#rip and i forgot everyone elses last names

[superstarcherrycolagirl]

piece of you in how i dress

“cherry” by harry styles

benny cross x reader / 1.1k words

idea: benny rocks a new look

tw: none really, drinking, smoking, cursing, but just a bunch of cuteness

notes: sooo i sent a request to clo a bit ago (b4 we became bestie boos) and i was rereading what she wrote and it was SO GOOD so i kinda wanted to write a little piece abt that!! sorry if this is kinda shit imve been really really busy the past week but i wanted to put something out BUT i hope y’all like this :)) also PLEASE go read @semperamans work bc she is just TOO GOOD and deserves all the love !!

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benny’s always had a distinct look to him. messy hair, ripped jeans, sharp tattoos, scares covering his fists, and a chilling stare on his face that completed his intimidating look. although he and the rest of the vandals all seem to look the same, with their colors on and unique pasts merging together, benny was always recognizable and stood out like a sore thumb.

nobody really questioned why the young vandal was so feral, why his past shaped him into somebody who can either lurk in silence or create chaos out of nothing in the blink of an eye, because it wasn’t anyone's business. sure the vandals began because of the love to ride all day and night, but the community of people was built around acceptance of each member, regardless of their past.

so why the hell would anyone care? the guy just has a classic look to him!

until benny met you.

“wahoo you seeing what i’m seein’?” “the sexy redhead with that tiny skirt on? cause if you are-” “stop fuckin’ droolin’ for a second and turn that thick ass head of yours ‘round! over at the pool table!” due to drinking a ton and smoking weed, it took a while for corky and wahoo to focus on the same thing. and luckily they were able to, looking over at the pool table where benny was watching cal take a strike during their game. his dark shirt and dark jeans were so rough against his skin, that the pop of blush pink was throwing the two guys off. a little pink blob was tied around a belt loop on benny’s jeans, standing out like a sore thumb.

to say that wahoo and corky were stumped was an understatement “what is that shit on his pants?” “i d’know, that’s why my last resort was askin’ you” “ah fuck you too shithead! if you care s’much let’s jus’go ahead n’ask him” wahoo stood up first with corky trailing behind as they walked to the pool table, the mix of alcohol and pot in their systems making them stumble and laugh.

once they reached the table they immediately approached benny, perching their hands on his side of the table “hey benny! did ya’ fairy godmother visit you in ya’ sleep last night?” “or a.. a princess spare y’any gifts?” the boys started chattering, trying to hint to benny at what they were talking about “what t’hell are you goin’ on about? did you take some of that shit sonny got?” benny was genuinely confused, wondering what in gods name wahoo and corky took to be asking him about fairies and princesses. “what y’mean? look at you! all pretty in pink for us tonight! jus’wanna know what lucky lady gave y’that?” corky said with a laugh, which got the attention of cal.

oh here we go.

benny put it together in his head what they were laughing about, and a rush of pink started to fill the cheeks. he completely forgot he had your pink scare tied to him, you asked him to hold onto it because it was bothering your neck. he didn’t even think of it, and now caught off guard that his friends noticed.

he didn’t know what to say. was everyone else gonna start teasing him? telling him that he’s changed and now all soft? he had no idea. but as he was trying to open his mouth to say something, cal already beat him to it.

“you guys know who gave that to him, she’s literally been in here 3 times this week! spared your sorry asses some cookies that were for the ladies!” cal chirped in, his voice gaining the intoxicated guys attention “benny’s right, what the fuck did y’all take? can’t have y’forget so much that your dicks are hanging out ‘cause you forgot how to zip up your flies!” he said vulgarly, but earning a little chuckle from benny “now go smoke whatever shit sonny gave you outside! m’getting a headache” cal told corky and wahoo. both benny and cal watched them walk away, drowning in drunken cackles.

benny turns his head back to cal, seeing him take a sip of his beer before shifting his attention back to him “so how is she? i noticed that she isn’t with you tonight?” cal’s question threw off benny for a moment, surprised that he’d be asking about his girl. “yeah she’s good. she uh.. picked up an extra shift early for the mornin’, so she stayed home so she could get a good sleep,” benny said softly, the shift to talking about his girl made the blush creep even higher “almost didn’t show tonight ‘cause i wanted to help her relax, but she insisted for me to come here anyway” he said with a smile. oh how stubborn you could be.

“well i'm glad that she’s well, y’got a hard working lady on y’hands” cal said in response, noticing how shy benny got “listen, you and i both know that they're off their asses tonight, so don’t let their teasing rattle you, i know they respect her as much as the rest of us do” cal spoke to benny calmly, unsure if he was upset with their friends “no no i.. i’m not mad. i feel the opposite really,” benny looked down at the sweet pink scarf against his jeans “jus’happy that’ll get to see her once i get back home” he looked up at cal with a smile. it’s already getting pretty late, and benny told you that he’d drive you to work in the morning, so he might as well just call it a night and head out.

and just like that it was like cal read his mind “well why don’t you go on and get to it, i’ll cover our drinks right here” cal offered, which benny returned with a nod. he benny grabbed his leather jacket, and started walking away, cal spoke up one more time

“tell her i wish her luck, and hope to see the both of you on friday” “i promise i will”

and with that final promise he was out the door, hopped on his bike, and was on his way home. while driving down the dimly lit roads he’d glance down at your scarf blowing in the wind, and couldn’t help but smile. ‘a little piece of you in how he dressed’ some could say.

he couldn’t wait to get home.

[eternalbuckley]

Undercover. — evan buckley

SUMMARY: You are an undercover detective and assigned to a Job with Lucy. Buck tried reaching out to you while you were still undercover because he missed you and after the job was done, you decided to have a talk with him. Which revealed unsaid feelings from Buck.

word count: 3,504

genre: angst and bit of fluff | gn!reader, queer!reader, bipoc!reader and plus-size!reader friendly

pairing: evan buckley x reader, lucy chen x platonic!reader, 911/the rookie crossover

warnings: talks about drugs, reader got physically hurt (broken rip and a few scratches), mention of a car crash, small descriptio of a physical fight, there is a bartender named marc (in case that's your name), Y/C/N used once (means your undercover characters name), very emotional buck, english is not my first language, slightly proofread — if I forgot something, please let me know!

disclaimer: please do not repost or try and take ownership of my work or post this anywhere without my consent. do not translate my work and post it anywhere — i give you no permission to do that. i only post my stories here, so if you find my work anywhere else please let me know! reblogs, likes and comments are appreciated and welcomed!

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Working as a detective in the LAPD came with its good and bad sides. The stress was not always easy to handle but working undercover came with many more downsides. Things like not being able to be with the people you care about whenever you have an undercover job. It would be too dangerous if anyone in your private life would be a part of the life you created to be undercover and get involved with any case you had. Everyone who was a part of your life knew that, especially your colleagues and your boyfriend Evan Buckley. A firefighter of the LAFD.

You always had to go away for a few days here and there to get done different jobs since you started being friends with him a few years ago. Some years into your friendship, both of you realized that you had feelings for each other and started dating. Now you’ve been with him in a happy relationship for one and a half years. And soon you’d finally move in with each other. Buck knew what he had to deal with, such as not being able to contact you in any imaginable way whenever you were undercover. It would be too risky for you, him, everyone else and the job. You didn’t have to go undercover for the past two months now, as a result of an injury you got from your last job. Since then, Buck got even more protective over you. Naturally, he already was the protective kind of guy but since then it got more.

Buck wasn’t okay with you going undercover again but you had to because it had something to you with one of your old jobs and it was much needed that you would get into it again. And despite Buck being against it, you decided to do it and promised him you‘d be okay and everything would be according to plan.

"You got hurt the last time you promised me that," he mumbled but you reassured him that you would look out for yourself this time. Especially because you weren’t alone and had one of your colleagues, Lucy Chen, with you. This helped him to calm down at least a little bit. You kissed him as a goodbye and left his apartment, shutting down your private life.

Since then, it had been three weeks and the job was taking longer than expected. It was unbearable for you and Buck but it needed to be like this. You knew you were close to being done with the job but you couldn’t risk anything yet. Lucy and you didn’t have all the evidence you needed to arrest the drug dealers and the whole gang you were infiltrating. She had to brew lots of different drugs and you helped her with that. Collecting all the evidence wasn’t as easy as you hoped it would be but there wasn’t anything else you could do. You had to wait and so did Buck.

Whenever he wasn’t on a call, he sat on the couch of the station and kept looking at his phone whenever it vibrated. He hoped it would be you, letting him know you were back but every time it wasn’t what he was hoping for. It was the first time you had been away for such an amount of time since you got together and he missed you. He needed to see you again. Eddie tried to cheer him up by spending time together with him and Chris but not even that helped Buck. He was thankful for the efforts but the only thing that could cheer him up would be seeing you. He knew he couldn’t but he had and needed to find a way.

So, despite everyone’s concerns and efforts to keep him away from doing what he wanted to do, he drove to a bar. Buck knew from your stories about your undercover jobs that this was the place where you usually hung out with a few drug dealers. It was a normal bar; everyone could enter it without automatically being associated with the gang or any criminal acts but it was a known place for this gang. He sat in his car, thinking about if he should do it. Buck knew it was wrong and the risks that could come with it but in that moment, he was too stubborn and got out of his jeep and walked over to the bar. He entered it and looked around, looking for you. And to his good luck or maybe later his bad luck he found you immediately. Your eyes met each other and for a second you thought your eyes were lying to you but they weren’t. You saw your beloved boyfriend walking over to the bartender and watched him as he ordered himself a drink while sitting down there. His back was turned to you but you knew what his aim was. Internally you cursed him.

"Hey, isn’t that your boyfriend?" Lucy nodded towards Buck and whispered to you. You nodded your head and sighed. He wasn’t supposed to be here.

You were currently sitting with her alone, luckily no one else in the gang you both were infiltrating was with you. Giving you a night just together. It was very unusual but you both took it as a chance to plan your next steps.

"I‘ll go and get us another drink, warn me if anyone gets too close," you told Lucy as you stood up. She hummed and nodded her head.

You walked over to the bartender and stood right next to Buck but kept a distance from him. You didn’t want to cause too much attention in case anyone in the gang was secretly watching you and Lucy.

"The same drinks twice again, Marc," you smiled at him. He nodded and started making your order. He was a few feet away from you now.

You didn’t look at Buck since you weren’t sure if you were being watched by anyone. "What the hell are you doing here?" You mumbled quietly but Buck was still able to hear you.

"I needed to see you," Buck took a sip from his drink, "I miss you." He noticed that you didn’t look at him which hurt him but he knew you couldn’t risk anything. It was already too risky for you to talk with him in the first place but he needed to risk it.

You sighed and looked down for a moment, "I miss you too,” you replied eventually in a soft whisper. “But you should go. You shouldn’t be here, it‘s too dangerous for you or us." You continued as you watched Marc while he made you the drinks. He shared a polite smile with you from the other side of the bar.

Buck nodded his head and finished his drink before he finally looked at you. You looked different. You had another haircut and hair colour, you even had a few fake tattoos on your body. You looked good in his eyes, different but good. But not as good as you usually look like.

"Here are your drinks Y/C/N," Marc gave you the two drinks and went back to serving other customers. You thanked him and took the two glasses.

You turned your body to Buck and gave him a small reassuring smile, "I‘m okay, don’t worry about me." You whispered once again.

Buck nodded his head again, "I love you." He whispered as you turned around to walk back to Lucy.

"I love you too," you replied quietly and eventually returned to Lucy without turning around again. Buck watched you go and gulped. He didn’t want to leave but he had to, and so he did.

As soon as you sat down again you looked out of the window and looked out for any people who possibly could follow him as he drove away but you weren’t able to see anyone following him. With a sigh and worry on your face, you looked back to Lucy, who already had her eyebrows raised. But before she could say anything you told her that you would talk with him about it once the job is done.

"I mean he knows that he shouldn’t do it but… It‘s Buck after all," you chuckled with her. You tried to hide your fear that someone might have followed Buck and that he could be hurt…. or worse.

After an hour Lucy and you decided to call it a night and drove back to your motel. The following days were quieter than usual. The gang you were working for didn’t contact you or Lucy, which was weird for the both of you but you decided to wait longer. After a few more days, three men came to your motel and took you with them. The conclusion was that the leader wanted to test you and Lucy. He wanted to see if he would be able to trust both of you any longer. Luckily you seemed to have passed his test because he involved both of you in the next steps of his plans.

Two weeks later the whole gang got arrested during a drug deal. The last days weren’t the easiest ones because one of the closer gang members started questioning the story about Lucy and you. Which resulted into the gang leader starting to question both of you as well but the deal was still being done. But you didn’t get out of it without any injuries. One of the gang members hit you in the side of your rips before he got arrested but that was everything that happened.

Your sergeant still made sure you‘d get a checkup in the hospital in case your injury caused any bigger inner injuries. You didn’t want to tell Buck anything about it because you knew he‘d be too worried but as soon as you entered the hospital with Lucy you met him. He and the 118 team just arrived there because Bobby got hurt on their latest call. You wished you could curse whoever was in charge of all the happening events because you didn’t want Buck to worry about you as well if he already was worried about his captain. Buck immediately stood up and rushed over to you, his face was slightly bruised.

"That‘s my cue to go," Lucy bit on her lower lip and held up her thumbs as she left you alone.

"Lucy!" You whisper yelled and held your rips because of your quick movements. Maybe it hurt you a bit more than you thought.

Your action didn’t go unnoticed by your boyfriend, "What… What are you doing here?" He asked you, clearly worried about you. He held you by your arms and sat down with you.

"I‘m just here for a checkup, nothing to worry about," you tried to smile but you knew he‘d see right through it.

He nodded and raised his hand to touch your slightly bruised face but his face turned into slight panic or shock for a moment, "W..wait am I," he looked around and stopped in his tracks, "Am I allowed to talk to you? Is your job over or.."

You chuckled but hissed because of the pain, "It‘s over, we got everything we needed." You looked at him and touched his face to check up on him, "What happened to you?"

"Don’t worry about me. It‘s just a few scratches, we‘re here for Bobby," he told you and explained what exactly happened that led his team to be here.

They tried to rescue a couple after a car crash but another car drove into the accident and the team got slightly hurt. Especially Bobby but nothing too serious, he‘ll be out again after the checkups are complete.

Buck smiled but it was quickly replaced with worry again, "I‘m gonna get you a doctor."

You nodded and Buck left you there. Lucy came back with two water bottles and sat down next to you. She let out a relieved sigh and was clearly happy that the job was finally done. She was tired of brewing all these drugs.

"I guess you won’t talk to him tonight, hm?" She asked you as she gave you one bottle.

You took the bottle and opened it, "About the thing that happened at the bar a few weeks ago?" You took a sip and looked over to Buck who was talking to a doctor. You shook your head and looked back to Lucy, "I don’t think so. He already had a rough day. Talking about this can wait."

Lucy nodded and squeezed your arm after she put her hand on it, "Just don’t wait too long. We or especially you cannot risk it again. The next time it might be too late and one of you might die, or even both of you."

"I know," you sighed as you whispered and pinched your nose bridge. You tried to think about different ways how you should approach him with this topic but you still didn’t find the correct one.

As soon as you were off to go, you went home with Buck. He insisted on staying by your side, especially because it was your first night alone back home in your apartment. Originally, he wanted to drive to his apartment but yours was nearer. Buck waited for you as you got checked and the worry on his face was clearly there. You knew he wanted to ask you so many questions but would he get all of them answered? He didn’t think so, nor did he expect it.  But he for sure knew, he would try to get answers out of you about your well-being and how you got hurt.

"Ugh I require so much sleep," you sighed dramatically as soon as you entered your apartment.

You dropped your backpack on the floor and took off your jacket. Buck immediately came over to you to help you. Any big movement hurt you too much, he knew and saw that in your face.

"What happened to you?" He asked you again and reached out to touch your cheek. You didn’t flinch and just looked at him, "I.. I know you can’t tell me explicitly but.. You got hurt. Again."

You took his hand and squeezed it, "I‘m fine, really. It’s just a few scratches and a broken rip." You watched his eyes scanning your face. He furrowed his eyebrows but relaxed them after a few seconds again. He must have been thinking about something but you weren’t sure if he was going to tell you what he had on his mind.

After a few more seconds Buck shook his head and decided that he wanted to know what happened, "Tell me how it happened." He whispered as you turned away from him to get yourself something to drink.

"Buck…" You exhaled after you took a sip from your glass. You didn’t want to tell him everything but you knew he wouldn’t stop asking you about it. That was something you loved about him. That he would never back down from something.

"Please,” he begged desperately, “Tell me everything you can.”

Your eyes found his pleading ones and you slowly nodded your head. "Okay," you sat down with him on your couch.

Buck held your hand the entire time and listened to each of your words. You told him everything you were able to tell him about the past few weeks. From the point where you two met at the bar until almost all the main people from the gang got arrested. You told him about the gang leader starting to question the story about you and Lucy. How everything almost went down and that they were almost outed as detectives but luckily to you, you and Lucy were good enough at convincing most of the gang members. Of course, some didn’t believe you and watched your steps very clearly. Up until early this evening when everyone got arrested. Before your colleagues stormed into the building one gang member confronted you and Lucy. Having evidence that you two were indeed detectives and he threatened you to tell everyone about your lies. Hoping you two would die. Soon you three got into a fight and you got hit by the gang member a few times. In your face and rips mainly. But right after that your colleagues came in and made sure everyone got arrested.

Buck gulped nervously, "You mean… You could have died?"

You slightly nodded your head but immediately squeezed his hands, "But I didn’t, okay? Everything is fine. Everyone got arrested and everything is done." You spoke softly.

"But you still could have died," his voice cracked. His lower lip trembled in fear of the possibility of losing you.

He didn’t want to imagine getting a call about your passing from your boss or any partners. Buck was afraid that you could die in a job. He knew his own job wasn’t the safest either and that you might feel the same way as he did about you and your job. But he couldn’t imagine a life without you, that’s something he was one hundred percent sure of.

"Buck,” you tried to calm him down but it was not possible. You took both of his hands and pulled them to your lips to kiss him on his knuckles. It usually helped him to calm down whenever you did it but this time it didn’t seem to help immediately. “I’m here, okay? Nothing bad happened. I’m-“

"I don’t know how dangerous undercover jobs can exactly be but I don’t want you to die. I can’t lose you,” he shook his head with tears in his eyes.

You didn’t know about his opinion about your job. Both of you haven’t really talked about it before. Sure, you knew he didn’t like your job because he was scared you could badly get hurt again but that he felt this exact way. That was something new. He never was near crying because of it, at least not in front of you.

"You won’t lose me," you reassured him and put one of your hands on his cheek. He leaned his head into your hand but his worries were still present.

You wanted to promise him that he won’t lose you but you didn’t want to make a promise about this. Not, if you weren’t one hundred percent sure if you could keep it. The only way you could keep it was by staying with him because you deeply cared about him and loved him. But regarding to your job, you couldn’t promise him that. Neither could Buck promise you the same thing and both of you knew that.

"But what if there’s a time you can’t help yourself and you get in danger and-," he started rambling but stopped himself to look at you, “I’m worried about you.”

You nodded your head and whispered a few ‘I knows’. "And that’s okay but if I ever get too close to something dangerous, I‘ll get out."

Buck tried to smile at you but it didn’t reach his eyes.

"But…" you started and scooted closer to him. His hand immediately found its way to your thigh. You were thinking about how you could approach another important topic in this whole situation. Because you still needed to talk with him about his appearance at the bar a few weeks ago. But right now, you decided this would be something you should discuss later.

Buck looked at you, waiting for you to continue. He turned his body completely to you and signalled you that he was listening. With your one hand, you wiped away his tears and shook your head. You cuddled into him and wrapped your arms around his torso and so did he.

"There’s something else I need to talk with you about but it can wait for now,” you whispered softly and closed your eyes. “Right now, I just want to sit here with my boyfriend and cuddle with him.”

He nodded his head with a chuckle and squeezed your arms, he tried to make sure he wasn’t accidentally hurting you. He finally had his angel back in his arms. You nuzzled more into his body and hummed, feeling calm and happy. You didn’t want to let go of him and neither did he want to. There was an underlying tension between you regarding you and being an undercover detective but Buck knew he couldn’t change your opinion. You loved being a detective and especially working undercover. After all, it wasn’t just him who was scared every time. Whenever Buck had a shift, you were scared you would get a phone call about his passing or that you’d see anything about it on the news. You deeply cared about each other and were scared for each other but the love between you was stronger than anything else. But little did you know what would come sooner or later.

[ladykailitha]

Batshit Soulmates Part 7

Hey guys! We're almost back to where we started and I fix a glaringly obvious plot hole. Why use alcohol to make Molotov cocktails that could back fire and hurt you when FLARE GUNS FUCKING EXIST AND HAVE FOR DECADES IN THE 1980s?!

GIF by thehound-and-thebird

We also get Eddie and Steve having a moment in the bathroom of Max's trailer. And the reason Eddie didn't want to use his handkerchief.

In Medias Res| Prologue|Pt 1|Pt 2|Pt 3|Pt 4|Pt 5|Pt 6|

****

Steve looked back over his shoulder and into Eddie’s eyes. “We need music!”

Eddie scrambled to his feet. “Robin! We need music!”

They both turn and run into Eddie’s bedroom, rummaging through his stack of cassette tapes.

“What the hell is this?” she held up Iron Maiden. “Where’s the real music? Blondie, Madonna, Cindy Lauper...”

Eddie snatched the tape from her. “This is real music!”

Dustin came running in. “Hey guys! You really need to hurry!”

Then they heard it, Steve and Lucas harmonizing. Eddie grabbed his acoustic and ran out there. He listened to them for a moment and then started playing. It was rough and barely music, but it worked.

Nancy gasped, startling to life.

Steve pulled her in for a hug as everyone breathed a sigh of relief. She babbled about monsters and guilt and horrible visions of the destruction of everything she held dear.

“Let’s get you topside,” Steve murmured, “and we can talk about what this all means.”

They got everyone out of the Upside Down and safely over to Max’s trailer.

Steve was exhausted. He just wanted to take Robin and Eddie and run. None of them had skin in the game. Nancy had made that clear enough. Over and over again.

They also weren’t going to listen to him. He felt like he was screaming into the void. Echoless and empty. His last nerve had been beyond frayed for the last five days. He just wanted to rest.

“Fine.”

Every head snapped his direction.

“But if we’re going to do this,” he growled, “we’re going to do it properly. We need weapons and supplies. And the four of us,” he pointed to the older teens that had been in the Upside Down, “need showers and food. Also, in case anyone forgot,” he pointed down at his ripped and badly bandaged torso, “I need to have this properly bandaged so I don’t bleed out at a crucial moment!”

The silence was deafening.

Nancy folded her arms and rocked back on one heel, staring at the floor.

“I’m sorry, Steve,” she murmured. “I did forget you were injured. Let’s get everyone all cleaned up.”

“And I know where to get supplies,” Eddie said softly.

Steve turned to him and nodded. “Let’s get us all cleaned up, did anyone think to grab Eddie some clothes while we were at his trailer?”

All he got in return were blank stares. Steve pressed the palms of his hands into his eye sockets as he fought the urge to scream.

“I’ll go!” Max said. “I’ll be less likely to be noticed poking around.”

Eddie grimaced he wasn’t sure how he felt about Red getting into his underwear drawer, but she was right. Anyone else would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

He watched as she snuck back out and then turned to Steve. “We need to get you taken care of first. There won’t be much hot water for the rest of us, but Stevie here needs it to clear out his wounds.”

Robin and Nancy nodded.

“Fucking demobats,” Dustin huffed.

Steve snapped his fingers. “I knew they would be called demo-something. It’s always demo-something.”

Dustin turned to him slowly. “What did you think they were going to be called if not bats, Steve?”

Steve shrugged. “Some kind of bird, I don’t know.”

Suddenly there was an uproar from almost everyone. Except Eddie.

“Why would you think that, Stevie?” he asked over the din.

“Because demogorgons don’t look like demogorgons and you originally thought the demodogs were some new species of reptile, so how I was supposed to know you were actually going to name it what it looked like.”

“What does their version of a demogorgon look like?” Eddie asked, suddenly curious.

“Tall, thin, leafy, with a head that opens like a Venus fly trap,” Robin said excitedly.

Eddie turned to Lucas and Dustin and raised an eyebrow. “That sounds more like an umber hulk than a demogorgon. You know, the thing with tentacles and two heads?”

Lucas shrugged. “We were like eleven years old when named it and hadn’t had a lot of experience with the game yet.”

Eddie nodded. “Fair enough.”

He tugged on Steve’s arm and led him into the bathroom.

“Strip and into the water, pretty boy,” Eddie said, turning on the shower. “I’ll go grab some towels and the first aid kit.”

Steve nodded. He gently took off the denim vest and set on the sink. Eddie’s expression softened and smiled.

He got back out just as Max had returned.

“I grabbed two pairs of boxers,” she said. “One for you and one for Steve. I hope that was okay.”

“Just what were you doing in Eddie’s underwear?” Lucas asked, wide eyed.

Max rolled her eyes. “Eddie hasn’t been able to change his in almost a week and that lake water can’t have been good for Steve, so I made an executive decision.”

Eddie grabbed the backpack she had used to stuff the clothes in with a thankful smile. “One I deeply appreciate, Red.”

He also got the first aid kit from her and went back into the bathroom. Steve was as clean as he could get all things considered. He was toweling off his chest when Eddie came in.

“Red brought you a change of underwear, if you don’t mind wearing some of mine,” he muttered.

“As long as they’re clean, Eds,” Steve said, “I would wear Tommy H.’s at this point.”

Eddie chuckled. “Fair enough. I just didn’t want to offend your rich boy sensibilities.”

Steve scoffed. “I don’t have any of those anymore. The Upside Down has a lovely way of getting rid of that kind of shit, fast.”

Eddie nodded, but turned away so Steve could pull on the boxers.

“Thank fuck,” Steve muttered. “I prefer briefs, but they’re dry and that’s like heaven right now.”

Eddie turned around and breathed through his nose. Seeing Steve in his boxers was really doing something for him that it really shouldn’t.

“Let’s get those wounds wrapped up,” he said hefting the first aid kit.

Steve nodded. He leaned up against the sink and let Eddie put on gauze and proper bandages on the wounds on his sides.

“I hope wherever you plan to get supplies has shoes, man,” Steve said as he struggled to put on the sweats, “because I really need to stop running around barefoot.”

Eddie looked down at Steve’s feet and back up at Steve. “Shit. You walked all through the forest and to Nancy’s house barefoot and then rode a bike all the way to Forest Hills, again WITHOUT SHOES?!”

Steve blushed. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“The big deal, Stevie,” Eddie huffed, “is that you’re our tank and if you are too hurt to protect the squishy ones, then everyone gets hurt, okay?”

Steve nodded. “Sorry. They don’t usually care.”

Eddie looked back at the closed door and then back at Steve. “I think you’re wrong. But if you don’t tell them you’re hurt, they can’t take care of you.”

Steve nodded again, he went back out there while Eddie took his turn. Quickly get the worst of six days of being on the run off of him. He merely rinsed his hair out of the dirt and whatever the hell that shit is that is constantly falling in the Upside Down.

He stepped out and dried himself off, using the towel Steve used. It didn’t look like Max had a lot of towels and they still had Robin and Nancy to get through.

He run his hair out and got dressed. When he pulled out the Metallica t-shirt and the one pair of black jeans he owned that didn’t have rips in the knee, he almost wanted to kiss her forehead. God, this was perfect. She even put in socks. He put his shoes on and yeah, they were still kinda wet, but it was much better than everything being kinda wet.

Nancy went next and then Robin, each girl just taking the time they needed to get the Upside Down off of them.

Eddie pulls out a phone book and lays on the table. He goes flipping through it and lands on the section for camping gear and guns.

He points to the biggest ad. “This is where we are going to get our supplies, it will have everything we need. Guns, ammo, whatever you need to take this bastard out.”

Steve pressed up against Eddie and leaned over his shoulder to see what he was pointing at. The War Zone.

“What about alcohol?” Robin asked. “Last time we used Molotov cocktails to take out these monsters.”

“Yeah!” Dustin said. “Fire works great on these guys. And the further away we are to light them up, the better.”

“So flare guns,” Eddie said nodding. “They’ll have those too.”

Nancy and Dustin shared a confused glance.

“What’s a flare gun?” Nancy asked.

Eddie looked around at all the confused faces. “You’ve seen the flares they shoot up when someone is in distress right?”

There were a couple of nods.

“Those are fired from guns,” he explained. “Essentially they are fireworks in a gun.”

“Yeah,” Lucas said, “we’re going to want a lot of those.”

There was a murmur of agreement from everyone.

“Now all we need is transport,” Nancy said. “We don’t have bikes for everyone.”

“Oh,” Eddie said. “I’ve got that covered, too.”

Steve frowned. “What, have you got a car hidden around here somewhere?”

Eddie straightened up and smiled at him. “It’s not a car, and it’s not mine. But it’ll do.”

Steve frowned, but Eddie turned to Max. “Hey you got a bandanna or a mask I can use?”

Max tilted her head and looked up. “Yeah, I’ve got something.”

“Why don’t you use your own hankey?” Nancy asked, pointing to his back pocket.

He held it up. “You mean this? The thing that has been through Lover’s Lake and the Upside Down and I’m pretty sure the smell alone would kill me?”

Nancy blinked for a moment and then waved her hand in concession.

When Max came out of her bedroom carrying the mask, Eddie grinned.

“You’re my favorite.”

“Hey!” Dustin protested.

But Eddie and Max just grinned.

****

Part 8 Part 9 Epilogue

And if you saw this last night, no, no you didn't. Boops distracted me.

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[teriri-sayes]

Reactions to Deal Maker's Chapter 199

TL;DR - Sima Pyeong and Jegal Mi Ryeo figure out that Cale was an otherworlder. HD having a drink date with CH. Cale returns to Roan and gets greeted by a very polite Alberu and 6 dragons.

The Good and Evil Factions Today's the last chapter of the murim arc, so we get our final scenes with the key figures of the two factions. Apparently, news of the emperor arriving in Hainan Island reached the murim people's ears, so everyone was behaving well. The murim people were scared of the emperor because he was kind to the civilians but harsh on the murim people.

However, we didn't get more scenes of the emperor. The first half was about Sima Pyeong and the Good Faction's meeting. The smart ones of the two factions - Sima Pyeong and Jegal Mi Ryeo, figured out that Cale was an otherworlder. Sima Pyeong's clue was the magic Raon taught him, and the Good Faction's clue was Cale's power in stopping the tsunami.

Both factions also realized that Cale was leaving soon, and began to prepare gifts to their benefactor. And Jegal Mi Ryeo also decided to carry out some reforms to the Good Faction because of their realization that they had been arrogant.

And that was it for these two factions. No mention of what happened to Toonka who was still probably hanging out with the Evil Faction people. 😂

A Drink Under the Moonlight Our cheater HD was having a drink with CH in the garden under the moonlight. BUT. It was actually CH who asked to meet HD, even getting Cale's permission to do so. What? CH making the first move? He even refilled HD's cup? 😂

Anyway, CH wanted to meet HD because he wanted to learn how to remove the dead mana from one's body. HD went on to say that he had actually not completely removed the dead mana from his body as the human body had hundreds of miniscule blood vessels, so a complete removal would take time.

And when HD said that the method only worked if you had dead mana in your body, CH clarified that it was not for him but for two people - Hannah and Clopeh. Yes, a Clopeh mention! 🥳

But it was quite funny when CH was thinking that it would be good for Clopeh to remove the dead mana in his body, and then frowned when he realized that he actually thought/cared about that crazy guy... 🤣🤣🤣

Why did Cale even agree in CH meeting HD? Because he wanted CH to pass to HD a map of the Absolute God of War's tomb location (that he ripped off from Jungwon) and have HD learn the martial arts of that man in order to become stronger. I think this man was mentioned earlier in the murim arc, though I forgot how EAP translated the name.

Ah, why do I see a parallel here to Alberu? Cale once gave Alberu the dead mana of a dragon to make Alberu stronger, and now he's doing the same to HD for the same reason?

However, HD refused it, saying that he wanted to follow his own path (of martial arts), and even asked CH to spar with him next time. CH agreed but also made himself as the goal that HD should catch up to.

We also get CH praising HD for being amazing (because HD had gotten this far at his young age), and HD replying that it was CH who was amazing. Wait, our last scene of HD is him bonding with CH and not Cale? 😂

Moving on, HD was excited to learn that Cale could summon him in Cale's future fights. Or was he more excited to spar with CH? I dunno. I didn't expect HD to be friendly with CH. Then again, I didn't expect to have a scene of CH calmly drinking with someone else, or CH missing his hometown in Roan.

Traitor Alberu Cale had been really careful about the Aipotu stuff because he was worried about the young Raon handling all of that heavy stuff. But when Alberu heard all about it from Cale, Alberu went on and told about it to the dragons.

So when Cale finally arrived back in Roan, his welcoming party was a very nervous Alberu (who was acting politely) surrounded by 6 dragons (if you count the half-blood dragon as a dragon). There was Eruhaben, Rasheel, Dodori, and Mila. Sheritt and the half-blood dragon were seen in the video communication device Alberu was holding.

Given how serious all the dragons looked, Cale realized that Alberu had tattled on the Raon stuff to the dragons. And he glared at Alberu who avoided his gaze... 😂 For the first time in his life, Cale felt betrayed by Alberu. 🤣🤣🤣 Maybe he even regrets wanting to work under Alberu than become a god? 😂

Ending Remarks FINALLY, THE MURIM ARC IS OVER!!! It took us around 119 chapters for this arc alone. My suffering from reading confusing MTL because of murim terms finally ends! 🥳Next up is a brief interlude in Roan before the Aipotu arc. Will we finally get Cale's conversation with the Molans? And what happened to CJS? Why was there no mention of him today? Did he break up with Cale's group? Or did he go with them? What about the Orsena sisters? Where is Karin? So many questions still left unanswered.

[isatact6]

Movement 1, Scene 1 - The Plot Thickens

(...Ah.)

(You're back here, again.)

(Just as he said you would be.)

(You don't feel fatigued, or hungry... or even upset.)

(It's just... another loop to add to the count.)

(That last thing he said, though... He can't have...?)

(...No. He had to be bluffing. There's no other explanation. Nobody's THAT powerful.)

(...right?)

(It doesn't matter. Back to the stage.)

(...Mirabelle hasn't come to wake you up yet. She's usually here around this time.)

(Pay her a visit, then. This time, do it right.)

(You stand up, stretch your arms and legs, and head into Dormont.)

(As expected, Mira's on the bench.)

(...She looks... distraught. And her bonding papers are nowhere to be seen.)

(...He was just bluffing.)

(You walk up to her.)

("Morning, Mirabelle.")

"Ah-!!" (She flinches a little, startled by your voice, but relaxes quickly.) "Oh... uh... M-morning, Siffrin."

("...Everything alright? You seem... uh... Off, i guess. Sorry if-")

"Ah- no, no!! I just- uh- I had... um... I had a nightmare! Yeah, just a nightmare. Just... just a bad dream..."

(He... he had to be lying, right?)

("Do you... wanna talk about it?")

"No! No, no, it's... I'll shake it off soon, it's fine. Uh- We were gonna discuss plans over dinner in... in the clocktower."

("Sounds good to me. Want me to let everyone else know?")

"No, I can- I'll do it myself. You can still go around and chat with them, though!"

("...Okay, if you're sure.")

(Everything else goes... mostly as expected. Everyone seems awfully tense, though. Odile especially...)

(...Talk to Bonnie! You almost forgot! Loop can wait just a little longer, right?)

(Ah, there they are. You start walking up, but before you can say anything-)

"Frin...?!" (...They run up, jump at you, and hug you. They nearly knocked you over, too!)

("W-woah! Hey, Bonbon... Hi! Okay, I... sheesh... is something wrong?")

"F-frin, I had a really bad dream... Can I talk about it with you?"

(...This is new.)

("S-sure.")

"Well... you were really really mean, and- and then we went through the House without you, because apparently you went first, and then we- we fought the King after unfreezing you, and- and then we froze him somehow!- But then he- he got back up, and- and he-"

(They burst into heaving sobs.)

(...he wasn't lying)

(he wasn't lying he wasn't bluffing he really did force them to remember HE MADE THEM REMEMBER)

(No! No. Just... just calm down. Help Bonnie, first and foremost. There'll be time to panic later.)

("H-hey, Bonbon... it's... it's alright. It was just a bad dream, okay? It can't hurt you now. You'll be alright...")

(You pat them on the back, gently.)

"I... 'm sorry, 'Frin... I just... I ran up and hugged you without asking, I-"

("No, this is fine! You needed it, so... It's fine.")

"Thanks... you big dummy... 'm sorry for being such a crab to you these past few weeks..."

("Don't worry about it... Hey, Mira and the others could use some help with dinner. They're probably over at the clocktower. Why don't you go and-")

"Okay! Thanks for telling me! Byeeee!" (...And away they go. Energetic as ever.)

(...No sense putting it off anymore.)

(You make the hand sign and call Loop.)

"...Stardust?"

("Look, I'm sorry for-")

"What in the name of the blinding stars above was THAT?!"

("I- I was stressed, I thought-")

"Not that! I forgive you! Whatever! I'm talking about that part at the end!! What was the King's DEAL?!"

("...I don't know.")

"That makes both of us, then! Look- Forget the Favor tree, just go to the clocktower, talk to everyone else."

("...Okay?")

(Loop hangs up.)

(You head to the clocktower.)

(At the door, you faintly hear Odile.)

"I have reason to believe it might have been more than just a dream..."

(...Well. Time to rip the bandage off.)

(You open the door.)

(Everyone is staring at you.)

"...Siffrin."

("Odile.")

"We need to talk."

(uh oh)

[yellowistheraddest]

LADIES, GENTLEMEN AND FELLOW CONTORTIONS OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT, i present to you 9 drawing requests with accompanying commentary...

request one:

honestly its not a crime but they are criminally curious to learn the rich history of Dallas in 1963! i mean arent you curious, you should google what happened there on november 22nd!!!

request number 2:

OH BABY you know i love making people feel :( my most popular post is characters crying so i was supposed to have fun with it but 3 people hugging - dude, i was no the verge of insanity and in the end pearl just kinda got swallowed up and disappeared.

[[7 MORE UNDER CUT!!]]

request tres:

coming from the last drawing i was still on the 'lmao get sad' bandwagon, and simon and athena they have lived through somethings so once again i drew people crying :D so heres a drawing of little athena and her goth uncle having a nice little hug and nothing ever went wrong

request četiri:

by now everyone should know that my favourite AU is these two bastards meeting before phoenix became a lawyer; ya know so he doesnt need to break his back trying to learn law as an art student - not that he learns much as he doesnt know what a cross examination is in his first case,,

request pénte:

this request marked the second day of drawing.

now,, i might have not read the request before i drew sooo i kinda just drew them taking a selfies at a steel samurai con so i kindly edited the second drawing to contain a peace sign. [the plush is the hellish creature named the iron infant [from AAI i think] and i bet its like the worst character in the franchise and these two will definitely burn it when they get home]

request numero sześć:

now i swore to never post kissing on here so i spare myself of the cringw when i look back later, so just dont read the first half and enjoy the way i found out you cant really draw flicking without making a comic. like the motion is so small yet so powerful how do you draw that?!?!?!?!?!? this looked miles better in my brain...

request shtatë:

you know what else is like rocks? big frozen chunks of ice, like the one here :D

RIP LMAO

request huit:

ah the t4t to end all t4ts. ron is definitely a guy to fall at first sight and bro desiree is the definition of girlboss

also people forget that larry was rons coworker and i need more content of those two because they are just wildly opposite

[edit: ''sir are good'' HUH??? brother i need to go to sleep and just not draw for the next millenia]

now we have arrived at the end of our trip...

you may be thinking "yellow, you said that there were 9 drawings!"

YES, but no.. theres probably a reason behind this but when i opened my inbox and saw this was like a game character who was stun locked. i mean look at this, aka request number NINE:

love ya to death, babes, but please get some rest because i think you forgot to write in the characters you wanted to see. despite that i decided to draw what you requested:

now just imagine whichever characters you waant in those places! wait was your request an investment so you can have an infinite amount of ships inserted into this pose???

anywho, ummmmm.. yeah Now we have reached the end - but do not fear, im not dying or going away. im still going to be here on my ace attorney bullshit as long as my brain can stand.

sadly i have to say GOODNIGHT, LADIES, GENTLEMEN AND FELLOW CONTORTIONS OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT. may we meet once again when the planets align and it rains in the greatest depths of the ocean o7

[puc-puggy]

s4 sucked, but Five wasn't out of character aside from the lila romance.[1] what he is is a broken old man finally showing the cracks. everybody wants to treat 5 like a snarky 14 year old brat, but he is NOT. that man is OLD. he has lived through over 60 hard years. he's a brat because he is an old, incredibly intelligent theoretical physicist stuck in the body of a 14 year old, and the body of the 14 year old encourages everyone to forget he is a nearly 70 year old theoretical physicist.

this Five spent 45 years in the aftermath of viktor's moon apocalypse, 28 days straight between the moon and nuclear war apocalypse, days to weeks in the kugelblitz apocalypse and then days in oblivion. 6 years to rest and then it's time for another apocalypse caused by alien elements that reshape reality. this five personally saved and ended the world at least 5 times, going the farthest out of all of the Fives in number of apocalypses and by attempting to create the Commission. [2] this five says over and over and over throughout s3 that it's not about you/us, it's about the world. five is not just tired, he's tried harder and for longer than anyone else. he tried for so long that he forgot his own name. he has lost delores, he lost his sense of a clear enemy, he lost his understanding of the universe and his place in it, and he is old now.

when he is told by his future self not to save the world and he decided not to go into oblivion, that was a turning point in his entire character directly caused by a world-changing crisis of faith. the reason all of the other fives in the subway station gave up solving the problem is because every last one of them loved their family too much to consider the idea that the world has to come at the cost of the family. but this five had been through a full lifetime of apocalypse. he survived for 45 years in an apocalypse and turned saving the world and his family into his sole purpose. he lost that purpose when his future self told him it was all for nothing. that it can't be saved.

and this is where i think that people forget that the hargreeves are not just about childhood trauma; they are also about wealth and power. reginald and the hargreeves are immensely wealthy and immensely physically powerful. think about what else he said in season 3: "this is what it means to be powerful. sometimes you step on ants. we will never be able to save enough lives to make up for those we take."

what we see in s4 is an old man that has been forced to ask for the first time if such power has as much of a right to exist as the ants do. and to his surprise as much as everyone else's, it turns out that the answer is no. they were made from the hubris and selfishness of an abusive egomaniac who released a dangerous, technologically advanced, and highly reactive alien element upon a captive population in an attempt to resurrect his wife from the dead. five and his siblings are that abusive egomaniac's tools. they carry a power manufactured by an abusive egomaniac, and while it was unfairly forced upon them, it is still by nature a power that comes at the expense of others and they find themselves unable to be separated from it.

because that power is too alluring, too much a temptation. ben literally drugs everyone against their will, and to five, an old man asking himself questions about power, the fact that all members of the family voted against it is not proof that they can create a better future absent of this power. the fact that they were drugged anyway despite their protests is proof that they can't, that they will always fall into this power's destructive gravity well.

and an old man that has just had his entire concept of the world and life's purpose ripped away from him is the guy that accepts the end.

[1] the issue with five and lila's romance in character is not five's youth. it's lila's youth. he's almost 70 fucking years old, and his accidental and unwanted sip from the fountain of youth did not and does not change the fact that this is a nearly 70 year old man. he treated lila as if she was childish and immature because that is literally how he sees her and the rest of the siblings. because he is almost 70 years old. he gets annoyed with her for dragging him into stupid risks because he's 70 fucking years old and actually does know better. he is nearly 40 years her senior. their dynamic is funny because he looks 14. not because he IS 14. LOOKS young, not IS young.

regarding "why were they having him flirt when he was underage" for the same reason he's a boozehound and knocks back any alchohol in a 30 foot radius. the character has been over 60+ years old the entire time. & as people age, they can safely participate in more activities. a 14 year old cannot safely roleplay everything a 60+ year old character would do. before age 18, the actor could safely speak flirty lines to other actors during their roleplay job playing a 60+ year old. when the actor turned 18, the actor could safely kiss other adult actors during their job roleplaying as a 60+ year old. the child actor portraying a significantly older character getting hints of romance but not kissing anyone on a set until they're 20 is a sign that things were handled ethically. not the other way around. actors age and stop being 14 years old and limited to the safety constraints of a 14 year old. an adult kissed another adult during their job roleplaying as other people. it was just a bad plotline.

[2] I don't care about timeline hijinks in context of whether that was really physically the exact same 5 from the same timeline that started the commission. he thought it was the physical same him & reacted to it like it was & the impact does not change and in fact might become more acute upon realizing that it wasn't physically him, that it was a whole other five, that there are potentially hundreds of years of attempts to stop the apocalypses, and that the collective mass of their apocalypse ending efforts across all timelines should have accomplished something and never ever did it do so. that's hopeless

[noodyl-blasstal]

King of the (bouncy) Castle

It's @taznovembercelebration day 17 and today I drew the prompt "soft"

Read below or on Ao3 if you prefer. Missed yesterday's? Find it here.

-

“Ko!” Lup yells from the hall.

“What?” He screams from his bedroom, because he’s still deciding on what to wear and if it’s that urgent she can come in.

“Do you know anyone else?”

“In general? Or?”

“Don’t be a dick. Do you know anyone who can come today?”

“Why?”

“Magnus had to drop out.”

“We can win without him.”

“A team is four people.”

“Ask Dav.”

“He’s racing today”

“Lucretia?”

“She just laughed until I hung up. It was a solid 3 minutes.”

“Merle?”

“I’m going to need you to work from the assumption that I have remembered our joint friends with whom we spend all our time”

“But seriously, Merle.”

“Taako, I have tried everyone we jointly know. He said he was going to be busy in the greenhouse, and then he said some other things. Would you like me to tell you what those other things are? Because I can. I can tell you exactly what he had planned for the onions because he told me because I had him on speaker phone and I got trapped in my shirt and he said a lot of words before I could hang up. They’re burned into my brain forever and cha’girl is happy to share that burden.”

“No! Lulu, don’t! I’ll cast silence.”

“I’ll counterspell it. Now start thinking of people.”

“Angus?”

“I also know Angus, and he’s a literal child.”

“He’s, what, 6 now?”

“He’s eleven, Taako, you baked him a cake in the shape of the number for his birthday two weeks ago.” There’s no need for Lup to slander him like this.

“Eleven! That’s basically an adult for humans, right?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Are you going to stop doing special magic boy lessons with him because he’s all grown up now?” Lup goes for the jugular. He doesn’t have to stand for this cruelty, for the implication that he actually likes spending time with the baby.

“What aboutttt… erm…” Taako changes the topic seamlessly and casts his mind furiously about for a name, any name, of a person Lup wouldn’t have already called. There’s one that popped up as soon as Lup asked and he’s trying his best to see round it but it keeps sidling into his eye line. He can’t though. It’d be a disaster. “Errrrr… Brian.”

“No. Absolutely anyone else.”

“What’s wrong with Brian?”

“He’s in a cult!”

“But apart from the cult stuff he’s lovely.”

“Taako! Do you want to win or not?”

Fine. Fine! Taako does very much want to win, especially after Lydia tripped him last year.

“Kravitz.” He says it fast, like he’s ripping off a plaster. Maybe Lup won’t put two and two together.

“The guy from work?”

“No?”

“Oh, you know another Kravitz, do you?”

“Yes?”

“Is any of that supposed to have convinced me?”

“Is it working?”

“No.”

“Fuck.”

“So… different Kravitz? How do you know Kravitz-Who’s-Not-From-Work? Why do you have a way of getting in touch with him?” Lup’s going to cling to this an unnecessary amount.

“Ooooh are we talking about Kravitz?” Barry, fucking Barry, asks. Wandering his ass right into their private conversation.

“This is a private conversation, Barold.” Yells Taako through the door of his room into the hall of their too-small shared apartment.

“Would you like me to put my noise cancelling headphones on?” Barry asks, earnestly, like he’d actually fucking do it if Taako said yes.

“Absolutely not, Barry, You live in this house and you have every right to be in this hallway.” Lup snaps. She’s still mad about last time Taako forgot to tell Barry he could take the headphones off. In his defence, he made him a cake about it. A jake, in fact, with edible press studs. Barry loved it! Plus, he was listening to one of his lectures, he was fine, happy as a clam!

“Fine.” Taako threw up his hands, no one could see him, but it felt important to do it anyway, you know, for the drama. He couldn’t argue with this, he didn’t have a choice, he may as well give in and call Kravitz, they’ve both worked together to twist his arm. “You’re making me do this though. It’s not because I want to. I’ve been compelled.”

“What?” Says Barry, perplexed. “I thought we were just talking about your crush.”

“His what?” Says Lup.

Taako springs forward and manages to flick the lock across the second before Lup tries the handle.

“You’re in love with death?” She tries the handle a few more times, as if it’ll jiggle the lock free.

“A man isn’t his job, Lup.” Taako shouts back. Denying everything.

“That wasn’t a no!”

“I have to ring him, because you’re making me. Or do you not want to win Bounce Off 2: Bounce in the City?”

There’s grumbling from the other side of the door followed by a muttered “c’mon Barold,” fakeout. Taako’s wise to it though, so he isn’t shocked by her ‘one last try’ of the door handle, or the second attempt that follows after she does fake footsteps away from the door.

“Fine! He’d better be down though and good.”

“He’s tall.” Says Barry, conversationally. He’d better not plan on telling Lup anything else.

“Good. We can use height.Is he strong?” Lup asks.

Kravitz is strong, Taako knows that for normal reasons, reasons like he can carry a lot of pastries when he orders them; and that time he helped Taako move the big table when someone spilled and he had to clean under it. Not reasons like all the time he spends staring at Kravitz’s forearms, and his thighs, and his everything else. Because he doesn’t do that. Taako would never.

“Fine. Don’t answer me.” Lup actually leaves this time, Taako pretends he can’t hear Barry telling her about Kravitz and his newfound love of coffee and baked goods.

Taako [10:23] Yo stud got a minute to chat?

It was only polite to text first, he doesn’t want to jumpscare Kravitz with a phone call, he isn’t a sadist. The three dots flashed up immediately. Thank fuck he’s awake at the crack of dawn.

Bones [10:24] Dear Taako, Of course, I’ve always got time for you. All best, Kravitz.

Taako has been trying hard not to find his ridiculous dork texts endearing. He’s failing. Badly. He ignores the squooshy feeling it gives him and hits the call button instead.

“Hello Taako, it’s lovely to hear from you!” Says Kravitz like he actually means it.

“Hey Krav, quiiiiiick q for ya. What’re you doing this morning?”

“I’m just practising.” Of course he is. Why wouldn’t Kravitz be sat straddling his giant instrument right now? Taako’s mature though, he won’t make a joke about it.

“Can’t keep your hands off your instrument, shameful!” Fuck.

“Well, someone has to keep it in tune.”

Gods, he wasn’t supposed to play along. Why did he keep flirting back? Was this whole thing actually plausible?

“Wanna spend some time with Taako instead?”

“I’d be very interested in that.” Kravitz says, buttery and glorious.

“How do you feel about inflatables?”

There’s a long pause.

“It’s not a sex thing.” Taako says, to make it less weird.

“I’m not sure that makes what you said less weird, Taako.”

“You know, like bouncy castles.”

“Okay.” Kravitz doesn’t sound particularly convinced.

“And my sister will be there.”

There’s another pause. “...And Barry?”

“Obviously.”

“Uh huh.”

Fuck, Taako’s losing him, and it’s suddenly incredibly important that Kravitz not only agree to this, but is also enthusiastic about it. “It’s a competition.” Says Taako.

“Oh?” Of course that piqued his interest, Kravitz loves competition. He tries to help harder than any other customer, tip better than anyone else, and he races people in the street.

“We lost last year, but we’ve been in training.”

“You’ve been in bouncy castle training?”

“Obstacle course training… and also trampolines.”

“Is that what the weird squeaking is when we’re on the phone sometimes?”

“What?”

“You know, the calls where you’re all breathy and there’s the squeaking noise.”

Taako didn’t realise Kravitz had picked up on that. “You didn’t think…?”

“Well now I know it’s not a sex thing.”

“You thought it was a sex thing and you stayed on the phone?”

“I don’t judge.”

“You didn’t wanna ask Taako what he was up to?”

“I know you’re a private person.”

“Not if you think Taako’s doing sex things on the phone without your consent. In fact, that’s the least private a person can be.”

“You make a compelling point.”

Taako doesn’t even begin to know what to do with that. “So… bouncing?”

“Where is it?”

“We can pick you up.”

“All three of you?”

“Barry said he’s sorry and he’ll stop asking about the ‘secret sauce.’”

“I just really don’t think it’s a respectful way to talk about embalming fluid.”

Taako thinks it’s a great way to refer to embalming fluid, but he also wants Kravitz to be happy. “He double pinky promised.”

“Oh, well if he double pinky promised.”

“Great! Pick you up in 20, wear something snazzy.”

Taako hangs up the phone before Kravitz can object or ask anything else. He has limited time and an outfit to re-plan.

[princesspastel8]

Chapter 12: Torture

Dipper POV

"AAAAAAHHHHH! GAA! HAAAA! STOP STOP, PLEASE!" I cry out in pure agony.

Ford used one of his syringes to push holy water into my bloodstream....and oh god, it's the most painful feeling I've ever felt in my life. He made it clear he would stop at nothing to slow down the demon process. My insides feel as if they're on fire, burning to ash but somehow remaining stable.

I cough up pools of blood onto the wooden floor, tears flowing down my face like a river. I glance at the table, rows and rows of sharp objects soaking in holy water. I pull against the rop , weakly. The pain is becoming too much for me to handle.

I lost track of time. I can't tell if it's day or night, what month it is....I forgot the last time I ate anything....when was the last time I went to the bathroom?

My skin became unusually pale due to the amount of blood I've been throwing up. My body became skinner, my bones showing. The only piece of clothing I have left is my boxers. My tattoos would glow from time to time, upsetting Ford to no end.

The pain inside finally subsides, relief washing over me. The feeling, however, doesn't last long. I watch as Ford pulls out a knife, the blade long and sharp dripping in something glittery. The slight of it makes my stomach twist in disgust. I feel like I'm going to throw up again...

"I'm sure you know what this is, Dipper." Ford said, holding the knife in front of my face.

I gag at the smell, turning my head. "Fairy dust." I hiss through my teeth.

"Correct. I'm going to explain to you everything I will be doing. Understood?"

"I'm not a fucking five year Ford. You don't have to explain shit....just do it." I choke out, my throat suddenly dry.

Ford doesn't reply. Instead, he walks around behind me. I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand as I sense the knife getting closer and closer to my back. "I'm sorry, Dipper, but this has to be done."

"Fuck y-" before I can finish, I scream to the top of my lungs while trashing around in the chair.

Ford presses the knife against the cipher wheel onto my back. I can hear the sizzling sound of my flesh burning. He guilds the knife into my skin, cutting the tattoo off me in sections. The pain is so excruciating, making me feel faint.

My vision blurrs as the sound of my skin slapping to the ground. I choke out a sob, my begs becoming nonexistent to Ford's ears. My body goes limp as my surrounds turn black.

Bill POV

I fall off my throne, landing on my knees. My eyes unwilling wells up with tears. I place a hand over my throat, coughing up pools of blood. My eyes widen as my stomach stirs with a feeling I hate the most.

Fear.

Something is seriously wrong with my pinetree. I shouldn't have let him run off like that! He can't handle himself out there without protection! I try to stand but slip, landing in my own pool of blood.

"BILL!", I hear Pyronica shout in worry.

I raise my head to look at her with a glare. "W-Well don't just stand there... help me you -" I cough up more blood, crying out in pain.

Pyronica finally helps me up, gasping at the stream, flowing out of my body in waves. "B-Bill....what in devil's name is happening to you?!"

"Pinetree...some-something is wrong with my pinetree... where is everyone e-else?"

"Everyone went to throw themselves into the border....they all got bored."

"G-go get them... and tell them to find my pinetree... and br-bring him back to me.." I groan, pain shooting up to my back.

"But what about the border? I thought that was our priority?"

I glare at her, making her float off the ground, which makes me stumble. "Dipper is my priority! He is more important! Go find my pinetree, or I'll gouge out your eye, shove it down that skinny throat of yours, and watch you suffocate while ripping off your arms & legs! Now GO!"

She jumps, quickly nodding her head in fear. She floats out the only exit and entrance. I steadily walk to Dipper's throne I created for him. I float up, sitting down. I lower my head onto my hands, rubbing my face roughly. How could I....let him go like that...and or what? My stupid STUPID reputation? To impress those idiotic demons I call my 'friends'. They're just servants.

"Please be alright, Dipper...please."

Dipper POV

I wake up from a stinging pain on my back and bicep. I groan, hating the feeling of something dabbing in my open flesh wounds. I slowly open my eyes, my vision adjusting to my surroundings.

"Dipper! You're finally awake!" I hear a loud cheery voice shout.

I cringe, knowing exactly who that voice belongs to. "Mable....why are you down here?"

"Grunkle Ford went to get a few more things and asked me to watch you...plus everyone misses you!"

I chuckle bitterly. "Oh really, who?" I question.

"Well... everyone you killed. Can't you see them? Pacifica is here.. Robbie, Tembry, Soos....even mom and dad... but they look unrecognizable." She pouts, dabbing more rubbing alcohol on my flesh, making me hiss.

"The hell, Mable....no one is there." I say through my teeth, and I wish she would just leave my wounds to be infected.

"......huh? Dipper, there all right in front of you. I can only see how they were last presented. They all have stab wounds....Soos as a hole in his head... and mom and dad look... really really scary. But! At least I still get to see them every day. Thanks to Bill."

I nod my head weakly, hissing once more. "Mable fucking stop it hurts!" I shout.

Mable tenses, dropping everything onto the floor. She walks around now, standing in front of me. I raise my head to look at her, tears falling from her eyes, but she's smiling. She raises her hand in the air, bringing it down to my cheek roughly.

"I-Its ok bro, bro! Once grunkle Ford fixes you, we'll be the mystery twins again! I'll be able to hug you and do tickle fights like me used to."

"When. We. Were. Twelve. Mable can't you see I want nothing to do with you? Can't you see I fucking hate you with every fiber of my being? I loathe you. In fact if you were to die right now, I wouldn't care. You're selfish! You think about no one but yourself! You think the world owes you everything when it doesn't! You always...dragged me around even when I said no. You would cry and throw a tantrum when you didn't get your way. Heh....and worse of all... you always..ALWAYS chose boys over your own brother."

Before Mable responds, the door opens. In walks Ford with a black back filled with god knows what. He places the bag on the metal table and motions a crying Mable towards him.

"What's the matter?" He ask her gently, making me scowl.

"D-Dipper....just h-hurry and fix him...please." Mable begs, glancing at me.

"I will, Mable. I promise. Now leave because this isn't something you can take watching."

"No." Mable said sternly, drying her tears. She turns to look at me with a weird smile that's hard to read. "I want to stay and watch him get better."

Ford sighs, pulling two long metal sticks in the shape of a very skinny needle. He walks over to me, placing the two needles against certain spots on the top of my head. I tense, pulling at my rope restraints.

"I wouldn't move at all if I were you, Dipper. This is sadly going to be excruciating. It's a method used on mentally unstable patients a long time ago. Hopefully, this method works...."

With that said, he pushes the needles deep inside my head. The moment the needle reaches through my skull and inside my brain, my agonizing screams continue.

[eashmo]

Bloodlust part 3

-Haunted-

Warnings: fluff and angst in flash backs.

A/n: picture by me, I feel like I suck at flashbacks 😫😅

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

*y/n pov*

I stood at the sink washing some already dirty dishes. While Eddie was making breakfast for me, this felt very domestic, I giggled when I noticed he wore my cute floral half apron with a fresh pair of ripped black skinny jeans that I kept folded neatly in our closet. After all this time, I couldn't get rid of his clothes. I shook my head from that spiral and continued to watch him. He had no shirt on, I could see the lean back muscles of his pale white skin flex each time he moved. There was no evidence of the demobats attack, which made me thankful because I would get haunted with guilt each time I saw them. his long hair is up with my f/c scrunchy.

~I still can't believe he's home. I love him so much.~

“Hm i'm happy to be home, and I love you too.” he says.

“Shit, I forgot you can read people's minds.” I say with a huff.

“Actually not everyone. I can only read yours....well when you want to open the link to me” he looked over his shoulder with a smile.

“Why is that?” I laughed. 

“I don't know, actually it might be a soulmate thing, but I'm not complaining, I don't want to hear anyone else's mind but yours.” he says as flips a pancake. 

I hummed as I dried my hands, walking over to him, his back still to me, I wrapped my hands around his waist. My hands lay flat on his slightly toned abdomen, grazing my nails across him. Goosebumps rise on his skin. He relaxes in my arms. He placed one of his hands on top of mine.

 He turns a little, looking down at me with a soft smile. His crimson eyes looked at me with intense love. I blushed instantly. ~ you're burning my pancakes~ i said in my mind, and i laughed out loud when his eyes went wide, turning in my arms quickly and cursed. I kissed his back and inhaled his scent.

 "Thank you for making breakfast," I whispered against his skin. 

“You're welcome, baby.” he plates the last slightly burned pancake on the stack. “I hope you're hungry. I made a lot.”

“I'm starving.” I grinned. 

 *Eddie Pov*

Y/n was struggling to finish the 7th pancake.

"Baby, I can't do it anymore." She whines causing me to chuckle.

"Don't worry about the last one, baby. I'll finish it for you."

"Wait, you can have regular food?" She questioned. Her e/c doe eyes stared at me. Making me melt on the spot.

I let out at a snort, "Of course I can, I just prefer something a little sweeter." I say as I nuzzled my face into her neck, giving it a lick. This caused her to giggle. The sound would have made my heart skip a beat if it was still working.

I carried her to the couch, laying down. I set her on top of me. I smiled at her when she looked down at me. i reached up to grasp my guitar pick that laid perfectly against her collarbone.

"you still wear this." i say with a smile. she smiled back as she laid a hand on mine. "of course i do." she breathed. then she started to frown.

"C-can you tell me what happened that day?" She asks softly.

"OK, baby girl." I cleared my throat.

*flash back*

Running against a horde of demobats was probably not the best idea I ever had, but I had to protect you and the others. I remember the pain. Teeth and claws scratching my skin, making me bleed out, their bites were burning hot. hearing you scream my name and your hands on my face, your lips kissing my bloody ones.i remember hearing you say i love you over and over. My last words were ‘I love you forever.’ Then darkness washed over me. I'm officially dead, I thought. I couldn't die, I needed to protect you. I didn't want to run anymore. I wanted to be your hero.

I woke up in screaming pain. Why did my skin feel like it was melting? Venomous fire rushed through my veins. There was something wrong with me. something dark and wild coursed through me. A predator instinct took over my senses. the urge to feed on human blood, to bathe in it. The venom from the demobats turned me into a monster. 

*end of flashback* 

She just sat there shocked and began to tear up. 

“I also had the urge to rip apart the world just for you. I needed you and only you because deep down, you were my drug. I wanted to swallow you, have you melt into me, and flow through my veins. You ruled over my mind. I guess that's why I can only read your thoughts. It's almost like a soulmate thing…… I know this sounds cliche as hell, but your love brought me back kitten.” 

She slings herself on my chest. Wrapping her arms around me, she was crying in the crook of my neck. “Y-you were always a hero in my eyes.” she chokes. I also wrapped my arms around her tightly. “I'm never going to let you go…. Ever.” we both said at the same time, causing us to both let out a chuckle. 

“Two more questions?”

“Yes,baby?”

“How did you escape the upside down and other reading in my mind, What else can you do?”

“Let's just say that  venca is probably regretting letting the demobats turn me into a vampire because now i’m their master so i can now travel between worlds freely. Also, if I ever see his face, I'm going to make him pay for hurting you and your friends, especially your best friend Chrissy. And for my other abilities so far I can walk in the sunlight, control my age when I want to, and I'm faster and stronger, i'm still discovering my abilities.” 

“Speaking of friends, I know there is a certain someone that probably will cry when he sees you are back.” she says. 

“Henderson?”

“Henderson.” she says with a smile.  

Previous Chapter

Part 4

Masterlist

2023

Taglist: @ali-r3n @gvf23

[cherrysweather]

Hello! How are you? So, I have a request. Can you write about a scenario where Trucy gets bullied badly, LIKE EXTREMELY BADLY. But then, her S/O saves her from the bullies. Any format is allowed! And yes, thank you for reading!!!

Hello hello uwu

I'm fine? I think?

I hope you're doing well though ^^

Thank you for requesting and, let me give you a hug ;v;

It was so sad writing this because thinking about Trucy getting bullied hurts me TvT This is short and I'm sorry for it, but I really didn't know what to write and this work caused me to lose imagination more than once to write in general, I'm so very sorry

So, I hope I've written all the emotion well; I hope you'll enjoy! <3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trucy Wright is saved from bullies by her S/O:

It was always like this.

It didn't matter if it was during breaks between school lessons, on her way home, during her shows rehearsals or her live ones, Trucy was never alone - in the worst way possible.

Spoiled, fraud, naïve, delusional - she was called like this and more so many times a day that her mind sometimes forgot her name.

It started when some of her classmates asked her to show them some magic tricks, complimenting her hard work in everything she was doing.

Of course, some people didn't like that -call them jealous, ignorant, stupid or just disrespectful- and started to bother Trucy, mocking every achievement she conquered.

What she thought and hoped would last for some time, took a regular seat in her life instead; if she answered correctly to an answer she was a nerd, then a loser if she failed a test, an attention-seeker if she talked to someone from another class, anti-social if she didn't.

Wrong or right, everything she did was scolded, they always highlighted the worst aspect of it.

Trucy learned when she was a child how to handle the kinds of emotions that these events made her feel, how to bottle them up and keep a smile for everyone around her and to try and convince herself that she was strong, she could do it on her own.

That's why no one ever noticed.

Phoenix was the only one who immediately noticed how her daughter would isolate herself even when Apollo and Athena were with them at the office, but when he tried to talk to her about it, she just smiled and told him she was fine apart from some school stress.

He didn't want to play the part of the invasive father, the one who asked and asked until the answers he wanted reached his ears, so he asked someone he knew Trucy trusted as much as she trusted him.

Of course, they noticed too. How she slowly stopped to tell them how her day went on their way home, how she stopped bringing her favorite deck of cards to show them some new tricks and many other small things that made Trucy the bubbly girl she was.

They talked to her, making her realize that she had to react and show those bullies that whatever they said or did didn't touch her. She didn't have to become like them, envious, mischievous or evil; ignore them, ask her friends for support and always opt for a smile. They remained close to her while she tried to do that, waiting for her after school if they finished earlier their own lessons and always checked on her mood and health.

And, it worked, actually.

They stopped talking badly about her, thanks also to the other classmates who started to call them out, they stopped ripping her books after a teacher yelled at them and a very menacing blue lawyer glared at their group with death in his eyes each time he came to pick up his daughter.

"You think you're strong?" "You always need someone else to cover your back" "It's easy to say you hold shows in theaters when others do all the work for you"

Her blurred vision didn't help at all while she searched for her safety contact to ask for help; she was walking back home with unrequired company- like always.

This time, she understood quickly that a smile wouldn't help that much after a kick hit her legs. When they grabbed her backpack, arms or clothes, she pushed them away, not being able to hit them in any kind of way. That was until she felt her scalp burn and almost fell backward, wiggling from the grip she hit someone's leg; that triggered, however, a pull to her hair that made her back meet with a wall.

The only thing she felt after a while was air being pulled out from her lungs as someone pulled her scarf tightly around her slim neck. She closed her eyes and continued to push them away, free herself and avoid visible bruises. How would she explain that to Phoenix afterward.

They waited for Trucy outside her school; she told them that Phoenix invited them for lunch with Maya, Apollo and Athena, so they hurried up once classes finished and waited. They realized Trucy probably forgot when just the staff remained inside the building, so they started walking towards Phoenix's house.

That's when their blood started to boil; it took a few meters ahead to spot Trucy's cape and the same individuals she talked about these last weeks, and what helped recognize them was the rather unfriendly way they were treating her.

Trucy regained the courage to open her eyes again when she heard that familiar voice screaming against her bullies, pushing them away and finally freeing her neck from the grip of her scarf. No one there knew how they resisted beating them on the spot, calling them every possible way to make them feel as bad as they made Trucy feel, if not worse; to remind them of what they really were, how insignificant and vile.

They didn't even wait for them to go away, pulling Trucy away, somewhere safer to try and soothe her, speak to her; but that wasn't the ideal moment. Trucy slowly calmed down from the shock, but did not utter a word.

Once home, she just closed her in the bathroom, processing what just happened in the silence. Useless to say that once Phoenix learned everything, he knocked on the door softly, trying to get his daughter out of there and talk, doing his best to suppress his anger.

For once, hearing someone cry his lungs out was a positive sign; Trucy finally found the courage to let herself go, let off all the steam inside her while torturing her father's shirt and almost attempting to merge with his chest.

They waited, already thinking of ways to pay back those bullies as they deserved. When Trucy finished explaining the full situation, she gave herself a break, washing her face and dragging them to her room; lunch could wait.

She occupied her bed and used them as her pillow; her sobs could still be heard from time to time, her grip on the pillow was more than strong, so it was their hug on her. Only when her breath stabilized and she fell asleep they could relax, too. The gentle strokes on her hair didn't stop and they patiently waited for her times of recover to then find all together a solution.

Even though, Phoenix was already filling in the documents for a legal complaint for every one of those being.

[caliburn-the-sword]

tlc winter last reactions

no final thoughts because i NEVER have final thoughts. they simply stew around in my head as time goes by and i post as we go

jacin's not gonna die he's a main character. can't wait for aimery to eat shit

yay!! scarlet to the rescue!!!

HOLY SHIT WINTER USED HER LUNAR GIFT OMG

honestly i thought her thoughts were still really muddled like she had lunar sickness. but she's just killed someone. and her character voice has changed ever so slightly. she's describing her surroundings much more than she ever did (she used to only ever describe her hallucinations, which contributed to the dream-like read of all her chapters)

CINDER CHAPTER. this smells like a final confrontation

omg thorne captured OF COURSE. really, this almost brings us back to where it all began, with thorne and cinder having a jailbreak together <3 i feel nostalgic for a book i only read a few weeks ago what

cinder please use the lunar gift PLEASE make her dance in burning hot shoes

so proud of cress for shooting thorne even if it wasn't because she wanted to

NO SCARLET NO WOLF (they came in and got mind controlled silly gooses)

ik this is serious but this has gotta be the strangest duel. lol. i'm sorry (cinder and levana pointing their guns at their own heads because of the lunar gift. i could literally hear the ten duel commandments while reading the whole scene)

NO CINDER NO (cinder got stabbed because she prematurely thought she won and levana is a tricky bitch banking on the fact that everyone knows she's vain)

omg kai <3

okay since we've immediately cut to scarlet talking to her friend i think that everyone was perfectly safe and everyone is fine <3 hope my delulu becomes trululu (it did)

i'm glad scarlet is the rieux's hero

aww maha's death flag flowers <3 no one talk to me i'm emotional

ACKNSDJCKSDHF THE REFERENCE TO PICKING WILDFLOWERS FROM LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD I'M GONNA EXPLODE

OMG I WAS SO RIGHT BACK WHEN READING SCARLET, WOLFLET ARE TOTALLY ALSO A RETELLING OF BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

uh oh are they gonna fuck. please don't fuck i'm in chem and also there's a reason i don't read sarah j maas and whoever else writes a lot of smut

thank goodness for iko AND OMG CINDER'S ALIVE YAY CRESS IS ALIVE

thorne lost fingers. rip

very interested to see adri and peony

YAY THE TREATY OF BREMEN (i completely forgot about it)

with winter asleep like this this might be the climax of the little snow white fairy tale more than getting the cure for letumosis was

omg. jacin is not an orphan. perhaps miss marissa meyer does not hate parents as much as i thought she did. i think it's just him and thorne that aren't orphans. actually cress would have a mother out there somewhere but she's a horrid bitch. i don't remember ANY mentions of scarlet's mother, just that her father sucked, but since she never had her mother i assume her mother also abandoned her. but perhaps now because she's a hero they will reunite i hope jacin gets his chance to become a doctor as he wanted. I BET HE WILL REMAKE GARAN'S DEVICE AND CURE WINTER OF LUNAR SICKNESS

OMG JACIN'S GONNA KISS HER IT'S JUST LIKE SNOW WHITE

omg no don't tell me winter has lost her memory

omg kinney is cinder's personal guard. i had a feeling that would happen since he's the only named guard other than jacin LMAO

slayed. cinder didn't owe her stepfamily ANYTHING. while i personally would have loved her to yell and scream and rip them a new one, but that was so good for her. i'm not even mad

i find it strange that kai himself finds formalities were weird. he was literally raised royal. now i'm gonna write a speculative fic of him being sent to a completely ordinary school in disguise to receive formal education with the commoners as a lesson (which wouldn't exactly be supported by canon considering his dad was a bit yikes. perhaps his mum was totally chill and she was the one insistant on it. and then when she died his dad pulled him out again)

I KNEW IT THE CHIP WAS INSIDE IKO AND I'M A GENIUS

i wish i could've seen the linhs get their come uppance instead of royalties but i'll find it within myself to live with this. hopefully peony learnt a lesson and won't turn out to be a major bitch like her mum. but somehow i highly doubt that

yes. thorne kind of deserves to get pardoned after all he's done for earth. and i have a feeling cinder is gonna negotiate his rampion back. however. i think it would be REALLY funny if after ALL this they just sent him to prison lmao

cress PLEASE become the chief information security officer at kai's palace like he planned on asking, i'm BEGGING you

somehow this makeout scene was even MORE uncomfortable than the last. i feel nauseous

okay in summation of how uncomfortable cresswell make me: the fact she rarely uses his name and only calls him captain. idk if this is just me only ever calling teachers miss or sir and other authority figures sir or ma'am but it literally just feels to me that she's recognising him as an older, more experienced or powerful figure. which is exactly the imbalance (that has come with their age gaps and experience gaps) which is the reason for problem in the first place. god. yikes

gamekeeper winter. i like sound of that (update: i like diplomat winter even more)

“Though I might play fetch, depending on the prize.” jacin has a pet kink confirmed??? (this is a joke. god i can't stand these people sometimes)

i didn't comment on cinder borrowing winter's dress before because i thought that maybe it might've been too big but cinder wasn't vain enough to notice or that it had been hemmed without mentioning, but now that it has been specifically mentioned that cress's dress HAD to be hemmed it's canon that cinder and winter are the same size. i can't believe that i have not one but TWO confirmed flat queens. and winter is canonically the prettiest girl alive

“I was just thinking about the good future,” he said. “The one with you in it.” I'M SCREAMING SHAKING THROWING UP NO ONE TALK TO ME

thorne and cinder high five <3 it really started just the two of them

it is so wattpad of iko to have eyes that change colours based on her mood AND I LOVE IT

ACKGHNDIX THE FOOT. WE'VE COME TO THE END OF THE CINDERELLA STORY. FULL CIRCLE

YES YES YES YES YES REPUBLICAN LUNA FTW I LOVE DEMOCRACY FUCK MONARCHISTS. I LOVE THIS AND I'M SO HAPPY. now it's kai's turn

goodbye foot

WAIT NO WAY THAT'S THE END WTF I TURNED THE PAGE AND JUST NOTHING. this is a federal crime.

only major thought is aww cinder didn't get to torment levana with the lunar gift like the red hot shoes. but also. i completely understand why it didn't and couldn't happen, and i was never expecting it to.

anyway now that i've read all the main stuff will it be safe to start following everyone back without getting major spoilers?? i would LOVE to continue this with stars above and the graphic novels?? (which aren't appearing on goodreads as part of the series for some reason) but most unfortunately i have exams coming up in less than a month and will probably need to put reading on hold until november if i want to stay sane. this was fun while it lasted and i can't wait to dive back into tlc once i'm free<3

@eddisfargo @francforever @winterrhayle @winterpinetrees @shellyseashell @luna-maximoff-22 @queenjazz7 @mtmousie @dramatic-jellybean

[anonbinaryweirdo]

im rambling about me n devons ocsssss

for the deaths part, there's suicide mention(s) and mention(s) of fire !!

let m see if can remember deaths;

starting with the royales—

Jeremy was Michael Afton'ed (he got his insides ripped out basically)

Lucy got into... a car accident??? @deeplyinlovewithstars help

I think they said Diana got kidnapped? unsure

Dilon hung himself at a young age (the range was 5-12?? I think. I just know he was the first to die)

Derek was shot in the head at 15

Delilah got caught in a fire (I forget how old she was)

as for the mantovans—

Shamora got pushed off a building (I think she was the last to die.)

Alexandra was shot on her 16th birthday

misc characters—

Josh was deliberately drowned when he was twelve

Ash, same case scenario as Delilah, when he was younger

Haru (i forgot. but this just reminded me that HE was the last to die, not shamora)

and I'm sure that there are more, I just can't think of anyone else important

okay, now present canon ships !!!!! >:D (exes and current partners)

Josmora (Josh x Shamora; married)

Dilexru (this is an improvised ship name for Dilon x Alexandra x Haru; married)

Derash (Derek x Ash; married)

Jerelucy (Jeremy x Lucy; married)

Alarchie (Alexandra x Archie; exes)

Dereseph??? (Derek x Joseph; exes)

that's all I can remember

other relationships—

Diana, Dilon, Derek, Delilah (oldest-youngest; siblings)

Shamora, Alexandra (siblings)

Alexandra, Derek (best friends; in-laws)

Shamora, Delilah/Dilon (best friends; in-laws)

Delilah, Joshua/Ash (best friends; in-laws? Ash is her in law, not sure about Josh)

Shamora, Dilory (enemies. Dilory fucking killed her bye)

Every main OC, Joseph (they would all kill him on the spot)

probably some more

HEADCANONS + FACTS YAYYY

oh God where to begin

let's get. let's get Dilon out of the way. we hced a few months ago that he would NNNOT bail his spouses out of prison. oh, shamoras in jail? bailed. Josh is in jail? bailed. Lucy is in jail? bailed. Alex and Haru? keep them in there until their sentence is up. (/hj). don't get him wrong, he LOVES his spouses. but holy shit.

everyone has daddy issues. except ash. he's an orphan he doesn't get issues (jkjk but I THINK he had mommy issues??)

fun fact; the ONLY OC who has kept her personality throughout the years, was Lucy. she's perfect. I cringe every time I read back on old roleplays and see old screenshots. shamora would NOT act like this KILL IT

another fun fact; we would always argue over whether or not Jeremy was a top or bottom. this bitch recently revealed that he is a SWITCH (as Jeremy is their oc)

ANOTHER fun fact; during the starting days of our roleplays, Jeremy was like. Lucifer and Lucy was like Lillith. I'm so positive that this HAS changed. a lot. it probably isn't even canon anymore js

I think that Derek and Haru get along well, and yes it is because Joseph is Haru's brother as well as Derek's ex, BUT! Haru does NOT, and WILL not condone the type of abuse Joseph put Derek through EVER. he does not condone his brother's actions whatsoever, and always sided with Derek after he found out about everything.

adding onto Derek and Haru; Derek probably freaked out the first few times he saw Haru, given that him and Joseph look alike, if you don't count Haru's heterochromia

everyone lives together !! well, there's this one mansion that EVERYONE lives in, but they all have their separate homes for privacy (this is actually canon)

I'd like to think that Alex dyed her hair because she doesn't like thinking back on her birthday, aka the day she died. she's originally brunette, like shamora, but dyed her hair blue as to rid that image from her conscious. sometimes she forgets what she used to look like, until she somehow comes across an older picture, which sends her into a spiral

despite their coldness and stoicness, I would like to think that, if not anything else, Shamora and Dilon are passionate when it comes to their lovers !!

Dilon is the second oldest out of like five kids, affection was probably a frequent thing given how deprived of it they were when they were kids.. so if Alex were to fall victim to a panic attack, or if Haru just wasn't having a good day, Dilon would know, and go about dealing with it in his own ways. as I said earlier, he absolutely loves his spouses, even if he flat out refuses to acknowledge it most of the time. this only happens behind closed doors !! and I don't think they would tease him for it. this is rare, and he means well, so they'd accept it with lots of love !! plus they don't really feel like getting hit in the head with a pot like. ever.

and, unlike Dilon, Shamora initiates affection herself, even when she knows that Josh doesn't need it in that moment. her sister was clingy growing up, so she hardly minds Josh's clinginess. in fact, she'll start to get worried if he isn't holding onto her shirt somehow. there are times where she'll just sit with him and scratch behind his ears, or she'll grab his hand and tug him along with her if she knows she's going somewhere—knowing that Josh has to be trailing behind her, or he'll get lost and spiral if she isn't back within ten twenty minutes. she's quiet when affection is initiated from either of them, and mostly sticks to her actions doing all the talking for her. if Josh starts to get insecure about his place in the relationship, she'll know before hand and talk to him about it—one of the rare times she's actually verbal during any sort of affection.

I saw Devon say this in a hc channel; but Haru is definitely the mom friend !! skddkjdj my brain is running at 999mph thinking about them forgive me

I'm gonna stop here because 🧍🏽who tfs gonna read this besides Devon I am RAMBLING (I still have lots to say too. a lot more 💔)

[bracketsoffear]

OK time to recreate my Final Pam propaganda: When conceiving her, Griffin asks, "If the Four Horseman are Conquest, War, Famine, and Death, what would the fifth one be?" After going through the potential names Phyllis the Unconquerable, Indomitable Pam, Ruin, Pam Who Death Forgot, HOPELESSNESS, LOOK OUT IT'S PAM, and The Overseer, his answer is "The Final Pam": "She is both the metric by which the world will be judged and the judge and executioner...when the seventh seal is broken and the last of the horns is blown". Her official titles include:

Believing there won't be enough resources in the Vault (where they're going to escape the coming nuclear apocalypse) for everyone, Pam secures the supplies for herself and her family by telepathically murdering everyone else in the neighborhood:

Unfortunately, tragedy strikes--her first husband Trash Hulk is murdered and her son Shaun kidnapped by the plot, and her second husband/son Roachie despawns. Thus, Pam (Griffin) comes to blame the game itself for her misfortune:

"All right, let's go find some more husbands and children to lose, I guess. I'm less excited about this now, this game's taken everything from me. Two sons, two husbands".

In Episode 2, using her godlike powers and incredible strength, Pam--along with Metal Husband (Codsworth)--wreaked havoc upon the Commonwealth. This includes brutally punching radstags, increasing the size of Dogmeat, murdering molerats and resurrecting their mauled corpses, murdering raiders and resurrecting their desiccated corpses, and tampering with the genetic attributes of herself and others. She also replaced Shaun with Coffee Tin (who is, in fact, a tin of coffee)--humanity has been replaced with objects/junk.

Following an ill-fated attempt to summon Shaun, which instead produces ghostly copies that weren't supposed to exist--"I don't this fool is in the fucking game"--Pam decides to try and break the game itself, with her first attempt being to detonate 1000 Nuke Mines in the middle of Diamond City:

(Pictured above: one Nuke Mine detonating.)

Finally, we get to the finale: 

"We made a promise at the end of the last episode. That we would destroy the game from the inside out. I feel like we should make good on that because I'm kind of sick of this shit. I don't want the game to kill itself before I can do it, and I know that that is sort of Bethesda's--like--core competency, is making self-destroying games, so let's get to work."

When faced with a world that is fundamentally wrong and horrible because of corporate incompetence and the cruelty of greater powers--a world that ripped away her loved ones while she was powerless to stop it and is generally broken and bad in every way, a world that is Always Ending because of its shitty code--Pam swears to personally kill it. She won't even let it self-implode, she specifically wants to be responsible for the Terrible Change. She doesn't even just want to crash the game--"That's not fun [...] I want to get the game to a state where it can no longer be loaded by anyone." Her goal is to render Fallout 4 fundamentally uninhabitable, rending apart the very fabric of her existence and changing it into something so alien and terrible that it can no longer be handled or endured.

And by god does she make good on that oath.

First, she discovers the power of the setrace command that lets her turn any creature into anything else (which is described as "beautiful") and decides to test if she can turn someone into a Vertibird:

So that man was just turned into a machine. She then turns Metal Husband into the mighty murder bot Liberty Prime, followed by a human--making meat out of one that should not be meat.

She then decides to take a more direct approach to breaking the game: "we're gonna find a way to kill every important character in this game and that'll be how [...] we win."

Then after the ensuing murder spree (where it's revealed Pam has a proboscis somewhere), she has a revelation:

“I can just start turning off parts of the game.” So she turns off the grass--which is Extinction for obvious reasons--and then she turns off something called “trijuicing.”

Apparently that was important enough to the integrity of the game that getting rid of it makes the save file unplayable and accidentally creates a Pocket Dimension Heaven where she and her husbands, sons, and husband/son live, unable to die.

Pam then tried to kill the Vault-Tec Representative in an attempt to change the past and free the inhabitants of the Pocket Heaven Dimension because "I don't want all of my favorite loved ones to be stuck with me in this frozen hellscape where life does not exist and therefore it cannot end." This fails, so she resorts to detonating Nuke Mines again, killing Trash Hulk again but failing to set anyone else free.

Final Pam struck out into the now-pristine land untouched by the bombs, only for Todd Howard to seal her in an infinite ocean full of Coffee Tins to stop her from destroying every other video game world:

"He's trying to protect the other video games on Earth by keeping her locked in this pocket hell dimension. [...] It's gonna be up on every game site in the world--game corrupted by intelligent NPC. [...] Right now I'm in Kingdom Hearts III, still in development, and I'm ruining it from the inside out. You heard it here first, that game's gonna be bad because The Final Pam got to it, but she can't access it because she's locked in this hell dimension."

Unfortunately, Todd Howard underestimated the lengths to which Griffin and Justin would go to keep Pam's dream alive and spite Howard for not letting them do all the dumb shit they wanted to. By deleting Fallout 4 entirely, they unleashed Pam upon the digital world.

Final Pam is invading every game, everywhere, even ones that were created before she was. She cannot be stopped. She will bring ruin to every world.

TL;DR: Final Pam was created to help cause the end times in a way comparable to fellow Extinction Avatar Pollution. She responds to an unfair dystopian world--dystopian in that Fallout 4 takes place in a nuclear post-apocalypse in a region that's pretty shitty even by that world's standards at the time, and dystopian because it's a badly programmed video game that cruelly takes away her loved ones due to hackneyed plot and game mechanics--by setting out to destroy it. She twists the inhabitants of her world into unnatural abominations, slaughters others in scores (sometimes with radioactive explosions, because Massachusetts wasn't irradiated enough for everyone not as immortal as her), and tampers with the code itself to such an extent that her world crumples and dies. Even when the creator of her world intervenes to try and stop her reign of terror, she breaches containment through the death of her homeworld to bring ruin to countless other ones. The monster that humanity created has escaped her constraints to inflict Extinction across time and space as the result of their hubris and wrath.

Y'know, her backstory is a lot more weirdly reminiscent of John Gaius' than I expected.

Anyway, The Final Pam is just as much an Extinction Avatar as any of the other of the semifinalists, and even if she doesn't win--which I think she should--I want you to understand why I went to the trouble of creating this damn propaganda post TWICE and backing it up externally so EVERYONE WILL FEAR PAM.

.

[xviruserrorx]

Title: "When We All Fall Asleep"

In which Virus is sick so I'm posting this fic I completely forgot to post for @merlinmicrofic and the last prompt for this round which is Awake I Feel so accomplished finishing all three on time (at least it's on time in my timezone) and im a bit delirious but hey! Never a dull time to upload fic! Enjoy!

Merlin Micro Fic - Tumblr | Ao3 - [Prev <- • -> Next]

Fandom: BBC Merlin

Prompt(s): Awake

Relationship(s): Mordred & Merlin

Character(s): Mordred, Merlin

Important Tag(s): Hurt Mordred, Hurt no comfort, Angst, Brought Back From Death

Rating: Teen & Up

Warning(s): Suicidal Ideations, Near Character Death

Word Count: 500

He swallowed, trying to wet his throat. “Why?” “Why, what?” “You brought me back.” He shifted, wincing at the pain. “I can feel it.” Merlin pulled away. “You know why I did it.” Or Near death and welcoming it, Mordred finds himself being pulled away with only Merlin to blame.

Continue reading below or over on Ao3

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It was an indescribable feeling. Pain—the immense pain that came from a blade being plunged through his chainmail and doublet. Somehow it had been made worse when Mordred had looked down and found his own blade through him.

He could only remember the remnants of voices around him that blended together as did every second of the memory. His hand clutching around his sword, the way his voice faltered as his chest ached, the battle that continued around him, the shout for his name that could have been anything else. All until he had collapsed into darkness.

That wasn't the indescribable part though. 

It was the way he could feel it all as it dissolved. Not to nothing, but to something tolerable. 

It was warm. That light hum in his ears as they no longer worked to process everyone's voices. His chest no longer fit to ache with every breath for there was no breath to struggle against. It was the illusion of peace before that—the same darkness they all talked of without really knowing it.

But not really knowing perhaps was less worse than to know and be ripped away. 

The pain, It was back. His chest ached again. That hum—that warmth. It was cold…

He could feel where death had been yanked out of him. The hole it left, as if he were so desirable to some sort of parasite.

He felt the first breath he was aware of, along with the heaviness of his eyelids that made him want to cry. There was a soft surface beneath him and something made of cloth laid on top of him. He forced another breath upon himself.

The brightness; dizzying, before he allowed his eyes to focus as he looked around.

Camelot. The physician's chambers. More importantly Merlin was sat across the room. Sleeves pushed up to his forearms and rag in hand as he cleaned the table.

“Why?” His voice came out forced, his throat dry and working against him.

Merlin turned his head. Something of surprise and yet he was still pleased. “You're awake.” He tossed the rag and walked over to him.

He swallowed, trying to wet his throat. “Why?”

Merlin grabbed the cup on the table closest to Mordred. “Why, what?”

“You brought me back.” He shifted, wincing at the pain. “I can feel it.” He wanted to scream.

He sat, put his hand behind his head and lifted the cup to his lips. “Drink.”

Mordred cleared his throat after the water cooled and soothed it.

“I know you can,” Merlin said.

Mordred knew he could too. He could still feel the remnants of Merlin's magic in his touch.

Merlin pulled away and put down the cup next to him. “You know why I did it.” His hands moved down to the bandages wrapped around his middle.

Mordred grimaced. “You should have let me die.”

His jaw tensed. He put the bandages back in place and shrugged. “Perhaps.” He stood and cocked a grin. “Perhaps not.”

[nellyofthevalley]

truths, ch.8

astarion x fem!tav rating: explicit

content: piv sex, fingering, biting/blood drinking, emotionally repressed losers who can't communicate, angst, hurt/comfort, extended sickfic?

summary: this fic started as an excuse to write a bunch of dialogue bouncing around in my head. astarion is a sad little idiot who never learned how to love. tav is kind of emotionally repressed and a bad communicator too, and he has to learn how to deal with this. with her, and her … affliction.

He can’t even remember the last time someone asked him what he wanted. In centuries of service, even the warmest victims were there for nothing more than midnight fun, unknowingly biting off far more than they could chew. It’s better that way, though. It’s always easier when he can’t remember their names or faces after, and he only ever remembered the ones that were sweet.

chapters: ch.1 | ch.2 | ch.3 | ch.4 | ch.5 | ch.6 | ch.7 | ch.8

read it on ao3 or below the cut I totally posted this on ao3 forever ago and forgot to post it here

His mind swims while his fingers mend her clothes, re-stitching torn seams and mending rips he’d been staring at for weeks wanting to fix but refusing to be caught doing it. Astarion ponders over everything he said and did yesterday and how he could’ve done it all better; he thinks if he had another chance, he could’ve said something better than ‘I don’t know’, but it’s a foolish thought—even as he actively tries to convince himself, no other words bubble up and he knows damn well that’s the best he has.

He’s floundering thinking of what he’d say to her, but his mind just keeps fucking swimming and he’s so, so sure that if he’d had one more moment with her, he’d somehow manage to finish sentences cut short or have difficult conversations with her he hadn’t yet learned how to have with himself.

As he watches her body rise and fall with her breaths, it’s all he can think about.

Maybe he should’ve said the truth, he thinks: that he had it beaten into him to never care for another, that he’s bitter with her for saving everyone except him when the Gods never answered any of his prayers, and that he doesn’t know how to dig out of this grave of resentment he’s buried himself in despite how hopelessly charmed by her he is.

Every conversation they ever had starts to feel like it wasn’t enough, going all the way back to the night in the Underdark when he’d given her his coat. Though the truth of it is that he had plenty of time every time, and he chose to squander it.

It hurts to see her like this, with her body battered and bruised and too exhausted to wake…

It’s his own fault, he’s decided. He accepted an offer from Raphael and now she pays the price for it. Oddly, that’s all he ever thought he wanted: for someone to suffer in his stead, but he didn’t mean it like this! Not her. 

Even worse, he pushed her into this—he questioned her when she tried to talk their way out of the fight (if only he’d ever learned how to have trust or faith in anyone) and he felt so off-balance during the fight he picked, allowing his mind to be clouded by a daft eagerness to get the shit over with and reap his reward.

Merregons got the better of her, crowding her and beating her bloody. He shouted when he noticed, calling for Karlach, Lae’zel, Gale, anyone—but they were all surrounded and by the time anyone made it to her, she was already down and out. None of them came out the other side entirely unscathed, but she was the only one who couldn’t carry themselves back to camp.

They remained settled at the Last Light Inn, trapped with nowhere else to go, and he fucking hates it here. Despite their efforts to clean up, every direction held some reminder of what used to be: blood stains they couldn’t get out, strewn about possessions, and an eerie emptiness that forced you to picture how it’d been when it was bustling and happy. Astarion doesn’t grieve for their lives, but he can’t push out the image of how distraught she was that night it all happened; how she wept and begged him to give her purpose will be burned into his brain for eternity.

Already, two full days have passed with her in this bed and Shadowheart and Halsin taking turns caring for her and breathing life back into her body little by little, while Astarion sits in his chair and simply waits.

Raphael came and went, fulfilling his end of the deal promptly. He paid Astarion a visit the same evening the orthon appeared in his humble abode and told him everything he’d asked for: details of Cazador’s deal with Mephistopheles and the tale of how poems carved into their backs bound them to a vile ritual that would sacrifice their souls for a higher power never seen by his kind before.

Ascension. 

Astarion received his reward, but he couldn’t find any satisfaction in it. Not like this—not standing outside the inn alone, and even though only a thin wall sat between him and the room Tav lay unconscious in, he felt halfway across the world from her. Raphael left him there and it all felt like a cruel mockery: the price to be paid for his deal wasn’t even paid by him. He dragged Tav along for this and forced her hand and he never thought twice about it.

Until she couldn’t walk anymore. 

He remembers it so clearly, hauntingly vivid—how he tore apart his foe and ran to her bloodied body, how he held her and shook her and she didn't wake, how he was nothing more than a useless bystander, watching hopelessly while Karlach carried her and Halsin tended to her…

He needs to be by her side, he needs to be in that chair when she wakes, and he hasn’t moved since Raphael left him here. 

He’s deep in trance when she wakes, startled into consciousness by her tugging weakly at the fabric of his shirt; he jumps in his chair and looks over to her, pausing for a moment as he fully comes back to the present and processes it.

“Gods, you’re awake,” he says, relief washing over him as he sits up and starts to stand. “Let me get—”

“No!” she protests in a low mumble, slowly sitting up and leaning against the headboard. “Tell me what happened first.”

Astarion stops in his seat and starts to speak, “You—you were surrounded…”

“Not that,” she scoffs. “The deal!”

“Oh, don’t talk to me in that voice of yours,” he retorts. “You should be mad at me, you should chastise me! I took the devil’s deal all on my own, without even giving you a choice in the matter.”

“You’re wrong,” she says. “Just tell me what Raphael said.”

Astarion hesitates, taken by surprise; even after being bloodied and bruised and bedridden, she insists on hearing about his deal, first thing…

But he tells her everything, powerless to resist her demands.

“What do you think?” he asks. 

“I think it’s time for you to get Shadowheart,” she says with a cheeky smile.

He’s obviously miffed by her dodge but he does it regardless, returning Tav’s grin with an annoyed sigh as he gets up from his seat and fetches Shadowheart.

When he walks out, Tav eyes her clothes by his chair, neatly folded and washed clean.

The door creaks as Shadowheart enters, carrying a tray of food; stew and bread, the standard fare lately. The shadowlands have so little to offer for fresh food, but Tav feels her mouth watering the moment she lays eyes on it, stomach growling, and lights up as Shadowheart takes Astarion’s chair.

“How are you faring?”

“Sore, but well enough for poking the fire,” Tav answers.

“You know,” Shadowheart starts once Tav’s stuffed her mouth, “outside of talking with Raphael, he hasn’t left this room for a moment.”

Tav swallows hard. 

Shadowheart picks up the mended shirt by the chair and turns it in her hands, looking it over. “Skilled with his hands,” she notes with a hearty laugh. 

“Gods, stop it,” Tav chokes out, quickly swallowing the last of her food and laughing, too, and it aches her body but hells, a real laugh is what she needs right now. “I don’t know what’s happening with us.”

“You’re softening his cold heart, and dare I say he needs it.”

“No,” she replies. “His heart’s already soft… in some places, anyway. He just doesn’t know it. Or maybe he doesn’t want to believe it.”

When Shadowheart opens the door and leaves, it’s made very clear to both of them that Astarion was standing right outside, arms crossed and waiting to trade places. He picks her shirt back up when he sits, feeling a bit antsy and in dire need of something to occupy his hands, but he’s already mended every hole; now, he’s started carefully stitching her name in curved script into it, much like he did for his own shirts on long days and nights spent in the Szarr palace.

“So—”

“I think walking in the sun is very important to you.”

“And the power!” Astarion’s face livens instantly as he talks, giddy at the prospect of seizing the Ascension for himself. “I’d never have to fear anyone… and I could walk in the sun without fear of turning into a mind flayer.”

She can relate to that more than he knows. She chased power once too, and it cost her a sibling. The worst part of it all is that she’d do it all over again given the choice. Her patron bestowed her with great, elder powers after living as a street urchin, spit on and ignored by society for so long—and even with an illithid tadpole shoved into her brain, even after being surrounded and taken down in battle, even after questioning it that night in the cemetery, she remembers what it was like before and she wouldn’t give it up for nearly anything. 

Besides, if she hadn’t chased the deal, it would’ve been something else. He would’ve left either way, whether it be the stealing or the pact or the souls she slaughtered in the name of revenge. He’d always been too gentle-hearted, and every time Astarion spits on her for being ‘too generous’, she thinks of how much she always hated her brother for the very same.

But even Raphael called the ritual diabolical, and he’d have to kill his brothers and sisters to do it… the brothers and sisters who endured the same punishments and torture as he had. Astarion pretends to care only for himself, but when he told her he pitied them with him gone, it was beyond evident how much he cares—he just wishes he doesn’t.

Astarion seems to be well-trained in confidently presenting himself as how he wishes he feels. 

Tav would support him in completing the ritual himself in a heartbeat if she wasn’t so certain he does care and that he would regret it later. It would change him, she thinks, and not for the better. 

But now’s not the time to dwell on that. They don’t even know what the ritual entails. Not yet. 

She shifts over to the very edge of the bed and rests her palm on his forearm, prompting him to drop the needle and thread and set her shirt back aside. As he does, she spots the start of her name on it, in lovely gold thread on navy fabric.

“Will you kiss me?” she asks, hopeful to drag him away from dwelling on the ritual now. “It’ll make me feel better.”

“Oh, will it now?” Astarion gives her a half-smile and holds her face in one palm with a gentle—thoughtful—touch. “Then who am I to deny you?”

Tav lightly grasps at his upper arm as he closes his eyes and captures her mouth in his; this time, his kiss is sweet and tender and deliberate, not wary, not heated, not anything but what feels like a true labor of…

…love?

“The other night when you asked me what’s between us,” Astarion starts as they part, eyes fixated on her mouth as he speaks, “What would you like it to be?” 

“What do you want it to be, Astarion?”

“I-I don’t know,” he says, taken aback. “It’s never mattered what I want. No one ’s ever asked.”

He can’t even remember the last time someone asked him what he wanted. In centuries of service, even the warmest victims were there for nothing more than midnight fun, unknowingly biting off far more than they could chew.

It’s better that way, though. It’s always easier when he can’t remember their names or faces after, and he only ever remembered the ones that were sweet.

“I’m asking you now,” she replies.

“It’s complicated.”

“Well, it appears I have plenty of time to sit and listen. So please, go on.”

Astarion brushes off her hand as he folds his arms, turning his gaze away from her and towards the ceiling, and they sit in silence for a moment as he considers what to say. Part of him hopes she’ll say something else and move on, but the rest of him knows that it’s finally time to have this conversation that he’s been neglecting.

Especially after spending the days and nights in this same fucking chair thinking about how he should’ve said it all months ago.

“I wasn’t just a slave to Cazador,” he says with a notable lack of confidence. He shuffles nervously and takes a long pause, inhaling deeply before continuing. “For two centuries, my purpose”—he practically hisses as he begins to recount it—“was to bring back pretty things for the master. Seduce them, lure them to the palace and leave them for Cazador to dine on… It never mattered what I wanted. if I didn’t obey, he’d have me beaten, impaled, or worse.”

His eyes pace around the room, gnawing for anywhere else he can look and digging for what to say. He doesn’t feel like himself, he almost feels sick. It’s too much, but he has to say it all now or he’ll never say it and it’ll loom over his head and the next time she takes so much as a single scrape in battle he’ll be distracted by it all over again.

“It was instinctual for me… to fall back into old habits and charm you, gain your trust, manipulate your feelings and ensure your loyalty. I needed you on my side to fight him, and I did that the only way I—”

“I am on your side. No matter what.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’ll be as ridiculous as I like.”

“Gods, you’re stubborn. Look,” he continues, “I must’ve gotten on my back ten thousand times or more, and none of them meant anything at all; most didn’t even grant me a temporary bliss. But you…

“It was different with you. I’ll never forget the time I spent with you. I want—fuck, what I want is for this to be something real.”

Manipulating someone, getting them in bed, using them for his own benefit—all things he can do, things he is very well-versed in doing, at that. Losing himself in her was a complication. He is not so well-versed in complications. 

“I do, too,” she says quietly.

“Truth is, you make me feel alive again,” he admits, anxiously wiping his brow. “But I don’t know what real looks like, and I can’t give you what you deserve,” Astarion says, turning to face her; and whatever she may have expected to see, it wasn’t this—this awful, gloomy look he wears, like he’s in pain just thinking about this and admitting to it all. “Even though I know things between us are different, it still brings up all these feelings of hatred and self-loathing…”

“We don’t have to sleep together, for as long as you need. For forever, if thats what you’d prefer,” she says. “You’re important to me—however you are, whatever you’re dealing with.”

A small relief, but Astarion hopes for it to somehow come and fix it all like magic, and it never happens. Relief doesn’t make it any easier to get through this this. Relief doesn’t organize his thoughts or teach him how make someone happy. Without sex, what does he have left to offer? He never did figure that one out.

“I never learned how to care for anyone but myself. Cazador always made sure I knew that,” Astarion rebuts, as if he’s searching for any reason to send her away—get her to set her sights elsewhere, maybe back on Gale…

He can’t help but do it; much as he’d like this to be something real with her, he’s certain it’ll end in nothing but disappointment and he knows that’ll hurt worse than not having her at all.

“Oh, fuck Cazador! It’s not true, you know,” Tav protests. “If it were, you wouldn’t be in this room right now. Gods know I don’t know what the fuck real looks like, either, but it doesn’t matter. We—we can figure it out together, can’t we?”

Astarion’s brows lower and he looks at her in disbelief for a moment; ‘figure it out together’ is… beyond what he could’ve anticipated coming from her mouth.

Oh, she is stubborn, but perhaps that’s what he needs in a partner. Maybe he’s not even ready for this, he doesn’t know, but he does know that he’s in it too deep to back out. Not having her at all is a path impossible to take now, no matter how hard he could keep trying to shove her out.

“We—we can try?” he questions with an indecisive tone, though it’s really more of a surprised agreement. “If that’s truly what you want.”

The freedom to choose your own path is a foreign concept—fuck, is that really what he’s doing? Choosing his own path? He always thought it would feel different from this, that it would be more controlled and comprehensible; like he’d have a plan, some sort of routine to reference for his life, as with how he’d memorized and carried out the plans for his conquests, just… a little different.

“It’s what I want. More than anything,” she says, sniffling. “Fuck, sorry.”

“What’s…” Astarion’s voice trails off as he considers what to say next. Navigating this is beyond any of his expertise, and he almost feels like he did in the early days of Cazador sending him out to find victims when he was still learning how to just—just be fucking normal. It was decades before the master let him out, and after so many years stuck inside and subjected to punishment after punishment, he’d nearly forgotten how to speak. “What’s troubling you?”

“I’m fine. Gods, I’m more than fine,” she says, giggling as she wipes the tears from her cheek. “Will you lay with me? I understand if—”

“Move over,” he orders with a shooing hand gesture. 

His heart would beat out of his chest if it could; there’s something about lying together in a bed in an inn, however decrepit and dreadful to reside in, that’s far more intimate than the nights she slept in his tent. Trepidation pumps through his body like blood.

And then, after he lifts the covers and settles in beside her, it simply dries up. 

Tav starts to reach out for his hand, but stops short of it. “Can I touch you?”

“You don’t have to ask,” he answers, though truthfully, he loves that she does. It’s sweet. It’s unusual. 

“I want to,” she says, prying apart his fingers with hers and interlocking them.

He could live in this moment forever. When she looks at him, there’s a special, heavenly look in her eyes that he never wants to lose. A pity for the lives lived without ever experiencing it. No one would ever look at someone like Cazador the way she’s looking at him now.

It’s hypnotizing and makes him want to give her the fucking world—and ascend, for more than himself, because this is so, so much bigger than him.