#the offering to kill for her so that she doesn't dirty her own hands

[tardxsblues]

Seriously? Oh, Doctor. To save her soul? But who, my dear, will save yours?

[deadsetobsessions]

Okay, so maybe Tim has no business being in Bludhaven. Tim maintains that since his parents fail at parenting, he can do whatever he wants.

Besides, it's for a good cause. Like, not letting Tarantula get her dirty hands on his big brother in another time line. Tarantula had popped up in the Bludhaven servers - by that, Tim means the endless amounts of threads and underground fronts for criminal activity that he stalks on a regular basis- by being seen with Nightwing. Tim had immediately booked a ride to Bludhaven and bought another burner. He'd try to take care of her himself, but if worse comes to worse, he'd call Deathstroke. He's totally aware of the weird tension Deathstroke has with Nightwing and Tim's kind of banking on that.

Dick's been back in Blud for two months now, Jason having assuaged his mother hen tendencies enough for Dick to get sick of the Manor. Tim hadn't meant to follow since he had plenty of projects to work on now that "SAVE JASON" wasn't blaring at the top of his head.

But then Tarantula appeared and Tim saw red, remembering the way Dick spoke about her and what she did to him.

He bids the driver goodbye. The driver doesn't question his being on his lonesome mainly because 1) Gothamites mind their own busines, 2) Tim gave him a $500 tip to make sure he remains a "good" Gothamite cabbie, and 3) Tim made sure he was dropped off in the swankiest, most ostentatious hotel Bludhaven had to offer.

"Rich people," the cab driver had muttered as Tim closed the door. Perfect.

Tim got his keycard, having checked in under Alvin Draper over the phone. Normally, they'd require an in person visit, but money talks. And people listened when Tim had a lot of things to say.

Tim even feels like he's trained enough to go out! Lady Shiva's training was ingrained into his memory, and Tim's built enough muscle to make use of some of it. He is still nine, after all. He's so much stealthier this time around. Plus, he's got almost his full tool set back. Sure, some of the tech is ancient, but he managed to finagle it to make grappling guns and smoke pellets more along the quality that he's used to.

Tim waits until nightfall, looping the surveillance around his window to mask his exit. Tim adjusts his domino, eyes scanning the city skyline as his handheld computer (god, he can't believe he has to invent wrist computers) tracked reports of Nightwing through Tweetings.

Ah. He's around Seventh. Tim grimaces as his untested joints adjusts to the grappling guns. His dark clothes make him hard to spot, to his advantage as he tracks down Nightwing.

Tim watches, perched on an adjacent roof as Nightwing takes down a crowd of goons with the flips Tim remembered watching from afar and up close in another timeline.

"Blockbuster'll kill everyone you love, Nightwing!"

Tim winces at the rather brutal crunch that followed, Nightwing having punched the guy and knocked him out in one move. He watches Dick sigh, tugging at his hair in stress.

Tim could... no, no. He shouldn't think of murder as a first option. Well, no, he shouldn't think of Deathstroke as a first option. But he'll need to take Blockbuster out before anything happens. And he needs to threaten the new Tarantula before anything happens. He won't allow her to even get close to Dick.

Maybe it's unfair to punish her for a crime she hasn't done, but unlike murder, rape can never be defended. Catalina Flores is a dead woman walking.

Tim stalks his big brother back home and then broke off to begin his short reign of terror over Bludhaven's underground. If he can't get Dick to take a break (and Tim's tried, a lot, over the years) then he'll make sure that the next month is as gentle as possible on his older brother.

Step 1. Murder Take care of Blockbuster

Step 2. Threaten Catalina Flores and her brother.

No. Wait. Tim has a better idea. He's got dirt on them, on top of the murder thing. He'll fabricate Catalina's tax returns, embezzle a shit ton of money from the IRS, and get her and her corrupt brother (because getting your sister out from murder charges is considered corrupt) arrested and locked away. And he'll make sure they stay locked away with some good old blackmail on Amanda Waller.

Tim grins, tranquilizing the building with an ungodly amount of knock out gas pellets, to riffle through the police precinct's files.

Step 2. Threaten Catalina Flores and her brother.

Step 2. Cripple Catalina Flores and her brother with blackmail and the IRS.

In three hours, Tim has everything he needs to begin a temporary hostile takeover. He's got the names of local mob bosses, the big players, and the names of practically every police officer that takes bribes and their... sponsors.

He'll have to cut off Blockbuster's lines of supplies first. Then, blacklist him from local suppliers, mobilize the police precinct against him (by imitating his M.O. perfectly- Tim's not a fucking amateur- and pretending to rob the precinct blind), and then break his knees.

Step 3. Profit

Tim takes out his shiny new burner phone, enjoying the loud sounds of the police squawking through his planted bugs. He lounges on the building next to it, keeping an eye out for Nightwing just in case the man decides to respond to the crisis.

[Unknown: It's RR.]

[Deathstroke: New phone?]

[RR: Who dis?]

[Deathstroke: What?]

[RR: Nevermind. I'll give you forty thousand to shoot someone's knees out.]

[Deathstroke:... That's it? Who?]

[RR: Blockbuster. Bludhaven. Extra twenty thousand if you tell him he's got the spine of a sea slug, kick him in the balls, and post it on Tweeting.]

[Deathstroke: What did he do to you? Deal.]

Tim ignored Deathstroke's question.

[RR: Half sent. Confirm?]

[Deathstroke: Confirmed. Timeline?]

[RR: Three weeks. 21 days.]

[Deathstroke: Confirmed.]

----

Tim grins ferally, all teeth as Catalina Flores looked on in horror at her computer screen.

"Get out of Bludhaven, and don't come back. If you even think of going near Nightwing, I will rip what's left of your pathetic, sniveling swine of a brother apart. You will not enjoy the consequences."

Tim clicks off, watching Catalina and her brother launch themselves into mad packing. He tapped out a short message to Amanda Waller for her and her team to intercept them at the state lines. They'll never get away from Tim's fury. Never.

[Waller: It's done.]

[Waller: I will find you.]

[RR: You can definitely try, Waller. Good doing business with you.]

Tim can see the blood vessel the woman popped after he sent that last message. He laughs.

He saves Deathstroke's video from Tweeting onto his actual, spoofed phone. He destroys the burner phone, less shiny now that he's dragged it through two and a half weeks of breaking heads and terrorizing the Bludhaven Underground. Nightwing hadn't even gotten a whiff of his activities, this Dick being far less experienced and known in this version of Blud.

One more week and Tim can continue his other projects.

----

Nightwing, going about his vigilante business: wow it sure is peaceful

Feral Tim Drake, Nightwing's scary dog privilege: try me, bitch

[ddejavvu]

Jake and big boobed pregnant reader him coming home and she still in her night gown and him turning the corner and seeing a pile of clothes"sweet heart whats wrong " and her giving him a look that could kill"you know what happens when you are growing a child in everything grows. Boobs grow they are huge and senstive and THEY HURT and it your fault " and you keep throwing clothes in different piles "how is this my fault "

"You and your damn breeding kink "

"You werent complain that night"

You throw a shirt at him that you both know he desvere (if this is too long ignore this part) him coming up behind you and massaging them while you lay your head on his chest"why do they have to grow " mumbling

this post is 18+, minors dni.

Jake typically gets home in time for dinner, but tonight he'd been held past midnight. It means that he's expecting you asleep when he gets home, not sitting topless on the edge of the bed with your face in your hands.

"Woah," He drawls, steps faltering in the doorway of your bedroom, "Darlin', what's the matter? And- where's your shirt?"

The questions have the same answer, and you point lazily to a pile of clothes discarded on the floor.

"And why are the tops in a heap on the floor?" He still doesn't understand, but the convictive tone he'd used doesn't sit right with you, and your head snaps up, eyes ablaze.

"Oh, you wanna know why everything's such a mess? Why the floor is dirty? Why I'm half-naked?!"

"Yes," He says, even if he knows he shouldn't, "That- it would be nice to have answers to all of those."

"It's because of you," You hiss, standing - chest still bare - to stalk towards him, an accusatory finger pointed at his own chest, "You and your stupid penis!"

"Ah," He retreats until his back hits the door, but still you follow, jabbing your finger into his chest, "Um, darlin', do you need bigger shirts?"

"My boobs can't fit in anything!" You gush miserably, "My shirts, your shirts, sweatshirts, dresses, nothing! I couldn't jam 'em into a trash bag if I tried, Jake, a trash bag!"

"Okay," He soothes, grabbing your wrists before you get the idea to strangle him, "Okay. Alright, listen. Let's go shopping tomorrow," He offers, reaching for a blanket to drape over your shoulders, "You can wear one of my brother's sweatshirts, I snagged one from him before I left home and he's a bigger size than I am. 'Should fit. But in the meantime, uh, I'll put away the clothes," He bargains, a placating smile on his face, "Sound good?"

You can't be mad at his offer; he's done everything right. But you still want to be grumpy, so you break away from him grumbling, "You and your damn breeding kink."

He bites back a smirk, bending over with his back to you so that he can mumble to himself, "Weren't complaining 'bout being bred that night, darlin'."

Two things happen in quick succession: You launch a shirt at Jake's head, and land a sharp smack to his denim-clad ass. He deserves both.

[florsial]

Evan is a disowned heir of a rich family who ends up as the Victorian doctor who performs illegal surgeries and wanders the streets at night kidnapping prostitutes or just anyone unfortunate enough to be sleeping in an alleyway, and harvesting their organs for the Black Market to support himself and his twin sister Pandora who was also disowned, as she tries to get her education complete enough to secure a full-time teaching job as a professor at a well-known university. They bear the posh accents and elegant mannerisms of their wealthy birth. The twins live in a run-down, cheap, and dirty flat in a building owned and forgotten by the aristocratic Crouch Family where their only son, a sleazy and lecherous professor named Barty, often runs off too to avoid his father.

Barty somehow becomes friends with Pandora and endears himself to Evan, who he pays absurd amounts of money as a resurrectionist for his lectures at the university. Over time it becomes less for his lectures and more of an excuse to talk to Evan more often. One day, Barty decides to follow Evan and finds him dissecting people in dank alleyways and just watches in amazement before running off back to his house and spending the entire night drinking absurdly expensive alcohol and just thinking about Evan and his blood-streaked blonde hair and steady hands and mindless humming. The next day, Barty cannot keep his cool and has to leave earlier than usual or else he might jump Evan and impulsively sends the guy a bunch of photos containing cadavers and organs as a pathetic attempt at flirting. He was actually supposed to use those photos for his upcoming lecture and had to ask another professor at the university if he could borrow theirs.

Meanwhile, Regulus is the fiance of a wealthy aristocratic heir who ran away after getting caught in a scandal where he publicly berated and attempted to physically attack his to-be-husband and his mistress, who was the wife of another aristocrat. Due to his pride, he chose to run away on his own terms instead of being disowned. He quickly comes to the conclusion that he doesn't understand how to navigate life without his family's support so he turns to prostitution and caters to broke lower-class men and women who want to delude themselves with the illusion of a comfortable and wealthy lifestyle with Regulus' elegant and upper-class mannerisms and speech. He finds the job isn't all too different from when he was pandering to the society around him back with his parents. At his job, he meets Evan, who nearly tries to kill Regulus without looking properly, and he immediately recognizes him from dinner parties, balls, and shared private tutors so there is just this moment when Evan has Regulus pinned to the ground with a pair of scissors at Reg's throat and his eyes just brighten like "Hey! I know you!" and Regulus is like "😨" and hyperventilating. Regulus eventually moves in with the Twins, much to their delight.

On the terms of Jegulus, because I can't help myself, the news of Regulus' runaway reaches Sirius who was aboard studying and he flees home back to London immediately and spends a week running back and forth from his parents to the Potters' and their son, James, a politician. Mainly just him screaming at his parents for their poor parenting and running to the Potters' to cry about where Regulus could've possibly went or if he's alive. This repeats for about a week and is how James becomes familiar with Regulus, through Sirius' pov, and the situation that has occurred. Everything kinda just marinates in his head for some time until he's out at night and thoroughly frustrated with his occupation and its details, runs into Regulus, who, not knowing it's James, offers his services with a teasing voice and alluring eyes. When he does recognize James, he immediately makes a run for it, leading to a 12 am cat and mouse chase between a sophisticated politician and riches to rags prostitute. Eventually, James corners Regulus, but finds that he literally has no idea what to do so they just stand in an alleyway dead end in silence for a long time until:

"I won't talk if you don't talk."

"Deal."

James tries to take Regulus up on his earlier offer but both of them feel a little too weirded out after a small make-out session so James just sends him a stack of money and runs off. Should've been a done deal, right? Nope, James finds himself walking that same street a couple days later and sees Regulus again, it spirals into a long range of nightly hangouts where they would just sit on a bench and talk, without anything physical, and James would drop money in Regulus' hands and run off, repeat. The arrangement works for them nicely and is how they fall in love. Which is disastrous actually because then James avoids Regulus like a plague for a couple of days and during those couple of days, Regulus focuses his attention on clients who like James in some way. When they meet up again, it awkward asf but they kiss once and walk away with “Are we together???” In their heads.

[auroravictorium]

bejeweled (k.b.)

Summary: reader gets ready for a heist and shares a few sweet moments with kaz.

Pairing(s): kaz brekker and reader Word Count: ~2.2k Warnings: a bit of violence (mentions of prior stabbing), allusions to kaz's touch aversion, mentions of a near-death experience Genre: total fluff

Author's Note: the response to lavender haze has been SO AMAZING, thank you all so much for your notes and kind words <3 you do NOT have to read lavender haze before reading this, but these two can be read as part of a larger series that i'm working on if you so choose! the link to my grishaverse masterlist can be found here. please drop any requests you have in my inbox! happy reading loves <3

You fiddled nervously with the skirts of your dress, bunching up the silky fabric in your palms and releasing it. Scrunch, squeeze, release. Over and over until Inej slapped your hand. "You'll wrinkle the fabric," she told you, then returned to figuring out the best way to hide a knife in your hair. If anyone could do it, it was Inej. You aspired to be as collected and creatively armed as she was.

"Sorry," you muttered. You examined your outfit in the cracked, dirty mirror in front of you. You wore a gown nicer than any clothing you'd ever owned, clearly seized from a store along the Geldstraat. The material was soft and dyed a rich color that went beautifully with your skin tone. It was also very susceptible to creases, judging by the look Inej kept giving your nervous hands.

A few harsh tugs on your scalp later, Inej stepped back to admire her handiwork. The blade was thin and capped with a black sheath, making it look like an innocuous stick holding your bun together. It wouldn't do much damage, but it would be semi-useful if you lost access to the five other knives and the pistol strapped to you.

Three months after the disastrous job where you'd almost died after a nasty dagger to the chest, Kaz had tried to assign Nina to this mission. You argued that he couldn't keep you out of heists forever. After one tense standoff in front of the Crows and two hushed arguments in his room and an empty Club parlor, he'd reluctantly agreed to designate you for the task. The conditions? Jesper should not leave your side, and Kaz would kill him if you got injured again while partnered with him on a mission. You found that unfair, considering it hadn't been Jesper's fault you got stabbed in the first place, but you could only get so far arguing with Kaz. He'd forgive the sharpshooter eventually.

"Well, it'll have to do," Inej sighed. She caught your gaze in the mirror and rested her hands on your shoulders. "You'll be alright?"

"Not you too," you said, though you appreciated the concern. You'd heard it enough from Kaz in the past three months, and it was getting tiring.

"We're just worried about you." She squeezed your shoulders. "Especially him."

Heat rushed to your face, and you looked down at your hands and wrists, adorned with beautiful jewelry too glittery for your taste. You and Kaz hadn't told anyone about how he'd been waiting for you to wake up after the heist had gone wrong or how he'd bared his feelings to you as best he could. In fact, you thought you had continued with business as usual between the two of you. Aside from more lingering looks and brief moments spent together in your rooms, soaking in each other's company a few feet apart, nothing had really changed. 

Her observation had only reminded you how nobody could hide anything from Inej.

Inej turned you around and squeezed your shoulders again. "I won't tell anyone," she told you. You lifted your head and looked her in the eyes. They were filled with sincerity, and she offered you a smile that matched the warmth in her eyes. "I think you're the only one he doesn't scowl at. It's refreshing to see a look on his face that doesn't indicate him plotting or mentally counting his kruge."

A laugh slipped past your lips before you could stop it. "Maybe I'll put in a good word for the rest of you. It would do him some good to stop scowling so much. I've heard that prevents wrinkles."

The day Kaz stopped frowning was the day hell froze over, and all of you knew it. Inej grinned and handed you the last piece of jewelry to complete your outfit: a glittering necklace that Kaz had swiped from an oblivious Dime Lion's pocket. "Can you get this on yourself? I need to help Nina in the Club."

"Yeah, of course." You smiled at her. "Thank you."

She ducked out of the room, and you turned back to the rusty old mirror. You almost didn't recognize your reflection. Never in your wildest dreams did you believe that you would get to wear a gown and jewelry like this and attend a party like tonight's. Though it was a facade designed to get an expensive set of Dekappel paintings for reselling (you assumed), you thought you looked... beautiful. Wildly overdressed for a potential combat situation if you got caught, yes, but beautiful. You polished up quite nicely.

You jumped when a pale reflection appeared in the mirror behind you and cursed. Whirling to face Kaz, you demanded, "Have you heard of knocking? Or making any noise?"

He smirked in amusement and nudged the door shut behind him with his cane. His eyes roamed you up and down, taking in the exquisite gown you wore and how it clung to your hips and fell gracefully to the floor like a silken waterfall. 

As his eyes scanned your form, your breathing stuttered. There was no reason for you to feel exposed as you did right then, but you did, and you started to fidget with the necklace in your hands. Your face heated up again, and you prayed that he would stop looking at you like... that. You were losing focus on the assignment ahead. Instead, you were thinking about his eyes and that stupid smirk on his face.

"You look...beautiful," Kaz finally said, hesitating before choking the word out. Saints damn him. Why couldn't he offer a simple compliment without feeling like he needed to throw up? As soon as the word was out, his nausea receded, and he felt like he could breathe again. 

You smiled, unaffected by his hesitation. You understood. "Thank you," you murmured, looking down at the hem of your gown. You turned and went back to fiddling with the necklace in front of the mirror.

With your back turned, Kaz took the opportunity to admire how the neckline fell around your shoulders, how the gown clung to the curve of your waist, and how the skirt spun around your legs as you turned from him. How absolutely perfect you were. All the little details that he had secretly let himself indulge in before you nearly died, he now admired openly. He embraced the way his heart pounded faster and leaped into his throat when you smiled. He made sure to savor every grin and laugh, and he would never take any of those things for granted again.

"I like the color," he added. He felt like he needed to make up for hesitating so clearly. He loathed himself for it. He saw you struggling with the necklace in the mirror and stepped forward. "Can I help?" His blood rushed in his ears as the words left his mouth, and it took every ounce of determination in his body to not yield to the terror starting to rise in him.

You looked up from the chain, catching his icy blue gaze in the mirror, seeing the genuine desire to help in them. "Okay," you said softly. You passed him the necklace, and he undid the chain with ease.

Slowly, he brought the necklace around your throat. He saw you swallow, the goosebumps spreading across the back of your neck. His gloved fingers brushed your skin as he clasped the necklace for you, and they lingered even after the jewelry had been fastened. His eyes fixated on the contrast of the metal against your skin, and he imagined how soft and warm you felt compared to it. For a moment, he let himself remain this close to you. He challenged the water rising around his chest, threatening to crush his lungs, and he brushed a few loose strands of hair away from your shoulder.

Before he could back away and bow to the tide trying to pull him under, he slipped off a glove and brushed that loose hair behind your ear. His fingers stayed there for a long moment. You sucked in a startled gasp but remained still, watching him close his eyes and try to battle the current. He could feel the warmth of your skin ghosting across his fingertips, and he clung to that feeling. 

Warm. Near. Alive. All the things Jordie wasn't.

Kaz pulled away as his brother's name crossed his mind and pulled his glove back on. He gripped his cane so tightly that his knuckles ached. "No mourners," he said roughly. He took a few steps back, and self-hatred burned within him as the pressure on his chest lessened the moment there was space between the two of you. What kind of man was he if he couldn't stand close to the woman he cared about?

"No funerals," you whispered back. You smiled at him. He caught your glance one more time, expecting pity or sadness. Instead, he found pride. You were proud of him, and that realization startled him so much that his cool mask slipped. The knot of anger within his sternum loosened, and a ghost of a smile crossed his face. Then, adjusting his grip on his cane, he turned and made his way out of the room deliberately louder than when he came in.

You couldn't help but giggle and cling to that feeling of bliss as you worked through the heist without a hitch. Aside from a band member pressing too close for comfort and asking if you had anyone waiting for you, to which you responded with faux timidity, "I don't remember," and cursed Jesper for taking so long, it went perfectly. 

"Your delivery, Boss," Jesper said proudly as the two of you swept into Kaz's office, pulling the canvases out of his jacket with a flourish and setting them on Kaz's desk. He bounced on his heels and waited for an acknowledgment. "Shall I take a bow for our excellent work?" he asked after a few moments of silence from Kaz, who finally looked up from some piece of parchment he was looking over.

"Well done," Kaz murmured, but his eyes flicked to you. He searched your face, then let his eyes run over your body. You realized he was checking for injuries and offered a reassuring smile. Nearly imperceptibly, his shoulders lost some of their tension. "Can you handle the door?" he asked Jesper.

Jesper sighed. "'Shouldn't you be at the door, Jesper? Can you handle the door, Jesper?'" Despite the mocking, he left without complaint and whistled as he strolled down the hall.

Kaz pretended he didn't hear the sarcasm and turned to you. "You're okay?" he prompted, analyzing your face more closely once the door closed.

"Perfectly unharmed," you confirmed. You started to remove your jewelry, intending to give it back. Maybe Kaz could pawn it and add the funds to the emergency reserve he pretended he didn't have. For someone so brilliant, that discolored brick in the wall wasn't the best hiding spot for thousands of kruge.

When you got to the necklace, you hesitated before removing it too. It reminded you of him, of the moment he trusted you enough to take off his glove and touch you. You didn't want to give it back.

"Keep it," Kaz said, seeing the hesitation written clearly across your features. "It suits you." He'd go to his grave before admitting to anyone other than you how much he enjoyed seeing it on you. He liked seeing you sparkle, and he also liked knowing that it made you happy. In the three months the two of you had been something, he realized that your happiness was a drug he could not get enough of. It was stronger and sweeter than any liquor, and he longed to protect it.

So damn the kruge he could get from selling the necklace. It was yours. It had been from the moment he'd seen it and swiped it for this heist.

Your hesitation dissipated upon hearing the sincerity in his words, and you pondered your response. "Only if you help me put it on sometimes," you said. A small smile curved your lips. 

Kaz was silent for a moment, considering. In his opinion, and he was quite the business expert, this seemed fair. "Deal," he said. He gestured for you to sit in the chair across from his, and he passed you a book of his that you'd started reading.

As the night passed by and heavy rain started to pour over the city, the two of you sat in his office and basked in the success of the heist and the sheer comfort of each other's company. You shared your lingering glances and tiny smiles, and when you left his office in the early hours of the morning to finally get some sleep, the necklace back around your neck, you couldn't wipe the stupid smile off your face or the memory of his fingers brushing over your skin out of your mind.

[ratcash-wasgud]

hi! i just came by your work last night, loved it! stayed up reading it! 11/10 *cheff kiss* Are you up for a petition? maybe another mizuxreader, perhaps villainxhero kinda situation. the reader could be one of the money/sex hungry affiliated with the white man (not a white men herself but like a lap dog of someone with higher power than Abijah Fowle). instead of mizu taking Fowler she takes the *reader*, keeps her alive and makes her speak 7u7 maybe scream. they end up helping each other in the end after much fighting. ofc adding some nsfw there pfff if that wasnt obvious.

hope you see this! lmfao

Omg, yes!! Genius. This set something ablaze inside me (especially since I love witty villain characters). I was thinking about making this a one shot tho, but if yall want a second part tell me, and i'll try. Try. Anyways, this'll be more lighthearted than my other works. Oh, and I'm sorry if this isn't how you imagined the story to go. I interpreted some of the originaly show's story, but mostly I just wen't along with what's the easiest to get my own story going, and I probably got some cannon info wrong too, but please don't yell at me lmao.

Btw!! I'm really glad i got a request!! So thank you! If anyone has any other ideas, I'd be glad to try and working with it!!

Okay, enjoy!!

ℕ𝕖𝕜𝕠 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕖𝕤𝕥.

When Mizu pulled up to tea with Heji Shindou, instead of the half-blad old guy, she was faced with you. Some woman in strange clothing. It seemed like it was a mix of western clothing, and some japanese casual wear. You even had your hair down, letting it flow freely. How unusual.

"Ah, the infamous samurai who is tearing through anyone in his way!" You say with a smirk on your face, opening up your arms. "Come, come. Oh, and I see you've bought a dog too." You add, looking smugly at Taigen.

"How dare-" He starts, but gets shut down by Mizu quickly, and the two follow you to sit down.

"So, I've heard you're after the white men, huh?" You say, not sitting on your knees, but sitting down criss-cross style. "Why? What is it that you're after? Money?" You ask, starting to pour some tea.

"I don't need things like that. I have a vow. I swore revenge." Mizu says simply. "And what is it that you need from me?"

"Oh, nada." You shrug. "I'm just willing to offer a deal." You shoot the both of them a smirk. "I'd love to have that fat bastard dead too! My loyalty isn't with him at all!" You say it like it's the most exciting thing ever. "You see, that sack of shit has everything in the world! Money, power, connections...and he's still complaining! Ha! Meaning, he doesn't deserve it." You say as you lift your tea and take a sip. "I, on the other hand, would take much better care of his privilages."

"So you want me to kill him so you can take his place?" Mizu asks, highly suspicious. She glances at Taigen, who is still giving you a dirty look for your comment from earlier.

"Yap." You nod, tossing down your cup. "Fowler wouldn't be an easy target, so without my help, you could already start planning your funeral." You say, but now a small dangerous glint appears in your eyes.

"And why should I trust you?" Mizu asks, her eyes narrowing at you, but your smirk doesn't falter.

"You shouldn't. Didn't you mother tell you not to trust strangers?" You say with a chuckle and Mizu rewards it with a small glare. A small, but cold one. "Still, it's up to you. Do you wanna kill that bastard so much you're willing to take the risk?"

"And how do we know this is not an ambush? That you won't just kill us if we say no?" Taigen cuts in, putting his hands on the table which you reward with your smile getting smugger.

"Oh, please." You put your hands up in defense. "You really think I'd waste weapons and men on you?" You say, looking him straight in the eye. "And besides, you won't say no." You look back at Mizu. "My deal has only benefits for you. You'll just have to gulp down some self respect."

Mizu raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" She can't deny, having someone close to Fowler himself helping her would be a huge positive, but...you just seem so sly. Like a cat.

"Ah, you see, I can get you inside Fowler's little residence." You stand up to pull of a blanket off a big barrel. "You'd fit inside quite well. You're a scrawny thing anyways." You say with a taunting smirk.

"It's a trap!" Taigen says to Mizu right away, but Mizu seems unfazed and steps closer. "How exactly would you get me inside?"

"Aw, I wanted that one to be a surprise." You say with a mock pout. "Fowler thinks I'm out getting a good deal on sake, and I kinda am." You take the barrel's to of, revealing that it's half full of sake. "I'd have you delivered right to his nose."

"You'd die." Taigen cuts in again, and Mizu can see your eye twitch at that.

"Could you shut your lil' pet up? The adults are talking." You say, your smirk disappearing.

"She's obviously untrustworthy!" Taigen draws his sword on a whim, but he's met with a revolver to his head right away.

"Don't try that shit with me." You say, tilting your head at him, but you then seel Mizu's blade at your nape. "Touché." You mutter.

"So what now?" You ask with a smirk breaking out on your face again. "Kill me and lose your only chance at killing the man you swore to slay down? Ha! Go on then." You say, glancing over at your shoulder at her, and you see Mizu tense up.

Suddenly, you feel a sharp pain in your head and you fall to the ground. Mizu hit you with the hilt of her blade, stripping you of your conciousness.

The next thing you see is a capmfire and a siluette around you. As you blink a lot to clear your vision, you notice Mizu and as you look down, ropes around you. She tied you up.

"So you didn't kill me after all." You say out loud, getting Mizu's attention. "The other guy? The one with a bald spot and a funny glare. The dog." You look around.

"Away." Mizu shrugs simply. It's the truth though, Ringo is away in a nearby town, getting supplements for the road, and she left Taigen with a promise of a later duel.

"So...What is you plan now, big bad samurai? Try and torture me into telling you shit? Ha!" You say, wriggling in the ropes.

"I'm planning to exchange you for information." Mizu says simply, staring at the campfire. "I'm sure Heji Shindo would like to have you back."

You grit your teeth. "That old fucker doesn't give a shit about anything but his money and his dick. I'm sure that power hungry bastard is happy I'm gone." You say, scoffing. "But go on, try." Suddenly, you realize something. "What did you do with my gun?" You ask in a hurry, trying to feel around at your hilt.

Suddenly, Mizu lifts your gun, holding it between two fingers. "This?" She asks, looking at you from the corner of her eyes.

"Don't you dare lose it! I want it back when you're done with me!" You stomp your foot as much as you can.

"You know, for someone talking so big earlier, you're quite pissy now." Mizu says, rolling her eyes and you huff in response.

Then...as you glanced back at the fire, you noticed a small pot, boiling. You tried to lift yourself to see what's in it, but the ropes didn't allowed you to.

"...if I starve to death, I'm just gonna be a waste, you know." You mumble under your nose, and Mizu snorts. She then reaches for the pot, and pours out some what seems like soup into a small bowl and she puts it beside you.

You stare at the bowl, your eye twitching. "I can't reach it." You say, your eyebrows creasing together and she just looks at you with a small, amused grin.

"Huh." She says, leaning back on her hands. "Really?" She taunts you. Oh, this woman is horrible. Fine, you think. In one swift motion, you move your leg as much as you're able, and kick the bowl, spilling it all on Mizu.

Mizu's eyes widen and she looks down on her clothes. "...oh, you little bitch." She hisses at you.

"Come, kill me then!" You stick out your tongue childishly.

"You know damn well I could!" Mizu huffs back, throwing the bowl at you.

"Ha-ha, your whole little quest depends on me!" You laugh right into her face and wriggle your legs. Mizu almost growls at you and suddenly she picks up your gun again, and holds it above the fire, threathening to drop it.

"No!" You yell out, and fall forward, and bite into her ankle. Mizu yanks her leg away with a hiss and reaches down to pull you up by your collar.

"Okay, what's your fucking deal?" She says from behind greitted teeth.

"What's yours?" You ask right back, snarling right back at her. "If you'd wanted to kill me, you'd have done it by now. So, want me to talk? Earn it!" You say, getting closer to her face, trying to stand your ground.

"The fuck you want?" Mizu tosses you away, and sits at a reasonable distance from you. "To have Fowler dead? Then just tell me how to get in, and where he is!"

"I want you to untie me, and hand me back my gun!" You demand, and lift your nose, refusing to look at her.

"What's so great about this gun anyways?" Mizu picks up the gun again and looks at it more closely. It's obviously a western gun with a leather grip and engravings along it's barrel in the form of some kind of bird.

You scoff in response. "That was my first gun. It's special." You say like it's the most obvious thing ever. "I will bring it with me when I finally travel aboard, away from this stuck-in-the-past land."

"Huh?" Mizu raises her eyebrows. "You wanna leave Japan? For what?" She asks mockingly.

"Because! This place isn't wide enough for my potential! After Fowler is out of the picture, I will visit take his money and go to London. Start a new life and all. I will really bloom there." You say, rolling onto your back. "People will understand me there."

Mizu narrows her eyes. "I don't think people in Japan are the problem, you're just a common lunatic." That earns a chuckle from you.

"Says the guy who is set out to kill four men he doesn't know shit about." You says, glancing at her, and Mizu can't help herself, cracks a smirk.

"You have guts to talk back to your captor, you know." She says and lifts her eyebrows in amusement. She glances up at the sky too. The stars are very bright tonight.

"You won't kill me." You say, tilting your head so that you're looking straight at her. It's just now that she notcied how nicely the stars reflect in your eyes. Your eyes now look calm, and they don't have any slyness, or mischief in them at the moment. "It wouldn't benefit you." You shrug. "And torturing me would be useless. Pain passes."

"Say," Mizu starts, looking back at the fire. "You said that you're not loyal to Fowler. So who are you loyal to?"

"Me." You say withouth hesitation. "The one who I want the best for and I trust the most is myself. I'm not loyal to any old, egostical bastard with money, like most people in this country are." Say say it with disgust. "I never was and never will be loyal to anyone else, but me."

Mizu scoffs. "What are you, a stray cat?" She asks with a hint of amusement as she looks down at you. "That just makes you even more untrustworty."

You scoff back. "Who said that I want to be trustwhorty?" You ask, rolling your eyes. "Plus, I'm free. Well, not yet, but I will be. And it's not like you can say the same."

Mizu can't help but snicker. "Is that it? Freedom? I'm free enough, thank you."

"Naaaaah." You shake your head. "You're tied down by your own revenge. It tells you where to go, what to see, what to feel...if I told you where's Fowler, you'd get going by tomorrow. Even if I told you you'd die, you'd still go. Not because you want to die, but because that's the only thing you know. Revenge and rage. You'd jump in the well if I said Fowler's at the bottom of it." You say boldly, and look her straight in the eyes before you smirk slyly.

"You think you know everything, huh?" Mizu frowns and gets up to you, grabbing you by the hair. "You know nothing of me. I need this. I will throw my life away if I have to, to finish what I've started, so I won't think twice about taking yours too."

"You're all talk about killing me. Deep down, you know you need me." You taunt her. "You won't find that bastard withouth me. I work under his arm, I could get you there soooo easily, but you're throwing it away because you get too emotional." Your smirk gets even more smug. You kinda look like a cat, Mizu notices again. A cat that has just pushed off something expensive off a shelf, breaking it, and knowing it too.

Mizu noticed that sometimes you force that smugness into your little smirks. She sees it because the corners of your lips twitch. In reality, you are scared of her, but you'd rather die than let her see that. She never met a woman like you. She doesn't know how you got to the place you are, but she respects it. And still, you kow she could take your life. You're tied up, tripped of your weapons and vulnerable, yet you still taunt her. You're very annoying but somehow she can't help but admire your bravery. But the moment you're cornerned into a corner, you hiss and scratch.

After that, she lets you go and walks to be at a good six and a half feet away from you before she lays down, and decides to sleep withouth another word. Not much time passes when Mizu stays sleepless, but she hears you snore. And for some reason, she can't help but smile. You breathe through your mouth when you sleep. It's kind of cute.

The next couple of days are spent with Mizu travelling with Ringo and Taigen, and she drags you along too. Literally. She drags you while you're tied up. During those days, you managed to talk to Ringo a lot. Most of the time he's the one who's assigned to watch over you, and it doesn't seem like he has even as much as a mean bone in his body. You could even call some of your conversations pleasent. The other two on the other hand...you sometimes talk to Mizu and you two always end up in a neck to neck situation. Mizu wants to get you to talk, but she hasn't hurt you yet. She just always threathens you, yells and curses. You just flat out insult her at every chance you get though. It's not because you hate her, persay, but because you find it funny. You're being held captive after all, you need to use every chance you get to have fun.

Currently, you are left alone for the first time in weeks, as the others left your outside of town while they get something done. When you're sure they're out of seeing and hearing range, you start to rub the ropes on your wrist against a bigger rock you've found, trying to "saw" through it. When that irritating thing finally snaps, and you begind to get yourself free, you suddenly hear a very menacing sound from behind.

"The fuck are you doing?" You turn your head and see Mizu, glaring and gripping her sword. Fuck, you think and as she charges at you. You quickly throw away the rest of your ropes, and dogde out of the way. You didn't got to where you are now withouth knowing how to stand your ground, and defending yourself...and knowing how to cheat, of course.

You jump to your feet and get behind Mizu, and with one swift, forward kick to her side, you don't just get her to grunt and almost fall, you also send your gun flying from her side. By now, you've learned that that's where she keeps it. You're still just happy she didn't outright get rid of it. As the gun slides on the cold ground, you jump after it while Mizu regains her composure, and finally obtain it once again.

"Yes!" You silently cheer to yourself and point the gun at Mizu, who just looks at you, her blade covering half her face.

You gulp. Do you really wanna fire at Mizu? Kill her even? You did kinda want to kill her and betray her at first, but now you're...not sure. Sure, she's an asshole but...over those days as being her captive, you learned some things about her...she's not as heartless and cold. She fed you herself, she managed to keep you safe, even if she kept you in robes, and she just wants revenge...she even kept your gun safe.

But you can't show weakness. That's not what you stand for, so you shoot, but aim at her leg. She dodges of course, and manages to pin you down with her blade at your neck, but your gun at her stomach.

You just stare at her eachother, panting, not sure who's gonna kill who first. Mizu stares into your eyes, seeing her own reflection in them. Suddenly she notices that familiar glint in them, and how you swallow while panting, and how nose moves when you take a deep breath...and she feels her stomach fluttering. With adrenaling flowing through her veins and her skin haven't feeling contact with someone else's for so long, she makes a decision. A quick, and a little foolish one.

She pushes her lips against yours, her eyes closing and her breathing speeding up even more. And to her biggest surprise...you kiss back right away. It's all happening so fast. One minute you're nearly killing eachother, and in the other, you're passionately making out with her hands under your clothes, feeling your skin with your weapons thrown to the side.

"Asshole. You fired at me." Mizu mumbles into the kiss, her hands firmly feeling up the skin on your sides, while you rin your hands down her spine.

"Dickhead. You kept me tied up for weeks." You mumble back, gently biting into her lower lip, which Mizu rewards with a small gasp. Suddenly, she feels your hands under her clothes too.

"I knew it." You whisper. "A man could never have a soul like yours." You say and pull her back into a kiss. You feel her knees between your legs, pushing at your core, and in response you squeeze one of her breasts. Mizu starts to get rid of your clothes one by one, and as she does that, you quickly strip her of her own too.

Mizu's slander fingers slowly travel to your slit, but as she does, you grip her wrist and stop her. "No." You mumble. "Not like this." You flip her over (not easily though, she fights back even now), and look down at her naked form, quickly throwing away her chest bindings too.

"Fuck..." You mumble as you carefully align your core with hers, your clits touching, and moving together with every breath. And as you start to move gently, holding yourself up on your hands next to her head, you can hear her moan. She grinds back against yours, your juices mixing together. Even in this moment, it's as if you're both fighting for dominance. You don't know when will Mizu just reach up and choke you to death, but honestly? That's the best part.

You feel her hands around you, one clawing at your back, the other on your jaw...then cheeks, then lips, then the last thing you know is that she's forcing a finger inside of your mouth while you quietly moan and bite down on it. In response you push harder against her, almost squishing her clit with yours, which end in a louder moan from both of you.

"Can't...can't fucking take it..." Mizu moans, pushing her finger deeper inside your mouth before she retreats it, and uses her other hand to pull on your hair instead.

"What? Gonna cum? Ha." You manage to murmur out, not being able to stop your hips, feeling yourself getting closer to the edge too.

"You...fucking wish...ah!" Mizu's whole body twitches as you angle yourself a little differently, giving a whole new sensation to both of you, making you bite into her shoulder while she grips a handful of your hair thightly. And with that, a louder, choked back moan escpaed from both of you...being in perfect balance with eachother, and reaching your climax at the same time.

You stay there, just quietly panting and laying there, on top of eachother in silence for a while. You ahve your face burried into Mizu's neck, basking in her scent while Mizu still has her hand in your hair, feeling it's texture against her cheek.

"...you gotta go through a tunnel." You mumble.

"What?" Mizu perk up, lifting your head by your hair to look into your eyes.

"To get into Fowler's castle. You gotta go through a tunnel that is like...twenty steps away from the road's end and is filled to the brim with traps." You mumble, having your eyes open only halfway. "You gotta head East after you leave the last small village before the forest."

Mizu takes all that in. Now she knows how to get there...now she knows everything. "So that's what it took you to talk? For me to fuck you?"

"I fucked you." You say with a huff and get off of her, putting your clothes back on. "Well, I guess you got what you wanted, and I'm free too." You say, not really sure why. There are no ropes holding you back anymore, so...íthis is your cue to leave, isn't it?

"Wait, where are you going?" Mizu sits up, looking after you.

"Back to Fowler." You shrug. "I'm still his right hand. He probably sent men to find me." You sigh as you finish dressing up. "See you...at the castle." You say, look at her above your shoulder.

"..." Mizu narrows her eyes. "Fuck you." She spits.

"Check." You put on that so familiar smug smirk and hold up a thumbs up. "Spare me a seat in the audience when you cut his head off." You wave as you start walking away.

"...like a fucking stray cat." Mizu sighs, and before you dissappear, the last thing she sees is your wink.

[adventuringblind]

Let Me In, Please

Oscar Piastri x Reader

Genre: Angst, Mafia AU

Summary: Bodyguard Oscar knows something isn't right, he just wasn't expecting it to be so wrong.

Warnings: Implied r@pe, gun violence, depictions of self-harm

Notes: The request was for Enemies to Lovers, and I tried that... I'm not sure this meets your expectations, but I still hope you like it, Nonny!

Masterlist // Request Form // My Website // buy me a Ko-Fi

How could she have been so stupid? This was supposed to be safe ground. An area she knows like the back of her hand. All she had to do was walk down the street to Oscar's apartment.

She tried calling him, but he didn't answer. The anxious part of her mind thought the worst.

Yeah, he certainly got on her nerves sometimes. Worse than her brother at times, but he knew when to give her space. Their friendship has been long and drawn out, but he'd do anything for her. He'd made that much clear. Regardless of how she pushed him away.

So, she didn't push anymore, instead she pulled... him down to kiss her.

Most nights he's stay at her place. The dangers of having a brother who runs her father's legacy: everybody is watching for a weak point.

Carlos had been it for her. The one who raised her with the untimely passing of their parents. But then he got busy, so he stuck her with Oscar.

At the time she thought Carlos had just gotten tired of having his little sister around. She knows better now and doesn't lash out at the Aussie for something that isn't his fault.

One block to his apartment. The longest, most difficult walk of her life. Her body hurts, clothes ruined, and skin dirty from his hands. She had no idea who he was, just that her own place isn't safe anymore. Not since he knew her name and managed to completely shatter a window to get in.

She's a mess. The dark streets not helping her mind.

The stairs almost kill her. Her muscles ache from fighting, the bruises rub against her clothes in all the wrong ways.

She reaches the door but hesitates to knock. The sinister thoughts in her head don't want to leave her alone.

She fixes her appearance. A little less wrecked than she looked previously, maybe enough to pass off a nightmare and some stupid anxiety.

She knocks. Oscar answers, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looks surprised to see her, but the sleepy smile shows her he isn't upset about it.

He pulls her inside and offers her a mug of hot chocolate. Her favorite concoction of his. It's a drug that soothes her aching soul from the mess she's created.

He takes a seat next to her on the couch. "So, what brings you here so late?"

"Nightmare... you didn't answer your phone so I thought maybe something happened." She avoids his gaze. Eye's studying her, determing if he should push for more information.

"You're brother would kill me if he knew you walked here alone."

"He would also kill you if he knew that we're dating."

"Fair point."

Oscar lends her his clothes to sleep in and tucks her into bed. He's still awake, watching over her dutifully, even as her mind drifts into the peacefulness of sleep.

♤♡◇♧

Oscar doesn't like to snoop. Well, sometimes it's fun, but not when he's investigating the apartment of someone he loves.

Something is off, and he's going to figure it out. Her restless slumber and nails digging into her skin only helped co fin his thoughts.

He'd dropped her with Carlos and went right to her apartment. Only to find the door left open and window shattered.

Why hadn't she told him someone had broken in? Unless it was worse than that... but that wouldn't make sense.

Suspicions confirmed, Oscar heads back to get his lover. Hopefully, not to pissed at her brother. Their one-sided arguments have been getting worse. Enough for him to see how it's exhausting her.

She wants her brother, and he sends her away. She tries to comfort him, and he pushes her away. Enough to get aggressive on a few occasions when he's particularly peeved.

It's been a half hour, so the damage can't be too bad. Oscar speeds his way to Carlos' office, where both of them should be. Anxious to make sure she doesn't feel the need to slip back into old habits.

Oscar and her have been through the ringer with each other. He's seen the worst parts of her and made it a point to love her regardless.

To strong for some, to weak for her brother. It's astounding how cruel people are when they are intimidated by someone. Oscar feels comfortable knowing she can put a bullet through a skull.

Even so, it's jarring when he finds the office door wide open. Carlos is pacing back and forth, ranting to himself in Spanish.

Oscar still knocks before he just waltz in unannounced. He'd rather not get shot. Thank you very much.

"Mr. Sainz?" Oscar doesn't flinch when Carlos whips around and jabs a finger in his direction.

"Don't you dare leave my sister alone again."

Okay, he's a bit taken aback at that. "Sir?"

"I've been notified one of my men was at her apartment last night." Carlos slaps a file of images on the desk.

Oscar has to grit his teeth. The story they depict makes his heart shatter and anger course through his veins.

"I want him dead."

"Understood sir."

He walks out of the office, shoulders squared. Nobody gets to mess with his girl like that.

♤♡◇♧

The cold tile against her body is oddly numbing. It's familiar, a home when her emotions get too much.

Carlos showed her the photos. It hurt enough to make her sick. The bile burning her throat at having to relive the events of last night. The yelling hadn't helped either. Another mess for her brother to clean up.

The blade lays discarded next to her. The blood from her thigh staining the pristine white floor. The sting makes it better. Deserved for causing such a problem. Neccecary for removing the tainted skin. At least what she can for now.

She bleeds away the sins others have committed against her.

The door opens. She doesn't look to see who it is. She already knows. He's wearing his work boots. The ones she's come to be familiar with through this position.

Despite the sleek black color. She can vaugley make out the spots of red.

It's intimate, in a way, how Oscar cleans the blood from both of them simultaneously. He scrubs it off his hands and disinfect her thighs. He uses gentle movements to bandage the deep wounds. Barely moving her in the process.

She hadn't even noticed she was crying. Not until he sits down with her. Careful not to touch her in a way she wouldn't like right now.

She breaks when he bleaches the tiles. The red disappears like it has never been there.

The choked sobs wrack her body. Silent scream, mourning something that was taken from her. The burning in her thighs is a solid reminder of the atrocities she's plauged her brother and Oscar with

Always the problem, never the solution.

"Can I hold you?" His soft voice doesn't help her tears.

"Why would you want to do that? I'm just another - I don't know - dirty problem for you and my brother to deal with?"

Oscar holds his hand out for her to take. She reaches for him hesitantly. She knows Oscar would never hurt her. Not when he shoots anyone who does.

"You are not dirty. You are not a problem. I may joke about it, but I wouldn't have anyone else making my days interesting like you do." Oscar places a soft kiss to the top of her head. "You're the best problem I could've asked for."

"But, I feel gross now." She chokes on her air, suffocating on the feeling of that man's hands on her skin.

"I know it'll be hard, but I also know that you are strong. I'll be there for you when you need me. When you need me to compliment you, when you need to sit in the shower and was away the feelings, hell, even if you punch something, just tell me. Though I'd prefer you not punch me."

"You're not going to leave?"

"Love, I'm your problem. You're stuck with me."

"I guess we can be problems together then."

"Nah, you're not a problem. Just the love of my life."

She rests her head on Oscar's shoulder, hands still intertwined. It's small, but comfortable for now.

She knows Oscar won't push her. He'll be there when she's ready.

[ratiocowmilk]

I've been thinking of a Tokyo Ghoul AU. I know, kinda basic, but hear me out.

Just to preface: If you haven't seen/read Tokyo Ghoul before the basic setting is that people live alongside ghouls in fear. Ghouls are essentially super-human beings that feed on human flesh to survive. They can not eat regular people food no matter how hard they try. The good thing is that there are ghoul-friendly places that offer ethically sourced human meat. Other than that, the only way you would know if you're in the vicinity of one is if they reveal themselves, either by accident or on purpose. The weapons of the ghouls are called kagune.

More information and character stuff below!

There is a faction called Comission of Counter Ghoul (or CCG for short) that was created to solve Ghoul related crimes. And to detain them. The operatives are nicknamed Doves by the ghouls. Their weapons of choice are quinque, which are derived from the kagune. Most of this information is from season 1, so I'm aware that some things have changed, but this is the setting my AU is based on so I don't care.

Now that that's out of the way, I've been thinking of Ratio, Sparkle, and Ruan Mei as ghouls, while Aventurine, Topaz, and Robin work for and have family ties to the CCG respectively. Ratio and Ruan Mei are the careful types, while Sparkle is a little more wild with it. She will go out hunting for her own food, and if it's a bust, then she crashes at Ratio's place to lay low. Ratio, on the other hand, relies on the safer resources and will rarely go out to hunt. He will only do it if he's running low and is really desperate. Ruan Mei is similar, but she'd rather hire someone to do the dirty work.

Aventurine would be the type to use a defensive but brutal qinque, and at first, he doesn't see the ghouls as something worth mourning for. Whether it's a quick or painful death doesn't matter to him. The only missions he won't take are those involving kids. Topaz would opt for something quick, as she finds it a bit distasteful to make her opponents suffer more than they need to. If she kills a ghoul that was well loved by friends and family, then she'll buy a single flower to bring home to respect the dead. Her coworkers (cough Aventurine cough) think she's weird for applying humanity to them, but she's just doing what she believes in. Robin, on the other hand, simply has ties with the CCG. She finds it distasteful that the CCG treats the ghouls as weapons to be harvested. She can't voice her discontent, however, or she'll be punished by the Family.

On to the actual relationships:

Aventurine and Ratio first meet at a cafe. Real meet-cute vibes. Aventurine falls in love almost immediately. Ratio, however, is wary because Aventurine is a well-known Dove. And while he is flattered, he would rather not risk the chance of betrayal down the line. So, while they exchange numbers, Ratio himself rarely starts a conversation. It isn't until Sparkle steals his phone and texts Aventurine a time and place that things start rolling. They go on a few dates and have a fun time, but when the topic of Aventurine's work comes up, Ratio's words become slightly stilted. Aventurine, at first, thinks he's simply scared of ghouls. So he decides to bend a few rules here and there to show off his qinque! Unlucky for him, it makes it worse because Ratio recognizes whose kagune it came from. Aventurine is unaware of this, so he keeps trying to show off how he works in eliminating ghouls. It isn't until Aventurine walks in on Ratio having a snack while on patrol that he gets it. And for the first time in his life, he doesn't know if he'll be able to kill him. His hands start shaking, there's recognition in Ratio's eyes, and he doesn't know what to do. Ratio gets away in time just as back-up come crawling in. Topaz gets one good look at him and says, "You finally get it now, huh?" And walks away. As soon as he gets home, he's spam calling Ratio to get some answers, but he always gets sent straight to voicemail.

Robin and Sparkle first met while Robin was sneaking out of the house. Sparkle at the time was looking for a good hunt but decided to spare Robin for another day. They have a fun night on the town before Sparkle, the gentle soul she definitely is, escorts her back home. Honestly, who would she be if she let some nefarious ghoul take her away? They dont know who each other are, just that they had fun. So they keep meeting up, and sometimes Sparkle will just break in unannounced and scare poor Robin. Eventually, Sparkle slips up and accidentally reveals her status as a ghoul to Robin, but instead of scorn, she's met with compassion. She doesn't understand it, but she's learned not to take things for granted, so she moves on. They fall in love gradually, but they are both aware that things could end at any moment, so they decide not to make things official yet. Unfortunately, the Family takes notice, and they call the CCG on Sparkle. As she runs through the streets for her life, she runs into Aventurine. He recognizes her almost immediately and offers her safety in exchange for leading him to Ratio. She has no time to think things over, so she agrees. When they reach Ratio's residence, he has one second of looking betrayed before Aventurine starts spilling his guts. Sparkle walks away because if she stays long enough to see them reconcile, then she'll feel extra bitter. It's not fair that they get their happy ending while she gets to rot. (She'll be unaware that in the midst of the chaos, Robin ran too.)

[animehouse-moe]

Mobile Suit Gundam - The Witch From Mercury S2 Episode 8: The End of Hope

So, last episode was violence on earth, and this episode is violence in space! What do we call that? A cycle! That's right. Good old Gundam, perpetuating violence through one sided fixations on the other's wrongdoings, which is perfectly personified through Shaddiq in this episode. Lots of stuff to talk about for sure!

This episode is interesting in that sense, it's less methodic and progress focused than the previous, almost catching you off guard as you shift from the norm towards combat. Regardless of that though, Shaddiq is a total piece of work through it all. It's pretty incredible.

The Earthian boy that allowed space to get to his head. Shaddiq was an orphan from Earth who worked his way up through Grassley to get a spot at Astacassia, and is now using it "to his advantage" to bring equality and power back to the hands of Earthians. What he doesn't, and will probably never realize, is that he's only serving to exacerbate it by perpetuating exactly what his adoptive forefathers did. In a terrible twist of fate, all Shaddiq is able to do is dirty the lives of others. He forces Guel to kill his own father to survive, he forces Miorine to dirty her hands because she doesn't want to be owned by Shaddiq, and he ruins the lives of such an innumerable amount of people that you can't begin to quantify it. All because he wants to bring peace and equality to Earth. But he can never understand his actions. He could never understand what it's like to kill your own father, what it's like to watch on as violence is incurred in your name. And this episode illustrates that incredible well, that Shaddiq is a Spacian, more than any of these other characters he despises, as his words completely betray him.

His entire existence is centered around his ability to bring their own lives back into the hands of Earthians, but he entirely misses the point. All he does is take advantage of. He takes, and takes, and takes some more, and offers nothing but hellfire and brimstone to the people that he wants to help. He brings oppression, violence, sanctions, all manner of terrible fates to the people he cares about, because the scope of his desire is so narrow. He wants to erase the past that he existed in, rather than focus on the future moving forward. In that sense, he plays a very solid second fiddle to Prospera (and raises up Guel even more, which I'll touch on later), as their foolish grasp on history blinds them to the atrocities that they commit in their names.

Just a quick little interlude here as the grounds of Astacassia are under attack during Guel and Shaddiq's fight. I thought this was a really great piece to appear in it. Miorine's tomato greenhouse was destroyed. Not by gundvolvas or even Norea herself, but someone defending Astacassia from her. What a sad, sad fate. A peaceful existence, quashed not by the enemy, but the people she might even call allies. Such a throwaway piece, but one that speaks to the boundless and senseless act of violence. To how inescapable it can be, to both sides of the conflict.

Anyways, back to Guel and his hubris. The sheer mockery that is his existence is palpable. "If you didn't get expelled from the school, if you didn't try to make things right and help out Plant Quetta during a terrorist attack, if you didn't try to thwart my plans, your father would still be alive, if you didn't fight to be a better person, my Miorine would still be clean.". Shaddiq embodies more selfishness than Guel could ever manage to muster in his existence. Even as the self-centered Holder of Astacassia, he could never stoop to the depths that Shaddiq inhabits.

And that's illustrated perfectly here. Shaddiq blames everybody around him for everything that has happened to him. Despite being the leading son of the Grassley House. Despite having the tools to change the world at his fingertips if he so wanted. He believes he needs to deliver power to the Earthians, through terror and violence that incurs the wrath of Spacians. Despite the peaceful approach that Gund-ARM desired, despite the wishes and fears of Guel, at each step he has refused to use his power, and relies on that of the group. He relies on their reactions to violence, he relies on the hatred of Spacians by the inhabitants of Earth. He only uses his power to take from those around him, and in turn drags them further into this abyss.

Then there's this moment. This line from Shaddiq. The sheer hubris of it is hilarious. And Guel destroys it right away.

The difference in wording speaks volumes. Shaddiq could only ever acknowledge what he's doing. He can sit and there and say, "I did some bad things for the sake of Earthians", and immediately, he absolves himself of it because of why he did it. Guel, on the other hand, chooses to carry that weight with him for the rest of his life. The inescapable burden of his father's death, of that girl dying in his arms, of his inaction and what it's led to. He refuses to justify his sins in the bigger picture. And that dissonance extends to the girls around Shaddiq, as they speak of "silver spoons" while piloting their top of the line Gundams, as they sortie from the incredibly exclusive and highly expensive Astacassia school ran by Spacians.

Then there's this last part from Guel is just outstanding. Given the context of Shaddiq and his crew being out for blood, Guel's effort in bringing in the Grassley House unharmed just further widens the ocean's width between the two characters. I especially love it because it speaks to exactly what I was saying so far about Shaddiq, and because it's Guel's version of the words that Suletta gave him.

And to finish off the Shaddiq content of this episode, we have Sarius. His forced passivity through this all, in concert with this comment, speak volumes to his feelings of it. He's lived through this before, he's experienced similar issues and challenges, and he knows where this path will lead to. But in the end, he remained powerless and oblivious to the plight of his son. It's rather depressing to see the resignation on his face at his failure in raising Shaddiq.

Now then, we can move onto Norea and Elan! What an interesting pair, I do think that Norea's character is a bit overblown than need be for he purpose, but there's still plenty of great moments. I really like how despite her hatred of mobile suits and Gundams, the only thing that she thinks she has left is to pilot them. Through her short life, all she could do at the end of it was fight, she could never find a way to run, to leave behind those feelings of hatred and resentment for the life that she was forced into.

And Elan can't help but intervene. The Elan that would only ever run away, only ever fight to preserve his own life, is drawn to Norea. Forced to pilot for the sake of others, relinquishing their chances at a normal life because of the selfishness of Spacians, the pair find common ground in losing their lives and passions to capitalist money machine that is the Benerit Group. I think it's a really great and emotional moment, to bring the puppet of a clone of Peil Technologies, and the child soldier of the Dawn of Fold together in their desire to flee their lives and discover something outside of their current existences. Sadly, this Elan has his chance, but Norea's fate has already been sealed due to her actions.

Finally, we arrive at the end of the conflict. A mass of rubble and bodies litter the ground from the conflict as we find Suletta on her own moving earth to try and help the people beneath it. I think it's a really important piece, both in regards to Suletta and the relations between Earthians and Spacians at Astacassia. Though they're meant to be cogs in the cycle of perpetuated violence and control, some of the students at this school have found ways to connect with one another past the boundaries of Earth and Space. Working together to defend Astacassia, or helping save injured students, or removing those trapped from the rubble. It speaks to the passion and desire to good that the Earthians aboard Astacassia have spread and infected those around them with. Alongside Suletta, they've broken the curse of Prospera's words, and in doing so, have helped free Suletta. Without Aerial, without her mother or Miorine or any of the other crutches that brought her this far, she remains in the dark, with bloodied and bruised hands, searching for life amidst the destruction.

It's an astoundingly good GWitch episode, and moves the characters forward in incredible ways. Shaddiq's hubris arrives at his doorstep as Guel find vindication in bringing him to justice, while Norea makes peace with the life that was stolen from her that Elan carries onwards, and Suletta and the Earth house continue their calling of peace and helping others even in spite of the atrocity that was committed in the name of their company.

The cycle of violence leaves nobody untouched, but it doesn't mean you must succumb to it. This episode speaks to that greatly. That you are justified in your hate and resentment for what life has done for you, but that you also hold the tools within your own hands to change that. To rally against it and make a difference, to speak out against those actions and to fight to find ways to break that cycle. Whether it's within the scope of the school you go to, or the whole of humanity.

[lilac-den]

TSR Snippet - A Tired Day

Warning: Contains angsts and self-loathing for MC!

It's been three days since I lost them.

Two nights since I last had a good night's rest.

And merely an hour since the final day of the funeral was over.

The rain is heavy, the air is cold and everything just seems so...numb.

I stare at the doorknob in front of me, connected to my new apartment that Benefactor decided to give me as a gift.

"You don't have a place to live in, right? Just take up this one. Don't worry about rent. Consider this an investment."

I still don't get why ze wants to hire me. But I don't have much in me to question further, nor the choice to refuse the offer. The cops went and turned my old apartment into a crime scene and, because of it, the landlord blames me for the 'mess' and 'noisy ruckus' that she doesn't even let me grab my stuff to properly move out.

"Get out before you get more of my tenants killed!"

I finally gather enough energy to grasp the doorknob and twist it, swinging open the door.

The new apartment is brand new, which is surprising already. There's no odd smell or broken hinges, nor are the flooring and walls marred with past damages from previous tenants or residents.

Everyone would love this place.

I stop just before the flooring and begin pulling my feet out of their shoes.

"Welcome home, [Name]!"

I lift up my head.

But no one is there, no one waiting in front of me.

I squeeze my eyes shut and pinch the bridge of my nose. I must be imagining things.

Even lifting my feet feels so heavy as I take my first step in unfamiliar territory. I don't even make it to the couch. I simply let my body drop onto the floor and let the weight sink me against the wooden surface.

"[Name]! What are you doing?"

I lift my head slightly, eying a familiar pair of feet and legs.

"You shouldn't be sleeping here! Come on, get up. I'm bringing you to bed."

"No..." I wave her off. But her voice persists. I can even tell there's a pout on her somehow, like a faint presence with significant warmth.

"No, you're not going to sleep here!"

Hands wrap around my arm and in that brief moment, I feel bits of warmth. I move my hand to grasp for that warmth.

I only touch my own fingers.

I blink and find myself facing the empty space.

I could have sworn-

I close my eyes and refuse to let that thought go on. I prop myself up with my arms and exhaustively move off of the floor. Feeling particularly heavy, I look down at my clothes, heavily soaked from the rain outside.

Shower.

I close my eyes and sigh. I can imagine Maverick telling me with a stern gaze, more worried about me catching a cold than getting the floor dirty with my drenched self.

I make my way to where I believe the bathroom to be. It is a small apartment, fit for one person. The Benefactor has mentioned there to be two bathrooms - one for guests, the other a personal one.

I step into the bedroom, opting for the personal bathroom. I turn on the lights.

The bedroom isn't much, but it is at least furnished. A king's size bed, a bedroom closet, a window overlooking the night sky and a door of what I imagine to be the bathroom. The walls and floor are in cool colours; not too bright to hurt the eyes nor too dark to be absorbed by it.

It feels so big to stay here.

I continue my walk for the bathroom, my clothes already sticking against my body with its soaked embrace. In spite of my wet state, I move over to the bathroom sink and my face with the water in the hopes it was cold like the one in our previous apartment.

No surprise, it's warm. I raise my head to look at the mirror.

Enid's eyes stare back at me.

Guilt and pain consumes me and I headbutt against the mirror, a resounding crack echoing against the bathroom walls.

Something crimson runs down my face, around my nose and off my chin. My reflection stares back at me, my own eyes blazing.

Why?

Why did it have to be them?

It should have been you, I hear my voice. Whether that's reflection talking or me saying it...I can't even tell anymore.

Then I laugh. I laugh and laugh and laugh as something warm and fresh run down my cheeks while my head tears apart with its wound, the pain my only source of relief in this bleak oblivion.

But the heartache is still there, reminding me of all that I lost.

[lostonehero]

Hidden in plain sight

A short drabble on assassin Martin :)

"The clover has fallen." The dirty blonde hair woman crosses her arms seemingly readying herself for a monster.

A redheaded man in a stripped sweater with soft features stops and turns to face her. His face was soft splattered with freckles. His thick, framed glasses were pushed back on his face. His blue gray eyes narrowed as he frowned, raising a brow. "Lena sent you." He sighs, and the softness seems to drain out of his features. "I don't enjoy being interrupted on a job."

The woman tilts her head. "You're Blackwood?"

"I am." The man hums softly. "Have my orders changed?"

The dirty blonde haired woman hands over a letter. "I was told to deliver this to you in person."

Blackwood takes the letter and reads it slowly and shuts his eyes, and takes a deep breath. "Things have changed." He pauses. "Did she ever explain why?"

The woman shakes her head. "She said I would be your handler."

"I am able to read." Blackwood smiles sharp and sinister. "I shall inform you when I have to show my true colors to my now marks under my protection." He folds the letter back to, and he softens, becoming a stranger. "I already know who you are, Gwendolyn."

Gwen watches the large man disappear in a crowd stunned.

.....

Tim sighs, leaning against the doorframe. "Are you sure you're ok here? I've got a nice couch back at my apartment."

Martin smiles as he sits on the cot. "Im fine, Tim. Besides, what if I lead these worms to your place? That would be horrid, and you don't deserve that."

"Tim, don't even try. He already refused mine and Jon's offers. I even think Rosie offered, too." Sasha shakes her head. "I'm still going to get you a better blanket."

Martin smiles softly. "You're too kind."

"Goodnight, Martin." Tim frowns. "Seriously though, if you change your mind, my door is always open."

Sasha dragged Tim with her. "Stay safe Martin the weekend isn't forever."

Martin smiles until he hears the door shut, and he knows they left. Jon is in his office and won't bother him until he leaves at about 9 pm. Jonah won't watch him down here unless he causes damage. He reaches down and takes out a box, and opens it to reveal needles. He can use these worms as target practice until he hears Jon visit him, and then when Jon leaves, he can really start to train again. The tunnels are excellent to actually hone his skills.

.......

Gwen heard the creak of the yellow door too late because there was a distorted scream behind her and blood with colors that didn't make sense spilled on the table in front of her as Blackwood leaned back in his seat and sipped his tea.

A distorted voice growls, and the long hand with too many sharp angles tried to pull his impaled hand from the table. "What are you?"

Blackwood narrowed his gaze and sipped his tea. "I don't appreciate you going after my assigned to protect. You're a weak avatar of the distortion is still so focused on old wrongs done to you. Your little vendetta against a dead woman will lead to your undoing." He places his mug down. "You would have made a good ally if you weren't so wrapped up in your little plot."

Gwen knew better to look behind her at the monster. "Why protect me?"

"You are my handler, Gwen, and I do prefer you to Lena. I could make you hate me if I so desired, but you're still so new to this world. It would be unwise to ruin this relationship for my own amusement." Blackwood flicks his gaze to Micheal. "Learn to control yourself and not just feed if you truly want to go up against me. Just because I am young doesn't mean much when I know how to kill you."

Micheal seems to glitch as Blackwood removes the knife. "You're not human."

"I'm not an avatar either." Blackwood tilts his head. "Remember, Micheal, you either can join me, or I will be forced to kill you if you lay another hand on the ones I've been assigned to protect."

The yellow door creaks shut without another word.

Gwen crosses her arms. "Why ask me to come here?"

"A few reasons. One you might as well ask me questions, you deserve some answers that Lena won't give you. Two, I must warn you that your brother isn't entirely dead as Jonah uses his body. However, I do not know the full extent of how it works. Third again I rather like you as a handler, so I wish to keep you around." Blackwood picks up his mug. "This is also a lovely cafe. I enjoy the excuse to visit."

"I do have questions." Gwen pauses and sighs. "Will you answer truthfully?"

"I don't have a reason to lie to you." Blackwood takes another sip from his mug. "I understand the hesitation, but I can assure you, I've learned it's not optimal to lie to handlers."

Gwen nods and begins her questions.

[odder-oddish]

Bond- Prologue

Okay, okay. I wanted to share something for my Incubus Ace/ Demon Hunter Felix work... which is shaping up to be one long project. So here's the beginning. Nothing super exciting yet; just a little background and exposition, but a preview of what's to come. This fic might get a lil' heavy, but no warnings for this chapter, unless you count Ace's dirty sense of humor.

Hello, heathens. Today we're covering an exciting topic in the Infernal Realm, for all of you who like to dabble beyond the spirit realm. That's right, demons. Now, the first thing to know about demons is how to protect yourself against them. Two of the most common tools are easy to find, but important to understand how to use. The first is salt. It's a common belief that demons can't pass over salt lines, but that's only partially true. The reality is demons can't pass over salt lines without disrupting them. So they won't completely ward off a demon, but if you lay a salt line, you can check to see if an invisible demon or Hellspawn has crossed the area. Second is silver. Most weapons don't hurt demons at all. Silver does hurt demons, but only if it breaks their skin; it sets their blood on fire. So keep a silver knife or blade ready; you need to break skin, so blunt objects won't be enough

Continue reading on pg 9, "Salt and Silver"

-Witchcraft Weekly, volume 54.

Empty rooms were the scariest, Felix had always thought. Terrifying as it was throwing a door open only to be greeted by a demon, at least then he knew where it was.

But luck was not on his side today, as he carefully swept the room of a dingy motel, looking for the invading creature. They'd gotten the right room, as Elodie had pointed out some tracks of blood on the carpet, and the lights to the room weren't working, but the demon itself was nowhere to be seen. Felix hoped it hadn't fled; it had taken long enough to track the demon here, starting over would be a nightmare.

"Checking the closet," says Elodie. She had to lower her flashlight, so Felix kept his aimed on where she was looking. Elodie reaches the small closet in the room, holding a silver blade. in one hand and sliding the door open with another. "Damn. Nothing."

"Checking the bathroom," says Felix. Elodie turned to hover the beam of her light over the door as Felix steadies himself and then swings the door open. He doesn't see anything at first; the cheap appliances dont't offer much hiding space, except behind the shower curtain. Creeping up to it, Felix opens the curtain, but once again sees nothing.

"I don't think it's here," he says, before turning around, getting ready to leave the bathroom…

…and coming face to face with the demon.

The demon, as well as the human body it was possessing, was clinging to the ceiling like a lizard. A young man was possessed, but the shadowy eyes and black veins pulsing out of its skin made it clear that the thing was a demon, as if it's position on the wall wasn't evidence enough. "It's here, Elodie," Felix shouts, dropping the flashlight to brace himself as the demon leaps at him.

Elodie begins reciting an exorcism as the demon attempts to claw into Felix's chest. He slashes at it with his own silvered knife, managing a small cut into its arm. The creature recoils briefly before moving in for another strike, which Felix ducks underneath before darting out of the bathroom.

Elodie was on the other side of the room, focused on the chanting. Even though she posed the greater threat, Felix seems to be the demon's current target. He flipped on survival mode. He and Elodie knew the odds of beating a demon in a brawl like this were low, and with a human being possessed, Felix couldn't go in for the kill even if he did have the chance. The only option was to survive the assault until the exorcism was over.

The demon skitters down the wall onto the floor as it exits the bathroom and Felix launches himself out of the way as it tries to lunge for him again. He can barely think over the adrenaline pulsing in his veins, but manages to strike at the demon again, to keep its attention on him. He goes in for another swing, but the demon is ready this time, and Felix is knocked to his back, rolling back up onto his knees just in time to avoid a lethal swipe at his neck, the demon having grown long, sharp claws. They plunge instead into the skin of his forearms, and Felix shouts in pain, but holds strong.

After what feels like minutes, but is only about ten more seconds, Elodie finishes the exorcism. The demon screeches, a high-pitched sound that pierces Felix's ears. The claws retract back into human fingers, the human falls back limply, and the demon's spirit is pulled out of the body and thrown back to hell.

"You alright?" asks Elodie, coming to his side and pulling out a first-aid kit.

"I'm fine. Check him out," says Felix, tilting his head towards the unconscious man. He pulls some gauze and a roll of bandages out and begins treating the wound on his arm himself. It stings but he gets through it.

Elodie looks over the man. Felix isn't 't too concerned, because when demons used their powers to heal themselves, the bodies they possessed were also healed. "Just the small cut from where you nicked him. It wasn't even enough to burn the skin." She starts to clean the cut and the man startles awake.

"Holy shit, where am I?" the man asks, trying to sit up. Elodie gently places a hand on his shoulder, guiding him to lay down. "Who are you?"

"Take it easy. You were just possessed by a demon," she says. "I know that sounds hard to believe-"

"It doesn't, actually, not after everything that happened," the man interrupts. "Do you see my glasses, I can't see without 'em."

Without saying a word, Felix stands up to find the glasses, as Elodie keeps talking to the man. His name is Dwight, and he was in Vegas for a corporate event, but got lost trying to find a venue, then blacked out and came to in the driver's seat of a taxi. He hadn't been able to control his own body, watching the stolen car speed down the street before parking in front of this hotel and coming into this room, where he'd been for about three hours.

"I swear I didn't steal that car, though. Am I gonna be arrested?" he asks frantically, as Felix returns with the glasses.

"You'll be alright," Elodie assures him. "We have a government contact who will take care of any nearby camera footage or anything."

Felix tunes the rest of their conversation out. They give the same speech to all the people the save, how demons choose weak, unsuspecting targets, so it's unlikely they'll be a victim twice, a support group they can contact to share experiences with, and an explanation of what happened.

Felix finishes cleaning his injury before pulling out his phone to call Jonah. He shares Dwight's name and description of what happened, and Jonah assures him he'll take care of the stolen taxi, keeping Dwight's name clean.

Elodie gets Dwight set up with another place to stay for the night before they part ways. In the car, Elodie drives while Felix sketches the spirit he saw in his journal. The details are vague because he only saw it for half a second, but it's better than nothing.

"That should be the last of them," says Elodie as they pull up to their own hotel. A valet takes their car as they enter the resort. "Three demons in two days, though. That sucked."

"I'm glad Haddie got us out here, though. Things could've been a lot worse."

Elodie nods in agreement. They'd uncovered a plot by the three demons to start a fire in the poker room of one of Las Vegas's busiest casinos. The chaos and injuries could've been so much worse.

"I'm so looking forward to a good night's sleep, for sure," she says, unlocking the door to the suite they shared.

Felix agrees. They'd been woken up at three a.m. from a call from Haddie, telling them she'd had a vision revealing the location of one of the demons. He was ready to lie down for a long time. Taking off his jacket, he moved over to the window to examine the view of the Las Vegas strip, and froze.

"We have to leave," he said, pointing to the window sill. Elodie gasped. The salt line they'd set for protection was broken in the middle. A demon had been here.

"Damn it, I knew there was something off in that casino yesterday. I should've listened to my gut," said Elodie. In order to track down the demons, Elodie had performed a ritual that allowed her to see traces of nearby demons. She'd found a faint trail unlike the three demons they were tracking, but had brushed it off as nothing but a former trail, as it was weaker than the others. "We need to kill it before it hurts anyone else."

"How would we do that?" asks Felix. He was already moving to the bedroom to throw his belongings into a bag.

Elodie doesnt answer for a minute, pacing back and forth in the room. "Hang on, our trap worked," she said, gesturing to the windowsill. When they left the salt lines, they had laid silver tacks buried within them. As the demon entered the room, it must have cut itself on the tack, leaving a few droplets of blood on the wall. "We can summon it and then kill it." She leans down, collecting the blood in a small glass vial.

"Are you sure? We've never performed a summoning?" asks Felix.

"We don't have a choice. If this one broke into the room, he could be tracking us or have our scent or something. We can't risk him finding us again. Plus, I've been studying rituals, and Mikaela has been giving me some tips."

"You're right. This is our best option. Maybe we can use the safehouse south of here. It's a bit of a drive, but better than doing it here."

"Good thinking. I'll call Zarina and make sure it's okay. We should drive separately, just in case."

"You go ahead now. I'm going to check the room for anything else out of place," says Felix. Elodie quickly gathers her things and after a quick hug goodbye, leaves the room.

Felix immediately gets to work. He doesn't bother checking furniture or other hotel items; he's more concerned about their personal items being stolen or tampered with. He looks over his journal, the extra knives they keep, and some of the extra spell components Elodie didn't take with her. Nothing seems out of place. Felix is just about to leave when he spots it.

Lying on the bedspread of Felix's bedroom, just beneath the pillow is a green and black poker chip. Upon glancing at it, Felix doesn't see anything out of the ordinary with it. But it most certainly wasn't here before. He reaches into his supply bag and pulls out a lead box. Lead is known for being able to ward off infernal properties; if that chip is cursed, it won't be able to affect him while it's in the box. Felix inserts the chip into the box, finishes packing, and heads out into the night.

As he climbs into the car waiting for him in the parking lot, he rubs his eyes. He's exhausted, and the safe house is a six hour drive away. No matter; catching this demon takes priority right now, and if that means giving up a few more hours of sleep, he'll do it.

_________

On late nights like this, slot machines are Ace's favorite stomping grounds. They're full of people addicted to the sounds and lights, and it's far too easy to get people going, spending more, risking more. He lives for the cheap thrills.

He slinks up to a woman in her fifties. She slams her hand on the machine; four sevens had shown up but the last symbol didn't match. So close. She turns to get out of the chair, but Ace puts a friendly hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, so close! Give it another go, why don't you?"

"I don't know. This one's having a bad streak."

"That's how they get you. You step away just before the big win," says Ace, fully aware that he's lying about the machine's algorithm, and statistics in general. "Next one's on me," he adds, sliding another dollar into the machine.

The woman's eyes light up as the wheels spin around, but once again, no money is won. "So close!" Ace shouts sympathetically.

"Maybe I'll try again," says the woman, pulling another dollar bill out of her purse. Ace grins and walks away.

This casino gig is the best he's had in a decade. He's a natural at getting people to spend just a bit more money. The crooked owners made a devilish deal a year ago, wanting more money for their business, and Ace had been assigned here to help. It was a lot better than signing contracts and seducing people daily.

Not that he didn't enjoy that. In fact, right after encouraging a young man to splurge on some top shelf whiskey instead of the normal stuff, he spots two gorgeous men laughing at a roulette table. Ace runs the numbers in his head; he'd met his quota of money he'd convinced others to spend for the evening. He deserves a good time. After all, he'll have to feed soon and these gentlemen make a fine target.

He goes up and introduces himself, and their positive responses tell him he's read them right. They're a couple, but looking for a third tonight, and Ace is more than happy to volunteer his time. He goes to buy them another round of pink cocktails, but the bartender stops him.

"Hey, boss has a job for you," says the bartender.

"Ugh, seriously? This late?" asks Ace, knowing that this time of night is prime time for his sort of work, but he likes to complain.

"You're lucky, it's a quick one." The bartender leans over the bar so only Ace can hear what comes next. "Room 13 in that hotel next door. There's a pair of demon hunters staying there. Go in and mess it up just enough to scare 'em off. Let 'em think we're on to them."

"Sure thing," grumbles Ace. "But gimme those drinks first."

The drinks are ready in record time. Ace takes one in each hand and returns to the table where the guys are celebrating a win. Doesn't matter. The casino will win it back soon enough. Triple zero roulette, an addition Ace had suggested, always beats people out.

"Gentlemen, I got a quick piece of business to take care of," says Ace. He hands a glass to each of them before winking. "But I'll be back before you can say 'spit-roast'!" The couple laughs and Ace turns to leave.

The crisp air is a welcome feeling as Ace slips into a back alleyway. He finally allows his human disguise to slip. While his physical features don't change much, he sprouts a pair of horns, his eyes darkens, and his tails slips out behind him. The room is on the first floor, so Ace simply forces the window open through sheer will and peaks inside.

Everything looks empty. The lights are off and he doesn't hear anything. There is, however, a line of salt in the windowsill. This job just keeps getting easier. Ace climbs through the window gingerly, but disrupting the trail of salt nonetheless. Perfect.

He surveys the room, looking for any obvious traps he'll have to destroy, but sees nothing. Upon entering one of the two bedrooms, he notices a small bag with a handful of herbs, stones, and other strange objects, and thanks Lady Luck that the room was empty. He hated dealing with witches or spellcasters of any kind.

The other room has fewer signs of a demon hunter, but there is a large journal sitting on one of the desks that catches his eye. Ace wants to flip through it, but he's on a time crunch. Doesn't want to risk being spotted by demon hunters. So he settles for one more ill omen that is sure to leave the hunters confused. He conjures a poker chip out of the void and tosses it onto the bed. There's absolutely nothing special about the trinket, but hopefully, it'll cause the demon hunters more paranoia as they try to figure out what it does.

As he begins to leave, he hears someone speaking outside the door, prompting him to leave in more of a hurry. Slightly careless this time, he scrapes his hand on something sharp. Fuck, they'd left silver on the windowsill. But there was no time, so Ace slips out the door and shuts the window before the door can open.

As he walks back out into the dark night, he shifts his appearance back to his human disguise. He reenters the casino smiling, looking for the lucky pair he'd found earlier. It was shaping up to be a damn good night.

Do let me know what you think. I've got the first chapters of the story written and under revision. It's gonna be a long ride, but should be fun to write, and hopefully, for y'all to read.

[princesssarisa]

My Cinderella Tales From Around the World recap has gone out of order, because I forgot to make this post earlier today. I typed it out this morning, but I was so eager to move on to the English tales and read Geoffrey of Monmouth's King Leir that I forgot to change "Save draft" to "Post now."

The next Love Like Salt tales in Cinderella Tales from Around the World are from Belgium, France, Spain, and Portugal.

*The Belgian versions are very Cinderella-like for the most part. After being banished, the princess becomes a scullery maid in another castle, and she's often given a demeaning nickname, like "Slut-Sweeps-the-Oven" (Vuiltji-Vaegt-den-Oven – the English translation uses "slut" in the old-fashioned sense of "a dirty woman"), "Little Dirty-Skin" (Vuilvelleken), or "Ash-Blower" (Asschepoester), which is a Flemish version of the typical Dutch name for Cinderella.

**She also typically loses a shoe, or in the case of Slut-Sweeps-the-Oven, a shoe, a glove, and a ring, one item at each ball. Although oddly, in that particular tale, when each of those objects fit her, the prince and his mother still don't realize that she was the beautiful lady – just that she has remarkably pretty feet and hands for a dirty servant girl. But one day, some time after the third ball, she hears the queen give her son permission to marry the lady if he should find her, then offers to "fetch her," goes out, and comes back in her finery. Most other versions just follow Cinderella and have her marry the prince as soon as the shoe fits her.

**The older sisters' typical responses to the king's "How much do you love me?" are "as the pupils of my eyes," "as the sun," or "as my life." One version uses "bread" and "wine" like the Italian variants, though.

**One version combines the love tests with the archetypal "father goes on a journey and asks for gift requests" scenario. The king asks each daughter to chose a gift for him to bring back based on how much she loves him. The eldest asks for a golden spinning wheel, because her father is as precious as gold, the second asks for a silver gown because her father is as precious as silver, and the youngest asks for a lump of salt because her father is as precious as salt.

**One version even uses the recurring theme of the disguised princess being beaten and later alluding to it at the ball – a common feature of Cinderellas and Donkeyskins not seen in any other Love Like Salt so far – but the perpetrator is the prince's mother, not the prince himself.

**As implied above, the princess in these versions tends to be merely banished by her father, not ordered killed, and allowed to take her elegant dresses and jewels with her, which she hides in a hollow tree or other secret place until the balls.

**Two versions have her finery provided by a magical old woman, however: one who gives her a magic box to hide in a hollow tree, which will give her finery when she requests it (although the magic only lasts until midnight), and one more in the vein of Cinderella's fairy godmother, who turns a mousetrap into a coach, mice into horses, and matchsticks into footmen, then breathes on the princess's rags to turn them into finery.

*In two Belgian versions, however, the heroine doesn't go through a Cinderella story or get married. Instead, in one version, another king simply takes her in out of kindness, then invites her father to a feast with no salt some time later, while in another, she comes back to her own father's court disguised as a page boy and teaches the king his lesson by instructing the cook not to salt the food at a feast.

*The French versions strongly resemble either Cinderella or Donkeyskin too, as well as more strongly resembling King Lear in some cases than any other versions so far.

**In The Turkey Girl, the king doesn't just ask "How much do you love me?" but like Lear, divides his kingdom among his daughters based on their love. The older two both claim to love him "more than anything in the world," and when the youngest says "like salt," he orders her killed. But a devoted servant – a figure who's a bit like a cross between Shakespeare's Kent and the Fool – secretly disguises her as a peasant girl and finds work for her at another castle. Soon afterward, the elder daughters turn their father out, and the faithful servant finds a small farm where the two of them live. Meanwhile, the princess goes through a Cinderella story, attending three balls, fleeing at midnight, losing a shoe, etc. After she forgives her father, the prince's family overthrows the wicked sisters and restores the old king to his throne, and the servant is rewarded.

**In Marie the King's Daughter, the heroine doesn't claim to love her father like salt, but instead, more like Cordelia, claims to love him just as much as she "ought to love such a father." After being banished, she dresses in a donkey skin and becomes a goatherd. One day out in the fields she secretly puts on an elegant gown she's kept hidden, and a prince happens by, sees her, and falls in love. When she notices him she runs off, losing a shoe, and he finds her Cinderella-style. She then learns that her brother and sister (a rare difference from the usual two sisters) have dethroned their father and locked him in a dungeon, where he's gone mad. Marie insists that her prince wage war to overthrow her siblings, which he does, and Marie nurses the king back to health and sanity. Only then does she marry the prince.

**The third French version is The Dirty Shepherdess (La Pouilleuse), found in Andrew Lang's The Green Fairy Book. Here there are only two daughters, one who loves their father "as the apple of my eye" and one who loves him "as salt." After being banished, she dirties herself because no housewife would employ a servant girl who was too pretty (their husbands might have roving eyes, after all), and then finds work as a shepherdess. From there it plays out like Perrault's Donkeyskin: the prince sees her in her beautiful gown in the woods, falls ill, and asks for bread baked by the shepherdess, and she drops a ring into the dough, which fits only her. In the end her father comes to the wedding already knowing her identity and regretting having banished her, so they joyfully reunite before she uses the saltless meal to teach him what she meant.

*The book includes one variant from Spain, Xuanón del Cortezón, or "Johnny of the Bark." The princess claims to love her father "as bread loves salt," so a servant is ordered to kill her but lets her go. She disguises herself as boy and becomes a turkey herd, but when she's alone in the fields she changes into her own gowns, and one day the prince sees her. He claims to be sick and asks for "Xuanón the turkey boy" to bring him broth, and when "Xuanón" obeys, the prince admits he knows her true gender and proposes marriage. When her father comes to the wedding, he's served a loaf of bread made without any salt, and when he realizes his mistake and his daughter reveals her identity, he instantly dies of joy.

*In the one variant from Portugal, the two older sisters claim to love their father "better than the light of the sun" and "better than myself," while the youngest loves him "as food loves salt." After her banishment, she goes to work as a cook at another palace, but only cooks alone, wearing her own elegant clothes as she does so. One day she drops a ring into a pie, the prince tries it on every lady of the court, and finds that it fits only her. She doesn't reveal her identity right away, but from then on the prince spies on her, and finally sees her in her princess gown. For their wedding, she insists on cooking the feast herself, and of course she invites her father and puts no salt in his food, leading to their reunion.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @adarkrainbow, @themousefromfantasyland

[lythea-creation]

Expectations - Shams x fem reader (Chapter 2)

Previous Chapter

warnings: emotional abuse

word count: 1.002

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I could not believe the piece of paper that was laying in front of me. I had gotten a B in my Biology test. Yeah, pretty ironic. Not even an A-, but a B.

For a short moment I buried my face in my hands, trying to regain my composure. Dad was going to kill me.

After class I was supposed to be at rehearsal, but I needed a moment to calm down first. Without thinking twice about it, I walked to the old bus.

Shams was not here yet.

The longer I had to wait for her, the more I was freaking out. By the time she arrived I was already a mess, forcing myself not to cry.

“(f/n), what happened?”, Shams worried as soon as she noticed my disheveled state.

I moved a bit to give her the chance to sit down next to me.

“I got a B”, I uttered breathlessly.

“Shit”, she cursed. “Is your dad home today?”

“Unfortunately”, I enlightened her. “You know how he acts. What am I supposed to do?”

“We could switch tests”, she offered. “I actually rocked this one for once. You'd only have to change the name.”

“Nah, he would notice. But thanks. And congrats.” I shot her a small smile.

She reciprocated the smile, but it vanished just as quickly as mine.

“Last time I had an A-, he ripped me off all my privileges. I don't think I can take not seeing you for so long again. I mean we would still meet at school, but I always have to pretend here”, I recalled. “Talking about it, I need to go to rehearsal for Tasneem's show.”

Before I could go Shams pulled me into a kiss. Thanks to the dirty windows nobody could see us after all. Too bad that I usually had to spend the breaks with Tasneem and the others.

“I'm gonna text you later, if my dad doesn't confiscate my phone”, I promised. “So you'll most likely not hear from me.”

Leaving the bus I buried my feelings deep inside of me and put on a smile. Honestly I was sick of acting, but it was the only chance to keep the life I had. And some aspects of it were definitely worth fighting for.

To my own surprise rehearsal was actually cheering me up as it was distracting me, needing all my focus.

But as soon as the music died down it all came crushing down on me again.

During the last lessons my anxiety was only increasing.

When I left the classroom I did not dare to look over at Shams because I would not be able to uphold my cover then, my perfect facade.

Back at home I did not know if I should be relieved or not when I noticed that my dad was making a phone call.

I placed my test on the table, where I was sure he would see. Then I hurried upstairs before his phone call ended. I could not tell him myself and definitely did not want to be around for his first reaction.

In my room I let myself fall onto my bed and hid under the sheets to ease my nerves, texting Shams.

Unfortunately she was not answering. Probably she was not home yet. So I tried the same with Omar instead, not telling him I was upset though. I just wanted to stop focusing on my situation and it worked. Omar could always make me laugh in a heartbeat.

“What are you laughing about?”, my dad questioned harshly. “Do you seriously think there's anything to laugh about?”

He ripped the blanket off of me.

I could not meet his eyes, but knew better than to stay on my bed. So I stood up in front of him.

“Is there anything you want to tell me about this?”, he inquired, pushing my test in my face.

I shook my head no.

“What's gotten into you? I thought we had an agreement”, he ranted.

“I'm sorry, dad”, I proclaimed. “I didn't mean to disappoint you again.”

“Disappoint me? This isn't even disappointing anymore. This is a disgrace! From now on I'm going to set some new rules”, he declared. “First of all give me your phone.”

I was smarter than to deny him. I handed my phone over without any resistance.

“Second rule: You come home immediately after school. No going over to Omar, no hanging out with any classmates, got it?”

Tears were pricking at my eyes at this rule. Nevertheless I nodded.

“Third rule: You're getting a tutor who's going to work with you after school until you go to bed. Nothing else but studying. Understood?”

I nodded once again.

“Use your words”, he demanded.

“Yes, I understand, dad”, I stated.

“You know what?”, he proposed, staring me right in the eyes. “Right now I'm glad your mom doesn't live to see you like this.”

With those words he turned around and left.

It felt like something was clawing at my chest, ripping me apart while taking my ability to breathe. I was not even sure what exactly I was feeling, only that it was unbearable.

My hand moved on its own, picking up the picture that was set up on my nightstand. A picture of my mom when she had been pregnant with me. A picture of the time she had still been alive and full of hope. A picture before my birth that had killed her.

It was strange to yearn for a person you did not know.

The picture in front of me appeared blurry as my tears were finally falling freely.

After crying and stressing out so much I was feeling utterly exhausted. I did not have the energy to pull me into my bed and instead just fell asleep on the ground, hoping that it had all just been a cruel nightmare.

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

Next Chapter

So here we go! Just as I promised it all took a darker turn. What do you think about it?

Tag List: @sunwoniie

[muserolodex]

(Ok, I want to talk about this scene... If you're unfamiliar with this, these six (silver guy there doesn't count in the official roster) are the kings of their small nations on a distant planet. Red/Gira is a boy who had to grow up fast, who stole the symbols of authority from a wicked king who was willing to let millions die in a prophesied war. Blue/Yanma is the president of a high-tech nation, who built the mechs they use, and who has always had to hold his head high so his people wouldn't see him cry.

Yellow/Himeno is the Queen of a land dedicated to beauty and medicine. She has encouraged people to "be a little selfish" when reaching for their own dreams.

Purple/Rita is the Supreme Justice of the land of Gokkan, where all law on the planet comes from. Up until this point, they have worn a high collar around their face to keep up the image of impartiality, but here Rita wears the collar down so their enemy can see their face.

Black/Kaguragi is the leader of the breadbasket of the world. He plays five-dimensional chess, forges dangerous alliances and works behind the scenes to ensure the best possible scenario.

White/Jeramie is the half-blooded king of the Bugnarok people from beneath the planet's surface, the enemy faction in the first half of the series. In the second half of the series, Red meets with Dugded Djardin, a cosmic being who makes different races on planets go to war because it amuses him. Dugded is basically god, and every time the Kingohgers thought they had him beat, he had an another ace up his sleeve.

There's been a plan in play for years to defeat Dugded, but it requires full cooperation by the royals and as Yanma put it an episode before "A million small miracles all lined up." In that next to last episode, the kings tried to enact a full evacuation plan, sending their people into space. However, Silver/Racules and the retainers of the Kings realized that if they did, they'd just be perpetuating the cycle. Dugded would find them again and make them his playthings once more. So instead of fleeing, the WHOLE POPULATION of the world returned to aid their kings in the final battle. Those who could fight, did. Those who couldn't fight, tended to their Kings' wounds. During this time, the Kings received aid from an unlikely place. The land of the dead opened its gates and offered up: 1) their parents, 2) one of the king's warriors who had long ago been killed and replaced by a shapeshifter, 3)the enemy general from the first half of the series and 4) The Very First King of the World. The civilians, soldiers and fallen ones bought the Kings the time they needed to rest and recuperate after having asteroids literally dropped on their heads. They are patched up, fed, and have gained a second wind and smiling. And Dugded can't understand why they're smiling and gives them the best straight line ever. "Just who the hell do you think you are?" Yanma steps up first, declaring that he's not going to bow to some false god. He will hold his head high and lead his people into the future, a future where mankind never needs fear the wrath of the gods. He leads his team of hackers, codecrackers and inventors back to the battle, making sure that his most loyal retainer can stand up. Himeno is next. She identifies herself as the "Unwilting Flower" and tells Dugded that her path is before her and she will stride down it, and makes it clear that he is just a speedbump on that path. Kaguragi's speech says "These people are my life. I will cross through any depth of mud and dirty my hands for their sake." And in this case, fighting Dugded, he doesn't just intend to dirty his hand, he intends to bloody them. Rita's speech mirrors one they made earlier in the series "The law is spear that can pierce the heart of a king, and a shield that can protect the populace. Even in the face of death and destruction, the law remains resolute, and I am the Law." Rita is leading an army of justices and criminals alike, because they all deserve the chance to live free of Dugded's influence. Jeramie says "I am the king of man, of Bugnarok and all that lies between. I am the great storyteller, and my story will continue, but yours will come to an end." And Gira demands for a god to "tremble in your boots for you face the true might of Shuggodam. We will take this world that you have been toying with and conquer it for ourselves." What follows this scene is almost twenty minutes of fighting where everyone gets a chance to shine, and then the million little miracles happen when the people grant their souls in service to their kings. This allows the Kingohger to fight Dugded on a cosmic scale, in a brawl that ends with Dugded being punched out of the universe, and the Kingohgers breaking his soul into six pieces with their swords. This is by far one of the best final henshin scenes in Super Sentai history because the buildup to this moment was phenomenal.)

[baileys-3]

CHAPTER 18 NOW ONLINE on AO3

Sneak Peak:

As Tim stands in Lucy's bathroom taking off his jeans, he's still not quite sure whether he's embarrassed by the whole situation or whether he should see it as a new sexual experience. God, how could this happen? How could the whole situation turn into this? How could he lose control like that? How could dry humping be so ... intense? Fuck.

Next, he takes off his boxers and then stands there thinking about what to do with the ... dirty underwear and jeans. Rinsing them would probably be best.

His bag that Lucy retrieved for him from his truck is lying next to the bathtub. He obviously couldn't go himself. Once again, he is glad that he has made a habit of always having spare clothes with him. Whether at work or at home. An old habit that has paid off several times. Although never for this reason.

He starts to clean both items of clothing in the sink as best he can and then hangs them over the bathtub to dry. He finds a towel and a washcloth in a small cabinet. Lucy told him to make himself home and take whatever he needs. Lucy's soap has a citrusy scent. It could have been worse. She could have had a soap that smells of jasmine or roses or some other feminine scent. Citrusy is absolutely fine, it’s good even.

He splashes cold water on his face because that certainly won’t do any harm. He rummages quickly through his bag, though he doesn't have many options. He puts on new boxer shorts and then chooses to wear the dark blue sweatpants instead of jeans because they are more comfortable.

As he opens the door and enters the living room, he finds Lucy sitting in the middle of the couch, her legs crossed, holding a cup of tea and sipping it. The baseball game's last inning is playing on the television. He takes a quick look at the screen and realizes that the Dodgers have thankfully extended their lead and are now ahead by three points.

Lucy turns her head, offering a smile as he approaches. In just a few steps, he joins her and takes a seat. Lifting one knee, he lets the other foot dangle off the couch, positioning himself directly behind her, wrapping his arms around her. She leans back, snuggling comfortably against him, prompting a smile from him. Lucy's couch proves to be more comfortable and softer than his own at home, with a fabric cover compared to his leather-clad one. He contemplates how the contrast in their choice of couches reflects their distinct personalities yet acknowledges the magnetic pull that has always drawn them to each other.

She takes another sip of her tea. How many gallons has she consumed by now?

"Well, I suppose I'll have pancakes for breakfast tomorrow?" she remarks.

Unable to contain himself, he emits a brief, hearty laugh. "Yeah."

They sit there like that comfortably watching the rest of the game. At some point, Lucy places her mug on the table, and he puts his hand under her top, resting it on her stomach. He begins to draw slow circles on her skin, since he knows that the warmth and light pressure from his hands and circular motions can be soothing for stomach pains. He notices that Lucy snuggles up and relaxes a little more to him.

Lucy is the first to interrupt the comfortable silence between them. "I've got the night shift from Monday."

He's aware of that, obviously, because he's always familiar with her schedule. This has been the case ever since she was his rookie.

"I know that, for three days" he remarks.

"No. For five."

Damn it. Three days of nightshift bad enough already because he's on the day shift. This results in them working opposing schedules, and during those three days, the most they encounter each other is during shift changes at work. Even then, their interactions are limited to the station, where they must be cautious about their words, and physical contact is not possible. But five days? Five days will kill him. He already knows that.