#or maybe it will be revealed in a limited time event that will disappear for good in 2 weeks 💀

[46hasu]

I'm not the biggest Kaveh fan out there but the fact that his "No Mora" character aspect being caused from his flamboyance and naivety seems like a huge missed opportunity. Sumeru as we know is a nation where the pursuit and even the enjoyment of art is seen as secondary to knowledge and education.

So Hoyo could have wrote that Kaveh, despite literally graduating from the Akademiya at the top of his class and being the head architect of the most iconic building in the country, is still struggling to make a living wage all because he is seen as ~~just the designer who drew on paper~~ . They also could have used this as the reason why he has to rent a room from Alhaitham to further build onto Nilou's story aspect of how artists struggle to gain recognition and compensation for their hard work no matter their background or chosen career path. Instead of you know keeping it limited to 4 scenes in the Archon Quest that is never brought up again.

[poisonheadcrabsalesman]

R&R

Chili Cook-Off! This event will be held in Forward Mess Hall. To enter, contract Master Chef Jonathan Lowell. To attend as a taster, pick up your tickets any time before February 25! Miller just wanted to enjoy his morning off, but he's voluntold to attend the Chili Cook-off. There he runs into some familiar faces. Fernando bullies and gets bullied by his coworkers. Linda socializes and reports back to Blue Team.

Technically a sequel to Backup - the other Miller/Esparza fic that takes place during SpOps.

Also posted to ao3

-

February 25th, 2558. A perfectly normal Saturday.

4 days since the invasion. Not even two weeks since Castle was shot down on their way to Copernicus base. So much had gone wrong.

The hole in Miller's Fireteam roster yawned ever wider as the campaign pushed everyone to their limits. He had thought he'd lost Crimson too, but their luck had held out so far. But losses were common, regardless of what the propaganda said. It really was only a matter of time.

Get it together, Miller. He thinks to himself and huffs a sigh. At least he can be dramatic and morose in the privacy of his own bunk.

"Good morning, Spartan Miller!"

Never mind, he's not safe anywhere. Maybe he should be grateful that Roland has the decency to wait until he's awake.

"Roland." He sighs and rolls over, glaring at the ceiling. "It's my morning off."

"Was your morning off. Put some pants on so you don't scare my delivery boy. I hope you're hungry!"

Miller grumbles something about pushy AI and pulls on some sweatpants before there's a knock at his door. It's probably Dalton or someone from Crimson in on Roland's scheme. Miller scowls and opens the door.

It's not Dalton or Crimson. It's Linda. 058. Blue Team Linda. Sharp-green-eyes-that-see-into-your-soul Linda. Linda from the speed dating event, who-acted-like-she-wanted-to-win-it Linda. That Linda. At Miller's door. Where he's standing. Shirtless and half awake. Well, he's fully awake now. He stares at her, frozen as the white hot fear and panic turns him to stone. She stares at him, expression blank as usual, maintaining prolonged eye contact as Miller’s brain both empties and goes into overdrive. He goes for casual seconds too late and aborts a half-motion to cover his chest. Playing it off like he went to scratch his neck, he finally regains his grasp of the English language and manages human-like speech.

"Hi." The greeting creaks out his throat.

Linda nods in lieu of a greeting and opens her palm to reveal comically archaic paper tickets. They look small and childish in her hand - so out of place on a warship. Paper tickets, a novelty on their own, but on the Infinity they mean one thing; Morale boosting events. R&R, hand-delivered and Roland-enforced. Miller is doomed. He’s getting roped in. Roland somehow roped Linda (058, his brain supplies, as if leaving the numbers off is rude) to rope Miller into attending.

Miller blinks. Linda doesn't appear to need to. He holds his arm out robotically and receives them. He's unsure what's happening. Surely he’s still dreaming and this social fumble is just a nightmare.

"What are these for?" He asks.

"Chili cook-off. You're a taster." She says, voice cool and calm. Miller can't tell what she's thinking or feeling. Linda’s the most mysterious member of Blue Team because of her quiet and secretive nature. Beyond being the sniper, Miller isn’t really aware of any aspect of her personality. Even Chief emotes more than Linda. Miller thinks Linda lets people see exactly what she wants them to see, which is none of her, most of the time.

"What? This is what Roland was talking about?" He sighs, "I'm sorry you got dragged into this." He is genuinely apologetic. There was something of a Roland blast zone surrounding Miller and those who got too close were collateral for the AI’s whims. 

Her head tilts a fraction of a millimeter. "I'm going too." She reveals her own ticket. "See you there." And then she's gone.

Miller blinks and Linda is disappearing down the hall while he stands there like an idiot. He knows he only sees her leave because she wants him to. Why did the "see you there" sound so threatening? IIs were such different beasts from IVs, socially at least. He was fine being a handler and helping on Ops with IIs, but without Fred balancing them out, Blue Team was nigh indecipherable outside a combat setting.

Miller groans. He'd been looking forward to laying around in bed for his morning off. Now he's saddled with expectations. If he doesn't go, Roland won't allow him a moment of peace until he decides Miller's suffering has balanced the scales. He's at the mercy of a fickle AI. He knows Roland knows he knows this. He better get on with it, for his own sake.

Gunmetal gray walls and bright lights greet him as he leaves his room and exits S-Deck to the less Spartan-friendly areas of the ship. There’s a dull roar as he approaches the cafeterias and Miller sees more groups congregating than he had expected. The Forward Mess Hall is a hive of activity as Miller steps through the door. Voices drone together in a low buzz as bodies swarm different tables. Crew from every department and rank are rubbing elbows, some for the first time ever. Master Chef Lowell is conducting the competing cooks with a smile on his face. The overall mood is surprisingly light given that just a few days ago the Infinity had been boarded by Covenant and Promethean invaders.

The crew needed this. A small, lighthearted respite in the midst of a messy campaign. Miller needed this too, though he didn't sign up to be a taster for the Chili Cook-Off of his own free will. Roland signing him up looked like it would turn out to be a good thing, not that Miller could voice that where the AI could hear. Roland's ego needed no help.

Miller finds himself in a swarm of crew vying for the seats at the tables across from the cooks. He's a head taller than most of the people there, sticking out like a sore thumb. There's one Spartan competing which assuages some of his nerves - it's funny seeing Spartan Hedge in an apron that barely makes it to his upper thigh.

He's scouting for a spot to sit, one that will support his augmented weight, when someone calls his name.

"Spartan Miller?"

It's the civilian from the group that huddled in the Op Center during the invasion. The engineering contractor or something, Esparza. He waves at Miller and gestures to the empty seat next to him. Miller raises a hand to wave back and finds himself gravitating towards the table. It wasn't like anyone else was going to wave him down.

"Esparza, right? How have you been?" Miller asks as he takes a seat.

Esparza grins at the fact that Miller remembered his name. Fernando incorporates Miller into his small group near-seamlessly. “Good, good. Nice to see you again, you know, without the danger.”

“I guess that depends on the chili.” Miller laughs awkwardly. He regrets the joke immediately but it makes Esparza smile and his group mates groan goodnaturedly. 

Esparza is kind. He chuckles as Miller gingerly sits, testing to see if the seat will support him. The metal folding chair groans but holds. Esparza laughs outright at how Miller's eyes go wide at the sound and he throws his arms out to brace. It's a nice laugh. They make small talk and Miller learns he doesn’t flub every social interaction he’s a part of.

Esparza introduces him to the other people sitting around their table. Mostly civilian types, contractors and engineers. Egghead types, the commander would say, but they’re good people and Miller finds himself relaxing. He finds himself forgetting how much he sticks out and just enjoys the company. There's some words about him being the Spartan that protected the engineers during the invasion and Miller hates that he feels his face heat up. He knows the tips of his ears are red, but it feels nice to be remembered for something good for once. 

"Did you come here with anyone?" Esparza asks.

He shakes his head. "My 'friend' signed me up for this, even had someone else drop off the ticket. I thought I might see someone here but I'm not sure. She's...good at blending in."

Esparza looks curious. “Your friend made you come? They must have thought you needed a break. I’m glad you made it.” He says while gently nudging Miller’s side.

“Thanks.” Miller says,“Don’t let him hear you say that though. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Who?”

Miller looks around and lowers his voice before answering. There’s too many people and the noise should prevent him from hearing, but who knows? He’s probably watching and lip reading from some unseen camera angle. “Roland.”

Esparza looks confused for a moment. “The Ship AI?”

“Yes.” Miller says mournfully. Esparza laughs, probably at this tone and the look on his face. He knows he’s pouting.

“I have to know, why? Is it because he’s like your boss?” Esparza leans in.

“I think he just likes picking on me, specifically.”

“So he likes you.” Esparza says grinning and sitting back. He crosses his arms and the easy curve of his posture is relaxed and knowing. He looks smug.

Miller feels himself losing control of his expression. He’s affronted. “I wouldn’t say that. I think he just likes causing problems.”

“Does he pull stunts like this often?” One of the other engineers asks. Miller can’t recall her name.

“He’s always popping up on Ops. I think he thinks he’s helping. Or he gets bored.”

“He rarely talks to us. I think we saw him during onboarding, but he rarely talks to our department directly.”

“He must like you.” 

“He’s pulling your pigtails because he doesn’t know what else to do.” Esparza says with a thoughtful face before he cracks up and laughs at Miller’s bright red face.

“Thanks. A bald joke, never gotten one of those before.” He says snidely.

Esparza waves him off. “No, he likes you and he’s showing his feelings the only way he knows how. By being defensive.”

“Probably picked it up from Command.” Someone at the table whispers. Miller ignores the image of Commander Palmer that pops into his head.

“I don’t know about that.” Miller mutters. “And you guys sure know how to gang up on a guy. What happened to me being the cool Spartan?”

“We started talking to you.”

“Jeez, okay I walked into that one.” Miller sighs, crossing his arms on the table and dropping his head dramatically. Joking aside, he is having a good time. He’s used to jokes at his expense,  but this feels different. Esparza’s including him and the man’s presence is comforting. Still, he’ll play his part and act put out. Maybe he can guilt them into sharing their portions of the taste testing. 

Esparza takes pity on him and pats his arm. “There, there. Look, it’s time for the food.”

In the end, they do share food with Miller when his faster metabolism comes up in conversation. He doesn’t share too much about the augs, but it’s interesting to talk to civilian types with just enough clearance he can clear up some misconceptions. 

“I didn’t know Spartans could be nerds.”

“We’re not all meathead jocks!” Miller laughs and steals a bite of one of Esparza’s samples. “Oh, which one is that? That’s going to be my number 1.”

He tries to swat Miller’s hand and fails. Scowling, Esparza bides his time until Miller starts talking to someone else and goes for the kill. His spoon gets mere inches away from Miller’s plate before the Spartan traps his hand with his own.

“Gotta be faster than that.” He laughs.

It’s Esparza’s turn to be flustered. He wiggles his hand in Miller’s strong grip and can’t get free. Miller yields and releases him, his palm feeling cold now that it’s no longer wrapped around Esparza’s hand and wrist. He was gentle, but Esparza still cradles his hand with wide eyes before coughing and clearing his throat.

Whatever he plans to say is interrupted by an announcement of the winners. Master Chef Lowell beams and introduces the winners. Miller can see Spartan Hedge near the winner’s circle looking pleased. Miller’s favorites didn’t win but they got honorable mentions. 

Then Miller sees her. Linda materializes out of the crowd and goes over to the 4th place winners with a strange intensity. She offers them the most formal handshake Miller's ever observed and must congratulate them on their work. Bobrov beams with pride and Gomez looks a little starry-eyed as Linda 058 of Blue Team fame tells them she liked their chili the best. It honestly looks closer to a medal giving ceremony than something as low stakes as a chili cook-off.

With the event officially over and his shift starting soon, Miller excuses himself with a small smile. “Maybe we’ll run into each other soon!” He says and winces internally. 

Esparza and the others smile and say their goodbyes as well before heading towards their own parts of the ship.

Miller looks around for Linda, but doesn’t see her. He hopes she had fun. He also hopes he will get more warning before she pops up again. All the excitement is keeping him on his toes. The small break over, he still feels lighter than he has in weeks as he preps to send Crimson out into the field.

“So?” Roland asks once Miller’s seated at his station. Ask is too nice a word for it, it’s more of a demand from the AI.

“It was alright. I had fun.” Miller admits. He’s going to keep a closer eye on Roland now. Miller was considering previous conversations with Roland in a new light now. Maybe the AI was more than just bored and Miller was more than just the easiest target.

“So I was correct in making you go.”

“Maybe. If I let you set the waypoints for my Fireteams, will you stop bullying me on comms?”

“Maybe.”

It’s a start.

—

The civilians trail back towards their departments in groups, gossiping about the cook-off and who they thought should have won before the conversation turns around to focus on Fernando. He should have expected it, but honestly, he was too old for this.

"The Spartan's cute, and you guys have a great first meeting story. Why not ask him out?" One of his coworkers titters. His team had been insufferable about The Spartan That Saved Them and the moment Fernando and he had had during the crisis.

"Shhh!" Fernando waves her off and playfully scowls the others grinning at them. "He might hear you!" They were only just past the doorway to the Mess Hall.

He considers it slowly, rotating the image of the Spartan in his head and talking to Miller over the course of the last hour or so. Miller is more human and shy than he expected. Awkward. It was  funny seeing a Spartan off-kilter. He's less intimidating without the armor and he acts like he’s surprised when people like him.

"He is cute." Fernando acquiesces.

"And tall."

"And strong."

"Stop!"

“But he might be taken?”

“Yeah, you might have competition. The AI might pull your pigtails.”

“You guys are the worst. I feel like I’m back in school.”

He waves them off, but he finds his mind lingering on the Spartan as he finishes up his reports. Maybe they would see each other around. His contract on the Infinity was a longer one and there wasn’t any harm in seeing where this went.

—

Linda returns from her outing with a sense of satisfaction evident to the rest of her team. Her shoulders are relaxed and she’s talkative. Rather than return to rest from the strain of the social spotlight often aimed at the IIs, Linda seems satisfied.

Her team perks up when she returns, their body language shifting to welcome her back into their space. She has their attention and they read her posture and gestures like an open book. It went well.

“Have fun?” Kelly asks as her sister enters the room. 

Linda nods and signs the Spartan smile across her face.

John tilts his head and nods in acknowledgement. He doesn’t move off his bunk but he sits up to show he’s listening and starts mirroring her posture. 

“You know it’s not a date if both parties aren’t aware.” Fred points out from his bunk.

“Not a date. Observation.” Linda says.

“What was the speed-dating thing then?”

“Recon.”

Fred sighs. “I guess this counts as socializing. I’m glad you had fun.”

“I got some numbers.” 

“Of course you did.” Fred says and is promptly hit with a pillow. Headshot.

“Are you going to call any of them?” John asks. It’s a genuine question. Linda’s been observing and opening up to new experiences since they’ve been stationed here. If carving out time for socializing and resting in the middle of a campaign was something they did, then she would try it.

“Maybe.”

“No pillow for him? Come on.” Fred complains, but there’s mirth in his voice.

“She likes me better.” John says smugly and dodges the pillow Fred throws at him.

Maybe there was the time and space for them to branch out here. They might not have roots anywhere, not anymore, but they still had this.

Kelly makes eye contact with her and she signals “go.” The pillows fly.

[blondiest]

The year is 2009. The month? August. The day...? I'm so glad you asked. It's the 24th. Birthday of the specialest boy in the whole world (Near. Obviously.)

Near HIMSELF doesn't actually do anything for it, sadly. He's on that grind working with the SPK. No time. Although maybe he makes Rester go pick up a fancy lego set he's had his eyes on for a while. Still, he doesn't actually celebrate �� no one there knows it's his birthday, and that's how he would prefer it. He doesn't want anyone to fuss.

HOWEVER. Across the country. In the state of California. In the city of Los Angeles. Sitting on a zebra-print couch inside a highly secret mafia base. Mello is acutely aware that it's Near's birthday. And he's annoyed as all fuck that he's acutely aware of it. Near probably doesn't remember when it's HIS birthday, and he doesn't WANT to remember that it's Near's birthday, but here he is, remembering that it's Near's goddamn birthday.

Still, he's busy, too. All his mafia shit. Collecting evidence (and stealing it from Near through Ratt). Et cetera et cetera. So he manages to keep his mind off of it. For the most part, anyway. But then eventually it gets kinda late, and he's done the things that he can do for the day, so he's about to head back to his apartment. But one of the mafia guys invites him to drink with them.

Normally he says no. Mostly because he doesn't really want to be intoxicated / compromised in front of people that he doesn't really want to have info on him. However. Going back to his apartment alone sounds kind of wretched. So this time he joins them. Except Mello has an absolutely terrible understanding of his own limits / tolerance level so he gets completely blackout drunk :/

I'm imagining he has, like, a place he sleeps in the mafia base sometimes when he doesn't feel like driving back to his apartment (like if he stays late enough that there's not a point). So he wakes up. Horrible hangover. Wretched. He tries to remember the events of the night before; nothing past his third drink (<- a lightweight). He checks his cell phone; he made three calls to Ratt, two of which lasted less than ten seconds and the third of which lasted two minutes. This immediately sets off alarm bells in his head. He's panicking.

So Mello gets dressed and drags himself out of his shitty little makeshift bedroom and starts subtly asking around for what happened the night before. Several of the men are super evasive about it, but after a few well-placed threats, someone finally reveals that he disappeared for thirty minutes and came back with a box that he INSISTED needed to go to the post office first thing in the morning.

Huge wave of cold dread. He asks if the box has already been mailed. The guy is like. Well. Yeah. It's one in the afternoon. You told us to ship it first thing. So it's gone.

Mello is in shambles over this. He starts frantically searching his little makeshift bedroom for clues of what the hell he might have sent Near. In the garbage can he finds a crumpled-up and half-legible lovehate letter. He can't read all of it— some of the handwriting is atrociously messy, other parts a bit smeared— but what he can make out is damning. There are, like, three full sentences about Near's eyes. One of the sentences describes them as "bug-like," which isn't so embarrassing for him, but the other two use words like "captivating" and "enigmatic" and, bafflingly, "celestial."

((a bit ns // fw [not explicit, just suggestive] under the cut))

In addition to waxing poetic about Near's appearance, there's an entire paragraph of him speculating on what Near would be like in bed (the words "clumsy" and "squeaky" and "lousy" all make appearances). That's not great— he doesn't really want to sexually harass / insult his lifelong rival via snail mail, regardless of how celestial his eyes are— but the next paragraph is worse.

Paragraph is a generous description— it's just one very long run on sentence. Don't worry though it's okay you're a weird awkward virgin who would give really bad head I still love you think you're cute and youcould probably learn because I could teach you stuff and as long as you listen to me you'll be fine <- only HALF of the sentence from hell.

Anyways. For a second he's like well, it's here in the trash, so I guess I didn't send it, but it pretty much immediately occurs to him that the one in the trash was a draft, because notably something still did get sent to Near. It's weird that he used a box, but then, he was pretty fucking drunk, and he probably just used whatever was lying around. He goes through the five stages of grief plus three secret additional stages (which are all just him screaming into a pillow, but with varying degrees of anguish / rage / mortification) and then just. Hopes that the letter gets lost in the mail. Tries to forget about the whole thing. Moves on with his life.

A week later, in New York City, Rester brings a package to Near. They don't get packages— anything they receive from the US Government is hand-delivered by someone with clearance, and they always have a heads-up that someone's coming. The box has already been opened— Rester had someone screen it first, had it scanned via x-ray and then opened by someone dressed in head-to-toe biohazard gear in case there was anthrax inside. There wasn't. Rester tells him there's no return address and no name of the sender. Inside the box is a single disposable camera.

Near immediately knows that there is no one it could be from but Mello— no one else who could have figured out where he was. It looks like Mello's handwriting on the box, too, though it's honestly pretty messy, even for him. He doesn't know what could be on the camera, but he presumes it's got to be sensitive information.

He tells Rester he needs the film developed. Emphasizes how important the contents of the camera are to him. It's essential that not a single photo is lost. Rester nods, disappears. Comes back like five hours later with an expression of subdued bemusement. Hands Near an envelope with the photos in it. Looks like he's going to say something, but doesn't. Leaves.

Near opens the envelope. Inside are 30 separate photos of Mello. Most of them don't show any of his face. All of them were taken with flash on. All in front of a mirror.

All shirtless.

He puts the photos back in the envelope and tucks the envelope into his shirt and goes back to work. His face feels hot for a long time after. Distantly he feels disappointed that he can't ask Mello why he went to all the trouble of tracking Near down just to send something like that, but he can't ask his employees to spend their time trying to track Mello down in return for such a trivial personal matter.

Things proceed more or less as they do in canon. Mello kidnaps the NPA director, then Sayu, gets the notebook, kills Ratt and several more members of the SPK, loses the notebook, blows up the mafia base, drags his burnt-to-a-crisp ass to New York, finds Halle. He wants to ask her if Near got a letter a few months back, but he decides against it, because he doesn't want to show his hand. After all, there's a chance it got lost in the mail, or a chance he didn't sign it (though Near would undoubtedly recognize the sender as Mello just by the contents of the letter, and the fact that the letter reached him at all). He's trying to hold onto the possibility that he did not, in fact, send a deranged, multi-page, sexually explicit and obsessive letter to Near. He has to hold onto that hope.

Except when he goes to get the photo he left at the orphanage from Near, there's a weird vibe. A vibe that he can't help but feel is unrelated to him holding Halle at gunpoint and also pointing his gun at Near. The blonde guy that works for Near is giving him an especially judgmental look. Mello gets his photo and gives Near a bit of info and gets the fuck out, but he's haunted for the rest of the day by the knowledge that yes, Near totally got that fucking letter.

So he writes another letter. Makes it EXTREMELY clear that all of the things he said about Near's eyes being captivating and celestial were JOKES, and that he DOESN'T want to fuck Near and is not in love with him. Gives the letter to Halle to give to Near with express instructions not to open it herself. She agrees, takes it to Near.

Near opens the letter from Mello. Right off the bat, he's confused, because this letter mentions a previous letter, and Near never got a previous letter. The box only had the disposable camera in it. That was it. As he continues reading, the bafflement only increases.

By the end of the letter, Near's mind is scrambled, but he has little doubt what he needs to do.

He asks Halle to call Mello and ask him to come back to headquarters. They have some things to talk about.

sorry this is left open ended i simply don't feel like finishing it. please just assume they work things out and fuck nasty. thanks 🥰

[minecraftbookshelf]

what even Happened during the MOS rivendell siblings childhood, anyway? or, what are you willing to say that's not a spoiler? like, apparently Scott wound up living feral in the mountains? Xornoth disavowed both of his original names and burnt down the entire palace in a coup??? everyone thought that he killed Scott for some reason? i'm guessing that their parents didn't take the whole "divine connection" thing well, but i am still very confused

So yeah, A Lot Happened to the MoS Rivendell siblings!

I am avoiding talking some parts of it, not because of spoilers or anything (I genuinely do not care about spoilers) but because I've labelled some key things off limits purely so my brain doesn't decide "well, we've talked about that, no need to actually write the story!"

That being said...

Scott didn't so much live feral in the mountains as there were some emotionally volatile moments in his (equivalent to) teen years that he dealt with by running away into the mountains. Usually for a day or two at most and he never went too far. Basically anytime he and Xornoth had a big fight that is what would happen. (small and medium fights he would either go to the sheep shack or the owlery. Sometimes the church.)

Xornoth did disavow their original two names. They are going to get a whole backstory fic all to themselves so a lot of that will be covered there. And yes, Rivendell no longer has a palace because Xornoth did indeed burn it down! (From a worldbuilding and plot perspective, that comes from the way that Smajor picked a location for a palace but never actually built it. For the Doylist explanation XD)

Basically after Xornoth's coup, Scott just disappeared from public life. He's out and about in Rivendell's capitol itself of course, but a lot of the other elven villages haven't even had any kind of visual confirmation that he wasn't killed along with his parents. Internationally, Xornoth brought Rivendell out of isolation so none of the other emperors besides Katherine (and maybe Pix) had ever even met Scott before and none of them ever really got a solid answer on what went down when Xornoth seized power. So most of them assume that Xornoth killed their brother along with their parents. (This is also the only reason some of the other emperors even know Xornoth ever had a brother. This will come up in the fic I have in progress about Joey and Xornoth's first meetings.)

And the sort of brutally practical truth of the matter is that most of the other emperors either can't afford to care about that, or only care about it in the sense of being wary of Xornoth in general. Pearl is the one who has spent the most time with Xornoth one-on-one in informal settings and she is pretty sure Scott isn't dead just from what she's picked up both about Xornoth as a person and the occasional things they've let slip but Xornoth is very tight-lipped about Scott in general.

Katherine knows Scott is alive and even visits sometimes but is sworn to secrecy.

And yeah, their parents did not take it well. At all. Thus the series of events that led to eventual patricide and coup. (Which wasn't originally intended as a coup, that was kind of accidental.)

It's okay that its a bit confusing right now, there's a lot about this au that will be revealed in bits and pieces as the story goes along and eventually it should all make sense!

[fishymom-art]

Hazbin Hotel Theories and Finale Predictions!

So, the 5th and the 6th episodes were very eventful and had a lot of information and stuff to think about and OH BOY DID IT MAKE ME THINK.

First of all, I’ll list some of the questions that I have and then theorise about the answers. Then, I’ll tell you about my prediction for the finale and when I say that I might be right on the money, you better believe me ;) (I’m very confident right now).

Of course, this will contain spoilers, so I will hide everything under the cut!

First, the questions. A LOT of them are about Alastor lol

What happened 7 years ago that led Alastor and Lilith of all to disappear? Who did Alastor sell his soul to? Why is he helping Charlie if he stated multiple times that he thinks that redemption is a ridiculous idea? Is there a reason as to why Alastor gained so much power so quickly and why did he go for the Overlords specifically? And why is Husk the only overlord Alastor didn’t kill? Why is Husk in the hotel to begin with??? Why does Alastor dislike Lucifer so much?

And finally

What’s going to happen in the finale?

I have some more minor questions, but I can’t answer them and they’re too specific and don’t have much stuff that could help me answer them, such as “What is Husker’s limit as to what he’s allowed or not allowed to do?”, “What happened between Vox and Alastor?”, etc.

NOW ONTO ANSWERING THOSE QUESTIONS!

We’re going to start with the first 3 because I think they are partially connected. Now, it’s difficult to answer what exactly happened 7 years ago, but I assume this is when Lucifer and Lilith split. This could answer why Lilith is absent but doesn’t answer why Alastor wasn’t present for so long. But I can still answer why Alastor came back!

My biggest theory was that Alastor made a deal with Lilith, but now that it was revealed that he actually sold his soul, I think that he sold it to her. Maybe he tried to overthrow her too but didn’t succeed and has to do her biddings now. And I think what she forced him to do is take care of Charlie and help her at whatever she wants to achieve. Maybe he actually waited for the right time to come back. For the hotel to open! Yes, he finds the idea utterly hilarious, but he’s obligated to support her, that’s why he’s still there.

It still doesn’t really answer why exactly he wasn’t there. Yes, he might’ve just waited, but when Zestiel asked him about why he was gone, he got nervous. There’s definitely more than him just waiting to come back… I’m just not sure why. Please, do reply to this post if you have any theories.

Next is reason why Alastor gained so much power. Obviously, it’s because he rose to the top due to him killing a bunch of Overlords and gaining reputation. I did talk about it in one post by @catodile , when they theorised that Alastor gained his power from Husk specifically and that’s why Husk doesn’t use his powers and USED to be an overlord. But it doesn’t make sense anymore, I think. Considering the fact that he was already able to take souls, he was already an overlord. He didn’t need Husk’s powers. + In “Loser, Baby”, Husk says “I sold my soul to SAVE my power”, which means he still has it, he just can’t use it anymore/not allowed to. Never throughout that scene (And believe me, I’ve rewatched it 10 times or more) does he mention that he doesn’t have those powers. So it can’t be the reason why Alastor suddenly got so powerful as soon as he arrived. The only thing I can think of right now is Lilith. If he didn’t make a contract with her 7 years ago, he could’ve made it right in the beginning. Maybe Lilith told him to kill the Overlords. Each and every one of them… He didn’t kill Husk though. Which leads us to the next question.

Why didn’t he kill Husk? Maybe I’m making Husk too important but the fact that he didn’t kill Husk could be the reason why Alastor was absent. Lilith was angry at him for disobeying her orders. But I think it’s unlikely that he plays such a big role in Alastor’s disappearance. Plus, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know the reason either. He could’ve already guessed if he was the reason… Unless he did, he didn’t really talk about it, did he now?

Husk is a weird choice to not kill. Alastor is merciless, we were told multiple times that he’s a heartless monster. But then we found out he has a friend. That he cares about Charlie. That he can actually be sweet and nice… Maybe he took pity on Husk. Husk is one of the overlords who isn’t exactly stable. He’s a gambler, getting souls is not a 100% guarantee. But maybe this is the reason Alastor chose to spare him and make a deal with him instead - he saw potential. He saw that Husk can be useful. For a moment, he decided that Husk doesn’t deserve death. Yes, he’s still depressed as fuck, but at least he’s alive.

But is it also the reason why he brought him to the hotel? I’m pretty sure Alastor knew that the hotel really doesn’t need a bar and it does look very out of place - it doesn’t even match the color. I think he secretly thinks that Husk needs a second chance. That, despite thinking that this idea is ridiculous, something tells him that it can still help Husk become better. Get back on his feet, maybe. He saw “Happy Hotel” and thought “yep, I’m bringing my depressed minion in here, he could use some therapy”. He’s also a has-been, he fits right in.

And as you might’ve already noticed, I think that Alastor changed. Not only during those 7 years that he was absent, but also while being at the hotel. He used to be emotionless and cruel, but now he looks like a strawberry pimp (Angel’s words, not mine). He doesn’t do much cruelty and the only time we see him attacking someone is when it comes to hotel’s safety (Sir Pentious and the Sharks attacking). During the meeting of the Overlords, he acted out of place, as if he felt like he didn’t belong there. He had to play nice, despite previously killing each and every overlord that he met. He helped at the hotel. He cares. He doesn’t say it (at least not before that one song battle he had with Lucifer), but he cares.

And this is the smoothest transition to the last question that I could make. Why does he hate Lucifer so much? He’s never met him! He literally says “It’s nice to put a face to a name”. He’s heard of him, everyone has, but they've never met. I thought that he might’ve met him when he was with Lilith, but it looks like Lucifer was always very introverted and Lilith was the one in charge. Then it makes sense that, even if he made a deal with her when he just arrived, he’s never met her husband - he didn’t show up. Ever. And maybe that’s partially the reason why Alastor dislikes him. He finds him irresponsible - as a dad, as a husband, as a RULER. He pisses him off proving that he’s a better father figure than Lucifer, that he cares more about Charlie and the hotel, and that Lucifer is a loser and an asshole in general. And he believed that for a long time, even before Lucifer started interacting with Charlie. He didn’t get jealous, he knew he’s an irresponsible airhead before. Maybe he was told by Lilith. Honestly, it makes me think that Alastor and Lilith had something going on, but I’m getting ahead of myself ahaha.

Anyway, those are my conclusions.

What happened 7 years ago that led Alastor and Lilith of all to disappear? Divorce (and something else????)

Who did Alastor sell his soul to? Lilith.

Why is he helping Charlie if he stated multiple times that he thinks that redemption is a ridiculous idea? Lilith made him.

Is there a reason as to why Alastor gained so much power so quickly and why did he go for the Overlords specifically? Contract with Lilith (Maybe).

And why is Husk the only overlord Alastor didn’t kill? He saw potential in him.

Why is Husk in the hotel to begin with??? Took pity on Husk.

Why does he dislike Lucifer so much? He thinks Lucifer is a bitch and a half.

And finally

What’s going to happen in the finale?

TIME FOR THE FINALE PREDICTION THAT I’M SO CONFIDENT ABOUT!!!!!!

Let’s begin… the story needs an ending… A HOMOSEXUAL! /lyr

So, in Episode 5 we’re told that 5 months have passed, which means Extermination is in a month. WHICH THEN MEANS that the finale of Season 1 will be the Extermination itself.

Now that we know that Heaven can’t do shit about it and Charlie is out of hope for Heaven, they will have no choice but turn to the Overlords. After all, they appeared for one episode only (not including the Vees).

We’ve seen a few clips of some of the Overlords singing and hanging out with Charlie and Alastor. What I think will happen is Charlie will attend a meeting of Overlords, tell them what happened, and convince them to finally take a stand against Heaven. They will agree either willingly, or Alastor will go “if you don’t help my daugh- I mean Charlie, I will broadcast your screams all at once.”

I think what they’ll do is either fight off the angels, or Charlie will talk to Sera with Overlords supporting her. Or both.

They’ll open their eyes to the reason as to why Carmilla killed an angel. She tried to protect her family. She was scared. Heaven will realise just how horrible their actions were. Sera will realise how cruel Adam is.

I don’t think Lilith will make an appearance, that would be too quick. At least I hope she won’t. I hope Charlie will be given a chance to deal with it herself and prove that she’s more than just a cheerful little girl. I hope she realises that she can’t force demons to get redeemed and it should be their choice. I hope they will stop exterminations all together and that Adam will go fuck himself.

And I think at the end it will be revealed why Alastor is there and what happened 7 years ago. OOOORRRRRR It will be left for season 2. When the first season came out, they already said that season 2 is coming too. I think in Season 2 they will look for Lilith and try to solve the mystery of what happened 7 years ago.

My wishes for the finale?

Husk gets to use his full powers (Alastor will just go “alright, go off or whatever”)

Angel will get a chance to punch Val again and maybe even break the contract.

Sera will offer Angel to join them in Heaven and he will refuse to go and choose to stay with his friends. Aww, wholesome and delightful.

Charlie gets to use her full powers and show her true potential.

Nifty gets to scratch an angel’s eyes out.

Alastor and Vox working together.

ANYWAY, THAT’S IT! TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

I will definitely add to it once the finale comes out!!!

[oltammefru]

The newly introduced IS3 collectible Glory Pack is insane for like so many entirely different reasons:

First, let's talk about what it does in IS3. Its effect reads "When an operator is defeated, it will stun all enemies in the 4 adjacent tiles for 6 seconds."

This is a very misleading description because:

It actually stuns within a small radius (1.25 tiles), not just the 4 adjacent tiles.

It works with many non-operator units, not just operators. These include (but are not limited to): summoner summons, stuff like pozyomka's typewriter and skalter's seaborn, exploding THRM-EXes, even things like Ebenholz S2 shadows and W mines work.

(It's also nice enough to hit air units, which makes it incredibly useful against the floating manta rays).

This effect is so ridiculously broken. Even if you don't go out of your way to abuse its effects by picking fast redeploys, summoners, and units with entities that trigger its effect, it is still incredibly strong. If you do anything at all to utilize its effect, it's gamebreakingly good. With two fast-redeploys, you can keep most stun-vulnerable enemies, including bosses, occupied basically permanently, with just an E2 deepcolor, you have effectively 7 stun bombs on a short cooldown etc.

Perhaps the coolest thing you can do with it is that if you place down skalter/pozyomka/a tactician and then their seaborn/typewriter/summon, you can retreat skalter/pozy/the tactician and this will cause their seaborn/typewriter/summon to trigger the glory pack effect. It's generally pretty impractical but when you can get it to work it's so incredibly satisfying to pull off. (Note: it doesn't work with summoners and their associated summons. The summons just disappear without exploding

The most ridiculous part about it is that it somehow manages to be a common collectible. Sure, Old Fan is about as broke, but at least that one is Super Rare.

Second, its animation is so funny. The fact that after dying, your operators just fucking explode. It works I guess??

Third, if you look at its place in the IS3 collectibles viewer, you'll see that it's in the "important lore artifacts" section and the contrast between Glory Pack and all the other artifacts is great.

In this section, you have:

The crown of the Sarkaz King, destined to bring about the end of days.

The very flames the Inquisition uses to incinerate the Seaborn themselves.

An emanation of a vengeful God's wrath.

End of Times, which itself I'm convinced has some really deep lore that I could write an entire post about (and maybe I will do this at some point)

And then also Glory Pack, whose flavor text reveals that it apparently gets used for making bets at sporting events in nightmare dystopian capitalist hellscape Poland. Very Cool.

[beevean]

Considering the state of IDW, I'm truly curious if we'll see Surge and Kit again.... and even more what will be done with them when they return. Redemption? Sudden death? Pulling another disappearance for like a year? I cannot help but feel the writers put themselves in a complete corner regarding what to do with these two...🤔

Their fate is so ambiguous (read: I did not understand what happened in that page) that they could feasibly be brought back. And like... the writers have still quite a lot of potential to milk from them: they could reveal where they come from, they could change their relationship into being fully inseparable siblings, they could actually deprogram them somehow and give them something of a happier ending...

As for whether they'd do it... I don't know. I don't believe, like others here, that S&K completely lost popularity: ofc they got less fanart now that they're less relevant, but I still see some of it, and I still see some saying that they are the best thing that came out of IDW. A return would be appreciated. But what would they do? The way Flynn talked about Surge after #50, he sounded like he truly believes her to be nothing more than a "maim maim kill kill" villain that Sonic had to calm down (bruh lol), so I wonder if he even sees the complexity of his own characters. We do know, OTOH, that Stanley has a passion for milking angst out of characters, so maybe she would go down that route?

Also the problem with IDW is that its pacing is absolutely atrocious, and the writers simply don't know which events need more screen time and which ones could be limited to a few issues. Remember: S&K were put under the spotlight for more than a year! And at the end of the day they were barely utilized! Would they be reduced to a filler 5-issue arc, or replace Eggman for anothr year? :^)

[trpg-dingusmaster]

I tried to look for a vampire mystery for a monster of the week game I had promised, I couldn't find one? so I was forced to do it myself.

It went over OK, I cut the other Vampires and the fandom complications the party spent a lot of time researching the publisher, and I tried to tie in a characters back story a little.

THE BOOK TOUR

You ever read a supernatural romance and notice how the monstrous love interest behavior is just a series of red flags than any real person should run screaming from but it's a fantasy and a romance so it's "fine"? The monsters sure did.

A vampire couple travel the country preying on monster fuckers and fans of supernatural romance, role-playing with each other to play with their victims before their human targets disappear forever. Their exploits mirror the events of a popular vampire romance series. When a target disappears, a new novel is soon to follow detailing many of the events in suspiciously close but legaly distinct detail. Investigation reveals the author is a pen name used by their familiar. The familiar/Author enjoys the fame and attention of being an author as well as the general satisfaction of being evil and making more fun for their vampires.

The Vampire Powers- in addition to teeth and claws one can turn into a large swarm of bats that can attack as a unit and keep watch of the lair at night, one can turn into a black mist/shadow plus whatever other Classic Sexy Vampire Bullshit you need.

The Vampire weaknesses- fire, sunlight, being staked In the stomach NOT the heart, compulsively picking up and count dropped items

Familiar powers- walk in the sun, loved and trusted by a devoted fan base for years, internet familiarity.

The Familiar weaknesses- compulsively count dropped items, anything that would kill a human, vanity about their writing

Complications-

Rival Hunter: Becky Autumn is vampire hunter from California thats been hunting these two vampires for a while now after losing a friend to their bullshit games and doesn't care what kind of scene she causes to get them. She is missing vital info about them like their stomach piercing weakness and that they have a familiar she sees a connection with the books and others like it but doesnt know exactly what it is. She can either try to be helpful or activly get in the way to secure HER kills.

The Fandom: some fans will not want to listen to reason and will seek out danger for any number of reasons including but not limited to wanting to be a protagonist, smash with sexy vampire, already deeply effected by the vampire/familiar mind games and emotional manipulation, knowing what going on and wanting to be a vampire/familiar, not knowing or caring what's going on they just love the books and the author and the books and may try to impede the investigation to protect the author on the grounds that the investors are just crazy haters they might not care if the author is actively hurting people.

Other Vampires- depending in how far in the countdown the mystery is there may be more than just these two vampires, the writing has had benefit for other vampires and there could be multiple in or coming to town for a large event for the newest book they intend to use like a buffet such as an exclusive invite only reading at the lair?

The Innocents/Victims: there might be more than one, they may or may not be part of the fandom maybe they havnt even read the books or heard of them as theybare romancey books and they might "not be like other girls/whatever" and dont read those. They probably fit a lot of the markers of a vampire romance protagonist.

What about the publisher? the publisher was bought out a few years before the first book in the series was published, it was the first book published under the new ownership. No original staff remain. Other works under their lable are just as sketchy. The company that owns them pays very well and isn't concerned about any threats the hunters may issue if that comes up they also don't care about their new employees.

[doctorstrangereview]

Strange Tales #159

Cover Date: August 1967 On-Sale Date: May 2, 1967

Doc has only a limited amount of time to fix what the Living Tribunal has tasked him to do so that his fixing of his cape (and the Earth) are permanent. He'll need to face a bunch of nasty dudes after a bunch of time-consuming flashbacks are endured. Then, we have the return of a classic villain. Here we go!

Doc has returned to his Sanctum Sanctorum only to find a great, big hole in the ground. This isn't Florida so his home having fallen into a sinkhole is unlikely. That leaves repossession by creditors. This is also unlikely as we've seen Doc can conjure as much money as he needs out of thin air. The other possibility is someone has hidden or destroyed it. We've seen his Sanctum captured and moved in the past. We'll go with that for now.

Staring into the big hole that used to be his basement isn't productive. Doc starts to look around, but the streets appear to be deserted. In an alley around the corner he finds someone. Just before he can blast the stranger into atoms, Doc discovers he knows the dude! It's Wong! Wong looks funny here. His face resembles The Rock, which is funny because Dwayne Johnson won't be born for another five years. He's also dressed funny in a dress-like thing. It's a first for Wong, but maybe with Doc away he took a casual day. (Whoa! That rhymes!) And he looks a bit thicker than usual. Maybe a depressed Wong hit the candy store.

Wong explained that Umar did naughty things to the Sanctum which went all squiggly and disappeared. Doc turns away for a moment and Wong is offended. Doc explains "I need a minute to think, dude! I may be able to fix this mess." So Doc thinks a bit and determines that Umar didn't finish the job and didn't make her naughty spell permanent! Yup, magicians in this series still can't take that last step or lock the freaking door.

Doc casts a spell of vanishment on Umar's spell of vanishment! How's that for a double reverse-o! It works and Marie Severin's dull rendition of the Sanctum reappears.

I think that spell is the most popular one in the series so far!

Realizing he's wasted the requisite amount of time to ensure a last second finish, Doc flies up the stairs to consult his Crystal of Agamotto. He sees what Trib-y predicted. People are getting powers and being nasty.

Wong, in a very obsequious manner, asks Doc what's going on. In a very long winded way Doc explains "My bad!" and then recalls the events of the last few issues. Uh oh! More wasted time! Wong then starts to help Doc concoct a plan of attack. This is actually the most we've seen Wong do. Previously he's answered the door or got yelled at for not paying the bills when Doc ran out of money.

The next page is some filler about a couple of bad guys confronting each other and then planning to create a brotherhood of evil sorcerers.

Meanwhile, Doc has enchanted some shield thing and is heading out to take care of the baddies.

The baddies have gotten together and attempt to free an interdimensional prisoner. As Doc approaches they succeed. Doc starts taking out he brotherhood of evil magicians when the freed prisoner arrives. He reveals himself to be none other than Baron Mordo!

Some good stuff this issue that ties into the recent past. Trib-y's prediction about the baddies getting together has come true instead of being forgotten. Doc retrieves his Sanctum and, while he's loud about it, he's civil to Wong who is more than a doorman here. Good for Wong! I like the character and love the development that's in store for him in the upcoming decades. Lastly Mordo's back and is, perhaps, less of a bumbler than he's been in the past. But, he's still wearing that ridiculous onesie.

[acerikus]

Yeah yeah Dess hasn't turned up yet and that's probably why she's never really discussed as a candidate - but Asriel wasn't revealed till right at the end of undertale despite being someone we'd faced off against multiple times way before that.

Dess could've absolutely been flowey'd in her own way and I find the concept so fun to think about.

Both the Dreemurrs and the Holidays feel very unique and separated from the rest of the cast while very similar to each other - the only ones with known surnames, two parents with a rocky relationship (though Rudy and his wife seem to be at least a more stable than Toriel and Asgore), one parent in a position of political power while the other disapproves of their recent behaviour, and two siblings who have been separated in some way.

Both the undertale dreemurrs and deltarune dreemurrs work for this parallel in different ways - ut!asgore being king while mrs holiday is the mayor, the kids of both families in deltarune having grown up close with the eldest siblings absent and the youngest missing them deeply more than anything (and repeatedly searching the internet for possible info in regard to them coming home). Noelle shares her love of chocolate with both Kris AND chara. Treading down a darker path only increases her parallels with chara in ways that have already been talked about plenty of times before.

Dess and deltarune!Asriel are the cool older siblings who their youngest siblings look up to and miss terribly. But let's talk about Dess and undertale!Asriel as a possible parallel - talking specifically of course, about Flowey.

An easy argument against knight!Dess would be, 'but wouldn't people have seen her around hometown if she was making dark fountains?' or 'why wouldn't she have reached out to Noelle?'

I feel like there could be an easy answer here.

Firstly, we have no idea where she is, or what happened to her. People like to speculate that she's wherever gaster is and I kinda love that, but... let's say that's the case (or even if not), what if she wasn't able to keep herself together? Maybe wherever Dess is, she can't go back the way she is - either due to actual physical/metaphysical limitations, or because she doesn't want the ones she cares about seeing her that way (sound familiar?)

Not enough a lightner to come home to her family. Just enough of a lightner with just enough determination to create dark fountains. If she were the knight it could be an interesting reversal on some of the speculation I've seen on knight!kris - instead of it being Kris making fountains in the hope of finding Dess, maybe it's Dess trying to use them as a means to an end for coming home. Maybe she's been lied to about their purpose. Maybe there's more to dark fountains than we've been told. Maybe she just wasn't the greatest person.

Maybe whatever event caused her disappearance or what happened after has warped her and/or her mindset beyond recognition, much like how flowey gave up on his morals after what must've felt like forever in a body that suddenly wasn't like his own, packed with determination and the ability to reset.

Idk, knight!Dess just feels really neat to me. A villain-not-villain-tragic-kid, who could even end up being the key to this story having a happy ending. And if Noelle has already been shown to be an angel candidate in a more destructive scenario just like chara did, dess sharing an angel parallel with asriel/flowey could be fun too.

Final thing I wanna add is these tags from @ariadnesweb which I think are super fun and kinda go well w some of my thoughts:

Thinking again about the possibility of knight!dess and the narrative impact that could have (not to mention, the inherent undertale parallels that would come with it)

[italoniponic]

I saw your post about some characters nobody had requested for the event yet. If it's possible, could I request and imagine with Malleus (he was one or the three you mentioned, right?), Azul, and Leona for something? I thought you said 3 characters was the limit, I apologize if I read that wrong. 🙇‍♀️

Can I request what those three would do if their crush / Y/N accidentally confessed somehow (like letting it slip that they liked them) and instead of facing the consequences of their actions, Y/N just freakin' bolts. Nobody has ever seen them move that fast before.

Thank you in advance, and I apologize if this doesn't make sense or I did it wrong.

𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲'𝐬 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭

| Notes: ANON I LOVE YOU

The first request featuring Malleus at last! lmao Okay so, since I made something similar with Ace, Cater and Kalim but because there’s other characters this time, I made a twist (yeah, that’s the joke). If you don’t mind, I wrote this in a more funny way. At least it have a complete ending lol

And Diasomnia stans, pls ask me more for Malleus and Silver, I beg you! 

Thanks for the request <3 |

Malleus Draconia, Azul Ashengrotto, Leona Kingscholar x g!n reader who runs really fast / headcanons / fluff & comedy / use of “you” pronouns

Cherry's Harvesting event 🍒 Masterlist

My Baby Runs Like the Wind

“People may not understand why I love you, but...!,” you interrupted yourself halfway through, missing the point you wanted to get to. You simply wanted to assure Malleus that someone in the world really liked him, but your deepest feelings just revealed themselves unexpectedly;

Malleus stopped for a moment and stared deeply at you. In any other situation, he might have let that jumble of words go through his head without noticing anything special. But, it seemed that in this very specific momento he understood what you meant. Malleus’ eyes shone bright, he could feel his own heart beating fast;

Nothing that you could repair for a long time because you jumped up and ran out of there like lightning. Malleus was startled by your speed. He was always amazed at how fast humans could run even though they weren't as skilled as fairies and you seemed to almost disappear into thin air;

But... why did you run away?! Malleus shook his head, pulling himself together. Usually people would run away from him without saying anything or after being rude so they wouldn't suffer the consequences, but you said something good and genuine. You declared your love for him!;

You may have even thought that simply running from your problems was the best of solutions, but when little green lights surrounded you and suddenly, Malleus transported himself in front of you, you realized how wrong you were. You were in the middle of the hallway and the only way out was the side courtyard. Not understanding that you were still in auto-escape mode, Malleus reached out to you to lead you there;

You didn't know what to do. Your head was spinning, confused by the attitudes of your good friend Tsunotaro. Maybe he wanted to reject you more formally? Or perhaps did he not understand what you said and was apprehensive about your escape? You didn't want him to think that way. You weren't running away from him... well, you were, but for another reason;

One way or another, you walked together through the garden and silence was everywhere. Little birds used to avoid Malleus, fearing his draconic aura. In contrast, more crows approached you although they remained courteous in respecting your silence through the way;

You were so restless that Malleus didn't know what to do to help you. He remembered a book that Lilia borrowed for him a few weeks ago, an unusual literature in their land called “teenage romance”. You seemed to be in a very similar situation of misunderstanding between your true feelings;

“Child of Man, do you love me?,” Malleus asked you directly. It took you by surprise and you stared into his glorious jade eyes, expectant for an answer. Your heart started to beat harder and you almost wanted to run from there again;

But you remained and, unable to answer with words, you took Malleus's hand and squeezed it tightly. You nodded, plucking up the courage to face whatever his response to your feelings was. You felt like a knight facing a dragon. However, as admirable as your courage was, there was nothing to worry about;

“Oh, precious joy!,” surprising you again, Malleus gave you a huge smile. You were able to perfectly see his immaculate fangs. “My heart rejoices to hear this. You know why, dear? For I love you as well.” It was like waking up from a nightmare of uncertainties to the reality of sweet life. You were so happy with his response that you threw yourself on top of Malleus to hug him and you both fell off the bench. His good laugh ended up scaring the crows away.

“Loving you is insane, honestly,” you blurted out unintentionally after listening to Azul talk about his favorite coin collection for fifteen minutes. It was accidental, with no prior intention, completely unprepared. The favorite kind of information that Azul would like to receive. But this one caught even him by surprise;

For a long time, there was no noise other than the movement of the fish in the aquarium of Octavinelle's communal room. The little ladder of coins that Azul was making fell but he didn't take his eyes off you. He felt like he heard you wrong. Yeah, maybe that's it. But your face was flustered and this was an indicative counter;

So, for better or worse, you just bolted from there. You ran away so fast you almost ran over the Leech twins in the process. Floyd even joked about changing your name to “Black Marlin” — a fast fish he had bet on racing once in the Coral Sea. But when they turned around to Azul, his coins were already collected from the table and he went after you;

Azul would have asked Jade or Floyd to help ambush you because they were a little faster but, if you had said what he thought you said, he didn't want to involve the Twins unnecessarily in this situation. Things are hard enough without them laughing and teasing him;

Unluckily for Azul, you were on a good day and your run was fast. So fast that he couldn’t get close to you even without the lack of obstacles outside Octavinelle’s main building. He saw you beam out of the dorm and cursed under his breath. If you arrived in the halls of Night Raven College, it would take a lifetime to find you. As if he would give up so easily…;

Meanwhile, on your side of the ship’s bow, you arrived at the Hall of Mirrors and took a moment to catch your breath. You weren't sure if Azul was actually following you but there was a lot of adrenaline running through your veins at the moment;

You couldn't believe what had happened. You confessed yourself to Azul like that! Don’t you think about your own well-being? What if Azul didn't like you the same way? Now he could use that little slip for his own benefit. Well, the real truth was that you wouldn't want to know if Azul was going to reject you and you hoped he just hadn't heard anything;

“Ah, there you are... if you really loved me, you wouldn't make me run so much,” Azul's voice sounded in the hall and you took a fright, especially since he almost collapsed on the floor from exhaustion. You were about to run away again but the worry made you put your feet in place like an anchor;

You went over to Azul, who was leaning against the wall to rest, and when you made mention of touching him, he held up your hand. If you two were at sea, this action would be much more effective with his tentacles, but his grip was strong enough to hold you there without necessarily hurting you. He just didn't want you to run away again;

Nicely, he convinced you to repeat what you said before and without much else to run to, you could only finish confessing your love properly to him. When you finished and looked at Azul in the eyes, he looked weak again, his face was on fire and his heart beating just thinking how much you love him with such devotion and affection;

He almost cried. Almost. He wouldn’t weaken so much in front of you at that moment. Azul took a deep breath, adjusted his glasses, and said, “I suppose I should also confess something. I love you, too.” This statement alone was able to make you jump in Azul and hug him with all your might. Not that he complains much when he thinks about it.

“You are sometimes lucky that I love you, idiot...,” you were about to try to strangle Leona when you noticed what you said. It was already a very complicated situation. You were forced by Crewel to hunt down Leona and demand to him to do a homework he should have turned in yesterday but apparently didn't, culminating in you finding him sleeping in the Botanical Garden;

Trying to wake up a lion here, vain attempts to drag him out there, you were at the limit of your patience. And, by the way, from your own guard because that phrase escaped more naturally than you would like. Because nothing couldn’t get worse, that actually made Leona wake up. He was semi-sleeping these last fifteen minutes but hearing that you love him gave that special snap;

You exchanged a look for a moment, one more surprised than the other. You only noticed at that moment that you were practically on top of him. And like a prey that has noticed the awakening of its predator, you ran out of there as fast as you could. Leona remembered the antelopes of his land, running like the wind;

He only needed a moment to pull himself together and stretch out, not considering that running after you would be a problem. So... you loved him, huh? How cute, he chuckled to himself. But it was so meaningful and good to hear, something that Leona would hardly admit out loud to you. And to think that you have reached this stage;

Meanwhile, you still ran like a wild beast through the fields of Night Raven College, not knowing exactly where you were going. You were worried about what to do from there. How could you face Leona again? Would he let it pass like it was nothing? No one would know?;

You stopped suddenly, thinking better of it. Was that the conclusion you wanted? Well, that might be better than a rejection, but it would be just as sad. You sighed, tired. It was quite a race and you were sure Leona didn't move a muscle to follow you;

Bam! That's when you felt a little bump in your head and there was Leona behind you, yawning as if finding out your position from your trail had been nothing. He had that sassy look in his eyes, relaxed, really treating the situation like it was nothing. So handsome and gallant that you felt like you could fight him and kiss him at the same time;

This thought knotted your stomach and made your blood run faster. You turned around, ready to do the same thing when Leona held you by the collar of your shirt, preventing your escape in any direction. Now that you were face to face, it was time to talk seriously;

“Herbivore, do you love me?,” Leona asked. Despite his stance, you didn't find anything that represented hostility in that question. Which, again, was good and bad at the same time. Worse for your heart was finding out that Leona didn't care about you at all. But since you were there — and you couldn't even get away anyway — you had to admit it;

You hadn't realized because you were looking down but Leona's expression changed many times as he listened to you declare your heart to him. It was such touching words and to think that you almost ran away from him because of shame and fear only made him feel stranger, like he never felt before;

“I'm in love with you too... either that or you give me a lot of headache for no apparent reason,” Leona confessed. You were surprised but, out of habit, you gave him a light punch on the shoulder. Not that he cared. Behind you, the sun was coming down magnificently and you almost wanted to run again. Not to escape but to announce to the four winds that Leona Kingscholar loved you too.

| Special Notes:  Lilia gave Malleus a bunch of shojo manga, that’s the only truth I know. |

[dreamersparacosm]

life as we know it - prologue

an austin butler x reader fanfiction. 

warnings ; none <3

a/n ; i am SO excited to be starting this series!!! this chapter is just setting up the premise for austin and [y/n]’s relationship, leading up to the events of chapter one, so there’s a lot of time jumps. i might be publishing this on my wattpad as well but more details on that to come. for now its a tumblr exclusive ;) enjoy and lmk your thoughts!

official series masterlist linked here 

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

you wanted to crawl into a hole.

maybe that was harsh, but for the circumstances you were given, it felt right. your heel tapped impatiently on your wooden floor. the clock idly ticked, its persistent sound humming in your brain as a way to say ‘look at me, check me.’ cozied in the nook of your leather couch, you inhaled another deep breath. if you checked your watch one more time, someone would have to diagnose you with a disorder. why did i agree to this? why..why...why? you could only scold yourself, for it had been you who had consented to your best friend’s idea to go on a blind date with her boyfriend’s friend. now, you did trust her. however, her track record in college included but was not limited to: barista with bad coffee breath, soccer player with heavy accent, and aspiring lawyer with daddy’s money. so, maybe it was your fault, because how could you not see the red flags?

you were starting to think you should’ve just ordered takeout and sunk into your mattress. 

the sound of your apartment buzzer ringing jostled you from your hateful thoughts. about damn time, you shook your head in annoyance. you smoothed out your fitted black dress, planting a believable smile on your face before swinging open the door to reveal… what the actual fuck? behind your door, a tall man with blonde hair stood before you, disheveled, in a black t-shirt and a baseball cap. you didn’t even have to look at him for more than five seconds to know he put about 10 minutes into his appearance. you blinked twice, hoping that when you did, he would disappear from your door and a man in a dress shirt and pants would reappear. a girl can dream. he placed his hand out to shake yours, speaking, “austin. austin butler. you’re [y/n], right?”

“that would be me,” your hand reached out to meet his, and a lousy handshake followed. somehow, you had already begun counting down the seconds until the date was over. but, you were a pleasant person, so no harm in accepting the free meal that was an antidote to any first date. “nice to finally meet you.” 

“am i late?” he spoke in one breath, running his hands through his curls. that seemed to do nothing for his appearance. did this man even shower?

“umm.. maybe an hour?” you shrugged your shoulders, praying that steam wasn’t coming out of your ears at that moment. he was, precisely, an hour and fifteen minutes late. if you knew any better, you would’ve put on your pajamas and let that damn doorbell ring until five in the morning. “but, you know, it took me a while to get ready, and i was warned by allison that this was kinda your thing, so…”

“oh, no way,” a chuckle exited his mouth, but it felt more condescending than anything. was it acceptable to slap someone on the first date? “that’s funny, because peter said you might say something about that.” 

it absolutely was not funny, but you found yourself forcing a laugh. there was nothing else to do in the situation, because simply put, it could not get worse than this. “oh, alright, great, thanks peter,” the compulsory giggles were still flying from your lips, and as soon as they came, they went. a moment of silence fell between you two as you sized each other up. meanwhile, austin butler was having his own thoughts. allison’s friend is fucking hot, he thought to himself. score for me. i’m getting laid. 

“well, should we head out?” you swung your purse onto your shoulders, hoping to peel his eyes off your body and possibly some of his sinful thoughts. he shook himself out of his trance, just before he was about to eye up your legs.

clearing his throat, he responded, “yeah, yeah, let’s go.”

“great. let’s get some dinner. i’m super hungry, it’s been like an hour,” you couldn’t help but let out a snide comment, but he seemed to either ignore it or play dumb as you two entered the elevator. it was a long, awkward ride down that seemed viciously torturous. you were already thinking of things you could ask allison to do to make this up to you, but you’re not sure anything could amount to this kind of torture.

“so, how long have you been here in the city?” he finally broke the silence as you two exited the elevator.

“since i graduated school,” you walked beside him, heel clacks echoing off the walls. “you?”

“just for the month,” he shrugged, shoving his hands into his pocket. “here for an acting gig.”

“oh, you’re an actor?” you furrowed your eyebrow. see, allison always left out the most important parts, such as ‘oh, he’s missing a tooth’ or ‘oh, he’s an actor!’ she was known for throwing you into the deep end, left to your own devices as if you needed any more of her tactics that were becoming more anxiety-inducing than anything else.

“struggling actor,” he corrected you.

even better. you decided to brush it off, since there was no need to dwell on the fact that this man possibly had no money or a real career. “how long have you known peter for?”

“high school.”

“oh, wow,” you nodded, waiting for him to ask you some sort of question. he opened the front entrance door of your building, barely holding it for you. at this point, you were all out of words to sputter out in anger. “i’ve known allison since college. we were in a sorority together.”

he didn’t even acknowledge your sentence as you stepped into the night air, the warm august breeze engulfing and comforting you the best it could considering the situation you were in. austin looked around the street, as if he were searching for something important. he whipped around to face you, a confused expression painted on his face. “…where’s your car?”

“uh, where’s your car?” you questioned accusingly.

“did you miss the part where i said struggling actor? here for the month, yada yada yada?” he crossed his arms over his chest, and it took all your energy to not reach out and slap him across the face. free meal, you repeated to yourself, one more hour and i can escape.

“no worries, we can just take my car,” you exhaled a deep breath, digging in your purse to pull out the keys to your new car. you hadn’t even really taken it for a spin yet, waiting until you were desperate enough to be seen driving around in a car in new york city. you finally found your key, unlocking it and crossing the street to open the driver’s seat. he continued to shock you by not even offering to drive the car — to which you would have said no — and he tucked himself cozily into your passenger seat.

“so, where should we go?” you turned to him, gripping the wheel so tightly your knuckles turned ghastly white. he couldn’t have messed up the dinner aspect of the date, right?

“uh, where did you make reservations?” he popped an altoid in his mouth.

your mouth gaped open in shock, neck jutting forward at his words, “you said you were gonna make them. you… didn’t make them?”

“i said that?” he scratched the top of his baseball cap quizzically. “i mean, bold of you to trust my advice but—“

“it’s fine,” you sighed, hoping the sadness didn’t reflect in your tone. “let’s just go anywhere. this city has stuff open all the time.”

“great,” he nodded. “so you pick.”

“you’re making me pick too?” you had to grip the wheel even tighter than before to stop yourself from slamming your forehead into it.

“i mean, is this my city? i’m a hollywood guy,” he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

“right, yeah,” you said as if it were the only thing you had ever known. “okay, well, how about scarpetta? you ever heard of it?”

“nah, sounds fancy, though. is that, like, italian or something—“

his inquiry was cut short by the sound of a ringtone chirping through the night air. ‘baby got back’ eerily played from austin’s phone, and your eyes narrowed as you watched him wiggle uncomfortably in his seat beside you. great, and this guy uses actual songs as ringtones, you mentally made a note to block this man after this interaction. “oops, my bad,” he fumbled with his back pocket, trying to shut off his phone without removing it from the confines of his pants. “just my phone.”

“you can answer if you—“

“no, no,” he waved his hand at you, his hand jamming deeper into his pocket. “it’s gonna go to voicemail.”

you wanted to speak over the song, but no words could echo over the sound of the singer talking about a girl’s voluptuous glute. “you know what? how about you just answer that?”

“you… want me to answer it?” he knew it was a trap, he was well aware, but he also knew that it could be another one of his new york city booty calls coming through, and god forbid he missed that.

“just go ahead, it’s fine,” a forced grin was plastered on your face.

“great, thanks,” he let out a breath of relief, removing his phone from his pocket. “hey, you,” his tone dripped with sexuality, and your jaw fully gaped open as you realized this man wasn’t just accepting any old call, but a literal booty call. in front of you. openly.

the girl’s voice behind the phone was incoherent to you as he carried along in a sweet voice, “you know me, always in the middle of something…yeah, yeah…eleven? oof, that won’t work…10:30 okay?”

you blinked rapidly, jaw still unhinged as austin wrapped up his conversation. “so sorry about that, just one of my sick friends.”

“you know, we really do not have to do this,” you began to unbuckle your seatbelt. at that point, no free meal was worth this kind of excruciating pain.

“really?” he perked up in his seat, his shoulders straightening as he sat up.

“oh my god, are you for real?” you stared at him, eyebrows stitched together.

he turned his body to face you, unbuckling his seatbelt as well, “listen, let’s be honest. the moment you saw me, you didn’t like me. and in all seriousness, we both know how these things go. we’ll exchange small talk over dinner, i’ll probably make you split the bill, but it’s okay because you would be wine drunk, so we would still hook up and then we would tell our friends it went well, even though we’ll never speak again.”

he was really being serious.

“what the fuck is wrong with you?” you couldn’t help but laugh to yourself, gripping your purse in your hands as if it were a concealed weapon.

“look, it’s the weekend. i’m just tryna have fun,” he put his hands up in defense. “i can hang out with my sick friend, and you can do whatever it is you do… which is?”

you stared at him blankly, unable to formulate words. “i do things,” you said finally, sneering at him.

“right! of course! you look like you read. go read a book!” he exclaimed as if it were a magical discovery he made. the dimwit thinks i fucking read on a weekend night, you said to yourself.

“okay, you know what?” you rolled your eyes, “if you wanted to ensure this wasn’t going to be a shitty night, here’s a tip. don’t make a booty call in front of me and don’t show up an hour late!”

he pressed a hand against his heart, faking his shock, “she’s very sick.”

“oh, of course. super sick,” you retorted sarcastically “were you planning on healing her with your magic penis?”

“hey, some ladies just need a little loosening up,” he winked at you suggestively, and that was just about the last straw for you. you opened your car door, hopping out as fast as your legs could take you.

you turned to him, leaning down so he could still be in earshot, “get out of my car. now.”

“no problem,” he opened up his door on the passenger side. “i don’t know what they were thinking.”

“yeah, me either,” you marched towards the entrance of your building, leaving austin stranded and to his own devices. regardless, he couldn’t care less. he had never been happier to escape from such an uptight woman. see, this is why he didn’t involve himself with corporate women. they were too strung out from their 9 to 5s.

as soon as you crossed the safe threshold of your front door, you whipped out your phone, dialing allison’s number swiftly. she picked up on the first ring, unable to get a single word out before you cut her off, “allison marie carter, the only way you can make this up to me…is if you promise i never have to see him again.”

apparently, your words carried as much weight in the universe as a feather.

as it would only happen, your best friend was absolutely head over heels, foolishly and disgustingly in love with her boyfriend. you had about 8 months of bliss, lost in ignorance that you would never have to see austin butler again. that was, until peter decided to propose to allison in paris. to make matters worse, allison and peter wanted you and austin to be their best man and maid of honor. to add even more salt to the wound than humanly possible, you were coerced into spending every second of every godforsaken day with the man who’s ringtone still haunted you in your dreams. lucky you. you cursed yourself for picking a best friend that would be lucky enough to marry a man who was mature and wise beyond his years, but his best friend was the human version of a penis.

if you weren’t so annoyed at the world and its sneaky ways, you might’ve possibly enjoyed her wedding. however, it became clear that was not going to be the case.

despite your eagerness to act miserable, you couldn’t hide the excitement that had buried itself deep down within you. you had talked with allison for years on what it would be like to meet the man you were going to wed, and to spend eternity with that person. at the time, it had grossed you out just enough to fear men forever, but alas, you were still stuck at a wedding ceremony, holding that damn bouquet of flowers and avoiding all eye contact with austin butler.

if allison had caught on to your ongoing feud with austin at her wedding, she made no point in mentioning it. if you weren’t four drinks in already too, you possibly would’ve dropped the vendetta you planned against him. needless to say, those drinks were getting the job done. during the wedding photos, austin managed to sneak a slap to your ass, causing you to chase him around with your bouquet frantically as the photographer got some ‘candid shots.’

god, i need more shots, you thought to yourself, exhaling the deepest of breaths as you looked around the crowded ballroom. you had done the phony introductions to allison and peter’s families, but no amount of alcohol was going to get you through the pit in your stomach that sat heavily, screaming at you. in some way, it felt as though you were losing a part of yourself with allison getting married. she was always your counterpart — not that much would change, peter knew the rules of your friendship — but it felt like you were back in kindergarten, learning that sharing was caring.

you made your way to the bar, pushing aside hordes of people to make direct eye contact with the bartender. at this point, you were sure he was beginning to know you by name, and tallying how many drinks you had left before he cut you off. ‘always be my baby’ by mariah carey echoed over the speakers, almost making you queasy.

“drinking all alone, princess?”

nope, never mind, you thought to yourself, now i’m queasy.

you slowly turned around, meeting austin's shit-eating grin and automatically getting the urge to slap it off his face. you were starting to wonder how they let barbarians into a wedding. of course, he knew the answer to his own question, but his common theme in your life had been ruining your peace. you blinked twice, already fed up with his antics. “trying to, butler.”

“aw, that’s not fun,” he teased, sliding in next to you and pulling out one of the barstools to perch himself against. you’re already counting down the seconds until he graces you with some peace.

“trust me, it is fun,” you scoffed, avoiding his eye contact.

“whatcha getting to drink?” for a moment, you thought he might actually be interested in your answer, until he literally confirms to you that he is definitely not, and is just looking for an opportunity to bully you again. “you strike me as one of those vodka cran girls. or, or someone who gets a martini just so they can feel classier about blacking out.”

you son of a bitch.

you smirked to yourself as the bartender slid the drink over you ordered a few minutes prior, “ma’am, here’s the jack and coke you ordered.”

you relished in the fact that you didn’t even have to turn to meet his eyes to know he was thoroughly impressed. “wow, jack daniels? i wouldn’t have guessed that one.”

“what can i say?” you took a sip, chugging as much as you possibly could to feel some sort of buzz. “i’m a woman full of surprises.”

“i like to be surprised.” now, if you weren’t tipsy, and he wasn’t also floating in a bit of liquid courage, you would say that the conversation you two were having was friendly banter (or the closest thing to it). but, through a drunken girl’s perspective, you almost took his sentence as an outward flirt. nevertheless, that wasn’t who you two were. you two constantly argued and teased each other, even after allison and peter forced you two to make up after the set-up debacle. plus, your brain couldn’t afford to be having sexual thoughts about anyone, especially not someone as demonic as austin butler, the communal whore.

so, you settled for the friendly version of your story. “shouldn’t you be balls deep in some girl right now?” you played with the straw in your drink, looking around in hopes of finding any other contenders to speak to.

he chuckled, a real one, which thoroughly weirded you out. “not before the speech. gotta wait ‘til after, they’ll come flocking after i make a few jokes.”

you narrowed your eyes at him, resisting the urge to roll your orbs into the back of your head. “you really believe you’re that funny?”

“maybe not, but somehow the girls still love me,” he smirked at you, squeezing your shoulder teasingly before ridding you of his presence and walking off to join peter on the dance floor. you found your eyes deceiving you and following him, watching as he did some ridiculous handshake with his best friend and chugging his beer. you shuddered at the thought that girls could even be attracted to him, especially with a body count as high as his and ego even higher.

the speeches came and went, and you cried a few times during your delivery. it was to be expected; there were too many stories to tell about allison being your platonic soulmate, and how buzzed you were that she had found her romantic soulmate. out of the corner of your eye, you saw austin gag himself a few times, but you knew the only one who would be sick was you after hearing his speech. knowing him, it was probably the raunchiest, filthiest speech known to man. with enough confidence to make you vomit, he walked up to the podium after you ended your speech, tapping the microphone a few times. you settled back into your chair, rolling your eyes at allison as she slapped your shoulder to calm you down. “hello everyone, my name is austin. i’m peter’s best man, and also his worst influence,” that earned a chuckle from the audience.

“i am so happy he asked me to be his best man. i was ecstatic when i found out he was going to be marrying allison, who is a better person than me, and that’s saying a lot. she consistently pushes him to work hard, and they’re always having fun together. they let me tag along on all their adventures, which also means i’m their pet. now, i could go into the crazy experiences peter and i have had, but those stories aren’t even rated pg-13 and i know half the people in here would rather die than hear those,” you found yourself cracking a smile at his jokes, but you rushed to wipe that off your face immediately as he turned to look at you. “now, i’m so excited to be part of this little family they created for me. allison and peter, i love you both dearly, and i’m grateful that you let me follow you around. peter, you’re my best friend and my brother, and i know that you’ll make allison the happiest girl alive. and, hey, if that doesn’t work out, i'm always down to get married, bro. congratulations you guys!”

your jaw was unhinged, eyes blinking sporadically to make sure you weren’t dreaming. did he…just make a heartfelt speech? to your surprise (and allison’s), you found yourself clapping along with the rest of the crowd. his eyes found yours, winking at you as to reveal an ulterior motive. damn it, he was going to get laid before you, probably with some poor, unsuspecting girl.

the night dragged on, drinks being poured and liquor being consumed. your drunken state wasn’t overbearing your ability to think properly, but you definitely were looser than you usually were. you had flirted with multiple men throughout the reception, however, you found yourself migrating to the happy couple. at that point, you must’ve been on your seventh jack and coke, because it didn’t even bother you when austin came up behind you and joined the little dance circle you three had created. in fact, you even interlocked hands with him during the ‘cha-cha slide.’ everything was blurry — too blurry — and you were beginning to wonder if the bartender was making your drinks extra strong on purpose.

allison and peter were so beyond hammered that they didn’t even bother to take note of anything you and austin were doing, since they were too caught up in their lovey-dovey romance bullshit. somehow, you’re okay with the dance circle, and you’re even okay when austin decides to slip his arm loosely around your waist. you’re not even thinking about doing anything with him in that way, you’re just content with the fact that you’re actually getting along on your best friend’s wedding day.

eighth jack and coke and one tequila shot courtesy of austin, and you’re officially too drunk to partake in any more wedding activities. your brain isn’t even working the way it normally would, because if it was, you wouldn’t be making your way down the hallway to a secluded room. you would not be going to said room with austin butler. you would not be laughing at the jokes he was making, and you most definitely would not be okay with the consistent hand-holding.

“god, who the fuck invented tequila?” he said quizzically, slurring his words just enough to send you back into a giggling fit.

“oh my god, we should go back and do the vodka one. i saw they have that new amsterdam shit,” you laughed, sipping your jack and coke as if it were water. he slid down the wall in the room that you two had magically found yourselves in, his legs failing him as his entire body buzzed with intoxication.

you sat down cross-legged next to him, still laughing to yourself like a lunatic. he finally stopped chuckling, taking the time to look over at you. it was the first time he had really looked at you since the blind date fiasco. he noticed your eyes glimmering in the soft light, the way your hair cascaded down your back. your fingers were wrapped loosely around your glass, freshly painted and slender. for once, he felt a different kind of insatiable hunger towards you. you soon realized he was gazing at you, and the giggles were cut short.

you two sat there in silence for just a few seconds. only mere seconds, before you said, “did you see what allison’s mother was wearing?”

and, sure enough, it was back to the laughing fit. he hit your arm playfully, wiping tears from his eyes at your joke. you didn’t even realize when he let his hand linger on your arm, moving down to place it on your thigh firmly. but, when you felt it grasp your body, his warmth radiating onto yours, you realized what kind of trouble you might have gotten yourself into. you slowly looked down at his hand, and when you peered back up at him, his ice-blue eyes met yours. for a moment in time, you two weren’t the sworn enemies you thought you were. you were just austin and [y/n], sitting on a cold, unwelcoming floor of a banquet hall at your respective best friend’s wedding. in another world, those two people would’ve figured out they should be together.

his tongue poked out, wetting his lips as he gulped down some of the saliva that had pooled in his mouth. you couldn’t even breathe; you were tied down by desire, and the need to feel his lips against yours. in your drunken state, you finally could see him as more than just that person you’re forced to spend time with.

but, not enough for you to actually go through with it. it is austin butler, after all.

so, when he inevitably began to lean in to kiss you, you yanked your head away immediately, pushing him away with your hand on his chest. “what are you doing?!”

“trying to kiss you..?”

“you thought i wanted to kiss you?” you uncrossed your legs, standing up and steadying yourself against the wall. it was like the alcohol was slapped out of you, possibly also your dignity.

“wait, we weren’t having a moment just now…?” he scratched his head, trying to push himself up for his two feet to land back on the ground, but somehow all the wind was knocked out of him from your rejection. why the fuck do i care? he thought to himself, already preparing himself to wake up with the worst anxiety the next day.

“no, we were not having a moment,” you rolled your eyes. “do you think every girl that talks to you and laughs is trying to get in your pants?”

“just to be clear, you’re not trying to get in my pants—“

“no!” you’re practically screaming at him, but you began to wonder if you were trying to convince him or yourself. either way, he still disgusted you enough to remind you that kissing him would be the nail in your coffin. “i wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole, butler.”

“i’m not that bad,” he finally found the strength to stand up, towering over you even with your added inches from your heels.

“you’re literally insufferable,” you mocked, taking the last sip of your drink. “trust me, i was just playing nice. glad to know you’re still the same person as always.”

in some part of austin’s brain, a deep part he repressed quite often, that statement hurt him. he didn’t normally get offended when people assumed he was some sort of man-whore — he was aware of his high body count — but when it came from your mouth, it felt demeaning. he couldn’t fathom why in the world he had any sort of inclination towards you in the first place. maybe he really was too drunk to be in attendance. “glad to know you’re still the uptight bitch i thought you were,” he pushed past you, leaving the room and the surrounding air colder than when you had first entered. you didn’t have the words to respond, but somehow, things were better left unsaid.

▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

you’ve had more aneurysms than fingers at that point in your day. it began with the mommy and me karaoke that allison had coerced you into attending with her newborn, rosalie. you were all for mother-daughter bonding, but not when you were neither the mother nor the daughter. either way, you were feeling particularly nice considering rosalie turned 6 months that day, but you claimed that was the only reason why you joined the class.

six months ago, you still had a sense of normalcy rooted in your life, but it seemed as if all you did these days was tag along with the happy couple and their offspring. you didn’t mind it, however, one of the consequences of hanging out with allison and peter… was austin. he was everywhere you looked, every holiday party you attended. you saw him more than you saw your coworkers, which said a lot considering your diligent work in the public relations industry.

if you were perceptive, you would’ve taken that as a sign to stay as far away as possible from allison and peter. but, deep down, you knew that you craved the stability they had in their life. the white picket fence, the grandparents who visited them to drop off gifts for the baby, family dinners each night. it felt foolish, the way jealousy sometimes swept over you late at night when you were alone tossing and turning in your king-sized bed that felt empty.

“so… i started taking rosalie to this new family practice,” allison brought over a potato salad wrapped in saran as you vigorously worked on frosting the hastily decorated chocolate cake. from her tone of voice, you already knew exactly where this conversation was going. “there’s this doctor there. he is so cute. i actually may have replaced my crush on harry styles.”

“mhm,” you’re half tuned into the conversation, but also struggling to see the importance to anything she’s talking about.

“anyway…i noticed no ring,” she placed another bowl beside your cake, ignoring her urge to squint at the work you were doing. “….so, i asked his nurse what was up with him.”

“allison, you did not.”

“what?! [y/n], you’re single and —“

“i thought we agreed to a moratorium on the set ups!” you placed the knife down exasperatedly, pursing your lips and crossing your arms as you turned to face her.

“what if this is your soulmate?!” she clasped her hands together in a begging motion, and you couldn’t help but laugh at her need to induce fear in you with her set-ups.

“you literally have the worst set-up record of all time,” you pointed out, switching the cake to a spot by the window.

“like who?” she asked incredulously, and your mouth gaped open at her question, shocked by her audacity to act innocent in her role in your life.

“do i need to go over adult braces guy? the shoplifter?”

“you’re still holding them over me?” she threw her head back, laughing.

“i’m not even gonna get into the austin debacle.”

“okay, well, i’m still holding out hope for you two,” she raised her hands in defeat, ignoring the way your face contorted in disgust at his name.

“you’re sick in the head, alli,” you rolled your eyes, “please don’t judge me because i don’t have a ring on my finger yet.”

“i’m not!” she rushed to defend her stance, “i just want you to find someone great.”

“and, i will. i promise you’ll be the first to know about it,” you giggled to yourself, and she patted your shoulder reassuringly. although you built a fortress around your heart and desire to start a family one day, there was no need to let allison know anything in that regard, since it would only rile up her efforts more.

unbeknownst to you, peter and austin were outside in the backyard arguing with two teenage boys over their ability to set up a bouncy house. they were meant to act their age, but that didn’t come easy to the two of them, especially not austin, who had found himself in the middle of multiple love scandals in the past year. he was constantly breaking up with women, claiming they weren’t the ones he could see ‘marching towards imminent death with.’ his lack of real love in his life gave you a bit hope for your own story, which was still being written. it wasn’t that you weren’t looking for a boyfriend, it was just that you had been so caught up in the success of your career that you allowed yourself to have to settle for the excuse of it’s okay, i’m dating my job.

austin and peter strolled in through the back door, peter slamming it behind him as austin bounced rosalie up and down in the air. she seemed to love it; granted, she did seem to love her uncle austin more than you. that might’ve been because he had no boundaries or rules whatsoever. in some twisted way, you saw what she saw him in; his ability to dance across life with no timeline, with no cares or worries. you were sure that as a baby, she really stood by that method.

“hey, pumpkin,” austin pulled up right behind you, and you shuddered in disgust at the feeling of his warm breath waning over the back of your neck.

“why do you always have to be so close to me?!” you elbowed him in the chest, and he faked agony as he stepped back from the impact of the blow. allison and peter shared a knowing look, while you just returned to your task of filling the candy bowls.

“aw, rosalie, look. look, that’s what bitter looks like,” that earned another sour look from you.

“hey, austin, why don’t you go take your hat off? we all know about the receding hairline,” you bit back, fighting the urge to slam his head against the cabinets.

“hey, it’s a widow’s peak! i do not have a receding hairline,” he frowned, propping rosalie up on his hip. he glanced over at peter, hoping for some form of agreement, who instead ignored his best friend’s silent pleas.

“okay, you two, play nice today,” allison leaned against the countertop. “all of our neighbors are coming over and i do not want to them to think we run a freak show.”

“well, then you shouldn’t have invited austin.”

“okay, that’s it, i’m not dealing with—“

“shut it!” allison threatened, “now come over here and let me get a nice little picture of rosalie with her godparents.” her tone was anything but soothing.

your eyes nearly rolled into your brain, silently cursing to yourself as you stood next to austin awkwardly. he forced a grin onto his face, arm loosely wrapping around your shoulder. even his touch angered you, his body radiating sarcasm and mockery. just as you thought all hope was lost, that god wouldn’t bless you with any more of your wishes, rosalie burped, opening her mouth and unloading white liquid, splattering onto austin’s white shirt. precisely at that moment, allison pressed down on the button on the camera, capturing your wide-eyed joy (and real smile) and austin gagging at the scent of rosalie’s vomit.

it was going to be a good day, indeed.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

masterlist + request

[amywritesthings]

CHAPTER THREE: THE WAY.

The POINT A TO POINT B series.

gif credit @ vibroblade

Pairing: Din Djarin x Female Reader

Rating: E (Eventual smut, slow burn)

Word Count: 2.1K (Overall 7.3K)

Summary: There’s a crash in Mando’s quarters. You should probably check that out and see if he’s alright... right?

Warnings: Manhandling, aggro!Mando, blindfolds, intro to praise kink

A/N: (anakin vc) This is where the spice begins. If you’re a hoe for yearning and slow burns the way I am, then hop in. Thank you to everyone who has kept up with the series thus far! Any comments/questions are welcomed. xo

Previous Chapter. / Next Chapter. | Series Masterlist.

After a couple of days, living on a ship becomes easier.

While the Razor Crest is crammed with limits on where to venture — upper floor or lower floor, in your cot or in the cockpit, hallway or the ladder — there is something charming about getting to know every nook and cranny of this ship. A masked memory exercise; nothing changes and nothing moves, everything is accounted for and stays the same, so it’s easy to focus on a little less sensory and a little more practical.

Four blasters. Three portion supply crates. Two med kits. One Mandalorian.

That bounty hunter has the ability of disappearing whenever he wants on this thing. It’s practically a skill; one minute he’s readily available at the cockpit and the next? It feels empty, as though you’re the only one on this flying hunk of junk.

You’re sitting in the cockpit, one knee bent to steady your boot against the edge of the passenger seat. Stars pass in a blink of an eye, standing still or moving at light speed depending on where you sit. Space is pretty. Infinite. Stargazing and finding little anomalies as they pass has become a new favorite pastime. It’s peaceful and, in a pleasant turn of events, it helps your memory.

While it still remains difficult to produce memories beyond the smoke and grass and flames that follow, there is a comfort: in another life, you know you loved this — looking at stars, studying their placements, feeling small. No matter where you might have grown up or lived or worked, stars were always above the planet’s atmosphere. The blips are brief, but vivid: a blade of grass between the pads of fingertips; the tickle of your hair splayed against your shoulders; the calling of a name, though it’s always muffled.

Sometimes you feel like telling Mando about these grandiose discoveries, but it’s nice to have something that belongs to you.

Maybe one day.

The screen below disrupts you with a message in Aurabesh. You drop your boot unceremoniously to the ground, leaning in to read the blinking red text:

NEARING PLANET: TATOOINE. ESTIMATED TRAVEL TIME REMAINING: ONE DAY.

“Mando, we’re almost to the land—”

Something crashes, reverberating into the belly of the ship.

Instinctually you whip around the back of the chair, peering through the open corridor where nothing is out of place. 

No coo follows. 

No small-pitched giggles.

“...Mando?”

No response.

Gradually getting up from the chair, your boots quietly tap against the metal floor. There are only so many rooms to peer into, and yours is fine. The Child is asleep in its makeshift bungalow, unbothered by the crash. The supply closet is closed.

But the door to the bounty hunter’s quarters is opened, if only a sliver.

Despite the lack of invitation, your fingers curl the durasteel door and push the structure to the side, revealing where the bounty hunter resides at night. Albeit only slightly bigger than your quarters, his room is spotless and practically unlived in. A singular sheet covers the thin mattress of the bed. Created from an old craft is a nightstand right beside it on the far right where a blaster lays on one of the makeshift shelves. There are no decorations, no paintings, no means of communicating with the outside world.

As your eyes continue to roam, they pause at something peculiar: the shine of something cool and silver laying at the end of his cot.

Beskar?

The bell-like slopes of a metallic dome lay nestled against the tucked sheet, its darkened visor pointedly staring at the corner. You take another step forward from the door, lowering your chin with an inquisitive squint.

A helmet. His helmet.

You’re looking at the helmet of—

The sound of frantic boots scramble from the side of the room you had yet to explore and suddenly the room goes dark.

In a loud shout you fight against the press of a body behind you, hugging you in a vice grip. Your limbs scramble, fighting to not only get around but get away . One arm locks around your torso while a hand presses against your face, blinding your view. Your first instinct is to scream and punch, but your balled fists slamming into the stranger’s thighs are useless. Hot, rushed puffs of air hit the edge of your neck.

“Stop.”

You know that voice. 

It’s usually muffled by a modulator--

“Stop, stop, it’s me.”

It’s me.

“Mando?” you yelp, a little helplessly. “What the kriff are you doing?”

“What are you doing in my room?” he asks, tone steeled and teetering on the brink of anger. 

“I heard a crash—”

“You’re not allowed in here.” 

Rushed, like your presence caught him by an unfortunate surprise. Your feet move faster than your head and soon you find yourself stumbling backwards at his guidance. Gone are the press of his broad chest and arm, knocking you back into the cold steel of his bedroom wall. The pressure of his hand over your eyes is all that remains. When you shake your head to push the glove away, to see what is happening, he only adds pressure from his hand; a warning.

“I said don’t.”

“What the hell—”

“I never gave permission for you to come in here,” he growls, though a hint of uncertainty wavers the deep gravel baritone of his voice. The realization hits like a thunderbolt to the brain: he’s nervous. Spurts of labored breaths continue to hit your neck as though he’s hunched. And despite your blindness, you’re painfully aware that the helmet is still somewhere on your right, on the cot, completely untouched.

Mando has never taken his helmet off in your presence. This is his voice. If you fought hard enough, you’d see the bounty hunter’s face.

And if you didn’t know any better, then you might say the hand covering your eyes is trembling to keep it from ending up that way.

You nod, albeit small, and rush an apology. “I know. I’m sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I am.”

“When I heard the crash—”

“I dropped something.”

“That was a pretty big something. I heard it all the way from the cockpit.”

“A piece of armor,” he provides. “In my bathroom.”

“In your bathroom?” Is that where he ambushed from?

“It’s nothing.”

“Why are you—”

“Close your eyes.”

You pause, following the voice with your chin as it rises in the darkness above your head. His hand stays clamped, making it impossible to know what he may do next.

“What?”

“I need you to close your eyes.”

“But you’re already covering my eyes.”

“No,” he bites. “I need you to close your eyes so I can get my helmet.”

Oh.

“Am I not allowed to see…?”

The exhale by your ear is enough of an answer: no. For whatever reason, you’re not allowed to see what he looks like beyond the helmet. Maybe it’s a contingency plan for if this goes haywire. Most feared bounty hunter…

Fabric shifts and shuffles in front of you.

“I need you to wear this.”

Whatever this may be is irrelevant, as you cannot look down to observe. In this moment, there is only an innate sense of trust. You feel his free glove glide against your forearm, raising it to heart level. One by one his fingers uncurl yours, allowing him to place something soft at the center. You wait. He doesn’t move. Experimentally, you roll the fabric between your fingers.

Cloth?

“What is this?” you ask in a murmur.

“A blindfold.”

A what? An abrupt surge of panic shoots from your toes to her head, freezing your muscles. Mando shuffles, releasing a millimeter of pressure on your face as a response.

“Why would I need a blindfold?” 

Your question is accusatory, brash, but not because of him. It’s instinct from your time with the Empire; the lack of spacial awareness, the countless shuffling between room to room without knowing where one ends and the other begins. The prolonged darkness under his glove is disorienting enough. The Mandalorian is disorienting. This feels like punishment without understanding the crime.

“It’s thick, so even if you try to look—” He pauses, as though searching for the right words to say. “—it will keep us both honest and safe.”

“You don’t trust me to keep my eyes closed on my own,” you ask without the question. Huffing a resolved sigh, you nod against the glove. “I swear, I’ll keep them closed. Just — blindfold me, or whatever, but do it quickly. I can’t stand keeping one on for a long time because of...”

Trailing off, you bring your lips into your mouth with the hope he can put the puzzle pieces together on his own. Mando doesn’t answer you this time. Instead the heaviness of his boots shift around you. However, his grip is gentle as it tugs the fabric from your palm.

After a moment, you feel the thick fabric gently run along the high points of your cheekbones. His breath lightly hitches as it leans in, close to your ear once more as he cautiously lifts the back of your head from the wall to tie the thick fabric around your eyes. A marble statue among metal, it eventually tightens, topped with a brief pull to the knot at the back. Secure. You exhale shakily through your mouth, counting to twenty.

It’s only temporary, it’s only temporary…

After a beat the palms of his hands slide from your head downwards to cradle the back of your neck. Lifting your chin, you search for any sign of his breath, afraid your own mouth has become too dry from the proximity. Then he speaks, right above you, and the vibration of his voice brings solace.

“The Watch has always been strict in the removal of our helmets.”

“The Watch?” you whisper, grateful for the distraction.

“The ones of the ancient way,” he says. “The Tribe who raised me, took me in when I was only a child. By the teachings of the Mandalore, it is forbidden for anyone of the outside world to see our true faces.” A beat passes. “No living thing has seen me since I swore the creed. This is the way.”

Oh.

The helmet is a religious thing.

“How come you didn’t mention that in the first place?” you ask softly as he removes his hands from your head, leaving you in the darkness alone. The heavy thuds of his thick boots echo farther from you and closer to the cot.

There is brief stillness, only broken by the wheeze of the helmet’s mechanics.

“I didn’t need to.”

His voice is muffled by the modulator once more, disembodied in the way it hangs in the air. 

“Okay, so no one can see your face,” you summarize, “including me. Does this mean anytime you decide to walk around without your helmet, I have to wear this?”

“It'll be rare.”

“But I still have to wear it, to keep you—" A pause. "—us, safe.”

“More or less.”

“And how am I supposed to know when to put it on?”

“I’ll tell you when.”

One, two, three steps closer to you and there’s a gentle pluck at the side of your head. When the fabric eases in tension and falls from your eyes, you're left staring at the shine of a Mandalorian visor watching you from above.

“How long has it been since you swore the creed?”

“A long time.”

No one has seen his face in years, perhaps decades. Somehow the concept is something you can barely wrap your head around. No one has, and no one will ever see, his face — especially not you. The fabric feels heavier in your hands with this ever-growing realization that he will be only a suit of armor to you.

“Keep that on your person at all times.”

Mando’s voice breaks the souring trance, causing you to blink back to your current reality.

“...I will,” you agree quietly, fingers balling into a fist around the black fabric. “Just promise me it won’t be often, because this thing kind of bothers me.”

“I promise.”

“But when you ask, I’ll wear this.”

“Do you promise?”

You search the visor for any sign of a pair of eyes peering back at you, but offer a belated nod nonetheless. “I do. I promise.”

He seems to consider the earnest note in your voice before offering a curt nod back. The modulator hums his voice like a vibration through your body.

“Good girl.”

[dearlymrme]

In The Deep - Part Two (Silco/F!Reader)

merman!Silco/F!Reader

1,016 Words

SFW

Part 1, Part 3

What starts as a fascination quickly turns into an obsession for both parties. As it turns out they had more in common then they first thought.

It would have been a little easy to ignore if it were a one time encounter, you’re scientific mind pondering at the mystery of the event but knowing the likelihood of ever seeing it again were slim. The river was big, its waters deep, and at the perfect point of where the river meets the ocean, the odds of encountering the same fish twice were unlikely. Besides the massive Kraken, which some days even disappeared, you are sure you'll unlikely see the mystery fish again.

But it happens again. It's the end of your day, your specimens are cooling in the fridge and you are sitting in front of the window. A small table, procured from the dump, sits beside you, Undercity triage performed on its broken leg that while it teeters the substitute leg of plastic holds. Your tea when you are not steadily sipping from it rests on said table, steam wafting from it with the scent of peppermint.

In your lap is a thick textbook of fish life and species along with more well known marine life recorded in its pages and you steadily flip through to see if you can find matching pictures and names of the fish you have seen. Your knowledge of marine life is limited to what the fishermen hook up from the river and still looking through the books pages and comparing there are a lot of fish that are simply impossible to find.

You can safely assume that the mutation had made them unrecognizable. You find bits and pieces of what they could have originally been, but it is a hash of new and unfamiliar parts that make them impossible to place. One has the right tail but the wrong color and one too many pectoral fins. One lacks the angler atop its head. Another has too many eyes. You were fascinated and imagining the likelihood that everything you had been seeing were whole new species.

That's when you saw it again. A burning and molten red eye swimming toward you from the deep and pausing just shy of the light that filtered in through the window. Its fire luminescence is too dark to reveal much more than its long, snake winding body.

You take in just how massive this creature is. By the line of its tail along it was much longer or rather taller than you were. The size of the thing, and that was only from the slight parts you could see.

"Aren't you fascinating?" You say and smile at it, quickly flipping through the book for eels and snake fish. "I wonder just what you are. Won't you come closer? I promise I won't bite." You chuckle and tip your head at it. "Although, you just might."

You know it can't hear you and likely isn't smart enough to even understand your interest in it but it does stare. You hum a small song to yourself, not minding the company at all.

And it stares and stares long enough that you flip through the entire section on eels and similar marine life. You find nothing and set your book to the side before standing and approaching the window one more time.

“Your home is just as fascinating as you are. When I was young my mom would tell me stories that her mom told her, that her mother told her, about this time when the river used to be clean. Like, clean enough people could swim in it, way before Piltover started using it as it’s personal trash can.” You ramble and lean slightly against the window trim.

“I became a scientist to try and figure out just how bad the damage was, if it was at all possible to maybe reverse it. We get a lot of our water from that river and the filters can only do so much. People get sick from it all the time. The effects it has on the human body…” You mutter and grind your teeth in anger.

“My great grandmother told me of times when the beaches were clear of plastic and waste, when the sands didn’t smell like garbage. And I want that. I think that sounds lovely.” You chortle and then frown, giving a solemn shake of your head. “It’s killing us up here but look at you.” You gesture to the creature. “Mother nature at its finest. Adapt and overcome.”

You look at it again and can’t help the yawn that crawls from your mouth. You give the fish a small wave.

"Well. I'll be out late tomorrow collecting samples at the beach. Mostly plastic and dead remains.” You mutter that last bit with a growl and then shrug before giving the creature a playful smile.

“Hey, I don't suppose you could throw some of that kelp to the shore for me, could ya?" You gesture to the tall stalk of greenery beside the window "Be really helpful if I could get my hands on a leaf or two." Greenery rarely washed up on the shore and you were wishing from a deep well for the likelihood of ever getting more. The sample you had, that you had to pay a fishman a steep amount of money for when it washed up in his net, was dried out and too brittle to work with anymore. 

You had said it as a joke, just talking to yourself because you sure the fish, while smart in the way most wild predators were, couldn't understand you.

Imagine your surprise when the next day you come across leaves of kelp banked at the shore. What looks like half a stalk, just floating with the push and pull of the waves, laid out for you like a gift.

Your slack jawed and shocked, almost consider it some sort of trap before tentatively approaching it with the care of most scientists. As in you get out your poking stick and flip through its fronds, half expecting a large mutated crab to scuttle out and snip at you

You hear a chuckle amongst the shushing of the shore and turn to glance out at the water's surface. Turning just in time to see what looked like a tailfin slap against the waves.

[cozycottagetarot]

Who's Coming In & Why? (General)

Here’s the thing… I'd love to tell you this is all love and friendships, but it’s not. It’s more of a who’s coming in to help you move forward.

Still, I’m posting it because it may still resonate with some people.

However, I will do a second reading of the same topic in the future focusing on love and friendships in particular.

Check out my Paid Readings ✨

PILE 1 — The Inspiration

Energy surrounding them: Queen of Pentacles

I see this as being some person you need to move you forward, be it a general mentor, someone with a career, or someone to get you motivated to get up and take action (the latter comes through strongest) . They could be well off, not necessarily lavishly rich, but more so in the sense of being a better situation than you. There could be a nurturing or gentle energy to them as well.

The vibes I get: Vision boards, goals, goal setting, power move

Why they’re coming in? The Empress, Judgement, The Tower (all reversed)

There may be some kind of disharmony in your life, particularly with you. You may be too much into your masculine energy (logic and material) and neglecting your feminine energy (nurturing, intuition). It could be a matter of self confidence and unhappiness with how your life is going. This person is coming in to put you back on track, and shift your perspective. Them entering your life will help you to face your fears and release any self doubt you may have. They may help you to avoid ending up in a bad place. Because all your cards keep coming out reversed (even though I didn’t want to take all reversals) I see it as a sign as well to don’t be afraid to start anew, instead of trying to situate everything exactly the way it was in the before. Like that quote/saying that goes something like-- "don’t be afraid to start over because this time you’re not starting from scratch, your starting from experience?"

How they'll help you? 10 of Swords, 9 of Wands reversed

The only place to go from here is up, but you need to stop being so stubborn about it. This person coming in is going to help you get your back you drive to 'fight' so you can pursue happiness/goals in a new way.

Potential Struggles? Knight of Wands, The Star reversed

Be careful your inspired action is not really impulsivity . You’ll have to do some inner work as well. You may compare yourself to this person and risk falling back into the same state again. You need to take responsible actions, get in tune with your emotions and work on your confidence and any anxieties you may have. Healing from the past as well, because your past isn’t your future.

PILE 2 -- The Therapist

Energy surrounding them: The Star

The energy surrounding the person coming in is one of calm and stability, and that is what they will bring to you. This person is going to help heal you, be it professionally (a therapist or psychologist) or unintentionally (someone who triggers our healing). This person is going to feel like everything will be okay.

The vibes I get: therapy, a guiding star, two people sitting and talking, letting your soul speak

Why they’re coming in? 6 of Wands reversed, The Moon, 6 of cups reversed

This person is going to help reveal the truth about a situation. Particularly if you haven’t had the best things happening a) in most of your life, or b) in this particular chapter or your life. This person will help you realise the things that weren’t your fault, the things you can change and the things that all come down to your beliefs. You may come to realise with the help of this person, that a lot of fears and limitations you have are self imposed. Not only that, but this person may help you figure out what your positive inner voice sounds like and help you to embrace it. Any dreams you’ve had hidden away (sleep dreams or goals-dreams) may also become more clear to you. After this you’ll be able to move forwards in live. The past won’t hold you back anymore. You’ll be able to move on or view these events that took place through a new lense.

How they'll help you? 3 of Wands, 8 of Swords reversed

The blindfold is going to come off. You’re going to be able to move forward in your life. The work you put in is going to help you move forward with a new found confidence and belief in self. You’ll be able to take your life into your own hands.

Potential Struggles? king of pentacles & ace of swords

You may struggle with the whole process of breaking through and envisioning a different future for yourself. Also, seeing your growth and how mature and stable (as in the different areas of your life) you may have become may take you some time or be difficult.

Pile 3-- The Sage

Energy surrounding them: The Emperor

The person coming into your life has a strong energy to them. They are most likely older than you or at the least has a very wise energy to them. They might not be the most emotional or expressive, but they are reliable.

The vibes I get: Someone with an otherworldly energy or wisdom. Someone established. You can't help but notice them.

Why they're coming in? 4 of Pentacles, The Chariot, Page of Cups

This person is coming in to show you how to find and build security in many aspects of your life the right way. You may be holding onto things that aren’t good for you and this person is going to come in and force you to ask yourself why. Also potentially isolation may be something you need to deal with. You may be currently playing defence. But once you allow yourself to let go, you may find new things, people, and opportunities come in, better than you image. You may find yourself becoming someone you really want to be as well as finding yourself in the beginning stages of tapping into your emperor energy.

How they'll help you? Strength reversed, Knight of Swords

They’re going to help you tap into your inner strength so you can take the necessary actions to help yourself. They’ll help trigger the arrival of big changes in your life.Things will finally start to flow.

Potential Struggles? Judgement, 6 of Pentacles

You may feel resistant at first, feeling as if they don’t know what they’re talking about and are just trying to bring you down. You may be hesitant to take their advice or trust that they have your best interest in mind.

** Gandalf. Gandalf came to me but I don’t know why as I know practically nothing about him. 😬 Maybe you do!?

Pile 4-- The Charmer

Energy surrounding them: 8 of Cups reversed

The person coming in is going to scare you, but not in a bad way. You may have this happy, “I’m put together” facade, and this person is going to be able to see right through it. They have the ability, literally or metaphorically, to bring you into something better and that may leave you feeling afraid.

The vibes I get: Someone clever and charming. Feeling flustered. Oh no, I have a crush.

Why they’re coming in? Temperance, 9 of Pentacles, 8 of Swords

They’re coming in to show you that if you stop allowing fear to keep you where you are, peace, balance, and contentment will find you. The situation you may be staying in may not be a result of your actions, and taking the steps to get out of it may be difficult, but this person is one hundred percent here to challenge your reasoning for why you can’t.

How they'll help you? The Magician, 10 of Swords, The High Priestess reversed

They’re going to show you magic. I’m feeling like you might develop a romantic or platonic crush on them. There’s just that vibe. They’re going to show you how amazing you truly are. They’re going to show you that you have the ability to make things happen. They’ll help you create that ending and see your new beginning.

Potential Struggles? Knight of Cups reversed, 2 of Wands

This person most likely isn’t going to stay long and that may throw you off guard. This all feels very fast paced so their quick arrival and departure may leave you feeling a little bit broken hearted. Be careful you’re not investing too much headspace and emotion in this person.

Pile 5-- The Cheerleader

Energy surrounding them: 3 of Swords reversed

This person has a very calm healing energy to them. I feel like if you’re going through a heartbreak in particular, the prominent pain of it is going to start disappearing. I actually redid your reading and the vibes I was getting before were not good ones. I felt like I was trying to shoo it away, and the reading felt like it was about someone leaving you who had hurt you so I think that’s what this could be. This could also be someone from the past. An old friend in particular.

**As for the person from the past, to help you figure out if this reading is for you— i was thinking back of the cards I pulled and this person felt emotionally immature and manipulative, though I’m not sure it’s intentionally. Were you trying to fix them? To make them feel better? But they were so stuck in their toxic habits/mindset that they just ended up sending your world into turmoil? Because that came through strongly just now.

The vibes I get: thank you, troubles disappearing, a sigh of relief

Why they’re coming in? King of Swords, King of Cups reversed, 4 of Cups reversed

This person is coming in to help you move on from the pain and worries that you have been in. You’re ready to get back to business and this person will be there for you. Cheerleading came to me as well, so that’s what they’ll be— your cheerleader. You’re also going to be stepping into a new chapter of maturity and level headedness. Any responsibilities or ideas you’ve been putting off, this person is going to help you with them.

How they'll help you? 9 of Wands, The Empress reveresed

Like I mentioned before, they’re going to help ease your anxieties, pain and sadness. With The Empress rx, ‘makeover’ came to me as well and I got super excited, so maybe that’s what you need and this person will help you with? They’re going to help you sort your emotions, make sense of everything and feel confident, attractive and capable again.

Potential Struggles? The World, Page of Wands

Setting your world back in order is going to take some work, but the results will be worth it. The only caution would be don’t rush your actions, without thinking about the consequences fully.

———

Disclaimer: I read tarot for self reflection and guidance purposes, but as always, this reading is for fun and entertainment purposes only. I may include advice for if you find a particular topic resonating, but it is in no way meant to replace any kind of professional advice. Any reading I post is in no way meant to act as or replace professional advice of any kind. You know yourself and what’s going on in your life best so I ask that you trust yourself above all else. Prediction readings are to be seen simply as a potential outcome. Finally, please take only what resonates from the reading which may be some of it, all of it, or none at all.

[emeraldiis]

Tied Hands Can’t Kill

A/N: welp, it’s finally here! Part two of Enough Trust for Us Both, enjoy!!

AO3 Link

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Word Count: 3.2k

Rating: Explicit (18+)

Summary:  Bucky watches you, hungry eyes glued to your glistening fingers when you pull them out. His tongue comes out to drag across his lips, and you know what he wants.

Bucky’s afraid of hurting you, so you cuff him during sex. That’s pretty much the summary

Tonight’s date night. You have lots of fun things prepared: a nice dinner, a movie, several bottles of fine wine, and a shiny pair of vibranium handcuffs. The cuffs are out of sight, resting in your nightstand, but you still feel like they’re mocking you as you stir the spaghetti on the stove. Bucky’s out, meeting with Stark about some complicated feud with another country that you didn’t understand, and you’re anxiously awaiting his return. The noodles probably didn’t need to be stirred that much, but you need to keep busy. You have to keep your mind off of tonight if you want to make it through dinner.

You’re just setting out the plates as Bucky walks in. You’re greeted with a bear hug that nearly topples you over, and you manage to squeak out a warning before Bucky sends the tableware crashing to the ground.

Bucky steps back and holds you at arm's length, eyes softening as he gazes lovingly at you. “Sorry, doll. I missed you.”

You melt. A warm smile trickles across your face and you sigh happily. “I missed you, too. You hungry? I made pasta.”

As he inhales deeply, taking in the rich scent of your cooking, Bucky nearly starts drooling. “I’m starving,” he moans, making a beeline for the pot on the stove. You watch him go, rolling your eyes. Looks like you didn’t need to worry about filling his plate. With a shrug, you serve yourself, too.

Dinner is as good as you’d hoped it’d be. Bucky barely has time to breathe with how quickly he shovels food down his throat, mumbling compliments through a full mouth. You don’t mind his iffy manners; if he likes your cooking that much, then you’d let eat however he wanted. Even if that meant feeling like you were sitting across from a dog with a steak.

The wine disappears just as quickly as the food. You limit yourself to a few glasses, wanting a clear head for the night’s events, but Bucky does no such thing. Having an enhanced tolerance was both a blessing and a curse, you thought to yourself. On one hand, he could have as many glasses he wanted without worrying about getting a bit too tipsy, but on the other...you’ve seen him rack up one hell of a tab at a bar.

Finally sated, Bucky leans back in his chair and shoots you a grin. “Doll, I think I missed your cookin’ more than I missed you,” he teases.

A giggle bubbles up from your stomach. “I guess I’ll have to start ordering take out. Maybe it’ll make you appreciate me a bit more.”

“No,” Bucky whines, lips falling into a pout. “I take it back, I’m sure you’re better tasting than anything you can whip up in the kitchen.”

There it is again, that flirty side that you rarely get to witness. You try to encourage him, wanting more of that wicked mouth. “How about you see for yourself?” You pause, gauging Bucky’s reaction. When he holds your stare instead of looking away, you know you’re okay to keep going. “I, I have the cuffs.” Your face burns when Bucky’s eyes widen, like he hadn’t been expecting you to follow through on your promise. “You know, for later. If you want.” Your voice has lowered into something only a bit louder than a whisper, and you can feel yourself losing your nerve.

“Can we,” Bucky starts, pausing to swallow thickly. “Can we skip the movie?”

Your heart jumps, then picks back up its pounding rhythm. You can hear the blood rushing in your ears, can feel it drain all the way down to your stomach, and then between your legs. “Yeah, yeah we can do that.” Your voice sounds foreign, strange, through your ringing ears. You take another sip of wine, hoping to ease the anxiety. Nervousness swirls with excitement through your stomach. This is what you want, what you’ve been waiting for all these months, but now that it’s here? The butterflies feel like they have knives.

When he realizes that you’re frozen in place, Bucky stands, and makes it way over to you. You can tell that he’s half-hard in his black jeans, and your mouth starts to water. You swallow hard before rising from your chair and trying to step past Bucky, towards the hallway. He places a big hand on your shoulder, and you freeze again.

“Hey,” Bucky murmurs. He leans down to press his lips to the top of your head, and his breath tickles when it blows through your hair. “Breathe, baby. We don’t have to do-”

“No!” You say loudly, startling Bucky. Seeing his brow furrowed in worry, you force yourself to take a deep breath and collect yourself before continuing. “Sorry, I just...I don’t want to fuck this up. I want it to be good for both of us, so bad, and I’m scared you won’t enjoy it.”

With a stern look and a purse of his lips, Bucky gently grabs each of your arms and brings them around his neck. “Stop that,” he says, and your knees go to jelly when it comes out more as a command than a request. “Baby doll, whatever you end up doing, I promise you that I will enjoy it. I think you’re forgetting that I’ve dreamin’ about this, too.”

You look up at him with wide eyes. “And you’ll tell me if I do something you don’t like?”

Bucky’s metal fingers come up to brush a stray piece of hair out of your face, and you close your eyes when the soothing cold of the metal touches your cheek. “I promise.”

*

You don’t make it past the doorway to the bedroom before Bucky has you up against the wall, kissing the life out of you. He’s still holding back, you notice, but this is progress. His metal arm is stuffed in his back pocket, keeping it away from you, but he’s using the other to support himself on the wall beside your head, boxing you in. You moan into his mouth, and Bucky pulls back instinctively. His pupils are blown wide and he’s panting, lips parted. “I think,” he whispers. “I think we need those handcuffs now.”

You’re quick to act, ducking past him to open your nightstand drawer and snatching them from their hiding place. The metal is so cold that it almost feels sharp, and you unconsciously hold the cuffs away from your body like they’re a dangerous animal. Something glints in Bucky’s eyes when he sees the handcuffs. He chews on his bottom lips, still standing near the entrance of the room. Deciding that he needs some...encouragement, you make a show of crawling onto the bed, making sure your skirt comes up just enough to reveal your black panties.

A growl sounds from behind you, and the bed dips as Bucky clambers on. He wastes no time in pushing past you, lying down and sliding to the headboard, putting his arms above his head obediently. “Someone’s eager, huh?” You laugh, scooting to the side of the bed to give Bucky more room.

Bucky narrows his eyes. “Don’t play dumb. You’re over here shaking that cute little ass in my face, how’s a man expected to resist that?” He wiggles his arms impatiently. “C’mon, sweet thing.” Now it’s you who needs encouragement. Bucky catches the uncertainty on your face and drops his arms to tug at the hem of his tight navy shirt. With a wink, he lifts the fabric up above his head, giving you an eyeful of those huge biceps and tight abs. The shirt gets tossed somewhere to the side, neither of you caring to notice where it lands.

A breath catches in your throat, and you shoot an apprehensive look to the cuffs dangling from your hand. Moving quickly before you lose your nerve, you slide over to Bucky and straddle his hips, then lean up to hook the handcuffs around his wrists. All the while, you keep a close eye on Bucky’s expression, watching for any sign of discomfort. You know that he probably has some pretty traumatic memories associated with being restrained; triggering those is the last thing you want to do.

To your relief, Bucky’s face stays open and trusting. He watches you with a rapt look, eyes lidded in arousal as you click the cuffs around the wooden headboard. “Don’t break my bed,” you with as stern of a voice as you can muster. Bucky bites his lip against what you just know is going to be some teasing remark. You stick your tongue out at him and sit back on your haunches, admiring your handiwork.

Bucky looks absolutely gorgeous. His arms are stretched up above him, and in his human arm the muscles ripple and bulge as he shifts. The look on his face is what kills you, though. He looks wrecked, lips bitten red and face flushed with a pretty shade of pink. You lean down to kiss him gently, grinning to yourself when he tries and fails to arch up and deepen the kiss. “Oh, baby. We haven’t even started and you’re already…” you trail off with a breathy sigh of adoration.

“Shut up,” Bucky shoots back, turning his head to the side as much as he can to avoid your gaze. “I-it’s been a while since I’ve, y’know.”

You immediately feel bad for teasing him. Wanting to kiss the frown off of Bucky’s lips, you place your fingers on the side of his jaw to turn his face back towards you. When he shivers, you trail a fingertip down his face, scratching a bit at the dark stubble there. Bucky trembles again, and you immediately press your mouth to his. Something in that kiss seems to set him off, because he wastes no time straining against his bonds and licking his way past your lips.

You moan around his tongue as it strokes yours. Now this is a proper kiss, nothing like those gentle pecks you had gotten so used to. Fireworks explode behind your eyelids when they fall shut, and everything in you wants to uncuff Bucky, to feel those strong hands grip your hips and pull you onto his cock. Your pussy clenches around nothing at the thought as your patience dissipates.

Reluctantly breaking away from the kiss, you slide down Bucky’s body until you reach the hem of his jeans. Your eyes flick back up to Bucky’s to silently ask for permission. He nods and blushes. Shaking fingers reach for the button, and although it takes you a few tries, you eventually manage to undo it. The sound of Bucky’s zipper being pulled down is deafening in the quiet room. Bucky sighs in relief as you relieve the pressure on his erection, and you nearly groan out loud at seeing the bulge in his dark red briefs. A loud clink startles you out of your daze, and you realize that Bucky’s straining against the cuffs, looking at you with desperation. “Please, doll. I’m done waiting.”

You can’t help but take pity on your squirming boyfriend. With a coy grin, you slide Bucky’s briefs down his legs and lower your head until his leaking cock is nearly brushing your lips. Bucky whines at you, and you flick your tongue out to catch the drop of precum beading at the tip. The reaction you get is explosive. Bucky cries out and arches up towards your mouth, metal arm whirring loudly as he struggles against his bonds. You place a hand on his hip to soothe him, but also as a warning to settle down before he works himself up too much.

Wide eyes meet yours, and then they close while Bucky takes deep breaths. He forces himself to relax against the pillows, jaw clenched. “Sorry,” he half-whispers. His voice sounds wrecked already. “‘M bein’ good. Can you...?”

It’s impossible to resist; Bucky’s so submissive, so willing to please you, and it’s driving you crazy. Taking a breath, you dive down to suck him into your mouth, fighting back a smile when his hips jerk under your hand. Fortunately, Bucky seems to have gotten a handle on himself. Muscles tense, he manages to keep from choking you as you let your jaw adjust to the stretch.

You breathe through your nose, sinking lower until you’re almost nestled against his stomach, then pull back, dragging your tongue along the bottom ridge. That earns you a soft curse, so you repeat the motion, soon getting into a steady rhythm that has Bucky groaning and pleading for more. Just once, you overestimate your abilities and have to fight back a gag, but that only seems to arouse Bucky further. You begin to swirl your tongue around the head on the upstrokes, and it isn’t long before Bucky’s pulsing in your mouth, ready to spend down your throat. “S-stop, fuck, stop,” Bucky whimpers. “Don’t wanna cum yet.” Despite his protests, Bucky’s hips twitch again and again in little aborted thrusts.

As much as you want Bucky’s cum dripping down your throat, you back off, wiping at your mouth with the back of your hand. “You ready?” You ask, already unzipping your skirt and pulling it off along with your dripping panties. You’re more than ready, so wet that you doubt you’ll need any preparation. Still, you lean back and dip two fingers into yourself just to check.

Bucky watches you, hungry eyes glued to your glistening fingers when you pull them out. His tongue comes out to drag across his lips, and you know what he wants. Feeling a bit shy, but wanting to drive Bucky even wilder than you already have, you slowly reach out your hand until your fingers are hovering in front of Bucky’s face; an invitation. One that he graciously accepts, eagerly taking your fingers into his mouth. Bucky’s eyes nearly roll back as he tastes you, soft tongue lapping at your skin like it’s coated in a priceless wine.

“Buck,” you moan softly. “Lemme ride you, I wanna cum on your cock.” Your eager hands are frantic, undoing the stubborn buttons of your blouse as fast as you can manage. Bucky instinctively moves to help you, growling when the cuffs halt his movement. You feel dizzy with power, head swimming as you look down at Bucky. You could do anything to him, and for a moment you’re overwhelmed by the realization that he would let you. All you want to do is make him feel good.

You slide the blouse off of your shoulders--Bucky’s eyes nearly bug out of his head when he sees that you’re braless--and bring your trembling fingers to caress the scruff at Bucky’s jaw. He leans into your touch, and you’re not sure which one of you is shaking worse. “Can I make you feel good now, baby?” You ask, voice a raspy drawl that sounds foreign to your ears. Bucky barely has the chance to nod before you start to kiss up his neck. Whatever response he had planned dies on the tip of his tongue as you drag yours across his skin.

Oh-so carefully, you reach under you to grasp Bucky’s throbbing cock and guide it to your soaked entrance. The second the head makes contact with your pussy, Bucky gasps wildly and jerks his hips up. He slips from your grasp as he manages to slip into your sex with little resistance. Your core clenches around the stretch and you moan raggedly. Fuck, he feels amazing. Thick and long and hitting every single spot that makes your toes curl.

You collapse onto Bucky’s chest with a whimper, trying your hardest to adjust to his size. Bucky nuzzles into your hair and murmurs words of encouragement, choked out praises. When your body stops feeling like it’s about to burst into flames, you brace your hands on either side of Bucky’s head and raise yourself up off of his hips. When you slide back down, both of you groan. You lift up again, and before you can make another move, Bucky shakes his head.

“Stay right there, doll. Keep those hips up for me,” he growls, and you don’t dare disobey. “I’m gonna wreck you, honey.” You’ve completely lost the upper hand; what dominance you may have had vanished the instant Bucky gave you an order.

You nearly bite through your lip when Bucky starts pistoning into you from below, each thrust knocking the wind out of you. He doesn’t start out slow, years of celibacy making him feral and desperate. You want to kiss him, grab his hair, something, but you’re frozen in place, helpless. Bucky snaps his hips into your ass with inhuman speed, and the obscene smacks of skin against skin sound like thunderclaps. It’s nothing compared to the sounds that fall from Bucky’s lips, though.

“Fuck, baby. Love how that p-pussy’s gripping me so tight.” Growls and groans interrupt his filthy praise, but it only makes him sound sexier. Gasps tear from your throat with every breath, and your eyes roll back. “Yeah, you fucking love it, don’t you? Look at you, taking my cock so good. You’re mine. ”

The more Bucky talks, the closer you creep to the edge. You can feel it in your stomach, coiling tight and hot. “Bucky, I’m, I’m gonna-”

“Oh, god. Cum on me, baby doll. I, ah, I wanna feel it.” Bucky’s hair is sweat slicked, sticking to his face. His brows are knitted tight together, betraying his confidence. You feel his hips stuttering, then look down at those cloudy eyes and know he’s close, too. The cuffs rattle and the headboard creaks, and that’s what does you in. Knowing that Bucky is bound, and he is still the one absolutely ruining you for anyone else.

A cry of “Bucky!” escapes your mouth as your head snaps back. Your entire body goes rigid as you climax, pleasure rippling across your nerves like tiny atom bombs. Bucky keens as he feels you clamp around him, and fights to keep his hips moving to work you through your orgasm. It’s too much, though, and he sobs your name as he spills inside of you, going slack against the cuffs.

Your shaking thighs finally give out, and you sag against Bucky. As both of you attempt to catch your breath, euphoria settles over you like a cool blanket. It was about fucking time. With how Bucky just fucked you within an inch of your life, you decide that it was worth the wait. Still, you wouldn’t be you if you didn’t tease Bucky just a bit. “I think if that headboard can survive being assaulted like that, I’ll be just fine,” you say, voice still unsteady.

Bucky snorts. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” He wiggles his arms. “Can you get me out of these, though? I wanna hold my doll after making love to her.”

Your cheeks flush, but you roll off of Bucky to retrieve the key from your nightstand. With some fiddling, you unlock the handcuffs and set Bucky free. He stretches, loosening his stiff muscles, then pulls you back to his solid chest, stroking your tangled hair. “Thank you,” he whispers so softly that you aren’t sure if he actually said anything.

“Anything for you,” you reply just as quietly. You shift a bit to get more comfortable, and hear a crack. “Please tell me that wasn’t the headboard.”

Bucky glances up, then pats your head reassuringly. “It wasn’t the headboard.”

“Then what was it?”

“It was definitely the headboard.”