#once I have a few of these up I'll probably make a masterpost for all of them

[moonlightcanyon]

ASPD knife post 1

okay so how I want to do these: I'm gonna recap everything I plan on going over (partially so you don't have to go and rewatch it to remember, partially because it helps ME while typing), then analyze it in detail. I tend to analyze like knife canonically has the disorder because he... really might as well

the text in this one is being copied and pasted from discord since I've already got it typed up and it won't take too much time to edit. that said I was talking to a friend who didn't know the show at the time and you might notice this in a few spots

this one's primarily focusing on the dynamic between knife and trophy early s2. I ask that this doesn't get tagged as shipping since it squicks me out and I personally can't see it working anyway

@fansblogs @mr-payjay

ALRIGHT HERE WE GO

at one point in season 1, the rewards for contestants that got to move on was a dora doll. knife was one of them and he ended up getting pretty attached to it

I figure he did because. ASPD. this is something he was given that has no capacity for harm. if he's got something personal that he needs to get off his chest he can say it to the doll, plus he can hold onto it for comfort if he needs to or somethin

in s2 ep1, trophy wants to form an alliance between himself and knife, but knife declines pretty quickly (the jock/jerk thing). trophy presses and knife, evidently annoyed, punches him and takes him out of the challenge

towards the end of ep2, trophy goes to find knife and finds/overhears him talking to the dora doll, saying that the doll is his only true friend and nobody else understands him. trophy snaps a picture and goes to show everyone; knife begs him not to, saying he'll do anything

trophy tells him that if knife does everything he tells him to for the rest of the season, he won't show anyone the picture. and knife agrees bc as far as he can tell there's no getting out of it otherwise

in ep3 we see trophy manipulating knife into doing exactly that; when knife considers not doing something, trophy either shows/mentions the picture to him and knife immediately cooperates. he gets his leg broken because of this

ep 4 opens up with more of knife doing everything trophy says, even using fan as a literal fan. knife then abruptly says 'no' to trophy and to show everyone the stupid picture + he doesn't care

trophy pulls it out, knife goes 'wait!', trophy laughs and says he knew knife was chicken, and then knife says 'no, I just wanted to let you know that you have grape juice on your chin'

trophy then goes and shows everyone. we get a shot of several characters laughing, but it's very obvious not all of them are: baseball and apple look irritated and confused respectively

knife sighs in defeat. cut to baseball saying he honestly doesn't care

trophy is like '????? you support this?????'

baseball goes on to talk about how everyone who got sent to idiotic island each had their own Thing to keep them occupied and knife's was the doll. he then mentions how paper didn't have something to keep him occupied and practically tried to kill everyone and asks if that's what trophy wants: for knife to do the same

a few others agree with baseball and they all walk off, with trophy trying to get them to come back because he 100% believes knife is super lame for this

knife then comes up behind him and gives trophy a mini-lecture about how he must feel like a loser, because he knows he would, reminds trophy that he's a jock and knife is a jerk, and says that trophy never stood a chance against him from the start

cue unexpected moment where trophy tells him to go jump off a bridge

things that back up knife having ASPD:

and fuckin- there is so much to break down here okay.

trophy has a huge ego and sees himself as above others. a big thing with pwASPD is the disrespect of authority that we find stupid/unnecessary, and that can include people that act like they have authority when they really don't (we personally don't often get along with pwNPD for this exact reason). knife's first interaction with trophy is trophy insulting his capacity to break things with his 'pillow fists'; their second interaction is trophy trying to form an alliance with him, backhandedly calling him a 'sharp guy'. given that trophy made his personality clear right off the bat in both interactions I'm genuinely unsurprised that knife turned him down (and then punched him when he wouldn't back off). as an aside, while I am a trophy NPD believer, I'm biased against him and thus won't really be getting into that as I'm likely to unintentionally paint him in a bad light

knife's choice of phrasing to the doll is interesting. he specifically says true friend and not friend, and given that at this point he doesn't really have any bonds with others, thus nobody gets him? entirely accurate- and yet that is an expression of vulnerability, something he's only letting himself express to the doll. you will see pwASPD express vulnerability but it's often in half-lies? for example they'll say they're upset and omit why, or give you a convincing reason for their being upset that isn't the real reason. unless either a situation needs to be maintained with genuine feelings or the pwASPD is that comfortable around you/a group, feelings are often expressed in those half-lies.

so then to be caught in such a vulnerable moment by someone like trophy? Oh God. it's partially embarrassment and partially 'fuck did he hear me' (which, interestingly, trophy doesn't seem to have). he absolutely doesn't want to agree to trophy's terms but being caught in a moment like that is considered one of the worst-case scenarios to a pwASPD, so he agrees because the other option is to be seen as weak. and that Cannot Happen.

the stuff in ep3 is… well, classic manipulation? but it's also knife firmly believing that his safety will be compromised if the others find out about the doll, plus what he said to it

knife gets his leg broken when yang throws yin at him, causing him to fall off a bicycle. knife still completes his part of the challenge via dragging himself along the ground; he calls both his broken leg and trophy stupid before saying it's all stupid. when he finally reaches microphone, she's unintentionally loud as she asks what happened, and he gets even more upset with the whole situation because now his ears hurt, taking it out on her somewhat. she asks if he's sure he's okay; he says 'not to be rude' before realizing he DOES want to be rude, says as much, and then yells at microphone to go away and start her part of the challenge. pwASPD are very likely to snap at people while having a symptom flare; both the trophy situation and the challenge going to shit is 100% enough to cause an intense flare-up and he absolutely can't keep masking in the moment, he needs to be left alone

trophy comes up to him later in the episode and says he can't believe that his blackmailing has led to this. knife agrees and asks to be let off the hook, and trophy reveals that he wasn't concerned for knife at all, he was upset that knife made their team lose the challenge. trophy talks a bit more and knife is VISIBLY angry, and he insults trophy under his breath the second he's done talking (the captions say 'well good grief, bozo' but it sounds more like 'well, good for you, too'. can't figure out which is right or if it's something else entirely). trophy angrily says 'what?' and knife pretty much goes 'huh whuh'. and like… yeah. petty insults during a symptom flare aren't common (an intense one will most likely see the pwASPD using the harshest insults they can come up with), but given that knife knows little about trophy's life he can't come up with anything that'll actually have some kick to it

ep4, trophy asks knife something and knife genuinely just replies with 'oh, shut up'. given that in ep3 he was starting to realize that the whole thing is stupid and especially given trophy's lack of care about his leg, he's definitely done some thinking and come to the conclusion that this entire thing isn't worth it. he's being taken advantage of and being treated poorly, he broke his leg, he had a very bad symptom flare- and all this over a doll and some words? sounds ridiculous and stupid when put that way. and like I said earlier: pwASPD do not like authority figures or rules that they deem stupid. a stupid situation caused by someone acting like they have authority also classifies.

trophy then asks for more ventilation and knife, annoyed but notably somewhat indifferent, pulls out fan and, well, starts fanning. fan asks to be put down and knife tosses fan up because JESUS CHRIST THERE'S JUST NO WINNING. trophy tells him to keep fanning; fan comes back down and knife starts up again. fan then says he's getting dizzy and that is the last straw for knife; he just drops him and gives a very firm 'no' to trophy. and fucking- ouughgh okay. pwASPD often disregard the rights of others, yes, but we still have a moral compass. if someone doesn't need to get involved then they shouldn't get involved, the end. knife disregarded fan initially but the second fan said he was getting dizzy, he realized the whole thing is causing him to hurt people that don't need to be involved (which also gets into not hurting people that don't 'need' to be hurt) and that's not going to fly, actually

the grape juice thing? not just a funny moment. knife is scared to possibly have his safety compromised- but he chooses to commit, covering up his fear by pointing out the juice on trophy. his expression switches back to nervous as trophy turns around to go show everyone the picture, but he doesn't say anything else. enough is enough yk.

in presenting the picture, trophy calls knife 'a girly, doll-obsessed freak'… and doesn't add anything about what knife said to the doll, hence my assumption that trophy didn't hear him. which is a huge win for knife because it registers as an 'oh thank god, this isn't as bad as it could be' type of situation. he sighs in defeat, yes, but there's a bit of relief too, I'd imagine- it's not the end of the world, actually. he can recover from this.

baseball saying 'honestly, I don't care' once everyone finishes laughing is also huge for knife because the way pwASPD interpret 'I don't care' is different than how most people interpret it. the phrase is often taken with a negative connotation by the average person, whereas pwASPD and some people hear it and take it neutrally. it's like saying that you think a piece of food is alright- if it turned up on your plate again, you'd eat it, but you wouldn't go out of your way to seek it out. baseball likely meant 'I don't care' as in 'are you for real/is this seriously what you're occupying yourself with', but knife heard 'I don't care' as in 'this is a piece of information that doesn't mean anything, leave it/knife alone'

in response to trophy asking if baseball really supports that part of knife, baseball backs himself (and knife) up with the stuff I mentioned earlier about idiotic island. not only did this likely comfort knife, it also convinces the other characters 'actually, even though we laughed at him for it at first, that makes sense. I'd do the same thing in his situation.' baseball pretty much unintentionally got everyone off knife's back and now knife doesn't have to go through all the effort of doing it himself (because if someone can do something for you, and especially unintentionally: take the opportunity and let them)

knife's mini-lecture is both him putting trophy in his place and reassuring himself. as much as trophy WANTS to have authority, have some semblance of power, he doesn't- knife actually has some due to his reputation, and the others are aware of it. while he says that trophy never stood a chance against him from the start, I don't think he fully believes it yet, but he's saying it because he needs to make sure trophy Knows not to mess with him again. I think this also counts as an 'eye for an eye' thing considering trophy's treated him like shit for a while; knife can be shitty right back, which thus makes them both more even in his eyes

in response to being told to jump off a bridge, knife reacts with surprise. and it makes sense given that knife didn't retaliate against trophy physically or really do much of anything to him, and that's with this whole thing resulting in knife's leg getting broken. there's not a part of knife that knows how to react to that because it's just- not computing. 'you cause this whole situation, then tell me to do that? okay?? I guess??'

after the intro plays, at the elimination area, knife and suitcase are sitting next to each other when mephone announces they're safe. when suitcase says 'wow knife!', knife initially looks over with some annoyance expecting to be insulted- but suitcase follows up with 'congratulations!' and it's so genuine knife doesn't know how to react to it. he ends up going 'wow… thanks!' with this somewhat sheepish expression that really strongly implies he has rarely or possibly never been complimented so genuinely before.

trophy starts throwing a fit that he's been voted out and stomps on box; suitcase stands up and shouts 'you monster! you're just jealous because he's (referring to box, I believe, but could also be interpreted as referring to knife) still in the game!' trophy yells at her to shut up and she meekly goes 'okay' and sits back down before trophy's even done yelling. knife is still there and as this happens he's sitting there with this expression that, to me, is him zoning out- but he's still present enough to hear and process this interaction

like I just said: given how knife reacted to a genuine compliment, he's not used to that happening. this is his first interaction with suitcase and it's an incredibly positive one, and he can tell it's not fake. so after trophy yells at suitcase, knife gets up almost immediately and says 'alright dude, that's it. no more mr. knife guy.' he is Done with trophy's shit and he's not letting it start up again, especially not towards someone who was truly kind to him a minute ago

a detail I didn't mention is that in ep1, when knife punches trophy away, he does it before trophy finishes talking. now, when a contestant is eliminated they go through the portal, yeah? trophy is standing nearby said portal as knife approaches him, and in response to what knife said trophy pretty much replies with 'bring it on, I've been waiting for this'- except he doesn't get to finish because knife kicks him through the portal before he can. pretty good way to send trophy off, I'd say

and finally, a funny detail that isn't really related to all this but I want to mention anyway:

in that first scene of ep4 with knife and trophy, knife's leg is fine. in the elimination scene, knife's broken leg is in a cast- but the cast is suddenly gone when he stands up, and he kicks trophy through the portal with that same leg. I know what the animators were going for but it's REALLY funny. especially when the cast doesn't come back for the rest of the episode

a'ight that's about it. peace :P

[murkycran]

Radiostatic/Voxal Fic Rec List

Welcome to my Radiostatic/Voxal Fic Rec List! ^_^ This will include romantic, platonic, and/or queerplatonic Radiostatic fics (and admittedly probably a couple of Radiosilence fics, too).

I will keep updating this periodically as I read more fics, so feel free to check back every once and a while! I'll reblog it when I update it, plus make a note with the date at the top. Trust me, this is by no means a complete list; there's fics I still want to add to this that I just haven't gotten to yet. I just decided to go ahead and post it anyways, because if I kept waiting until I ran out of fics to rec I'd probably be working on this forever.

These are not in any particular order; I'm going by both my Bookmarks list on AO3 and my memory of fics I forgot to bookmark. I also tried to make notes on what fics were written before season 1 released, but I might have missed some, so keep that in mind.

Please let me know if any links don't work or are wrong!

✨Before you proceed:✨ read the tags on these fics if you decide to read them. Many of them have heavy material - no surprise given the fandom, but still, felt like this needed said. On that note, there's also fics with explicit material and some fics are straight up PWP. Again, read at your own risk/heed the tags.

Fic Rec List Masterpost

Staticmoth Fic Rec List

Misc. Vox Fic Rec List

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Radio Healed the Video Star by Aspiring_Forest_Witch

Summary: Alastor comes across an unconscious and battered Vox while out on one of his strolls. He feels compelled to bring him back to the hotel.

Notes: 98% of this fic was written before season 1 was released, so keep that in mind, because there's obviously going to be inconsistencies with canon. It's nearly finished (at least according to the author's notes in the latest chapters, I think). I suggest pacing yourself with this one - it's nearly 700k words long. I ruined a good sleep schedule staying up to get through it. (So worth it though.) There are quite a few OCs in later chapters, but they're such good OCs. You fall in love with them just as much as the canon characters, I swear. I would die for Verity and the Trio.

Let's Misbehave by joosymango

Summary: Alastor wins a bet against Vox, now his rival must stop pestering him for two weeks. It should be a pleasant break! So why does he miss the idiot?

Notes: Vaguely inspired by Aspiring_Forest_Witch's Radio Healed the Video Star. Also largely written before season 1 release. First fic I read for the HH fandom. ^_^

Safe with Me Series by rillo (rillyrillo)

Summary: Having only ever set his sights on men who treat women with odious disrespect, Alastor never thought he'd take interest in Vox's turbulent relationship with his fiancé and business partner, Valentino. He decides to lend a helping hand in the hopes of getting Vox out of his sticky situation. After all, what are childhood enemies for?

Unfortunately, neither Alastor nor Vox could've predicted the rollercoaster of unsaid emotions and future horrors that are thrown their way. Will they be able to rely on each other and get by unscathed? Or will destiny have other plans for these two?

[HUMAN AU] [There's art included for the human designs]

Notes: It's so, so good. ;-; Heed the tags. There's a prequel consisting of oneshots, plus a sequel (listed below, bc I can't not put it here)! And there's ART! So much art!

You, My Everything by rillo (rillyrillo)

Summary: Some say that love can conquer all, even in Hell.

Vox begged to differ, and he was damn well sure Alastor did too – or at least he would be, if Alastor hadn’t become one big question mark.

Sequel to Safe with Me.

Notes: Only read if you've read Safe With Me!!! Still pretty early in the story but so good. ;-; The angst, I swear...

You're on the Air by rillo (rillyrillo)

Summary: A series of short, daily conversations between a radio host and his avid listener, as the two learn more about each other’s lives over the air. Set in the late 90s/early 2000s.

Notes: Same author as Safe with Me, but not set in the same universe! This one is set up in a literal radio show format; almost entirely dialogue-centric.

Of Candied Pine and Cherried Smoke by rillo (rillyrillo)

Summary: Inspired by x_Arcticfox_x’s fanfiction: Blue Raspberries And Cherry Cola

After overdosing on them one too many times to curb the steadily weakening suppressants, Vox's body rejects them outright. Now with his scent getting stronger, he finds himself struggling to hide his true status as an Omega. In his desperation, he seeks help from the one person that knows his secret: Alastor.

Notes: Omegaverse. Same author as Safe with Me series and You're on the Air!

Blue Raspberries And Cherry Cola by x_Arcticfox_x

Summary: Vox is an omega, that's his biggest secret.

During his life time he hid this fact using suppressants, and counited to in death. One day he runs out of pills and his supplier is out of stock for the time being so Vox is forced to submit to the torture of going through heat for the first time in decades.

Too bad his business partner only see's omega's as mere object's...

But hey, at least Angel found him just in time, right?

Notes: Omegaverse. Currently on hold, but has 14 chapters currently available for reading. :)

Once Bitten, Twice Shy by The_Penny_Tails

Summary: Alastor decides that it's time to claim what is rightfully his, consequences be damned.

Notes: It's not porn but it might as well have been for how fucking intense this scene was. 😳

Dripping Pink by The_Penny_Tails

Summary: Just before an Overlord meeting, Alastor gets infected by an off-market, highly potent, and incredibly dangerous love potion. Nobody realises until it's too late.

Notes: Simultaneously funny as fuck and erotic as all hell. I suffered from so much secondhand embarrassment on Vox's behalf. It's wonderful. :D

Lucidity's Fog by The_Penny_Tails

Summary: Ever since he met Alastor, Vox has been having raunchy dreams about the deer. Those dreams suddenly stop when Alastor disappears. For seven years, he's free of the guilt, of the shame brought on by his unconscious desire.

Until Alastor comes back, and Vox is plagued by a new dream the same day he finds out about the news. This time, however, something is distinctively different about how the deer is acting.

Notes: Author tagged for light angst, but ngl the ending did not feel like 'light' angst to me lol. Hurt in a good way.

Finger Tips and Dotted Lips by The_Penny_Tails

Summary: Alastor has sensitive hands; he finds this out at the most inconvenient time possible. Unfortunately, Vox is the one who ends up paying the price for it.

Having to help a seemingly broken Overlord whilst navigating this new discovery proves to be a little more taxing than the Radio Demon could ever have imagined.

Notes: Alastor is such a troll in this omg.

Thawing Out by Seaside_Dreaming

Summary: Seeing a small crack in Vox's screen nags at Alastor more than he likes to admit.

Vox wishes things were better. Sooner or later, Alastor has to come to terms with the fact he has feelings, in general.

Notes: Written before season 1 release. HIGHLY suggest reading the prequel one-shot. It's not necessary to understand the plot here, but you should read it anyway.

Static by passthevoxcord

Summary: Vox creates a new and improved version of himself to please Val, only to be replaced by it. He is left beaten and broken with no one to turn to . . . except maybe his oldest enemy, Alastor.

Notes: Written before season 1 release.

Hating you feels so good by TwoBitJester

Summary: Vox obsesses over his returned enemy and finds himself a little too wound up

Notes: Very good PWP.

Laced Over Dinner by hazbinhearts

Summary: Vox is persuaded to dress a little differently over dinner for Alastor, but finds it remarkably uncomfortable as the night goes on. Written for VoxWeek21 Day 3: dressing up [appearance, formal, dance].

Notes: Written before season 1 release. Corsets. 😳

Observer by DeviousPossum

Summary: He moved the cursor to click off, when he suddenly heard a very recognizable static laced tone.

Alastor.

Alastor.

What the fuck. Alastor is singing.

Vox unintentionally ran claw marks across his desk, an increasingly common habit for him as of late. He grimaced at his now ruined table and unsuccessfully tried to reel in an inexplicable feeling that could only be described as jealousy.

Notes: Porn with a tiny bit of plot in the first chapter. :3

RadioTV Week 2021 Series by Heliosolar

Summary: Pretty much the title; various prompts.

Notes: Written before season 1 release. All worth reading, though they aren't connected.

Sharkblocking by Anonymous

Summary: Alastor is Vox’s number one rival. Incidentally, though nobody involved is aware of it, Alastor’s number one rival is actually Vox’s pet shark.

In which Alastor is actually a little obsessed back and Vark is the biggest obstacle to Radiostatic short of canon itself.

Notes: VARK!

Control + V by TooManyPsuedonyms

Summary: Vox and Alastor have a... thing. Not quite a relationship, but something. Vox is too scared to define it properly, and Alastor is dead set that Vox will eventually get bored of his lack of reciprocity and move on.

So, Valentino tries to show Vox what he is missing.

... too bad Vox didn't want him like that. ... too bad Alastor didn't know want is a vague word.

Notes: Heed the tags!!! There's currently a sequel; I haven't read it yet, but I definitely plan to. 👀

gift of the magi by vol_ctrl

Summary: "... Although husband and wife are now left with gifts that neither one can use, they realize how far they are willing to go to show their love for each other, and how priceless their love really is ..."

Alastor/Vox established relationship fluff.

Notes: Written before season 1 release. Very sweet. ^_^

the lost tape by vol_ctrl

Summary: There's a NEW ambitious media demon in Pentagram City. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, right?

Notes: Written before season 1 release.

12 Days of Yuletide by vol_ctrl

Summary: A parody of the 12 Days of Christmas traditional tune, as can only be done by Vox gifting to his beloved adversary.

Or, a series of letters from the desk of Alastor upon receiving a series of increasingly elaborate gifts from his insufferably modern foil during the holiday season.

Notes: Written before season 1 release.

Fear makes the heart grow fonder by Graysongirl

Summary: After a bit of inspiration from an unlikely source Vox comes up with the plan that scaring Alastor is the best route to gaining his affections. The haunted house at LuLu World seems like the perfect (safe) environment for a bit of pre-planned scaring...

[Stand-alone staticradio]

Notes: Written before season 1 release. Funny af. "Red! Red!" XD

Cordyceps, King of Ants by spappest

Summary: Vox is tired. Of Valentino. Of Velvette. Of Alastor, and Hell, and everything in between. He can't escape, but he can cut himself off, piece by piece, until he feels nothing at all. Alastor takes exception to this approach and commissions a certain princess of Hell to fix his foe. Now Vox has a hotel of misfits on one side of him, overlords on the other, and Alastor crushing his cage ever smaller.

Clearly, the only way Vox will get any peace and quiet is to just kill God.

Valentino did always tell him that he had no chill.

Notes: Started before season 1 was released. Technically features Staticmoth but it's not the focus as much as Radiostatic (which honestly has a relationship status of ??? not romantic but also not friendship or even strictly enemies...just...Alastor and Vox). O_O I think about this fic on a daily basis.

Russian Roulette by spappest

Summary: Vox and Alastor play a game that Vox is way too excited to lose.

Notes: Started before season 1 release. Take note!!! I'm putting this on the Radiostatic list because it's almost entirely centered on Alastor and Vox's dynamic, but the romantic relationship is Staticmoth. The Staticmoth is just not featured very much.

Vox and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Afterlife by spappest

Summary: Alastor goes into rut.

Vox has a bad time. Then a good time. Then a very bad time. Then a brief vacation. Then a confusing time.

Notes: Background Staticmoth, but Radiostatic is most prominent. Funny af. Alastor and Vox have...a very special relationship. Lol.

Killer Ex by FanGirl48

Summary: Alastor was a serial killer who valued his privacy. So when someone who claims to know what he is tries to barge into his life he can't let them live, his secret must be protected at all cost.

A normally easy task easy task becomes complicated when Alastor's ex-boyfriend is dragged into the whole thing forcing the serial killer to go visit them for the first time in seven years.

Notes: Human AU. Love me some possessive Alastor. <3

Negotiations by FanGirl48

Summary: Vox had no interest in attending a meeting between Heaven and Hell following the failed attack by the Adam and his Exterminators. Alastor's little gremlin caused the mess, so he can go clean it up. Vox had nothing wanted nothing to do with the radio demon, king of hell or heaven.

But that was before Lucifer made the media overlord aware of Valentino's little job offer to his daughter.

Damnit Valentino!

Notes: "And they were roommates!" "Oh my god they were roommates"

Down, Up, and Back Down by CowboyEnthusiast

Summary: Vox dies. Surprisingly no one takes this well.

Or, Vox dies and Alastor tries to drag his soul back from Purgatory.

Notes: Another fic I think about daily... Heavy themes. Heed the tags.

Hold Me Like a Grudge by Rachello344

Summary: Alastor has spent a long time running from Vox. Vox has chased after him almost as long. When suppressants fail throughout the city, they finally collide.

Notes: Omegaverse. Fun fact about this author: all their Radiostatic fic titles are from Fall Out Boy lyrics lol. (I fucking love FOB sue me.) I haven't yet read all of Rachello344's Radiostatic fics, BUT I have them all on my To Read list because I've loved everything I've read of theirs so far lol.

What Makes You So Special? by Rachello344

Summary: With Lucifer’s return to the Pride Ring, the other Deadly Sins were bound to take notice. When Asmodeus stops by the Pride Ring to visit the Morningstars, the Vees are able to make a deal to host a pop-up shop of the incredibly popular Lust Ring establishment, Ozzie’s, bringing it to the Pride Ring for the first time.

When Vox and Alastor both attend the restaurant’s opening night, long repressed sparks fly, forever changing their relationship.

Notes: Because of the pacing of this (sex first romance later), I feel like this is the Radiostatic equivalent of Femalefonzie's Freak-A-Zoid (a really good Staticmoth fic). This is hands down one of the most romantic Radiostatic fics I've read. ^_^

Hold Me Tight (or Don't) by Rachello344

Summary: Alastor and Vox finally come to an understanding, both of each other and of what they each mean to the other. Their relationship evolves accordingly, one concession at a time, until they both get everything they could possibly want: power, companionship, and even love.

Notes: So, so good.

Keep You Like an Oath by Rachello344

Summary: Alastor normally wouldn’t bother with the chore��breaking into V Tower was quite a lot of work, even for him—but he found himself curious about what Vox and his little friends might be working on. Especially since whatever it was had Angel concerned enough to report back to the rest of the hotel about it.

Of course, before he can learn anything, he’ll need to sneak past Vox’s watchful eye…

Notes: God it's just...so good. Read it. Radiostatic reconciliation. One thing I love about Rachello344 writing Radiostatic is Alastor's terms of endearment for Vox. ^_^

To Be Yours by pinegreenapples

Summary: Alastor hears something he hasn't heard in years. He decides to investigate why now, of all times, this frequency has turned back on. Vox is not amused.

Notes: Hurt no comfort. Hurts so good, though. ;-;

oleanders in june by spoondrifts

Summary: It seems like while Alastor was off preying on the self-destructive addictions of desperate sinners, Vox was off getting himself beaten half to death, probably from spouting belligerent nonsense at someone with violent tendencies and a far lower threshold for disrespect than Alastor. Not everyone finds poor Vox’s chatter as charming as he does.

If Vox is unconscious, then Vox is not being entertaining, and Alastor came here to have fun, not play nursemaid.

Or: Drunk on power and itching to cause some mayhem, Alastor hunts down the only person in the city who's always up for anything. Unfortunately, he finds Vox... not exactly in tip-top shape. No matter; he can work with that too.

Notes: ^_^ Very sweet.

equilibrium by curtailed

Summary: Post-Finale. The Hotel finds Alastor right on the front lawn, unconscious and bleeding, still injured from Adam's blade. While he recovers, all of Hell scrambles to find out who his mysterious rescuer is.

Meanwhile, Vox tries not to freak out that he might have accidentally made a soul bond to save that deer asshole's life. All he had wanted to do was to scope out the ruins of Alastor's radio tower. Fuck him for being curious, he supposed.

Notes: This fic has me in a CHOKEHOLD. I love the characterizations so, so much. Manages to fit in humor alongside the angst. One of the best fight scenes I've ever seen put into words. Curtailed really took Vox and Alastor as characters and planned out a cool fucking fight scene using their unique abilities. I automatically love anything tagged with "one fell first but the other fell harder" lol.

candlelight by curtailed

Summary: Despite the #SirRepentious success, Heaven remains skeptical of a sinner's ability to change. Logic gets lost somewhere, and really, what's a better way to show sinners can be marginally less horrible than to stick two Overlords who hate each other in the same living space?

OR

Alastor and Vox play house.

Notes: The comedy of Alastor and Vox being forced to be civil with each other and then unintentionally becoming very domestic together. Lol

wallow by curtailed

Summary: A 2+1 fic. Two times when Alastor and Vox were in a love triangle (hard quote on love, hard quote on triangle), and the one time Alastor had Vox to himself.

Notes: Only 1 (very good) chapter so far, but safe to say pretty heavy already. Heed the tags.

Addicted by Dancingdog

Summary: After the latest argument with Valentino, Vox finds himself at the Hazbin Hotel. An injured Alastor is less-than-pleased to see him, which is understandable considering they are enemies.

But as more and more of Valentino's venom leaves his system, Vox begins to remember his days before V-Tower and he learns exactly why Alastor rejected his offer all those decades ago.

His memories return in fits and spurts - not all of them good. His past with Alastor isn't something he expected and it turns out that he isn't the only one suffering.

Notes: Dude. This fic hurt me. Such good angst.

Radio Made the Video Star Series by songofhell

Summary: Snippets of Vox and Alastor's afterlife, and their journey from strangers to friends to enemies to... something more.

Notes: Pretty much what the series summary says - a series of installments that chronicle the beginning and subsequent evolution of Alastor and Vox's relationship. Very good, has tons of possessive!Alastor, which I die for.

Uneasy by Saezs

Summary: “Something’s wrong with Voxy.”

Velvette’s eyes snapped to the tall moth pimp. “And?” she prompted with a raised eyebrow. As if she needed to deal with two piss babies this close to a show. Valentino shrugged, tapping away on his phone, and walked away to stand threateningly close to her new models. Before she could snap at him, she saw it; his wings were twitching. Barely noticeable to strangers, just under the hum of the building’s lights, he was squeaking with each tap of his fingers. She felt unease and a healthy dose of aggravation swirl in her stomach.

Or: Vox was roofied and sexually assaulted. Velvette tries to be better than her mother. Unexpected connections are formed.

Notes: Heed the tags! Features genderfluid Vox. :)

Five Times Vox and Alastor Danced and One Time They Didn't by Drowsy_Salamander

Summary: “I say, good fellow, what are you doing on the ground like that?”

The voice was perky, cheerful, and bright. It had a crisp mid-Atlantic accent, the kind Vox remembered being all the rage for stage and film performers back when he first entered the broadcast industry. The diction was crystal clear with every sound enunciated separately to maximise clarity, the consonants clicked and the vowels were broad. It was a performer’s voice.

A voice for radio.

Oh shit.

... Five times Vox and Alastor danced and one time Vox and Alastor didn't.

From their first meeting through their friendship, to their enmity and fighting. From infatuation to yearning to animosity. Dancing is a partnership, is it not?

Notes: Each chapter so far has been a different type of dance, which is really neat. Especially chapter 2. ^_^ That said, there's a feeling of impending doom, knowing what happens to their relationship eventually... Not saying that as a deterrent but just a comment on how I felt while reading it lol. It's very sweet, which is why it hurts to think of future chapters. 🙃

Days Long Past by Momo52

Summary: All sinners of hell bore some physical marks of how they lived and died. Some physical manifestations were more obvious while others were subtle. Vox was not an exception to this rule.

While his television head was an obvious indication of his life while on Earth, the mark he bore from his death was far more subdued. Luckily enough, his shame was easily concealed behind a high collar. Unfortunately, he is just as well known in his afterlife as he was in his life. As such, trying to make everyone believe that he is so much stronger than what his death implies is a constant battle. He only wished that he wasn’t the hardest one to convince.

Notes: I think platonic Radiostatic is the endgame here. Still pretty early in the story, but I'm really liking this author's depiction of Vox and Alastor's pasts. Heed the tags. There are heavy subjects such as suicide (very big theme for Vox's pov) and period-typical racism (in Alastor's past) present in the story.

Remote Access by x-UsoTsuki-x (its_not_reael)

Summary: In the aftermath of Alastor and Vox's electrifying on-air showdown, Vox finds himself unusually rattled. His usual suave demeanor is slipping, much to his cohorts' amusement – and concern. Velvet can do little more than roll her eyes at his antics. Valentino, on the other hand, is convinced that all Vox needs to do is get fucked and relax.

or, alternatively...

The tech-savvy overlord manages to snag a virus from a porn site and finds himself in the arms of his worst enemy.

Notes: Fairly certain this is firmly Radiosilence based on the tags (and the direction of the story so far). Very funny, very hot. Vox is pathetic in this one. Lol

Nun-thing Like You've Ever Seen Series by A_Cypress_Coffin

Summary: Alastor, the feared radio demon with more blood on his hands than most of hell combined, wasn't always as we imagine him. There was a time where instead of a dapper suit and smile he donned a simple vow and habit. That didn't last of course, but the journey is quite something.

Notes: This author has a great sense of humor, lmao. I enjoyed the unique headcanons for Alastor's backstory. The tag that hooked me: "Accidentally becoming a better person through bad domming and found family".

Empathia by The_Oblivious_Swallow

Summary: Creating new technology is boring, sex is physically unappealing, the other Vee’s are so annoying, annoying, annoying! Even Vark, his baby, his pride and joy, doesn’t stir the same joy in his heart like he should.

So, Vox had concluded that it had to go. For his sake.

Notes: Contains Staticmoth, but Radiostatic seems like the endgame (I write this as there is one chapter still left). Really interesting idea. I love Vox.exe so much. ;-;

Every Madman Has His Vice by phantasm_png (chibellero)

Summary: “What the fuck do you want, Alastor? Was it not enough to kill me all those years ago? Now, you had to go for the people I loved and the only things I had left in this fucking Hellhole?”

“It was my fault,” Alastor whispers as he approaches Vox slowly, as if he was some sort of wounded animal he didn’t want to scare off. His prey. “Vox, I’m sorry. If I had a chance to redo that night, I would never have hurt you to this extent. I’ll never harm you again.”

“That’s seven years too fucking late, Alastor.”

OR: Seven years ago, instead of Alastor disappearing, it was Vox who left instead.

Notes: I’m so fucking here for this AU. Possessive Alastor, Vox helping with the hotel, Husk is still an Overlord, yessss

Metathesiophobia (Fear of Change) by phantasm_png (chibellero)

Summary: There's a lot that can change in seven years.

But never once had Alastor expected for something like this from his old rival and older friend.

Or, Alastor and Vox start to rekindle their old friendship again after a shocking discovery strikes the deer demon.

Notes: QPR Radiostatic with MtF Vox! Contains a smidge of Staticmoth, but it's in the background and not the focus. Very well written.

surimi and venison by phantasm_png (chibellero)

Summary: A series of short drabbles (500+ words) in an interconnected universe (peep the tags, they're still in hell), centering around Alastor and his new pet fish... shark... television thing. Will (hopefully) update 1-2 times a week. Written as my attempt at a Mermay series.

Notes: Like the summary says, Mermay prompts featuring SharkHybrid!Vox, along with Alastor, who literally saw Vox and decided to make him his pet. Lol.

an arm and a leg, my dear, les yeux d'la tête by phantasm_png (chibellero)

Summary: “I mean, usually when Val gets mad he gets like, super pissy too an’ starts destroyin’ shit ‘round the set and in his clubs, but like, usually Vox can calm him down. Problem is, where the Hell is that guy? I haven’t seen ‘im round the Tower for like, a month or two now. That ain’t normal.”

“What, so you mean he just up and left?”

“No, but like… he hasn’t been seen ‘in public’ for like, two months now. It’s startin’ to get suspicious. Like, I ‘unno if I’m just paranoid or something, but… Vox is like, the fuckin’ face of Hell’s Entertainment District. When he’s not round for a bit, that’s nothing to worry about on its own… but when he’s not round for a bit an’ Val and Velvette are creeping around, looking for his rival…? I mean… the dots are connecting. If Al did something…”

“If Vox was dead, we would know.” OR: Two months ago, Vox went missing. Right now, it seems as if Alastor has something to hide.

Notes: Vox gets attic-wifed and wears a virgin killer sweater. ^_^

we'll go down together in the ashes of our love by phantasm_png (chibellero)

Summary: Glimpses into the Radio Demon's life as he reluctantly navigates parenthood with his co-parenting partner and the demon princess hoisted onto him by the King and Queen of Hell.

Loosely inspired by Spy X Family.

Notes: CUTE! I love domestic Radiostatic.

What Has Been by Tianren

Summary: Vox has never known peace. From being the son of a egocentric cult leader, to being the boyfriend of a self absorbed abuser. Vox has managed to build a pretty sad life for himself. The only spot of sunshine that had ever blessed his existence was when he met an amateur true crime investigative journalist, with a podcast named, Alastor. The man was his only source of unfiltered news and contact to the world outside his father’s compound. But after Vox finally escaped the cult he waited for Alastor. Waited weeks in their assigned meeting spot just to be forgotten. Vox was convinced he’d stopped waiting for Alastor years ago until he meets the man again seven years later at a hotel. What will reconnecting with his past lead to and will it help him escape the hell he’s built for himself?

Takes place in the late 2000s early 2010s

Trigger warning for religious trauma and abuse as major themes of this story. Will add more warnings if they arise as I go on.

Notes: Really interesting human AU concept!

(Fic rec list to be continued)

[phoenixeclipse-lmkau]

OMG!!! <3 I’m in love with all your content. It’s so hard finding yandere Shadowpeach, especially in a ploy relationship with oc/reader!!! I enjoy the dark themes this can bring to the table!!! I’m curious however, to hear your nsfw (smut) headcanons regarding the monkeys in a yandere romantic relationship and then how that changes with oc/reader? ;3 (Only if you’re comfortable, as I read somewhere that you are planning on featuring smut in some of the fanfics).

I have a few NSFW's that I am currently trying to work on. They are harder than I thought but I shall give you these headcannons of mine. (For this I'll use my cursed warlords AU because I might decide to change it up per au who knows)

Now onto it!

Shadowpeach Headcannons (NSFW)

I imagine that before the two got together, there was a lot of chemistry.

Wukong would get drunk once in a while (like blackout drunk). During this, he'd definitely be flirty with Macaque. Macaque, who never drank more than he could handle.

So Macaque would barely hold himself back as Wukong teased him in every way possible. The want to pounce was always there, he would want and pine to jump onto his King and fuck him senseless.

What made it harder was Wukongs hands raking across his body, teasing and taunting him. The number of times he nearly slid his hands into his warriors' pants counted into the hundreds before they got together. The only reason they never got further was because Macaque put a stop to it rather quickly.

After they get together?

Macaque is all on Wukong, weather drunk or not. He has months of teasing to repay (teasing that Wukong doesn't recall)

He'll suck Wukong off, enjoying the peachy flavor (why not?)

He'll bind him in shadows to keep him still when he's on top.

He also likes it when he makes Wukong beg, it's one of his favorite parts of sex. It only happens when he's bound up in shadows as that's the only time that Wukong can't really move to help himself.

He'll be more than willing to fuck him any way he or his mate wants. Nothing is off the table.

Both him and Wukong would be constantly fighting for dominace when they are in bed. They both like to be on top.

Like Macaque, Wukong likes to be on top as said before.

Even before the two got together Wukong would be extremely flirty while he was drunk.

He would never say it put loud but he was addicted to Macaque's scent.

He of course never understood why he was but he was.

He would never admit it out loud but he likes it when Macaque ties him up.

Wukong will tease and often. He'll slid his tail up Macaque's leg or even wrap it around his tail. He does not care who is in attendance because he’s a warlord (and even before that) he just doesn’t care about other’s opinions. (Except when they think badly of him. You all know his temper)

He will do anything to be on top, well unless he gets bound up. He can’t resist that feeling.

Now keep in mind this man never had sexual encounters with anyone before Macaque (Why? Because I said so)

Though neither of them liked the idea of a threesome, at least not until they met Reader.

Once Reader gets involved

Of course when Reader came along a few things change.

Once these two both figure out they love her (and get over their little bickerment) they are all for a threesome. (Only with Reader though)

The two still have their own rough exchanges because they know they can each handle it.

They want to be gentle with Reader because she is human. And they don’t want to hurt her.

Will leave bitemarks and possibly small bruises (which they will tend to if they do, they're not used to controlling their strength for humans)

They both love the idea of breeding you in every way possible.

They prefer to cum inside of you which means they’ll probably take turns.

Now I do want to clarify that I have a dub-con warning in my masterpost that is for nights such as drunk sex. Yeah mostly drunk sex and threats for kisses.

The threats for kisses is because they crave your affection. They will make ‘playful’ threats to get kisses and cuddles.

They’ll burn a house down if you don’t give them a kiss on the cheek. This is mostly from Wukong of course.

If Reader is drunk and initiates the act they have a hard time resisting. Depending on how drunk you are depends on the outcome.

Tipsy? They will definitely have sex with you.

Drunk? If you look like you are in control they would do it. If you’re not stumbling or slurring words or swaying.

Now if you are almost blackout drunk or even starting to slur your words. Nope, they are not doing it. (Unless if they are also drunk)

Instead they will take you to bed to rest and sleep. In the morning they will definitely be flirtatious though, hoping that it wasn’t just the alcohol talking. They’d shoot their shot, even if they get shot down.

If Reader says no to them they will stop. For your safety and your comfort. Or if you simply don’t want to, these two aren’t going to force you at all.

Afterwards weather your drunk, tired or still have energy they are cleaning you up. Flower Fruit Mountain has many hot springs and they have their personal one that they don’t even let other monkey demons get in.

You might be tired or sore who knows. But you are set into the water so you will be soaking for a while as they make sure that you are nice and clean.

As soon as you are clean they’ll let you relax in the water before taking you to bed. Since these two have probably exhausted you.

Is this everything? No. But just some head cannons that came to my mind.

Hands trailed down your body both from the front and the back. Wukong was pressed to your back and Macaque to your front as they nipped and left small bites across your collarbone. You held in a whine as you bit your lips. Wukong’s hands were the first to slide past your waist and gently gripped your thighs. Too much, too much.

“S-STOP!” All at once both of the Monkey Kings froze.

“Are you alright?”

“Did I hurt you?”

“N-No… I just don’t want to.” You were holding back tears. You weren’t ready for anything like this, you didn’t want to. Everything was happening so fast. But as soon as you said to stop, both of them listened.

“Oh honey, it’s alright. Hey, hey don’t cry,” Macaque lifted his hands to your face wiping away a few terrified tears.

“It’s alright, we don’t have to continue. How about we cuddle instead, you were okay with that yesterday,” Wukong added as he took his hands away, walking around you to help clean up your face a bit.

“No matter what, you can always tell us no for anything like this,” Macaque added as he gave you a few kisses on the cheek.

You sniffled as they sat down on their large nest full of the fluffiest blankets and pillows the two monkey kings could find. These two, no matter how much they craved for you still gave you this mercy. They wouldn’t force themselves onto you, even if they wouldn’t let you leave. You were trapped on the mountain with them, but they still loved you in a way that they would never make you do something like that against your will.

“Yeah. We can cuddle and talk. Talk about anything you want. We’re right here,” Wukong added with a chuckle, as he kissed your cheek again.

Did I stress enough how this would go? I think so. They love you and knowing your from another world would make them so some desperate measures. But those desperate measures have limits! Consent is highly important, so I wanted to stress that in this post. Since it’s the first one like it that I’ve got.

I’ma be honest with ya’ll I have had this post in my inbox and drafts for a while. I just haven’t finished it. But now it’s done. So I do hope for your feedback. I like these headcannon style posts. Have other questions send them my way. I may be slow, life may get in the way, or I might procrastinate. But- I don’t delete asks unless they actually make me uncomfortable so it’s mostly free game. Even if I am slow 😅

[nb-octopus-writes]

once you’re in the hive, the other bees assume you’re supposed to be there

[Masterpost]

Chapter 3: A Series of Unintended Events

Wordcount: 1.3K

~~~~

The pancakes are delicious, light and fluffy. Virgil only has two, because he did already have cereal and unlike Remus his stomach is not a bottomless pit into which he can pour an unending stream of nutrients. But they're delicious, and he's glad Calico convinced him to try a bit.

After breakfast, Virgil helps with the dishes because Remus still isn't up yet, and neither is Janus—probably still curled around him like a hot water bottle—and he has nothing better to do.

Princey meanders in after him, and despite having just demolished an entire stack of pancakes and a decent amount of scrambled eggs, starts rooting around in the fridge. He emerges with a plastic-wrapped plate of tiny pumpkin pies and leans against the counter to eat them directly off the platter, clearly pleased that the party having ended means he can have the leftovers.

“So you're the reason the chinese buffet has a twenty plate limit,” Virgil teases after Princey eats several in a row without pausing. Virgil had a few of those tiny pies last night, so he knows they're good, but Princey is absolutely chowing down on them.

“Hey, that was not my fault!” Princey protests. “Besides, a place that calls itself ‘all you can eat’ shouldn't even have a limit.”

“It shouldn’t,” Virgil agrees. “But I've never hit the limit myself, so I thought it was reasonably high. I suppose that a buffet operating in the same town as twin black holes would need to be cautious to protect their profit margins though. How much did you two pack away before they asked you to stop?”

“Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy,” Princey says. “Anyway, it really wasn't us.”

“No?”

Princey sighs. “No, Count Woe-laf,” he says. He is just too much fun to tease. “If my father is to be believed, it was actually him and a couple of his college buddies.”

Virgil laughs. “Oh, so it's definitely genetic, then!”

Princey chuckles, popping the last tiny pie into his mouth and setting the plate on the counter. Virgil takes it and rinses it off so he can put it in the dishwasher with the others. “Yeah. Dad says they absolutely cleared out the seafood section, and most of the mac and cheese, and ate a sizable portion of pretty much everything else. If you get him going, he'll give you a very long and probably quite embellished retelling of the many courses they had. They never got kicked out, but the next time they went, they were told that there was now a limit to just how much they could eat.”

“Ah, alas,” Virgil says. “I bet it was a fabulous feast, though.” He finishes loading the dishwasher and checks under the sink for soap. They have pods, which is very convenient for measuring, or rather for not having to do that. He pops one in and turns the machine on.

“So, if I'm Count Olaf antagonizing you, which Baudelaire does that make you?” he asks. “Not bookish Klaus, surely. Maybe Sunny? I think she could demolish a plate as quickly as you, though her small stomach wouldn't have the same capacity.”

Princey's eyes light up and he leans forward. Instead of answering the banter, he says meaningfully, “I have the full series on dvd.”

“I'm not doing anything right now,” Virgil says. Princey beams.

“Great! I'll make popcorn!”

~

They have a dedicated home theater. The tv is large, the seats are comfortable, and the speakers are crisp and clear without being too loud. Princey made a bucket of popcorn for each of them, and Virgil isn't very hungry right now considering he very recently had breakfast, but he munches idly on it as they watch, and comment, and theorize. Princey is fun to watch tv with, and doesn't mind Virgil talking while they watch.

They're in the middle of an episode when Remus appears in the doorway.

“Hey Emo,” says Remus. “I gotta get home and feed my cat before she figures out how to unlock the front door and hunts me down. I was gonna take you home on the way, but it looks like you're in the middle of something.”

Virgil considers. He looks at the screen, where Lemony Snicket is explaining that if you're allergic to something, it's generally best not to put that thing in your mouth, especially if the thing you are allergic to is a cat. He looks back at Remus. “You swear you'll come back for me?”

“On my favorite dildo and Janus's two cocks,” Remus says with feeling, and Virgil can't help the chuckle that escapes him.

“I'll be okay,” he says. “Go get Diesel Fuel her lunch.”

Remus salutes him and disappears.

They finish the episode and Remus hasn't come back yet, so they go on to the next one. During the theme song though, Nerdbot appears to inform them that they too need to eat lunch.

Virgil thought Princey might protest, given how invested he's been, but he pauses the show and gets up. “C’mon, Tall Dark and Stormy,” he says to Virgil. “If we skip lunch to watch tv all day we get a lecture about why proper nutrition is important.”

“You do,” Nerdbot confirms. “Points of note include the necessity of proteins and vegetables in addition to carbohydrates.”

“Is popcorn a vegetable?” Virgil asks.

Nerdbot raises an eyebrow. “It is a carbohydrate, actually. It is also primarily air.”

It seems that all the other guests have gone home, so it's just the four of them now. The table is back to its smaller size, and Princey has Virgil sit at the corner beside him, so they can keep talking. Nerdbot sits on Virgil’s other side, and Calico sits at the head, across from Princey.

Lunch is baked chicken and a vegetable dish that Virgil doesn't really expect to like, but he takes a polite spoonful anyway because he's sure Nerdbot is capable of a very powerful ‘eat your vegetables’ lecture, and he doesn't feel like hearing it right now.

The vegetables do not taste bad. Virgil’s not sure why he's surprised anymore considering everything he's eaten in this house so far—with the possible exception of the cereal, which doesn't count—but the vegetables are the opposite of bad.

“Why are you such a good cook,” Virgil says to Calico, who brightens. “I need to come eat your food more often.”

“He has a magical tongue,” Princey says, making heart eyes across the table at him.

Calico blushes slightly (not nearly as deeply as he had last night) and clarifies, “I'm very good at tasting, and I have a lot of practice combining flavors. I'm also not afraid of fats and salt, and that helps.”

Virgil has two servings.

Remus still isn't back yet when they finish lunch, and Virgil is starting to get concerned.

Don't forget me, he texts, and goes into the room with the couches to wait.

This couch really is comfortable. And Virgil got barely any sleep last night, between staying up late and waking up so fucking early, and also probably never actually falling into a deep sleep at all since there were other people in the room. And his stomach is full and warm. And the couch is so comfortable. 

He barely has time to notice how heavy his eyelids are becoming.

~

Virgil wakes, briefly. The room is dark. Someone has covered him with a blanket. He finds his phone and checks it. There's a message from Remus, about half an hour after Virgil’s last text.

came to get you but you were very asleep, it says. text me when youre awake and wanna go home

Attached is a selfie, with Virgil in the background passed out on the couch.

Virgil groans. fucker, he texts back, and falls back asleep.

~~~~

Chapter 4: The Second Morning

[screamingatanemptyroom]

Screaming at an Empty Room -

Reintroduction/Update

Hello everyone! Probably too late to do an intro, given that I've been writing on this blog since 2017, but since I've returned after a few years away from writing, I wanted the opportunity to talk about my blog and projects completed and my upcoming plans!

I go by Avaleon everywhere else on the internet, but respond to pretty much anything, including Screaming, hey you, etc! Started this blog in my mid 20s, and aged normally into the early 30s from there. I love writing, have always loved it, but between work and life, it's definitely something that I mostly do late at night and on weekends. I love hearing from people, but I usually answer asks in bunches, and typically right before I post writing. Love hearing about other people's projects as well!

I write short stories, novellas, and occasional full length novels. I am not published, but actively working on self-publishing some of my full length works. Everything I write is posted online, I enjoy sharing my work. The main reason to self publish for me is to have physical copies for myself or anyone who might want one!

My short stories can be found under the #writing tag on my blog. As for the long completed stories, I'll post them below the cut!

Love you Tumblr, happy to be back!

A. Full Length Novels (100,000+ words)

Please Fix the Story!

Description:

I don’t know who I am. I don’t know why I’m trapped in this never ending cycle of rebirth. All I know is that I wake up inside the worlds of unfinished stories, with a mission to accomplish the author’s wishes and stabilize the worlds now headed for destruction. I do my best, hoping, praying that maybe if I complete enough missions, I’ll be able to remember my past and return to my home.

It’s just fixing stories, it should be simple enough.

So can someone explain who this random villain is who keeps following me to each world?

Masterpost linked here

2. I Can’t Eat Love

Description:

Lenora did not have a wonderful life. After her engagement to Prince Ronan is broken, she loses everything… her reputation, her home and her family. Starving on the streets, she dies angry and bitter at how her life unfolded… only to wake up in her old bed, fifteen again, five years before her death. 

Now she must struggle to change her fate, and the fate of the around her. This time she won’t trust in something as flimsy or changeable as love. No, this time she’ll have the power and the money she needs to protect herself. 

Lenora has already lost everything once. She’s not going to lose again. 

No matter the cost. 

Masterpost Linked Here

B. Novellas

I Refuse to be a Named Character

Description:

I woke up inside the world of one of the best selling fantasy book series “Deadly Crown.” Intrigue, handsome heroes, adventure… sounds great, right? Just one problem: all the named characters except the main hero and villain die, are replaced and their replacements die. Being important in this story is a death sentence, so I plan to move to the middle of nowhere, and avoid the plot! 

It should be a fool proof plan, so why do the main characters keep dragging me into the story?

Masterpost Linked Here

2. Living in a Rewrite of my Own Book World

Description:

This is the story about an author who gets hit by a car right before she can finish her bestselling book series. Trapped in the role of a terrible side character antagonist, she must find a way to change the story’s ending. Not just for her own survival, but for the characters that seem just a little too real to be fiction. (30K words)

Masterpost Linked Here

3.Baby’s First Revenge!

Description:

When Charlotte is betrayed and killed by the friend she sacrificed everything for, she thought it was the end. Instead, she found herself reborn as a baby, with her killer still enjoying the fame of stealing her work. Now, she's coming after him, and plans to make him pay... But first, nap time.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7

4. The Supervillain’s Daughter

The story of Erica, a girl who finds out that her brother is the kidnapped child of superheroes, and that her parents are villains. Years later she is the best agent in the Villain Suppression Unit, and hates everything to do with superheroes. So of course she isn’t pleased when she is paired with the strongest man alive, especially because she knows him. But with even darker parts of her past surfacing again, she will have no choice but to join forces and save the world. 

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Other smaller works and the incomplete ones can be found on this page

Thanks everyone!

[mimisempai]

Never ordinary

Summary

Crowley and Aziraphale take their daily stroll through their garden, and the angel realizes once again that the most innocuous of gestures, like holding hands, will never be ordinary for them.

Notes

Just because they like holding hands

On Ao3

Rating G -  561 words

The late afternoon sun cast long shadows across the orchard through the fruit trees as Aziraphale and Crowley walked hand in hand, fingers intertwined, in what had become a daily routine.

Crowley commented on the blossoming of this or that plant, Aziraphale looked forward to picking the last of the season's apples to make delicious desserts, and both realised that they would probably have to repaint the shutters soon.

Crowley was now talking about the next brood of ducks about to hatch, but the Angel was no longer listening, his attention focused elsewhere.

His gaze had fallen on their intertwined hands and he was enjoying the way Crowley's fingers brushed over his, the way their hands fit so well together, the way Crowley's skin felt warm against his. A wave of satisfaction washed over him, as it always did, and his fingers tightened a little more around the demon's.

Crowley, of course, had noticed the angel's lack of attention and asked amusedly, "Barely a few months of living together and I'm already boring you? "

" What? Oh, no, sorry, dear. What were you saying about the ducks? "

But Crowley wanted to know where the angel's mind had wandered and said gently, "You seemed lost in thought, Angel."

Aziraphale looked up and his eyes met Crowley's before returning to their joined hands. He raised them slightly before replying, "I was just thinking how... this will never be ordinary for us."

Crowley looked thoughtfully at their hands and replied softly, "You're right, I don't think it ever will be. Maybe because we've waited so long to be able to do it this way, freely, without looking over our shoulders, without fear."

Aziraphale nodded, no more words needed, he knew he and Crowley understood each other perfectly. It was more than just holding hands, it was the freedom to be together, tangible proof of a bond forged centuries ago, but now finally openly expressed. 

They walked in silence for a while, the only sound being the rustling of leaves beneath their feet and the gentle breeze in the trees. 

Suddenly, a gust of wind made Aziraphale shiver. Crowley, seeing this, let go of the angel's hand and wrapped his arm around his shoulders, holding him close.

Aziraphale laughed softly, "This will never be ordinary either."

The demon chuckled in turn, then suddenly stopped, stood in front of the angel, took his face between his hands and said playfully, "You know what else will never be ordinary, Angel?"

Aziraphale shook his head as Crowley leaned his face into his, a mischievous twinkle dancing in his eyes. 

"I'll show you." 

He closed the distance until his lips met Aziraphale's in a kiss that was both tender and passionate. 

As always since their first kiss, the world around them faded away, leaving only the intensity of their connection, the depth of their love. 

Never ordinary.

As the kiss deepened, Aziraphale forgot all about the wind, and it was no longer the cold that made him shiver.

A little later, they parted, breathless and flushed, their eyes locked in a silent conversation that spoke volumes, before continuing their walk hand in hand. 

To anyone passing by, they would look like an ordinary couple living an ordinary life in their ordinary cottage, but they would always be aware that what they were living now would never be ordinary for them.

_________

Still not beta'd

Still not my native language

Still hoping you'll enjoy this story  🥰

Still thanking you for bearing with me 😝

South Downs cottage series : here

Ineffable fan fictions Masterpost : here

[timelyrmdoodle]

Okay it's about time I made a masterpost!!

Hello!! My name's Leo, I use He/Him pronouns, I like, run this account or something? And there's a good chance you're looking for info on it! Soooo-

First things first, some things you might know me by!

This account, obviously

My main, @leounderseas, where I post more cookie-unrelated stuff!

My instagram

My tiktok (currently inactive)

You don't know me from twitter because I don't use that!!! Twitter is banned in my country, so I do not have a twitter account.

Also some artworks you might recognize!!

Now that introductions are out of the way, here's some more info on me and this account specifically! This a daily doodle account for Royal Margarine Cookie from Cookie Run Kingdom! I am very normal about him. That's pretty much all I post about here, though other cookie related things do pop in every once in awhile!

This account was meant to be daily, but I am still finishing up highschool, and it's been very stressfull, so sadly I don't have the time to actually make that work. The plan is still to post a doodle daily! But maybe I'll only be able to do that once I finish up with school, sadly.

I have two main hashtags in here!

#my art and my stuffff, for any art or similar things I end up making and posting! If you're expecting a daily doodle and haven't seen it, or just wanna browse, you might wanna check the hashtag :)

#questions and rambling and stuff, for askbox questions that I answered or just general rambling about characters or any other topic! If you're interested about my insight on things (or my analysis of a certain cookie, whom this account happens to be about....) it'll be there!

My askbox is open, and anonymous is an option! Feel comfortable to ask me questions, don't be shy! Just, yknow, be civilized? And not mean? Or any kind of -phobic or -ist or anything like that

Projects I currently have in the works are:

My marge shimeji! It is still in production sadly because I haven't had the time to work on it.... but I plan on finishing it and making it downloadable for anybody who wants it once it's done!!

Another related thing is my character playlists! I make those for fun in my freetime :) I have a lot of them, and some of them are longer than others because I am obviously biased (staareeess....) but I still enjoy all of them! Here are the links if anybody is interested!

Royal Margarine Cookie playlist (longest by VEEERY FAR. You need commitment to finish this one. Also lowkey suggestive. Tread carefully.)

Black Pearl Cookie playlist (Second favorite! Nowhere near as long but still very dear to me :])

Butter Roll Cookie playlist

Matcha Cookie playlist (Third favorite,,,,,, ouuugh blorbo....)

Pure Vanilla Cookie playlist (Has purelily undertones fyi, i like purelily)

White Lily Cookie playlist (Fourth favorite, SHE'S JUST LIKE ME FOR REAAAALLL,,,,,)

Golden Cheese Cookie playlist (Fifth favorite! Not really that long, but pleeeaasee recommend me songs for it)

Shadow Milk Cookie playlist

Black Lemonade Cookie playlist (very unfinished...)

Shining Glitter Cookie playlist (very unfinished....)

Snapdragon Cookie playlist (very unfinished, IM SO SORRY BABYYYY,,,,)

I also have non cookie playlists! Though they are few

Furina de Fontaine (Genshin Impact) playlist (Second longest playlist I have. I LOVE HER SO MUUUUCHHH YOU GUYS DONT GET ITTT)

Kieran (Pokemon Scarlet & Violet DLC) playlist (This kid is ill and I care him)

To finalize, I don't take comissions right now, but I do take requests in my askbox! Depending on the request ofc. I plan on taking comissions someday, but that'll probably have to wait until I finish highschool next year! And with all that said.... You're caught up!!! *confetti falls Have any questions? Lmk!! I'll answer them! Have a good day :]

[clown-friend-gt]

Up, Up, and Away Chapter 7

This chapter is a bit long because I combined two chapters into one. That also means I only have one completed chapter after this one, which I'll probably post later this week. There may or may not be a short hiatus after that while I work on writing more chapters. Thanks for understanding.

Link to Masterpost

************************************************************************

Left Alone

2.8k words

(CW: More police stuff, body horror)

The next few hours were a blur. More people from the institute arrived to take Trevor away. Around that same time, EMT’s arrived, wheeling Robbie away on a stretcher. Trevor had just enough time to watch them load him into an ambulance before the institute agents shoved him into the back of a gray van with the logo of the institute’s enforcement department on the side.

The ride over was not a smooth one. He was too big to fit in any of the seats that lined the sides of the walls, so he had to lay on the floor, crammed in like a sardine. Whenever the van took a particularly sharp turn, he’d be slammed into the wall, and the whole van would tilt dangerously to the side.

“Settle down back there!” The driver yelled back at him after the van crashed back onto four wheels.

If you don’t want the van to flip over, maybe stop driving like a maniac, Trevor thought, but said nothing. He didn’t need to make more trouble for himself.

Trevor thought he knew the city pretty well. But with no view of the outside and all of the twists and turns, he had no idea where they were headed. All he knew was that based on how long they’d been driving, it was pretty far outside of San Solaris.

He wondered what his mom was thinking right now. Would she be worried after he didn’t come home? Had anyone told her what had happened? She’d done so much for him since this all started, trying to keep him from going insane. And he’d just thrown it all away.

Then his thoughts drifted to Robbie. Would he be okay? He looked to be in pretty bad shape when they took him to the hospital. He hadn’t wanted to hurt him, not really. He just wanted to scare him off. But he’d underestimated his own strength, and now both of them were paying for it.

God, he was disgusted with himself. Maybe Robbie was right. Maybe he was a freak. After all, what kind of person would do such a thing? The way Robbie had crumpled when he hit that wall, it made Trevor shudder to think of now.

As he stewed in silence, he didn’t notice the van come to a stop. Then someone pounded on the side of the van, jolting him from his thoughts. The doors opened, but from his crumpled-up position, he could hardly see outside.

“We’re here. Get out,” came an authoritative voice from the outside.

“Just a minute.” Trevor started wriggling around, trying to free himself.

He managed to straighten his legs and plant them on the ground outside. From there, he did a kind of half-crabwalk to pull his torso from the van. Once it was no longer underneath him though, he collapsed onto his back, his legs folding awkwardly beneath him.

“Ow,” he muttered to himself.

An institute official stood over him, arms crossed. He wore slacks, a light blue button up shirt, a tie, and suspenders. His name badge read “Ray Morgan.”

“Get up,” he ordered.

“I’m trying,” Trevor complained, struggling to try and sit up. But with his legs trapped and his hands bound, it was almost impossible. He sighed, defeated.

“I can’t. I’m stuck,” he told the official.

“Seriously?”

“Maybe if I could use my hands…” he snarked.

Morgan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Fine, hold on,” he said, retrieving a small remote from his pocket. He pointed it at Trevor and clicked a button, causing his cuffs to buzz again. He felt the magnetic pull they on each other turn off. Slowly, he rolled over and pushed himself up. Once he was standing, he shook himself out, trying to regain feeling in his limbs.

He looked at the cuffs on his wrist. There was a light on the side of one that glowed yellow. Before he could try and guess what that meant, Morgan spoke up again.

“Don’t get any ideas on me now,” he said, pressing another button on the remote.

The light flashed red, and with a buzz, the cuffs snapped together once more. So much for that.

Now that his hands were connected in front of him, he grabbed Trevor by the elbow and tried to pull him forward. He didn’t budge. Morgan slowly seemed to realize that he’d need a lot more force to move Trevor than he could muster on his own.

“Work with me here, kid,” he said, sounding exasperated.

Trevor rolled his eyes, but started walking in the direction he was leading him.

Between the lingering effects of the growth spurt he’d had the night before and being stuck in the back of a van for nearly an hour, Trevor had expected to be in more pain. But the cuffs he wore had some kind of numbing effect on him, so he felt fine. If it wasn’t for the situation he was in, he might have been glad to have them.

They headed towards an imposing-looking brick building. A sign above the door read “The Lively Institute: Juvenile Corrections Center.” Now there was no mistaking how much trouble he was in.

Trevor was led inside. He had enough room to stand in the entrance hall, which had higher ceilings. But the official directing him quickly ushered him past the front desk and into the hallway, which was significantly shorter, so he had to crouch most of the time.

Morgan led him to a room with an institute staff member who dressed more like a police officer, kind of like Mr. Roberts had. Morgan directed the officer to pat Trevor down.

“I can do this myself, you know,” Trevor told Morgan as the officer removed his keys, his wallet, and his phone from his pockets.

Morgan shook his head. “Can’t let you do that. Safety risk, and all.”

Then he led Trevor to another room to have his picture taken for his mugshot. As they entered the room, Trevor spotted a potential issue.

“This only goes up to seven feet,” he said, pointing to the height chart on the wall.

Morgan rubbed his forehead, clearly starting to get a little fed up with this whole situation.

“Just kind of…crouch down into frame,” he said, motioning with one hand as he spoke. “You let us worry about the rest.”

Trevor shrugged and did as he was told, carefully maintaining his balance as the camera’s light flashed. Then he turned to the side so they could repeat the process.

After that, Morgan led him to one final room. Once they were there, he led Trevor over to a screen mounted on the wall.

“Put your thumb here,” he instructed Trevor.

“Why?”

“So we can record your fingerprints.”

“Oh,” he said, pressing his thumb to the screen. “Don’t they normally dip your fingers in ink for that?”

Morgan shook his head. “Nah, we stopped doing that years ago.”

After a moment, a light on the screen flashed green.

“Okay, now for your pointer finger…”

After he pressed each of his fingers to the screen in turn, Morgan led him back into the hall.

“You’re all checked in, sir,” he said with an ironic flourish. “Right this way, I’ll lead you to your room.”

Trevor knit his brows in confusion. “My room?”

Morgan sighed. “It was a joke. You go into the same holding cell as everyone else.”

He motioned for Trevor to follow him. Just before they got to the cell, Morgan stopped him and pointed to the phone mounted on the wall in the hallway.

“You get one call,” he told him.

He nodded. He’d call his mom, of course. She had to be worried sick by now. He plucked the handset off its hook in a few fingers. Then he went to press the first digit of her number with his pinky.

He stopped, his finger hovering over the button. He felt his stomach drop. What would he even say to her? How could he face her, after what he’d done?

“…Does my mom know I’m here?” he asked Morgan.

“Yeah, she got the word whenever you were arrested,” he confirmed.

Trevor pressed his lips into a fine line, before eventually placing the phone back on its hook and stepping away.

“You only get this one chance to call someone,” Morgan warned him.

Trevor shut his eyes and shook his head.

“I don’t need it,” he told him.

Morgan put his thumbs in his pockets and shrugged. He opened the door to the holding cell and gestured for Trevor to enter.

“After you, Monsieur.” He stepped aside and allowed Trevor to squeeze himself into the room. Then, after one last look after him, he shut the door behind him, leaving Trevor alone in the room.

************************************************************************

The holding cell wasn’t what he thought it’d be. He’d been expecting a door with iron bars, one of those prison beds that was hooked to the wall, stuff like that. What he got instead was a plain-looking room with a few benches. The only indication he was under surveillance now was a camera in the corner and a window that looked to the hall outside.

He sat up against the wall for a few hours, replaying the events of the day in his head. If only he’d kept his cool. If only he hadn’t hit Robbie so hard.

If only.

Then a voice came down the hall. It was one he knew well.

“Where is he?” his mom was shouting. “I want to see my son.”

“Please calm down, Ms.…?” someone responded.

“Castillo,” she shot back.

“Ms. Castillo. No one is allowed to visit detainees until we review their case.”

“Can’t I post bail or something?”

“This isn’t a police station. We do things a bit differently here.”

“That’s insane, he’s just a kid,” she yelled. “He has rights!”

“Ma’am, please stay calm,” the other voice tried to assure her.

“This is stupid. I’m going back there.”

“Ma’am, no—” there was a sound of a scuffle.

“Hey!” his mom cried out in alarm. Trevor shot to his feet.

“Mom?” he called out. He got no response. Instead, all he heard was more sounds of a struggle.

“Let go of me!” He heard her shout. He ran to the door and tried the handle. It jiggled uselessly in his cuffed hands.

Ugh, these stupid cuffs. If only I could—

Trevor strained against his cuffs with all his might. After a moment, they came apart for just a second. Then they clapped back together like nothing had happened. That wouldn’t help him anytime soon.

So instead, he lowered himself down so his shoulder was level with the door. He took a step back, then crashed into the door with all his weight. The door splintered into pieces, sending him stumbling out into the hallway. He shook himself off and stood up to his full height. At least, as much as he could in these hallways.

At the other end of the hall, his mom was struggling against two officers. One held her by either arm. They all turned to look at the sound of the disturbance.

“Let go of her,” he bellowed, charging down the hall towards them.

His mother’s eyes widened in terror as he came barreling down the hall. That caused him to hesitate. Her fear didn’t seem to be directed towards the men who held her.

No. She was afraid of him.

He slowed down, stopping short a few feet from her. After a moment of silence, he spoke up.

“Mom, I—” he raised his hands, reaching for her.

She flinched.

He stared at the three people cowering in front of him. They stared back, varying levels of fear written on their faces. He took a step back, then another. Then he turned and hurried back to the holding cell.

Just before he reached the door, he heard his mom start to speak.

“Mijo, espera—!”

Trevor paused but didn’t look her way. He couldn’t bear to see that look in her eyes again.

He bent down and squeezed himself through the empty doorframe without another word. He took a few more steps before slumping against the wall and sliding to the floor. He sat there with his knees bent, his arms resting on top. Then he buried his face in his arms.

He didn’t even have it in him to cry.

“This way, ma’am,” he heard one of the officers tell his mom, presumably leading her back to the front. This time, she put up no fight.

Now they all knew he belonged in here.

************************************************************************

Nothing else really happened that night. Because he’d removed the door keeping him there, they kept an officer stationed at the doorway at all times. Every few hours, they’d shift one officer out for another. Where before everyone had treated him with aloofness, their attitudes towards him now seemed to vary from thinly veiled paranoia to downright contempt.

The officer watching him now fell into the first category. Any time Trevor looked over at him, his hand seemed to instinctually hover down to his belt. Never quite coming to rest on the holster of his weapon, but never straying far from it either. Trevor didn’t bother telling him that he had no plans to try and escape again. Even if the man believed him, it still made sense for him to treat him like a monster.

He certainly felt like one now.

Eventually, the lights shut off. There was no clock in the room, but if he had to guess, it was probably getting pretty late. He supposed he should try and get some sleep.

The way he saw it, he had two choices. He could either stay sitting against the wall like he was or try laying out on the floor. Neither sounded all that appealing. But his neck was starting to cramp up in this position, so he decided to try laying down.

As he stood up, a wave of exhaustion hit him. He stumbled forward a step before regaining his balance. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the officer watching him nearly jump out of his skin, his hand flying down to his holster.

“Don’t—don’t try anything,” the officer warned him, his voice trembling.

Trevor gave him a tired look but didn’t say anything. He was too drained, physically and emotionally, to think of anything to say to him. Instead he slowly walked to the middle of the room and lay down on his side.

The floor was cold and hard. He shifted around, trying to get comfortable. He tried curling up to stay warm, but it didn’t help much. With a heavy sigh, he shut his eyes and tried to get some rest.

Sleep did not come easy. In fact, Trevor didn’t feel like he’d slept at all. The only indication that time had passed were the shifting shadows, and the fact that the figure watching him from the door seemed to have changed.

It was the pain that had woken him up. It came in waves, like it was struggling to break through the cloud of numbness that had settled over him. But soon enough, that feeling of his muscles tearing and his bones shifting that visited him every time he had one of those terrible growth spurts slowly powered through the effects of the cuffs he wore.

A cry escaped his throat. He began to tremble as the pain spread throughout his body. Hot tears welled in his eyes and spilled down his cheeks.

Why now? He wondered weakly.

He curled in tighter on himself, silently praying for something, anything that would take the pain away. He wished his mom was here. For the past week, any time he’d had a particularly bad flare-up like this, she’d been there to comfort him. It didn’t do much for the pain, but having her with him eased his mind somewhat. Now he was completely alone.

In the low light, he made eye contact with the person who stood in the doorway. He couldn’t read any sort of expression on their face. But he could see their eyes, just barely. He knew they saw him suffering.

“Help me,” he croaked. “Please.”

The person did not move. They did not speak. Instead, they stood there, arms crossed. They shook their head no, just once. The only indication that they’d heard him at all.

He squeezed his eyes shut. More tears poured forth. His shaking escalated to intermittent spasms, paired with the sound of his joints popping as they displaced and replaced themselves, over and over again.

Even though he’d been through this before, there was a part of his mind that always broke into a panic whenever it started happening again. What if this time his body couldn’t handle the stress? What if it left him injured afterwards? Or worse?

His mind eventually went white with pain. He faded into unconsciousness, unsure of what he’d come back to when he awoke. Or even if he’d wake up at all.

First/Last/Next

[mysticwolfshadows]

Taken - Zutara - Part 33

First / Previous / Next / Masterpost

When they get to the arena, Toph and Aang are dangling in the air in metal cages.

And then Lord Beifong, the bastard, tried to take Toph and leave Aang too be handed over to the Fire Nation. When the Beifong's were walking past her, Katara tapped her foot, making Toph pause.

"It's your choice," Katara said. "But we could use the help."

Toph's father scoffed. "My daughter is blind. She is blind and tiny and-"

"I'll help," Toph said, pulling away from her father.

They joined the fray, despite Toph's father shouting at them. Toph takes over, telling Sokka and Zukoo to go help Aang instead. Katara smiled, knowing this girl could take care of a few lesser benders. She joined the boys at the cage, nodding to Zuko as she pulled water from her pouch.

"Heat the lock," Katara said.

Zuko nodded, trusting her judgment, and grabbed the lock in both hands, heating it until it was red hot. Quick as a whip, Katara doused it in water, freezing it all at once. There was a crack, and the lock came loose with a tug. Aang crawled out, staring at Toph.

"Wow," he said, blinking. "She's so good. Am I really gonna learn from her?"

"Maybe," Katara said, as Toph finished up. "That's up to her..."

Back at the Beifong estate, Katara stands with the others as Toph confronts her parents. She listens as Toph confesses her feelings, her desire to fight, and genuine love for it. She confeses never having a real friend, but feeling like she has the chance to now.

Katara was so proud of her, only, Toph's father is an absolute ass.

"I've let you had far too much freedom," the man has the gaul to say. "From now on you'll be cared for and guarded twenty-four hours a day."

"But dad!" Toph cries, then turns her head. "Katara-"

"They have no say here," Lao said, scowling at them. "This is for your own good."

But it wasn't Katara that spoke up. It was Zuko, his hands clenched, that stepped forward.

"No," Zuko snapped. "You're doing this for you. Your insane desire for control. You'd rather destroy your daughter than release any of your control over her."

"You don't know what you're talking about, boy!" Turning Lao shouted. "Guards! Escort the Avatar and his friends out. They are no longer welcome here."

As the guards stepped forward, Zuko turned, sweeping a foot out, shooting flames at the approaching enemy. The guards stumbled, and Katara got into her own fighting stance, ready to defend.

"Firebender!" Poppy gasped, shrinking away.

"I am Prince Zuko, son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai." He turned back to the Beifong's, smoke rising from his fista as he glared. "And I speak from experience when I say you will break your daughter one day. And when you do, it'll be something you can't take back."

"Get out," Lao tries, even as his voice shakes. "Get out of my house."

"We'll leave in peace," Aang cuts in, his staff pointed towards one man. "Toph?"

"My daughter-!"

"Has the right to choose," Katara said, reaching with one hand to touch the earthbenders shoulder. "Toph, if you want to leave, we won't let them stop you, even if you don't come with us."

For a moment, Toph just stared in the direction of the floor. Then, she nodded. "I'll join you," she said, ignoring her parents cries. "I'll teach the Avatar."

Her father was shouting, and the room was thrown into chaos. They took off, fighting their way out, climbing quickly onto Appa and flying off.

"This is gonna come back to bite us, isn't it?" Sokka asked, peering over the saddle as the Beifong Estate grew smaller and smaller.

"Probably," Zuko sighed. "I shouldn't have done that."

Katara shook her head. "Toph deserved to make her own choice. Right, Toph?"

She turned, finding the younger girl clinging to the saddle. She was looking kind of green. "I think I'm gonna hurl!"

"Over the side!" Sokka shrieked. "Over the side! Not in the saddle!"

First / Previous / Next / Masterpost

[seblaineworld]

Hey, Seblainers! Hellooooo, everyone else!

After a seriously stressful few months, I'm finally getting a bit more back to normal and can breathe a bit more easily at last, so of course that means...it's time to decide when Seblaine Week 2024 will be held!

Now, the first poll is going to be a bit different, and let me explain why that is: I was absolutely flabbergasted by the success of 10 Days Of Seblaine, and once again would like to thank everyone who offered support and sent me such kind messages after my Mum was rushed into hospital so suddenly last year. As you all know, that meant I had to sadly postpone Seblaine Week 2023 from the original August dates, and after a vote, it was unanimously decided that we would have a 10 day event, that would comprise Seblaine Week 2023 AND Seblainiversary Weekend 2023, and it was held last November

I want to preface this next by saying that Seblainiversary Weekend 2024 will be unaffected this year and will be going ahead from Friday 8th November until midnight on Sunday 10th November 2024. So you can pop that one in your diaries, and the themes will be announced much nearer to the time.

However! I have actually received a lot of lovely messages (including, surprisingly, some from people who aren't technically even part of our tiny, (but always fierce!) Seblainer fandom, but followed along with the event), to say how much 10 Days Of Seblaine 2023 was enjoyed by you all, and the one thing I have been repeatedly asked is; can I please consider making our main Seblainer celebration a 10 day event from now on?

I honestly have no problem with that whatsoever, but I would probably take things on a year to year basis, asking the same question every May. For now, though, I want to make this entirely your decision, so the first poll has simply two options: Do you want a traditional 7 day Seblaine Week 2024, or do you want 10 Days Of Seblaine 2024?

Just to clarify; if the 10 day event is chosen, it will have 9 themes and a free day, and Seblainiversary Weekend 2024 will take place separately in November, as previously detailed above. Following the result of this first poll, and depending on whether we will be working with a 7 or a 10 day event, I'll post the various date choices before the end of May. The following week, we'll vote for our themes.

Please bear in mind that voting is restricted to one vote per person for the duration of the poll. The first poll will be open for voting from today until midnight GMT on Saturday May 11th, 2024.

P.S. I'm well aware that you are all still waiting for the 10 Days Of Seblaine Masterpost, and this will be completed and posted by mid-June. Thank you all for bearing with me during what was (and still often is!) a hectic and stressful time of upheaval. Please let me know if the poll doesn't work properly. Just send me a message or come off Anon and send me an Ask.

**Please note in advance that none of the nine 10 Days of Seblaine 2023 themes can be used for this year's event!**

Vote here, and please reblog and share this poll.

Love you all, and I am really looking forward to hosting our big event and seeing what all our insanely talented Seblainers come up with!

Ail 💜

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 108-109 Subbed (Finalized)

(Previously: Episodes 106-107 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-108: Professor Cobra's Assassin

Professor Cobra announces the "Disclosure Duels," a system of publicizing one's skill and performing duels openly. He also provides all of the students with their own Dis-Belts to gauge their fighting spirit through their passion, focus, and decisiveness in those duels. Cobra then orders O'Brien to duel Judai--and to do so in a way that brings forth all of Judai's latent abilities. Putting his strategy into action, O'Brien takes Shou hostage and duels Judai.

TURN-109: Judai and the Fiery O'Brien

O'Brien aims to bring out all of Judai's latent abilities by using Shou as a hostage. As expected, Judai causes a serious battle to unfold, which he responds to using his Fire deck, activating his Firewall Permanent Trap against Judai's direct attacks to negate his attempts to attack him directly. For his part, Judai Contact-Fuses Neos with Flare Scarab, summoning Flare Neos for a counterattack, but...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry, didn't mean to leave these two episodes hanging for just over a month~ sorry Shou

Episodes 108 and 109 are now finalized! Professor Cobra comes in and starts up the Dis-Duels, which will play a big role in this early part of the season, and we get more time with O'Brien as he duels with Judai on Cobra's orders and ends up having a little fun with it towards the end. It's a fun duel, O'Brien makes a fiery entrance with his Blaze Cannon/Blaze Cannon Trident cards, and I love the sequence in 109 as Judai uses Flare Neos with probably my favorite use of the "Fervent Duel" OST track. Also, 109 in general is a fun episode because of all the top-notch artwork going on, with some interesting angles or some really good motion frames from the animation team (Judai ordering Featherman to swoop in against O'Brien [which gets reused once or twice] is so good). Also nice character moments with Shou about reconciling his ideal from Ryou about respecting opponents with the need to have all-out heated duels to survive, a nuance that gets lost in the dub for the most part. Though speaking of the dub, I did like Axel's (O'Brien's) dub voice for the most part, though it has a rough spot or two later on when he's cowering from the Supreme King.

Animation error-wise, we mostly have some quality-of-watching touch-ups, as there weren't any card errors I picked up on; 108 had one minor touch-up near the end, while 109 had just over a handful of mostly split-screen touch-ups. Details below the cut for the interested, as always~

Quick housekeeping: in case you missed it, I reuploaded 105-107 after noticing I didn't catch an update to one of the names under the In-Between Animation credits, along with some minor consistency fixes in the rest of the credits; these were reposted over on NAC and updated in the Masterpost linked above, and 108-109'll join them on NAC in the next day or two.

Anywho, enjoy! With these done, I'll probably go back to some fixes I've been working on for episode 1 that I missed, then I'll get a bit more looked over on Tag Force Special stuff (in case you missed that news~) before working on 110 as a quick two-parter break; stay tuned!

Fixes/Edits! (108)

Near the end of the episode, as O'Brien draws for his turn, there's a coloring error with some shading along the bottom of his left shoulder where the shading is lighter like with the lighter spots higher up; it's fixed for a few frames but then goes back to lighter. Fixed this by recoloring that shading spot in the frames during the quick zoom-out that happens using Photoshop, then masked out and held the shading in the last fixed frame for the rest of the shot.

Fixes/Edits! (109)

After the 108 recap but before the OP, we get this quick scene with Cobra watching on and saying that, even if he loses, O'Brien has to bring out all of Judai's Duel Energy (a scene cut from the dub [I wonder if this error is why]), but there's an odd animation error that happens where the line on the upper left of his mouth (his left) and the jaw shading are pixels away from where they should be--this only happens for the frames where he has this fully open lip-flap and his semi-open lip-flap going. Fixed this in Photoshop by redrawing the mouth line and filling in the jaw shading along the shading that was there.

Later, after O'Brien activates his Firewall and asks Judai if he thought weak attacks would work on him, Judai notes that O'Brien didn't summon any Monsters so it wouldn't be any fun not diving right in; a semi-surprised O'Brien slides in on a split-screen acknowledging this, but there's a quick frame as the split-screen is completed where the border flickers into its final position--fixed this in Sony Vegas by just replacing the earlier frame with the latter. Then, as they split off the screen to show Shou behind them, Judai's side takes a frame longer than O'Brien's to fully get offscreen; fixed in Vegas by using the frame after in that frame's place.

Later, Judai grunts after O'Brien uses Burial from a Different Dimension to return three Fire-Type Monsters to his Cemetery, and O'Brien slides in on a split-screen to say that he's removing one from it to activate Firewall against Flare Neos's attack--but Judai starts moving for it a couple of frames before O'Brien actually starts sliding in, and along with that, the border on their split-screen ends up being off-center. Fixed these in Vegas, first by redoing the split so it's timed with Judai moving, then ending the slide-in with the border centered, moving O'Brien's side into place so that his mouth and hand move properly for the rest of the split-screen. Then, a frame before they start splitting apart as Firewall activates, O'Brien's side moves but Judai's stays still; fixed by holding the split-screen still over that frame.

A bit after, once Judai uses Contact Out to de-fuse Flare Neos and attack to make O'Brien run out of Monsters to remove from play, O'Brien grunts as Judai slides in on a split-screen to remind him about Flare Scarab's power-up effect--but like with Judai in #3 above, O'Brien starts moving for the split-screen a couple frames before Judai starts sliding in. Then, as their split ends, there's a quick frame where they start to split apart to show Flare Scarab behind them but don't actually split; this is likely why their splits then end up sliding out unevenly. with Judai's taking an extra frame to fully slide out. Fixed these all in Vegas by first redoing it so that Judai's slide-in is timed with O'Brien moving; then, I masked in part of Flare Scarab from the next frames over them as they start to split, adding a new border to O'Brien and Judai's splits; and then finally, I redid their split-outs so that they were timed evenly.

After the eyecatch, we see more of Cobra watching the duel, and Judai and O'Brien come up on a split-screen with their current LP counts--they start to split apart a frame before their LP counts disappear to show Cobra, with this quick frame having just white behind them, along with O'Brien's split missing its border. Fixed this in Vegas by just holding the previous frame over it so that the split-out starts in the next frame, once the LP counts are gone.

[continued below because of dumb characters-per-"block" limits]

(6) A bit later, after O'Brien lets Shou go, Cobra looks on in surprise, but there are a few quick frames where the shading along his jaw is incomplete; fixed in Photoshop for the lip-flap frames where it happens, then placed them in the footage in Vegas and moved it into place as needed for the panning shot here.

(7) After O'Brien loads his Volcanic Buckshot into his Blaze Cannon Trident and deals 2000 damage to Judai, he starts to explain Trident's role in that, but Judai's betting that there was more to it; O'Brien slides in on a split-screen to say as much as he explains Buckshot's role, but his split-screen's already halfway into the screen in its first before sliding the rest of the way in, and like with #3 above, the border on the split-screen somehow ends up off-center. Fixed these in Vegas by redoing his slide-in so it slides in more fluidly. Then, because of how off-center the split-screen is, as they split apart, O'Brien's side takes longer to slide out; fixed this, after re-centering the split-screen, by redoing their slide-outs to be timed evenly.

[ironwoman359]

A Thief's Gamble - Ch.1:

No Risk, No Reward

Next: Ch.2 - All Eyes on Us Fic Masterpost

Summary: Brynjolf is certain that the only way the Thieves Guild will return to its glory days is by bringing in new, talented members. Unfortunately, Mercer doesn't agree, and it's not like Brynjolf's latest attempts at recruiting have gone well. But when he meets a stranger in the marketplace one morning, he's willing to take the risk and bring her on board....only time will tell if his gamble pays off.

Content: Brynjolf POV, Thieves Guild quest spoilers, game typical violence

Ships: Brynjolf x Dragonborn OC (slowburn)

Word Count: 2,781

Check the reblogs for a link to read on AO3!

AN: I have nothing to say for myself other than that Brynjolf is one of my favorite Skyrim characters, and this is an excuse for me to flesh him out both as an individual and in relation to the player. Has this probably been done a thousand times? Yes. Do I care? Absolutely not. Thanks for reading! (and let me know if you want to be tagged in updates, I'll do so if you like!)

--- --- ---

Brynjolf had a headache.

He’d had a faint one building behind his eyes for most of the day, but after listening to Keerava complain- loudly- that the Guild was asking more than she could afford for protection and that if he knew what was good for him he’d jump of the pier…his head was well and truly pounding. 

“Want me to top that off for you, Bryn?” 

Brynjolf blinked, and looked up to see Vekel looking at him expectantly, a flagon in his hand. 

“Sorry lad, what was that?” 

Vekel chuckled, and filled Brynjolf’s tankard with ale. 

“You’ve been distracted lately, my friend. Better not let Mercer catch you staring off into space like that.” 

“Now there’s an earful I don’t need,” Brynjolf agreed, lifting his tankard in acknowledgement before taking a swig. 

“Well, go on then,” Vekel prodded. “Tell us what’s going on in that big brain of yours.” 

“It’s nothing lad, just a headache,” Brynjolf said, but Vekel shook his head.

“I’m not just talking about today, Bryn, you’ve been off ever since you pulled that job on Brand-Shei.” 

“Have I?” Brynolf asked, and Vekel nodded.

“You have. Which doesn’t track,” Dirge piped up, walking over to the bar. “Because you said that the job went off without a hitch.” 

“So if you’re not thinking about the job, what are you thinking about?” Vekel asked. 

A face came to Brynjolf’s mind unbidden, bright eyes and sharp features framed by dark hair, but he pushed the image away. 

“You know as well as I do that the Guild’s seen better days, lads,” he said, taking another sip. “Just trying to work out how to bring her back to her former glory.” 

“Aaaah, so that’s why you’ve been distracted these past few days,” Vekel said knowingly. “You think you’ve found another recruit, don’t you?” 

“So what if I have?” Brynjolf demanded, arching an eyebrow at the barkeep. “If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: what this outfit needs is some fresh blood.”

“Except the last three recruits you tried to bring on board washed out before they could make any serious coin,” Dirge pointed out, and Brynjolf frowned.

“At least I’m actually trying to solve the problem,” he said. “If we ever want to get back on our feet, the Thieves Guild needs to actually employ some master thieves.” 

“Aaaand, the last few kids you pulled into this mess were ‘master thief’ material?” Dirge asked, and Vekel snickered. 

“Give it up, Brynjolf,” he said. “Those days are over.” 

Brynjolf sighed.

“I’m telling you, this one is different…” he began, but Dirge scoffed.

“We’ve all heard that one before, Bryn! Quit kidding yourself.” 

Brynjolf opened his mouth to reply, but paused. Beneath his friends’ ribbing and the quiet clinking of cups on tables and forks on plates from the Flagon’s few other patrons, there was another sound. The sound of boots on stone, the steps slow and cautious as they approached. 

“It’s time to face the truth, old friend,” Vekel said. “You, Vex, Mercer…you’re all part of a dying breed. Things are changing!” 

Brynjolf turned, saw exactly who he’d hoped he would, and a smile spread across his face. 

“Dying breed, eh?” he repeated. “Well what do you call that then!” 

The woman was slight, an Imperial by the looks of her, and she had a bow drawn, one arrow knocked loosely on the string.

“Well well, color me impressed, lass,” Brynjolf said, nodding to her. “I wasn’t certain I’d ever see you again.”

The woman’s eyes flitted around, lingering on Dirge for a moment before eventually slinging her bow over her shoulder.

“Getting here was easy,” she said, stowing her arrow in its quiver. 

Brynjolf chuckled.

“Reliable and headstrong? You’re proving to be quite the prize. The name’s Brynjolf, lass.” 

“Ariene,” said the Imperial.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Brynjolf said. “So... now that I've whetted your appetite with our little scheme at the market, how about handling a few deadbeats for me?"

Ariene frowned, shifting her weight.

“Deadbeats?” she asked. “What’d they do?” 

“They owe our organization some serious coin, and they’ve decided not to pay,” Brynjolf explained. “I want you to explain to them the error of their ways.” 

Ariene nodded thoughtfully.

“Sounds good…who are they?”

“Keerava,” Brynjolf said, ticking the marks off on his fingers, “Bersi Honey-Hand, and Haelga. Do this right, and I can promise you a permanent place in our organization.”

“And…how do you want me to handle it?” Ariene asked carefully.

Brynjolf sighed, his mind drifting back to the insults that Keerava had thrown at him that morning.

“Honestly? The debt is secondary here. What’s more important is that you get the message across that we are to be ignored.” He frowned, and looked pointedly at the bow strapped to Ariene’s back. “A word of warning though…I don’t want any of them killed. Bad for business.”

To his surprise, Ariene’s shoulders relaxed ever so slightly, and she nodded.

“Will I get a cut?” she asked, and Brynjolf laughed.

“Of course you’ll get a cut. We take care of our own.”

“Then consider it done.”

“Alright then lass, get going. I’ll be here when you’re done.”

The woman nodded and turned without another word, heading back into the ratways the way she came.

Brynjolf grinned, and turned back to Dirge and Vekel.

“Anything to say now, lads?”

“Sure, she made it down here,” Vekel said dismissively. “But that doesn’t make her a master thief. A hundred septims says she’ll turn out just like all the others.”

“I told you Vekel, this one is different,” Brynjolf insisted.

Still, as he sat back down at the bar, it was hard to ignore the facts. He’d been trying to breathe new life into the Guild, but Vekel and Dirge had a point. Previous recruits hadn’t stuck around long. Some didn’t keep up a high standard of work, others realized how poor the Guild’s standing really was and abandoned it. A few had even been caught and either killed or imprisoned. 

Brynjolf knew Mercer was running out of patience with his attempts, but he didn’t see any other options. They couldn’t rely solely on Maven forever, and the way Brynjolf saw it, their dwindling reputation and cash flow needed to be addressed, or the Guild, and everyone in it, would be history.

You’d better come through for me, lass, he thought, bringing his tankard to his lips. Because I’m putting my last bet on you.

--- --- ---

Despite his high hopes, part of Brynjolf was worried that the woman would simply take the money for herself and disappear after shaking down her three marks. After all, it’d taken her several days to reappear in the ratways after the job on Brand-Shei, and Brynjolf had been doing this for a long time. 

His gut told him that she would pull through, but having a contingency was just as important as having good instincts. He’d put the word out to his contacts within the city guard to alert him if an imperial woman fitting Ariene's description tried to skip town, and he had a few others keeping eyes on the docks and weak points in the city walls in case she tried to slip out that way. 

Mercer had given him the usual grief about wasting manpower, but Brynjolf knew that if the coin came through, he’d let the matter go. And as the day drew to a close and no runners came bursting into the Flagon to tell him that his recruit had killed one of the marks or vanished with his gold, the more sure he became that this had been a good call. 

“I still don’t know about this, Bryn,” Delvin grumbled. “Even if this new recruit of yours is as good as you say, that don’t mean that the curse ain’t gonna affect them, same as the rest of us.”  

Brynjolf rolled his eyes. 

“Mentioning the curse in every other conversation isn’t going to make more people believe you, old man. It’s just going to make them think you’re crazy.”

“You can call me what you like,” Delvin said, shrugging. “Don’t change the facts.” 

“Brynjolf,” Dirge called, and Brynjolf looked up to see Ariene walking towards them, a sack of gold in her hand. 

“Well well, look who’s back,” he said, shooting a smug look over his shoulder at Delvin, who just shook his head and took a sip of his ale. 

“So lass,” he said, getting to his feet. “Job’s done, and you even brought the gold.” He spotted movement behind her, and saw one of his runners slip into the Flagon. They flashed him a quick hand signal, and he smiled. “Best of all, you did it clean. I like that. Dumping bodies and keeping the guards quiet can be expensive.” 

Ariene nodded, and held out the coin purse. 

“Here’s what they owed us,” she said, and Brynjolf took it. 

“Well done, lass. And it would seem I owe you something in return.”

He turned and picked up a few potion bottles from the table behind him. 

“Here you go, I think you’ll find these quite useful.” 

Ariene took them, examined them for a moment, then nodded, slipping them into a satchel at her side. 

“What’s next, then?” she asked.

“Well,” Brynjolf said, hefting the bag of coin in his hand. “Judging from how well you handled those shopkeepers, I’d say you’ve done more than simply prove yourself.” 

He looked back at Delvin and raised an eyebrow. The man nodded, and Brynjolf smiled at Ariene. 

“We need people like you in our outfit.” 

Ariene looked around, and Brynjolf saw her eyes linger on the rickety tables, on the grime covering the tankards, and the empty seats covered in dust. She looked up at him, and after a moment of meeting his gaze, she nodded.

“If there’s more gold where that came from, then I’m in.” 

“That’s the spirit!” Brynjolf said, grinning. “Larceny’s in your blood…the telltale sign of a practiced thief. I think you’ll do more than just fit in around here.” 

Brynjolf turned to lead her to the cistern but she hesitated.

“Before we go, I have to ask…” she trailed off, and looked around the room again.

“What’s on your mind?” Brynjolf asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Word is your outfit isn’t doing…well.” One side of her mouth ticked up in a half smile, and she gestured vaguely around them. “True?”

Brynjolf chuckled. 

“You’re a sharp one, lass. Aye, we’ve run into a bit of a rough patch lately…but it’s nothing to be concerned about.” He let out a sigh, then flashed her a small smile. “Tell you what. You keep making us coin, and I’ll worry about everything else. Fair enough?” 

Ariene nodded slowly. 

“Fair enough.” 

“Now, if there are no more questions? How about you follow me, and I’ll show you what we’re all about.” 

Brynjolf led Ariene through the back room, sliding away the false panel in the storage cupboard and stepping through to the passageway beyond.

“So everyone in the tavern back there, they’re all members?” Ariene asked.

“Not everyone is,” Brynjolf explained. “Vekel owns the Ragged Flagon, and Dirge works for him. Tonilia, well, she’s got her own business. But they all work closely with us. We keep coin in each other's pockets and watch each other's backs.” 

“And you lead the Guild?” asked Ariene, and Brynjolf scoffed.

“Me? No, lass. I’m just a lieutenant. I keep things running as smooth as I can, but I’m no Guildmaster. Mercer is the one who makes the decisions around here. And speaking of…”

He led her into the cistern, where Mercer was waiting for them on the dais in the center of the room.

"Mercer?” he called. “This is the one I was talking about...our new recruit."

Mercer sighed and folded his arms.

"This better not be another waste of the Guild's resources, Brynjolf," he said. 

He turned to Ariene, and looked her up and down slowly. A frown spread across his face, and he folded his arms.

"Before we continue, I want to make one thing perfectly clear,” he said, addressing her. “If you play by the rules, you walk away rich. You break the rules and you lose your share. No debates, no discussions... you do what we say, when we say.”

Ariene raised an eyebrow and folded her arms, mirroring Mercer’s pose.

“Do I make myself clear?" Mercer demanded, and Ariene glanced over at Brynjolf. 

“Rules?” she asked, looking back to Mercer. “We’re thieves. What’s the point of rules?

Mercer took a slow step forward, stopping only when he was mere inches away from her face, and Brynjolf grimaced. 

“I'll let that comment go because you're new here,” Mercer growled. “Ask things out of turn again, and we have a problem. Now, are. We. Clear?" 

Ariene, to her credit, didn’t react beyond a slight tensing of her shoulders, and she nodded once. 

“Crystal,” she said evenly.

“Good,” Mercer said, stepping back. “Then I think it's time we put your expertise to the test."  

“Wait a moment,” Brynjolf said, frowning. There was only one job going on at the moment that Mercer was concerning himself with…a job that Brynjolf had not intended for a fresh recruit to try and take on all alone. “You’re not talking about Goldenglow, are you?” he asked, and Mercer nodded. “Even our little Vex couldn’t get in!”

Mercer just raised an eyebrow. 

“You claim this recruit possesses an aptitude for our line of work. If so, let her prove it.” 

“Goldenglow?” Ariene repeated, and Mercer turned back to her. 

“Goldenglow Estate is critically important to one of our largest clients,” he explained. “However, the owner has suddenly decided to take matters into his own hands and shut us out. He needs to be taught a lesson. Brynjolf will provide you with the details." 

He turned, clearly signaling that the conversation was over, and Brynjolf folded his arms. 

“Mercer. Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Hmm?” he looked back at them, and Brynjolf looked pointedly at Ariene. “Oh, yes. Since Brynjolf assures me you'll be nothing but a benefit to us, then you're in. Welcome to the Thieves Guild.”

He turned and strode away, and Brynjolf blew out a breath before smiling at Ariene with what he hoped was a reassuring expression. 

“Well he’s cheerful,” Ariene said quietly, a grin playing at the edge of her mouth, and Brynjolf tilted his head.

“How much of that ignorance was on purpose?” he asked, and she shrugged. 

“I wanted to see how he’d respond to confrontation. Evidently, not well.” 

“Well, I could have told you that,” Brynjolf said with a quiet laugh. “But never mind that now. You’re in. Welcome to the family, lass. I'm expecting you to make us a lot of coin, so don't disappoint me."

Ariene nodded. 

“So how do I get my cut of the spoils?” she asked. 

“Simple,” Brynjolf replied. “Do as you're told and keep your blade clean. We can't turn a profit by killing.”

“Fine by me.” 

“You should talk with Delvin Mallory and Vex. They know their way around this place and they'll be able to kick some extra jobs your way. Oh, and talk to Tonilia in the Flagon... she'll set you up with your new armor.” 

“Speaking of the Flagon, I could use a drink,” Ariene said. “Let me buy you one too…as an apology for upsetting Mercer.”

Brynjolf shook his head. 

“I told you lass, you just worry about making us coin. I’ll worry about everything else, and that includes Mercer, alright?”

“Well then...consider it a thank you,” she suggested. 

“A thank you?” he repeated, and she actually looked a tad sheepish.

“I can tell you were taking a chance, bringing me in to all of this,” she said, her voice quiet. “It was a risk; a risk that you didn’t have to take. And I…appreciate that.” 

Brynjolf smiled.

“Well, I suppose I have time for a quick drink. A drink, and a toast to the newest member of the Guild.”  

Ariene brightened, and turned to head out of the cistern and back into the Flagon. Brynjolf went to follow, but glanced back over his shoulder. Mercer stood at his desk, leaning over a set of plans with a frown on his face. 

“Tell you what lass,” Brynjolf said slowly. “You go on ahead, introduce yourself to the others. I’ll join you in a moment, and we can discuss business.” 

Ariene nodded, and Brynjolf watched her go, waiting until the door to the Flagon closed behind her before turning and striding across the room.

“Mercer!” he said, and Mercer glared up at him. “We need to talk.”

--- --- ---

Next: Ch.2

[allmoshnobrain]

𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

part 21 of ? | masterpost

word count: 4066 | ao3 link | fic's playlist

I blinked, seriously caught off guard. That was too much to take in at once. First thing slamming me was anger—what did she mean by her and my dad being here to pamper me? Weren't they the ones who kicked me out? Cut off all ties? And now, they popped back into my life, not because they missed me or anything, but to wheel and deal for the family name and business—that was their concern. Concern that grandpa's "empire" wouldn't last with me at the wheel. Concern that I wouldn't know the ropes when the time came.

✦ summary: Nore's sense of normalcy unravels as her parents resurface, offering support for her dreams—with strings attached.

✦ on this chapter: dave mustaine x female!oc, oc is cliff's cousin, +18, language, slice of life, angst, complicated/kinda abusive family dynamics

✦ a/n: Hello! This part was a bit longer, and focused more on Nore's relationship with her family. I hope it helped understand her character a little bit better! I haven't included all the "lore" regarding her parents in the chapter directly but I recently made a post here explaining it a bit for anyone who's curious! I haven't been able to write a lot because I had some power/internet outage problems at home, but now that everything's back to normal I hope I can update more quickly! And we'll have some more James x Nore interactions on the next part :) Hope you liked reading, feedback is welcome!

✧ nobody's daughter, she never was, she never will / be beholden to anyone she cannot kill ✧

The next few weeks weren’t exactly easy.

Dave and I usually kept our relationship light; we rarely argued, and if we did, we patched things up quick. We got each other too well and just couldn't stand being apart for too long. We were young. We were in love. At that time, no issue seemed big enough to mess with that.

But this time, it was different . It's not like Dave was giving me the cold shoulder, but I could tell he was still feeling the sting from everything that had happened with the album and his songs. He started isolating himself more and more, hanging out at David's place for long stretches, diving into his new band. When I tried talking to him about what was going on, he'd just smile and steer the conversation elsewhere. It was like all that easy, spontaneous intimacy we had from the beginning was vanishing, slipping through my fingers like water. 

And it freaked me out.

Being away from my cousin and my friends didn't make things any easier. I knew they had my back, but it's not like I could spill my guts to them over the phone about Dave. Since I'd left home, I'd felt sad and angry a bunch of times, but by September, I was more down than I had been since I first moved in with Cliff. Still, I held onto the hope that things would get back to normal soon.

Little did I know what the end of the year had in store for me.

It kicked off with a surprise phone call one evening. It was nighttime, and Dave and I were catching a break, chilling and watching some random movie on TV while sharing a cigarette and a beer when the phone decided to ring.

"I'll grab it," I said, jumping up from the bed. Dave gave a nod, his brow furrowing as he focused on rolling another joint for us to share. I rushed to the living room, picking up the phone. "Hello."

"Ellie?" a voice I knew too well replied, making my heart race and my jaw drop in surprise. "Is it really you?"

"Dad?" I blurted out in shock. In the whirlwind of my new life, getting a call from my father after nine months of radio silence was probably the last thing I expected.

"Hey, Ellie! So, this number is really yours. How've you been?"

"I... I'm okay, but... Dad, what's going on?" The words tumbled out, confusion turning into genuine concern. If he was calling out of the blue, something serious must have been up, right? I couldn't think of any other reason.

"Can't a dad check in on his daughter?" He said it casually, like it was no big deal. I furrowed my brow, annoyance quickly replacing my concern.

"You haven't said a word to me in months," I shot back, my voice shaking a bit, my eyes threatening to fill with tears as a whirlwind of emotions churned in my chest — first of all, anger. But then hurt. Confusion. And pain.

I glanced up at the sound of footsteps, spotting Dave leaning against the bedroom door frame with a lit joint in his hand. He gave me a questioning look, his concerned brown eyes checking out my state. I sighed, motioning for him to hold on. He came over, wrapping an arm around my waist and planting a gentle kiss on my shoulder, which managed to coax a small smile from me.

"So, Ellie, your mom and I..." my father hesitated on the phone, sounding a bit unsure of himself. "We were thinking that maybe we've been too hard on you. We just got back from London..."

"You went to visit grandma?" I snapped, my anger surfacing in the way my voice cranked up. "That's what this call is about, huh? I'm guessing she wasn't thrilled to discover you kicked me out. Bet she and grandpa gave you a reality check!"

"We went to celebrate your mom's birthday. And yes, we saw your grandparents," my father went on, his tone getting a bit sterner. "We were just thinking... It would be nice if you and your boyfriend could join us for dinner sometime. You know, your mom misses you..."

"Oh, bullshit."

"She does. Eleanore, it was her idea to send you that motorcycle as a gift. She thought it might lift your spirits a bit. Maybe you'd swing by..."

"She's always pulling that stunt!" I grumbled, annoyed, cheeks warming with irritation. "I can't be expected to read her mind. And for the record, I didn't ask for whatever gift she sent my way!"

"I get it. Ellie, I get it," my father reassured, clearly trying to ease my frustration. "Look, I think she regrets laying it on you like that. Especially after talking to your grandma... She just wants to fix things."

"Then why didn't she just call me herself?"

"You know how your mom is. She thought maybe you'd be more open to hearing me out. And, hey, it's not like I don't miss you too," he said, explaining. I took a deep breath, still annoyed but conceding that my father had a point. I could have a conversation with him, but if it were my mom on the line, I might've just hung up. "Ellie, she's trying, alright? It's more effort than she usually puts in. Give her a chance..."

"She didn't give me any chances. Why should I be the one handing them out?" I questioned, my voice now getting choked up as my anger gave way to the underlying hurt I was feeling. My father sighed, seeming uncertain about what to say.

"You can come next weekend if you want," he finally replied, straight-up ignoring my question and making me groan in frustration. "I'll ask Marcy to whip up that pumpkin pie you like, what do you think? Mull it over, alright?"

Then, he hung up, leaving me with a heavy heart and an anguish that had been haunting me for months but that I just didn't want to face. I slammed the phone back on the hook, maybe a tad harder than I should have.

"Hey. What was that?" Dave asked, leaning his chin on my shoulder and pulling me closer, his arms around my waist. I sighed. "Was it your dad on the phone?"

"Yeah," I murmured, my voice trembling a bit. He nuzzled into my neck, planting a soft kiss on my smooth skin, his lips moving up to my cheek for another kiss.

"Babe, you know you can talk to me if you need to," he whispered. I sighed, pulling away a little to meet his gaze, a mix of concern and seriousness in his eyes. I managed a faint smile, the hurt in my chest blending with the happiness of having, even if just for a moment, the old intimacy between us. "What happened? What did he say to you?"

"I just... I hate this!" I finally let it out, a tear rolling down the corner of my eye and making its way to my cheek. Dave cupped my face in his hands, wiping it away with the tip of his thumb. "My family’s always doing this. They act like the stuff they do to me, the way they treat me, doesn't matter. Like it doesn't hurt me! It's messed up."

Dave sighed, pulling me closer in a comforting hug. I knew he didn't have all the words, but I could feel him trying to ease my pain. I sniffled, a few more tears streaming down my cheek as I buried my face in his chest.

"My dad invited us for dinner... Both of us, him and my mom," I laughed bitterly. "It's funny, isn't it? They kick me out of the house, and then they think they can invite me to dinner, like everything's normal. Like nothing happened."

"And do you want to go?" he asked, softly, his hand soothingly stroking my back. I shook my head with a sigh.

"I... I don't know. I think that's the worst part," I admitted, pulling away and meeting his gaze. "I'm so angry, but I still miss them. I think that's what hurts the most."

"That you can't help but love them, even though some of the things they do hurt you?" he murmured, and I felt my heart tighten at the bitterness in his voice. "Maybe you should go, Nore. Maybe it's a good chance for you to patch things up with them."

"I don't know if I want to do that," I whispered, and he gave a slight smile.

"Yeah, I get it. Come here," he pulled me close again, his lips meeting mine with an unexpected hunger that sent warmth through my body. I clung onto his arms tightly, my nails leaving small crescent marks on his fair skin, while his lips moved down to my neck, kissing a spot that Dave knew would make me sigh and shiver, forgetting, even if just for a moment, anything but his body against mine. He pulled away, his familiar crooked smile on his lips making my heart race as he lifted my chin with his hand. "You can think about it later... How about coming back to bed with me?"

The car screeched to a stop in front of the big light-yellow house. I sighed, feeling more jittery than I'd like, despite the chill evening and the sun setting, casting warm hues all over the landscape. I knew my decision to visit my parents in Long Beach with Dave's car was a bit of a rebellious move against their expectations, and I hated it. They probably anticipated me rolling up on the motorcycle they gifted me. Instead, there I was, with my boyfriend and his car — two things that could potentially give my mom a nervous breakdown.

Dave raised his eyebrows, whistling softly as he checked out my parents' garden.

"You fancy-ass kid. So, this is where you used to live?" He chuckled and playfully nudged my arm, but I could tell he was a bit surprised. He seemed to catch quickly onto my nervousness; his eyes instantly turned serious when he saw my expression. "Hey," he said, his hand gently holding mine. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to. Okay?"

I nodded. Honestly, I wasn't entirely sure why I agreed to visit my parents or let Dave come along and meet them. Maybe, despite all the drama and hurt, there was still a part of me that missed them. Perhaps deep down, I hoped they'd be proud of me — for standing on my own all this time, for finding someone who cared about me and loved me. For not turning out to be the failure they expected when they kicked me out, assuming I'd come running back at the first sign of trouble.

But deep down, I knew that wasn't happening.

"It's okay," I squeezed Dave's hand, attempting a confident smile. "We're already here, right? Let's do this."

Dave and I stepped out of the car, strolling across the well-kept garden until we reached the front door.I paused for a moment before ringing the doorbell. Then, the door swung open, and my dad appeared, beaming when he saw me, the blue eyes I got from him shining.

"Ellie!" he exclaimed, pulling me into a hug. I blinked, a bit confused, but returned the embrace. He pulled back with a smile, seeming only then to notice that Dave was by my side. "Oh. You must be David?"

"You can call me Dave, sir," Dave smiled, shaking my dad's hand, but I could see he was a bit nervous.

"Pleasure to meet you, Dave. I’m George." my dad smiled, a bit more serious than before. "You've arrived just in time! Marcy is almost done preparing dinner. Let's go inside."

Dad walked in first, and I followed suit. Dave strolled by my side, holding my hand gently. He leaned in, whispering in my ear:

"Ellie? So, is that what your parents call you?"

"Just my dad. And I hate that nickname," I murmured, and he laughed.

As we strolled into the house, Dave scoped the place with raised eyebrows. The living room was cozy and rustic, sofas, armchairs, and rugs thrown together just right. In the corner, a shelf showed off my dad's vinyl collection. From there, you could head to the dining room through the side door or hit the garden through the glass door at the back. Upstairs, you'd find my parents' bedrooms, my old room, and the library where my parents spent most of their time when they were home.

"Ellie, why don't you give Dave a tour of the library? I'll summon your mom for dinner; she was introducing the new gardener to the plants," he said, jokingly. 

"Oh... Sure," I mumbled. After being away for so long, everything felt way larger and unfamiliar than it should — especially after bouncing around from the little room I shared with Cliff to Leanne's house and then my cozy spot with Dave. I watched my dad head out the back door. Dave linked his fingers with mine, sensing my nerves, and stroked the palm of my hand in soothing circular motions with his thumb. I raised my gaze and met his brown eyes, locked onto my face. "So, wanna check out the library?"

"Actually, I had my eye on something else," he grinned slightly, and I blinked, intrigued. "Your room," he clarified, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. "I want to see how you lived, you know? Before I showed up and changed your life forever."

I chuckled, rolling my eyes before tugging him along by his hand, leading the way to the stairs. We climbed up to the first floor, strolling through the lengthy corridor, passing several doors before hitting the last one right at the end. I twisted the knob, relieved to find that the door wasn't locked.

I sighed as I swung the door open, taking in the sight of my old room. The room was spotlessly clean and organized, meaning that my parents at least kept the place tidy. Next to the window, my bed was neatly made with the same sheets I'd left in a mess before heading to San Francisco. Above the headboard, posters of bands and movies adorned the wall. The door in the corner was open, showing my private bathroom.

Below the window, my study desk, with drawing and painting materials meticulously arranged. In the corner, a shelf with my books, records, and tapes, plus a TV and stereo. It stung a bit to look at it, to reminisce about all the time spent there; everything was the same, but I didn't feel anything like the girl who once called it home.

Dave seemed to understand the contemplation in my silence; he rested his chin on my shoulder, giving me a tight hug from behind before planting a kiss on my cheek.

"Nice room you got here," he remarked, and I laughed, a bit shakily, realizing tears were welling up in my eyes. Despite that, it felt good not to be alone. To have him there with me.

We quickly stepped apart when we heard a knock on the door. I turned around and found Alice, my mom's assistant, eyeing us with her serious gaze, her curly blonde hair pulled into a ponytail so tight it made me uncomfortable just to look at it. Of course, she would be here, I thought with a twinge of annoyance. She smiled, a cold and almost robotic smile.

"Welcome back, miss. Your mother is waiting for you in the dining room," she said, then turned and left, seemingly not even acknowledging Dave's presence.

I sighed, annoyed, feeling the anxiety in my chest rise in a wave of panic that subsided as soon as I felt Dave's fingers intertwining with mine again. He smiled at me reassuringly.

"Let's go," he murmured. "I guess it's time for me to meet your mom."

I stepped into the dining room hesitantly. It was funny how being near my mom always kind of intimidated me; she was everything I'd never been able to be, everything they expected me to be. I bit my lip as I spotted her, and she turned in our direction. 

My mother was probably the most beautiful woman I'd ever known, tall and statuesque like a model, with long, wavy black hair that reached her waist, a slim and charming face, and serious dark brown eyes. I was nothing like her — much more like my dad, shorter with brown hair, blue eyes, and a much less glamorous body.

"Eleanore," she murmured, with that familiar distinct accent blending Scottish and French. She walked toward me, holding my face in her hands, a faint hint of affection gleaming in her eyes before being replaced by disapproval. "Oh, God, what happened to your hair? Did you cut it yourself?"

"Leave the girl alone, Clémence," my dad spoke, sitting in one of the armchairs in the corner of the room, casually reading the day’s newspaper. He looked up, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "She's old enough to know how to take care of herself."

My mom pursed her lips slightly, then let go of my face. She shifted her attention to Dave.

"You must be David," she spoke resolutely. I could see the disapproval in her eyes shifting from me to him, like he was a pet she didn't really like but had to put up with. If Dave caught onto that, he hid it well. For the first time since we had met, he was completely serious, which probably meant he was a bit on edge. "Well, come along. Dinner is ready. We were waiting for you."

We sat down for dinner, and my nerves were all over the place. I could hardly taste the food, and it seemed like Dave was in the same boat. I reached under the table, giving his knee a reassuring caress. He shot me a smile.

"So, Dave... You're one of Cliff's friends, huh?" my dad asked.

I noticed Dave's jaw tense a bit, but he managed a polite smile.

"Yep, we used to share a place. That's how I got to know Nore."

"And what do you do? Are you a musician too? You know, I have a pretty large vinyl collection here at home. Love music. Always wished I had the time to pick up the drums," my dad kept the conversation rolling with a grin, and I could see some of the tension in Dave fading away.

They chatted about music for the rest of the dinner, and slowly, I started to ease up. Mom stayed pretty quiet, her eyes bouncing between me and Dave like she was trying to figure us out. But Dad seemed genuinely interested in getting to know my boyfriend better. By the time dessert was served, I almost felt like we were a normal family again.

When we finished eating, we cruised back to the living room. Dad and Dave went straight to the vinyl collection, and Dad put on a Led Zeppelin album, the music filling the living room softly. That's when Mom got up, giving my arm a light touch.

"Come with me, Eleanore," she said in a low voice before heading to the garden. I hesitated, glancing at my dad and Dave, still deep in their conversation, then decided to trail after her.

We wandered through the backyard garden, the flower beds and trees soaking up the gentle glow from the property's lamps. Mom sparked a cigarette with a sigh, and we drifted in silence until we hit the pool area. She eased into one of the lounge chairs under the covered spot before looking at me.

"Take a seat," she motioned to the chair right across from hers.

"I'll pass," I muttered, and she raised an eyebrow.

"Why do you always have to complicate things?" she asked, and a surge of anger bubbled in my chest. Classic mom move: the woman who couldn't go an hour without emphasizing how I was a screw-up.

"Does Dad know you picked up smoking again?" I asked, a bit acidly. She looked up at me, a small, cold smile playing on her face. I knew my mom; she could front like she was flawless, but she had her flaws, just like I did. At least I owned up to mine.

"I smoke when I need to focus.You know how insane the end of the year gets at your grandfather's company," she shot back, sidestepping my question. "Or you would know if you cared about the family business instead of living in your love fantasy."

"My relationship is not a fantasy," I frowned, and she scoffed.

"If you say so," she flicked the cigarette butt to the ground, crushing it with the tip of her heel. "So, you know your dad and I just got back from Europe. I talked with your grandfather, and we came up with an idea... Oh, please, Eleanore, spare me that face. You haven't even heard what I have to say!" I tried to hide the displeasure that surfaced on my face. Nothing good ever followed when my mom claimed to have an idea. Never. "Well, as I was saying. Your dad and I think it's time for you to invest a little more in your future."

"Not this again," I grumbled. "Mom, I don't want to go to Law School!"

"I'm not asking you to!" she retorted, her tone sharp and irritated. Then she sighed, as if making an effort to calm down. "Look, we know you love art. You were part of the Theater Club in school, and you enjoyed your drawing classes so much! But I don't want my daughter to just finish high school and call it a day. It wouldn't be suitable ."

"And what's your deal, then?" I asked, getting a bit defensive. Until now, Mom didn't seem to be pushing me into anything specific, but I knew she never dangled anything remotely cool in front of me without expecting something in return.

"Your father and I are willing to pay for any course you want, at any university you want. What do you say?" she asked, a slight grin playing on her lips, but her eyes stayed icy. "You can study wherever you want! You can be close to your cousin, your new friends, your... boyfriend. Pursue the arts career you want. But," she raised an eyebrow. "you have to be aware of your role in the family business. So, you'll get involved in the day-to-day routine, learn the ropes, and be ready to handle everything when your father and I aren't around to pamper you. Fair deal, right?"

I blinked, seriously caught off guard. That was too much to take in at once. First thing slamming me was anger—what did she mean by her and my dad being here to pamper me? Weren't they the ones who kicked me out? Cut off all ties? And now, they popped back into my life, not because they missed me or anything, but to wheel and deal for the family name and business—that was their concern. Concern that grandpa's "empire" wouldn't last with me at the wheel. Concern that I wouldn't know the ropes when the time came.

On the flip side, it was kind of a tempting offer. I mean, having my parents backing my dreams would be awesome, even with a few strings attached. I used to dream about more than just ringing up customers in record stores; I missed the days when I had time to create , to be part of something. But, if I went for it, what would it mean for me and Dave? Would we drift even further apart?

I didn't want to dive into that mess. Too many details, too many what-ifs.

"You don't have to figure it all out now," Mom said, her tone soft, like she was reading my mind. "Whenever you want, Eleanore, you can come back home. We'll work things out then, okay? Just take your time."

With that, she got up and casually walked back inside, leaving me to grapple with my thoughts.

[nobodywritingao3]

Your Love (Deja Vu) [ch 2]

masterpost | previous | next

Phil stores his sons during a fight, revealing his true nature to them. Caught up in the moment, he doesn't get a chance to explain to them and falls asleep. When he wakes up, they're inconsolable.

CW: - gore - minor character death - Phil eats people - hard vore - soft vore

title taken from 'Your Love (Deja Vu)' by Glass Animals but specifically the stripped back version because that makes me cry

word count: 1.7k 💔 read it on AO3

Phil wakes up with the sun on his face, covered in blood. That's never a good thing, but it's especially a not-good thing when one is a giant with adopted human children who doesn't immediately remember the previous day's events. He blinks dazedly at the sky, the taste of raw human still faint in his mouth and panics as the worst conclusion instantly plants itself in his mind.

His heart pounds and he sits up fast; worry, shame, and grief working their way into every nerve when the memories rush him like a flood.

Oh. Fuck.

At least I didn't digest my fucking kids, he thinks hysterically. He can feel them in his storage, huddled together and probably - no, definitely terrified.

Guilt curls unpleasantly in his gut, somewhere between the soldiers and his sons, and he squeezes his eyes shut.

"Boys?" He whispers. "Are you...?" He can't bring himself to finish the sentence - of course they're not okay, they're probably losing their minds.

He can feel them shift around. It's silent for agonizing seconds until there's a small, half whimpered, "Dad?" from inside.

His heart leaps, and then promptly crashes as he hears a whispered, "Tommy! Shut the fuck up - ! " accompanied by a struggling sensation in his storage.

He experimentally lays a hand across his midsection and gently rubs circles into his brood pouch. They jolt away from that part of the storage and press themselves into the opposing wall. Hot shame climbing his throat, he reluctantly stops.

"Hey, hey - it's okay, everything is okay," he gently murmurs to them, trying to imbue his words with as much love and reassurance as he can. "You're all safe; I would never do anything to - " he trails off guiltily. He's already hurt them. Pathetically, he finishes, "I love you. So, so much."

He slowly stands up, painfully aware of how his movements are affecting them.

They've never been in his brooding pouch before and this has been a horrible introduction. He never wanted to store them in the first place ( - a blatant lie. He had wanted this days into taking them in - ) and this has been exactly why. They see him as a monster now. They witnessed him massacre an army; thought for an entire night that their own father had eaten them - they waited that long to digest!

He breathes, trying to steady his rushing heartbeat. They can hear it, that's the nature of storage pouches, and he doesn't want them to know how scared he is.

"Give me ten minutes, okay? I'll bring you out soon." He speaks calmly, sounding more controlled than he is.

He doesn't have a giant toothbrush, he notes numbly.  There's gristle and blood undoubtedly stuck in his teeth, and he knows without checking that his breath smells like meat and death. He stares at his hands in dismay; they're caked in flaking, dry blood. His clothes are ruined. He doesn't want them to see him like this.

A cruel voice in his brain reminds him that they already have.

He walks a steady pace to a nearby river - at his size, closer to a small stream - and begins to clean himself off. He got rid of all his giant sized clothes when he took in the kids, reasoning to himself that it would be more trouble than it was worth hiding them for a few decades when he spent nearly all his time pretending to be human anyway. He regrets that now, regarding his bloodstained shirt and jeans. He rinses his mouth - once, twice, six times - and does his best to brush and clean with his fingers and watery reflection. He picks a few bone fragments from his teeth and tosses them into the river, before remembering that the twins love to play there. He stares at the water in horror and hopes neither of them ever stumble across the remains.

Well fuck, he thinks to himself. There's nothing I can do about that now.

He takes another look at his reflection. Most of the blood is gone and his mouth is considerably better than before, but it's still - it's not good enough. It will never be good enough.

How gross is his mouth right now? He cleaned what he could, but what if there's still blood clinging to his teeth? They'll see it when he brings them back up. They've already seen it. They saw it after he'd just eaten twenty or thirty people, they thought that he was trying to do the same thing to them -

He inhales sharply and blinks back tears.

He's a monster. They see that now. He has to face the music.

He makes his way back to the cottage. He stops on his way there to stare at the blood soaked field his rampage had taken place. There are still bits and pieces of people lying on the field. He regards the sky, feeling numb. They're due for rainfall soon... and the local wildlife will scavenge the loose meat. There's nothing else to be done except hope that the kids don't come out to the field between now and whenever it looks less fucked up and bloody. He continues to the house.

When he arrives, he kneels before the front door and tries to muster the courage to speak with his kids. He stares at the house for longer than he should and he can feel them nervously stir in his gut.

"Boys?"

They don't respond. He hadn't really expected them to.

"I... You don't need to be scared of what's about to happen," he begins gently. "It'll feel like a pull. Don't resist, alright? It's - it's okay if you do, I understand if you do, but please try to relax."

He can feel them moving, standing up and shuffling about in a panicked kind of way, and before he can second guess himself, he starts to bring someone up.

The muscles in his storage clamp down around a figure, and the screaming starts. His heart pounds wildly and he has to fight himself to keep going. They're struggling - he thinks it's Techno - squirming and wriggling, which is bad enough on its own, but fighting too, punching and kicking back. He flinches at the sharp pain, his eyes starting to sting. The tissue lining his storage tube is soft and easily damaged (because normal parents don't terrify their children into tearing them apart from the inside), and whoever is coming up is determined not to make the journey easy. He goes quickly, unwilling to prolong this for either of them, and when they finally reach the top and tumble into his mouth, it's all he can do to not spit them into his hand. They taste like Technoblade, confirming his suspicion. Tech is still fighting, punching at any surface he can reach, and being particularly harsh with Phil's tongue.

He forces himself to go slowly now. He brings Techno to the front of his mouth and cups his hands at his chin. Before his mouth is even fully open, Techno is clawing his way out. He lands in Phil's hands and scrambles up, blinking dumbly at his father with a slight shake in his body.

Phil stares at him. "... Hello," he rasps out.

Technoblade snaps from his stupor, shrinking backwards only to flinch away as he hits Phil's curled fingers.

"Oh - okay, okay, I'm putting you down - I'm putting you down," he sets Techno in front of their door while stumbling over his words. He leans back, giving him space. "You - you should take a shower."

Techno never take his eyes off Phil, retreating slowly and grasping blindly for the doorknob. As soon as he finds it, he's gone, and Phil sighs defeatedly.

He massages his throat, wincing in pain. It'll bruise and possibly tear, but he knows he deserves it.

He clears his voice. "Tommy? Wilbur?"

They still.

"Your big brother is fine. Someone else needs to come up now," he explains tiredly. "Please, please don't squirm. That makes it more difficult for both of us."

He starts the process again. Something is very wrong. The lump coming up is too big, has too many limbs and - fuck. They're coming up together. His eyes widen as he realizes, but it's too late now, and he knows there's nothing he can do if this is what they want. They're hugging each other, which makes it harder to move or attack him, but his throat burns from the stretch of bringing up two of his brood at once.

They fall into his mouth, still clinging to teach other. They're silent but shaking and Phil feels a fresh wave of shame collapse over him. He brings them forward and opens his mouth, gently releasing them into his palm.

Wilbur holds Tommy in a vicelike grip, his eyes squeezed shut and Tommy's face buried in his chest.

Phil resists the urge to inspect them. He keep his fingers a respectful distance from the pair, knowing that any kind of touch is traumatic right now.

He clears his throat again, and feels how torn up it is. It burns when he speaks and his voice sounds like a creaking door. "You're okay... open your eyes."

It takes a few seconds but Wilbur peeks. He opens his eyes wider, in awe of the sky and nature, though his grip on Tommy never ceases.

Phil starts to move them to the porch but Tommy squeals and curls even more into Wilbur's arms, causing him to freeze instantly.

"Sorry. Sorry," he whispers. "I'm just putting you by the house. I - I'm sorry."

They're silent and still.

He starts to move again, painfully slow and tense.

He deposits them gently on the ground and as soon as he's a safe distance away, the door swings open and Technoblade grabs Tommy by the leg, literally dragging him through the door. Wilbur scrambles in after, falling over himself to get away from Phil. The door shuts with a resounding slam, and Phil can't help but flinch away from the noise.

He stares at the house for a few seconds before shrinking down into his human form. Thirty minutes later, he gets up the nerve to knock on the door.

~ ~ ~

i wrote like 4k words and then decided to cut off the second half and just save it for the next chapter so weee earlier post then planned

hope you enjoyed <3

[harrietbarnesblog]

I don't wanna be your friend

Masterlist

Masterpost

Pairing: Felix x reader

Warning: fluff, a little bit of angst and friends to lovers and swearing

A/n: this turned out to be more dramatic than I expected it to be. Hope you guys enjoy

You have been friends with Felix ever since middle school. You guys go everywhere together and do all shit together. There aren't any things about you that he doesn't and vice versa. Well maybe there's one thing.

Felix invited you to his dorm for a movie night. You grabbed the shirt that was thrown on the corner of your room and put it on. It wasn't yours so probably it was Felix's.

You went to his dorm and knocked on his door. And Chan opened the door.

"Y/n, what's up? It's been a while since we saw each other." he said and hugged you.

"Just came here to hangout with Lix."

"He's in his room."

"Thank you, I'll go there."

You knocked on his and announced you were coming in. You slowly opened the door and entered.

"Hey y/n." He said.he was on his bed with his full concentration on his laptop. He didn't bother to look at you.

"Hey, Lix." You said and got on the bed next to him finally making him look at you.

"Wait, is that my shirt?"

"It could be. It was lying on my bedroom floor for days and I thought why not wear it. I'll wash it and give it back later."

"No… no you can keep it. It looks so much better on you than it did on me."

"Okay."

"So what do you wanna watch?" He asked.

"Something scary."

"We always watch scary movies. Let's watch something else. Like something romantic."

"Okay how about 10 things I hate about you?"

"We have already watched that movie for like 10times."

"Please."

"Fine, Let's watch it." He said, rolling his eyes.

Felix browsered through his laptop and played the movie. It was one of your favourite movies.

—------------+--------------+-----------------

“I hate the way I don’t hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.” The dialogue was playing on the screen and you were crying. Felix throughout the movie kept looking at you. He was very observant of your reaction. He would smile if you see something and laugh.

He pulled you closer as you were crying. You rested your head on his shoulder.

Few minutes later the movie ended and the end credits were playing.

"My god that was such a good movie. The greatest." You said wiping your tears away.

"You literally say that each and every time we watch it."

"Because it is."

"Because it is." He mocked you. You took his laptop and placed it on the bedside table. And took a pillow and hit him with it.

"Are you challenging me with a pillow fight?" He asked.

"Yes I am."

"You are so dead."

You hit each other with a pillow for a while. You tackled him down and got on top of him. You grabbed his pillow and threw it away. You hit him softly with your pillow.

"I win."

"No you don't."

He grabbed your hips and flipped you over so that you were under him. He took the pillow from you and held two of your hands above your head with his one hand. You guys were literally breathless at this moment.

"I win." He whispered. His eyes moved from your eyes to your lips. You don't know what he thought but suddenly he got off you and started pacing back forth.

“Lix, what happened?” you asked.

“Nothing.”

“Did I do something?”

“I can't do this anymore.”

“Do what?”

“I don't wanna be your friend anymore…”

“Wait what? I fucked up didnt i? What should I do to fix this? Wh…" you were cut off mid sentence by Felix's lips on yours. It took a moment for you to process what was going on. Once you realised you gave into it to kiss. With his lips moving against yours you were hit with an epiphany of how much you crave him. You loved him dearly but were never brave to tell that to him. It was a great surprise he felt the same way.

He slowly removed his lips from yours. He tucked a few strands of your hair that was hanging in the front.

"This is why. You didn't fuck up. I'm in love with you, y/n. I always have been. I don't think I can hide it anymore. You are like the water I drink. I need you. I can't survive without you. I love you. I don't just wanna be your friend. I wanna be more than that. I wanna be your everything."

"I love you too. I didn't know you felt the same way so I suppressed my feelings. "

"Even a fool can obviously spot that I'm in love with you. I buy you flowers and write letters to you all the time. Was it not obvious enough?"

"I guess I was a bit blind."

"A bit? You were Blinder than Adrien from miraculous." A voice disturbed your conversation. You turned to see who it was. Everyone was standing near the door frame. And it was Seungmin who spoke up.

"Seungmin!" Chan scolded him. "I thought we agreed we would not disturb them and only listen from outside."

"How long have you been listening?" You asked. Felix was blushing beside you.

"We came here as soon as I heard Felix shout 'I Don't wanna be your friend anymore.' I thought you guys were gonna fight and summoned everyone but it ended up being a confession." Hyunjin said.

"Get out of here." Felix spoke up and threw the pillow that was on the floor. Everyone rushed out and closed the door behind.

You and Felix exchanged a look and burst out laughing.

[asksuccubussides]

What if you were an asexual succubus, wouldn't that be fucked up or what Chapter 12

Masterpost of chapters

When supernaturals speak in their native language it looks like this

Logan blared at the younger demon from the brim of his chunky glasses before he took them off to clean the glass with the blue cloth he kept in his chest pocket.

"It has been 37 days if my counting is correct, and it is" Remus looked up from the english homework he'd been doing as Logan spoke "That is an unusually long time for a job like this to drag on for. Is it the killing you are having trouble with? You remember I told you to come to me once you had seduced him, do you not? I can offer assistance"

The younger demon mimicked stabbing before doing a thumbs up. 'Killing fine' He wrote on the paper with 4 exclamation points to be extra clear.

"I see" Logan checked the glasses before putting them on again. He scratched the end of his thumb against a spot in his greying beard ".....Remus, Do you experience sexual attractation?"

The blood in the tips of Remus' fingers turned cold. Was it meant as a warning, a threat or a simple question to see if he was so obviously bad for the job that they could send him up to heaven and replace him with someone else and also probably send Roman up to heaven as well while they were at it and it would be his fault and-

Remus nodded and gave a double thumbs up while smiling so brightly he could be put as the poster child for sexual attraction.

"Well then. I suppose I'll see you in a few days if you have nothing more to add" Logan stayed sitting for a few moments after saying it as if he was waiting for the other demon to do something but eventually he got up, took his bag and left.

Soon after he had left Remus noticed blood dripping down from his nose.

--

39 days since Remus was cast out of hell

"Aw, look these are all of my saved vip bracelets because I am such a popular starlet" Janus showed Remus a bundle of flimsy and aging paper bracelets held together in a jar together with some other knick knacks. He snickered at the genuine look of curiosity on the demon's face "I could pretend to take your nose and you would believe it, you absolute stupid collection of tiny brain cells"

Remus moved his arm casually around Janus' shoulder to get a better look of the bracelets "What!? Not vip thingie!? Bracelet for ritual then?"

"Well.....Perhaps if you look at it from a very specific angle" Remus sneezed at how close the word angle was to angel.

They were sitting on the floor of Janus' dorm room, sorting out the things to keep and things to discard before the imminent move to the new apartment. With one of the paper bracelets held between his fingers Jan waved it towards Virgil who had been laying in his bed looking at youtube videos and halfheartedly sorting his clothes into a box. He moved one side of his headphones off his ear while giving them an annoyed look.

"Viv-darling, Look"

"Ouugh. I knew packing would lead to nostalgia shit"

Finally Jan turned back to the demon to explain, the demon who had started to rock back and forth on the balls of his feet while pressing his knees to his chest like an excited gargoyle.

"They're all of the hospital bracelets I got when I was younger" Janus explained. All of the information that was usually placed on a hospital bracelet were impossible to read as the entire thing had been covered with skulls and lightning bolts drawn in black and purple along with text written in by marker "Vivzie would make them look like concert bracelets or more accurately what a child thought concert bracelets were. Very cool concerts of course. Right Viv"

Virgil had his head stuffed inside one of the halfpacked boxes "Yeah. Yeah. I got my matching ones here somewhere. Can't be arsed to find them"

"His are just paper. Not exclusive hospital ones like miiinnnee" Janus said to Remus to which the demon booed in agreement. "Let's see which cool concerts we were apparently going to"

He picked a random bracelet and held it for the demon to read. Jan looped his finger around Remus' choker and pulled him closer to get his focus but really it was just because he enjoyed pulling him around.

The demon squinted and read aloud "Av- Avrel Laevinge"

Janus fake gasped "What a cool and outrageous artist"

"Hey! We were like 7! It's not like I came out the bloody womb knowing who My chem was! And don't disrespect Avril's legacy!"

"He's so cute when he gets annoyed, innit?" Janus teased to which Remus nodded along.

Virgil rolled his eyes before moving out of bed "Whatever. I'm taking a silly little mental health walk so you two can smosh and shag it out"

"We don't smoosh! And we certaintly don't shag!" Janus put his hand over his heart to look offended "We're packing! Obviously!"

"Yeah! I'm packing huge penis!" Remus added with full confidence which only made Virgil leave the room even faster.

As the door closed Janus grabbed both ends of Remus' mustache and gently shook his head around while murmuring "Darling you are so stupid" Before pressing a kiss to the tip of his nose.

It made the demon happily wag his tail around and for the first time he wished he could show Janus it. He wished he could show him how intensely red his horns glowed whenever the two of them got close and he wished he could tell him how his mouth watered every time he thought of tasting him.

"Anyhow, you can be a dear and fold all of my sweaters into that box while I sit here and be pretty"

Remus did a stupid little grin "If I get anotha kith"

"Oooh you're really trying it aren't you mister. Weren't you the one who agreed to do what I say for forever" Janus teased before kissing him on the cheek "There there darling. Now do what I said"

"Yess sir ma'am!!"

--

In the time leading up to their date to pride Remus found himself in a routine. He had completely lost the ability to sleep at this point because of recurring dreams containing his brother plaguing his mind every time he tried to so close his eyes. Instead he spent his time hiding out in the library creating little lumps of garbage art and looking at horror films. His by now daily nosebleeds were a great resource because it meant he could plaster weird blood snot onto his garbage art!

The delight of his day was when Janus come in for work and he got to tell him about the latest film he'd seen during his lunch break.

Some days Janus invited him over for dinner at the dorm and sometimes he stayed to watch movies together with him and Virgil afterwards. Whenever it was a horror movie Virgil would spill out every trivia he could think of while blaring at Remus in an attempt to show that he was much cooler and every time Janus invited Remus to share a blanket with him it looked like a blood vessel was about to pop in Virgil's forehead.

Neither of the roomates had the funds to afford a moving service so for the two days before the actual move Remus helped them carry boxes on the bus from the college to their new apartment. It was a tiny one room apartment technically meant for one person but they had managed to press in a bunk bed along with a desk, the tiniest of sofas and a dinner table. The biggest loss was honestly the lack of wall space for Virgil's many posters and Janus having had to restort to putting drawers under the bed to fit all of his clothes.

Remus' vision had started to fill with dark spots as he put down the last box on the floor of the new apartment and laughed at the pang of hunger filling his stomach. (He'd gotten a nosebleed on the bus on the way here. Emile always told him with a worried look that that was a sign of nutritional deficiencies).

"Vivzie says he'll pick up some groceries and then come here" Janus said while checking his phone.

The demon lifted his shirt up to wipe a few pearls of sweat away from his forehead so he could lick the sweat off his shirt. Yummy. When he looked back up Janus was right about to poke him between the ribs.

"You're stronger than you look" Jan murmured while Remus wheezed from the sudden blow to his ribs.

"Ah! That felt fun! Do that again!" He sounded like a delighted balloon on it's way to deflation when Jan poked him again.

With the wheezing he barely even heard Janus letting out a big long sigh as he looked around the apartment before stretching his arms out "It is ssssuch a horrible no good at all feeling to finally be almost done with this whole moving process. Hopefully Vivzie is going to have less bouts of stressing his hair out now. And" He spun around and pulled in Remus' collar to make him bend down so they were eye to eye. "You can come over for dinner on Saturday night. Viv has a night shift. Sounds good?"

"I got nothing else to do! I can come...Hehe..cum"

"Good!"

Remus took two of Janus' dreadlocks in his hand and held them up in the air to make a sort of heart shape "Hey Jannie look" The demon lit up like the sun when he saw the other man smile and quickly pulled him into a bear hug making Jan's face get pressed right into his chest "You're the only light in my life right now Janus"

As he spoke the last sentence in his native language he realized it was the first time he had said the other man's name in his natural accent. It felt like a lighting bolt had been struck down upon his head making his skin sizzle and burn away as he heard himself say it.

"What did you say?" Janus' voice was muffled from still being pressed against man tits.

"I wish I could kill you without making you disappe-"

He was cut off by the sound of Janus' phone ringing. He quickly backed out of the hug and took the call while turning his face away. After a few seconds of muffled words he placed his hand against Remus' shoulder and pushed for him to turn to the exit.

"I have to leg it but I suppose I'll see you on Saturday" Janus held the phone away from his head while saying it.

"Wha- Whu-"

"Viv's having a panic attack, I have to go" He was practically pushing the demon out the door.

(Janus found his friend a few minutes later in a panicked state of trying to appear norma while pacing back and forth behind the supermarket. He let Virgil's words of worry spill out over him, about how it had been too many people, how it was stupid he couldn't grocery shop alone, how it was simple for normal people. Before Jan placed Virgil's hand to his neck so he could feel the pulse of the blood pumping in Jan's neck against the tips of fingers. It was the best way to keep him in the present and to remind him they were both alive and well.

He stayed and waited until Virgil had stopped shaking. Just like he had yesterday when Virgil became overwhelmed by talking to the landlord and the day before that when the prospect of packing up the last things was too much and just like he would tomorrow morning when he will wake up to Virgil hyperventilating because of the dead bird laying outside their door. He would let his friend hear the steady rhytmn of his heart until he was okay again every time).

--

44 days since Remus was cast out of hell

Remus started to cough from the sickingly sweet smell that followed Virgilbefore he even had had the chance to hear the emo's dragging footsteps come towards him. Instead of turning around to greet him the demon skipped back to the most gruesome scene of the movie he was watching so when Viv came up to him he would be grossed out.

The demon grinned as he felt a tap against his shoulder before hearing a groan of disgust. He spun around in his chair just as Viv was about to start speaking to catch him off guard.

"Hiii Virginnn" He felt a lump in his throat that made it harder to breathe as soon as he said it.

In response Virgil crossed his arms in a supposed attempt to look more intimidating though it didn't do much against the way he stood with his shoulders slumped and back crooked like a shrimp making him appear way tinier than he actually was. His bangs falling in front of his eyes so that he constantly had to readjust them to see properly didn't help either.

"I know you're coming over tomorrow 'cause everything Janus knows eventually comes around to me knowing-"

"Is Jannie not like constant lying though" Remus interrupted.

"Not to me. Though if that's your impression of him maybe your relationship is kinda fraught and fucked up" Virgil stopped for a moment as if he was trying to remember what he had practiced to say beforehand "Look, I think you're uhh dodgy as all hell and uh yeah I wanted to talk to you but" He glanced around the other people in the library "In a less crowded place"

"As all of Hell!?" He pouted and fluttered his eyelids "You proooomiiiseeee I'm as dodgy as ALL of hell! That's so sweet!! OH! AH! VIrgin! I'd love to!!"

The demon jumped up from his seat and threw his arm tightly around Virgil's shoulders. He pressed the man close to his side and shook him lightly around while beggining to walk.

"Dude, Aren't you going to turn the computer off-"

"SO WHERE YOU WANNA GO?! To the CEMTARY!? To the CLUB! To the CORONER! Another place starting with C!? To a CUNT!?"

His smile widened when he saw the emo's cheeks begin to light up bright red from blushing "Can you quiet down"

"NO!"

Virgil hurried his steps to get out of the library with the demon continuing to hang on. Remus even got up on the tips of his toes as he walked so he could rub his chin against the top of Virgil's head which made the emo swat him away like a fly before pulling his hood up. He saw the disabled restroom right outside of the library and bolted for it.

As soon as the two of them had gotten into the spacious for a restroom but still quite small room Virgil pushed the other man away from himself and turned to lock the door behind them.

"OOOOoohHHHhh! For someone named Virgin you a lot more forward horny than I think! Public bathroom,,,,At school!! Is this some kink-"

"SHut up! Shut up! You don't know me and you certaintly don't know Janus! You come into our lives and prance around for like a month and suddenly you think you're as bloody tight as ever with him!?"

"Heheh...come"

Virgil took a step towards the demon "Dude, When are you going to leave?"

"Why should I?" Remus shot right back.

"'Cause you will! Eventually! I can tell you that you're just here to hurt him-"

"What do you even study? I mean you are busy often, what do you do" The demon interrupted making the other man get caught of guard.

"Not like- Dude You don't have to know that- I was saying-"

"I bet it is some nerd shit like computer tapping"

"It's a vocational program! I'm studying building and shit! I like keeping my hands busy to not feel anxious, okay! I got a truck certificate!" Virgil shook his head and took a deep breathe "You're just taking the piss out on me! I'm not stupid! I can tell! This isn't what the conversation is about!"

"The conversation is about human skeleton"

"NO! Oh god you are stupid! I don't understand what Jannie sees in you"

"He sees I'm stupid" Remus replied with a smile shining of blind self confidence.

Virgil took another step closer making the demon naturally lean back to avoid him making his back touch against the wall. The man moved close to him and held his finger up to the demon's neck while etching his eyes into his.

"You're going to hurt him!" He practically hissed you "And I won't let you!"

"....How would I?....Describe it.. Will it be with a knife or a suffocation or what"

The demon expected some sort of blabber from the human about how he was going to hurt Janus emotionally or perhaps by leaving or something similarly metaphorical. Instead Virgil kept his wide staring eyes locked into his and pushed his finger into Remus' chest.

"I can't tell you that. But you will"

"...."

Remus tried to come up with a response but he couldn't. Instead he let up into a raspy laugh as he grabbed lightly around the other man's hand and forced it away from his chest.

"Are you trying to seem threatening. Genuine question. I can't tell"

A wrinkle of annoyance appeared besides Virgil's mouth as he let up into some sort of growl which Remus took as a yes.

"You bad at it! BAD! Here, Daddy Remus will teach"

"I don't-"

With a hard push right into Virgil's spine he was forced to straighten his back making his bones let out a groaning crack before Remus grabbed ahold of his shoulders and pushed them back just as hard.

"Yeaaah Puff your chest out! Daydream a picture of big proud bird! Puff puff!"

The demon caressed his finger under Virgil's chin for a moment before pushing his face up as well followed by flicking his bangs back with his long boney fingers so Viv's eyes became fully visible. Remus had expected an annoying cold blue eye color but in actuallity he had quite a dull average kind of brown. He licked the tips of his fingers before moving them against Virgil's eyesbrows so they were properly furrowed in rage.

"HAH! Now you look much scary. And to finish here I will show you"

Remus pressed his back against the wall before setting Virgil's hands on the collar of his shirt. He gave a cocky smile while waving his finger towards him.

"Come on Virgin boy. REally puSH! With ANGER! Make it seem like you're killing me!"

He pulled Virgil closer to himself to make his grip near his neck stronger.

"Push me into the wall till my back breaks!!"

Without any warning Virgil pushed forward and kissed the demon so hard it knocked the back of his head again the wall.

For a moment Virgil's hand flew up to grasp at Remus' hair as he stared wide eyed at the human. A wave of lust of massive size was forced down his throat all at once making it impossible to gasp for air. It filled his mouth so tightly it felt as if it would all spill out if he even moved.

But it was only for a second and then Virgil's eyes flew just as wide open as the demon's and his gaze flickered between their forced together lips and a spot right above Remus' hair before he broke from the kiss and backed as far away as he could.

"I- I am- I'm sorry" He stuttered as he desperately wiped away at his lips with the back of his hoodie sleeve. A slideshow of expressions all passed upon his face in the matter of a second.

"That was the horniest kiss I've ever had" The demon mumbled to himself.

As Remus sucked in a hasty breath he could feel some of the lust spill out between his lips and dribble down his chin as the saliva from the other man dried on his skin. He shook his head and looked up to see Virgil pacing back and forth while his fingers constantly ran up and down his long bangs.

"I get that for humans- uhh humans in this country coming out is like big thing" Remus said while trying to look friendly "But you coulda just told me you liked guys and cock and ba-"

"SHUT UP!"

The scream was so loud Remus could swear the mirror shook ever so slightly. Virgil's expression had stagnated on a vile snear.

"YOU- YOU SEDUCED ME! YOU DIRTY FUCKING DEMON!"

"Hey!-"

"YOU KISSED ME! YOU HEAR THAT! I WOULD- I AM NOT- I WOULD NEVER KISS SOMEONE LIKE YOU!"

"Buddy I'm-"

"THIS IS EXACTLY THE TYPE OF SHIT YOU'D DO TO JANUS! AND- AND I WOULD NEVER! I- I WOULD-" Virgil scrambled for words as his body trembled. His chin tensed up making it clear he was holding back tears "YOU'RE DISGUSTING AND-"

"I sure am"

"-I WON'T LET YOU HURT JANUS! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I CAN AND HAVE- WHAT I WOULD DO FOR HIM!"

"Apparently you won't come out for him uhuhuh" Remus let up into a snort to himself but his chuckles died out when Virgil started to cry "Woah uhhh man dude. Dude? You like saying dude. Dude uh I mean that kiss uhh clearly you got a lot of like shit and fuck pented up. Have you tried uh jerking off. I dunno. Do you need a napkin or do you want to snot into my shir-"

"I NEED YOU AND YOUR UGLY MUG TO DISAPPEAR!"

"Heyyy just 'cause I'm planning on killing the guy doesn't mean you have to insult my face! hehe that was a joke. Very joke!"

With his adrenaline pumping Virgil moved to unlock the door but missed several times before his shaking hands actually reached the doorhandle. He cast one last look back at the demon and hissed out "You better not show up at the apartment tomorrow!!"

--

The day after Remus showed up at the apartment just a bit after the time he and Janus had planned because he had been stealing another car in preparation for driving his human friend into town to go to the pride even. Virgil would have already left for his night shift by the time he got there and he didn't really take the emo's threats seriously anyway. In a way he even appreciated it because that kiss had been so jampacked with lust despite not being an inherently sexual act that he was pretty sure he would be able to survive for a few more days without having to feed off of a human.

"Here we are, my dear disgusting little lump of muscle tissue, first day of june. Happy pride"

Janus held up his glass of wine and let it clink together with his date's before Remus dunked the whole glass back like it was a shot. For dinner Jan had pulled together his collective knowledge of cooking and managed to make pasta with some cold brocolii and the cheapest fish he could find at the local store.

"Obligatory mention that I looove rainbow capitalism and all it stands for, Of courssssseee. I just love society and its devilish systems and how no one can truly be free from it and I just have to buy an overpriced piece of..."

Janus went on for another couple minutes of sarcastically licking boot to which Remus listened but didn't understand most of it "This is really good" He said as a fish bone got stuck between his teeth.

"Well thank you"

They hadn't yet had time to buy chairs for the apartment so the two of them had to cram together on the couch after having dragged the dinner table right next to it. The demon was sitting like a goblin while Janus was tapping his feet so hard the table was in a constant state of slight vibration.

"Y'know" Remus continued with his cheeks filled with pasta "Where I'm from we not really come out. Not real necessary but I and my brother been to pride before because lots of fucking and sucking-"

Janus choked on his wine.

"-So are we sucking or fucking first tomorrow?"

Janus coughed so hard some of the wine went up into his nose. "You know what, I was actually meaning to tell you something after we saw that lovely rendition of Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf but I seemed to have forgotten" He swiftly changed the subject "Me and Virgil didn't just move for a change of scenery. It was actually because I have dropped out of university"

Remus choked on the pasta he'd been slurping and coughed it up onto his plate before not to discreetly chugging the gunk into his mouth again.

"But you're so smart!" He exclaimed with a mouth full of gunk.

"But it made me miserable! Besides we all know Universities and higher learning in general are old structures built on racism and sexism. I mean I heard Cambridge didn't even have a black society until 2005, that's younger than I am!"

"But you're" The demon waved his fork around while searching for words "You're so smart! You're like made for school and learning and shit! If you were made for something you gotta do it!"

"I don't have to do anything. Ever. Except maybe breathe if I care to do so"

"But like...Y'know if a guy don't get scared when seeing dead people he's kinda made for being dead person guy-"

"A mortician?"

"YeS! A mormon! And it's kinda" Remus kept waving his fork around as his forehead became more and more wrinkled "There is this story from my home but uhh I have never told it in english so..." He trailed off.

"It's hard to translate, innit?" The demon nodded to which Janus put his elbows on the table and let his head rest against the palms of his hand "Take your time. We have a whole wine bottle to go through"

Remus played with the pasta left on his plate while thinking of how to formulate it until the pasta had been molded into a tiny little blob "So everyone is molded to be good at shit but this guy Patton-"

Janus let up into a snort "Is he the bad guy?"

"Yeah uh sorta"

He laughed "Of course, what a asshole name"

"Yeah and Patton was good at his shit but got bored or something and" He smoshed the pasta blob with his fork "And went against what he was molded to do Y'know? He ate people and uhhh like was a total traitor to his like home!"

Janus mouth dropped at the sudden inclusion of cannibalism in this otherwise quite normal sounding tale. ".....And then...??"

"Then he never got caught! But he's totally bad! Traitor bitch! And that proves is wrong to uhhhh not do what you are literally made for"

"Darling that doesn't make the slightest bit of sense"

Remus was reminded that he and Janus were truly different species. He would never be able to explain to him that he had literally been created to fullfill certain human's desire to fuck twins and that something must have gone wrong with him in particular.

The demon shrugged "Life is misery anyway. Screaming and bLOOD all over. So if you're made for something you do it even if it is misery. You get?"

Janus leant back in his seat and sipped from his wine glass "Frankly? No. I am simply not built to lift a single finger if I do not proper want to. The bloody queen could be dying in front of me and I would be able to stop it by the click of a button and if I didnt feel arsed to do it, which I dont, I wouldnt do it.....And that's how she died. Cheers!"

They clinked their glasses together and Remus downed his like a shot once again before tapping his fingers against the empty glass.

"....But you have to, if you're made for it" He finally said.

"Dear now you're going into the nature vs nurture debate and whether we have free will or not and those have bloody decades of discussions around it which I would soooo loathe to discuss for the next hour....But we also have dishes to clean. Feel like killing two stones with one bird darling?"

Naturally Remus had never really washed dishes before since if he ate he didn't bother with utensils and such but he tried to mimic his human friend's behavior the best he could while trying not to get distracted by all the wonderful gross leftover food bits. The sink was so small his hip touched against Jan's as the human scrubbed a plate while going on about philosophers. The situation felt like such a human thing to do it nearly felt traitorious to do it.

He wondered if Patton ever washed a dish. He had been wondering more and more often if Patton had done the things he was doing. If Patton ever drank wine together with the human or the angel that he ended up murdering, fucking or eating in the end (whichever version of the story one prefered).

"I wanna do dishes with you again sometime" Remus mumbled to which Janus let out a chuckle.

"Sure dear. Your imagination is really running wild about our future with that one innit"

"I'm letting my imagination go away on thinking of how to kill with this fork!" Remus quickly changed the subject "I could shove it up someones ass or gouge out eyeball or use it with a hammer to crack up skull like fragile egg!"

Janus put the last plate away before turning to Remus and putting a hand against his hip "I've noticed you like to threaten with ass shoving as a form of murder. How exactly do you think that would go about killing a person?"

"Easy. Object pops hole in rectum. Bleeding. Dies of bleeding"

"...I....I didn't actually expect an anatomically plausible response"

Remus shrugged "I love corpses" He was close to falling away into daydreams of his days of going into morgues and staring at cut up bodies before he shook his head and added "I mean I love watching corpses on film. Documentaries. Innit?"

He snorted "Say innit again"

"Innit"

Janus pressed a kiss to Remus' cheek and murmured "It sounds so cute in your accent"

The demon shone up into such a bright smile even his mustache turned upwards at the ends.

The human wiped his hands off before going back to the couch and waving Remus over so naturally he rolled over the couchseat to land next to him.

"I think you will find this very fascinating" Janus said to which Remus' eyes widened as he immediately thought he was about to be shown the human's dick and balls.

Instead Janus pulled the back of his sweater up so the lower part of his spine showed and motioned for Remus to touch him. The demon let his fingers run along the spine and felt the other man shudder slightly as he slid his hand up under his sweater.

The spine was crooked in a way Remus had never felt before. As soon as he realized how different it was he couldn't help but run his hand up and down until he heard Janus let up into a laugh.

Remus moved his arms around Janus' waist and leaned his chin against his date's shoulder "You're right. That was fascinating"

Janus angled his head so he could nuzzle the side of his face against Remus' while smiling "It's not scoliosis but the doctor said it was similar damage as scoliosis caused by the car crash. The doctor said that by every medical notion I should have died or at least gotten an sci. My spine should have broken apart, not crook she said"

"You got mad in car last time we talked about car crash" The demon had the tone of a sad puppy as he mumbled it.

"Well that time you brought it up at a very rude time, this time I bring it up. There is a difference dear" Janus smiled as he added "They said I was a medical miracle"

As soon as Remus got permission to be excited about it he started to literally vibrate as he snuggled closer to Jan "You're my medical mystery!" He let his hands go under the other man's shirt again and gently squeezed his love handles "Honk honk" He kept vibrating "ALSO DO YOU HAVE XRAY?"

"Photos?" Remus nodded so hard it made Jan's head shake along "I do"

"Hot. Can I see sometime??"

"Sure"

Remus squeezed him around the waist and rocked side to side. Janus let his hand play along the other man's choker to keep him close before moving the collar of his own shirt to the side so the demon could press kisses to the nape of his neck.

"If you got scolioshit you should think prehand about positions and pain before fucking" Remus threw out absentmindedly.

"And how do you know that darling" Janus asked, assuming he was just bullshitting.

"You not think I ever fucked a person with bad back? It's all uuughhhh and aaaaaggghhhh if they start having pain mid fuck and then I leave and throw trash food onto random strangers on the street or something fun like that"

The human quietly assumed Remus was attempting his own strange way of flirting and replied "That is genuenly a good input darling. You're right, we should pre-try positions. Communication is key during sex after all or at least I have read that at several places"

Janus moved to stand up before sitting down again. He parsed his lips to speak and then closed them again before moving his hands so they hung in the air but after a few seconds he laid them back in his lap and started to drag on a loose thread in his sweater. His eyes wandered between Remus and the thread. Remus stared back at him for a few moments before his brain kicked into motion and he had the thought to do something but he wasn't quite sure of what.

"I never do before stuff" Remus admitted "Just fuck and then go"

Slowly but surely Janus cracked up into a smile "Oh wow. Dear you somehow keep suprirising me with how totally inexperienced you seem to be in anything and everything that isn't literally sitcking your penis into something"

"Hey now. I am skilled. Sometimes I am person getting penis stuck in. And also I have knowledge in putting tongue on pussey"

"What an array of talents"

Remus let up into one of his high pitched chainsaw like laughs before kissing his date on the nose. He stood up and waited for Janus to stand alongside him and when the human did he scrunched his nose and smiled. Both of their movements were slow and searching, and the demon noticed his date hesitating just a bit before bending over the dinner table to which he let his hand lay against the end of Jan's slightly arched back.

"I don't think this is quite it" Janus said as he turned back around so he sat on the table instead "At least not for my first time"

"Makes sense"

Janus pulled the demon closer by the choker so he stood between his legs and leant his hands against the table by his sides. Their chests where an inch from touching as Remus suggested.

"Riding?"

"Which madman rides dick during his first time having sex"

"On fours? Woof woof?"

"Dear I wear fancy gloves 50% of the time, Do i seem like the type to do doggy"

"69?"

"No"

"That always gives sore afterwards. Lots of stretching. But great name! great marketing!"

"Really rolls off the tongue" Jan agreed.

Remus poked at Jan's chest to make him lay down with his back against the table so he could bury his right between those sweet human man tits while Jan tried to hike his leg around his waist. The demon trailed kisses from his chest, past his neck and to his cheeks.

"Like this?"

"Oh gosh it is definitely not like laying down makes every one of my one thousand chins appear" Jan complained while trying to shift his face so he didn't get a double chin to which the demon blew a rapsberry right against his chin. It made him laugh which naturally rubbed off onto Remus "Laying like this does make my back hurt a little" Jan got out between a bout of laughter.

"Maybe the bed work better?"

"You are truly using every single one of your brain cells tonight huh darling"

"Rubbing them together like car batteries! Yes yes yes!"

Remus held out his hand to help his date up from the table like a gentleman and let his human lead him to the bed by his choker. When the demon immediately hit his head against the upper bunk bed he barely even felt the sting against his forehead because he was so focused hearing his human's cackle like a corny movie villain.

"I think I quite like you Remus" He said as he laid down on his back with a pillow under the lower end of his spine to help avoid any pain.

"I like you too" He sat between his human's thighs and let his hand touch against the curve of his waist as he looked him up and down "But I do not think you're stretchy enough to get leg up on my shoulder which I think what men usually do in this position"

Janus let out the most dramatic gasp he could muster "HUH!? ME!? LIL PRETTY ME!? You're accusing me of being bent out of shape, ugly, broke and not flexible!?!? You're a foul man!"

"Only like 2 of those things"

"RUDE! You're misjudging my gay credentials. I'll show you Mister!" His snarky self couldn't help but add "This is the hottest dirty talk anyone has ever had in the history of mankind"

"Show me then"

A pitiful attempt was made by Janus to lift his leg up so his knee was bent over his date's shoulder but it just made the zipper on his pants drag open. Remus offered to help lift but he was quickly denied as the other man sat up and began to drag his pants off.

"Of course it was today of all days I decided to wear my faboulous pants instead of one of my wonderful skirts" He muttered to himself while Remus sat watching grinning like a fool.

"Is that tiny snakes on your boxers?"

"Noooo. Obviously not. They're weirdly colored wormssss. Of course they are snakes! And they look fantastic on me!"

"They sure do!"

With the pants thrown aside the two men tried again with Remus holding Janus' leg up slightly to help but every time they got close one of them burst up into laughter which made the other start to laugh and they had to start over again.

"Don't blame me if you pull a muscle"

"I'll make you pull a muscle in you-"

"IN MY PENIS!"

"I was going to say pull a muscle in your tongue" Janus said as he pressed his hand against the back of Remus' head to pull him closer "So you can shut up and be a good boy for once" His tone had suck a teasing tone it made Remus giggle a little.

The bare skin of Jan's thigh touched his and the sensation made a chill run up his back at the same time as Jan let the light hand against the back of his head turn into him grabbing a bit of the demon's hair and playfully twirling it around his finger. Remus put his hands on either side of Janus' head to hold himself from falling completely onto him, with him so far being able to feel the other man's sweater rub against his chest.

With him pressed closer Janus managed to hike his leg up over Remus' shoulder which made them both let up into playful cheers before he helped him get his other leg up.

"This is definitely not stretching muscles I didnt know I had and you were not right in any way" jan snarked out. "But it feels good"

"I know me stuff"

He felt his human's hand wander up and down his back as he pressed his face to the nape of Jan's neck and kissed his collar bone. A hot breathe touched against Remus ear as Janus murmured "I'm so hard for you"

The stupidity of the situation wasn't lost on Remus but he genuinely hadn't seen the situation as sexual up until that moment. It had been all fun joking around and touching in ways some might consider sexual but it hadn't bothered him as long as he didn't have to feel that horrible feeling of feeding.

His blood ran cold and a distant ringing sounded inside of his ears. Everything around him turned ever so slightly blurry as his eyes went out of focus and his thoughts started to wander off to distant gore filled daydreams to distract himself.

The lust tasted just like Janus, that was the worst part of it. It wasn't something Remus could ever explain to a non succubus but the lust filling his mouth tasted like cheeky smiles, lemons and little lies and it made it even harder to swallow.

Somewhere far away his shirt was being pulled off and maybe Janus said something to him but he couldn't comprehend any of it. It just kept filling his mouth and oh god this was it, it would happen and then he would have to choke the life out of his human and wait for hell to let him in again and he had to do it because Roman was all alone in hell and fuck now he was thinking of his brother while he was about to have sex and he wasn't sure where his hand was and his skin was too tight around his flesh and he didn't even know when his human's birthday was so he would never know what would be written on his gravestone and Virgil would be the one to find his dead body but that was better than him seeing Roman's dead body and-

And a brief knock came from the entrance before the door opened and Virgil stepped into the apartment with his jacket slung over his shoulder and his headphones on.

The lust stopped dripping down his throat but Remus was only half aware as Janus as scrambled to sit up and pull the bed cover across his lap. The demon stayed sitting still as his eyes got stuck on some spot on the pillow and even though he wanted to look elsewhere it was as if his muscles weren't listening to him.

"---visade sig work didn't need mig. Kollegan kom and took my shift" The words coming from Virgil's mouth turned to nonsense in Remus' ears.

"-Remus was simply helpen mig strech. Bad spine och allt det" Janus responded and Remus started to feel nauseous but he wouldn't let himself throw up since he knew he needed the food.

His shorts were still on and Janus was still wearing his sweater so they couldn't have gotten that far. Maybe he had just overreacted to some silly touching. Silly him.

"You've eaten dinner?"

"Yeah. I'll just go to bed I think" The conversation continued while Virgil kept sneaking hateful glares at the demon.

Eventually Virgil left to get changed for bed and Janus moved to sit beside his date and gently wrap an arm around his waist. Feeling the pressure of another's touch made his dissociation disparse ever so slightly.

"Very homophobic of the universe to stop us from making gorgeous love" Jan muttered with a slight smile "During pride no less! It would have been so perfect if I lost the made up concept of virginity on the first day of Pride, but alas there is nothing wrong with doing that on the second day"

The human turned to his date expecting to see some smile but instead he saw that same dead eyed look he had seen during their car date. When he didn't get any answer Janus continued.

"Darling, Did you..." He searched for the right word "Enjoy everything we did today..?"

The notion that someone was speaking to him finally got through to Remus and he blinked rapidly to try and get back some control over his body before nodding.

"Okay dear, I simply wanted to make sure" Janus waited a bit before asking "Would you like to watch a movie or cuddle or something of that sort or would you rather immediately go to sleep. Don't worry about disturbing the grumpy hisser, we have headphones that connect!"

The demon nodded again and Janus gave a confused look to the unclear answer just as Virgil came out from the bathroom dressed in skeleton themed sweatpants and t-shirt.

Janus leaned in to whisper to his date "Excuse my french but it's totally not like I have to have some.. let's say..alone time now after our uhh time together got cut short so how about you think of what movie to watch while I do that" He stood up but quickly added "As you know I am definitely ssssuch a sucker for gore and horror sssso totally feel free to pick something horrible like that!"

The only reason Remus noticed him leaving was that the pressure from his arm being around suddenly disappeared. He could make out that Virgil had stopped to say something to him and he could quite easily guess that the tone of his voice was like poison dripping of his tongue but he wasn't sure what exact type of threat or insult the emo was trying to throw at him and before he had time to figure it out Viv had already climbed up to the top part of the bunk bed.

By the time Janus got back he had had enough time so he could hear Virgil tapping away on his computer right above him and his eyes were focused enough he could make out the way his human's cheeks were flushed redder than before. He'd also changed into a fancy silk pyjamas and put his hair in a bonnet.

His human cupped his chin and pulled his face close to whisper "I may or may not have just had the best alone time I've ever had because of you" Before pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Remus mustered a "nICE"

Janus studied his expression before deciding to ignore the movie "Do you wish to cuddle until we fall asleep?"

"Yesss please"

"Atta boy, that's what i like to hear"

The two men spooned up under the covers and for a long while Janus whispered facts about old broadway divas to him until it was replaced by his soft snores. At every slight movement Remus made Janus would murmur in his sleep which he found adorable.

With his eyes closed and mouth slightly agape he looked so unassuming but something warm stirred in the pit of the demon's stomach as he silently watched him. His eyes wandered across the scarred side of his face and took in ever little uneven detail. He noticed how his human's bottom lip was a slightly lighter shade of brown than his top lip and the question of whether that made his lips feel differently entered his mind. He wished he could test the question out.

Tomorrow, he told himself, tomorrow he would seduce and kill his human. Tomorrow. They would have the whole day to themself at the Pride event. Tomorrow. And then he would see his brother and friends again. Tomorrow. And then he would never see Janus again.

Despite everything Remus slept better that night than he had for months.