#not beta read we die like jack

[keenvictory]

Synopsis: Sometimes the best way to distract a villain is with a little more than a witty chat.

: ̗̀➛ Featured Characters: Chronos x Gn!Reader

̗̀➛ Content Warnings: NSFW, (bottom, but not necessarily sub, reader)

̗̀➛  Additional notes: Me? Obsessed with a beautiful, evil blonde man? Yeah.

Ten minutes. All you had to do was keep him distracted for ten minutes.

You'd seen it clear as day this morning, if he managed to escape this room, a shitty warehouse somewhere in the city center, the hostages would die.

Nevermind that the 'hostages' were all low-level villains that had been bothering you for weeks, they weren't in their costumes, neither the public, nor the media, would know it as anything other then civilian deaths.

You'd already sent the brunt of the force towards the second location, if you could hold his attention for just ten minutes, everything would be okay.

Nobody would die. And more importantly, your reputation would be saved.

Chronos stood in the rooms center, illuminated by a single, shitty bulb.

"Come now, Oracle." He purred through the mask, the metallic tinge making your body tense. "Don't get distracted."

Right. Focus. Nine more minutes.

"I am focused. You're not getting away this time."

He'd grin if he could. You can tell in the way he sets his shoulders, the slight chuckle the mask can't quite filter out.

He takes a step back, shaking his head.

"I hate to disappoint you. But I most certainly am."

Shit. Wrong approach. He can't back away. He can't get away.

You need to lure him in closer.

He turns, angling his body away from you, looking for an escape?

"Wait!"

He stops. Despite it all, he stops to hear you out. Why does he do that?

"What? Hate to see me leave but love to watch me walk away, hm?"

Again with the flirting! Always flirting. It drives you up the wall.

But... maybe... There's nobody around but the two of you...

"You're wearing a coat. What is there for me to see when you leave?"

He tilts his head. You can feel his eyes boring into you.

"I can take it off."

"You wouldn't. Your suit is ridiculously tight. You wouldn't..."

You trail off, floundering, why is this working?!

"I wouldn't show it off for you? Hah! Why do you suppose I designed my suit like this in the first place?"

He drags a hand down his chest, gloved fingers trailing over defined abs. "I don't dress like this for the public, you know."

Eight minutes. Time feels like it's dragging on.

"You dress like that just for me, then? Prove it."

Chronos' hand stops. Shocked? Repulsed?

Then he grabs the jackets lapel, slowly pulling it off his tall frame.

He drops it to the ground next to him unceremoniously.

You swallow.

"How's that for proof?"

He strikes a pose. Lifting his arms to show off his waist. It's a little dorky. A smile creeps up on your face before you have the chance to fight it.

It's a little... something else, too. But you won't think like that. You can't.

"I don't know. Just taking off a jacket doesn't feel very personal. You could do that for anyone."

He takes a step towards you and you have to fight to calm your racing heart. This is good. Just seven more minutes.

"Now, now Oracle. That feels like you're baiting me to take off my mask. And we can't be having that, can we?"

You roll your eyes, he was the one who said it, not you.

"Scared I won't like what I find?"

For once, he doesn't seem to have a witty retort. But he takes another step forward, coming ever closer.

This is good. Great, even! You just need to keep him entertained.

"You know, Chronos. There's a lot more to your suit then just your mask."

That gets his attention. He pauses, motionless.

What catches your eye isn't your fault. It's his fault, really, with his stupid skin-tight suit. And the tent in his pants is so obnoxiously obvious.

You do the polite thing, averting your eyes, not that he can really tell through your mask. Not that he even particularly seems to care.

You'd meant, like, gloves or something! Maybe some of those stupid belts he wraps around his torso.

You didn't mean... well... did you mean... that? It would be... a distraction.

How many minutes do you have left? You've lost count.

After an excruciatingly long pause, he seems to find his tongue again.

"You should watch your words, Oracle. There's... interesting implications there."

You can't help but laugh. What use is there in beating around the bush like that when he's hard as a rock and basically vibrating where he stands.

"Implications? You're one to talk. Your... reaction, down-there, speaks louder than words."

He glances downward, as if he hadn't noticed. Then clenches, and unclenches his fist. An exercise in self-restraint, maybe?

"Ah." Is all he mumbles, before glancing back up at you. He clenches and unclenches his fists again, and then shrugs. "At least we chose a place without any cameras around. If this made a front page story I doubt either of us would live it down."

He leans down to scoop up his coat. How much time has passed? Not enough, surely.

"Leaving so soon?"

He hesitates, one hand nested in the material of his coat.

"You want me to stay?"

For the good of the people, if nothing else.

"Just seems like a... waste."

He straightens up, tilting his head curiously. It's so hard to read him, his expressionless mask not letting anything slip.

Then he places a hand, tentatively, on his belt buckle.

"A waste... of this?"

Are you doing this? To save a handful of hostages who you don't especially care about the safety of at the best of times?

"It's like you said. No cameras."

You're doing this. You hope those fuckers appreciate it.

"You're... serious? If this is your attempts at unmasking me, it's an underhanded tactic."

You shrug, trying to keep it casual despite your racing heart. Your mother can NOT find out about this.

"We can leave the masks on. This is between us, as hero and villain. Not whoever our real selves are."

He stills seems unsure, so you suck in a breath and step towards him, poking a finger against his chest.

In the past, he's dodged so many of your attacks so effortlessly. You almost expect him to breezily step out of your touch, but your finger simply bounces against the muscle.

"You've made plenty of advance at me in the past. I hope they weren't just for show."

He swallows. You're close enough that you can see his adam's apple bobbing in his throat. It makes you feel...

Nothing. It makes you feel nothing. There is no slight shiver that passes through you. No warmth between your thighs. This is work. Not pleasure.

He laughs, warm and metallic, and places a large hand against your waist. It isn't unpleasant. His thumb gliding across the material of your suit.

"There are much better suited places for this then a dingy warehouse, Oracle."

While the idea of fucking against a dirty warehouse floor like a bunch of animals is not exactly appealing, letting him leave the building at all is out of the cards.

"What, you're going to take me back to your place? Yeah right."

"The least I could do is a nice hotel."

Ugh, a hotel would be nice. A comfy bed, room service after, somewhere to sleep off the weirdness of it all and freshen up before the walk of shame home.

The warehouse will have to do. Fucking hostages.

You wrap your fingers around his belt loops, teasingly.

"And if I told you I didn't want to wait?"

He groans, it's a sound you're about to get incredibly familiar with. Future fights with this fucker are definitely going to get interesting.

"Fuck."

He uses his grasp on your waist to tug you closer, pinning your bodies together. Then he pushes his crotch against your side, rolling his hips to grind into you. It can't feel all that good behind several layers of fabric, but you suppose it is pretty skin-tight.

He groans again, right in your ear, loud and unrestrained. It's nicer sounding then the sirens outside, at least.

"You're so needy. All that talk about taking me a hotel when you're the one who couldn't wait."

Chronos whines, masked face buried into your shoulder as he rolls his hips more desperately. If you stood here, sweet-talking him, you're pretty sure you could get him to cum where he stands, right in his suit.

But where's the fun in that? If you're sinking this low, you're at least getting off too.

"If you're just going to stand there and get yourself off, Chronos, I might as well go home."

His needy whines turn into a throaty growl, his gentle grip on your waist becoming delightfully dangerous as you feel his nails catch in the suit's material.

If he rips a hole in your suit he is a dead man.

Thankfully, his grip relaxes. But only for a moment, as slides his other hand around your waist, and lifts you up, carrying you across the room with ease, and urgency.

A shock of cold goes through you as he drops you on a metal container, perched right on the edge so your legs dangle down.

You can hear his heavy breathing through the mask, as he glances down at you, like he's deciding what he wants to do first.

Then, without a word, he sinks to his knees, pushing your legs apart and laughing breathily.

He taps his metal mask, twice.

"No peaking."

You tilt your head up, half out of politeness, half necessity. If you break the rules, nothings stopping him from ripping your mask off at this distance.

"At least when you take off your mask I won't have to listen to your prattling on."

"Still swapping insults at a time like this, Oracle? No matter. I have much better things to do with my mouth."

At the thought of ripping, you hear the distinct sound of fabric tearing, then a cool breeze caressing the inner-most curves of your thigh.

This motherfucker.

You don't even have time to gasp, nor raise a very reasonable complaint, before you hear him happily hum.

"I'll pay for it."

Then the click of metal, as you can only assume he pushes his mask up his face, freeing his mouth for... other activities.

You sneak a glance downwards as he buries his head between your thighs, but all you can see is a mop of blonde hair pushed messily back by his shifted mask. Worth a shot.

After that, you don't have the time, nor the mental fortitude to scheme, his tongue working hard to distract you from thoughts of hero's and villains.

It's a fight not to clamp your thighs around his head, an excellent position to squeeze the life out of him, but you're a little distracted. And it's not a great story to sell to the media.

Moans, both yours and his own, bounce off the run-down walls. If anything, his moans are almost louder than yours, moaning passionately against you with every spare breath he manages to take.

Air seems like the last thing on his mind. He'll choke himself out, at this rate. Desperately hungry for you. You decide not to think about it.

Instead you tilt your head back, basking in the rolling, sweeping pleasure of his tongue in all the right spots.

And it builds, and builds, and builds, and sudden the sweet waves you've been leisurely riding feel too close to breaking. You don't gently climb to orgasm as much as you hurtle towards it.

"Chronos, wait I-"

But it's like uttering his name flips an evil switch in his mind, and he burrows closer, hands gripping at your thighs for purchase so desperately his nails drag open little holes in your suit.

The waves break, and all you have the strength to do is slump forward, hands nesting in his hair, grabbing on for dear life, as you ride out your high on his face.

Not that he seems to mind, the way his hips are bucking into thin air, just as desperately.

When he finally pulls away, he manages to keep his face pointed downwards, identity secure, as he wipes his mouth with the back of his gloved hand. Before adjusting the mask back over his face.

Then he stands, looming above you as you sit, still slightly quivering, upon the metal box he set you on.

"I hope you don't think we're done here." He purrs, clicking open his belt with practiced ease.

Thank god for superhero stamina.

He slinks out of his pants, leaving them abandoned in a heap much like his jacket.

He rubs the head of his cock against your bare thigh, trailing pre-cum across your skin. He hisses with pure pleasure, both at the sight and the sensation.

"Hope you don't mind that I'm a little... unprepared. A little lube, a condom or two, could have gone a long way. I'll be more prepared next time."

"You think there's going to be a next time?"

He scoops up the cum on your thighs and slicks his fingers with it, pushing them against your entrance with far too much eagerness.

"Oh Oracle, you'll be weak in the knees at the sight of me after I'm done with you. I can guarantee a next time."

"Mmm... you're so cocky."

He chuckles, nudging the tip of his hard cock against your groin, sliding it against the slick opening as he retracts his fingers.

"I have good reason to be, clearly."

You go to refute, but your mind blanks as he pushes into you. Two inches, then four, then six, then further still, until his hips brush against yours. The moan that escapes him is unholy.

"Fuck. I'm going to be weak in the knees after this." He groans, right into your ear. The metal of his mask is cold as it brushes against your neck.

Absently, you wish his mouth was free to kiss it. From the way he's eyeing it and breathing heavily, you think he does too.

"Are you... in any pain?" He asks, a rare moment of pure consideration.

You adjust yourself, flex your insides to test the depth, the pressure. It's... a lot. Filling, certainly. And you have to bite back a small moan as you really relax against him.

But it doesn't hurt. And after a pause to catch your breath, you nod.

"I'm... good. It's good. Thanks."

"Just good? I'll have to do a better job then that."

He punctuates his sentence with a smooth roll of his hips, the length of his cock gliding out, then filling you up all over again. It's unbearably slow, the temptation to shuffle closer, to wrap your legs around his hips and trap him there, taunts you.

"You'll have... to do a little more... then that." You pant, gripping the sides of the metal container you're perched on for support.

"Oh? You want more?" He purrs, sliding out of you so slowly. And then he pauses, the two of you connected only by the very tip, a twitch away from sliding out entirely.

He's going to say something terrible, isn't he?

"Say please."

You called it.

Your eye twitches. You don't know what's bigger, his ego or his dick.

Definitely his ego.

He's lucky you can't say the same for yourself. You're not above basic manners. But you're not above a little bullying, either.

You lean as close as you can despite the distance, wrapping your arms around his neck, and whisper into his ear.

"Chronos... please just fuck me already."

You can almost hear the thread of tension in his body, snap. The eradication of his self-restraint.

He doesn't have anything witty to say, after that.

His hips snap forward with such strength that you tumble back, losing your grip on him as you lay down flat on the container. The new angle let's him push into you even further, and you both moan in delight.

He looms over you, every thrust punctuated with soft, needy moans.

You reach up, running your hands through his blonde hair. It would easy, to simple pull off his mask, see his real face looking down at you.

Would he be blushing? Smiling? Or would he have a more focused look... Your mind wanders. But it's almost more fun if you don't know.

Instead your fingers grip the strands, pulling slightly as he hits a particularly delicious angle. You both moan in equal surprise and debased pleasure.

There's a moment of pause, as you consider these new found techniques. And then you resume, with twice as much passion as before.

Him chasing that angle over and over, crashing into the spot that makes you shiver and buck your hips up to meet his thrusts. You pulling at his hair, and running your nails down his back, enjoying the throaty groans it elicits each and every time.

It isn't long before the feeling returns, waves of pleasure building and building and building inside you.

"Ah, fuck, I'm gonna cum Chronos-"

You don't even finish the final syllable of his name, before he's crashing his hips into you, warmth flooding you as he cums with a long, growl-like moan.

Your own orgasm follows but a second later, his orgasm hasn't slowed him down, if anything he seems to be chasing the afterglow. The uptick in speed pushing you tumbling over the metaphorical edge.

You both lay there for a moment, breathing heavily. Those ten minutes have to be up by now, right? Time to make a strategic exit to check on the hostages. Well, maybe after you've gotten your breath back.

You shift up, propping yourself up on your elbows. His head is bowed, his cock still buried inside you. But he'll pull out any second now, right?

Then he looks up. Slowly. Despite the mask, you can feel his shit-eating grin.

"I'm not done with you yet, Oracle."

When you stumble out the warehouse, only one lone officer remains on the scene. He gives you a questioning look, and you feel yourself flush, thankful for the mask all over again.

"The hostages are safe, Oracle, thanks for your help. But, uh, you know only had to keep him in there for ten minutes right? It's been..." The officer checks his watch, and then frowns. "Hours. Are you alright?"

You adjust Chronos' cloak, which is wrapped around your middle for privacy.

"It was a tough... fight. But I dealt some serious blows. Managed to snag his coat before he escaped."

"Great work! We could take it in for testing if you'd like."

"Ah, uh, no need! I'll do my own... uh... super testing! See if it triggers a vision.”

It's a terrible excuse. But thankfully, the officer seems stupid. Or maybe tired, it is late. But either way, he nods. And waves you goodbye as he packs himself away into his car.

Now to figure out how to get home without any camera's catching you... indisposed.

The next morning, there's a generous donation to your bank account, from a suspiciously anonymous donor. Enough to cover the expenses of your torn suit, and then some.

It's signed only with a C. Cocky bastard.

[shankss-magnificent-ass]

Imagine breaking the news about the seraphim to King

You: I have bad news

King: [let's out a pained sigh] what could be worse than my race being revealed to the world, Kaido losing a fight, our empire falling, losing my wing, and being imprisoned by the very people my boss oppressed?

You: so we just heard from Luffy, and apparently. Vegapunk used the samples that he collected from you all those years ago.

King: [ throws back his head and cries] Fuck!

Queen: What'd he use them for? I had opted for cloning the skin samples to create a fleshy exoskeleton for a cyborg.

You: he made Lunarian cyborg clone-babies of some of the warlords.

Queen: oh! Cyborg Clones, huh? I had personally voted we use the skin samples we collected to create a skin for a mech, but cyborg clones never really occurred to me.

Jack: [guffaws] which ones?

King: [scrunches his eyes closed, crosses his fingers and whispers] not Moira, not Moira, please not Moira.

You: Kuma, Mihawk, Jinbe, and Boa Hancock.

King: how is that so much worse! Boa and Mihawk were intense enough as humans. And Kuma and Jinbe were strong enough due to their own species!

You: from what Nami said, they look around 8 or 9 years old. Vegapunk was kind enough to include pictures and details. [Holds out the package]

King: [can't stand the sight of the files, so he looks at the pictures first and sees they all look like normal photos a parent might take.] These are posed photos, aren't they?

You: most likely

Queen: [peeks over his shoulder] oh Boa is still beautiful as a child. Which makes sense, seeing as she's gorgeous as an adult.

Everyone in the room: [ ಠ⁠ಗ⁠ಠ]

King: [holds up a flaming fist] Kaido isn't here to protect you from me anymore.

Jack: [gives Queen a menacing look]

Queen: OH, NO! Not like that! NO!

No one in the room: [believes him]

A week later

You: hey King, so uh, I was wrong.

King: [pinches the bridge of his nose] please, don't.

You: There are other seraphims than the ones I told you about.

Queen: Figures

King: ... There's a Moira seraphim, isn't there?

You: [gives him a pinched smile] yeah, there's a Doflamingo, and a Crocodile seraphim too.

King: a Dofla-! That bastard! Mixing my genes with Moira of all people is bad enough, and to mix in a celestial dragon, especially Doflamingo, is even worse!

Jack: maybe Doflamingo was cute as a kid?

You: Ehh, no. I wanted to punch Doflamingo as an adult, but I want to punch him even more as a child.

King:[notices you are carrying more files] are those the new one's files?

You: yeah.

King: [braces himself and sighs] alright let me see.

You: you're taking this news better than I thought you would. [hands him the files]

Queen & Jack: [huddle closer to get a look]

Jack: [sees the pictures] oh god

Queen: how does Crocodile look more dower as a child?

King: [holds up the pictures of the Moira and Doflamingo seraphim's] these two are my least favorite.

You: Parents aren't supposed to have favorites.

King: ugh, don't call me that, please.

Queen: would you prefer Papa?

King: [pushes him away by his face] shut up

List of Up-and-coming works || Master list || Twitter| Kofi || Patreon

[digiships]

hi happy safeshiptember :) i busted this out really quickly and i am sooo excited to go through the rest of this event w everyone!!!! this ended up being less about the weather and more about Being Homosexual but you know how it is

ship: From The Start -> Sunny Day Jack/Cupid

word count: 937

summary: safeshiptember 2023, day 1 prompt: fall weather

Cupid opened his front door, shuddered at the rush of cool air, and immediately closed it again. “Nope,” he said quickly, “nuh-uh, not yet. Shiiiit.” He flapped his hands nervously as he rushed around his apartment, trying to find something warmer to wear than he already had on. Sweats? No, no, he didn’t have pants for his work uniform - but he’d be behind the counter all day anyway, right? Maybe it couldn’t hurt? No, no it would hurt; maybe jeans, then? But all of his have holes in them in various places, except his patch pants, which are definitely not work appropriate. Glancing at the clock and seeing 3 minutes had already ticked by in his search, he decided to say fuck it and just put on a pair of leggings under jeans. That would be fine, surely.

Through all of his rushing around, Jack watched quietly, trying valiantly not to laugh. It’s not funny that Cupid is so stressed, of course not - but it is a little bit funny to watch him throwing his clothes around while digging through the piles, especially when he told him that folding them and putting them away was important. 

“Got everything under control, sunshine?” he finally chimed in as Cupid hopped around his room, trying to get his foot to pop out of his too-long jeans. 

“Yup!” He definitely didn’t. “Totally under control!” His foot finally wrested free of the denim trap, he stepped into his shoes and hit his toes against the floor to get them on properly. Then struggled to tug at the little tag in the back to pull them on when that wasn't working fast enough. “I’m doing great!”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that!” He’s allowed to be a little smug, isn’t he? He would never say I told you so, he’s too kind for that, but he could think it all he wanted. “You just about ready again?”

Cupid groaned as he rifled through his clothes, tugging out different things that he thinks are going to be jackets or sweatshirts, but which all just turn out to be long-sleeved shirts or sweatpants. “Weeeeell, alllmost,” he says, “I just need something warm to put on - it’s freezing out!”

Jack grinned. “Well, why didn’t you say so, sunshine?” He shrugged off his vest and laid it around Cupid’s shoulders, trying not to snicker as he watched it weigh him down. “There we go. Does that work?”

Cupid popped his arms free of the heavy, satin-y material, and sat briefly entranced. He wrapped it tighter around his body, nuzzling into the warmth - before an alarm on his phone went off warning him that if he didn’t leave right now, he was going to be late. He moved to get to his feet, but Jack just grabbed him under the arms and hoisted him up, patting his sides once he was standing again.

“Okay, okay, let’s get moving!” he encouraged. He set his hand on the small of Cupid’s back and easily led him from his room, using only the gentlest pressure to encourage him to hustle, jogging out the door and down the steps of the apartment building. Cupid tried not to blush. 

Cupid only felt comfortable slowing down once they were about halfway to the yogurt shop, his frantic jog petering out to a nearly leisurely walk as he fought to catch his breath.

“Jack, did we– did we have to run so fast?”

“Well, it’s keeping you warm, right?” 

Cupid threw his head back and groaned. “I guess, but now I’m all sweaty.”

“And it’s cold enough that you won’t be anymore by the time we get to the shop!” He looked down at him with a grin and winked playfully. “See? I know what I’m doing, sunshine!” He lightly patted his back. “Besides, running that much gave us some time to appreciate the morning now! It’s really pretty out, isn’t it?”

Cupid turned his head to the sky. Well, Jack wasn’t wrong, by any means - the sky was clear and blue, with only thin wisps of clouds to speak of. The cold sunlight shone through the leaves and cast amber shadows on the sidewalk. Even his breath seemed part of the beauty, the way it delicately curled and twisted in front of him before it faded into nothing. 

His eyes flickered over to Jack. He saw him looking up to the sky, too, that almost childlike wonder glimmering in his eyes. It was strange to not see his breath. It was always so warm when he spoke to him, after all; when it was ghosting over his ear, spreading across his neck, his encouraging words mere whispers against sensitive flesh –

He shook his head and snapped his gaze to the ground. He pulled his arms into Jack’s vest and pulled it tighter around himself, knowing very well how profusely he was blushing, but praying he wouldn’t notice. He cleared his throat. 

“Y-Yeah! Yeah, you’re really pretty - I MEAN–” He sputtered for a moment. “I mean, that, um, i-it is really pretty out, yeah. Totally what I said.”

Jack couldn’t help laughing. “Totally.” He set his hand on his shoulder before leaning down, lowering his voice. “Thank you, though, sunshine. You look really pretty, too.”

Cupid nearly threw up. He gulped audibly and laughed nervously, hurrying ahead of Jack a few steps. “YEAH! FOR SURE BUDDY! UH-HUH! UHHH I’M PROBABLY LATE LET’S MOVE FASTER–”  And with that, he takes off at a dead sprint, forcing Jack to charge after him with gleeful laughter as he kicks up dried leaves. I’m never gonna live that down.

[bluesylveon2]

LOVE (Ace Trappola x Yuu/Reader)

Summary: Four instances in Ace's life where he starts to view Yuu/Reader more than a friend

Note: Inspired by "L O V E" by Michael Buble, set in canon, mention of another magic school, the first years teasing Ace, and fluff. This all happened because I saw some aceyuu posts

Edit: made some minor edits!

Word Count: 2.1k

Warnings: fem Yuu/reader, not beta read, some cursing, cringey teenage boy stuff, and possible ooc characters

Masterlist: here

L is for the way you look at me

Chaos. 

All around Ace was chaos. 

Riddle's cackle resonated throughout the rose garden; other Heartslabyul members threw spells left and right, and blot was everywhere. Everyone's eyes were set on the Heartslabyul housewarden. However, Ace had something else in mind. 

"Look out!" Was all Yuu heard before a familiar figure tackled her to the ground. The stray spell that would have hit her landed on a rosebush instead. 

Ace protectively held Yuu as they tumbled in the dirt. The redhead pivoted his body so he protected Yuu from the ground. 

"Are you okay?" Ace frantically asked, letting his hands wander to search for any injuries. 

"I'm fine," Yuu coughed and got off of Ace. "You need to go and stop Riddle. I'll find Grim and-"

"Are you insane?!" Ace yelled. "I am not letting you fend for yourself, and Grim is still new to magic. I'm your best bet here."

"Ace…" Yuu said in a warning tone. She started to move but was stopped by someone grabbing her wrist. She yelped as Ace pulled her towards him and held her protectively. 

"We are getting out of this together, whether you like it or not. Stay behind me, and don't lose me," Ace said, looking into Yuu's eyes with determination. To this day, Ace still could not explain what happened to him. All he knew was that he wanted to protect Yuu. 

A few seconds of silence passed until Yuu let out a sigh. "Fine but don't let me die."

Ace grabbed Yuu's hand and squeezed it.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Yuu."

O is for the only one I see

The cafeteria was loud with chatter as the students discussed the female student representatives of an all-girls academy coming to visit NRC because of Crowley's way to "strengthen relations with other institutions." It was no secret that a school full of boys would not talk about it. Especially when the only female on campus was the local school therapist, lived in a worn down dorm, and had a cat monster. 

"Did anyone get a glimpse of the girls visiting today?" Epel asked as he cut his apple. It was lunchtime, and the first-year group ate at their unofficial but official table. 

"Yeah, Big Brother was so nervous during his part of the tour that I ended up leading it for him," Ortho sighed with a downward look on his face. 

"I'm surprised by how cordial Leona was with them," Jack admitted. "I understand Leona's kingdom respects ladies, but seeing him do a 180 is weird."

"Speaking of, has anyone seen Yuu? She needs to come down to eat," Ace took a bite out of his sandwich, his eyes scanning for the Prefect. 

"She's currently providing her portion of the tour since the Headmaster insisted Ramshackle goes after Diasomnia." Sebek's voice brought Ace back to the table. "Then she will eat there with the guests with food catered by the campus ghosts. At least that's what Waka-sama told me." 

"Good, at least the Headmaster did something right for once.” Jack nodded as he and Sebek shared an unspoken agreement. "She should save herself from these guys." His ears flickered from an unpleasant conversation he did not want to hear. 

"I'll say," Deuce joined in. "You should've seen some girls keep staring at Ace, asking him questions and stuff when I was right there!" He glared at Ace. "That was not cool, man."

"You're just jealous that you don't have the rizz to pull a girl."

"Why you!" Deuce grabbed Ace's collar. 

"Would you date one of them, though? If you got the chance?" Epel asked. Deuce froze and let go of Ace, eying him curiously. Silence filled the table, minus the background noise from the other students. 

"Me? I'm good with not dating anyone yet. 'Sides, I'm already busy looking after Yuu a lot." Ace laughed, but no one joined him. Instead, they looked at him with shock. "What? Was it something I said?"

"Well…" Epel said, his eyes flickering to anyone but Ace. "That's not what we expected."

Ace raised a brow. "What did you expect?"

The first years looked at each other, unsure how to respond, until Sebek slammed his fist against the table. "Human! You should put away this silly nonsense and eat! I cannot have a weak human beside me. It will embarrass Waka-sama!"

"Geez, I didn't even start it." Ace rolled his eyes and took another bite of his food. 

Those girls were not even his type anyway. Who needs them? He would rather spend time in Yuu's company as friends than have a repeat of his last relationship. 

At least, that's what Ace tried to tell himself. 

V is very, very extraordinary

"And so, the Ice Queen found love between her and her sister. Their sisterly love thawed the ice out of her kingdom, thus solving any crisis before it could become an eternal winter.” Professor Trein closed his textbook and eyed the class. “Does anyone have any questions?"

Ace held back a laugh as Yuu's hand went up in eagerness. Luckily for him, Deuce remained fast asleep during the lecture. 

"Yes, Yuu?"

"And what happened to the brave princess? Did she ever find her own happy ending?" 

"Yes, she did. Even though she did not have magic, the princess defeated her wicked fiance and then…" Ace ignored the rest of Professor Trein's ramblings and glanced over at Yuu, who was focused on writing a book full of notes. 

Despite being magicless and from another world, Yuu was interested in nonmagical courses such as History and Alchemy. In fact, she had a higher grade in those courses compared to ADeuce.

Ace watched as Yuu asked yet another question regarding the two sisters. An amused smile formed on his face. 

If Yuu had magic, she could be like the Ice Queen. Then again, she is more like the sister. Energetic, blunt, awkward, has a nice smile-

Wait. 

Ace shook his head and cringed. Since when did he care about her smile? What kind of guy thinks about those things? 

The bell rang as Ace battled his internal thoughts, unaware of Deuce waking up beside him. 

"Is it time to go already?" Deuce asked and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. 

Yuu walked up the steps to join the duo while holding Grim in her arms. 

"That lecture was so interesting! To think that love was the solution for a kingdom all along." Ace watched Yuu's eyes light up as she shared her thoughts about the lecture. The smile on her face reminded Ace of the sun. "Ace, what did you think about the lecture?"

"I think your smile is cringe," the redhead blurted out, causing Yuu to stop and Deuce and Grim to facepalm. 

Yuu stared at Ace in confusion. "Uhh, okay? Your smile is cringey, too, I guess?" The poor girl was lost. Since when did this become a topic?

Ace was beating himself up mentally while Yuu's attention turned to Grim, who was demanding for some tuna. 

"Way to go, dude," Deuce whispered, elbowing Ace's side. "Way to show how much rizz you got there."

"Shut up, Juice!"

E is even more than anyone that you adore

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Jack asked as Epel trudged to his seat and slammed his tray on the table. The Pomefiore boy let out a big yawn as he sat down. 

"I agree. Improper sleep will put you behind in training," Sebek said as he eyed Epel. 

Ace glanced from his messages with Yuu, who was fighting a cold back at her dorm, to the periwinkle-haired boy. "Yeah, the dudes are right. You look like shit."

"Shut yer trap you-" Epel froze and glanced over Ace's shoulder. Despite being on the other side of the cafeteria, Epel could feel chills from Vil's bombastic side-eye. "I mean. I was having trouble sleeping last night because of a certain someone." 

"Yeah, your stress levels are higher than normal. You can nap in my dorm during your break if you want." 

"Thank you, Ortho," Epel said and took a bite of his toast. 

"Who's this someone so I can teach them a lesson?" Deuce put a fist into his palm and had a murderous look in his eyes. 

"Just one of my roommates. He keeps going on and on about Yuu lately." 

Ace froze and suddenly choked on his breakfast. Luckily, Jack was there to slap his back. 

Yuu? Of all people? Sure, she is known for being around seven overblots and surviving, but her fame wasn't enough to keep someone awake. Let alone sing praises of like a lovesick prince. 

"Why is he talking about her?" Ace managed to spill out after he regained his composure. 

"He keeps praising Yuu for her kindness-" someone snorted at that, but Epel ignored it. "Looks, how perfect she is, and whatever nonsense he can go on about. He even started writing poems about her too! I swear if I hear this guy talk about how Yuu's eyes look like diamonds one more time. Aah'm 'unna put a sock in his-"

Again, Vil's glare carried despite being far from the first years. 

"I mean. Tell him to be quiet. Because that is what I can do." He said the last part through gritted teeth and glared at his housewarden. 

"What a simp," Ace commented, and everyone nodded in agreement. “I low-key feel bad for the guy. Yuu is not going to give him the time of day."

Deuce raised a brow. "And what do you mean by that?"

Ace held his hands up and shrugged. "I'm just saying. A guy who acts all princely and cute for Yuu? No. She deserves someone fun and imperfect like her. A person who she likes to be around. Someone who can help steer her away before she ends up somewhere dangerous."

"Oh really?" Sebek looked at Ace with interest. "And do you, perhaps, have someone in mind for the human?"

"Duh, dude. Me." Ace said confidently and smirked, giving himself a mental pat on the back. 

The other first years stared at him in silence. Then they all had the same shit-eating grin on their faces. Even Ortho had one despite having the lower half of his face covered.

Their looks made Ace realize what had come out of his mouth. 

Oh shit. 

The boy blushed bright red. 

"Wait! No! That is not what I meant to say! Forget all of that!" Ace exclaimed in poor defense. The other's faces remained unwavering.

Deuce had an infuriating smirk splayed on his lips. "Oh, we heard you loud and clear, right guys?" 

Jack joined in on the teasing. "Can't fool me. I heard it, too."

“You got it all wrong! I do not like Yuu like that!” Ace yelled but his red ears said otherwise.

Sebek crossed his arms and grinned, clearly enjoying the show. "Hmph, you humans should never doubt a fae's hearing. For I heard the human declare his worthiness to the Prefect." 

"Okay, now you are making things up!"  

Epel's face lit up in glee. "Well, then, that's great news! I can tell my roommate to pursue Yuu since Ace clearly does not see her that way. Sure, I am sacrificing my sleep for this, but at least Yuu will have a good guy."

"Are you saying I am not a good guy?!"

Ortho let out a sad exhale and slumped his shoulders. If Ortho could cry tears, he would've used them now. He laid a hand on Ace's shoulders in sympathy. "It's okay, Ace Trappola. I will try to convince Yuu to make you her Man of Honor."

"THAT'S IT!" Ace yelled, startling Ortho. The redhead was clearly fed up and red like Riddle’s hair from both embarrassment and anger. Ace stood up, grabbed his tray, and walked off in a random direction. 

"And where are you going?" Deuce yelled out. Ace flicked him off as he threw away his trash. 

"Anywhere away from you losers!" Ace started grumbling as he made his way out of the cafeteria to blow off some steam. 

The other first years watched silently and let Ace walk off. They did not want to anger him further, but they were also proud that Ace was somewhat honest about his feelings for Yuu. 

"Uh, isn't the Mirror Chamber that way?" Jack asked and pointed to the opposite direction from where Ace went.

Deuce smirked, his eyes following Ace's figure. "Looks like he is going to Ramshackle instead. Probably to check up on his future girlfriend." He turned to Ortho. "Did you get that all recorded?"

"Yes, I did!" Ortho grinned victoriously. "I also sent a copy to the Prefect and stored another copy in my database."

“Hmph, that will show him,” Sebek said with a proud look. 

Epel rubbed his hands together and looked at the other first years, who all had the same expression. "Perfect. I can't wait to see the look on Ace's face when he sees it."

Ace was in for a surprise when he made it to Ramshackle. He was also very embarrassed to see the recording come back at his wedding reception. 

A/N: idk if anyone could tell but I lowkey cringed at having ADeuce say "rizz" but they are teenage boys so they might as well 😂

Disclaimer: I do not own Twisted Wonderland and its characters. Those belong to Aniplex, Walt Disney Japan, and Yana Toboso.

©: This story belongs to bluesylveon2 2020-24. DO NOT modify, republish, or plagiarize my work.

[whoredyceps]

"OH LOVER BOY!" || 28 Days of Love: A Valentine's Challenge + Series

day fifteen: old wound

ᰔ pairing: agent whiskey x reader

ᰔ summary: first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes jack daniels unsure if the two of you are making the right choice.

ᰔ author's note: this one is going to be a bit longer and is p angsty. sorrrrryyyyyyy. thank you again to everyone who's been reading there, i've been having a lot of fun writing them 🥹💙

ᰔ content warning: afab!reader, reader is pregnant, conversation around pregnancy, mentions of abortion, bits of canon in an au setting, angsty angst, fighting, mentions of character death, no beta- we die like men

"Baby, can I talk to you?" You peaked your head into Jack's office.

It was late, and you had just finished up your nightly routine of tidying up while he tied up the loose ends of his job for the day. You detested the idea of him working after hours, but that was an uphill battle you had yet to see the other side of. For now, you had bigger fish to fry.

"Of course, darlin'. You okay?" Jack looked up from his computer. He had his glasses on, already showered and in his pajamas. It was a good look on him— hell, everything was a good look on him.

"I wanted to talk to you about something. It's..." Your sentence trailed off. You stepped further into the office, and found your way behind the desk. Jack's chair turned towards you as you leaned your thigh against the sharp edge of the wood.

Jack reached his hand out, placed on your hip to offer some form of comfort. Whatever had plagued you seemed to be written all over your face. Though you two had only been married for a few months, you had known each other for years.

So long, in fact, that you remember the days when you used to hang out with Jack's deceased wife. A beautiful woman ripped away too soon, herself and their unborn son caught in the crossfire of an incident no one could have predicted. The two had become the untouchable subject between you and Jack, and you abided by that without question.

Up until now, that was easy enough to follow. You left it alone, and looked the other way when Jack stared at pictures from high school for too long. He had his better days, and the worse days were spent at the distillery— long evenings of work until he'd trudge back home past midnight, too exhausted to think, let alone face his grief head on.

While it wasn't perfect, it worked. You tried to support Jack in whatever way he needed. He did the same for you, and it had all become apart of the give and take you two had.

Now though, you had to address the elephant in the room. One in the form of a polaroid tucked away in the top drawer in Jack's desk, with a sonogram clipped to it. As badly as you wanted to drag out the entire situation, you were on borrowed time.

"Talk to me," Jack gently urged. "It ain't like I'm gonna bite your head off." His tone was concerned, but a bit amused at his own joke. With his free hand, he removed his glasses and placed them on the keyboard of his computer.

You gave a weak chuckle and tapped your foot. The amusement in Jack's tone seemed to die off as you squirmed in your spot. It was rare that he saw you in such a state.

"I went to the doctor today," you started. "Got some tests done like we had talked about." You didn't meet Jack's eyes, wouldn't even look in his direction. His hand felt like it had burned its imprint through your leggings and into your skin.

"Everything okay, darlin'?" Jack sounded immensely concerned, which you expected.

You weren't going to visit the doctor in the first place, if it had been your choice. Over the last few weeks, you just hadn't been yourself. You had been plagued with debilitating headaches and stomachaches that could lay anyone out. Jack begged you to get them checked out, worried that you were facing some sort of terminal illness.

Thankfully, you were given a clean bill of health. That was, until the doctor came in with a round of congratulations and talks of scheduling an appointment with your obstetrician. In that moment, it felt as if something you had locked away for so long finally popped open.

You hadn't even considered kids with Jack. After the passing of his wife and son, you didn't recognize him. It took a long time for him to shed that version of himself and return to some version of the man he once was.

One drunk night, back at your place after a date early on in your relationship, he went on and on about how it was a terrible idea to have children. Nothing good happens, and even if they live, they were set up to face a cruel world. You didn't disagree, but you knew the voice of grief well enough.

Now, since you had left the doctor's office, you had a different stomachache. How were you going to tell Jack? You were in no mood to fight, but you knew it was going to be a spectacle when you did tell him.

"Yes... and no. Jack, honey, I don't really know how to say what I need to say." You fidgeted with your hands, suddenly aware of the manicure you had gotten last week.

"Well, if it ain't terminal, then that's a good start," Jack tried to reassure you. He had never seen you like this, so unsure and hesitant. You were strong and confident to your very core, so sure of every move you made or whatever came out of your mouth.

"I'm pregnant," you blurted out. There was no other way to put it.

Jack was silent, his hand stilled on your hip. You watched as his expression turned steely and his jaw tensed. It hurt more than you cared to admit when he moved his hand away from you.

You looked to him, then back to your feet. The silence hung in the air ate at you, tense and thick with animosity. What was supposed to be a picture perfect moment– or at least what you had imagined when you were younger– was now anything but.

The silence only made you fidget more. You felt that sour pit in your stomach return as you waited. After a while, you couldn't take it anymore.

"I asked how it was possible, and the doctor said it could happen on some birth control pills. We discussed some options and how to proceed with this." You hoped it would help, but Jack refused to look at you. Instead, his gaze lingered on the top drawer of his desk.

You waited for something, anything from him. All day, you had braced yourself for what was to come. You had even considered removing the fetus without Jack knowing, but that just didn't seem right. The only option you felt you had was to face the problem head on.

"I know we haven't talked about it, but I need you to say something. Anything, really." You reached for his hand, only for him to pull away. It hurt more than you expected, and you moved your hand back to your side.

"You know how I feel about it," Jack finally said. "Just– I need some time to think."

You almost rolled your eyes, but refrained. In the time you had known the man, he said what he wanted when he wanted to. Over time, you had learned what that meant. It was Jack for 'I don't want this kid and I don't know how to do that without upsetting you'.

"Take the time you need," you assured him. Even in your turmoil, you understood he had a lot to process. You knew grief too well, and what it did to a person.

The silence had returned, this time heavier. You watched Jack quietly turn back to his work, a dismissal of you and the conversation all together. Without a word, you left his office.

You went to bed alone that night. Not unexpected, but it still cut deep. Right now, you just needed your husband and the simple act of comfort. All lost because of one little confession. Something you tried to prevent, but failed.

You had barely slept a wink. All night, you tossed and turned in the empty bed. When the sun peaked out from over the horizon, light slow to fill the room, you finally gave up. You decided to take a shower and get yourself ready for the day. Even if you wanted to wallow in bed, there were still tasks that had to be completed.

"Jack?" You called out as you headed downstairs. The house was empty, and a quick glance out the front door confirmed the truck was gone.

Anger bubbled inside of you as you slammed the door. He never did things like this to you. Jack made it a point to kiss you goodbye and love on you until the absolute last minute. Now, he was gone before you made it out of bed.

All day, your anger sat with you. It lingered in everything move you made, every thought you had. If there was anything you hated most of all, it was the feeling of anger. You found it did you no good, but all of your logic had flown out of the window the second the confession came out of your mouth.

Jack wasn't the only one who struggled with this. You were the one that had to create a human— one that you had never intended to have. This whole situation was terrifying, and the one person you needed most was too wrapped up in his own mind to see what stood in front of him.

When it was Jack's usual time to come home, you were surprised to hear the truck pull up. Instead of greeting him at the door as you normally would, you continued to work on dinner. You didn't have it in you to be the sweet, doting wife you liked to be.

"Hi, darlin'." Jack's sweet tone felt like a slap to the face. There was no way he had forgotten last night, no way he thought you had forgotten what happened last night.

It was your turn with the silence. You continued to make meatballs with your back turned to him, the only sound in the kitchen came from the radio you had turned on.

You heard Jack sigh as he placed his keys and wallet on the counter. The sound of his cowboy boots clicked against the tile of the kitchen floor. His hand found the small of your back, and he didn't miss the way you tensed at his touch.

"I thought about what you said," Jack muttered. He was close enough that you heard the way he talked under his breath.

"I hope so," you huffed. "Not like we had much else to talk about between now and then." You didn't look back. If you saw those sweet brown eyes, you'd melt and forgive him in a second. You had to stuck up for yourself, even if that meant focusing on the meatballs instead of your husband.

"That wasn't right, me leavin' you on your own after what we talked about last night." Jack's hand didn't move from your back. His fingers gently pressed into your side as he spoke.

"Came to that conclusion all on your own?" You tried to bite back some of the venom, but it had been stewing inside of you all day.

"Darlin'," Jack sighed. "I- You know why I acted the way I did. I mean, I can't-"

You whipped around to cut him off. Everything that had festered inside of you had come to a head, and if you wanted to stick up for yourself, now was the time.

"I do know, Jack. I'm well aware of what's been lost. You know, she was my friend too. You weren't the only person who lost someone," you began. "I know what loss is. I've lost a lot of people, but I can still acknowledge that life goes on. You ignoring me and the pregnancy doesn't make her come back. Grief is a fickle bitch, but I'm still pregnant and it's still your kid." You poked Jack's chest as you spoke.

"I-"

"No, you're going to let me finish. If you don't want the baby, fine. I'll call my doctor and that will be the end of that. If you want to keep it, that's fine too. Stop comparing me to her. I'm not her. This baby isn't him. You can feel the sadness and grief, but what you won't do is ignore me." You took a long, deep breath before you spoke again.

"If you ever do that again, I'm gone. Don't try me."

Jack waited a beat, but you finally settled and crossed your arms over your chest. You gave him an expectant look. The ball was in his court now. He sighed and rubbed his jaw as he tried to collect his thoughts.

"That was wrong of me, and I'll be the first to admit it," Jack started. "It's also wrong of me to compare the two of you. The truth is I never thought we'd be here, havin' this conversation."

You raised an eyebrow, your hip cocked to the side.

"You never thought that there would be a chance at me getting knocked up? With how often we go at it, that's just delusional." You tried to refrain from the attitude, but once your feathers were ruffled, that was the end of that.

"We've taken the proper steps for precaution," Jack argued. His jaw tensed as you rolled your eyes.

"You ever taken a sex ed class? There's always a chance. Look, that's not what I'm getting at. I've tried to avoid the subject as long as possible, but there's no more waiting. There a fetus in me, and we need to decide how we're gonna handle this before it's too late."

Jack sighed as he leaned back against the island, his hands shoved in the pockets of his leather jacket. You were right, as you had always been. How you saw right through him was beyond him, but then again, that's what he admired about you.

"I don't know if I can handle another loss," Jack admitted. "I can't lose you."

You huffed a bit, your hands curled up at your side.

"Stop trying to get me killed! It hurts, Jack. It hurts to think that you're prepared for my death, that I can't make it through and have this baby— to know that you've accepted my death before you could even think of the life we could have." You turned back to the meatballs, and grabbed a hunk of meat. It did not ease your aggravation, but the physical work was cathartic.

Jack was silent. Between the two of you, an old country song wafted through the air. If the circumstances had been different, you'd be drinking wine and laughing with him. You were sure the two of you would be—

Your thoughts halted as a hand wrapped around your waist. The meat was dropped and you wiped your hands, all before Jack tugged you away from the counter. His strong arms wrapped around you as he pulled you to his chest.

Even in the thick of a fight, Jack made you dance with him. The first time it happened, you were so bewildered that you just let it happen. Every time since, you let him apologize in his own way.

Jack held you as the two of you swayed to the music. He was a sucker for Jonny Cash, you had come to learn. Whether it was slow and sweet, or something with a quick pace, he had to hold you close and dance with you.

If I Were a Carpenter played through the speakers, Johnny and June bore witness as you let Jack take lead. The two of you were quiet, but the footwork seemed to say a lot. As angry and hurt as you were, he knew every move you'd make. He knew you as well as you knew him.

"Would you'd love me if I was a carpenter?" Jack's voice was soft. You had one arm around his neck, the other wrapped around his as he led you.

"I'd love you no matter what," you assured him. It was true, you loved him through and through.

"Even now?" Jack asked. "Through it all?"

You nodded without hesitation.

"Through it all, even if I want to strangle you."

Things would be fine, and you knew that. What Jack had to work through was beyond you and the baby. As badly as you wanted an answer right now, that wasn't going to happen. He had to think and piece it all together himself. It got under your skin, but you meant what you said.

You'd love him no matter what.

[kunikame]

# PURPLE LILACS !

[10] - a sudden.. !! | prev. | m. list | next

ace trappola x fem!reader smau

! warning(s) : cussing, sebek gets stepped on (literally), death mention, not canon compliant turn of events for plot, crowley, no beta we die like ortho shroud, love u guys btw

! w/c : 761

and so on a sunny wednesday lunch break you find yourself sitting at your usual table, surrounded by your fellow first years. you spot jade a few tables away, menacingly glaring at some poor unfortunate student, and send him a quick wave when your eyes meet.

“–nd i kid you not he genuinely folded. so like the great person i am, i used the newly placed hallway carpet.”

“ya stepped on him?!” a few droplets of apple juice land near your plate. you shoot a quick look at epel, only to see the rest of the table doesn’t look much better, since he spat all the juice in his mouth out at this newfound piece of information (read: blackmail material).

deuce sighs in his seat to your left, “yeah, he did. i had to watch malleus’ face go from perplexed to absolutely horrified in the span of barely 5 seconds because of him. thought we were gonna die.”

epel finds this unfathomably hilarious. sebek, however, has not spoken in the past 10 minutes, despite usually being the loudest of the group. you feel a little bad for him– the poor thing has just been staring at his plate with a scarlet face this whole time. yet just as you open your mouth to try to console him, lilia appears out of seemingly thin air, hanging upside down directly in front of your face.

“hey faestie!~ a little bat told me the headmage has something important to discuss with you! you best hurry before he changes his mind, kuhuhu~”

and just as swiftly as he appeared, he also vanished. where his face once was, you now see the horrified eyes of jack and epel, and sebeks full face for the first time today.

you turn to the right to glance at ace with an eyebrow raised, silently asking if they've done anything bad without your knowledge. he shakes his head, fluffy ginger hair flying with the motion, and gives you a concerned look (which seems a little out of place on his face when directed at you, but you quickly dismiss the thought).

“i’ll be fine,” you say, slowly getting up from your spot and cleaning up your mess, “it’s probably just another unpaid job he wants me to do. i’ll see you guys later.

“with all due respect, what the fuck?”

crowley lets out the most offended gasp you've ever heard, “that is no way to be speaking in my office! this is unacceptable behavior! but since i am so gracious, i shall let it pass, because you have clearly not yet processed my generous offer.”

you heave an exasperated sigh, the seven know you're tired of this, “if i heard you right, you basically just said i have magic? like, actually? you're joking, right? i mean, come on, i've been here for like half a year and the only magic i can produce is manslaughter. be so for real with me right now.”

crowley's glowing eye twitches (at least, you think it does. it’s really hard to tell, honestly) “yes, that is basically what i said. see, the carriage did not bring you here by mere accident, despite it being through..”  he pauses, taking a seat in his gigantic chair, “unfortunate means. if it brought you here, it means it sensed something within you. so i’ve had some tests run in the background, and as it turns out, you do have a magical affinity, it just seems to be suppressed.”

you fall into the chair opposite him. whether it was because of your knees giving out from pure disbelief, or just because of how tired you are of everything, you're not really sure.

“.. okay, so what does that mean for me?”

“it means you can use magic once we figure out how to unlock it. it means you can continue studying here as an actual student.”

you blankly stared at the wall, thinking your choices through thoroughly.

you can't go back to your world unless you want to be dead, so having a place to stay would be great. if you had magic it would certainly make life, and your classes, much easier. you would no longer have to rely on grim or the guys to protect you in case of an overblot, either. it sounded great, overall.

“so? what will it be?”

your eyes slowly moved from the window to crowley's glowing ones.

your parents would feel more at peace knowing you could protect yourself in a foreign world (if they remembered you, that is).

“alright. let’s do it.”

## ❝ after the events of the phantom bride wedding, ace started wondering whether he still had the ability to charm girls. he hasn’t thought about anyone romantically in years, hasn’t really flirted with anyone either, what if he’s gone out of it? perhaps it’s time to put his talents to the test; with the person who hates him most, no less. if he can charm her, he can charm anyone. ❞

#TAGLIST ! : @solxima @gabirii @lunavixia @y2unagiz @the-ghost-0f-t0m0 @borlining @verity-moon @myunghology @doughnuts-eater @lifeless-bug @babygurlenthusiast @shirishere @xopeach @stormyovent0aster @bontensbabygirl @ars-tral @wrathy-mcwrathface @sinofthesloth @skeet-2 @everettelz @sakuram1nt @shatiyuh @ambigrueity @junebunny06 @norylight @dyedracoonhair @persm1net @meowbuscompany @sugarrush-blush @oopsie-daisy-doo @yuumei-strawberry-shortcake @jaiistg // ask/comment to be added/removed! (if you’re in bold i can’t tag you)

[ginawankenobi]

Juliet Burke is a Tragic Hero (and Her Fatal Flaw is Insecurity)

(Thanks so much to @taweretsdagger, @eponine119, and @obsessivedaydreamer for beta-reading for me!)

PREAMBLE: What Even IS a Tragic Hero?

It’s Juliet Burke, I told you in the title. Essay over!

Haha, did you think you were going to get out of reading this that quickly? No way, dudes, buckle up! Anyway, once upon a time, a super smart guy named Aristotle said a tragic hero is a character who a) is virtuous, b) is flawed, and c) suffers a reversal of fortune (from good to bad). I tend to agree with him. In this full-length novel - I mean, essay - I will explain exactly why Juliet Burke fits this archetype, and why this means there is concrete scientific proof that she is the best character in all of media!

Okay, that last bit might be my bias talking. I’ll work on that. Here we go!

PART ONE: Preliminary Evidence

Exhibit A: What’s in a Name

Juliet shares a name with a Shakespearean tragic hero.

Shakespeare’s Juliet falls in love with a member of a rival family. Lost’s Juliet first forms a relationship with Jack, the leader of a rival group (crash survivors vs. the Others), then falls in love with James, another member of said rival group.

Each Juliet appears to die once, but truly (tragically) dies later on.

This spelling of Juliet was popularized due to Shakespeare’s work.

The name Juliet is likely derived from the Latin word iuvenis, meaning “youthful,” or Jovis, which is another form of the name of the Roman god Jupiter/Jove the “sky father.” Juliet means “Jove’s child, youthful, downy.”

Juliet speaks Latin, the language of the Romans, fluently.

A young/youthful person is considered to be someone between the ages of 20 and 40; Juliet is around 33 years old when we first meet her.

“Downy” refers to soft, fluffy hair; Juliet has downy blonde hair.

In the Middle Ages, Juliet became a female form of the name Julian; Juliet has a nephew Julian, presumably named after her.

Exhibit B: I Write Sins AND Tragedies

Tragic heroes must garner sympathy from the audience. Early on, Juliet garners sympathy from the audience in the following ways:

Jack threatens Juliet’s life and Ben seems unbothered, then closes her out of the safe room, showing the first signs of the fissures in their relationship.

Her profession as a doctor/fertility specialist/medical researcher establishes credibility.

She has a very close relationship with her sister.

Her ex-husband is clearly depicted as a shitty individual who treated her terribly.

She is self-deprecating, referring to herself as “a mess.”

Colleen’s injury and subsequent death genuinely throw her off-balance.

She helps Kate and Sawyer escape Hydra island (though selfish reasoning does factor into this decision).

She is nearly sentenced to death but instead is branded with a mark for her actions in helping Kate and Sawyer.

She displays genuine happiness when she does the ultrasound for Sun.

Ben is essentially holding her hostage on the island, and she hates him just as much as Jack and the other survivors do.

Like the crash survivors, she desires nothing more than to go home.

There are many more instances of Juliet gaining sympathy from the audience in later episodes, such as Ben showing her Goodwin’s corpse and creepily telling her “you’re mine.” These instances continue to build throughout the rest of the series, transforming Juliet from potential adversary into primary hero.

PART TWO: VIRTUES

Juliet is often virtuous to the point of her own detriment, and in fact, it’s the very reason she doesn’t leave the island with the Oceanic 6.

SEASON THREE.

Early on we don’t know her or her motives very well, but in retrospect, her true self shines through.

We don’t yet know that it’s “Henry Gale” she’s referring to in episode one as she rants to her book club about Ben, but looking back this moment illustrated from the very beginning that Juliet is willing to defy Ben.

Mid-rant, when the island shakes due to the shift in the magnetic field, she jumps into protective leader mode and directs everyone to get into the doorway for safety.

Throwing her canteen to Sawyer seems like a manipulation tactic at the time (and it still may have been in part), but odds are it’s mostly a genuine gesture.

Holding her gun to Kate to get Sawyer to drop his weapon makes her seem cold, and is frustrating at first because we’ve been set up to root for Sawyer and Kate. In reality, it’s quick thinking on Juliet’s part that spared Sawyer (and probably Kate) further risk of violence, as she’s able to quell the situation with no bloodshed or further consequences.

Even handcuffing herself to Kate isn't entirely disingenuous. Yes, we find out she did it as part of Ben's plan, but looking back we can tell it's true she wants to belong with them, and she hates Ben for making her act as a spy.

SEASON FOUR.

As time passes and we see Juliet freed from the guise of a double agent, we also see more and more of her altruistic and selfless nature.

She had just gone with Sawyer back to the beach on what she believed was a suicide mission, as “karma” for her past actions.

She teams up with Sayid to help Jack and Kate when they’re held hostage by Miles and Daniel (well, mostly Miles, let’s be real).

Back at the barracks, she had been helping take care of Zach and Emma, and was (according to Ben) very good with them.

When she believes Daniel and Charlotte are going to release a toxic gas around the island, she once again goes on a mission risking her own safety to stop them.

She sacrifices her budding friendship with Sun to keep her from going to Locke’s camp, since she knew Sun would die from the complications of her pregnancy if she didn’t leave the island.

She performs a badass guerilla surgery on Jack to save his life, and doesn’t let his stubbornness stop her from doing what needs to be done.

Knowing Jack’s heart truly lies with Kate (and he won’t admit it to himself yet), Juliet sets aside her own feelings to make sure Kate knows how Jack feels, and subtly ensures he hears her.

Juliet insists Sun be among the first group to leave the island for the freighter, and also insists that she stay until everyone else is safe, sacrificing the thing she wants most in favor of guarding the safety of the rest of the group.

SEASON FIVE.

We truly see Juliet come into her own during the flashes and when the remaining group enters the Dharma Initiative in the 1970s.

When running from the flaming arrows, she once again puts herself in harm’s way trying to save another member of the group.

She manages to calm Sawyer down multiple times when he starts to lose control of his emotions.

She takes out the unknown people shooting at them from the other outrigger, preventing any injuries to her group.

She shows leadership by going along with Sawyer’s plan and keeping him and the group grounded as the flashes get more chaotic.

She directly saves Sawyer’s life by shooting one of the people holding Amy hostage before he can shoot Sawyer.

Her quick thinking and calm persuasive nature come in handy when they capture a young Charles Widmore and his ally; she’s unable to sway Widmore to help them, but would have swayed the other Other had Widmore not killed him. This makes it possible for John to track Widmore to his camp.

She has Sawyer’s back constantly.

She comforts Daniel when they lose Charlotte. I genuinely don’t believe Daniel would have mentally recovered at all had Juliet not been there, but that’s my biased opinion coming into play again. (A good researcher must acknowledge their own bias, or so I’ve heard.)

Despite the trauma of having lost several pregnant patients on the island, she agrees to deliver Amy’s baby.

Juliet has the idea of adding the returning crash survivors to the sub’s manifest in order to bring them in safely and subtly.

Despite everything she knows Future Ben will do to her, she refuses to let it affect her treatment of 1977 Ben and saves his life anyway. She even goes as far as angrily confronting Jack and calling him out for not helping also.

When the chains pull her down during The Incident, she knows Sawyer won’t let go and will get dragged down too if she doesn’t let go, so she does.

She hits the hydrogen bomb, not for herself, but because she wants Sawyer to be able to go home, literally sacrificing herself for the man she loves.

It’s going to hurt me too much to write any further on the Incident, so that’s all, folks.

PART THREE: FATAL FLAWS

If there was a Reddit-like thread dedicated solely to the Reasons Juliet Burke is Insecure, it would probably look something like this:

i/career

Juliet refers to herself as “a mess.” This is pre-island, and almost certainly due (at least in part) to her ex-husband’s treatment of her, but does continue on throughout the series. She displays a severe lack of confidence in herself and her abilities, despite being obviously brilliant and a groundbreaking expert in her field.

She is unable to solve the crisis facing pregnant women on the island, and this furthers the insecurity and impostor syndrome she already experiences.

In Dharmaville, she refuses to work as a doctor and opts for a career in the motor pool because she is so afraid, and has lost confidence in her ability to help pregnant people.

i/social

Juliet feels like all eyes are on her when she comes to the island, and it makes her feel isolated. She does not enjoy public attention or being put on a pedestal.

She is not shown to have many close friends, apart from perhaps Amelia. The rest of the Others seem to view her as someone special in Ben’s eyes, as Goodwin talks about Ben’s crush on her like it’s common knowledge (though Juliet herself seems oblivious at the time). It seems she doesn’t believe other people would genuinely want to befriend her.

Tom also mentions to Jack that Juliet and Ben have “history,” which I’ve personally always inferred to mean Ben talks to him about Juliet on a regular basis. It’s possible Juliet may have confided a bit in Tom too, at least about how much she wanted to go home, but I think most of what he knows about her is through Ben.

i/relationships

Her parents.

Their divorce during her childhood did some major damage to her ability to believe she could find true love that would stand the test of time. She seemed to view all relationships as temporary from that point on.

Edmund “the Asshat” Burke.

Due to the emotional baggage surrounding her parents’ divorce, she seems to have settled for this guy, who does not even remotely resemble True Love Material.

This creepazoid of a human being shot any confidence she had to hell. How exactly he did this is not shown to us, but it can be inferred by what we do see of their relationship. He likely cheated on her, and even after their divorce, Juliet feels she can’t go anywhere or do anything without his approval (and likely contracts they still have in place, or something of that nature).

And yet, Juliet still cried for him when he died. So much more than he deserves, if you ask me and my completely unbiased opinion on this matter.

Goodwin “the Luckiest Man Alive (until he wasn’t)” Stanhope.

Juliet refuses to allow Goodwin to fully leave his wife (even after she learns that Harper knows about their affair), though he states they’re basically separated already. It’s likely she is worried a relationship between them wouldn’t work out if it lacked the “excitement” and freedom of their situationship.

He was taken from her too, and she had to cry over the death of yet another man she was in a relationship with.

Jack “Fumbled at the 5 Yard Line” Shephard.

Jack represents everything Edmund wasn’t; he’s also a doctor, but one with integrity, and one who treats her like a human and an equal.

Juliet thought for a moment that she’d found what she was looking for and that Jack could save her and break the pattern, but she realized his heart was with someone else.

This helped reinforce her (incorrect) belief that she wasn’t destined for lasting love, that she’d always be second best (specifically to Kate Austen).

James “True Love Material” Ford.

Due to everything she endured, even when she FOUND the thing she previously thought un-find-able, she still believed it was too good to be true.

Because of her history being Jack’s second choice to Kate, on top of the history she knows James has with Kate, the second she thinks (again, incorrectly) that James would choose Kate over her, she lets her insecurity win.

She throws everything away based on James looking at Kate in what Juliet perceives to be a meaningful way, even though it seems that look is meaningless to James himself. Juliet convinces herself she will lose him, so much so that she wants to erase the memory of them ever having met in the first place.

She disregards all evidence to the contrary:

James helping save Ben’s life even though he didn’t want to, but he did it anyway because she asked him to

Grabbing her hand and continuously affirming that he has her back

Telling her he loves her when they’re on the sub and grinning bashfully at her like a boy in puppy love

Talking about the life they’d have once they leave the island

James literally and very seriously threatening Phil’s life because he hit Juliet - I don’t recall that he ever reacted so strongly to anyone hurting Kate

The entire 3 years they spent together; she lets her insecurity and intrusive thoughts tell her it didn’t mean what it meant/it was impermanent

PART FOUR: REVERSALS OF FORTUNE

Juliet experiences a reversal of fortune from bad to good when she joins the crash survivors and exposes Ben’s plans, cementing herself as one of them instead of an “Other.” Sadly, tragic heroes must experience a reversal of fortune in the other direction as well, which ultimately leads to their downfall.

For Juliet, one could argue the good-to-bad reversal occurs when Jack and his group arrive back on the island in 1977 Dharmaville. From there, her stable life with James is thrown into upheaval that does not cease until she…well, ceases. To live. I could probably come up with a better way to word that, but by this point, my brain is beginning to fry. (A good researcher must also be honest, I’ve heard.)

Juliet clocks it immediately, telling James their life there is over. From that point on, regardless of how true that actually is, Juliet believes it’s the beginning of the end and becomes determined to self-fulfill that prophecy. Tragedy lies in the fact that she and James almost escaped, they were this close to leaving the island, but once again a wrench was thrown into the plans (I didn’t even intend that Dharma motor pool mechanic pun, but there you go).

They begin by wanting to stop Jack from detonating the bomb, but Juliet’s insecurities cause her to change her mind when she attaches meaning to a look he gives Kate. She lets herself believe the intrusive thoughts and ignore the evidence. Though personally I feel there could have been stronger reasoning displayed for Juliet’s decision, it does make sense from what we know of her that feeling second best (and to Kate specifically) would get in her way and lead to her own downfall.

Because Juliet goes along with Jack’s plan, she winds up caught in the chains that pull her down the shaft of the Swan station. Selfless to the end, Juliet lets go of James when it becomes clear he will also fall if she doesn’t, and her final act is detonating the bomb - not in hopes of getting herself home, but to get the man she loves home. She gives everything she has left to give him the thing she has so desperately wanted for 6 years, not realizing that the only future he really wanted was one with her.

PART FIVE: CONCLUSIONS

Swans can symbolize many things, including love and transformation. Juliet dying in the Swan station ruins symbolizes the completion of her transformation into a tragic hero, as well as her transformation into the flash sideways version of herself. Her love for James is also evident here, given her sacrifice; their final conversation also foreshadows their reunion in the flash sideways.

In short, if you skipped all the way down here and want the tl;dr, everything we come to know about Juliet and the progression of her arc can only bring us to the conclusion that she is in fact a tragic hero (and the best character in anything ever, according to my bias). Thankfully, the writers did do us one big kindness, and she got to be reunited with her soulmate in the afterlife and have the happily ever after they were cheated out of in life. They realized the errors of their ways, perhaps slightly too late, but whatever happened happened and I have totally made my peace with it. Totally.

If you actually read all of this, THANK YOU, you are just as awesome as Juliet Burke in my eyes. THE END! Unless I think of more later on. So, to be continued?

[thewertsearch]

Ask Comp 13/05

@garnetduodecim asked: I always assumed jack spent the first 4 hours in the troll session, before destroying prospit, destroying Aradiabots, there were A LOT of them.

Maybe one of the Aradiabots got in a lucky shot, and was able to tag him with a weaker, non-God Tier variant of her freeze ability. That'd certainly at least delay him.

@morganwick asked: So, you were talking about Aradia "injuring" Vriska (post/704357246751113217) and comparing Vriska to a fairy godmother character (post/722100305374986240)?

@manorinthewoods asked: Serendipity Gospels is by Tamsyn Muir??? Really? Um, that's… hoo. That was one of the fanfics that I didn't end up liking. Might need to revisit that. Side note: 'Doc Scratch's School for Supernaturally Gifted Adolescents' feels more like something Locked Tomb-esque to me. So that's really… ah. ~LOSS (3/5/24)

I do wonder how similar the Gospels are to TLT's writing style.

Actually, can anyone confirm at what point the fic will be safe to read? I could just wait until I'm reading panels from after its publication date, but if I can check it out before, I will.

@abysswarlock asked: Ooh I’ve had this hypothesis for a while now but you just said something that made me lock in my guess that your classpect is Prince of Doom

The classpect wheel continues to turn!

I'm married to Doom for at least one of my 'sonas, but my Class is still up in the air, since we know even less about them than aspects.

@manorinthewoods asked: As a sort of Part 2 to that sylladex comment - how do you think the Sylladex works? Do you think that Homestuck will go into more detail about Sylladices, or do you think they'll fade into the background as different aspects of the magic system come to the fore? ~LOSS (24/4/24)

I think the latter is a lot more likely. Most aspects (lol) of Homestuck's magic system are there to serve the story first and foremost. As much as I'd love the comic to turn into a treatise on Sburb deeplore, it really doesn't feel like something Hussie would be interested in doing.

The story won't really suffer without, say, a detailed explanation of every facet of alchemy - I just really like speculating, because I'm all about shit like that.

@heliotropopause asked: What are your thoughts on Homestuck's translation convention(s)? As an example, take page 2251, line "Arrivederci, Megido.": Is she writing in something close enough to Earth English to scan as such to the reader, no translation necessary? Is Vriska saying a word in Troll Italian, which gets translated to Earth Italian? Is she expressing a sentiment in her usual language that's best translated as the word "arrivederci" as it's used in English? Has Doc Scratch secretly been translating all cross-species communication we've seen so far?

Vriska's arrivederci seems diegetic to me. If we inherited English from Alternia, it makes sense that some of our other languages might come from there too.

tl;dr: Troll Italy is real 🇮🇹

Anonymous asked: im not one to dip my toes into The Vriscourse but this one piece of analysis i really liked is that vriska is jealous of tavros, that hes had a much easier life compared to her and that hes allowed to be more of a wimp while she has to be the toughest fuck alive or else shell die

It's only one piece of the Vriska-Tavros puzzle, but it's an important one. She'll refuse to acknowledge it to the end, though, because the idea of being jealous of Tavros is disgusting to her.

@obscureaeguran asked: Are there any current theories of yours that you want to be wrong about?

Confident as I am in my Vriska death theory, I don't actually want to be right.

I really like Vriska's character, and I want to see her grow past the worldview that's preventing her from finding peace. I just don't think that's likely, given her current trajectory.

Anonymous asked: 'In what universe are 13-year-olds the people most qualified to make universes?' well per the beta version of homestuck (when hussie wanted to make the whole thing in flash before deciding against it) they were all going to be 10 instead, i think this is the much better option!

How young can we go, anyway?

AU where the Homestuck Babies aren't sent to Earth at all, and just start playing immediately.

@manorinthewoods asked: Have you played Deltarune? ~LOSS (9/4/24)

I have! I was actually replaying it on day one of the liveblog - hence the several references I made to it at the time. That feels forever ago, now.

@bladekindeyewear asked: Jade changed pretty drastically as a person after her dreamself died, if you think about it— demanding Feferi stop using her quirk in chat, standing up to the trolls for the first time, getting angry, to such an extent that Karkat was so surprised that it turned his opinion of her around completely in a single conversation. Even forcing a password system to keep talks linear instead of using cloud visions to do everything out of order. This doesn’t just feel to me like dream Jade being a “different individual”, it also feels like a metaphorical confrontation between her NEW self and her OLD self…

I think it's both.

Jade's been through a lot in the last couple of hours, and she really isn't the same girl who died on Prospit.

Being an oracle of Skaia's visions led to disaster. They showed her that John's Dream Self would awaken, leading her to believe she was finally going to meet him, but neglected to mention that she'd die the moment he opened his eyes - or that Prospit would die alongside her.

As a result, the new Jade seems to have made a decision to completely reject all prophetic information. She'll supply the minimum possible intel to her past self, and no more.

It's clear her Dream Self's death was a catalyst for a pretty dramatic shift in her worldview. She's angry - at the trolls, at herself, and at the world that betrayed her trust. She's tired of being jerked around, and her tumultuous emotions are making her rather testy. Basically, she's sick of all the bullshit, and she won't take it from anyone anymore.

Jadesprite has experienced the same catalyst, and has also come to mistrust the clouds, but for different reasons.

Jade rejects prophecies, in part, because she doesn't want to be deceived - but Jadesprite rejects them out of sheer hopelessness. She just doesn't care anymore.

They both have the same trauma, but they're dealing with it in very different ways - and at this point, I really do consider them to be different people.

And then on a metaphorical level, Jadesprite represents the 'silly', absent-minded childhood self that got Jade into this mess.

I think this taunt from Karkat hit very, very close to home for her, and I'm sure she associates the traits he described with her idyllic days on Prospit. It's part of why Dream Jade is such a perfect target for her fury.

@spyril4132 asked: i beg to differ on the entry item similarities only applying to prospit. iirc, rose shatters a bottle, and dave hatches an egg; both involve breaking open some sort of "shell", and neither are associated with a larger object, which could be seen as similar types of items. (while jade does break a piñata, she does so by shooting it, not by splitting it apart)

It's true that Rose and Dave's object's have some physical similarities, but John and Jade are both summoning the same tree, which feels like a much stronger connection.

Rose and Dave's entry cards also summoned auxiliary items, but they were different - a cabinet and bird, respectively. From where I'm sitting, the link between the two Prospit items does seem unique.

@skelekingfeddy asked: what herptiles would sally and sahlee have as their consorts? i feel like a monitor lizard would fit for one of them…maybe losas has like, turtle or tortoise consorts, what with their long-livedness and the wise sagely vibe and all.

I was thinking pretty much the same thing for Sahlee. Let's say they're Galápagos tortoises, because the Sage gives me Oogway vibes.

For Sally's Consorts, I'm going to get really funky and say they're a type of pterosaur.

@sparten4ever92 asked: The HS version of Megalovania is slept on way too much, the Vriska guitar adds so much to it that the UT version just doesn't have. @sanctferum asked: Finally, MeGaLoVania by Toby Fox (feat. Joren "Tensei" deBruin on guitar)! Would you say that Tavros had an…unpleasant chronological progression? (btw I do love the bit of Spider's Claw that plays during the Vriska segment, which is (obviously) unique to this Megalovania) also, the audiovisual style of homestuck flashes is just really cool imo @mimescantscream asked: You have no idea how long we've waited for the Megalovania

This version of Megalovania was a great choice for Aradia's finest hour - or at least, her finest hour so far.

It's moments like this which are why I decided to stop listening to the albums in advance. If I hadn't first heard Aradia's Megalovania in this flash, it wouldn't have hit the way it did.

@elkian asked: MEGALOVANIA TIME BAYBEEEE! Also, let's go back to that theory you had about Aradia getting more alive, because you NAILED it. @iris-in-the-dark-world asked: i am so excited to see aradia again and finally as herself :33<

She's fucking BACK, baby!

Seeing Aradia smiling for real after all this time is genuinely heartwarming - and with her time-stop attack, she's almost unkillable. It'd take some absolute nonsense to take Aradia out of the picture again, and I think she'll be sticking around for a long time. Hopefully forever.

@grippingtraverse asked: notice any similarities during megalovania between aradia vs. jack & sans vs. player? 0u0

The best I can come up with is that Aradia and Frisk are both time travelers whose signature color is red.

Or maybe Jack is the Frisk analogue, since he's the one wiping out all life in the session, and Aradia is the last foe he faces.

@captorations asked: please consider, with this new information about aradia, what it could mean for her literary descendant dulcie septimus. please also keep considering this as you continue and see more of aradia. i am very normal about both of these characters

Ooh, they do have similar vibes, don't they? They're both doomed, they're strongly associated with death, and they both have a cheerful side that comes out when you don't expect it to.

@duorogue asked: "You have to give Nepeta some credit. The literal first thing she did after this traumatic murder was log into Trollian and report on Jack’s activities." To be fair to her, when I have a bad nightmare the first thing I do is log onto discord

nepeta hopping on mic at 2am to complain about the hat man (the hat man is doc scratch)

@absinthe-and-alabaster asked: when the writ keeper was introduced as fifth exile you mentioned that it was a little fucked up how the king was the only prospitian that was preserved - i just wanted to remind you that no, he wasn't ! on page 1974 we see all the other prospitians that were exiled with the white queen on her ship (including ms paint!) WQ just left them to go wander the desert

I'd actually forgotten about that. So much happened during the Act 4 ending that it completely slipped my mind. I even missed Ms. Paint!

Anonymous asked: Hey, as you noticed, the Dave Coin Split is a plot hole. We've never seen the timeline split because of someone's choice before. Compare to John flying to the seventh gate, there weren't two timelines based on his choice, the timeline only changed because Dave came back from the original timeline and changed it. And of course, like you said in the tags, Terezi shouldn't have been able to communicate with Doomed Dave, including to tell him the result of the FL1P. Have you noticed any other plot holes or things that don't seem to make sense?

While I see what you're saying, it might not necessarily be a plot hole! Certainly the Dave Coin Timeline was created in a different manner to Davesprite's - but that might just mean there are multiple ways to split a timeline, or that there are certain requirements that must be fulfilled for a decision to spawn one.

Because of things like that, it's hard to tell whether something's actually a plot hole, or if it'll eventually make sense in light of later reveals.

This is particularly true for aspects of the plot involving time travel, like the one you just described. Like, remember before I learned about Doomed Timelines, when I thought Davesprite broke Homestuck's predestination rules?

Anonymous asked: You said "God Tiering is just another way to inhabit your Dream Self," so do you think the things that Dream Selves can do (such as Jade growing extra arms) can be done by God Tiers?

I never really thought about that!

I think it's definitely possible. God Tier bodies can fly the same way that Dream Selves can, so other powers might transfer, too. Maybe the only reason Vriska, Aradia and John aren't shapeshifters is because Jade hasn't taught them to how to dream up extra limbs.

She might be one of the only Dream Selves who've learned how to shapeshift this fluidly. Logging thousands of hours on Prospit has its perks!

[homestuckreplay]

Job Application: Timeline Manager

(page 1269-1283; figuring out the timeline)

OKAY. THIS IS GETTING CONFUSING. There is some figuring out of the timeline to do here before things get even messier, plus some new information on the Felt’s powers and some hints about the far past.

To be honest Slick is really smart with all this timeline stuff. I think he would be great as a Felt member whose ‘power’ is just understanding the interactions and nuances between all the other members’ powers and planning their operations around it. Most of them seem to be acting as rogue agents in individuals or pairs, without great communication, and Slick could whip them into the shape of a functional gang. Honestly not too dissimilar from how Jack Noir ‘oversee[s] various affairs of a DARK KINGDOM’ (p.955). It’s like he has this head for organization and management and SOMETIMES this overpowers his actual goals and morality. In this way I think someone could talk Jack Noir into being the beta kids’ band manager, something they definitely need post-Sburb if they are going to make it big in the post-apocalypse.

Slick’s businessman side is however balanced out by his Love Of Stabbing And Killing, which is often an equally big priority. He does show some uncertainty about timeline rules on page 1278, where he’s ‘not really sure if that's how it works’ but also doesn’t care because he’s about to break out the Big Knives. In this update we hear about Slick’s SABER RATTLE (p.1271), DOUBLE EDGED SWORD (p.1272), BAIT AND SWITCHBLADE (p.1277), and see the recurrence of OCCAM’S RAZOR, previously seen on page 329 when Dave was reading MSPA.

These are also puns, unsurprisingly for this intermission – sabers, swords, blades and razors are all sharp edged weapons, while ‘saber rattling’ is an overt and exaggerated threat of violence used to intimidate, and a double edged sword is something that has both positive and negative consequences. A bait and switch is where one outcome is set up and then replaced at the last minute, usually with a worse option, and Occam’s Razor is a philosophical rule saying that simpler theories should be privileged over more complex ones. This last one in particular fits well with Slick’s preference for fixing the timeline and getting things back on a more linear schedule – I think he’s in opposition to the author here.

So, as I understand it, this intermission has one main timeline (T1) where the bulk of pages 1154-1264 took place (in a roughly but not entirely linear fashion) right up until Slick pulls Crowbar’s pin from Die’s doll. At this point, Slick jumps to T2.

In T2, Crowbar is alive, and nothing from T1 happened. T2 is defined by a gunfight between the Felt and Midnight Crew, and spans pages 1265-1279, with a LOT of back and forth throughout time due to Sawbuck’s powers. Snowman has only been seen in T2, and Stitch dies only in T2. If we define the gunfight arbitrarily as ‘the present’, we also see the timeline’s recent past (p.1271), far past (p.1273), and near future (p.1277), but sadly never see the far future.

On page 1280, Slick returns to T1, at an uncertain point on the timeline. Sawbuck quickly gets attacked, jumping to a point on the timeline that precedes the whole intermission (but is part of its main continuity). By cycling back to this early point on the timeline, Slick explains how and why a bunch of clocks were already destroyed and covered in blood on page 1175.

We can also define T0 as the timeline featured on pages 1210-1211, from which Die jumps to T1, and T∞ as the timeline where Slick died before he could build this town in the first place (p.1215, 1236). Plus a whole bunch of timelines where various Eggses and Biscuitses come from.

I think that’s it. I think that’s the simplest possible way of understanding all this.

So, in the far past of both T1 and T2 (as well as T∞), we see the same pink and green wasteland, the planet before Slick built the town. I think there’s an interesting Slick-Snowman parallel here – jumping to a timeline where Slick is dead destroys the town (such that it was never built), while killing Snowman destroys the universe. Similar powers but on WILDLY different scales. And Slick is the Midnight Crew member Snowman directly speaks to (and stabs) on page 1267, so, what’s going on with those two? What’s their history from before Snowman went to join the Felt?

But. Maybe my absolute favorite moment in this intermission is the sight of the Straggler in the background on page 1273.

A SCURRILOUS STRAGGLER eyes impromptu desert skirmish. He dismisses them as a bunch of ill-mannered rogues warranting no further investigation. Although he gives a small nod of approval to the plain and serviceable HAT worn by one of the combatants which strikes him as an absolutely smashing display of good fashion sense. (p.1274)

This is the most explicit link yet between this wasteland and the Wayward Vagabond’s (p.248), with the similar wrappings and the ‘Years in the past…’ page title. It is a wilder post-apocalypse due to there being a fight in the desert, and one that sets up a time loop – Slick gets the idea to wear a smart hat from his past self, just like Jade getting into gardening and blue shirts by redirecting John’s package to her own past self (p.1136). Slick does not recognize his future self here, probably because he’s used to interacting with other near-identical chess pieces.

I still have no clue how some chess constructs escape Sburb, and how it’s decided which ones get out, but it’s fascinating to have it confirmed that 1. this phenomenon isn’t exclusive to Earth, and may be built into Sburb, and 2. these constructs go on living and develop personalities and agency that maps onto their initial programming, but also goes beyond it. And this accounts for the differences between Spades Slick (Felt planet) and Jack Noir (Earth), as Slick has had many years to move past that programming, and Jack is earlier in his journey, and has just committed his first act of rebellion. So perhaps it’s this moment of gaining a consciousness that goes beyond the computer programming that causes a NPC to want to leave Sburb, to realize that’s even an option. Which definitely reinforces by theory that Jack Noir will be the fourth character who appears ‘years in the future’ on Earth.

Finally, here’s a recap of the Felt’s powers, which we’ve learned most of since I was guessing them about a hundred pages ago.

Itchy – Can speed up time for himself and go very fast.

Doze – Can slow down time for himself and go very slow.

Trace – Can see people’s recent past via a trail of where they’ve been.

Clover – Uncertain, but he is knowledgeable, cooperative, and asks TIME RIDDLES (p.1252).

Fin – Can see people’s near future via a trail of where they will go.

Die – Has a small effigy with pins for each Felt and Midnight Crew member. Pins inside the effigy are dead in the current timeline.

Crowbar – Can ‘pry anything out of a time loop, stable or otherwise.’ (p.1252)

Snowman – ‘If you kill her you destroy the universe.’ (p.1268)

Stitch – Has large effigies for each Felt member (plus Lord English’s backup coat). Can use them to patch wounds and the fabric of spacetime itself.

Sawbuck – Jumps to a random point within the current timeline whenever his skin is punctured.

Matchsticks – Unknown, dead in T1/unseen in T2.

Eggs – Creates copies of himself whenever his egg timer goes off, destabilizing the timeline.

Biscuits – Hides in the oven until his timer goes off, successfully ‘traveling into the future’.

Quarters – Unknown, dead in T1/unseen in T2.

Cans – Unknown, but he is very large (p.353).

Lord English – Unknown, but he is ‘indestructible… killable only through a number of glitches and exploits in spacetime’ (p.1239)

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

for i stand in my wake of a stream i have yet to experience

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ywoqv9l by cebawoohoo One July day, Bruce gets a call from Gotham General Hospital, asking for his presence. He goes and finds a Janet Drake, and ends up leaving with a baby in his arms. Now Bruce, who already has an eight year old (Dick) and a four year old (Jason) at home. How will life be when he adds an infant to the mix? ~OR~ bio-kid tim but with dick and jay already in the fam. came from my own tumblr prompt Words: 1719, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Tim Drake (DCU), Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth, Janet Drake (Briefly) Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Batfamily Members & Alfred Pennyworth Additional Tags: Baby Tim Drake, Toddler Jason Todd, Kid Jason Todd, Kid Dick Grayson, Kid Fic, Good Kid Jason Todd, Good Sibling Dick Grayson, Good Kid Dick Grayson, Good Sibling Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne is a Tired Father, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Dick Grayson is Robin, Bruce Wayne is Good With Kids, Good Parent Bruce Wayne, They are so cute, Jack Drake is Not Tim Drake's Biological Parent, Bruce Wayne is Tim Drake's Biological Parent, Tim Drake and Jason Todd are Siblings, Tim Drake and Dick Grayson are Siblings, Young Batfamily (DCU), i love baby timmy, as you can see, no beta we die like jason todd, but not in this fic, Jason Todd Joins the Batfamily Early, Tim Drake Joins the Batfamily Early (DCU), dick grayson joins the batfam early, sorta - Freeform, it’s like a year earlier read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ywoqv9l

[ao3feed-newsies]

(I Know) We'll Be Fine

by, Nyx_thedragon by Nyx_thedragon Jack drops Morris’s hat at some point, and continues running, bringing himself through newsies square, right past the Horace Greeley statue. He can’t hear the Delanceys behind him anymore, and turns to check how far behind they are. He can’t see them past the crowd of newsboys watching him. As he’s turning back around to look where he’s going, Jack slams into someone -- a boy, looking to be around his age, maybe a year younger. The boy is wearing a blue striped button-up shirt under a brown vest, brown pants, and a matching brown newsboy cap. His hair sticks out from underneath just enough that Jack can see that it’s curly, and his eyes, when Jack finally looks at them, are strikingly blue. The boy Jack’d run into stares at him, rightfully annoyed. “What do you think you’re doing?” There’s some shouting of Jack’s name behind the boy, and when Jack looks, he sees the Delanceys trying to push through the crowd of newsies, who’re trying to keep them back. He looks back at the boy, and smiles easily. “Runnin’!” ~~~~~~~~~~ My attempt at a 1992 Newsies rewrite. The main plot is the same. (Title from the song "We'll Be Fine" by Jorge Rivera-Herrans) Words: 4520, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Newsies (1992) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen, M/M, Multi Characters: David Jacobs, Jack Kelly (Newsies), Sarah Jacobs (Newsies), Les Jacobs, Spot Conlon, Racetrack Higgins, Bryan Denton, The Newsies (Newsies) Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, David Jacobs & Jack Kelly, Jack Kelly & The Newsies, David Jacobs & The Newsies, Crutchie & Jack Kelly (Newsies), Racetrack Higgins & Jack Kelly, David Jacobs & Mush Meyers, Spot Conlon & Jack Kelly Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, mostly - Freeform, Canon-Typical Violence, Non-Graphic Violence, Fluff, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Background Relationships, Minor Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins, Minor Kid Blink/Mush Meyers, they're not the focus but they're implied, Rated T for swearing, Jewish Jacobs Family (Newsies), it's mentioned once and doesn't affect the plot but it's important to me that you know, references to the Hard Promises script, just one detail tbh, Based on Newsies (1992), Rewrite, Canon Rewrite, no beta we die like snyder should have read : https://ift.tt/coz1gZb - December 19, 2024 at 10:21PM

[ao3feed-skystar]

freeform

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/Yo369gx by smoked_salmon_official Canon divergence from s1e20, what if Starscream went rogue and stayed rogue? I'm watching Prime as I write this so all events will parallel canon to the best of my ability. Warnings for canon-typical violence and discussion of abuse and mental health issues Words: 1501, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Transformers: Prime Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: Gen Characters: Starscream (Transformers), Megatron (Transformers), Bumblebee (Transformers), Bulkhead (Transformers), Arcee (Transformers), Miko Nakadai, Jack Darby, Rafael "Raf" Esquivel, Ratchet (Transformers) Relationships: Megatron & Starscream (Transformers), Starscream & Team Prime (Transformers: Prime), Optimus Prime & Starscream, Jetfire | Skyfire/Starscream (Transformers) Additional Tags: It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Hurt/Comfort, eventually, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt No Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Physical Abuse, Depression, Anxiety, no beta we die like cliffjumper, Starscream Redemption (Transformers), Starscream-centric (Transformers), Starscream Needs A Hug (Transformers), Chronic Pain read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/Yo369gx

[skyewritesstuff]

cruel summer (kenny's version)

my masterlist.

entry 4 in my (taylor’s version) songfic series.

summary: a detailed account of your summer fling with kenny mccormick.

pairing: kenny mccormick x reader (college!au kinda)

fandom: south park

warnings:  implied nsfw. substance use (alc/weed/nic). language. vomiting.

notes: based on cruel summer by taylor swift. this was not beta read. we die like kenny.

word count: 7.9k

It all started and ended in Kenny McCormick���s rundown, single cab pickup truck. It was summer time and Kenny’s main friend group had all separated for this one lone week despite everyone being home from college. Stan was still on the outskirts of town at Tegridy Farms. Eric had been dragged out of state to visit family. Kyle was in Denver doing a week-long intensive course. 

Kenny was in community college, about to wrap up an associates in computer sciences, a few classes short of graduation. He was also working full-time at the local Best Buy doing tech support, but somehow he’d managed to have three days off in a row towards the end of the week. However, this had to be the worst time for him to have next-to-nothing to do.

You were in Marjorine’s bathroom, standing over her as she sat on the toilet, pink dye that was scented like lemon drop candy was coating the ends of her naturally blonde hair when your phone rang.

“Marj, can you see who that is and let me decide whether or not I”m gonna get you to answer that?”

The blonde girl laughed, “Sure thing!”

She grabbed your phone and looked at the screen, “It’s Kenny!”

“Kenny McCormick?” 

You said that like there was any other Kenny in your hometown. There was no confusion in your question, though, just a slight bit of disbelief. You’d had feelings for Kenny since high school that’d been a long-kept secret for various reasons. First, you thought Marjorine liked him, but apparently not. In reality, Marjorine is just a helpless romantic who has a slight attraction to all of her friends, you included. Then, he ended up in a weird situationship with Tammy Mullins and then “cheated” on Tammy Mullins with his ex, Tammy Warner, if you can even cheat on a fuckbuddy. 

Kenny didn’t have the most savory reputation in South Park when it came to women. He was a flirt who made it known to everyone how much he liked the ladies and with his charm and rugged looks, he oftentimes was able to pull any girl that he fed the right line to. You felt like it was pointless to pursue him, because you’d inevitably get your heartbroken and look like an idiot much like Tammy Mullins when she attempted to beat the ever living shit out of Tammy Warner for the aforementioned incident. 

“Aren’t you going to answer it?” Marjorine spoke in a sing-song voice that let you know that she was highly anticipating overhearing this conversation.

You rolled your eyes, “Go ahead.”

Marjorine swiped the answer bar, “Well hi, Ken!”

“Hi, Barbie!” Kenny didn’t miss a beat, a chuckle to his voice, “Where’s Y/N?”

“I’m right here. What’s up, Kenny?” You spoke, distracting your nerves by finishing up Marjorine’s hair and making sure that the color was evenly spread with meticulous attention to detail.

“Just wanted to see if you ladies wanted to chill at Stark’s Pond later. The guys are all out of town doing fuck knows what and I have like...three days off of work and I’ve already bored myself to death.”

“You mean to tell me you’ve already gotten bored with jacking off and hitting up girls on Snap? Are you feeling okay, bud?” You said with a smirk, eliciting a gasp at your language from the blonde sitting underneath you.

“Ha ha…hilarious. I haven’t jacked it at all today. I’m waiting to see you in a bikini at the pond so I can have that mental image to cross that off my list.”

“Cute.”

“Gross, Ken!”

He chuckled again, “Are you guys coming or what?”

You looked at Marjorine and she looked at you. Before you could contemplate a response, she replied for you, “We’ll be there! Does 3:00 work?”

You shot her a look and she grinned mischievously. “Yeah, for sure. You make sure to look cute too, Marj. I’ve got a lot of free time coming up.” You could hear his smirk through the phone, earning him another eye roll.

“Oh shut it, Kenny. We’ll see you later.” 

“Okay! Love you guys, bye!”

“Love you too!” Marjorine replied, hanging up the phone and looking over her shoulder at you with a smile.

“I hate you.”

“Nuh uh.”

“I’m going to drown you when I rinse you.”

“Oh, hamburgers.”

A few hours later, you were in your room putting on high waisted black bikini bottoms with a black and white striped top as you were trying to call Marjorine to determine whether or not the suit was too modest or just right. You’d called several times, but she still wasn’t answering. You turned your attention to your hair, putting it in two braids, when you finally heard your ringtone.

“Hey, are you okay? I tried calling like a hundred times.” You spoke over speaker phone, starting on your other braid.

“Yeah, I suppose I’m alright…well, a little anyway.” She sounded sad. You’d be willing to bet the $500 sitting in your savings account that you knew where this conversation was going. 

“What happened?” 

“Well, you see, my dad was real sore about my hair. He said it made me look cheap and…”

“You’re grounded…”

“Yeah…”

You sighed, “Marj, we’re twenty. Your dad can’t ground you forever.” 

She sighed back, “I know…I keep hoping that maybe he’ll stop the older I get, but really, I’m getting older everyday and he’s not stopping!”

You groaned, flopping back on your bed, “So, I’m just going to go hang out with Kenny alone…”

“You say that like you haven’t wanted to date him since we were in high school.” Marjorine said, a smile clearly perking up on her face. You could tell by her tone.

“Yeah, but like..” You tried to start replying back.

“But nothing! Go and have a good time!” she said, “And use protection!”

“Marjorine!” You gasped, shaking your head at her response.

“I’m just saying.” She replied. Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door.

“Marjorine, are you on your phone?!” Her father’s voice boomed.

“No, dad…I’m just…uh…talking to myself!” She replied back nervously. You could hear her father barking out orders at her to stay quiet and to think about what she’d done. Quickly, she wished you luck and ended the call.

You looked at your phone, noticing it was almost time for you to leave and decided that you would start gathering your things so that you could go. Once you arrived, you immediately noticed Kenny’s truck. It was an older model with rusted parts, chipped paint, and numerous crude and comedic stickers littering both the back glass and the door to the bed.

Part of you wanted him to not show up. Sure, you’d been harboring a crush on Kenny, but to think you’d be able to pull him? There was no way. He liked girls with big boobs, curves, full lips, and gorgeous skin. Compared to those girls, you just felt normal, like there was nothing special about you. You’d been told you were beautiful, funny, and smart, but going after Kenny still felt futile.

You parked next to his truck and then got out, walking towards the pond with your bag in hand. You soon noticed the blonde boy laying on a tattered quilt blanket. He was wearing only orange swim trunks and a pair of aviator sunglasses. His head turned toward you and he did a double take, tossing his hand up to greet you.

You walked over and sat your bag down next to the blanket. Kenny let out a soft wolf-whistle. “Baby, baby, baby…” He said, “I thought the view of the pond was beautiful, but you’ve got it beat.”

You rolled your eyes, sitting down on the blanket. “You’re full of it, Ken.” you said. He chuckled, shaking his head, “I’m just observing.”

“Uh huh…”

“Where’s Marj?” 

“Grounded”

“Shit…I mean, that sucks, but hey…” He turned on his side to look at you, “At least we get some time just you and me, right?”

Your chest tightened and you took a deep breath, “Mhmmm…”

“So…you seeing anyone?”

You rolled your eyes again. He was always so flirty with everyone. This was his baseline. You had to keep this at the front of your mind and just roll with his advances and play along with the game he was initiating. 

You shook your head, taking out your sunscreen. You twisted the nozzle so that it would spray and went over your arms, chest, and legs. Kenny held his hand out and you handed the bottle to him, expecting him to apply a coat to his already tanned skin. Instead, he sat up and slid behind you and sprayed your back.

“What are you…?” You lost your train of thought as he reached up and started gently rubbing it into your back.

Your breath hitched in your throat, “U-Uh…it’s…it’s touch free…”

“Oh?” He said. You could hear the smirk in his voice, “I didn’t read the bottle.” He leaned in closer to you until his breath was on your ear, “My bad…”

A shiver ran down your spine and he laughed under his breath again, moving back to the blanket. “So, why’d Clyde say he’d been talking to you if you’re single, then?”

“Because he’s full of shit.” 

It was a plain reply to the question because that was the honest truth. Clyde tended to be a bit of an attention seeker and this kind of behavior was a norm with him almost as much as being flirtatious was to Kenny. 

“Interesting…” Kenny laughed, “I think you should take that up with him.”

“It’s not that serious.” You laughed, laying back on the blanket, turning your head to look at him.

“I think you should tell him that you’re not talking to him because you’re talking to me.”

“Lie to end a lie?”

“Doesn’t have to be a lie.”

“You’re something else, you know that, right?”

The small talk and banter between the two of you went on for what felt like minutes, but upon looking at the clock on your lockscreen, you found out it’d been hours. The sun was starting to set and the two of you were the last people remaining at the pond.

“We should go get food.” You suggested, gesturing towards him with his sunglasses that you were holding, having taken them from him hours ago upon realizing that yours had been left in Marjorine’s car days ago.

“Or we could skinny dip and then get food.” He retorted, shrugging as if he didn’t ask you to get naked in public with him.

“You’re insane.”

“Some people would find that hot, you know?”

“Pretty sure skinny dipping is illegal.”

“No guts, no glory…plus, our police force is a joke. I think we’ll be fine.”

“You think.”

Kenny got up from the blanket and started down to the water. He turned towards you and smirked. “I know…” He then jumped into the water, making a large splash that landed on the blanket and your legs.

He re-emerged only seconds later and held his swim trunks over his head. “Kenny!” You gasped.

“Yes?” His smile was absolutely devious. You got up and walked to the edge of the water only for him to pull his hand back and send his swim trunks launching towards you, only landing on your feet due to the weight of the water in the fabric.

You couldn’t think of anything else to say so you just crossed your arms over your chest and watched the blonde who was currently smiling so widely you could finally see the small gap in his smile from his missing tooth. You had to admit…the colors and lighting of the sunset mixed with the beads of water rolling down his shoulders and his wet hair…If Kenny was anything, it was beautiful.

“Take a picture sweetheart, it’ll last longer.” You’d gotten caught. You took a hard swallow, choosing not to respond to his comment. “Man, this water is getting cold…it’d be nice if someone else would join me so I could suck up their body heat.”

He couldn’t be that desperate. You sighed, “Okay…okay…”

You jumped in, resurfacing right in front of him moments later. He grinned playfully. “Lucky me.” He closed the gap between you two, wrapping his arms around your waist and bringing your body in close to him.

“You are ridiculous.” You tried to sound stern, but you couldn’t help but form a smile at his reaction to your presence. He seemed genuinely happy to have you in the water with him with your bodies so close together…but of course he does. It’s Kenny. Something like this is his idea of paradise. You were brought back to your thoughts earlier about Kenny’s baseline and his affinity for the ladies.

“You still with me?” he asked, noticing how your thoughts had drifted from your current position to the depths of your mind. You turned your attention back to him, “Yeah, I was just…thinking…”

“Bout what?” he asked, reaching up to play with the end of your hair delicately, 

“You”

“Me? Huh, it really is my lucky day, isn’t it?”

“Who says it’s good?”

“Well, damn, the thought didn’t cross my mind, but I guess you’re right.” He chuckled.

He leaned in, his lips curved up in a smirk as he leaned in in an attempt to kiss you. You reached up with two fingers and pressed them to his lips to stop him. He pulled back and laughed, shaking his head.

“You’re naked in a pond with me right now…I don’t think that should be our first kiss.”

“So, you’re telling me that if I put my clothes back on, you’d kiss me?” 

“We’ll see…”

“I never thought I’d want to get my clothes back on with you instead of staying naked.” he said.

A few minutes later, Kenny was redressed and you’d dried off and put the t-shirt he’d come to the pond in over your suit. It was now fully dark, the only light coming from his headlights after he’d turned the car on. 

“So…where do you wanna go for food?” he asked, leaning against the car. You shrugged and stood beside him, leaning your back against the vehicle as well. “I”m up for anything, really. I’m not picky. Anything beats frozen waffles for the fourth time this week.”

“McDonald’s?” You questioned, earning a nod in response from the blonde.

“Before we go, though…you said that if we weren’t naked and in the pond you’d kiss me.”

You let out a deep breath from your nose and looked at him, not responding, but raising both eyebrows questioning him ever so slightly.

“So…can we?” He grinned.

“Why do you want to kiss me anyway? You can have your pick of any girl in South Park…or have you just blown through all of your options over the years and I’m the last girl on the list?” You questioned, “It’s not like you’ve actively tried pursuing me before. Why now?”

Kenny looked taken aback by your question, “I…” He paused, as if trying to gather his thoughts. You must’ve honestly thrown him a curveball he was never expecting. “I don’t know…guess I thought you’d never go for me. You’re kind of too good for me. At least, that’s what Marj says.”

“Marj? What’d she say?”

“Oh, I told her I wanted to ask you out like…Christmastime-ish…and she was like ‘Nah, she’s too smart and too good for you. She won’t put up with your shit.’ and one night, after smoking a blunt, I thought some more about it and realized that she’s probably right and that you’re not going to put up with my shit and that even though you’re totally one of the most gorgeous girls I’ve ever seen I…”

You cut him off by leaning in to kiss his lips. He smiled against your lips and instantly kissed back, moving over you to lean you even further back against the hood of his truck, resting both arms on each side of your head until one hand slid down and came to rest on your hip, hooking his finger into your belt loop to pull you in closer. You kept kissing him, letting your hands slide down his bare chest, a shiver running down your spine at the small moan that left his lips as your hands moved. Finally, you had to pull back to catch your breath.

You took a second, just looking at him, your E/C eyes staring into his baby blues. Then, you spoke up, “I'm still not putting up with your shit, though.” You both laughed in response and he shrugged his shoulders.

“Makes sense.” He said, leaning in to kiss you again. The kiss once again turned heated, you locking a leg around his waist and his hands traveling past the hem of his shirt that you were wearing to caress the slightly exposed skin of your abdomen and then move to your back, reaching up to play with the tie on your bathing suit. You stopped him, putting a hand up to his arm to get his attention.

“Shit…” He shook his head, “I”m sorry, I–”

“Don’t apologize.” You began, “I just think it’d be a little more private in the truck.”

That’s how you found yourself on your back in the cramped single cab of Kenny’s truck for the first time that summer. His lips were traveling down your body and your chest was rising and falling at a rapidly increasing pace the further he maneuvered himself downward. You glanced down at him and met his eyes as he looked up at you, his fingers hooked themselves in the sides of your swimsuit bottoms. He shifted his position a little as he was still partially standing outside of the truck. 

You could barely make out his features in the dim overhead light of the truck, but you could notice how his eyes were a deeper shade of blue than earlier. His face was flushed, his shaggy mullet was even messier from the presence of your hands, and he was wearing a shit-eating grin that looked absolutely devious, but you could’ve sworn you’d never seen anything more attractive and enticing in your life.

“G-Go ahead…”

From that point forward, any nights off you both shared were spent in either his bed, the backseat of your car, or the bed of his truck. You remembered recalling the first two weeks to Marjorine after finally deciding that things were stable enough to share with at least your best friend.

You didn’t notice that she was about to take a sip of her can of soda when you casually stated “Kenny and I are like…seeing each other…well, if fucking counts as seeing each other.” Marjorine promptly started coughing, the bright green can of Mountain Dew coming back to the carpet of her floor as she tried to regain her composure. 

“Excuse me, what?”

Despite the harsh way that you would describe your encounters with the blonde, the affairs themselves were anything but. Kenny was nothing but a gentleman to you, always asking if you were alright, taking care of you afterwards, and only getting rougher with your permission. Even then, he’d talk you through it, ensuring you felt safe and comfortable no matter what. It didn’t take too long into your “relationship” for the crush you’d been harboring for years to evolve into full feelings.

Your kisses became more passionate and more frequent. Your touches became more forward and increased in frequency as well. As far as you could tell, Kenny was eating it up and taking it all in and there was no doubt in your mind that he absolutely felt the same. After consulting with Marjorine one night, you decided to finally ask Kenny the burning question.

“What are we?”

You didn’t expect the question to hang in the air the way that it did. You were sitting up in your bed, knees pulled into your chest wearing only his t-shirt and a pair of panties. Kenny was redressing himself after Cartman disrupted the nap you two had been taking by blowing up his phone, asking him to help him with some ridiculous scheme since Marjorine wasn’t answering her phone.

He turned back to you looking like a deer in the headlights. “What do you mean?” he asked as if the question wasn’t clear cut as is. You let out a mild sigh of frustration. Kenny wasn’t stupid by any means. Despite the rumors, you’d see his grades when he’d log on and check them and he was able to hack into just about any video game to make mods to fit any desire he may have during gameplay. 

“Are we like…together, or?”

“Like…dating?” He was buttoning up the tacky orange Hawaiian shirt he’d been wearing, completely missing a button, obviously jarred by this conversation.

“I mean, yeah.” It came out like a question when it was definitely a statement. 

He leaned against your dresser, sliding on his slip on Vans, “I mean…I don’t know.” He shrugged, “We do like…everything couples do…but I hadn’t put much thought into it.”

“You haven’t put much thought into it?” You repeated, dumbfounded at this response. He’d started saying something else, but it sounded like white noise to your ears and you quickly cut him off, “You’ve had a month and a half of spending many nights a week balls deep in me and you haven’t taken a single second to think ‘Hey, would I actually like to date this person or am I just wasting both of our time and fucking them until something better comes along?’”

Kenny really looked shocked now. Somewhere in your rant, he’d started re-buttoning his shirt, but he stopped midway when you started talking and was now looking at you with both sides of the shirt in his hand and his eyes blown wide in shock. He finally let go of the shirt to run his hands over his face.

“Y/N…”

“Kenny, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me…”

“What…like…I just…I don’t know and Marj has been asking me the same thing and like…I haven’t even told anyone, if I'm honest.”

“Kenny what the fuck!?” Your voice was getting louder, “Why am I some secret of yours? Is it so you can go around and fuck other girls like you’d been doing? I told you, I”m not putting up with your bullshit.”

“Oh my god…” He groaned, throwing his head back, “Listen, it’s not like that. I just…I don’t know. That’s it. I don’t know.”

Tears were welling up in your eyes, “Just get out, Kenny.”

“But…”

“Go.”

He shrugged and let out a sigh, “Okay…fine. See you around.”

As soon as you could hear the tell-tale aged, loud roar of his truck’s engine, you dissolved into tears. You pulled his shirt over your head and threw it at the wall, burying yourself under your covers as your tears turned into full sobs. How could you have been so stupid? Everything you’d ever heard about him was true and Marjorine was right. You deserved better than him.

Weeks had passed since your breakup, if you could even call it that, with Kenny. You hadn’t spoken to him since and made sure to avoid him at all costs. You were not about to give him the satisfaction of knowing how much he’d hurt you.

 It was now nearing the middle of August and the now-annual college send-off party at Tegridy Farms was rolling around signaling the end of summer and the parting of ways of all of your childhood friends that happened at this time of year.

“I still don’t want to go.” You said plainly, looking at your reflection in the mirror that hung from your bedroom door.

“It’s a tradition, Y/N and we always have fun! Remember last year when Mr. Marsh got on the karaoke machine and started singing Nicki Minaj and blacked out and broke the coffee table right before the best part of the song?” Marjorine stated, touching up her black eyeliner.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s a good spot to people watch. Maybe Clyde will get shitfaced again and end up screaming and crying for Bebe to take him back and then throw up in the yard, still crying.” You chuckled.

“See, that just makes me sad. He loves her so much and she just uses that boy whenever she wants something because he’s got money.” Marjorine glanced over at you, “Clyde’s got man written by a woman energy.”

You chuckled, “Marj, just because he’s kinda got a dad bod at 20, is sensitive, and is a male Swiftie doesn’t mean that he’s written by a woman. He killed his mom because he wouldn’t put the toilet seat down. That’s giving Mojo Dojo Casa House.”

“Ken was written by a woman, though!”

Not realizing she was following up your reference, you scoffed, “Oh, he most definitely is not. He’s written by some middle aged man that thinks shock value and sex jokes are still funny at their big-old-age.” 

“No, he’s not! Ken is just a himbo! He…” She paused and then realized what you’d said, “Oh…oh hamburgers…not the same Ken. I’m sorry.”

You realize what you’d said too, “My bad. I just…whew…I had a whole response to that. I’m so sorry, Marj.”

“It’s fine…and I agree. All of the broship were written by men of different ages…except Kyle…”

You stopped applying mascara to think about what she’d said and then nodded, “Sheila Brovlofski is the greatest author of our generation.”

The music was already blaring from inside when you pulled up to Tegridgy farms. Once you got out of your car, you could already smell the weed pouring outside. Typical party at Tegridgy. You reached into the pocket of your denim jacket and pulled out your vape, taking a few hits to calm your nerves. You knew, without a doubt, that you’d be running into Kenny tonight, and you weren’t sure how to handle it.

As you both approached the door, you knew you had to make up your mind sooner rather than later as to how you were going to handle this. In true fight, flight, or freeze nature, you could either avoid him at all costs, turn away and ignore him if he approaches you, or just freeze up and end up talking to him like nothing was wrong…and at this point, there was no telling as to what you’d choose.

You walked inside with your hands in your pockets, looking around to scope out the general area. There was a makeshift dance floor where multiple of your peers were either dancing or standing around, two tables of beer pong, and then the kitchen where the counters were littered with various alcohol bottles and almost artistic looking bongs.

You headed over to the counter and took a hold of the ingredients to make one of the only drinks you could confidently make for yourself: a tequila sunrise. You made yourself a double and Marjorine a single and handed it to her. “Aw, shucks, I really shouldn’t…you know how much of a light weight I am.” she said, staring into the cup, “Last time was bad…”

You chuckled, “It wasn’t that bad. You just called Eric sexy in front of a bunch of people which isn’t necessarily like…morally wrong or bad…just questionable and objectively incorrect.” You took a large sip of your drink, trying to get the alcohol to kick in as quickly as possible in case of an inevitable emergency and to drown the still lingering sorrows from that day in your bedroom.

Within the first hour of being there, you’d drank the double tequila sunrise you’d made for yourself, taken an old fashioned that Tolkien was preparing for multiple people, and had been consistently refilling your red cup with the jungle juice someone (Kenny) had prepared and put into several empty milk cartons of all things. Now, you were currently positioned at a bright green and black bong, taking a hit before passing it to one of the goth kids. Michael? Pete? Did it really matter? No, as long as it wasn’t Kenny.

You got up, fully preparing to just stride out of the kitchen and go find Marjorine but found out oh too quickly that you were too inebriated to stand up that quickly. You stumbled, vision a little blurry and your entire body feeling fuzzy.

“You okay?” The goth kid got up and leaned against his cane, extending his hand to you.

“Yeah, I’m good. I’m so good. I’m great, actually.” You blew him off, grabbing your cup and taking another sip as you stumbled off towards the living room where the couches and dance floor were. You flopped down on the couch next to a boy you were actually quite familiar with. His shaggy, dark hair was peeking out of his blue and yellow chullo and he was cutting his eyes over at you almost cautiously, as if he were afraid of you doing something.

“Hey Craig!” You slurred, leaning over onto him.

“Hey, Y/N.” His voice was as monotone as ever and he kept looking around and then over at you.

“Where’s Tweek?” You asked, reaching up to play with the side of his chullo as you put your legs into his lap. The brunette took a deep breath to gain his composure, “He got a little anxious so he’s outside smoking with Bebe. Do you need something?”

“Nuh uh…I'm so good!” You said, inching closer to him.

“Uh huh…sure you are.” His eyes stayed forward despite your close proximity to his face.

“You’re so hot, you know that right?” You said.

He fully turned to you, face burning red, riddled with shock. He was about to respond, when all of a sudden a flash of an orange hoodie dropped down on the arm of the couch next to him.

“Craig Tucker, what’s up, dude?”

“Ugh, not this guy.” Your tone shifted and your lack of filter continued.

“I know…you’re mad at me, sweetheart…but I promise, you’re going to be madder at yourself in the morning.” he laughed and then looked at Craig, “Swap with me.”

Craig muttered something. You only caught, “Good luck” as he got up and reached into his pocket, taking out a box of cigarettes as he headed towards the back porch.

“Get away from me.”

“I'm not trying anything. I’m just trying to keep you safe, because you’re kinda getting messy. I’ve been there, done that…and I just don’t want you to end up trying to fuck Cartman too.”

“I wasn’t trying to fuck, Craig! You’re such a fucking idiot!”

“Babe, relax. I was talking about Marj…New Years Eve.” He leaned his head back on the back of the couch, looking over at you. You could tell that despite his ability to hold a consistent conversation, his eyes were bloodshot. He’d most likely been smoking.

“You okay?” he asked, his tone turning more serious and soft.

“I”m fine.” You took your phone out of your pocket and attempted to unlock it, or so you thought, until Kenny reached over and snatched the phone away, pressing some buttons before sliding it in his pocket.

“Hey, give that back!”

“Babygirl, you were about to summon the pigs. Randy would’ve shit his pants.” he chuckled, “Pretty sure that’s a dead giveaway that you’re not okay.”

“This is a weed farm, not like an actual farm. There’s no pigs.”

Kenny laughed rather loudly, “You are absolutely right, baby. That it is. Thanks to me.”

“Stop calling me that.” You said, crossing your arms over your chest, “And give me my fucking phone back!”

He shook his head, “Can’t do that…either of those things, actually.”

“Fine.” You stood up and walked off. It must’ve taken Kenny a moment to process, because you got a little bit of a head start before he caught up with you in a hallway, where you stumbled slightly and then ended up leaning against the wall. 

You were dizzy and your body felt both light and heavy all at once. You wrapped your arms around yourself, craving some kind of pressure. You started to slide down the wall when you felt someone’s hand on your arm, following you down until you were both on the floor with whoever it was’ arms wrapped around you giving you the physical touch you’d been desiring.

“I’ve got you. You’re fine.”

You groaned. Of course, it was Kenny. You wanted to pull away, but instead you flopped over onto him, laying your head on his shoulder. He gently trailed his fingers down your bare arm, your jacket long since missing in the chaos of the party. 

“You just sleepy or do you feel like you’re going to be sick or something?” he asked softly. You shook your head, “No. Where’s my fucking vape?”

Kenny chuckled lowly, “I don’t know, babe. Did you bring it in with you?”

You nodded, wrapping an arm around his middle, “My jacket.”

“You’re not wearing a jacket.”

“I am.”

“You definitely aren’t. You’re wearing a sparkly pink dress.” He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to your exposed shoulder, “See, no jacket.”

You let out a whimper of disgust before Kenny reached into his pocket and handed you a hunter green colored vape pen, “It’s not your peach mango whatever the fuck that shit you smoke is, but…”

“Ugh, it’s menthol. Just give it to me.”

“How’d you remember that?” 

You shrugged and took a long hit, holding it for a moment before exhaling. You handed the pen back to him and watched as several people walked by, barely missing stepping on you or tripping over your feet. Kenny took notice of this and started to stand, helping you up along the way.

“No, I wanna sit.” You slurred, shaking your head.

“Why don’t we go home…” He said, “My parents are out for the night doing fuck knows what and Karen’s at her friend’s. It’ll just be us and you can get some sleep.”

When you were back on your feet, you shook your head, “No…I'm not sleeping with you. Not again, not after all that shit.” 

“No, no, no…not like that. I wouldn’t do that. I meant like…actually sleep.” He corrected himself, putting an arm around your waist as he started subtly leading you towards the door.

“Stop…why are you holding me? You don’t even like me!” You were starting to get louder as you spoke and Kenny looked at you with concern. He tightened his grip on you as you walked down the steps and headed towards his truck, hoping you wouldn’t fall.

“I do like you! I wouldn’t be helping you if I didn’t.”

“No, like…like me, like me…you dont like me.”

“Y/N…”

“Just shut up, Kenny.” You opened his truck door and flopped yourself in, slamming the door haphazardly behind you. Kenny pinched the bridge of his nose before walking to the other side of the truck, getting in and starting the engine. He leaned over and buckled you in and then took off his hoodie, leaving him in a white wife beater. He folded it up and then nudged you gently.

“Sit up.”

You moved a little away from your position of leaning up against the window long enough for him to slide the hoodie under your head. However, as soon as he positioned it, you sat up and pulled it down. You unbuckled your seatbelt and threw the hoodie onto your body. 

You heard Kenny mutter some curse words as he stopped backing out of the spot he was parked in to reach over and buckle you back into the seat with a sigh. You were about halfway to Kenny’s house when you felt your chest tighten. At first, you thought you were going to throw up. You were about to reach over and get Kenny’s attention so that he could pull over when you realized what was truly building inside of you and you broke down in tears.

Your head went into your hands as you sobbed. “What the…” Kenny spoke under his breath, turning his attention from the road to you briefly, reaching over to put his hand on your back, rubbing small circles.

“Hey…no…shhh…what’s got you so upset, babygirl?” he asked.

“Stop it!” You sobbed, reaching behind you to swat his hand away, “Stop saying that. Stop touching me. You don’t love me, so stop it!”

Kenny was silent momentarily, “What’s gotten into you? Like, I know we haven’t seen each other since that day in your room…and that’s my fault. I should’ve like…reached out or something, but I thought you hated me and…I promise. I fucking promise…I didn’t mean for it to come out the way that it did.”

“How else could it come out?” You cried, “You basically admitted that you didn’t want to be in a relationship with me and only wanted to fuck me even though I wanted to be with you and then you told me that you hadn’t told anyone about us probably because you wanted to fuck every girl you could this summer before they all packed it up and went back to college. That’s fucking ridiculous, Kenny. I thought the whole ‘McWhoremick” thing was like…a joke or like…the way your friends shit on you, but Jesus Christ.”

“I hadn’t told anyone because I didn’t know what we were and like…I knew that I liked you, but I didn’t know what else to do about it because Marj had told me so many times that you could do better and like…especially after that fight in your room…I knew you could do better so I just…tried to let you find that better? I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

“You never know! That’s the problem! How do you not know? You either love me or you don’t!”

“I just…”

You scoffed, “I love you! I love you. Is that the worst thing you’ve ever heard?”

He was silent for ages, only saying something about how you were drunk a mere seconds after your confession. You didn’t know at what point you’d pulled into Kenny’s driveway, but as soon as you registered where you were, you got out of the car and tried to storm towards the door, but stumbled, falling to your knees on the pavement. The sting of the scrape only added to your tears. You reached up and wiped your eyes, your crying becoming quieter as you were lifted to your feet by the boy who pulled you into his arms, running his fingers through your hair, pressing a kiss to your temple.

“It’s okay. You’re okay. Let's get you inside. We’ll clean your knees up…and wash your makeup off…and get you some water…and you can lay down.”

And that’s exactly what he did for you. You walked in and almost immediately collapsed onto his bed. He took this opportunity to clean your scraped knees and then got you up into a sitting position and helped you change into his hoodie and a spare pair of his boxers. You were half-asleep by the time that he took a makeup wipe to your face and started wiping the messy makeup off of your features. 

Lastly, Kenny got you situated in his bed, pulling the covers up and kissing your forehead. “I’m right here on the floor if you need anything. Popcorn bowl is on the floor. Water bottle is right next to it. Please, wake me up if you need me. I’ll be fine.”

You nodded in agreement, but then spoke up, “Can you stay with me?”

“Huh?” he asked, looking up at you from where he was sitting on the floor.

“Please sleep with me…” You said, reaching out towards him.

He chuckled, “You sure?”

You nodded again and scooted over to make room for him. He slid into the bedsheets and carefully positioned himself next to you, allowing you to move over and lay with your head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around you and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep.

The next few hours were littered with infrequent bouts of sleep mixed with burying your face into the popcorn bowl as your stomach purged itself of the alcohol that remained in your system, running to the bathroom on the few chances you felt you could make it, crying, and drinking water. The entire time, Kenny held you, held your hair back, and wiped your face with a cool washcloth. 

By the time you woke up the next day around 1PM, you were still exhausted, not feeling well, and fairly lost in regards to the events of last night. You just knew that you woke up with Kenny wrapped around you and you were in his hoodie and boxers and you prayed to whatever higher power may be out there that you hadn’t fucked him again.

You sat up and ran a hand through your hair, looking around until your eyes fell on your charging phone laying on the ground. You picked it up and saw two texts from Marjorine on top.

She’ll be okay.

Hehehe I knew it ;)

“What?” you whispered, unlocking your phone. You went straight to Marjorine’s text thread. Under your last response to her, a “kk!” from when she arrived at your house before the party, there was a longish thread of messages that clearly went between her and Kenny.

Where are you? I’ve been looking for you for an hour! Are you okay?

Hey, Marj. Thanks for giving me her passcode. My phone died right after I called you and I put her phone on the charger in my room. I can charge mine when she wakes up.

Is she okay? Omg.

Yeah, just going back between screaming, crying, and throwing up…literally. At least she started that once we’d already left or it would’ve been real bad. 

Bless her heart! What’d you say to get her so upset?

It wasn’t me! Damn. She just got upset…about us…and then screamed at me that she loved me.

And you said?

Nothing. She was drunk. 

Drunk words are sober thoughts. ;)

So, you think Cartman is sexy, huh?

Oh my goddddd stop. That isn’t true and this isn’t about me. What do you think of her?

I…might’ve realized I fucked up literally the night we had that fight…and I haven’t known what to do about it…so…I just…loved her in secret and accepted that she deserved better. I’m just worried she’s going to wake up and like…regret saying all of this and like trying to have this conversation with me again.

She’ll be okay.

Hehehe I knew it ;)

Your chest felt full and tight all at the same time and your eyes soon fell upon the sleeping blonde, who was still wrapped around you despite you sitting upright at this point. You reached down and ran your fingers through his hair gently. A few passes through his blonde locks and he stirred, looking up at you.

“Morning, beautiful.” he spoke groggily, “You okay?”

You nodded, “Just tired…”

“Mm…come lay back down then. Let's go back to bed.”

It was your turn to smirk over at him, “You love me, huh?”

“What?”

You pulled up the texts again, showing him and then reading his own words to him verbatim, “So…I just…loved her in secret and accepted that she deserved better.”

“Hey, that’s a private conversation!” he laughed.

“On my phone…” You retorted.

“Yeah!”

“So, do you love me?” You moved back down to laying next to him, turned on your side, propped up on your elbow. He blushed, lips curving back up into his famous devious grin.

“Ain’t that the worst thing you’ve ever heard?”

“I think I've heard worse.”

With a giggle and a kiss to his lips, your relationship with Kenny transitioned just as the seasons outside had started to move from the bright colors of an otherwise dark summer for you to the warm, comforts of fall…all starting and ending in that beat-up pickup. 

Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes

What doesn't kill me makes me want you more

[xo-cuteplosion-xo-2]

Go read this

A tragedy spun into art. (23653 words) by cuteplosion_Xo Chapters: 11/? Fandom: EPIC - Jorge Rivera-Herrans (Albums) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con Relationships: Antinous/Reader (EPIC: The Musical) Characters: Antinous (EPIC: The Musical), Penelope (EPIC: The Musical), Telemachus (EPIC: The Musical), Eurymachus (EPIC: The Musical), Reader, Aphrodite (EPIC: The Musical), Ares (EPIC: The Musical) Additional Tags: I hate taging but here it goes, dub-con added bc there is a somewhat freaky scene no reader does not get assaulted-, Adopted by Royalty, older then our boy Telemachus, Obsession, I mean it when i say obsession, reader is a woman sorry, Reader is technically a princess, Reader is described as being VERY VERY VERY pretty, Reader can toss a solid punch, Eventual Smut, Tags to be added, I suck at tags, no beta we die like the suitors, Antinous starts out the ass he his, he'll get better… eventually, Stalking, Kind of-, I plan to rip out your hearts tbh, Smut, Antinous is His Own Warning (EPIC: The Musical), this is not sweet, he is a literal red flag in general but a huge one in the first 5 chapters, predator prey themes, wolf vs fox, Antinous jacks off to the thought of you…, Chapter 5 is… 2k words of filth…, Orgasm Denial, ANTINOUS IS CRUEL, have i said it enouhg?, dont read if you want a soft story, please, i can't stress how RED FLAG this is but it's what i'm into soooo, Self-Indulgent, Chapter 7 add ons:, possessive thoughts, fantasies of trapping/forcing reader to be his forever, this is so filthy, Masturbation, Reader worships Aphrodite, See where I went with this??? Ares + Aphrodite… Antinous + Reader…, Chapter 9 add on ons:, Drugging, Smut add ons:, Top Antinous, Switch Reader, Antinous whimpers, Fingering, Eating Reader Out, Overstimulation, fucked dumb Summary: There’s a rumor about the city of Ithaca. A rumor of a treasure so grand it would leave little to be desired. A treasure few could resist. Some claim this treasure is gold, but others will hold their breath and claim that Ithaca has a princess. You are that rumored treasure, a woman of incomprehensible beauty. By a stroke of terrible luck or fate, you run into the Wolf himself and grab his attention. Whether or not that's a good thing, is up to the god's to decide. Filth is located in chapters 4, 5, 7, 10 (so far) A.K.A You catch the eye of the worst of the suitors, and he becomes utterly infatuated with figuring out who you are, and you struggle not to fall head over heels for his charming smile.

[reelnaturalfreak]

When you Mess with Your Beta Reader

I'm very lucky to have @malicmalic as my beta reader for my fic, Oh How the Light Shines (It'll Blind You)

I'm also very lucky to have her as a friend as well because sometimes, I like to sneak joke parts into my documents. So when she's reading it, she thinks what I wrote is actually going to happen. So, I promised her I would share the latest joke I pulled that caused her to yell at me lol.

The joke part of the latest chapter:

Cas felt his body lock up when Dean buried his head in his chest and held him tight. He was angry, none of what Dean said excused what he did, but he couldn’t help but feel for the man he once loved. Cas held Dean back, rubbing his hands up and down the omega’s back, doing his best to comfort him. Time seemed to slow down as Cas whispered words of comfort to Dean. They could have been like that for hours, just standing there in the kitchen, as the air was filled with Dean’s sobs. 

Cas would never know for sure, but eventually, Dean pulled away and wiped the tears away with the sleeve of his shirt. “I’m sorry…” Dean mumbled with his head downcast. 

“It’s okay,” Cas whispered. 

Dean finally lifted his head, his green eyes dulled by puffy redness. “So… I guess… We’re over?” 

Cas felt like he had eaten something sour, his stomach churned. Thinking about it and knowing it were two different things. Cas loved Dean, he loved him with all his heart, but… “I can’t trust you anymore.” 

Dean nodded, smelling and looking resigned. “Yeah… I… I thought so…” 

Cas swallowed, doing his best not to cry too. He never imagined this would happen. Cas still loved Dean, but he wasn’t sure love was enough anymore. They both stood there, looking at each other, and both could hardly believe what they had between them was ending. Dean looked around the kitchen and a small smile graced his face. 

“Remember the time I tried to teach you to cook?” Dean chuckled. 

“I do,” Cas replied with a sad smile. It was the first time Cas truly viewed Dean as a friend. One who had no reason to stay and help him, but did anyhow. 

Dean let out a small laugh. “I’m not going to lie, I thought we were gonna die in that house.” 

Cas’s eyebrows shot up. “What? But you seemed so sure of yourself.” 

Dean smirked at him. “I was just flying by the seat of my pants, hoping my half-baked idea worked.” They both laughed, for a while, and Cas wasn’t sure if it was the same for Dean, but the longer they lived in the past, the longer reality wouldn’t show up. Dean blew out air. “Have you noticed our plans never work out how we plan?”

Cas felt his heart break a little more. His plan was to live the rest of his life with Dean, with their two beautiful pups, but Dean was right, the odds were always stacked against them. 

“So…” Dean started, ducking his head. “I guess we better talk about custody of Jack and Claire, huh?” 

Cas swallowed. “I think we should.” 

*** 

I am so sorry A, I couldn’t help myself. I’ll get back to the real story. I love you 💙

[an-akward-ace]

I FINISHED IT AND POSTED IT

Falling (1845 words) by an_awkward_ace Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester Characters: Dean Winchester, Jack Kline, Castiel (Supernatural) Additional Tags: Post finale?, well kind of during the finale?, it can be read either way, fic-it fic, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Jack Kline as God, cas has bees, Dean has kissed ONE boy, Dean Winchester is Bad at Feelings, hes emotionally constipated, heaven isnt heaven without cas, Heaven, First Full Fic, Sappy, Cheesy, Bisexual Dean Winchester, Gay Castiel (Supernatural), Castiel/Dean Winchester First Kiss, POV Dean Winchester, third person, no beta we die like men, Possible ooc Dean, possible ooc cas, pretty sure jack is completely in character, dean prays to jack, castiel has a little cutesy home, Love Confessions, exactly 1 swear word, i dont know how to end stories Summary: Dean is in heaven but something's wrong. Castiel not being there is just not right. So what's there to do but face his feelings and find him?