#plus w this being probably only a few months after his dad died so he felt super exposed and as if he lost a massive support pillar

[toxooz]

thingking abt Vinny's first time at the skatepark bc his mom made him go and just being the Angriest lil terrified furball in the corner of the fence like

[passionartx]

Hi!! Firstly, I LOVE your Tangled AU, so glad to see Tails getting more focus in AU’s. I wondering: Do you have any general Tails related headcannons?

Hiya! 💛✨ Thank you so, so much! And ooo this is such a fun question. Tbh, I have too many, I could write an essay! This account isn’t as popular as my au blog since I’m pretty inactive on it so probably only like 3 people will see this… but I hope those hypothetical 3 people enjoy my inevitable waffle and chaos! <3

Will also use this opportunity to hype up some friends and people who’s work I admire!!!

A few of my favourite Tails Headcannons! :

- I love the idea that him and Sonic were 4 and 11 when they first met.

- Sonic will always be Tails’ big brother first and foremost… however, as Aosth Tails put it: “You’re my mom, you’re my dad and you’re my picket fence!”. Sonic having accidentally become the closest thing Tails has to a parental figure has a hold on my heart and I love how writers like @chaoxfix and my homie @myyla-x portray this in their fics!

- After having first met (and honestly even a few years in) if Sonic ever had to leave Tails alone for a while for whatever reason, maybe to protect him from a particular battle, Tails would deal with hardcore abandonment issues. Poor lil guy would fear Sonic wouldn’t come back, that he didn’t want him around anymore (which is made 10 times worse if you headcannon he was abandoned by his parents). Lil guy wouldn’t know what to do with himself <\3

- Tails reminds Shadow of Maria. Probably my favourite Tails headcannon! Though I guess it’s more of a Shadow headcannon… am I using this as an excuse to talk about it? More likely then you’d think. But ahh, those blue eyes, yellowish fur, sweet gentle childlike wonder, love of life and learning + Ian flynn has confirmed given her upbringing Maria was prob a bit of a science kid. Ah <3 Plus that brings the idea of Sonic and Tails’ dynamic reminding him of his with Maria’s and that makes me want to cry. I actually have a WIP fic about this headcannon but it’s been a wip for like a year… hopefully one day I’ll finish it cause I’m literally obsessed with the idea and want to see it through.

^ Also extra nostalgic about this headcannon cause my friendship with @sh-0-w-1-sh literally started cause they were looking for art ideas and I was like TAILS REMINDING SHADOW OF MARIA!!! And here we are almost a year later!

- For better or for worse he’s picked up a lot of his big bros traits. I’m talking puns, poses, that lil nose rub and foot tapping, occasional cockiness, being self sacrificial, the list goes on. Once he realises this or anyone else especially Sonic points it out, he’d probably be super embarrassed and deny it <3

Speaking of picking up habits…

- While he would definitely be scared by certain situations like this ( << the Starline issue 35 and 36 situation being a good example with other people being at risk and him not really understanding the situation or his role in it ) I think Tails would be pretty desensitised to being kidnapped or hostage situations at this point. He’d probably just find it an inconvenience more then anything or be entertained by the hypothetical villains incompetence. Me and @myyla-x had a conversation about this idea once and… it’s been like 6 months and we’re still talking about it. One day that’ll make sense. We got a lil carried away. Just a lil. Anyway someone get this kid therapy. <3

- An already pretty popular one but I felt the need to mention it cause I relate, but he gets so sucked into projects and his inventions that hours and hours can go by and he just zones out and forgot to eat… well, anything but mints at least.

- Tails is a theatre kid. :D Is this self projection? … maybe. If nobody else gets me @guiltypandas gets me <3 :,)

- I think Tails would be in denial if Sonic died. As smart and logical as that little guy is, given how Sonic has beat the unbeatable, has come back before and seems invisible… yeah. <\3 I think he’d always hold onto the hope that it would only be a matter of time until Sonic comes back… even if this time that wouldn’t be the case… my friend @whitecatindisguise actually wrote an amazing fic about this when we talked about the idea called He’s (Not) Coming Back (which if you haven’t already you should totally check out cause it’s amazing! And a heart breaking! The best kinda fic :,) )

- I think Tails has a heart of gold…but I also think depending on certain circumstances if he hadn’t have met Sonic he could have gone down a much darker path (which I guess ended up being somewhat proven with Nine in Sonic Prime!). Me and @casperangel have screamed about this too many times then I can count and it haunts me.

- Tails is a sweetie, a cutey patooty, like an adorable little house cat… but similarly (and yet again as proven thanks to Prime!) Tails definitely has a feral side. Especially if he hasn’t gotten enough sleep or gets his mints confiscated. @dunkinbublin and @studioboner ‘s accounts are absolute goldmines when it comes to Tails multitasking being an adorable lil guy and a feral lil menace!

- Tails and Tangle have sibling energy! I mean, Tails is basically everyone’s adopted little brother, Knuckles and Amy especially, but I think him and Tangles dynamic isn’t talked about enough and I’m super glad we’ve had some sweet moments with them in the comics! @pocketscribbs is feeding the Tails and Tangle nation fr <3

This was super fun! Thank you so much again for asking and I hope you have an amazing day! And if someone actually read all of this… you’re a trooper :,) <3

[harvestdew]

pls will u ever elaborate on kiki's backstory im dying to know what on earth is going on there

yeah i was like wow i’m gonna be so cool and mysterious and NOT tell anyone not even my friends what’s going on with kiki til i pump out my comics because i thought it’d be better that way? but school saps the energy from me so idk why i expected to get comics out in a timely manner when comics take a lot of time. i also feel bad because i’ve had multiple people go like “WHAT the fuck is going” so i’ll just tell you all as a little 500 followers treat so you guys don’t misunderstand and think she’s a murderer

also if you ever want to hear me talk about my oc’s more you can always come to my livestreams (i stream my stardew valley gameplay w/ friends or when i draw)!

disclaimer: this will be long. it’s complicated, if you’re more confused just send me another ask and i’ll elaborate, and i’ll split it into 3 sections! i’m so sorry

childhood - after kiki’s parents divorced, she chose to stay with her dad, her mom remarried to a rich CEO (more on this later), whatever. her dad dies in an accident, but instead of being passed over to her mom, kiki got sent to pelican town to live with her grandpa on her dad’s side when she was 13. i think at this time haley is too young for her to hang out with because i always thought she was younger than kiki BUT sebastian is her age and they’re actually put in the same class

kiki struggles with acclimating to pelican town because she’s a) grieving b) joining the class in the dead middle of the year so everyone thinks she’s a loser LOL. i guess sebastian felt really bad for her cuz he finds her crying outside once of class and gives her like his juice or something out of pity. they end up becoming friends though, and by extension, she becomes friends with sam and abigail. she hangs out with sebastian the most though, plus they’re kinda neighbors so robin was used to her stopping by constantly out of convenience

unfortunately kiki only spends 2 years in pelican town because her grandpa died, but before he does he gives her the envelope like in the intro of stardew valley and tells her not to open it. everything goes downhill for her at this point because it means she has to move back in with her mom. kiki knows that her mom has 0 attachment to stardew valley so the only way she thinks she can really keep in contact with everyone is writing them letters which sounds pretty infallible at first

anyway i may or may not have taken inspo from an e ve MV here because childhood friends parting makes me really sad

teenage years up to early 20s - around this time surprise her mom is (surprise) awful. by this i mean her mom literally married a chairman at joja corp., enrolled kiki in private school, and tried to siphon any connection she had to her dad, grandpa, and stardew valley by substituting it with her new life in zuzu city. not to mention kiki’s step-sister irene who i’m going to design lately hopefully (?) also loves making her miserable only because she hates kiki’s mom 

the only thing that makes city life bearable for her is frequent letters from her friends, most often (if it wasn’t obvious again) sebastian. daelin told me he probably sent her emo poetry and i think that’s literally SO funny but even then the letters don’t last that long because within a few months her mom decides the letters are getting in the way of her kid’s success and starts throwing them out before kiki gets them or sends her own. naturally she thinks sebastian just doesn’t give a fuck about her so she stops writing after a while. but then this makes HIM think she doesn’t give a fuck about him and he holds a grudge against her for it for years even though she has no idea

then kiki forgets about stardew valley since there seems to be nothing else tying her to it, goes to business school, and eventually gets as a job in PR at joja corp. if that’s not bad enough she gets engaged to a MAN she doesn’t even like. her fiance is someone who manipulated her into dating him which i’ll again elaborate on in a second, plus her mom is obsessed with him like ohhh big handsome man WHATEVER except he literally only wants to marry her because her step-dad is a chairman. but kiki’s absolute breaking point (which i’m still kinda hashing out and only have a vague idea of) is when she figures out her fiance orchestrated a PR disaster by logging into her computer and messing a bunch of stuff up (idk if i should do hacking or whatever) so she gets blamed, only to take blame/save the day for the thing he LITERALLY started so she could feel indebted to him enough to date him. at this point she feels so suffocated by her life in zuzu city that she contemplates running away, so while packing she finds grandpa’s letter and decides to run away to stardew valley

present - i know the missing person stuff didn’t make sense but i hope everything i explained kinda gives you more context? her mom put out a missing person notice and her peers/family from zuzu city are still looking for her. this is partly why she doesn’t have a phone when she moves in, she tries to pawn her engagement ring off to clint for extra gold, and refuses to have pictures of her taken by haley for the first few weeks of their friendship. ofc when kiki goes back, she is escorted by robin, talks to lewis, etc. whatever is in the official intro and it’s kinda standard but on her way to pierre’s for cleaning supplies she accidentally runs into sebastian and realizes he hates her guts and has no idea why because he literally won’t tell her. the idea of childhood friends to strangers is really fun to write imo and then the story persists from there! 

LASTLY - I’M SO SORRY for writing so much i just couldn’t condense it into less paragraphs if i wanted but i hope it was interesting!

[youwerenevermeanttofeelalone]

corruption — kinktober 2020

✦ pairing — Dean Winchester x Plus Size Reader

✦ word count — 1.2k

✦ warnings — age gap, inexperienced reader (not a virgin), making out, corruption, suggestive stuff but not smut.

════════════════════════

You were typing something on your phone, ignoring him again.

Dean had been struggling to get your attention for the past hour since you got a phone call from home.

He knew you were lying to your family about where you were, mostly because you hated your step-dad and wanted to be away from the house.

In any other person, he would’ve found it stupid. He should’ve sent you back home, told you that the hunter life wasn’t for you. But he allowed himself to be a little selfish for once.

He was enjoying your company a little too much, the easiness with which the two of you worked together. You were skilled, just like your dad before you — it was clear that he had been your hero and inspiration.

Dean almost felt bad about the thoughts that swarmed his head every time you lead the way, or every time you panted. Almost.

With a deep sigh, you locked the device and dropped it onto your bed.

“You good?”

Shifting, you gazed at him. Dean focused on The computer in front of him, humming to let you know he could feel your eyes on him. “Yeah,” you answered meekly. “Just my mom being annoying.”

“I’m sure she’s worried.”

“No,” you said. He could’ve sworn you sounded sad. “She wants me to go back and babysit my half-brother.”

“But hunting is more important?”

You challenged, ��Isn’t it for you?”

“It is,” he conceded. Silence lingered for a few moments before he asked, “Why don’t you at least enjoy your life a little bit?”

“Do you do that, Dean?”

Fuck. You probably didn’t intend to say his name in such a sultry tone. “I’m not as young as you are,” he rasped. “And I’ve enjoyed some things.”

He took your silence as a sign that he was right, that you had never enjoyed your life. He wondered about your experience in college, with how many guys or girls had you made out — how many people had you fucked? Were you a virgin?

The last question sounded stupid for a moment, you were too attractive to not have dated around. But who could know? He had met people so different from each other that he couldn’t make that kind of judgment.

He wished he could stop thinking about you, your body, your sex life. For the past three weeks you had been hunting with him, and every day he found something new about you that turned him on.

Sam would shame him if he knew, but Sam wasn't there. In fact, you had been his only meaningful company in months.

He turned to look at you, only to find you bent over. Dean wondered if you were doing it on purpose, if you wanted him to ogle at your ass — if you were willfully tempting him to place his hands on your hips.

Following your every move as you stood straight again, innocently looking at him, curious as to what had he found, he swallowed hard.

Your lips were moving, enticing him further on. God, he would’ve killed for a kiss — just one, maybe two.

“Dean! Are you listening to me?”

“Not really,” he admitted, pushing the chair backward.

“W—what—“

“C’mere.”

Worried, you walked towards him. He hadn’t been sleeping, you heard him shuffle the night before until sunrise.

Gazing down at him, you analyzed his face. He didn’t look tired, at least not to you. Dean placed his hands on your hips, prompting your breath to hitch. Opening his legs, he made you stand between them.

“Are you doing it on purpose, baby?”

“Doing what?”

He grunted, thumbs brushing your clothed skin as he tried his best to keep his hands still. “Acting so innocent, driving me crazy.”

You rested your hands on his shoulders as his touch got firmer on you. “I’m not doing anything.”

Now you wished you had, maybe then you would’ve had his hands on you sooner. You had been ashamed at first, he was older than you, almost a colleague of your dad’s...

“Good for me, huh, I wouldn’t survive if you were.”

You whispered his name, yet you weren’t able to say anything. Words died in your throat as you observed the way he was looking at you.

One of his hands traveled up your torso, careful not to touch your breast without your permission. He placed his warm palm on your cheek, intensely gazing at your lips. Now the fact that he hadn’t tried to become your mentor started to make sense to you.

Exhaling shakily, you said, “You can kiss me if you want.” Your face heated up the moment the words left your mouth.

Dean didn’t give you the chance to apologize or to do anything else, his lips brushed yours, tentatively at first. His control went out of the window when you kissed him back and wrapped your arms around his neck.

You tried to match his fervor, slipping your fingers into his hair as you pushed yourself closer to his body. He gripped your hips, standing up.

The position gave him leverage to kiss you more deeply, pulling you flush against him. His tongue caressed your bottom lip, prompting your mouth to open in order to welcome it.

You whimpered, the sound making him grunt. Giddy, almost dizzy, you swiped your tongue along his, not really sure as to what use it could have but tingling when he copied the motion.

He suddenly slammed your back against the nearest wall, almost knocking the air of your lungs as he tore his lips off yours and attached to your neck.

Caressing his hair, you let out a pleased sigh. Dean opened his mouth and sucked on your skin.

“Wait,” you panted.

Dean withdrew from your neck, furrowing his brows as he looked at you. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve only had sex once,” you mumbled.

He caressed your cheek, softly rubbing circles on your skin. “You want me to stop?”

Bashfully, you shook your head.

“Use your words, sweetheart.”

“I don’t want you to stop.”

He smiled at you before dropping a soft kiss on your lips. “I’ll make you feel good, baby.” Stepping back, he softly told you, “Take off your clothes.”

You worked as quickly as you were able to, rather clumsily getting rid of your top first, then your jeans after having kicked your shoes off.

Goosebumps erupted in your skin due to the temperature change yet you ignored the sensation to admire the sight before you. Dean kicked the discarded clothes —both yours and his— to the side and his hands flew to your waist, keeping his distance to admire you.

His eyes traced your body while his hands eased up the tension on your sides in an up and down motion. “You’re gorgeous.”

You awkwardly rested your palms on his sides, gazing up at him. He leaned in to kiss you, letting his hands roam your body as his tongue caressed yours.

On your mouth, he mumbled, “I’m going to ruin you for anybody else.”

“You promise?” you panted.

He smiled at you, nodding as he slid his hands down to your ass and gripped it to bring you flush to him.

[cherrybracelets]

We Fell In Love in October

dad!spencer x reader

a continuation of these blurbs. you do not need to read them to read this fic, but they all take place in the same universe

word count: 2.7k | warnings: pregnancy, hospitals, other than that all fluff

We fell in love in October, That’s why I love fall, Looking at the stars, Admiring from a far

There was nothing that broke your heart more than the fact that you were missing your daughters first time trick or treating. But, as Spencer reminded you every day, you were way too pregnant to be out walking around all night while she got candy. You were devastated, but you knew he was right. You were nearing your due date and felt like you were carrying a whale around at all times. There was absolutely no way you’d last longer than 20 minutes without whining about how your feet hurt.

So you and Spencer decided you’d stay home and hand out candy while he took Imogen to the fanciest neighborhood in your suburb so she could get the best candy. You remember trick or treating in the same neighborhood as a kid, and the houses always had full size candy bars and toys. There was one house that made a mini haunted house in their front yard every year, and it was your favorite thing as a kid. You felt sick thinking that Immy was going to experience it for the first time without you. 

“You promise me you will take a ton of pictures and videos? If there’s not at least 500, we are literally getting a divorce,” you pouted, helping Spencer get his costume on. 

“Babe, I promise you won’t miss a second of it. I know it sucks you can’t go, but you have to keep my little baby safe,” he smiled, kissing your swollen belly and then bringing his lips to yours, giving you a small peck. 

“I’m gonna go check on her, make sure she’s got her costume all set. Why don’t you go downstairs and relax, you seem a little high strung today,” he teased, walking out of your bedroom together and into your daughters room. 

“Of course I’m high strung, Spence. I’m a thousand months pregnant and you’re taking my daughter away from me to walk around alone in the dark.” You felt yourself tearing up, one again out of control of your emotions. Being pregnant fucking sucked. 

“Do you not trust me to keep Immy safe? Do you know what I do for a living?” Spencer laughed, and you rolled your eyes in annoyance as you walked down the stairs to go flop on your couch. 

You felt the baby kick, and you placed a hand on your belly. You both decided not to find out the gender, the same thing you did with your last pregnancy. Spencer loved not knowing, claiming you got ‘more gifts’ if you didn’t know. But it drove you crazy. Even though you didn't know for sure, Spencer was convinced it was a boy. He wanted a son so bad, so you played along with his fantasy, but you were pretty certain it was a girl. You felt the same as you did when you were pregnant with Imogen, even craving the same foods as before. You had a mother's instinct- you knew who she was. 

You leaned your head back on the couch, closing your eyes to rest for a moment. You seemed to be constantly exhausted, despite spending most of the day sleeping. You slowly rubbed your belly, always afraid that if you went too long without touching her she would forget you. 

“You ready, Mommy?” You heard Spencer’s voice say, from the top of the stairs. You smiled happily, keeping your eyes closed as the two of them came down to the living room in their costumes. 

“Let me see my loves!” You responded, giggling in anticipation as you awaited your daughters first Halloween costume. 

“Look at me, Mommy! I’m so pretty!” Imogen said, Spencer holding the girl in his arms. You opened your eyes to see her dressed as a fairy- exactly what she wanted. You felt yourself tearing up, which were a mix of happy and sad tears. 

“You both look so amazing!” You stuttered, trying to get your words out through muffled cries. 

“Don’t cry, Mommy!” Immy pouted, wriggling out of Spencer’s arms and onto the couch to give you a hug. 

“Oh, I’m not sad, Im. You’re just so pretty!” You kissed her on the top of the head, trying not to mess up her costume. 

“We should probably get going soon. I don’t want to be out too late,” Spencer frowned, checking his watch and looking outside to see if it was getting dark yet. 

“Right, of course. Please keep me updated, okay?” 

“Of course, my love.” 

“Have fun, you guys. Be safe!” 

Spencer and Imogen waved goodbye to you, blowing you a kiss as they walked out the door. You tried your best not to cry as they drove away, trying to focus on getting ready to hand candy out to other kids. You knew it was probably just your anxiety, and the fact that you and Spence had been watching scary movies every night for the past month- but you had a bad feeling about tonight. And it was only a short time later when you realized your feeling was right. 

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Spencer was one of the smartest men alive- that was indisputable. But where he excelled in book smarts, sometimes his common sense was lacking. Like how he was consistently forgetting to charge his phone. So when it died after only an hour of trick or treating- probably because he hadn’t stopped taking pictures since they left- he felt like a huge idiot. Especially considering how much you reminded him to plug it in every night before bed. 

But he tried not to panic, convincing himself he had recorded enough of the night to satisfy you. Plus, now he could really be in the moment with his daughter, which was what it was all about, right? 

“C'mon Daddy,” Imogen groaned, pulling Spencer by the arm up to another house. And as Spencer followed his daughter, he realized where they were. This was the house. The ‘haunted house’ house that you talked about every Halloween, that the both of you were so excited for Immy to experience herself. And Spencer had promised you a thousand times over that he would record the entire experience. 

‘Fuck,’ he thought to himself, shaking his head in disappointment, preparing for the inevitable fight when he had to tell you he didn’t record it. Unless, they just don’t go? That could work, right? He would just tell you that they didn’t do it this year, and next Halloween they could all go together. The plan was perfect. Except for one thing. 

“Please, Daddy. I really wanna go to this house,” his daughter frowned, crossing her arms in frustration. 

“Immy, please just listen to Dad, okay. Not this house.” His daughter was persistent and adorable, which made this incredibly difficult. 

“No. I want to go to this one.” 

“Imogen Josephine, when your Dad tells you no, you have to listen.” 

“No! I want to go!” She turned around quickly, running up the driveway to the house. Spencer rolled his eyes in annoyance, chasing after her. She was running quickly, not paying attention to her surroundings. It was a disaster waiting to happen, and Spencer knew it. But he couldn’t catch up to her before disaster struck. She tripped over one of the decorations, falling on the pavement and falling on her arm. 

“Ow!” She yelled, her eyes filling with tears as she sat on the ground. Spencer caught up with her, immediately getting on the ground and checking on her. 

“Imogen! This is why you listen to me when I tell you no!” He yelled in frustration, trying to see just how bad her scrapes and cuts were. 

“Don’t yell at me!” She responded, now fully crying and screaming. 

“I’m sorry, peanut. I didn’t mean to get mad,” Spencer responded, wiping the tears from her cheeks and picking her up. 

“My arm really hurts,” she wept, holding her now swollen wrist away from them. 

“Okay, peanut, I think we need to go to the hospital and get that checked out,” Spencer instructed, carrying his daughter down the street and back towards their car. He knew you were going to kill him when he got a call from the hospital. He felt sick to his stomach as he got Immy in the car and started driving. What an absolute nightmare. Maybe he couldn’t do it without you. Maybe his skills as a parent were only valid if you were around to watch him. 

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Seeing all of the cute kids in their costumes was definitely making you feel better. You knew you had to trust Spencer. He was an amazing Dad and husband, and he would always take care of your girl. You knew he would. 

But, everything seemed to fall apart in about five minutes. It all started when you went to check Spencer’s location, a bad habit that you knew wouldn’t solve anything. When it popped up that he couldn’t be located, you felt your stomach flip and your heart skip a beat. 

“Damnit Spence. Charge your fucking phone…” you whispered, shaking your head and digging your nails into your palms. It was okay, though. He was fine, they were fine. Right? 

And then the worst possible thing could’ve happened. You felt a weird pain in your abdomen, one that caused you to nearly double over and fall on the floor. Only a few seconds later, it made sense. Your water broke. 

You weren’t due for another two weeks. This could not be happening. There’s no way. But another contraction a few minutes later made it clear- you were having your baby, and Spencer had no phone. Holy shit. 

You reached for your phone and instinctively called JJ, telling yourself it was because she lived the closest but also knowing she was the only person who could handle being in the delivery room with you if you couldn’t find your husband. 

“I’m going to kill him,” you screamed into the phone, not even bothering to greet your friend or explain the situation. 

“Woah, okay kiddo. What’s going on?” 

“His phone is dead, and I am having this damn baby. I am going to kill him.” 

“Oh, Jesus (Y/N). Okay… um… we can figure this out. Do you know what neighborhood they're in?” 

“Yes.” 

“Okay, I’ll send Will to go drive around and look for them. In the meantime, I am coming to pick you up and take you to the hospital. Just relax, take a few deep breaths. Everything will be fine.” 

You hung up the call and grabbed your hospital bag, patiently waiting by the door. JJ was only about ten minutes away, but it felt like you were waiting for hours. You tried calling Spencer’s phone a few times, but it went right to voicemail. This could not be happening. Holy shit, this could not be happening. 

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Spencer pulled into the emergency room parking lot, whipping his car through the lines as his daughter cried in the backseat. He finally found a spot, parking terribly and quickly grabbing Imogen. 

“We’re here now, peanut, everything’s gonna be okay,” he reassured her, not truly believing the words himself. His heart was racing, his breath shaky and his mind going a million miles a minute. He needed to talk to you as soon as possible- he needed you to tell him, and your daughter, everything would be okay. 

“Hi, um, my daughter fell and hurt her arm. I just need to get her checked in,” he spoke, his voice quick and panicky as he stood at the desk. 

“Of course. What’s her name and date of birth?” The woman asked, smiling kindly at the two of them. 

“Imogen Josephine Reid. She was born April 8th, 2017.”

“Oh, wonderful, I’ve got her file right here. Let’s get her admitted.” 

Spencer stood impatiently, holding his daughters hand as she stood next to him, watching the secretary take her sweet time to admit Imogen. Spencer was tapping his foot in frustration, which Imogen quickly noticed, placing her free hand on his knee and telling him to stop. Spencer just laughed at his daughter, who was always so unapologetic, always just telling people whatever thoughts came to her head. 

“Oh no, this is not good,” a familiar voice behind him said. He turned around quickly and saw JJ, a nauseated look on her face. 

“What are you doing here…” Spencer asked, furrowing his brows in confusion. She appeared just fine, and she wasn’t with anyone else. 

“Spencer, don’t freak out, but-” 

“SPENCER REID!” You yelled, your face red and voice fuming. 

“Wait, what is going on?” Spencer looked at you, confused, as you were being wheeled into the emergency room by a nurse.  

“Why are you at the emergency room, Spencer? What happened to Imogen?” 

“Hi Mommy! I fell and hurt my arm!” Imogen responded, her face stained with tears and her costume ripped from the fall. 

“What?” You were seething, staring at Spencer with wide eyes. You were about to yell again, but your whole body seized and pain shot through your body. Another contraction. They were getting closer, and you knew it was only a matter of time before this baby came out. You whined loudly, gripping onto the arm of the chair and closing your eyes in pain. 

“We need to get you in a room now, Mrs. Reid,” the nurse instructed, looking at JJ and Spencer. 

“Wait… are you… are we having a baby?” Spencer’s eyes got wide, excitement filling his face as he realized what was going on. 

“Yes, Spencer. Maybe you could try to not let this one break their arm,” you yelled, immediately noticing Spencer’s shit in tone as you yelled at him. 

“Okay, okay, everyone. I’m sure what happened with Immy was an accident, right Spence?” 

“Yes, yes I promise. She was running and tripped…” 

“See, (Y/N)! Just an accident. So why don’t I take her to go see the Doctor and you guys can go… have your baby,” JJ smiled, doing her best to handle the situation. She was used to dealing with yours and Spencer's chaos. She was also Imogen’s godmother, and she did not take that role lightly. 

“Okay… okay… let’s go have our baby.” 

“Let’s go have our baby!” 

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥♥

On November 1st, 2020, at 1:17 AM, your second daughter was born. You weren’t shocked at all when the doctors told you it was a girl, but Spencer was at a loss for words. They wrapped your small newborn in a blanket and handed her back to you. You were even more in love with her than you thought possible, and so was your husband. 

JJ and Imogen were in the waiting room, along with Will and the rest of the team. Immy’s arm was fine- nothing more than a bad bruise. They had given her a halloween ice pack and a bag full of candy, to which JJ allowed her to have a little too much, and she crashed from the sugar rush pretty hard. She was passed out in Uncle Rossi’s arms, drooling chocolate all over his pajamas. 

“Guys… she’s here.” Spencer smiled, walking out of the delivery room to share the news with his family. 

“She? Another girl? I knew it. You owe me twenty bucks, Derek,” Garcia giggled, Derek rolling his eyes in response. 

“Can we meet her?” JJ asked, happy to have another little girl to spoil. 

“Of course. Come on!” 

Rossi woke Imogen up, who was thrilled to meet her baby sister. Everyone walked quietly into the room, where you were holding your sleeping daughter in your arms. You were overjoyed to see all of them, knowing they would always be your family, and the first to meet your baby, because they were her family, too. 

“Mommy!” Immy yelled, running towards you. 

“Shh, be quiet, peanut. She’s sleeping!” 

“Got it. Quiet.” Immy whispered, giggly as she looked down on her little sister. 

“She looks like you, Spence,” Emily laughed, lightly grabbing Spencer’s shoulder. 

“Do you remember how much Imogen looked like (Y/N) when she was born?” JJ asked, smiling down at the two girls. 

“We now have a clone of each of us. It’s only a matter of time before we take over the world,” Spencer laughed, his arm wrapped around you and the baby. 

“What’s her name?” Hotch asked.

“Lola. Lola Danielle Reid.” 

“Welcome to the BAU, Lola.” 

[fandomshatelgbtqpeople]

mod a’s lgbt musicals

Hi there! I’m a big theatre kid so I thought for pride month I’d put together a list of LGBTQ musicals. Despite its association with queer people, musical theatre is not known for its amazing representation. I’ve put together a list here of musicals I know of with queer characters. I’ve tried to avoid those where the queer characters are incredibly minor roles or those where the representation is just not good enough to be salvageable (*side eyes Legally Blonde*) I know there are many musicals I will have missed out but these are the ones I am most aware of. Feel free to add more! So without further ado, here it is.

Fun Home

The big Tony winner of 2015! Based on Alison Bechdel, a butch lesbian cartoonist. At the age of 43, she looks for new material by trying to explore her past and her relationship with her closeted gay dad. Looks back at a version of herself when she was 10 and a “tomboy” and at 19 when she came out and got her first girlfriend. Has very cute lighthearted moments as well as very sad moments. Has a beautiful song where small Alison sees a butch deliverywoman. Problems in that since the original broadway cast, Alison’s costume has got less butch. Content warning for suicide.

Here’s their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAuesRJm1E

The Color Purple

Based on Alice Walker’s novel about black women in the 1930s. Follows Celie who has been abused by men her whole life who discovers she is a lesbian but also makes a journey of self discovery and learns to love herself. Her love interest is a bisexual woman. Won best revival at the Tonys in 2016. Content warning for discussion/implied sexual abuse.

Here’s their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k2xzQyT2bk

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

A teenage gay boy in Sheffield wants to be a drag queen and go to prom in a dress.Also a nice touch that is does not focus on him having a relationship (since he is sixteen) and him having to come out as he is already out. Focuses on his close relationship with his supportive mother. Has a diverse cast. Jamie is currently played by a black actor and his best friend wears a hijab and has a very diverse ensemble as well. Unfortunately has a part where Jamie responds to a homophobic bully by calling him a bunch of ableist and classist slurs.

Here’s a clip of the most popular song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7C3FuFWDdw

The Prom

Emma is a lesbian teenager in Indiana whose prom is cancelled by the PTA after she requests to bring her girlfriend to it. A group of Broadway actors come down to help her campaign to be allowed to attend prom, as well as styling her, helping her work on her confidence and educating the town’s people. What ensues is basically a two hour musical episode of Queer Eye. Cheesy and fun with so many musical theatre references crammed in. My one issue is that the show is rather harsh on people who are closeted since Emma has conflicted with her girlfriend Alyssa because she is not ready to come out.

Here’s a clip of their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGcG_r5xv3E

Rent

Probably the most well known on this list. Artists in New York during the AIDS crisis. Two of the main couples featured are queer: Maureen is bisexual and in a relationship with Joanne who is a lesbian, and Angel is a transgender woman of color in a relationship with Collins, a presumably bisexual man. However, she tends to be played bi cis men and there are instances of her being misgendered by the main characters uncritically. In Rent Live (2019), all instances of her being misgendered were removed and her gender identity was confirmed. She was played in this by Valentina, an nb drag queen and has also been played by Pose’s MJ Rodriguez, a trans woman. Very diverse with Jewish characters and people of colour and in the live show, only 1 of the 8 main characters was white. Has been criticised over the years, mainly for its biphobic portrayal of Maureen who is promiscuous and implied to cheat, but in the 90s did a lot for the LGBTQ community and is more progressive than a lot of media even now.

Here’s a clip of Maureen and Joanne from Rent Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06oCfKYYPTY

And here’s some Angel and Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hl-M94o_x8

Falsettos

Marvin comes out as gay in the late 70s but decides to move his ex wife and son in with his boyfriend. Addresses AIDS crisis in Act 2. Has “lesbians from next door” in act 2. F Revived on Broadway in 2016. All of the characters are Jewish. Unfortunately, in revival casts, very few actors tend to be Jewish.

Here’s the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjnAHOdMQVk

Come From Away

In the aftermath of 9/11, 38 planes are diverted to a small town in Canada called Gander. Shows people of different races and nationalities bonding in a scary time. Addresses Islamophobia. Has one song called Prayer where prayers from different religions overlap. Has an interracial gay couple called Kevin and Kevin. They break up in the end but are very important characters. Won best direction of a musical in 2017. The Broadway production starred Jenn Colella who has referred to herself as ‘mostly gay’.

Here’s a clip of Jenn Colella singing a song from the musical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8ukgH6U-d0

Head Over Heels

Honestly I don’t quite know what this musical is about, even by reading the plot summary and listening to the soundtrack. I know it’s set in a Tudor fantasy world and that there are wlw couples as well as an explicitly non binary character, played by Peppermint, a trans woman, and that there are interracial couples and plus sized actors. It is a jukebox musical using songs by the Go-Gos and yes the wlw anthem that is Heaven is a Place on Earth is one of them. The soundtrack is fantastic even if you can’t follow what is going on.

Here are some show clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx2qQ7QAPm0

Spring Awakening

German school kids in the 19th century discovering their sexuality. Two of the schoolboy supporting characters, Ernst and Hänschen, have a romance when they have a reprise of an earlier song in Act 2.  A BIG content warning as it has graphic discussions of rape and songs about it and a sex scene with very dubious consent. However there was a very wonderful 2016 revival using deaf actors and sign language.

This is another one you can very easily find the full show of on YouTube which I won’t link. However here’s the Tony performance for the revival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSagsMcak4Q

If/Then

A woman named Elizabeth (originally played by Idina Menzel) moves to New York after a divorce and contemplated how different her life would be if she took two different paths. Four supporting queer characters. Her ex-boyfriend is bisexual and played by Anthony Rapp (who is bisexual in real life) and he gets a boyfriend in one timeline. Another of her friends is a lesbian called Kate who marries her girlfriend in the musical. Problems occur as in both timelines, cheating goes on in the lesbian relationship although they stay together in one. Elizabeth also says she doesn’t believe in bisexuals, a view no one ever challenges her on, however Lucas is very clearly bisexual which is some proof for the audience that she is wrong.

I’m not going to link it here but there are many very high quality bootlegs on it on YouTube if you want to watch,

Ghost Quartet

A bit of a weird one. This is more of a concept album. There are four performers who each play instruments and they tell the stories of many interconnected timelines. It is very hard to explain but there are souls travelling through time who keep being reincarnated as different people with different relationships to each other which usually end with one woman killing the other. In the song Soldier & Rose, the ghosts Rose and Pearl are lovers as Rose seduces the soldier for her honey.  In the song Four Friends, for one chorus the men sing “I like to put my hand on a pretty girls’s knee” and the women sing “pretty boy’s knee” and then they switch for the next chorus so they’re all bisexual. In general, a lot of fun if you like weird musicals and I mean really weird.

The full show is online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJSaEJm8pCE

Mean Girls

Yes there’s a musical of it. I was not looking forward to it when it was announced but have actually grown to quite like it. It’s hardly lyrical genius but the songs are fun and a lot of the problematic aspects of the film have been fixed. Damian is more explicitly gay in the musical and sings about an ex boyfriend in one song. Janis is heavily implied to be a lesbian (confirmed by actress offstage) and she doesn’t end up with Kevin Gnapoor. She is played by a queer actress in the tour cast. Both queer characters are much bigger roles than in the movie and get several songs each. I’d consider the musical to be quite white feminist but it does address issues such as the sexualisation of teenage girls and the notion that to be ‘sexy’ is ‘empowering’.

Here’s a clip of one of Damian’s songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-zM6QKkxEQ

& Juliet

An English jukebox musical about what might have happened to Juliet in Romeo and Juliet if she had not died at the end. I haven’t seen it but I’ve listened to the soundtrack and it is mainly comprised of 21st century songs by women. One of Juliet’s best friends is non binary although is played by a cis man as far as we know. Also I went to the same school as one of the actors which is a bonus for me. Very diverse cast.

Here’s a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm2k9nS3o20

In Transit

A capella musical about several people’s adventures on New York public transport. Two of the main characters in this ensemble cast are an interracial gay couple where both are pocs. They are engaged but one of them is having trouble coming out to his mother. I found it refreshing in that his fiance for the most part was not upset with him at his struggles in coming out and they were both able to live fulfilling lives despite this. I am always astonished by the talent of a cappella singers.

Here’s a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhvik6qoass  Another one where the bootleg can be found very easily on YouTube

Firebringer

Remember A Very Potter Musical? Well, the company that did that are still putting out new pieces of theatre on their YouTube channel. In 2016, they put out their ridiculous comedy musical Firebringer, about a group of bisexual cavewomen. I won’t spoil the ending but trust me, it’s great. You may know it from the viral clip of one of the main characters singing ‘I don’t really wanna do the work today.’

You can watch the full musical here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmVuNlu0LCk

Special Mentions

Company

Musical by Stephen Sondheim about a man unable to commit to a relationship, surrounded by his friends who are all in couples. However, the award-winning 2018 West End revival chose to change the genders of some of the characters. The main character Robert became ‘Bobbie’ (although all of her love interests were gender-swapped as well). One of the originally M/F couples became an M/M couple. It opened on Broadway for about a week before the Covid outbreak so that will be one to look out for.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtDK03y4gT0

In the Heights

A musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda about the Latin American community living in Washington Heights in New York. The original theatre production has no explicitly queer characters. However, in the upcoming movie version (that was meant to be released this summer but has been pushed back to next summer) it has been confirmed that the characters of Daniela and Carla (Daphne Rubin-Vega and Stephanie Beatriz) will be explicitly a couple.

I absolutely love this musical and the trailer for the movie looks beautiful check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0CL-ZSuCrQ

[juju-on-that-yeet]

Reparations

Whumptober 2020 Day 10: They Look So Pretty When They Bleed Prompt: Blood Loss

Summary: On the third day of Dr. Iplier's disappearance, Yandereplier gets tired of waiting and searches for - and finds - his father himself. (continued from “Handled”)

Warnings: Blood, aftermath of torture, blood loss symptoms

Read on AO3 (Full Whumptober 2020 series)

Enjoy!

~

It’s not until King goes into the clinic in the late morning for a budding sore throat that the egos begin to realize that Dr. Iplier is missing.

“The Host has told Dr. Iplier not to go too far on his walks,” Host mutters, curled in his seat at the emergency meeting, hands tangled in his hair. “Host told him, he told him–”

“Well, I hope he’s not lost,” Wilford says, too casual as always. “He wouldn’t just scurry off, would he?”

“I never sensed anything,” Silver mumbles nervously, “But last night was…busy, I guess you’d call it, so I don’t know.”

“The Googles are in charge of the clinic until we find him,” Dark says, aura crackling below his words. “And we will find him.”

But that’s easier said than done.

The Host tries to retroactively find out what happened to Dr. Iplier, but it’s already been too long, and Host’s narrations can’t go back far enough. It takes two days for the Googles to trace the signal of Dr. Iplier’s cell phone – only to find the phone in a dumpster, with nothing on it to help the search further. The egos don’t stop looking, but with the phone giving no leads, there’s nothing else to go on.

Everyone is stewing over the disappearance, and one of the egos taking it the hardest is Yandere. He has to wonder if Dr. Iplier gets even half this worried when Yandere takes too long to get home at night – and if so, he can understand why he gets so paranoid. Yandere’s done his own canvassing, his own peering into shady streets and abandoned buildings, trying to find where his father could be. He hardly eats, he hardly sleeps. Dark tells him to let the others handle it, Wilford tells him not to worry, Chrome tells him that he’ll give Yandere updates as they come, but none of it is enough. None of it eases the gnawing fear in Yandere’s gut. He knows what they say about missing persons cases, he knows that recovery of a living person is unlikely after those first twenty-four hours. He also knows that if Dr. Iplier were to die, he might not be popular enough to come back. It makes Yandere angry, but it scares him, too. He’s scared. Dark is there for him when he’s lonely, Wilford helps him through sadness, Chrome is good at managing his anger, but Dr. Iplier was always the one Yandere went to for help with fear. Without him, Yandere is lost.

On the third day of Dr. Iplier’s disappearance, Yandere has an idea.

Patient records.

Dr. Iplier’s told him stories before, stories of angry patients or angry relatives, of the things they’d say or do if treatments failed or didn’t work as well as they wanted. The cell phone in the garbage shows forethought, planning, not a random attack. It could be a patient, or a relative, and Yandere could find it in the clinic’s patient files.

He manages to sneak into the clinic without alerting Plus and walks out with Dr. Iplier’s work laptop, taking it to his room to search. The records are all there, either digital only or scanned versions of paper copies. Yandere looks through them, starting with the most recent first, searching for grievous injuries and deaths, keeping an eye out for familiar situations. Dr. Iplier never names names, but he tells Yandere plenty as he’s bandaging him up after Yandere’s nights out causing trouble.

He’s spent hours poring over files before he finds something promising: the case of Kelsey Millfield, a sixteen-year-old car crash victim who was in the clinic two months ago. She’d died soon after admission, and the file notes that her father, Roger, had reacted extremely poorly. Yandere vaguely recalls Dr. Iplier sadly telling Yandere about Kelsey and Roger, how upset and angry Roger was over Kelsey, how he blamed Dr. Iplier for not being able to save her. It might be a long shot, but…Kelsey’s address, and by extension Roger’s address, is right there. It wouldn’t be that hard to do a little reconnaissance, would it?

Yandere knows he should bring his findings to someone else, but he doesn’t want to waste time, doesn’t want to risk being told that it’s a pointless avenue. And maybe he’s also hoping to get a little revenge for the past two sleepless nights.

It’s already dark, given how long Yandere’s spent looking at the clinic records. He leaves the building and heads for Roger’s house unnoticed.

He gets there easily. It’s a modest home, with a detached garage. The lights are off inside. Yandere sneaks around to the back, and sees a pair of bulkhead doors on the back wall, probably leading to a basement. There’s a crumpled tarp in the yard, folded up haphazardly. Looking closely at it, Yandere can see dried blood caked into the folds. He begins to hear a voice coming from through the bulkhead doors, faint. Yandere hazards a few steps closer to them, keeping an eye on the house, ready to take cover if the lights flick on. Nothing happens, and Yandere keeps walking closer to the bulkhead doors, past the bloody tarp, until he can understand the voice.

“…Trees of green,” sings the wavering, weak, yet unmistakable voice of Dr. Iplier, “Red r-roses too…”

Yandere’s heart twists over itself. He forgets to be quiet as he rushes forward to get into the basement. The doors are locked from the inside, and Yandere lacks the patience for lock-picking, so he shoves his katana through the mechanism, destroying it. The metal-on-metal crunch must startle Dr. Iplier, for he stops singing for a moment as Yandere pulls the doors open.

“Oh, where was it…” he mumbles, “I hear babies crying…no, I w-wasn’t there yet. Oh, where…”

Yandere runs down the stairs and into the basement, finding Dr. Iplier, chained by one hand to a pillar. He looks over at Yandere, and even at a distance, Yandere can see he’s horribly pale.

“Dad!” Yandere cries, dashing to Dr. Iplier’s side. It’s not until he gets there that he notices the confused glaze in his eyes, the quick and shallow breaths he’s taking, and worst of all, the absence of Dr. Iplier’s right hand and the ragged, meaty stump there instead.

“Oh no, Dad,” Yandere gasps, unable to take his eyes off the injury. It’s still open and weepy, unable to scab over and heal on its own. There’s only a few spots of blood on the ground, but Yandere expects most of Dr. Iplier’s lost blood is wrapped up in the tarp in the backyard. Blood loss would certainly explain Dr. Iplier’s pale skin, his odd behavior.

“Sweetheart, is that you?” Dr. Iplier asks faintly, “Why am I…why am I awake s-still? I’m tired, love…”

“Dad, no,” Yandere says quickly, taking out a short dagger to cut Dr. Iplier’s left hand free of the chains, “Don’t sleep yet, sleep when we get home.”

“It’s not my fault, darling, I t-told him,” Dr. Iplier mumbles, “I said, I told him…what are the words, Yandere? I keep…keep forgetting.”

“Don’t worry about it, Dad,” Yandere murmurs, fighting back the tears that prick his eyes to see Dr. Iplier like this. He hugs Dr. Iplier, putting his arms around his neck. Dr. Iplier’s skin is cold and clammy. “We’re gonna get out of here and go home, you just have to wait a little longer.”

Dark can only teleport to places he’s already been, but Wilford can go anywhere, so long as he knows what the place he’s going looks like. All Yandere needs is to take a photo of the room, send it to Wilford, and wait for Wilford to come get him. He’s done as much before when he was in trouble. But he hears footsteps coming from upstairs, doors opening.

Roger knows that Yandere’s here.

Yandere can’t help but sneer as he takes his arms away from Dr. Iplier to stand. When Roger rushes down the basement stairs and comes into view, disheveled and in pajamas, Yandere is standing, ready for him, mouth snarling and eyes bright red. Roger stops in his tracks, astonished, then angry.

“How did you get in here!?” he yells, “I threw out his phone!”

“So you’re the piece of shit who kidnapped my father,” Yandere growls, unsheathing his katana.

“He killed my daughter,” Roger snaps, face tight with emotion, “He let her die. This is the least he deserved.”

“Is that your version of justice!?” Yandere cries, “You’re going to kill my dad and destroy another family just to make yourself feel a little better??”

“I–” Roger’s eyes go wide. He lists to the side, grabs the bannister of the staircase for support.

“You’re a coward,” Yandere snarls, “You’re scum. And you’re going to pay.” He grins wickedly. “How about a hand for a hand, huh? It’s only fair.”

“Yan, baby, Yan,” Dr. Iplier suddenly says, trying to shout but only managing a normal speaking volume, “D-Don’t hurt him, I know you, don’t…red roses, too…”

“But Dad,” Yandere gasps, “Dad, he hurt you!”

“He’s hurt, too,” Dr. Iplier continues, “Him too, love, h-him…what are the words? I forget, trees of green, oh, trees…”

Yandere glares at Roger, and sees in Roger’s eyes helplessness, despair, grief so raw that it almost gives Yandere pause. He understands that he’s looking into the eyes of a man who’s lost everything. After several long moments, Roger speaks.

“You’re his son, huh?” Roger sighs.

“Yes,” Yandere answers, still glaring, “I’ve been looking for him ever since you took him.”

Yandere doesn’t know what Roger sees in Yandere’s eyes. Maybe fury, maybe disgust, maybe bloodlust, maybe even fear that Dr. Iplier is moments from slipping into sleep and never waking up. Whatever it is that Roger sees, it’s enough to make him sigh shakily and turn away.

“Just…go,” he mumbles, quiet and sad, “Take him with you. Just go.” He walks back up the stairs without another word, shutting the basement door behind him.

Yandere stares for a moment, speechless. A part of him wants to rush after Roger, make him pay like he said he would. But even more important to Yandere than revenge is Dr. Iplier, who’s delirious with blood loss, only half-conscious, and in desperate need of help.

“Proud of you,” Dr. Iplier mumbles, “Proud, s-sweetheart, you…skies of blue, skies…Yan, why am I awake?”

“So you can stay alive,” Yandere murmurs, taking a photo of the basement with his cell phone, “Just a little longer, alright?” He fires off a text to Wilford with the photo and a quick explanation and kneels beside Dr. Iplier. “It’s over, Dad, it’s over.”

“It’s over,” Dr. Iplier repeats, “Dark sacred nights, d-dark…it’s over, it’s dark, Roger…Roger and Kelsey, it’s over…But it ended already, l-love, it already died…” He looks at Yandere, sadness peeking through his dazed expression. “Don’t k-kill him, sweetheart, he’s dead already…”

As the pair wait for Wilford, Yandere can’t help but look at the spot where Roger stood earlier, remember the grief in his eyes, and shiver.

[youngblizzardglitter]

Remember A Few Months Ago?

"What?" Terry asked looking at his younger brother Ace stood intensely. "Yeah what of it?"

"You told me we were here for space. Was that a lie?" He asks looking up at him he hears he was angry but couldn't see it his eyes hidden by black glass.

"No." He said trying to sound as normal as possible. It wasn't a lie more of a half-truth as it was reason number two.

"Then what was that scene you made at the Fizzes party? You said you didn't know him."

"I don't!" Terry's mind completely slipped on the fact that Ace saw him out Fernando on his bullshit.

"You know Estaban!" He says annoyed that yet again Terry was treating him like a child.

Your always like this. They both thought annoyed.

"Steve." He corrects rubbing his head. He looked at the clock 1 pm. He can't send him to bed or even tell him to go do something.

"Look this is something we can't talk about because of-"

"Mom?" He says getting closer. "Did she die because-"

"She died of bad health." He snaps annoyed now. "And a lot of factors played into that."

"One of them was the Fizzes?"

"Ace-"

"Terry, please just tell-"

"Alejandro!" He snaps as Ace frowned. "Just let me take care if this okay?"

"Fine." He snaps leaving. "I'll just be left in the dark like always."

"Ace-" His door slammed like an angsty teen.

"This family." He says thinking back on Rose's words. 

"This family can be a bit much sometimes. More so now that you too are a part of it."

"I mean no offense." She said quickly realizing what it sounded like. "I just-"

"I get it." He had smiled knowing it was true.

"Ace am going out okay?" He said knocking on the door. "Leave a note and you can co do whatever."

He knew he was in there. He had shut the windows from the outside last night as they were leaving and didn't want something coming in like last year.

Terry quickly showered put on some clothes and took with him his bag putting his letters. He needed to know if he could move with all that's going on or if it would look bad and make sure he had enough money to move back.

The bank was a long walk and Terry felt like he could use it to clear his head on what went down earlier. He wondered how fast the news would flood to other people.

They were a hundred people at that party everyone saw it not doubts- His train of thought stopped abruptly when a realization bounced off.

Ace was at that party he saw me go off on them. The Fizzes house was a long drive that's why I flew they were having a party early to make sure everyone could come. Why the fuck did I not make that connection?!

He quickly took out his phone as he stopped a block or two before making it he need to make sure Ace was okay and well.

Fine. Am going to Valeries be back later.

He must be thinking that I lied. I have in some degrees but it was only for his best.

But who are you to decide that?

As that snapped him out of it Terry's ears heard something a few blocks away.

"Did Steve ever say anything?" A girl named Maxine asked. "Like he got slapped into a wall!"

"Isn't he mad?" Andria her best friend scoffed. "Of course he is. He just ruined his parent's marriage and slapped him for no reason."

"Terry's never reliable anyway he's always slacking off and being rude. He's bound to fight him." Andria said clicking away at her phone.

Like some over glorified child abuser can take me. He thinks ever since he came into the show the teens haven't won any awards he hasn't gotten.

"And it's so unfair how he so perfect for everyone else! All the villains love him and hate us! None of them know how shitty he is-"

Terry smirked as Maxine made eye contact with him.

"Oh really now?" He says looking them up and down. "What's Stevie boy gonna do?" He laughs when they don't say anything back.

"Funny." He says walking away he always hated the cheerleaders. Ever since Sara told everyone he broke up with her through a text they hated him he hadn't though. They hated him just like he hated his bank statement three thousand looked back at him mocking him.

It was enough to fly back home but not too to pay for anything relating to his case he needed to call his family lawyer and ask.

"Hey, Terry." Her voice proclaimed as papers were being moved. "Gald you phoned did you hear that your case is being challenged by Fernando Fizz?"

"Yeah. Just got the letters. You need those?"

"Yeah. And I need you to come here as fast as you can to work this out. Your case was already as tricky as it is. With Ace's bio father wanting custody and you being a teen he might win."

"Can't I sue him back? He says annoyed. "He owes thousands of child support-"

"Trust me I know but your mother never made a case she-"

"Died before she could make one." He finished somberly his ears started to ring.

"...Yeah." She answers back knowing it was a sore subject. "Does Ace know?"

"For the most part some of it yeah. I need to sit him down first."

"Okay then. We have two weeks before summer ends I think you should tell him and come deal with this."

"Okay." He sighs. He never thought he'd have to tell Ace like this he wanted to wait until he asked again or was eighteen.

"Okay, Terry just go bake a pie for something." He tried calming himself his mom use to do the same thing and he picked it up somehow.

He had enough food to spare for one plus he needed to talk about everything with Ace.

He has the right to know his family. Whether it not their bad people and I can't say much either.

The walk was shorter as he got the fruit and went to check it out. He should be back in no one swipe.

"Did you hear that Ferna has an affair kid?"

Oh my fucking God. He thinks knowing what was going on.

"No."  A make whispered hearing his wife.

"Yeah, some teen came up in the party about child support money he owes her."

"He cheated with a teen?" His mouth opened in shock. "On Rose?"

"She seems fine with it she spent a few hours talking with her. She threw him into the pool."

"Oh my goodness where did you learn this?"

"It's all the guests are talking about. My friend heard it from her daughter. All the girls won't stop talking."

"How's Steve the poor baby."

The only thing they got right is that he's a baby. He looks over as the lady scanned one last item.

"Don't know he did get slapped into a wall. He's definitely hurt psychically if not emotionally."

"Wow. What are they gonna do?"

"Next person sir." She said as the person in front left.

He got out of there quickly not wanting to know more. He didn't think it was spread so quickly it had only been four hours.

He breathed deeply when he got home Ace's door was open meaning he was gone.

Do I have to leave him here? He might choose to stay here.

No, he wouldn't.  He might Nigel is here he closer with the friends he has here.

Rose and Fernando could provide for him better than I ever could. They're loaded with money and have millions saved up I don't even have enough to challenge his case.

What if he does win? What would he do?

Ace might not want to see me after I lied he might hate me if he doesn't already.

Moms probably rolling in her grave. She must be pissed I didn't keep my agreement. Am handing him over to the people that killed her.

What if they kill Ace? What if he ends up hurt?

Stevens just like his father he might.

Then am going to be alone then am going to be responsible and then I have to live with that guilt.

Am I going to even have money to pay for the change?

"Please come to me if you need anything." Roses words came back to him.

"Could I really ask though?" He says to one he looks back to the clock 3 pm he heard something.

Ace wouldn't come back for an hour or more who the fuck was that?

He quickly went to get it hoping it was him he got the man of the hour himself.

Steven Fizz with a banged-up cheek.

He slammed the door. Not today no fucking way.

"Terry come on!" He says banging on the door. "Can we talk?"

"No!" He yells from the kitchen. "Get out!"

"Why do you have to be like this?! Can we not have a talk person to person?!"

"Fuck you!" He yells back. "Get the fuck out!"

"Terry." He says to the door he sounds more disappointed than angry.

"Estaban." He says rolling up the curtains of the window. He loved the way his face looked when he called him his real name he smirked like an evil character.

"Terry, can we talk?"

"We are aren't we?"

"Face to face."

"We are aren't we?" He says like a broken record.

"Fine. The boy I helped in the hospital was that Ace?"

"No."

"Your lying. I saw him at the party talking with Nigel. Is he in the knd?"

"No." That was actually the truth.

"Are you going to be like this the whole time?"

"Yes."

Steve sighed running a hand through his hair. "My dad won't say anything and my mom was the one who talked to you-"

"And it was confidential. It doesn't concern you."

"It kinda did when you-"

"Your father ruined everything, not me." He butts in knowing where it was going.

"Ruined the party by outing my BS." He continues. "I have a half brother?"

"Yeah." He confirms after a long pause. He looks at the clock ten minutes had passed he should get this done by then.

"How old is he?"

"He's not a baby." He sasses he noticed the way he easses up as if he was no longer stressed.

"Can I talk to him?"

"No."

"Terry-"

"He's not here. He's at his friends house." He didn't know if that was true Ace was all over the place sometimes.

Steve nodded thinking. He needed something to know his mom just said not to worry about it. His dad was worse

"When is he coming back?"

"Don't know."

"He looks nothing like my dad. He looks more like me surprisingly." He laughs trying to get Terry to ease up. "Your siblings it's natural."

"Do we have anything in common besides good looks?"

"Funny," Terry smirks looking for an exit.

"I got a pie in the oven you should go."

"Can you at least tell me when we could talk?" Terry opened the door surprised. Steve shifted back thinking he was going to get slapped only for Terry to walk past him.

Steve looked back and saw the boy he met in the hospital. He seemed perfectly fine from when he first saw him. He smiled seeing Terrace bend down and hug him Ace protested when Terry kissed his face.

"Wait here," Terry said as he brought the boy into the house.

[sleeplessdreamer14]

Seeing as you've posted what Sophie's dad looks like not too long ago, maybe you could give us some more info on the man? Perhaps some headcanons about mama and papa Iris?

Oh boy, here we go!! Info on Sophie’s parents!

Connor ✨

was born into royalty but ran away at the age of 15-16 (it’s a little complicated. I’ll explain later)

met Theodosia when they were around 16-17 and married her about 4 years later

was absolutely elated when he found out Theodosia was having a baby.

cried out of happiness when Sophie was born.

swore to love and protect her for as long as he lived.

BEST. DAD. EVER.

Connor used to take late night shifts whenever he could to help his wife, and was always the one to hold Sophie when she got scared during storms.

taught Sophie from the start that home and loved ones are more important than materialistic possessions

supportive af

soft yet protective

“Connor, come back to bed.” “No. I read somewhere that babies can randomly stop breathing in their sleep, so I’m watching our daughter like a freaking hawk.”

cried at Titanic

has a hella ton of respect for women

read Sophie a bunch of adventure books at bedtime, promoting her love of adventure

would sometimes carry Sophie in one of those baby carrier slings when he went out (she just slept for the most part)

Proud Crime Dad ™

got super protective when others commented on Sophie’s freckles, seeing as she was the only person in the galaxy to have them

“What’s that in her face?” “It’s called beauty!”

Chaotic Good

Robin Hood of the Treasure Planet universe. “We never rob, we just sort of borrow a bit from those who can afford it.”

if anyone even so much as looked at his wife the wrong way, he would normally just go and (verbally) beat the shit out of them

but insult his daughter, insult his baby, you better pick a god and pray for mercy

“hold my daughter, I’m about to go feral.”

Mess with this man’s family = most fatal mistake of your life

when Sophie met Jim, Connor approved of him instantly, seeing how polite he was to his daughter

if it were anyone else, he would probably have gone into protective mode

hated Leland

Connor also knew about Jim’s situation at home with his father, and did his best to step in as a father figure whenever he could

(Sophie was more than happy to share her dad with Jim from time to time)

Connor would spend as much time with his family as possible

on multiple occasions, he’s fallen asleep on the floor with little Sophie curled up on top of him, a napping blanket draped over them and a Peter Pan storybook lying on the floor

played a few string instruments (banjo, guitar, harp) for Theodosia when they fell in love, and for Sophie when she was little, prompting her to start learning to play the ukulele

definitely sang Waterbound to her on rainy days while softly playing on his banjo

also Lana Del Ray’s Season Of The Witch managed to put Sophie out like a light in minutes.

───── sad part. ─────

obviously being a spacer meant taking some risks, so he records a bunch of messages for Sophie on a little gadget every time he leaves for work. (Silver has it)

but when he left his home that one day, none of them were expecting him to not come back

the cannon blast didn’t injure him beyond recognition, but it did a fatal number on his torso

in his last moment of life, he thought of his wife and daughter, and how much he loved both of them more than life itself, apologizing for not being able to come home

has been watching over his family ever since then

all he really wanted was to give his daughter the freedom of choice he never had as a child

in the end, the greatest adventure of his life wasn’t any of the voyages he went on, but meeting Theodosia and raising his daughter with the love of his life

Theodosia ✨

grew up on Montressor as an only child and daughter of a tailor

loved dancing and horseback riding

was close friends with Sarah from 16 years old, but lost touch after a couple years

always dreamt of marrying and raising a family from a young age

had a slight drinking problem from the age of about 17

Although she drank often, it wasn’t too much of a problem (in all honesty, it was a bit more humorous than anything)

“Yeah, I have a drinking probelm. The problem is that I don’t have a freakin’ drink in my hand.”

but after she met Connor, she began to cut back of the alcohol

the last time she had a drink was on their wedding night

as soon as she discovered that she was with a baby, she stopped completely

was a little anxious to tell Connor, but was quickly put at ease when he beamed with delight and pulled her into a hug

wrote to Sarah about it, but was a little nervous about her response, seeing as they hadn’t spoken in about 3 years (but Sarah was very happy to hear the news, and wrote back saying congratulations and that she just had a son a few months ago)

Moominmamma vibes

her due date was around the first week of October, but she gave birth about a week and a half early (September 23rd)

she was so worried that Sophie wouldn’t make it, seeing how small she was when she was born. But Connor reassured her that she would grow to become someone extraordinary.

Connor wanted to do the Circle of Life thing w/ the baby but she said no... at least not until they got home

when her daughter was born with freckles, she was a bit curious as to how that was possible, but still loved her all the same

when she realized that Sophie looked a lot like her dad, she knew that she was gonna grow to be a bit of a handful

lucky she had two hands, plus an extra set to help her

they enrolled Sophie in school early since she could read by the time she was about 2 & 1/2. (smart kid)

on Sophie’s first day of kindergarten, she felt so bad when Sophie got all sad because she was in an unfamiliar place and her parents wouldn’t be there

but when Jim spotted the little girl sitting in the corner all by herself, he came over to comfort her, and they stayed together for the rest of the day

Theodosia and Sarah were both very happy to see that both their children had become friends

even though it was clear how her marriage was going downhill, Theodosia did her best to support Sarah

───── sad part. ─────

there would be times that Connor would come home a day or two late, but she still worried

when it rolled into day three, she received news from the police department that her husband had died out on the field

and in that one moment, it felt as though she’d lost everything

and then she remembered Sophie, leaving her to wonder howin the world she was supposed to tell her seven year old daughter that she’d lost her dad.

it took a while, but when Theodosia returned home, she just barely managed to not cry when she broke the bad news to her daughter.

after the funeral, things were never the same.

Theodosia wound up having to go to about a year or so of therapy to even begin to move on or at the very least heal from Connor’s death.

but Sophie didn’t go to therapy, or counseling, or anything. She just sort of closed herself off for a while. And that scared Theodosia.

worries the world for her daughter, even when she insists that she’s okay

fell ill with anemia about 5 years after Connor’s passing

when they found the map, Theodosia was very opposed to letting Sophie go, but she knew that there was no talking her out of it

while the kids were away, Theodosia considered having a drink, but stopped herself

when she and Sarah received news that the RLS Legacy had returned, she refused to stay home.

When she reunited with Sophie, she broke out into tears, thanking whatever deity was up there that her baby had come home safe

Special Taglist: @thenewnio @wallymcflubberfins @from-shattered-stars @catrillion @carlottastudios @friendofcybermen @snowflake-dreamer @thatonerockerfreak

[syntaxeme]

Nowhere to Go But Up ch. 1

Chapter word count: 3859 Rating: T Pairing: Angel/Val Read on AO3: [x] Next chapter: [coming soon!] Story summary: Angel's history of drugs, gangs, and porn isn't quite as glamorous as most people think. This is the story of how a scrawny, lonely dead boy named Anthony moved up (or down) in the world and became Hell's #1 sex symbol, Angel Dust. The only way to the top is to claw your way up from the bottom.

— — –

When Anthony got to Hell, it didn’t surprise him to find that his old man was already there. Where the fuck else would he have gone? As ‘religious’ as their Catholic family had always been, his father was a piece of shit by all accounts, a sinner through and through. It took a couple weeks for him to figure it out, since people called him ‘Henroin’ down here—but even that made sense. Smack was always his drug of choice in life, so why should death be any different?

It took some doing, some seducing of guards and general sexual favors for his advisors (even though Anthony’s body wasn’t exactly how he remembered it, he still got used to it quickly), but Anthony eventually got an audience with him. And again, unsurprisingly, Henroin wasn’t happy to see him.

“Shit, Anton, you died even faster than I expected,” the boss—even a boss in Hell, apparently—growled, unimpressed. He looked every bit as spidery as Anthony had become, maybe even more so. “Just when I thought you couldn’t disappoint me more.”

“Thanks, Pop, good to see you too,” Anthony said with a roll of his eyes.

“Well? What do you want?” Henroin asked flatly.

“What do you fucking think? I’m your son. Shouldn’t I be involved in your business down here?”

His father let out a cold laugh. “When have you ever been useful to my business? If your brother was here, or even Molly, they might be useful. You? You’re worthless. Always have been. I dunno what you expected to change now you’re dead.”

That was a fair point. His father had never appreciated anything about who he was or how he felt, and vice-versa. Why would he care what happened to Anthony’s soul for the rest of his immortal life? It was Hell. Nobody cared about anybody, as Anthony was soon to learn.

He spent his next few months (assuming he was even perceiving time right in this weird, fucked-up realm) on the streets, whoring around, doing whatever it took to survive. He got ripped off more than once, some demon fucking him all night then beating the shit out of him when he mentioned payment. He figured out pretty quick that drugs were every bit as big in Hell as they were on Earth, so that was where most of his money went. Just to not be conscious. Just to forget for a minute.

It was supposed to be a punishment, wasn’t it? What little he remembered of church was that Hell was where Bad People went because they’d done Bad Things and deserved to Feel Bad. Well, he was, he had, and he did. God, he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d felt like anything other than absolute shit. It might’ve stayed that way forever—or at least until the next extermination—if he hadn’t met Cherri.

That morning, he was slumped against a gutted storefront, his eyes clouded, his head foggy as he was still coming off a high from two days ago. Some woman strolled up to him and nudged his leg with a booted foot. “Hey,” she said flatly. “Get off my street, skid, you’re making me look bad.”

“Get out of my face, bitch,” Anthony grumbled, turning away, covering his eyes to hide from the sunrise’s glaring light.

“Ha!” The demoness bent at the waist, grasped a handful of his hair, and forced his head up. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”

“I said fuck off!” Anthony snapped, jerking away from her hand. “Are you fucking deaf? Get away from me.”

The girl laughed again and gestured at a couple of big demons standing at her back. “Bring him.” Although he didn’t want to be taken who-knew where for who-knew what reason, Anthony really didn’t have the energy to fight. They took him across Pentagram City in a banged-up towncar driven by the girl-boss herself, then dragged him inside what he recognized as a shitty little gang complex.

“You’re tweaked out of your fucking head, aren’t you?” When she grabbed his hair again and forced him to look at her, his eyes were clear enough to realize that she only had one above her sharp-toothed grin. He sneered and tried to escape her grasp, but she just laughed as she released him. “Yeah, that’s what I figured. Put his ass to bed.”

Despite Anthony’s attempts to tempt them with his body—probably pretty sloppy attempts, considering how fucked up he was—the guys working for her ignored him and dragged him off to a sort of cell, a bare room with a bed and a barred window, then locked him up alone. What’s-her-tits appeared in a slot in the cell door and told him once he calmed down, maybe they could try talking again. Considering how bad he was coming down, how miserable and unhinged he was, he screamed, he fought, he clawed at his own skin, but nothing did him any good. He tore the room apart. He shouted until his throat shredded and bled. He dissolved into sobbing and hyperventilating in a corner of the room. God, everything, everything felt so fucking bad, and now that he didn’t have some kind of distraction, drugs or sex or booze, whatever, he was being forced to feel every bit of it.

Sometime while he was passed out, they put water inside the room for him, and he savored every drop on his damaged throat. They delivered food, and he ate for the first time in who-knew how long. There was a period, he didn’t have any idea how long, where he was barely even aware of what was going on around him, too angry and scared and agonized to keep track. This wasn’t any better. He wished he could just fucking die to escape it, like he had on Earth, but that wasn’t an option here. Maybe he deserved this. Maybe he had done enough wrong in life to belong in this shithole for the rest of eternity.

Days, maybe weeks passed in this cycle of misery and pain and eventual, merciful oblivion once he passed out. Finally, the girl-boss came back by his room and opened the door to stroll inside, apparently not worried about him trying to escape. Which he didn’t. Dropping to sit in front of the mattress that had been serving as his bed, she rested her chin in one hand. “So?” she prompted. “Who are you?”

“Nobody,” Anthony said quietly, having gotten past all his anger and violence to the point that he was just exhausted and depressed now.

The demoness, his captor, rolled her eye. “Anyway, I’m Cherri. And you are…?”

Despite his reluctance, he huffed out, “Anthony.”

“Great. I’m gonna call you Tony,” she said with a grin, leaning forward to watch him curiously. “What’s your story? How’d you end up on my side of town?”

“What do you care? You saw me before. You’ve seen how pathetic I am all this time,” he muttered, unable to even look at her. “I’m nothing. I’m nobody. If you’re gonna kill me or whatever, just fucking do it.”

“God, you’re depressing,” she said. “Well if you ain’t gonna tell me, you got anybody you know down here? Friends? Family? Some gang I can get you back to?”

“No. I mean, there’s my dad, but he doesn’t give a shit about me. People call him Henroin.”

“Holy fuck!” Cherri crowed, her eye growing wide. “You’re Henroin’s kid? I didn’t think—”

“Didn’t you hear me? I said he doesn’t care,” Anthony snapped. “It’s not like you can ransom me to him or whatever, because he won’t pay.” He knew that for a fact, having experienced something similar in life.

“Huh. Can’t really say I’m surprised. I’ve always heard he’s an asshole.” Refusing to let the subject go, refusing to leave him to suffer alone, she suggested, “So answer me yourself.”

“What’s the point?”

“The point is I wanna know. Look, I know you’re in the middle of some bad withdrawal right now. Like, I can tell, I’ve been there, I see it on you. It fucking sucks. Makes you wish you were deader than you already are. But this place ain’t something you get out of by losing your will to live, and eternity is a long time to keep feeling like that or drugging yourself stupid, you know?” She started bouncing one leg, apparently a little restless but keeping her attention on him. “If you quit being so mopey about it, I bet I can help.”

“Why? Why bother with my mopey ass?” Anthony demanded, and Cherri grinned back.

“I dunno, you were kind of a bitch that first time we talked, and I kind of liked it,” she confessed. “Plus, most everybody around here knows better than to fuck with me, so maybe I like the change of pace.”

“Look, if you think I’m gonna be all grateful you ‘saved my life’ and we’re gonna be best pals, you’ve got another thing coming,” Anthony argued, finally managing to muster a little irritation. “I ain’t here to entertain you, and I ain’t fucking you either. If that’s what you—”

Cherri dropped her head back and let out a loud, grating laugh. “I’m not into dudes, you stuck-up prick,” she snickered, though she sounded more amused than offended. “So ditto. How about you take a few more days to chill the fuck out and then we’ll talk about you maybe joining my crew?”

***

It wasn’t fast, it wasn’t easy, but Anthony eventually got used to his role at Cherri’s place. Every day or so, maybe a couple times a day, she would come by his room and they would chat about whatever—his life before all this, her life, her new life, and the shitty excuse for ‘living’ he’d been doing ever since his dad kicked him out. After all, he had nothing better to do with his time, and he found talking with her worked to distract him from all the shit his body was still going through.

She told him more about the gang and her role in it, about how satisfying it was to kick some douchey demon’s ass when he was trying to horn in on her turf. She was shocked that he was a mobster’s son in life and still didn’t know how to use a damn gun, which she said was a crime in itself. When he mentioned the demons who had taken advantage of him before they met, Cherri was absolutely livid and swore on the spot that she was going to teach him how to defend himself.

“You can’t let them get away with that shit,” she growled. “If they think you’re too weak to stop them, fuckers down here will eat you alive. You gotta show ‘em you ain’t somebody they want to mess with.”

Considering how totally opposed it was to the rest of his experience in Hell so far, it kind of threw him off to be around someone who gave a shit about other people again. Maybe not all other people, but Cherri took care of her own gang, at least, and now she was asking him to be part of it. It wasn’t like he had any better options to pursue. So once he had finally gotten all the crystal and cravings out of his system, once he was himself enough to care where his future was going, he left his cell (which hadn’t been locked for some time) and found Cherri to accept her offer.

It turned out that when you weren’t trying to take on everything by yourself, Hell really wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t 24/7 misery, at least, now that Anthony wasn’t completely alone and struggling for life on the street. True to her word, Cherri trained him with guns. And knives. And bombs. And poisons. She even helped him figure out how to use his own spindly, lanky body to his advantage in a fight; it turned out he was a lot more flexible and agile than he’d realized. The inherent violence of Hell was obviously her favorite part of the whole deal, and with her encouragement, Anthony started enjoying it too. It was nice to not feel powerless for once. And even in the moments when he was overwhelmed, it was nice to know there were people on his side. Cherri’s gang was made up of junkies and criminals, but this group of sinners stuck together and looked out for each other. Good to have a family that actually wanted him for once.

***

About ten years after his death, there was a big turf war between their gang and some bird-looking asshole who took himself way too seriously. Called himself Bedlam. If he had been upfront about his whole hostile takeover bullshit, Cherri’s gang would’ve wiped his, easy. But he decided to come at them sideways with a ‘sneak attack’ and took out a third of their guys overnight. Cherri was furious but a little panicked over the sudden decrease in their forces. As far as Anthony could tell, she’d never been in a fight this big, this serious, and it was really getting to her.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” he asked, more laidback than her, as usual. “It’s not like we don’t have way more muscle regardless. He can throw his ‘cultured’ fuckwads at us all day and we’ll gut every one of ‘em.”

“Muscle ain’t gonna win a fucking war, Tony,” she argued, holed up in her ‘office’ and trying to figure out how to approach this. “If he’s smart enough and he pulls another sneaky trick like this, we can kiss our cozy setup here good-bye. Goddamn it!” She grabbed up her desk chair and slung it out the window behind her, not flinching in the slightest at the sound of shattering glass. She had a point Anthony couldn’t argue with; he’d seen enough of his dad’s business to know brains beat brawn nine times out of ten.

“We need guys who are a little bit of both,” he mused, tapping his foot idly from his seat by the wall. “Like, you got your baseline soldiers and your advisors. You got your bruisers and your assassins. You need more of those guys. Specialists, you know? Precision killers. Right?”

“Yeah,” Cherri said thoughtfully, nodding slowly as she considered what he was saying. “Yeah, I think you’re right, babe. But people like that don’t come cheap. I’d have to…I might have to… Ah, fuck.” With a defeated growl, she shoved away from her desk and marched toward the door.

“Hey, where we going?” Anthony asked, hopping up to follow after her.

“Not we. Just me. I’m going to get some help. I don’t wanna do it, but we ain’t got much choice,” she told him as she strode through the complex without once looking back.

“Hey, why can’t I help? You know I can be persuasive, bitch. Let me—”

“Tony.” She rounded on him, her sneer less vicious and more nervous. “Just stay here, okay? I’ll be back and I’ll talk the whole deal out with you. The only way I’m gonna get this done is if I do it on my own. Okay?”

Seeing how shaken up she was and not wanting to make it worse, he heaved a sigh and threw his hands up. “Yeah, sure, whatever. Try not to die.”

He watched her car drive off, both pairs of arms crossed in irritation. But Cherri had been doing this boss thing for a while. He had to trust she knew how to do it. But getting excluded from the plan like this, being told “just stay at home and trust me to take care of it”? It was too reminiscent of his father and brother excluding him from family work. He hated that shit.

It took hours for Cherri to get back. Anthony stalked around the complex, waiting for a call, a sign, the sound of the car’s engine, anything. It was past midnight when she finally trudged inside, dragging her feet, looking exhausted. Anthony was lounging in her room, half-asleep in her bed when the door slammed open.

“Hey,” he said groggily, forcing himself up to look her in the face. “You look like shit. Where you been?”

“Not now.” She wandered unsteadily over to the bed and collapsed, dropping her face against her pillow. “Just. Lemme sleep. I’ll explain tomorrow.” Anthony watched her for a few seconds, realizing she was already mostly unconscious, and let out a defeated sigh. Dragging a blanket over her still form, he lay down and draped one arm over her shoulders.

“All right. Tomorrow.”

But tomorrow came, and he didn’t get his explanation. The next few days were so busy that he and Cherri hardly had time to sit down and talk; they spent too much time fighting or planning to fight or getting ambushed and then defending themselves. And even though Anthony wasn’t sure how she’d pulled it off, the boss had definitely brought in some skilled help, the kind of vicious, calculating bastards who kept cool in a fight but each did just as much damage as a team of ten amateur muscleheads.

“Shit, Cherri!” Anthony laughed during another street brawl, watching wave after wave of Bedlam’s henchmen get cut down by their reinforcements. “Where’d you find these guys? They’re brutal!”

“Didn’t I tell you I’d take care of it?” she asked with a grin, lobbing another bomb and cackling gleefully as it went off. “Nobody fucks with my people and walks away from it.”

After that point, the ‘war’ didn’t last much longer; with the new demons she’d brought in, Cherri’s gang was pretty much unstoppable, even spreading out further to take over the opposing gang’s turf. When she cornered Bedlam, it turned out he wasn’t much of a fighter himself and had to rely on his bodyguards—who had all abandoned ship when they realized they were on the losing side. Loyalty was a foreign concept to most demons, after all.

Cherri beat the absolute shit out of the guy, even shoved a bomb down his throat in her blind fury. The whole thing was real messy, and nobody walked away from it smiling. But at least it was over.

Sort of.

Sometime later in the week, as things were getting back to normal and Cherri was figuring out how to run shit now that her territory was twice as big, Anthony came to meet her in her office, only to find the door locked.

“Look, I don’t have the time right now,” he heard from inside. Cherri’s voice. He got closer and pressed his ear to the door to listen. What kind of conversation could she be having that she’d lock him out of it? “My gang still needs me directing them while we clean up this fucking mess. Tell him I’ll be there when I’m ready.”

“You better not keep him waiting too long, sweetheart,” an unfamiliar voice responded. “Val ain’t the most patient guy, and you wouldn’t want him having to collect your debt by force.”

“Who the fuck do you think you are, coming into my place and making threats? I don’t care who your boss is; if you don’t get—” Her voice cut off with what was unmistakably a slap and a cry of pain, sending Anthony’s heart rate through the roof. Without thinking, he took a step back and broke the door in with a single powerful kick, already drawing three different guns to aim at whoever was hurting his friend.

Cherri struggled to her feet behind her desk, jaws clenched in an unyielding snarl. The guy she was arguing with was huge and dressed in a suit, totally out of place among their ragtag gang. “Get the fuck away from her,” Anthony hissed. The guy looked him coldly up and down, then turned away to speak to Cherri again.

“You’ve got a week to get your ass to the studio and hold up your end of the deal. After that, there’ll be consequences.” He left the room without another glance in Anthony’s direction.

“You broke my door, you bitch,” Cherri muttered once he was gone.

“Forget that. What the fuck just happened?” Anthony demanded, putting his guns away and coming over to her desk to check on her. Her head was down, but he could still see a red mark growing on her swollen cheek. He tried to reach out, to see if there was anything he could do to help, but she swatted his hands away.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Are you kidding? That guy just knocked you on your ass. You wouldn’t’ve let him walk away without a good reason.” What was the name he had used? “Val. Who’s Val?”

Cherri was silent for a few more seconds, curling her hands into tight fists and pressing them against the desktop. Eventually, quietly, she explained, “His name’s Valentino. He’s a bigshot Overlord from the North Side. Tons of money, tons of people, tons of ‘friends in high places.’ He loaned me a bunch of his guys for the turf war, so now I…owe him.”

“Owe him what?” Anthony asked despite the sinking feeling in his stomach. Surely Cherri wouldn’t agree to what he was imagining. The longer she waited to answer, though, the worse his fears got.

“He runs Porn Studios. He’s been trying to get me to shoot with him for years, so I told him if he helped us out with Bedlam…” She trailed off with a shrug, unwilling to even say the words out loud. “We were out of options, babe. I couldn’t let the whole gang get murdered because I couldn’t lead them right. So it is what it is. I’ll go do whatever gross shit Val wants from me and we’ll move on like it didn’t happen.” Even as she was saying it, though, she seemed unsure, which was a very rare state to see her in.

Anthony wasn’t sure how to respond. Whatever Valentino was asking her to do, it was obviously something she was dreading, and he’d seen plenty of times how heated she got about anyone being pressured or forced into sex. Him, on the other hand… Well, sex just wasn’t that big a deal to him. Never had been.

Cherri had done so much for him. She was always the one backing him up in a fight, always the one who made him talk about the shit that bothered him. If it weren’t for her taking him in all those years ago, he would almost definitely be double-dead already, totally wiped from existence. There was really no way to pay her back for all that. But if she was finally in a position she couldn’t handle alone, if this was something that genuinely scared her or made her nervous, he was going to do whatever it took to help her out of it.

He would just have to convince Valentino to let him pay her debt instead.

[cyberkevvideo]

My Changes to “Way of the Wicked“, Extras 3: Extraplanar Hunters

I kind of had the first one in the back of my mind for a while, but always forgot to put it down on paper, but thanks to vlogger Dungeon Dad converting a bunch of old 3.5 and Pathfinder 1e monsters to 5e, I was reminded that these creatures were very different in 3.5 compared to Pathfinder, and why I had originally considering at least the inevitable for this adventure path.

As always, for space reasons, I’ll be cropping the encounter build.

I do not have a Patreon or a Kickstarter, but I do have a Ko-Fi page (linked) for those who would like to support my work. There is no pressure or obligation to do so, however, but a like and a share would definitely be appreciated. Of this and my older work.

Just before get to it, I hope everyone’s staying safe right now.

There are three sets of stats this time around, and two of them are actually one NPC; a hound archon and his dragon mount. More on that later, including a description regarding how the concept exists. This is what I was talking in the last entry regarding this being something that was skipped over in the Pathfinder bestiary from its 3.5 version.

I’ll say for starters, I didn’t give the NPCs any traits. Those are for PCs, more often than not, but admittedly that was a staple of Gary’s builds to try make the NPCs able to stand up to the villains more. It also felt like an in-joke that the NPCs were the heroic PCs all along. If you want to give them one trait, that’s fine, but for these ones, I didn’t feel it was overly necessary to do so. The only one I even considered was the hound archon, and only to give him armor expert to negate the final armor check penalty to skills.

For starters, inevitables are the very definition of law. Each one has a specific mandate for how things should or shouldn’t be, and how everything interacts with the multiverse.

For starters, we have a zelekhuts are defined as “ bounty hunters and executioners all rolled into one.” The PCs were supposed to die or at least be judged and sent to the salt mines. They escaped. That needs to be rectified. By all means, you can use the standard CR 9 version and have it appear during Book 2, but mine is slightly different. More so because in Book 2, unless you’re doing this incredibly early, the villains may have already amassed a literal army, if only undead. A CR 9 inevitable isn’t going to cut it. My version would appear much later, and it’s also a little different from your regular zelekhut.

I’ll say now, that the reason Judiceye is a variant is because most zelekhuts would just arrive and rain down lawful smiting on their chosen to die. But this one is more crafty. Mitra has seen what the villains can do, and how devious they are, not to mention how large their ever growing army has become. This particular zelekhut’s duty is to show up at the end of Book 3, during the winter months, free any and all prisoners as best as it can, and cause in-fighting among the bugbears and other riffraff that have joined the 9th Knot. If it can take out some unwanted undead, all the better. The PCs are supposed to lose a portion of their troops at the end of winter anyhow due to them running away and leaving their minions high and dry, so this just furthers that plot line all the while putting the PCs on edge. There’s either a traitor among them or maybe the villains just can’t control their people, showing just how unfit they are. And if they start executing their own men for not listening when it’s really just the zelekhut? All the better to use as kindling to create riots and arguments, and really give the villains a run for their money. It’d make for a long winter indeed. And right before the king shows up, or whenever the time is right in the GM’s mind, and the Knot is near their breaking point (possibly when there’s the most confusion), the zelekhut can start a major brawl and try its luck in taking out the PCs. Even better, with its greater hat of disguise, it can change itself to look like whomever it needs to. Just needs Intel first. It can be a PC, a bugbear, a vampire, the medusa half-fiend, or whoever. Doesn’t matter. Because it start a fight, then leave, and turn into someone else. Whatever needs to be done to take down the PCs.

I will not that the DD for the elemental combat style is from  the Pathfinder Disciple's Doctrine. Normally I would go OGL and Core, but this time I need some extra damage, and this was about the only way to pull it off. Also, the reason the hat’s trapped is because these things aren’t supposed to normally have treasure. This will destroy the treasure and maybe do some damage to the PCs at the same time.

JUDICEYE (CR 16; XP 76,800) Variant advanced zelekhut ranger (guildbreakerUI) 7 LN Large outsider (extraplanar, inevitable, lawful) Init +11; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, true seeing; Perception +25 DEFENSE AC 31, touch 17, flat-footed 23 (+1 armor, +7 Dex, +1 dodge, +13 natural, –1 size) hp 236 (21d10+121); regeneration 5 (chaotic) Fort +18, Ref +16, Will +15 Defensive Abilities constructed; DR 10/chaotic, DR 3/— (small ranged piercing weapons); SR 27 OFFENSE Speed 50 ft., fly 60 ft. (average) Melee 2 chains +31 (3d6+10/19–20 plus 1d6 electricity and trip) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks favored enemy (goblinoids +2), favored organization (Knots of Asmodeus +4) Spell-Like Abilities (CL 14th; concentration +18)   Constant—true seeing   At will—clairaudience/clairvoyance, dimensional anchor, dispel magic, fear (W-DC 18), hold person (W-DC 17), locate creature   3/day—hold monster (W-DC 19), mark of justice   1/week—lesser geas (W-DC 17) Ranger Spells Prepared (CL 4th; concentration +8)   2nd—chameleon stride   1st—lead blades, resist energy STATISTICS Str 30, Dex 24, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 18 Base Atk +21; CMB +32; CMD 50 (54 vs. trip) Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, EnduranceB, Improved Critical (chains), Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Attack (chains), Improved Vital Strike, Inner FlameARG, Mobility, Power Attack, Scorching WeaponsARG, Step Up, Weapon Focus (chain), Vital Strike Skills Acrobatics +25 (+33 jump), Bluff +15, Disguise +15, Diplomacy +17, Fly +19, Knowledge (local) +10, Knowledge (planes) +13, Perception +25, Sense Motive +21, Spellcraft +11, Stealth +21, Survival +17; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception, +4 Sense Motive Languages truespeech SQ chains, combat style (elementalDD), crowd stride, deep cover, favored terrain (urban +2), read the cityUI, track +3 Gear quilted clothUE, greater hat of disguise (trapped: maximized fireball; 60 fire damage, R-DC 19) SPECIAL ABILITIES Chains (Ex) A zelekhut’s arms end in long lengths of barbed metal. These chains deal slashing damage and 1d6 points of electricity damage with each hit. Constructed (Ex) Although inevitables are living outsiders, their bodies are constructed of physical components, and in many ways they function as constructs. For the purposes of effects targeting creatures by type (such as a ranger’s favored enemy and bane weapons), inevitables count as both outsiders and constructs. They are immune to death effects, disease, mind-affecting effects, necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, sleep, stun, and any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless). Inevitables are not subject to nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. They are not at risk of death from massive damage. They have bonus hit points as constructs of their size.

Catching up on a few posts from GMs and players who are going through “Way of the Wicked”, most groups are having no issue whatsoever with the AP because they have a necromancer and a cleric who are creating epic armies of undead. That said, there have been one or two groups that have found themselves struggling, if only because they never rescued Grumblejack, or he died on them back during Branderscar because they all bailed and abandoned the ogre. As such, they’re finding that as the game is progressing, they’re having issues. I’ve got something to help potentially counteract that, if only for one part of the book.

It’s a Book 5 add-on that I thought of. Marut inevitables go after those who artificially extend their life. Namely, lichdom. Now, depending on the PCs, this could be yet another encounter for them too. If they’re using the feat tree that turns them into a vampire or lich, or they all became vampires in the alternate version of the story where Thorn’s a vampire, this thing’s coming after them. There’s just no way around that. However, my initial thought for this, so as to help parties that are having troubles, is the marut came to take down the now ex-Cardinal Thorn, but was dominated and sent after the party. This encounter would take place on the main floor, probably as soon as the PCs entered the cathedral. If the PCs have the means, they could break the control and have it join them in the final battle against Thorn. But you’re asking, “how can Thorn use that spell? It’s not a cleric spell and it’s 9th level.” It’s also a 6th level summoner spell, so miracle would work to cast it. This would reduce Thorn’s 9th level spells by 1, and hopefully that’s enough for the PCs who are struggling. After that though, the marut would leave, its mission completed.

Finally, my last inevitable add-on, and this would be for whenever someone in the party broke a contract (or someone attached to the party, etc). It can even be someone the party is dealing with, who broke a contract, and they summon one to go after that person/creature. The kolyarut is all about negotiating bargains, and they don’t like it when contracts and negotiations break down. They punish all oath-breakers. As stated: “They care little for the terms of the agreements in question, only that promises are fulfilled, debts are paid, and balance is maintained.“ They are definitely someone that the PCs want on their side. Pit fiends and contract devils are great, but they don’t necessarily like to get their hands dirty. They just want souls and payment. Kolyaruts, on the other hand, will always make the time.

-------------------------------------

And now, the ultimate combo that’s just bonkers. I even did a small feat sink on this one despite it actually being something in the original edition that happens for free, and just adds to the CR.

As for where you would encounter this one, there’s any number of ways. 1) Could be a fight not long after they finish Book 3. Mitra might send the archon as an avenger for what happened. 2) Could right after Spring arrives and the villains are fleeing from the king and his army. This could either be an air battle or the very second they land, but before Tiadora arrives. 3) They could arrive with any other encounter, boosting the over all combat and aiding whomever else decides to attack the villains. You could even hold out until Book 6 with this one, if you really wanted to.

The monster info on this variant hound archon reads as thus:

Hound Archon Hero Mounts

In the course of their adventures, many hound archon heroes befriend bronze dragons, which may come to serve as their mounts. The relationship between these mounts and their celestial riders goes beyond even the special bond between paladin and mount. The dragon and the archon are naturally allies and friends, as can be expected of two powerful servants of cosmic justice. The juvenile bronze dragon mount gains 2 additional HD, 4 points of Strength, an additional 4 points of natural armor, improved evasion, and +10 feet to speed in all its movement forms. The dragon cannot, however, command other creatures of its type as other kinds of paladin mounts can.

Note: Under normal circumstances the Draconic Companion from the Dragon Companion Handbook would give you a dragon and have it go up as an animal companion, with the Dragon Companion Mastery feat giving you their full power. Hound Archon Heroes already get an equivalent ability for free so I’m revising the feat to instead give: frightful presence 1/day, +2 Dex instead of +2 Str (which is a swap option you can choose), SR 5 + paladin level, share spells, empathic link, and two of the four bonus dragon feats. However, I’m ignoring the other two bonus feats the dragon would normally gain, additional bonuses to Str/Con/natural armor, and standard ability score increases every 4 Hit Die. The trade off being that a standard bronze dragon has higher mental stats and spells, so it easily balances out.

Overall, this not all that different from the 3.5 Monster Manual version, and should be considered a difficult CR 16 encounter. Also, their wealth is for a CR 16 NPC. Bartel shares it with his dragon mount.

BARTEL, THE HOUND ARCHON HERO (CR 16; XP 76,800) Male Advanced variant hound archon paladin 11 LG Medium outsider (archon, extraplanar, good, lawful) Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect evil, low-light vision, scent; Perception +18 Aura courage (10 ft.), justice (10 ft.), menace (20 ft.; W-DC 21), magic circle against evil, resolve (10 ft.) DEFENSE AC 33, touch 12, flat-footed 31 (+9 armor, +2 Dex, +12 natural); +2 deflection vs. evil hp 229 (19 HD; 19d10+125) Fort +24, Ref +16, Will +21; +4 vs. poison, +2 resistance vs. evil DR 10/evil; Immune charm, disease, electricity, fear, petrification; SR 27 OFFENSE Speed 40 ft. Melee +2 cold iron greatsword +29/+24/+19/+14 (2d6+12/17–20), bite +22 (1d8+4) or   bite +27 (1d8+8), slam +27 (1d4+4) Special Attacks channel energy (W-DC 20, 6d6), smite evil 4/day (+5 atk & AC, +11 dmg) Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th; concentration +11)   Constant—detect evil, magic circle against evil   At will—aid, continual flame, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), message Paladin Spell-Like Abilities (CL 11th; concentration +16)   At will—detect evil Paladin Spells Prepared (CL 8th; concentration +13)   3rd—heal mount   2nd—bull’s strength, eagle’s splendor, resist energy   1st—divine favor, hero’s defianceAPG, protection from evil, shield of fortificationACG STATISTICS Str 24, Dex 14, Con 22, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 20 Base Atk +19; CMB +26; CMD 38; +2 vs. evil Feats Blind-Fight, Draconic CompanionDCH, Improved Critical (greatsword), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Mounted Combat, Power Attack, Ride-by Attack, Weapon Focus (greatsword), Word of HealingUM Skills Acrobatics +14, Diplomacy +19, Knowledge (arcana) +12, Intimidate +15, Perception +18, Ride +18, Sense Motive +19, Spellcraft +10, Stealth +14, Survival +18; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth, +4 Survival; ACP –1 Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech SQ aura (overwhelming good), code of conduct, change shape (beast shape II), divine bond (dragon mount; Arlakaida), lay on hands (5d6, 7/day), mercies (cursed, dazed, fatigued) Combat Gear wand of cure light wounds (15 charges), holy water (2); Other Gear +3 mithral breastplate, +2 cold iron greatsword, amulet of mighty fists +1, belt of mighty constitution +2 SPECIAL ABILITIES Aura of Menace (Su) A righteous aura surrounds archons that fight or get angry. Any hostile creature within a 20-foot radius of an archon must succeed on a Will save to resist its effects. The save DC varies with the type of archon, is Charisma-based, and includes a +2 racial bonus. Those who fail take a –2 penalty on attacks, AC, and saves for 24 hours or until they successfully hit the archon that generated the aura. A creature that has resisted or broken the effect cannot be affected again by the same archon’s aura for 24 hours. Change Shape (Su) A hound archon can assume any canine form of Small to Large size, as if using beast shape II. While in canine form, the hound archon loses its bite, slam, and greatsword attacks, but gains the bite attack of the form it chooses. For the purposes of this ability, canines include any dog-like or wolf-like creature of the animal type.

---------------

ARLAKAIDA THE BRONZE (CR —; XP —) Female juvenile bronze dragon LG Large dragon (water) Init +6; Senses dragon senses; Perception +25 Aura frightful presence 1/day (90 ft.; targets are shaken for 14 rounds; W-DC 21) DEFENSE AC 36, touch 13, flat-footed 33 (+5 armor, +2 Dex, +2 deflection, +18 natural, –1 size) hp 161 (14d12+70) Fort +16, Ref +13, Will +15 Defensive Abilities improved evasion; Immune electricity, paralysis, sleep; SR 16 OFFENSE Speed 50 ft., fly 130 ft. (poor), swim 60 ft. Melee bite +25 (2d6+15), 2 claws +24 (1d8+11), tail slap +22 (1d8+15), 2 wings +22 (1d6+6) Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with bite) Special Attacks breath weapon (80-ft. line, R-DC 24, 12d6 electricity), repulsion breath Spell-Like Abilities (CL 14th; concentration +18)   At will—create food and water, speak with animals Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 4th; concentration +8)   2nd (4/day)—mirror image   1st (7/day)—alarm, obscuring mist, true strike   0 (at will)—detect magic, light, mage hand, message, prestidigitation, resistance STATISTICS Str 29, Dex 14, Con 21, Int 18, Wis 19, Cha 18 Base Atk +14; CMB +26; CMD 40 (44 vs. trip) Feats Ability Focus (breath weapon), Alertness, Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Powerful BreathB, Quick Breath WeaponB, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (bite) Skills Diplomacy +19, Fly +12, Handle Animal +16, Heal +16, Intimidate +19, Knowledge (arcana) +19, Perception +25, Sense Motive +25, Spellcraft +20, Stealth +14, Swim +29; Racial Modifiers +8 Swim Languages Aquan, Common, Draconic, Elven, Gnome SQ empathic link, change shape (animal or humanoid, polymorph), share spells, water breathing, wave mastery (40 mins) Gear +2 studded leather barding, amulet of mighty fists +2, belt of physical perfection +2, cloak of resistance +2, ring of protection +2 SPECIAL ABILITIES Dragon Senses (Ex) Dragons have darkvision 120 ft. and blindsense 60 ft. They see four times as well as a human in dim light and twice as well in normal light. Frightful Presence (Ex) This special quality makes a dragon’s very presence unsettling to foes. Activating this ability is a free action that is usually part of an attack or charge. This ability affects only opponents with fewer Hit Dice than the dragon’s. An opponent that succeeds on its saving throw is immune to the dragon’s frightful presence for 24 hours. Multiple uses of a dragon’s presence don’t stack. This ability is a mind-affecting aura. Paladin Mount (Ex) Arlakaida cannot command other creatures of its type (bronze dragons) as other kinds of paladin mounts can. Quick Breath Weapon (Ex) Arlakaida is able to unleash her breath weapon and deliver an attack before her opponent is the wiser. On her turn, Arlakaida can choose to use her breath weapon in place of her bite or one of her claw attacks. Repulsion Breath (Su) Instead of a line of electricity, a bronze dragon can breathe a cone of repulsion gas. Targets must make a Will save or be compelled to do nothing but move away from the dragon for 1d6 rounds plus 1 round per age category. This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect. Water Breathing (Ex) A bronze dragon breathes water and can use its breath weapon, spells, and abilities underwater. Wave Mastery (Su) For up to 10 minutes per age category per day, a juvenile bronze dragon, along with creatures or vessels within 50 feet, can move at twice its normal speed in water. ------------------------------------------------------------

And that’s everything. I don’t know that I’ll ever have more to add to this particular adventure path, but maybe I will. Just depends on how inspired I get.

In the meantime, I hope everyone who is running or playing “Way of the Wicked” is having a fantastic time.

[solange-lol]

not so typical love song - ch. 1/13

Chapter Title: Rollarcoaster

Words: 3,050

Note: my piece for the @pjo-hoo-bigbang !!! special thanks to @shelbychild and @wisdom-walks-alone for editing and helping me develop this story! it wouldnt exist w/o y’all!

Art by @lizzybizzyo! <3

[ one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight (coming soon)]

read on ao3

—

Nico is staring at his computer, wordless. This isn't writer's block or surprise; it’s just the unknown reality of what this situation could lead to.

Another gay kid in his school. Another gay kid that isn’t Mitchell—who’s been out since 8th grade, and the only one to be out since then. Another kid at their school who’s hiding a secret. 

Nico doesn’t even know if this kid is a boy or a girl or what, and frankly, he doesn’t care. There’s another kid like him. And he has no idea how to respond to the post.

The post is a submission from their school’s gossip blog on Tumblr, the notorious ‘hb-secrets.’ Piper had called him an hour ago, asking if he’d seen it yet.

“Seen what?” he had responded.

“The post on hb-secrets? About the closeted gay kid?” It hit Nico like a wall of bricks as he quickly went to pull up the website. Did somebody know? It was a relief when he saw the clipart Ferris wheel and a few short lines submitted by a blog called blue0919.

“I bet it’s that Brazilian sophomore. Paolo or whatever? Or maybe it’s Connor Stoll! I swear he’s been flirting with Mitchell, but Annabeth keeps telling me that he’s into Lacy or someone,” Piper continued as he read, but it was going in one ear and out the other as he processed the words on the screen

Sometimes I feel like I’m stuck on a Ferris wheel. One minute I’m on top of the world, and the next minute I’m at rock bottom. Over and over all day long, because a lot of my life is great. But nobody knows I’m gay.

“Gotta go. I’ll talk later,” Nico said quickly, switching off his phone. He knew it would raise suspicion, but it felt like time was turning in on itself. Nobody knew about Nico. In fact, nobody ever even suspected. He’s never been called names besides “Death Boy.” And yet, there were the exact words that described his life, written out in front of him like they were a second thought.

And now, he was staring at his computer with an empty Gmail draft open. The original poster had left their email at the end of the post, so Nico after glancing quickly at his Panic! at the Disco poster still proudly hanging on his wall, typed out a new address. He was stuck, though, unsure of what to say from here. 

So, he started from the beginning.

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 6:48 PM

Subject: Hey

Somehow you’ve managed to type exactly what I feel. Sorta scary, as if you’re inside my head or something. Maybe it’s just a gay thing to be speaking in metaphors about the pressure of everyday society.

That’s what I am. Gay. I don’t know if I’ve ever really said it out loud to myself.

It’s weird because I never really had a perfectly normal life. My mom died when I was young, so I never really got to meet her. My sister and I have always been super close until she went away to college. Now, not as much. I guess that’s just what happens when you live a million miles away. 

And I’ve known my stepmom longer than I knew my real mom, but it was only a few years ago when I met my half-sister when she came to live with us because her mom died as well. Meaning, she isn’t the daughter of my stepmom. It’s a long story, and not really one I want to get into.

She’s super nice though. It’s funny, but despite being polar opposites with my older sister, they’re both mushy inside. Same with my stepmom. And my dad… he tries his best. We’re like exactly what you expect from a slightly broken family. Plus my dog who my cousin gave to me during a rough time. Honestly, she’s probably my favorite sibling out of them all. (Both my sisters would kill me if they knew I wrote that.)

And then there are my friends. I have some that are closer than others; Two of them I’ve known for a while now, and one who I only met recently but treats me better than some of the people I’ve known my whole life. While I admit, I’m not the most social person in the world, they’re pretty amazing as far as friends go. 

So there it is. My perfectly normal life. Except for that huge ass secret.

He typed and retyped each line what felt like a thousand times, deleting word after word. He didn't know what was too much. It all felt like too much, really. He didn’t even know if he could trust this person.

Signing it was the worst part; he didn’t have any good pseudonyms. Eventually, he decided to leave it blank.

Without a second thought, Nico hit ‘send’ before leaning back in his chair and putting his hands over his head. Only a second later, a light knock came from the door, causing him to quickly sit up as Hazel popped her head in.

“Dinner’s ready if you wanna eat,” she smiled. She left just as quickly as she came, curls bouncing as she walked away. They had gotten over the awkwardness of having a new sibling only months after Hazel moved in, but there was still some strangeness. To this day, Nico was still a lot closer to her than Bianca was. Either way, Nico knew he would do anything for her. (Not that he would admit that. He didn't even need to, Hazel already knew.)

Nico glanced back at his computer, but there was nothing in his inbox besides the Gmail “Welcome” email. It was stupid to think this person would respond that quickly, seeing as Nico didn't even know if they would respond at all. Heaving a sigh, he got up to join his family for dinner. Maybe he could even convince them to watch Steven Universe instead of The Bachelor.

---

Dinner went as expected. It’d been a while, actually, since they were all together for a meal. Hazel talked about her psycho geometry teacher and a boy she talked in the class named Frank, who seemed sweet but apparently had a shared hatred for math just like her. Nico didn’t say much, although chimed in at the latter, saying he better be the flower boy at their wedding. That even got a short scoff out of his father, which tended to be the closest Nico ever got him laughing. So, that was a win. 

However, he was a little more distant than usual. The pending email response was in the back of his mind during the entire meal.

Even afterward, as they watched reruns of Glee (a compromise made between Hazel and Nico, much to their father’s dismay), Nico couldn’t focus. It felt like a weight was burning through his back pocket. After the second episode (and laughing his ass off at his father’s reaction to Kurt’s ‘Single Ladies’ dance) he finally excused himself. 

He tapped the Gmail app on his phone as soon as he had reached his room. It felt like his heart skipped a beat when he noticed the new notification, a response from the original poster. With slightly shaky hands, he tapped the response, and a message opened up.

From: blue0919@gmail.com

To: bettertoburn@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 8:12 PM

Subject: I’ve never done this before

Dear anonymous person on the internet,

I really don’t know where to begin. I’m also not sure if you're a real person. For all I know you could be some random pedophile like one of those cases they warned us about in health class for the past 5 years, even though it’s never happened within the last decade.

But in case you are real, hello! I’m the original poster from that hb-secrets thread about life being a Ferris wheel. I’m rereading what I wrote there and I can’t stop cringing, so I’ll start by apologizing for that. I’m not usually one for metaphors, even the bad ones.

Anyway, it sounds like you identify with what I wrote. I’m glad you emailed me; I didn’t think anyone would actually do anything with the email that I left. Except maybe be extremely homophobic. But it made me feel less like I was shouting into the void, so thanks for that. And I assume you’re okay with me writing back since you sent me the first email. Though, I can’t believe I’m actually writing to you. I really didn’t think I would.

I guess I’m thinking it could be nice to talk with someone who can relate to how I’m feeling. No pressure, of course, but feel free to write back if you want to. I don’t want to use my real name, but you can call me Blue. 

It was surreal. Someone who was like Nico. Someone who wanted to talk to Nico because they were like him. 

He started to type again, with more excitement than he’s ever felt. He’s never been able to express this part of him before. It was almost like first date jitters-type feeling. 

(Not that he really knew what that was like.)

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 8:23 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

Hi, Blue

Wow, I’m actually kind of flipping out right now, because I seriously didn’t think I’d hear from you, especially so quickly. Wow. Okay. First of all, thanks for your email and also for your Tumblr post. I really liked it, Blue, and it wasn’t cringy at all, I promise.

So do you go here (here meaning HBHS)? I do, I’m a junior. And I’m a guy (are you a guy?) Anyway, I could relate a lot to your post, Like, pretty much all of it, but especially the part about being gay. You probably figured that out already though. And I’m not out yet either, which you probably figured that part out too. 

I guess a part of me wants to be out, but a part of me’s like… no. It’s hard to explain. I don’t know. Maybe you get it.

So yeah, it’s really nice to meet you! This is kind of cool, right? Even writing this email makes me feel eleven times less alone.

-Angel (not my real name either, two can play at this game. It’s not like a pet-name type thing. If you ever find out who I am, you’ll understand why.) 

He was worried about the whole name-signing thing. ‘Angel’ was just the easiest thing; it was a direct translation of his last name. He was really hoping Blue still didn’t take it in a weird way, even with that last note.

Relief flooded through him when he read the first sentence of Blue’s next email. 

From: blue0919@gmail.com

To: bettertoburn@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 8:41 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

Angel, huh? Maybe like guardian angel perhaps. 

Also, eleven times less alone? That’s oddly specific. :) But I know exactly what you mean.

Anyway, wow. Hi. You wrote back, and quickly too. I’m really glad you liked my post. Now I’m actually happy I put it out there. I have to admit, it’s strange to be writing a somewhat personal email to you when we don’t know each other’s identities. Though, in a way, I guess that makes it easier. Sorta like a therapist, except we’re both blindfolded and have the same problem. So not really a therapist, I guess.

Do you think therapists have therapists? Like, if the problems get to be too much for them? Is there an Almighty Therapist who just absorbs everyone's issues and feels nothing?

Anyway, I am a guy, and I’m also a junior at HB. I think you’re actually the first other gay guy I’ve met here. It’s pretty surreal to be talking to you. (In a good way though.) I wonder if we know each other in real life. 

And I think I understand what you mean. I feel like I’m constantly going back and forth about wanting to come out. I have these moments where I’m almost bursting to tell people. Of course, that’s where I was when I posted the thing on Tumblr. But I always feel so weird about it a few hours later, and sometimes I’m intensely relieved no one knows yet. What about you?

-Blue

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 9:12 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

I mean, let’s be real, eleven is the best number, which is perfect because we’re both in eleventh grade. And I can't believe we’re both juniors. The class is pretty small compared to the others, so I bet we do know each other, which is weird to think about. What if we’re actually enemies in real life? Do you have enemies? I don’t think I do, not really. Various people tend to annoy me a lot. It’s not even their fault; some people just have really punchable faces.

 (I’m usually a really nonviolent person. I’m more like a violent person who at the same doesn’t really want to hurt anyone, so I have to resort to fantasizing about punching people, which just ends in eating my feelings in large quantities of McDonald’s.)

It’s funny for me, it’s actually not so much that go back and forth about wanting to come out. It’s like I simultaneously do and don’t want to be out. Which is pretty freaking exhausting, honestly. Like I’m in this constant state of JUST SAY IT and NO NEVER. Do you think that ever ends? I don’t know, maybe I’m just a really indecisive person. I think part of me is also just holding out until college when I’m away from anyone I know and can just reinvent myself.

So what kind of stuff do you like to do after school and everything?

-Angel

From: blue0919@gmail.com

To: bettertoburn@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 9:34 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

I don’t think I have any enemies, but now I’m definitely wondering if I’m the guy with the punchable face. How do you know if you have a punchable face? I’ve never been punched, so hopefully, that’s a good sign. 

I will say, I’m definitely with you on the issue of eating your feelings. I’m the person who has never smoked a cigarette or gotten drunk or anything like that, and I'm usually relatively healthy. However, I once ate five jars of Nutella in one sitting. I do not recommend, 

I’m indecisive, too, in some ways. Okay, full disclosure: I was really conflicted when you sent me that email. I kept going back and forth about whether I should email you. I was (and am) definitely intrigued, but I guess I was also a little bit paranoid. It’s just that you could have been anyone, and it’s hard to know sometimes if someone’s being a jerk or if they’re being sincere. Plus my cousin sort of actually outed me. Not to anyone else, he’s the only one who knows, but now I’m super paranoid about coming out. (Exactly what you said about holding out until college. I’m thinking I can move to LA or somewhere where nobody really cares. Although I wouldn’t want to reinvent myself. And I don’t want you to reinvent yourself either, you’re pretty cool as you are I think.) Anyway, I’m really glad I decided to email you, though.

So, you’re probably going to think I’m ridiculous, but I’d rather not answer your last question. It’s just… I think I like being anonymous for now. Is that okay?

-Blue

Okay, that last part was fair. Nico understood the wanting-to-be-anonymous thing. Sure, they go to the same school. But Blue had no reason to entirely trust him; Nico didn’t really trust Blue at all. This could entirely be some random asshole anywhere in the world trying to find him and beat him up, or worse. It sucked that homophobia was still a thing in their day and age. 

But Blue said he liked talking to Nico, and it was thrilling to talk to him. It was another secret of his, but not one he entirely minded keeping. So, he chose to believe that Blue was actually who he said he was. 

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 9:57 PM

Subject: Punchability

Blue, you have so much to learn about the rules of punchability, starting with the fact that it is completely impossible for you to have a punchable face. Rule number one: guys who make metaphors about Ferris wheels are automatically unpunchable. Rule number two: There isn’t one. Just rule number one, so memorize it. Everyone else can catch these fists. (Catch these fists? These hands? This would probably be more intimidating if I knew the correct phrasing)

Also, five jars of Nutella in one sitting is the worst idea I’ve ever heard in my life. Challenge accepted.

I don’t think you’re ridiculous, Blue. I totally understand why you don't want to tell me about your extracurricular activities (I’m guessing interpretive dance, though, you seem like the type.) But seriously, I get it. It’s this weird contradiction, right? It’s so much easier to be open with someone who doesn't know you at all. We’ll be each other's Ultimate Therapists. 

(Except I don’t think I could ever be a therapist.)

Anyway, I’m really glad you decided to email me back, too :)

-Angel

That smiley face was really unlike him. 

Nico sent the email, but after nearly an hour, he didn’t get on back, which meant Blue was probably asleep. Which was different from what Nico was used to; he tended to stay awake until the early hours of the morning most nights. But it wasn’t anything he minded. He had a conversation with Blue, and even if that was the last one they would ever have (which, he was hoping it wouldn’t be), it was good to know that there was somewhere out there like him.

[lanamemories]

TASK #004

FULL GIVEN NAME — lana rose jameson

NICKNAMES & WHO CALLS THEM THESE — lana banana jst…by the masses…. lala by her teachers when she ws younger bc she wld always b daydreamin n in lala land n not focusin. straight up jst. banana. by her dealer rod. cherry is what she went by when she cammed too bt she doesn’t do tht rn

AGE & D.O.B — 21 (june 2nd)

PLACE OF BIRTH — albany, ny

TOWNS THEY’VE LIVED IN AND FOR HOW LONG — albany, ny until she was 18 aside from a year long gap when she was 16 in which she jst kind of… slept anywhere she cld that wasn’t home. mostly local to her area tho bt sometimes not. then she moved to rochester fr lockwood n has pretty much been there since Babey! she’s travelled a bunch too bt no stays longer than a month so

GUARDIANS NAMES & LOCATIONS — richard jameson is currently in LA i feel like… primping a new label sign bc he’s trying to get the company bk to the Former Glory it had in the 80s n victoria jameson is probably in albany ny doing freelance music journalism stuff bt nt rly… as often at all…. she’s jst in the social circuit nw doing charity stuff to look like she cares abt ppl bt it’s All For Show

SIBLING NAMES, AGES & LOCATIONS — caleb jameson, 24, location unknown. he went off the grid abt a month ago n hasn’t been properly sighted in a full week now bt. doesn’t stop lana frm calling up everyone they kno as well as local hospitals 24/7 Just In Case! 

WATERSHED.APP STATUS —  sheep

DO THEY HAVE ANYTHING QUESTIONABLE ONLINE? —  Boy Oh Boy…… lana literally…….. has abt 12 vids online frm when she did camming of various…. pornographic stuff like…. all sorts honestly jst. wild stuff. threesomes galore. u name it. bt i think that might b the main one….. other than………. a bunch of nudes n stuff like tht. also has probably genuinely. had her tits out on abt 20 ppls snapchat/insta stories at some time bt she jst doesn’t rly care abt tht much. a #freethenipple advocate u cld say

BANK ACCOUNT BALANCE — $4,287

DOES YOUR MUSE HAVE ANY CREDIT CARDS? HOW MANY? DO THEY HAVE A BALANCE AND LIMIT? OF HOW MUCH? — her old ones were frozen when her dad cut her off so nw she just has one with a 10k limit tht she’s a third to the way off hitting

CRIMINAL RECORD — public indecency, public intoxication, also once gt flagged for wasting officers time when her brother put in a missing person’s report bt she was found at a local motel n they didn’t reprimand her properly given the circumstances in which she was found (the man she was with got arrested due to his age). tht wld probably be on the system i think as like…a note perhaps.

HOSPITAL & MEDICAL VISITS / RECORD — she broke her collar bone when she ws younger jumping out of a tree n trying to fly n it ws like. quite a bad break bt she wasn’t taken to the hospital until rly late in the afternoon when it happened in the morning. she’s broken a few bones tbh she ws a very adventurous child n had no supervision. she also underwent like… 3 months of therapy last yr i would say n she paid for that privately. plus i feel like she’s probably had her stomach pumped at least three times especially… in the yrs of being 16-18 bc she rly went hard then. also once did so much mdma that she almost went into serotonin syndrome n had to be admitted then. OH n she almost died once when she ws little like.... 9 yrs old mayb bc she took bites out of a bunch of house plants after watching land before time n they were poisonous if ingested 

PRESCRIBED MEDICATIONS — 100mg ritalin for adhd bt. she doesn’t take it. she’s had a whole bunch of prescriptions fr it over the yrs of her trialling diff ones n seeing how she feels on them bt she never takes them fr long n now she jst has like. 5 prescription bottles lined up mostly untouched in her drawer

DO THEY USE ILLICIT DRUGS? — ya she… hs honestly done most drugs at least once bt. her fav is mdma/pills

DO THEY DRINK ALCOHOL? — Big Ya

DO THEY SMOKE WEED AND/OR CIGARETTES? — weed ya bt cigs no

SUBSCRIPTIONS THEY HAVE — netflix, spotify, cosmopolitan, rolling stone.

FAVORITE BOOKS — she read a lot as a child to fill her time bt she doesn’t rly any more her attention span is too bad. younger she loved the hungry caterpillar bc she related to tht need to jst… metaphorically consume everythin in sight to try n feel full of something. never rly had A Favourite Book aside frm tht tho. preferred tv/film

FAVORITE FILMS — moulin rouge, mamma mia, rocketman (this musical theme…), coraline, anything wes anderson probably :/, edward scissorhands, black swan, gremlins.

FAVORITE MUSICIANS — the velvet underground, the beach boys, robyn, donna summer, wild cherry, chromatics, fleetwood mac, anything like… disco/70s or upbeat rock or like… synthy electronic pop she… listens to kind of a diverse range bt. mostly 70s/80s stuff on her record player in her room bc thts the kinds of vinyls she seeks out

FAVORITE GAMES — she rly jst doesn’t hv the attention span fr games bt….. she has a red nds n she plays princess peach sometimes on tht. used to like the old lara croft games too bc they were the only ones of her brothers tht she was ok at playing bt. she never did any missions she just ran around n had a crush on square titted bad video game graphic lara

PAST ROMANTIC / INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS THAT MAY HAVE AN ONLINE PRESENCE — literally so many i–…. ok….. danny nielsen (ex-boyfriend npc/the anti-christ), teddy lawrence (ex-hookup), benji gates (honestly dnt kno wht to call them bt there r texts n pics galore there), syd morrissey (ex-boyfriend), zeke van doren & leo fowler (both current hook-ups n i’m putting them together bc i feel like they probably have a gc n it’s probably a bit unholy 2 say the least), saige beaumont (ex-hookup), beau turner (ex-boyfriend), rory vanderberg (ex-hookup), abt 183749794711947 other various exes n hook-ups tht she’s shared explicit texts/pics w too like…. the list is endless i….. can’t even imagine hw much lana has circulating

MOST FREQUENTLY VISITED WEBSITES — pornhub :/ (she genuinely watches sm porn it’s. a lot), twitter n instagram

DO THEY USE A VPN? — no honestly lana prob doesn’t rly get what that is

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA DO THEY HAVE? — facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat, tumblr, jst…… most of them bt she isn’t active on a lot except twitter n instagram

ARE THEY ON ANY HOOK-UP OR DATING APPS? WHICH ONES? — she’s on like all of them…. tinder is her main tho. she also sometimes responds to weird hookup ads on craigslist fr the Thrill of possibly being murdered

[gaycharr]

some tweaks / recapping of Marina’s backstory now that I’ve developed her a bit more:

-im thinking the Renworth name probably is more business than political. think old money and a bunch of old traditional humans. have lots of business connections everywhere and an influential name. your average “rich corporate family who really only care about profit at this point” types

-noble father, i think marina’s mother probably wasn’t a noble though. her mother was her dad’s second wife. family didn’t really like her mom much either, for various reasons (most of which could be chalked up to the family being assholes and pissed off that the dad didn’t marry another noble to further strengthen the name / bloodline)

-older half sister, diff mothers. sister’s mom was a full noble (i think her and the dad had an arranged marriage, but they really did care for each other greatly), but she passed away when Marina’s sister was pretty young (probably 3-5). 

-I think she’s probably about 6-7 years older than Marina? so she might have been off doing school and various other things a lot when Marina was really young, but even so the two are very close and Marina’s sister never hesitates to stand up for her. she kind of relishes arguing with her family. fuck them.

-family favored her sister more and she was the ‘golden child’, but her sister also renounced the family name when Marina was prob about 15 or so and left to go do her own thing and join the Seraphs and stuff b/c she hates the noble culture and tradition of her family. Marina’s sister was always very vocally opinionated and not afraid to argue, but up until then the family had just brushed it off and let themselves believe it was something that she’d grow out of, preferably just in time to settle down and marry.

-they also kind of judge Marina b/c her dad met her mom shortly after his first wife passed away so there was low key lots of rumors and venom about how he MUST have been cheating and what not (the reality is just that shit happens. his wife died and then he met marina’s mom while away on a business thing a few months-a year later and fell in love hard)

-a very smart child. also oddly naive and innocent (its the adhd). when she got old enough to realize that people might perceive her in a negative way it really changed her worldview in a shocking way. before about 8 or so she’d p much always approached everyone openly and happily, ready to bond or talk with anyone. Suddenly aware of the disapproval of others, she becomes really quiet and withdrawn after this and a bit of a people pleaser.

-Marina and her parents actually had a really good relationship. Her mother passed away when she was a young teen I think though? It really affected her, because her and her mother were both one of the few ‘commoners’ to enter into the family and her mom often protected her from family criticism and was basically one of Marina’s best friends. (not that the family is very kind to one another to begin w/ but still)

- ^^ that being said, her father is also v supportive but he’s the oldest son of the current family head so esp after his second wife died and his family started putting more pressure on him following, he wasn’t around very much at all after that (often away on business and what not). like he’s there for his daughters but he’s not there. He’s trying to appease his family and live up to / off his own guilts and shames

-Marina always had a great interest in magic (something her family considers frivolous and unimportant at best and dangerous / evil at worst). When her mom was alive it wasn’t so much an issue, her mom probably argued for her behind the scenes (as well as her sister), and so the worst Marina experienced was probably scoffs and remarks about how it was something she’d move on from. but after her mom passed away the pressure from her family for Marina to take up more ‘useful’ interests / hobbies only increased as time went on. 

-Since her family wasn’t that supportive though she never really got proper schooling on magic at this point, though she did have open access to all kinds of resources, so she was able to do quite a bit of self teaching. didnt often focus on one kind of magic, instead her interest kind of jumps from type to type. consumes information and books at a scary rate

-didn’t have really any friends her age. she was kind of a socially awkward person at this point, so she wasn’t very good at reaching out to her peers. the most peer interaction she probably had was being tutored in the same classes as other noble children. her being a ‘weird’ noble child who sometimes talked too loud or was too eager and had weird interests in magic didn’t make her very popular to begin with as well.

-For a while Marina DID try to be the ideal noble heir for her family after her mother passed. With her dad being the next head of the business, and her oldest sister having revoked the name already, she did have quite a bit of weight on her irt her family now placing their expectations on her shoulder’s instead of her sister’s. They were harder for her to please though because again, they had  favored her sister and already didn’t agree w/ her interests (and after her sister left, they REALLY started being vocal about how anything but doing what the family expects is bad)

-Eventually though, with help from her sister and undercover assistance from her dad (him squirreling away money for her, helping her invest and get her own revenue coming in . . .just in case she upset the family too much or broke away like her sister), she ended up seeking to join the priory even though it angered her family (they didnt agree / understand why she wanted to go research impossible magical things when there was the option to go to a nice business school instead. or maybe even arrange a political business marriage)

-I think she had already had an instant interest in necromancy. Not for any specifically deep reason (though perhaps the early death of her mother contributed subconsciously to her being more into it later on ?). I think she just happened upon a book about it when she was reading random magic tomes as a kid and was just immediately into it. the intricacies and uses are just appealing to her, its  a lot you can puzzle out and work with. 

-Perhaps a part of her was also drawn to it simply because she knew that of all the magic to REALLY take up, necromancy would probably displease her family the most. like adhd rsd is a bitch especially when you’re younger and don’t realize that’s what it is, so she REALLY hated disappointing anyone, especially authority / familial figures. but even so that didn’t stop her from realizing that they were kind of jackass hypocrites and wanting to rebel and do her own thing

-anyways she joins the priory probably when she’s like ? maybe 17-18? at this point she’s probably managed to get some official magical schooling by herself but nothing that deep. Her family name helps her get the attention of the Priory, and a quick proving of her intelligence / aptitude for magic, PLUS the fact she was mostly self taught till now, means she joins rather easily.

-probably a novice in the priory for about a year or two? then she becomes a magister. at this point, with actual teachers and proper resources (not to mention hands on experience), she’s become REALLY good at magic. She’s excelled at necromancy, able to use it with the comfort and ease that belies a lot of study and practice. She’s also well versed in p much all the other schools of magic, at least in theory. Even if she doesn’t know how to actually USE it herself, she has a fair bit of  knowledge on p much all subjects and is always open to learning more about anything.

-her and Sieran were probably bff’s and often got in trouble together. maybe they kissed once ? idk. i need to learn more about Sieran tbh pfff.

-being in the priory and surrounded by others who shared her interest though really helped her bloom from that socially awkward girl who never talked to anyone out of anxiety to a socially awkward girl who loves to socialize anyways and tries not to worry about being a little loud and rambly at times. Even though she doubts herself she really starts to cultivate this natural charisma that just draws other towards her. There’s just something about talking to someone who is as open as Marina is, who isn’t worried about being a little awkward and doesn’t mind some word fumbling from the person she’s talking too, that can really put one at ease.

-she is still connected to her family and still has to deal with them. not sure why she hasn’t left yet, but i think she’s often pondered the idea of taking over her family’s business and turning it into something Good. Either way, i think it’s understandable that even considering it all she’s hesitant to break from her family as her sister did. she still tries to please them, but only enough so that they don’t outright hate her and try to disown her (though it would be hard since her father is the head of the business now and certainly wouldn’t allow that)

[trillhouse-lh]

Never Again (Zombieverse)

>”Watch your back.” >”Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Lemy muttered. He tugged his hatchet from the now-dead shambler before him and wheeled around, burying it in the head of the one creeping up behind him. He’d known it was there, of course… between the slow movement and groaning, it was hard NOT to. “You could have helped, you know.” He glared at his sister, who was sitting nonchalantly on one of the cafeteria tables and watching with disinterest. Lupa simply shrugged. >”You had it under control.” She said flatly. “Besides, if worst comes to worst, I figure you’d make a pretty good zombie.” Lemy rolled his eyes and got to work dispatching the last few shamblers. Lupa had to admit, he’d gotten quite good at fighting the horde in the three months since the outbreak began… quite frankly, she’d never have expected it from the bumbling metalhead. Then again, she supposed the outbreak had changed ALL of them in one way or another.

>”I think that’s the last of them.” Lemy said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. They had gotten lucky; the school was not nearly as overrun as they would have expected. Judging by the number of bodies strewn about, he could only assume the survivors that had been holed up there before managed to kill most of the horde before being overtaken. >”Took you long enough.” Lupa said with a huff, hopping down from the table. “C’mon. Let’s check the kitchen.” Lemy nodded, wearing a deep frown as he took one last glance around the cafeteria. It felt weird, seeing it like this… he could only think of how things USED to be. He’d never liked school, but now he would give anything to go back to the daily grind. He really wished that Lyra had picked someone ELSE to search Royal Woods Elementary for supplies, but it wasn’t like he had any say in the matter.

>”Lemy. Come ON.” Lupa repeated. >”R-right…” Lemy sighed, holstering his axe and following his sister into the kitchen. “Don’t know why we’re bothering… this shit is barely food.” >”Can’t be picky,” Said the goth. “Just look for canned stuff. Anything non-perishable.” >”I know what to do, Lupa.” Lemy scoffed. >The two siblings gathered food in silence. It was sad that so many survivors had fallen here… they’d even spotted plenty of familiar faces among the dead. But that also meant that the school was still rich in supplies, which would no doubt please Lyra.

>”Guess that’s everything…” Lupa muttered, giving her satchel a little shake. >”Too bad it’s mostly beans though…” Lemy grumbled. “Looks like we’re getting hotboxed again tonight.” His sister let out a small chuckle; as they’d learned over the past few months, a large group plus beans meant they were in for a bad time. The two made their way back out to the cafeteria. >”So, where to ne-“ Lupa froze mid-stride, her eyes going wide. She sniffed at the air like a bloodhound, then her attention snapped to one of the dead zombies sprawled out on the floor. >”Lupa…? You alright?” >Lupa bolted right towards it, immediately dropping to her knees and fishing through the corpse’s pockets. She barely suppressed a squeal of delight as she found her prize: a carton of cigarettes. She flicked it open, finding that it was still mostly full. “Yessss.” She hissed.

>”For fuck’s sake, Lupa…” Her brother groaned. “You’re really gonna take that off a shambler? It’s probably, like… CONTAMINATED or something. And you know Lyra doesn’t want you smoking.” >”I’ll risk it. And Lyra can bite my freckled ass, I NEED this.” She wasted no time putting one of the cigs in her mouth and lighting it, taking a long drag. “Ffffuck yes.” She moaned as she blew a large plume of smoke. >”Alright, alright… come on. Let’s get moving.” Lemy grunted. “Pretty sure we’ve checked everywhere worth looking. Besides, we can’t carry much more.” >”We haven’t checked the sports fields.” Lupa said. “I bet the equipment shed has plenty of shit we can use.” >”Good thinking,” Lemy agreed. Baseball bats made for excellent weapons, and even hockey sticks and the like could be useful once he’d modified them a bit.

>As they walked through the empty school halls. Lemy couldn’t help but glance at his sister. On the surface, she didn’t seem to have changed much… she was still the deadpan, morose girl he’d always known. She even still cracked the occasional morbid joke. Perhaps it was due to how many zombie films she’d watched over the years, or maybe it was because she’d never cared much for the world in the first place. >Still, Lemy knew her well, and he could tell that underneath her disinterested façade she had become a far colder person than she had been. She was one of the few to not question Lyra’s increasingly severe orders, after all.

>The school grounds were mostly free of zombies; or at least, they were too far away for the two to worry about right now. They hurried towards the equipment shack and found that, thankfully, the lock had already been busted open. Lupa drew her handgun. >”Be on guard… someone may still be hiding in here.” The goth warned. “Remember-“ >”Trust no one. I know, Lupa.” Lemy said. They slipped inside, glancing around with their weapons at the ready. Empty. With a sigh of relief, they holstered their weapons and began the search. >”Shit… this is a fucking treasure trove,” Lupa muttered. Indeed, there were plenty of supplies… far more than they could hope to carry. There were bats, hockey sticks, and even bundles of rope; hell, even the football gear could make for some excellent protection against zombie and human alike.

>Then, while Lemy was searching one of the equipment lockers, he heard it: the familiar groan of a shambler, accompanied by a metallic banging... and it was CLOSE. Lemy quickly drew his axe and turned, only to find nothing there. >The boy’s eyes narrowed as he scanned for the source of the noise, before realizing it was coming from another nearby locker. Judging from the specks of blood leading to it, it was clear what had happened… some poor bastard must have been wounded and hid in the locker, only to perish and ultimately turn into a shambler. In any case, it didn’t seem that it could get out.

>Lemy frowned. He could leave well enough alone, but he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the creature. He wondered if they were truly as brain-dead as they appeared, or if, perhaps, at some level they were aware of their plight. It was a thought that had haunted him since the outbreak began. >Lemy sighed, tightening his grip on his hatchet. He knew it wasn’t worth risking it, but he figured he should end its suffering… besides, it was only one. He could handle it, no problem. >The metalhead readied his axe, carefully reaching for the door handle. He took a deep breath to focus himself. At this distance, he had to make sure he hit his mark. Without further hesitation, he threw open the door and swung down his axe…

>…Only to freeze mid-swing. >Lemy’s blood ran cold, his eyes widening at the disheveled creature before him: dark, mottled skin. Dreadlocks tied back into a messy ponytail. Dead eyes, and a visible bite mark on his forearm. >It was Gordon. >He’d gotten himself wedged in the narrow locker, and grasped in vain at the meal standing before him. Even as the horrible thing’s fingertips grazed his nose, Lemy remained frozen in horror. He’d always known that his friend could very well have died, but to see it himself was too much for him to handle; he looked fresh, too. He couldn’t have turned more than a few days ago. >If only they’d checked the school earlier, Lemy could have saved him.

>Finally, ‘Gordon’s’ struggles bore fruit and it began to slip free from its prison. Still, Lemy didn’t move. Nor did he move when his former friend grabbed him, nor when it bared its teeth and lurched forward. >The shambler’s teeth were barely an inch away from the boy when a single gunshot rang out. Dark blood splattered against Lemy’s face and the creature fell to the ground; thankfully, none landed in his open mouth. Lemy stared down at his fallen friend in silence, then glanced to the other end of the shack. >Lupa stood with her pistol in her hand, a faint wisp of smoke drifting from the barrel. She had a wild look in her eyes, and Lemy couldn’t tell if she was angry or scared… both, perhaps. Her glare snapped from the dead shambler to her blood-spattered brother. >”What the FUCK are you DOING…?!” She hissed. Lemy didn’t answer; he glanced back down at his closest friend, or at least what USED to be his closest friend.

>”G-Gordon…” He stammered. Lupa’s teeth clenched in rage and she strode over to her brother, grabbing him by the wrist. >”We need to GO.” She snarled. “Every shambler on the grounds will have heard that.” >”I-“ >”COME ON!” Lupa snapped, forcefully dragging the shaken boy out of the shed. Sure enough, a large number of shamblers had begun advancing towards the building. “Shit…” Lupa hissed. She broke into a run, pulling Lemy behind her. He was still in a daze, and blindly followed, not even reacting as they narrowly slipped between several zombies. By the time they’d gotten a safe distance away, they were both out of breath and dripping with sweat.

>Lemy leant against a tree, letting his pounding heart settle a bit. He glanced up at Lupa, only to immediately be met with a hard slap across his face. >”WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” The girl was quaking with rage, her hazel eyes piercing through him like never before. Lemy rubbed his stinging cheek and averted his eyes from his sister. >”I-it was Gor-“ Lemy was cut off by another slap, to his right cheek this time. >”IT WAS A SHAMBLER!” Lupa screamed. “He was DEAD, Lemy! That THING was not your friend!” Lemy’s face scrunched up in shame. “You… you just stood there… you nearly DIED, you FUCKING IDIOT!” >”I-I didn’t-“ >”We can’t hesitate, Lemy! We can’t have MERCY! Don’t you understand that?!” Lupa’s voice was growing unsteady. “W-we can’t…! We can’t end up like…” She trailed off, her face twisting in pain. “…Like dad. Not… not you too.”

>Lemy winced. He’d never seen Lupa so furious before, and he knew she was right… he’d let his emotions get the better of him. If she hadn’t been there, that would have been it for him. He forced himself to look at his sister; she was staring off to the side, her eyes clearly glistening with tears. For someone like Lupa, who closed herself off to even her closest siblings, it was an unprecedented sight. Lemy felt a pit in his stomach. >Slowly, he reached out and hugged the girl. For the first time he could recall, she didn’t try to pull away, though she didn’t return it either. “I’m sorry.” He said quietly. “It… it won’t happen again.” Lupa simply sniffed and nodded. >”…It better not.” She muttered, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. “Let’s go.” >”…Yeah.” Lemy let go of his sister.

>There was an uncomfortable silence between the two as they made their way back to the safehouse. Lemy couldn’t help but notice that Lupa kept one hand on her gun the entire time; thankfully, she didn’t need to use it. The two paused for a moment outside the convenience store. >”…Lupa.” Lemy said. “I really am sorry. I-“ >”It’s fine.” Lupa sighed. “Sorry I hit you.” >”You hit me all the time, though.” That one earned him a small chuckle from the girl. >”Well… you know.” She said with a shrug. “Anyway, I won’t tell Lyra this time. THIS time.” Lupa warned. Lemy swallowed and nodded. >”Like I said…” Lemy assured her as he knocked on the door: three solid thumps followed by two lighter ones, as was their code. “Never again.”

[lordsicheng]

JBJ Enemies to Lovers Series: “Perhaps, Love?” (2/7)

Kim Yongguk/Jin Longguo x OC

Type: bulletpoint scenario

You just started summer break after the school year finally ended

And you were just ready to sleep all day at home and do nothing the whole break

So after classes officially ended you went home directly

And lied to your friends about your mom wanting you home early

But you really just wanted to sleep and not care about anything once you get to your bed

But then again, your brother invited friends over the house

Which means it’s gonna be so loud for the love of macaroni

“Hey, y/n. I thought you were out with friends?”

“I’m going to sleep for the rest of the day so you all better not be too noisy”

“We can’t guarantee that”

“Shut up Jinwoo or I’m telling mom you haven’t done laundry in over a month”

All of his friends laughed and taunted him after your comeback

And you just snickered as you looked at him mercilessly

You marched your way to the kitchen, passing by his friends in the living room

Because you remembered you had a slice of oreo cheesecake you brought from last night while you and your friends were finishing up all the projects for today’s deadlines at a café nearby

But you widened your eyes as you stopped walking the minute you saw a young man seated on your dining table

Gobbling up the last few bites of the cheesecake while he was on his phone

It wasn’t long until he noticed you and he was a bit startled

You eyed the plate he was using

And you felt your heart drop as you noticed there was barely anything left of the cheesecake

“Who are you and why did you eat my cheesecake”

“I’m… Yongguk… and your brother said it was okay…”

Yongguk was just one of your brother’s closest friends

You may have seen him a couple of times hanging out with him

But you barely even noticed because you actually never cared about any of your brother’s businesses

You just sighed and rolled your eyes to get something to drink in the fridge

You opened the fridge and you were relieved your carton of almond milk wasn’t touched

So you grabbed it and got a glass by the sink

You poured about over a half of the glass with the milk

And you turned to look at Yongguk

He looked embarrassed to even look at you

But you just sighed again and left the kitchen to get to your room

You were so annoyed and just decided to go to the café later after dinner

Before you walked upstairs to your room your brother suddenly called you

“Hey, y/n. Mom and dad are on a trip until Monday so we have the house to us all weekend”

You just rolled your eyes because yet again your parents left you with your bothersome brother

“Whatever I just want to sleep”

You got to your room and immediately dozed off once you plopped yourself on top of your bed

You then woke up after a couple of hours

You looked at the clock as you wiped off your drool from sleeping

“I’m gross”

You just stood up to check yourself on the mirror

“You look horrible”

You frowned and decided to wear something more comfortable

You grabbed a simple blue denim dress and some sneakers to put on

And you grabbed your favorite cap to hide your horrible bed hair

Since you were too lazy to even brush it in the first place

You quickly ran out your room and went down the stairs

And you saw your brother and a few of his friends pass out from watching movies

The mess in the living room was just horrifying to watch

But you just rolled your eyes again and walked your way out of the house

You quickly went to the café you frequented since it was only a 15 minute walk

Once you got there you tried to look at the cakes and pastries section

And finally you found the oreo cheesecake you’ve been craving since early afternoon

You smiled widely and you told the barista you would like the last slice

“I’m sorry but someone already owns that slice”

Your heart dropped again

“Who owns that slice, then?”

“Me.”

You turned to look at who it was

And again, it was Yongguk

He had this smile to you but it almost died down after seeing you frown

“What’s with you and cheesecakes?”

“I liked it a lot so I bought another slice to take home”

Yongguk just chuckled and looked at you

But you were again annoyed because he didn’t even care about giving the slice to you

“Do you mind if I have the slice? You already ate mine at home”

“No can do. Already paid for it.”

Was this boy taunting you all of the sudden?

The barista then wrapped up the cheesecake and gave the brown paper bag to Yongguk

You just sighed looking at Yongguk

And again, all he did was smile

“I need to go home. See you later.”

Yongguk left while chuckling and leaving the café

And you just stood there with your mouth open

Speechless because you felt humiliated by his sudden actions towards you

“Who on earth does he think he is?”

“Is he like this to me just because he’s my brother’s friend?”

You frowned again and just looked at the barista

He looked so confused and you just sighed because you really couldn’t do anything

“W-would you like anything else, ma’am?”

“If you’re all out of that banana muffin I order often I’m boycotting this place”

You walked out of the café with the paper bag of banana muffins

You were so pissed because you really wanted the cheesecake

But of course, these things happen all the time

So you just walked your way home

And again you saw your brother and all his friends still passed out in the living room

You didn’t care for cleaning the room so you just turned off the TV

And went to the kitchen to get another glass of almond milk

Alas, you go to the kitchen to find your carton on the kitchen counter

Empty

You sulked as you walked over to check the carton and saw a little sticky note

“Got the last glass :P – Yongguk”

“God I hate this guy so much”

The next day you woke up from all the yelling downstairs and just scratched your head as you sat up

“Who on earth is this noisy at 7am?!”

You just walked out of your bedroom to the living room

Not really caring if ever anyone saw you in your cat printed pajamas and magpie nest hair

Your brother and his friends were watching a game of football

Probably a rerun since they passed out quite early last night

And yes you remembered they did drink some alcohol

Your brother noticed you arrived and just laughed

“Did you sleep well, our little princess?”

You frowned and walked your way to the kitchen to get some cereal

And while you were making cereal someone followed you and just leaned on the doorway

You slowly turned your head to see who it was

“Nice pajamas. My style.”

It was again, Yongguk

He just crossed his arms chuckling as he looked at you

And you swore he was the last person you wanted to see that day

“And I thought you went home last night? Why are you here this early?”

“Wanted to just hang out here instead of the dorms. What are you making?”

“Cereal. Duh?”

You showed your bowl of cereal and gave a mocking face

And he just laughed as you walked pass him to go to your room

“You know, you gain weight easily if you eat too often in your room.”

You stopped walking as you scowled and looked at him

“And who are you to comment about a girl’s weight?”

You said as you turned again and went on back to walking up to your room

Yongguk just widened his eyes and walked away to the living room

The next few days your brother’s friends just came in and out of the house

And you were beginning to wonder if it was still your home

Or a fraternity house for all that matters

Your parents came earlier than expected and caught your brother not cleaning up the house while they were away

You laughed at him being scolded

Your parents were about to scold you too

But you knew how to revert it back to your brother

“His friends kept making a mess again whenever I tried to clean, so I didn’t bother.”

And luckily enough your parents believed this

And banned his friends from ever coming for a while

“Great, now I won’t be able to see Yongguk for a while now.”

You smiled to yourself as you finally smelled your victory

It was a good few weeks of you just being at home hanging out

You did often go out but you only went to the nearby café

Or your friends’ houses

And maybe less than ten times at the mall

But other than that, you were happy you were able to relax

One of your friends then told you about a summer festival

And you were eager to go so you forced two of your friends to go with you too

So you all scored tickets and planned all your outfits and whatnot for the event

You also tried to work out often to make yourself look better for the festival

You ran and jogged every early morning

And you even did exercises at home at times

Before you knew it, your body changed a bit and you felt a lot more healthier

And happier with your figure

Once it was the day of the festival you and your friends all had fun

Taking pics here and there

Went to a lot of food stands and just ate and ate

Definitely one of the best highlights of your summer break

Plus, you thought you really looked cute that day too

You just wore a short sleeved striped turtleneck and a cute denim A-line skirt

And you paired it off with your favorite sneakers

You looked around to see if you saw anyone you knew

But you really didn’t so you just sighed in relief

Because you never really wore clothes like that whenever you met out with friends

All other people ever remember you wear is your uniform

And really casual clothes since you didn’t bother on trying to look like a girly girl

A group of young men then walked around the food stalls of the festival

And one guy saw you while you were looking at the other direction

And he couldn’t keep his eyes on you especially of your beautiful and flowy hair that was beautifully blown a bit whenever the wind came

“Y/n!”

One of your friends called you from the stall right next to where the young man looking at you was

“Oh no”

Yongguk gulped and hoped it wasn’t really you

Until you faced your friend and smiled

“Oh shit it’s her”

“Why is she so pretty today”

“When did she ever wear clothes like that”

“She’s actually a girl????”

Yongguk’s thoughts were already so rambled up and he was so confused on what to do

He tried to look the other way

But you caught him looking at you

And you just sighed and rolled your eyes as you tried to ignore Yongguk while walking your way to your friend

Once you were next to your friend, Yongguk stole a few glances of you

You were ordering some food and he just kept looking at you as you held your cup of lemonade

“Y-you look quite… pretty today..”

You turned to your side to see Yongguk forcing himself to smile

And you smiled back sarcastically

“That’s new. Thanks, I guess.”

Your friend then smirked as she looked at you

And you faced your friend and saw her give you the look

You then whispered to her

“What’s your problem?”

“Is he an admirer?”

“Heck no!”

“Not gonna lie, you both would look really cute”

“Shut up”

“I’m betting 50 bucks with the others to see you date this guy”

“Watch yourself lose money then”

You turned back to look at Yongguk

He was looking at the menu of the food stall you were all at

“So… you like going to festivals, huh?”

He was looking shy as he tried to ask you this

And you were confused as to why he acted like that

“I only came to be with my friends.”

“Actually, same. I was forced here.”

“I see. Well I was the one who forced them here.”

“You’re still quite of a bossy angry bird, I see.”

“Excuse me?”

You gave a confused look at Yongguk

And he just smiled as he tried to tease you

But then after a while, he widened his eyes as he saw something from afar

And you turned to look at what he was looking at

“A petting zoo?”

Yongguk smiled widely and walked his way over to the stall where there were cats around

And you just looked at him confused

You then saw him play around with the cats at the stall

And you just laughed and saw how cute he was

Yongguk held one of the cats and couldn’t stop petting it

And he turned to see if he could find you

He saw you from afar

Just smiling and shaking your head

But he just smiled and continued on petting the cat in his embrace

The music stages for the festival were about to start

And your friends pulled you all the way near the stage

Basically all the songs were fit for a summer ender vibe

So you and your friends enjoyed all the songs and even danced to the more upbeat ones

Yongguk was then walking around the crowd of people with his friends

He was hoping he could find you too

And he did after a while and just smiled from afar

You were really happy and enjoying the festival as you danced with your friends

And he just smiled at how cute you were whenever you sang along to the songs you knew

So he just stood there enjoying the festival with his friends as well

And often stole glances at you whenever he got the chance

Once the festival was almost over

You and your friends decided to start heading out of the festival grounds

And just go home directly

Since all the energy inside all of you were sucked out from all the dancing and singing

All of you had a great time and took few last pictures before all of you walked on different directions to your homes

You walked with one of your friends who was supposed to get in the same bus as you

But she decided to go to the subway station since she had to go to her mom’s office and have late dinner with her

So once you both hugged as you sent her off to the subway station

And your house was only a few bus stops away 

So you just walked your way over to the nearby bus station

You were relieved there weren’t a lot of people there too so you decided to sit down on the bench

And you actually didn’t feel like going home that time, yet

You were looking at your phone with all the pictures you and your friends took at the festival

And you were really happy that you were able to have a really great summer ender before classes were to resume in about a week from now

You then felt someone sit next to you as he was also looking at his phone

You turned a bit to see who it was

Again, you see Yongguk

And he turned to look at you too

You just sighed as gave a small smile as you put your phone back in your purse

And Yongguk just looked the other way to see if any buses were to come

“Had fun?”

He asked out of the blue

“Yeah. Really great fun.”

You just smiled as you put your hands on your lap and fidgeted on your skirt

“It’s funny how I only get to see you on summers.”

“We never even properly met.”

You both chuckled as you realized you were right

You both didn’t really have a proper conversation before this

And you both really didn’t have a good impression of each other in the beginning

“I’m sorry about how I treated you in the beginning.”

You smiled at his sudden apology and looked at him

“It’s alright. You were my brother’s friend, so you must have gotten a bit of his ways.”

He chuckled as he scratched the back of his neck and nodded

“You look really pretty today, y/n.”

You looked down and suddenly widened your eyes

You felt kind of shy when you heard him compliment you

It felt weird too

Because you also thought he was actually really cute

Especially when he played with the cats earlier

“Thank you.”

You smiled as you still looked down without looking at him

And he smiled at the way you handled his sudden compliment

You looked around and noticed it was only you and Yongguk left in the bus stop

“Aren’t there any buses at this time?”

“For your route, none anymore I guess. It’s really late.”

You looked at your watch and just sighed

You were worried whether your parents were already looking for you

But you remembered you asked permission so you just shrugged

“I don’t feel like going home yet anyways.”

You sighed as you crossed your arms

“Me neither.”

Yongguk said as he looked around again to see if any buses were around

“So…”

You looked at Yongguk as he broke the silence

“Do you somehow… want to get cheesecake with me?”

He asked as he blinked and looked down

And you noticed he was suddenly really shy

And you just giggled at how and why he was acting like this and looked at him

“Yes. I’d love to.”