#she horror on m' shop till i little

[scriv3lloirl]

HAPPY LSOH DAY‼️

[kikyan]

Stuck With You (Shizuo Ending)

Disclaimer!! I wrote this back in 2018/2019, like literally 2 years after I started writing fanfic so if this sucks yeah. . .that’s why. It’s also not really that inclusive at all so I apologize. This upload is really meant for those who were curious with the fanfic I wrote and I promise I will right a more inclusive fanfiction later on in the future with these characters to make it up!! 

“ Oh? It seems he even has the Dollars searching for you!” 

PART ONE

“ Izaya, please I apologize for anything that I did that caused you to do this, but I need to get back to Shizuo!” 

“ And do what? Apologize for my actions and say everything is fine? You truly are different than other humans (Y/N)! Besides, does Shizu-chan know?” 

“ K-know what?” 

“You can drop the act. I know who you are (Y/N) or should I sa-?!” 

“ Izaya, I won’t ask you again. Please, I apologize for what I said or did but I must return to my fiance.” 

“ I can’t do that (Y/N). You thought you had me fool, no you thought you had the whole world fooled, but unlike Shizu-chan, I know the real you. You are far too unique, too precious to be in the hands of that brute, that damned monster!” 

“ IZAYAAAAAA! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE AND GIVE ME MY DAMN FIANCE!” 

“ Speak of the Devil, he really did arrive, didn’t he? (Y/N) it’s better if you stay, wait no- I want you to see God punish his worthless creation, than have his Goddess forgive him and the cycle continues!” 

Grabbing her arm, (Y/N) was dragged to the door where Shizuo lay in waiting/ Shizuo’s eyes lit up with hope as (Y/N) arrived, quickly scanning her to ensure that she was not harmed by Izaya. 

“ This is low, even for you Izaya. What the hell do you want anyways?” 

“ I want (Y/N) of course! How rude of you to keep her from society, from me! She is too perfect, in fact, she is perfection! I can’t stand you of all people, a damn monster near her!” 

“ If I am a monster, what the hell does that make you?” 

“ That hurt Shizu-chan, but I’m sure my goddess, (Y/N) would forgive you nonetheless!” 

Grabbing a stop sign Shizuo prepared to swing at Izaya before seeing (Y/N) duck down. 

‘This is too dangerous for (Y/N)! I have to lead him away. . .’ 

“ You see (Y/N)! This monster swung at you! I told you, he would only hurt you! Stay with me, my Goddess!” 

Taking his knife out, he swung it at Shizuo cutting him horizontally across his chest. As Shizuo remained unfazed he swung the sign hitting Izaya as well sending him flying back inside the apartment complex. As Izaya got up and grabbed the knife and (Y/N), before placing the knife under (Y/N)’s throat causing her to panic slightly. 

“ (Y/N)! Izaya you damned bastard! Let her go, that’s low. . .” 

“ It’s fine! Besides, my Goddess is so forgiving, I'm sure she will let this slide! In fact, I feel as if instead of the way I initially thought, it was you Shizuo who used (Y/N)!” 

Shizuo looked down before clenching his fist and looking at Izaya with a crazed expression. 

“ SO WHAT? YOU MESS UP WITH EVERY OTHER PERSON OUT THERE. (Y/N) DOESN’T NEED THAT IN HER LIFE! SHE LOVES ME FOR WHO AND WHAT I AM! SO I AM A MONSTER, SO BE IT! AS LONG AS (Y/N) IS FINE WITH THAT, AS LONG AS SHE ACCEPTS THIS SIDE OF ME, THEN THAT’S ALL I NEED!” 

“ So you’re a leech, a filthy parasite-” 

“ (Y/N) NOW!” 

Izaya was dumbfounded as he turned to see (Y/N) duck down and Izaya was met with Shizuo’s fist. As Izaya grunted in pain, he turned to see (Y/N) looking at him in horror before turning to see Shizuo waltz up with a sturdy bookshelf and smiling at Izaya. 

“ So I guess today is the day I squash this damn cockroach! That has been infesting not only the city but our lives!” 

As Shizuo began to throw the bookshelf at Izaya he proceeded on hitting him repeatedly with immense force, causing Izaya to cough up blood and other fluids. 

“ If you kill me. . . Shizu-chan. . . w-will. . she forgive you. . . ?” 

Showing no sign of stopping, Shizuo proceeded to mercilessly hit Izaya while explaining, “ It doesn’t matter if she forgives me anymore. . . because I don’t plan on letting her go either way!” 

Letting out the last punch Shizuo looked to admire his work, a beaten and bruised Izaya no longer breathing. As Shizuo turned around he was met with (Y/N) looking in horror at the state Izaya was in before looking back up at Shizuo. 

“ WHAT’S WITH THAT EXPRESSION? I THOUGHT YOU WEREN’T SCARED OF ME (Y/N)? WAS THAT A LIE? ARE YOU GOING TO CALL ME A MONSTER AND LEAVE ME LIKE EVERYONE ELS-!?” 

“ No, I won’t. I am sorry Shizuo, I wasn’t able to stop Izaya and you had to get your hands dirty! O-on the bright side. . . well. . . you can start your life violence free now peacefully!” 

“ Honestly. . .how did I. . .eVeR gEt StUcK wItH yOu?” 

After the whole incident, Shizuo was more protective of (Y/N). He rarely let her be by herself so whenever she would want to go anywhere he would go with her or sometimes even ask Celty to go with her as he feared she would get hurt or taken away from him. Currently, Shizuo is working as (Y/N) was at the park with Celty discussing certain things. 

“You’re quite pale. . . is everything alright? Are you feeling okay?” 

“ Of course, my pale complexion is because Shizuo didn’t let me leave for a week until after the whole Izaya incident. I do feel a little sick but that’s what I wanted to talk to you about!” 

“Sick? That doesn’t sound good. How sick are we talking about? If you need to see someone for it, I’m sure Shinra would be glad to see you.”

“ W-well. . . I wouldn’t say I'm that sick it’s just I wanted to know if these are possible symptoms of. . . well, how about I just explain it! I get these sudden food urges and most of the time I tend to throw up certain foods! I think, well what do you think Celty?” 

“Hm. . . You know, Y/N, I think I’ve heard of these exact symptoms before. Is it possible that  you’re pregnant?”

“ W-W-WELL U-UM M-MAYBE B-BUT T-THAT WOULD R-REQUIRE FOR ME A-AND S-SHIZUO I-I! WHAT SHOULD I DO CELTY!” 

“Well, the first thing you should do is to confirm our suspicions. Then, I think you and Shizuo have a big conversation to have.”

“C-c-could you come with me to the store to buy a test? I... I don’t want to go alone. . .” 

“Of course, Y/N. But I think we should walk to a nearby store, I don’t think my motorcycle would be good for the possible baby.”

“ Aww, I wanted to go on your motorcycle. . . okay! So onward this great adventure!” 

~~ 

“U-um Celty, I could be reading this wrong but if it’s pink. . . does that mean. . .” 

Celty jumped at (Y/N) as you could see her jumping in glee before taking a picture of the test and rapidly writing on her phone. 

“You did read what pink means, right? I may be wrong. . . But it would appear that you’re pregnant! I’m so happy for you two!”

“ W-W-WELL H-HOW SHOULD I T-TELL SHIZUO?” 

“Don’t freak out! Let me send the photo to Shinra just to confirm our suspicions. Afterward, we can make a plan for how you’ll tell him.”

“ OKAY, HURRY ASK HIM!” 

To: Shinra 

From: Celty

*image of the test* 

Big Emergency: Is the test positive or negative? It looks like Shizuo and Y/N might be expecting.

To: Love of my life

From: Shinra

Hm. . . well, it seems they are expecting! Tell them I congratulate them! Does Shizuo know? 

To: Shinra

From: Celty 

Now that we know, how should Y/N approach this with Shizuo?

To: Love of my life 

From: Shinra 

Leave that to me! Just tell (Y/N) to prepare his favorite meal. I’ll tell Shizuo that he has a surprise at home and to hurry home! I’ll see you soon as I need to help someone right now but take care Celty!

“ So he is going to tell him... .? I hope this goes well! I don’t know what to say or do...Celty want to go shopping with me for ingredients?” 

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it will go great. Both of you love each other and will be great parents if you decide to keep it. Now, let’s go shopping!” 

Soon leaving the store they headed out to purchase the ingredients needed to make Shizuo’s meal and discussed among themselves how to approach the situation. 

~ 

Tom looked down at this phone as he smiled in glee before telling Shizuo that there were no more clients and that they should head home. 

“ Are you sure? I don’t want to leave (Y/N) alone but if you still need me I could stay longer-!?” 

“ You, my friend do not understand, (Y/N) is waiting for you so go home. Besides she has a surprise for you, Shinra told me! Now head home!” 

“ A surprise? Well if you say so, Tom. . . see you tomorrow!” 

“ Also Shizuo, congrats!” 

“ On what?” 

“ Just go home and you’ll see!” 

As Shizuo was walking home he pondered about this so-called surprise as he noticed that Celty’s bike was parked outside their home. As he went inside he looked to see his favorite meal scattered along with the table as both Celty and (Y/N) were cooking and talking. 

“ Oh, Shizuo! Good afternoon! Dinner is almost ready and Shinra is almost here! He said that our close friends should be here today!” 

“ That’s cool but what’s this surprise I keep hearing about?” 

“ Silly it’s not a surprise if I tell you! Wait till Shinra gets here!” 

Soon after Shinra arrived and that’s when they all were in the living room in silence before (Y/N) pulled out the test she had and Celty pulling the message in case of a confirmation. 

“ S-shizuo. . . remember what you told me the day before the incident with Izaya... .?” 

Blushing slightly he nodded before letting his mind run loose, could she be-?! 

“ Well, it seems you might get the chance to be a father and I a mother!” 

Holding the test out for Shizuo to see the pink line indicating that (Y/N) was pregnant, he grabbed it before setting it down and jumping to hold his fiance. 

“ I won’t let you down, I won’t let us down. I promise I'll change to be the best father I can be, I swear (Y/N)!” 

“ Silly, you are already the best person you can be! I’m sure we will be the best of parents!” 

Exchanging a kiss, they all laughed and gathered around the dinner table to consume the food made by both (Y/N) and Celty. (Y/N) was with child, Shizuo’s child and he vowed to protect you both no matter the cost. He didn’t care if you looked at him like a monster in the near future because he wasn’t letting you or the child leave him, after all, it was possible for a monster like him to be happy, but he wasn’t going to let this happiness leave and be destroyed. The child was born healthy, it was a boy named Izaya, ironically. Izaya was gifted with many things such as friends for his kind behavior and kind mother. He never had problems and if he did well they would disappear the next day, like his principal when he chose to falsely accuse him of attacking someone using his father as an excuse. Well, let’s just say he isn’t alive anymore. Any friend that double-crossed him would immediately come back and apologize saying how their mother told them that what they did was wrong. It didn’t matter if Shizuo was a monster because he had (Y/N) and his child was the red string that binds them together. Seriously, how did Shizuo get to be so lucky and get stuck with you? 

[matchesarelit]

Imagine if you will...

Meeting a guy at the video store soon after arriving in Hawkins, and within seconds he has you hooked on his smile, and little did you know you had him hooked on yours.

Title: Headed to Hawkins (P2, Steve Harrington x M/Any gender identity that is not Female!Reader)

Part 1 is here

"Find what you were looking for?"

His voice was calming, but the smile that he held filled every part of your being with butterflies. "No, actually, I just really didn't want to talk to that guy."

Your honesty was met with a hearty chuckle, before he noticed they had once again gained the attention of the cashier. "What are you looking for?" He forced out the question through stifled giggles at being caught.

"I'm looking for Halloween and Raiders Of The Worst Ark" You were excited to re-watch Halloween with Dustin as it was one you had watched many times together, and the Indiana Jones movie was one that Mrs Henderson said he was really sad about missing in the theatre.

"Well, Come on then! I'm Steve by the way," He said before linking arms with you and starting off towards the horror section. "Good choices by the way, from what I heard Halloween is a fun film. My friend is crazy about it. Says he has probably watched it a hundred times by now." He stated as he picked the film from the shelf. You held out your hand expecting him to hand it to you, dropping it soon after he tucked the film under his arm. He began walking again, a clear pep in his step, towards the adventure section.

You had only spent around five minutes in the store but the butterflies Steve game you, would last till you went to bed that night. Sliding into your car you started off towards Dustin's friend's house.

It wasn't far, so within minutes you found yourself knocking at the door.

"Coming!" A muffled voice shouted from inside. You began rocking back and forth on your heels until the door swung open revealing a red-headed girl.

"Um, sorry, Jonathan isn't here. I think he is at the theatre."

"Yeah, no. I don't know who that is, I'm here to pick up Dustin." The teen smiled in response and motioned for you to follow. You hesitated at the threshold but upon hearing a familiar voice shout;

"THERE IS NO WAY YOU ATE THE LAST REDVINE!"

Letting out a laugh you walked down the hall, barely a second had passed after the girl called "Dustin" before you were tackled into a hug.

Surprisingly it barely took any effort to get Dustin to leave his party, and after both of you got buckled in, you turned to face the kid. "Sooo, I picked up Halloween on my way here, along with some ingredients for dinner and a surprise." Before you could stop him Dustin had all but launched himself into the back seat, almost tearing the shopping bags in his search.

"No Shitting way! You got it!" The grin he showed just reassured you that you had made the right choice.

The rest of the night went pretty much as expected, with lots of catching up and laughing at the movies. That was until Dustin let out a gasped and began to yell; "YOU HAVE TO COME TO HARRINGTON'S HOUSE ON SUNDAY, HE IS HAVING US ALL OVER TO SWIM." You initially meant to reject his demand but the determination on his face convinced you.

Sunday came fast with most of Saturday being taken up by unpacking your belongings and catching up with the Hendersons. Soon enough you were knocking on the gate of the Harrington household with a towel in hand.

Within moments the gate swung open as a call of "Henderson!" rang through the air, followed by a yell in your direction of; "HenderFriend!" You let out a scoff and shook your head.

"Good to meet you officially Steve.

"So who else is coming?" Dustin asked the two of you who still lingered by the fence.

Steve spoke up, "Just the party, the girls and Robin." You nodded along not loving the idea of having to meet such a large group all at once. Steve looked at you and reassured; "Don't worry she is a Dork too."

A voice rang out, "What shit are you talking Harrington?"

It wasn't until an hour later, after all of the others had arrived, that Steve thought to bring out drinks for everyone. When he asked Robin to get out of the water, you mimicked her movements, offering to help carry things out.

As soon as she had closed the door to the garden, Robin seemed to be eyeing you up. She took her time before breaking the silence "So lemona-" "So Robi-". You had spoken at the same time.

She motioned for you to go.

"So Robin, are you and Steve together?"

Without missing a beat she responded; "No, we are just good friends, not each other's type."

Silence hung in the air as Robin grabbed the lemonade from the fridge and you stood, considering how to continue.

You decided to test the waters,

"Did you hear about those men in new york?"

Robin nodded before speaking up, "Yeah, I think they are mighty lucky, hard to find love that strong"

"Cool, cool, cool, ᴵ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ᵐᵉⁿ.", You rushed out the last part of your sentence while looking back over your shoulder.

Nodding her head Robin rose her hand before forcing a cough.

Cough "ᴳᵒ ᶠᵒʳ ᶦᵗ" Cough.

You pressed your lips to repress the grin that threatened to break out across your face.

Carrying the jug, Robin walked out the door calling out as she went; "Steve! We need some help with cups"

"Smooth bastard!" You muttered under your breath as Steve made his way inside.

Taking a deep breath, you went for it.

"Hey Steve, I saw that there was a new horror movie at the theatre, Would you want to go see it sometime?"

He smiled and nodded at you but you weren't content you wanted to make sure you made it clear to him that it was a date.

Grabbing some cups off of the counter you started towards the door as Steve retrieved more from the cupboard. Pausing at the threshold to shout over your shoulder; "I've always wanted someone to cling on to in the scary bits, I hear it makes movie dates even more romantic."

Steve's head snapped up as his jaw dropped and that word rattled around his head.

Date

[ariparri]

Fluff Alphabet - Glitter Bomb

At long last, here's the fluff alphabet for Carson and Tulip!

I wanted to get this done first before finishing up the stuff for Isa and the other au ships.

I'm still practicing with moodboards since I'm not good at making them. This is the second one I made for Glitter Bomb because I wasn't happy with the first one.

Related

DieRuca Fluff Alphabet

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

A = Attractive (What do they find attractive about the other?)

Carson finds Tulip eccentricity. He just loves how she isn't afraid to be herself. He loves a person with confidence, high self esteem and prides their own intelligence. He just finds that extremely attractive. Anybody can have a pretty face, but if the personality is terrible then everything else gets ruled out.

Tulip finds Carson, himself as a whole, attractive. She loves his style, the way he dresses like he's part of some band that plays in their garage and how he doesn't care if his style doesn't match. But what she finds most attractive is his humor and his laugh. Carson has a contagious laughter, and she's always finding herself laugh along with him even when she's trying to be serious. She just loves it, his sense of humor is great and his laugh always seems to brighten up everyone's mood.

B = Baby (Do they want a family? Why/Why not?)

Carson didn't really think about actually having kids. He did say that if he ever got a daughter, he would name her after his mother. Tulip at the time didn't see herself being a mother. She always saw herself to be more of an independent woman with her own ideals and goals. They both talked about it every now and then, both agreeing they weren't in any rush to settle down and have kids. That was until Tulip had an unplanned pregnancy and the topic of kids was brought up again. While Calum wasn't planned at the start, they both agree it would be nice to have a kid and see how things go about from there. After a while of thinking about children, Carson was getting a little too excited and that excitement was starting to rub off on Tulip. She eventually couldn't wait to have their first child.

C = Cuddle (How do they cuddle?)

The preferred position they cuddle in is the sweetheart cradle. Carson would lie on his back and hold onto Tulip while she rests her head on his chest. Another position they cuddle in is the arm draper. They'll both lie on the bed, facing each other with their arms draped over the other. They're also fond of resting their head on the other's lap. Especially when it involves horror movie marathons and Carson just relaxes his head on Tulip's lap and she starts scratching his head. It's a soothing feeling.

D = Dates (What are dates with them like?)

Dates can be wild for Carson and Tulip. They have a poster full of date ideas and they choose five from the list before placing those ideas on a dart board for them to hit a target. Each gets three darts and whatever idea gets the most hits that's the date they go on.

A couple favorites are paintball or laser tag. They enjoy having a bit of a competitive game as a date, it makes it more fun and exciting. Another favorite is where they go thrift shopping and pick out each other's outfit to wear on the date. Tulip picked out a nice long rainbow skirt to match with a neon green crop top for Carson while he picked out anything in yellow.

E = Everything (You are my ____ (e.g. my life, my world...))

Tulip: You are the spark to my flame

Carson: You are my twin flame

F = Feelings (When did they know they were in love?)

Carson realized he was in love with Tulip when Jae and Diego joked about how he and Tulip were always budding heads. Carson claims it as a simple rivalry on who was the better prankster of the two. Not satisfied with his answer, Jae and Diego pressed on. It eventually got to Carson spouting on and on about how ridiculous Tulip can be, before he started trailing off to all the things he liked about her. He kept going on until he noticed the looks on his friends' faces and realized just exactly what he was talking about. It didn't take too long until Jae slaps his back and loudly announces that he was a lovestruck fool.

Tulip was quick to realize her feelings for Carson. She found out she liked Carson more than a friend when he was hanging out with another girl for some time. She didn't even know why she felt bothered by it till Tonks just bluntly told her that she was falling for Carson. She of course was in denial for some time. But when Carson went out on another date with this girl, it was clearly obvious that Tulip was in fact jealous and in love with Carson. But all that jealous tension quickly died down when Carson introduced the girl as his cousin who was visiting from Scotland. Tonks couldn't stop laughing and she never let Tulip live it down.

G = Gentle (Are they gentle? If so, how?)

Being quite the charmer, Carson can be gentle. It's in his words and gestures. He always addresses Tulip in terms of endearment and when he does, his voice is tender and filled with so much love and emotion. Carson gives great foot massages, so he always gives Tulip a massage whether or not she asks for one.

Tulip's a bit more forward with her affection, most of it is done through actions than words. Whenever Carson is sitting down and Tulip is standing behind him, she'll place her hands on his shoulders and give him a gentle massage. Head scratches are another thing she often does for him whenever they're both just lounging about in the comfort of their own home.

H = Hands (How do they like to hold hands?)

The way they hold hands often involves being wrapped around one another. They'll be sitting next to each other and Carson will have his arm draped over Tulip's shoulder and she'll reach her hand up to hold his own. The other one is similar to this but instead of sitting, they're standing. One of them will be behind the other, arms wrapped around their body while the other's arms are crossed to intertwine their hands.

I = Impression (What was their first impression?)

At first, they were both annoyed with each other. They practically challenged the other every chance they got when it came to pranks. It wasn't until Veruca asked them for help with Filch when they decided to put aside their differences and work together. They were pretty amazed with how well they both were able to work together and combine their own preferred pranks into one mega bomb. Both Carson and Tulip had some new found respect for each other after this prank and often pair up to create big pranks.

J = Jealousy (Do they get jealous?)

Yes. Both of them can get jealous. When Carson gets jealous, he can throw a little temper tantrum and Veruca ends up being on the receiving end of it. He would eventually step in and tell the person to back off. If they can't get the hint, well Carson's old tricks come into play and if Dennis also doesn't like the person he joins in. Carson can be a bit of a mopy cry baby though and would get a little clingy when Tulip realizes what's going on.

When Tulip gets jealous, she broods about it for a moment before setting up a mega dungbomb in the person's belongings. After hearing a loud explosion and seeing them run off screaming, Tulip is satisfied with the turn of events. Especially when Carson comes by to see it happen and he just burst out laughing. He pretty much knows who was responsible but feigned ignorance when asked about it.

K = Kiss (How do they kiss? Who initiated the first kiss?)

Their first kiss had a bit of an outside help. On their second date, being paintball war, Dennis tagged along for the fun. It ended with Tulip getting the most hits on Carson. They were in the middle of talking where Carson was congratulating her, until Dennis basically jumped into the back of Carson's head pushing him forward, making him kiss Tulip. They pulled apart, a little awkwardly if it wasn't for the smug mocking croak coming from Dennis. Carson clearly wasn't amused but Tulip pulled him in for another kiss.

L = Love (Who says 'I love you' first?)

While Carson does like to express his affections towards Tulip, he's never actually said that he loved her before. Tulip didn't seem to mind since she was perfectly fine with how they express their affection. It wasn't until seeing just how romantically sappy Diego and Veruca were and how Jae points out that they haven't said it to each other yet. During one of their night outs to the bar they frequent, Diego and Veruca announce they finally started dating. In the middle of the excitement, Carson pulls Tulip closer to him and finally says those three magical words. It may not be romantically special, but it was perfect to them.

M = Memory (What's their favourite memory together?)

Carson's favorite memory together was during the Celestial Ball. Tulip didn't have a date, and while Carson didn't go with anyone either, he promised her a dance. After Carson went through his rounds dancing with everyone who attended the ball alone, it was Tulip's turn to dance with him. He wasn't used to her dressing up, so seeing her in a dress was a nice surprise. They both had a fun time just laughing and dancing the night away.

Tulip's favorite memory of them together involved filling the entire Ravenclaw common room full of glitter and dungbomb filled balloons. They set it up to it popping on the dungbombs time, so everyone caught in the room were covered in glitter and dungbomb stench. The amount of trouble and the looks on everyone's faces were the highlights of that day. Even when they were in detention they couldn't stop laughing, Flitwick had to extend their punishment time.

N = Nickel (Do they spoil? Do they buy the person they love everything?)

At the start of their relationship, Carson went all out with the tulip and balloon bouquets. It had to take Dennis biting onto him or croaking in refusal to get Carson to stop spoiling Tulip with all the bouquets. Other than the bouquets, Carson does buy her a lot of outfits that accentuate her figure, or even pins and necklaces from Zonko's as a reminder of her love for pranks.

Whenever Tulip is out and she happens to see some band merchandise, especially for bands Carson loves, she'll buy some for him. She buys mostly for the shirts and bandanas than the posters and pins. Carson definitely prefers them since they're everyday uses. Although she buys them for him, she sometimes steals the shirts whenever they're going to bed.

O = Orange (What colour reminds them of their other half?)

Red reminds Carson of Tulip all because of her hair. Every time he finds anything red, he instantly thinks it would look great on Tulip, something that would compliment her natural beauty.

Fuschia reminds Tulip of Carson. Despite blue being a color Carson often wears, his favorite color is fuschia. She's often reminded of the pink colored shirts he likes to wear with the Twisted Sister logo on them. Whenever she finds something completely ridiculous in that color, she'd send him a picture of it with the caption "This is clearly you" 

P = Pet names (What pet names do they use?)

Carson likes to use many names for Tulip. Most common one would be Cherry for her hair. Other names he calls her are Babes, Cuddle Cakes, My Flame, Hotness, and Troublemaker. He also started calling themselves the Gruesome Twosome after Tulip's mother called them out of slight annoyance.

Tulip doesn't often use pet names, but when she does it's a mix between Dream Boy, Hot Stuff, Muffinhead, and Prince Charming. She mostly uses them as a way to tease him or feign annoyance with him.

Q = Quaint (What is their favourite non-modern thing?)

Carson has a collection of old VHS movies. He usually keeps them displayed but some nights they'll have an old movie marathon. With Tulip, she sometimes challenges herself with watching the sunset and the sunrise in one day. She isn't entirely a morning person, so to watch the sunrise at least once every now and then can be a fun way to challenge herself to get out of bed. Carson sometimes joins her in this little activity.

R = Rainy Day (What do they like to do on a rainy day?)

On a rainy day when both of them are simply bored, they'll sit on the sofa while slow music plays in the background and they're drinking hot chocolate. On other rainy days, they would go out and have a little water day. They'll chase each other around and jump around in puddles.

S = Sad (How do they cheer themselves/others up?)

Dennis usually gets involved when Tulip is sad. If Carson's hot chocolate or blueberry muffins don't help comfort her, Dennis will jump onto Carson and stick his tongue into Carson's ear. He'll latch onto him and cause Carson to start shuffling around trying to get the darn toad off of him. Surely enough, Tulip will start laughing at them.

When Carson is sad, Tulip sometimes brings out the board games or turns on the ghost hunting channel. She also tries to make the blueberry muffins his mother often makes for him. Sadly, she isn't much of a cook so she makes a huge mess in the kitchen. Carson walks in to see Tulip close to having a crisis in the kitchen before bursting out in laughter and he's suddenly in a better mood. He then rushes to help her clean up and then bake the muffins with her.

T = Talking (What do they like to talk about?)

Sometimes they talk about their families. While Tulip can be a little annoyed by her parents, Carson distracts her by talking about how his mother wear a dress when he was five. They often talk about past prank wars and old memories. Tulip likes to bring up all the times Carson cried about puffskeins just appearing out of nowhere, embarrassing him just a little bit.

Date ideas often come up, and whatever isn't on their date list they'll talk about it before adding it to the list.

They also love to reminisce about the times they annoy both Chester and Andre. Carson just has crazy fashion ready for when Andre wants to use him as a model and the atrocity he has to face when Carson comes out with the most ridiculous outfit. 

U = Unencumbered (What helps them relax?)

Carson is actually a fan of health and skin care, so coming home to see Tulip having the face masks out he tosses his work to the side and throws himself onto the sofa to ready for some relaxation. They both also listen to music and well, sing together. Most of the music they listen to range from 80s rock, pop, funk, and a little bit of R&B and Jazz. Two terrible singers paired together so perfectly, neighbors must hate them. Carson also plays the violin if Tulip is having a stress day. The melodious sound that comes from the instrument helps soothe her from getting a headache.

V = Vaunt (What do they like to show off? What are they proud of?)

They both like to show off their intelligence, which usually comes into play with their pranks. They try to one up the other by performing a prank that can be seen as more superior than the other.

They also like to show each other off. Mainly when someone tries to bring down the other, they'll start singing a bunch of praises and all the accomplishments their partner has done. They're kind of the jealous, boasting couple. 

W = Wedding (When, how, where do they propose?)

Yes. You know that meme on Proposal Instructions? This one.

These were clearly joke proposals they both did just to get a laugh out of each other.

It was also a double proposal. On one of their dates to a paintball park, they invited a few friends for a group date. They were all pretty much in on the plan but didn't know the other half had the same idea. Tulip was the first to propose which made Carson stop and go, "Are you freaking serious?" before pulling out the ring to propose to her with. Everyone got a good laugh out of it.

X = Xylophone (What's their song?)

Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Starships

Y = Yes (Do they ever think of getting married/proposing?)

Tulip at first didn't think much about it. But after both of them did joke proposals the thought has definitely crossed her mind. Just like Tulip, Carson didn't really think much of marriage until he and Tulip have been dating for a while. It definitely would be a dream to be married and it would make his parents, especially his mother, proud.

Z = Zebra (If they wanted a pet, what would they get?)

Carson absolutely doesn't want a pet. Tulip already has Dennis and he is the only one that Carson is willing to tolerate. And Tulip is perfectly fine with just having Dennis as a pet. That is of course until they have Raylene and she wanted to keep a piglet they found hurt in the woods while on a camping trip. At first Carson wasn't a fan of it, but the puppy eye look his daughter was giving him made him cave.

[raendown]

My part of a trade with @rookie-d and boy was this fun to write! 

Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 3477 Rated: T+ Summary: Madara hated the morning shift. It was always boring and getting up early sucked. Thankfully the one time he had to work it something interesting happened, at least.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

Zombies Before Noon

Their first meeting was one that Madara would remember for all the reasons Tobirama probably wished he would forget. Several hours in to a criminally early morning shift he was bored out of his skull and wondering why the hell a comic book shop needed to be open before any of the local nerds around here were even awake. He’d already tidied the shelves four times and dusted the entire premises twice when the cheery jingle of the bell over their door made him lift his head hopefully. That look quickly morphed in to horror as he took in the sight of what was clearly a zombie entering the store. 

Skin so pale it looked almost paper white, circles under his eyes so dark they looked drawn on with marker, and clothes rumpled like they hadn’t seen an ironing board in years, the man who stumbled in had his eyes completely closed and his arms hanging loose at both sides. Only three steps in he stopped dead and just stood there. Motionless. Possibly not breathing. Madara looked around for a hidden camera, wondering if his younger brother had set him up for some kind of weird prank. That was the sort of thing Izuna would do. Nothing new or suspicious stuck out to him, though, so he turned back to the stranger who was now slowly blinking his eyes open. Well, partially open. They remained squinted so tightly he probably couldn’t see any better still. 

“Coffee?” he rumbled in a deep slur. Madara looked around for cameras again. 

“Uh, we don’t serve that here.” 

“...black.” 

Furrowing his brows, Madara repeated himself. “We don’t serve coffee.”

The pale man blinked slowly with a gaze that didn’t seem to really be focused on anything. 

“Extra espresso…” his words trailed off like he meant to continue with something off and yet nothing came. After almost a full minute he managed to close his jaw again with a muted click. Then he merely stood and let his narrowed eyes bore directly in to Madara’s. 

It was the single creepiest thing this shop had ever seen. And considering the varying clientele that was saying something.

For a good hot second Madara contemplated reaching in to his pocket and calling the police. Or maybe the Disease Center. Either one of them would no doubt be very interested in this spontaneous zombie apocalypse. Then the moment passed and he realized this was probably the most interesting thing that was likely to happen to him until the early afternoon crowd began to show up near the very end of his shift. He might as well see how it played out. 

“Would an energy drink do you? We’ve got all sorts of those. Pretty cheap too.” 

“....mn.”

Since he wasn’t very sure what that meant Madara opted for believing he’d just made a sale. Trying to ask questions about flavor and the like would most likely get about as coherent an answer as the ones he’d already gotten so after a moment of going through their inventory in his mind he stepped over to the fridge behind the counter to pick out the highest concentration of caffeine they carried. It also happened to be one of their cheaper brands as well, which was great in case he ended up having to pay for this himself. Did zombies remember how to pick out money from their wallets?

Did zombies even carry their wallets?

“Here. These don’t really taste all that great but it’s got enough of a kick to revive you or whatever.” 

A few seconds after he handed it over he realized his mistake. The oddly still man blinked slowly when Madara cracked the can open for him but finally seemed to understand that there was a liquid in his hand he was meant to drink. His head tilted back to reveal a surprisingly shapely throat that bobbed up and down in a steady rhythm until the entire can was emptied, hung there unmoving for a few seconds more, then his head tilted back down with an honest to god pout on his face. Apparently he’d thought the can was bottomless.

“Right. Feel free to browse or whatever before you come settle up. Register’s over there.” Madara jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “If you pass out try to fall away from the merchandise.” 

“Nnmm.”

“Oookay.” 

Scurrying back to the register was more for the sake of anyone looking in through the windows on their way by than for his own sense of safety. He really didn’t need anyone to call his boss and say they spotted him stalking a customer in his own store. At least he had a comfortable perch from which he could survey the entire floor, set out in a semi circle as it was, giving him a perfect view down each of their short aisles. No matter where this one man circus drifted he would be within eyesight. Madara watched with undisguised fascination while the guy drifted down aisle three, staring hard at a display entirely covered with merchandise for a popular children’s show about brightly colored ponies. The empty drink can remained clutched tightly in one fist.

With drunken steps he wound his way out of that section and in to aisle five. Despite staring directly at their selection of comics for a particular super hero universe Madara got the impression he wasn’t actually seeing any of them. Either he was hopelessly lost inside his own head or he had astrally projected so hard he wouldn’t find himself for another week. Just as the man lifted his hand, perhaps at last to interact with the world around him, the door of the shop jingled violently open to admit a harried looking woman. 

“There you are!” she screeched. Without even sparing a look around the rest of the open space she marched around a display of new releases and clapped a hand down on the zombie man’s shoulder. “I have been looking for you for over an hour, you absolute dick! Do you know how worried we’ve been? Your brother would have taken my damn head off if anything happened to you on my watch!” 

“...nm?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake!”

Pinching the bridge of her nose, the woman shook her head and finally looked around. The fact that there weren’t any other customers seemed to console her a little bit, probably relieved there weren’t more witnesses to her bad skills at keeping track of one man. When her eyes looked on to Madara he refused to quail under the force of her glare. A part of him sort of wanted to. He spent as much time in the gym as the next self-conscious guy but the look she was giving him promised that she, in fact, was the one with an ability to rip heads. To his absolute shame, he looked away first. But only for long enough for the weight of her gaze to leave him so he could go back to watching this drama unfold in front of him. 

“Come on,” she growled, tugging at the man’s sleeve. “Next time this happens I am tying you to the bed until you fucking learn! Did you even pay for that drink? You are so paying me back for this, I don’t care if it’s only a couple bucks!”

It wasn’t all that surprising how little resistance the man offered to being pulled across the floor and back out on to the street, though Madara did give some thought to whether or not he should be calling the police. Should he be reporting assault over this? It was too bad the owners were too cheap to install any real security other than the one camera pointing straight at the door and the one directly over the till. Some proper footage of what happened probably would have made great evidence if someone came back to question him.  

For several minutes after he was left suddenly alone Madara stared towards the door and wondered if it was possible that he might have hallucinated everything that just happened. Maybe he’d been reading too many of the comics in here. His mother used to warn him when he was little that using his imagination too much would rot out his common sense - but, then again, she was a cantankerous old bitch who kicked him out as soon as he turned eighteen. He’d never put much stock in anything she had to say. And then there were the coins that crazy lady had tossed over the counter on their way by, that was pretty solid evidence that he wasn’t hallucinating. 

Without a live zombie show for entertainment the rest of his shift at the comic shop mostly passed in boredom. Usually he worked the afternoon shifts just for this very reason. The mornings were always dead but he’d had to reschedule an appointment with his doctor three times already and trading shifts today had been the only way he was getting in there without having to wait several more weeks for another open spot. Medical care in their city seriously needed a bigger budget. Desperate to pass the time without resorting to the merchandise he wasn’t supposed to fiddle with on shift, Madara ended up slumped over the front counter doodling on the back of some old receipt paper he found stuffed in to a random drawer. Nearly half the page disappeared under swirls of red ink before he realized that he was drawing a dead, moaning zombie. With a sheepish look around he set the red pen aside and reached for a black one instead. Hopefully that would inspire some less creepy doodles. 

As expected, a couple hours before the end of his shift he finally started seeing some customers, his fellow nerds flocking in to check for new issues of the latest detective comic or merchandise for their favorite anime characters. Madara kept a sharp eye on the ones he didn’t recognize and gave no more thought to the entertaining if odd start to his day. After work he scurried off to the bus stop and barely made it to his long overdue doctor’s appointment before stumbling back on to the bus an hour after that with a bandaid on his arm and several vials of blood less in his body. 

“M’ home,” he called weakly as he shuffled inside the apartment. Something clattered around the corner, followed quickly by the sound of Izuna swearing.

“Did the appointment go well?” His brother’s voice shouted after him on his way down the hall. 

Tossing his jacket through the door of his bedroom, he called back. “Went fine. Had to get some blood pulled. Dumb ass doctor doesn’t think I know my own body enough to tell when I’m having seasonal allergies. He wants to test me for heart disease!” 

“But...those aren’t...anki, that makes no sense!” 

“I know!” Madara rolled his eyes even though the other couldn’t see him. “Apparently being short of breath because of the all the ragweed means I must be on the verge of a heart attack.” 

“Probably got his medical degree out of a cereal box.” 

Tired, a little loopy from having too much blood drawn without eating anything, Madara’s thoughts for the rest of his evening were filled mostly with grumbles about incompetant medical staff and listening to Izuna go on about the latest drama from his apprenticeship. Work was so far from his mind he entirely forgot to mention the strange occurrence from that morning. He went to bed that night thinking only that he was grateful his shifts were back to their usual afternoon schedule tomorrow because he certainly didn’t want to wake up early again, his dreams filled with needles that laughed at him while he sneezed uncontrollably. 

Several days went by with the usual humdrum of the life Madara and his brother had fallen in to. As much as he despised the morning shift, he loved the afternoons with equal fervor. His job at the comic shop didn’t pay much more than a basic living wage but he loved the environment, loved his regular customers, and he especially loved the hefty discount it gave him on all the nerdy merchandise he couldn’t help filling their home with. Things went about as normally as they usually did in his life until the fourth day when Madara looked up from checking out a regular customer to find the next person in line was an actual walking snack. 

Wild hair artfully arranged to somehow look purposefully messy, skin so pale he could be mistaken for an albino, red eyes that Madara would swear could see right down in to his soul, he was already a dreamboat even without taking in the deliciously toned rest of his body. Something about him looked familiar but it was hard to concentrate past the broad shoulders standing straight and tall. 

“Can I - ahem - how can I help you?” Madara fought with his cheeks not to flush bright red and prayed that no one would comment on the massive crack his voice had just done. 

“You wouldn’t happen to be Madara, would you?” the man asked in a deep rumble. “Your coworkers described you to me when I came in here yesterday.”

“I am, yes. Uh...is there something wrong?” 

Shaking his head, the man coughed a little as though feeling uncomfortable. “No, no. I only wanted to come in and thank you for not kicking me out of your store the other day. I was, ah, fairly ill at the time and my behavior was not the best. Several shops had already sent me on my way but you allowed me to stay in one place long enough for my cousin to catch up so I wanted to say thank you for letting me stay somewhere safe. Anything could have happened to me in that state.” 

For a second Madara tried to subtly look the man up and down, trying to determine if he was lying or not. Surely this couldn’t be the same guy? It was only after he mentally added some black streaks under the eyes, hunched the shoulders, and squinted the eyes that he realized it was. This was his zombie customer. 

“You don’t look the same at all!” was the first thing his stupid mouth chose to blurt out. 

“Ah. Thank you, I think.” The man coughed awkwardly again. “I’m told I look fairly awful whenever I work myself in to sleep deprivation.” 

“Oh is that why you were acting so much like a zombie? Wait no! Shit! Sorry, that was rude! Um, shit- gah, I’m not supposed to swear, fuck. Damn it!” Exasperated with his own lack of self control, Madara smacked a hand over his face. Nearby one of his regulars could be heard snickering but glaring them in to silence would have meant removing his hand and facing the hot stranger who’d made him splutter. 

To his eternal relief, no comments were made about his verbal idiocy, although he could definitely hear traces of amusement in the man’s tone when he continued speaking. 

“Yes, unfortunately I have a habit of getting a little too involved in my studies. Exams are coming up so I’ve only been sleeping about two or three hours a night and it, ah, finally caught up to me apparently. I don’t remember much but my cousin tells me I wandered out of her house sometime around six in the morning and she didn’t find me until, er, whenever it was she found me in here.” After scratching at the back of his neck he seemed to jolt himself and then held out the same hand. “I’m Tobirama, by the way.” 

“Madara. But um, you apparently already knew that.” 

They shook hands, at which point Madara realized the other man’s incredible height also came with massive hands that practically engulfed his own. He really hoped he wasn’t blushing as brightly as it felt like he was. 

“So you live around here then?” he asked. Then he wanted to slap himself again because that was probably way too personal of a question. 

“Not really. Well, not yet. I’m staying with my cousin so I can take some courses at the university but my brother is thinking of moving back to town so I’ll probably move back in with him if he does.” 

“Back to town?” Madara perked up. “So you’re from around here originally?” 

Tobirama nodded. “We grew up in the west end.”

“No kidding? Me too.” Squinting, Madara tried to determine whether they might have crossed paths when they were younger. The man did sort of look familiar but age could change a lot about a person and it wasn’t like he’d kept contact with anyone from that end of town. Not after he’d been summarily tossed to the curb. 

His closer interest did not go unnoticed. For a moment he flushed even deeper than he already was, thinking Tobirama might have been offended by his scrutiny. Then his ears were flaming for another reason entirely and he couldn’t even bring himself to be upset about the misunderstanding when the other leaned in just a bit closer with a slow smile. 

“I don’t suppose you’d like to go for coffee sometime?” he asked. “As a thank you, of course.” 

“On one condition,” Madara told him, feeling suddenly bold.

“Do tell.” Tobirama looked even more amused by his request. He leaned farther down to rest his weight on both elbows to patiently await the condition he would supposedly need to meet. 

“If you can describe the premise behind any of the comics in this store then you’ve got yourself a date. I’ve had too many people try and steer me away from ‘childish interests’ and think they can ‘help me grow up’.” 

After breaking up with the fourth person in a row who mocked him for his interests Madara had made a pact with himself to never again date anyone who didn’t accept him for who he was and what he loved. He might be a massive nerd but he’d learned the lesson of self value a long time ago and he wasn’t about to let himself be blinded by a pretty face again. 

To his utter delight, he needn't have worried this time. With a competitive sort of light in his eye Tobirama pointed out half a dozen different comics within eyesight and not only named the main characters but also the basis of the main plot for each of them. What made it all the more impressive was that he mostly chose rather obscure franchises that couldn’t be considered mainstream. Madara was half in love before he was finished describing the third one. Handsome, intelligent enough for university, and apparently in to the same geeky stuff as him? Sign him up. Immediately. 

“Okay, okay, point made!” Throwing up his hands in surrender made Tobirama smile. “You mentioned your exams are coming up so I’m guessing you’ll be busy for the next little while. Why don’t I give you my number and we can go out for coffee to celebrate after you don’t need to study so much?” 

“I would appreciate that a lot,” Tobirama murmured earnestly. 

“School’s obviously important to you if you’ll work yourself in to a zombie state over it,” Madara pointed out. 

He got a grateful look that made his stomach flip flop. Rather than make a fool of himself again he printed off a bit of blank receipt paper and wrote his number down, sliding it across the counter. He expected Tobirama to slip the paper in to his pocket but instead he pulled out a beaten up cell phone and entered the number right there, smiling to himself like he'd won an unexpected treat. 

“I’m sure Hashirama will be thrilled to know I’m finally being more social.”

Madara nearly stopped breathing. All the triumph of having secured a very promising date suddenly drained right out of him as he stared at the man across the counter in horror, several little clues falling in to place at once. Finally he’d figured out why Tobirama looked familiar and it wasn’t because he’d seen him in zombie form. Images of his childhood best friend danced across his memories.

“You’re...you’re Hashirama’s little brother,” he whimpered. “Oh god. Oh god! He’s going to kill me! He’s going to come back to Konoha just to cut all my hair off in a bowl cut to match his!” 

While Tobirama stared at him with a mixture of horror and amusement Madara decided that as long as he got that date first he didn’t much care how he died. One conversation - and one look at those well defined biceps - was all he’d needed to know that Tobirama would be well worth it.

[bakugou-tm]

The Purge - Karma Akabane x Reader Oneshot

Soooo I know you guys missing me writing Bakugou, and this should be my last Karma update until I get back on track with my Bakugou shizz but this idea popped in my head and I just had to write it :’)

P.S I spent a l o t of time writing this and I’m actually really really reALLY proud of it, I might even want to make it a mini series so please give me feedback on if you like it!! I know Karma is only in it for a lil bit but I had to build up the background first, and I promise it won’t be as angsty in the next chapters if I do continue

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Purge AU: With the massive success of the Purge started in America, many countries started to follow suit including Japan. Unfortunately for your family who just moved from America to escape the very system, you had no idea what was about to go down and what vendetta people had on your family

Rating: Mature for slight horror themes, violence, and murder (not extremely graphic cause I’m a baby)

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Everything about the night happened so fast. Too fast.

You hoped, prayed, wished it was all just a horrible nightmare you were going to wake up from. But when you heard those familiar atrocious alarms sound you knew, this was no dream at all.

“Thanks for dinner dad, the food was great!” You said warmly, placing a warm kiss on his cheek before you took all the dishes from your family and walked to the kitchen.

Your father simply laughed, offering a smile to you before letting out a satisfied sigh, “Well now that I’m not running that crazy company anymore, I figured I would help your mom out while she’s at work.”

“Please honey you act like I work in a factory, I just own a little tea shop,” Your mother said beginning to clean the table as your older brother walked towards the living room to watch the television, “Thanks to your hard work I can do what I love in a safe environment.”

Smiling warmly at their sweet talk you decided to start the dishes, after all your favorite game show was coming on soon and you’re sure your brother already took your favorite seat.

You and your family had just moved to this quiet yet beautiful city in Japan about six months ago. Prior you lived in America, New York City to be exact. Your father was the owner and corporate manager to the (Company Name Cause I’m Too Lazy To Make One Up).

Both you and your sibling lived a comfortable life; you had great friends in the city, you never had to worry about money, and your family made sure not to get power hungry and made sure to stay true to your roots unlike other billion dollar families.

But ever since the US Government created a new law, things changed forever. This law dedicated one night of the year for any crime to become legal, every emergency service would be shut down and it would be a free for all everywhere.

That first night people went insane. Stores were robbed, dangerous parties took place, countless of lives were murdered out of vengeance or just pure blood lust.

It was either kill or be killed, and that night your family almost got killed. Being a fairly wealthy family, you all seemed to have targets on your backs. The night was one you would never forget, but luckily you wouldn’t have to fear it anymore.

Soon the week after the horrific day, your father shut down his entire company. He took what money he had gained from it and fled the country with his family to a smaller city close to Tokyo.

Though it was tough to make new friends, you knew nothing would be the same with your old friends back in America so you had to give it a new shot. Soon everyone in your family adjusted to the change, and for once you all felt safe.

But that safety didn’t last too long, nothing ever lasted long in your life.

Just as you finished putting in the last of the dishes you swiped your head with a sigh, drying off your hands with the dish towel. You made sure to put all the soap back where it belonged and rinsed out the sink, that is until you heard the shrill sound of an alarm go off in your living room.

In that moment, the breath was knocked out of you. Everything around you seemed to freeze until it was so silent you could hear the air around you buzzing. That sound.. that was the...

“(B/n)? W..What’s that sound? You better not be watching a horror movie again.” Your mother called out, but you could sense the offness in her voice.

Something wasn’t right.

All but silence was heard from the living room, the same ringing sounds filling your ears. You tried so hard to suck in any sort of air, but it was as if your throat closed off.

This is not a test. This is your Emergency Broadcast System.

Every hair on your body stood at this, your fingers having a vice hold on the dish towel in your hands. This.. no... this couldn’t be happening.

“Damnit (B/n) answer your mother, what’s going on?” Your father shouted, heavy footsteps being heard walking towards the living room.

Announcing the Commencement of the first annual Purge sanctioned by the Japanese Government. Japan’s government official have decided to follow America’s footsteps in creating balance in the country. Please listen to the following rules.

A loud gasp escaped your lips as you darted through the kitchen and crossed the house to reach your living room. Sure enough on the screen showed the blue screen you knew all too well, the words rolling down sending chills through your spine.

Your brother sat on the couch speechless, your mother covering her mouth as she quivered in your father’s arms.

“D..Dad...” You whispered, looking up to him with skin as pale as a ghost as you clenched your hands together, “T..Tell me t..this isn’t real, tell me dad please!”

Commencing at the Siren, any and all crime (including murder) will be illegal for 12 continuous hours.

“(D/n), (D..D/n) what are we going to do?!” Your mother screamed, bursting into tears as you held her tightly. Your body remained frozen, unable to move.

Why was this happening to you? Why was this happening again? Were you not tortured enough the first time? Did you not see death close enough?

Sinking your nails into the couch you began to whimper, shivering in fear as your mind went through a constant stage of denial. it wasn’t until the trademark sirens began to ring. Every head in your family flicking to the screen with horror.

“Kids, get upstairs now. (M/n) lock every window while I put down the emergency gates.”

Swallowing thickly you looked to your parents before your brother grabbed you by the wrist and dragged you upstairs. You didn’t know your father had installed the same protection system as your previous house, was he expecting this?

“(B/n) w..what are we going to do?” You whispered shakily, covering every window as the metal shield around them began to close in.

In all honesty, your brother didn’t look much better. Though he tried his best to talk confidently, the paleness of his own face showed it all.

“Relax (F/n), if we could survive it in New York with no protection, we’ll be good..”

Though his words weren’t totally off, the tone he spoke them in did nothing to calm your nerves. But if he was able to put on a strong facade for you, you would do the same.

The two of you quickly ran down the hallway towards the guest bathroom since it was the only room in the house with no windows. As you began to walk in you noticed your brother keep walking.

“(B/n) where are you going?” You asked with wide eyes, he glanced back to you with a concerned look before gritting his teeth.

“Just getting some safety supplies, get in the bathroom now!”

Chills ran through your body at this. Everybody seemed to be prepared for this entire situation except for you. Were you the only one who hadn’t learned from the first time? Were you seriously too naive to believe you would be safe the rest of your life.

Biting at your lower lip you squeezed your eyes shut and backed up into the bathroom, moving to close the door until you heard a loud crash from downstairs.

Freezing your actions, you held still in order to listen better. The sound of your mother’s scream filling your ears sent chills down your spine.

Slowly creeping out from the bathroom you looked down the hallway to see your brother staring back at you, the same fearful expression on his face.

More shouts and screams were heard below, and if it weren’t for those noises the sounds of your fearful gasps would’ve been heard. Your brother quickly ran to you, placing his hand over your mouth before handing you a sharp object. Looking down you recognized it to be a dagger, your fingers wrapping around the grip like a glove.

“We need to get down there and help mom and dad, somebody is in the house,” Your brother whispered, moving in front of you as he looked back, “If someone gets near you, you stab as hard as you can got it?”

Inhaling shakily you shook your head in understanding, following his slow movements down the hallway till you reached the stairs. Slowly creeping down you tried your best to remain silent as you heard the voices from around the corner. Ducking your head down your eyes widened slightly at the sight of a black pistol in your brothers hands. Where was he getting all of these weapons?

“You honestly thought moving across the world would save you from us Mr. (L/n)?” A voice hissed, your fist clenching at this as you and your brother stepped down on the first floor, slowly walking towards the kitchen.

“H..Howard, this is all a misunderstanding,” Your father spoke, though his tone was far from confident, “I didn’t mean to abandon all my employees, but you have to understand that my family comes first!”

The sound of a fist pounding on most likely the counter shook all the walls in your house, the noise making you flinch and almost scream if your brother hadn’t slapped his hand on your mouth.

“What do you know about family you bastard? For six months mine has had to live in a shelter because we lost everything! My daughter is struggling to stay alive everyday because of your selfishness!”

“Howard we almost died that night!” Your father yelled, “My entire family was almost slaughtered for our fortune, what was I supposed to do? Stay?!”

Silence was heard after this before you heard a low sigh.

“My intention was not to hurt any of my loyal staff, and I’m incredibly sorry about your family. If you had just tried to contact me you know I would’ve helped in every way.”

So whoever this was, they used to work for your father. Their story was understandable, but to murder your father? What were they thinking?

A low chuckle echoed through the first floor, every hair on your body standing up as you and your brother creeped closer, just behind the entrance to the kitchen. From what you could notice there was only one man standing in your kitchen with a large gun, but you’re sure he didn’t come alone.

“Oh it’s too late for sorry Mr. Howard. For months I’ve had to dance with death while you live it up in your ritzy townhome, now it’s time you feel first hand what I’ve felt.”

This was one of those scenarios that you’ve had a nightmare about a few times, but you just knew it would never happen to you. There was no way right? Sure it could happen to other people but you? You were such an average person how on earth could you experience it?

So when the sight of a bullet flying through your fathers head came to view, every ideal you had of the world vanished from your head. You were utterly speechless.

The man who nurtured you for eighteen years, created you into the woman you were today, was gone. You felt as if your soul was ripped from your body and all that was left was your corpse just standing still, empty.

All you could register were sounds and movements around you. The sound of your mother screaming your fathers name came first.

Your eyes flicked to her as she ran toward her collapsed husband, but soon that came to an end as another shot rang through the house. Soon you noticed your mother’s body collapse beside your fathers, not even making it to him before her blood began to run across the wooden floors of your kitchen.

This seemed to snap your senses back to reality. Your senses coming back tenfold, everything around you becoming heightened. You felt anger, no... rage fill through your entire body.

How could someone be so selfish, so evil as to murder two innocent people for harmless revenge. If he was going to steal everything from you, you would steal everything from him.

The moment you took your first step your brother knew what was about to happen. He attempted to stop you by placing his arm against your chest but you shoved him to the side, making a mad dash into the kitchen.

With the man’s back turned to you, it made him too late to even bother turning around before you sunk your dagger into his neck. The man froze as soon as it made contact with his body, the gun dropping from his hands as you dragged it down his spine till his legs gave out beneath him.

You hadn’t even registered what you had done as warm tears streamed down your cheeks, hands shaking aggressively as you yanked the dagger from his body.

“Y..You...” You whispered clenching your fists so tight you could feel the blood from your nails sinking into your skin, “You go to hell!”

The sound of your scream filled the entire house, the entire street, the entire world. But you didn’t care. You wanted everyone to hear your pain, to feel your pain. Hoping they would take some of it from your body so you could feel a little better, a little more alive.

Your loud sobs echoed through the kitchen, your nervous system going wild as your brother dragged you out of the room and towards the front door.

“(L/n), (L/n) listen to me!” Your brother screamed, shaking your shoulders before his hand slapped hard against your cheek making your eyes move to his own, “This situation is fucked up I know, but we need to get to safety you hear me?! We’re going to run to my friends house just down the street I already texted him. They’re housing a few families and we’ll be safe there but we need to go now before too many people come out okay?!”

Even through your loud sobs and rapid hiccups you shook your head, you had so much to think about but for now you set your body to survival mode. You weren’t about to die to the hands of this villains, not now.

“There’s going to be people out there so use that dagger and stay behind me, got it?”

You nodded up to your brother, shaking your limbs to wake them back up as he swung the door open. Sure enough three men were outside, one right outside the door and two in your drive way.

Your brother was quick to aim at the two on your driveway, meanwhile you moved at lighting speed to send your dagger into the man’s stomach beside you not yielding until he fell to the floor in a bloodied mess.

Once you made sure he was done, you looked back up to see the two men on the drive way on the ground. 

“His house is just to the right of the stop sign at the end of this street okay, run like your life depends on it!” 

Nodding to your brother the two of you sprinted out to your lawn and down the street, ignoring any person, any sound, everything. Every inch of your body was tingling, you couldn’t even feel your legs as they took step after step down the well lit street.

Even when you saw the familiar stop sign you kicked out any feeling of hope, you knew damn well by now that luck was not on your side.

Remaining close to your brother you noticed him slow down to make sure he was going the right way before looking back to you, “Just this way (F/n) only six houses down then-”

Another bang, one you wished you wouldn’t have to hear so soon again. Your head whipped forward to thankfully not see a bullet in your brother’s head, rather in his left calf. 

Another scream left your mouth as you noticed six masked figures come out from the side of the corner. You could only assume your brother was running on adreniline as he shot rapidly at the group of people.

You wished you could help more but with only a dagger against people armed with guns you would be useless.

Two of the six people dropped to the ground until you heard the dreadful clicking sound from your brother’s weapon. The two of you looked to each other, a shared fear in your eyes until you saw a different glint fill your brother’s shaking orbs.

Letting out a battle cry your brother ran towards the group, using the back of his pistol to cram it into the skull of one of the figures. Luckily they fell to the ground quick enough for your brother to grab their weapon, but not quick enough for the other three to have him on the ground pinned.

Your eyes watched his own squeeze shut in pain, your body shaking intensly until you noticed your brother look you directly in the eyes. What scared you the most is they flipped from fear, to acceptance. They narrowed just in the slightest as he dared to smile up at you as he flung his hand out, the small pistol sliding just to the tip of your converse.

You glanced down to the weapon before looking back up to your brother. You knew exactly what he was doing, you knew exactly what he was going to tell you without even saying a word just by the expression on his face. In those next few seconds, everything went silent except for your brothers voice. Not the gun shots, not the yelling, not the sound of struggling, just his voice

“Go get to safety (F/n) and live your life to the fullest,” Your brother said calmly, tears running down his cheeks before he narrowed his eyes with a warm smile, “I’ll say hi to mom and dad for you.”

Everything that kept you standing left your body, your knees giving out on you as you crumpled to the ground. You didn’t even feel the pain of your knees scraping the sharp concrete, all you saw was your brothers stupid smile as he walked toward death itself.

You looked down to the gun, your shaky hands slowly reaching for it before you looked to your brother one last time. Tears rolled down your face as he nodded once to you and smiled for one last time.

“Go.”

Gritting your teeth you snatched the gun from the ground and made a mad run down the street. You ignored going to his friends house, you ignored anything you had ever known. The only thing you knew how to do right now is run.

You made it about two thirds down the street before you heard a loud bang ring from behind you. Whipping your head back you felt warm tears re-enter your eyes once more as you screamed your brothers name into the night sky. Your world was slowly crumping apart and you weren’t even sure if you minded. You almost wished you could crumple away with it.

But you couldn’t. You had people counting on you. You had people dying for you so you could make it this far. You weren’t about to let them die in vain because you were weak.

You were going to survive tonight.

Gritting your teeth you turn away and ran down the street once more, leaving behind everything you’ve ever known towards your new future.

After about five minutes of running you had wondered why you hadn’t run across anybody. Not that you minded, but with probably thirty minutes in to this cursed night, something seemed definitely off.

You ignored the strange feeling until you saw a large cement wall come into your sights. Narrowing your eyes you kept running forward until your mind froze, body slowing down into a jog.

You had run the wrong way, this was the end of your neighborhood which was gated, you swore you were running towards the entrance. Stepping back from the wall you shook your head in denial, this couldn’t be happening.

You spun around when the sound of footsteps were heard, the same three masked people walking towards you. That’s why you didn’t see anyone coming, they were taking their sweet time because they knew you were running to a dead end.

“Well well well, the last (L/n) alive.” One of the people said, registering it as a man which was confirmed when he lifted the mask from his head.

Biting your lip you backed up into the wall, keeping a vice grip on your gun as they cornered you in.

“You know I could get a lot of money for you kid, there’s a lot of angry people that want revenge for what your daddy did to them..” The man hissed down to you, his words only boiling the blood inside you.

“My father did nothing wrong! He was only trying to protect my family, you know he didn’t do this to hurt any of you!”

The sound of a gun cocking back silenced you, feeling your body shrink back against the wall as he narrowed his eyes in a dark stare on you.

“And that’s exactly why I’m going to be the one to kill you, because you believe the same thing as your bastard of a father. I’m not letting anyone have the satisfaction to take away the one thing he loved most.”

Gritting your teeth you fired at two of the figures beside him, one of them getting struck in the arm while the other moved out of the way quickly. You continued to shoot with everything you had left, effectively getting down one of the figures until he gun clicked signaling it was out of ammo.

Before the unmasked man could move forward you dashed low attempting to swipe at his stomach until his hand wrapped around your wrist, swinging it back around your body until your knees collided with the ground and your arm was behind you unable to move.

It was then you realized that this was it. These were your last breathing moments on your planet. For eighteen years you lived a live people would dream of. You had good friends, good connections, and a good family. But in your last thirty minutes of your life you had to watch your family be murdered. It wasn’t the end you wanted, and it wasn’t the end you expected for an average girl. But you would be damned if you let these bastards see the satisfaction of you crying in your final moments on Earth.

You felt the cool metal of the dagger push against your neck, the feeling of the blood from your past enemies drip down your skin, “Any last words child?”

Gritting your teeth you slowly turned around enough to narrow your eyes to the man and flash a toothy grin. You noticed more masked people had shown up, about ten but you didn’t care, you were going out with a bang.

“Fuck you.”

What should’ve been heard in the next five seconds was the sound of metal slicing across your throat. The sound of your scream filling the air as you crumple to the ground and be removed from this cruel world.

But those noises didn’t fill your ears at all.

The sound of a gunshot going off is what you heard first, suddenly heavy weight falling on top of you as you crumpled to the ground. Grunting loudly you shimmied from underneath the weight, noticing the unmasked man unconscious above you, blood staining the back of his shirt.

Looking up with wide eyes you noticed five new individuals before you, each of them attacking the masked people before you.

One of them had black loose hair, looking male to you. Along side him was another boy with from what you could see navy hair. They were having no problem shooting at the masked victims while a large boy with buzzcut hair was knocking them out with his bare fists.

Your eyes shifted over to a small boy.. or maybe girl? Their hair was light blue and rather long, but they were also dressed in boy style clothes. You didn’t want to assume but at this point you didn’t care, whoever they were they were kicking ass. They moved with a purpose, taking out every masked person with swiftness.

The last person though stood out to you the most. You were sure if it was his bright red hair or his shining golden eyes that held nothing but trouble. You were so busy observing all of them that you hadn’t even noticed the red headed boy walking towards you.

“Hello Mrs. (L/n), if you wouldn’t mind it would be safe for you to come with me.”

His tone was as smooth as velvet, but something about him felt off. Not untrustworthy you would say, but not exactly a safe aura.

You crawled backwards slowly, gritting your teeth as you swallowed dryly while looking the boy up and down.

“Karma-san it’s best we start heading out now, you know these guys had friends and it would be best if we took them on with everybody here.”

Your eyes flicked to the boy with light blue hair, your eyebrow raising at his words before the large boy on the other side spoke up.

“Nagisa’s right quit beating around the bush and giving her a choice! Just pick her up and let’s go!”

Your eyes widened at this, quickly narrowing towards the man who said it which didn’t go unnoticed by the red haired boy before you.

“Shut your mouth you giant dunce!” The boy, who you assumed was named Karma, shouted back towards the large boy before turning back to you.

For a second you swore you saw his eyes soften, just in the slightest as he lowered down on his toes as he held out his open palm.

“Look I know you’ve had a shitty night but we can get you to safety so.. do you trust me?”

Your eyes widened at this. How did this guy know what happened? How come it seemed like he knew who you were? How did you even know him?

At this point you had no reason to trust him, but you also didn’t have a reason to not follow him. You’ve escaped death more times than you could count tonight, and you still had eleven hours left of this living hell. You were one to believe in fate, so maybe.. just possibly, this boy was here for a reason. And for some reason in your heart, you felt you should trust him.

Slowly you reached out your palm and grasped onto his palm, your eyebrows furrowing slightly as you bit the inside of your cheek, “No, I don’t trust you.”

Karma seemed taken aback by this, but he soon began to chuckle as his lips curled into a smirk. 

“Good, cause you shouldn’t.”

[queerlyhalloween]

Not to sound like the joker™️ but i hate western society. I know that hair and clothes aren't gendered, so do most of my mates, ive been working hard at unlearning the internalized transphobia that's just a part of being trans in the UK and actually ALLOWING myself to think about going on hormones and dressing in ways other than "ambigious as possible" despite the fact im non-binary

i grew myself a little mullet because ive not been working in the pub and wanted solid snake hair, ive allowed myself to look at my face and the long hair around it and not despair because i know that longer hair doesn't make me a woman, but the moment you go into a shop, or get takeaway or pass by people in the street its all "move out the way of this lady!" and "thank you, ma'am"

i dont want the gender option of 'other' on my ID i want to know 1 good reason why gender should be listed on an ID in the 1st place

ive just come back from the range and i had my hair up like some e-thot fuckboy, i had to go BACK to the range because they got my click and collect order wrong so ive got two members of staff looking over my order, im dressed in black jeans and a black masc-looking ripped shirt, mask covering half my face and as the manager's showing the kid who served me the receipt they go "oh I served that guy earlier" and the manager corrects them "its a lady". I say "im niether" and they both just stare at me like im a toddler. Im already panicking because the air feels the same way it did when some cunt came after me in the pub toliets. "dont worry about it :)" i say, they both turn back to the tills and completely ignore me.

Anyway, micro-aggressions, ive experienced a lot of them for many reasons over the course of my life and today ive decided to snap.

Not at the people in the range like, just in general.

I will never pass. That's just an element of trans euphoria i will never get to experience. Not right off the bat, anyway. Not where i live, and most likely not in my lifetime. Maybe for kids in LA or Brighton, and hey power to you guys man im happy for you, but people assume or guess m/f when they look at me and they will never get it right.

So when i see people on this site try and twitter etc rank "who's the most oppressed"™️ like a godamn smash bros tier list it blows my mind because of all the things you could spend your days doing thats what youre expending energy on?!

You could be the exact same age, race, sex, gender, sexuality, you could have the exact same disabilities, mental health conditions and money in your bank as another person on this site and you'd still never understand what they've been through. Our experiences, our families, our morals and lives are always gonna be different and the moment you try to write definitive rules on whose got it worse you've already lost and you're already wrong. Oppressed classes are not a fucking hivemind and pretending they are is only going to cause you more problems. I get the strong sense that some of you looked at the word intersectionality, went "ah yeah, i know what that means" having never read up on the matter, then proceeded to play the pain olympics.

And its creating a culture where kids feel the need to spills their souls online to justify living their lives!

You've not listed your disabilites in your bio so you're able-bodied. You're Irish but haven't listed your race so you're white. You're cis man so you've never played with gender and suffered as a result. You're asexual so clearly you're a cringeworthy baby who's never experienced a wrong-doing in their life.

The reverse is true too, if you list every aspect of yourself then you're automatically honest. The more opressed you are the less likely you are of causing harm to others. Psht, don't have a carrd in this day and age? What are you, a fraud? cishet white man playing make believe? Post a selfie or face the wrath of ozymandaus. What's privacy? It takes me 3 minutes to read the bio on this discourse side-blog so clearly they're an angel.

my mam abused me for years, she did the same to my brother when i left home at 18 and my dad drank himself to death. My nan, his mother, never believed me because my mam's a disabled woman with a lot of trauma, and at 14 how do you explain to the woman who takes you to the beach that it's WORSE because as she's beckoning you to the side of her bed so she can scream point blank in your face, or hit you, you're never truely sure, you're thinking about running away because of course she physically can't chase you but she can throw. And then where would you go if you did buggar off?

"You have to sleep sometimes" she used to say to me when I'd piss her off. Other days she told me horror stories about kids in care, and disabled people having their kids taken away, made me promise that I'd always love her and always be her baby, and I'd do that for her because she's my mam, she'd be satisfied then ignore me for a while. I grew up thinking that was entirely normal until i'd tell funny family stories at school and nobody would laugh. The closest I got to truely running away was when I changed my name and pronouns and her rejection, turned to vitriol one night and I so, so, nearly held a knife to my throat and simply fell forwards in the uni showers. Obviously I didn't do that.

But she's had a shitter life than me thus far so she's in the right, as the online black/white dichotomy states. I keep her at arm's length but I'm unable to cut her away without losing the rest of my family because I dared defy the role of eldest child and care for her as I've done my whole life, as is expected.

we need to take things on a case by case basis, and learn when stuff is none of our business.

"Hey! :) I see you've reclaimed (X) slur, without submitting the proper paperwork. Real quick tell me every trauma you've ever experienced or I'll write a callout post :) delete this anonymous message (as is your right) and i'll assume you as sus ❤"

you can only call yourself a dyke if on your 13th birthday, the moon's tender rays struck you through your bedroom window and gave you your first wet dream about girls.

Great, cool. I have no interest in calling myself a dyke, i cant call myself a lesbian because it makes me dysphoric, thats why im queer, but i can assure you that when 3 kids from catholic school pinned me under the bridge and threatened to cut me open for being a "dirty dyke tramp" they didn't play 20Qs with me first to check that i was actually a lesbian.

if your first thought is "well thats just misdirected homophobia, so youre not ACTUALLY a victim" log the fuck off and consider what's wrong with you. Because all our oppressors care about is sniffing out the wrong on you and beating it out, they dont care what breed of wrong it is.

so you're going to spend your day, the enlightened adult that you are, frothing at the mouth because some 15yr old dared call themselves butch despite them being OnLY a BiSexUAl? You're gonna say that trans woman deserves to be suicidal because yes she may be trans BUT she's from the UK, so clearly she loves her horrid country and government. You're gonna say that black lad deserves racial abuse because he's trying to focus on his studies rather than go to protests. That 19yr old who's living in poverty deserves it because they work for Amazon. Texans deserve to freeze to death because there are republicans in Texas.

You're going to harass a complete stranger coming to terms with the parts of themselves society has taught them are worthless at best because they're not doing it the way YOU think is right.

This post has not ended where I started it but I really dont care:

Some of you are so fucking desperate to be the bullies you never got to be in secondary school and it shows. But you're cowards. You can't just admit you want to divide and concur so you do it in a new woke way and when your time on this earth is done, you'll have commited the same pain that's been dealt to you and wonder why you died miserable in a world thats more or less the same.

okay to reblog but dont @ me for a debate because i have, like, real problems and will just block you

[thealmightyemprex]

Tagged by @cinefantastiquemitho

A. A movie you think is underrated

Dragonheart and Ravenous

 B. A movie you think is overrated

Grease

 C. An actor/actress you like who first got famous for something else

Tom Waits

 D. A TV series you think deserves a movie

Adventures of Brisco County Jr .Sci fi western comedy with BRUCE CAMPBELL .It can be a continuation or a reboot ,as long as Campbell at least has a cameo 

 E. A silent movie you love

Metropolis 

 F. A movie you love from your birth year

From Dusk Till Dawn 

 G. A movie you love from a director you hate

Independence Day by Roland Emmirich 

 H. A movie you hate from a director you love 

LAst House on the Left by Wes Craven

I. One movie you love from each continent (Antarctica aside)

Sadly I am not familiar with  African or South American cinema  but Ran,Lord of the Rings,La Belle Et La Bete  ,and Little Shop of Horrors 

 J. A genre you wish was still popular 

Westerns.

K. A movie you love from your country

Night of the Hunter 

 L. A biopic you want to see that hasn’t been done yet 

Walt Disney around the time of the animators strike 

M. A sequel you like better than the original

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

 N. A movie monster you love

Frankensteins Monster and Mothra 

 O. Traditional animation or CGI?

Traditional 

 P. A documentary you love

Never Sleep Again An Elm Street Legacy 

 Q. An artist’s aesthetic you’d like to see in a movie (f.ex. Van Gogh or Picasso)

Tim Sale

 R. A movie you want to see an all-female version of 

An original film.

S. A movie you’d like to see remade and which director you’d pick

Phantom Tollbooth by Henry Seilick

 T. A short film you love

UPA’s Tell Tale Heart .James Masons performance and the striking visuals make for a creepy experience  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flKOtXC4oyM

U. What historical event is your favorite movie subject

Anything dealing with old Hollywood ,like 20′s-60′s

 V. A female director you love 

Patty Jenkins cause she is the only one I can name sadly 

W. A role you’d recast and which actor/actress you’d pick

Bruce Campbell as Dick Tracy

 X. A movie you love from this year

Hamilton.IT COUNTS 

 Y. A video game you want adapted into a movie 

LEGEND OF ZELDA !!!!

Z. A movie you wish you liked more 

Citizen Kane

[awhilesince]

Friday, 24 December 1830

7 40/60

12 10/60

Incurred a cross just before getting up thinking of Pi (Mariana) Fahrenheit 33° and snowy morning at 8 1/2 – out at 8 3/4 – took Mac Donald – the 1st time and even said and probably the last time I ever shall try such experiment – went with her to Michel’s – but too early to get what I wanted – at least none but a woman in the shop who knew nothing about serving me – then en passant bought a couple of mince-pies at Tavernier’s – then unluckily thinking it would better suit Mac D– (Donald) to do what she had to do in the Marché St. Honoré, let her go out of my sight to buy a fowl while I stood bargaining for ten eperlans (smelts, asked 4 sols a piece at no. 56 – got them for 1/40) and never could find her again – wandered about the marché making inquiries – then walked along the rue neuve des petite champs as far as rue Chabannais then back to the marché – then away a little – then back again all in vain, so gave the thing up and returned by the rue de la paix and sauntered along the boulevard des Italiens – asked in vain at 2 shops for chinoises au sirop that I meant to have got with Mac D– (Donald) – at Corcelet’s, palais royal – 

home at 10 1/4 – dressed – wrote the above of this morning – somehow I feel out of humour now with Mac D (Donald)  no great fault of hers shall say nothing to her  but it vexed me that I need be pothered so about dinners  that there is nobody to whom one could say let us have dinner for so so and  and there would be an end of it  my poor aunt is really nobody  well I am resolved on her going to Shibden where I hope not to be living with her again till I have somebody to keep house  Cameron is not the person for me  she is not a sufficiently good confidential thoughtful servant  and George is a drunkard  I shall merely remind him this morning that I observed the state he was in yesterday  I shall just keep him to get us back to Shibden and as much longer as ssuits my convenience and that is all  and I shall be delighted to get rid of him   I will either have more gentlemanly people about me or none  If the latter I shall save my money at any rate – writing all this has done me good as writing my journal I have none to speak to writing must do and does do instead –

‘tis now 11 1/4 when I have written so far and Fahrenheit 33° and fine morning – It ceased snowing almost as soon as I got out, and has been fair and fine ever since – there is a little attempt just now at the sun’s getting out – wrote the latter 3rd page my letter to M– (Mariana) then came the man from Giroux’s with albums – had Madame de H– (Hagemann) and long, very long doubting whether to take the soufflet writing box thing I chose last night or not – at last, yes! – then breakfast from 12 1/2 to 1 1/2 – then wrote the ends and under the seal and finished my letter to M– (Mariana) speaking of her ‘professed cook’, 

‘you are pothered with one, and I without – I sigh every day for somebody to arrange these matters – nous verrons ce qu’il faut faire – ‘Shall you come over next year?’ – I have a great deal to say to you, on this subject, by and by – you know I told you long ago, if you could not come to me,  I should go to you –  I really must see you before another year is over – However short the time we might be able to pass comfortably together, a few days would be better than nothing – the state of politics is so completely changed within these 6 months, it is difficult to know what to do for the best – I am not sanguine as to the very long preservation intact of the peace of Europe – things are too much embrouilliés for me to see the way very clearly far before me – not that I have any fear for ourselves at present’ … 

then the whole of the 2nd page of Paris news the republican has joined the Buonaparte party – stronger united than might have been imagined, but do not think they can overthrow the état actuel des choses – this morning say 

‘so I see the Eastnors will not be near you – tell me what you determine to do about calling – Circumstance may probably occur to decide you are way or other – you are right not to be too anxious about the acquaintance I know everybody takes fright at the squire, more or less’ – 

ask her to write by bit and bit, and say afterwards that ‘if it was not for shame, I should beg to make up for lost time, and hear from you once a week’ – Fear Miss Hobart is not quite well – she has a complaint – begin to be uneasy about the possibility of her having in some measure caught it from her anxious attention upon our dear Sibbella – ‘You well know how and where to find comfort’ Yes! Mary, I only wish that comfort was nearer – Do not hint to anyone my hope of seeing you next summer’ – will be 2 years next March since I saw her last – quite long enough – 

‘the lease of our house will be out the 1st of July, and I must stay to make some arrangement about – ‘I often wish you were once more safe in England’ – I cannot imagine how you would contrive for us – now do let me have your ideas on this subject – my aunt was not all alarmed last summer into wishing to return to England – nor has she cared a halfpenny for the Trial of the ministers, or anything else – I am much the most thoughtful of the two, tho’ you know, I am anything but an alarmist – I really do long to see you – however, I have all along dwelt on the promise of your coming to me, or my going to you –’ ….. where are you likely to be about the middle of July?’ – 

conclude with ‘I should be glad of your writing me ‘a good comfortable letter – adieu – again, my dearest Mary, ever very especially and entirely yours AL Anne Lister’ – 

at 2 3/4 had just written the above and sent off my letter to ‘Mrs Lawton The Priory, Leamington Warwickshire, Angleterre’ from 2 3/4 to 6 (Mr Henry Edwards called at 3 1/2 for 1/2 hour to say how sorry he was he could not dine with us tomorrow but Mrs de Boyve had made them all promise 3 weeks ago to be at home on Xmas day) from 2 3/4 to 6 except this interruption, writing out posting account in Travelling Daybook – about 5 1/2 letter a full 1/2 sheet dated December 21st from Miss Hobart Whitehall to ask me to get 2 little almanacs according to an enclosed for Lady Gordon who has been very ill – the 20th the the 1st day she had been out of her room for many days – 

‘she had been cupped at the back of her neck, bled, blistered calomelled, bathed, bedevilled, and done every sort of horror to, as she herself describes it, and is consequently now bettering a little’ – excellent accounts from and of Cosmo from Sir Charles Gordon who saw him the other day at Cadiz – ….’ we have Wimpole thoughts rising – January will prove them – adieu – ever yours Vere Hobart’

sat musing near 1/2 hour over the fire in my sitting room which I have had read there this last day or two to warm my fingers by occasionally having sat writing in my bedroom without fire, fancying the fire did not suit me – have observed myself always having indigestion pain come on in the course of the afternoon with a fire and not without – was it on account of the smell of the wood and smoke? Dinner at 6 25/60 – read the paper 

Monsieur de Quatrefages came at 7 – and hearing I was at dinner said he would come again in an hour – came at 8 1/4 – I kept him waiting 5 minutes while I swalled a glass of Medoc, and then tho’ very civil did not absolutely keep by dint of talking and he went away at 9 – unusually and fortunately soon – he said Mrs Opie said I was a person of great talent – took many notes at Cuvier’s letcures – I said it was difficult to judge of one’s talent in an hour or 2 under such cercumstance – and afterwards somehow, on hearing Mrs O– (Opie) was absent from the last lecture from attending a pious meeting of the dames de la rochejaquelin, de St. Aularie, etc, wondered how Mrs O–‘s (Opie’s) sentiments could argue with those of these ultra catholic pious ladies, and how the death of the husband could turn her quaker thought the singularity and of tutoying saved less of real simplicity than pride – I would not give one of Cuvier’s lectures for all the meeting of the de la rochejacelins and de St. A–‘s (Aularie) of Paris – It seems Mrs O– (Opie) travaille – is writing, and will give Monsieur de Quatrefages a little niche in her work – he asked if I was not writing – no! I thought there were books enough without my adding to the no. (number) – I had no thought of turning another in any genre, but certainly should not write des romans (novels) – coffee at 9 25/60 then from 10 to 10 1/2 wrote the last 2 lines the last page and so far of this – Fine winter’s day – the man from Giroux’s brought the score-paper (with soufflet and drawer) tonight, and a geographic decoupér of Denmark Norway and Sweden for little de Hagemann on new year’s day – came to my room at 11 1/2 at which hour Fahrenheit 38°.

(SH:7/ML/E/13/0128) (SH:7/ML/E/13/0129)

[ayurileopardsdream]

Prosthetic love ~ Chapter 1

Inspired by @elastigale and @yamino ~ Alternate universe (Non-Super Au, No Bob au, Modern au) 

Description: Girl gets in an accident, meets her future girlfriend through a special prosthetics company. Gf becomes her exclusive engineer.

Author’s note: Warning. Violence, disability. (I don’t have a physical disability nor do I know anyone who does so if I do or write something wrong, please let me know ^^”) (Also Bioprosthetica is not a real company and the name idea was given by a couple of friends mashing thoughts. If they read this, thanks guys~)

Rating: T

Words: 3,030

Au: Non-Supers, Stratogale is alive, Modern!au, Bob Parr isn’t around

Fandom / series: The Incredibles

Characters / Pairing: Elastigirl, Stratogale. (Temporary Edna Mode)

Genre: romance, hurt & comfort, fluff, angst.

Do you want to know how it happened? How it happened without the cape.

At least she was a hero, just the way she’d always wanted. 

It was just another typical Saturday morning. Gail Fowler was just arriving at her favorite queer-friendly coffee shop downtown Metroville. She had more volunteering at the local zoo later, where she loved to be and play and care for the birds. So she was getting her favorite vanilla macchiato, before she headed off. 

What she didn’t realize at the time was the two big burly white American men that walked by with a big brown paper package, set it on the desk, and take off running as if they’d left the oven on. Nobody thought anything of it, especially not Gail, as she walked out of the shop happily, until her back was blown out and she was sent flying across the street when a bomb went off inside the store, sending glass and bricks and smoke everywhere.

Looking back horrified, she tossed her half full cup onto the grass behind the sidewalk and leapt into the fire and flames, feeling more than obligated to help rescue people.

Coughing through smoke, fire and brimstone, cringing at bodies and rubble that lied around, she helped a few other people drag the other 5 survivors out onto the street where they were in open air, and when she dashed back in for the 6th, a loud boom sounded nearby. The rest of the building was going to collapse if she didn’t hurry!

Searching through the mess as best she could, flipping broken tables and heavy building destruction until she found a coughing cashier blocked away in a supply closet about to crash.

“C’mon! We have to get out of here!” Gail yelled over the blaring sounds of the disaster all around. Thankfully the person agreed, and lifting their arm over her shoulder, she helped them limp out to safety. But at the last minute, the building began to shake, and Gail looked in horror. She had a split second to think, and her limbs weren’t fast enough... She clenched her jaws and felt tears in her eyes as she shoved the survivor out, and just like that, the building collapsed in a massive pile of concrete and brick and rubble, and Gail Fowler was never to be seen again.

Just kidding.

The world had gone dark and dusty. Gail was on her back, as she’d jumped backwards when the building fully collapsed, and she groaned and gave a cough, squinting her eyes in the little cave of darkness, made of very squished concrete chunks. It was so hard to see... her ears were ringing, so she could barely hear... great. There go her two main senses. Her head was kind of dizzy, she could barely focus on anything at all. 

Blinking her eyes, she sighed and rubbed her face while sitting in her wheelchair, rubbing the back of her neck in her favorite black turtleneck sweater and now rolled up dirty green cargo pants. Cargo shorts, now. Thinking back on her accident was... extremely painful, to say the least. After a lot of mental and psychological and depressing physical therapy, she’d finally decided after 6 and a half months to look into prosthetics. She missed walking. Running, leaping! And in her mind, in her dreams, flying. But... she couldn’t do that anymore... 

So she wanted a change. She’d set herself an appointment to meet with the people of Bioprosthetica. 

It was just about 9 am. The sun was out, bright and early as she was. It was comfortably warm outside, like the sun giving you a big hug!

An associate and their engineer in training should be arriving soon! The appointment said 9 am sharp. And just like that, a small black haired lady walked out from around a corner, followed by... the most gorgeous young red-haired girl that Gail had ever seen. Gail’s mouth literally dropped a little seeing that gorgeous red bob on that tall angelic head, and holding a big dark green binder that looked very important. What was even better was that the apprentice blushed a little in return and waved a hello by silently wiggling her fingers over the binder and giving a shy smile. Oh my goodness. Cute.

It wasn’t till the small lady snapped her fingers in front of Gail’s face did she shake back into focus and have her face burn brighter than the assistant’s hair. Maybe.

“Hello. I am Edna Mode. You come for fake legs, yes?” 

Immediately her blush went away, and a knot in the pit of her stomach formed. “Yes Ma’am.” She said with obvious sadness.

Edna Mode stared her down, looking her over for a minute, then snapped her fingers, and turned away, walking out of the room as she spoke. 

“Helen Truax, you will work on this woman here. Your first sole project. Measure her, comfort her, build her the legs she needs. No matter the cost.” Then she left the room.

Both women’s jaws dropped after that point.

Helen’s eyes widened in surprise, but she kept her cool only to grip the green binder a little tightly. “Thank you ma’am. I greatly appreciate the opportunity.”

Gail however was just really surprised she’d be left alone with such a gorgeous lady! Her face was burning again!

“So, when do you want to get started?” Helen asked, beaming with excitement, and she’d suddenly teleported  to standing right in front of Gail’s wheelchair. How had she got there so fast?!

“Um. Uhh. Err.” She stammered, leaning back in her chair without the ability to speak.

“Here’s to the start of a new beginning, and maybe a new friendship!” Helen exclaimed, holding out a hand to shake.

Yeah. A new adventure indeed.

They decided to start immediately. Gail didn’t have a lot of plans, she kind of just wheeled around her apartment, used the gym with the landlord to strengthen her arms when she wasn’t at therapy, and she was into bird-watching, and she’d recently gotten into some video games, since she wasn’t really keen on going outside, due to her depression and anxiety and all.

Anyways, she had free time. And when the very cute engineer asked her to go over to her house, she could barely refuse. Let alone say anything at all. 

Helen chuckled at the speechless and blushing and awestruck girl before her, then opened her book, wrote something down, and placed something on Gail’s lap.

“I’m going to go get my stuff. Hopefully you’ll be able to speak when I get back?” Helen teased, stroking a finger under Gail’s chin, before walking away with a sway of her hips.

“Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I am so gay.” Gail thought in her head, taking deep breaths and trying to calm her completely red face. Man oh man were her ears burning up. Helen was so friggin cute. 

When she came back with a cute jean jacket over her dark blue and white-dotted dress, a brown clutch over one shoulder, and her eyes half-lidded and looking very... flirty? Gail just ended up blushing again.

“Ready to go to my place? I want to get started immediately. Unless you have other plans.”

“N-no! No plans! I’d love to get started!” Gail explained, literally waving her hands around frantically while being redder than a tomato. 

Helen laughed with a little blush, then looked at her for a second.

“Want me to roll you out? Or you can do it yourself..” She trailed off, but Gail smiled shyly. “You can wheel me if you like.. you know where your place is.” Well obviously! Damnit Gail, think before you speak!

Helen just laughed and tucked a piece of her own hair behind her ear, and then handed Gail the green binder. “Can you hold this for me while I push you? It’s very important, so don’t lose it.” 

Gail nodded, holding the binder close to her chest as Helen wheeled her away. What a lovely day it has been!

When they got to Helen’s house, it was just reaching 9:30 am. It felt a lot later for some reason. The redhead stated that her parents wouldn’t be back till the next day, a business trip, so Gail was welcome to stay the night. The poor girl was completely red the whole time, barely able to speak through her embarrassment and shyness. The poor girl. 

Helen wheeled her in, her house had a ramp already set because of the job, cruddy boards lines up on the steps for now, but it worked. Once the wheelchair was set in the living room, Helen set out all her paperwork, notes and pens and pencils and erasers, all that stuff somehow neatly fit on a large living room table. Impressive.

“Would you like something to eat or drink?” Helen offered, writing something down on a graph before pulling out a roll of measuring tape from a storage container across the room. Guess she worked in here often. 

“M-may I have a glass of water please?” Gail squeaked, poor thing was still completely red. 

Helen almost felt a little bad, this girl was so cute and way too embarrassed. “Hey, you can relax here. You’re okay. No need to be embarrassed about anything. If you need anything at all, any help, food, water, anything, just ask.”

The way Helen’s eyes sparkled as they were so close, and she was offering herself to Gail, her own eyes sparkled and stared right into her own, she was lost in the moment, if there was one. Lost in space, floating, drifting endlessly in her mind, frozen and staring wide-eyed at those gorgeous brown eyes that almost looked red in the dazzling sunlight and-

It was Helen’s gorgeous giggle that brought Gail back to life, making her blush soften, but it was still really there.

“I’ll go get you that water. “ Helen murmured, slowly rising from where she’d been bent over in front of Gail, and sauntered into the kitchen, turning her head and smirking as if to make sure Gail was watching, before getting a cup from a high shelf, on her tippy toes, Gail watched in little awe. She just couldn’t take her eyes off that angel... oh my goodness... did she really just call her an angel?!

It wasn’t till the last second, as if doing gravity and physics multiplications in her head (a meme, not actually) but it was really like everything was in slow-motion, she looked at Helen’s foot in her flats, and she noticed just by a millimeter, like some freaky magic, that she noticed because Helen was stretching up and trying to use all her height, the foot she was leaning on was starting to slip forwards, until it was a second too late.

Helen’s eyes widen as suddenly she slipped on the kitchen tiling and began to fall backwards, her one hand holding the glass and the other going back to possibly reduce the pain in the incoming fall.

But then she didn’t.

Gail saw the foot sliding before it even finished, and the exact second Helen started falling, Gail grabbed her wheelchair wheels and spun them around, zipping into the kitchen and scooping up Helen before she barely even went down.

Both ladies were breathless and beaten red. Both kind of in shock. Helen more than Gail, obviously.

“Y-you saved me!” Helen exclaimed.

“I-I wouldn’t say saved....”  She replied shyly, rubbing the back of her neck while the other held Helen’s thighs on her lap.

“I would.” Helen whispered, leaning closer and against Gail’s chest, then stroked her opposite cheek and pulled her head close, then she closed her eyes slowly and placed a soft chaste kiss upon the cheek closest to her, before letting her go and just smiling innocently upon Gail’s lap, watching the reaction with yet again the cutest of giggles.

As for Gail, her head basically exploded. Gail.exe has stopped working. Her face was completely red again, frozen in the spot. She had definitely stopped working. Was her heart still beating? 

“Um.. miss? Are you okay?” Helen asked, waving her hand in front of the face of the poor dazed lady. Oh dear. Helen broke her. In the best way.

Climbing off Gail’s lap and patting her thigh, she chuckled again, getting the glass of tap water since the sink was right there. Gail snapped back into reality when Helen got off, and again rubbed her neck sheepishly and cleared her throat. 

“Thank you for rescuing me.” Helen said again with a smirk, putting the cup in Gail’s left hand. 

“Y-you’re welcome..” She stammered, and took a drink, which oddly enough relaxed her a little bit.

Helen pushed the wheelchair back into the living room, and got the measuring tape again. 

“Can I measure your residual limbs?” Helen asked, once she was knelt down in front of the wheelchair, holding the measuring tape like a ring, and of course, that playful smile again. 

“Huh?” Gail asked, very confused by the unused term.

“Your... stumps.” It actually made Gail freeze up again, she just, stared, thinking with a blank but slightly surprised face. Nobody had touched them in a long time other than herself. So having Helen ask kind of took her off guard.

“Sure..” She muttered, giving a nod in case it wasn’t clear. Helen nodded back, being extra careful and delicate. She pulled the tape along till it pooled a lot on the floor, then her hands hovered over the limbs, she was nervous, before she gently placed her hand down, gently rubbing to ensure that everything was okay. Concerned eyes looked up, saying all they needed to as she stared.

“I’m okay.” She assured Helen, giving a nervous grin. That was before she was jolted with a completely shocking feeling. Helen’s hands were freezing! Gail’s eyes widened and she clenched her jaws and her fists, in which Helen noticed right away and yanked her arm back.

“Are you okay?! Did I hurt you?!” She yelled, standing up in fear that she’d reignited sharp pains. She definitely wasn’t expecting Gail’s answer though.

“Y-y-you h-have rreeeeeeaaaaaallllyyyyyy cold haaaaands...” Gail stretched out, wiggling her hips in her chair to try and shake off the shivers.

Helen just laughed. Really hard. She even wiped her eyes as she laughed. It was actually kinda cute. “I-I am so sorry!” She laughed, then took a deep breath and recomposed herself. Nope, a couple more giggles. “I’ll be quick.” She promised, brushing Gail’s thighs with her cold hands again, quickly taking measurements of the ends and the roundabout width, before writing the numbers down on her papers, and putting the measuring tape away. But of course, just for fun, she put her cold hand back on Gail’s thigh, giggling at the “Yeep!” that was the reaction. Oh my goodness. So cute. Kind of like a bird!

“Okay. I can start designing right away, but is there anything specific you want? Like a certain height? Any special design on the prosthetic pocket?” Helen asked, looking at Gail with calm but serious focus. Poor Gail got the dizzy eyes as she tried to process all the questions at once, even looking a little jumbled, but she blinked back when she felt Helen’s hand on her shorts, calming her.

“Hey, don’t worry. No rush. We’re taking it slow. Take your time. They are just questions I need to know for the designing.” She explained, and Gail wheeled a little closer to look over the blank page. Only little numbers and notes so far.

“So. We have multiple options, depending on what route you want to take. We could try a 3D printer, and I could actually just get you some super soft fabric and make a makeshift shrinker-sock rather than an actual sock...” Helen was going over multiple options and making poor Gail dizzy! Helen shut up when she realized giving her too many options, and let her have a chance to speak.

“I would just like something comfortable and functional.” She stated matter-of-factly, then thought over the options. “Let’s start with the first stuff first. Regular sock and 3D printing. Then we can go differently if we need to.” A good plan.

“Do you have any socks of your own on you, or should we order a specific custom elastic wrapping through the company?” Helen asked, writing down more notes on the graph paper she’d use to sketch the leg, and also on the lined piece of paper next to it that had bigger font and a lot more notes.

“I threw out all my socks..” Gail admitted sadly, but Helen waved her hands with wide eyes and a frantic look.

“Hey hey! It’s okay! How would you like it if you borrowed some of my socks?” She offered, and she’d never seen this girl get so frantic and embarrassed before! Well, to be fair they barely knew each other.

“If you don’t want to-”

“I’d love to!” She exclaimed, before literally slapping a hand over her mouth with the biggest look of embarrassment ever. Oh goodness. Poor Gail. She looked about to pass out.

“I’ll go get some for you to pick out that are clean and I don’t use.” Helen stood up and left the room for a minute, leaving poor gay Gail to her thoughts. Yikes.

So first off, love at first sight, and if she wasn’t totally crazy, maybe hopefully she felt Helen liked her too? Gosh. Just thinking about it made her blush again.

But someone as pretty as Helen probably had, well, hundreds of guys after her. Girls too she bet. Helen was only with her for the project. Nothing more.

When Helen came back, with multiple pairs, some still with tags on them, and she noticed Gail looked sad! What happened while she left?

“Are you okay?” Helen asked, kneeling down and resting her hand on Gail’s, which rested on her leg. They almost entwined fingers for a minute, before Gail pulled away.

“Let me tell you how it happened, Helen, a while ago. How I lost my legs.”

[galadrieljones]

A Funeral: Chapter 3

Fandom: Red Dead Redemption 2 | Pairing: Arthur x Mary Beth | Rating: Mature

Content: Existential Angst, Friendship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Nature, Touch-Starved, Humor, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Angst, Violence

Summary: To help her process Sean’s death, Mary Beth asks Arthur to take her on a hunting trip, somewhere far away. He agrees, and on their little journey together, they find quietude and take comfort in their easy bond. In their desperate search for meaning, they endure a number of small trials, which bring them closer to one another as well as to the unchecked plights of the natural world.

Masterpost | AO3

Thanks @bearlytolerablethethird​ for the banner!! ^_^

Chapter 3: Poor, Unfortunate Souls

They rode off the next day about seven in the a-m. Mary Beth’s filly Apaloosa was a good size, and her name was Winston. Mary Beth herself was a good rider, a fact of which Arthur was aware, but what he did not know what that she tended to get distracted quite easily. Arthur himself liked to stop and take in sights for sketching, but with Mary Beth, he noticed that she did not really desire to all out stop, she just liked to slow a lot, trotting along to survey the terrain, or to squint at something in the distance that he most certainly could not see. She rarely spoke out loud about it. This was a nice thing about Mary Beth—she did not have to say everything that was on her mind. It was somewhat of a relief. She did like to talk, but when she did, it always felt like there was a purpose to it. Even if that purpose was simple. She didn’t make much for idle chit chat, but he did sometimes, and so he could speak a little bit, and then she was always glad to respond and she could go and go and go if they got on a topic they both liked and understood. She was also very interested in Arthur himself. She liked to know all about him, all about his feelings and his past. He didn’t have many people for this—interested in what it was that went on inside his head. They only needed him for what he could do.

As they got on, late into the morning, he rode a little bit ahead, but he tried not to get too far. He was determined not to be in a hurry but this first day was making him realize that his typical way of doing things was perhaps a little fast. He was not used to company in the wild and so he tried to slow down because that wasn’t the point. In fact, he was not yet sure what the point was, whether it was more to hunt a moose, get free, or just to be with Mary Beth. Sometimes he felt more complicated than he thought he deserved to be. Like that a man who has killed as many other men as he—he was not entitled to his depths. He thought most of the time he ought to just shut the fuck up and get on dealing with this unclear life, but then he would come upon somebody he actually enjoyed being with, and that changed things. He thought sometimes he still hung onto Mary because she had made him feel that way, too. But that was all in the past as she was back on a train somewhere, god only knows. And so he flung all thought of her away, off a cliff, and tried to face forward for a while.

For further supplies and ammunition, they made a stop in St. Denis. The streets were crowded that morning, and the sky was filled with its requisite pollution clouds. Mary Beth was a little thrilled to be in the city, but she also drew a little unsure of herself once they hitched their horses and went over to the gun store. She walked with her head down a little, and she would look around suspiciously from time to time.

When Arthur asked her what was wrong, she said every time she came to St. Denis she felt enchanted by the lights and cobblestone streets but she also felt she did not fit in.

“I ain’t like these people, Arthur,” she said. “You ain’t either. Don’t you feel it? Or, maybe you don't?”

Arthur thought on this.

“I do,” he said, nodding. He felt bigger than everyone in St. Denis. He felt wider. He felt sometimes like he couldn’t fit through their delicate doorways, designed for frenchmen in fancy suits. “But it’s all just a bunch of feathers, Mary Beth," he went on. "There are good people, and there are bad people, just like in our world. It’s just that here, they smell nicer, so it ain't always easy to tell.”

This made Mary Beth laugh. He adjusted his hat and held the door for her to the gun shop. A little bell rang over head. They went inside and were greeted by the shopkeeper. “You smell fine, Arthur Morgan,” she said. "You smell like mint, and tobacco. Like man, of course, but that is to be expected."

Arthur blushed. It was an uncommon thing to hear. “I suppose I’ll take that as compliment,” he said, though he did double check once she was past, just to make sure she wasn’t only being nice. He’d had a bath two days before in the saloon hotel so actually, for once, it truly wasn’t that bad.

While in the gun shop, Arthur purchased many rounds of ammunition for many different kinds of guns. Mary Beth purchased a shotgun with sturdy handling and a bag full of slugs. When they road out the city, Arthur stopped them at a marshy tributary of the Kamassa River, and he was keen to give her a little bit of a lesson on that gun.

“I can use a shotgun, Arthur,” said Mary Beth. There were bugs buzzing in their ears. "I ain't a invalid."

“I know,” he said, swatting. “This one’s heavy though, Mary Beth. It ain’t a sawed-off. It'll handle different, I promise.”

“I suppose you're right,” she said.

They tied up their horses. They went through some simple things. Mary Beth shot a turtle and then felt badly about it.          

“You didn’t kill it,” said Arthur, squinting as they watched it hobbling away into the marsh. “You just…dented it a little.”

“I don’t like shooting animals,” she said. “Unless I’m eating.”

“We can eat a turtle,” he said. “In fact, I know a decent recipe for the soup. But like I said, it’s getting away. There it goes. It's gone now." He waved. "Bye, Mr. Turtle.”

She shoved him in the shoulder. It gave them both a laugh.

After they finished, they each had a can of beans and shared a fresh peach for lunch. They fed their horses. They sat on a blanket by the water. The weather was warm. Arthur loosened his collar and rolled up his sleeves. “Mary Beth,” he said at some point where they sat, with their legs out, looking at the water.

"Yes, Arthur."

“That gun," he said, "for you—don’t you go shooting unless you absolutely must. And I mean absolutely. You understand?”

“I know, Arthur.”

“Yeah, I know you know," he said, smoking a cigarette. "I just—I don’t mean to be patronizing. I just needed to reiterate. For my own reassurance.”

She blushed a little and ate a piece of the peach. “Reiteration achieved,” she said. And she saluted him.

They rode again, and this time, into the early evening. There were few horses out that day but plenty of wagons heading down south to St. Denis. This was kind of a strange place, where they were. Arthur didn’t altogether like or trust it, so he took them out west a bit, en route toward Emerald Station—a longer way, but with the sun on its way out, he wasn’t interested in escorting Mary Beth through the unmitigated horrors of the Bayou and the Blue Water Marsh. It’s not like she was dainty, but as he was no man of the southern tradition, and there was little he could do to predict the codeless tactics of cannibals and raping racists. He did not even know how well he could protect himself, let alone himself plus a pretty girl. He almost always avoided the marshes at night.

They rode about till dusk, making it all the way up to south of the stables near Dewberry Creek. Arthur had wanted to make it to Emerald Station by nightfall, but with two of them, and their extended lunch in the marshes, the day had gone slower than he anticipated. So he decided that, rather than try and ride into nightfall, when the old creatures and the monsters and the weirdos come out, they’d head off the road and make camp early, when they could still catch view of the horizon.

They came upon a covered bridge. With the dusk was coming fog. Arthur felt a chill, like maybe something wasn’t right. They idled at the bridge.

“I was thinking,” he said to Mary Beth, leaning and petting Sarah’s mane with his hand, “we could find a good spot up yonder. Rather than pushing through into the night. What do you think?”

Mary Beth was glancing around. She finished off an apple then tossed the core to the earth. “I think that’s wise,” she said. “Plus I’m getting hungry. I mean, for more than just fruit.”

“Me, too,” said Arthur. He resituated his coat and his hat and lit a smoke. They trotted the length of the bridge side by side. Mary Beth made a joke about rivers that Arthur laughed at but would soon forget. At the end of the bridge, Arthur’s horse shuffled around like she was disturbed. She was a fast trotter, but a skittish animal

“Whoa, girl,” he said, reining her gently. "Whoa. Whoa."

“Arthur,” said Mary Beth. "Arthur."

“What is it?”

That is when he looked up, and that is when they were approached. Three men on foot, one with his shotgun brandished at his hip, another holding a torch, standing at the end of the bridge. They were nasty characters, wearing plain clothes and with teeth missing. Arthur knew right off what was going on and signaled for Mary Beth to make a full stop. "Hold up," he said, real low.

The men stood in a row. The first one was chewing something. He spat right onto the surface wood of the bridge, a big nasty mouthful of brown juice. “Howdy,” he said. He wore a porkpie hat. “Fine evening.”

“Indeed,” said Arthur, still with the cigarette hanging out his mouth. “How can we help you boys?”

“We’ll be taking your horse,” said the man, raising his shotgun a little. He surveyed the scene, the situation, raised it higher. “And all your money, of course." He seemed to think on it then, rearrange his plans. "And the girl.”

Mary Beth seemed to take offense. "Fat chance," she said.

Arthur shushed her, made kind of a low chuckle. “That is amusing, good sir," he said. "But I am afraid we'll have to decline."

"Excuse me kindly."

"Why don’t you just move aside?” said Arthur, very serious then, laying his hand on the grip of his pistol.

The man in the hat became angered maybe then. Emboldened by Arthur's aloofness. He picked his gun up a little higher in response. His voice got louder. "Dismount your horse," he said.

Arthur raised his eyebrows, plucked the cigarette from his mouth, and surveyed its burning ending. Then he flicked it the earth and gave all three of the men a long, lazy look in the twilight. At first, he did not speak.

“Did you hear me, boy?”

“Arthur?” said Mary Beth, in a high whisper. She did not sound scared, merely ready. “What do I do.”

Arthur's voice was low, barely more than gravel. "Don't touch that gun, Mary Beth."

She nodded, waited.

“You got till the count of five,” said the man in the hat now. He was a brave soul.

“Oh yeah?" said Arthur. "Five? And then what?”

“And then I shoot,” said the man. He set his sights on Arthur. "You, then the girl." Nobody moved. “One…two…”  

Arthur rolled his eyes then. It was almost in slow motion. But he drew his pistol at a whip speed, and inside of three seconds, shot two of the men dead. The third got spooked, dropped his torch, and ran off. It was over, just like that.

“Shit,” said Arthur, watching the third man go, squinting into the advancing night. A bunch of birds had taken off at the ringing of his pistol. It was still smoking. He settled Sarah a little without even paying her a glance. He was trying to decide whether to take off after the man on horseback, or to concede. “Where’d he go?” He chose to concede. But then.

“Sweet fucking Christmas, Arthur Morgan.”

Mary Beth’s voice was high and exasperated. It was such an unusual sound—he did not usually hear women’s voices in moments like these. It yanked him out of his trance. “Excuse me?”

“You blew their heads clean off!”

He just stared at her. She was giving him a kind of scolding look as he came back into their reality. “Yeah, I know,” he said, scratching behind his ear. He holstered his pistol. “I didn’t want that, but what would you have had me do instead? Let them take you?”

She trotted her horse up to the mess. Brains and blood all over the bridge. “Geesh.”

“It was them or us, Mary Beth.”

She sighed again. “Oh, Arthur.”

He did not know what to say.

Suddenly then, she was off her horse. And then she was on her knees beside one of the dead men. She was rifling through their pockets. Arthur came to again and looked around in sudden clarity. Whoever that man was who got away, he might be coming back with law, and that was not good. “Mary Beth,” he said, hurried. “What on god’s earth are you doing?”

“You shot the fellers. Least we can do is rob them.”

Arthur shook out his head. His horse was shifting. “I have committed murder in semi-daylight,” he said. “One of them got away. We need to leave. I don’t need no more bounties in New Hannover territory, Miss Mary Beth.”

“I know, I know,” she said. “But at least this way their deaths was worth something.”

“Their deaths was worth your life.”

She waved him off, picking through the second dead man’s jacket. “Got a couple wedding bands here,” she said. “Gold. Real nice. Married and dumb, I see. Fuckin idiots.”

Arthur lit a cigarette, a nervous habit. He was keeping watch. “All right. Grab those and let’s get a move on now. Come on.”

“Got em,” she said. And then she tucked the rings and a couple watches into her dress pocket, plus a handful of change and she mounted her horse. “All’s good, lieutenant. Let’s ride.”

He laughed at this. She was awful funny. He trotted out front. “You are a brave woman,” he said.

“Wasn’t I who done the shooting.”

“Don’t take much guts to shoot two men in the head like that, Mary Beth. Just skill.”

“Yeah well, you call it what you want it. But I know what I know. And I know it was them or us, Arthur. I do. I’m just making it hard for you is all. I am grateful.”

He smoked, smirking in a bashful quiet. This he did not expect. “Okay then," he said. "Don’t mention it. Let's just go."

They picked up and rode like hell past the river. Arthur took them off the trail in a short while, and they built a fire and Mary Beth prepared a little venison for their dinner, with a couple cans of carrots on the side. They made camp, and they had dinner, just as the sun sank out of view, soaking the whole sky with its fiery farewell.

[xxwinterchillxx]

Halloween Dance and Some Unfortunate Events

Summary:

Levi is willing to go all the way to get Eren to go with him to the Halloween Dance. But things get complicated since Levi cannot show any sign of intelligence around the German hottie. However, he isn’t taking no for an answer.

Rating - Teen and Up Audiences

Categories - M/M

Relationships - Levi/Eren, background relationships, Moblit/Hanji, Armin/Erwin, Krista|Historia/Ymir

Chapters - 3/?

Read below cut or read on AO3

Chapter 3 : You free tonight?

Last week was kind of a mess. Krista believed us and didn’t stir up any more trouble. Anyway, I think the incident kind of broke her spirit for now cause apparently, she doesn’t feel like going to the dance anymore. But there was a lot of unnecessary drama and shit. So, I’m really looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

The guilt will eventually creep in but for now, I’m just really glad that there’s one less competition.

6 days left till the dance.

I’m not even sure that I’ll be going to this thing though, honestly. It’s very complicated. I mean, I want to go but only with Eren. And I’m not fucking confessing to my crush.  God, it’s so embarrassing just thinking about it. And I go all gooey once I see him. Assuming that I ask him out, what if I go gooey while we’re dancing? Oh shit, I just realised. I can’t even fucking dance.

This is just too much. I’m just gonna go and take a nap.

 Tring~ Tring~

“Huh? Wa-?” I shot up, my mind hazed and clouded. I felt like a dehydrated zombie, which is why you should never take afternoon naps. “Mom! Someone’s calling!” I managed to shout, despite my sore throat.

Tring~ Tring~

A muffled voice came from the next room, “Pick it up for me, will you, hon? Mommy’s in the shower.”

I stumbled out of my bed and literally rolled down the stairs when I tripped on the blanket I wrapped myself with.

“Ouch!” I winced when my head banged against the floor on the last step.

I could distinctly hear mom saying, “Are you okay, Levi?” Yeah, sure.

I picked up the phone and rubbed my eyes, mumbling sheepishly, “Ah…hello… thi- this’… Levi.”  

I could hear some sort of muffled voices on the other end and someone whisper-shouting, “Quiet! Quiet! Shhh!”

Honestly, I’m too tired to deal with Isabel and her bullshit. So, I was about to put it back on the holder before-

“Uh!...-uhm h-hey Levi, It’s Eren.”

I could hear someone on his side mimicking him, “IT’S EREN!!” And then sounds of hitting each other.

“Oh Isabel, fuck you.”

“No no, it is me! Eren!! We sit together in some of the classes, remember?” the person on the other end quipped.

I looked at the caller ID. And my eyes literally went from half dead to shot alive. I could literally feel my stomach drop-     ‘Jaeger’

“Levi? Are you still there?”

In response, I giggled out, “Uh-huh, nyyesss~?” Oh my fucking god, I giggled. I giggled. What’s wrong with mmeeee????

“Oh, uh. I’m having a party tonight-”

“Dumbass, it’s tomorrow,” someone whispered.

“Ah right, fudge. I’m… having a party on Sturdy- Saturday night. And it’s kind of like a costume party, no biggie. Soo it’s gonna be super cool and I want you there…”

I think he said some more stuff about whether I could come or some shit, but my useless brain just stopped at ‘I want you’.

“What did one beach say to the other? Shore.” I made a gun-click sound with my tongue.

I didn’t wait for his response as I literally smashed the phone into the wall, face fuming. Why am I like this? Why am I like this? Oh god, why the fu-

Mom came down the stairs, “Honey? Why is your face all red? And why are you curled up in the middle of the living room?”

I looked at her distastefully. She probably doesn’t even know I’m gay. Huh, I don’t even know if I’m gay. I dated this girl, Annie for 8 months, which is pretty long for a high-schooler. But it kind of just faded away. We haven’t talked in like forever. Huh, we haven’t even broken up. Eh but I guess it’s kinda implied?

Well, whatever. I yanked out my iPhone from the charger and sped up to my room, making sure to close the door.

“Hanji, you’re not gonna believe this!” I chattered out happily, plopping down on the bed and squishing my pillow.

“No no, wait, don’t tell me. Lemme guess.” I could hear her shuffling through something and then a thud sound.

“What are you even doing?”

Not bothering to answer my question, she asked, “Is it Moblit?” I mentally head banged myself.

Moblit. Moblit. It’s always Moblit with her. What’s up with that? Don’t get me wrong, I love that my friend’s in a relationship but please for the love of God, stop. Even I don’t talk that much about Ere- wait, nevermind.

“No, it’s about Eren.”

She hummed, “Did he refuse?”

“What? The fuck, no, Hanji, he didn’t refuse-”

“Gee, alright, don’t get so worked up.”

It’s so hard to not yell at her sometimes.

Taking a large patient breath, I said, “He asked me to come to his costume party tomorrow night. At his house!”

“Whoa, holy shit. Hold up, Levi. I’m coming over.”

And that’s how we ended up in my room. She brought along Petra and Erwin and much to my horror, she brought Armin along. We were actually supposed to discuss my costume but having that blonde brat there made it so damn suffocating, especially since he is Eren’s best friend.

Dragging Hanji into a room, I hissed, “Why did you bring that moron?!”

Hanji viciously hissed back, “What was I supposed to do, huh, Levi? Erwin was making out with him when I climbed to his window.”

Swallowing back my vomit, I gagged, “Ew, don’t tell me that.”

We were spitting out hurtful insults at each other (you know, just like friends do) when Armin came up to us, smiling sweetly, “Can I get refill on the tea? It tastes amazing.”

Hanji and I looked at him for like a full minute before I moved, “Yeah, sure.” He isn’t a bad kid really but now, whenever I look at him, I see a very disturbing mental image of Erwin giving it to him hard. Gag. I led him into the kitchen and poured out another cup of tea. Armin sat on one of the chairs near the kitchen island.

“Eren expects you at the party, you know.” Slip. Crash.

“Jesus! Shit- W-what did you say?” I tried to play it cool as I mopped up the spilled boiling tea carefully.

“He doesn’t invite a lot of people. Well, not directly.”

I hummed positively in response as I handed him his tea. A million thoughts were processing through my head and every one of them had Armin as my very supportive wingman. After all, he is Eren’s best friend. I wanted to ask him so many things. I just couldn’t figure out how to bring it up. I wanted to ask mainly about stuff like ‘What does Eren say about me?’ ‘Have you, by chance, seen his-’

“So, what are you wearing?”

A bulb went off in my head and I almost wanted to French make out with Armin, “Oh, I don’t know…um… what.. what does he like?”

Armin scratched his head, not suspecting even a tiny thing, “He likes lots of things. Mainly stuff like superheroes, cars, transformers…” He laughed out lightly, “You know, everything a 10-year old would like, haha.”

I pretended to smile and pressured him more, “Any idea what he’s wearing?”

“A cop, I heard. He thinks it’s cool, protecting stuff.”  

I smiled. Handcuffs. Dear god, I’m so fucking gay.

“He likes cute things though. You know, small, tiny and cute?” He made a gesture with his hand as if to signal I’m short.

I cocked an eyebrow and growled, “What? You calling me tiny?”

I could see Armin was starting to panic when Erwin came in, “God, you two were in here so long. What were you talking about?”

I hopped down from the counter and headed up to my room, whispering bitterly into Erwin’s ear as I passed by, “Your tiny dick.”

 ~~oOo~~

 I sat on my sofa, swimming through dozens of my old Halloween costumes. Most of them were really crappy, to be honest. A coat and a cap (Sherlock Holmes), something greenish (Elves or Peter Pan, I don’t care) and some others. I mean, I like Halloween for the scary movies, not for candy. As a kid, I never liked going trick-or-treating that much. I liked to stay home and mooch off the candies we keep at home. Much to mom’s annoyance.

Hanji came out from my closet wearing a frown, “Don’t you have anything else?”

I looked up from an old magazine, “No.”

“Jeez, you’re fun.”

When I made no reply, Hanji walked over and plopped down next to me on the floor, “Then we’ve to buy something.”

“We?”

Ignoring me, she continued, “Something petite and cute… cute and tiny… hmm”

I listened to her humming for a split second before flipping another page of the magazine. There was a whole page advertisement for a pet shop or something. Flipping to the next page, I sighed, “I wish I could get a rabbit.”

“Say what?”

I grunted nonchalantly in response. Hanji ripped out the book from my hands earning a distraught ‘hey!’ from me.

“This is it!!”

“I was reading that, you know.”

“A bunny!! It’s cute and tiny, with its little nose and you’re so cute and ti-”

I cut her off, “Bunny costumes scream – hey, what’s up? Let’s fuck.”

Hanji winked at me, “For Eren?”

My face steamed to bright red before I screeched, “Shut up!”

And that’s how I ended up ordering a bunny costume from Hanji’s (shady) ‘guy’ or so she calls. Hanji promised me that it wasn’t one of those revealing sexy types. She said it bent more towards the ‘cute’ side, with ears and a fluffy tail.

I don’t know about the ears but I’m cutting off the tail once that thing gets here. I don’t need people wondering if a cloud was attached to my ass all night long. According to what Hanji said, Armin told Hanji that Eren likes people who acts cute in general. So currently, I am revising the habits of the ‘school cutie’ Krista. She sort of bounces her head around, smiles and makes a lot of weird noises. Not creepy ones like I do, but noises like ah’s and oh’s.

I tried practicing my smile. Tried.

The rest of the afternoon, I tried out different looks with myself. The only thing it did was to remind me why I should stick to my style. Then I talked with myself in front of the mirror, you know, for conversational purposes. It was actually really beneficial cause I found out that if I laugh too freely, my eyebrows raise up weirdly and I make noises like a pig. I also found out my eyes look cooler when I apply some eyeliner. At the end, I had everything planed out – how I’ll smile, what to talk about, how to approach Eren and pull off the ‘cute’ rabbit look like a boss.

Hell yeah, I’m the boss.

That night, I lathered my face with some herbal fluid mom made. She said my face will glow like a princess in the morning if I keep it on overnight. Ha, I’m a princess.  

I kind of looked like Shrek at the moment though so I Facetimed Hanji. As soon as she picked up, I yelled at the top of my voice, “GET OUT OF MY SWAMP!”

Hanji laughed tensely in return. I looked at the screen for a moment before retorting, “What? Don’t you get it? I have a green face.”

On the other screen, Hanji scratched her head nervously and croaked, “I get it! … hehe… Levi you’ll find this funny…. But umm…”

I stopped goofing around. Taking in a deep breath, I glared at the screen and prepared myself.

“You know that sexy cute bunny costume we ordered?”

“Yeah, the one I paid for. What about it?”

“Well, it came at 6 in the evening today and…”

“That’s great. I’ll pick it up in the morning.”

“Well, it’s not exactly sexy…or high school…ish.”

“What do you mean ‘not high scho-’ Oh my god.”

All the strength left my knees as I gazed upon the monstrosity that Hanji was holding up. I must not have done a great job at hiding my shock because Hanji started looking all worried and she tried to console me, “At least it’s cute. Right? Right?”

She was holding up a motherfucking bright pink rabbit jumpsuit. No, Hanji. It’s not cute.

  ~~oOo~~

 Hanji and I spent all morning trying to fix the costume. The measurements were too big and I looked like I was wearing an oversized onesie pyjama that I occasionally use as a sleeping bed. In other words, it looked absolutely horrifying.  

I bleached the whole suit and put it in the washer for like, 6 hours. Fortunately, the shocking bright pink colour faded to a soft whitish-pink hue which looked less in-your-face. Mom took care of the rest. But the costume proportions were so wrong she practically sewed the whole thing over.

However, I still had a onesie by the end of the day.

Distraught, I looked at the mirror in vain. My hands felt around the costume and I felt my heart sinking. One of the rabbit ears flopped over to the side while the other stayed upright. The hood fell to my shoulders and the fluffy cloth hung around my tiny frame.

Hanji quipped from the other room, “You look cute, okay? So, stop worrying.”

The party was in an hour. I sighed heavily, my hands patting the giant rabbit ears. I look like a freak. Only my whiskers were on point, drawn on by Hanji.

“Oh, and I’ve been meaning to ask you this since morning.”

I turned away from the mirror and looked at Hanji, “What?”

“Why is your face so damn smooth?”

<<First | <Previous | Next>

[wannawrite]

In Your Area

who?: Yuehua’s / Idol Producer’s Zhu Zhengting genre: 🌸 type: bullet point - I’m sorry I promise scenarios soon

blog navigator.

neighbours! AU 

• you aren’t quite sure what to make of your new neighbour but hey, he’s nice and pretty cute

Zhengting is so boyfriend material no one understands how I feel :”) I thought Justin was immortalised as my YH baby but Zhengting popped off ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ Thanks for requesting fluff anon!! I really needed it

- Admin L

a/n: sorry this took like two decades and can y’all vote if you want us to start writing for IP in 2018. drop us a message/ask!!! 

disclaimer: pictures used do not belong to be and credit goes to their original owners.

everything written is purely fictional 

ZT’s diary: (/^▽^)/ moving day

what. the. hell. is. happening.

the dream that played out like a perfect movie scene in your head was VERY rudely interrupted and ruined by the ‘clings’ and ‘clongs’ scarring your ears

wrapping your stuffed pillow around your ears weren’t providing much help either 

‘you’ve got to be joking...’

you groaned, realising there was, in fact, a new neighbour moving into that empty apartment next door

eyes closed, paradise fought to overpower your current reality

it was drifting in the distance, just out of reach, beckoning you to immerse yourself in the paradigm once again

but a loud crash resounded through the atmosphere and shattered whatever serenity there was

muttering complaints under your breath, you peeled your eyes open and slowly clambered out of bed 

sickening...who moves in at this unholy hour 

it was 9am 

I found out that sleeping until 9am isn’t a hard task I thought it to be  

do these people have a conscience? are they not aware that weekends are time for people to sleep in? 

while complaints and rants ran through your mind, your cousin and flatmate, Wenjun, threw the door open and barged into the room 

‘WAKE UP!’ 

his face displayed an enthusiastic puppy-like smile. ‘WE HAVE NEW NEIGHBOURS!’ 

great 

‘wonderful, I can tell. Now, go give them some gifts and greet them,’ you tell Wenjun before flipping over and pulling your blanket over your head 

‘NO! You come with me! Aren’t you supposed to be the older cousin?’ he complains. ‘It’s rude if I go alone.’ 

saying hi isn’t exactly the first thing I want to do 

you sigh. ‘Okay, okay but later. We should give them some time to settle in. Besides, we need time to get a proper gift.’ 

I just really need a couple more hours of sleep why can’t you get any hints Wenjun :((((

huh maybe this is why you’re still single even though all of the college kids are in love with you 

I follow the confessions page on ig, you don’t even know 

oblivious, really 

‘just go get something appropriate from the mall nearby.’ you shove Wenjun, eyes still shut and head still resting on your pillow 

‘we have to choose it together so it’s more meaningful,’ he says. ‘sleep can wait.’ 

this child knows nothing about junior year in college 

lucky sophomore 

sunlight begins to gently flitter in from the curtains, you almost enjoy the warm sensation as it lulls you back to sleep 

that is before Wenjun decides to be a little pest and yanks the material apart, bathing your room in ample sunlight 

it tickles your face and burns into your eyes, effectively driving you out of bed 

‘OKAY! Just let me get ready first,’ you huff grumpily. ‘Wait till your mother hears about this.’ 

Wenjun just sticks his tongue out and prances off 

brat 

hastily and half asleep, you pull on a random college camp shirt and walk out in your sleeping shorts 

‘get me my sunglasses like qinfen’s and car keys,’ you order Wenjun since it is HIS fault for making me arise so early 

I can’t let Mrs Lau on the 8th floor see me like this...geez that nosy auntie 

she’ll tell this whole block for sure 

I know she secretly tracks our movement to arrive at the lift and the exact time when the gossip is fresh 

she really has too much time on her hands being the newest third wife of her current sugar daddy of a husband 

I hope our new neighbours aren’t like her...I also pray they know what they’re getting themselves into by moving into this condominium 

if we get just ONE more snobby, rich, gossip digger neighbour, I’ll gladly pay for that 11.2 million mansion Wenjun was looking at 

there’s no denying the estate you and your cousin resided in was a rich one, flourishing with the younger generation of old-money families

it didn’t help that prestigious universities were planted nearby 

okay fine, you and Wenjun lived big because of your family 

but y’all weren’t stuck up, gossipy or as gold-digging, as the majority of the neighbours you had encountered 

the new ones next door better not be any of the above 

click click click 

Wenjen pops his head over your shoulder to stare at your phone. ‘Why are you searching up that mansion? Are we moving house?’ 

your eyes swivel to check if anyone was lurking in the corridor before whispering in a hushed tone, ‘No but we will be if our new neighbours are anything like the existing ones.’ 

Wenjun sighs and shakes his head dramatically but his lips quirk up playfully 

‘I’m sure they aren’t that terrible. C’mon, let me get my new Gucci sneakers.’ 

remind me why my kid cousin wants to wear his 2K shoes to the mall smh 

no one is going to see them 

besides, isn’t Gucci a little overexposed nowadays? 

yes, I went to the local Gucci store to check it was like 1.9K? but round it up

pushing the gate open, you manoeuvre your way around the piles of cardboard boxes 

simple cardboard boxes 

nothing at all like the usual sleek black boxes embellished with the family name in silver calligraphy font 

all of which ended up in the trash bin afterwards 

dumb 

flip flop flip flop 

‘...could you at least get a new pair of...marketing slippers?’ Wenjun pointed out, blinking in horror at your worn out slippers, the left side’s sole was loose and threatening to fall  

‘oh stuff it rich kid. These were from Rubi and there was a sale!’ 

that led to a family bicker over slippers right outside your front door 

the two of you were so engrossed that you didn’t hear the pairs of footsteps drawing closer 

‘um hi?’ 

you froze 

Wenjun had a faster reaction time. He beamed brightly and cleared his throat. ‘Hi! Welcome to the neighbourhood! Have you guys eaten yet?’ 

吃饭了吗？

your eyes scanned over the two boys who would now occupy the last flat at the end of the corridor 

they both had dyed hair just in differing colours, one blonde and the other jet black 

both were tall 

one seemed older and more athletic than the other 

‘I’m Bi Wenjun and this,’ Wenjun paused to shove you the in ribs. ‘Is my cousin, Y/N.’ 

the boy with the blonde hair spoke first, smiling to reveal pearly whites. ‘I’m Zhu Zhengting and he’s my brother, Justin.’ 

not related but YH are so close they’re all fam 

OH SHIT 

AM I SERIOUSLY GREETING TWO HOT NEIGHBOURS IN MY PYJAMAS AND FLIP FLOPS 

WITH MY HAIR LOOKING LIKE A FRICKIN BIRD’S NEST 

at least there are Coach sunglasses perched on my head,,,not so bad not so bad 

Wenjun had already started making small talk. Just smile and wave! 

THIS IS SO HUMILIATING 

I’M NEVER WEARING THIS SHIRT AGAIN 

i need new shorts and slippers pronto!

• UGH 

‘oh! China School of Fine Arts! I go to the same college,’ Zhengting suddenly spoke up. 

at which Justin rolled his eyes at. ‘Pfp, not for a term. Don’t worry if you don’t recognise him, he never actually attends classes.’ 

Zhengting blushed and elbowed Justin away 

hm cute 

NO 

‘oh cool,’ your tone was clipped and you feigned disinterest, trying to get your burning face to cool off. ‘I suppose I’ll see you around.’ 

m o v e  you tried to send a telepathic message to Wenjun 

I CAN’T STAND ANOTHER SECOND BEING IN ZHENGTING’S PRESENCE WHEN I LOOK LIKE SHIT 

times Wenjun has been oblivious today: 2 

the wait seemed excruciating and when Wenjun finally bid them goodbye, you took of in the direction of the lift with a carelessly wave 

it was good that your neighbours were people around your age 

just so happened that Zhengting was incredibly good looking and currently the only dateable candidate available 

IF YOU CHANGED YOUR OUTFIT, THINGS WOULD HAVE TURNED OUT SO MUCH BETTER

all drive long, Wenjun kept teasing you about your appearance or gushing about how well he and Justin got along 

he insisted on gifting them the most expensive hamper from Tangs 

you didn’t see a need for two young adults to have bone strengthening essences meant for elderly 

but they were complementary in the particular hamper so...

supermarket was particularly quiet that morning 

and it seemed to be offering an alarming amount of samples and candy promotions 

candy was more suitable for a high schooler and college student but you weren’t up to argue with Wenjun

he seemed too whipped for Zhengting and Justin 

‘I need ice cream to get over this,’ you moaned. ‘There’s no way I can ever look our neighbours in the eye again!’ 

call me overdramatic but you would have done the same 

I haven’t even had breakfast yet 

stupid Wenjun 

I think it’s low blood sugar that’s causing me to be like this 

‘sweetie, it’s 10.30am in the morning and you are on a strict diet. Remember that detox tea you ordered a week ago?’ Wenjun reminded, shovelling free samples of chocolate chip cookies into his mouth 

why does my kid cousin always have a point...but my day was absolutely terrible! 

‘whatever, f*ck it. I’ll just pass those to Cheng Cheng.’ It was your turn to sample those cookies 

don’t you just love supermarkets? 

you didn’t think the back seat of your car would be stocked with boxes of biscuits 

morning supermarket runs are interesting in the Bi household 

luckily, there were no snooping neighbours in the lift lobby to witness the Bi cousins haul about a dozen plastic bags filled with questionable groceries 

such as croutons without a leaf of a lettuce 

lift buttons were nearly hidden from view by white plastic 

bring your own bags to shop! 

there were no longer any boxes lining the corridors when you guys arrived home 

thank god

imagine going all American Ninja Warrior with arms full of grocery bags 

there was a lot of packing going on in the kitchen 

and ripping open almost all of the cookie boxes by the time y’all were done 

Wenjun went over to lend a helping hand while you hibernated in your room, reflecting over your outfit choice and eat more 

it was just sheet embarrassment that plagued your mind and influenced your actions 

might as well be all comfortable and sappy around them because they’ve seen me in my pyjamas 

AND ZHENGTING IS PROBABLY MY BATCHMATE 

i hope he doesn’t follow the school’s confession page 

those thoughts made you crunch down on the biscuit with unnecessary strength 

ding dong 

the melodious - rather generic - chime of your doorbell broke your train of miserable thoughts 

‘hamper delivery!’ 

as you were still clad in your wonderful get up, you opened the door wide enough for only your head to be seen 

‘send it next door,’ you hissed quietly. ‘Say it’s from your new neighbours with love. Thanks!’ 

oh my god 

WITH LOVE? 

HEY ZHENGTING AND JUSTIN I LOVE YOU 

WENJUN IS GOING TO LAUGH HIS HEAD OFF LIKE A DAMN HYENA 

you slammed the door faster than the delivery man’s reply and raced to your bedroom 

‘i’m ruined.’ 

*cue dramatic Disney princess sob fest on bed* 

a few heart-pounding minutes passed, you strained your ears for any sign of reaction 

unfortunately, people paid for soundproofed walls around here 

yet, there seemed to be a sound coming from outside 

out of curiosity, you peeled away your balcony door to take a look 

lo and behold 

Zhengting was standing on the balcony, tossing small pebbles onto yours 

visual reference: Songyi and Minjoon’s apartment balconies from Kdrama ‘My Love From The Star’ 

is...he really wasting the decorative pebbles...

SHIT I’M STILL IN THE SAME OUTFIT NO NO NO 

battling a blush of complete mortification, you gestured for him to say something 

‘Thanks for the hamper!’ Zhengting yelled with a bright smile. ‘We appreciate it!’ 

on impulse, your lips stretched into a grin. ‘No problem! Welcome to the neighbourhood!’ 

he looked at the small trench of bamboo and pebbles separating the two balconies and then back at you 

please please please stop judging my outfit 

‘hopefully, we’ll see each other a lot.’ 

HUH? 

he shot one last smile, maybe a soft chuckle before stepping back into his room 

his words confused you

maybe he meant to spite your outfit choice 

or maybe he genuinely felt like seeing you more often 

that’s because he’s new and probably needs someone to show him around the estate and would rather have a friendly next-door neighbour do it than the security guard 

get your head out of your ass he doesn’t mean it like that 

hmm...

ZT’s diary: one 1/2 months of living with Justin╰( ･ ᗜ ･ )╯

over the course of a month, you learnt that Zhengting and Justin were very inconsiderate neighbours 

there was always some loud music playing from their flat at every time of the day 

fortunately for them, you and Wenjun were the only neighbours on the right side of the 12th floor and you didn’t really care much to complain

the resident care committee was rather useless anyway

regardless, their music still annoyed and distracted you to an extent

according to Wenjun their apartment was larger and thus, they had extra rooms to build a dance studio in

that was how you found out Zheng Ting was a dance major in CSFA

he just had to be under Professor Zhou or Professor Cheng

Cheng xiao’s real name is so cute omg

at least he was in a different major

you wondered if he knew Professor Wang

Professor Wang knew everybody and Zhengting looked like a popular kind of guy

+ the guy who actually liked his major

while it was touching to see how hard he worked, you wished ‘I am the sheep’ wasn’t stuck in your head while you were studying for a quiz

the clock read 2am, that was the time you finally snapped

popping panadol pills wasn’t going to take a headache away

the soundproofing here sucks! it only works whenever it wants to

shockingly, Wenjun was tucked away in his dreamland, wrapped up in a cocoon of his blankets and oblivious to the world that surrounded him

you grabbed your phone and stormed to your neighbour’s apartment, pounding furiously on the front door

it took a while but the music stopped playing and a few clicks of locks could be heard

‘hi,’Zheng Ting panted out, wiping the sweat that was beading on his forehead. ‘It’s about the noise level isn’t it?’

suddenly, the want to yell at him was gone

he! was! just! too! knowing!

it made you feel a bit ashamed

not to mention that his white shirt was slowly becoming see-through

you clasped your hands together, grinning.

‘No! Not at all! I-I j-just wanted to find out the song you’re dancing to.’

lie lie lie? 

Zhengting seemed to ponder about that for a moment before beckoning you to enter his apartment

not shady at all

let’s go

be sure to take off your flip flops before entering houses

each room was slightly larger than the ones in your home

surprisingly, the house was kept neat and tidy, minus the odd one or two boxes that had yet to be unpacked

‘where’s Justin?’

the lack of the younger boy’s presence in the flat noticeable

Zhengting revealed that Justin was away for a week visiting his family

no wonder Wenjun seemed a bit sulkier

Zhengting pushed open the door to his cosy little dance studio

honestly, it was spacious enough to have a group of dancers practice

very well lit by the fluorescent spotlights and outfitted with a panel of mirrors

there was even a ballet bar on the other side

and Zhengting had hidden this treasure how?

his personal studio was comparable to the ones at school

suddenly, you came face to face with an iPad, an iTunes tab open

‘these are all the songs I’ve been choreographing to recently, and uh...loudly as well,’ Zhengting said, handing you the device

all of his fancy music equipment was organised in a small shelf

cut

he’s so damn invested into his dancing career

‘why are you working so hard for?’ you wondered out loud

even during finals, Professor Wang never gave your class so many assignments to work on

this is so inaccurate ^ btw, don’t take my word for anything

Zhengting nibbled on his bottom lip and nervously readjusted his headband. Pink flushed his cheeks as he took a step closer to you

with his lips so close to your face, you could feel the ba-bumps of your heart quickening

if I tell you, will you promise not to reveal it to anyone else?’

so secretive

you nodded, eager to find out what Zhengting was hiding

‘all these are for the school’s dance showcase. this year is more exclusive and getting a seat in the audience is invite-only,’ he disclosed. ‘Scouts from all the prestigious academies are coming to take a look.’

a small gasp of astonishment left your mouth, hands flying into a congratulatory clap

*iPad falls from your grip and your reflexes aren’t quick enough*

forget the iPad

rip screen  

ZT has a million more in some boxes anyway

showcases were a MAJOR event for CSFA students, this had to be out of the world spectacular!

discovery: praise only caused your neighbour to turn redder than a tomato

‘will I receive an invitation any time soon?’ you teased, gently nudging his side with your elbow 

please say I didn’t smash his iPad screen

hey, I placed it on the floor G E N T L Y

a mischievous glint twinkled in Zhengting’s brown orbs

you guys KNOW that look

he let out a huff and pretended to be in deep thought, weighing out the pros and cons

arms akimbo, you willed for him to stop teasing and provide an answer

he genuinely has no idea if Professor Zhou will grant him so many passes, stop being so pushy😫😔

Zhengting clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth triumphantly, finally able to decide on his answer

‘okay, IF you help me fine tune my choreography a bit more, I’ll beg Professor Cheng to save you a seat,’he offered

SCORE!

‘sure, of course! I am a composer and rap study though,’ you quipped in reply, hoping he would still go through with the proposal

ZT shrugged nonchalantly, ‘the more diverse an opinion the better. And please, you’re all Prof Jin and Prof Jackson brag about to our classes.’

now was your turn to blush and deny his claims

who cared if his iPad was broken

at least his heart wasn’t

ZT’s diary: month two of living with Justin＼(・ω・)/

commotion 

yet again 

and it was early in the morning 

history does repeat itself 

thank goodness it wasn’t the sacred hour of 9am but 11am 

still early on in the new day 

however, havoc seemed to be wrecking your neighbours flat 

• one moment, the sharp charring of a vacuum cleaner could be heard and the next, shattering items or dropping of boxes boomed through the flat 

basically, just huge chaos 

not wanting to seem too nosy, you kept yourself from going over 

however, the level of pandemonium was getting so out of hand that Wenjun put down his gaming control and asked if he should check it out 

what could be so wrong on a Saturday morning? 

you opened your mouth to answer but was abruptly cut off by two urgent knocks on the front door 

the door creaked open to reveal a panicky, oddly-dressed Zhengting holding onto handles of pet crates 

‘hi,’ you quickly greeted, unable to stand the awkward silence. ‘Is everything alright?’ 

‘just peachy,’ he replied, tongue slipping over his chapped lips

ZZT WITH CHAPPED LIPS ???

WHAT WAS UP WITH HIS CLOTHING CHOICE TODAY?

my most fashionable neighbour is clad in a shirt that cost more than my life from some new streetwear brand and lounge pants - probably from the market - with yellow butterflies on them

what a fit, a fashion statement

such fittingly random sense of style today

something obviously wasn’t right

yes, I’m referring to his pyjamas featured on idol xinfan

YH sprouts rlly wear questionable clothes to sleep no offence

...at least they don’t sleep nude right?

like that’s living life on the edge imagine getting your period while sleeping that’ll be awful

anyway

turning your gaze on the pet carriers, you spot a pretty white kitten and a caramel coloured puppy

in separate carriers

‘I’ll explain later but um our parents are coming for a surprise visit and they don’t know about my babies yet so could you please look after them for an hour or so?’Zhengting begs, desperation creeping into his voice

an ear-splitting crash echoes from their apartment before Justin yells, ‘ge! I can’t get the cat fur off our clothes!’

this is an emergency!!!

you take the pets from his hands gleefully and throw out your lint roller in exchange

‘try this!’

in no way am I advertising lint rollers I don’t even think I have one

Zhengting shoots you the brightest smile you’ve ever seen and hurriedly dashes over to Justin

Wenjun joins in a few moments later, leaving you alone to bond with your neighbours’ pets

a puppy and a kitten? sign me the f*ck up

sorry, couldn’t find if he was more a dog or cat person so you get the best of both worlds

the snow white kitten cautiously pads onto your ottoman while the more adventurous puppy bounces happily onto your bed

I think your heart just melted into a puddle of goo

just imagine Zhengting playing with these two cuties

ba bump, ba bump, babump, babumpbabump

since you’re worried the young animals might pee on your bed, you take them out to the balcony to play

an animal approved balcony

they mess with a collection of small potted

after which, grow tired and begin snuggling up to you for comfort

without caring you’re attempting conversation with pets - that are not even yours, you pose shy of a billion questions

like ‘is ZT treating you well?’, ‘does he look better with his hair up or down?’,‘isn’t he so cute?’

‘Zhengting’s so attractive,’ you muse wistfully not realising the man standing on the neighbouring balcony

ZT chuckles, feeling red tint his cheeks

he only emerged from his room to inhale a breath of fresh air before the intense grilling by his parents could pepper him

yet he felt his heart grow warmer than ever, prior to your heartfelt confession

*intermission*

the front door clicked shut behind Justin and the brothers flopped onto the living room carpet, finally able to breathe normally

we pulled it off, we did it,’ Justin gasped in disbelief, wondering if all the cleaning he had done was a lucid dream

but the realness of Zhengting’s high-five and sparkling counters proved him wrong

ah ha! whatever ge’s parents said to him also proved it happened!

‘soooo,’ he drawled out teasingly. ‘pa and ma think you’re attracted to our neighbour.’

Justin’s hand reached to pinch Zhengting’s steadily crimsoning cheeks

He only snickered when his ge swatted his fingers away as if they were pesky flies

puppy love

speaking of puppies, Justin insisted that Zhengting collect their babies back

knocking at your door, Zhengting had no idea why he felt more anxious than usual

his throbbing heart seemed to want to jump out of his chest

at least he was momentarily distracted by your endless gushing of love for his pets

compliment after compliment, love confession after love confession

shhh...he kind of wished you were referring to him

‘they’re such great listeners too!’

oh!

they admitted that I’m handsome!

Zhengting raised a smug eyebrow, mouth curling upwards. ‘So, you think I’m attractive huh?’

ABORT MISSION ABORT MISSION I REPEAT ABORT MISSION

*sweats nervously*

thankfully, he doesn’t prompt for a reply as he takes the pet carriers from your grasp

with a wink, Zhengting walks off

leaving you in a frantic yet charmed mess

you: ZZT, you did NOT hear that

the text is fast, your fingers flurry over the keyboard  

his answer isn’t delayed either

zhengting: hear what? your Romeo&Julietesque confession of your love for me?

you: pft just bc we both have balconies doesn’t mean we’re Romeo and Juliet

you: it didn’t happen

you: I take my words back

zhengting: mhm and you definitely did not talk to my pets as if they were humans

you: SHUSH

zhengting: no :)

zhengting: come to the balcony

zhengting: please

zhengting: where are you

zhengting: :(

zhengting: come out or I’m calling Wenjun and exposing you

you rolled off your bed and onto your balcony faster than Usain Bolt

Zhengting had already propped his arms on the dividing decoration, awaiting your arrival

‘hey, secret lover,’ he poked. ‘Missed me?’

your orbs rolled in perfect circles,

‘please, I saw you a couple of minutes ago. If anything, I miss your puppy more.’

‘come over tonight.’

what? excuse me?

‘I really need help with my choreography. Please? You promised!’

Zhengting looked needy enough for you to say yes...plus, you wanted tickets to the showcase...and it couldn’t hurt to spend more time with help him right?

also because you wanted to see his pets again

you told him you would come over after dinner

the temptation would be too great to arrive on an empty stomach when a full-course meal awaits

Justin was clad in his baby blue onesie and carrying the small white kitten when he opened the door 

how childlike 

I should get matching pjs for Wenjun too 

with a knowing smirk, he mentioned that Zhengting was in his room 

in return, you filled him in on the new video game that Wenjun bought 

and then let him into your apartment to bug Wenjun 

hehe 

family goals 

you ventured further into the flat, a tad bit more familiar with your surroundings 

Zhengting must be playing with his puppy as excited barks were coming from the inside 

you rapped your knuckles on the door then entered 

bc you’re a cultured person who knocks the door before entering! 

you learnt you to knock after walking in on many...unpleasant things 

such as wang ziyi and cai xukun proclaiming their eternal love 

then catching xukun on a date with zhang yixing a few days later 

not the kind of things you want to recall 

as you expected, Zhengting is on his bed, playing with his puppy 

oh wow can I just say 

bedhead ZZT with his shirt sliding off one shoulder to reveal a defined collarbone 

his grey sweatpants have loosened around the waist to reveal his Calvins and the very tip of his waist tattoo peeking out 

wow 

so sexy 

but no, in reality, he’s just cradling his puppy and cooing sweet nothings into his ear 

‘what’s his name?’ the puppy pads over to greet you, flicking his small tongue over your hands 

‘Justin and I decided to name him Ry, taken from the end of Jeffery,’ Zhengting replies while casually fixing his top 

...as in Jeffery from school? 

oh goodness, of course, these boys had connections 

they must be popular 

even though ZZT never attends class???

what sorcery 

an awkward silence passes 

you both communicate without opening your mouths 

eventually, you’re seated on the floor of ZZT’s dance studio, cuddling Ry - not exactly paying attention to his dance 

honestly, I think Zhengting’s focus is unbreakable 

but when it breaks...it shatters 

you go from trying to explain that his left arm needs to be at the same height as his right arm 

to ‘oh my god I really like your new phone case.’ 

and then he’ll pick up the conversation from ‘thanks my phone case is from bare bears official.’ 

he loves being cute deep down and we all know it shh 

then it goes back to ‘one two...three...stop! pose. Wow, you’re a great choreographer.’ 

not even dance counts ^ 

blame Professor Wang for influencing my class with dance 

I’ve been dragged to deep down 

eventually, the night wears on and the two of you simply sprawl out on the dance floor 

tired 

Ry cheers you up by licking your face though, cutie 

you’re curious to find out more about zhengting, now seems like the perfect opportunity to pose questions 

‘what other animals would you want as a pet?’ Though, you can’t picture Ry and the kitten having TOO many friends yet.

you watch as Zhengting pouts, thinking hard 

‘maybe a pet piglet. My friend, Mubo has one and I played with it once at his place. It was so adorable that all my friends were in love with it.’ Zhengting laughs fondly at the memory. 

‘my mother would kill me though,’ he adds quickly

idk man we could like share a pet so we both gain from it and become piglet parents 

wh00ps did I say that out loud? Why is he giggling at me? 

‘yes, yes you did,’ Zhengting speaks between his chuckles. ‘I already am a Zhu so might as well be a piglet parent.’ 

朱 (last name) and 猪 (pig) are both ‘zhu’ 

jokingly, you say, ‘I’ll choreograph a celebratory dance if you take up my offer.’ 

that’s when Zhengting gets all excited and seriously considers buying a pig 

one hour passes just researching on pigs

how to care for one 

what to feed it 

where to buy one 

is it legal 

how much does one piglet cost

not that the cost affects his decision ^ 

‘let’s do it,’ Zhengting decides surely, the determination in his tone. ‘Let’s be piglet parents.’ 

‘you’re kidding...’ your voice trails off when you see he is COMPLETELY on board with the idea 

what :) have :)) I :))) done :))) 

I CAN’T BE A PARENT TO EARLY ON 

yet I really like the idea of Zhengting as a pet dad 

with me

it’ll be a small family 

‘we’ll work out the custody issues later,’ he jests. ‘Are you ready to sign some adoption papers? I found a reputable place.’ 

there’s this look of certainty and assurance in his eyes that only read ‘with me, everything’s going to be fine.’ 

maybe that was when you realised you were SO ready to admit you wanted to be with him

maybe confession could come later but for now

piglet parenting? 

hell yeah 

‘I’m in on it.’ 

I’m so glad you moved in next door 

I’m so happy Justin chose the right apartment complex

worked on this for one whole week oh my god and this lowkey became crack 

rlly wanted to get this up for his birthday!!!

so happiest 22nd/23rd to the gorgeous Zhu Zhengting!!

can’t believe he’s joining the old men club on Idol Producer I’m so proud :)

I fell for him on Pd 101 but unfortunately, his incredible talents weren’t recognised

he and Justin were my Chinese kings and now they’ve both come back to claim their kingdoms

Zhengting is just so talented, hardworking, kind-hearted and humorous

I love

tbh idk what lies ahead for his future bc YH’s plans look a bit scattered for the SKR and CH side

but whatever happens, I only wish the best for him and I hope that he would achieve his dream

literally, I would marry this man if the age gap wasn’t so big and if we shared the same religion

God bless him and his household, they deserve love and grace too

@ zhu family, thanks for raising such a wonderful man

朱正廷，祝您生日快乐！我希望正廷哥哥会得到耶稣的祝福，会继续努力也会好好照顾自己的身体。我希望有一天我们可以见面。加油吧！我一定会支持您。我爱您。💝💞💘

pls don’t bash me for my errors, my ancestors are disappointed enough already :”)

[cutegirlmayra]

Hello Mayra :D Could you do an Amy and Cream friendship prompt? I'm regrettably unsure of the scenario, be it the two of them adventuring in a mysterious new location or maybe having mundane fun ^_^; But I'm good with anything you decide on ;D So long we get to see Amy and Cream's sisterly bond and dynamic

(x A special thanks to the artist for this preview image!)

(x)

PROMPTS ARE ON SHUTDOWN - Do not request prompts until further notice. Thank you.

Prompt:

“Wow! What a pretty dress you bought, Amy!” Cream flew gently beside Amy down the city’s streets, as Amy held her head and nose high, walking with her eyes closed in confidence.

“Chao, Chao!” Cheese showed off a sparkling new bowtie he received, before looking over to Amy and seeming to agree that it was as Cream stated.

“Emhmm. Hopefully, it’ll make that Sonic respect me!” She nodded, as Cream admired her a moment with Cheese.

“Ohh… are you and Sonic having a special day planned?”

“Why, yes we are.” Amy stopped at the bus sign, looking haughty and mischievous as ever as Cream continued to praise her.

She flew high up a moment, hands bundled by her face. “Oh, Amy! That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you! It sounds like you’re truly growing closer to Sonic now than ever before!”

“Chao, chao!” Cheese flapped his arms around, also showing his enthusiasm, before Amy frowned and gave her a stink-eye.

“Suggesting that we weren’t close before?”

“Ah… O-of course not, M-miss Amy…” Cream flew back down, looking a bit frightened by Amy’s shift of emotions and sweated a little in her fear.

“Don’t make eye-contact, Cheese.” She closed her eyes in humble submission and whispered to her friend her loving warning.

Cheese nodded and lightly spoke back, as if getting the message and also sweatdropped with his eyes closed, growing awkward…

“What was that?” Amy fully shifted her body to face her, hands on her hips as Cream got spooked and moved back.

“N-nothing, Miss Amy! We’re just so glad that you’re getting to spend more time with M-Mr. Sonic!”

Amy lowered her eyes, “Then why are you saying that way over there..?”

They were now hiding in the bushes, “Oh, no particular reason, R-right, Cheese?”

“Chao!” he shivered and caused the bush to rattle.

Suddenly, the sky went dark.

“H-huh? What could that be? A balloon?” Cream innocently blinked her eyes up.

“Chao…” Cheese looked up too…

To their shock and horror, Eggman attacked the city at that very hour. Taking a few hostages and laughing at Amy and Cream’s ‘dumb luck’ for always being placed in ‘unfortunate’ situations~

Taking them to the hold, Amy kicked and squirmed in her chamber pod, refusing to be a ‘damsel in distress’ again, when she truly thought she was finally having a breakthrough with Sonic.

“Ugh! This is just great! And on the night I was gonna try and get him to kiss me too…” Amy drooped down to her knees, sighing as Cream and Cheese’s heads perked up.

“Oh, Amy! You really were going to get Sonic to kiss you tonight?” Her expression made Amy smile, looking over at her friend, before looking down in disappointment again.

“Yeah… That’s why I wanted to go shopping today. I was gonna make the best dinner!” she livened up, forming a fist and narrowing her eyes—straight ahead!

Her imagination wobbled into view as she laid down her hedgehog-catching meal, winning heart-eyes from Sonic.

“Then I was going to pretend that I didn’t have any napkins and-“

The image in her mind showed her face being mushed with the food, and Sonic’s too.

“Since there’s no other way into a man’s heart than his stomach, he’d obviously-“

She stopped when the image in her mind had them looking mischievously into each other’s eyes before she snapped out of the daydream and waved her hands slowly to Cream, growing embarrassed.

“W-well, we’d clean up after ourselves,… ah-ha…” she decided to not tell Cream the rest…

Cream looked confused anyway, “But won’t you be dirty?” she tilted her head, the action being mimicked by her best friend, Cheese.

“Ah-ha… haha…” Amy nervously laughed, placing a hand behind her head and then looking off. “W-Well now… we really should try and figure out how to get out of this place.”

Cream stood up then, looking determined. “Miss Amy…” She formed a fist by her side, as Amy was shocked to see her stand with so much courage.

“In order for you and Sonic to have your dinner and first kiss… we can’t give up.” She nodded, very sternly, and looked to Cheese. “We may be small… but me and Cheese won’t rest till you can get home and get changed for when Sonic gets there. Right, Cheese?”

“Chao, Chao-chao-chao!” Cheese, angling his appendages up, looked ready and game for anything.

Cream then flew up and hit her feet against the hard glass, “We. Won’t. Give up!”

“Chao! Chao! Chao!” Cheese also punched and bolted into the shielded fiberglass.

“Cream…” Amy’s eyes sparkled at being touched by Cream’s words. “Cheese…” she wiped a tear from her eye and smiled. “You’re right… hmph.” She pouted and put on her own game face, summoning her hammer.

“If we’re gonna get out here, we’ve got to work together!”

“Ah! That’s the spirit, Miss Amy!” Cream cheered.

“Chao, chao!” Cheese was right behind her.

Amy took out her hammer, and used it as a leverage to crack the bottom of the glass out, and then hammer her way to bending it out of place.

Once out, the three fought their way through hordes of robots, evaded explosions, and combined their forces to fly off Eggman’s cargo-battle ship while saving the passengers onboard.

The ship exploded later with the help of Super Sonic, who personally thanked Cream and Amy for their bravery.

“Without you two, I don’t know if I could have stopped Eggman that fast. You two really saved the day.” He gave them his signature wink and thumbs up. “Not bad.” He complimented.

Amy was swooning too much, so Cream decided to answer back for her. “Of course, Sonic. We’re always willing to help. Right, Cheese?” she looked to her trusted partner.

Cheese took a big breath, sticking his chest out and trying to look tough.

“Haha, that’s the spirit.” Sonic nodded and then looked to Amy, tilting his head and showing a more tender side to him.

“So… 8 o’clock, right?”

She burst back with shrieks of glee, hearts flying everywhere as he gave her a friendly wink.

“Ah! So it really is happening…” Cream blinked her eyes innocently while she watched Amy fawn on the floor, unable to control herself.

Super Sonic looked over to Cream, hands on his hips and seeming a bit confused. “Huh? What’s happening?”

“Oh, wasn’t 8 o’clock your date?”

“Date? Amy only mentioned food.”

“Ah!… I-is that so?” Cream sweatdropped, realizing just then that…

Cheese also scooted away, tugging on Cream to join him.

“W-well… I’ll just… leave you two to it then! E-enjoy your meal, Sonic… Amy…” she speedily flew off, shaking her head a moment at the chilly breeze and moment they just endured.

“I wonder if Mr. Sonic and Miss Amy ever will truly be a couple someday… what do you think, Cheese?” she looked to see Cheese having hearts in his eyes, daydreaming about him and the cheesecake waiting at home.

Cheese couldn’t say it—nor really understand what exactly the conversation was about— but all he knew was that Amy and Sonic were getting their faces covered in good food, and wanted to do the same!

[nehigrape]

Roaches

The Roaches by Thomas M. Disch

Miss Marcia Kenwell had a perfect horror of cockroaches. It was an altogether different horror than the one which she felt, for instance, toward the color puce. Marcia Kenwell loathed the little things. She couldn't see one without wanting to scream. Her revulsion was so extreme that she could not bear to crush them under the soles of her shoes. No, that would be too awful. She would run, instead, for the spray can of Black Flag and inundate the little beast with poison until it ceased to move or got out of reach into one of the cracks where they all seemed to live. It was horrible, unspeakably horrible, to think of them nestling in the walls, under the linoleum, only waiting for the lights to be turned off, and then ... No, it was best not to think about it.

Every week she looked through the Times hoping to find another apartment, but either the rents were prohibitive (this was Manhattan, and Marcia's wage was a mere $62.50 a week, gross) or the building was obviously infested. She could always tell: there would be husks of dead roaches scattered about in the dust beneath the sink, stuck to the greasy backside of the stove, lining the out-of-reach cupboard shelves like the rice on the church steps after a wedding. She left such rooms in a passion of disgust, unable even to think till she reached her own apartment, where the air would be thick with the wholesome odors of Black Flag, Roach-It, and the toxic pastes that were spread on slices of potato and hidden in a hundred cracks which only she and the roaches knew about.

At least, she thought, I keep my apartment clean. And truly, the linoleum under the sink, the backside and underside of the stove, and the white contact paper lining her cupboards were immaculate. She could not understand how other people could let these matters get so entirely out-of-hand. They must be Puerto Ricans, she decided--and shivered again with horror, remembering that litter of empty husks, the filth and the disease.

Such extreme antipathy toward insects--toward one particular insect may seem excessive, but Marcia Kenwell was not really exceptional in this. There are many women, bachelor women like Marcia chiefly, who share this feeling though one may hope, for sweet charity's sake, that they escape Marcia's peculiar fate.

Marcia's phobia was, as in most such cases, hereditary in origin. That is to say, she inherited it from her mother, who had a morbid fear of anything that crawled or skittered or lived in tiny holes. Mice, frogs, snakes, worms, bugs--all could send Mrs. Kenwell into hysterics, and it would indeed have been a wonder, if little Marcia had not taken after her. It was rather strange, though, that her fear had become so particular, and stranger still that it should particularly be cockroaches that captured her fancy, for Marcia had never seen a single cockroach, didn't know what they were. (The Kenwells were a Minnesota family, and Minnesota families simply don't have cockroaches.) In fact, the subject did not arise until Marcia was nineteen and setting out (armed with nothing but a high school diploma and pluck, for she was not, you see, a very attractive girl) to conquer New York.

On the day of her departure, her favorite and only surviving aunt came with her to the Greyhound Terminal (her parents being deceased) and gave her this parting advice: "Watch out for the roaches, Marcia darling. New York City is full of cockroaches." At that time (at almost any time really) Marcia hardly paid attention to her aunt, who had opposed the trip from the start and given a hundred or more reasons why Marcia had better not go, not till she was older at least.

Her aunt had been proven right on all counts: Marcia after five years and fifteen employment agency fees could find nothing in New York but dull jobs at mediocre wages; she had no more friends than when she lived on West 16th; and, except for its view (the Chock Full O'Nuts warehouse and a patch of sky), her present apartment on lower Thompson Street was not a great improvement on its predecessor.

The city was full of promises, but they had all been pledged to other people. The city Marcia knew was sinful, indifferent, dirty, and dangerous. Every day she read accounts of women attacked in subway stations, raped in the streets, knifed in their own beds. A hundred people looked on curiously all the while and offered no assistance. And on top of everything else there were the roaches!

There were roaches everywhere, but Marcia didn't see them until she'd been in New York a month. They came to her--or she to them--at Silversmith's on Nassau Street, a stationery shop where she had been working for three days. It was the first job she'd been able to find. Alone or helped by a pimply stockboy (in all fairness it must be noted that Marcia was not without an acne problem of her own), she wandered down rows of rasp-edged metal shelves in the musty basement, making an inventory of the sheaves and piles and boxes of bond paper, leatherette-bound diaries, pins and clips, and carbon paper. The basement was dirty and so dim that she needed a flashlight for the lowest shelves. In the obscurest corner, a faucet leaked perpetually into a gray sink: she had been resting near this sink, sipping a cup of tepid coffee (saturated, in the New York manner, with sugar and drowned in milk), thinking, probably, of how she could afford several things she simply couldn't afford, when she noticed the dark spots moving on the side of the sink. At first she thought they might be no more than motes floating in the jelly of her eyes, or the giddy dots that one sees after over-exertion on a hot day. But they persisted too long to be illusory, and Marcia drew nearer, feeling compelled to bear witness. How do I know they are insects? she thought.

How are we to explain the fact that what repels us most can be at times--at the same time--inordinately attractive? Why is the cobra poised to strike so beautiful? The fascination of the abomination is something that ... Something which we would rather not account for. The subject borders on the obscene, and there is no need to deal with it here, except to note the breathless wonder with which Marcia observed these first roaches of hers. Her chair was drawn so close to the sink that she could see the mottling of their oval, unsegmented bodies, the quick scuttering of their thin legs, and the quicker flutter of their antennae. They moved randomly, proceeding nowhere, centered nowhere. They seemed greatly disturbed over nothing. Perhaps, Marcia thought, my presence has a morbid effect on them?

Only then did she become aware, aware fully, that these were the cockroaches of which she had been warned. Repulsion took hold; her flesh curdled on her bones. She screamed and fell back in her chair, almost upsetting a shelf of oddlots. Simultaneously the roaches disappeared over the edge of the sink and into the drain.

Mr. Silversmith, coming downstairs to inquire the source of Marcia's alarm, found her supine and unconscious. He sprinkled her face with tapwater, and she awoke with a shudder of nausea. She refused to explain why she had screamed and insisted that she must leave Mr. Silversmith's employ immediately. He, supposing that the pimply stockboy (who was his son) had made a pass at Marcia, paid her for the three days she had worked and let her go without regrets. From that moment on, cockroaches were to be a regular feature of Marcia's existence.

On Thompson Street Marcia was able to reach a sort of stalemate with the cockroaches. She settled into a comfortable routine of pastes and powders, scrubbing and waxing, prevention (she never had even a cup of coffee without washing and drying cup and coffeepot immediately afterward) and ruthless extermination. The only roaches who trespassed upon her two cozy rooms came up from the apartment below, and they did not stay long, you may be sure. Marcia would have complained to the landlady, except that it was the landlady's apartment and her roaches. She had been inside, for a glass of wine on Christmas Eve, and she had to admit that it wasn't exceptionally dirty. It was, in fact, more than commonly clean-but that was not enough in New York. If everyone, Marcia thought, took as much care as I, there would soon be no cockroaches in New York City.

Then (it was March and Marcia was halfway through her sixth year in the city) the Shchapalovs moved in next door. There were three of them--two men and a woman--and they were old, though exactly how old it was hard to say: they had been aged by more than time. Perhaps they weren't more than forty. The woman, for instance, though she still had brown hair, had a face wrinkly as a prune and was missing several teeth. She would stop Marcia in the hallway or on the street, grabbing hold of her coatsleeve, and talk to her--always a simple lament about the weather, which was too hot or too cold or too wet or too dry. Marcia never knew half of what the old woman was saying, she mumbled so. Then she'd totter off to the grocery with her bagful of empties.

The Shchapalovs, you see, drank. Marcia, who had a rather exaggerated idea of the cost of alcohol (the cheapest thing she could imagine was vodka), wondered where they got the money for all the drinking they did. She knew they didn't work, for on days when Marcia was home with the flu she could hear the three Shchapalovs through the thin wall between their kitchen and hers screaming at each other to exercise their adrenal glands. They're on welfare, Marcia decided. Or perhaps the man with only one eye was a veteran on pension.

She didn't so much mind the noise of their arguments (she was seldom home in the afternoon), but she couldn't stand their singing. Early in the evening they'd start in, singing along with the radio stations. Everything they listened to sounded like Guy Lombardo. Later, about eight o'clock they sang a cappella. Strange, soulless noises rose and fell like Civil Defense sirens; there were bellowings, bayings, and cries. Marcia had heard something like it once on a Folkways record of Czechoslovakian wedding chants. She was quite beside herself whenever the awful noise started up and had to leave the house till they were done. A complaint would do no good: the Shchapalovs had a right to sing at that hour.

Besides, one of the men was said to be related by marriage to the landlady. That's how they got the apartment, which had been used as a storage space until they'd moved in. Marcia couldn't understand how the three of them could fit into such a little space--just a room-and-a-half with a narrow window opening onto the air shaft. (Marcia had discovered that she could see their entire living space through a hole that had been broken through the wall when the plumbers had installed a sink for the Shchapalovs.)

But if their singing distressed her, what was she to do about the roaches? The Shchapalov woman, who was the sister of one man and married to the other--or else the men were brothers and she was the wife of one of them (sometimes, it seemed to Marcia, from the words that came through the walls, that she was married to neither of them--or to both), was a bad housekeeper, and the Shchapalov apartment was soon swarming with roaches. Since Marcia's sink and the Shchapalovs' were fed by the same pipes and emptied into a common drain, a steady overflow of roaches was disgorged into Marcia's immaculate kitchen. She could spray and lay out more poisoned potatoes; she could scrub and dust and stuff Kleenex tissues into holes where the pipes passed through the wall: it was all to no avail. The Shchapalov roaches could always lay another million eggs in the garbage bags rotting beneath the Shchapalov sink. In a few days they would be swarming through the pipes and cracks and into Marcia's cupboards. She would lay in bed and watch them (this was possible because Marcia kept a nightlight burning in each room) advancing across the floor and up the walls, trailing the Shchapalovs' filth and disease everywhere they went.

One such evening the roaches were especially bad, and Marcia was trying to muster the resolution to get out of her warm bed and attack them with Roach-It. She had left the windows open from the conviction that cockroaches do not like the cold, but she found that she liked it much less. When she swallowed, it hurt, and she knew she was coming down with a cold. And all because of them!

"Oh go away!" she begged. "Go away! Go away! Get out of my apartment. "

She addressed the roaches with the same desperate intensity with which she sometimes (though not often in recent years) addressed prayers to the Almighty. Once she had prayed all night long to get rid of her acne, but in the morning it was worse than ever. People in intolerable circumstances will pray to anything. Truly, there are no atheists in foxholes: the men there pray to the bombs that they may land somewhere else.

The only strange thing in Marcia's case is that her prayers were answered. The cockroaches fled from her apartment as quickly as their little legs could carry them--and in straight lines, too. Had they heard her? Had they understood?

Marcia could still see one cockroach coming down from the cupboard. "Stop!" she commanded. And it stopped.

At Marcia's spoken command, the cockroach would march up and down, to the left and to the right. Suspecting that her phobia had matured into madness, Marcia left her warm bed, turned on the light, and cautiously approached the roach, which remained motionless, as she had bidden it. "Wiggle your antennas, " she commanded. The cockroach wiggled its antennae.

She wondered if they would all obey her and found, within the next few days, that they all would. They would do anything she told them to. They would eat poison out of her hand. Well, not exactly out of her hand, but it amounted to the same thing. They were devoted to her. Slavishly.

It is the end, she though, of my roach problem. But of course it was only the beginning.

Marcia did not question too closely the reason the roaches obeyed her. She had never much troubled herself with abstract problems. After expending so much time and attention on them, it seemed only natural that she should exercise a certain power over them. However, she was wise enough never to speak of this power to anyone else--even to Miss Bismuth at the insurance office. Miss Bismuth read the horoscope magazines and claimed to be able to communicate with her mother, aged sixty-eight, telepathically. Her mother lived in Ohio. But what would Marcia have said: that she could communicate telepathically with cockroaches? Impossible.

Nor did Marcia use her power for any other purpose than keeping the cockroaches out of her own apartment. Whenever she saw one, she simply commanded it to go to the Shchapalov apartment and stay there. It was surprising then that there were always more roaches coming back through the pipes. Marcia assumed that they were younger generations. Cockroaches are known to breed fast. But it was easy enough to send them to the Shchapalovs.

"Into their beds," she added as an afterthought. "Go into their beds." Disgusting as it was, the idea gave her a queer thrill of pleasure.

The next morning, the Shchapalov woman, smelling a little worse than usual (Whatever was it, Marcia wondered, that they drank?), was waiting at the open door of her apartment. She wanted to speak to Marcia before she left for work. Her housedress was mired from an attempt at scrubbing the floor, and while she sat there talking, she tried to wring out the scrubwater.

"No idea!" she exclaimed. "You ain't got no idea how bad! 'S terrible!"

"What?" Marcia asked, knowing perfectly well what.

"The boogs! Oh, the boogs are just everywhere. Don't you have 'em, sweetheart? I don't know what to do. I try to keep a decent house, God knows--" She lifted her rheumy eyes to heaven, testifying. "--but I don't know what to do." She leaned forward, confidingly. "You won't believe this, sweetheart, but last night . . ." A cockroach began to climb out of the limp strands of hair straggling down into the woman's eyes. ". . . they got into bed with us! Would you believe it? There must have been a hundred of 'em. I said to Osip, I said--What's wrong, sweetheart?"

Marcia, speechless with horror, pointed at the roach, which had almost reached the bridge of the woman's nose. "Yech!" the woman agreed, smashing it and wiping her dirtied thumb on her dirtied dress. "Goddam boogs! I hate 'em, I swear to God. But what's a person gonna do? Now, what I wanted to ask, sweetheart, is do you have a problem with the boogs? Being as how you're right next door, I thought--" She smiled a confidential smile, as though to say this is just between us ladies. Marcia almost expected a roach to skitter out between her gapped teeth.

"No," she said. "No, I use Black Flag." She backed away from the doorway toward the safety of the stairwell. "Black Flag," she said again, louder. "Black Flag," she shouted from the foot of the stairs. Her knees trembled so, that she had to hold onto the metal banister for support.

At the insurance office that day, Marcia couldn't keep her mind on her work five minutes at a time. (Her work in the Actuarial Dividends department consisted of adding up long rows of two-digit numbers on a Burroughs adding machine and checking the similar additions of her co-workers for errors.) She kept thinking of the cockroaches in the tangled hair of the Shchapalov woman, of her bed teeming with roaches, and of other, less concrete horrors on the periphery of consciousness. The numbers swam and swarmed before her eyes, and twice she had to go to the Ladies' Room, but each time it was a false alarm. Nevertheless, lunchtime found her with no appetite. Instead of going down to the employee cafeteria she went out into the fresh April air and strolled along 23rd Street. Despite the spring, it all seemed to bespeak a sordidness, a festering corruption. The stones of the Flatiron Building oozed damp blackness; the gutters were heaped with soft decay; the smell of burning grease hung in the air outside the cheap restaurants like cigarette smoke in a close room.

The afternoon was worse. Her fingers would not touch the correct numbers on the machine unless she looked at them. One silly phrase kept running through her head: "Something must be done. Something must be done." She had quite forgotten that she had sent the roaches into the Shchapalovs' bed in the first place.

That night, instead of going home immediately, she went to a double feature on 42nd Street. She couldn't afford the better movies. Susan Hayward's little boy almost drowned in quicksand. That was the only thing she remembered afterward.

She did something then that she had never done before. She had a drink in a bar. She had two drinks. Nobody bothered her; nobody even looked in her direction. She took a taxi to Thompson Street (the subways weren't safe at that hour) and arrived at her door by eleven o'clock. She didn't have anything left for a tip. The taxi driver said he understood.

There was a light on under the Shchapalovs' door, and they were singing. It was eleven o'clock. "Something must be done," Marcia whispered to herself earnestly. "Something must be done."

Without turning on her own light, without even taking off her new spring jacket from Ohrbach's, Marcia got down on her knees and crawled under the sink. She tore out the Kleenexes she had stuffed into the cracks around the pipes.

There they were, the three of them, the Shchapalovs, drinking, the woman plumped on the lap of the one-eyed man, and the other man, in a dirty undershirt, stamping his foot on the floor to accompany the loud discords of their song. Horrible. They were drinking of course, she might have known it, and now the woman pressed her roachy mouth against the mouth of the one-eyed man--kiss, kiss. Horrible, horrible. Marcia's hands knotted into her mouse-colored hair, and she thought: The filth, the disease! Why, they hadn't learned a thing from last night!

Some time later (Marcia had lost track of time) the overhead light in the Shchapalovs' apartment was turned off. Marcia waited till they made no more noise. "Now," Marcia said, "all of you.

"All of you in this building, all of you that can hear me, gather around the bed, but wait a little while yet. Patience. All of you . . ." The words of her command fell apart into little fragments, which she told like the beads of a rosary--little brown ovoid wooden beads. ". . . gather round ... wait a little while yet ... all of you ... patience ... gather round . . ." Her hand stroked the cold water pipes rhythmically, and it seemed that she could hear them--gathering, scuttering up through the walls, coming out of the cupboards, the garbage bags--a host, an army, and she was their absolute queen.

"Now!" she said. "Mount them! Cover them' Devour them!"

There was no doubt that she could hear them now. She heard them quite palpably. Their sound was like grass in the wind, like the first stirrings of gravel dumped from a truck. Then there was the Shchapalov woman's scream, and curses from the men, such terrible curses that Marcia could hardly bear to listen.

A light went on, and Marcia could see them, the roaches, everywhere. Every surface, the walls, the doors, the shabby sticks of furniture, was motley thick with Blattelae Germanicae. There was more than a single thickness.

The Shchapalov woman, standing up in her bed, screamed monotonously. Her pink rayon nightgown was speckled with brown-black dots. Her knobby fingers tried to brush bugs out of her hair, off her face. The man in the undershirt who a few minutes before had been stomping his feet to the music stomped now more urgently, one hand still holding onto the lightcord. Soon the floor was slimy with crushed roaches, and he slipped. The light went out. The woman's scream took on a rather choked quality, as though ...

But Marcia wouldn't think of that. "Enough," she whispered. "No more. Stop.”

She crawled away from the sink, across the room on to her bed, which tried, with a few tawdry cushions, to dissemble itself as a couch for the daytime. Her breathing came hard, and there was a curious constriction in her throat. She was sweating incontinently.

From the Shchapalovs' room came scuffling sounds, a door banged, running feet, and then a louder muffled noise, perhaps a body falling downstairs. The landlady's voice: "What the hell do you think you're--" Other voices overriding hers. Incoherences, and footsteps returning up the stairs. Once more, the landlady: "There ain't no boogs here, for heaven's sake. The boogs is in your heads. You've got the d.t.'s, that's what. And it wouldn't be any wonder, if there were boogs. The place is filthy. Look at that crap on the floor. Filth! I've stood just about enough from you. Tomorrow you move out, hear? This used to be a decent building."

The Shchapalovs did not protest their eviction. Indeed, they did not wait for the morrow to leave. They quitted their apartment with only a suitcase, a laundry bag, and an electric toaster. Marcia watched them go down the steps through her half-open door. It's done, she thought. It's all over.

With a sigh of almost sensual pleasure, she turned on the lamp beside the bed, then the other lamps. The room gleamed immaculately. Deciding to celebrate her victory, she went to the cupboard, where she kept a bottle of crime de menthe.

The cupboard was full of roaches.

She had not told them where to go, where not to go, when they left the Shchapalov apartment. It was her own fault.

The great silent mass of roaches regarded Marcia calmly, and it seemed to the distracted girl that she could read their thoughts, their thought rather, for they had but a single thought. She could read it as clearly as she could read the illuminated billboard for Chock Full O'Nuts outside her window. It was delicate music issuing from a thousand tiny pipes. It was an ancient music box open after centuries of silence: "We love you we love you we love you we love you."

Something strange happened inside Marcia then, something unprecedented: she responded.

"I love you too," she replied. "Oh, I love you. Come to me, all of you. Come to me. I love you. Come to me. I love you. Come to me."

From every comer of Manhattan, from the crumbling walls of Harlem, from restaurants on 56th Street, from warehouses along the river, from sewers and from orange peels moldering in garbage cans, the loving roaches came forth and began to crawl toward their mistress.

[justa-mysticmess]

hi dear anon~! this request is so interesting and honestly had me so excited to get to it because being muslim this one should be pretty easy for me fingers crossed lol ahh hope you like this, and so sorry for the usual lateness pretty please pray for my assignment to go well and for this semester to end quickly!

Jumin

easter was coming up

where jumin never really cared much about the holiday before, he was positively excited to spend it with mc this time

it was amazing how one’s thoughts on holiday’s could change within a year

left work early on palm sunday to give mc a surprise visit before taking them out for a fun day because our man never left work early

succeeded in surprising mc by being at their door at noon

bae, seriously, i’m overjoyed to see you but it’s s u n d a y morning

tries not to be offended

fails miserably coz mc proceeds to glomp him in a tight hug and tell him they’re just cranky when they are woken up which jumin actually did just now but shhh

jumin’s seated comfortably on mc’s favorite couch and told to make himself at home while mc takes their morning shower

decides to make mc blueberry pancakes for breakfast because they have a busy day ahead

sticks to making soft fluffy pancakes and provide chocolate, honey and maple syrup for mc to choose from when he doesn’t find blueberries

could totally order the ingredients needed but has come to know not to do shit like that for mc all the time

jumin’s a good boy

mc exclaims loudly, the last of their pancakes escaping their mouth in a mess, when he explains what day it is

confused because does mc not want to go with part of the day’s plan because of their religion?

no, no of course i can visit your church with you but juminnn! i did not know!!

mc is shook

they never knew how almost every day around easter was so special??

jumin is really happy he didn’t accidentally offend mc by planning a visit to church without asking first

mc was such a gift with their easy temprament and how unjudging they were

perhaps he should surprise mc with pentecost too?

nah, that didn’t feel right; he would tell mc about it beforehand so it wuld be a win-win

Hyun/Zen

zen hadn’t been so excited for a holiday in quite a while

but this time he was! because he had mc to celebrate it with!

he prepared his outfit well before a week 

that’s also about the time his patience finally cracks and he needs to talk to mc about it

so he calls them up to ask them to the harvest full moon

he’s a bit put off by mc’s baffled response but quickly reminds himself since mc is kind of new to korea it’s normal for them to not know about such holidays

just like zen doesn’t know about the holidays important to mc and their religion

he likes how fascinated mc sounds and feels like he is soaring when their fascination turns into excitement for spending the day with him!

he’s even more pleasantly surprised when mc calls him to their house to help them pick an appropriate outfit for the harvest moon

with attitude like that, any holiday with mc would be a blast, he could tell!

Yoosung

yoosung was ecstatic!

why??

because october 3rd was coming up!

which meant national holiday!

so when mc scolded him for skipping class when he called to meet up, he was perplexed!

was it not the third today??

but everywhere he looked, couples roamed happily, and he even caught a conversation or two of how relieved they were for the third of october!

it actually still took him checking again a few times to realize that no! he was right about the holiday!

quickly called mc back again and tearfully told them that their prank was really mean on him!

but mc was even more confused now and asked him to start form the beginning

when finally the matter is clear, yoosung is so relieved he was right, and mc is embarrassed for having forgotten the october 3rd holiday

they still manage to have a lovely day though, and yoosung teases mc about their little nagging before seeing them off

Saeyoung/707

seven knew that mc was muslim

he also knew that mc was pretty clueless about religious holidays

but he didn’t judge them for it, for they were often clueless even about their own religious holidays, which he honestly found kinda cute funny

of course, he would endlessly tease mc about it!

he was looking for another way to prank mc, when the perfect idea came to mind!

so he patiently waited for the rest of the month of october to pass by~

sure enough, mc was still fast asleep after their exhausting rewarding time trick-or-treating on halloween  night in full costumes! fun times!!

saeyoung took some mercy on his sleeping s/o and decided to wait till sometime after noon to put his prank to action

as he crept into their room without a sound, he made sure he was hovering close by as he flung the curtains aside and bathed the room in bright warm sunlight!

mc groaned, obviously annoyed at being woken up and instead turned to sleep again

but they sleepily turned towards the window and the light bothered them!

seven doesn’t know exactly what mc saw through their blurry vision, but their slitted eyes widened in fear and they s c r e a m e d

saeyoung was still teasing them by dinner time

and he was still dressed up as a saint till then

mc wanted to throw a log at him!

Jaehee

mc knew christmas was sometime in december

but they could never seem to remember what date exactly!

jaehee didn’t mind at all!

she actually found it somewhat endearing

especially because mc was so good at remembering important things most of the time!

however, she was a bit surprised when mc greeted her on the first of december, decked in full santa costume!

the fake beard actually made jaehee laugh

she was just glad that the customers in their coffee shop were their regulars and also adored mc

they laughed along with them both and told mc how cute their whole outfit was!

jaehee decided she needs to come up with a creative way to teach mc the christmas dates so that it catches her interest~! 

nevertheless, it’s a very happening and exciting month for them both~

V/Jihyun

jihyun wanted to do something special for august 15th

he didn’t know if mc would be okay with it

but he knew he would be the happiest if they agreed

he kept the latter part to himself when he approached mc with the question though!

he knew mc had a hard timekeeping up with all the catholic holidays, and he didn’t mind at all

they were inquisitive and respectful and always asked questions

v started off by telling mc about the assumption of the blessed virgin mary

when he told mc he wanted to spend the day photographing mc dressed as the virgin

mc is aware of his antics by now and is not really surprised by his request

which surprises him pleasantly to know that mc knows him so well 

they have such a nice day, which is filled with pleasant surprises

what surprises jihyun most is when mc takes the camera and asks to photograph him 

Saeran

after having been rescued from the cult and having had therapy, saeran would usually run away from religious activities

he hated how saeyoung managed to convince him to do something with mc for december 8th 

it doesn’t have to be religious, his devious brother had said

he still felt iffy about dragging mc out on feast of the immaculate conception day

it was laughable that mc was clueless about the event but had happily accompanied him

he felt happy for that

but when mc asked for the thrid time what was up with him and he admitted it was a religious holiday, mc dragged him right back home and they spent

the holiday at home, marathoning horror movies and eating from tubs of ice-cream