#so excited for all of them to get delivered!!

[bonelyheartsclub]

♡ Red - Valentine's One-Shot ♡

Written by @/ChrysanStarset and @/punkuuo

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It was the day before Valentine’s Day, and you decided to bake something nice for Red. You weren’t exactly as skilled as Red, but it was the thought that counted. So, whilst gathering all the ingredients, you decided that making a few cookies would be a nice gesture to share with everyone; although, you did plan to make some special sugar cookies just for Red’s bag.

Most of the day was spent preparing the bags, decorations, and different types of cookies, ensuring everything was neat and ready. By late afternoon, all that was left was to decorate Red’s share.

You started carefully piping his cookies as you thought of all the fond memories you had shared with him since he moved in. Each motion of your hand was slow and calculated as the warmth in your heart grew. Carefully, you piped the last heart onto one, and leaned back to admire your handiwork. Each cookie was decorated in the most ridiculously, cutest way possible; filled with pink, tiny hearts, smiling faces, and bunnies. You chuckled to yourself as you could almost hear Red’s reaction to them.

Satisfied with a long day’s work, you packed Red’s cookies into a small bag, tying it off with a ribbon. With everything prepared for tomorrow, you headed off to bed, excited for how the day would turn out.

The next day was a bright Valentine’s Day morning. You packed your gifts into your bag and made your way to the skeleton house. The air was crisp and light, just like your heart was as you thought about how Red would react to your baking. You knocked on the door, wondering who would be the first to receive your gifts. Turns out it’s Sans, who looked at you as if he already knew you were coming.

“good morning.” “Good morning Sans, it’s nice that you’re the first one I get to see!” “is that so?” 

You dug into your bag and gave Sans his goodie bag, “Here, a gift for you on Valentine’s day! I’m not sure if you’ve received any gifts yet, but I’m giving everyone some treats today.”

“i haven’t gotten one yet so thanks.” “You’re welcome! Can I come inside? I want to give everyone else their gifts too!” “heh, sure. i’m sure you want to see a certain someone as well. he’s in the kitchen.”

You nodded as your face heated for a moment, “Thank you, Sans.” You headed inside and, sure enough, there was something cooking in the kitchen… or baking…? A rich, buttery scent of baked goods wafted in, as well as something strange; it was as if there was something being awfully burnt. You ran to the kitchen to see what could possibly have gone wrong. Red was standing around the counter with a frustrated expression across his face. He hadn’t noticed you yet as he turned his back, but you could see his sleeves had been rolled up, flour dusted across his hands and cheek along with some chocolate. He grumbled angrily to himself, and it’s then that you saw the source of his frustration; a layered chocolate cake –or… what remained of it– had turned charred and concrete. After setting the tray on the stove, he turned and noticed you.

Caught off guard, he coughed and blushed, “wha- whatcha doin’ here, sweetheart?” 

You smiled as he was sweating nervously, obviously trying to play it off cool. 

“Well, it’s Valentine's day silly, I’m delivering gifts for a few people. Now what are you doing here?”

“nothin’. ain’t nothin’ goin’ on here. just... kitchen stuff.” 

Your eyes flickered to the poor, unfortunate cake that looked more like a solid block of charcoal than anything edible. 

“Uh-huh. Kitchen stuff, huh?” 

His blush deepened as he ran a hand down his face, only managing to smear more flour onto his cheek.

He groaned, “alright, alright! ya caught me, sweetheart.” A sigh left him, “i, uh… was tryin’ to bake somethin’ fer ya.” He rubbed the back of his skull. “normally i’m not this horrible, but i dunno what happened…” A bit of shyness seeped into his voice as he spoke, “i guess i kinda got lost in thought.” A smile crept up on your cheeks as you walked closer, inspecting his burnt cake. A bunch of decorations were scattered around the counter, and the recipe book was opened on a page for layered cake. You could tell from the mess that he was trying.

You sighed and gave him a hug, “I appreciate the gesture, I can tell you really put a lot of effort on it.”

“well…pardon my french but it looks like a pile of sh–”

“–shweet delicious goodness?” you quickly countered with a grin.

“somethin’ like that.” His face was lightly dusted scarlet as he put a hand on his hip, the other trying to nudge the cake towards the trash.

“Hey wait- why are you throwing it away?”

“it’s burnt, there’s no way you could eat this.”

You tried to pull the pan back before he chuckled, pulling you back by your hip.

“no, you’ll get sick if ya eat it… also careful, s’ hot still.”

You nodded, feeling his warm phalanges pull away from the side of your waist. 

“There must be a way to save it still, you worked so hard on it. It’d be a waste…” You sighed, rubbing your chin before you clapped your hands together, “oh wait, I got it!”

You rummaged through the drawers, pulling out a knife and spatula. Red’s bony face seemed to contort in confusion as he hovered behind you.

“not that i don’t ‘ppreciate your determination, sweetheart; but if ya eat that, i promise you, you will regret it later.” 

He cracked a small chuckle as you bumped him with your hip to get some elbow room.

“Just watch, hold on!” you insisted.

You started to saw off the burnt parts, haphazardly putting the scraps into a different bowl. He perked up, trying to intrude, but ultimately waited and gathered a few stray bowls and utensils into the sink as you work. It wasn’t long before you moved aside to reveal the cake. Red looks at it, his bonebrow raised and nodded, trying to cover his obvious concern. 

Voila! You successfully made an even more unappetizing cake, but now cut into weird chunks…

“no offense, but… it looks like a bear got hungry.” Red muttered.

“No-no- wait, hear me out- we can turn these into cake pops! Just gotta mix it with frosting, chill the dough, mold ‘em into spheres, add a bit of chocolate and sprinkles, and boom – they’re still edible!”

“yeah?” He asked in surprise, almost hopeful that his Valentine’s gift wasn’t going to be a complete disaster after all.

“Yeah!” You chirped and the two of you got to work.

Red couldn’t help but smile, his initial nerves and discomfort seeming to melt away as you both got comfortable in the kitchen, moving in sync to make the cake pops. He helped stir in the frosting as you crumbled the cake. Then, with the small ice cream scoop in hand,  you scooped the dough into little balls before Red whisked them into the fridge.

Afterwards, your hands scrubbed at the bowls, washing the dishes as he wiped the counters and opened the window to air out the burning smell. He cleared the trash as you finished drying your hands. After some time passed, Red washed and dried his hands before pulling the cake pops out. 

Finally ready to decorate, he dipped the cake into the melted chocolate, a curtain of excess chocolate falling off as he gently turned it in his hand before passing it to you. You sprinkled on heart candies and sugar crystals before putting the cake pop on a piece of wax paper to dry. By the end of the little baking extravaganza, you were now also a mess covered in a bit of frosting, sprinkles and chocolate. 

“Nice! We saved the city!” you exclaimed.

“what? wait- you got a little something right there.”

You rubbed your face, and looked back at him with a confused look.

“nah, s’right here.”

His fingers gently rubbed away some chocolate on your chin as you leaned down, making it easier for him to reach. You didn’t realize how close you both had gotten until Red stopped suddenly, his eyelights turning into pinpricks and his cheekbones warmed into a pretty crimson. He pulled away and wiped the chocolate on a rag before turning to you. 

You coughed into your hand, shaking off the heat warming your face. “So uh… ready to eat some nuggets of cake?”

He choked, his struggling wheeze quickly turning into a chuckle, “not when you say it like that.”

“Fine, fine. Lets just dig in!” 

You gingerly picked one up and took a bite – it tasted great, the traces of charred dough having been long covered up by the chocolate and frosting. It was moist and perfect, you gasped softly as you looked at him excitedly; he looked almost surprised by the taste.

“Oh yeah, I’m stealing all of these.” You did a little dance as you ate, enjoying the cake pop.

He laughed a bit, joining in on the jig as you both just happy-wiggled at your creation. 

“good luck, ‘m stealing a couple fer myself.”

“I thought you were baking it for me!” You gasped in mock offense.

He paused for a moment, “they’re our cake pops now.”

You bit into one and tried to look as annoyed as possible, but he only relished in your reactions as you both ate and goofed off in the kitchen. You remembered the cookies in your bag, so you went to grab them, and bring them to your skeleton. He stopped chewing as he took the goodies from your hands.

“ya brought me a valentine’s gift?” 

His voice seemed to waver as you nodded, gesturing for him to try it. He flashed you a crooked smile, his sharp teeth grew even wider as he pulled the bag apart gently.

He looked at the cookies, baked with obvious care and… love. He looked at you again, and you couldn’t help your own face beginning to warm up as you greatly anticipated his reaction. He turned one of the treats around in his hand, appreciating the neat frosting, and took a big chomp with his teeth. The cookie went down smoothly despite the lack of an esophagus, and the entire thing was gone in a matter of seconds.

His genuine smile said it all as you watched him go for another. You couldn’t help but sigh in relief as he ate while you grabbed another cake pop. The both of you enjoyed the ambience of the warm kitchen. The aroma of sweets brought you both closer as you packed up a few cake pops to go, leaving a few for him and his cousins to try later. 

The evening rolled by as you headed out, carrying a mixture of treats from every skeleton in the household. You scrambled to, at the last minute, pass out the other cookies you made for each of them, and Red couldn’t help but notice… that you had only made special cookies for him.

You were on your way out after saying your goodbyes to each skeleton, giving them hugs before you pulled away. You said goodbye to Red as he held the door open for you. As you started to step away, you felt phalanges slip into your hand, intertwined with your fingers. You stopped and turned to face Red.

“Red?”

“i - uh, sweetheart, thanks… fer saving the cake, and fer the cookies. happy valentine’s day.”

You smiled warmly at him, feeling your heart beating a bit harder and faster. You couldn’t quite place if it was just all the sugar, or something else making you feel like running a lap around the corner. 

“You’re welcome, thank you too… for baking me something. You’re so sweet.”

His smile was warm before he realized, “i- was that a pun?”

You laughed and squeezed his hand gently and his eyes softened and his shoulders relaxed. 

“Would.. you like to walk me home?” you asked softly.

“i’d love nothin’ more than to cake you home,” he replied with a wink.

The two of you walked back to your house right across the street, the crisp air cooling you. Soon after, you stopped at your doorstep. He looked at you, almost sad to let go of your hand as you jangled the keys out of your pocket and opened the door. You turned back to him, his hands now shoved in his pockets.

“Thanks for walking me back, Red.”

“s’no problem, sweetheart, have a good night.”

“You too…”

The two of you stood there for a few moments; despite the silence, it was… comfortable. You swore you could feel your heart knocking against your chest as he slowly turned to walk back, his shoes dragging along the sidewalk. With a moment of confidence, you lurched forward and grabbed his hand, and he looked back surprised as you leaned in to give him a peck on the cheek. His face was deceptively cool despite his growing blush.

“T-That’s for walking me back.”

You never thought you’d see a skeleton as red as a tomato, but there you were watching him momentarily stunned and flustered as he tried to ‘keep his cool’.

“heh..heh.. i should walk ya back more often, then.”

You smiled and pulled away, scurrying behind your opened door before he could notice your own face dying of heat. 

“You can try, ya goof.” You waved him goodbye as he walked away, waving back. 

You couldn’t help but notice the goofy grin on his face as he gently touched his cheekbone where you kissed. You shut the door, dashing to your room. As the excitement finally settled, you lay in bed, ready for the next time you’d see Red.

[forthefictionallesbians]

Despite her own, very public advice against it, Yuna Rochester found herself walking home alone just a few nights afterwards. It had happened nearly before she'd registered what was going on; one moment she, Tim, and a small handful of her boyfriend's friends had been drinking at Oliviera's Speakeasy, laughing and chatting as they enjoyed the legal "illegal" ambiance and drinks, and the next she found herself stumbling down the darkened street, crowds nearly nonexistent at the late-- she checked her phone. 3:22 a.m. Fuuuuuck. She was getting wellness checked tomorrow-- today for sure. In the warm, floaty, hazily happy space her mind was in, worrying too much about that was impossible. Yuna had made it through those before, independence intact. Things were going to be fiiiine. She was fiiiiiiiine. Better than fine, even, with the amount of xeno-infused booze in her system.

She hiccupped, and her breath swam with jasmine and thyme. It was an intoxicating blend, custom made by Oliviera herself to ornament her subterranean bar. Had she really been drinking with Rod and the others for five hours? And why was she on her own? She racked her memory, but it was like trying to find puzzle-pieces in luminous amber, and her mind just seemed to slide right off of them. For her troubles, the curb veered towards her and she narrowly avoided tripping over it, cursing. How rude of it! Yuna gave it a kick. Dumb sidewalk. That made her giggle, but she had enough presence of mind to realize that she probably needed to get directions home.

Yuna reached for her phone, and had a momentary flash of panic to find that it wasn't in her pocket. Fuck. Had she left it at the Speakeasy? If so, Olive would probably deliver it by hand while being gently flirtatious, marvel of a bartender that she was. She was the only affini Yuna really respected, liked even, and her establishment had was one of the few places that never felt like it was designed to coax her into a collar. There was a reason Tim and his friends had taken to drinking there. Unlocking the phone in her hand, she navigated to telecom app and selected Olive's name before pausing. Sparks of anxiety and something more flashed through her gut. It was never a good idea to be too cute and helpless around an affini, even one you trusted, unless you were aiming for a wardship at the very least. But-- Olive was different. Her eyes that always seemed to contain the suspicion of a smile, the quips that felt almost subversive amidst Compact dogma, the perpetually smoldering incense-vines she had growing from herself. Stars. She was safe but exciting, comforting but still razor sharp. Yuna would be lying to herself if she'd never wondered what it would be like to--

Oh hey! Her phone was right there in her hand! She seized on the realization, the distraction, embarrassing as it was, to free her mind from the routes it HADN'T been going down. Her cheeks felt like they'd caught on fire. Sitting down on the sidewalk to steady herself, she firmly compartmentalized all those fantasies she HADN'T been having from her mind. She was drunk, and the mind wandered while drunk. Everybody knew that. The thoughts didn't mean anything, and besides, her boyfriend Tim would be furious with her for thinking them. She was just drunk. Nothing more.

And far from home. Frosts. She needed to get back quickly. Looking at her phone, the half-hour had already passed. She'd barely moved ten feet in the last eight minutes. With how inebriated she clearly was, it was incredibly fortunate that nobody else was around. Having an affini see her like this would be a nightmare, a disaster, a death-knell to the freedom she'd been learning to value so highly. Standing shakily, she pocketed her phone and stepped forwards.

Directly into a mass of vines. What? Yuna put her hands forward, feeling them. Her mind was struggling to process the input, and, accidentally pushing too hard, she stumbled backwards. A hand(?) shot out, lightning quick, and kept her from bruising her rear on the concrete. It was soft on her back, and she let herself just hang there for a moment, blinking up at the affini silhouetted against a streetlight.

The affini. Fuck. Panic cut through the intoxication in an icy slash, only to be re-consumed by the amber fugue as it closed back in. What remained was still fear, but distant, hazy, nearly incorporeal. She shied away from the figure anyways, turning her body in an attempt to fall from their hand. It merely shifted and retained its grasp.

"Yuna Rochester?" The voice was musical, melodious, laced with a firmness that brooked no defiance. However much amusement flowed from the delivery, it left no doubt that the figure knew exactly who they were.

Yuna blinked, frozen, mouth opening and closing wordlessly. Implications and anxieties tried to pile up, only to sink into the bubbling, drugged froth of her mind. The affini smiled down at the sight, a friendly mask cloaking its predatory intent.

"My name is Wisteria Salashi, Fourth Bloom, she/they. We've met once before."

The dots began connecting in Yuna's mind. It wasn't a quick process. Fuck. Wait. "You're the- the one who got Andy!" Her friend had been domesticated just over a month prior, ensnared by this very affini. Their personal connection suddenly made the interaction feel far more dangerous. She began squirming, thrashing, trying to break free. The affini just flashed her thorny teeth, mask dissolving as the grin extended entirely too far along her face.

"So she does recognize me. I was worried Oliviera had sent you to me with your mind fully gone." Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait. Olive had- "Which would have made things a tiny bit easier, but much less fun for me." Fuck. Wisteria drew closer, her face inches from Yuna's. Ginger assaulted her sinuses, and Yuna turned her head away from Wisteria's brilliant eyes. This was bad. This was really bad. "Awww, so adorable. You're still trying to resist." Her voice hissed through the rows and rows of teeth, fake breath cool across Yuna's cheek. "I thought you knew that 'If an affini decides that it wants you, it is already too late.'"

Yuna's own words. Her own post. She'd read them so many times over the past days as the responses and reposts had come in. People thanking her. People teasing and mocking her, or saying they'd follow it in reverse. The post being temporarily removed by the affini site admins, before being put back up as "an example." She should have expected something like this. She HAD expected something like this, before- before-

Olive had persuaded her to stay late, prepared her special drinks to help with the anxiety, convinced the others that she'd make sure Yuna got home safely. They had all trusted her. Helplessness and betrayal boiled through Yuna's chest, welling up in a tidal wave that threatened to drown her. It too was swallowed by the drugged ditzyness, but with it went every drop of resistance she might have once mustered. There was no hope. She had lost. Like Andy, and Molly, and so many others. The words of Rodrigo, one of Tim's friends, flitted through her mind. 'We're just wayward property to them,' he'd said. 'With no real rights or moral value.' At the time, she'd found it a little too... feralist for her tastes. Now she realized he'd been right.

At the shake of a vine, she would become property. Yuna whimpered at the thought, trembling. Her fight was gone. Wisteria looked almost disappointed. "You terrans break too quickly for my tastes," she spoke, almost confessionally. "I'd hoped that someone involved in a feralist pack would be able to take a little bit more. So much for the 'indominable human spirit,' or whatever it is you free terranists believe." Yuna whimpered again, shifting to try and bury her face against the hand holding her.

Wisteria sighed. "You are undeniably adorable, though." Her other hand gently lifted to stroke Yuna's head, vines and feathery tendrils flowing out through her hair, kneading her scalp. It felt incredible, especially with whatever Olive had put into her system. She felt to drugged and broken to not let herself enjoy it at least a little, even while shying away from the terrifying affini form. Wisteria hummed softly with a level of contentment.

"I'm not going to domesticate you, little acorn. Oliviera would scold me if I did, and the NFPO knows you just fell into a rough crowd. We're not after you." Wisteria's tone was conciliatory, if patronizing. For some reason, that comforted her.

"You're not?" Frosts, somehow she felt small again, like she'd been caught breaking some rule and been forgiven. Another vine snaked up and wiped away the tears she didn't realize she'd been crying.

Yuna's mind was still fuzzy and overwhelmed, but a spark of hope had reignited. Her fears weren't coming to pass. Looking up, she found that Wisteria had pulled back, softened her features once again. A glimmer of disappointment still remained in her eyes, but her visage was nearly apologetic. Maybe she would let her go? Maybe Yuna had a way out?

"Of course not, my fragile girl. Oliviera is. I'm just here to turn you into an unwitting double agent, because it'll be so much more fun to break your feralist friends slowly!"

She was too tired for the icy fear to make much of a dent this time, to be phased by the gleam that returned to Wisteria's eyes. The spark had been quenched. Her chest trembled once again, tears threatening the corners of her eyes. But Olive's xenodrugs helped take care of that too. They'd probably been designed to, Yuna realized idly, apathetically. How kind of her. At that thought, the apathy burst into a little giggle. Here she was, situation hopeless, about to be turned against her friends by alien invaders, irrevocably drawn into a tangled jungle of affini schemes, and there was nothing she could do about any of it. A golden bubble of despairing mirth began to grow in her abdomen, fueled by the carbonated surrender swirling through her system. At least it wouldn't be a mean affini like Wisteria who got her. That thought prompted another giggle, the absurdity of the thought compounding on itself.

Wisteria watched her with an expression of profound amusement. This didn't seem to be the reaction she had hoped for, but it wasn't an unpleasant one for the affini. She shook her head, a far nicer smile drawing across her face. "Seems like Oliviera has you well in hand, even without a collar on you yet. But it's getting late, and it would be irresponsible for me to keep you much longer." Yuna felt a quick pinching sensation in their side, and the last thing they knew was a glorious numbness and the gleam of Wisteria's eyes.

Yuna Rochester woke up in her bed the next day, head still hazy from sleep. Her alarm clock was blaring, and she stared at it blearily, far too tired. How late had she gotten home? On her desk she saw a handwritten note, pinned underneath a glass of something the colour of honey. She chugged it without thinking, and a wave of cool, refreshing alertness swept through her body, driving sleep away. Little sparking bubbles of pleasure blipped in and out of her muscles, an aftereffect of tingling joy. She sighed, stretching her back and reaching for the paper. It was from Olive. Her cheeks flushed.

Good morning, sleepy head! I couldn't leave the Speakeasy last night (you know how it is! always busy) so had a friend take care of you. Apologies for keeping you so late, but you seemed like you were enjoying yourself. Hope the drink helps. P.S. Feel free to come back any time! Even without your friends! It was great chatting with you ;)

Yuna clutched the letter to her chest, and committed to do just that.

[steveseddie]

happily ever after

written for the @steddiebingo kissing booth mini event | prompt: happy ending | rating: t | wc: 1,7k | no cw | tags: pre-relationship, oblivious steve, dungeons & dragons, love confessions

read on ao3

Steve doesn’t know when it happens but at some point, he stops hating Dungeons & Dragons.

He still calls it anything but its actual name to the kids’ faces, and he still bitches and moans about having to drive them to and from their stupid meetings, but he can admit that he kind of likes it, at least to himself.

Definitely not enough to play it. He still believes there’s way too much math involved and he gets a headache just thinking about memorizing an entire character sheet, but he does enjoy it enough to sit and watch the kids and Eddie play.

Eddie is also probably a big part of why Steve started liking it. He has a way of making everything interesting. His voices, the way he insists on randomly jumping on his chair or shooting up to his feet, and the twists and turns he weaves into a story so expertly.

There’s also the fact that Steve is head over heels for him and sitting through one of their games is the perfect excuse to stare at him all he wants.

Realistically, he can’t be at every one of them. He has a job and a tiny shred of reputation to maintain. He can’t be seen dedicating all his free time to a game for nerds.

He can, however, dedicate his Friday night to it when Eddie invites him over for the big finale of their latest campaign.

“It’s going to be great, Stevie, I’m telling you!” Eddie says, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “You can’t miss it!”

“I won’t, Eds, I promise,” Steve tells him, trying not to show just how easy it is for Eddie to get him to agree to anything.

The big finale does end up being great. The kids spend the whole time sitting at the edge of their seats and Eddie delivers twist after twist until finally the legendary sword is found, the kingdom is saved and everyone lives happily ever after.

Or maybe not everyone.

There’s something that stays with Steve even after Eddie dramatically announces it’s the end, but he doesn’t get to ask him about it until two days later when they’re hanging out at the trailer.

Steve is sprawled on the bed, leafing through a sports magazine he swiped from Wayne’s stuff and Eddie is pretending to organize his desk. In reality, he’s spent the last twenty minutes playing with a rubber ball he found among his things.

“Hey, Eds,” Steve says just as Eddie throws the ball toward the ceiling. He turns his attention to Steve and forgets about the ball, which bounces against his face.

“Ow! Shit!” He swears, rubbing at his eye. Steve stifles his laughter behind the magazine. “What’s– what’s up, Stevie?”

“Can I ask you a question about Dorks & Dweebs?”

At that, Eddie snaps to attention. His eyes are wide and one of them is a little red from the ball hitting it. “Steve Harrington, did you just say you want to ask me about Dungeons & Dragons?”

“I said Dorks & Dweebs, but yes.”

“I don’t even care that you refuse to call it by the proper name,” Eddie chuckles disbelievingly, then he jumps to his feet and joins Steve on the bed, a big grin on his face. “Holy shit, yes! Of course, ask me anything you want!”

Steve can’t help but chuckle at Eddie’s excitement. The way he rests his chin on his hands and stares expectantly at Steve like this is the most amazing thing to happen to him. It’s very cute. “Okay, you weirdo,” he says, his voice dripping with fondness. “At the end of your last game–”

“Campaign.”

Steve waves him off. “At the end of that, what happened to the singer guy? The bard? Uh, Everard?”

Tilting his head, Eddie asks, “What?”

“You know, the– the guy that helped the kids– uh, the party find the legendary sword. The EMT or whatever.”

Eddie’s mouth twitches amusedly. “The NPC.”

“Yeah, that.”

“Well,” he says, scratching his head. “He died.”

“What? Why?”

“Because he got mauled by carrion crawlers, Steve.”

“You got mauled by bats and you lived!” Steve argues. Eddie’s nose scrunches up, most likely at the mention of his near death. “Couldn’t one of the kids have used like, a healing spell or something?”

Eddie taps his lip with his finger, thinking it over. Steve can’t help but follow the movement with his eyes.

“I guess they could but– he’s not important, man, he’s just there to help them find the sword.”

Steve averts his eyes from Eddie’s lips and crosses his arms over his chest. “If he’s not important then it doesn’t matter if he lives, right?”

“Okay, sure,” he snorts. “He can live if you like him so much.”

“Good,” Steve says, nodding. Eddie rolls onto his back, probably assuming the conversation is over but there’s something else Steve has been wondering about. “Does he go back to the princess?”

Eddie’s whole body visibly tenses up. “W–what?”

“Everard is in love with Princess Soliana, right? Does he tell her?”

“No,” Eddie says, his voice sharp.

“Why not?”

Eddie groans, sitting up on the bed so he’s facing away from Steve. “Because that’s not relevant to the campaign!”

“It’s relevant to me,” Steve huffs stubbornly.

“Why?”

Because Steve is a romantic and from the first time Eddie mentioned this NPC or whatever, Steve felt drawn to him for some reason. It might sound stupid, he’s just a character after all, but Steve wants him to be happy. “Because Everard loves her.”

“So?” Eddie snaps, “there are things even love can’t fix.”

Steve rolls his eyes. “In real life, maybe, but in fantasy, man? Anything can happen.”

“That can’t,” he grumbles. He still won’t face Steve, his shoulders hunched over.

“But why?”

“Because!” Eddie snaps, finally turning around. His face is pinched, his lips pursed. “Bards don’t marry princesses, Steve!”

“Says who?”

“Me, and I’m the DM so I make the rules.”

“Which means you can change them, give them a happy ending!”

Eddie drags his hands down his face. “There’s no happy ending for Everard, Steve. He knows that. He’s not the hero who gets the princess, he’s the sorry son of a bitch who almost dies. Even if he lives, he won’t do it. He won’t risk the friend– the kingdom when he knows the princess doesn’t love him back.” He says all of that through gritted teeth, and his voice sounds sad like– like he knows what he’s talking about.

“She’s royalty, Steve. She’s beautiful, she’s brave,” Eddie goes on, his eyes boring into Steve with an intensity that makes him shiver. “And he’s– he’s no one and he’s broken and– and scarred, and–-”

“You,” Steve whispers as the realization hits. “He’s you.”

Eddie’s mouth snaps shut. He gulps, but he doesn’t deny it. He can’t. Now that Steve knows it’s so obvious. The similar name, Everard’s funny and flirty personality, the way he joins the party later in the campaign, and how he’s mauled by creatures trying to save them.

And if that’s Eddie then–

“The princess is me.”

Eddie lets out a sigh, his shoulders slumping. “Finally caught on, didn’t you, Stevie?”

“You– you based those characters off of us?”

“Yeah.”

Steve’s eyebrows knit together. “But you killed Everard.”

Eddie shrugs. “Yeah, well. I took some liberties, I didn’t want to make it too obvious, you know? And I did die for like a couple of minutes, so–”

“But the part about Everard being in love with the princess. Did you take liberties with that?” Steve asks quietly, holding his breath as he waits for Eddie’s answer.

“No,” he says, ducking his head, his hair falling over his face. “That part was accurate.”

The admission makes Steve’s heart try to beat out of his chest. “You– you love me?” He asks with a shaky voice.

“I do,” Eddie says, his big doe eyes finally meeting Steve’s gaze. “But I meant what I said. Everard wouldn’t risk anything, not when I know– when he knows you– the princess doesn’t want him.”

Eddie’s eyes are sad and pleading, like he’s begging Steve not to be mad at him. But Steve is mad. Just not for the reason that Eddie thinks.

“You don’t know that,” he says, frowning.

“I told you–”

“You told me what Everard thinks, now let me tell you what the princess thinks,” Steve says, shutting Eddie up. “She doesn’t think Everard is broken, she thinks he’s strong. He might be scarred, but so is she. And– and he’s beautiful too! Maybe she never thought she could fall in love with a guy– with someone like him but she loves him, Eddie.” He reaches for Eddie’s hand on the bed. It’s shaking. Steve squeezes it. “And I love you.”

Eddie’s jaw goes slack. “Steve–”

“That’s Princess Soliana for you,” Steve tells him, trying to lighten the mood.

It works. A joyful, high-pitched laugh tumbles from Eddie’s lips. “Yes, Your Majesty,” he agrees with a giddy chuckle. “I– did you– do you mean it?”

Another squeeze. “Of course, Eds.”

With his free hand, Eddie grabs a lock of his own hair and tugs it across his face to try and hide the blush creeping onto his cheeks and that just won’t do. Steve uses his hand to tuck the hair back behind Eddie’s ear. “So, now that Everard knows this, what’s he going to do?”

Eddie doesn’t even need to think about it. His eyes instantly dart down to Steve’s mouth. “He’s going to kiss the princess,” he says, his jaw set in determination.

Warmth shoots through Steve’s body, the corners of his mouth curl upwards. “Good,” he says, and then Eddie is pulling him in by his shirt, their lips crashing together in a kiss. Steve’s hand finds its way to the back of Eddie’s neck so he can keep him in place, kissing him back for what feels like hours but is probably only minutes.

“I guess– hmph, I guess Everard did get his happy ending after all,” Eddie mumbles against Steve’s lips after some time. “And so did I.”

Steve’s face splits into a grin. “Nah, Eds, this might be the end for them,” he says, pushing at Eddie’s shoulders until his back hits the bed and he can climb on top of him. “For us, it’s only the beginning.”

[backtothedrawingboard]

Hanahaki

Jax x Reader (Romantic)

Summary: Valentine's Day is here. You always hoped someone would confess to you on Valentine's Day, but you never expected it to turn out quite how it did.

CW: Angst, disease, mild makeout scene, body horror

TW: Near death of a character

AN: Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! :D

~~~~~~~~~~

Valentine's Day was around the corner. Or it would be in the real world. Caine always liked to celebrate it by making everyone write nice notes for each other as a "bonding excercise." You and the girls always wrote great heartfelt notes about what you meant to each other, Zooble barely wrote anything, Kinger was surprisingly sentimental, but Jax...took the opportunity to be passive aggressive. He would always subtly pick at people's insecurities or write cruel things and claim it was a "joke." Every year, he was punished by Caine for it, and every year, he complained it was a stupid excercise anyway since love was "just a bunch of mushy gushy $?!& made by greeting card companies."

You quite enjoyed Valentine's Day. It was nice writing each other notes and getting to read the ones you received. You especially loved Gangle's since she always drew an elaborate art piece of your favorite book. You also always hoped for a romantic Valentine. Kinger wouldn't deliver it. He was more of a father than anything and he still wrote little notes to throw into the abyss to his wife. A note from one of the girls or Zooble would also be nice...But what about Jax...? No. Impossible. He's an $!?hole. No way you want him.

You were busy writing notes to all your friends in your room. Ragatha's note was easy. She was so sweet. Gangle was simple, Pomni was simple, Zooble was a little challenging, Kinger was challenging, and it was hard to come up with something for Jax. Would he find a heart shaped letter weird? Would he find hearts at all weird?

You were pulled from your thoughts by someone opening your door. You looked up to see Jax standing in your doorway, not looking amused in the slightest. "Hey. Caine's calling everyone. Time to exchange letters, or whatever," he muttered. You nodded and stood with a stretch.

"Alright. I just finished them, so we're all good." You picked up your letters to bring. They were all heart shaped except for Jax's. His eyes darted to them momentarily before he rolled his eyes and headed out. You followed. You paused as you felt something squish underneath you. You looked down to see a flower blossom crushed under your foot.

~~~~~

It was your turn to accept cards. You were startled when Zooble dropped a little box in your hands that contained little paper stars with positive attributes about you. You looked through your notes as everyone else looked at theirs. Caine looked the most excited and went around hugging everyone in thanks. Kinger looked...well, like Kinger. It was hard to tell if he knew what was going on, but he thanked people when he was aware. The girls were all excited as well. The only one not happy about all this was Jax. He sat quietly and looked through the cards, his ears layed back slightly and a frown on his face. Usually, he was eager to pass out cards. Last year, he hid a centipede in Ragatha's envelope. He didn't prank anyone this time.

You kept an eye on him in your peripheral. Seeing him look so miserable made your chest ache. He was almost never like this. He had his moments, sure, but it was painful seeing it on Valentine's Day. He seemed to be glaring at your letter specifically. You tilted your head curiously. "Jax? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he growled back. You saw him grip the letter to crumple it slightly. You blinked in confusion and hurt. Why did he crumple it? Did he not like it?

"If you don't like it, I can make you another..." you muttered quietly.

"Don't bother." Jax coughed painfully, his body shaking from the force. He crumbled your card into a ball and tossed it aside. You blinked again and sunk a little against the floor at his withering glare.

Before you could say anything, he stood and stumbled away, gripping his heart. You picked up the letter he threw away and picked it up, opening it and noticing that he seemed to crumple the part about him being a "friend" specifically. You picked up the card he left you. It was heart shaped. Your heart clenched. He never made heart shaped cards. You looked up and saw another flower on the floor where he was.

~~~~~

Caine set up a series of Valentine's games. For once, he did a game of spin the bottle. Except it was just a kiss on the cheek. The girls were fine with it, but Zooble and Kinger were not as tolerating and scooted away whenever the bottle landed on him. The ringmaster finally got karma when he spun the bottle and it landed on Bubble, causing the orb to practically rip his face off. Jax skipped the game. When Caine tried to stop him from leaving, the rabbit's teeth turned sharp when he snarled.

You wandered off when the games were over. You munched a bit on some heart candies you won, and stared at the floor in thought. The games were fun, but you still didn't have a Valentine. And even if you did, you doubted Caine would allow romantic relationships. You sighed and rubbed your eyes. Your dreams for the future were crushed. You would never date. You would never marry. You would never-

You squealed as your foot slid out from under you and you tumbled to the floor. You landed with a hard thud on your back, groaning and wincing. When you sat up, you rubbed the back of your head and looked down. "W-what the-?" You blinked. Another flower. It was crushed from you stepping on it and seemed somewhat wilted. You picked it up carefully. It was a carnation, your favorite flower. Your brows furrowed in confusion. Why did you keep finding flowers lying around?

You looked up to see a trail of flowers leading away from where you were. You got up and stepped around the blooms, picking each one up carefully. They were a little wilted, but still quite lovely. They travelled a long distance before finally ending at Jax's door.

You looked down at the flowers and then back up, eyes wide in surprise. You couldn't help the blush that spread across your face. All those flowers all day...were from him? You knocked on the door. "Jax? Are you in there?" No answer. You tilted your head in confusion. "Jax?" You heard a quiet groan in response. You frowned in further confusion. "Um...I'm coming in."

You turned the handle and stepped inside the room. The faint smell of spice hung in the air. You glanced around a bit, noticing more flowers on the floor leading to the bed. You went red in surprise seeing Jax laying on the bed. "Uh, Jax?" He just groaned weakly in response, his head tilting to the side. He sounded raspy.

You dropped the flowers and hurried over to him. He opened his eyes and looked up at you. He coughed, spitting out flowers. Your eyes widened. "Jax? What...What's going on? Why're you coughing flowers?" you asked worriedly. He coughed again, spitting some petals.

"I don't...know..." he answered with a rasp. He inhaled deeply, his breath breaking and croaking. It sounded horrible. You placed a hand on his chest. It felt shaky.

"Jax..." you started. He raised a hand weakly and put it to your lips.

"Shh. Don't. Just...stay here."

"But...Are you dying? Do you need help? I can go get Caine-" You turned to leave, but were stopped by a hand on your arm.

"Don't. He won't change anything." He sounded weaker already and coughed more flowers. Your eyes stung a little. He gripped your hand and gasped. "I need...To tell you something."

"Anything. But please hurry. I need to get Caine." Your voice shook a little. $&!?, keep it together.

Jax reached up and placed a trembling hand against your cheek. "I...I love..." He gasped and choked, a flower falling from his mouth. He went tense before going limp, his head falling to the side. You tensed and stared down at him.

"Jax...?" You shook him. "Jax?" He didn't respond. You hurriedly placed a hand on his chest. Still a heartbeat. But no breath. You panicked. How did this happen? He can't die. How could he possibly die?

It all happened instantly. Your heart seized. A terrified chill went through your spine. You pressed your hands to his chest and pressed forcefully. Wait, but his heart wasn't stopped. Was that what you were supposed to do? Your breath hitched and you looked down at him. He looked oddly peaceful, but wore a melancholy expression. You cupped his face in your hands and pried his mouth open. You gasped at what you saw.

A flower bloomed at the entrance to his throat, blocking his airway. You carefully and quickly seized it and pulled it away...only to see a long vine running down his windpipe. There was no way you could get it. You had to do something. Before you knew it, your lips were to his as you tried desperately to give him air.

After a couple attempts, you pulled back and shook him. "Jax, please!" you cried. You tried again, and failed again. "Don't leave..." You pulled back and looked down at him, your eyes wide. Nothing worked. He remained laying there, motionless.

The scene was morbidly beautiful. His peaceful expression was accented with lovely flowers around him. He looked like he was simply sleeping. You let out a shaky breath. He was gone. He was out of your reach. You failed.

Your heart throbbed in your chest, painful claws tearing every fiber of your being. You wrapped your arms around him and buried your face in his chest, breathing shakily. All you could do was sob, praying that he might somehow return.

It felt like hours passed. It had to have only been a few seconds. Holding him provided no comfort. It made things worse. You finally looked up from his chest and to his face. His serene frown made your eyes sting more. You reached up and cupped his cheek gently. After admiring him for a second, you leaned forward and pressed a small kiss to his lips. You rested your forehead down against his and rubbed your thumb on gus cheek.

You were suddenly thrown off of him, landing on the bed with a startled "Oof!" Jax flailed a little, gasping desperately and coughing. You gaped in shock and watched as he hunched forward over the bed and violently coughed a pale pink and orange dust. He flopped back on the bed, panting heavily and staring up at the ceiling in a daze. After a moment, his head slowly turned to face you. His eyes were big and vulnerable.

"You...kissed me," he whispered. You blushed a little and placed a hand on his chest in concern.

"I did...But that's the least of my concerns. Are you ok? W-what happened?"

"I don't know...The last thing I remember is looking up at you and saying..." He went quiet. A faint pink spread over his face. You took his hand in your own and squeezed it.

"I do too..." you whispered. His eyes widened and he looked up at you.

"You do?"

"I do." You bent down and pressed a kiss to his lips. He flushed pink in shock before melting into it and kissing back with equal passion. His hand settled on your hip and he pulled you closer as your hands rested on his shoulders. You pulled away a little in embarrassment and he gently rested a hand on the back of your neck and pressed his forehead to yours before kissing you again gently.

"I love you, Y/N," He spoke with a hushed tone, as if any loud noise would shatter the moment. You rubbed his shoulder gently.

"I love you, too."

~~~~~~~~~~

The smell of fresh carnations hit you. You closed your eyes and inhaled deeply. The spice brought you back. You opened your eyes to be greeted by the sight of Jax grinning down at you, holding a fresh bouquet in his hands.

"Happy first anniversary, Princess."

[babybearnation]

trans!oscar + loverboy!reader = reader going all out for valentine's (flowers, hearts, totally goofy but adorable ykwim?) (perhaps oscar wearing red lingerie w hearts or smth and reader just being suuuuuuper in love?)

i'm two days late but i gotchu

trans!oscar piastri x loverboy!male!reader

cw: suggestive & nsfw photo linked (it's just a woman in lingerie, but still)

it was your first valentine's day with oscar & you were determined to make it perfect

you ordered the biggest bouquet of roses you could find and you made sure they were delivered early in the morning so you could wake oscar up with them

he was so giggly, in such an adorably sleepy way, and you knew you could expect reactions like that from him for the remainder of the day

whilst oscar was mooning over his flowers and properly waking up, you finished the last of your decorations

when oscar came downstairs, there was a trail of rose petals along the stairs, splintering off and leading down different paths into the house

in the kitchen, you had prepared a simple yet cute breakfast of pancakes, covered in syrup, whipped cream and wonky heart shaped strawberries

oscar called you a sap but he ate every last crumb off of his plate, a content look on his face when he fell back into his chair

you two spent the whole day together, exchanging gifts and sweet words and before long, you arrived at dinnertime

you needed to distract oscar and get him away from your work space so you led him upstairs and set up a glorious bath for him

the perfect temperature he liked with a small amount of luxurious smelling bubble bath, red candles lining the porcelain and rose petals decorating the surface of the water

oscar thanked you but you told him to stay up there until you came and got him, which he did

unbeknownst to you, however, oscar had his own little surprised prepared

whilst you added the finishing touches to your big dinner, lighting a few more red candles, oscar slipped into something special before pulling on his normal clothes over the top

you had a lovely dinner together and oscar thanked you for it over and over before he suggested you two head upstairs because he had one last surprise for you

you were intrigued, of course, and eagerly followed him up the stairs, excited to see what he had planned

when he sat you on the edge of the bed and told you to close your eyes, you did as you were told

when he told you to open your eyes, you weren't expecting oscar to be draped in the most simple yet gorgeous and revealing lingerie set

even though he'd had top surgery, his chest still filled out the cups of the bra perfectly, your mouth salivating with the desire to get them in your mouth

and, rather embarrassing for oscar to realise, you could see how wet he was through the thin material of his panties - another place you wanted to put your mouth on

you were in complete and total awe as your eyes raked over his body, repeatedly snagging over his tiny waist and broad shoulders, new details popping out to you each time your eyes strayed down

he looked stunning, and that was putting it mildly

when he shyly stutters out happy valentine's day before biting his lip and turning away, you can't hold yourself back from reaching for him

you tug him closer, pulling him onto your lap, his hips pressed against yours, before latching your mouth onto his neck

oscar whimpered at the feeling and you couldn't help but smirk at the pretty noises he made

after all, you planned on making him react much, much louder than that throughout the remainder of your evening together

© all rights to babybearnation 2025.

[minqies]

WHY AM I GETTING SUCH GOOD PULLS???

[willczek-art]

Decided to give Dragon Age another try and the first character I meet COMPLETELY wins me over in a matter of seconds-

[alongtidesoflight]

so here's my honest thoughts on dragon age: the veilguard, after ~40 hours of playing. i finished the main quest after having finished all companion quests and major faction quests. just to clear up what content i saw, i played as an elven transmasc rook who is a member of the lords of fortune. he romanced lucanis (although after finishing the game i'm now leaning towards taash). i don't know what's happening in playthroughs that have a different race, gender identity, romance or faction going on.

full spoilers ahead, i mean it. don't read further if you want to avoid them. i don't want complaining about it in my asks.

oh and also, if you're worried because of a few negative reviews online i can comfort you by saying don't give a fuck about a certain big name youtuber who is very much tied to bethesda franchises giving this a negative review. i'll explain why.

i'm starting off with the things i liked

the game looks really pretty. i was worried it wouldn't feel like thedas anymore (with them trying to "focus on northern thedas only" i thought they'd make a clear cut in environmental design. they do and they don't. it's complicated. i'll elaborate on it when talking about the negative stuff). anyway it does. minrathous feels like kirkwall. treviso enchanted me like the winter palace did. the hossberg wetlands reminded me of the hinterlands and a couple other inquisition maps. arlathan looked like... arlathan. the crossroads were different, but familiar. overall i like the way it looks and feels. it's thedas, with a twist. it's a good one, and gives everything a solid but unique feel.

combat is top tier. if you're a hardcore dragon age player you WILL miss the tactical aspect of it for a bit, but i promise you, once you're used to the way the combat works, you will be lapping that shit up. and once you get to ability combos you'll mourn the control you used to have over your companions in battle a bit less

the MAIN quest and its story. i expected worse, way worse. and for a while the game even had me tricked (harr harr you'll get it in a second) it is Really That Much Worse. but holy shit was it good. i walked away satisfied ngl.

your choices have SOLID weight. there's consequences, good AND bad. i got minrathous blighted, ruled over by venatori, and the leader of the shadow dragons ultimately died because of my decisions. i made those at the beginning and throughout the game. he died at the end. DAVRIN died because i didn't expect what i was saying to have that much weight. i thought i was in the clear. he had hero status. well turns out, your choices can still get your companions killed even if you do everything right. i fucking love him. he shouldn't have made that sacrifice just because i told him to do everything it takes once.

the inquisitor, morrigan and dorian being there, surprisingly. there's also negatives to this though, see below.

speaking of companions dying and the inquisitor playing a bigger role: the final quest feels like me2's suicide mission. i was blown away by it and the fact that i got to see the results of all my efforts playing out in front of me.

bioware are NOT trying to redeem solas. they love him as a character yes, but i wasn't forced to see any good in him. he betrays you. he fucked my rook over twice. he fucked him over right back, for good this time (the veil wasn't torn down, i anchored it by binding him to it, he's doomed to uphold it). but solas really lives up to his name as the trickster elven god. rip to all the people who grew really attached to him over the years.

varric died. if you like him that's probably as hard reading it as it was watching it. varric died and the game lies about it until the very end. when the realisation hits, it hurts. but in the very best way.

the amount of care they put into gender expression and trans identities this time around. (i'll add onto this with negative points as well too).

rook feels very much ingrained in the world of thedas. he doesn't ask questions that expose the player to lore through dialogue as if he's stepped foot into thedas for the first time. those conversations feel very solid and good. i hope other faction players got as much joy out of this as i did.

and the things i didn't like and boy there's a lot unfortunately

the music. let's just get that out of the way holy shit. it doesn't feel like it belongs in this universe. it gets so incredibly sci-fi-y at times you'd think it's taken straight from mass effect andromeda. there's not a single song unique to veilguard that i really enjoyed. it broke my immersion, real bad. hearing a busker play the tavern songs from inquisition on a lute right after i killed some venatori with wobbly bass songs playing in the background is just odd. weird tonal shift. don't like it. it's made for people who like flashy light-weight cinema.

tevinter nights is required reading. the podcasts are required listening exercises. the game is so fast paced, especially at the start, that there's no time to introduce you to characters and how much weight their names carry in-game. i would not have known who half these people are if i hadn't skimmed over tevinter nights. i'd care even less about them than i already did. there is no time to get properly attached to them. people will act as if you're talking to a legend personified and you'll be thinking man goddamn which chapter of tevinter night were they in again and what did they do???

there's a weird mismatch with the animations. you'll have beautifully fluid ones, like emmrich casting spells. and then you'll have rook's face animating in the most unnatural manner that's sorta reminiscent of mass effect andromeda's "my face is tired" addison, when their emotions SHOULD be landing with the player rn instead.

i'm not vibing with the art style. sometimes it works. most of the time it doesn't. at points i felt like i was watching tangled.

that also brings me to some of the dialogue. same issue. i am watching frozen. i am watching tangled. someone on the writer's team really likes the adorkable trope. bellara is its victim.

for all the talk about identity, bioware sure doesn't like theirs. the grey warden armor got a redesign again and it just makes them look like a generic army. i hate it lol

in general, i don't like the armor design. the wardrobe/appearances system is fine, but it's just not helping if all the armors are just... kinda bland or downight bad looking? and don't get me started on the lords of fortune armor. that is orientalism personified.

the world states should have been carried over, full stop. i know they said they didn't because they want to separate what happens in the north from what happens in the south, which... i could have lived with that. but the inquisitor sends you letters that keep you up to date on... the south of thedas. you learn that there's a blight again, that people are standing strong but it's difficult, denerim's fallen, the rulers are taking care of it, orlais is fighting and they're successful for a while, etc etc. what's good bioware. i thought we don't care about the south this time around. why are you feeding me so much boring generic information. if you're not gonna show any of it and just write letters, then carrying the world state over should not have been an issue. i have a game dev background. those few lines of code would not have broken your budget or pushed your engine's limits. fuck right off.

this gripe of mine carries over to all the cameos. as a lord of fortune you have to deal with isabela a lot. it's fun. i missed her. you get to go drinking with her and taash and bellara! also my hawke romanced her. she's not mentioned once. they had the opportunity to put a sentence or two about her in there with not a lot of effort, trust me.

when varric dies, all she has is a single line about it. for gold, for fortune, for varric. she only says it if you interact with her on your way to the final push. that's not mandatory.

morrigan is there. kieran isn't. the old god soul that mythal and then solas absorbed? who cares at this point, the gods are dead now and solas is locked away for eternity. i suppose? why is morrigan there. she feels unneeded. i wish they'd just left her down south, at least that way i wouldn't have had to witness her god awful redesign.

dorian at least feels as if he belongs in this story. the shadow dragons are a crucial part to protecting minrathous. he's also weirdly underutilised. isabela and morrigan had more lines than him in my playthrough.

on the topic of romance: bro that was underwhelming. no, genuinely. you know when romance picked up a bit? after the point of no return. i heard maybe two lines of companion banter about it before that. maybe i missed something which i honestly doubt, but romance did not play much of a role in lucanis's storyline. i saved his grandmother as he wished me to (and if you read tevinter nights you know she was rather abusive and their relationship not the healthiest) and told him to focus on his family. a reunified family my rook wasn't even introduced to as a partner at the end of all that.

really, do not buy this game if you're only in it for the romances. others might be better, lucanis's basically gave me nothing. except for an outing (the second coffee date i had with him, it was getting repetitive) all of it played out once i committed to the final quest. the sex scene was a fade to black. annoyingly right after davrin died. if you're looking for well paced and good spice, pick up something else. the sweet talk and the final goodbye were nice though.

for all the good the ever-presence of gender identity does, it is brought up in such a disruptive manner too. it doesn't even play out naturally if you CHOOSE the lines that are meant to be said. hearing the words trans and non-binary in this setting doesn't feel right, and i'm saying this as a trans guy. i think it could have been handled more gracefully. the amount of times my rook went "i'm a MAN" as if he's about to start drumming on his chest and roaring any second now got super nerve-grating. "i'm so glad you're into me... the me who is trans. remember?" just. tell me one trans person who'd talk like that to a person they've grown close with and are trying to romance. this game doesn't handle sexuality well, so all this hey my body might not look like the way you're expecting it to look talk amounts to nothing anyway. i feel about this the way i feel about krem: this is partial exposition to trans experiences... packaged up for cis consumption. the ONLY exception to that is interacting with taash. holy shit was all of that heartwarming and bro did it feel good and natural to talk to them about theirs and rook's gender.

rivain and nevarra are new locations added by veilguard. they're also incredibly underwhelming, small and constricted maps. rivain is a coastline with a few ruins. the hall of valor is a partial ruin nestled into a cave on a beach, with a fighting pit. isabela is there in her skimpy outfit commentating your pit fights. that's it. i'm sorry if you were looking for a bustling pirate cove or whatever. you're not gonna get it. the nevarran crypts btw are a long ass dungeon crawl. that's it.

speaking of maps. i thought people were being dramatic when they said you're gonna be fighting the same enemies on them again and again. i thought they were figure of speeching it. they're not. you WILL fight the same amount of enemies. in the same spot. every time you reload the map. best to stay on a map and clear out the enemies and do as much questing on that map as you can before leaving, because you WILL have to do it all over again once you return.

the three choices i made for my inquisitor didn't matter lol she didn't have to face solas and therefore couldn't stop him at any cost as she had sworn (maybe because my rook tricked solas into binding himself to the veil, there was also an option to fight him. would she have stepped in? who knows). blackwall wasn't mentioned. and either her using a small amount of her forces in the final fight was the reason the civilians of minrathous fared so well..... or it just didn't matter. ultimately i think she had very little impact on anything

[sarcasticgaypotato]

Having fic that's like... ALMOST done but I just can't spare the time to clean it up and post it because I've got three real world deadlines this week is killing the me

[lexa-griffins]

Oh God someone stop me from creating a full backstory for a amnesia au that popped up into my head!!!!😩

[athenaholmesartistsguild]

I just finished Gaiden and I’m gonna have to digest it a bit before I can get super analytical but holy shit that was really fucking good.

[eurovision-del]

And with that, all the national finals have been completed! Tonight has been good for me, with both results going my way! I couldn’t watch Melodifestivalen live, but I was happy to find out Marcus & Martinus will be representing Sweden, they were my pick to win! I think they’ll be a great host entry – even though the lads are technically Norweigian, Unforgettable as a song is very standard for Sweden, it’s a great slice of Swedish pop and I do enjoy it. The staging is a big part of it, I watched the winners reprise and it’s definitely weaker without the full staging, but I do think the song has merit, and in the end it’s the whole package that matters. They’ll put on a solid show in Malmö, and I think they’re a host entry that Sweden should be proud of.

Following Sweden, Portugal have also decided and iolanda will represent them with Grito! I’m thrilled with this result – she was just as good in the final as in the semi to my ears, and the song is really something special. I was very happy also to see João Borsch get recognition from the public with him winning their vote, and I’d love to see him back in a future year, but personally I’m glad it was iolanda who won in the end. On the surface it might fill a similar niche to Serbia and maybe even Ukraine’s entries which are competing in the same semi, but I think there’s more than enough space for all of them in the final. I really want to see Portugal do well at Eurovision with this song!  

[butnobodycame627]

want to do everything in papa's freezeria. already got every achievement ages ago but I want every character to be gold star and every gold medal in mini games and everything I want everything forever grrrr raaaaarrr

[foldingfittedsheets]

Since everyone seems to love my sex shop stories, here’s another one.

Phone calls were literally a game for us. Not all phone calls, but there was a specific brand of call where guys would creep on us. 90% of the workforce at the sex shops was women. So we’d get dudes calling jacking off or trying to get their jollies from us.

The game: make them hang up. We could have hung up. On a few occasions I did, but for the most part we made a sport out of getting creeps to go flaccid. It really depended on a caller.

You couldn’t just go in for belittling them straight off- some guys wanted that. You had to tailor your strategy to the perv. Overall it was pretty fun and it turned an aspect of the job that could’ve become a major bummer into a fun sport. We’d get excited when the phones rang.

So one day the phone rings. I pick up and it was very clearly a young teen who was putting on a deep voice. I was utterly delighted, I’d never had a crank call before. He said, “I have a dildo emergency! Can you deliver 5 boxes of dildos to my home?!”

It took everything in me not to crack in that moment. It was so funny. It was like three kids had walked through the door in a trench coat and the phrase “dildo emergency” was one of the funniest things I’d ever heard.

But I kept it together. In smooth customer service tones I replied, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear you’re having an emergency, but due to the nature of our product we do require people to come pick it up themselves.”

The caller audibly deflated. Some of the deep voice he was putting on bled away when he said plaintively, “But it’s an emergency…”

“I’m sorry, sir, rules are rules.”

He hung up. I burst out laughing and told my coworker what had happened. She said, “I will buy you lunch if you call back and pretend you can deliver something.”

This sounded like an all around win for me, and the kid hadn’t used anything to block his number. So I called back.

“Hello!” This was before caller ID was common for home phones and so he picked up in his totally normal voice, several octaves higher than before.

“Hello, I’m calling regarding your dildo emergency?”

“Oh! Hem hem,” he coughed, getting his voice back into character for me. “Yes! The emergency!”

“Well I’ve spoken to my manager and it’s your lucky day. We’ll be able to make a delivery after all. Five boxes you said? We can swing it by later, we’ll just need your name, address, and credit card number.”

He was thrown by needing to provide info and was silent for a moment then said, “Well how much is it for five boxes?”

“About five hundred dollars, sir.”

He slipped out of his character voice to exclaim, “Five hundred dollars?! What kind of dildos are they?!”

“Just standard six inches with balls, sir.”

This was his breaking point. He started wheezing with laughter trying to repeat the phrase “six inches with balls” incoherently.

“So your address and card info?”

He hung up and I broke down laughing too. We both got a kick out of it, and I won the game twice in one day.

[yandere-romanticaa]

Seen the request, so I shall deliver. Could you pls write a drabble or hcs of a yandere sunday with an isekaied reader?

Good timing because I'm actually planning a non yan isekai fic for him, I wonder if you saw that post. Here it is in case you haven't.

Sincerest apologies if this isn't the best, this fic is 100% emotionally charged by my obsession with him and frankly with a little bit of a high for passing a tricky exam. This is a treat for myself.

EDIT: Please check out this wonderful comic that @danijaci made me based off this fic!! 😭🫶

Picking up the cup from the fine oak table, you gazed towards the eerie galaxy before you, hundreds upon thousands of stars giving you a constant reminder of just how far from home you truly were. Taking a sip from the little porcelain cup you could not help but to hum in delight, the soft notes of the tea soothing your nerves ever so lightly as you pretended to ignore the heavy gaze which lingered at the back of your head.

Even from this distance, it was easy to tell that Sunday was eager to approach you. Still, he kept his distance and made a silent offering in the form of the very tea you drank at the moment.

Anything is better than Himeko's coffee but you were never going privy her to that.

In a not so distant past, all of this was nothing but fiction. The Express, the story, the characters - it was all nothing more but fiction, something to pass the time as your days went on and on, the same monotony repeating each and every day.

It was hard to not think about your friends and family, what sane person would not? Lord knows how they must be feeling right now, worried sick out of their minds with indescribable sorrow. In their eyes you had merely vanished, not a single trace to be found. For all they knew you could have been left for dead in a ditch somewhere, beaten, bloodied and broken, never to see the light again or if they were even more inclined to be morbid, you had succumbed to a fate worse than death. Death at the very least grants you finality, that all is over regardless of what happened moments prior.

But that was simply not the case for you.

Here you were, lounging about in a comfortable chair as you pondered on your old life while enjoying tiny little luxuries, far away where none of your loved ones could reach you. However, life was funny sometimes because it had some fun games in store.

Sunday was very kind upon arrival. He made sure to always be there for you, always checking up on you, always there to keep you company. You were already smitten with him but now to actually witness him in the flesh was just... Indescribable. You got along like a house on fire, so much so that the crew liked to tease that you ought to just get a room. Sunday, ever the gentleman, would just brush their words aside and assure you to not take their playful little jabs to heart.

You wouldn't say anything, resorting to merely giving him a smile but not because of what he said but rather of what he did not - never once did he actually shut down those perverse accusations. Never, not even once did he deny them.

He became an emotional crutch, someone to whom you would come running to when things got tough and he would always welcome you with open arms. Sunday would hold you tenderly, his serene voice dripping with honey along with a tender drop of ecstasy, for his excitement with holding you would just show itself sometimes. His grip would be too tight at certain moments, never quite ready to let you leave. His hugs were warm and comforting, he always smelled so good too. He smelled like kindness and sweet wildflowers, always lulling you back to him no matter the time. In dark corners and perhaps even under the watchful eyes of the crew, Sunday would wrap his scarf around your head, securing the soft fabric in order to provide you with a sense of comfort.

It was humiliating just how much you would try to inhale his scent as much as possible. You wanted it etched deep inside your memory, you wished for it to linger on your very soul and for it to follow you everywhere you went, sticking to your being like tar. The fabric of the scarf would muffle your ears a little but someone was always chatting in the background. Be it March bickering with Dan Heng, Mr Yang scolding someone for doing something they were not supposed to, or just Conductor Pom Pom trying to give a speech, all of it was irrelevant.

You were ready to kill whoever would try to pry you away from sweet Sunday. That thought came often which had left you worried - just what kind of person had you become? Regardless, you kept your mouth shut and had no plans of sharing such violent sentiments with anyone, particularly not to the one you held so dear.

When it was time to part for the evening you would bid the crew farewell and wished them a good night. You always made sure to take a few extra seconds with Sunday, just to ease your aching soul. He would tell you to sleep well and would see you in the morning, ready to take on any endeavor that crossed your paths.

As everyone parted ways, Sunday would wander off somewhere dark and distant, somewhere no one could see nor hear him. He would fall to his knees and clutch his chest in agony, fat tears streaming down his face as he did everything he possibly could to steady his raging heart. In a rush he would reach for the scarf which clung around his neck, his grip tighter than iron as he would bring it close to his nose. Taking a large, deep breath, Sunday was greeted by your familiar scent which would promptly calm his poor heart.

He sometimes wondered if his heart would start bleeding from the pain due to the sheer intensity of his emotions.

This was wrong, everything about this was not right and it hurt. Sunday was obviously ill but he had no clue on how to fight this... This emotion, this white hot feeling of need whenever you stood by his side. He started to choke on the air around him and fell into an abrupt coughing fit but even then, he could bring himself to remove the scarf from the lower part of his face.

Sunday wept and sobbed, filthy snot coming out from his nose but he could not handle that now. He needed you, Oh Heavenly Aeons, how he needed you. However was he going to tell you how he felt? How, oh how was he going to express the sheer magnitude of his true thoughts? He would scare you off, he was sure of it.

Even with this pain, even with these clipped wings and bleeding heart, Sunday had never felt so alive, so harrowingly present in the moment whenever he was with you.

Perhaps, he was doing himself a kindness by just letting you be. Drink your tea, be at peace.

He can always just make you another cup if you so desired.

Without knowing, you both haunted each other in the most agonizing way known to mankind and neither was strong enough to face the reality of the situation.

[2tarbell]

one order for a vanilla birthday cake pleaseee!

kook!reader texting rafe “what position have you got her in?” when he takes too long to respond to a text

happy birthday, angel 💓

BSF!RAFE + KOOK!READER ⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩 .𖥔˚

manicured pink nails tapped impatiently on the restaurant table. eyes glued to the bedazzled device with a glittery pout adorning her lips. this was so unfair. rafe would have a fucking conniption if she even thought about not texting him back. and now it’s been… seven fucking minutes? yeah, right.

the last time she left him on delivered for two minutes he was blowing her phone up and all grumbly the rest of the week, pounding her into oblivion for playing games. dont get her wrong; she loved it. being fucked within an inch of her life was her favorite pastime.

but now? rafe cameron was like the worst hypocrite known to man.

‘what position u got her in?’

‘Be so fr’

it brought a smile to her pretty face seeing his sassy reply. with a satisfied huff, she set her phone face down on the table. why not make him sweat? picking up her long island iced tea with a devious grin, she was right back into the conversation with her girls.

the table was alight with giggles and gossip — the pack of kook girls enjoying lunch together after before hitting the beach.

it was supposed to be an easy day, a break from all the confusion and feelings still swirling around princess and her tall, handsome “best friend”. and she desperately needed that. needed some semblance of normalcy before shit took off and everything on the island changed when the two most hated and loved rich kids finally get together.

so she didn’t even flinch when her phone vibrated once, twice, thrice. she only excused herself from the conversation with a smile when her phone buzzed in a rhythmic pattern — a phone call. bubbles of giddy excitement filling her tummy as ‘rafey’ showed on the screen with a point five angled photo of him looking pissed.

“‘kay— be right back, girls!” she sang, already standing with her phone in hand.

“he finally called you, huh?” melodie, a beautiful brunette in a lilac bikini top teased. the table giggled, all looking at princess and feeling a rush of girlish excitement.

“get your man, baby!” another girl, aliyah, borderline squealed.

princess flushed, feeling her body heat up at the prospect of rafe being ‘her man’. god, imagine! she waved them off embarrassedly, teetering away on her platform flip flops, pleasantly tipsy as she leans against the outside wall of the restaurant.

“hellooooo?”

her voice was sugary sweet into the phone, looking down at her nails and checking the polish for any chips. the warm timbre of rafe cameron’s voice rumbled through the speaker, directly pressed into her ear. she found herself wishing to feel his lips moving around the words and against the shell of her ear.

“you’re somethin’ else, dollface.” he mumbled and she could hear the smirk on his lips.

“aw, you didn’t say ‘hi’, rafe…” she pouted, biting back a laugh at the sound of his heavy sigh on the other end.

“hi. you’re somethin’ else.”

“hiii. why’s that?”

his laugh came through the speaker, all deep and settling into her bones like it always does. she hears the tick, tick of his blinker, meaning he’s driving somewhere in that big truck of his.

princess looks around at the marina, taking the sight of obx residents enjoying the still warm, early fall weather. hot enough to take a dip without the water being freezing yet. rafe continued on as she flitted her gaze around the area.

he ignored her question, instead asking his own.

“checked your location. you tipsy right now?”

a giggle escaped her glossy lips, head lolling slightly, “mmm, maybe… why?”

“go back in and pay. sent you one fifty.”

she froze, pulling the phone from her ear and seeing an apple pay notification. he always did this. not like she could just use her dad’s card or anything.

“rafe cameron—“

he cut her off, hanging up after and not letting her protest, “hey— pay and then come back out. know i’ll let ‘chu make it up to me, a’ight?”

it was like a reverse walk of shame — explaining to her friends why she was leaving early and why she was covering the whole tab. walking back out with her purse on her arm as the familiar rumble of his truck approached, petulant in the way her arms were crossed. he pulled up right before her, rolling down the passenger window and smiling in that frustratingly charming way. dickhead.

she hung up with a guffaw, not believing he actually showed up when she was hanging with her friends. the possessive gesture makes her heart jump then fall. very boyfriend of him.

“what the fuck are you doing here?”

“oh, that’s how you talk to someone who just paid for your lunch? get in.”

she scoffed, amused at his gall. even more so at the fact she listened — shoes clacking against the pavement. rafe leaned over the console, opening the door for her. he looks good and smells better. that cologne she bought him for his birthday last year that he seems to be wearing a lot recently. an intoxicating smell that makes her feel drunker.

a plaid button up, rolled up to the elbow and exposing strong, veiny arms causes her mind to wander as he leans closer to her.

“hey, gorgeous,” that low drawl sends goosebumps over her body, paired with a half smile that’s so pretty.

comfortable in the seat she’s become so familiar with, he closes the gap between them. giving her a kiss so casual and natural, it makes her fluffy lashes flutter rapidly. sticky gloss transfered on his mouth that he doesn’t even wipe away.

she’s even more confused when flowers are thrusted into her arms. princess blinks at him like a fish — feeling a warmth settle in her chest at the sight of her favorite blooms wrapped haphazardly in brown paper.

“they, uh— they were in this ugly fuckin’ plastic. know you hate that so… yeah,” rafe shrugs it off as he pulls out of the parking lot.

princess decides this is technically a kidnapping. especially because she’s never been more confused and lost in her life.

he leans back in the seat, driving with one hand lazily, confidently. a glimpse of blue eyes at her and she’s smiling wildly, bringing the flowers to her nose to smell them. princess leans over and kisses his cheek, feeling drunker on the moment and smell of his skin.

“i— thank you, rafey…”

rafe takes notice of how small her voice is, how vulnerable. he nods, switching hands to rest one on her leg. large, warm palm soothing her and pulling her out of her mind before she can even begin to cause herself to spiral.

he clears his throat, squeezing the plush, smooth skin of her thigh, “cowgirl.”

her furrowed brow is adorable. looking up from the bouquet in her lap and over at him in question. there’s a drunken slowness to her, a haze. he hums and pushes his hand higher — marking a mental note of how easily her legs spread to make room for him.

“that’s what position imma have you in.”