#probably took a lot of patience on her part but I appreciated it so much

[phoenixeclipse-lmkau]

[yo i sent this ask in a while back and you never responded. i am trying again to see if it just never hit inbox. i wrote the fic ask. unfortunately i don't have a full copy of the ask i sent in rip]

really like the ideas, unfortunately can't focus on writing it proper rn because life just hit me in the face but what i can do is come up with before and after artefacts

the goal? piss off the monkey duo with each artefact added[to encourage yandere endgame]:

before phoenix stone: reader and the monkeys would be more likely to cuddle for warmth, like how a monkey troop would i assume

after phoenix stone: less cuddles, there's always a fire and it's sometimes a bit too warm to have 2 monkey cubs on you. when the weather gets colder or if the fire “accidentally” goes out reader would probably be more willing for cuddles

before forest stone: reader had to patch up any monkey injuries by hand, and that means check-ups from time to time. lots of one-on-one attention that spirit really can't protest about without making herself look bad. reader cuddles the pain away? they could also fetch reader plants and flowers to help and impress reader. after all, she doesn't recognise most of these plants after all.

after forest stone: less follow-ups on injuries, because while it's slow i assume the healing is still done in one go for minor injuries. potentially less contact while healing? idk how the stone works. less cuddle the pain away and more cuddle the scare away i guess? reader can grow what she wants, and what is the difference aesthetic-wise between a flower in the wild and a flower grown by the stone? i assume stone-grown flower has fewer marks because wildlife don't have a chance to nibble on them or it to be damaged by the weather. reader would still appreciate gifts from them though, but will their pride let their gifts be outdone by a stone?

before shield amulet: reader holds them close and puts herself between threats while spirit deals with minor threats and i assume helps run from major threats

after shield amulet: separated by the shield! she's inside and they're stuck outside, or worse they're stuck inside and she is left vulnerable outside with only spirit to protect her! insert extreme rage when reader gets hit and the shield goes down

before the glamor mask: they get to look at reader all day and see her face and always see her smile

after glamour mask: why can't we find reader? why can't we see reader's lovely face?

i wrote an idea as well but i didn't keep a copy of it rip. it was something along the lines of reader making a flower crown using the plants they could grow using forest stone and giving the two cubs crowns, and jokingly calling them your highness, only for the two cubs to crown reader with their crowns or make their own crown for reader i don't remember.

at least i think it was? i don't remember anymore.

I have both of these asks. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get to. Had a lot going on these past few days. And I thank you for your patience.

I decided for this ask I'll write a few short scenes. I hope you like them. Sorry this one took so long. I mean seriously it took me way too long to complete this.

It's ready! Sorry about the wait and all. For the second time!

Before the Phoenix Stone -

You wrapped your cloak around yourself as you tried to hold in as much warmth as possible. Underneath, you held both Peaches and Plums close to your chest. Luckily, neither of them seemed too cold as they soaked up and produced body heat.

Of course, you could hear their chirps as they poked their heads out of the fabric to look around. They didn't like not being able to see their surroundings, they had made that clear. However they also didn't want to leave the warmth of your cloak. At least that's what you though.

In reality, being warm was only part of the reason that they clung to you. The majority of the reason was because... they hated being away from you. Snuggling up to your chest after taking a look outside, they both purred.

Your heart gently thumping next to them. It was peaceful. A low hum leaving your lips as you tried to distract yourself from the cold.

"You alright?" Spirit asked, a worried look covering her face.

"Yeah... i-it's just c-cold," you respond, noting how Spirit didn't seem bothered at all by the weather.

"Here," Spirit said taking her cloak off and giving you another layer of warmth.

"W-What a-about y-you?" You asked, your eyes narrowing slightly.

Spirit waved you off with a grin, "I'm fine. My fur is thick this time of year. I'm more bothered by the heat than the cold."

'Good, then maybe you'll leave us alone when we take Reader home,' Wukong thought to himself as he glanced up out of your cloak again.

"T-thanks," you smiled before checking the two monkeys clinging to you who didn't mind the extra warmth.

"No problem," Spirit grinned before shooting a discreet glare at the small golden monkey.

Wukong for his part sent her a glare right back. Macaque decided not to participate in favor of pressing his ears against her chest to listen to her heartbeat. It was soothing and calming. Relaxing in her hold he didn't bother arguing with anyone. Spirit would be a fool to try to take them away from Reader, after all that would make her look really bad.

After The Phoenix Stone

*chrip* *chirp*

Plum chirped as he tried to jump into your arms, only for you to grip his scruff gently and set him back on your shoulder. Which caused him to let out a quiet hiss.

"It's too hot for that," you muttered as you sat away from the roaring fire.

After struggling to get it lite for over an hour you were finally able to get the stone to get warm enough to light a spark. However in doing so, because you didn’t know how to properly use it you also felt your wings grow out of your back. Which results in the extra heat that always emits from the large, red, orange and yellow wings. To you the heat was almost unbearable at times. On the bright side at least you weren’t freezing and you were all able to sit around the fire even if you weren’t able to escape the heat now.

“It’s too hot for anything. Can’t you get rid of the wings? I know that you need more heat than me but seriously,” Spirit asked, as she sprawled out on the ground panting as she sat as far away from the fire as she could. Without being to far to protect you in case of danger.

“Not sure how,” You muttered a flush appearing on your face. If it had just been the wings it wouldn’t be too bad, but the wings combined with the fire that you set was hot.

The Phoenix Stone was honestly a pain at times. You couldn’t activate it when it was too cold, you couldn’t make the wings go away even when it was cold. It made no sense!! You grumbled, before laying on the ground with a huff. Both of the monkeys jumped onto your stomach from your shoulders and laid down to cuddle. However as soon as they did you picked them up and set them beside you.

“It’s too hot,” You muttered.

A growl left both of the cubs. They walked up on all fours and tried to hop back up only to be set back on the ground. Peaches chirped angrily before sitting on the ground back to you in retaliation.

“Quite whining,” Spirit grumbled as she turned over trying to sleep.

Before The Forest Stone

*Chirp* *Chirp*

Plums chirped as he looked over Peaches who had a thin scratch across his arm. You were fretting over him worriedly, but weren’t absolutely loosing it because you knew it wasn’t deep. However the monkey was being overly dramatic, even Plums could tell if his eye roll had anything to say about it.

“Calm down. I know it’s not that bad,” You chuckle as you cuddled him to your chest. He let out dramatic chirps and continued to wiggle around in your lap.

Carefully, you took a long piece of fabric from your bag. The cloth wasn't exactly designed for bandaging any sort of wound, but you would make do with what you had. Besides, as you had thought before, the wound wasn't bad.

Wrapping it around his arm the Monkey looked at you with a wagging tail. Though his ears were pushed down as he attempted to look hurt.

"Is that better?" You asked with a smile.

The monkey in question then chirped and held his injured arm up. With a chuckle you gave it a few kisses. Nuzzling your face against his you grinned happily. He was so cute.

Suddenly you felt a slap on your head, a tiny slap but a slap non the less. Looking over you saw Plums pouting his six ears downcast as he looked up at you with practiced puppy eyes.

"Oh my sweety, there's enough kisses for you too," you laugh lifting up the Monkey to give him a few kisses on the face.

Which of course resulted in more chirps from Peaches. And more kisses for both of them.

After The Forest Stone

After the forest stone whenever you would patch them up. You would give them less after cuddles and they hated this.

As for the shield stone and glamour mask? Well those are actually for later and I don't want to spoil the surprise more than I have with my last post. ‘Anger’. Hehe 😏

Flower Crowns

“Lalala,” You were softly singing, something you didn’t normally do.

You hated singing in front of others but right now, you were happy to sing while the two cubs sat beside you as you wove flowers together. You had already completed one made of dandelions and was now working one made out of lavender. They weren’t very good but it was still quite fun to make them.

*Chirp?*

Looking down, Plums was looking up at you with a curious look on his face as you finished up the lavender crown. A wide smile covering your face.

“And done,” You said with a giddy smile.

That caught Peaches’ attention causing him to look over your shoulder. Setting both crowns on your lap you gently picked up Peaches and set him next to Plums. Which of course resulted in a small growl from the cub. You couldn’t help but laugh at the gesture.

“Here you go. Dandelions for Peaches and lavender for Plums,” You grinned as you gently set the crowns atop their heads.

Immediately the two looked at each other and then tried to look up at themselves to see the crown. You couldn’t help but laugh at the antics that they did. They were so cute!

"Two crowns for two little kings."

Their tails started wagging excitedly as they looked up at you with wide eyes. Peaches jumped into your lap and nuzzled against you. Yes he was a king weather little or his warlord form. He was the mightiest king.

Plums let out several chirps that only his companion understood. It only made Peaches nuzzle into you more. 'She says we're her kings once we return to normal... then we can make her our Queen.'

Yes what a splendid idea! They would make you their Queen. In fact why should they even have to wait? As Great Kings now all they needed to do was crown you. A crown of roses, you mentioned how you loved the pretty red roses.

But they didn't have any roses.... oh that'll work!

With a swift movement both monkeys jumped on your shoulders causing you to chuckle. Before a pout formed on your face when they removed their crowns. Did they not like them?

Oh... both crowns were set atop your head though they were too small for you. You couldn't help bit laugh at the gesture before they both leaned down. You couldn't help but give them each a little kiss on the cheek.

"I guess I'm the Queen then," you laugh. Unaware of the intentions of the two tiny warlords that sat on your shoulders.

"Hey Reader! You ready to go?" Spirit called out as she walked back up to you.

She held a bowl of water in her hand for you that you gratefully drank before following her lead.

Okay!! I think this time this will work right! I wrote the rest of it on my notes app!

Anyways I hope you enjoy, sorry it was shorter than I planned however it gave me a pain in the ass. So hope you enjoy!!

Send me opinions and asks all you want. Nothing is forbidden so throw it at me. 💗

[llamagoddessofficial]

A commission with Nightmare, Cross and a wonderful OC, for the lovely @sansarae (who for some reason Tumblr won't let me properly @ >:/)

I hope the wait wasn't too annoying- thank you for your patience, I really appreciate it!

---

“Oh. Hello again.” You smiled at the monster before you, with a touch more genuineness than your usual go-to customer service grin. “What can I get for you?”

... The skeleton looked up. His eyelights were a sharp, startling red, bloody and intense in a manner that didn’t seem to fit his otherwise pleasantly monochromatic clothing at all. At your comment, his sockets slightly narrowed.

“You... remember me?” he said, slowly.

Your smile immediately twitched with nervousness. What? You couldn’t pick up on his tone. He was staring at you with an unreadable, near-blank expression. Did you say something wrong? What had you done?

“Of... of course I do,” you replied, voice nearly quivering as your usual awkwardness took over. Why did that give him pause? Did you offend him?

...

You couldn’t make sense of his face. He was just staring at you, like that; did he really look accusatory, or were you just seeing things because you were scared? Your lip wobbled- idiot. This is what you get for attempting anything more than you were comfortable with, anything more than customer service politeness. This exact scenario was why you found people so exhausting... why you were so introverted. 

“I mean,” you rushed for proverbial cover. “I work at a cafe. It’s my job to remember people, y’know?”

His face didn’t shift. His voice was monotone.

“... I see.”

...

... Well. That was that, then. You felt sick. 

“Erm... so what can I get for you?”

Why was he surprised, anyway? How could you not remember him? He had stumbled into the building, a few days ago, a little before closing. It had just been you left in the cafe. He had looked a mess, as if he’d just escaped a natural disaster- dressed in torn clothing, he approached the counter with faraway empty eyelights and the expression of a man who had seen far too much to care anymore. With a calm voice, he asked for ‘anything that would make him feel awake’.

You’d been too stunned (and intimidated) to try conversation. You had served him a large black coffee, which he’d taken, leaving behind a generous tip. He had seated himself in the far corner of the cafe with his back to a wall... and he drank the whole thing in silence, staring nowhere but at the table.

... Then he left without a word.

You’d had a lot of strange customers come through, in your time behind the counter. That was just part of running a business. You still vaguely remembered the best of them... the woman who had insisted you redo her coffee because the one you’d given her was ‘looking at her’, the man who had been otherwise friendly but always smelled so strongly of cinnamon it almost made you feel sick, the guy who yelled at you for making his strawberry milkshake too pink. 

But him? The skeleton? You didn’t know why, but out of everyone, it was him who stuck the most firmly in your mind.

... Eventually, he spoke. You didn’t know if he genuinely looked upset or if you were just so embarrassed by his reaction that you were seeing unpleasantness and irritation in his every move.

“... I’ll get a chamomile tea. Please.”

At least he was polite. Tea- nothing at all like his last order. “Sure. Your name?”

... He hadn’t given it last time. Understandably, considering he had been the only person in the entire cafe. But you had other customers this time and ‘skeleton’ probably wouldn’t go down well when you called it out.

He looked at you.

...

“... Cross.” He said, softly. 

You smiled at him. “Thank you, Cross. Cash or card?”

Saying his name seemed to have a weird effect on him. A strange look passed over his face, shaking his silent suspicious air for a second.

... He finally blinked. 

“... Cash.”

“Gold or dollars?”

“G.”

The register beeped. 

“That’s 12G, please.”

... He handed you the money.

...

His mouth opened, then closed again. You waited politely. But... he said nothing. He just quietly took his tea, and made his way to the same far table he’d sat at earlier.

Though he sat in silence, it didn't escape your notice that every now and then, you'd catch him looking your way.

... You opted to just keep yourself busy with your work. Though you had to admit- for some reason, when the thought of 'What an odd guy' passed through your mind...

... It wasn't entirely negative.

///---///

'Cross' came nearly every day.

You were surprised how much of your thoughts revolved around this stranger. He occupied your mind, as you set our equipment, wiping cups and plates... I wonder how he’s doing.

He was very punctual. You liked that. He rarely arrived outside of certain hourly windows, and there was always a pattern to his arrivals. On a good day, he would come in the early morning- depending on the crowds he may even be one of the very first people into the cafe. He'd seem aware, and like he wanted to say something to you... he'd order a tea, and through your shift you'd constantly be glancing up and catching him (sheepishly?) looking at you.

... On a bad day, though... he’d come late. Like the first time you saw him. His eyelights would be distant, his tone brittle, words clipped, someone checked out of their own body. He would just stare at his table like something was playing out in front of his view. Those were the days when he would order a large coffee. 

... Today looked like it was shaping out to be one of his ‘bad’ days. It was almost four when he came into the cafe, the last of your usual patrons already shuffling out the door.

Quickly, you started up the coffee machine, and made him his coffee. He had only been standing at the counter for a few moments, when you turned around and placed the drink in front of him.

...

He blinked. His eyelights fractionally widened, growing a little brighter.

“... You knew my order?”

Despite his softer tone, not wanting a repeat of last time, with his strange reaction to you recalling his name... you just nodded.

Another pause, as he just stared at the coffee.

“Nobody else remembers anything about me.”

... Huh. That was a pretty heavy sentence. You tried to keep your tone light, in comparison.

“... Well,” you tapped the coffee lid, “it definitely helps that you only order the same two things. Right?”

...

... His gaze flickered up to you. 

... He finally actually smiled at you. His shoulders gently bobbed, like he was briefly restraining a chuckle- the smile looked nice on him, it was handsome and suited his features. And though it quickly fell away to his usual not-quite-a-frown, you were startled by how different he had looked for that brief moment... how pleasant, how warm. Like there was a happier person lurking just beneath the surface.

“Heh... yeah. I guess so.” 

His phalanges tapped on the top of the coffee. Over top of where yours had been, moments ago.

Your customer service voice was slowly slipping away. His proximity was... nice. “Do you need anything else?”

"I like your braids."

"... Thank you." One of your hands immediately came up to fiddle with the hair. Was the warmth in your cheeks showing on your face? You really hoped not. "It's easier to work when it's out of the way."

"I wouldn't know."

...

Both of you broke into quiet laughter. Yours, a warm giggle, his a low rusty chuckle.

“... What’s your name?” He asked.

You usually hated when customers asked for your name, pushing the boundary of customer and server. But... not this time, not at all. You couldn't have been happier. “Rin.”

“... Do you mind if I just... sit here?” He motioned to the seat nearest to the counter.

You nearly beamed. 

“Sure. Go ahead.”

... You thought you saw something flicker across his cheekbones. Some kind of colour. But it was gone again, as soon as it appeared; perhaps just a trick of the light. Or your eyes finally showing the strain of so many hours of work. Either way, he took his coffee, and settled into the chair at the table right beside the counter.

... It was silent again, in the cafe. But it was a much different silence. You, wiping down the machines and packing away for the day... Cross, taking his time with his drink.

It really felt, to you, like he just needed to sit near to someone.

... You could live with that person being you.

///---///

Cross was good at keeping his cool. After what he’d been through, what he’d done... his nerves of steel had been forged under unimaginable pressure. He didn’t like that it had become genuinely hard for anything to shake him anymore; it was endless proof of his sins, living in his chest and smothering the person he had once been.

That was why, when Nightmare’s terrifying eye turned to him and pinned him under all of its icy power and rage, cold blue flickering against the castle’s glassy obsidian walls... he didn’t flinch.

“you.” Nightmare’s voice, despite having a light intonation, was not happy. “a word.”

... Cross didn’t react to Killer’s cruel snickering. He didn’t even look the other skeletons’ way- he knew Killer would be grinning like a cat, Axe would be cleaning his weapon with his characteristic disinterest, and Dust would be silently enjoying the beginnings of what may eventually become a slow, painful downfall for Cross.  

These people were not his friends. They were deeply unpleasant coworkers, at best.

... Cross followed Nightmare, as his ‘employer’ moved into a separate room. The door closed behind them, cutting off Killer’s laughter. 

Blue candlelight warped and flashed in the dark.

...

A tentacle lashed out, faster than Cross could react, grabbing him by the neck and slamming him into the wall. He let out a startled gasp as the appendage held him there, tightly, the pressure increasing until it felt like his spine was inches away from fracturing.

Nightmare’s glare pierced straight into Cross’ Soul. 

“you think i’m an idiot?”

Cross couldn’t reply, the pressure on his spine too great. But he reckoned Nightmare wasn’t looking for a response.  

“you’re getting soft. you’re hesitating.” Nightmare’s head cocked. “did you think i wouldn’t notice?” 

Nightmare’s grip fractionally increased, and he clearly spent a few seconds savouring watching Cross struggle in vain. The twitch in his smile, the bend to his claws, he looked to be taking out as much rage as he could in those short moments. 

But apparently, he wasn’t yet willing to kill- despite clearly desiring to press until the spine shattered, Nightmare instead clenched his jaw and let go. 

Cross nearly collapsed onto his knees. The quick display of Nightmare’s overwhelming power had staggered him. But he still managed to catch himself, at the last moment, and remain standing.

Perhaps it would’ve been better to fall. The silent defiance in that move seemed to aggravate Nightmare even more.

“you aren’t subtle.” Nightmare hissed. “you move through the multiverse with the grace of a dog in wet concrete. i know you like to slink off to other places. what are you doing? crawling away to go build a new family?”

Cross kept his line of sight down. Nightmare had the powers of a God, but he had the temper of a petulant child, and in these kinds of moods the smallest slips from his minions could push him into a fit of violent rage that sent all of them scurrying for cover. 

“No.” Cross responded, as simply as possible, voice strained from the attack to his neck. Now wasn’t the time for flowery words; Nightmare still wasn’t looking for a real reply.

A cruel snicker. “trying to escape? settle down somewhere i can’t find you?”

Your face flickered in Cross’ mind’s eye.

Not right now.

“No.”

“... i like to think you have forgotten i taste lies. because i resent the thought that one of my underlings is so stupid as to know that, but still lie to me.”

Cross steeled himself. “I have nothing to hide.”

“not even that little human woman?”

...

... It took all of his mental control. Every ounce. Another skeleton would’ve cried aloud, perhaps, or frozen as the terror spread through them. Someone they cared about had been noticed by Nightmare... singled out, almost by name.

... You had no idea how much you meant to Cross. No idea that you were often the only thing that could soothe his disturbed Soul when it all felt too much. Your warmth, your kind eyes, how you remembered little details about him... and said his name so gently. 

Hearing someone say his name with kindness had been like, for just a moment, being home again.

You didn't know how protective he was of you. What he’d do to keep you safe. And he couldn’t, at any cost, allow Nightmare to think you were someone to him.

He kept his gaze on the glassy black floor. He kept his emotions still.

... He had stifled truly monumental loss and terror, before. This was nothing new.

"... She's a barista." Cross said.

"so that's it?” an incredulous scoff. “you're hopping multiverses to go drink coffee at the same shitty coffee shop in the middle of nowhere?"

"Yes, sir."

"you could go anywhere for your coffee. you could go to italy. indonesia. brazil. anywhere at all- and you go there?"

"Yes." Because you’re there.

...

... Nightmare seemed to be quietly fuming. Though whether it was because he couldn't pin any particular 'crime' onto Cross, or because his snobbery with coffee was coming through, he had no idea.

They both knew that Cross was too valuable of a pawn to die for no solid reason.

... Eventually, Nightmare's rage eased enough for him to speak again. 

"i don’t care what games you play in your free time, worm.” His voice was significantly lower. “but you know what will happen, if you don’t do your fucking job. hesitate again, and i certainly won't."

“... It won’t happen again.” Cross replied, not yet allowing himself to feel relief.

The cyan eye flashed. “it won’t happen again, what.”

“... It won’t happen again, sir.” 

...

"fine. you may go."

Cross rose to his feet, but kept his eyelights down. He exited the room as swiftly as he could, without appearing desperate to leave.

Don’t feel yet.

Killer was there, of course, waiting just outside the door. Grin as smug and cruel as ever.

"oh, so you're still alive?" The murderer crooned. "for how long, though...?"

Cross gave Killer a witheringly unimpressed look. He had no need to engage in one of his games- he just needed to get as far away from Nightmare as possible, so he could allow himself to process the fears that were itching at the corners of his Soul, threatening to give everything he was hiding away.

He wordlessly walked past Killer. As always, the only thing that seemed to make Killer's constant grin drop was Cross refusing to engage.

///---///

Moving between universes was second nature, by this point in Nightmare’s existence. So much so that he wasn’t at all exaggerating when he said he could see how Cross had moved from one place to the other. The fabric between realities looked disturbed and jagged, in the wake of someone moving clumsily; a rippled pond surface, traces of the offender’s Soul saturating the threads.

It wasn’t difficult to track down where his subordinate had been going. And who he’d been going to.

...

... You turned over, in your bed. There was a soft kind of pain written across your face, something happening within your dream. pathetic. Nightmare tilted his head, as he observed... even if you had been awake, he was indistinguishable from the shadows at the foot of your bed.

Cross' scent was all over you- embarrassing, mushy soft feelings that the 'soldier' clearly couldn't help, they had spilled out of his Soul and stained all over you like a foul hotel blanket under a blacklight. Nightmare almost couldn't stand to be near it.

And yet. Under it all- in your chest, he could see a glittering, jewel-like purple Soul.

Nightmare’s gaze zeroed in. she’s a perseverance mage.

... His smile curled. A little more interesting. Did Cross know? Did you know? There was a significant degree of power, flowing through those veins, magic just waiting to be harnessed. Even Nightmare couldn’t deny it was pretty to observe- he was always partial to royal purple.

... You made a sound, in your sleep. A crease formed between your brows.

...

Well. He was curious, now. And he hadn’t tormented a human in a long time.

He slipped, completely undetected by your Soul and mind, into your dream. Before he began to terrify you it was probably a good idea to observe your thoughts, get a sense of any treachery Cross may have committed... any details his underling may have spilled, that could justify erasing another human pest from the multiverse.

... A myriad of pleasant tastes. Melancholy, loss, a hint of misplaced and directionless anger. Overall, a delicate combination of flavours, but sweet nonetheless.

He could see the dream’s scene, emerging before him. how delightful.

... Dreams were, by no means, easy places to be. Though Nightmare was powerful he was also an interloper and there was a real danger that a strong human Soul like yours could cast him out. The dreams of mages were often like rocking boats on a great ocean- until he took the reins, the residual waves made him feel sick, tossed about. It was important to get his bearings.

The backdrop was a sea of blurry images, nearly-forgotten places melting together in your mind. A park, a bedroom, a dark street. And... there was two of you.

...

... No. He could smell the emotions rolling off of you, as you stared at this mirror image of yourself. The mirror image... she wore different clothes. Frilly and sweet ones. The adult features of her face were exaggerated, imagined- unlike your messily self-braided locks, her hair was sweetly ringlet curled, as if done lovingly by another's skilled hands.

And her eyes, though so similar to yours, were someone else’s eyes.

Melancholy. Regret. Anger. 

... 

Nightmare suddenly... felt his chest tighten.

that's... her sister.

a twin.

... His thoughts were getting quieter and quieter. Static, faintly ringing in his skull... he couldn't taste the emotions anymore.

“... I wonder if you would’ve cared.” You said, quietly, to the blank and silent sister before you. “I guess I’ll never know.”

The reflection didn't smile.

His brother's face flickered in his mind's eye.

...

Nightmare drew in a sharp breath- suddenly staggered, he immediately withdrew from the dream. He moved back from the bed like a live snake was laying within it. 

He gripped his shirt. His chest... it was so heavy. Why did it feel so heavy? He took another step away.

i didn't think anyone could comprehend how i felt.

let alone...

... He didn't like how, when he looked at you, for a moment he didn't immediately see prey.

Just a sleeping person.

...

In an instant, he was back in his room. Back in his castle, where he was safe, and alone.

...

Nightmare let out a slow, dark breath. And though he hadn't yet fully re-centred himself, his grin regardless began to return.

As much as he was aggravated by Cross... he almost had to thank him.

His ‘soldier’ had bought such a fascinating creature to his full attention, after all.

[msommers]

eros 2, philia 3, agape 5, pragma 3 for auretta, riya and meredith

these took forever bc my brain is not cooperating this month but here we are!! ty xoxoxo // seven forms of love questions

How important is sex to them in a relationship? Do they see it as something essential to their happiness? Would they be able to remain in a monogamous relationship with someone they loved without sex?

AURETTA — ok she's still in development so this could change but off a quick vibe check, i'm thinking that in a healthy relationship she would want an active sex life. obviously the intimacy with the partner is a valid enough reason to want it, but i specify "healthy" because i feel she's had experience wrecking her own sex drive by being a lil clown who was performing in the relationship, trying to be what she thought they wanted her to be and forgetting to check in with herself along the way. so being in a healthy space of feeling comfortable with herself and a partner would probably be pretty freeing and help her explore her sexuality in a safe space.

RIYA — alright i rubber duckied this one with the dm for some assurance and we came to the conclusion that no, Riya wouldn’t be able to be in a relationship with someone without sex/sexual activity involved (it also wouldn’t be monogamous because that’s not who she is, but that’s not the main focus here). the Riya + Sex topic is multi-layered but when it comes down to it, she needs that physical connection and intimacy with her partners because she’s a very sensual/sexual person and going without sex would feel like shutting off a big part of herself.

MEREDITH — i don't have any detailed backing for it like the other two, just a vibe check that Mere wouldn't be down for relationship with no sex whatsoever. she'd be fine with infrequent fooling around tho, that's fine. she's a busy lady so it works out lmao

What qualities does your OC most value in a friend? Loyalty? Shared sense of humour? Or something else?

AURETTA — probably because she's on the other end of the spectrum, i think she values friends who have fantastic emotional intelligence. she also appreciates friends who are open with affection and kind words. a goofy one is her i know that's right attitude about friends who have no problem going "ok you were right, sorry" about things lmao

RIYA — it would have been different just a year ago before her life went to shit, but i think the top qualities right now are empathy, patience, and optimism. big shocker that the lady going through her entire world and sense of self being flipped on its head is currently placing traits that provide her with much needed support at the top of her list but like 🤷🏼‍♀️ that's how it goes. honesty is also a big one, we all knew that.

MEREDITH — hit the nail on the head with loyalty listed as an example. miss paranoia over here needs the deepest most unwavering levels of loyalty and devotion to feel truly comfortable with a friend. outside of that she values those who are direct, responsible, and funny.

Does your OC find it easy to empathise with their enemies? Or do they see it as important to dehumanise them in order to combat them with sufficient determination? 

AURETTA — i think a lot of moments of her extending empathy to anybody she’d consider an “enemy” would stem from her siblings and/or companions prompting it, because it’s not her instinct to lean on that understanding when somebody’s coming at her (or those siblings/companions) with cruel or violent intentions. i don’t see her as somebody that dehumanises others, but as somebody more than capable of detaching herself from certain situations after 3 decades of aloof ass bitch training.

RIYA — screams into a pillow for 40 seconds straight bc this is brutal for the vigilant game where we have so many enemy variants. we got so many Opps, bro. at the moment Riya's mostly living with a pretty black and white worldview (at the beginning stage of that changing), so up against “humanoid” enemies she's not giving them much grace, if any at all. they're bad people and many of them she's labeled outright evil to cope with what they've done (hi Ilyan and Emyr xoxo). the Serault arc has unfortunately introduced her to moral quandaries when it comes to the Darkspawn, especially the Broodmothers. it was too easy for her to sympathize with the beings that had once been women, which resulted in a lot of spiraling in her head about if their souls were still present or not and that made things painful to navigate. i think she's going to wig out on the day she finds herself feeling the slightest hint of empathy towards one of their humanoid enemies, it's gonna confuse her so bad.

MEREDITH — another lady who isn’t very keen on looking at people with sympathetic eyes if they’ve been deemed an enemy. i think with enemies she kind of,,,reverses her empathy, i’m sleepy and can’t figure out a better way to word it. if she can recognize why an enemy made a decision, she quickly shifts over into remembering that it Does Not Matter because they still made the choice to begin with and caused harm because of it, so they don’t deserve her understanding. which means they deserve her wrath. prepare to be peppered with arrows :)

Are your OC's parents still together? To what degree do they look to their own parents as a model for their own ideal relationship?

AURETTA — lmao nah, they weren’t ever properly together in the first place. they had a brief love affair before her father Eilethal had to go back to Taltempla because of his clerical duties, but there were no hard feelings from her mother because Jocelyn is a cleric of Sune and she simply enjoyed the beauty of their time together. discovering she was pregnant with Auretta was likely seen as a little blessing and not cause for upset tbh. i don't think Auretta looks to their relationship as any kind of ideal, outside of maybe how to not hold a grudge for well-meaning exes idk.

RIYA — yes and they’ll be together and alive and safe forever and are immune to the Blight, thank you for your time. their relationship is #1 in her eyes when it comes to how excellent they are at communicating and reaching compromise, something she was able to notice after she'd had a few years worth or dating/courting/fooling around experience. their love languages are different, as are their personalities and big goals in life, but they grew together so beautifully and have been at this comfortable spot for decades where the love is unwavering and consistent because they learned how to express themselves in ways that the other would be able to understand. because of Riya's own love life being all over the place in terms of varied personalities from her partners, Priscilla and Loren’s communication skills are the model she turns to when in doubt. also there's the elephant in the room that no brother likes her bringing up (Regulus might think it's funny and hop on to bully the others) but like. they had 5 kids and both wanted every one of them. that's a happy and healthy sex life right there, that's great to have.

MEREDITH — you’re rude for this one!! i hope you repent and find Andraste our lord and savior about it!!! anyway they’re still together in the Golden City looking down on their kids or however Thedas heaven works, idk. sadly i think Meredith only looked to her parents as a relationship ideal after she lost them, when she started to get those first glimpses of romantic interest in one of her companions and she’d indulge a few minutes in considering what pursuing the feelings could look like, which leads her to “will it be like what my parents had?” but hey that’s upsetting and leads to tears and the grief she's constantly trying to bury so maybe she should just set that aside for a while and maybe never pick it back up that sounds reasonable

[ends-of-the-wayward-storm]

Mia's Relationships in TWST—Part 2/2

Like with the first part, I took this as a general progression of thoughts and opinions amongst everyone and went from there. Everyone's thoughts and opinions are pretty straightforward, more or less, but I'd still like to get into a little more detail on those below the cut. So off we go! (Original chart/template is from here, and the Picrew I used to make Mia's little sprite is here. Her armband is something I put together myself.)

• Crowley: At first, Mia didn't really have much of an opinion on him other than the fact that she thinks he's a little scatterbrained. Of course, the longer she stayed at NRC, the more she came to dislike him. He dances around things too much and dumps a lot of problems onto her that she's pretty sure he could handle himself. There are some things she doesn't mind dealing with, but usually she's pretty annoyed with him and avoids depending on him whenever she can. Meanwhile, he thinks she's pretty great. She's diligent, resourceful, and very independent. Although, he does think her currently well-known attitude needs some work.

• Crewel: They actually came to like each other fairly easily. She's really good at alchemy and she enjoys it very much. It's even her best subject. (Grim is so lucky.) Crewel likes the questions she asks during class and appreciates her efforts as well as having the patience to deal with Grim when it comes to schoolwork.

• Sam: Him and Mia didn't really have much of a problem coming to like each other. She thinks he's pretty cool and he likes how laidback yet spirited she can be. Since Mia does take up a part-time job at his shop, her time there ends up making them pretty casual friends. He even trusts her with the shop sometimes.

• Vargas: Hands down, Vargas is one of the few people she's completely indifferent towards. There's not much to say about a musclehead like him, in her book. As for Vargas, he came to like her pretty easily. And he's a little impressed that someone as lean as her can handle his lessons.

• Trein: Despite Mia wondering how exactly one teacher could make a class so monotonous, she's pretty cool with Trein. As for him, he pretty much came to like her fairly easily. Like with her other classes, she's diligent and makes an effort to pay attention despite falling asleep in his class at least a few times (which was before she managed to find a coffee machine).

• Rollo: Oh boy. Both of them were pretty indifferent towards each other at first. To Mia, he was just a really reserved and polite guy, even if he did keep giving everyone judging side eyes, so she didn't pay him any mind. Rollo, meanwhile, despite being in disbelief with how nonchalantly she was handling being surrounded by magic users, didn't pay her much mind. And although he was a tad curious why she was even attending NRC in the first place, he chose not to dwell on it. He did have his grand plan to worry about, after all.

Once the whole ordeal with Rollo and the crimson flowers had occurred, Mia was quick to dislike him. And when she had the chance, she didn't waste any time giving him a piece of her mind. Rollo still remained indifferent towards her, however, but he does think she's a bit too modest with trusting her classmates so generally.

• Fellow: I haven't seen the translations for Stage in Playful Land in their entirety, so I'm just going off of what I've seen so far for both him and Gidel (hence the question marks and white arrows since I wanted to at least put something there). So far, Mia doesn't like him. He's too suspicious and way sleazier than Azul, and she absolutely does not buy his "friendly guy" act. She might have her guard up for a pretty long time, even though probably half of the group keeps trying to convince her that he's totally fine. Ace most definitely will be one of the first ones to tell her to loosen up if Grim doesn't beat him to it. The closest she'll probably get to lowering her guard a smidge is admitting that everyone's outfits aren't too bad, including her own. But she's definitely not a fan of the long ribbons, so she's tying hers up for more mobility.

Fellow, meanwhile, probably might like her, but he does see her as a very tough nut to crack. Maybe he'll pull out all the stops to get her to have some more fun, maybe he'll get her to at least trust Gidel. Who knows? (The chances of him getting Mia's rough side are low, but never zero.)

• Gidel: Currently, Mia's pretty indifferent towards Gidel since he seems harmless enough. But he is in league with Fellow, so that's probably a red flag for her. Gidel might be cool with her, but I have no idea.

[I might update Fellow and Gidel's sections whenever I get around to either watching the event translations or seeing it officially in English, but we'll see.]

(Part 1)

[cars-and-planes-dork]

So I randomly felt like quickly sharing my thoughts on all three Cars movies and both Planes movies. Quick disclaimer, no matter how I feel about certain things it's totally cool if you feel different and I respect that.

Cars:

I love Cars. This was my childhood movie that I watched over and over and over again since I was a young child. I love the characters, the plot, and I think the animation holds up really well. I also am glad to see it with adult eyes cause there's a lot of nuance and stuff that I of course didn't get as a child. Recently on a whim I needed to unwind from stress and I put on Cars (just like my parents used to do for me as a kid, lol), and it genuinely did make me feel better and woke up a part of me that had laid dormant for years. Cars is a film that almost makes me wanna take a long drive on Route 66...until I remember I'm not any good at road tripping, lol.

Cars 2:

I have a distinct memory in my mind of being a child in the theater watching Cars 2, turning to my dad and saying 'can we go now?'. I didn't watch it all the way through until recently and I can thoroughly say that I don't despise it, but I'm also not its biggest fan. It's actually something of a guilty pleasure for me now. Sometimes I'll just put it on in the background while I do things. It also makes me contemplate the inner workings of this world more than the writers themselves probably thought about, like how the heck do different makes and models come about, what is the impact of climate change on a world of vehicles, but that's probably its own post. But yeah, I accept it for what it is and even enjoy some parts of it.

Cars 3:

So confession, it took me over 6 years to work up the courage to watch this one. I don't know why I was so worried, but I finally did it. And I loved it. I really think they ended on a good note. I'll admit the first part was probably the weakest in my eyes, but I really enjoyed the tribute to Doc Hudson and I actually teared up and I was happy to learn more about his past. I liked the torch passing narrative as well. I think my biggest complaint is that I wish we could've seen more of Lightning and his friends. (I may be biased because somehow Cal Weathers worked his way into my heart).

Planes:

Planes took longer to stick in my brain than Cars did. I remember going to see it actually, the local air and space museum did a showing of it and I went to watch it with my family. My parents didn't like it much but I remember being happy with it. Upon rewatching, there's things I like, but there's a part of me wishing it was something more. I can't fully explain it. Also I find Dusty's attitude off-putting to me personally (particularly his feeling of being entitled to being trained by Skipper and essentially demanding that Skipper tell him about his clearly traumatic past strikes me as kinda callous). But I still enjoy putting it on in the background and enjoy thinking about the world itself, much like Cars 2. Also fun fact, Skipper is one of my favorite kinds of planes.

Planes Fire & Rescue:

I'm sorry but I have much less patience for this film, but like I said above, I respect those who do. I will say, I appreciate them highlighting some of the realities of firefighting (like how the general public doesn't hear about a lot of fires that are dealt with). But other than that, I don't have much positive to say about it. The characters for the most part feel underdeveloped and I can't say I'm particularly endeared to a majority of them (Blade is the exception for me, tbh). And Dipper in particular needs to chill the hell out, her behavior is pretty inappropriate and creepy while being played off as jokes. Beyond that, my aforementioned issues with Dusty remain in this movie. Honestly, he doesn't strike me as capable of doing this job and he actively creates a situation that nearly gets Blade killed. I could spend awhile talking about it, but I'd honestly rather not. To end on a positive note, I think the married RV couple are adorable and I like them.

So that's all my thoughts. I enjoy both franchises and tend to overthink the hell out of them (if I overthink something it's usually cause I enjoy it). Hopefully I didn't piss too many people in the fandom off, lol.

[wishingforatypewriter]

Long Ass Tag Game

Cause I wanna get to know you guys better

Thanks @linnorabeifong for tagging me!

How many tumblr accounts have you had before this one?

Just one, my "main" personal/aesthetic blog.

How long have you been in fandom?

I've been in different fandoms on Tumblr since maybe 2012 or 2013. I joined my current fandom back in 2020.

Your favorite trope in fiction?

I love reading slow burn, though I don't personally have the patience required to write it well.

Your favorite random fact?

Bonobos have a matriarchal social structure.

Your favorite game or kind of game?

I've been obsessed with Potion Craft for the past month or so. Animal Crossing is also an old favorite.

A place you'd like to visit? (If carbon emissions, logistics and money weren't in question)

I've always wanted to visit Japan (I had a trip booked for July of 2020, but it ended up not happening because of the pandemic). I'd also love to go back to Florence, Vienna, and Prague someday.

An animal you're irrationally afraid of?

Centipedes, millipedes and basically any other insect with a lot of legs. I know on a rational level that I'm much bigger than them and they can't hurt me, but they still freak me the hell out.

What's your favorite season?

Autumn, I think. The leaves are beautiful, and I like the kinds of clothes I get to wear in that weather. However, I'm starting to appreciate summer a lot more.

A smell that brings you nice memories?

There's this rose perfume I bought in Italy that reminds me of the trip I took in 2019 with my best friend. Whenever I wear it, I think about walking through the ruins of Pompeii, witnessing the beautiful art in Vatican City and the Uffizi Gallery, strolling along the river Arno, and wine tasting in Tuscany. That was probably my favorite vacation so far.

(If you're ok talking about food. If not, delete this part)

What's your favorite food from where you were born? And what's your favorite food from some place else?

I'm from New York, and my favorite food from here is probably a fresh hot bagel with cream cheese.

My favorite food from elsewhere is probably ramen or carbonara.

What's your favorite drink (if you drink alcohol, alcoholic and non-alcoholic)?

My go to is probably a gin and tonic or a glass of red wine. My favorite reds are Cabernet Sauvignon and Chianti.

Do you give your pets random table scraps?

I don't have any pets at the moment, but back when I lived with a roommate, I was known to indulge her dog every now and then.

Tagging anyone who wants to participate.

[ssa-thotchnerr]

Nerve Gas - Chapter 3

part one part two

Summary – The final chapter in the ‘Nerve Gas’ story. Hotch’s daughter realises she may not be getting out of this one and wants her dad – Hotch does everything he can to save his daughter from a painful demise.

Warnings – Gore, character deaths, angst, sad hotch, reader becomes disabled, sight loss

Word Count –  2.2k

A/N – Wow, fucking finally. 2 years later here we are, finally finished with this series! I hope everyone enjoys this as I have really – believe it or not – enjoyed writing it! Please feel free to like, reblog, and leave feedback, as it is always appreciated!

 The blood in your hand stood out painfully against the paleness of your palm, trying to keep yourself as calm as possible, you wiped it on the leg of your jeans. You knew the nerve gas was making its way around your body and probably shutting down all your vital functions, but you couldn’t give up, despite how much your body was begging you to. You held onto the wall as you made your way down the hallway to try and escape the two that were after you – the two who wanted you dead just because you were your father’s daughter. You stumbled and tripped, grunting painfully as you hit the ground, the wind being knocked out of your compromised lungs. It took a lot of strain for you to get up and back up onto your feet, you struggled before pushing yourself up, only to find your two hunters in front of you – they had found you, their prey.

 Hotch continued to watch you, watched as you tried your hardest to run away from those after you, despite your weak body’s protests for you to stop and let yourself rest, to give up entirely – but you had run in harder conditions. Like when Hotch had to chase after you after you snuck away to try and meet your dealer, desperate for a hit of something stronger than what your anti-depressants provided you with, they didn’t make you numb enough anymore. Hotch remembered that night with a sad smile, it had been the night you had finally admitted your drug problem to him, and your need for help and a way out. You didn’t enjoy doing drugs, it was a necessary evil for you to not have the bad thoughts you so often had. Ben smirked as he looked at Hotch.

“Your daughter is quite something, agent Hotchner,” He chided, watching as rage completely engulfed Hotch, taking over every fibre of his being until all he seen was red, and he had to fight back the urge to swing a punch at the old man for even mentioning you. It was unfair. Why were you made to suffer for his actions, what had you done to deserve this?

“Don’t you dare, mention her. She could be dead, all because of you and what you’ve done to her. She’s a child, what did she do to you to deserve this?” Hotch was in his face. The old man smirked once again, knowing of the outcome of your fate. As Hotch went to speak once more, he heard Derek’s phone ring and turned to him.

“Hey Garcia,” He greeted the technician. Normally she would have reprimanded him for his bland greeting, but these were not normal times, her original BAU baby was missing.

“So I tracked the feed of the camera’s in the house that y/n’s in and,” Garcia stopped with a gasp, and Emily, Hotch and Derek all waited, patience wearing thin between the trio and Garcia on the other end of the phone. “The feed is 2 days old,” She finished without prompt. Hotch felt his stomach drop, if your survival chances were already slim, what about now? “The address is 19 Melville Lane, the house has remained empty since Ben Rogers bought the house in 2013,” She rambled. Hotch looked over at a smirking Ben, whose face held a smug grin, one that made Hotch sick to his stomach the more it all clicked into place. “I’ll send Spencer and Rossi with JJ to the house.” With no time for anyone to reply, Garcia hung up. Emily and Derek watched as Hotch made his way over to the frail unsub, fury written across his face.

“Where is she?” Hotch questioned the man. Ben continued to smirk at the angered hotch, which only infuriated him further – what was so funny about this situation to him, was it the chaos he had caused? Emily made her way over to the row of dusty computers, Derek following after her in curiosity.

“I’m fast forwarding the tape, we can’t waste any more time,” she told him, clicking forward in the tape. Emily gasped as she paused the tape. There you stood, covered in blood, knife in your hands and a manic look in your eyes.

 You didn’t know what happened. The last thing you remembered, you were being chased and felt like you were dying and now here you were – covered in blood with two dead bodies at your feet. Suddenly you fell to your knees, a coughing fit taking over you before you could do anything. Blood came pouring out of your mouth, and you started to panic. You wanted your dad, and you wanted him now, you didn’t want to die alone – but as your body went numb and your eyesight went blurry, you knew it was looking that way. You found yourself curled into a ball, the bitter taste of iron in your mouth and your eyelids feeling heavier and heavier with each passing blink.

And for a moment, everything was peaceful.

No worries.

No thoughts.

Nothing.

Just you and peace.

Until there was nothing but pain, and nothing but agony.

You wanted to be numb again, as the burning sensation in your lungs lit up and made you feel like you couldn’t breathe. As you tried breathing in, you couldn’t – it felt like you were choking on nothing, and if you were being honest, it felt like your first overdose. Lying on a freezing cold floor as your body shut down, all alone. As your eyes rolled up, you caught a glimpse of the man you assumed to be the one who had put you in your current position, too weak to react, you simply exhaled, and went numb for the final time.

 When the police finally came and very forcefully arrested Ben, Hotch made his way over to the computer screens, where he saw Emily with tears glistening in her eyes, and Derek with a look of shock on his face.

“Hotch,” Derek tried to distract him from looking at the screens which showed your fate, but he knew Hotch was angry, he didn’t want him to lash out and hurt someone, or even himself.

“Derek, move, please,” Hotch had his focus on one thing, you. He needed to know that you were okay, that you were in a safe place, as Ben had said you were. Derek couldn’t hold his position much longer but felt a wave of relief when Hotch’s phone rang, and he moved away from the screens. Reid?”

“She’s not here.” Spencer stated. Him and Rossi had gotten to the house, only to be met with 4 dead bodies, none of them yours, and the only trace of you being here your blood on the floor and the knife you held in your hands to kill your hunters.

“What?” Hotch couldn’t believe it. How could you have just vanished like that? His mind ran through all the worst-case scenarios. Had you been trafficked? Or had he just murdered you in cold blood? Emily began to run through all the things Ben had said to Hotch to try and think if there was anything in his words that could have hinted towards where he was holding you if you were even still alive.

“She’s not at this house, Hotch,” Spencer reiterated. Hotch’s heart began to pound – this couldn’t be happening. Emily left to look around, leaving Derek with an increasingly nervous Hotch. As she looked around, Emily spotted a large safe built into the wall, the door laying slightly ajar with a tube running out of it.

Oh.

Oh.

You were in a safe place.

Emily ran towards the safe, gently opening the door in case you really were inside, she didn’t want to spook you. She could have cried when she saw you, curled in on yourself with an oxygen mask on, an IV bag laying by your leg, the needle running into your arm. You where barley awake, but you were breathing.

“Hotch!” Emily called out for your father, who came running in, still on the phone to Reid and Derek following behind him. Hotch’s breath caught in his throat as he saw you, frail and curled up in on yourself, a bit more conscious than you were when Emily had first found you. Lazily, you looked up at your dad, and your eyes widen as you realised, he was real this time, and it wasn’t like your hallucinations since you had been kept in this safe. Hotch hung up on Reid, too concerned to tell him goodbye. He reached in for you and gently brought you out of the safe, careful to keep the IV in your arm and oxygen mask over your face, even though you had taken off – despite your aching chest and inability to catch your own breath.

“Dad,” You gasped out, tears in your eyes as you looked up at your dad, even though you still couldn’t really see. You could make out shapes and colours, but nothing had any depth or other details, everything was fuzzy and blurry. “I can’t see.” You cried out. Hotch pushed your hair away from your face, putting the oxygen mask back over your face as you struggled to breathe from your crying.

“It’s okay honey, I’m here,” He assured you gently, watching as you desperately tried to deblur your vision. “Don’t do that, you’ll hurt yourself,” Hotch gently scolded you, you stopped squinting and let out a heavy exhale. “There you go, you’re okay baby.” He didn’t know who he was assuring the most, himself or you. It didn’t matter to him though – you were here, and you were alive in his arms.

 Hotch watched as you put your new glasses on, screwing your face up at the coldness of them. In the weeks and eventual months after your incident, your vision hadn’t returned to what it was before, leaving you partially blind in both eyes.

“Do I look stupid?” You asked your dad, huffing when he moved your head towards him so he could actually see how they looked on your face. “I already hate this.” You stated bluntly, a dramatic frown on your face.

“You’ll survive, honey, and no, you don’t look stupid,” He told you, a sad smile he know you wouldn’t be able to make out on his face, sometimes he just remembers that you would be like this for the rest of your life, dependent on him. “Do you want to keep them on or take them off since you’re going to bed, where your lights are off, or supposed to be.” His sad smile turned into a more happy one as he joked about your failure to go to bed when he asked you to, you only had to wear your glasses during the day when it was light, since your eyes had a strong sensitivity to the light and made your eyesight even worse.

"Oh ha-ha, you’re so funny, dad,” You jabbed back, matching the smile on his face.

“Alright, upstairs,” He gently shoved you towards the stairs and stood behind you as you attempted to make your way up, which you were able to on your own. Hotch gave you a few minutes before badgering you to get into bed. He had had to renovate your room to make it more friendly towards your disability. Your bed no longer had a head or a footboard and was pressed against the wall, so you could easily just fall onto it when you were getting in. Hotch, however, did have a slight panic attack when you had tried to light your candle and nearly set the house on fire. “Are you ready, honey?” He asked you, knocking on the door.

“Yeah,” You replied tiredly, looking over at the door as you heard it creak open. Hotch came over to your bed and sat down on the edge beside you. “I’m sorry you always need to look after me.” You apologised. Hotch frowned.

"Don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault, honey,” He assured you. “And I’m your dad, its my job to look after you, especially now that you really need me.” He continued, watching as you had slowly started drifting off to sleep, completely unaware of what he would do for you, and what he would do to keep you safe, to keep you out of the pain and trouble that life had already burdened you and your younger brother with. It was taking Jack a little bit longer to adjust to the new changes to the household, that he wouldn’t be the centre of Hotch’s attention anymore, that you now needed it that bit more than he did. Hotch waited until you were fully asleep before tucking you in and kissing you on the head.

“I love you.”

[fallatyourfeet]

Conflicted - Part 2 of 2 (Ramsay Bolton x Reader)

Summary: Ramsay is conflicted by his feelings for the Reader.

Find part one in my masterlist. I used to link previous parts, but I've had so much trouble with posts and links that I gave up on the idea a long time ago.

Warnings: Usual Ramsay warnings, he's hardly a poster child of purity.

Word Count: 1177

A/N: This has been a long time coming. It's been requested quite a few times since Part 1 got posted, so I thought it was time to deliver. It's based off a request I got at the start of the year (but I haven't followed it completely). I've been in a writing slump the last couple of weeks, not because of a lack of inspiration, but rather a lack of time. So I'm hoping this doesn't feel too disjointed, being written in patches here and there, whenever I could steal the time.

I would love to know what you think, please feel free to send an ask, message or leave a comment, feedback is always appreciated

If you like this, please feel free to visit my blog and take a look around!

Ramsay followed the young lord down the dark passages of Winterfell, heading towards the long-forgotten places below the castle, places that had been rather useful since the Bolton’s were proclaimed the Wardens of the North. There were a lot of Bolton enemies that needed to be taken care of, and their screams were much harder to hear in the dark musty cells beneath the castle’s great stone walls. The young ward who had come to live with them a little over a year ago slotted right into their less than orthodox family. Becoming more of a sadistic apprentice, of sorts, rather than ward, to the now trueborn son of Roose Bolton, their similar and ungodly natures giving them much in common. But as Ramsay followed him further down the darkening passage, he grew uneasy, the stupid and fevered look lighting the young lord’s eyes ripped at his chest like claws, his thoughts lost on the very idea of what the stupid boy had gone and done. 

Peering over his shoulder, the boy smiled with anticipation, “I’ve got a little present for you, Lord Ramsay, I think you’ll be pleased.” Coming to a stop outside an old beaten-up door that led to probably the worst of the damp and decrepit rooms, he rested his hand on the latch, “I’ve seen the way you’ve been watching this one... no one saw me take her.” Ramsay felt his face stiffen, his upper lip curling and tensing as he took in the boy’s excited features, his gut already telling him what he would find on the other side.  

The door creaked loudly when the young lord slowly opened it, but Ramsay did not hear the sound. The only noise reaching him came from the distressed muffles of the beautiful peasant girl he had fought so hard to leave alone and untouched. Clenching his jaw tight, Ramsay held his breath, losing his grip on his usually impeccable self-control. Having always prided himself on his sadistic patience, especially when faced with his insatiable desire for cruel and torturous revenge, it was unsettling to feel himself losing grip. And for what? A worthless little peasant girl? She embodied everything he wanted to enjoy and destroy in the most ungodly ways. Why did this one matter? Why was she different from the rest? And why did the very thought of her being hurt make his jaw tense up and chest burn?  

A mere thread of self-control kept Ramsay from reacting to the distressed sounds on the other side of the opening door. A thread that soon snapped, burning all his sadistic patience to ash the moment he caught a glimpse of her restrained form thrashing around in panic, her futile attempt to free herself twisting his stomach into knots of pure torture. Bringing with it an overbearing thirst for the boy’s last breath. How dare he lay a single finger upon her... and oh, how quickly he would come to regret it. 

With his self-control lost beyond reach, Ramsay’s rage was the only instinct left. Grabbing the boy by his collar, he pushed him through the door, slamming it shut. Throwing him against the stone wall, the impact knocked all the air from the young lord’s chest. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the girl, (YN), her arms and legs fighting to free themselves, and when he turned his head towards her the look of absolute terror in her eyes consumed him. Because he knew that it was not only the boy that put it there... it was him, his presence in that dark and dingy room put it there too. And that knowledge ate at his insides in a very unpleasant way... feeling none of the joy he was accustomed to. Why? Why did she have this power over him... And what was he going to do about it?  

Turning back to the boy, he gripped him around the neck, squeezing until the flesh of his cheeks turned red and his eyes grew wide. Leaning down to his ear, Ramsay whispered, his voice low and menacing. “You’ve made a very stupid mistake, my young lord... You have completely misread my intentions.” Squeezing tighter and tighter, he watched the boy fight for air, but released his grip just enough to stop him from losing consciousness, wanting to say one last thing before sending him to sleep, “I’ll deal with you later... you will not enjoy it, but I’ll make sure that I do... sweet dreams.” One final squeeze sent the boy limp, his body sliding down the wall to the floor, a short reprieve before Ramsay sent him on his final journey into permanent darkness. A journey that would be long and filled with unimaginable pain. He would beg for mercy, beg for his life, before finally begging for death. But Ramsay would not grant his wish, would not bring death a moment sooner than necessary, he would die only when his body finally gave up. 

Turning his attention to (YN), he felt the air skip roughly through his lungs, her body was no longer thrashing about, but the monopolising fear in her features stung every nerve around his body. Moving towards her with his palms outstretched, Ramsay reached around to loosen the gag that was secured so roughly around her beautiful mouth, detesting the way her body recoiled from his close proximity. When the gag fell to the ground her distressed muffles were no longer contained, moving and bouncing around the damp stone walls as desperate cries and pleas, but he hushed her raising a finger to his lips.  

To her credit, she somehow managed to regain her composure, showing that same quiet defiance he first saw in the great hall of Winterfell... and it lit the edges of his heart. With a shaky breath she tried to hide her fear, bravely holding his piercing gaze and spoke. “...Lord Bolton, I... I don’t know what I’ve done... but... but you don’t have to hurt me... Just tell me what I did and I... I won't do it again.” 

Normally he would find such a request, pathetic and weak, he knew that... but he couldn’t ignore the way he wanted to soothe her, to take away her fear, keep her safe from the people that wanted to hurt her. To shield her from evil... from his evil.  

Crouching down beside her, he reached for her wrists, ignoring the way she flinched as he untied her restraints, “Hurt you?” Shaking his head, he took his dagger from his tunic and cut the tie around her ankles, “Sweet girl... much to my surprise, the thought of hurting you does not appeal to me.” Then lifting her to her feet, he ran a gentle thumb across her cheek, his skin tingling under the contact, both his eyes and voice far too intense to bring her any kind of reassurance. “No one is ever going to hurt you... I’m going to make sure of it... Never, will anyone [else] ever touch you again.”  

[dhwty-writes]

The Terribly Sad and Tragic Affair that Is the Fake Funeral of Shadowhand Essek Thelyss

Apparently, I am not only drawing for the Critical Role fandom, but writing for it, too. After months of nearly no progress I just vomited out 3k words this Tuesday and it only went downhill from there.

This fic is based on this post by @anne-o-nyme, I really hope I managed to capture the energy of it.

Have fun!

Summary: There were eight strangers in the foyer of his dead brother's towers and Verin Thelyss was slowly losing his patience.

After the sudden "death" of Shadowhand Essek Thelyss, it is his brother Verin's job to empty out his towers. The Mighty Nein show up to help (and maybe steal a few things).

OR: Verin is grieving, Essek just wants his stuff back, and the Mighty Nein are the Mighty Nein.

Warnings: I didn't tag this with MCD, because Essek is technically alive and kicking. Since Verin doesn't know that though, and this fic is written from his POV, this is dealing with grief and includes depictions of depressive thoughts as well as anxiety attacks. For more explicit warnings, please mind the tags on AO3. Take care of yourselves, and let me know if I forgot anything.

Read on AO3

There were eight strangers in the foyer of his dead brother's towers and Verin Thelyss was slowly losing his patience. "Listen," he said with what little calm he had left, "I know that by returning one of our beacons you became heroes of the Dynasty and were placed under Es— My bro— his stewardship. But this here—" he gestured vaguely at the interior of Essek's towers that had always been too cold, too empty, but not like now, never like now— "This is a very difficult situation for me, so if you could please leave, that would be greatly appreciated."

"Yes, yes, it's very sad that Essek died," the blue tiefling said—Jester, her name was Jester; she had given him that already as she had offered him her condolences with a hug—and Verin could barely contain his anger. After the funeral he had quite enough of lying dignitaries, nobles, and heroes currying favours with him. That had always been Essek's thing, he would know what to do, how to make them regret even daring to speak up; Verin had never been any good at it.

"But we're his friends!" He grit his teeth at Jester's blatant falsehood. Perhaps his anger showed on his face, since the tiefling faltered. "And, uh— Fjord?"

"It's true," the half-orc with too-smooth words and too-smooth voice lied, too. "We spent quite some time with your, er— your brother here. Made some good memories. We thought we might take this as our chance to say goodbye, too."

"We are here to help as well. We wouldn't want to infringe upon your grief, though," the tall firbolg added. "So, if you'd prefer us to return at a later point, we'd be happy to."

Verin was still trying to process everything—from these strangers showing up unannounced to their overwhelming presence to the fact that his brother was dead—while simultaneously trying to keep an eye on the halfling who looked like she might have sticky fingers. So, he latched onto the word that stood out the most to him: "Help?"

"Right," Fjord said, looking slightly embarrassed, "we probably should have led with that..."

"We should have called ahead, too," the scary-looking human in blue—they didn't even wear white for the funeral—added. "We always forget to call ahead."

"But Beau, how should we have called ahead?" Jester complained. "We didn't know Verin yet."

"Well, Essek—" the human was interrupted by the even scarier-looking woman next to her stepping on her foot unsubtly. She at least had the decency to act embarrassed. "Right. Sorry 'bout that."

Awkward silence fell across the room, the Mighty Nein looking anywhere but him. It took him a few moments to realise they were waiting for him to speak up. "Help how?" Verin could have kicked himself. By the Light, he could do better than that. He had to do better than that.

A beat of silence followed, then everyone seemed to talk at once. Verin wanted to weep. How was he supposed to deal with this? How had his brother dealt with this? 'He probably hasn't,' he thought. 'They're probably all liars, probably—'

Someone cleared their throat and all eyes turned to the other human who hadn't said anything so far and who looked properly miserable. Immediately, the Mighty Nein fell silent. "Word has reached us that Den Thelyss ordered these premises to be vacated as early as possible," he said quietly with an accent Verin has been taught that belonged to the enemy. "And while some of us may not look like much, I can assure you, we are quite capable."

His eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "I supposed such menial tasks are beneath the heroes of the dynasty. There are servants—"

"Well, sure," the halfling with the probably sticky fingers interrupted, "but we know him. Knew him, I mean; sorry, force of habit."

"Besides, there's a lot of stuff," the lavender tiefling, who Verin was pretty sure was a known pirate, piped up. "Looks like you could use the help."

"If you want to, of course," the sad Empire human added.

Verin only wanted to scream, to give room to the torrent of thoughts raging in his head. 'My brother just died. My brother just died and he wasn't consecuted, so he's gone for good. He's gone for good and I didn't even know him; I didn't even know about these supposed friends he had because he didn't allow me near him in decades. I was a horrible brother and so was he, but I can't even be mad at him because he's dead.

'And now these liars show up and talk about friendship and knowing him, but those are all lies, horrible ones, because Essek had no friends. Essek was cold and cruel and lonely and do you even know how horrible that is? Dying alone with no-one who mourns you, just the favours you still owe them? Do you? I don't even know, and I'm his brother.'

Were he a weaker man, a less disciplined one, he might have said so. But he was Taskhand Verin of Den Thelyss and he had learned discipline before he had learned to talk. So, he said: "Your help would be greatly appreciated, thank you. I'll have the servants bring up some tea. There are, uh—" He straightened his back, summoning the composure that was befitting a Taskhand, even one with a dead brother. "There are boxes up there, they've been brought to the rooms already. Anything of value will be sold; the rest will be given to charity. The things— Well, if you find anything that might have sentimental value, something in his handwriting, perhaps, I think I should like to keep that, please."

The firbolg nodded sagely. "Of course. We will be careful with our selection."

With that, Verin turned around and— froze. Where was he even supposed to start? The towers had always seemed to huge for just Essek and he knew that there were very few personal belongings in them. Still, they would have to be scoured clean within the fortnight.

A large hand on his shoulder made him jump, although he'd never admit it. "Sometimes, when a task seems too large, you should start with the smallest part," the firbolg said. "If I were you, I'd start with the smallest room."

"Thank you, that, uh— that seems like good advice," Verin replied, still a bit startled and confused. "I, er— I'm afraid I didn't catch your name."

"Caduceus Clay. I live in a graveyard, so I'm used to this," Clay said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Verin furrowed his brows slightly. A graveyard? It seemed highly unlikely to him that one of the heroes of the Dynasty would live in a graveyard of all places. Perhaps they were not only liars, but impostors too? But they had the symbols of the Bright Queen, so there wasn't much that he could say.

"Right," he mumbled. "I believe the smallest room would be the closet. Although it might be tied with the bathroom..." He trailed off again. He had never seen Essek's bedroom in his towers. Judging by how many times he had even seen the inside of the building; he could count himself lucky if he even found the way there.

"Why don't we split up?" Clay suggested. "One group takes the closet, one the bathroom and one the bedroom. We'd get done sooner that way."

"That is a great idea, Caduceus," Jester said excitedly. "I'll take the bathroom; I promised— er, I'm curious if I can find more of that hair oil, I got for Fjord that one time!"

"Ohhh, are you saying this is... an investigation?!" the halfling joined in.

"That's exactly what I'm saying, Veth!"

"Seems like a case for Wildemount's best detectives!"

"Bye, Verin!" Jester called and he blinked and they were gone. Fjord joined them as well, muttering something about having to supervise them.

The purple pirate-tiefling shrugged, heading off in the same direction. "Well, I wouldn't mind rifling through some drawers. I'll have a look at that bedroom."

"Yeah, I don't need to see Essek's underwear, so I'll pass on the closet," Beau added tactfully—Verin was getting the sneaking suspicion that manners were not really her strong suit. She linked hands with the large woman at her side, pulling her along. "Come on, Yash."

"I'll go handle the tea," Clay said. "Don't worry about it." He vanished in the direction of the kitchen, his steps accompanied by the constant tap tap tap of his staff.

When Verin looked around, he realised that only the sad Empire human was left with him in the hallway. "If you wouldn't mind," he said, pointedly avoiding eye-contact, "I would love to have a look at the closet. I always, ah— appreciated your brother's sense of fashion."

Verin blinked at him a few times, then shrugged. "Sure." He began heading up the stairs.

"My condolences," the human continued. "I realise I didn't speak up earlier, but— I am sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," he said, letting the same numb feeling wash over him again that he had embraced since the news of Essek's death had reached him.

"I know that we seem like a bunch of, ah— forgive my language, but assholes, but we're really here to help. I will tell the others to tone it down a bit."

"Thank you," he repeated.

"If you'd prefer that we start in, ah— less personal rooms, we can do that also."

"If I'm perfectly honest, I don't even know what I should be doing there."

"Neither am I." The human laughed nervously. "I have dealt with grief before, but I've never had the, ah— how do you call it? Hang on." He pulled out a copper wire and whispered: "Beau, how do you say zweifelhafte Ehre in Common? You can reply to this message." A moment later he straightened. "Right. I never had the dubious honour of emptying out a deceased person's house before."

"Neither did I," Verin admitted. 'Usually, the deceased person comes back,' he didn't say. Instead, he opted for: "You're, er— What's the word in Common? You're weird? I'm sorry if that's insulting, I just— waele xanalressen [stupid languages]."

"I don't understand your words, but I think I understand the sentiment." The man grimaced. "And I've heard that one before. I hope we're not too much of a... too much."

"It's alright," he lied and opened the door to Essek's bedroom. 

It wasn't alright; Verin wanted to weep again.

The door to the bathroom stood ajar, as did several drawers and cabinets, although he couldn't glance inside. Considering that he heard glass shatter and a quiet "oops" followed by a hushed "Jester!" he was rather glad about that. Besides, what he saw was already quite enough to handle. Beau was currently rifling through Essek's nightstand, the tall woman tossing unread books on the bed carelessly, while the lavender tiefling seemed to make his way through his brother's collections of make-up and jewellery alike.

They froze when they spotted him and the sad human in the door. "Heeey, Verin," Beau drawled.

"These were all still closed, I swear," the lavender tiefling said immediately, gesturing at the jars in front of them.

Verin just sighed in defeat. "I don't wear any make-up, I don't care; you can have it. Put the jewellery in the box to be sold; the books are for charity if he hasn't read them. Just leave the earrings in front of the mirror, please. Those were his favourites."

Without another glance at them, Verin headed straight to Essek's closet, desperate to get some quiet. He took a few moments to collect himself, before closing the door and leaning his head against it with a heavy thunk.

He stayed like that for a minute or maybe two until he heard someone clear their throat. "I have been debating for the past fifty-five seconds, if I should just Dimension Door out," the sad human said and Verin very nearly jumped out of his skin, "but that would be loud and I didn't want to startle you. Not that I didn't startle you like this but—"

"Vithin shu," Verin cursed.

"Vithin shu ke," the sad human agreed, his accent in Undercommon even heavier than normally.

For a moment, they both stared at each other, equally startled by the course of events. Then, the human looked away again. "I, ah— have started learning Undercommon before, um— well, before." Verin tried very hard to focus on the way the human was scratching at his forearms; that way he had something else to focus on besides his nearing breakdown.

"This is a bit embarrassing, but, ah— I believe I forgot to introduce myself," the human continued. "I'm Caleb Widogast. Essek and I were... friends, yes, and ah— colleagues, of some sort. It's... complicated."

He scratched at his arms again before turning towards the shelves and pulling out a stack of tunics. He unfolded one, looked at it, then carefully folded it again, cast a cantrip to smooth out the wrinkles, and put it in the charity box. Then he repeated the procedure with the next. And the next. And the next.

Verin frowned, thinking for a moment about his words. There was something about them that seemed painfully familiar, although he couldn't quite remember. Then: "The transmutation specialist."

Widogast looked up in surprise. "Yes."

"Essek told me of you," Verin admitted.

The last time they had seen each other had been here, in these towers, just a few months ago. He had found his brother in his office, pouring over notes for a new spell, alive and healthy as ever. As always, he had entered without knocking. As always, he had pretended to read the notes. Not as always, he had noticed something wrong. "Whose handwriting is that?" he had asked.

"What?" Essek had snapped, his head whipping up. Then, however, his expression had softened. "Oh. A friend's. A colleague, of sorts. He's helping me out, a bit."

"With the spell?" Verin had asked incredulously.

"Yes. He's a transmutation specialist; you know that's not my forte. Now give it back, will you?"

"A colleague, huh?" He had grinned and held the paper out of Essek's reach. "Are you sure that's all?"

Perhaps Essek had been sick after all, for the strangest thing had happened: instead of using his floating cantrip to snatch the notes back, he had gotten a dreamy, far-off look in his eyes. He had even smiled with an expression Verin might have called dopey, if it weren't his brother they were talking about. After a few moments, he had snapped out of it, sighed, and said: "It's complicated."

"Did he?" Widogast asked tentatively. "Did he, ah— did he say anything else about me?"

Verin pinned him down with a glare, sizing him up. In hindsight, he should have noticed the thick spellbook at his hip earlier; judging by his slim frame alone, he should have known the man was a wizard. He supposed Widogast was handsome enough, although his brother had never cared much for that, with his copper hair and his striking blue eyes. Blue eyes around which crows' feet were gathering, as he noticed to his dismay. 'He's human,' Verin reminded himself. He might have a few decades left, maybe, whereas Essek had centuries ahead of him. The thought why his brother might condemn himself to more loneliness crossed his mind, though it hardly mattered. His brother had been the first to die, after all.

"Verin?" Widogast inquired quietly.

"I'm sorry," he answered with a thick voice. "I got lost in my thoughts there. He, uhh— he said that he trusted you." That didn't even begin to cover it, but these Mighty Nein had been lying to him since the moment they got here, so what was a little lie by omission? Besides, there were some memories that he wanted to keep just to himself.

"Essek," he had teased, still waving the sheet of paper out his reach. "Come on! Aren't we brothers?"

Essek had crossed his arms and pouted. He hadn't done that since they were both little. "Unfortunately. You are a menace. And a child."

"If you tell me about him, I'll give it back. Is he handsome? Is he a drow? Where's he from? How did you meet? When will I meet him? Can I promise to kill him if he hurts you?"

"Verin!" Essek had groaned and hid his face in his hands.

"What do you do when you meet? I bet you stay up all night, talking about 'arcane research' or something."

"We do, in fact. Are you done now?"

"Oh, is that what young people call it these days?" He had cackled at his own joke.

"Evidently not," Essek had muttered. "Might I remind you that you're younger than me?"

"Might I remind you that you're a buzzkill?" Verin had shot back and placed the note down. He had gotten bored of his own game.

Essek had taken the sheet of paper almost reverently and thanked him. "I would have hated it to rewrite that page." He had smoothed it down, stored it safely away in a folder, silent for a long time. Then, he had said: "Caleb."

"Excuse me?"

"That's his name," Essek had said. "Caleb Widogast."

Verin had frowned. "Hey, Essek?"

"Hm?"

"You must trust him a lot, to share a spell with him."

His brother had taken a shuddering breath and closed his eyes. Verin hadn't expected him to answer, yet he'd said: "I do, actually. It's not the first spell we've created together and I would be honoured to create a thousand more with him. I'd trust him with my life, my death, and beyond. I think—" He'd huffed. "I think I trust him almost as much as I trust you."

Verin watched Widogast as he was looking through his brother's tunics, placing most of them in the charity box, and he wondered. Wondered if the trust Essek had obviously put in Widogast had been misplaced. Wondered if it had extended to his friends, as well. Wondered if ultimately trust had been his downfall, as he'd always feared.

Then again, if Essek had trusted him... perhaps that trust had been mutual. Perhaps they had been friends. Perhaps there was another person mourning his brother after all.

"Do I have something on my face?" Verin had given up on counting how many times Widogast had now startled him out of his thoughts.

"No, no I—," Verin stammered. "I'm sorry."

He tilted his head to the side. "For staring?"

"No, er— For your loss." Liar or no liar, it only seemed appropriate.

"Oh." Widogast turned back to the tunics. Verin probably should get started, too, shouldn't he? "Thank you. Though I'd wager your loss weighs heavier than mine."

"Probably," he agreed and turned to the task at hand. At this point, Widogast had moved on from the simple tunics to Essek's court regalia. After a short moment of consideration, Verin decided to look through the pants; he also had no interest in sorting through his dead brother's underwear.

Out of the corner of his eye he kept watching the wizard, pulling out one cloak after the other. At a few he wrinkled his nose, at others he just stared before putting them with the tunics. After a while one made him pause; an elaborate, beautiful robe in deep purple. "This is what he was wearing when we first met him," he said.

'He hated that one,' Verin thought. Not that he could say that out loud. Instead, he cocked his head and asked: "Are you sure? He has a lot of those. Had, I mean. Had a lot of those."

"Yeah, I'm sure." He tapped his temple with a faint smile. "I have a good memory."

"As does Essek," he snapped, suddenly feeling very defensive about his brother's capabilities. "I suppose most wizards do."

Infuriatingly, Widogast only nodded. "Indeed. Or they're not very good ones."

Silently, Verin turned back to the trousers. The sooner he got done, the sooner he got these people out of his brother's towers, the better. He didn't know for how long they worked in silence, Verin reminiscing about the times he had seen Essek wear the clothes and wondering about those he didn't know. Eventually, he folded the last of them and forced himself to return to the present. "I think we're done here," he announced. "Do you have a preference for a next room?"

"Perhaps the library?" Widogast offered a tentative smile. "I think I might be of more use there than folding clothes."

"More use than I will be, surely."

"I take it the wizardry doesn't run in the family, then?"

Verin only scoffed and opened the door to the bedroom again.

He immediately spotted Beau leafing through one of the books Essek had never read, while the tiefling was chatting amiably with the aasimar while braiding her hair. He also noted the boxes neatly stacked in the middle of the room. Besides that, he noticed with a heavy heart, the room looked much the same. If anything, it looked less orderly and empty than before. Except for—

"Where are Essek's earrings?" Verin demanded to know.

"What earrings?" the lavender tiefling replied with a too-wide grin the same moment Beau said: "Dude, there's tons of them, why don't—"

"No," he said decisively. "Essek's favourite earrings; they're always up here. I told you about them. Where are they?" His hands curled into fists, his neatly manicured fingernails pressing almost painfully into his skin.

"Perhaps you should look in one of the boxes," the aasimar woman suggested "I'm sure they're—"

"You're lying," Verin interrupted her, barely containing his anger. "Why are you lying? If they're in one of the boxes, then only because you put them there. So: where are they?"

Widogast only now stepped out of the closet, wearing an amber necklace he hadn't noticed before. "Verin—" he said tentatively, but he'd had enough.

"Shut up!" He startled himself with how loud his voice was. But he was beyond caring. "I know they're not in there, because the only ones to put them in there would have been you. So, either you're lying about having them put in there, or you're lying about stealing them, I don't care. Just— please. Please give them back."

The four of them passed a guilty glance. "We can't," Beau replied finally.

"The fuck you can't," Verin spat. "Give them back!"

"Verin, love, we would really love to," the tiefling added, "but we can't."

"I don't understand; is it precious things you want? Here, have some!" He strode over to the boxes and ripped the first open, tossing the lid towards the bathroom door Jester was peeking out of. He reached in to grab a necklace—an ugly one, he had always thought, with a stylised beacon—and threw it in their direction.

Beau caught it. Of course.

"Have a whole box, actually, if you like them so damn much." He reached inside and pulled out a jewellery box, tears prickling in his eyes. He threw one of those, too, just for good measure. It gave him some satisfaction that Widogast had to dodge it. "Just give me back the bloody earrings that my brother wore at my fucking consecution!" He was properly crying now and could only imagine the mess he looked like, but he had reached his limit. And, in his opinion, he was allowed to with all that was going on.

At least they looked a little bit guilty. "Fuck man, we didn't know," Beau mumbled.

"It's just one pair, Beau," Jester called over from the bathroom. "I'm sure it will be alright."

"Yes, there's no need for this to escalate," Fjord agreed and strode over to them, his hands raised innocently.

"I don't even know you people," Verin muttered, looking at the people crowding into his brother's bedroom. "Why did I even let you inside?"

"Do you want the earrings back?" the aasimar woman asked, reaching into a bag at her hip. Had she been carrying a greatsword for the whole time? Verin suddenly noticed how overpowered he was, were he to face all of them. "You can have them back if you want. Here, you can have them back."

"For a moment," Widogast added, slowly drawing closer to him and taking the earrings from the aasimar. He held them out on his flat hand, almost like he had seen soldiers offer treats to horses. His whole demeanour reminded him of someone trying to calm a spooked animal. For some reason, that seemed hilarious to him and he couldn't help the hysterical giggle that escaped his throat.

"Verin, I need you to calm down," he continued. "I know that's easier said than done, but you need your head."

"I think we should all calm down," Clay said from the doorway. And despite being surprised again, he did. It didn't make any sense, but few things these days did.

"Did it work?" the halfling asked. Verin wasn't really sure what she was talking about.

"It did," Clay confirmed.

"Gut," Widogast said and pressed the earrings that had seemed so important a moment ago into Verin's hands. "I think we should maybe go somewhere else, ja? Will you come with me?"

Inadvisable as it might be, if Essek had trusted that man, he should, too. And out of all of the Nein, he seemed to be the most normal one. The one he could see Essek with most. So, he nodded.

"I'll get us back to the kitchen, quickly." Caleb held out his hand and Verin closed his eyes, steeling himself. 'I hate Dimension Door,' was the last thing that crossed his mind before the teleportation spell ripped him away, together with: 'We haven't been to the kitchen, yet.'

Evidently, there went something wrong with the spell. Verin didn't know much about magic, but he knew Dimension Door couldn't transport more than two people. So, when he heard Beau groan and say "Fuck, dude, warn us next time," he knew that something wasn't right.

"You knew about the plan, Beauregard," Widogast replied.

"It doesn't matter," Fjord decided. "Caduceus, do you think you could make tea again? I think the Calm Emotions is about to wear off."

Cautiously, Verin opened one eye, then the other. They were, in fact, standing in a kitchen, as far as he could tell. All of the Mighty Nein were surrounding him. The furniture seemed to have been made for people taller than them; Essek probably would need to float in order to avoid awkwardly climbing onto the chair. The firbolg, however, who was fussing with a teapot, seemed to fit right in. All in all, the interior was very rustic. And very much not in Essek's towers, not that he had ever seen that room, of course.

The panic hit him once more. Verin whirled around to the wizard, instinctively grasping for his sword. "Where the fuck—" he faltered, finding his hip bare. Of course, he hadn't brought it for the funeral. Instead, he opted for just grasping Widogast by the lapels and lifting him up a bit. It was supposed to be menacing, which surely would be more effective, were humans not so annoyingly tall. "Where the fuck are we?!" he spat out.

A lot of things seemed to happen at once—he heard a "Fuck, man, what-" from Beau, a "Well, Mister Thelyss" from the pirate, several hands trying to tug him away from the weak wizard—but he didn't pay them any mind. He just shook Widogast, who looked entirely too calm for his liking, and demanded: "Answer me!"

"Leave him," was all Widogast said. "He has every right to be angry."

Indeed, the people grasping at him retreated, still on guard and surrounding him. There was a creak outside the door and Verin desperately wished for his sword once more. Then, a voice cut through the tense silence that had descended over the kitchen: "Caleb, is that you? You're back early."

"Yeah, there were some complications. Best come and look yourself, Schatz."

There was a sigh that was entirely too familiar for Verin's liking. Then, the door opened with a creak and in walked a dead man. "Complications," Essek Thelyss said with a fond smile. "I was just a Sending away, what did you come here fo— oh."

The person wearing his brother's face stopped in their tracks as they saw him. A couple of complicated emotions passed over his face—confusion, surprise, regret, guilt. If he hadn't known before, Verin was certain now that they were impostors, all of them. His brother would never tolerate such a display of weakness. Still, the impostor said: "Hello, brother."

Verin whipped his head back around to the wizard in his grasp. "What the fuck are you playing at?" he hissed.

"I- what- Verin!" the Essek-impostor sputtered. "What are you doing; put him down!"

"I would appreciate that, yes," Widogast added.

"Not before you don't tell me what's going on."

"Going on?" The impostor sneered and shook his head in a perfect imitation of his brother. "Nothing is going on, Verin."

"You died," he accused him.

"Evidently not," Essek scoffed.

Verin narrowed his eyes, looking from the man claiming to be his brother over the other too calm wizard to the rest of the Nein, seemingly perfectly happy to let this play out. "Prove it," he demanded. "Tell me something only my brother would know."

"You've become paranoid," he noted and Verin couldn't decide if it sounded proud or disappointed. "Alright. When you and I were in our early thirties, you once got in trouble for scaling the outside of mother's mansion. Rightfully, I should have gotten in trouble, too, but I was hiding on the attic. And the reason you never told anyone, is because then you'd have had to explain that I, the wizard, had somehow outpaced you, the fighter, in a climbing competition."

Verin wrinkled his nose at that. "Well, my brother cheated."

"I did not cheat, thank you very much!" He huffed indignantly and crossed his arms. "You didn't say 'no magic' before we started."

He stared at Essek for a few moments. "It's you," he whispered.

"Obviously."

Verin dropped the wizard on the ground and looked over at his brother; really looked. The man looked nothing like the one he had known for most of his life. His hair was longer than it had ever been since he'd cut it off and his bare feet were touching the ground. His clothes were casual, a simple tunic and trousers. After this day, Verin knew for a fact that not even Essek's trancing clothes were that informal, and yet his brother looked more comfortable in them in another's house than he had in decades. On top of that, he kept glancing over to Widogast. And smiling. Essek was smiling.

No, this man looked nothing like the one Verin had known for nearly a century. But he looked a lot like his brother.

"You're alive," he said stupidly.

"Yes, of course I am," Essek said, as if Verin hadn't just attended his funeral.

It felt only right to tell him so: "Why are you alive? I was at your funeral."

"That's a long story," he sighed and floated onto one of the chairs that were slightly too tall for him. He accepted a cup of tea from Clay with thanks and turned back to Verin. "Why are you here?"

"Well, that's a pretty long story, too," Jester spoke up. "He kind of started freaking out about your earrings, I think? And he was crying and looking pretty awful and everything, right Caleb?"

"I, ah— didn't think he'd believe us if we told him about you," Caleb said. "So, we had agreed beforehand to bring him here, in case of an emergency."

"He thought we were lying," Clay added.

"I suppose it is my story to tell," Essek said. "Earrings, Verin?"

"They're your favourite," Verin said stupidly and held them out to him.

His face grew soft. "Oh," he said as he took them gingerly, "I didn't know that you kne—"

Before he could overthink and do something stupid like stop himself, he surged forward and enveloped his brother in a tight hug. After a moment Essek closed his arms around him, too.

It seemed so unreal, to be able to hold him after mourning him for what felt like years. All the worries, all the grief and anger that had crushed him in the past few weeks and for what? For the bastard to still be alive after all. It wasn't fair. Why had he had to go through all of that? And why did he feel the pressing urge to start crying again? He should be happy, shouldn't he, that his brother wasn't dead. So why did it make him feel so awful?

"I think this is our cue to leave," Fjord said. Verin felt his brother nod and heard the Mighty Nein shuffle out of the kitchen, the door closing behind them with a creak. 

Only then, Essek spoke up. "Verin," he asked quietly, "are you crying?"

"Shut up," he mumbled through the thick fog of tears and snot, definitely not crying. "I hate you, Essek. Do you know what I went through?" 

"Meeting the Mighty Nein? Yes, I can imagine."

"They're horrible," he complained. "They're loud and they're rude and they had absolutely no respect for any of your belongings! I thought I was going mad."

"They are. They also are my friends, you know."

"How?" he asked agonised.

"I know they don't look like it, but they are surprisingly capable. And I am sure that you've noticed most of them to be annoyingly charming. But I think their absolute worst traits are their infinite stubbornness and perseverance. They quite literally did not leave me alone until they had befriended me."

Verin glanced up at him questioningly. "And were half in love with the wizard?" he guessed.

Essek scowled darkly, a faint blush colouring his cheeks. "Perhaps."

He snorted and disentangled himself from their embrace. Very calmly he said: "You're a liar." 

Essek looked genuinely startled at that. "What?"

"You said, you trusted me more than him. Why then, did he know and I didn't?"

"It's... complicated," he said.

"You wizards say that a lot."

"Verin." Essek closed his eyes. "I trust you. Implicitly. And I care about you. Which is why I chose not to burden you with the knowledge of my misdeeds. I didn't— I didn't want to put you in an impossible situation to choose between me and our queen."

He laughed nervously. "What on earth are you talking about? I mean, you didn't commit treason or anything."

Essek didn't answer, avoiding eye-contact instead.

"Right?"

Still, Essek kept stubbornly quiet.

"Oh," Verin breathed. He took a moment trying to reconcile what he knew about his brother with the fact that he was apparently a traitor. It all fit together ridiculously easy. "The beacons."

Essek looked up at him in shock and he knew he had hit the mark. "What?"

"You stole the beacons." Now that he thought about it, it made perfect sense. Essek had been studying them at the time, one of the only people with frequent access to them. He had always been fascinated by them, yet his theories had been rejected for their heretic nature. As Shadowhand, he had also regular contact with counterparts from the Empire, albeit not officially. Then, a few years after Essek’s research had been denied, they had vanished. How had he never seen this before?

"Oh Essek...," he said softly.

"No, please— I don’t—Please don’t—” He seemed to deflate, curling in on himself. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you, I—”

"I don't care,” Verin interrupted his frantic ramblings.

"What?" Essek looked up at him, looking just as shocked as Verin felt.

“I don’t care,” he repeated, realising that it was true the moment the words left his mouth. For how could he care about something as trivial as treason when Essek was sitting right in front of him, alive and well. "You're my brother, I don't care. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe in a year. Maybe in ten. Right now, I only care that you're alive."

“I—What—I don’t—” Essek stuttered, lifting and then lowering his hands a few times. “I don’t know how— If I can—Fuck.”

There was a joke on the tip of his tongue, but even he knew that this wasn’t the right time for it. Essek was obviously trying to tell him something and it took him a minute to decipher that strange behaviour. “Are you asking for a hug?” he hazarded a guess.

An agonised expression passed over his face and for a moment Verin thought there were tears gathering in his brother’s eyes. Surely not. “I don’t know if I may. I don’t mean to overstep—”

Without further ado, Verin stepped forward and gathered a yelping Essek up and squeezed him tightly. “Of course you may!” he assured him, awkwardly patting his shaking shoulders. “I love you, Essek. I am very glad that you’re alive.”

“I’m very glad to see you, too,” Essek answered and squeezed him a little tighter.

[adara-of-the-flame]

the-name-is-hoggle

“You call possibly offending the first of the Seasonal Royalty to give me the time of day and getting tossed into the desert “looking out” for me?! No Mars, what actually happened was that you took for granted the motivations Selva Roja would have in putting me into a “Do or Die” situation. And I already warned you about that; when it comes to fae. Don’t take things for granted!”

The dwarf immediately scolds her, tone equal parts worried, flabbergasted, disappointed, and frustrated. He even throws in some finger wagging for good measure, Hoggle’s other hand going to his hip. It was probably quite the sight, the small man tsking at the young woman a good three times his height.

“I appreciate the sentiment but your actions were absolutely reckless and unnecessary. All you did was earn yourself a hard lesson to learn, as that’s what the purpose of this was for me! A tough starter lesson to get me to connect to the spring magic I’ve already been given. And obviously, it worked!”

He motions to the two cacti clusters he’d grown for emphasis,

“Not exactly elegant solutions I’ll admit, but definitely good enough to save our lives. And a lot more than what I could do before. Now, we can go back and I will be able to train with the Summer Queen. And when we do get back, you owe Selva an apology for mouthing off. You’re lucky she’s obviously someone of  very good humor and patience.”

Finally he seems to finish, huffing tiredly and being silent for a moment.

“….know any good music about quickly crossing a desert…?”

==

“Of course I remember! I’m so glad you’ve kept it with you this entire time, a fortuitous turn.”

And they definitely needed one, however small it was. Didymus smiles widely and it grows slanted with amusement when he takes in Yumika’s reaction.

“Now don’t make that face without even giving it a try, it’s a very engaging diversion! Both to build vocabulary as well as laugh over funny or silly words. You shall see.”

He encourages, taking a seat beside Hickory and motioning for the ninja and hundun to do the same.

adara-of-the-flame

Let us take this oportunity to stand back and look at the current situation through the lense of Character Development. 

Before Hoggle met a certain teenager named, Sarah Campbell, he probably wouldn’t have gotten this far. Or, had he somehow succeded in his new role up to this point, he would have taken this Selva Roja-sponsered sojurn through the desert as a much-needed way out of his current list of responsibilities and high-tailed it out of there as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him. 

Hoggle pre-Sarah was a self-proclaimed coward. He kept his head down.

Hoggle post-Sarah was another story. ..No matter how much he might deny it. 

If Sarah had seen him now, she’d probably be proud. 

Though, sadly, the person he was currently berating didn’t have the benefit of seeing his personal growth. And, it didn’t help that said person’s much more grounded sister was also giving her a psychic earfull. 

So, Mars just sat there, in a sort of blue-screened, ‘what did I do?’ stupor while her head and ears rang with with loud scolding.

All while the tall, desert goblins edged closer in silent debate...

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

“Alright. Rules for Scrabble are th’ same. Everyone grab a tile from the bag, th’ one who get’s closest to th’ letter ‘A’ starts, extra points fer rarer letters, an’ no eatin’ th’ peices.”

Yumika was about to object to the absurdity of Ol’ HIckory’s last statement, until she noticed tiny teeth marks on some of the tiles. 

Ol’ Hickory smiled. “Some o’ my youngins liked t’ chew th' peices while they were teething. 

It was a lovely board overall; from before the age of mass-produced plastic and plywood. The tiles were little, engraved plates of alabaster, pristine save for the teeth marks. The board itself was of carved, polished cherry-wood, inlayed with gold and abalone shell. 

A work of art. 

“Alright, who’s startin' first? Grab seven random tiles next and let’s get started!”

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

One would assume the Summer Realm is the safe one. After all, summers are associated with lazy days, lots of bounty and fun in the sun. And, this is true. But, you gotta be careful with the ‘bounty.’

Take running in the Summer jungle, for instance. There’s a chance you might, say, run into a rosebush in full bloom--and full thorn. Or perhaps you bump your head on a low-hanging hornet’s nest. Or, barrel right into a giant, blooming corpse lily. And, that doesn’t even count the ants, the flies, the mosquitoes, the spiderwebs, the poison ivy, and the mud. 

It’s almost as though the giant eyeball was purposefully leading it’s unwanted guest through the worst destinations possible!

Until finally, the eye chased this visitor into a clearing--literally surrounded by eyeballs. All giant, all sharing the same unique color and style. All rolling. 

“Okay, Stolen Babe.” The voice seemed to be coming from all over. “Care to talk now, or am I going to have to start using more body parts?”

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

“☟︎♏︎ ❍︎♋︎🙵♏︎⬧︎ ♐︎□︎□︎♎︎✏︎ ☹︎♏︎⧫︎🕯︎⬧︎ ⧫︎♋︎🙵♏︎ ♒︎♓︎❍︎ ♒︎□︎❍︎♏︎✏︎” The smallest, the chatty child could take it no longer. She grabbed Hoggle with long, wirey arms, and tried carrying him along in a scene reminicent of a human toddler trying to carry a full-grown cat. 

The adult female, the mother, snapped her fingers. It was enough to get the girl to set the dwarf back down. “🕈︎♏︎ ♎︎□︎■︎🕯︎⧫︎ 🙵■︎□︎⬥︎ ⬥︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎ ♒︎♏︎ ♓︎⬧︎📬︎ ✋︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎■︎🙵 ⬥︎♏︎ ♍︎♋︎■︎ 🙵♏︎♏︎◻︎ ♒︎♓︎❍︎📬︎” She pouted.

Frankly, it was just as much gobbledygook to Mars’s ears as anyone else’s. But, she got the gist of what was going on. 

Screw anyone yelling in her ear. Mars saved who she wanted!

The next time the silent goblins turned around, all they saw was a trail of sand as the half-Urru held Hoggle high as she sprinted her way across the desert.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the stench of this terrible blog...bleck!”

[prof-peach]

if fans wanted to include peach in stuff they write, would that be okay? and how would they write peach's personality? aside from "FIGHT ME" anyway, i think that much is a given lol. i only really write the anime characters 'cause that's what i know, but it sounds like it'd be kinda fun to try making a version of ash that fits into this blog's universe! nerf'd Obviously, but i think she'd probably appreciate how hands-on he gets when training his pokemon!

Ok, I get a lot of these messages, and I often hear folks wanting to throw peach into their stories and comics and writings, and I will always simply ask that if it’s published online publicly, to be linked to it so I can snoop and enjoy the content too. If someone asks about her in your work, let them know about the blog I guess? But literally I love that people take this stuff, these characters and stories, and make new stuff with it. No ones making money off my work here? So where’s the issue? Go for it buddy, knock yourself out, I’m all for it.

For you, and all the others out there who want to add peach, and other characters to your world building, I will give you a detailed rundown of the main lot, and how they behave, what they do, how they function. You can use that, use bits, or use none of it, I do not mind at all. If you’re creating something, you’re in control, not me.

So, peach doesn’t actually fight people as much as you’d think. She’s very aware most cannot and do not want to do that, and so she likes to keep to herself with regards to that aspect of her life, she doesn’t ask to spar with people, or even bring it up at all, but people ask her all the time, even if they clearly would lose or become hurt should she miscalculate during the fight. She looks at people like they usually create problems, and often has a somewhat reserved nature to other humans. You have to work quite hard to get anything more than formalities out of her. She will dead-pan handle people with blunt and very to-the-point statements, aid whenever possible, but very quickly get back to handling the Pokemon she so carefully tends. Her focus is clear, she’s all about hard work, her very small select family, and the Pokemon.

Her brutal, loud and brash personality only comes out with friends, family, difficult humans, OR any Pokemon. She will joke and laugh and play with Pokemon, but clam up around humans, maintaining tight body language and generally will be a little cold by regular standards. She does however have some weaknesses in this emotionless shield she puts up. When peach was young she was always angry, which swung so fast to sadness, back and forth. Her teenage years it just got worse and worse, it was crippling at points. She is to this day, full of fire and rage, even sadness, but now she has learnt to control it, to use it. When she sees that in others, it’s familiar, and she is pushed to drop the front, and be very real with the person. Underdogs I suppose, people who get bad reps, but deserve the same as everyone else. She can’t ignore it.

Once you start to pry open her personality, you’ll find she’s a lot more laid back and fun than originally appeared, you just have to work hard to find that side of her. She will meme reference, can’t dance to save her life, loves her coffee, and can be caught in quiet contemplation while gardening. This hobby is her calmest, and often is why she can stay so level headed when her quiet rage boils up again. Without time outside she will become grouchy, a little snippy, and lethargic. Will not go in the ocean for any reason other than life or death, is fine with ponds and rivers, or water at wading height. Likes the rain.

With regards to her training others, they usually have to tolerate her somewhat strict nature. She is a little....unforgiving, holds a grudge if you make a lot of mistakes, and has no tolerance for ignorance in the age of information that we all live in. In previous posts I’ve mentioned she’s only recently selected two students, after many years of testing kids who want to learn from her. Hundred tried out, only two have ever been approved. How she teaches is very fast paced, be prepared to get some scrapes and bruises, she will test your physical and emotional tolerances with intense tasks, carefully watching students like a hawk. Bad posture in your stance? She’ll be the first to tell you to sort it out. Not hearing your Pokemon partner? Right, now you spend the day without using words trying to communicate, let’s see how you like not being listened to.

This is a woman who has spent her life saying very little, and watching everything, she watches Pokemon and can see an issue from a mile off, and in battles, her observations are why she can react fast, and chose effective strategy to avoid damage and achieve results. Don’t let her body fool you, her strongest asset is analysing, watching, planning. Those skills have over the years transferred to people too. As a student, mistakes don’t go unnoticed with this professor.

Her methods are harsh but fair, and should you prove yourself, she will protect you with her life.

Because of her disinterest in kids and lots of noise, she does pass the training of students on to the other staff members whenever possible. Grey takes on the lions share of battle lessons, he is far calmer, more open and friendly, with patience for people, and an empathy that peach sometimes struggles to have. When you go through a lot of harsh training, and difficult events, it’s hard to change how you feel or think, with peach, well, she’s been through it. Most do not come out the other end in one piece, but she did, and it made her strong. You may think I mean strong like buff and big, and yeah sure she is, but I mean it mentally more than anything. Peach will not quit. She has learnt to destroy the boundaries that stop people getting hurt, gone is the fear that freezes you in your tracks, that feeling that you’ll pass out if you go one more step. She’s learnt to ignore it.

This means she’s a little forgetful at how it is to be normal, to be vulnerable and soft and squishy like students so usually are.

She has her issues, but for the most part, visitors get a laugh, a smile, a calm assertive confidence, and facts. She will indulge those who have genuine interest, or show a connection with nature, an understanding of the balance that needs to be struck for everyone to live well together.

Despite her many flaws, she’s fiercely protective, and will go above and beyond to defend the island, it’s staff, the Pokemon and the visitors. Injustice is her biggest gripe, along with littering, and she doesn’t stand by quietly if something happens that seems unfair.

You will not see her without Valka, her vulpix, close by. That Pokemon doesn’t like to be touched by strangers, at all, and will run the second someone comes at her with that intent. Peach will scold you for pushing yourself onto her, should you persistently try to get close to pet Val. They are in sync, if peach is sad, Val is sad, if Val is stressed, peach is stressed, and so on. They are inherently connected, it’s just been that long, the psychic bridge between them has been built, and reinforced over the years.

The only other Pokemon who follows her so endlessly is Booker, a teddiursa who’s pretty rough looking. He quietly trots behind, grouchy and stoic, they fight closely together a lot. He lost his mom a long time ago to poachers, and peach took him in, and changed her whole life for him. Not many people know, but Booker was the reason she left the rangers, changed career, and got so strong. Will tolerate people petting him but isn’t keen at all, grumbles a lot and tries to move away.

You may also need to know about the others, for the sake of writing, she here a few more bits that may be important to you, or others wanting to do this.

Grey is very tall, very burly, composed, tells bad dad jokes, is a bit of a goof if allowed to be. If he sees a pun, he’ll say it. Can’t help himself. Very nice guy to work with, good at keeping people calm and grounded. Pokemon are drawn to him like a moth to a flame, he gives off warm energy, and has inhuman amounts of patience. If you wrong his family however, he will snap back.

He grew up in the city, loves to swim and hike and cycle, can snowboard, is really sporty. A total brain box with held items, and boosting stats. He will explore many paths, to make sure visitors and students get the information they need, in a way that can be remembered and retained for later. Is a huge guy, but will get on the floor to play with a tiny Pokemon. Treats big “meaner” looking species like babies, very good with all pokemon.

His free time is spent either tinkering, swimming, or trimming his bonsai trees. This guy stares at screens a lot, so appreciates time away from them. Peach built him his own little greenhouse for his trees and tools, which he keeps clean and loves dearly.

His methods as a teacher are built around fun and games, he makes hard work easier to do by distracting trainers from the difficult bits, and focusing in on something more interesting or compelling.

His most commonly seen Pokemon would be a houndoom, Saxon, old battle veteran, retired now to herding and being a good boy. Very gentle, loves a pet.

Pari, now a fully fledged nurse, often oversees the labs front desk and pokecentre features, such as healing pokemon, and informing trainers who come to visit. Her skills with eggs and hatchlings is high, she’s great with younger Pokemon, and hands out good advice to trainers a lot. She’s not a fighter, never was, but can find any file, any study, any book, and any refrence you may need. A true bookworm, loves her romance novels, chat shows and upbeat celebrity gossip mags. Will cry at a lot of stuff, be it sad or happy.

She’s got a seriously upbeat personality, but if caught off guard or shocked, she gets a little flustered. Too much chaos will overwhelm her, but usually she’s on top of things. The years spent on the island have made her better at maintaining composure in emergencies. With lots of siblings, she’s very competent with others, and has a good ability to disarm cagey people with her jolly nature. Because of this, she can sometimes gain information from trainers that some of the more harsh professors may not have access to. Charming is a word for it.

Her partners are an eevee, and a happiny. They are quite sweet and well adjusted, the eevee gets a bit bouncy if you get it too excited.

[rayofsunas]

s/o goes on a mission with them.

A/n: so, as you may or may not have seen by my recent “updates” I’m obsessed with genshin, and I’m pretty sure for one day I played for a solid 5 hours- my eyes hurt pls. but I did miss writing, I’ve just been unmotivated and busy with college stuff (mainly stressing, I haven’t even started my essay yet shh). n e ways, here’s an update, I hope this quenches your thirst 🙊

Summary: s/o goes on a mission with them. 

Parings: Kaeya/Reader, Diluc/Reader, Xiao/Reader, Scaramouche/Reader (all with a fem reader)

Warnings: crack, swearing, worrying Teyvat bois

Word count: 1.7k

Kaeya

when you’re assigned to be on a mission just the two of you, you assume he’s happy, and don’t get me wrong, he totally is!

usually you’re never on missions together, deciding it was better that way because you both get distracted (you realized after marrying, space was always nice too, space was healthy)

though the decision mainly came about because you two good around a lot... and other things 😏

no but deep down he’s worried when you go on this mission together, it’s been a while since the two of you have, a little too long, and the nerves came back

he’s always worried whenever you go on missions, and sure he’ll always be there to protect you when he’s with you (not that you need it) but anything can happen

sure taking out a bunch of Hilichurls was deemed easy, especially together, but he still worried

he never said a word about it though, he’d always keep a watchful eye on you (he does have a reputation to keep after all)

“Ya know, you did well today.” You said plopping down beside your husband, using your pyro ability to light the twigs and leaves in front of you.

“Of course I did,” he boasted, eye lighting up in the dark of the night. “What kind of Knight would I be if I hadn’t, babe.”

You groaned in annoyance, this was the ever so haughty husband you knew.

“Please, I could’ve easily wiped your ass if it weren’t for the fact that we haven’t been paired together in a while; I forgot about your skill.” You teased. The cryo user glared at you.

“Skill? Surely, I have more than one.” He snipped teasingly. Your head shook, feigning innocence. “Are you sure?” A hum sounded in your throat. “I couldn’t tell... Maybe if you hadn’t been staring holes into me every time I used my sword, I could see your progression.”

Kaeya visibly tensed, but he tried to make it go unnoticed, you saw his shoulders raise slightly. 

“Hmm?” You laughed wholeheartedly. 

“Don’t ‘hmm’ me, mister.”

Despite having been caught, a grin spread across his face, he was enjoying your teasing tonight it seemed.

“There’s a reason we don’t go on missions together, but, I did have fun with you today, despite the worrying part.”

Diluc

um, the ever so stoic and emotionless fire boy is WORRIED AF

and he accidentally lets it show

he’s totally fine if you’re only going against a few low-rank Hilichurls and Slime, but against any of the Hypostasis’s, he’s worried for your wellbeing (after a few days of trying to beat one of the Hypostasis’s I finally did, APPLAUD ME PLS, I was crying)

the very first mission you went on together, the job was done quickly and without much trouble, but before and after, he would not stop asking you if you would like to be escorted back to the Knights headquarters

he said it was his duty to protect any and every Mondstadt Citizen

you knew he was also just particularly worried about you

despite being worried, he is happy you’re here, though wishes it were under different circumstances other than battle 

he rarely sees you, so it’s a nice change to be placed on a mission together instead of alone, you missed each others company

BUT HE’S STILL WORRIED

“I’m a Knight of Favonius, I don’t particularly need to be escorted back, I appreciate your concern though.” Poor Diluc, the face he made looked like pure defeat, you used the Knight of Favonius card on him. And yes, you were capable, but he did know a certain Knights of Favonius Captain who he loathed a little too much,

“That’s why I’m worried.”

You scoffed at his jab, though it didn’t necessarily hurt too much.  

“Please, I can handle myself. We’re not all like Captain Kaeya, but even then give him some credit!”

“I know you’re more than capable but-”

”No buts! Let me do what I know how, please. Or else I could slip up, and then actually put myself in danger.”

“Okay...” You nodded, sending a soft thanks to your lover's way, but he just stared at you before muttering, “But let me escort you back to Mondstadt.”

👁 👄 👁

“I’m sorry, did you hear a word I just said?”

“I see your skills darling, but-” He paused, noticing how your arms folded across your chest. You were annoyed. “I’d much prefer if you took care of the greatest battle of all; Kaeya.”

“Kaeya does not need my assistance.”

“He’s probably in a ditch somewhere, and it would be much appreciated by Jean if we did not leave him to rot there,” Diluc explained. 

You had seen Kaeya earlier, and yes although he usually frequented the bars and whatnot, he was surprisingly sober. He hadn’t promised he would stay that way, but it would take hours for said man to get completely drunk to the point where he was immobile. You had only left Mondstadt four hours ago. 

“Amber can find him. She did last time,” He watched in disbelief as you sauntered off towards the hill in front of you, dead set on continuing your mission. “Come on I see an Electro Hypostasis ahead.”

“Also, you could’ve just said you were worried about me, instead of trying to send me back home! Kaeya is fine, worrywart.”

Xiao

it’s not that he’s worried about you and it’s not that he shouldn’t be worried either 

he can be both given the right moment

the only reason he doesn’t want you going with him is because he claims he focuses better on missions alone

you could understand where he was coming from, but you would’ve liked to have gone with him when he first left

you mentioned going on a mission with him in Liyue the night before he locked you in your Liyue Harbor Guesthouse room 

you were still asleep when he’d snuck out and had found a note in the sheets where he’d previously been sleeping hours ago

it read, went on a quick mission, be back soon. - Xiao

...one of the cleaning ladies had come to your rescue after seeing various lounge chairs from the hallway stacked and pushed against the door (she was supposed to clean the room that morning after having seen Xiao leaving, figuring it was empty to begin cleaning)

she was shocked to see you hurriedly throwing your shoes on and grabbing your spear, confused obviously

she’d asked if you were being held against your will or if you were in danger, but you’d dashed off before you could give her an answer

eventually after asking a few Liyue Harbor Merchants, you were able to get a rough estimate as to where your boyfriend went

when you finally caught up to him, out of breath, he was somewhat shocked to see you

“Hey!” You called after the ancient man, watching with glee as he turned around with wide eyes. “Locking me in the room seriously?”

“I didn’t think you’d catch up. I left hours ago.”

“I thought so too. But one of the Merchants gave me a shortcut to your destination.”

“Interesting.” He said, hand going to his chin in thought. 

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say?!” 

“Interesting.” You mocked 

He stared blankly, without a doubt the gears working in his brain, spinning and ticking at an unbelievable rate. 

“No, one more thing... How did you get out of the room? I barricaded it.” 

👁 👄 👁

Scaramouche

you better be someone who can handle yourself, and you probably are, or else he would not be able to stand being with you romantically AT ALL

he’s had you practice with him, just to show him what you’re capable of, before he ever allowed you to travel with him

after deeming you a worthy opponent, he decided you would fair well with him

he would’ve never allowed you to come if he knew you’d be a burden, slow him, or get hurt

after you proved yourself, he does not doubt you so he’s not going to be worried at all

he’s only worried if you start slowing him down, then he’ll think you’re incompetent to be traveling together

if you slow him down, you’re being sent home, no questions asked

though because he does love you, you receive a bit of a less severe punishment for doing something wrong on a mission

he may ask you once or twice to keep up with him, or take your enemies out without less hesitation, but that’s if he feels particularly generous, most of the times he’s harsh and will not tolerate your mistakes, no chances given

fortunately for you, he felt extremely generous today

It was truly evident that you were slowly pissing off the sixth Harbinger and he was losing his patience with you. Yet you continued flirting with him to get a rise out of said man (yeah, same); he often reacted, and you enjoyed it when he did. You liked seeing him react and appear differently than always being so uptight and mean.

It was a common belief that he often traveled with a young woman, who had Pyro for a vision, and she was strong but often loved to distract and tease her fellow Harbinger. You were not so surprisingly, that young woman.

“Keep up, I won’t ask you again.” 

Today, you were on a mission together which wasn’t rare, but your other mission was to piss him off as much as you could. So, you purposely walked behind him, very slow. Pretending to take in the chilly scenery of Snezhnaya, although you had seen it thousands of times, acting as if it was something new. 

“You said that the last two times.” You said, cheerfully laughing to yourself when you heard him growl lowly. He didn’t pay any mind to your retort but began showing more signs that he was aggravated.

He hissed, “There’s not much to admire, you can barely see.” Yes, he was right, he’d caught onto your antics very fast, but that didn’t matter.

“As I said, if you keep slowing me down, I’ll continue without you.” Your eyes rolled. Would he?

“Leaving a member of the Harbinger behind wouldn’t be very honorary, but if I must, I will.”

A pout took shape on your lips. “Please, you wouldn’t leave your lovely girlfriend out here to freeze would you?”

“You have pyro abilities, you would fair just fine.”

“Hmm... I suppose so, but I’d get lonely.” 

“Then be quiet and walk faster.”

1.13.21, rayofsunas

[txdxsh1]

Hey babes, could i request another one of those random headcannons with suna cuz i litteraly love him, and i just found and and love you so it's like a much made in heaven yk? Anyway have a good day, drink some water and eat if you haven't and sat healthy! <3

RANDOM SUNA RINTARO HEADCANONS I HAVE (GENERAL + BF + OUTFITS)

genre: fluff & crack

authors note: AAAAAAHHHH i’m sorry this took so incredibly long to do,,,,,,,but i appreciate the patience greatly :’) i really do hope you enjoy these <3

general:

he knows how to play bass

his favorite color is brown

is a skater: confirmed

and he’s one of those guys who posts his clips of his skate tricks on instagram

he’s so laid back

like definitely a “go with the flow” kind of guy

he’s really good at a bunch of card games

kita caught him smoking once </3 and he lectured him so much that suna just decided to never smoke again IWBDUEBSI

he’s actually really good at skateboarding but most of the time he’s too lazy to go skate

but will literally go skate at 2am (what is wrong with this boy)

aran and him make bets about which twin is gonna start a fight with the other first

played soccer as a kid and somehow still has all the skill

his playlists are godly

like he has one for everything

as a result his little sister ends up having a really good taste is music

almost let one of the twins give him a stick and poke tattoo but aran talked him out of it (thank GOODNESS)

loves boba with his whole heart

his mom always packed him ritz crackers when he was little and it’s still his favorite snack

he’s always chewing gum for some reason

speaking of which, his favorite flavor is watermelon <3

he daps up his friends in the hallway

snores very lightly in his sleep

if he didn’t get into volleyball, his friend group would probably be way different and not in a good way

he puts his hair up when it’s hot

atsumu plays hype music before games and suna claims to hate it but it actually helps him so much

oh god his posture is so bad

he’s really into snake tattoos

used to love drawing but he kinda gave up on it because he got discouraged by others

he used to wear loom bracelets

his music goes from hype music to garage rock to indie

people think he’s always quiet which is true for the most part but i think he actually talks a lot when he’s with his friends

made a tiktok account solely for posting all the dumb stuff the team does (mostly the twins HAHAH)

he likes horror movies (he doesn’t get scared easily)

he can beatbox

LOOKS SO GOOD IN WHITE

and also in stripes

he made a secret tiktok account and it accidentally blew up

his room is (unintentionally) a vibe: LED lights, vinyls, comfy pillows and blankets, a bean bag chair, etc…

he likes walking to the store with the twins after practice

he used to be such a bad driver oh my god (no one understands how he even got his license)

^ luckily kita made him practice with him tho

he really likes sandwiches

his hair is SO SOFT

running is probably his least favorite thing in the world

he owns a pair of these glasses

refuses to let anyone on the team look at his feet (he’s kinda insecure about them?)

can chug energy drinks like it’s water

he’s a hoe for ramen

has a black cat

her name is omelet <3

he gets pretty bad allergies in the spring and his nose gets all pink

his favorite picture pose is putting up the middle finger pfffttttt

i feel like he would be good at snowboarding

goes to a lot of concerts for underground bands (he probably knows them too)

boyfriend:

LOVES napping with you so much

y’all

also y’all

doesn’t tell you, but loves when you show up to his games

when you guys hug, he likes to tuck his head in the crook of your neck

OH and while you’re hugging, he likes to sway just a little bit (and they’re always really long hugs)

so basically his hugs are superior

he lets you paint his nails to match yours

likes when you do skincare with him

will literally bite you out of nowhere

he would definitely put his head inside your shirt/hoodie while you guys are cuddling

has a picture of you in his clear phone case

has a photo album on his phone completely dedicated to the cute and random pictures he takes of you

he likes when you run your fingers through his hair when you guys are cuddling

he’s so soft when you guys are alone omg

you’re his favorite person

loves late night dates

matching bracelets???? i’m thinking yes

he likes to ruffle your hair randomly

hates cooking for himself but if you’re hungry you bet your ass he’s gonna go on chef mode

could and would fight anyone who’s messing with you

he’s really good at braiding hair because of his little sister so he’ll just randomly braid yours

really likes holding your hand

if he finds one of those black elastic hair bands in your room, he’ll just put it on his wrist and take it with him (?? SIR)

rests his head on your head/shoulder when he’s tired at school

i know he doesn’t look it, but he’s soooo whiny when you tell him you have to leave his house

takes you to record shops

he likes holding your face in his hands (he just smiles while looking at you and it’s so cute)

he likes laying/relaxing at the park with you and just staring up at the clouds

play fights with you but he always pretends to be really weak (mostly cause he’s tired HAHA)

he thinks you have a really nice taste in jewelry

gives you hand kisses <33333

outfits:

[starzfield]

Reluctant patients happened quite often, if just for a while. Patience was a skill he mastered through years of being the older, reliable siblings, as well as helping at the bakery, which meant handling customers. It probably was an innate talent for him, even if he trained it.

Of course Lukan had to pay it somehow - every full moon night, specifically. 

He knew better than to be annoyed or pushy at someone like Nunnally. Further since he could see some bits of shared traits between tem. Getting her angry was the last thing he wanted, despite being aware a part of this woman wished for him to feed her anger and give her a reason to hate him and leave.

Not showing more than polite interest, the therapist nodded, thoughtful. “Classic, but good choice. I did enjoy Alice in Wonderlands a lot.”

An amused smile showed up again. “Though as a therapist, it’s a book that always sends my mind into a lot of hypotheses, if I let myself be distracted from the simple pleasure of reading. Not that it spoils the joy to read it.”

The topic of dating and flirting had been one of his biggest struggles when he first started to work, but by now Lukan was way better at handling it.

“It’s true it’s unethical, but it’s the short answer. Since you want the detailed one…”

He finished the last sip of his cup, before putting it down on the nearest table, crossing his hands on his laps.

“Je ne souhaite pas sortir avec l’un de mes patients. Even if it was allowed and ethical, I think you can’t really give the best, professional care and treatment if you’re distracted by your own feelings and the other’s. Not that you can’t help someone you’re dating, mental health wise - but I think I can give way better help if I am not sentimentally involved.”

A soft sigh, and the smile he offered her then was a little sad, a little sorry. “Therapy is not always nice, and often hard. Sometimes it hurts, even. I’m afraid feelings would prevent me from giving a treatment, because I’d know it’d be painful and I can’t handle facing the consequences. Even if I know the result will eventually be positive.”

The emotion on his face changed, turning more amused. “I suppose you could say… I’m the type to be too weak in front of the requests coming from the people I love. I’m lucky my dog is a good girl and doesn’t ask for snacks constantly… My siblings however sure took advantage of that fact more than once.”

His eyebrow raised then, head tilting slightly. “Cette réponse vous satisfait-elle Mademoiselle ?”

The next part got a light shake of his head however. “I’m afraid I have to disagree. As rough as it sounds, I easily believe you’d have trouble escaping your grandmother. But I could have just said no to her, and she would have had to find another therapist - which, obviously, wouldn’t have changed much for you I suppose. But if you decide to put an end to your therapy, I’ll simply tell her so. I could tell her you do not, in fact, need therapy, but she seems like the kind of person who believes only the words she decided to believe.”

His smile was warm when speaking again. “I appreciate your efforts. I promise I will not try to work on things that do not need to be worked on, no matter what some people think. I can’t tell yet if you actually need therapy or not, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Her game suggestion was welcomed with his eyebrows shooting up, this time a little surprised by her words. “Pourquoi pas. Let’s see. For the obvious, you’re here because your grandmother sent you and somehow, you couldn’t say no. I am unsure why, however. The easiest guess would be that you live with her, and so depend on her for roof and money. It could also be that she holds some power over you…”

His amber eyes studied her, gears spinning in his mind. “You could be here because you wanted to please her, but I don’t feel like you have a deep affection for her. You said people can’t say no to her, so you either don’t like to fight and prefer to go along, or she does have some way to force you to do things. Which could be just the threat to kick you out of the house, as I stated before.”

He leaned back in his armchair, gaze wandering aimlessly in the room for a moment. “As to why she sent you, it seems to be like she thinks you aren’t a proper little lady, or something similar.”

A chuckle found his way through his lips. “Honestly, it mostly sounded to me like ‘make her obedient’. Am I wrong ?”

For the first time since the beginning of the session, some annoyance crossed his features, sipping in his voice, even. “Which I disapprove of. Furthermore at your age. Nothing she told me reflected a need for you to follow therapy nor to change your behavior.”

The annoyance was fast gone however, and the therapist was smiling at her again in a knowing way. “I suppose I’m going to disappoint your grandmother.”

It may be a far-stretched guess, but he suspected said disappointment was a thing the woman in front of her was used to being the target of.

If it wouldn't be the first time Lukan attracted a patient’s interest, nor had one sent to him by family. It would be a first however that a family sent someone in hope they’d date him ! He smiled softly at the woman’s reassurance. It didn’t matter much if it was authentic or not, but it was nice of her to try.

His smile widened at the affirmation, understanding. “I was quite the bookworm rather than a social butterfly at school, I assure you. I don’t think there is anything wrong with enjoying books - but I suppose my choice of career shows that I do care about people. I keep books for my free time now.”

Some patients prefered to talk about themselves, others to do exactly the opposite. And with the ones brought here against their will, it was usually the latter. And he considered it was only logical to offer some intel about yourself when you asked such from the person in front of you.

“What kind of book do you enjoy ?”

It’s not just for chatting, he’s genuinely curious - and it usually gives some information on someone. The coffee was good because since he didn’t enjoy it as much as tea, he at least wanted a good one.

“Popular ?” He carefully raised an eyebrow, intrigued. Lukan didn’t have to complain about finding patients, his agenda was quite busy. His… Dating life was a little complicated, and a topic he usually didn’t bring with patients - it was a slippery rope. 

“My patients are pretty happy with me being their therapist, I’d say.”

The next words didn’t give space for him to pretend it wasn’t about his love life, however.

Not a first for him, though, and his smile was patient.

“I do not date my patients. Je suis navré, mademoiselle.”

It was still a mix of pleasant and fun to slip some french in the conversation. Except with his family, or when he gave a hand at the bakery, he didn’t speak french much. But he had grown up in France in his youth, before moving out, and today he was fluent in both english and french. A light accent even betrayed his origin when he spoke english actually.

Lukan could see on her face that the question wasn’t welcome. It didn’t deter the therapist, who didn’t go back. He even looked slightly amused by her answer.

“We both know that.”

He simply said at first, letting his words sink.

“I’m always aware, when someone - here, your grandmother - sends a relative, further a younger relative, to see me, that the person I’ll have in front of me does not want to be here.”

His amber eyes were sparkling a bit from amusement.

“You’re not the first sent to me who didn’t want to. And with therapy, you can’t work with someone unwilling.”

Of course he was aware of how the woman’s presence in his office made no sense then, and kept going. “When it happens…” His eyes were staring at her, focused. “I still accept the person to come here. Because usually, it does mean there are reasons for them to follow therapy… Though rarely the ones given by the person who took the appointment for them.”

His lips curled as if he was sharing a joke - and Lukan kind of was. He basically said he was having doubts about the reasons her grandmother thought Nunnally needed therapy.

“I didn’t accept you as a patient to fulfill your grandmother’s wishes. I did it so you could have help if you did need it, and else maybe some kind of… Break ? From… Everything, I guess. You could also simply vent to me - everything you say to me is under secrecy, even from your family.” He lifted his cup at her, as if some kind of salute. “I have to warn you however, I can’t eternally offer you shelter - my job is to help people with therapy, not just hide them from a nosy relative.” An amused smile again. “But I suppose two or three sessions can’t hurt. The final decision is yours however, mademoiselle.”

[shotorozu]

BABE , i saw a hc ( i think it was urs) where the boys’s s/o was really fashionable, ( as somebody that’s gone viral on pinterest a little too many times ) I WAS WONDERING , what if you did a todobakudeku ( separately please omg) with somebody that’s like the emma chamberlain of fashion and they own everybody’s pinterest boards and stuff AHAHA IDK , the amount of times somebody has said ‘ wait ur that one pinterest girl right?? ‘ ANYWHAHEEIE I LOVE YOU N HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!! 💗💗

pinterest famous s/o

character(s) : midoriya izuku, bakugou katsuki, todoroki shouto (bnha)

legend : [Y/N = your name] afab! reader, they/them pronouns (at the request of anon) strong quirk hinted; not specific

headcanon type : fluff, crack-ish (x reader)

note(s) : thank you anon!! so ok, i still used they/them pronouns even though the reader is afab (again at the request of anon) and whdjwkd sorry for the inactivity :,) also im gonna post more later so— sorry for the delay

»»————-　♡　————-««

midoriya izuku

when middle school midoriya finally got a phone, he downloaded pinterest for the sole purpose of looking at screencaps of heroes

but then, he hasn’t touched it a few months, because he’s been training with all might

then, when he finally had enough free time again— he decided to go on pinterest

but instead of finding any heroes he could look at, he found the prettiest human being he has ever seen in his entire life 💀

that person was a different type of beauty, y’know— they weren’t just fashionable, but their beauty was,,

timeless? that’s how he’d describe it. yeah. that person lived in his head rent free for a while

sadly, he feels like you’re that person he sees once in his life, and never again 😔　which isn’t the case

when he finally meets you, midoriya realizes that you look VERY familiar— someone on pinterest, that he unfortunately, didn’t know the name of

but then wait! he realizes that you’re that person. that one person that blew up on pinterest, and ended up in all of the fashion boards.

okay, you’ve been recognized a few times in the past, just because you were pinterest famous— but you didn’t expect him to recognize you

“wait,, you know me?” you asked him when you saw the realization sink in

and you were honestly,, flattered when he went on a tangent on how you were on all of the pinterest boards, and how your sense of fashion was timeless

but you know what’s the best thing of it all? when izuku developed a crush on you (and not because he thought you were just an attractive face)

it was very easy to find pictures of you online! he says it’s for research but,, he tends to look at them for a long time

probably has 3-4 pages dedicated to your hero costume— since fashion icon = fashionable, yet a very practical hero costume!

does he get jealous whenever people fawn over your looks, or whenever he sees comments in pinterest comment sections just asking for your socials in such desperation?

hmm,, yes? he does occasionally feel like someone like you, should be with someone as equally beautiful as you

he thought he was always plain looking, but you wholeheartedly disagree! in fact, you fell in love with his ability to pay attention to detail.

to the random creeps in the comments section, he just contacts the uploader and asks them to delete any malicious comments and it works 100% of them time.

on the brighter side, he helps a lot with taking your pictures (if you ask him to) and sometimes! he’ll even appear in them

izuku will always be your #1 fan!

bakugou katsuki

at first, you’d be like “katsuki owning pinterest? naaah.” but! i think he would

being an all might fan, he liked looking at all might screen caps— and while katsuki would be on the discreet side, he’d find himself looking at them whenever he has extra minutes to burn

not to mention, the cooking recipes on there aren’t the worst, so he doesn’t just use pinterest to look at screen caps of heroes doing their work

and, how could he forget that you’ve been bugging him to search for rare screen caps? he says that it’s useless— but he finds himself digging for you anyway,

which is whyyy

he finds an entirely different rabbit hole, and it’s way past 10pm, 3 more minutes wouldn’t wound him.

the blond doesn’t know how he even stumbled on.. this side of pinterest. the one that kind of hurts his eyes.

the more well known side of pinterest, that is covered in pictures of fashion boards, and the standard pretty person.

the ‘aesthetic’ side, kaminari calls it— it makes bakugou cringe, and he was just about to refresh his page

when he spots something familiar, it’s you‼️ well it wasn’t just you but, you were dressed in something,, nice.

like sure! you’re attractive. but that’s not why he’s dating you, there’s a lot of reasons as to why

but, he’s baffled. seeing you in a different light, and in such nice clothing, what more, when he sees that you’re actually everywhere. he hasn’t seen this much of you and your attractive ass before

katsuki told himself that he was going to sleep a few minutes ago, but now? he’s left admiring all of your pictures.

how did he not know that his s/o’s pinterest famous? you’re practically in every single board!

he confronts you the next day in an oddly weird manner, “you didn’t tell me you were famous on that stupid pinterest app.”

you’re sheepish, “welll, i didn’t know that you were going to stumble on that side of pinterest!”

he doesn’t say anything, and really! it looks like he doesn’t care about the newest discovery of his s/o

but he shows his feelings in his own way.

like, how katsuki insists that he finds a new outfit that you’d absolutely love— one that’ll fit with your aesthetic

and that he insists that he does your graphic liner, because you’re going to ‘poke your eyes out’

makes an entirely different account to reply to those simps and creeps in the comment section, sort of like

random pinterest user : “the things i’ll do to be crushed by them 💦”

pinterestuser461903 : “go touch some fucking grass.”

also would’ve commented “your art sucks” at the poorly done drawings of you in the comments, but knows you appreciated the art— so he doesn’t

(still thinks the fanart doesn’t do you enough justice)

he’ll be super proud when someone notices you in person like “yeah that’s fucking right, but too bad they’re super attractive and way out of your league.”

in short, it looks like katsuki doesn’t care at all about your pinterest famous life, but he’s your #1 supporter

todoroki shouto

i am certain for this one— he doesn’t have pinterest

well, he didn’t have pinterest, until midoriya convinced him to create an account, but it kinda just ended at that

but the person that actually made him use pinterest was sero, because he kept bugging him to give it a try

todoroki finds the app very practical— he can find screen caps of heroes in action, and he can also find oddly helpful tips in cooking (and in anything)

but sero was like “todoroki, what about the aesthetic value??” and todoroki didn’t really get that part to be honest 💀

todoroki, being clueless didn’t know what to search for— so sero being the wonderful friend he is, helped him search for it

and that’s when it happened. it didn’t take that long, but they eventually found an entire section just full of pictures of you; their classmate and crush

“is that Y/N?” mina notices what they’re looking at, and she observes the picture “oh wow— it is her! no wonder why she looked familiar.”

“it’s impressive! our classmate is pinterest famous!” they continue to look at every single post in each board, and todoroki’s left to observe in silence

he has definitely taken a liking to you, even if he didn’t realize it at first— he liked you because of your hard work when it came to training, personality and patience, not because of your looks

obviously, todoroki thinks that you look good in anything, trashbag style or not. but seeing you in this light was interesting.

so after training, todoroki would spent a good portion of his time scavenging for more pictures— not because he was obsessed or anything

but because,, he really liked your pictures. maybe it was because without you in those pictures, it would feel incomplete

he didn’t know how to approach you after this discovery, which is why he’s glad that you approached him first

“todoroki! what are you looking at?” you took a peak at his screen, and you’re baffled to see yourself, and that very famous picture of you

he’s quiet for a second when he realizes that you’ve caught him staring at your pictures, but he explains calmly, “sero accidentally discovered your pictures,, and i just wanted to take a peak at them, if it was okay,,”

and he’s relieved— well, you’re also relieved. you didn’t know how your crush would react if he ever saw those pictures, but your heart skipped a beat knowing that he enjoyed looking at them

“it’s alright todoroki,” you smile, honestly over the moon as you spoke “i’m really glad that you like them.”

sometimes you’d get shy whenever he’d go on pinterest just to look at your pictures, “todoroki, not that one! that one was really old,,” is what you’d say whenever he’d look at your older photos but he’d still look at them anyway 💀

at first, todoroki helped you in his own subtle way. since he’s quite the fashion icon— he’d recommend you clothes to wear for future pictures

he eventually confessed— and it was because you were talking to him while he was really tired, and he blurted out that he really, really liked you and you almost passed away because of his words

so yeah— it was a case of secretly admiring their beautiful best friend to lovers scenario

he’d go the full mile when it came to taking your pictures. he’d check the weather forecast just in case if it was going to rain for that date, and impromptu picnic photoshoot

that boyfriend that has pictures of you in his photo gallery, and has a backstory for each photo if anyone were to ask

also that boyfriend that knows how to take pictures, will probably even lay down to take them, even if you didn’t kindly ask him to

when you asked him to join the picture, he didn’t really know how to— but he made it work! and the both of you guys went viral

but this isn’t all one sided, no— whenever you guys would cuddle, shouto would simply stare at you with HEARTS in his eyes,

and even before he leans in for a kiss, he’ll stare at you with so much love in his eyes, while he traces his thumb across your cheekbones. man’s in love— you’re gorgeous.

he knows that you know that he’s not with you because of any ulterior motive, you both have mutual trust in each other— so it’s not something you guys will bother on questioning because you’re both hot asf lets be real

he’s not uncomfortable whenever people gawk at you in public— i mean, you two get stares on the regular. and how could they not stare at you? you’re very attractive, and he’s glad that people recognize that

but he’ll get protective if they’ll try to be a threat to your loving relationship with him, he won’t be afraid to be blunt

regarding the comments on each pinterest post— he hates it when people say things out of the line

always tries to hide them from you so you don’t feel bothered by them, but if you knew about them— he’ll be sad :,(

but he’ll end up mass reporting those nasty comments— and they always get taken down, because of the shouto todoroki luck

in short? man’s whipped, and the both of you guys are SO attractive together— what more if people knew about the om chemistry?

really— you being pinterest famous was just a nice plus, he fell in love with you for you

likes and reblogs are appreciated, thanks for reading!

i do not own bnha/mha and it’s characters. boku no hero academia/my hero academia belongs to horikoshi kohei, i only own the writing and i do not profit off of my hobby

do not plagiarize, reupload, translate, or use my works for audio readings without permission

[slasherhaven]

Hey! You did a request where the slashers' S/O finds out about what they do and leaves, what about a version where they find out and are scared, but try to accept it? Like they are very much terrified and not sure how to react, but they know they love their slasher. If that makes sense. Thanks so much! Your writing brings me so much joy 💜

Part 1 Here

The Slashers S/O finding out what they do (But this time they stay):

Thomas Hewitt

You had known Thomas for a while now. When he worked at the meat processing plant. He was quiet, kept to himself, but he was sweet. The sweetest man you had met in that place.

The two of you became close, you started dating.

Then the factory closed, most people moved out of town. You were trying to stay but it was getting difficult.

But the Hewitts stayed and you visited Thomas everyday. Luda May loved you and you loved her, thinking of her as a mother figure.

You loved Thomas and he loved you, more than anything.

You visited everyday, and today it seemed that nobody was home. But the door was open so you just let yourself in, knowing nobody would mind.

You called for Thomas but got no response. But you heard a sound in the basement.

Maybe he was doing some repairs or something down there? You just shrugged and headed down the stairs.

You froze at the bottom of the stairs.

There Thomas was, the man you loved, hacking up a body, reminding you of his time at the factory…but much more disturbing.

The stair creaked as you shifted, catching Thomas’ attention.

He turned, expecting Hoyt or Luda May but he saw you and froze.

“Tommy…”

You looked between him and the body of a young man before coming to your senses, darting back up the stairs.

Thomas followed behind you. He wanted to explain…to beg for forgiveness…or do something.

You were the best thing that ever happened to him, the only person to show him kindness and love. You made him feel like he might actually deserve love, somebody as good as you, but he didn’t. Of course he didn’t. He couldn’t even comprehend the thought of losing you.

Reaching the top of the stairs, you nearly ran right into Luda May. Seeing the fear in your eyes and the tears staining your cheeks, she knew what had happened.

“Oh sweetie, come on, it’s going to be alright. Let’s sit you down and get you something to drink” she placed a hand on your arm, looking back at the panicked Thomas, and ushered you into the kitchen. “It’s all going to be okay, you’re family. I’m sure Tommy will explain everything to you” she placed a cup of sweet tea in front of you before leaving you and Thomas in the kitchen.

He sat with you and he did explain everything. How it all began, how Hoyt seemed to lose his mind. There was a moment you thought you were going to throw up when he informed you what they did with the bodies but you managed to keep your food down, drinking from your tea.

And Thomas apologised. For what he does, for hiding it from you, for you having to see it, for you having to be with somebody like him.

Your fear was overwhelmed by your love and protectiveness over the man in front of you, even now he was so sweet. You told him that he didn’t need to apologise for you being with him, you were with him because you loved him. “...I still love you” you confessed, realising it yourself.

Even after all this, you loved Thomas. You knew that this should have put an end to all feelings you had for him but it didn’t, you still loved him more than anything.

Thomas was surprised by your confession. He knew you loved him, he just didn’t think you could still love him after this. He could cry just from how much he loves you.

This was a lot but you would try to understand, try to accept it, all so that you could be with him and be there for him.

Like Luda May said you’re family, so you’ll probably be moving in with them. Thomas is super protective of you, making sure you stay as far away from the gory business, which you appreciate.

It would be a slow process, accepting this way of life, but Tommy was the reason you were doing this and he made it worth it.

Bo Sinclair

Continued straight from Part 1. 

You stayed, mostly against your will, but you hadn’t spoken to Bo since you found out the truth about the town. He tried to talk to you but you were still processing, so he attempted to give you some space.

You noticed that he was trying to give you space, to be less intense, to not scare you or come on too strong. You appreciated that because it was so unlike him, it showed that he was trying in some manner.

Eventually the time came that more visitors came to the town, and you had been sent up to the house and told to stay there. You weren’t about to argue with that.

It was dark by the time everything had been ‘dealt’ with. Vincent was in his workroom and Lester had gone home, Bo hadn’t come back to the house yet. So, you had just decided to go to bed and try to ignore everything that had happened today.

It was late when you heard movement downstairs, of course you hadn’t actually managed to get any sleep. You heard a bang followed by Bo cursing. You sighed before climbing out of bed and walking downstairs to see what was going on.

You walked into the kitchen and saw Bo using a damp cloth to clean the slash wound on his arm. You figured there was a struggle when he was...doing what he does.

You walked over to him, taking the cloth out of his hand. He was about to snap until he realised it was you, he seemed to relax then.

“I’ve got it” he assured you, reaching for the cloth.

“Just let me help” you sighed, bringing the cloth back to his arm to wipe the blood away. Bo wasn’t going stop you, at least you were talking to him.

You cleaned away the blood and decided that the wound didn’t need stitches, just a bandage. 

“Thank you for being patient” you spoke quietly as you wrapped the bandage around his arm. “I just...I need a little more time. This isn’t easy but it’s helping, I promise.” 

Patience wasn’t something that Bo was good at but he was managing it, so you just wanted him to know that it was paying off, he just had to keep it up a little longer.

Bo didn’t respond, he didn’t know what to say. He was just glad that you were talking to him, and that you did see things going back so somewhat normal, you just needed more time.

“Thanks” Bo mumbled as you finished securing the bandage.

“No problem. Don’t like seeing you hurt” you whispered, nearly pulling a smile from him. Even now, you cared about him and that meant a lot. “Do you think...do you think you could just lay with me tonight?” honestly, you had missed him, you just couldn’t go right back to normal quite yet.

“Sure thing, darlin’” Bo wrapped his good arm around your shoulders, guiding you towards his chest. You sighed, wrapping your arms around his waist, the two of you just standing there for a while as he rested his chin on top of your head.

After a tiring day, Bo would normally come back to you. That hadn’t been an option lately, but things seemed to be getting better.

Vincent Sinclair

Continued straight from Part 1.

You had to stay, there was no way Bo would let you leave, so you stayed, even if it was kind of against your will.

You were able to keep up with your chores, distracting yourself from the reality of the town. 

Vincent distanced himself from you a little, figuring that you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him, but he couldn’t just leave you alone right now. He’d check in on you, making sure you were doing alright.

There had just been a lot of tension between the two of you, neither of you knowing what to say or do.

It took a lot of time for you to process everything that you had learnt, and Vincent had taken the time to explain everything to you, and answer any questions you had.

Things had gone back to normal, other than your relationship with Vincent. You still shared a room, you were still technically together, the two of you just didn’t really act like it anymore. Neither of you really knew where you stood, but you both knew that it was you that would have to make the first move to letting him know you’re alright.

It had been a rough day, Bo was in a bad mood, and you and Vincent couldn’t lean on each other to feel better. Until that night.

You walked into the bedroom to see him sitting on the end of the bed, he looked over at you as you closed the door, wondering what you were thinking when you walked right up to him.

You moved to stand between his legs and reached up, removing his mask and placing it down on the bed beside him.

Vincent lent into your touch as you caressed the scarred side of his face. It was difficult to come to terms with what was happening in the town but you managed it, and during that time you were reminded that Vincent was still the same Vincent you knew, the man you loved.

“I love you, Vinny” you spoke softly, knowing that was all you needed to say to promise him that everything was going to be alright.

The two of you spent the rest of the night just holding each other, feeling some comfort in knowing that you were still there for each other and that wasn’t going to change.

Lester Sinclair

You had thought Ambrose was a blessing. The three brothers taking you in during your time of need. You moved in properly with Lester a little later when you started dating.

But this town was far from a blessing, you realised that when you discovered the truth about the town, learning about how the brothers got their victims and what they did to them.

As soon as you saw all of this, you hurried back to the home you shared with Lester.

Oh Lester…sweet, energetic, kind Lester…how could he be apart of this?

You couldn’t even think straight, pacing around the room, wiping the tears away from your face. You suddenly turned to the front door when it opened and closed, Lester stepping inside.

His heart broke when he saw your tear stained face. You knew…you knew everything...

“Y/n, I…I’m sorry” was he apologising for being involved in those people’s deaths, he guessed so. He knew it wouldn’t help but he hoped you could see his sincerity.

“How could you be a part of this, Lester?” you asked, tears staining your cheeks. You just couldn’t picture the man you loved ever purposely hurting an innocent person.

“I…I’m sorry” he wanted to give you an explanation just like you deserved but he didn’t have one, not one that would make things better. So he just apologised again, because he was so sorry that you had to see any of this. “I know it ain’t right but...I-I never hurt those people” he told you.

“No...you just sabotaged their cars? Took them into town so your brothers could kill them?” you looked at him in disbelief. You knew what he was trying to say but he couldn’t distance himself from this.

“I’m so sorry. I never meant for you to get mixed up in this” he apologised yet again.

“...you’re killing people, Lester” you shook your head. He wanted to argue the technicalities but knew that it wouldn’t matter. “...I’m scared” you confessed. Even now, you couldn’t fear him. You knew that he wasn’t going to hurt you.

In fact, you had a feeling that if you wanted to walk out that door, he would let you.

“I’d never hurt you, Y/n” Lester promised you and you nodded, knowing he was being truthful. “Please...please don’t leave” he pleaded with you.

“...I’m not going to leave” you sighed, running a hand through your hair. How did you end up in this situation?

“You’re not?” Lester asked, clearly surprised.

“I’m not...I just...I need some time, okay?” you knew that you needed to sit down and talk to him about all of this some more, you needed to know their reasons and how this all started. You couldn’t just move on without that conversation.

“Yeah, yeah, of course. Thank you” he nodded a little frantically, just happy that you weren’t going to run away. Even if he couldn’t blame you if you did.

“But I can’t go into town. I can’t look at those figures or even your brothers right now” you told him, shaking your head.

“Okay, that’s fine, as long as you’re here” Lester nodded again, crossing the room and wrapping his arms around you.

You tensed for a moment before relaxing, remembering that this was still your sweet Lester. So you wrapped your arms around him and just cried into his shoulder while he held you and shushed you.

He knew that this wasn’t going to be easy, that a lot of things would change and he would need to be patient, but he was ready to put in the work and show you that he’s still the man you thought he was.

Asa Emory (The Collector)

Continued straight from Part 1.

After calming down and processing everything you had just learnt, you unlocked the bedroom door and stepped out. But Asa wasn’t there.

Heading down the stairs, you found him waiting in the living room, knowing that you couldn’t leave the house without passing him there.

As soon as you stepped into the room, he was looking at you, clearing trying to figure out what you were thinking and feeling.

He gestured to the place beside him on the couch, and you knew you didn’t really have a choice. So you sat down beside him, leaving a fair amount of distance between you both.

“I’ll tell you everything, answer every question you have” Asa promised, and he did. He told you everything he does and why, he answered all your questions. Got you tissues and made you a hot drink. He would have made you food but you didn’t have much of an appetite. 

“Where you ever going to tell me or...did you think I would just never find out?” you asked. 

“You wouldn’t have found out. If it weren’t for whoever sent you that package, you wouldn’t have found out” he sounded sure of himself. You wished you could argue with him but you knew he was right, you had no clue. If he didn’t want you to know, you wouldn’t have ever found out.

“So you would’ve just kept lying to me?” you didn’t know whether to be annoyed or pleased that he was being so honest with you now. 

“Would you have preferred I tell you everything and risk this exact reaction?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious, but you didn’t have an answer for him. 

“...you’re going to find out who sent that package, aren’t you?” you asked and he nodded. “And what will you do to them?” you already knew the answer.

“I’ll take care of it” Asa told you simply. You just nodded, how were you supposed to respond to that? “Nothing has to change” he assured you.

“It will...it already has. You’re a murderer, Asa. How am I supposed to just overlook that?” you asked in disbelief.  

“The fact that you came out of the bedroom, that you’re sitting and talking with me now, tells me that you’ll be able too. Some day” he told you, making you sigh. It made sense. You were reacting far too calmly now. “No more secrets. I tell you everything and you be honest about how you’re feeling. That’s the only way this can work, okay?” he asked.

“...okay” you agreed with a small nod. 

Jesse Cromeans (Chromeskull)

Jesse has plenty of enemies, not that you know that, and it was one of those enemies that decided that the best way to get to him was through you.

You were home alone, Jesse away on a business trip, when somebody rang the doorbell.

When you answered the door, nobody was there. Just a box set on the doorstep.

You were careful, you looked around, gently opened the box but only saw videotapes. Weird.

You took the box inside and took a closer look. There were plenty of videotapes, the box full. Each one was labelled by a state, a town, a month. You didn’t know what any of that meant.

So, like an idiot, you played a tape.

You were horrified. The video was of a young woman being murdered gruesomely.

Why would anyone send you a box of snuff films? Who could be so disturbed.

And something in your gut told you that these were real.

You were just about to turn it off, sick to your stomach, about to call the police. About to message Jesse about this awful thing.

But then a man walked into frame. Bald, tall, fitted black suit, and wearing a chrome skull mask. Something so…unsettlingly familiar.

It couldn’t be…it just couldn’t be your Jesse…

But it was and you knew it. You turned off the video, ejecting the tape and throwing it to the ground, tears streaming down your face.

All these tapes…proof of the horrific, sadistic murders that the man you loved had committed.

The front door opening and closing made you jump…

You turned and came face to face with the man.

He was about to sign a greeting as he approached you but stopped when he saw your terrified, tear stained face.

He took in your expression for glancing down at the box of tapes, noticing the one you had thrown down and broken…how did you get those tapes? Of course, he knew what they were instantly.

He was going to find out who gave you these and he was going to make sure they regretted it.

“Jesse…please tell me these aren’t real…that, that isn’t you” you pleaded with him, even if you knew the truth now. He didn’t respond, just stared at the box of tapes. “They’re-they’re all yours?…all you?” you asked.

You let out a broken sob when he nodded. There was no point lying now, you knew, it was over.

How could the man you loved do these things? He had always be so wonderful, so perfect, if you didn’t have all this evidence, you wouldn’t have believed it.

“…are you going to hurt me?” you asked and he instantly shook his head.

God, you wanted so badly to believe him but after seeing what he was capable of…you just didn’t know anymore.

“How could you do those things, Jesse?” this was the man you wanted to marry…but you didn’t know him at all. “Do you get off on this shit?” you were looking at him like you didn’t recognise him and he hated it.

He took a step towards you but you took one back. You were scared of him…and that was the last thing he ever wanted.

‘I’m not going to hurt you’ he signed. ‘…I’m sorry…’ he apologised because that’s all he could do. There was no explanation he could give you, no gift or gesture that would earn your forgiveness, there was nothing he could do to make this right. All he could do was give you a weak apologise.

“…you’re…I don’t know you, you’re not my Jesse…I…” he stepped towards you again but you took five steps back this time.

The images on those tapes flashed through your mind. Those women, the way he killed them…how could he ever do something like that and come home to you. To touch you, to love you. You were disgusted with him and yourself.

It must have been the adrenaline in your body but you finally took action, not bothering to grab your coat as you hurried past him and towards the front door.

You gasped when he caught you by the waist pulling you into his chest. You couldn’t even fight it, you just broke down, crying into his chest. He knew he just had to stop you from running out in a panic, he needed to prove that he wasn’t going to hurt you.

He held you, much preferring this to you running away.

“This is your...work?” you asked quietly. All those trips...he was actually hurting those people. How could he even hide this from you for so long?

You looked up at him just to see him nod.

“But you enjoy it...don’t you?” he paused and then nodded. The answer didn’t really matter, either way he was killing people for profit, did it really matter that much if he liked it or not?

He just kept a hold on you as you cried. Once your sobs calmed down and you seemed to have gotten over the initial panic, Jesse pulled away slightly, cupping your face in his hands.

“...I knew something wasn’t right. You never talked about your work, or how you got all this money, I knew it was something shady but...but I never expected this” you confessed. He ran his hand over your hair, of course you didn’t, you had trusted him. “I...I’m scared, Jesse. I can’t get those tapes out of my head, I’m scared of the things you’ve done but...but I can’t be scared of you. You really wouldn’t hurt me, would you?”

Jesse instantly shook his head. He’d never hurt you, he can easily promise that.

“I’m going to need time, Jesse” you told him but he already knew that, and he was willing to wait, to prove that he was still the man you thought you knew.

First Jesse would put those tapes somewhere safe, get them away from you, then the two of you can talk about this, he can try to explain himself and stop hiding things from you. He wanted you to know everything, because only then can you move on together. Once you know everything, he won’t have to hide anything and he won’t have to worry about you finding out.

It might be difficult for a while but in the end this could strengthen your relationship, it just needed some patience.

Otis Driftwood

Continued straight from Part 1.

After you left, Otis came after you, worried about you going to the police. He had grabbed your arm without thinking about it, hating the feeling he felt when you flinched and looked at him with fearful eyes. He promised you that he wasn’t going to hurt you, that you were safe, before guiding you back to the house.

By this time, both Mama and Baby were home. They both greeted you as you passed through the living room, both of them carelessly telling you that everything was going to be alright.

Otis took you to his room so that just the two of you could just talk, without the rest of the family getting involved. As soon as he released your arm, you crossed the room to put some distance between you both. 

“What do you want?” you asked, looking at him like you didn’t recognise him at all. 

“What so I want? What do you mean?” Otis asked. He didn’t want anything.

“Why not just let me go? You said you aren’t going to hurt me...so let me go” you glanced at the door behind him, knowing it wouldn’t be that easy but giving it a shot anyway. 

“I can’t...” he sighed. 

“Why?” you asked. 

“Because the last thing we need is you running to the police” he knew you already knew that. 

“I won’t. I promise” you assured him. He wanted to believe you, and for the most part he did. Maybe his reasons for keeping you around was even more selfish than saving the family’s ass, he didn’t want to lose you. “...why are you doing all of this? I...how could you hurt those people?” Otis wasn’t the most ordinary man, far from it. Maybe it was your fault for not suspecting your boyfriend was a sadistic murderer. 

“C’mon, you’ve always known something wasn’t quite right but you always overlooked it, right?” Otis asked, you hesitated but nodded. “This is what we were hiding, what you had been curious about, you just don’t like it...but you don’t need to be afraid” he assured you as he walked up to you. 

“It’s not that easy, Otis” you scoffed, shaking your head at him. 

“I know, and we’ll give you time. I just need you to trust me” Otis placed his hands on your upper arms, making you look up at him. “Do you trust me?” he asked, stroking his hands up and down your arms.

“...I do” you nodded, sighing when he pulled you into a protective embrace.

Hell, are you a little more fucked up than you thought?