#the amount was supposed to come out automatically so I didn't check

[emile-hides]

You guys are never gonna believe how stupid I am

I didn't FUCKING PAY FOR HIM

I need everyone to be a super homie to me and give $2 to the Dokapon Kingdom King of Dokapon plushie campaign because I need I NEED this man to be real

[cuprohastes]

Lunch In Space (Part 4)

There is an old Human tradition. We keep it alive to this day. When things are Very Bad(tm), for example, your shuttle is about to perform a high-velocity Lithobraking Manouver, you invoke the Ancient Words of the Ancestors. Usually "Oh, sh*t".

I, as I'm sure you're now aware, am culturally sensitive, and cultured, so when chunks of Oscar started becoming Free Range and my life support lit up red, and Oscar's little Atrix-face started doing some very worried little colour combos, I took solace in this hallowed and time-honoured tradition and went with "Ru-ROH".

Now you may be thinking, gee, having your life support blow out while flying around the backside of a planet while everyone is too busy to come to pick you up is bad.

I mean, sure. It literally is.

But what doesn't kill you instantly gives you the opportunity for a really slow, horrible death so you can appreciate it so much more.

I took the life support unit off.

Counter-intuitive, but there you go. I jsut clipped one of my lanyards to the bottom attach point and released all the clips.

All the connectors that move all my various essential fluids and gasses are on failsafe connectors. They close automatically because it'd be super dumb if they didn't.

So now I'm just using passive insulation and things are going to get very hot very soon.

I turned the Life Support unit over and found a... Space Squid. 

I mean that's what it looked like. This conical, bullet-shaped shell,  with tiny little thruster vents, and then on the bottom of the cone, a bunch of little tentacles, sensor windows and what looks like miniature tools.

At first, all I saw was the shell so I grabbed it and yanked it out. I screamed jsut the tiniest amount when it wiggled its tentacles at me, but then it folded up and glared at me, and tried to puff away. 

My mighty human fingers of course were more than a match for this.

My mighty human Brain took a few more seconds to catch up because Oscar wasn't loaded with enough coffee for peak human cognition and I did a comical flail and found two more of the little suckers trying to eat through Oscar's skin.

"I Yeet Thee!" I told them and yanked them off and threw them in the direction of away.

The first little guy was with me but still sulking. I think it was out of gas, to be honest.

So that leaves me inside Oscar, who's rapidly becoming a sauna.

Luckily, I am just covered in tools, patches, and other Fix-things stuff so I started checking the life support pack.

Not good. Squiddy had already chewed some quite important stuff - the valves all closed, but now there's no way to re-circulate a lot of the air supply.

A bit about life support. It's not just a couple of bottles of air mix.

There are coolants, thruster gasses that you just top up while you work, water, which is circulated through Oscar's inner lining, the uh, Yellow and Brown lines, and then the Scrubber which is kind of a back-up and also means you can go longer without an umbilical, or without large air tanks. It also prevents the inside of Oscar from filling up with condensation.

So anyway, the thruster tank and the air tank were basically there but unusable.

Two of four of the batteries were cracked. They got isolated by the technical process of just pulling them out. They're not supposed to be dangerous, but why take the risk?

Oscar was a nice toasty 40ºc by the time I got the life support back on and I almost cried when the cooling started to pull out all that heat.

And then I almost sobbed because Oscar told me I had three and a half hours until station rendezvous and approximately two hours and twenty minutes of life support.

So I shut almost everything down. Inspection lights, most of the computing, interior displays, and after one last use, the uh waste processing.

That got me an extra 40 minutes of power. What else?

Well duh.

My power tools have bi-directional charging. I plugged them into my utility ports and hey OK, now I was only 5 minutes shy. OK.

So what else?

The Scrubber - It's running out of... scrub-ability.

There's a thing you can do that you should never, ever do, because it's suicidally stupid and bad. Honestly, I've always wanted to try it.

I turned the temp down past freezing and told the auto-doc to go to Oetzie mode. 

Now, this isn't an official process. It's one of the macros I've developed in bored moments - I submitted it to a couple of trade journals, both of whom told me I was a dangerous lunatic.

So I asked the Most Dangerous Human.

Miranda is a mutant. She burns 4000Kcal a day sitting still. Her IQ is supposedly about double or more than a normal Genius. She hates her life. Literally everyone in her species is kind of sad and bumbling and unable to grasp concepts she finds simple.

She lacks intellectual stimulation, and just craves novelty or anything that might make her feel for a moment, that she can be part of normal life.

When I met her she was running a comic book store. 

She's considered the most dangerous living human because nobody can figure out if she's going to take a nap, then re-write the rules of linguistics, develop an AI that will take over the Human race or stub her toes and decide to eradicate all living things in a Light Millenium.

As someone who's spent an afternoon shovelling food into her and listening to her do the most hilarious routine on why Comic Books should be weaponised, I can tell you that she has no more ill will toward anyone who doesn't write Justice Interplanetary than the common dog owner has for their pupper.

But Stever Aronnomis and Gixy Lurraine? Your days are numbered. Especially after Issue 17.

Anyway, Mir-Mir took about eight hours and re-wrote the Oetzie protocol, and got published in about 19 interdisciplinary publications. She was nice enough to credit me with the original work, and that got me a job and a weekly visit from the People In Black to check that I'm not also a supervillain or plotting to steal people's essential fluids to make Tsin sports drinks.

Anyway.

Oetzie mode gives you near-fatal hypothermia. It's not quite suspended animation but it's close as you can get while maintaining a really good chance of waking back up.

All I had to do was program a really simple little macro that would ping for immediate assistance and flag the file with re-animation instructions.

Already I was getting chilled. My teeth were chattering and I was trying to relax and jsut lket it happen. My littel budd the spac squid was stuill floting her. gabe it one o th deb bat  klklklkkkkkkkkkk

Ow.

Seriously. I was feeling very disoriented. Everything was too bright and I felt very woozy and my jaw ached, but apart from that, the pins and needles, the way all my clothes felt like broken glass and the uncontrollable shivering, I felt surprisingly not dead.

Also not in Oscar.

I was having trouble focusing my eyes, but hearing I could manage.

Two Tsin were discussing eating me.

Voice One: "Well he's dead. I say we just ask. You know Humans - it's either 'no, you can't because we have a whole bunch of traditions and sacred laws that cannot be broken' or 'haha yeah that's what they'd want' and then they ask you if you want some sauce."

Voice Two: "Yeah but... what if the othre humans get upset that we asked? What if they think we killed this one to get the meat?"

Voice one: "They were in an un-powered EVA suit with no air, and the life support running colder than the Caffeteria Freezer. I don't care what stupid plan they had, not even a Human can survive that."

This is it. The moment that I have been living for all these years. You always hope one day you get the chance, and now finally it's my time to shine!

I sat up and said "Do you two mind? I'm trying to get some sleep."

Their horrified screams were like a warm bath. Ahhhh!

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #254

J woke up early today to go on a plane trip with his friend An. He had already left by the time I had woken up.

I like that J can go out and do fun airplane things with other pilots. An is a great lady, and a skilled pilot. Still, I suppose, following the accident that J and I got into that one time, lately, every time J goes out on the plane, it's always a question for me as to whether or not he'll come back in one piece.

…Baseless anxieties, I know. J knows what he's doing. I try to keep these thoughts in check. But today it was a little harder than usual. I went to bed kinda late, and my body sorta woke up automatically like 6 hours later, feeling very uncomfortable because I definitely ate too much garlic bread yesterday. I love garlic, but it's still a chemical irritant when eaten in large amounts. Whoops.

When we're tired and uncomfortable, anxieties become harder to control. So I ended up spending most of the day playing Dead Cells to try to keep myself distracted until J came home. It's just as well; I had a quest. I had to defeat The Hand of the King while having precisely one Boss Cell active. I needed to do this because I needed to get the Recycling Tubes upgrade, so that when I begin a run, I have more kinds of equipment available to me. So that is what I did.

Sephiroth, I've been doing runs on 4 Boss Cells for a while now. And I remembered when I first started doing runs with one Boss Cell. I remember how much I struggled with it at first. But today, when I went back to only one Boss Cell... I was shocked at how stupid easy it seemed, compared to what I am currently accustomed to. Holy crap.

I finished that run in about 3 hours, and I made very short work of The Hand of the King. I even had a few spectators, and we had a little bit of animated discussion; it was pretty cool! I had one person come on, and they seemed amazed that, despite having unlocked very little in the way of equipment, I was still running on 4 Boss Cells. I tried to explain that I've been using all the regular cells I've been getting at the Legendary Forge instead of on unlocking equipment.

I also tried explaining that my skills are sharp because I use the Baseball Bat/Greed Shield combo almost exclusively; I don't have to try to adapt to different kinds of equipment because that is what I use. And what's more, since I rely so heavily on parrying, my play style requires lots of precision, anyway. And since up until this point I've been evenly distributing my stat points instead of specializing, I've also basically been playing with a handicap this whole time. So... I guess it stands to reason that I'm skilled by now? Because I've been basically making it harder for myself than necessary this whole time, hahaha!

...I wonder what your play style would look like, if you tried this game. If you find yourself in my neighborhood someday, will you hang out often enough to develop one so that we can find out?

The ability to play Dead Cells well is a developed skill, just like lots of other things. This mindset that I've cultivated, too, is a developed skill. I wasn't always the kind of person for whom gratitude, joy, hope, and compassion came naturally; the world I come from primed me for bitterness, anger, cynicism, and a very judgmental attitude, and for a long time, I embodied those traits as though they were the correct and honorable way to be; that's because that's what everyone else in my social circles was like at the time, and I had to try to mirror their thought processes in order to get their approval, because when I didn't have their approval, they would hurt me.

If I look back on who I used to be in the same way I look back on when I first started playing with 1 Boss Cell, I recognize how I struggled with allowing myself to feel things like joy, gratitude, compassion, and hope; in the past, these things were considered unrealistic and fanciful things that only weak and stupid people did, so whenever emotions like these cropped up in my mind, my first instinct was to feel ashamed and on-guard, as though someone was gonna hit me if they caught me feeling "sissy weakling stuff" like that. It's always a little weird when we re-incorporate things into our being that other people forced us to amputate from our psyches.

But... we can use our coping skills to practice radical acceptance of those feelings. We can sit and cope with the shame and with the feeling on-guard. We can try to figure out what those feelings are trying to tell us, and evaluate whether or not those things are still true of our current reality. We can do that until those shameful, guarded feelings give way to stuff that is closer to grief and anger; believe it or not, when you reintegrate parts of your psyche, moving from shame and being on-guard towards anger and grief is progress, because instead of feeling ashamed for being human, you start getting sad and pissed that some totally uninformed fucknugget tried taking your humanity away from you.

From there, we can counter the lies that were told to us with better beliefs that are derived from the truths present in our current circumstances. In some ways, battling those lies is not unlike placing a well-timed parry (boundary skills!) and then following up with a well-placed crack over zombies' heads with a baseball bat (deliberately choosing new beliefs!).

When it comes to my own healing journey, I'm maybe on 3 Boss Cells, haha. I still have a long way to go. But... I can look back at the things that I used to struggle with, and be proud of the fact that I don't struggle with them anymore. Sure, sometimes I do fall into old habits (just like sometimes I have bad runs in Dead Cells), but nowadays, those emotions that my upbringing tried to strip from me are things that come easy now, at least most of the time.

And that's because the capacity to notice, honor, and feel through our emotions is a skill we can practice, just like any other. Mindfulness about our internal experience is a skill we can practice like any other. Hope, gratitude, joy, and compassion are skills we can practice, just like any other. Deliberately choosing how we perceive the world around us and deliberately choosing how we will respond to adverse stimuli (as opposed to letting our trauma responses choose for us) are skills we can practice, just like any other.

We can dance through the tides of our own emotions gracefully until we learn how to make peaceful but still self-protective choices in response to them, just like we can dance through hordes of zombies until they stop trying to bite our faces off. It just takes a sec to figure out how. And you gotta be willing to get your ass handed to you over and over again, until you learn how not to get your ass handed to you. In a lot of ways, it's really all the same.

In any case, J did indeed come home safe and sound. And he even gathered up a bunch of pictures for you along the way; I am not the only one here who loves you and wishes well upon you! Here's proof:

...Welcome to my world. This is how it looks. Isn't it beautiful? You can chill over here with me in this place if you want to. But if you don't want to, then... you can fly, right? Pretty easily, despite having only one wing, no? So... maybe you can go to places in your world that are as pretty as this. I'll keep hoping that you'll find kinder, gentler skies to soar in. And if you can't find any, then I hope that I've made it clear to you that mine exist, and that you are welcome in them.

...I think that's all I've got for today. I'm gonna watch J play some Brave Fencer Musashi now.

I'll write again soon, so please stay safe out there, okay? If you can't stay safe for yourself, then... please consider staying safe for the people who love you. You'll always have at least one, right here, writing you all kinds of weird and fanciful letters.

'Til soon.

Your friend, Lumine

[jynxeddraca]

Fuck you Nelnet, fuck you.

Rant incoming.

So my student loans apparently got sold to some company called Nelnet. Which, whatever, I can't really do anything about that. But I knew my loan payments were supposed to start up again and every time I checked it said I didn't owe anything. However, starting back in September, I was accruing interest. I've been told I needed to start paying in October, that I needed to start paying in November, and Nelnet's site say that accounts starting in 'E' (which mine apparently does) need to pay in October - so that hasn't been confusing at all. They also ported over my banking information so I was automatically signed up for auto debit even though I did not sign up for auto debit - which I'm already annoyed about, even though it was about $40. So I finally got a bill and it says I have already paid my 'Regular Monthly Amount' of $118 towards my student loans.

No the fuck I did not.

So cue me running around trying to figure out where this money was taken from because it's not come out of my bank account that I can see. The interest has been applied for both September and October, so I now owe $100 in interest. And to top it all off - I cannot change the the amount of the auto debit. It physically will not allow me. So I just canceled that shit.

So what I found out is this lovely thing when I checked the "Make A Payment" because no payment has been made and I don't want to accumulate interest because that's bitten me in the ass before:

I was making payments during the pause - at least for part of the pause because I had literally thousands of dollars in interest that my IBR didn't cover that I really wanted to catch up on. The only thing I can think of is that they applied some of my COIVD Pause payments to this and advanced my due date. Which, when I went to make a payment there is a button that said "Do not advance my due date" and there was a note (Wish I had gotten a screenshot of that) that told me that it was a one time only checkbox.

And like all student loan interest websites it seems, you cannot allocate extra payments to the principal of a loan until the interest is paid down. Because of course not. Because people drowning in that interest piling up is what makes them money. So why would they give people an option to help pay the principal down a little bit quicker?

Also, on top of all of this, I seem to have extra loans that my previous provider did NOT list so I went from 4 loans, to 7 - even though the total amount owed between them has stayed the same.

So far, Nelnet, you seem shady as shit and I don't like you. So go fuck yourself.

[wanderingaroundwithmysoul]

"Whatever. Hippie," was Rain's automatic response. There was a small, amused smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

She could sense Matt's hesitancy, which didn't bode particularly well. "Yeah? Spit it out."

Learning that he could get violent without meat stirred a tiny amount of unease at first. "What, you worried I'm not willing to put up with a little risk? Who do you think you're talking to?" If he actively tried to prevent that from becoming that way again and had succeeded up until this point, then ultimately, she didn't have much of an issue. "I'd prefer heads up if I start looking kinda appetizing, though."

"Alright." Rain got it. If she ever had to kill Matt, it wouldn't be the first time she had to do so to a friend-turned-monster. She knew how it would hurt, but she got it. She respected that wish and she shared it. The last thing Rain wanted was her corpse puppeted around by the T-virus. It wouldn't be her anymore. Only a thing without mind or soul, killing people and spreading the virus further. "I will. I'd want you to do the same for me," she told him, entirely oblivious to the fact that he already tried to put her down once before.

She shrugged when he said he didn't drink. "More for me." A part of her did miss drinking with friends. It used to be a weekly ritual for her, but with limited supplies nowadays, she supposed she couldn't complain about not having to share any of her beer.

Unable to stop herself, Rain replied in a blatantly unsurprised tone, "You? Not lucky with ladies? That's crazy, dude." Matt was a good guy and while she was certainly not into hippie nerds, she knew many chicks were. She was simply poking fun at him. "Did you just always end up with shitheads like her, or did you get turned down a lot?" Rain herself hadn't had a girlfriend since she was fifteen. Not that she ever spent time seeking one. If they actually connected like that, cool, but she usually stuck with hookups.

"Wide, tall... You're basically a walkin' wall, man." Once Matt caught up, she entered the store. Compared to the average grocery or drug store in the apocalypse, things weren't too bad of a mess and the shelves weren't entirely barren.

She noticed the new movement of his tentacles out of the corner of her eye. She took that as an indication that they weren't alone, and when he confirmed it by pointing in the same direction that the extra appendages were, she nodded. She raised her pistol back up and followed him with careful steps.

Further down the rows of shelves, dark shapes were shifting about, digging through a load of fallen products in the middle of an aisle. There was a buzzing noise reminiscent of the wheels on a pullback toy spinning. With a click, Rain switched her flashlight back on, illuminating a pair of insectoid creatures. Although they were relatively low to the ground, they had to be around six feet in length. Both perked up, their compound eyes glittering strangely in the light.

The creatures darted toward the two of them with impressive speed, their raptorial claws raised. Rain's finger quickly shifted to the trigger. She opened fire on the one directly in front of her. Every shot nailed the creature in the head or thorax, but it still kept coming.

She stepped back just far enough to avoid one of its claws before her ninth shot finally downed it. After looking over to check on Matt, her gaze landed back on the carcass. It was oozing a nasty yellowish fluid.

"Ugly bastards... Can't even browse in peace." Rain stepped over it. "Hope they didn't get into any good stuff."

In a world ravaged by a virus that primarily creates monsters, nasty encounters are in no short supply. When Rain begins to hear heavy footfalls—when she feels them practically shaking the ground beneath her, she figures she's about to have another.

Cursing under her breath, she unholsters her gun.

The days were blending together in depressing ways now. Nemesis was shocked at how quickly things had gone to hell after the Hive and Raccoon City Incidents. It had taken him quite a while to regenerate after the city's "sanitation," but once he was on his feet again, he realized the gravity of what was happening to the world.

Alone and with nothing left to do in his current mutated state, Nemesis had taken to showing up at Umbrella facilities unannounced, and destroying as much of them as he could. The digital feed supplied by the retinal implant attached to his right eye and sewn up into his head gave him a lot of useful information, especially after his mind was liberated from Umbrella's control. May as well put it to good use, right?

He'd acquired more clothes and equipment this way, with the boots and leather trenchcoat-style getup being standard issues for a creature called a Tyrant, which he apparently now was. They seemed just about the only things that were going to fit his... unique body shape nowadays.

Learning about himself and destroying Umbrella assets were good pastimes, but Nemesis was extremely lonely. The few survivors he came across now and then either screamed and ran from him or shot at him. Bullet wounds were nothing more than annoying mosquito bites to him now, thanks to his thick hide, but even so... it was demoralizing. All he wanted to do was help. He was almost getting used to being alone all the time, by necessity rather than desire, until that unexpectedly changed. While exploring a city one day, he rounded a corner and-

"Raaaain!" Nemesis bellowed the moment he saw her, unable to contain his excitement upon seeing her. "Oh... ny god!" He couldn't believe his eyes. Well, eye. He still had two, but one was... indisposed. In a move that probably looked damn near ridiculous to the other, he lifted his hand... and waved to her. "I'n so glad... to see you! How... are you... alithe... right now?" he tried to ask, his massive chompers getting in the way, as usual.

Nemesis couldn't get his voice to be anything other than a monotone growl, and with monstrous teeth and a noticeable lack of lips, his speech was something of a garbled mess. It took him a while, but he'd learned to make certain sounds in other ways, using his throat and tongue. Essentially, he'd had to relearn how to speak. Some sounds and words, though, were lost forever. None of that did anything to curb his enthusiasm at seeing Rain alive, however. Was he finally losing his mind? Hallucinating, maybe? No, the target identification system is identifying her as Rain... Right now, Nemesis didn't care either way. Just the sight of her was one for sore eyes, since his last clear memory of her was being at death's door.

"I thought... the anti-thirus... didn't work...?" he said, his elation at seeing her alive completely overriding his common sense. Nemesis wasn't thinking about the fact that Rain wouldn't recognize him anymore, or about how negatively she would likely react to seeing the hulking beast before her. Not to mention his tentacles, rooted at the backs of his shoulders, which were excitedly coiling and undulating in their own right, reacting to his surprise and happiness. He batted one of them with his hand. "Cut it out...!" he admonished the obnoxious appendage. It recoiled temporarily before returning to its idle activities.

Then it dawned on him, especially with how she had her gun at the ready. Oh no... she has no idea who I am. "It's Natt," he said, laying his hand on his chest. "Natt... Ad-di-son." How pathetic is it that I can't even say my own name correctly anymore? he thought grimly.

[fnf-amateur-writing]

I’m back and I’m sorry to bring sadness but I need some comfort because my Christmas went terribly. Could I have some Updike and Sarvente (seperate) with an S/O who feels dejected and upset because of a Christmas gone wrong? Family started fighting and they stayed in their room the entire day. —☕️

Me on my way to bring Hot Beverage Anon some love

TW: Some mild angst with happy ending.

Updike and Sarvente (separate) with S/O upset over bad Christmas

Updike:

You were probably already getting tired by now, and so was Updike. The clock said it was past nine PM, and it was finally time for Updike to get his things together and leave after another long shift on Christmas. But he didn't see it as any sort of setback for his personal life. Since Boxing Day is on Sunday, he can take a short break to spend time with you.

Right as Updike put his phone back in his pocket, he took it out again; he remembered something. You always called him at some point when it was a holiday, wishing him well and saying general sweet words, but not today. But it wasn't surprising you forgot, you were out to spend the day with your parents--along side a dinner shared with the rest of your family.

You were going to stay there overnight, he may as well phone you instead before you sleep. After dialing, the call was almost dropped automatically before you answered on the last second.

"Hello," you said. It sounded like you didn't even check to see who called, since you would normally say "hey" and his name when he called. And there's another thing he picked up on as well: you sounded off, something more than being tired. Sick, maybe? But if you were, he's sure you'd tell him without asking.

"Hello, (Y/N), you didn't call earlier, and I wanted to know how you are doing."

"Fine," you say in a tone that easily exposed your lie, "I was kind of in my old bedroom for most of the time, anyways."

"(Y/N), you don't sound like you're 'fine'," his tone now becoming more serious. Then, to make things more dodgy, you began to speak more quietly. "I just didn't feel that safe out there with the family drama going on, that's all."

You didn't say you weren't feeling good, or you were uncomfortable, but you weren't feeling "safe"? But there wasn't time to ask more questions, because you clearly wanted the conversation to end.

"It's fine, I'll be back in the morning. Love you."

"Love you, too." And that's why he's not letting you stay there for much longer.

~~~

Your anxiety was finally wearing off somewhat, and you maybe could've gotten some sleep, but no, the few relatives that still lingered about the house are yelling again. Now it was starting to get annoying, too, and you had to try and tune them out again. However, you can't tune out an argument when you suddenly hear them scream your name.

Panic took over, what were you supposed to do? Just unlock the door and face hell? But just standing there could make them more angry. In your contemplation, you listened in closer to the door. And there was a bit of hope, and immense shock, when you heard Updike among the yelling. You kept thinking that he didn't have to, especially since his arrival may be more harmful.

However, being that Updike can give people quite the talk-down, you did get the little amount of confidence you needed to slowly crack open the door and walk down to the living room. Maybe you could help him talk it out... No, not that simple in this family. You could only hope for the best now.

Peaking into the living room, Updike noticed you as quickly as you did him. You never seen his hair so dark before he literally lightened up at the sight of you. There wasn't time, now, he was taking you out. "We need to go, come on," he said, grabbing your hand and almost running out the door. "What, I don't even have my phone!" you nearly stutter, no longer paying mind to the swears coming from behind.

"It'll be fine, you need to come home, now." Seeing that you didn't even have your shoes on you, he picked you as well. He was rushing, but he put you in the passenger seat of his car as gently as possible. Even when Updike got in himself, he didn't bother to pause for a breath, he simply started the car and drove as soon as he could. You kept quiet the whole drive, still shaking in some shock, and he decided it was best for him to also stay silent until you two were home.

~~~

"... Do you want any tea?" Updike softly asked, guiding you to the couch.

"Uh, chamomile?" you speak up for the first time in a while. "I'll be right back, dear," he pats your head before leaving. Finally, even without your things, you could actually calm down. And it's about time, too, it's only an hour before midnight. Good thing it's the weekend.

For the next few minutes, you kept thinking about what had happened earlier. Your mind was currently a mess of memories without chronological order. And you didn't snap out until, in which only felt like a minute, Updike came back with a cup of tea. When you took the cup and saucer, he sat right next to you, rubbing your back.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better. Thanks, Gabriel."

It was quiet again, and you didn't see Updike was sort of studying your face as you sipped away. You seemed to be holding some emotions back.

"(Y/N)?"

"Yeah?"

"It's okay to cry, if you need to."

... You needed to hear that.

Sarvente:

You sworn you heard a window get smashed earlier, but you didn't want to leave your room to check; using the bathroom was the only thing you would leave to do. Still, what if that one damn relative found a reason to yell at you the few minutes you left. "But we're a family!" you could already imagine them saying. But family issues don't just work themselves out like a Disney movie.

It was a bit early to sleep, but it was night and the lights were off (to ward off any attention). Plus, sleeping means this mini hell will be over sooner. You were already in bed, so once you pulled the blanket over, you slowly began drifting off. Or that's what you planned until the window in your room started opening.

You immediately sat up, scared, but not knowing what to do. But you sort of calmed down when you recognised the silhouette of an ushanka. It was Ruv, and he looked around briefly before whispering, "why haven't you been to services?"

Crap, you forgot about church! Sarvente must've sent Ruv out to get you. "Ruv, I'm sorry, I--" "Hush, explain it to Sarv," Ruv interrupts, minding the fact your family was still here. He better make it quick before they catch him practically kidnapping you. "Last service in an hour," he says, scooping you out of bed and gong back out the window.

"Hold on, I gotta get dressed!" you whisper yell to him. If the last service is in an hour, than you certainly have time to get changed before then. "She made you an outfit, now shut," he orders. Fine, you kept your mouth shut. But you were still anxious. Family was already off the rails, and now you felt paranoid your girlfriend may yell at you, too.

~~~

"Ruv, are they here?" Sarvente instinctively shouts, from the room she was organising your outfit in, upon hearing the large front doors. She takes a peak into the main room, running over once she caught glimpse of you. Despite your fears, she happily picks you off the ground in an embrace. "Oooohh, bless this holy night!" she said in a sing song tone while squeezing you. "Your skin is freezing. Ruv, I find it sinful you didn't at least share your jacket!" Ruv responds in an uninterested shrug before walking off. You're not his partner.

"Well, sorry I didn't come earlier Sarv, I kind of--"

"Oh, it's fine, dear! Going to church at night does have a nice feel to it."

"No, it's because I had a bad day and forgot," you correct. Sarv's face showed shock; you never just forget to go to church! And how could you be having a bad day when celebrating one of the greatest miracles? "Did you at least remember to eat? You look more thin than usual."

"I did, but I was too scared to go to the kitchen," you mutter. Maybe you were really worried about her worrying too much. You try not to get her involved in your problems, since she can be quite the mom-girlfriend.

"Family problems?" she asked.

"How did you know?"

She sighs, "I see it all the time, every Easter and Christmas. I see so many disarray families that crowd together in a pew just because they think they have to. But if my church isn't a refuge from struggle, then I need to do something. Now," she pecks you on the forehead, "I made a big dinner earlier, and you can have as much as you want. I also made you a cute church outfit as a gift. And during service, I can sit you next to this lovely elderly couple that always goes to evening services. And then..."

"I'm sorry, just a bit of." You wiped your eyes. She really is such a sweetheart. "Are you crying?" You didn't answer, but it was obvious anyways. "I'm happy I got to be with you," you explain. "Sweety," she puts another kiss on your face, "you can always come here. You can even stay, and we would share my bed every night."

You actually smile for once. "Thanks, I think I'll consider that."

[rogue-durin-16]

THINGS NEVER GO AS PLANNED (Part V/VII)

"the perfect excuse"

Summary: After Fred's death, George and Y/n lean on each other to carry on. This wasn't the most brilliant idea, though; George was pretty much in love with the girl, and Y/n— well, she had been dating Fred prior to the Battle of Hogwarts.

Pairing: George Weasley x Reader

Genre: angst mostly

Tags:

Suggested by: @crispykittywitch

Things never go as planned: @sarcasticallywitty15 @beautyschoo1dropout @s1ut4georgeweasley @sunshineandshadowss @missmulti @weasleywh0r3s @andreaareynoso @georgeweasley19 @dianarte

Permanent taglist: @elia-the-bibliophile @randomparanoid @karlthecat15722 @thebutchersdaughtersblog @amourtentiaa

Warnings: language, drinking, makeout getting spicy

A/N: idk what happened here, this was not planned I'm just horny ig??? Anyway have this part that was definitely not meant to unfold like this but hey, I'm not mad, so enjoy <3

Prologue: the aftermath

Part I: sleepless nights

Part II: candy floss

Part III: shock therapy

Part IV: wrong name

Part VI: the downfall

Part VII: apart

Epilogue: I still love you

Rogue-durin-16 masterlist

I checked myself in the mirror one last time before heading to the kitchen. There was no actual need of dressing up nicely, since we both would be spending New Year's Eve at the flat, but since Ginny, Ron, Harry and Hermione were coming, we decided to clean up for our guests.

"Hmm, smells good." I leaned on the doorframe, observing George finishing cooking.

"These past five months' messes paid off." He joked, grabbing a kitchen rag to clean his hands. "Can you keep an eye on it while I go get read..." He trailed off automatically when his gaze landed on me. "Woah— okay." He cleared his throat, eyes slightly widened at my outfit, and I couldn't help but enjoy a bit too much his attention. "You look really good— is that the new blouse?"

"Yup." I replied, a coy smile dancing on my lips as I stepped to him and picked the kitchen rag myself. "C'mon, go clean up nice for our guests."

It only took him a couple of minutes, since he might have had his suit ready.

"Mind lending a hand with the tie, love?" He requested, stepping into the kitchen with his attention on the shirt's cuffs which he was buttoning up.

Damn, he looked so good; it wasn't even fair.

"Y/n?" He chuckled, finally looking up.

"Uh— yeah! Sure." I threw the rag over the counter and led my hands to the tie, taking my time to make the knot; maybe I wanted an excuse to have my hands on him.

We stayed in silence until I was finished; it wasn't an awkward silence, but it wasn't comfortable either— it was, in fact, stifling.

"There you go." I more like whispered instead of talking, sliding my hands down his chest briefly. His eyebrows were knitted, trying to decipher my demeanor; his hands caught one of mines before they fell limply on my sides, and for a second, I thought he was about to do something really stupid —something I had wanted to do for the last three months—, but then the bell rang and we stepped away from each other, going to receive Ron and Hermione as if that moment hadn't happened at all.

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

GINNY'S P. O. V.

I took a sip of my brandy as we laughed at Ron's joke, my eyes drifting to Hermione and then to Y/n's lap, where Teddy rested, giggling and blabbering nonsense at George's hand movements and funny faces.

George had confided me quite ashamed that he fancied Y/n about two years ago, but I knew the looks he gave her were of something more than a little crush, if you may.

Had I not known Y/n, I would be worried she was projecting Fred onto the younger twin, but the girl knew better than that, so when we got to experience how their domestic life unfolded during New Year's Eve, I felt nothing but happiness at the way Y/n laughed at my brother's jokes, or how she stared at him in pure adoration as he played with Tonks's and Lupin's baby.

"You're getting him waaay too exited, mate." Harry chuckled, extending his arms for Y/n to hand him the toddler. "He needs to go to sleep."

Teddy, who we had put to sleep in Y/n's room shortly after dinner, had woken up right before the New Year came to us, and, since he refused to go back to sleep, Y/n took on the task of entertaining him. George joined as soon as he witnessed Teddy's hair going rainbow-like at Y/n's actions.

"Actually, I think we all need to go to sleep." I said, leaving the glass on the table.

"Boo, you're supposed to be the youngest!" Y/n whined, earning a laughter from the rest.

"Ginny's right, though." Ron stood up and all of us followed his lead. "It's really late and I don't want mum to see us drunk when she wakes up."

"Not a good impression to make on your future mother-in-law, oi, Granger?" George's tease made Hermione's cheeks flush, murmuring an 'idiot' before giving him a hug. "Take care, all of you." He added after he and Y/n had hugged everyone goodbye.

The five of us exited the flat and apparated in the Burrow's yard in silence until Harry asked, "are they together now?"

"We don't know." I confessed with a grimace.

"Well, together or not, they're definitely fucking."

"Ronald!" Hermione exclaimed, slapping her boyfriend's arm.

"I just said what everyone else's thinking." He defended himself, and none of us could deny it.

READER'S P. O. V.

We began to pick up the dirty plates, glasses and cutlery in order to take them to the sink and leave them there to wash them tomorrow.

"Oi, look what I found." George wiggled a firewhiskey bottle at me from the living room.

Without thinking twice, I grabbed the half empty ice cream tub I had just left over the counter, a couple of clean glasses, and I made my way to George.

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

"—and that was only in our... Third- no- fourth! year?" He finished the story, joining me in the giggling; I didn't doubt the story was funny, but I was sure it seemed ten times funnier because of the alcohol. "Wait- where were you back then?" He knitted his brows in confusion.

"A year below you." I laughed.

He snorted. "Below me," he took a look at his empty glass before reaching for the bottle with a laugh "hell, I wish."

I couldn't help but laugh too. "Sure you do." I wouldn't have laughed if I were sober, but then again I highly doubted he would have said that if he were sober. "Y'know- you can have me below you anytime you want, Georgie." I replied between lazy giggles, leaning on him so he would pour more firewhiskey into my glass too.

A loud snort left George, triggering one of my own. "Sure, darling." He loosened his tie and tossed it to the floor. "Why's it so hot in here?"

"Mmm... Must be 'cause of you." I threw my head back to stare at the ceiling. "Or... maybe's just the alcohol." I groaned at the feeling of my head spinning, and sat upright again to chunk the now full glass in one go. "I'm hot too."

"Oh darling... You can't even imagine how much— I mean... Every day— but tonight you look partic... particular...ly? Dashing." George was leaning back against the armchair's feet, his eyes closed, his cheeks flushed and an amused smile dancing on his lips. "Why must you be so bloody perfect?" I found myself staring a bit too much at the ginger. "There's still a conscious part of my brain that knows I shouldn't be saying this shit." An idle chuckle left his chest and one of his eyes peeked open. "I'm gonna blame the alcohol, aight?"

Right, the alcohol —The perfect excuse.

I laid my glass on the floor and got up, stumbling towards him. "Oi, careful— you don't wanna trip and fall." He laughed, steadying me with his hands as I plopped down on my knees besides him. "We won't make it to St. Mungo—" With one hand on his shoulder and one on his cheek, I went for it, cutting him mid-sentece in the process.

It was one hell of a sloppy kiss, and I was so concentrated on doing it right that I didn't even hear the moan I sent into his mouth.

What the hell are you doing?, My mind screamed.

I attempted to pull away, but I felt George's hands on my sides, clutching my clothes in his fists to tug me flush against him. I took the cue and did my best to climb onto his lap and straddle his legs without losing balance.

What we were doing felt terribly wrong, and, the morning after, we would regret this little slip so much, but in that exact moment I could only think that his lips tasted like fire whiskey, strawberry and chocolate, and that the quiet moans slipping through them between the kisses were loud enough to quiet down everything in my head.

I stopped to take a breath, resting my forehead against his; our eyes locked, pupils blown out.

Heavy pants left our lungs, as if we had just run a marathon. It felt like the kiss had made a bomb go off, one that we had unconsciously been building up those past months.

It took an instant of looking at each other to know we thought the same; we wouldn't get this opportunity ever again, so at that point, we might as well carry on and pray for it not to be too bad in the morning.

This time it was George who smashed his lips against mines, teeth clashing and tongues going in each other's mouths. The situation was escalating quick; a tad too quick, I daresay.

He cursed and mumbled something about too many clothes, proceeding to pull his shirt over his head with my help, given that he could only do so much with that amount of alcohol in his sistem.

I could do even less, though. It was proven when I first attempted to get rid of my blouse.

I struggled to unbutton it, an awkward, dizzy silence falling among us before his hands travelled to mines "Wait... Lemme..." He frowned, finding that simple task as frustratingly difficult as I did. "Bloody..." A browned off grunt left his swollen lips.

"Tear it." I mumbled, letting my hands roam over his chest.

"You sure?"

I hummed, somehow impatient. "We'll fix it tomorrow." I captured his lips once more.

We'd fix it tomorrow.

I felt his hands fisting my shirt by the cleavage before giving it a firm tug, making my gasp; I wasn't expecting all the buttons to come off in one go, given his drunken state.

I didn't even have time to discard the piece of clothing before his lips attacked my neck, shutting my brain off instantly due to the sensation.

"You want this?" He whispered in my ear, his hands going up from my thighs to my back until they reached the clasp of my bra.

Not trusting my voice, I nodded vigorously, making the world shake around me so hard that I had to shut my eyes.

I felt a feather kiss on my shoulder and his fingers unfastening the bra; he was doing his best to be smooth, which wasn't a lot, but I could tell he was trying hard.

"You're so sweet." I blurted out as his fingertips ghosted over my skin while he removed the top from my body.

He tried to reply something, but articulating kept getting harder and harder as we went deeper into it, so he gave up on words and so did I; at least until his fingers slid between my legs and started to tease me through the fabric of my remaining clothes.

"Bed." I whimpered, unconsciously rocking my hips against George's hand whilst my own travelled to his crotch, feeling his erection and consequently earning a moan from him.

"D'you think we'll make it?" He inquired, already retreating his hand briefly so we could stand up.

Soon enough we were stumbling to my room, hands all over each other, bumping against the furniture and walls due to not being able to stand upright.

When we fell on the bed and tossed the rest of our clothes to the floor, it began to dawn on me how bad this was going to be.

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

GEORGE'S P. O. V.

My head was pounding violently in my skull; that's most likely the reason why I woke up. It took a moment for the blurry memories of the previous night to flash into my mind.

"You feel... so good..."

"Fuck- George— faster, please..."

"Y/n— I'm-"

"No." I shoot up, not acknowledging that Y/n was still asleep by my side. "Fuck no. Nononono." I ignored the terrible headache caused by the hungover and, grabbing my clothes, I exited the room. "No fucking way." I kept mumbling to myself, stalking to my dorm to throw on some fresh clothes.

I sat on my bed, my hands running through my locks, bringing back the memories of Y/n's tugs on them in the process.

"What the fuck did I do." I almost choked on the sentence.

[jelly1799]

Lived

By making a deal with the devil, for a certain amount of time you can gain immense power. In exchange when the time is up, the devil claims your life.

A good person would never make a deal with the devil. That's why he goes after people who have hit rock bottom...

"Get out of here, Low!" Kookie whispers handing me my stuff and pushing me into the right direction. "I'll meet you in our usual spot."

I'm scared as hell, I can hear the looming steps approaching, the smell of grape black and mild filling my nose, as my heart starts to race and my hands shake as I grip the stair railing making my way down carefully.

The top stairwell door opens with a loud bang just as I slip out the bottom one. There's a soft mist being blown by the wind, but not enough to drench my clothes. I'm making record time down the road, my feet automatically knowing the route I've taken so many times.

It's when my feet step on the cracked raised sidewalk that I know I need to turn left, my heart starts to relax when I hear the hum of the giant electro box, I pull the bag off my back and sit down on the cool slightly damp grass as I wait.

Only the sound of the bugs and trees rustling can be heard as I wait for my only friend. I've counted to 60 at least 120 times trying to keep track of how long I've been waiting. Kookie never takes this long he's always been able to escape our foster parents with ease.

I had been with them for years alone before they took him in for another check. He was a small scared boy and never spoke to me despite my best efforts, but it all changed when he got caught sneaking food in the kitchen and I took the blame. They beat me hard that night to teach me a lesson and scare him, but that night he finally spoke to me and crawled into my bed saying that's the first time someone ever looked out for him.

As we grew older we both received our fair share of beatings, but we grew closer. Two peas in a pod, there was never a time we weren't together looking out for each other. He got bigger and stronger and stopped allowing them to hit me, he would often step in taking the brunt of everything so I could escape.

Kookie had been working a part-time job, and I'd been begging on the street for a year saving up everything we could get. Today was the day, we would take all we had earned, hope on the first bus out of here, and never look back.

If only I didn't get lost on the way home, Kookie wouldn't have had to come looking for me. Our foster father wouldn't have caught us in the middle of packing and we would have made it out before they were the wiser.

I hear rustling and the snapping of twigs. "Kookie?"

The loud stomping is a dead giveaway that is not Kookie and the smell of whiskey and grape is enough to make my stomach turn. I scramble trying to tug on my backpack and get to my feet but my hair is yanked harshly and I can feel his hot breath on my face.

"You fucking useless piece of shit! Low you thought you could just leave with him?!" he shouts and I recoil as his hand grips onto my arm his nails digging into my tender flesh.

"Where is he?" I ask scared when he starts laughing.

"Gone," just one word is uttered and I feel my soul break.

I go numb, his beating, I don't feel it; his ugly words, I don't hear them. I wish they would just kill me too as I lay on the floor of the cold room. I don't even know how many days have passed, there's no one left to tell me, no one left to protect me.

We were supposed to get out of here, we were going to travel the world, he was going to be my eyes for the outside world, but now he's gone and it's my fault. I brought him down, if he didn't have to look out for me, he would have made it out.

I can give you eyes.

His honeyed voice sounds from inside my skull. Surprisingly, I'm not scared, what could be worse than the hell I'm already living?

"You'll make it so my eyes can see?" I speak out loud, but the voice I hear sounds nothing like my own. It's hoarse, barely a sound at all, devoid of all emotion.

Yeah. If you make a deal with me, I'll become your eyes.

"Nothing in life is for free. What's the catch?"

Is it not obvious? Your life in exchange for ten years of me being your eyes.

What's my life worth, honestly? I'd rather have ten years of being free than the rest of my life stuck in this hell.

"I'll do it, I'll take the deal!" I say quickly, afraid to lose this opportunity.

There's a loud pop in my ears and my eyes sting, I clench them closed.

Open your eyes, Harlow.

I'm greeted by the darkness, nothing has changed, it didn't work.

Get up and open the curtain.

I slowly stand and all the joints in my legs pop and snap as I try to pull my measly weight up. It takes me a few moments, my body aches with each step, but I get up and walk slowly to the window. I push the curtain aside and I inhale a breath, it's beautiful, a perfect midnight velvet under stars the twinkle so brightly before my new eyes.

I'm pulled back from my trance when I hear them fighting in the living room, things are being thrown around, and then the loud bang of their bedroom door. I know what's going to follow, they won't be leaving the room for some hours. Now is my chance.

I quietly make it to the corner of the room where the bag Kookie had packed for me lay. My eyes well up as I finally glimpse it, he had told me it was purple, as I listened to the etching sounds the markers made against the fabric of the backpack.

We would lay for hours when they would lock us in the room, Kookie had bought two fabric pens and would describe each and every planet and constellation he drew. He was used to spending time in the school library, reading and memorizing the history and order of the stars.

I blink away my tears and sling the backpack to my front. Creaking open the door, I tiptoe into the kitchen. I try to keep my rustling to a minimum as I fill the bag with whatever snacks would fit along with the few clothes I had.

What are you doing in the middle of the night?

"I'm getting out of here. I'm going to go somewhere far, far away," I whisper.

I sneak out of the house and follow my usual route.

┈┈┈┈ Ψ ┈┈┈┈•

"Let's make camp here today!" I say out loud and place my hands on my waist impressed with the distance I've covered.

It's been a few weeks and I've somehow found myself on the Pacific Crest Trail. I've acquired more items to be able to survive out on this trail and have been trying to make it to the end for weeks now. My mind buddy is awfully silent during the day, but late at night, he tends to chat a little more.

"What should I call you?" I asked pulling out the small sketchbook and pencils I bought at the last outpost.

I have been called several names, but the most common would be Devil.

"I don't think that suits you. You're my angel, you gave me a chance at life," I ponder names for him as I start to haphazardly draw the mountains I can make out in front of me.

I was an angel long ago.

"You're still my angel, Lived."

Lived?

"It's your new name! Since devil backwards is Lived!" I say cheerily as I try and capture the shading the setting sun is casting on the mountains.

Such foolishness...

"You allow me to live, I think it suits you a lot," I say placing my book down and starting a campfire.

Hmm.

He goes silent while I cook and eat my food. The stars are outshining their best once the night falls. I recognize a few that are drawn on my tattered backpack. I pull my book onto my lap, letting the orange hue of the firelight up my blank page as I start trying to capture the night sky.

What a terrible drawing.

"Drawing is so fun though..." I say holding the pencil in my fist trying to keep steady.

"I'm so happy now that I can see."

Being able to see does nothing for your drawing skills, Harlow.

I chuckle at his insult but don't take it to heart. He's absolutely right, I'm a terrible drawer, but I want to capture everything I can finally see.

"I've decided on something, Lived."

What's that?

"I'm going to see all sorts of places around the world with these eyes! Then I'm going to draw it all!"

Even if your drawings are never appreciated by anyone?

"Even then, I'm not drawing for anyone else but myself," I say as I smile down at my haphazard drawing.

I like your terrible drawings, Harlow.

"Would you describe yourself to me some time? So I can draw you?"

Maybe if your skills improve drastically.

"It's a deal then!" I say as I snuggle into my bedroll.

┈┈┈┈ Ψ ┈┈┈┈•

You sure had a lot of fun, these past ten years. I say as I finally leave Harlow's body taking our sight with me.

"That wasn't ten years, you liar..." she laughs trying to keep her breathing steady.

She's absolutely right, it has been 72 years since we have made our deal. I traveled all over the world with her, we saw the pyramids in Egypt, the waterfalls in Rio, the Han River in Seoul. We saw everything and everywhere she could think of and it was wonderful.

We saw her finally lay her long-lost friend to rest, we saw her heal and become stronger. We saw her drawing skills improve steadily and become loved around the world. We saw her fall in love with a young man named Taehyung. Then we saw how her world changed, from the places around her to the people around her...

The world I saw as your eyes, Harlow...was truly beautiful. I'll keep on watching till the end so you just take a nice long break.

"Thank you for letting me see the world till the end, Lived," she gasps out as her frail body starts to shut down.

You may call me Jimin.

I lean down and press a kiss to her wrinkled lips taking the life I was promised.

I pull away and see the drawing framed beside her hospital bed. It's a picture of us she drew after I described my features to her, she was most into my wings, which were the same as a crow's.

"Come on, Jimin!" her voice sounds from behind me.

"Now you can show me your world," I take her hand and lead her out of the room completing our deal.

┈┈┈┈ Ψ ┈┈┈┈•

[augment-techs]

@lordkingsmith Ohhhhhhh. Oh~ This looks like it's coming along nicely. You're rolling right along since that last behemoth; good for you~

@skyland2703 .....I sense an ill wind blowing this way, but not like a miasma. More like the promise of those storm clouds that look like a rock concert on the inside. I assume this is for a prompt, but wouldn't dare venture a guess as to what sort.

Thanks for the tag from both of you, though I am not entirely sure what sort of last line this is supposed to carry on with. So just gonna wing it....

Kim snatched up the sword after checking the area one more time for anyone that might have been hiding. Injured bystanders weren't often caught in the crossfire, but they weren't rare, and there was protocol to follow even if Kim was the last to teleport out, sword in hand--which wasn't nearly as heavy as it looked--just before the police charged through the rotating entry near the casino or through the grander entry through the automatic doors. She didn't notice there was blood along one of the sharp edges until she was in the bright glow of the Command Center, the sounds of Alpha puttering around setting up the holding cell for the guest and the boys muttering about how heavy the guy was falling to the back of her mind with the worry about whether or not Billy had been injured and the blade held poison or other things malevolent in nature. Holding it above her head, looking not too different from her own child self the first time her dad tried to explain Star Wars and bought her a plastic light saber to play with when she was six, three things happened one after the other in a very short amount of time. First: Jason really couldn't help himself. The leader in him couldn't allow even an enemy to face the repercussions of having a helmet full of glass left precariously while he was unconscious. He took off the helmet of their enemy and he and Zack backed away rather quickly as Alpha set about tending to the cuts across the face of Tommy Oliver while they guarded the door; freaking out all the while. Second: Trini had opened up the files from the mall security to give the footage a once over, make sure that the Green Ranger--Tommy, holy shit, holy shit--hadn't harmed anyone. And then immediately had to stifle a scream in the back of her throat as she found herself viewing the Green Ranger attacking Billy unmorphed, out in public where he didn't have a prayer to get out of the situation without violating Zordon's rules, tossed away from the food he was imbibing in while looking over his phone; caught at the ankle, tripped, and then kicked right in the stomach to hit the guard rail over the fountain. Which Kim was also terrified to see the results of--until a flash of black and red was literally on top of the Green Ranger.  "That's Skull," was all Trini could muster to think or say, eyes wide and utterly bewildered at the punk attacking Tommy with the tenacity of something like an emaciated alley cat fighting a trained attack dog three times stronger and healthier.

Tagging: @ajgrey9647 @pkarchie @estel-eruantien @theorangerangers @theonewhonothingknows @koragg1

Last Line Tag. I was tagged by @whatwedointhecraft thank you 😁😁😁

Varian raised an eyebrow. “The prince has a backbone.”

Luke glared up at him, standing his ground. “I’ve done nothing to you. Nothing. I don’t want to have a problem with you. But I’m not letting you be cruel to me just because you can.”

“Rapunzel-”

“I’M NOT RAPUNZEL!”

Luke shouted, finally done. Varian took a step back and Luke rubbed his face. “I’m sorry” he managed to get his voice under control. “But I’m not my ancestor. I just happen to look like her. Don’t treat me like her. Don’t take your anger with her out on me, alright? We’re not the same person.”

Varian eyed him appraisingly before raising his hands. “Fair enough. My mistake.”

He walked off without a word to Ruddiger. “Go to sleep prince. You’re safe for the night.”

“Am I?”

“For the night, yes.”

Luke walked to the bedroll Varian had provided for him, eyes on the alchemist and his raccoon the whole while. Varian kept his back to him while petting and rubbing his face against Riddiger’s face and neck.

He fell asleep watching them.

When he woke up, it was dawn. Ruddiger was small and harmless looking sleeping on Varian’s bedroll. Still, Luke gave the racoon a wide berth as he got up.

Varian was walking back to the clearing as he was waking up. “Pond nearby, but don’t stay gone long.” Varian said as they passed each other. Luke looked at him searchingly before nodding.

“Thank you.”

Varian waved it off as he walked back to the camp. “Don’t be too long, I will send Ruddiger to look for you after an hour or so.”

And I tag @queerlilchinchin @uccelletto-di-kokuyo @skyland2703 @ajgrey9647 @augment-techs and anyone else who would like to

[ddullahan]

Here's a prompt I've been thinking about writing but never will Ruby finds that whenever she checks out a book from the library its been checked out before by a W.Schnee as well. Like every book she chooses. So she's suuuper curious as to what type of person she is. She thinks theyre really similar because they have the same tastes in books.And they meet and she finds out that Weiss is nothing like her at all.And cute shit happens? Idk I didn't think this through 😂

BRUH WHAT THIS IS SO FUCKING CUTE I went ham on this lmao thank you so much for the prompt idea!! I picture Ruby and Weiss in their twenties in this as a PSA lol ---------- The library was solemn that afternoon. Ruby wandered the stacks, breathing in the paper and leather from the shelves around her. The tips of her fingers skimmed the spines, silver eyes drifting over with no real clarity behind them. She pulled a book free from the shelf with the title The Beast of Vale, automatically flipping it open and skimming the inside cover. Someone sneezed with the force of a gunshot in the distance and Ruby nearly dropped the book, a flustered apology whispered out of sight. She recovered with a soft giggle, tucking it under her arm. Arching up onto her toes to glance at the other covers, there was a second sneeze and another hasty apology. Ruby bit her lip to stifle another laugh, pulling a second book free, Dust Below Dawn, and set to reading the inside cover. She pinched that to her side too, reaching for a third book - and a third sneeze rocketed through the quiet library. She heard a soft swear nearby and shuffled her books into her hands, curiosity pricking at her skin. She slunk to the end of the aisle, poking her head around the corner. “Bless y-” She choked off mid-sentence, her eyes widening. The woman seated amongst the thick red leather couches was far too pretty to be real. Stark white hair draped over her shoulders in silk waves, braided at the temples and leaving the rest to fall loose. White bangs framed her brow, partially covering a thick pale scar over her left eye. Most of her face was covered by a pale blue handkerchief furiously rubbing at her nose, but Ruby could still catch the gem blue eyes squinted against the pressure. They matched the dark and light blues of her three piece suit and matching heels. She had a sleek looking laptop on the coffee table in front of her, a lipstick stained coffee cup set beside it. Accompanying the laptop were several blue-bound books stacked as far away from her as possible, without the threat of them falling off the small table. The woman sniffed daintily, catching Ruby’s movement and hastily folding her handkerchief back into her inside pocket. “Oh -” “Oh um -” Ruby stammered at the same time, nearly jumping out of her skin as those blue eyes focused completely on her. “Did I -” “Bless you!” Ruby blurted out in a panic. The woman paused, blinking at her. “...Thank you..?” “You’re pretty - Welcome!” Ruby squeaked, her heart pounding so hard she was sure she could feel it through the books clutched to her chest. “You’re pretty welcome. Yep.”    An almost invisible smile pitched the corners of the woman’s eyes, amusement coloring her tone. “Pretty welcome. That’s a new one.” Ruby flushed red to the tips of her ears, a clumsy little laugh bursting from her, unchecked. “Well I’m uh, a new one. New-new person, I mean. We’ve never met before. So I’m new. To you.” The working percentage of her brain immediately wished to crawl into a hole and never come out again. Thankfully, her flustering seemed to amuse the woman further, prompting a light, stuttering laugh from her red lips. Ruby was surprised with herself, amazed she was still standing beyond the force of that smile. “You are.” The woman said evenly. Ruby immediately wished she’d worn something nicer to the library, as the weight of those blue eyes skimmed over her attire. Big black boots and black rose stockings lead up to a simple short black dress cinched at the waist and deep red cardigan thrown haphazardly over her shoulders, the tattered ends reaching down to her ankles. The soft red sleeves were pushed up her forearms, black bracelets around her wrists and a simple black choker wrapped around her throat. She didn’t bother with make-up that day, and she bemoaned it silently. “S-so um.” She shifted awkwardly, the woman’s eyes snapped up to hers immediately, the words sticking in her throat. She swallowed and tried again, clutching her books tighter for sanity. “A-are you um. Okay? Those were some pretty powerful sneezes.” The woman’s spine stiffened a little, crossing her legs at the knee. Her hands folded over on her lap. One of her heels drifted a little loose, cruxed at the ball of her foot. She had the presence of someone three times her actual size and Ruby could only watch the transformation in awe. “I’m fine, thank you for your concern. It seems I’m mildly allergic to the dust in these books. And not the useful kind.” Her lips pursed in the semblance of a frown. “Oh, that’s tragic.” Ruby flushed back up her eyes. “I-I mean, not tragic tragic. Just, um. It sucks you can’t smell the paper without sneezing.” “Yes I...thought the same.” She tilted her head, a few strands of her hair curling over the sharp line of her shoulder. Ruby wondered absently if meeting someone gorgeous was supposed to feel like dying. “Have you read those books before?” “These?” Ruby looked down at the books in her hands like she’d forgotten they were there. Honestly it was hard to remember anything now that she could breathe. “Uh no, not yet. I was planning to check them out though.” “Dust Below Dawn is enjoyable, as long as you don’t mind egregious prose and flowery alliterations.” The woman hummed, her spine relaxing as she reached for her coffee cup. Ruby tried not to stare too hard as her pale throat bobbed with a sip. “Wow, words.” Ruby murmured under her breath, shell-shocked that she’d missed her entire sentence. “Alternatively,” The woman continued, either ignoring or missing Ruby’s lack of attention, “The Beast of Vale is a masterwork. The author spent a dangerous amount of months near Mount Glenn just researching the properties of the city and grimm surrounding.” Ruby snapped out of her daze, glancing down at her copy of The Beast of Vale in wonder. Her feet were moving before she even realised it, cardigan sweeping out in a flutter behind her as she dropped into the opposing red couch. She leaned over the books now relocated to her lap, leaning forward eagerly. “Wow so you’ve read both of these before?” It was only after a beat of silence that Ruby realised how pink the other woman’s cheeks were, how wide her eyes had grown. “I- well yes. I wouldn’t know anything about them if I had no interest.” “Do you research the authors of all the books you read?” Ruby asked curiously. “Only the ones I care deeply for. I like knowing the process involved.” “That’s super neat!” The woman blinked like she’d just been blindsided. “Thank you?” “On a scale of one through ten, what would you rate Dust Below Dawn?” Ruby bulldozed on through the conversation, gaining confidence now. “Six.” The woman replied, almost startled by her own quick response. “The Beast of Vale?” “Nine.” “Okay okay, how about - are these books yours too?” Ruby prodded the small stack closest to her, careful not to jostle the stained coffee cup. “They are.” “Have you read them already?” “...Yes.” The woman’s flush crawled higher on her cheeks, her sharp scar imperious amongst the pink. “Okay,” Ruby flipped the top book over, skimming the title. “What would you rate - oh hey, I’ve read this one! What would you rate Atlas Knights?” “Ugh, two.” The woman wrinkled her nose. “I read it faster because I wanted it over with. The main character was unbelievably whiny.” “I dunno, I was under the impression she had a hard time expressing herself.” Ruby hummed, flipping the cover over to the library checkout slip.  She found her name, R. Rose, and another below hers, W. Schnee. A bit of recognition itched at the back of her mind. The woman scoffed. “Well what rating would you give it?” Ruby’s attention switched on a dime. “Mm… probably a five.” Ruby frowned. “The world was cool. But if the main character had a hard time expressing herself, the author also didn’t give her a chance to be better. It’s like, she’s saved by her knight, but still a brat. The other characters all know she’s a brat, but none of them talk to her about it. She isn’t given a chance to be a person, she’s just given a flaw and stuck with it for the entire story.” The woman hummed in reticent agreement, reaching for her coffee again. Ruby pointedly didn’t watch this time, sliding the book aside to look at the one underneath. She made a little curious hum under her breath. “I’ve read this one too. What did you think about Song of Ice and Rust?” “Probably rated a seven or eight. I enjoyed the twist immensely.” Ruby looked up at her with a bright grin, heart thundering uncomfortably in her throat. “It was so good, wasn’t it!?” She received a small but genuine smile for her enthusiasm. It made her feel like she could fly to the rafters. “The dragon really sold it for me, I wasn’t expecting it to be the ancient king.” “Gods I read that and almost screamed - it was like three in the morning though so I had to contain myself.” “That must have been hard for you.” The woman said with false sympathy, though her smile remained curled. “Hey! I’ll have you know Miss -” Ruby glanced on the inside of the cover, finding again her name and the same W. Schnee underneath. “Schnee, I’m perfectly capable of containing myself.” “This conversation has proved otherwise.” She replied smoothly, though a bit of stiffness had returned to her spine. Her gaze seemed to be searching for something, but Ruby wasn’t really sure what it was she wanted. Shrugging it off, she moved on to the last book on the table, a small frown gracing her face. “Man this is so weird, I’ve literally read all of these.” Ruby said, tilting her head curiously. “We must have similar tastes in literature.” “We must…” Ruby squinted at the inside of the cover, spotting the same W. Schnee below her name. Something itched at the back of her mind again. She dropped the cover closed, swinging open Dust Till Dawn’s cover. There was the same simple cursive of W. Schnee. “Have you read The Nevermore’s Quarry?” Ruby asked, suddenly, looking up at her. She knew full well that book wasn’t anywhere near their little table. The woman blinked, leaning forward curiously. “Yes, I have. How did you-?” “The Harbinger Sons?” Ruby asked, silver eyes widening. “...Yes?” The woman looked equally as mystified. Her eyes drifted above Ruby’s head in thought. “Have you read Of Bones and Evil?” “Yes,” Ruby breathed, her grin growing wider by the second. “Fortune’s Fallacy?” Ruby just nodded, her entire body lighting up with a different kind of energy. “What in the world…” The woman murmured. “I think you might be my library soulmate.” Ruby said. She had no idea someone could turn so red in such a short time, admiring the flush under the woman’s scar. Ruby was almost entertained, watching as she sputtered in the cutest kind of fluster. “Y-you can’t just say that to someone!” She stammered. Ruby’s confidence came roaring to life. She pouted. “So that means I can’t ask you out either?” “I- what.” Blue eyes blinked rapidly, the very picture of an error message written in human form. “I thought your name looked familiar. I’ve been reading the same books as you for almost a year straight.” Ruby tried not to show how much her palms were sweating, nerves shuffling in cold versus the warm wake of her momentary confidence. Predictably, her mouth started running without her permission.“I think we have a lot in common and I’d like to get to know you and maybe possibly talk more about books when I don’t look like a scrub. You’re like, other-worldly gorgeous and you’re so far out of my league but my sister says I can’t write anything off without trying it first and I figured I’d try it out y’know, benefit of the doubt and holy moly I’ve been talking for way too long-” “You only know my name from the books we’ve read?” The woman spoke it more like a statement, almost like she couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Um. I mean I’d like to know your first name. But, yeah.” Ruby gave in and brushed her palms down the front of her skirt, fingers starting to shake with adrenaline. “Weiss.” She replied absently. “Weiss Schnee.” Ruby’s lips twitched into a nervous smile. “Ruby Rose.” Weiss gave her a once over, the astonishment fading into something entirely different. Her gaze carried a weight to it that had Ruby’s palms sweating double time, her twitchy fingers immediately fiddling with her red cardigan. “...Alright.” Weiss gave a slow, smooth smile. Ruby almost passed out. “Wh- really?” “Do you have a pen on you?” “I- yes!” Ruby all but evacuated the library ten minutes later, a number written on the back of her hand next to a clear, red lipstick stain. She nearly ran into a pole, but she knew it’d be ten thousand percent worth it. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Yang’s face.

[agentsoftie]

stitches and ditches

summary: y/n and spencer get in a fight. due to the fight y/n goes to the hospital where she gets taken. spencer has to find her before it’s to late

a/n: plot holes. plot holes everywhere. so i’m sorry for that, super sorry. also like i don’t really know how to write fight scene and stuff ig so sorry if it sucks. and i skipped like 3 classes for this, so don’t let it flop

warnings: fight, angry spencer, torture, a case, violent spencer (idrk what to call it) and whole lotta angst. i happy ending though! kinda, idrk

word count & pairing: spencer x (fem) reader & 4.1k

remember to like and reblog!!

It all started the day he came home from work. This was one of the longest trips he’d been on so you decided to make him his favorite. Pumpkin Pie. And god knows how hard it is to make pie, but you did it anyways, for him. It wasn't too late when he got home but It wasn't too early either. More like the time right after dinner and just before dessert. You had just got the pie out of the oven when you heard the door open and someone walk in.

“Spencer! Finally you’re home! How are you!” You said while he put his bag away. He didn't turn to look at you yet which was kinda weird since the first thing he does when he gets home is kiss you right on the lips. “Fine,” He mumbled while sitting down at the table still not looking at you. “Spencer, come on what’s wrong?” You asked while grabbing his hands, but he immediately retracted. Which made sense because of who he was, but you’re not gonna admit that it didn't hurt. “Nothing Y/N.”

You knew that something was wrong, and it didn't take a profiler to see that. Everything about him was just off. “Come on, it's me. You can tell me anything.”

“Y/N.” Spencer said in a deep tone. You’d never heard him like this or seen in that sense. He was always happy to see you, to be with you. And were with his too. “Spencer no, come on. I can see that you’re clearly not fine. So come on, open up.”

“Y/N I said I’m fine!” You were appalled. He had never raised his voice at you, but it was bound to happen one day, you just. You just were shocked. “Spencer,” You said in a low voice completely contradicting his loud yell. “What!”

“Spencer calm down!” You say yelling at him. Although you realized that yelling at someone to calm down probably wasn't the best way to do it.

“No Y/N, you need to just stop and shut up!” Shut up. That’s the first time he’s ever told you to shut up. Infact, you think it's the first time he’s ever told anyone to shut up.

“Spencer just talk to me! It’s not that fucking hard!”

“No Y/N it is. It's tremendously hard and you just wouldn't understand.”

“Just tell me. And I'll see if I understand. But don't just gatekeep your emotions and feelings.”

“Y/N I said no! Why cant you listen to simple fucking directions! It’s not that fucking hard!” Each and every time he yelled at you, it's like your heart physically broke. And you could feel it breaking. But how do you tell him to stop? All you wanted was to know how he feels. Was that really so hard?

“Spencer why the hell are you acting like this! I understand that your job is hard but that doesn't mean that you can pour all your anger out on me! And if you are gonna do that, you can at least do the kind thing and share how you feel! And what's wrong! I mean, is that really so much to ask!”

“Oh really, that's how you wanna play this! You think this is just a little game don’t you!”

“Game Spencer! You think I play this as a game! Well this game is my life!” You were drop dead angered at this point. “What in the world gives you the right to act like this! Please, explain!” All he does is scoff at you. “I'm not joking Spencer! Why the hell are you acting like this! You've changed!”

“Oh I’ve changed! Y/N you've changed! You're always trying to kiss up my ass! I mean jesus! All you want is money! Like god!”

“Oh I want money! Spencer! I don't need your pathetic money! It may not have dawned on you since you couldn't bother to care, but I make a good amount of money. Yeah, you’re not the only one who paid for this place. So stop acting like you are.”

“Oh wow! Haha, you sick son of a,” He stopped immediately after realizing what exactly he was saying.

“Say it Spencer! Finish the goddamn sentence!”

“Y/N, you know I wont.” He says in a shift of tone. Still equally as affecting though.

“Why? Huh? You've already said so much, just wrap it up with a nice little red bow on top!”

“Y/N, stop,” He said, his tone getting more and more demeaning by the second.

“Do it Spencer! Do it!”

“Goddamn it Y/N I said stop!!” He yelled before throwing a glass at the wall behind you. You both immediately shut up, as trying to process what just had happened. Did he actually just try to hurt you? No, Spencer would never do that. Would he? You touched the back of your head and felt blood on your ear. You looked down at the blood and Spencer walked towards you but all you did was pull back from his touch.

“Don’t,” You mutter in fright. Putting your hands up against his chest, but not touching. His eyes looked at you as if they were trying to say something but just couldn't. You grabbed your purse, keys, phone, a coat, and slipped into some shoes. “Y/N, where are you going?”

“To the clinic or hospital or whichevers open right now. To get this checked out and stitched up.”

“Y/N, come on just stay here. I can stitch it up. I can do everything. Just dont leave. Im sorry, okay. I- I don't know why I did that. I promise I didn't mean too.” He begs and pleads but you just can't say with him tonight. No, not tonight. Tonight was too bad, tonight was a dent that was not going to be fixed.

“I just can't, Spencer. Okay, not tonight. There’s some pasta in the fridge, and I love you… I guess.” And with that you got in your car and left leaving Spencer to just sit in his own tears. He just sat at the table thinking of everything he did wrong. Everything that went wrong. And the worst part is that absolutely nothing wrong or bad happened at work today. He was just exhausted, that's all. And instead of telling his girlfriend, he started a fight. And he knew that you were in the right, for everything.

“Hi, Y/N. I’m Dr. Michael Gray. And it looks like something happened to your ear.” He says while standing at the door.

“Oh hi! Haha. And um… I thought that nurses were supposed to, you know, stitch up stitches.”

“Oh yeah, well they are. But you’re just so gorgeous I pass up the offer.”

“Oh, haha,” You say, not knowing how to feel. Although there was one thing you knew, and that was that this was uncomfortable as hell. “Well, I mean I do have a boyfriend.” You said just so he wouldn't try to make any moves.

“Oh well hey! Do you have any siblings or friends? I'm fine with absolutely anyone and everyone.” He says while disinfecting your ear and pulling the glass out.

“You’re Pan?” You ask to distract yourself from the pain.

“Yeah. You’re not gonna request another doctor now right?” He asks while carefully taking out the glass and putting it on a white napkin in front of you. That was a big piece.

“No, of course not!” You say in offence. “How could you ever think that.”

���It happens a lot with people. Especially the pretty ones. They automatically get turned off when I tell them I like everyone. I don't care about your gender, just your personality and how you treat me.”

“Oh well I would never. And it sucks that-that happens.”

“Yeah. Okay, so here comes the fun part. Hey, how did you even get these stitches? Or, why do you need them? Like how did you get to this point?” He says while slowly stitching up your ear.

“Ha, I get it. You’re just fine. And all of this is due to my boyfriend.” You say in pain.

“Wait,” He stops doing what he’s doing and just stands there. “Your boyfriend did this?”

“Yes. And before you say anything else, I am not in an abusive relationship. Okay, he just had a bad day and I guess I made it even worse. And trust me, he didn't mean to do it.” You say as he finishes stitching up your ear.

“Do you have a place to stay tonight?” He asks while pouring out a liquid into a small cup.

“No.”

“Then, come stay with me. At my place. And here drink this, it’ll help with the pain. A lot.”

He says while giving you a small cup filled with what looked like to be a crushed up powder poorly mixed in with water. Or whatever that the liquid was.

“Oh no. We just met.” You spoke before drinking it.

“You got anywhere better to stay? Plus my shift ends in 5 so it would be the most practical decision.”

You knew that it was wrong. After everything that Spencer had told you. But for some reason you still went. Even though you knew you should have gone back home to Spencer. And god knows what he was doing right now. But you couldn't just let your pride fall and go home. That would be pathetic. “You know what, okay! I mean what the hell! You seem nice and I’m not in the mood to face him again. Or at least for now.”

“Sweet!”

“Just one question… are you gonna kill me?” It was a stupid question to ask, you know. But after everything that Spencer and his family have been through. And with what happened to haley, you just couldn't help but to ask.

“No Y/N, I’m not gonna kill you. Now come on, let me get logged out and let's leave this place. Oh and Y/N, you can call me Michael.” He says while taking off his lab coat.

“Okay Michael.”

He brought you into his car and the drive to his place felt like hours. Although you really couldn't remember most of it since you passed out a quarter way through. The last thing you do remember is him putting his hand on your thigh and looking over at you with a smirk.

It had been 3 days. 3 days since you left to get your ear stitched up. 3 days since Spencer had last seen you. Since you had seen him. Or any of your friends. 3 days since you left your life. In those 3 days, Spencer completely lost himself. All of the books were on the floor. The bed was an absolute mess. And the kitchen was left just as it was the night it happened. He, himself, was a mess. His hair had not been brushed. He was still wearing the same clothes. And he’d been surviving on coffee and granola bars.

“Guys, we got a new case, come on.” Penelope chimes as they all do paper work. Spencer can’t help but look at his phone every 2 minutes just waiting for a text or call or any sign of life and/or love.

“What’s wrong pretty boy?” Derek asks.

“Yeah, you've been acting tense lately.” JJ adds.

“Nothing, It’s just Y/N,” He gruffs.

“Do I smell relationship problems,” Derek says jokingly.

“Derek!” JJ scoffs. “What's wrong Spence?”

“Nothing I just… Look, something happened, and now she’s not answering any of my text and calls, and I'm starting to get worried. That's really all there is.”

“Well what happened exactly? To you know, make her leave I guess.” JJ asks.

“Um, we had an argument. A pretty bad one. I came home after the case. The Checkersfeild one. And um, I was just tired. And instead of telling her that, I got super mad and said some things that I regret. And also did a thing I regret. A lot. And I would explain everything to her if she answered whenever I called or texted but she didn't.”

“How bad was the argument?” She asks again.

“Pretty bad. It was our first, but it was really bad. Just words coming and pouring out.”

“Spencer, how long have you and Y/N been dating?” Derek asks in shock at the fact that he just said ‘first argument’.

“2 and half years now.”

“And you two have never fought? What's this secret that you're keeping from me.”

“Well you know, we had our mutual disagreements. And sometimes we argued a little but it was small and it lasted for like an hour. And right after we would apologize and everything would be okay. It would all be fine.” Spencer said, his voice got longer and slower as the words went on.

“Wow, um… Spencer. You really love her, don't you.” Derek asked.

“Yeah. I really do, don't I.” Spencer says while walking into the briefing room.

As everyone sat down Derek couldn’t help but to keep looking at him. He knew that Spencer was hiding something, he just didn't know what. Or how to figure it out.

“Okay everyone this is Isabella Stines. The latest victim of our new unsub. Police are calling him The Ditcher. Since, as you can see, they leave the body in ditches after what looks like hours and hours of tourture. 5 other people were found too. First was Mindy Kindle, then Jake Johnson. Next, Rosé Hinnings, then we have Jennifer Gordon. And last, and hopefully least, Kross Noing. The ‘K’ is silent.” Penelope says while everyone looks down at the picture of the crime scenes and blood smeared across the screen.

“Do they have anything in common?” Spencer asks just before his phone starts ringing. He immediately picks it up even though the rule that Hotch made up states that you can't answer phones when you’re in the briefing room getting briefed for a new case. “Y/N.” Spencer asks, not knowing who this was since he didn't have enough time to look at the caller ID. “No, this is Sharron Richard, her boss. She hasn't shown up to work for these past days and we’re getting worried. She has a case coming up and this is a big one for her. We’ve been trying to contact her, but she’s not answering. So we called you since she left you as her backup or whatever you call it. So, have you seen or heard from her?” Sharron asks over the phone.

“Um no I- I haven't.” Spencer mutters through the phone so no one except Sharron could hear it. Although that failed miserably.

“Oh, okay. Well if you hear from her, or see her anytime soon. Please tell her to contact us.” And with that the phone was hung up.

“Pretty boy what was that?” Derek asks.

“Uh, nothing. Just a call from Y/N’s work. Apparently she’s been missing. Although you already knew that so…” Spencer said while looking down at his phone more time, then putting it away. Everyone just gave him this weird look of dissatisfaction.

“Okay anyway, yes there are some similarities. And luckily, all of these are taking place here so you guys won't be flying out anywhere! Or wait, isn't that a bad thing?” Penelope exclaims.

“Garcia,” Hotch says in his natural stearn and damning voice.

“Sorry boss. Anyways, The ME found traces of propofol and thiopental in each of their systems. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically a drug that doctors use to get patients into a coma before surgeries and/or if it's needed medically.”

“So only doctors would have access to it?” Emily asks.

“Over here in Virginia, yes. There are no stores that sell it here due to too many people ODing.” Spencer answers. “Garcia, did the ME find any signs of sexual assault?”

“No they did not. Looks like it was just tourture.”

“Hey Garcia, did they have anything else in common?” Emily asks.

“Yeah check this out. Each of the victims have a medical visit to “The Charleston Hospital” the night before dying. Or getting captured at least. And, it looks like each of them came in after what looked like an action of abuse. It was hard to spot but luckily the bill got it.”

“Okay, thank you Garcia. JJ, Prentiss, come with me. We’re going to the crime scene. Rossi, you go to the ME. Morgan and Reid stay here and try to find some things and connections. And Garcia, you just do what you do best.” Hotch says while getting up.

Everyone was gone from the briefing room except for Garcia who was taking down some files, and Spencer, who was looking at the file. But one part in particular. Could it have happened. No, it couldnr have. Could it?

“Hey Garcia?” He asked.

“Yes sugar,”

“Can I get something?”

“Why of course, what is it that you need?”

“Um, I need records and security tapes.”

“Come with me my sweet child.” She says while walking out the door and into her office, or as she likes to call it, batcave.

“Okay here are the records for-” She got cut off by a frantic Spencer.

“No, not for them, but for Y/N Y/L/N.”

“Your girlfriend?” She asks.

“Yes, my girlfriend.”

“Um, okay. So yeah. It looks like she went to Charleston um about 3 nights ago for some stitches.”

“And the security tapes. From that night. Can you see where she went? Or if she got in her car?”

“You doubt me. Don't doubt me. Okay so here. It looks like she got into this car. But, it looks like there is someone with her. Im sorry Spencer.”

“Don't be. Just, what’s the licence plate numbers?”

“Um, 56HI90ZC3. Spencer, if you want, we can talk about it.” She says in a soft tone. Thinking that his girlfriend would be cheating on one of her friends.

“No not now. I just need you to track that car, can you do that?”

“Done. Okay so it looks like the last time the car was spotted was here, Cherry Ann Avenue. It looks like they took a turn in this field, and that's all.”

“Great, I need you to contact Hotch and Rossi, and tell them that we got the guy.”

“On it. But, hey do you wanna talk about it?”

“Garcia, we don't have any time. Someone I love is in danger and I don't wanna waste a single second.”

You woke up to the smell of blood, the sound of crickets, and a gut wrenching pain, everywhere across your body.. Crickets everywhere. You looked down to see many cuts. Cuts all over your body, everywhere. And in one place, you swear you saw a knife. What had happened? How long was I out? You tried to remember everything but all you could was getting in a fight with Spencer and then getting in a car with a doctor. Or a nurse, or whoever they were.

“Ah, so you're up.” Michael said as he walked up from the shadows behind him.

“Who are you and what do you want?” You say trying your best to back away from him but something ties you down.

“You forgot who I am already. I must have added a little more meds in there for you. Huh, well that's alright. I’m Michael. More professionally, Dr. Michael Gray.” You just sat there trying to hear him over the intense pain you were in. Almost as if you'd been stabbed 100 times, maybe you had, who knows. “You see, your boyfriend was being the abusive piece of shit he is and so now I'm helping you. Helping you get better.”

“You sick bastard. You're not helping me, you're causing me pain.” You say as he gets closer and closer to your face.

“Shut up!!” He says as he slaps you. “I know what I’m doing!! Do you know how many people I’ve put out of misery!!” He yells in your face. You can feel the spit reaching your face as he does this.

“You’ve hurt those people. You've put them through pain. So much pain. Instead, you could have helped them. But this, this is not help, no this is torture, abuse, assult.”

“I SAID SHUT UP!!” He yelled while throwing the metal tray on the table across the room. “YOU KNOW WHAT, MAYBE WHAT YOU'RE PATHETIC LITTLE BOYFRIEND DID TO YOU WAS GOOD. YOU DESERVED IT!! Don't deserve me, or my help!”

You were shocked. You were scared. You were terrified. But you didn't want to admit it. And the sad part is, all he truly wanted to do is help you. But just at that moment you heard sirens. Sirens everywhere, and they got louder and louder until you saw the colors. Flashing up against the brown wooden wall and the shag carpeting on the floor.

Suddenly you heard a loud bang, the door had come down. “Michael Gray!” You heard someone yell. “Michael, we know what you've done, and we know that you’re here!”

“No, this can't be happening. No no no no no. NO!” He yelled in panic. The most stupid thing to do when you’re trying to hide.

Suddenly 3 people came rushing to the room. One of them happened to be your boyfriend. Who ran over to you immediately without any hesitation.

“Hey Y/N, it's me, Spencer. You're gonna be okay.” He said while holding you. All you did was smile and nod. You wanted to tell him that you loved him, but you just couldn't. You were so sore and tired. And all you wanted to do was go to sleep. Even though you knew that you shouldn't have since, well, you know. You would probably die. But you just couldn't help it.

You woke to a bright light. Or multiple in this case. Why was everything so white. White hurts people. You felt a tug to your hand as you saw who was holding it, Spencer. He stayed. And for god knows how long. He was asleep, and you didn't want to wake him. Poor boy looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep for the past week or so. You checked the clock as the time read 10:37pm. Perfect, just the most perfect time to wake up. You tried to grab your phone, but you had to stretch to get it, and you were not doing that.

Spencer, although woke up from your failed attempt at grabbing your phone. “Y/N, you're awake.” He said dreamily with his eyes half shut.

“Hi Spencer.”

Once he truly realized what was going on, he jumped up from his seat and gripped your hand tighter than before. “Y/N baby, how are you? Are you okay?”

“Well, truthfully. No, I am not okay. I mean, I just got tortured for god know how long, and I think I’ve been asleep. But again, I don't know how long. And oh god, I had my case that I’ve been working on for the past 6 months that was supposed to happen and I missed it!” You say as if the world was ending. He just looks at you. No emotion, just stares.

“Y/N it’s okay. I sorted that out, don't worry. You’re just okay. Why did you go with them anyway?”

You don't know how to respond. Do you tell him everything, or tell him nothing at all. Do you leave out some bits? No, he deserves to hear the whole truth. “Spencer, after what happened that night, I was terrified of what was gonna happen if I came home. And my friends were out of town. So I really had no choice.”

“Y/N,” His voice cracked. “I am so sorry for what I did to you. I truly didn't mean to do that, it just happened. And I don't know why.”

“I know.”

“You probably hate me, and I get that. I would hate me too if I were you. I mean, look at what I put you through. I’m so sorry. And I understand if you wanna breakup and stuff. But, I just wanna say that I love you. I truly do.”

“Spencer,” You say while looking down at your hands, then back up. “I don't hate you. I could never hate you. Not after everything you’ve done for me. I love you, I do.”

He just smiled and kissed you on your forehead. “Y/N, you wanna about it?”

“Talk about what?”

“Everything that happened today.”

“Sure, but how about we talk about everything that happened the other day. I mean, I made you pie Spencer, Pie!” He just sat there while you were laughing looking into your eyes. “I love you.” He said. You just smiled and held his hand, “I love you too.”

tagging: @criminalmindsmoodrn, @marshmallowtraver, @ghostly-angelic, and @himarisolace

[curiousconch]

The Moments in Between (Part 3)

Book/Pairing: Open Heart 2 / Rafael Aveiro x F!MC

A/N: Although I agree to some of the fandom’s sentiments that MC and her LI’s relationship seemed to be pretty defined by the time set in the finale, I still wanted to create my own fitting conclusion. Emotional investment aside, I really felt these two characters deserve to have “the talk”, albeit my own version of it. I hope you’ll enjoy this, as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

This is also my entry to @choicesficwriterscreations Fics of the Week.

Click here for Part 2.

Warning/s: This is sprinkled with a little smut (there’s a marker).

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, pixelberry owns them. I’m just borrowing them.

Music Inspo: Collide - Acoustic Version / Howie Day

"So, you're staying."

Rafael said as he entered the apartment, dropping his keys on a green bowl settled on a tabletop near his door. His gait wobbled a little, the alcohol in his newly-recovered system probably catching up on him.

Casey nodded, as she followed him inside, shaking off her denim jacket and then hanging it on one of his living room chairs. She then bent down to remove her black heels one by one, dropping the pair on one corner.

"I'm staying in Boston after all, yes," she said as she freed her hair from a tight pony tail, letting her ombre tresses down for the first time today.

As she padded barefoot towards the kitchen, Raf pulled off his green jacket, sniffing it briefly to check if this overused garment needed to be tossed to his small pile of laundry. He decided it can last another day, and let it fall beside Casey's jacket.

Their movements around Raf's place echoed the state of their relationship - seemingly mundane, yet pleasant. And now that Casey's no longer moving away, an overwhelming sense of relief flooded the small apartment. All the more that it felt like home, their home.

She grabbed a glass and filled it with tap water, her other hand nursing her throbbing temple, a hangover clearly on its way after the drinking fest the gang had on Donahue's earlier that night.

"Too many tequilas?" Raf joined her in the small kitchen after he removed his shoes, his mouth twisted lopsidedly, amused at the memory of Casey singing like a diva on their favorite bar's karaoke stage, after downing one shot more than she could normally handle.

She grunted, clearly annoyed at his teasing. But out of habit, she grabbed another glass of water and handed it to him. He accepted it, smiling at her as he leaned back on the dining table opposite her. She shook her head as she walked around him and settled herself on one of the chairs, suppressing a chuckle so as not to satisfy his amusement.

A comfortable silence fell on them, as they found their gazes linger at each other.

There was no denying that she practically lived there, strongly proven by the things she owned that cluttered everywhere - her medical books tucked under his coffee table, her green toothbrush and hair products in the bathroom cabinet, several scrubs and a couple of her clothes neatly folded, occupying a quarter of his closet space.

Her fingers tapped on the table, as the ache in her head faded. She sighed gratefully, the thought of not losing her job and the hospital she grew to love slowly sinking in. She leaned back on the chair and stretched her legs, closing her eyes briefly before Rafael spoke up.

"So when are your parents coming in to visit again?" he said before sipping from his glass, his eyes softening.

"Oh, their flight is in two weeks," her fingers reached for her phone, tapping absently on the screen to double check the details. "They're coming in a bit after midnight, so they said they'd just check in their hotel straight from the airport and meet with us for brunch the next morning."

Raf nodded, gulping the rest of his water. Feeling a little more thirsty, he turned around and went to refill his glass.

She finished her own and let it settle on top of the table, freeing her hands to scrolling through the text messages  she and her mom had that afternoon. She chuckled with their banter, their closeness indicated in the amount of emojis included in the exchange.

"What?" Raf quirked a brow at her, as he drank again, a curious laugh escaping from him.

She shrugged as she looked back at him. "I just realized how much I missed them. It's been too long since I saw them last, and to think that the next time I'm enjoying a meal with them is going to be with my boyfriend, it's an awesome thought."

Casey, not realizing her blunder, rose up from her seat and joined Raf by the kitchen sink. She didn't even notice how his mouth was gaping at her as she approached.

Still unaware, she reached for the empty glass on his hand and proceeded to wash the used cylinders in the kitchen sink.

Raf blinked hard, confounded with the word Casey just casually mentioned. Yes, they have already declared their love for each other, but they have yet to define their relationship.

They never had the talk. Although he longed for them to do so, he didn't want to pressure Casey, knowing full well that the gravity of the situation in Edenbrook and Leland Bloom was taking a toll on her. Besides, they didn't really had the chance since things only settled down just that night, their future pushed back to an uncertain nook which neither of them have yet to bring up.

Perhaps, they didn't need to.

Yet, here they are.

He now wondered, did he just wanted that too much that he began to imagine her calling him the "b" word, which he waited for almost two years to hear?

After she patted both glasses dry and placed them on the kitchen counter, she turned to Rafael, surprised to see him still locked in place, his furrowed brows and dark eyes bore an intensity unfamiliar to her.

"What?" she pouted, unable to comprehend what has gotten to him.

Raf leaned on the kitchen sink opposite her, brushing his dark curls with his free hand.

"Did you just call me your boyfriend, or did you intended to bring someone else to brunch with your parents?"

Her cheeks flushed pink as she gasped, both her hands covering her face as she now realized the slip of her tongue.

"Oh, god." she muttered under her breath, her shoulders shuddering, wanting nothing more than for the floor to eat her up to save her from her embarrassment.

Rafael forced himself not to laugh, but he was unable to stop himself from smiling like a fool.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," she repeated, her body shaking, her eyes beginning to tear up. She never imagined this to be the way they would ultimately have this moment. She figured it to happen during one of those romantic walks in the park that they usually do during lazy afternoons, or during one of those gelato hunts they do throughout Boston.

It's not supposed to be so casual. It should have been special, she thought.

A pair of gentle hands freed her from her thoughts, reaching for her own which was covering her horrified face. 

*Mature content warning*

Those same hands gently pulled her out from her hiding, revealing a man's dark eyes gazed deeply into hers, so full of passion that overwhelmed her heart.

Strong arms embraced her with an urgency, soft lips pressing upon hers. Goosebumps crawled down her back, an automatic response to the desire of the man who took her in his arms and caught her lips in between his. It wasn't long until she stopped resisting and she let herself fall completely in his embrace, her heart beating as fast as his.

Rafael angled his head to deepen the kiss, wanting so much to make her feel the joy he was feeling right now, hoping that his body expressing his longing for her is more than enough. Action speak louder than words, after all.

He pulled her with him as he stepped back towards his bedroom, a stiff urge growing between his legs. Casey followed his movements, sensing her own building heat, not even breaking free from their interlocked lips.

As they crossed the threshold to his room, his hands slowly roamed her body, settling on her hips. With one lift he made her legs wrap around him, while he carried her the rest of the way to the bed.

As their bodies landed on the soft sheets, his mouth found her neck, and he heard her moan. His palms traversed from her hips upwards, roaming inside her now loosened gray top. He heard her mutter a soft curse, as the tips of his fingers rolled her sensitive peaks.

She laid her head back as she deftly reached for the hem of his shirt, pulling it up so she could explore his muscled abs. She threw the shirt across the room as she finally was able to remove it from him.

Rafael did the same, lifting her briefly so he could also unclasp her black bra. His mouth readily dived in between her chest, engulfing his face with the softness of her breasts, his tongue lapping, eventually finding one tip, the other enraptured by his fingers.

A louder moan escaped from her lips, his movements eliciting a budding wetness in between her thighs. Her hands found the button of his jeans, and she did not spare a second to free him from the rest of his clothing, exposing his very stiff member.

It wasn't long after that the rest of her garments found the carpeted floor of his bedroom. She nestled her head in between pillows, him on top or her, she stared at him with half-closed eyes, letting him know how she ached for him.

With a swift movement, he spread her legs and entered her. And with familiarity, he rode her in a pace already burned in their memory. Their bodies crashing in the dark, their lips alternating from clashing with each other and shouting exclaims of fulfilled desires with every stroke.

And with one final dive, Casey saw stars and felt a wave of ecstasy flow within her. Rafael followed suit, groaning with immense satisfaction, his body trembling with release.

Spent and satiated, he laid beside Casey's bare body, wrapping one arm around her to pull her close to him, near enough for her to hear the rise and fall of his chest. He shut his eyes closed for a few moments, as she pulled the sheets over them.  

When both of their breathing relaxed, he turned to look at her, raising the question he waited perhaps too long to ask.

"So... Can you be my girlfriend?" he asked, as his fingers trailed down the smooth skin of her bare arm.

Her head immediately perked up, her eyes looking back at him in mock disbelief.

"Don't you think it's too late for that now?" she groaned, poking his side. This time, he didn't stifle his laughter.

"Whose fault is that? You beat me to the punch." He playfully ran his hand through her hair, unable to contain his excitement at the thought of finally having a day to call their anniversary.

"Ugh, I hate you so much. You'll never let this go." Casey sunk her face on the sheets, attempting to hide her bashful grin.

"Perhaps..." he paused, blankly looking at the ceiling, focusing on his tone so he could make her feel every single word he was about to say.

"But it's you I don't plan on letting go. Not now, when you're finally my girlfriend. Not now, more than ever."

Casey blushed, thankful that he wasn't looking. She felt heat in her cheeks, reeling like a lovestruck teenager all over again.

But this time, she knew it wasn't like any other. In all of her relationships, it was only with Rafael that she felt this way. She knew deep down that what they have is special, one of a kind. With him, she can be her boring, insecure self. It was with Rafael that she could be just who she is.

And in all the many dramas of her life, it was him who kept her grounded. It was him who went out of his way to selflessly make her forget all the worries in the world. It's only with him that she felt this safe, that she felt secure.

This night turned out to be the perfect moment to solemnize what started between them since last year. Following the events which liberated them from any countdown or expiration date, this day seemed to be a fitting culmination.

With hushed whispers of good nights, rest came upon the both of them, tangled in each other’s warmth.

And as the light of the dawn broke and found its way through the bedroom's window, finally, their paths collide.

[addictofsupernatural]

The Road So Far (pt. 1)

Sweet Pea x reader

Summary: Y/n Winchester and her two older brothers go to the small town of Riverdale for a case. Y/n must enroll into Riverdale High to help the case, and meets one Sweet Pea on tbe way.

Riverdale + Supernatural crossover

Requested by: @sgarrett49

Author Note: So Tumblr cut me off from writing any more on this text, so it's going to be stretched out into a mini series.

Chapter 2

Word Count: 3402

"I just don't get why I have to go to school to hunt a werewolf."

Dean closed the trunk of the car. "Because, we heard from some of the people here that the teenagers basically run this town."

"Really?" You said. "Ugh, it's like we got a case inside of some crappy new age TV show." Sam laughed and Dean nodded. You all went inside of a motel next to some trailer homes.

The next day you took your stuff and went to school. Apparently a school got closed down due to some hazardous stuff, so there was only one in the town.

When you got to school, there was a small crowd of teens waiting for you. "Excuse me, are you Y/n Winchester?" You nodded. "Okay then. Hi, I'm Veronica Lodge, and welcome to Riverdale High."

"Lodge, as in Lodge Industries?" You asked. Her smiled faded a bit, then came back just as quickly.

"Yes, but whatever daddykins does with his business, I am not associated with."

You smiled and compressed your laughter. "Daddykins, huh?" She nodded. "That's a new one."

She let out a small laugh. "Well, this is Archie, my boyfriend."

He waved. Then another one spoke up. "I'm Betty, I'm one of the people who run the blue and gold newspaper. This is Jughead, he also runs the blue and gold."

"You guys solved some murders right?" Maybe they could help you with the case. The two of them nodded.

Then Jughead spoke up. "This is Fangs and Sweet Pea." They both nodded.

You look at Sweet Pea's tattoo. "What's that mean?" You put two fingers to your neck pulse, indicating the tattoo.

"It's a symbol for the Southside Serpents." Her said, looking down at you.

"That a gang?" You asked as a joke. When he nodded, you responded with, "Wait really?"

A person bursted through the doors. "Ignore the hoodlums. Don't pay any attention to the raggamuffins, they're only important in their greasy, Southside bar. Hi I'm Cheryl blossom. Maybe if you lose the flannel and band shirts I could consider you to be a River Vixen."

"So you're captain of the cheerleaders?" You asked, amused.

"Yup." She said, smug. "I basically run this school."

You bursted out laughing. "Okay, let me get this straight. There's turfs, gangs, murders, and, no offence Ronnie, a mobster in this town?" They all agreed. "And yet, for some reason, cheerleaders and football players are still important? And the head bitch in charge is a ginger?"

You had began to laugh again. "Aw, this is a bad new aged TV show, isn't it?" Jughead snorted.

"You you have a problem with my hair color?" She looked pissed.

"Of course not, gingy #2, I think gingy #1 seems like a nice guy. Look, minus Carrie White over here, you all seem like pretty cool people, but unfortunately I won't have the pleasure of getting to know you. My brothers and I will probably be gone in a week or two. So where do I go to get my schedule?"

"Um, I have it right here." Veronica said. You were going to grab it, but she took it away. "But, we have been asked by principal Weatherbee to make you feel at home."

"No, you and Betty were and you two dragged us into it." Jughead said.

"Well, either way, I want to become friends with you, even if you will only bless us with your presence for a short amount of time."

You looked at her, amused. "Okay then."

She beamed her smile. "Alright, well you have a class with each one of us, and also four classes with Sweet Pea, so we will be with you for the whole day."

Sweet Pea had been watching the entertainment you had been giving this whole time. Who was this girl? One of the first people who didn't care about the social status in Riverdale.

The bell rang. "Alrighty then. You ready Sweets?" You asked. He was taken aback by the nickname. You did the same with Veronica earlier. Was that just a thing you did?

"Uh, yeah, let's go."

As you walked down the hallways, you see signed about some Red Circle group. You grabbed one off the wall. "The Red Circle? What is that?"

"The bulldogs made a group to terrorize the Southside. Trying to clean up the streets and protect their people."

"Really?" You giggled, confusing him. "What kind of piss poor excuse is that? They want to pretend that their in a gang so they can sound cooler than just being a group of sex deprived football players."

He laughed. He was so intrueged by you. You said what was on your mind, and your logic was that of an outside perspective. You were funny and adorable, and came with an I don't give a fuck attitude.

You walked into class together. The teacher told you to sit next to Sweet Pea, who sat in the far back, since you seemed to get along with him. As you walked to your seat, a guy said, "Careful sweetheart. I wouldn't get too close with the snake boy. He's not like us."

You stopped, looking at the letterman jacket he wore. You then held up the red circle sign. "You in this?"

"You know it. The name's Reggie Mantle."

"Wow!" You said in a fake overly happy voice. "You know, when I first walked through those doors I thought you were a douchebag, but I was totally wrong. You're a wanna be ghetto ass douchebag!"

You crumpled up the paper and threw it at him, continuing to walk. Everybody gasped and Sweet Pea smiled excitedly, nodding in his seat.

You silently laughed at him. "Woah."

"What?" Sweet Pea asked, still smiling.

"You look adorable when you're happy." You turned back to the front, missing the smile slide off his face as he stared at you.

As classes went by, you both enjoyed each other's company. Turns out that in every class Sweet Pea is in the back because the teachers fear him. You liked being in the back of the class with him though.

When it came to lunch Veronica practically dragged you to their table. This was your chance to get some information. "So," you said, looking towards Betty and Jughead. "I heard there's been murders of people and animals recently. Do you know anything about it?" They all looked at you, confused. "I'm just really into that stuff."

"Well you'll fit right in here." Veronica joked.

"Not much, but people have been saying things about werewolves." Betty said. "Ethel said that they had a pack at Fox Forest. We were gonna check it out tonight. Do you wanna come?"

"I'd love to." You genuinely smile. If you were to ever stay at one place, it would probably be this one.

Betty smiled. "Okay. This'll be fun."

"Gee gang, sounds like the start of a new mystery." You said without much thought.

"Did you just quote Scooby Doo?" Jughead asked.

"Yes?"

"I think this is the beginning of a new relationship." He said as he munched on his food.

When you got to PE Sweet Pea heard girls talking about you. They were talking about how you had scars covered up, and laughing about how they were ugly on you. He was about to go and tell them off, but was stopped by you calling out for him. "Hey, Sweets!"

"Yeah?"

"We're supposed to partner up, and I think you're the only one who could be close to keeping up with me." You playfully put your hands on your hips.

"We'll see about that, won't we sweetheart?" He gave a smirk.

"Sweetheart, huh? My brother calls his one night stands sweetheart." You counter.

"Don't worry Winchester, you're worth more than that to me." Your cocky smile faded and was replaced with a small, genuine smile with some red on your cheeks. "What's wrong? Not used to the praise?" He slyly said.

"Not at all." You said truthfully. He faltered a bit, but you just brushed your embarrassment off. "C'mon, let's just start the stuff."

Sweet Pea learned just how in shape you were. No matter what exercise was being done, you seemed to excell in it. It was a hassle trying to keep up with you, but he did.

PE was your last period, so the two of you were seen talking together right after school. It seemed that everybody saw, because the five others who greeted you in the morning, except Cheryl, went to go talk to the two of you. It was a rare thing, to see Sweet Pea even give a second glance to someone who isn't a Southsider. But here he was, happy as can be right next to you.

"Hey guys." Betty said. You waved.

"Well well well," Veronica said. "It seems that the new girl in town has found herself a man, and no other than the toughest guy in Riverdale." She was smiling slyly.

They have never seen Sweet Pea so happy, at least not at Riverdale High. Nobody had even seen him look at any girl except Toni, who was one of the guys to him. So having someone crack a smile on his face was a sight to see, and they all automatically wanted the two of you to be together. After all, you made him smile.

Betty then had an idea spring up in her head. "Sweet Pea," he turned his attention towards her, his face unintentionally being a little more colder. "You should come with the three of us tonight to Fox Forest. We're working on the deaths of those people and animals."

Sweet Pea thought about it for a bit, but looking at your waiting face made him not need to think about it at all. "Sure. You guys will need protection, so it's smart if I tag along."

Your face perked up into a smile. Just then a 1967 black Chevy Impala pulled up to the front of the school, classic rock being heard from inside. Two men stepped out and were both leaning on the side of the car. You were guessing that they wanted to look tough to show people not to mess with you.

"Nice ride." Sweet Pea muttered.

"Thanks." You said, everybody turning to you.

"Oh my God, who are those beautiful men standing over there?" Veronica asked. "Especially the one on the left." She said, staring at them.

"That would be Dean. The other one with the long hair is Sam. Those are my brothers." Everyone was in awe of how badass the two looked.

"Well now, some new blood hotties have rolled into town." You all turned your heads to see Cheryl enjoying the view as well. "Who would have known that they were related to a greasy little raggamuffin like you."

"Okay, let's not check out my brothers guys, this is weird and gross for me."

You look at Sweet Pea, who seems to be in a trance as well. "Really? You too?"

He laughed. "No, it's not that. I'm looking at the car." You laughed back. "Don't worry y/n, you're the only Winchester I like to look at." You giggled.

Dean spotted you laughing with some guy. "What the hell?"

"What's wrong?" Sam asked.

"Look at that kid, getting a little too chummy with y/n. I'm gonna have a little talk with him."

"You don't know if he's doing anything bad, they could just be talking Dean."

"The kid has a neck tattoo. He's a douche." They watched as you nudged him, smiling and talking. Sam cleared his throat, not knowing how to defend you anymore.

"Oh hell no." He angrily went over to the group of teenagers, ignoring Sam's calls. Everybody brought their attention to the eldest Winchester walking up. "Hey there." He said to Sweet Pea with a smile. "Wanna tell me why you're standing so close to my sister?"

"Dean." You said, standing in between the both of them, although not making a difference from you being a lot tinier than the two. "Don't."

"We were just talking sir." Sweet Pea said, sweating bullets. He stood up straight and his voice was clear, but he was more nervous than anything.

"Oh, you were just talking. Well to me it seemed like flirting, and if you think I'm gonna let-"

Suddenly a hand clasped hard on Dean's shoulder. "Okay, that's enough. Sorry you all had to see that." He smiled at everyone, making the females melt.

Dean took a few steps back before pointing to Sweet Pea and saying, "We have guns."

"Dean!" Sam said in a sturdy voice.

"Are you satisfied big bro?"

"Get in the car." He said in a strained voice. You mouthed the word sorry to Sweet Pea, then looked at Betty and Jughead, nodding. They nodded back.

When you got to the motel, you were on your way to the bathroom. "Imma go take a shower."

Dean grabbed your arm and plopped you on one of the beds. "Oh no, you're not." You innocently smiled at him, making him even more annoyed. "What the hell were you doing with that kid?"

You looked at him, dead face. "Talking."

"Talking my ass! I saw you two, way too close for friendliness. I don't want you around that guy anymore."

You huffed, kicking off your shoes and getting comfortable. "Why not?"

"Because that kid is bad news. He has a neck tattoo of a double headed snake, I mean, that says it all." He smiled, although unamused.

"It's just a tattoo! I have one too." You were referring to the anti possession tattoo just below your collarbone, which was the same place your brothers had theirs.

"That's different."

"Sam, help me out here."

Sam sighed. "I don't know y/n, you guys were standing pretty close."

"Ha!" Dean said.

"But you really could have only been talking."

"See?! Thank you Sammy. You know what, whatever. I'm gonna head to that 50's themed diner. Want anything?"

"Burgers."

"Just a salad. Thanks."

You nodded and opened the door. "Don't forget the pie!" Dean called out as you shut the door.

You huffed as you went into a diner called Pop's, heading to the front. You didn't notice the four people with leather jackets. You smiled as an old man with the name tag of Pop came. "Do you have pie?"

"Cherry's our best slice." He smiled.

You smiled back. "Perfect. I'll have that, two combo #1's, and a Caesar salad to go please."

"Sure thing. What kind of milkshakes?"

"Milkshakes?"

"Of course, everyone who comes here gets a milkshake. They're the best you'll ever have."

You shrugged, still smiling. There was something that you liked about him. He was just so peaceful. "Surprise me." He nodded and headed to the back. You sat at the counter, waiting for your food.

Meanwhile, Sweet Pea ducked his head when you walked up to the counter. "What's with you?" Toni asked.

"He's into the new girl over there." Jughead said.

"Until her brothers came and scared the crap out of him." Fangs teased.

Sweet Pea flushed from both embarrassment and anger. "No they didn't, I was just showing them respect."

"Then go up to her and ask her out." Fangs said all too casually.

As his three friends stared him down with their evil grins, he awkwardly stood. He knew he couldn't get out of this. He walked over to you, sitting next to you. "Hey."

You swiveled your seat in his direction. "Hey. Sorry about my brothers. Dean likes to get overprotective sometimes, especially when it's with guys that have tattoos on his neck." You have him a teasing smile.

"It's fine." He chuckled out, rubbing where his tattoo was.

"We still on for tonight?" You cocked your head as you waited for his answer, which he found adorable.

"Yeah, I have to be there in case you get yourself in trouble Winchester."

"My hero, but how do I know you won't leave me hanging with Jug and Bets?" There it was again, the nicknames.

"I'm not that kind of guy." He put a hand over his heart jokingly.

"Then why are your friends staring at me?" You squinted your eyes a bit at him.

He put his hand on the back of his neck and rubbed it nervously. "They, uh, wanted me to ask you out." You raised your eyebrows at him in an unimpressed manner. "But, I know that you deserve more than some date from a dare. The date will come, but it will take more time. And I don't care if you'll be leaving soon, I'll drive out to wherever you are and pick you up, and we'll have a good date."

You giggled. He suddenly felt hot, having watched him just pour out his soul. He probably seemed like an idiot right now. "That might have been the sweetest thing anyone has ever told me." You nodded. "Okay, you've got yourself a date. Full warning though, never been on a date. So if I'm weird I'm sorry. But on the bright side, you won't have to top anything from my experience."

He put up his hands to his eye level in victory. "I hit the jackpot."

"Just one thing," you put up your index finger. "You didn't answer my question. How do I know you aren't lying and leave me waiting for you?"

He took off his skull ring and put it on your middle finger. "I have to get my ring back from you." He saw you looking back behind him, then at you. "They're still watching aren't they?"

"Yup." You then leaned to him in your seat and gave him a hug. "Don't worry, I'll put on a show for them." You whispered in his ear, turning your head to kiss his cheek.

"Sorry to interrupt you two love birds up," Pop said, with a bag and a cup holder with three drinks in hand. "But your order's ready. The pie is on the top, and I labeled the flavors of milkshakes on the cups."

You leaned away from Sweet Pea. "Bless your beautiful heart Pop." You reached for your wallet, but Sweet Pea smacked some money down before you could get your own money out. You gave him a side smile. "Ever the gentleman."

"Does that surprise you?" He looked you up and down.

You grabbed your dinner, hopping off your chair. "I bet it would surprise most in this town."

He ignores your comment, and instead focuses on your situation. "Do you need a ride?"

"Um, on your bike?" He nodded, to which you responded by raising the items in your hand. "I have precious cargo."

"Then I'll walk you back to your place."

You gave him a questioning look. "And possibly see my brothers again?"

He shrugged. "I have to protect you, remember? I'm your hero."

You rolled your eyes and smiled. "If you insist."

You both walked and talked, you holding the food and him holding the drinks. "I'm thirsty." He said. "Which one of these milkshakes is yours so I can steal some?"

You laughed. "I have no idea. I told him to surprise me, so that's what he did. Which one do you think I'd like?"

"Peanut butter cup. Definitely." He then took a sip of it, taking it out of the cup holder and putting it towards you. "Try it. Maybe it'll make you stay."

You look at him as he smiled. "I wish. If it tastes bad I'm releasing my brothers onto you." He chucled. You then took a sip, not ready for that level of tastiness to be in that shake. "Holy crap that's amazing!"

"See?!"

"What is up with this ghostly bipolar town? I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone." You then both got to the motel. "You can go if you want."

"You're living in a motel?"

"Always. Well, sometimes we sleep in the car." You said casually, knocking on your door.

Dean answered the door, eyeing Sweet Pea. "What are you doing here kid?"

"He was at Pop's, and wanted to help me carry dinner." You said with a smile. "He also bought our food! Isn't that so nice of him?"

Sam came to join in. "How considerate."

Your smile became even wider. "Right Dean?"

"You two go on ahead, I'm gonna have a little talk with Mr. Nice Guy outside."

[altruisticallydriven]

To The Mothers I’ve Helped Deliver: What You Might Not Have Noticed

As I walked into your room for the first time, you might not have noticed but I was nervous, too.  You asked a million questions, and I tried to sound confident answering every one, but the truth is that every time I left your room I went to the nurses' station and double-checked with all the other nurses that I was saying and doing everything right.

I didn’t want to miss anything.

It was my first day without a preceptor, and I was scared I wasn’t good enough to care for you yet.  You might not have noticed, but your reassuring smile and continuous “thank you”’s that day instilled a confidence in me that gave me the perseverance I needed to get through those first few months at this job. 

You might not have noticed, but I was relieved, too.  When your babies heart rate kept dropping and we were running out of things to try, suddenly you dilated and you were ready to push. I had tried to keep a smile on my face and my voice calm as I asked you to roll over to your side and opened up your fluids to give you a bolus, but inside I was counting the seconds that your babies heart rate was in the 70′s, turning up the volume on the monitor as I kept switching you positions until I heard which one got the babies heart rate back up even before I saw it on the strip.  You might not have noticed, but in those seconds my heart was racing faster than yours as I contemplated the next three interventions I would do and in what order if that heart rate didn't come up soon. And when you finally felt the relief of pushing out your baby,  you might not have noticed, but the Doctor and I gave eachother a look of relief as well, and I felt myself breathe again. I didn’t realize I had been holding my breath with you.

You might not have noticed,  but I was happy to. As I rested my hands on your shoulders to keep you relaxed during your epidural, and you squeezed my arms to keep yourself from moving through contractions while the needle was in your back, you kept apologizing. But I was grateful that there was finally someway I could really help distract and relieve your pain a bit after watching your labor for so long and feeling helpless. It’s a funny thing, as nurses we have an instinctive desire to take away pain, and when first learning how to labor with someone and coach them through the pain it seems unnatural- that pain, instead of being something to run away from, is something to press into. That pain can bring life instead of death. But I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t relieved when you chose to have an epirdural when your dilation stalled and your body could no longer relax enough to make room for your baby. I was more than glad to let you hold my hand, or squeeze my arm, or rest your hand on my shoulder- to feel and know that I’m actually doing something to help you cope through this, that relief was minutes away.  You might not have noticed, but when you finally were able to relax after the medication settled, I relaxed, too.

You might not have noticed, but I didn’t know the words to say when suddenly everything went wrong. One minute we were smiling and laughing, and the next you were bleeding and we were calling the doctor and rolling you to the OR.  You couldn’t see your baby come out because it happened so fast, and you had to be put under general anesthesia, but I knew before the NICU team gave me that look of grief and heartache that there was nothing they could do. You might not have noticed, but I held your baby as he took his last breath in that OR because you couldn’t- but I knew you’d want someone too. As the doctors finished your surgery and closed your empty womb, I felt the life leave his little body and cried under my mask as I tried to think of the words I’d tell you when you woke up in recovery. But there are no words for this.

You might not have noticed, but I prayed over your little one as I took footprints and dressed her in a yellow dress. She was so tiny, and though you weren't sure you’d want pictures I took them anyway just in case you came back and changed your mind. You might not have noticed, but my voice was shaking, too, as I coached you through pushing out a baby that came too early that day, both of us knowing that with every push you came closer to having to say goodbye.  I had to turn away for a moment when you first held her, the heartbreak was so tangible in the room that I felt like it was suffocating me, too. But I wanted to be there, I wanted to be strong for you. I was grieving with you, too. 

You might not have noticed, but I was thankful for you, too. After nights of hard deliveries and moms losing babies, I needed something to remind me why I loved this job, I needed something to uplift my dragging feet and a heavy heart. And there you were, walking into the room 8 centimeters dilated and smiling like this was the best day of your life. And it was, I suppose. I smiled with you as you told me you had been waiting for this baby for five years, and laughed in surprise when you threw your arms out and said praises to the Lord through your contractions. There you were, a first-time mother, laboring without any medication as though it was the greatest honor and joy of your life. I was in awe. And as we went from sitting to squatting, to standing, back to lying down, I encouraged and coached you through transition- but you didn’t really need my help. You were doing it all your own. I shook my head and bragged about you to the other nurses outside. When it was finally time to begin pushing, you grabbed your husbands hand and prayed for this babies health, and your strength, and gave thanks. I had never seen anything like it. I prayed along with you- I was thankful, too. 

You may not have noticed, but they were tears of relief, not happiness. When I put a pulse ox on you I saw that your heart rate matched what we thought was babies, and we realized the baby monitor had been picking up your heart rate instead. And for those moments, I didn't how long we hadn't been picking up the babies heart rate. The doctor, another nurse, and I gave each other the same panicked look as we got you to push harder so that we could get this baby out. I had never felt fear like this before. My hands were shaking as I got you in position and helped you count to ten. When his head came out and the doctor said tight nuchal, meaning the babies cord was wrapped around its neck, my stomach dropped. My hand hovered over the NICU button, ready to call for help, as his body slid out and for a moment he laid there stunned. When he finally let out his first cry, I began crying too. I think you thought it was because I was overjoyed and touched at his birth (and I was), but they were tears of relief, not joy. What had almost ended in disaster turned out okay. And as you held your baby for the first time I wiped the silent tears from my eyes before I turned to you and said congratulations- he was perfect. 

You may not have noticed, but there’s a lot we don't tell you. Like how much an IV is going to hurt before we put it, or why they call it the “ring of fire” when your babies crowning. We didn’t tell you how close you were to an emergency C-section when your baby had a prolonged decel and the resident, the charge nurse, and I were all calmy asking you to turn over again while simultaneously giving you oxygen and a fluid bolus and checking you to see if there was a cord. That it wasn’t normal, to have this many people in the room. We didn’t tell you how scared we were, too. Because in those moments you are already overwhelmed, and fearful, and feeling helpless. When it comes to decisions that need to be made, we make sure to tell you as far in advance as we can and as clearly as we can. But the rest of it, the scary reality of it, we keep to ourselves- because it's not helpful to you or baby to know everything.  Instead, we figure out how to fix it. And how to give you the kind of labor and delivery you always wanted. 

You may not have noticed, but this is the kind of job you take home with you. When people hear I am a labor and delivery nurse, they smile and automatically say “how wonderful! that must be such a happy job”, and I laugh because, for the most part, they are right-  but this morning after shift I was crying drinking a glass of wine with a coworker because the night before I watched a mom who had traveled countries to save her baby watch her baby die anyway. And as she cried and rocked her silent baby, I cried with her too. I swear I’ve never seen grief like this before. You cannot not feel it, too. The good nights are really, really good. And the bad nights are almost unbearable.  This job is scary and exciting and full of up and downs and an insurmountable amount of responsibility. No matter how many deliveries I help in, I still sometimes feel incompetent, unworthy, and unsure.  But nothing can describe the feeling of handing a baby to his dad for the first time, still naked and crying, and watching love settle there in his eyes- and it does, every time. Or the honor of comforting a grieving mom and telling her its not her fault as she goes into preterm labor again, and delivers a baby 3 days before its viable.  Nothing can describe the awe-inspiring strength I see day in and day out from these women who came in scared and unsure of what their bodies can handle, then proceed to press into that tension and fear with such bravery that it takes my breath away.

You may not have noticed, but it's worth it.  I had no idea when I became a labor and delivery nurse all of the joy and heartache that awaited me, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  Every day I get to come into work and walk into one of the most vulnerable and significant moments of someone’s life, and I get to walk with them through it. I get to help, coach, comfort, and celebrate with them. I experience your grief, and I experience your joy. It's more real than I could’ve ever imagined. So, to all the mothers I’ve helped deliver- thank you. Thank you for letting me be a part of this experience, these moments. Know that you are loved, you are prayed for, and cared about. You are remembered. And you are not alone in your grieving, or in your joy.  You may not notice, but we carry it with us, too. You are what inspires and moves us to continue to put those scrubs on and stay awake during those harder nights. Your strength is contagious.  Thank you for making it worth it. 

[rubydollchaos]

Manager comes down, she's got a task for me from the regional manager (who does not actually work on the shop floor but uses our shop as an office sometimes because it's cheaper than having an actual office and heaven forbid she work at home and not be under our feet). She bought a bunch of stuff from another store but the system wasn't working so they couldn't scan her employee discount card. So they put it through as Blue light discount which is the same amount and not something we can check up on. But because it hadn't been put through on her employee card she wanted it redoing. She brought in the receipt and expected us to just sort that out for her.

I don't like her much so I'm already not wanting to do this stupid task. I point out that I will have to type in the number of every item to resell it - and sometimes they don't work because the number that's on the barcode isn't the number you get on the receipt. And there's letters and numbers and it's anyone's guess what's a 0 and what's O. My manager types in the top item and it works okay so I establish that I will use the till that's not currently in use to do this bullshit in between actual customers. First item. Comes up as 75p. She paid 50p. I mention this to the manager and we're confused because why would Christmas stuff be dearer now?? I decide I will price adjust at the end. Next three items are socks which are now in the sale. Then a men's top that was on promotion at the time. We're not supposed to get staff discount on promotional items (sale we do) but the till isn't smart enough to not discount it automatically. The process is you have to scan everything else, apply the discount, then add anything else at the end. There's another item that was on promotion and maybe 4 that are the actual price.

So I work out the most favourable way of doing this so it ends up being correct. So essentially the socks are returned and repurchased, the discount is applied to everything it's valid for and the promo items are resold at promo price. And she's got about a fiver to pay.

The regional manager is not here while I do all this bollocks. In fact I planned to do the return first because that was easy but abandoned that because I didn't know her surname or her address and fuck off redoing it because I put "regional manager" as her surname and the shop's address. And in between I'm serving customers. It gets to home time so I grab the assistant manager and show her my workings. She takes a look at it and declares she needs to return it all and rebuy it, as frustrated and annoyed as I was when I was first presented with this bullshit task.

Yes, I know it looks bad that the regional manager didn't follow the correct procedure but the solution is not having someone try to fix it over the course of half an hour, it's addressing the problems in the system in the first place. Put a backup discount code in there to use if the staff discount card doesn't work. Make the tills so they automatically don't discount things we're not meant to discount. Or accept that the till system is fucked up and we're all doing our best with it so maybe give us a little leeway when we don't do things exactly how you think they should be done in your fantasy hypothetical scenarios where no one ever whips out a discount card and you can't even identify which item is on promotion to void it and rescan it because it comes up as the price it was with discounts at the bottom of the screen with no way of knowing which item it was applied to.

I swear she should try working those tills for a few days and then next time she wants something just refunded and putting back through she can do it herself!