#my hair is still a bit more brown than my natural color

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

Fuck dysphoria, dresses are the coolest shit ever and I need to start wearing them more

[oatmealthighs]

bigbro!choso x blackfem!babysitter!reader

ᯓ ᡣ𐭩 contents: nsfw 18+, MDNI. overstimulation, rough sex, mutual pining, breeding kink, masturbation. i guess a lil stalking? choso's last name is itadori, yuji is a lil one, reader is black-coded and depicted to be a bit thick. but yea gets pretty nasty. minors gtf back

ᯓ ᡣ𐭩 author's note: yea this is a bit more self-indulgent than i'd like to admit.... but nonetheless! i still hope yall like it! inspired by this work of art

“so you're the new babysitter, huh?”

his voice was so deep. it rumbled through your every limb, made every hair prick up against your melanated skin. your throat went dry as you looked up at the man so casually leaning against the doorframe to his quaint, humble home, towering over you as he observed you almost menacingly.

as choso itadori looked down at you with indifferent eyes, you couldn't stop your own from scouring, observing the way the black tee he had on was tight in all the right places, hugging and squeezing at his muscular biceps and clinging to his formed chest. his brown hair was tied up, spiky locks in two ponytails. black jewelry adorned his ears all the way up to the helix.

you felt small, under investigation as his dark orbs intensely pierced through your own. but you didn't waver, it was never in your nature to showcase your uncertainty. instead you smiled, glossed lips parting to show your pretty teeth. “yep, that's me! my name is [name].” of course choso already knew that, and maybe a bit more that he didn't plan on sharing with you. he had no shame when it came to investigating who he was entrusting the care of his baby brother to, yuji being his heart and rib, the only family he had left on this entire planet. he'd die for him, kill for him, do worse if it came down to it. but with you, all that extra shit didn't seem necessary to make clear.

choso knew you looked good from your instagram he managed to find after some digging, but your posts didn't capture the true, full essence of your beauty. the camera didn't necessarily capture the way your brown skin glowed and shimmered in light, or accentuate your curves like how they looked now. you smelled sweet, like yams and vanilla. the magenta yoga set you wore clung to your skin tantalizingly, outlining your curvy silhouette and the top zipped down just a little low to show a little cleavage. your hair was styled* into a neat bob, bluntly cut just above your shoulders, not a single hair out of place. your lips were lined a dark coffee brown and ombré’d into the pink natural color of your skin, coated with sparkly gloss. your large glasses sat on the bridge of your wide nose, a french-tipped nail pushing them higher up. choso continued to feign disinterest, but he knew the darkening scarlet brushing over the tips of his ears might be what would give him away if you took any notice.

luckily enough, your attention was drawn elsewhere, the sound of toddler yuji cooing as he waddled through the living room towards the front door making your eyes widen with adoration. you kneeled down to his height, yuji’s big brown eyes finding yours and him sending you a gummy smile. “and this must be yuji! ohh, you’re the cutest thing! making my heart swell.”

choso needed you for a short while, just until he could find a new daycare for his little brother. between him working over forty hours a week and using the weekends to focus on bonding with yuji and resting up, he never really had the time. or more-so, seeing how well yuji gravitated to you, how he began asking about you by just saying your name during bath time, how he always cried when you left, was what made it drop lower and lower on his priority list.

you were much more help than he expected you to be, and did far more than what he was paying you to do, which resulted in the extra hundred dollar bills he would sneak into your cherry coach bag every evening. it was the least he could do: you made meals, helped clean, always put yuji down to bed before you left. even did the laundry as needed. you insisted it was okay when choso told you you didn't have to bother yourself with tasks that weren't in the job description, and that you didn't want or expect anything extra out of it. but you stopped fighting against his generosity… not that there was ever a struggle.

some nights required choso to stay later, long past his typical return time of six o’clock, and some nights he wouldn’t return until 2am. he would come in from a particularly tiresome day at the hospital in his his grey scrubs and his hair pulled into a low ponytail. he would never be surprised to find you laying on the large sectional sofa, glasses still on but your bonnet tied tight around your head, under one of the extra blankets with your phone replaying a tiktok. choso always had the guest bedroom prepared for you but it was always all for naught, as the couch seemed to be your preferred place of choice. it was so soft, it had to be well over a thousand bucks. he never disturbed you, you deserved your sleep. at most, he’d shut your phone off and turn down the tv, and head upstairs to shower and prep for bed himself. he’d often hear you leave the house later that night or early in the morning.

choso was the strong, silent type most of the time. he was an action-driven man– if he didn’t say it he would show you. you knew he liked you for his baby brother when he asked how did you feel about hanging around yuji for a bit longer than anticipated one evening while you were just about to leave out for the day. or when he would sneak those crisply folded blue bills into your bag. you wondered what he did for work one day, and you asked him. he was an anesthesiologist, he said. and you knew he was rolling in the money then.

there were no signs of a woman in his life from what you’ve seen. no feminine hygiene products in the bathroom, no pictures, no particular scent aside from your own aroma of sweetness. no mentions of a “she”... not that you’ve ever talked about it. you wanted to pop the question, but you didn’t want to weird him out- you opted to just “keep things professional.” but shit, it was hard sometimes. choso was a nice-looking man, with a height of 6’3”, a hard, muscular build, and dark eyes that made you shudder when he looked down upon you with them. sometimes he would come home after a vigorous work-out at the gym if he had the pleasure of getting off on time, wearing a black underarmour compression shirt that would be so damn tight you’d see every sculpt and cut of his meticulously defined upper body. his hair would be down, brown tresses clinging to his strong neck, thick eyebrows knitted together at the feeling of sweat and perspiration sticking to his skin and his growing need to shower. you would be in the kitchen, just cleaning up since you wrapped dinner up not too long ago, and the smell would make his stomach borderline roar at him. he’d shower, then come back in a tee and grey sweatpants, damp hair hanging as he sat at the table and basically ripped apart whatever you had prepared for him.

sometimes, you’d be in a rush to go home. not because choso would make you uncomfortable or anything. never that… but you knew your body. you knew that warm pool of heat in between your legs meant nothing but trouble, and was something that needed to be handled, preferably asap. you’d rush into your little apartment, make a beeline to your bedroom and strip down to your bare skin before jumping into your silk pink sheets. you’d grab your vibrator and press it to your clit desperately, pussy squeezing around nothing as you threw your head back against the soft pillows. you’d pinch your brown nipple, bottom lip trapped in between your teeth as you moved your vibrator in small little circles. more and more, you’ve began imagining choso in between your legs, his large hands parting your thick thighs like the red sea as he ate you out, his tongue lashing at your clit and slurping up your honey like a man parched. you imagined him pinning you against a wall with those brawny arms of his, knees pressed to your chest as he pounded you, burying himself to the hilt as your pussy squeezed his thick, long dick like a vice. it would be so nasty… you could only imagine the way you’d be cumming around him, how he’d make you cream and release until you’re ran dry.

sometimes when you finish, you’ll feel ashamed, throwing your vibrator to the end of the bed as you squeezed your legs together and hid under the comforter with embarrassment. other times… not so much. the fire would still be stirring and burning within you, begging for something more, for you to truly be filled. there were times you were a smidgen too close to calling up one of your old flings, just to fulfill your desire of being stretched out once again and to just imagine the man over you was your employer instead.

your feelings didn’t go completely unrequited.

choso held his tongue for the greater good of professionalism and your comfortability, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t contemplate asking you to dinner a few times. from what he’s seen and observed on your insta, you didn’t have a special somebody. and he figured it would never hurt to ask. but choso was careful. he often opted to just not say anything.

he felt his gazes getting longer, his eyes moving more risky every time he’d see you moving about in his home working. he picked up that you really liked two piece sets, especially the ones made of sculpting spandex that always clung to your body almost provocatively. the way your ass sat in them, he was almost embarrased to say he dreamed about grabbing a handful of it, palming one of your cheeks with his entire hand. your glossed lips always caught his attention. he often thought about how it would look smudged on his skin, smeared across his own lips after tonguing you down.

your smell lingered. on the furniture, in the blankets, hung in the air. it was embarrassing how the scent of shea butter and vanilla was enough alone to make his dick stiff. it’s been so long since he’s rubbed one out. and he was doing a good job until you came along. he wasn’t proud to admit the amount of times he’s touched himself to you, his hips rolling his dick up into the clenched palm of his hand, soft squelching sounds filling his master bedroom. he’d imagine how you’d ride him, slamming your hips down against his own, your ass flush against his skin as you moan sweet nothings into his ear while he tried his damnedest to not nut in you.

the tension was growing thick. it could be sliced with a chainsaw at this point. but the both of you both opted to play it safe. until it spilled over… and it was bound to happen.

and it did.

"ouuuu, shit, choso!" the way that man was absolutely drilling you from behind was almost criminal, the deafening sound of his hips cracking against your fat ass echoing throughout the sound of the living room as he was trying his best to fuck you through the couch he had you drooling on.

you really don't know how you got here. well... you do. after all, this was the day you've been plotting and hoping on the moment you first seen choso's fine ass leaning against his doorway. it was like a dream come true, watching the way he deliciously hovered over you like predator over prey, his silky brown tresses draping around his sharp facial structure and his silver chain dangling, swinging in cadence with his hard, deep thrusts.

the two of you were just watching a movie, mr. & mrs. smith to be exact, courtesy of the invitation he extended earlier that night when you put yuji down for bed. an opportunity to "get better acquainted" over wine, gourmet chips, chocolates and a good action-romance.

"i see the way you look at me," you had stated boldly as you sipped your third glass of wine, the pillar to your sudden courage. "i know you notice how i look at you, too."

choso was sprawled out on the couch, legs spread and his arms thrown over the top. his head rested in one of his big hands, gazing at you through heavy-lidded eyes. he's silent for a moment as he looks at you so intently, his orbs filled with need, before he finally diverts his gaze to the tv. "yeah."

you look at the tv for a bit, not interested at all actually, but feigning it as you finished your glass. it was silent for a bit, albeit the sound of gunfire and car collisions booming through the in-home sound system, before choso speaks, "you can sit closer."

your scooting closer somehow led to you sitting in his lap, which led to a passionate, sloppy makeout session involving you straddling his firm thighs and his big hands gripping your entire ass in his palms as your tongue dived into his mouth. and all that led to him softly laying you on to the couch cushions, your lips never leaving each other's.

his lips are as soft as they look, yet leave scorching flames of desire in their wake as he litters passionate kisses all over your jugular and chest. he buries his nose into your skin, almost moaning at how sweet you smell and taste. as he continues to trace his name on your skin with his tongue, his fingers find the zipper to your purple yoga jacket, his eyes peering at up at yours through his thick lashes to ensure he has your approval.

you nodded your head gently.

choso made it his mission to show you he had much more to offer than some blue bills to you. you never depicted or predicted the guy to be an eater. but oh, were you pleasantly surprised.

that man can eat some pussy... and he does it like he gets paid to do it. he had you spread out like you were his dinner, and you were, your legs wide apart, knees bent. he sat on his haunches on the carpeted floor before you, spreading your lips apart and sloppily sucking at your clit that throbbed eagerly against his lips. he'd dip his head down, lapping up any of your leaking wetness before making out with your pussy yet again, his eyes trained on you and watching intently as your pretty face contorted into expressions of pleasure.

he'd make you cum all in his mouth, encouraging you to do so, never letting up as your thighs shook and vibrated, your eyebrows pushing together and your eyes fluttering shut as the bright hot warmth of your well-awaited orgasm overtook you, leaving you gasping for air. his compliments, "good girl," and "you taste so fucking good" would just get you all riled up again. choso came in his pants too, his ear tips bright red as he made it his duty to lick up all of your sweet nectar, but he kept that to himself.

that's not the only way he wants you though. he'll sit on his bottom on the floor next, his head resting against the couch, requesting for you to sit on his face. "what? choso, no, i'd crush you."

he'll take that as an insult of course. he benches twice your weight, easily. a little extra plush on the thighs wouldn't kill him, in fact, he'd love it ten times more. you'd saddle up, hesitantly brushing your pussy against his lips, and he'd look up at you, unimpressed.

"whaat?" you feign confusion, in reality, a bit shy and nervous at the thought of putting your weight on him.

"sit."

his words made every hair stand at attention against your skin, sending a shiver down your spine. you bite your lip, your gloss long smeared off and all over his pale skin. you bring your weight down on him a bit more.

"all the way." fuck.

you do as you're told, and a deep moan of satisfaction rolls through him, his tongue already dipping into your dripping folds. and before you could even think about letting up, his strong arms are locked around your thick thighs.

he'd have you writhing in his grip, going insane at the way his tongue wrote love letters in cursive against your clit. he'd be damn near drowning in your release, your cum slicking and dribbling against his chin as you rolled your hips back and forth against his soft lips. you were chanting his name like a mantra, and it was a beautiful melody to his ears.

and lo and behold, that's how you ended up on a first class flight to poundtown, your eyes stuck in the back of your head and your manicured nails digging into the arm of the couch for personal brace as his huge dick kept brushing up against that soft spot of yours and his girth stretched you so damn good. you knew you were making a mess- you done squirted twice already, your juices rivering down the insides of your thighs and seeping into the soaked couch cushion below you. "fuck, please don't stop!"

"yeah?" choso breathes over you, his cheeks flushed pink from his endurance. you knew he wasn't slowing down no time soon... he told you about his daily four mile runs. his pupils were blown wide as he watched the way you managed to still throw it back at him, stilling his hips as he watched your hungry pussy swallow his length every time your ass sat plush on his lower stomach. "you like that shit?" his calloused palm smacked against your ass unforgivingly, the fiery sting setting you ablaze. he did it again, one more time for good measure.

you were losing it, moaning exasperatedly into the couch fabric as you gave him everything you got, tossing your ass back against him, trying to match the impact he was winding you with just a second ago. "yess, fuck yess," you whine. you reach your hand back, your nails clawing at his shirt and yanking it in a ball. "please, choso, keep fucking me like that."

"what, like this?" his large hands were at your lovehandles, squeezing the flesh there as his resumed his relentless rythym, his eyebrows pinching at the way you squeezed around him like a vice. you let out a wail, your cream decorating his veiny shaft, and he relished in the feeling, a deep groan of satisfaction bubbling from his throat. "shit, you just keep cumming.... what is this, your fourth time?"

actually your sixth, but you weren't gonna correct him. if there was anything you knew, you wanted more. the way the veins of his dick dragged against your walls was a wonderful, irreplicable feeling, his balls slapping your clit with each profound stroke. his thick fingers found your hair, tangling his hand in your locks and giving them a courteous yank, making your back cave and arch deeper as you let out a yelp of pleasure. any other time, you'd for sure cuss him out... but his dick touching your soul was plenty good of a distraction. besides, you knew your hair was long sweated out anyway.

he was gonna give you some money for a new hairstyle anyway. he was good for making up for it.

choso feels himself teetering against the edge, between the sounds of your disgusting squelching and the mess you left on him and his couch, your pussy still begging for more as it and all its sloppiness still squeezed him whole, and your pretty keens and gasps bouncing around the room, it was almost too much. he felt like he was losing it, the hearts in his eyes palpitating as both of his hands held your jaw from behind. "the fuck are you doing to me..." he mutters aloud, his eyebrows furrowed as you eagerly sucked on his thumbs with a slutty moan.

"you know, yuji gets lonely sometimes," he whispers, slowing his thrusts and leaning forward to crush you with his weight, his dick bottoming out and making you let out a cry as your eyes snapped wide open. he rolls his hips more sensually as he licks at the back of your nape, the cool metal of his chain brushing the skin of your back and making you shiver. his lips trail to your ear, tongue lolling out at the shell as he continues, "i'm sure he wouldn't mind a friend. you'd like that wouldn't you? for me to fuck you full until i got nothing left, huh? you gonna drain me of all i got?"

you nodded your head desperately as you hummed a whiny "mmhm", turning your head to the side as you watched in awe as the man over you was spilling over the edge. "yes, i'd love it, cho, give it to me... please?"

choso hums in satisfaction, his heart thrumming against his ribcage as your words made butterfly cocoons hatch in his stomach and his dick stiffer than ever before. "yeah..." he slams into you, winding you with power and force that insinuated that he hated you, but he'd only make such a dangerous, promising offer to someone he truly liked. let alone anyone at all. "i know you would. you're nasty as fuck."

you didn't know if you were to be terrified or turned on, but the way your core pulsated around him let you know you were the latter. he let out a breathy moan at your physical response, but it didn't stop him. not even for a second.

he wasn't letting up. you weren't getting any breaks. the way you would be teasing him wearing those tight ass clothes and smelling like you wanted him to eat you alive. nah. he was giving you everything you ever dreamed about, everything you imagined when you'd resort to using your little vibrator between your legs.

and you loved every fucking second of it.

[moonstruckme]

babe you’ve got me obsessed with doctor remus!

can i request a drabble where reader gets into like a car accident and has been taken into a&e with like mid/severe injuries and remus has been assigned to treat her?

if not then that’s fine! love your work bae 🎀

Hi gorgeous! Thank you for requesting (I'm obsessed with him too) :)

cw: hospital

doctor!Remus x fem!reader ♡ 716 words

The nurse leaves, and you think you might finally get more than five seconds to yourself but then the curtain pulls back again, a tall doctor taking her place. You’ve been able to feel your heartbeat pulsing through every inch of you since you’d stumbled out of your smoking car, and this new man doesn’t help matters. 

He’s lovely. With a face smattered with warm freckles and silvery scars and a mop of brown hair that looks like it’s never once been brushed, this is the kind of person who would fluster you on a normal day. Now, you don’t even know the word to describe the effect he has on you. 

He has to ask his question a second time before you hear it. 

“Have you had allergic reactions to any medications?” 

You blink. It still feels like reality is moving at twice its usual speed. You don’t know if it’s just you shaking, but it feels like the whole room. “Uh, no. Sorry.” 

“That’s alright.” The doctor’s voice is businesslike but kind, with a Welsh lilt. He flips a page on his clipboard. “Anything we weren’t able to address in the ambulance? Any new aches and pains?” 

“I—I don’t think so.” 

He lowers the clipboard slightly, looking at you. His eyes are a lightish brown color, like honey left too long in the sun. “Has anyone talked you through grounding exercises?” 

You feel your brow wrinkle. “What?” 

He almost smiles. “I’ll take that for a no.” He sets down his clipboard on the edge of your bed, pulling up a rolling chair and sitting down in front of you. “I’m going to have you breathe with me for a minute, alright, sweetheart?” 

It’s not in your nature to contradict professionals, but you feel your head shaking as if from somewhere outside of yourself. “Why?” you ask. “Aren’t there more important things?” 

“There are still things left to do,” he allows, seeming unaffected by your questioning, “but you’re stable. It’s nothing that can’t wait for a few minutes, and it’s important that you’re calm so you can think properly.” He takes your hands in his, ignoring the odd padding of the splint around your broken wrist and holding your fingertips instead. “All I need from you is for you to copy my breathing. Can you do that for me?” 

You nod. As he starts to talk you through it, your eyes begin to sting, an effect of his gentle tone or the respite your body has been craving or both. Your doctor’s expression doesn’t change when he sees the silver lining your eyes, but he gives your fingertips a light squeeze. 

“Okay, in for eight this time,” he says in that lulling voice. “Good job, just keep at it.” 

You manage to breathe in for long enough to satisfy him, and after the exhale he drops your hands. 

“Well done,” he murmurs, mindful of the small cuts on your face as he thumbs away your tears. “Are you feeling a bit better?” 

“Yeah,” you answer honestly. The word comes out like a sigh, and his lip curves softly at the plain relief in the sound. 

“Happy to hear it. You were right earlier, there’s still plenty left to do,” he says, expression sombering somewhat as he looks at you intently, “but if you ever need a break, you tell me or someone else, okay? I don’t want you suffering in silence.” 

“Okay.” You wet your lips, feeling much more solid than you had a few minutes before. The world has slowed to its regular speed. “Sorry, I don’t think I got your name.” 

He smiles, which is altogether too charming for a place like this. It makes the long scar going across his cheek crinkle slightly and you could swear his eyes lighten a shade. “Well, see, that’s how I know you weren’t really with me when you came in, because we’ve already been introduced.” His expression lets you know he hasn’t taken any offense, but your face still heats at your impoliteness. “It’s Doctor Lupin, but you can call me Remus.” 

Something in you rings at this new knowledge, like a tuning fork has been struck. Remus, your consciousness echoes quietly. 

His smile softens. “We’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other today.”

[kookslastbutton]

Too Late to Dream ༓ jjk (m) || ch.I

✑ Summary: You did it. You married your college professor. You even bought a house together. Against all odds, everything had fallen into place. But after two years of marriage, you begin feeling something was missing. You want a baby but your husband can’t say the same.

Pairing: economics professor!jungkook x fem!artist!reader

AU/Genre: angst, smut, fluff, marriage au, age gap, series

Rating: M, 18+

Word Count: 4,187

Warnings: 8-year age gap, mentions of professor-student relationship (oc was a Masters student), flirty banter, fighting, jk has a bit of a temper, pent-up issues/desires, jk has daddy issues

Now Playing: Make It Right, Tryna Be, Infinity, Heaven+

A/N: Okay I have been having such baby fever for last few years no joke. I wanna be mom or aunty but my sister won’t have kids yet! So i write this lame series to cope even though it's lowkey sad? lmao. Enjoy!! 🥰

༓ ch. II >> | series masterlist

You’re not exactly sure when it happened but one minute you’re crouched over, sketching in your journal and the next, a child with big brown eyes comes up beside you to watch over your shoulder. He’s a cute little fella, you note. Can't be more than four years old. His hair is ink-black and on the longer side. He’s got on a pair of black and white checkered pants, navy blue sweatshirt, and a toy snug under one arm. At first glance, you struggle to make out the toy but it looks like an elephant.

“Hi…” His hand reaches for you. It tugs the edge of your dress sleeve before reaching down to latch onto a few fingers. You smile up at the child, warmth immediately beaming through your heart.

“Hi sweetheart,” you say. “What’s your name?” You wait for the boy to answer but he doesn’t. Instead, he shuffles down next to you on the grass and points to your drawing. His delicate eyebrows knit together in an inquisitive manner. “What is this?” he asks.

You look down at your drawing, examining it from various angles. It's unfinished but you're working on a sketch of the pond nearby. You've managed to capture the sun-kissed water but the sky needs more work. Being the weekend, you couldn't give up the rare opportunity to indulge in your favorite hobby. “It’s the pond with all the colorful leaves,” you reply.

Blank face, the child thinks before speaking again. “Who taught you?”

Now that's an interesting question. Drawing had always been in your blood since a child. You fell in love with the ability to let your imagination run wild on paper whether it be on the back of your homework or even cardboard. To you, drawing was freedom and discovery. It allowed you to express emotion, memories, abstract thoughts, and to recreate the real world. You typically preferred sketching with drawing pencils but occasionally dabbled with watercolors. You had a gift for it–a natural gift.

By the time high school rolled around, you tended to hole up in the art room, sketching for as long as you could. Your art teacher suggested you go to school for it come senior year which gave you enough push to bring it up to your parents. Determined, you spoke to your parents about it but it was null–art could only be a hobby, it couldn’t support your future. They suggested you go to school for economics or finance instead. You nearly hurled at the idea but you eventually agreed, knowing they’d never pay for you to go to art school. Drawing, as you found out, had to be on the side.

"I had a teacher once in school," you say. "But I mostly learned myself."

The child tilts his head to the side, a puzzled look on his face. “You?”, he says.

You nod your head in affirmation.

“No way! Even I have art teacher.”

You chuckle lightly and move to stand up from the grass, needing to stretch due to your crouched position. He follows suit, still clinging to your hand. “Where you going, Eomma?”

Eomma...That's a name you don't get called often. You're not used to being seen as the mom type. In fact, when you tied the knot with Jungkook, the two of you agreed that having a family was a grey area. You both liked kids, sure, but being parents? That was a subject neither of you seriously considered. “I’m sorry sweetheart,” you coo. “I’m not your Eomma. But, let’s find her together, okay?”

The child shakes his head, refusing to budge. "Mm no," he says, clinging to your leg. "Wanna stay with you." Your heart skips a beat. Children don't typically take to you like this. It causes something inside of you to want to lunge down and pick up the child in a tight embrace. But you nip that thought in the bud when you catch sight of a woman roughly your age jogging toward you. She looks like the child’s mother.

“Si-woo!” She gives a wave. "Si-woo come here!"

“Eomma!” The child’s cheeks rise into a big grin as he watches his mom approach nearer. He lets go of your leg but his hand remains locked in your own. You end up squeezing Si-woo’s tiny hand but then, like a bitter aftertaste, you remember– he doesn’t belong to you. You loosen your grip and allow him to run back to his mom.

“It was nice meeting you Si-woo!” There’s a hint of sadness in your tone but you do your best to brush it off. You only knew Si-woo for a short while and now he’s back with his real mom. You should be happy but when Si-woo’s mom lifts her son, she gives you a scowl. She doesn’t even come up to say anything to you but turns around and carries her son back to their picnic area. You frown realizing you were merely a stranger who little kids are told not to talk to.

You sigh and glance at your unfinished drawing. Suddenly, you don’t feel like drawing anymore. You pack up your belongings in your bag and head to your car, the event replaying in your mind.

You can’t blame Si-woo’s mom for being a little rigid, you think. You’d share a similar reaction with your own kids if you had any–if you had any. You repeat the phrase unexpectedly. Were you warming up to the idea? Your marriage did recently surpass the two-year mark, perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to consider having…no, you mentally stop yourself. Yes, Si-woo was cute but it likely wouldn't happen. You toss your bag of art supplies in the back seat and drive home.

“Jungkook! You here?” You step into your shared apartment and drop your bag on the kitchen counter. The smell of burnt wax mixed with vanilla bean hits you as soon as you walk into the living room. “Jungkook you better be home or these candles are going in the trash!” You really didn’t mind the candles but your husband had a nasty habit of keeping them lit even when you were both out of the house. He didn’t do it on purpose, of course, it was accidental but it was too much of a fire hazard to ignore.

“Kook!” you holler again, but no reply. These damn candles. You snuff them out one by one before venturing into the bedroom. Thankfully none were lit in there. You reach behind your back and unzip your dress, letting it pile around your feet. It's a beautiful dress but you were dying to get into a pair of sweat shorts and a t-shirt.

“Hey honey,” Jungkook says, emerging from the bathroom with damp hair and a towel tied around his waist. You let out a yelp before making eye contact. You've always been easily startled. “How was the park?”

Mentally, you bite your lip. This man was getting sexier every day, especially with that gold band wrapped around his fourth finger. You toss a t-shirt over your head. “Absolutely wonderful. Been a while since I’ve been able to really focus and draw. I loved every second." Should you mention the child? You pause, briefly contemplating the thought. Why not? "A really cute kid came up to watch me draw too…’til his mother took him away.” You don't notice but you nearly spat the last part.

Jungkook lets out a small snort, amused by your sudden irritation. There were many things he knew you could put up with, a resilient woman you were. But whoever this kid’s mother was must have gotten under your skin in the most unusual way. “It’s great you had a good time but you sound borderline offended about whoever this kid’s mother is.”

“It’s nothing really.” You shrug. “The kid came up to me and grabbed my hand. We had a nice talk but then his mom showed up. She didn’t even say hi to me. She just picked up her son and scowled at me like I took him or something. Believe me, I get it. But I didn’t do anything!”

“Don’t think about it too much __. She was probably just worried about getting her son back. I’m sure she did mean anything.”

“I guess. But do I really look that harmful?” You face your husband, hands perfectly poised on your hips.

Jungkook strides over to you and strokes down your arms until your hands relax to your sides. He gives you a quick peck on the lips. “Yes.”

Surprised, your mouth falls open. How dare he?! You give a pout, one that Jungkook finds especially irresistible. “Then you can keep your hands and lips off me for the rest of the night, Mr. Jeon.” You wiggle out of his grasp.

“That’s what I’ve been telling you for the past four years Ms. y/l/n. But you couldn’t stay away, could you? Just had to marry your hot professor, you naughty girl.” Jungkook grabs you again, pressing himself against your torso. You squeal at the contact. Married for two years and you’re still a blushing mess, get it together __!

“I wasn’t the one who was grabbing my student’s ass after class halfway through the first semester,” you quip, gripping his biceps. “I’m innocent.”

“Oh honey, nonono. You don’t get to play the role of a shy little angel who got eaten by her big bad wolf of a professor day one of university. You were already a master's student when we met. You knew what you were getting into when you started wearing tight little skirts to my class.”

You roll your eyes. “C’mon I had leggings underneath and I wore sweaters. If you’re accusing me of seducing you through my wardrobe then you have a very odd way of getting turned on.”

“Honey, how long have you known me? Sure tits and ass are cool and I won’t say no if you wanna show me.” You give a light shove on his shoulder at that, Jungkook chuckles. “But I have a doctorate in economics. Nothing catches my interest more than a studious individual like yourself studying all the angles of supply and demand. Plus, I liked your sweaters. Made me curious what you were hiding.”

“Oh stop it!” You end up giggling at your husband’s beyond-cheesy explanations. “How am I supposed to know my economics professor was ogling my teddy bear sweater for fuck sake?”

Jungkook throws his head back, feigning frustration. “It wasn’t a teddy bear sweatshirt. It was a bunny and it was very cute!”

“Whatever. Point is, I’m not the one to blame. I was a good student getting her master’s like her parents wanted until she found out her professor was sculpted from the gods themselves. Your shirts were barely fitting you. I swore they were going to bust one of those class periods.” You imagine the horrified look your peers would give. Not you though, you'd probably start drawing him. Shameless, really.

“As I recall that shirt-busting happened many times by your claws. I had to replace a dozen shirts in a month from how many you destroyed.” A pair of manly hands sensually trace down your sides. Jungkook leans forward, lips near your ear. “Seems like you had a lot of pent-up energy.” He nips your ear before peppering small kisses down your neck.

“You have no idea.“ You close your eyes, a moan escaping from you. "Professor–"

Jungkook grunts, suddenly suckling on the sensitive skin. “Mmm you haven’t called me that in a while. Kinda missed it”, he says, backing you up against the dresser. You were about to hop on top when your ass hit the edge but a rude, obnoxious ringing pulled Jungkook off you.

“Hey man!” Your husband answers the phone, a little too joyous in your opinion. You knew exactly who it was on the phone–Park Jimin. You bite your cheek, doing your best to keep down a sour face.

“Yeah let me ask __. Hold on.” Jungkook looks at you. “Honey, Jimin wants us to go out to dinner with the guys. You wanna go or stay in?”

Maybe, you think. You love Jimin but his dinners are usually quite elaborate. He always makes reservations to the fanciest restaurants in Seoul, and he required everyone to be dressed to the hills. It was fun now and then but did you have the energy for that tonight? Eh. What the hell. “Sure. What time?”

Jungkook passes on your inquiry before looking at you again. “6 p.m.” You nod in consent and walk to your closet, rummaging through your clothes for something Jimin-worthy. “Alright man, we’ll see you there. Yeah got it, k bye.” Jungkook hangs up the phone and watches you pull out dress shirts, pants, blazers, literally all your work clothes. “Found anything?” he pipes up.

You pull out a dark green dress, above knee-length, and gorgeously hemmed. “I’m pretty sure I wore this last time but–“

“Next," Jungkook interrupts. "Jimin will notice and you know how he gets when people wear the same outfit twice in a row.” your husband fiddles with through his own dresser drawers, yanking out an oversized t-shirt. You groan knowing all too well how tight Jimin ran this operation. One time Namjoon came in the same maroon dress shirt as before causing Jimin to have an absolute fit. He even made the man go home and change. Dinner was late that night.

“Yeah, you’re right.” You rummage through your closet again hoping to find something tucked in the back. There’s bound to be something. “Damnit, I thought I had more than this,” you grunt, finding nothing.

“Do we need to go on a last-minute shopping trip?” Jungkook throws on a pair of cargo pants.

You groan internally. Shopping isn't your favorite activity. It always took so long, and nothing was to your liking. You prefer online shopping but with only three hours until dinner and apparently nothing in your wardrobe, you suppose it's inescapable.

“Come on, honey.” Jungkook combs through his hair with a few fingers and grabs his wallet from the nightstand. “This is for Jimin."

"Alright, let me put some jeans on.” Jimin, you bougie little punk.

You view yourself in the dressing room mirror, a plum-colored dress adorning your body. This is the tenth dress you've tried on and to be honest, you feel pretty good in it. Nothing feels itchy, too snug, or out of place. The dress was a simple, strapless sheath dress and it fit you like a glove.

"__." Jungkook taps on the door. "You're not gonna like what I have to say but it's inevitable…there's been a change of plans."

"Okay," you reply with strain. "What is it?" You unlock the door to find your husband glancing down at his phone. It's a text from Jimin, you notice.

"Sorry for this but we're not going out for dinner tonight. Seokjin's daughter isn't feeling well so they're going to stay home. Yoongi also hasn't been able to get much time with his kids and wife lately so he's not coming either." Jungkook continues reading Jimin's text aloud. "I don't think we should go out without the whole party so I'm thinking about canceling our reservations."

Damn.

"You look beautiful," he says, catching your half-disappointed expression. "I'm sorry."

"It's no big deal," you sigh. "We'll eat in." From Jungkook's point of view, you were upset about wasting an hour and a half on shopping. He knew you'd much rather be back with your drawing pencils or watching a drama. He felt bad. The real reason, the one you think best to keep to yourself, however, is that hearing Jimin's text reminded you of Si-woo again. Further, it reminded you that nearly everyone in your friend group had at least one kid except you and Jungkook. Normally it didn't affect you though, so why did it today? Had the little kid from earlier really stuck with you that much?

"__? Everything alright?," Jungkook says. "I know we had plans and we've been shopping for a while but if you like the dress you should still get it. Jimin will have his dinner again and there will be other times you'll need it."

It takes you a moment but you reply, forcing a fake smile the best you can. "Oh yeah, yeah I'm good. I dazed off for a second there. I'll–I'll put the dress back actually."

Seeing through your facade, Jungkook lightly grips your arms. "If there's something you're not telling me I'd like to know, please?"

His endearing facial expression both soothes you and creates coils of nervousness in the pit of your stomach. You want to tell him what's up. You also want to pop the question that you've both been sweeping under the rug for the last two years. But how? Maybe you shouldn't. Maybe you're just in a mood today.

"Have–" You start but the rest of the words don't come out.

Jungkook waits for you to finish the sentence. "Have you thought of any ideas for dinner?" You stutter out. "'Cause I was thinking it’d be easier to order takeout tonight."

Eyes narrowing, your husband stares into your eyes. He's searching for any hint that you're bluffing–shifty eyes and such. You think he's caught onto you until his shoulders relax and eyebrows soften. "I was thinking the same thing. But also, I'm buying you this dress even if you don't. It's gorgeous on you and I know you want it. Now take it off and let's go find something to eat."

You manage to chuckle a "thank you" and slip back into the stall to change into your normal clothes. You feel a slight pang of guilt in your gut for not coming clean to him but you weren't sure if you were ready to tell him the truth no more than he'd be ready to hear it.

“Seriously honey.” Jungkook’s voice carries over the stall. “Are you really alright? Do you need anything?” You swallow hard at his persistence.

“I’m perfectly fine,” you reply. “Maybe a little hungry.” One day at a time __, you think.

You end up placing a dinner order at a local favorite nearby. You and Jungkook take it back to the apartment, curl up on the couch, and put a movie on. You nearly fall asleep after the first forty minutes because the plot is so utterly dry and quite frankly, boring. Jungkook seems to be enjoying it though so the movie plays the entire way through.

Still hardly paying attention, your mind drifts off to other affairs. You think about your upcoming work week, what to get for your best friend's birthday in the following few weeks, and the cute dog you saw yesterday, and of course, you loop back to the same lingering topic–your brief afternoon with Si-woo. Part of you wanted to take him home but Jungkook would have a fit, as well as you know...Si-woo's mother. You snort at how interested you've become in entertaining thoughts about children and taking care of them. As you've covered before, you aren't the mom type.

Si-woo and his mother looked very similar though. They shared the same hair color, eyes, and face shape. You wonder what his father looked. Did he have long hair too? Did he share the same lips? Before you can stop yourself from going further you wonder how identical your own child might be to you and Jungkook. Would your child love the arts like you or the social sciences like your husband? You suppose it could be a blend since you technically have a master's in economics yourself. You'd much rather be owning and operating an art museum or being a studio art professor but that's beside the point. Your child would be free to venture down their own path. That is if you have any.

You shift your eyes to Jungkook who's concentrating heavily on the movie. He's a wonderful husband, you sigh, full of love. No doubt he'd make a great father but did he want to? Jungkook never really mentioned it before and neither did you. When you first start dating you had a brief talk about children and building a family but you were still in school then and Jungkook was swamped with his teaching responsibilities. Children weren't something that either of you felt like you could handle at the time. After you'd gotten married there was an opportunity to discuss it again but you were both quite comfortable with it being just the two of you. Today is the first day you've shown any serious aversion to your comfortable lifestyle–you want a baby.

Once the credit scenes appear Jungkook feels your eyes burn through him from your lounged position. "You're making that face again," he says.

"There's no face."

"Yes there is."

"I don't think so."

Patience running thin, the tone in your husband's voice gets firmer. He's not angry but it's clear his temper is rising. You and Jungkook haven't had a spat in a while and you really don't want to start now. "I can see that there's something on your mind. It's the same one you had from the dressing room and I'm pretty sure it isn't about food this time."

"I don't know what you want me to say," you mumble tiredly. You sit up straight. "My face is my face."

"Honey, I know there's something going on that you're not telling me. Is this about that kid's mother from earlier? Because I'm certain it wasn't personal."

"No, it's not about that at all. It's just been a long week and I'm exhausted," you lie, yawning as if on queue. Jungkook grips the couch arm in agitation. He isn't sure what's going on but he isn't letting you go to bed without getting to the bottom of it.

"You're not having second thoughts about our marriage are you?" He throws the idea out there, hoping its obvious inaccuracy will push you to tell him the truth. You grimace at the guess.

"That's ridiculous!" You sneer. "How could you think that?"

"Well maybe because you're not telling me anything else?" Jungkook tosses his hands up. "I mean who knows, it could be anything. Was it the movie? Shopping? Are you horny? What the fuck is it?!" You jump at his sudden outburst.

"No it's none of those–"

"Look," Jungkook cuts shortly. "Will you just tell me so we can deal with it?!" You throw him a nasty look.

"Just deal with it? Like it's some kind of nuisance of an issue that needs treatment?" You jump up from the couch and head to your bedroom in a fury, your husband hot on your trail.

"I don't mean to be pissing you off, sweetheart but I know something's up." He follows you into the bathroom, watching you reach for your toothbrush. "Can you please slow down and talk to me?" He grabs the toothpaste before you can, forcing you to stop in your tracks. You feel your body starting to shake, eyes tearing up. You friggin' hate fighting and you hate being so unsure about telling him the truth–that you want a family. You're scared of his response most. What if he says no?

Realizing your nervous state, Jungkook takes a deep breath and softens his tone. He hates seeing you cry and he hates it even more when he's the one causing it. "I'm sorry honey." He steps towards you but you flinch away. You're not ready to be touched yet.

"I–I want...I want to be a mom. I want a baby." You wait for your husband's reaction and when it comes you instantly start bawling.

"A baby? What do you mean you want a baby?" Jungkook feels everything inside of him panicking. There's a reason he teaches economics to college students and not high schoolers or below. He doesn't do children, he isn't cut out for it. He'll babysit of his hyung's kids from time to time but at the end of the day, they aren't coming back home with him. Jungkook was sure his wife felt the same way but now? Now she's tearing up in front of him, scared to tell him she wants a child–one that will be his.

Jungkook takes you into his arms, his thumb wipes off some of your tears. "Honey, I'm sorry I didn't know. When you came home from the park I didn't realize that little boy meant so much to you." You try blinking back your tears but they keep running down your face. He's being gentle with you and you appreciate that but his choice of words tells you his answer is no. It's quiet, subtle, and cuts like a knife.

You break away from him to splash cold water on your face. The coolness calms your nerves. “He didn’t. Never–never mind what I said, sorry. I’m tired and I’m probably not thinking straight.” You leave the bathroom, leaving Jungkook scrambling for his thoughts.

A/N: Lmk what you think, tysm for stopping by 💞

Masterlist

no reposting, copying, or translating my work– © kookslastbutton

[thelazybard]

I recently dyed my hair my natural color (brown) after having it pink for like a year and I didn’t exactly receive the best reactions from my friends, so I was thinking maybe reactions from the clones you want to include to sort of the same situation? Like how they would react, either platonic or romantic, to y/n dyeing their hair back to natural??

Also on another note I feel like omega would probably dye her hair at some point of her life🌚

I'm sorry your friends didn't have a better reaction to your hair, I'm sure it looks fantastic!

And Omega so would dye her hair a million colors, especially if she ever meets Sabine. She has the perfect natural hair tone for it.

GN!Reader x Clones: How they react to your natural hair color.

Rex:

-Rex dyes his hair himself so he never judged you before for having an unnatural color in your own. When he sees you walk by with brown hair he asks about it. When you tell him it's your natural shade, he lets you know it suits you.

Romantic:

-Can't keep his eyes off your hair and how it complements your eyes and natural skintone.

-Reassures you it looks fantastic.

Cody:

-Mentions the new hair and compliments it as you walk past each other in the hall.

Romantic:

-Can't keep his eyes off your new look and how well it complements your features, calls you gorgeous all day. ("Whatever you say, gorgeous.")

Fives:

-Pretends like he doesn't notice. For weeks, he's in it for the long con.

-It's almost torture keeping up the facade, especially since he's not sure whether you've even noticed him "not noticing" or not.

-But he's determined to keep his longest-term prank yet going.

Romantic:

-If you're dating, he wants to make sure he's the FIRST one you hear from and that you know he likes your hair more than ANYONE else.

-He tells you how beautiful you look and even pretends he doesn't recognize you at first as a joke. ("Sorry baby, I'm spoken for.")

Echo:

-Would consider it rude to make a huge deal over your new hair color.

-Instead, when you two are alone he mentions it suits you.

-He wouldn't want to put you on the spot like that otherwise.

Romantic:

-Is a bit flustered trying to get out the words to tell you your hair looks nice.

-He has a fear of seeming shallow, so he assures you that you'd look great with any color in your head.

-But damn if your natural hair doesn't look great.

Hunter:

-Makes an audible "huh" when you walk by with different hair, clearly impressed with how it looks.

Romantic:

-Makes a joke about having to fight all his brothers off.

-Offers to comb it for you that night just so he can get a better look.

Wrecker:

-Immediately points out your new haircolor and asks if he can touch it.

-Makes sure everyone else has noticed and complimented you on it.

-Asks if you can color his "hair" next as a joke.

Romantic:

-Runs his hands through it at any opportunity.

-Tries to braid it for you and fails, but you still love it anyway.

Tech:

-Doesn't say anything about it aloud, but thinks it looks nice and suits you best.

Romantic:

-Points out just how flattering the shade is to your natural complexion.

-Reassured you that you look great and there isn't anything to worry about.

Crosshair:

-Makes some teasing comment in good taste about the new style.

Romantic:

-Kisses you on the top of your head at your hairline is to reassure you he likes the new style.

-Asks you to leave it down when possible so he can get a better look at it.

Omega:

-Points it out in the child-with-no-filter fashion, and asks if she can touch it.

-She loves it!

-It makes her want to color her own hair, but Hunter says not until she's older :,(

[olderthannetfic]

There is something confusing to me about older queer people (which is to say, older than I am, at a relatively young 24 years old) who get mad at original fiction whose worldbuilding involves neopronouns. I'm hoping maybe, ONTF, since you've been in queer spaces a lot longer than I have, you can explain why people have such a negative reaction to the idea.

Basically, I'm working on a novel based that takes white-throated sparrow biology and uses it for building blocks in the same way A/B/O takes (now debunked) wolf science and used it for building blocks. This means there are essentially four genders, the two viewed as more intelligent (brown-haired men and women) and the two viewed as more physical (white-haired men and women). Those two groups then get further divided along the lines of 'women are better at making smart decisions under pressure' and 'men are better at staying home and defending the children, as God intended'.

So it seemed natural to me that this worldwide quaternary system would result in at least some languages having pronoun sets for each of the four options. Some languages in real life have more complicated pronoun systems than that, particularly ones where there's a bunch of formal and informal pronouns. It'd also help the reader keep track of who was a part of what group without my having to turn around and state people's coloration constantly. Yes, these people are human, just as humans in A/B/O are, but society is fundamentally very different. I'm not throwing this in to just complicate things or sound smart or something. It's here because my minoring in Anthropology and majoring in Linguistics taught me language usage reflects the needs and values of a people.

The writing group I'm a part of IRL is mostly queer, mostly 40+, with some cishet women who are also present and active writers. The writing group I'm a part of on DW is mostly DWRPers, in their 30's and up, though no older than 50, and entirely queer. I did not expect these to be groups that were uncomfortable with the idea of "different world, different pronouns".

Instead the reception has ranged from suggestions it's pretentious or overthinking things to requests I reconsider doing it. I've been informed this could be seen as mocking the real life queer people who go by pronouns other than she, he, or they. One person asked if this was went to be me "artificially justifying" nonbinary pronouns and implying I didn't find them valid in the real world. That was an awkward conversation, to say the least.

In reality I wasn't really thinking about real life people who use nonbinary pronouns when I was writing. I was just asking, "Logically, wouldn't it make sense for things to work very differently under a quarternary than it does under a modern European binary?" and following my brain along to its' conclusions as it processed that.

I have gotten zero negative feedback from my queer friends my age regarding this. So obviously, generation and the experiences informing a generational context are key, here. I'm just... still lost on how anyone finds this objectionable.

Help?

--

Ahaha. Oh god.

Well, as a reader of sff in the 90s, the first reaction I have to such things is "IS THERE A CONLANG AND A MAP?" Because, man, the conlang people were some of the most tedious motherfuckers I ever had to deal with in sff spaces.

But broadly... I think the reasons queer people get annoyed about this stuff boil down to a couple of big factors:

Disrespectful children who don't know history

Idiot old people harrumphing about "history" they clearly failed to pay attention to while it was going on in the first place

I personally hate being asked to use new words most of the time. A few bits of fandom slang I'll pick up at once, but I'm usually like "Why would I call it 'spirk'? We already have 'K/S'!" *shakes cane*

If you're American, they're your "roommate", not your "flatmate". No, I don't care how much more precise this foreign term is, you pretentious wanker. (But then I'll use 'wanker' because fandom adopted that years ago...)

So my reaction to being asked to say aloud any pronoun not in very frequent circulation in my offline life is "Urrrgh. Do I have to?"

However, the reality is that people have been messing around with pronouns in English since forever. Do you see 'heo' in Modern English? No, you do not! (Not that it was gender neutral, but the point is that even words as ancient as pronouns have changed quite a bit.) The early internet was full of pronoun stuff in MUDs and the like. You had a choice of a lot more than just three in a bunch of these. People besides men and women have always been in queer communities.

So some people like to cry about neopronouns being actually neo, and they're just wrong.

As for the why do you care part...

There is a nasty habit in contemporary queer spaces to act like gay rights issues are solved. Bisexuality? Passe! etc. Gays and lesbians finally got a little mainstream acceptance only to suddenly be treated like the worst of the establishment by the queer youth. How dare?!?! It's even more egregious with bisexuality where the focus of a bunch of queer activism finally swung that way in the 90s... only to be sharply cut off in the 00s.

There's a real "You already got yours. Where's mine?" vibe to some queer discourse today, and it's directed at people who never got theirs. It shows up in demands for mentorship by people who've barely had a chance to escape a rocky start and figure out who they are themselves. It shows up in yowling about this or that bit of queer media we finally got not being progressive because it's the wrong letter of the acronym.

None of which has a damn thing to do with what pronouns you use in your novel, obviously, but I think some unresolved embattled feelings are why some older queer people are very weird about pronouns.

Some of them are also doing the old person version of throwing the weirdos under the bus to placate the normies. Respectability politics became a term long before the behavior was rife on tumblr.

--

If someone really does find it pretentious, though, and not just as a cover for crying about nonbinary identities being fake, I suspect they just remember how 1970s SFF was full of privileged anthropology students misunderstanding kinship systems from elsewhere in the world and then trying to tell everyone how ~deep~ their extremely contrived novels based on them were.

I'm not saying your writing is like this or that every one of these old sff novels was either, but when I hear "anthropology student", I groan internally. It's an instinctive reaction. It's less about the real fields and more about the bevvy of dilettantes I've run into over the years who'll say they study those things but really want to talk my ear off about Joseph fucking Campbell or the strong form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis or something.

--

Those birds are a really cool source of inspiration. Like with A/B/O, the first thing I wonder is how queerness works in that context and how much people like to defy their designated roles.

Omegaverse started on porn logic, so "The one I say tops always tops!" makes sense. When it gets expanded to try to make it make logical sense as a whole world, I often enjoy it, but it can break down quickly if treated as biology is law. I don't know how often the birds veer off of their set patterns, but humans certainly would.

One place where I get a strong "Oh god, this again" feeling from people's plotbunnies is when they're trying to make up a sff society that strikes me as too rigid in a way that real humans aren't. I'll see people using fake wolf biology (not just for horny reasons) but never looking at what's going on with gender in contemporary Thailand or whatever. Like... Le Guin may have made sedoretus feel plausible, but nobody I've ever seen stanning the concept as something fandom should play with has. That's probably because Le Guin was using over-complicated social norms as a thing that breaks down and causes trouble, and "This should be the next A/B/O!" posts are treating it as something that actually works and is a good way to get the pair you don't ship separated while shipping poly.

"It'd also help the reader keep track of who was a part of what group without my having to turn around and state people's coloration constantly."

This, in particular, gives me that cold shudder of recognition from when Homestuck fandom was everywhere and everyone wanted to over-explain those stupid playing card suits and why I should care.

Your concept sounds neat, and I think a set of four pronouns could easily make sense there...

But I also think that if people need the pronouns to keep track of coloration, you haven't set up a system that feels organic enough or haven't given enough cues about how characters are treating each other or why. Use the pronouns too, but just keep that in mind. It's like the "m/m is hard because the pronouns don't tell me whose hand is where" problem. It's almost never actually a pronoun problem.

--

Anyone else have thoughts here?

[monstas1ut]

Empty Headed

BYAKUYA KUCHIKI x black!reader

Summary

__ +18 bratty!black!reader gets her guts rearranged after finally ticking off her husband, now she’s all dumb off of her husband’s dick with drool coming out of her mouth and eyes rolled in the back of her head.. and Byakuya could care less.

Content

__ black!reader, female!reader, rough!Byakuya, reader makes Byakuya a meanie pants, choking, choking with a tie, dirty talk, squirting, doggystyle, clothed sex, dumbification, oral, “good girl” once or twice, choking, overstimulation, no condom y’all are married, lace front malfunction :(

___ brown skin can be dark, light, medium color.. whatever. brown is brown.. and it's gorgeous

A/n

__ I’m back, my bad y’all

Those prominent veins were like tree roots deep in an ethereal forest. The way they connected, the raised texture of them, and the way they felt against your brown skin was heavenly. Byakuya Kuchiki had the prettiest attributes, and his veins were one of them. And as his perfect little wife, you’ve managed to memorize all of the Kuchiki heir’s perfectly natural attributes. The way his hair felt, the way his face showed little to no expression even when happy, and the way his veins would flex even more when he’d get all angry…

Who knew that the veins on his cock also protruded when his anger released above the surface. And as a perfect little wife, you had to memorize that too.

But that wasn’t all that hard when his pretty cock was stuck in the back of your throat.

The sweet taste of Byakuya’s slick precum edged you on as your tongue felt the underside of his unforgiving cock. Proportionate, long, and pretty. Those three words summed up your husband’s cock. It was pale, a contrast to your pretty brown sugar kissed skin. It was a contrast to those dark lined, glossy lips that were wrapped around it. And Byakuya loved it. Truthfully, he couldn’t get enough, and this was the exact moment to take advantage.

“Prove to me that you will cease every bit of attitude when I’m done with you, and If I sense anything other than obedience, I will corrupt your body without any remorse.”

Only loud breaths remained. Ropes of slimy saliva connected from the pink cock tip to your plump lips. Arousal hit right between your legs once Byakuya spoke to you in such a manner, and you couldn’t help but make it worse. And with bared lips and a brattish expression, you completely ignored his efforts at cutting this short. You’ve already sparked his flame at a formal event, and now you’re playing this absurd game.

Byakuya didn’t have time for it.

“Such blatant ignorance. You absolutely disgust me when you act this way. No matter, you won’t be able to act in such a manner when your pretty head is empty am I right…?” Byakuya’s voice rumbled from the depths of hell. His care and regard for your feelings dispersed into thin air the second you agreed with your conscience on being a slutty brat. The royal didn’t care anymore, he only cared about setting his woman straight, because she’s obviously lost her mind.

And with a cocky smirk etching onto your face, all while you were on your knees, you managed to try to talk. Even if you were being disciplined in this thin-walled hotel room, you still managed to conjure up the audacity… “Fuck-..”

Unfortunately it was cut short, and the thin lace that was glued to the skin on your hairline felt an enormous amount of tugging when Byakuya’s large, elegant hands gripped at the long, wavy hair. Both sides were balled up in his fists, and he pulled you forward as if you bore horns. Then, his pretty pink cockhead forced its way into your wide mouth just to shut you up once again.

“It was a rhetorical question, darling… or are you already more empty headed than before…?”

Cold as his words were, you definitely decided that you deserved this. After the raunchy attitude at the main floor, Byakuya managed to shoot a few looks your way. These looks did nothing but make it worse, and in all honesty, you knew what you were doing. But you figured the Kuchiki heir was going to drop it and go on about the day.

Being dragged back to the luxurious hotel room only to be brain fucked wasn’t anything you would’ve thought of. Byakuya’s mentality wasn’t like that, but as you drooled and breathed in with much trouble, you were obviously wrong. The feeling of Byakuya’s rock hard cock slipping down your throat with each passing thrust was exhilarating. It brought life to your pussy in many new ways. The roughness, the way he spoke, and his eyes. His dark colored eyes showed dominance that made your e/c irises turn into plump hearts.

“That’s a good girl… There's obviously potential for you to act sensible.” Byakuya hissed, his eyebrows only slightly furrowing with pained annoyance. Yet, watching you gag on his well endowed cock was soothing it oh so slowly but surely. He adored the way your eyes would squeeze shut with tears. He adored the way it sounded when his cock would hit the back of your throat. And to be honest, he’d love to hear more of your pathetic struggling. But the formal celebration needed him to speak soon, and Byakuya couldn’t miss it just for your behavior.

In a snap, you felt like you could barely breathe. The urge to gag and choke was so intense that you began to whine and flail just a little. Byakuya is usually so gentle when handling you, but the fact that your lips were touching his pelvis was indescribable. His long cock was digging deep into your soul, and you felt so dumb for liking it. Your pussy was so wet right now that it seeped through the white sundress that caressed your curves. It was a simple pairing to Byakuya’s suit which was black and white.. and he looked damn good when he finally released your bundles and leaned back to watch you struggle to breathe with saliva and precum spilling softly out of your mouth.

“Contain yourself.. speak and you will not leave this room today..” His words were like knives, but the way he said it felt like a shadow monster waiting to strike. It had given you trembles, and you obeyed him graciously. While sitting there on the cold floor, you were already regretting your actions prior. With how Byakuya’s cock was still leaking precum and pulsating.. you were in for it.

Those same bulging veins greeted you with dangerous intent. Byakuya’s soft, lengthy fingers pulled lazily at his black silky tie before he began removing his suit jacket. The idea wasn’t to completely wreck you, but as the taste of your suffering touched him, he wanted more.

“Clean it up, love…” Your husband was practically chuckling even if he didn’t fully express it. His hands gripped at his tie with thoughts roaming his filled brain. Lustful eyes stared down at you while your pretty acrylic nails glistened around his cock. Your mouth slurped up the naughty combination of precum and spit while bobbing your head eagerly. This caused Byakuya’s spicy moan to release from his throat. He’s been keeping quiet, but as he neared his orgasm, he couldn’t resist.

Byakuya didn’t want to cum just yet though.

Both of your hands were around that pretty cock, saliva dripping down your chin once again as your lips caressed him up and down. You barely even noticed the silky fabric that was being wrapped around your neck. However, the feeling of being forced off his cock was surprising. It made you gasp loudly as the thick cock slapped against your face once you let it free.. your hand eventually made its way back around it before you started to caress it against your face.

“Want it…Baby please…” it sounded like a purr, and Byakuya couldn’t resist. You might’ve been a brat today, but as he looked at you with your struggling lace, dried up spit on your chin, he only wanted to be inside of you. “Beg once more…” Byakuya’s voice sounded even more husky than before, his sharp eyes staring deep into yours.

“Please.. Baby, I want your dick so bad..”

Byakuya truly loved when you’d talk dirty to him, he absolutely loved it. He didn’t know for sure if it was the fact that you were bold or if you really just turned drunk over his cock. Either way, he loved it so much that he decided to stand up. His eyes didn’t leave you, especially since you looked so tempting while looking up at him like this. But with swift movement and your arms reaching up, Byakuya’s picked you up and took you to the hotel bed that was just the right height…

Now, Byakuya rarely puts you in doggystyle, it’s not sensual to him. However, he still wanted to teach you a lesson. So as you put your knees on the bed and leaned forward into a sweet arch, Byakuya’s hand already grabbed the tie that was still around your neck… and to think you forgot about it.

The feeling of your oxygen slightly being cut off made your pussy drool even more. His body was right behind yours and he didn’t hesitate to slide the long dress up to your torso. It revealed a pretty black thong that disappeared nicely in between your cheeks. To be honest, Byakuya didn’t care about body.. but the way your pretty brown skin was under this light… and the way your ass jiggled. He barely could contain his excitement. The heir couldn’t even control how fast he pressed his tip against your clit when he pulled the fabric to the side.

“I am going to fuck you. I am not going to make love to you because you do not deserve it… However, I do love you my dear, even if it’ll feel as if I think of you as nothing..”

Each word gave you a shock through your spine, each word felt like spikes under your feet. It all felt scary in a way because you’ve never heard your husband speak this way.. and frankly, he’s always called sex : ‘making love’. Byakuya saying he was going to fuck you made this experience all the more blood rushing. But you had no choice but to keep your back arched and control your breathing, because as Byakuya pulled you back by that silky tie, you slid right onto his pale cock. Your brown pussy opened right up for him, and your eyes widened before hazily staring at the bed frame in front of you.

“Don’t… Dont move” As calm and relaxed as Byakuya may seem, he cannot explain how hard it was to keep his orgasm at bay. Everytime he slides inside your tight pussy, he finds himself fighting against his own cock. It caused him to tighten the tie, which caused a chain reaction to your insides which also gripped around him. “You only make things more difficult… but yet, I am still married to you because I have a tendency to gain a high from your actions..”

Byakuya sounded ashamed of himself, but it went away in a swift fashion before the gushy sounds of your cunt started to echo. That sweet, pale cock was slowly maneuvering through you in slow strokes. The tiny ring of pre-cum was at the fair base of Byakuya’s cock now, however it was getting worse. With your wet pussy leaking all between your legs and his cock, the bed was slightly soaked.

“A-Ah~…B-Bya… kuya… fuck”

With a moan following the harsh swear word, Byakuya wrapped the tie around his fist once as he slightly leaned back to watch your fat brown ass take over his pelvis each time it would hit it. “Won’t my bratty wife talk filthy to me…? I’m sure she will.. yes?” With furrowed eyebrows, Byakuya shivered. His cock felt the pulsing around it, and the moans exiting from you made him release his own husky moans. His pretty, long, raven colored hair draped over your ass as he watched it bounce.

“Yes~… choke me more~… M’gonna cum so fuckin’ hard on that Dick… just keep… keep chokin’ me please~…” So pathetic you sounded, and Byakuya loved it, he ached for you to sound slutty. Sure, on the outside it seemed as if you both were all so classy and expensive, but when that door shuts it’s completely different. Byakuya urges you to lose it. He adores watching your pussy stretch out for him, and he loves when your pretty e/c eyes roll back before whining… because that’s when he knows you’re going to cum all over him.

And Byakuya loves a good mess.

“You do know it’s not over until you make a bit of a mess… right?” Byakuya practically demanded you to agree at the end, his breath running away from him as he let go of the tie, feeling as if it wasn’t doing as much justice as he wanted it to. And those elegant hands of his took hold of your neck, both of them. Oh did your pussy squirt the second he squeezed and pushed your head into that bed.

“Ah! Ah!… S-Stop… Fuck! Oh fuck~…”

Nothing but hearts were in your eyes, again. It felt like you lost vision and lost all ability to breathe as Byakuya’s cock went almost lightning fast. His hips snapped against your tight core, fighting against the pressure as your pussy gushed the honeyed substance on his cock and the hotel bed. Byakuya was purposely overstimulating your poor pussy as you struggled out moans. He didn’t care if you were all worn out and tired from the extreme orgasm, it just began.

“As you should remember… you have no authority to tell me to stop as of now. I also remember asking you to stop being a brat. You failed to listen, my dear..” Byakuya might have been a little harsh, but his words didn’t falter. He immediately turned you over on your back, his hands pulling down the top of your dress to show your pretty, darker brown areolas.

“I now will fail to listen to you as I use you like a pathetic toy” Byakuya’s voice smoothed over your ears as he leaned down gently. His hands slowly ran under your thighs before pushing them forward very harshly. Byakuya couldn’t help it, your pussy was so gorgeous like this, your body looked so precious like this. And the way his eyes trailed over your body, it made you feel just like prey. “It’s in my fucking guts… kuya…” you sharply moaned as the feeling of his cock slid right back inside of you. He pushed your legs open more with his arms as his hands were now against the bed.

“Byakuya~” with hazy eyes and drool sliding down your face, you listened to everything. Everything sounded absolutely raw. The bed frame hitting the wall, your skin slapping together, your whiny moans, his light groans, and your sloppy pussy all made this better. Curling your white toes as they stayed in those pretty open heels , golden just like your brown skin. This was the most submissive you’ve ever appeared, and the Kuchiki heir loved it.

“Damn it…” although rare, Byakuya did have to curse, it slipped merely because of your existence. He couldn’t fathom being with someone else even with your bratty little attitude. You just needed his cock, and it straightened you up. All you needed was to be pounded into, breasts bouncing prettily all with your mouth open. His veins up against your walls was all you needed right now. It made you feel dumb because that’s all you could think about.. your husband and his veiny pale cock that was beating your pussy in.

Byakuya’s cock never went this fast inside of you, and it was evident because you couldn’t handle it. With unstable moans and the constant looks at Byakuya waiting for him to give you a break, it was obvious. You kept holding your head up with a pleading face, your legs could barely stay open by themselves which is why his arms were there for support. You couldn’t even tell what was going on anymore. Everything was going blank and your mind was cock filled.

You were dumb off his cock.

Your pretty eyes rolled with furrowed eyebrows, giving Byakuya a rush. He knew he himself was close to cumming, and he could feel your insides trying to push him out. “M’gonna cum… M’gonna cum all over that fuckin dick , kuya…” you gasped in between, unable to try and stop your orgasm from peaking so hard. “Let me feel it..”

There was no need in telling you another time. Your next orgasm came rushing as you squeezed hard around him. His jaw clenched before letting out a string of clearly heard moans. His white, thick cum splashed your walls that color, and it was so far inside that when he filled you up, barely any came flowing out. His cum was so sticky and he had a good amount that came out.

You both continued to ride this high, and your whines and whimpers made it hard to not gain another hard on.

“I’m sorry.. I’m fucking sorry Kuya, baby…” you pleaded as you finally took that last heavy breath and you laid back completely. Your thighs were now able to be closed because he let you. His heart was racing just as fast, mainly because he couldn’t believe he treated you like this. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but he still felt a tiny bit bad.

That was mainly because you looked a bit messy now, gorgeous, but you couldn’t go back to the event looking this way. Not with a lifted lace, broken nail, and a dripping mess… but it made him smirk nonetheless.

“Apology accepted. Now, I’ll be going back to give out my speech. Behave, and do not move… I’ll be back… and if you listen, I’ll make love to you..”

ⓒ Monstas1ut , Do not copy

[yukidragon]

Sunny Day Jack - Dragon Jack Fantasy AU Headcanons

So, I know that Jack’s fursona is a snake, because he wants warm cuddles his sunshine won’t run away from, which is where we get naga Jack, but what if he was a different sort of mythical creature?

No, not an incubus, but you can check out my incubus headcanons here and here. I’m talking about a different fantastical creature that still has a few scaly features.

It’s the year of the dragon, and that got me thinking about a certain piece of absolutely gorgeous artwork my friend Mars made back in August, which in turn made me think, dragon Jack AU?

Dragon Jack AU.

Oh hell yeah, let’s get fantastical.

Credit for this beautiful artwork and fueling my inspiration goes to the marvelous Mars, who you can find over here on tumblr and on twitter. Please consider popping on by to leave a kind word or two. Trust me, you won’t regret looking at all of her jaw-droppingly stunning art!

Content warnings: There is going to be spice in these headcanons, and it’s going to get a bit kinky at times. I mean, we’re talking about Jack as a dragon getting frisky with his sunshine. Bad Dragon didn’t get its name for nothing after all. Oh and there’s also some dark themes like going insane from isolation, families being awful to one another, exploitation of workers, bullshit politics in a medieval inspired fantasy setting, deadly monsters attacking people, yandere obsession, that sort of thing.

Overall it’s going to be pretty lighthearted, especially in comparison to the super dark and angst-filled hurt/comfort story that I recently posted, so this post shouldn’t get more intense than the game itself.

The Cursed Prince

Let us begin this AU with the tale of Sunny Day Jack, a poor soul who was damned to be left alone and forgotten by all who knew him. In this case, that place he was left to be forgotten was a castle in the middle of a dark and twisted land, bound by a curse that not even the strength of a dragon can break.

Jack wasn’t always this way. Long ago, he was someone grand, a prince by the name of Joseph, though not in line for any sort of throne. He was the spare of the spare, the unwanted and unneeded family member who was a risk to the true heir to the crown. He had to learn how to be strong and cunning to survive the castle politics, while at the same time he was overlooked and ignored by all.

Initially, Joseph tried all he could to earn favor with his family, to be loved by them, but no one cared. Because his family didn’t care about him, and he had no “purpose” in existing except as an obstacle to the heir to the throne, others often ignored him as well to not risk showing favor and appearing to side with him against the current forerunners to the crown. Acting out and creating mischief that the royal family couldn’t ignore was the only way for Joseph to get people to pay attention to him.

Unfortunately, Joseph pushed his luck one too many times. He ignored a family member’s warning that it would be best if he lived as a dead rat, forgotten and unseen. An assassin struck in the guise of a tutor during one of his lessons. He barely escaped, but uncovered a terrible truth. The family he always hoped might someday truly see him and love him had been behind the assassination attempt. How many members of his family were involved in the plot, he never knew for sure, but their indifference and disdain for him left him with no one he could trust.

The unwanted prince was then forced to flee the kingdom, never to return. Joseph lived as a wanderer, hiding his identity. He changed his appearance as much as he could, even stealing a potion from a wizard once. Sadly, the potion he stole could only change his hair from brown to blue, but it was better than nothing, and he quickly grew fond of the look.

Yes, blue hair is something natural in this setting. This is a fantasy world where dragons and magic exist after all. We can have people with anime hair and eye colors. ;3

The unwanted prince learned the ways of the world firsthand and took many names as he drifted along like the wind. No longer a spoiled prince, he learned how to put on a smile, to placate people instead of antagonize them. He was still alone, forced to be a wanderer until he was far, far away from his homeland, but eventually he tried to set up roots. There, he took a humble job as a jester for a noble, hoping that maybe he could find a new life, one where he could be seen and loved.

Fortune smiled on Jack, as more and more people came to watch his shows, and he earned the stage name of Sunny Day Jack. His performances with silly jokes and stories with sound moral lessons delighted the children. Nobility took notice of him, and he started to make real connections and a real life for himself in this distant land. The lord ruling over the country even eventually took notice of him, a rich and powerful ruler that could afford to throw plenty of gold this entertaining jester’s way… provided he was always entertaining.

Sadly, his good fortune was not to last. Jack got too much attention from the nobility, and a traveler familiar with his homeland took notice of how eerily similar the jester looked to the lost prince.

Word eventually got back to those who saw Prince Joseph, however unwanted and overlooked he may have been, as a risk that could not be accepted. His popularity, however frivolous, made certain people of power nervous that perhaps one day he might return and lay claim to the throne of his homeland.

It was during a performance that the world came crashing down around Sunny Day Jack. The lord that favored him and helped him most with his fame and acclaim had betrayed him to his homeland in exchange for more riches. The trap was sprung as Jack stood before a crowd of hundreds, a sudden accusation ringing out that he was a notorious criminal who had done several heinous acts while the knights of the land came at him in force to arrest him. He barely managed to escape, though not unscathed, his new life destroyed and forever sullied to all who knew his name.

This time the pursuers were relentless. Jack wasn’t known here as a prince in this foreign land. There was no one who would show even a token loyalty to his royal blood and aid him. He was now a heinous criminal, wanted dead or alive, with none willing to give him shelter. There was no way for him to use his former name or royal bloodline to gain assistance, as Prince Joseph was long since declared dead.

Jack was a clever man, and a clever man who has nothing left to lose is capable of anything, including mutually assured destruction. His time as a jester wasn’t spent as a simple fool. Though he tried to be sincere when forging his friendships, truly wanting a life of happiness where he could be loved for who he was, he had tasted betrayal once, and it cost him everything but his life. Sadly, he was prepared should this happen again. He learned how to be charming, and he used his appealing and kind nature to learn secrets that might help him one day.

One of these secrets Jack learned was of magic treasure that the lord’s family guarded and exploited for generations. He also learned of a few secret passages in the lord’s castle, which helped him to elude his pursuers. With nearly all the knights put to the task to capture or kill the escaped criminal, this left the castle vault’s security unusually lax. It granted him an opportunity that could save him, or damn them all.

There in the vault was one of a set of golden cuffs, the symbol and pride of the lord’s family, and the very thing that allowed them to take dominion over the land generations ago and rule to this day. These cuffs were said to possess a magic too powerful for any one person to control, so no one dared to wield more than one at a time, but the truth was that if anyone was foolish enough to do so, they would unleash a terrible curse that would doom the land. This was why they were kept separately, for the safety of everyone.

These cuffs have their own history to them, as a fae was tricked into creating them, a bargain for power and a price not yet paid, which was the reason behind their curse. I could ramble on about ideas I have for how they came to be, but their backstory doesn’t really matter to Jack… yet.

Betrayed, branded a criminal, his hopes for a new life dashed to pieces, and everything spiraling out of control, Jack managed to break into the vault and steal the golden cuff hidden there. Before word of the theft could spread, Jack repaid the lord for his betrayal, launching a surprise attack and stealing the other cuff before it could be used by the lord to fight back against him.

With the power of both of the golden cuffs, Jack defeated all the knights that came for him, but the power he used went out of control as the curse took hold. The power was too much for a human’s body to contain, so it changed him into a fierce creature that was made of magic, a dragon.

The land around him changed as well, the natural ley lines of magic in the land exploding out in all directions and birthing all sorts of monsters from cracks in the earth. It was chaos, and those that could fled. It was a terrible night of horrors so great that survivors who witnessed the apocalyptic destruction dared not speak of it. Over time, the plants in this tainted land grew strange from the saturation of magic, and what few animals that braved to remain in this twisted land were changed as well. The land, once prosperous and full of smiles and laughter, became a dark and foreboding place where humans refused to linger long, for fear that they too would be cursed and forever changed.

Years passed, and with the survivors refusing to speak of what happened, all traces of what happened the night the kingdom fell were lost to history. The name of the country was lost as well. The place was only known as the dark woods now, named for its twisted features and the heavy clouds that covered the land and hid it from the sun. Speculation of its creation sprang up over the years, the details growing more fanciful from storyteller to storyteller until it became only myths. The closest to the truth was that the fae had regained the land and turned it wild, which, in a way, they had when a clever but desperate prince turned fool unleashed the fae’s curse that had long been kept at bay.

What happened to that foolish prince? The curse kept him bound to the heart of the land, making it nearly impossible for him to stray far from the castle where he unleashed the curse. The more he struggled to escape, the more ways the curse would manifest to bind him to the land, chains erupting from the ground to hold him, thorns of an unnatural, cold substance blotting out the sky, monsters birthing from the land to hold him back and inflict pain on him until he could no longer fight back.

Jack had become a powerful dragon, but his power came from the very curse that turned the land into his own personal hell. His body was warped, a scaled monster with wings and horns, terrifying to behold. Those who saw him would flee his presence, save for those that tried to slay the beast that legend has it is the heart of the curse.

The dragon of the dark woods, unnamed and feared by all, was known as the master of the dark woods, dangerous and cunning. Adventurers that dare risk going into the cursed land for its materials rich in magic are wary of the great and powerful beast. Its scales gleamed of fire, its eyes spoke of endless hunger, and its power was unmatched. None could hope to slay this beast, and all who tried all failed, for only the curse itself is more powerful than the beast it created.

Despite it all, Jack struggled to hold onto his humanity. He read every book in the castle, every scroll and scrap of paper, desperate to learn the way to undo this curse he unleashed. Naturally, this was difficult for him to do with giant claws, but unfortunately for the former prince, he had nothing but time to learn how to use his altered body.

As the world forgot about the lost prince, the sunny jester, and the awful day an entire kingdom fell along with the names of all three, Jack started to forget his humanity bit by bit. He didn’t learn how to break the curse, but he did learn of other magical artifacts that had been gathered in the castle long ago, including an enchanted belt that would allow him to change his form into whatever he pleased. He used it to become a “human,” but by that point he didn’t quite remember what he used to look like. The passing years eroded his memory of humanity, and he had gotten used to his imposing dragon body. The result was a form that was a mishmash of both, a humanoid man with scales, a tail, wings, claws on his hands and feet, pointed ears and fangs, with horns and blue hair.

Jack might have started to forget things over the years of solitude, but he was at least certain that he had blue hair when he was still human.

Funny enough, no matter how large or small Jack became thanks to the magic of the belt, the golden cuffs remained fastened to his wrists. The curse wouldn’t allow them to be removed, only warp in size and shape to match whatever form his body took. Even if he were to, say, transform into a copy of a different person to fool someone, his golden cuffs would give away the ruse.

When Jack learned how to transform back into a “human,” he went through the motions of being a human in his empty castle filled with riches that were all but useless to him. He wore clothes again, even learned how to alter the fancy clothes left behind to suit his tastes. He learned how to cook the strange plants and animals of this cursed land. He no longer had any need to eat due to the magic of the land sustaining his flesh, but food still tasted good, and there was some satisfaction to be had from creating something. He kept himself sane with what hobbies he could, learning new things, but he could never learn how he could free himself from his lonely hell.

The presence of adventurers into the heart of his land was both a blessing and a curse. It was rare that it happened, and in fact it was several years after the land changed that anyone dared to venture into the dark woods for fear of being cursed for doing so. It was years more before they found its master at the heart of the cursed land.

At first, Jack was elated. He tried his best to be friendly, overly so, desperate for company and help, but this was before he found the belt that made him at least passably human. It had been so long since he had been around another human that he hadn’t tried to speak, and with his draconic muzzle, all that came out were terrible growls and unholy noises. The adventurers that found him only saw a great horned beast with claws and fangs, another monster to slay for materials, riches, and acclaim.

Jack never wanted to kill anyone. He learned to fight when he had to, though he tried to avoid killing if he could. Unfortunately, when he unleashed the curse, people perished in the chaos, much to his dismay. Though he tried to approach these adventurers peacefully, he would not allow them to cause him further suffering. His power was so great that it was difficult to hold back, so the damage he could cause was severe. He would let those who fought him live if he could, allowing them to flee, but none saw this as a mercy. He became a nightmare spoken in hushed whispers, a challenge for adventurers to overcome, rather than a lost soul desperate to be free.

In a twisted way, over time Jack started to look forward to anyone brave enough to venture into the heart of the dark woods, even if the result was always violence. It was always a rare thing due to the intense danger of the dark woods. Certainly, they would always try to kill him, but at least he got to spend time with another human being! Being alone messes with a person’s mind, especially for such a long time. Humans are pack animals not meant for solitude.

Sometimes these adventurers would leave stuff behind, and Jack kept them. Dragons have an instinct to horde, and the castle is already filled with treasure. Plus they were reminders that humans were still out there and that someday, hopefully, he’d join them as one of them once again.

Jack tried his best to learn how to talk with his new body, to sound friendly instead of fierce. Unfortunately, oftentimes he found himself getting the opposite result, the words coming out of his muzzle sounding strange and uncanny, which only added to the nightmarish legend of the master of the dark woods.

Every encounter with Jack was a battle more fierce than the last, and the dragon’s legend only grew. His attempts to follow after the humans who fled from him led to the land itself stopping him, and others would be caught in the crossfire. To Jack, the humans that came to visit him were his only hope, and he would struggle harder against the curse to escape, to be with them. This made the curse fight back even harder in more brutal ways, summoning worse monsters. Soon the heart of the dark woods was known as a hellish place, where the land itself would turn against you if you tried to escape its brutal master that hunted you relentlessly.

Over the years, humans adapted, as they often do. Adventurers learned to stick with the outer fringes of the dark woods to harvest materials. It was the least dangerous, relatively speaking, and what could be gained deeper in was not worth the cost, especially if they strayed to the heart of the land where its terrible master lay in wait for any poor soul to enter.

It’s been a long, long time since Jack has seen another human, and he’s slowly going insane from solitude. He does what he can to distract himself or escape, trying desperately to hold onto his humanity, but it erodes bit by bit with each passing year. Even gaining the ability to transform into a “human” form hasn’t stopped his ever steady decline into madness. He fears that one day he might lose his humanity completely and become the mindless monster that those who fought him believed him to be.

Perhaps all that Jack and the dark woods need to heal is a little bit of sunshine.

Beyond the Dark Woods

Outside the fringes of the cursed land, time marched on. Years went by, rulers came and went, borders changed as land was annexed or reverted to wilderness. A lot can happen over the decades, especially in a fantasy world filled with magic, monsters, and mischievous fae.

How long Jack was trapped alone in the dark woods is a mystery. Maybe it’s 40 years, or perhaps a lot longer than that.

Regardless, the homeland that once had a lost prince named Joseph is still around, a relatively stable country all things considered. In fact, it had grown over the years thanks to annexing land from other countries that had been weakened by the results of the curse. Monsters often wandered out of the dark woods, putting nearby villages in danger and impressing the need for more adventurers to cull the monsters that threatened human life. What was once a kingdom had grown into an empire, growing prosperous with its many strong knights and adventurers, though like any place, it had its own share of problems.

But enough politics, let’s get into the other characters, shall we?

MC is a knight, as demonstrated by the lovely Thea in Mars’ art. Well… they aspire to be a knight anyway. Bullshit politics have kept them as a squire to a knight of higher nobility since they were a teenager. It’s been over 10 years already! How much longer do they have to wait to become a knight? They’re sick of having to polish and shine Barry’s armor, and if they have to scrub his codpiece one more time…

Yup, Barry is a knight in this AU, though only technically. Nobility sometimes get granted a knight title for some reason or another, usually as a token to honor them and/or their families. These nobles usually  were just knights in name only, parading around as if they’re this grand figure when other knights did the real battling. They can play the hero without ever actually having to go into battle and send squires to do the menial work for them.

In a sense, Barry is a rich man who bought a title because it was cool, and he makes a big show of it. It’s pretty much a vanity project, and a way to increase his clout to maybe move up in the ranks of nobility. He has MC announce his presence grandly, something just as over the top as the greeting to Yogurtopia. Perhaps something like… “Announcing the great, honorable, and very handsome and still very single and looking for a bride, Sir Barry of [insert surname here].” Or something like that, maybe with his noble title thrown in there for good measure. Maybe he could insist his squire plays a horn first…

Man, even with a proclamation heralding Barry wherever he goes, no one is interested in him. He hasn’t had a date in way too long. Maybe he needs his armor to be polished a little brighter.

While MC isn’t Barry’s only squire, they are the one often left doing the work, as other squires slack off or wind up getting elevated to knight despite being younger than MC is. It’s understandably really, really frustrating for MC. They come from a lesser noble house, just barely above a commoner, so they’re an easy mark for any higher ranked noble to rub the power difference in their face.

Really, it’s all enough to make MC consider quitting to become an adventurer. Sure, adventurers are basically mercenaries for hire at the guild and the jobs can be infrequent, and money can be hard to come by, but… Ah, who are they kidding? The squire job might suck, but at least they get the security of steady pay, regular meals, a place to sleep, mild prestige, and they don’t have to go camping in the woods for days on end hunting some specific monster or harvesting a certain number of rare herbs.

Besides, MC admires the knights (aside from Barry). Their best friend became a knight a few years ago, lucky dog. Still, Shaun didn’t rub it in their face like the pal he is. Shaun looks so regal in his shiny silvery armor, even having it adorned with pretty badass etchings and other decorations. There’s a very feline feeling to it as well, since cat daddy has to be cat knight in this AU. Hey, I don’t make the rules.

…Oh, wait. :3c

Anyway, the other knights can be pretty cool as well. There’s this one knight who has been friendly, though MC doesn’t know his name yet. The guy acts strangely shy when they’re around, which is confusing to them. They’re just a squire after all, not a cool knight in studded leather armor like him.

Poor Nick has a crush on MC in this universe too and is pretty tongue tied around them. MC might still be a squire, but there’s just something about them that lights up a room. Their spirit isn’t crushed despite the fact that they should’ve been a knight years ago. He envies how easily Sir Shaun can chat with them.

Of course, Shaun is in the same boat as Nick, in that he also has a crush on MC and can be pretty clumsy with how he tries to express it. Still, in spite of this, he would have tried to see if they could be something more if not for a certain scandal that happened.

The reason why MC is still a squire, or at least one of the biggest reasons, is because of rumors that they were the secret lover of Prince Ian, the current heir to the throne.

Of course, given that MC is barely above a commoner, the idea of them getting together with the crown prince is scandalous. They got to know each other as children, with MC serving as a page to play with the young prince. When the queen caught wind that the prince saw them as anything more than a playmate in their teen years, their relationship got exceedingly strained.

Ian is in love with MC, and they felt the same, at least at one point. All the time they spent together while growing up led to fondness, then sweet first love. Unfortunately, they knew early on how their different stations meant that the chances of them being together were almost non-existent. This led to a lot of mutual pining, moments where they were tempted to act on their feelings, and some secret encounters between the two.

In spite of the queen’s interference separating them, MC and Ian saw each other in secret as much as they could. They started a forbidden romance together, and the two of them convinced themselves that maybe, somehow, they could defy the odds.

But the weight of the crown hangs heavy on the head. As Ian was swept up in his duties and the time he would be crowned as king drew ever closer, he had less and less time to spend with MC. His mother’s interference certainly didn’t help, especially since she was trying to get him engaged to a high ranked noble woman to ensure that he would be able to sire the next generation of royalty.

While yes this fantasy world is far more open with gender expression and loving others regardless of gender, nobles tend to be uptight when it comes to making sure their bloodline and power continues. Plus Ian’s mom is still abusive and controlling of her son in this universe too, and she uses not only religion to bully Ian but politics and duty as well. As queen, she has a lot more power too, and a lot more flying monkeys to spy on her son and interfere.

In a way, it’s lucky that the queen hasn’t decided that MC is a threat that must be entirely eliminated at all costs. No assassination plots… yet. Mostly it’s interference and petty revenge by forcing MC to remain a squire instead of a knight. She could throw MC out, but then how can she occasionally be petty if MC never comes to the palace? MC might be Barry’s squire, but everyone follows the queen’s orders, and a narcissist needs attention and others to bow down to them.

Unfortunately, the queen’s schemes did succeed. Ian, in a moment of weakness, fell for the seductive charms of one of his potential fiancees. He felt awful for betraying MC, to the point that he had to see them despite the risk of his mother catching them, so that he could confess what he had done and beg for forgiveness.

MC’s heart was broken, but what was worse was that it became a huge scandal. Someone had seen Ian’s confession and begging, and soon word spread like wildfire. Now everyone knew that they had secretly been lovers and that the prince was begging a mere squire for forgiveness. Ian’s reputation took a hit, while MC’s outright tanked due to the scandal, and things became much harder for them, and people have been keeping their distance from the squire that dared think they could become a future king’s consort.

Since then, MC has kept their distance from Ian as much as possible, and Ian, reluctantly, has given them space, knowing that he’s messed everything up for them. But… when he’s king, not even his mother will be able to stop them from being together. When he’s king, he’ll be able to fix everything. He just has to do what he can to make sure that happens. Then he and MC can finally be together in the open, stations be damned! Then he can truly make amends and be forgiven for what he’s done.

Shaun was there to support MC with their broken heart. While his becoming a knight has put a bit of distance between them, as he has more duties to attend to, including being sent away on missions for the country, he makes sure to keep in touch and meet up with them as best he can. Anyone who dares to say a bad word about MC in front of him is getting this cat’s claws.

Nick is no stranger to scandals. He’s basically the most popular knight in the realm, with countless admirers. Perhaps they could offer MC a word or two on how to deal with so much unwanted attention and rumors rumbling in the background.

A Squire’s Quest

Now, how does Jack factor into MC’s life without a compelling VHS tape to tie them together? Well, the instigating factor in this universe is that a thief made off with an important treasure, and Barry the knight was tasked with retrieving it. As Barry’s squire, MC was compelled to come with him to assist, which usually meant doing 99% of the work if there were no other squires with them at the time with Barry taking all the credit. But don’t worry, he only does it because he knows they’ll do a good job at it, and it just shows that they’re one step closer to becoming a true knight!

After traveling quite a ways, tracking down the thief (with MC doing most of the work picking up the trail in the first place), the pair realize that the thief went into the infamous dark woods.

Well, that’s not good. Sure there are areas that have been explored for materials, but still… the cursed land is quite dangerous. Barry decided that the best way to divide the work is for MC to continue to follow the thief’s trail, as they were better at tracking, and he, being much better at supervising and dealing with people, would see if anyone nearby could get information about what the thief might have been after, maybe set up a trap that MC could chase the thief into.

MC had to seriously consider their life choices up until this point, but if they quit now, that meant kissing goodbye to the stability they had going for them. Also, it’d probably bring dishonor to their name, maybe damage their lineage permanently, and so on and so forth.

Well, if they quit to become an adventurer, they’d have to do stupid things like trek through the dark woods anyway. Besides, the thief already stole a national treasure, which meant they weren’t stupid enough to go hunting for the invincible dragon guarding the heart of the forest, right? Sure there’s rumors that maybe the dragon guards the greatest treasure of all, but no way the thief is that dumb. No one’s actually ever seen any real treasure, or have a consensus on what the supposed greatest treasure is actually supposed to be.

After a hard internal debate, MC ultimately decides to brave the dark woods, tracking the thief stealthily. They may only be a squire, but they would probably be the greatest knight in the kingdom if not for politics. Their exact combat style is up to interpretation and personal preference, but they’re no stranger to slaying powerful monsters. They’re also used to Barry giving them unreasonable demands like this one.

And, hey, at least they’re not mortifying themselves by singing Barry’s praises when he enters a room while they’re busy with this stupid quest. That’s got to count for something, right?

Right?

Yeeeahh, okay, MC is obviously just lying to themselves and they know it, but damned if they do, damned if they don’t. They swear to themselves that they’ll only go as far as the hunting expeditions usually travel into the forest. If the thief really is stupid enough to go to the dragon’s lair, MC will just circle back and just tell Barry that the dragon probably just killed the thief, or something. No way they’re going to risk getting eaten by an unstoppable dragon.

These thoughts are a small comfort  as MC follows the thief’s trail. Occasionally they have to fight magic-tainted plants or monsters. Their skill shines despite the dark gloom of cursed woods. They even get some nice materials they can sell for some extra cash. Maybe being an adventurer wouldn’t be too bad a gig after all…

Just then the loud noise breaks the eerie calm. Some sort of explosion. Magic? Fireworks? Regardless of what it was, it riled up something. That something is big, nasty, and charging right at them! In fact, it’s a lot of somethings! A pack of creatures got aggravated, and MC is forced to run!

Now, was this a natural occurrence? A bit of misfortune? Did the thief make a false trail to trick MC into going on ahead while they secretly doubled back and used a small explosion to make the monsters go nuts on MC while they used the commotion as a cover to make their escape?

Perhaps. Perhaps. MC certainly isn’t in a situation to figure out which of these possibilities it was at the moment though, as they’re too busy running for their life, inwardly cursing Barry, the queen, the thief, and anyone else that annoyed them lately. If they knew they would die today, they wouldn’t have held back last week when that one jerk stole their cinnamon roll. They would’ve at least had the satisfaction of telling them off for it!

Sarcasm and sass are a good way to cope, but MC knows full well the gravity of their situation. They quickly lose the trail back the way they came, forced to do battle with creatures that are in their path while avoiding being overwhelmed by being so outnumbered. It’s only through a mixture of skill and sheer dumb luck that they manage to survive.

And by dumb luck, I mean that they fell into a catacomb through a ruined ceiling that was keeping it hidden underground.

Well, shit. From bad to worse, right?

Nothing for it, MC is forced to find a way out of the catacombs, then somehow find a way to leave the dark woods without another group of monsters going aggro on them.

Piece of cake. Noooo problem. They just have to avoid the castle at the center of the dark woods that the dragon supposedly uses as its lair, and they’re fine. An old crypt with some undead ready to pop out is better than an unstoppable dragon. Right?

As you may have guessed, MC is, in fact, going in the direction of our lonely dragon prince. Is it just bad luck? Is it some sort of intuition or instinct drawing them to Jack? Are they bound together by fate? Is it some sort of spell Jack has cast that compels humans to seek him out because it’s been forever since a human came by, and he’s desperate for both company and freedom? Maybe some combination of these things or something else entirely. Who’s to say~? It’s up to interpretation/personal headcanon~

In any case, MC is very taken aback when they meet Jack face to face for the first time, as is Jack really. It’s been so long since he’s seen someone. A part of him wonders if MC is actually real. When they get defensive and try to figure out who or what he is, he does his best to placate them, even if they might have their weapon out and ready for battle.

Jack puts his best foot forward, being friendly and welcoming. He invites MC to his home. They look exhausted and like they’ve had a hard time. MC isn’t exactly trusting this at face value, being very guarded about the whole exchange despite how cheerful and friendly this man with wings and horns is being. He’s also getting dangerously close. Should they try to use their weapon to ward him off, like Thea might have done with her sword, Jack is skilled enough in combat by this point to easily redirect her sword with his claws.

Oops, that put Thea off balance. Don’t worry, her new pal Jack is quick to catch her before she takes a tumble.

“Careful, we wouldn’t want you getting hurt, would we?” Jack said, his tone playful.

Despite MC’s skills, they are hopelessly outmatched by Jack. He has far more experience with combat, and he has the insane powers that the curse granted him.

Of course, MC is pretty quick to put together that Jack is the invincible dragon that rules the dark woods, which means that they’re utterly screwed. Strangely enough, Jack isn’t really acting like the monster people whisper about. It’s almost enough to make MC wonder if they aren’t mistaken, but the dragon features and his overwhelming strength kind of gives it away. The fact that Jack brings MC back to his castle pretty much seals the deal.

So MC is stuck as a guest with Jack. The dark woods are too dangerous for humans to wander around alone, especially at the heart of the forest. He’s curious about MC and why they would take such a risk, very concerned by their recklessness. Why were they there?

It’s an awkward situation, but MC has no choice but to play along. How much they resist or comply depends on the MC. I figure Jack indulges even a very resistant MC due to how lonely he’s been. He can easily disarm any attempts to attack him or thwart them from getting away, so they pose no threat. He has all the time in the world to convince MC to lower their guard.

And Jack is just so… so nice. It’s hard not to find him charming. He seems so concerned about MC, and they’ve been having such a hard time with, well… everything. The castle, despite being old, has been maintained decently well. The rooms are decorated so nicely, filled with clothes for them to wear, and the food Jack makes is fantastic. Holy crap, his cooking is out of this world!

Really, the longer MC stays there, the more it seems like there’s nothing Jack can’t do, and their stay is kind of like a vacation in ways. Given how much time he’s had to teach himself new things, it’s no wonder he has become something of a jack-of-all-trades.

I make no apologies for that pun.

Here then comes the classic conundrum when it comes to Jack - does MC fall for his charms, or remain suspicious and hold him at arm’s length? They’ve been feeling pretty lonely and beaten down by life for a while now, and Jack seems almost too good to be true. It’s not like he’s keeping them captive, but they’re in the heart of the dark woods. Outside this castle are some of the worst, most dangerous monsters imaginable. Jack can protect MC if they stay there in the castle with him, but he can’t go very far from the castle, so he can’t help them leave the woods. That is why he’s keeping them from leaving the castle. You know, aside from not wanting to lose the only company he’s had in so many years.

Jack is right about the danger, unfortunately. Whether MC tries to slip away from the castle or just scopes out the surroundings via a window, they find that it’s surrounded by monsters far too dangerous for them to handle alone. There’s no way they could make it, and if they tried, they’d only survive thanks to Jack coming to their rescue.

Of course, Jack acknowledges that MC is powerful. He saw them try to attack him if he did, or he just can tell in simply because they made it all this way on their own. It’s just, well, there’s only so much anyone can do on their own. Sometimes we all need a friend to help us out.

If Jack could leave, then he could help MC leave too, but he’s stuck in the castle. He’s been there for such a long, long time.

Whether his tragic plight is enough to make MC sympathize is, of course, up to the individual. I do know my gal Alice is going to want to help him after hearing him out. Being trapped in this awful place by a curse is a fate she wouldn’t wish on anybody.

Not to mention helping Jack would help MC leave the dark woods. There’s no threat he can’t handle after all. They’d be getting their own personal dragon bodyguard.

Perhaps with a pair of fresh eyes and more knowledge of the state of the world, MC will have better luck figuring out how to free Jack from the curse. Maybe they’ll just play along to not upset their super powerful host so they can escape. It would certainly take time for MC to really trust Jack, even if he seems so friendly and kind… and, they have to admit, this place is lonely and very unsettling for anyone to stay in, even if Jack has tried his best to make it look nice. It’s certainly creepy to be alone here in the heart of the dark woods. The castle is better than the woods full of monsters, but still…

Anyway, the interactions between MC and Jack are up to the individual to decide. Romance the dragon, or flee from the dragon in the end. Being stuck together can bring a sort of fondness, and Jack falls in love. It makes him determined to never lose MC, ever, so he falls down the yandere path, which can lead to some pretty obsessive moments depending on the choices made.

As for the alternate love interests, after Ian receives word that MC disappeared in the dark woods, he sends knights on a quest to find and rescue them, despite the queen’s interference. This of course includes Shaun and Nick, who are the first to volunteer for the rescue mission. Despite the queen’s meddling, not wanting to waste manpower on a thorn in her side, Ian finally takes a stand against his mother for the sake of MC and their love, and the expedition is sent.

Unbeknownst to the knights, Ian sneaks along with them in disguise. He can’t just sit back and wait while MC is in danger. He can’t let them down a second time. He’ll prove to them, and himself, that he’s truly worthy of their love.

From there it’s trials and tribulations of the guys trying to rescue MC from the dragon… provided that MC still wants to be rescued by the time the guys reach the castle.

Really, in order for all of the love interests to spend time with MC and interact, perhaps Jack will be brought back with them somehow, like he found a loophole in the curse or a way to bind him to MC. That way, Jack can leave the forest, so long as it’s with MC, with the added bonus that he can’t stay too far away from his sunshine. It’d create something of a dynamic similar to the game, only in this case everyone can see Jack and learn that he’s an incredibly dangerous dragon that has the power to kill all of them if he so chooses. Not that he would ever! He’s MC’s best friend after all. He just wants to protect his sunshine.

Though chances are MC will want to hide the whole “dragon” thing if they decide to leave with Jack. Maybe coach him on how to better pass for a human. Best not to scare people, am I right?

Or this AU could just stick in the castle where MC chooses to either romance the dragon or flee the dragon. I know which one Alice is going to choose, regardless if they stay in the castle or go back to civilization.

On that note, let’s get to the part that I suspect you’ve all been really waiting for.

(S)laying the Dragon

With Jack being a mythical creature, that offers possibilities for a very kinky fun time. There’s his obvious features like his sharp teeth and claws, but there’s also those long pointy ears that are perfect for nibbling, and maybe offering a bit of emotional expression in the way they tilt. Then, of course, there’s the tail and wings, perfect to wrap around his sunshine. He’s got even more limbs to hold them close!

Now… dragon anatomy is pretty much whatever we want it to be. Bad Dragon has the name for a reason after all. Want dragons to have two dicks similar to snakes? Go for it. He could still have that while he’s in his “human” form too. In fact, with a belt that allows him to change his shape, he could alter himself in very fun ways. A funky fantasy dick with ridges and/or bumps? Perhaps some tentacles anybody?

I mean, Jack has been alone for a long, long time. He’s only had himself to entertain and experiment with. He might have some very kinky tricks that no one has ever tried before.

To be fair, the tail is probably prehensile, so it might be able to be used like a tentacle for sexy times. He might not even need a second dick to plug up all of MC’s holes at once.

Dragons tend to have long tongues, so french kissing Jack is going to be intense, especially if it’s forked too. Then of course there’s oral. Naturally, he’ll be careful with those sharp teeth of his. Well, unless MC is into something a little rougher. Jack doesn’t want to hurt his sunshine (humans are so fragile after all), but if they like a little pain, well, their good old pal Jack will oblige them!

In my personal fantasy headcanons, pointy ears and the base of wings and tails are sensitive erogenous zones. Nibble on Jack’s ears, please! Preen his wings and make him feel loved and cared for. Rub at the base of his tail, and he’ll get hard instantly.

The scales might be harder than armor, but they’re nice and smooth, and have a nice feel. Jack has some control on just how hard or soft his body is at a time due to the belt’s power. Unless otherwise requested, Jack is very gentle with his sunshine, worried about going too rough due to how easy it was for him to hurt others.

Of course… Jack is also so desperately lonely and horny. MC’s presence has been his only bright spot in so long, and he loves them so much. When they love him too… well, it was already so hard for him to hold himself back. It wouldn’t be that difficult to rile him up and make him start to lose control, struggling to hold back his power even as he tosses MC around and takes them.

Naturally, many of my personal sexy headcanons for Jack apply in this AU. This includes a breeding/seeding kink. It’s a bit more pronounced here. If MC has his child then they’ll never ever leave him after all, and they’ll be bound together forever and ever and ever. Even if a child is off the table, the act of breeding/seeding alone is enticing, making them beg him to take them and fill them up with his hot cum is something that he fantasizes about often.

Of course, Jack doesn’t simply want sex with MC, he wants to make love. They make him feel truly loved for the first time in forever. Did he ever feel so loved before? He wants to experience their love in every way he can, fill them up with it until he’s a part of them forever.

Jack won’t ever force his sunshine, no matter how desperate he is for their love or to make love. He’ll go crazy with need, but always hold himself back if they need him to. As long as they love him, he can take care of himself sexually like he always has. He’s just been so empty, alone, and unloved for so long. MC fills them up with love in a way that he can’t live without anymore.

Naturally, when the pair do start making love, Jack can’t get enough, and his stamina is insane. MC is without a doubt going to be the one passing out first after they’ve been fucked senseless with Jack thrusting inside them, babbling how much he loves them and how good they make him feel. The more they go on, the more feral for their love Jack becomes. He’s needed his sunshine so, so badly, and now that he has them and their love, he can’t live without them anymore.

Of course, with a dragon AU and a shapeshifting ability, you can get really creative. For one thing there’s his full dragon form, which would be a giant compared to MC. Size difference anyone? Plus the exact details of how Jack looks in his dragon form could offer interesting possibilities of its own.

Then of course there’s even more furry-related kinks like oviposition or stuff like that. It's not for me personally, but I can imagine Jack would be open to experimentation and indulging in MC’s kinks, even the more outrageous ones. After all, it’s all just more ways to show just how much he loves his sunshine~

You best believe Jack has a predplay kink in this universe. He can smell MC and track them down easily. If that doesn’t work, there’s all sorts of magic he’s learned over the years that can do the trick. Of course he doesn’t want to scare MC, but when it’s good fun, it can lead to a delightfully spicy time~

While I’m on the topic of Jack smelling MC, he is addicted to their scent. The smell of their pheromones easily riles him up, practically sending him into rut like an alpha from Omegaverse!

Naturally, since Jack is a dragon, he has a horde. The castle was loaded with treasure, and it is pretty and shiny. It looks nice all piled together, maybe even neatly decorated. No doubt he’ll want to make love to his sunshine atop a pile of shiny gold coins and jewels, though he’ll make sure that he’s on the bottom so they don’t get jabbed by the hard edges… unless they’d like that, of course.

Of course, the true treasure Jack is hoarding in his lair would be MC. Gold and jewels are nice, but they don’t hold a candle to the love of his sunshine~

Wow. I think this is the longest headcanon post I’ve ever made while sticking with neutral MCs for the most part. I think I’m long overdue to shamelessly self-indulge with my OTP. Let’s see how Alice’s choices will affect this AU and how events unfold, shall we?

Lady Alice of House Rose

Naturally, Alice can’t have the surname of King in a setting like this, so I’m going to use her middle name as the house name.

Fun fact, Rose is the middle name for Barbie and Coraline too!

Yes, that means Barbie’s full name is Barbara Anne Rose King.

Yes. Yes, that pun was indeed intentional.

No, I will not apologize. Her name was picked to be a pun in the first place after all. ;3

Anyway, back to Alice. Being the eldest child, she has the responsibility to elevate the status of her household. Not only are they barely nobility, but their finances aren’t in the best shape. She needs money to help her family, and the honor of being a knight in hopes of gaining a better title.

It’s a shame that the queen doesn’t care for Alice and she’s been stuck as a squire way longer than is reasonable.

Alice knew that it would be impossible for her to marry a prince like Ian, no matter how kind he was, or how close they were. She couldn’t avoid falling for him though. It made her more determined to earn a better title, to make something of herself and earn acclaim. Maybe if she became the greatest knight in the kingdom, maybe she can prove herself worthy of royal consort and be with Ian as his wife one day.

Alice busted her ass trying to be a knight despite all the rough training and being forced to work menial, often degrading tasks as a squire. The weapons she specializes in are the bow and magic, combining the two to devastating effect. She’s also very good at keeping quiet and being stealthy.

In this universe, Alice never had sex with Ian. Although this fantasy setting is more open about sex before marriage, the gap between her and Ian was so wide, she didn’t want to risk doing anything that might ruin their chances of being together. That’s why finding out he cheated broke her heart, regardless of them being physically intimate together. Worse, his outburst when he begged her for forgiveness made it sound like they had been sleeping together to those who overheard, and the rumors were very unkind to the two of them, Alice especially.

Ian cheating proved to Alice that she was only fooling herself that they could be together. Their worlds were too far apart. Ian was to be king someday and she… well, maybe she’ll reach the title of Baroness. Though Ian begged for forgiveness, and Alice gave it to him, she couldn’t go back to the way they were. Advice from Shaun and others helped her see that it was best for everyone involved that she simply remain as the loyal (future) knight and Prince Ian as only her liege.

Let’s skip ahead to the mission to catch the thief in the dark woods. Alice’s best means of combat is the stealth kill. She sneaks quietly, sets up magic traps, fires arrows when the enemy is unaware, and in general takes her time to take her enemy at her own advantage. She actually works pretty well as a solo fighter due to being so stealthy. Though she is good at hand to hand combat if need be, she prefers to strike before her enemy realizes she’s there, and she’s amazing at her skills. Why, if she put her mind to it, she could be a skilled assassin. (Or in another world, a sniper.)

The horde of monsters the thief set off to charge after Alice was almost her undoing. By the time she fell into the catacombs, she passed out from exhaustion, having drained her mana dry. She might have been doomed if a monster came upon her then, but fortunately the master of the dark woods found her in time.

Alice was pretty darn shocked to wake up in a surprisingly fluffy bed, with her armor removed. Not all of it fortunately. She had her modesty protected and her softer clothes still on, but the uncomfortable hard outer plates were removed so that she could sleep peacefully. Jack was apologetic about removing any part of her clothes without asking, even blushing about it, but he didn’t want her to be uncomfortable while she recovered.

Needless to say, Alice is wary of Jack at first, but he did save her life. She does piece together that he’s the dragon pretty quickly and is naturally wary, deciding that the best course of action is to rest up, heal, and carefully get information from the legendary master of the dark woods.

The rumors and legends are so varied, it’s hard to know what exactly is the truth. The dragon of the dark woods doesn’t even have a name, and some of the tales are clearly exaggerations. Since Jack is showing himself to be surprisingly friendly, and he saved Alice from certain death, she decided to trust him… at least enough to remain civil and learn more about him, the castle, and the dark woods.

After asking many questions and getting as much information as Jack can give her (though much of it is confusing due to how rusty he is with socializing), Alice agrees to help him find a way to break his curse. She’s taking a risk, but if she leaves the castle on her own, she’ll die. If she stays, she can keep an eye on Jack to see if he’s really as good and gentle as he presents himself to be. If she has to, she’ll find a way to escape without him if she gets the sense that he’s using her to escape the forest in order to conquer the world or something.

Being very good at sneaking, Alice does slip away to search around the castle for answers on her own as much as possible. However, Jack can’t stand the idea of losing track of her, and all it took was one time of losing track of her for him to leave a magic tracker on her discreetly so he can find her wherever she goes - for her own safety of course! He can’t stand to be far from her. He has to give her time to herself, since if he leaves her with no privacy she won’t trust him, but it’s so hard to stay away. He’s so lonely.

At first Jack’s feelings for Alice are platonic, just a lonely man in desperate need of friendship, but over the time they spend together, getting to know one another, he falls in love and falls hard. Alice, naturally, takes much longer to fall after her relationship with Ian fell apart. At first, Jack is someone she can’t quite trust because he’s a stranger, then she is cautious because he’s a powerful dragon with many unflattering legends about the monster that he is, then it’s concern for the power imbalance between them… but eventually she sees that he’s just a lonely, sweet dork who just wants a friend.

Of course, Alice won’t realize he wants much more than friendship until later. Jack doesn’t want to scare her away after all.

I don’t think Shaun, Nick, and Ian are just going to sit back and wait long to try and find her, but I want to give Alice and Jack plenty of alone time, so I’m going to go with the idea that when humans come deep into the heart of the woods, at first Jack is excited. More friends! Then he becomes fearful when he realizes they’re looking for Alice. They want to take his sunshine away. She’ll leave him, forever!

Well, that won’t do. Jack doesn’t want to hurt them, but he can just make it difficult to find the castle. Maybe use the power of the cursed land to rearrange the forest when the search party isn’t looking, mix them up so that they find themselves suddenly outside the woods. Jack might not be able to leave due to the curse, but he’s not known as master of the dark woods for nothing. He can wield the golden cuffs’ power however he likes, just he can never leave.

Jack just needs to divert them long enough that they give up and leave, or he can find a way to escape with his sunshine’s help. Alice knows many interesting spells, being very creative with magic in ways that he never thought of before, and she knows of things that he doesn’t due to coming from outside the woods. With her help, he is able to figure out a way to free himself from his imprisonment… provided that he remains close to his sunshine. It’s more of a change in the curse than an actual cure for it, but it’s a vast improvement! He can leave the dark woods! Finally! At long last! He can converse with more people! He can make friends! He won’t have to be left alone and forgotten in the dark anymore!

Of course, Alice helps Jack prepare to be around people by helping him refine his “human” form. People aren’t going to understand that the deadly dragon of the dark woods is really just a sweet marshmallow, practically a giant cuddly puppy in human-ish form! When Jack can master looking properly human, they can come up with a cover story that he was a wanderer that found her lost in the woods and helped her until she could get back home. It’s not a lie technically. He used to be a wanderer after all, and everything else is true. He’s been nothing but helpful to his sunshine~

So Alice has to hide the secret of her new dragon friend, who has made it his mission to win her heart. Jack is willing to wait for her to be ready to love him the way that he loves her, even if the wait drives him crazy, but he’s very territorial, not liking the way the other guys look at her. However, Alice does notice his more possessive behaviors even as he tries to remain subtle about them, and she makes sure to keep her new “pet” dragon on a tight leash. Jack is fine with that so long as it means he’ll stay close to his sunshine.

I’m going to say that the change to the curse to bind them together does cause an empathy connection because I really love empath magic. Plus, allowing the pair to feel each other’s emotions and even pleasure and pain is very intimate. When Alice realizes they now can sense each other’s pain as a result of what she did, Jack makes it clear that he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe so that she won’t have to experience any pain. He’ll promises to protect her for the rest of his life.

Of course, such a declaration leaves Alice feeling rather flustered. ;3

Overall, it is a bit more of a slow burn than Sunshine in Hell, but eventually the two of them fall in love, much to the dismay of the rest of the male leads.

Naturally love will overcome the curse, because I am an absolute sucker for happy endings. Jack and Alice will find a way to break the curse and remain together so they can live happily ever after. And make love like rabbits hopped up on viagra.

No, I won’t apologize for that pun either.

It won’t come too easily, of course. There’s plenty of people who aren’t going to be keen to immediately trust Jack, and not just the male leads. He came from out of nowhere, with no known background. Alice’s family is certainly going to be concerned by the stranger that waltzed into her life after her heart was already broken by Ian, especially since by the time they meet Jack, she’s already shown signs of crushing on him. The family is going to need to make sure that this new guy is worth potential heartbreak.

Then of course there’s the whole political aspect of things. This country used to be the very kingdom that Joseph was chased out of many, many years ago. The lost prince is a story that could be uncovered to potentially explosive results.

Why, if Jack had the mind to, he could take back the throne and rule the kingdom that once chased him away… with his sunshine ruling by his side after all.

Will that happen with Alice? Maybe. Maybe she’ll actually become a queen after all, or maybe she’ll just live a simple life with Jack who doesn’t let on that he’s powerful enough to level the whole kingdom. After all, all he truly wants is to be loved, and Alice is sure to give Jack all the love he could ever ask for.

Perhaps that love will wind up with a lot of adorable half-dragon babies running around. Though they could be fully human if Jack does become a human after the curse breaks. I kind of like the idea that Jack is freed of the curse, but he is still a powerful dragon and can still use the belt to have fun with his shape. Plus baby dragons are the cutest and the idea of Jack and Alice’s kids being little dragons with tiny wings and cute pointy ears heals my soul.

…Holy crap this ramble went on for 26 pages. That’s over 11,000 words according to google doc! This must be my longest ramble yet, and that’s saying something! Well, I suppose that’s what happens when a dragon lover makes a dragon AU, haha. Fantasy has always been my jam, and I love playing with magical elements.

Anyway, I’m going to take that as a cue to wrap things up here for now. Let me know what you think about this AU and if you want to hear more about anything in particular. Also, let me know if this post inspires you to create anything of your own and please share it with me! I love it that we can inspire one another to create in this fandom, just like Mars’ lovely art inspired me. I hope I’ve given you a few new fun ideas to play with. Thanks for reading this far!

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur

[imiya]

Tilly & Finley Wild Manes Review

since i got a hold of these girlies lets investimigate- apologies for overexposure

first, individual pics of each of them. here's finley:

who is themed after a pool party, of course. when i bought her at target, the self checkout display called her Isla, which makes sense as a working name for her... island.

she is white with grey hooves and a muzzle. she has blue eyeshadow with green eyes and blonde eyebrows, matching her blonde hair with a purple streak.

i will color correct these photos for the wiki, but for now, here's the raw photo of her clothes

all of the clothes are unhemmed and simply printed-on fabric with two velcro connections. my finley also had a plastic tab keeping the front attatched (which i snipped so i could remove it). you can see her mermaid tail and flamingoes on her clothes. the clothing is very thin, i don't think it might fray any time soon, but it does seem lazy for a fashion horse toy. thankfully, the hair makes up for it, we'll get there later.

each of these horses came with a brush and a non-brush accessory. finley's is wearable! she has a visor made with this magenta translucent plastic. i didn't take any pictures of it on her, but it does indeed fit on her head.

she comes with this purple brush, which you can tell is hers because of the flamingo printed on it.

and now a quick tilly rundown...

she's a brown horse with a brown muzzle and hooves, red eyeshadow, yellow eyes, and blonde eyebrows. her hair is more of a dirty blonde than finley, and her color streak is described as "periwinkle". the self checkout register called her Serena, which... yeah, i can see why they may have changed that. a little on the nose.

as you can see by her brush's symbol, she's very clearly tennis-themed. her accessory is unfortunately not wearable, instead it's a water bottle with a tennis racket printed on

horse gotta hydrate

if that all wasn't clear enough, her outfit has a tennis racket on it, too! there is no hemming, the "collar" is printed on. her outfit looks like a blue polo and a teal skirt.

okay, now the part people actually wanted to see. what the heck the figures look like

it's gettin' hot in here, so take off all your clothes...

both finley and tilly have the same exact model! i assume the horses (ponies? horses. fillies?) all have the same bodies. i think i can feel a few spots where the plastic feels slightly more rubbery/pliable than the others, so i do fear we may see discoloration as time goes on.

all of the legs are articulated at the shoulder or "hip" (sorry horse fans, it's a knee or something?), but only the front left leg is articulated in multiple places.

thank you girls, finley has her leg fairly straightened out whereas tilly has it bent. i haven't noticed the joints being unusually difficult to maneuver or maintain position, which bodes well for pictures. i did have a little bit of trouble getting them to balance in my photobox (likely because the bottom bows inwards a bit), but the little extra range of motion is nice. you can also twist the joints a little bit, but not super extremely.

but can she sit?

sort of? i know horses don't really naturally "sit" very well, but she still looks goofy. her neck doesn't move forwards so it's not a very great-looking pose for her to hold, but she can balance like this on her own.

hey, look at me when i'm talkin to you

thanks. side view of her in that same pose.

her head can turn, it's on a ball join, i believe it's similar to the g4.5/g5 mlp joints but a little more restrictive. i intend to dismantle a finley for research, so ill be able to share that when the time comes. it can rotate and move up and down slightly.

more motion... one of the back legs is in a mid-walk position which made her a little awkward to balance. you can see the company name and "made in china" stamp on the inside of this leg.

it's not very clear in this image, but there's a stamp with numbers and letters on her stomach. i don't know what this means, as finley had the same code! you can also see the hooves have horseshoes with "WM" (wild manes) on them.

before we get into the manes of the wild manes, a quick little look at their eyes.

the paint looks great! it's not stippled like i've seen on a few other dolls recently. the eyes are also sculpted in, so we hopefully won't have wild misplacement like we do on the newer MLPs. they both have stars and two eye shines, and the eyelashes are the same. the only differences here are the colors.

okay. mane time.

the hair is SUPER soft. i agree with the replier who said it's Kiwi Nylon. i am very happy that the hair is so nice and hope that the others in this set are the same way! the way it's packaged in the box makes it so there are three or four rubber bands holding it in place, and it leaves the hair with the "memory" of that. i did wash and condition the hair in these photos, which also seemed to help with the small qualms i had with the hair right out of the box. it seemed a little oily and tilly had a doubled-over plug. finley didn't seem to have any rooting troubles!

all of the hair is a few rows up the back of the head with a section for bangs. you can see that they wove tilly's bangs with the longer hair that's part of her mane to hide the parting in her head, which is likely expected for a doll but a cool detail. her bangs are NOT gelled down!

here you can see five to six rows of hair on the back of the head. it's not a lot of surface area, but the hair seems thickly rooted for what it is!

here i've parted the mane on Finley so you can see the hair a little more clearly. it looks like the streaks of hair are only on the outside of the rooting.

i've been a little afraid to peel back finley's bangs lest they become unsalvagable, but here's finley's bangs peeled back.

there's still a few rows here. when i dismantle her, hopefully i can showcase her rooting pattern more clearly.

i think that's all the pictures i've taken of them so far... i got these girls at Target, and you can order them as well as Bailey and Cocoa off their site right now! i'll be updating the fandom wiki with pictures of the accessories and hopefully the rest of the girls are as high quality as these ones!

[doodlenoodleboi]

A fellow Toasty lover I see...👀

Do you have any headcanons for them yourself, both general and within a relationship? I'm curious :3

Nakedtoster Headcanons!

◦ Toast loves Final Fantasy as everyone knows and because of that he’s becomes rather irresponsible with money when it comes to it. Buying the books, props and every single game.

◦ Toast and Xyx are the best of friends Toast can find your IP address and Xyx loves trolling people

◦ When Toast gets in a relationship and his significant other gets any type of hate online best believe Xyx is trolling them online, it’s a hobby of his.

◦ Toast owns a pair of pink cat ear headphones half as a joke and the other is because he likes cats and his hair is pink.

◦ Toast has been misgendered often in public because of his pink long hair.

◦ Toast comes off as the type to have a comfort game like, animal crossing, Minecraft, or Roblox.

◦ He doesn’t own many consoles he’s a PC and a Nintendo switch and maybe a Ds or something from when he was a kid.

◦ Toast is not against doing inherently feminine things like makeup and painting nails if you want to. He might not even take off the color off hid his nails because he’s too lazy.

◦ If you’re in a relationship with Toast he most likely sees you as a friend and a lover next.

◦ He would love it if you played Final Fantasy XV comrades with him and Xyx.

◦ He definitely wears those cringey shirts saying I left my video games for this not because he likes them but I they were gifts and couldn’t care less what he wears most of the time.

◦ If you have been with Toast long enough eventually he might dedicate a character In the games he makes to you.

◦ When it comes to dates with Toast they aren’t common given he is an introvert but you will be treated to snacks and Resident evil and the bad Final Fantasy movies he claims doesn’t do them justice yet but watches them anyways.

◦ Toast is the type of guy to go to comic con and other conventions, after all it’s hinted that he is a content creator with his Final Fantasy advertisement.

◦ He generally likes anything concerning Capcom for the most part and enjoys story more than combat.

◦ He can solve a Rubik cube no problem and rather good at puzzles of all sorts.

◦ I don’t know why but once again I see him as a monster energy drink consumer not so much on G fuel not even if he was payed.

◦ Toast can cook but only basic things like a proper breakfast and a sandwich dinner is a 100% on you or take out because even if he tried the food might be bland. He is willing to learn through.

◦ From what I can tell Toast dyed his hair he’s a natural blonde that dyed his eyebrows brown/black or he’s a brunette that has to bleach and dye his hair every so often. Whatever the case is, Toast would appreciate it when you help him with his hair.

◦ When it comes to you guys first kiss he is rather clumsy out of all the Blooming panic love interest I think he has the least romantic experience.

◦ Every year he allows you to pick out his glasses frames as he couldn’t care less what he picks through most of the time it remains the same and you’re just putting random frames on his face to see how they look.

◦ Toast doesn’t necessarily need glasses but he’s couldn’t see the writing on the board in the back of the class. He still wears them today to “enjoy the effort but into the games and graphic blah blah.” He doesn’t want to admit that he’s actually a bit blind.

◦ His favorite thing on would probably be a sundress (an actual sundress) or cosplay/ convention clothes.

◦ He loves the taste of Pepto-Bismol

◦ He does have back problems given his horrendous posture during gaming.

[freesia-writes]

Ch 41: Cooking

Master List ~~ Previous Chapter ~~ WC: 2.6k

ONLY FOUR MORE CHAPTERS, MY FRIENDS! 😭

Song: “Hazy” by Rosi Golan ft. William Fitzsimmons

A number of weeks passed, full of regular work at the butcher shop, family dinners that Lyra and Breslin sometimes joined, visits to Omega at her jobs, and a variety of dates with Lyra. It was an odd period of time for Hunter – he felt as though everything were new, happening for the first time, complete with blushing flirtation, lingering hugs, and as many affectionate little touches as they could manage. It was like building a new layer on an established foundation with a renewed sense of confidence and hope. At times, there was a downright giddiness that he almost didn’t know what to do with. There were still flavors of that same old doubt too, that he was living a lie and somehow it would all collapse soon, and yet they were quickly and frequently assuaged by both optimism and eagerness.

Hunter found himself pacing nervously between the stove, where a sauce had been simmering for a while now, and the shelf in the hall, where a small, old music player was filling the room with peaceful instrumentals. A fire crackled happily in the hearth, warming his cabin and making it a cozy respite from the chilly months that had replaced the balmy summer, and he heard Omega and Breslin laughing in the clearing outside. His heart leapt in his chest and he brushed off his apron, then re-rolled his sleeves to make them look a little neater. 

When the girls burst through the front door, he realized that he’d never actually had company at their house. He had always just defaulted to others’ homes or any of the beautiful places around the island, so there was something special about being able to host some of the people he’d come to care about most. They emerged into the main room, chatting happily, followed closely by a much quieter Lyra. Her hair was styled a bit more than usual, the top half in a loose braid with some wispy long bangs framing her face. She was bundled up in one of her large, thick coats and held a small package in her hands. 

Breslin and Omega ditched their jackets in the entryway and continued in, sending casual greetings Hunter’s way before continuing to Omega’s room, lost in conversation. There was a bit of an age gap between the two of them, but they each had their share of adventurous stories and a general zest for life that created a natural delight with one another. Hunter met Lyra in the entryway as she was unbuttoning her coat, and he courteously helped her pull it from her arms before hanging it up and watching her set her package down on the shelf. She glanced down at her dress, nervously tugging it into place, then looked up at him timidly. 

“It’s a little different than usual, but Breslin insisted,” she admitted, wrinkling her nose for a second. She was wearing a faded blue dress with a dainty floral pattern and pearlescent buttons up the middle. It was rather fitted around her waist – a contrast to her usual loose, flowy style – and had a thin lace trim along the neckline and sleeves. It was fancy and nostalgic at the same, and Hunter flushed with affection as he placed a tentative hand lightly on her waist, leaning in to brush his lips against her cheek. 

“It’s beautiful,” he whispered, voice slightly weak.

He himself had opted for jeans, a cream-colored henley, a denim button-up, and a textured cardigan that was a pale green-gray, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to confess that Omega had told him to wear it as well, exhorting that “it brought out his eyes”. But as Lyra took an extra moment to hold his gaze, a  feather-light hand brushing some tousled waves of brown hair away from his face, he got the sense that she noticed, and it was disproportionately satisfying. 

“You’re so handsome,” she said quietly. He muttered some generic deflection, rubbing the back of his neck, then gestured for her to follow him into the main room, which mirrored the one in her house in the sense that it consisted of a kitchen, dining table, and living room all in one comfortable space. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes briefly to soak in the delicious smells of wood fire, sauce, and the unique scent of him and his home. “Need help with anything?” she offered as she stood beside him at the stove. 

“If you don’t mind giving this a stir, I’ll finish chopping the vegetables for the salad,” he said, passing the wooden spoon into her hand. She nodded and began, leaning over to sniff the pot and letting out a little sigh of contentment. “You’re quite the cook yourself.”

“If you like steak,” he chuckled. 

“I do,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows at him in such an uncharacteristic display that he chortled.

“Well good.”

He took up his position at the cutting board beside her, smoothly slicing through an enticing variety of local produce as their conversation wove effortlessly through topics both meaningful and mundane. The sound of laughter floated down the hallway from Omega’s room, bringing a private smile to each of their faces. Lyra dipped the spoon into the sauce and brought it to her mouth, holding a hand beneath it to prevent spilling any, and tasted a bit from the end. 

“Whew,” she marveled, offering it to him. “You’re gonna have to share this recipe.” His eyes flickered from the spoon to hers as he bent to take a taste, enjoying the subtle intimacy of the act.

“I’m afraid that’s classified,” he grinned. “Only place to enjoy it is here. Can’t get it anywhere else…”

“Ohh,” she said as the realization dawned. “What a terrible conundrum.” A smile. A nudge of the elbow. They worked in silence for a few more minutes until the girls emerged from the hallway, drawn out by the delectable scents wafting through their door. 

“Smells like it’s about ready?” Omega guessed, more wishful thinking than any actual olfactory expertise. 

“Just about,” Hunter nodded, slipping out the back door to the porch, where some plump steaks sizzled happily as he opened the cover, prodding at them with some tongs. Lyra followed, emerging from the house with inquisitive steps.

“Now that is sexy,” she snickered, and Hunter snapped the tongs a few times before giving the steaks one final turn. He felt her arms snake around his waist from behind, and she leaned against him, peeking over his shoulder. “The steaks are nice too,” she whispered in his ear, and he couldn’t help a snort at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. 

“Ohhhh, look at you two,” came Breslin’s taunting voice from the doorway, and they turned to see both girls leaning against the wooden frame on either side, grinning at the two of them with infuriatingly knowing looks. 

“Can we at least get some dinner, and then you two can get a room?” Omega jabbed. 

“Actually, give us time to hit the road,” Breslin added. “I don’t want to be hearing stuff…”

“Okay, nothing to hear…” Hunter interrupted, indignant at his own unconcealable embarrassment. “Keep talking and I’ll throw you out right now.” He grinned, brandishing the tongs at each of them in turn. “You’ll have to go begging at Tech’s.”

“Orrrr just go buy dinner in town because we’re adults with jobs,” Omega teased. “We could even bring you guys a dessert. Although it seems like you already have plans for that.” They both giggled.

“I’m being bullied by two young girls,” Hunter muttered to Lyra, who guffawed so loudly that it startled all four of them and she clapped a hand to her mouth. 

“I think you’ll need to get used to it,” she offered unhelpfully. “Occupational hazard.” A playful shrug. He gazed at her fondly before feigning a hard look at the girls.

“Go set the table, will you?”

“Don’t burn the steaks,” Omega threw over her shoulder as they retreated to the kitchen.

“Is this real life?” Lyra asked, shaking her head in joyful disbelief. “This feels like a dream sometimes.”

Hunter smiled, piling the steaks onto the plate in his hand. It did feel that way.

* * * 

Dinner was leisurely and indulgent, with multiple courses that left them all absolutely stuffed. Hours had passed in authentic conversation, wit and humor, and memories and adventures. The fire was burning low, darkness having settled heavily over the island outside, and the dim light was threatening to put everyone to sleep in the complete and total satisfaction of a night well spent. Breslin was the first to drag herself to her feet, glancing down at Hunter and Lyra, who were reclining on the couch. 

The typically stoic clone was in a surprisingly vulnerable position, laying across it sideways with his feet dangling over the armrest and his head in Lyra’s lap. She had it cradled in her hands, her hair falling over one shoulder as she gazed down at him with unmeasurable affection, slowly caressing his forehead and cheek. Breslin smiled at the softness on Lyra’s face when she finally looked up.

“I’ll never make it to work tomorrow if I don’t get to bed,” she said regretfully, patting her mom’s shoulder as she walked around behind them. 

“Need company getting home?” Omega offered. “I figure you’ve been here long enough to know your way around, but it’s dark.” 

“I appreciate it,” the older girl smiled. “But mom showed me her nifty little fathier trick, and I really like getting to ride them around. And their night vision is way better than mine. Plus, then you’d have to walk yourself home alone!”

“Fair enough,” Omega laughed. “Well thanks for coming.”

“Thank you for having me! Hunter…” she began, an affectionate solemnity painting her features now. You’re a great guy. Your family is awesome. And I love that we’ve had the chance to get to know you. Thanks for everything.”

He nodded and smiled broadly, warmed by her sincerity as he pulled himself up into his usual seated position. “Right back atcha, kid.”

“See you tomorrow, sweetie,” Lyra murmured, basking in the glow of the fire and the joy of the moment. 

“Love ya, mom.”

Breslin disappeared out the door, her whistle for the animals reaching their ears soon after. Hunter watched her small beam of light dancing into the distance as the sound of hooves faded into silence. Omega stood slowly and stretched. 

“Same for me,” she announced, offering a bleary wave as she ambled off to her room. 

“Bed sounds heavenly,” Lyra agreed, turning slightly to nestle into Hunter’s side. “You always make me want to quit my job and just eat and sleep all day.”

“Don’t put that on me,” he smiled, resting his cheek on her hair. “You’d want that anyway.” 

“You’re right!” she laughed. “Oh! I almost forgot… I brought you a little somethin.” She tore herself away from the unparalleled comfort of the sofa and fetched her package from the entryway. Hunter sat himself up a bit more, setting it on his knees after she handed it to him sheepishly. As he began to unwrap it, she started to fidget. “Okay… So I know this is something that a kid would make… but stuff like this makes me happy when I see it hanging on the wall… Like, it’s a fun little reminder… of good times…”

Finally free of the paper, Hunter lifted out a gently curving piece of driftwood with a handful of strings dangling from it, each one boasting a motley array of shells, sea glass, and other bits of beach. He recognized a few of them from their walks, having poked fun at her scavenging more than once, and a rush of memories accompanied each one. Tranquility and delight, curiosity and wonder… The simple collection evoked all kinds of warmth and nostalgia as he studied it in the firelight. 

“I know it’s silly…” Lyra began, but he set it down on his knees and fixed her with a look that stopped her mid-sentence. 

“Now listen,” he said, eyes playful beneath hawkish brows. “None of that. It’s amazing and it makes me happy.” She smiled, bashful and relieved all at once. “Actually…” he continued, thoughtful all of a sudden. “I’ve got something for you too.” Now it was he who tediously extracted himself from the plush cushions and carefully set her beach creation onto a side table, then disappeared to his room for a minute before returning with a closed hand. He sat beside her, on the edge of the couch this time, holding his loosely-clenched fist between the two of them, and she mirrored his position. 

“Please don’t throw a handful of sand in my face or anything like that,” she chuckled nervously, and the unexpectedly preposterous idea made him laugh. 

“That’s probably more Crosshair’s style,” he grinned. “Or used to be… But no, I’m just… I don’t know how to introduce it.”

“Does it have a name?” Lyra whispered, met with a snort from him. 

“I’ll leave that up to you…” He hesitated, then took a deep breath and lifted his eyes from his hand to her face. “I’ve had this for a while… Well, pieces of it. And I never really knew what to do with it… It just kinda took shape….” His face softened, eyes dropping again as his fist slowly opened, revealing an intricately-woven silver chain that led to a smooth, round piece of sea glass. He held it up to the light, where its frosted lavender hue was barely discernible in the glow from the hearth, but it was visible enough to evoke a gasp of awe from Lyra. 

“Wow,” she breathed, touching it with a single admiring finger. “That’s stunning.”

“I was waiting for a special occasion to give it to you,” he continued haltingly, second-guessing every word but gaining momentum as the sentiment fully took shape. “But… I realized… It’s this stuff that I love most. The food, the walks, the simple enjoyment of home and nature and all of it.”

His fingers found the clasp, and with tentative hands he placed it around her neck, fastening it beneath her hair and laying the sea glass gently just below her collarbone where it nestled gracefully on its chain. A smile ghosted his lips as he traced one side of it before pulling back to admire it. 

“I wasn’t created to enjoy life,” he said quietly, looking at his now-empty hands as he held them palms-up in his lap. “Didn’t think I could, really… We’d always get glimpses of it here and there… But it just wasn’t for us…” Her soft hands, with some bony knuckles and well-worn paths of veins across the back, slipped into his. “Anyway…” he sniffed, “Enjoying the ‘little things’ with you has been…” He drifted off, unable to think of the best word that most encompassed the depth of his sentiment.

“I’ve loved it,” she whispered, leaning against him to rest her head on his shoulder, with him in spirit where words failed. 

“Me too,” he smiled. 

.

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@techsgalaxy02 @shadowphantomreaper @violatiger8 @flowered-bicycles @nursekyra

[nardo-headcanons]

Sunagakure Worldbuilding Headcanon

My last post on Kirigakure made me think of some Sunagakure Headcanons. Here they are! This is very long, but I hope you enjoy!

People and Culture

The wind realm’s population is rather decentralized, so there are a lot of subcultures, accents and customs that have developed over time. The people of Sunagakure are very intelligent and hard workers and don’t take shit from anyone. They value their independence but also recognize the use of unionizing to achieve their goals. They use rather few words to communicate amongst each other in public, but in private they can be very poetic. Also, they secretly don’t mind the stereotype of tumbleweeds rolling around everywhere in the village, because they can relate. To outsiders, they seem secretive and mysterious, but they are in reality very friendly and hospitable. Once you make a friend in Suna, you’ve made a friend for life. Gift giving, especially in the form of food or other self-made goods is always appreciated. Suna citizens are hopeless romantics, and most soap operas and sappy romance books are produced there. They love to make music and sing together. Most instruments originate from the wind realm and its citizens proudly call themselves the creators of all music in the shinobi world. The wind realm is the country with the richest culture in the shinobi world.

Politics

Recently, Suna has been plagued by an economic crisis, as the wind realm daimyo has preferably hired Konoha shinobi to get missions done. This has raised the distrust in the wind realm government and made the people more loyal to the kazekage than the daimyo. The shinobi have started to prioritize the mission over the lives of the shinobi fulfilling it, however they make sure to give their teammates a quick and painless death if they get into that situation.

Clothing and Cosmetics

Most Suna Shinobi wear long sleeves and cover their head, to protect their skin from sun damage. It’s also very common to cover your face in layers of fabric, as the Suna sandstorms can be ruthless. Light brown, grey, white and black are the most popular colors, as they allow you to blend in with your surroundings and not get detected by enemy shinobi. All people, including kuniochis, keep their hair rather short, cover it or tie them together in some kind of way. There are a lot of unique hairstyles to deal with the strong winds, as can be seen by Temari, who wears four ponytails because the winds would otherwise just destroy her hairstyle if she wore just two. For festive occasions though, Suna clothes are vibrant and colorful, with very intricate details. The most preferred fabric choices are silk and cotton. Before the recession, Suna also had a booming beauty industry, with the best moisturizers, sunblock and body wash originating from there. There is an ongoing feud between the wind realm and the water realm about who has the better skincare products. Wind realm citizens are known to always smell good and take great care of themselves. They use bidets and shower frequently. The women are rumored to be the most beautiful in the shinobi world, however many of them have to deal with orientalism and exoticism from foreigners.

Nature

Flora

A fact that a lot of foreigners get wrong is that Sunagakure is covered completely in desert wasteland. Quite a bit of vegetation is savannah and what we call mediterranean. Still a rather hot country, it is characterized by agonizingly hot summers and barely existing winters. The actual deserts of the wind realm are sprinkled with oases, around which many settlements have formed. The terrain around those oases is very fertile and most of the country’s produce is grown there. Sandstorms are not a rarity here and during these storms there are self-imposed curfews as Suna citizens know that once you get buried in a sandstorm, there is no way anyone will find you buried under all that sand. Only a few nomadic families actually travel and live outside of the oases.

Fauna

The deserts that surround Suna are filled to the brim with the most dangerous, savage animals known to the shinobi realm. The snakes especially must not be underestimated, as their venom can kill a grown shinobi within minutes. Many marionette wielders therefore use it against their enemies. The rivers of the wind realm are full of crocodiles and freshwater fish. The fennec fox is seen as a symbol of good luck and suna nin believe their mission will be a success when they see one. Aside from other cats of prey like lions, cheetahs and leopards. Other mammals include hyenas, hyraxes, macaques, gazelles, oryxes, camels, hedgehogs and sheep. When it comes to rodents, you can find desert rats, porcupines, armadillos, meerkats and gundis. Suna also has the largest spider population in the shinobi world, and you often must check your toilet and shower for any venomous spiders hanging out there. At night you can see bats flying through the sky. The wind realm sea is a home to many kinds of saltwater fish and sometimes you can visit the dolphins, that are particularly friendly to children. Mosquito stings are nasty here, and many diseases, for example those that we call malaria and dengue fever are endemic here. Wind realm citizens have a natural immunity against them and sleep them off in a day, but there are vaccinations available for foreigners.

Food

Stew and other slow cooked gravy dishes The absolute staple of any Suna nin are stews. They’re elaborate and take the whole day to cook. Every family has its own recipes (and thinks theirs is the best) it’s useful to just cut up veggies and meat, and then slow cook it until it’s done. Stews made in Suna include gumbo, adobo, maafe, and many curries. Spices Wind realm citizens have the greatest spice tolerance in the shinobi world. The greatest variety of spices is produced there, from cumin, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, pepper, chilli, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, bay leaves, tumeric and a myriad of other herbs and spices. Suna food is very spicy for two reasons: many spices they use have a disinfecting effect, and the accelerated production of sweat helps cool down the body. Most spices are sold dried to increase shelf life. Many outsiders travel to Suna to acquire spices directly from the source, thinking they’ll get them for cheap, however, the vendors charge foreigners at a hefty margin. Sunagakure is the greatest exporter of all things spices.

Legumes Legumes play a very important role in the local eating pyramid. They serve as a satiating source of carbohydrates and protein. Beans and lentils can be turned into tofu, stew, mashed or baked, peanuts are often used as a base for stew and sauces in the form of peanut butter. Roasted and salted peanuts are a popular snack in Sunagakure. The biggest buyer of Suna’s exported legumes is Iwagakure.

Cassava This starchy root is soaked and then cooked for a long time to make mash, in stews, or fried. Cassava flour also serves as a gluten free flour alternative and many Suna nin use it to thicken sauces and stews. There’s also tapioca starch which is exported into other countries. Olives In the moderate climate regions, many olive trees are grown, which are then used to make olive oil, the preferred fat source of Suna’s people. Dairy It can often be purchased from nomad families, who sell it in the form of milk, yoghurt, kefir, butter and cheese. The preferred dairy variant is goat’s dairy; however, sheep and cow’s dairy are also available. There’s a possibility that the concept of fermenting milk to make yoghurt and kefir was once brought in by Kiri immigrants, however most wind realm citizens are too proud to give this possibility any thought or think it’s just a myth. Meat Just like dairy, meat can be purchased from several families that travel though the wind realm, or on bazars. It is dried often to increase shelf life. Sweets The best chocolate comes from here. The wind realm has a few islands where cocoa beans are produced, and Suna chocolate is known globally for its rich, earthy, fruity taste. Suna Nin are also the only people that regularly take coffee with them during missions. Most foreigners don’t like the bitter taste, but Sunagakure’s shinobis have realized that the caffeine within coffee beans is useful during missions where you must stay aware for long times. The most common sweetener is cane sugar and used to make coffee candy. Wind realm citizens don’t discriminate, and even children are allowed to have them. Another sweet food, especially popular amongst children are dates. On special occasions, Baklava are offered to the guests or given as a gift. Most foreigners find them way too sweet, but just can’t say no because they recognize the effort and craftsmanship that went into making them. The most popular fruit in Suna are: pomgranate, various kinds of citrus fruits, apples, grapes and green almonds. Ripened almonds are used to make marzipan, which is another one of Suna's culinary prides. Those who try persipan, a localized version from Kirigakure, think that it is a lesser version of their beloved treat.

[childofsardior]

IT'S TIME FOR SOME MORTON HEADCANONS FROM MY PERSONAL HC/AU!

↓↓↓ Read it all below! ↓↓↓

General Info:

Full name: Morton Koopa Jr. He was called simply “Morton” before being adopted by Lord Bowser, at the age of 5. The Koopa King, who had only heard about his own father at the time, (“the Magnificent Emperor of all the Koopas”) recalled some rumors about him being conveniently affected by melanism and called Morton, just like his new son. So the King, who has always loved pretending that the kids were his own, put there the “Jr” in Morton’s ID to feign a continuity in the family, even if everyone always forgets about it. Too bad the Emperor’s actual name happens to be “Mortimer” (Bowser won’t be pleased when he’ll find out).

Gender and pronouns: He is probably a cis man. Pronouns are he/him, mostly because he’s used to them and fit him well. If he questioned himself a bit more than he does nowdays, he could even come up with the realization that “It/They” could work as secondary pronouns. But the truth is: he doesn’t really care. Feels good in his body and how other people see him? That’s enough.

Sexuality: Nobody knows for sure. Morton doesn’t think about it much - he never had a crush or some interests in other Koopas or people in general, but he’s totally chill with it. His siblings, though, are always theorizing about his tastes even if Morton literally doesn’t care at the moment. Iggy, for example, claims that Morton’s apparent lack of attraction to anyone is easily fitting under the aro/ace umbrella. Roy claims that Morton is probably just a het guy that still has to “wake up from his childhood”. Wendy thinks her brother is just a bit shy and will find out eventually. Lemmy tries to defend Morton, reminding everyone that it is none of their business to label their dark scaled brother.

Age: He’s currently 14 and a half (in “canonical” years). In Royal Koopa age, comparing their development to Humans and such, he’s like a 16-years-old. But Morton’s specific development is quite peculiar. Physically speaking, he is way bigger than the average Tarrasquin of his age - in fact, he’s slowly getting bigger than Roy himself; the castle doctors can’t understand why he is so big - yet healthy and all. Iggy theorizes about the fact that Morton is the only one that follows a perfectly balanced diet for a dragon-turtle, with vegetables and fruits along with meat, but Roy jokes that if it was only for the greens, Morton would look like a cauliflower by now. On the other hand, Morton seems to have some kind of development issue, specifically considering his unrefined speaking. Roy and Larry would occasionally call him “dumb guy” or even “stupid” when angry at him, but Morton is actually one of the wisest of the family, and both Iggy and Ludwig agree that Morton can prove everyone to be quite sharp and smart in many situations.

Species: Tarrasquin (also known as "Royal Koopas" or "Dragon-Turtles") - that happens to be a powerful and rare species related both to Koopas and Dragons. The lack of horns at a young age and the number of spikes on the shell may point to the subspecies known as Plains/Field Tarrasquin, while some other details could suggest a "mix" with the Vulcanic bloodline. In addition, all the Koopalings seem to share an innate inclination toward magic and some other unusual details never found before in Tarrasquins, such as tail feathers or natural armors protecting the limbs, along with peculiar tiny gem-like scales scattered around their bodies in different patterns.

Physical appearance: He suffers from a partial melanism that made his scales darker than usual. His head/shoulder skin is white, with some gray details - noticeably, a big star-shaped birthmark on his left eye. He shaves most of his head, leaving only some thin black hair on the top. His eyes are dark gray-blue, and he has got a “quartet-straight upper and lateral” Royal Fangs pattern at the moment. His shell is a deep gray-brown color, almost black, with spikes that are getting golden on the top as he grows up. On his body, some bigger and darker plaque-like scales cover his arm, legs and tail like natural armor; his crocodile-like tail is big and strong and can be used in battles to deflect attacks.

Personality: Morton looks and acts like he is not very smart. He tends to talk in third person, is usually very stoic with his facial expression and looking at him in the eyes may suggest that not a single thought is running in that big head. Most people that he meets will probably think about him like a rough and very simple Koopa. But in reality, Morton is just a chill dude that doesn't talk much, this partially because he can’t speak very well (the reason isn’t clear; the royal doctors ipothized during the years about some speech development issue or maybe some trauma-related consequence that could have happened when he was very young). In everyday life Morton is usually an obedient young brother and a (sort of) responsable big brother - he is very patient with Larry and Junior, and probably the only one that will happily volunteer to spend hours with the two, especially with the Prince, without going mad at the end of the day. During missions, though, his soldier side comes out and he becomes much more serious and aggressive, especially with the Crown's enemies. If he's working along with his siblings during a conquest, Morton's innate protective nature will mix with his on-duty mode creating a very dangerous opponent, especially if the enemies try to hurt Junior or Larry. Morton also got a very big heart under the shell, even if he rarely show emotions - but he does “have feelings too”, believe me. He is usually the one that gives the most useful gifts at birthdays, and the one that finds the most straightorward-yet-wise solutions when in trouble. In the end, Morton's indifference towards insults and such beats even Ludwig's deafness against other people's opinions and Iggy's total inability to acknowledge jokes about him. Morton will only listen to critiques from his superiors, as Junior or Bowser, and rarely from his other siblings, and only when he is convinced he actually did make some mistakes. Hobbies and passions: For a long time Morton’s siblings claimed he actually had no real passions nor hobbies - he would just come over and help the others whatever they were doing, if asked. But they were wrong. Sure, Morton does enjoy helping or playing with his sibs, and will probably never say “no” if one of them ask him for help or company, but he actually has some hobbies on his own. Since childhood, for example, Morton has been fascinated by rocks - cool rocks, shiny rocks, perfectly-shaped stones and so on - and he actually started a collection for fun when he was little. Growing older, Morton started to actually *learn* about the rocks he was collecting, finding an interest in geology and later in ancient architecture, too. He his fascinated by ancient buildings, especially from distant cultures, and this curiosity actually inspired him to learn some theory about building and construction on one hand - and his family knows about it, since Morton was chosen as a Royal guest to co-lead some of the Super Kart Games’ courses projects - and to learn ancient languages on the other hand - but almost nobody seems to know this. In recent years he also found out he likes to cook… or at least, he likes to try it. He’s still a bit insecure and his fear of burning himself with the grill or the oven will usually lead to a overcooked meal, but he is really trying his best to impress Junior most of all. Morton also likes ducks, a lot. He started buying duck-related accessories for his outfits, rubber ducks of all sizes and also some duck plushies since the day he saw real ducks for the first time during a mission - a duck mom with her ducklings swimming peacefully in a crystalline lake near the Rock-Candy Mines. He now wishes to have a pet duck someday.

Relationships:

With his siblings: Morton is protective by nature, and him being giant mixes well with it. Even since he was quite young, he has always tried to help taking care and watching over the others - even to the point of snitching on them if needed when they were doing dangerous stuff. He can now literally work as a walking wall and deflect powerful attacks with his own body, but also making company and - mostly silently - support to his sibs in a “I-am-here-if-you-need-but-won’t-talk-if-you-don’t-ask-me-first” kind of way.

Now, for each relationship with the siblings:

Ludwig: Ludwig likes to boss him around, knowing Morton will likely follow his orders. Morton does it, but only because he’s firmly convinced that Ludwig is a good leader for the bunch. The two don’t spend much time together otherwise, but Morton is the only one that volunteers to listen to Ludwig WIPs or rough pieces from time to time, even if Ludwig will spend the whole day trying and editing and re-trying the same piece.

Lemmy: Lemmy and Morton have a chill relationship. Lemmy knows that if he wants to hug someone for no reason, Morton will always be happy to be the target. When fighting together against some enemies, Lemmy tends to jump over Morton’s big shell when fighting melee, creating a funny duo of the biggest and the smallest of the family. Morton allows Lemmy to ride his shoulders too from time to time, when the latter is tired from his trainings and all.

Roy: Roy is sort of trying to maintain a sort of rivalry between the two… without much success. Roy knows he can play rough with Morton without hurting him, and they do often train together - but Morton is also the one defending the others from Roy’s occasional bullying or critiques, details that bothers the pink one a bit.

Iggy: Morton and Iggy spend quite a lot of time together, especially during hikings in the Dark Lands looking for plants, animals and minerals, or when Iggy needs a silent company while working on a project. Iggy is also the one taking notes on Morton’s progress with speech and grammar, usually offering his time to “teach big ol’ Morton some new conjunctions!”, and also noting all the smart ideas the dark-scaled brother comes up with, ready to use them to defend him in front of the others.

Wendy: The two don’t interact very much, but Wendy, like Ludwig, bosses him around from time to time, mostly for muscle work - especially if she wasn’t able to convince Roy. Morton is the one that usually carries all her luggages when traveling, the one that helps her while redecorating her bedroom with new furniture and that offers to carry her shopping bags - but he will do it without needing much effort. She will sometimes bring Morton with her during her beauty-days-out in return for all his favors.

Larry: Larry is one of the two brothers Morton feels like his own responsibility. He will watch over him during missions and will try to keep him safe - even if Larry is now capable of doing this himself. Larry often complains about Morton's “baby-sitting” thing claiming that there is only 1 year of difference between the two, but Morton won't listen. Larry is hyperactive, clumsy and most of all, younger than Morton? Then Morton will continue watching over him like a good big brother. They also often spend time together playing games, along with Junior and sometimes Iggy, too.

Bowser Junior: Morton and Junior are best pals. Junior considers the dark-scaled brother his “buddy” and will choose him over the others for everything they have to do together, from playing to go on missions to go on trips and so on. Morton will do his best to protect the little Prince during quests and to keep him happy in general - he even started to cook thinking about Junior's always-demanding belly. Morton is also the only one that can resist the Heir's brattiness at its full power, with an infinite patience that even Ludwig envies.

* * *

With King Bowser: Morton is the only one that calls Bowser “KING DAD” or “ROYAL DAD” in the family. He mostly treats Bowser as his superior rather than as a father, with a soldier-like attitude when reporting to him, but he actually acknowledges him as his adoptive parent. Bowser is aware of Morton’s loyalty and strength, and will likely send him in difficult missions knowing he won’t get hurt, even if he’s one of the youngest.

With his mother (OC): They had a good relationship. Morton was the most obedient and less chaotic kid of the whole bunch, and their mother was actually grateful for that. He always wanted to help and was the one that snitched on his siblings when they did things they should not, always angering them for this. With the Mario Bros., Princess Peach and Mushroom Kingdom: Morton can be soft as bread with his friends but dangerous as heck with his enemies. Since the Mario Bros. are enemies to the Dark Lands Crown, Morton will fight them with all his resources when on his way. During truces, though, Morton will mostly be neutral around them - for example, during the Super Kart official competitions in the Mushroom Kingdom. Morton is instead quite nice and kind - in his own way - with the Princess, never treating her badly and actively asking her to bake stuff together when she happens to be a “guest” at the castle. Least but not last, Morton will lead attacks to the Kingdom’s borders when ordered, but he normally doesn’t really care about it.

Peculiarities & co.

Left handed: Just like his youngest brother, Morton is naturally left handed. He trained himself to use his right hand as swell while fighting with melee weapons, to be as versatile as possible. 

Speech: Morton seems to have a hard time talking. He often talks without conjunctions or with evident grammar errors, and refers to himself in third person. He is also very loud when he talks, usually scaring smaller creatures (Lemmy included) when he starts to speak out of the blue. His writing is very concise but usually more refined than his speech (even if he still uses the third person). Roy often jokes that Morton is just faking it and is only trying to build up a characteristic character for himself, while Larry thinks Morton’s a genius because he’s the one spending less energy talking like that. Oddly enough, if Morton is reading aloud an ancient poetry or translating an ancient language on the spot, he will talk perfectly and with the right intonation. Body quirks and special abilities: Partial melanism aside, Morton’s body is a mystery. He is way bigger than the average Royal Koopa of his age and gender, but also strong and resilient as a rock. He has darker plaque-like scales protecting his arms, legs and tail, which mixed with his Tarrasquin’s impenetrable shell makes Morton a sort of walking tank. He can resist most types of non-magical attacks and injuries, and he actually heals quite rapidly. His health is exceptional and the palace doctors don’t recall him having ever been ill. For some unknown reasons, his stomach seems capable of digesting almost anything, while being resistant to toxins and poison. Lethal doses for any other creature would leave Morton just sick for a while.

Random Facts:

He didn’t talk in caps-lock when he was a hatchling, probably because he was too tiny and his voice wasn’t strong enough.

Legends even say there was an ancient time in which Morton was very small and talked normally, and A LOT. Nobody knows if this is true.

He has a super refined handwriting. Ludwig envies it.

He’s actually the only one in the family, Bowser included, that follows an actual balanced diet for a Tarrasquin: he eats all the meat that the species normally need, but also a good amount of fruits and vegetables. He will eat fish and seafood in general, and any kind of sweet from time to time. He is the opposite of a picky eater.

His siblings often give him the food they don’t want. Most of it is veggies. Morton will eat it all without question.

Morton is the only one Junior will genuinely listen to: he’s concise and will just say what he has to say. Junior appreciates that.

Junior will often ask for Morton to play together with LEGO-Laz (or whatever LEGO-like brand they have in SM world lel) since Morton’s skill in creating whole scenes with it is unbeaten in the whole castle. He will sometimes spend an entire night fitting the pieces together. And if they need to dismantle some pieces, Morton will do with a single punch.

They say he can break a rock with a punch. They do not know he can also break rocks with headbutts.

In reality, the Super Kart organizators asked him for help during construction because of this - he could destroy small but hard rock with great precision and low effort. But then they actually discovered Morton’s passion about the whole building thing, and let him co-lead the constructions along with the demolitions.

To Bowser’s relief, Morton actually shares the name with a great-grandfather from the King’s bloodline. The “Jr” thing will still make sense… kind of.

When he’ll grow older, he’ll let grow a short sort-of-a-mullet of black hair. Nobody in the family will like that.

Once Morton is asleep, you *can't* really wake him up on purpose. You can try, of course, but legends says he won't wake up neither under a Bob-Omb shower - not until he is rested enough.

When he was in the egg, there was a white star-shaped mark on his egg as well. Same thing for Larry.

Both his egg and Larry's were from the same clutch, but for unknown reasons Morton hatched over 1 year before Larry. Dragon eggs behave strangely from time to time...

[screamingatanemptyroom]

Please Fix the Story- Pt 30 - The Higher Realm

New part! This is the mermaid lower world. We will have one last part after this to end the story, and then a few side parts. I'm so excited guys, I'm so close!

Masterpost linked here

_________________________

Before I could spend too much time processing my new aquatic form, I felt ripples in the water from an impact above me. Looking up, a body had fallen into the water, slowly sinking into the depths. I glanced around, the ship this human had fallen from was already heading out of sight. Was this an accident or did someone throw them over? Shrugging my shoulders at the question, I swam up towards the drowning human. Might as well do my good deed for the day. Maybe I’ll get lucky and it will be Liam!

I hadn’t gotten the story mission yet, so I had to be careful as I progressed until I knew more about the world around me. I grabbed the human, recognizing it to be a human male, and dragged his body towards the shore. There was what appeared to be a deserted beach nearby, and this seemed as good as any place to dump him.

Ugh! This dude is HEAVY out of the water!  

With more awkward splashing and thrashing around than I would admit to, I finally dumped my human burden onto the sandy beach. Once he was safely on the ground and not crushing my poor mermaid back and arms, I sat down on the beach and studied him. Fortunately, although I was aquatic in nature, I appeared to be able to breath oxygen. I did feel a bit dry and uncomfortable being only half covered by water. Knowing I shouldn't stay out long, I carefully looked over the human.

Hmm… he should probably not be face first in the sand with his butt in the air. That seems to be more likely to suffocate him than save him. Oops.

With that, I flipped him over onto his back, brushing the wet sand from his nose and mouth with a few quick swipes in hopes that he wouldn’t breathe it in. He was a young man, with even, well-proportioned features, albeit somewhat obscured by clumps dirt and sand. His hair color was difficult to distinguish underneath the mud, but seemed to be a light brown or blond.

My heart sank. Probably not Liam then. He usually had dark or black hair when he entered stories. Said it was the Systems way of “identifying” him as the villain.

Still, probably should wake him up and see his eyes, just to be sure, Better safe than sorry.

I reached out and grabbed a nearby piece of driftwood, and poked him randomly. He didn’t stir at first, and I sighed with impatience, fighting the urge to swing the stick or at least poke harder.Finally, my aggressive stick poking seemed to do the job, and the human woke up.

His eyes fluttered open, and focused on me.

They were grey.

I groaned with disappointment, dropping my poking stick. Not Liam for sure. Suddenly, I felt a deep sense of longing and attraction from somewhere within me, but not from me. It was the feelings of this character. Obviously, someone she might have fallen in love with at first sight. I pushed the feelings away. They were not helpful.

I turned back to the ocean, preparing to swim away. As I did so, however, the man spoke up.

“Wait!”

The desperation in his voice made me turn around.

“You saved me! Who are you?” He studied my face intently.

I shook my head. I didn’t know if I could speak,  Didn’t mermaids sing? But I wasn’t gonna figure that out in front of this stranger. I didn’t want to give him anything to work with.

“Please, let me repay you, kind lady! I will give you anything you desire, even…” He paused with a slight redness tinging his cheeks. “...up to half my kingdom.”

UGH! HE’S A PRINCE! 100% THE HERO OF THE STORY! RUN AWAY! ABORT! ABORT! I shook my head faster and sank into the water. Fortunately, this guy didn’t seem to be possessed by Adonis. Just more like a run-of-the-mill hero-type character.

I wasn’t interested.

“Please! Let me repay you!” He reached out and grabbed my arms, which were still sore from carrying his heavy body onto the shore. Frustrated, I shoved his hand off my arm.  

He blushed again at the contact and tried to put his hand in mine. Is he mentally ill? I threw it off with disgust.

“What do you want? Marriage?” I shook my head adamantly at his question.

“Really? Are you sure? I’m a princ….” He stopped as I chucked a sea shell at his head and turned back towards the sea. “WAIT, what about money!

I stopped for a moment. He grinned triumphantly at attracting my attention.

“I can give you lots of money!”

Money could be useful...this character probably doesn't have much human currency.  I looked over his drenched form with disdain, though. Doesn’t look like he has much on him right now.  

Of course, when he checked his pockets, he came up empty and gave an embarrassed grin. “Sorry, I must have lost all the money I had on me in the ocean.”

Typical male lead. Useless. I rolled my eyes and decided to leave again. Fortunately, my mermaid tail was still in the water, and the broke prince hadn’t seemed to notice that I wasn’t human yet.

“WAIT! If you follow me to my castle, I’ll give you more gold than you could ever spend in a lifetime!” He shouted.

Bad deal. I shook my head and sank further into the water.

That was when the prince made the mistake of grabbing my arm a second time.

“I don’t know where you are trying to run off to, but I can promise that you will be much richer and happier if you come home with ME!”

THUD

Without changing my expression, I bashed him in the head with my nearby poking stick. He fell backwards, clutching his head with a groan. I hit him again, and then a third time for good measure, until he seemed to be unconscious if not just stunned.

“Idiot.” The voice slipped out before I could control it. My voice was light, ethereal, a pleasant musical sound.

The unconscious idiot stirred slightly at my voice but did not wake. I just hoped he didn’t remember anything about this encounter.

I could be lucky, right?

I swam away.

As I did so, the system’s message appeared in the water in front of me.

FINALLY! Hopefully with memories I can find Liam!

**** NEW WORLD: A Mermaid’s Tale ****

This is a dramatic retelling of the fairy tale involving a mermaid and her beloved prince.  

Called it! Prince is the hero! I said silently to the water, but no one was around to congratulate my accomplishment.

Similar to the fairy tale, this story features a young mermaid saving and falling in love with a young prince. She then makes a deal with a sea witch to become human, with the price of the change being her voice. She is also told that if she marries the prince and has true love’s kiss within 1 year, then she would become fully human, and regain her voice. If she failed to do so, however, she would dissolve into nothing but water and air.

Bad deal, girl. I shook my head in disgust.

In this author’s version, the prince’s kingdom was beset by the constant threat of a large army of pirates, led by the Pirate King. The mermaid, who had successfully reached a relationship with the prince with a plan to be married soon, heard news of an upcoming attack for her friends in the sea. Recognizing the danger to her beloved prince and his territory, she snuck aboard the Pirate King’s ship, trying to convince nearby sea life to attack the boat and sink it. However, instead she was captured by the pirates, and while she was gone, the prince met and married another woman. At that moment, the mermaid died, her body dissolving back into the sea, never to see her loved one again. The author, after receiving backlash from the audience, tried to compensate for the bad ending of the heroine by attempting to shift to the perspective of the prince. The second half of the story focused on his new romance and marriage, as well as his fight and revenge on the villainous Pirate King. This was met with very poor reception from the readers. The story was therefore abandoned.

What on earth did I just read? That’s even worse than the original story!

The author’s main regret is the tragic end of the mermaid. Your mission is to allow the mermaid to survive.

**** DO YOU ACCEPT THIS MISSION? ****

YES?                                           NO?

Does the mermaid still have to become human? I asked silently.

The mermaid must still sacrifice her voice and be magically changed to become human. You cannot change this plot point. 

But the only way to survive the spell is to marry the prince. I thought of the weirdly possessive man whose life I had just saved and shuddered. No thank you.

The mermaid must survive.  The words were cold, logical and blunt.

I thought about it carefully. I had to find a way to undergo the witch’s spell and survive. After a few moments of silence, I grinned.

I had a plan.

*** Soul transfer 80% complete. ***

I selected “yes" and received the mermaid’s memories. It was just as awful as I expected. Poor girl had loved the prince unconditionally and risked her life multiple times just to be near him and keep him safe. And her repayment? He married another woman two weeks after she disappeared. Her disappointment was a knife to the gut, and constant wrenching deep within my soul.

Don’t worry, my new friend. We’ll give your story a good ending. No prince required.

I felt her resentment fade quietly at my encouragement, and gathered my resolve. It was time to begin.

Following the memories I had, I swam to a deep, dark corner of the ocean. Where there was no life but scavengers, and the sunlight was smothered on its way down. Only the ghostly glow from bio luminescent aquatic plant life illuminated the path to where the sea witch dwelled.

I paused at the door, hesitating. Liam wouldn’t happen to be the Sea Witch… right? Trying to wrap my head around the thought, I entered the cave.

It was a place of dark magic.

A large caldron sat in the middle, the contents within a writhing mass of bubbles. Skulls of various creatures decorated the walls, alongside different jars of eyes and scales. The whole cave glowed with an eerie green light, and no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find the source.

And at the center of everything… was the sea witch.

A young, beautiful woman, with dark green hair floating in curled rings around her, carefully measured ingredients and mixed them into her pot. Her many tentacles all performed different tasks, including grabbing ingredients, stabling the cauldron, and stirring with a long spoon.  She looked up as I entered, her bright red eyes lighting up with excitement at the new prey.

Not Liam, then.  This made my plan both easier and harder. I still needed the witch to help me become human, and find the other villain of the story.

The pirate king.

“What brings you here, curious little fish?” The Sea Witch asked with an evil grin.

I matched her evil grin with an even more villainous one.

“I’m here to make a deal.”

_________________________

It took six months. Six months to achieve my goal, and set my plan in motion.

I awkwardly tightened the badly sewn dress around my body, and stepped further out onto the beach. My homemade sandals weren’t great, but protected my newly formed human feet well enough. I wiggled my toes, trying to get used to the sensation of not having a tail anymore.

Alright, now to find my Liam.

I snuck into the port city. The area was bustling with life, filled with merchants, performers, restaurants. Everywhere the eye could see there was something for sale. People crowded the streets, talking, laughing… after the silence of the ocean, the noise was almost deafening.

I smiled and walked forward, enjoying the chaos.

My smile stopped, however, as I overheard a nearby conversation.

“The prince has doubled the reward again.” A middle-aged woman said to a vendor, rolling her eyes as she counted out coins to pay for her goods.

“Again? That’s up to ten thousand gold now!  All for one mysterious girl?” The merchant shook his head. “The prince has lost his mind.”

“Oh it’s fine… He’s young and in love! Besides.” She raised her eyebrows. “Sound like the girl is quite the charmer by the description.”

Please no. I had a bad feeling. There’s no way he remembered me from our last encounter… right? All I had done was call him an idiot and bash his head with a stick until he was knocked unconscious…. So it can’t be me.

I walked away, heading over to a nearby wall where different notices and warrants were posted.

And there I saw it.

_________________________

WANTED!

MYSTERIOUS GIRL!

Hair as gold as sunlight, eyes as green as the sea during a storm.

VERY STRONG. CARRIES A STICK!

Capture alive and unharmed.

REWARD 10,000 gold.

_________________________

My gaze hesitated on the words, “carries a stick.”

Well, crap. That’s what I get for doing good deeds. Should have just let the prince drown. I read the poster again, frowning.

And what’s with the stupidly poetic description followed by the words “carries a stick” in all caps?  I sighed, mentally exhausted. Definitely better to avoid him.

I turned around, moving in the opposite direction of the palace.

THUD

A bird flew down into the street, dying on the cobblestone by my homemade shoes. A broken neck, covered with pure white feathers. A dove. Blood trickled out, starting to pool in specific patterns, but I walked away before the message could form.

I already knew what it would say anyways.

And I would not accept my fate.

As I made my way through the city, I began hearing murmurs about pirates.

“They lay ashore on the port at the outskirts of town!” One woman, bouncing an infant in her arms, told another.

“How terrifying!”

“Hardly, the last few months they haven’t been terrorizing anyone at all!  All they do is quickly get supplies and head out to sea again. Rumor is that they are looking for something.”

“Something out on the ocean?” The woman asked with a confused look. “Whatever could they find out there?”

The other woman whispered back “I heard the Pirate King is obsessed with finding mermaids.”

Both women laughed, but I turned towards the outskirts of town, grinning. Pirate King? Stopped terrorizing people around 6 months ago? Obsessed with looking for mermaids?

DEFINITELY LIAM!

I followed the rumors towards the outskirts of town. It took me a while, but I came across a large ship grounded on an abandoned stretch of beach. I got closer, too excited at the prospect of seeing Liam that I hadn’t noticed that I wasn’t alone.

“HEY!” Two pirates jumped out, grabbing me. I struggled briefly, and then stopped, once I realized they were dragging me towards the pirate ship, which was where I wanted to go anyways.

One of the pirates, sporting about half his teeth and a fancy eye patch, leered at me. “What’s a pretty girl like you doing all the way out here?”

I shrugged silently.

“Ooh, a quiet one, huh?” The other, a fat bald pirate, chuckled grimly. “We’ll see how brave you are when you are facing the captain!”

Eyepatch hesitated. “…Enty? I thought the captain said we weren’t supposed to kidnap people anymore?”

“She practically kidnapped herself!” The Enty replied. “Surely Captain will understand?”

“I don’t know… He’s scarier now.”

“…yeah…” Both men turned pale and silent. I wondered briefly if my Liam was really the terrifying Pirate King they were talking about. Only one way to find out I guess.

Finally, we were aboard the pirate ship. Men were scurrying everywhere, carrying out tasks, keeping their heads down. There was an uneasy atmosphere on the deck, fear permeating everything.

The fat pirate, still holding my arm, cleared his throat nervously, and shouted to the closed door on the center of the ship. “CAPTAIN, WE GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU!”

I raised an eyebrow at the wording, but stood compliantly, waiting. Hoping I was right.

“DID YOU FIND A MERMAID?!” A rough voice called out from the Captain’s quarters.

The pirate flinched. “No, Captain, It’s a woman!”

“A woman? Who cares if you found a woman?! Send her away!”   The voice was obviously disinterested.

“But she wandered onto our ship!” Eyepatch argued, joining in.

“So she’s a lost woman? Great. Send her home!”

“But she’s beautiful, Captain, don’t you want to look?” Enty added on in a wheedling tone.

“What does her being beautiful have to do with me? You want me to go congratulate her on her genetics and lifestyle factors that went into allowing her to be conventionally attractive? DO you think this is a beauty contest or a pirate ship?! NOW GO SEND THE RANDOM LOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN HOME AND FIND ME A MERMAID!”

The two pirates looked at me with a frown.

“He’s not interested.”

“Where are we even supposed to find a mermaid, anyways?”

“Who knows?!” Eyepatch shrugged. “I guess we got to send this one back. Captain’s orders.”

They started to drag me away, but I was done playing prisoner. I slipped out of their grip, grabbing one of their swords as I spun away.

“HEY, GIVE THAT BACK!” Enty shouted, patting his large belt as he realized I had taken his weapon.

“Yeah, girly, we’re trying to send you back!”

I shook my head vigorously. I didn’t want to go back.

“CAPTAIN, the woman doesn’t want to leave! She stole my sword!”

“THEN STEAL IT BACK! YOU’RE PIRATES!”

Eyepatch drew his sword and stepped closer, but I struck first, knocking his wrist with the flat of my blade and causing him to drop his weapon. I grabbed it as well.

“CAPTAIN! Now she has my sword too!”

“DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING?!!” As the captain’s voice shouted out in disgust, the door slammed open. I looked over, and got my first look at the villainous Pirate King.  

He was tall. His head brushed the top of the doorway, his broad shoulders filling the space. He had long dark hair and beard, both decorated with several intricate braids. He wore a black frock coat and vest, with long boots and a pirate hat.

His eyes were dark blue.

Initially he charged out, his face furious and impatient. But then he saw me, freezing in place.

“Captain?” Eyepatch asked warily. “You okay?”

 I waved cheerfully, setting down my swords. Just in time, as Liam the villainous Pirate King rushed forward and hugged me, lifting me off of the ground. He buried his face in my shoulder, and I felt a small amount of moisture from tears wet the fabric there.

“Bel.” He whispered. “I was so worried that something had happened to you.”

I patted him on the shoulder, comforting him. He looked up, seeming to realize that his entire crew was staring at him. “GO BACK TO WORK!” He started walking towards his quarters, still carrying me.

“I thought you didn’t care about beautiful women, Captain?” Enty ventured to question him, letting out a squeak of dismay as Liam glared at him.

“Bel is NOT a beautiful woman!” He paused, realizing what he said, and looking at me as I silently laughed at his words. “I mean, yes, she IS beautiful. But she’s not a woman.”

The pirates stared at me in confusion.

“I mean she’s not human!” Liam snapped and added. “Never mind. She’s Miss Bel to all of you! And she’s now a part of our crew, so you louts know what that means?”

“WE PROTECT OUR CREW MATES WITH OUR LIVES!” They shouted in unison. Liam nodded with approval.

“Exactly. You two will be rewarded for finding Bel. Everyone else, get this ship out to sea! I’ll be in my quarters.”

He carried me through the doorway, closing it with his foot behind us. Once we were alone, he set me down, looking me over from head to toe.

“I’m so glad you’re safe! It’s been six months, Bel! I thought something went wrong. All I could do was look for you.” He paused, staring down at my legs. “You’re human… but that means…?”

I spread my hands out silently and gave a wry grin.

“You had to give up your voice.” He reached out a shaking hand, and patted my head. “I’m sorry, Bel.”

Smiling reassuringly, I reached out and hugged him. He hugged me back tightly, letting out a shaking breath.

Once we let go, I walked over to his desk, grabbing paper, quill and ink. While he watched intently, I wrote on the paper.

I missed you, Liam.

“I missed you too! But Bel…” He hesitated. “If you were turned into a human by the witch, does that mean you have to marry the prince? I know he’s been looking for you too.”

I am getting married…

I was still writing, but as Liam read over my shoulder, his face fell. “Oh…. I suppose you have to so you don’t die…. I understand. I want you to live and be happy.” He had turned away as he spoke. Frustrated, I tapped his shoulder and pointed back to the paper where I had finished the sentence.

I am getting married to you!

Liam’s eyes widened, and a bright smile formed on his face, before quickly hiding again. “What about the witch’s spell?”

Slowly, I wrote out what I had done over the last six months, and what my plan was. Liam reading all this with an increasingly astonished expression, let out the loud, villainous laugh that I couldn’t.

“I should have known when I couldn’t find you for all that time! Brilliant!” He grabbed my hands. “Bel, I’ll arrange everything! My crew and I will put together the best wedding you have ever seen!”

I pulled my hands out with a serious expression, and went back to the paper.

If we get married here, you have to understand something. Making sure he was paying attention, I continued to write. Even though it’s a lower realm. even though we aren’t in our regular bodies. It still counts. If you marry me in this realm, It is Liam marrying Bel. Not the Pirate King and the mermaid. We are married no matter what realm we travel to.

Liam read it carefully, and then reached forward and hugged me again. “Of course, Bel. This is you and me. You’ll be the wife of a dragon, and no matter what world it is, I will always find a way to your side.” He pulled back slightly, so I could see the truth in his eyes as he continued. “I love you, Bel.”

I put my hand on my heart, and then on his. I wasn’t writing, but he knew exactly what I meant.

I love you too.  

_________________________

A few months passed. We traveled around with the crew, going on a few adventures. We searched for and found buried treasure. We fought with rival pirate gangs. We also attacked a few ships, stealing the gold and jewels from them. And if they all happened to be from the royal fleet, well… I mean, the prince DID promise me money for saving him. Between Liam and I, we were able to subdue any resistance, often making off with the treasure without a single shot fired. Liam’s reputation became even more wild , now with the added rumors of the evil silent Pirate Queen who fought at his side. We were preparing for a large pirate wedding, and nothing could make me happier.

Not that everything was perfect, however. Two things definitely caused a wrinkle in our happy couple pirate life.

First: the doves. Every morning a dove would throw itself to the ground at my feet, its blood spilling out the same message: You must accept your fate. The system was angry at my defiance of the story, and the ominous messengers came and died each day. At first, this caused a huge stir among the pirate crew, and there were murmurs about how having a woman on the ship was “unlucky.” After the first few battles, however, and they saw how much I contributed with my skills with the sword, their view of me changed for the better. That along with Liam’s explanation that the doves were the product of an evil witch’s curse, the pirates quickly accepted it as the new normal. Every morning Enty would rush over and quickly sweep the bird away, the deck clean before I could blink.

The second obstacle to our happiness was the prince. He never stopped looking for me, increasing the reward to such a ridiculous amount that even I was tempted to turn myself in for the reward. It very much restricted my activities in the towns, so Liam and I often hung back whenever we came into port. It was mildly annoying, but not overly so.

Then came the day we ran into the prince.

It technically was our fault. We DID capture his ship, looking for gold. When Liam and I had subdued all the sailors on board, the crew had searched the inner rooms and came out with a tied up, angry looking prince. As he was set down on the deck with his men, his eyes looked around, until they landed on me.

Oh no.

“IT’s YOU!” He tried to stand up, but was held down by pirates on either side. “My love, I’ve finally found you!”

Love?

“Love?” The pirates looked confused.

“Love?” Liam said, his voice calm, but somehow communicating a threat.

“You saved my life, and stole my heart!” The prince continued, not looking over at the increasingly dour looking pirate king holding a sword. “I have searched the world for you, my love! Come back with me and let’s get married!”

I shook my head no.

“…” The prince seemed confused. “I don’t think you understood, dear. I’m proposing, Follow me and go home!”

I shook my head and gestured at Liam. He nodded in understanding and spoke up. “She says ‘No.’ She also says to stop calling her dear and love because she doesn’t like you.” I smiled at him. Over the time we spent, we had adapted a few different sign languages that we had learned in different lower realms to communicate, teaching the pirate crew as well so I could talk to them. My communication with Liam was always the smoothest, however. He seemed to have some deeper connection to my soul, some level of understanding that went beyond the need for words. He often acted as my translator when no one else knew what I was trying to say.

“She didn’t say that!” The prince retorted.

“Yes she did.” He looked at me. “She also says you smell bad and you are ugly.” I grinned and nodded.

“Why doesn’t she just tell me then?”

“She can’t talk.”

“YES SHE CAN!” He shouted. “I heard her say something to me!”

I raised an eyebrow, obviously questioning.

The prince blushed. “You called me an idiot, remember?”

I rolled my eyes. I thought he was unconscious for that part.

Liam stepped in. “Well she can’t talk now. Not that it matters. We will be taking your treasure and leaving.”

“NO!” The prince shouted. “She loves me! She saved my life!”

I gestured, and Liam translated. “She says she only saved you because she was afraid your corpse would pollute the ocean. She has less feeling for you than she does for the poop bucket on the ship, because at least the poop bucket is useful.”

The prince was silent for a few moments, as if something was broken within him. “No.” He whispered, his voice developing into a shout. “NO! SHE IS MINE! WE ARE MEANT TO LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER!”

I shuddered. Even if Adonis wasn’t here, the heroes of these worlds had his shadow. They felt like him, sounded like him. It really made me want to punch him.

I moved my hands. Liam watched with a smile and then spoke. “She says she will have a happily ever after, but as the Pirate Queen. She says she’s going to marry me.” He grinned. “We’re going to get married and grow old together and have six eggs… I mean human children.”

I paused. I hadn’t said anything about children or eggs. Did dragons lay eggs?? Could Liam and I even have children? If Liam and I had children in the higher realm did that mean I would have to LAY EGGS? My mind raced, and I very much ignored the prince and Liam.  Finally, I came to the conclusion internally that Liam and I would have to have a very long talk about the future and possibility of progeny… and about relevant biology apparently.  But we could have that talk when we back on our ship. I looked back up, trying to figure out what had happened while I was spacing out. The prince appeared to be near tears and was screaming obscenities, and Liam was simply taunting him with an evil grin.

I patted his shoulder. He looked over at me and his smile became more genuine. “Time to go?” I nodded.

He held my hand and looked back over at the prince. “Just so you know. She doesn’t belong to you. She doesn’t belong to me either. If you keep bothering her, she’ll crush you into dust. And I’ll help!” He looked proud of himself. I couldn’t help but smile, and leaned over to kiss him.

The pirates whistled loudly and the prince seemed even more angry. Liam, now red, picked me up and swung back over to the pirate ship. He ran back into the inner quarters and closed the door. Setting me down, he faced me, his red face slowly returning to normal. “Bel. Can we kiss more now?”

I laughed silently, and complied, the prince forgotten.

_________________________

It was our wedding day.

The pirates went all out. We got married on an island that had been taken over by our crew. Large festive banners decorated everywhere. A brightly dressed group of pirates played instruments, the soft, romantic music strangely out of place for the violent, aggressive looking musicians. Large crews of pirates gathered to watch the ceremony, all waving flags and streamers as if they were spectating a fight, rather than attending a wedding.

I stood at the start of the aisle,  wearing a long dress of woven golden threads. I held a bright bouquet, and kept a sword strapped to my side. Liam, dressed in his finest pirate coat, stood nervously at the front next to a terrified, kidnapped priest. His hair had been cut short and his beard shaved. His men teased him, but he told me privately that he wanted to look a little more like the Liam of the Higher Realm.

Our eyes met, and in the familiar dark blue I saw love and reassurance.

I stepped forward.

_________________________

“DID YOU HEAR THAT GUYS? I’M GETTING MARRIED!” Liam hugged me as a ragged crew cheered. They discussed the use of explosive balloons as decorations with great excitement.

_________________________

A strange memory filled my mind. The same Liam, the same love.

*** Soul transfer 85% complete. ***

I continued to walk.  

_________________________

We were on the upper deck of the academy, the fight with the HIVE looming over us. A group of young women and my father cheered on. Liam, knelt before me, proposing.

_________________________

Another world, another marriage, the same Liam.

*** Soul transfer 90% complete. ***

I reached Liam, and we held each other’s hands, smiling. The priest overcame his terror and began his speech, talking about love, commitment, devotion to one another.

“Do you, Liam, take this woman as your wife.” He didn’t use Liam’s character name, by his design. This wasn’t the Pirate King marrying a mermaid.

This was us.

“I do.” Liam answered without hesitation.

_________________________

Liam and I stood before each other, a pair of elves surrounded by fairies and other creatures. We spoke our wedding vows, our voices filled with love.

_________________________

Different bodies, different voices, the same souls.

*** Soul transfer 95% complete. ***

“Do you, Bel, take this man as your husband?” The priest asked, looking at me.

I looked at Liam, who stared nervously back at me.

I still didn't have all my memories.

I didn't know why it seemed as though I had met him before, countless times.

But I knew the answer to the priest's question.

I couldn’t speak out loud, but I nodded and signed my response.

Yes. Forever.

Liam leaned forward with a smile and kissed me. “I love you, Bel. My wife.”

I responded back silently. I love you too.

*** Soul transfer 99% complete. ***

We were married. Whether this was the first, the second or the hundredth time.

“BEL!” An angry voice shouted out, and an army descended upon the wedding,

Hundreds and hundreds of soldiers, all wearing the royal colors, flooded in, holding up weapons. The pirates closed, in, trying to protect us, but we were split up by an overwhelming larger force. And at their head, with a grim smile on his face, was the prince.

But he wasn’t the same prince... not anymore.

Adonis had taken over.

“Bel!” His eyes were filled with a cold, possessive light. “It’s time to stop playing pretend. Come with me.”

I shook my head no.

“Don’t lie to yourself anymore, Bel. The fact that you can’t speak should be your biggest clue that your silly little ‘marriage’ isn’t true love. It means nothing.” His expression was triumphant. “How were you supposed to get rid of the witch’s curse? You needed to get married and share true love’s kiss.” He pointed at Liam, who stood protectively beside me. “You can’t have a true love with that monster, Bel. He’s just a worthless beast whose only purpose in life is to be stepped on by the heroes on their way to live a happily ever after.”

I shook my head again, my face angry.

“Then why aren’t you fully turned human, voice and all, Bel? Why wasn’t his wedding and his kiss enough to break the curse? You need your true love. You need a hero.”

He stepped closer, until he was within reach, and held out his hand for me to take. I ignored it.

“You. Need. Me.” He reached out this time and grabbed my face. “Accept your fate, Bel. We were meant to be.”

I smiled at him. I’ve warned him before not to grab my face. Seems like he didn't learn his lesson.

“No.”

My voice, strange to hear after months of silence, spoke now in melodious refusal.

Adonis’s eyes widened in shock, “You…?” He was then struck by an invisible force, and thrown fifty feet away, collapsing on the ground.

I stepped forward, raising my hands. “You said a lot of wrong things, Adonis… in fact, EVERYTHING you said was completely and utterly incorrect. But fortunately for you, I’m here to set the record straight. You said that marrying Liam was worthless, that he couldn’t break the witch’s curse.” I looked over at Liam with a smile. “Two wrong things there: Marrying the love of my life? Never worthless. The other wrong thing?” I laughed, a loud, full villainess laugh. It felt good to hear it again.

“I was never under a witch’s curse.”

From my hands, clouds of dark magic spring, It spread everywhere, until the island was filled with it. All of the royal soldiers and pirates were picked up and placed on their respective ships, and the ships pushed out to sea. At the same time, the magic wrapped around Adonis, binding him and lifting him in the air to hang in front of us.  The silence was deafening. It was just Adonis, Liam and me.

“I AM a sea witch.”

Six months earlier, when I had approached the Sea Witch, she had offered me the same deal she offered the mermaid in the story. Instead, I showed her my still weak dark powers, and offered to help her get revenge on an ex-boyfriend in exchange for her teaching me magic. She had happily obliged.

“I used my OWN magic to turn myself human. Of course, I still had to give up something, and I gave up my voice, as requested by the story. But I was never required to marry the prince. To marry anyone, actually. I just needed to decide my own future and accomplish it with my own efforts. I chose to become the Pirate Queen, and accomplishing that today, I was made fully human. Although still a witch, obviously.”

Adonis struggled against his magical bonds, his face pale. “You… can’t… do… this.”

“I can and I have, Adonis. I am not the heroine you so foolishly have put all your hopes on. If anything, I fit the role of villain much more naturally.”

He looked over at Liam with difficulty. “Your mission… doomed.”

Liam shrugged, walking easily through the flow of dark magic to stand right beside me. “My mission was easy enough, I had to be utterly defeated, along with my whole pirate horde.” He gestured around. “I’ve been defeated by the sea witch it appears. Oops. How sad for me.”

I nodded sympathetically. “Tragic.”

“I’ll never recover.” He smiled. “I guess I’ll just have to be a minion to the sea witch now.”

“How about a husband?”

“Even better!”

Adonis grew increasingly angrier. “YOU CAN’T! YOU ARE RUINING EVERYTHING!”

“Am I?” I held Liam’s hand, “I think I’ve really found a better path.” As my power surged within me, I saw a new message finally scrawl across the sky.

*** Soul transfer 100% complete. ***

I laughed again.

“In fact, I think I’ve finally got all the pieces back together.” I took full control of my power, and shouted towards the sky.

“DID YOU HEAR THAT, SYSTEM?! I DID IT! THE LAST STORY, THE STORY OF THE HIGHER REALM, IS COMPLETE! I CHOSE THE SAME ENDING, SYSTEM! COME OUT AND FACE ME!”

…

…

There was only silence.

“Nothing to say, huh? Well, if you won’t come to me…” My power reached out and tore the fabric of reality. “...We’ll come to you.”

We were transported out of the lower realm, and into a world of pure white. Not another lower realm. Not the higher realms. A new place. A place beyond the realms.

“Are you sure about this, Bel?” Liam asked quietly, still holding my hand.

“I’m sure. We’ll take it on, Liam. Our fate, the rules that have bound us, everything.” I looked around with a confident smile. “And we will win.”

Liam agreed as we stood side by side, ready to take on the System.

“Together.”

[sister-lucifer]

HEY, YOU

Yes, you!

Do YOU like the idea of a gay polyamorous romance taking place in a fantastical medieval setting?

then you might like my upcoming original written series, Royal Courting!

Featuring the following cast of characters:

Lucian Hensley

A fair skinned, pudgy baker standing at about 5’4 with hazel-green eyes and a thatch of dirty blond hair that falls in thick curls around his freckled face. He’s usually wearing his beloved handmade crocheted sweater, the same color as his eyes, despite the wear and tear it’s received over the years. Nothing he wears is particularly fancy, but it’s all very well loved and cared for.

Though he’s not ashamed of the weight he’s gained from the years of sampling his own baked goods, he’s easily flustered by any sort of comments on his physical appearance, regardless of how mild, possibly related to his gender identity as a transgender man. He’s humble and incredibly kind, sometimes to a fault. 

King Ambrose Verlice of Divestia

A dark skinned, slim man standing at about 5’7 with sharp brown eyes and a slightly effeminate nature about him. His dark hair is done together in thick locs so impossibly long they nearly brush the floor, decorated with gold cuffs and never less than perfectly maintained. He’s always wrapped in white and gold with jewelry to match. Any one of his outfits is worth more than every house Lucian has ever lived in combined.

He commands respect from all who lay eyes upon him, but knows how to use a gentle hand. It’s easy to get caught up in his flowery language, but beneath the purple prose and irresistible urge to flirt is a genuine heart of gold. 

Tobias Silva

A toned man of Colombian descent with tan skin standing at about 5’9, with brown eyes and curly brown hair that’s cut short and shaved underneath, but left longer on top, still allowing a few curly strands to fall over his face. He’s got a foxy way about him and always has a smug, closed-lipped grin on his face that makes his eyes crinkle at the corners and dimples form in his warm cheeks.

He tends to keep his armor rather minimal to maximize his speed, but he’s got daggers hidden just about everywhere one can hide daggers on their person. If he’s being quiet, he’s probably busy scheming with his colleague and friendly rival, Rex. 

Rex Theroux 

Rex is a tall, pale, transgender man standing at about 6’1 with downturned blue eyes and shoulder length, golden-blond hair that curls a bit at the ends and is usually drawn into a loose, low ponytail that often leaves strands hanging around the sides of his head. Contrary to Tobias, he keeps his muscular form clad in armor at all times.

He’s the stoic tank of the duo, and proud of it. He’s completely mute and has never spoken a word to Tobias nor his king, but communicates with both Divestian sign language and his own unique methods. The only time anyone even sees his mouth is when he eats, as it’s usually covered with a neck gaiter. The scars that litter his limbs and body show his impossible resilience, but no one has ever heard the stories behind them.

When Tobias and Rex stop in at Lucian’s humble bakery, they’re completely amazed both by what they taste, and the man they see behind the counter. When a batch of these baked goods reaches king Ambrose, he demands to see the wonderful artisan who created them, and Lucian’s simple life is thrown into a whirlwind when he receives an official summon from his majesty himself.

Are you interested? Stick around! Chapter one of Royal Courting: Summoned By The King is in progress now! You can find the Royal Courting masterlist (among others) in my pinned post!

If you like this idea, please reblog! It’s free, takes two seconds, and helps spread my ideas to more people!

You can find me on AO3 as Sister_Lucifer; everything here is cross posted there!

dividers by @cafekitsune

[say-hi-intrepid-heroes]

apparently i've gotten really good at having closeted queer vibes while still presenting as very fem, so i've decided to put together a bit of a list of tips

(btw this is coming from an afab person who still has to present as fem, as in dress fem and not cut my hair too short and etc. this probably wont apply to masc presenting people as much)

1. first, confidence, especially around people of the opposite gender. think "one of the boys" but not "let's go play football". in my experience, this helps to separate a fem person from the stereotype of thinking all boys are cute and giggling about them.

TLDR: be confident and friendly to everyone regardless of gender presentation.

2. halter tops and turtlenecks are your best friend. anything with a high neck, but in the summer, high neck + showing shoulders has gotten me on so many peoples gaydar without being obvious

3. if you have naturally curly or wavy hair, wear it natural, especially if you have shorter hair

4. if you have longer hair, do something other than wear it straight or in a ponytail. go for space buns or a single dutch braid or something else creative.

5. siobhan thompson glasses, or any wire glasses in an interesting shape (picture example below)

6. pants. if it's an event where you need to look nice, dress pants.

7. lipstick. preferably in a bolder color (i like browns and reds). also eyeliner on the outside corner of your eye, or more if that's your vibe. i always have to have natural looking makeup, so corner eyeliner is a great addition

8. converse, vans, or in the case of a nicer event find unique sandals or flats. avoid heels.

9. bracelets, dangly earrings, layered necklaces. avoid single necklaces.

10. [IMPORTANT!!] wear flattering colors. wear things that make you look great. don't conform to any trends. don't conform to my advice, even. wear what will make you the best you you can be. if you are authentic, other authentic people will know.

(these are just some tips that have worked for me. they may not work for everyone, but i've managed to find the few queer people in very anti-queer crowds at like a dozen events over the past year by following this advice. i felt lost when i first was discovering my identity, so hopefully some of this might help someone out)