#oh and click to enlarge i guess

[cyberbeast99]

Werewolf HRT First Moon: Part 2

Here's the next part of my Werewolf HRT story! Hope you guys enjoy! (no art this time qwq)

“AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The animal cry resonates through the night as I revel in my new form. I’m overwhelmed by the sheer euphoria. Of how right this feels. I stand there unmoving, listening to the echoing howl fade away with my new hypersensitive ears. I hear a whimper from the corner of the room. Candy’s huddled there, eyes wide, staring at me.

“Ho-ly shit. Uhhh, Eric?  You still in there?”

 I can hear her panicked heartbeat, and smell her apple shampoo, sour sweat, and another odor that I’m able to recognize as the scent of fear.

Oh. My. God.

I open my mouth to reassure her but my words get caught at the back of my throat and come out as a choked inhuman snarl. Candy shrinks further into the wall. Instead of verbal support, I crouch down next to her and place my hairy paw gently on her back. After a bit, she calms down, and rests her head against the thick fur on my chest.

“Wow, you’re so soft!”

I make another attempt at speech and succeed, albeit in a deep guttural growl so different from my normal whiny voice.

“Crazy, right?”

She looks at me, eyes full of wonder. “I had my doubts, but… wow. Just wow. This cannot be real.”

“Did it hurt?” she inquires.

“It was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. Like my whole body was on fire. I had no idea it was gonna hurt that much.”

“Actually, I think it should have hurt a lot worse,” she says 

“At the speed that you just changed, every single cell in your body rearranging as fast as they did, it shouldn’t even be possible! The energy expended just from friction should have burnt you up!”

Great, she’s nerding out again. As she begins to list off every reason why it’s scientifically impossible, I tune her out and begin to notice a ton of other noises. Our heartbeats, our breathing, but also the sound of crickets, the tiny footfalls of what I assume to be a raccoon or a rabbit outside, and this incredibly irritating high-pitched whine that I can’t place. I remember Grace talking about how she had to unplug every electronic device in her house because the noise was driving her crazy, and I determine that what I’m hearing is the buzz of electricity.

 I stand back up, still feeling as if I’m in a trance. I pad down the hall, enjoying the sound of my claws clicking on the floorboards and the sensation of my tail swishing behind me. I fumble with the bathroom doorknob, wrench it open, and frown. The bathroom, painted sea green, is now completely gray. 

Huh. Guess I’m colour-blind.

I stare at myself in the mirror.  Run my paws through the fur on my rawboned lupine arms. Feel the rippling muscles on my torso. Gently tug on my tail. Touch my wet canine nose. My irises have enlarged and turned a deep amber colour. I open my mouth and run my pink tongue along my sharp, yellowish animal teeth. Over my black wolf lips.

Yes!

YES!

Suddenly I’m overcome with claustrophobia. I need fresh air, and badly. “I’m going outside.” I say. Candy looks nervous, but she follows me nonetheless. The second I step outside, I’m barraged by another sensation overload, this time from the trash cans lined up along the street. The stench of garbage fills my nostrils and it’s…  not unpleasant. I note that I seem to perceive scents differently as a werewolf. The odour of rotting meat in particular is appealing and appetizing, serving to fuel the wild hunger in my gut.

In the cool night air, I feel clean. The breeze feels great on my hot wolf fur. I have this need to move, to run and run, give into the primal urges in this body and disappear into the forest like the beast that I am. But the majority of my brain is still too self conscious to do that yet, especially with Candy here. I notice that she’s still scared of me, and I need to show her that I mean her no harm. 

Also, I need to do something about this hunger. 

“Wanna get some food?” I inquire. She nods and reaches for her keys. I’ve never gotten my license. I’m absolutely terrified of losing focus while driving and hurting someone. I hop into the passenger seat, and she pulls out of the driveway. We drive to a Wendy’s a kilometer away. The dining room is closed, so we head to the drive thru. I’m absolutely starving at this point, so we order a ton of burgers. The clerk gives me a really weird look, but I’m way too hungry to care. By the time Candy pulls into my driveway, I’ve wolfed down five burgers and I’m halfway through a sixth. Candy shuts down the car and turns to me.

“Eric?” “Yeah?” I mumble through a mouthful of hamburger. Ketchup and hot grease dribble onto my furry chest.

“You know those dreams I’ve been having about Krystal?” 

“Your fursona?” I inquire.

“Eric, I’ve been thinking a lot and I’ve discovered she’s more than my fursona.” Candy says seriously.

“I’ve decided to book an appointment with Dr. Erian and see if he can give me some sort of rabbit-lion HRT. I was skeptical, but after what I’ve seen tonight, I think it’s possible” says Candy. “But I’m doing this by the book. That means I’m going through the year of living as my preferred species. I also talked with Grace, and we’re wondering if you wanted to help us set up a support group. We’ve found a few other alterhumans who want to join.” “Really?” I ask? She nods. “I like that very much,” I say.

Hey guys, Cyber here! As you might know from @vy-canis-melodis's comic, me, her, @candyrocks03, @gracewolfing, and @hyacinthdoll1315 are working on a collab! I'm super excited for this and I hope you guys are too! Stay tuned for the next pawesome adventure!

[kxhbee]

Love From You

Part Two

~ Rowan Laslow x Reader

~ Friends to lovers

~ Fluff, light angst

~ 1,913 words

~ You fell first but Rowan fell harder

~ Not my best work

Key:

~ Y/N: YOUR NAME

~ Y/L/N: YOUR LAST NAME

~ A/N: AUTHORS NOTE

God this is so awkward.

“Is it true?”

“What?”

“You don’t look like an outcast to me.”

“What?” He says again.

“Is your vocabulary limited?”

“No.”

“A new word!! We’re getting somewhere.”

Silence.

Why did I insult him what the fuck was I thinking???

“Sorry, that was rude.”

“No, it’s okay.”

More silence.

“Sorry again. The fall you took was pretty rough. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m okay. Thanks. You’re pretty strong.”

“You’re not here because of the fall, are you?”

“No! No, I’m here for a new asthma pump.”

“Oh, good. I’d feel bad if I sent you to the nurse.”

Even more silence.

“So… what brings you here? Are you just here for me?” He winces. “Sorry, that came out wrong.”

You laugh.

He’s so cute.

“Don’t worry, I’m here to get more pills.”

He raises an eyebrow. “What for?”

“Oh, the usual, getting high, penis enlargement, anti-anxiety.” You laugh again. “Just for headaches. nothing special.”

“Oh. Okay.”

More silence. It’s not uncomfortable silence, something about him makes the silence comfortable.

“Oh! right, introductions. I’m Y/N Y/L/N.”

“I’m Rowan Laslow.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Rowan Laslow.” You grin at him, and he shoots a smile back before putting his head down, almost as if he’s shy.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Y/N, Y/L/N.”

“So… back to the start of our conversation.” You sit down next him before continuing. “What makes you think you’re an outcast?”

He doesn’t answer straight away.

Did I overstep?

You’re about to apologise but he starts speaking again before you get a chance.

“I… don’t have many friends.” He begins. “The closest person I have is Xavier Thorpe, and he’s just a roommate. I’m not good at any extra-curricular activities and I spend my time in the library studying my subjects so I can at least be good at one thing. I’ve got asthma… which means I can’t even do fencing like everyone else. I’m an outcast no matter where I go, which I never thought would be possible in Nevermore of all places. I don’t live up to the standards of how I should be. Do you know what the name Laslow means?”

You shake your head.

“It means glorious ruler. I’m not a ruler nor am I glorious. I’m just… a guy in the background.”

You take this in. You weren’t expecting him to open up that much. You guess you took too long to respond, because he starts talking again.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I opened up to you that much…” He looks into your eyes. You’re so close that can see every detail in his. The colour, a beautiful green and blue mix that you can finally see. The way his pupils dilate slightly as you take in a shuddering breath, your face inching slightly closer to his. The mole underneath his left eye that’s oddly kissable, the way his glasses sit on his nose, a light red mark a little further down his nose from where his glasses sit, but you can tell that they were sitting there for quite some time.

This really isn’t the time to be admiring him, you do that enough in class. Right now you need to say something comforting instead of falling into a fantasy.

“I don’t know either.” Wait. No. That sounds mean. Say something else. This is really not the time to be stunned into silence. “But I’m glad that you did.” Would it be weird to pull him into a hug?

“Really?”

“Really. Listen… I understand where you’re coming from. It’s hard to feel like you don’t fit in, and it’s not an easy fix. I can’t just tell you to start thinking positively and then boom all your troubles are gone. But one thing that I know for sure is that you’re not as much as an outcast as you think you are.”

“What makes you say that?”

“It’s a school for outcasts, there’s no way you’re going to graduate from here without finding someone who you click with. Whether that’s your roommate or the stranger that you opened up to in the nurse’s office who has wanted to talk to you for months but never managed to find a time. There’s going to be someone.”

His eyes widen.

“You? You want to be my friend?”

Or more. Preferably more.

“Of course I do! I sit near you in nearly every class trying to work out what to say… I even wrote notes.” You remember that you have your bag with you. “Wait… do you want to read some of them?”

“…what?”

“The notes I wrote for you in class… I kept them all in my bag.” You unzip a small compartment in your bag and pull out a rather large pile of folded up notes. Each one has the name Rowan written on the front.

“Oh… so you weren’t lying just to cheer me up.”

“Of course not! here, I think this is the first one I wrote. Or one of the first ones.” You hand him a note that’s more crumpled than the others. Like the other notes, his name is written on the front, but the ink is smudged from the old pen you used to use that never dried properly and bled all over your history work.

“They started back at the beginning of Ms Thornhill’s class.” You fidget nervously with your fingernails, watching rowan unfold the paper.

God this better not scare him away.

Rowan

I think that’s how you spell your name. I only heard it on the roll so I’m guessing.

You look unbelievably cute nice attractive god just pick one, y/n. cool :)

My name is y/n, we’re in a few classes together but I never have an excuse to talk to you. So now I’m writing notes instead of listening to Ms Thornhill tell us very important information on plants. I’ll probably never end up giving these to you, but I want to write my feelings out as much as I can.

I’ve heard a few people say that you’re weird, and I know that you heard them, it shows on your face. Honestly I think they should all go suck a dick jump off a cliff fuck themselves. No one here has any place to call someone else weird. There’s fucking vampires and mermaids here. Everyone is weird. Don’t let it get to your head.

I’m running out of space, but I hope I can say this to you one day.

Love From y/n <3

Rowan folds the paper over again. He stares blankly at it, then, before you can say anything, he clears his throat.

“Can I um… can I please keep these?” He looks back into your eyes, and you can see that his are laced with tears.

“Yeah… of course you can. But don’t you wanna read the rest?”

He swipes at his eyes, looking away, flustered.

“I do, but I don’t want to cry in front of you.”

Fuck it.

Before you have time to overthink, your left hand reaches up and rests on his face. Before you can get a reaction, you turn his head towards you. His cheeks are flushed pink and he looks deep into your eyes once again. His hand grasps at something urgently at his side, not taking his eyes away from yours. He finally finds what he needs and he awkwardly brings his hand up, which you realise is holding his asthma pump, to his mouth, taking a few breaths before lowering it.

“That was fucking adorable.”

Shit. You just verbalised your thoughts. Rowan chuckles lightly and oh my god he is so kissable. That’s taking a bit too many steps though, so instead of jumping up 10 levels at a time in the first conversation you’ve ever had with him, you move your hands down his neck to rest on his shoulders before pulling him into a hug.

If we’re being honest, you could’ve easily hugged him without the subtle trace down the neck, but you wanted to see how he would react. And my god how he delivered. His skin shivered at your touch, and you couldn’t help but smile at it.

He’s tense in your hug at first, but then you feel his shoulders relax and his hands trace their way around your back, overlapping as he brings you closer to his body. He digs his face into the crook of your neck and you can feel him melt into your arms.

“You’re allowed to cry.” You whisper. “Don’t be scared to show your emotions. I’m here.” He shivers again at the feeling of your breath against his ear.

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

So he lets go of the tight grip that was crushing his heart. He lets the tears fall from his eyes, landing on your uniform. They keep falling, and his body heaves with every shuddering breath he takes. You pull him as close as you can, using one hand to take off his glasses so he can get more comfortable.

Neither of you know how much time passed. You don’t care. All you care about is Rowan.

The crying starts to slow down. You try to find his asthma pump, getting ready for when he needs it. You don’t pull away. You stay hugging him for as long as he needs. He sniffs and brings his head up reluctantly. His breaths are still a bit off, so you bring the asthma pump up to his face.

“Thank you…” He mumbles, taking it from you and pumping it a few times. He looks even more disheveled than before. His hair is messy, his face is pale, the underneaths of his eyes are red from the tears and rubbing of his eyes, there’s faint tear stains running down his face, and his glasses are off to the side of the seat. Despite the lack of his usual up kept appearance, you can feel your face flush as he hurriedly puts the glasses back on his face. He looks really tired. Fair enough though, crying takes a lot of energy.

“I know we only just met… but this was really important to me. Thank you. So much.” He grins at you, and you can see the happiness coming into his face. He even fixes up his posture.

“Really, Laslow, it’s no problem. I’m just glad that I decided to come get my pills Today instead of Tomorrow.” You stand up from the seat, feeling the pins and needles all over your body.

“Are you leaving?” He asks, sadly. He’s like a lost puppy, you never wanna leave them.

“We’re leaving. Come on, you look tired. I’ll walk you to your dorm.” You hold out your hand and he reluctantly takes it, standing up and stretching.

“You can put these in your pocket or bag by the way. If you still wanna keep them that is.” You nod towards the pile of notes, and when you go to pick them up you stop. There’s an extra weight on your hand. You look down and Rowan is still holding onto your hand from helping him up. He looks down too and immediately lets go.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to do that I just wasn’t thinking properly and-“ You cut him off by tucking the notes into his bag and taking his hand in yours again.

“Don’t apologise.” You smile at him. “Now, where’s your dorm?”

[justimajin]

The Profit & Love Statement » Pt. 13

↠ Pairing: Seokjin x Reader

↠ Genre: Fluff, Comedy, Angst

↳ 3.5k / Office AU (lowkey E2L vibes) 

↠ Summary: The workplace isn’t for everyone. It can be mundane and repetitive, with some describing it like a nuisance and others as a blessing. You’re the kind that leans more towards the latter and while it does make you an ideal candidate for many things, nothing could have prepared you for the whirlwind that is the new employee.

↠ Warnings: the angst is strong with this one

GIF credit.

↠ Next Update: Tuesday, September 26 (series masterpost here)

There’s a folder in your arms as the sound of your heels clicking against the ground resonates. A crease is etched between your brows, gaze down casted.

A deep sigh escapes from your lips.

Something has been off with Yuna. It’s obvious. Ever since you stayed over at Miyeon’s for the night, the girl hasn’t spoken to you properly, heck she hasn’t even looked at you properly. It’s almost like she’s purposefully pushing you away, seemingly slipping away from you everytime you direct your concerns towards her. 

You understand Yuna. She’s never been the type to outwardly express her feelings, even before your parents passed away. But the averted glances and meek smiles can’t help but make your stomach churn, make you filled with complete unease that there’s something the young fourteen-year-old isn’t telling you.

You sigh for the second time of the day, spotting the sight of the door to the printer room. Shaking the thoughts away, you suppose you’ll need to speak to her somehow after work with the hope that she confides in you.

You push against the door.

“Boo!”

Your heels scratch against the floor, eyes enlarged and arms tightened around your folder. But the sudden scare washes away just as easily, especially when you notice the giant grin Jin holds.

“What–“ You blink, “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, nothing. Just thought I’d take a nice stroll in this room.” You raise a brow at his exaggerated tone and he chuckles, “I’m photo-copying some papers, what else?”

You shake your head with a sigh, “Of course you are.”

“Hey,” He calls out and you hum, but it’s not until he bumps his shoulder in yours that you’re turning around in bewilderment.

“What?” You ponder.

He gestures to you, “What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well for starters, you got this going on.” He abruptly pokes at the crease in between your brows and you wince a bit, staring at him with a frown, “Plus, this is usually the part where you get annoyed with me.”

“You’re still an employee.” You remark, stepping aside and heading for the photocopier. “And it’s nothing.”

Jin frowns, inclined to believe otherwise. But he doesn’t push forward, simply walking ahead to stand next to you at the machine.

“But don’t you know? I’m not just an employee.” He leans forward, whispering underneath his breath like he’s telling you top secret information. “I’m supposed to be the next CEO.”

“Oh, wow.” You sarcastically retort, pressing a button on the photocopier as it scans. “I would have never guessed that in a million years.”

“Shh.” He chides, “You can’t tell anyone.”

The corner of your lip tugs up, “Well, this is sort of awkward. All my coworkers already know about it.”

Jin makes some sound akin to being shot in the chest and you glance over at him with a half-smile. But then he starts pretending to collapse onto the ground in pain and you can only stare in exasperation.

You cross your arms, “Are you done?”

He looks up in offense, “Are you undermining my performance?!”

“No, I’m just thinking that you would have probably made a great actor.”

“Psh.” He gets up and shakes off the dust from his suit, “The industry could have never handled my talent.”

You roll your eyes with a smile and shift over, grabbing the copies of the paperwork you made. Jin does the same with his own and walks over to the door, holding it open for you to walk through first.

He ends up following behind, despite needing to head towards another department on a different floor.

“You do seem pretty upbeat these days.” You bring up as you scan over the copies, “Has work with the other departments been going well?”

“Yeah, everything’s been good so far.” He wistfully sighs, “But it’s probably because I’m not working with you anymore.”

You whip your head around, mouth wide open in offense and Jin bursts out laughing.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!”

You playfully frown, “Are you though?”

“Mhm, maybe like 2%.” He grins and before you can respond, you reach your work station.

You set down your papers and slip into your seat, facing him.

“Well, I wish you the best of luck.” You softly smile, “Don’t give them too much of a headache.”

He grins, “Please, we both know I can do worse than that.”

“I can attest to that.”

Yoongi’s voice resonates from the other side and Jin chuckles.

His eyes soften, leaning against your desk. “To be completely honest, I do miss working here.” His voice drops down into a whisper, “Some people over there don’t even have a sense of humor.”

You hum and Yoongi’s blunt voice echoes again.

“I’m pretty sure that says more about your own humor than theirs.”

You playfully squat at the plastic separating the two of you and Yoongi lets out a sound of annoyance, something that Jin just smiles at.

“Well, I should get going.” You nod and he leans forward, attempting to catch a glance of the russet brown-haired man. “I’ll miss you, Yoongi!”

He grumbles, “Go away.”

Jin plants a hand against his heart and gazes at you, “Awh, he loves me so much.”

You share a laugh at that, but it’s not before you’re ushering him to get back to his own workstation to prevent himself getting into any trouble.

As he leaves, you settle in and attempt to focus back on your work.

***

Your eyes sweep over the bright screen as your hands furiously type. There’s multiple spreadsheets sprayed all over it, with different statistics being run through by you.

“How’s it looking?” Yoongi calls out.

“Not too bad, it’s better than the last one.” You whisper, focusing on the numbers. “I’ve seen worse.”

“That’s a relief,” He stands up, a cup of coffee and a small file in his hands. “Hopefully, that’s exactly what I hear in my meeting.”

You smile at him. “Have fun.”

Yoongi gives you an expression along the lines of ‘you really think it’s going to be fun?’ before leaving his cubicle. You slump back into your chair with a sigh and take a glance at the clock, having worked for hours and desperately needing a break.

As the possibility of taking a short nap before being noticed persistently lingers in your head, your phone buzzes in your pocket.

You pursue your lips, straightening yourself in your seat and grabbing onto the metallic device. There’s a name displayed there that has your eyes widening, the air being taken out of your lungs.

Yuna’s school.

Within seconds, you duck into your cubicle and answer the call. “Hello?”

You’re completely stuck.

There’s frantic text messages being sent out, a rapid chain of phone calls made with only ‘the following number is unavailable at this moment, please try again’ getting repeated over and over again.

A ‘tch’ leaves your lips and you raise your hand, planting it against your heavy temples.

“E-Excuse me?” You shake your head, voice raising. “What do you mean she left school?!”

“Her attendance wasn’t reported this late afternoon, Ms. Y/N.” The voice on the other hand informs. “She was last seen before lunch and our teachers are trying their best to locate–“

Her next words don’t even register in your mind. You can’t even begin to piece why Yuna would suddenly disappear like that and not return, let alone where she could be.

After the 10th text message is sent, you futilely turn off your phone and get up from your seat. Marching straight up to Soyou’s office, you reach out for the knob, faltering in your steps for a moment.

This isn’t going to look good on your record.

But at this point, you can’t even stand to care.

The door opens and Soyou glances up at you in surprise.

You end up leaving work early – jacket wrapped around your shoulders and pace increasing as you head towards the elevators.

As expected, Soyou wasn’t exactly over the moon with you suddenly leaving work. But at most, you were able to guise underneath an emergency with the sole thought that you need to make sure Yuna is okay.

“Where are you?” You’re reduced to muttering that single question constantly, jamming your fingers into the buttons at the elevator. It thankfully opens up within a couple of minutes and you slip inside.

As the floors descend, you run through your options. You and Yuna haven’t spoken much as of lately – that was a mere honest fact. So why did she feel the need to suddenly leave school? Was something going on?

Or worse… did someone force her to leave?

Your jaw clenches as you peer up, tapping your foot anxiously as the floor numbers decide to take a decade. When a familiar ding finally resonates, you rush out without a second thought, nearly bumping shoulders with the crowd waiting at the bottom.

One of which happens to be someone you recognize.

“Woah, woah, woah.” Jin latches onto your arm, halting your steps, “What’s going on? Are you leaving?”

You quickly dismiss him, “I don’t have time to explain–“

He lets go of you, but instead of entering the elevator, he changes course completely.

You furrow your brows when he trails right behind you, opening the door to exit the building.

“What are you doing?” You ask in exasperation.

“Helping.” He simply states, gaze heavy, “What wrong?”

You let out a sigh, hurriedly rambling. “I got a call that Yuna wasn’t at school in the afternoon, they have no idea why or where she went and–“

Jin hums, fishing out for his keys and heading towards the parking lot. 

“Come on!” He calls out at your frozen state, “It’ll be faster by car.”

“What?!” You dash after his quick steps, “Jin, you can’t just leave!”

The corner of his mouth quirks up. “You really think they’re going to say something when I’m so close to becoming the CEO?” He unlocks his car, gesturing to the passenger side, “Hop in, you know you have more at stake than I do right now.”

You linger for a split moment, torn in between choices. But ultimately, all of that is discarded away when the phone call surfaces in your mind again.

You yank open the car door.

***

The ride to Yuna’s school is filled with fear and unease.

On one hand, countless scenarios tend to play in your mind. All with reasons of what could have possibly transpired down to any locations that she might have mentioned to you. However, you find your racing thoughts are completely useless, nothing screaming out to you as a coherent answer for her disappearance.

You peer over at the man in the driver’s seat. Last time you were in Jin’s car, it was because you had spent the night and needed to get back home. He was casually driving, sending smiles in your directions as you joked around and teased him – but all of that seems to have completely vanished.

Jin’s eyes are dead set on the road, barely a hint of amusement in his expression. Save for the increase in speed and the zooming vehicle, the car is filled with nothing but silence, something that truthfully makes you gnaw down even more on your lower lip.

The moment you reach Yuna’s school, your head is whipping back and forth. There are students leaving the building, backpacks in hands and clumped in groups with big smiles. Your eyes latch onto a teacher standing outside and you usher for Jin to pull over.

“Excuse me!” She turns at the sound of your voice, “I’m Y/N, L/N Yuna’s guardian.”

“She isn’t one of my students, but you can check inside.”

You nod, gesturing back to Jin that you’ll be heading in. 

Things don’t end up being much better.

“She’s still not back?”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Miss Y/N.” Ms. Lee, her primary teacher, responds. “Typically students are free to leave school grounds during their lunch break and we mark attendance then, but Yuna never came back.”

Your face pales, “Is there anything you can tell me about these last couple of days?”

“There isn’t much…Yuna has always been one of my quieter students.” She presses a finger against her lips, deep in thought, “I have recently noticed her interacting with some of the other students more.”

Your eyes drop in dismay, “I see….” 

Her teacher informs you of some more facts – namely what Yuna was like in the morning and how she was behaving. However, the information isn’t enough for you to connect any dots and with that, you request for her to keep you updated on the situation.

Leaving the school, you feel even more stuck. There’s nothing for you to base any judgment on, and at this rate, it only seems to be growing sparser.

You head back to Jin’s car. “Find anything?”

You silently shake your head as you slip into the passenger seat, “We can drive around, see if she might be nearby.”

A small hum leaves you at his suggestion and he shifts back into drive, exiting the school grounds.

You can only wistfully wonder in dismay.

It must be two – three hours? Of Jin driving around in complete circles as you get out and inquire with others about Yuna. With little to none information. There’s a large portion of people that haven’t seen her at all with only one convenience store spotting someone that looked remotely similar, though you doubt they got a good enough look at her based on the description.

With each location you inspect, your heart seems to tighten more and more in your chest. It comes to a point where you begin to grow dejected, all your efforts being rendered completely useless. 

Which is why when Jin parks the car off to the side of the road in loss, you can only look up in desperation as he turns to you.

“Y/N?” He quietly asks. The distress is far too evident in your features, eyes down-casted and mouth twisted.

“This is all my fault.” You sputter out, “I-I was so busy at work that I didn’t spend enough time with her, otherwise I would have been able to find her–“ 

“Hey, don’t blame yourself.” He presses, “You couldn’t have predicted something like this, and you already do so much for her.”

You let out a shaky breath, “Jin, i-if something happens to her, I-I just….”

Your eyes sting, but you keep blinking, vainly trying to erase any traces of water. Jin’s gaze doesn’t leave you and after a drop of hesitation, he reaches out.

His hand lies right on top of yours, “It’ll be okay, Y/N.”

You glance up at him with glossed over lids and he reassuringly smiles, squeezing your hand. It’s something that truthfully does alleviate a bit of the churning feeling in the pit of your stomach. 

Before you have the chance to respond, your phone buzzes loudly and you immediately recognize the school’s number.

“H-Hello?” You sniffle, attempting to keep your voice from shaking.

As time passes the furrow in your brow only seems to deepen and eventually the phone call cuts off, resulting in Jin staring at you in confusion.

“What happened?”

You’re still staring at your phone, “T-They found Yuna….”

Jin brightly smiles, “That’s great!”

“I-It is…” You whisper, glancing at him. “But there seems to be a big problem.”

The fourteen-year-old sits before you on a bench, her gaze latched onto the ground. Your arms are crossed, a thin line appearing in between your brows.

Enragedisn’t enough to explain what you are feeling at the moment. You are absolutely fuming, holding back the urge to completely blow up in a fit of scolding.

But you repress it all to ask one simple question.

“Why are you selling things at school?”

The inquiry seems to catch her attention. Her hands fidget in her lap and she glances up at you, barely making eye contact.

The words are quietly whispered.

“I-I just... wanted to….”

You suck in a sharp inhale, spinning around on your heels. Yuna doesn’t move to explain more, simply staring at your pacing backside until you stand directly in front of her.

Your patience snaps, “Yuna, you’ve been missing for an entire three hours. I get a phone call saying that you never returned back to school and then I find this?!”

You take out her school bag and reveal the contents inside. They’re small knick knacks that you don’t recognize, from school supplies to clothes to even some strange powder, truthfully the one that makes you the most concerned.

“You’re selling these things to students. Why?”

Your voice is far from gentle, demanding answers instead. However, Yuna doesn’t speak up at all, instead she looks away from you.

You sternly step forward, “Yuna–“

“I-I’m sorry.”

Your brows immediately furrow at the crack in her voice, “I-I just wanted to help out somehow…” Thick tears begin to stream down her eyes, “The b-bills, the rent…I-I just didn’t want to be a burden anymore….”

Everything freezes. As quickly as it escalated, your anger fizzles out and you simply stare at your younger sister.

“You–“ You softly exhale, “You think you’re a burden?”

Yuna doesn’t respond, harsh sobs taking over her instead. You rush over to the bench in an instant, her form violently shaking.

“Yuna…” You quietly call out. She slowly turns to you and without hesitation, you pull her closer and wrap your arms around her trembling form.

“I-I’m so sorry, Y/N…”

“Shh, it’s okay.” You tenderly rub her back as she cries into your dress shirt, “You did what you thought was best at the time.”

She hums and you reach out to wipe the excess water from her eyes. “But a burden, Yuna? You know that’s not true.”

“I just feel so useless,” She chokes out, “Even when our rent increased, y-you were the one who was working harder to pay it off.” A sniffle leaves her and she wipes her eyes, desperate to continue, “I could do nothing, not even repay you.”

“Repay me?” You softly chuckle and separate from her, holding onto her shoulders, “Yuna, you don’t need to repay me at all. I do all of this because you’re my sister and I love you.”

Yuna slowly nods, but you can tell her expression was far from relieved.

The corner of your mouth curls, “Alright, if you want to repay me so badly, you know what you can do about it?”

She looks up at you with hope-filled eyes, “Keep attending school… and find something to pursue. Something that piques your interest. Maybe join some clubs, hang out often with your friends, and–” You softly exhale, a warm smile gracing your lips, “and just be happy. Live the life you would have had before mom and dad died.”

Yuna simply stares at you, words not leaving her. “If you can do that for me Yuna, then all my efforts will definitely be repaid.”

She quietly hums, tears still slipping down her cheeks. You open up your arms and she immediately sinks into them, hugging you tightly.

Although you’re smiling, there’s a shine to your eyes that wasn’t there before.

***

Yuna revealing her feelings to you was unexpected, but in a way you can’t help but think it’s a tad ironic.

She felt like a burden, and that the need to repay you for your efforts was important. However, you can’t help but feel that you’ve personally failed somehow, that keeping Yuna shielded away constantly so that she can grow up without worries led to the complete opposite effect and made her feel inadequate more than ever.

At the time of your parents death, you harboured all the responsibilities like it was nothing and unknowingly left Yuna in the dark about matters, but now, now you are finally aware.

And most important of all, open to making changes.

“We should have more family dinners together.” You solemnly say, “I can adjust my hours so I come home earlier….”

Yuna glances over at you, walking away from the school by your side. “That sounds nice…”

Your eyes brighten, “I should try learning how to cook as well, that way we can even make recipes together!”

You watch as Yuna visibly cringes, a shudder running down her spine.

A lop-sided smile takes over you. “Or not…I guess it’s important to take baby steps though, right?”

Yuna furiously shakes her head at that and you laugh, tenderly ruffling up her hair. You look over and notice Jin’s car still stationed in the parking lot, alongside him leaning against it with his arms crossed.

At the sight of you and Yuna returning together, his eyes immediately light up.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” You give him a half-smile, “Sorry for troubling you.”

He waves it off, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Are you sure?” You sheepishly say, “I’m pretty sure there’s a huge chance you’re going to get into trouble.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” He honestly whispers with crinkled eyes and you smile, “–But this was important and getting into trouble isn’t going to change that.”

A light laugh leaves you, “Thank you, Jin.”

He beams and gestures to Yuna, who’s currently clinging to your side and watching the two of you interact with wide eyes. “Where to now?”

You peer at Yuna with a soft smile, “If it’s alright with you, do you mind taking us home?”

He widely grins, “Of course.”

[sussysatann]

GRIM SSR GUEST ROOM INTERACTIONS SPOILERS!!!

(click photos to enlarge!)

HE'S SO CUTE LOOK AT HIMMMM MY SON

"I'm Hungry..."

"You've got some cans of tuna stashed in here, don't you? I can always tell."

"You wanna play with me? Oh, fiiine. I GUESS."

"You can take care of the cleaning. Hey, you're the hench-human here!"

"Mrah!"

"Studying? Nah, I'll do that before I go to bed."

[parcequecestnotreprojeeeet]

Hi, it’s me, Fanfic Anon #2. Before starting my next piece, I think we all should decide on a date for EMT appreciation day. It could be your birthday, EMT, or a random date you really like. Who’s with me?!?

Ok. Now on to the real reason that anyone keeps me around, ha ha, my next piece. This is based on the reporting that Hollande and his now-wife had a mean nickname about Brigitte because I‘ve never really explored in a piece his relationship with his former boss, and I love protective!Emmanuel. Hope you all enjoy.

There are very, very few things that he finds truly unforgivable. But this? This, this was one of them.

He wouldn’t say he got along well with his boss on a personal level. Professionally, they got along fine. They were working towards the same goal, had the same ends, and even if they disagreed over the methods of achieving those ends, and that was enough to allow them to coexist peacefully, especially when he liked his job. He liked making a difference, helping the country, helping to leave a better world for their grandchildren.

But personally? On a personal level, these two men could not be further apart if they tried. Emmanuel distinctly remembers the moment when his view of his boss shifted irrevocably. It was a job ago, a lifetime ago, back when he was stationed in the Élysée rather than in Bercy. He was in a meeting, he can’t remember on what now, when his phone buzzed. He remembered wondering who was texting him - all his colleagues who would want to speak with him normally were at the big table with him, and his wife was supposed to be teaching a class, so he was stunned when he picked it up and saw a notification from: "Brigitte ❤️"

Smiling, he swiped open his phone, entering the passcode only to have a magazine cover pop up with an attached, "I wanted you to hear it from me. I have a break before my next class if you want to talk. I love you so very, very much chéri," that made his stomach drop as he clicked to enlarge the photo.

‘Oh, shit,’ he thought as he saw the photo of his boss, read the caption, and realized what exactly was happening, before rapidly getting into crisis mode.

He remembers that night holding his wife and talking about it, remembers telling his wife he could never respect a man who would cheat like that - only the lowest kind of men would publicly humiliate the woman they love, or loved, like that, remembers pressing reassurance into her skin as he renewed his vow of eternal fidelity (and remembers the way she reaffirmed to him her own).

So he has worked hard, very hard to keep the personal, the professional, and the political separate. But today, today, all that came to an end. His blood was boiling, and he was going to make him pay for this, even if he had to wait. (After all, revenge is a dish best served cold.)

He knew he wasn’t supposed to hear it. He knew the second he turned the corner and everyone’s face went pale the comment was never meant to reach his ears, it was meant to be a joke behind his back, at his expense. He had seen that look a time or two, or so many times really, that he can’t even begin to count, but he hadn’t seen it in a while, hadn’t seen it since the worst days in Amiens. It was the look that always accompanied seeing him after a nasty comment about him, his wife, or their relationship, so he wasn’t even going to sugarcoat his command when he asked the sick looking aides to "say that again to my face."

He shouldn’t have been surprised, he guessed in retrospect, that a man who would have cared so little about his partner would be capable of being so nasty about his wife, but he was. He was truly surprised that his boss, who knew his wife, who had been welcomed into their home for dinner through her kindness, her generosity; who had seen at meetings, dinners, in conversations or speeches her intelligence, her brilliance, the strength of her mind; who had eyes and could see just how drop dead gorgeous she was could have even thought that about her, much less actually say it frequently enough that staff in his office would feel free to joke about it.

Years later, he would hear all kinds of reasons reported, all kinds of things cited as “the moment” he decided to run for President. But the real moment he decided to run was the moment his wife broke down in his arms after he told her (as kindly as he could, knowing she needed to know, and he needed to be the one to tell her). It was the moment when he saw the light in her eyes dim just a little for the briefest second as she suffered yet another slight because of him. It was the moment she promised him she would be better, as if she was the problem ("Listen to me," he begged her at the time, holding her her face gently between his hands, forcing her to stare him in the eyes, "you are the best person, the best woman I have ever met and are the best thing that could have ever happened to me. You are the one who deserve so much better, Brigitte.”) He vowed in that moment he would avenge her. And so he did.

The moment knew that all of the fighting was worth it, though? Well, that was the moment he could kiss her in full view of the world at his inauguration. But he would never openly admit that to anyone but his wife, of course. After all, he’s not one to kiss and tell.

Hellooo fanfic Anon #2! ❤️

Hahaha you guys already show me your appreciation every day *blushes* ❤️

Oh. Hollande. This piece just reminded me of how much I despise that guy. And the fact that it’s said that he has a mean nickname for Brigitte makes me despise (trying hard not to use the word hate) him even more.

I love protective Emmanuel too! And no way he would accept that idiot to call her wife names. Not from anyone and most definitely not from Hollande.

The end warmed my heart tho... kissing Brigitte at his inauguration, in front of everyone and after everything, was his biggest victory!

Thank you so much, fanfic Anon #2! ❤️❤️❤️

[julibernardo]

Moodboard for “luminous beings” by kindclaws / @kindclaws

In a galaxy far far away...

Prince Wells of Arkadia asks his childhood friend, now a Jedi Padawan, to protect his Senator on a high-stakes mission to the galaxy's capital to demand an end to the siege on his planet. The first time Senator Blake and Padawan Griffin meet, it doesn't exactly go well: Bellamy hates Jedi, and Clarke hates his attitude.

But when their mission goes horribly wrong and pushes the galaxy to the brink of war, they realize they might have been brought together for a reason.

[canirove]

Red & Blue | Chapter 2

Author’s note: First of all: thank you. Thank for reading that first chapter and for all the reblogs, likes and comments. Like, wow. I wasn't expecting it. At all. Especially because when I first shared this story with a friend to have a second opinion, I thought it was a weak first chapter 😅 So, again, thank you very much, and like I said yesterday on the new chapter of Declan's story, welcome to all the new people who started following me! 💜

There are things on this chapter similar to the ones we've currently seeing with both the men and women's teams at St. George's Park, but it is just a coincidence, I wrote this weeks ago. Did I manifest it? Maybe 👀😂 Anyway, thanks for reading, and hope you like it! 💜

Previous chapter | Next chapter

Masterlist

(tap/click to enlarge)

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“Hello there” Emily says, opening the door of my car.

“Hello” I reply, getting out and giving her a hug.

“It’s so nice to have you back. We missed you last time.”

“I missed you too. And hello everyone” I say to Eddie, the photographer, and the camera men who are filming the arrivals.

“Oh, someone else is here” Emily says, moving towards the car that just arrived behind mine. “One sec.”

“No problem” I say, focusing on getting all my things from the car and not forgetting anything.

“Mason!” I hear Emily say behind me.

“Fuck” I whisper, the bag with my boots falling from my hands as the driver gives it to me.

“It’s alright, miss” he says, helping me pick them up.

“Do you need any help?” Emily asks behind us.

“We are fine. Just clumsy” I reply with a nervous laugh. “Thank you very much, sir” I say to the driver, moving towards the door. But before I can ignore Mason, he is standing next to me.

“Hi” he smiles. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person.”

“Yeah” I mutter, trying to smile and not look like an idiot.

“Ok, passports” Emily says when we are inside the building. “And you don’t know how things work now, do you?” she asks me.

“Leah has told me a bit about it.”

“Oh, good. You’ll see that nothing much has changed. And...” she says, looking out the door “someone else just arrived, I better go. Mason, why don’t you show her around?”

“Sure. I’ll be her tour guide” he says to Emily before she leaves.

“You don’t have to do it. You probably want to meet the others.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. I’ll have plenty of time to see them during these days” he smiles again. Damn it, he’s so handsome when he smiles. “Shall we?” he asks, gesturing towards the corridor in front of us.

“Wait, before you leave” Eddie says behind us. “Can I get a photo of you two together? You are two fan favorites.”

“For the fans then” Mason laughs while grabbing me by the waist, his touch making me feel things despite the layers of clothing.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“Did you have the basketball court last time you were here?” Mason asks when we walk pass it.

“No, we didn’t.”

“Do you play?”

“I actually do, yes.”

“Then we must have a little game when we all are free. Let’s see if your hands are as talented as your feet” he says with a smirk.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“I can’t believe Eddie made you pose together” Leah says, laying on my bed while checking all the photos from today, picking one to post on her Instagram. “I’m sure he also ships you.”

“Definitely” I say, rolling my eyes.

“I wonder what his fans will say when they see it. Will they go wild? Will they ship you? Will they hate you?”

“I guess we’ll find out soon. He just posted it” I say, showing Leah my phone.

“Let the games begin!” she laughs.

“Speaking of games” I say, putting my phone down and not wanting to look at it until tomorrow. “He asked me to play basketball with him later when we are free. Will you join us? I’m sure Declan will be there too.”

“Bffs vs. bffs? I’m in” she says with a mischievous smile.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“Where did you learn to play like that?” Declan asks, lying on the floor.

“My mum used to play when she was younger and she taught me” I say, shooting another basket.

“And it goes in clean. Again. I can’t believe it” Mason laughs next to me.

“Annoying, isn’t it?” Leah says, sitting next to Declan.

“Very” he replies, still lying on the floor. “Let’s try again tomorrow. I’m not leaving St. George’s without winning against you at least once.”

“Good luck with that” I say, shooting again, the ball easily going in.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“Wow, someone had a bad day yesterday” I say the next day, finally checking my notifications.

“Mason fan?”

“That’s what she says. Stay away from him, you filthy gunner bitch. Go suck Arteta’s ****. And yes, whoever this was, censored that last word.”

“No way” Leah laughs. “But why him? He isn’t your coach or anything.”

“Who knows. Maybe he is the only one from Arsenal this person knew” I shrug. “But whoever this is, just got blocked.”

“Good. Is anyone shipping you with Mason?”

“You are so funny” I say, throwing a pillow to her face as someone knocks on the door.

“I’ll answer” Leah says, throwing the pillow back at me.

“Hello girls” says Hannah, our team’s social media manager. “I’m afraid there’s been a change of plans and you won’t be having a free morning. There is some content that we didn’t have time to finish yesterday and that must be shot today. I’ll meet you downstairs in 5 minutes.”

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“Leah, you’ll be doing a TikTok challenge with some others over there” Hannah says, pointing to a table set at the other side of the pitch. “And you will be filming a game for YouTube with Mason.”

“With Mason?” Leah and I say at the same time, she definitely more excited than me.

“Is there any problem with it?” Hannah asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Not at all” Leah says with a big smile.

“What’s the game about?” I ask Hannah as I follow her to where Mason is already waiting.

“Remember the one Chilly and Declan did, the one about the food?”

“How could I. That winner was an insult to everyone who loves food” I laugh. And it isn’t as if I’ve watched it way too many times because Ben looked stupidly handsome. Declan too, not gonna lie.

“This one is about Marvel characters, trying to pick the best super hero” Hannah explains.

“That sounds fun.”

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“I can’t believe Wanda didn’t make it to the final” I say to Mason once we’ve finished the game. “She definitely was the most powerful one! And you chose Thor!”

“Because he is a God!”

“Wanda was able to destroy one of the infinity stones!”

“And then she went nuts. I wouldn’t put my life in her hands.”

“Ok, that’s rude. She was grieving”.

“Sorry” he shrugs. “But at least we agree on the winner.”

“Kind of” I say. “I still think it’s a tie between Spiderman and Captain America.”

“But if it was the end of the world, what could Captain America do for you? Spiderman could fly you away, take you somewhere safe. And he is as strong as Steve.”

“I know, I know. But only if there are trees or buildings around. In the desert they both would be equal.”

“Fine” Mason says, rolling his eyes. “You are a stubborn one, aren’t you?”

“She’s very stubborn” Aaron says, showing up out of nowhere.

“Where did you come from?” I say. “You scared me!”

“I was filming over there. If you didn’t see me, it was because you were too busy with Mason” he smiles. I give him my most murderous look in return, but his smile just goes wider.

“Anyway, I better go find Leah” I say, looking for an excuse to escape from them.

“Are we still playing basketball later today?” Mason asks as I leave.

“Yeah, sure” I say.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

When Leah and I go downstairs, Mason and Declan are already waiting. Them, and Aaron and Ben.

“What are you two doing here?” I ask them.

“We wanted to be part of the fun” Aaron says.

“Meaning that he wanted to see Mase and I being destroyed by you” Declan says.

“That too” Aaron replies with one of his smiles.

“So you are not playing?” Leah asks. “Cowards.”

“We play together all the time. Let them be the ones to suffer” Ben says, not lifting his eyes from his phone.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“C’mon Mase, you can do it!” Reece says, cheering for his teammate. A little crowd has formed around us, most of them cheering for Leah and I and making fun of Mason and Declan. Eddie is taking photos while someone else is filming, already planning to upload this to YouTube.

“That was so bad, Declan!” Coady yells, he and Mings laughing like crazy.

“If this one goes in, we win” I say, looking at Mason.

“First you’ll have to get pass me” he smirks, already in position to defend.

“There she goes!” Aaron yells as I attack.

“And it goes in!” Leah screams behind me. Everyone around us starts cheering, while Declan dramatically falls to the floor, Mason standing with his arms on his hips.

“Sorry” I say, giving him my best smile. He just shakes his head while licking his lips, and I find myself staring until someone comes to congratulate me and bring me back to reality.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

The rest of the days with the national team go by quickly. It’s mostly training, playing the friendly games and enjoying our free time. Turns out that mixing both teams has been a great idea.

“My tagged photos on Instagram are all Mason” I say to Leah on the car back home.

“He isn’t that bad, is he?”

“He isn’t, he is really nice. You and Aaron were right about that. But look, it’s like I am on his account, not mine” I say, showing her my phone.

“That happens when you spend all your free time with him and Eddie is around” she says with a big smile.

“We are just friends” I say, rolling my eyes.

“For now.”

[isolemnlyswear]

hello! can i request a modern marauder (you pick) x popstar!fem!reader (while they're still in hogwarts) to the song breathin by ariana grande as if it were the reader's song? <3 <3

breathin

a/n : this is the most specified request i've ever gotten, so it's kinda shitty ! i really have never wrote anything like this - at all - and i didn’t know if the reader was meant to be a muggle or not ????????? so i made them not one. bc you’re anon i cant ask you questions abt your request, so next time please specify!

continued a/n : wow, this is interesting. i dont like it, but !!! hope u enjoy????

warnings : swearing, bad writing

taglist : @oldschoolkiddo @amourtentiaa @anchoeritic @faeinorbit @tomriddleswifey @inks-and-jinx @jxsperhxle @punkrific @the-gazette-of-tea @krasivayadarling @orifortheweeknd @fallin-4-ya @incxndio @daisyyy2516 @hoe4cedricdiggory @vsawyer1989

Remus sighed, glaring at the raven-haired boy beside him.

“What, s’gonna be fun!” Sirius grins, and the lycanthrope who’s refuting him simply laughs.

“Fun? Your idea of fun is a packed concert - full of muggles, nonetheless - for this...popstar woman?” Remus says incredulously, and Sirius raises an eyebrow.

“Oh, ho, ho, this is not any popstar, Moony. Plus, what else are we gonna do over the summer? Sulk around at your parents’ house?” Sirius grins again, and Remus lets out a sigh.

“The latter I can agree with. But who is this girl, anyway?” Remus inquires, and Sirius reaches into his back pocket to acquire his phone. Although Hogwarts doesn't allow modern technology, both Sirius and Remus have their own each for the summers. With how phone-centered the modern world is, they couldn't not.

He swipes through to find a picture of you - one obtained from your Instagram, which has over four million followers - and holds it up to Remus.

“Merlin,” he breathes, eyes scanning the image.

You're wearing a brown leather dress, the shoulders poking up just barely. Your hair is framing your face, legs tucked under you in a half-crouch, and you're looking into the camera with lips perfectly parted. It was one you took for the shoot of your newest album, and a particular favorite of yours.

“Gorgeous, right? She’s really talented, as well.” Sirius grins, looking at his best friend, who is unresponsive, with eyes glued on the screen. “Moony?” he waves a hand over the brunette’s face, who snaps out of his trance.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Sure.” Remus says, blinking a few too many times.

“So, you up for it now?”

“Alright,” Remus replies, nodding at Sirius, who pumps his fists into the air with a grin.

“She's American, but doing a show in London in a few weeks,” Sirius informs, smiling.

“American, huh? How old is she?” Remus asks, settling back into the couch they're perched on.

“That's the best part. She's our age - just turned eighteen.” Sirius grins again, putting his phone away.

“Oh yeah? You say that like she'd notice us. Never gonna happen, Pads.” Remus smiles, shaking his head.

“Expect the unexpected, mon amie.”

---

You're fiddling anxiously with your fingers, hands out of use as someone else is doing your makeup, rather than yourself.

“Almost done, Miss L/N,” Madelyn, your makeup artist, says, brushing a soft highlighter over your cheekbones.

“Mads, I told you that you can call me Y/N. You only do my makeup every day,” you say, closing your eyes as the woman pats highlighter into your inner corner.

“And...” she mists your face with setting spray, “...Done!”

---

About four hours later, your back is facing the crowd that's piled into the venue, stage lights shut off as only the sounds of quiet murmurs and shuffling feet hit your ears.

And then, the lights come on with a thumping click, and you begin the routine that you've practiced time and time again.

The music to your first song, the least vocally challenging of the set, begins, and you turn around with a sway of your hips.

Holding the mic to your mouth, you begin a one-step, two-step rhythm, one that's second nature to you; your eyes survey the crowd, left hand reaching to flip your hair.

The tune changes, and the beat is faster, now, as the lights begin to flash and your voice, in a habitual fashion, changes to match. You stride out rhythmically to the center of the stage.

You crouch in a fluid movement, thankful for the coverage your outfit gives you. It's a black sparkling jumpsuit, bottoms being a high-waisted, glimmering fabric with two side flaps, connected at your stomach to a matching corset-like top.

After a few minutes of usual song/dance routines, followed by cheers from the crowd, you decide it's time for a crowd interaction. It's difficult, resisting the urge to pull out your wand and cast a silencing charm to get the group's attention, but you opt for speech, instead.

"Alright, alright, everybody," you say into the mic with a laugh, eyes scanning the crowd for someone to converse with.

There's one man - his ebony hair is swishing as he speaks - who's bouncing up and down like an eager dog, and you laugh.

"We all excited to be here? In London!" you say, garnering numerous cheers and screams from the group.

"I can tell you are." You walk over to the raven-haired boy, who's in front row, and crouch down. He'd previously cheered extremely loud, confirming his excitement.

The boy makes a loud whoop'ing noise, getting a laugh from his friend.

His friend.

You continue to speak, walking over to someone else, but now your eyes are glued on him.

He looks about your age, with beautifully disheveled sandy brown hair and chocolate eyes. He has numerous scars littering his face, some new and red, some older and whitening.

You can't help but wonder what the scars are from, and you feel a strange attachment to the boy, though you've never spoken before.

And after a while, it's time for your final song. About a thirds of the way through, at your favorite part, you meander back over to the boys.

You lean over, disguising your position as a simple concert move, but you're really staring into the brunette's eyes.

"You remind me of a time when things weren't so complicated." The words fall from your mouth effortlessly, and you're able to search the boy's eyes as you sing. There's a spark in them, a glimmer of light that pulls you in.

"All I need is to see your face." You sing, still singing almost directly to the brunette.

You need to see more of him, you suddenly think. And you continue to sing the song, but all that swims around in your brain is a plan. A plan to erase the mystery behind the boy.

The show comes to a close, but before everyone has left, you pull your manager aside.

"Hey, Martin, this- this is an odd request, but could you ask these two boys to come backstage? That sounds, um, interesting, but would y'mind-"

"What do they look like?" Martin interrupts you, and you sigh in relief.

"One has longer black hair, and the other... sorta sandy brown hair, and some scars on his face. Can you find them from that?"

"I'll try."

You nod and thank him, running backstage to your small lounge and bathroom to await your mysterious visitors, changing quickly into clothes that are more comfortable; a simple silk dress, in a y/f/c hue, and a sweater to go over it.

You fiddle with your wand in your hands, mentally berating yourself.

It was quite a reckless decision, really. It's not like you had a valid reason for inviting these people to such a VIP space such as this. Just because you feel some weird connection to one of them didn't mean you could disregard everything. These boys are probably muggles, and you are not. Merlin, you're getting shipped off to Scotland next year after being home-schooled by your magical parents for eighteen years - just in time for your last year of school -going to a boarding school called Hogwarts (which would be a PR nightmare, but your parents insisted you needed some 'real-life experience').

But amidst your train of thought, you hear a knock at your door - two taps, three taps, your manager's code that it's okay to open the door - and you shove your wand into your (enlarged via Engorgio charm) pocket.

You stride over to the door, fiddling with the hem of your sweater, and open it to see Martin.

"Here they are, Miss L/N." He steps to the side to reveal the two boys, the darker-haired male standing in front, and you refrain from gasping when he steps forward, allowing you full view of the other boy.

The scars on his face are glimmering in the light, and his eyes are warm, pulling you in with every glance. His hair is perfectly tousled, and he's tall, over six foot two, or so you'd guess.

"Come in," you say, stepping aside to allow them entrance. You nod to Martin, signalling him to leave, and he does so, shutting the door and leaving you with the pair.

"Holy shit," the raven-haired boy says, and you realize he's only slightly shorter, about an inch less.

You laugh slightly, gesturing for them to sit down.

"Why are we back here?" the shorter one says, and you smile. He's made himself comfortable, seemingly the more outgoing, but the other one is still standing awkwardly beside you.

"You can relax, I'm not interrogating you," you say, smiling at the taller boy, who seems to let out a breath. "Why don't you introduce yourselves, and then we can talk, okay?"

"I'm Sirius, Sirius Black." The boy runs a hand through his dark hair, grinning.

"Ah, like the constellation? Brightest star in the sky," you say, and he nods.

"I'm, um, Remus. Remus Lupin," the other boy says tentatively, offering a smile.

"Hi, Remus," you say, nodding. "I don't want to assume you know my name, I'm aware you're not American, but considering you're at this concert-"

"Of course, we know your name, we're British, not daft," Sirius says with a playful scoff, and you laugh. "You're Y/N."

"That I am," you say with a giggle, and Remus grins. Your heart stops for a moment, the world coming to a halt as his eyes meet yours.

Sirius clears his throat, and a blush spreads onto the apples of your cheeks. You gulp, looking down.

"So, you didn't answer my question," Sirius starts, tilting his head, but Remus kicks his shin.

"Pads, chill," he whispers, shaking his head. Sirius shakes his head, looking at you.

"It's fine, really. 'M not that interesting, no need to be uptight," you say, smiling again.

"I'd beg to differ," Remus breathes.

After what feels like no time at all, but is really three hours, you've gotten any and all formalities out of the way. Well, all but one - you're still unsure if they're muggles, and they don't know that you're a witch, either.

That is, until Remus gets up to go to the restroom, and something tumbles out of his pocket.

Your first thought is how did something that long fit in a jean pocket, but then you see what it is.

It's a wand, about ten inches, cypress wood, with a small bulb at the end of it. You gasp, and Remus goes pale, stumbling to pick it up.

"Is that-" you start, but Sirius cuts you off.

"It's nothing," he says quickly, but you shake your head.

"That's a wand," you say slowly, and Remus is wide-eyed, nervously fidgeting.

"It-"

"No, no, no," you say, reaching into the pocket of your sweater and pulling out your own. Sirius and Remus simultaneously gasp as you brandish it in your hands, and you grin.

"You're a witch?" Remus asks, jaw slack.

"You're a wizard?" you return, raising an eyebrow.

"Fuck yeah we are!" Sirius says, and you grin.

"What school?" Remus inquires, and you purse your lips.

"I was home-schooled, but this year - for my last one - I'm going to this school called Hogwarts? D'you know it?" you explain, garnering another gasp from the pair.

"That's where we go," Remus says, and your eyes light up.

"Really?!" you ask excitedly.

"Yeah! I guess you'll have some friends when you get there, at least," Remus assures, grinning.

"I bet Remus wishes you had a boyfriend to greet you," Sirius says, disguised with some coughs, and you blush. Remus kicks his friend in the shin again, and turns to you with a sigh.

"Sorry, he doesn't know what he's talking about," he says, and you raise an eyebrow.

"Does he not?" you ask flirtatiously, and it's Remus's turn to blush.

"Uh-"

"We'll just have to see, won't we?" you say with a mischievous grin, one returned by the sandy-haired boy in front of you.

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Phantom Children Ch.4

In Which: exposition for exposition's sake exists, and Vlad looks way more suspcious than he ought

| AO3 | Prologue | 3 | [4] | 5

VLADIMIR MASTERS. Human male in his mid-forties, and most notably the founder and CEO of VladCo, a billion-dollar industry that mostly specializes in manufacturing weapons and technology. Graduated summa cum laude from the University of Wisconsin despite having to drop out due to a lab accident in his second year, landing him in the hospital. Despite being based primarily in Wisconsin, he made an unexpected move to Amity Park Illinois shortly after reuniting with his college friends Drs. Madeline and Jack Fenton.

Not even a year later, Masters ran for mayor of Amity Park and won the election by a landslide. Suspicious, considering Masters being an unknown and the former mayor Montez being quite popular. It’s during Masters’ tenure in office that reports of ghost attacks to the Justice League steadily died down.

“Why?” Damian asked.

Barbara shrugged, pulling up a few files on the screen. “I originally had a theory that related to VladCo’s buyout of Axion Labs—a technological research and manufacturing company that’s mostly local to Amity—being a factor. Within the last couple of years, they had been experimenting with highly volatile chemicals with hallucinogenic properties. Amity had always been known for being extremely superstitious with its ghosts, and if Axion Labs had somehow accidentally released that chemical into the city, well…” She leaned back into her chair, hand twisting in the air. “You could bet how that ended up. The hysteria around ghosts only grew worse in the last two years, with suspected sightings from once every few weeks to multiple in a single day. Early attempts to capture sightings were unsuccessful, and soon enough Amity Park was just written off.”

Much like the mass hysteria surrounding the urban legend of the kuchisake-onna in Japan in the late 1970s, Bruce thought. He pulled up some news footage from Amity Park dated a few years back of citizens being interviewed about their ghostly encounters. Beside these videos were a few photos taken by a shaky camera, showing bright blurs of light streaking across the sky or vaguely humanoid shapes rising from the ground.

“So VladCo., bought out Axion Labs, improved its security, and slowly helped detoxify the town?” Damian shifted his weight onto his other leg and crossed his arms.

“That’s what I thought, but—”

“But the ghosts ended up being real.” Bruce pulled up a video of a field reporter-slash-weatherman taking cover as a figure dropped from the sky, breaking through the walls of a building. The figure—features distorted by an eerie glow—shot out of the rubble just in time before a green blast hit it.

Oracle enlarged other news footage with a few taps on her keyboard. Beings zooming through the air. Massive plants erupting from the ground. Technology coming to life. Each video more worrying than the last, and most showing some footage of a figure bathed in a white glow. “I’d be hard pressed to call any of these faked.”

It begged the question as to how Amity Park survived this long unscathed. Since, if he remembered correctly, even the Dark Leaguers tended to avoid Amity Park like the plague. “They have their own heroes, then?”

“Think along the lines of vigilantes with unofficial support.” A few more files popped up on screen. One showcased a female in a full-length black and red body suit on top of a hover board. The other was a male; young, perhaps a teenager, with white hair and a black and white suit. Hazmat? “The Red Huntress and the Phantom of Amity Park.”

“Partners?”

“More like enemies working on the same turf. Sources place Phantom as appearing first, though it seems Red Huntress has more government support in the end despite there being no official statement. They seem to be the most effective ghost hunters in town, though far from the only ones. The Fentons of Fenton Works are also acting as ghost hunters, though their track record of success leans more towards their anti-ghost tech than any hunting. The town’s even attracted visitors from the Ghost Investigation Ward; a side branch of Cadmus though a now defunct organization.”

“This doesn’t make sense,” Damian said. “If anything, this should be more than enough reason for a League intervention. Why the Justice League didn’t come sooner is the real question here.”

Bruce’s lips thinned. “That’s because we were warned off it.”

“What?”

While there was no rule against heroes entering another hero’s city, there were certain unspoken rules that demanded that JL members avoid claimed cities or stay just outside of city lines until given permission to enter. Some were especially strict about it such as Batman’s ‘no metas or outsiders’ rule. Others were more lenient, simply requesting a warning before entering.

Amity Park, despite having no listed heroes in the database, was marked with heavy ‘Do Not Interact’ warnings for humans and metas alike.

“Justice League Dark said that under no circumstances should the League interfere in Amity. The situation was never explicitly laid out for us except to say that everything was being handled.”

“Oh yeah,” Oracle chimed. “Constantine even had it bolded, underlined, italicized, and in all caps. The occult community was very clear about everyone staying away—and apparently this decision had support from Amity Park too.” She pulled up another document. “That’s probably what led to the decline in their ghost reports, actually. Amity’s claims were considered bogus and brushed aside. No one outside their town—not even their sister town of Elmerton—believed them, so they simply stopped asking for help.”

Strangely, it reminded Bruce of Gotham. Both cities existed in its own isolated sphere, unwilling to let any outsiders interfere in its business.

“It’s safe to assume, then, that whatever Ra’s al Ghul wants with Amity, it has to do with these ghosts. Do we have anyway to contact the town’s vigilantes?”

Oracle shook her head. “Ghost attacks within the past few months have slowly died down along with sightings of Phantom and Red Huntress. Your best bet is asking Masters directly.”

Damian glowered. “Masters blatantly sent out an invitation for Batman to my father. How do we know that Masters hasn’t somehow found our secret identities?”

“Unlikely,” Bruce said. “Vlad Masters, despite his wealth, has done well to keep a low profile. He’s met Bruce Wayne a total of three times within the last decade and Batman not at all.” That, and with the kind of spyware Batman has, he’d be able to tell when, where, and who was trying to dig deep into Batman’s past. Masters hadn’t even registered as a ping.

“Besides, there’s always a few rumors of Wayne Enterprise’s involvement with Batman. All this tech has to come from somewhere, no?”

“How long is Masters staying in Gotham?”

“Umm…” Oracle leaned forward in her chain and flipped through a half-dozen windows. “Going by his reservations at the Gotham Royal Hotel, he’s leaving tomorrow.”

Bruce pivoted on his heel, heading deeper into the Cave. “We better make this count, then.”

------

According to Oracle’s intel, Vlad Masters was staying at one of the executive suites in the Gotham Royal Hotel. A titanic structure with forty-eight floors, two towers, and the gothic aesthetic that never seemed to leave Gotham’s architecture.

Scaling the building as well as entering the suite proved no challenge for Batman and Robin. But upon entrance, it was abundantly clear that the room was vacant.

“Are you sure you guys are in the right room?” Bruce could hear the clicking of Oracle’s keys through their comms. “Masters had reserved the suite on the west tower.”

“Yes we’re in the correct room, Gordon,” Robin hissed.

“Codenames only, Robin.”

Robin clicked his tongue, sweeping the common room for any hidden bugs or cameras as Batman scouted out the rest of the room. The bed was made to hotel standard and the bathroom towels all completely replaced. There were no clothes in the hotel closet or dresser.

The only thing left that indicated occupancy of the room was an unmarked manila envelope unsubtly tucked within a pillowcase.

Robin tensed at the sight of it. “A detonator of some sort?”

Batman rotated the package, holding it up to his scanner. “Doesn’t seem to be. Regardless, it might be better to take it back to the Batcave and locate Masters ag—” The envelope started ringing. A standard ringtone found in most phones. Quickly, but carefully, Batman opened the manila envelope and dumped its contents onto the bed. A ringing burner phone and a flash drive came tumbling out.

Batman threw the flash drive at Robin before answering the phone, holding it up against his ear but saying nothing.

Silence. Then, Masters’ voice filtered in through the phone with a strange echo-like quality. “Good evening, Batman! I’m so glad my invitation managed to get passed along.”

Batman growled into the speaker, “What do you want, Masters?” He signaled Robin to do another sweep of the room for any signs of Masters they might have missed.

“I sincerely apologize for not being there to meet you myself; incredibly rude of me, I know. But it cannot be helped, the shadows are growing ever bolder.”

“So, you are aware then, of the League of Assassins’ presence in Amity Park?”

“A league of assassins? What a terrifying notion that is.” Batman frowned. It was unlikely that they had misread his words at the gala, so why was he acting unaware now? Could he be watched? “Why such a group would appear in my little town, I wouldn’t even dare to guess.”

Robin came back into the room and signaled back ‘negative.’

“Why did you call for us, Mayor Masters?”

“Do you know what is so very tragic, Batman?”

“This is strange,” Oracle said. “I can’t pick up his signal. He’s not appearing on any of my cameras, either.”

“When someone so young dies much to soon.” A pause. “Could you even imagine such a thing? A parent burying their own child.”

Batman could. He had no need to even imagine it because he lived it.

“Some very close friends of mine have been weighed down by the shadows of death and I require help in providing them the closure they need.”

“Are the Fentons the targets, then?”

Masters paused. Then let out a breathy laugh over the phone. “Oh, if only it were that simple.”

“So a different target.”

“Everything you need to know is in the flash drive I’ve enclosed in that envelope Whether you take up the case is entirely up to you—though I do hope you take it. Regardless, if he is not returned soon then I assure you that a disaster unlike any you have seen before will arrive.”

Batman narrowed his eyes. “Is that a threat, Masters?”

“No,” He laughed. “That was no threat. That was promise.”

The phone line disconnected just as Oracle exclaimed that she finally found Masters boarding his flight back to Amity Pak.

[makeste]

BnHA 6th Popularity Poll Reaction Post - Risky Spoiler-Dodging Edition

hey guys, so seeing as the results from the 6th popularity poll were leaked today, I figured I would do a separate reaction + analysis post this year, rather than piling it in as an extra on top of the chapter reaction post tomorrow. I figure this makes more sense anyway, since they’re really two completely different things. also this way I can write as much as I want lol.

also, just fyi, I am still completely unspoiled for chapter 293. and probably the smart thing to do to keep it that way would be to log off tumblr and hold off posting this until tomorrow, but I apparently have no impulse control today so oh well. anyway, so I’m hoping you guys will keep this spoiler-free if you don’t mind! as always, I would prefer to just jump right in completely unaware tomorrow like Troy returning to the study room with the pizza boxes lol.

okay so this first part is just going to be my predictions. fyi I am writing this part on Wednesday night, and then I’ll add on the results part on Thursday or Friday (ETA: Thursday, apparently, since I am impatient.)

okay so first of all, just as a refresher, this poll was open to Japanese voters from Aug 3 to Sep 30. meaning chapters 279 through 285. meanwhile last year’s poll took place around the tail end of the MVA arc. so between then and now we had Heroes Rising, the Endeavor Agency arc, and the War arc up to the part where the 1-A kids took on Gigantomachia in Gunga, and started battling Tomura in Jakku. so technically only a couple of arcs, but a LOT of stuff going down in them. oh and season 4 of the anime as well

so! firstly, I predict that my truculent africanized honeybee son will hold on to his crown at #1, coming off a year in which he did some internship-boosted soul searching, borrowed OFA in movie canon, and finished out the voting period as the my-body-moved-on-its-own character development MVP. like CALL ME CRAZY lol, but I’m pretty sure his title is safe. and then after him will be Deku and Shouto as usual

Aizawa should hopefully also have a strong showing because the dude had a banner fucking year. reunited with his old dead friend, took on Tomura with his hopelessly inept hero pals, and then chopped his fucking leg off. he had better be in the top 10. his fucking leg died for this, idk what else he has to do

Endeavor also stands a decent chance of doing well given the internship arc and the final episode of season 4. which I’m sure will go down just swimmingly if that does happen lmao. especially if he somehow manages to rank higher than...

Dabi, which I don’t think he will btw, but you never know. anyways though, but I’m thinking Dabi’s going to have a stronger showing than in past years (in the last poll he only got 367 votes and was ranked 19th). mostly because of his fight in the Gunga mansion, and his cheekily censored name reveal to...

Hawks, who is also going to rank pretty high here, I think. might be he loses some points for killing off Twice, but his back was basically to the wall there. and he has always been very popular, and I think season 4 will also give him a boost, along with his heavy involvement in the first half of the War arc

Tomura was already in 6th place last year and I think he cracks the top 5 this year. he’s gotten exponentially more popular since the MVA arc, and got a boost in the last poll even though his flashback had only just barely happened, and he hadn’t finished Awakening yet and all that stuff. anyway, so he’s only gotten cooler and more tragic since then so I think he makes a big play here

Kirishima, Momo, Tokoyami, and Mina should also hopefully do well, since the poll opened right in the middle of all that Gigantomachia action, and Toko had just got done being an absolute badass and protecting his birb dad. I don’t think he’ll quite make it to the top ten, but he should

and last but not least, I’m hoping that Mirko will come out and take the polls by storm, although I have no clue how popular she is in Japan lol. she’s clearly Horikoshi’s favorite though. she SHOULD be everyone’s favorite, but I mean, we’ll see how it goes

anyway that’s it as far as predictions! and so now, through the magic of writing stuff at different times, we will fast-forward to the part where we actually find out the results!

OH MY GOD YES, STEAMPUNK KHLKSLLKL. HERE FOR IT. JOLLY GOOD SHOW. 5 STARS

Kacchan looks SO COCKY and SO HAPPY and SO ADORABLE, YES I SAID IT. he is adorable as FUCK. I don’t quite know what it is about this particular Kacchan that just screams “LOOK HOW FUCKING CUTE MY STUPID, LOUD SON IS WITH HIS BIZARRE WINDOWPANE-LOOKING CONVERTIBLE SUNGLASS GOGGLES and his POORLY TIED CRAVAT”, but I think it’s because he looks like if a Digimon character and a FMA character had a baby

anyway, so it looks like most of the people present here are more or less who we expected to see. except that I can’t tell for sure if that’s Dabi or Shindou, and if it’s Shindou I’m going to punch somebody in the face so you will have to excuse me

Iida wearing a TRENCHCOAT and a TOP HAT with ENGINE EXHAUST GOGGLE ACCENTS is my new favorite Iida of all time. take note how there is no possible way he can wear those goggles with them sitting on top of his hat like that. plus he’s already got glasses on. these are just purely for aesthetic and IF THAT AIN’T JUST THE STEAMPUNK WAY

Deku out here speaking softly and carrying a lead pipe. Kacchan you best look out. seems like he’s done watching you take first place year after year while he languishes in the number two spot. your only hope is that he trips while attacking you because his boots are unbuckled

Shouto’s standing over there with the rest of the non-first-and-second-place characters, but what are the odds his results are actually within spitting distance of Deku’s same as always. anyway he doesn’t mind, though. also his outfit is by far the most sensible one here, but if you look closely he’s got some sort of fire extinguisher/jet pack thing strapped to his back that’s got a control switch on his belt. Shouto are you jetpacking or putting out fires

Kirishima out here all “I’m not sure what steampunk is so I’m just going to take off my shirt and pose”

AIZAWA WITH THE EYEPATCH SKLKSDLKFJLSKJLDFKJSLDFFJLDKSJFL:KS. SIR. SIR. also, lowkey furious that Horikoshi refuses to show us the automail leg that he is clearly sporting here but which we just can’t see, SHOUTO MOVE GODDAMMIT

Endeavor has TWO fire extinguisher-slash-jetpacks. THE BETTER TO... WHATEVER. look at you here in the top ten again. you really live for that controversy

HAWKS OUT HERE WITH HIS STEAMPUNK BEATS BY DRE AND HIS WEARING A RING ON EVERY FINGER. nice to see you’ve still got your wings there, kiddo. then again Deku still has both of his arms too so who even knows what is going on

BUT SERIOUSLY THOUGH, IS THIS DABI OR SHINDOU. as if I don’t know the truth deep down in my heart. y’all I am gonna flip lmao. it’s not that I dislike Shindou, strictly speaking. but just... I can’t explain what it is, but if you put him and AFO next to each other and told me “you can only punch one”, I would be having a serious crisis. just, THIS FUCKING GUY, idek. STOP SMILING

Tomura looks like he just wandered onto the set here by mistake and has no idea where he is or what is going on. it’s because you’re wearing a bigass severed hand that’s blocking your entire view, Tomura. just take the hand off your face my sweet murder dumpling

anyway! so I managed to also find a link to the full poll results while somehow managing to avoid spoilers, and then I wanted to compare the results to last year’s poll, and so I made... this

hopefully you can all see this. if you’re on desktop you might be screwed, but on mobile you should be able to click and enlarge it. I mean, assuming you actually give a fuck about boring poll analysis spreadsheets lmao

anyway, so there were actually 13k fewer votes cast this year which is a bit of a surprise. is the series not still growing in popularity? do people apparently have better things to do during their quarantine lol

anyways but despite this, and despite getting 8k fewer votes overall, Kacchan still managed almost twice as many as his closest competitor. well fought, Deku. please put down that pipe

I somehow always underestimate the power of ship popularity to influence these things. but for example, it looks like Present Mic got that Vigilantes Trio bump. ride that wave for all it’s worth my man! hell, you got me on board

Iida fucking Tenya somehow got some sort of POWER BOOST out of NOWHERE which I can’t explain at all lmao, but I’m here for it. NOT BAD FOR AN OLD MAN

Sero managed to get the exact same number of votes in both 2019 and 2020. clearly the most loyal fans in the business

Mirko being all the way down at #20 is, of course, a travesty, and I hereby nominate her to be the one to punch Shindou in the face

ngl though, the lack of a single female character in the top ten hurts just a bit. it’s not overly surprising, but still. the worst part of it is that even if you kicked Shindou to the curb and moved everyone else up one slot, it would still be all dudes since Mic beat out Momo by a margin of a little more than a hundred votes. hard to stay mad at Mic for too long, though. ah well

Tomura actually lost a bunch of votes which is a genuine surprise to me. I know the villain standom isn’t as dominant in Japan as it is in Western fandom, but still. you can go ahead and punch Shindou too I guess

Tokoyami lowkey doubled his vote count over the past year while hiding down there at #18. he is slowly becoming more powerful. biding his time

anyway so I think that’s it! I mean not really, but I’m getting kind of tired lol. so just, you know, insert the usual gripes at Overhaul’s ranking here, although we can be happy about Magne making her way onto the list (r.i.p.), and Mineta and AFO taking a very satisfying slide down (all the way out, in AFO’s case; good riddance you bum). Hadou also got a huge boost which is awesome. Mustard’s persistent ownership of the #36 spot will forever remain a mystery to me, but oh well

anyways, this was fun. and I really do feel like everyone is looking away on purpose so that when Deku brains Kacchan with that pipe in about two seconds from now, there will be no witnesses, oh my fucking god

[quazartranslates]

Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH29

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

-----

Chapter 29: Star Death Reality Show (XII) {cw: brief discussion of menstruation}

This conversation between guys didn't last long. After all, Qi Leren and Du Yue weren’t too familiar with each other, and they wouldn't be as casual as with Dr. Lu. It was almost two o'clock in the middle of the night. It was time for Qi Leren to watch the speaker.

The temperature difference between night and day was not much in the polar region, and the sunshine of the polar day fell on the tundra, quiet and serene. If it weren't for the danger stirring, that was spying on these poor lambs, Qi Leren probably wouldn't be as uneasy as he was now.

When he came to the outside of the church, Qi Leren saw Janet’s bright clothes at a glance. She was breathing on her hands. After a while, she pulled thick gloves on her hands: "This damn weather is really enough to freeze penguins."

—It's cold enough to freeze penguins. Someone had once described a polar environment to Qi Leren like this. When Janet’s words, he couldn’t help but think of that. Qi Leren showed a smile: "There are no penguins here, and we have temperature-control suits. We won’t freeze to death."

"Hey man, this is just an exaggerated metaphor. Can you have a sense of humor?" Janet rolled her eyes at him.

Dr. Lu and Alex came out of the church. Both of them were a little sleepy. They went back to rest after the handover with Janet. Janet walked into the church, sat down on the couch, and chatted with Qi Leren boredly: "You and Lara have a good relationship?"

"Not bad," Qi Leren said perfunctorily.

"Uh-huh, I guess you’re being condescending now," Janet said with a smile.

"You’re not a worm in my stomach." Qi Leren refused to admit it.

"Come on, I still have self-awareness. I never wanted to be likable." Janet shrugged her shoulders and said casually, "Let’s change the subject. What do you think about the disappearances these past few days?"

"...It's hard to say, but I don't think this is a ‘script’. The situation has been somewhat out of control." Qi Leren frowned. "I feel that it’s dangerous. A great danger..."

"Interesting. What kind of danger is it?" Janet asked curiously.

Qi Leren glanced at her. He wasn’t sure what this woman was thinking: "In many ways. Although intelligent life on this planet is extinct, there are still large animals alive, the vegetation is well preserved, the air quality and temperature conditions are suitable for survival, and it may be used as a colony planet or sightseeing planet in the future."

Janet was suddenly taken with him and followed along his topic: "I don't want to come to this hellhole again. Unless some discerning producer invites me to be the heroine and let Lara play the villain, then I may think about it, haha."

"You hate her that much?" Qi Leren was surprised. He thought Lara was easy to get along with.

"It’s the war between women, men wouldn’t understand." Janet spread her hands. "Anyway, I just hate the way she carries herself all the time. She acts like she’s the smartest, most powerful, most understanding in the world. It’s hypocritical, but you men eat this up."

Qi Leren declined to comment.

When Janet saw that he didn't speak, she curled her lips in boredom and found a place to sit down.

It was getting late into the night, Janet complained about the importance of beauty sleep, and absently dozed off. Qi Leren had had enough sleep during the day, so now he was very energetic and wandered around the church. This church should be quite old. If it wasn’t in the polar region, it would have been overwhelmed by lush vegetation and become a green ruin.

Looking out from the church window, Qi Leren could just see He Yi's house in the southwest. He suddenly remembered that He Yi had talked about something. On the first night, he saw...

What did he see? Did someone enter the church? If so, who did he see?

Unless He Yi reappeared, it was impossible for him to know.

This night was calm, Janet slept for a while and woke up after a while. At 7 o'clock, she finally got up. She tidied up her hair and complained: "I have never lived so rough in my life, and I have never desired to before!"

Qi Leren was about to speak when he saw Lara coming with Xue Jiahui from the window, so he asked, "How do you feel?"

Xue Jiahui looked at him in confusion and shook her head: "I still can't remember..."

"It's good that we’re returning to our parent star when the program is over. It should be only temporary," Lara consoled.

When the contestants came one after another, Lara pulled the Qi Leren aside when no one was paying attention and whispered, "When you searched for materials a few days ago, did you find anything like cotton and cloth?"

"Yes, I did. What do you want this for?" Qi Leren wondered.

"I don't want it, it’s Xue Jiahui. I saw that she discarded a cloth in the bathroom with blood on it. I think she probably encountered the same problem as Annie," Lara said.

Qi Leren: "..."

"Even I don't think it’s very good. You may not know this, but this physiological condition can be contagious," Lara said embarrassedly.

Qi Leren felt that, as a man, he didn't really want to know this kind of thing. He was a little concerned that Lara didn't tell others, but instead had taken him aside to borrow necessities. Did he look like a "best friend"?

Probably seeing Qi Leren’s depressed expression, Lara added: "I asked Francis to look after her for a while yesterday and went everywhere to borrow something, but unfortunately none of them had anything."

"Then how did you deal with it?" Qi Leren asked.

Lara gave a complicated look and said, "Xue Jiahui cut up her pillow... The pillowcase was used as a liner."

As the two people whispered, the contestants had already arrived one after another. This time, the atmosphere was more dignified than the previous two times. It even faintly appeared somewhat strange, because this time, what would be announced by the speaker was not the person who had won the Best of the Day, but the person who had knocked out Xue Jiahui and left her in the church. And this man was among them.

Time passed, and at eight o'clock the speaker started. The answer they eagerly wanted to know was given in a mechanical voice: "Now broadcasting the voting results. The winner of the Best of the Day is: Mark."

"Mark?"

"How can it be him?"

"Isn't he missing?"

"It turned out to be him?"

They were all whispering in amazement, but Qi Leren was not too surprised. It had seemed like Mark had gone missing at the beginning, but he wasn’t really missing, he was hiding somewhere... He quietly glanced out of the corner of his eye at Annie who was standing in the shadows, and she was expressionless.

……

……

……

The discussion was still inconclusive, so they had to split up again. Qi Leren was in a faint hurry. Today was the fourth day. If there was no breakthrough, even if he risked being seen through by the audience, he would identify the dangerous creature "amphioctopus", or risk being parasitized or injured. He would forcibly enter Annie's house.

Although Annie's own fighting capacity shouldn’t be strong, Qi Leren strongly suspected that she was already a puppet of the octopus, and he doesn't know anything about the octopus’ fighting capabilities. He didn't have the confidence that he could kill an octopus without using a skill card. Fortunately, after listening to the broadcast results, Annie returned to her house and then left the house again with the axe to go look for materials.

After waiting for the opportunity for such a long time, Qi Leren immediately climbed into Annie's house through the window, focusing on searching for the attic. This time, they had a clear goal and had good luck. In less than ten minutes, Dr. Lu found a dark panel on the second floor ceiling, from which an iron ladder could be pulled down after it was lifted.

Qi Leren looked at the dark attic above his head and was excited. His guess was right. Annie's house did have an attic! Mark and He Yi didn’t disappear, but hid in the attic!

After entering the attic, it was dark inside. Under the illumination of the flashlight, the desks, chairs, and bookshelves here all looked grim. Qi Leren noticed that the attic was also like a laboratory, just like the basement in Jing Siyu’s house.

Dr. Lu also came up, looked around to search, and soon felt that there was something wrong with the floor in the attic. Du Yue came up to help and lifted the floor. It turned out to be a straight, dark passage below, leading underground!

"So the structure is like this," Dr. Lu said, looking at this passage "It's not that there’s a trapdoor on the first floor that’s used to enter the basement, but there’s a passage through the attic, which isn’t connected with the first floor or the second floor, but goes straight to the basement. Um... For example, it’s like an enlarged version of a sewage pipe embedded in the wall."

"Why would they have such a design?" Du Yue asked curiously.

"God knows, I don’t have a clue. Oh, it’s also possible that the owner was a hikikomori and hated to see the sun. His scope of activities was the attic and the basement, so when building the house, he simply made such a passageway," Dr. Lu said.

Although he didn’t hear any movement, Qi Leren was a little worried that someone could be in the basement, so when he grabbed the metal cross section and climbed down the pipe’s ladder rung by rung, his heart beat fast and he was extremely nervous. But after reaching the bottom, he found everything was normal and the basement was empty.

"Wow, what is this? Was there an explosion?" Dr. Lu also climbed down and was surprised to see that there was a pile of messy rubble deep in the basement and a big hole punched out of the wall.

"Do you remember that when we were in Jing Siyu’s basement, there was the sound of an explosion outside? At that time, I thought it was the church or something had collapsed, but now it seems that... It happened here," Qi Leren said thoughtfully.

Du Yue also came over. He was more active. He simply rolled up his sleeves and moved the rocks. However, several huge rocks blocked the hole and couldn’t be removed without tools: "No, I can't move them. Can I explode it again?"

Qi Leren looked at the rocks on the ground that had obviously been manipulated but still blocked their way. He could imagine what Annie and Mark had been busy with these past few days… Hey, but where had Mark gone? They didn't see Mark go in or out of Annie's house all day yesterday. Maybe he was here the whole time, or maybe he was outside the whole time.

There came a squeak sound, the hatch that connected the attic to the basement was lifted. Qi Leren immediately turned off his flashlight, as did Dr. Lu.

Deng, deng, deng, the sound of shoes stepping on the metal rungs came, and Qi Leren felt like his hair was about to fall out. He looked in horror at the metal pipe with its iron ladder. Someone was coming down!

"Did we close the attic door when we entered the pipe?" Qi Leren lowered his voice and asked.

"It was closed, I was the last one, I closed it," Du Yue replied nervously.

"Okay, don't make any noise, stick to the wall, I’ll handle it." Qi Leren said after a pause, guessing that the other party didn't know they were in the basement.

After turning off the flashlights, only pure darkness remained in the basement, almost opaque. Qi Leren closed his eyes, stroked the palm of his right hand with his left hand, and silently counted the sound of the steps on the rungs as he readied himself.

He felt as if he had returned to the sea. The sea water was cold, and the pressure from all directions became stronger and stronger with his dive. He forced himself to slow down his heart, because at this time, panic would only make his oxygen consumption faster and make him closer to death.

Just as Qi Leren constantly adjusted his own state and brought himself closer to his peak level, that person had already reached the bottom. When they were about to step off it, the person fumbled in their trouser pocket and took out a flashlight...

The flashlight’s switch gave a click, and in a moment the light lit up the people hidden in the darkness. It was at this instant that Qi Leren shot out like lightning and kicked their calf! Kicked their face down to the ground!

"Ah!" A woman’s voice let out a painful cry and the flashlight fell to the ground. She wanted to look up and see who it was, but Qi Leren swung his hand down like a knife on the back of her neck! The strength was so great that she passed out instantly!

Looking at Annie, who had collapsed to the ground and passed out, Qi Leren breathed a long sigh of relief. He felt that he had returned to the surface from the bottom of the sea and felt renewed life thrum through him.

Thank you Chen Baiqi, thank you diving training, and thank you three-headed hellhound.

-----

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

[mrsbarnes107]

Secret of the Widow

-part nine-

Summary: Post Endgame time period. The team is healing, trying to navigate this new normal they’ve found themselves in when Bucky and Sam bring home a stray with an attitude and a secret. Will the broken team take her in? Or is it too much to bare?

Warnings: language, *eventual* violence and smut, death, fluff, angst

Pairings: Bucky x OC

"Don't do anything stupid Sarge." I bumped my shoulder against his bicep as I walked past him. Turning around I continued backwards down the hall, "oh and take care of Big Bird, wouldn't wanna ruffle his feathers too much." With a wink at the scowling bird man and one last look at Bucky I turn the corner and head to my room.

Apparently there were two other bombings, both in separate parts of Europe, so Sam and Buck were heading to one location while Wanda and Banner took the other. There were far more casualties this time, and now we have to wait to interrogate the bombers from yesterday while the team is out.

"Friday can you let Peter know I'll meet him in the lab in thirty minutes please?"

"Of course Ms. Romanoff.... He says he'll bring the coffee Miss."

With a nod I enter my room and immediately strip out of my sweat, among other things, soaked clothes.

Trying to hide the messy hair and flushed cheeks during the meeting was incredibly difficult. Especially when Barnes waltzed in after me, lips red and eyes still filled with lust, roaming my body every once in a while as Sam gave out instructions.

With a firm shake of my head I walk to the dresser, throwing on a simple halter top and jeans. Walking to the mirror to put my hair into a messy bun I can't help but feel guilty.

I promised myself I wouldn't let Bucky get to me. It's not fair to him. He spent so long fighting to get back to who he is, and I can't just throw more missing memories at him. He deserves to find himself again. Without the pressure of our past.

Staying away and staying platonic is so much easier said than done. Especially when he looks like a rugged Greek sculpture and touches me like he's starving.

In the middle of tugging on my vans, a soft knock echoes through the room.

Looking up I see Clint poke his head in, "hey sorry, looks like you're going somewhere, I can come back later."

"No no it's fine, I'm meeting Peter in a bit, you can walk with me if you want."

I stand and lead him down the hall, letting the silence settle for a moment, only the soft sounds of shoes hitting linoleum to be heard.

There's a sigh to my left and a shift in the atmosphere. "So, I've been trying to find the right words. Nothing sounds good enough though."

I glance up and meet his eyes as we enter the elevator. "Do you have questions?"

"I do, but none you can answer most likely. I just- I wanted to-" a frustrated sigh is heaved from his chest as he meets my gaze and grabs my hand lightly. "Loosing Natasha almost killed me. I carry that guilt every single day, I see the ghost of her everywhere.... And knowing that she lost you, that you lost her, it just- I'm sorry, I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough. It should have been me. She deserved so much more than what she got and I-"

I squeeze his hand with a small tug. "Clint, you and I both know that nothing could have stopped her. She did it for you and your family, she did it for me. She would have brought you back and killed you herself if you had taken her place. You don't need my forgiveness because I don't blame you for anything, but you need to forgive yourself Hawky. She was a stubborn, sneaky woman and I know for a fact that she's been cursing up a storm at you for the amount of guilt you're carrying."

At that he let out a chuckle sob and pulled me into a hug. "I know you don't know me kid, but I'm here and I'm gonna look out for you like Nat would have wanted. I've got your back always, no matter what."

The elevator dings as the doors slide open.

I give the man another tight hug and exit, turning to give him a small smile. "You know, she'd write to me sometimes, not often but everyone once in a while I'd get a letter. In every one she'd mention my Uncle Clint. She'd say you were a cocky ass, but the most loyal and caring cocky ass she'd ever met. She really loved you, so I grew up caring for you too. As much as you have my back, I've got yours."

A small chuckle escapes his lips. "Hm Uncle Clint, I could get use to that kid."

With a wink a turn and start towards the lab calling over my shoulder, "You better, cause I'm not an easy one to get rid of."

Nearing the lab it was easy to recognize the classic rock playing from the speakers. Guess Peters feeling nostalgic today.

"Hey Petey, what'd you need help with?" I slung an arm around his shoulder and swiped a coffee from the table.

"Well I've been staying here while my school is on a break, trying to crack some closed files of Mr. Starks but the encryption is weird and I'm going back to Mays in the next day or so. Could you give it a try?"

"Yeah of course." I swiped across the hologram to move in front of me and began reading the coding surrounding the encryption. "Huh. This is weird, it looks more like a puzzle than a typical password. Why are you going through his files?"

Enlarging different sections I began to reposition them and break them apart.

"I don't know really, at first it was because I missed him I guess, but now it's just interesting, reading through his thinking process, seeing the projects he wanted to finish. It's cathartic in a really painful way I suppose, getting to be with him in a way."

I give his hand a small squeeze and hip check him softly. "I get it.. hmhm so there's discoloration in certain parts of the coding and there were clear breaks in the pattern, so I separated each break. It's definitely a puzzle or picture of some sort."

Reaching up to rearrange a few pieces, one of them aligned, the coding changing from shades of grey to black and white.

"I don't understand why this file is so different. Mr. Stark didn't use this on any of the other encryptions."

I just hummed in response, squinting at the hologram.

A laugh startled from my lips, "Oh Tony."

Reaching up I move the coding fragments, each one clicking into place. As the last piece sealed, the picture enlarged for a a few seconds and blinked.

"Is that- is that a PLAYING CARD? He encrypted a file with a picture of a poker card? Why would he-"

Suddenly the card disappeared, little hologram fragments buzzing the the center of the table, until eventually Tony's face was looking at us.

"Hey Ace, long time no see huh?"

"Wait.. Ace? Why does that sound so familiar.." Peter mumbled, however it was drowned out suddenly from the blaring alarm echoing through the compound as the lights went black save for the red flashing from the generators.

[nautiscarader]

Year of the cow, or how I stopped worrying and loved the meme (BBRae)

Beast Boy's and Raven's relationship is truly one of the most subtle and emotional ones I have seen. There are lots of fantastically written fics which dive deep into characterisation and their nuanced, complicated emotions, showing complex colours of the spectrum of love.

Unfortunately, you have made a mistake clicking on one of my fics.

This is a birthday present for my buddy, ZekkKiray, and it revolves around a meme which I really found irritating... And I wondered how other characters might have reacted to it. Happy birthday, man!

yes, still half hour till midnight in my time zone, made it.

BBRae, 4k, E, (Ao3)

==========

As the Sun slowly hid on the horizon, Jump City, just like every city and town in the world, was slowly preparing for a glorious celebration. People were ready to welcome the new year with dances, parties and optimism encouraged by copious amounts of alcohol.

But not everyone was interested in partying and throwing caution to the wind. Five superheroes traversed the town's rooftops, watching over many celebrations, and ideal breeding grounds for crime, big or small.

Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven and Beast Boy set out to patrol the city, to ensure that this momentous occasion won't be disturbed by any wrong-doer...

And quite quickly decided to join the party. Well, some of them. Robin sighed when he realised that his team has disbanded to join the crowd of onlookers, cheering and applauding the band on the colorful stage, that would soon be replaced by another group, hired just to play one or two hits for some quick cash.

Raven stayed to the side as well, keeping her eye not only at her friends, but the crowd, though her attention was suddenly caught by the dancers on the stage. Three women, dressed in black-and-white horned costumes, performing a synchronised dance, much to the delight of the audience.

- Er, and what exactly is that? Some sort of fad...?

- Oh, no, friend Raven! - Starfire was eager to explain - Robin has told me it's a Chinese calendar! And the Chinese have chosen an animal to represents each year, and...

- Oh, yeah, right. - Raven interrupted her - And lemme guess, this year's a cow?

- Ox, technically. - Robin chimed in - And it's not even started yet, it's based on a lunar one, so it will be somewhere in February.

Raven looked at the women in their silly costumes, dancing and playfully jiggling their fake udders and cow-bells to the beat of the music.

- Meh, whatever, it's gonna be over soon. Oh, by the way, this guys was pickpocketing. - Raven spoke nonchalantly, her shadow coiling around a burly man's throat.

By January fourth, however, Raven was seeing cows everywhere. Television, billboards, the internet... especially the internet. She felt as if it was a single-themed Halloween party that somehow stretched to a week.

And the boys weren't helping. While Robin remained reasonably level-headed, Cyborg and Beast Boy were having times of their lives, enjoying every single appearance of the costumes in real life, or in any media.

The worst thing was, Raven wasn't even sure why the fad irritated her so much. There were much more asinine things out there. But something about that fad was driving her nuts.

At the very least, there was Starfire, who sometimes was able to understand her.... or so Raven thought until she returned one day from the market with plastic cow-horns on her head a bell around her neck.

Raven groaned at the sight of his friend and stormed out of the common room, pushing away few streamers, still lingering after the new year's party.

She closed door to her room behind her and embraced the darkness and silence that allowed her to meditate and focus her powers...

And then she heard the faint jingling of the cowbells from behind the wall.

The purple flames on the candles around her shot up to the ceiling, as Raven tried to control her irritation.

She barked and grabbed her mirror, disappearing into her private void that extinguished the flames she ignited.

Raven walked down the floating rocks that paved her dimension, encased in darkness, illuminated by just few stars and distant galaxies. The ravens flew away in fear, as she glided forward, hoping to find some peace and quiet here...

- Hiya!

But of course, in this realm, she was never truly alone.

A woman dressed in pink jumped from behind a nearby rock, causing Raven to cease her movement just for a while, before she promptly decided to ignore her own emoticlone.

- Oh come on, you haven't been here for ages! - the jovial embodiment of happiness continued - We've been having SO much fun here!

- Great. Leave me alone.

But before she could react, Pink grabbed her and steered her off-path, flying down a different route, loudly announcing their presence.

- Hey guys. looks who's here! - she shouted, waving the arm she wasn't using to maneuver Raven between rocks.

- Oh, great, our big sister... - the Orange mumbled from behind a couch-shaped rock

- Have-have we done something wrong? - the timid Graphite pulled over her cloak

- Judging from your prolonged absence, something extraordinary must have happened. - Yellow interjected, eyeing Raven with curious stare.

Raven let out another groan.

- It's nothing. Leave me-

- Oh, is it about you-know-who?

Violet's sly and suggestive voice prompted Raven to pause mid-turn. her eye twitched.

- Ooh, very brave of you to tackle the most common problem of your visits! - Green added at once. - He can be annoying...

- I've said...

A blast of energy erupted around her, as Raven turned away, but couldn't finish her sentence. There was one emotion left, and she knew very well what can summon her, and it was already too late.

- Come on, say it.

Red spoke, gleaming with a subtle, yet unmistakeable triumph in her voice.

- I'm done with you. - Raven answered and continued her walk, before being predictably stopped again

- Oh sure, is this why you have almost brought me back? - she sneered - And for such petty reason...

- Ooh, tell us, tell us! - Pink chimed in, before being brought aside by Yellow

- Let me do it...

Red spoke and spread her arms, giving the other emoticlones chance to glimpse into what little she have seen.

- That... that is quite an insignificant reason to bring back *her* - Yellow judged - Are you sure it's adequate?

- I'm just afraid this will backfire... - Graphite meeped from behind her

- But I was right - Violet added - It is about him...

- ENOUGH!

Raven burst with energy, silencing her living emotions.

- We just want you to say it, so we can... help you.

The Red emoticlone stood in her way, finally making her stop. Her presence cast a shadow of fear on the lesser creatures of this realm, and even some other emoticlones that dared not to approach her. Red's voice was strangely polite, though Raven knew she must have an ulterior motive behind it.

- And you know what the answer to your problem is.

Anger reached her arm and waited for Raven's response. She couldn't meet her eyes. She was right, of course, but at the same time, embracing the violent and unpredictable part of her nature, reminding her of her father's legacy filled her with disgust...

- But you will not be alone with it. - Violet suddenly joined.

- And while it may look odd, this might be an opportunity to broaden your horizons. - Yellow continued.

- And let's face it, you've done weirder things, but you never cowered away! - Green shouted.

- Besides, it's gonna be so much fun! - Pink smiled.

Raven lifted her hood and looked at the other emoticlones, all awaiting her decision.

Knowing she's delaying the inevitable, with a heavy sigh, Raven made her decision.

===============

Garfield knew better not to interrupt Raven. He has made that mistake a few times in his life, and he still had his life only because Raven was his friend.

Still, seeing her angry was painful, thought not as much as the silent treatment he was getting from her. Beast Boy hesitated for a moment, and just before he was about to knock on her doors, he stopped himself.

With a sigh, he turned around and returned to his room, finding someone already inside.

At first, Garfield thought he was dreaming. But after a few blinks, he realised that the marvellous, dreamy sight in front of his eyes was real, and it made his heart skip a beat.

Raven's trademark, dark-blue attire was gone, replaced by a white costume dotted with black-and-brown spots. Her long legs were covered in fishnets with the same pattern, and as his eyes travelled up, he realised what was exerting the gravitational force that was pulling him that way...

The skin-tight costume had changed his perception, perhaps, but even then, Raven' nipples were just a fraction of an inch away from slipping, as her breast were simply too big to stay hidden in any article of clothing.

And when he looked at her horned head again, he noticed a faint smile on her face, contrasting so much with her demeanour over the past few days. She shifted her legs, spreading them slightly, giving him just a small tease of what was to come, and with her eyes fixated at him, she spoke.

- Moo, I guess.

- Oh, momma!

And before she knew it, Beast Boy leapt onto her with the grace and agility of a frog, diving between her enlarged breasts, and feeling the delicate, cushioning texture engulf his head almost entirely. And at the same time, with his fingers digging into the material, he freed Raven's breasts, hungrily kissing each square inch of her body as if his life depended on it.

- Gar... - Raven moans, feeling her boyfriend wriggling against her bosom

- I see someone has changed her mind...

- You can say that... - Raven replied, hiding the moan that was about to escape her lips.

- I guess you took Starfire's approach and visited the market? - Beast Boy joked, between his kisses - Or, wait, no, you ordered it online so no one will know, right?

- Let's just say I didn't have to order it...

For a moment, Beast Boy pondered the meaning of her words, until he realised that he has seen her outfit once before. Well, without the black-and-brown blots. And as the realisation dawned on him, he let out a gasp, as Raven's eyes glowed white.

Only one of the spots was brown. There was a pink, yellow, green one...

Her most powerful form, the combination of all of her emotions sat on his bed, emanating raw magical, warm energy that could easily vaporise him if she wanted to. Beast Boy suspected the horns weren't plastic either, and that he has just made a few snarky jokes to a demonic sorceress orders of magnitude more powerful than him.

And yet, she was still smiling.

- I just... - Raven swallowed - Couldn't stand you ogling all those cartoon anime girls on-line, in their stupid cow costumes. So I had to fight fire with fire.

- Aww... - Beast Boy cooed - Is my Raven jealous?

- YES. - the demon spoke in deep, rumbling voice that shook some of the objects on the shelves.

The spots on her White costumes suddenly glowed with ominous, red aura, as blood in Garfield's veins froze.

Her face was inches away from his, and only when she felt his hastened breath, she calmed down, and her spots returned to their original colours, just as the red aura disappeared from her eyes. She reached her hands and cupped his face, glad that he did not back away, as her anger overtook her. Their lips met, and Raven poured her apologies into him in a long, delicate kiss.

- And you will have to pay for it. - she smiled, giving Garfield clear sign she was everything under control, including him.

- Rae... - Garfield whined - You-you know I'd never... they... they don't mean anything...

- Then prove it.

Raven used the moment of hesitation to engulf him and with one sharp move of her hands and her magic, she ripped his clothes to shreds and brought her lover closer to her. With his shorts gone, Raven's eyes fixated on his cock, and had to restrain herself from licking her lips, as its head came closer and closer to her face. But of course neither of them would settle on just a blowjob, given the magic Raven cast upon herself.

Beast Boy jumped onto her breasts again, peppering them with plethora of hungry, ravenous kisses. Knowing already her bosom by heart, he know had a whole new territory to explore, and he did that with impeccable dedication. But as his lips closed around her nipple, he received a taste of something unexpected. His eyes widened, and met hers, as sweet substance made contact with his tongue. The sly smile on her lips remained, but as Beast Boy began lapping her milk, her face was torn with a new grimace he hasn't seen yet, and Raven was more than eager to experience.

Garfield moved from one nipple to the other, wishing he could transform into some creature with two heads. As Raven squirmed and moaned underneath him, he wondered what will happen soon, and with his hand manoeuvring between her thighs, he was determined to discovered that.

Her back arched, as his fingers reached her wet spot and slipped underneath her costume, just as his tongue coiled around her nipple again. Though she was trying to contain her emotions, the spots on her costume glowed in violet with each kiss and delicate move of his fingers against or inside her sex, and soon, Raven was thrashing underneath him, ready to burst.

And when she did, it was not with energy, but with milk that filled Beast Boy's mouth, in an act that surprised both of them.

Raven quaked for a few more minutes, coating his fingers with her juices he now lapped as eagerly as the new one she produced for him. Beast Boy made sure to wait until she was looking at him when he licked his lips, tasting both.

- Come'ere, I'm thirsty too... - she huffed, and settled herself amongst the pillows, ready to invite him.

Beast Boy let out a dreamy sigh, as his cock slid between her breasts, engulfing him completely with the delicate, heavenly texture only her breasts could provide. And when Raven gently pushed her mounds together, she added the missing part of friction, making Beast Boy throw his head back, even though he hasn't moved an inch.

But as he looked down at his girlfriend, he met her unusually frisky eyes, and with that, he flexed his muscles. Next thing she knew, his hands were on her horns, and he pushed his hips forward, diving deep into her bosom.

His action was a bit sudden and Raven's eyes opened wide when she realised that her head was pulled forward and that his twitching tip was now a fraction of an inch from her lips. And as she was about to open them, he pulled back and began his thrusts, mewling and moaning with each one, as pleasure slowly engulfed him.

He was in trance, brought by the alluring sight of his girlfriend and her magically enlarged bosom and thge reward they were leaking. And as Raven promised, she wanted one of her own: now, with every rapid thrust, her tongue lapped a drop or two of his pre-cum, in turn only generating more samples of what was to come. Raven was pretty sure what was his plan, but she opened her lips wide anyway, hoping to catch at least some of his oncoming climax.

- Rae...Rae... I LOVE YOU!

And with that proclamation, beast Boy dived balls-deep between her magically enlarged breasts, letting her warmth and size cover them as well, which only strengthened his orgasm. Raven yelped when the first stream of his seed flooded her mouth, and closed her mouth just in time to suck a bit more, even though she knew what was the sight he wanted to see.

As he pulled back, his cock was still twitching, spurting more and more of his virility in the valley between her mounds, until it slowly started to spill down, glazing her breasts with the sticky proof of his devotion.

And just as he thought he has seen it all, Raven dragged her finger across her breasts, hoping to catch as much of his cum as possible before it all drips to the bed. she parted her fingers to show the sticky strands between them before she closed her lips around them and made him collapse to his back from the simple act of tasting him.

- That was fun - she spoke, as most of his seed made it to her lips. - But you know what every cow needs, right?

Raven asked, lapping the last bit of cum from her tits. She leaned forward and with the same low, salacious tone as before, whispered the words that Beast Boy already had on his mind.

- Her bull...

His green body grew in a split of second, transforming him, but not in the form of the animal Raven expected. While his head became elongated and grew bovine horns, his torso and arms remained human, though much more muscular, and only the addition of hooves on his legs and a tail truly made her realise what he was now: a minotaur.

But of course, hooves and tail was not what piqued Raven's interest the most, as her eyes looked down at the figure towering over her.

This time, she could not stop herself and her lust; Raven licked a small droplet of drool that formed on her lips, and reached her hand to experience the enormous, throbbing organ whose glistening head was now once more inches away from her lips.

But her lover didn't want another blowjob. As steam-like cloud escaped his nostrils, Beast Boy grabbed her and effortlessly slammed her onto his cock, watching as the sorceress lets out a silent moan.

When he went down on her, Raven tried to maintain at least some dignity. But now, as her sex was filled completely with his monstrous cock, she threw all of the pretence away and babbled her lover's name, while the blots on her costume pulse violet each time his cock reached her depths, time after time, depraving her of common sense, as bliss slowly overtook her mind.

But not until she has managed to speak one last wish.

- D-Do what you are supposed to!

Raven screamed, her voice vibrating with the erratic thrusts her entire body was subjected to.

- Mate me! Breed me!

Another roar escaped his mouth, and Raven took a gasp of air just in time to expel it, as Beast Boy shoved himself deeper inside her throbbing pussy that before, firmly positioning himself as far as possible, right against her core, he now bathed in first deluge of his seed. And with his thick, monster cock forming an air-tight seal, not a drop of his virility could leak out, and was forced up into her womb. What would have been impossible for any other man became a child's play for him, letting Raven experience the impossible.

And with the flood of his warm seed filling her, came her orgasm, making Raven thrash around his cock, as if she was a puppet on his mercy. With each wave that flooded and promptly overflowed her sex, came a new sensation of being filled and claimed, and in turn, each simultaneously extinguished fire in her loins, and set it anew...

At some point, Raven fell back to the bed, feeling her pussy pulse with each after-wave of her climax, while Beast Boy's seed oozed onto the bed. She wasn't sure how long her after-glow lasted, but she knew what brought her back to her senses.

Her breasts were kissed again, with the same tender and care the minotaur would never learn. Beast Boy was his regular self, taking care of her body his monstrous form has neglected, listening to her breath slowly becoming less and less erratic.

She looked up and their eyes met, while Garfield locked his lips around her nipple again, drinking her orgasm.

- Hey.

- Hey. - she replied - I guess people were right, those cow costumes do work.

- Rae, you could dress like a platypus and you'd be sexy.

Raven smiled, and her hand reached to her lover's cheek, prompting him to leave her nipple.

Their lips met again, and though she thought she would be tired by now, she welcomed him again, especially as his hands now roamed her thighs and ass.

She let out another moan, seemingly far louder than a moment before, but maybe it was because her voice wasn't drowned by the beast's low grunts, but Garfield's borderline cute huffs.

And even though he was now much shorter and thinner than before, somehow Raven felt fuller than when a giant minotaur ravaged her. Maybe it was his kisses, dotting her breasts and lapping her milky fluid, maybe it was his delicate, but steady grip of his hands on her thighs... or maybe it was the unspoken promise they mentioned...

As they kept coming closer, the empath suddenly grabbed his cheeks and pulled him against her, not to kiss, but to find emotions raging in his mind. And she found them - those of love, protection, dedication and responsibility, which easily pushed her to the edge...

She cried out his name just as he flooded her again, this time with his essence, and even though Raven knew it was impossible, she somehow felt the difference in warmth that filled her sex.

As the two breathed in the same air, Raven gently moved her hand between her body, feeling the warmth of his body above her, and his cock and seed inside. She could undo the spell right now, and change their lives forever... And she had to admit, it would be a very apt moment... but then again, she would rob them of many, many heated moments like these.

It's a good thing she buddied up with Yellow as much as with Violet for this ride.

The two lay ion each other's arms for quite some time, savouring each other's scents and warmth, until Raven found strength and motivation to speak.

- So, got any more silly internet memes trending?

Beast Boy smiled and reached for his phone.

=============

Winter this year was snow-less, rainy and mild, like for the past half a decade or so. But that only made the New Year's eve less cumbersome, as it meant less time traversing through mounds of snow. Plus, it meant the Titans' Tower rooftop wasn't off limits.

- I thought this place, at this time would be the worst to meditate. - Beast Boy spoke - The whole sky's gonna be on fire in five minutes.

- Yeah, but maybe I wanted to watch.

He sat next to her, listening to far-away sounds of concerts and premature celebration. He scooted a few inches closer to her, and let out a short meep when her cape covered him.

- I wonder what this year will bring us. - he spoke, ruining the quiet, charming moment.

- I do - Raven answered quickly. - This year is gonna be of the tiger.

Raven spoke and undid a button of her cape that joined the two, freeing her breasts. Beast Boy swallowed loudly, seeing the moonlight shining onto her skin, and making her bosom look bigger with no additional magic required.

- Why don't we practice, kitty?

And with that, the night's air was filled with a powerful roar of a predator cat that has just found its very willing prey.

[bilbao-song]

What are some of your favorite album covers? (Or album art in general, some have cool inner folds or stuff like that...)

hmmmmmm this is fun

i'm just going to make a little subpar collage in paint really quick

(if you actually want to look at this and can’t get it to enlarge click here)

okay this is the ugliest and sloppiest thing i've ever made and i think it more or less just turned into "show me some images you associate with positive memories and things you like" bc like 90% of this is just a list of my favorite albums but. still

also this is in no particular order but i guess that's kind of obvious since i pretty much just slapped them on there. and i KNOW i'm probably forgetting something

oh and one more thing [columboesquely]: i'm obsessed w/ this little illustration that came inside the (extremely inaccurate) lyrics/info booklet that came with my japanese pressing of trafalgar by the bee gees:

anyway THANK YOU i enjoyed this so much lol

[fandomlife-giver]

Bedewed Maid - 1

Summary: My young master’s soul emites a heady aroma. A scent that intoxicated demons, drives them mad, impels them to battle. Music shall play, captivating all...And secrets shall be revealed.

Next time, “Bedewed Maid”

Surely I can resolve a prickly situation without Sebastian in 5 minutes, master. Otherwise, what kind of maid would I be?

Pairings: Sebastian X Demon!Reader X Claude

@wintersdoll @naniky @danabuggxd​ @redryderdesigns​ @inumorph​

Word Count: 2572

Warnings: Mild language, Implications of sexual themes

“An archangel…”

Your words breathed out in disbelief. Although still in your attack position, you were caught off guard at what you had heard.

Your eyes narrowed at his carefree smile. “Why are you here? You have no reason to be mingling with demonkind.”

He sheepishly shrugged. “Well, actually, I originally came here many centuries ago to rid of the rogue angel, as I was ordered to. But then...something came up.”

He locked eyes with you. “A certain half-breed of a demon was spotted by the angel I was hunting. And at that point, my mission was changed.”

He didn’t notice when you gulped at the memory.

“See, Abigail, as cliché as this sounds, I was assigned to be a watcher over you, you know?”

When he took a step closer, you raised your hand, your pointer finger signaling him to stop at his own risk.

You licked your lips as you straightened up and lowered your hands. “Let me get this straight...you’re saying that you are supposed to be my ‘guardian angel’?”

A grin broke out on his face as he suppressed a laugh. “Oh, no. Nothing like that.” He crossed his arms behind his back. “Just a watcher. I was only allowed to ensure you stayed out of trouble and where you belonged.”

The laugh you let out made him pucker his lips. You side-eyed him and the smile you momentarily had dropped. 

“You’re my warden.”

He tilted his head back and forth and raised his eyebrows, confirming what you knew. “I guess you could say that.”

You sighed and outstretched your arms in a questioning manner. “If that’s true then why were you working with my king? Why did you come to me on the boat? Why should I even believe you?”

He rolled his eyes, growing annoyed with your many questions. “Look, I’m sure you want to know a lot of things. But for now, I think we have bigger problems to deal with. Trancy.”

You jerked your head back and scoffed. “We? Did you really expect to earn my trust just by telling me the truth? What we are up against is purely an enemy of my master, no one else.”

He loudly groaned and walked up to you. “Okay, you know what? You are way too suspicious for your own good. We need to hurry up and I told you the truth because I need your help!”

As he brushed by you, you suddenly grabbed his arm. He looked back at you and his eyebrows drew together.

Your eyes suddenly felt heavy, your skin feeling as if it was on fire. You began to gag as the familiar sensation of your blood boiling came over you.

“Abigail?”

When you glanced down at where you felt it originating, you spotted a small arrow in your shin. Hurriedly, you reached down and pulled it out. When you sniffed the end, your heart dropped.

“Dead man’s blood…”

His eyes widened when you collapsed, but he still managed to catch you.

“Abigail? Abigail!”

Your vision grew blurry as you managed to make out a person behind him. Within a few seconds, he was kicked to the ground and you thought you saw a woman standing over him, placing what looked like handcuffs on him.

And then the ringing in your ears drowned out everything else, and your eyelids slowly closed to blackness.

●●●

“Abigail! Wake up!”

The moment the sound of his whispered voice hit your ears, your eyes snapped open. He sat beside you, chains around his ankles as a pair of cuffs were around his wrists. They had strange markings on them, in a language you had never seen before.

Your face was cold to the touch due to it being against a steel metal beam connecting the roof and the floor. Your entire body was still on fire but you could tell the blood wasn’t gonna keep you weakened for much longer.

He sighed when he saw your eyes met his. “Well, glad you could join us finally. Did you have a nice nap?”

You narrowed your eyes, choosing to ignore his sarcasm. “Us?”

An amused smile spread on his face as he nodded his head in your direction, his eyes landing on something behind you.

You twisted your neck to look and when you saw the image of the prisoner you had identified not too long ago, still wearing the bag over her head, you seethed through your teeth.

“Oh, how perfect. She’s here.”

But after a few seconds of looking at her, a thought crossed your mind. “Hold on, they said they were taking her to the room the device was in. If she’s here, then where is it?”

He puckered his lips and glanced around. As he did, you focused your attention on the very heavy chains keeping you in place.

You were bound differently from them, for you had a leg chain so long that it was wound all around your body, and two rings on your neck, one attached to the chain, the other to what you believe they call a "keep-friend" or "friend's foot," from which hung two irons reaching to your waist with two manacles fixed to them in which your hands were secured by a big padlock so that you could neither raise your hands to your mouth nor lower your head to your hands.

“This seems a bit excessive…”

You eyed his own restraints and scoffed. “You can’t seriously tell me those handcuffs are keeping you in place?”

He exhaled through his nose and looked back at you. “Not only do they hold me here, but they drain my super impressive archangel powers as well.”

Your nose scrunched up. “How troublesome. What is that written on them? I’m not familiar with it.”

He forced a smile as he raised his hands. “Enochian. They’re specifically designed to keep archangel’s locked tight. I had heard Trancy got a hold of them somehow and that is the only reason I’m even here. Our deal was he’d give them to me so I could add it to my collection if I handed over my instrument.”

You have a short chuckle. “Well, I guess this means your deal is off then?”

He dropped his hands as he clenched his jaw. “I guess so…”

“You’re very chatty, aren’t you?”

The two of you immediately moved your attention to the woman that had entered, wearing a revealing black gown. You tilted your head in confusion. She looked extremely familiar, but you couldn’t put your finger on it.

“My master ordered me to subdue the two of you. He wasn’t very pleased with you talking to our enemy, I’m afraid.”

Uriel rolled his eyes at her. But the more she talked, it finally clicked who she was. The maid. “That’s strange...I thought I saw you bump into me earlier...your outfit is hardly appropriate for your position.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You are certainly one to talk.”

You glanced down, remembering you were still in Lau’s ridiculous monstrosity of an outfit. “Oh. Right.” 

Your head shot up at her when she turned towards the back of the room. “Hold on, you’re the only maid in this estate. If that wasn’t you earlier than who…”

Slowly, your eyes enlarged. “Oh no...Ciel!”

●●●

”Good show, you’re all exceptionally skilled.”

Sebastian mockingly smiled down at the three identical servants that had attempted to decapitate him just moments ago. They stared up at him, jaws dropped when he jumped down from the tree he had been in, and ran passed them.

Ciel, who was in Sebastian’s arms, was holding on for dear life as Sebastian charged full speed ahead toward where Claude and Alois stood not too far away. One of the servants swung a blade at his head, which he easily avoided. 

As he continued to run, he stared down at Ciel. He muttered to himself as he thought back to a few weeks before when you and he escaped the Trancy manor with Ciel’s body in a briefcase. 

“It was like carrying a doll...running virtually unburdened.”

Ciel’s head moved up at Sebastian, as he caught what he had said. “Did you say something?”

Sebastian only smiled and looked away from him as he ran, a hint of laughter coming through his words. “Only that it would be far, far easier to carry you if you were in some sort of container, like a trunk, I’d say.”

Ciel’s eyebrows furrowed. “Is this any time to be joking?”

His laughter ceased instantly. “My apologies, master.”

His eyes locked onto Alois and Claude, who stood with his arm out in front of his master, protecting him. Alois watched in absolute joy as Sebastian spun around in front of them, his foot kicking the bangs in front of Claude’s face before he did a backflip over them, landing on the other side and continuing to run.

Ciel noticed the smirk of triumph on Sebastian’s face as he ran. “Sebastian, we need to get the guests out of there. What Trancy said has me worried. We must hurry and get to them.”

Sebastian only chuckled at him. “I wouldn’t worry much, sir. The servants are capable enough to handle whatever is thrown at them.”

He didn’t really believe that, though. He was truly only thinking about you as he said it.

Ciel only glanced down as his grip on Sebastian’s coat tightened. 

“It’s not those three that I’m worried about...we need to get both Elizabeth and Isabella out of there, they aren’t skilled enough to handle this. Their safety is the top priority.”

Sebastian glanced at him from the corner of his eye. “Isabella? She’s only a servant, master. I’m not sure that she’s worth your worry.”

Ciel nearly slapped him with his glare. “You may not understand it, but she is important. A human to you, but family to me.”

Sebastian began to slow down, his eyes narrowing at Ciel. 

“If you say so, master.”

●●●

Uriel sighed as he watched you attempt to stand up, only resulting in you falling on your side for the 50th time.

“Honestly Abigail, this is getting old. You aren’t going anywhere whether you like it or not.”

You growled at him as you managed to sit up. “Well, it would be nice if you’d help out a bit. And stop calling me that damn name!”

Your sight landing on the maid as she walked over to the nun with the bag over her head. She smirked at you before removing the bag.

The moment the girl’s eyes adjusted to the poorly lit room, her eyes landed on you. She froze in an instant, her eyes growing bigger. And not even a few seconds later, she let out a blood-curdling scream and scooted her feet to back away from your direction. Only, it was muffled by the rag in her mouth.

Your eyes never left her figure, only making her more afraid as tears pricked her eyes. The maid reached over and removed the gag from her mouth, but not before giving her a slap across the face, silently warning her to not make another sound. 

Her lips quivered as she never let you leave her sight. “You...you’re the monster that tried to kill me!”

Your lips pursed together, making a duck face. “Actually, I’m a demon. Kind of. I don’t even know anymore to be honest. But you don’t gotta be so loud about it.”

She pointed a finger at you, her face in pure shock. “You are...a d...demon? They exist?”

You waved your bound hand back and forth. “Unfortunately, yeah.”

Her eyes moved on Uriel, who had been intently watching your back and forth. “Then are you one as well?!”

He raised his cuffed hands, shrugging. “Angel, actually. Or archangel to be exact.”

Her eyes widened in admiration. “An archangel? Oh my...it is an honor to grace your presence, soldier of the Lord.”

He made a face of exasperation. “Yes, yes. You’re welcome. I know, I’m amazing.”

He yelped when you kicked him with your feet before shooting you a glare. You focused back on the girl. 

“Oh, and I hate to break it to you, but the man that, uh, massaged you, he’s a demon too. And my mate. So keep that in mind if you ever think about him again. Cause It’ll probably be the last thing you ever think. Cause then I’ll kill you. Just warning you now.”

She loudly gasped and sat up on her knees. “He is?! So you’re saying I...I laid with a demon?!”

You rested your forehead against the metal beam again. “Well, technically, I guess. If that’s what you call massaging you, then yeah.”

She cocked her head, a deep blush coming on her cheeks. “Massage? That wasn’t like any massage I’d ever had then…”

Your eyes slowly moved to her, your head coming off the beam as you leaned in her direction. “Watch what you say. You’re lucky you got even as much as a massage before I killed you.”

She gulped, holding her hands up in defense. “I didn’t mean any ill intent, your demon-ness. It’s just that he didn’t ‘just’ massage me…”

Your back straightened up as your words spat with venom. “What are you on about, slut? Spit it out, I know you wanna say something.”

She looked at you in fear as well as curiosity. “I don’t know why you’re so into it, but…”

“He didn’t just massage me. We fornicated. He penetrated me.”

Uriel’s eyebrows shot up, a grimace coming onto his face. “Oh boy. This isn’t gonna go well.”

Her heart began to beat faster as she caught your stare. Your eyes had completely darkened over, all light draining from them. 

You felt your body begin to shake uncontrollably with anger, tears pricking your eyes at what you had just heard. 

Uriel looked at you, growing fearful of what you might do. “Abigail?”

Your jaw tightened as tears finally spilled over, falling down your cheek.

“He...cheated on me?”

Your nostrils flared as your eyes changed color to their terrifying blackish-blue.

“And he lied to me about it?”

Uriel sighed at the frightened face of the nun and scooted closer to you. “Hey. You need to get a hold of yourself. We have more important things to worry about.”

“Are you all done with your melodramatic moment?”

Your inhuman eyes snapped to the maid, who was still in the room, watching all of you. You immediately sat up once you noticed another person beside her, his body encased in a black bag.

Uriel noticed it as well. “Oh, great. Another hostage? Aren’t you getting a little overboard with it?”

She only smiled at him as she tossed the bag on the ground in front of you. It let out a whimper as it hit the ground.

Its head moved around a bit until a small hole broke out through the material. It thrashed around until it completely turned around and you saw a head poke out. It was a man.

The man completely ripped the bag apart and his full body emerged from it. And it made the nun’s face heat up. Because the man was naked.

At this point, your tears had dried up and your eyes returned to normal. Your eyebrows drew together in confusion.

“Pluto?”

[timextoxhajima]

I Wish (Part IV, Continuing from When You Love Someone)

Group: DAY6

Genre: DAY6 TRILOGY CONTINUATION (What Can I Do, I Loved You, When You Love Someone)

A/N: After like 4 years of people trying to get me into Day6, I’m finally here with What Can I Do playing on repeat in the bg to help me vibe with what I’m writing. Biggest thank you to the person who got me into this mess, I might just cry with how many things I have up my sleeves now.

"3... 2... 1... Younghyun! I'm coming to find you!”

!Younghyun covers his mouth with glee, listening to his best friend run down the hallway and right past the cabinet he was hiding in.

"Jieun, please be careful down the stairs!" He heard his mother calling out from downstairs.

"Okay!" Jieun's voice rings through the house as her footsteps trace back down the steps. Younghyun closes one eye to look through the gap between the two doors, watching Jieun return up to the second floor.

"Younghyun!" The eight year old boy covers his mouth, preventing himself from laughing. Hide-and-seek is an important game ans he cannot lose to a girl.

"Younghyun~!" She shouts in a sing-songy voice, closer to the cabinet than he would like her to be. Then Jieun suddenly turns to the cabinet, catching that little glimmer in her eyes when she realised he could be hiding in there.

Younghyun's mother can hear the excited screams and yells from the second floor when she assumes Jieun has found her son hiding in his favourite hiding spot, the sound of their laughter only bringing her joy and comfort.

In the night, Younghyun's mother leaves two waterbottles outside the tent they were sleeping in (that was pitched in Younghyun's room) before leaving, turning off the lights before closing the door behind her. Younghyun crawls out, grabbing a torchlight and shining the bright beam at Jieun's gameboy as it beeps to life.

Little did they know it would be the last time they could do that, or even fit into the tent.

Younghyun was a quick-witted child, understood things faster than normal kids would. Jieun's pink-blushed face was looking down at him through the window of the passenger's seat infront as her father thanks Younghyun's parents for the three-week-long babysitting.

"Where is she going? Why is she leaving? Is she coming back? Did I do something wrong?"

Jieun's father squats and pats Younghyun's head, offering the child a look of apology that he will not understand for the next five years or so.

"We'll come back to visit, okay? Thank you for taking care of my Jieun for me."

It's like the adult thinks he can replace Younghyun's best friend when he hands him a toy robot. Jieun's eyes are unable to peel away from Younghyun when the car jerks after her father shuts the car door. Younghyun's mother is desperately wiping her son's face and holding him in his arms while he watches the car drive off.

"We'll come back to visit" is one of the biggest lies an adult can tell a child.

Younghyun jerks awake from his sleep, the alarm jolting him out of his nightmarish memory. Slamming a hand down into the alarm clock, he shuts it off and sits up, fingers running through his hair with his eyes still closed.

Kim Jieun... do you not remember me?

Park Jaehyung and Kim Jieun look a little too close for Younghyun's liking, but what can he say? They had sleepovers when they were 8 years old -- had her father not dragged her halfway across the country then, he would be in Jaehyung's place right now.

Funny how all three new students were all dumped in his class though. Kim Jieun, Yoon Dowoon and Park Jaehyung. Yet, while Jieun and Jaehyung looked like they were having the time of their lives, Dowoon seemed like he'd be better off dead.

"Hi, are you three doing alright in school?" Jieun looks up to Wonpil, eyes halved into crescents as he does his job of being the class president. Younghyun watches Jieun and Jaehyung nod and thank him, but Dowoon's earpieces were shoved so far into his ear canals, Wonpil goes unheard.

"Yah," Younghyun is surprised when Jieun drops honorifics when she calls out to Dowoon. "He's talking to us."

Dowoon gives her a side stare, and proceeds to continue ignoring her.

"I'm sorry, he's been going through a hard time since the move. He'll be up and around in due time." Looking over at Dowoon again, she tries once more to get his attention.

“It’s okay,” Wonpil shakes his head, gently blocking her from reaching out to him. “I get it. He just needs time.”

Wonpil nods, giving Dowoon one more glance before returning to his seat. At the end of the day, Younghyun and Jieun had been rostered to clean the classroom, so he feels nothing but discomfort when she exhibits the diligence she was already known for back then. Picking up the mop and the broom, she starts cleaning the floor without hesitation, without giving Younghyun a second look.

Does she not remember me or--

"Kang Younghyun."

It feels like his heart had just been stabbed by an electric rod, and it takes mountainous effort for him to contain the shock and surprise he was about to barf out.

"Can you do your job?"

The boy rolls his eyes, frustrated and frankly, a little hurt that she doesn't remember him. A painful wincr of a smile shows up on his lips when she comes over, handing him one of the mops.

How many ‘Kang Younghyun’s are there anyway? Do I even look that different? Just what is keeping her from--

"When were you ever this useless?"

His eyes dart up from the table to hers, face blank but eyes full of meaning.

"I'll admit that I didn't recognise you the other day when we bumped into each other," Younghyun's heart is about to lurch out of his chest. "But it clicked so..."

The world is silent for some seconds. Younghyun's heart is yearning to reach out and hug her for he had lost the one thing he would have rather had for the rest of his life. But Jieun would probably take it the wrong way... or rather -- his replacement might not like it.

"How are you?"

The question takes Younghyun by surprise. Why did it take her so long to finally ask this? He, unfortunately, cannot swallow his pride and take her into his arms the way he wants to. 

“I’m fine,” He spits, grabbing the mop and moving off to mindlessly paint the floor with water that he wasn’t even sure was clean. Jieun's eyebrows flatten against her features, confused but silent in understanding. She can only imagine how angry he was, and when a child’s anger goes unanswered, unfixed for a decade... it turns into something of a grudge that she isn’t sure she can undo. 

Younghyun carelessly flings the mop around the space, the water sprinkling on all kinds of surfaces before Jieun runs over, nearly wishing to shove the mop into his face. 

How immature can he get, over something that wasn’t in my control?

“Younghyun--”

“I’ve done my job,” Offering her the most nonchalant smile he can force onto his lips, he raises a fist in a bid to ‘encourage’ her. Jieun huffs in disbelief, hand running through her hair as he leaves the classroom. “Have fun.”

Jieun: i can’t believe he was such a jerk about it

You: doesn’t he know you couldn’t have done anything about it anyway

Jieun: i don’t know

Jieun: i just wish he knows i was just as sad as he was when my dad brought me away

You: maybe you need to give him time, like dowoon does

Jieun: sigh

Jieun: you’re right

Jieun: you’re there already, aren’t you? 

You: yeah, what’ya want?

Jieun: nah, i’m okay. i’ll be back a little later though, had to clean up whatever younghyun didn’t

You: alright

Jieun: see you later!

Pausing right outside the cafe, Jaehyung locks the phone and sucks in a deep breath, the transparent glass providing him with a flawed view of the barista. Failing to remember the last time he had such a huge crush on someone he doesn’t even know, he gathers his courage in the palms of his sweaty hands as he pushes himself into the cafe.

“Welcome!” Her voice sounds like wind chimes and bells. “Oh! It’s you!”

“Right, hi,” Get your shit together, man. 

“I’m guessing two milkshakes?” My God, that smile should be illegal.

“Uh-- just one today, actually.”

“Oh?” Her eyes widen, enlarging all the sparkles in her eyes. “Do you want to try something else?” Leaning forward over the counter, she points to the menu board stuck upright. “You can try the cold brew coffee. It’s a new item and I’ve tried it myself, pretty refreshing.”

“Okay, sure.”

That was too quick a response, man. 

“Alright! Just give me a few minutes.”

I’ll give you all the time you need.

There was a struggle to contain all that admiration and envy for just a single person. When she brings the cup of coffee over, it looks like an angel serving you a cup of heaven.

She smiles not with her lips, but with her eyes, and Jaehyung cannot help but to purse his lips in a bid to contain his happiness. 

"I'm sorry, he's been going through a hard time since the move. He'll be up and around in due time."

Younghyun shifts his weight to the side, brain empty of thoughts besides thinking of the way Jieun spoke to Yoon Dowoon, spoke of Yoon Dowoon. The arcade had an occasional jingle sound to it due to the bell hung on the door, coupled with the rapid shooting from FPS games and then there’s the incessant smashing of game console buttons--

“Get out of my seat, cunt.”

Younghyun’s ears are drawn to the familiar voice -- a big burly dude who didn’t do much but torment the kids in the arcade. He knows better not to interfere so he plasters his attention back to the motorbike racing game he was on. 

“But I don’t see your name on the console.”

The voice wrings Younghyun out of his virtual competition, an instinct telling him to get up and stop the impending disaster. He couldn’t decide if it was because he knew the big guy was a bully, or if he’s figured out that Yoon Dowoon must be related to Jieun of some sorts.

“You little--” Yoon Dowoon braces himself for impact, arm covering his head, until he hears a thud right above him. His eyes travel up, logic taking awhile to settle around his saviour’s facial features as the bully’s wrist is held tightly in someone else’s palm. 

“He’s got a point. Console doesn’t have your name on it.”

Dowoon frowns when he connects the dots, suddenly more agitated that he needs another boy to help him out of his misery. Out of annoyance, and of the many options he could’ve chosen to carry out, he chooses to storm off.

Younghyun smirks to himself, letting out a chuckle of disbelief.

Dowoon finds himself stranded along the roadside after he’s bought himself a little bottle of milk, the kind that his father used to get for him when he was a kid, before his mother had chosen to remarry one of the richest Kims in the country. 

He fiddles with the ointment and the single hard-boiled egg in his pocket, silently hoping that if his classmate wouldn’t appear from the corner and beat him into a pulp the way he probably had been, Dowoon could show some kind of gratitude. 

Speaking of the Devil, Younghyun turns round the corner, slight frustration overwhelming his eyes when he spots Dowoon candidly sipping on his milk.

“You really know how to run away from a fight, don’t you?” He grabs the chair and plops himself down, already ready to shove that bottle of milk down Dowoon’s mouth for ditching him. Licking the corner of his bottom lip, he manages to restrain himself from wincing.

Dowoon pulls out the ointment and hard-boiled egg, gently pushing it across the table. The gesture catches Younghyun off-guard, a second smile of disbelief surfacing on his lips.

“Were you just waiting for me to show up so you could hand me these?”

Dowoon mischievously raises a brow, taking a loud sip from his milk. “Mhm.”

Younghyun cannot help but snort at Dowoon’s daring nature before he picks the egg up and rubs it across his cheekbone. 

“So,” Dowoon doesn’t hesitate to start. “What’s your relationship with Jieun?”

The smile falls from Younghyun’s face, and Dowoon isn’t an idiot. Contrary to his silent demeanor, he used to be known for being able to read people easily. 

“I see the way you look at her, and when you were rostered to stay back to clean up the classroom today... I heard a bit of it.”

Refusing to admit that he’s just been exposed, Younghyun cracks the egg on the tabletop. Begins to peel the shell of the milky white interior. The last few sips of Dowoon’s milk becomes particularly loud when he puts in the extra effort to suck it up, then he throws it in a nice toss into the nearest dustbin.

“You don’t have to hide anything, you know,” Dowoon says with calm in his voice. “It’s not like I’ll tell her anything. We might live in the same house but I know to protect a man’s pride.”

He can feel his saviour’s eyes pierce through his skull as he says those exact words. Good, I got it spot on.

“Same house, huh?” Younghyun takes a bite from the egg. “I’m guessing this is why she moved away ten years ago.”

It was Dowoon’s turn to fall silent, simply because he must’ve been crying about his father leaving him somewhere on the other side of the country too. 

“Why’d you guys move back here then? Only recently?”

“Mother invested in some new apartments nearby, got the suite and dumped us there.”

Younghyun hums, chewing on the egg yolk. “And... Jaehyung?”

Dowoon studies Younghyun’s inability to look at him in the eye. He’s jealous of Jieun’s best friend.

“You’ll find out when you ask Jieun yourself.”