nobility?”

“Not sure they even know anything happened. The Baron and Baroness Harrington stay in London year round. Their son has been left here to take care of the estate and village for the last decade. They’ve never even sent for him to join them in town for the Season, though he’s about your age and should’ve courted years ago.”

Eddie leaned forward to poke at a the small globe, fingers spinning it faster and faster. “And yet he didn’t help find the murderer?”

“I believe he would have,” Wayne said, leaning back in his chair on the other side of the desk. “However, he was direly injured over a fortnight ago. And by the time he was well enough for visitors, there had been no more murders and the townspeople were ready to mourn and move on.”

“Are all small villages as exciting as this one? I would have taken you up on that offer to move out here with you if I’d have known!” Eddie slapped a hand down on the spinning globe and hopped up, stepping over to the side board. He grabbed a glass, poured himself a healthy two fingers of whiskey, and leaned his hip against the table. “Might still if the offer stands? London has gotten so stale lately.”

“Really? Carousing with your friends bores you now? You still going to the club at least?” Wayne asks, hoping Eddie hadn’t gotten kicked out of one of the most respectable gentleman’s clubs in London; he knows Eddie doesn’t care much about reputation and social standing, but Wayne knows both are incredibly important in this world, especially for them.

“Well, considering the last of us just got engaged, I don’t think there will be much more carousing for us.” He replies, turning to look at a painting hanging on the wall, sipping his drink.

It would look nonchalant to anyone else, but Wayne knows him. He gets up, going over to put a hand on Eddie’s shoulder.

“They’re still your closest friends, kid, even if they’ll be busy building families.” He pauses, knowing they’ve never really broached the topic before, “And what about you? Meet anyone this season? No one catch your eye?”

Eddie snorts and turns a sardonic smirk toward Wayne. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s in the cards for me.”

“Eddie.”

“No, it’s alright. I mean, if I haven’t met anyone at this point, then there’s probably no one out there for me, you know? And that’s fine! Maybe I’ll just...go explore the continent or something.”

“Eddie, didn’t you say your friend just got engaged? Just because you’re the last of your friends-”

“But that’s the thing! He’s at least had dalliances! Plus that one actress he was with whenever he had money for sparkly baubles. He just happened to have found his forever person this summer. While I-” He turns away from Wayne’s drooping, sad gaze, dropping back into his chair, scrubbing his hands over his face. “It’s fine, Uncle Wayne. I’ll just be alone forever. It’s not so bad, right? You’re happy alone. Right?”

Wayne looks down at Eddie, his nephew who has so much love and joy to share with someone. Wayne had made peace with being alone a long time ago; sure he had been lonely, but he was resigned to being fine. And then Eddie came to live with him, this tiny child who had already had such a hard life in just his seven years of life, and Wayne was filled with so much love. He knew what is was to be “just fine” and he wouldn’t have his kid live like that.

“Yeah, ‘course I’m happy, Eddie. I got you. And of course you can stay here. For as long as you need. Forever, if you want.”

Eddie swiftly stood and pulled Wayne into a hug, burrowing his face in Wayne’s shoulder like he used to as a kid. “Thanks Uncle Wayne.”

Eddie had gone back to London with Wayne’s carriage to pack up his apartment and get everything moved to Hawkins. With the season closing and his friends all moving out of London, he would have been left wallowing away alone anyway, so this change of plans and location was truly fortuitous.

He had decided it would be good to use the time with Wayne, and in Hawkins, to get used to a slower pace of life anyhow. There was a lot about his “life of carousing” in London he had failed to tell Wayne, but he had been honest about it becoming tiring.

Living with Wayne again, as an adult this time, did take a moment to get used to. Wayne had social obligations every day, he visited others and others visited them in the afternoon and Eddie was often asked to join, so he got to meet nearly every gossipy older resident in the village within the first week of being there.

Also, breakfast was put out unreasonably early and Wayne’s head butler had made it clear that the food would not sit out until Eddie finally woke up, thus Eddie was now rising at the near crack of dawn to break fast with Wayne. He was not used to such a strict schedule and how long the day was when he rose so early, but surprisingly he didn’t hate it.

It was on one such early morning a month into him living in Hawkins that the butler handed Eddie a calling card that made him drop his croissant. It wasn’t a surprise at this point for Eddie to get cards asking about calling on them, though the volume had slowed over the weeks.

The surprise was that this card was embossed on heavy card stock with “Lord Steve Harrington” on the front and, he flipped it over, a handwritten message on the back saying “I look forward to your visiting today. Please remember to bring a good pair of gardening gloves.”

How perplexing. He was sure he would have remembered meeting the Baron’s son and making plans to visit the estate.

“Wayne, I think this is for you.” He placed the calling card over next to Wayne’s plate and went back to his eggs.

Wayne glanced at it, toast in hand, and nudged it back toward Eddie. “‘Fraid not. You’re expected at noon. Better get dressed and let the stable hand know you need a horse saddled.”

“What’s happening right now?” Eddie crooked a confused smile toward Wayne. “You sick of seeing my face everyday?”

“‘Course not, kid. I love that you’re here. Just got to talking with young Harrington’s lady friend after church yesterday and thought you’d want to go meet some people closer to your age. There will be others there, not just you, so perhaps you’ll get some Hawkins friends out of this.”

“Ah, so it’s to be a play date then.”

“If that’s how you want to think of it, then sure. Go, have some fun. Try not to get too messy playing in the dirt.”

“Ha ha, joke’s on you. The card said to bring gloves, so there actually will be dirt involved.”

Wayne just quirked eyebrow and tapped his boiled egg til the shell cracked.

Eddie rode toward the Harrington Estate. He passed a large pond, probably stocked with all types of fish, on his left and rolling green fields on his right that abutted a dark wall of trees. His destination, an imposing house, stone darkened from age, ivy creeping up the entire right side, sat at the end of the long driveway.

He handed off his horse and bounded up the wide front steps, the door opened just as he hit the top step. Inside, he handed the butler his own calling card.

“I believe I’m expected?”

“Of course, sir, right this way.”

Eddie was led through a maze of dim, cold hallways heading toward the back of the manor. Cold apprehension was seeping into his veins and belly when they turned once more and warmth and light suddenly washed across him. The butler opened a door of wavy pane glass, ushering Eddie in.

A cacophony of voices talking over each other and bouncing off the glass walls and ceiling assaulted Eddie’s ears. No one had realized he had joined them quite yet and he took the moment to look around.

After the desolate house he just walked through, Eddie was struck by how much life was in this singular room. Sunlit and warm, lush plants edged the room, rows of wooden tables held pots of plants and dirt, and a wheeled chalk board at the front showed diagrams of different sections of a flower. Humid heat began to prickle along his hairline.

“Where am I right now?” He said aloud, not truly expecting to be heard over the noise. A curly haired young girl looked over and finally noticed him standing there just inside the doorway. Eddie tipped his head at her congenially, which she ignored to tap the shoulder of one of the arguing boys and pointed over at him when the boys turned to her. Eddie imagined he must’ve been in more awkward situations before, however he was hard pressed at that moment to think of one. One by one the kids turned to look at him.

Another curly haired kid, a boy this time, pushed through the group and stopped in front of Eddie. He aggressively stood up tall and held his hand out for Eddie to shake. “Dustin Henderson! And who might you be?”

Eddie smiled at Dustin, amused and charmed by the kid. He shook Dustin’s hand seriously, putting on airs as if they were noble peers meeting in London. “Eddie Munson, newly arrived from town. I was informed by my dear uncle this was the place to find all the who’s-who of the Hawkins ton. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Dustin Henderson. Won’t you do me the honor of introducing me to your friends?”

“Yes!” Dustin exclaimed, before he cleared his throat and continued, matching Eddie’s put-upon haughty tone. “Yes, please do follow me to over...yonder. We have already begun, but you may catch up without too much delay. The others will be oh, so pleased to meet another scholar...and one who is so much older! Eh hem, do pardon me. You will just have to teach us all you have learned.” He finished with a wide grin, eyes shining with playful curiosity.

If Dustin was any indication of the kids he was about to meet, Eddie would have to thank Wayne for setting up this play date, even if they were a good ten years younger than him. He had followed Dustin around the tables to stand before the group.

Dustin stood between Eddie and the group. “Everyone, this is Eddie Munson. Wayne’s his uncle. Eddie, this is Will, Elle, Maxine, Mike, Lucas, and his younger sister Erica.”

Eddie grinned at the group. “Pleased to meet you all. I just have one question.” He paused to look around the spacious greenhouse. “What are we doing here? I was told to show up and bring gloves and that was the end of the instructions. Are we waiting for someone? A professor? I was not prepared for a classroom learning situation.”

The kids laugh and start speaking over each other again.

“You’re clearly at the Harrington Estate!”

“You think we have a professor here?”

“We’re learning about botany!”

“That’s more than one question!”

“There’s an open spot next to me!”

Eddie gets pulled by the red headed girl, Maxine, to stand at her and Elle’s table. The boys lose interest in harassing Eddie and go back to whatever they had originally been discussing. He places his gloves on the wood table and a book thuds down in front of him.

“We’re learning about soil today, chapter five.”

“Thank you, Maxine.”

She sends him a disdainful side eye. “Max, never Maxine, unless you’re my grandmother. Dustin just thinks he’s hilarious...or was messing with you, no one ever knows.”

“Understood.” He starts flipping through the book. “So, who are we waiting for? I didn’t realize I was early, usually I’m quite fashionably late, in fact.”

She turned away from Elle to smirk him. “The lord and lady of the house are usually here by now. Not sure what’s keeping them.” She immediately turned back to speaking with her friend.

Sufficiently dismissed, Eddie looked around again. Realizing he was the only adult in the room, he decided to take it upon himself to go ask one of the staff where their lord and lady were. He exited the greenhouse and headed back down the cold hallway. He figured he didn’t really need to remember his way back to the front door, which would never happen on his own, he just needed to cross paths with a maid.

He kept his eyes peeled and glanced into every room and hall he passed, hoping to see any sign of life. With a manor of this size he should have seen several servants already, this entirely perplexing outing became even more confusing.

Finally he heard raised voices coming from behind a closed door he was about to pass. From the little knowledge he had about manor layouts, it should be Lord Harrington’s study. He looked around again for any servant to ask to knock on the door, but still there was no one around. He shrugged and knocked, apparently propriety didn’t live in this house. The voices immediately cut off.

A woman wearing a split skirt, suspenders, and a waistcoat opened the door while speaking, “Yes, Chalmers? Not Chalmers, pardon me. May I help you?”

An incredibly perplexing outing indeed. When unsure though, Eddie fell back on all his learned manners. “Good afternoon, miss. My name is Eddie Munson, I believe you spoke with my uncle, Wayne Munson, at church? He spoke very highly of you and the lord of this house. It has come to my attention, however, that there is a greenhouse full of-”

“Ugh!” The woman hit the palm her hand to her forehead and spun into the room. “Is it that late already? Steve, your children are waiting!”

Eddie followed her in, but stopped when she rounded a corner and went through another door, As he got a good look at his surroundings, he realized it wasn’t, in fact, an office at all, but a bedroom suit. Heat flushed across his cheeks. Oh, he really shouldn’t be here.

The woman walked back towards him, slapped him on the shoulder and walked pass him. “He’ll be out in a moment. I’ll go make sure the kids don’t destroy the place.”

And he was suddenly alone. And frozen in confusion. The woman had patted him on the shoulder like they were friends? But, he had never met her or this ‘Steve’ and he was still in the sitting area to his bedroom? He did a little spin that solved nothing.

“Robin! Where did you put that waistcoat I put out to wear today!” A very nice voice called out from the other room.

Eddie glanced around as if ‘Robin’ would mysteriously show. Nope. Guess this was all on him, again. Seemed to be the theme of the day.

He took a breath, shrugged his shoulders, and called out. “Robin’s not here right now! But I’m sure another waistcoat will look just as good! However, I’ve been informed we’re playing with soil today, so perhaps you want to wear one that hides dirt!”

Silence answered him.

Eddie pursed his lips and nodded to himself. Well, that went over well. He was probably about to be asked to leave the estate and never return. He looked to the door in indecisiveness when the door to the other room opened.

And the loveliest man he’d ever seen stepped out...nearly naked.

He wore wool trousers and a linen shirt, a hastily thrown on waistcoat hung open and unbuttoned, and an untied cravat hung around his neck. And he wore no jacket.

Eddie felt his earlier flush return ten fold and spread downward. His stomach tightened. He knees wobbled. Oh, no. He was suddenly sure he might need use of the room’s fainting couch, if only it wasn’t so far away. He knows he should turn away and leave now, they’ve never been introduced after all. Except.

Except, the man staring at him didn’t look like he was faring much better. He stood there stunned, looking at Eddie. His eyes were so very wide, his bottom lip sucked between his teeth, and he had a hand on the doorway as if to hold himself up.

Somehow, Eddie gathered his spinning thoughts to remember he was still standing before a baron’s son, undressed as he was and unintroduced as they were. He sent strength to his wobbling knees and gave a standard bow in greeting. “My lord.”

Lord Harrington released his grip on the door frame and walked toward him. They were of a height and yet, somehow, he seemed to look up at Eddie through long, dark lashes. He came to a stop before him and Eddie forgot how to breath.

“Please. Steve”

Eddie sucked in a breath, electricity zinged through his body. Lord Harrington couldn’t possibly mean- Eddie cleared his throat and asked, a touch too breathy for his liking, but alas. “Pardon, my lord?”

A smile spread across his face, eyes never leaving Eddie’s. “I would greatly appreciate it if you called me Steve. All my closest acquaintances do.”

Somehow that melted the tension from Eddie’s shoulders. His mouth pulled into a grin as he leaned in toward Steve, crowding much too close for propriety’s sake. “And are we close acquaintances, my lord?”

Steve grinned at his forwardness. “I’d like to be.”

“In that case, Steve, I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.” Giddiness lit up his belly, making him feel heady mix of fearless and bold. He lifted Steve’s hand and pressed his lips to his fingers. “You may call me Eddie.”

Steve giggled, surprising himself if the wide eyes and hand slapped across his mouth was any indication. Smiling gently, Eddie reached up grasping his wrist and pulling it away from his face. He lowered their hands and Steve wove their fingers together so they stood in front of each other holding hands.

Eddie thought he could stand like that forever, gazing into Steve’s eyes as if they held the universe within them, which they just might. Eddie had a sudden vision of them standing just like that in the little town’s chapel, sunlight flooding down, flowers draped all around.

Steve flicked his eyes down. Eddie’s his eyes fell to Steve’s lips. They swayed forward-

“Steve!” Robin burst through the door, face red, dirt falling out of her hair. “Your children are completely- Oh, my goodness!!”

Eddie yelped and ducked behind a settee.

Silence rang out in the room. Eddie peeked his head over the back and saw Steve sending him an incredibly unimpressed look, arms crossed and hip cocked. Robin had both hands slapped across her mouth, but her shoulders were shaking. Eddie knew he wouldn’t come out of this situation with any dignity left and stood up, swiping his hands down his jacket.

“My apologies, that was...unbecoming.” He stepped toward them. “Steve, will you do the introductions?”

“Steve?” Robin’s eye widened, staring.

“Yes, of course. Eddie, may I introduce you to my very closest friend, Miss. Robin Buckley.”

“Eddie?” If possible, her eyes got even bigger. After a moment’s hesitation she sketched a brief curtsy towards his and spoke, her voice just this side of cutting. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Munson. When I spoke to your uncle about your visit, I had no idea you two already knew each other so well.”

“Robin.” Steve said sternly. Their eyes held, eyebrows moving in secret communication. Robin’s mouth dropped into a silent oh, softened eyes flicking over to Eddie and back. Steve nodded, a small smile gracing his lips, before they turned mischievous. He reached out and swished dirt off her hair. “Is there a reason you have soil in your hair?”

“Your children.” She seethed. Steve just laughed at her narrowed eyed anger.

“They are a rambunctious group. Well, let’s go make sure they haven’t dug up the entire greenhouse.” He opened the door allowing Robin to go through first, he turned back, holding out a hand. “Eddie?”

Surprise flickered through Eddie. He did want to hold Steve’s hand, but in front of Robin and Steve’s kids? That’d be tantamount to an engagement announcement!

His earlier vision flickered through his mind, want coursing through him. Eddie walked over to Steve, held his gaze and slowly slide his hand into Steve’s. Steve sucked in a breath, wide eyes flicking up to Eddie’s.

Sudden doubt washed through Eddie. “Oh! Pardon, I thought-,” He tried to yank his hand back, but Steve held on tight. Eddie glanced up.

Upon seeing Steve’s determined gaze, Eddie was unable, unwilling to look away. He felt flayed open, Steve truly seeing him like no one else. And in that moment he realized he wanted Steve to see him, to know him. For the first time in his life all the thrumming fear and uncertainty just drained away, leaving him calm and settled. He stepped into Steve’s space, tucking their clasped hands against his chest and tilting his head quizzically. “Steve?”

Holding Eddie’s gaze, Steve pulled their clasped hands up, pressing his lips to Eddie’s knuckles. “I want to introduce you to my family. Is that- Would you like to meet them?”

And Eddie knew. Knew Steve was asking him something else entirely. Knew it was much too soon for the question they both wanted Steve to ask. And he knew he would say yes without hesitating.

“Yes, Steve, I’d love to meet your family.” Eddie said, suffusing his words with enough intent that Steve beamed. Eddie turned toward the hallway, tucking Steve’s hand into the crook of his elbow. “Lead the way, my lord. Your children await.”

addendums

I have way too many extra thoughts about this universe: 1) Steve taught himself all about botany and gardening and now teaches his kids (the youth of the town) everything he knows 2) They all definitely got involved in the "serial killer" situation. Steve ended up injured and concussed when they defeated them. 3) Uncle Wayne was definitely setting Eddie and Steve up on purpose. He may or may not play matchmaker around the village. 4) Steve's in charge of the upkeep of the estate even though it should all be entailed. His parents, the Baron and Baroness, have moved most of their wealth to taking care of their London home. Steve has closed off most of the estate and uses the majority of the funds for grounds crew, kitchen, and the village responsibilities. 5) Steve saw Eddie walking in the village after he moved in with Wayne and he later told Robin all about seeing the most beautiful man in the world right there in their little village. Robin was highly skeptical since they know everyone in the village and no one had ever stood out to Steve before. Robin didn't know that Wayne's nephew, Eddie was Steve's "Most Beautiful Man in the World" when she made the invitation. 6) Steve and Eddie get married the next spring

#steddie #stranger things #I guess I have a writing tag now #steddiebingo2025 #eddie munson #steve harrington #ficlet

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